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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/2308-h.zip b/2308-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d906c64 --- /dev/null +++ b/2308-h.zip diff --git a/2308-h/2308-h.htm b/2308-h/2308-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a58b99f --- /dev/null +++ b/2308-h/2308-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7447 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Bunyan Characters - Third Series</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Bunyan Characters - Third Series, by Alexander Whyte</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bunyan Characters - Third Series, by +Alexander Whyte + + +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: Bunyan Characters - Third Series + The Holy War + + +Author: Alexander Whyte + +Release Date: April 13, 2005 [eBook #2308] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS - THIRD SERIES*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1895 Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier edition +by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>BUNYAN CHARACTERS—THIRD SERIES<br /> +Lectures Delivered in St. George’s Free Church Edinburgh<br /> +By Alexander Whyte, D.D.</h1> +<h2>CHAPTER I—THE BOOK</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘—the book of the wars of the Lord.’—<i>Moses</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>John Bunyan’s <i>Holy War</i> was first published in 1682, +six years before its illustrious author’s death. Bunyan +wrote this great book when he was still in all the fulness of his intellectual +power and in all the ripeness of his spiritual experience. The +<i>Holy War</i> is not the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>—there +is only one <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>. At the same time, +we have Lord Macaulay’s word for it that if the <i>Pilgrim’s +Progress</i> did not exist the <i>Holy War</i> would be the best allegory +that ever was written: and even Mr. Froude admits that the <i>Holy War</i> +alone would have entitled its author to rank high up among the acknowledged +masters of English literature. The intellectual rank of the <i>Holy +War</i> has been fixed before that tribunal over which our accomplished +and competent critics preside; but for a full appreciation of its religious +rank and value we would need to hear the glad testimonies of tens of +thousands of God’s saints, whose hard-beset faith and obedience +have been kindled and sustained by the study of this noble book. +The <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i> sets forth the spiritual life under +the scriptural figure of a long and an uphill journey. The <i>Holy +War</i>, on the other hand, is a military history; it is full of soldiers +and battles, defeats and victories. And its devout author had +much more scriptural suggestion and support in the composition of the +<i>Holy War</i> than he had even in the composition of the <i>Pilgrim’s +Progress</i>. For Holy Scripture is full of wars and rumours of +wars: the wars of the Lord; the wars of Joshua and the Judges; the wars +of David, with his and many other magnificent battle-songs; till the +best known name of the God of Israel in the Old Testament is the Lord +of Hosts; and then in the New Testament we have Jesus Christ described +as the Captain of our salvation. Paul’s powerful use of +armour and of armed men is familiar to every student of his epistles; +and then the whole Bible is crowned with a book all sounding with the +battle-cries, the shouts, and the songs of soldiers, till it ends with +that city of peace where they hang the trumpet in the hall and study +war no more. Military metaphors had taken a powerful hold of our +author’s imagination even in the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>, +as his portraits of Greatheart and Valiant-for-truth and other soldiers +sufficiently show; while the conflict with Apollyon and the destruction +of Doubting Castle are so many sure preludes of the coming <i>Holy War</i>. +Bunyan’s early experiences in the great Civil War had taught him +many memorable things about the military art; memorable and suggestive +things that he afterwards put to the most splendid use in the siege, +the capture, and the subjugation of Mansoul.</p> +<p>The <i>Divine Comedy</i> is beyond dispute the greatest book of personal +and experimental religion the world has ever seen. The consuming +intensity of its author’s feelings about sin and holiness, the +keenness and the bitterness of his remorse, and the rigour and the severity +of his revenge, his superb intellect and his universal learning, all +set ablaze by his splendid imagination—all that combines to make +the <i>Divine Comedy</i> the unapproachable masterpiece it is. +John Bunyan, on the other hand, had no learning to be called learning, +but he had a strong and a healthy English understanding, a conscience +and a heart wholly given up to the life of the best religion of his +religious day, and then, by sheer dint of his sanctified and soaring +imagination and his exquisite style, he stands forth the peer of the +foremost men in the intellectual world. And thus it is that the +great unlettered religious world possesses in John Bunyan all but all +that the select and scholarly world possesses in Dante. Both Dante +and Bunyan devoted their splendid gifts to the noblest of services—the +service of spiritual, and especially of personal religion; but for one +appreciative reader that Dante has had Bunyan has had a hundred. +Happy in being so like his Master in so many things, Bunyan is happy +in being like his unlettered Master in this also, that the common people +hear him gladly and never weary of hearing him.</p> +<p>It gives by far its noblest interest to Dante’s noble book +that we have Dante himself in every page of his book. Dante is +taken down into Hell, he is then led up through <i>Purgatory</i>, and +after that still up and up into the very Paradise of God. But +that hell all the time is the hell that Dante had dug and darkened and +kindled for himself. In the Purgatory, again, we see Dante working +out his own salvation with fear and trembling, God all the time working +in Dante to will and to do of His good pleasure. And then the +Paradise, with all its sevenfold glory, is just that place and that +life which God hath prepared for them that love Him and serve Him as +Dante did. And so it is in the <i>Holy War</i>. John Bunyan +is in the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>, but there are more men and +other men than its author in that rich and populous book, and other +experiences and other attainments than his. But in the <i>Holy +War</i> we have Bunyan himself as fully and as exclusively as we have +Dante in the <i>Divine Comedy</i>. In the first edition of the +<i>Holy War</i> there is a frontispiece conceived and executed after +the anatomical and symbolical manner which was so common in that day, +and which is to be seen at its perfection in the English edition of +Jacob Behmen. The frontispiece is a full-length likeness of the +author of the <i>Holy War</i>, with his whole soul laid open and his +hidden heart ‘anatomised.’ Why, asked Wordsworth, +and Matthew Arnold in our day has echoed the question—why does +Homer still so live and rule without a rival in the world of letters? +And they answer that it is because he always sang with his eye so fixed +upon its object. ‘Homer, to thee I turn.’ And +so it was with Dante. And so it was with Bunyan. Bunyan’s +<i>Holy War</i> has its great and abiding and commanding power over +us just because he composed it with his eye fixed on his own heart.</p> +<blockquote><p>My readers, I have somewhat else to do,<br /> +Than with vain stories thus to trouble you;<br /> +What here I say some men do know so well<br /> +They can with tears and joy the story tell . . .<br /> +Then lend thine ear to what I do relate,<br /> +Touching the town of Mansoul and her state:<br /> +For my part, I (myself) was in the town,<br /> +Both when ’twas set up and when pulling down.<br /> +Let no man then count me a fable-maker,<br /> +Nor make my name or credit a partaker<br /> +Of their derision: what is here in view<br /> +Of mine own knowledge, I dare say is true.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The characters in the <i>Holy War</i> are not as a rule nearly so +clear-cut or so full of dramatic life and movement as their fellows +are in the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>, and Bunyan seems to have +felt that to be the case. He shows all an author’s fondness +for the children of his imagination in the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>. +He returns to and he lingers on their doings and their sayings and their +very names with all a foolish father’s fond delight. While, +on the other hand, when we look to see him in his confidential addresses +to his readers returning upon some of the military and municipal characters +in the <i>Holy War</i>, to our disappointment he does not so much as +name a single one of them, though he dwells with all an author’s +self-delectation on the outstanding scenes, situations, and episodes +of his remarkable book.</p> +<p>What, then, are some of the more outstanding scenes, situations, +and episodes, as well as military and municipal characters, in the book +now before us? And what are we to promise ourselves, and to expect, +from the study and the exposition of the <i>Holy War</i> in these lectures? +Well, to begin with, we shall do our best to enter with mind, and heart, +and conscience, and imagination into Bunyan’s great conception +of the human soul as a city, a fair and a delicate city and corporation, +with its situation, surroundings, privileges and fortunes. We +shall then enter under his guidance into the famous and stately palace +of this metropolitan city; a palace which for strength might be called +a castle, for pleasantness a paradise, and for largeness a place so +copious as to contain all the world. The walls and the gates of +the city will then occupy and instruct us for several Sabbath evenings, +after which we shall enter on the record of the wars and battles that +rolled time after time round those city walls, and surged up through +its captured gates till they quite overwhelmed the very palace of the +king itself. Then we shall spend, God willing, one Sabbath evening +with Loth-to-stoop, and another with old Ill-pause, the devil’s +orator, and another with Captain Anything, and another with Lord Willbewill, +and another with that notorious villain Clip-promise, by whose doings +so much of the king’s coin had been abused, and another with that +so angry and so ill-conditioned churl old Mr. Prejudice, with his sixty +deaf men under him. Dear Mr. Wet-eyes, with his rope upon his +head, will have a fit congregation one winter night, and Captain Self-denial +another. We shall have another painful but profitable evening +before a communion season with Mr. Prywell, and so we shall eat of that +bread and drink of that cup. Emmanuel’s livery will occupy +us one evening, Mansoul’s Magna Charta another, and her annual +Feast-day another. Her Established Church and her beneficed clergy +will take up one evening, some Skulkers in Mansoul another, the devil’s +last prank another, and then, to wind up with, Emmanuel’s last +speech and charge to Mansoul from his chariot-step till He comes again +to accomplish her rapture. All that we shall see and take part +in; unless, indeed, our Captain comes in anger before the time, and +spears us to the earth when He finds us asleep at our post or in the +act of sin at it, which may His abounding mercy forbid!</p> +<p>And now take these three forewarnings and precautions.</p> +<p>1. First:—All who come here on these coming Sabbath evenings +will not understand the <i>Holy War</i> all at once, and many will not +understand it at all. And little blame to them, and no wonder. +For, fully to understand this deep and intricate book demands far more +mind, far more experience, and far more specialised knowledge than the +mass of men, as men are, can possibly bring to it. This so exacting +book demands of us, to begin with, some little acquaintance with military +engineering and architecture; with the theory of, and if possible with +some practice in, attack and defence in sieges and storms, winter campaigns +and long drawn-out wars. And then, impossible as it sounds and +is, along with all that we would need to have a really profound, practical, +and at first-hand acquaintance with the anatomy of the human subject, +and especially with cardiac anatomy, as well as with all the conditions, +diseases, regimen and discipline of the corrupt heart of man. +And then it is enough to terrify any one to open this book or to enter +this church when he is told that if he comes here he must be ready and +willing to have the whole of this terrible and exacting book fulfilled +and experienced in himself, in his own body and in his own soul.</p> +<p>2. And, then, you will not all like the <i>Holy War</i>. +The mass of men could not be expected to like any such book. How +could the vain and blind citizen of a vain and blind city like to be +wakened up, as Paris was wakened up within our own remembrance, to find +all her gates in the hands of an iron-hearted enemy? And how could +her sons like to be reminded, as they sit in their wine gardens, that +they are thereby fast preparing their city for that threatened day when +she is to be hung up on her own walls and bled to the white? Who +would not hate and revile the book or the preacher who prophesied such +rough things as that? Who could love the author or the preacher +who told him to his face that his eyes and his ears and all the passes +to his heart were already in the hands of a cruel, ruthless, and masterful +enemy? No wonder that you never read the <i>Holy War</i>. +No wonder that the bulk of men have never once opened it. The +Downfall is not a favourite book in the night-gardens of Paris.</p> +<p>3. And then, few, very few, it is to be feared, will be any +better of the <i>Holy War</i>. For, to be any better of such a +terrible book as this is, we must at all costs lay it, and lay it all, +and lay it all at once, to heart. We must submit ourselves to +see ourselves continually in its blazing glass. We must stoop +to be told that it is all, in all its terrors and in all its horrors, +literally true of ourselves. We must deliberately and resolutely +set open every gate that opens in on our heart—Ear-gate and Eye-gate +and all the gates of sense and intellect, day and night, to Jesus Christ +to enter in; and we must shut and bolt and bar every such gate in the +devil’s very face, and in the face of all his scouts and orators, +day and night also. But who that thinks, and that knows by experience +what all that means, will feel himself sufficient for all that? +No man: no sinful man. But, among many other noble and blessed +things, the <i>Holy War</i> will show us that our sufficiency in this +impossibility also is all of God. Who, then, will enlist? +Who will risk all and enlist? Who will matriculate in the military +school of Mansoul? Who will submit himself to all the severity +of its divine discipline? Who will be made willing to throw open +and to keep open his whole soul, with all the gates and doors thereof, +to all the sieges, assaults, capitulations, submissions, occupations, +and such like of the war of gospel holiness? And who will enlist +under that banner now?</p> +<p>‘Set down my name, sir,’ said a man of a very stout countenance +to him who had the inkhorn at the outer gate. At which those who +walked upon the top of the palace broke out in a very pleasant voice,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Come in, come in;<br /> +Eternal glory thou shalt win.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We have no longer, after what we have come through, any such stoutness +in our countenance, yet will we say to-night with him who had it, Set +down my name also, sir!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II—THE CITY OF MANSOUL AND ITS CINQUE PORTS</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘—a besieged city.’—<i>Isaiah</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our greatest historians have been wont to leave their books behind +them and to make long journeys in order to see with their own eyes the +ruined sites of ancient cities and the famous fields where the great +battles of the world were lost and won. We all remember how Macaulay +made a long winter journey to see the Pass of Killiecrankie before he +sat down to write upon it; and Carlyle’s magnificent battle-pieces +are not all imagination; even that wonderful writer had to see Frederick’s +battlefields with his own eyes before he could trust himself to describe +them. And he tells us himself how Cromwell’s splendid generalship +all came up before him as he looked down on the town of Dunbar and out +upon the ever-memorable country round about it. John Bunyan was +not a great historian; he was only a common soldier in the great Civil +War of the seventeenth century; but what would we not give for a description +from his vivid pen of the famous fields and the great sieges in which +he took part? What a find John Bunyan’s ‘Journals’ +and ‘Letters Home from the Seat of War’ would be to our +historians and to their readers! But, alas! such journals and +letters do not exist. Bunyan’s complete silence in all his +books about the battles and the sieges he took his part in is very remarkable, +and his silence is full of significance. The Puritan soldier keeps +all his military experiences to work them all up into his <i>Holy War</i>, +the one and only war that ever kindled all his passions and filled his +every waking thought. But since John Bunyan was a man of genius, +equal in his own way to Cromwell and Milton themselves, if I were a +soldier I would keep ever before me the great book in which Bunyan’s +experiences and observations and reflections as a soldier are all worked +up. I would set that classical book on the same shelf with Cæsar’s +<i>Commentaries</i> and Napier’s <i>Peninsula</i>, and Carlyle’s +glorious battle-pieces. Even Cæsar has been accused of too +great dryness and coldness in his Commentaries, but there is neither +dryness nor coldness in John Bunyan’s <i>Holy War</i>. To +read Bunyan kindles our cold civilian blood like the waving of a banner +and like the sound of a trumpet.</p> +<p>The situation of the city of Mansoul occupies one of the most beautiful +pages of this whole book. The opening of the <i>Holy War</i>, +simply as a piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best page +of the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i> itself, and what more can I say +than that? Now, the situation of a city is a matter of the very +first importance. Indeed, the insight and the foresight of the +great statesmen and the great soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing +more than in the sites they chose for their citadels and for their defenced +cities. Well, then, as to the situation of Mansoul, ‘it +lieth,’ says our military author, ‘just between the two +worlds.’ That is to say: very much as Germany in our day +lies between France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day +lay between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense +empires also. And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man +here who has a man’s soul in his bosom that the two armed empires +that besiege his soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that both +Heaven and Hell would give their best blood and their best treasure +to subdue and to possess his soul. We do not value our souls at +all as Heaven and Hell value them. There are savage tribes in +Africa and in Asia who inhabit territories that are sleeplessly envied +by the expanding and extending nations of Europe. Ancient and +mighty empires in Europe raise armies, and build navies, and levy taxes, +and spill the blood of their bravest sons like water in order to possess +the harbours, and the rivers, and the mountains, and the woods amid +which their besotted owners roam in utter ignorance of all the plots +and preparations of the Western world. And Heaven and Hell are +not unlike those ancient and over-peopled nations of Europe whose teeming +millions must have an outlet to other lands. Their life and their +activity are too large and too rich for their original territories, +and thus they are compelled to seek out colonies and dependencies, so +that their surplus population may have a home. And, in like manner, +Heaven is too full of love and of blessedness to have all that for ever +shut up within itself, and Hell is too full of envy and ill-will, and +thus there continually come about those contentions and collisions of +which the <i>Holy War</i> is full. And, besides, it is with Mansoul +and her neighbour states of Heaven and Hell just as it is with some +of our great European empires in this also. There is no neutral +zone, no buffer state, no silver streak between Mansoul and her immediate +and military neighbours. And thus it is that her statesmen, and +her soldiers, and even her very common-soldier sentries must be for +ever on the watch; they must never say peace, peace; they must never +leave for one moment their appointed post.</p> +<p>And then, as for the wall of the city, hear our excellent historian’s +own words about that. ‘The wall of the town was well built,’ +so he says. ‘Yea, so fast and firm was it knit and compact +together that, had it not been for the townsmen themselves, it could +not have been shaken or broken down for ever. For here lay the +excellent wisdom of Him that builded Mansoul, that the walls could never +be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty adverse potentate unless +the townsmen gave their consent thereto.’ Now, what would +the military engineers of Chatham and Paris and Berlin, who are now +at their wits’ end, not give for a secret like that! A wall +impregnable and insurmountable and not to be sapped or mined from the +outside: a wall that could only suffer hurt from the inside! And +then that wonderful wall was pierced from within with five magnificently +answerable gates. That is to say, the gates could neither be burst +in nor any way forced from without. ‘This famous town of +Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, out of which to go; and +these were made likewise answerable to the walls; to wit, impregnable, +and such as could never be opened or forced but by the will and leave +of those within. The names of the gates were these: Ear-gate, +Eye-gate, Mouth-gate; in short, ‘the five senses,’ as we +say.</p> +<p>In the south of England, in the time of Edward the Confessor and +after the battle of Hastings, there were five cities which had special +immunities and peculiar privileges bestowed upon them, in recognition +of the special dangers to which they were exposed and the eminent services +they performed as facing the hostile shores of France. Owing to +their privileges and their position, the ‘Cinque Ports’ +came to be cities of great strength, till, as time went on, they became +a positive weakness rather than a strength to the land that lay behind +them. Privilege bred pride, and in their pride the Cinque Ports +proclaimed wars and formed alliances on their own account: piracies +by sea and robberies by land were hatched within their walls; and it +took centuries to reduce those pampered and arrogant ports to the safe +and peaceful rank of ordinary English cities. The Revolution of +1688 did something, and the Reform Bill of 1832 did more to make Dover +and her insolent sisters like the other free and equal cities of England; +but to this day there are remnants of public shows and pageantries left +in those old towns sufficient to witness to the former privileges, power, +and pride of the famous Cinque Ports. Now, Mansoul, in like manner, +has her cinque ports. And the whole of the <i>Holy War</i> is +one long and detailed history of how the five senses are clothed with +such power as they possess; how they abuse and misuse their power; what +disloyalty and despite they show to their sovereign; what conspiracies +and depredations they enter into; what untold miseries they let in upon +themselves and upon the land that lies behind them; what years and years +of siege, legislation, and rule it takes to reduce our bodily senses, +those proud and licentious gates, to their true and proper allegiance, +and to make their possessors a people loyal and contented, law-abiding +and happy.</p> +<p>The Apostle has a terrible passage to the Corinthians, in which he +treats of the soul and the senses with tremendous and overwhelming power. +‘Your bodies and your bodily members,’ he argues, with crushing +indignation, ‘are not your own to do with them as you like. +Your bodies and your souls are both Christ’s. He has bought +your body and your soul at an incalculable cost. What! know ye +not that your body is nothing less than the temple of the Holy Ghost +which is in you, and ye are not any more your own? know ye not that +your bodies are the very members of Christ?’ And then he +says a thing so terrible that I tremble to transcribe it. For +a more terrible thing was never written. ‘Shall I then,’ +filled with shame he demands, ‘take the members of Christ and +make them the members of an harlot?’ O God, have mercy on +me! I knew all the time that I was abusing and polluting myself, +but I did not know, I did not think, I was never told that I was abusing +and polluting Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, too awful thought. +And yet, stupid sinner that I am, I had often read that if any man defile +the temple of God and the members of Christ, him shall God destroy. +O God, destroy me not as I see now that I deserve. Spare me that +I may cleanse and sanctify myself and the members of Christ in me, which +I have so often embruted and defiled. Assist me to summon up my +imagination henceforth to my sanctification as Thine apostle has here +taught me the way. Let me henceforth look at my whole body in +all its senses and in all its members, the most open and the most secret, +as in reality no more my own. Let me henceforth look at myself +with Paul’s deep and holy eyes. Let me henceforth seat Christ, +my Redeemer and my King, in the very throne of my heart, and then keep +every gate of my body and every avenue of my mind as all not any more +mine own but His. Let me open my eye, and my ear, and my mouth, +as if in all that I were opening Christ’s eye and Christ’s +ear and Christ’s mouth; and let me thrust in nothing on Him as +He dwells within me that will make Him ashamed or angry, or that will +defile and pollute Him. That thought, O God, I feel that it will +often arrest me in time to come in the very act of sin. It will +make me start back before I make Christ cruel or false, a wine-bibber, +a glutton, or unclean. I feel at this moment as if I shall yet +come to ask Him at every meal, and at every other opportunity and temptation +of every kind, what He would have and what He would do before I go on +to take or to do anything myself. What a check, what a restraint, +what an awful scrupulosity that will henceforth work in me! But, +through that, what a pure, blameless, noble, holy and heavenly life +I shall then lead! What bodily pains, diseases, premature decays; +what mental remorses, what shames and scandals, what self-loathings +and what self-disgusts, what cups bitterer to drink than blood, I shall +then escape! Yes, O Paul, I shall henceforth hold with thee that +my body is the temple of Christ, and that I am not my own, but that +I am bought with a transporting price, and can, therefore, do nothing +less than glorify God in my body and in my spirit which are God’s. +‘This place,’ says the Pauline author of the <i>Holy War</i>—‘This +place the King intended but for Himself alone, and not for another with +Him.’</p> +<p>But, my brethren, lay this well, and as never before, to heart—this, +namely, that when you thus begin to keep any gate for Christ, your King +and Captain and Better-self,—Ear-gate, or Eye-gate, or Mouth-gate, +or any other gate—you will have taken up a task that shall have +no end with you in this life. Till you begin in dead earnest to +watch your heart, and all the doors of your heart, as if you were watching +Christ’s heart for Him and all the doors of His heart, you will +have no idea of the arduousness and the endurance, the sleeplessness +and the self-denial, of the undertaking.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Mansoul! Her wars seemed endless in her +eyes;<br /> +She’s lost by one, becomes another’s prize.<br /> +Mansoul! Her mighty wars, they did portend<br /> +Her weal or woe and that world without end.<br /> +Wherefore she must be more concern’d than they<br /> +Whose fears begin and end the self-same day.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘We all thought one battle would decide it,’ says Richard +Baxter, writing about the Civil War. ‘But we were all very +much mistaken,’ sardonically adds Carlyle. Yes; and you +will be very much mistaken too if you enter on the war with sin in your +soul, in your senses and in your members, with powder and shot for one +engagement only. When you enlist here, lay well to heart that +it is for life. There is no discharge in this war. There +are no ornamental old pensioners here. It is a warfare for eternal +life, and nothing will end it but the end of your evil days on earth.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III—EAR-GATE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Take heed what ye hear.’—<i>Our Lord +in Mark</i>.</p> +<p>‘Take heed how you hear.’—<i>Our Lord in Luke</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, +out at which to go, and these were made likewise answerable to the walls—to +wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor forced but by +the will and leave of those within. ‘The names of the gates +were these, Ear-gate, Eye-gate,’ and so on. Dr. George Wilson, +who was once Professor of Technology in our University, took this suggestive +passage out of the <i>Holy War</i> and made it the text of his famous +lecture in the Philosophical Institution, and then he printed the passage +on the fly-leaf of his delightful book <i>The Five Gateways of Knowledge</i>. +That is a book to read sometime, but this evening is to be spent with +the master.</p> +<p>For, after all, no one can write at once so beautifully, so quaintly, +so suggestively, and so evangelically as John Bunyan. ‘The +Lord Willbewill,’ says John Bunyan, ‘took special care that +the gates should be secured with double guards, double bolts, and double +locks and bars; and that Ear-gate especially might the better be looked +to, for that was the gate in at which the King’s forces sought +most to enter. The Lord Willbewill therefore made old Mr. Prejudice, +an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of the ward at that gate, +and put under his power sixty men, called Deafmen; men advantageous +for that service, forasmuch as they mattered no words of the captain +nor of the soldiers. And first the King’s officers made +their force more formidable against Ear-gate: for they knew that unless +they could penetrate that no good could be done upon the town. +This done, they put the rest of their men in their places; after which +they gave out the word, which was, Ye must be born again! And +so the battle began. Now, they in the town had planted upon the +tower over Ear-gate two great guns, the one called High-mind and the +other Heady. Unto these two guns they trusted much; they were +cast in the castle by Diabolus’s ironfounder, whose name was Mr. +Puff-up, and mischievous pieces they were. They in the camp also +did stoutly, for they saw that unless they could open Ear-gate it would +be in vain to batter the wall.’ And so on, through many +allegorical, and, if sometimes somewhat laboured, yet always eloquent, +pungent, and heart-exposing pages.</p> +<p>With these for our text let us now take a rapid glance at what some +of the more Bunyan-like passages in the prophets and the psalms say +about the ear; how it is kept and how it is lost; how it is used and +how it is abused.</p> +<p>1. The Psalmist uses a very striking expression in the 94th +Psalm when he is calling for justice, and is teaching God’s providence +over men. ‘He that planted the ear,’ the Psalmist +exclaims, ‘shall he not hear?’ And, considering his +church and his day, that is not a bad remark of Cardinal Bellarmine +on that psalm,—‘the Psalmist’s word <i>planted</i>,’ +says that able churchman, ‘implies design, in that the ear was +not spontaneously evolved by an act of vital force, but was independently +created by God for a certain object, just as a tree, not of indigenous +growth, is of set purpose planted in some new place by the hand of man.’ +The same thing is said in Genesis, you remember, about the Garden of +Eden,—the Lord planted it and put the man and the woman, whose +ears he had just planted also, into the garden to dress it and keep +it. How they dressed the garden and kept it, and how they held +the gate of their ear against him who squatted down before it with his +innuendoes and his lies, we all know to our as yet unrepaired, though +not always irreparable, cost.</p> +<p>2. One would almost think that the scornful apostle had the +Garden of Eden in his eye when he speaks so bitterly to Timothy of a +class of people who are cursed with ‘itching ears.’ +Eve’s ears itched unappeasably for the devil’s promised +secret; and we have all inherited our first mother’s miserable +curiosity. How eager, how restless, how importunate, we all are +to hear that new thing that does not at all concern us; or only concerns +us to our loss and our shame. And the more forbidden that secret +is to us, and the more full of inward evil to us—insane sinners +that we are—the more determined we are to get at it. Let +any forbidden secret be in the keeping of some one within earshot of +us and we will give him no rest till he has shared the evil thing with +us. Let any specially evil page be published in a newspaper, and +we will take good care that that day’s paper is not thrown into +the waste-basket; we will hide it away, like a dog with a stolen bone, +till we are able to dig it up and chew it dry in secret. The devil +has no need to blockade or besiege the gate of our ear if he has any +of his good things to offer us. The gate that can only be opened +from within will open at once of itself if he or any of his newsmongers +but squat down for a moment before it. Shame on us, and on all +of us, for our itching ears.</p> +<p>3. Isaiah speaks of some men in his day whose ears were ‘heavy’ +and whose hearts were fat, and the Psalmist speaks of some men in his +day whose ears were ‘stopped’ up altogether. And there +is not a better thing in Bunyan at his very best than that surly old +churl called Prejudice, so ill-conditioned and so always on the edge +of anger. By the devil’s plan of battle old Prejudice was +appointed to be warder of Ear-gate, and to enable him to keep that gate +for his master he had sixty deaf men put under him, men most advantageous +for that post, forasmuch as it mattered not to them what Emmanuel and +His officers said. There could be no manner of doubt who composed +that inimitable passage. There is all the truth and all the humour +and all the satire in Old Prejudice that our author has accustomed us +to in his best pieces. The common people always get the best literature +along with the best religion in John Bunyan. ‘They are like +the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and which will not hearken to +the voice of charmers charming never so wisely,’ says the Psalmist, +speaking about some bad men in his day. Now, I will not stand +upon David’s natural history here, but his moral and religious +meaning is evident enough. David is not concerned about adders +and their ears, he is wholly taken up with us and our adder-like animosity +against the truth. Against what teacher, then; against what preacher; +against what writer; against what doctrine, reproof, correction, has +your churlish prejudice adder-like shut your ear? Against what +truth, human or divine, have you hitherto stopped up your ear like the +Psalmist’s serpent? To ask that boldly, honestly, and in +the sight of God, at yourself to-night, would end in making you the +lifelong friend of some preacher, some teacher, some soul-saving truth +you have up till to-night been prejudiced against with the rooted prejudice +and the sullen obstinacy of sixty deaf men. O God, help us to +lay aside all this adder-like antipathy at men and things, both in public +and in private life. Help us to give all men and all causes a +fair field and no favour, but the field and the favour of an open and +an honest mind, and a simple and a sincere heart. He that hath +ears, let him hear!</p> +<p>4. As we work our way through the various developments and +vicissitudes of the Holy War we shall find Ear-gate in it and in ourselves +passing through many unexpected experiences; now held by one side and +now by another. And we find the same succession of vicissitudes +set forth in Holy Scripture. If you pay any attention to what +you read and hear, and then begin to ask yourselves fair in the face +as to your own prejudices, prepossessions, animosities, and antipathies,—you +will at once begin to reap your reward in having put into your possession +what the Scriptures so often call an ‘inclined’ ear. +That is to say, an ear not only unstopped, not only unloaded, but actually +prepared and predisposed to all manner of truth and goodness. +Around our city there are the remains, the still visible tracks, of +roads that at one time took the country people into our city, but which +are now stopped up and made wholly impassable. There is no longer +any road into Edinburgh that way. There are other roads still +open, but they are very roundabout, and at best very uphill. And +then there are other roads so smooth, and level, and broad, and well +kept, that they are full of all kinds of traffic; in the centre carts +and carriages crowd them, on the one side horses and their riders delight +to display themselves, and on the other side pedestrians and perambulators +enjoy the sun. And then there are still other roads with such +a sweet and gentle incline upon them that it is a positive pleasure +both to man and beast to set their foot upon them. And so it is +with the minds and the hearts of the men and the women who crowd these +roads. Just as the various roads are, so are the ears and the +understandings, the affections and the inclinations of those who walk +and ride and drive upon them. Some of those men’s ears are +impassably stopped up by self-love, self-interest, party-spirit, anger, +envy, and ill-will,—impenetrably stopped up against all the men +and all the truths of earth and of heaven that would instruct, enlighten, +convict or correct them. Some men’s minds, again, are not +so much shut up as they are crooked, and warped, and narrow, and full +of obstruction and opposition. Whereas here and there, sometimes +on horseback and sometimes on foot; sometimes a learned man walking +out of the city to take the air, and sometimes an unlettered countryman +coming into the city to make his market, will have his ear hospitably +open to every good man he meets, to every good book he reads, to every +good paper he buys at the street corner, and to every good speech, and +report, and letter, and article he reads in it. And how happy +that man is, how happy his house is at home, and how happy he makes +all those he but smiles to on his afternoon walk, and in all his walk +along the roads of this life. Never see an I incline’ on +a railway or on a driving or a walking road without saying on it before +you leave it, ‘I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined +His ear unto me and heard my cry. Because He hath inclined His +ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. +Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with +them that work iniquity. Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, +and not to covetousness. I have inclined mine heart to perform +Thy statutes alway, even unto the end.’</p> +<p>5. Shakespeare speaks in <i>Richard the Second</i> of ‘the +open ear of youth,’ and it is a beautiful truth in a beautiful +passage. Young men, who are still young men, keep your ears open +to all truth and to all duty and to all goodness, and shut your ears +with an adder’s determination against all that which ruined Richard—flattering +sounds, reports of fashions, and lascivious metres. ‘Our +souls would only be gainers by the perfection of our bodies were they +wisely dealt with,’ says Professor Wilson in his <i>Five Gateways</i>. +‘And for every human being we should aim at securing, so far as +they can be attained, an eye as keen and piercing as that of the eagle; +an ear as sensitive to the faintest sound as that of the hare; a nostril +as far-scenting as that of the wild deer; a tongue as delicate as that +of the butterfly; and a touch as acute as that of the spider. +No man ever was so endowed, and no man ever will be; but all men come +infinitely short of what they should achieve were they to make their +senses what they might be made. The old have outlived their opportunity, +and the diseased never had it; but the young, who have still an undimmed +eye, an undulled ear, and a soft hand; an unblunted nostril, and a tongue +which tastes with relish the plainest fare—the young can so cultivate +their senses as to make the narrow ring, which for the old and the infirm +encircles things sensible, widen for them into an almost limitless horizon.’</p> +<p>Take heed what you hear, and take heed how you hear.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV—EYE-GATE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Mine eye affecteth mine heart.’—<i>Jeremiah</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Think, in the first place,’ says the eloquent author +of the <i>Five Gateways of Knowledge</i>, ‘how beautiful the human +eye is. The eyes of many of the lower animals are, doubtless, +very beautiful. You must all have admired the bold, fierce, bright +eye of the eagle; the large, gentle, brown eye of the ox; the treacherous, +green eye of the cat, waxing and waning like the moon; the pert eye +of the sparrow; the sly eye of the fox; the peering little bead of black +enamel in the mouse’s head; the gem-like eye that redeems the +toad from ugliness, and the intelligent, affectionate expression which +looks out of the human-like eye of the horse and dog. There are +many other animals whose eyes are full of beauty, but there is a glory +that excelleth in the eye of a man. We realise this best when +we gaze into the eyes of those we love. It is their eyes we look +at when we are near them, and it is their eyes we recall when we are +far away from them. The face is all but a blank without the eye; +the eye seems to concentrate every feature in itself. It is the +eye that smiles, not the lips; it is the eye that listens, not the ear; +it is the eye that frowns, not the brow; it is the eye that mourns, +not the voice. The eye sees what it brings the power to see. +How true is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a ship where +the landsman can see nothing. The Esquimaux can distinguish a +white fox among the white snow. The astronomer can see a star +in the sky where to others the blue expanse is unbroken. The shepherd +can distinguish the face of every single sheep in his flock,’ +so Professor Wilson. And then Dr. Gould tells us in his mystico-evolutionary, +Behmen-and-Darwin book, <i>The Meaning and the Method of Life</i>—a +book which those will read who can and ought—that the eye is the +most psychical, the most spiritual, the most useful, and the most valued +and cherished of all the senses; after which he adds this wonderful +and heart-affecting scientific fact, that in death by starvation, every +particle of fat in the body is auto-digested except the cream-cushion +of the eye-ball! So true is it that the eye is the mistress, the +queen, and the most precious, to Creator and creature alike, of all +the five senses.</p> +<p>Now, in the <i>Holy War</i> John Bunyan says a thing about the ear, +as distinguished from the eye, that I cannot subscribe to in my own +experience at any rate. In describing the terrible war that raged +round Ear-gate, and finally swept up through that gate and into the +streets of the city, he says that the ear is the shortest and the surest +road to the heart. I confess I cannot think that to be the actual +case. I am certain that it is not so in my own case. My +eye is very much nearer my heart than my ear is. My eye much sooner +affects, and much more powerfully affects, my heart than my ear ever +does. Not only is my eye by very much the shortest road to my +heart, but, like all other short roads, it is cram-full of all kinds +of traffic when my ear stands altogether empty. My eye is constantly +crowded and choked with all kinds of commerce; whole hordes of immigrants +and invaders trample one another down on the congested street that leads +from my eye to my heart. Speaking for myself, for one assault +that is made on my heart through my ear there are a thousand assaults +successfully made through my eye. Indeed, were my eye but stopped +up; had I but obedience and courage and self-mortification enough to +pluck both my eyes out, that would be half the cleansing and healing +and holiness of my evil heart; or at least, the half of its corruption, +rebellion, and abominable wickedness would henceforth be hidden from +me. I think I can see what led John Bunyan in his day and in this +book to make that too strong statement about the ear as against the +eye; but it is not like him to have let such an over-statement stand +and continue in his corrected and carefully finished work. The +prophet Jeremiah, I feel satisfied, would not have subscribed to what +is said in the <i>Holy War</i> in extenuation of the eye. That +heart-broken prophet does not say that it has been his ear that has +made his head waters. It is his eye, he says, that has so affected +his heart. The Prophet of the Captivity had all the <i>Holy War</i> +potentially in his imagination when he penned that so suggestive sentence. +And the Latin poet of experience, the grown-up man’s own poet, +says somewhere that the things that enter by his eye seize and hold +his heart much more swiftly and much more surely than those things that +but enter by his ear. I shall continue, then, to hold by my text, +‘Mine eye affecteth mine heart.’</p> +<p>1. Turning then, to the prophets and proverb-makers of Israel, +and then to the New Testament for the true teaching on the eye, I come, +in the first place, on that so pungent saying of Solomon that ‘the +eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.’ Look at that +born fool, says Solomon, who has his eyes and his heart committed to +him to keep. See him how he gapes and stares after everything +that does not concern him, and lets the door of his own heart stand +open to every entering thief. London is a city of three million +inhabitants, and they are mostly fools, Carlyle once said. And +let him in this city whose eyes keep at home cast the first stone at +those foreign fools. I will wager on their side that many of you +here to-night know better what went on in Mashonaland last week than +what went on in your own kitchen downstairs, or in your own nursery +or schoolroom upstairs. Some of you are ten times more taken up +with the prospects of Her Majesty’s Government this session, and +with the plots of Her Majesty’s Opposition, than you are with +the prospects of the good and the evil, and the plots of God and the +devil, all this winter in your own hearts. You rise early, and +make a fight to get the first of the newspaper; but when the minister +comes in in the afternoon you blush because the housemaid has mislaid +the Bible. Did you ever read of the stargazer who fell into an +open well at the street corner? Like him, you may be a great astronomer, +a great politician, a great theologian, a great defender of the faith +even, and yet may be a stark fool just in keeping the doors and the +windows of your own heart. ‘You shall see a poor soul,’ +says Dr. Goodwin, ‘mean in abilities of wit, or accomplishments +of learning, who knows not how the world goes, nor upon what wheels +its states turn, who yet knows more clearly and experimentally his own +heart than all the learned men in the world know theirs. And though +the other may better discourse philosophically of the acts of the soul, +yet this poor man sees more into the corruption of it than they all.’ +And in another excellent place he says: ‘Many who have leisure +and parts to read much, instead of ballasting their hearts with divine +truth, and building up their souls with its precious words, are much +more versed in play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, and feigned staves, +which are but apes and peacocks’ feathers instead of pearls and +precious stones. Foreign and foolish discourses please their eyes +and their ears; they are more chameleons than men, for they live on +the east wind.’</p> +<p>2. ‘If thine eye offend thee’—our Lord lays +down this law to all those who would enter into life—‘pluck +it out and cast it from thee; for it is better for thee to enter into +life with one eye, rather than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.’ +Does your eye offend you, my brethren? Does your eye cause you +to stumble and fall, as it is in the etymology? The right use +of the eye is to keep you from stumbling and falling; but so perverted +are the eye and the heart of every sinner that the city watchman has +become a partaker with thieves, and our trusted guide and guardian a +traitor and a knave. If thine eye, therefore, offends thee; if +it places a stone or a tree in thy way in a dark night; if it digs a +deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee astray, +or lets in upon thee thine enemies—then, surely, thou wert better +to be without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, what +is still harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil thing out +of it. Shut up that book and put it away. Throw that paper +and that picture into the fire. Cut off that companion, even if +he were an adoring lover. Refuse that entertainment and that amusement, +though all the world were crowding upto it. And soon, and soon, +till you have plucked your eye as clean of temptations and snares as +it is possible to be in this life. For this life is full of that +terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of all His people, +that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You will know whether +or no you are one of them just by the number of the beautiful things, +and the sweet things, and the things to be desired, that you have plucked +out of your eye at His advice and demand. True religion, my brethren, +on some sides of it, and at some stages of it, is a terribly severe +and sore business; and unless it is proving a terribly severe and sore +business to you, look out! lest, with your two hands and your two feet +and your two eyes, you be cast, with all that your hands and feet and +eyes have feasted on, into the everlasting fires! Woe unto the +world because of offences, but woe much more to that member and entrance-gate +of the body by which the offence cometh! Wherefore, if thine eye +offend thee—!</p> +<p>3. ‘Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids +look straight before thee.’ Now, if you wish both to preserve +your eyes, and to escape the everlasting fires at the same time, attend +to this text. For this is almost as good as plucking out your +two eyes; indeed, it is almost the very same thing. Solomon shall +speak to the man in this house to-night who has the most inflammable, +the most ungovernable, and the most desperately wicked heart. +You, man, with that heart, you know that you cannot pass up the street +without your eye becoming a perfect hell-gate of lust, of hate, of ill-will, +of resentment and of revenge. Your eye falls on a man, on a woman, +on a house, on a shop, on a school, on a church, on a carriage, on a +cart, on an innocent child’s perambulator even; and, devil let +loose that you are, your eye fills your heart on the spot with absolute +hell-fire. Your presence and your progress poison the very streets +of the city. And that, not as the short-sighted and the vulgar +will read Solomon’s plain-spoken Scripture, with the poison of +lewdness and uncleanness, but with the still more malignant, stealthy, +and deadly poison of social, professional, political, and ecclesiastical +hatred, resentment, and ill-will. Whoredom and wine openly slay +their thousands on all our streets; but envy and spite, dislike and +hatred their ten thousands. The fact is, we would never know how +malignantly wicked our hearts are but for our eyes. But a sudden +spark, a single flash through the eye falling on the gunpowder that +fills our hearts, that lets us know a hundred times every day what at +heart we are made of. ‘Of a verity, O Lord, I am made of +sin, and that my life maketh manifest,’ prays Bishop Andrewes +every day. Why, sir, not to go to the street, the direction in +which your eyes turn in this house this evening will make this house +a very ‘den,’ as our Lord said—yes, a very den to +you of temptation and transgression. My son, let thine eyes look +right on. Ponder the path of thy feet, turn not to the right hand +nor to the left—remove thy foot from all evil!</p> +<p>4. There is still another eye that is almost as good as an +eye out altogether, and that is a Job’s eye. Job was the +first author of that eye and all we who have that excellent eye take +it of him. ‘I have made a covenant with mine eyes,’ +said that extraordinary man—that extraordinarily able, honest, +exposed and exercised man. Now, you must all know what a covenant +is. A covenant is a compact, a contract, an agreement, an engagement. +In a covenant two parties come to terms with one another. The +two covenanters strike hands, and solemnly engage themselves to one +another: I will do this for you if you will do that for me. It +is a bargain, says the other; let us have it sealed with wax and signed +with pen and ink before two witnesses. As, for instance, at the +Lord’s Table. I swear, you say, over the Body and the Blood +of the Son of God, I swear to make a covenant with mine eyes. +I will never let them read again that idle, infidel, scoffing, unclean +sheet. I will not let them look on any of my former images or +imaginations of forbidden pleasures. I swear, O Thou to whom the +night shineth as the day, that I will never again say, Surely the darkness +shall cover me! See if I do not henceforth by Thy grace keep my +feet off every slippery street. That, and many other things like +that, was the way that Job made his so noble covenant with his eyes +in his day and in his land. And it was because he so made and +so kept his covenant that God so boasted over him and said, Hast thou +considered my servant Job? And then, every covenant has its two +sides. The other side of Job’s covenant, of which God Himself +was the surety, you can read and think over in your solitary lodgings +to-night. Read Job xxxi. 1, and then Job xl. to the end, and then +be sure you take covenant paper and ink to God before you sleep. +And let all fashionable young ladies hear what Miss Rossetti expects +for herself, and for all of her sex with her who shall subscribe her +covenant. ‘True,’ she admits, ‘all our life +long we shall be bound to refrain our soul, and keep it low; but what +then? For the books we now refrain to read we shall one day be +endowed with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen +to we shall join in the song of the redeemed. For the pictures +from which we turn we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific Vision. +For the companionship we shun we shall be welcomed into angelic society +and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we +avoid we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasures +we miss we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of heaven.’</p> +<p>5. And then there is the Pauline eye. An eye, however, +that Job would have shared with Paul and with the Corinthian Church +had the patriarch been privileged to live in our New Testament day. +Ever since the Holy Ghost with His anointing oil fell on us at Pentecost, +says the apostle, we have had an eye by means of which we look not at +the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. +Now, he who has an eye like that is above both plucking out his eyes +or making a covenant with them either. It is like what Paul says +about the law also. The law is not made for a righteous man. +A righteous man is above the law and independent of it. The law +does not reach to him and he is not hampered with it. And so it +is with the man who has got Paul’s splendid eyes for the unseen. +He does not need to touch so much as one of his eye-lashes to pluck +them out. For his eyes are blind, and his ears are deaf, and his +whole body is dead to the things that are temporal. His eyes are +inwardly ablaze with the things that are eternal. He whose eyes +have been opened to the truth and the love of his Bible, he will gloat +no more over your books and your papers filled with lies, and slander, +and spite, and lewdness! He who has his conversation in heaven +does not need to set a watch on his lips lest he take up an ill report +about his neighbour. He who walks every day on the streets of +gold will step as swiftly as may be, with girt loins, and with a preoccupied +eye, out of the slippery and unsavoury streets of this forsaken earth. +He who has fast working out for him an exceeding and eternal weight +of glory will easily count all his cups and all his crosses, and all +the crooks in his lot but as so many light afflictions and but for a +moment. My Lord Understanding had his palace built with high perspective +towers on it, and the site of it was near to Eye-gate, from the top +of which his lordship every day looked not at the things which are temporal, +but at the things which are eternal, and down from his palace towers +he every day descended to administer his heavenly office in the city.</p> +<p>Your eye, then, is the shortest way into your heart. Watch +it well, therefore; suspect and challenge all outsiders who come near +it. Keep the passes that lead to your heart with all diligence. +Let nothing contraband, let nothing that even looks suspicious, ever +enter your hearts; for, if it once enters, and turns out to be evil, +you will never get it all out again as long as you live. ‘Death +is come up into our windows,’ says our prophet in another place, +‘and is entered into our palaces, to cut off our children in our +houses and our young men in our streets.’ Make a covenant, +then, with your eyes. Take an oath of your eyes as to which way +they are henceforth to look. For, let them look this way, and +your heart is immediately full of lust, and hate, and envy, and ill-will. +On the other hand, lead them to look that way and your heart is as immediately +full of truth and beauty, brotherly kindness and charity. The +light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy +whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole +body is full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in +thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V—THE KING’S PALACE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.’—<i>David</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Now, there is in this gallant country a fair and delicate +town, a corporation, called Mansoul: a town for its building so curious, +for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, +that I may say of it, there is not its equal under the whole heaven. +Also, there was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and +stately palace: for strength, it might be called a castle; for pleasantness, +a paradise; and for largeness, a place so copious as to contain all +the world. This place the King intended for Himself alone, and +not for another with Him, so great was His delight in it.’ +Thus far, our excellent allegorical author. But there are other +authors that treat of this great matter now in hand besides the allegorical +authors. You will hear tell sometimes about a class of authors +called the Mystics. Well, listen at this stage to one of them, +and one of the best of them, on this present matter—the human +heart, that is. ‘Our heart,’ he says, ‘is our +manner of existence, or the state in which we feel ourselves to be; +it is an inward life, a vital sensibility, which contains our manner +of feeling what and how we are; it is the state of our desires and tendencies, +of inwardly seeing, tasting, relishing, and feeling that which passes +within us; our heart is that to us inwardly with regard to ourselves +which our senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, and such like are with +regard to things that are without or external to us. Your heart +is the best and greatest gift of God to you. It is the highest, +greatest, strongest, and noblest power of your nature. It forms +your whole life, be it what it will. All evil and all good come +from your heart. Your heart alone has the key of life and death +for you.’ I was just about to ask you at this point which +of our two authors, our allegorical or our mystical author upon the +heart, you like best. But that would be a stupid and a wayward +question since you have them both before you, and both at their best, +to possess and to enjoy. To go back then to John Bunyan, and to +his allegory of the human heart.</p> +<p>1. To begin with, then, there was reared up in the midst of +this town of Mansoul a most famous and stately palace. And that +palace and the town immediately around it were the mirror and the glory +of all that its founder and maker had ever made. His palace was +his very top-piece. It was the metropolitan of the whole world +round about it; and it had positive commission and power to demand service +and support of all around. Yes. And all that is literally, +evidently, and actually true of the human heart. For all other +earthly things are created and upheld, are ordered and administered, +with an eye to the human heart. The human heart is the final cause, +as our scholars would say, of absolutely all other earthly things. +Earth, air, water; light and heat; all the successively existing worlds, +mineral, vegetable, animal, spiritual; grass, herbs, corn, fruit-trees, +cattle and sheep, and all other living creatures; all are upheld for +the use and the support of man. And, then, all that is in man +himself is in him for the end and the use of his heart. All his +bodily senses; all his bodily members; every fearfully and wonderfully +made part of his body and of his mind; all administer to his heart. +She is the sovereign and sits supreme. And she is worthy and is +fully entitled so to sit. For there is nothing on the earth greater +or better than the heart, unless it is the Creator Himself, who planned +and executed the heart for Himself and not for another with Him. +‘The body exists,’ says a philosophical biologist of our +day, ‘to furnish the cerebral centres with prepared food, just +as the vegetable world, viewed biologically, exists to furnish the animal +world with similar food. The higher is the last formed, the most +difficult, and the most complex; but it is just this that is most precious +and significant—all of which shows His unrolling purpose. +It is the last that alone explains all that went before, and it is the +coming that will alone explain the present. God before all, through +all, foreseeing all, and still preparing all; God in all is profoundly +evident.’ Yes, profoundly evident to profound minds, and +experimentally and sweetly evident to religious minds, and to renewed +and loving and holy hearts.</p> +<p>2. For fame and for state a palace, while for strength it might +be called a castle. In sufficiently ancient times the king’s +palace was always a castle also. David’s palace on Mount +Zion was as much a military fortress as a royal residence; and King +Priam’s palace was the protection both of itself and of the whole +of the country around. In those wild times great men built their +houses on high places, and then the weak and endangered people gathered +around the strongholds of the powerful, as we see in our own city. +Our own steep and towering rock invited to its top the castle-builder +of a remote age, and then the exposed country around began to gather +itself together under the shelter of the bourg. And thus it is +that the military engineering of the <i>Holy War</i> makes that old +allegorical book most excellent to read, not only for common men like +you and me, who are bent on the fortification and the defence of our +own hearts, but for the military historians of those old times also, +for the experts of to-day also, and for all good students of fortification. +And the New Testament of the Divine peace itself, as well as the Old +Testament so full of the wars of the Lord—they both support and +serve as an encouragement and an example to our spiritual author in +the elaboration of his military allegory. Every good soldier of +Jesus Christ has by heart the noble paradox of Paul to the Philippians—that +the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts +and minds through Christ Jesus. Let God’s peace, he says, +be your man of war. Let His surpassing peace do both the work +of war and the work of peace also in your hearts and in your minds. +Let that peace both fortify with walls, and garrison with soldiers, +and watch every gate, and hold every street and lane of your hearts +and of your minds all around your hearts. And all through the +Prince of Peace, the Captain of all Holy War, Jesus Christ Himself. +No wonder, then, that in a strength—in a kind and in a degree +of strength—that passeth all understanding, this stately palace +of the heart is also here called a well-garrisoned castle.</p> +<p>3. And then for pleasantness the human heart is a perfect paradise. +For pleasantness the human heart is like those famous royal parks of +Nineveh and Babylon that sprang up in after days as if to recover and +restore the Garden of Eden that had been lost to those eastern lands. +But even Adam’s own paradise was but a poor outside imitation +in earth and water, in flowers and fruits, of the far better paradise +God had planted within him. Take another Mystic at this point +upon paradise. ‘My dear man,’ exclaims Jacob Behmen, +‘the Garden of Eden is not paradise, neither does Moses say so. +Paradise is the divine joy, and that was in their own hearts so long +as they stood in the love of God. Paradise is the divine and angelical +joy, pure love, pure joy, pure gladness, in which there is no fear, +no misery, and no death. Which paradise neither death nor the +devil can touch. And yet it has no stone wall around it; only +a great gulf which no man or angel can cross but by that new birth of +which Christ spoke to Nicodemus. Reason asks, Where is paradise +to be found? Is it far off or near? Is it in this world +or is it above the stars? Where is that desirable native country +where there is no death? Beloved, there is nothing nearer you +at this moment than paradise, if you incline that way. God beckons +you back into paradise at this moment, and calls you by name to come. +Come, He says, and be one of My paradise children. In paradise,’ +the Teutonic Philosopher goes on, ‘there is nothing but hearty +love, a meek and a gentle love; a most friendly and most courteous discourse: +a gracious, amiable, and blessed society, where the one is always glad +to see the other, and to honour the other. They know of no malice +in paradise, no cunning, no subtlety, and no sly deceit. But the +fruits of the Spirit of God are common among them in paradise, and one +may make use of all the good things of paradise without causing disfavour, +or hatred, or envy, for there is no contrary affection there, but all +hearts there are knit together in love. In paradise they love +one another, and rejoice in the beauty, loveliness, and gladness of +one another. No one esteems or accounts himself more excellent +than another in paradise; but every one has great joy in another, and +rejoices in another’s fair beauty, whence their love to one another +continually increases, so that they lead one another by the hand, and +so friendly kiss one another.’ Thus the blessed Behmen saw +paradise and had it in his heart as he sat over his hammer and lapstone +in his solitary stall. For of such as Jacob Behmen and John Bunyan +is the kingdom of heaven, and all such saintly souls have paradise restored +again and improved upon in their own hearts.</p> +<p>4. And for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the +world. Over against the word ‘copious’ Bunyan hangs +for a key, Ecclesiastes third and eleventh; and under it Miss Peacock +adds this as a note—‘<i>Copious</i>, spacious. Old +French, <i>copieux</i>; Latin, <i>copiosus</i>, plentiful.’ +The human heart, as we have already read to-night, is the highest, greatest, +strongest, and noblest part of human nature. And so it is. +Fearfully and wonderfully made as is the whole of human nature, that +fear and that wonder surpass themselves in the spaciousness and the +copiousness of the human heart. For what is it that the human +heart has not space for, and to spare? After the whole world is +received home into a human heart, there is room, and, indeed, hunger, +for another world, and after that for still another. The sun is—I +forget how many times bigger than our whole world, and yet we can open +our heart and take down the sun into it, and shut him out again and +restore him to his immeasurable distances in the heavens, and all in +the twinkling of an eye. As for instance. As I wrote these +lines I read a report of a lecture by Sir Robert Ball in which that +distinguished astronomer discoursed on recent solar discoveries. +A globe of coal, Sir Robert said, as big as our earth, and all set ablaze +at the same moment, would not give out so much heat to the worlds around +as the sun gives out in a thousandth part of a second. Well, as +I read that, and ere ever I was aware what was going on, my heart had +opened over my newspaper, and the sun had swept down from the sky, and +had rushed into my heart, and before I knew where I was the cry had +escaped my lips, ‘Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God +Almighty! Who shall not fear Thee and glorify thy name?’ +And then this reflection as suddenly came to me: How good it is to be +at peace with God, and to be able and willing to say, My Father! +That the whole of the surging and flaming sun was actually down in my +straitened and hampered heart at that idle moment over my paper is scientifically +demonstrable; for only that which is in the heart of a man can kindle +the passions that are in the heart of that man; and nothing is more +sure to me than that the great passions of fear and love, wonder and +rapture were at that moment at a burning point within me. There +is a passage well on in the <i>Holy War</i>, which for terror and for +horror, and at the same time for truth and for power, equals anything +either in Dante or in Milton. Lucifer has stood up at the council +board to second the scheme of Beelzebub. ‘Yes,’ he +said, amid the plaudits of his fellow-princes—‘Yes, I swear +it. Let us fill Mansoul full with our abundance. Let us +make of this castle, as they vainly call it, a warehouse, as the name +is in some of their cities above. For if we can only get Mansoul +to fill herself full with much goods she is henceforth ours. My +peers,’ he said, ‘you all know His parable of how unblessed +riches choke the word; and, again, we know what happens when the hearts +of men are overcharged with surfeiting and with drunkenness. Let +us give them all that, then, to their heart’s desire.’ +This advice of Lucifer, our history tells us, was highly applauded in +hell, and ever since it has proved their masterpiece to choke Mansoul +with the fulness of this world, and to surfeit the heart with the good +things thereof. But, my brethren, you will outwit hell herself +and all her counsellors and all her machinations, if, out of all the +riches, pleasures, cares, and possessions, that both heaven and earth +and hell can heap into your heart, those riches, pleasures, cares, and +possessions but produce corresponding passions and affections towards +God and man. Only let fear, and love, and thankfulness, and helpfulness +be kindled and fed to all their fulness in your heart, and all the world +and all that it contains will only leave the more room in your boundless +heart for God and for your brother. All that God has made, or +could make with all His counsel and all His power laid out, will not +fill your boundless and bottomless heart. He must come down and +come into your boundless and bottomless heart Himself. Himself: +your Father, your Redeemer, and your Sanctifier and Comforter also. +Let the whole universe try to fill your heart, O man of God, and after +it all we shall hear you singing in famine and in loneliness the doleful +ditty:</p> +<blockquote><p>‘O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,<br /> +There is room in my heart for Thee.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>5. ‘Madame,’ said a holy solitary to Madame Guyon +in her misery—‘Madame, you are disappointed and perplexed +because you seek without what you have within. Accustom yourself +to seek for God in your own heart and you will always find Him there.’ +From that hour that gifted woman was a Mystic. The secret of the +interior life flashed upon her in a moment. She had been starving +in the midst of fulness; God was near and not far off; the kingdom of +heaven was within her. The love of God from that hour took possession +of her soul with an inexpressible happiness. Prayer, which had +before been so difficult, was now delightful and indispensable; hours +passed away like moments: she could scarcely cease from praying. +Her domestic trials seemed great to her no longer; her inward joy consumed +like a fire the reluctance, the murmur, and the sorrow, which all had +their birth in herself. A spirit of comforting peace, a sense +of rejoicing possession, pervaded all her days. God was continually +with her, and she seemed continually yielded up to God. ‘Madame,’ +said the solitary, ‘you seek without for what you have within.’ +Where do you seek for God when you pray, my brethren? To what +place do you direct your eyes? Is it to the roof of your closet? +Is it to the east end of your consecrated chapel? Is it to that +wooden table in the east end of your chapel? Or, passing out of +all houses made with hands and consecrated with holy oil, do you lift +up your eyes to the skies where the sun and the moon and the stars dwell +alone? ‘What a folly!’ exclaims Theophilus, in the +golden dialogue, ‘for no way is the true way to God but by the +way of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be found. And +the heart itself cannot find Him but by its own love of Him, faith in +Him, dependence upon Him, resignation to Him, and expectation of all +from Him.’ ‘You have quite carried your point with +me,’ answered Theogenes after he had heard all that Theophilus +had to say. ‘The God of meekness, of patience, and of love +is henceforth the one God of my heart. It is now the one bent +and desire of my soul to seek for all my salvation in and through the +merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, resigned, suffering +Lamb of God, who alone has power to bring forth the blessed birth of +those heavenly virtues in my soul. What a comfort it is to think +that this Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Light of the World; this Glory +of heaven and this Joy of angels is as near to us, is as truly in the +midst of us, as He is in the midst of heaven. And that not a thought, +look, or desire of our heart that presses toward Him, longing to catch +one small spark of His heavenly nature, but is as sure a way of finding +Him, as the woman’s way was who was healed of her deadly disease +by longing to touch but the border of His garment.’</p> +<p>To sum up. ‘There is reared up in the midst of Mansoul +a most famous and stately palace: for strength, it may be called a castle; +for pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a place so copious +as to contain all the world. This palace the King intends but +for Himself alone, and not another with Him, and He commits the keeping +of that palace day and night to the men of the town.’</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI—MY LORD WILLBEWILL</h2> +<blockquote><p>—‘to will is present with me.’—<i>Paul</i></p> +</blockquote> +<p>There is a large and a learned literature on the subject of the will. +There is a philosophical and a theological, and there is a religious +and an experimental literature on the will. Jonathan Edwards’s +well-known work stands out conspicuously at the head of the philosophical +and theological literature on the will, while our own Thomas Boston’s +<i>Fourfold State</i> is a very able and impressive treatise on the +more practical and experimental side of the same subject. The +Westminster Confession of Faith devotes one of its very best chapters +to the teaching of the word of God on the will of man, and the Shorter +Catechism touches on the same subject in Effectual Calling. Outstanding +philosophical and theological schools have been formed around the will, +and both able and learned and earnest men have taken opposite sides +on the subject of the will under the party names of Necessitarians and +Libertarians. This is not the time, nor am I the man, to discuss +such abstruse subjects; but those students who wish to master this great +matter of the will, so far as it can be mastered in books, are recommended +to begin with Dr. William Cunningham’s works, and then to go on +from them to a treatise that will reward all their talent and all their +enterprise, Jonathan Edwards’s perfect masterpiece.</p> +<p>1. But, to come to my Lord Willbewill, one of the gentry of +the famous town of Mansoul:—well, this Lord Willbewill was as +high-born as any man in Mansoul, and was as much a freeholder as any +of them were, if not more. Besides, if I remember my tale aright, +he had some privileges peculiar to himself in that famous town. +Now, together with these, he was a man of great strength, resolution, +and courage; nor in his occasion could any turn him away. But +whether he was too proud of his high estate, privileges, and strength, +or what (but sure it was through pride of something), he scorns now +to be a slave in Mansoul, as his own proud word is, so that now, next +to Diabolus himself, who but my Lord Willbewill in all that town? +Nor could anything now be done but at his beck and good pleasure throughout +that town. Indeed, it will not out of my thoughts what a desperate +fellow this Willbewill was when full power was put into his hand. +All which—how this apostate prince lost power and got it again, +and lost it and got it again—the interested and curious reader +will find set forth with great fulness and clearness in many powerful +pages of the <i>Holy War</i>.</p> +<p>John Bunyan was as hard put to it to get the right name for this +head of the gentry of Mansoul as Paul was to get the right name for +sin in the seventh of the Romans. In that profoundest and intensest +of all his profound and intense passages, the apostle has occasion to +seek about for some expression, some epithet, some adjective, as we +say, to apply to sin so as to help him to bring out to his Roman readers +something of the malignity, deadliness, and unspeakable evil of sin +as he had sin living and working in himself. But all the resources +of the Greek language, that most resourceful of languages, utterly failed +Paul for his pressing purpose. And thus it is that, as if in scorn +of the feebleness and futility of that boasted tongue, he tramples its +grammars and its dictionaries under his feet, and makes new and unheard-of +words and combinations of words on the spot for himself and for his +subject. He heaps up a hyperbole the like of which no orator or +rhetorician of Greece or Rome had ever needed or had ever imagined before. +He takes sin, and he makes a name for sin out of itself. The only +way to describe sin, he feels, the only way to characterise sin, the +only way to aggravate sin, is just to call it sin; sinful sin; ‘sin +by the commandment became exceeding sinful.’ And, in like +manner, John Bunyan, who has only his own mother tongue to work with, +in his straits to get a proper name for this terrible fellow who was +next to Diabolus himself, cannot find a proud enough name for him but +just by giving him his own name, and then doubling it. Add will +to will, multiply will by will, and multiply it again, and after you +have done all you are no nearer to a proper name for that apostate, +who, for pride, and insolence, and headstrongness, in one word, for +wilfulness, is next to Diabolus himself. But as Willbewill, if +he is to be named and described at all, is best named and described +by his own naked name; so Bunyan is always best illustrated out of his +own works. And I turn accordingly to the <i>Heavenly Footman</i> +for an excellent illustration of the wilfulness of the will both in +a good man and in a bad; as, thus: ‘Your self-willed people, nobody +knows what to do with them. We use to say, He will have his own +will, do all we can. If a man be willing, then any argument shall +be matter of encouragement; but if unwilling, then any argument shall +give discouragement. The saints of old, they being willing and +resolved for heaven, what could stop them? Could fire and fagot, +sword or halter, dungeons, whips, bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings, +stonings, starvings, nakedness? So willing had they been made +in the day of His power. And see, on the other side, the children +of the devil, because they are not willing, how many shifts and starting-holes +they will have! I have married a wife; I have a farm; I shall +offend my landlord; I shall lose my trade; I shall be mocked and scoffed +at, and therefore I cannot come. But, alas! the thing is, they +are not willing. For, were they once soundly willing, these, and +a thousand things such as these, would hold them no faster than the +cords held Samson when he broke them like flax. I tell you the +will is all. The Lord give thee a will, then, and courage of heart.’</p> +<p>2. Let that, then, suffice for this man’s name and nature, +and let us look at him now when his name and his nature have both become +evil; that is to say, when Willbewill has become Illwill. You +can imagine; no, you cannot imagine unless you already know, how evil, +and how set upon evil, Illwill was. His whole mind, we are told, +now stood bending itself to evil. Nay, so set was he now upon +sheer evil that he would act it of his own accord, and without any instigation +at all from Diabolus. And that went on till he was looked on in +the city as next in wickedness to very Diabolus himself. Parable +apart, my ill-willed brethren, our ill-will has made us very fiends +in human shape. What a fall, what a fate, what a curse it is to +be possessed of a devil of ill-will! Who can put proper words +on it after Paul had to confess himself silent before it? Who +can utter the diabolical nature, the depth and the secrecy, the subtlety +and the spirituality, the range and the reach-out of an ill-will? +Our hearts are full of ill-will at those we meet and shake hands with +every day. At men also we have never seen, and who are totally +ignorant even of our existence. Over a thousand miles we dart +our viperous hearts at innocent men. At great statesmen we have +ill-will, and at small; at great churchmen and at small; at great authors +and at small; at great, and famous, and successful men in all lines +of life; for it is enough for ill-will that another man be praised, +and well-paid, and prosperous, and then placed in our eye. No +amount of suffering will satiate ill-will; the very grave has no seal +against it. And, now and then, you have it thrust upon you that +other men have the same devil in them as deeply and as actively as he +is in you. You will suddenly run across a man on the street. +His face was shining with some praise he had just had spoken to him, +or with some recognition he had just received from some great one; or +with some good news for himself he had just heard, before he caught +sight of you. But the light suddenly dies on his face, and darkness +comes up out of his heart at his sudden glimpse of you. What is +the matter? you ask yourself as he scowls past you. What have +you done so to darken any man’s heart to you? And as you +stumble on in the sickening cloud he has left behind him, you suddenly +recollect that you were once compelled to vote against that man on a +public question: on some question of home franchise, or foreign war, +or church government, or city business; or perchance, a family has left +his shop to do business in yours, or his church to worship God in yours, +or such like. It will be a certain relief to you to recollect +such things. But with it all there will be a shame and a humiliation +and a deep inward pain that will escape into a cry of prayer for him +and for yourself and for all such sinners on the same street. +If you do not find an escape from your sharp resentment in ejaculatory +prayer and in a heart-cleansing great good-will, your heart, before +you are a hundred steps on, will be as black with ill-will as his is. +But that must not again be. Would you hate or strike back at a +blind man who stumbled and fell against you on the street? Would +you retaliate at a maniac who gnashed his teeth and shook his fist at +you on his way past you to the madhouse? Or at a corpse being +carried past you that had been too long without burial? And shall +you retaliate on a miserable man driven mad with diabolical passion? +Or at a poor sinner whose heart is as rotten as the grave? Ill-will +is abroad in our learned and religious city at all hours of the day +and night. He glares at us under the sun by day, and under the +street lamps at night. We suddenly feel his baleful eye on us +as we thoughtlessly pass under his overlooking windows: it will be a +side street and an unfrequented, where you will not be ashamed and shocked +and pained at heart to meet him. Public men; much purchased and +much praised men; rich and prosperous men; men high in talent and in +place; and, indeed, all manner of men,—walk abroad in this life +softly. Keep out of sight. Take the side streets, and return +home quickly. You have no idea what an offence and what a snare +you are to men you know, and to men you do not know. If you are +a public man, and if your name is much in men’s mouths, then the +place you hold, the prices and the praises you get, do not give you +one-tenth of the pleasure that they give a thousand other men pain. +Men you never heard of, and who would not know you if they met you, +gnaw their hearts at the mere mention of your name. Desire, then, +to be unknown, as À Kempis says. O teach me to love to +be concealed, prays Jeremy Taylor. Be ambitious to be unknown, +Archbishop Leighton also instructs us. And the great Fénelon +took <i>Ama nesciri</i> for his crest and for his motto. No wonder +that an apostle cried out under the agony and the shame of ill-will. +No wonder that to kill it in the hearts of men the Son of God died under +it on the cross. And no wonder that all the gates of hell are +wide open, day and night, for there is no day there, to receive home +all those who will entertain ill-will in their hearts, and all the gates +of heaven shut close to keep all ill-will for ever out.</p> +<p>3. But, bad enough as all that is, the half has not been told, +and never will be told in this life. Butler has a passage that +has long stumbled me, and it stumbles me the more the longer I live +and study him and observe myself. ‘Resentment,’ he +says, in a very deep and a very serious passage—‘Resentment +being out of the case, there is not, properly speaking, any such thing +as direct ill-will in one man towards another.’ Well, great +and undisputed as Butler’s authority is in all these matters, +at the same time he would be the first to admit and to assert that a +man’s inward experience transcends all outward authority. +Well, I am filled with shame and pain and repentance and remorse to +have to say it, but my experience carries me right in the teeth of Butler’s +doctrine. I have dutifully tried to look at Butler’s inviting +and exonerating doctrine in all possible lights, and from all possible +points of view, in the anxious wish to prove it true; but I dare not +say that I have succeeded. The truth for thee—my heart would +continually call to me—the best truth for thee is in me, and not +in any Butler! And when looking as closely as I can at my own +heart in the matter of ill-will, what do I find—and what will +you find? You will find that after subtracting all that can in +any proper sense come under the head of real resentment, and in cases +where real resentment is out of the question; in cases where you have +received no injury, no neglect, no contempt, no anything whatsoever +of that kind, you will find that there are men innocent of all that +to you, yet men to whom you entertain feelings, animosities, antipathies, +that can be called by no other name than that of ill-will. Look +within and see. Watch within and see. And I am sure you +will come to subscribe with me to the humbling and heart-breaking truth, +that, even where there is no resentment, and no other explanation, excuse, +or palliation of that kind, yet that festering, secret, malignant ill-will +is working in the bottom of your heart. If you doubt that, if +you deny that, if all that kind of self-observation and self-sentencing +is new to you, then observe yourself, say, for one week, and report +at the end of it whether or no you have had feelings and thoughts and +wishes in your secret heart toward men who never in any way hurt you, +which can only be truthfully described as pure ill-will; that is to +say, you have not felt and thought and wished toward them as you would +have them, and all men, feel and think and wish toward you.</p> +<p>4. ‘To will is present with me, but how to perform I +find not,’ says the apostle; and again, ‘Ye cannot do the +things that ye would.’ Or, as Dante has it,</p> +<blockquote><p> ‘The power which wills<br /> +Bears not supreme control; laughter and tears<br /> +Follow so closely on the passion prompts them,<br /> +They wait not for the motion of the will<br /> +In natures most sincere.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now, just here lies a deep distinction that has not been enough taken +account of by our popular, or even by our more profound, spiritual writers. +The will is often regenerate and right; the will often bends, as Bunyan +has it, to that which is good; but behind the will and beneath the will +the heart is still full of passions, affections, inclinations, dispositions +that are evil; instinctively, impulsively, involuntarily evil, even +‘in natures most sincere.’ And hence arises a conflict, +a combat, a death-grip, an agony, a hell on earth, that every regenerate +and advancing soul of man is full of His will is right. If his +will is wrong; if he chooses evil; then there is no mystery in the matter +so far as he is concerned. He is a bad man, and he is so intentionally +and deliberately and of set purpose; and it is a rule in divine truth +that ‘wilfulness in sinning is the measure of our sinfulness.’ +But his will is right. To will is present with him. He is +every day like Thomas Boston one Sabbath-day: ‘Though I cannot +be free of sin, God Himself knows that He would be welcome to make havoc +of my sins and to make me holy. I know no lust that I would not +be content to part with to-night. My will, bound hand and foot, +I desire to lay at His feet.’ Now, is it not as clear as +noonday that in the case of such a man as Boston his mind is one thing +and his heart another? Is it not plain that he has both a good-will +and an ill-will within him? A will that immediately and resolutely +chooses for God, and for truth, and for righteousness, and for love; +and another law in his members warring against that law of his mind? +‘Before conversion,’ says Thomas Shepard, ‘the main +wound of a man is in his will. And then, after conversion, though +his will is changed, yet, <i>ex infirmitate</i>, there are many things +that he cannot do, so strong is the remnant of malignity that is still +in his heart. Let him get Christ to help him here.’ +In all that ye see your calling, my brethren.</p> +<p>5. ‘Now, if I do that I would not,’ adds the apostle, +extricating himself and giving himself fair-play and his simple due +among all his misery and self-accusation—‘Now, if I do that +I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’ +Or, again, as William Law has it: ‘All our natural evil ceases +to be our own evil as soon as our will turns away from it. Our +natural evil then changes its nature and loses all its poison and death, +and becomes an holy cross on which we die to self and this life and +enter the kingdom of heaven.’ My dear brethren, tell me, +is your sin your cross? Is your sinfulness your cross? Is +the evil that is ever present with you your holy cross? For, every +other cross beside sin is a cross of straw, a cross of feathers, a paste-board +and a painted cross, and not a real and genuine cross at all. +The wood and the nails and the spear all taken together were not our +Lord’s real cross. His real cross was sin; our sin laid +on His hands, and on His heart, and on His imagination, and on His conscience, +till it was all but His very own sin. Our sin was so fearfully +and wonderfully laid upon Christ that He was as good as a sinner Himself +under it. So much so that all the nails and all the spears, all +the thirst and all the darkness that His body and His soul could hold +were as nothing beside the sin that was laid upon Him. And so +it is with us; with as many of us as are His true disciples. Our +sin is our cross; not our actual transgressions, any more than His; +but our inward sinfulness. And not the sinfulness of our will; +that is no real cross to any man; but the sinfulness of our hearts against +our will, and beneath our will, and behind our will. And this +is such a cross that if Christ had something in His cross that we have +not, then we have something in ours that He had not. He made many +sad and sore Psalms His own; but even if He had lived on earth to read +the seventh of the Romans, He could not have made it His own. +His true people are beyond Him here. The disciple is above his +Master here. The Master had His own cross, and it was a sufficient +cross; but we can challenge Him to come down and look and say if He +ever saw a cross like our cross. He was made a curse. He +was hanged on the tree. He bore our sins in His own body on the +tree. But his people are beyond Him in the real agony and crucifixion +of sin. For He never in Gethsemane or on Calvary either cried +as Paul once cried, and as you and I cry every day—To will is +present with me! But the good that I would I do not! And, +oh! the body of this death!</p> +<p>6. Now, if any total stranger to all that shall ask me: What +good there is in all that? and, Why I so labour in such a world of unaccustomed +and unpleasant things as that? I have many answers to his censure. +For example, and first, I labour and will continue to labour more and +more in this world of things, and less and less in any other world, +because here we begin to see things as they are—the deepest things +of God and of man, that is. Also, because I have the precept, +and the example, and the experience of God’s greatest and best +saints before me here. Because, also, our full and true salvation +begins here, goes on here, and ends here. Because, also, teaching +these things and learning these things will infallibly make us the humblest +of men, the most contrite, the most self-despising, the most prayerful, +and the most patient, meek, and loving of men. And, students, +I labour in this because this is science; because this is the first +in order and the most fruitful of all the sciences, if not the noblest +and the most glorious of all the sciences. There is all that good +for us in this subject of the will and the heart, and whole worlds of +good lie away out beyond this subject that eye hath not seen nor ear +heard.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII—SELF-LOVE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘This know, that men shall be lovers of their own +selves, covetous, boasters, proud, unthankful, without natural affection, +truce-breakers, false accusers, traitors, heady, high-minded: from all +such turn away.’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Pray, sir, said Academicus, tell me more plainly just what +this self of ours actually is. Self, replied Theophilus, is hell, +it is the devil, it is darkness, pain, and disquiet. It is the +one and only enemy of Christ. It is the great antichrist. +It is the scarlet whore, it is the fiery dragon, it is the old serpent +that is mentioned in the Revelation of St John. You rather terrify +me than instruct me by this description, said Academicus. It is +indeed a very frightful matter, returned Theophilus; for it contains +everything that man has to dread and to hate, to resist and to avoid. +Yet be assured, my friend, that, careless and merry as this world is, +every man that is born into this world has all those enemies to overcome +within himself; and every man, till he is in the way of regeneration, +is more or less governed by those enemies. No hell in any remote +place, no devil that is separate from you, no darkness or pain that +is not within you, no antichrist either at Rome or in England, no furious +beast, no fiery dragon, without you or apart from you, can do you any +real hurt. It is your own hell, your own devil, your own beast, +your own antichrist, your own dragon that lives in your own heart’s +blood that alone can hurt you. Die to this self, to this inward +nature, and then all outward enemies are overcome. Live to this +self, and then, when this life is out, all that is within you, and all +that is without you, will be nothing else but a mere seeing and feeling +this hell, serpent, beast, and fiery dragon. But, said Theogenes, +a third party who stood by, I would, if I could, more perfectly understand +the precise nature of self, or what it is that makes it to be so full +of evil and misery. To whom Theophilus turned and replied: Covetousness, +envy, pride, and wrath are the four elements of self. And hence +it is that the whole life of self can be nothing else but a plague and +torment of covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath, all of which is precisely +sinful nature, self, or hell. Whilst man lives, indeed, among +the vanities of time, his covetousness, his envy, his pride, and his +wrath, may be in a tolerable state, and may help him to a mixture of +peace and trouble; they may have their gratifications as well as their +torments. But when death has put an end to the vanity of all earthly +cheats, the soul that is not born again of the supernatural Word and +Spirit of God must find itself unavoidably devoured by itself, shut +up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, +envy, pride, and wrath. O Theogenes! that I had power from God +to take those dreadful scales off men’s eyes that hinder them +from seeing and feeling the infinite importance of this most certain +truth! God give a blessing, Theophilus, to your good prayer. +And then let me tell you that you have quite satisfied my question about +the nature of self. I shall never forget it, nor can I ever possibly +after this have any doubt about the truth of it.’</p> +<p>1. ‘All my theology,’ said an old friend of mine +to me not long ago—‘all my theology is out of Thomas Goodwin +to the Ephesians.’ Well, I find Thomas Goodwin saying in +that great book that self is the very quintessence of original sin; +and, again, he says, study self-love for a thousand years and it is +the top and the bottom of original sin; self is the sin that dwelleth +in us and that doth most easily beset us. Now, that is just what +Academicus and Theophilus and Theogenes have been saying to us in their +own powerful way in their incomparable dialogue. All sin and all +misery; all covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath,—trace it all +back to its roots, travel it all up to its source, and, as sure as you +do that, self and self-love are that source, that root, and that black +bottom. I do not forget that Butler has said in some stately pages +of his that self-love is morally good; that self-love is coincident +with the principle of virtue and part of the idea; and that it is a +proper motive for man. But the deep bishop, in saying all that, +is away back at the creation-scheme and Eden-state of human nature. +He has not as yet come down to human nature in its present state of +overthrow, dismemberment, and self-destruction. But when he does +condescend and comes close to the mind and the heart of man as they +now are in all men, even Butler becomes as outspoken, and as eloquent, +and as full of passion and pathos as if he were an evangelical Puritan. +Self-love, Butler startles his sober-minded reader as he bursts out—self-love +rends and distorts the mind of man! Now, you are a man. +Well, then, do you feel and confess that rending and distorting to have +taken place in you? Butler is a philosopher, and Goodwin is a +preacher, but you are more: you are a man. You are the owner of +a human heart, and you can say whether or no it is a rent and a distorted +heart. Is your mind warped and wrenched by self-love, and is your +heart rent and torn by the same wicked hands? Do you really feel +that it needs nothing more to take you back again to paradise but that +your heart be delivered from self-love? Do you now understand +that the foundations of heaven itself must be laid in a heart healed +and cleansed and delivered from self-love? If you do, then your +knowledge of your own heart has set you abreast of the greatest of philosophers +and theologians and preachers. Nay, before multitudes of men who +are called such. It is my meditation all the day, you say. +I have more understanding now than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies +are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because +now I keep Thy precepts.</p> +<p>2. ‘Self-love has made us all malicious,’ says +John Calvin. We are Calvinists, were we to call any man master. +But we are to call no man master, and least of all in the matters of +the heart. Every man must be his own philosopher, his own moralist, +and his own theologian in the matters of the heart. He who has +a heart in his bosom and an eye in his head can need no Calvin, no Butler, +no Goodwin, and no Law to tell him what goes on in his own heart. +And, on the other hand, his own heart will soon tell him whether or +no Calvin, and Butler, and Goodwin, and Law know anything about those +matters on which some men would set them up as our masters. Well, +come away all of you who own a human heart. Come and say whether +or no your heart, and the self-love of which it is full, have made you +a malicious man. I do not ask if you are always and to everybody +full of maliciousness. No; I know quite well that you are sometimes +as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. For, has not even Theophilus +said that whilst a man still lives among the vanities of time, his covetousness, +his envy, his pride, and his wrath may be in a tolerable state, and +may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble; these vices may have +their gratifications as well as their torments. No; I do not trifle +with you and with this serious matter so as to ask if you are full of +malice at all times and to all men. No. For, let a man be +fortunate enough to be on your side; let him pass over to your party; +let him become profitable to you; let him be clever enough and mean +enough to praise and to flatter you up to the top of your appetite for +praise and flattery, and, no doubt, you will love that man. Or, +if that is not exactly love, at least it is no longer hate. But +let that man unfortunately be led to leave your party; let him cease +being profitable to you; let him weary of flattering you with his praise; +let him forget you, neglect you, despise you, and go against you, and +then look at your own heart. Do you care now to know what malice +is? Well, that is malice that distorts and rends your heart as +often as you meet that man on the street or even pass by his door. +That is malice that dances in your eyes when you see his name in print. +That is malice with which you always break out when his name is mentioned +in conversation. That is malice that heats your heart when you +suddenly recollect him in the multitude of your thoughts within you. +And you are in good company all the time. ‘We, ourselves,’ +says Paul to Titus, ‘we also at one time lived in malice and in +envy. We were hateful and we hated one another.’ ‘Hateful,’ +Goodwin goes on in his great book, ‘every man is to another man +more or less; he is hated of another and he hateth another more or less; +and if his nature were let out to the full, there is that in him, “every +man is against every man,” as is said of Ishmael. <i>Homo +homini lupus</i>,’ adds our brave preacher. And Abbé +Grou speaks out with the same challenge from the opposite church pole, +and says: ‘Yes; self-love makes us touchy, ready to take offence, +ill-tempered, suspicious, severe, exacting, easily offended; it keeps +alive in our hearts a certain malignity, a secret joy at the mortifications +which befall our neighbour; it nourishes our readiness to criticise, +our dislike at certain persons, our ill-feeling, our bitterness, and +a thousand other things prejudicial to charity.’</p> +<p>3. ‘Myself is my own worst enemy,’ says Abbé +Grou. That is to say, we may have enemies who hate us more than +we hate ourselves, and enemies who would hurt us, if they could, as +much as we hurt ourselves; but the Abbé’s point is that +they cannot. And he is right. No man has ever hurt me as +I have hurt myself. There are men who hate me so much that they +would poison my life of all its peace and happiness if they could. +But they cannot. They cannot; but let them not be cast down on +that account, for there is one who can do, and who will do as long as +he lives, what they cannot do. A man’s foes, to be called +foes, are in his own house: they are in his own heart. Let our +enemies attend to their own peace and happiness, and our self-love will +do all, and more than all, that they would fain do. At the most, +they and their ill-will can only give occasion to our self-love; but +it is our self-love that seizes upon the occasion, and through it rends +and distorts our own hearts. And were our hearts only pure of +self-love, were our hearts only clothed with meekness and humility, +we could laugh at all the ill-will of our enemies as leviathan laughs +at the shaking of a spear. ‘Know thou,’ says À +Kempis to his son, ‘that the love of thyself doth do thee more +hurt than anything in the whole world.’ Yes; but we shall +never know that by merely reading <i>The Imitation</i>. We must +read ourselves. We must study, as we study nothing else, our own +rent and distorted hearts. Our own hearts must be our daily discovery. +We must watch the wounds our hearts take every day; and we must give +all our powers of mind to tracing all our wounds back to their true +causes. We must say: ‘that sore blow came on my mind and +on my heart from such and such a quarter, from such and such a hand, +from such and such a weapon; but this pain, this rankling, poisoned, +and ever-festering wound, this sleepless, gnawing, cancerous sore, comes +from the covetousness, the pride, the envy, and the wrath of my own +heart.’ When we begin to say that, we shall then begin to +understand and to love Thomas; we shall sit daily at his feet and shall +be numbered among his sons.</p> +<p>4. And this suffering at our own hands goes on till at last +the tables are completely turned against self-love, and till what was +once to us the dearest thing in the whole world becomes, as Pascal says, +the most hateful. We begin life by hating the men, and the things, +who hurt us. We hate the men who oppose us and hinder us; the +men who speak, and write, and act, and go in any way against us. +We bitterly hate all who humble us, despise us, trample upon us, and +in any way ill-use us. But afterwards, when we have become men, +men in experience of this life, and, especially, of ourselves in this +life; after we gain some real insight and attain to some real skill +in the life of the heart, we come round to forgive those we once hated. +We have come now to see why they did it. We see now exactly how +much they hurt us after all, and how little. And, especially, +we have come to see,—what at one time we could not have believed,—that +all our hurt, to be called hurt, has come to us from ourselves. +And thus that great revolution of mind and that great revulsion of feeling +and of passion has taken place, after which we are left with no one +henceforth to hate, to be called hating, but ourselves. We may +still continue to avoid our enemies, and we may do that too long and +too much; we may continue to fear them and be on the watch against them +far too much; but to deliberately hate them is henceforth impossible. +All our hatred,—all our deliberate, steady, rooted, active hatred,—is +now at ourselves; at ourselves, that is, so far and so long as we remain +under the malignant and hateful dominion of self-love. When Butler +gets our self-love restored to reasonableness, and made coincident with +virtue and part of the idea; when our self-love becomes uniformly coincident +with the principle of obedience to God’s commands, then we shall +love ourselves as our neighbour, and our neighbour as ourselves, and +both in God. But, till then, there is nothing and no one on earth +or in hell so hateful to us as ourselves and our own hateful hearts. +And if in that we are treading the winepress alone as far as our fellow-men +are concerned, all the more we have Him with us in all our agony who +wept over the heart of man because He knew what was in it, and what +must always come out of it. Evil thoughts, He said, and fornications, +and murders, and thefts, and covetousness, and wickedness, and deceit, +and an evil eye, and pride, and folly, and what not. And Paul +has the mind of Christ with him in the text. I do not need to +repeat again the hateful words. Now, what do you say? was Pascal +beyond the truth, was he deeper than the truth or more deadly than the +truth when he said with a stab that self is hateful? I think not.</p> +<p>5. ‘Oh that I were free, then, of myself,’ wrote +Samuel Rutherford from Aberdeen in 1637 to John Ferguson of Ochiltree. +‘What need we all have to be ransomed and redeemed from that master-tyrant, +that cruel and lawless lord, ourself! Even when I am most out +of myself, and am best serving Christ, I have a squint eye on myself.’ +And to the Laird of Cally in the same year and from the same place: +‘Myself is the master idol we all bow down to. Every man +blameth the devil for his sins, but the house devil of every man that +eateth with him and lieth in his bosom is himself. Oh blessed +are they who can deny themselves!’ And to the Irish ministers +the year after: ‘Except men martyr and slay the body of sin in +sanctified self-denial, they shall never be Christ’s. Oh, +if I could but be master of myself, my own mind, my own will, my own +credit, my own love, how blessed were I! But alas! I shall +die only minting and aiming at being a Christian.’</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII—OLD MR. PREJUDICE, THE KEEPER OF EAR-GATE, WITH +HIS SIXTY DEAF MEN UNDER HIM</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, +better than all the waters of Israel?’—<i>Naaman</i>.</p> +<p>‘Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?’—<i>Nathanael</i>.</p> +<p>‘ . . observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing +by partiality.’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Old Mr. Prejudice was well known in the wars of Mansoul as an angry, +unhappy, and ill-conditioned old churl. Old Mr. Prejudice was +placed by Diabolus, his master, as keeper of the ward at the post of +Ear-gate, and for that fatal service he had sixty completely deaf men +put under him as his company. Men eminently advantageous for that +fatal service. Eminently advantageous,—inasmuch as it mattered +not one atom to them what was spoken in their ear either by God or by +man.</p> +<p>1. Now, to begin with, this churlish old man had already earned +for himself a very evil name. For what name could well be more +full of evil memories and of evil omens than just this name of Prejudice? +Just consider what prejudice is. Prejudice, when we stop over +it and take it to pieces and look well at it,—prejudice is so +bad and so abominable that you would not believe it could be so bad +till you had looked at it and at how it acts in your own case. +For prejudice gives judgment on your case and gives orders for your +execution before your defence has been heard, before your witnesses +have been called, before your summons has been served, ay, and even +before your indictment has been drawn out. What a scandal and +what an uproar a malfeasance of justice like that would cause if it +were to take place in any of our courts of law! Only, the thing +is impossible; you cannot even imagine it. We shall have Magna +Charta up before us in the course of these lectures. Well, ever +since Magna Charta was extorted from King John, such a scandal as I +have supposed has been impossible either in England or in Scotland. +And that such cases should still be possible in Russia and in Turkey +places those two old despotisms outside the pale of the civilised world. +And yet, loudly as we all denounce the Czar and the Sultan, eloquently +as we boast over Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and what not, every day +you and I are doing what would cost an English king his crown, and an +English judge his head. We all do it every day, and it never enters +one mind out of a hundred that we are trampling down truth, and righteousness, +and fair-play, and brotherly love. We do not know what a diabolical +wickedness we are perpetrating every day. The best men among us +are guilty of that iniquity every day, and they never confess it to +themselves; no one ever accuses them of it; and they go down to death +and judgment unsuspicious of the discovery that they will soon make +there. You would not steal a stick or a straw that belonged to +me; but you steal from me every day what all your gold and mine can +never redeem; you murder me every day in my best and my noblest life. +You me, and I you.</p> +<p>2. Old Mr. Prejudice. Now, there is a golden passage +in Jonathan Edwards’s <i>Diary</i> that all old men should lay +well to heart and conscience. ‘I observe,’ Edwards +enters, ‘that old men seldom have any advantage of new discoveries, +because these discoveries are beside a way of thinking they have been +long used to. Resolved, therefore, that, if ever I live to years, +I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, +and receive them, if rational, how long soever I have been used to another +way of thinking. I am too dogmatical; I have too much of egotism; +my disposition is always to be telling of my dislike and my scorn.’ +What a fine, fresh, fruitful, progressive, and peaceful world we should +soon have if all our old and all our fast-ageing men would enter that +extract into their diary! How the young would then love and honour +and lean upon the old; and how all the fathers would always abide young +and full of youthful life like their children! Then the righteous +should flourish like the palm-tree; he should grow like a cedar in Lebanon. +They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the +courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; +they shall be fat and flourishing. What a free scope would then +be given to all God’s unfolding providences, and what a warm welcome +to all His advancing truths! What sore and spreading wounds would +then be salved, what health and what vigour would fill all the body +political, as well as all the body mystical! May the Lord turn +the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children +to their fathers, lest the earth be smitten with a curse!</p> +<p>3. Mr. Prejudice was an old man; and this also has been handed +down about him, that he was almost always angry. And if you keep +your eyes open you will soon see how true to the life that feature of +old Mr. Prejudice still is. In every conversation, discussion, +debate, correspondence, the angry man is invariably the prejudiced man; +and, according to the age and the depth, the rootedness and the intensity +of his prejudices, so is the ferocity and the savagery of his anger. +He has already settled this case that you are irritating and wronging +him so much by your still insisting on bringing up. It is a reproach +to his understanding for you to think that there is anything to be said +in that matter that he has not long ago heard said and fully answered. +Has he not denounced that bad man and that bad cause for years? +You insult me, sir, by again opening up that matter in my presence. +He will have none of you or of your arguments either. You are +as bad yourself as that bad man is whose advocate you are. We +all know men whose hearts are full of coals of juniper, burning coals +of hate and rage, just by reason of their ferocious prejudices. +Hate is too feeble a word for their gnashing rage against this man and +that cause, this movement and that institution. There is an absolutely +murderous light in their eye as they work themselves up against the +men and the things they hate. Charity rejoices not in iniquity; +but you will see otherwise Christian and charitable men so jockeyed +by the devil that they actually rejoice in iniquity and do not know +what they are doing, or who it is that is egging them on to do it. +You will see otherwise and at other times good men so full of the rage +and madness of prejudice and partiality that they will storm at every +report of goodness and truth and prosperity in the man, or in the cause, +or in the church, or in the party, they are so demented against. +Jockey is not the word. There is the last triumph of pure devilry +in the way that the prince of the devils turns old Prejudice’s +very best things—his love of his fathers, his love of the past, +his love of order, his love of loyalty, his love of the old paths, and +his very truest and best religion itself—into so much fat fuel +for the fires of hate and rage that are consuming his proud heart to +red-hot ashes. If the light that is in us be darkness, how great +is that darkness; and if the life that is in us be death, how deadly +is that death!</p> +<p>4. Old, angry, and ill-conditioned. Ill-conditioned is +an old-fashioned word almost gone out of date. But, all the same, +it is a very expressive, and to us to-night a quite indispensable word. +An ill-conditioned man is a man of an in-bred, cherished, and confirmed +ill-nature. His heart, which was a sufficiently bad heart to begin +with, is now so exercised in evil and so accustomed to evil, that,—how +can he be born again when he is so old and so ill-natured? All +the qualities, all the passions, all the emotions of his heart are out +of joint; their bent is bad; they run out naturally to mischief. +Now, what could possibly be more ill-conditioned than to judge and sentence, +denounce and execute a man before you have heard his case? What +could be more ill-conditioned than positively to be afraid lest you +should be led to forgive, and redress, and love, and act with another +man? To be determined not to hear one word that you can help in +his defence, in his favour, and in his praise? Could a human heart +be in a worse state on this side hell itself than that? Nay, that +is hell itself in your evil heart already. Let prejudice and partiality +have their full scope among the wicked passions of your ill-conditioned +heart, and lo! the kingdom of darkness is already within you. +Not, lo, here! or, lo, there! but within you. Look to yourselves, +says John to us all, full as we all are of our own ill-conditions. +Look to yourselves. But we have no eyes left with which to see +ourselves; we look so much at the faults and the blames of our neighbour. +‘Publius goes to church sometimes, and reads the Scriptures; but +he knows not what he reads or prays, his head is so full of politics. +He is so angry at kings and ministers of state that he has no time nor +disposition to call himself to account. He has the history of +all parliaments, elections, prosecutions, and impeachments by heart, +and he dies with little or no religion, through a constant fear of Popery.’ +Poor, old, ill-conditioned Publius!</p> +<p>5. And, then, his sixty deaf men under old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice. We read of engines of sixty-horse power. And +here is a man with the power of resisting and shutting out the truth +equal to that of sixty men like himself. We all know such men; +we would as soon think of speaking to those iron pillars about a change +of mind as we would to them. If you preach to their prejudices +and their prepossessions and their partialities, they are all ears to +hear you, and all tongues to trumpet your praise. But do not expect +them to sit still with ordinary decency under what they are so prejudiced +against; do not expect them to read a book or buy a passing paper on +the other side. Sixty deaf men hold their ears; sixty ill-conditioned +men hold their hearts. Habit with them is all the test of truth; +it must be right, they’ve done it from their youth. And +thus they go on to the end of their term of life, full of their own +fixed ideas, with their eyes full of beams and jaundices and darkness +and death. Some people think that we take up too much of our time +with newspapers in our day, and that, if things go on as they are going, +we shall soon have neither time nor taste for anything else but half +a dozen papers a day. But all that depends on the conditions with +which we read. If we would read as Jonathan Edwards read the weekly +news-letters of his day; if we read all our papers to see if the kingdom +of God was coming in reply to our prayer; if we read, observing all +things, like Timothy, without prejudice or partiality, then I know no +better reading for an ill-conditioned heart begun to look to itself +than just a good, out-and-out party newspaper. And if it is a +church paper all the better for your purpose. If you read with +your fingers in your ears; if you read with a beam in your eye, you +had better confine yourself in your reading; if you feel that your prejudices +are inflamed and your partiality is intensified, then take care what +paper you take in. But if you read all you read for the love of +the truth, for justice, for fair-play, and for brotherly love, and all +that in yourself; if you read all the time with your eyes on your own +ill-conditioned heart, then, as James says, count it all joy when you +fall into divers temptations. Take up your political and ecclesiastical +paper every morning, saying to yourself, Go to, O my heart, and get +thy daily lesson. Go to, and enter thy cleansing and refining +furnace. Go to, and come well out of thy daily temptation.—A +nobler school you will not find anywhere for a prejudiced, partial, +angry, and ill-conditioned heart than just the party journals of the +day. For the abating of prejudice; for seeing the odiousness of +partiality, and for putting on every day a fair, open, catholic, Christian +mind, commend me to the public life and the public journals of our living +day. And it is not that this man may be up and that man down; +this cause victorious and that cause defeated; this truth vindicated +and that untruth defeated, that public life rolls on and that its revolutions +are reported to us. Our own minds and our own hearts are the final +cause, the ultimate drift, and the far-off end and aim of it all. +We are not made for party and for the partialities and prosperities +of party; party and all its passions and all its successes and all its +defeats are made, and are permitted to be made for us; for our opportunity +of purging ourselves free of all our ill-conditions, of all our prejudices, +of all our partialities, and of all the sin and misery that come to +us of all these things.</p> +<p>6. ‘It is the work of a philosopher,’ says Addison +in one of his best <i>Spectators</i>, ‘to be every day subduing +his passions and laying aside his prejudices.’ We are not +philosophers, but we shall be enrolled in the foremost ranks of philosophy +if we imitate such philosophers in their daily work, as we must do and +shall do. Well, are we begun to do it? Are we engaged in +that work of theirs and ours every day? Is God our witness and +our judge that we are? Are we so engaged upon that inward work, +and so succeeding in it, that we can read our most prejudiced newspaper +with the same mind and spirit, with the same profit and progress, with +which we read our Bible? A good man, a humble man, a man acutely +sensible of his ill-conditions, will look on every day as lost or won +according as he has lost or won in this inward war. If his partialities +are dropping off his mind; if his prejudices are melting; if he can +read books and papers with pleasure and instruction that once filled +him with dark passions and angry outbursts; if his Calvinism lets him +read Thomas À Kempis and Jeremy Taylor and William Law; if his +High-Churchism lets him delight to worship God in an Independent or +a Presbyterian church; if his Free-Churchism permits him to see the +Establishment reviving, and his State-Churchism admits that the Free +Churches have more to say to him than he had at one time thought; if +his Toryism lets him take in a Radical paper, and his Radicalism a Unionist +paper—then let him thank God, for God is in all that though he +knew it not. And when he counts up his incalculable benefits at +each return of the Lord’s table, let him count up as not the least +of them an open mind and a well-conditioned heart, an unprejudiced mind, +and an impartial heart.</p> +<p>7. And now, to conclude: Take old, angry, ill-conditioned Prejudice, +his daily prayer: ‘My Adorable God and Creator! Thy Holy +Church is by the wickedness of men divided into various communions, +all hating, condemning, and endeavouring to destroy one another. +I made none of these divisions, nor am I any longer a defender of them. +I wish everything removed out of every communion that hinders the Common +Unity. The wranglings and disputings of whole churches and nations +have so confounded all things that I have no ability to make a true +and just judgment of the matters between them. If I knew that +any one of these communions was alone acceptable to Thee, I would do +or suffer anything to make myself a member of it. For, my Good +God, I desire nothing so much as to know and to love Thee, and to worship +Thee in the most acceptable manner. And as I humbly presume that +Thou wouldst not suffer Thy Church to be thus universally divided, if +no divided portion could offer any worship acceptable unto Thee; and +as I have no knowledge of what is absolutely best in these divided parts, +nor any ability to put an end to them; so I fully trust in Thy goodness, +that Thou wilt not suffer these divisions to separate me from Thy mercy +in Christ Jesus; and that, if there be any better ways of serving Thee +than those I already enjoy, Thou wilt, according to Thine infinite mercy, +lead me into them, O God of my peace and my love.’ After +this manner old, angry, ill-conditioned Prejudice prayed every day till +he died, a little child, in charity with all men, and in acceptance +with Almighty God.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX—CAPTAIN ANYTHING</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘I am made all things to all men . . . I please +all men in all things.’—<i>Paul</i></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Captain Anything came originally from the ancient town of Fair-speech.</p> +<p>Fair-speech had many royal bounties and many special privileges bestowed +upon it, and Captain Anything and his family had come to many titles +and to great riches in that ancient, loyal, and honourable borough. +My Lord Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my Lord Fair-speech (from whose +ancestors that town first took its name), as also such well-known commoners +as Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, and Mr. Two-tongues were all +sprung with Captain Anything from the same ancient and long-established +ancestry. As to his religion, from a child young Anything had +sat under the parson of the parish, the same Reverend Two-tongues as +has been mentioned above. And our budding soldier followed the +example of his minister in that he never strove too long against wind +or tide, or was ever to be seen on the same side of the street with +Religion when she was banished from court or had lost her silver slippers. +The crest of the Anythings was a delicately poised weather-cock; and +the motto engraved around the gyrating bird ran thus: ‘Our judgment +always jumps according to the occasion.’ As a military man, +Captain Anything is described in military books as a proper man, and +a man of courage and skill—to appearance. He and his company +under him were a sort of Swiss guard in Mansoul. They held themselves +open and ready for any master. They lived not so much by religion +or by loyalty as by the fates of worldly fortune. In his secret +despatches Diabolus was wont to address Captain Anything as My Darling; +and be sure you recruit your Switzers well, Diabolus would say; but +when the real stress of the war came, even Diabolus cast Captain Anything +off. And thus it came about that when both sides were against +this despised creature he had to throw down his arms and flee into a +safe skulking place for his life.</p> +<p>1. In that half-papist, half-atheistic country called France +there is a class of politicians known by the name of Opportunists. +They are a kind of public men that, we are thankful to say, are not +known in Protestant and Evangelical England, but they may be pictured +out and described to you in this homely way: An Opportunist stands well +out of the sparks of the fire, and well in behind the stone wall, till +the fanatics for liberty, equality, and fraternity have snatched the +chestnuts out of the fire, and then the Opportunist steps out from his +safe place and blandly divides the well-roasted tid-bits among his family +and his friends. As long as there is any jeopardy, the Jacobins +are denounced and held up to opprobrium; but when the jeopardy and the +risk are well past, the sober-minded, cautious, conservative, and responsible +statesmen walk off with the portfolios of place and privilege and pay +under their honest arms. But these are the unprincipled papists +and infidels of a mushroom republic; and, thank God, such spurious patriotism, +and such sham and selfish statesmanship, have not yet shown their miserable +heads among faithful, fearless, straightforward, and uncalculating Englishmen. +At the same time, if ever that continental vice should attack our national +character, we have two well-known essays in our ethical and casuistical +literature that may with perfect safety be pitted against anything that +either France or Italy has produced. Even if they are but a master’s +irony, let all ambitious men keep <i>Of Cunning</i> and <i>Of Wisdom +for a Man’s Self</i> under their pillow. Let all young men +who would toady a great man; let all young ministers who would tune +their pulpit to king, or court, or society; let all tradesmen and merchants +who prefer their profits to their principles—if they have literature +enough, let them soak their honest minds in our great Chancellor’s +sage counsels; and he who promoted Anything and dubbed him his Darling, +he will, no doubt, publish both a post and a title on his birthday for +you also.</p> +<p>2. ‘What religion is he of?’ asks Dean Swift. +‘He is an Anythingarian,’ is the answer, ‘for he makes +his self-interest the sole standard of his life and doctrine.’ +And Archbishop Leighton, a very different churchman from the bitter +author of the <i>Polite Conversations</i>, is equally contemptuous toward +the self-seeker in divine things. ‘Your boasted peaceableness +often proceeds from a superficial temper; and, not seldom, from a supercilious +disdain of whatever has no marketable use or value, and from your utter +indifference to true religion. Toleration is an herb of spontaneous +growth in the soil of indifference. Much of our union of minds +proceeds from want of knowledge and from want of affection to religion. +Many who boast of their church conformity, and that no one hears of +their noise, may thank the ignorance of their minds for that kind of +quietness.’ But by far the most powerful assault that ever +was made upon lukewarmness in religion and upon self-seeking in the +Church was delivered by Dante in the tremendous third canto of his <i>Inferno</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p> Various tongues,<br /> +Horrible languages, outcries of woe,<br /> +Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,<br /> +With hands together smote that swelled the sounds,<br /> +Made up a tumult that for ever whirls<br /> +Round through that air with solid darkness stain’d,<br /> +Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.<br /> +I then, with error yet encompass’d, cried,<br /> +‘O master! What is this I hear? What race<br /> +Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?’<br /> +He then to me: ‘This miserable fate<br /> +Suffer the wretched souls of those who lived<br /> +Without or praise or blame, with that ill band<br /> +Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved,<br /> +Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves<br /> +Were only. Mercy and Justice scorn them both.<br /> +Speak not of them, but look and pass them by.’<br /> +Forthwith, I understood for certain this the tribe<br /> +Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing<br /> +And to His foes. Those wretches who ne’er lived,<br /> +Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung<br /> +By wasps and hornets, which bedewed their cheeks<br /> +With blood, that mix’d with tears dropp’d to their feet,<br /> +And by disgustful worms was gathered there.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>3. Now, we must all lay it continually and with uttermost humiliation +to heart that we all have Captain Anything’s opportunism, his +self-interest, his insincerity, his instability, and his secret deceitfulness +in ourselves. That man knows little of himself who does not despise +and hate himself for his secret self-seeking even in the service of +God. For, how the love of praise will seduce and corrupt this +man, and the love of gain that man! How easy it is to flatter +and adulate this man out of all his former opinions and his deepest +principles, and how an expected advantage will make that other man forget +now an old alliance and now a deep antipathy! How often the side +we take even in the most momentous matters is decided by the most unworthy +motives and the most contemptible considerations! Unstable as +water, Reuben shall not excel. Double-minded men, we, like Jacob’s +first-born, are unstable in all our ways. We have no anchor, or, +what anchor we sometimes have soon slips. We have no fixed pole-star +by which to steer our life. Any will-o’-the-wisp of pleasure, +or advantage, or praise will run us on the rocks. The searchers +of Mansoul, after long search, at last lighted on Anything, and soon +made an end of him. Seek him out in your own soul also. +Be you sure he is somewhere there. He is skulking somewhere there. +And, having found him, if you cannot on the spot make an end of him, +keep your eye on him, and never say that you are safe from him and his +company as long as you are in this soul-deceiving life. And, that +Anything will not be let enter the gates of the city you are set on +seeking, that will go largely to make that sweet and clean and truthful +city your very heaven to you.</p> +<p>4. ‘I am made all things to all men, and I please all +men in all things.’ One would almost think that was Captain +Anything himself, in a frank, cynical, and self-censorious moment. +But if you will look it up you will see that it was a very different +man. The words are the words of Anything, but the heart behind +the words is the heart of Paul. And this, again, teaches us that +we should be like the Messiah in this also, not to judge after the sight +of our eyes, nor to reprove after the hearing of our ears. Miserable +Anything! outcast alike of heaven and hell! But, O noble and blessed +Apostle! the man, says Thomas Goodwin, who shall be found seated next +to Jesus Christ Himself in the kingdom of God. Happy Paul: happy +even on this earth, since he could say, and in the measure he could +say with truth and with sincerity, such self-revelations as these: ‘Unto +the Jews I am become as a Jew that I might gain the Jews; to them that +are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are +under the law. To them that are without law, as without law, that +I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as +weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that +I might by all means save some. Giving none offence, neither to +the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Even +as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but +the profit of many, that they may be saved.’ Noble words, +and inspiring to read. Yes: but look within, and think what Paul +must have passed through; think what he must have been put through before +he,—a man of like selfish passions as we are, a man of like selfish +passions as Anything was,—could say all that. Let his crosses +and his thorns; his raptures up to the third heaven, and his body of +death that he bore about with him all his days; let his magnificent +spiritual gifts, and his still more magnificent spiritual graces tell +how they all worked together to make the chief of sinners out of the +blameless Pharisee, and, at the same time, Christ’s own chosen +vessel and the apostle of all the churches. Boasting about his +patron apostle, St. Augustine says: ‘Far be it from so great an +apostle, a vessel elect of God, an organ of the Holy Ghost, to be one +man when he preached and another when he wrote; one man in private and +another in public. He was made all things to all men, not by the +craft of a deceiver, but from the affection of a sympathiser, succouring +the diverse diseases of souls with the diverse emotions of compassion; +to the little ones dispensing the lesser doctrines, not false ones, +but the higher mysteries to the perfect—all of them, however, +true, harmonious, and divine.’ The exquisite irony of Socrates +comes into my mind in this connection, and will not be kept out of my +mind. By instinct as well as by art Socrates mixed up the profoundest +seriousness with the humorous affectation of qualities of mind and even +of character the exact opposite of what all who loved him knew to be +the real Socrates. ‘Intellectually,’ says Dr. Thomson, +‘the acutest man of his age, Socrates represents himself in all +companies as the dullest person present. Morally the purest, he +affects to be the slave of passion and borrows the language even of +the lewd to describe a love and a good-will far too exalted for the +comprehension of his contemporaries. This irony of his disarmed +ridicule by anticipating it; it allayed jealousy and propitiated envy; +and it possibly procured him admission into gay circles from which a +more solemn teacher would have been excluded. But all the time +it had for its basis a real greatness of soul, a hearty and an unaffected +disregard of public opinion, a perfect disinterestedness, and an entire +abnegation of self. He made himself a fool in order that fools +by his folly might be made wise; he humbled himself to the level of +those among whom his work lay that he might raise some few among them +to his own level; he was all things to all men, if by any means he might +save some. Till Alcibiades ends the splendid eloge that Plato +puts into his mouth with these words, “All my master’s vice +and stupidity and worship of wealthy and great men is counterfeit. +It is all but the Silenus-mask which conceals the features of the god +within; for if you remove the covering, how shall I describe to you, +my friends and boon companions, the excellence of the beauty you will +find within! Whether any of you have seen Socrates in his serious +mood, when he has thrown aside the mask and disclosed the divine features +beneath it, is more than I know. But I have seen them, and I can +tell you that they seemed to me glorious and marvellous, and, truly, +godlike in their beauty.”’</p> +<p>Well, now, I gather out of all that this great lesson: that it is, +to begin with, a mere matter of temperament, or what William Law would +call a mere matter of complexion and sensibility, whether, to begin +with, a man is hard, and dry, and narrow, and stiff, and proud, and +scornful, and cruel; or again, whether he is soft and tender, broad +and open, and full of sympathy and of the milk of human kindness. +At first, and to begin with, there is neither praise nor blame as yet +in the matter. A man is hard just as a stone is hard; it is his +nature. Or he is soft as clay is soft; it is again his nature. +But, inheriting such a nature, and his inherited nature beginning to +appear, then is the time when the true man really begins to be made. +The bad man dwells in contentment, and, indeed, by preference, at home +in his own hard, proud, scornful, resentful heart; or, again, in his +facile, fawning, tide-waiting, time-serving heart; and thus he chooses, +accepts, and prefers his evil fate, and never seeks the help either +of God or man to enable him to rise above it. Paul was not, when +we meet him first, the sweet, humble, affable, placable, makeable man +that he made himself and came to be after a lifetime of gospel-preaching +and of adorning the gospel he preached. And all the assistances +and all the opportunities that came to Paul are still coming to you +and to me; till, whether naturally pliable and affectionate or the opposite, +we at last shall come to the temperament, the complexion, and the exquisite +sensibility of Paul himself. Are you, then, a hard, stiff, severe, +censorious, proud, angry, scornful man? Or are you a too-easy, +too-facile man-pleaser and self-seeker, being all things to all men +that you may make use of all men? Are you? Then say so. +Confess it to be so. Admit that you have found yourself out. +And reflect every day what you have got to do in life. Consider +what a new birth you need and must have. Number your days that +are left you in which to make you a new heart, and a new nature, and +a new character. Consider well how you are to set about that divine +work. You have a minister, and your minister is called a divine +because by courtesy he is supposed to understand that divine work, and +to be engaged on it night and day in himself, and in season and out +of season among his people. He will tell you how you are to make +you a new heart. Or, if he does not and cannot do that; if he +preaches about everything but that to a people who will listen to anything +but that, then your soul is not in his hands but in your own. +You may not be able to choose your minister, but you can choose what +books you are to buy, or borrow, and read. And if there is not +a minister within a hundred miles of you who knows his right hand from +his left, then there are surely some booksellers who will advise you +about the classical books of the soul till you can order them for yourselves. +And thus, if it is your curse and your shame to be as spongy, and soapy, +and oily, and slippery as Anything himself; if you choose your church +and your reading with any originality, sense, and insight, you need +not fear but that you will be let live till you die an honest, upright, +honourable, fearless gentleman: no timid friend to unfashionable truth, +as you are to-night, but a man like Thomas Boston’s Ettrick elder, +who lies waiting the last trump under a gravestone engraven with this +legend: Here lies a man who had a brow for every good cause. Only, +if you would have that written and read on your headstone, you have +no time to lose. If I were you I would not sit another Sabbath +under a minister whose preaching was not changing my nature, making +my heart new, and transforming my character; no, not though the Queen +herself sat in the same loft. And I would leave the church even +of my fathers, and become anything as far as churches go, if I could +get a minister who held my face close and ever closer up to my own heart. +Nor would I spend a shilling or an hour that I could help on any impertinent +book,—any book that did not powerfully help me in the one remaining +interest of my one remaining life: a new nature and a new heart. +No, not I. No, not I any more.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X—CLIP-PROMISE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘ . . . the promise made of none effect.’—<i>Paul</i></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Toward the end of the thirteenth century Edward the First, the English +Justinian, brought a select colony of artists from Italy to England +and gave them a commission to execute their best coinage for the English +Mint. Deft and skilful as those artists were, the work they turned +out was but rude and clumsy compared with some of the gold and silver +and copper coins of our day. The Florentine artists took a sheet +of gold or of silver and divided the sheet up with great scissors, and +then they hammered the cut-out pieces as only a Florentine hammerman +could hammer them. But, working with such tools, and working on +such methods, those goldsmiths and silversmiths, with all their art, +found it impossible to give an absolutely equal weight and worth to +every piece of money that they turned out. For one thing, their +cut and hammered coins had no carved rims round their edges as all our +gold and silver and even copper coinage now has. And, accordingly, +the clever rogues of that day soon discovered that it was far easier +for them to take up a pair of shears and to clip a sliver of silver +off the rough rim of a shilling, or a shaving of gold off a sovereign, +than it was to take of their coats and work a hard day’s work. +Till to clip the coin of the realm soon became one of the easiest and +most profitable kinds of crime. In the time of Elizabeth a great +improvement was made in the way of coining the public money; but it +was soon found that this had only made matters worse. For now, +side by side with a pure and unimpaired and full-valued currency, and +mingled up everywhere with it, there was the old, clipped, debased, +and far too light gold and silver money; till troubles arose in connection +with the coinage and circulation of the country that can only be told +by Macaulay’s extraordinarily graphic pen. ‘It may +well be doubted,’ Macaulay says, in the twenty-first chapter of +his <i>History of England</i>, ‘whether all the misery which has +been inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century by bad +Kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments, and bad Judges was equal to the +misery caused in a single year by bad crowns and bad shillings. +Whether Whigs or Tories, Protestants or Papists were uppermost, the +grazier drove his beasts to market, the grocer weighed out his currants, +the draper measured out his broadcloth, the hum of buyers and sellers +was as loud as ever in the towns; the cream overflowed the pails of +Cheshire; the apple juice foamed in the presses of Herefordshire; the +piles of crockery glowed in the furnaces of the Trent, and the barrows +of coal rolled fast along the timber railways of the Tyne. But +when the great instrument of exchange became thoroughly deranged all +trade and all industry were smitten as with a palsy. Nothing could +be purchased without a dispute. Over every counter there was wrangling +from morning to night. The employer and his workmen had a quarrel +as regularly as Saturday night came round. On a fair day or a +market day the clamours, the disputes, the reproaches, the taunts, the +curses, were incessant. No merchant would contract to deliver +goods without making some stipulation about the quality of the coin +in which he was to be paid. The price of the necessaries of life, +of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The bit of metal called +a shilling the labourer found would not go so far as sixpence. +One day Tonson sends forty brass shillings to Dryden, to say nothing +of clipped money. The great poet sends them all back and demands +in their place good guineas. “I expect,” he says, +“good silver, not such as I had formerly.” Meanwhile, +at every session of the Old Bailey the most terrible example of coiners +and clippers was made. Hurdles, with four, five, six wretches +convicted of counterfeiting or mutilating the money of the realm, were +dragged month after month up Holborn Hill.’ But I cannot +copy the whole chapter, wonderful as the writing is. Suffice it +to say that before the clippers could be rooted out, and confidence +restored between buyer and seller, the greatest statesmen, the greatest +financiers, and the greatest philosophers were all at their wits’ +end. Kings’ speeches, cabinet councils, bills of Parliament, +and showers of pamphlets were all full in those days of the clipper +and the coiner. All John Locke’s great intellect came short +of grappling successfully with the terrible crisis the clipper of the +coin had brought upon England. Carry all that, then, over into +the life of personal religion, after the manner of our Lord’s +parables, and after the manner of the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i> +and the <i>Holy War</i>, and you will see what an able and impressive +use John Bunyan will make of the shears of the coin-clippers of his +day. Macaulay has but made us ready to open and understand Bunyan. +‘After this, my Lord apprehended Clip-Promise. Now, because +he was a notorious villain, for by his doings much of the king’s +coin was abused, therefore he was made a public example. He was +arraigned and judged to be set first in the pillory, then to be whipped +by all the children and servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till +he was dead. Some may wonder at the severity of this man’s +punishment, but those that are honest traders in Mansoul they are sensible +of the great abuse that one clipper of promises in little time may do +in the town of Mansoul; and, truly, my judgment is that all those of +his name and life should be served out even as he.’</p> +<p>The grace of God is like a bullion mass of purest gold, and then +Jesus Christ is the great ingot of that gold, and then Moses, and David, +and Isaiah, and Hosea, and Paul, and Peter, and John are the inspired +artists who have commission to take both bullion and ingot, and out +of them to cut, and beat, and smelt, and shape, and stamp, and superscribe +the promises, and then to issue the promises to pass current in the +market of salvation like so many shekels, and pounds, and pence, and +farthings, and mites, as the case may be. And it was just these +royal coins, imaged and superscribed so richly and so beautifully, that +Clip-Promise so mutilated, abused, and debased, till for doing so he +was hanged by the neck till he was dead.</p> +<p>1. The very house of Israel herself, the very Mint-house, Tower +Hill, and Lombard Street of Israel herself, was full of false coiners +and clippers of the promises; as full as ever England was at her very +worst. Israel clipped her Messianic promises and lived upon the +clippings instead of upon the coin. Her coming Christ, and His +salvation already begun, were the true spiritual currency of Old Testament +times; while round that central Image of her great promise there ran +an outside rim of lesser promises that all took their true and their +only value from Him whose image and superscription stood within. +But those besotted and infatuated men of Israel, instead of entering +into and living by the great spiritual promises given to them in their +Messiah, made lands, and houses, and meat, and drink, all the Messiah +they cared for. Matthew Henry says that when we go to the merchant +to buy goods, he gives us the paper and the pack-thread to the bargain. +Well, those children and fools in Israel actually threw away the goods +and hoarded and boasted over the paper and the pack-thread. Our +old Scottish lawyers have made us familiar with the distinction in the +church between <i>spiritualia</i> and <i>temporalia</i>. Well, +the Jews let the <i>spiritualia</i> go to those who cared to take such +things, while they held fast to the <i>temporalia</i>. And all +that went on till His disciples had the effrontery to clip and coin +under our Lord’s very eyes, and even to ask Him to hold the coin +while they sharpened their shears. ‘O faithless and perverse +generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall +I suffer you? Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou +not known Me, Philip? O fools, and slow of heart to believe all +that the prophets have spoken! And beginning at Moses and all +the prophets He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning +Himself.’</p> +<p>2. But those who live in glass houses must take care not to +throw stones. And thus the greatest fool in Israel is safe from +you and me. For, like them, and just as if we had never read one +word about them, we bend our hearts and our children’s hearts +to things seen and temporal, and then, after things seen and temporal +have all cast us off, we begin to ask if there is any solace or sweetness +for a cast-off heart in things unseen and eternal. There are great +gaps clipt out of our Bibles that not God Himself can ever print or +paste in again. Look and see if half the Book of Proverbs, for +instance, with all its noble promises to a godly youth, is not clipt +clean out of your dismembered Bible. That fine leaf also, ‘My +son, give Me thine heart,’ is clean gone out of the twenty-third +chapter of the Proverbs years and years ago. As is the best part +of the noble Book of Daniel, and almost the whole of Second Timothy. +‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and meat +and drink, and wife and child shall be added unto you.’ +Your suicidal shears have cut that golden promise for ever out of your +Sermon on the Mount. So much so that if any or all of these temporal +mercies ever come to you, they will come of pure and undeserved mercy, +for the time has long passed when you could plead any promise for them. +Still, there are two most excellent uses left to which you can even +yet put your mangled and dismembered Bible. You can make a splendid +use of its gaps and of its gashes, and of those waste places where great +promises at one time stood. You can make a grand use even of those +gaps if you will descend into them and draw out of them humiliation +and repentance, compunction, contrition, and resignation. And +this use also: When you are moved to take some man who is still young +into your confidence, ask him to let you see his Bible and then let +him see yours, and point out to him the rents and wounds and wilderness +places in yours. And thus, by these two uses of a clipped-up and +half-empty Bible, you may make gains that shall yet set you above those +whose Bibles of promises are still as fresh as when they came from God’s +own hand. And Samson said, I will now put forth a riddle unto +you: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth +sweetness.</p> +<p>3. ‘Go out,’ said the Lord of Mansoul, ‘and +apprehend Clip-Promise and bring him before me.’ And they +did so. ‘Go down to Edinburgh to-night, and go to the door +of such and such a church, and, as he comes out arrest Clip-the-Commandments, +for he has heard My word all this day again but will not do it.’ +Where would you be by midnight if God rose up in anger and swore at +this moment that your disobedient time should be no longer? You +would be speechless before such a charge, for the shears are in your +pocket at this moment with which you have clipped to pieces this Sabbath-day: +shears red with the blood of the Fourth Commandment. For, when +did you rise off your bed this resurrection morning? And what +did you do when you did rise? What has your reading and your conversation +been this whole Lord’s day? How full your heart would have +been of faith and love and holiness by this time of night had you not +despised the Lord of the Sabbath, and cast all His commandments and +opportunities to you behind your back? What private exercise have +you had all day with your Father who sees in secret? How often +have you been on your knees, and where, and how long, and for what, +and for whom? What work of mercy have you done to-day, or determined +to do to-morrow? And so with all the divine commandments: Mosaic +and Christian, legal and evangelical. Such as: A tenth of all +I have given to thee; a covenant with a wandering eye; a mouth once +speaking evil, is it now well watched? not one vessel only, but all +the vessels of thy body sanctified till every thought and imagination +is well under the obedience of Christ. Lest His anger for all +that begin to burn to-night, make your bed with Eli and Samuel in His +sanctuary to-night, lest the avenger of the blood of the commandments +leap out on you in your sleep!</p> +<p>4. The Old Serpent took with him the great shears of hell, +and clipped ‘Thou shalt surely die’ out of the second chapter +of Genesis. And the same enemy of mankind will clip all the terror +of the Lord out of your heart to-night again, if he can. And he +will do it in this way, if he can. He will have some one at the +church door ready and waiting for you. As soon as the blessing +is pronounced, some one will take you by the arm and will entertain +you with the talk you love, or that you once loved, till you will be +ashamed to confess that there is any terror or turning to God in your +heart. No! Thou shalt not surely die, says the serpent still. +Why, hast thou not trampled Sabbaths and sermons past counting under +thy feet? What commandment, laid on body or soul, hast thou not +broken, and thou art still adding drunkenness to thirst, and God doth +not know! ‘The woman said unto the serpent, We may not eat +of it, neither may we touch it, lest we die. And the serpent said +unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.’</p> +<p>5. You must all have heard of Clito, who used to say that he +desired no more time for rising and dressing and saying his prayers +than about a quarter of an hour. Well, that was clipping the thing +pretty close, wasn’t it? At the same time it must be admitted +that a good deal of prayer may be got through in a quarter of an hour +if you do not lose any moment of it. Especially in the first quarter +of the day, if you are expeditious enough to begin to pray before you +even begin to dress. And prayer is really a very strange experience. +There are things about prayer that no man has yet fully found out or +told to any. For one thing, once well began it grows upon a man +in a most extraordinary and unheard-of way. This same Clito for +instance, some time after we find him at his prayers before his eyes +are open; and then he keeps all morning making his bath, his soap, his +towels, his brushes, and his clothes all one long artifice of prayer. +And that till there is not a single piece of his dressing-room furniture +that is not ready to swear at the last day that its master long before +he died had become a man full of secret prayer. There is a fountain +filled with blood! he exclaims, as he throws himself into his bath; +and Jeremiah second and twenty-second he uses regularly to repeat to +himself half a dozen times a day as he washes the smoke and dust of +the city off his hands and face. And then Revelation third and +eighteenth till his toilet is completed. Nay, this same Clito +has come to be such a devotee to that he had at one time been so expeditious +with, that I have seen him forget himself on the street and think that +his door was shut. But there is really no use telling you all +that about Clito. For, till you try closet-prayer for yourself, +all that God or man can say to you on that subject will be water spilt +on the ground. All we can say is, Try it. Begin it. +Some desperate day try it. Stop when you are on the way to the +pond and try it. Stop when you are fastening up the rope and try +it. When the poison is moving in the cup, stop, shut your door +first. Try God first. See if He is still waiting. +And, always after, when the steel shears of a too early, too crowded, +and far too exacting day are clipping you out of all time for prayer, +then what should you do? What do you do when you simply cannot +get your proper fresh air and exercise everyday? Do you not fall +back on the plasticity and pliability of nature and take your air and +exercise in large parcels? You take a ride into the country two +or three times a week. Or, two afternoons a week you have ten +miles alone if you cannot get a godly friend. And then two or +three times a year, if you can afford it, you climb an Alp or a Grampian +every day for a week or a month; and, so gracious and so adaptable is +human nature, that, what others get daily, you get weekly, or monthly, +or quarterly, or yearly. And, though a soul is not to be too much +presumed upon, Clito came to tell his friends that his soul could on +occasion take in prayer and praise enough for a week in a single morning +or afternoon, and, almost, for a whole year in a good holiday. +As Christ Himself did when He said: Come away apart into a desert place +and rest a while; for there are so many people coming and going here +that we have no time so much as to eat.</p> +<p>6. But I see I must clip off my last point with you, which +was to tell you what you already know only too well, and that is, what +terrible shears a bad conscience is armed with, and what havoc she makes +at all ages of a poor sinner’s Bible. But you can spare +that head. You can preach on that text to yourselves far better +than all your ministers. Only, take home with you these two lines +I have clipped out of Fraser of Brea for you. Nothing in man, +he says to us, is to be a ground of despair, since the whole ground +of all our hope is in Christ alone. Christ’s relation is +always to men as they are sinners and not as they are righteous. +I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. ’Tis +with sinners, then, Christ has to do. Nothing damns but unbelief; +and unbelief is just holding back from pressing God with this promise, +that Christ came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying, and +worthy of all acceptation, and it is still to be found standing in the +most clipped-up Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save +sinners; of whom I am chief.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI—STIFF MR. LOTH-TO-STOOP</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Thy neck is an iron sinew.’—<i>Jehovah +to the house of Jacob</i>.</p> +<p>‘King Zedekiah humbled not himself, but stiffened his neck.’—<i>The +Chronicles</i>.</p> +<p>‘He humbled himself.’—<i>Paul on our Lord</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All John Bunyan’s Characters, Situations, and Episodes are +collected into this house to-night. Obstinate and Pliable are +here; Passion and Patience; Simple, Sloth, and Presumption; Madame Bubble +and Mr. Worldly-wiseman; Talkative and By-ends; Deaf Mr. Prejudice is +here also, and, sitting close beside him, stiff Mr. Loth-to-stoop; while +good old Mr. Wet-eyes and young Captain Self-denial are not wholly wanting. +It gives this house an immense and an ever-green interest to me to see +character after character coming trooping in, Sabbath evening after +Sabbath evening, each man to see himself and his neighbour in John Bunyan’s +so truthful and so fearless glass. But it stabs me to the heart +with a mortal stab to see how few of us out of this weekly congregation +are any better men after all we come to see and to hear. At the +same time, such a constant dropping will surely in time wear away the +hardest rock. Let that so stiff old man, then, stiff old Mr. Loth-to-stoop, +came forward and behold his natural face in John Bunyan’s glass +again to-night. ‘Lord, is it I?’ was a very good question, +though put by a very bad man. Let us, one and all, then, put the +traitor’s question to ourselves to-night. Am I stiff old +Loth-to-stoop?—let every man in this house say to himself all +through this service, and then at home when reviewing the day, and then +all to-morrow when to stoop will be so loathsome and so impossible to +us all.</p> +<p>1. To begin, then, at the very bottom of this whole matter, +take stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner in the sight of God. +Let us take this stiff old man in this dreadful character to begin with, +because it is in this deepest and most dreadful aspect of his nature +and his character that he is introduced to us in the <i>Holy War</i>. +And I shall stand aside and let John Bunyan himself describe Loth-to-stoop +in the matter of his justification before God. ‘That is +a great stoop for a sinner to have to take,’ says our apostolic +author in another classical place, ‘a too great stoop to have +to suffer the total loss of all his own righteousness, and, actually, +to have to look to another for absolutely everything of that kind. +That is no easy matter for any man to do. I assure you it stretches +every vein in his heart before he will be brought to yield to that. +What! for a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw away all his prayers, +tears, alms, keeping of Sabbaths, hearing, reading, and all the rest, +and to admit both himself and them to be abominable and accursed, and +to be willing in the very midst of his sins to throw himself wholly +upon the righteousness and obedience of another man! I say to +do that in deed and in truth is the biggest piece of the cross, and +therefore it is that Paul calls it a suffering. “I have +suffered the loss of all things that I might win Christ, and be found +in Him, not having mine own righteousness.”’ That +is John Bunyan’s characteristic comment on stiff old Loth-to-stoop +as a guilty sinner, with the offer of a full forgiveness set before +him.</p> +<p>2. And then our so truthful and so fertile author goes on to +give us Loth-to-stoop as a half-saved sinner; a sinner, that is, trying +to make his own terms with God about his full salvation. Through +three most powerful pages we see stiff old Loth-to-stoop engaged in +beating down God’s unalterable terms of salvation, and in bidding +for his full salvation upon his own reduced and easy terms. It +was the tremendous stoop of the Son of God from the throne of God to +the cradle and the carpenter’s shop; and then, as if that were +not enough, it was that other tremendous stoop of His down to the Garden +and the Cross,—it was these two so tremendous stoops of Jesus +Christ that made stiff old Loth-to-stoop’s salvation even possible. +But, with all that, his true salvation was not possible without stoop +after stoop of his own; stoop after stoop which, if not so tremendous +as those of Christ, were yet tremendous enough, and too tremendous, +for him. Old Loth-to-stoop carries on a long and a bold debate +with Emmanuel in order to lessen the stoop that Emmanuel demands of +him; and your own life and mine, my brethren, at their deepest and at +their closest to our own heart, are really at bottom, like Loth-to-stoop’s +life, one long roup of salvation, in which God tries to get us up to +His terms and in which we try to get Him down to our terms. His +terms are, that we shall sell absolutely all that we have for the salvation +of our souls; and our terms are, salvation or no salvation, to keep +all that we have and to seek every day for more. God absolutely +demands that we shall stoop to the very dust every day, till we become +the poorest, the meanest, the most despicable, and the most hopeless +of men; whereas we meet that divine demand with the proud reply—Is +Thy servant a dog? It was with this offended mind that stiff old +Loth-to-stoop at last left off from Emmanuel’s presence; he would +die rather than come down to such degrading terms. And as Loth-to-stoop +went away, Emmanuel looked after him, well remembering the terrible +night when He Himself was, not indeed like Loth-to-stoop, nor near like +him, but when His own last stoop was so deep that it made Him cry out, +Father, save Me from this hour! and again, If it be possible let this +so tremendous stoop pass from Me. For a moment Emmanuel Himself +was loth to stoop, but only for a moment. For He soon rose from +off His face in a bath of blood, saying, Not My will, but Thine be done! +When Thomas À Kempis is negotiating with the Loth-to-stoops of +his unevangelical day, we hear him saying to them things like this: +‘Jesus Christ was despised of men, forsaken of His friends and +lovers, and in the midst of slanders. He was willing, under His +Father’s will, to suffer and to be despised, and darest thou to +complain of any man’s usage of thee? Christ, thy Master, +had enemies and back-biters, and dost thou expect to have all men to +be thy friends and benefactors? Whence shall thy patience attain +her promised crown if no adversity befall thee? Suffer thou with +Jesus Christ, and for His sake, if thou wouldst reign with Him. +Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, who, +out of love, was crucified for thee. Know for certain that thou +must lead a daily dying life. And the more that thou diest to +thyself all that the more shalt thou live unto God.’ With +many such words as these did Thomas teach the saints of his day to stoop +to their daily cross; a daily cross then, which has now been for long +to him and to them an everlasting crown.</p> +<p>3. And speaking of À Kempis, and having lately read +some of his most apposite chapters, such as that on the Holy Fathers +and that on Obedience and Subjection, leads me on to look at Loth-to-stoop +when he enters the sacred ministry, as he sometimes does. When +a half-converted, half-subdued, half-saved sinner gets himself called +to the sacred ministry his office will either greatly hasten on his +salvation, or else it will greatly hinder and endanger it. He +will either stoop down every day to deeper and ever deeper depths of +humility, or he will tower up in pride of office and in pride of heart +past all hope of humility, and thus of salvation. The holy ministry +is a great nursing-house of pride as we see in a long line of popes, +and prelates, and priests, and other lords over God’s heritage. +And our own Presbyterian polity, while it hands down to us the simplicity, +the unity, the brotherhood, and the humility of the apostolic age, at +the same time leaves plenty of temptation and plenty of opportunity +for the pride of the human heart. Our preaching and pastoral office, +when it is aright laid to our hearts, will always make us the meekest +and the humblest of men, even when we carry the most magnificent of +messages. But when our own hearts are not right the very magnificence +of our message, and the very authority of our Master, become all so +many subtle temptations to pride, pique, self-importance, and lothness-to-stoop. +With so much still to learn, how slow we ministers are to stoop to learn! +How still we stand, and even go back, when all other men are going forward! +How few of us have made the noble resolution of Jonathan Edwards: ‘Resolved,’ +he wrote, ‘that, as old men have seldom any advantage of new discoveries +because these are beside a way of thinking they have been long used +to: resolved, therefore, if ever I live to years, that I shall be impartial +to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and to receive them, +if rational how long soever I have been used to another way of thinking.’ +Let all ministers, then, young and old, resolve to stoop with Jonathan +Edwards, who shines, in his life and in his works, like the cherubim +with knowledge, and burns like the seraphim with love.</p> +<p>And then, when, not having so resolved, our thin vein of youthful +knowledge and experience has been worked to the rock; when grey hairs +are here and there upon us, how slow we are to stoop to that! +How unwilling we are to let it light on our hearts that our time is +past; that we are no longer able to understand, or interest, or attract +the young; and, besides, that that is not all their blame, no, nor ours +either, but simply the order and method of Divine Providence. +How slow we are to see that Divine Providence has other men standing +ready to take up our work if we would only humbly lay it down;—how +loth we are to stoop to see all that! How unwilling we are to +make up our minds, we old and ageing ministers, and to humble our hearts +to accept an assistant or to submit to a colleague to stand alongside +of us in our unaccomplished work!</p> +<p>4. In public life also, as we call it, what disasters to the +state, to the services, and to society, are constantly caused by this +same Loth-to-stoop! When he holds any public office; when he becomes +the leader of a party; when he is promoted to be an adviser of the Crown; +when he is put at the head of a fleet of ships, or of an army of men, +what untold evils does Loth-to-stoop bring both on himself and on the +nation! An old statesman will have committed himself to some line +of legislation or of administration; a great captain will have committed +himself to some manoeuvre of a squadron or of a division, or to some +plan of battle, and some subordinate will have discovered the error +his leader has made, and will be bold to point it out to him. +But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has taken his line and has passed his word. +His honour, as he holds it, is committed to this announced line of action; +and, if the Crown itself should perish before his policy, he will not +stoop to change it. How often you see that in great affairs as +well as in small. How seldom you see a public man openly confessing +that he has hitherto all along been wrong, and that he has at last and +by others been set right. Not once in a generation. But +even that once redeems public life; it ennobles public life; and it +saves the nation and the sovereign who possess such a true patriot. +Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high-sounding +words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, and humility +always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate success and lasting +honour.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII—THAT VARLET ILL-PAUSE, THE DEVIL’S ORATOR</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘I made haste and delayed not.’—<i>David</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>John Bunyan shall himself introduce, describe, and characterise this +varlet, this devil’s ally and accomplice, this ancient enemy of +Mansoul, whose name is Ill-pause. Well, this same Ill-pause, says +our author, was the orator of Diabolus on all difficult occasions, nor +took Diabolus any other one with him on difficult occasions, but just +Ill-pause alone. And always when Diabolus had any special plot +a-foot against Mansoul, and when the thing went as Diabolus would have +it go, then would Ill-pause stand up, for he was Diabolus his orator. +When Mansoul was under siege of Emmanuel his four noble captains sent +a message to the men of the town that if they would only throw Ill-pause +over the wall to them, that they might reward him according to his works, +then they would hold a parley with the city; but if this varlet was +to be let live in the city, then, why, the city must see to the consequences. +At which Diabolus, who was there present, was loth to lose his orator, +because, had the four captains once laid their fingers on Ill-pause, +be sure his master had lost his orator. And, then, in the last +assault, we read that Ill-pause, the orator that came along with Diabolus, +he also received a grievous wound in the head, some say that his brain-pan +was cracked. This, at any rate, I have taken notice of, that never +after this was he able to do that mischief to Mansoul as he had done +in times past. And then there was also at Eye-gate that Ill-pause +of whom you have heard before. The same was he that was orator +to Diabolus. He did much mischief to the town of Mansoul, till +at last he fell by the hand of the Captain Good-hope.</p> +<p>1. Well, to begin with, this Ill-pause was a filthy Diabolonian +varlet; a treacherous and a villainous old varlet, the author of the +<i>Holy War</i> calls him. Now, what is a varlet? Well, +a varlet is just a broken-down old valet. A varlet is a valet +who has come down, and down, and down, and down again in the world, +till, from once having been the servant and the trusty friend of the +very best of masters, he has come to be the ally and accomplice of the +very worst of masters. His first name, the name of his first office, +still sticks to him, indeed; but, like himself, and with himself, his +name has become depraved and corrupted till you would not know it. +A varlet, then, is just short and sharp for a scoundrel who is ready +for anything; and the worse the thing is the more ready he is for it. +There are riff-raff and refuse always about who are ready to volunteer +for any filibustering expedition; and that full as much for the sheer +devilry of the enterprise as for any real profit it is to be to themselves. +Wherever mischief is to be done, there your true varlet is sure to turn +up. Well, just such a land-shark was this Ill-pause, who was such +an ally and accomplice to Diabolus that he had need for no other. +What possible certificate in evil could exceed this—that the devil +took not any with him when he went out on his worst errand but this +same Ill-pause, who was his orator on all his most difficult occasions?</p> +<p>2. Ill-pause was a varlet, then, and he was also an orator. +Now, an orator, as you know, is a great speaker. An orator is +a man who has the excellent and influential gift of public speech. +And on great occasions in public life when people are to be instructed, +and impressed, and moved, and won over, then the great orator sets up +his platform. Quintilian teaches us in his <i>Institutes</i> that +it is only a good man who can be a really great orator. What would +that fine writer have said had he lived to read the <i>Holy War</i>, +and seen the most successful of all orators that ever opened a mouth, +and who was all the time a diabolical old varlet? What would the +author of <i>The Education of an Orator</i> have said to that? +Diabolus did not on every occasion bring up his great orator Ill-pause. +He did not always come up himself, and he did not always send up Ill-pause. +It was only on difficult occasions that both Diabolus and his orator +also came up. You do not hear your great preachers every Sabbath. +They would not long remain great preachers, and you would soon cease +to pay any attention to them, if they were always in the pulpit. +Neither do you have your great orators at every street corner. +Their masters only build theatres for them when some great occasion +arises in the land, and when the best wisdom must straightway be spoken +to the people and in the best way. Then you bring up Quintilian’s +orator if you have him at your call. As Diabolus has done from +time to time with his great and almost always successful orator Ill-pause. +On difficult occasions he came himself on the scene and Ill-pause with +him. On such difficult occasions as in the Garden of Eden; as +when Noah was told to make haste and build an ark; as also when Abraham +was told to make haste and leave his father’s house; when Jacob +was bid remember and pay the vow he had made when his trouble was upon +him; as also when Joseph had to flee for what was better than life; +and on that memorable occasion when David sent Joab out against Rabbah, +but David tarried still at Jerusalem. On all these essential, +first-class, and difficult occasions the old serpent brought up Ill-pause. +As also when our Lord was in the wilderness; when He set His face to +go up to Jerusalem; when He saw certain Greeks among them that came +up to the passover; as also again and again in the Garden. As +also on crucial occasions in your own life. As when you had been +told not to eat, not to touch, and not even to look at the forbidden +fruit, then Ill-pause, the devil’s orator, came to you and said +that it was a tree to be desired. And, you shall not surely die. +As also when you were moved to terror and to tears under a Sabbath, +or under a sermon, or at some death-bed, or on your own sick-bed—Ill-pause +got you to put off till a more convenient season your admitted need +of repentance and reformation and peace with God. On such difficult +occasions as these the devil took Ill-pause to help him with you, and +the result, from the devil’s point of view, has justified his +confidence in his orator. When Ill-pause gets his new honours +paid him in hell; when there is a new joy in hell over another sinner +that has not yet repented, your name will be heard sounding among the +infernal cheers. Just think of your baptismal name and your pet +name at home giving them joy to-night at their supper in hell! +And yet one would not at first sight think that such triumphs and such +toasts, such medals, and clasps, and garters were to be won on earth +or in hell just by saying such simple-sounding and such commonplace +things as those are for which Ill-pause receives his decorations. +‘Take time,’ he says. ‘Yes,’ he admits, +‘but there is no such hurry; to-morrow will do; next year will +do; after you are old will do quite as well. The darkness shall +cover you, and your sin will not find you out. Christ died for +sin, and it is a faithful saying that His blood will cleanse you later +on from all this sin.’ Everyday and well-known words, indeed, +but a true orator is seen in nothing more than in this, that he can +take up what everybody knows and says, and put it so as to carry everybody +captive. One of Quintilian’s own orators has said that a +great speaker only gives back to his hearers in flood what they have +already given to him in vapour.</p> +<p>3. ‘I was always pleased,’ says Calvin, ‘with +that saying of Chrysostom, “The foundation of our philosophy is +humility”; and yet more pleased with that of Augustine: “As,” +says he, “the rhetorician being asked, What was the first thing +in the rules of eloquence? he answered, Pronunciation; what was the +second? Pronunciation; what was the third? and still he answered, Pronunciation. +So if you would ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, +I would answer, firstly, secondly, thirdly, and for ever, Humility.”’ +And when Ill-pause opened his elocutionary school for the young orators +of hell, he is reported to have said this to them in his opening address, +‘There are only three things in my school,’ he said; ‘three +rules, and no more to be called rules. The first is Delay, the +second is Delay, and the third is Delay. Study the art of delay, +my sons; make all your studies to tell on how to make the fools delay. +Only get those to whom your master sends you to delay, and you will +not need to envy me my laurels; you will soon have a shining crown of +your own. Get the father to delay teaching his little boy how +to pray. Get him on any pretext you can invent to put off speaking +in private to his son about his soul. Get him to delegate all +that to the minister. And then by hook or by crook get that son +as he grows up to put off the Lord’s Supper. And after that +you will easily get him to put off purity and prayer till he is a married +man and at the head of a house. Only get the idea of a more convenient +season well into their heads, and their game is up, and your spurs are +won. Take their arm in yours, as I used to do, at their church +door, if you are posted there, and say to them as they come out that +to-morrow will be time enough to give what they had thought of giving +while they were still in their pew and the minister or missionary was +still in the pulpit. Only, as you value your master’s praises +and the applause of all this place, keep them, at any cost, from striking +while the iron is hot. Let them fill their hearts, and their mouths +too, if it gives them any comfort, with the best intentions; only, my +scholars, remember that the beginning and middle and end of your office +is by hook or by crook to secure delay.’ And a great crop +of young orators sprang up ready for their work under that teaching +and out of the persuasionary school of Ill-pause. In fine, Mansoul +desired some time in which to prepare its answer.’</p> +<p>There are many men among ourselves who have been bedevilled out of +their best life, out of the salvation of their souls, and out of all +that constitutes and accompanies salvation now for many years. +And still their sin-deceived hearts are saying to them to-night, Take +time! For many years, every new year, every birthday, and, for +a long time, every Communion-day, they were just about to be done with +their besetting sin; and now all the years lie behind them, one long +downward road all paved, down to this Sabbath night, with the best intentions. +And, still, as if that were not enough, that same varlet is squat at +their ear. Well, my very miserable brother, you have long talked +about the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year as being +your set time for repentance and for reformation. Let all the +weight of those so many remorseful years fall on your heart at the close +of this year, and at last compel you to take the step that should have +been taken, oh! so many unhappy years ago! Go straight home then, +to-night, shut your door, and, after so many desecrated Sabbath nights, +God will still meet you in your secret chamber. As soon as you +shut your door God will be with you, and you will be with God. +With GOD! Think of it, my brother, and the thing is done. +With GOD! And then tell Him all. And if any one knocks at +your door, say that there is Some One with you to-night, and that you +cannot come down. And continue till you have told it all to God. +He knows it all already; but that is one of Ill-pause’s sophistries +still in your heart. Tell your Father it all. Tell Him how +many years it is. Tell Him all that you so well remember over +all those wild, miserable, mad, remorseful years. Tell Him that +you have not had one really happy, one really satisfied day all those +years, and tell Him that you have spent all, and are now no longer a +young man; youth and health and self-respect and self-command are all +gone, till you are a shipwreck rather than a man. And tell Him +that if He will take you back that you are to-night at His feet.</p> +<p>4. ‘We seldom overcome any one vice perfectly,’ +complains À Kempis. And, again, ‘If only every new +year we would root out but one vice.’ Well, now, what do +you say to that, my true and very brethren? What do you say to +that? Here we are, by God’s grace and long-suffering to +usward, near the end of another year, another vicious year; and why +have we been borne with through so many vicious years but that we should +now cease from vice and begin to learn virtue? Why are we here +over Ill-pause this Sabbath night? Why, but that we should shake +off that varlet liar before another new year. That is the whole +reason why we have been spared to see this Sabbath night. God +decreed it for us that we should have this text and this discourse here +to-night, and that is the reason why you and I have been so unaccountably +spared so long. Let us select one vice for the axe then to-night, +and give God in heaven the satisfaction of seeing that His long-suffering +with us has not been wholly in vain. Let us lay the axe at one +vice from this night. And what one from among so many shall it +be? What is the mockery of preaching if a preacher does not practise? +And, accordingly, I have selected one vice out of my thicket for next +year. Will you do the same? The secret of the Lord is with +them that fear Him. Just make your selection and keep it to yourself, +at least till you are able this time next year to say to us—Come, +all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul. +Yes, come on, and from this day all your days on earth, and all the +days of eternity, you will thank God for John Bunyan and his <i>Holy +War</i> and his Ill-pause. Make your selection, then, for your +new axe. Attack some one sin at this so auspicious season. +Swear before God, and unknown to all men—swear sure death, and +that without any more delay, to that selected sin. Never once, +all your days, do that sin again. Determine never once to do it +again. Determine that by prayer, by secret, and at the same time +outspoken, prayer on your knees. Determine it by faith in the +cleansing blood and renewing spirit of Jesus Christ. Determine +it by fear of instant death, and by sure hope of everlasting life. +Determine it by reasons, and motives, and arguments, and encouragements +known to no-one but yourself, and to be suspected by no human being. +Name the doomed sin. Denounce it. Execrate it. Execute +it. Draw a line across your short and uncertain life, and say +to that besetting and presumptuous sin, Hitherto, and no further! +Do not say you cannot do it. You can if you only will. You +can if you only choose. And smiting down that one sin will loosen +and shake down the whole evil fabric of sin. Breaking but that +one link will break the whole of Satan’s snare and evil fetter. +Here is À Kempis’s forest of vices out of which he hewed +down one every year. Restless lust, outward senses, empty phantoms, +always longing to get, always sparing to give, careless as to talk, +unwilling to sit silent, eager for food, wakeful for news, weary of +a good book, quick to anger, easy of offence at my neighbour, and too +ready to judge him, too merry over prosperity, and too gloomy, fretful, +and peevish in adversity; so often making good rules for my future life, +and coming so little speed with them all, and so on. And, in facing +even such a terrible thicket as that, let not even an old man absolutely +despair. At forty, at sixty, at threescore and ten, let not an +old penitent despair. Only take axe in hand and see if the sun +does not stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon +till you have avenged yourself on your enemies. And always when +you stop to wipe your brow, and to whet the edge of your axe, and to +wet your lips with water, keep on saying things like those of another +great sinner deep in his thicket of vice, say this: O God, he said, +Thou hast not cut off as a weaver my life, nor from day even to night +hast Thou made an end of me. But Thou hast vouchsafed to me life +and breath even to this hour from childhood, youth, and hitherto even +unto old age. He holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our +feet to slide, rescuing me from perils, sicknesses, poverty, bondage, +public shame, evil chances; keeping me from perishing in my sins, and +waiting patiently for my full conversion. Glory be to Thee, O +Lord, glory to Thee, for Thine incomprehensible and unimaginable goodness +toward me of all sinners far and away the most unworthy. The voices +and the concert of voices of angels and men be to Thee; the concert +of all thy saints in heaven and of all Thy creatures in heaven and on +earth; and of me, beneath their feet an unworthy and wretched sinner, +Thy abject creature; my praise also, now, in this day and hour, and +every day till my last breath, and till the end of this world, and then +to all eternity, where they cease not saying, To Him who loved us, Amen!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII—MR. PENNY-WISE-AND-POUND-FOOLISH, AND MR. GET-I’-THE-HUNDRED-AND-LOSE-I’-THE-SHIRE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘For, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain +the whole world, and lose his own soul?’—<i>Our Lord</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This whole world is the penny, and our own souls are the pound. +This whole world is the hundred, while heaven itself is the shire. +And the question this evening is, Are we wise in the penny and foolish +in the pound? And, are we getting in the hundred and losing in +the shire?</p> +<p>1. Well, then, to begin at the beginning, we are already begun +to be penny-wise and pound-foolish with our children when we are so +particular with them about their saying their little prayers night and +morning, while all the time we are so inattentive and so indolent to +explain to them how they are to pray, what they are to pray for, and +how they are to wait and how long they are to wait for the things they +pray for. Then, again, we are penny-wise and pound-foolish with +our children when we train them up into all the proprieties and etiquettes +of family and social life, and at the same time pay so little attention +to their inward life of opening thought and quickening desire and awakening +passion. When we are so eager also for our children to be great +with great people, without much regard to the moral and religious character +of those great people, then again we are like a man who may be wise +for a penny, but is certainly a fool for a pound. When we prefer +the gay and the fashionable world to the intellectual, the religious, +and the philanthropical world for our children, then we lose both the +penny and the pound as well. Almost as much as we do when we accept +the penny of wealth and station and so-called connection for a son or +a daughter, in room of the pound of character, and intelligence, and +personal religion.</p> +<p>Then, again, even in our own religious life we are ourselves often +and notoriously wise in the penny and foolish in the pound. As, +for instance, when we are so scrupulous and so conscientious about forms +and ceremonies, about times and places, and so on. In short, the +whole ritual that has risen up around spiritual religion in all our +churches, from that of the Pope himself out to that of George Fox—it +is all the penny rather than the pound. This rite and that ceremony; +this habit and that tradition; this ancient and long-established usage, +as well as that new departure and that threatened innovation;—it +is all, at its best, always the penny and never the pound. Satan +busied me about the lesser matters of religion, says James Fraser of +Brea, and made me neglect the more substantial points. He made +me tithe to God my mint, and my anise and my cummin, and many other +of my herbs, to my all but complete neglect of justice and mercy and +faith and love. Whether there are any of the things that Brea +would call mint and anise and cummin that are taking up too much of +the time of our controversially-minded men in all our churches, highland +and lowland, to-day is a matter for humbling thought. Labour, +my brethren, for yourselves, at any rate, to get yourselves into that +sane and sober habit of mind that instantly and instinctively puts all +mint and all cummin of all kinds into the second place, and all the +weightier matters, both of law and of gospel, into the first place. +I wasted myself on too nice points, laments Brea in his deep, honest, +clear-eyed autobiography. I did not proportion my religious things +aright. The laird of Brea does not say in as many words that he +was wise in the penny and foolish in the pound, but that is exactly +what he means.</p> +<p>Then, again, the narrowness, the partiality, the sickliness, and +the squeamishness of our consciences,—all that makes us to be +too often penny-wise and pound-foolish in our religious life. +A well-instructed, thoroughly wise, and well-balanced conscience is +an immense blessing to that man who has purchased such a conscience +for himself. There is an immense and a criminal waste of conscience +that goes on among some of our best Christian people through the want +of light and space, room, and breadth, and balance in their consciences. +We are all pestered with people every day who are full of all manner +of childish scrupulosity and sickly squeamishness in their ill-nourished, +ill-exercised consciences. As long as a man’s conscience +is ignorant and weak and sickly it will, it must, spend and waste itself +on the pennyworths of religion and’ morals instead of the pounds. +It will occupy and torture itself with points and punctilios, jots and +tittles, to the all but total oblivion, and to the all but complete +neglect, of the substance and the essence of the Christian mind, the +Christian heart, and the Christian character. The washing of hands, +of cups, and of pots, was all the conscience that multitudes had in +our Lord’s day; and multitudes in our day scatter and waste their +consciences on the same things. A good man, an otherwise good +and admirable man, will absolutely ruin and destroy his conscience by +points and scruples and traditions of men as fatally as another will +by a life of debauchery. Some old and decayed ecclesiastical rubric; +some absolutely indifferent form in public worship; some small casuistical +question about a creed or a catechism; some too nice point of confessional +interpretation; the mint and anise and cummin of such matters will fill +and inflame and poison a man’s mind and heart and conscience for +months and for years, to the total destruction of all that for which +churches and creeds exist; to the total suspense, if not the total and +lasting destruction, of sobriety of mind, balance and breadth of judgment, +humility, charity, and a hidden and a holy life. The penny of +a perverted, partial, and fanaticised conscience has swallowed up the +pound of instruction, and truth, and justice, and brotherly love.</p> +<p>2. ‘Nor is the man with the long name at all inferior +to the other,’ said Lucifer, in laying his infernal plot against +the peace and prosperity of Mansoul. Now, the man with the long +name was just Mr. Get-i’-the-hundred-and-lose-i’-the-shire. +A hundred in the old county geography of England was a political subdivision +of a shire, in which five score freemen lived with their freeborn families. +A county or a shire was described and enumerated by the poll-sheriff +of that day as containing so many enfranchised hundreds; and the total +number of hundreds made up the political unity of the shire. To +this day we still hear from time to time of the ‘Chiltern Hundreds,’ +which is a division of Buckinghamshire that belongs, along with its +political franchise, to the Crown, and which is utilised for Crown purposes +at certain political emergencies. This proverb, then, to get i’ +the hundred and lose i’ the shire, is now quite plain to us. +You might canvass so as to get a hundred, several hundreds, many hundreds +on your side, and yet you might lose when it came to counting up the +whole shire. You might possess yourself of a hundred or two and +yet be poor compared with him who possessed the whole shire. And +then the proverb has been preserved out of the old political life of +England, and has been moralised and spiritualised to us in the <i>Holy +War</i>. And thus after to-night we shall always call this shrewd +proverb to mind when we are tempted to take a part at the risk of the +whole; to receive this world at the loss of the next world; or, as our +Lord has it, to gain the whole world and to lose our own soul. +Lot’s choice of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Esau’s purchase +of the mess of pottage in the Old Testament; and then Judas’s +thirty pieces of silver, and Ananias and Sapphira’s part of the +price in the New Testament, are all so many well-known instances of +getting in the hundred and losing in the shire. And not Esau’s +and Lot’s only, but our own lives also have been full up to to-day +of the same fatal transaction. This house, as our Lord again has +it, this farm, this merchandise, this shop, this office, this salary, +this honour, this home—all this on the one hand, and then our +Lord Himself, His call, His cause, His Church, with everlasting life +in the other—when it is set down before us in black and white +in that way, the transaction, the proposal, the choice is preposterous, +is insane, is absolutely impossible. But preposterous, insane, +absolutely impossible, and all, there it is, in our own lives, in the +lives of our sons and daughters, and in the lives of multitudes of other +men and other men’s sons and daughters besides ours. Every +day you will be taken in, and you will stand by and see other men taken +in with the present penny for the future pound: and with the poor pelting +hundred under your eye for the full, far-extending, and ever-enriching +shire. Lucifer is always abroad pressing on us in his malice the +penny on the spot, for the pound which he keeps out of sight; he dazzles +our eyes with the gain of the hundred till we gnash our teeth at the +loss of the shire.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief,<br /> +Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not,<br /> +Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>3. ‘What also if we join with those two another two of +ours, Mr. Sweet-world and Mr. Present-good, namely, for they are two +men full of civility and cunning. Let these engage in this business +for us, and let Mansoul be taken up with much business, and if possible +with much pleasure, and this is the way to get ground of them. +Let us but cumber and occupy and amuse Mansoul sufficiently, and they +will make their castle a warehouse for goods instead of a garrison for +men of war.’ This diabolical advice was highly applauded +all through hell till all the lesser devils, while setting themselves +to carry it out, gnashed their teeth with envy and malice at Lucifer +for having thought of this masterpiece and for having had it received +with such loud acclamation. ‘Only get them,’ so went +on that so able, so well-envied, and so well-hated devil, ‘let +us only get those fribble sinners for a night at a time to forget their +misery. And it will not cost us much to do that. Only let +us offer them in one another’s houses a supper, a dance, a pipe, +a newspaper full of their own shame, a tale full of their own folly, +a silly song, and He who loved them with an everlasting love will soon +see of the travail of His soul in them!’ Yes, my fellow-sinners, +Lucifer and his infernal crew know us and despise us and entrap us at +very little trouble, till He who travailed for us on the tree covers +His face in heaven and weeps over us. As long as we remember our +misery, all the mind, and all the malice, and all the sleeplessness +in hell cannot touch a hair of our head. But when by any emissary +and opportunity either from earth around us or from hell beneath us +we for another night forget our misery, it is all over with us. +And yet, to tell the truth, we never can quite forget our misery. +We are too miserable ever to forget our misery. In the full steam +of Lucifer’s best-spread supper, amid the shouts of laughter and +the clapping of hands, and all the outward appearance of a complete +forgetfulness of our misery, yet it is not so. It is far from +being so. Our misery is far too deep-seated for all the devil’s +drugs. Only, to give Lucifer his due, we do sometimes, under him, +so get out of touch with the true consolation for our misery that, night +after night, through cumber, through pursuit of pleasure, through the +time being taken up with these and other like things, we do so far forget +our misery as to lie down without dealing with it; but only to have +it awaken us, and take our arm as its own for another miserable day. +Yes; though never completely successful, yet this masterpiece of hell +is sufficiently successful for Satan’s subtlest purposes; which +are, not to make us forget our misery, but to make us put it away from +us at the natural and proper hour for facing it and for dealing with +it in the only proper and successful way. But, wholly, any night, +or even partially for a few nights at a time, to forget our misery—no, +with all thy subtlety of intellect and with all thy hell-filled heart, +O Lucifer, that is to us impossible! Forget our misery! +O devil of devils, no! Bless God, that can never be with us! +Our misery is too deep, too dreadful, too acute, too all-consuming ever +to be forgotten by us even for an hour. Our misery is too terrible +for thee, with all thy overthrown intellect and all thy malice-filled +heart, ever to understand! Didst thou for one midnight hour taste +it, and so understand it, then there would be the same hope for thee +that, I bless God, there still is for me!</p> +<p>Let us bend all our strength and all our wit to this, went on Lucifer, +to make their castle a warehouse instead of a garrison. Let us +set ourselves and all our allies, he explained to the duller-witted +among the devils, to make their hearts a shop,—some of them, you +know, are shopkeepers; a bank,—some of them are bankers; a farm,—some +of them are farmers; a study,—some of them are students; a pulpit,—some +of them like to preach; a table,—some of them are gluttons; a +drawing-room,—some of them are busybodies who forget their own +misery in retailing other people’s misery from house to house. +Be wise as serpents, said the old serpent; attend, each several fallen +angel of you, to his own special charge. Study your man. +Get to the bottom of your man. Follow him about; never let him +out of your sight; be sure before you begin, be sure you have the joint +in his harness, the spot in his heel, the chink in his wall full in +your eye. I do not surely need to tell you not to scatter our +snares for souls at random, he went on. Give the minister his +study Bible, the student his classic, the merchant his ledger, the glutton +his well-dressed dish and his elect year of wine, the gossip her sweet +secret, and the flirt her fool. Study them till they are all naked +and open to your sharp eyes. Find out what best makes them forget +even for one night their misery and ply them with that. If I ever +see that soul I have set thee over on his knees on account of his misery +I shall fling thee on the spot into the bottomless pit. And if +any of you shall anywhere discover a man—and there are such men—a +man who forgets his misery through always thinking and speaking about +it, only keep him in his pulpit, and off his knees, and no man so safe +for hell as he. There are fools, and there are double-dyed fools, +and that man is the chief of them. Give him his fill of sin and +misery; let him luxuriate himself in sin and misery; only, keep him +there, and I will not forget thy most excellent service to me.</p> +<p>Make all their hearts, so Lucifer summed up, as he dismissed his +obsequious devils, make all their several hearts each a warehouse, a +shop, a farm, a pulpit, a library, a nursery, a supper-table, a chamber +of wantonness—let it be to each man just after his own heart. +Only, keep—as you shall answer for it,—keep faith and hope +and charity and innocence and patience and especially prayerfulness +out of their hearts. And when this my counsel is fulfilled, and +when the pit closes over thy charge, I shall pay thee thy wages, and +promote thee to honour. And before he was well done they were +all at their posts.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV—THE DEVIL’S LAST CARD</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Satan himself is transformed into an angel of +light’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Wodrow has an anecdote in his delightful <i>Analecta</i> which shall +introduce us into our subject to-night. Mr. John Menzies was a +very pious and devoted pastor; he was a learned man also, and well seen +in the Popish and in the Arminian controversies. And to the end +of his life he was much esteemed of the people of Aberdeen as a foremost +preacher of the gospel. And yet, ‘Oh to have one more Sabbath +in my pulpit!’ he cried out on his death-bed. ‘What +would you then do?’ asked some one who sat at his bedside. +‘I would preach to my people on the tremendous difficulty of salvation!’ +exclaimed the dying man.</p> +<p>1. Now, the first difficulty that stands in the way of our +salvation is the stupendous mass of guilt that has accumulated upon +all of us. Our guilt is so great that we dare not think of it. +It is too horrible to believe that we shall ever be called to account +for one in a thousand of it. It crushes our minds with a perfect +stupor of horror, when for a moment we try to imagine a day of judgment +when we shall be judged for all the deeds that we have done in the body. +Heart-beat after heart-beat, breath after breath, hour after hour, day +after day, year after year, and all full of sin; all nothing but sin +from our mother’s womb to our grave. Sometimes one outstanding +act of sin has quite overwhelmed us. But before long that awful +sin fell out of sight and out of mind. Other sins of the same +kind succeeded it. Our sense of sin, our sense of guilt was soon +extinguished by a life of sin, till, at the present moment the accumulated +and tremendous load of our sin and guilt is no more felt by us than +we feel the tremendous load of the atmosphere. But, all the time, +does not our great guilt lie sealed down upon us? Because we are +too seared and too stupefied to feel it, is it therefore not there? +Because we never think of it, does that prove that both God and man +have forgiven and forgotten it? Shall the Judge of all the earth +do right in the matter of all men’s guilt but ours? Does +the apostle’s warning not hold in our case?—his awful warning +that we shall all stand before the judgment-seat? And is it only +a strong figure of speech that the books shall be opened till we shall +cry to the mountains to fall on us and to the rocks to cover us? +Oh no! the truth is, the half has not been told us of the speechless +stupefaction that shall fall on us when the trumpet shall sound and +when Alp upon Alp of aggravated guilt shall rise up high as heaven between +us and our salvation. Difficulty is not the name for guilt like +ours. Impossibility is the better name we should always know it +by.</p> +<p>2. Another difficulty or impossibility to our salvation rises +out of the awful corruption and pollution of our hearts. But is +there any use entering on that subject? Is there one man in a +hundred who even knows the rudiments of the language I must now speak +in? Is there one man in a hundred in whose mind any idea arises, +and in whose heart any emotion or passion is kindled, as I proceed to +speak of corruption of nature and pollution of heart? I do not +suppose it. I do not presume upon it. I do not believe it. +That most miserable man who is let down of God’s Holy Spirit into +the pit of corruption that is in his own heart,—to him his corruption, +added to his guilt, causes a sadness that nothing in this world can +really relieve; it causes a deep and an increasing melancholy, such +as the ninety and nine who need no repentance and feel no pollution +know nothing of. All living men flee from the corruption of an +unburied corpse. The living at once set about to bury their dead. +‘I am a stranger and a sojourner among you,’ said Abraham +to the children of Heth; ‘give me a possession of a burying-place +among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.’ But +Paul could find no grave in the whole world in which to bury out of +his sight the body of death to which he was chained fast; that body +of sin and death which always makes the holiest of men the most wretched +of men,—till the loathing and the disgust and the misery that +filled the apostle’s heart are to be understood by but one in +a thousand even of the people of God.</p> +<p>3. And then, as if to make our salvation a very hyperbole of +impossibility, the all but almighty power of indwelling sin comes in. +Have you ever tried to break loose from the old fetter of an evil habit? +Have you ever said on a New Year’s Day with Thomas À Kempis +that this year you would root that appetite,—naming it,—out +of your body, and that vice,—naming it,—out of your heart? +Have you ever sworn at the Communion table that you would watch and +pray, and set a watch on your evil heart against that envy, and that +revenge, and that ill-will, and that distaste, dislike, and antipathy? +Then your minister will not need to come back from his death-bed to +preach to you on the difficulty of salvation.</p> +<p>4. And yet such is the grace of God, such is the work of Christ, +and such is the power and the patience of the Holy Ghost that, if we +had only an adequate ministry in our pulpits, and an assisting literature +in our homes, even this three-fold impossibility would be overcome and +we would be saved. But if the ministry that is set over us is +an ignorant, indolent, incompetent, self-deceived ministry; if our own +chosen, set-up, and maintained minister is himself an uninstructed, +unspiritual, unsanctified man; and if the books we buy and borrow and +read are all secular, unspiritual, superficial, ephemeral, silly, stupid, +impertinent books, then the impossibility of our salvation is absolute, +and we are as good as in hell already with all our guilt and all our +corruption for ever on our heads. Now, that was the exact case +of Mansoul in the allegory of the Holy War at one of the last and acutest +stages of that war. Or, rather, that would have been her exact +case had Diabolus got his own deep, diabolical way with her. For +what did her ancient enemy do but sound a parley till he had played +his last card in these glozing and deceitful words;—‘I myself,’ +he had the face to say to Emmanuel, ‘if Thou wilt raise Thy siege +and leave the town to me, I will, at my own proper cost and charge, +set up and maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul, +who shall show to Mansoul that transgression stands in the way of life; +the ministers I shall set up shall also press the necessity of reformation +according to Thy holy law.’ And even now, with the two pulpits, +God’s and the devil’s, and the two preachers, and the two +pastors, in our own city,—how many of you see any difference, +or think that the one is any worse or any better than the other? +Or, indeed, that the ministry of the last card is not the better of +the two to your interest and to your taste, to the state of your mind +and to the need of your heart? Let us proceed, then, to look at +Mansoul’s two pulpits and her two lectureships as they stand portrayed +on the devil’s last card and in Emmanuel’s crowning commission; +that is, if our eyes are sharp enough to see any difference.</p> +<p>5. The first thing, then, on the devil’s last card was +this, ‘A sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.’ +Now, a sufficient ministry has never been seen in the true Church of +Christ since her ministry began. And yet she has had great ministers +in her time. After Christ Himself, Paul was the greatest and the +best minister the Church of Christ has ever had. But such was +the transcendent greatness of his office, such were its tremendous responsibilities, +such were its magnificent opportunities and its incessant demands, such +were its ceaseless calls to consecration, to cross-bearing, to crucifixion, +to more and more inwardness of holiness, and to higher and higher heights +of heavenly-mindedness, that the apostle was fain to cry out continually, +Who is sufficient for these things! But so well did Paul learn +that gospel which he preached to others that amid all his insufficiency +he was able to hear his Master saying to him every day, My grace is +sufficient for thee, and, My strength is made perfect in thy weakness! +And to come down to the truly Pauline succession of ministers in our +own lands and in our own churches, what preachers and what pastors Christ +gave to Kidderminster, and to Bedford, and to Down and Connor, and to +Sodor and Man, and to Anwoth, and to Ettrick, and to New England, and +to St. Andrews, and places too many to mention. With all its infirmity +and all its inefficiency, what a truly heavenly power the pulpit is +when it is filled by a man of God who gives his whole mind and heart, +his whole time and thought to it, and to the pastorate that lies around +it. His mind may be small, and his heart may be full of corruption; +his time may be full of manifold interruptions, and his best study may +yield but a poor result; but if Heaven ever helps those who honestly +help themselves, then that is certainly the case in the Christian ministry. +Let the choicest of our children, then, be sought out and consecrated +to that service; let our most gifted and most gracious-minded sons be +sent to where they shall be best prepared for the pulpit and the pastorate,—till +by the blessing of her Head all the congregations and all the parishes, +all the pulpits and all the lectureships in the Church, shall be one +garden of the Lord. And then we shall escape that last curse of +a ministry such as John Bunyan saw all around him in the England of +his day, and which, had he been alive in the England and Scotland of +our day, he would have painted again in colours we have neither the +boldness nor the skill to mix nor to put on the canvas. But let +all ministers put it every day to themselves to what descent and succession +they belong. Let those even who believe that they have within +themselves the best seal and evidence attainable here that they have +been ordained of Emmanuel, let them all the more look well every day +and every Sabbath day how much of another master’s doctrine and +discipline, motives, and manners still mixes up with their best ministry. +And the surest seal that, with all our insufficiency, we are still the +ministers of Christ will be set on us by this, that the harder we work +and the more in secret we pray, the more and ever the more shall we +discover and confess our shameful insufficiency, and the more shall +we, till the day of our death, every day still begin our ministry of +labour and of prayer anew. Let us do that, for the devil, with +all his boldness and all his subtilty, never threw a card first or last +like that.</p> +<p>6. After offering a sufficient ministry to Mansoul, and that, +too, at his own proper cost and charge, Diabolus undertook also to see +that the absolute necessity of a reformation should be preached and +pressed from the pulpit he set up. Now, reformation is all good +and necessary, in its own time and place and order, but God sent His +Son not to be a Reformer but to be a Redeemer. John came to preach +reformation, but Jesus came to preach regeneration. Except a man +be born again, Jesus persistently preached to Nicodemus. ‘Did +it begin with regeneration?’ was Dr. Duncan’s reply when +a sermon on sanctification was praised in his hearing. And like +so much else that the learned and profound Dr. John Duncan said on theology +and philosophy, that question went at once to the root of the matter. +For sanctification, that is to say, salvation, is no mere reformation +of morals or refinement of manners. It is a maxim in sound morals +that the morality of the man must precede the morality of his actions. +And much more is it the evangelical law of Jesus Christ. Make +the tree good, our Lawgiver aphoristically said. Reformation and +sanctification differ, says Dr. Hodge, as clean clothes differ from +a clean heart. Now, Diabolus was all for clean clothes when he +saw that Mansoul was slipping out of his hands. He would have +all the drunkards to become moderate drinkers, if not total abstainers; +and all the sensualists to become, if need be, ascetics; and all those +who had sowed out their wild oats to settle down as heads of houses, +and members, if not ministers and elders, in his set-up church. +But we are too well taught, surely; we have gone too long to another +church than that which Diabolus ever sets up, to be satisfied with his +superficial doctrine and his skin-deep discipline. We know, do +we not, that we may do all that his last card asks us to do, and yet +be as far, ay, and far farther from salvation than the heathen are who +never heard the name. A hundred Scriptures tell us that; and our +hearts know too much of their own plague and corruption ever now to +be satisfied short of a full regeneration and a complete sanctification. +‘Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. +The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. And the very God of +peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit and +soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus +Christ.’ The last card has many Scriptures cunningly copied +upon it; but not these. Its pulpit orators handle many Scripture +texts, but never these.</p> +<p>7. Yes, the devil comes in even here with that so late, so +subtle, and so contradicting card of his. Where is it in this +world that he does not come in with some of his cards? And he +comes in here as a very angel of evangelical light. He puts on +the gown of Geneva here, and he ascends Emmanuel’s own maintained +pulpit here, and from that pulpit he preaches, and where he so preaches +he preaches nothing else but the very highest articles of the Reformed +faith. Carnal-security was strong on assurance, no other man in +Mansoul was so strong; and the devil will let us preachers be as strong +and as often on election, and justification, and indefectible grace, +and the perseverance of the saints as we and our people like, if we +but keep in season and out of season on these transcendent subjects +and keep off morals and manners, walk and conversation, conduct and +character. In Hooker’s and Travers’ day, Thomas Fuller +tells us, the Temple pulpit preached pure Canterbury in the morning +and pure Geneva in the afternoon. And you will get the highest +Calvinism off the last card in one pulpit, and the strictest and most +urgent morality off the same card in another; but never, if the devil +can help it, never both in one and the same pulpit; never both in one +and the same sermon; and never both in one and the same minister. +You have all heard of the difficulty the voyager had in steering between +Scylla and Charybdis in the Latin adage. Well, the true preacher’s +difficulty is just like that. Indeed, it is beyond the wit of +man, and it takes all the wit of God, aright to unite the doctrine of +our utter inability with the companion doctrine of our strict responsibility; +free grace with a full reward; the cross of Christ once for all, with +the saint’s continual crucifixion; the Saviour’s blood with +the sinner’s; and atonement with attainment; in short, salvation +without works with no salvation without works. Deft steersman +as the devil is, he never yet took his ship clear through those Charybdic +passages.</p> +<p>One thing there is that I must have preached continually in all my +pulpits and expounded and illustrated and enforced in all my lectureships, +said Emmanuel, and that is, my new example and my new law of <i>motive</i>. +My own motives always made me in all I said and did to be well-pleasing +in My Father’s eyes, and at any cost I must have preachers and +lecturers set up in Mansoul who shall assist Me in making Mansoul as +well-pleasing in My Father’s sight as I was Myself.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘For I am ware it is the seed of act<br /> +God holds appraising in His hollow palm,<br /> +Not act grown great thence as the world believes,<br /> +Leafage and branchage vulgar eyes admire.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Motives! gnashed Diabolus. And he tore his last card into a +thousand shreds and cast the shreds under his feet in his rage and exasperation. +Motives! New motives! Truly Thou art the threatened Seed +of the woman! Truly Thou art the threatened Son of God!—Let +all our preachers, then, preach much on motive to their people. +The commonplace crowd of their people will not all like that preaching +any more than Diabolus did; but their best people will all afterwards +rise up in their salvation and bless them for it. On reformation +also, let them every Sabbath preach, but only on the reformation that +rises out of a reformed motive, and that again out of a reformed heart. +And if a reformed motive, a reformed heart, and a reformed life are +found both by preacher and hearer to be impossible; if all that only +brings out the hopelessness of their salvation by reason of the guilt +and the pollution and power of sin; then all that will only be to them +that same ever deeper entering of the law into their hearts which led +Paul to an ever deeper faith and trust in Jesus Christ. With a +guilt, and a pollution, and a slavery to sin like ours, salvation from +sin would be absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible, that +is, but for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. But with His atoning blood +and His Holy Spirit all things are possible—even our salvation.</p> +<p>Let us choose, then, a minister like Mr. John Menzies. Let +us read the great books that make salvation difficult. Let us +work out our own salvation, day and night, with fear and trembling, +and when Wisdom is justified in her children, we shall be found justified +among them. We shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the +day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of +God to all eternity.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV—MR. PRYWELL</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Search me, O God, and know my heart.’—<i>David</i>.</p> +<p>‘Let a man examine himself.’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +<p>‘Look to yourselves.’—<i>John</i>.</p> +<p>‘Know thyself.’—<i>Apollo</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The year 1668 saw the publication of one of the deepest books in +the whole world, Dr. John Owen’s <i>Remainders of Indwelling Sin +in Believers</i>. The heart-searching depth; the clear, fearless, +humbling truth, the intense spirituality, and the massive and masculine +strength of John Owen’s book have all combined to make it one +of the acknowledged masterpieces of the great Puritan school. +Had John Owen’s style been at all equal to his great learning, +to the depth and the grasp of his mind, and to the lofty holiness of +his life, John Owen would have stood in the very foremost and selectest +rank of apostolical and evangelical theologians. But in all his +books Owen labours under the fatal drawback of a bad style. A +fine style, a style like that of Hooker, or Taylor, or Bunyan, or Howe, +or Leighton, or Law, is such a winning introduction to their works and +such an abiding charm and spell. The full title of Dr. Owen’s +great work runs thus: <i>The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of +the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers</i>—a title that +will tell all true students what awaits them when they have courage +and enterprise enough to address themselves to this supreme and all-essential +subject. Fourteen years after the publication of Dr. Owen’s +epoch-making book, John Bunyan’s <i>Holy War</i> first saw the +light. Equal in scriptural and in experimental depth, as also +in their spiritual loftiness and intensity, those two books are as different +as any two books, written in the same language, and written on the same +subject, could by any possibility be. John Owen’s book is +the book of a great scholar who has read the Fathers and the Schoolmen +and the Reformers till he knows them by heart, and till he has been +able to digest all that is true to Scripture and to experience in them +into his rich and ripe book. A powerful reasoner, a severe, bald, +muscular writer, John Owen in all these respects stands at the very +opposite pole to that of John Bunyan. The author of the <i>Holy +War</i> had no learning, but he had a mind of immense natural sagacity, +combined with a habit of close and deep observation of human life, and +especially of religious life, and he had now a lifetime of most fruitful +experience as a Christian man and as a Christian minister behind him; +and, all that, taken up into Bunyan’s splendid imagination, enabled +him to produce this extraordinarily able and impressive book. +A model of English style as the <i>Holy War</i> is, at the same time +it does not attain at all to the rank of the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i>; +but then, to be second to the <i>Pilgrim’s Progress</i> is reward +and honour enough for any book. Let all genuine students, then, +who would know the best that has been written on experimental religion, +and who would preach to the deepest and divinest experience of their +best people, let them keep continually within their reach John Owen’s +<i>Temptation</i>, his <i>Mortification of Sin in Believers</i>, his +<i>Nature and Power of Indwelling Sin</i>, and John Bunyan’s <i>Holy +War made for the Regaining of the Metropolis of this World</i>.</p> +<p>Well, then, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was one +whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul. And he, +as his manner was, did go listening up and down in Mansoul to see and +hear, if at any time he might, whether there was any design against +it or no. For he was always a jealous man, and feared some mischief +would befall it, either from within or from some power without. +Mr. Prywell was always a lover of Mansoul, a sober and a judicious man, +a man that was no tattler, nor a raiser of false reports, but one that +loves to look into the very bottom of matters, and talks nothing of +news but by very solid arguments. And then, after our historian +has told us some of the eminent services that Mr. Prywell was able to +perform both for the King and for the city, he goes on to tell us how +the captains determined that public thanks should be given by the town +of Mansoul to Mr. Prywell for his so diligent seeking of the welfare +of the town; and, further, that, forasmuch as he was so naturally inclined +to seek their good, and also to undermine their foes, they gave him +the commission of Scoutmaster-general for the good of Mansoul. +And Mr. Prywell managed his charge and the trust that Mansoul had put +into his hands with great conscience and good fidelity; for he gave +himself wholly up to his employ, and that not only within the town, +but he also went outside of the town to pry, to see, and to hear. +Now, that being so, it may interest and perhaps instruct you to-night +to look for a little at some of the features and at some of the feats +of the Scoutmaster-general of the Holy War, Mr. Prywell, of the town +of Mansoul.</p> +<p>1. ‘Well, now, as He who dwells on high would have it, +there was one whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of the town +of Mansoul.’ In other words: self-observation, self-examination, +strict, jealous, sleepless self-examination, is of God. Our God +who searches our hearts and tries our reins would have it so. +And if He does not have it so in us, our souls are not as our God would +have them to be. ‘Bunyan employs <i>pry</i>,’ says +Miss Peacock in her excellent notes, ‘in a more favourable sense +than it now bears. As, for instance, it is said in another part +of this same book that the men of Mansoul were allowed to <i>pry</i> +into the words of the Holy Ghost and to expound them to their best advantage. +Honest anxiety for the welfare of his fellow-townsmen was Mr. Prywell’s +chief characteristic. <i>Pry</i> is another form of <i>peer</i>—to +look narrowly, to look closely.’ And God, says John Bunyan, +would have it so.</p> +<p>2. ‘A great lover of Mansoul,’ ‘always a +lover of Mansoul’; again and again that is testified concerning +Mr. Prywell. It was not love for the work that led Mr. Prywell +to give up his days and his nights as his history tells us he did. +Mr. Prywell ran himself into many dangerous situations both within and +without the city, and he lost himself far more friends than he made +by his devotion to his thankless task. But necessity was laid +upon him. And what held him up was the sure and certain knowledge +that his King would have that service at his hands. That, and +his love for the city, for the safety and the deliverance of the city,—all +that kept Mr. Prywell’s heart fixed. Am I therefore your +enemy? he would say to some who would have had it otherwise than the +King would have it. But it is a good thing to be zealously affected +in a work like mine, he would say, in self-defence and in self-encouragement. +And then, though not many, there were always some in the city who said, +Let him smite me and it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me and +it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head. It +was in Mansoul with Mr. Prywell as it was in Kidderminster with Richard +Baxter, when some of his people said to one another, ‘We will +take all things well from one that we know doth entirely love us.’ +‘Love them,’ said Augustine, ‘and then say anything +you like to them.’ Now, that was Mr. Prywell’s way. +He loved Mansoul, and then he said many things to her that a false lover +and a flatterer would never have dared to say.</p> +<p>3. Then, as the saying is, it goes without saying that ‘Mr. +Prywell was always a jealous man.’ Great lovers are always +jealous men, and Mr. Prywell showed himself to be a great lover by the +great heat of his jealousy also. ‘Vigilant,’ says +the excellent editress again; ‘cautious against dishonour, reasonably +mistrustful—low Latin <i>zelosus</i>, full of zeal. “And +he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.”’ +Now, it so happened that some of Mr. Prywell’s most private and +not at all professional papers—papers evidently, and on the face +of them, connected with the state of the spy’s own soul—came +into my hands as good lot would have it just the other night. +The moth-eaten chest was full of his old papers, but the pieces that +took my heart most were, as it looked to me, actually gnashed through +with his remorseful teeth, and soaked and sodden past recognition with +his sweat and his tears and his agonising hands. But after some +late hours over those remnants I managed to make some sense to myself +out of them. There are some parts of the parchments that pass +me; but, if only to show you that this arch-spy’s so vigilant +jealousy was not all directed against other people’s bad hearts +and bad habits, I shall copy some lines out of the old box. ‘Have +I penitence?’ he begins without any preface. ‘Have +I grief, shame, pain, horror, weariness for my sin? Do I pray +and repent, if not seven times a day as David did, yet at least three +times, as Daniel? If not as Solomon, at length, yet shortly as +the publican? If not like Christ, the whole night, at least for +one hour? If not on the ground and in ashes, at least not in my +bed? If not in sackcloth, at least not in purple and fine linen? +If not altogether freed from all, at least from immoderate desires? +Do I give, if not as Zaccheus did, fourfold, as the law commands, with +the fifth part added? If not as the rich, yet as the widow? +If not the half, yet the thirtieth part? If not above my power, +yet up to my power?’ And then over the page there are some +illegible pencillings from old authors of his such as this from Augustine: +‘A good man would rather know his own infirmity than the foundations +of the earth or the heights of the heavens.’ And this from +Cicero: ‘There are many hiding-places and recesses in the mind.’ +And this from Seneca: ‘You must know yourself before you can amend +yourself. An unknown sin grows worse and worse and is deprived +of cure.’ And this from Cicero again: ‘Cato exacted +from himself an account of every day’s business at night’; +and also Pythagoras,</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Nor let sweet sleep upon thine eyes descend<br /> +Till thou hast judged its deeds at each day’s end.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And this from Seneca again: ‘When the light is removed out +of sight, and my wife, who is by this time aware of my practice, is +now silent, I pass the whole of my day under examination, and I review +my deeds and my words. I hide nothing from myself: I pass over +nothing.’ And then in Mr. Prywell’s boldest and least +trembling hand: ‘O yes! many shall come from the east and the +west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom +of heaven, when many of the children of the kingdom shall be cast out. +O yes.’ Now, this ‘O yes!’ Miss Peacock tells +us, is the Anglicised form of a French word for our Lord’s words, +Take heed how ye hear!</p> +<p>4. ‘A sober and a judicious man’ it is said of +Mr. Prywell also. To a certainty that. It could not be otherwise +than that. For Mr. Prywell’s office, its discoveries and +its experiences, would sober any man. ‘I am sprung from +a country,’ says Abelard, ‘of which the soil is light, and +the temper of the inhabitants is light.’ So was it with +Mr. Prywell to begin with. But even Abelard was sobered in time, +and so was Mr. Prywell. Life sobered Abelard, and Mr. Prywell +too; life’s crooks and life’s crosses, life’s duties +and life’s disappointments, especially Mr. Prywell. ‘The +more narrowly a man looks into himself,’ says À Kempis, +‘the more he sorroweth.’ Not sober-mindedness alone +comes to him who looks narrowly into himself, but great sorrow of heart +also. And if you are not both sobered in your mind and full of +an unquenchable sorrow in your heart, O yes! attend to it, for you are +not yet begun to be what God would have you to be. Dr. Newman, +with all his mistakes and all his faults, was a master in two things: +his own heart and the English language. And in writing home to +his mother a confidential letter from college on his birthday, he confides +to her that he often ‘shudders at himself.’ ‘No,’ +he answered to his mother’s fears and advices about food and air +and exercise: ‘No, I am neither nervous, nor in ill-health, nor +do I study too much. I am neither melancholy, nor morose, nor +austere, nor distant, nor reserved, nor sullen. I am always cheerful, +ready and eager to join in any merriment. I am not clouded with +sadness, nor absent in mind, nor deficient in action. No; take +me when I am most foolish at home and extend mirth into childishness; +yet all the time I am shuddering at myself.’ There spake +the future author of the immortal sermons. There spake a mind +and a heart that have deepened the minds and the hearts of Christian +men more than any other influence of the century; a mind and a heart, +moreover, that will shine and beat in our best literature and in our +deepest devotion for centuries to come. You must all know by this +time another classical passage from the pen of another spiritual genius +in the Church of England, that greatly gifted church. Let me repeat +it to illustrate how sober-mindedness and great sorrow of heart always +come to the best of men. ‘Let any man consider that if the +world knew all that of him which he knows of himself; if they saw what +vanity and what passions govern his inside, and what secret tempers +sully and corrupt his best actions; and he would have no more pretence +to be honoured and admired for his goodness and wisdom than a rotten +and distempered body is to be loved and admired for its beauty and comeliness. +And, perhaps, there are very few people in the world who would not rather +choose to die than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their +judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their pretences, +the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, their uneasinesses, +hatreds, envies, and vexations made known to the world. And shall +pride be entertained in a heart thus conscious of its own miserable +behaviour?’ No wonder that Mr. Prywell was sober-minded! +No wonder that Dr. Newman shuddered at himself! And no wonder +that William Law chose strangling and the pond rather than that any +other man should see what went on in his heart!</p> +<p>5. And as if all that were not enough, and more than enough, +to commend Mr. Prywell to us—to our trust, to our confidence, +and to our imitation—his royal certificate continues, ‘One +that looks into the very bottom of matters, and talks nothing of news, +but by very solid arguments.’ The very bottom of matters—that +is, the very bottom of his own and other men’s hearts. Mr. +Prywell counts nothing else worth a wise man’s looking at. +Let fools and children look at the painted and deceitful surface of +things, but let men, men of matters, and especially men of divine matters, +look only at their own and other men’s hearts. The very +bottom of all matters is there. All wars, all policies, all debates, +all disputes, all good and all evil counsels, all the much weal and +all the multitudinous woe of Mansoul—all have their bottom in +the heart; in the heart of God, or in the heart of man, or in the heart +of the devil. The heart is the root of absolutely every matter +to Mr. Prywell. He would not waste one hour of any day, or one +watch of any night, on anything else. And it was this that made +him both the extraordinarily successful scout he was, and the extraordinarily +sober and thoughtful and judicious man he was. O yes, my brethren, +the bottom of matters, when you take to it, will work the same change +in you. ‘Two things,’ says one who had long looked +at his own matters with Mr. Prywell’s eyes—‘two things, +O Lord, I recognise in myself: nature, which Thou hast made, and sin, +which I have added.’ My brethren, that recognition, that +discovery in yourselves, when it comes to you, will sober you as it +has sobered so many men before you: when it comes to you, that is, about +yourselves. That discovery made in yourselves will make you deep-thinking +men. It will make common men and unlearned men among you to be +philosophers and theologians and saints. It will work in you a +thoughtfulness, a seriousness, a depth, an awe, a holy fear, and a great +desire that will already have made you new creatures. When, in +examining yourselves and in characterising yourselves, you come on what +some clear-eyed men have come on in themselves, and what one of them +has described as ‘the diabolical animus of the human mind’—when +you make that discovery in yourselves, that will sober you, that will +humble you and fill you full of remorse and compunction. And if +in God’s grace to you, that were to begin to be wrought in you +this week, there would be one, at any rate, eating of that bread next +Lord’s day, and drinking of that cup as God would have it.</p> +<p>6. ‘A man that is no tattler, nor raiser of false reports, +and that talks nothing of news, but by very solid arguments.’ +Mr. Prywell was more taken up with his own matters at home, far more +than the greatest busybodies are with other men’s matters abroad. +His name, I fear, will still sound somewhat ill in your ears, but I +can assure you all the ill for you lies in the sound. Mr. Prywell +would not hurt a hair of your head: the truth is, he does not know whether +there is a hair on your head or no. This man’s name comes +to him and sticks to him, not because he pries into your affairs, for +he does not, and never did, but because he is so drawn down into his +own. Mr. Prywell has no eye for your windows and he has no ear +for your doors. If your servant is a leaky slave, Prywell, of +all your neighbours, has no ear for his idle tales. This man is +no eavesdropper; your evil secrets have only a sobering and a saddening +and a silencing effect upon him. Your house might be full of skeletons +for anything he would ever discover or remember. The beam in his +own eye is so big that he cannot see past it to speak about your small +mote. ‘The inward Christian,’ says À Kempis, +‘preferreth the care of himself before all other cares. +He that diligently attendeth to himself can easily keep silence concerning +other men. If thou attendest unto God and unto thyself, thou wilt +be but little moved with what thou seest abroad.’ At the +same time, Mr. Prywell was no fool, and no coward, and no hoodwinked +witness. He could tell his tale, when it was demanded of him, +with such truth, and with such punctuality, and on such ample grounds, +that a conviction of the truth instantly fell on all who heard him. +‘Sirs,’ said those who heard him break silence, ‘it +is not irrational for us to believe it,’ with such solid arguments +and with such an absence of mere suspicion and of all idle tales did +he speak. On one occasion, on a mere ‘inkling,’ he +woke up the guard; only, it was so true an inkling that it saved the +city. But I cannot follow Mr. Prywell any further to-night. +How he went up and down Mansoul listening; how he kept his eyes and +his ears both shut and open; what splendid services he performed in +the progress, and specially toward the end, of the war; how the thanks +of the city were voted to him; how he was made Scoutmaster-general for +the good of the town of Mansoul, and the great conscience and good fidelity +with which he managed that great trust—all that you will read +for yourselves under this marginal index, ‘The story of Mr. Prywell.’</p> +<p>Now, my brethren, as the outcome of all that, we must all examine +ourselves as before God all this week. We must wait on His word +and on His providences while they examine us all this week. We +must pry well into ourselves all this week. Come, let us compel +ourselves to do it. Let us search and try our ways all this week +as we shall give an account. Let us ask ourselves how many Communion +tables we have sat at, and at how many more we are likely to sit. +Let us ask why it is that we have got so little good out of all our +Communions. Let us ask who is to blame for that, and where the +blame lies. Let us go to the bottom of matters with ourselves, +and compel ourselves to say just what it is that is the cause of God’s +controversy with us. What vow, what solemn promise, made when +trouble was upon us, have we completely cast behind our back? +What about secret prayer? At what times, for what things, and +for what people do we in secret pray? What about secret sin? +What is its name, and what does it deserve, and what fruit are we already +reaping out of it? What is our besetting sin, and what steps do +we take, as God knows, to crucify it? Do we love money too much? +Do we love praise too much? Do we love eating and drinking too +much? Does envy make our heart a very hell? Let us name +the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him. Let +us mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of this +Communion season. Or is it diabolical ill-will? Or is it +a wicked tongue against an unsuspecting friend? Let us examine +ourselves as Paul did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do it, +and we shall discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were to put +words on them to-night, you would stop your ears in horror and flee +out of the church. Let a man see himself at least as others see +him; and then he will be led on from that to see himself as God sees +him; and then he will judge himself so severely as that he shall not +need to be judged at the Judgment Day, and will condemn himself so sufficiently +as that he shall not be condemned with a condemned world at the last.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI—YOUNG CAPTAIN SELF-DENIAL</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself +and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’—<i>Our Lord</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Now the siege was long, and many a fierce attempt did the +enemy make upon the town, and many a shrewd brush did some of the townsmen +meet with from the enemy, especially Captain Self-denial, to whose care +both Ear-gate and Eye-gate had been intrusted. This Captain Self-denial +was a young man, but stout, and a townsman in Mansoul. This young +captain, therefore, being a hardy man, and a man of great courage to +boot, and willing to venture himself for the good of the town, he would +now and then sally out upon the enemy; but you must think this could +not easily be done, but he must meet with some sharp brushes himself, +and, indeed, he carried several of such marks on his face, yea, and +some on some other parts of his body.’ Thus, Bunyan. +I shall now go on to-night to offer you some annotations and some reflections +on this short but excellent history of young Captain Self-denial.</p> +<p>1. Well, to begin with, this Captain Self-denial was still +a young man. ‘And, now, it comes into my mind, said Goodman +Gains after supper, I will tell you a story well worth the hearing, +as I think. There were two men once upon a time that went on pilgrimage; +the one began when he was young and the other began when he was old. +The young man had strong corruptions to grapple with, whereas the old +man’s corruptions were decayed with the decays of nature. +The young man trod his steps as even as did the old one, and was every +way as light as he; who, now, or which of them, had their graces shining +clearest, since both seemed to be alike? Why, the young man’s, +doubtless, answered Mr. Honest. For that which heads against the +greatest opposition gives best demonstration that it is strongest. +A young man, therefore, has the advantage of the fairest discovery of +a work of grace within him. And thus they sat talking till the +break of day.’</p> +<p>Now, I have taken up Captain Self-denial to-night because the young +men and I are to begin a study to-night to which I was first attracted +because it taught me lessons about myself, and about self-denial, and +thus about both a young man’s and an old man’s deepest and +most persistent corruptions—lessons such as I have never been +taught in any other school. In all my philosophical, theological, +moral, and experimental reading, so to describe it, I have never met +with any school of authors for one moment to be compared with the great +evangelical mystics, especially when they treat of self, self-love, +self-denial, the daily cross, and all suchlike lessons. Take the +great doctrinal and experimental Puritans, such as John Owen, Thomas +Goodwin, Richard Baxter, John Howe, and Jonathan Edwards, and add on +to them the greatest and best mystics, such as Jacob Behmen, Thomas +À Kempis, Francis Fénelon, Jeremy Taylor, Samuel Rutherford, +Robert Leighton, and William Law, and you will have the profoundest, +the most complete, the most perfect, and, I will add, the most fascinating +and enthralling of spiritual teaching in all the world. And I +will be bold enough to promise you that if you will but join our Young +Men’s Class to-night, and will buy and read our mystical books, +and will resolve to put in practice what you hear and read in the class, +I will promise you, I say, that by the end of our short session you +will not only be ten times more open and hospitably-minded men, but +also ten times more spiritually-minded men, ten times more Christ-like +men, and with your joy in Christ and His joy in you all but full.</p> +<p>2. The Captain Self-denial was a young man, and he was also +a townsman in Mansoul. Young Self-denial and one other were all +of Emmanuel’s captains who were townsmen in Mansoul. All +his other captains Emmanuel had brought with him; but the Captains Self-denial +and Experience were both born and reared to their full manhood in that +besieged city. ‘A townsman.’ How much there +is for us all in that one word! How much instruction! How +much encouragement! How much caution and correction! Our +greatest grace; our most essential and indispensable grace; our most +experimental and evidential grace; that grace, indeed, without which +all our other graces are but specious shows and painted surfaces of +graces; that grace into which our Lord here gathers up all our other +graces;—that greatest of graces cannot be imputed, imported, or +introduced; it must be born, bred, exercised, reared up to its full +maturity, and sent forth to fight and to conquer, and all within the +walls of its own native town; in short, our self-denial must have its +beginning and middle and end in our own heart. Antinomians there +were, as our Puritan fathers nicknamed all those persons who glorified +Christ by letting Him do all things for them, both His own things and +their things too, both their justification and their sanctification +too. And there are many good but ill-instructed men among ourselves +who have just this taint of that old heresy cleaving to them still—this +taint, namely, that they are tempted to carry over the suretyship and +substitutionary work of Christ into such regions, and to carry it to +such lengths in those regions, as, practically, to make Christ to minister +to their soft and sinful living, and to their excuse and indulgence +of themselves. I will put it squarely and plainly to some of my +very best friends here to-night. Is it not the case, now, that +you do not like this direction into which this text, and the truth of +this text, are now travelling? Is it not so that you shift back +in your seat from the approaching cross? Is it not the very and +actual fact that you have secret ways of sin, secret habits of self-indulgence +in your body and in your soul, in your mind and in your heart, secret +sins that you mantle over with the robe of Christ’s righteousness? +His spotless and imputed righteousness? In your present temper +you would have disliked deeply the Sermon on the Mount had you heard +it; and I see you shaking your head over your Sabbath-day dinner at +this text when it was first spoken. Lay this down for a law, all +my brethren,—a New Testament and a never-to-be-abrogated law,—that +the best and the safest religion for you is that way of religion that +is hardest on your pride, on your self-importance, on your self-esteem, +as well as on your purse and on your belly. You are not likely +to err by practising too much of the cross. You may very well +have too much of the cross of Christ preached to you, and too little +of your own. Why! did not Christ die for me? you indignantly say. +Yes; so He did. But only that you might die too. He was +crucified, and so must you be crucified every day before one single +drop of His sin-atoning blood shall ever be wasted on You. Be +not deceived: the cross is not mocked; for only as a man nails himself, +body and soul, to the cross every day shall he ever be saved from sin +and death and hell by means of it. And, exactly as a man denies +himself—no more and no less—his appetites, his passions, +his thoughts and words and deeds, every day and every hour of every +day, just so much shall He who searches our hearts and sees us in secret, +acknowledge us, both every day now, and at the last day of all.</p> +<p>3. This same Captain Self-denial, his history goes on, was +stout, he was an hardy man also, and a man of great courage. Stout +and hardy and of great courage at home, that is; in his own mind and +heart, soul and body, that is. Young Captain Self-denial was a +perfect hero at saying No! and at saying No! to himself. It is +a proverb that there is nothing so difficult as to say that monosyllable. +And the proverb is Scripture truth if you try to say No! to yourself. +It takes the very stoutest of hearts, the most noble, the most manly, +the most soldierly, and the most saintly of hearts to say No! to itself, +and to keep on saying No! to itself to the bitter end of every trial +and temptation and opportunity. I remember reading long ago a +page or two of a medical man’s diary. And in it he made +a confession and an appeal I have never forgot; though, to my loss, +I have not always acted upon it. He said that for many years he +had never been entirely well. He had constant headaches and depressions, +and it was seldom that he was not to some extent out of sorts. +But, all the time, he had a shrewd guess within himself as to what was +the matter with him. He felt ashamed to confess it even to himself +that he over-ate himself every day at table; till, at last, summoning +up all divine and human help, he determined that, however hungry he +was, and however savoury the dish was, and however excellent the wine +was, he would never either ask for or accept a second helping. +And this was his testimony, that from that stout and hardy day he grew +better in health daily; ‘my head became clear, my eye bright, +my complexion pure, my mind and feelings were redeemed from all clouds +and depressions. And to-day I am a younger man at fifty than I +was at thirty.’ Now, if just saying No! to himself and to +the waiter at table did work such a new birth in a confirmed gourmand +of middle life, what would it not have wrought for him had he carried +his answer stoutly and courageously through all the other parts of his +body and soul?—as perhaps he did. Perhaps, having tasted +the sweet beginnings of salvation, he carried his short and sure regimen +through. If he has done so, let him give us his full autobiography. +What a blessed, what a priceless book it would be!</p> +<p>4. Stout Captain Self-denial was commanded to begin his life +as an officer in Emmanuel’s army by taking especial watch over +Ear-gate and Eye-gate; and at our last accounts of our abstemious doctor +he had only got the length of Mouth-gate. But having begun so +well with those three great outposts of the soul, if those two trusty +officers only held on, and played the man courageously enough, they +would soon be promoted to still more important, still more central, +and, if more difficult and dangerous, then also much more honourable +and remunerative posts. Appetite, deep and deadly as its evils +are, is, after all, only an outwork of the soul; and the same sharp +knife that the epicure and the sot in all their stages must put to their +throat, that same knife must be made to draw blood in all parts of their +mind and their heart, in their will and in their imagination, till a +perfect chorus of self-denials rings like noblest martial music through +all the gates, and streets, and fortresses, and strongholds, and very +palaces and temples of the soul. I shall here stand aside and +let the greatest of the English mystics speak to you on this present +point. ‘When we speak of self-denial,’ he says, in +his <i>Christian Perfection</i>, ‘we are apt to confine it to +eating and drinking: but we ought to consider that, though a strict +temperance be necessary in these things, yet that these are the easiest +and the smallest instances of self-denial. Pride, vanity, self-love, +covetousness, envy, and other inclinations of the like nature call for +a more constant and a more watchful self-denial than the appetites of +hunger and thirst. And till we enter into this course of universal +self-denial we shall make no progress in real piety, but our lives will +be a ridiculous mixture of I know not what; sober and covetous, proud +and devout, temperate and vain, regular in our forms of devotion and +irregular in all our passions, circumspect in little modes of behaviour +and careless and negligent of tempers the most essential to piety. +And thus it will necessarily be with us till we lay the axe to the root +of the tree, till we deny and renounce the whole corruption of our nature, +and resign ourselves up entirely to the Spirit of God, to think and +speak and act by the wisdom and the purity of religion.’</p> +<p>5. Stout as Captain Self-denial was, and notable alarms and +some brisk execution as he did upon the enemy, yet he must meet with +some brushes himself; indeed, he carried several of the marks of such +brushes on his face as well as on some other parts of his body. +If I had read in his history that Young Captain Self-denial had left +his mark upon his enemies, I would have said, Well done, and I would +have added that I always expected as much. But it is far more +to my purpose to read that he had not always got himself off without +wounds that left lasting scars both where they were seen of all, and +where they were seen and felt only by Self-denial himself. And +not Self-denial only, but even Paul, in our flesh, and with like passions +with us, had the same experience and has left us the same record. +‘I keep my body under’: so our emasculated English version +makes us read it. But the visual image in the masterly original +Greek is not so mealy-mouthed. I box and buffet myself day and +night, says Paul. I play the truculent tyrant over a lewd and +lazy slave. I hit myself blinding blows on my tenderest part. +I am ashamed to look at myself in the glass, for all under my eyes I +am black and blue. If David, after the matter of Uriah, had done +that to himself, and even more than that, we would not have wondered; +we would have expected it, and we would have said, It is no more than +we would have done ourselves. But that a spotless, gentle, noble +soul like Paul should so have mangled himself,—that quite dumfounders +us. If Paul, then, who, touching the righteousness which is in +the law, was blameless, had to handle himself in that manner in order +to keep himself blameless, shall any young man here hope to escape temptation +without such blows at himself as shall leave their mark on him all his +days? Nay, not only so, but after Self-denial had thus exercised +himself and subdued himself, still his enemy sometimes got such an advantage +over him as left him as his history here describes him. All which +is surely full of the most excellent heartening to all who read, in +earnest and for an example, his fine history.</p> +<p>6. The last and crowning exploit of our matchless captain was +to capture, and execute, and quarter, and hang up on a gallows at the +market-cross, the head and the hands and the feet of his oldest, most +sworn, and most deadly enemy, one Self-love. So stout and so insufferable +was our captain in the matter of Self-love that when it was proposed +by some of his many influential friends and high-in-place relations +in the city that the judgment of the court-martial on Self-love should +be deferred, our stout soldier with the cuts on his face and in some +other parts of his body stood up, and said that the city and the army +must make up their mind either to relieve him of his sword, hacked and +broken off as it was, or else to execute the law upon Self-love on the +spot. I will lay down my commission this very day, he said, with +an extraordinary indignation. Many rich men in the city, and many +men deep in the King’s service, muttered mutinous things when +their near relative was hurried to the open cause-way, but by that time +the soldiers of Self-denial’s company had brained Self-love with +the butts of their muskets. And it was the stand that our captain +made in the matter of Self-love that at last lifted the young soldier +where many had felt he should have been lifted long ago. From +that day he was made a lord, a military peer, and an adviser of the +crown and the crown officers in all the deepest counsels concerning +Mansoul. Only, with the cloak and the coronet of Self-denial the +present history all but comes to an end. For, before the outcast +remains of Self-love had mouldered to their dust on the city gate, the +King’s chariot had descended into the street, had ascended up +to the palace at the head of the street, and a new age of the city life +had begun, the full history of which has yet to be told.</p> +<p>Remain behind, then, and begin with us to-night, all you young men. +You cannot begin this lifelong study and this lifelong pursuit of self-denial +too early. For, even if you begin to read our books and to practise +our discipline in your very boyhood, when you are old men and very saints +of God you will feel that your self-love is still so full of life and +power, that your self-denial has scarcely begun. Ah, me! men: +both old and young men. Ah, me! what a life’s task set us +of God it is to make us a new heart, to cleanse out an unclean heart, +to lay in the dust a proud heart, and to keep a heart at all times, +and in all places, and toward all people, with all diligence! +Who is sufficient for these things?</p> +<p>‘Now was Christian somewhat in a maze. But at last, when +every man started back for fear, Christian saw a man of a very stout +countenance come up to him that sat there with the inkhorn to write, +saying, Set down my name, sir! At which there was a pleasant voice +heard from those that were within, even of those who walked upon the +top of that place, saying,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Come in, come in:<br /> +Eternal glory thou shalt win.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Then Christian smiled, and said: I think, verily, that I know the +meaning of all this now.’</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII—FIVE PICKT MEN</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘I took wise men and known and made them captains.’—<i>Moses</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>John Bunyan never lost his early love for a soldier’s life +any more than he ever forgot the rare delights of his bell-ringing days. +John Bunyan, all his days, never saw a bell-rope that his fingers did +not tingle, and he never saw a soldier in uniform without instinctively +shouldering his youthful musket. Bunyan was one of those rare +men who are of imagination all compact; and consequently it is that +all his books are full of the scenes, the occupations, and the experiences +of his early days. Not that he says very much, in as many words, +about what happened to him in the days when he was a soldier; it is +only once in all his many books that he says that when he was a soldier +such and such a thing happened to him. At the same time, all his +books bear the impress of his early days upon them; and as for this +special book of Bunyan’s now open before us, it is full from board +to board of the strife and the din of his early battles. The <i>Holy +War</i> is just John Bunyan’s soldierly life spiritualised—spiritualised +and so worked up into this fine English Classic.</p> +<p>Well, then, after Mansoul was taken and reduced, the victorious Prince +determined so to occupy the town with His soldiers that it should never +again either be taken by force from without, or ever again revolt by +weakness or by fear from within. And with this view He chose out +five of His best captains—My five pickt men, He always called +them—and placed those five captains and their thousands under +them in the strongholds of the town. On the margin of this page +our versatile author speaks of that step of Emmanuel’s in the +language of a philosopher, a moralist, and a divine. ‘Five +graces,’ he says, ‘pickt out of an abundance of common virtues.’ +This summing-up sentence stands on his stiff and dry margin. But +in the rich and living flow of the text itself our author goes on writing +like the man of genius he is. With all the warmth and colour and +dramatic movement of which this whole book is full, this great writer +goes on to set those five choice captains of our salvation before us +in a way that we shall never forget.</p> +<p>1. ‘The first was that famous captain, the noble Captain +Credence. His were the red colours, and Mr. Promise bare them. +And for a scutcheon he had the Holy Lamb and the golden shield; and +he had ten thousand men at his feet.’ Now, this same Captain +Credence from first to last of the war always led the van both within +and around Mansoul. In ordinary and peaceful days; in days of +truce and parley; when the opposite armies were laid up in their winter +quarters, or were, for any cause, drawn off from one another, some of +the other captains might be more in evidence. But in every exploit +to be called an exploit; in every single enterprise of danger; when +any new position was to be taken up, or any forlorn hope was to be led, +there, in the very van of labour and of danger, was sure to be seen +Captain Credence with his blood-red colours in his own hand. You +understand your Bunyan by this time, my brethren? Captain Credence, +your little boy at school will tell you, is just the soldier-like faith +of your sanctification. <i>Credo</i>, he will tell you, is ‘I +believe’; it is to have faith in God and in the word of God. +You will borrow your Latin from your little boy, and then you will pay +him back by telling him how Captain Credence has always led the van +in your soul. You will tell him and show him what a wonderful +writer on the things of the soul John Bunyan is, till you make John +Bunyan one of your son’s choicest authors for all his days. +You will do this if you will tell him how and when this same Captain +Credence with his crimson colours first led the van in your salvation. +You will tell him this with more and more depth and more and more plainness +as year after year he reads his <i>Holy War</i>, and better and better +understands it, till he has had it all fulfilled in himself as a pickt +captain and good soldier of Jesus Christ. You will tell him about +yourself, till, at this forlorn hope in his own life, and at that sounded +advance, in some new providence and in some new duty; in this commanded +attack on an inwardly entrenched enemy, and in that resolute assault +on some battlement of evil habit, he recollects his noble, confiding, +and loving father and plays the man again, and that all the more if +only for his father’s sake. Ask your son what he knows and +what you do not know, and then as long as his heart and his ear are +open tell him what you know and what you have by faith come through, +and that will be a priceless possession to him, especially when he is +put in possession of it by you.</p> +<p>Well on toward the end of the war, the Captain Credence had so acquitted +himself that he was summoned one day to the Prince’s quarters, +when the following colloquy ensued: ‘What hath my Lord to say +to His servant?’ And then, after a sign or two of favour, +it was said to him: ‘I have made thee lieutenant over all the +forces in Mansoul; so that, from this day forward, all men in Mansoul +shall be at thy word; and thou shalt be he that shall lead in and that +shall lead out Mansoul. And at thy command shall all the rest +of the captains be.’ My brethren, you will have the whole +key to all that in yourselves if this same war has gone this length +in you. Faith, your faith in God, and in the word of God, will, +as this inward war goes on, not only lead the van in your heart and +in your life, but just because your faith so leads in all things, and +is so fitted to lead in all things, it will at last be lifted up and +set over your soul, and all the things of your soul, till nothing shall +be done in any of the streets, or gates, or walls thereof that faith +in God and in His word does not first allow and admit. And then, +when it has come to that within you, that is the best mind, that is +the safest, the happiest, and the most heavenly mind that you can attain +to in this present life; and when faith shall thus lead and rule over +all things in thy soul, be thou always ready, for thy speedy translation +to a still better life is just at the door.</p> +<p>2. ‘The second was that famous captain, Good-hope. His +were the blue colours. His standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation, +and for a scutcheon he had three golden anchors; and he had ten thousand +men at his feet.’ The time was, my brethren, when all your +hopes and mine were as yet anchored without the veil. But all +that is now changed. We still hope, in a mild kind of way, for +this thing and for that in this present life; but only in a mild kind +of way. It would not be right in us not to look forward, say, +from spring-time to summer, and from summer to harvest. If the +husbandman had not hope in the former and in the latter rain he would +not sow; and as it is with the husbandman so it is with us all: so ought +it to be, and so it must be. But we say God willing! all the time +that we plot and plan and hope. And we say God willing! no longer +with a sigh, but, now, always with a smile. In His will is our +tranquillity, we say, and we know that if it is not His will that this +and that slightly anchored hope should be fulfilled, then that only +means that all our hopes, to be called hopes, are soon to be realised. +Our green and salad days in the matter of hope are for ever past. +If we had it all absolutely secured to us that this world is still promising +to its salad dupes, it would not come within a thousand miles of satisfying +our hearts. Whether the hopes of our hearts are to be fulfilled +within the veil or no, that remains to be seen; but all the things without +the veil taken together do not any longer even pretend to promise a +hope to hearts like ours. Our Forerunner has carried away our +hearts with Him. We have no heart left for any one but Him, or +for anything without or within the veil that He is not and is not in. +And till that hope also has made us ashamed,—till He and His promises +have failed us like all the rest,—we are going to anchor our hearts +on that, and on that only, which we believe is with Him within the veil. +If our Forerunner also disappoints us; if we enter where He is, only +to find that He is not there; or that, though there, He is not able +to satisfy our hope in Him, and make us like Himself, then we shall +be of all men the most miserable. But not till then. No; +not till then. And thus it is that Captain Good-hope has his billet +in our heart; thus it is that his blue colours float over our house; +and thus it is that his three golden anchors are blazing out in all +their beauty on the best wall of our earthly house.</p> +<p>3. ‘The third was that valiant captain, the Captain Charity. +His standard-bearer was Mr. Pitiful, and for his scutcheon he had three +naked orphans embraced in his bosom; and he also had ten thousand men +at his feet.’ O Charity! O valiant and pitiful Charity! +Divine-natured and heavenly-minded Charity! When wilt thou come +and dwell in my heart? When, by thine indwelling, shall I be able +to love my neighbour, and all my neighbours, as myself? When, +in thy strength, shall I cease from repining at my neighbour’s +good; and when shall I cease secretly rejoicing over his evil? +When shall I by thee renewing me, be made able to cease in everything +from seeking first my own will and my own way; my own praise and my +own glory? When shall it be as much my new nature to love my neighbour +as it is now my old nature to hate him? When shall I cease to +be so soon angry, and hard, and bitter, and scornful, and unrelenting, +and unforgiving? When shall my neighbour’s presence, his +image, and his name always call up only love and honour, good-will and +affectionate delight? When and where shall I, under thee, feel +for the last time any evil of any kind in my heart against my brother? +Oh! to see the day when I shall suffer long and be kind! When +I shall never again vaunt myself or be puffed up! When I shall +bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things! +O blessed, blessed Charity! with thy divine heart, with thy dove-like +eyes, and with thy bosom full of pity, when wilt thou come into my sinful +heart and bring all heaven in with thee! O Charity! till thou +so comest I shall wait for thee. And, till thou comest, thy standard-bearer +shall be my door porter, and thy scutcheon shall hang night and day +at my door-post!</p> +<p>4. ‘The fourth captain was that gallant commander, the +Captain Innocent. His standard-bearer was Mr. Harmless; his were +the white colours, and for his scutcheon he had three golden doves.’ +My brethren, how well it would have been with us to-day if we had always +lived innocently! Had we only been innocent of that man’s, +and that man’s, and that man’s, and that man’s hurt! +(Let us name all the men to ourselves.) How many men have we, +first and last, hurt! Some intentionally, and some unintentionally; +some deliberately, and some only by accident; some of malice, and some +only of misfortune; some innocently and unknowingly, and whom we never +properly hurt. Some, also, by our mere existence; some by our +best actions; some because we have helped and not hurt others; and some +out of nothing else but the pure original devilry of their own evil +hearts. And then, when we take all these men home to our hearts, +what hearts all these men give us! Who, then, is the man here +who has done to other men the most hurt? Who has caused or been +the occasion of most hurt? Let that so unhappy man just think +that the gallant commander, the Captain Innocent himself, with his white +colours and with his golden doves, is standing and knocking at your +evil door. O unhappy man! By all the hurt and harm you have +ever done—by all that you can never now undo—by those spotless +colours that are still snow and not yet scarlet as they wave over you—by +those three golden doves that are an emblem of the life that still lies +open before you, as well as an invitation to you to enter on that life—why +will you die of remorse and despair? Open the door of your heart +and admit Captain Innocent. He knows that of all hurtful men on +the face of the earth you are the most hurtful, but he is not on that +account afraid at you; indeed, it is on that account that he has come +so near to you. By admitting him, by enlisting under him, by serving +under him, some of the most hurtful and injurious men that ever lived +have lived after to be the most innocent and the most harmless of men, +with their hands washed every day in innocency, and with three golden +doves as the scutcheon of their new nature and their Christian character. +Oh come into my heart, Captain Innocent; there is room in my heart for +thee!</p> +<p>5. ‘And then the fifth was that truly royal and well-beloved +captain, the Captain Patience. His standard-bearer was Mr. Suffer-long, +and for a scutcheon he had three arrows through a golden heart.’ +Three arrows through a golden heart! Most eloquent, most impressive, +and most instructive of emblems! First, a heart of gold, and then +that heart of gold pierced, and pierced, and then pierced again with +arrow after arrow. Patience was the last of Emmanuel’s pickt +graces. Captain Patience with his pierced heart always brought +up the rear when the army marched. But when Captain Patience and +Mr. Suffer-long did enter and take up their quarters in any house in +Mansoul,—then was there no house more safe, more protected, more +peaceful, more quietly, sweetly, divinely happy than just that house +where this loyal and well-beloved captain bore in his heart. Entertain +patience, my brethren. Practise patience, my brethren. Make +your house at home a daily school to you in which to learn patience. +Be sure that you well understand the times, the occasions, the opportunities, +and the invitations of patience, and take profit out of them; and thus +both your profit and that of others also will be great. Tribulation +worketh patience. Endure tribulation, then, for the sake of its +so excellent work. Nothing worketh patience like tribulation, +and therefore it is that tribulation so abounds in the lives of God’s +people. So much does tribulation abound in the lives of God’s +people that they are actually known in heaven and described there by +their experience of tribulation. ‘These are they which came +out of great tribulation, and therefore are they before the throne.’ +These are they with the three sharp arrows shot through and through +their hearts of gold.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII—MR. DESIRES-AWAKE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘One thing have I desired.’—<i>David</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul. +There were two very mean cottages in Mansoul, and those two cottages +stood beside one another and leaned upon one another and held one another +up. Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in the one of those cottages and Mr. +Wet-eyes in the other. And those two mendicant men were wont to +meet together for secret prayer, when Mr. Desires-awake would put a +rope upon his head, while Mr. Wet-eyes would not be able to speak for +wringing his hands in tears all the time. Many a time did those +two meanest and most despised of men deliver that city, according to +the proverb of the Preacher: Wisdom is better than strength, and the +words of wisdom are to be heard in secret places, where wisdom is far +better than weapons of war. Why should I not do all for them and +the best I can? said Mr. Desires-awake when the men of Mansoul came +to him in their extremity. I will even venture my life again for +them at the pavilion of the Prince. And accordingly this mean +man put his rope upon his head, as was his wont, and went out to the +Prince’s tent and asked the reformades if he might see their Master. +Then the Prince, coming to the place where the petitioner lay on the +ground, demanded what his name was and of what esteem he was in Mansoul, +and why he, of all the multitudes of Mansoul, was sent out to His Royal +tent on such an errand. Then said the man to the Prince standing +over him, he said: Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou +after the name of such a dead dog as I am? Pass by, I pray Thee, +and take not notice of who I am, because there is, as Thou very well +knowest, so great a disproportion between Thee and me. For my +part, I am out of charity with myself; who, then, should be in love +with me? Yet live I would, and so would I that my townsmen should; +and because both they and myself are guilty of great transgressions, +therefore they have sent me, and I have come in their names to beg of +my Lord for mercy. Let it please Thee, therefore, to incline to +mercy; but ask not who Thy servant is. All this, and how Mr. Desires-awake +and Mr. Wet-eyes sped in their petition, is to be read at length in +the Holy History. And now let us take down the key that hangs +in our author’s window and go to work with it on the sweet mystery +of Mr. Desires-awake.</p> +<p>1. Well, then, to begin with, this poor man’s name need +not delay us long seeking it out. In shorter time, and with surer +success than I could give you the dictionary root of his name, if you +will look within you will all see the visual image of this poor man’s +name in your own heart. For our hearts are all as full as they +can hold of all kinds of desires; some good and some bad, some asleep +and some awake, some alive and some dead, some raging like a hundred +hungry lions, and some satisfied as a sleeping child. Well, then, +this mean man was called Mr. Desires-awake, and what his desires were +awake after and set upon we have already seen in his head-dress and +heard in his prayer. His house, on the other hand, will not be +so well known. For it was less a house than a hut—a hut +hidden away out of sight and back behind Mr. Wet-eyes’ hut. +Mr. Desires-awake’s cottage was so mean and meagre that no one +ever came to visit him unless it was his next-door neighbour. +They never left their cottages, those two poor men, unless it was to +see one another; or, strange to tell, unless it was to go out at the +city gate to see and to speak with their Prince. And at such times +their venturesomeness both astonished themselves and amused their Prince. +Sometimes he laughed to see them back at his door again; but more often +he wept to see and hear them; all which made the guards of his pavilion +to wonder who those two strange men might be. And thus it was +that if at any long interval of time any of the men of the city desired +to see Mr. Desires-awake, he was sure to be found at the pavilion door +of his Prince, or else in his neighbour’s cottage, or else at +home in his own. From year’s end to year’s end you +might look in vain for either of those two poor men in the public resorts +of Mansoul. When all the town was abroad on holidays and fair-days +and feast-days, those two mean men were then closest at home. +And when the booths of the town were full of all kinds of wares and +merchandise, and all the greens in the town were full of games, and +plays, and cheats, and fools, and apes, and knaves, only those two penniless +men would abide shut up at home. At home; or else together they +would go to a market-stance set up by their Prince outside the walls +where one was stationed to stand and to cry: ‘Ho! every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money. Wherefore +do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that +which satisfieth not? Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and +your soul shall live.’ And sometimes the Prince would go +out in person to meet the two men with nothing to pay, and would Himself +say to them, I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, and +white raiment, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, till the two men, +Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes, would go home to their huts laden +with their Prince’s free gifts and royal bounties.</p> +<p>2. But, with all that, Mr. Desires-awake never went out to +his Prince’s pavilion till he had again put his rope upon his +head. And, however laden with royal presents he ever returned +to his mean cottage, he never laid aside his rope. He ate in his +rope, he slept in his rope, he visited his next-door neighbour in his +rope, till the only instruction he left behind him was to bury him in +a ditch, and be sure to put his rope upon his head. The men and +the boys of the town jeered at Mr. Desires-awake as he passed up their +streets in his rope, and the very mothers in Mansoul taught their children +in arms to run after him and to cry, Go up, thou roped head! Go +up, thou roped head! We be free men, the men of the town called +after him; and we never were in bondage to any man’. Out +with him; out with him! He is beside himself. Much repentance +hath made him mad! But through all that Mr. Desires-awake was +as one that heard them not. For Mr. Desires-awake was full of +louder voices within. The voices within his bosom quite drowned +the babel around him. The voices within called him far worse names +than the streets of the city ever called him; till all he could do was +to draw his rope down upon his head and press on again to the Prince’s +pavilion. You understand about that rope, my brethren, do you +not? Mr. Desires-awake’s continual rope? In old days +when a guilty man came of his own accord to the judge to confess himself +deserving of death, he would put a rope upon his head. And that +rope as much as said to the judge and to all men—the miserable +man as good as said: This is my desert. This is the wages of my +sin. I justify my judge. I judge myself. I hereby +do myself to death. And it was this that so angered the happy +holiday-makers of Mansoul. For they forgave themselves. +They justified themselves. They put a high price upon themselves. +Humiliation and sorrow for sin was not in all their thoughts; and they +hated and hunted back into his hut the humble man whose gait and garb +always reminded them of their past life and of their latter end. +But for all they could do, Mr. Desires-awake would wear his rope. +My soul chooseth strangling rather than sin, he would say. My +sin hath found me out, he would say; I hate myself, he would say, because +of my sin. I condemn and denounce myself. I hang myself +up with this rope on the accursed tree. And thus it was that while +other men were crucifying their Prince afresh, Mr. Desires-awake was +crucifying himself with and after his Prince. And thus it was +that while the men and the women of the town so hated and so mocked +Mr. Desires-awake, his Prince so loved and so honoured him.</p> +<p>3. ‘Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou +after the name of such a dead dog as I am?’ said Desires-awake +to his Prince. ‘Behold, now, I have taken upon me to speak +unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes,’ said Abraham. +‘If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so +clean, yet shalt thou plunge me into the ditch, and mine own clothes +shall abhor me,’ said Job. ‘My wounds stink and are +corrupt; my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is +no soundness in my flesh,’ said David. ‘But we are +all as an unclean thing,’ said Isaiah, ‘and all our righteousnesses +are as filthy rags.’ ‘I am the chief of sinners,’ +said the apostle. ‘Hold your peace; I am a devil and not +a man,’ said Philip Neri to his sons. ‘I am a sinner, +and worse than the chief of sinners, yea, a guilty devil,’ said +Samuel Rutherford. ‘I hated the light; I was a chief—the +chief of sinners,’ said Oliver Cromwell. ‘I was more +loathsome in my own eyes than a toad,’ said John Bunyan. +‘Sin and corruption would as naturally bubble out of my heart +as water would bubble out of a fountain. I could have changed +hearts with anybody. I thought none but the devil himself could +equal me for wickedness and pollution of mind.’ ‘O +Despise me not,’ said Bishop Andrewes, ‘an unclean worm, +a dead dog, a putrid corpse. The just falleth seven times a day; +and I, an exceeding sinner, seventy times seven. Me, O Lord, of +sinners chief, chiefest, and greatest.’ And William Law, +‘An unclean worm, a dead dog, a stinking carcass. Drive, +I beseech Thee, the serpent and the beast out of me. O Lord, I +detest and abhor myself for all these my sins, and for all my abuse +of Thine infinite mercy.’ From all this, then, you will +see that this dead dog of ours with the rope upon his head was no strange +sight at Emmanuel’s pavilion. And you and I shall still +be in the same saintly succession if we go continually with his words +in our mouth, and with his instrument in our hands and on our heads.</p> +<p>4. ‘The Prince to whom I went,’ said Mr. Desires-awake, +‘is such a one for beauty and for glory that whoso sees Him must +ever after both love and fear Him. I, for my part,’ he said, +‘can do no less; but I know not what the end will be of all these +things.’ What made Mr. Desires-awake say that last thing +was that when he was prostrate in his prayer the Prince turned His head +away, as if He was out of humour and out of patience with His petitioner; +while, all the time, the overcome Prince was weeping with love and with +pity for Desires-awake. Only that poor man did not see that, and +would not have believed that even if he had seen it. ‘I +cannot tell what the end will be,’ said Desires-awake; ‘but +one thing I know, I shall never be able to cease from both loving and +fearing that Prince. I shall always love Him for His beauty and +fear Him for His glory.’ Can you say anything like that, +my brethren? Have you been at His seat with sackcloth, and a rope, +and ashes, and tears, and prayers, like Abraham, and David, and Isaiah, +and Paul, and John Bunyan, and Bishop Andrewes? And, whatever +may be the end, do you say that henceforth and for ever you must both +love and fear that Prince? ‘Though He slay me,’ said +Job, ‘yet I shall both love and trust Him.’ Well, +the Prince is the Prince, and He will take both His own time and His +own way of taking off your rope and putting a chain of gold round your +neck, and a new song in your mouth, as He did to Job. There may +be more weeping yet, both on your side and on His before He does that; +but He will do it, and He will not delay an hour that He can help in +doing it. Only, do you continue and increase to love His beauty, +and to fear His glory. And that of itself will be reward and blessing +enough to you. Nay, once you have seen both His beauty and His +glory, then to lie a dog under His table, and to beg at His door with +a rope on your head to all eternity would be a glorious eternity to +you. Samuel Rutherford said that to see Christ through the keyhole +once in a thousand years would be heaven enough for him. Christ +wept in heaven as Rutherford wrote that letter in Aberdeen, and if you +make Him weep in the same way He will soon make you to laugh too. +He will soon make you to laugh as Samuel Rutherford and Mr. Desires-awake +are laughing now. Only, my brethren, answer this—Are your +desires awakened indeed after Jesus Christ? You know what a desire +is. Your hearts are full to the brim of desires. Well, is +there one desire in a day in your heart for Christ? In the multitude +of your desires within you, what share and what proportion go out and +up to Christ? You know what beauty is. You know and you +love the beauty of a child, of a woman, of a man, of nature, of art, +and so on. Do you know, have you ever seen, the ineffable beauty +of Christ? Is there one saint of God here,—and He has many +saints here—is there one of you who can say with David in the +text, One thing do I desire? There should be many so desiring +saints here; for Christ’s beauty is far better and far fairer, +far more captivating, far more enthralling, and far more satisfying +to us than it could be to David. Shall we call you Desires-awake, +then, after this? Can you say—do you say, One thing do I +desire, and that is no thing and no person, no created beauty and no +earthly sweetness, but my one desire is for God: to be His, and to be +like Him, and to be for ever with Him? Then, it shall soon all +be. For, what you truly desire,—all that you already are; +and what you already are,—all that you shall soon completely and +for ever be. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is +none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart +faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.</p> +<p>‘As for me,’ says the great-hearted, the hungry-hearted +Psalmist, ‘I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.’ +One would have said that David had all that heart could desire even +before he fell asleep. For he had a throne, the throne of Israel, +and a son, a son like Solomon to sit upon it. A long life also, +full to the brim of all kinds of temporal and spiritual blessings. +Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth +all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy +life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender +mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth +is renewed like the eagle’s. All that, and yet not satisfied! +O David! David! surely Desires-awake is thy new name! One of our +own poets has said:—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘All thoughts, all passions, all delights,<br /> + Whatever stirs this mortal frame,<br /> +All are but ministers of Love,<br /> + And feed His sacred flame.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now, if that is true, as it is true, even of earthly and ephemeral +love, how much more true is it of the love that is in the immortal soul +of man for the everlasting God? And what a blessed life that already +is when all things that come to us—joy and sorrow, good and evil, +nature and grace, all thoughts, all passions, all delights—are +all but so many ministers to our soul’s desire after God, after +the Divine Likeness and for the Beatific Vision.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Oh! Christ, He is the Fountain,<br /> + The deep sweet Well of Love!<br /> +The streams on earth I’ve tasted,<br /> + More deep I’ll drink above;<br /> +There, to an ocean fulness,<br /> + His mercy doth expand;<br /> +And glory—glory dwelleth<br /> + In Emmanuel’s land.’</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX—MR. WET-EYES</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Oh that my head were waters!’—<i>Jeremiah</i>.</p> +<p>‘Tears gain everything.’—<i>Teresa</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now Mr. Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go on this errand, +besought that they would grant that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with him. +Now this Mr. Wet-eyes was a near neighbour of Mr. Desires-awake, a poor +man, and a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak well to +a petition; so they granted that he should go with him. Wherefore +the two men at once addressed themselves to their serious business. +Mr. Desires-awake put his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes went +with his hands wringing together. Then said the Prince, And what +is he that is become thy companion in this so weighty a matter? +So Mr. Desires-awake told Emmanuel that this was a poor neighbour of +his, and one of his most intimate associates. And his name, said +he, may it please your most excellent Majesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town +of Mansoul. I know that there are many of that name that are naught, +said he; but I hope it will be no offence to my Lord that I have brought +my poor neighbour with me. Then Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face +to the ground, and made this apology for his coming with his neighbour +to his Lord:—</p> +<p>‘Oh, my Lord,’ quoth he, ‘what I am I know not +myself, nor whether my name be feigned or true, especially when I begin +to think what some have said, and that is that this name was given me +because Mr. Repentance was my father. But good men have sometimes +bad children, and the sincere do sometimes beget hypocrites. My +mother also called me by this name of mine from my cradle; but whether +she said so because of the moistness of my brain, or because of the +softness of my heart, I cannot tell. I see dirt in mine own tears, +and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers. But I pray Thee (and +all this while the gentleman wept) that Thou wouldst not remember against +us our transgressions, nor take offence at the unqualifiedness of Thy +servants, but mercifully pass by the sin of Mansoul, and refrain from +the magnifying of Thy grace no longer.’ So at His bidding +they arose, and both stood trembling before Him.</p> +<p>1. ‘His name, may it please your Majesty, is Wet-eyes, +of the town of Mansoul. I know, at the same time, that there are +many of that name that are naught.’ Naught, that is, for +this great enterprise now in hand. And thus it was that Mr. Desires-awake +in setting out for the Prince’s pavilion besought that Mr. Wet-eyes +might go with him. Mr. Desires-awake felt keenly how much might +turn on who his companion was that day, and therefore he took Mr. Wet-eyes +with him. David would have made a most excellent associate for +Mr. Desires-awake that day. ‘I am weary with my groaning; +all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.’ +And again, ‘Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they +keep not Thy law.’ This, then, was the only manner of man +that Mr. Desires-awake would stake his life alongside of that day. +‘I have seen some persons weep for the loss of sixpence,’ +said Mr. Desires-awake, ‘or for the breaking of a glass, or at +some trifling accident. And they cannot pretend to have their +tears valued at a bigger rate than they will confess their passion to +be when they weep. Some are vexed for the dirtying of their linen, +or some such trifle, for which the least passion is too big an expense. +And thus it is that a man cannot tell his own heart simply by his tears, +or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of sorrow.’ +Well, then, my brethren, tell me, Do you think that Mr. Desires-awake +would have taken you that day to the pavilion door? Would his +head have been safe with you for his associate? Your associates +see many gusts in your heart. Do they ever see your eyes red because +of your sin? Did you ever weep so much as one good tear-drop for +pure sin? One true tear: not because your sins have found you +out, but for secret sins that you know can never find you out in this +world? And, still better, do you ever weep in secret places not +for sin, but for sinfulness—which is a very different matter? +Do you ever weep to yourself and to God alone over your incurably wicked +heart? If not, then weep for that with all your might, night and +day. No mortal man has so much cause to weep as you have. +Go to God on the spot, on every spot, and say with Bishop Andrewes, +who is both Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes in one, say with that +deep man in his <i>Private Devotions</i>, say: ‘I need more grief, +O God; I plainly need it. I can sin much, but I cannot correspondingly +repent. O Lord, give me a molten heart. Give me tears; give +me a fountain of tears. Give me the grace of tears. Drop +down, ye heavens, and bedew the dryness of my heart. Give me, +O Lord, this saving grace. No grace of all the graces were more +welcome to me. If I may not water my couch with my tears, nor +wash Thy feet with my tears, at least give me one or two little tears +that Thou mayest put into Thy bottle and write in Thy book!’ +If your heart is hard, and your eyes dry, make something like that your +continual prayer.</p> +<p>2. ‘A poor-man,’ said Mr. Desires-awake, about +his associate. ‘Mr. Wet-eyes is a poor man, and a man of +a broken spirit.’ ‘Let Oliver take comfort in his +dark sorrows and melancholies. The quantity of sorrow he has, +does it not mean withal the quantity of sympathy he has, and the quantity +of faculty and of victory he shall yet have? Our sorrow is the +inverted image of our nobleness. The depth of our despair measures +what capability and height of claim we have to hope. Black smoke, +as of Tophet, filling all your universe, it can yet by true heart-energy +become flame, and the brilliancy of heaven. Courage!’</p> +<blockquote><p>‘This is the angel of the earth,<br /> +And she is always weeping.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>3. ‘A poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, and yet +one that can speak well to a petition.’ Yes; and you will +see how true that eulogy of Mr. Wet-eyes is if you will run over in +your mind the outstanding instances of successful petitioners in the +Scriptures. As you come down the Old and the New Testaments you +will be astonished and encouraged to find how prevailing a fountain +of tears always is with God. David with his swimming bed; Jeremiah +with his head waters; Mary Magdalene over His feet with her welling +eyes; Peter’s bitter cry all his life long as often as he heard +a cock crow, and so on. So on through a multitude whose names +are written in heaven, and who went up to heaven all the way with inconsolable +sorrow because of their sins. They took words and turned to the +Lord; but,—better than the best words,—they took tears, +or rather, their tears took them. The best words, the words that +the Holy Ghost Himself teacheth, if they are without tears, will avail +nothing. Even inspired words will not pass through; while, all +the time, tears, mere tears, without words, are omnipotent with God. +Words weary Him, while tears overcome and command Him. He inhabits +the tears of Israel. Therefore, also, now, saith the Lord, turn +ye unto Me with all your heart, and with weeping and with mourning. +And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your +God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, +and repenteth Him of the evil. It is the same with ourselves. +Tears move us. Tears melt us. We cannot resist tears. +Even counterfeit tears, we cannot be sure that they are not true. +And that is the main reason why our Lord is so good at speaking to a +petition. It is because His whole heart, and all the moving passions +of His heart, are in His intercessory office. It is because He +still remembers in the skies His tears, His agonies, and cries. +It is because He is entered into the holiest with His own tears as well +as with His own blood. And it is because He will remain and abide +before the Father the Man of Sorrows till our last petition is answered, +and till God has wiped the last tear from our eyes. When He was +in the coasts of Cæsarea-Philippi, our Lord felt a great curiosity +to find out who the people thereabouts took Him to be. And it +must have touched His heart to be told that some men had insight enough +to insist that He was the prophet Jeremiah come back again to weep over +Jerusalem. He is Elias, said some. No; He is John the Baptist +risen from the dead, said others. No, no; said some men who saw +deeper than their neighbours. His head is waters, and His eyes +are a fountain of tears. Do you not see that He so often escapes +into a lodge in the wilderness to weep for our sins? No; He is +neither John nor Elijah; He is Jeremiah come back again to weep over +Jerusalem! And even an apostle, looking back at the beginning +of our Lord’s priesthood on earth, says that He was prepared for +His office by prayers and supplications, and with strong crying and +tears. From all that, then, let us learn and lay to heart that +if we would have one to speak well to our petitions, the Man of Sorrows +is that one. And then, as His remembrancers on our behalf, let +us engage all those among our friends who have the same grace of tears. +But, above all, let us be men of tears ourselves. For all the +tears and all the intercessions of our great High Priest, and all the +importunings of our best friends to boot, will avail us nothing if our +own eyes are dry. Let us, then, turn back to Bishop Andrewes’s +prayer for the grace of tears, and offer it every night with him till +our head, like his, is holy waters, and till, like him, we get beauty +for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for +the spirit of heaviness.</p> +<p>4. ‘Clear as tears’ is a Persian proverb when they +would praise their purest spring water. But Mr. Wet-eyes has from +henceforth spoiled the point of that proverb for us. ‘I +see,’ he said, ‘dirt in mine own tears, and filthiness in +the bottom of my prayers.’ Mr. Wet-eyes is hopeless. +Mr. Wet-eyes is intolerable. Mr. Wet-eyes would weary out the +patience of a saint. There is no satisfying or pacifying or ever +pleasing this morbose Mr. Wet-eyes. The man is absolutely insufferable. +Why, prayers and tears that the most and best of God’s people +cannot attain to are spurned and spat upon by Mr. Wet-eyes. The +man is beside himself with his tears. For, tears that would console +and assure us for a long season after them, he will weep over them as +we scarce weep over our worst sins. His closet always turns all +his comeliness to corruption. He comes out of his closet after +all night in it with his psalm-book wrung to pulp, and with all his +righteousnesses torn to filthy rags; till all men escape Mr. Wet-eyes’ +society—all men except Mr. Desires-awake. I will go out +on your errand now, said Mr. Desires-awake, if you will send Mr. Wet-eyes +with me. And thus the two twin sons of sorrow for sin and hunger +after holiness went out arm in arm to the great pavilion together, Mr. +Desires-awake with his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes with his +hands wringing together. Thus they went to the Prince’s +pavilion. I gave you a specimen of one of Mr. Wet-eyes’ +prayers in the introduction to this discourse, and you did not discover +much the matter with it, did you? You did not discover much filthiness +in the bottom of that prayer, did you? I am sure you did not. +Ah! but that is because you have not yet got Mr. Wet-eyes’ eyes. +When you get his eyes; when you turn and employ upon yourselves and +upon your tears and upon your prayers his always-wet eyes,—then +you will begin to understand and love and take sides with this inconsolable +soul, and will choose his society rather than that of any other man—as +often, at any rate, as you go out to the Prince’s pavilion door.</p> +<p>5. ‘Mr. Repentance was my father, but good men sometimes +have bad children, and the most sincere do sometimes beget great hypocrites. +But, I pray Thee, take not offence at the unqualifiedness of Thy servant.’ +Take good note of that uncommon expression, ‘unqualifiedness,’ +in Mr. Wet-eyes’ confession, all of you who are attending to what +is being said. Lay ‘unqualifiedness’ to heart. +Learn how to qualify yourselves before you begin to pray. In his +fine comment on the 137th Psalm, Matthew Henry discourses delightfully +on what he calls ‘deliberate tears.’ Look up that +raciest of commentators, and see what he there says about the deliberate +tears of the captives in Babylon. It was the lack of sufficient +deliberation in his tears that condemned and alarmed Mr. Wet-eyes that +day. He felt now that he had not deliberated and qualified himself +properly before coming to the Prince’s pavilion. Do not +take up your time or your thoughts with mere curiosities, either in +your Bible or in any other good book, says À Kempis. Read +such things rather as may yield compunction to your heart. And +again, give thyself to compunction, and thou shalt gain much devotion +thereby. Mr. Wet-eyes, good and true soul, was afraid that he +had not qualified himself enough by compunctious reading and self-recollection. +The sincere, he sobbed out, do often beget hypocrites! ‘Our +hearts are so deceitful in the matter of repentance,’ says Jeremy +Taylor, ‘that the masters of the spiritual life are fain to invent +suppletory arts and stratagems to secure the duty.’ Take +not offence at the lack of all such suppletory arts and stratagems in +thy servant, said poor Wet-eyes. All which would mean in the most +of us: Take not offence at my rawness and ignorance in the spiritual +life, and especially in the life of inward devotion. Do not count +up against me the names and the numbers and the prices of my poems, +and plays, and novels, and newspapers, and then the number of my devotional +books. Compare not my outlay on my body and on this life with +my outlay on my soul and on the life to come. Oh, take not mortal +offence at the shameful and scandalous unqualifiedness of Thy miserable +servant. My father and my mother read the books of the soul, but +they have left behind them a dry-eyed reprobate in me! Say that +to-night as you look around on the grievous famine of the suppletory +arts and stratagems of repentance and reformation in your heathenish +bedroom.</p> +<p>Spiritual preaching; real face to face, inward, verifiable, experimental, +spiritual preaching; preaching to a heart in the agony of its sanctification; +preaching to men whose whole life is given over to making them a new +heart—that kind of preaching is scarcely ever heard in our day. +There is great intellectual ability in the pulpit of our day, great +scholarship, great eloquence, and great earnestness, but spiritual preaching, +preaching to the spirit—‘wet-eyed’ preaching—is +a lost art. At the same time, if that living art is for the present +overlaid and lost, the literature of a deeper spiritual day abides to +us, and our spiritually-minded people are not confined to us, they are +not dependent on us. Well, this is the Communion week with us +yet once more. Will you not, then, make it the beginning of some +of the suppletory arts and stratagems of the spiritual life with yourselves? +I cannot preach as I would like on such subjects, but I can tell you +who could, and who, though dead, yet speak by their immortal books. +You have the wet-eyed psalms; but they are beyond the depth of most +people. Their meaning seems to us on the surface, and we all read +and sing them, but let us not therefore think that we understand them. +I cannot compel you to read the books, and to read little else but the +books, that would in time, and by God’s blessing, lead you into +the depths of the psalms; but I can wash my hands so far in making their +names so many household words among my people. The <i>Way to Christ</i>, +the <i>Imitation of Christ</i>, the <i>Theologia Germanica</i>, Tauler’s +<i>Sermons</i>, the <i>Mortification of Sin</i>, and <i>Indwelling Sin +in Believers</i>, the <i>Saint’s Rest</i>, the <i>Holy Living +and Dying</i>, the <i>Privata Sacra</i>, the <i>Private Devotions</i>, +the <i>Serious Call</i>, the <i>Christian Perfection</i>, the <i>Religious +Affections</i>, and such like. All that, and you still unqualified! +All that, and your eyes still dry!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX—MR. HUMBLE THE JURYMAN, AND MISS HUMBLE-MIND THE +SERVANT-MAID</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.’—<i>Our +Lord</i>.</p> +<p>‘Be clothed with humility.’—<i>Peter</i>.</p> +<p>‘God’s chiefest saints are the least in their own eyes.’—<i>À +Kempis</i>.</p> +<p>‘Without humility all our other virtues are but vices.’—<i>Pascal</i>.</p> +<p>‘Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves +than we deserve.’—<i>Law</i>.</p> +<p>‘Humility lies close upon the heart, and its tests are exceedingly +delicate and subtle.’—<i>Newman</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Our familiar English word ‘humility’ comes down to us +from the Latin root <i>humus</i>, which means the earth or the ground. +Humility, therefore, is that in the mind and in the heart of a man which +is low down even to the very earth. A humble-minded man may not +have learning enough to know the etymology of the name which best describes +his character, but the divine nature which is in him teaches him to +look down, to walk meekly and softly, and to speak seldom, and always +in love. For humility, while it takes its lowly name from earth, +all the time has its true nature from heaven. Humility is full +of all meekness, modesty, submissiveness, teachableness, sense of inability, +sense of unworthiness, sense of ill-desert. Till, with that new +depth and new intensity that the Scriptures and religious experience +have given to this word, as to so many other words, humility, in the +vocabulary of the spiritual life, has come to be applied to that low +estimate of ourselves which we come to form and to entertain as we are +more and more enlightened about God and about ourselves; about the majesty, +glory, holiness, beauty, and blessedness of the divine nature, and about +our own unspeakable evil, vileness, and misery as sinners. And, +till humility has come to rank in Holy Scripture, and in the lives and +devotions of all God’s saints, as at once the deepest root and +the ripest fruit of all the divine graces that enter into, and, indeed, +constitute the life of God in the heart of man. Humility, evangelical +humility, sings Edwards in his superb and seraphic poem the <i>Religious +Affections</i>,—evangelical humility is the sense that the true +Christian has of his own utter insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, +a sense which is peculiar to the true saint. But to compensate +the true saint for this sight and sense of himself, he has revealed +to him an accompanying sense of the absolutely transcendent beauty of +the divine nature and of all divine things; a sight and a sense that +quite overcome the heart and change to holiness all the dispositions +and inclinations and affections of the heart. The essence of evangelical +humility, says Edwards, consists in such humility as becomes a creature +in himself exceeding sinful, but at the same time, under a dispensation +of grace, and this is the greatest and most essential thing in all true +religion.</p> +<p>1. Well, then, our Mr. Humble was a juryman in Mansoul, and +his name and his nature eminently fitted him for his office. I +never was a juryman; but, if I were, I feel sure I would come home from +the court a far humbler man than I went up to it. I cannot imagine +how a judge can remain a proud man, or an advocate, or a witness, or +a juryman, or a spectator, or even a policeman. I am never in +a criminal court that I do not tremble with terror all the time. +I say to myself all the time,—there stands John Newton but for +the preventing grace of God. ‘I will not sit as a judge +to try General Boulanger, because I hate him,’ said M. Renault +in the French Senate. Mr. Humble himself could not have made a +better speech to the bench than that when his name was called to be +sworn. Let us all remember John Newton and M. Renault when we +would begin to write or to speak about any arrested, accused, found-out +man. Let other men’s arrests, humiliations, accusations, +and sentences only make us search well our own past, and that will make +us ever humbler and ever humbler men ourselves; ever more penitent men, +and ever more prayerful men.</p> +<p>2. And then Miss Humble-mind, his only daughter, was a servant-maid. +There is no office so humble but that a humble mind will not put on +still more humility in it. What a lesson in humility, not Peter +only got that night in the upper room, but that happy servant-maid also +who brought in the bason and the towel. Would she ever after that +night grumble and give up her place in a passion because she had been +asked to do what was beneath her to do? Would she ever leave that +house for any wages? Would she ever see that bason without kissing +it? Would that towel not be a holy thing ever after in her proud +eyes? How happy that house would ever after that night be, not +so much because the Lord’s Supper had been instituted in it, as +because a servant was in it who had learned humility as she went about +the house that night. Let all our servants hold up their heads +and magnify their office. Their Master was once a servant, and +He left us all, and all servants especially, an example that they should +follow in His steps. Peter, whose feet were washed that night, +never forgot that night, and his warm heart always warmed to a servant +when he saw her with her bason and her towels, till he gave her half +a chapter to herself in his splendid First Epistle. ‘Servants, +be subject,’ he said, till his argument rose to a height above +which not even Paul himself ever rose. Servant-maids, you must +all have your own half-chapter out of First Peter by heart.</p> +<p>3. But I have as many students of one kind or other here to-night +as I have maid-servants, and they will remember where a great student +has said that knowledge without love but puffeth a student up. +Now, the best knowledge for us all, and especially so for a student, +is to know himself: his own ignorance, his own foolishness, his blindness +of mind, and, especially, his corruption of heart. For that knowledge +will both keep him from being puffed up with what he already knows, +and it will also put him and keep him in the way of knowing more. +Self-knowledge will increase humility, and all the past masters both +of science and of religion will tell him that humility is the certain +note of the true student. You who are students all know <i>The +Advancement of Learning</i>, just as the servants sitting beside you +all know the second chapter of First Peter. Well, your master +Verulam there tells you, and indeed on every page of his, that it is +only to a humble, waiting, childlike temper that nature, like grace, +will ever reveal up her secrets. ‘There is small chance +of truth at the goal when there is not a childlike humility at the starting-post.’ +Well, then, all you students who would fain get to the goal of science, +make the Church of Christ your starting-post. Come first and come +continually to the Christian school to learn humility, and then, as +long as your talents, your years, and your opportunities hold out, both +truth and goodness will open up to you at every step. Every step +will be a goal, and at every goal a new step will open up. And +God’s smile and God’s blessing, and all good men’s +love and honour and applause will support and reward you in your race. +And, humble-minded to the truth herself, be, at the same time, humble-minded +toward all who like yourself are seeking to know and to do the truth. +A lately deceased student of nature was a pattern to all students as +long as he waited on truth in his laboratory; and even as long as he +remained at his desk to tell the world what he and other students had +discovered in their search. But when any other student in his +search after truth was compelled to cross that hitherto so exemplary +student, he immediately became as insolent as if he had been the greatest +boor in the country. Till, as he spat out scorn at all who differed +from him we always remembered this in À Kempis—‘Surely, +an humble husbandman that serveth God is better than a proud philosopher +that, neglecting himself, laboureth to understand the course of the +heavens. It is great wisdom and perfection to esteem nothing of +ourselves, and to think always well and highly of others.’ +Students of arts, students of philosophy, students of law, students +of medicine, and especially, students of divinity, be humble men. +Labour in humility even more than in your special science. Humility +will advance you in your special science; while, all the time, and at +the end of time, she will be more to you than all the other sciences +taken together. And since I have spoken of À Kempis, take +this motto for all your life out of À Kempis, as the great and +good Fénelon did, and it will guide you to the goal: <i>Ama nescia +et pro nihilo reputari</i>.</p> +<p>4. But of all the men in the whole world it is ministers who +should simply, as Peter says, be clothed with humility, and that from +head to foot. And, first as divinity students, and then as pastors +and preachers, we who are ministers have advantages and opportunities +in this respect quite peculiar and private to ourselves. For, +while other students are spending their days and their nights on the +ancient classics of Greece and Rome, the student who is to be a minister +is buried in the Psalms, in the Gospels, and in the Epistles. +While the student of law is deep in his commentaries and his cases, +the student of divinity is deep in the study of experimental religion. +And while the medical student is full of the diseases of animals and +of men, the theological student is absorbed in the holiness of the divine +nature, and in the plague of the human heart, and, especially, he is +drowned deeper every day in his own. And he who has begun a curriculum +like that and is not already putting on a humility beyond all other +men had better lose no more time, but turn himself at once to some other +way of making his bread. The word of God and his own heart,—yes; +what a sure school of evangelical humility to every evangelically-minded +student is that! And, then, after that, and all his days, his +congregational communion-roll and his visiting-book. Let no minister +who would be found of God clothed and canopied over with humility ever +lose sight of his communion-roll and pastoral visitation-book. +I defy any minister to keep those records always open before him and +yet remain a proud man, a self-respecting, self-satisfied, self-righteous +man. For, what secret histories of his own folly, neglect, rashness, +offensiveness, hot-headedness, self-seeking, self-pleasing vanity, now +puffed up over one man, now cast down and full of gloom over another, +what self-flattery here, and what resentment and retaliation there; +and so on, as only his own eyes and his Divine Master’s eye can +read between every diary line. What shame will cover that minister +as with a mantle when he thinks what the Christian ministry might be +made, and then takes home to himself what he has made it! Let +any minister shut himself in with his communion-roll and his visiting-book +before each returning communion season, and there will be one worthy +communicant at least in the congregation: one who will have little appetite +all that week for any other food but the broken Body and the shed Blood +of his Redeemer. But these are professional matters that the outside +world has nothing to do with and would not understand. Only, let +all young men who would have evangelical humility absolutely secured +and sealed to them,—let them come and be ministers. Just +as all young men who would have any satisfaction in life, any sense +of work well done and worthy of reward, any taste of a goal attained +and an old age earned, let them take to anything in all this world but +the evangelical pulpit and its accompanying pastorate.</p> +<p>5. But humility is not a grace of the pulpit and the pastorate +only. It is not those who are separated by the Holy Ghost to study +the word of God and their own hearts all their life long only, who are +called to put on humility. All men are called to that grace. +There is no acceptance with God for any man without that grace. +There is no approach to God for any man without it. All salvation +begins and ends in it. Would you, then, fain possess it? +Would you, then, fain attain to it? Then let there be no mystery +and no mistake made about it. Would any man here fain get down +to that deep valley where God’s saints walk in the sweet shade +and lie down in green pastures? Well, I warrant him that just +before him, and already under his eye, there is a flight of steps cut +in the hill, which steps, if he will take them, will, step after step, +take him also down to that bottom. The whole face of this steep +and slippery world is sculptured deep with such submissive steps. +Indeed, when a man’s eyes are once turned down to that valley, +there is nothing to be seen anywhere in all this world but downward +steps. Look whichever way you will, there gleams out upon you +yet another descending stair. Look back at the way you came up. +But take care lest the sight turns you dizzy. Look at any spot +you once crossed on your way up, and, lo! every foot-print of yours +has become a descending step. You sink down as you look, broken +down with shame and with horror and with remorse. There are people, +some still left in this world, and some gone to the other world, people +whom you dare not think of lest you should turn sick and lose hold and +hope. There are places you dare not visit: there are scenes you +dare not recall. Lucifer himself would be a humble angel with +his wings over his face if he had a past like yours, and would often +enough return to look at it. And, then, not the past only, but +at this present moment there are people and things placed close beside +you, and kept close beside you, and you close beside them, on divine +purpose just to give you continual occasion and offered opportunity +to practise humility. They are kept close beside you just on purpose +to humiliate you, to cut out your descending steps, to lend you their +hand, and to say to you: Keep near us. Only keep your eye on us, +and we will see you down! And then, if you are resolute enough +to look within, if you are able to keep your eye on what goes on in +your own heart like heart—beats, then, already, I know where you +are. You are under all men’s feet. You are ashamed +to lift up your eyes to meet other men’s eyes. You dare +not take their honest hands. You could tell Edwards himself things +about humiliation now that would make his terribly searching and humbling +book quite tame and tasteless.</p> +<p>Come, then, O high-minded man, be sane, be wise. If you were +up on a giddy height, and began to see that certain death was straight +and soon before you, what would you do? You know what you would +do. You would look with all your eyes for such steps as would +take you safest down to the solid ground. You would welcome any +hand stretched out to help you. You would be most attentive and +most obedient and most thankful to any one who would assure you that +this is the right way down. And you would keep on saying to yourself—Once +I were well down, no man shall see me up here again. Well, my +brethren, humiliation, humility, is to be learned just in the same way, +and it is to be learned in no other way. He who would be down +must just come down. That is all. A step down, and another +step down, and another, and another, and already you are well down. +A humble act done to-day, a humble word spoken to-morrow; humiliation +after humiliation accepted every day that you would at one time have +spurned from you with passion; and then your own vile, hateful, unbearable +heart-all that is ordained of God to bring you down, down to the dust; +and this last, your own heart, will bring you down to the very depths +of hell. And thus, after all your other opportunities and ordinances +of humility are embraced and exhausted, then the plunges, the depths, +the abysses of humility that God will open up in your own heart will +all work in you a meetness for heaven and a ripeness for its glory, +that shall for ever reward you for all that degradation and shame and +self-despair which have been to you the sure way and the only way to +everlasting life.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI—MASTER THINK-WELL, THE LATE AND ONLY SON OF OLD +MR. MEDITATION</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.’—<i>A +Proverb</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was a truly delightful sight to see old Mr. Meditation and his +only son, our little Think-well, out among the woods and hedgerows of +a summer afternoon. Little Think-well was the son of his father’s +old age. That dry tree used to say to himself that if ever he +was intrusted with a son of his own, he would make his son his most +constant and his most confidential companion all his days. And +so he did. The eleventh of Deuteronomy had become a greater and +greater text to that childless man as he passed the mid-time of his +days. ‘Therefore,’ he used to say to himself, as he +walked abroad alone, and as other men passed him with their children +at their side—‘Therefore ye shall teach them to your children, +speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest +by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And +thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon thy +gates.’ And thus it was that, as the little lad grew up, +there was no day of all the seven that he so much numbered and waited +for as was that sacred day on which his father was free to take little +Think-well by the hand and lead him out to talk to him. ‘No,’ +said an Edinburgh boy to his mother the other day—‘No, mother,’ +he said, ‘I have no liking for these Sunday papers with their +poor stories and their pictures. I am to read the Bible stories +and the Bible biographies first.’ He is not my boy. +I wish my boys were all like him. ‘And Plutarch on week-days +for such a boy,’ I said to his mother. How to keep a decent +shred of the old sanctification on the modern Sabbath-day is the anxious +inquiry of many fathers and mothers among us. My friend with her +manly-minded boy, and Mr. Meditation with little Think-well had no trouble +in that matter.</p> +<blockquote><p> ‘And once I +said,<br /> +As I remember, looking round upon those rocks<br /> +And hills on which we all of us were born,<br /> +That God who made the Great Book of the world<br /> +Would bless such piety;—<br /> +Never did worthier lads break English bread:<br /> +The finest Sunday that the autumn saw,<br /> +With all its mealy clusters of ripe nuts,<br /> +Could never keep those boys away from church,<br /> +Or tempt them to an hour of Sabbath breach,<br /> +Leonard and James!’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Think-well and that mother’s son.</p> +<p>Old Mr. Meditation, the father, was sprung of a poor but honest and +industrious stock in the city. He had not had many talents or +opportunities to begin with, but he had made the very best of the two +he had. And then, when the two estates of Mr. Fritter-day and +Mr. Let-good-slip were sequestered to the crown, the advisers of the +crown handed over those two neglected estates to Mr. Meditation to improve +them for the common good, and after him to his son, whose name we know. +The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord, and He delighteth in +his way. I have been young and now am old; yet have I not seen +the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.</p> +<p>Now, this Think-well old Mr. Meditation had by Mrs. Piety, and she +was the daughter of the old Recorder. ‘I am Thy servant,’ +said Mrs. Piety’s son on occasion all his days—‘I +am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid.’ And at that +so dutiful acknowledgment of his a long procession of the servants of +God pass up before our eyes with their sainted mothers leaning on the +arms of their great sons. The Psalmist and his mother, the Baptist +and his mother, our Lord and His mother, the author of the Fourth Gospel +and his mother, Paul’s son and successor in the gospel and his +mother and grandmother, the author of <i>The Confessions</i> and his +mother; and, in this noble connection, I always think of Halyburton +and his good mother. And in this ennobling connection you will +all think of your own mother also, and before we go any further you +will all say, I also, O Lord, am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid. +‘Fathers and mothers handle children differently,’ says +Jeremy Taylor. And then that princely teacher of the Church of +Christ Catholic goes on to tell us how Mrs. Piety handled her little +Think-well which she had borne to Mr. Meditation. After other +things, she said this every night before she took sleep to her tired +eyelids, this: ‘Oh give me grace to bring him up. Oh may +I always instruct him with diligence and meekness; govern him with prudence +and holiness; lead him in the paths of religion and justice; never provoking +him to wrath, never indulging him in folly, and never conniving at an +unworthy action. Oh sanctify him in his body, soul, and spirit. +Let all his thoughts be pure and holy to the Searcher of hearts; let +his words be true and prudent before men; and may he have the portion +of the meek and the humble in the world to come, and all through Jesus +Christ our Lord!’ How could a son get past a father and +a mother like that? Even if, for a season, he had got past them, +he would be sure to come back. Only, their young Think-well never +did get past his father and his mother.</p> +<p>There was not so much word of heredity in his day; but without so +much of the word young Think-well had the whole of the thing. +And as time went on, and the child became more and more the father of +the man, it was seen and spoken of by all the neighbours who knew the +house, how that their only child had inherited all his father’s +head, and all his mother’s heart, and then that he had reverted +to his maternal grandfather in his so keen and quick sense of right +and wrong. All which, under whatever name it was held, was a most +excellent outfit for our young gentleman. His old father, good +natural head and all, had next to no book-learning. He had only +two or three books that he read a hundred times over till he had them +by heart. And as he sighed over his unlettered lot he always consoled +himself with a saying he had once got out of one of his old books. +The saying of some great authority was to this effect, that ‘an +old and simple woman, if she loves Jesus, may be greater than our great +brother Bonaventure.’ He did not know who Bonaventure was, +but he always got a reproof again out of his name. Think-well, +to his father’s immense delight, was a very methodical little +fellow, and his father and he had orderly little secrets that they told +to none. Little secret plans as to what they were to read about, +and think about, and pray about on certain days of the week and at certain +hours of the day and the night. You must not call the father an +old pedant, for the fact is, it was the son who was the pedant if there +was one in that happy house. The two intimate friends had a word +between them they called <i>agenda</i>. And nobody but themselves +knew where they had borrowed that uncouth word, what language it was, +or what it meant. Only in the old man’s tattered pocket-book +there were things like this found by his minister after his death. +Indeed, in a museum of such relics this is still to be read under a +glass case, and in old Mr. Meditation’s ramshackle hand: ‘Monday, +death; Tuesday, judgment; Wednesday, heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, +my past life back to my youth; Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; +Lord’s day, creation, salvation, and my own.—M.’ +And then, on an utterly illegible page, this: ‘Jesus, Thy life +and Thy words are a perpetual sermon to me. I meditate on Thee +all the day. Make my memory a vessel of election. Let all +my thoughts be plain, honest, pious, simple, prudent, and charitable, +till Thou art pleased to draw the curtain and let me see Thyself, O +Eternal Jesu!’ If I had time I could tell you more about +Think-well’s quaint old father. But the above may be better +than nothing about the rare old gentleman.</p> +<p>A great authority has said—two great authorities have said +in their enigmatic way, that a ‘dry light is ever the best.’ +That may be so in some cases and to some uses, but nothing can be more +sure than this, that the light that little Think-well got from his father’s +head was excellently drenched in his mother’s heart. The +sweet moisture of his mother’s heart mixed up beautifully with +his father’s drier head and made a fine combination in their one +boy as it turned out. Her minister, preaching on one occasion +on my text for to-night, had said—and she had such a memory for +a sermon that she had never forgotten it, but had laid it up in her +heart on the spot—‘As the philosopher’s stone,’ +the old-fashioned preacher had said, ‘turns all metals into gold, +as the bee sucks honey out of every flower, and as the good stomach +sucks out some sweet and wholesome nourishment out of whatever it takes +into itself, so doth a holy heart, so far as sanctified, convert and +digest all things into spiritual and useful thoughts. This you +may see in Psalm cvii. 43.’ And in her plain, silent, hidden, +motherly way Mistress Piety adorned her old minister’s doctrine +of the holy heart that he was always preaching about, till she shared +her soft and holy heart with her son, as his father had shared his clear +and deep, if too unlearned, head.</p> +<p>We have one grandmother at least signalised in the Bible; but no +grandfather, so far as I remember. But amends are made for that +in the <i>Holy War</i>. For Think-well would never have been the +man he became had it not been for the old Recorder, his grandfather +on his mother’s side. Some superficial people said that +there was too much severity in the old Recorder; but his grandson who +knew him best, never said that. He was the best of men, his grandson +used to stand up for him, and say, I shall never forget the debt I owe +him. It was he who taught me first to make conscience of my thoughts. +Indeed, as for my secret thoughts, I had taken no notice of them till +that summer afternoon walk home from church, when we sat down among +the bushes and he showed me on the spot the way. And I can say +to his memory that scarce for one waking hour have I any day forgotten +the lesson. The lesson how to make a conscience, as he said, of +all my thoughts about myself and about all my neighbours. Such, +then, were Think-well’s more immediate ancestors, and such was +the inheritance that they all taken together had left him.</p> +<p>Think-well! Think-well! My brethren, what do you think, +what do you say, as you hear that fine name? I will tell you what +I think and say. If I overcome, and have that white stone given +to me, and in that stone a new name written which no man shall know +saving he that receiveth it; and if it were asked me here to-night what +I would like my new name to be, I would say on the spot, Let it be THINK-WELL! +Let my new name among the saved and the sanctified before the throne +be THINK-WELL! As, O God, it will be the bottomless pit to me, +if I am forsaken of Thee for ever to my evil thoughts. Send down +and prevent it. Stir up all Thy strength and give commandment +to prevent it. Do Thou prevent it. For, after I have done +all,—after I have made all my overt acts blameless, after I have +tamed my tongue which no man can tame—all that only the more throws +my thoughts into a very devil’s garden, a thicket of hell, a secret +swamp of sin to the uttermost. How, then, am I ever to attain +to that white stone and that shining name? And that in a world +of such truth that every man’s name and title there shall be a +strict and true and entirely accurate and adequate description and exposition +of the very thoughts and intents and imaginations of his heart? +How shall I, how shall you, my brethren, ever have ‘Think-well’ +written on our forehead?—Well, with God all things are possible. +With God, with a much meditating mind, and a true and humble and tender +heart, and a pure conscience, a conscience void of offence, working +together with Him—He, with all these inheritances and all these +environments working together with Him, will at last enable us, you +and me, to lift up such a clear and transparent forehead. But +not without our constant working together. We must ourselves make +head, and heart, and, especially, conscience of all our thoughts—for +a long lifetime we must do that. The <i>Ductor Dubitantium</i> +has a deep chapter on ‘The Thinking Conscience.’ And +what a reproof to many of us lies in the mere name! For how much +evil-thinking and evil-speaking we have all been guilty of through our +unthinking conscience and through a zeal for God, but a zeal without +knowledge. Look back at the history of the Church and see; look +back at your own history in the Church and see. Yes, make conscience +of your thoughts: but let it first be an instructed conscience, a thinking +conscience, a conscience full of the best and the clearest light. +And then let us also make ourselves a new heart and a new spirit, as +Ezekiel has it. For our hearts are continually perverting and +polluting and poisoning our thoughts. That is a fearful thing +that is said about the men on whom the flood soon came. You remember +what is said about them, and in explanation and justification of the +flood. God saw, it is said, that every imagination of the thoughts +of their hearts was evil, and only evil continually. Fearful! +Far more fearful than ten floods! O God, Thou seest us. +And Thou seest all the imaginations of the thoughts of our hearts. +Oh give us all a mind and a heart and a conscience to think of nothing, +to fear nothing, to watch and to pray about nothing compared with our +thoughts. ‘As for my secret thoughts,’ says the author +of the <i>Holy War</i> and the creator of Master Think-well—‘As +for my secret thoughts, I paid no attention to them. I never knew +I had them. I had no pain, or shame, or guilt, or horror, or despair +on account of them till John Gifford took me and showed me the way.’ +And then when John Bunyan, being the man of genius he was,—as +soon as he began to attend to his own secret thoughts, then the first +faint outline of this fine portrait of Think-well began to shine out +on the screen of this great artist’s imagination, and from that +sanctified screen this fine portrait of Think-well and his family has +shined into our hearts to-night.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII—MR. GOD’S-PEACE, A GOODLY PERSON, AND A +SWEET-NATURED GENTLEMAN</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Let the peace of God rule in your hearts,—the +peace of God that passeth all understanding.’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>John Bunyan is always at his very best in allegory. In some +other departments of work John Bunyan has had many superiors; but when +he lays down his head on his hand and begins to dream, as we see him +in some of the old woodcuts, then he is alone; there is no one near +him. We have not a few greater divines in pure divinity than John +Bunyan. We have some far better expositors of Scripture than John +Bunyan, and we have some far better preachers. John Bunyan at +his best cannot open up a deep Scripture like that prince of expositors, +Thomas Goodwin. John Bunyan in all his books has nothing to compare +for intellectual strength and for theological grasp with Goodwin’s +chapter on the peace of God, in his sixth book in <i>The Work of the +Holy Ghost</i>. John Bunyan cannot set forth divine truth in an +orderly method and in a built-up body like John Owen. He cannot +Platonize divine truth like his Puritan contemporary, John Howe. +He cannot soar high as heaven in the beauty and the sweetness of gospel +holiness like Jonathan Edwards. He has nothing of the philosophical +depth of Richard Hooker, and he has nothing of the vast learning of +Jeremy Taylor. But when John Bunyan’s mind and heart begin +to work through his imagination, then—</p> +<blockquote><p> ‘His language is not ours.<br /> +’Tis my belief God speaks; no tinker hath such powers.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>1. In the beginning of his chapter on ‘Speaking peace,’ +Thomas Goodwin tells his reader that he is going to fully couch all +his intendments under a metaphor and an allegory. But Goodwin’s +reader has read and re-read the great chapter, and has not yet discovered +where the metaphor and the allegory came in and where they went out. +But Bunyan does not need to advertise his reader that he is going to +couch his teaching in his imagination.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘But having now my method by the end,<br /> +Still, as I pulled it came: and so I penned<br /> +It down; until at last it came to be<br /> +For length and breadth the bigness that you see.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Blessed Prince, he begins, did also ordain a new officer in the +town, and a goodly person he was. His name was Mr. God’s-peace. +This man was set over my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, +the subordinate preacher, Mr. Mind, and over all the natives of the +town of Mansoul. Himself was not a native of the town, but came +with the Prince from the court above. He was a great acquaintance +of Captain Credence and Captain Good-hope; some say they were kin, and +I am of that opinion too. This man, as I said, was made governor +of the town in general, especially over the castle, and Captain Credence +was to help him there. And I made great observation of it, that +so long as all things went in the town as this sweet-natured gentleman +would have them go, the town was in a most happy condition. Now +there were no jars, no chiding, no interferings, no unfaithful doings +in all the town; every man in Mansoul kept close to his own employment. +The gentry, the officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed their +order. And as for the women and the children of the town, they +followed their business joyfully. They would work and sing, work +and sing, from morning till night; so that quite through the town of +Mansoul now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and +health. And this lasted all the summer. I shall step aside +at this point and shall let Jonathan Edwards comment on this sweet-natured +gentleman and his heavenly name. ‘God’s peace has +an exquisite sweetness,’ says Edwards. ‘It is exquisitely +sweet because it has so firm a foundation on the everlasting rock. +It is sweet also because it is so perfectly agreeable to reason. +It is sweet also because it riseth from holy and divine principles, +which, as they are the virtue, so are they the proper happiness of man. +This peace is exquisitely sweet also because of the greatness of the +good that the saints enjoy, being no other than the infinite bounty +and fulness of that God who is the Fountain of all good. It is +sweet also because it shall be enjoyed to perfection hereafter.’ +An enthusiastic student has counted up the number of times that this +divine word ‘sweetness’ occurs in Edwards, and has proved +that no other word of the kind occurs so often in the author of <i>True +Virtue</i> and <i>The Religious Affections</i>. And I can well +believe it; unless the ‘beauty of holiness’ runs it close. +Still, this sweet-natured gentleman will continue to live for us in +his government and jurisdiction in Mansoul and in John Bunyan even more +than in Jonathan Edwards.</p> +<p>2. ‘Now Mr. God’s-peace, the new Governor of Mansoul, +was not a native of the town; he came down with his Prince from the +court above.’ ‘He was not a native’—let +that attribute of his be written in letters of gold on every gate and +door and wall within his jurisdiction. When you need the governor +and would seek him at any time or in any place in all the town and cannot +find him, recollect yourself where he came from: he may have returned +thither again. John Bunyan has couched his deepest instruction +to you in that single sentence in which he says, ‘Mr. God’s-peace +was not a native of the town.’ John Bunyan has gathered +up many gospel Scriptures into that single allegorical sentence. +He has made many old and familiar passages fresh and full of life again +in that one metaphorical sentence. It is the work of genius to +set forth the wont and the well known in a clear, simple, and at the +same time surprising, light like that. There is a peace that is +native and natural to the town of Mansoul, and to understand that peace, +its nature, its grounds, its extent, and its range, is most important +to the theologian and to the saint. But to understand the peace +of God, that supreme peace, the peace that passeth all understanding,—that +is the highest triumph of the theologian and the highest wisdom of the +saint. The prophets and the psalmists of the Old Testament are +all full of the peace that God gave to His people Israel. My peace +I give unto you, says our Lord also. Paul also has taken up that +peace that comes to us through the blood of Christ, and has made it +his grand message to us and to all sinful and sin-disquieted men. +And John Bunyan has shown how sure and true a successor of the apostles +of Christ he is, just in his portrait of this sweet-natured gentleman +who was not a native of Mansoul, but who came from that same court from +which Emmanuel Himself came. And it is just this outlandishness +of this sweet-natured gentleman; it is just this heavenly origin and +divine extraction of his that makes him sometimes and in some things +to surpass all earthly understanding. ‘I am coming some +day soon,’ said a divinity student to me the other Sabbath night, +‘to have you explain and clear up the atonement to me.’ +‘I shall be glad to see you,’ I said, ‘but not on +that errand.’ No. Paul himself could not do it. +Paul said that the atonement and the peace of it passed all his understanding. +And John Bunyan says here that not the Prince only, but his officer +Mr. God’s-peace also, was not native to the town of Mansoul, but +came straight down from heaven into that town—and what can the +man do who cometh after two kings like Paul and Bunyan? I have +not forgotten my Edwards where he says that the exquisite sweetness +of this peace is perfectly agreeable to reason. As, indeed, so +it is. And yet, if reason will have a clear and finished and all-round +answer to all her difficulties and objections and fault-findings, I +fear she cannot have it here. The time may come when our reason +also shall be so enlarged, and so sanctified, and so exalted, that she +shall be able with all saints to see the full mystery of that which +in this present dispensation passeth all understanding. But till +then, only let God’s peace enter our hearts with God’s Son, +and then let our hearts say if that peace must not in some high and +deep way be according to the highest and the deepest reason, since its +coming into our hearts has produced in our hearts and in our lives such +reasonable, and right, and harmonious, and peaceful, and every way joyful +results.</p> +<p>3. Governor God’s-peace had not many in the town of Mansoul +to whom he could confide all his thoughts and with whom he could consult. +But there were two officer friends of his stationed in the town with +whom he was every day in close correspondence, viz., the Captain Credence +and the Captain Good-hope. Their so close intimacy will not be +wondered at when it is known that those three officers had all come +in together with Emmanuel the Conqueror. Those three young captains +had done splendid service, each at the head of his own battalion, in +the days of the invasion and the conquest of Mansoul, and they had all +had their present titles, and privileges, and lands, and offices, patented +to them on the strength of their past services. The Captain Credence +had all along been the confidential aide-de-camp and secretary of the +Prince. Indeed, the Prince never called Captain Credence a servant +at all, but always a friend. The Prince had always conveyed his +mind about all Mansoul’s matters first to Captain Credence, and +then that confidential captain conveyed whatever specially concerned +God’s-peace and Good-hope to those excellent and trusty soldiers. +Credence first told all matters to God’s-peace and then the two +soon talked over Good-hope to their mind and heart. Some say that +the three officers, Credence, God’s-peace, and Good-hope, were +kin, adds our historian, and I, he adds, am of that opinion too. +And to back up his opinion he takes an extract out of the Herald’s +College books which runs thus: ‘Romans, fifteenth and thirteenth: +Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that +ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.’ +Some say the three officers were of kin, and I am of that opinion too.</p> +<p>4. On account both of his eminent services and his great abilities, +the Prince saw it good to set Mr. God’s-peace over the whole town. +And thus it was that the governor’s jurisdiction extended and +held not only over the people of the town, but also over all the magistrates +and all the other officers of the town, such as my Lord Will-be-will, +my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, Mr. Mind, and all. It needed all +the governor’s authority and ability to keep his feet in his office +over all the other rulers of the town, but by far his greatest trouble +always was with the Recorder. Old Mr. Conscience, the Town Recorder, +had a very difficult post to hold and a very difficult part to play +in that still so divided and still so unsettled town. What with +all those murderers and man-slayers, thieves and prostitutes, skulkers +and secret rebels, on the one hand, and with Governor God’s-peace +and his so unaccountable and so autocratic ways, on the other hand, +the Recorder’s office was no sinecure. All the misdemeanours +and malpractices of the town,—and they were happening every day +and every night,—were all reported to the Recorder; they were +all, so to say, charged home upon the Recorder, and he was held responsible +for them all; till his office was a perfect laystall and cesspool of +all the scum and corruption of the town. And yet, in would come +Governor God’s-peace, without either warning or explanation, and +would demand all the Recorder’s papers, and proofs, and affidavits, +and what not, it had cost him so much trouble to get collected and indorsed, +and would burn them all before the Recorder’s face, and to his +utter confusion, humiliation, and silence. So autocratic, so despotic, +so absolute, and not-to-be-questioned was Governor God’s-peace. +The Recorder could not understand it, and could barely submit to it; +my Lord Mayor could not understand it, and his clerk, Mr. Mind, would +often oppose it; but there it was: Mr. Governor God’s-peace was +set over them all.</p> +<p>5. But the thing that always in the long-run justified the +governorship of Mr. God’s-peace, and reconciled all the other +officers to his supremacy, was the way that the city settled down and +prospered under his benignant rule. All the other officers admitted +that, somehow, his promotion and power had been the salvation of Mansoul. +They all extolled their Prince’s far-seeing wisdom in the selection, +advancement, and absolute seat of Mr. God’s-peace. And it +would ill have become them to have said anything else; for they had +little else to do but bask in the sun and enjoy the honours and the +emoluments of their respective offices as long as Governor God’s-peace +held sway, and had all things in the city to his own mind. Now, +it was on all hands admitted, as we read again with renewed delight, +that there were no jars, no chiding, no interferings, no unfaithful +doings in the town of Mansoul; but every man kept close to his own employment. +The gentry, the officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed their +orders. And as for the women and children, they all followed their +business joyfully. They would work and sing, work and sing, from +morning till night, so that quite through the town of Mansoul now nothing +was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and health. What +more could be said of any governorship of any town than that? +The Heavenly Court itself, out of which Governor God’s-peace had +come down, was not better governed than that. Harmony, quietness, +joy, and health. No; the New Jerusalem itself will not surpass +that. ‘And this lasted all that summer.’</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII—THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF MANSOUL, AND MR. CONSCIENCE +ONE OF HER PARISH MINISTERS</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘The Highest Himself shall establish her.’—<i>David</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The princes of this world establish churches sometimes out of piety +and sometimes out of policy. Sometimes their motive is the good +of their people and the glory of God, and sometimes their sole motive +is to buttress up their own Royal House, and to have a clergy around +them on whom they can count. Prince Emmanuel had His motive, too, +in setting up an establishment in Mansoul. As thus: When this +was over, the Prince sent again for the elders of the town and communed +with them about the ministry that He intended to establish in Mansoul. +Such a ministry as might open to them and might instruct them in the +things that did concern their present and their future state. +For, said He to them, of yourselves, unless you have teachers and guides, +you will not be able to know, and if you do not know, then you cannot +do the will of My Father. At this news, when the elders of Mansoul +brought it to the people, the whole town came running together, and +all with one consent implored His Majesty that He would forthwith establish +such a ministry among them as might teach them both law and judgment, +statute and commandment, so that they might be documented in all good +and wholesome things. So He told them that He would graciously +grant their requests and would straightway establish such a ministry +among them.</p> +<p>Now, I will not enter to-night on the abstract benefits of such an +Establishment. I will rather take one of the ministers who was +presented to one of the parishes of Mansoul, and shall thus let you +see how that State Church worked out practically in one of its ministers +at any rate. And the preacher and pastor I shall so take up was +neither the best minister in the town nor the worst; but, while a long +way subordinate to the best, he was also by no means the least. +The Reverend Mr. Conscience was our parish minister’s name; his +people sometimes called him The Recorder.</p> +<p>1. Well, then, to begin with, the Rev. Mr. Conscience was a +native of the same town in which his parish church now stood. +I am not going to challenge the wisdom of the patron who appointed his +protégé to this particular living; only, I have known +very good ministers who never got over the misfortune of having been +settled in the same town in which they had been born and brought up. +Or, rather, their people never got over it. One excellent minister, +especially, I once knew, whose father had been a working man in the +town, and his son had sometimes assisted his father before he went to +college, and even between his college sessions, and the people he afterwards +came to teach could never get over that. It was not wise in my +friend to accept that presentation in the circumstances, as the event +abundantly proved. For, whenever he had to take his stand in his +pulpit or in his pastorate against any of their evil ways, his people +defended themselves and retaliated on him by reminding him that they +knew his father and his mother, and had not forgotten his own early +days. No doubt, in the case of Emmanuel and Mansoul and its minister, +there were counterbalancing considerations and advantages both to minister +and people; but it is not always so; and it was not so in the case of +my unfortunate friend.</p> +<p>Forasmuch, so ran the Prince’s presentation paper, as he is +a native of the town of Mansoul, and thus has personal knowledge of +all the laws and customs of the corporation, therefore he, the Prince, +presented Mr. Conscience. That is to say, every man who is to +be the minister of a parish should make his own heart and his own life +his first parish. His own vineyard should be his first knowledge +and his first care. And then out of that and after that he will +be able to speak to his people, and to correct, and counsel, and take +care of them. In Thomas Boston’s <i>Memoirs</i> we continually +come on entries like this: ‘Preached on Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly +on my own account.’ And, again, we read in the same invaluable +book for parish ministers, that its author did not wonder to hear that +good had been done by last Sabbath’s sermon, because he had preached +it to himself and had got good to himself out of it before he took it +to the pulpit. Boston kept his eye on himself in a way that the +minister of Mansoul himself could not have excelled. Till, not +in his pulpit work only, but in such conventional, commonplace, and +monotonous exercises as his family worship, he so read the Scriptures +and so sang the psalms that his family worship was continually yielding +him fruit as well as his public ministry. As our family worship +and our public ministry will do, too, when we have the eye and the heart +and the conscience that Thomas Boston had. ‘I went to hear +a preacher,’ said Pascal, ‘and I found a man in the pulpit.’ +Well, the parish minister of Mansoul was a man, and so was the parish +minister of Ettrick. And that was the reason that the people of +Simprin and Ettrick so often thought that Boston had them in his eye. +Good pastor as he was, he could not have everybody in his eye. +But he had himself in his eye, and that let him into the hearts and +the homes of all his people. He was a true man, and thus a true +minister.</p> +<p>2. Both Boston and the minister of Mansoul were well-read men +also; so, indeed, in as many words, their fine biographies assure us. +But that is just another way of saying what has been said about those +two ministers over and over again already. William Law never was +a parish minister. The English Crown of that day would not trust +him with a parish. But what was the everlasting loss of some parish +in England has become the everlasting gain of the whole Church of Christ. +Law’s enforced seclusion from outward ministerial activity only +set him the more free to that inward activity which has been such a +blessing to so many, and to so many ministers especially. And +as to this of every minister being well read, that master in Israel +says: ‘Above all, let me tell you that the book of books to you +is your own heart, in which are written and engraven the deepest lessons +of divine instruction. Learn, therefore, to be deeply attentive +to the presence of God in your own hearts, who is always speaking, always +instructing, always illuminating the heart that is attentive to Him.’ +Jonathan Edwards called the poor parish minister of Ettrick ‘a +truly great divine.’ But Law goes on to say, ‘A great +divine is but a cant expression unless it signifies a man greatly advanced +in the divine life. A great divine is one whose own experience +and example are a demonstration of the reality of all the graces and +virtues of the gospel. No divine has any more of the gospel in +him than that which proves itself by the spirit, the actions, and the +form of his life: the rest is but hypocrisy, not divinity.’ +Let all our parish ministers, then, give themselves to this kind of +reading. Let them all aim at a doctor’s degree in the divinity +of their own hearts.</p> +<p>3. We are done at last, and we are done for ever, in Scotland, +with patrons and with presenters; but I daresay our most Free Church +people would be quite willing to surrender their dear-bought franchise +if the old plan could even yet be made to work in all their parishes +as it worked in Mansoul. For not only was the presented minister +in this case a well-read man; he was also, what the best of the Scottish +people have always loved and honoured, a man, as this history testifies, +with a tongue as bravely hung as he had a head filled with judgment. +In Scotland we like our minister to have a tongue bravely hung, even +when that is proved to our own despite. When any minister, parish +minister or other, is seen to tune his pulpit, our respect for him is +gone. The Presbyterian pulpit has been proverbially hard to tune, +and it will be an ill day when it becomes easy. ‘Here lies +a man who had a brow for every good cause.’ So it was engraven +over one of Boston’s elders. And so is it always: like priest, +like people in the matter of the hang of the minister’s tongue +and in the boldness of the elder’s brow.</p> +<p>‘Bravely hung’ is an ancient and excellent expression +which has several shades of meaning in Bunyan. But in the present +instance its meaning is modified and fixed by judgment. A bravely +hung tongue; at the same time the parish minister of Mansoul’s +tongue was not a loosely-hung tongue. It was not a blustering, +headlong, scolding, untamed tongue. The pulpit of Mansoul was +tuned with judgment. He who filled that pulpit had a head filled +with judgment. The ground of judgment is knowledge, and the minister +of Mansoul was a man of knowledge. It was his early and ever-increasing +knowledge of himself, and thus of other men; and then it was his excellent +judgment as to the use he was to make of that knowledge; it was his +sound knowledge what to say, when to say it, and how to say it,—it +was all this that decided his Prince to make him the minister of Mansoul. +How excellent and how rare a gift is judgment—judgment in counsel, +judgment in speech, and judgment in action! ‘I am very little +serviceable with reference to public management,’ writes the parish +minister of Ettrick, ‘being exceedingly defective in ecclesiastical +prudence; but the Lord has given me a pulpit gift, not unacceptable: +and who knows what He may do with me in that way?’ Who knows, +indeed! Now, there are many parish ministers who have a not unacceptable +pulpit gift, and yet who are not content with that, but are always burying +that gift in the earth and running away from it to attempt a public +management in which they are exceedingly and conspicuously defective. +Now, why do they do that? Is their pulpit and their parish not +sphere and opportunity enough for them? Mine is a small parish, +said Boston, but then it is mine. And a small parish may both +rear and occupy a truly great divine. Let those ministers, then, +who are defective in ecclesiastical prudence not be too much cast down. +Ecclesiastical prudence is not in every case the highest kind of prudence. +The presbytery, the synod, and the assembly are not any minister’s +first or best sphere. Every minister’s first and best sphere +is his parish. And the presbytery is not the end of the parish. +The parish, the pastorate, and the pulpit are the end of both presbytery +and synod and assembly. As for the minister of Mansoul, he was +a well-read man, and also a man of courage to speak out the truth at +every occasion, and he had a tongue as bravely hung as he had a head +filled with judgment.</p> +<p>4. But there was one thing about the parish pulpit of Mansoul +that always overpowered the people. They could not always explain +it even to themselves what it was that sometimes so terrified them, +and, sometimes, again, so enthralled them. They would say sometimes +that their minister was more than a mere man; that he was a prophet +and a seer, and that his Master seemed sometimes to stand and speak +again in His servant. And ‘seer’ was not at all an +inappropriate name for their minister, so far as I can collect out of +some remains of his that I have seen and some testimonies that I have +heard. There was something awful and overawing, something seer-like +and supernatural, in the pulpit of Mansoul. Sometimes the iron +chains in which the preacher climbed up into the pulpit, and in which +he both prayed and preached, struck a chill to every heart; and sometimes +the garment of salvation in which he shone carried all their hearts +captive. Some Sabbath mornings they saw it in his face and heard +it in his voice that he had been on his bed in hell all last night; +and then, next Sabbath, those who came back saw him descending into +his pulpit from his throne in heaven.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title-page<br /> +Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.<br /> +Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek<br /> +Is apter than thy tongue to tell thine errand.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>If you think that I am exaggerating and magnifying the parish pulpit +of Mansoul, take this out of the parish records for yourselves. +‘And now,’ you will read in one place, ‘it was a day +gloomy and dark, a day of clouds and thick darkness with Mansoul. +Well, when the Sabbath-day was come he took for his text that in the +prophet Jonah, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their +own mercy.” And then there was such power and authority +in that sermon, and such dejection seen in the countenances of the people +that day that the like had seldom been heard or seen. The people, +when the sermon was done, were scarce able to go to their homes, or +to betake themselves to their employments the whole week after. +They were so sermon-smitten that they knew not what to do. For +not only did their preacher show to Mansoul its sin, but he did tremble +before them under the sense of his own, still crying out as he preached, +Unhappy man that I am! that I, a preacher, should have lived so senselessly +and so sottishly in my parish, and be one of the foremost in its transgressions! +With these things he also charged all the lords and gentry of Mansoul +to the almost distracting of them.’ It was Sabbaths like +that that made the people of Mansoul call their minister a seer.</p> +<p>5. And, then, there was another thing that I do not know how +better to describe than by calling it the true catholicity, the true +humility, and the true hospitality of the man. It is true he had +no choice in the matter, for in setting up a standing ministry in Mansoul +Emmanuel had done so with this reservation and addition. We have +His very words. ‘Not that you are to have your ministers +alone,’ He said. ‘For my four captains, they can, +if need be, and if they be required, not only privately inform, but +publicly preach both good and wholesome doctrine, that, if heeded, will +do thee good in the end.’ Which, again, reminds me of what +Oliver Cromwell wrote to the Honourable Colonel Hacker at Peebles. +‘These: I was not satisfied with your last speech to me about +Empson, that he was a better preacher than fighter—or words to +that effect. Truly, I think that he that prays and preaches best +will fight best. I know nothing that will give like courage and +confidence as the knowledge of God in Christ will. I pray you +to receive Captain Empson lovingly.’</p> +<p>6. The standing ministry in Mansoul was endowed also; but I +cannot imagine what the court of teinds would make of the instrument +of endowment. As it has been handed down to us, that old ecclesiastical +instrument reads more like a lesson in the parish minister’s class +for the study of Mysticism than a writing for a learned lord to adjudicate +upon. Here is the Order of Council: ‘Therefore I, thy Prince, +give thee, My servant, leave and licence to go when thou wilt to My +fountain, My conduit, and there to drink freely of the blood of My grape, +for My conduit doth always run wine. Thus doing, thou shalt drive +from thine heart all foul, gross, and hurtful humours. It will +also lighten thine eyes, and it will strengthen thy memory for the reception +and the keeping of all that My Father’s noble secretary will teach +thee.’ Thus the Prince did put Mr. Conscience into the place +and office of a minister to Mansoul, and the chosen and presented man +did thankfully accept thereof.</p> +<p>(1) Now, there are at least three lessons taught us here. +There is, to begin with, a lesson to all those congregations who are +about to choose a minister. Let all those congregations, then, +who have had devolved on them the powers of the old patrons,—let +them make their election on the same principles that the Prince of Mansoul +patronised. Let them choose a probationer who, young though he +must be, has the making of a seer in him. Let them listen for +the future seer in his most stammering prayers. Somewhere, even +in one service, his conscience will make itself heard, if he has a conscience. +Rather remain ten years vacant than call a minister who has no conscience. +The parish minister of Mansoul sometimes seemed to be all conscience, +and it was this that made his head so full of judgment, his tongue so +full of a brave boldness, and his heart so full of holy love. +Your minister may be an anointed bishop, he may be a gowned and hooded +doctor, he may be a king’s chaplain, he may be the minister of +the largest and the richest and the most learned parish in the city, +but, unless he strikes terror and pain into your conscience every Sabbath, +unless he makes you tremble every Sabbath under the eye and the hand +of God, he is no true minister to you. As Goodwin says, he is +a wooden cannon. As Leighton says, he is a mountebank for a minister.</p> +<p>(2) The second lesson is to all those who are politically enfranchised, +and who hold a vote for a member of Parliament. Now, crowds of +candidates and their canvassers will before long be at your door besieging +it and begging you for your vote for or against an Established church. +Well, before Parliament is dissolved, and the canvass commences, look +you well into your own heart and ask yourself whether or no the Church +of Christ has yet been established there. Ask if Jesus Christ, +the Head of the Church, has yet set up His throne there, in your heart. +Ask your conscience if His laws are recognised and obeyed there. +Ask also if His blood has been sprinkled there, and since when. +And, if not, then it needs no seer to tell you what sacrilege, what +profanity it is for you to touch the ark of God: to speak, or to vote, +or to lift a finger either for or against any church whatsoever. +Intrude your wilful ignorance and your wicked passions anywhere else. +March up boldly and vote defiantly on questions of State that you never +read a sober line about, and are as ignorant about as you are of Hebrew; +but beware of touching by a thousand miles the things for which the +Son of God laid down His life. Thrust yourself in, if you must, +anywhere else, but do not thrust yourself and your brutish stupidity +and your fiendish tempers into the things of the house of God. +Let all parish ministers take for their text that day 2 Samuel vi. 6, +7:—And when they came to Nachon’s threshing-floor, Uzzah +put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen +shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; +and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark +of God.</p> +<p>(3) There is a third lesson here, but it is a lesson for ministers, +and I shall take it home to myself.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV—A FAST-DAY IN MANSOUL</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather +the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the +Lord your God.’—<i>Joel</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In our soft and self-indulgent day the very word ‘to fast’ +has become an out-of-date and an obsolete word. We never have +occasion to employ that word in the living language of the present day. +The men of the next generation will need to have it explained to them +what the Fast-days of their fathers were: when they were instituted, +how they were observed, and why they were abrogated and given up. +If your son should ever ask you just what the Fast-days of your youth +were like, you will do him a great service, and he may live to recover +them, if you will answer him in this way. Show him how to take +his Cruden and how to make a picture to his opening mind of the Fast-days +of Scripture. And tell him plainly for what things in fathers +and in sons those fasts were ordained of God. And then for the +Fast-days of the Puritan period let him read aloud to you this powerful +passage in the <i>Holy War</i>. Public preaching and public prayer +entered largely into the fasting of the Prophetical and the Puritan +periods; and John Bunyan, after Joel, has told us some things about +the Fast-day preaching of his day that it will be well for us, both +preachers and people, to begin with, and to lay well to heart.</p> +<p>1. In the first place, the preaching of that Fast-day was ‘pertinent’ +and to the point. William Law, that divine writer for ministers, +warns ministers against going off upon Euroclydon and the shipwrecks +of Paul when Christ’s sheep are looking up to them for their proper +food. What, he asks, is the nature, the direction, and the strength +of that Mediterranean wind to him who has come up to church under the +plague of his own heart and under the heavy hand of God? You may +be sure that Boanerges did not lecture that Fast-day forenoon in Mansoul +on Acts xxvii. 14. We would know that, even if we were not told +what his text that forenoon was. His text that never-to-be-forgotten +Fast-day forenoon was in Luke xiii. 7—‘Cut it down; why +cumbereth it the ground?’ And a very smart sermon he made +upon the place. First, he showed what was the occasion of the +words, namely, because the fig-tree was barren. Then he showed +what was contained in the sentence, to wit, repentance or utter desolation. +He then showed also by whose authority this sentence was pronounced. +And, lastly, he showed the reasons of the point, and then concluded +his sermon. But he was very pertinent in the application, insomuch +that he made all the elders and all their people in Mansoul to tremble. +Sidney Smith says that whatever else a sermon may be or may not be, +it must be interesting if it is to do any good. Now, pertinent +preaching is always interesting preaching. Nothing interests men +like themselves. And pertinent preaching is just preaching to +men about themselves,—about their interests, their losses and +their gains, their hopes and their fears, their trials and their tribulations. +Boanerges took both his text and his treatment of his text from his +Master, and we know how pertinently The Master preached. His preaching +was with such pertinence that the one half of His hearers went home +saying, Never man spake like this man, while the other half gnashed +at Him with their teeth. Our Lord never lectured on Euroclydon. +He knew what was in man and He lectured and preached accordingly. +And if we wish to have praise of our best people, and of Him whose people +they are, let us look into our own hearts and preach. That will +be pertinent to our people which is first pertinent to ourselves. +Weep yourself, said an old poet to a new beginner; weep yourself if +you would make me weep. ‘For my own part,’ said Thomas +Shepard to some ministers from his death-bed, ‘I never preached +a sermon which, in the composing, did not cost me prayers, with strong +cries and tears. I never preached a sermon from which I had not +first got some good to my own soul.’</p> +<blockquote><p>‘His office and his name agree;<br /> +A shepherd that and Shepard he.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And many such entries as these occur in Thomas Boston’s golden +journal: ‘I preached in Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly on my own account.’ +Again: ‘Meditating my sermon next day, I found advantage to my +own soul, as also in delivering it on the Sabbath.’ And +again: ‘What good this preaching has done to others I know not, +yet I think myself will not the worse of it.’</p> +<p>2. The preaching of that Fast-day was with great authority +also. ‘There was such power and authority in that sermon,’ +reports one who was present, ‘that the like had seldom been seen +or heard.’ Authority also was one of the well-remembered +marks of our Lord’s preaching. And no wonder, considering +who He was. But His ministers, if they are indeed His ministers, +will be clothed by Him with something even of His supreme authority. +‘Conscience is an authority,’ says one of the most authoritative +preachers that ever lived. ‘The Bible is an authority; such +is the Church; such is antiquity; such are the words of the wise; such +are hereditary lessons; such are ethical truths; such are historical +memories; such are legal saws and state maxims; such are proverbs; such +are sentiments, presages, and prepossessions.’ Now, the +well-equipped preacher will from time to time plant his pulpit on all +those kinds of authority, as this kind is now pertinent and then that, +and will, with such a variety and accumulation of authority, preach +to his people. Thomas Boston preached at a certain place with +such pertinence and with such authority that it was complained of him +by one of themselves that he ‘terrified even the godly.’ +Let all our young preachers who would to old age continue to preach +with interest, with pertinence, and with terrifying authority, among +other things have by heart <i>The Memoirs of Thomas Boston</i>, ‘that +truly great divine.’</p> +<p>3. A third thing, and, as some of the people who heard it said +of it, the best thing about that sermon was that—‘He did +not only show us our sin, but he did visibly tremble before us under +the sense of his own.’ Now I know this to be a great difficulty +with some young ministers who have got no help in it at the Divinity +Hall. Are they, they ask, to be themselves in the pulpit? +How far may they be themselves, and how far may they be not themselves? +How far are they to be seen to tremble before their people because of +their own sins, and how far are they to bear themselves as if they had +no sin? Must they keep back the passions that are tearing their +own hearts, and fill the forenoon with Euroclydon and other suchlike +sea-winds? How far are they to be all gown and bands in the pulpit, +and how far sackcloth and ashes? One half of their people are +like Pascal in this, that they like to see and hear a man in his pulpit; +but, then, the other half like only to see and hear a proper preacher. +‘He did not only show the men of Mansoul their sin, but he did +tremble before them under the sense of his own. Still crying out +as he preached to them, Unhappy man that I am! that I should have done +so wicked a thing! That I, a preacher, should be one of the first +in the transgression!’</p> +<p>This you will remember was the Fast-day. And so truly had this +preacher kept the Fast-day that the Communion-day was down upon him +before he was ready for it. He was still deep among his sins when +all his people were fast putting on their beautiful garments. +He was ready with the letter of his action-sermon, but he was not equal +to the delivery of it. His colleague, accordingly, whose sense +of sin was less acute that day, took the public worship, while the Fast-day +preacher still lay sick in his closet at home and wrote thus on the +ground: ‘I am no more worthy to be called Thy son,’ he wrote. +‘Behold me here, Lord, a poor, miserable sinner, weary of myself, +and afraid to look up to Thee. Wilt Thou heal my sores? +Wilt Thou take out the stains? Wilt Thou deliver me from the shame? +Wilt Thou rescue me from this chain of sin? Cut me not off in +the midst of my sins. Let me have liberty once again to be among +Thy redeemed ones, eating and drinking at Thy table. But, O my +God, to-day I am an unclean worm, a dead dog, a dead carcass, deservedly +cast out from the society of Thy saints. But oh, suffer me so +much as to look to the place where Thy people meet and where Thine honour +dwelleth. Reject not the sacrifice of a broken heart, but come +and speak to me in my secret place. O God, let me never see such +another day as this is. Let me never be again so full of guilt +as to have to run away from Thy presence and to flee from before Thy +people.’ He printed more than that, in blood and in tears, +before God that Communion-morning, but that is enough for my purpose. +Now, would you choose a dead dog like that to be your minister? +To baptize and admit your children and to marry them when they grow +up? To mount your pulpits every Sabbath-day, and to come to your +houses every week-day? Not, I feel sure, if you could help it! +Not if you knew it! Not if there was a minister of proper pulpit +manners and a well-ordered mind within a Sabbath-day’s journey! +‘Like priest like people,’ says Hosea. ‘The +congregation and the minister are one,’ says Dr. Parker. +‘There are men we could not sit still and hear; they are not the +proper ministers for us. There are other men we could hear always, +because they are our kith and our kin from before the foundation of +the world.’ Happy the hearer who has hit on a minister like +the minister of Mansoul, and who has discovered in him his everlasting +kith and kin. And happy the minister who, owning kith and kin +with Boanerges, has two or three or even one member in his congregation +who likes his minister best when he likes himself worst.</p> +<p>But what about the fasting all this time? Was it all preaching, +and was there no fasting? Well, we do not know much about the +fasting of the prophets and the apostles, but the Puritans sometimes +made their people almost forget about fasting, and about eating and +drinking too, they so took possession of their people with their incomparable +preaching. I read, for instance, in Calamy’s <i>Life of +John Howe</i> that on the public Fast-days, it was Howe’s common +way to begin about nine in the morning and to continue reading, preaching, +and praying till about four in the afternoon. Henry Rogers almost +worships John Howe, but John Howe’s Fast-days pass his modern +biographers patience; till, if you would see a nineteenth-century case +made out against a seventeenth-century Fast-day, you have only to turn +to the author of <i>The Eclipse of Faith</i> on the author of <i>Delighting +in God</i>. And, no doubt, when we get back our Fast-days, we +shall leave more of the time to reading pertinent books at home and +to secret fasting and to secret prayer, and shall enjoin our preachers, +while they are pertinent and authoritative in their sermons, not to +take up the whole day with their sermons even at their best. And +then, as to fasting, discredited and discarded as it is in our day, +there are yet some very good reasons for desiring its return and reinstatement +among us. Very good reasons, both for health and for holiness. +But it is only of the latter class of reasons that I would fain for +a few words at present speak. Well, then, let it be frankly said +that there is nothing holy, nothing saintly, nothing at all meritorious +in fasting from our proper food. It is the motive alone that sanctifies +the means. It is the end alone that sanctifies the exercise. +If I fast to chastise myself for my sin; if I fast to reduce the fuel +of my sin; if I fast to keep my flesh low; if I fast to make me more +free for my best books, for my most inward, spiritual, mystical books—for +my Kempis, and my Behmen, and my Law, and my Leighton, and my Goodwin, +and my Bunyan, and my Rutherford, and my Jeremy Taylor, and my Shepard, +and my Edwards, and suchlike; if I fast for the ends of meditation and +prayer; if I fast out of sympathy with my Bible, and my Saviour, and +my latter end, and my Father’s house in heaven—then, no +doubt, my fasting will be acceptable with God, as it will certainly +be an immediate means of grace to my sinful soul. These altars +will sanctify many such gifts. For, who that knows anything at +all about himself, about his own soul, and about the hindrances and +helps to its salvation from sin; who that ever read a page of Scripture +properly, or spent half an hour in that life which is hidden in God—who +of such will deny or doubt that fasting is superseded or neglected to +the sure loss of the spiritual life, to the sensible lowering of the +religious tone and temper, and to the increase both of the lusts of +the flesh and of the mind? It may perhaps be that the institution +of fasting as a church ordinance has been permitted to be set aside +in order to make it more than ever a part of each earnest man’s +own private life. Perhaps it was in some ways full time that it +should be again said to us, ‘Thou, when thou fastest, appear not +unto men to fast.’ As also, ‘Is not this the fast +that I have chosen: to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed +go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread +to the hungry, and that thou bring the outcast to thy house?’ +Let us believe that the form of the Fast-day has been removed out of +the way that the spirit may return and fashion a new form for itself. +And in the belief that that is so, let us, while parting with our fathers’ +Fast-days with real regret—as with their pertinent and pungent +preaching—let us meantime lay in a stock of their pertinent and +pungent books, and set apart particular and peculiar seasons for their +sin-subduing and grace-strengthening study.</p> +<p>The short is this. The one real substance and true essence +of all fasting is self-denial. And we can never get past either +the supreme and absolute duty of that, or the daily and hourly call +to that, as long as we continue to read the New Testament, to live in +this life, and to listen to the voice of conscience, and to the voice +of God speaking to us in the voice of conscience. Without strict +and constant self-denial, no man, whatever his experiences or his pretensions, +is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and secret fasting is one of the first, +the easiest, and the most elementary exercises of New Testament self-denial. +And, besides, the lusts of our flesh and the lusts of our minds are +so linked and locked and riveted together that if one link is loosened, +or broken, or even struck at, the whole thrall is not yet thrown off +indeed, but it is all shaken; it has all received a staggering blow. +So much is this the case that one single act of self-denial in the region +of the body will be felt for freedom throughout the whole prison-house +of the soul. And a victory really won over a sensual sin is already +a challenge sounded to our most spiritual sin. And it is this +discovery that has given to fasting the place it has held in all the +original, resolute, and aggressive ages of the Church. With little +or nothing in their Lord’s literal teaching to make His people +fast, they have been so bent on their own spiritual deliverance, and +they have heard and read so much about the deliverances both of body +and of soul that have been attained by fasting and its accompaniments, +that they have taken to it in their despair, and with results that have +filled them in some instances with rapture, and in all instances with +a good conscience and with a good hope. You would wonder, even +in these degenerate days,—you would be amazed could you be told +how many of your own best friends in their stealthy, smiling, head-anointing, +hypocritical way deny themselves this and that sweetness, this and that +fatness, this and that softness, and are thus attaining to a strength, +a courage, and a self-conquest that you are getting the benefit of in +many ways without your ever guessing the price at which it has all been +purchased. Now, would you yourself fain be found among those who +are in this way being made strong and victorious inwardly and spiritually? +Would you? Then wash your face and anoint your head; and, then, +not denying it before others, deny it in secret to yourself—this +and that sweet morsel, this and that sweet meat, this and that glass +of such divine wine. Unostentatiously, ungrudgingly, generous-heartedly, +and not ascetically or morosely, day after day deny yourself even in +little unthought-of things, and one of the very noblest laws of your +noblest life shall immediately claim you as its own. That stealthy +and shamefaced act of self-denial for Christ’s sake and for His +cross’s sake will lay the foundation of a habit of self-denial; +ere ever you are aware of what you are doing the habit will consolidate +into a character; and what you begin little by little in the body will +be made perfect in the soul; till what you did, almost against His command +and altogether without His example, yet because you did it for His sake +and in His service, will have placed you far up among those who have +forsaken all, and themselves also, to follow Jesus Christ, Son of Man +and Son of God. Only, let this always be admitted, and never for +a moment forgotten, that all this is said by permission and not of commandment. +Our Lord never fasted as we fast. He had no need. And He +never commanded His disciples to fast. He left it to themselves +to find out each man his own case and his own cure. Let no man, +therefore, take fasting in any of its degrees, or times, or occasions, +on his conscience who does not first find it in his heart. At +the same time this may be said with perfect safety, that he who finds +it in his heart and then lays it on his conscience to deny himself anything, +great or small, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of his own +salvation,—he will never repent it. No, he will never repent +it.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV—A FEAST-DAY IN MANSOUL</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘He brought me into his banqueting house.’—<i>The +Song</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Emmanuel’s feast-day in the Holy War excels in beauty and in +eloquence everything I know in any other author on the Lord’s +Supper. The Song of Solomon stands alone when we sing that song +mystically—that is to say, when we pour into it all the love of +God to His Church in Israel and all Israel’s love to God, and +then all our Lord’s love to us and all our love back again to +Him in return. But outside of Holy Scripture I know nothing to +compare for beauty, and for sweetness, and for quaintness, and for tenderness, +and for rapture, with John Bunyan’s account of the feast that +Prince Emmanuel made for the town of Mansoul. With his very best +pen John Bunyan tells us how upon a time Emmanuel made a feast in Mansoul, +and how the townsfolk came to the castle to partake of His banquet, +and how He feasted them on all manner of outlandish food—food +that grew not in the fields of Mansoul; it was food that came down from +heaven and from His Father’s house. They drank also of the +water that was made wine, and, altogether, they were very merry and +at home with their Prince. There was music also all the time at +the table, and man did eat angels’ food, and had honey given him +out of the rock. And then the table was entertained with some +curious and delightful riddles that were made upon the King Himself, +upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon His wars and doings with Mansoul; till, +altogether, the state of transportation the people were in with their +entertainment cannot be told by the very best of pens. Nor did +He, when they returned to their places, send them empty away; for either +they must have a ring, or a gold chain, or a bracelet, or a white stone +or something; so dear was Mansoul to Him now, so lovely was Mansoul +in His eyes. And, going and coming to the feast, O how graciously, +how lovingly, how courteously, and how tenderly did this blessed Prince +now carry it to the town of Mansoul! In all the streets, gardens, +orchards, and other places where He came, to be sure the poor should +have His blessing and benediction; yea, He would kiss them; and if they +were ill, He would lay His hands on them and make them well. And +was it not now something amazing to behold that in that very place where +Diabolus had had his abode, the Prince of princes should now sit eating +and drinking with all His mighty captains, and men of war, and trumpeters, +and with the singing men and the singing women of His Father’s +court! Now did Mansoul’s cup run over; now did her conduits +run sweet wine; now did she eat the finest of the wheat, and now drink +milk and honey out of the rock! Now she said, How great is His +goodness, for ever since I found favour in His eyes, how honourable +have I ever been!</p> +<p>1. Now, the beginning of it all was, and the best of it all +was, that Emmanuel Himself made the feast. Mansoul did not feast +her Deliverer; it was her Deliverer who feasted her. Mansoul, +in good sooth, had nothing that she had not first and last received, +and it was far more true and seemly and fit in every way that her Prince +Himself should in His own way and at His own expense seal and celebrate +the deliverance, the freedom, the life, the peace, and the joy of Mansoul. +And, besides, what had Mansoul to set before her Prince; or, for the +matter of that, before herself? Mansoul had nothing of herself. +Mansoul was not sufficient of herself for a single day. And how, +then, should she propose to feast a Prince? No, no! the thing +was impossible. It was Emmanuel’s feast from first to last. +Just as it was at the Lord’s table in this house this morning. +You did not spread the table this morning for your Lord. You did +not make ready for your Saviour and then invite Him in. He invited +you. He said, This is My Body broken for you, and This is My Blood +shed for you; drink ye all of it. And had any one challenged you +at the fence door and asked you how one who could not pay his own debts +or provide himself a proper meal even for a single day, could dare to +sit down with such a company at such a feast as that, you would have +told him that he had not seen half your hunger and your nakedness; but +that it was just your very hunger and nakedness and homelessness that +had brought you here; or, rather, it was all that that had moved the +Master of the feast to send for you and to compel you to come here. +There was nothing in your mind and in your mouth more all this day than +just that this is the Lord’s Supper, and that He had sent for +you and had invited you, and had constrained and compelled you to come +and partake of it. It was the Lord’s Table to-day, and it +will be still and still more His table on that great Communion-Day when +all our earthly communions shall be accomplished and consummated in +heaven.</p> +<p>2. All that Mansoul did in connection with that great feast +was to prepare the place where Diabolus at one time had held his orgies +and carried on his excesses. Her Prince, Emmanuel, did all the +rest; but He left it to Mansoul to make the banqueting-room ready. +When our Lord would keep His last passover with His disciples, He said +to Peter and John, Go into the city, and there shall meet you a man +bearing a pitcher of water, and he will show you a large upper room +furnished and prepared. There is some reason to believe that that +happy man had been expecting that message and had done his best to be +ready for it. And now he was putting the last touch to his preparations +by filling the water-pots of his house with fresh water; little thinking, +happy man, that as long as the world lasts that water will be holy water +in all men’s eyes, and shall teach humility to all men’s +hearts. And, my brethren, you know that all you did all last week +against to-day was just to prepare the room. For the room all +last week and all this day was your own heart, and not and never this +house of stone and lime made with men’s hands. You swept +the inner and upper room of your own heart. You swept it and garnished +its walls and its floors as much as in you lay. He, whose the +supper really was, told you that He would bring with Him what was to +be eaten and drunken to-day, while you were to prepare the place. +And, next to the very actual feast itself, and, sometimes, not next +to it but equal to it, and even before it and better than it, were those +busy household hours you spent, like the man with the pitcher, making +the room ready. In plain English, you had a communion before the +Communion as you prepared your hearts for the Communion. I shall +not intrude into your secret places and secret seasons with Christ before +His open reception of you to-day. But it is sure and certain that, +just as you in secret entertained Him in your mother’s house and +in the chambers of her that bare you, just in that measure did He say +to you openly before all the watchmen that go about the city and before +all the daughters of Jerusalem, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, +O beloved. Yes; do you not think that the man with the pitcher +had his reward? He had his own thoughts as he furnished, till +it was quite ready, his best upper room and carried in those pitchers +of water, and handed down to his children in after days the perquisite-skin +of the paschal lamb that had been supped on by our Lord and His disciples +in his honoured house that night. Yes; was it not amazing to behold +that in that very place where sometimes Diabolus had his abode, and +had entertained his Diabolonians, the Prince of princes should sit eating +and drinking with His friends? Was it not truly amazing?</p> +<p>3. Now, upon the feasting-day He feasted them with all manner +of outlandish food—food that grew not in all the fields of Mansoul; +it was food that came down with His Father’s court. The +fields of Mansoul yielded their own proper fruits, and fruits that were +not to be despised. But they were not the proper fruits for that +day, neither could they be placed upon that table. They are good +enough fruits for their purpose, and as far as they go, and for so long +as they last and are in their season. But our souls are such that +they outlive their own best fruits; their hunger and their thirst outlast +all that can be harvested in from their own fields. And thus it +is that He who made Mansoul at first, and who has since redeemed her, +has out of His own great goodness provided food convenient for her. +He knows with what an outlandish life He has quickened Mansoul, and +it is only the part of a faithful Creator to provide for His creature +her proper nourishment. What is it? asked the children of Israel +at one another when they saw a small round thing, as small as hoarfrost, +upon the ground. For they wist not what it was. And Moses +said, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every +man, according to the number of your persons. And the house of +Israel called the name thereof Manna, and the taste of it was like wafers +made with honey. He gave them of the corn of heaven to eat, and +man did eat in the wilderness angels’ food. Your fathers +did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead; but this is the bread +of which if any man eat he shall not die. And the bread that I +will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. +And so outlandish, so supernatural, and so full of heavenly wonder and +heavenly mystery was that bread, that the Jews strove among themselves +over it, and could not understand it. But, by His goodness and +His truth to us this day, we have again, to our spiritual nourishment +and growth in grace, eaten the Flesh and drunk the Blood of the Son +of God; a meat that, as He who Himself is that meat has said of it, +is meat indeed and drink indeed—as, indeed, we have the witness +in ourselves this day that it is. They drank also of the water +that was made wine, and were very merry with Him all that day at His +table. And all their mirth was the high mirth of heaven; it was +a mirth and a gladness without sin, without satiety, and without remorse.</p> +<p>4. There was music also all the while at the table, and the +musicians were not those of the country of Mansoul, but they were the +masters of song come down from the court of the King. ‘I +love the Lord,’ they sang in the supper room over the paschal +lamb—‘I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and +my supplication. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore +will I call upon Him as long as I live. What shall I render to +the Lord,’ they challenged one another, ‘for all His benefits +towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and will call upon +the name of the Lord.’ ‘Sometimes imagine,’ +says a great devotional writer with a great imagination—‘Sometimes +imagine that you had been one of those that joined with our blessed +Saviour as He sang an hymn. Strive to imagine to yourself with +what majesty He looked. Fancy that you had stood by Him surrounded +with His glory. Think how your heart would have been inflamed, +and what ecstasies of joy you would have then felt when singing with +the Son of God! Think again and again with what joy and devotion +you would have then sung had this really been your happy state; and +what a punishment you would have thought it to have then been silent. +And let that teach you how to be affected with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving.’ +Yes; and it is no imagination; it was our own experience only this morning +and afternoon to join in a music that was never made in this world, +but which was as outlandish as was the meat which we ate while the music +was being made.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God,<br /> + And not forgetful be<br /> +Of all His gracious benefits<br /> + He hath bestow’d on thee.</p> +<p>Who with abundance of good things<br /> + Doth satisfy thy mouth;<br /> +So that, ev’n as the eagle’s age,<br /> + Renewed is thy youth.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The 103rd Psalm was never made in this world. Musicians far +other than those native to Mansoul made for us our Lord’s-Table +Psalm.</p> +<p>5. And then, the riddles that were made upon the King Himself, +and upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon Emmanuel’s wars and all His +other doings with Mansoul. And when Emmanuel would expound some +of those riddles Himself, oh! how they were lightened! They saw +what they never saw! They could not have thought that such rarities +could have been couched in so few and such ordinary words. Yea, +they did gather that the things themselves were a kind of portraiture, +and that, too, of Emmanuel Himself. This, they would say, this +is the Lamb! this is the Sacrifice! this is the Rock! this is the Door! +and this is the Way! with a great many other things. At Gaius’s +supper-table they sat up over their riddles and nuts and sweetmeats +till the sun was in the sky. And it would be midnight and morning +if I were to show you the answers to the half of the riddles. +Take one, for an example, and let it be one of the best for the communion-day. +‘In one rare quality of the orator,’ says Hugh Miller, writing +about his adored minister, Alexander Stewart of Cromarty, ‘Mr. +Stewart stood alone. Pope refers in his satires to a strange power +of creating love and admiration by just “touching the brink of +all we hate.” Now, into this perilous, but singularly elective +department, Mr. Stewart could enter with safety and at will. We +heard him, scarce a twelvemonth since, deliver a discourse of singular +power on the sin-offering as minutely described by the divine penman +in Leviticus. He described the slaughtered animal—foul with +dust and blood, its throat gashed across, its entrails laid open and +steaming in its impurity to the sun—a vile and horrid thing, which +no one could look on without disgust, nor touch without defilement. +The picture appeared too vivid; its introduction too little in accordance +with a just taste. But this pulpit-master knew what he was all +the time doing. “And that,” he said, as he pointed +to the terrible picture, “that is SIN!” By one stroke +the intended effect was produced, and the rising disgust and horror +transferred from the revolting, material image to the great moral evil.’ +And, in like manner, This is the LAMB! we all said over the mystical +riddle of the bread and the wine this morning. This is the SACRIFICE! +This is the DOOR! This is EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, and made sin +for us!</p> +<p>6. In one of his finest chapters, Thomas À Kempis tells +us in what way we are to communicate mystically: that is to say, how +we are to keep on communicating at all times, and in all places, without +the intervention of the consecrated sacramental elements. And +John Bunyan, the sweetest and most spiritual of mystics, has all that, +too, in this same supreme passage. Every day was a feast-day now, +he tells us. So much so that when the elders and the townsmen +did not come to Emmanuel, He would send in much plenty of provisions +to them. Yea, such delicates would He send them, and therewith +would so cover their tables, that whosoever saw it confessed that the +like could not be seen in any other kingdom. That is to say, my +fellow-communicants, there is nothing that we experienced and enjoyed +in this house this day that we may not experience and enjoy again to-morrow +and every day in our own house at home. All the mystics worth +the noble name will tell you that all true communicating is always performed +and experienced in the prepared heart, and never in any upper room, +or church, or chapel, or new heaven, or new earth. The prepared +heart of every worthy communicant is the true upper room; it is the +true banqueting chamber; it is the true and the only house of wine. +Our Father’s House itself, with its supper-table covered with +the new wine of the Kingdom—the best of it all will still be within +you. Prepare yourselves within yourselves, then, O departing and +dispersing communicants. Prepare, and keep yourselves always prepared. +And as often as you so prepare yourselves your Prince will come to you +every day, and will cat and drink with you, till He makes every day +on earth a day of heaven already to you. See if He will not; for, +again and again, He who keeps all His promises says that He will.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI—EMMANUEL’S LIVERY</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘And to her was granted that she should be arrayed +in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness +of saints.’—<i>John</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Plantagenet kings of ancient England had white and scarlet for +their livery; white and green was the livery of the Tudors; the Stuarts +wore red and yellow; while blue and scarlet colours adorn to-day the +House of Hanover. And the Prince of the kings of the earth, He +has his royal colours also, and His servants have their badge of honour +and their blazon also. Then He commanded that those who waited +upon Him should go and bring forth out of His treasury those white and +glittering robes, that I, He said, have provided and laid up in store +for my Mansoul. So the white garments were fetched out of the +treasury and laid forth to the eyes of the people. Moreover, it +was granted to them that they should take them and put them on, according, +said He, to your size and your stature. So the people were all +put into white—into fine linen, clean and white. Then said +the Prince, This, O Mansoul, is My livery, and this is the badge by +which Mine are known from the servants of others. Yea, this livery +is that which I grant to all them that are Mine, and without which no +man is permitted to see My face. Wear this livery, therefore, +for My sake, and, also, if you would be known by the world to be Mine. +But now can you think how Mansoul shone! For Mansoul was fair +as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners.</p> +<p>White, then, and whiter than snow, is the very livery of heaven. +A hundred shining Scriptures could be quoted to establish that. +In the first year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, +and visions of his head came to Daniel upon his bed. And, behold, +the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the +hair of his head like the pure wool. My beloved, sings the spouse +in the Song, is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, and +altogether lovely. Then, again, David in his penitence sings, +Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be +whiter than snow. And what is it that sets Isaiah at the head +of all the prophets? What but this, that he is the mouth-piece +of such decrees in heaven as this: Though your sins be as scarlet, they +shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall +be as wool. The angel, also, who rolled away the stone from the +door of the sepulchre was clothed in a long white garment. Another +evangelist says that his countenance was like lightning and his raiment +white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did quake, and became +as dead men. But before that we read that Jesus was transfigured +before Peter and James and John on the Mount, and that His face did +shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And, +then, the whole Book of Revelation is written with a pen dipped in heavenly +light. The whole book is glistening with the whitest light till +we cannot read it for the brightness thereof. And the multitude +that no man can number all display themselves before our eyes, clothed +with white robes and with palms in their hands, so much so that we sink +down under the greatness of the glory, till One with His head and His +hairs white like wool, as white as snow, lays His hand upon us, and +says to us, Fear not, for, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass +from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘I also saw Mansoul clad all in white,<br /> +And heard her Prince call her His heart’s delight,<br /> +I saw Him put upon her chains of gold,<br /> +And rings and bracelets goodly to behold.<br /> +What shall I say? I heard the people’s cries,<br /> +And saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul’s eyes,<br /> +I heard the groans and saw the joy of many;<br /> +Tell you of all, I neither will nor can I.<br /> +But by what here I say you well may see<br /> +That Mansoul’s matchless wars no fable be.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine +linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.’ +We need no exegesis of that beautiful Scripture beyond that exegesis +which our own hearts supply. And if we did need that shining text +to be explained to us, to whom could we better go for its explanation +than just to John Bunyan? Well, then, in our author’s <i>No +Way to Heaven but by Jesus Christ</i>, he says: ‘This fine linen, +in my judgment, is the works of godly men; their works that spring from +faith. But how came they clean? How came they white? +Not simply because they were the works of faith. But, mark, they +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. +And therefore they are before the throne of God. Yea, therefore +it is that their good works stand in such a place.’ ‘Nor +must we think it strange,’ says John Howe, in his <i>Blessedness +of the Righteous</i>, ‘that all the requisites to our salvation +are not found together in one text of Scripture. I conceive that +imputed righteousness is not here meant, but that righteousness which +is truly subjected in a child of God and descriptive of him. The +righteousness of Him whom we adore as made sin for us that we might +be made the righteousness of God in Him, that righteousness has a much +higher sphere peculiar and appropriate to itself. Though this +of which we now speak is necessary also to be both had and understood.’ +Emmanuel’s livery, then, is the righteousness of the saints. +Emmanuel puts that righteousness upon all His saints; while, at the +same time, they put it on themselves; they work it out for themselves, +and for themselves they keep it clean. They work it out, put it +on, and keep it clean, and yet, all the time, it is not they that do +it, but it is Emmanuel that doeth it all in them. The truth is, +you must all become mystics before you will admit all the strange truth +that is told about Emmanuel’s livery. For both heaven and +earth unite in this wonderful livery. Nature and grace unite in +it. It is woven by the gospel on the loom of the law—till, +to tell you all that is true about it, I neither can nor will I. +Albert Bengel tells us that the court of heaven has its own jealous +and scrupulous etiquette; and our court journalist and historian, John +Bunyan, has supplied his favoured readers with the very card of etiquette +that was issued along with Mansoul’s coat of livery, and it is +more than time that we had attended to that card.</p> +<p>1. The first item then in that etiquette-card ran in these +set terms: ‘First, wear these white robes daily, day by day, lest +you should at some time appear to others as if you were none of Mine.—Signed, +EMMANUEL.’</p> +<p>Now, we put on anew every morning the garments that we are to wear +every new day. We have certain pieces of clothing that we wear +in the morning; we have certain pieces that we wear when we are at our +work; and, again, we have certain other pieces that we put on when we +go abroad in the afternoon; and, yet again, certain other pieces that +we array ourselves in when we go out into society in the evening. +After a night in which Mercy could not sleep for blessing and praising +God, they all rose in the morning with the sun; but the Interpreter +would have them tarry a while, for, said he, you must orderly go from +hence. Then said he to the damsel, Take them, and have them into +the garden to the bath. Then Innocent the damsel took them, and +had them into the garden, and brought them to the bath. Then they +went in and washed, yea, they and the boys and all, and they came out +of that bath, not only clean and sweet, but also much enlivened and +much strengthened in their joints. So when they came in they looked +fairer a deal than when they went out. Then said the Interpreter +to the damsel that waited upon those women, Go into the vestry, and +fetch out garments for these people. So she went and fetched out +white raiment and laid it down before him. And then he commanded +them to put it on. It was fine linen, white and clean. Now, +therefore, they began to esteem each other better than themselves. +For, You are fairer than I am, said one; and, You are more comely than +I am, said another. The children also stood amazed to see into +what fashion they had been brought. William Law—I thank +God, I think, every day I live for that good day to me on which He introduced +me to His gifted and saintly servant—well, William Law used every +morning after his bath in the morning to put on his livery, piece by +piece, in order, and with special prayer. The first piece that +he put on, and he put it on every new morning next his heart to wear +it all the day next his heart, was gratitude to God. And it was +a real, feeling, active, and operative gratitude that he so put on. +On each new morning as it came, that good man was full of new gratitude +to God. For the sun new from his Almighty Maker’s hands +he had gratitude. For his house over his head he had gratitude. +For his Bible and his spiritual books he had gratitude. For his +opportunities of reading and study, as also for ten o’clock in +the morning when the widows and orphans of King’s Cliffe came +to his window, and so on. A grateful heart feeds itself to a still +greater gratitude on everything that comes to it. So it was with +William Law, till he wakened the maids in the rooms below with his psalms +and his hymns as he went into his vestry and put on his singing robes +so early every morning. And then, after his morning hours of study +and devotion, Law had a piece of livery that he always put on and never +came downstairs to breakfast without it. Other men might put on +other pieces; he always clothed himself next to gratitude with humility. +Men differ, good men differ, and Emmanuel’s livery-men differ +in what they put on, at what time, and in what order. But that +was William Law’s way. You will learn more of his way, and +you will be helped to find out a like way for yourselves, if you will +become students of his incomparable books. You will find how he +put on charity, 1 Cor. thirteenth chapter; and then how, over all, he +put on the will of God; till, thus equipped and thus accoutred, he was +able to say, as it has seldom been said since it was first said, ‘I +put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was to me as a +robe and as a diadem. The Almighty was then with me, and my children +were about me. When I washed my steps with butter, and when the +rock poured me out rivers of oil!’ So much for that livery-man +of Emmanuel, the author of the <i>Christian Perfection</i> and the <i>Spirit +of Love</i>. As for the women’s vestry in the Interpreter’s +House, Matthew Henry saw the thirty-first chapter of the Proverbs hung +up on that vestry wall, and Christiana making her morning toilet before +it with Mercy beside her. Who would find a virtuous woman, let +him look before that looking-glass for her, and he will be sure to find +her and her daughters and her daughters-in-law putting on their white +raiment there.</p> +<p>2. ‘Secondly, keep your garments always white; for if +they be soiled, it is a dishonour to Me. I have a few names even +in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk +with Me in white, for they are worthy.’ Even in Sardis, +with every street and every house full of soil and dishonour to the +name of Christ, even in Sardis Emmanuel had some of whom He could boast +Himself. Would you not immensely like at the last day to be one +of those some in Sardis? Shall it not be splendid when Sardis +comes up for judgment to be among those few names that Emmanuel shall +then read out of His book, and when, at their few names, two or three +men shall step out into the light in His livery? Some of you are +in Sardis at this moment. Some of you are in a city, or in a house +in a city, where it is impossible to keep your garments clean. +And yet, no; nothing is impossible to Emmanuel and His true livery-men. +Even in that house where you are, Emmanuel will say over you, I have +one there who is thankful to My Father and to Me; thankful to singing +every morning where there is little, as men see, to sing for. +There is one in that house humble, where humility itself would almost +become high-minded. And meek, where Moses himself would have lost +his temper. And submissive, where rebelliousness would not have +been without excuse. Mark these few men for Mine, says Emmanuel. +Mark them with the inkhorn for Mine. For they shall surely be +Mine in that day, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are +worthy.</p> +<p>3. ‘Wherefore gird your garments well up from the ground.’ +A well-dressed man, a well-dressed woman, is a beautiful sight. +Not over-dressed; not dressed so as to call everybody’s attention +to their dress; but dressed decorously, becomingly, tastefully. +Each several piece well fitted on, and all of a piece, till it all looks +as if it had grown by nature itself upon the well-dressed wearer. +Be like him—be like her—so runs the third head of the etiquette-card. +Be not slovenly and disorderly and unseemly in your livery. Let +not your livery be always falling off, and catching on every bush and +briar, and dropping into every pool and ditch. Hold yourselves +in hand, the instruction goes on. Brace yourselves up. Have +your temper, your tongue, your eyes, your ears, and all your members +in control. And then you will escape many a rent and many a rag; +many a seam and many a patch; many a soil and many a stain. And +then also you will be found walking abroad in comeliness and at liberty, +while others, less careful, are at home mending and washing and ironing +because they went without a girdle when you girt up your garments well +off the ground. Wherefore always gird well up the loins of your +mind.</p> +<p>4. ‘And, fourthly, lose not your robes, lest you walk +naked and men see your shame’; that is to say, the supreme shame +of your soul. For there is no other shame. There is nothing +else in body or soul to be ashamed about. There is a nakedness, +indeed, that our children are taught to cover; but the Bible is a book +for men. And the only nakedness that the Bible knows about or +cares about is the nakedness of the soul. It was their sudden +soul-nakedness that chased Adam and Eve in among the trees of the garden. +And it is God’s pity for soul-naked sinners that has made Him +send His Son to cry to us: ‘I counsel thee,’ He cries, ‘to +buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; white raiment, +that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do +not appear. Behold!’ He cries in absolute terror, ‘Behold! +I come as a thief! Blessed is he that walketh and keepeth his +garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.’ Were +your soul to be stripped naked to all its shame to-morrow; were all +your past to be laid out absolutely naked and bare, with all the utter +nakedness of your inward life this day; were all your secret thoughts, +and all your stealthy schemes, and all your mad imaginations, and all +your detestable motives, and all your hatreds like hell, and all your +follies like Bedlam to be laid naked—I suppose the horror of it +would make you cry to the rocks and the mountains to cover you this +Sabbath night, or the weeds of the nearest sea to wrap you down into +its depths. It would be hell before the time to you if your soul +were suddenly to be stripped absolutely bare of its ragged body, and +naked of all the thin integuments of time, and were for a single day +to stand naked to its everlasting shame. And it is just because +Jesus Christ sees all that as sure as the judgment-day coming to you, +that He stands here to-night and calls to you: I counsel thee! +I counsel thee! Before it be too late, I again counsel thee!</p> +<p>5. But the Prince Emmanuel is persuaded better things of all +His livery-men, though He thus speaks to them to put them on their guard. +Yes, sternly and severely and threateningly as He sometimes speaks, +yet, in spite of Himself, His real grace always breaks through at the +last. And, accordingly, his fifth command runs thus: But, it runs, +if you should sully them, if you should defile them, the which I am +greatly unwilling that you should, then speed you to that which is written +in My law, that yet you may stand, and not fall before Me and before +My throne. Always know this, that I have provided for thee an +open fountain to wash thy garments in. Look, therefore, that you +wash often in that fountain, and go not for an hour in defiled garments. +Let not, therefore, My garments, your garments, the garments that I +gave thee be ever spotted by the flesh. Keep thy garments always +white, and let thy head lack no ointment.—Signed in heaven, EMMANUEL.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII—MANSOUL’S MAGNA CHARTA</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘A better covenant.’—<i>Paul</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Magna Charta is a name very dear to the hearts of the English people. +For, ever since that memorable day on which that noble instrument was +extorted from King John at the point of the sword, England has been +the pioneer to all the other nations of the earth in personal freedom, +in public righteousness, in domestic stability, and in foreign influence +and enterprise. Runnymede is a red-letter spot, and 1215 is a +red-letter year, not only in the history of England, but in the history +of the whole modern world. The keystone of all sound constitutional +government was laid at that place on that date, and by that great bridge +not England only, but after England the whole civilised world has passed +over from ages of bondage and oppression and injustice into a new world +of personal liberty and security, public equity and good faith, loyalty +and peace. All that has since been obtained, whether on the battle-field +or on the floor of Parliament, has been little more than a confirmation +of Magna Charta or an authoritative comment upon Magna Charta. +And if every subsequent law were to be blotted out, yet in Magna Charta +the foundations would still remain of a great state and a free people. +‘Here commences,’ says Macaulay, ‘the history of the +English nation.’</p> +<p>Now, after the Prince of Peace had subjugated the rebellious city +of Mansoul, He promulgated a proclamation and appointed a day wherein +He would renew their Charter. Yea, a day wherein he would renew +and enlarge their Charter, mending several faults in it, so that the +yoke of Mansoul might be made yet more easy to bear. And this +He did without any desire of theirs, even of His own frankness and nobleness +of mind. So when He had sent for and seen their old Charter, He +laid it by and said, Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready +to vanish away. An epitome, therefore, of that new, and better, +and more firm and steady Charter take as follows: I do grant of Mine +own clemency, free, full, and everlasting forgiveness of all their wrongs, +injuries, and offences done against My Father, against Me, against their +neighbours and themselves. I do give them also My Testament, with +all that is therein contained, for their everlasting comfort and consolation. +Thirdly, I do also give them a portion of the self-same grace and goodness +that dwells in My Father’s heart and Mine. Fourthly, I do +give, grant, and bestow upon them freely, the world and all that is +therein for their true good; yea, all the benefits of life and death, +of things present and things to come. Free leave and full access +also at all seasons to Me in My palace, there to make known all their +wants to Me; and I give them, moreover, a promise that I shall hear +and redress all their grievances. To them and to their right seed +after them, I hereby bestow all these grants, privileges, and royal +immunities. All this is but a lean epitome of what was that day +laid down in letters of gold and engraven on their doors and their castle +gates. And what joy, what comfort, what consolation, think you, +did now possess every heart in Mansoul! The bells rang out, the +minstrels played, the people danced, the captains shouted, the colours +waved in the wind, and the silver trumpets sounded, till every enemy +inside and outside of Mansoul was now glad to hide his head.</p> +<p>Our constitutional authors and commentators are wont to take Magna +Charta clause by clause, and word by word, and letter by letter. +They linger lovingly and proudly over every jot and tittle of that splendid +instrument. And you will indulge me this Communion night of all +nights of the year if I expatiate still more lovingly and proudly on +that great Covenant which our Lord has sealed to us again to-day, and +has written again to-day on the walls of our hearts. Moses made +haste as soon as the old Charter was read over to him, and nothing shall +delay us till we have feasted our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts +to-night on the contents of this our new and better covenant.</p> +<p>1. The first article of our Magna Charta is free, full, and +everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, injuries, and offences we +have ever done against God, against our Saviour, against our neighbour, +and against ourselves. The English nobles extorted their Charter +from their tyrannical king with their sword at his throat, and after +he had signed it, he cast himself on the ground and gnawed sticks and +stones in his fury, so mad was he at the men who had so humiliated him. +‘They have set four-and-twenty kings over my head,’ he gnashed +out. How different was it with our Charter! For when we +were yet enemies it was already drawn out in our name. And after +we had been subdued it would never have entered our fearful hearts to +ask for such an instrument. And, even now, after we have entered +into its liberty, how slow we are to believe all that is written in +our great Charter, and read to us every day out of it. And who +shall cast a stone at us for not easily believing all that is so written +and read? It is not so easy as you would think to believe in free +forgiveness for all the wrongs, injuries, and offences we have ever +done. When you try to believe it about yourselves, you will find +how hard it is to accept that covenant and always to keep your feet +firm upon it. That the forgiveness is absolutely free is its first +great difficulty. If it had cost us all we could ever do or suffer, +both in this world and in the world to come, then we could have come +to terms with our Prince far more easily; but that our forgiveness should +be absolutely free, it is that that so staggers us. When I was +a little boy I was once wandering through the streets of a large city +seeing the strange sights. I had even less Latin in my head that +day than I had money in my pocket. But I was hungry for knowledge +and eager to see rare and wonderful things. Over the door of a +public institution, containing a museum and other interesting things, +I tried to read a Latin scroll. I could not make out the whole +of the writing; I could only make out one word, and not even that, as +the event soon showed. The word was <i>gratia</i>, or some modification +of <i>gratia</i>, with some still deeper words engraven round about +it. But on the strength of that one word I mounted the steps and +rang the bell, and asked the porter if I could see the museum. +He told me that the cost of admission was such and such. Little +as it was, it was too much for me, and I came down the steps feeling +that the Latin writing above the door had entirely deceived me. +It has not been the last time that my bad Latin has brought me to shame +and confusion of face. But Latin, or Greek, or only English, or +not even English, there is no deception and no confusion here. +Forgiveness is really of free grace. It costs absolutely nothing, +the door is open; or, if it is not open, then knock, and it shall be +opened, without money and without price.</p> +<p>‘Free and full.’ I could imagine a free forgiveness +which was not also full. I could imagine a charter that would +have run somehow thus: Free forgiveness and full, up to a firmly fixed +limit. Free and full forgiveness for sins of ignorance and even +of infirmity and frailty; for small sins and for great sins, too, up +to a certain age of life and stage of guilt. Free and full forgiveness +up to a certain line, and then, that black line of reprobation, as Samuel +Rutherford says. Indeed, it is no imagination. I have felt +oftener than once that I was at last across that black line, and gone +and lost for ever. But no—</p> +<blockquote><p>‘While the lamp holds on to burn,<br /> +The greatest sinner may return.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>‘Free, full, and everlasting.’ Pope Innocent the +Third came to the rescue of King John and issued a Papal bull revoking +and annulling Magna Charta. But neither king, nor pope, nor devil +can revoke or annul our new Covenant. It is free, full, and everlasting. +If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us +from the love of Christ? Neither death nor life, nor angels nor +principalities nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the love +of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.</p> +<p>2. ‘Free, full, and everlasting forgiveness of all the +wrongs, the injuries, and the offences you have done against My Father, +Me, your neighbours, and yourselves.’ Now, out of all that +let us fix upon this—the wrongs and the injuries we have done +to our neighbours. For, as Calvin says somewhere, though our sins +against the first table of the law are our worst sins, yet our sins +against the second table, that is, against our neighbours, are far better +for beginning a scrutiny with. So they are. For our wrongs +against our neighbours, when they awaken within us at all, awaken with +a terrible fury. Our wrongs against our neighbours wound, and +burden, and exasperate an awakened conscience in a fearful way. +We come afterwards to say, Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned! +But at the first beginning of our repentances it is the wrongs we have +done to our neighbours that drive us beside ourselves. What neighbour +of yours, then, have you so wronged? Name him; name her. +You avoid that name like poison, but it is not poison—it is life +and peace. More depends on your often recollecting and often pronouncing +that hateful name than you would believe. More depends upon it +than your minister has ever told you. And, then, in what did you +so wrong him? Name the wrong also. Give it its Bible name, +its newspaper name, its brutal, vulgar, ill-mannered name. Do +not be too soft, do not be too courtly with yourself. Keep your +own evil name ever before you. When you hear any other man outlawed +and ostracised by that same name, say to yourself: Thou, sir, art the +man! Put out a secret and a painful skill upon yourself. +Have times and places and ways that nobody knows anything about—not +even those you have wronged; have times and places and ways they would +laugh to be told of, and would not believe it; times, I say, and places +and ways for bringing all those old wrongs you once did ever and ever +back to mind; as often back and as keen to your mind as they come back +to that other mind, which is still so full of the wrong. Even +if your victim has forgiven and forgotten you, never you forget him, +and never you forgive yourself when you again think of him. Welcome +back every sudden and sharp recollection of your wrong-doing. +And make haste at every such sudden recollection and fall down on the +spot in a deeper compunction than ever before. Do that as you +would be a forgiven and full-chartered soul. For, free and full +and everlasting as God’s forgiveness is, you have no assurance +that it is yours if you ever forget your sin, or ever forgive yourself +for having done it. ‘Forgive yourself,’ says Augustine, +‘and God will condemn you. But continually arraign and condemn +yourself, and God will forgive and acquit and justify you.’</p> +<p>3. ‘I give also My holy law and testament, and all that +therein is contained, for their everlasting comfort and consolation.’ +This is not the manner of men, O my God. Kind-hearted men comfort +and console those who have suffered injuries and wrongs at our hands, +but the kindest-hearted of men harden their hearts and set their faces +like a flint against us who have done the wrong. All Syria sympathised +with Esau for the loss of his birthright, but I do not read that any +one came to whisper one kind word to Jacob on his hard pillow. +All the army mourned over Uriah, but all the time David’s moisture +was dried up like the drought of summer, and not even Nathan came to +the King till he could not help coming. All Jericho cried, Avenge +us of our adversary! But it was Jesus who looked up and saw Zaccheus +and said: Zaccheus, come down; make haste and come down, for to-day +I must abide at thy house. ‘The injuries they have done +themselves also,’ so runs the very first head of our forgiveness +covenant. Ah! yes; O my Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest +my heart. Thou knowest that irremediably as I have injured other +men, yet in injuring them I have injured myself much more. And +much as other men need restitution, reparation, and consolation on my +account, my God, Thou knowest that I need all that much more—ten +thousand times more. Oh, how my broken heart within me leaps up +and thanks Thee for that Covenant. Let me repeat it again to Thy +praise: ‘Full, free, and everlasting forgiveness of all wrongs, +injuries, and offences done by him against his neighbours and against +himself.’ Who, who is a God, O my God, who is a God like +unto Thee!</p> +<p>4. ‘I do also give them a portion of the self-same grace +and goodness that dwells in My Father’s heart and Mine.’ +The self-same grace and goodness, that is, that My Father and I have +shown to them. That is to say, we shall be made both willing and +able to grant to all those men who have wronged us the very same charter +of forgiveness that we have had granted to us of God. So that +at all those times when we stand praying for forgiveness we shall suspend +that prayer till we have first forgiven all our enemies, and all who +have at any time and in any way wronged or injured us. Even when +we had the Communion cup at our lips to-day, you would have seen us +setting it down till we had first gone and been reconciled to our brother. +Yes, my brethren, you are His witnesses that He has done it. He +has taken you into His covenant till He has made you both able and willing, +both willing and able, to grant and to bequeath to others, all that +free, full, and everlasting forgiveness and love that He has bequeathed +to you. Till under the very last and supreme wrong that your worst +enemy can do to you and to yours, you are able and forward to say: Father, +forgive him, for he knows not what he has done. Forgive me my +debts, you will say, as I forgive my debtors. And always, as you +again say and do that, you will on the spot be made a partaker of the +Divine Nature, according to the heavenly Charter, ‘I do also give +them a portion of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in My +Father’s heart and in Mine.’</p> +<p>5. ‘I do also,’ so Mansoul’s Magna Charta +travels on, ‘I do also give, grant, and bestow upon them freely +the world and all that is therein for their good; yea, I grant them +all the benefits of life and of death, and of things present and things +to come.’ What a magnificent Charter is that! ‘All +things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, +or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours.’ +What a superb Charter! Only, it is too high for us; we cannot +attain to it. Has any human being ever risen to anything like +the full faith, full assurance, and full victory of all that in this +life? No; the thing is impossible! Reason would fall off +her throne. The heart of a man would break with too much joy if +he tried to enter into the full belief of all that. No; it hath +not entered into the heart of a still sinful man what God hath chartered +to them whom He loves. This world, and all that therein is, and +then all the coming benefits of life and of death. What benefits +do believers receive from Christ at their death? We all drank +in the answer to that with our mother’s milk, but what is behind +the words of that answer no mortal tongue can yet tell. All are +yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Till, +what joy, what comfort, what consolation, think you, did now possess +the hearts of the men of Mansoul! The bells rang, the minstrels +played, the people danced, the captains shouted, the colours waved in +the wind, and the silver trumpets sounded.</p> +<p>6. ‘And till the glory breaks suddenly upon you, and +as long as you yet live in this life of free grace I shall give and +grant you leave and free access to Me in My palace at all seasons, there +to make known all your wants to Me; and I give you, moreover, a promise +that I will hear and redress all your grievances.’ At all +seasons; in season and out of season. There to make known all +your wants to Me. And all your grievances. All that still +grieves and vexes you. All your wrongs. All your injuries. +All that men can do to you. Let them do their worst to you. +My grace is sufficient for all your grievances. My goodness in +you shall make you more than a conqueror. I undertake to give +you before you have asked for it a heart full of free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness and forgetfulness of all that has begun to grieve you. +No word or deed, written or spoken, of any man shall be able to vex +or grieve the spirit that I shall put within you. You will immediately +avenge yourselves of your adversaries. You will instantly repay +them all an hundredfold. For, when thine enemy hungers, thou shalt +feed him; when he is athirst, thou shalt give him drink. For thou +shalt not be overcome of evil, but thou shalt overcome evil with good.</p> +<p>7. ‘All these grants, privileges, and immunities I bestow +upon thee; upon thee, I say, and upon thy right seed after thee.’ +O Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us such a seed! Give +us a seed right with Thee! Smite us and our house with everlasting +barrenness rather than that our seed should not be right with Thee. +O God, give us our children. Give us our children. A second +time, and by a far better birth, give us our children to be beside us +in Thy holy Covenant. For it had been better we had never been +born; it had been better we had never been betrothed; it had been better +we had sat all our days solitary unless all our children are to be right +with Thee. Let the day perish, and the night wherein it was said, +There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let +not God regard it from above; neither let the light shine upon it, unless +all our house is yet to be right with God. O my son Absalom! +My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, +my son, my son! But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, and thus +hast in Thyself a Father’s heart. Hear us, then, for our +children, O our Father, for such of our children as are not yet right +with Thee! In season and out of season; we shall not go up into +our bed; we shall not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids +till we and all our seed are right with Thee. And then how we +and all our saved seed beside us shall praise Thee and bless Thee above +all the families on earth or in heaven, and shall say: Unto Him who +loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath bestowed +upon us a free, full, and everlasting forgiveness, and hath made us +partakers of His Divine Nature, to Him be our love and praise and service +to all eternity. Amen and Amen!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII—EMMANUEL’S LAST CHARGE TO MANSOUL: CONCERNING +THE REMAINDERS OF SIN IN THE REGENERATE</h2> +<blockquote><p>‘Hold fast till I come.’—<i>Our Lord</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There are many fine things in Emmanuel’s last charge to Mansoul, +but by far the best thing is the answer that He Himself there supplies +to this deep and difficult question,—to this question, namely, +Why original sin is still left to rage in the truly regenerate? +Why does our Lord not wholly extirpate sin in our regeneration? +What can His reason be for leaving their original sin to dwell in His +best saints till the day of their death? For, to use His own sad +words about sin in His last charge, nothing hurts us but sin. +Nothing defiles and debases us but sin. Why, then, does He not +take our sin clean out of us at once? He could speak the word +of complete deliverance if He only would. Why, then, does He not +speak that word? That has been a mystery and a grief to all God’s +saints ever since sanctification began to be. And the great interest +and the great value of Emmanuel’s last charge to Mansoul stands +in this, that He here tells us, if not all, then at least some of His +reasons for the policy He pursues with us in our sanctification. +Dost thou know, He asks, as He stands on His chariot steps, surrounded +with His captains on the right hand and the left—Dost thou know +why I at first did, and do still, suffer sin to live and dwell and harbour +in thy heart? And then, after an <i>O yes</i>! for silence, the +Prince began and thus proceeded:</p> +<p>1. Dost thou ask at Me why I and My Father have seen it good +to allow the dregs of thy sinfulness still to corrupt and to rot in +thine heart? Dost thou ask why, amid so much in thee that is regenerate, +there is still so much more that is unregenerate? Why, while thou +art, without controversy, under grace, indwelling sin still so festers +and so breaks out in thee? Dost thou ask that? Then, attend, +and before I go away to come again I will try to tell thee, if, indeed, +thou art able and willing to bear it. Well, then, be silent while +I tell thee that I have left all that of thy original sin in thee to +tempt thee, to try thee, to humble thee, and to thrust, day and night, +upon thee, what is still in thine heart. To humble thee, take +knowledge, take warning, and take forethought. To make thee humble, +and to keep thee humble. To hide pride from thee, and to lay thee +all thy days on earth in the dust of death. I tell thee this day +that in all thy past life I have ordered and administered all My providences +toward thee to humble thee and to prove thee, and to make thee dust +and ashes in thine own eyes. And I go away to carry on from heaven +this same intention of My Father’s and Mine toward thee. +We shall try thee as silver is tried. We shall sift thee as wheat +is sifted. We shall search thee as Jerusalem is searched with +lighted candles. I tell thee the truth, I shall bend from heaven +all My power which My Father has given Me, and all My wisdom, and all +My love, and all My grace. What to do, dost thou think? +What to do but to make thee to know and to acknowledge the plague of +thine own heart. The deceitfulness, that is, the depth of wickedness, +and the abominableness, past all words, of thine own heart. I +do not ascend to My Father, with all things in My hand, to make thy +seat soft, and thy cup sweet, and thy name great, and thy seed multiplied. +I have far other predestinations before Me for thee. I have loved +thee with an everlasting love, and it is to everlasting life that I +am leading thee. And thou must let Me lead thee through fire and +through water if I am to lead thee to heaven at last. I shall +have to utterly kill all self-love out of thy heart, and to plant all +humility in its place. Many and dreadful discoveries shall I have +to make to thee of thy profane and inhuman self-love and selfishness. +Words will fail thee to confess all thy selfishness in thy most penitent +prayer. Thy towering pride of heart also, and thy so contemptible +vanity. As for thy vanity, I shall so overrule it that double-minded +men about thee shall make thee and thy vanity their sport, their jest, +and their prey. And I shall not leave thee, nor discharge Myself +of My work within thee, till I see thee loathing thyself and hating +thyself and gnashing thy teeth at thyself for thy envy of thy brother, +thy envy concerning his house, his wife and his man-servant, and his +maid-servant, and his ox, and his ass, and everything that is his. +Thou shalt find something in thee that shall allow thee to see thine +enemy prosper, but not thy friend. Something that shall keep thee +from thy sleep because of his talents, his name, his income, and his +place which I have given him above thee, beside thee, and always in +thy sight. It will be something also that shall make his sickness, +his decay, his defamation, and his death sweet to thee, and his prosperity +and return to life bitter to thee. Thou shalt have to confess +something in thyself—whatever its nature and whatever its name—something +that shall make thee miserable at good news, and glad and enlarged and +full of life at evil tidings. It will be something also that shall +give a long life in thy evil heart to anger, and to resentment, and +to retaliation, and to revenge. For after years and years thou +shalt still have it in thine heart to hate and to hurt that man and +his house, because long ago he left thy side, thy booth in the market, +thy party in the state, and thy church in religion. As I live, +swore Emmanuel, standing up on the step of His ascending chariot, I +shall show thee thyself. I shall show thee what an unclean heart +is and a wicked. I shall teach to thee what all true saints shudder +at when they are let see the plague of their own hearts. I shall +show thee, as I live, how full of pride, and hate, and envy, and ill-will +a regenerate heart can be; and how a true-born man of God may still +love evil and hate good; may still rejoice in iniquity and pine under +the truth. I shall show thee, also, what thou wilt not as yet +believe, how thy best friend cannot trust his good name with thee; such +a sweet morsel to thee shall be the mote in his eye and the spot on +his praise. Yes, I shall show thee that I did not die on the cross +for nothing when I died for thee; when I went out to Calvary a shame +and a spitting, an outcast and a curse for thee! Thou shalt yet +arise up and fall down in thy sin and shalt justify all my thorns, and +nails, and spears, and the last drop of My blood for thee! Yea, +thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these +forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and +to know what was in thine heart, and whether thou wouldest keep His +commandments or no.</p> +<p>2. It is also, the still tarrying Prince proceeded—it +is also to keep thee wakeful and to make thee watchful. Now, what +conceivable estate could any man be put into even by his Maker and Redeemer +more calculated to call forth wakefulness and watchfulness than to have +one half of his heart new and the other half old? To have one +half of his heart garrisoned by the captains of Emmanuel, and the other +half still full of the spies and the scouts and the emissaries of hell? +Nay, to have the great bulk of his heart still full of sin and but a +small part of his heart here and there under grace and truth? +Here is material for fightings without and fears within with a vengeance! +If it somehow suits and answers God’s deep purposes with His people +to teach them watchfulness in this life, then here is a field for watchfulness, +a field of divine depth and scope and opportunity. There used +to be a divinity question set in the schools in these terms: Where, +in the regenerate, hath sin its lodging-place? For that sin does +still lodge in the regenerate is too abundantly evident both from Scripture +and from experience. But where it so lodges is the question. +The Dominican monks, and some others, were of opinion that original +sin is to be found only in the inferior part of the soul, but not in +the mind or the will. Which, I suppose, we shall soon find contrary +both to Scripture and reason and experience. Old Andrew Gray speaks +feelingly and no less truly concerning the heart, when he says, ‘I +think,’ he says, ‘that if all the saints since Adam’s +day, and who shall be to the end of the world, had but one deceitful +heart to guide they would misguide it.’ What a plot of God, +then, it is to seat grace, a little saving grace, in the midst of such +a sea of corruption as a human heart is, and then to set a sinful man +to watch over that spark and to keep the boiling pollutions of his own +heart from extinguishing that spark! Well may Paul exclaim: Yea, +what carefulness it calls forth in us; yea, what indignation; yea, what +fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, what zeal; yea, what revenge! +And, knowing to what He has left our hearts, well may Emmanuel say to +us from His ascending steps, ‘Watch ye, therefore; and what I +say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!’</p> +<p>3. It is to keep thee watchful and to teach thee war also, +the Prince went on. Bishop Butler is about the last author that +we would think of going to for light on any deep and intricate question +in the evangelical and experimental life. But Butler is so deeply +seen into much of the heart of man, as also into many of the ways of +God, that even here he has something to say to the point. ‘It +is vain to object,’ he says in his sober and sobering way, ‘that +all this trouble and danger might have been saved us by our being made +at once the creatures and the characters which we were to be. +For we experience that what we are to be is to be the effect of what +we shall do. And that the conduct of nature is not to save us +trouble and danger, but to make us capable of going through trouble +and danger, and to put it upon us to do it.’ The Apostle +Peter has the same teaching in a passage too little attended to, in +which he tells us that we are set here to work out our own salvation, +and that our salvation will just be what, with fear and trembling, or, +as Butler says, with trouble and danger, we work out. No man, +let all men understand, is to have his salvation thrust upon him. +No man need expect to waken up at the end of an idle, indifferent, inattentive +life and find his salvation superinduced upon all that. No man +shall wear the crown of everlasting life who has not for himself won +it. As every man soweth to the Spirit so also shall he reap. +As a soldier warreth, so shall he hear it said to him, Well done. +And as a sinner keeps his heart with all diligence, and holds it fast +till his King comes, so shall he hear it said to him, Thou hast been +faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. +If thy sins, then, are left in thee to teach thee war, O poor saint +of God, then take to thee the whole armour of God; thou knowest the +pieces of it, and where the armoury is, and, having done all, stand!</p> +<p>4. And dost thou know, O Mansoul, that it is all to try thy +love also? Now, how, just how, do the remainders of sin in the +regenerate try their love? Why, surely, in this way. If +we really loved sin at the deepest bottom of our hearts, and only loved +holiness on the surface, would we not in our deepest hearts close with +sin, give ourselves up to it, and make no stand at all against it? +Would we not in our deepest and most secret hearts welcome it, and embrace +it, look out for it with desire and delight, and part with it with regret? +But if, as a matter of fact, we at our deepest and most hidden heart +turn from sin, flee from it, fight against it, rejoice when we are rid +of it, and have horror at the return of it,—what better proof +than that could Christ and His angels have that at bottom we are His +and not the devil’s? And that grace, at bottom, has our +hearts, and not sin; heaven, and not hell? The apostle’s +protesting cry is our cry also; we also delight in the law of God after +our most inward man. For, after our saddest surprises into sin, +after its worst outbreaks and overthrows, such all the time were our +reluctances, recalcitrations, and resistances, that, swept away as we +were, yet all the time, and after it was again over, it was with some +good conscience that we said to Christ that He knew all things, and +that He knew that we loved Him.</p> +<blockquote><p>‘O benefit of ill! now I find true<br /> + That better is by evil still made better;<br /> +And ruined love, when it is built anew,<br /> + Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater,<br /> +So I return rebuked to my content,<br /> + And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.’</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Yes; it is a sure and certain proof how truly we love our dearest +friend, that, after all our envy and ill-will, yet it is as true as +that God is in heaven that, all the time, maugre the devil of self that +remains in our heart,—after he has done his worst—we would +still pluck out our eyes for our friend and shed our blood. I +have no better proof to myself of the depth and the divineness of my +love to my friend than just this, that I still love him and love him +more tenderly and loyally, after having so treacherously hurt him. +And my heavenly friends and my earthly friends, if they will still have +me, must both be content to go into the same bundle both of my remaining +enmity and my increasing love; my remainders of sin, and my slow growth +in regeneration. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon +Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He +saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith +unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? +He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love Thee. He +saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? +Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou +Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou +knowest that I love Thee!</p> +<p>5. And, to sum up all—more than your humility, more than +your watchfulness, more than your prayerfulness, more than to teach +you war, and more than to try your love, the dregs and remainders of +sin have been left in your regenerate heart to exalt and to extol the +grace of God. In Emmanuel’s very words, it has all been +to make you a monument of God’s mercy. I put it to yourselves, +then, ye people of God: does that not satisfy you for a reason, and +for an explanation, and for a justification of all your shame and pain, +and of all your bondage and misery and wretchedness since you knew the +Lord? Is there not a heart in you that says, Yes! it was worth +all my corruption and pollution and misery to help to manifest forth +and to magnify the glory of the grace of God? You seize on Emmanuel’s +word that you are a monument of mercy. Somehow that word pleases +and reposes you. Yes, that is what out of all these post-regeneration +years you are. You would have been a monument to God’s mercy +had you, like the thief on the cross, been glorified on the same day +on which you were first justified. But it will neither be the +day of your justification nor the day of your glorification that will +make you the greatest of all the monuments that shall ever be raised +to the praise of God’s grace; it will be the days of your sanctification +that will do that. Paul was a blasphemer and a persecutor and +injurious at his conversion, but he had to be a lifetime in grace and +an apostle above all the twelve before he became the chiefest of sinners +and the most wretched of saints. And though your first forgiveness +was, no doubt, a great proof of the grace of God, yet it was nothing, +nothing at all, to your forgiveness to-day. You had no words for +the wonder and the praise of your forgiveness to-day. You just +took to your lips the cup of salvation and let that silent action speak +aloud your monumental praise. You were a sinner at your regeneration, +else you would not have been regenerated. But you were not then +the chief of sinners. But now. Ah, now! Those words, +the chief of sinners, were but idle words in Paul’s mouth. +He did not know what he was saying. For, what has horrified and +offended other men when it has been spoken with bated breath to them +about envy, and hate, and malice, and revenge, and suchlike remainders +of hell, all that has been a breath of life and hope to you. It +has been to you as when Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, +heard a voice in the darkness which proved to him that there was another +sinner at the mouth of hell besides himself. There is no text +that comes oftener to your mind than this, that whoso hateth his brother +is a murderer; and, communicant as you are, you feel and you know and +you are sure that there are many men lying in lime waiting the day of +judgment to whom it would be more tolerable than for you were it not +that you are to be at that day the highest monument in heaven or earth +to the redeeming, pardoning, and saving grace of God. Yes, this +is the name that shall be written on you; this is the name that shall +be read on you of all who shall see you in heaven; this name that Emmanuel +pronounced over Mansoul that day from His ascending chariot-steps, a +very Spectacle of wonder, and a very Monument of the mercy and the grace +of God.</p> +<p> </p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS - THIRD SERIES***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 2308-h.htm or 2308-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/0/2308 + + + +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: Bunyan Characters - Third Series + The Holy War + + +Author: Alexander Whyte + +Release Date: April 13, 2005 [eBook #2308] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS - THIRD SERIES*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1895 Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +BUNYAN CHARACTERS--THIRD SERIES +Lectures Delivered in St. George's Free Church Edinburgh +By Alexander Whyte, D.D. + + +CHAPTER I--THE BOOK + + + '--the book of the wars of the Lord.'--_Moses_. + +John Bunyan's _Holy War_ was first published in 1682, six years before +its illustrious author's death. Bunyan wrote this great book when he was +still in all the fulness of his intellectual power and in all the +ripeness of his spiritual experience. The _Holy War_ is not the +_Pilgrim's Progress_--there is only one _Pilgrim's Progress_. At the +same time, we have Lord Macaulay's word for it that if the _Pilgrim's +Progress_ did not exist the _Holy War_ would be the best allegory that +ever was written: and even Mr. Froude admits that the _Holy War_ alone +would have entitled its author to rank high up among the acknowledged +masters of English literature. The intellectual rank of the _Holy War_ +has been fixed before that tribunal over which our accomplished and +competent critics preside; but for a full appreciation of its religious +rank and value we would need to hear the glad testimonies of tens of +thousands of God's saints, whose hard-beset faith and obedience have been +kindled and sustained by the study of this noble book. The _Pilgrim's +Progress_ sets forth the spiritual life under the scriptural figure of a +long and an uphill journey. The _Holy War_, on the other hand, is a +military history; it is full of soldiers and battles, defeats and +victories. And its devout author had much more scriptural suggestion and +support in the composition of the _Holy War_ than he had even in the +composition of the _Pilgrim's Progress_. For Holy Scripture is full of +wars and rumours of wars: the wars of the Lord; the wars of Joshua and +the Judges; the wars of David, with his and many other magnificent battle- +songs; till the best known name of the God of Israel in the Old Testament +is the Lord of Hosts; and then in the New Testament we have Jesus Christ +described as the Captain of our salvation. Paul's powerful use of armour +and of armed men is familiar to every student of his epistles; and then +the whole Bible is crowned with a book all sounding with the +battle-cries, the shouts, and the songs of soldiers, till it ends with +that city of peace where they hang the trumpet in the hall and study war +no more. Military metaphors had taken a powerful hold of our author's +imagination even in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, as his portraits of +Greatheart and Valiant-for-truth and other soldiers sufficiently show; +while the conflict with Apollyon and the destruction of Doubting Castle +are so many sure preludes of the coming _Holy War_. Bunyan's early +experiences in the great Civil War had taught him many memorable things +about the military art; memorable and suggestive things that he +afterwards put to the most splendid use in the siege, the capture, and +the subjugation of Mansoul. + +The _Divine Comedy_ is beyond dispute the greatest book of personal and +experimental religion the world has ever seen. The consuming intensity +of its author's feelings about sin and holiness, the keenness and the +bitterness of his remorse, and the rigour and the severity of his +revenge, his superb intellect and his universal learning, all set ablaze +by his splendid imagination--all that combines to make the _Divine +Comedy_ the unapproachable masterpiece it is. John Bunyan, on the other +hand, had no learning to be called learning, but he had a strong and a +healthy English understanding, a conscience and a heart wholly given up +to the life of the best religion of his religious day, and then, by sheer +dint of his sanctified and soaring imagination and his exquisite style, +he stands forth the peer of the foremost men in the intellectual world. +And thus it is that the great unlettered religious world possesses in +John Bunyan all but all that the select and scholarly world possesses in +Dante. Both Dante and Bunyan devoted their splendid gifts to the noblest +of services--the service of spiritual, and especially of personal +religion; but for one appreciative reader that Dante has had Bunyan has +had a hundred. Happy in being so like his Master in so many things, +Bunyan is happy in being like his unlettered Master in this also, that +the common people hear him gladly and never weary of hearing him. + +It gives by far its noblest interest to Dante's noble book that we have +Dante himself in every page of his book. Dante is taken down into Hell, +he is then led up through _Purgatory_, and after that still up and up +into the very Paradise of God. But that hell all the time is the hell +that Dante had dug and darkened and kindled for himself. In the +Purgatory, again, we see Dante working out his own salvation with fear +and trembling, God all the time working in Dante to will and to do of His +good pleasure. And then the Paradise, with all its sevenfold glory, is +just that place and that life which God hath prepared for them that love +Him and serve Him as Dante did. And so it is in the _Holy War_. John +Bunyan is in the _Pilgrim's Progress_, but there are more men and other +men than its author in that rich and populous book, and other experiences +and other attainments than his. But in the _Holy War_ we have Bunyan +himself as fully and as exclusively as we have Dante in the _Divine +Comedy_. In the first edition of the _Holy War_ there is a frontispiece +conceived and executed after the anatomical and symbolical manner which +was so common in that day, and which is to be seen at its perfection in +the English edition of Jacob Behmen. The frontispiece is a full-length +likeness of the author of the _Holy War_, with his whole soul laid open +and his hidden heart 'anatomised.' Why, asked Wordsworth, and Matthew +Arnold in our day has echoed the question--why does Homer still so live +and rule without a rival in the world of letters? And they answer that +it is because he always sang with his eye so fixed upon its object. +'Homer, to thee I turn.' And so it was with Dante. And so it was with +Bunyan. Bunyan's _Holy War_ has its great and abiding and commanding +power over us just because he composed it with his eye fixed on his own +heart. + + My readers, I have somewhat else to do, + Than with vain stories thus to trouble you; + What here I say some men do know so well + They can with tears and joy the story tell . . . + Then lend thine ear to what I do relate, + Touching the town of Mansoul and her state: + For my part, I (myself) was in the town, + Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down. + Let no man then count me a fable-maker, + Nor make my name or credit a partaker + Of their derision: what is here in view + Of mine own knowledge, I dare say is true. + +The characters in the _Holy War_ are not as a rule nearly so clear-cut or +so full of dramatic life and movement as their fellows are in the +_Pilgrim's Progress_, and Bunyan seems to have felt that to be the case. +He shows all an author's fondness for the children of his imagination in +the _Pilgrim's Progress_. He returns to and he lingers on their doings +and their sayings and their very names with all a foolish father's fond +delight. While, on the other hand, when we look to see him in his +confidential addresses to his readers returning upon some of the military +and municipal characters in the _Holy War_, to our disappointment he does +not so much as name a single one of them, though he dwells with all an +author's self-delectation on the outstanding scenes, situations, and +episodes of his remarkable book. + +What, then, are some of the more outstanding scenes, situations, and +episodes, as well as military and municipal characters, in the book now +before us? And what are we to promise ourselves, and to expect, from the +study and the exposition of the _Holy War_ in these lectures? Well, to +begin with, we shall do our best to enter with mind, and heart, and +conscience, and imagination into Bunyan's great conception of the human +soul as a city, a fair and a delicate city and corporation, with its +situation, surroundings, privileges and fortunes. We shall then enter +under his guidance into the famous and stately palace of this +metropolitan city; a palace which for strength might be called a castle, +for pleasantness a paradise, and for largeness a place so copious as to +contain all the world. The walls and the gates of the city will then +occupy and instruct us for several Sabbath evenings, after which we shall +enter on the record of the wars and battles that rolled time after time +round those city walls, and surged up through its captured gates till +they quite overwhelmed the very palace of the king itself. Then we shall +spend, God willing, one Sabbath evening with Loth-to-stoop, and another +with old Ill-pause, the devil's orator, and another with Captain +Anything, and another with Lord Willbewill, and another with that +notorious villain Clip-promise, by whose doings so much of the king's +coin had been abused, and another with that so angry and so +ill-conditioned churl old Mr. Prejudice, with his sixty deaf men under +him. Dear Mr. Wet-eyes, with his rope upon his head, will have a fit +congregation one winter night, and Captain Self-denial another. We shall +have another painful but profitable evening before a communion season +with Mr. Prywell, and so we shall eat of that bread and drink of that +cup. Emmanuel's livery will occupy us one evening, Mansoul's Magna +Charta another, and her annual Feast-day another. Her Established Church +and her beneficed clergy will take up one evening, some Skulkers in +Mansoul another, the devil's last prank another, and then, to wind up +with, Emmanuel's last speech and charge to Mansoul from his chariot-step +till He comes again to accomplish her rapture. All that we shall see and +take part in; unless, indeed, our Captain comes in anger before the time, +and spears us to the earth when He finds us asleep at our post or in the +act of sin at it, which may His abounding mercy forbid! + +And now take these three forewarnings and precautions. + +1. First:--All who come here on these coming Sabbath evenings will not +understand the _Holy War_ all at once, and many will not understand it at +all. And little blame to them, and no wonder. For, fully to understand +this deep and intricate book demands far more mind, far more experience, +and far more specialised knowledge than the mass of men, as men are, can +possibly bring to it. This so exacting book demands of us, to begin +with, some little acquaintance with military engineering and +architecture; with the theory of, and if possible with some practice in, +attack and defence in sieges and storms, winter campaigns and long drawn- +out wars. And then, impossible as it sounds and is, along with all that +we would need to have a really profound, practical, and at first-hand +acquaintance with the anatomy of the human subject, and especially with +cardiac anatomy, as well as with all the conditions, diseases, regimen +and discipline of the corrupt heart of man. And then it is enough to +terrify any one to open this book or to enter this church when he is told +that if he comes here he must be ready and willing to have the whole of +this terrible and exacting book fulfilled and experienced in himself, in +his own body and in his own soul. + +2. And, then, you will not all like the _Holy War_. The mass of men +could not be expected to like any such book. How could the vain and +blind citizen of a vain and blind city like to be wakened up, as Paris +was wakened up within our own remembrance, to find all her gates in the +hands of an iron-hearted enemy? And how could her sons like to be +reminded, as they sit in their wine gardens, that they are thereby fast +preparing their city for that threatened day when she is to be hung up on +her own walls and bled to the white? Who would not hate and revile the +book or the preacher who prophesied such rough things as that? Who could +love the author or the preacher who told him to his face that his eyes +and his ears and all the passes to his heart were already in the hands of +a cruel, ruthless, and masterful enemy? No wonder that you never read +the _Holy War_. No wonder that the bulk of men have never once opened +it. The Downfall is not a favourite book in the night-gardens of Paris. + +3. And then, few, very few, it is to be feared, will be any better of +the _Holy War_. For, to be any better of such a terrible book as this +is, we must at all costs lay it, and lay it all, and lay it all at once, +to heart. We must submit ourselves to see ourselves continually in its +blazing glass. We must stoop to be told that it is all, in all its +terrors and in all its horrors, literally true of ourselves. We must +deliberately and resolutely set open every gate that opens in on our +heart--Ear-gate and Eye-gate and all the gates of sense and intellect, +day and night, to Jesus Christ to enter in; and we must shut and bolt and +bar every such gate in the devil's very face, and in the face of all his +scouts and orators, day and night also. But who that thinks, and that +knows by experience what all that means, will feel himself sufficient for +all that? No man: no sinful man. But, among many other noble and +blessed things, the _Holy War_ will show us that our sufficiency in this +impossibility also is all of God. Who, then, will enlist? Who will risk +all and enlist? Who will matriculate in the military school of Mansoul? +Who will submit himself to all the severity of its divine discipline? Who +will be made willing to throw open and to keep open his whole soul, with +all the gates and doors thereof, to all the sieges, assaults, +capitulations, submissions, occupations, and such like of the war of +gospel holiness? And who will enlist under that banner now? + +'Set down my name, sir,' said a man of a very stout countenance to him +who had the inkhorn at the outer gate. At which those who walked upon +the top of the palace broke out in a very pleasant voice, + + 'Come in, come in; + Eternal glory thou shalt win.' + +We have no longer, after what we have come through, any such stoutness in +our countenance, yet will we say to-night with him who had it, Set down +my name also, sir! + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE CITY OF MANSOUL AND ITS CINQUE PORTS + + + '--a besieged city.'--_Isaiah_. + +Our greatest historians have been wont to leave their books behind them +and to make long journeys in order to see with their own eyes the ruined +sites of ancient cities and the famous fields where the great battles of +the world were lost and won. We all remember how Macaulay made a long +winter journey to see the Pass of Killiecrankie before he sat down to +write upon it; and Carlyle's magnificent battle-pieces are not all +imagination; even that wonderful writer had to see Frederick's +battlefields with his own eyes before he could trust himself to describe +them. And he tells us himself how Cromwell's splendid generalship all +came up before him as he looked down on the town of Dunbar and out upon +the ever-memorable country round about it. John Bunyan was not a great +historian; he was only a common soldier in the great Civil War of the +seventeenth century; but what would we not give for a description from +his vivid pen of the famous fields and the great sieges in which he took +part? What a find John Bunyan's 'Journals' and 'Letters Home from the +Seat of War' would be to our historians and to their readers! But, alas! +such journals and letters do not exist. Bunyan's complete silence in all +his books about the battles and the sieges he took his part in is very +remarkable, and his silence is full of significance. The Puritan soldier +keeps all his military experiences to work them all up into his _Holy +War_, the one and only war that ever kindled all his passions and filled +his every waking thought. But since John Bunyan was a man of genius, +equal in his own way to Cromwell and Milton themselves, if I were a +soldier I would keep ever before me the great book in which Bunyan's +experiences and observations and reflections as a soldier are all worked +up. I would set that classical book on the same shelf with Caesar's +_Commentaries_ and Napier's _Peninsula_, and Carlyle's glorious battle- +pieces. Even Caesar has been accused of too great dryness and coldness +in his Commentaries, but there is neither dryness nor coldness in John +Bunyan's _Holy War_. To read Bunyan kindles our cold civilian blood like +the waving of a banner and like the sound of a trumpet. + +The situation of the city of Mansoul occupies one of the most beautiful +pages of this whole book. The opening of the _Holy War_, simply as a +piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best page of the +_Pilgrim's Progress_ itself, and what more can I say than that? Now, the +situation of a city is a matter of the very first importance. Indeed, +the insight and the foresight of the great statesmen and the great +soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing more than in the sites they +chose for their citadels and for their defenced cities. Well, then, as +to the situation of Mansoul, 'it lieth,' says our military author, 'just +between the two worlds.' That is to say: very much as Germany in our day +lies between France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day lay +between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense +empires also. And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man here who +has a man's soul in his bosom that the two armed empires that besiege his +soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that both Heaven and Hell +would give their best blood and their best treasure to subdue and to +possess his soul. We do not value our souls at all as Heaven and Hell +value them. There are savage tribes in Africa and in Asia who inhabit +territories that are sleeplessly envied by the expanding and extending +nations of Europe. Ancient and mighty empires in Europe raise armies, +and build navies, and levy taxes, and spill the blood of their bravest +sons like water in order to possess the harbours, and the rivers, and the +mountains, and the woods amid which their besotted owners roam in utter +ignorance of all the plots and preparations of the Western world. And +Heaven and Hell are not unlike those ancient and over-peopled nations of +Europe whose teeming millions must have an outlet to other lands. Their +life and their activity are too large and too rich for their original +territories, and thus they are compelled to seek out colonies and +dependencies, so that their surplus population may have a home. And, in +like manner, Heaven is too full of love and of blessedness to have all +that for ever shut up within itself, and Hell is too full of envy and ill- +will, and thus there continually come about those contentions and +collisions of which the _Holy War_ is full. And, besides, it is with +Mansoul and her neighbour states of Heaven and Hell just as it is with +some of our great European empires in this also. There is no neutral +zone, no buffer state, no silver streak between Mansoul and her immediate +and military neighbours. And thus it is that her statesmen, and her +soldiers, and even her very common-soldier sentries must be for ever on +the watch; they must never say peace, peace; they must never leave for +one moment their appointed post. + +And then, as for the wall of the city, hear our excellent historian's own +words about that. 'The wall of the town was well built,' so he says. +'Yea, so fast and firm was it knit and compact together that, had it not +been for the townsmen themselves, it could not have been shaken or broken +down for ever. For here lay the excellent wisdom of Him that builded +Mansoul, that the walls could never be broken down nor hurt by the most +mighty adverse potentate unless the townsmen gave their consent thereto.' +Now, what would the military engineers of Chatham and Paris and Berlin, +who are now at their wits' end, not give for a secret like that! A wall +impregnable and insurmountable and not to be sapped or mined from the +outside: a wall that could only suffer hurt from the inside! And then +that wonderful wall was pierced from within with five magnificently +answerable gates. That is to say, the gates could neither be burst in +nor any way forced from without. 'This famous town of Mansoul had five +gates, in at which to come, out of which to go; and these were made +likewise answerable to the walls; to wit, impregnable, and such as could +never be opened or forced but by the will and leave of those within. The +names of the gates were these: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate; in short, +'the five senses,' as we say. + +In the south of England, in the time of Edward the Confessor and after +the battle of Hastings, there were five cities which had special +immunities and peculiar privileges bestowed upon them, in recognition of +the special dangers to which they were exposed and the eminent services +they performed as facing the hostile shores of France. Owing to their +privileges and their position, the 'Cinque Ports' came to be cities of +great strength, till, as time went on, they became a positive weakness +rather than a strength to the land that lay behind them. Privilege bred +pride, and in their pride the Cinque Ports proclaimed wars and formed +alliances on their own account: piracies by sea and robberies by land +were hatched within their walls; and it took centuries to reduce those +pampered and arrogant ports to the safe and peaceful rank of ordinary +English cities. The Revolution of 1688 did something, and the Reform +Bill of 1832 did more to make Dover and her insolent sisters like the +other free and equal cities of England; but to this day there are +remnants of public shows and pageantries left in those old towns +sufficient to witness to the former privileges, power, and pride of the +famous Cinque Ports. Now, Mansoul, in like manner, has her cinque ports. +And the whole of the _Holy War_ is one long and detailed history of how +the five senses are clothed with such power as they possess; how they +abuse and misuse their power; what disloyalty and despite they show to +their sovereign; what conspiracies and depredations they enter into; what +untold miseries they let in upon themselves and upon the land that lies +behind them; what years and years of siege, legislation, and rule it +takes to reduce our bodily senses, those proud and licentious gates, to +their true and proper allegiance, and to make their possessors a people +loyal and contented, law-abiding and happy. + +The Apostle has a terrible passage to the Corinthians, in which he treats +of the soul and the senses with tremendous and overwhelming power. 'Your +bodies and your bodily members,' he argues, with crushing indignation, +'are not your own to do with them as you like. Your bodies and your +souls are both Christ's. He has bought your body and your soul at an +incalculable cost. What! know ye not that your body is nothing less than +the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and ye are not any more +your own? know ye not that your bodies are the very members of Christ?' +And then he says a thing so terrible that I tremble to transcribe it. For +a more terrible thing was never written. 'Shall I then,' filled with +shame he demands, 'take the members of Christ and make them the members +of an harlot?' O God, have mercy on me! I knew all the time that I was +abusing and polluting myself, but I did not know, I did not think, I was +never told that I was abusing and polluting Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, +too awful thought. And yet, stupid sinner that I am, I had often read +that if any man defile the temple of God and the members of Christ, him +shall God destroy. O God, destroy me not as I see now that I deserve. +Spare me that I may cleanse and sanctify myself and the members of Christ +in me, which I have so often embruted and defiled. Assist me to summon +up my imagination henceforth to my sanctification as Thine apostle has +here taught me the way. Let me henceforth look at my whole body in all +its senses and in all its members, the most open and the most secret, as +in reality no more my own. Let me henceforth look at myself with Paul's +deep and holy eyes. Let me henceforth seat Christ, my Redeemer and my +King, in the very throne of my heart, and then keep every gate of my body +and every avenue of my mind as all not any more mine own but His. Let me +open my eye, and my ear, and my mouth, as if in all that I were opening +Christ's eye and Christ's ear and Christ's mouth; and let me thrust in +nothing on Him as He dwells within me that will make Him ashamed or +angry, or that will defile and pollute Him. That thought, O God, I feel +that it will often arrest me in time to come in the very act of sin. It +will make me start back before I make Christ cruel or false, a +wine-bibber, a glutton, or unclean. I feel at this moment as if I shall +yet come to ask Him at every meal, and at every other opportunity and +temptation of every kind, what He would have and what He would do before +I go on to take or to do anything myself. What a check, what a +restraint, what an awful scrupulosity that will henceforth work in me! +But, through that, what a pure, blameless, noble, holy and heavenly life +I shall then lead! What bodily pains, diseases, premature decays; what +mental remorses, what shames and scandals, what self-loathings and what +self-disgusts, what cups bitterer to drink than blood, I shall then +escape! Yes, O Paul, I shall henceforth hold with thee that my body is +the temple of Christ, and that I am not my own, but that I am bought with +a transporting price, and can, therefore, do nothing less than glorify +God in my body and in my spirit which are God's. 'This place,' says the +Pauline author of the _Holy War_--'This place the King intended but for +Himself alone, and not for another with Him.' + +But, my brethren, lay this well, and as never before, to heart--this, +namely, that when you thus begin to keep any gate for Christ, your King +and Captain and Better-self,--Ear-gate, or Eye-gate, or Mouth-gate, or +any other gate--you will have taken up a task that shall have no end with +you in this life. Till you begin in dead earnest to watch your heart, +and all the doors of your heart, as if you were watching Christ's heart +for Him and all the doors of His heart, you will have no idea of the +arduousness and the endurance, the sleeplessness and the self-denial, of +the undertaking. + + 'Mansoul! Her wars seemed endless in her eyes; + She's lost by one, becomes another's prize. + Mansoul! Her mighty wars, they did portend + Her weal or woe and that world without end. + Wherefore she must be more concern'd than they + Whose fears begin and end the self-same day.' + +'We all thought one battle would decide it,' says Richard Baxter, writing +about the Civil War. 'But we were all very much mistaken,' sardonically +adds Carlyle. Yes; and you will be very much mistaken too if you enter +on the war with sin in your soul, in your senses and in your members, +with powder and shot for one engagement only. When you enlist here, lay +well to heart that it is for life. There is no discharge in this war. +There are no ornamental old pensioners here. It is a warfare for eternal +life, and nothing will end it but the end of your evil days on earth. + + + + +CHAPTER III--EAR-GATE + + + 'Take heed what ye hear.'--_Our Lord in Mark_. + + 'Take heed how you hear.'--_Our Lord in Luke_. + +This famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, out at +which to go, and these were made likewise answerable to the walls--to +wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor forced but by the +will and leave of those within. 'The names of the gates were these, Ear- +gate, Eye-gate,' and so on. Dr. George Wilson, who was once Professor of +Technology in our University, took this suggestive passage out of the +_Holy War_ and made it the text of his famous lecture in the +Philosophical Institution, and then he printed the passage on the fly- +leaf of his delightful book _The Five Gateways of Knowledge_. That is a +book to read sometime, but this evening is to be spent with the master. + +For, after all, no one can write at once so beautifully, so quaintly, so +suggestively, and so evangelically as John Bunyan. 'The Lord +Willbewill,' says John Bunyan, 'took special care that the gates should +be secured with double guards, double bolts, and double locks and bars; +and that Ear-gate especially might the better be looked to, for that was +the gate in at which the King's forces sought most to enter. The Lord +Willbewill therefore made old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned +fellow, captain of the ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty +men, called Deafmen; men advantageous for that service, forasmuch as they +mattered no words of the captain nor of the soldiers. And first the +King's officers made their force more formidable against Ear-gate: for +they knew that unless they could penetrate that no good could be done +upon the town. This done, they put the rest of their men in their +places; after which they gave out the word, which was, Ye must be born +again! And so the battle began. Now, they in the town had planted upon +the tower over Ear-gate two great guns, the one called High-mind and the +other Heady. Unto these two guns they trusted much; they were cast in +the castle by Diabolus's ironfounder, whose name was Mr. Puff-up, and +mischievous pieces they were. They in the camp also did stoutly, for +they saw that unless they could open Ear-gate it would be in vain to +batter the wall.' And so on, through many allegorical, and, if sometimes +somewhat laboured, yet always eloquent, pungent, and heart-exposing +pages. + +With these for our text let us now take a rapid glance at what some of +the more Bunyan-like passages in the prophets and the psalms say about +the ear; how it is kept and how it is lost; how it is used and how it is +abused. + +1. The Psalmist uses a very striking expression in the 94th Psalm when +he is calling for justice, and is teaching God's providence over men. 'He +that planted the ear,' the Psalmist exclaims, 'shall he not hear?' And, +considering his church and his day, that is not a bad remark of Cardinal +Bellarmine on that psalm,--'the Psalmist's word _planted_,' says that +able churchman, 'implies design, in that the ear was not spontaneously +evolved by an act of vital force, but was independently created by God +for a certain object, just as a tree, not of indigenous growth, is of set +purpose planted in some new place by the hand of man.' The same thing is +said in Genesis, you remember, about the Garden of Eden,--the Lord +planted it and put the man and the woman, whose ears he had just planted +also, into the garden to dress it and keep it. How they dressed the +garden and kept it, and how they held the gate of their ear against him +who squatted down before it with his innuendoes and his lies, we all know +to our as yet unrepaired, though not always irreparable, cost. + +2. One would almost think that the scornful apostle had the Garden of +Eden in his eye when he speaks so bitterly to Timothy of a class of +people who are cursed with 'itching ears.' Eve's ears itched +unappeasably for the devil's promised secret; and we have all inherited +our first mother's miserable curiosity. How eager, how restless, how +importunate, we all are to hear that new thing that does not at all +concern us; or only concerns us to our loss and our shame. And the more +forbidden that secret is to us, and the more full of inward evil to +us--insane sinners that we are--the more determined we are to get at it. +Let any forbidden secret be in the keeping of some one within earshot of +us and we will give him no rest till he has shared the evil thing with +us. Let any specially evil page be published in a newspaper, and we will +take good care that that day's paper is not thrown into the waste-basket; +we will hide it away, like a dog with a stolen bone, till we are able to +dig it up and chew it dry in secret. The devil has no need to blockade +or besiege the gate of our ear if he has any of his good things to offer +us. The gate that can only be opened from within will open at once of +itself if he or any of his newsmongers but squat down for a moment before +it. Shame on us, and on all of us, for our itching ears. + +3. Isaiah speaks of some men in his day whose ears were 'heavy' and +whose hearts were fat, and the Psalmist speaks of some men in his day +whose ears were 'stopped' up altogether. And there is not a better thing +in Bunyan at his very best than that surly old churl called Prejudice, so +ill-conditioned and so always on the edge of anger. By the devil's plan +of battle old Prejudice was appointed to be warder of Ear-gate, and to +enable him to keep that gate for his master he had sixty deaf men put +under him, men most advantageous for that post, forasmuch as it mattered +not to them what Emmanuel and His officers said. There could be no +manner of doubt who composed that inimitable passage. There is all the +truth and all the humour and all the satire in Old Prejudice that our +author has accustomed us to in his best pieces. The common people always +get the best literature along with the best religion in John Bunyan. +'They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and which will not +hearken to the voice of charmers charming never so wisely,' says the +Psalmist, speaking about some bad men in his day. Now, I will not stand +upon David's natural history here, but his moral and religious meaning is +evident enough. David is not concerned about adders and their ears, he +is wholly taken up with us and our adder-like animosity against the +truth. Against what teacher, then; against what preacher; against what +writer; against what doctrine, reproof, correction, has your churlish +prejudice adder-like shut your ear? Against what truth, human or divine, +have you hitherto stopped up your ear like the Psalmist's serpent? To +ask that boldly, honestly, and in the sight of God, at yourself to-night, +would end in making you the lifelong friend of some preacher, some +teacher, some soul-saving truth you have up till to-night been prejudiced +against with the rooted prejudice and the sullen obstinacy of sixty deaf +men. O God, help us to lay aside all this adder-like antipathy at men +and things, both in public and in private life. Help us to give all men +and all causes a fair field and no favour, but the field and the favour +of an open and an honest mind, and a simple and a sincere heart. He that +hath ears, let him hear! + +4. As we work our way through the various developments and vicissitudes +of the Holy War we shall find Ear-gate in it and in ourselves passing +through many unexpected experiences; now held by one side and now by +another. And we find the same succession of vicissitudes set forth in +Holy Scripture. If you pay any attention to what you read and hear, and +then begin to ask yourselves fair in the face as to your own prejudices, +prepossessions, animosities, and antipathies,--you will at once begin to +reap your reward in having put into your possession what the Scriptures +so often call an 'inclined' ear. That is to say, an ear not only +unstopped, not only unloaded, but actually prepared and predisposed to +all manner of truth and goodness. Around our city there are the remains, +the still visible tracks, of roads that at one time took the country +people into our city, but which are now stopped up and made wholly +impassable. There is no longer any road into Edinburgh that way. There +are other roads still open, but they are very roundabout, and at best +very uphill. And then there are other roads so smooth, and level, and +broad, and well kept, that they are full of all kinds of traffic; in the +centre carts and carriages crowd them, on the one side horses and their +riders delight to display themselves, and on the other side pedestrians +and perambulators enjoy the sun. And then there are still other roads +with such a sweet and gentle incline upon them that it is a positive +pleasure both to man and beast to set their foot upon them. And so it is +with the minds and the hearts of the men and the women who crowd these +roads. Just as the various roads are, so are the ears and the +understandings, the affections and the inclinations of those who walk and +ride and drive upon them. Some of those men's ears are impassably +stopped up by self-love, self-interest, party-spirit, anger, envy, and +ill-will,--impenetrably stopped up against all the men and all the truths +of earth and of heaven that would instruct, enlighten, convict or correct +them. Some men's minds, again, are not so much shut up as they are +crooked, and warped, and narrow, and full of obstruction and opposition. +Whereas here and there, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot; +sometimes a learned man walking out of the city to take the air, and +sometimes an unlettered countryman coming into the city to make his +market, will have his ear hospitably open to every good man he meets, to +every good book he reads, to every good paper he buys at the street +corner, and to every good speech, and report, and letter, and article he +reads in it. And how happy that man is, how happy his house is at home, +and how happy he makes all those he but smiles to on his afternoon walk, +and in all his walk along the roads of this life. Never see an I +incline' on a railway or on a driving or a walking road without saying on +it before you leave it, 'I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined +His ear unto me and heard my cry. Because He hath inclined His ear unto +me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. Incline not my +heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with them that work +iniquity. Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to +covetousness. I have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes alway, +even unto the end.' + +5. Shakespeare speaks in _Richard the Second_ of 'the open ear of +youth,' and it is a beautiful truth in a beautiful passage. Young men, +who are still young men, keep your ears open to all truth and to all duty +and to all goodness, and shut your ears with an adder's determination +against all that which ruined Richard--flattering sounds, reports of +fashions, and lascivious metres. 'Our souls would only be gainers by the +perfection of our bodies were they wisely dealt with,' says Professor +Wilson in his _Five Gateways_. 'And for every human being we should aim +at securing, so far as they can be attained, an eye as keen and piercing +as that of the eagle; an ear as sensitive to the faintest sound as that +of the hare; a nostril as far-scenting as that of the wild deer; a tongue +as delicate as that of the butterfly; and a touch as acute as that of the +spider. No man ever was so endowed, and no man ever will be; but all men +come infinitely short of what they should achieve were they to make their +senses what they might be made. The old have outlived their opportunity, +and the diseased never had it; but the young, who have still an undimmed +eye, an undulled ear, and a soft hand; an unblunted nostril, and a tongue +which tastes with relish the plainest fare--the young can so cultivate +their senses as to make the narrow ring, which for the old and the infirm +encircles things sensible, widen for them into an almost limitless +horizon.' + +Take heed what you hear, and take heed how you hear. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--EYE-GATE + + + 'Mine eye affecteth mine heart.'--_Jeremiah_. + +'Think, in the first place,' says the eloquent author of the _Five +Gateways of Knowledge_, 'how beautiful the human eye is. The eyes of +many of the lower animals are, doubtless, very beautiful. You must all +have admired the bold, fierce, bright eye of the eagle; the large, +gentle, brown eye of the ox; the treacherous, green eye of the cat, +waxing and waning like the moon; the pert eye of the sparrow; the sly eye +of the fox; the peering little bead of black enamel in the mouse's head; +the gem-like eye that redeems the toad from ugliness, and the +intelligent, affectionate expression which looks out of the human-like +eye of the horse and dog. There are many other animals whose eyes are +full of beauty, but there is a glory that excelleth in the eye of a man. +We realise this best when we gaze into the eyes of those we love. It is +their eyes we look at when we are near them, and it is their eyes we +recall when we are far away from them. The face is all but a blank +without the eye; the eye seems to concentrate every feature in itself. It +is the eye that smiles, not the lips; it is the eye that listens, not the +ear; it is the eye that frowns, not the brow; it is the eye that mourns, +not the voice. The eye sees what it brings the power to see. How true +is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a ship where the landsman +can see nothing. The Esquimaux can distinguish a white fox among the +white snow. The astronomer can see a star in the sky where to others the +blue expanse is unbroken. The shepherd can distinguish the face of every +single sheep in his flock,' so Professor Wilson. And then Dr. Gould +tells us in his mystico-evolutionary, Behmen-and-Darwin book, _The +Meaning and the Method of Life_--a book which those will read who can and +ought--that the eye is the most psychical, the most spiritual, the most +useful, and the most valued and cherished of all the senses; after which +he adds this wonderful and heart-affecting scientific fact, that in death +by starvation, every particle of fat in the body is auto-digested except +the cream-cushion of the eye-ball! So true is it that the eye is the +mistress, the queen, and the most precious, to Creator and creature +alike, of all the five senses. + +Now, in the _Holy War_ John Bunyan says a thing about the ear, as +distinguished from the eye, that I cannot subscribe to in my own +experience at any rate. In describing the terrible war that raged round +Ear-gate, and finally swept up through that gate and into the streets of +the city, he says that the ear is the shortest and the surest road to the +heart. I confess I cannot think that to be the actual case. I am +certain that it is not so in my own case. My eye is very much nearer my +heart than my ear is. My eye much sooner affects, and much more +powerfully affects, my heart than my ear ever does. Not only is my eye +by very much the shortest road to my heart, but, like all other short +roads, it is cram-full of all kinds of traffic when my ear stands +altogether empty. My eye is constantly crowded and choked with all kinds +of commerce; whole hordes of immigrants and invaders trample one another +down on the congested street that leads from my eye to my heart. Speaking +for myself, for one assault that is made on my heart through my ear there +are a thousand assaults successfully made through my eye. Indeed, were +my eye but stopped up; had I but obedience and courage and +self-mortification enough to pluck both my eyes out, that would be half +the cleansing and healing and holiness of my evil heart; or at least, the +half of its corruption, rebellion, and abominable wickedness would +henceforth be hidden from me. I think I can see what led John Bunyan in +his day and in this book to make that too strong statement about the ear +as against the eye; but it is not like him to have let such an +over-statement stand and continue in his corrected and carefully finished +work. The prophet Jeremiah, I feel satisfied, would not have subscribed +to what is said in the _Holy War_ in extenuation of the eye. That heart- +broken prophet does not say that it has been his ear that has made his +head waters. It is his eye, he says, that has so affected his heart. The +Prophet of the Captivity had all the _Holy War_ potentially in his +imagination when he penned that so suggestive sentence. And the Latin +poet of experience, the grown-up man's own poet, says somewhere that the +things that enter by his eye seize and hold his heart much more swiftly +and much more surely than those things that but enter by his ear. I +shall continue, then, to hold by my text, 'Mine eye affecteth mine +heart.' + +1. Turning then, to the prophets and proverb-makers of Israel, and then +to the New Testament for the true teaching on the eye, I come, in the +first place, on that so pungent saying of Solomon that 'the eyes of a +fool are in the ends of the earth.' Look at that born fool, says +Solomon, who has his eyes and his heart committed to him to keep. See +him how he gapes and stares after everything that does not concern him, +and lets the door of his own heart stand open to every entering thief. +London is a city of three million inhabitants, and they are mostly fools, +Carlyle once said. And let him in this city whose eyes keep at home cast +the first stone at those foreign fools. I will wager on their side that +many of you here to-night know better what went on in Mashonaland last +week than what went on in your own kitchen downstairs, or in your own +nursery or schoolroom upstairs. Some of you are ten times more taken up +with the prospects of Her Majesty's Government this session, and with the +plots of Her Majesty's Opposition, than you are with the prospects of the +good and the evil, and the plots of God and the devil, all this winter in +your own hearts. You rise early, and make a fight to get the first of +the newspaper; but when the minister comes in in the afternoon you blush +because the housemaid has mislaid the Bible. Did you ever read of the +stargazer who fell into an open well at the street corner? Like him, you +may be a great astronomer, a great politician, a great theologian, a +great defender of the faith even, and yet may be a stark fool just in +keeping the doors and the windows of your own heart. 'You shall see a +poor soul,' says Dr. Goodwin, 'mean in abilities of wit, or +accomplishments of learning, who knows not how the world goes, nor upon +what wheels its states turn, who yet knows more clearly and +experimentally his own heart than all the learned men in the world know +theirs. And though the other may better discourse philosophically of the +acts of the soul, yet this poor man sees more into the corruption of it +than they all.' And in another excellent place he says: 'Many who have +leisure and parts to read much, instead of ballasting their hearts with +divine truth, and building up their souls with its precious words, are +much more versed in play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, and feigned +staves, which are but apes and peacocks' feathers instead of pearls and +precious stones. Foreign and foolish discourses please their eyes and +their ears; they are more chameleons than men, for they live on the east +wind.' + +2. 'If thine eye offend thee'--our Lord lays down this law to all those +who would enter into life--'pluck it out and cast it from thee; for it is +better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than, having two +eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.' Does your eye offend you, my brethren? +Does your eye cause you to stumble and fall, as it is in the etymology? +The right use of the eye is to keep you from stumbling and falling; but +so perverted are the eye and the heart of every sinner that the city +watchman has become a partaker with thieves, and our trusted guide and +guardian a traitor and a knave. If thine eye, therefore, offends thee; +if it places a stone or a tree in thy way in a dark night; if it digs a +deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee astray, +or lets in upon thee thine enemies--then, surely, thou wert better to be +without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, what is still +harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil thing out of it. Shut +up that book and put it away. Throw that paper and that picture into the +fire. Cut off that companion, even if he were an adoring lover. Refuse +that entertainment and that amusement, though all the world were crowding +upto it. And soon, and soon, till you have plucked your eye as clean of +temptations and snares as it is possible to be in this life. For this +life is full of that terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of +all His people, that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You will +know whether or no you are one of them just by the number of the +beautiful things, and the sweet things, and the things to be desired, +that you have plucked out of your eye at His advice and demand. True +religion, my brethren, on some sides of it, and at some stages of it, is +a terribly severe and sore business; and unless it is proving a terribly +severe and sore business to you, look out! lest, with your two hands and +your two feet and your two eyes, you be cast, with all that your hands +and feet and eyes have feasted on, into the everlasting fires! Woe unto +the world because of offences, but woe much more to that member and +entrance-gate of the body by which the offence cometh! Wherefore, if +thine eye offend thee--! + +3. 'Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight +before thee.' Now, if you wish both to preserve your eyes, and to escape +the everlasting fires at the same time, attend to this text. For this is +almost as good as plucking out your two eyes; indeed, it is almost the +very same thing. Solomon shall speak to the man in this house to-night +who has the most inflammable, the most ungovernable, and the most +desperately wicked heart. You, man, with that heart, you know that you +cannot pass up the street without your eye becoming a perfect hell-gate +of lust, of hate, of ill-will, of resentment and of revenge. Your eye +falls on a man, on a woman, on a house, on a shop, on a school, on a +church, on a carriage, on a cart, on an innocent child's perambulator +even; and, devil let loose that you are, your eye fills your heart on the +spot with absolute hell-fire. Your presence and your progress poison the +very streets of the city. And that, not as the short-sighted and the +vulgar will read Solomon's plain-spoken Scripture, with the poison of +lewdness and uncleanness, but with the still more malignant, stealthy, +and deadly poison of social, professional, political, and ecclesiastical +hatred, resentment, and ill-will. Whoredom and wine openly slay their +thousands on all our streets; but envy and spite, dislike and hatred +their ten thousands. The fact is, we would never know how malignantly +wicked our hearts are but for our eyes. But a sudden spark, a single +flash through the eye falling on the gunpowder that fills our hearts, +that lets us know a hundred times every day what at heart we are made of. +'Of a verity, O Lord, I am made of sin, and that my life maketh +manifest,' prays Bishop Andrewes every day. Why, sir, not to go to the +street, the direction in which your eyes turn in this house this evening +will make this house a very 'den,' as our Lord said--yes, a very den to +you of temptation and transgression. My son, let thine eyes look right +on. Ponder the path of thy feet, turn not to the right hand nor to the +left--remove thy foot from all evil! + +4. There is still another eye that is almost as good as an eye out +altogether, and that is a Job's eye. Job was the first author of that +eye and all we who have that excellent eye take it of him. 'I have made +a covenant with mine eyes,' said that extraordinary man--that +extraordinarily able, honest, exposed and exercised man. Now, you must +all know what a covenant is. A covenant is a compact, a contract, an +agreement, an engagement. In a covenant two parties come to terms with +one another. The two covenanters strike hands, and solemnly engage +themselves to one another: I will do this for you if you will do that for +me. It is a bargain, says the other; let us have it sealed with wax and +signed with pen and ink before two witnesses. As, for instance, at the +Lord's Table. I swear, you say, over the Body and the Blood of the Son +of God, I swear to make a covenant with mine eyes. I will never let them +read again that idle, infidel, scoffing, unclean sheet. I will not let +them look on any of my former images or imaginations of forbidden +pleasures. I swear, O Thou to whom the night shineth as the day, that I +will never again say, Surely the darkness shall cover me! See if I do +not henceforth by Thy grace keep my feet off every slippery street. That, +and many other things like that, was the way that Job made his so noble +covenant with his eyes in his day and in his land. And it was because he +so made and so kept his covenant that God so boasted over him and said, +Hast thou considered my servant Job? And then, every covenant has its +two sides. The other side of Job's covenant, of which God Himself was +the surety, you can read and think over in your solitary lodgings +to-night. Read Job xxxi. 1, and then Job xl. to the end, and then be +sure you take covenant paper and ink to God before you sleep. And let +all fashionable young ladies hear what Miss Rossetti expects for herself, +and for all of her sex with her who shall subscribe her covenant. 'True,' +she admits, 'all our life long we shall be bound to refrain our soul, and +keep it low; but what then? For the books we now refrain to read we +shall one day be endowed with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we +will not listen to we shall join in the song of the redeemed. For the +pictures from which we turn we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific +Vision. For the companionship we shun we shall be welcomed into angelic +society and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we +avoid we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasures we miss +we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of heaven.' + +5. And then there is the Pauline eye. An eye, however, that Job would +have shared with Paul and with the Corinthian Church had the patriarch +been privileged to live in our New Testament day. Ever since the Holy +Ghost with His anointing oil fell on us at Pentecost, says the apostle, +we have had an eye by means of which we look not at the things that are +seen, but at the things that are not seen. Now, he who has an eye like +that is above both plucking out his eyes or making a covenant with them +either. It is like what Paul says about the law also. The law is not +made for a righteous man. A righteous man is above the law and +independent of it. The law does not reach to him and he is not hampered +with it. And so it is with the man who has got Paul's splendid eyes for +the unseen. He does not need to touch so much as one of his eye-lashes +to pluck them out. For his eyes are blind, and his ears are deaf, and +his whole body is dead to the things that are temporal. His eyes are +inwardly ablaze with the things that are eternal. He whose eyes have +been opened to the truth and the love of his Bible, he will gloat no more +over your books and your papers filled with lies, and slander, and spite, +and lewdness! He who has his conversation in heaven does not need to set +a watch on his lips lest he take up an ill report about his neighbour. He +who walks every day on the streets of gold will step as swiftly as may +be, with girt loins, and with a preoccupied eye, out of the slippery and +unsavoury streets of this forsaken earth. He who has fast working out +for him an exceeding and eternal weight of glory will easily count all +his cups and all his crosses, and all the crooks in his lot but as so +many light afflictions and but for a moment. My Lord Understanding had +his palace built with high perspective towers on it, and the site of it +was near to Eye-gate, from the top of which his lordship every day looked +not at the things which are temporal, but at the things which are +eternal, and down from his palace towers he every day descended to +administer his heavenly office in the city. + +Your eye, then, is the shortest way into your heart. Watch it well, +therefore; suspect and challenge all outsiders who come near it. Keep +the passes that lead to your heart with all diligence. Let nothing +contraband, let nothing that even looks suspicious, ever enter your +hearts; for, if it once enters, and turns out to be evil, you will never +get it all out again as long as you live. 'Death is come up into our +windows,' says our prophet in another place, 'and is entered into our +palaces, to cut off our children in our houses and our young men in our +streets.' Make a covenant, then, with your eyes. Take an oath of your +eyes as to which way they are henceforth to look. For, let them look +this way, and your heart is immediately full of lust, and hate, and envy, +and ill-will. On the other hand, lead them to look that way and your +heart is as immediately full of truth and beauty, brotherly kindness and +charity. The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be +single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, +thy whole body is full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in +thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE KING'S PALACE + + + 'The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.'--_David_. + +'Now, there is in this gallant country a fair and delicate town, a +corporation, called Mansoul: a town for its building so curious, for its +situation so commodious, for its privileges so advantageous, that I may +say of it, there is not its equal under the whole heaven. Also, there +was reared up in the midst of this town a most famous and stately palace: +for strength, it might be called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; +and for largeness, a place so copious as to contain all the world. This +place the King intended for Himself alone, and not for another with Him, +so great was His delight in it.' Thus far, our excellent allegorical +author. But there are other authors that treat of this great matter now +in hand besides the allegorical authors. You will hear tell sometimes +about a class of authors called the Mystics. Well, listen at this stage +to one of them, and one of the best of them, on this present matter--the +human heart, that is. 'Our heart,' he says, 'is our manner of existence, +or the state in which we feel ourselves to be; it is an inward life, a +vital sensibility, which contains our manner of feeling what and how we +are; it is the state of our desires and tendencies, of inwardly seeing, +tasting, relishing, and feeling that which passes within us; our heart is +that to us inwardly with regard to ourselves which our senses of seeing, +hearing, feeling, and such like are with regard to things that are +without or external to us. Your heart is the best and greatest gift of +God to you. It is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest power of +your nature. It forms your whole life, be it what it will. All evil and +all good come from your heart. Your heart alone has the key of life and +death for you.' I was just about to ask you at this point which of our +two authors, our allegorical or our mystical author upon the heart, you +like best. But that would be a stupid and a wayward question since you +have them both before you, and both at their best, to possess and to +enjoy. To go back then to John Bunyan, and to his allegory of the human +heart. + +1. To begin with, then, there was reared up in the midst of this town of +Mansoul a most famous and stately palace. And that palace and the town +immediately around it were the mirror and the glory of all that its +founder and maker had ever made. His palace was his very top-piece. It +was the metropolitan of the whole world round about it; and it had +positive commission and power to demand service and support of all +around. Yes. And all that is literally, evidently, and actually true of +the human heart. For all other earthly things are created and upheld, +are ordered and administered, with an eye to the human heart. The human +heart is the final cause, as our scholars would say, of absolutely all +other earthly things. Earth, air, water; light and heat; all the +successively existing worlds, mineral, vegetable, animal, spiritual; +grass, herbs, corn, fruit-trees, cattle and sheep, and all other living +creatures; all are upheld for the use and the support of man. And, then, +all that is in man himself is in him for the end and the use of his +heart. All his bodily senses; all his bodily members; every fearfully +and wonderfully made part of his body and of his mind; all administer to +his heart. She is the sovereign and sits supreme. And she is worthy and +is fully entitled so to sit. For there is nothing on the earth greater +or better than the heart, unless it is the Creator Himself, who planned +and executed the heart for Himself and not for another with Him. 'The +body exists,' says a philosophical biologist of our day, 'to furnish the +cerebral centres with prepared food, just as the vegetable world, viewed +biologically, exists to furnish the animal world with similar food. The +higher is the last formed, the most difficult, and the most complex; but +it is just this that is most precious and significant--all of which shows +His unrolling purpose. It is the last that alone explains all that went +before, and it is the coming that will alone explain the present. God +before all, through all, foreseeing all, and still preparing all; God in +all is profoundly evident.' Yes, profoundly evident to profound minds, +and experimentally and sweetly evident to religious minds, and to renewed +and loving and holy hearts. + +2. For fame and for state a palace, while for strength it might be +called a castle. In sufficiently ancient times the king's palace was +always a castle also. David's palace on Mount Zion was as much a +military fortress as a royal residence; and King Priam's palace was the +protection both of itself and of the whole of the country around. In +those wild times great men built their houses on high places, and then +the weak and endangered people gathered around the strongholds of the +powerful, as we see in our own city. Our own steep and towering rock +invited to its top the castle-builder of a remote age, and then the +exposed country around began to gather itself together under the shelter +of the bourg. And thus it is that the military engineering of the _Holy +War_ makes that old allegorical book most excellent to read, not only for +common men like you and me, who are bent on the fortification and the +defence of our own hearts, but for the military historians of those old +times also, for the experts of to-day also, and for all good students of +fortification. And the New Testament of the Divine peace itself, as well +as the Old Testament so full of the wars of the Lord--they both support +and serve as an encouragement and an example to our spiritual author in +the elaboration of his military allegory. Every good soldier of Jesus +Christ has by heart the noble paradox of Paul to the Philippians--that +the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts +and minds through Christ Jesus. Let God's peace, he says, be your man of +war. Let His surpassing peace do both the work of war and the work of +peace also in your hearts and in your minds. Let that peace both fortify +with walls, and garrison with soldiers, and watch every gate, and hold +every street and lane of your hearts and of your minds all around your +hearts. And all through the Prince of Peace, the Captain of all Holy +War, Jesus Christ Himself. No wonder, then, that in a strength--in a +kind and in a degree of strength--that passeth all understanding, this +stately palace of the heart is also here called a well-garrisoned castle. + +3. And then for pleasantness the human heart is a perfect paradise. For +pleasantness the human heart is like those famous royal parks of Nineveh +and Babylon that sprang up in after days as if to recover and restore the +Garden of Eden that had been lost to those eastern lands. But even +Adam's own paradise was but a poor outside imitation in earth and water, +in flowers and fruits, of the far better paradise God had planted within +him. Take another Mystic at this point upon paradise. 'My dear man,' +exclaims Jacob Behmen, 'the Garden of Eden is not paradise, neither does +Moses say so. Paradise is the divine joy, and that was in their own +hearts so long as they stood in the love of God. Paradise is the divine +and angelical joy, pure love, pure joy, pure gladness, in which there is +no fear, no misery, and no death. Which paradise neither death nor the +devil can touch. And yet it has no stone wall around it; only a great +gulf which no man or angel can cross but by that new birth of which +Christ spoke to Nicodemus. Reason asks, Where is paradise to be found? +Is it far off or near? Is it in this world or is it above the stars? +Where is that desirable native country where there is no death? Beloved, +there is nothing nearer you at this moment than paradise, if you incline +that way. God beckons you back into paradise at this moment, and calls +you by name to come. Come, He says, and be one of My paradise children. +In paradise,' the Teutonic Philosopher goes on, 'there is nothing but +hearty love, a meek and a gentle love; a most friendly and most courteous +discourse: a gracious, amiable, and blessed society, where the one is +always glad to see the other, and to honour the other. They know of no +malice in paradise, no cunning, no subtlety, and no sly deceit. But the +fruits of the Spirit of God are common among them in paradise, and one +may make use of all the good things of paradise without causing +disfavour, or hatred, or envy, for there is no contrary affection there, +but all hearts there are knit together in love. In paradise they love +one another, and rejoice in the beauty, loveliness, and gladness of one +another. No one esteems or accounts himself more excellent than another +in paradise; but every one has great joy in another, and rejoices in +another's fair beauty, whence their love to one another continually +increases, so that they lead one another by the hand, and so friendly +kiss one another.' Thus the blessed Behmen saw paradise and had it in +his heart as he sat over his hammer and lapstone in his solitary stall. +For of such as Jacob Behmen and John Bunyan is the kingdom of heaven, and +all such saintly souls have paradise restored again and improved upon in +their own hearts. + +4. And for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the world. +Over against the word 'copious' Bunyan hangs for a key, Ecclesiastes +third and eleventh; and under it Miss Peacock adds this as a +note--'_Copious_, spacious. Old French, _copieux_; Latin, _copiosus_, +plentiful.' The human heart, as we have already read to-night, is the +highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest part of human nature. And so +it is. Fearfully and wonderfully made as is the whole of human nature, +that fear and that wonder surpass themselves in the spaciousness and the +copiousness of the human heart. For what is it that the human heart has +not space for, and to spare? After the whole world is received home into +a human heart, there is room, and, indeed, hunger, for another world, and +after that for still another. The sun is--I forget how many times bigger +than our whole world, and yet we can open our heart and take down the sun +into it, and shut him out again and restore him to his immeasurable +distances in the heavens, and all in the twinkling of an eye. As for +instance. As I wrote these lines I read a report of a lecture by Sir +Robert Ball in which that distinguished astronomer discoursed on recent +solar discoveries. A globe of coal, Sir Robert said, as big as our +earth, and all set ablaze at the same moment, would not give out so much +heat to the worlds around as the sun gives out in a thousandth part of a +second. Well, as I read that, and ere ever I was aware what was going +on, my heart had opened over my newspaper, and the sun had swept down +from the sky, and had rushed into my heart, and before I knew where I was +the cry had escaped my lips, 'Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord +God Almighty! Who shall not fear Thee and glorify thy name?' And then +this reflection as suddenly came to me: How good it is to be at peace +with God, and to be able and willing to say, My Father! That the whole +of the surging and flaming sun was actually down in my straitened and +hampered heart at that idle moment over my paper is scientifically +demonstrable; for only that which is in the heart of a man can kindle the +passions that are in the heart of that man; and nothing is more sure to +me than that the great passions of fear and love, wonder and rapture were +at that moment at a burning point within me. There is a passage well on +in the _Holy War_, which for terror and for horror, and at the same time +for truth and for power, equals anything either in Dante or in Milton. +Lucifer has stood up at the council board to second the scheme of +Beelzebub. 'Yes,' he said, amid the plaudits of his fellow-princes--'Yes, +I swear it. Let us fill Mansoul full with our abundance. Let us make of +this castle, as they vainly call it, a warehouse, as the name is in some +of their cities above. For if we can only get Mansoul to fill herself +full with much goods she is henceforth ours. My peers,' he said, 'you +all know His parable of how unblessed riches choke the word; and, again, +we know what happens when the hearts of men are overcharged with +surfeiting and with drunkenness. Let us give them all that, then, to +their heart's desire.' This advice of Lucifer, our history tells us, was +highly applauded in hell, and ever since it has proved their masterpiece +to choke Mansoul with the fulness of this world, and to surfeit the heart +with the good things thereof. But, my brethren, you will outwit hell +herself and all her counsellors and all her machinations, if, out of all +the riches, pleasures, cares, and possessions, that both heaven and earth +and hell can heap into your heart, those riches, pleasures, cares, and +possessions but produce corresponding passions and affections towards God +and man. Only let fear, and love, and thankfulness, and helpfulness be +kindled and fed to all their fulness in your heart, and all the world and +all that it contains will only leave the more room in your boundless +heart for God and for your brother. All that God has made, or could make +with all His counsel and all His power laid out, will not fill your +boundless and bottomless heart. He must come down and come into your +boundless and bottomless heart Himself. Himself: your Father, your +Redeemer, and your Sanctifier and Comforter also. Let the whole universe +try to fill your heart, O man of God, and after it all we shall hear you +singing in famine and in loneliness the doleful ditty: + + 'O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, + There is room in my heart for Thee. + +5. 'Madame,' said a holy solitary to Madame Guyon in her misery--'Madame, +you are disappointed and perplexed because you seek without what you have +within. Accustom yourself to seek for God in your own heart and you will +always find Him there.' From that hour that gifted woman was a Mystic. +The secret of the interior life flashed upon her in a moment. She had +been starving in the midst of fulness; God was near and not far off; the +kingdom of heaven was within her. The love of God from that hour took +possession of her soul with an inexpressible happiness. Prayer, which +had before been so difficult, was now delightful and indispensable; hours +passed away like moments: she could scarcely cease from praying. Her +domestic trials seemed great to her no longer; her inward joy consumed +like a fire the reluctance, the murmur, and the sorrow, which all had +their birth in herself. A spirit of comforting peace, a sense of +rejoicing possession, pervaded all her days. God was continually with +her, and she seemed continually yielded up to God. 'Madame,' said the +solitary, 'you seek without for what you have within.' Where do you seek +for God when you pray, my brethren? To what place do you direct your +eyes? Is it to the roof of your closet? Is it to the east end of your +consecrated chapel? Is it to that wooden table in the east end of your +chapel? Or, passing out of all houses made with hands and consecrated +with holy oil, do you lift up your eyes to the skies where the sun and +the moon and the stars dwell alone? 'What a folly!' exclaims Theophilus, +in the golden dialogue, 'for no way is the true way to God but by the way +of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be found. And the heart itself +cannot find Him but by its own love of Him, faith in Him, dependence upon +Him, resignation to Him, and expectation of all from Him.' 'You have +quite carried your point with me,' answered Theogenes after he had heard +all that Theophilus had to say. 'The God of meekness, of patience, and +of love is henceforth the one God of my heart. It is now the one bent +and desire of my soul to seek for all my salvation in and through the +merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, resigned, suffering +Lamb of God, who alone has power to bring forth the blessed birth of +those heavenly virtues in my soul. What a comfort it is to think that +this Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Light of the World; this Glory of +heaven and this Joy of angels is as near to us, is as truly in the midst +of us, as He is in the midst of heaven. And that not a thought, look, or +desire of our heart that presses toward Him, longing to catch one small +spark of His heavenly nature, but is as sure a way of finding Him, as the +woman's way was who was healed of her deadly disease by longing to touch +but the border of His garment.' + +To sum up. 'There is reared up in the midst of Mansoul a most famous and +stately palace: for strength, it may be called a castle; for +pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a place so copious as to +contain all the world. This palace the King intends but for Himself +alone, and not another with Him, and He commits the keeping of that +palace day and night to the men of the town.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI--MY LORD WILLBEWILL + + + --'to will is present with me.'--_Paul_ + +There is a large and a learned literature on the subject of the will. +There is a philosophical and a theological, and there is a religious and +an experimental literature on the will. Jonathan Edwards's well-known +work stands out conspicuously at the head of the philosophical and +theological literature on the will, while our own Thomas Boston's +_Fourfold State_ is a very able and impressive treatise on the more +practical and experimental side of the same subject. The Westminster +Confession of Faith devotes one of its very best chapters to the teaching +of the word of God on the will of man, and the Shorter Catechism touches +on the same subject in Effectual Calling. Outstanding philosophical and +theological schools have been formed around the will, and both able and +learned and earnest men have taken opposite sides on the subject of the +will under the party names of Necessitarians and Libertarians. This is +not the time, nor am I the man, to discuss such abstruse subjects; but +those students who wish to master this great matter of the will, so far +as it can be mastered in books, are recommended to begin with Dr. William +Cunningham's works, and then to go on from them to a treatise that will +reward all their talent and all their enterprise, Jonathan Edwards's +perfect masterpiece. + +1. But, to come to my Lord Willbewill, one of the gentry of the famous +town of Mansoul:--well, this Lord Willbewill was as high-born as any man +in Mansoul, and was as much a freeholder as any of them were, if not +more. Besides, if I remember my tale aright, he had some privileges +peculiar to himself in that famous town. Now, together with these, he +was a man of great strength, resolution, and courage; nor in his occasion +could any turn him away. But whether he was too proud of his high +estate, privileges, and strength, or what (but sure it was through pride +of something), he scorns now to be a slave in Mansoul, as his own proud +word is, so that now, next to Diabolus himself, who but my Lord +Willbewill in all that town? Nor could anything now be done but at his +beck and good pleasure throughout that town. Indeed, it will not out of +my thoughts what a desperate fellow this Willbewill was when full power +was put into his hand. All which--how this apostate prince lost power +and got it again, and lost it and got it again--the interested and +curious reader will find set forth with great fulness and clearness in +many powerful pages of the _Holy War_. + +John Bunyan was as hard put to it to get the right name for this head of +the gentry of Mansoul as Paul was to get the right name for sin in the +seventh of the Romans. In that profoundest and intensest of all his +profound and intense passages, the apostle has occasion to seek about for +some expression, some epithet, some adjective, as we say, to apply to sin +so as to help him to bring out to his Roman readers something of the +malignity, deadliness, and unspeakable evil of sin as he had sin living +and working in himself. But all the resources of the Greek language, +that most resourceful of languages, utterly failed Paul for his pressing +purpose. And thus it is that, as if in scorn of the feebleness and +futility of that boasted tongue, he tramples its grammars and its +dictionaries under his feet, and makes new and unheard-of words and +combinations of words on the spot for himself and for his subject. He +heaps up a hyperbole the like of which no orator or rhetorician of Greece +or Rome had ever needed or had ever imagined before. He takes sin, and +he makes a name for sin out of itself. The only way to describe sin, he +feels, the only way to characterise sin, the only way to aggravate sin, +is just to call it sin; sinful sin; 'sin by the commandment became +exceeding sinful.' And, in like manner, John Bunyan, who has only his +own mother tongue to work with, in his straits to get a proper name for +this terrible fellow who was next to Diabolus himself, cannot find a +proud enough name for him but just by giving him his own name, and then +doubling it. Add will to will, multiply will by will, and multiply it +again, and after you have done all you are no nearer to a proper name for +that apostate, who, for pride, and insolence, and headstrongness, in one +word, for wilfulness, is next to Diabolus himself. But as Willbewill, if +he is to be named and described at all, is best named and described by +his own naked name; so Bunyan is always best illustrated out of his own +works. And I turn accordingly to the _Heavenly Footman_ for an excellent +illustration of the wilfulness of the will both in a good man and in a +bad; as, thus: 'Your self-willed people, nobody knows what to do with +them. We use to say, He will have his own will, do all we can. If a man +be willing, then any argument shall be matter of encouragement; but if +unwilling, then any argument shall give discouragement. The saints of +old, they being willing and resolved for heaven, what could stop them? +Could fire and fagot, sword or halter, dungeons, whips, bears, bulls, +lions, cruel rackings, stonings, starvings, nakedness? So willing had +they been made in the day of His power. And see, on the other side, the +children of the devil, because they are not willing, how many shifts and +starting-holes they will have! I have married a wife; I have a farm; I +shall offend my landlord; I shall lose my trade; I shall be mocked and +scoffed at, and therefore I cannot come. But, alas! the thing is, they +are not willing. For, were they once soundly willing, these, and a +thousand things such as these, would hold them no faster than the cords +held Samson when he broke them like flax. I tell you the will is all. +The Lord give thee a will, then, and courage of heart.' + +2. Let that, then, suffice for this man's name and nature, and let us +look at him now when his name and his nature have both become evil; that +is to say, when Willbewill has become Illwill. You can imagine; no, you +cannot imagine unless you already know, how evil, and how set upon evil, +Illwill was. His whole mind, we are told, now stood bending itself to +evil. Nay, so set was he now upon sheer evil that he would act it of his +own accord, and without any instigation at all from Diabolus. And that +went on till he was looked on in the city as next in wickedness to very +Diabolus himself. Parable apart, my ill-willed brethren, our ill-will +has made us very fiends in human shape. What a fall, what a fate, what a +curse it is to be possessed of a devil of ill-will! Who can put proper +words on it after Paul had to confess himself silent before it? Who can +utter the diabolical nature, the depth and the secrecy, the subtlety and +the spirituality, the range and the reach-out of an ill-will? Our hearts +are full of ill-will at those we meet and shake hands with every day. At +men also we have never seen, and who are totally ignorant even of our +existence. Over a thousand miles we dart our viperous hearts at innocent +men. At great statesmen we have ill-will, and at small; at great +churchmen and at small; at great authors and at small; at great, and +famous, and successful men in all lines of life; for it is enough for ill- +will that another man be praised, and well-paid, and prosperous, and then +placed in our eye. No amount of suffering will satiate ill-will; the +very grave has no seal against it. And, now and then, you have it thrust +upon you that other men have the same devil in them as deeply and as +actively as he is in you. You will suddenly run across a man on the +street. His face was shining with some praise he had just had spoken to +him, or with some recognition he had just received from some great one; +or with some good news for himself he had just heard, before he caught +sight of you. But the light suddenly dies on his face, and darkness +comes up out of his heart at his sudden glimpse of you. What is the +matter? you ask yourself as he scowls past you. What have you done so to +darken any man's heart to you? And as you stumble on in the sickening +cloud he has left behind him, you suddenly recollect that you were once +compelled to vote against that man on a public question: on some question +of home franchise, or foreign war, or church government, or city +business; or perchance, a family has left his shop to do business in +yours, or his church to worship God in yours, or such like. It will be a +certain relief to you to recollect such things. But with it all there +will be a shame and a humiliation and a deep inward pain that will escape +into a cry of prayer for him and for yourself and for all such sinners on +the same street. If you do not find an escape from your sharp resentment +in ejaculatory prayer and in a heart-cleansing great good-will, your +heart, before you are a hundred steps on, will be as black with ill-will +as his is. But that must not again be. Would you hate or strike back at +a blind man who stumbled and fell against you on the street? Would you +retaliate at a maniac who gnashed his teeth and shook his fist at you on +his way past you to the madhouse? Or at a corpse being carried past you +that had been too long without burial? And shall you retaliate on a +miserable man driven mad with diabolical passion? Or at a poor sinner +whose heart is as rotten as the grave? Ill-will is abroad in our learned +and religious city at all hours of the day and night. He glares at us +under the sun by day, and under the street lamps at night. We suddenly +feel his baleful eye on us as we thoughtlessly pass under his overlooking +windows: it will be a side street and an unfrequented, where you will not +be ashamed and shocked and pained at heart to meet him. Public men; much +purchased and much praised men; rich and prosperous men; men high in +talent and in place; and, indeed, all manner of men,--walk abroad in this +life softly. Keep out of sight. Take the side streets, and return home +quickly. You have no idea what an offence and what a snare you are to +men you know, and to men you do not know. If you are a public man, and +if your name is much in men's mouths, then the place you hold, the prices +and the praises you get, do not give you one-tenth of the pleasure that +they give a thousand other men pain. Men you never heard of, and who +would not know you if they met you, gnaw their hearts at the mere mention +of your name. Desire, then, to be unknown, as A Kempis says. O teach me +to love to be concealed, prays Jeremy Taylor. Be ambitious to be +unknown, Archbishop Leighton also instructs us. And the great Fenelon +took _Ama nesciri_ for his crest and for his motto. No wonder that an +apostle cried out under the agony and the shame of ill-will. No wonder +that to kill it in the hearts of men the Son of God died under it on the +cross. And no wonder that all the gates of hell are wide open, day and +night, for there is no day there, to receive home all those who will +entertain ill-will in their hearts, and all the gates of heaven shut +close to keep all ill-will for ever out. + +3. But, bad enough as all that is, the half has not been told, and never +will be told in this life. Butler has a passage that has long stumbled +me, and it stumbles me the more the longer I live and study him and +observe myself. 'Resentment,' he says, in a very deep and a very serious +passage--'Resentment being out of the case, there is not, properly +speaking, any such thing as direct ill-will in one man towards another.' +Well, great and undisputed as Butler's authority is in all these matters, +at the same time he would be the first to admit and to assert that a +man's inward experience transcends all outward authority. Well, I am +filled with shame and pain and repentance and remorse to have to say it, +but my experience carries me right in the teeth of Butler's doctrine. I +have dutifully tried to look at Butler's inviting and exonerating +doctrine in all possible lights, and from all possible points of view, in +the anxious wish to prove it true; but I dare not say that I have +succeeded. The truth for thee--my heart would continually call to me--the +best truth for thee is in me, and not in any Butler! And when looking as +closely as I can at my own heart in the matter of ill-will, what do I +find--and what will you find? You will find that after subtracting all +that can in any proper sense come under the head of real resentment, and +in cases where real resentment is out of the question; in cases where you +have received no injury, no neglect, no contempt, no anything whatsoever +of that kind, you will find that there are men innocent of all that to +you, yet men to whom you entertain feelings, animosities, antipathies, +that can be called by no other name than that of ill-will. Look within +and see. Watch within and see. And I am sure you will come to subscribe +with me to the humbling and heart-breaking truth, that, even where there +is no resentment, and no other explanation, excuse, or palliation of that +kind, yet that festering, secret, malignant ill-will is working in the +bottom of your heart. If you doubt that, if you deny that, if all that +kind of self-observation and self-sentencing is new to you, then observe +yourself, say, for one week, and report at the end of it whether or no +you have had feelings and thoughts and wishes in your secret heart toward +men who never in any way hurt you, which can only be truthfully described +as pure ill-will; that is to say, you have not felt and thought and +wished toward them as you would have them, and all men, feel and think +and wish toward you. + +4. 'To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not,' says the +apostle; and again, 'Ye cannot do the things that ye would.' Or, as +Dante has it, + + 'The power which wills + Bears not supreme control; laughter and tears + Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, + They wait not for the motion of the will + In natures most sincere.' + +Now, just here lies a deep distinction that has not been enough taken +account of by our popular, or even by our more profound, spiritual +writers. The will is often regenerate and right; the will often bends, +as Bunyan has it, to that which is good; but behind the will and beneath +the will the heart is still full of passions, affections, inclinations, +dispositions that are evil; instinctively, impulsively, involuntarily +evil, even 'in natures most sincere.' And hence arises a conflict, a +combat, a death-grip, an agony, a hell on earth, that every regenerate +and advancing soul of man is full of His will is right. If his will is +wrong; if he chooses evil; then there is no mystery in the matter so far +as he is concerned. He is a bad man, and he is so intentionally and +deliberately and of set purpose; and it is a rule in divine truth that +'wilfulness in sinning is the measure of our sinfulness.' But his will +is right. To will is present with him. He is every day like Thomas +Boston one Sabbath-day: 'Though I cannot be free of sin, God Himself +knows that He would be welcome to make havoc of my sins and to make me +holy. I know no lust that I would not be content to part with to-night. +My will, bound hand and foot, I desire to lay at His feet.' Now, is it +not as clear as noonday that in the case of such a man as Boston his mind +is one thing and his heart another? Is it not plain that he has both a +good-will and an ill-will within him? A will that immediately and +resolutely chooses for God, and for truth, and for righteousness, and for +love; and another law in his members warring against that law of his +mind? 'Before conversion,' says Thomas Shepard, 'the main wound of a man +is in his will. And then, after conversion, though his will is changed, +yet, _ex infirmitate_, there are many things that he cannot do, so strong +is the remnant of malignity that is still in his heart. Let him get +Christ to help him here.' In all that ye see your calling, my brethren. + +5. 'Now, if I do that I would not,' adds the apostle, extricating +himself and giving himself fair-play and his simple due among all his +misery and self-accusation--'Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more +I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' Or, again, as William Law +has it: 'All our natural evil ceases to be our own evil as soon as our +will turns away from it. Our natural evil then changes its nature and +loses all its poison and death, and becomes an holy cross on which we die +to self and this life and enter the kingdom of heaven.' My dear +brethren, tell me, is your sin your cross? Is your sinfulness your +cross? Is the evil that is ever present with you your holy cross? For, +every other cross beside sin is a cross of straw, a cross of feathers, a +paste-board and a painted cross, and not a real and genuine cross at all. +The wood and the nails and the spear all taken together were not our +Lord's real cross. His real cross was sin; our sin laid on His hands, +and on His heart, and on His imagination, and on His conscience, till it +was all but His very own sin. Our sin was so fearfully and wonderfully +laid upon Christ that He was as good as a sinner Himself under it. So +much so that all the nails and all the spears, all the thirst and all the +darkness that His body and His soul could hold were as nothing beside the +sin that was laid upon Him. And so it is with us; with as many of us as +are His true disciples. Our sin is our cross; not our actual +transgressions, any more than His; but our inward sinfulness. And not +the sinfulness of our will; that is no real cross to any man; but the +sinfulness of our hearts against our will, and beneath our will, and +behind our will. And this is such a cross that if Christ had something +in His cross that we have not, then we have something in ours that He had +not. He made many sad and sore Psalms His own; but even if He had lived +on earth to read the seventh of the Romans, He could not have made it His +own. His true people are beyond Him here. The disciple is above his +Master here. The Master had His own cross, and it was a sufficient +cross; but we can challenge Him to come down and look and say if He ever +saw a cross like our cross. He was made a curse. He was hanged on the +tree. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But his people are +beyond Him in the real agony and crucifixion of sin. For He never in +Gethsemane or on Calvary either cried as Paul once cried, and as you and +I cry every day--To will is present with me! But the good that I would I +do not! And, oh! the body of this death! + +6. Now, if any total stranger to all that shall ask me: What good there +is in all that? and, Why I so labour in such a world of unaccustomed and +unpleasant things as that? I have many answers to his censure. For +example, and first, I labour and will continue to labour more and more in +this world of things, and less and less in any other world, because here +we begin to see things as they are--the deepest things of God and of man, +that is. Also, because I have the precept, and the example, and the +experience of God's greatest and best saints before me here. Because, +also, our full and true salvation begins here, goes on here, and ends +here. Because, also, teaching these things and learning these things +will infallibly make us the humblest of men, the most contrite, the most +self-despising, the most prayerful, and the most patient, meek, and +loving of men. And, students, I labour in this because this is science; +because this is the first in order and the most fruitful of all the +sciences, if not the noblest and the most glorious of all the sciences. +There is all that good for us in this subject of the will and the heart, +and whole worlds of good lie away out beyond this subject that eye hath +not seen nor ear heard. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--SELF-LOVE + + + 'This know, that men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, + boasters, proud, unthankful, without natural affection, + truce-breakers, false accusers, traitors, heady, high-minded: from all + such turn away.'--_Paul_. + +'Pray, sir, said Academicus, tell me more plainly just what this self of +ours actually is. Self, replied Theophilus, is hell, it is the devil, it +is darkness, pain, and disquiet. It is the one and only enemy of Christ. +It is the great antichrist. It is the scarlet whore, it is the fiery +dragon, it is the old serpent that is mentioned in the Revelation of St +John. You rather terrify me than instruct me by this description, said +Academicus. It is indeed a very frightful matter, returned Theophilus; +for it contains everything that man has to dread and to hate, to resist +and to avoid. Yet be assured, my friend, that, careless and merry as +this world is, every man that is born into this world has all those +enemies to overcome within himself; and every man, till he is in the way +of regeneration, is more or less governed by those enemies. No hell in +any remote place, no devil that is separate from you, no darkness or pain +that is not within you, no antichrist either at Rome or in England, no +furious beast, no fiery dragon, without you or apart from you, can do you +any real hurt. It is your own hell, your own devil, your own beast, your +own antichrist, your own dragon that lives in your own heart's blood that +alone can hurt you. Die to this self, to this inward nature, and then +all outward enemies are overcome. Live to this self, and then, when this +life is out, all that is within you, and all that is without you, will be +nothing else but a mere seeing and feeling this hell, serpent, beast, and +fiery dragon. But, said Theogenes, a third party who stood by, I would, +if I could, more perfectly understand the precise nature of self, or what +it is that makes it to be so full of evil and misery. To whom Theophilus +turned and replied: Covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath are the four +elements of self. And hence it is that the whole life of self can be +nothing else but a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride, and +wrath, all of which is precisely sinful nature, self, or hell. Whilst +man lives, indeed, among the vanities of time, his covetousness, his +envy, his pride, and his wrath, may be in a tolerable state, and may help +him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have their gratifications +as well as their torments. But when death has put an end to the vanity +of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not born again of the +supernatural Word and Spirit of God must find itself unavoidably devoured +by itself, shut up in its own insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting +covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath. O Theogenes! that I had power from +God to take those dreadful scales off men's eyes that hinder them from +seeing and feeling the infinite importance of this most certain truth! +God give a blessing, Theophilus, to your good prayer. And then let me +tell you that you have quite satisfied my question about the nature of +self. I shall never forget it, nor can I ever possibly after this have +any doubt about the truth of it.' + +1. 'All my theology,' said an old friend of mine to me not long ago--'all +my theology is out of Thomas Goodwin to the Ephesians.' Well, I find +Thomas Goodwin saying in that great book that self is the very +quintessence of original sin; and, again, he says, study self-love for a +thousand years and it is the top and the bottom of original sin; self is +the sin that dwelleth in us and that doth most easily beset us. Now, +that is just what Academicus and Theophilus and Theogenes have been +saying to us in their own powerful way in their incomparable dialogue. +All sin and all misery; all covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath,--trace +it all back to its roots, travel it all up to its source, and, as sure as +you do that, self and self-love are that source, that root, and that +black bottom. I do not forget that Butler has said in some stately pages +of his that self-love is morally good; that self-love is coincident with +the principle of virtue and part of the idea; and that it is a proper +motive for man. But the deep bishop, in saying all that, is away back at +the creation-scheme and Eden-state of human nature. He has not as yet +come down to human nature in its present state of overthrow, +dismemberment, and self-destruction. But when he does condescend and +comes close to the mind and the heart of man as they now are in all men, +even Butler becomes as outspoken, and as eloquent, and as full of passion +and pathos as if he were an evangelical Puritan. Self-love, Butler +startles his sober-minded reader as he bursts out--self-love rends and +distorts the mind of man! Now, you are a man. Well, then, do you feel +and confess that rending and distorting to have taken place in you? +Butler is a philosopher, and Goodwin is a preacher, but you are more: you +are a man. You are the owner of a human heart, and you can say whether +or no it is a rent and a distorted heart. Is your mind warped and +wrenched by self-love, and is your heart rent and torn by the same wicked +hands? Do you really feel that it needs nothing more to take you back +again to paradise but that your heart be delivered from self-love? Do +you now understand that the foundations of heaven itself must be laid in +a heart healed and cleansed and delivered from self-love? If you do, +then your knowledge of your own heart has set you abreast of the greatest +of philosophers and theologians and preachers. Nay, before multitudes of +men who are called such. It is my meditation all the day, you say. I +have more understanding now than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are +my meditation. I understand more than the ancients; because now I keep +Thy precepts. + +2. 'Self-love has made us all malicious,' says John Calvin. We are +Calvinists, were we to call any man master. But we are to call no man +master, and least of all in the matters of the heart. Every man must be +his own philosopher, his own moralist, and his own theologian in the +matters of the heart. He who has a heart in his bosom and an eye in his +head can need no Calvin, no Butler, no Goodwin, and no Law to tell him +what goes on in his own heart. And, on the other hand, his own heart +will soon tell him whether or no Calvin, and Butler, and Goodwin, and Law +know anything about those matters on which some men would set them up as +our masters. Well, come away all of you who own a human heart. Come and +say whether or no your heart, and the self-love of which it is full, have +made you a malicious man. I do not ask if you are always and to +everybody full of maliciousness. No; I know quite well that you are +sometimes as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. For, has not even +Theophilus said that whilst a man still lives among the vanities of time, +his covetousness, his envy, his pride, and his wrath may be in a +tolerable state, and may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble; +these vices may have their gratifications as well as their torments. No; +I do not trifle with you and with this serious matter so as to ask if you +are full of malice at all times and to all men. No. For, let a man be +fortunate enough to be on your side; let him pass over to your party; let +him become profitable to you; let him be clever enough and mean enough to +praise and to flatter you up to the top of your appetite for praise and +flattery, and, no doubt, you will love that man. Or, if that is not +exactly love, at least it is no longer hate. But let that man +unfortunately be led to leave your party; let him cease being profitable +to you; let him weary of flattering you with his praise; let him forget +you, neglect you, despise you, and go against you, and then look at your +own heart. Do you care now to know what malice is? Well, that is malice +that distorts and rends your heart as often as you meet that man on the +street or even pass by his door. That is malice that dances in your eyes +when you see his name in print. That is malice with which you always +break out when his name is mentioned in conversation. That is malice +that heats your heart when you suddenly recollect him in the multitude of +your thoughts within you. And you are in good company all the time. 'We, +ourselves,' says Paul to Titus, 'we also at one time lived in malice and +in envy. We were hateful and we hated one another.' 'Hateful,' Goodwin +goes on in his great book, 'every man is to another man more or less; he +is hated of another and he hateth another more or less; and if his nature +were let out to the full, there is that in him, "every man is against +every man," as is said of Ishmael. _Homo homini lupus_,' adds our brave +preacher. And Abbe Grou speaks out with the same challenge from the +opposite church pole, and says: 'Yes; self-love makes us touchy, ready to +take offence, ill-tempered, suspicious, severe, exacting, easily +offended; it keeps alive in our hearts a certain malignity, a secret joy +at the mortifications which befall our neighbour; it nourishes our +readiness to criticise, our dislike at certain persons, our ill-feeling, +our bitterness, and a thousand other things prejudicial to charity.' + +3. 'Myself is my own worst enemy,' says Abbe Grou. That is to say, we +may have enemies who hate us more than we hate ourselves, and enemies who +would hurt us, if they could, as much as we hurt ourselves; but the +Abbe's point is that they cannot. And he is right. No man has ever hurt +me as I have hurt myself. There are men who hate me so much that they +would poison my life of all its peace and happiness if they could. But +they cannot. They cannot; but let them not be cast down on that account, +for there is one who can do, and who will do as long as he lives, what +they cannot do. A man's foes, to be called foes, are in his own house: +they are in his own heart. Let our enemies attend to their own peace and +happiness, and our self-love will do all, and more than all, that they +would fain do. At the most, they and their ill-will can only give +occasion to our self-love; but it is our self-love that seizes upon the +occasion, and through it rends and distorts our own hearts. And were our +hearts only pure of self-love, were our hearts only clothed with meekness +and humility, we could laugh at all the ill-will of our enemies as +leviathan laughs at the shaking of a spear. 'Know thou,' says A Kempis +to his son, 'that the love of thyself doth do thee more hurt than +anything in the whole world.' Yes; but we shall never know that by +merely reading _The Imitation_. We must read ourselves. We must study, +as we study nothing else, our own rent and distorted hearts. Our own +hearts must be our daily discovery. We must watch the wounds our hearts +take every day; and we must give all our powers of mind to tracing all +our wounds back to their true causes. We must say: 'that sore blow came +on my mind and on my heart from such and such a quarter, from such and +such a hand, from such and such a weapon; but this pain, this rankling, +poisoned, and ever-festering wound, this sleepless, gnawing, cancerous +sore, comes from the covetousness, the pride, the envy, and the wrath of +my own heart.' When we begin to say that, we shall then begin to +understand and to love Thomas; we shall sit daily at his feet and shall +be numbered among his sons. + +4. And this suffering at our own hands goes on till at last the tables +are completely turned against self-love, and till what was once to us the +dearest thing in the whole world becomes, as Pascal says, the most +hateful. We begin life by hating the men, and the things, who hurt us. +We hate the men who oppose us and hinder us; the men who speak, and +write, and act, and go in any way against us. We bitterly hate all who +humble us, despise us, trample upon us, and in any way ill-use us. But +afterwards, when we have become men, men in experience of this life, and, +especially, of ourselves in this life; after we gain some real insight +and attain to some real skill in the life of the heart, we come round to +forgive those we once hated. We have come now to see why they did it. We +see now exactly how much they hurt us after all, and how little. And, +especially, we have come to see,--what at one time we could not have +believed,--that all our hurt, to be called hurt, has come to us from +ourselves. And thus that great revolution of mind and that great +revulsion of feeling and of passion has taken place, after which we are +left with no one henceforth to hate, to be called hating, but ourselves. +We may still continue to avoid our enemies, and we may do that too long +and too much; we may continue to fear them and be on the watch against +them far too much; but to deliberately hate them is henceforth +impossible. All our hatred,--all our deliberate, steady, rooted, active +hatred,--is now at ourselves; at ourselves, that is, so far and so long +as we remain under the malignant and hateful dominion of self-love. When +Butler gets our self-love restored to reasonableness, and made coincident +with virtue and part of the idea; when our self-love becomes uniformly +coincident with the principle of obedience to God's commands, then we +shall love ourselves as our neighbour, and our neighbour as ourselves, +and both in God. But, till then, there is nothing and no one on earth or +in hell so hateful to us as ourselves and our own hateful hearts. And if +in that we are treading the winepress alone as far as our fellow-men are +concerned, all the more we have Him with us in all our agony who wept +over the heart of man because He knew what was in it, and what must +always come out of it. Evil thoughts, He said, and fornications, and +murders, and thefts, and covetousness, and wickedness, and deceit, and an +evil eye, and pride, and folly, and what not. And Paul has the mind of +Christ with him in the text. I do not need to repeat again the hateful +words. Now, what do you say? was Pascal beyond the truth, was he deeper +than the truth or more deadly than the truth when he said with a stab +that self is hateful? I think not. + +5. 'Oh that I were free, then, of myself,' wrote Samuel Rutherford from +Aberdeen in 1637 to John Ferguson of Ochiltree. 'What need we all have +to be ransomed and redeemed from that master-tyrant, that cruel and +lawless lord, ourself! Even when I am most out of myself, and am best +serving Christ, I have a squint eye on myself.' And to the Laird of +Cally in the same year and from the same place: 'Myself is the master +idol we all bow down to. Every man blameth the devil for his sins, but +the house devil of every man that eateth with him and lieth in his bosom +is himself. Oh blessed are they who can deny themselves!' And to the +Irish ministers the year after: 'Except men martyr and slay the body of +sin in sanctified self-denial, they shall never be Christ's. Oh, if I +could but be master of myself, my own mind, my own will, my own credit, +my own love, how blessed were I! But alas! I shall die only minting and +aiming at being a Christian.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--OLD MR. PREJUDICE, THE KEEPER OF EAR-GATE, WITH HIS SIXTY +DEAF MEN UNDER HIM + + + 'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the + waters of Israel?'--_Naaman_. + + 'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?'--_Nathanael_. + + ' . . observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by + partiality.'--_Paul_. + +Old Mr. Prejudice was well known in the wars of Mansoul as an angry, +unhappy, and ill-conditioned old churl. Old Mr. Prejudice was placed by +Diabolus, his master, as keeper of the ward at the post of Ear-gate, and +for that fatal service he had sixty completely deaf men put under him as +his company. Men eminently advantageous for that fatal service. +Eminently advantageous,--inasmuch as it mattered not one atom to them +what was spoken in their ear either by God or by man. + +1. Now, to begin with, this churlish old man had already earned for +himself a very evil name. For what name could well be more full of evil +memories and of evil omens than just this name of Prejudice? Just +consider what prejudice is. Prejudice, when we stop over it and take it +to pieces and look well at it,--prejudice is so bad and so abominable +that you would not believe it could be so bad till you had looked at it +and at how it acts in your own case. For prejudice gives judgment on +your case and gives orders for your execution before your defence has +been heard, before your witnesses have been called, before your summons +has been served, ay, and even before your indictment has been drawn out. +What a scandal and what an uproar a malfeasance of justice like that +would cause if it were to take place in any of our courts of law! Only, +the thing is impossible; you cannot even imagine it. We shall have Magna +Charta up before us in the course of these lectures. Well, ever since +Magna Charta was extorted from King John, such a scandal as I have +supposed has been impossible either in England or in Scotland. And that +such cases should still be possible in Russia and in Turkey places those +two old despotisms outside the pale of the civilised world. And yet, +loudly as we all denounce the Czar and the Sultan, eloquently as we boast +over Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and what not, every day you and I are +doing what would cost an English king his crown, and an English judge his +head. We all do it every day, and it never enters one mind out of a +hundred that we are trampling down truth, and righteousness, and fair- +play, and brotherly love. We do not know what a diabolical wickedness we +are perpetrating every day. The best men among us are guilty of that +iniquity every day, and they never confess it to themselves; no one ever +accuses them of it; and they go down to death and judgment unsuspicious +of the discovery that they will soon make there. You would not steal a +stick or a straw that belonged to me; but you steal from me every day +what all your gold and mine can never redeem; you murder me every day in +my best and my noblest life. You me, and I you. + +2. Old Mr. Prejudice. Now, there is a golden passage in Jonathan +Edwards's _Diary_ that all old men should lay well to heart and +conscience. 'I observe,' Edwards enters, 'that old men seldom have any +advantage of new discoveries, because these discoveries are beside a way +of thinking they have been long used to. Resolved, therefore, that, if +ever I live to years, I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all +pretended discoveries, and receive them, if rational, how long soever I +have been used to another way of thinking. I am too dogmatical; I have +too much of egotism; my disposition is always to be telling of my dislike +and my scorn.' What a fine, fresh, fruitful, progressive, and peaceful +world we should soon have if all our old and all our fast-ageing men +would enter that extract into their diary! How the young would then love +and honour and lean upon the old; and how all the fathers would always +abide young and full of youthful life like their children! Then the +righteous should flourish like the palm-tree; he should grow like a cedar +in Lebanon. They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish +in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; +they shall be fat and flourishing. What a free scope would then be given +to all God's unfolding providences, and what a warm welcome to all His +advancing truths! What sore and spreading wounds would then be salved, +what health and what vigour would fill all the body political, as well as +all the body mystical! May the Lord turn the heart of the fathers to the +children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest the earth +be smitten with a curse! + +3. Mr. Prejudice was an old man; and this also has been handed down +about him, that he was almost always angry. And if you keep your eyes +open you will soon see how true to the life that feature of old Mr. +Prejudice still is. In every conversation, discussion, debate, +correspondence, the angry man is invariably the prejudiced man; and, +according to the age and the depth, the rootedness and the intensity of +his prejudices, so is the ferocity and the savagery of his anger. He has +already settled this case that you are irritating and wronging him so +much by your still insisting on bringing up. It is a reproach to his +understanding for you to think that there is anything to be said in that +matter that he has not long ago heard said and fully answered. Has he +not denounced that bad man and that bad cause for years? You insult me, +sir, by again opening up that matter in my presence. He will have none +of you or of your arguments either. You are as bad yourself as that bad +man is whose advocate you are. We all know men whose hearts are full of +coals of juniper, burning coals of hate and rage, just by reason of their +ferocious prejudices. Hate is too feeble a word for their gnashing rage +against this man and that cause, this movement and that institution. +There is an absolutely murderous light in their eye as they work +themselves up against the men and the things they hate. Charity rejoices +not in iniquity; but you will see otherwise Christian and charitable men +so jockeyed by the devil that they actually rejoice in iniquity and do +not know what they are doing, or who it is that is egging them on to do +it. You will see otherwise and at other times good men so full of the +rage and madness of prejudice and partiality that they will storm at +every report of goodness and truth and prosperity in the man, or in the +cause, or in the church, or in the party, they are so demented against. +Jockey is not the word. There is the last triumph of pure devilry in the +way that the prince of the devils turns old Prejudice's very best +things--his love of his fathers, his love of the past, his love of order, +his love of loyalty, his love of the old paths, and his very truest and +best religion itself--into so much fat fuel for the fires of hate and +rage that are consuming his proud heart to red-hot ashes. If the light +that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness; and if the life +that is in us be death, how deadly is that death! + +4. Old, angry, and ill-conditioned. Ill-conditioned is an old-fashioned +word almost gone out of date. But, all the same, it is a very +expressive, and to us to-night a quite indispensable word. An +ill-conditioned man is a man of an in-bred, cherished, and confirmed ill- +nature. His heart, which was a sufficiently bad heart to begin with, is +now so exercised in evil and so accustomed to evil, that,--how can he be +born again when he is so old and so ill-natured? All the qualities, all +the passions, all the emotions of his heart are out of joint; their bent +is bad; they run out naturally to mischief. Now, what could possibly be +more ill-conditioned than to judge and sentence, denounce and execute a +man before you have heard his case? What could be more ill-conditioned +than positively to be afraid lest you should be led to forgive, and +redress, and love, and act with another man? To be determined not to +hear one word that you can help in his defence, in his favour, and in his +praise? Could a human heart be in a worse state on this side hell itself +than that? Nay, that is hell itself in your evil heart already. Let +prejudice and partiality have their full scope among the wicked passions +of your ill-conditioned heart, and lo! the kingdom of darkness is already +within you. Not, lo, here! or, lo, there! but within you. Look to +yourselves, says John to us all, full as we all are of our own +ill-conditions. Look to yourselves. But we have no eyes left with which +to see ourselves; we look so much at the faults and the blames of our +neighbour. 'Publius goes to church sometimes, and reads the Scriptures; +but he knows not what he reads or prays, his head is so full of politics. +He is so angry at kings and ministers of state that he has no time nor +disposition to call himself to account. He has the history of all +parliaments, elections, prosecutions, and impeachments by heart, and he +dies with little or no religion, through a constant fear of Popery.' +Poor, old, ill-conditioned Publius! + +5. And, then, his sixty deaf men under old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice. We read of engines of sixty-horse power. And here is a man +with the power of resisting and shutting out the truth equal to that of +sixty men like himself. We all know such men; we would as soon think of +speaking to those iron pillars about a change of mind as we would to +them. If you preach to their prejudices and their prepossessions and +their partialities, they are all ears to hear you, and all tongues to +trumpet your praise. But do not expect them to sit still with ordinary +decency under what they are so prejudiced against; do not expect them to +read a book or buy a passing paper on the other side. Sixty deaf men +hold their ears; sixty ill-conditioned men hold their hearts. Habit with +them is all the test of truth; it must be right, they've done it from +their youth. And thus they go on to the end of their term of life, full +of their own fixed ideas, with their eyes full of beams and jaundices and +darkness and death. Some people think that we take up too much of our +time with newspapers in our day, and that, if things go on as they are +going, we shall soon have neither time nor taste for anything else but +half a dozen papers a day. But all that depends on the conditions with +which we read. If we would read as Jonathan Edwards read the weekly news- +letters of his day; if we read all our papers to see if the kingdom of +God was coming in reply to our prayer; if we read, observing all things, +like Timothy, without prejudice or partiality, then I know no better +reading for an ill-conditioned heart begun to look to itself than just a +good, out-and-out party newspaper. And if it is a church paper all the +better for your purpose. If you read with your fingers in your ears; if +you read with a beam in your eye, you had better confine yourself in your +reading; if you feel that your prejudices are inflamed and your +partiality is intensified, then take care what paper you take in. But if +you read all you read for the love of the truth, for justice, for fair- +play, and for brotherly love, and all that in yourself; if you read all +the time with your eyes on your own ill-conditioned heart, then, as James +says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Take up +your political and ecclesiastical paper every morning, saying to +yourself, Go to, O my heart, and get thy daily lesson. Go to, and enter +thy cleansing and refining furnace. Go to, and come well out of thy +daily temptation.--A nobler school you will not find anywhere for a +prejudiced, partial, angry, and ill-conditioned heart than just the party +journals of the day. For the abating of prejudice; for seeing the +odiousness of partiality, and for putting on every day a fair, open, +catholic, Christian mind, commend me to the public life and the public +journals of our living day. And it is not that this man may be up and +that man down; this cause victorious and that cause defeated; this truth +vindicated and that untruth defeated, that public life rolls on and that +its revolutions are reported to us. Our own minds and our own hearts are +the final cause, the ultimate drift, and the far-off end and aim of it +all. We are not made for party and for the partialities and prosperities +of party; party and all its passions and all its successes and all its +defeats are made, and are permitted to be made for us; for our +opportunity of purging ourselves free of all our ill-conditions, of all +our prejudices, of all our partialities, and of all the sin and misery +that come to us of all these things. + +6. 'It is the work of a philosopher,' says Addison in one of his best +_Spectators_, 'to be every day subduing his passions and laying aside his +prejudices.' We are not philosophers, but we shall be enrolled in the +foremost ranks of philosophy if we imitate such philosophers in their +daily work, as we must do and shall do. Well, are we begun to do it? Are +we engaged in that work of theirs and ours every day? Is God our witness +and our judge that we are? Are we so engaged upon that inward work, and +so succeeding in it, that we can read our most prejudiced newspaper with +the same mind and spirit, with the same profit and progress, with which +we read our Bible? A good man, a humble man, a man acutely sensible of +his ill-conditions, will look on every day as lost or won according as he +has lost or won in this inward war. If his partialities are dropping off +his mind; if his prejudices are melting; if he can read books and papers +with pleasure and instruction that once filled him with dark passions and +angry outbursts; if his Calvinism lets him read Thomas A Kempis and +Jeremy Taylor and William Law; if his High-Churchism lets him delight to +worship God in an Independent or a Presbyterian church; if his +Free-Churchism permits him to see the Establishment reviving, and his +State-Churchism admits that the Free Churches have more to say to him +than he had at one time thought; if his Toryism lets him take in a +Radical paper, and his Radicalism a Unionist paper--then let him thank +God, for God is in all that though he knew it not. And when he counts up +his incalculable benefits at each return of the Lord's table, let him +count up as not the least of them an open mind and a well-conditioned +heart, an unprejudiced mind, and an impartial heart. + +7. And now, to conclude: Take old, angry, ill-conditioned Prejudice, his +daily prayer: 'My Adorable God and Creator! Thy Holy Church is by the +wickedness of men divided into various communions, all hating, +condemning, and endeavouring to destroy one another. I made none of +these divisions, nor am I any longer a defender of them. I wish +everything removed out of every communion that hinders the Common Unity. +The wranglings and disputings of whole churches and nations have so +confounded all things that I have no ability to make a true and just +judgment of the matters between them. If I knew that any one of these +communions was alone acceptable to Thee, I would do or suffer anything to +make myself a member of it. For, my Good God, I desire nothing so much +as to know and to love Thee, and to worship Thee in the most acceptable +manner. And as I humbly presume that Thou wouldst not suffer Thy Church +to be thus universally divided, if no divided portion could offer any +worship acceptable unto Thee; and as I have no knowledge of what is +absolutely best in these divided parts, nor any ability to put an end to +them; so I fully trust in Thy goodness, that Thou wilt not suffer these +divisions to separate me from Thy mercy in Christ Jesus; and that, if +there be any better ways of serving Thee than those I already enjoy, Thou +wilt, according to Thine infinite mercy, lead me into them, O God of my +peace and my love.' After this manner old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice prayed every day till he died, a little child, in charity with +all men, and in acceptance with Almighty God. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--CAPTAIN ANYTHING + + + 'I am made all things to all men . . . I please all men in all + things.'--_Paul_ + +Captain Anything came originally from the ancient town of Fair-speech. + +Fair-speech had many royal bounties and many special privileges bestowed +upon it, and Captain Anything and his family had come to many titles and +to great riches in that ancient, loyal, and honourable borough. My Lord +Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my Lord Fair-speech (from whose +ancestors that town first took its name), as also such well-known +commoners as Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, and Mr. Two-tongues +were all sprung with Captain Anything from the same ancient and +long-established ancestry. As to his religion, from a child young +Anything had sat under the parson of the parish, the same Reverend Two- +tongues as has been mentioned above. And our budding soldier followed +the example of his minister in that he never strove too long against wind +or tide, or was ever to be seen on the same side of the street with +Religion when she was banished from court or had lost her silver +slippers. The crest of the Anythings was a delicately poised weather- +cock; and the motto engraved around the gyrating bird ran thus: 'Our +judgment always jumps according to the occasion.' As a military man, +Captain Anything is described in military books as a proper man, and a +man of courage and skill--to appearance. He and his company under him +were a sort of Swiss guard in Mansoul. They held themselves open and +ready for any master. They lived not so much by religion or by loyalty +as by the fates of worldly fortune. In his secret despatches Diabolus +was wont to address Captain Anything as My Darling; and be sure you +recruit your Switzers well, Diabolus would say; but when the real stress +of the war came, even Diabolus cast Captain Anything off. And thus it +came about that when both sides were against this despised creature he +had to throw down his arms and flee into a safe skulking place for his +life. + +1. In that half-papist, half-atheistic country called France there is a +class of politicians known by the name of Opportunists. They are a kind +of public men that, we are thankful to say, are not known in Protestant +and Evangelical England, but they may be pictured out and described to +you in this homely way: An Opportunist stands well out of the sparks of +the fire, and well in behind the stone wall, till the fanatics for +liberty, equality, and fraternity have snatched the chestnuts out of the +fire, and then the Opportunist steps out from his safe place and blandly +divides the well-roasted tid-bits among his family and his friends. As +long as there is any jeopardy, the Jacobins are denounced and held up to +opprobrium; but when the jeopardy and the risk are well past, the sober- +minded, cautious, conservative, and responsible statesmen walk off with +the portfolios of place and privilege and pay under their honest arms. +But these are the unprincipled papists and infidels of a mushroom +republic; and, thank God, such spurious patriotism, and such sham and +selfish statesmanship, have not yet shown their miserable heads among +faithful, fearless, straightforward, and uncalculating Englishmen. At +the same time, if ever that continental vice should attack our national +character, we have two well-known essays in our ethical and casuistical +literature that may with perfect safety be pitted against anything that +either France or Italy has produced. Even if they are but a master's +irony, let all ambitious men keep _Of Cunning_ and _Of Wisdom for a Man's +Self_ under their pillow. Let all young men who would toady a great man; +let all young ministers who would tune their pulpit to king, or court, or +society; let all tradesmen and merchants who prefer their profits to +their principles--if they have literature enough, let them soak their +honest minds in our great Chancellor's sage counsels; and he who promoted +Anything and dubbed him his Darling, he will, no doubt, publish both a +post and a title on his birthday for you also. + +2. 'What religion is he of?' asks Dean Swift. 'He is an Anythingarian,' +is the answer, 'for he makes his self-interest the sole standard of his +life and doctrine.' And Archbishop Leighton, a very different churchman +from the bitter author of the _Polite Conversations_, is equally +contemptuous toward the self-seeker in divine things. 'Your boasted +peaceableness often proceeds from a superficial temper; and, not seldom, +from a supercilious disdain of whatever has no marketable use or value, +and from your utter indifference to true religion. Toleration is an herb +of spontaneous growth in the soil of indifference. Much of our union of +minds proceeds from want of knowledge and from want of affection to +religion. Many who boast of their church conformity, and that no one +hears of their noise, may thank the ignorance of their minds for that +kind of quietness.' But by far the most powerful assault that ever was +made upon lukewarmness in religion and upon self-seeking in the Church +was delivered by Dante in the tremendous third canto of his _Inferno_:-- + + Various tongues, + Horrible languages, outcries of woe, + Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, + With hands together smote that swelled the sounds, + Made up a tumult that for ever whirls + Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, + Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies. + I then, with error yet encompass'd, cried, + 'O master! What is this I hear? What race + Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?' + He then to me: 'This miserable fate + Suffer the wretched souls of those who lived + Without or praise or blame, with that ill band + Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved, + Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves + Were only. Mercy and Justice scorn them both. + Speak not of them, but look and pass them by.' + Forthwith, I understood for certain this the tribe + Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing + And to His foes. Those wretches who ne'er lived, + Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung + By wasps and hornets, which bedewed their cheeks + With blood, that mix'd with tears dropp'd to their feet, + And by disgustful worms was gathered there. + +3. Now, we must all lay it continually and with uttermost humiliation to +heart that we all have Captain Anything's opportunism, his self-interest, +his insincerity, his instability, and his secret deceitfulness in +ourselves. That man knows little of himself who does not despise and +hate himself for his secret self-seeking even in the service of God. For, +how the love of praise will seduce and corrupt this man, and the love of +gain that man! How easy it is to flatter and adulate this man out of all +his former opinions and his deepest principles, and how an expected +advantage will make that other man forget now an old alliance and now a +deep antipathy! How often the side we take even in the most momentous +matters is decided by the most unworthy motives and the most contemptible +considerations! Unstable as water, Reuben shall not excel. Double-minded +men, we, like Jacob's first-born, are unstable in all our ways. We have +no anchor, or, what anchor we sometimes have soon slips. We have no +fixed pole-star by which to steer our life. Any will-o'-the-wisp of +pleasure, or advantage, or praise will run us on the rocks. The +searchers of Mansoul, after long search, at last lighted on Anything, and +soon made an end of him. Seek him out in your own soul also. Be you +sure he is somewhere there. He is skulking somewhere there. And, having +found him, if you cannot on the spot make an end of him, keep your eye on +him, and never say that you are safe from him and his company as long as +you are in this soul-deceiving life. And, that Anything will not be let +enter the gates of the city you are set on seeking, that will go largely +to make that sweet and clean and truthful city your very heaven to you. + +4. 'I am made all things to all men, and I please all men in all +things.' One would almost think that was Captain Anything himself, in a +frank, cynical, and self-censorious moment. But if you will look it up +you will see that it was a very different man. The words are the words +of Anything, but the heart behind the words is the heart of Paul. And +this, again, teaches us that we should be like the Messiah in this also, +not to judge after the sight of our eyes, nor to reprove after the +hearing of our ears. Miserable Anything! outcast alike of heaven and +hell! But, O noble and blessed Apostle! the man, says Thomas Goodwin, +who shall be found seated next to Jesus Christ Himself in the kingdom of +God. Happy Paul: happy even on this earth, since he could say, and in +the measure he could say with truth and with sincerity, such +self-revelations as these: 'Unto the Jews I am become as a Jew that I +might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, +that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without +law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law. To the +weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things +to all men, that I might by all means save some. Giving none offence, +neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Even +as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the +profit of many, that they may be saved.' Noble words, and inspiring to +read. Yes: but look within, and think what Paul must have passed +through; think what he must have been put through before he,--a man of +like selfish passions as we are, a man of like selfish passions as +Anything was,--could say all that. Let his crosses and his thorns; his +raptures up to the third heaven, and his body of death that he bore about +with him all his days; let his magnificent spiritual gifts, and his still +more magnificent spiritual graces tell how they all worked together to +make the chief of sinners out of the blameless Pharisee, and, at the same +time, Christ's own chosen vessel and the apostle of all the churches. +Boasting about his patron apostle, St. Augustine says: 'Far be it from so +great an apostle, a vessel elect of God, an organ of the Holy Ghost, to +be one man when he preached and another when he wrote; one man in private +and another in public. He was made all things to all men, not by the +craft of a deceiver, but from the affection of a sympathiser, succouring +the diverse diseases of souls with the diverse emotions of compassion; to +the little ones dispensing the lesser doctrines, not false ones, but the +higher mysteries to the perfect--all of them, however, true, harmonious, +and divine.' The exquisite irony of Socrates comes into my mind in this +connection, and will not be kept out of my mind. By instinct as well as +by art Socrates mixed up the profoundest seriousness with the humorous +affectation of qualities of mind and even of character the exact opposite +of what all who loved him knew to be the real Socrates. 'Intellectually,' +says Dr. Thomson, 'the acutest man of his age, Socrates represents +himself in all companies as the dullest person present. Morally the +purest, he affects to be the slave of passion and borrows the language +even of the lewd to describe a love and a good-will far too exalted for +the comprehension of his contemporaries. This irony of his disarmed +ridicule by anticipating it; it allayed jealousy and propitiated envy; +and it possibly procured him admission into gay circles from which a more +solemn teacher would have been excluded. But all the time it had for its +basis a real greatness of soul, a hearty and an unaffected disregard of +public opinion, a perfect disinterestedness, and an entire abnegation of +self. He made himself a fool in order that fools by his folly might be +made wise; he humbled himself to the level of those among whom his work +lay that he might raise some few among them to his own level; he was all +things to all men, if by any means he might save some. Till Alcibiades +ends the splendid eloge that Plato puts into his mouth with these words, +"All my master's vice and stupidity and worship of wealthy and great men +is counterfeit. It is all but the Silenus-mask which conceals the +features of the god within; for if you remove the covering, how shall I +describe to you, my friends and boon companions, the excellence of the +beauty you will find within! Whether any of you have seen Socrates in +his serious mood, when he has thrown aside the mask and disclosed the +divine features beneath it, is more than I know. But I have seen them, +and I can tell you that they seemed to me glorious and marvellous, and, +truly, godlike in their beauty."' + +Well, now, I gather out of all that this great lesson: that it is, to +begin with, a mere matter of temperament, or what William Law would call +a mere matter of complexion and sensibility, whether, to begin with, a +man is hard, and dry, and narrow, and stiff, and proud, and scornful, and +cruel; or again, whether he is soft and tender, broad and open, and full +of sympathy and of the milk of human kindness. At first, and to begin +with, there is neither praise nor blame as yet in the matter. A man is +hard just as a stone is hard; it is his nature. Or he is soft as clay is +soft; it is again his nature. But, inheriting such a nature, and his +inherited nature beginning to appear, then is the time when the true man +really begins to be made. The bad man dwells in contentment, and, +indeed, by preference, at home in his own hard, proud, scornful, +resentful heart; or, again, in his facile, fawning, tide-waiting, time- +serving heart; and thus he chooses, accepts, and prefers his evil fate, +and never seeks the help either of God or man to enable him to rise above +it. Paul was not, when we meet him first, the sweet, humble, affable, +placable, makeable man that he made himself and came to be after a +lifetime of gospel-preaching and of adorning the gospel he preached. And +all the assistances and all the opportunities that came to Paul are still +coming to you and to me; till, whether naturally pliable and affectionate +or the opposite, we at last shall come to the temperament, the +complexion, and the exquisite sensibility of Paul himself. Are you, +then, a hard, stiff, severe, censorious, proud, angry, scornful man? Or +are you a too-easy, too-facile man-pleaser and self-seeker, being all +things to all men that you may make use of all men? Are you? Then say +so. Confess it to be so. Admit that you have found yourself out. And +reflect every day what you have got to do in life. Consider what a new +birth you need and must have. Number your days that are left you in +which to make you a new heart, and a new nature, and a new character. +Consider well how you are to set about that divine work. You have a +minister, and your minister is called a divine because by courtesy he is +supposed to understand that divine work, and to be engaged on it night +and day in himself, and in season and out of season among his people. He +will tell you how you are to make you a new heart. Or, if he does not +and cannot do that; if he preaches about everything but that to a people +who will listen to anything but that, then your soul is not in his hands +but in your own. You may not be able to choose your minister, but you +can choose what books you are to buy, or borrow, and read. And if there +is not a minister within a hundred miles of you who knows his right hand +from his left, then there are surely some booksellers who will advise you +about the classical books of the soul till you can order them for +yourselves. And thus, if it is your curse and your shame to be as +spongy, and soapy, and oily, and slippery as Anything himself; if you +choose your church and your reading with any originality, sense, and +insight, you need not fear but that you will be let live till you die an +honest, upright, honourable, fearless gentleman: no timid friend to +unfashionable truth, as you are to-night, but a man like Thomas Boston's +Ettrick elder, who lies waiting the last trump under a gravestone +engraven with this legend: Here lies a man who had a brow for every good +cause. Only, if you would have that written and read on your headstone, +you have no time to lose. If I were you I would not sit another Sabbath +under a minister whose preaching was not changing my nature, making my +heart new, and transforming my character; no, not though the Queen +herself sat in the same loft. And I would leave the church even of my +fathers, and become anything as far as churches go, if I could get a +minister who held my face close and ever closer up to my own heart. Nor +would I spend a shilling or an hour that I could help on any impertinent +book,--any book that did not powerfully help me in the one remaining +interest of my one remaining life: a new nature and a new heart. No, not +I. No, not I any more. + + + + +CHAPTER X--CLIP-PROMISE + + + ' . . . the promise made of none effect.'--_Paul_ + +Toward the end of the thirteenth century Edward the First, the English +Justinian, brought a select colony of artists from Italy to England and +gave them a commission to execute their best coinage for the English +Mint. Deft and skilful as those artists were, the work they turned out +was but rude and clumsy compared with some of the gold and silver and +copper coins of our day. The Florentine artists took a sheet of gold or +of silver and divided the sheet up with great scissors, and then they +hammered the cut-out pieces as only a Florentine hammerman could hammer +them. But, working with such tools, and working on such methods, those +goldsmiths and silversmiths, with all their art, found it impossible to +give an absolutely equal weight and worth to every piece of money that +they turned out. For one thing, their cut and hammered coins had no +carved rims round their edges as all our gold and silver and even copper +coinage now has. And, accordingly, the clever rogues of that day soon +discovered that it was far easier for them to take up a pair of shears +and to clip a sliver of silver off the rough rim of a shilling, or a +shaving of gold off a sovereign, than it was to take of their coats and +work a hard day's work. Till to clip the coin of the realm soon became +one of the easiest and most profitable kinds of crime. In the time of +Elizabeth a great improvement was made in the way of coining the public +money; but it was soon found that this had only made matters worse. For +now, side by side with a pure and unimpaired and full-valued currency, +and mingled up everywhere with it, there was the old, clipped, debased, +and far too light gold and silver money; till troubles arose in +connection with the coinage and circulation of the country that can only +be told by Macaulay's extraordinarily graphic pen. 'It may well be +doubted,' Macaulay says, in the twenty-first chapter of his _History of +England_, 'whether all the misery which has been inflicted on the English +nation in a quarter of a century by bad Kings, bad Ministers, bad +Parliaments, and bad Judges was equal to the misery caused in a single +year by bad crowns and bad shillings. Whether Whigs or Tories, +Protestants or Papists were uppermost, the grazier drove his beasts to +market, the grocer weighed out his currants, the draper measured out his +broadcloth, the hum of buyers and sellers was as loud as ever in the +towns; the cream overflowed the pails of Cheshire; the apple juice foamed +in the presses of Herefordshire; the piles of crockery glowed in the +furnaces of the Trent, and the barrows of coal rolled fast along the +timber railways of the Tyne. But when the great instrument of exchange +became thoroughly deranged all trade and all industry were smitten as +with a palsy. Nothing could be purchased without a dispute. Over every +counter there was wrangling from morning to night. The employer and his +workmen had a quarrel as regularly as Saturday night came round. On a +fair day or a market day the clamours, the disputes, the reproaches, the +taunts, the curses, were incessant. No merchant would contract to +deliver goods without making some stipulation about the quality of the +coin in which he was to be paid. The price of the necessaries of life, +of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The bit of metal called a +shilling the labourer found would not go so far as sixpence. One day +Tonson sends forty brass shillings to Dryden, to say nothing of clipped +money. The great poet sends them all back and demands in their place +good guineas. "I expect," he says, "good silver, not such as I had +formerly." Meanwhile, at every session of the Old Bailey the most +terrible example of coiners and clippers was made. Hurdles, with four, +five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting or mutilating the money of +the realm, were dragged month after month up Holborn Hill.' But I cannot +copy the whole chapter, wonderful as the writing is. Suffice it to say +that before the clippers could be rooted out, and confidence restored +between buyer and seller, the greatest statesmen, the greatest +financiers, and the greatest philosophers were all at their wits' end. +Kings' speeches, cabinet councils, bills of Parliament, and showers of +pamphlets were all full in those days of the clipper and the coiner. All +John Locke's great intellect came short of grappling successfully with +the terrible crisis the clipper of the coin had brought upon England. +Carry all that, then, over into the life of personal religion, after the +manner of our Lord's parables, and after the manner of the _Pilgrim's +Progress_ and the _Holy War_, and you will see what an able and +impressive use John Bunyan will make of the shears of the coin-clippers +of his day. Macaulay has but made us ready to open and understand +Bunyan. 'After this, my Lord apprehended Clip-Promise. Now, because he +was a notorious villain, for by his doings much of the king's coin was +abused, therefore he was made a public example. He was arraigned and +judged to be set first in the pillory, then to be whipped by all the +children and servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till he was dead. +Some may wonder at the severity of this man's punishment, but those that +are honest traders in Mansoul they are sensible of the great abuse that +one clipper of promises in little time may do in the town of Mansoul; +and, truly, my judgment is that all those of his name and life should be +served out even as he.' + +The grace of God is like a bullion mass of purest gold, and then Jesus +Christ is the great ingot of that gold, and then Moses, and David, and +Isaiah, and Hosea, and Paul, and Peter, and John are the inspired artists +who have commission to take both bullion and ingot, and out of them to +cut, and beat, and smelt, and shape, and stamp, and superscribe the +promises, and then to issue the promises to pass current in the market of +salvation like so many shekels, and pounds, and pence, and farthings, and +mites, as the case may be. And it was just these royal coins, imaged and +superscribed so richly and so beautifully, that Clip-Promise so +mutilated, abused, and debased, till for doing so he was hanged by the +neck till he was dead. + +1. The very house of Israel herself, the very Mint-house, Tower Hill, +and Lombard Street of Israel herself, was full of false coiners and +clippers of the promises; as full as ever England was at her very worst. +Israel clipped her Messianic promises and lived upon the clippings +instead of upon the coin. Her coming Christ, and His salvation already +begun, were the true spiritual currency of Old Testament times; while +round that central Image of her great promise there ran an outside rim of +lesser promises that all took their true and their only value from Him +whose image and superscription stood within. But those besotted and +infatuated men of Israel, instead of entering into and living by the +great spiritual promises given to them in their Messiah, made lands, and +houses, and meat, and drink, all the Messiah they cared for. Matthew +Henry says that when we go to the merchant to buy goods, he gives us the +paper and the pack-thread to the bargain. Well, those children and fools +in Israel actually threw away the goods and hoarded and boasted over the +paper and the pack-thread. Our old Scottish lawyers have made us +familiar with the distinction in the church between _spiritualia_ and +_temporalia_. Well, the Jews let the _spiritualia_ go to those who cared +to take such things, while they held fast to the _temporalia_. And all +that went on till His disciples had the effrontery to clip and coin under +our Lord's very eyes, and even to ask Him to hold the coin while they +sharpened their shears. 'O faithless and perverse generation! How long +shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Have I been so long +with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? O fools, and slow of +heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! And beginning at +Moses and all the prophets He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the +things concerning Himself.' + +2. But those who live in glass houses must take care not to throw +stones. And thus the greatest fool in Israel is safe from you and me. +For, like them, and just as if we had never read one word about them, we +bend our hearts and our children's hearts to things seen and temporal, +and then, after things seen and temporal have all cast us off, we begin +to ask if there is any solace or sweetness for a cast-off heart in things +unseen and eternal. There are great gaps clipt out of our Bibles that +not God Himself can ever print or paste in again. Look and see if half +the Book of Proverbs, for instance, with all its noble promises to a +godly youth, is not clipt clean out of your dismembered Bible. That fine +leaf also, 'My son, give Me thine heart,' is clean gone out of the twenty- +third chapter of the Proverbs years and years ago. As is the best part +of the noble Book of Daniel, and almost the whole of Second Timothy. +'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and meat and +drink, and wife and child shall be added unto you.' Your suicidal shears +have cut that golden promise for ever out of your Sermon on the Mount. So +much so that if any or all of these temporal mercies ever come to you, +they will come of pure and undeserved mercy, for the time has long passed +when you could plead any promise for them. Still, there are two most +excellent uses left to which you can even yet put your mangled and +dismembered Bible. You can make a splendid use of its gaps and of its +gashes, and of those waste places where great promises at one time stood. +You can make a grand use even of those gaps if you will descend into them +and draw out of them humiliation and repentance, compunction, contrition, +and resignation. And this use also: When you are moved to take some man +who is still young into your confidence, ask him to let you see his Bible +and then let him see yours, and point out to him the rents and wounds and +wilderness places in yours. And thus, by these two uses of a clipped-up +and half-empty Bible, you may make gains that shall yet set you above +those whose Bibles of promises are still as fresh as when they came from +God's own hand. And Samson said, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: +Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth +sweetness. + +3. 'Go out,' said the Lord of Mansoul, 'and apprehend Clip-Promise and +bring him before me.' And they did so. 'Go down to Edinburgh to-night, +and go to the door of such and such a church, and, as he comes out arrest +Clip-the-Commandments, for he has heard My word all this day again but +will not do it.' Where would you be by midnight if God rose up in anger +and swore at this moment that your disobedient time should be no longer? +You would be speechless before such a charge, for the shears are in your +pocket at this moment with which you have clipped to pieces this Sabbath- +day: shears red with the blood of the Fourth Commandment. For, when did +you rise off your bed this resurrection morning? And what did you do +when you did rise? What has your reading and your conversation been this +whole Lord's day? How full your heart would have been of faith and love +and holiness by this time of night had you not despised the Lord of the +Sabbath, and cast all His commandments and opportunities to you behind +your back? What private exercise have you had all day with your Father +who sees in secret? How often have you been on your knees, and where, +and how long, and for what, and for whom? What work of mercy have you +done to-day, or determined to do to-morrow? And so with all the divine +commandments: Mosaic and Christian, legal and evangelical. Such as: A +tenth of all I have given to thee; a covenant with a wandering eye; a +mouth once speaking evil, is it now well watched? not one vessel only, +but all the vessels of thy body sanctified till every thought and +imagination is well under the obedience of Christ. Lest His anger for +all that begin to burn to-night, make your bed with Eli and Samuel in His +sanctuary to-night, lest the avenger of the blood of the commandments +leap out on you in your sleep! + +4. The Old Serpent took with him the great shears of hell, and clipped +'Thou shalt surely die' out of the second chapter of Genesis. And the +same enemy of mankind will clip all the terror of the Lord out of your +heart to-night again, if he can. And he will do it in this way, if he +can. He will have some one at the church door ready and waiting for you. +As soon as the blessing is pronounced, some one will take you by the arm +and will entertain you with the talk you love, or that you once loved, +till you will be ashamed to confess that there is any terror or turning +to God in your heart. No! Thou shalt not surely die, says the serpent +still. Why, hast thou not trampled Sabbaths and sermons past counting +under thy feet? What commandment, laid on body or soul, hast thou not +broken, and thou art still adding drunkenness to thirst, and God doth not +know! 'The woman said unto the serpent, We may not eat of it, neither +may we touch it, lest we die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye +shall not surely die.' + +5. You must all have heard of Clito, who used to say that he desired no +more time for rising and dressing and saying his prayers than about a +quarter of an hour. Well, that was clipping the thing pretty close, +wasn't it? At the same time it must be admitted that a good deal of +prayer may be got through in a quarter of an hour if you do not lose any +moment of it. Especially in the first quarter of the day, if you are +expeditious enough to begin to pray before you even begin to dress. And +prayer is really a very strange experience. There are things about +prayer that no man has yet fully found out or told to any. For one +thing, once well began it grows upon a man in a most extraordinary and +unheard-of way. This same Clito for instance, some time after we find +him at his prayers before his eyes are open; and then he keeps all +morning making his bath, his soap, his towels, his brushes, and his +clothes all one long artifice of prayer. And that till there is not a +single piece of his dressing-room furniture that is not ready to swear at +the last day that its master long before he died had become a man full of +secret prayer. There is a fountain filled with blood! he exclaims, as he +throws himself into his bath; and Jeremiah second and twenty-second he +uses regularly to repeat to himself half a dozen times a day as he washes +the smoke and dust of the city off his hands and face. And then +Revelation third and eighteenth till his toilet is completed. Nay, this +same Clito has come to be such a devotee to that he had at one time been +so expeditious with, that I have seen him forget himself on the street +and think that his door was shut. But there is really no use telling you +all that about Clito. For, till you try closet-prayer for yourself, all +that God or man can say to you on that subject will be water spilt on the +ground. All we can say is, Try it. Begin it. Some desperate day try +it. Stop when you are on the way to the pond and try it. Stop when you +are fastening up the rope and try it. When the poison is moving in the +cup, stop, shut your door first. Try God first. See if He is still +waiting. And, always after, when the steel shears of a too early, too +crowded, and far too exacting day are clipping you out of all time for +prayer, then what should you do? What do you do when you simply cannot +get your proper fresh air and exercise everyday? Do you not fall back on +the plasticity and pliability of nature and take your air and exercise in +large parcels? You take a ride into the country two or three times a +week. Or, two afternoons a week you have ten miles alone if you cannot +get a godly friend. And then two or three times a year, if you can +afford it, you climb an Alp or a Grampian every day for a week or a +month; and, so gracious and so adaptable is human nature, that, what +others get daily, you get weekly, or monthly, or quarterly, or yearly. +And, though a soul is not to be too much presumed upon, Clito came to +tell his friends that his soul could on occasion take in prayer and +praise enough for a week in a single morning or afternoon, and, almost, +for a whole year in a good holiday. As Christ Himself did when He said: +Come away apart into a desert place and rest a while; for there are so +many people coming and going here that we have no time so much as to eat. + +6. But I see I must clip off my last point with you, which was to tell +you what you already know only too well, and that is, what terrible +shears a bad conscience is armed with, and what havoc she makes at all +ages of a poor sinner's Bible. But you can spare that head. You can +preach on that text to yourselves far better than all your ministers. +Only, take home with you these two lines I have clipped out of Fraser of +Brea for you. Nothing in man, he says to us, is to be a ground of +despair, since the whole ground of all our hope is in Christ alone. +Christ's relation is always to men as they are sinners and not as they +are righteous. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to +repentance. 'Tis with sinners, then, Christ has to do. Nothing damns +but unbelief; and unbelief is just holding back from pressing God with +this promise, that Christ came to save sinners. This is a faithful +saying, and worthy of all acceptation, and it is still to be found +standing in the most clipped-up Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the +world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. + + + + +CHAPTER XI--STIFF MR. LOTH-TO-STOOP + + + 'Thy neck is an iron sinew.'--_Jehovah to the house of Jacob_. + + 'King Zedekiah humbled not himself, but stiffened his neck.'--_The + Chronicles_. + + 'He humbled himself.'--_Paul on our Lord_. + +All John Bunyan's Characters, Situations, and Episodes are collected into +this house to-night. Obstinate and Pliable are here; Passion and +Patience; Simple, Sloth, and Presumption; Madame Bubble and Mr. Worldly- +wiseman; Talkative and By-ends; Deaf Mr. Prejudice is here also, and, +sitting close beside him, stiff Mr. Loth-to-stoop; while good old Mr. Wet- +eyes and young Captain Self-denial are not wholly wanting. It gives this +house an immense and an ever-green interest to me to see character after +character coming trooping in, Sabbath evening after Sabbath evening, each +man to see himself and his neighbour in John Bunyan's so truthful and so +fearless glass. But it stabs me to the heart with a mortal stab to see +how few of us out of this weekly congregation are any better men after +all we come to see and to hear. At the same time, such a constant +dropping will surely in time wear away the hardest rock. Let that so +stiff old man, then, stiff old Mr. Loth-to-stoop, came forward and behold +his natural face in John Bunyan's glass again to-night. 'Lord, is it I?' +was a very good question, though put by a very bad man. Let us, one and +all, then, put the traitor's question to ourselves to-night. Am I stiff +old Loth-to-stoop?--let every man in this house say to himself all +through this service, and then at home when reviewing the day, and then +all to-morrow when to stoop will be so loathsome and so impossible to us +all. + +1. To begin, then, at the very bottom of this whole matter, take stiff +old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner in the sight of God. Let us take +this stiff old man in this dreadful character to begin with, because it +is in this deepest and most dreadful aspect of his nature and his +character that he is introduced to us in the _Holy War_. And I shall +stand aside and let John Bunyan himself describe Loth-to-stoop in the +matter of his justification before God. 'That is a great stoop for a +sinner to have to take,' says our apostolic author in another classical +place, 'a too great stoop to have to suffer the total loss of all his own +righteousness, and, actually, to have to look to another for absolutely +everything of that kind. That is no easy matter for any man to do. I +assure you it stretches every vein in his heart before he will be brought +to yield to that. What! for a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw away +all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of Sabbaths, hearing, reading, and +all the rest, and to admit both himself and them to be abominable and +accursed, and to be willing in the very midst of his sins to throw +himself wholly upon the righteousness and obedience of another man! I +say to do that in deed and in truth is the biggest piece of the cross, +and therefore it is that Paul calls it a suffering. "I have suffered the +loss of all things that I might win Christ, and be found in Him, not +having mine own righteousness."' That is John Bunyan's characteristic +comment on stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner, with the offer of +a full forgiveness set before him. + +2. And then our so truthful and so fertile author goes on to give us +Loth-to-stoop as a half-saved sinner; a sinner, that is, trying to make +his own terms with God about his full salvation. Through three most +powerful pages we see stiff old Loth-to-stoop engaged in beating down +God's unalterable terms of salvation, and in bidding for his full +salvation upon his own reduced and easy terms. It was the tremendous +stoop of the Son of God from the throne of God to the cradle and the +carpenter's shop; and then, as if that were not enough, it was that other +tremendous stoop of His down to the Garden and the Cross,--it was these +two so tremendous stoops of Jesus Christ that made stiff old +Loth-to-stoop's salvation even possible. But, with all that, his true +salvation was not possible without stoop after stoop of his own; stoop +after stoop which, if not so tremendous as those of Christ, were yet +tremendous enough, and too tremendous, for him. Old Loth-to-stoop +carries on a long and a bold debate with Emmanuel in order to lessen the +stoop that Emmanuel demands of him; and your own life and mine, my +brethren, at their deepest and at their closest to our own heart, are +really at bottom, like Loth-to-stoop's life, one long roup of salvation, +in which God tries to get us up to His terms and in which we try to get +Him down to our terms. His terms are, that we shall sell absolutely all +that we have for the salvation of our souls; and our terms are, salvation +or no salvation, to keep all that we have and to seek every day for more. +God absolutely demands that we shall stoop to the very dust every day, +till we become the poorest, the meanest, the most despicable, and the +most hopeless of men; whereas we meet that divine demand with the proud +reply--Is Thy servant a dog? It was with this offended mind that stiff +old Loth-to-stoop at last left off from Emmanuel's presence; he would die +rather than come down to such degrading terms. And as Loth-to-stoop went +away, Emmanuel looked after him, well remembering the terrible night when +He Himself was, not indeed like Loth-to-stoop, nor near like him, but +when His own last stoop was so deep that it made Him cry out, Father, +save Me from this hour! and again, If it be possible let this so +tremendous stoop pass from Me. For a moment Emmanuel Himself was loth to +stoop, but only for a moment. For He soon rose from off His face in a +bath of blood, saying, Not My will, but Thine be done! When Thomas A +Kempis is negotiating with the Loth-to-stoops of his unevangelical day, +we hear him saying to them things like this: 'Jesus Christ was despised +of men, forsaken of His friends and lovers, and in the midst of slanders. +He was willing, under His Father's will, to suffer and to be despised, +and darest thou to complain of any man's usage of thee? Christ, thy +Master, had enemies and back-biters, and dost thou expect to have all men +to be thy friends and benefactors? Whence shall thy patience attain her +promised crown if no adversity befall thee? Suffer thou with Jesus +Christ, and for His sake, if thou wouldst reign with Him. Set thyself, +therefore, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, who, out of love, was +crucified for thee. Know for certain that thou must lead a daily dying +life. And the more that thou diest to thyself all that the more shalt +thou live unto God.' With many such words as these did Thomas teach the +saints of his day to stoop to their daily cross; a daily cross then, +which has now been for long to him and to them an everlasting crown. + +3. And speaking of A Kempis, and having lately read some of his most +apposite chapters, such as that on the Holy Fathers and that on Obedience +and Subjection, leads me on to look at Loth-to-stoop when he enters the +sacred ministry, as he sometimes does. When a half-converted, +half-subdued, half-saved sinner gets himself called to the sacred +ministry his office will either greatly hasten on his salvation, or else +it will greatly hinder and endanger it. He will either stoop down every +day to deeper and ever deeper depths of humility, or he will tower up in +pride of office and in pride of heart past all hope of humility, and thus +of salvation. The holy ministry is a great nursing-house of pride as we +see in a long line of popes, and prelates, and priests, and other lords +over God's heritage. And our own Presbyterian polity, while it hands +down to us the simplicity, the unity, the brotherhood, and the humility +of the apostolic age, at the same time leaves plenty of temptation and +plenty of opportunity for the pride of the human heart. Our preaching +and pastoral office, when it is aright laid to our hearts, will always +make us the meekest and the humblest of men, even when we carry the most +magnificent of messages. But when our own hearts are not right the very +magnificence of our message, and the very authority of our Master, become +all so many subtle temptations to pride, pique, self-importance, and +lothness-to-stoop. With so much still to learn, how slow we ministers +are to stoop to learn! How still we stand, and even go back, when all +other men are going forward! How few of us have made the noble +resolution of Jonathan Edwards: 'Resolved,' he wrote, 'that, as old men +have seldom any advantage of new discoveries because these are beside a +way of thinking they have been long used to: resolved, therefore, if ever +I live to years, that I shall be impartial to hear the reasons of all +pretended discoveries, and to receive them, if rational how long soever I +have been used to another way of thinking.' Let all ministers, then, +young and old, resolve to stoop with Jonathan Edwards, who shines, in his +life and in his works, like the cherubim with knowledge, and burns like +the seraphim with love. + +And then, when, not having so resolved, our thin vein of youthful +knowledge and experience has been worked to the rock; when grey hairs are +here and there upon us, how slow we are to stoop to that! How unwilling +we are to let it light on our hearts that our time is past; that we are +no longer able to understand, or interest, or attract the young; and, +besides, that that is not all their blame, no, nor ours either, but +simply the order and method of Divine Providence. How slow we are to see +that Divine Providence has other men standing ready to take up our work +if we would only humbly lay it down;--how loth we are to stoop to see all +that! How unwilling we are to make up our minds, we old and ageing +ministers, and to humble our hearts to accept an assistant or to submit +to a colleague to stand alongside of us in our unaccomplished work! + +4. In public life also, as we call it, what disasters to the state, to +the services, and to society, are constantly caused by this same Loth-to- +stoop! When he holds any public office; when he becomes the leader of a +party; when he is promoted to be an adviser of the Crown; when he is put +at the head of a fleet of ships, or of an army of men, what untold evils +does Loth-to-stoop bring both on himself and on the nation! An old +statesman will have committed himself to some line of legislation or of +administration; a great captain will have committed himself to some +manoeuvre of a squadron or of a division, or to some plan of battle, and +some subordinate will have discovered the error his leader has made, and +will be bold to point it out to him. But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has +taken his line and has passed his word. His honour, as he holds it, is +committed to this announced line of action; and, if the Crown itself +should perish before his policy, he will not stoop to change it. How +often you see that in great affairs as well as in small. How seldom you +see a public man openly confessing that he has hitherto all along been +wrong, and that he has at last and by others been set right. Not once in +a generation. But even that once redeems public life; it ennobles public +life; and it saves the nation and the sovereign who possess such a true +patriot. Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high- +sounding words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, and +humility always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate success +and lasting honour. + + + + +CHAPTER XII--THAT VARLET ILL-PAUSE, THE DEVIL'S ORATOR + + + 'I made haste and delayed not.'--_David_. + +John Bunyan shall himself introduce, describe, and characterise this +varlet, this devil's ally and accomplice, this ancient enemy of Mansoul, +whose name is Ill-pause. Well, this same Ill-pause, says our author, was +the orator of Diabolus on all difficult occasions, nor took Diabolus any +other one with him on difficult occasions, but just Ill-pause alone. And +always when Diabolus had any special plot a-foot against Mansoul, and +when the thing went as Diabolus would have it go, then would Ill-pause +stand up, for he was Diabolus his orator. When Mansoul was under siege +of Emmanuel his four noble captains sent a message to the men of the town +that if they would only throw Ill-pause over the wall to them, that they +might reward him according to his works, then they would hold a parley +with the city; but if this varlet was to be let live in the city, then, +why, the city must see to the consequences. At which Diabolus, who was +there present, was loth to lose his orator, because, had the four +captains once laid their fingers on Ill-pause, be sure his master had +lost his orator. And, then, in the last assault, we read that Ill-pause, +the orator that came along with Diabolus, he also received a grievous +wound in the head, some say that his brain-pan was cracked. This, at any +rate, I have taken notice of, that never after this was he able to do +that mischief to Mansoul as he had done in times past. And then there +was also at Eye-gate that Ill-pause of whom you have heard before. The +same was he that was orator to Diabolus. He did much mischief to the +town of Mansoul, till at last he fell by the hand of the Captain Good- +hope. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Ill-pause was a filthy Diabolonian varlet; +a treacherous and a villainous old varlet, the author of the _Holy War_ +calls him. Now, what is a varlet? Well, a varlet is just a broken-down +old valet. A varlet is a valet who has come down, and down, and down, +and down again in the world, till, from once having been the servant and +the trusty friend of the very best of masters, he has come to be the ally +and accomplice of the very worst of masters. His first name, the name of +his first office, still sticks to him, indeed; but, like himself, and +with himself, his name has become depraved and corrupted till you would +not know it. A varlet, then, is just short and sharp for a scoundrel who +is ready for anything; and the worse the thing is the more ready he is +for it. There are riff-raff and refuse always about who are ready to +volunteer for any filibustering expedition; and that full as much for the +sheer devilry of the enterprise as for any real profit it is to be to +themselves. Wherever mischief is to be done, there your true varlet is +sure to turn up. Well, just such a land-shark was this Ill-pause, who +was such an ally and accomplice to Diabolus that he had need for no +other. What possible certificate in evil could exceed this--that the +devil took not any with him when he went out on his worst errand but this +same Ill-pause, who was his orator on all his most difficult occasions? + +2. Ill-pause was a varlet, then, and he was also an orator. Now, an +orator, as you know, is a great speaker. An orator is a man who has the +excellent and influential gift of public speech. And on great occasions +in public life when people are to be instructed, and impressed, and +moved, and won over, then the great orator sets up his platform. +Quintilian teaches us in his _Institutes_ that it is only a good man who +can be a really great orator. What would that fine writer have said had +he lived to read the _Holy War_, and seen the most successful of all +orators that ever opened a mouth, and who was all the time a diabolical +old varlet? What would the author of _The Education of an Orator_ have +said to that? Diabolus did not on every occasion bring up his great +orator Ill-pause. He did not always come up himself, and he did not +always send up Ill-pause. It was only on difficult occasions that both +Diabolus and his orator also came up. You do not hear your great +preachers every Sabbath. They would not long remain great preachers, and +you would soon cease to pay any attention to them, if they were always in +the pulpit. Neither do you have your great orators at every street +corner. Their masters only build theatres for them when some great +occasion arises in the land, and when the best wisdom must straightway be +spoken to the people and in the best way. Then you bring up Quintilian's +orator if you have him at your call. As Diabolus has done from time to +time with his great and almost always successful orator Ill-pause. On +difficult occasions he came himself on the scene and Ill-pause with him. +On such difficult occasions as in the Garden of Eden; as when Noah was +told to make haste and build an ark; as also when Abraham was told to +make haste and leave his father's house; when Jacob was bid remember and +pay the vow he had made when his trouble was upon him; as also when +Joseph had to flee for what was better than life; and on that memorable +occasion when David sent Joab out against Rabbah, but David tarried still +at Jerusalem. On all these essential, first-class, and difficult +occasions the old serpent brought up Ill-pause. As also when our Lord +was in the wilderness; when He set His face to go up to Jerusalem; when +He saw certain Greeks among them that came up to the passover; as also +again and again in the Garden. As also on crucial occasions in your own +life. As when you had been told not to eat, not to touch, and not even +to look at the forbidden fruit, then Ill-pause, the devil's orator, came +to you and said that it was a tree to be desired. And, you shall not +surely die. As also when you were moved to terror and to tears under a +Sabbath, or under a sermon, or at some death-bed, or on your own sick- +bed--Ill-pause got you to put off till a more convenient season your +admitted need of repentance and reformation and peace with God. On such +difficult occasions as these the devil took Ill-pause to help him with +you, and the result, from the devil's point of view, has justified his +confidence in his orator. When Ill-pause gets his new honours paid him +in hell; when there is a new joy in hell over another sinner that has not +yet repented, your name will be heard sounding among the infernal cheers. +Just think of your baptismal name and your pet name at home giving them +joy to-night at their supper in hell! And yet one would not at first +sight think that such triumphs and such toasts, such medals, and clasps, +and garters were to be won on earth or in hell just by saying such simple- +sounding and such commonplace things as those are for which Ill-pause +receives his decorations. 'Take time,' he says. 'Yes,' he admits, 'but +there is no such hurry; to-morrow will do; next year will do; after you +are old will do quite as well. The darkness shall cover you, and your +sin will not find you out. Christ died for sin, and it is a faithful +saying that His blood will cleanse you later on from all this sin.' +Everyday and well-known words, indeed, but a true orator is seen in +nothing more than in this, that he can take up what everybody knows and +says, and put it so as to carry everybody captive. One of Quintilian's +own orators has said that a great speaker only gives back to his hearers +in flood what they have already given to him in vapour. + +3. 'I was always pleased,' says Calvin, 'with that saying of Chrysostom, +"The foundation of our philosophy is humility"; and yet more pleased with +that of Augustine: "As," says he, "the rhetorician being asked, What was +the first thing in the rules of eloquence? he answered, Pronunciation; +what was the second? Pronunciation; what was the third? and still he +answered, Pronunciation. So if you would ask me concerning the precepts +of the Christian religion, I would answer, firstly, secondly, thirdly, +and for ever, Humility."' And when Ill-pause opened his elocutionary +school for the young orators of hell, he is reported to have said this to +them in his opening address, 'There are only three things in my school,' +he said; 'three rules, and no more to be called rules. The first is +Delay, the second is Delay, and the third is Delay. Study the art of +delay, my sons; make all your studies to tell on how to make the fools +delay. Only get those to whom your master sends you to delay, and you +will not need to envy me my laurels; you will soon have a shining crown +of your own. Get the father to delay teaching his little boy how to +pray. Get him on any pretext you can invent to put off speaking in +private to his son about his soul. Get him to delegate all that to the +minister. And then by hook or by crook get that son as he grows up to +put off the Lord's Supper. And after that you will easily get him to put +off purity and prayer till he is a married man and at the head of a +house. Only get the idea of a more convenient season well into their +heads, and their game is up, and your spurs are won. Take their arm in +yours, as I used to do, at their church door, if you are posted there, +and say to them as they come out that to-morrow will be time enough to +give what they had thought of giving while they were still in their pew +and the minister or missionary was still in the pulpit. Only, as you +value your master's praises and the applause of all this place, keep +them, at any cost, from striking while the iron is hot. Let them fill +their hearts, and their mouths too, if it gives them any comfort, with +the best intentions; only, my scholars, remember that the beginning and +middle and end of your office is by hook or by crook to secure delay.' +And a great crop of young orators sprang up ready for their work under +that teaching and out of the persuasionary school of Ill-pause. In fine, +Mansoul desired some time in which to prepare its answer.' + +There are many men among ourselves who have been bedevilled out of their +best life, out of the salvation of their souls, and out of all that +constitutes and accompanies salvation now for many years. And still +their sin-deceived hearts are saying to them to-night, Take time! For +many years, every new year, every birthday, and, for a long time, every +Communion-day, they were just about to be done with their besetting sin; +and now all the years lie behind them, one long downward road all paved, +down to this Sabbath night, with the best intentions. And, still, as if +that were not enough, that same varlet is squat at their ear. Well, my +very miserable brother, you have long talked about the end of an old year +and the beginning of a new year as being your set time for repentance and +for reformation. Let all the weight of those so many remorseful years +fall on your heart at the close of this year, and at last compel you to +take the step that should have been taken, oh! so many unhappy years ago! +Go straight home then, to-night, shut your door, and, after so many +desecrated Sabbath nights, God will still meet you in your secret +chamber. As soon as you shut your door God will be with you, and you +will be with God. With GOD! Think of it, my brother, and the thing is +done. With GOD! And then tell Him all. And if any one knocks at your +door, say that there is Some One with you to-night, and that you cannot +come down. And continue till you have told it all to God. He knows it +all already; but that is one of Ill-pause's sophistries still in your +heart. Tell your Father it all. Tell Him how many years it is. Tell +Him all that you so well remember over all those wild, miserable, mad, +remorseful years. Tell Him that you have not had one really happy, one +really satisfied day all those years, and tell Him that you have spent +all, and are now no longer a young man; youth and health and self-respect +and self-command are all gone, till you are a shipwreck rather than a +man. And tell Him that if He will take you back that you are to-night at +His feet. + +4. 'We seldom overcome any one vice perfectly,' complains A Kempis. And, +again, 'If only every new year we would root out but one vice.' Well, +now, what do you say to that, my true and very brethren? What do you say +to that? Here we are, by God's grace and long-suffering to usward, near +the end of another year, another vicious year; and why have we been borne +with through so many vicious years but that we should now cease from vice +and begin to learn virtue? Why are we here over Ill-pause this Sabbath +night? Why, but that we should shake off that varlet liar before another +new year. That is the whole reason why we have been spared to see this +Sabbath night. God decreed it for us that we should have this text and +this discourse here to-night, and that is the reason why you and I have +been so unaccountably spared so long. Let us select one vice for the axe +then to-night, and give God in heaven the satisfaction of seeing that His +long-suffering with us has not been wholly in vain. Let us lay the axe +at one vice from this night. And what one from among so many shall it +be? What is the mockery of preaching if a preacher does not practise? +And, accordingly, I have selected one vice out of my thicket for next +year. Will you do the same? The secret of the Lord is with them that +fear Him. Just make your selection and keep it to yourself, at least +till you are able this time next year to say to us--Come, all ye that +fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul. Yes, come +on, and from this day all your days on earth, and all the days of +eternity, you will thank God for John Bunyan and his _Holy War_ and his +Ill-pause. Make your selection, then, for your new axe. Attack some one +sin at this so auspicious season. Swear before God, and unknown to all +men--swear sure death, and that without any more delay, to that selected +sin. Never once, all your days, do that sin again. Determine never once +to do it again. Determine that by prayer, by secret, and at the same +time outspoken, prayer on your knees. Determine it by faith in the +cleansing blood and renewing spirit of Jesus Christ. Determine it by +fear of instant death, and by sure hope of everlasting life. Determine +it by reasons, and motives, and arguments, and encouragements known to no- +one but yourself, and to be suspected by no human being. Name the doomed +sin. Denounce it. Execrate it. Execute it. Draw a line across your +short and uncertain life, and say to that besetting and presumptuous sin, +Hitherto, and no further! Do not say you cannot do it. You can if you +only will. You can if you only choose. And smiting down that one sin +will loosen and shake down the whole evil fabric of sin. Breaking but +that one link will break the whole of Satan's snare and evil fetter. Here +is A Kempis's forest of vices out of which he hewed down one every year. +Restless lust, outward senses, empty phantoms, always longing to get, +always sparing to give, careless as to talk, unwilling to sit silent, +eager for food, wakeful for news, weary of a good book, quick to anger, +easy of offence at my neighbour, and too ready to judge him, too merry +over prosperity, and too gloomy, fretful, and peevish in adversity; so +often making good rules for my future life, and coming so little speed +with them all, and so on. And, in facing even such a terrible thicket as +that, let not even an old man absolutely despair. At forty, at sixty, at +threescore and ten, let not an old penitent despair. Only take axe in +hand and see if the sun does not stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in +the valley of Ajalon till you have avenged yourself on your enemies. And +always when you stop to wipe your brow, and to whet the edge of your axe, +and to wet your lips with water, keep on saying things like those of +another great sinner deep in his thicket of vice, say this: O God, he +said, Thou hast not cut off as a weaver my life, nor from day even to +night hast Thou made an end of me. But Thou hast vouchsafed to me life +and breath even to this hour from childhood, youth, and hitherto even +unto old age. He holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to +slide, rescuing me from perils, sicknesses, poverty, bondage, public +shame, evil chances; keeping me from perishing in my sins, and waiting +patiently for my full conversion. Glory be to Thee, O Lord, glory to +Thee, for Thine incomprehensible and unimaginable goodness toward me of +all sinners far and away the most unworthy. The voices and the concert +of voices of angels and men be to Thee; the concert of all thy saints in +heaven and of all Thy creatures in heaven and on earth; and of me, +beneath their feet an unworthy and wretched sinner, Thy abject creature; +my praise also, now, in this day and hour, and every day till my last +breath, and till the end of this world, and then to all eternity, where +they cease not saying, To Him who loved us, Amen! + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--MR. PENNY-WISE-AND-POUND-FOOLISH, AND MR. +GET-I'-THE-HUNDRED-AND-LOSE-I'-THE-SHIRE + + + 'For, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, + and lose his own soul?'--_Our Lord_. + +This whole world is the penny, and our own souls are the pound. This +whole world is the hundred, while heaven itself is the shire. And the +question this evening is, Are we wise in the penny and foolish in the +pound? And, are we getting in the hundred and losing in the shire? + +1. Well, then, to begin at the beginning, we are already begun to be +penny-wise and pound-foolish with our children when we are so particular +with them about their saying their little prayers night and morning, +while all the time we are so inattentive and so indolent to explain to +them how they are to pray, what they are to pray for, and how they are to +wait and how long they are to wait for the things they pray for. Then, +again, we are penny-wise and pound-foolish with our children when we +train them up into all the proprieties and etiquettes of family and +social life, and at the same time pay so little attention to their inward +life of opening thought and quickening desire and awakening passion. When +we are so eager also for our children to be great with great people, +without much regard to the moral and religious character of those great +people, then again we are like a man who may be wise for a penny, but is +certainly a fool for a pound. When we prefer the gay and the fashionable +world to the intellectual, the religious, and the philanthropical world +for our children, then we lose both the penny and the pound as well. +Almost as much as we do when we accept the penny of wealth and station +and so-called connection for a son or a daughter, in room of the pound of +character, and intelligence, and personal religion. + +Then, again, even in our own religious life we are ourselves often and +notoriously wise in the penny and foolish in the pound. As, for +instance, when we are so scrupulous and so conscientious about forms and +ceremonies, about times and places, and so on. In short, the whole +ritual that has risen up around spiritual religion in all our churches, +from that of the Pope himself out to that of George Fox--it is all the +penny rather than the pound. This rite and that ceremony; this habit and +that tradition; this ancient and long-established usage, as well as that +new departure and that threatened innovation;--it is all, at its best, +always the penny and never the pound. Satan busied me about the lesser +matters of religion, says James Fraser of Brea, and made me neglect the +more substantial points. He made me tithe to God my mint, and my anise +and my cummin, and many other of my herbs, to my all but complete neglect +of justice and mercy and faith and love. Whether there are any of the +things that Brea would call mint and anise and cummin that are taking up +too much of the time of our controversially-minded men in all our +churches, highland and lowland, to-day is a matter for humbling thought. +Labour, my brethren, for yourselves, at any rate, to get yourselves into +that sane and sober habit of mind that instantly and instinctively puts +all mint and all cummin of all kinds into the second place, and all the +weightier matters, both of law and of gospel, into the first place. I +wasted myself on too nice points, laments Brea in his deep, honest, clear- +eyed autobiography. I did not proportion my religious things aright. The +laird of Brea does not say in as many words that he was wise in the penny +and foolish in the pound, but that is exactly what he means. + +Then, again, the narrowness, the partiality, the sickliness, and the +squeamishness of our consciences,--all that makes us to be too often +penny-wise and pound-foolish in our religious life. A well-instructed, +thoroughly wise, and well-balanced conscience is an immense blessing to +that man who has purchased such a conscience for himself. There is an +immense and a criminal waste of conscience that goes on among some of our +best Christian people through the want of light and space, room, and +breadth, and balance in their consciences. We are all pestered with +people every day who are full of all manner of childish scrupulosity and +sickly squeamishness in their ill-nourished, ill-exercised consciences. +As long as a man's conscience is ignorant and weak and sickly it will, it +must, spend and waste itself on the pennyworths of religion and' morals +instead of the pounds. It will occupy and torture itself with points and +punctilios, jots and tittles, to the all but total oblivion, and to the +all but complete neglect, of the substance and the essence of the +Christian mind, the Christian heart, and the Christian character. The +washing of hands, of cups, and of pots, was all the conscience that +multitudes had in our Lord's day; and multitudes in our day scatter and +waste their consciences on the same things. A good man, an otherwise +good and admirable man, will absolutely ruin and destroy his conscience +by points and scruples and traditions of men as fatally as another will +by a life of debauchery. Some old and decayed ecclesiastical rubric; +some absolutely indifferent form in public worship; some small +casuistical question about a creed or a catechism; some too nice point of +confessional interpretation; the mint and anise and cummin of such +matters will fill and inflame and poison a man's mind and heart and +conscience for months and for years, to the total destruction of all that +for which churches and creeds exist; to the total suspense, if not the +total and lasting destruction, of sobriety of mind, balance and breadth +of judgment, humility, charity, and a hidden and a holy life. The penny +of a perverted, partial, and fanaticised conscience has swallowed up the +pound of instruction, and truth, and justice, and brotherly love. + +2. 'Nor is the man with the long name at all inferior to the other,' +said Lucifer, in laying his infernal plot against the peace and +prosperity of Mansoul. Now, the man with the long name was just Mr. Get- +i'-the-hundred-and-lose-i'-the-shire. A hundred in the old county +geography of England was a political subdivision of a shire, in which +five score freemen lived with their freeborn families. A county or a +shire was described and enumerated by the poll-sheriff of that day as +containing so many enfranchised hundreds; and the total number of +hundreds made up the political unity of the shire. To this day we still +hear from time to time of the 'Chiltern Hundreds,' which is a division of +Buckinghamshire that belongs, along with its political franchise, to the +Crown, and which is utilised for Crown purposes at certain political +emergencies. This proverb, then, to get i' the hundred and lose i' the +shire, is now quite plain to us. You might canvass so as to get a +hundred, several hundreds, many hundreds on your side, and yet you might +lose when it came to counting up the whole shire. You might possess +yourself of a hundred or two and yet be poor compared with him who +possessed the whole shire. And then the proverb has been preserved out +of the old political life of England, and has been moralised and +spiritualised to us in the _Holy War_. And thus after to-night we shall +always call this shrewd proverb to mind when we are tempted to take a +part at the risk of the whole; to receive this world at the loss of the +next world; or, as our Lord has it, to gain the whole world and to lose +our own soul. Lot's choice of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Esau's purchase of +the mess of pottage in the Old Testament; and then Judas's thirty pieces +of silver, and Ananias and Sapphira's part of the price in the New +Testament, are all so many well-known instances of getting in the hundred +and losing in the shire. And not Esau's and Lot's only, but our own +lives also have been full up to to-day of the same fatal transaction. +This house, as our Lord again has it, this farm, this merchandise, this +shop, this office, this salary, this honour, this home--all this on the +one hand, and then our Lord Himself, His call, His cause, His Church, +with everlasting life in the other--when it is set down before us in +black and white in that way, the transaction, the proposal, the choice is +preposterous, is insane, is absolutely impossible. But preposterous, +insane, absolutely impossible, and all, there it is, in our own lives, in +the lives of our sons and daughters, and in the lives of multitudes of +other men and other men's sons and daughters besides ours. Every day you +will be taken in, and you will stand by and see other men taken in with +the present penny for the future pound: and with the poor pelting hundred +under your eye for the full, far-extending, and ever-enriching shire. +Lucifer is always abroad pressing on us in his malice the penny on the +spot, for the pound which he keeps out of sight; he dazzles our eyes with +the gain of the hundred till we gnash our teeth at the loss of the shire. + + 'He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief, + Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, + Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.' + +3. 'What also if we join with those two another two of ours, Mr. Sweet- +world and Mr. Present-good, namely, for they are two men full of civility +and cunning. Let these engage in this business for us, and let Mansoul +be taken up with much business, and if possible with much pleasure, and +this is the way to get ground of them. Let us but cumber and occupy and +amuse Mansoul sufficiently, and they will make their castle a warehouse +for goods instead of a garrison for men of war.' This diabolical advice +was highly applauded all through hell till all the lesser devils, while +setting themselves to carry it out, gnashed their teeth with envy and +malice at Lucifer for having thought of this masterpiece and for having +had it received with such loud acclamation. 'Only get them,' so went on +that so able, so well-envied, and so well-hated devil, 'let us only get +those fribble sinners for a night at a time to forget their misery. And +it will not cost us much to do that. Only let us offer them in one +another's houses a supper, a dance, a pipe, a newspaper full of their own +shame, a tale full of their own folly, a silly song, and He who loved +them with an everlasting love will soon see of the travail of His soul in +them!' Yes, my fellow-sinners, Lucifer and his infernal crew know us and +despise us and entrap us at very little trouble, till He who travailed +for us on the tree covers His face in heaven and weeps over us. As long +as we remember our misery, all the mind, and all the malice, and all the +sleeplessness in hell cannot touch a hair of our head. But when by any +emissary and opportunity either from earth around us or from hell beneath +us we for another night forget our misery, it is all over with us. And +yet, to tell the truth, we never can quite forget our misery. We are too +miserable ever to forget our misery. In the full steam of Lucifer's best- +spread supper, amid the shouts of laughter and the clapping of hands, and +all the outward appearance of a complete forgetfulness of our misery, yet +it is not so. It is far from being so. Our misery is far too +deep-seated for all the devil's drugs. Only, to give Lucifer his due, we +do sometimes, under him, so get out of touch with the true consolation +for our misery that, night after night, through cumber, through pursuit +of pleasure, through the time being taken up with these and other like +things, we do so far forget our misery as to lie down without dealing +with it; but only to have it awaken us, and take our arm as its own for +another miserable day. Yes; though never completely successful, yet this +masterpiece of hell is sufficiently successful for Satan's subtlest +purposes; which are, not to make us forget our misery, but to make us put +it away from us at the natural and proper hour for facing it and for +dealing with it in the only proper and successful way. But, wholly, any +night, or even partially for a few nights at a time, to forget our +misery--no, with all thy subtlety of intellect and with all thy +hell-filled heart, O Lucifer, that is to us impossible! Forget our +misery! O devil of devils, no! Bless God, that can never be with us! +Our misery is too deep, too dreadful, too acute, too all-consuming ever +to be forgotten by us even for an hour. Our misery is too terrible for +thee, with all thy overthrown intellect and all thy malice-filled heart, +ever to understand! Didst thou for one midnight hour taste it, and so +understand it, then there would be the same hope for thee that, I bless +God, there still is for me! + +Let us bend all our strength and all our wit to this, went on Lucifer, to +make their castle a warehouse instead of a garrison. Let us set +ourselves and all our allies, he explained to the duller-witted among the +devils, to make their hearts a shop,--some of them, you know, are +shopkeepers; a bank,--some of them are bankers; a farm,--some of them are +farmers; a study,--some of them are students; a pulpit,--some of them +like to preach; a table,--some of them are gluttons; a drawing-room,--some +of them are busybodies who forget their own misery in retailing other +people's misery from house to house. Be wise as serpents, said the old +serpent; attend, each several fallen angel of you, to his own special +charge. Study your man. Get to the bottom of your man. Follow him +about; never let him out of your sight; be sure before you begin, be sure +you have the joint in his harness, the spot in his heel, the chink in his +wall full in your eye. I do not surely need to tell you not to scatter +our snares for souls at random, he went on. Give the minister his study +Bible, the student his classic, the merchant his ledger, the glutton his +well-dressed dish and his elect year of wine, the gossip her sweet +secret, and the flirt her fool. Study them till they are all naked and +open to your sharp eyes. Find out what best makes them forget even for +one night their misery and ply them with that. If I ever see that soul I +have set thee over on his knees on account of his misery I shall fling +thee on the spot into the bottomless pit. And if any of you shall +anywhere discover a man--and there are such men--a man who forgets his +misery through always thinking and speaking about it, only keep him in +his pulpit, and off his knees, and no man so safe for hell as he. There +are fools, and there are double-dyed fools, and that man is the chief of +them. Give him his fill of sin and misery; let him luxuriate himself in +sin and misery; only, keep him there, and I will not forget thy most +excellent service to me. + +Make all their hearts, so Lucifer summed up, as he dismissed his +obsequious devils, make all their several hearts each a warehouse, a +shop, a farm, a pulpit, a library, a nursery, a supper-table, a chamber +of wantonness--let it be to each man just after his own heart. Only, +keep--as you shall answer for it,--keep faith and hope and charity and +innocence and patience and especially prayerfulness out of their hearts. +And when this my counsel is fulfilled, and when the pit closes over thy +charge, I shall pay thee thy wages, and promote thee to honour. And +before he was well done they were all at their posts. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE DEVIL'S LAST CARD + + + 'Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light'--_Paul_. + +Wodrow has an anecdote in his delightful _Analecta_ which shall introduce +us into our subject to-night. Mr. John Menzies was a very pious and +devoted pastor; he was a learned man also, and well seen in the Popish +and in the Arminian controversies. And to the end of his life he was +much esteemed of the people of Aberdeen as a foremost preacher of the +gospel. And yet, 'Oh to have one more Sabbath in my pulpit!' he cried +out on his death-bed. 'What would you then do?' asked some one who sat +at his bedside. 'I would preach to my people on the tremendous +difficulty of salvation!' exclaimed the dying man. + +1. Now, the first difficulty that stands in the way of our salvation is +the stupendous mass of guilt that has accumulated upon all of us. Our +guilt is so great that we dare not think of it. It is too horrible to +believe that we shall ever be called to account for one in a thousand of +it. It crushes our minds with a perfect stupor of horror, when for a +moment we try to imagine a day of judgment when we shall be judged for +all the deeds that we have done in the body. Heart-beat after +heart-beat, breath after breath, hour after hour, day after day, year +after year, and all full of sin; all nothing but sin from our mother's +womb to our grave. Sometimes one outstanding act of sin has quite +overwhelmed us. But before long that awful sin fell out of sight and out +of mind. Other sins of the same kind succeeded it. Our sense of sin, +our sense of guilt was soon extinguished by a life of sin, till, at the +present moment the accumulated and tremendous load of our sin and guilt +is no more felt by us than we feel the tremendous load of the atmosphere. +But, all the time, does not our great guilt lie sealed down upon us? +Because we are too seared and too stupefied to feel it, is it therefore +not there? Because we never think of it, does that prove that both God +and man have forgiven and forgotten it? Shall the Judge of all the earth +do right in the matter of all men's guilt but ours? Does the apostle's +warning not hold in our case?--his awful warning that we shall all stand +before the judgment-seat? And is it only a strong figure of speech that +the books shall be opened till we shall cry to the mountains to fall on +us and to the rocks to cover us? Oh no! the truth is, the half has not +been told us of the speechless stupefaction that shall fall on us when +the trumpet shall sound and when Alp upon Alp of aggravated guilt shall +rise up high as heaven between us and our salvation. Difficulty is not +the name for guilt like ours. Impossibility is the better name we should +always know it by. + +2. Another difficulty or impossibility to our salvation rises out of the +awful corruption and pollution of our hearts. But is there any use +entering on that subject? Is there one man in a hundred who even knows +the rudiments of the language I must now speak in? Is there one man in a +hundred in whose mind any idea arises, and in whose heart any emotion or +passion is kindled, as I proceed to speak of corruption of nature and +pollution of heart? I do not suppose it. I do not presume upon it. I +do not believe it. That most miserable man who is let down of God's Holy +Spirit into the pit of corruption that is in his own heart,--to him his +corruption, added to his guilt, causes a sadness that nothing in this +world can really relieve; it causes a deep and an increasing melancholy, +such as the ninety and nine who need no repentance and feel no pollution +know nothing of. All living men flee from the corruption of an unburied +corpse. The living at once set about to bury their dead. 'I am a +stranger and a sojourner among you,' said Abraham to the children of +Heth; 'give me a possession of a burying-place among you that I may bury +my dead out of my sight.' But Paul could find no grave in the whole +world in which to bury out of his sight the body of death to which he was +chained fast; that body of sin and death which always makes the holiest +of men the most wretched of men,--till the loathing and the disgust and +the misery that filled the apostle's heart are to be understood by but +one in a thousand even of the people of God. + +3. And then, as if to make our salvation a very hyperbole of +impossibility, the all but almighty power of indwelling sin comes in. +Have you ever tried to break loose from the old fetter of an evil habit? +Have you ever said on a New Year's Day with Thomas A Kempis that this +year you would root that appetite,--naming it,--out of your body, and +that vice,--naming it,--out of your heart? Have you ever sworn at the +Communion table that you would watch and pray, and set a watch on your +evil heart against that envy, and that revenge, and that ill-will, and +that distaste, dislike, and antipathy? Then your minister will not need +to come back from his death-bed to preach to you on the difficulty of +salvation. + +4. And yet such is the grace of God, such is the work of Christ, and +such is the power and the patience of the Holy Ghost that, if we had only +an adequate ministry in our pulpits, and an assisting literature in our +homes, even this three-fold impossibility would be overcome and we would +be saved. But if the ministry that is set over us is an ignorant, +indolent, incompetent, self-deceived ministry; if our own chosen, set-up, +and maintained minister is himself an uninstructed, unspiritual, +unsanctified man; and if the books we buy and borrow and read are all +secular, unspiritual, superficial, ephemeral, silly, stupid, impertinent +books, then the impossibility of our salvation is absolute, and we are as +good as in hell already with all our guilt and all our corruption for +ever on our heads. Now, that was the exact case of Mansoul in the +allegory of the Holy War at one of the last and acutest stages of that +war. Or, rather, that would have been her exact case had Diabolus got +his own deep, diabolical way with her. For what did her ancient enemy do +but sound a parley till he had played his last card in these glozing and +deceitful words;--'I myself,' he had the face to say to Emmanuel, 'if +Thou wilt raise Thy siege and leave the town to me, I will, at my own +proper cost and charge, set up and maintain a sufficient ministry, +besides lecturers, in Mansoul, who shall show to Mansoul that +transgression stands in the way of life; the ministers I shall set up +shall also press the necessity of reformation according to Thy holy law.' +And even now, with the two pulpits, God's and the devil's, and the two +preachers, and the two pastors, in our own city,--how many of you see any +difference, or think that the one is any worse or any better than the +other? Or, indeed, that the ministry of the last card is not the better +of the two to your interest and to your taste, to the state of your mind +and to the need of your heart? Let us proceed, then, to look at +Mansoul's two pulpits and her two lectureships as they stand portrayed on +the devil's last card and in Emmanuel's crowning commission; that is, if +our eyes are sharp enough to see any difference. + +5. The first thing, then, on the devil's last card was this, 'A +sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' Now, a sufficient +ministry has never been seen in the true Church of Christ since her +ministry began. And yet she has had great ministers in her time. After +Christ Himself, Paul was the greatest and the best minister the Church of +Christ has ever had. But such was the transcendent greatness of his +office, such were its tremendous responsibilities, such were its +magnificent opportunities and its incessant demands, such were its +ceaseless calls to consecration, to cross-bearing, to crucifixion, to +more and more inwardness of holiness, and to higher and higher heights of +heavenly-mindedness, that the apostle was fain to cry out continually, +Who is sufficient for these things! But so well did Paul learn that +gospel which he preached to others that amid all his insufficiency he was +able to hear his Master saying to him every day, My grace is sufficient +for thee, and, My strength is made perfect in thy weakness! And to come +down to the truly Pauline succession of ministers in our own lands and in +our own churches, what preachers and what pastors Christ gave to +Kidderminster, and to Bedford, and to Down and Connor, and to Sodor and +Man, and to Anwoth, and to Ettrick, and to New England, and to St. +Andrews, and places too many to mention. With all its infirmity and all +its inefficiency, what a truly heavenly power the pulpit is when it is +filled by a man of God who gives his whole mind and heart, his whole time +and thought to it, and to the pastorate that lies around it. His mind +may be small, and his heart may be full of corruption; his time may be +full of manifold interruptions, and his best study may yield but a poor +result; but if Heaven ever helps those who honestly help themselves, then +that is certainly the case in the Christian ministry. Let the choicest +of our children, then, be sought out and consecrated to that service; let +our most gifted and most gracious-minded sons be sent to where they shall +be best prepared for the pulpit and the pastorate,--till by the blessing +of her Head all the congregations and all the parishes, all the pulpits +and all the lectureships in the Church, shall be one garden of the Lord. +And then we shall escape that last curse of a ministry such as John +Bunyan saw all around him in the England of his day, and which, had he +been alive in the England and Scotland of our day, he would have painted +again in colours we have neither the boldness nor the skill to mix nor to +put on the canvas. But let all ministers put it every day to themselves +to what descent and succession they belong. Let those even who believe +that they have within themselves the best seal and evidence attainable +here that they have been ordained of Emmanuel, let them all the more look +well every day and every Sabbath day how much of another master's +doctrine and discipline, motives, and manners still mixes up with their +best ministry. And the surest seal that, with all our insufficiency, we +are still the ministers of Christ will be set on us by this, that the +harder we work and the more in secret we pray, the more and ever the more +shall we discover and confess our shameful insufficiency, and the more +shall we, till the day of our death, every day still begin our ministry +of labour and of prayer anew. Let us do that, for the devil, with all +his boldness and all his subtilty, never threw a card first or last like +that. + +6. After offering a sufficient ministry to Mansoul, and that, too, at +his own proper cost and charge, Diabolus undertook also to see that the +absolute necessity of a reformation should be preached and pressed from +the pulpit he set up. Now, reformation is all good and necessary, in its +own time and place and order, but God sent His Son not to be a Reformer +but to be a Redeemer. John came to preach reformation, but Jesus came to +preach regeneration. Except a man be born again, Jesus persistently +preached to Nicodemus. 'Did it begin with regeneration?' was Dr. +Duncan's reply when a sermon on sanctification was praised in his +hearing. And like so much else that the learned and profound Dr. John +Duncan said on theology and philosophy, that question went at once to the +root of the matter. For sanctification, that is to say, salvation, is no +mere reformation of morals or refinement of manners. It is a maxim in +sound morals that the morality of the man must precede the morality of +his actions. And much more is it the evangelical law of Jesus Christ. +Make the tree good, our Lawgiver aphoristically said. Reformation and +sanctification differ, says Dr. Hodge, as clean clothes differ from a +clean heart. Now, Diabolus was all for clean clothes when he saw that +Mansoul was slipping out of his hands. He would have all the drunkards +to become moderate drinkers, if not total abstainers; and all the +sensualists to become, if need be, ascetics; and all those who had sowed +out their wild oats to settle down as heads of houses, and members, if +not ministers and elders, in his set-up church. But we are too well +taught, surely; we have gone too long to another church than that which +Diabolus ever sets up, to be satisfied with his superficial doctrine and +his skin-deep discipline. We know, do we not, that we may do all that +his last card asks us to do, and yet be as far, ay, and far farther from +salvation than the heathen are who never heard the name. A hundred +Scriptures tell us that; and our hearts know too much of their own plague +and corruption ever now to be satisfied short of a full regeneration and +a complete sanctification. 'Create in me a clean heart and renew a right +spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. And the +very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit +and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord +Jesus Christ.' The last card has many Scriptures cunningly copied upon +it; but not these. Its pulpit orators handle many Scripture texts, but +never these. + +7. Yes, the devil comes in even here with that so late, so subtle, and +so contradicting card of his. Where is it in this world that he does not +come in with some of his cards? And he comes in here as a very angel of +evangelical light. He puts on the gown of Geneva here, and he ascends +Emmanuel's own maintained pulpit here, and from that pulpit he preaches, +and where he so preaches he preaches nothing else but the very highest +articles of the Reformed faith. Carnal-security was strong on assurance, +no other man in Mansoul was so strong; and the devil will let us +preachers be as strong and as often on election, and justification, and +indefectible grace, and the perseverance of the saints as we and our +people like, if we but keep in season and out of season on these +transcendent subjects and keep off morals and manners, walk and +conversation, conduct and character. In Hooker's and Travers' day, +Thomas Fuller tells us, the Temple pulpit preached pure Canterbury in the +morning and pure Geneva in the afternoon. And you will get the highest +Calvinism off the last card in one pulpit, and the strictest and most +urgent morality off the same card in another; but never, if the devil can +help it, never both in one and the same pulpit; never both in one and the +same sermon; and never both in one and the same minister. You have all +heard of the difficulty the voyager had in steering between Scylla and +Charybdis in the Latin adage. Well, the true preacher's difficulty is +just like that. Indeed, it is beyond the wit of man, and it takes all +the wit of God, aright to unite the doctrine of our utter inability with +the companion doctrine of our strict responsibility; free grace with a +full reward; the cross of Christ once for all, with the saint's continual +crucifixion; the Saviour's blood with the sinner's; and atonement with +attainment; in short, salvation without works with no salvation without +works. Deft steersman as the devil is, he never yet took his ship clear +through those Charybdic passages. + +One thing there is that I must have preached continually in all my +pulpits and expounded and illustrated and enforced in all my +lectureships, said Emmanuel, and that is, my new example and my new law +of _motive_. My own motives always made me in all I said and did to be +well-pleasing in My Father's eyes, and at any cost I must have preachers +and lecturers set up in Mansoul who shall assist Me in making Mansoul as +well-pleasing in My Father's sight as I was Myself. + + 'For I am ware it is the seed of act + God holds appraising in His hollow palm, + Not act grown great thence as the world believes, + Leafage and branchage vulgar eyes admire.' + +Motives! gnashed Diabolus. And he tore his last card into a thousand +shreds and cast the shreds under his feet in his rage and exasperation. +Motives! New motives! Truly Thou art the threatened Seed of the woman! +Truly Thou art the threatened Son of God!--Let all our preachers, then, +preach much on motive to their people. The commonplace crowd of their +people will not all like that preaching any more than Diabolus did; but +their best people will all afterwards rise up in their salvation and +bless them for it. On reformation also, let them every Sabbath preach, +but only on the reformation that rises out of a reformed motive, and that +again out of a reformed heart. And if a reformed motive, a reformed +heart, and a reformed life are found both by preacher and hearer to be +impossible; if all that only brings out the hopelessness of their +salvation by reason of the guilt and the pollution and power of sin; then +all that will only be to them that same ever deeper entering of the law +into their hearts which led Paul to an ever deeper faith and trust in +Jesus Christ. With a guilt, and a pollution, and a slavery to sin like +ours, salvation from sin would be absolutely impossible. Absolutely +impossible, that is, but for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. But with His +atoning blood and His Holy Spirit all things are possible--even our +salvation. + +Let us choose, then, a minister like Mr. John Menzies. Let us read the +great books that make salvation difficult. Let us work out our own +salvation, day and night, with fear and trembling, and when Wisdom is +justified in her children, we shall be found justified among them. We +shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and +made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity. + + + + +CHAPTER XV--MR. PRYWELL + + + 'Search me, O God, and know my heart.'--_David_. + + 'Let a man examine himself.'--_Paul_. + + 'Look to yourselves.'--_John_. + + 'Know thyself.'--_Apollo_. + +The year 1668 saw the publication of one of the deepest books in the +whole world, Dr. John Owen's _Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers_. +The heart-searching depth; the clear, fearless, humbling truth, the +intense spirituality, and the massive and masculine strength of John +Owen's book have all combined to make it one of the acknowledged +masterpieces of the great Puritan school. Had John Owen's style been at +all equal to his great learning, to the depth and the grasp of his mind, +and to the lofty holiness of his life, John Owen would have stood in the +very foremost and selectest rank of apostolical and evangelical +theologians. But in all his books Owen labours under the fatal drawback +of a bad style. A fine style, a style like that of Hooker, or Taylor, or +Bunyan, or Howe, or Leighton, or Law, is such a winning introduction to +their works and such an abiding charm and spell. The full title of Dr. +Owen's great work runs thus: _The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency +of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers_--a title that will tell +all true students what awaits them when they have courage and enterprise +enough to address themselves to this supreme and all-essential subject. +Fourteen years after the publication of Dr. Owen's epoch-making book, +John Bunyan's _Holy War_ first saw the light. Equal in scriptural and in +experimental depth, as also in their spiritual loftiness and intensity, +those two books are as different as any two books, written in the same +language, and written on the same subject, could by any possibility be. +John Owen's book is the book of a great scholar who has read the Fathers +and the Schoolmen and the Reformers till he knows them by heart, and till +he has been able to digest all that is true to Scripture and to +experience in them into his rich and ripe book. A powerful reasoner, a +severe, bald, muscular writer, John Owen in all these respects stands at +the very opposite pole to that of John Bunyan. The author of the _Holy +War_ had no learning, but he had a mind of immense natural sagacity, +combined with a habit of close and deep observation of human life, and +especially of religious life, and he had now a lifetime of most fruitful +experience as a Christian man and as a Christian minister behind him; +and, all that, taken up into Bunyan's splendid imagination, enabled him +to produce this extraordinarily able and impressive book. A model of +English style as the _Holy War_ is, at the same time it does not attain +at all to the rank of the _Pilgrim's Progress_; but then, to be second to +the _Pilgrim's Progress_ is reward and honour enough for any book. Let +all genuine students, then, who would know the best that has been written +on experimental religion, and who would preach to the deepest and +divinest experience of their best people, let them keep continually +within their reach John Owen's _Temptation_, his _Mortification of Sin in +Believers_, his _Nature and Power of Indwelling Sin_, and John Bunyan's +_Holy War made for the Regaining of the Metropolis of this World_. + +Well, then, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was one whose +name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul. And he, as his manner +was, did go listening up and down in Mansoul to see and hear, if at any +time he might, whether there was any design against it or no. For he was +always a jealous man, and feared some mischief would befall it, either +from within or from some power without. Mr. Prywell was always a lover +of Mansoul, a sober and a judicious man, a man that was no tattler, nor a +raiser of false reports, but one that loves to look into the very bottom +of matters, and talks nothing of news but by very solid arguments. And +then, after our historian has told us some of the eminent services that +Mr. Prywell was able to perform both for the King and for the city, he +goes on to tell us how the captains determined that public thanks should +be given by the town of Mansoul to Mr. Prywell for his so diligent +seeking of the welfare of the town; and, further, that, forasmuch as he +was so naturally inclined to seek their good, and also to undermine their +foes, they gave him the commission of Scoutmaster-general for the good of +Mansoul. And Mr. Prywell managed his charge and the trust that Mansoul +had put into his hands with great conscience and good fidelity; for he +gave himself wholly up to his employ, and that not only within the town, +but he also went outside of the town to pry, to see, and to hear. Now, +that being so, it may interest and perhaps instruct you to-night to look +for a little at some of the features and at some of the feats of the +Scoutmaster-general of the Holy War, Mr. Prywell, of the town of Mansoul. + +1. 'Well, now, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was one +whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of the town of Mansoul.' In +other words: self-observation, self-examination, strict, jealous, +sleepless self-examination, is of God. Our God who searches our hearts +and tries our reins would have it so. And if He does not have it so in +us, our souls are not as our God would have them to be. 'Bunyan employs +_pry_,' says Miss Peacock in her excellent notes, 'in a more favourable +sense than it now bears. As, for instance, it is said in another part of +this same book that the men of Mansoul were allowed to _pry_ into the +words of the Holy Ghost and to expound them to their best advantage. +Honest anxiety for the welfare of his fellow-townsmen was Mr. Prywell's +chief characteristic. _Pry_ is another form of _peer_--to look narrowly, +to look closely.' And God, says John Bunyan, would have it so. + +2. 'A great lover of Mansoul,' 'always a lover of Mansoul'; again and +again that is testified concerning Mr. Prywell. It was not love for the +work that led Mr. Prywell to give up his days and his nights as his +history tells us he did. Mr. Prywell ran himself into many dangerous +situations both within and without the city, and he lost himself far more +friends than he made by his devotion to his thankless task. But +necessity was laid upon him. And what held him up was the sure and +certain knowledge that his King would have that service at his hands. +That, and his love for the city, for the safety and the deliverance of +the city,--all that kept Mr. Prywell's heart fixed. Am I therefore your +enemy? he would say to some who would have had it otherwise than the King +would have it. But it is a good thing to be zealously affected in a work +like mine, he would say, in self-defence and in self-encouragement. And +then, though not many, there were always some in the city who said, Let +him smite me and it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me and it shall +be an excellent oil which shall not break my head. It was in Mansoul +with Mr. Prywell as it was in Kidderminster with Richard Baxter, when +some of his people said to one another, 'We will take all things well +from one that we know doth entirely love us.' 'Love them,' said +Augustine, 'and then say anything you like to them.' Now, that was Mr. +Prywell's way. He loved Mansoul, and then he said many things to her +that a false lover and a flatterer would never have dared to say. + +3. Then, as the saying is, it goes without saying that 'Mr. Prywell was +always a jealous man.' Great lovers are always jealous men, and Mr. +Prywell showed himself to be a great lover by the great heat of his +jealousy also. 'Vigilant,' says the excellent editress again; 'cautious +against dishonour, reasonably mistrustful--low Latin _zelosus_, full of +zeal. "And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of +hosts."' Now, it so happened that some of Mr. Prywell's most private and +not at all professional papers--papers evidently, and on the face of +them, connected with the state of the spy's own soul--came into my hands +as good lot would have it just the other night. The moth-eaten chest was +full of his old papers, but the pieces that took my heart most were, as +it looked to me, actually gnashed through with his remorseful teeth, and +soaked and sodden past recognition with his sweat and his tears and his +agonising hands. But after some late hours over those remnants I managed +to make some sense to myself out of them. There are some parts of the +parchments that pass me; but, if only to show you that this arch-spy's so +vigilant jealousy was not all directed against other people's bad hearts +and bad habits, I shall copy some lines out of the old box. 'Have I +penitence?' he begins without any preface. 'Have I grief, shame, pain, +horror, weariness for my sin? Do I pray and repent, if not seven times a +day as David did, yet at least three times, as Daniel? If not as +Solomon, at length, yet shortly as the publican? If not like Christ, the +whole night, at least for one hour? If not on the ground and in ashes, +at least not in my bed? If not in sackcloth, at least not in purple and +fine linen? If not altogether freed from all, at least from immoderate +desires? Do I give, if not as Zaccheus did, fourfold, as the law +commands, with the fifth part added? If not as the rich, yet as the +widow? If not the half, yet the thirtieth part? If not above my power, +yet up to my power?' And then over the page there are some illegible +pencillings from old authors of his such as this from Augustine: 'A good +man would rather know his own infirmity than the foundations of the earth +or the heights of the heavens.' And this from Cicero: 'There are many +hiding-places and recesses in the mind.' And this from Seneca: 'You must +know yourself before you can amend yourself. An unknown sin grows worse +and worse and is deprived of cure.' And this from Cicero again: 'Cato +exacted from himself an account of every day's business at night'; and +also Pythagoras, + + 'Nor let sweet sleep upon thine eyes descend + Till thou hast judged its deeds at each day's end.' + +And this from Seneca again: 'When the light is removed out of sight, and +my wife, who is by this time aware of my practice, is now silent, I pass +the whole of my day under examination, and I review my deeds and my +words. I hide nothing from myself: I pass over nothing.' And then in +Mr. Prywell's boldest and least trembling hand: 'O yes! many shall come +from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and +Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, when many of the children of the kingdom +shall be cast out. O yes.' Now, this 'O yes!' Miss Peacock tells us, is +the Anglicised form of a French word for our Lord's words, Take heed how +ye hear! + +4. 'A sober and a judicious man' it is said of Mr. Prywell also. To a +certainty that. It could not be otherwise than that. For Mr. Prywell's +office, its discoveries and its experiences, would sober any man. 'I am +sprung from a country,' says Abelard, 'of which the soil is light, and +the temper of the inhabitants is light.' So was it with Mr. Prywell to +begin with. But even Abelard was sobered in time, and so was Mr. +Prywell. Life sobered Abelard, and Mr. Prywell too; life's crooks and +life's crosses, life's duties and life's disappointments, especially Mr. +Prywell. 'The more narrowly a man looks into himself,' says A Kempis, +'the more he sorroweth.' Not sober-mindedness alone comes to him who +looks narrowly into himself, but great sorrow of heart also. And if you +are not both sobered in your mind and full of an unquenchable sorrow in +your heart, O yes! attend to it, for you are not yet begun to be what God +would have you to be. Dr. Newman, with all his mistakes and all his +faults, was a master in two things: his own heart and the English +language. And in writing home to his mother a confidential letter from +college on his birthday, he confides to her that he often 'shudders at +himself.' 'No,' he answered to his mother's fears and advices about food +and air and exercise: 'No, I am neither nervous, nor in ill-health, nor +do I study too much. I am neither melancholy, nor morose, nor austere, +nor distant, nor reserved, nor sullen. I am always cheerful, ready and +eager to join in any merriment. I am not clouded with sadness, nor +absent in mind, nor deficient in action. No; take me when I am most +foolish at home and extend mirth into childishness; yet all the time I am +shuddering at myself.' There spake the future author of the immortal +sermons. There spake a mind and a heart that have deepened the minds and +the hearts of Christian men more than any other influence of the century; +a mind and a heart, moreover, that will shine and beat in our best +literature and in our deepest devotion for centuries to come. You must +all know by this time another classical passage from the pen of another +spiritual genius in the Church of England, that greatly gifted church. +Let me repeat it to illustrate how sober-mindedness and great sorrow of +heart always come to the best of men. 'Let any man consider that if the +world knew all that of him which he knows of himself; if they saw what +vanity and what passions govern his inside, and what secret tempers sully +and corrupt his best actions; and he would have no more pretence to be +honoured and admired for his goodness and wisdom than a rotten and +distempered body is to be loved and admired for its beauty and +comeliness. And, perhaps, there are very few people in the world who +would not rather choose to die than to have all their secret follies, the +errors of their judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of +their pretences, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, +their uneasinesses, hatreds, envies, and vexations made known to the +world. And shall pride be entertained in a heart thus conscious of its +own miserable behaviour?' No wonder that Mr. Prywell was sober-minded! +No wonder that Dr. Newman shuddered at himself! And no wonder that +William Law chose strangling and the pond rather than that any other man +should see what went on in his heart! + +5. And as if all that were not enough, and more than enough, to commend +Mr. Prywell to us--to our trust, to our confidence, and to our +imitation--his royal certificate continues, 'One that looks into the very +bottom of matters, and talks nothing of news, but by very solid +arguments.' The very bottom of matters--that is, the very bottom of his +own and other men's hearts. Mr. Prywell counts nothing else worth a wise +man's looking at. Let fools and children look at the painted and +deceitful surface of things, but let men, men of matters, and especially +men of divine matters, look only at their own and other men's hearts. The +very bottom of all matters is there. All wars, all policies, all +debates, all disputes, all good and all evil counsels, all the much weal +and all the multitudinous woe of Mansoul--all have their bottom in the +heart; in the heart of God, or in the heart of man, or in the heart of +the devil. The heart is the root of absolutely every matter to Mr. +Prywell. He would not waste one hour of any day, or one watch of any +night, on anything else. And it was this that made him both the +extraordinarily successful scout he was, and the extraordinarily sober +and thoughtful and judicious man he was. O yes, my brethren, the bottom +of matters, when you take to it, will work the same change in you. 'Two +things,' says one who had long looked at his own matters with Mr. +Prywell's eyes--'two things, O Lord, I recognise in myself: nature, which +Thou hast made, and sin, which I have added.' My brethren, that +recognition, that discovery in yourselves, when it comes to you, will +sober you as it has sobered so many men before you: when it comes to you, +that is, about yourselves. That discovery made in yourselves will make +you deep-thinking men. It will make common men and unlearned men among +you to be philosophers and theologians and saints. It will work in you a +thoughtfulness, a seriousness, a depth, an awe, a holy fear, and a great +desire that will already have made you new creatures. When, in examining +yourselves and in characterising yourselves, you come on what some clear- +eyed men have come on in themselves, and what one of them has described +as 'the diabolical animus of the human mind'--when you make that +discovery in yourselves, that will sober you, that will humble you and +fill you full of remorse and compunction. And if in God's grace to you, +that were to begin to be wrought in you this week, there would be one, at +any rate, eating of that bread next Lord's day, and drinking of that cup +as God would have it. + +6. 'A man that is no tattler, nor raiser of false reports, and that +talks nothing of news, but by very solid arguments.' Mr. Prywell was +more taken up with his own matters at home, far more than the greatest +busybodies are with other men's matters abroad. His name, I fear, will +still sound somewhat ill in your ears, but I can assure you all the ill +for you lies in the sound. Mr. Prywell would not hurt a hair of your +head: the truth is, he does not know whether there is a hair on your head +or no. This man's name comes to him and sticks to him, not because he +pries into your affairs, for he does not, and never did, but because he +is so drawn down into his own. Mr. Prywell has no eye for your windows +and he has no ear for your doors. If your servant is a leaky slave, +Prywell, of all your neighbours, has no ear for his idle tales. This man +is no eavesdropper; your evil secrets have only a sobering and a +saddening and a silencing effect upon him. Your house might be full of +skeletons for anything he would ever discover or remember. The beam in +his own eye is so big that he cannot see past it to speak about your +small mote. 'The inward Christian,' says A Kempis, 'preferreth the care +of himself before all other cares. He that diligently attendeth to +himself can easily keep silence concerning other men. If thou attendest +unto God and unto thyself, thou wilt be but little moved with what thou +seest abroad.' At the same time, Mr. Prywell was no fool, and no coward, +and no hoodwinked witness. He could tell his tale, when it was demanded +of him, with such truth, and with such punctuality, and on such ample +grounds, that a conviction of the truth instantly fell on all who heard +him. 'Sirs,' said those who heard him break silence, 'it is not +irrational for us to believe it,' with such solid arguments and with such +an absence of mere suspicion and of all idle tales did he speak. On one +occasion, on a mere 'inkling,' he woke up the guard; only, it was so true +an inkling that it saved the city. But I cannot follow Mr. Prywell any +further to-night. How he went up and down Mansoul listening; how he kept +his eyes and his ears both shut and open; what splendid services he +performed in the progress, and specially toward the end, of the war; how +the thanks of the city were voted to him; how he was made Scoutmaster- +general for the good of the town of Mansoul, and the great conscience and +good fidelity with which he managed that great trust--all that you will +read for yourselves under this marginal index, 'The story of Mr. +Prywell.' + +Now, my brethren, as the outcome of all that, we must all examine +ourselves as before God all this week. We must wait on His word and on +His providences while they examine us all this week. We must pry well +into ourselves all this week. Come, let us compel ourselves to do it. +Let us search and try our ways all this week as we shall give an account. +Let us ask ourselves how many Communion tables we have sat at, and at how +many more we are likely to sit. Let us ask why it is that we have got so +little good out of all our Communions. Let us ask who is to blame for +that, and where the blame lies. Let us go to the bottom of matters with +ourselves, and compel ourselves to say just what it is that is the cause +of God's controversy with us. What vow, what solemn promise, made when +trouble was upon us, have we completely cast behind our back? What about +secret prayer? At what times, for what things, and for what people do we +in secret pray? What about secret sin? What is its name, and what does +it deserve, and what fruit are we already reaping out of it? What is our +besetting sin, and what steps do we take, as God knows, to crucify it? Do +we love money too much? Do we love praise too much? Do we love eating +and drinking too much? Does envy make our heart a very hell? Let us +name the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him. Let us +mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of this +Communion season. Or is it diabolical ill-will? Or is it a wicked +tongue against an unsuspecting friend? Let us examine ourselves as Paul +did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do it, and we shall +discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were to put words on them +to-night, you would stop your ears in horror and flee out of the church. +Let a man see himself at least as others see him; and then he will be led +on from that to see himself as God sees him; and then he will judge +himself so severely as that he shall not need to be judged at the +Judgment Day, and will condemn himself so sufficiently as that he shall +not be condemned with a condemned world at the last. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--YOUNG CAPTAIN SELF-DENIAL + + + 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his + cross daily and follow Me.'--_Our Lord_. + +'Now the siege was long, and many a fierce attempt did the enemy make +upon the town, and many a shrewd brush did some of the townsmen meet with +from the enemy, especially Captain Self-denial, to whose care both Ear- +gate and Eye-gate had been intrusted. This Captain Self-denial was a +young man, but stout, and a townsman in Mansoul. This young captain, +therefore, being a hardy man, and a man of great courage to boot, and +willing to venture himself for the good of the town, he would now and +then sally out upon the enemy; but you must think this could not easily +be done, but he must meet with some sharp brushes himself, and, indeed, +he carried several of such marks on his face, yea, and some on some other +parts of his body.' Thus, Bunyan. I shall now go on to-night to offer +you some annotations and some reflections on this short but excellent +history of young Captain Self-denial. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Captain Self-denial was still a young man. +'And, now, it comes into my mind, said Goodman Gains after supper, I will +tell you a story well worth the hearing, as I think. There were two men +once upon a time that went on pilgrimage; the one began when he was young +and the other began when he was old. The young man had strong +corruptions to grapple with, whereas the old man's corruptions were +decayed with the decays of nature. The young man trod his steps as even +as did the old one, and was every way as light as he; who, now, or which +of them, had their graces shining clearest, since both seemed to be +alike? Why, the young man's, doubtless, answered Mr. Honest. For that +which heads against the greatest opposition gives best demonstration that +it is strongest. A young man, therefore, has the advantage of the +fairest discovery of a work of grace within him. And thus they sat +talking till the break of day.' + +Now, I have taken up Captain Self-denial to-night because the young men +and I are to begin a study to-night to which I was first attracted +because it taught me lessons about myself, and about self-denial, and +thus about both a young man's and an old man's deepest and most +persistent corruptions--lessons such as I have never been taught in any +other school. In all my philosophical, theological, moral, and +experimental reading, so to describe it, I have never met with any school +of authors for one moment to be compared with the great evangelical +mystics, especially when they treat of self, self-love, self-denial, the +daily cross, and all suchlike lessons. Take the great doctrinal and +experimental Puritans, such as John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Richard Baxter, +John Howe, and Jonathan Edwards, and add on to them the greatest and best +mystics, such as Jacob Behmen, Thomas A Kempis, Francis Fenelon, Jeremy +Taylor, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Leighton, and William Law, and you will +have the profoundest, the most complete, the most perfect, and, I will +add, the most fascinating and enthralling of spiritual teaching in all +the world. And I will be bold enough to promise you that if you will but +join our Young Men's Class to-night, and will buy and read our mystical +books, and will resolve to put in practice what you hear and read in the +class, I will promise you, I say, that by the end of our short session +you will not only be ten times more open and hospitably-minded men, but +also ten times more spiritually-minded men, ten times more Christ-like +men, and with your joy in Christ and His joy in you all but full. + +2. The Captain Self-denial was a young man, and he was also a townsman +in Mansoul. Young Self-denial and one other were all of Emmanuel's +captains who were townsmen in Mansoul. All his other captains Emmanuel +had brought with him; but the Captains Self-denial and Experience were +both born and reared to their full manhood in that besieged city. 'A +townsman.' How much there is for us all in that one word! How much +instruction! How much encouragement! How much caution and correction! +Our greatest grace; our most essential and indispensable grace; our most +experimental and evidential grace; that grace, indeed, without which all +our other graces are but specious shows and painted surfaces of graces; +that grace into which our Lord here gathers up all our other graces;--that +greatest of graces cannot be imputed, imported, or introduced; it must be +born, bred, exercised, reared up to its full maturity, and sent forth to +fight and to conquer, and all within the walls of its own native town; in +short, our self-denial must have its beginning and middle and end in our +own heart. Antinomians there were, as our Puritan fathers nicknamed all +those persons who glorified Christ by letting Him do all things for them, +both His own things and their things too, both their justification and +their sanctification too. And there are many good but ill-instructed men +among ourselves who have just this taint of that old heresy cleaving to +them still--this taint, namely, that they are tempted to carry over the +suretyship and substitutionary work of Christ into such regions, and to +carry it to such lengths in those regions, as, practically, to make +Christ to minister to their soft and sinful living, and to their excuse +and indulgence of themselves. I will put it squarely and plainly to some +of my very best friends here to-night. Is it not the case, now, that you +do not like this direction into which this text, and the truth of this +text, are now travelling? Is it not so that you shift back in your seat +from the approaching cross? Is it not the very and actual fact that you +have secret ways of sin, secret habits of self-indulgence in your body +and in your soul, in your mind and in your heart, secret sins that you +mantle over with the robe of Christ's righteousness? His spotless and +imputed righteousness? In your present temper you would have disliked +deeply the Sermon on the Mount had you heard it; and I see you shaking +your head over your Sabbath-day dinner at this text when it was first +spoken. Lay this down for a law, all my brethren,--a New Testament and a +never-to-be-abrogated law,--that the best and the safest religion for you +is that way of religion that is hardest on your pride, on your +self-importance, on your self-esteem, as well as on your purse and on +your belly. You are not likely to err by practising too much of the +cross. You may very well have too much of the cross of Christ preached +to you, and too little of your own. Why! did not Christ die for me? you +indignantly say. Yes; so He did. But only that you might die too. He +was crucified, and so must you be crucified every day before one single +drop of His sin-atoning blood shall ever be wasted on You. Be not +deceived: the cross is not mocked; for only as a man nails himself, body +and soul, to the cross every day shall he ever be saved from sin and +death and hell by means of it. And, exactly as a man denies himself--no +more and no less--his appetites, his passions, his thoughts and words and +deeds, every day and every hour of every day, just so much shall He who +searches our hearts and sees us in secret, acknowledge us, both every day +now, and at the last day of all. + +3. This same Captain Self-denial, his history goes on, was stout, he was +an hardy man also, and a man of great courage. Stout and hardy and of +great courage at home, that is; in his own mind and heart, soul and body, +that is. Young Captain Self-denial was a perfect hero at saying No! and +at saying No! to himself. It is a proverb that there is nothing so +difficult as to say that monosyllable. And the proverb is Scripture +truth if you try to say No! to yourself. It takes the very stoutest of +hearts, the most noble, the most manly, the most soldierly, and the most +saintly of hearts to say No! to itself, and to keep on saying No! to +itself to the bitter end of every trial and temptation and opportunity. I +remember reading long ago a page or two of a medical man's diary. And in +it he made a confession and an appeal I have never forgot; though, to my +loss, I have not always acted upon it. He said that for many years he +had never been entirely well. He had constant headaches and depressions, +and it was seldom that he was not to some extent out of sorts. But, all +the time, he had a shrewd guess within himself as to what was the matter +with him. He felt ashamed to confess it even to himself that he over-ate +himself every day at table; till, at last, summoning up all divine and +human help, he determined that, however hungry he was, and however +savoury the dish was, and however excellent the wine was, he would never +either ask for or accept a second helping. And this was his testimony, +that from that stout and hardy day he grew better in health daily; 'my +head became clear, my eye bright, my complexion pure, my mind and +feelings were redeemed from all clouds and depressions. And to-day I am +a younger man at fifty than I was at thirty.' Now, if just saying No! to +himself and to the waiter at table did work such a new birth in a +confirmed gourmand of middle life, what would it not have wrought for him +had he carried his answer stoutly and courageously through all the other +parts of his body and soul?--as perhaps he did. Perhaps, having tasted +the sweet beginnings of salvation, he carried his short and sure regimen +through. If he has done so, let him give us his full autobiography. What +a blessed, what a priceless book it would be! + +4. Stout Captain Self-denial was commanded to begin his life as an +officer in Emmanuel's army by taking especial watch over Ear-gate and Eye- +gate; and at our last accounts of our abstemious doctor he had only got +the length of Mouth-gate. But having begun so well with those three +great outposts of the soul, if those two trusty officers only held on, +and played the man courageously enough, they would soon be promoted to +still more important, still more central, and, if more difficult and +dangerous, then also much more honourable and remunerative posts. +Appetite, deep and deadly as its evils are, is, after all, only an +outwork of the soul; and the same sharp knife that the epicure and the +sot in all their stages must put to their throat, that same knife must be +made to draw blood in all parts of their mind and their heart, in their +will and in their imagination, till a perfect chorus of self-denials +rings like noblest martial music through all the gates, and streets, and +fortresses, and strongholds, and very palaces and temples of the soul. I +shall here stand aside and let the greatest of the English mystics speak +to you on this present point. 'When we speak of self-denial,' he says, +in his _Christian Perfection_, 'we are apt to confine it to eating and +drinking: but we ought to consider that, though a strict temperance be +necessary in these things, yet that these are the easiest and the +smallest instances of self-denial. Pride, vanity, self-love, +covetousness, envy, and other inclinations of the like nature call for a +more constant and a more watchful self-denial than the appetites of +hunger and thirst. And till we enter into this course of universal self- +denial we shall make no progress in real piety, but our lives will be a +ridiculous mixture of I know not what; sober and covetous, proud and +devout, temperate and vain, regular in our forms of devotion and +irregular in all our passions, circumspect in little modes of behaviour +and careless and negligent of tempers the most essential to piety. And +thus it will necessarily be with us till we lay the axe to the root of +the tree, till we deny and renounce the whole corruption of our nature, +and resign ourselves up entirely to the Spirit of God, to think and speak +and act by the wisdom and the purity of religion.' + +5. Stout as Captain Self-denial was, and notable alarms and some brisk +execution as he did upon the enemy, yet he must meet with some brushes +himself; indeed, he carried several of the marks of such brushes on his +face as well as on some other parts of his body. If I had read in his +history that Young Captain Self-denial had left his mark upon his +enemies, I would have said, Well done, and I would have added that I +always expected as much. But it is far more to my purpose to read that +he had not always got himself off without wounds that left lasting scars +both where they were seen of all, and where they were seen and felt only +by Self-denial himself. And not Self-denial only, but even Paul, in our +flesh, and with like passions with us, had the same experience and has +left us the same record. 'I keep my body under': so our emasculated +English version makes us read it. But the visual image in the masterly +original Greek is not so mealy-mouthed. I box and buffet myself day and +night, says Paul. I play the truculent tyrant over a lewd and lazy +slave. I hit myself blinding blows on my tenderest part. I am ashamed +to look at myself in the glass, for all under my eyes I am black and +blue. If David, after the matter of Uriah, had done that to himself, and +even more than that, we would not have wondered; we would have expected +it, and we would have said, It is no more than we would have done +ourselves. But that a spotless, gentle, noble soul like Paul should so +have mangled himself,--that quite dumfounders us. If Paul, then, who, +touching the righteousness which is in the law, was blameless, had to +handle himself in that manner in order to keep himself blameless, shall +any young man here hope to escape temptation without such blows at +himself as shall leave their mark on him all his days? Nay, not only so, +but after Self-denial had thus exercised himself and subdued himself, +still his enemy sometimes got such an advantage over him as left him as +his history here describes him. All which is surely full of the most +excellent heartening to all who read, in earnest and for an example, his +fine history. + +6. The last and crowning exploit of our matchless captain was to +capture, and execute, and quarter, and hang up on a gallows at the market- +cross, the head and the hands and the feet of his oldest, most sworn, and +most deadly enemy, one Self-love. So stout and so insufferable was our +captain in the matter of Self-love that when it was proposed by some of +his many influential friends and high-in-place relations in the city that +the judgment of the court-martial on Self-love should be deferred, our +stout soldier with the cuts on his face and in some other parts of his +body stood up, and said that the city and the army must make up their +mind either to relieve him of his sword, hacked and broken off as it was, +or else to execute the law upon Self-love on the spot. I will lay down +my commission this very day, he said, with an extraordinary indignation. +Many rich men in the city, and many men deep in the King's service, +muttered mutinous things when their near relative was hurried to the open +cause-way, but by that time the soldiers of Self-denial's company had +brained Self-love with the butts of their muskets. And it was the stand +that our captain made in the matter of Self-love that at last lifted the +young soldier where many had felt he should have been lifted long ago. +From that day he was made a lord, a military peer, and an adviser of the +crown and the crown officers in all the deepest counsels concerning +Mansoul. Only, with the cloak and the coronet of Self-denial the present +history all but comes to an end. For, before the outcast remains of Self- +love had mouldered to their dust on the city gate, the King's chariot had +descended into the street, had ascended up to the palace at the head of +the street, and a new age of the city life had begun, the full history of +which has yet to be told. + +Remain behind, then, and begin with us to-night, all you young men. You +cannot begin this lifelong study and this lifelong pursuit of self-denial +too early. For, even if you begin to read our books and to practise our +discipline in your very boyhood, when you are old men and very saints of +God you will feel that your self-love is still so full of life and power, +that your self-denial has scarcely begun. Ah, me! men: both old and +young men. Ah, me! what a life's task set us of God it is to make us a +new heart, to cleanse out an unclean heart, to lay in the dust a proud +heart, and to keep a heart at all times, and in all places, and toward +all people, with all diligence! Who is sufficient for these things? + +'Now was Christian somewhat in a maze. But at last, when every man +started back for fear, Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance +come up to him that sat there with the inkhorn to write, saying, Set down +my name, sir! At which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that +were within, even of those who walked upon the top of that place, saying, + + "Come in, come in: + Eternal glory thou shalt win." + +Then Christian smiled, and said: I think, verily, that I know the meaning +of all this now.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--FIVE PICKT MEN + + + 'I took wise men and known and made them captains.'--_Moses_. + +John Bunyan never lost his early love for a soldier's life any more than +he ever forgot the rare delights of his bell-ringing days. John Bunyan, +all his days, never saw a bell-rope that his fingers did not tingle, and +he never saw a soldier in uniform without instinctively shouldering his +youthful musket. Bunyan was one of those rare men who are of imagination +all compact; and consequently it is that all his books are full of the +scenes, the occupations, and the experiences of his early days. Not that +he says very much, in as many words, about what happened to him in the +days when he was a soldier; it is only once in all his many books that he +says that when he was a soldier such and such a thing happened to him. At +the same time, all his books bear the impress of his early days upon +them; and as for this special book of Bunyan's now open before us, it is +full from board to board of the strife and the din of his early battles. +The _Holy War_ is just John Bunyan's soldierly life +spiritualised--spiritualised and so worked up into this fine English +Classic. + +Well, then, after Mansoul was taken and reduced, the victorious Prince +determined so to occupy the town with His soldiers that it should never +again either be taken by force from without, or ever again revolt by +weakness or by fear from within. And with this view He chose out five of +His best captains--My five pickt men, He always called them--and placed +those five captains and their thousands under them in the strongholds of +the town. On the margin of this page our versatile author speaks of that +step of Emmanuel's in the language of a philosopher, a moralist, and a +divine. 'Five graces,' he says, 'pickt out of an abundance of common +virtues.' This summing-up sentence stands on his stiff and dry margin. +But in the rich and living flow of the text itself our author goes on +writing like the man of genius he is. With all the warmth and colour and +dramatic movement of which this whole book is full, this great writer +goes on to set those five choice captains of our salvation before us in a +way that we shall never forget. + +1. 'The first was that famous captain, the noble Captain Credence. His +were the red colours, and Mr. Promise bare them. And for a scutcheon he +had the Holy Lamb and the golden shield; and he had ten thousand men at +his feet.' Now, this same Captain Credence from first to last of the war +always led the van both within and around Mansoul. In ordinary and +peaceful days; in days of truce and parley; when the opposite armies were +laid up in their winter quarters, or were, for any cause, drawn off from +one another, some of the other captains might be more in evidence. But +in every exploit to be called an exploit; in every single enterprise of +danger; when any new position was to be taken up, or any forlorn hope was +to be led, there, in the very van of labour and of danger, was sure to be +seen Captain Credence with his blood-red colours in his own hand. You +understand your Bunyan by this time, my brethren? Captain Credence, your +little boy at school will tell you, is just the soldier-like faith of +your sanctification. _Credo_, he will tell you, is 'I believe'; it is to +have faith in God and in the word of God. You will borrow your Latin +from your little boy, and then you will pay him back by telling him how +Captain Credence has always led the van in your soul. You will tell him +and show him what a wonderful writer on the things of the soul John +Bunyan is, till you make John Bunyan one of your son's choicest authors +for all his days. You will do this if you will tell him how and when +this same Captain Credence with his crimson colours first led the van in +your salvation. You will tell him this with more and more depth and more +and more plainness as year after year he reads his _Holy War_, and better +and better understands it, till he has had it all fulfilled in himself as +a pickt captain and good soldier of Jesus Christ. You will tell him +about yourself, till, at this forlorn hope in his own life, and at that +sounded advance, in some new providence and in some new duty; in this +commanded attack on an inwardly entrenched enemy, and in that resolute +assault on some battlement of evil habit, he recollects his noble, +confiding, and loving father and plays the man again, and that all the +more if only for his father's sake. Ask your son what he knows and what +you do not know, and then as long as his heart and his ear are open tell +him what you know and what you have by faith come through, and that will +be a priceless possession to him, especially when he is put in possession +of it by you. + +Well on toward the end of the war, the Captain Credence had so acquitted +himself that he was summoned one day to the Prince's quarters, when the +following colloquy ensued: 'What hath my Lord to say to His servant?' And +then, after a sign or two of favour, it was said to him: 'I have made +thee lieutenant over all the forces in Mansoul; so that, from this day +forward, all men in Mansoul shall be at thy word; and thou shalt be he +that shall lead in and that shall lead out Mansoul. And at thy command +shall all the rest of the captains be.' My brethren, you will have the +whole key to all that in yourselves if this same war has gone this length +in you. Faith, your faith in God, and in the word of God, will, as this +inward war goes on, not only lead the van in your heart and in your life, +but just because your faith so leads in all things, and is so fitted to +lead in all things, it will at last be lifted up and set over your soul, +and all the things of your soul, till nothing shall be done in any of the +streets, or gates, or walls thereof that faith in God and in His word +does not first allow and admit. And then, when it has come to that +within you, that is the best mind, that is the safest, the happiest, and +the most heavenly mind that you can attain to in this present life; and +when faith shall thus lead and rule over all things in thy soul, be thou +always ready, for thy speedy translation to a still better life is just +at the door. + +2. 'The second was that famous captain, Good-hope. His were the blue +colours. His standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation, and for a scutcheon he +had three golden anchors; and he had ten thousand men at his feet.' The +time was, my brethren, when all your hopes and mine were as yet anchored +without the veil. But all that is now changed. We still hope, in a mild +kind of way, for this thing and for that in this present life; but only +in a mild kind of way. It would not be right in us not to look forward, +say, from spring-time to summer, and from summer to harvest. If the +husbandman had not hope in the former and in the latter rain he would not +sow; and as it is with the husbandman so it is with us all: so ought it +to be, and so it must be. But we say God willing! all the time that we +plot and plan and hope. And we say God willing! no longer with a sigh, +but, now, always with a smile. In His will is our tranquillity, we say, +and we know that if it is not His will that this and that slightly +anchored hope should be fulfilled, then that only means that all our +hopes, to be called hopes, are soon to be realised. Our green and salad +days in the matter of hope are for ever past. If we had it all +absolutely secured to us that this world is still promising to its salad +dupes, it would not come within a thousand miles of satisfying our +hearts. Whether the hopes of our hearts are to be fulfilled within the +veil or no, that remains to be seen; but all the things without the veil +taken together do not any longer even pretend to promise a hope to hearts +like ours. Our Forerunner has carried away our hearts with Him. We have +no heart left for any one but Him, or for anything without or within the +veil that He is not and is not in. And till that hope also has made us +ashamed,--till He and His promises have failed us like all the rest,--we +are going to anchor our hearts on that, and on that only, which we +believe is with Him within the veil. If our Forerunner also disappoints +us; if we enter where He is, only to find that He is not there; or that, +though there, He is not able to satisfy our hope in Him, and make us like +Himself, then we shall be of all men the most miserable. But not till +then. No; not till then. And thus it is that Captain Good-hope has his +billet in our heart; thus it is that his blue colours float over our +house; and thus it is that his three golden anchors are blazing out in +all their beauty on the best wall of our earthly house. + +3. 'The third was that valiant captain, the Captain Charity. His +standard-bearer was Mr. Pitiful, and for his scutcheon he had three naked +orphans embraced in his bosom; and he also had ten thousand men at his +feet.' O Charity! O valiant and pitiful Charity! Divine-natured and +heavenly-minded Charity! When wilt thou come and dwell in my heart? +When, by thine indwelling, shall I be able to love my neighbour, and all +my neighbours, as myself? When, in thy strength, shall I cease from +repining at my neighbour's good; and when shall I cease secretly +rejoicing over his evil? When shall I by thee renewing me, be made able +to cease in everything from seeking first my own will and my own way; my +own praise and my own glory? When shall it be as much my new nature to +love my neighbour as it is now my old nature to hate him? When shall I +cease to be so soon angry, and hard, and bitter, and scornful, and +unrelenting, and unforgiving? When shall my neighbour's presence, his +image, and his name always call up only love and honour, good-will and +affectionate delight? When and where shall I, under thee, feel for the +last time any evil of any kind in my heart against my brother? Oh! to +see the day when I shall suffer long and be kind! When I shall never +again vaunt myself or be puffed up! When I shall bear all things, +believe all things, hope all things, endure all things! O blessed, +blessed Charity! with thy divine heart, with thy dove-like eyes, and with +thy bosom full of pity, when wilt thou come into my sinful heart and +bring all heaven in with thee! O Charity! till thou so comest I shall +wait for thee. And, till thou comest, thy standard-bearer shall be my +door porter, and thy scutcheon shall hang night and day at my door-post! + +4. 'The fourth captain was that gallant commander, the Captain Innocent. +His standard-bearer was Mr. Harmless; his were the white colours, and for +his scutcheon he had three golden doves.' My brethren, how well it would +have been with us to-day if we had always lived innocently! Had we only +been innocent of that man's, and that man's, and that man's, and that +man's hurt! (Let us name all the men to ourselves.) How many men have +we, first and last, hurt! Some intentionally, and some unintentionally; +some deliberately, and some only by accident; some of malice, and some +only of misfortune; some innocently and unknowingly, and whom we never +properly hurt. Some, also, by our mere existence; some by our best +actions; some because we have helped and not hurt others; and some out of +nothing else but the pure original devilry of their own evil hearts. And +then, when we take all these men home to our hearts, what hearts all +these men give us! Who, then, is the man here who has done to other men +the most hurt? Who has caused or been the occasion of most hurt? Let +that so unhappy man just think that the gallant commander, the Captain +Innocent himself, with his white colours and with his golden doves, is +standing and knocking at your evil door. O unhappy man! By all the hurt +and harm you have ever done--by all that you can never now undo--by those +spotless colours that are still snow and not yet scarlet as they wave +over you--by those three golden doves that are an emblem of the life that +still lies open before you, as well as an invitation to you to enter on +that life--why will you die of remorse and despair? Open the door of +your heart and admit Captain Innocent. He knows that of all hurtful men +on the face of the earth you are the most hurtful, but he is not on that +account afraid at you; indeed, it is on that account that he has come so +near to you. By admitting him, by enlisting under him, by serving under +him, some of the most hurtful and injurious men that ever lived have +lived after to be the most innocent and the most harmless of men, with +their hands washed every day in innocency, and with three golden doves as +the scutcheon of their new nature and their Christian character. Oh come +into my heart, Captain Innocent; there is room in my heart for thee! + +5. 'And then the fifth was that truly royal and well-beloved captain, +the Captain Patience. His standard-bearer was Mr. Suffer-long, and for a +scutcheon he had three arrows through a golden heart.' Three arrows +through a golden heart! Most eloquent, most impressive, and most +instructive of emblems! First, a heart of gold, and then that heart of +gold pierced, and pierced, and then pierced again with arrow after arrow. +Patience was the last of Emmanuel's pickt graces. Captain Patience with +his pierced heart always brought up the rear when the army marched. But +when Captain Patience and Mr. Suffer-long did enter and take up their +quarters in any house in Mansoul,--then was there no house more safe, +more protected, more peaceful, more quietly, sweetly, divinely happy than +just that house where this loyal and well-beloved captain bore in his +heart. Entertain patience, my brethren. Practise patience, my brethren. +Make your house at home a daily school to you in which to learn patience. +Be sure that you well understand the times, the occasions, the +opportunities, and the invitations of patience, and take profit out of +them; and thus both your profit and that of others also will be great. +Tribulation worketh patience. Endure tribulation, then, for the sake of +its so excellent work. Nothing worketh patience like tribulation, and +therefore it is that tribulation so abounds in the lives of God's people. +So much does tribulation abound in the lives of God's people that they +are actually known in heaven and described there by their experience of +tribulation. 'These are they which came out of great tribulation, and +therefore are they before the throne.' These are they with the three +sharp arrows shot through and through their hearts of gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--MR. DESIRES-AWAKE + + + 'One thing have I desired.'--_David_. + +Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul. There were +two very mean cottages in Mansoul, and those two cottages stood beside +one another and leaned upon one another and held one another up. Mr. +Desires-awake dwelt in the one of those cottages and Mr. Wet-eyes in the +other. And those two mendicant men were wont to meet together for secret +prayer, when Mr. Desires-awake would put a rope upon his head, while Mr. +Wet-eyes would not be able to speak for wringing his hands in tears all +the time. Many a time did those two meanest and most despised of men +deliver that city, according to the proverb of the Preacher: Wisdom is +better than strength, and the words of wisdom are to be heard in secret +places, where wisdom is far better than weapons of war. Why should I not +do all for them and the best I can? said Mr. Desires-awake when the men +of Mansoul came to him in their extremity. I will even venture my life +again for them at the pavilion of the Prince. And accordingly this mean +man put his rope upon his head, as was his wont, and went out to the +Prince's tent and asked the reformades if he might see their Master. Then +the Prince, coming to the place where the petitioner lay on the ground, +demanded what his name was and of what esteem he was in Mansoul, and why +he, of all the multitudes of Mansoul, was sent out to His Royal tent on +such an errand. Then said the man to the Prince standing over him, he +said: Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after the name +of such a dead dog as I am? Pass by, I pray Thee, and take not notice of +who I am, because there is, as Thou very well knowest, so great a +disproportion between Thee and me. For my part, I am out of charity with +myself; who, then, should be in love with me? Yet live I would, and so +would I that my townsmen should; and because both they and myself are +guilty of great transgressions, therefore they have sent me, and I have +come in their names to beg of my Lord for mercy. Let it please Thee, +therefore, to incline to mercy; but ask not who Thy servant is. All +this, and how Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes sped in their petition, +is to be read at length in the Holy History. And now let us take down +the key that hangs in our author's window and go to work with it on the +sweet mystery of Mr. Desires-awake. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, this poor man's name need not delay us +long seeking it out. In shorter time, and with surer success than I +could give you the dictionary root of his name, if you will look within +you will all see the visual image of this poor man's name in your own +heart. For our hearts are all as full as they can hold of all kinds of +desires; some good and some bad, some asleep and some awake, some alive +and some dead, some raging like a hundred hungry lions, and some +satisfied as a sleeping child. Well, then, this mean man was called Mr. +Desires-awake, and what his desires were awake after and set upon we have +already seen in his head-dress and heard in his prayer. His house, on +the other hand, will not be so well known. For it was less a house than +a hut--a hut hidden away out of sight and back behind Mr. Wet-eyes' hut. +Mr. Desires-awake's cottage was so mean and meagre that no one ever came +to visit him unless it was his next-door neighbour. They never left +their cottages, those two poor men, unless it was to see one another; or, +strange to tell, unless it was to go out at the city gate to see and to +speak with their Prince. And at such times their venturesomeness both +astonished themselves and amused their Prince. Sometimes he laughed to +see them back at his door again; but more often he wept to see and hear +them; all which made the guards of his pavilion to wonder who those two +strange men might be. And thus it was that if at any long interval of +time any of the men of the city desired to see Mr. Desires-awake, he was +sure to be found at the pavilion door of his Prince, or else in his +neighbour's cottage, or else at home in his own. From year's end to +year's end you might look in vain for either of those two poor men in the +public resorts of Mansoul. When all the town was abroad on holidays and +fair-days and feast-days, those two mean men were then closest at home. +And when the booths of the town were full of all kinds of wares and +merchandise, and all the greens in the town were full of games, and +plays, and cheats, and fools, and apes, and knaves, only those two +penniless men would abide shut up at home. At home; or else together +they would go to a market-stance set up by their Prince outside the walls +where one was stationed to stand and to cry: 'Ho! every one that +thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money. Wherefore +do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that +which satisfieth not? Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and your +soul shall live.' And sometimes the Prince would go out in person to +meet the two men with nothing to pay, and would Himself say to them, I +counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and +anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, till the two men, Mr. Desires-awake and +Mr. Wet-eyes, would go home to their huts laden with their Prince's free +gifts and royal bounties. + +2. But, with all that, Mr. Desires-awake never went out to his Prince's +pavilion till he had again put his rope upon his head. And, however +laden with royal presents he ever returned to his mean cottage, he never +laid aside his rope. He ate in his rope, he slept in his rope, he +visited his next-door neighbour in his rope, till the only instruction he +left behind him was to bury him in a ditch, and be sure to put his rope +upon his head. The men and the boys of the town jeered at Mr. Desires- +awake as he passed up their streets in his rope, and the very mothers in +Mansoul taught their children in arms to run after him and to cry, Go up, +thou roped head! Go up, thou roped head! We be free men, the men of the +town called after him; and we never were in bondage to any man'. Out +with him; out with him! He is beside himself. Much repentance hath made +him mad! But through all that Mr. Desires-awake was as one that heard +them not. For Mr. Desires-awake was full of louder voices within. The +voices within his bosom quite drowned the babel around him. The voices +within called him far worse names than the streets of the city ever +called him; till all he could do was to draw his rope down upon his head +and press on again to the Prince's pavilion. You understand about that +rope, my brethren, do you not? Mr. Desires-awake's continual rope? In +old days when a guilty man came of his own accord to the judge to confess +himself deserving of death, he would put a rope upon his head. And that +rope as much as said to the judge and to all men--the miserable man as +good as said: This is my desert. This is the wages of my sin. I justify +my judge. I judge myself. I hereby do myself to death. And it was this +that so angered the happy holiday-makers of Mansoul. For they forgave +themselves. They justified themselves. They put a high price upon +themselves. Humiliation and sorrow for sin was not in all their +thoughts; and they hated and hunted back into his hut the humble man +whose gait and garb always reminded them of their past life and of their +latter end. But for all they could do, Mr. Desires-awake would wear his +rope. My soul chooseth strangling rather than sin, he would say. My sin +hath found me out, he would say; I hate myself, he would say, because of +my sin. I condemn and denounce myself. I hang myself up with this rope +on the accursed tree. And thus it was that while other men were +crucifying their Prince afresh, Mr. Desires-awake was crucifying himself +with and after his Prince. And thus it was that while the men and the +women of the town so hated and so mocked Mr. Desires-awake, his Prince so +loved and so honoured him. + +3. 'Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after the name +of such a dead dog as I am?' said Desires-awake to his Prince. 'Behold, +now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and +ashes,' said Abraham. 'If I wash myself with snow water, and make my +hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me into the ditch, and mine +own clothes shall abhor me,' said Job. 'My wounds stink and are corrupt; +my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness +in my flesh,' said David. 'But we are all as an unclean thing,' said +Isaiah, 'and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' 'I am the +chief of sinners,' said the apostle. 'Hold your peace; I am a devil and +not a man,' said Philip Neri to his sons. 'I am a sinner, and worse than +the chief of sinners, yea, a guilty devil,' said Samuel Rutherford. 'I +hated the light; I was a chief--the chief of sinners,' said Oliver +Cromwell. 'I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a toad,' said John +Bunyan. 'Sin and corruption would as naturally bubble out of my heart as +water would bubble out of a fountain. I could have changed hearts with +anybody. I thought none but the devil himself could equal me for +wickedness and pollution of mind.' 'O Despise me not,' said Bishop +Andrewes, 'an unclean worm, a dead dog, a putrid corpse. The just +falleth seven times a day; and I, an exceeding sinner, seventy times +seven. Me, O Lord, of sinners chief, chiefest, and greatest.' And +William Law, 'An unclean worm, a dead dog, a stinking carcass. Drive, I +beseech Thee, the serpent and the beast out of me. O Lord, I detest and +abhor myself for all these my sins, and for all my abuse of Thine +infinite mercy.' From all this, then, you will see that this dead dog of +ours with the rope upon his head was no strange sight at Emmanuel's +pavilion. And you and I shall still be in the same saintly succession if +we go continually with his words in our mouth, and with his instrument in +our hands and on our heads. + +4. 'The Prince to whom I went,' said Mr. Desires-awake, 'is such a one +for beauty and for glory that whoso sees Him must ever after both love +and fear Him. I, for my part,' he said, 'can do no less; but I know not +what the end will be of all these things.' What made Mr. Desires-awake +say that last thing was that when he was prostrate in his prayer the +Prince turned His head away, as if He was out of humour and out of +patience with His petitioner; while, all the time, the overcome Prince +was weeping with love and with pity for Desires-awake. Only that poor +man did not see that, and would not have believed that even if he had +seen it. 'I cannot tell what the end will be,' said Desires-awake; 'but +one thing I know, I shall never be able to cease from both loving and +fearing that Prince. I shall always love Him for His beauty and fear Him +for His glory.' Can you say anything like that, my brethren? Have you +been at His seat with sackcloth, and a rope, and ashes, and tears, and +prayers, like Abraham, and David, and Isaiah, and Paul, and John Bunyan, +and Bishop Andrewes? And, whatever may be the end, do you say that +henceforth and for ever you must both love and fear that Prince? 'Though +He slay me,' said Job, 'yet I shall both love and trust Him.' Well, the +Prince is the Prince, and He will take both His own time and His own way +of taking off your rope and putting a chain of gold round your neck, and +a new song in your mouth, as He did to Job. There may be more weeping +yet, both on your side and on His before He does that; but He will do it, +and He will not delay an hour that He can help in doing it. Only, do you +continue and increase to love His beauty, and to fear His glory. And +that of itself will be reward and blessing enough to you. Nay, once you +have seen both His beauty and His glory, then to lie a dog under His +table, and to beg at His door with a rope on your head to all eternity +would be a glorious eternity to you. Samuel Rutherford said that to see +Christ through the keyhole once in a thousand years would be heaven +enough for him. Christ wept in heaven as Rutherford wrote that letter in +Aberdeen, and if you make Him weep in the same way He will soon make you +to laugh too. He will soon make you to laugh as Samuel Rutherford and +Mr. Desires-awake are laughing now. Only, my brethren, answer this--Are +your desires awakened indeed after Jesus Christ? You know what a desire +is. Your hearts are full to the brim of desires. Well, is there one +desire in a day in your heart for Christ? In the multitude of your +desires within you, what share and what proportion go out and up to +Christ? You know what beauty is. You know and you love the beauty of a +child, of a woman, of a man, of nature, of art, and so on. Do you know, +have you ever seen, the ineffable beauty of Christ? Is there one saint +of God here,--and He has many saints here--is there one of you who can +say with David in the text, One thing do I desire? There should be many +so desiring saints here; for Christ's beauty is far better and far +fairer, far more captivating, far more enthralling, and far more +satisfying to us than it could be to David. Shall we call you Desires- +awake, then, after this? Can you say--do you say, One thing do I desire, +and that is no thing and no person, no created beauty and no earthly +sweetness, but my one desire is for God: to be His, and to be like Him, +and to be for ever with Him? Then, it shall soon all be. For, what you +truly desire,--all that you already are; and what you already are,--all +that you shall soon completely and for ever be. Whom have I in heaven +but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My +flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my +portion for ever. + +'As for me,' says the great-hearted, the hungry-hearted Psalmist, 'I +shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' One would have +said that David had all that heart could desire even before he fell +asleep. For he had a throne, the throne of Israel, and a son, a son like +Solomon to sit upon it. A long life also, full to the brim of all kinds +of temporal and spiritual blessings. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and +forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who +healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who +crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy +mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. +All that, and yet not satisfied! O David! David! surely Desires-awake is +thy new name! One of our own poets has said:-- + + 'All thoughts, all passions, all delights, + Whatever stirs this mortal frame, + All are but ministers of Love, + And feed His sacred flame.' + +Now, if that is true, as it is true, even of earthly and ephemeral love, +how much more true is it of the love that is in the immortal soul of man +for the everlasting God? And what a blessed life that already is when +all things that come to us--joy and sorrow, good and evil, nature and +grace, all thoughts, all passions, all delights--are all but so many +ministers to our soul's desire after God, after the Divine Likeness and +for the Beatific Vision. + + 'Oh! Christ, He is the Fountain, + The deep sweet Well of Love! + The streams on earth I've tasted, + More deep I'll drink above; + There, to an ocean fulness, + His mercy doth expand; + And glory--glory dwelleth + In Emmanuel's land.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--MR. WET-EYES + + + 'Oh that my head were waters!'--_Jeremiah_. + + 'Tears gain everything.'--_Teresa_. + +Now Mr. Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go on this errand, +besought that they would grant that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with him. Now +this Mr. Wet-eyes was a near neighbour of Mr. Desires-awake, a poor man, +and a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak well to a +petition; so they granted that he should go with him. Wherefore the two +men at once addressed themselves to their serious business. Mr. Desires- +awake put his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes went with his hands +wringing together. Then said the Prince, And what is he that is become +thy companion in this so weighty a matter? So Mr. Desires-awake told +Emmanuel that this was a poor neighbour of his, and one of his most +intimate associates. And his name, said he, may it please your most +excellent Majesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town of Mansoul. I know that +there are many of that name that are naught, said he; but I hope it will +be no offence to my Lord that I have brought my poor neighbour with me. +Then Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face to the ground, and made this apology +for his coming with his neighbour to his Lord:-- + +'Oh, my Lord,' quoth he, 'what I am I know not myself, nor whether my +name be feigned or true, especially when I begin to think what some have +said, and that is that this name was given me because Mr. Repentance was +my father. But good men have sometimes bad children, and the sincere do +sometimes beget hypocrites. My mother also called me by this name of +mine from my cradle; but whether she said so because of the moistness of +my brain, or because of the softness of my heart, I cannot tell. I see +dirt in mine own tears, and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers. But +I pray Thee (and all this while the gentleman wept) that Thou wouldst not +remember against us our transgressions, nor take offence at the +unqualifiedness of Thy servants, but mercifully pass by the sin of +Mansoul, and refrain from the magnifying of Thy grace no longer.' So at +His bidding they arose, and both stood trembling before Him. + +1. 'His name, may it please your Majesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town of +Mansoul. I know, at the same time, that there are many of that name that +are naught.' Naught, that is, for this great enterprise now in hand. And +thus it was that Mr. Desires-awake in setting out for the Prince's +pavilion besought that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with him. Mr. Desires-awake +felt keenly how much might turn on who his companion was that day, and +therefore he took Mr. Wet-eyes with him. David would have made a most +excellent associate for Mr. Desires-awake that day. 'I am weary with my +groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my +tears.' And again, 'Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they +keep not Thy law.' This, then, was the only manner of man that Mr. +Desires-awake would stake his life alongside of that day. 'I have seen +some persons weep for the loss of sixpence,' said Mr. Desires-awake, 'or +for the breaking of a glass, or at some trifling accident. And they +cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a bigger rate than they will +confess their passion to be when they weep. Some are vexed for the +dirtying of their linen, or some such trifle, for which the least passion +is too big an expense. And thus it is that a man cannot tell his own +heart simply by his tears, or the truth of his repentance by those short +gusts of sorrow.' Well, then, my brethren, tell me, Do you think that +Mr. Desires-awake would have taken you that day to the pavilion door? +Would his head have been safe with you for his associate? Your +associates see many gusts in your heart. Do they ever see your eyes red +because of your sin? Did you ever weep so much as one good tear-drop for +pure sin? One true tear: not because your sins have found you out, but +for secret sins that you know can never find you out in this world? And, +still better, do you ever weep in secret places not for sin, but for +sinfulness--which is a very different matter? Do you ever weep to +yourself and to God alone over your incurably wicked heart? If not, then +weep for that with all your might, night and day. No mortal man has so +much cause to weep as you have. Go to God on the spot, on every spot, +and say with Bishop Andrewes, who is both Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet- +eyes in one, say with that deep man in his _Private Devotions_, say: 'I +need more grief, O God; I plainly need it. I can sin much, but I cannot +correspondingly repent. O Lord, give me a molten heart. Give me tears; +give me a fountain of tears. Give me the grace of tears. Drop down, ye +heavens, and bedew the dryness of my heart. Give me, O Lord, this saving +grace. No grace of all the graces were more welcome to me. If I may not +water my couch with my tears, nor wash Thy feet with my tears, at least +give me one or two little tears that Thou mayest put into Thy bottle and +write in Thy book!' If your heart is hard, and your eyes dry, make +something like that your continual prayer. + +2. 'A poor-man,' said Mr. Desires-awake, about his associate. 'Mr. Wet- +eyes is a poor man, and a man of a broken spirit.' 'Let Oliver take +comfort in his dark sorrows and melancholies. The quantity of sorrow he +has, does it not mean withal the quantity of sympathy he has, and the +quantity of faculty and of victory he shall yet have? Our sorrow is the +inverted image of our nobleness. The depth of our despair measures what +capability and height of claim we have to hope. Black smoke, as of +Tophet, filling all your universe, it can yet by true heart-energy become +flame, and the brilliancy of heaven. Courage!' + + 'This is the angel of the earth, + And she is always weeping.' + +3. 'A poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, and yet one that can speak +well to a petition.' Yes; and you will see how true that eulogy of Mr. +Wet-eyes is if you will run over in your mind the outstanding instances +of successful petitioners in the Scriptures. As you come down the Old +and the New Testaments you will be astonished and encouraged to find how +prevailing a fountain of tears always is with God. David with his +swimming bed; Jeremiah with his head waters; Mary Magdalene over His feet +with her welling eyes; Peter's bitter cry all his life long as often as +he heard a cock crow, and so on. So on through a multitude whose names +are written in heaven, and who went up to heaven all the way with +inconsolable sorrow because of their sins. They took words and turned to +the Lord; but,--better than the best words,--they took tears, or rather, +their tears took them. The best words, the words that the Holy Ghost +Himself teacheth, if they are without tears, will avail nothing. Even +inspired words will not pass through; while, all the time, tears, mere +tears, without words, are omnipotent with God. Words weary Him, while +tears overcome and command Him. He inhabits the tears of Israel. +Therefore, also, now, saith the Lord, turn ye unto Me with all your +heart, and with weeping and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not +your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and +merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the +evil. It is the same with ourselves. Tears move us. Tears melt us. We +cannot resist tears. Even counterfeit tears, we cannot be sure that they +are not true. And that is the main reason why our Lord is so good at +speaking to a petition. It is because His whole heart, and all the +moving passions of His heart, are in His intercessory office. It is +because He still remembers in the skies His tears, His agonies, and +cries. It is because He is entered into the holiest with His own tears +as well as with His own blood. And it is because He will remain and +abide before the Father the Man of Sorrows till our last petition is +answered, and till God has wiped the last tear from our eyes. When He +was in the coasts of Caesarea-Philippi, our Lord felt a great curiosity +to find out who the people thereabouts took Him to be. And it must have +touched His heart to be told that some men had insight enough to insist +that He was the prophet Jeremiah come back again to weep over Jerusalem. +He is Elias, said some. No; He is John the Baptist risen from the dead, +said others. No, no; said some men who saw deeper than their neighbours. +His head is waters, and His eyes are a fountain of tears. Do you not see +that He so often escapes into a lodge in the wilderness to weep for our +sins? No; He is neither John nor Elijah; He is Jeremiah come back again +to weep over Jerusalem! And even an apostle, looking back at the +beginning of our Lord's priesthood on earth, says that He was prepared +for His office by prayers and supplications, and with strong crying and +tears. From all that, then, let us learn and lay to heart that if we +would have one to speak well to our petitions, the Man of Sorrows is that +one. And then, as His remembrancers on our behalf, let us engage all +those among our friends who have the same grace of tears. But, above +all, let us be men of tears ourselves. For all the tears and all the +intercessions of our great High Priest, and all the importunings of our +best friends to boot, will avail us nothing if our own eyes are dry. Let +us, then, turn back to Bishop Andrewes's prayer for the grace of tears, +and offer it every night with him till our head, like his, is holy +waters, and till, like him, we get beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for +mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. + +4. 'Clear as tears' is a Persian proverb when they would praise their +purest spring water. But Mr. Wet-eyes has from henceforth spoiled the +point of that proverb for us. 'I see,' he said, 'dirt in mine own tears, +and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers.' Mr. Wet-eyes is hopeless. +Mr. Wet-eyes is intolerable. Mr. Wet-eyes would weary out the patience +of a saint. There is no satisfying or pacifying or ever pleasing this +morbose Mr. Wet-eyes. The man is absolutely insufferable. Why, prayers +and tears that the most and best of God's people cannot attain to are +spurned and spat upon by Mr. Wet-eyes. The man is beside himself with +his tears. For, tears that would console and assure us for a long season +after them, he will weep over them as we scarce weep over our worst sins. +His closet always turns all his comeliness to corruption. He comes out +of his closet after all night in it with his psalm-book wrung to pulp, +and with all his righteousnesses torn to filthy rags; till all men escape +Mr. Wet-eyes' society--all men except Mr. Desires-awake. I will go out +on your errand now, said Mr. Desires-awake, if you will send Mr. Wet-eyes +with me. And thus the two twin sons of sorrow for sin and hunger after +holiness went out arm in arm to the great pavilion together, Mr. Desires- +awake with his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes with his hands +wringing together. Thus they went to the Prince's pavilion. I gave you +a specimen of one of Mr. Wet-eyes' prayers in the introduction to this +discourse, and you did not discover much the matter with it, did you? You +did not discover much filthiness in the bottom of that prayer, did you? I +am sure you did not. Ah! but that is because you have not yet got Mr. +Wet-eyes' eyes. When you get his eyes; when you turn and employ upon +yourselves and upon your tears and upon your prayers his always-wet +eyes,--then you will begin to understand and love and take sides with +this inconsolable soul, and will choose his society rather than that of +any other man--as often, at any rate, as you go out to the Prince's +pavilion door. + +5. 'Mr. Repentance was my father, but good men sometimes have bad +children, and the most sincere do sometimes beget great hypocrites. But, +I pray Thee, take not offence at the unqualifiedness of Thy servant.' +Take good note of that uncommon expression, 'unqualifiedness,' in Mr. Wet- +eyes' confession, all of you who are attending to what is being said. Lay +'unqualifiedness' to heart. Learn how to qualify yourselves before you +begin to pray. In his fine comment on the 137th Psalm, Matthew Henry +discourses delightfully on what he calls 'deliberate tears.' Look up +that raciest of commentators, and see what he there says about the +deliberate tears of the captives in Babylon. It was the lack of +sufficient deliberation in his tears that condemned and alarmed Mr. Wet- +eyes that day. He felt now that he had not deliberated and qualified +himself properly before coming to the Prince's pavilion. Do not take up +your time or your thoughts with mere curiosities, either in your Bible or +in any other good book, says A Kempis. Read such things rather as may +yield compunction to your heart. And again, give thyself to compunction, +and thou shalt gain much devotion thereby. Mr. Wet-eyes, good and true +soul, was afraid that he had not qualified himself enough by compunctious +reading and self-recollection. The sincere, he sobbed out, do often +beget hypocrites! 'Our hearts are so deceitful in the matter of +repentance,' says Jeremy Taylor, 'that the masters of the spiritual life +are fain to invent suppletory arts and stratagems to secure the duty.' +Take not offence at the lack of all such suppletory arts and stratagems +in thy servant, said poor Wet-eyes. All which would mean in the most of +us: Take not offence at my rawness and ignorance in the spiritual life, +and especially in the life of inward devotion. Do not count up against +me the names and the numbers and the prices of my poems, and plays, and +novels, and newspapers, and then the number of my devotional books. +Compare not my outlay on my body and on this life with my outlay on my +soul and on the life to come. Oh, take not mortal offence at the +shameful and scandalous unqualifiedness of Thy miserable servant. My +father and my mother read the books of the soul, but they have left +behind them a dry-eyed reprobate in me! Say that to-night as you look +around on the grievous famine of the suppletory arts and stratagems of +repentance and reformation in your heathenish bedroom. + +Spiritual preaching; real face to face, inward, verifiable, experimental, +spiritual preaching; preaching to a heart in the agony of its +sanctification; preaching to men whose whole life is given over to making +them a new heart--that kind of preaching is scarcely ever heard in our +day. There is great intellectual ability in the pulpit of our day, great +scholarship, great eloquence, and great earnestness, but spiritual +preaching, preaching to the spirit--'wet-eyed' preaching--is a lost art. +At the same time, if that living art is for the present overlaid and +lost, the literature of a deeper spiritual day abides to us, and our +spiritually-minded people are not confined to us, they are not dependent +on us. Well, this is the Communion week with us yet once more. Will you +not, then, make it the beginning of some of the suppletory arts and +stratagems of the spiritual life with yourselves? I cannot preach as I +would like on such subjects, but I can tell you who could, and who, +though dead, yet speak by their immortal books. You have the wet-eyed +psalms; but they are beyond the depth of most people. Their meaning +seems to us on the surface, and we all read and sing them, but let us not +therefore think that we understand them. I cannot compel you to read the +books, and to read little else but the books, that would in time, and by +God's blessing, lead you into the depths of the psalms; but I can wash my +hands so far in making their names so many household words among my +people. The _Way to Christ_, the _Imitation of Christ_, the _Theologia +Germanica_, Tauler's _Sermons_, the _Mortification of Sin_, and +_Indwelling Sin in Believers_, the _Saint's Rest_, the _Holy Living and +Dying_, the _Privata Sacra_, the _Private Devotions_, the _Serious Call_, +the _Christian Perfection_, the _Religious Affections_, and such like. +All that, and you still unqualified! All that, and your eyes still dry! + + + + +CHAPTER XX--MR. HUMBLE THE JURYMAN, AND MISS HUMBLE-MIND THE SERVANT-MAID + + + 'Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'--_Our Lord_. + + 'Be clothed with humility.'--_Peter_. + + 'God's chiefest saints are the least in their own eyes.'--_A Kempis_. + + 'Without humility all our other virtues are but vices.'--_Pascal_. + + 'Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than + we deserve.'--_Law_. + + 'Humility lies close upon the heart, and its tests are exceedingly + delicate and subtle.'--_Newman_. + +Our familiar English word 'humility' comes down to us from the Latin root +_humus_, which means the earth or the ground. Humility, therefore, is +that in the mind and in the heart of a man which is low down even to the +very earth. A humble-minded man may not have learning enough to know the +etymology of the name which best describes his character, but the divine +nature which is in him teaches him to look down, to walk meekly and +softly, and to speak seldom, and always in love. For humility, while it +takes its lowly name from earth, all the time has its true nature from +heaven. Humility is full of all meekness, modesty, submissiveness, +teachableness, sense of inability, sense of unworthiness, sense of ill- +desert. Till, with that new depth and new intensity that the Scriptures +and religious experience have given to this word, as to so many other +words, humility, in the vocabulary of the spiritual life, has come to be +applied to that low estimate of ourselves which we come to form and to +entertain as we are more and more enlightened about God and about +ourselves; about the majesty, glory, holiness, beauty, and blessedness of +the divine nature, and about our own unspeakable evil, vileness, and +misery as sinners. And, till humility has come to rank in Holy +Scripture, and in the lives and devotions of all God's saints, as at once +the deepest root and the ripest fruit of all the divine graces that enter +into, and, indeed, constitute the life of God in the heart of man. +Humility, evangelical humility, sings Edwards in his superb and seraphic +poem the _Religious Affections_,--evangelical humility is the sense that +the true Christian has of his own utter insufficiency, despicableness, +and odiousness, a sense which is peculiar to the true saint. But to +compensate the true saint for this sight and sense of himself, he has +revealed to him an accompanying sense of the absolutely transcendent +beauty of the divine nature and of all divine things; a sight and a sense +that quite overcome the heart and change to holiness all the dispositions +and inclinations and affections of the heart. The essence of evangelical +humility, says Edwards, consists in such humility as becomes a creature +in himself exceeding sinful, but at the same time, under a dispensation +of grace, and this is the greatest and most essential thing in all true +religion. + +1. Well, then, our Mr. Humble was a juryman in Mansoul, and his name and +his nature eminently fitted him for his office. I never was a juryman; +but, if I were, I feel sure I would come home from the court a far +humbler man than I went up to it. I cannot imagine how a judge can +remain a proud man, or an advocate, or a witness, or a juryman, or a +spectator, or even a policeman. I am never in a criminal court that I do +not tremble with terror all the time. I say to myself all the +time,--there stands John Newton but for the preventing grace of God. 'I +will not sit as a judge to try General Boulanger, because I hate him,' +said M. Renault in the French Senate. Mr. Humble himself could not have +made a better speech to the bench than that when his name was called to +be sworn. Let us all remember John Newton and M. Renault when we would +begin to write or to speak about any arrested, accused, found-out man. +Let other men's arrests, humiliations, accusations, and sentences only +make us search well our own past, and that will make us ever humbler and +ever humbler men ourselves; ever more penitent men, and ever more +prayerful men. + +2. And then Miss Humble-mind, his only daughter, was a servant-maid. +There is no office so humble but that a humble mind will not put on still +more humility in it. What a lesson in humility, not Peter only got that +night in the upper room, but that happy servant-maid also who brought in +the bason and the towel. Would she ever after that night grumble and +give up her place in a passion because she had been asked to do what was +beneath her to do? Would she ever leave that house for any wages? Would +she ever see that bason without kissing it? Would that towel not be a +holy thing ever after in her proud eyes? How happy that house would ever +after that night be, not so much because the Lord's Supper had been +instituted in it, as because a servant was in it who had learned humility +as she went about the house that night. Let all our servants hold up +their heads and magnify their office. Their Master was once a servant, +and He left us all, and all servants especially, an example that they +should follow in His steps. Peter, whose feet were washed that night, +never forgot that night, and his warm heart always warmed to a servant +when he saw her with her bason and her towels, till he gave her half a +chapter to herself in his splendid First Epistle. 'Servants, be +subject,' he said, till his argument rose to a height above which not +even Paul himself ever rose. Servant-maids, you must all have your own +half-chapter out of First Peter by heart. + +3. But I have as many students of one kind or other here to-night as I +have maid-servants, and they will remember where a great student has said +that knowledge without love but puffeth a student up. Now, the best +knowledge for us all, and especially so for a student, is to know +himself: his own ignorance, his own foolishness, his blindness of mind, +and, especially, his corruption of heart. For that knowledge will both +keep him from being puffed up with what he already knows, and it will +also put him and keep him in the way of knowing more. Self-knowledge +will increase humility, and all the past masters both of science and of +religion will tell him that humility is the certain note of the true +student. You who are students all know _The Advancement of Learning_, +just as the servants sitting beside you all know the second chapter of +First Peter. Well, your master Verulam there tells you, and indeed on +every page of his, that it is only to a humble, waiting, childlike temper +that nature, like grace, will ever reveal up her secrets. 'There is +small chance of truth at the goal when there is not a childlike humility +at the starting-post.' Well, then, all you students who would fain get +to the goal of science, make the Church of Christ your starting-post. +Come first and come continually to the Christian school to learn +humility, and then, as long as your talents, your years, and your +opportunities hold out, both truth and goodness will open up to you at +every step. Every step will be a goal, and at every goal a new step will +open up. And God's smile and God's blessing, and all good men's love and +honour and applause will support and reward you in your race. And, +humble-minded to the truth herself, be, at the same time, humble-minded +toward all who like yourself are seeking to know and to do the truth. A +lately deceased student of nature was a pattern to all students as long +as he waited on truth in his laboratory; and even as long as he remained +at his desk to tell the world what he and other students had discovered +in their search. But when any other student in his search after truth +was compelled to cross that hitherto so exemplary student, he immediately +became as insolent as if he had been the greatest boor in the country. +Till, as he spat out scorn at all who differed from him we always +remembered this in A Kempis--'Surely, an humble husbandman that serveth +God is better than a proud philosopher that, neglecting himself, +laboureth to understand the course of the heavens. It is great wisdom +and perfection to esteem nothing of ourselves, and to think always well +and highly of others.' Students of arts, students of philosophy, +students of law, students of medicine, and especially, students of +divinity, be humble men. Labour in humility even more than in your +special science. Humility will advance you in your special science; +while, all the time, and at the end of time, she will be more to you than +all the other sciences taken together. And since I have spoken of A +Kempis, take this motto for all your life out of A Kempis, as the great +and good Fenelon did, and it will guide you to the goal: _Ama nescia et +pro nihilo reputari_. + +4. But of all the men in the whole world it is ministers who should +simply, as Peter says, be clothed with humility, and that from head to +foot. And, first as divinity students, and then as pastors and +preachers, we who are ministers have advantages and opportunities in this +respect quite peculiar and private to ourselves. For, while other +students are spending their days and their nights on the ancient classics +of Greece and Rome, the student who is to be a minister is buried in the +Psalms, in the Gospels, and in the Epistles. While the student of law is +deep in his commentaries and his cases, the student of divinity is deep +in the study of experimental religion. And while the medical student is +full of the diseases of animals and of men, the theological student is +absorbed in the holiness of the divine nature, and in the plague of the +human heart, and, especially, he is drowned deeper every day in his own. +And he who has begun a curriculum like that and is not already putting on +a humility beyond all other men had better lose no more time, but turn +himself at once to some other way of making his bread. The word of God +and his own heart,--yes; what a sure school of evangelical humility to +every evangelically-minded student is that! And, then, after that, and +all his days, his congregational communion-roll and his visiting-book. +Let no minister who would be found of God clothed and canopied over with +humility ever lose sight of his communion-roll and pastoral visitation- +book. I defy any minister to keep those records always open before him +and yet remain a proud man, a self-respecting, self-satisfied, +self-righteous man. For, what secret histories of his own folly, +neglect, rashness, offensiveness, hot-headedness, self-seeking, +self-pleasing vanity, now puffed up over one man, now cast down and full +of gloom over another, what self-flattery here, and what resentment and +retaliation there; and so on, as only his own eyes and his Divine +Master's eye can read between every diary line. What shame will cover +that minister as with a mantle when he thinks what the Christian ministry +might be made, and then takes home to himself what he has made it! Let +any minister shut himself in with his communion-roll and his visiting- +book before each returning communion season, and there will be one worthy +communicant at least in the congregation: one who will have little +appetite all that week for any other food but the broken Body and the +shed Blood of his Redeemer. But these are professional matters that the +outside world has nothing to do with and would not understand. Only, let +all young men who would have evangelical humility absolutely secured and +sealed to them,--let them come and be ministers. Just as all young men +who would have any satisfaction in life, any sense of work well done and +worthy of reward, any taste of a goal attained and an old age earned, let +them take to anything in all this world but the evangelical pulpit and +its accompanying pastorate. + +5. But humility is not a grace of the pulpit and the pastorate only. It +is not those who are separated by the Holy Ghost to study the word of God +and their own hearts all their life long only, who are called to put on +humility. All men are called to that grace. There is no acceptance with +God for any man without that grace. There is no approach to God for any +man without it. All salvation begins and ends in it. Would you, then, +fain possess it? Would you, then, fain attain to it? Then let there be +no mystery and no mistake made about it. Would any man here fain get +down to that deep valley where God's saints walk in the sweet shade and +lie down in green pastures? Well, I warrant him that just before him, +and already under his eye, there is a flight of steps cut in the hill, +which steps, if he will take them, will, step after step, take him also +down to that bottom. The whole face of this steep and slippery world is +sculptured deep with such submissive steps. Indeed, when a man's eyes +are once turned down to that valley, there is nothing to be seen anywhere +in all this world but downward steps. Look whichever way you will, there +gleams out upon you yet another descending stair. Look back at the way +you came up. But take care lest the sight turns you dizzy. Look at any +spot you once crossed on your way up, and, lo! every foot-print of yours +has become a descending step. You sink down as you look, broken down +with shame and with horror and with remorse. There are people, some +still left in this world, and some gone to the other world, people whom +you dare not think of lest you should turn sick and lose hold and hope. +There are places you dare not visit: there are scenes you dare not +recall. Lucifer himself would be a humble angel with his wings over his +face if he had a past like yours, and would often enough return to look +at it. And, then, not the past only, but at this present moment there +are people and things placed close beside you, and kept close beside you, +and you close beside them, on divine purpose just to give you continual +occasion and offered opportunity to practise humility. They are kept +close beside you just on purpose to humiliate you, to cut out your +descending steps, to lend you their hand, and to say to you: Keep near +us. Only keep your eye on us, and we will see you down! And then, if +you are resolute enough to look within, if you are able to keep your eye +on what goes on in your own heart like heart--beats, then, already, I +know where you are. You are under all men's feet. You are ashamed to +lift up your eyes to meet other men's eyes. You dare not take their +honest hands. You could tell Edwards himself things about humiliation +now that would make his terribly searching and humbling book quite tame +and tasteless. + +Come, then, O high-minded man, be sane, be wise. If you were up on a +giddy height, and began to see that certain death was straight and soon +before you, what would you do? You know what you would do. You would +look with all your eyes for such steps as would take you safest down to +the solid ground. You would welcome any hand stretched out to help you. +You would be most attentive and most obedient and most thankful to any +one who would assure you that this is the right way down. And you would +keep on saying to yourself--Once I were well down, no man shall see me up +here again. Well, my brethren, humiliation, humility, is to be learned +just in the same way, and it is to be learned in no other way. He who +would be down must just come down. That is all. A step down, and +another step down, and another, and another, and already you are well +down. A humble act done to-day, a humble word spoken to-morrow; +humiliation after humiliation accepted every day that you would at one +time have spurned from you with passion; and then your own vile, hateful, +unbearable heart-all that is ordained of God to bring you down, down to +the dust; and this last, your own heart, will bring you down to the very +depths of hell. And thus, after all your other opportunities and +ordinances of humility are embraced and exhausted, then the plunges, the +depths, the abysses of humility that God will open up in your own heart +will all work in you a meetness for heaven and a ripeness for its glory, +that shall for ever reward you for all that degradation and shame and +self-despair which have been to you the sure way and the only way to +everlasting life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--MASTER THINK-WELL, THE LATE AND ONLY SON OF OLD MR. +MEDITATION + + + 'As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.'--_A Proverb_. + +It was a truly delightful sight to see old Mr. Meditation and his only +son, our little Think-well, out among the woods and hedgerows of a summer +afternoon. Little Think-well was the son of his father's old age. That +dry tree used to say to himself that if ever he was intrusted with a son +of his own, he would make his son his most constant and his most +confidential companion all his days. And so he did. The eleventh of +Deuteronomy had become a greater and greater text to that childless man +as he passed the mid-time of his days. 'Therefore,' he used to say to +himself, as he walked abroad alone, and as other men passed him with +their children at their side--'Therefore ye shall teach them to your +children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when +thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. +And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and upon thy +gates.' And thus it was that, as the little lad grew up, there was no +day of all the seven that he so much numbered and waited for as was that +sacred day on which his father was free to take little Think-well by the +hand and lead him out to talk to him. 'No,' said an Edinburgh boy to his +mother the other day--'No, mother,' he said, 'I have no liking for these +Sunday papers with their poor stories and their pictures. I am to read +the Bible stories and the Bible biographies first.' He is not my boy. I +wish my boys were all like him. 'And Plutarch on week-days for such a +boy,' I said to his mother. How to keep a decent shred of the old +sanctification on the modern Sabbath-day is the anxious inquiry of many +fathers and mothers among us. My friend with her manly-minded boy, and +Mr. Meditation with little Think-well had no trouble in that matter. + + 'And once I said, + As I remember, looking round upon those rocks + And hills on which we all of us were born, + That God who made the Great Book of the world + Would bless such piety;-- + Never did worthier lads break English bread: + The finest Sunday that the autumn saw, + With all its mealy clusters of ripe nuts, + Could never keep those boys away from church, + Or tempt them to an hour of Sabbath breach, + Leonard and James!' + +Think-well and that mother's son. + +Old Mr. Meditation, the father, was sprung of a poor but honest and +industrious stock in the city. He had not had many talents or +opportunities to begin with, but he had made the very best of the two he +had. And then, when the two estates of Mr. Fritter-day and Mr. Let-good- +slip were sequestered to the crown, the advisers of the crown handed over +those two neglected estates to Mr. Meditation to improve them for the +common good, and after him to his son, whose name we know. The steps of +a good man are ordered of the Lord, and He delighteth in his way. I have +been young and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, +nor his seed begging bread. + +Now, this Think-well old Mr. Meditation had by Mrs. Piety, and she was +the daughter of the old Recorder. 'I am Thy servant,' said Mrs. Piety's +son on occasion all his days--'I am Thy servant and the son of Thine +handmaid.' And at that so dutiful acknowledgment of his a long +procession of the servants of God pass up before our eyes with their +sainted mothers leaning on the arms of their great sons. The Psalmist +and his mother, the Baptist and his mother, our Lord and His mother, the +author of the Fourth Gospel and his mother, Paul's son and successor in +the gospel and his mother and grandmother, the author of _The +Confessions_ and his mother; and, in this noble connection, I always +think of Halyburton and his good mother. And in this ennobling +connection you will all think of your own mother also, and before we go +any further you will all say, I also, O Lord, am Thy servant and the son +of Thine handmaid. 'Fathers and mothers handle children differently,' +says Jeremy Taylor. And then that princely teacher of the Church of +Christ Catholic goes on to tell us how Mrs. Piety handled her little +Think-well which she had borne to Mr. Meditation. After other things, +she said this every night before she took sleep to her tired eyelids, +this: 'Oh give me grace to bring him up. Oh may I always instruct him +with diligence and meekness; govern him with prudence and holiness; lead +him in the paths of religion and justice; never provoking him to wrath, +never indulging him in folly, and never conniving at an unworthy action. +Oh sanctify him in his body, soul, and spirit. Let all his thoughts be +pure and holy to the Searcher of hearts; let his words be true and +prudent before men; and may he have the portion of the meek and the +humble in the world to come, and all through Jesus Christ our Lord!' How +could a son get past a father and a mother like that? Even if, for a +season, he had got past them, he would be sure to come back. Only, their +young Think-well never did get past his father and his mother. + +There was not so much word of heredity in his day; but without so much of +the word young Think-well had the whole of the thing. And as time went +on, and the child became more and more the father of the man, it was seen +and spoken of by all the neighbours who knew the house, how that their +only child had inherited all his father's head, and all his mother's +heart, and then that he had reverted to his maternal grandfather in his +so keen and quick sense of right and wrong. All which, under whatever +name it was held, was a most excellent outfit for our young gentleman. +His old father, good natural head and all, had next to no book-learning. +He had only two or three books that he read a hundred times over till he +had them by heart. And as he sighed over his unlettered lot he always +consoled himself with a saying he had once got out of one of his old +books. The saying of some great authority was to this effect, that 'an +old and simple woman, if she loves Jesus, may be greater than our great +brother Bonaventure.' He did not know who Bonaventure was, but he always +got a reproof again out of his name. Think-well, to his father's immense +delight, was a very methodical little fellow, and his father and he had +orderly little secrets that they told to none. Little secret plans as to +what they were to read about, and think about, and pray about on certain +days of the week and at certain hours of the day and the night. You must +not call the father an old pedant, for the fact is, it was the son who +was the pedant if there was one in that happy house. The two intimate +friends had a word between them they called _agenda_. And nobody but +themselves knew where they had borrowed that uncouth word, what language +it was, or what it meant. Only in the old man's tattered pocket-book +there were things like this found by his minister after his death. +Indeed, in a museum of such relics this is still to be read under a glass +case, and in old Mr. Meditation's ramshackle hand: 'Monday, death; +Tuesday, judgment; Wednesday, heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, my past +life back to my youth; Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; Lord's day, +creation, salvation, and my own.--M.' And then, on an utterly illegible +page, this: 'Jesus, Thy life and Thy words are a perpetual sermon to me. +I meditate on Thee all the day. Make my memory a vessel of election. Let +all my thoughts be plain, honest, pious, simple, prudent, and charitable, +till Thou art pleased to draw the curtain and let me see Thyself, O +Eternal Jesu!' If I had time I could tell you more about Think-well's +quaint old father. But the above may be better than nothing about the +rare old gentleman. + +A great authority has said--two great authorities have said in their +enigmatic way, that a 'dry light is ever the best.' That may be so in +some cases and to some uses, but nothing can be more sure than this, that +the light that little Think-well got from his father's head was +excellently drenched in his mother's heart. The sweet moisture of his +mother's heart mixed up beautifully with his father's drier head and made +a fine combination in their one boy as it turned out. Her minister, +preaching on one occasion on my text for to-night, had said--and she had +such a memory for a sermon that she had never forgotten it, but had laid +it up in her heart on the spot--'As the philosopher's stone,' the old- +fashioned preacher had said, 'turns all metals into gold, as the bee +sucks honey out of every flower, and as the good stomach sucks out some +sweet and wholesome nourishment out of whatever it takes into itself, so +doth a holy heart, so far as sanctified, convert and digest all things +into spiritual and useful thoughts. This you may see in Psalm cvii. 43.' +And in her plain, silent, hidden, motherly way Mistress Piety adorned her +old minister's doctrine of the holy heart that he was always preaching +about, till she shared her soft and holy heart with her son, as his +father had shared his clear and deep, if too unlearned, head. + +We have one grandmother at least signalised in the Bible; but no +grandfather, so far as I remember. But amends are made for that in the +_Holy War_. For Think-well would never have been the man he became had +it not been for the old Recorder, his grandfather on his mother's side. +Some superficial people said that there was too much severity in the old +Recorder; but his grandson who knew him best, never said that. He was +the best of men, his grandson used to stand up for him, and say, I shall +never forget the debt I owe him. It was he who taught me first to make +conscience of my thoughts. Indeed, as for my secret thoughts, I had +taken no notice of them till that summer afternoon walk home from church, +when we sat down among the bushes and he showed me on the spot the way. +And I can say to his memory that scarce for one waking hour have I any +day forgotten the lesson. The lesson how to make a conscience, as he +said, of all my thoughts about myself and about all my neighbours. Such, +then, were Think-well's more immediate ancestors, and such was the +inheritance that they all taken together had left him. + +Think-well! Think-well! My brethren, what do you think, what do you +say, as you hear that fine name? I will tell you what I think and say. +If I overcome, and have that white stone given to me, and in that stone a +new name written which no man shall know saving he that receiveth it; and +if it were asked me here to-night what I would like my new name to be, I +would say on the spot, Let it be THINK-WELL! Let my new name among the +saved and the sanctified before the throne be THINK-WELL! As, O God, it +will be the bottomless pit to me, if I am forsaken of Thee for ever to my +evil thoughts. Send down and prevent it. Stir up all Thy strength and +give commandment to prevent it. Do Thou prevent it. For, after I have +done all,--after I have made all my overt acts blameless, after I have +tamed my tongue which no man can tame--all that only the more throws my +thoughts into a very devil's garden, a thicket of hell, a secret swamp of +sin to the uttermost. How, then, am I ever to attain to that white stone +and that shining name? And that in a world of such truth that every +man's name and title there shall be a strict and true and entirely +accurate and adequate description and exposition of the very thoughts and +intents and imaginations of his heart? How shall I, how shall you, my +brethren, ever have 'Think-well' written on our forehead?--Well, with God +all things are possible. With God, with a much meditating mind, and a +true and humble and tender heart, and a pure conscience, a conscience +void of offence, working together with Him--He, with all these +inheritances and all these environments working together with Him, will +at last enable us, you and me, to lift up such a clear and transparent +forehead. But not without our constant working together. We must +ourselves make head, and heart, and, especially, conscience of all our +thoughts--for a long lifetime we must do that. The _Ductor Dubitantium_ +has a deep chapter on 'The Thinking Conscience.' And what a reproof to +many of us lies in the mere name! For how much evil-thinking and evil- +speaking we have all been guilty of through our unthinking conscience and +through a zeal for God, but a zeal without knowledge. Look back at the +history of the Church and see; look back at your own history in the +Church and see. Yes, make conscience of your thoughts: but let it first +be an instructed conscience, a thinking conscience, a conscience full of +the best and the clearest light. And then let us also make ourselves a +new heart and a new spirit, as Ezekiel has it. For our hearts are +continually perverting and polluting and poisoning our thoughts. That is +a fearful thing that is said about the men on whom the flood soon came. +You remember what is said about them, and in explanation and +justification of the flood. God saw, it is said, that every imagination +of the thoughts of their hearts was evil, and only evil continually. +Fearful! Far more fearful than ten floods! O God, Thou seest us. And +Thou seest all the imaginations of the thoughts of our hearts. Oh give +us all a mind and a heart and a conscience to think of nothing, to fear +nothing, to watch and to pray about nothing compared with our thoughts. +'As for my secret thoughts,' says the author of the _Holy War_ and the +creator of Master Think-well--'As for my secret thoughts, I paid no +attention to them. I never knew I had them. I had no pain, or shame, or +guilt, or horror, or despair on account of them till John Gifford took me +and showed me the way.' And then when John Bunyan, being the man of +genius he was,--as soon as he began to attend to his own secret thoughts, +then the first faint outline of this fine portrait of Think-well began to +shine out on the screen of this great artist's imagination, and from that +sanctified screen this fine portrait of Think-well and his family has +shined into our hearts to-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--MR. GOD'S-PEACE, A GOODLY PERSON, AND A SWEET-NATURED +GENTLEMAN + + + 'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts,--the peace of God that + passeth all understanding.'--_Paul_. + +John Bunyan is always at his very best in allegory. In some other +departments of work John Bunyan has had many superiors; but when he lays +down his head on his hand and begins to dream, as we see him in some of +the old woodcuts, then he is alone; there is no one near him. We have +not a few greater divines in pure divinity than John Bunyan. We have +some far better expositors of Scripture than John Bunyan, and we have +some far better preachers. John Bunyan at his best cannot open up a deep +Scripture like that prince of expositors, Thomas Goodwin. John Bunyan in +all his books has nothing to compare for intellectual strength and for +theological grasp with Goodwin's chapter on the peace of God, in his +sixth book in _The Work of the Holy Ghost_. John Bunyan cannot set forth +divine truth in an orderly method and in a built-up body like John Owen. +He cannot Platonize divine truth like his Puritan contemporary, John +Howe. He cannot soar high as heaven in the beauty and the sweetness of +gospel holiness like Jonathan Edwards. He has nothing of the +philosophical depth of Richard Hooker, and he has nothing of the vast +learning of Jeremy Taylor. But when John Bunyan's mind and heart begin +to work through his imagination, then-- + + 'His language is not ours. + 'Tis my belief God speaks; no tinker hath such powers.' + +1. In the beginning of his chapter on 'Speaking peace,' Thomas Goodwin +tells his reader that he is going to fully couch all his intendments +under a metaphor and an allegory. But Goodwin's reader has read and re- +read the great chapter, and has not yet discovered where the metaphor and +the allegory came in and where they went out. But Bunyan does not need +to advertise his reader that he is going to couch his teaching in his +imagination. + + 'But having now my method by the end, + Still, as I pulled it came: and so I penned + It down; until at last it came to be + For length and breadth the bigness that you see.' + +The Blessed Prince, he begins, did also ordain a new officer in the town, +and a goodly person he was. His name was Mr. God's-peace. This man was +set over my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, the +subordinate preacher, Mr. Mind, and over all the natives of the town of +Mansoul. Himself was not a native of the town, but came with the Prince +from the court above. He was a great acquaintance of Captain Credence +and Captain Good-hope; some say they were kin, and I am of that opinion +too. This man, as I said, was made governor of the town in general, +especially over the castle, and Captain Credence was to help him there. +And I made great observation of it, that so long as all things went in +the town as this sweet-natured gentleman would have them go, the town was +in a most happy condition. Now there were no jars, no chiding, no +interferings, no unfaithful doings in all the town; every man in Mansoul +kept close to his own employment. The gentry, the officers, the +soldiers, and all in place, observed their order. And as for the women +and the children of the town, they followed their business joyfully. They +would work and sing, work and sing, from morning till night; so that +quite through the town of Mansoul now nothing was to be found but +harmony, quietness, joy, and health. And this lasted all the summer. I +shall step aside at this point and shall let Jonathan Edwards comment on +this sweet-natured gentleman and his heavenly name. 'God's peace has an +exquisite sweetness,' says Edwards. 'It is exquisitely sweet because it +has so firm a foundation on the everlasting rock. It is sweet also +because it is so perfectly agreeable to reason. It is sweet also because +it riseth from holy and divine principles, which, as they are the virtue, +so are they the proper happiness of man. This peace is exquisitely sweet +also because of the greatness of the good that the saints enjoy, being no +other than the infinite bounty and fulness of that God who is the +Fountain of all good. It is sweet also because it shall be enjoyed to +perfection hereafter.' An enthusiastic student has counted up the number +of times that this divine word 'sweetness' occurs in Edwards, and has +proved that no other word of the kind occurs so often in the author of +_True Virtue_ and _The Religious Affections_. And I can well believe it; +unless the 'beauty of holiness' runs it close. Still, this sweet-natured +gentleman will continue to live for us in his government and jurisdiction +in Mansoul and in John Bunyan even more than in Jonathan Edwards. + +2. 'Now Mr. God's-peace, the new Governor of Mansoul, was not a native +of the town; he came down with his Prince from the court above.' 'He was +not a native'--let that attribute of his be written in letters of gold on +every gate and door and wall within his jurisdiction. When you need the +governor and would seek him at any time or in any place in all the town +and cannot find him, recollect yourself where he came from: he may have +returned thither again. John Bunyan has couched his deepest instruction +to you in that single sentence in which he says, 'Mr. God's-peace was not +a native of the town.' John Bunyan has gathered up many gospel +Scriptures into that single allegorical sentence. He has made many old +and familiar passages fresh and full of life again in that one +metaphorical sentence. It is the work of genius to set forth the wont +and the well known in a clear, simple, and at the same time surprising, +light like that. There is a peace that is native and natural to the town +of Mansoul, and to understand that peace, its nature, its grounds, its +extent, and its range, is most important to the theologian and to the +saint. But to understand the peace of God, that supreme peace, the peace +that passeth all understanding,--that is the highest triumph of the +theologian and the highest wisdom of the saint. The prophets and the +psalmists of the Old Testament are all full of the peace that God gave to +His people Israel. My peace I give unto you, says our Lord also. Paul +also has taken up that peace that comes to us through the blood of +Christ, and has made it his grand message to us and to all sinful and sin- +disquieted men. And John Bunyan has shown how sure and true a successor +of the apostles of Christ he is, just in his portrait of this +sweet-natured gentleman who was not a native of Mansoul, but who came +from that same court from which Emmanuel Himself came. And it is just +this outlandishness of this sweet-natured gentleman; it is just this +heavenly origin and divine extraction of his that makes him sometimes and +in some things to surpass all earthly understanding. 'I am coming some +day soon,' said a divinity student to me the other Sabbath night, 'to +have you explain and clear up the atonement to me.' 'I shall be glad to +see you,' I said, 'but not on that errand.' No. Paul himself could not +do it. Paul said that the atonement and the peace of it passed all his +understanding. And John Bunyan says here that not the Prince only, but +his officer Mr. God's-peace also, was not native to the town of Mansoul, +but came straight down from heaven into that town--and what can the man +do who cometh after two kings like Paul and Bunyan? I have not forgotten +my Edwards where he says that the exquisite sweetness of this peace is +perfectly agreeable to reason. As, indeed, so it is. And yet, if reason +will have a clear and finished and all-round answer to all her +difficulties and objections and fault-findings, I fear she cannot have it +here. The time may come when our reason also shall be so enlarged, and +so sanctified, and so exalted, that she shall be able with all saints to +see the full mystery of that which in this present dispensation passeth +all understanding. But till then, only let God's peace enter our hearts +with God's Son, and then let our hearts say if that peace must not in +some high and deep way be according to the highest and the deepest +reason, since its coming into our hearts has produced in our hearts and +in our lives such reasonable, and right, and harmonious, and peaceful, +and every way joyful results. + +3. Governor God's-peace had not many in the town of Mansoul to whom he +could confide all his thoughts and with whom he could consult. But there +were two officer friends of his stationed in the town with whom he was +every day in close correspondence, viz., the Captain Credence and the +Captain Good-hope. Their so close intimacy will not be wondered at when +it is known that those three officers had all come in together with +Emmanuel the Conqueror. Those three young captains had done splendid +service, each at the head of his own battalion, in the days of the +invasion and the conquest of Mansoul, and they had all had their present +titles, and privileges, and lands, and offices, patented to them on the +strength of their past services. The Captain Credence had all along been +the confidential aide-de-camp and secretary of the Prince. Indeed, the +Prince never called Captain Credence a servant at all, but always a +friend. The Prince had always conveyed his mind about all Mansoul's +matters first to Captain Credence, and then that confidential captain +conveyed whatever specially concerned God's-peace and Good-hope to those +excellent and trusty soldiers. Credence first told all matters to God's- +peace and then the two soon talked over Good-hope to their mind and +heart. Some say that the three officers, Credence, God's-peace, and Good- +hope, were kin, adds our historian, and I, he adds, am of that opinion +too. And to back up his opinion he takes an extract out of the Herald's +College books which runs thus: 'Romans, fifteenth and thirteenth: Now, +the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may +abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' Some say the three +officers were of kin, and I am of that opinion too. + +4. On account both of his eminent services and his great abilities, the +Prince saw it good to set Mr. God's-peace over the whole town. And thus +it was that the governor's jurisdiction extended and held not only over +the people of the town, but also over all the magistrates and all the +other officers of the town, such as my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, +Mr. Recorder, Mr. Mind, and all. It needed all the governor's authority +and ability to keep his feet in his office over all the other rulers of +the town, but by far his greatest trouble always was with the Recorder. +Old Mr. Conscience, the Town Recorder, had a very difficult post to hold +and a very difficult part to play in that still so divided and still so +unsettled town. What with all those murderers and man-slayers, thieves +and prostitutes, skulkers and secret rebels, on the one hand, and with +Governor God's-peace and his so unaccountable and so autocratic ways, on +the other hand, the Recorder's office was no sinecure. All the +misdemeanours and malpractices of the town,--and they were happening +every day and every night,--were all reported to the Recorder; they were +all, so to say, charged home upon the Recorder, and he was held +responsible for them all; till his office was a perfect laystall and +cesspool of all the scum and corruption of the town. And yet, in would +come Governor God's-peace, without either warning or explanation, and +would demand all the Recorder's papers, and proofs, and affidavits, and +what not, it had cost him so much trouble to get collected and indorsed, +and would burn them all before the Recorder's face, and to his utter +confusion, humiliation, and silence. So autocratic, so despotic, so +absolute, and not-to-be-questioned was Governor God's-peace. The +Recorder could not understand it, and could barely submit to it; my Lord +Mayor could not understand it, and his clerk, Mr. Mind, would often +oppose it; but there it was: Mr. Governor God's-peace was set over them +all. + +5. But the thing that always in the long-run justified the governorship +of Mr. God's-peace, and reconciled all the other officers to his +supremacy, was the way that the city settled down and prospered under his +benignant rule. All the other officers admitted that, somehow, his +promotion and power had been the salvation of Mansoul. They all extolled +their Prince's far-seeing wisdom in the selection, advancement, and +absolute seat of Mr. God's-peace. And it would ill have become them to +have said anything else; for they had little else to do but bask in the +sun and enjoy the honours and the emoluments of their respective offices +as long as Governor God's-peace held sway, and had all things in the city +to his own mind. Now, it was on all hands admitted, as we read again +with renewed delight, that there were no jars, no chiding, no +interferings, no unfaithful doings in the town of Mansoul; but every man +kept close to his own employment. The gentry, the officers, the +soldiers, and all in place, observed their orders. And as for the women +and children, they all followed their business joyfully. They would work +and sing, work and sing, from morning till night, so that quite through +the town of Mansoul now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, +joy, and health. What more could be said of any governorship of any town +than that? The Heavenly Court itself, out of which Governor God's-peace +had come down, was not better governed than that. Harmony, quietness, +joy, and health. No; the New Jerusalem itself will not surpass that. +'And this lasted all that summer.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF MANSOUL, AND MR. CONSCIENCE ONE +OF HER PARISH MINISTERS + + + 'The Highest Himself shall establish her.'--_David_. + +The princes of this world establish churches sometimes out of piety and +sometimes out of policy. Sometimes their motive is the good of their +people and the glory of God, and sometimes their sole motive is to +buttress up their own Royal House, and to have a clergy around them on +whom they can count. Prince Emmanuel had His motive, too, in setting up +an establishment in Mansoul. As thus: When this was over, the Prince +sent again for the elders of the town and communed with them about the +ministry that He intended to establish in Mansoul. Such a ministry as +might open to them and might instruct them in the things that did concern +their present and their future state. For, said He to them, of +yourselves, unless you have teachers and guides, you will not be able to +know, and if you do not know, then you cannot do the will of My Father. +At this news, when the elders of Mansoul brought it to the people, the +whole town came running together, and all with one consent implored His +Majesty that He would forthwith establish such a ministry among them as +might teach them both law and judgment, statute and commandment, so that +they might be documented in all good and wholesome things. So He told +them that He would graciously grant their requests and would straightway +establish such a ministry among them. + +Now, I will not enter to-night on the abstract benefits of such an +Establishment. I will rather take one of the ministers who was presented +to one of the parishes of Mansoul, and shall thus let you see how that +State Church worked out practically in one of its ministers at any rate. +And the preacher and pastor I shall so take up was neither the best +minister in the town nor the worst; but, while a long way subordinate to +the best, he was also by no means the least. The Reverend Mr. Conscience +was our parish minister's name; his people sometimes called him The +Recorder. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, the Rev. Mr. Conscience was a native of +the same town in which his parish church now stood. I am not going to +challenge the wisdom of the patron who appointed his protege to this +particular living; only, I have known very good ministers who never got +over the misfortune of having been settled in the same town in which they +had been born and brought up. Or, rather, their people never got over +it. One excellent minister, especially, I once knew, whose father had +been a working man in the town, and his son had sometimes assisted his +father before he went to college, and even between his college sessions, +and the people he afterwards came to teach could never get over that. It +was not wise in my friend to accept that presentation in the +circumstances, as the event abundantly proved. For, whenever he had to +take his stand in his pulpit or in his pastorate against any of their +evil ways, his people defended themselves and retaliated on him by +reminding him that they knew his father and his mother, and had not +forgotten his own early days. No doubt, in the case of Emmanuel and +Mansoul and its minister, there were counterbalancing considerations and +advantages both to minister and people; but it is not always so; and it +was not so in the case of my unfortunate friend. + +Forasmuch, so ran the Prince's presentation paper, as he is a native of +the town of Mansoul, and thus has personal knowledge of all the laws and +customs of the corporation, therefore he, the Prince, presented Mr. +Conscience. That is to say, every man who is to be the minister of a +parish should make his own heart and his own life his first parish. His +own vineyard should be his first knowledge and his first care. And then +out of that and after that he will be able to speak to his people, and to +correct, and counsel, and take care of them. In Thomas Boston's +_Memoirs_ we continually come on entries like this: 'Preached on Ps. +xlii. 5, and mostly on my own account.' And, again, we read in the same +invaluable book for parish ministers, that its author did not wonder to +hear that good had been done by last Sabbath's sermon, because he had +preached it to himself and had got good to himself out of it before he +took it to the pulpit. Boston kept his eye on himself in a way that the +minister of Mansoul himself could not have excelled. Till, not in his +pulpit work only, but in such conventional, commonplace, and monotonous +exercises as his family worship, he so read the Scriptures and so sang +the psalms that his family worship was continually yielding him fruit as +well as his public ministry. As our family worship and our public +ministry will do, too, when we have the eye and the heart and the +conscience that Thomas Boston had. 'I went to hear a preacher,' said +Pascal, 'and I found a man in the pulpit.' Well, the parish minister of +Mansoul was a man, and so was the parish minister of Ettrick. And that +was the reason that the people of Simprin and Ettrick so often thought +that Boston had them in his eye. Good pastor as he was, he could not +have everybody in his eye. But he had himself in his eye, and that let +him into the hearts and the homes of all his people. He was a true man, +and thus a true minister. + +2. Both Boston and the minister of Mansoul were well-read men also; so, +indeed, in as many words, their fine biographies assure us. But that is +just another way of saying what has been said about those two ministers +over and over again already. William Law never was a parish minister. +The English Crown of that day would not trust him with a parish. But +what was the everlasting loss of some parish in England has become the +everlasting gain of the whole Church of Christ. Law's enforced seclusion +from outward ministerial activity only set him the more free to that +inward activity which has been such a blessing to so many, and to so many +ministers especially. And as to this of every minister being well read, +that master in Israel says: 'Above all, let me tell you that the book of +books to you is your own heart, in which are written and engraven the +deepest lessons of divine instruction. Learn, therefore, to be deeply +attentive to the presence of God in your own hearts, who is always +speaking, always instructing, always illuminating the heart that is +attentive to Him.' Jonathan Edwards called the poor parish minister of +Ettrick 'a truly great divine.' But Law goes on to say, 'A great divine +is but a cant expression unless it signifies a man greatly advanced in +the divine life. A great divine is one whose own experience and example +are a demonstration of the reality of all the graces and virtues of the +gospel. No divine has any more of the gospel in him than that which +proves itself by the spirit, the actions, and the form of his life: the +rest is but hypocrisy, not divinity.' Let all our parish ministers, +then, give themselves to this kind of reading. Let them all aim at a +doctor's degree in the divinity of their own hearts. + +3. We are done at last, and we are done for ever, in Scotland, with +patrons and with presenters; but I daresay our most Free Church people +would be quite willing to surrender their dear-bought franchise if the +old plan could even yet be made to work in all their parishes as it +worked in Mansoul. For not only was the presented minister in this case +a well-read man; he was also, what the best of the Scottish people have +always loved and honoured, a man, as this history testifies, with a +tongue as bravely hung as he had a head filled with judgment. In +Scotland we like our minister to have a tongue bravely hung, even when +that is proved to our own despite. When any minister, parish minister or +other, is seen to tune his pulpit, our respect for him is gone. The +Presbyterian pulpit has been proverbially hard to tune, and it will be an +ill day when it becomes easy. 'Here lies a man who had a brow for every +good cause.' So it was engraven over one of Boston's elders. And so is +it always: like priest, like people in the matter of the hang of the +minister's tongue and in the boldness of the elder's brow. + +'Bravely hung' is an ancient and excellent expression which has several +shades of meaning in Bunyan. But in the present instance its meaning is +modified and fixed by judgment. A bravely hung tongue; at the same time +the parish minister of Mansoul's tongue was not a loosely-hung tongue. It +was not a blustering, headlong, scolding, untamed tongue. The pulpit of +Mansoul was tuned with judgment. He who filled that pulpit had a head +filled with judgment. The ground of judgment is knowledge, and the +minister of Mansoul was a man of knowledge. It was his early and ever- +increasing knowledge of himself, and thus of other men; and then it was +his excellent judgment as to the use he was to make of that knowledge; it +was his sound knowledge what to say, when to say it, and how to say +it,--it was all this that decided his Prince to make him the minister of +Mansoul. How excellent and how rare a gift is judgment--judgment in +counsel, judgment in speech, and judgment in action! 'I am very little +serviceable with reference to public management,' writes the parish +minister of Ettrick, 'being exceedingly defective in ecclesiastical +prudence; but the Lord has given me a pulpit gift, not unacceptable: and +who knows what He may do with me in that way?' Who knows, indeed! Now, +there are many parish ministers who have a not unacceptable pulpit gift, +and yet who are not content with that, but are always burying that gift +in the earth and running away from it to attempt a public management in +which they are exceedingly and conspicuously defective. Now, why do they +do that? Is their pulpit and their parish not sphere and opportunity +enough for them? Mine is a small parish, said Boston, but then it is +mine. And a small parish may both rear and occupy a truly great divine. +Let those ministers, then, who are defective in ecclesiastical prudence +not be too much cast down. Ecclesiastical prudence is not in every case +the highest kind of prudence. The presbytery, the synod, and the +assembly are not any minister's first or best sphere. Every minister's +first and best sphere is his parish. And the presbytery is not the end +of the parish. The parish, the pastorate, and the pulpit are the end of +both presbytery and synod and assembly. As for the minister of Mansoul, +he was a well-read man, and also a man of courage to speak out the truth +at every occasion, and he had a tongue as bravely hung as he had a head +filled with judgment. + +4. But there was one thing about the parish pulpit of Mansoul that +always overpowered the people. They could not always explain it even to +themselves what it was that sometimes so terrified them, and, sometimes, +again, so enthralled them. They would say sometimes that their minister +was more than a mere man; that he was a prophet and a seer, and that his +Master seemed sometimes to stand and speak again in His servant. And +'seer' was not at all an inappropriate name for their minister, so far as +I can collect out of some remains of his that I have seen and some +testimonies that I have heard. There was something awful and overawing, +something seer-like and supernatural, in the pulpit of Mansoul. Sometimes +the iron chains in which the preacher climbed up into the pulpit, and in +which he both prayed and preached, struck a chill to every heart; and +sometimes the garment of salvation in which he shone carried all their +hearts captive. Some Sabbath mornings they saw it in his face and heard +it in his voice that he had been on his bed in hell all last night; and +then, next Sabbath, those who came back saw him descending into his +pulpit from his throne in heaven. + + 'Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-page + Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. + Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek + Is apter than thy tongue to tell thine errand.' + +If you think that I am exaggerating and magnifying the parish pulpit of +Mansoul, take this out of the parish records for yourselves. 'And now,' +you will read in one place, 'it was a day gloomy and dark, a day of +clouds and thick darkness with Mansoul. Well, when the Sabbath-day was +come he took for his text that in the prophet Jonah, "They that observe +lying vanities forsake their own mercy." And then there was such power +and authority in that sermon, and such dejection seen in the countenances +of the people that day that the like had seldom been heard or seen. The +people, when the sermon was done, were scarce able to go to their homes, +or to betake themselves to their employments the whole week after. They +were so sermon-smitten that they knew not what to do. For not only did +their preacher show to Mansoul its sin, but he did tremble before them +under the sense of his own, still crying out as he preached, Unhappy man +that I am! that I, a preacher, should have lived so senselessly and so +sottishly in my parish, and be one of the foremost in its transgressions! +With these things he also charged all the lords and gentry of Mansoul to +the almost distracting of them.' It was Sabbaths like that that made the +people of Mansoul call their minister a seer. + +5. And, then, there was another thing that I do not know how better to +describe than by calling it the true catholicity, the true humility, and +the true hospitality of the man. It is true he had no choice in the +matter, for in setting up a standing ministry in Mansoul Emmanuel had +done so with this reservation and addition. We have His very words. 'Not +that you are to have your ministers alone,' He said. 'For my four +captains, they can, if need be, and if they be required, not only +privately inform, but publicly preach both good and wholesome doctrine, +that, if heeded, will do thee good in the end.' Which, again, reminds me +of what Oliver Cromwell wrote to the Honourable Colonel Hacker at +Peebles. 'These: I was not satisfied with your last speech to me about +Empson, that he was a better preacher than fighter--or words to that +effect. Truly, I think that he that prays and preaches best will fight +best. I know nothing that will give like courage and confidence as the +knowledge of God in Christ will. I pray you to receive Captain Empson +lovingly.' + +6. The standing ministry in Mansoul was endowed also; but I cannot +imagine what the court of teinds would make of the instrument of +endowment. As it has been handed down to us, that old ecclesiastical +instrument reads more like a lesson in the parish minister's class for +the study of Mysticism than a writing for a learned lord to adjudicate +upon. Here is the Order of Council: 'Therefore I, thy Prince, give thee, +My servant, leave and licence to go when thou wilt to My fountain, My +conduit, and there to drink freely of the blood of My grape, for My +conduit doth always run wine. Thus doing, thou shalt drive from thine +heart all foul, gross, and hurtful humours. It will also lighten thine +eyes, and it will strengthen thy memory for the reception and the keeping +of all that My Father's noble secretary will teach thee.' Thus the +Prince did put Mr. Conscience into the place and office of a minister to +Mansoul, and the chosen and presented man did thankfully accept thereof. + +(1) Now, there are at least three lessons taught us here. There is, to +begin with, a lesson to all those congregations who are about to choose a +minister. Let all those congregations, then, who have had devolved on +them the powers of the old patrons,--let them make their election on the +same principles that the Prince of Mansoul patronised. Let them choose a +probationer who, young though he must be, has the making of a seer in +him. Let them listen for the future seer in his most stammering prayers. +Somewhere, even in one service, his conscience will make itself heard, if +he has a conscience. Rather remain ten years vacant than call a minister +who has no conscience. The parish minister of Mansoul sometimes seemed +to be all conscience, and it was this that made his head so full of +judgment, his tongue so full of a brave boldness, and his heart so full +of holy love. Your minister may be an anointed bishop, he may be a +gowned and hooded doctor, he may be a king's chaplain, he may be the +minister of the largest and the richest and the most learned parish in +the city, but, unless he strikes terror and pain into your conscience +every Sabbath, unless he makes you tremble every Sabbath under the eye +and the hand of God, he is no true minister to you. As Goodwin says, he +is a wooden cannon. As Leighton says, he is a mountebank for a minister. + +(2) The second lesson is to all those who are politically enfranchised, +and who hold a vote for a member of Parliament. Now, crowds of +candidates and their canvassers will before long be at your door +besieging it and begging you for your vote for or against an Established +church. Well, before Parliament is dissolved, and the canvass commences, +look you well into your own heart and ask yourself whether or no the +Church of Christ has yet been established there. Ask if Jesus Christ, +the Head of the Church, has yet set up His throne there, in your heart. +Ask your conscience if His laws are recognised and obeyed there. Ask +also if His blood has been sprinkled there, and since when. And, if not, +then it needs no seer to tell you what sacrilege, what profanity it is +for you to touch the ark of God: to speak, or to vote, or to lift a +finger either for or against any church whatsoever. Intrude your wilful +ignorance and your wicked passions anywhere else. March up boldly and +vote defiantly on questions of State that you never read a sober line +about, and are as ignorant about as you are of Hebrew; but beware of +touching by a thousand miles the things for which the Son of God laid +down His life. Thrust yourself in, if you must, anywhere else, but do +not thrust yourself and your brutish stupidity and your fiendish tempers +into the things of the house of God. Let all parish ministers take for +their text that day 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7:--And when they came to Nachon's +threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took +hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled +against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died +by the ark of God. + +(3) There is a third lesson here, but it is a lesson for ministers, and +I shall take it home to myself. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--A FAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + 'Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all + the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your + God.'--_Joel_. + +In our soft and self-indulgent day the very word 'to fast' has become an +out-of-date and an obsolete word. We never have occasion to employ that +word in the living language of the present day. The men of the next +generation will need to have it explained to them what the Fast-days of +their fathers were: when they were instituted, how they were observed, +and why they were abrogated and given up. If your son should ever ask +you just what the Fast-days of your youth were like, you will do him a +great service, and he may live to recover them, if you will answer him in +this way. Show him how to take his Cruden and how to make a picture to +his opening mind of the Fast-days of Scripture. And tell him plainly for +what things in fathers and in sons those fasts were ordained of God. And +then for the Fast-days of the Puritan period let him read aloud to you +this powerful passage in the _Holy War_. Public preaching and public +prayer entered largely into the fasting of the Prophetical and the +Puritan periods; and John Bunyan, after Joel, has told us some things +about the Fast-day preaching of his day that it will be well for us, both +preachers and people, to begin with, and to lay well to heart. + +1. In the first place, the preaching of that Fast-day was 'pertinent' +and to the point. William Law, that divine writer for ministers, warns +ministers against going off upon Euroclydon and the shipwrecks of Paul +when Christ's sheep are looking up to them for their proper food. What, +he asks, is the nature, the direction, and the strength of that +Mediterranean wind to him who has come up to church under the plague of +his own heart and under the heavy hand of God? You may be sure that +Boanerges did not lecture that Fast-day forenoon in Mansoul on Acts +xxvii. 14. We would know that, even if we were not told what his text +that forenoon was. His text that never-to-be-forgotten Fast-day forenoon +was in Luke xiii. 7--'Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?' And a +very smart sermon he made upon the place. First, he showed what was the +occasion of the words, namely, because the fig-tree was barren. Then he +showed what was contained in the sentence, to wit, repentance or utter +desolation. He then showed also by whose authority this sentence was +pronounced. And, lastly, he showed the reasons of the point, and then +concluded his sermon. But he was very pertinent in the application, +insomuch that he made all the elders and all their people in Mansoul to +tremble. Sidney Smith says that whatever else a sermon may be or may not +be, it must be interesting if it is to do any good. Now, pertinent +preaching is always interesting preaching. Nothing interests men like +themselves. And pertinent preaching is just preaching to men about +themselves,--about their interests, their losses and their gains, their +hopes and their fears, their trials and their tribulations. Boanerges +took both his text and his treatment of his text from his Master, and we +know how pertinently The Master preached. His preaching was with such +pertinence that the one half of His hearers went home saying, Never man +spake like this man, while the other half gnashed at Him with their +teeth. Our Lord never lectured on Euroclydon. He knew what was in man +and He lectured and preached accordingly. And if we wish to have praise +of our best people, and of Him whose people they are, let us look into +our own hearts and preach. That will be pertinent to our people which is +first pertinent to ourselves. Weep yourself, said an old poet to a new +beginner; weep yourself if you would make me weep. 'For my own part,' +said Thomas Shepard to some ministers from his death-bed, 'I never +preached a sermon which, in the composing, did not cost me prayers, with +strong cries and tears. I never preached a sermon from which I had not +first got some good to my own soul.' + + 'His office and his name agree; + A shepherd that and Shepard he.' + +And many such entries as these occur in Thomas Boston's golden journal: +'I preached in Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly on my own account.' Again: +'Meditating my sermon next day, I found advantage to my own soul, as also +in delivering it on the Sabbath.' And again: 'What good this preaching +has done to others I know not, yet I think myself will not the worse of +it.' + +2. The preaching of that Fast-day was with great authority also. 'There +was such power and authority in that sermon,' reports one who was +present, 'that the like had seldom been seen or heard.' Authority also +was one of the well-remembered marks of our Lord's preaching. And no +wonder, considering who He was. But His ministers, if they are indeed +His ministers, will be clothed by Him with something even of His supreme +authority. 'Conscience is an authority,' says one of the most +authoritative preachers that ever lived. 'The Bible is an authority; +such is the Church; such is antiquity; such are the words of the wise; +such are hereditary lessons; such are ethical truths; such are historical +memories; such are legal saws and state maxims; such are proverbs; such +are sentiments, presages, and prepossessions.' Now, the well-equipped +preacher will from time to time plant his pulpit on all those kinds of +authority, as this kind is now pertinent and then that, and will, with +such a variety and accumulation of authority, preach to his people. +Thomas Boston preached at a certain place with such pertinence and with +such authority that it was complained of him by one of themselves that he +'terrified even the godly.' Let all our young preachers who would to old +age continue to preach with interest, with pertinence, and with +terrifying authority, among other things have by heart _The Memoirs of +Thomas Boston_, 'that truly great divine.' + +3. A third thing, and, as some of the people who heard it said of it, +the best thing about that sermon was that--'He did not only show us our +sin, but he did visibly tremble before us under the sense of his own.' +Now I know this to be a great difficulty with some young ministers who +have got no help in it at the Divinity Hall. Are they, they ask, to be +themselves in the pulpit? How far may they be themselves, and how far +may they be not themselves? How far are they to be seen to tremble +before their people because of their own sins, and how far are they to +bear themselves as if they had no sin? Must they keep back the passions +that are tearing their own hearts, and fill the forenoon with Euroclydon +and other suchlike sea-winds? How far are they to be all gown and bands +in the pulpit, and how far sackcloth and ashes? One half of their people +are like Pascal in this, that they like to see and hear a man in his +pulpit; but, then, the other half like only to see and hear a proper +preacher. 'He did not only show the men of Mansoul their sin, but he did +tremble before them under the sense of his own. Still crying out as he +preached to them, Unhappy man that I am! that I should have done so +wicked a thing! That I, a preacher, should be one of the first in the +transgression!' + +This you will remember was the Fast-day. And so truly had this preacher +kept the Fast-day that the Communion-day was down upon him before he was +ready for it. He was still deep among his sins when all his people were +fast putting on their beautiful garments. He was ready with the letter +of his action-sermon, but he was not equal to the delivery of it. His +colleague, accordingly, whose sense of sin was less acute that day, took +the public worship, while the Fast-day preacher still lay sick in his +closet at home and wrote thus on the ground: 'I am no more worthy to be +called Thy son,' he wrote. 'Behold me here, Lord, a poor, miserable +sinner, weary of myself, and afraid to look up to Thee. Wilt Thou heal +my sores? Wilt Thou take out the stains? Wilt Thou deliver me from the +shame? Wilt Thou rescue me from this chain of sin? Cut me not off in +the midst of my sins. Let me have liberty once again to be among Thy +redeemed ones, eating and drinking at Thy table. But, O my God, to-day I +am an unclean worm, a dead dog, a dead carcass, deservedly cast out from +the society of Thy saints. But oh, suffer me so much as to look to the +place where Thy people meet and where Thine honour dwelleth. Reject not +the sacrifice of a broken heart, but come and speak to me in my secret +place. O God, let me never see such another day as this is. Let me +never be again so full of guilt as to have to run away from Thy presence +and to flee from before Thy people.' He printed more than that, in blood +and in tears, before God that Communion-morning, but that is enough for +my purpose. Now, would you choose a dead dog like that to be your +minister? To baptize and admit your children and to marry them when they +grow up? To mount your pulpits every Sabbath-day, and to come to your +houses every week-day? Not, I feel sure, if you could help it! Not if +you knew it! Not if there was a minister of proper pulpit manners and a +well-ordered mind within a Sabbath-day's journey! 'Like priest like +people,' says Hosea. 'The congregation and the minister are one,' says +Dr. Parker. 'There are men we could not sit still and hear; they are not +the proper ministers for us. There are other men we could hear always, +because they are our kith and our kin from before the foundation of the +world.' Happy the hearer who has hit on a minister like the minister of +Mansoul, and who has discovered in him his everlasting kith and kin. And +happy the minister who, owning kith and kin with Boanerges, has two or +three or even one member in his congregation who likes his minister best +when he likes himself worst. + +But what about the fasting all this time? Was it all preaching, and was +there no fasting? Well, we do not know much about the fasting of the +prophets and the apostles, but the Puritans sometimes made their people +almost forget about fasting, and about eating and drinking too, they so +took possession of their people with their incomparable preaching. I +read, for instance, in Calamy's _Life of John Howe_ that on the public +Fast-days, it was Howe's common way to begin about nine in the morning +and to continue reading, preaching, and praying till about four in the +afternoon. Henry Rogers almost worships John Howe, but John Howe's Fast- +days pass his modern biographers patience; till, if you would see a +nineteenth-century case made out against a seventeenth-century Fast-day, +you have only to turn to the author of _The Eclipse of Faith_ on the +author of _Delighting in God_. And, no doubt, when we get back our Fast- +days, we shall leave more of the time to reading pertinent books at home +and to secret fasting and to secret prayer, and shall enjoin our +preachers, while they are pertinent and authoritative in their sermons, +not to take up the whole day with their sermons even at their best. And +then, as to fasting, discredited and discarded as it is in our day, there +are yet some very good reasons for desiring its return and reinstatement +among us. Very good reasons, both for health and for holiness. But it +is only of the latter class of reasons that I would fain for a few words +at present speak. Well, then, let it be frankly said that there is +nothing holy, nothing saintly, nothing at all meritorious in fasting from +our proper food. It is the motive alone that sanctifies the means. It +is the end alone that sanctifies the exercise. If I fast to chastise +myself for my sin; if I fast to reduce the fuel of my sin; if I fast to +keep my flesh low; if I fast to make me more free for my best books, for +my most inward, spiritual, mystical books--for my Kempis, and my Behmen, +and my Law, and my Leighton, and my Goodwin, and my Bunyan, and my +Rutherford, and my Jeremy Taylor, and my Shepard, and my Edwards, and +suchlike; if I fast for the ends of meditation and prayer; if I fast out +of sympathy with my Bible, and my Saviour, and my latter end, and my +Father's house in heaven--then, no doubt, my fasting will be acceptable +with God, as it will certainly be an immediate means of grace to my +sinful soul. These altars will sanctify many such gifts. For, who that +knows anything at all about himself, about his own soul, and about the +hindrances and helps to its salvation from sin; who that ever read a page +of Scripture properly, or spent half an hour in that life which is hidden +in God--who of such will deny or doubt that fasting is superseded or +neglected to the sure loss of the spiritual life, to the sensible +lowering of the religious tone and temper, and to the increase both of +the lusts of the flesh and of the mind? It may perhaps be that the +institution of fasting as a church ordinance has been permitted to be set +aside in order to make it more than ever a part of each earnest man's own +private life. Perhaps it was in some ways full time that it should be +again said to us, 'Thou, when thou fastest, appear not unto men to fast.' +As also, 'Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to undo the heavy +burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? +Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the +outcast to thy house?' Let us believe that the form of the Fast-day has +been removed out of the way that the spirit may return and fashion a new +form for itself. And in the belief that that is so, let us, while +parting with our fathers' Fast-days with real regret--as with their +pertinent and pungent preaching--let us meantime lay in a stock of their +pertinent and pungent books, and set apart particular and peculiar +seasons for their sin-subduing and grace-strengthening study. + +The short is this. The one real substance and true essence of all +fasting is self-denial. And we can never get past either the supreme and +absolute duty of that, or the daily and hourly call to that, as long as +we continue to read the New Testament, to live in this life, and to +listen to the voice of conscience, and to the voice of God speaking to us +in the voice of conscience. Without strict and constant self-denial, no +man, whatever his experiences or his pretensions, is a disciple of Jesus +Christ, and secret fasting is one of the first, the easiest, and the most +elementary exercises of New Testament self-denial. And, besides, the +lusts of our flesh and the lusts of our minds are so linked and locked +and riveted together that if one link is loosened, or broken, or even +struck at, the whole thrall is not yet thrown off indeed, but it is all +shaken; it has all received a staggering blow. So much is this the case +that one single act of self-denial in the region of the body will be felt +for freedom throughout the whole prison-house of the soul. And a victory +really won over a sensual sin is already a challenge sounded to our most +spiritual sin. And it is this discovery that has given to fasting the +place it has held in all the original, resolute, and aggressive ages of +the Church. With little or nothing in their Lord's literal teaching to +make His people fast, they have been so bent on their own spiritual +deliverance, and they have heard and read so much about the deliverances +both of body and of soul that have been attained by fasting and its +accompaniments, that they have taken to it in their despair, and with +results that have filled them in some instances with rapture, and in all +instances with a good conscience and with a good hope. You would wonder, +even in these degenerate days,--you would be amazed could you be told how +many of your own best friends in their stealthy, smiling, head-anointing, +hypocritical way deny themselves this and that sweetness, this and that +fatness, this and that softness, and are thus attaining to a strength, a +courage, and a self-conquest that you are getting the benefit of in many +ways without your ever guessing the price at which it has all been +purchased. Now, would you yourself fain be found among those who are in +this way being made strong and victorious inwardly and spiritually? Would +you? Then wash your face and anoint your head; and, then, not denying it +before others, deny it in secret to yourself--this and that sweet morsel, +this and that sweet meat, this and that glass of such divine wine. +Unostentatiously, ungrudgingly, generous-heartedly, and not ascetically +or morosely, day after day deny yourself even in little unthought-of +things, and one of the very noblest laws of your noblest life shall +immediately claim you as its own. That stealthy and shamefaced act of +self-denial for Christ's sake and for His cross's sake will lay the +foundation of a habit of self-denial; ere ever you are aware of what you +are doing the habit will consolidate into a character; and what you begin +little by little in the body will be made perfect in the soul; till what +you did, almost against His command and altogether without His example, +yet because you did it for His sake and in His service, will have placed +you far up among those who have forsaken all, and themselves also, to +follow Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God. Only, let this always be +admitted, and never for a moment forgotten, that all this is said by +permission and not of commandment. Our Lord never fasted as we fast. He +had no need. And He never commanded His disciples to fast. He left it +to themselves to find out each man his own case and his own cure. Let no +man, therefore, take fasting in any of its degrees, or times, or +occasions, on his conscience who does not first find it in his heart. At +the same time this may be said with perfect safety, that he who finds it +in his heart and then lays it on his conscience to deny himself anything, +great or small, for Christ's sake, and for the sake of his own +salvation,--he will never repent it. No, he will never repent it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--A FEAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + 'He brought me into his banqueting house.'--_The Song_. + +Emmanuel's feast-day in the Holy War excels in beauty and in eloquence +everything I know in any other author on the Lord's Supper. The Song of +Solomon stands alone when we sing that song mystically--that is to say, +when we pour into it all the love of God to His Church in Israel and all +Israel's love to God, and then all our Lord's love to us and all our love +back again to Him in return. But outside of Holy Scripture I know +nothing to compare for beauty, and for sweetness, and for quaintness, and +for tenderness, and for rapture, with John Bunyan's account of the feast +that Prince Emmanuel made for the town of Mansoul. With his very best +pen John Bunyan tells us how upon a time Emmanuel made a feast in +Mansoul, and how the townsfolk came to the castle to partake of His +banquet, and how He feasted them on all manner of outlandish food--food +that grew not in the fields of Mansoul; it was food that came down from +heaven and from His Father's house. They drank also of the water that +was made wine, and, altogether, they were very merry and at home with +their Prince. There was music also all the time at the table, and man +did eat angels' food, and had honey given him out of the rock. And then +the table was entertained with some curious and delightful riddles that +were made upon the King Himself, upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon His wars +and doings with Mansoul; till, altogether, the state of transportation +the people were in with their entertainment cannot be told by the very +best of pens. Nor did He, when they returned to their places, send them +empty away; for either they must have a ring, or a gold chain, or a +bracelet, or a white stone or something; so dear was Mansoul to Him now, +so lovely was Mansoul in His eyes. And, going and coming to the feast, O +how graciously, how lovingly, how courteously, and how tenderly did this +blessed Prince now carry it to the town of Mansoul! In all the streets, +gardens, orchards, and other places where He came, to be sure the poor +should have His blessing and benediction; yea, He would kiss them; and if +they were ill, He would lay His hands on them and make them well. And +was it not now something amazing to behold that in that very place where +Diabolus had had his abode, the Prince of princes should now sit eating +and drinking with all His mighty captains, and men of war, and +trumpeters, and with the singing men and the singing women of His +Father's court! Now did Mansoul's cup run over; now did her conduits run +sweet wine; now did she eat the finest of the wheat, and now drink milk +and honey out of the rock! Now she said, How great is His goodness, for +ever since I found favour in His eyes, how honourable have I ever been! + +1. Now, the beginning of it all was, and the best of it all was, that +Emmanuel Himself made the feast. Mansoul did not feast her Deliverer; it +was her Deliverer who feasted her. Mansoul, in good sooth, had nothing +that she had not first and last received, and it was far more true and +seemly and fit in every way that her Prince Himself should in His own way +and at His own expense seal and celebrate the deliverance, the freedom, +the life, the peace, and the joy of Mansoul. And, besides, what had +Mansoul to set before her Prince; or, for the matter of that, before +herself? Mansoul had nothing of herself. Mansoul was not sufficient of +herself for a single day. And how, then, should she propose to feast a +Prince? No, no! the thing was impossible. It was Emmanuel's feast from +first to last. Just as it was at the Lord's table in this house this +morning. You did not spread the table this morning for your Lord. You +did not make ready for your Saviour and then invite Him in. He invited +you. He said, This is My Body broken for you, and This is My Blood shed +for you; drink ye all of it. And had any one challenged you at the fence +door and asked you how one who could not pay his own debts or provide +himself a proper meal even for a single day, could dare to sit down with +such a company at such a feast as that, you would have told him that he +had not seen half your hunger and your nakedness; but that it was just +your very hunger and nakedness and homelessness that had brought you +here; or, rather, it was all that that had moved the Master of the feast +to send for you and to compel you to come here. There was nothing in +your mind and in your mouth more all this day than just that this is the +Lord's Supper, and that He had sent for you and had invited you, and had +constrained and compelled you to come and partake of it. It was the +Lord's Table to-day, and it will be still and still more His table on +that great Communion-Day when all our earthly communions shall be +accomplished and consummated in heaven. + +2. All that Mansoul did in connection with that great feast was to +prepare the place where Diabolus at one time had held his orgies and +carried on his excesses. Her Prince, Emmanuel, did all the rest; but He +left it to Mansoul to make the banqueting-room ready. When our Lord +would keep His last passover with His disciples, He said to Peter and +John, Go into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher +of water, and he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared. +There is some reason to believe that that happy man had been expecting +that message and had done his best to be ready for it. And now he was +putting the last touch to his preparations by filling the water-pots of +his house with fresh water; little thinking, happy man, that as long as +the world lasts that water will be holy water in all men's eyes, and +shall teach humility to all men's hearts. And, my brethren, you know +that all you did all last week against to-day was just to prepare the +room. For the room all last week and all this day was your own heart, +and not and never this house of stone and lime made with men's hands. You +swept the inner and upper room of your own heart. You swept it and +garnished its walls and its floors as much as in you lay. He, whose the +supper really was, told you that He would bring with Him what was to be +eaten and drunken to-day, while you were to prepare the place. And, next +to the very actual feast itself, and, sometimes, not next to it but equal +to it, and even before it and better than it, were those busy household +hours you spent, like the man with the pitcher, making the room ready. In +plain English, you had a communion before the Communion as you prepared +your hearts for the Communion. I shall not intrude into your secret +places and secret seasons with Christ before His open reception of you to- +day. But it is sure and certain that, just as you in secret entertained +Him in your mother's house and in the chambers of her that bare you, just +in that measure did He say to you openly before all the watchmen that go +about the city and before all the daughters of Jerusalem, Eat, O friends; +drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Yes; do you not think that the +man with the pitcher had his reward? He had his own thoughts as he +furnished, till it was quite ready, his best upper room and carried in +those pitchers of water, and handed down to his children in after days +the perquisite-skin of the paschal lamb that had been supped on by our +Lord and His disciples in his honoured house that night. Yes; was it not +amazing to behold that in that very place where sometimes Diabolus had +his abode, and had entertained his Diabolonians, the Prince of princes +should sit eating and drinking with His friends? Was it not truly +amazing? + +3. Now, upon the feasting-day He feasted them with all manner of +outlandish food--food that grew not in all the fields of Mansoul; it was +food that came down with His Father's court. The fields of Mansoul +yielded their own proper fruits, and fruits that were not to be despised. +But they were not the proper fruits for that day, neither could they be +placed upon that table. They are good enough fruits for their purpose, +and as far as they go, and for so long as they last and are in their +season. But our souls are such that they outlive their own best fruits; +their hunger and their thirst outlast all that can be harvested in from +their own fields. And thus it is that He who made Mansoul at first, and +who has since redeemed her, has out of His own great goodness provided +food convenient for her. He knows with what an outlandish life He has +quickened Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to +provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked the +children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round thing, as +small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not what it was. And +Moses said, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for +every man, according to the number of your persons. And the house of +Israel called the name thereof Manna, and the taste of it was like wafers +made with honey. He gave them of the corn of heaven to eat, and man did +eat in the wilderness angels' food. Your fathers did eat manna in the +wilderness, and are dead; but this is the bread of which if any man eat +he shall not die. And the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I +will give for the life of the world. And so outlandish, so supernatural, +and so full of heavenly wonder and heavenly mystery was that bread, that +the Jews strove among themselves over it, and could not understand it. +But, by His goodness and His truth to us this day, we have again, to our +spiritual nourishment and growth in grace, eaten the Flesh and drunk the +Blood of the Son of God; a meat that, as He who Himself is that meat has +said of it, is meat indeed and drink indeed--as, indeed, we have the +witness in ourselves this day that it is. They drank also of the water +that was made wine, and were very merry with Him all that day at His +table. And all their mirth was the high mirth of heaven; it was a mirth +and a gladness without sin, without satiety, and without remorse. + +4. There was music also all the while at the table, and the musicians +were not those of the country of Mansoul, but they were the masters of +song come down from the court of the King. 'I love the Lord,' they sang +in the supper room over the paschal lamb--'I love the Lord because He +hath heard my voice and my supplication. Because He hath inclined His +ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. What +shall I render to the Lord,' they challenged one another, 'for all His +benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and will call +upon the name of the Lord.' 'Sometimes imagine,' says a great devotional +writer with a great imagination--'Sometimes imagine that you had been one +of those that joined with our blessed Saviour as He sang an hymn. Strive +to imagine to yourself with what majesty He looked. Fancy that you had +stood by Him surrounded with His glory. Think how your heart would have +been inflamed, and what ecstasies of joy you would have then felt when +singing with the Son of God! Think again and again with what joy and +devotion you would have then sung had this really been your happy state; +and what a punishment you would have thought it to have then been silent. +And let that teach you how to be affected with psalms and hymns of +thanksgiving.' Yes; and it is no imagination; it was our own experience +only this morning and afternoon to join in a music that was never made in +this world, but which was as outlandish as was the meat which we ate +while the music was being made. + + 'Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, + And not forgetful be + Of all His gracious benefits + He hath bestow'd on thee. + + Who with abundance of good things + Doth satisfy thy mouth; + So that, ev'n as the eagle's age, + Renewed is thy youth.' + +The 103rd Psalm was never made in this world. Musicians far other than +those native to Mansoul made for us our Lord's-Table Psalm. + +5. And then, the riddles that were made upon the King Himself, and upon +Emmanuel His Son, and upon Emmanuel's wars and all His other doings with +Mansoul. And when Emmanuel would expound some of those riddles Himself, +oh! how they were lightened! They saw what they never saw! They could +not have thought that such rarities could have been couched in so few and +such ordinary words. Yea, they did gather that the things themselves +were a kind of portraiture, and that, too, of Emmanuel Himself. This, +they would say, this is the Lamb! this is the Sacrifice! this is the +Rock! this is the Door! and this is the Way! with a great many other +things. At Gaius's supper-table they sat up over their riddles and nuts +and sweetmeats till the sun was in the sky. And it would be midnight and +morning if I were to show you the answers to the half of the riddles. +Take one, for an example, and let it be one of the best for the communion- +day. 'In one rare quality of the orator,' says Hugh Miller, writing +about his adored minister, Alexander Stewart of Cromarty, 'Mr. Stewart +stood alone. Pope refers in his satires to a strange power of creating +love and admiration by just "touching the brink of all we hate." Now, +into this perilous, but singularly elective department, Mr. Stewart could +enter with safety and at will. We heard him, scarce a twelvemonth since, +deliver a discourse of singular power on the sin-offering as minutely +described by the divine penman in Leviticus. He described the +slaughtered animal--foul with dust and blood, its throat gashed across, +its entrails laid open and steaming in its impurity to the sun--a vile +and horrid thing, which no one could look on without disgust, nor touch +without defilement. The picture appeared too vivid; its introduction too +little in accordance with a just taste. But this pulpit-master knew what +he was all the time doing. "And that," he said, as he pointed to the +terrible picture, "that is SIN!" By one stroke the intended effect was +produced, and the rising disgust and horror transferred from the +revolting, material image to the great moral evil.' And, in like manner, +This is the LAMB! we all said over the mystical riddle of the bread and +the wine this morning. This is the SACRIFICE! This is the DOOR! This +is EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, and made sin for us! + +6. In one of his finest chapters, Thomas A Kempis tells us in what way +we are to communicate mystically: that is to say, how we are to keep on +communicating at all times, and in all places, without the intervention +of the consecrated sacramental elements. And John Bunyan, the sweetest +and most spiritual of mystics, has all that, too, in this same supreme +passage. Every day was a feast-day now, he tells us. So much so that +when the elders and the townsmen did not come to Emmanuel, He would send +in much plenty of provisions to them. Yea, such delicates would He send +them, and therewith would so cover their tables, that whosoever saw it +confessed that the like could not be seen in any other kingdom. That is +to say, my fellow-communicants, there is nothing that we experienced and +enjoyed in this house this day that we may not experience and enjoy again +to-morrow and every day in our own house at home. All the mystics worth +the noble name will tell you that all true communicating is always +performed and experienced in the prepared heart, and never in any upper +room, or church, or chapel, or new heaven, or new earth. The prepared +heart of every worthy communicant is the true upper room; it is the true +banqueting chamber; it is the true and the only house of wine. Our +Father's House itself, with its supper-table covered with the new wine of +the Kingdom--the best of it all will still be within you. Prepare +yourselves within yourselves, then, O departing and dispersing +communicants. Prepare, and keep yourselves always prepared. And as +often as you so prepare yourselves your Prince will come to you every +day, and will cat and drink with you, till He makes every day on earth a +day of heaven already to you. See if He will not; for, again and again, +He who keeps all His promises says that He will. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--EMMANUEL'S LIVERY + + + 'And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, + clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of + saints.'--_John_. + +The Plantagenet kings of ancient England had white and scarlet for their +livery; white and green was the livery of the Tudors; the Stuarts wore +red and yellow; while blue and scarlet colours adorn to-day the House of +Hanover. And the Prince of the kings of the earth, He has his royal +colours also, and His servants have their badge of honour and their +blazon also. Then He commanded that those who waited upon Him should go +and bring forth out of His treasury those white and glittering robes, +that I, He said, have provided and laid up in store for my Mansoul. So +the white garments were fetched out of the treasury and laid forth to the +eyes of the people. Moreover, it was granted to them that they should +take them and put them on, according, said He, to your size and your +stature. So the people were all put into white--into fine linen, clean +and white. Then said the Prince, This, O Mansoul, is My livery, and this +is the badge by which Mine are known from the servants of others. Yea, +this livery is that which I grant to all them that are Mine, and without +which no man is permitted to see My face. Wear this livery, therefore, +for My sake, and, also, if you would be known by the world to be Mine. +But now can you think how Mansoul shone! For Mansoul was fair as the +sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. + +White, then, and whiter than snow, is the very livery of heaven. A +hundred shining Scriptures could be quoted to establish that. In the +first year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and +visions of his head came to Daniel upon his bed. And, behold, the +Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of +his head like the pure wool. My beloved, sings the spouse in the Song, +is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether +lovely. Then, again, David in his penitence sings, Purge me with hyssop, +and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And what +is it that sets Isaiah at the head of all the prophets? What but this, +that he is the mouth-piece of such decrees in heaven as this: Though your +sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like +crimson, they shall be as wool. The angel, also, who rolled away the +stone from the door of the sepulchre was clothed in a long white garment. +Another evangelist says that his countenance was like lightning and his +raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did quake, and +became as dead men. But before that we read that Jesus was transfigured +before Peter and James and John on the Mount, and that His face did shine +as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And, then, the whole +Book of Revelation is written with a pen dipped in heavenly light. The +whole book is glistening with the whitest light till we cannot read it +for the brightness thereof. And the multitude that no man can number all +display themselves before our eyes, clothed with white robes and with +palms in their hands, so much so that we sink down under the greatness of +the glory, till One with His head and His hairs white like wool, as white +as snow, lays His hand upon us, and says to us, Fear not, for, behold, I +have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with +change of raiment. + + 'I also saw Mansoul clad all in white, + And heard her Prince call her His heart's delight, + I saw Him put upon her chains of gold, + And rings and bracelets goodly to behold. + What shall I say? I heard the people's cries, + And saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes, + I heard the groans and saw the joy of many; + Tell you of all, I neither will nor can I. + But by what here I say you well may see + That Mansoul's matchless wars no fable be.' + +'And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, +clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.' We +need no exegesis of that beautiful Scripture beyond that exegesis which +our own hearts supply. And if we did need that shining text to be +explained to us, to whom could we better go for its explanation than just +to John Bunyan? Well, then, in our author's _No Way to Heaven but by +Jesus Christ_, he says: 'This fine linen, in my judgment, is the works of +godly men; their works that spring from faith. But how came they clean? +How came they white? Not simply because they were the works of faith. +But, mark, they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of +the Lamb. And therefore they are before the throne of God. Yea, +therefore it is that their good works stand in such a place.' 'Nor must +we think it strange,' says John Howe, in his _Blessedness of the +Righteous_, 'that all the requisites to our salvation are not found +together in one text of Scripture. I conceive that imputed righteousness +is not here meant, but that righteousness which is truly subjected in a +child of God and descriptive of him. The righteousness of Him whom we +adore as made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God +in Him, that righteousness has a much higher sphere peculiar and +appropriate to itself. Though this of which we now speak is necessary +also to be both had and understood.' Emmanuel's livery, then, is the +righteousness of the saints. Emmanuel puts that righteousness upon all +His saints; while, at the same time, they put it on themselves; they work +it out for themselves, and for themselves they keep it clean. They work +it out, put it on, and keep it clean, and yet, all the time, it is not +they that do it, but it is Emmanuel that doeth it all in them. The truth +is, you must all become mystics before you will admit all the strange +truth that is told about Emmanuel's livery. For both heaven and earth +unite in this wonderful livery. Nature and grace unite in it. It is +woven by the gospel on the loom of the law--till, to tell you all that is +true about it, I neither can nor will I. Albert Bengel tells us that the +court of heaven has its own jealous and scrupulous etiquette; and our +court journalist and historian, John Bunyan, has supplied his favoured +readers with the very card of etiquette that was issued along with +Mansoul's coat of livery, and it is more than time that we had attended +to that card. + +1. The first item then in that etiquette-card ran in these set terms: +'First, wear these white robes daily, day by day, lest you should at some +time appear to others as if you were none of Mine.--Signed, EMMANUEL.' + +Now, we put on anew every morning the garments that we are to wear every +new day. We have certain pieces of clothing that we wear in the morning; +we have certain pieces that we wear when we are at our work; and, again, +we have certain other pieces that we put on when we go abroad in the +afternoon; and, yet again, certain other pieces that we array ourselves +in when we go out into society in the evening. After a night in which +Mercy could not sleep for blessing and praising God, they all rose in the +morning with the sun; but the Interpreter would have them tarry a while, +for, said he, you must orderly go from hence. Then said he to the +damsel, Take them, and have them into the garden to the bath. Then +Innocent the damsel took them, and had them into the garden, and brought +them to the bath. Then they went in and washed, yea, they and the boys +and all, and they came out of that bath, not only clean and sweet, but +also much enlivened and much strengthened in their joints. So when they +came in they looked fairer a deal than when they went out. Then said the +Interpreter to the damsel that waited upon those women, Go into the +vestry, and fetch out garments for these people. So she went and fetched +out white raiment and laid it down before him. And then he commanded +them to put it on. It was fine linen, white and clean. Now, therefore, +they began to esteem each other better than themselves. For, You are +fairer than I am, said one; and, You are more comely than I am, said +another. The children also stood amazed to see into what fashion they +had been brought. William Law--I thank God, I think, every day I live +for that good day to me on which He introduced me to His gifted and +saintly servant--well, William Law used every morning after his bath in +the morning to put on his livery, piece by piece, in order, and with +special prayer. The first piece that he put on, and he put it on every +new morning next his heart to wear it all the day next his heart, was +gratitude to God. And it was a real, feeling, active, and operative +gratitude that he so put on. On each new morning as it came, that good +man was full of new gratitude to God. For the sun new from his Almighty +Maker's hands he had gratitude. For his house over his head he had +gratitude. For his Bible and his spiritual books he had gratitude. For +his opportunities of reading and study, as also for ten o'clock in the +morning when the widows and orphans of King's Cliffe came to his window, +and so on. A grateful heart feeds itself to a still greater gratitude on +everything that comes to it. So it was with William Law, till he wakened +the maids in the rooms below with his psalms and his hymns as he went +into his vestry and put on his singing robes so early every morning. And +then, after his morning hours of study and devotion, Law had a piece of +livery that he always put on and never came downstairs to breakfast +without it. Other men might put on other pieces; he always clothed +himself next to gratitude with humility. Men differ, good men differ, +and Emmanuel's livery-men differ in what they put on, at what time, and +in what order. But that was William Law's way. You will learn more of +his way, and you will be helped to find out a like way for yourselves, if +you will become students of his incomparable books. You will find how he +put on charity, 1 Cor. thirteenth chapter; and then how, over all, he put +on the will of God; till, thus equipped and thus accoutred, he was able +to say, as it has seldom been said since it was first said, 'I put on +righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was to me as a robe and as +a diadem. The Almighty was then with me, and my children were about me. +When I washed my steps with butter, and when the rock poured me out +rivers of oil!' So much for that livery-man of Emmanuel, the author of +the _Christian Perfection_ and the _Spirit of Love_. As for the women's +vestry in the Interpreter's House, Matthew Henry saw the thirty-first +chapter of the Proverbs hung up on that vestry wall, and Christiana +making her morning toilet before it with Mercy beside her. Who would +find a virtuous woman, let him look before that looking-glass for her, +and he will be sure to find her and her daughters and her daughters-in- +law putting on their white raiment there. + +2. 'Secondly, keep your garments always white; for if they be soiled, it +is a dishonour to Me. I have a few names even in Sardis which have not +defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they +are worthy.' Even in Sardis, with every street and every house full of +soil and dishonour to the name of Christ, even in Sardis Emmanuel had +some of whom He could boast Himself. Would you not immensely like at the +last day to be one of those some in Sardis? Shall it not be splendid +when Sardis comes up for judgment to be among those few names that +Emmanuel shall then read out of His book, and when, at their few names, +two or three men shall step out into the light in His livery? Some of +you are in Sardis at this moment. Some of you are in a city, or in a +house in a city, where it is impossible to keep your garments clean. And +yet, no; nothing is impossible to Emmanuel and His true livery-men. Even +in that house where you are, Emmanuel will say over you, I have one there +who is thankful to My Father and to Me; thankful to singing every morning +where there is little, as men see, to sing for. There is one in that +house humble, where humility itself would almost become high-minded. And +meek, where Moses himself would have lost his temper. And submissive, +where rebelliousness would not have been without excuse. Mark these few +men for Mine, says Emmanuel. Mark them with the inkhorn for Mine. For +they shall surely be Mine in that day, and they shall walk with Me in +white, for they are worthy. + +3. 'Wherefore gird your garments well up from the ground.' A +well-dressed man, a well-dressed woman, is a beautiful sight. Not over- +dressed; not dressed so as to call everybody's attention to their dress; +but dressed decorously, becomingly, tastefully. Each several piece well +fitted on, and all of a piece, till it all looks as if it had grown by +nature itself upon the well-dressed wearer. Be like him--be like her--so +runs the third head of the etiquette-card. Be not slovenly and +disorderly and unseemly in your livery. Let not your livery be always +falling off, and catching on every bush and briar, and dropping into +every pool and ditch. Hold yourselves in hand, the instruction goes on. +Brace yourselves up. Have your temper, your tongue, your eyes, your +ears, and all your members in control. And then you will escape many a +rent and many a rag; many a seam and many a patch; many a soil and many a +stain. And then also you will be found walking abroad in comeliness and +at liberty, while others, less careful, are at home mending and washing +and ironing because they went without a girdle when you girt up your +garments well off the ground. Wherefore always gird well up the loins of +your mind. + +4. 'And, fourthly, lose not your robes, lest you walk naked and men see +your shame'; that is to say, the supreme shame of your soul. For there +is no other shame. There is nothing else in body or soul to be ashamed +about. There is a nakedness, indeed, that our children are taught to +cover; but the Bible is a book for men. And the only nakedness that the +Bible knows about or cares about is the nakedness of the soul. It was +their sudden soul-nakedness that chased Adam and Eve in among the trees +of the garden. And it is God's pity for soul-naked sinners that has made +Him send His Son to cry to us: 'I counsel thee,' He cries, 'to buy of Me +gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; white raiment, that +thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not +appear. Behold!' He cries in absolute terror, 'Behold! I come as a +thief! Blessed is he that walketh and keepeth his garments, lest he walk +naked, and they see his shame.' Were your soul to be stripped naked to +all its shame to-morrow; were all your past to be laid out absolutely +naked and bare, with all the utter nakedness of your inward life this +day; were all your secret thoughts, and all your stealthy schemes, and +all your mad imaginations, and all your detestable motives, and all your +hatreds like hell, and all your follies like Bedlam to be laid naked--I +suppose the horror of it would make you cry to the rocks and the +mountains to cover you this Sabbath night, or the weeds of the nearest +sea to wrap you down into its depths. It would be hell before the time +to you if your soul were suddenly to be stripped absolutely bare of its +ragged body, and naked of all the thin integuments of time, and were for +a single day to stand naked to its everlasting shame. And it is just +because Jesus Christ sees all that as sure as the judgment-day coming to +you, that He stands here to-night and calls to you: I counsel thee! I +counsel thee! Before it be too late, I again counsel thee! + +5. But the Prince Emmanuel is persuaded better things of all His livery- +men, though He thus speaks to them to put them on their guard. Yes, +sternly and severely and threateningly as He sometimes speaks, yet, in +spite of Himself, His real grace always breaks through at the last. And, +accordingly, his fifth command runs thus: But, it runs, if you should +sully them, if you should defile them, the which I am greatly unwilling +that you should, then speed you to that which is written in My law, that +yet you may stand, and not fall before Me and before My throne. Always +know this, that I have provided for thee an open fountain to wash thy +garments in. Look, therefore, that you wash often in that fountain, and +go not for an hour in defiled garments. Let not, therefore, My garments, +your garments, the garments that I gave thee be ever spotted by the +flesh. Keep thy garments always white, and let thy head lack no +ointment.--Signed in heaven, EMMANUEL. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--MANSOUL'S MAGNA CHARTA + + + 'A better covenant.'--_Paul_. + +Magna Charta is a name very dear to the hearts of the English people. +For, ever since that memorable day on which that noble instrument was +extorted from King John at the point of the sword, England has been the +pioneer to all the other nations of the earth in personal freedom, in +public righteousness, in domestic stability, and in foreign influence and +enterprise. Runnymede is a red-letter spot, and 1215 is a red-letter +year, not only in the history of England, but in the history of the whole +modern world. The keystone of all sound constitutional government was +laid at that place on that date, and by that great bridge not England +only, but after England the whole civilised world has passed over from +ages of bondage and oppression and injustice into a new world of personal +liberty and security, public equity and good faith, loyalty and peace. +All that has since been obtained, whether on the battle-field or on the +floor of Parliament, has been little more than a confirmation of Magna +Charta or an authoritative comment upon Magna Charta. And if every +subsequent law were to be blotted out, yet in Magna Charta the +foundations would still remain of a great state and a free people. 'Here +commences,' says Macaulay, 'the history of the English nation.' + +Now, after the Prince of Peace had subjugated the rebellious city of +Mansoul, He promulgated a proclamation and appointed a day wherein He +would renew their Charter. Yea, a day wherein he would renew and enlarge +their Charter, mending several faults in it, so that the yoke of Mansoul +might be made yet more easy to bear. And this He did without any desire +of theirs, even of His own frankness and nobleness of mind. So when He +had sent for and seen their old Charter, He laid it by and said, Now that +which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. An epitome, +therefore, of that new, and better, and more firm and steady Charter take +as follows: I do grant of Mine own clemency, free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness of all their wrongs, injuries, and offences done against My +Father, against Me, against their neighbours and themselves. I do give +them also My Testament, with all that is therein contained, for their +everlasting comfort and consolation. Thirdly, I do also give them a +portion of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in My Father's +heart and Mine. Fourthly, I do give, grant, and bestow upon them freely, +the world and all that is therein for their true good; yea, all the +benefits of life and death, of things present and things to come. Free +leave and full access also at all seasons to Me in My palace, there to +make known all their wants to Me; and I give them, moreover, a promise +that I shall hear and redress all their grievances. To them and to their +right seed after them, I hereby bestow all these grants, privileges, and +royal immunities. All this is but a lean epitome of what was that day +laid down in letters of gold and engraven on their doors and their castle +gates. And what joy, what comfort, what consolation, think you, did now +possess every heart in Mansoul! The bells rang out, the minstrels +played, the people danced, the captains shouted, the colours waved in the +wind, and the silver trumpets sounded, till every enemy inside and +outside of Mansoul was now glad to hide his head. + +Our constitutional authors and commentators are wont to take Magna Charta +clause by clause, and word by word, and letter by letter. They linger +lovingly and proudly over every jot and tittle of that splendid +instrument. And you will indulge me this Communion night of all nights +of the year if I expatiate still more lovingly and proudly on that great +Covenant which our Lord has sealed to us again to-day, and has written +again to-day on the walls of our hearts. Moses made haste as soon as the +old Charter was read over to him, and nothing shall delay us till we have +feasted our eyes, and our ears, and our hearts to-night on the contents +of this our new and better covenant. + +1. The first article of our Magna Charta is free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness of all the wrongs, injuries, and offences we have ever done +against God, against our Saviour, against our neighbour, and against +ourselves. The English nobles extorted their Charter from their +tyrannical king with their sword at his throat, and after he had signed +it, he cast himself on the ground and gnawed sticks and stones in his +fury, so mad was he at the men who had so humiliated him. 'They have set +four-and-twenty kings over my head,' he gnashed out. How different was +it with our Charter! For when we were yet enemies it was already drawn +out in our name. And after we had been subdued it would never have +entered our fearful hearts to ask for such an instrument. And, even now, +after we have entered into its liberty, how slow we are to believe all +that is written in our great Charter, and read to us every day out of it. +And who shall cast a stone at us for not easily believing all that is so +written and read? It is not so easy as you would think to believe in +free forgiveness for all the wrongs, injuries, and offences we have ever +done. When you try to believe it about yourselves, you will find how +hard it is to accept that covenant and always to keep your feet firm upon +it. That the forgiveness is absolutely free is its first great +difficulty. If it had cost us all we could ever do or suffer, both in +this world and in the world to come, then we could have come to terms +with our Prince far more easily; but that our forgiveness should be +absolutely free, it is that that so staggers us. When I was a little boy +I was once wandering through the streets of a large city seeing the +strange sights. I had even less Latin in my head that day than I had +money in my pocket. But I was hungry for knowledge and eager to see rare +and wonderful things. Over the door of a public institution, containing +a museum and other interesting things, I tried to read a Latin scroll. I +could not make out the whole of the writing; I could only make out one +word, and not even that, as the event soon showed. The word was +_gratia_, or some modification of _gratia_, with some still deeper words +engraven round about it. But on the strength of that one word I mounted +the steps and rang the bell, and asked the porter if I could see the +museum. He told me that the cost of admission was such and such. Little +as it was, it was too much for me, and I came down the steps feeling that +the Latin writing above the door had entirely deceived me. It has not +been the last time that my bad Latin has brought me to shame and +confusion of face. But Latin, or Greek, or only English, or not even +English, there is no deception and no confusion here. Forgiveness is +really of free grace. It costs absolutely nothing, the door is open; or, +if it is not open, then knock, and it shall be opened, without money and +without price. + +'Free and full.' I could imagine a free forgiveness which was not also +full. I could imagine a charter that would have run somehow thus: Free +forgiveness and full, up to a firmly fixed limit. Free and full +forgiveness for sins of ignorance and even of infirmity and frailty; for +small sins and for great sins, too, up to a certain age of life and stage +of guilt. Free and full forgiveness up to a certain line, and then, that +black line of reprobation, as Samuel Rutherford says. Indeed, it is no +imagination. I have felt oftener than once that I was at last across +that black line, and gone and lost for ever. But no-- + + 'While the lamp holds on to burn, + The greatest sinner may return.' + +'Free, full, and everlasting.' Pope Innocent the Third came to the +rescue of King John and issued a Papal bull revoking and annulling Magna +Charta. But neither king, nor pope, nor devil can revoke or annul our +new Covenant. It is free, full, and everlasting. If God be for us, who +can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? +Neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, shall +be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our +Lord. + +2. 'Free, full, and everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, the +injuries, and the offences you have done against My Father, Me, your +neighbours, and yourselves.' Now, out of all that let us fix upon +this--the wrongs and the injuries we have done to our neighbours. For, +as Calvin says somewhere, though our sins against the first table of the +law are our worst sins, yet our sins against the second table, that is, +against our neighbours, are far better for beginning a scrutiny with. So +they are. For our wrongs against our neighbours, when they awaken within +us at all, awaken with a terrible fury. Our wrongs against our +neighbours wound, and burden, and exasperate an awakened conscience in a +fearful way. We come afterwards to say, Against Thee, Thee only have I +sinned! But at the first beginning of our repentances it is the wrongs +we have done to our neighbours that drive us beside ourselves. What +neighbour of yours, then, have you so wronged? Name him; name her. You +avoid that name like poison, but it is not poison--it is life and peace. +More depends on your often recollecting and often pronouncing that +hateful name than you would believe. More depends upon it than your +minister has ever told you. And, then, in what did you so wrong him? +Name the wrong also. Give it its Bible name, its newspaper name, its +brutal, vulgar, ill-mannered name. Do not be too soft, do not be too +courtly with yourself. Keep your own evil name ever before you. When +you hear any other man outlawed and ostracised by that same name, say to +yourself: Thou, sir, art the man! Put out a secret and a painful skill +upon yourself. Have times and places and ways that nobody knows anything +about--not even those you have wronged; have times and places and ways +they would laugh to be told of, and would not believe it; times, I say, +and places and ways for bringing all those old wrongs you once did ever +and ever back to mind; as often back and as keen to your mind as they +come back to that other mind, which is still so full of the wrong. Even +if your victim has forgiven and forgotten you, never you forget him, and +never you forgive yourself when you again think of him. Welcome back +every sudden and sharp recollection of your wrong-doing. And make haste +at every such sudden recollection and fall down on the spot in a deeper +compunction than ever before. Do that as you would be a forgiven and +full-chartered soul. For, free and full and everlasting as God's +forgiveness is, you have no assurance that it is yours if you ever forget +your sin, or ever forgive yourself for having done it. 'Forgive +yourself,' says Augustine, 'and God will condemn you. But continually +arraign and condemn yourself, and God will forgive and acquit and justify +you.' + +3. 'I give also My holy law and testament, and all that therein is +contained, for their everlasting comfort and consolation.' This is not +the manner of men, O my God. Kind-hearted men comfort and console those +who have suffered injuries and wrongs at our hands, but the +kindest-hearted of men harden their hearts and set their faces like a +flint against us who have done the wrong. All Syria sympathised with +Esau for the loss of his birthright, but I do not read that any one came +to whisper one kind word to Jacob on his hard pillow. All the army +mourned over Uriah, but all the time David's moisture was dried up like +the drought of summer, and not even Nathan came to the King till he could +not help coming. All Jericho cried, Avenge us of our adversary! But it +was Jesus who looked up and saw Zaccheus and said: Zaccheus, come down; +make haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house. 'The +injuries they have done themselves also,' so runs the very first head of +our forgiveness covenant. Ah! yes; O my Lord, Thou knowest all things; +Thou knowest my heart. Thou knowest that irremediably as I have injured +other men, yet in injuring them I have injured myself much more. And +much as other men need restitution, reparation, and consolation on my +account, my God, Thou knowest that I need all that much more--ten +thousand times more. Oh, how my broken heart within me leaps up and +thanks Thee for that Covenant. Let me repeat it again to Thy praise: +'Full, free, and everlasting forgiveness of all wrongs, injuries, and +offences done by him against his neighbours and against himself.' Who, +who is a God, O my God, who is a God like unto Thee! + +4. 'I do also give them a portion of the self-same grace and goodness +that dwells in My Father's heart and Mine.' The self-same grace and +goodness, that is, that My Father and I have shown to them. That is to +say, we shall be made both willing and able to grant to all those men who +have wronged us the very same charter of forgiveness that we have had +granted to us of God. So that at all those times when we stand praying +for forgiveness we shall suspend that prayer till we have first forgiven +all our enemies, and all who have at any time and in any way wronged or +injured us. Even when we had the Communion cup at our lips to-day, you +would have seen us setting it down till we had first gone and been +reconciled to our brother. Yes, my brethren, you are His witnesses that +He has done it. He has taken you into His covenant till He has made you +both able and willing, both willing and able, to grant and to bequeath to +others, all that free, full, and everlasting forgiveness and love that He +has bequeathed to you. Till under the very last and supreme wrong that +your worst enemy can do to you and to yours, you are able and forward to +say: Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he has done. Forgive me +my debts, you will say, as I forgive my debtors. And always, as you +again say and do that, you will on the spot be made a partaker of the +Divine Nature, according to the heavenly Charter, 'I do also give them a +portion of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in My Father's +heart and in Mine.' + +5. 'I do also,' so Mansoul's Magna Charta travels on, 'I do also give, +grant, and bestow upon them freely the world and all that is therein for +their good; yea, I grant them all the benefits of life and of death, and +of things present and things to come.' What a magnificent Charter is +that! 'All things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the +world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are +yours.' What a superb Charter! Only, it is too high for us; we cannot +attain to it. Has any human being ever risen to anything like the full +faith, full assurance, and full victory of all that in this life? No; +the thing is impossible! Reason would fall off her throne. The heart of +a man would break with too much joy if he tried to enter into the full +belief of all that. No; it hath not entered into the heart of a still +sinful man what God hath chartered to them whom He loves. This world, +and all that therein is, and then all the coming benefits of life and of +death. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death? We +all drank in the answer to that with our mother's milk, but what is +behind the words of that answer no mortal tongue can yet tell. All are +yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Till, what joy, what +comfort, what consolation, think you, did now possess the hearts of the +men of Mansoul! The bells rang, the minstrels played, the people danced, +the captains shouted, the colours waved in the wind, and the silver +trumpets sounded. + +6. 'And till the glory breaks suddenly upon you, and as long as you yet +live in this life of free grace I shall give and grant you leave and free +access to Me in My palace at all seasons, there to make known all your +wants to Me; and I give you, moreover, a promise that I will hear and +redress all your grievances.' At all seasons; in season and out of +season. There to make known all your wants to Me. And all your +grievances. All that still grieves and vexes you. All your wrongs. All +your injuries. All that men can do to you. Let them do their worst to +you. My grace is sufficient for all your grievances. My goodness in you +shall make you more than a conqueror. I undertake to give you before you +have asked for it a heart full of free, full, and everlasting forgiveness +and forgetfulness of all that has begun to grieve you. No word or deed, +written or spoken, of any man shall be able to vex or grieve the spirit +that I shall put within you. You will immediately avenge yourselves of +your adversaries. You will instantly repay them all an hundredfold. For, +when thine enemy hungers, thou shalt feed him; when he is athirst, thou +shalt give him drink. For thou shalt not be overcome of evil, but thou +shalt overcome evil with good. + +7. 'All these grants, privileges, and immunities I bestow upon thee; +upon thee, I say, and upon thy right seed after thee.' O Almighty God, +our Heavenly Father, give us such a seed! Give us a seed right with +Thee! Smite us and our house with everlasting barrenness rather than +that our seed should not be right with Thee. O God, give us our +children. Give us our children. A second time, and by a far better +birth, give us our children to be beside us in Thy holy Covenant. For it +had been better we had never been born; it had been better we had never +been betrothed; it had been better we had sat all our days solitary +unless all our children are to be right with Thee. Let the day perish, +and the night wherein it was said, There is a man-child conceived. Let +that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above; neither let the +light shine upon it, unless all our house is yet to be right with God. O +my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, +O Absalom, my son, my son! But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, and +thus hast in Thyself a Father's heart. Hear us, then, for our children, +O our Father, for such of our children as are not yet right with Thee! In +season and out of season; we shall not go up into our bed; we shall not +give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids till we and all our +seed are right with Thee. And then how we and all our saved seed beside +us shall praise Thee and bless Thee above all the families on earth or in +heaven, and shall say: Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins +in His own blood, and hath bestowed upon us a free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness, and hath made us partakers of His Divine Nature, to Him be +our love and praise and service to all eternity. Amen and Amen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--EMMANUEL'S LAST CHARGE TO MANSOUL: CONCERNING THE +REMAINDERS OF SIN IN THE REGENERATE + + + 'Hold fast till I come.'--_Our Lord_. + +There are many fine things in Emmanuel's last charge to Mansoul, but by +far the best thing is the answer that He Himself there supplies to this +deep and difficult question,--to this question, namely, Why original sin +is still left to rage in the truly regenerate? Why does our Lord not +wholly extirpate sin in our regeneration? What can His reason be for +leaving their original sin to dwell in His best saints till the day of +their death? For, to use His own sad words about sin in His last charge, +nothing hurts us but sin. Nothing defiles and debases us but sin. Why, +then, does He not take our sin clean out of us at once? He could speak +the word of complete deliverance if He only would. Why, then, does He +not speak that word? That has been a mystery and a grief to all God's +saints ever since sanctification began to be. And the great interest and +the great value of Emmanuel's last charge to Mansoul stands in this, that +He here tells us, if not all, then at least some of His reasons for the +policy He pursues with us in our sanctification. Dost thou know, He +asks, as He stands on His chariot steps, surrounded with His captains on +the right hand and the left--Dost thou know why I at first did, and do +still, suffer sin to live and dwell and harbour in thy heart? And then, +after an _O yes_! for silence, the Prince began and thus proceeded: + +1. Dost thou ask at Me why I and My Father have seen it good to allow +the dregs of thy sinfulness still to corrupt and to rot in thine heart? +Dost thou ask why, amid so much in thee that is regenerate, there is +still so much more that is unregenerate? Why, while thou art, without +controversy, under grace, indwelling sin still so festers and so breaks +out in thee? Dost thou ask that? Then, attend, and before I go away to +come again I will try to tell thee, if, indeed, thou art able and willing +to bear it. Well, then, be silent while I tell thee that I have left all +that of thy original sin in thee to tempt thee, to try thee, to humble +thee, and to thrust, day and night, upon thee, what is still in thine +heart. To humble thee, take knowledge, take warning, and take +forethought. To make thee humble, and to keep thee humble. To hide +pride from thee, and to lay thee all thy days on earth in the dust of +death. I tell thee this day that in all thy past life I have ordered and +administered all My providences toward thee to humble thee and to prove +thee, and to make thee dust and ashes in thine own eyes. And I go away +to carry on from heaven this same intention of My Father's and Mine +toward thee. We shall try thee as silver is tried. We shall sift thee +as wheat is sifted. We shall search thee as Jerusalem is searched with +lighted candles. I tell thee the truth, I shall bend from heaven all My +power which My Father has given Me, and all My wisdom, and all My love, +and all My grace. What to do, dost thou think? What to do but to make +thee to know and to acknowledge the plague of thine own heart. The +deceitfulness, that is, the depth of wickedness, and the abominableness, +past all words, of thine own heart. I do not ascend to My Father, with +all things in My hand, to make thy seat soft, and thy cup sweet, and thy +name great, and thy seed multiplied. I have far other predestinations +before Me for thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and it +is to everlasting life that I am leading thee. And thou must let Me lead +thee through fire and through water if I am to lead thee to heaven at +last. I shall have to utterly kill all self-love out of thy heart, and +to plant all humility in its place. Many and dreadful discoveries shall +I have to make to thee of thy profane and inhuman self-love and +selfishness. Words will fail thee to confess all thy selfishness in thy +most penitent prayer. Thy towering pride of heart also, and thy so +contemptible vanity. As for thy vanity, I shall so overrule it that +double-minded men about thee shall make thee and thy vanity their sport, +their jest, and their prey. And I shall not leave thee, nor discharge +Myself of My work within thee, till I see thee loathing thyself and +hating thyself and gnashing thy teeth at thyself for thy envy of thy +brother, thy envy concerning his house, his wife and his man-servant, and +his maid-servant, and his ox, and his ass, and everything that is his. +Thou shalt find something in thee that shall allow thee to see thine +enemy prosper, but not thy friend. Something that shall keep thee from +thy sleep because of his talents, his name, his income, and his place +which I have given him above thee, beside thee, and always in thy sight. +It will be something also that shall make his sickness, his decay, his +defamation, and his death sweet to thee, and his prosperity and return to +life bitter to thee. Thou shalt have to confess something in +thyself--whatever its nature and whatever its name--something that shall +make thee miserable at good news, and glad and enlarged and full of life +at evil tidings. It will be something also that shall give a long life +in thy evil heart to anger, and to resentment, and to retaliation, and to +revenge. For after years and years thou shalt still have it in thine +heart to hate and to hurt that man and his house, because long ago he +left thy side, thy booth in the market, thy party in the state, and thy +church in religion. As I live, swore Emmanuel, standing up on the step +of His ascending chariot, I shall show thee thyself. I shall show thee +what an unclean heart is and a wicked. I shall teach to thee what all +true saints shudder at when they are let see the plague of their own +hearts. I shall show thee, as I live, how full of pride, and hate, and +envy, and ill-will a regenerate heart can be; and how a true-born man of +God may still love evil and hate good; may still rejoice in iniquity and +pine under the truth. I shall show thee, also, what thou wilt not as yet +believe, how thy best friend cannot trust his good name with thee; such a +sweet morsel to thee shall be the mote in his eye and the spot on his +praise. Yes, I shall show thee that I did not die on the cross for +nothing when I died for thee; when I went out to Calvary a shame and a +spitting, an outcast and a curse for thee! Thou shalt yet arise up and +fall down in thy sin and shalt justify all my thorns, and nails, and +spears, and the last drop of My blood for thee! Yea, thou shalt remember +all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the +wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in +thine heart, and whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. + +2. It is also, the still tarrying Prince proceeded--it is also to keep +thee wakeful and to make thee watchful. Now, what conceivable estate +could any man be put into even by his Maker and Redeemer more calculated +to call forth wakefulness and watchfulness than to have one half of his +heart new and the other half old? To have one half of his heart +garrisoned by the captains of Emmanuel, and the other half still full of +the spies and the scouts and the emissaries of hell? Nay, to have the +great bulk of his heart still full of sin and but a small part of his +heart here and there under grace and truth? Here is material for +fightings without and fears within with a vengeance! If it somehow suits +and answers God's deep purposes with His people to teach them +watchfulness in this life, then here is a field for watchfulness, a field +of divine depth and scope and opportunity. There used to be a divinity +question set in the schools in these terms: Where, in the regenerate, +hath sin its lodging-place? For that sin does still lodge in the +regenerate is too abundantly evident both from Scripture and from +experience. But where it so lodges is the question. The Dominican +monks, and some others, were of opinion that original sin is to be found +only in the inferior part of the soul, but not in the mind or the will. +Which, I suppose, we shall soon find contrary both to Scripture and +reason and experience. Old Andrew Gray speaks feelingly and no less +truly concerning the heart, when he says, 'I think,' he says, 'that if +all the saints since Adam's day, and who shall be to the end of the +world, had but one deceitful heart to guide they would misguide it.' What +a plot of God, then, it is to seat grace, a little saving grace, in the +midst of such a sea of corruption as a human heart is, and then to set a +sinful man to watch over that spark and to keep the boiling pollutions of +his own heart from extinguishing that spark! Well may Paul exclaim: Yea, +what carefulness it calls forth in us; yea, what indignation; yea, what +fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, what zeal; yea, what revenge! And, +knowing to what He has left our hearts, well may Emmanuel say to us from +His ascending steps, 'Watch ye, therefore; and what I say unto you, I say +unto all, Watch!' + +3. It is to keep thee watchful and to teach thee war also, the Prince +went on. Bishop Butler is about the last author that we would think of +going to for light on any deep and intricate question in the evangelical +and experimental life. But Butler is so deeply seen into much of the +heart of man, as also into many of the ways of God, that even here he has +something to say to the point. 'It is vain to object,' he says in his +sober and sobering way, 'that all this trouble and danger might have been +saved us by our being made at once the creatures and the characters which +we were to be. For we experience that what we are to be is to be the +effect of what we shall do. And that the conduct of nature is not to +save us trouble and danger, but to make us capable of going through +trouble and danger, and to put it upon us to do it.' The Apostle Peter +has the same teaching in a passage too little attended to, in which he +tells us that we are set here to work out our own salvation, and that our +salvation will just be what, with fear and trembling, or, as Butler says, +with trouble and danger, we work out. No man, let all men understand, is +to have his salvation thrust upon him. No man need expect to waken up at +the end of an idle, indifferent, inattentive life and find his salvation +superinduced upon all that. No man shall wear the crown of everlasting +life who has not for himself won it. As every man soweth to the Spirit +so also shall he reap. As a soldier warreth, so shall he hear it said to +him, Well done. And as a sinner keeps his heart with all diligence, and +holds it fast till his King comes, so shall he hear it said to him, Thou +hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many +things. If thy sins, then, are left in thee to teach thee war, O poor +saint of God, then take to thee the whole armour of God; thou knowest the +pieces of it, and where the armoury is, and, having done all, stand! + +4. And dost thou know, O Mansoul, that it is all to try thy love also? +Now, how, just how, do the remainders of sin in the regenerate try their +love? Why, surely, in this way. If we really loved sin at the deepest +bottom of our hearts, and only loved holiness on the surface, would we +not in our deepest hearts close with sin, give ourselves up to it, and +make no stand at all against it? Would we not in our deepest and most +secret hearts welcome it, and embrace it, look out for it with desire and +delight, and part with it with regret? But if, as a matter of fact, we +at our deepest and most hidden heart turn from sin, flee from it, fight +against it, rejoice when we are rid of it, and have horror at the return +of it,--what better proof than that could Christ and His angels have that +at bottom we are His and not the devil's? And that grace, at bottom, has +our hearts, and not sin; heaven, and not hell? The apostle's protesting +cry is our cry also; we also delight in the law of God after our most +inward man. For, after our saddest surprises into sin, after its worst +outbreaks and overthrows, such all the time were our reluctances, +recalcitrations, and resistances, that, swept away as we were, yet all +the time, and after it was again over, it was with some good conscience +that we said to Christ that He knew all things, and that He knew that we +loved Him. + + 'O benefit of ill! now I find true + That better is by evil still made better; + And ruined love, when it is built anew, + Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater, + So I return rebuked to my content, + And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.' + +Yes; it is a sure and certain proof how truly we love our dearest friend, +that, after all our envy and ill-will, yet it is as true as that God is +in heaven that, all the time, maugre the devil of self that remains in +our heart,--after he has done his worst--we would still pluck out our +eyes for our friend and shed our blood. I have no better proof to myself +of the depth and the divineness of my love to my friend than just this, +that I still love him and love him more tenderly and loyally, after +having so treacherously hurt him. And my heavenly friends and my earthly +friends, if they will still have me, must both be content to go into the +same bundle both of my remaining enmity and my increasing love; my +remainders of sin, and my slow growth in regeneration. So when they had +dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me +more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love +Thee. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, +lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love +Thee. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou +Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest +thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou +knowest that I love Thee! + +5. And, to sum up all--more than your humility, more than your +watchfulness, more than your prayerfulness, more than to teach you war, +and more than to try your love, the dregs and remainders of sin have been +left in your regenerate heart to exalt and to extol the grace of God. In +Emmanuel's very words, it has all been to make you a monument of God's +mercy. I put it to yourselves, then, ye people of God: does that not +satisfy you for a reason, and for an explanation, and for a justification +of all your shame and pain, and of all your bondage and misery and +wretchedness since you knew the Lord? Is there not a heart in you that +says, Yes! it was worth all my corruption and pollution and misery to +help to manifest forth and to magnify the glory of the grace of God? You +seize on Emmanuel's word that you are a monument of mercy. Somehow that +word pleases and reposes you. Yes, that is what out of all these post- +regeneration years you are. You would have been a monument to God's +mercy had you, like the thief on the cross, been glorified on the same +day on which you were first justified. But it will neither be the day of +your justification nor the day of your glorification that will make you +the greatest of all the monuments that shall ever be raised to the praise +of God's grace; it will be the days of your sanctification that will do +that. Paul was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious at his +conversion, but he had to be a lifetime in grace and an apostle above all +the twelve before he became the chiefest of sinners and the most wretched +of saints. And though your first forgiveness was, no doubt, a great +proof of the grace of God, yet it was nothing, nothing at all, to your +forgiveness to-day. You had no words for the wonder and the praise of +your forgiveness to-day. You just took to your lips the cup of salvation +and let that silent action speak aloud your monumental praise. You were +a sinner at your regeneration, else you would not have been regenerated. +But you were not then the chief of sinners. But now. Ah, now! Those +words, the chief of sinners, were but idle words in Paul's mouth. He did +not know what he was saying. For, what has horrified and offended other +men when it has been spoken with bated breath to them about envy, and +hate, and malice, and revenge, and suchlike remainders of hell, all that +has been a breath of life and hope to you. It has been to you as when +Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, heard a voice in the +darkness which proved to him that there was another sinner at the mouth +of hell besides himself. There is no text that comes oftener to your +mind than this, that whoso hateth his brother is a murderer; and, +communicant as you are, you feel and you know and you are sure that there +are many men lying in lime waiting the day of judgment to whom it would +be more tolerable than for you were it not that you are to be at that day +the highest monument in heaven or earth to the redeeming, pardoning, and +saving grace of God. Yes, this is the name that shall be written on you; +this is the name that shall be read on you of all who shall see you in +heaven; this name that Emmanuel pronounced over Mansoul that day from His +ascending chariot-steps, a very Spectacle of wonder, and a very Monument +of the mercy and the grace of God. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUNYAN CHARACTERS - THIRD SERIES*** + + +******* This file should be named 2308.txt or 2308.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/0/2308 + + + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk +from the 1895 Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier edition. + + + + + +BUNYAN CHARACTERS (THIRD SERIES) + +by Alexander Whyte + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE BOOK + + + +'--the book of the wars of the Lord.'--Moses. + +John Bunyan's Holy War was first published in 1682, six years +before its illustrious author's death. Bunyan wrote this great +book when he was still in all the fulness of his intellectual power +and in all the ripeness of his spiritual experience. The Holy War +is not the Pilgrim's Progress--there is only one Pilgrim's +Progress. At the same time, we have Lord Macaulay's word for it +that if the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist the Holy War would be +the best allegory that ever was written: and even Mr. Froude +admits that the Holy War alone would have entitled its author to +rank high up among the acknowledged masters of English literature. +The intellectual rank of the Holy War has been fixed before that +tribunal over which our accomplished and competent critics preside; +but for a full appreciation of its religious rank and value we +would need to hear the glad testimonies of tens of thousands of +God's saints, whose hard-beset faith and obedience have been +kindled and sustained by the study of this noble book. The +Pilgrim's Progress sets forth the spiritual life under the +scriptural figure of a long and an uphill journey. The Holy War, +on the other hand, is a military history; it is full of soldiers +and battles, defeats and victories. And its devout author had much +more scriptural suggestion and support in the composition of the +Holy War than he had even in the composition of the Pilgrim's +Progress. For Holy Scripture is full of wars and rumours of wars: +the wars of the Lord; the wars of Joshua and the Judges; the wars +of David, with his and many other magnificent battle-songs; till +the best known name of the God of Israel in the Old Testament is +the Lord of Hosts; and then in the New Testament we have Jesus +Christ described as the Captain of our salvation. Paul's powerful +use of armour and of armed men is familiar to every student of his +epistles; and then the whole Bible is crowned with a book all +sounding with the battle-cries, the shouts, and the songs of +soldiers, till it ends with that city of peace where they hang the +trumpet in the hall and study war no more. Military metaphors had +taken a powerful hold of our author's imagination even in the +Pilgrim's Progress, as his portraits of Greatheart and Valiant-for- +truth and other soldiers sufficiently show; while the conflict with +Apollyon and the destruction of Doubting Castle are so many sure +preludes of the coming Holy War. Bunyan's early experiences in the +great Civil War had taught him many memorable things about the +military art; memorable and suggestive things that he afterwards +put to the most splendid use in the siege, the capture, and the +subjugation of Mansoul. + +The Divine Comedy is beyond dispute the greatest book of personal +and experimental religion the world has ever seen. The consuming +intensity of its author's feelings about sin and holiness, the +keenness and the bitterness of his remorse, and the rigour and the +severity of his revenge, his superb intellect and his universal +learning, all set ablaze by his splendid imagination--all that +combines to make the Divine Comedy the unapproachable masterpiece +it is. John Bunyan, on the other hand, had no learning to be +called learning, but he had a strong and a healthy English +understanding, a conscience and a heart wholly given up to the life +of the best religion of his religious day, and then, by sheer dint +of his sanctified and soaring imagination and his exquisite style, +he stands forth the peer of the foremost men in the intellectual +world. And thus it is that the great unlettered religious world +possesses in John Bunyan all but all that the select and scholarly +world possesses in Dante. Both Dante and Bunyan devoted their +splendid gifts to the noblest of services--the service of +spiritual, and especially of personal religion; but for one +appreciative reader that Dante has had Bunyan has had a hundred. +Happy in being so like his Master in so many things, Bunyan is +happy in being like his unlettered Master in this also, that the +common people hear him gladly and never weary of hearing him. + +It gives by far its noblest interest to Dante's noble book that we +have Dante himself in every page of his book. Dante is taken down +into Hell, he is then led up through Purgatory, and after that +still up and up into the very Paradise of God. But that hell all +the time is the hell that Dante had dug and darkened and kindled +for himself. In the Purgatory, again, we see Dante working out his +own salvation with fear and trembling, God all the time working in +Dante to will and to do of His good pleasure. And then the +Paradise, with all its sevenfold glory, is just that place and that +life which God hath prepared for them that love Him and serve Him +as Dante did. And so it is in the Holy War. John Bunyan is in the +Pilgrim's Progress, but there are more men and other men than its +author in that rich and populous book, and other experiences and +other attainments than his. But in the Holy War we have Bunyan +himself as fully and as exclusively as we have Dante in the Divine +Comedy. In the first edition of the Holy War there is a +frontispiece conceived and executed after the anatomical and +symbolical manner which was so common in that day, and which is to +be seen at its perfection in the English edition of Jacob Behmen. +The frontispiece is a full-length likeness of the author of the +Holy War, with his whole soul laid open and his hidden heart +'anatomised.' Why, asked Wordsworth, and Matthew Arnold in our day +has echoed the question--why does Homer still so live and rule +without a rival in the world of letters? And they answer that it +is because he always sang with his eye so fixed upon its object. +'Homer, to thee I turn.' And so it was with Dante. And so it was +with Bunyan. Bunyan's Holy War has its great and abiding and +commanding power over us just because he composed it with his eye +fixed on his own heart. + + +My readers, I have somewhat else to do, +Than with vain stories thus to trouble you; +What here I say some men do know so well +They can with tears and joy the story tell . . . +Then lend thine ear to what I do relate, +Touching the town of Mansoul and her state: +For my part, I (myself) was in the town, +Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down. +Let no man then count me a fable-maker, +Nor make my name or credit a partaker +Of their derision: what is here in view +Of mine own knowledge, I dare say is true. + + +The characters in the Holy War are not as a rule nearly so clear- +cut or so full of dramatic life and movement as their fellows are +in the Pilgrim's Progress, and Bunyan seems to have felt that to be +the case. He shows all an author's fondness for the children of +his imagination in the Pilgrim's Progress. He returns to and he +lingers on their doings and their sayings and their very names with +all a foolish father's fond delight. While, on the other hand, +when we look to see him in his confidential addresses to his +readers returning upon some of the military and municipal +characters in the Holy War, to our disappointment he does not so +much as name a single one of them, though he dwells with all an +author's self-delectation on the outstanding scenes, situations, +and episodes of his remarkable book. + +What, then, are some of the more outstanding scenes, situations, +and episodes, as well as military and municipal characters, in the +book now before us? And what are we to promise ourselves, and to +expect, from the study and the exposition of the Holy War in these +lectures? Well, to begin with, we shall do our best to enter with +mind, and heart, and conscience, and imagination into Bunyan's +great conception of the human soul as a city, a fair and a delicate +city and corporation, with its situation, surroundings, privileges +and fortunes. We shall then enter under his guidance into the +famous and stately palace of this metropolitan city; a palace which +for strength might be called a castle, for pleasantness a paradise, +and for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the world. +The walls and the gates of the city will then occupy and instruct +us for several Sabbath evenings, after which we shall enter on the +record of the wars and battles that rolled time after time round +those city walls, and surged up through its captured gates till +they quite overwhelmed the very palace of the king itself. Then we +shall spend, God willing, one Sabbath evening with Loth-to-stoop, +and another with old Ill-pause, the devil's orator, and another +with Captain Anything, and another with Lord Willbewill, and +another with that notorious villain Clip-promise, by whose doings +so much of the king's coin had been abused, and another with that +so angry and so ill-conditioned churl old Mr. Prejudice, with his +sixty deaf men under him. Dear Mr. Wet-eyes, with his rope upon +his head, will have a fit congregation one winter night, and +Captain Self-denial another. We shall have another painful but +profitable evening before a communion season with Mr. Prywell, and +so we shall eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Emmanuel's +livery will occupy us one evening, Mansoul's Magna Charta another, +and her annual Feast-day another. Her Established Church and her +beneficed clergy will take up one evening, some Skulkers in Mansoul +another, the devil's last prank another, and then, to wind up with, +Emmanuel's last speech and charge to Mansoul from his chariot-step +till He comes again to accomplish her rapture. All that we shall +see and take part in; unless, indeed, our Captain comes in anger +before the time, and spears us to the earth when He finds us asleep +at our post or in the act of sin at it, which may His abounding +mercy forbid! + +And now take these three forewarnings and precautions. + +1. First:- All who come here on these coming Sabbath evenings will +not understand the Holy War all at once, and many will not +understand it at all. And little blame to them, and no wonder. +For, fully to understand this deep and intricate book demands far +more mind, far more experience, and far more specialised knowledge +than the mass of men, as men are, can possibly bring to it. This +so exacting book demands of us, to begin with, some little +acquaintance with military engineering and architecture; with the +theory of, and if possible with some practice in, attack and +defence in sieges and storms, winter campaigns and long drawn-out +wars. And then, impossible as it sounds and is, along with all +that we would need to have a really profound, practical, and at +first-hand acquaintance with the anatomy of the human subject, and +especially with cardiac anatomy, as well as with all the +conditions, diseases, regimen and discipline of the corrupt heart +of man. And then it is enough to terrify any one to open this book +or to enter this church when he is told that if he comes here he +must be ready and willing to have the whole of this terrible and +exacting book fulfilled and experienced in himself, in his own body +and in his own soul. + +2. And, then, you will not all like the Holy War. The mass of men +could not be expected to like any such book. How could the vain +and blind citizen of a vain and blind city like to be wakened up, +as Paris was wakened up within our own remembrance, to find all her +gates in the hands of an iron-hearted enemy? And how could her +sons like to be reminded, as they sit in their wine gardens, that +they are thereby fast preparing their city for that threatened day +when she is to be hung up on her own walls and bled to the white? +Who would not hate and revile the book or the preacher who +prophesied such rough things as that? Who could love the author or +the preacher who told him to his face that his eyes and his ears +and all the passes to his heart were already in the hands of a +cruel, ruthless, and masterful enemy? No wonder that you never +read the Holy War. No wonder that the bulk of men have never once +opened it. The Downfall is not a favourite book in the night- +gardens of Paris. + +3. And then, few, very few, it is to be feared, will be any better +of the Holy War. For, to be any better of such a terrible book as +this is, we must at all costs lay it, and lay it all, and lay it +all at once, to heart. We must submit ourselves to see ourselves +continually in its blazing glass. We must stoop to be told that it +is all, in all its terrors and in all its horrors, literally true +of ourselves. We must deliberately and resolutely set open every +gate that opens in on our heart--Ear-gate and Eye-gate and all the +gates of sense and intellect, day and night, to Jesus Christ to +enter in; and we must shut and bolt and bar every such gate in the +devil's very face, and in the face of all his scouts and orators, +day and night also. But who that thinks, and that knows by +experience what all that means, will feel himself sufficient for +all that? No man: no sinful man. But, among many other noble and +blessed things, the Holy War will show us that our sufficiency in +this impossibility also is all of God. Who, then, will enlist? +Who will risk all and enlist? Who will matriculate in the military +school of Mansoul? Who will submit himself to all the severity of +its divine discipline? Who will be made willing to throw open and +to keep open his whole soul, with all the gates and doors thereof, +to all the sieges, assaults, capitulations, submissions, +occupations, and such like of the war of gospel holiness? And who +will enlist under that banner now? + +'Set down my name, sir,' said a man of a very stout countenance to +him who had the inkhorn at the outer gate. At which those who +walked upon the top of the palace broke out in a very pleasant +voice, + + +'Come in, come in; +Eternal glory thou shalt win.' + + +We have no longer, after what we have come through, any such +stoutness in our countenance, yet will we say to-night with him who +had it, Set down my name also, sir! + + + +CHAPTER II--THE CITY OF MANSOUL AND ITS CINQUE PORTS + + + +'--a besieged city.'--Isaiah. + +Our greatest historians have been wont to leave their books behind +them and to make long journeys in order to see with their own eyes +the ruined sites of ancient cities and the famous fields where the +great battles of the world were lost and won. We all remember how +Macaulay made a long winter journey to see the Pass of +Killiecrankie before he sat down to write upon it; and Carlyle's +magnificent battle-pieces are not all imagination; even that +wonderful writer had to see Frederick's battlefields with his own +eyes before he could trust himself to describe them. And he tells +us himself how Cromwell's splendid generalship all came up before +him as he looked down on the town of Dunbar and out upon the ever- +memorable country round about it. John Bunyan was not a great +historian; he was only a common soldier in the great Civil War of +the seventeenth century; but what would we not give for a +description from his vivid pen of the famous fields and the great +sieges in which he took part? What a find John Bunyan's 'Journals' +and 'Letters Home from the Seat of War' would be to our historians +and to their readers! But, alas! such journals and letters do not +exist. Bunyan's complete silence in all his books about the +battles and the sieges he took his part in is very remarkable, and +his silence is full of significance. The Puritan soldier keeps all +his military experiences to work them all up into his Holy War, the +one and only war that ever kindled all his passions and filled his +every waking thought. But since John Bunyan was a man of genius, +equal in his own way to Cromwell and Milton themselves, if I were a +soldier I would keep ever before me the great book in which +Bunyan's experiences and observations and reflections as a soldier +are all worked up. I would set that classical book on the same +shelf with Caesar's Commentaries and Napier's Peninsula, and +Carlyle's glorious battle-pieces. Even Caesar has been accused of +too great dryness and coldness in his Commentaries, but there is +neither dryness nor coldness in John Bunyan's Holy War. To read +Bunyan kindles our cold civilian blood like the waving of a banner +and like the sound of a trumpet. + +The situation of the city of Mansoul occupies one of the most +beautiful pages of this whole book. The opening of the Holy War, +simply as a piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best +page of the Pilgrim's Progress itself, and what more can I say than +that? Now, the situation of a city is a matter of the very first +importance. Indeed, the insight and the foresight of the great +statesmen and the great soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing +more than in the sites they chose for their citadels and for their +defenced cities. Well, then, as to the situation of Mansoul, 'it +lieth,' says our military author, 'just between the two worlds.' +That is to say: very much as Germany in our day lies between +France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day lay +between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense +empires also. And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man +here who has a man's soul in his bosom that the two armed empires +that besiege his soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that +both Heaven and Hell would give their best blood and their best +treasure to subdue and to possess his soul. We do not value our +souls at all as Heaven and Hell value them. There are savage +tribes in Africa and in Asia who inhabit territories that are +sleeplessly envied by the expanding and extending nations of +Europe. Ancient and mighty empires in Europe raise armies, and +build navies, and levy taxes, and spill the blood of their bravest +sons like water in order to possess the harbours, and the rivers, +and the mountains, and the woods amid which their besotted owners +roam in utter ignorance of all the plots and preparations of the +Western world. And Heaven and Hell are not unlike those ancient +and over-peopled nations of Europe whose teeming millions must have +an outlet to other lands. Their life and their activity are too +large and too rich for their original territories, and thus they +are compelled to seek out colonies and dependencies, so that their +surplus population may have a home. And, in like manner, Heaven is +too full of love and of blessedness to have all that for ever shut +up within itself, and Hell is too full of envy and ill-will, and +thus there continually come about those contentions and collisions +of which the Holy War is full. And, besides, it is with Mansoul +and her neighbour states of Heaven and Hell just as it is with some +of our great European empires in this also. There is no neutral +zone, no buffer state, no silver streak between Mansoul and her +immediate and military neighbours. And thus it is that her +statesmen, and her soldiers, and even her very common-soldier +sentries must be for ever on the watch; they must never say peace, +peace; they must never leave for one moment their appointed post. + +And then, as for the wall of the city, hear our excellent +historian's own words about that. 'The wall of the town was well +built,' so he says. 'Yea, so fast and firm was it knit and compact +together that, had it not been for the townsmen themselves, it +could not have been shaken or broken down for ever. For here lay +the excellent wisdom of Him that builded Mansoul, that the walls +could never be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty adverse +potentate unless the townsmen gave their consent thereto.' Now, +what would the military engineers of Chatham and Paris and Berlin, +who are now at their wits' end, not give for a secret like that! A +wall impregnable and insurmountable and not to be sapped or mined +from the outside: a wall that could only suffer hurt from the +inside! And then that wonderful wall was pierced from within with +five magnificently answerable gates. That is to say, the gates +could neither be burst in nor any way forced from without. 'This +famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, out of +which to go; and these were made likewise answerable to the walls; +to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened or forced +but by the will and leave of those within. The names of the gates +were these: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate; in short, 'the five +senses,' as we say. + +In the south of England, in the time of Edward the Confessor and +after the battle of Hastings, there were five cities which had +special immunities and peculiar privileges bestowed upon them, in +recognition of the special dangers to which they were exposed and +the eminent services they performed as facing the hostile shores of +France. Owing to their privileges and their position, the 'Cinque +Ports' came to be cities of great strength, till, as time went on, +they became a positive weakness rather than a strength to the land +that lay behind them. Privilege bred pride, and in their pride the +Cinque Ports proclaimed wars and formed alliances on their own +account: piracies by sea and robberies by land were hatched within +their walls; and it took centuries to reduce those pampered and +arrogant ports to the safe and peaceful rank of ordinary English +cities. The Revolution of 1688 did something, and the Reform Bill +of 1832 did more to make Dover and her insolent sisters like the +other free and equal cities of England; but to this day there are +remnants of public shows and pageantries left in those old towns +sufficient to witness to the former privileges, power, and pride of +the famous Cinque Ports. Now, Mansoul, in like manner, has her +cinque ports. And the whole of the Holy War is one long and +detailed history of how the five senses are clothed with such power +as they possess; how they abuse and misuse their power; what +disloyalty and despite they show to their sovereign; what +conspiracies and depredations they enter into; what untold miseries +they let in upon themselves and upon the land that lies behind +them; what years and years of siege, legislation, and rule it takes +to reduce our bodily senses, those proud and licentious gates, to +their true and proper allegiance, and to make their possessors a +people loyal and contented, law-abiding and happy. + +The Apostle has a terrible passage to the Corinthians, in which he +treats of the soul and the senses with tremendous and overwhelming +power. 'Your bodies and your bodily members,' he argues, with +crushing indignation, 'are not your own to do with them as you +like. Your bodies and your souls are both Christ's. He has bought +your body and your soul at an incalculable cost. What! know ye not +that your body is nothing less than the temple of the Holy Ghost +which is in you, and ye are not any more your own? know ye not that +your bodies are the very members of Christ?' And then he says a +thing so terrible that I tremble to transcribe it. For a more +terrible thing was never written. 'Shall I then,' filled with +shame he demands, 'take the members of Christ and make them the +members of an harlot?' O God, have mercy on me! I knew all the +time that I was abusing and polluting myself, but I did not know, I +did not think, I was never told that I was abusing and polluting +Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, too awful thought. And yet, stupid +sinner that I am, I had often read that if any man defile the +temple of God and the members of Christ, him shall God destroy. O +God, destroy me not as I see now that I deserve. Spare me that I +may cleanse and sanctify myself and the members of Christ in me, +which I have so often embruted and defiled. Assist me to summon up +my imagination henceforth to my sanctification as Thine apostle has +here taught me the way. Let me henceforth look at my whole body in +all its senses and in all its members, the most open and the most +secret, as in reality no more my own. Let me henceforth look at +myself with Paul's deep and holy eyes. Let me henceforth seat +Christ, my Redeemer and my King, in the very throne of my heart, +and then keep every gate of my body and every avenue of my mind as +all not any more mine own but His. Let me open my eye, and my ear, +and my mouth, as if in all that I were opening Christ's eye and +Christ's ear and Christ's mouth; and let me thrust in nothing on +Him as He dwells within me that will make Him ashamed or angry, or +that will defile and pollute Him. That thought, O God, I feel that +it will often arrest me in time to come in the very act of sin. It +will make me start back before I make Christ cruel or false, a +wine-bibber, a glutton, or unclean. I feel at this moment as if I +shall yet come to ask Him at every meal, and at every other +opportunity and temptation of every kind, what He would have and +what He would do before I go on to take or to do anything myself. +What a check, what a restraint, what an awful scrupulosity that +will henceforth work in me! But, through that, what a pure, +blameless, noble, holy and heavenly life I shall then lead! What +bodily pains, diseases, premature decays; what mental remorses, +what shames and scandals, what self-loathings and what self- +disgusts, what cups bitterer to drink than blood, I shall then +escape! Yes, O Paul, I shall henceforth hold with thee that my +body is the temple of Christ, and that I am not my own, but that I +am bought with a transporting price, and can, therefore, do nothing +less than glorify God in my body and in my spirit which are God's. +'This place,' says the Pauline author of the Holy War--'This place +the King intended but for Himself alone, and not for another with +Him.' + +But, my brethren, lay this well, and as never before, to heart-- +this, namely, that when you thus begin to keep any gate for Christ, +your King and Captain and Better-self,--Ear-gate, or Eye-gate, or +Mouth-gate, or any other gate--you will have taken up a task that +shall have no end with you in this life. Till you begin in dead +earnest to watch your heart, and all the doors of your heart, as if +you were watching Christ's heart for Him and all the doors of His +heart, you will have no idea of the arduousness and the endurance, +the sleeplessness and the self-denial, of the undertaking. + + +'Mansoul! Her wars seemed endless in her eyes; +She's lost by one, becomes another's prize. +Mansoul! Her mighty wars, they did portend +Her weal or woe and that world without end. +Wherefore she must be more concern'd than they +Whose fears begin and end the self-same day.' + + +'We all thought one battle would decide it,' says Richard Baxter, +writing about the Civil War. 'But we were all very much mistaken,' +sardonically adds Carlyle. Yes; and you will be very much mistaken +too if you enter on the war with sin in your soul, in your senses +and in your members, with powder and shot for one engagement only. +When you enlist here, lay well to heart that it is for life. There +is no discharge in this war. There are no ornamental old +pensioners here. It is a warfare for eternal life, and nothing +will end it but the end of your evil days on earth. + + + +CHAPTER III--EAR-GATE + + + +'Take heed what ye hear.'--Our Lord in Mark. +'Take heed how you hear.'--Our Lord in Luke. + +This famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, +out at which to go, and these were made likewise answerable to the +walls--to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor +forced but by the will and leave of those within. 'The names of +the gates were these, Ear-gate, Eye-gate,' and so on. Dr. George +Wilson, who was once Professor of Technology in our University, +took this suggestive passage out of the Holy War and made it the +text of his famous lecture in the Philosophical Institution, and +then he printed the passage on the fly-leaf of his delightful book +The Five Gateways of Knowledge. That is a book to read sometime, +but this evening is to be spent with the master. + +For, after all, no one can write at once so beautifully, so +quaintly, so suggestively, and so evangelically as John Bunyan. +'The Lord Willbewill,' says John Bunyan, 'took special care that +the gates should be secured with double guards, double bolts, and +double locks and bars; and that Ear-gate especially might the +better be looked to, for that was the gate in at which the King's +forces sought most to enter. The Lord Willbewill therefore made +old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of +the ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty men, called +Deafmen; men advantageous for that service, forasmuch as they +mattered no words of the captain nor of the soldiers. And first +the King's officers made their force more formidable against Ear- +gate: for they knew that unless they could penetrate that no good +could be done upon the town. This done, they put the rest of their +men in their places; after which they gave out the word, which was, +Ye must be born again! And so the battle began. Now, they in the +town had planted upon the tower over Ear-gate two great guns, the +one called High-mind and the other Heady. Unto these two guns they +trusted much; they were cast in the castle by Diabolus's +ironfounder, whose name was Mr. Puff-up, and mischievous pieces +they were. They in the camp also did stoutly, for they saw that +unless they could open Ear-gate it would be in vain to batter the +wall.' And so on, through many allegorical, and, if sometimes +somewhat laboured, yet always eloquent, pungent, and heart-exposing +pages. + +With these for our text let us now take a rapid glance at what some +of the more Bunyan-like passages in the prophets and the psalms say +about the ear; how it is kept and how it is lost; how it is used +and how it is abused. + +1. The Psalmist uses a very striking expression in the 94th Psalm +when he is calling for justice, and is teaching God's providence +over men. 'He that planted the ear,' the Psalmist exclaims, 'shall +he not hear?' And, considering his church and his day, that is not +a bad remark of Cardinal Bellarmine on that psalm,--'the Psalmist's +word planted,' says that able churchman, 'implies design, in that +the ear was not spontaneously evolved by an act of vital force, but +was independently created by God for a certain object, just as a +tree, not of indigenous growth, is of set purpose planted in some +new place by the hand of man.' The same thing is said in Genesis, +you remember, about the Garden of Eden,--the Lord planted it and +put the man and the woman, whose ears he had just planted also, +into the garden to dress it and keep it. How they dressed the +garden and kept it, and how they held the gate of their ear against +him who squatted down before it with his innuendoes and his lies, +we all know to our as yet unrepaired, though not always +irreparable, cost. + +2. One would almost think that the scornful apostle had the Garden +of Eden in his eye when he speaks so bitterly to Timothy of a class +of people who are cursed with 'itching ears.' Eve's ears itched +unappeasably for the devil's promised secret; and we have all +inherited our first mother's miserable curiosity. How eager, how +restless, how importunate, we all are to hear that new thing that +does not at all concern us; or only concerns us to our loss and our +shame. And the more forbidden that secret is to us, and the more +full of inward evil to us--insane sinners that we are--the more +determined we are to get at it. Let any forbidden secret be in the +keeping of some one within earshot of us and we will give him no +rest till he has shared the evil thing with us. Let any specially +evil page be published in a newspaper, and we will take good care +that that day's paper is not thrown into the waste-basket; we will +hide it away, like a dog with a stolen bone, till we are able to +dig it up and chew it dry in secret. The devil has no need to +blockade or besiege the gate of our ear if he has any of his good +things to offer us. The gate that can only be opened from within +will open at once of itself if he or any of his newsmongers but +squat down for a moment before it. Shame on us, and on all of us, +for our itching ears. + +3. Isaiah speaks of some men in his day whose ears were 'heavy' +and whose hearts were fat, and the Psalmist speaks of some men in +his day whose ears were 'stopped' up altogether. And there is not +a better thing in Bunyan at his very best than that surly old churl +called Prejudice, so ill-conditioned and so always on the edge of +anger. By the devil's plan of battle old Prejudice was appointed +to be warder of Ear-gate, and to enable him to keep that gate for +his master he had sixty deaf men put under him, men most +advantageous for that post, forasmuch as it mattered not to them +what Emmanuel and His officers said. There could be no manner of +doubt who composed that inimitable passage. There is all the truth +and all the humour and all the satire in Old Prejudice that our +author has accustomed us to in his best pieces. The common people +always get the best literature along with the best religion in John +Bunyan. 'They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and +which will not hearken to the voice of charmers charming never so +wisely,' says the Psalmist, speaking about some bad men in his day. +Now, I will not stand upon David's natural history here, but his +moral and religious meaning is evident enough. David is not +concerned about adders and their ears, he is wholly taken up with +us and our adder-like animosity against the truth. Against what +teacher, then; against what preacher; against what writer; against +what doctrine, reproof, correction, has your churlish prejudice +adder-like shut your ear? Against what truth, human or divine, +have you hitherto stopped up your ear like the Psalmist's serpent? +To ask that boldly, honestly, and in the sight of God, at yourself +to-night, would end in making you the lifelong friend of some +preacher, some teacher, some soul-saving truth you have up till to- +night been prejudiced against with the rooted prejudice and the +sullen obstinacy of sixty deaf men. O God, help us to lay aside +all this adder-like antipathy at men and things, both in public and +in private life. Help us to give all men and all causes a fair +field and no favour, but the field and the favour of an open and an +honest mind, and a simple and a sincere heart. He that hath ears, +let him hear! + +4. As we work our way through the various developments and +vicissitudes of the Holy War we shall find Ear-gate in it and in +ourselves passing through many unexpected experiences; now held by +one side and now by another. And we find the same succession of +vicissitudes set forth in Holy Scripture. If you pay any attention +to what you read and hear, and then begin to ask yourselves fair in +the face as to your own prejudices, prepossessions, animosities, +and antipathies,--you will at once begin to reap your reward in +having put into your possession what the Scriptures so often call +an 'inclined' ear. That is to say, an ear not only unstopped, not +only unloaded, but actually prepared and predisposed to all manner +of truth and goodness. Around our city there are the remains, the +still visible tracks, of roads that at one time took the country +people into our city, but which are now stopped up and made wholly +impassable. There is no longer any road into Edinburgh that way. +There are other roads still open, but they are very roundabout, and +at best very up-hill. And then there are other roads so smooth, +and level, and broad, and well kept, that they are full of all +kinds of traffic; in the centre carts and carriages crowd them, on +the one side horses and their riders delight to display themselves, +and on the other side pedestrians and perambulators enjoy the sun. +And then there are still other roads with such a sweet and gentle +incline upon them that it is a positive pleasure both to man and +beast to set their foot upon them. And so it is with the minds and +the hearts of the men and the women who crowd these roads. Just as +the various roads are, so are the ears and the understandings, the +affections and the inclinations of those who walk and ride and +drive upon them. Some of those men's ears are impassably stopped +up by self-love, self-interest, party-spirit, anger, envy, and ill- +will,--impenetrably stopped up against all the men and all the +truths of earth and of heaven that would instruct, enlighten, +convict or correct them. Some men's minds, again, are not so much +shut up as they are crooked, and warped, and narrow, and full of +obstruction and opposition. Whereas here and there, sometimes on +horseback and sometimes on foot; sometimes a learned man walking +out of the city to take the air, and sometimes an unlettered +countryman coming into the city to make his market, will have his +ear hospitably open to every good man he meets, to every good book +he reads, to every good paper he buys at the street corner, and to +every good speech, and report, and letter, and article he reads in +it. And how happy that man is, how happy his house is at home, and +how happy he makes all those he but smiles to on his afternoon +walk, and in all his walk along the roads of this life. Never see +an I incline' on a railway or on a driving or a walking road +without saying on it before you leave it, 'I waited patiently for +the Lord, and He inclined His ear unto me and heard my cry. +Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call +upon Him as long as I live. Incline not my heart to any evil +thing, to practise wicked works with them that work iniquity. +Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. I +have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes alway, even unto +the end.' + +5. Shakespeare speaks in Richard the Second of 'the open ear of +youth,' and it is a beautiful truth in a beautiful passage. Young +men, who are still young men, keep your ears open to all truth and +to all duty and to all goodness, and shut your ears with an adder's +determination against all that which ruined Richard--flattering +sounds, reports of fashions, and lascivious metres. 'Our souls +would only be gainers by the perfection of our bodies were they +wisely dealt with,' says Professor Wilson in his Five Gateways. +'And for every human being we should aim at securing, so far as +they can be attained, an eye as keen and piercing as that of the +eagle; an ear as sensitive to the faintest sound as that of the +hare; a nostril as far-scenting as that of the wild deer; a tongue +as delicate as that of the butterfly; and a touch as acute as that +of the spider. No man ever was so endowed, and no man ever will +be; but all men come infinitely short of what they should achieve +were they to make their senses what they might be made. The old +have outlived their opportunity, and the diseased never had it; but +the young, who have still an undimmed eye, an undulled ear, and a +soft hand; an unblunted nostril, and a tongue which tastes with +relish the plainest fare--the young can so cultivate their senses +as to make the narrow ring, which for the old and the infirm +encircles things sensible, widen for them into an almost limitless +horizon.' + +Take heed what you hear, and take heed how you hear. + + + +CHAPTER IV--EYE-GATE + + + +'Mine eye affecteth mine heart.'--Jeremiah. + +'Think, in the first place,' says the eloquent author of the Five +Gateways of Knowledge, 'how beautiful the human eye is. The eyes +of many of the lower animals are, doubtless, very beautiful. You +must all have admired the bold, fierce, bright eye of the eagle; +the large, gentle, brown eye of the ox; the treacherous, green eye +of the cat, waxing and waning like the moon; the pert eye of the +sparrow; the sly eye of the fox; the peering little bead of black +enamel in the mouse's head; the gem-like eye that redeems the toad +from ugliness, and the intelligent, affectionate expression which +looks out of the human-like eye of the horse and dog. There are +many other animals whose eyes are full of beauty, but there is a +glory that excelleth in the eye of a man. We realise this best +when we gaze into the eyes of those we love. It is their eyes we +look at when we are near them, and it is their eyes we recall when +we are far away from them. The face is all but a blank without the +eye; the eye seems to concentrate every feature in itself. It is +the eye that smiles, not the lips; it is the eye that listens, not +the ear; it is the eye that frowns, not the brow; it is the eye +that mourns, not the voice. The eye sees what it brings the power +to see. How true is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a +ship where the landsman can see nothing. The Esquimaux can +distinguish a white fox among the white snow. The astronomer can +see a star in the sky where to others the blue expanse is unbroken. +The shepherd can distinguish the face of every single sheep in his +flock,' so Professor Wilson. And then Dr. Gould tells us in his +mystico-evolutionary, Behmen-and-Darwin book, The Meaning and the +Method of Life--a book which those will read who can and ought-- +that the eye is the most psychical, the most spiritual, the most +useful, and the most valued and cherished of all the senses; after +which he adds this wonderful and heart-affecting scientific fact, +that in death by starvation, every particle of fat in the body is +auto-digested except the cream-cushion of the eye-ball! So true is +it that the eye is the mistress, the queen, and the most precious, +to Creator and creature alike, of all the five senses. + +Now, in the Holy War John Bunyan says a thing about the ear, as +distinguished from the eye, that I cannot subscribe to in my own +experience at any rate. In describing the terrible war that raged +round Ear-gate, and finally swept up through that gate and into the +streets of the city, he says that the ear is the shortest and the +surest road to the heart. I confess I cannot think that to be the +actual case. I am certain that it is not so in my own case. My +eye is very much nearer my heart than my ear is. My eye much +sooner affects, and much more powerfully affects, my heart than my +ear ever does. Not only is my eye by very much the shortest road +to my heart, but, like all other short roads, it is cram-full of +all kinds of traffic when my ear stands altogether empty. My eye +is constantly crowded and choked with all kinds of commerce; whole +hordes of immigrants and invaders trample one another down on the +congested street that leads from my eye to my heart. Speaking for +myself, for one assault that is made on my heart through my ear +there are a thousand assaults successfully made through my eye. +Indeed, were my eye but stopped up; had I but obedience and courage +and self-mortification enough to pluck both my eyes out, that would +be half the cleansing and healing and holiness of my evil heart; or +at least, the half of its corruption, rebellion, and abominable +wickedness would henceforth be hidden from me. I think I can see +what led John Bunyan in his day and in this book to make that too +strong statement about the ear as against the eye; but it is not +like him to have let such an over-statement stand and continue in +his corrected and carefully finished work. The prophet Jeremiah, I +feel satisfied, would not have subscribed to what is said in the +Holy War in extenuation of the eye. That heart-broken prophet does +not say that it has been his ear that has made his head waters. It +is his eye, he says, that has so affected his heart. The Prophet +of the Captivity had all the Holy War potentially in his +imagination when he penned that so suggestive sentence. And the +Latin poet of experience, the grown-up man's own poet, says +somewhere that the things that enter by his eye seize and hold his +heart much more swiftly and much more surely than those things that +but enter by his ear. I shall continue, then, to hold by my text, +'Mine eye affecteth mine heart.' + +1. Turning then, to the prophets and proverb-makers of Israel, and +then to the New Testament for the true teaching on the eye, I come, +in the first place, on that so pungent saying of Solomon that 'the +eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.' Look at that born +fool, says Solomon, who has his eyes and his heart committed to him +to keep. See him how he gapes and stares after everything that +does not concern him, and lets the door of his own heart stand open +to every entering thief. London is a city of three million +inhabitants, and they are mostly fools, Carlyle once said. And let +him in this city whose eyes keep at home cast the first stone at +those foreign fools. I will wager on their side that many of you +here to-night know better what went on in Mashonaland last week +than what went on in your own kitchen downstairs, or in your own +nursery or schoolroom upstairs. Some of you are ten times more +taken up with the prospects of Her Majesty's Government this +session, and with the plots of Her Majesty's Opposition, than you +are with the prospects of the good and the evil, and the plots of +God and the devil, all this winter in your own hearts. You rise +early, and make a fight to get the first of the newspaper; but when +the minister comes in in the afternoon you blush because the +housemaid has mislaid the Bible. Did you ever read of the +stargazer who fell into an open well at the street corner? Like +him, you may be a great astronomer, a great politician, a great +theologian, a great defender of the faith even, and yet may be a +stark fool just in keeping the doors and the windows of your own +heart. 'You shall see a poor soul,' says Dr. Goodwin, 'mean in +abilities of wit, or accomplishments of learning, who knows not how +the world goes, nor upon what wheels its states turn, who yet knows +more clearly and experimentally his own heart than all the learned +men in the world know theirs. And though the other may better +discourse philosophically of the acts of the soul, yet this poor +man sees more into the corruption of it than they all.' And in +another excellent place he says: 'Many who have leisure and parts +to read much, instead of ballasting their hearts with divine truth, +and building up their souls with its precious words, are much more +versed in play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, and feigned +staves, which are but apes and peacocks' feathers instead of pearls +and precious stones. Foreign and foolish discourses please their +eyes and their ears; they are more chameleons than men, for they +live on the east wind.' + +2. 'If thine eye offend thee'--our Lord lays down this law to all +those who would enter into life--'pluck it out and cast it from +thee; for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, +rather than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.' Does +your eye offend you, my brethren? Does your eye cause you to +stumble and fall, as it is in the etymology? The right use of the +eye is to keep you from stumbling and falling; but so perverted are +the eye and the heart of every sinner that the city watchman has +become a partaker with thieves, and our trusted guide and guardian +a traitor and a knave. If thine eye, therefore, offends thee; if +it places a stone or a tree in thy way in a dark night; if it digs +a deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee +astray, or lets in upon thee thine enemies--then, surely, thou wert +better to be without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, +what is still harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil +thing out of it. Shut up that book and put it away. Throw that +paper and that picture into the fire. Cut off that companion, even +if he were an adoring lover. Refuse that entertainment and that +amusement, though all the world were crowding upto it. And soon, +and soon, till you have plucked your eye as clean of temptations +and snares as it is possible to be in this life. For this life is +full of that terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of all +His people, that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You +will know whether or no you are one of them just by the number of +the beautiful things, and the sweet things, and the things to be +desired, that you have plucked out of your eye at His advice and +demand. True religion, my brethren, on some sides of it, and at +some stages of it, is a terribly severe and sore business; and +unless it is proving a terribly severe and sore business to you, +look out! lest, with your two hands and your two feet and your two +eyes, you be cast, with all that your hands and feet and eyes have +feasted on, into the everlasting fires! Woe unto the world because +of offences, but woe much more to that member and entrance-gate of +the body by which the offence cometh! Wherefore, if thine eye +offend thee -! + +3. 'Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look +straight before thee.' Now, if you wish both to preserve your +eyes, and to escape the everlasting fires at the same time, attend +to this text. For this is almost as good as plucking out your two +eyes; indeed, it is almost the very same thing. Solomon shall +speak to the man in this house to-night who has the most +inflammable, the most ungovernable, and the most desperately wicked +heart. You, man, with that heart, you know that you cannot pass up +the street without your eye becoming a perfect hell-gate of lust, +of hate, of ill-will, of resentment and of revenge. Your eye falls +on a man, on a woman, on a house, on a shop, on a school, on a +church, on a carriage, on a cart, on an innocent child's +perambulator even; and, devil let loose that you are, your eye +fills your heart on the spot with absolute hell-fire. Your +presence and your progress poison the very streets of the city. +And that, not as the short-sighted and the vulgar will read +Solomon's plain-spoken Scripture, with the poison of lewdness and +uncleanness, but with the still more malignant, stealthy, and +deadly poison of social, professional, political, and +ecclesiastical hatred, resentment, and ill-will. Whoredom and wine +openly slay their thousands on all our streets; but envy and spite, +dislike and hatred their ten thousands. The fact is, we would +never know how malignantly wicked our hearts are but for our eyes. +But a sudden spark, a single flash through the eye falling on the +gunpowder that fills our hearts, that lets us know a hundred times +every day what at heart we are made of. 'Of a verity, O Lord, I am +made of sin, and that my life maketh manifest,' prays Bishop +Andrewes every day. Why, sir, not to go to the street, the +direction in which your eyes turn in this house this evening will +make this house a very 'den,' as our Lord said--yes, a very den to +you of temptation and transgression. My son, let thine eyes look +right on. Ponder the path of thy feet, turn not to the right hand +nor to the left--remove thy foot from all evil! + +4. There is still another eye that is almost as good as an eye out +altogether, and that is a Job's eye. Job was the first author of +that eye and all we who have that excellent eye take it of him. 'I +have made a covenant with mine eyes,' said that extraordinary man-- +that extraordinarily able, honest, exposed and exercised man. Now, +you must all know what a covenant is. A covenant is a compact, a +contract, an agreement, an engagement. In a covenant two parties +come to terms with one another. The two covenanters strike hands, +and solemnly engage themselves to one another: I will do this for +you if you will do that for me. It is a bargain, says the other; +let us have it sealed with wax and signed with pen and ink before +two witnesses. As, for instance, at the Lord's Table. I swear, +you say, over the Body and the Blood of the Son of God, I swear to +make a covenant with mine eyes. I will never let them read again +that idle, infidel, scoffing, unclean sheet. I will not let them +look on any of my former images or imaginations of forbidden +pleasures. I swear, O Thou to whom the night shineth as the day, +that I will never again say, Surely the darkness shall cover me! +See if I do not henceforth by Thy grace keep my feet off every +slippery street. That, and many other things like that, was the +way that Job made his so noble covenant with his eyes in his day +and in his land. And it was because he so made and so kept his +covenant that God so boasted over him and said, Hast thou +considered my servant Job? And then, every covenant has its two +sides. The other side of Job's covenant, of which God Himself was +the surety, you can read and think over in your solitary lodgings +to-night. Read Job xxxi. 1, and then Job xl. to the end, and then +be sure you take covenant paper and ink to God before you sleep. +And let all fashionable young ladies hear what Miss Rossetti +expects for herself, and for all of her sex with her who shall +subscribe her covenant. 'True,' she admits, 'all our life long we +shall be bound to refrain our soul, and keep it low; but what then? +For the books we now refrain to read we shall one day be endowed +with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen to we +shall join in the song of the redeemed. For the pictures from +which we turn we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific Vision. For +the companionship we shun we shall be welcomed into angelic society +and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we +avoid we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasures we +miss we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of +heaven.' + +5. And then there is the Pauline eye. An eye, however, that Job +would have shared with Paul and with the Corinthian Church had the +patriarch been privileged to live in our New Testament day. Ever +since the Holy Ghost with His anointing oil fell on us at +Pentecost, says the apostle, we have had an eye by means of which +we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are +not seen. Now, he who has an eye like that is above both plucking +out his eyes or making a covenant with them either. It is like +what Paul says about the law also. The law is not made for a +righteous man. A righteous man is above the law and independent of +it. The law does not reach to him and he is not hampered with it. +And so it is with the man who has got Paul's splendid eyes for the +unseen. He does not need to touch so much as one of his eye-lashes +to pluck them out. For his eyes are blind, and his ears are deaf, +and his whole body is dead to the things that are temporal. His +eyes are inwardly ablaze with the things that are eternal. He +whose eyes have been opened to the truth and the love of his Bible, +he will gloat no more over your books and your papers filled with +lies, and slander, and spite, and lewdness! He who has his +conversation in heaven does not need to set a watch on his lips +lest he take up an ill report about his neighbour. He who walks +every day on the streets of gold will step as swiftly as may be, +with girt loins, and with a preoccupied eye, out of the slippery +and unsavoury streets of this forsaken earth. He who has fast +working out for him an exceeding and eternal weight of glory will +easily count all his cups and all his crosses, and all the crooks +in his lot but as so many light afflictions and but for a moment. +My Lord Understanding had his palace built with high perspective +towers on it, and the site of it was near to Eye-gate, from the top +of which his lordship every day looked not at the things which are +temporal, but at the things which are eternal, and down from his +palace towers he every day descended to administer his heavenly +office in the city. + +Your eye, then, is the shortest way into your heart. Watch it +well, therefore; suspect and challenge all outsiders who come near +it. Keep the passes that lead to your heart with all diligence. +Let nothing contraband, let nothing that even looks suspicious, +ever enter your hearts; for, if it once enters, and turns out to be +evil, you will never get it all out again as long as you live. +'Death is come up into our windows,' says our prophet in another +place, 'and is entered into our palaces, to cut off our children in +our houses and our young men in our streets.' Make a covenant, +then, with your eyes. Take an oath of your eyes as to which way +they are henceforth to look. For, let them look this way, and your +heart is immediately full of lust, and hate, and envy, and ill- +will. On the other hand, lead them to look that way and your heart +is as immediately full of truth and beauty, brotherly kindness and +charity. The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine +eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine +eye be evil, thy whole body is full of darkness. If, therefore, +the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! + + + +CHAPTER V--THE KING'S PALACE + + + +'The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.'--David. + +'Now, there is in this gallant country a fair and delicate town, a +corporation, called Mansoul: a town for its building so curious, +for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so +advantageous, that I may say of it, there is not its equal under +the whole heaven. Also, there was reared up in the midst of this +town a most famous and stately palace: for strength, it might be +called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a +place so copious as to contain all the world. This place the King +intended for Himself alone, and not for another with Him, so great +was His delight in it.' Thus far, our excellent allegorical +author. But there are other authors that treat of this great +matter now in hand besides the allegorical authors. You will hear +tell sometimes about a class of authors called the Mystics. Well, +listen at this stage to one of them, and one of the best of them, +on this present matter--the human heart, that is. 'Our heart,' he +says, 'is our manner of existence, or the state in which we feel +ourselves to be; it is an inward life, a vital sensibility, which +contains our manner of feeling what and how we are; it is the state +of our desires and tendencies, of inwardly seeing, tasting, +relishing, and feeling that which passes within us; our heart is +that to us inwardly with regard to ourselves which our senses of +seeing, hearing, feeling, and such like are with regard to things +that are without or external to us. Your heart is the best and +greatest gift of God to you. It is the highest, greatest, +strongest, and noblest power of your nature. It forms your whole +life, be it what it will. All evil and all good come from your +heart. Your heart alone has the key of life and death for you.' I +was just about to ask you at this point which of our two authors, +our allegorical or our mystical author upon the heart, you like +best. But that would be a stupid and a wayward question since you +have them both before you, and both at their best, to possess and +to enjoy. To go back then to John Bunyan, and to his allegory of +the human heart. + +1. To begin with, then, there was reared up in the midst of this +town of Mansoul a most famous and stately palace. And that palace +and the town immediately around it were the mirror and the glory of +all that its founder and maker had ever made. His palace was his +very top-piece. It was the metropolitan of the whole world round +about it; and it had positive commission and power to demand +service and support of all around. Yes. And all that is +literally, evidently, and actually true of the human heart. For +all other earthly things are created and upheld, are ordered and +administered, with an eye to the human heart. The human heart is +the final cause, as our scholars would say, of absolutely all other +earthly things. Earth, air, water; light and heat; all the +successively existing worlds, mineral, vegetable, animal, +spiritual; grass, herbs, corn, fruit-trees, cattle and sheep, and +all other living creatures; all are upheld for the use and the +support of man. And, then, all that is in man himself is in him +for the end and the use of his heart. All his bodily senses; all +his bodily members; every fearfully and wonderfully made part of +his body and of his mind; all administer to his heart. She is the +sovereign and sits supreme. And she is worthy and is fully +entitled so to sit. For there is nothing on the earth greater or +better than the heart, unless it is the Creator Himself, who +planned and executed the heart for Himself and not for another with +Him. 'The body exists,' says a philosophical biologist of our day, +'to furnish the cerebral centres with prepared food, just as the +vegetable world, viewed biologically, exists to furnish the animal +world with similar food. The higher is the last formed, the most +difficult, and the most complex; but it is just this that is most +precious and significant--all of which shows His unrolling purpose. +It is the last that alone explains all that went before, and it is +the coming that will alone explain the present. God before all, +through all, foreseeing all, and still preparing all; God in all is +profoundly evident.' Yes, profoundly evident to profound minds, +and experimentally and sweetly evident to religious minds, and to +renewed and loving and holy hearts. + +2. For fame and for state a palace, while for strength it might be +called a castle. In sufficiently ancient times the king's palace +was always a castle also. David's palace on Mount Zion was as much +a military fortress as a royal residence; and King Priam's palace +was the protection both of itself and of the whole of the country +around. In those wild times great men built their houses on high +places, and then the weak and endangered people gathered around the +strongholds of the powerful, as we see in our own city. Our own +steep and towering rock invited to its top the castle-builder of a +remote age, and then the exposed country around began to gather +itself together under the shelter of the bourg. And thus it is +that the military engineering of the Holy War makes that old +allegorical book most excellent to read, not only for common men +like you and me, who are bent on the fortification and the defence +of our own hearts, but for the military historians of those old +times also, for the experts of to-day also, and for all good +students of fortification. And the New Testament of the Divine +peace itself, as well as the Old Testament so full of the wars of +the Lord--they both support and serve as an encouragement and an +example to our spiritual author in the elaboration of his military +allegory. Every good soldier of Jesus Christ has by heart the +noble paradox of Paul to the Philippians--that the peace of God +which passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts and minds +through Christ Jesus. Let God's peace, he says, be your man of +war. Let His surpassing peace do both the work of war and the work +of peace also in your hearts and in your minds. Let that peace +both fortify with walls, and garrison with soldiers, and watch +every gate, and hold every street and lane of your hearts and of +your minds all around your hearts. And all through the Prince of +Peace, the Captain of all Holy War, Jesus Christ Himself. No +wonder, then, that in a strength--in a kind and in a degree of +strength--that passeth all understanding, this stately palace of +the heart is also here called a well-garrisoned castle. + +3. And then for pleasantness the human heart is a perfect +paradise. For pleasantness the human heart is like those famous +royal parks of Nineveh and Babylon that sprang up in after days as +if to recover and restore the Garden of Eden that had been lost to +those eastern lands. But even Adam's own paradise was but a poor +outside imitation in earth and water, in flowers and fruits, of the +far better paradise God had planted within him. Take another +Mystic at this point upon paradise. 'My dear man,' exclaims Jacob +Behmen, 'the Garden of Eden is not paradise, neither does Moses say +so. Paradise is the divine joy, and that was in their own hearts +so long as they stood in the love of God. Paradise is the divine +and angelical joy, pure love, pure joy, pure gladness, in which +there is no fear, no misery, and no death. Which paradise neither +death nor the devil can touch. And yet it has no stone wall around +it; only a great gulf which no man or angel can cross but by that +new birth of which Christ spoke to Nicodemus. Reason asks, Where +is paradise to be found? Is it far off or near? Is it in this +world or is it above the stars? Where is that desirable native +country where there is no death? Beloved, there is nothing nearer +you at this moment than paradise, if you incline that way. God +beckons you back into paradise at this moment, and calls you by +name to come. Come, He says, and be one of My paradise children. +In paradise,' the Teutonic Philosopher goes on, 'there is nothing +but hearty love, a meek and a gentle love; a most friendly and most +courteous discourse: a gracious, amiable, and blessed society, +where the one is always glad to see the other, and to honour the +other. They know of no malice in paradise, no cunning, no +subtlety, and no sly deceit. But the fruits of the Spirit of God +are common among them in paradise, and one may make use of all the +good things of paradise without causing disfavour, or hatred, or +envy, for there is no contrary affection there, but all hearts +there are knit together in love. In paradise they love one +another, and rejoice in the beauty, loveliness, and gladness of one +another. No one esteems or accounts himself more excellent than +another in paradise; but every one has great joy in another, and +rejoices in another's fair beauty, whence their love to one another +continually increases, so that they lead one another by the hand, +and so friendly kiss one another.' Thus the blessed Behmen saw +paradise and had it in his heart as he sat over his hammer and +lapstone in his solitary stall. For of such as Jacob Behmen and +John Bunyan is the kingdom of heaven, and all such saintly souls +have paradise restored again and improved upon in their own hearts. + +4. And for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the +world. Over against the word 'copious' Bunyan hangs for a key, +Ecclesiastes third and eleventh; and under it Miss Peacock adds +this as a note--'Copious, spacious. Old French, copieux; Latin, +copiosus, plentiful.' The human heart, as we have already read to- +night, is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest part of +human nature. And so it is. Fearfully and wonderfully made as is +the whole of human nature, that fear and that wonder surpass +themselves in the spaciousness and the copiousness of the human +heart. For what is it that the human heart has not space for, and +to spare? After the whole world is received home into a human +heart, there is room, and, indeed, hunger, for another world, and +after that for still another. The sun is--I forget how many times +bigger than our whole world, and yet we can open our heart and take +down the sun into it, and shut him out again and restore him to his +immeasurable distances in the heavens, and all in the twinkling of +an eye. As for instance. As I wrote these lines I read a report +of a lecture by Sir Robert Ball in which that distinguished +astronomer discoursed on recent solar discoveries. A globe of +coal, Sir Robert said, as big as our earth, and all set ablaze at +the same moment, would not give out so much heat to the worlds +around as the sun gives out in a thousandth part of a second. +Well, as I read that, and ere ever I was aware what was going on, +my heart had opened over my newspaper, and the sun had swept down +from the sky, and had rushed into my heart, and before I knew where +I was the cry had escaped my lips, 'Great and marvellous are Thy +works, Lord God Almighty! Who shall not fear Thee and glorify thy +name?' And then this reflection as suddenly came to me: How good +it is to be at peace with God, and to be able and willing to say, +My Father! That the whole of the surging and flaming sun was +actually down in my straitened and hampered heart at that idle +moment over my paper is scientifically demonstrable; for only that +which is in the heart of a man can kindle the passions that are in +the heart of that man; and nothing is more sure to me than that the +great passions of fear and love, wonder and rapture were at that +moment at a burning point within me. There is a passage well on in +the Holy War, which for terror and for horror, and at the same time +for truth and for power, equals anything either in Dante or in +Milton. Lucifer has stood up at the council board to second the +scheme of Beelzebub. 'Yes,' he said, amid the plaudits of his +fellow-princes--'Yes, I swear it. Let us fill Mansoul full with +our abundance. Let us make of this castle, as they vainly call it, +a warehouse, as the name is in some of their cities above. For if +we can only get Mansoul to fill herself full with much goods she is +henceforth ours. My peers,' he said, 'you all know His parable of +how unblessed riches choke the word; and, again, we know what +happens when the hearts of men are overcharged with surfeiting and +with drunkenness. Let us give them all that, then, to their +heart's desire.' This advice of Lucifer, our history tells us, was +highly applauded in hell, and ever since it has proved their +masterpiece to choke Mansoul with the fulness of this world, and to +surfeit the heart with the good things thereof. But, my brethren, +you will outwit hell herself and all her counsellors and all her +machinations, if, out of all the riches, pleasures, cares, and +possessions, that both heaven and earth and hell can heap into your +heart, those riches, pleasures, cares, and possessions but produce +corresponding passions and affections towards God and man. Only +let fear, and love, and thankfulness, and helpfulness be kindled +and fed to all their fulness in your heart, and all the world and +all that it contains will only leave the more room in your +boundless heart for God and for your brother. All that God has +made, or could make with all His counsel and all His power laid +out, will not fill your boundless and bottomless heart. He must +come down and come into your boundless and bottomless heart +Himself. Himself: your Father, your Redeemer, and your Sanctifier +and Comforter also. Let the whole universe try to fill your heart, +O man of God, and after it all we shall hear you singing in famine +and in loneliness the doleful ditty: + + +'O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, +There is room in my heart for Thee. + + +5. 'Madame,' said a holy solitary to Madame Guyon in her misery-- +'Madame, you are disappointed and perplexed because you seek +without what you have within. Accustom yourself to seek for God in +your own heart and you will always find Him there.' From that hour +that gifted woman was a Mystic. The secret of the interior life +flashed upon her in a moment. She had been starving in the midst +of fulness; God was near and not far off; the kingdom of heaven was +within her. The love of God from that hour took possession of her +soul with an inexpressible happiness. Prayer, which had before +been so difficult, was now delightful and indispensable; hours +passed away like moments: she could scarcely cease from praying. +Her domestic trials seemed great to her no longer; her inward joy +consumed like a fire the reluctance, the murmur, and the sorrow, +which all had their birth in herself. A spirit of comforting +peace, a sense of rejoicing possession, pervaded all her days. God +was continually with her, and she seemed continually yielded up to +God. 'Madame,' said the solitary, 'you seek without for what you +have within.' Where do you seek for God when you pray, my +brethren? To what place do you direct your eyes? Is it to the +roof of your closet? Is it to the east end of your consecrated +chapel? Is it to that wooden table in the east end of your chapel? +Or, passing out of all houses made with hands and consecrated with +holy oil, do you lift up your eyes to the skies where the sun and +the moon and the stars dwell alone? 'What a folly!' exclaims +Theophilus, in the golden dialogue, 'for no way is the true way to +God but by the way of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be +found. And the heart itself cannot find Him but by its own love of +Him, faith in Him, dependence upon Him, resignation to Him, and +expectation of all from Him.' 'You have quite carried your point +with me,' answered Theogenes after he had heard all that Theophilus +had to say. 'The God of meekness, of patience, and of love is +henceforth the one God of my heart. It is now the one bent and +desire of my soul to seek for all my salvation in and through the +merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, resigned, +suffering Lamb of God, who alone has power to bring forth the +blessed birth of those heavenly virtues in my soul. What a comfort +it is to think that this Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Light of +the World; this Glory of heaven and this Joy of angels is as near +to us, is as truly in the midst of us, as He is in the midst of +heaven. And that not a thought, look, or desire of our heart that +presses toward Him, longing to catch one small spark of His +heavenly nature, but is as sure a way of finding Him, as the +woman's way was who was healed of her deadly disease by longing to +touch but the border of His garment.' + +To sum up. 'There is reared up in the midst of Mansoul a most +famous and stately palace: for strength, it may be called a +castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a place so +copious as to contain all the world. This palace the King intends +but for Himself alone, and not another with Him, and He commits the +keeping of that palace day and night to the men of the town.' + + + +CHAPTER VI--MY LORD WILLBEWILL + + + +- 'to will is present with me.'--Paul + +There is a large and a learned literature on the subject of the +will. There is a philosophical and a theological, and there is a +religious and an experimental literature on the will. Jonathan +Edwards's well-known work stands out conspicuously at the head of +the philosophical and theological literature on the will, while our +own Thomas Boston's Fourfold State is a very able and impressive +treatise on the more practical and experimental side of the same +subject. The Westminster Confession of Faith devotes one of its +very best chapters to the teaching of the word of God on the will +of man, and the Shorter Catechism touches on the same subject in +Effectual Calling. Outstanding philosophical and theological +schools have been formed around the will, and both able and learned +and earnest men have taken opposite sides on the subject of the +will under the party names of Necessitarians and Libertarians. +This is not the time, nor am I the man, to discuss such abstruse +subjects; but those students who wish to master this great matter +of the will, so far as it can be mastered in books, are recommended +to begin with Dr. William Cunningham's works, and then to go on +from them to a treatise that will reward all their talent and all +their enterprise, Jonathan Edwards's perfect masterpiece. + +1. But, to come to my Lord Willbewill, one of the gentry of the +famous town of Mansoul:- well, this Lord Willbewill was as high- +born as any man in Mansoul, and was as much a freeholder as any of +them were, if not more. Besides, if I remember my tale aright, he +had some privileges peculiar to himself in that famous town. Now, +together with these, he was a man of great strength, resolution, +and courage; nor in his occasion could any turn him away. But +whether he was too proud of his high estate, privileges, and +strength, or what (but sure it was through pride of something), he +scorns now to be a slave in Mansoul, as his own proud word is, so +that now, next to Diabolus himself, who but my Lord Willbewill in +all that town? Nor could anything now be done but at his beck and +good pleasure throughout that town. Indeed, it will not out of my +thoughts what a desperate fellow this Willbewill was when full +power was put into his hand. All which--how this apostate prince +lost power and got it again, and lost it and got it again--the +interested and curious reader will find set forth with great +fulness and clearness in many powerful pages of the Holy War. + +John Bunyan was as hard put to it to get the right name for this +head of the gentry of Mansoul as Paul was to get the right name for +sin in the seventh of the Romans. In that profoundest and +intensest of all his profound and intense passages, the apostle has +occasion to seek about for some expression, some epithet, some +adjective, as we say, to apply to sin so as to help him to bring +out to his Roman readers something of the malignity, deadliness, +and unspeakable evil of sin as he had sin living and working in +himself. But all the resources of the Greek language, that most +resourceful of languages, utterly failed Paul for his pressing +purpose. And thus it is that, as if in scorn of the feebleness and +futility of that boasted tongue, he tramples its grammars and its +dictionaries under his feet, and makes new and unheard-of words and +combinations of words on the spot for himself and for his subject. +He heaps up a hyperbole the like of which no orator or rhetorician +of Greece or Rome had ever needed or had ever imagined before. He +takes sin, and he makes a name for sin out of itself. The only way +to describe sin, he feels, the only way to characterise sin, the +only way to aggravate sin, is just to call it sin; sinful sin; 'sin +by the commandment became exceeding sinful.' And, in like manner, +John Bunyan, who has only his own mother tongue to work with, in +his straits to get a proper name for this terrible fellow who was +next to Diabolus himself, cannot find a proud enough name for him +but just by giving him his own name, and then doubling it. Add +will to will, multiply will by will, and multiply it again, and +after you have done all you are no nearer to a proper name for that +apostate, who, for pride, and insolence, and headstrongness, in one +word, for wilfulness, is next to Diabolus himself. But as +Willbewill, if he is to be named and described at all, is best +named and described by his own naked name; so Bunyan is always best +illustrated out of his own works. And I turn accordingly to the +Heavenly Footman for an excellent illustration of the wilfulness of +the will both in a good man and in a bad; as, thus: 'Your self- +willed people, nobody knows what to do with them. We use to say, +He will have his own will, do all we can. If a man be willing, +then any argument shall be matter of encouragement; but if +unwilling, then any argument shall give discouragement. The saints +of old, they being willing and resolved for heaven, what could stop +them? Could fire and fagot, sword or halter, dungeons, whips, +bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings, stonings, starvings, +nakedness? So willing had they been made in the day of His power. +And see, on the other side, the children of the devil, because they +are not willing, how many shifts and starting-holes they will have! +I have married a wife; I have a farm; I shall offend my landlord; I +shall lose my trade; I shall be mocked and scoffed at, and +therefore I cannot come. But, alas! the thing is, they are not +willing. For, were they once soundly willing, these, and a +thousand things such as these, would hold them no faster than the +cords held Samson when he broke them like flax. I tell you the +will is all. The Lord give thee a will, then, and courage of +heart.' + +2. Let that, then, suffice for this man's name and nature, and let +us look at him now when his name and his nature have both become +evil; that is to say, when Willbewill has become Illwill. You can +imagine; no, you cannot imagine unless you already know, how evil, +and how set upon evil, Illwill was. His whole mind, we are told, +now stood bending itself to evil. Nay, so set was he now upon +sheer evil that he would act it of his own accord, and without any +instigation at all from Diabolus. And that went on till he was +looked on in the city as next in wickedness to very Diabolus +himself. Parable apart, my ill-willed brethren, our ill-will has +made us very fiends in human shape. What a fall, what a fate, what +a curse it is to be possessed of a devil of ill-will! Who can put +proper words on it after Paul had to confess himself silent before +it? Who can utter the diabolical nature, the depth and the +secrecy, the subtlety and the spirituality, the range and the +reach-out of an ill-will? Our hearts are full of ill-will at those +we meet and shake hands with every day. At men also we have never +seen, and who are totally ignorant even of our existence. Over a +thousand miles we dart our viperous hearts at innocent men. At +great statesmen we have ill-will, and at small; at great churchmen +and at small; at great authors and at small; at great, and famous, +and successful men in all lines of life; for it is enough for ill- +will that another man be praised, and well-paid, and prosperous, +and then placed in our eye. No amount of suffering will satiate +ill-will; the very grave has no seal against it. And, now and +then, you have it thrust upon you that other men have the same +devil in them as deeply and as actively as he is in you. You will +suddenly run across a man on the street. His face was shining with +some praise he had just had spoken to him, or with some recognition +he had just received from some great one; or with some good news +for himself he had just heard, before he caught sight of you. But +the light suddenly dies on his face, and darkness comes up out of +his heart at his sudden glimpse of you. What is the matter? you +ask yourself as he scowls past you. What have you done so to +darken any man's heart to you? And as you stumble on in the +sickening cloud he has left behind him, you suddenly recollect that +you were once compelled to vote against that man on a public +question: on some question of home franchise, or foreign war, or +church government, or city business; or perchance, a family has +left his shop to do business in yours, or his church to worship God +in yours, or such like. It will be a certain relief to you to +recollect such things. But with it all there will be a shame and a +humiliation and a deep inward pain that will escape into a cry of +prayer for him and for yourself and for all such sinners on the +same street. If you do not find an escape from your sharp +resentment in ejaculatory prayer and in a heart-cleansing great +good-will, your heart, before you are a hundred steps on, will be +as black with ill-will as his is. But that must not again be. +Would you hate or strike back at a blind man who stumbled and fell +against you on the street? Would you retaliate at a maniac who +gnashed his teeth and shook his fist at you on his way past you to +the madhouse? Or at a corpse being carried past you that had been +too long without burial? And shall you retaliate on a miserable +man driven mad with diabolical passion? Or at a poor sinner whose +heart is as rotten as the grave? Ill-will is abroad in our learned +and religious city at all hours of the day and night. He glares at +us under the sun by day, and under the street lamps at night. We +suddenly feel his baleful eye on us as we thoughtlessly pass under +his overlooking windows: it will be a side street and an +unfrequented, where you will not be ashamed and shocked and pained +at heart to meet him. Public men; much purchased and much praised +men; rich and prosperous men; men high in talent and in place; and, +indeed, all manner of men,--walk abroad in this life softly. Keep +out of sight. Take the side streets, and return home quickly. You +have no idea what an offence and what a snare you are to men you +know, and to men you do not know. If you are a public man, and if +your name is much in men's mouths, then the place you hold, the +prices and the praises you get, do not give you one-tenth of the +pleasure that they give a thousand other men pain. Men you never +heard of, and who would not know you if they met you, gnaw their +hearts at the mere mention of your name. Desire, then, to be +unknown, as A Kempis says. O teach me to love to be concealed, +prays Jeremy Taylor. Be ambitious to be unknown, Archbishop +Leighton also instructs us. And the great Fenelon took Ama nesciri +for his crest and for his motto. No wonder that an apostle cried +out under the agony and the shame of ill-will. No wonder that to +kill it in the hearts of men the Son of God died under it on the +cross. And no wonder that all the gates of hell are wide open, day +and night, for there is no day there, to receive home all those who +will entertain ill-will in their hearts, and all the gates of +heaven shut close to keep all ill-will for ever out. + +3. But, bad enough as all that is, the half has not been told, and +never will be told in this life. Butler has a passage that has +long stumbled me, and it stumbles me the more the longer I live and +study him and observe myself. 'Resentment,' he says, in a very +deep and a very serious passage--'Resentment being out of the case, +there is not, properly speaking, any such thing as direct ill-will +in one man towards another.' Well, great and undisputed as +Butler's authority is in all these matters, at the same time he +would be the first to admit and to assert that a man's inward +experience transcends all outward authority. Well, I am filled +with shame and pain and repentance and remorse to have to say it, +but my experience carries me right in the teeth of Butler's +doctrine. I have dutifully tried to look at Butler's inviting and +exonerating doctrine in all possible lights, and from all possible +points of view, in the anxious wish to prove it true; but I dare +not say that I have succeeded. The truth for thee--my heart would +continually call to me--the best truth for thee is in me, and not +in any Butler! And when looking as closely as I can at my own +heart in the matter of ill-will, what do I find--and what will you +find? You will find that after subtracting all that can in any +proper sense come under the head of real resentment, and in cases +where real resentment is out of the question; in cases where you +have received no injury, no neglect, no contempt, no anything +whatsoever of that kind, you will find that there are men innocent +of all that to you, yet men to whom you entertain feelings, +animosities, antipathies, that can be called by no other name than +that of ill-will. Look within and see. Watch within and see. And +I am sure you will come to subscribe with me to the humbling and +heart-breaking truth, that, even where there is no resentment, and +no other explanation, excuse, or palliation of that kind, yet that +festering, secret, malignant ill-will is working in the bottom of +your heart. If you doubt that, if you deny that, if all that kind +of self-observation and self-sentencing is new to you, then observe +yourself, say, for one week, and report at the end of it whether or +no you have had feelings and thoughts and wishes in your secret +heart toward men who never in any way hurt you, which can only be +truthfully described as pure ill-will; that is to say, you have not +felt and thought and wished toward them as you would have them, and +all men, feel and think and wish toward you. + +4. 'To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not,' +says the apostle; and again, 'Ye cannot do the things that ye +would.' Or, as Dante has it, + + +'The power which wills +Bears not supreme control; laughter and tears +Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, +They wait not for the motion of the will +In natures most sincere.' + + +Now, just here lies a deep distinction that has not been enough +taken account of by our popular, or even by our more profound, +spiritual writers. The will is often regenerate and right; the +will often bends, as Bunyan has it, to that which is good; but +behind the will and beneath the will the heart is still full of +passions, affections, inclinations, dispositions that are evil; +instinctively, impulsively, involuntarily evil, even 'in natures +most sincere.' And hence arises a conflict, a combat, a death- +grip, an agony, a hell on earth, that every regenerate and +advancing soul of man is full of His will is right. If his will is +wrong; if he chooses evil; then there is no mystery in the matter +so far as he is concerned. He is a bad man, and he is so +intentionally and deliberately and of set purpose; and it is a rule +in divine truth that 'wilfulness in sinning is the measure of our +sinfulness.' But his will is right. To will is present with him. +He is every day like Thomas Boston one Sabbath-day: 'Though I +cannot be free of sin, God Himself knows that He would be welcome +to make havoc of my sins and to make me holy. I know no lust that +I would not be content to part with to-night. My will, bound hand +and foot, I desire to lay at His feet.' Now, is it not as clear as +noonday that in the case of such a man as Boston his mind is one +thing and his heart another? Is it not plain that he has both a +good-will and an ill-will within him? A will that immediately and +resolutely chooses for God, and for truth, and for righteousness, +and for love; and another law in his members warring against that +law of his mind? 'Before conversion,' says Thomas Shepard, 'the +main wound of a man is in his will. And then, after conversion, +though his will is changed, yet, ex infirmitate, there are many +things that he cannot do, so strong is the remnant of malignity +that is still in his heart. Let him get Christ to help him here.' +In all that ye see your calling, my brethren. + +5. 'Now, if I do that I would not,' adds the apostle, extricating +himself and giving himself fair-play and his simple due among all +his misery and self-accusation--'Now, if I do that I would not, it +is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' Or, again, +as William Law has it: 'All our natural evil ceases to be our own +evil as soon as our will turns away from it. Our natural evil then +changes its nature and loses all its poison and death, and becomes +an holy cross on which we die to self and this life and enter the +kingdom of heaven.' My dear brethren, tell me, is your sin your +cross? Is your sinfulness your cross? Is the evil that is ever +present with you your holy cross? For, every other cross beside +sin is a cross of straw, a cross of feathers, a paste-board and a +painted cross, and not a real and genuine cross at all. The wood +and the nails and the spear all taken together were not our Lord's +real cross. His real cross was sin; our sin laid on His hands, and +on His heart, and on His imagination, and on His conscience, till +it was all but His very own sin. Our sin was so fearfully and +wonderfully laid upon Christ that He was as good as a sinner +Himself under it. So much so that all the nails and all the +spears, all the thirst and all the darkness that His body and His +soul could hold were as nothing beside the sin that was laid upon +Him. And so it is with us; with as many of us as are His true +disciples. Our sin is our cross; not our actual transgressions, +any more than His; but our inward sinfulness. And not the +sinfulness of our will; that is no real cross to any man; but the +sinfulness of our hearts against our will, and beneath our will, +and behind our will. And this is such a cross that if Christ had +something in His cross that we have not, then we have something in +ours that He had not. He made many sad and sore Psalms His own; +but even if He had lived on earth to read the seventh of the +Romans, He could not have made it His own. His true people are +beyond Him here. The disciple is above his Master here. The +Master had His own cross, and it was a sufficient cross; but we can +challenge Him to come down and look and say if He ever saw a cross +like our cross. He was made a curse. He was hanged on the tree. +He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But his people are +beyond Him in the real agony and crucifixion of sin. For He never +in Gethsemane or on Calvary either cried as Paul once cried, and as +you and I cry every day--To will is present with me! But the good +that I would I do not! And, oh! the body of this death! + +6. Now, if any total stranger to all that shall ask me: What good +there is in all that? and, Why I so labour in such a world of +unaccustomed and unpleasant things as that? I have many answers to +his censure. For example, and first, I labour and will continue to +labour more and more in this world of things, and less and less in +any other world, because here we begin to see things as they are-- +the deepest things of God and of man, that is. Also, because I +have the precept, and the example, and the experience of God's +greatest and best saints before me here. Because, also, our full +and true salvation begins here, goes on here, and ends here. +Because, also, teaching these things and learning these things will +infallibly make us the humblest of men, the most contrite, the most +self-despising, the most prayerful, and the most patient, meek, and +loving of men. And, students, I labour in this because this is +science; because this is the first in order and the most fruitful +of all the sciences, if not the noblest and the most glorious of +all the sciences. There is all that good for us in this subject of +the will and the heart, and whole worlds of good lie away out +beyond this subject that eye hath not seen nor ear heard. + + + +CHAPTER VII--SELF-LOVE + + + +'This know, that men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, +boasters, proud, unthankful, without natural affection, truce- +breakers, false accusers, traitors, heady, high-minded: from all +such turn away.'--Paul. + +'Pray, sir, said Academicus, tell me more plainly just what this +self of ours actually is. Self, replied Theophilus, is hell, it is +the devil, it is darkness, pain, and disquiet. It is the one and +only enemy of Christ. It is the great antichrist. It is the +scarlet whore, it is the fiery dragon, it is the old serpent that +is mentioned in the Revelation of St John. You rather terrify me +than instruct me by this description, said Academicus. It is +indeed a very frightful matter, returned Theophilus; for it +contains everything that man has to dread and to hate, to resist +and to avoid. Yet be assured, my friend, that, careless and merry +as this world is, every man that is born into this world has all +those enemies to overcome within himself; and every man, till he is +in the way of regeneration, is more or less governed by those +enemies. No hell in any remote place, no devil that is separate +from you, no darkness or pain that is not within you, no antichrist +either at Rome or in England, no furious beast, no fiery dragon, +without you or apart from you, can do you any real hurt. It is +your own hell, your own devil, your own beast, your own antichrist, +your own dragon that lives in your own heart's blood that alone can +hurt you. Die to this self, to this inward nature, and then all +outward enemies are overcome. Live to this self, and then, when +this life is out, all that is within you, and all that is without +you, will be nothing else but a mere seeing and feeling this hell, +serpent, beast, and fiery dragon. But, said Theogenes, a third +party who stood by, I would, if I could, more perfectly understand +the precise nature of self, or what it is that makes it to be so +full of evil and misery. To whom Theophilus turned and replied: +Covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath are the four elements of self. +And hence it is that the whole life of self can be nothing else but +a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath, all +of which is precisely sinful nature, self, or hell. Whilst man +lives, indeed, among the vanities of time, his covetousness, his +envy, his pride, and his wrath, may be in a tolerable state, and +may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have their +gratifications as well as their torments. But when death has put +an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not +born again of the supernatural Word and Spirit of God must find +itself unavoidably devoured by itself, shut up in its own +insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, envy, +pride, and wrath. O Theogenes! that I had power from God to take +those dreadful scales off men's eyes that hinder them from seeing +and feeling the infinite importance of this most certain truth! +God give a blessing, Theophilus, to your good prayer. And then let +me tell you that you have quite satisfied my question about the +nature of self. I shall never forget it, nor can I ever possibly +after this have any doubt about the truth of it.' + +1. 'All my theology,' said an old friend of mine to me not long +ago--'all my theology is out of Thomas Goodwin to the Ephesians.' +Well, I find Thomas Goodwin saying in that great book that self is +the very quintessence of original sin; and, again, he says, study +self-love for a thousand years and it is the top and the bottom of +original sin; self is the sin that dwelleth in us and that doth +most easily beset us. Now, that is just what Academicus and +Theophilus and Theogenes have been saying to us in their own +powerful way in their incomparable dialogue. All sin and all +misery; all covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath,--trace it all +back to its roots, travel it all up to its source, and, as sure as +you do that, self and self-love are that source, that root, and +that black bottom. I do not forget that Butler has said in some +stately pages of his that self-love is morally good; that self-love +is coincident with the principle of virtue and part of the idea; +and that it is a proper motive for man. But the deep bishop, in +saying all that, is away back at the creation-scheme and Eden-state +of human nature. He has not as yet come down to human nature in +its present state of overthrow, dismemberment, and self- +destruction. But when he does condescend and comes close to the +mind and the heart of man as they now are in all men, even Butler +becomes as outspoken, and as eloquent, and as full of passion and +pathos as if he were an evangelical Puritan. Self-love, Butler +startles his sober-minded reader as he bursts out--self-love rends +and distorts the mind of man! Now, you are a man. Well, then, do +you feel and confess that rending and distorting to have taken +place in you? Butler is a philosopher, and Goodwin is a preacher, +but you are more: you are a man. You are the owner of a human +heart, and you can say whether or no it is a rent and a distorted +heart. Is your mind warped and wrenched by self-love, and is your +heart rent and torn by the same wicked hands? Do you really feel +that it needs nothing more to take you back again to paradise but +that your heart be delivered from self-love? Do you now understand +that the foundations of heaven itself must be laid in a heart +healed and cleansed and delivered from self-love? If you do, then +your knowledge of your own heart has set you abreast of the +greatest of philosophers and theologians and preachers. Nay, +before multitudes of men who are called such. It is my meditation +all the day, you say. I have more understanding now than all my +teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more +than the ancients; because now I keep Thy precepts. + +2. 'Self-love has made us all malicious,' says John Calvin. We +are Calvinists, were we to call any man master. But we are to call +no man master, and least of all in the matters of the heart. Every +man must be his own philosopher, his own moralist, and his own +theologian in the matters of the heart. He who has a heart in his +bosom and an eye in his head can need no Calvin, no Butler, no +Goodwin, and no Law to tell him what goes on in his own heart. +And, on the other hand, his own heart will soon tell him whether or +no Calvin, and Butler, and Goodwin, and Law know anything about +those matters on which some men would set them up as our masters. +Well, come away all of you who own a human heart. Come and say +whether or no your heart, and the self-love of which it is full, +have made you a malicious man. I do not ask if you are always and +to everybody full of maliciousness. No; I know quite well that you +are sometimes as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. For, has +not even Theophilus said that whilst a man still lives among the +vanities of time, his covetousness, his envy, his pride, and his +wrath may be in a tolerable state, and may help him to a mixture of +peace and trouble; these vices may have their gratifications as +well as their torments. No; I do not trifle with you and with this +serious matter so as to ask if you are full of malice at all times +and to all men. No. For, let a man be fortunate enough to be on +your side; let him pass over to your party; let him become +profitable to you; let him be clever enough and mean enough to +praise and to flatter you up to the top of your appetite for praise +and flattery, and, no doubt, you will love that man. Or, if that +is not exactly love, at least it is no longer hate. But let that +man unfortunately be led to leave your party; let him cease being +profitable to you; let him weary of flattering you with his praise; +let him forget you, neglect you, despise you, and go against you, +and then look at your own heart. Do you care now to know what +malice is? Well, that is malice that distorts and rends your heart +as often as you meet that man on the street or even pass by his +door. That is malice that dances in your eyes when you see his +name in print. That is malice with which you always break out when +his name is mentioned in conversation. That is malice that heats +your heart when you suddenly recollect him in the multitude of your +thoughts within you. And you are in good company all the time. +'We, ourselves,' says Paul to Titus, 'we also at one time lived in +malice and in envy. We were hateful and we hated one another.' +'Hateful,' Goodwin goes on in his great book, 'every man is to +another man more or less; he is hated of another and he hateth +another more or less; and if his nature were let out to the full, +there is that in him, "every man is against every man," as is said +of Ishmael. Homo homini lupus,' adds our brave preacher. And Abbe +Grou speaks out with the same challenge from the opposite church +pole, and says: 'Yes; self-love makes us touchy, ready to take +offence, ill-tempered, suspicious, severe, exacting, easily +offended; it keeps alive in our hearts a certain malignity, a +secret joy at the mortifications which befall our neighbour; it +nourishes our readiness to criticise, our dislike at certain +persons, our ill-feeling, our bitterness, and a thousand other +things prejudicial to charity.' + +3. 'Myself is my own worst enemy,' says Abbe Grou. That is to +say, we may have enemies who hate us more than we hate ourselves, +and enemies who would hurt us, if they could, as much as we hurt +ourselves; but the Abbe's point is that they cannot. And he is +right. No man has ever hurt me as I have hurt myself. There are +men who hate me so much that they would poison my life of all its +peace and happiness if they could. But they cannot. They cannot; +but let them not be cast down on that account, for there is one who +can do, and who will do as long as he lives, what they cannot do. +A man's foes, to be called foes, are in his own house: they are in +his own heart. Let our enemies attend to their own peace and +happiness, and our self-love will do all, and more than all, that +they would fain do. At the most, they and their ill-will can only +give occasion to our self-love; but it is our self-love that seizes +upon the occasion, and through it rends and distorts our own +hearts. And were our hearts only pure of self-love, were our +hearts only clothed with meekness and humility, we could laugh at +all the ill-will of our enemies as leviathan laughs at the shaking +of a spear. 'Know thou,' says A Kempis to his son, 'that the love +of thyself doth do thee more hurt than anything in the whole +world.' Yes; but we shall never know that by merely reading The +Imitation. We must read ourselves. We must study, as we study +nothing else, our own rent and distorted hearts. Our own hearts +must be our daily discovery. We must watch the wounds our hearts +take every day; and we must give all our powers of mind to tracing +all our wounds back to their true causes. We must say: 'that sore +blow came on my mind and on my heart from such and such a quarter, +from such and such a hand, from such and such a weapon; but this +pain, this rankling, poisoned, and ever-festering wound, this +sleepless, gnawing, cancerous sore, comes from the covetousness, +the pride, the envy, and the wrath of my own heart.' When we begin +to say that, we shall then begin to understand and to love Thomas; +we shall sit daily at his feet and shall be numbered among his +sons. + +4. And this suffering at our own hands goes on till at last the +tables are completely turned against self-love, and till what was +once to us the dearest thing in the whole world becomes, as Pascal +says, the most hateful. We begin life by hating the men, and the +things, who hurt us. We hate the men who oppose us and hinder us; +the men who speak, and write, and act, and go in any way against +us. We bitterly hate all who humble us, despise us, trample upon +us, and in any way ill-use us. But afterwards, when we have become +men, men in experience of this life, and, especially, of ourselves +in this life; after we gain some real insight and attain to some +real skill in the life of the heart, we come round to forgive those +we once hated. We have come now to see why they did it. We see +now exactly how much they hurt us after all, and how little. And, +especially, we have come to see,--what at one time we could not +have believed,--that all our hurt, to be called hurt, has come to +us from ourselves. And thus that great revolution of mind and that +great revulsion of feeling and of passion has taken place, after +which we are left with no one henceforth to hate, to be called +hating, but ourselves. We may still continue to avoid our enemies, +and we may do that too long and too much; we may continue to fear +them and be on the watch against them far too much; but to +deliberately hate them is henceforth impossible. All our hatred,-- +all our deliberate, steady, rooted, active hatred,--is now at +ourselves; at ourselves, that is, so far and so long as we remain +under the malignant and hateful dominion of self-love. When Butler +gets our self-love restored to reasonableness, and made coincident +with virtue and part of the idea; when our self-love becomes +uniformly coincident with the principle of obedience to God's +commands, then we shall love ourselves as our neighbour, and our +neighbour as ourselves, and both in God. But, till then, there is +nothing and no one on earth or in hell so hateful to us as +ourselves and our own hateful hearts. And if in that we are +treading the winepress alone as far as our fellow-men are +concerned, all the more we have Him with us in all our agony who +wept over the heart of man because He knew what was in it, and what +must always come out of it. Evil thoughts, He said, and +fornications, and murders, and thefts, and covetousness, and +wickedness, and deceit, and an evil eye, and pride, and folly, and +what not. And Paul has the mind of Christ with him in the text. I +do not need to repeat again the hateful words. Now, what do you +say? was Pascal beyond the truth, was he deeper than the truth or +more deadly than the truth when he said with a stab that self is +hateful? I think not. + +5. 'Oh that I were free, then, of myself,' wrote Samuel Rutherford +from Aberdeen in 1637 to John Ferguson of Ochiltree. 'What need we +all have to be ransomed and redeemed from that master-tyrant, that +cruel and lawless lord, ourself! Even when I am most out of +myself, and am best serving Christ, I have a squint eye on myself.' +And to the Laird of Cally in the same year and from the same place: +'Myself is the master idol we all bow down to. Every man blameth +the devil for his sins, but the house devil of every man that +eateth with him and lieth in his bosom is himself. Oh blessed are +they who can deny themselves!' And to the Irish ministers the year +after: 'Except men martyr and slay the body of sin in sanctified +self-denial, they shall never be Christ's. Oh, if I could but be +master of myself, my own mind, my own will, my own credit, my own +love, how blessed were I! But alas! I shall die only minting and +aiming at being a Christian.' + + + +CHAPTER VIII--OLD MR. PREJUDICE, THE KEEPER OF EAR-GATE, WITH HIS +SIXTY DEAF MEN UNDER HIM + + + +'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the +waters of Israel?'--Naaman. + +'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?'--Nathanael. + +' . . observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by +partiality.'--Paul. + +Old Mr. Prejudice was well known in the wars of Mansoul as an +angry, unhappy, and ill-conditioned old churl. Old Mr. Prejudice +was placed by Diabolus, his master, as keeper of the ward at the +post of Ear-gate, and for that fatal service he had sixty +completely deaf men put under him as his company. Men eminently +advantageous for that fatal service. Eminently advantageous,-- +inasmuch as it mattered not one atom to them what was spoken in +their ear either by God or by man. + +1. Now, to begin with, this churlish old man had already earned +for himself a very evil name. For what name could well be more +full of evil memories and of evil omens than just this name of +Prejudice? Just consider what prejudice is. Prejudice, when we +stop over it and take it to pieces and look well at it,--prejudice +is so bad and so abominable that you would not believe it could be +so bad till you had looked at it and at how it acts in your own +case. For prejudice gives judgment on your case and gives orders +for your execution before your defence has been heard, before your +witnesses have been called, before your summons has been served, +ay, and even before your indictment has been drawn out. What a +scandal and what an uproar a malfeasance of justice like that would +cause if it were to take place in any of our courts of law! Only, +the thing is impossible; you cannot even imagine it. We shall have +Magna Charta up before us in the course of these lectures. Well, +ever since Magna Charta was extorted from King John, such a scandal +as I have supposed has been impossible either in England or in +Scotland. And that such cases should still be possible in Russia +and in Turkey places those two old despotisms outside the pale of +the civilised world. And yet, loudly as we all denounce the Czar +and the Sultan, eloquently as we boast over Magna Charta, Habeas +Corpus, and what not, every day you and I are doing what would cost +an English king his crown, and an English judge his head. We all +do it every day, and it never enters one mind out of a hundred that +we are trampling down truth, and righteousness, and fairplay, and +brotherly love. We do not know what a diabolical wickedness we are +perpetrating every day. The best men among us are guilty of that +iniquity every day, and they never confess it to themselves; no one +ever accuses them of it; and they go down to death and judgment +unsuspicious of the discovery that they will soon make there. You +would not steal a stick or a straw that belonged to me; but you +steal from me every day what all your gold and mine can never +redeem; you murder me every day in my best and my noblest life. +You me, and I you. + +2. Old Mr. Prejudice. Now, there is a golden passage in Jonathan +Edwards's Diary that all old men should lay well to heart and +conscience. 'I observe,' Edwards enters, 'that old men seldom have +any advantage of new discoveries, because these discoveries are +beside a way of thinking they have been long used to. Resolved, +therefore, that, if ever I live to years, I will be impartial to +hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them, if +rational, how long soever I have been used to another way of +thinking. I am too dogmatical; I have too much of egotism; my +disposition is always to be telling of my dislike and my scorn.' +What a fine, fresh, fruitful, progressive, and peaceful world we +should soon have if all our old and all our fast-ageing men would +enter that extract into their diary! How the young would then love +and honour and lean upon the old; and how all the fathers would +always abide young and full of youthful life like their children! +Then the righteous should flourish like the palm-tree; he should +grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They that be planted in the house of +the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still +bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing. +What a free scope would then be given to all God's unfolding +providences, and what a warm welcome to all His advancing truths! +What sore and spreading wounds would then be salved, what health +and what vigour would fill all the body political, as well as all +the body mystical! May the Lord turn the heart of the fathers to +the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest +the earth be smitten with a curse! + +3. Mr. Prejudice was an old man; and this also has been handed +down about him, that he was almost always angry. And if you keep +your eyes open you will soon see how true to the life that feature +of old Mr. Prejudice still is. In every conversation, discussion, +debate, correspondence, the angry man is invariably the prejudiced +man; and, according to the age and the depth, the rootedness and +the intensity of his prejudices, so is the ferocity and the +savagery of his anger. He has already settled this case that you +are irritating and wronging him so much by your still insisting on +bringing up. It is a reproach to his understanding for you to +think that there is anything to be said in that matter that he has +not long ago heard said and fully answered. Has he not denounced +that bad man and that bad cause for years? You insult me, sir, by +again opening up that matter in my presence. He will have none of +you or of your arguments either. You are as bad yourself as that +bad man is whose advocate you are. We all know men whose hearts +are full of coals of juniper, burning coals of hate and rage, just +by reason of their ferocious prejudices. Hate is too feeble a word +for their gnashing rage against this man and that cause, this +movement and that institution. There is an absolutely murderous +light in their eye as they work themselves up against the men and +the things they hate. Charity rejoices not in iniquity; but you +will see otherwise Christian and charitable men so jockeyed by the +devil that they actually rejoice in iniquity and do not know what +they are doing, or who it is that is egging them on to do it. You +will see otherwise and at other times good men so full of the rage +and madness of prejudice and partiality that they will storm at +every report of goodness and truth and prosperity in the man, or in +the cause, or in the church, or in the party, they are so demented +against. Jockey is not the word. There is the last triumph of +pure devilry in the way that the prince of the devils turns old +Prejudice's very best things--his love of his fathers, his love of +the past, his love of order, his love of loyalty, his love of the +old paths, and his very truest and best religion itself--into so +much fat fuel for the fires of hate and rage that are consuming his +proud heart to red-hot ashes. If the light that is in us be +darkness, how great is that darkness; and if the life that is in us +be death, how deadly is that death! + +4. Old, angry, and ill-conditioned. Ill-conditioned is an old- +fashioned word almost gone out of date. But, all the same, it is a +very expressive, and to us to-night a quite indispensable word. An +ill-conditioned man is a man of an in-bred, cherished, and +confirmed ill-nature. His heart, which was a sufficiently bad +heart to begin with, is now so exercised in evil and so accustomed +to evil, that,--how can he be born again when he is so old and so +ill-natured? All the qualities, all the passions, all the emotions +of his heart are out of joint; their bent is bad; they run out +naturally to mischief. Now, what could possibly be more ill- +conditioned than to judge and sentence, denounce and execute a man +before you have heard his case? What could be more ill-conditioned +than positively to be afraid lest you should be led to forgive, and +redress, and love, and act with another man? To be determined not +to hear one word that you can help in his defence, in his favour, +and in his praise? Could a human heart be in a worse state on this +side hell itself than that? Nay, that is hell itself in your evil +heart already. Let prejudice and partiality have their full scope +among the wicked passions of your ill-conditioned heart, and lo! +the kingdom of darkness is already within you. Not, lo, here! or, +lo, there! but within you. Look to yourselves, says John to us +all, full as we all are of our own ill-conditions. Look to +yourselves. But we have no eyes left with which to see ourselves; +we look so much at the faults and the blames of our neighbour. +'Publius goes to church sometimes, and reads the Scriptures; but he +knows not what he reads or prays, his head is so full of politics. +He is so angry at kings and ministers of state that he has no time +nor disposition to call himself to account. He has the history of +all parliaments, elections, prosecutions, and impeachments by +heart, and he dies with little or no religion, through a constant +fear of Popery.' Poor, old, ill-conditioned Publius! + +5. And, then, his sixty deaf men under old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice. We read of engines of sixty-horse power. And here is a +man with the power of resisting and shutting out the truth equal to +that of sixty men like himself. We all know such men; we would as +soon think of speaking to those iron pillars about a change of mind +as we would to them. If you preach to their prejudices and their +prepossessions and their partialities, they are all ears to hear +you, and all tongues to trumpet your praise. But do not expect +them to sit still with ordinary decency under what they are so +prejudiced against; do not expect them to read a book or buy a +passing paper on the other side. Sixty deaf men hold their ears; +sixty ill-conditioned men hold their hearts. Habit with them is +all the test of truth; it must be right, they've done it from their +youth. And thus they go on to the end of their term of life, full +of their own fixed ideas, with their eyes full of beams and +jaundices and darkness and death. Some people think that we take +up too much of our time with newspapers in our day, and that, if +things go on as they are going, we shall soon have neither time nor +taste for anything else but half a dozen papers a day. But all +that depends on the conditions with which we read. If we would +read as Jonathan Edwards read the weekly news-letters of his day; +if we read all our papers to see if the kingdom of God was coming +in reply to our prayer; if we read, observing all things, like +Timothy, without prejudice or partiality, then I know no better +reading for an ill-conditioned heart begun to look to itself than +just a good, out-and-out party newspaper. And if it is a church +paper all the better for your purpose. If you read with your +fingers in your ears; if you read with a beam in your eye, you had +better confine yourself in your reading; if you feel that your +prejudices are inflamed and your partiality is intensified, then +take care what paper you take in. But if you read all you read for +the love of the truth, for justice, for fair-play, and for +brotherly love, and all that in yourself; if you read all the time +with your eyes on your own ill-conditioned heart, then, as James +says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Take +up your political and ecclesiastical paper every morning, saying to +yourself, Go to, O my heart, and get thy daily lesson. Go to, and +enter thy cleansing and refining furnace. Go to, and come well out +of thy daily temptation.--A nobler school you will not find +anywhere for a prejudiced, partial, angry, and ill-conditioned +heart than just the party journals of the day. For the abating of +prejudice; for seeing the odiousness of partiality, and for putting +on every day a fair, open, catholic, Christian mind, commend me to +the public life and the public journals of our living day. And it +is not that this man may be up and that man down; this cause +victorious and that cause defeated; this truth vindicated and that +untruth defeated, that public life rolls on and that its +revolutions are reported to us. Our own minds and our own hearts +are the final cause, the ultimate drift, and the far-off end and +aim of it all. We are not made for party and for the partialities +and prosperities of party; party and all its passions and all its +successes and all its defeats are made, and are permitted to be +made for us; for our opportunity of purging ourselves free of all +our ill-conditions, of all our prejudices, of all our partialities, +and of all the sin and misery that come to us of all these things. + +6. 'It is the work of a philosopher,' says Addison in one of his +best Spectators, 'to be every day subduing his passions and laying +aside his prejudices.' We are not philosophers, but we shall be +enrolled in the foremost ranks of philosophy if we imitate such +philosophers in their daily work, as we must do and shall do. +Well, are we begun to do it? Are we engaged in that work of theirs +and ours every day? Is God our witness and our judge that we are? +Are we so engaged upon that inward work, and so succeeding in it, +that we can read our most prejudiced newspaper with the same mind +and spirit, with the same profit and progress, with which we read +our Bible? A good man, a humble man, a man acutely sensible of his +ill-conditions, will look on every day as lost or won according as +he has lost or won in this inward war. If his partialities are +dropping off his mind; if his prejudices are melting; if he can +read books and papers with pleasure and instruction that once +filled him with dark passions and angry outbursts; if his Calvinism +lets him read Thomas A Kempis and Jeremy Taylor and William Law; if +his High-Churchism lets him delight to worship God in an +Independent or a Presbyterian church; if his Free-Churchism permits +him to see the Establishment reviving, and his State-Churchism +admits that the Free Churches have more to say to him than he had +at one time thought; if his Toryism lets him take in a Radical +paper, and his Radicalism a Unionist paper--then let him thank God, +for God is in all that though he knew it not. And when he counts +up his incalculable benefits at each return of the Lord's table, +let him count up as not the least of them an open mind and a well- +conditioned heart, an unprejudiced mind, and an impartial heart. + +7. And now, to conclude: Take old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice, his daily prayer: 'My Adorable God and Creator! Thy +Holy Church is by the wickedness of men divided into various +communions, all hating, condemning, and endeavouring to destroy one +another. I made none of these divisions, nor am I any longer a +defender of them. I wish everything removed out of every communion +that hinders the Common Unity. The wranglings and disputings of +whole churches and nations have so confounded all things that I +have no ability to make a true and just judgment of the matters +between them. If I knew that any one of these communions was alone +acceptable to Thee, I would do or suffer anything to make myself a +member of it. For, my Good God, I desire nothing so much as to +know and to love Thee, and to worship Thee in the most acceptable +manner. And as I humbly presume that Thou wouldst not suffer Thy +Church to be thus universally divided, if no divided portion could +offer any worship acceptable unto Thee; and as I have no knowledge +of what is absolutely best in these divided parts, nor any ability +to put an end to them; so I fully trust in Thy goodness, that Thou +wilt not suffer these divisions to separate me from Thy mercy in +Christ Jesus; and that, if there be any better ways of serving Thee +than those I already enjoy, Thou wilt, according to Thine infinite +mercy, lead me into them, O God of my peace and my love.' After +this manner old, angry, ill-conditioned Prejudice prayed every day +till he died, a little child, in charity with all men, and in +acceptance with Almighty God. + + + +CHAPTER IX--CAPTAIN ANYTHING + + + +'I am made all things to all men . . . I please all men in all +things.'--Paul + +Captain Anything came originally from the ancient town of Fair- +speech. + +Fair-speech had many royal bounties and many special privileges +bestowed upon it, and Captain Anything and his family had come to +many titles and to great riches in that ancient, loyal, and +honourable borough. My Lord Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my +Lord Fair-speech (from whose ancestors that town first took its +name), as also such well-known commoners as Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. +Facing-both-ways, and Mr. Two-tongues were all sprung with Captain +Anything from the same ancient and long-established ancestry. As +to his religion, from a child young Anything had sat under the +parson of the parish, the same Reverend Two-tongues as has been +mentioned above. And our budding soldier followed the example of +his minister in that he never strove too long against wind or tide, +or was ever to be seen on the same side of the street with Religion +when she was banished from court or had lost her silver slippers. +The crest of the Anythings was a delicately poised weather-cock; +and the motto engraved around the gyrating bird ran thus: 'Our +judgment always jumps according to the occasion.' As a military +man, Captain Anything is described in military books as a proper +man, and a man of courage and skill--to appearance. He and his +company under him were a sort of Swiss guard in Mansoul. They held +themselves open and ready for any master. They lived not so much +by religion or by loyalty as by the fates of worldly fortune. In +his secret despatches Diabolus was wont to address Captain Anything +as My Darling; and be sure you recruit your Switzers well, Diabolus +would say; but when the real stress of the war came, even Diabolus +cast Captain Anything off. And thus it came about that when both +sides were against this despised creature he had to throw down his +arms and flee into a safe skulking place for his life. +*** Spell checked to here--85 *** +1. In that half-papist, half-atheistic country called France there +is a class of politicians known by the name of Opportunists. They +are a kind of public men that, we are thankful to say, are not +known in Protestant and Evangelical England, but they may be +pictured out and described to you in this homely way: An +Opportunist stands well out of the sparks of the fire, and well in +behind the stone wall, till the fanatics for liberty, equality, and +fraternity have snatched the chestnuts out of the fire, and then +the Opportunist steps out from his safe place and blandly divides +the well-roasted tid-bits among his family and his friends. As +long as there is any jeopardy, the Jacobins are denounced and held +up to opprobrium; but when the jeopardy and the risk are well past, +the sober-minded, cautious, conservative, and responsible statesmen +walk off with the portfolios of place and privilege and pay under +their honest arms. But these are the unprincipled papists and +infidels of a mushroom republic; and, thank God, such spurious +patriotism, and such sham and selfish statesmanship, have not yet +shown their miserable heads among faithful, fearless, +straightforward, and uncalculating Englishmen. At the same time, +if ever that continental vice should attack our national character, +we have two well-known essays in our ethical and casuistical +literature that may with perfect safety be pitted against anything +that either France or Italy has produced. Even if they are but a +master's irony, let all ambitious men keep Of Cunning and Of Wisdom +for a Man's Self under their pillow. Let all young men who would +toady a great man; let all young ministers who would tune their +pulpit to king, or court, or society; let all tradesmen and +merchants who prefer their profits to their principles--if they +have literature enough, let them soak their honest minds in our +great Chancellor's sage counsels; and he who promoted Anything and +dubbed him his Darling, he will, no doubt, publish both a post and +a title on his birthday for you also. + +2. 'What religion is he of?' asks Dean Swift. 'He is an +Anythingarian,' is the answer, 'for he makes his self-interest the +sole standard of his life and doctrine.' And Archbishop Leighton, +a very different churchman from the bitter author of the Polite +Conversations, is equally contemptuous toward the self-seeker in +divine things. 'Your boasted peaceableness often proceeds from a +superficial temper; and, not seldom, from a supercilious disdain of +whatever has no marketable use or value, and from your utter +indifference to true religion. Toleration is an herb of +spontaneous growth in the soil of indifference. Much of our union +of minds proceeds from want of knowledge and from want of affection +to religion. Many who boast of their church conformity, and that +no one hears of their noise, may thank the ignorance of their minds +for that kind of quietness.' But by far the most powerful assault +that ever was made upon lukewarmness in religion and upon self- +seeking in the Church was delivered by Dante in the tremendous +third canto of his Inferno:- + +Various tongues, +Horrible languages, outcries of woe, +Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, +With hands together smote that swelled the sounds, +Made up a tumult that for ever whirls +Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, +Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies. +I then, with error yet encompass'd, cried, +'O master! What is this I hear? What race +Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?' +He then to me: 'This miserable fate +Suffer the wretched souls of those who lived +Without or praise or blame, with that ill band +Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved, +Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves +Were only. Mercy and Justice scorn them both. +Speak not of them, but look and pass them by.' +Forthwith, I understood for certain this the tribe +Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing +And to His foes. Those wretches who ne'er lived, +Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung +By wasps and hornets, which bedewed their cheeks +With blood, that mix'd with tears dropp'd to their feet, +And by disgustful worms was gathered there. + + +3. Now, we must all lay it continually and with uttermost +humiliation to heart that we all have Captain Anything's +opportunism, his self-interest, his insincerity, his instability, +and his secret deceitfulness in ourselves. That man knows little +of himself who does not despise and hate himself for his secret +self-seeking even in the service of God. For, how the love of +praise will seduce and corrupt this man, and the love of gain that +man! How easy it is to flatter and adulate this man out of all his +former opinions and his deepest principles, and how an expected +advantage will make that other man forget now an old alliance and +now a deep antipathy! How often the side we take even in the most +momentous matters is decided by the most unworthy motives and the +most contemptible considerations! Unstable as water, Reuben shall +not excel. Double-minded men, we, like Jacob's first-born, are +unstable in all our ways. We have no anchor, or, what anchor we +sometimes have soon slips. We have no fixed pole-star by which to +steer our life. Any will-o'-the-wisp of pleasure, or advantage, or +praise will run us on the rocks. The searchers of Mansoul, after +long search, at last lighted on Anything, and soon made an end of +him. Seek him out in your own soul also. Be you sure he is +somewhere there. He is skulking somewhere there. And, having +found him, if you cannot on the spot make an end of him, keep your +eye on him, and never say that you are safe from him and his +company as long as you are in this soul-deceiving life. And, that +Anything will not be let enter the gates of the city you are set on +seeking, that will go largely to make that sweet and clean and +truthful city your very heaven to you. + +4. 'I am made all things to all men, and I please all men in all +things.' One would almost think that was Captain Anything himself, +in a frank, cynical, and self-censorious moment. But if you will +look it up you will see that it was a very different man. The +words are the words of Anything, but the heart behind the words is +the heart of Paul. And this, again, teaches us that we should be +like the Messiah in this also, not to judge after the sight of our +eyes, nor to reprove after the hearing of our ears. Miserable +Anything! outcast alike of heaven and hell! But, O noble and +blessed Apostle! the man, says Thomas Goodwin, who shall be found +seated next to Jesus Christ Himself in the kingdom of God. Happy +Paul: happy even on this earth, since he could say, and in the +measure he could say with truth and with sincerity, such self- +revelations as these: 'Unto the Jews I am become as a Jew that I +might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the +law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that +are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are +without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the +weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means +save some. Giving none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the +Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Even as I please all men in +all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, +that they may be saved.' Noble words, and inspiring to read. Yes: +but look within, and think what Paul must have passed through; +think what he must have been put through before he,--a man of like +selfish passions as we are, a man of like selfish passions as +Anything was,--could say all that. Let his crosses and his thorns; +his raptures up to the third heaven, and his body of death that he +bore about with him all his days; let his magnificent spiritual +gifts, and his still more magnificent spiritual graces tell how +they all worked together to make the chief of sinners out of the +blameless Pharisee, and, at the same time, Christ's own chosen +vessel and the apostle of all the churches. Boasting about his +patron apostle, St. Augustine says: 'Far be it from so great an +apostle, a vessel elect of God, an organ of the Holy Ghost, to be +one man when he preached and another when he wrote; one man in +private and another in public. He was made all things to all men, +not by the craft of a deceiver, but from the affection of a +sympathiser, succouring the diverse diseases of souls with the +diverse emotions of compassion; to the little ones dispensing the +lesser doctrines, not false ones, but the higher mysteries to the +perfect--all of them, however, true, harmonious, and divine.' The +exquisite irony of Socrates comes into my mind in this connection, +and will not be kept out of my mind. By instinct as well as by art +Socrates mixed up the profoundest seriousness with the humorous +affectation of qualities of mind and even of character the exact +opposite of what all who loved him knew to be the real Socrates. +'Intellectually,' says Dr. Thomson, 'the acutest man of his age, +Socrates represents himself in all companies as the dullest person +present. Morally the purest, he affects to be the slave of passion +and borrows the language even of the lewd to describe a love and a +goodwill far too exalted for the comprehension of his +contemporaries. This irony of his disarmed ridicule by +anticipating it; it allayed jealousy and propitiated envy; and it +possibly procured him admission into gay circles from which a more +solemn teacher would have been excluded. But all the time it had +for its basis a real greatness of soul, a hearty and an unaffected +disregard of public opinion, a perfect disinterestedness, and an +entire abnegation of self. He made himself a fool in order that +fools by his folly might be made wise; he humbled himself to the +level of those among whom his work lay that he might raise some few +among them to his own level; he was all things to all men, if by +any means he might save some. Till Alcibiades ends the splendid +eloge that Plato puts into his mouth with these words, "All my +master's vice and stupidity and worship of wealthy and great men is +counterfeit. It is all but the Silenus-mask which conceals the +features of the god within; for if you remove the covering, how +shall I describe to you, my friends and boon companions, the +excellence of the beauty you will find within! Whether any of you +have seen Socrates in his serious mood, when he has thrown aside +the mask and disclosed the divine features beneath it, is more than +I know. But I have seen them, and I can tell you that they seemed +to me glorious and marvellous, and, truly, godlike in their +beauty."' + +Well, now, I gather out of all that this great lesson: that it is, +to begin with, a mere matter of temperament, or what William Law +would call a mere matter of complexion and sensibility, whether, to +begin with, a man is hard, and dry, and narrow, and stiff, and +proud, and scornful, and cruel; or again, whether he is soft and +tender, broad and open, and full of sympathy and of the milk of +human kindness. At first, and to begin with, there is neither +praise nor blame as yet in the matter. A man is hard just as a +stone is hard; it is his nature. Or he is soft as clay is soft; it +is again his nature. But, inheriting such a nature, and his +inherited nature beginning to appear, then is the time when the +true man really begins to be made. The bad man dwells in +contentment, and, indeed, by preference, at home in his own hard, +proud, scornful, resentful heart; or, again, in his facile, +fawning, tide-waiting, time-serving heart; and thus he chooses, +accepts, and prefers his evil fate, and never seeks the help either +of God or man to enable him to rise above it. Paul was not, when +we meet him first, the sweet, humble, affable, placable, makeable +man that he made himself and came to be after a lifetime of gospel- +preaching and of adorning the gospel he preached. And all the +assistances and all the opportunities that came to Paul are still +coming to you and to me; till, whether naturally pliable and +affectionate or the opposite, we at last shall come to the +temperament, the complexion, and the exquisite sensibility of Paul +himself. Are you, then, a hard, stiff, severe, censorious, proud, +angry, scornful man? Or are you a too-easy, too-facile man-pleaser +and self-seeker, being all things to all men that you may make use +of all men? Are you? Then say so. Confess it to be so. Admit +that you have found yourself out. And reflect every day what you +have got to do in life. Consider what a new birth you need and +must have. Number your days that are left you in which to make you +a new heart, and a new nature, and a new character. Consider well +how you are to set about that divine work. You have a minister, +and your minister is called a divine because by courtesy he is +supposed to understand that divine work, and to be engaged on it +night and day in himself, and in season and out of season among his +people. He will tell you how you are to make you a new heart. Or, +if he does not and cannot do that; if he preaches about everything +but that to a people who will listen to anything but that, then +your soul is not in his hands but in your own. You may not be able +to choose your minister, but you can choose what books you are to +buy, or borrow, and read. And if there is not a minister within a +hundred miles of you who knows his right hand from his left, then +there are surely some booksellers who will advise you about the +classical books of the soul till you can order them for yourselves. +And thus, if it is your curse and your shame to be as spongy, and +soapy, and oily, and slippery as Anything himself; if you choose +your church and your reading with any originality, sense, and +insight, you need not fear but that you will be let live till you +die an honest, upright, honourable, fearless gentleman: no timid +friend to unfashionable truth, as you are to-night, but a man like +Thomas Boston's Ettrick elder, who lies waiting the last trump +under a gravestone engraven with this legend: Here lies a man who +had a brow for every good cause. Only, if you would have that +written and read on your headstone, you have no time to lose. If I +were you I would not sit another Sabbath under a minister whose +preaching was not changing my nature, making my heart new, and +transforming my character; no, not though the Queen herself sat in +the same loft. And I would leave the church even of my fathers, +and become anything as far as churches go, if I could get a +minister who held my face close and ever closer up to my own heart. +Nor would I spend a shilling or an hour that I could help on any +impertinent book,--any book that did not powerfully help me in the +one remaining interest of my one remaining life: a new nature and +a new heart. No, not I. No, not I any more. + + + +CHAPTER X--CLIP-PROMISE + + + +' . . . the promise made of none effect.'--Paul + +Toward the end of the thirteenth century Edward the First, the +English Justinian, brought a select colony of artists from Italy to +England and gave them a commission to execute their best coinage +for the English Mint. Deft and skilful as those artists were, the +work they turned out was but rude and clumsy compared with some of +the gold and silver and copper coins of our day. The Florentine +artists took a sheet of gold or of silver and divided the sheet up +with great scissors, and then they hammered the cut-out pieces as +only a Florentine hammerman could hammer them. But, working with +such tools, and working on such methods, those goldsmiths and +silversmiths, with all their art, found it impossible to give an +absolutely equal weight and worth to every piece of money that they +turned out. For one thing, their cut and hammered coins had no +carved rims round their edges as all our gold and silver and even +copper coinage now has. And, accordingly, the clever rogues of +that day soon discovered that it was far easier for them to take up +a pair of shears and to clip a sliver of silver off the rough rim +of a shilling, or a shaving of gold off a sovereign, than it was to +take of their coats and work a hard day's work. Till to clip the +coin of the realm soon became one of the easiest and most +profitable kinds of crime. In the time of Elizabeth a great +improvement was made in the way of coining the public money; but it +was soon found that this had only made matters worse. For now, +side by side with a pure and unimpaired and full-valued currency, +and mingled up everywhere with it, there was the old, clipped, +debased, and far too light gold and silver money; till troubles +arose in connection with the coinage and circulation of the country +that can only be told by Macaulay's extraordinarily graphic pen. +'It may well be doubted,' Macaulay says, in the twenty-first +chapter of his History of England, 'whether all the misery which +has been inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century +by bad Kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments, and bad Judges was +equal to the misery caused in a single year by bad crowns and bad +shillings. Whether Whigs or Tories, Protestants or Papists were +uppermost, the grazier drove his beasts to market, the grocer +weighed out his currants, the draper measured out his broadcloth, +the hum of buyers and sellers was as loud as ever in the towns; the +cream overflowed the pails of Cheshire; the apple juice foamed in +the presses of Herefordshire; the piles of crockery glowed in the +furnaces of the Trent, and the barrows of coal rolled fast along +the timber railways of the Tyne. But when the great instrument of +exchange became thoroughly deranged all trade and all industry were +smitten as with a palsy. Nothing could be purchased without a +dispute. Over every counter there was wrangling from morning to +night. The employer and his workmen had a quarrel as regularly as +Saturday night came round. On a fair day or a market day the +clamours, the disputes, the reproaches, the taunts, the curses, +were incessant. No merchant would contract to deliver goods +without making some stipulation about the quality of the coin in +which he was to be paid. The price of the necessaries of life, of +shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The bit of metal called a +shilling the labourer found would not go so far as sixpence. One +day Tonson sends forty brass shillings to Dryden, to say nothing of +clipped money. The great poet sends them all back and demands in +their place good guineas. "I expect," he says, "good silver, not +such as I had formerly." Meanwhile, at every session of the Old +Bailey the most terrible example of coiners and clippers was made. +Hurdles, with four, five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting +or mutilating the money of the realm, were dragged month after +month up Holborn Hill.' But I cannot copy the whole chapter, +wonderful as the writing is. Suffice it to say that before the +clippers could be rooted out, and confidence restored between buyer +and seller, the greatest statesmen, the greatest financiers, and +the greatest philosophers were all at their wits' end. Kings' +speeches, cabinet councils, bills of Parliament, and showers of +pamphlets were all full in those days of the clipper and the +coiner. All John Locke's great intellect came short of grappling +successfully with the terrible crisis the clipper of the coin had +brought upon England. Carry all that, then, over into the life of +personal religion, after the manner of our Lord's parables, and +after the manner of the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War, and +you will see what an able and impressive use John Bunyan will make +of the shears of the coin-clippers of his day. Macaulay has but +made us ready to open and understand Bunyan. 'After this, my Lord +apprehended Clip-Promise. Now, because he was a notorious villain, +for by his doings much of the king's coin was abused, therefore he +was made a public example. He was arraigned and judged to be set +first in the pillory, then to be whipped by all the children and +servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till he was dead. Some +may wonder at the severity of this man's punishment, but those that +are honest traders in Mansoul they are sensible of the great abuse +that one clipper of promises in little time may do in the town of +Mansoul; and, truly, my judgment is that all those of his name and +life should be served out even as he.' + +The grace of God is like a bullion mass of purest gold, and then +Jesus Christ is the great ingot of that gold, and then Moses, and +David, and Isaiah, and Hosea, and Paul, and Peter, and John are the +inspired artists who have commission to take both bullion and +ingot, and out of them to cut, and beat, and smelt, and shape, and +stamp, and superscribe the promises, and then to issue the promises +to pass current in the market of salvation like so many shekels, +and pounds, and pence, and farthings, and mites, as the case may +be. And it was just these royal coins, imaged and superscribed so +richly and so beautifully, that Clip-Promise so mutilated, abused, +and debased, till for doing so he was hanged by the neck till he +was dead. + +1. The very house of Israel herself, the very Mint-house, Tower +Hill, and Lombard Street of Israel herself, was full of false +coiners and clippers of the promises; as full as ever England was +at her very worst. Israel clipped her Messianic promises and lived +upon the clippings instead of upon the coin. Her coming Christ, +and His salvation already begun, were the true spiritual currency +of Old Testament times; while round that central Image of her great +promise there ran an outside rim of lesser promises that all took +their true and their only value from Him whose image and +superscription stood within. But those besotted and infatuated men +of Israel, instead of entering into and living by the great +spiritual promises given to them in their Messiah, made lands, and +houses, and meat, and drink, all the Messiah they cared for. +Matthew Henry says that when we go to the merchant to buy goods, he +gives us the paper and the pack-thread to the bargain. Well, those +children and fools in Israel actually threw away the goods and +hoarded and boasted over the paper and the pack-thread. Our old +Scottish lawyers have made us familiar with the distinction in the +church between spiritualia and temporalia. Well, the Jews let the +spiritualia go to those who cared to take such things, while they +held fast to the temporalia. And all that went on till His +disciples had the effrontery to clip and coin under our Lord's very +eyes, and even to ask Him to hold the coin while they sharpened +their shears. 'O faithless and perverse generation! How long +shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Have I been so +long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? O fools, +and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! +And beginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded to them in +all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.' + +2. But those who live in glass houses must take care not to throw +stones. And thus the greatest fool in Israel is safe from you and +me. For, like them, and just as if we had never read one word +about them, we bend our hearts and our children's hearts to things +seen and temporal, and then, after things seen and temporal have +all cast us off, we begin to ask if there is any solace or +sweetness for a cast-off heart in things unseen and eternal. There +are great gaps clipt out of our Bibles that not God Himself can +ever print or paste in again. Look and see if half the Book of +Proverbs, for instance, with all its noble promises to a godly +youth, is not clipt clean out of your dismembered Bible. That fine +leaf also, 'My son, give Me thine heart,' is clean gone out of the +twenty-third chapter of the Proverbs years and years ago. As is +the best part of the noble Book of Daniel, and almost the whole of +Second Timothy. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His +righteousness, and meat and drink, and wife and child shall be +added unto you.' Your suicidal shears have cut that golden promise +for ever out of your Sermon on the Mount. So much so that if any +or all of these temporal mercies ever come to you, they will come +of pure and undeserved mercy, for the time has long passed when you +could plead any promise for them. Still, there are two most +excellent uses left to which you can even yet put your mangled and +dismembered Bible. You can make a splendid use of its gaps and of +its gashes, and of those waste places where great promises at one +time stood. You can make a grand use even of those gaps if you +will descend into them and draw out of them humiliation and +repentance, compunction, contrition, and resignation. And this use +also: When you are moved to take some man who is still young into +your confidence, ask him to let you see his Bible and then let him +see yours, and point out to him the rents and wounds and wilderness +places in yours. And thus, by these two uses of a clipped-up and +half-empty Bible, you may make gains that shall yet set you above +those whose Bibles of promises are still as fresh as when they came +from God's own hand. And Samson said, I will now put forth a +riddle unto you: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the +strong came forth sweetness. + +3. 'Go out,' said the Lord of Mansoul, 'and apprehend Clip-Promise +and bring him before me.' And they did so. 'Go down to Edinburgh +to-night, and go to the door of such and such a church, and, as he +comes out arrest Clip-the-Commandments, for he has heard My word +all this day again but will not do it.' Where would you be by +midnight if God rose up in anger and swore at this moment that your +disobedient time should be no longer? You would be speechless +before such a charge, for the shears are in your pocket at this +moment with which you have clipped to pieces this Sabbath-day: +shears red with the blood of the Fourth Commandment. For, when did +you rise off your bed this resurrection morning? And what did you +do when you did rise? What has your reading and your conversation +been this whole Lord's day? How full your heart would have been of +faith and love and holiness by this time of night had you not +despised the Lord of the Sabbath, and cast all His commandments and +opportunities to you behind your back? What private exercise have +you had all day with your Father who sees in secret? How often +have you been on your knees, and where, and how long, and for what, +and for whom? What work of mercy have you done to-day, or +determined to do to-morrow? And so with all the divine +commandments: Mosaic and Christian, legal and evangelical. Such +as: A tenth of all I have given to thee; a covenant with a +wandering eye; a mouth once speaking evil, is it now well watched? +not one vessel only, but all the vessels of thy body sanctified +till every thought and imagination is well under the obedience of +Christ. Lest His anger for all that begin to burn to-night, make +your bed with Eli and Samuel in His sanctuary to-night, lest the +avenger of the blood of the commandments leap out on you in your +sleep! + +4. The Old Serpent took with him the great shears of hell, and +clipped 'Thou shalt surely die' out of the second chapter of +Genesis. And the same enemy of mankind will clip all the terror of +the Lord out of your heart to-night again, if he can. And he will +do it in this way, if he can. He will have some one at the church +door ready and waiting for you. As soon as the blessing is +pronounced, some one will take you by the arm and will entertain +you with the talk you love, or that you once loved, till you will +be ashamed to confess that there is any terror or turning to God in +your heart. No! Thou shalt not surely die, says the serpent +still. Why, hast thou not trampled Sabbaths and sermons past +counting under thy feet? What commandment, laid on body or soul, +hast thou not broken, and thou art still adding drunkenness to +thirst, and God doth not know! 'The woman said unto the serpent, +We may not eat of it, neither may we touch it, lest we die. And +the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.' + +5. You must all have heard of Clito, who used to say that he +desired no more time for rising and dressing and saying his prayers +than about a quarter of an hour. Well, that was clipping the thing +pretty close, wasn't it? At the same time it must be admitted that +a good deal of prayer may be got through in a quarter of an hour if +you do not lose any moment of it. Especially in the first quarter +of the day, if you are expeditious enough to begin to pray before +you even begin to dress. And prayer is really a very strange +experience. There are things about prayer that no man has yet +fully found out or told to any. For one thing, once well began it +grows upon a man in a most extraordinary and unheard-of way. This +same Clito for instance, some time after we find him at his prayers +before his eyes are open; and then he keeps all morning making his +bath, his soap, his towels, his brushes, and his clothes all one +long artifice of prayer. And that till there is not a single piece +of his dressing-room furniture that is not ready to swear at the +last day that its master long before he died had become a man full +of secret prayer. There is a fountain filled with blood! he +exclaims, as he throws himself into his bath; and Jeremiah second +and twenty-second he uses regularly to repeat to himself half a +dozen times a day as he washes the smoke and dust of the city off +his hands and face. And then Revelation third and eighteenth till +his toilet is completed. Nay, this same Clito has come to be such +a devotee to that he had at one time been so expeditious with, that +I have seen him forget himself on the street and think that his +door was shut. But there is really no use telling you all that +about Clito. For, till you try closet-prayer for yourself, all +that God or man can say to you on that subject will be water spilt +on the ground. All we can say is, Try it. Begin it. Some +desperate day try it. Stop when you are on the way to the pond and +try it. Stop when you are fastening up the rope and try it. When +the poison is moving in the cup, stop, shut your door first. Try +God first. See if He is still waiting. And, always after, when +the steel shears of a too early, too crowded, and far too exacting +day are clipping you out of all time for prayer, then what should +you do? What do you do when you simply cannot get your proper +fresh air and exercise everyday? Do you not fall back on the +plasticity and pliability of nature and take your air and exercise +in large parcels? You take a ride into the country two or three +times a week. Or, two afternoons a week you have ten miles alone +if you cannot get a godly friend. And then two or three times a +year, if you can afford it, you climb an Alp or a Grampian every +day for a week or a month; and, so gracious and so adaptable is +human nature, that, what others get daily, you get weekly, or +monthly, or quarterly, or yearly. And, though a soul is not to be +too much presumed upon, Clito came to tell his friends that his +soul could on occasion take in prayer and praise enough for a week +in a single morning or afternoon, and, almost, for a whole year in +a good holiday. As Christ Himself did when He said: Come away +apart into a desert place and rest a while; for there are so many +people coming and going here that we have no time so much as to +eat. + +6. But I see I must clip off my last point with you, which was to +tell you what you already know only too well, and that is, what +terrible shears a bad conscience is armed with, and what havoc she +makes at all ages of a poor sinner's Bible. But you can spare that +head. You can preach on that text to yourselves far better than +all your ministers. Only, take home with you these two lines I +have clipped out of Fraser of Brea for you. Nothing in man, he +says to us, is to be a ground of despair, since the whole ground of +all our hope is in Christ alone. Christ's relation is always to +men as they are sinners and not as they are righteous. I came not +to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 'Tis with +sinners, then, Christ has to do. Nothing damns but unbelief; and +unbelief is just holding back from pressing God with this promise, +that Christ came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying, and +worthy of all acceptation, and it is still to be found standing in +the most clipped-up Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the world to +save sinners; of whom I am chief. + + + +CHAPTER XI--STIFF MR. LOTH-TO-STOOP + + + +'Thy neck is an iron sinew.'--Jehovah to the house of Jacob. + +'King Zedekiah humbled not himself, but stiffened his neck.'--The +Chronicles. + +'He humbled himself.'--Paul on our Lord. + +All John Bunyan's Characters, Situations, and Episodes are +collected into this house to-night. Obstinate and Pliable are +here; Passion and Patience; Simple, Sloth, and Presumption; Madame +Bubble and Mr. Worldly-wiseman; Talkative and By-ends; Deaf Mr. +Prejudice is here also, and, sitting close beside him, stiff Mr. +Loth-to-stoop; while good old Mr. Wet-eyes and young Captain Self- +denial are not wholly wanting. It gives this house an immense and +an ever-green interest to me to see character after character +coming trooping in, Sabbath evening after Sabbath evening, each man +to see himself and his neighbour in John Bunyan's so truthful and +so fearless glass. But it stabs me to the heart with a mortal stab +to see how few of us out of this weekly congregation are any better +men after all we come to see and to hear. At the same time, such a +constant dropping will surely in time wear away the hardest rock. +Let that so stiff old man, then, stiff old Mr. Loth-to-stoop, came +forward and behold his natural face in John Bunyan's glass again +to-night. 'Lord, is it I?' was a very good question, though put by +a very bad man. Let us, one and all, then, put the traitor's +question to ourselves to-night. Am I stiff old Loth-to-stoop?--let +every man in this house say to himself all through this service, +and then at home when reviewing the day, and then all to-morrow +when to stoop will be so loathsome and so impossible to us all. + +1. To begin, then, at the very bottom of this whole matter, take +stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner in the sight of God. +Let us take this stiff old man in this dreadful character to begin +with, because it is in this deepest and most dreadful aspect of his +nature and his character that he is introduced to us in the Holy +War. And I shall stand aside and let John Bunyan himself describe +Loth-to-stoop in the matter of his justification before God. 'That +is a great stoop for a sinner to have to take,' says our apostolic +author in another classical place, 'a too great stoop to have to +suffer the total loss of all his own righteousness, and, actually, +to have to look to another for absolutely everything of that kind. +That is no easy matter for any man to do. I assure you it +stretches every vein in his heart before he will be brought to +yield to that. What! for a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw +away all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of Sabbaths, hearing, +reading, and all the rest, and to admit both himself and them to be +abominable and accursed, and to be willing in the very midst of his +sins to throw himself wholly upon the righteousness and obedience +of another man! I say to do that in deed and in truth is the +biggest piece of the cross, and therefore it is that Paul calls it +a suffering. "I have suffered the loss of all things that I might +win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own +righteousness."' That is John Bunyan's characteristic comment on +stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner, with the offer of a +full forgiveness set before him. + +2. And then our so truthful and so fertile author goes on to give +us Loth-to-stoop as a half-saved sinner; a sinner, that is, trying +to make his own terms with God about his full salvation. Through +three most powerful pages we see stiff old Loth-to-stoop engaged in +beating down God's unalterable terms of salvation, and in bidding +for his full salvation upon his own reduced and easy terms. It was +the tremendous stoop of the Son of God from the throne of God to +the cradle and the carpenter's shop; and then, as if that were not +enough, it was that other tremendous stoop of His down to the +Garden and the Cross,--it was these two so tremendous stoops of +Jesus Christ that made stiff old Loth-to-stoop's salvation even +possible. But, with all that, his true salvation was not possible +without stoop after stoop of his own; stoop after stoop which, if +not so tremendous as those of Christ, were yet tremendous enough, +and too tremendous, for him. Old Loth-to-stoop carries on a long +and a bold debate with Emmanuel in order to lessen the stoop that +Emmanuel demands of him; and your own life and mine, my brethren, +at their deepest and at their closest to our own heart, are really +at bottom, like Loth-to-stoop's life, one long roup of salvation, +in which God tries to get us up to His terms and in which we try to +get Him down to our terms. His terms are, that we shall sell +absolutely all that we have for the salvation of our souls; and our +terms are, salvation or no salvation, to keep all that we have and +to seek every day for more. God absolutely demands that we shall +stoop to the very dust every day, till we become the poorest, the +meanest, the most despicable, and the most hopeless of men; whereas +we meet that divine demand with the proud reply--Is Thy servant a +dog? It was with this offended mind that stiff old Loth-to-stoop +at last left off from Emmanuel's presence; he would die rather than +come down to such degrading terms. And as Loth-to-stoop went away, +Emmanuel looked after him, well remembering the terrible night when +He Himself was, not indeed like Loth-to-stoop, nor near like him, +but when His own last stoop was so deep that it made Him cry out, +Father, save Me from this hour! and again, If it be possible let +this so tremendous stoop pass from Me. For a moment Emmanuel +Himself was loth to stoop, but only for a moment. For He soon rose +from off His face in a bath of blood, saying, Not My will, but +Thine be done! When Thomas A Kempis is negotiating with the Loth- +to-stoops of his unevangelical day, we hear him saying to them +things like this: 'Jesus Christ was despised of men, forsaken of +His friends and lovers, and in the midst of slanders. He was +willing, under His Father's will, to suffer and to be despised, and +darest thou to complain of any man's usage of thee? Christ, thy +Master, had enemies and back-biters, and dost thou expect to have +all men to be thy friends and benefactors? Whence shall thy +patience attain her promised crown if no adversity befall thee? +Suffer thou with Jesus Christ, and for His sake, if thou wouldst +reign with Him. Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross +of thy Lord, who, out of love, was crucified for thee. Know for +certain that thou must lead a daily dying life. And the more that +thou diest to thyself all that the more shalt thou live unto God.' +With many such words as these did Thomas teach the saints of his +day to stoop to their daily cross; a daily cross then, which has +now been for long to him and to them an everlasting crown. + +3. And speaking of A Kempis, and having lately read some of his +most apposite chapters, such as that on the Holy Fathers and that +on Obedience and Subjection, leads me on to look at Loth-to-stoop +when he enters the sacred ministry, as he sometimes does. When a +half-converted, half-subdued, half-saved sinner gets himself called +to the sacred ministry his office will either greatly hasten on his +salvation, or else it will greatly hinder and endanger it. He will +either stoop down every day to deeper and ever deeper depths of +humility, or he will tower up in pride of office and in pride of +heart past all hope of humility, and thus of salvation. The holy +ministry is a great nursing-house of pride as we see in a long line +of popes, and prelates, and priests, and other lords over God's +heritage. And our own Presbyterian polity, while it hands down to +us the simplicity, the unity, the brotherhood, and the humility of +the apostolic age, at the same time leaves plenty of temptation and +plenty of opportunity for the pride of the human heart. Our +preaching and pastoral office, when it is aright laid to our +hearts, will always make us the meekest and the humblest of men, +even when we carry the most magnificent of messages. But when our +own hearts are not right the very magnificence of our message, and +the very authority of our Master, become all so many subtle +temptations to pride, pique, self-importance, and lothness-to- +stoop. With so much still to learn, how slow we ministers are to +stoop to learn! How still we stand, and even go back, when all +other men are going forward! How few of us have made the noble +resolution of Jonathan Edwards: 'Resolved,' he wrote, 'that, as +old men have seldom any advantage of new discoveries because these +are beside a way of thinking they have been long used to: +resolved, therefore, if ever I live to years, that I shall be +impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and to +receive them, if rational how long soever I have been used to +another way of thinking.' Let all ministers, then, young and old, +resolve to stoop with Jonathan Edwards, who shines, in his life and +in his works, like the cherubim with knowledge, and burns like the +seraphim with love. + +And then, when, not having so resolved, our thin vein of youthful +knowledge and experience has been worked to the rock; when grey +hairs are here and there upon us, how slow we are to stoop to that! +How unwilling we are to let it light on our hearts that our time is +past; that we are no longer able to understand, or interest, or +attract the young; and, besides, that that is not all their blame, +no, nor ours either, but simply the order and method of Divine +Providence. How slow we are to see that Divine Providence has +other men standing ready to take up our work if we would only +humbly lay it down;--how loth we are to stoop to see all that! How +unwilling we are to make up our minds, we old and ageing ministers, +and to humble our hearts to accept an assistant or to submit to a +colleague to stand alongside of us in our unaccomplished work! + +4. In public life also, as we call it, what disasters to the +state, to the services, and to society, are constantly caused by +this same Loth-to-stoop! When he holds any public office; when he +becomes the leader of a party; when he is promoted to be an adviser +of the Crown; when he is put at the head of a fleet of ships, or of +an army of men, what untold evils does Loth-to-stoop bring both on +himself and on the nation! An old statesman will have committed +himself to some line of legislation or of administration; a great +captain will have committed himself to some manoeuvre of a squadron +or of a division, or to some plan of battle, and some subordinate +will have discovered the error his leader has made, and will be +bold to point it out to him. But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has taken +his line and has passed his word. His honour, as he holds it, is +committed to this announced line of action; and, if the Crown +itself should perish before his policy, he will not stoop to change +it. How often you see that in great affairs as well as in small. +How seldom you see a public man openly confessing that he has +hitherto all along been wrong, and that he has at last and by +others been set right. Not once in a generation. But even that +once redeems public life; it ennobles public life; and it saves the +nation and the sovereign who possess such a true patriot. +Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high- +sounding words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, +and humility always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate +success and lasting honour. + + + +CHAPTER XII--THAT VARLET ILL-PAUSE, THE DEVIL'S ORATOR + + + +'I made haste and delayed not.'--David. + +John Bunyan shall himself introduce, describe, and characterise +this varlet, this devil's ally and accomplice, this ancient enemy +of Mansoul, whose name is Ill-pause. Well, this same Ill-pause, +says our author, was the orator of Diabolus on all difficult +occasions, nor took Diabolus any other one with him on difficult +occasions, but just Ill-pause alone. And always when Diabolus had +any special plot a-foot against Mansoul, and when the thing went as +Diabolus would have it go, then would Ill-pause stand up, for he +was Diabolus his orator. When Mansoul was under siege of Emmanuel +his four noble captains sent a message to the men of the town that +if they would only throw Ill-pause over the wall to them, that they +might reward him according to his works, then they would hold a +parley with the city; but if this varlet was to be let live in the +city, then, why, the city must see to the consequences. At which +Diabolus, who was there present, was loth to lose his orator, +because, had the four captains once laid their fingers on Ill- +pause, be sure his master had lost his orator. And, then, in the +last assault, we read that Ill-pause, the orator that came along +with Diabolus, he also received a grievous wound in the head, some +say that his brain-pan was cracked. This, at any rate, I have +taken notice of, that never after this was he able to do that +mischief to Mansoul as he had done in times past. And then there +was also at Eye-gate that Ill-pause of whom you have heard before. +The same was he that was orator to Diabolus. He did much mischief +to the town of Mansoul, till at last he fell by the hand of the +Captain Good-hope. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Ill-pause was a filthy Diabolonian +varlet; a treacherous and a villainous old varlet, the author of +the Holy War calls him. Now, what is a varlet? Well, a varlet is +just a broken-down old valet. A varlet is a valet who has come +down, and down, and down, and down again in the world, till, from +once having been the servant and the trusty friend of the very best +of masters, he has come to be the ally and accomplice of the very +worst of masters. His first name, the name of his first office, +still sticks to him, indeed; but, like himself, and with himself, +his name has become depraved and corrupted till you would not know +it. A varlet, then, is just short and sharp for a scoundrel who is +ready for anything; and the worse the thing is the more ready he is +for it. There are riff-raff and refuse always about who are ready +to volunteer for any filibustering expedition; and that full as +much for the sheer devilry of the enterprise as for any real profit +it is to be to themselves. Wherever mischief is to be done, there +your true varlet is sure to turn up. Well, just such a land-shark +was this Ill-pause, who was such an ally and accomplice to Diabolus +that he had need for no other. What possible certificate in evil +could exceed this--that the devil took not any with him when he +went out on his worst errand but this same Ill-pause, who was his +orator on all his most difficult occasions? + +2. Ill-pause was a varlet, then, and he was also an orator. Now, +an orator, as you know, is a great speaker. An orator is a man who +has the excellent and influential gift of public speech. And on +great occasions in public life when people are to be instructed, +and impressed, and moved, and won over, then the great orator sets +up his platform. Quintilian teaches us in his Institutes that it +is only a good man who can be a really great orator. What would +that fine writer have said had he lived to read the Holy War, and +seen the most successful of all orators that ever opened a mouth, +and who was all the time a diabolical old varlet? What would the +author of The Education of an Orator have said to that? Diabolus +did not on every occasion bring up his great orator Ill-pause. He +did not always come up himself, and he did not always send up Ill- +pause. It was only on difficult occasions that both Diabolus and +his orator also came up. You do not hear your great preachers +every Sabbath. They would not long remain great preachers, and you +would soon cease to pay any attention to them, if they were always +in the pulpit. Neither do you have your great orators at every +street corner. Their masters only build theatres for them when +some great occasion arises in the land, and when the best wisdom +must straightway be spoken to the people and in the best way. Then +you bring up Quintilian's orator if you have him at your call. As +Diabolus has done from time to time with his great and almost +always successful orator Ill-pause. On difficult occasions he came +himself on the scene and Ill-pause with him. On such difficult +occasions as in the Garden of Eden; as when Noah was told to make +haste and build an ark; as also when Abraham was told to make haste +and leave his father's house; when Jacob was bid remember and pay +the vow he had made when his trouble was upon him; as also when +Joseph had to flee for what was better than life; and on that +memorable occasion when David sent Joab out against Rabbah, but +David tarried still at Jerusalem. On all these essential, first- +class, and difficult occasions the old serpent brought up Ill- +pause. As also when our Lord was in the wilderness; when He set +His face to go up to Jerusalem; when He saw certain Greeks among +them that came up to the passover; as also again and again in the +Garden. As also on crucial occasions in your own life. As when +you had been told not to eat, not to touch, and not even to look at +the forbidden fruit, then Ill-pause, the devil's orator, came to +you and said that it was a tree to be desired. And, you shall not +surely die. As also when you were moved to terror and to tears +under a Sabbath, or under a sermon, or at some death-bed, or on +your own sick-bed--Ill-pause got you to put off till a more +convenient season your admitted need of repentance and reformation +and peace with God. On such difficult occasions as these the devil +took Ill-pause to help him with you, and the result, from the +devil's point of view, has justified his confidence in his orator. +When Ill-pause gets his new honours paid him in hell; when there is +a new joy in hell over another sinner that has not yet repented, +your name will be heard sounding among the infernal cheers. Just +think of your baptismal name and your pet name at home giving them +joy to-night at their supper in hell! And yet one would not at +first sight think that such triumphs and such toasts, such medals, +and clasps, and garters were to be won on earth or in hell just by +saying such simple-sounding and such commonplace things as those +are for which Ill-pause receives his decorations. 'Take time,' he +says. 'Yes,' he admits, 'but there is no such hurry; to-morrow +will do; next year will do; after you are old will do quite as +well. The darkness shall cover you, and your sin will not find you +out. Christ died for sin, and it is a faithful saying that His +blood will cleanse you later on from all this sin.' Everyday and +well-known words, indeed, but a true orator is seen in nothing more +than in this, that he can take up what everybody knows and says, +and put it so as to carry everybody captive. One of Quintilian's +own orators has said that a great speaker only gives back to his +hearers in flood what they have already given to him in vapour. + +3. 'I was always pleased,' says Calvin, 'with that saying of +Chrysostom, "The foundation of our philosophy is humility"; and yet +more pleased with that of Augustine: "As," says he, "the +rhetorician being asked, What was the first thing in the rules of +eloquence? he answered, Pronunciation; what was the second? +Pronunciation; what was the third? and still he answered, +Pronunciation. So if you would ask me concerning the precepts of +the Christian religion, I would answer, firstly, secondly, thirdly, +and for ever, Humility."' And when Ill-pause opened his +elocutionary school for the young orators of hell, he is reported +to have said this to them in his opening address, 'There are only +three things in my school,' he said; 'three rules, and no more to +be called rules. The first is Delay, the second is Delay, and the +third is Delay. Study the art of delay, my sons; make all your +studies to tell on how to make the fools delay. Only get those to +whom your master sends you to delay, and you will not need to envy +me my laurels; you will soon have a shining crown of your own. Get +the father to delay teaching his little boy how to pray. Get him +on any pretext you can invent to put off speaking in private to his +son about his soul. Get him to delegate all that to the minister. +And then by hook or by crook get that son as he grows up to put off +the Lord's Supper. And after that you will easily get him to put +off purity and prayer till he is a married man and at the head of a +house. Only get the idea of a more convenient season well into +their heads, and their game is up, and your spurs are won. Take +their arm in yours, as I used to do, at their church door, if you +are posted there, and say to them as they come out that to-morrow +will be time enough to give what they had thought of giving while +they were still in their pew and the minister or missionary was +still in the pulpit. Only, as you value your master's praises and +the applause of all this place, keep them, at any cost, from +striking while the iron is hot. Let them fill their hearts, and +their mouths too, if it gives them any comfort, with the best +intentions; only, my scholars, remember that the beginning and +middle and end of your office is by hook or by crook to secure +delay.' And a great crop of young orators sprang up ready for +their work under that teaching and out of the persuasionary school +of Ill-pause. In fine, Mansoul desired some time in which to +prepare its answer.' + +There are many men among ourselves who have been bedevilled out of +their best life, out of the salvation of their souls, and out of +all that constitutes and accompanies salvation now for many years. +And still their sin-deceived hearts are saying to them to-night, +Take time! For many years, every new year, every birthday, and, +for a long time, every Communion-day, they were just about to be +done with their besetting sin; and now all the years lie behind +them, one long downward road all paved, down to this Sabbath night, +with the best intentions. And, still, as if that were not enough, +that same varlet is squat at their ear. Well, my very miserable +brother, you have long talked about the end of an old year and the +beginning of a new year as being your set time for repentance and +for reformation. Let all the weight of those so many remorseful +years fall on your heart at the close of this year, and at last +compel you to take the step that should have been taken, oh! so +many unhappy years ago! Go straight home then, to-night, shut your +door, and, after so many desecrated Sabbath nights, God will still +meet you in your secret chamber. As soon as you shut your door God +will be with you, and you will be with God. With GOD! Think of +it, my brother, and the thing is done. With GOD! And then tell +Him all. And if any one knocks at your door, say that there is +Some One with you to-night, and that you cannot come down. And +continue till you have told it all to God. He knows it all +already; but that is one of Ill-pause's sophistries still in your +heart. Tell your Father it all. Tell Him how many years it is. +Tell Him all that you so well remember over all those wild, +miserable, mad, remorseful years. Tell Him that you have not had +one really happy, one really satisfied day all those years, and +tell Him that you have spent all, and are now no longer a young +man; youth and health and self-respect and self-command are all +gone, till you are a shipwreck rather than a man. And tell Him +that if He will take you back that you are to-night at His feet. + +4. 'We seldom overcome any one vice perfectly,' complains A +Kempis. And, again, 'If only every new year we would root out but +one vice.' Well, now, what do you say to that, my true and very +brethren? What do you say to that? Here we are, by God's grace +and long-suffering to usward, near the end of another year, another +vicious year; and why have we been borne with through so many +vicious years but that we should now cease from vice and begin to +learn virtue? Why are we here over Ill-pause this Sabbath night? +Why, but that we should shake off that varlet liar before another +new year. That is the whole reason why we have been spared to see +this Sabbath night. God decreed it for us that we should have this +text and this discourse here to-night, and that is the reason why +you and I have been so unaccountably spared so long. Let us select +one vice for the axe then to-night, and give God in heaven the +satisfaction of seeing that His long-suffering with us has not been +wholly in vain. Let us lay the axe at one vice from this night. +And what one from among so many shall it be? What is the mockery +of preaching if a preacher does not practise? And, accordingly, I +have selected one vice out of my thicket for next year. Will you +do the same? The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. +Just make your selection and keep it to yourself, at least till you +are able this time next year to say to us--Come, all ye that fear +God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul. Yes, come +on, and from this day all your days on earth, and all the days of +eternity, you will thank God for John Bunyan and his Holy War and +his Ill-pause. Make your selection, then, for your new axe. +Attack some one sin at this so auspicious season. Swear before +God, and unknown to all men--swear sure death, and that without any +more delay, to that selected sin. Never once, all your days, do +that sin again. Determine never once to do it again. Determine +that by prayer, by secret, and at the same time outspoken, prayer +on your knees. Determine it by faith in the cleansing blood and +renewing spirit of Jesus Christ. Determine it by fear of instant +death, and by sure hope of everlasting life. Determine it by +reasons, and motives, and arguments, and encouragements known to +no-one but yourself, and to be suspected by no human being. Name +the doomed sin. Denounce it. Execrate it. Execute it. Draw a +line across your short and uncertain life, and say to that +besetting and presumptuous sin, Hitherto, and no further! Do not +say you cannot do it. You can if you only will. You can if you +only choose. And smiting down that one sin will loosen and shake +down the whole evil fabric of sin. Breaking but that one link will +break the whole of Satan's snare and evil fetter. Here is A +Kempis's forest of vices out of which he hewed down one every year. +Restless lust, outward senses, empty phantoms, always longing to +get, always sparing to give, careless as to talk, unwilling to sit +silent, eager for food, wakeful for news, weary of a good book, +quick to anger, easy of offence at my neighbour, and too ready to +judge him, too merry over prosperity, and too gloomy, fretful, and +peevish in adversity; so often making good rules for my future +life, and coming so little speed with them all, and so on. And, in +facing even such a terrible thicket as that, let not even an old +man absolutely despair. At forty, at sixty, at threescore and ten, +let not an old penitent despair. Only take axe in hand and see if +the sun does not stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the +valley of Ajalon till you have avenged yourself on your enemies. +And always when you stop to wipe your brow, and to whet the edge of +your axe, and to wet your lips with water, keep on saying things +like those of another great sinner deep in his thicket of vice, say +this: O God, he said, Thou hast not cut off as a weaver my life, +nor from day even to night hast Thou made an end of me. But Thou +hast vouchsafed to me life and breath even to this hour from +childhood, youth, and hitherto even unto old age. He holdeth our +soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to slide, rescuing me from +perils, sicknesses, poverty, bondage, public shame, evil chances; +keeping me from perishing in my sins, and waiting patiently for my +full conversion. Glory be to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee, for +Thine incomprehensible and unimaginable goodness toward me of all +sinners far and away the most unworthy. The voices and the concert +of voices of angels and men be to Thee; the concert of all thy +saints in heaven and of all Thy creatures in heaven and on earth; +and of me, beneath their feet an unworthy and wretched sinner, Thy +abject creature; my praise also, now, in this day and hour, and +every day till my last breath, and till the end of this world, and +then to all eternity, where they cease not saying, To Him who loved +us, Amen! + + + +CHAPTER XIII--MR. PENNY-WISE-AND-POUND-FOOLISH, AND MR. GET-I'-THE- +HUNDRED-AND-LOSE-I'-THE-SHIRE + + + +'For, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, +and lose his own soul?'--Our Lord. + +This whole world is the penny, and our own souls are the pound. +This whole world is the hundred, while heaven itself is the shire. +And the question this evening is, Are we wise in the penny and +foolish in the pound? And, are we getting in the hundred and +losing in the shire? + +1. Well, then, to begin at the beginning, we are already begun to +be penny-wise and pound-foolish with our children when we are so +particular with them about their saying their little prayers night +and morning, while all the time we are so inattentive and so +indolent to explain to them how they are to pray, what they are to +pray for, and how they are to wait and how long they are to wait +for the things they pray for. Then, again, we are penny-wise and +pound-foolish with our children when we train them up into all the +proprieties and etiquettes of family and social life, and at the +same time pay so little attention to their inward life of opening +thought and quickening desire and awakening passion. When we are +so eager also for our children to be great with great people, +without much regard to the moral and religious character of those +great people, then again we are like a man who may be wise for a +penny, but is certainly a fool for a pound. When we prefer the gay +and the fashionable world to the intellectual, the religious, and +the philanthropical world for our children, then we lose both the +penny and the pound as well. Almost as much as we do when we +accept the penny of wealth and station and so-called connection for +a son or a daughter, in room of the pound of character, and +intelligence, and personal religion. + +Then, again, even in our own religious life we are ourselves often +and notoriously wise in the penny and foolish in the pound. As, +for instance, when we are so scrupulous and so conscientious about +forms and ceremonies, about times and places, and so on. In short, +the whole ritual that has risen up around spiritual religion in all +our churches, from that of the Pope himself out to that of George +Fox--it is all the penny rather than the pound. This rite and that +ceremony; this habit and that tradition; this ancient and long- +established usage, as well as that new departure and that +threatened innovation;--it is all, at its best, always the penny +and never the pound. Satan busied me about the lesser matters of +religion, says James Fraser of Brea, and made me neglect the more +substantial points. He made me tithe to God my mint, and my anise +and my cummin, and many other of my herbs, to my all but complete +neglect of justice and mercy and faith and love. Whether there are +any of the things that Brea would call mint and anise and cummin +that are taking up too much of the time of our controversially- +minded men in all our churches, highland and lowland, to-day is a +matter for humbling thought. Labour, my brethren, for yourselves, +at any rate, to get yourselves into that sane and sober habit of +mind that instantly and instinctively puts all mint and all cummin +of all kinds into the second place, and all the weightier matters, +both of law and of gospel, into the first place. I wasted myself +on too nice points, laments Brea in his deep, honest, clear-eyed +autobiography. I did not proportion my religious things aright. +The laird of Brea does not say in as many words that he was wise in +the penny and foolish in the pound, but that is exactly what he +means. + +Then, again, the narrowness, the partiality, the sickliness, and +the squeamishness of our consciences,--all that makes us to be too +often penny-wise and pound-foolish in our religious life. A well- +instructed, thoroughly wise, and well-balanced conscience is an +immense blessing to that man who has purchased such a conscience +for himself. There is an immense and a criminal waste of +conscience that goes on among some of our best Christian people +through the want of light and space, room, and breadth, and balance +in their consciences. We are all pestered with people every day +who are full of all manner of childish scrupulosity and sickly +squeamishness in their ill-nourished, ill-exercised consciences. +As long as a man's conscience is ignorant and weak and sickly it +will, it must, spend and waste itself on the pennyworths of +religion and' morals instead of the pounds. It will occupy and +torture itself with points and punctilios, jots and tittles, to the +all but total oblivion, and to the all but complete neglect, of the +substance and the essence of the Christian mind, the Christian +heart, and the Christian character. The washing of hands, of cups, +and of pots, was all the conscience that multitudes had in our +Lord's day; and multitudes in our day scatter and waste their +consciences on the same things. A good man, an otherwise good and +admirable man, will absolutely ruin and destroy his conscience by +points and scruples and traditions of men as fatally as another +will by a life of debauchery. Some old and decayed ecclesiastical +rubric; some absolutely indifferent form in public worship; some +small casuistical question about a creed or a catechism; some too +nice point of confessional interpretation; the mint and anise and +cummin of such matters will fill and inflame and poison a man's +mind and heart and conscience for months and for years, to the +total destruction of all that for which churches and creeds exist; +to the total suspense, if not the total and lasting destruction, of +sobriety of mind, balance and breadth of judgment, humility, +charity, and a hidden and a holy life. The penny of a perverted, +partial, and fanaticised conscience has swallowed up the pound of +instruction, and truth, and justice, and brotherly love. + +2. 'Nor is the man with the long name at all inferior to the +other,' said Lucifer, in laying his infernal plot against the peace +and prosperity of Mansoul. Now, the man with the long name was +just Mr. Get-i'-the-hundred-and-lose-i'-the-shire. A hundred in +the old county geography of England was a political subdivision of +a shire, in which five score freemen lived with their freeborn +families. A county or a shire was described and enumerated by the +poll-sheriff of that day as containing so many enfranchised +hundreds; and the total number of hundreds made up the political +unity of the shire. To this day we still hear from time to time of +the 'Chiltern Hundreds,' which is a division of Buckinghamshire +that belongs, along with its political franchise, to the Crown, and +which is utilised for Crown purposes at certain political +emergencies. This proverb, then, to get i' the hundred and lose i' +the shire, is now quite plain to us. You might canvass so as to +get a hundred, several hundreds, many hundreds on your side, and +yet you might lose when it came to counting up the whole shire. +You might possess yourself of a hundred or two and yet be poor +compared with him who possessed the whole shire. And then the +proverb has been preserved out of the old political life of +England, and has been moralised and spiritualised to us in the Holy +War. And thus after to-night we shall always call this shrewd +proverb to mind when we are tempted to take a part at the risk of +the whole; to receive this world at the loss of the next world; or, +as our Lord has it, to gain the whole world and to lose our own +soul. Lot's choice of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Esau's purchase of +the mess of pottage in the Old Testament; and then Judas's thirty +pieces of silver, and Ananias and Sapphira's part of the price in +the New Testament, are all so many well-known instances of getting +in the hundred and losing in the shire. And not Esau's and Lot's +only, but our own lives also have been full up to to-day of the +same fatal transaction. This house, as our Lord again has it, this +farm, this merchandise, this shop, this office, this salary, this +honour, this home--all this on the one hand, and then our Lord +Himself, His call, His cause, His Church, with everlasting life in +the other--when it is set down before us in black and white in that +way, the transaction, the proposal, the choice is preposterous, is +insane, is absolutely impossible. But preposterous, insane, +absolutely impossible, and all, there it is, in our own lives, in +the lives of our sons and daughters, and in the lives of multitudes +of other men and other men's sons and daughters besides ours. +Every day you will be taken in, and you will stand by and see other +men taken in with the present penny for the future pound: and with +the poor pelting hundred under your eye for the full, far- +extending, and ever-enriching shire. Lucifer is always abroad +pressing on us in his malice the penny on the spot, for the pound +which he keeps out of sight; he dazzles our eyes with the gain of +the hundred till we gnash our teeth at the loss of the shire. + + +'He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief, +Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, +Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.' + + +3. 'What also if we join with those two another two of ours, Mr. +Sweet-world and Mr. Present-good, namely, for they are two men full +of civility and cunning. Let these engage in this business for us, +and let Mansoul be taken up with much business, and if possible +with much pleasure, and this is the way to get ground of them. Let +us but cumber and occupy and amuse Mansoul sufficiently, and they +will make their castle a warehouse for goods instead of a garrison +for men of war.' This diabolical advice was highly applauded all +through hell till all the lesser devils, while setting themselves +to carry it out, gnashed their teeth with envy and malice at +Lucifer for having thought of this masterpiece and for having had +it received with such loud acclamation. 'Only get them,' so went +on that so able, so well-envied, and so well-hated devil, 'let us +only get those fribble sinners for a night at a time to forget +their misery. And it will not cost us much to do that. Only let +us offer them in one another's houses a supper, a dance, a pipe, a +newspaper full of their own shame, a tale full of their own folly, +a silly song, and He who loved them with an everlasting love will +soon see of the travail of His soul in them!' Yes, my fellow- +sinners, Lucifer and his infernal crew know us and despise us and +entrap us at very little trouble, till He who travailed for us on +the tree covers His face in heaven and weeps over us. As long as +we remember our misery, all the mind, and all the malice, and all +the sleeplessness in hell cannot touch a hair of our head. But +when by any emissary and opportunity either from earth around us or +from hell beneath us we for another night forget our misery, it is +all over with us. And yet, to tell the truth, we never can quite +forget our misery. We are too miserable ever to forget our misery. +In the full steam of Lucifer's best-spread supper, amid the shouts +of laughter and the clapping of hands, and all the outward +appearance of a complete forgetfulness of our misery, yet it is not +so. It is far from being so. Our misery is far too deep-seated +for all the devil's drugs. Only, to give Lucifer his due, we do +sometimes, under him, so get out of touch with the true consolation +for our misery that, night after night, through cumber, through +pursuit of pleasure, through the time being taken up with these and +other like things, we do so far forget our misery as to lie down +without dealing with it; but only to have it awaken us, and take +our arm as its own for another miserable day. Yes; though never +completely successful, yet this masterpiece of hell is sufficiently +successful for Satan's subtlest purposes; which are, not to make us +forget our misery, but to make us put it away from us at the +natural and proper hour for facing it and for dealing with it in +the only proper and successful way. But, wholly, any night, or +even partially for a few nights at a time, to forget our misery-- +no, with all thy subtlety of intellect and with all thy hell-filled +heart, O Lucifer, that is to us impossible! Forget our misery! O +devil of devils, no! Bless God, that can never be with us! Our +misery is too deep, too dreadful, too acute, too all-consuming ever +to be forgotten by us even for an hour. Our misery is too terrible +for thee, with all thy overthrown intellect and all thy malice- +filled heart, ever to understand! Didst thou for one midnight hour +taste it, and so understand it, then there would be the same hope +for thee that, I bless God, there still is for me! + +Let us bend all our strength and all our wit to this, went on +Lucifer, to make their castle a warehouse instead of a garrison. +Let us set ourselves and all our allies, he explained to the +duller-witted among the devils, to make their hearts a shop,--some +of them, you know, are shopkeepers; a bank,--some of them are +bankers; a farm,--some of them are farmers; a study,--some of them +are students; a pulpit,--some of them like to preach; a table,-- +some of them are gluttons; a drawing-room,--some of them are +busybodies who forget their own misery in retailing other people's +misery from house to house. Be wise as serpents, said the old +serpent; attend, each several fallen angel of you, to his own +special charge. Study your man. Get to the bottom of your man. +Follow him about; never let him out of your sight; be sure before +you begin, be sure you have the joint in his harness, the spot in +his heel, the chink in his wall full in your eye. I do not surely +need to tell you not to scatter our snares for souls at random, he +went on. Give the minister his study Bible, the student his +classic, the merchant his ledger, the glutton his well-dressed dish +and his elect year of wine, the gossip her sweet secret, and the +flirt her fool. Study them till they are all naked and open to +your sharp eyes. Find out what best makes them forget even for one +night their misery and ply them with that. If I ever see that soul +I have set thee over on his knees on account of his misery I shall +fling thee on the spot into the bottomless pit. And if any of you +shall anywhere discover a man--and there are such men--a man who +forgets his misery through always thinking and speaking about it, +only keep him in his pulpit, and off his knees, and no man so safe +for hell as he. There are fools, and there are double-dyed fools, +and that man is the chief of them. Give him his fill of sin and +misery; let him luxuriate himself in sin and misery; only, keep him +there, and I will not forget thy most excellent service to me. + +Make all their hearts, so Lucifer summed up, as he dismissed his +obsequious devils, make all their several hearts each a warehouse, +a shop, a farm, a pulpit, a library, a nursery, a supper-table, a +chamber of wantonness--let it be to each man just after his own +heart. Only, keep--as you shall answer for it,--keep faith and +hope and charity and innocence and patience and especially +prayerfulness out of their hearts. And when this my counsel is +fulfilled, and when the pit closes over thy charge, I shall pay +thee thy wages, and promote thee to honour. And before he was well +done they were all at their posts. + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE DEVIL'S LAST CARD + + + +'Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light'--Paul. + +Wodrow has an anecdote in his delightful Analecta which shall +introduce us into our subject to-night. Mr. John Menzies was a +very pious and devoted pastor; he was a learned man also, and well +seen in the Popish and in the Arminian controversies. And to the +end of his life he was much esteemed of the people of Aberdeen as a +foremost preacher of the gospel. And yet, 'Oh to have one more +Sabbath in my pulpit!' he cried out on his death-bed. 'What would +you then do?' asked some one who sat at his bedside. 'I would +preach to my people on the tremendous difficulty of salvation!' +exclaimed the dying man. + +1. Now, the first difficulty that stands in the way of our +salvation is the stupendous mass of guilt that has accumulated upon +all of us. Our guilt is so great that we dare not think of it. It +is too horrible to believe that we shall ever be called to account +for one in a thousand of it. It crushes our minds with a perfect +stupor of horror, when for a moment we try to imagine a day of +judgment when we shall be judged for all the deeds that we have +done in the body. Heart-beat after heart-beat, breath after +breath, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, and all +full of sin; all nothing but sin from our mother's womb to our +grave. Sometimes one outstanding act of sin has quite overwhelmed +us. But before long that awful sin fell out of sight and out of +mind. Other sins of the same kind succeeded it. Our sense of sin, +our sense of guilt was soon extinguished by a life of sin, till, at +the present moment the accumulated and tremendous load of our sin +and guilt is no more felt by us than we feel the tremendous load of +the atmosphere. But, all the time, does not our great guilt lie +sealed down upon us? Because we are too seared and too stupefied +to feel it, is it therefore not there? Because we never think of +it, does that prove that both God and man have forgiven and +forgotten it? Shall the Judge of all the earth do right in the +matter of all men's guilt but ours? Does the apostle's warning not +hold in our case?--his awful warning that we shall all stand before +the judgment-seat? And is it only a strong figure of speech that +the books shall be opened till we shall cry to the mountains to +fall on us and to the rocks to cover us? Oh no! the truth is, the +half has not been told us of the speechless stupefaction that shall +fall on us when the trumpet shall sound and when Alp upon Alp of +aggravated guilt shall rise up high as heaven between us and our +salvation. Difficulty is not the name for guilt like ours. +Impossibility is the better name we should always know it by. + +2. Another difficulty or impossibility to our salvation rises out +of the awful corruption and pollution of our hearts. But is there +any use entering on that subject? Is there one man in a hundred +who even knows the rudiments of the language I must now speak in? +Is there one man in a hundred in whose mind any idea arises, and in +whose heart any emotion or passion is kindled, as I proceed to +speak of corruption of nature and pollution of heart? I do not +suppose it. I do not presume upon it. I do not believe it. That +most miserable man who is let down of God's Holy Spirit into the +pit of corruption that is in his own heart,--to him his corruption, +added to his guilt, causes a sadness that nothing in this world can +really relieve; it causes a deep and an increasing melancholy, such +as the ninety and nine who need no repentance and feel no pollution +know nothing of. All living men flee from the corruption of an +unburied corpse. The living at once set about to bury their dead. +'I am a stranger and a sojourner among you,' said Abraham to the +children of Heth; 'give me a possession of a burying-place among +you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.' But Paul could find +no grave in the whole world in which to bury out of his sight the +body of death to which he was chained fast; that body of sin and +death which always makes the holiest of men the most wretched of +men,--till the loathing and the disgust and the misery that filled +the apostle's heart are to be understood by but one in a thousand +even of the people of God. + +3. And then, as if to make our salvation a very hyperbole of +impossibility, the all but almighty power of indwelling sin comes +in. Have you ever tried to break loose from the old fetter of an +evil habit? Have you ever said on a New Year's Day with Thomas A +Kempis that this year you would root that appetite,--naming it,-- +out of your body, and that vice,--naming it,--out of your heart? +Have you ever sworn at the Communion table that you would watch and +pray, and set a watch on your evil heart against that envy, and +that revenge, and that ill-will, and that distaste, dislike, and +antipathy? Then your minister will not need to come back from his +death-bed to preach to you on the difficulty of salvation. + +4. And yet such is the grace of God, such is the work of Christ, +and such is the power and the patience of the Holy Ghost that, if +we had only an adequate ministry in our pulpits, and an assisting +literature in our homes, even this three-fold impossibility would +be overcome and we would be saved. But if the ministry that is set +over us is an ignorant, indolent, incompetent, self-deceived +ministry; if our own chosen, set-up, and maintained minister is +himself an uninstructed, unspiritual, unsanctified man; and if the +books we buy and borrow and read are all secular, unspiritual, +superficial, ephemeral, silly, stupid, impertinent books, then the +impossibility of our salvation is absolute, and we are as good as +in hell already with all our guilt and all our corruption for ever +on our heads. Now, that was the exact case of Mansoul in the +allegory of the Holy War at one of the last and acutest stages of +that war. Or, rather, that would have been her exact case had +Diabolus got his own deep, diabolical way with her. For what did +her ancient enemy do but sound a parley till he had played his last +card in these glozing and deceitful words;--'I myself,' he had the +face to say to Emmanuel, 'if Thou wilt raise Thy siege and leave +the town to me, I will, at my own proper cost and charge, set up +and maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul, +who shall show to Mansoul that transgression stands in the way of +life; the ministers I shall set up shall also press the necessity +of reformation according to Thy holy law.' And even now, with the +two pulpits, God's and the devil's, and the two preachers, and the +two pastors, in our own city,--how many of you see any difference, +or think that the one is any worse or any better than the other? +Or, indeed, that the ministry of the last card is not the better of +the two to your interest and to your taste, to the state of your +mind and to the need of your heart? Let us proceed, then, to look +at Mansoul's two pulpits and her two lectureships as they stand +portrayed on the devil's last card and in Emmanuel's crowning +commission; that is, if our eyes are sharp enough to see any +difference. + +5. The first thing, then, on the devil's last card was this, 'A +sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' Now, a +sufficient ministry has never been seen in the true Church of +Christ since her ministry began. And yet she has had great +ministers in her time. After Christ Himself, Paul was the greatest +and the best minister the Church of Christ has ever had. But such +was the transcendent greatness of his office, such were its +tremendous responsibilities, such were its magnificent +opportunities and its incessant demands, such were its ceaseless +calls to consecration, to cross-bearing, to crucifixion, to more +and more inwardness of holiness, and to higher and higher heights +of heavenly-mindedness, that the apostle was fain to cry out +continually, Who is sufficient for these things! But so well did +Paul learn that gospel which he preached to others that amid all +his insufficiency he was able to hear his Master saying to him +every day, My grace is sufficient for thee, and, My strength is +made perfect in thy weakness! And to come down to the truly +Pauline succession of ministers in our own lands and in our own +churches, what preachers and what pastors Christ gave to +Kidderminster, and to Bedford, and to Down and Connor, and to Sodor +and Man, and to Anwoth, and to Ettrick, and to New England, and to +St. Andrews, and places too many to mention. With all its +infirmity and all its inefficiency, what a truly heavenly power the +pulpit is when it is filled by a man of God who gives his whole +mind and heart, his whole time and thought to it, and to the +pastorate that lies around it. His mind may be small, and his +heart may be full of corruption; his time may be full of manifold +interruptions, and his best study may yield but a poor result; but +if Heaven ever helps those who honestly help themselves, then that +is certainly the case in the Christian ministry. Let the choicest +of our children, then, be sought out and consecrated to that +service; let our most gifted and most gracious-minded sons be sent +to where they shall be best prepared for the pulpit and the +pastorate,--till by the blessing of her Head all the congregations +and all the parishes, all the pulpits and all the lectureships in +the Church, shall be one garden of the Lord. And then we shall +escape that last curse of a ministry such as John Bunyan saw all +around him in the England of his day, and which, had he been alive +in the England and Scotland of our day, he would have painted again +in colours we have neither the boldness nor the skill to mix nor to +put on the canvas. But let all ministers put it every day to +themselves to what descent and succession they belong. Let those +even who believe that they have within themselves the best seal and +evidence attainable here that they have been ordained of Emmanuel, +let them all the more look well every day and every Sabbath day how +much of another master's doctrine and discipline, motives, and +manners still mixes up with their best ministry. And the surest +seal that, with all our insufficiency, we are still the ministers +of Christ will be set on us by this, that the harder we work and +the more in secret we pray, the more and ever the more shall we +discover and confess our shameful insufficiency, and the more shall +we, till the day of our death, every day still begin our ministry +of labour and of prayer anew. Let us do that, for the devil, with +all his boldness and all his subtilty, never threw a card first or +last like that. + +6. After offering a sufficient ministry to Mansoul, and that, too, +at his own proper cost and charge, Diabolus undertook also to see +that the absolute necessity of a reformation should be preached and +pressed from the pulpit he set up. Now, reformation is all good +and necessary, in its own time and place and order, but God sent +His Son not to be a Reformer but to be a Redeemer. John came to +preach reformation, but Jesus came to preach regeneration. Except +a man be born again, Jesus persistently preached to Nicodemus. +'Did it begin with regeneration?' was Dr. Duncan's reply when a +sermon on sanctification was praised in his hearing. And like so +much else that the learned and profound Dr. John Duncan said on +theology and philosophy, that question went at once to the root of +the matter. For sanctification, that is to say, salvation, is no +mere reformation of morals or refinement of manners. It is a maxim +in sound morals that the morality of the man must precede the +morality of his actions. And much more is it the evangelical law +of Jesus Christ. Make the tree good, our Lawgiver aphoristically +said. Reformation and sanctification differ, says Dr. Hodge, as +clean clothes differ from a clean heart. Now, Diabolus was all for +clean clothes when he saw that Mansoul was slipping out of his +hands. He would have all the drunkards to become moderate +drinkers, if not total abstainers; and all the sensualists to +become, if need be, ascetics; and all those who had sowed out their +wild oats to settle down as heads of houses, and members, if not +ministers and elders, in his set-up church. But we are too well +taught, surely; we have gone too long to another church than that +which Diabolus ever sets up, to be satisfied with his superficial +doctrine and his skin-deep discipline. We know, do we not, that we +may do all that his last card asks us to do, and yet be as far, ay, +and far farther from salvation than the heathen are who never heard +the name. A hundred Scriptures tell us that; and our hearts know +too much of their own plague and corruption ever now to be +satisfied short of a full regeneration and a complete +sanctification. 'Create in me a clean heart and renew a right +spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. And +the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your +whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the +coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' The last card has many +Scriptures cunningly copied upon it; but not these. Its pulpit +orators handle many Scripture texts, but never these. + +7. Yes, the devil comes in even here with that so late, so subtle, +and so contradicting card of his. Where is it in this world that +he does not come in with some of his cards? And he comes in here +as a very angel of evangelical light. He puts on the gown of +Geneva here, and he ascends Emmanuel's own maintained pulpit here, +and from that pulpit he preaches, and where he so preaches he +preaches nothing else but the very highest articles of the Reformed +faith. Carnal-security was strong on assurance, no other man in +Mansoul was so strong; and the devil will let us preachers be as +strong and as often on election, and justification, and +indefectible grace, and the perseverance of the saints as we and +our people like, if we but keep in season and out of season on +these transcendent subjects and keep off morals and manners, walk +and conversation, conduct and character. In Hooker's and Travers' +day, Thomas Fuller tells us, the Temple pulpit preached pure +Canterbury in the morning and pure Geneva in the afternoon. And +you will get the highest Calvinism off the last card in one pulpit, +and the strictest and most urgent morality off the same card in +another; but never, if the devil can help it, never both in one and +the same pulpit; never both in one and the same sermon; and never +both in one and the same minister. You have all heard of the +difficulty the voyager had in steering between Scylla and Charybdis +in the Latin adage. Well, the true preacher's difficulty is just +like that. Indeed, it is beyond the wit of man, and it takes all +the wit of God, aright to unite the doctrine of our utter inability +with the companion doctrine of our strict responsibility; free +grace with a full reward; the cross of Christ once for all, with +the saint's continual crucifixion; the Saviour's blood with the +sinner's; and atonement with attainment; in short, salvation +without works with no salvation without works. Deft steersman as +the devil is, he never yet took his ship clear through those +Charybdic passages. + +One thing there is that I must have preached continually in all my +pulpits and expounded and illustrated and enforced in all my +lectureships, said Emmanuel, and that is, my new example and my new +law of motive. My own motives always made me in all I said and did +to be well-pleasing in My Father's eyes, and at any cost I must +have preachers and lecturers set up in Mansoul who shall assist Me +in making Mansoul as well-pleasing in My Father's sight as I was +Myself. + + +'For I am ware it is the seed of act +God holds appraising in His hollow palm, +Not act grown great thence as the world believes, +Leafage and branchage vulgar eyes admire.' + + +Motives! gnashed Diabolus. And he tore his last card into a +thousand shreds and cast the shreds under his feet in his rage and +exasperation. Motives! New motives! Truly Thou art the +threatened Seed of the woman! Truly Thou art the threatened Son of +God!--Let all our preachers, then, preach much on motive to their +people. The commonplace crowd of their people will not all like +that preaching any more than Diabolus did; but their best people +will all afterwards rise up in their salvation and bless them for +it. On reformation also, let them every Sabbath preach, but only +on the reformation that rises out of a reformed motive, and that +again out of a reformed heart. And if a reformed motive, a +reformed heart, and a reformed life are found both by preacher and +hearer to be impossible; if all that only brings out the +hopelessness of their salvation by reason of the guilt and the +pollution and power of sin; then all that will only be to them that +same ever deeper entering of the law into their hearts which led +Paul to an ever deeper faith and trust in Jesus Christ. With a +guilt, and a pollution, and a slavery to sin like ours, salvation +from sin would be absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible, +that is, but for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. But with His atoning +blood and His Holy Spirit all things are possible--even our +salvation. + +Let us choose, then, a minister like Mr. John Menzies. Let us read +the great books that make salvation difficult. Let us work out our +own salvation, day and night, with fear and trembling, and when +Wisdom is justified in her children, we shall be found justified +among them. We shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the +day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of +God to all eternity. + + + +CHAPTER XV--MR. PRYWELL + + + +'Search me, O God, and know my heart.'--David. + +'Let a man examine himself.'--Paul + +'Look to yourselves.'--John. + +'Know thyself.'--Apollo. + +The year 1668 saw the publication of one of the deepest books in +the whole world, Dr. John Owen's Remainders of Indwelling Sin in +Believers. The heart-searching depth; the clear, fearless, +humbling truth, the intense spirituality, and the massive and +masculine strength of John Owen's book have all combined to make it +one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the great Puritan school. +Had John Owen's style been at all equal to his great learning, to +the depth and the grasp of his mind, and to the lofty holiness of +his life, John Owen would have stood in the very foremost and +selectest rank of apostolical and evangelical theologians. But in +all his books Owen labours under the fatal drawback of a bad style. +A fine style, a style like that of Hooker, or Taylor, or Bunyan, or +Howe, or Leighton, or Law, is such a winning introduction to their +works and such an abiding charm and spell. The full title of Dr. +Owen's great work runs thus: The Nature, Power, Deceit, and +Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers--a +title that will tell all true students what awaits them when they +have courage and enterprise enough to address themselves to this +supreme and all-essential subject. Fourteen years after the +publication of Dr. Owen's epoch-making book, John Bunyan's Holy War +first saw the light. Equal in scriptural and in experimental +depth, as also in their spiritual loftiness and intensity, those +two books are as different as any two books, written in the same +language, and written on the same subject, could by any possibility +be. John Owen's book is the book of a great scholar who has read +the Fathers and the Schoolmen and the Reformers till he knows them +by heart, and till he has been able to digest all that is true to +Scripture and to experience in them into his rich and ripe book. A +powerful reasoner, a severe, bald, muscular writer, John Owen in +all these respects stands at the very opposite pole to that of John +Bunyan. The author of the Holy War had no learning, but he had a +mind of immense natural sagacity, combined with a habit of close +and deep observation of human life, and especially of religious +life, and he had now a lifetime of most fruitful experience as a +Christian man and as a Christian minister behind him; and, all +that, taken up into Bunyan's splendid imagination, enabled him to +produce this extraordinarily able and impressive book. A model of +English style as the Holy War is, at the same time it does not +attain at all to the rank of the Pilgrim's Progress; but then, to +be second to the Pilgrim's Progress is reward and honour enough for +any book. Let all genuine students, then, who would know the best +that has been written on experimental religion, and who would +preach to the deepest and divinest experience of their best people, +let them keep continually within their reach John Owen's +Temptation, his Mortification of Sin in Believers, his Nature and +Power of Indwelling Sin, and John Bunyan's Holy War made for the +Regaining of the Metropolis of this World. + +Well, then, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was one +whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul. And he, as +his manner was, did go listening up and down in Mansoul to see and +hear, if at any time he might, whether there was any design against +it or no. For he was always a jealous man, and feared some +mischief would befall it, either from within or from some power +without. Mr. Prywell was always a lover of Mansoul, a sober and a +judicious man, a man that was no tattler, nor a raiser of false +reports, but one that loves to look into the very bottom of +matters, and talks nothing of news but by very solid arguments. +And then, after our historian has told us some of the eminent +services that Mr. Prywell was able to perform both for the King and +for the city, he goes on to tell us how the captains determined +that public thanks should be given by the town of Mansoul to Mr. +Prywell for his so diligent seeking of the welfare of the town; +and, further, that, forasmuch as he was so naturally inclined to +seek their good, and also to undermine their foes, they gave him +the commission of Scoutmaster-general for the good of Mansoul. And +Mr. Prywell managed his charge and the trust that Mansoul had put +into his hands with great conscience and good fidelity; for he gave +himself wholly up to his employ, and that not only within the town, +but he also went outside of the town to pry, to see, and to hear. +Now, that being so, it may interest and perhaps instruct you to- +night to look for a little at some of the features and at some of +the feats of the Scoutmaster-general of the Holy War, Mr. Prywell, +of the town of Mansoul. + +1. 'Well, now, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was +one whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of the town of +Mansoul.' In other words: self-observation, self-examination, +strict, jealous, sleepless self-examination, is of God. Our God +who searches our hearts and tries our reins would have it so. And +if He does not have it so in us, our souls are not as our God would +have them to be. + +'Bunyan employs pry,' says Miss Peacock in her excellent notes, 'in +a more favourable sense than it now bears. As, for instance, it is +said in another part of this same book that the men of Mansoul were +allowed to pry into the words of the Holy Ghost and to expound them +to their best advantage. Honest anxiety for the welfare of his +fellow-townsmen was Mr. Prywell's chief characteristic. Pry is +another form of peer--to look narrowly, to look closely.' And God, +says John Bunyan, would have it so. + +2. 'A great lover of Mansoul,' 'always a lover of Mansoul'; again +and again that is testified concerning Mr. Prywell. It was not +love for the work that led Mr. Prywell to give up his days and his +nights as his history tells us he did. Mr. Prywell ran himself +into many dangerous situations both within and without the city, +and he lost himself far more friends than he made by his devotion +to his thankless task. But necessity was laid upon him. And what +held him up was the sure and certain knowledge that his King would +have that service at his hands. That, and his love for the city, +for the safety and the deliverance of the city,--all that kept Mr. +Prywell's heart fixed. Am I therefore your enemy? he would say to +some who would have had it otherwise than the King would have it. +But it is a good thing to be zealously affected in a work like +mine, he would say, in self-defence and in self-encouragement. And +then, though not many, there were always some in the city who said, +Let him smite me and it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me and +it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head. It was +in Mansoul with Mr. Prywell as it was in Kidderminster with Richard +Baxter, when some of his people said to one another, 'We will take +all things well from one that we know doth entirely love us.' +'Love them,' said Augustine, 'and then say anything you like to +them.' Now, that was Mr. Prywell's way. He loved Mansoul, and +then he said many things to her that a false lover and a flatterer +would never have dared to say. + +3. Then, as the saying is, it goes without saying that 'Mr. +Prywell was always a jealous man.' Great lovers are always jealous +men, and Mr. Prywell showed himself to be a great lover by the +great heat of his jealousy also. 'Vigilant,' says the excellent +editress again; 'cautious against dishonour, reasonably +mistrustful--low Latin zelosus, full of zeal. "And he said, I have +been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts."' Now, it so happened +that some of Mr. Prywell's most private and not at all professional +papers--papers evidently, and on the face of them, connected with +the state of the spy's own soul--came into my hands as good lot +would have it just the other night. The moth-eaten chest was full +of his old papers, but the pieces that took my heart most were, as +it looked to me, actually gnashed through with his remorseful +teeth, and soaked and sodden past recognition with his sweat and +his tears and his agonising hands. But after some late hours over +those remnants I managed to make some sense to myself out of them. +There are some parts of the parchments that pass me; but, if only +to show you that this arch-spy's so vigilant jealousy was not all +directed against other people's bad hearts and bad habits, I shall +copy some lines out of the old box. 'Have I penitence?' he begins +without any preface. 'Have I grief, shame, pain, horror, weariness +for my sin? Do I pray and repent, if not seven times a day as +David did, yet at least three times, as Daniel? If not as Solomon, +at length, yet shortly as the publican? If not like Christ, the +whole night, at least for one hour? If not on the ground and in +ashes, at least not in my bed? If not in sackcloth, at least not +in purple and fine linen? If not altogether freed from all, at +least from immoderate desires? Do I give, if not as Zaccheus did, +fourfold, as the law commands, with the fifth part added? If not +as the rich, yet as the widow? If not the half, yet the thirtieth +part? If not above my power, yet up to my power?' And then over +the page there are some illegible pencillings from old authors of +his such as this from Augustine: 'A good man would rather know his +own infirmity than the foundations of the earth or the heights of +the heavens.' And this from Cicero: 'There are many hiding-places +and recesses in the mind.' And this from Seneca: 'You must know +yourself before you can amend yourself. An unknown sin grows worse +and worse and is deprived of cure.' And this from Cicero again: +'Cato exacted from himself an account of every day's business at +night'; and also Pythagoras, + + +'Nor let sweet sleep upon thine eyes descend +Till thou hast judged its deeds at each day's end.' + + +And this from Seneca again: 'When the light is removed out of +sight, and my wife, who is by this time aware of my practice, is +now silent, I pass the whole of my day under examination, and I +review my deeds and my words. I hide nothing from myself: I pass +over nothing.' And then in Mr. Prywell's boldest and least +trembling hand: 'O yes! many shall come from the east and the west +and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom +of heaven, when many of the children of the kingdom shall be cast +out. O yes.' Now, this 'O yes!' Miss Peacock tells us, is the +Anglicised form of a French word for our Lord's words, Take heed +how ye hear! + +4. 'A sober and a judicious man' it is said of Mr. Prywell also. +To a certainty that. It could not be otherwise than that. For Mr. +Prywell's office, its discoveries and its experiences, would sober +any man. 'I am sprung from a country,' says Abelard, 'of which the +soil is light, and the temper of the inhabitants is light.' So was +it with Mr. Prywell to begin with. But even Abelard was sobered in +time, and so was Mr. Prywell. Life sobered Abelard, and Mr. +Prywell too; life's crooks and life's crosses, life's duties and +life's disappointments, especially Mr. Prywell. 'The more narrowly +a man looks into himself,' says A Kempis, 'the more he sorroweth.' +Not sober-mindedness alone comes to him who looks narrowly into +himself, but great sorrow of heart also. And if you are not both +sobered in your mind and full of an unquenchable sorrow in your +heart, O yes! attend to it, for you are not yet begun to be what +God would have you to be. Dr. Newman, with all his mistakes and +all his faults, was a master in two things: his own heart and the +English language. And in writing home to his mother a confidential +letter from college on his birthday, he confides to her that he +often 'shudders at himself.' 'No,' he answered to his mother's +fears and advices about food and air and exercise: 'No, I am +neither nervous, nor in ill-health, nor do I study too much. I am +neither melancholy, nor morose, nor austere, nor distant, nor +reserved, nor sullen. I am always cheerful, ready and eager to +join in any merriment. I am not clouded with sadness, nor absent +in mind, nor deficient in action. No; take me when I am most +foolish at home and extend mirth into childishness; yet all the +time I am shuddering at myself.' There spake the future author of +the immortal sermons. There spake a mind and a heart that have +deepened the minds and the hearts of Christian men more than any +other influence of the century; a mind and a heart, moreover, that +will shine and beat in our best literature and in our deepest +devotion for centuries to come. You must all know by this time +another classical passage from the pen of another spiritual genius +in the Church of England, that greatly gifted church. Let me +repeat it to illustrate how sober-mindedness and great sorrow of +heart always come to the best of men. 'Let any man consider that +if the world knew all that of him which he knows of himself; if +they saw what vanity and what passions govern his inside, and what +secret tempers sully and corrupt his best actions; and he would +have no more pretence to be honoured and admired for his goodness +and wisdom than a rotten and distempered body is to be loved and +admired for its beauty and comeliness. And, perhaps, there are +very few people in the world who would not rather choose to die +than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their +judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their +pretences, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, +their uneasinesses, hatreds, envies, and vexations made known to +the world. And shall pride be entertained in a heart thus +conscious of its own miserable behaviour?' No wonder that Mr. +Prywell was sober-minded! No wonder that Dr. Newman shuddered at +himself! And no wonder that William Law chose strangling and the +pond rather than that any other man should see what went on in his +heart! + +5. And as if all that were not enough, and more than enough, to +commend Mr. Prywell to us--to our trust, to our confidence, and to +our imitation--his royal certificate continues, 'One that looks +into the very bottom of matters, and talks nothing of news, but by +very solid arguments.' The very bottom of matters--that is, the +very bottom of his own and other men's hearts. Mr. Prywell counts +nothing else worth a wise man's looking at. Let fools and children +look at the painted and deceitful surface of things, but let men, +men of matters, and especially men of divine matters, look only at +their own and other men's hearts. The very bottom of all matters +is there. All wars, all policies, all debates, all disputes, all +good and all evil counsels, all the much weal and all the +multitudinous woe of Mansoul--all have their bottom in the heart; +in the heart of God, or in the heart of man, or in the heart of the +devil. The heart is the root of absolutely every matter to Mr. +Prywell. He would not waste one hour of any day, or one watch of +any night, on anything else. And it was this that made him both +the extraordinarily successful scout he was, and the +extraordinarily sober and thoughtful and judicious man he was. O +yes, my brethren, the bottom of matters, when you take to it, will +work the same change in you. 'Two things,' says one who had long +looked at his own matters with Mr. Prywell's eyes--'two things, O +Lord, I recognise in myself: nature, which Thou hast made, and +sin, which I have added.' My brethren, that recognition, that +discovery in yourselves, when it comes to you, will sober you as it +has sobered so many men before you: when it comes to you, that is, +about yourselves. That discovery made in yourselves will make you +deep-thinking men. It will make common men and unlearned men among +you to be philosophers and theologians and saints. It will work in +you a thoughtfulness, a seriousness, a depth, an awe, a holy fear, +and a great desire that will already have made you new creatures. +When, in examining yourselves and in characterising yourselves, you +come on what some clear-eyed men have come on in themselves, and +what one of them has described as 'the diabolical animus of the +human mind'--when you make that discovery in yourselves, that will +sober you, that will humble you and fill you full of remorse and +compunction. And if in God's grace to you, that were to begin to +be wrought in you this week, there would be one, at any rate, +eating of that bread next Lord's day, and drinking of that cup as +God would have it. + +6. 'A man that is no tattler, nor raiser of false reports, and +that talks nothing of news, but by very solid arguments.' Mr. +Prywell was more taken up with his own matters at home, far more +than the greatest busybodies are with other men's matters abroad. +His name, I fear, will still sound somewhat ill in your ears, but I +can assure you all the ill for you lies in the sound. Mr. Prywell +would not hurt a hair of your head: the truth is, he does not know +whether there is a hair on your head or no. This man's name comes +to him and sticks to him, not because he pries into your affairs, +for he does not, and never did, but because he is so drawn down +into his own. Mr. Prywell has no eye for your windows and he has +no ear for your doors. If your servant is a leaky slave, Prywell, +of all your neighbours, has no ear for his idle tales. This man is +no eavesdropper; your evil secrets have only a sobering and a +saddening and a silencing effect upon him. Your house might be +full of skeletons for anything he would ever discover or remember. +The beam in his own eye is so big that he cannot see past it to +speak about your small mote. 'The inward Christian,' says A +Kempis, 'preferreth the care of himself before all other cares. He +that diligently attendeth to himself can easily keep silence +concerning other men. If thou attendest unto God and unto thyself, +thou wilt be but little moved with what thou seest abroad.' At the +same time, Mr. Prywell was no fool, and no coward, and no +hoodwinked witness. He could tell his tale, when it was demanded +of him, with such truth, and with such punctuality, and on such +ample grounds, that a conviction of the truth instantly fell on all +who heard him. 'Sirs,' said those who heard him break silence, 'it +is not irrational for us to believe it,' with such solid arguments +and with such an absence of mere suspicion and of all idle tales +did he speak. On one occasion, on a mere 'inkling,' he woke up the +guard; only, it was so true an inkling that it saved the city. But +I cannot follow Mr. Prywell any further to-night. How he went up +and down Mansoul listening; how he kept his eyes and his ears both +shut and open; what splendid services he performed in the progress, +and specially toward the end, of the war; how the thanks of the +city were voted to him; how he was made Scoutmaster-general for the +good of the town of Mansoul, and the great conscience and good +fidelity with which he managed that great trust--all that you will +read for yourselves under this marginal index, 'The story of Mr. +Prywell.' + +Now, my brethren, as the outcome of all that, we must all examine +ourselves as before God all this week. We must wait on His word +and on His providences while they examine us all this week. We +must pry well into ourselves all this week. Come, let us compel +ourselves to do it. Let us search and try our ways all this week +as we shall give an account. Let us ask ourselves how many +Communion tables we have sat at, and at how many more we are likely +to sit. Let us ask why it is that we have got so little good out +of all our Communions. Let us ask who is to blame for that, and +where the blame lies. Let us go to the bottom of matters with +ourselves, and compel ourselves to say just what it is that is the +cause of God's controversy with us. What vow, what solemn promise, +made when trouble was upon us, have we completely cast behind our +back? What about secret prayer? At what times, for what things, +and for what people do we in secret pray? What about secret sin? +What is its name, and what does it deserve, and what fruit are we +already reaping out of it? What is our besetting sin, and what +steps do we take, as God knows, to crucify it? Do we love money +too much? Do we love praise too much? Do we love eating and +drinking too much? Does envy make our heart a very hell? Let us +name the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him. +Let us mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of +this Communion season. Or is it diabolical ill-will? Or is it a +wicked tongue against an unsuspecting friend? Let us examine +ourselves as Paul did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do +it, and we shall discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were +to put words on them to-night, you would stop your ears in horror +and flee out of the church. Let a man see himself at least as +others see him; and then he will be led on from that to see himself +as God sees him; and then he will judge himself so severely as that +he shall not need to be judged at the Judgment Day, and will +condemn himself so sufficiently as that he shall not be condemned +with a condemned world at the last. + + + +CHAPTER XVI--YOUNG CAPTAIN SELF-DENIAL + + + +'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross daily and follow Me.'--Our Lord. + +'Now the siege was long, and many a fierce attempt did the enemy +make upon the town, and many a shrewd brush did some of the +townsmen meet with from the enemy, especially Captain Self-denial, +to whose care both Ear-gate and Eye-gate had been intrusted. This +Captain Self-denial was a young man, but stout, and a townsman in +Mansoul. This young captain, therefore, being a hardy man, and a +man of great courage to boot, and willing to venture himself for +the good of the town, he would now and then sally out upon the +enemy; but you must think this could not easily be done, but he +must meet with some sharp brushes himself, and, indeed, he carried +several of such marks on his face, yea, and some on some other +parts of his body.' Thus, Bunyan. I shall now go on to-night to +offer you some annotations and some reflections on this short but +excellent history of young Captain Self-denial. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Captain Self-denial was still a young +man. 'And, now, it comes into my mind, said Goodman Gains after +supper, I will tell you a story well worth the hearing, as I think. +There were two men once upon a time that went on pilgrimage; the +one began when he was young and the other began when he was old. +The young man had strong corruptions to grapple with, whereas the +old man's corruptions were decayed with the decays of nature. The +young man trod his steps as even as did the old one, and was every +way as light as he; who, now, or which of them, had their graces +shining clearest, since both seemed to be alike? Why, the young +man's, doubtless, answered Mr. Honest. For that which heads +against the greatest opposition gives best demonstration that it is +strongest. A young man, therefore, has the advantage of the +fairest discovery of a work of grace within him. And thus they sat +talking till the break of day.' + +Now, I have taken up Captain Self-denial to-night because the young +men and I are to begin a study to-night to which I was first +attracted because it taught me lessons about myself, and about +self-denial, and thus about both a young man's and an old man's +deepest and most persistent corruptions--lessons such as I have +never been taught in any other school. In all my philosophical, +theological, moral, and experimental reading, so to describe it, I +have never met with any school of authors for one moment to be +compared with the great evangelical mystics, especially when they +treat of self, self-love, self-denial, the daily cross, and all +suchlike lessons. Take the great doctrinal and experimental +Puritans, such as John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Richard Baxter, John +Howe, and Jonathan Edwards, and add on to them the greatest and +best mystics, such as Jacob Behmen, Thomas A Kempis, Francis +Fenelon, Jeremy Taylor, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Leighton, and +William Law, and you will have the profoundest, the most complete, +the most perfect, and, I will add, the most fascinating and +enthralling of spiritual teaching in all the world. And I will be +bold enough to promise you that if you will but join our Young +Men's Class to-night, and will buy and read our mystical books, and +will resolve to put in practice what you hear and read in the +class, I will promise you, I say, that by the end of our short +session you will not only be ten times more open and hospitably- +minded men, but also ten times more spiritually-minded men, ten +times more Christ-like men, and with your joy in Christ and His joy +in you all but full. + +2. The Captain Self-denial was a young man, and he was also a +townsman in Mansoul. Young Self-denial and one other were all of +Emmanuel's captains who were townsmen in Mansoul. All his other +captains Emmanuel had brought with him; but the Captains Self- +denial and Experience were both born and reared to their full +manhood in that besieged city. 'A townsman.' How much there is +for us all in that one word! How much instruction! How much +encouragement! How much caution and correction! Our greatest +grace; our most essential and indispensable grace; our most +experimental and evidential grace; that grace, indeed, without +which all our other graces are but specious shows and painted +surfaces of graces; that grace into which our Lord here gathers up +all our other graces;--that greatest of graces cannot be imputed, +imported, or introduced; it must be born, bred, exercised, reared +up to its full maturity, and sent forth to fight and to conquer, +and all within the walls of its own native town; in short, our +self-denial must have its beginning and middle and end in our own +heart. Antinomians there were, as our Puritan fathers nicknamed +all those persons who glorified Christ by letting Him do all things +for them, both His own things and their things too, both their +justification and their sanctification too. And there are many +good but ill-instructed men among ourselves who have just this +taint of that old heresy cleaving to them still--this taint, +namely, that they are tempted to carry over the suretyship and +substitutionary work of Christ into such regions, and to carry it +to such lengths in those regions, as, practically, to make Christ +to minister to their soft and sinful living, and to their excuse +and indulgence of themselves. I will put it squarely and plainly +to some of my very best friends here to-night. Is it not the case, +now, that you do not like this direction into which this text, and +the truth of this text, are now travelling? Is it not so that you +shift back in your seat from the approaching cross? Is it not the +very and actual fact that you have secret ways of sin, secret +habits of self-indulgence in your body and in your soul, in your +mind and in your heart, secret sins that you mantle over with the +robe of Christ's righteousness? His spotless and imputed +righteousness? In your present temper you would have disliked +deeply the Sermon on the Mount had you heard it; and I see you +shaking your head over your Sabbath-day dinner at this text when it +was first spoken. Lay this down for a law, all my brethren,--a New +Testament and a never-to-be-abrogated law,--that the best and the +safest religion for you is that way of religion that is hardest on +your pride, on your self-importance, on your self-esteem, as well +as on your purse and on your belly. You are not likely to err by +practising too much of the cross. You may very well have too much +of the cross of Christ preached to you, and too little of your own. +Why! did not Christ die for me? you indignantly say. Yes; so He +did. But only that you might die too. He was crucified, and so +must you be crucified every day before one single drop of His sin- +atoning blood shall ever be wasted on You. Be not deceived: the +cross is not mocked; for only as a man nails himself, body and +soul, to the cross every day shall he ever be saved from sin and +death and hell by means of it. And, exactly as a man denies +himself--no more and no less--his appetites, his passions, his +thoughts and words and deeds, every day and every hour of every +day, just so much shall He who searches our hearts and sees us in +secret, acknowledge us, both every day now, and at the last day of +all. + +3. This same Captain Self-denial, his history goes on, was stout, +he was an hardy man also, and a man of great courage. Stout and +hardy and of great courage at home, that is; in his own mind and +heart, soul and body, that is. Young Captain Self-denial was a +perfect hero at saying No! and at saying No! to himself. It is a +proverb that there is nothing so difficult as to say that +monosyllable. And the proverb is Scripture truth if you try to say +No! to yourself. It takes the very stoutest of hearts, the most +noble, the most manly, the most soldierly, and the most saintly of +hearts to say No! to itself, and to keep on saying No! to itself to +the bitter end of every trial and temptation and opportunity. I +remember reading long ago a page or two of a medical man's diary. +And in it he made a confession and an appeal I have never forgot; +though, to my loss, I have not always acted upon it. He said that +for many years he had never been entirely well. He had constant +headaches and depressions, and it was seldom that he was not to +some extent out of sorts. But, all the time, he had a shrewd guess +within himself as to what was the matter with him. He felt ashamed +to confess it even to himself that he over-ate himself every day at +table; till, at last, summoning up all divine and human help, he +determined that, however hungry he was, and however savoury the +dish was, and however excellent the wine was, he would never either +ask for or accept a second helping. And this was his testimony, +that from that stout and hardy day he grew better in health daily; +'my head became clear, my eye bright, my complexion pure, my mind +and feelings were redeemed from all clouds and depressions. And +to-day I am a younger man at fifty than I was at thirty.' Now, if +just saying No! to himself and to the waiter at table did work such +a new birth in a confirmed gourmand of middle life, what would it +not have wrought for him had he carried his answer stoutly and +courageously through all the other parts of his body and soul?--as +perhaps he did. Perhaps, having tasted the sweet beginnings of +salvation, he carried his short and sure regimen through. If he +has done so, let him give us his full autobiography. What a +blessed, what a priceless book it would be! + +4. Stout Captain Self-denial was commanded to begin his life as an +officer in Emmanuel's army by taking especial watch over Ear-gate +and Eye-gate; and at our last accounts of our abstemious doctor he +had only got the length of Mouth-gate. But having begun so well +with those three great outposts of the soul, if those two trusty +officers only held on, and played the man courageously enough, they +would soon be promoted to still more important, still more central, +and, if more difficult and dangerous, then also much more +honourable and remunerative posts. Appetite, deep and deadly as +its evils are, is, after all, only an outwork of the soul; and the +same sharp knife that the epicure and the sot in all their stages +must put to their throat, that same knife must be made to draw +blood in all parts of their mind and their heart, in their will and +in their imagination, till a perfect chorus of self-denials rings +like noblest martial music through all the gates, and streets, and +fortresses, and strongholds, and very palaces and temples of the +soul. I shall here stand aside and let the greatest of the English +mystics speak to you on this present point. 'When we speak of +self-denial,' he says, in his Christian Perfection, 'we are apt to +confine it to eating and drinking: but we ought to consider that, +though a strict temperance be necessary in these things, yet that +these are the easiest and the smallest instances of self-denial. +Pride, vanity, self-love, covetousness, envy, and other +inclinations of the like nature call for a more constant and a more +watchful self-denial than the appetites of hunger and thirst. And +till we enter into this course of universal self-denial we shall +make no progress in real piety, but our lives will be a ridiculous +mixture of I know not what; sober and covetous, proud and devout, +temperate and vain, regular in our forms of devotion and irregular +in all our passions, circumspect in little modes of behaviour and +careless and negligent of tempers the most essential to piety. And +thus it will necessarily be with us till we lay the axe to the root +of the tree, till we deny and renounce the whole corruption of our +nature, and resign ourselves up entirely to the Spirit of God, to +think and speak and act by the wisdom and the purity of religion.' + +5. Stout as Captain Self-denial was, and notable alarms and some +brisk execution as he did upon the enemy, yet he must meet with +some brushes himself; indeed, he carried several of the marks of +such brushes on his face as well as on some other parts of his +body. If I had read in his history that Young Captain Self-denial +had left his mark upon his enemies, I would have said, Well done, +and I would have added that I always expected as much. But it is +far more to my purpose to read that he had not always got himself +off without wounds that left lasting scars both where they were +seen of all, and where they were seen and felt only by Self-denial +himself. And not Self-denial only, but even Paul, in our flesh, +and with like passions with us, had the same experience and has +left us the same record. 'I keep my body under': so our +emasculated English version makes us read it. But the visual image +in the masterly original Greek is not so mealy-mouthed. I box and +buffet myself day and night, says Paul. I play the truculent +tyrant over a lewd and lazy slave. I hit myself blinding blows on +my tenderest part. I am ashamed to look at myself in the glass, +for all under my eyes I am black and blue. If David, after the +matter of Uriah, had done that to himself, and even more than that, +we would not have wondered; we would have expected it, and we would +have said, It is no more than we would have done ourselves. But +that a spotless, gentle, noble soul like Paul should so have +mangled himself,--that quite dumfounders us. If Paul, then, who, +touching the righteousness which is in the law, was blameless, had +to handle himself in that manner in order to keep himself +blameless, shall any young man here hope to escape temptation +without such blows at himself as shall leave their mark on him all +his days? Nay, not only so, but after Self-denial had thus +exercised himself and subdued himself, still his enemy sometimes +got such an advantage over him as left him as his history here +describes him. All which is surely full of the most excellent +heartening to all who read, in earnest and for an example, his fine +history. + +6. The last and crowning exploit of our matchless captain was to +capture, and execute, and quarter, and hang up on a gallows at the +market-cross, the head and the hands and the feet of his oldest, +most sworn, and most deadly enemy, one Self-love. So stout and so +insufferable was our captain in the matter of Self-love that when +it was proposed by some of his many influential friends and high- +in-place relations in the city that the judgment of the court- +martial on Self-love should be deferred, our stout soldier with the +cuts on his face and in some other parts of his body stood up, and +said that the city and the army must make up their mind either to +relieve him of his sword, hacked and broken off as it was, or else +to execute the law upon Self-love on the spot. I will lay down my +commission this very day, he said, with an extraordinary +indignation. Many rich men in the city, and many men deep in the +King's service, muttered mutinous things when their near relative +was hurried to the open cause-way, but by that time the soldiers of +Self-denial's company had brained Self-love with the butts of their +muskets. And it was the stand that our captain made in the matter +of Self-love that at last lifted the young soldier where many had +felt he should have been lifted long ago. From that day he was +made a lord, a military peer, and an adviser of the crown and the +crown officers in all the deepest counsels concerning Mansoul. +Only, with the cloak and the coronet of Self-denial the present +history all but comes to an end. For, before the outcast remains +of Self-love had mouldered to their dust on the city gate, the +King's chariot had descended into the street, had ascended up to +the palace at the head of the street, and a new age of the city +life had begun, the full history of which has yet to be told. + +Remain behind, then, and begin with us to-night, all you young men. +You cannot begin this lifelong study and this lifelong pursuit of +self-denial too early. For, even if you begin to read our books +and to practise our discipline in your very boyhood, when you are +old men and very saints of God you will feel that your self-love is +still so full of life and power, that your self-denial has scarcely +begun. Ah, me! men: both old and young men. Ah, me! what a +life's task set us of God it is to make us a new heart, to cleanse +out an unclean heart, to lay in the dust a proud heart, and to keep +a heart at all times, and in all places, and toward all people, +with all diligence! Who is sufficient for these things? + +'Now was Christian somewhat in a maze. But at last, when every man +started back for fear, Christian saw a man of a very stout +countenance come up to him that sat there with the inkhorn to +write, saying, Set down my name, sir! At which there was a +pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those who +walked upon the top of that place, saying, + + +"Come in, come in: +Eternal glory thou shalt win." + + +Then Christian smiled, and said: I think, verily, that I know the +meaning of all this now.' + + + +CHAPTER XVII--FIVE PICKT MEN + + + +'I took wise men and known and made them captains.'--Moses. + +John Bunyan never lost his early love for a soldier's life any more +than he ever forgot the rare delights of his bell-ringing days. +John Bunyan, all his days, never saw a bell-rope that his fingers +did not tingle, and he never saw a soldier in uniform without +instinctively shouldering his youthful musket. Bunyan was one of +those rare men who are of imagination all compact; and consequently +it is that all his books are full of the scenes, the occupations, +and the experiences of his early days. Not that he says very much, +in as many words, about what happened to him in the days when he +was a soldier; it is only once in all his many books that he says +that when he was a soldier such and such a thing happened to him. +At the same time, all his books bear the impress of his early days +upon them; and as for this special book of Bunyan's now open before +us, it is full from board to board of the strife and the din of his +early battles. The Holy War is just John Bunyan's soldierly life +spiritualised--spiritualised and so worked up into this fine +English Classic. + +Well, then, after Mansoul was taken and reduced, the victorious +Prince determined so to occupy the town with His soldiers that it +should never again either be taken by force from without, or ever +again revolt by weakness or by fear from within. And with this +view He chose out five of His best captains--My five pickt men, He +always called them--and placed those five captains and their +thousands under them in the strongholds of the town. On the margin +of this page our versatile author speaks of that step of Emmanuel's +in the language of a philosopher, a moralist, and a divine. 'Five +graces,' he says, 'pickt out of an abundance of common virtues.' +This summing-up sentence stands on his stiff and dry margin. But +in the rich and living flow of the text itself our author goes on +writing like the man of genius he is. With all the warmth and +colour and dramatic movement of which this whole book is full, this +great writer goes on to set those five choice captains of our +salvation before us in a way that we shall never forget. + +1. 'The first was that famous captain, the noble Captain Credence. +His were the red colours, and Mr. Promise bare them. And for a +scutcheon he had the Holy Lamb and the golden shield; and he had +ten thousand men at his feet.' Now, this same Captain Credence +from first to last of the war always led the van both within and +around Mansoul. In ordinary and peaceful days; in days of truce +and parley; when the opposite armies were laid up in their winter +quarters, or were, for any cause, drawn off from one another, some +of the other captains might be more in evidence. But in every +exploit to be called an exploit; in every single enterprise of +danger; when any new position was to be taken up, or any forlorn +hope was to be led, there, in the very van of labour and of danger, +was sure to be seen Captain Credence with his blood-red colours in +his own hand. You understand your Bunyan by this time, my +brethren? Captain Credence, your little boy at school will tell +you, is just the soldier-like faith of your sanctification. Credo, +he will tell you, is 'I believe'; it is to have faith in God and in +the word of God. You will borrow your Latin from your little boy, +and then you will pay him back by telling him how Captain Credence +has always led the van in your soul. You will tell him and show +him what a wonderful writer on the things of the soul John Bunyan +is, till you make John Bunyan one of your son's choicest authors +for all his days. You will do this if you will tell him how and +when this same Captain Credence with his crimson colours first led +the van in your salvation. You will tell him this with more and +more depth and more and more plainness as year after year he reads +his Holy War, and better and better understands it, till he has had +it all fulfilled in himself as a pickt captain and good soldier of +Jesus Christ. You will tell him about yourself, till, at this +forlorn hope in his own life, and at that sounded advance, in some +new providence and in some new duty; in this commanded attack on an +inwardly entrenched enemy, and in that resolute assault on some +battlement of evil habit, he recollects his noble, confiding, and +loving father and plays the man again, and that all the more if +only for his father's sake. Ask your son what he knows and what +you do not know, and then as long as his heart and his ear are open +tell him what you know and what you have by faith come through, and +that will be a priceless possession to him, especially when he is +put in possession of it by you. + +Well on toward the end of the war, the Captain Credence had so +acquitted himself that he was summoned one day to the Prince's +quarters, when the following colloquy ensued: 'What hath my Lord +to say to His servant?' And then, after a sign or two of favour, +it was said to him: 'I have made thee lieutenant over all the +forces in Mansoul; so that, from this day forward, all men in +Mansoul shall be at thy word; and thou shalt be he that shall lead +in and that shall lead out Mansoul. And at thy command shall all +the rest of the captains be.' My brethren, you will have the whole +key to all that in yourselves if this same war has gone this length +in you. Faith, your faith in God, and in the word of God, will, as +this inward war goes on, not only lead the van in your heart and in +your life, but just because your faith so leads in all things, and +is so fitted to lead in all things, it will at last be lifted up +and set over your soul, and all the things of your soul, till +nothing shall be done in any of the streets, or gates, or walls +thereof that faith in God and in His word does not first allow and +admit. And then, when it has come to that within you, that is the +best mind, that is the safest, the happiest, and the most heavenly +mind that you can attain to in this present life; and when faith +shall thus lead and rule over all things in thy soul, be thou +always ready, for thy speedy translation to a still better life is +just at the door. + +2. 'The second was that famous captain, Good-hope. His were the +blue colours. His standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation, and for a +scutcheon he had three golden anchors; and he had ten thousand men +at his feet.' The time was, my brethren, when all your hopes and +mine were as yet anchored without the veil. But all that is now +changed. We still hope, in a mild kind of way, for this thing and +for that in this present life; but only in a mild kind of way. It +would not be right in us not to look forward, say, from spring-time +to summer, and from summer to harvest. If the husbandman had not +hope in the former and in the latter rain he would not sow; and as +it is with the husbandman so it is with us all: so ought it to be, +and so it must be. But we say God willing! all the time that we +plot and plan and hope. And we say God willing! no longer with a +sigh, but, now, always with a smile. In His will is our +tranquillity, we say, and we know that if it is not His will that +this and that slightly anchored hope should be fulfilled, then that +only means that all our hopes, to be called hopes, are soon to be +realised. Our green and salad days in the matter of hope are for +ever past. If we had it all absolutely secured to us that this +world is still promising to its salad dupes, it would not come +within a thousand miles of satisfying our hearts. Whether the +hopes of our hearts are to be fulfilled within the veil or no, that +remains to be seen; but all the things without the veil taken +together do not any longer even pretend to promise a hope to hearts +like ours. Our Forerunner has carried away our hearts with Him. +We have no heart left for any one but Him, or for anything without +or within the veil that He is not and is not in. And till that +hope also has made us ashamed,--till He and His promises have +failed us like all the rest,--we are going to anchor our hearts on +that, and on that only, which we believe is with Him within the +veil. If our Forerunner also disappoints us; if we enter where He +is, only to find that He is not there; or that, though there, He is +not able to satisfy our hope in Him, and make us like Himself, then +we shall be of all men the most miserable. But not till then. No; +not till then. And thus it is that Captain Good-hope has his +billet in our heart; thus it is that his blue colours float over +our house; and thus it is that his three golden anchors are blazing +out in all their beauty on the best wall of our earthly house. + +3. 'The third was that valiant captain, the Captain Charity. His +standard-bearer was Mr. Pitiful, and for his scutcheon he had three +naked orphans embraced in his bosom; and he also had ten thousand +men at his feet.' O Charity! O valiant and pitiful Charity! +Divine-natured and heavenly-minded Charity! When wilt thou come +and dwell in my heart? When, by thine indwelling, shall I be able +to love my neighbour, and all my neighbours, as myself? When, in +thy strength, shall I cease from repining at my neighbour's good; +and when shall I cease secretly rejoicing over his evil? When +shall I by thee renewing me, be made able to cease in everything +from seeking first my own will and my own way; my own praise and my +own glory? When shall it be as much my new nature to love my +neighbour as it is now my old nature to hate him? When shall I +cease to be so soon angry, and hard, and bitter, and scornful, and +unrelenting, and unforgiving? When shall my neighbour's presence, +his image, and his name always call up only love and honour, good- +will and affectionate delight? When and where shall I, under thee, +feel for the last time any evil of any kind in my heart against my +brother? Oh! to see the day when I shall suffer long and be kind! +When I shall never again vaunt myself or be puffed up! When I +shall bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure +all things! O blessed, blessed Charity! with thy divine heart, +with thy dove-like eyes, and with thy bosom full of pity, when wilt +thou come into my sinful heart and bring all heaven in with thee! +O Charity! till thou so comest I shall wait for thee. And, till +thou comest, thy standard-bearer shall be my door porter, and thy +scutcheon shall hang night and day at my door-post! + +4. 'The fourth captain was that gallant commander, the Captain +Innocent. His standard-bearer was Mr. Harmless; his were the white +colours, and for his scutcheon he had three golden doves.' My +brethren, how well it would have been with us to-day if we had +always lived innocently! Had we only been innocent of that man's, +and that man's, and that man's, and that man's hurt! (Let us name +all the men to ourselves.) How many men have we, first and last, +hurt! Some intentionally, and some unintentionally; some +deliberately, and some only by accident; some of malice, and some +only of misfortune; some innocently and unknowingly, and whom we +never properly hurt. Some, also, by our mere existence; some by +our best actions; some because we have helped and not hurt others; +and some out of nothing else but the pure original devilry of their +own evil hearts. And then, when we take all these men home to our +hearts, what hearts all these men give us! Who, then, is the man +here who has done to other men the most hurt? Who has caused or +been the occasion of most hurt? Let that so unhappy man just think +that the gallant commander, the Captain Innocent himself, with his +white colours and with his golden doves, is standing and knocking +at your evil door. O unhappy man! By all the hurt and harm you +have ever done--by all that you can never now undo--by those +spotless colours that are still snow and not yet scarlet as they +wave over you--by those three golden doves that are an emblem of +the life that still lies open before you, as well as an invitation +to you to enter on that life--why will you die of remorse and +despair? Open the door of your heart and admit Captain Innocent. +He knows that of all hurtful men on the face of the earth you are +the most hurtful, but he is not on that account afraid at you; +indeed, it is on that account that he has come so near to you. By +admitting him, by enlisting under him, by serving under him, some +of the most hurtful and injurious men that ever lived have lived +after to be the most innocent and the most harmless of men, with +their hands washed every day in innocency, and with three golden +doves as the scutcheon of their new nature and their Christian +character. Oh come into my heart, Captain Innocent; there is room +in my heart for thee! + +5. 'And then the fifth was that truly royal and well-beloved +captain, the Captain Patience. His standard-bearer was Mr. Suffer- +long, and for a scutcheon he had three arrows through a golden +heart.' Three arrows through a golden heart! Most eloquent, most +impressive, and most instructive of emblems! First, a heart of +gold, and then that heart of gold pierced, and pierced, and then +pierced again with arrow after arrow. Patience was the last of +Emmanuel's pickt graces. Captain Patience with his pierced heart +always brought up the rear when the army marched. But when Captain +Patience and Mr. Suffer-long did enter and take up their quarters +in any house in Mansoul,--then was there no house more safe, more +protected, more peaceful, more quietly, sweetly, divinely happy +than just that house where this loyal and well-beloved captain bore +in his heart. Entertain patience, my brethren. Practise patience, +my brethren. Make your house at home a daily school to you in +which to learn patience. Be sure that you well understand the +times, the occasions, the opportunities, and the invitations of +patience, and take profit out of them; and thus both your profit +and that of others also will be great. Tribulation worketh +patience. Endure tribulation, then, for the sake of its so +excellent work. Nothing worketh patience like tribulation, and +therefore it is that tribulation so abounds in the lives of God's +people. So much does tribulation abound in the lives of God's +people that they are actually known in heaven and described there +by their experience of tribulation. 'These are they which came out +of great tribulation, and therefore are they before the throne.' +These are they with the three sharp arrows shot through and through +their hearts of gold. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--MR. DESIRES-AWAKE + + + +'One thing have I desired.'--David. + +Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul. There +were two very mean cottages in Mansoul, and those two cottages +stood beside one another and leaned upon one another and held one +another up. Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in the one of those cottages +and Mr. Wet-eyes in the other. And those two mendicant men were +wont to meet together for secret prayer, when Mr. Desires-awake +would put a rope upon his head, while Mr. Wet-eyes would not be +able to speak for wringing his hands in tears all the time. Many a +time did those two meanest and most despised of men deliver that +city, according to the proverb of the Preacher: Wisdom is better +than strength, and the words of wisdom are to be heard in secret +places, where wisdom is far better than weapons of war. Why should +I not do all for them and the best I can? said Mr. Desires-awake +when the men of Mansoul came to him in their extremity. I will +even venture my life again for them at the pavilion of the Prince. +And accordingly this mean man put his rope upon his head, as was +his wont, and went out to the Prince's tent and asked the +reformades if he might see their Master. Then the Prince, coming +to the place where the petitioner lay on the ground, demanded what +his name was and of what esteem he was in Mansoul, and why he, of +all the multitudes of Mansoul, was sent out to His Royal tent on +such an errand. Then said the man to the Prince standing over him, +he said: Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after +the name of such a dead dog as I am? Pass by, I pray Thee, and +take not notice of who I am, because there is, as Thou very well +knowest, so great a disproportion between Thee and me. For my +part, I am out of charity with myself; who, then, should be in love +with me? Yet live I would, and so would I that my townsmen should; +and because both they and myself are guilty of great +transgressions, therefore they have sent me, and I have come in +their names to beg of my Lord for mercy. Let it please Thee, +therefore, to incline to mercy; but ask not who Thy servant is. +All this, and how Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes sped in their +petition, is to be read at length in the Holy History. And now let +us take down the key that hangs in our author's window and go to +work with it on the sweet mystery of Mr. Desires-awake. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, this poor man's name need not delay +us long seeking it out. In shorter time, and with surer success +than I could give you the dictionary root of his name, if you will +look within you will all see the visual image of this poor man's +name in your own heart. For our hearts are all as full as they can +hold of all kinds of desires; some good and some bad, some asleep +and some awake, some alive and some dead, some raging like a +hundred hungry lions, and some satisfied as a sleeping child. +Well, then, this mean man was called Mr. Desires-awake, and what +his desires were awake after and set upon we have already seen in +his head-dress and heard in his prayer. His house, on the other +hand, will not be so well known. For it was less a house than a +hut--a hut hidden away out of sight and back behind Mr. Wet-eyes' +hut. Mr. Desires-awake's cottage was so mean and meagre that no +one ever came to visit him unless it was his next-door neighbour. +They never left their cottages, those two poor men, unless it was +to see one another; or, strange to tell, unless it was to go out at +the city gate to see and to speak with their Prince. And at such +times their venturesomeness both astonished themselves and amused +their Prince. Sometimes he laughed to see them back at his door +again; but more often he wept to see and hear them; all which made +the guards of his pavilion to wonder who those two strange men +might be. And thus it was that if at any long interval of time any +of the men of the city desired to see Mr. Desires-awake, he was +sure to be found at the pavilion door of his Prince, or else in his +neighbour's cottage, or else at home in his own. From year's end +to year's end you might look in vain for either of those two poor +men in the public resorts of Mansoul. When all the town was abroad +on holidays and fair-days and feast-days, those two mean men were +then closest at home. And when the booths of the town were full of +all kinds of wares and merchandise, and all the greens in the town +were full of games, and plays, and cheats, and fools, and apes, and +knaves, only those two penniless men would abide shut up at home. +At home; or else together they would go to a market-stance set up +by their Prince outside the walls where one was stationed to stand +and to cry: 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, +and he that hath no money. Wherefore do ye spend money for that +which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? +Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live.' +And sometimes the Prince would go out in person to meet the two men +with nothing to pay, and would Himself say to them, I counsel thee +to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint +thine eyes with eye-salve, till the two men, Mr. Desires-awake and +Mr. Wet-eyes, would go home to their huts laden with their Prince's +free gifts and royal bounties. + +2. But, with all that, Mr. Desires-awake never went out to his +Prince's pavilion till he had again put his rope upon his head. +And, however laden with royal presents he ever returned to his mean +cottage, he never laid aside his rope. He ate in his rope, he +slept in his rope, he visited his next-door neighbour in his rope, +till the only instruction he left behind him was to bury him in a +ditch, and be sure to put his rope upon his head. The men and the +boys of the town jeered at Mr. Desires-awake as he passed up their +streets in his rope, and the very mothers in Mansoul taught their +children in arms to run after him and to cry, Go up, thou roped +head! Go up, thou roped head! We be free men, the men of the town +called after him; and we never were in bondage to any man'. Out +with him; out with him! He is beside himself. Much repentance +hath made him mad! But through all that Mr. Desires-awake was as +one that heard them not. For Mr. Desires-awake was full of louder +voices within. The voices within his bosom quite drowned the babel +around him. The voices within called him far worse names than the +streets of the city ever called him; till all he could do was to +draw his rope down upon his head and press on again to the Prince's +pavilion. You understand about that rope, my brethren, do you not? +Mr. Desires-awake's continual rope? In old days when a guilty man +came of his own accord to the judge to confess himself deserving of +death, he would put a rope upon his head. And that rope as much as +said to the judge and to all men--the miserable man as good as +said: This is my desert. This is the wages of my sin. I justify +my judge. I judge myself. I hereby do myself to death. And it +was this that so angered the happy holiday-makers of Mansoul. For +they forgave themselves. They justified themselves. They put a +high price upon themselves. Humiliation and sorrow for sin was not +in all their thoughts; and they hated and hunted back into his hut +the humble man whose gait and garb always reminded them of their +past life and of their latter end. But for all they could do, Mr. +Desires-awake would wear his rope. My soul chooseth strangling +rather than sin, he would say. My sin hath found me out, he would +say; I hate myself, he would say, because of my sin. I condemn and +denounce myself. I hang myself up with this rope on the accursed +tree. And thus it was that while other men were crucifying their +Prince afresh, Mr. Desires-awake was crucifying himself with and +after his Prince. And thus it was that while the men and the women +of the town so hated and so mocked Mr. Desires-awake, his Prince so +loved and so honoured him. + +3. 'Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after the +name of such a dead dog as I am?' said Desires-awake to his Prince. +'Behold, now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am +but dust and ashes,' said Abraham. 'If I wash myself with snow +water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me +into the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me,' said Job. +'My wounds stink and are corrupt; my loins are filled with a +loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh,' said +David. 'But we are all as an unclean thing,' said Isaiah, 'and all +our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' 'I am the chief of +sinners,' said the apostle. 'Hold your peace; I am a devil and not +a man,' said Philip Neri to his sons. 'I am a sinner, and worse +than the chief of sinners, yea, a guilty devil,' said Samuel +Rutherford. 'I hated the light; I was a chief--the chief of +sinners,' said Oliver Cromwell. 'I was more loathsome in my own +eyes than a toad,' said John Bunyan. 'Sin and corruption would as +naturally bubble out of my heart as water would bubble out of a +fountain. I could have changed hearts with anybody. I thought +none but the devil himself could equal me for wickedness and +pollution of mind.' 'O Despise me not,' said Bishop Andrewes, 'an +unclean worm, a dead dog, a putrid corpse. The just falleth seven +times a day; and I, an exceeding sinner, seventy times seven. Me, +O Lord, of sinners chief, chiefest, and greatest.' And William +Law, 'An unclean worm, a dead dog, a stinking carcass. Drive, I +beseech Thee, the serpent and the beast out of me. O Lord, I +detest and abhor myself for all these my sins, and for all my abuse +of Thine infinite mercy.' From all this, then, you will see that +this dead dog of ours with the rope upon his head was no strange +sight at Emmanuel's pavilion. And you and I shall still be in the +same saintly succession if we go continually with his words in our +mouth, and with his instrument in our hands and on our heads. + +4. 'The Prince to whom I went,' said Mr. Desires-awake, 'is such a +one for beauty and for glory that whoso sees Him must ever after +both love and fear Him. I, for my part,' he said, 'can do no less; +but I know not what the end will be of all these things.' What +made Mr. Desires-awake say that last thing was that when he was +prostrate in his prayer the Prince turned His head away, as if He +was out of humour and out of patience with His petitioner; while, +all the time, the overcome Prince was weeping with love and with +pity for Desires-awake. Only that poor man did not see that, and +would not have believed that even if he had seen it. 'I cannot +tell what the end will be,' said Desires-awake; 'but one thing I +know, I shall never be able to cease from both loving and fearing +that Prince. I shall always love Him for His beauty and fear Him +for His glory.' Can you say anything like that, my brethren? Have +you been at His seat with sackcloth, and a rope, and ashes, and +tears, and prayers, like Abraham, and David, and Isaiah, and Paul, +and John Bunyan, and Bishop Andrewes? And, whatever may be the +end, do you say that henceforth and for ever you must both love and +fear that Prince? 'Though He slay me,' said Job, 'yet I shall both +love and trust Him.' Well, the Prince is the Prince, and He will +take both His own time and His own way of taking off your rope and +putting a chain of gold round your neck, and a new song in your +mouth, as He did to Job. There may be more weeping yet, both on +your side and on His before He does that; but He will do it, and He +will not delay an hour that He can help in doing it. Only, do you +continue and increase to love His beauty, and to fear His glory. +And that of itself will be reward and blessing enough to you. Nay, +once you have seen both His beauty and His glory, then to lie a dog +under His table, and to beg at His door with a rope on your head to +all eternity would be a glorious eternity to you. Samuel +Rutherford said that to see Christ through the keyhole once in a +thousand years would be heaven enough for him. Christ wept in +heaven as Rutherford wrote that letter in Aberdeen, and if you make +Him weep in the same way He will soon make you to laugh too. He +will soon make you to laugh as Samuel Rutherford and Mr. Desires- +awake are laughing now. Only, my brethren, answer this--Are your +desires awakened indeed after Jesus Christ? You know what a desire +is. Your hearts are full to the brim of desires. Well, is there +one desire in a day in your heart for Christ? In the multitude of +your desires within you, what share and what proportion go out and +up to Christ? You know what beauty is. You know and you love the +beauty of a child, of a woman, of a man, of nature, of art, and so +on. Do you know, have you ever seen, the ineffable beauty of +Christ? Is there one saint of God here,--and He has many saints +here--is there one of you who can say with David in the text, One +thing do I desire? There should be many so desiring saints here; +for Christ's beauty is far better and far fairer, far more +captivating, far more enthralling, and far more satisfying to us +than it could be to David. Shall we call you Desires-awake, then, +after this? Can you say--do you say, One thing do I desire, and +that is no thing and no person, no created beauty and no earthly +sweetness, but my one desire is for God: to be His, and to be like +Him, and to be for ever with Him? Then, it shall soon all be. +For, what you truly desire,--all that you already are; and what you +already are,--all that you shall soon completely and for ever be. +Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that +I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is +the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. + +'As for me,' says the great-hearted, the hungry-hearted Psalmist, +'I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' One would +have said that David had all that heart could desire even before he +fell asleep. For he had a throne, the throne of Israel, and a son, +a son like Solomon to sit upon it. A long life also, full to the +brim of all kinds of temporal and spiritual blessings. Bless the +Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all +thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy +life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and +tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that +thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. All that, and yet not +satisfied! O David! David! surely Desires-awake is thy new name! +One of our own poets has said:- + + +'All thoughts, all passions, all delights, +Whatever stirs this mortal frame, +All are but ministers of Love, +And feed His sacred flame.' + + +Now, if that is true, as it is true, even of earthly and ephemeral +love, how much more true is it of the love that is in the immortal +soul of man for the everlasting God? And what a blessed life that +already is when all things that come to us--joy and sorrow, good +and evil, nature and grace, all thoughts, all passions, all +delights--are all but so many ministers to our soul's desire after +God, after the Divine Likeness and for the Beatific Vision. + + +'Oh! Christ, He is the Fountain, +The deep sweet Well of Love! +The streams on earth I've tasted, +More deep I'll drink above; +There, to an ocean fulness, +His mercy doth expand; +And glory--glory dwelleth +In Emmanuel's land.' + + + +CHAPTER XIX--MR. WET-EYES + + + +'Oh that my head were waters!'--Jeremiah. + +'Tears gain everything.'--Teresa. + +Now Mr. Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go on this errand, +besought that they would grant that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with him. +Now this Mr. Wet-eyes was a near neighbour of Mr. Desires-awake, a +poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak +well to a petition; so they granted that he should go with him. +Wherefore the two men at once addressed themselves to their serious +business. Mr. Desires-awake put his rope upon his head, and Mr. +Wet-eyes went with his hands wringing together. Then said the +Prince, And what is he that is become thy companion in this so +weighty a matter? So Mr. Desires-awake told Emmanuel that this was +a poor neighbour of his, and one of his most intimate associates. +And his name, said he, may it please your most excellent Majesty, +is Wet-eyes, of the town of Mansoul. I know that there are many of +that name that are naught, said he; but I hope it will be no +offence to my Lord that I have brought my poor neighbour with me. +Then Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face to the ground, and made this +apology for his coming with his neighbour to his Lord:- + +'Oh, my Lord,' quoth he, 'what I am I know not myself, nor whether +my name be feigned or true, especially when I begin to think what +some have said, and that is that this name was given me because Mr. +Repentance was my father. But good men have sometimes bad +children, and the sincere do sometimes beget hypocrites. My mother +also called me by this name of mine from my cradle; but whether she +said so because of the moistness of my brain, or because of the +softness of my heart, I cannot tell. I see dirt in mine own tears, +and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers. But I pray Thee (and +all this while the gentleman wept) that Thou wouldst not remember +against us our transgressions, nor take offence at the +unqualifiedness of Thy servants, but mercifully pass by the sin of +Mansoul, and refrain from the magnifying of Thy grace no longer.' +So at His bidding they arose, and both stood trembling before Him. + +1. 'His name, may it please your Majesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town +of Mansoul. I know, at the same time, that there are many of that +name that are naught.' Naught, that is, for this great enterprise +now in hand. And thus it was that Mr. Desires-awake in setting out +for the Prince's pavilion besought that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with +him. Mr. Desires-awake felt keenly how much might turn on who his +companion was that day, and therefore he took Mr. Wet-eyes with +him. David would have made a most excellent associate for Mr. +Desires-awake that day. 'I am weary with my groaning; all the +night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.' And +again, 'Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not +Thy law.' This, then, was the only manner of man that Mr. Desires- +awake would stake his life alongside of that day. 'I have seen +some persons weep for the loss of sixpence,' said Mr. Desires- +awake, 'or for the breaking of a glass, or at some trifling +accident. And they cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a +bigger rate than they will confess their passion to be when they +weep. Some are vexed for the dirtying of their linen, or some such +trifle, for which the least passion is too big an expense. And +thus it is that a man cannot tell his own heart simply by his +tears, or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of +sorrow.' Well, then, my brethren, tell me, Do you think that Mr. +Desires-awake would have taken you that day to the pavilion door? +Would his head have been safe with you for his associate? Your +associates see many gusts in your heart. Do they ever see your +eyes red because of your sin? Did you ever weep so much as one +good tear-drop for pure sin? One true tear: not because your sins +have found you out, but for secret sins that you know can never +find you out in this world? And, still better, do you ever weep in +secret places not for sin, but for sinfulness--which is a very +different matter? Do you ever weep to yourself and to God alone +over your incurably wicked heart? If not, then weep for that with +all your might, night and day. No mortal man has so much cause to +weep as you have. Go to God on the spot, on every spot, and say +with Bishop Andrewes, who is both Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet- +eyes in one, say with that deep man in his Private Devotions, say: +'I need more grief, O God; I plainly need it. I can sin much, but +I cannot correspondingly repent. O Lord, give me a molten heart. +Give me tears; give me a fountain of tears. Give me the grace of +tears. Drop down, ye heavens, and bedew the dryness of my heart. +Give me, O Lord, this saving grace. No grace of all the graces +were more welcome to me. If I may not water my couch with my +tears, nor wash Thy feet with my tears, at least give me one or two +little tears that Thou mayest put into Thy bottle and write in Thy +book!' If your heart is hard, and your eyes dry, make something +like that your continual prayer. + +2. 'A poor-man,' said Mr. Desires-awake, about his associate. +'Mr. Wet-eyes is a poor man, and a man of a broken spirit.' 'Let +Oliver take comfort in his dark sorrows and melancholies. The +quantity of sorrow he has, does it not mean withal the quantity of +sympathy he has, and the quantity of faculty and of victory he +shall yet have? Our sorrow is the inverted image of our nobleness. +The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of +claim we have to hope. Black smoke, as of Tophet, filling all your +universe, it can yet by true heart-energy become flame, and the +brilliancy of heaven. Courage!' + + +'This is the angel of the earth, +And she is always weeping.' + + +3. 'A poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, and yet one that can +speak well to a petition.' Yes; and you will see how true that +eulogy of Mr. Wet-eyes is if you will run over in your mind the +outstanding instances of successful petitioners in the Scriptures. +As you come down the Old and the New Testaments you will be +astonished and encouraged to find how prevailing a fountain of +tears always is with God. David with his swimming bed; Jeremiah +with his head waters; Mary Magdalene over His feet with her welling +eyes; Peter's bitter cry all his life long as often as he heard a +cock crow, and so on. So on through a multitude whose names are +written in heaven, and who went up to heaven all the way with +inconsolable sorrow because of their sins. They took words and +turned to the Lord; but,--better than the best words,--they took +tears, or rather, their tears took them. The best words, the words +that the Holy Ghost Himself teacheth, if they are without tears, +will avail nothing. Even inspired words will not pass through; +while, all the time, tears, mere tears, without words, are +omnipotent with God. Words weary Him, while tears overcome and +command Him. He inhabits the tears of Israel. Therefore, also, +now, saith the Lord, turn ye unto Me with all your heart, and with +weeping and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your +garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and +merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him +of the evil. It is the same with ourselves. Tears move us. Tears +melt us. We cannot resist tears. Even counterfeit tears, we +cannot be sure that they are not true. And that is the main reason +why our Lord is so good at speaking to a petition. It is because +His whole heart, and all the moving passions of His heart, are in +His intercessory office. It is because He still remembers in the +skies His tears, His agonies, and cries. It is because He is +entered into the holiest with His own tears as well as with His own +blood. And it is because He will remain and abide before the +Father the Man of Sorrows till our last petition is answered, and +till God has wiped the last tear from our eyes. When He was in the +coasts of Caesarea-Philippi, our Lord felt a great curiosity to +find out who the people thereabouts took Him to be. And it must +have touched His heart to be told that some men had insight enough +to insist that He was the prophet Jeremiah come back again to weep +over Jerusalem. He is Elias, said some. No; He is John the +Baptist risen from the dead, said others. No, no; said some men +who saw deeper than their neighbours. His head is waters, and His +eyes are a fountain of tears. Do you not see that He so often +escapes into a lodge in the wilderness to weep for our sins? No; +He is neither John nor Elijah; He is Jeremiah come back again to +weep over Jerusalem! And even an apostle, looking back at the +beginning of our Lord's priesthood on earth, says that He was +prepared for His office by prayers and supplications, and with +strong crying and tears. From all that, then, let us learn and lay +to heart that if we would have one to speak well to our petitions, +the Man of Sorrows is that one. And then, as His remembrancers on +our behalf, let us engage all those among our friends who have the +same grace of tears. But, above all, let us be men of tears +ourselves. For all the tears and all the intercessions of our +great High Priest, and all the importunings of our best friends to +boot, will avail us nothing if our own eyes are dry. Let us, then, +turn back to Bishop Andrewes's prayer for the grace of tears, and +offer it every night with him till our head, like his, is holy +waters, and till, like him, we get beauty for ashes, the oil of joy +for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness. + +4. 'Clear as tears' is a Persian proverb when they would praise +their purest spring water. But Mr. Wet-eyes has from henceforth +spoiled the point of that proverb for us. 'I see,' he said, 'dirt +in mine own tears, and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers.' +Mr. Wet-eyes is hopeless. Mr. Wet-eyes is intolerable. Mr. Wet- +eyes would weary out the patience of a saint. There is no +satisfying or pacifying or ever pleasing this morbose Mr. Wet-eyes. +The man is absolutely insufferable. Why, prayers and tears that +the most and best of God's people cannot attain to are spurned and +spat upon by Mr. Wet-eyes. The man is beside himself with his +tears. For, tears that would console and assure us for a long +season after them, he will weep over them as we scarce weep over +our worst sins. His closet always turns all his comeliness to +corruption. He comes out of his closet after all night in it with +his psalm-book wrung to pulp, and with all his righteousnesses torn +to filthy rags; till all men escape Mr. Wet-eyes' society--all men +except Mr. Desires-awake. I will go out on your errand now, said +Mr. Desires-awake, if you will send Mr. Wet-eyes with me. And thus +the two twin sons of sorrow for sin and hunger after holiness went +out arm in arm to the great pavilion together, Mr. Desires-awake +with his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes with his hands +wringing together. Thus they went to the Prince's pavilion. I +gave you a specimen of one of Mr. Wet-eyes' prayers in the +introduction to this discourse, and you did not discover much the +matter with it, did you? You did not discover much filthiness in +the bottom of that prayer, did you? I am sure you did not. Ah! +but that is because you have not yet got Mr. Wet-eyes' eyes. When +you get his eyes; when you turn and employ upon yourselves and upon +your tears and upon your prayers his always-wet eyes,--then you +will begin to understand and love and take sides with this +inconsolable soul, and will choose his society rather than that of +any other man--as often, at any rate, as you go out to the Prince's +pavilion door. + +5. 'Mr. Repentance was my father, but good men sometimes have bad +children, and the most sincere do sometimes beget great hypocrites. +But, I pray Thee, take not offence at the unqualifiedness of Thy +servant.' Take good note of that uncommon expression, +'unqualifiedness,' in Mr. Wet-eyes' confession, all of you who are +attending to what is being said. Lay 'unqualifiedness' to heart. +Learn how to qualify yourselves before you begin to pray. In his +fine comment on the 137th Psalm, Matthew Henry discourses +delightfully on what he calls 'deliberate tears.' Look up that +raciest of commentators, and see what he there says about the +deliberate tears of the captives in Babylon. It was the lack of +sufficient deliberation in his tears that condemned and alarmed Mr. +Wet-eyes that day. He felt now that he had not deliberated and +qualified himself properly before coming to the Prince's pavilion. +Do not take up your time or your thoughts with mere curiosities, +either in your Bible or in any other good book, says A Kempis. +Read such things rather as may yield compunction to your heart. +And again, give thyself to compunction, and thou shalt gain much +devotion thereby. Mr. Wet-eyes, good and true soul, was afraid +that he had not qualified himself enough by compunctious reading +and self-recollection. The sincere, he sobbed out, do often beget +hypocrites! 'Our hearts are so deceitful in the matter of +repentance,' says Jeremy Taylor, 'that the masters of the spiritual +life are fain to invent suppletory arts and stratagems to secure +the duty.' Take not offence at the lack of all such suppletory +arts and stratagems in thy servant, said poor Wet-eyes. All which +would mean in the most of us: Take not offence at my rawness and +ignorance in the spiritual life, and especially in the life of +inward devotion. Do not count up against me the names and the +numbers and the prices of my poems, and plays, and novels, and +newspapers, and then the number of my devotional books. Compare +not my outlay on my body and on this life with my outlay on my soul +and on the life to come. Oh, take not mortal offence at the +shameful and scandalous unqualifiedness of Thy miserable servant. +My father and my mother read the books of the soul, but they have +left behind them a dry-eyed reprobate in me! Say that to-night as +you look around on the grievous famine of the suppletory arts and +stratagems of repentance and reformation in your heathenish +bedroom. + +Spiritual preaching; real face to face, inward, verifiable, +experimental, spiritual preaching; preaching to a heart in the +agony of its sanctification; preaching to men whose whole life is +given over to making them a new heart--that kind of preaching is +scarcely ever heard in our day. There is great intellectual +ability in the pulpit of our day, great scholarship, great +eloquence, and great earnestness, but spiritual preaching, +preaching to the spirit--'wet-eyed' preaching--is a lost art. At +the same time, if that living art is for the present overlaid and +lost, the literature of a deeper spiritual day abides to us, and +our spiritually-minded people are not confined to us, they are not +dependent on us. Well, this is the Communion week with us yet once +more. Will you not, then, make it the beginning of some of the +suppletory arts and stratagems of the spiritual life with +yourselves? I cannot preach as I would like on such subjects, but +I can tell you who could, and who, though dead, yet speak by their +immortal books. You have the wet-eyed psalms; but they are beyond +the depth of most people. Their meaning seems to us on the +surface, and we all read and sing them, but let us not therefore +think that we understand them. I cannot compel you to read the +books, and to read little else but the books, that would in time, +and by God's blessing, lead you into the depths of the psalms; but +I can wash my hands so far in making their names so many household +words among my people. The Way to Christ, the Imitation of Christ, +the Theologia Germanica, Tauler's Sermons, the Mortification of +Sin, and Indwelling Sin in Believers, the Saint's Rest, the Holy +Living and Dying, the Privata Sacra, the Private Devotions, the +Serious Call, the Christian Perfection, the Religious Affections, +and such like. All that, and you still unqualified! All that, and +your eyes still dry! + + + +CHAPTER XX--MR. HUMBLE THE JURYMAN, AND MISS HUMBLE-MIND THE +SERVANT-MAID + + + +'Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'--Our Lord. + +'Be clothed with humility.'--Peter. + +'God's chiefest saints are the least in their own eyes.'--A Kempis. + +'Without humility all our other virtues are but vices.'--Pascal. + +'Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves +than we deserve.'--Law. + +'Humility lies close upon the heart, and its tests are exceedingly +delicate and subtle.'--Newman. + +Our familiar English word 'humility' comes down to us from the +Latin root humus, which means the earth or the ground. Humility, +therefore, is that in the mind and in the heart of a man which is +low down even to the very earth. A humble-minded man may not have +learning enough to know the etymology of the name which best +describes his character, but the divine nature which is in him +teaches him to look down, to walk meekly and softly, and to speak +seldom, and always in love. For humility, while it takes its lowly +name from earth, all the time has its true nature from heaven. +Humility is full of all meekness, modesty, submissiveness, +teachableness, sense of inability, sense of unworthiness, sense of +ill-desert. Till, with that new depth and new intensity that the +Scriptures and religious experience have given to this word, as to +so many other words, humility, in the vocabulary of the spiritual +life, has come to be applied to that low estimate of ourselves +which we come to form and to entertain as we are more and more +enlightened about God and about ourselves; about the majesty, +glory, holiness, beauty, and blessedness of the divine nature, and +about our own unspeakable evil, vileness, and misery as sinners. +And, till humility has come to rank in Holy Scripture, and in the +lives and devotions of all God's saints, as at once the deepest +root and the ripest fruit of all the divine graces that enter into, +and, indeed, constitute the life of God in the heart of man. +Humility, evangelical humility, sings Edwards in his superb and +seraphic poem the Religious Affections,--evangelical humility is +the sense that the true Christian has of his own utter +insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, a sense which is +peculiar to the true saint. But to compensate the true saint for +this sight and sense of himself, he has revealed to him an +accompanying sense of the absolutely transcendent beauty of the +divine nature and of all divine things; a sight and a sense that +quite overcome the heart and change to holiness all the +dispositions and inclinations and affections of the heart. The +essence of evangelical humility, says Edwards, consists in such +humility as becomes a creature in himself exceeding sinful, but at +the same time, under a dispensation of grace, and this is the +greatest and most essential thing in all true religion. + +1. Well, then, our Mr. Humble was a juryman in Mansoul, and his +name and his nature eminently fitted him for his office. I never +was a juryman; but, if I were, I feel sure I would come home from +the court a far humbler man than I went up to it. I cannot imagine +how a judge can remain a proud man, or an advocate, or a witness, +or a juryman, or a spectator, or even a policeman. I am never in a +criminal court that I do not tremble with terror all the time. I +say to myself all the time,--there stands John Newton but for the +preventing grace of God. 'I will not sit as a judge to try General +Boulanger, because I hate him,' said M. Renault in the French +Senate. Mr. Humble himself could not have made a better speech to +the bench than that when his name was called to be sworn. Let us +all remember John Newton and M. Renault when we would begin to +write or to speak about any arrested, accused, found-out man. Let +other men's arrests, humiliations, accusations, and sentences only +make us search well our own past, and that will make us ever +humbler and ever humbler men ourselves; ever more penitent men, and +ever more prayerful men. + +2. And then Miss Humble-mind, his only daughter, was a servant- +maid. There is no office so humble but that a humble mind will not +put on still more humility in it. What a lesson in humility, not +Peter only got that night in the upper room, but that happy +servant-maid also who brought in the bason and the towel. Would +she ever after that night grumble and give up her place in a +passion because she had been asked to do what was beneath her to +do? Would she ever leave that house for any wages? Would she ever +see that bason without kissing it? Would that towel not be a holy +thing ever after in her proud eyes? How happy that house would +ever after that night be, not so much because the Lord's Supper had +been instituted in it, as because a servant was in it who had +learned humility as she went about the house that night. Let all +our servants hold up their heads and magnify their office. Their +Master was once a servant, and He left us all, and all servants +especially, an example that they should follow in His steps. +Peter, whose feet were washed that night, never forgot that night, +and his warm heart always warmed to a servant when he saw her with +her bason and her towels, till he gave her half a chapter to +herself in his splendid First Epistle. 'Servants, be subject,' he +said, till his argument rose to a height above which not even Paul +himself ever rose. Servant-maids, you must all have your own half- +chapter out of First Peter by heart. + +3. But I have as many students of one kind or other here to-night +as I have maid-servants, and they will remember where a great +student has said that knowledge without love but puffeth a student +up. Now, the best knowledge for us all, and especially so for a +student, is to know himself: his own ignorance, his own +foolishness, his blindness of mind, and, especially, his corruption +of heart. For that knowledge will both keep him from being puffed +up with what he already knows, and it will also put him and keep +him in the way of knowing more. Self-knowledge will increase +humility, and all the past masters both of science and of religion +will tell him that humility is the certain note of the true +student. You who are students all know The Advancement of +Learning, just as the servants sitting beside you all know the +second chapter of First Peter. Well, your master Verulam there +tells you, and indeed on every page of his, that it is only to a +humble, waiting, childlike temper that nature, like grace, will +ever reveal up her secrets. 'There is small chance of truth at the +goal when there is not a childlike humility at the starting-post.' +Well, then, all you students who would fain get to the goal of +science, make the Church of Christ your starting-post. Come first +and come continually to the Christian school to learn humility, and +then, as long as your talents, your years, and your opportunities +hold out, both truth and goodness will open up to you at every +step. Every step will be a goal, and at every goal a new step will +open up. And God's smile and God's blessing, and all good men's +love and honour and applause will support and reward you in your +race. And, humble-minded to the truth herself, be, at the same +time, humble-minded toward all who like yourself are seeking to +know and to do the truth. A lately deceased student of nature was +a pattern to all students as long as he waited on truth in his +laboratory; and even as long as he remained at his desk to tell the +world what he and other students had discovered in their search. +But when any other student in his search after truth was compelled +to cross that hither-to so exemplary student, he immediately became +as insolent as if he had been the greatest boor in the country. +Till, as he spat out scorn at all who differed from him we always +remembered this in A Kempis--'Surely, an humble husbandman that +serveth God is better than a proud philosopher that, neglecting +himself, laboureth to understand the course of the heavens. It is +great wisdom and perfection to esteem nothing of ourselves, and to +think always well and highly of others.' Students of arts, +students of philosophy, students of law, students of medicine, and +especially, students of divinity, be humble men. Labour in +humility even more than in your special science. Humility will +advance you in your special science; while, all the time, and at +the end of time, she will be more to you than all the other +sciences taken together. And since I have spoken of A Kempis, take +this motto for all your life out of A Kempis, as the great and good +Fenelon did, and it will guide you to the goal: Ama nescia et pro +nihilo reputari. + +4. But of all the men in the whole world it is ministers who +should simply, as Peter says, be clothed with humility, and that +from head to foot. And, first as divinity students, and then as +pastors and preachers, we who are ministers have advantages and +opportunities in this respect quite peculiar and private to +ourselves. For, while other students are spending their days and +their nights on the ancient classics of Greece and Rome, the +student who is to be a minister is buried in the Psalms, in the +Gospels, and in the Epistles. While the student of law is deep in +his commentaries and his cases, the student of divinity is deep in +the study of experimental religion. And while the medical student +is full of the diseases of animals and of men, the theological +student is absorbed in the holiness of the divine nature, and in +the plague of the human heart, and, especially, he is drowned +deeper every day in his own. And he who has begun a curriculum +like that and is not already putting on a humility beyond all other +men had better lose no more time, but turn himself at once to some +other way of making his bread. The word of God and his own heart,- +-yes; what a sure school of evangelical humility to every +evangelically-minded student is that! And, then, after that, and +all his days, his congregational communion-roll and his visiting- +book. Let no minister who would be found of God clothed and +canopied over with humility ever lose sight of his communion-roll +and pastoral visitation-book. I defy any minister to keep those +records always open before him and yet remain a proud man, a self- +respecting, self-satisfied, self-righteous man. For, what secret +histories of his own folly, neglect, rashness, offensiveness, hot- +headedness, self-seeking, self-pleasing vanity, now puffed up over +one man, now cast down and full of gloom over another, what self- +flattery here, and what resentment and retaliation there; and so +on, as only his own eyes and his Divine Master's eye can read +between every diary line. What shame will cover that minister as +with a mantle when he thinks what the Christian ministry might be +made, and then takes home to himself what he has made it! Let any +minister shut himself in with his communion-roll and his visiting- +book before each returning communion season, and there will be one +worthy communicant at least in the congregation: one who will have +little appetite all that week for any other food but the broken +Body and the shed Blood of his Redeemer. But these are +professional matters that the outside world has nothing to do with +and would not understand. Only, let all young men who would have +evangelical humility absolutely secured and sealed to them,--let +them come and be ministers. Just as all young men who would have +any satisfaction in life, any sense of work well done and worthy of +reward, any taste of a goal attained and an old age earned, let +them take to anything in all this world but the evangelical pulpit +and its accompanying pastorate. + +5. But humility is not a grace of the pulpit and the pastorate +only. It is not those who are separated by the Holy Ghost to study +the word of God and their own hearts all their life long only, who +are called to put on humility. All men are called to that grace. +There is no acceptance with God for any man without that grace. +There is no approach to God for any man without it. All salvation +begins and ends in it. Would you, then, fain possess it? Would +you, then, fain attain to it? Then let there be no mystery and no +mistake made about it. Would any man here fain get down to that +deep valley where God's saints walk in the sweet shade and lie down +in green pastures? Well, I warrant him that just before him, and +already under his eye, there is a flight of steps cut in the hill, +which steps, if he will take them, will, step after step, take him +also down to that bottom. The whole face of this steep and +slippery world is sculptured deep with such submissive steps. +Indeed, when a man's eyes are once turned down to that valley, +there is nothing to be seen anywhere in all this world but downward +steps. Look whichever way you will, there gleams out upon you yet +another descending stair. Look back at the way you came up. But +take care lest the sight turns you dizzy. Look at any spot you +once crossed on your way up, and, lo! every foot-print of yours has +become a descending step. You sink down as you look, broken down +with shame and with horror and with remorse. There are people, +some still left in this world, and some gone to the other world, +people whom you dare not think of lest you should turn sick and +lose hold and hope. There are places you dare not visit: there +are scenes you dare not recall. Lucifer himself would be a humble +angel with his wings over his face if he had a past like yours, and +would often enough return to look at it. And, then, not the past +only, but at this present moment there are people and things placed +close beside you, and kept close beside you, and you close beside +them, on divine purpose just to give you continual occasion and +offered opportunity to practise humility. They are kept close +beside you just on purpose to humiliate you, to cut out your +descending steps, to lend you their hand, and to say to you: Keep +near us. Only keep your eye on us, and we will see you down! And +then, if you are resolute enough to look within, if you are able to +keep your eye on what goes on in your own heart like heart--beats, +then, already, I know where you are. You are under all men's feet. +You are ashamed to lift up your eyes to meet other men's eyes. You +dare not take their honest hands. You could tell Edwards himself +things about humiliation now that would make his terribly searching +and humbling book quite tame and tasteless. + +Come, then, O high-minded man, be sane, be wise. If you were up on +a giddy height, and began to see that certain death was straight +and soon before you, what would you do? You know what you would +do. You would look with all your eyes for such steps as would take +you safest down to the solid ground. You would welcome any hand +stretched out to help you. You would be most attentive and most +obedient and most thankful to any one who would assure you that +this is the right way down. And you would keep on saying to +yourself--Once I were well down, no man shall see me up here again. +Well, my brethren, humiliation, humility, is to be learned just in +the same way, and it is to be learned in no other way. He who +would be down must just come down. That is all. A step down, and +another step down, and another, and another, and already you are +well down. A humble act done to-day, a humble word spoken to- +morrow; humiliation after humiliation accepted every day that you +would at one time have spurned from you with passion; and then your +own vile, hateful, unbearable heart-all that is ordained of God to +bring you down, down to the dust; and this last, your own heart, +will bring you down to the very depths of hell. And thus, after +all your other opportunities and ordinances of humility are +embraced and exhausted, then the plunges, the depths, the abysses +of humility that God will open up in your own heart will all work +in you a meetness for heaven and a ripeness for its glory, that +shall for ever reward you for all that degradation and shame and +self-despair which have been to you the sure way and the only way +to everlasting life. + + + +CHAPTER XXI--MASTER THINK-WELL, THE LATE AND ONLY SON OF OLD MR. +MEDITATION + + + +'As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.'--A Proverb. + +It was a truly delightful sight to see old Mr. Meditation and his +only son, our little Think-well, out among the woods and hedgerows +of a summer afternoon. Little Think-well was the son of his +father's old age. That dry tree used to say to himself that if +ever he was intrusted with a son of his own, he would make his son +his most constant and his most confidential companion all his days. +And so he did. The eleventh of Deuteronomy had become a greater +and greater text to that childless man as he passed the mid-time of +his days. 'Therefore,' he used to say to himself, as he walked +abroad alone, and as other men passed him with their children at +their side--'Therefore ye shall teach them to your children, +speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou +walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. +And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and +upon thy gates.' And thus it was that, as the little lad grew up, +there was no day of all the seven that he so much numbered and +waited for as was that sacred day on which his father was free to +take little Think-well by the hand and lead him out to talk to him. +'No,' said an Edinburgh boy to his mother the other day--'No, +mother,' he said, 'I have no liking for these Sunday papers with +their poor stories and their pictures. I am to read the Bible +stories and the Bible biographies first.' He is not my boy. I +wish my boys were all like him. 'And Plutarch on week-days for +such a boy,' I said to his mother. How to keep a decent shred of +the old sanctification on the modern Sabbath-day is the anxious +inquiry of many fathers and mothers among us. My friend with her +manly-minded boy, and Mr. Meditation with little Think-well had no +trouble in that matter. + + +'And once I said, +As I remember, looking round upon those rocks +And hills on which we all of us were born, +That God who made the Great Book of the world +Would bless such piety;-- +Never did worthier lads break English bread: +The finest Sunday that the autumn saw, +With all its mealy clusters of ripe nuts, +Could never keep those boys away from church, +Or tempt them to an hour of Sabbath breach, +Leonard and James!' + + +Think-well and that mother's son. + +Old Mr. Meditation, the father, was sprung of a poor but honest and +industrious stock in the city. He had not had many talents or +opportunities to begin with, but he had made the very best of the +two he had. And then, when the two estates of Mr. Fritter-day and +Mr. Let-good-slip were sequestered to the crown, the advisers of +the crown handed over those two neglected estates to Mr. Meditation +to improve them for the common good, and after him to his son, +whose name we know. The steps of a good man are ordered of the +Lord, and He delighteth in his way. I have been young and now am +old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed +begging bread. + +Now, this Think-well old Mr. Meditation had by Mrs. Piety, and she +was the daughter of the old Recorder. 'I am Thy servant,' said +Mrs. Piety's son on occasion all his days--'I am Thy servant and +the son of Thine handmaid.' And at that so dutiful acknowledgment +of his a long procession of the servants of God pass up before our +eyes with their sainted mothers leaning on the arms of their great +sons. The Psalmist and his mother, the Baptist and his mother, our +Lord and His mother, the author of the Fourth Gospel and his +mother, Paul's son and successor in the gospel and his mother and +grandmother, the author of The Confessions and his mother; and, in +this noble connection, I always think of Halyburton and his good +mother. And in this ennobling connection you will all think of +your own mother also, and before we go any further you will all +say, I also, O Lord, am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid. +'Fathers and mothers handle children differently,' says Jeremy +Taylor. And then that princely teacher of the Church of Christ +Catholic goes on to tell us how Mrs. Piety handled her little +Think-well which she had borne to Mr. Meditation. After other +things, she said this every night before she took sleep to her +tired eyelids, this: 'Oh give me grace to bring him up. Oh may I +always instruct him with diligence and meekness; govern him with +prudence and holiness; lead him in the paths of religion and +justice; never provoking him to wrath, never indulging him in +folly, and never conniving at an unworthy action. Oh sanctify him +in his body, soul, and spirit. Let all his thoughts be pure and +holy to the Searcher of hearts; let his words be true and prudent +before men; and may he have the portion of the meek and the humble +in the world to come, and all through Jesus Christ our Lord!' How +could a son get past a father and a mother like that? Even if, for +a season, he had got past them, he would be sure to come back. +Only, their young Think-well never did get past his father and his +mother. + +There was not so much word of heredity in his day; but without so +much of the word young Think-well had the whole of the thing. And +as time went on, and the child became more and more the father of +the man, it was seen and spoken of by all the neighbours who knew +the house, how that their only child had inherited all his father's +head, and all his mother's heart, and then that he had reverted to +his maternal grandfather in his so keen and quick sense of right +and wrong. All which, under whatever name it was held, was a most +excellent outfit for our young gentleman. His old father, good +natural head and all, had next to no book-learning. He had only +two or three books that he read a hundred times over till he had +them by heart. And as he sighed over his unlettered lot he always +consoled himself with a saying he had once got out of one of his +old books. The saying of some great authority was to this effect, +that 'an old and simple woman, if she loves Jesus, may be greater +than our great brother Bonaventure.' He did not know who +Bonaventure was, but he always got a reproof again out of his name. +Think-well, to his father's immense delight, was a very methodical +little fellow, and his father and he had orderly little secrets +that they told to none. Little secret plans as to what they were +to read about, and think about, and pray about on certain days of +the week and at certain hours of the day and the night. You must +not call the father an old pedant, for the fact is, it was the son +who was the pedant if there was one in that happy house. The two +intimate friends had a word between them they called agenda. And +nobody but themselves knew where they had borrowed that uncouth +word, what language it was, or what it meant. Only in the old +man's tattered pocket-book there were things like this found by his +minister after his death. Indeed, in a museum of such relics this +is still to be read under a glass case, and in old Mr. Meditation's +ramshackle hand: 'Monday, death; Tuesday, judgment; Wednesday, +heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, my past life back to my youth; +Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; Lord's day, creation, +salvation, and my own.--M.' And then, on an utterly illegible +page, this: 'Jesus, Thy life and Thy words are a perpetual sermon +to me. I meditate on Thee all the day. Make my memory a vessel of +election. Let all my thoughts be plain, honest, pious, simple, +prudent, and charitable, till Thou art pleased to draw the curtain +and let me see Thyself, O Eternal Jesu!' If I had time I could +tell you more about Think-well's quaint old father. But the above +may be better than nothing about the rare old gentleman. + +A great authority has said--two great authorities have said in +their enigmatic way, that a 'dry light is ever the best.' That may +be so in some cases and to some uses, but nothing can be more sure +than this, that the light that little Think-well got from his +father's head was excellently drenched in his mother's heart. The +sweet moisture of his mother's heart mixed up beautifully with his +father's drier head and made a fine combination in their one boy as +it turned out. Her minister, preaching on one occasion on my text +for to-night, had said--and she had such a memory for a sermon that +she had never forgotten it, but had laid it up in her heart on the +spot--'As the philosopher's stone,' the old-fashioned preacher had +said, 'turns all metals into gold, as the bee sucks honey out of +every flower, and as the good stomach sucks out some sweet and +wholesome nourishment out of whatever it takes into itself, so doth +a holy heart, so far as sanctified, convert and digest all things +into spiritual and useful thoughts. This you may see in Psalm +cvii. 43.' And in her plain, silent, hidden, motherly way Mistress +Piety adorned her old minister's doctrine of the holy heart that he +was always preaching about, till she shared her soft and holy heart +with her son, as his father had shared his clear and deep, if too +unlearned, head. + +We have one grandmother at least signalised in the Bible; but no +grandfather, so far as I remember. But amends are made for that in +the Holy War. For Think-well would never have been the man he +became had it not been for the old Recorder, his grandfather on his +mother's side. Some superficial people said that there was too +much severity in the old Recorder; but his grandson who knew him +best, never said that. He was the best of men, his grandson used +to stand up for him, and say, I shall never forget the debt I owe +him. It was he who taught me first to make conscience of my +thoughts. Indeed, as for my secret thoughts, I had taken no notice +of them till that summer afternoon walk home from church, when we +sat down among the bushes and he showed me on the spot the way. +And I can say to his memory that scarce for one waking hour have I +any day forgotten the lesson. The lesson how to make a conscience, +as he said, of all my thoughts about myself and about all my +neighbours. Such, then, were Think-well's more immediate +ancestors, and such was the inheritance that they all taken +together had left him. + +Think-well! Think-well! My brethren, what do you think, what do +you say, as you hear that fine name? I will tell you what I think +and say. If I overcome, and have that white stone given to me, and +in that stone a new name written which no man shall know saving he +that receiveth it; and if it were asked me here to-night what I +would like my new name to be, I would say on the spot, Let it be +THINK-WELL! Let my new name among the saved and the sanctified +before the throne be THINK-WELL! As, O God, it will be the +bottomless pit to me, if I am forsaken of Thee for ever to my evil +thoughts. Send down and prevent it. Stir up all Thy strength and +give commandment to prevent it. Do Thou prevent it. For, after I +have done all,--after I have made all my overt acts blameless, +after I have tamed my tongue which no man can tame--all that only +the more throws my thoughts into a very devil's garden, a thicket +of hell, a secret swamp of sin to the uttermost. How, then, am I +ever to attain to that white stone and that shining name? And that +in a world of such truth that every man's name and title there +shall be a strict and true and entirely accurate and adequate +description and exposition of the very thoughts and intents and +imaginations of his heart? How shall I, how shall you, my +brethren, ever have 'Think-well' written on our forehead?--Well, +with God all things are possible. With God, with a much meditating +mind, and a true and humble and tender heart, and a pure +conscience, a conscience void of offence, working together with +Him--He, with all these inheritances and all these environments +working together with Him, will at last enable us, you and me, to +lift up such a clear and transparent forehead. But not without our +constant working together. We must ourselves make head, and heart, +and, especially, conscience of all our thoughts--for a long +lifetime we must do that. The Ductor Dubitantium has a deep +chapter on 'The Thinking Conscience.' And what a reproof to many +of us lies in the mere name! For how much evil-thinking and evil- +speaking we have all been guilty of through our unthinking +conscience and through a zeal for God, but a zeal without +knowledge. Look back at the history of the Church and see; look +back at your own history in the Church and see. Yes, make +conscience of your thoughts: but let it first be an instructed +conscience, a thinking conscience, a conscience full of the best +and the clearest light. And then let us also make ourselves a new +heart and a new spirit, as Ezekiel has it. For our hearts are +continually perverting and polluting and poisoning our thoughts. +That is a fearful thing that is said about the men on whom the +flood soon came. You remember what is said about them, and in +explanation and justification of the flood. God saw, it is said, +that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was evil, +and only evil continually. Fearful! Far more fearful than ten +floods! O God, Thou seest us. And Thou seest all the imaginations +of the thoughts of our hearts. Oh give us all a mind and a heart +and a conscience to think of nothing, to fear nothing, to watch and +to pray about nothing compared with our thoughts. 'As for my +secret thoughts,' says the author of the Holy War and the creator +of Master Think-well--'As for my secret thoughts, I paid no +attention to them. I never knew I had them. I had no pain, or +shame, or guilt, or horror, or despair on account of them till John +Gifford took me and showed me the way.' And then when John Bunyan, +being the man of genius he was,--as soon as he began to attend to +his own secret thoughts, then the first faint outline of this fine +portrait of Think-well began to shine out on the screen of this +great artist's imagination, and from that sanctified screen this +fine portrait of Think-well and his family has shined into our +hearts to-night. + + + +CHAPTER XXII--MR. GOD'S-PEACE, A GOODLY PERSON, AND A SWEET-NATURED +GENTLEMAN + + + +'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts,--the peace of God that +passeth all understanding.'--Paul. + +John Bunyan is always at his very best in allegory. In some other +departments of work John Bunyan has had many superiors; but when he +lays down his head on his hand and begins to dream, as we see him +in some of the old woodcuts, then he is alone; there is no one near +him. We have not a few greater divines in pure divinity than John +Bunyan. We have some far better expositors of Scripture than John +Bunyan, and we have some far better preachers. John Bunyan at his +best cannot open up a deep Scripture like that prince of +expositors, Thomas Goodwin. John Bunyan in all his books has +nothing to compare for intellectual strength and for theological +grasp with Goodwin's chapter on the peace of God, in his sixth book +in The Work of the Holy Ghost. John Bunyan cannot set forth divine +truth in an orderly method and in a built-up body like John Owen. +He cannot Platonize divine truth like his Puritan contemporary, +John Howe. He cannot soar high as heaven in the beauty and the +sweetness of gospel holiness like Jonathan Edwards. He has nothing +of the philosophical depth of Richard Hooker, and he has nothing of +the vast learning of Jeremy Taylor. But when John Bunyan's mind +and heart begin to work through his imagination, then - + + +'His language is not ours. +'Tis my belief God speaks; no tinker hath such powers.' + + +1. In the beginning of his chapter on 'Speaking peace,' Thomas +Goodwin tells his reader that he is going to fully couch all his +intendments under a metaphor and an allegory. But Goodwin's reader +has read and re-read the great chapter, and has not yet discovered +where the metaphor and the allegory came in and where they went +out. But Bunyan does not need to advertise his reader that he is +going to couch his teaching in his imagination. + + +'But having now my method by the end, +Still, as I pulled it came: and so I penned +It down; until at last it came to be +For length and breadth the bigness that you see.' + + +The Blessed Prince, he begins, did also ordain a new officer in the +town, and a goodly person he was. His name was Mr. God's-peace. +This man was set over my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. +Recorder, the subordinate preacher, Mr. Mind, and over all the +natives of the town of Mansoul. Himself was not a native of the +town, but came with the Prince from the court above. He was a +great acquaintance of Captain Credence and Captain Good-hope; some +say they were kin, and I am of that opinion too. This man, as I +said, was made governor of the town in general, especially over the +castle, and Captain Credence was to help him there. And I made +great observation of it, that so long as all things went in the +town as this sweet-natured gentleman would have them go, the town +was in a most happy condition. Now there were no jars, no chiding, +no interferings, no unfaithful doings in all the town; every man in +Mansoul kept close to his own employment. The gentry, the +officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed their order. +And as for the women and the children of the town, they followed +their business joyfully. They would work and sing, work and sing, +from morning till night; so that quite through the town of Mansoul +now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and +health. And this lasted all the summer. I shall step aside at +this point and shall let Jonathan Edwards comment on this sweet- +natured gentleman and his heavenly name. 'God's peace has an +exquisite sweetness,' says Edwards. 'It is exquisitely sweet +because it has so firm a foundation on the everlasting rock. It is +sweet also because it is so perfectly agreeable to reason. It is +sweet also because it riseth from holy and divine principles, +which, as they are the virtue, so are they the proper happiness of +man. This peace is exquisitely sweet also because of the greatness +of the good that the saints enjoy, being no other than the infinite +bounty and fulness of that God who is the Fountain of all good. It +is sweet also because it shall be enjoyed to perfection hereafter.' +An enthusiastic student has counted up the number of times that +this divine word 'sweetness' occurs in Edwards, and has proved that +no other word of the kind occurs so often in the author of True +Virtue and The Religious Affections. And I can well believe it; +unless the 'beauty of holiness' runs it close. Still, this sweet- +natured gentleman will continue to live for us in his government +and jurisdiction in Mansoul and in John Bunyan even more than in +Jonathan Edwards. + +2. 'Now Mr. God's-peace, the new Governor of Mansoul, was not a +native of the town; he came down with his Prince from the court +above.' 'He was not a native'--let that attribute of his be +written in letters of gold on every gate and door and wall within +his jurisdiction. When you need the governor and would seek him at +any time or in any place in all the town and cannot find him, +recollect yourself where he came from: he may have returned +thither again. John Bunyan has couched his deepest instruction to +you in that single sentence in which he says, 'Mr. God's-peace was +not a native of the town.' John Bunyan has gathered up many gospel +Scriptures into that single allegorical sentence. He has made many +old and familiar passages fresh and full of life again in that one +metaphorical sentence. It is the work of genius to set forth the +wont and the well known in a clear, simple, and at the same time +surprising, light like that. There is a peace that is native and +natural to the town of Mansoul, and to understand that peace, its +nature, its grounds, its extent, and its range, is most important +to the theologian and to the saint. But to understand the peace of +God, that supreme peace, the peace that passeth all understanding,- +-that is the highest triumph of the theologian and the highest +wisdom of the saint. The prophets and the psalmists of the Old +Testament are all full of the peace that God gave to His people +Israel. My peace I give unto you, says our Lord also. Paul also +has taken up that peace that comes to us through the blood of +Christ, and has made it his grand message to us and to all sinful +and sin-disquieted men. And John Bunyan has shown how sure and +true a successor of the apostles of Christ he is, just in his +portrait of this sweet-natured gentleman who was not a native of +Mansoul, but who came from that same court from which Emmanuel +Himself came. And it is just this outlandishness of this sweet- +natured gentleman; it is just this heavenly origin and divine +extraction of his that makes him sometimes and in some things to +surpass all earthly understanding. 'I am coming some day soon,' +said a divinity student to me the other Sabbath night, 'to have you +explain and clear up the atonement to me.' 'I shall be glad to see +you,' I said, 'but not on that errand.' No. Paul himself could +not do it. Paul said that the atonement and the peace of it passed +all his understanding. And John Bunyan says here that not the +Prince only, but his officer Mr. God's-peace also, was not native +to the town of Mansoul, but came straight down from heaven into +that town--and what can the man do who cometh after two kings like +Paul and Bunyan? I have not forgotten my Edwards where he says +that the exquisite sweetness of this peace is perfectly agreeable +to reason. As, indeed, so it is. And yet, if reason will have a +clear and finished and all-round answer to all her difficulties and +objections and fault-findings, I fear she cannot have it here. The +time may come when our reason also shall be so enlarged, and so +sanctified, and so exalted, that she shall be able with all saints +to see the full mystery of that which in this present dispensation +passeth all understanding. But till then, only let God's peace +enter our hearts with God's Son, and then let our hearts say if +that peace must not in some high and deep way be according to the +highest and the deepest reason, since its coming into our hearts +has produced in our hearts and in our lives such reasonable, and +right, and harmonious, and peaceful, and every way joyful results. + +3. Governor God's-peace had not many in the town of Mansoul to +whom he could confide all his thoughts and with whom he could +consult. But there were two officer friends of his stationed in +the town with whom he was every day in close correspondence, viz., +the Captain Credence and the Captain Good-hope. Their so close +intimacy will not be wondered at when it is known that those three +officers had all come in together with Emmanuel the Conqueror. +Those three young captains had done splendid service, each at the +head of his own battalion, in the days of the invasion and the +conquest of Mansoul, and they had all had their present titles, and +privileges, and lands, and offices, patented to them on the +strength of their past services. The Captain Credence had all +along been the confidential aide-de-camp and secretary of the +Prince. Indeed, the Prince never called Captain Credence a servant +at all, but always a friend. The Prince had always conveyed his +mind about all Mansoul's matters first to Captain Credence, and +then that confidential captain conveyed whatever specially +concerned God's-peace and Good-hope to those excellent and trusty +soldiers. Credence first told all matters to God's-peace and then +the two soon talked over Good-hope to their mind and heart. Some +say that the three officers, Credence, God's-peace, and Good-hope, +were kin, adds our historian, and I, he adds, am of that opinion +too. And to back up his opinion he takes an extract out of the +Herald's College books which runs thus: 'Romans, fifteenth and +thirteenth: Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace +in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the +Holy Ghost.' Some say the three officers were of kin, and I am of +that opinion too. + +4. On account both of his eminent services and his great +abilities, the Prince saw it good to set Mr. God's-peace over the +whole town. And thus it was that the governor's jurisdiction +extended and held not only over the people of the town, but also +over all the magistrates and all the other officers of the town, +such as my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, Mr. +Mind, and all. It needed all the governor's authority and ability +to keep his feet in his office over all the other rulers of the +town, but by far his greatest trouble always was with the Recorder. +Old Mr. Conscience, the Town Recorder, had a very difficult post to +hold and a very difficult part to play in that still so divided and +still so unsettled town. What with all those murderers and man- +slayers, thieves and prostitutes, skulkers and secret rebels, on +the one hand, and with Governor God's-peace and his so +unaccountable and so autocratic ways, on the other hand, the +Recorder's office was no sinecure. All the misdemeanours and +malpractices of the town,--and they were happening every day and +every night,--were all reported to the Recorder; they were all, so +to say, charged home upon the Recorder, and he was held responsible +for them all; till his office was a perfect laystall and cesspool +of all the scum and corruption of the town. And yet, in would come +Governor God's-peace, without either warning or explanation, and +would demand all the Recorder's papers, and proofs, and affidavits, +and what not, it had cost him so much trouble to get collected and +indorsed, and would burn them all before the Recorder's face, and +to his utter confusion, humiliation, and silence. So autocratic, +so despotic, so absolute, and not-to-be-questioned was Governor +God's-peace. The Recorder could not understand it, and could +barely submit to it; my Lord Mayor could not understand it, and his +clerk, Mr. Mind, would often oppose it; but there it was: Mr. +Governor God's-peace was set over them all. + +5. But the thing that always in the long-run justified the +governorship of Mr. God's-peace, and reconciled all the other +officers to his supremacy, was the way that the city settled down +and prospered under his benignant rule. All the other officers +admitted that, somehow, his promotion and power had been the +salvation of Mansoul. They all extolled their Prince's far-seeing +wisdom in the selection, advancement, and absolute seat of Mr. +God's-peace. And it would ill have become them to have said +anything else; for they had little else to do but bask in the sun +and enjoy the honours and the emoluments of their respective +offices as long as Governor God's-peace held sway, and had all +things in the city to his own mind. Now, it was on all hands +admitted, as we read again with renewed delight, that there were no +jars, no chiding, no interferings, no unfaithful doings in the town +of Mansoul; but every man kept close to his own employment. The +gentry, the officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed +their orders. And as for the women and children, they all followed +their business joyfully. They would work and sing, work and sing, +from morning till night, so that quite through the town of Mansoul +now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and +health. What more could be said of any governorship of any town +than that? The Heavenly Court itself, out of which Governor God's- +peace had come down, was not better governed than that. Harmony, +quietness, joy, and health. No; the New Jerusalem itself will not +surpass that. 'And this lasted all that summer.' + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF MANSOUL, AND MR. +CONSCIENCE ONE OF HER PARISH MINISTERS + + + +'The Highest Himself shall establish her.'--David. + +The princes of this world establish churches sometimes out of piety +and sometimes out of policy. Sometimes their motive is the good of +their people and the glory of God, and sometimes their sole motive +is to buttress up their own Royal House, and to have a clergy +around them on whom they can count. Prince Emmanuel had His +motive, too, in setting up an establishment in Mansoul. As thus: +When this was over, the Prince sent again for the elders of the +town and communed with them about the ministry that He intended to +establish in Mansoul. Such a ministry as might open to them and +might instruct them in the things that did concern their present +and their future state. For, said He to them, of yourselves, +unless you have teachers and guides, you will not be able to know, +and if you do not know, then you cannot do the will of My Father. +At this news, when the elders of Mansoul brought it to the people, +the whole town came running together, and all with one consent +implored His Majesty that He would forthwith establish such a +ministry among them as might teach them both law and judgment, +statute and commandment, so that they might be documented in all +good and wholesome things. So He told them that He would +graciously grant their requests and would straightway establish +such a ministry among them. + +Now, I will not enter to-night on the abstract benefits of such an +Establishment. I will rather take one of the ministers who was +presented to one of the parishes of Mansoul, and shall thus let you +see how that State Church worked out practically in one of its +ministers at any rate. And the preacher and pastor I shall so take +up was neither the best minister in the town nor the worst; but, +while a long way subordinate to the best, he was also by no means +the least. The Reverend Mr. Conscience was our parish minister's +name; his people sometimes called him The Recorder. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, the Rev. Mr. Conscience was a native +of the same town in which his parish church now stood. I am not +going to challenge the wisdom of the patron who appointed his +protege to this particular living; only, I have known very good +ministers who never got over the misfortune of having been settled +in the same town in which they had been born and brought up. Or, +rather, their people never got over it. One excellent minister, +especially, I once knew, whose father had been a working man in the +town, and his son had sometimes assisted his father before he went +to college, and even between his college sessions, and the people +he afterwards came to teach could never get over that. It was not +wise in my friend to accept that presentation in the circumstances, +as the event abundantly proved. For, whenever he had to take his +stand in his pulpit or in his pastorate against any of their evil +ways, his people defended themselves and retaliated on him by +reminding him that they knew his father and his mother, and had not +forgotten his own early days. No doubt, in the case of Emmanuel +and Mansoul and its minister, there were counterbalancing +considerations and advantages both to minister and people; but it +is not always so; and it was not so in the case of my unfortunate +friend. + +Forasmuch, so ran the Prince's presentation paper, as he is a +native of the town of Mansoul, and thus has personal knowledge of +all the laws and customs of the corporation, therefore he, the +Prince, presented Mr. Conscience. That is to say, every man who is +to be the minister of a parish should make his own heart and his +own life his first parish. His own vineyard should be his first +knowledge and his first care. And then out of that and after that +he will be able to speak to his people, and to correct, and +counsel, and take care of them. In Thomas Boston's Memoirs we +continually come on entries like this: 'Preached on Ps. xlii. 5, +and mostly on my own account.' And, again, we read in the same +invaluable book for parish ministers, that its author did not +wonder to hear that good had been done by last Sabbath's sermon, +because he had preached it to himself and had got good to himself +out of it before he took it to the pulpit. Boston kept his eye on +himself in a way that the minister of Mansoul himself could not +have excelled. Till, not in his pulpit work only, but in such +conventional, commonplace, and monotonous exercises as his family +worship, he so read the Scriptures and so sang the psalms that his +family worship was continually yielding him fruit as well as his +public ministry. As our family worship and our public ministry +will do, too, when we have the eye and the heart and the conscience +that Thomas Boston had. 'I went to hear a preacher,' said Pascal, +'and I found a man in the pulpit.' Well, the parish minister of +Mansoul was a man, and so was the parish minister of Ettrick. And +that was the reason that the people of Simprin and Ettrick so often +thought that Boston had them in his eye. Good pastor as he was, he +could not have everybody in his eye. But he had himself in his +eye, and that let him into the hearts and the homes of all his +people. He was a true man, and thus a true minister. + +2. Both Boston and the minister of Mansoul were well-read men +also; so, indeed, in as many words, their fine biographies assure +us. But that is just another way of saying what has been said +about those two ministers over and over again already. William Law +never was a parish minister. The English Crown of that day would +not trust him with a parish. But what was the everlasting loss of +some parish in England has become the everlasting gain of the whole +Church of Christ. Law's enforced seclusion from outward +ministerial activity only set him the more free to that inward +activity which has been such a blessing to so many, and to so many +ministers especially. And as to this of every minister being well +read, that master in Israel says: 'Above all, let me tell you that +the book of books to you is your own heart, in which are written +and engraven the deepest lessons of divine instruction. Learn, +therefore, to be deeply attentive to the presence of God in your +own hearts, who is always speaking, always instructing, always +illuminating the heart that is attentive to Him.' Jonathan Edwards +called the poor parish minister of Ettrick 'a truly great divine.' +But Law goes on to say, 'A great divine is but a cant expression +unless it signifies a man greatly advanced in the divine life. A +great divine is one whose own experience and example are a +demonstration of the reality of all the graces and virtues of the +gospel. No divine has any more of the gospel in him than that +which proves itself by the spirit, the actions, and the form of his +life: the rest is but hypocrisy, not divinity.' Let all our +parish ministers, then, give themselves to this kind of reading. +Let them all aim at a doctor's degree in the divinity of their own +hearts. + +3. We are done at last, and we are done for ever, in Scotland, +with patrons and with presenters; but I daresay our most Free +Church people would be quite willing to surrender their dear-bought +franchise if the old plan could even yet be made to work in all +their parishes as it worked in Mansoul. For not only was the +presented minister in this case a well-read man; he was also, what +the best of the Scottish people have always loved and honoured, a +man, as this history testifies, with a tongue as bravely hung as he +had a head filled with judgment. In Scotland we like our minister +to have a tongue bravely hung, even when that is proved to our own +despite. When any minister, parish minister or other, is seen to +tune his pulpit, our respect for him is gone. The Presbyterian +pulpit has been proverbially hard to tune, and it will be an ill +day when it becomes easy. 'Here lies a man who had a brow for +every good cause.' So it was engraven over one of Boston's elders. +And so is it always: like priest, like people in the matter of the +hang of the minister's tongue and in the boldness of the elder's +brow. + +'Bravely hung' is an ancient and excellent expression which has +several shades of meaning in Bunyan. But in the present instance +its meaning is modified and fixed by judgment. A bravely hung +tongue; at the same time the parish minister of Mansoul's tongue +was not a loosely-hung tongue. It was not a blustering, headlong, +scolding, untamed tongue. The pulpit of Mansoul was tuned with +judgment. He who filled that pulpit had a head filled with +judgment. The ground of judgment is knowledge, and the minister of +Mansoul was a man of knowledge. It was his early and ever- +increasing knowledge of himself, and thus of other men; and then it +was his excellent judgment as to the use he was to make of that +knowledge; it was his sound knowledge what to say, when to say it, +and how to say it,--it was all this that decided his Prince to make +him the minister of Mansoul. How excellent and how rare a gift is +judgment--judgment in counsel, judgment in speech, and judgment in +action! 'I am very little serviceable with reference to public +management,' writes the parish minister of Ettrick, 'being +exceedingly defective in ecclesiastical prudence; but the Lord has +given me a pulpit gift, not unacceptable: and who knows what He +may do with me in that way?' Who knows, indeed! Now, there are +many parish ministers who have a not unacceptable pulpit gift, and +yet who are not content with that, but are always burying that gift +in the earth and running away from it to attempt a public +management in which they are exceedingly and conspicuously +defective. Now, why do they do that? Is their pulpit and their +parish not sphere and opportunity enough for them? Mine is a small +parish, said Boston, but then it is mine. And a small parish may +both rear and occupy a truly great divine. Let those ministers, +then, who are defective in ecclesiastical prudence not be too much +cast down. Ecclesiastical prudence is not in every case the +highest kind of prudence. The presbytery, the synod, and the +assembly are not any minister's first or best sphere. Every +minister's first and best sphere is his parish. And the presbytery +is not the end of the parish. The parish, the pastorate, and the +pulpit are the end of both presbytery and synod and assembly. As +for the minister of Mansoul, he was a well-read man, and also a man +of courage to speak out the truth at every occasion, and he had a +tongue as bravely hung as he had a head filled with judgment. + +4. But there was one thing about the parish pulpit of Mansoul that +always overpowered the people. They could not always explain it +even to themselves what it was that sometimes so terrified them, +and, sometimes, again, so enthralled them. They would say +sometimes that their minister was more than a mere man; that he was +a prophet and a seer, and that his Master seemed sometimes to stand +and speak again in His servant. And 'seer' was not at all an +inappropriate name for their minister, so far as I can collect out +of some remains of his that I have seen and some testimonies that I +have heard. There was something awful and overawing, something +seer-like and supernatural, in the pulpit of Mansoul. Sometimes +the iron chains in which the preacher climbed up into the pulpit, +and in which he both prayed and preached, struck a chill to every +heart; and sometimes the garment of salvation in which he shone +carried all their hearts captive. Some Sabbath mornings they saw +it in his face and heard it in his voice that he had been on his +bed in hell all last night; and then, next Sabbath, those who came +back saw him descending into his pulpit from his throne in heaven. + + +'Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-page +Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. +Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek +Is apter than thy tongue to tell thine errand.' + + +If you think that I am exaggerating and magnifying the parish +pulpit of Mansoul, take this out of the parish records for +yourselves. 'And now,' you will read in one place, 'it was a day +gloomy and dark, a day of clouds and thick darkness with Mansoul. +Well, when the Sabbath-day was come he took for his text that in +the prophet Jonah, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their +own mercy." And then there was such power and authority in that +sermon, and such dejection seen in the countenances of the people +that day that the like had seldom been heard or seen. The people, +when the sermon was done, were scarce able to go to their homes, or +to betake themselves to their employments the whole week after. +They were so sermon-smitten that they knew not what to do. For not +only did their preacher show to Mansoul its sin, but he did tremble +before them under the sense of his own, still crying out as he +preached, Unhappy man that I am! that I, a preacher, should have +lived so senselessly and so sottishly in my parish, and be one of +the foremost in its transgressions! With these things he also +charged all the lords and gentry of Mansoul to the almost +distracting of them.' It was Sabbaths like that that made the +people of Mansoul call their minister a seer. + +5. And, then, there was another thing that I do not know how +better to describe than by calling it the true catholicity, the +true humility, and the true hospitality of the man. It is true he +had no choice in the matter, for in setting up a standing ministry +in Mansoul Emmanuel had done so with this reservation and addition. +We have His very words. 'Not that you are to have your ministers +alone,' He said. 'For my four captains, they can, if need be, and +if they be required, not only privately inform, but publicly preach +both good and wholesome doctrine, that, if heeded, will do thee +good in the end.' Which, again, reminds me of what Oliver Cromwell +wrote to the Honourable Colonel Hacker at Peebles. 'These: I was +not satisfied with your last speech to me about Empson, that he was +a better preacher than fighter--or words to that effect. Truly, I +think that he that prays and preaches best will fight best. I know +nothing that will give like courage and confidence as the knowledge +of God in Christ will. I pray you to receive Captain Empson +lovingly.' + +6. The standing ministry in Mansoul was endowed also; but I cannot +imagine what the court of teinds would make of the instrument of +endowment. As it has been handed down to us, that old +ecclesiastical instrument reads more like a lesson in the parish +minister's class for the study of Mysticism than a writing for a +learned lord to adjudicate upon. Here is the Order of Council: +'Therefore I, thy Prince, give thee, My servant, leave and licence +to go when thou wilt to My fountain, My conduit, and there to drink +freely of the blood of My grape, for My conduit doth always run +wine. Thus doing, thou shalt drive from thine heart all foul, +gross, and hurtful humours. It will also lighten thine eyes, and +it will strengthen thy memory for the reception and the keeping of +all that My Father's noble secretary will teach thee.' Thus the +Prince did put Mr. Conscience into the place and office of a +minister to Mansoul, and the chosen and presented man did +thankfully accept thereof. + +(1) Now, there are at least three lessons taught us here. There +is, to begin with, a lesson to all those congregations who are +about to choose a minister. Let all those congregations, then, who +have had devolved on them the powers of the old patrons,--let them +make their election on the same principles that the Prince of +Mansoul patronised. Let them choose a probationer who, young +though he must be, has the making of a seer in him. Let them +listen for the future seer in his most stammering prayers. +Somewhere, even in one service, his conscience will make itself +heard, if he has a conscience. Rather remain ten years vacant than +call a minister who has no conscience. The parish minister of +Mansoul sometimes seemed to be all conscience, and it was this that +made his head so full of judgment, his tongue so full of a brave +boldness, and his heart so full of holy love. Your minister may be +an anointed bishop, he may be a gowned and hooded doctor, he may be +a king's chaplain, he may be the minister of the largest and the +richest and the most learned parish in the city, but, unless he +strikes terror and pain into your conscience every Sabbath, unless +he makes you tremble every Sabbath under the eye and the hand of +God, he is no true minister to you. As Goodwin says, he is a +wooden cannon. As Leighton says, he is a mountebank for a +minister. + +(2) The second lesson is to all those who are politically +enfranchised, and who hold a vote for a member of Parliament. Now, +crowds of candidates and their canvassers will before long be at +your door besieging it and begging you for your vote for or against +an Established church. Well, before Parliament is dissolved, and +the canvass commences, look you well into your own heart and ask +yourself whether or no the Church of Christ has yet been +established there. Ask if Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, +has yet set up His throne there, in your heart. Ask your +conscience if His laws are recognised and obeyed there. Ask also +if His blood has been sprinkled there, and since when. And, if +not, then it needs no seer to tell you what sacrilege, what +profanity it is for you to touch the ark of God: to speak, or to +vote, or to lift a finger either for or against any church +whatsoever. Intrude your wilful ignorance and your wicked passions +anywhere else. March up boldly and vote defiantly on questions of +State that you never read a sober line about, and are as ignorant +about as you are of Hebrew; but beware of touching by a thousand +miles the things for which the Son of God laid down His life. +Thrust yourself in, if you must, anywhere else, but do not thrust +yourself and your brutish stupidity and your fiendish tempers into +the things of the house of God. Let all parish ministers take for +their text that day 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7:- And when they came to +Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of +God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of +the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his +error; and there he died by the ark of God. + +(3) There is a third lesson here, but it is a lesson for +ministers, and I shall take it home to myself. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--A FAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + +'Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all +the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God.'-- +Joel. + +In our soft and self-indulgent day the very word 'to fast' has +become an out-of-date and an obsolete word. We never have occasion +to employ that word in the living language of the present day. The +men of the next generation will need to have it explained to them +what the Fast-days of their fathers were: when they were +instituted, how they were observed, and why they were abrogated and +given up. If your son should ever ask you just what the Fast-days +of your youth were like, you will do him a great service, and he +may live to recover them, if you will answer him in this way. Show +him how to take his Cruden and how to make a picture to his opening +mind of the Fast-days of Scripture. And tell him plainly for what +things in fathers and in sons those fasts were ordained of God. +And then for the Fast-days of the Puritan period let him read aloud +to you this powerful passage in the Holy War. Public preaching and +public prayer entered largely into the fasting of the Prophetical +and the Puritan periods; and John Bunyan, after Joel, has told us +some things about the Fast-day preaching of his day that it will be +well for us, both preachers and people, to begin with, and to lay +well to heart. + +1. In the first place, the preaching of that Fast-day was +'pertinent' and to the point. William Law, that divine writer for +ministers, warns ministers against going off upon Euroclydon and +the shipwrecks of Paul when Christ's sheep are looking up to them +for their proper food. What, he asks, is the nature, the +direction, and the strength of that Mediterranean wind to him who +has come up to church under the plague of his own heart and under +the heavy hand of God? You may be sure that Boanerges did not +lecture that Fast-day forenoon in Mansoul on Acts xxvii. 14. We +would know that, even if we were not told what his text that +forenoon was. His text that never-to-be-forgotten Fast-day +forenoon was in Luke xiii. 7--'Cut it down; why cumbereth it the +ground?' And a very smart sermon he made upon the place. First, +he showed what was the occasion of the words, namely, because the +fig-tree was barren. Then he showed what was contained in the +sentence, to wit, repentance or utter desolation. He then showed +also by whose authority this sentence was pronounced. And, lastly, +he showed the reasons of the point, and then concluded his sermon. +But he was very pertinent in the application, insomuch that he made +all the elders and all their people in Mansoul to tremble. Sidney +Smith says that whatever else a sermon may be or may not be, it +must be interesting if it is to do any good. Now, pertinent +preaching is always interesting preaching. Nothing interests men +like themselves. And pertinent preaching is just preaching to men +about themselves,--about their interests, their losses and their +gains, their hopes and their fears, their trials and their +tribulations. Boanerges took both his text and his treatment of +his text from his Master, and we know how pertinently The Master +preached. His preaching was with such pertinence that the one half +of His hearers went home saying, Never man spake like this man, +while the other half gnashed at Him with their teeth. Our Lord +never lectured on Euroclydon. He knew what was in man and He +lectured and preached accordingly. And if we wish to have praise +of our best people, and of Him whose people they are, let us look +into our own hearts and preach. That will be pertinent to our +people which is first pertinent to ourselves. Weep yourself, said +an old poet to a new beginner; weep yourself if you would make me +weep. 'For my own part,' said Thomas Shepard to some ministers +from his deathbed, 'I never preached a sermon which, in the +composing, did not cost me prayers, with strong cries and tears. I +never preached a sermon from which I had not first got some good to +my own soul.' + + +'His office and his name agree; +A shepherd that and Shepard he.' + + +And many such entries as these occur in Thomas Boston's golden +journal: 'I preached in Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly on my own +account.' Again: 'Meditating my sermon next day, I found +advantage to my own soul, as also in delivering it on the Sabbath.' +And again: 'What good this preaching has done to others I know +not, yet I think myself will not the worse of it.' + +2. The preaching of that Fast-day was with great authority also. +'There was such power and authority in that sermon,' reports one +who was present, 'that the like had seldom been seen or heard.' +Authority also was one of the well-remembered marks of our Lord's +preaching. And no wonder, considering who He was. But His +ministers, if they are indeed His ministers, will be clothed by Him +with something even of His supreme authority. 'Conscience is an +authority,' says one of the most authoritative preachers that ever +lived. 'The Bible is an authority; such is the Church; such is +antiquity; such are the words of the wise; such are hereditary +lessons; such are ethical truths; such are historical memories; +such are legal saws and state maxims; such are proverbs; such are +sentiments, presages, and prepossessions.' Now, the well-equipped +preacher will from time to time plant his pulpit on all those kinds +of authority, as this kind is now pertinent and then that, and +will, with such a variety and accumulation of authority, preach to +his people. Thomas Boston preached at a certain place with such +pertinence and with such authority that it was complained of him by +one of themselves that he 'terrified even the godly.' Let all our +young preachers who would to old age continue to preach with +interest, with pertinence, and with terrifying authority, among +other things have by heart The Memoirs of Thomas Boston, 'that +truly great divine.' + +3. A third thing, and, as some of the people who heard it said of +it, the best thing about that sermon was that--'He did not only +show us our sin, but he did visibly tremble before us under the +sense of his own.' Now I know this to be a great difficulty with +some young ministers who have got no help in it at the Divinity +Hall. Are they, they ask, to be themselves in the pulpit? How far +may they be themselves, and how far may they be not themselves? +How far are they to be seen to tremble before their people because +of their own sins, and how far are they to bear themselves as if +they had no sin? Must they keep back the passions that are tearing +their own hearts, and fill the forenoon with Euroclydon and other +suchlike sea-winds? How far are they to be all gown and bands in +the pulpit, and how far sackcloth and ashes? One half of their +people are like Pascal in this, that they like to see and hear a +man in his pulpit; but, then, the other half like only to see and +hear a proper preacher. 'He did not only show the men of Mansoul +their sin, but he did tremble before them under the sense of his +own. Still crying out as he preached to them, Unhappy man that I +am! that I should have done so wicked a thing! That I, a preacher, +should be one of the first in the transgression!' + +This you will remember was the Fast-day. And so truly had this +preacher kept the Fast-day that the Communion-day was down upon him +before he was ready for it. He was still deep among his sins when +all his people were fast putting on their beautiful garments. He +was ready with the letter of his action-sermon, but he was not +equal to the delivery of it. His colleague, accordingly, whose +sense of sin was less acute that day, took the public worship, +while the Fast-day preacher still lay sick in his closet at home +and wrote thus on the ground: 'I am no more worthy to be called +Thy son,' he wrote. 'Behold me here, Lord, a poor, miserable +sinner, weary of myself, and afraid to look up to Thee. Wilt Thou +heal my sores? Wilt Thou take out the stains? Wilt Thou deliver +me from the shame? Wilt Thou rescue me from this chain of sin? +Cut me not off in the midst of my sins. Let me have liberty once +again to be among Thy redeemed ones, eating and drinking at Thy +table. But, O my God, to-day I am an unclean worm, a dead dog, a +dead carcass, deservedly cast out from the society of Thy saints. +But oh, suffer me so much as to look to the place where Thy people +meet and where Thine honour dwelleth. Reject not the sacrifice of +a broken heart, but come and speak to me in my secret place. O +God, let me never see such another day as this is. Let me never be +again so full of guilt as to have to run away from Thy presence and +to flee from before Thy people.' He printed more than that, in +blood and in tears, before God that Communion-morning, but that is +enough for my purpose. Now, would you choose a dead dog like that +to be your minister? To baptize and admit your children and to +marry them when they grow up? To mount your pulpits every Sabbath- +day, and to come to your houses every week-day? Not, I feel sure, +if you could help it! Not if you knew it! Not if there was a +minister of proper pulpit manners and a well-ordered mind within a +Sabbath-day's journey! 'Like priest like people,' says Hosea. +'The congregation and the minister are one,' says Dr. Parker. +'There are men we could not sit still and hear; they are not the +proper ministers for us. There are other men we could hear always, +because they are our kith and our kin from before the foundation of +the world.' Happy the hearer who has hit on a minister like the +minister of Mansoul, and who has discovered in him his everlasting +kith and kin. And happy the minister who, owning kith and kin with +Boanerges, has two or three or even one member in his congregation +who likes his minister best when he likes himself worst. + +But what about the fasting all this time? Was it all preaching, +and was there no fasting? Well, we do not know much about the +fasting of the prophets and the apostles, but the Puritans +sometimes made their people almost forget about fasting, and about +eating and drinking too, they so took possession of their people +with their incomparable preaching. I read, for instance, in +Calamy's Life of John Howe that on the public Fast-days, it was +Howe's common way to begin about nine in the morning and to +continue reading, preaching, and praying till about four in the +afternoon. Henry Rogers almost worships John Howe, but John Howe's +Fast-days pass his modern biographers patience; till, if you would +see a nineteenth-century case made out against a seventeenth- +century Fast-day, you have only to turn to the author of The +Eclipse of Faith on the author of Delighting in God. And, no +doubt, when we get back our Fast-days, we shall leave more of the +time to reading pertinent books at home and to secret fasting and +to secret prayer, and shall enjoin our preachers, while they are +pertinent and authoritative in their sermons, not to take up the +whole day with their sermons even at their best. And then, as to +fasting, discredited and discarded as it is in our day, there are +yet some very good reasons for desiring its return and +reinstatement among us. Very good reasons, both for health and for +holiness. But it is only of the latter class of reasons that I +would fain for a few words at present speak. Well, then, let it be +frankly said that there is nothing holy, nothing saintly, nothing +at all meritorious in fasting from our proper food. It is the +motive alone that sanctifies the means. It is the end alone that +sanctifies the exercise. If I fast to chastise myself for my sin; +if I fast to reduce the fuel of my sin; if I fast to keep my flesh +low; if I fast to make me more free for my best books, for my most +inward, spiritual, mystical books--for my Kempis, and my Behmen, +and my Law, and my Leighton, and my Goodwin, and my Bunyan, and my +Rutherford, and my Jeremy Taylor, and my Shepard, and my Edwards, +and suchlike; if I fast for the ends of meditation and prayer; if I +fast out of sympathy with my Bible, and my Saviour, and my latter +end, and my Father's house in heaven--then, no doubt, my fasting +will be acceptable with God, as it will certainly be an immediate +means of grace to my sinful soul. These altars will sanctify many +such gifts. For, who that knows anything at all about himself, +about his own soul, and about the hindrances and helps to its +salvation from sin; who that ever read a page of Scripture +properly, or spent half an hour in that life which is hidden in +God--who of such will deny or doubt that fasting is superseded or +neglected to the sure loss of the spiritual life, to the sensible +lowering of the religious tone and temper, and to the increase both +of the lusts of the flesh and of the mind? It may perhaps be that +the institution of fasting as a church ordinance has been permitted +to be set aside in order to make it more than ever a part of each +earnest man's own private life. Perhaps it was in some ways full +time that it should be again said to us, 'Thou, when thou fastest, +appear not unto men to fast.' As also, 'Is not this the fast that +I have chosen: to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed +go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread +to the hungry, and that thou bring the outcast to thy house?' Let +us believe that the form of the Fast-day has been removed out of +the way that the spirit may return and fashion a new form for +itself. And in the belief that that is so, let us, while parting +with our fathers' Fast-days with real regret--as with their +pertinent and pungent preaching--let us meantime lay in a stock of +their pertinent and pungent books, and set apart particular and +peculiar seasons for their sin-subduing and grace-strengthening +study. + +The short is this. The one real substance and true essence of all +fasting is self-denial. And we can never get past either the +supreme and absolute duty of that, or the daily and hourly call to +that, as long as we continue to read the New Testament, to live in +this life, and to listen to the voice of conscience, and to the +voice of God speaking to us in the voice of conscience. Without +strict and constant self-denial, no man, whatever his experiences +or his pretensions, is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and secret +fasting is one of the first, the easiest, and the most elementary +exercises of New Testament self-denial. And, besides, the lusts of +our flesh and the lusts of our minds are so linked and locked and +riveted together that if one link is loosened, or broken, or even +struck at, the whole thrall is not yet thrown off indeed, but it is +all shaken; it has all received a staggering blow. So much is this +the case that one single act of self-denial in the region of the +body will be felt for freedom throughout the whole prison-house of +the soul. And a victory really won over a sensual sin is already a +challenge sounded to our most spiritual sin. And it is this +discovery that has given to fasting the place it has held in all +the original, resolute, and aggressive ages of the Church. With +little or nothing in their Lord's literal teaching to make His +people fast, they have been so bent on their own spiritual +deliverance, and they have heard and read so much about the +deliverances both of body and of soul that have been attained by +fasting and its accompaniments, that they have taken to it in their +despair, and with results that have filled them in some instances +with rapture, and in all instances with a good conscience and with +a good hope. You would wonder, even in these degenerate days,--you +would be amazed could you be told how many of your own best friends +in their stealthy, smiling, head-anointing, hypocritical way deny +themselves this and that sweetness, this and that fatness, this and +that softness, and are thus attaining to a strength, a courage, and +a self-conquest that you are getting the benefit of in many ways +without your ever guessing the price at which it has all been +purchased. Now, would you yourself fain be found among those who +are in this way being made strong and victorious inwardly and +spiritually? Would you? Then wash your face and anoint your head; +and, then, not denying it before others, deny it in secret to +yourself--this and that sweet morsel, this and that sweet meat, +this and that glass of such divine wine. Unostentatiously, +ungrudgingly, generous-heartedly, and not ascetically or morosely, +day after day deny yourself even in little unthought-of things, and +one of the very noblest laws of your noblest life shall immediately +claim you as its own. That stealthy and shamefaced act of self- +denial for Christ's sake and for His cross's sake will lay the +foundation of a habit of self-denial; ere ever you are aware of +what you are doing the habit will consolidate into a character; and +what you begin little by little in the body will be made perfect in +the soul; till what you did, almost against His command and +altogether without His example, yet because you did it for His sake +and in His service, will have placed you far up among those who +have forsaken all, and themselves also, to follow Jesus Christ, Son +of Man and Son of God. Only, let this always be admitted, and +never for a moment forgotten, that all this is said by permission +and not of commandment. Our Lord never fasted as we fast. He had +no need. And He never commanded His disciples to fast. He left it +to themselves to find out each man his own case and his own cure. +Let no man, therefore, take fasting in any of its degrees, or +times, or occasions, on his conscience who does not first find it +in his heart. At the same time this may be said with perfect +safety, that he who finds it in his heart and then lays it on his +conscience to deny himself anything, great or small, for Christ's +sake, and for the sake of his own salvation,--he will never repent +it. No, he will never repent it. + + + +CHAPTER XXV--A FEAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + +'He brought me into his banqueting house.'--The Song. + +Emmanuel's feast-day in the Holy War excels in beauty and in +eloquence everything I know in any other author on the Lord's +Supper. The Song of Solomon stands alone when we sing that song +mystically--that is to say, when we pour into it all the love of +God to His Church in Israel and all Israel's love to God, and then +all our Lord's love to us and all our love back again to Him in +return. But outside of Holy Scripture I know nothing to compare +for beauty, and for sweetness, and for quaintness, and for +tenderness, and for rapture, with John Bunyan's account of the +feast that Prince Emmanuel made for the town of Mansoul. With his +very best pen John Bunyan tells us how upon a time Emmanuel made a +feast in Mansoul, and how the townsfolk came to the castle to +partake of His banquet, and how He feasted them on all manner of +outlandish food--food that grew not in the fields of Mansoul; it +was food that came down from heaven and from His Father's house. +They drank also of the water that was made wine, and, altogether, +they were very merry and at home with their Prince. There was +music also all the time at the table, and man did eat angels' food, +and had honey given him out of the rock. And then the table was +entertained with some curious and delightful riddles that were made +upon the King Himself, upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon His wars and +doings with Mansoul; till, altogether, the state of transportation +the people were in with their entertainment cannot be told by the +very best of pens. Nor did He, when they returned to their places, +send them empty away; for either they must have a ring, or a gold +chain, or a bracelet, or a white stone or something; so dear was +Mansoul to Him now, so lovely was Mansoul in His eyes. And, going +and coming to the feast, O how graciously, how lovingly, how +courteously, and how tenderly did this blessed Prince now carry it +to the town of Mansoul! In all the streets, gardens, orchards, and +other places where He came, to be sure the poor should have His +blessing and benediction; yea, He would kiss them; and if they were +ill, He would lay His hands on them and make them well. And was it +not now something amazing to behold that in that very place where +Diabolus had had his abode, the Prince of princes should now sit +eating and drinking with all His mighty captains, and men of war, +and trumpeters, and with the singing men and the singing women of +His Father's court! Now did Mansoul's cup run over; now did her +conduits run sweet wine; now did she eat the finest of the wheat, +and now drink milk and honey out of the rock! Now she said, How +great is His goodness, for ever since I found favour in His eyes, +how honourable have I ever been! + +1. Now, the beginning of it all was, and the best of it all was, +that Emmanuel Himself made the feast. Mansoul did not feast her +Deliverer; it was her Deliverer who feasted her. Mansoul, in good +sooth, had nothing that she had not first and last received, and it +was far more true and seemly and fit in every way that her Prince +Himself should in His own way and at His own expense seal and +celebrate the deliverance, the freedom, the life, the peace, and +the joy of Mansoul. And, besides, what had Mansoul to set before +her Prince; or, for the matter of that, before herself? Mansoul +had nothing of herself. Mansoul was not sufficient of herself for +a single day. And how, then, should she propose to feast a Prince? +No, no! the thing was impossible. It was Emmanuel's feast from +first to last. Just as it was at the Lord's table in this house +this morning. You did not spread the table this morning for your +Lord. You did not make ready for your Saviour and then invite Him +in. He invited you. He said, This is My Body broken for you, and +This is My Blood shed for you; drink ye all of it. And had any one +challenged you at the fence door and asked you how one who could +not pay his own debts or provide himself a proper meal even for a +single day, could dare to sit down with such a company at such a +feast as that, you would have told him that he had not seen half +your hunger and your nakedness; but that it was just your very +hunger and nakedness and homelessness that had brought you here; +or, rather, it was all that that had moved the Master of the feast +to send for you and to compel you to come here. There was nothing +in your mind and in your mouth more all this day than just that +this is the Lord's Supper, and that He had sent for you and had +invited you, and had constrained and compelled you to come and +partake of it. It was the Lord's Table to-day, and it will be +still and still more His table on that great Communion-Day when all +our earthly communions shall be accomplished and consummated in +heaven. + +2. All that Mansoul did in connection with that great feast was to +prepare the place where Diabolus at one time had held his orgies +and carried on his excesses. Her Prince, Emmanuel, did all the +rest; but He left it to Mansoul to make the banqueting-room ready. +When our Lord would keep His last passover with His disciples, He +said to Peter and John, Go into the city, and there shall meet you +a man bearing a pitcher of water, and he will show you a large +upper room furnished and prepared. There is some reason to believe +that that happy man had been expecting that message and had done +his best to be ready for it. And now he was putting the last touch +to his preparations by filling the water-pots of his house with +fresh water; little thinking, happy man, that as long as the world +lasts that water will be holy water in all men's eyes, and shall +teach humility to all men's hearts. And, my brethren, you know +that all you did all last week against to-day was just to prepare +the room. For the room all last week and all this day was your own +heart, and not and never this house of stone and lime made with +men's hands. You swept the inner and upper room of your own heart. +You swept it and garnished its walls and its floors as much as in +you lay. He, whose the supper really was, told you that He would +bring with Him what was to be eaten and drunken to-day, while you +were to prepare the place. And, next to the very actual feast +itself, and, sometimes, not next to it but equal to it, and even +before it and better than it, were those busy household hours you +spent, like the man with the pitcher, making the room ready. In +plain English, you had a communion before the Communion as you +prepared your hearts for the Communion. I shall not intrude into +your secret places and secret seasons with Christ before His open +reception of you to-day. But it is sure and certain that, just as +you in secret entertained Him in your mother's house and in the +chambers of her that bare you, just in that measure did He say to +you openly before all the watchmen that go about the city and +before all the daughters of Jerusalem, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, +drink abundantly, O beloved. Yes; do you not think that the man +with the pitcher had his reward? He had his own thoughts as he +furnished, till it was quite ready, his best upper room and carried +in those pitchers of water, and handed down to his children in +after days the perquisite-skin of the paschal lamb that had been +supped on by our Lord and His disciples in his honoured house that +night. Yes; was it not amazing to behold that in that very place +where sometimes Diabolus had his abode, and had entertained his +Diabolonians, the Prince of princes should sit eating and drinking +with His friends? Was it not truly amazing? + +3. Now, upon the feasting-day He feasted them with all manner of +outlandish food--food that grew not in all the fields of Mansoul; +it was food that came down with His Father's court. The fields of +Mansoul yielded their own proper fruits, and fruits that were not +to be despised. But they were not the proper fruits for that day, +neither could they be placed upon that table. They are good enough +fruits for their purpose, and as far as they go, and for so long as +they last and are in their season. But our souls are such that +they outlive their own best fruits; their hunger and their thirst +outlast all that can be harvested in from their own fields. And +thus it is that He who made Mansoul at first, and who has since +redeemed her, has out of His own great goodness provided food +convenient for her. He knows with what an outlandish life He has +quickened Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to +provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked +the children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round +thing, as small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not +what it was. And Moses said, Gather of it every man according to +his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your +persons. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna, +and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. He gave them +of the corn of heaven to eat, and man did eat in the wilderness +angels' food. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and +are dead; but this is the bread of which if any man eat he shall +not die. And the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will +give for the life of the world. And so outlandish, so +supernatural, and so full of heavenly wonder and heavenly mystery +was that bread, that the Jews strove among themselves over it, and +could not understand it. But, by His goodness and His truth to us +this day, we have again, to our spiritual nourishment and growth in +grace, eaten the Flesh and drunk the Blood of the Son of God; a +meat that, as He who Himself is that meat has said of it, is meat +indeed and drink indeed--as, indeed, we have the witness in +ourselves this day that it is. They drank also of the water that +was made wine, and were very merry with Him all that day at His +table. And all their mirth was the high mirth of heaven; it was a +mirth and a gladness without sin, without satiety, and without +remorse. + +4. There was music also all the while at the table, and the +musicians were not those of the country of Mansoul, but they were +the masters of song come down from the court of the King. 'I love +the Lord,' they sang in the supper room over the paschal lamb--'I +love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication. +Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call +upon Him as long as I live. What shall I render to the Lord,' they +challenged one another, 'for all His benefits towards me? I will +take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the +Lord.' 'Sometimes imagine,' says a great devotional writer with a +great imagination--'Sometimes imagine that you had been one of +those that joined with our blessed Saviour as He sang an hymn. +Strive to imagine to yourself with what majesty He looked. Fancy +that you had stood by Him surrounded with His glory. Think how +your heart would have been inflamed, and what ecstasies of joy you +would have then felt when singing with the Son of God! Think again +and again with what joy and devotion you would have then sung had +this really been your happy state; and what a punishment you would +have thought it to have then been silent. And let that teach you +how to be affected with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving.' Yes; +and it is no imagination; it was our own experience only this +morning and afternoon to join in a music that was never made in +this world, but which was as outlandish as was the meat which we +ate while the music was being made. + + +'Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, +And not forgetful be +Of all His gracious benefits +He hath bestow'd on thee. + +Who with abundance of good things +Doth satisfy thy mouth; +So that, ev'n as the eagle's age, +Renewed is thy youth.' + + +The 103rd Psalm was never made in this world. Musicians far other +than those native to Mansoul made for us our Lord's-Table Psalm. + +5. And then, the riddles that were made upon the King Himself, and +upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon Emmanuel's wars and all His other +doings with Mansoul. And when Emmanuel would expound some of those +riddles Himself, oh! how they were lightened! They saw what they +never saw! They could not have thought that such rarities could +have been couched in so few and such ordinary words. Yea, they did +gather that the things themselves were a kind of portraiture, and +that, too, of Emmanuel Himself. This, they would say, this is the +Lamb! this is the Sacrifice! this is the Rock! this is the Door! +and this is the Way! with a great many other things. At Gaius's +supper-table they sat up over their riddles and nuts and sweetmeats +till the sun was in the sky. And it would be midnight and morning +if I were to show you the answers to the half of the riddles. Take +one, for an example, and let it be one of the best for the +communion-day. 'In one rare quality of the orator,' says Hugh +Miller, writing about his adored minister, Alexander Stewart of +Cromarty, 'Mr. Stewart stood alone. Pope refers in his satires to +a strange power of creating love and admiration by just "touching +the brink of all we hate." Now, into this perilous, but singularly +elective department, Mr. Stewart could enter with safety and at +will. We heard him, scarce a twelvemonth since, deliver a +discourse of singular power on the sin-offering as minutely +described by the divine penman in Leviticus. He described the +slaughtered animal--foul with dust and blood, its throat gashed +across, its entrails laid open and steaming in its impurity to the +sun--a vile and horrid thing, which no one could look on without +disgust, nor touch without defilement. The picture appeared too +vivid; its introduction too little in accordance with a just taste. +But this pulpit-master knew what he was all the time doing. "And +that," he said, as he pointed to the terrible picture, "that is +SIN!" By one stroke the intended effect was produced, and the +rising disgust and horror transferred from the revolting, material +image to the great moral evil.' And, in like manner, This is the +LAMB! we all said over the mystical riddle of the bread and the +wine this morning. This is the SACRIFICE! This is the DOOR! This +is EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, and made sin for us! + +6. In one of his finest chapters, Thomas A Kempis tells us in what +way we are to communicate mystically: that is to say, how we are +to keep on communicating at all times, and in all places, without +the intervention of the consecrated sacramental elements. And John +Bunyan, the sweetest and most spiritual of mystics, has all that, +too, in this same supreme passage. Every day was a feast-day now, +he tells us. So much so that when the elders and the townsmen did +not come to Emmanuel, He would send in much plenty of provisions to +them. Yea, such delicates would He send them, and therewith would +so cover their tables, that whosoever saw it confessed that the +like could not be seen in any other kingdom. That is to say, my +fellow-communicants, there is nothing that we experienced and +enjoyed in this house this day that we may not experience and enjoy +again to-morrow and every day in our own house at home. All the +mystics worth the noble name will tell you that all true +communicating is always performed and experienced in the prepared +heart, and never in any upper room, or church, or chapel, or new +heaven, or new earth. The prepared heart of every worthy +communicant is the true upper room; it is the true banqueting +chamber; it is the true and the only house of wine. Our Father's +House itself, with its supper-table covered with the new wine of +the Kingdom--the best of it all will still be within you. Prepare +yourselves within yourselves, then, O departing and dispersing +communicants. Prepare, and keep yourselves always prepared. And +as often as you so prepare yourselves your Prince will come to you +every day, and will cat and drink with you, till He makes every day +on earth a day of heaven already to you. See if He will not; for, +again and again, He who keeps all His promises says that He will. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--EMMANUEL'S LIVERY + + + +'And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, +clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of +saints.'--John. + +The Plantagenet kings of ancient England had white and scarlet for +their livery; white and green was the livery of the Tudors; the +Stuarts wore red and yellow; while blue and scarlet colours adorn +to-day the House of Hanover. And the Prince of the kings of the +earth, He has his royal colours also, and His servants have their +badge of honour and their blazon also. Then He commanded that +those who waited upon Him should go and bring forth out of His +treasury those white and glittering robes, that I, He said, have +provided and laid up in store for my Mansoul. So the white +garments were fetched out of the treasury and laid forth to the +eyes of the people. Moreover, it was granted to them that they +should take them and put them on, according, said He, to your size +and your stature. So the people were all put into white--into fine +linen, clean and white. Then said the Prince, This, O Mansoul, is +My livery, and this is the badge by which Mine are known from the +servants of others. Yea, this livery is that which I grant to all +them that are Mine, and without which no man is permitted to see My +face. Wear this livery, therefore, for My sake, and, also, if you +would be known by the world to be Mine. But now can you think how +Mansoul shone! For Mansoul was fair as the sun, clear as the moon, +and terrible as an army with banners. + +White, then, and whiter than snow, is the very livery of heaven. A +hundred shining Scriptures could be quoted to establish that. In +the first year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, +and visions of his head came to Daniel upon his bed. And, behold, +the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and +the hair of his head like the pure wool. My beloved, sings the +spouse in the Song, is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten +thousand, and altogether lovely. Then, again, David in his +penitence sings, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash +me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And what is it that sets +Isaiah at the head of all the prophets? What but this, that he is +the mouth-piece of such decrees in heaven as this: Though your +sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red +like crimson, they shall be as wool. The angel, also, who rolled +away the stone from the door of the sepulchre was clothed in a long +white garment. Another evangelist says that his countenance was +like lightning and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him +the keepers did quake, and became as dead men. But before that we +read that Jesus was transfigured before Peter and James and John on +the Mount, and that His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment +was white as the light. And, then, the whole Book of Revelation is +written with a pen dipped in heavenly light. The whole book is +glistening with the whitest light till we cannot read it for the +brightness thereof. And the multitude that no man can number all +display themselves before our eyes, clothed with white robes and +with palms in their hands, so much so that we sink down under the +greatness of the glory, till One with His head and His hairs white +like wool, as white as snow, lays His hand upon us, and says to us, +Fear not, for, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from +thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. + + +'I also saw Mansoul clad all in white, +And heard her Prince call her His heart's delight, +I saw Him put upon her chains of gold, +And rings and bracelets goodly to behold. +What shall I say? I heard the people's cries, +And saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes, +I heard the groans and saw the joy of many; +Tell you of all, I neither will nor can I. +But by what here I say you well may see +That Mansoul's matchless wars no fable be.' + + +'And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine +linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of +saints.' We need no exegesis of that beautiful Scripture beyond +that exegesis which our own hearts supply. And if we did need that +shining text to be explained to us, to whom could we better go for +its explanation than just to John Bunyan? Well, then, in our +author's No Way to Heaven but by Jesus Christ, he says: 'This fine +linen, in my judgment, is the works of godly men; their works that +spring from faith. But how came they clean? How came they white? +Not simply because they were the works of faith. But, mark, they +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. +And therefore they are before the throne of God. Yea, therefore it +is that their good works stand in such a place.' 'Nor must we +think it strange,' says John Howe, in his Blessedness of the +Righteous, 'that all the requisites to our salvation are not found +together in one text of Scripture. I conceive that imputed +righteousness is not here meant, but that righteousness which is +truly subjected in a child of God and descriptive of him. The +righteousness of Him whom we adore as made sin for us that we might +be made the righteousness of God in Him, that righteousness has a +much higher sphere peculiar and appropriate to itself. Though this +of which we now speak is necessary also to be both had and +understood.' Emmanuel's livery, then, is the righteousness of the +saints. Emmanuel puts that righteousness upon all His saints; +while, at the same time, they put it on themselves; they work it +out for themselves, and for themselves they keep it clean. They +work it out, put it on, and keep it clean, and yet, all the time, +it is not they that do it, but it is Emmanuel that doeth it all in +them. The truth is, you must all become mystics before you will +admit all the strange truth that is told about Emmanuel's livery. +For both heaven and earth unite in this wonderful livery. Nature +and grace unite in it. It is woven by the gospel on the loom of +the law--till, to tell you all that is true about it, I neither can +nor will I. Albert Bengel tells us that the court of heaven has +its own jealous and scrupulous etiquette; and our court journalist +and historian, John Bunyan, has supplied his favoured readers with +the very card of etiquette that was issued along with Mansoul's +coat of livery, and it is more than time that we had attended to +that card. + +1. The first item then in that etiquette-card ran in these set +terms: 'First, wear these white robes daily, day by day, lest you +should at some time appear to others as if you were none of Mine.-- +Signed, EMMANUEL.' + +Now, we put on anew every morning the garments that we are to wear +every new day. We have certain pieces of clothing that we wear in +the morning; we have certain pieces that we wear when we are at our +work; and, again, we have certain other pieces that we put on when +we go abroad in the afternoon; and, yet again, certain other pieces +that we array ourselves in when we go out into society in the +evening. After a night in which Mercy could not sleep for blessing +and praising God, they all rose in the morning with the sun; but +the Interpreter would have them tarry a while, for, said he, you +must orderly go from hence. Then said he to the damsel, Take them, +and have them into the garden to the bath. Then Innocent the +damsel took them, and had them into the garden, and brought them to +the bath. Then they went in and washed, yea, they and the boys and +all, and they came out of that bath, not only clean and sweet, but +also much enlivened and much strengthened in their joints. So when +they came in they looked fairer a deal than when they went out. +Then said the Interpreter to the damsel that waited upon those +women, Go into the vestry, and fetch out garments for these people. +So she went and fetched out white raiment and laid it down before +him. And then he commanded them to put it on. It was fine linen, +white and clean. Now, therefore, they began to esteem each other +better than themselves. For, You are fairer than I am, said one; +and, You are more comely than I am, said another. The children +also stood amazed to see into what fashion they had been brought. +William Law--I thank God, I think, every day I live for that good +day to me on which He introduced me to His gifted and saintly +servant--well, William Law used every morning after his bath in the +morning to put on his livery, piece by piece, in order, and with +special prayer. The first piece that he put on, and he put it on +every new morning next his heart to wear it all the day next his +heart, was gratitude to God. And it was a real, feeling, active, +and operative gratitude that he so put on. On each new morning as +it came, that good man was full of new gratitude to God. For the +sun new from his Almighty Maker's hands he had gratitude. For his +house over his head he had gratitude. For his Bible and his +spiritual books he had gratitude. For his opportunities of reading +and study, as also for ten o'clock in the morning when the widows +and orphans of King's Cliffe came to his window, and so on. A +grateful heart feeds itself to a still greater gratitude on +everything that comes to it. So it was with William Law, till he +wakened the maids in the rooms below with his psalms and his hymns +as he went into his vestry and put on his singing robes so early +every morning. And then, after his morning hours of study and +devotion, Law had a piece of livery that he always put on and never +came downstairs to breakfast without it. Other men might put on +other pieces; he always clothed himself next to gratitude with +humility. Men differ, good men differ, and Emmanuel's livery-men +differ in what they put on, at what time, and in what order. But +that was William Law's way. You will learn more of his way, and +you will be helped to find out a like way for yourselves, if you +will become students of his incomparable books. You will find how +he put on charity, 1 Cor. thirteenth chapter; and then how, over +all, he put on the will of God; till, thus equipped and thus +accoutred, he was able to say, as it has seldom been said since it +was first said, 'I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my +judgment was to me as a robe and as a diadem. The Almighty was +then with me, and my children were about me. When I washed my +steps with butter, and when the rock poured me out rivers of oil!' +So much for that livery-man of Emmanuel, the author of the +Christian Perfection and the Spirit of Love. As for the women's +vestry in the Interpreter's House, Matthew Henry saw the thirty- +first chapter of the Proverbs hung up on that vestry wall, and +Christiana making her morning toilet before it with Mercy beside +her. Who would find a virtuous woman, let him look before that +looking-glass for her, and he will be sure to find her and her +daughters and her daughters-in-law putting on their white raiment +there. + +2. 'Secondly, keep your garments always white; for if they be +soiled, it is a dishonour to Me. I have a few names even in Sardis +which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me +in white, for they are worthy.' Even in Sardis, with every street +and every house full of soil and dishonour to the name of Christ, +even in Sardis Emmanuel had some of whom He could boast Himself. +Would you not immensely like at the last day to be one of those +some in Sardis? Shall it not be splendid when Sardis comes up for +judgment to be among those few names that Emmanuel shall then read +out of His book, and when, at their few names, two or three men +shall step out into the light in His livery? Some of you are in +Sardis at this moment. Some of you are in a city, or in a house in +a city, where it is impossible to keep your garments clean. And +yet, no; nothing is impossible to Emmanuel and His true livery-men. +Even in that house where you are, Emmanuel will say over you, I +have one there who is thankful to My Father and to Me; thankful to +singing every morning where there is little, as men see, to sing +for. There is one in that house humble, where humility itself +would almost become high-minded. And meek, where Moses himself +would have lost his temper. And submissive, where rebelliousness +would not have been without excuse. Mark these few men for Mine, +says Emmanuel. Mark them with the ink-horn for Mine. For they +shall surely be Mine in that day, and they shall walk with Me in +white, for they are worthy. + +3. 'Wherefore gird your garments well up from the ground.' A +well-dressed man, a well-dressed woman, is a beautiful sight. Not +over-dressed; not dressed so as to call everybody's attention to +their dress; but dressed decorously, becomingly, tastefully. Each +several piece well fitted on, and all of a piece, till it all looks +as if it had grown by nature itself upon the well-dressed wearer. +Be like him--be like her--so runs the third head of the etiquette- +card. Be not slovenly and disorderly and unseemly in your livery. +Let not your livery be always falling off, and catching on every +bush and briar, and dropping into every pool and ditch. Hold +yourselves in hand, the instruction goes on. Brace yourselves up. +Have your temper, your tongue, your eyes, your ears, and all your +members in control. And then you will escape many a rent and many +a rag; many a seam and many a patch; many a soil and many a stain. +And then also you will be found walking abroad in comeliness and at +liberty, while others, less careful, are at home mending and +washing and ironing because they went without a girdle when you +girt up your garments well off the ground. Wherefore always gird +well up the loins of your mind. + +4. 'And, fourthly, lose not your robes, lest you walk naked and +men see your shame'; that is to say, the supreme shame of your +soul. For there is no other shame. There is nothing else in body +or soul to be ashamed about. There is a nakedness, indeed, that +our children are taught to cover; but the Bible is a book for men. +And the only nakedness that the Bible knows about or cares about is +the nakedness of the soul. It was their sudden soul-nakedness that +chased Adam and Eve in among the trees of the garden. And it is +God's pity for soul-naked sinners that has made Him send His Son to +cry to us: 'I counsel thee,' He cries, 'to buy of Me gold tried in +the fire, that thou mayest be rich; white raiment, that thou mayest +be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. +Behold!' He cries in absolute terror, 'Behold! I come as a thief! +Blessed is he that walketh and keepeth his garments, lest he walk +naked, and they see his shame.' Were your soul to be stripped +naked to all its shame to-morrow; were all your past to be laid out +absolutely naked and bare, with all the utter nakedness of your +inward life this day; were all your secret thoughts, and all your +stealthy schemes, and all your mad imaginations, and all your +detestable motives, and all your hatreds like hell, and all your +follies like Bedlam to be laid naked--I suppose the horror of it +would make you cry to the rocks and the mountains to cover you this +Sabbath night, or the weeds of the nearest sea to wrap you down +into its depths. It would be hell before the time to you if your +soul were suddenly to be stripped absolutely bare of its ragged +body, and naked of all the thin integuments of time, and were for a +single day to stand naked to its everlasting shame. And it is just +because Jesus Christ sees all that as sure as the judgment-day +coming to you, that He stands here to-night and calls to you: I +counsel thee! I counsel thee! Before it be too late, I again +counsel thee! + +5. But the Prince Emmanuel is persuaded better things of all His +livery-men, though He thus speaks to them to put them on their +guard. Yes, sternly and severely and threateningly as He sometimes +speaks, yet, in spite of Himself, His real grace always breaks +through at the last. And, accordingly, his fifth command runs +thus: But, it runs, if you should sully them, if you should defile +them, the which I am greatly unwilling that you should, then speed +you to that which is written in My law, that yet you may stand, and +not fall before Me and before My throne. Always know this, that I +have provided for thee an open fountain to wash thy garments in. +Look, therefore, that you wash often in that fountain, and go not +for an hour in defiled garments. Let not, therefore, My garments, +your garments, the garments that I gave thee be ever spotted by the +flesh. Keep thy garments always white, and let thy head lack no +ointment.--Signed in heaven, EMMANUEL. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--MANSOUL'S MAGNA CHARTA + + + +'A better covenant.'--Paul. + +Magna Charta is a name very dear to the hearts of the English +people. For, ever since that memorable day on which that noble +instrument was extorted from King John at the point of the sword, +England has been the pioneer to all the other nations of the earth +in personal freedom, in public righteousness, in domestic +stability, and in foreign influence and enterprise. Runnymede is a +red-letter spot, and 1215 is a red-letter year, not only in the +history of England, but in the history of the whole modern world. +The keystone of all sound constitutional government was laid at +that place on that date, and by that great bridge not England only, +but after England the whole civilised world has passed over from +ages of bondage and oppression and injustice into a new world of +personal liberty and security, public equity and good faith, +loyalty and peace. All that has since been obtained, whether on +the battle-field or on the floor of Parliament, has been little +more than a confirmation of Magna Charta or an authoritative +comment upon Magna Charta. And if every subsequent law were to be +blotted out, yet in Magna Charta the foundations would still remain +of a great state and a free people. 'Here commences,' says +Macaulay, 'the history of the English nation.' + +Now, after the Prince of Peace had subjugated the rebellious city +of Mansoul, He promulgated a proclamation and appointed a day +wherein He would renew their Charter. Yea, a day wherein he would +renew and enlarge their Charter, mending several faults in it, so +that the yoke of Mansoul might be made yet more easy to bear. And +this He did without any desire of theirs, even of His own frankness +and nobleness of mind. So when He had sent for and seen their old +Charter, He laid it by and said, Now that which decayeth and waxeth +old is ready to vanish away. An epitome, therefore, of that new, +and better, and more firm and steady Charter take as follows: I do +grant of Mine own clemency, free, full, and everlasting forgiveness +of all their wrongs, injuries, and offences done against My Father, +against Me, against their neighbours and themselves. I do give +them also My Testament, with all that is therein contained, for +their everlasting comfort and consolation. Thirdly, I do also give +them a portion of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in +My Father's heart and Mine. Fourthly, I do give, grant, and bestow +upon them freely, the world and all that is therein for their true +good; yea, all the benefits of life and death, of things present +and things to come. Free leave and full access also at all seasons +to Me in My palace, there to make known all their wants to Me; and +I give them, moreover, a promise that I shall hear and redress all +their grievances. To them and to their right seed after them, I +hereby bestow all these grants, privileges, and royal immunities. +All this is but a lean epitome of what was that day laid down in +letters of gold and engraven on their doors and their castle gates. +And what joy, what comfort, what consolation, think you, did now +possess every heart in Mansoul! The bells rang out, the minstrels +played, the people danced, the captains shouted, the colours waved +in the wind, and the silver trumpets sounded, till every enemy +inside and outside of Mansoul was now glad to hide his head. + +Our constitutional authors and commentators are wont to take Magna +Charta clause by clause, and word by word, and letter by letter. +They linger lovingly and proudly over every jot and tittle of that +splendid instrument. And you will indulge me this Communion night +of all nights of the year if I expatiate still more lovingly and +proudly on that great Covenant which our Lord has sealed to us +again to-day, and has written again to-day on the walls of our +hearts. Moses made haste as soon as the old Charter was read over +to him, and nothing shall delay us till we have feasted our eyes, +and our ears, and our hearts to-night on the contents of this our +new and better covenant. + +1. The first article of our Magna Charta is free, full, and +everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, injuries, and offences +we have ever done against God, against our Saviour, against our +neighbour, and against ourselves. The English nobles extorted +their Charter from their tyrannical king with their sword at his +throat, and after he had signed it, he cast himself on the ground +and gnawed sticks and stones in his fury, so mad was he at the men +who had so humiliated him. 'They have set four-and-twenty kings +over my head,' he gnashed out. How different was it with our +Charter! For when we were yet enemies it was already drawn out in +our name. And after we had been subdued it would never have +entered our fearful hearts to ask for such an instrument. And, +even now, after we have entered into its liberty, how slow we are +to believe all that is written in our great Charter, and read to us +every day out of it. And who shall cast a stone at us for not +easily believing all that is so written and read? It is not so +easy as you would think to believe in free forgiveness for all the +wrongs, injuries, and offences we have ever done. When you try to +believe it about yourselves, you will find how hard it is to accept +that covenant and always to keep your feet firm upon it. That the +forgiveness is absolutely free is its first great difficulty. If +it had cost us all we could ever do or suffer, both in this world +and in the world to come, then we could have come to terms with our +Prince far more easily; but that our forgiveness should be +absolutely free, it is that that so staggers us. When I was a +little boy I was once wandering through the streets of a large city +seeing the strange sights. I had even less Latin in my head that +day than I had money in my pocket. But I was hungry for knowledge +and eager to see rare and wonderful things. Over the door of a +public institution, containing a museum and other interesting +things, I tried to read a Latin scroll. I could not make out the +whole of the writing; I could only make out one word, and not even +that, as the event soon showed. The word was gratia, or some +modification of gratia, with some still deeper words engraven round +about it. But on the strength of that one word I mounted the steps +and rang the bell, and asked the porter if I could see the museum. +He told me that the cost of admission was such and such. Little as +it was, it was too much for me, and I came down the steps feeling +that the Latin writing above the door had entirely deceived me. It +has not been the last time that my bad Latin has brought me to +shame and confusion of face. But Latin, or Greek, or only English, +or not even English, there is no deception and no confusion here. +Forgiveness is really of free grace. It costs absolutely nothing, +the door is open; or, if it is not open, then knock, and it shall +be opened, without money and without price. + +'Free and full.' I could imagine a free forgiveness which was not +also full. I could imagine a charter that would have run somehow +thus: Free forgiveness and full, up to a firmly fixed limit. Free +and full forgiveness for sins of ignorance and even of infirmity +and frailty; for small sins and for great sins, too, up to a +certain age of life and stage of guilt. Free and full forgiveness +up to a certain line, and then, that black line of reprobation, as +Samuel Rutherford says. Indeed, it is no imagination. I have felt +oftener than once that I was at last across that black line, and +gone and lost for ever. But no - + + +'While the lamp holds on to burn, +The greatest sinner may return.' + + +'Free, full, and everlasting.' Pope Innocent the Third came to the +rescue of King John and issued a Papal bull revoking and annulling +Magna Charta. But neither king, nor pope, nor devil can revoke or +annul our new Covenant. It is free, full, and everlasting. If God +be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the +love of Christ? Neither death nor life, nor angels nor +principalities nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. + +2. 'Free, full, and everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, the +injuries, and the offences you have done against My Father, Me, +your neighbours, and yourselves.' Now, out of all that let us fix +upon this--the wrongs and the injuries we have done to our +neighbours. For, as Calvin says somewhere, though our sins against +the first table of the law are our worst sins, yet our sins against +the second table, that is, against our neighbours, are far better +for beginning a scrutiny with. So they are. For our wrongs +against our neighbours, when they awaken within us at all, awaken +with a terrible fury. Our wrongs against our neighbours wound, and +burden, and exasperate an awakened conscience in a fearful way. We +come afterwards to say, Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned! But +at the first beginning of our repentances it is the wrongs we have +done to our neighbours that drive us beside ourselves. What +neighbour of yours, then, have you so wronged? Name him; name her. +You avoid that name like poison, but it is not poison--it is life +and peace. More depends on your often recollecting and often +pronouncing that hateful name than you would believe. More depends +upon it than your minister has ever told you. And, then, in what +did you so wrong him? Name the wrong also. Give it its Bible +name, its newspaper name, its brutal, vulgar, ill-mannered name. +Do not be too soft, do not be too courtly with yourself. Keep your +own evil name ever before you. When you hear any other man +outlawed and ostracised by that same name, say to yourself: Thou, +sir, art the man! Put out a secret and a painful skill upon +yourself. Have times and places and ways that nobody knows +anything about--not even those you have wronged; have times and +places and ways they would laugh to be told of, and would not +believe it; times, I say, and places and ways for bringing all +those old wrongs you once did ever and ever back to mind; as often +back and as keen to your mind as they come back to that other mind, +which is still so full of the wrong. Even if your victim has +forgiven and forgotten you, never you forget him, and never you +forgive yourself when you again think of him. Welcome back every +sudden and sharp recollection of your wrong-doing. And make haste +at every such sudden recollection and fall down on the spot in a +deeper compunction than ever before. Do that as you would be a +forgiven and full-chartered soul. For, free and full and +everlasting as God's forgiveness is, you have no assurance that it +is yours if you ever forget your sin, or ever forgive yourself for +having done it. 'Forgive yourself,' says Augustine, 'and God will +condemn you. But continually arraign and condemn yourself, and God +will forgive and acquit and justify you.' + +3. 'I give also My holy law and testament, and all that therein is +contained, for their everlasting comfort and consolation.' This is +not the manner of men, O my God. Kind-hearted men comfort and +console those who have suffered injuries and wrongs at our hands, +but the kindest-hearted of men harden their hearts and set their +faces like a flint against us who have done the wrong. All Syria +sympathised with Esau for the loss of his birthright, but I do not +read that any one came to whisper one kind word to Jacob on his +hard pillow. All the army mourned over Uriah, but all the time +David's moisture was dried up like the drought of summer, and not +even Nathan came to the King till he could not help coming. All +Jericho cried, Avenge us of our adversary! But it was Jesus who +looked up and saw Zaccheus and said: Zaccheus, come down; make +haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house. 'The +injuries they have done themselves also,' so runs the very first +head of our forgiveness covenant. Ah! yes; O my Lord, Thou knowest +all things; Thou knowest my heart. Thou knowest that irremediably +as I have injured other men, yet in injuring them I have injured +myself much more. And much as other men need restitution, +reparation, and consolation on my account, my God, Thou knowest +that I need all that much more--ten thousand times more. Oh, how +my broken heart within me leaps up and thanks Thee for that +Covenant. Let me repeat it again to Thy praise: 'Full, free, and +everlasting forgiveness of all wrongs, injuries, and offences done +by him against his neighbours and against himself.' Who, who is a +God, O my God, who is a God like unto Thee! + +4. 'I do also give them a portion of the self-same grace and +goodness that dwells in My Father's heart and Mine.' The self-same +grace and goodness, that is, that My Father and I have shown to +them. That is to say, we shall be made both willing and able to +grant to all those men who have wronged us the very same charter of +forgiveness that we have had granted to us of God. So that at all +those times when we stand praying for forgiveness we shall suspend +that prayer till we have first forgiven all our enemies, and all +who have at any time and in any way wronged or injured us. Even +when we had the Communion cup at our lips to-day, you would have +seen us setting it down till we had first gone and been reconciled +to our brother. Yes, my brethren, you are His witnesses that He +has done it. He has taken you into His covenant till He has made +you both able and willing, both willing and able, to grant and to +bequeath to others, all that free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness and love that He has bequeathed to you. Till under the +very last and supreme wrong that your worst enemy can do to you and +to yours, you are able and forward to say: Father, forgive him, +for he knows not what he has done. Forgive me my debts, you will +say, as I forgive my debtors. And always, as you again say and do +that, you will on the spot be made a partaker of the Divine Nature, +according to the heavenly Charter, 'I do also give them a portion +of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in My Father's +heart and in Mine.' + +5. 'I do also,' so Mansoul's Magna Charta travels on, 'I do also +give, grant, and bestow upon them freely the world and all that is +therein for their good; yea, I grant them all the benefits of life +and of death, and of things present and things to come.' What a +magnificent Charter is that! 'All things are yours: whether Paul, +or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things +present, or things to come; all are yours.' What a superb Charter! +Only, it is too high for us; we cannot attain to it. Has any human +being ever risen to anything like the full faith, full assurance, +and full victory of all that in this life? No; the thing is +impossible! Reason would fall off her throne. The heart of a man +would break with too much joy if he tried to enter into the full +belief of all that. No; it hath not entered into the heart of a +still sinful man what God hath chartered to them whom He loves. +This world, and all that therein is, and then all the coming +benefits of life and of death. What benefits do believers receive +from Christ at their death? We all drank in the answer to that +with our mother's milk, but what is behind the words of that answer +no mortal tongue can yet tell. All are yours, and ye are Christ's, +and Christ is God's. Till, what joy, what comfort, what +consolation, think you, did now possess the hearts of the men of +Mansoul! The bells rang, the minstrels played, the people danced, +the captains shouted, the colours waved in the wind, and the silver +trumpets sounded. + +6. 'And till the glory breaks suddenly upon you, and as long as +you yet live in this life of free grace I shall give and grant you +leave and free access to Me in My palace at all seasons, there to +make known all your wants to Me; and I give you, moreover, a +promise that I will hear and redress all your grievances.' At all +seasons; in season and out of season. There to make known all your +wants to Me. And all your grievances. All that still grieves and +vexes you. All your wrongs. All your injuries. All that men can +do to you. Let them do their worst to you. My grace is sufficient +for all your grievances. My goodness in you shall make you more +than a conqueror. I undertake to give you before you have asked +for it a heart full of free, full, and everlasting forgiveness and +forgetfulness of all that has begun to grieve you. No word or +deed, written or spoken, of any man shall be able to vex or grieve +the spirit that I shall put within you. You will immediately +avenge yourselves of your adversaries. You will instantly repay +them all an hundredfold. For, when thine enemy hungers, thou shalt +feed him; when he is athirst, thou shalt give him drink. For thou +shalt not be overcome of evil, but thou shalt overcome evil with +good. + +7. 'All these grants, privileges, and immunities I bestow upon +thee; upon thee, I say, and upon thy right seed after thee.' O +Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us such a seed! Give us a +seed right with Thee! Smite us and our house with everlasting +barrenness rather than that our seed should not be right with Thee. +O God, give us our children. Give us our children. A second time, +and by a far better birth, give us our children to be beside us in +Thy holy Covenant. For it had been better we had never been born; +it had been better we had never been betrothed; it had been better +we had sat all our days solitary unless all our children are to be +right with Thee. Let the day perish, and the night wherein it was +said, There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be darkness; +let not God regard it from above; neither let the light shine upon +it, unless all our house is yet to be right with God. O my son +Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O +Absalom, my son, my son! But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, +and thus hast in Thyself a Father's heart. Hear us, then, for our +children, O our Father, for such of our children as are not yet +right with Thee! In season and out of season; we shall not go up +into our bed; we shall not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to +our eyelids till we and all our seed are right with Thee. And then +how we and all our saved seed beside us shall praise Thee and bless +Thee above all the families on earth or in heaven, and shall say: +Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, +and hath bestowed upon us a free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness, and hath made us partakers of His Divine Nature, to +Him be our love and praise and service to all eternity. Amen and +Amen! + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--EMMANUEL'S LAST CHARGE TO MANSOUL: CONCERNING THE +REMAINDERS OF SIN IN THE REGENERATE + + + +'Hold fast till I come.'--Our Lord. + +There are many fine things in Emmanuel's last charge to Mansoul, +but by far the best thing is the answer that He Himself there +supplies to this deep and difficult question,--to this question, +namely, Why original sin is still left to rage in the truly +regenerate? Why does our Lord not wholly extirpate sin in our +regeneration? What can His reason be for leaving their original +sin to dwell in His best saints till the day of their death? For, +to use His own sad words about sin in His last charge, nothing +hurts us but sin. Nothing defiles and debases us but sin. Why, +then, does He not take our sin clean out of us at once? He could +speak the word of complete deliverance if He only would. Why, +then, does He not speak that word? That has been a mystery and a +grief to all God's saints ever since sanctification began to be. +And the great interest and the great value of Emmanuel's last +charge to Mansoul stands in this, that He here tells us, if not +all, then at least some of His reasons for the policy He pursues +with us in our sanctification. Dost thou know, He asks, as He +stands on His chariot steps, surrounded with His captains on the +right hand and the left--Dost thou know why I at first did, and do +still, suffer sin to live and dwell and harbour in thy heart? And +then, after an O YES! for silence, the Prince began and thus +proceeded: + +1. Dost thou ask at Me why I and My Father have seen it good to +allow the dregs of thy sinfulness still to corrupt and to rot in +thine heart? Dost thou ask why, amid so much in thee that is +regenerate, there is still so much more that is unregenerate? Why, +while thou art, without controversy, under grace, indwelling sin +still so festers and so breaks out in thee? Dost thou ask that? +Then, attend, and before I go away to come again I will try to tell +thee, if, indeed, thou art able and willing to bear it. Well, +then, be silent while I tell thee that I have left all that of thy +original sin in thee to tempt thee, to try thee, to humble thee, +and to thrust, day and night, upon thee, what is still in thine +heart. To humble thee, take knowledge, take warning, and take +forethought. To make thee humble, and to keep thee humble. To +hide pride from thee, and to lay thee all thy days on earth in the +dust of death. I tell thee this day that in all thy past life I +have ordered and administered all My providences toward thee to +humble thee and to prove thee, and to make thee dust and ashes in +thine own eyes. And I go away to carry on from heaven this same +intention of My Father's and Mine toward thee. We shall try thee +as silver is tried. We shall sift thee as wheat is sifted. We +shall search thee as Jerusalem is searched with lighted candles. I +tell thee the truth, I shall bend from heaven all My power which My +Father has given Me, and all My wisdom, and all My love, and all My +grace. What to do, dost thou think? What to do but to make thee +to know and to acknowledge the plague of thine own heart. The +deceitfulness, that is, the depth of wickedness, and the +abominableness, past all words, of thine own heart. I do not +ascend to My Father, with all things in My hand, to make thy seat +soft, and thy cup sweet, and thy name great, and thy seed +multiplied. I have far other predestinations before Me for thee. +I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and it is to +everlasting life that I am leading thee. And thou must let Me lead +thee through fire and through water if I am to lead thee to heaven +at last. I shall have to utterly kill all self-love out of thy +heart, and to plant all humility in its place. Many and dreadful +discoveries shall I have to make to thee of thy profane and inhuman +self-love and selfishness. Words will fail thee to confess all thy +selfishness in thy most penitent prayer. Thy towering pride of +heart also, and thy so contemptible vanity. As for thy vanity, I +shall so overrule it that double-minded men about thee shall make +thee and thy vanity their sport, their jest, and their prey. And I +shall not leave thee, nor discharge Myself of My work within thee, +till I see thee loathing thyself and hating thyself and gnashing +thy teeth at thyself for thy envy of thy brother, thy envy +concerning his house, his wife and his man-servant, and his maid- +servant, and his ox, and his ass, and everything that is his. Thou +shalt find something in thee that shall allow thee to see thine +enemy prosper, but not thy friend. Something that shall keep thee +from thy sleep because of his talents, his name, his income, and +his place which I have given him above thee, beside thee, and +always in thy sight. It will be something also that shall make his +sickness, his decay, his defamation, and his death sweet to thee, +and his prosperity and return to life bitter to thee. Thou shalt +have to confess something in thyself--whatever its nature and +whatever its name--something that shall make thee miserable at good +news, and glad and enlarged and full of life at evil tidings. It +will be something also that shall give a long life in thy evil +heart to anger, and to resentment, and to retaliation, and to +revenge. For after years and years thou shalt still have it in +thine heart to hate and to hurt that man and his house, because +long ago he left thy side, thy booth in the market, thy party in +the state, and thy church in religion. As I live, swore Emmanuel, +standing up on the step of His ascending chariot, I shall show thee +thyself. I shall show thee what an unclean heart is and a wicked. +I shall teach to thee what all true saints shudder at when they are +let see the plague of their own hearts. I shall show thee, as I +live, how full of pride, and hate, and envy, and ill-will a +regenerate heart can be; and how a true-born man of God may still +love evil and hate good; may still rejoice in iniquity and pine +under the truth. I shall show thee, also, what thou wilt not as +yet believe, how thy best friend cannot trust his good name with +thee; such a sweet morsel to thee shall be the mote in his eye and +the spot on his praise. Yes, I shall show thee that I did not die +on the cross for nothing when I died for thee; when I went out to +Calvary a shame and a spitting, an outcast and a curse for thee! +Thou shalt yet arise up and fall down in thy sin and shalt justify +all my thorns, and nails, and spears, and the last drop of My blood +for thee! Yea, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy +God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, +and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, and whether +thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. + +2. It is also, the still tarrying Prince proceeded--it is also to +keep thee wakeful and to make thee watchful. Now, what conceivable +estate could any man be put into even by his Maker and Redeemer +more calculated to call forth wakefulness and watchfulness than to +have one half of his heart new and the other half old? To have one +half of his heart garrisoned by the captains of Emmanuel, and the +other half still full of the spies and the scouts and the +emissaries of hell? Nay, to have the great bulk of his heart still +full of sin and but a small part of his heart here and there under +grace and truth? Here is material for fightings without and fears +within with a vengeance! If it somehow suits and answers God's +deep purposes with His people to teach them watchfulness in this +life, then here is a field for watchfulness, a field of divine +depth and scope and opportunity. There used to be a divinity +question set in the schools in these terms: Where, in the +regenerate, hath sin its lodging-place? For that sin does still +lodge in the regenerate is too abundantly evident both from +Scripture and from experience. But where it so lodges is the +question. The Dominican monks, and some others, were of opinion +that original sin is to be found only in the inferior part of the +soul, but not in the mind or the will. Which, I suppose, we shall +soon find contrary both to Scripture and reason and experience. +Old Andrew Gray speaks feelingly and no less truly concerning the +heart, when he says, 'I think,' he says, 'that if all the saints +since Adam's day, and who shall be to the end of the world, had but +one deceitful heart to guide they would misguide it.' What a plot +of God, then, it is to seat grace, a little saving grace, in the +midst of such a sea of corruption as a human heart is, and then to +set a sinful man to watch over that spark and to keep the boiling +pollutions of his own heart from extinguishing that spark! Well +may Paul exclaim: Yea, what carefulness it calls forth in us; yea, +what indignation; yea, what fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, +what zeal; yea, what revenge! And, knowing to what He has left our +hearts, well may Emmanuel say to us from His ascending steps, +'Watch ye, therefore; and what I say unto you, I say unto all, +Watch!' + +3. It is to keep thee watchful and to teach thee war also, the +Prince went on. Bishop Butler is about the last author that we +would think of going to for light on any deep and intricate +question in the evangelical and experimental life. But Butler is +so deeply seen into much of the heart of man, as also into many of +the ways of God, that even here he has something to say to the +point. 'It is vain to object,' he says in his sober and sobering +way, 'that all this trouble and danger might have been saved us by +our being made at once the creatures and the characters which we +were to be. For we experience that what we are to be is to be the +effect of what we shall do. And that the conduct of nature is not +to save us trouble and danger, but to make us capable of going +through trouble and danger, and to put it upon us to do it.' The +Apostle Peter has the same teaching in a passage too little +attended to, in which he tells us that we are set here to work out +our own salvation, and that our salvation will just be what, with +fear and trembling, or, as Butler says, with trouble and danger, we +work out. No man, let all men understand, is to have his salvation +thrust upon him. No man need expect to waken up at the end of an +idle, indifferent, inattentive life and find his salvation +superinduced upon all that. No man shall wear the crown of +everlasting life who has not for himself won it. As every man +soweth to the Spirit so also shall he reap. As a soldier warreth, +so shall he hear it said to him, Well done. And as a sinner keeps +his heart with all diligence, and holds it fast till his King +comes, so shall he hear it said to him, Thou hast been faithful +over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. If thy +sins, then, are left in thee to teach thee war, O poor saint of +God, then take to thee the whole armour of God; thou knowest the +pieces of it, and where the armoury is, and, having done all, +stand! + +4. And dost thou know, O Mansoul, that it is all to try thy love +also? Now, how, just how, do the remainders of sin in the +regenerate try their love? Why, surely, in this way. If we really +loved sin at the deepest bottom of our hearts, and only loved +holiness on the surface, would we not in our deepest hearts close +with sin, give ourselves up to it, and make no stand at all against +it? Would we not in our deepest and most secret hearts welcome it, +and embrace it, look out for it with desire and delight, and part +with it with regret? But if, as a matter of fact, we at our +deepest and most hidden heart turn from sin, flee from it, fight +against it, rejoice when we are rid of it, and have horror at the +return of it,--what better proof than that could Christ and His +angels have that at bottom we are His and not the devil's? And +that grace, at bottom, has our hearts, and not sin; heaven, and not +hell? The apostle's protesting cry is our cry also; we also +delight in the law of God after our most inward man. For, after +our saddest surprises into sin, after its worst outbreaks and +overthrows, such all the time were our reluctances, +recalcitrations, and resistances, that, swept away as we were, yet +all the time, and after it was again over, it was with some good +conscience that we said to Christ that He knew all things, and that +He knew that we loved Him. + + +'O benefit of ill! now I find true +That better is by evil still made better; +And ruined love, when it is built anew, +Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater, +So I return rebuked to my content, +And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.' + + +Yes; it is a sure and certain proof how truly we love our dearest +friend, that, after all our envy and ill-will, yet it is as true as +that God is in heaven that, all the time, maugre the devil of self +that remains in our heart,--after he has done his worst--we would +still pluck out our eyes for our friend and shed our blood. I have +no better proof to myself of the depth and the divineness of my +love to my friend than just this, that I still love him and love +him more tenderly and loyally, after having so treacherously hurt +him. And my heavenly friends and my earthly friends, if they will +still have me, must both be content to go into the same bundle both +of my remaining enmity and my increasing love; my remainders of +sin, and my slow growth in regeneration. So when they had dined, +Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me +more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I +love Thee. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest +that I love Thee. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him +the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou +knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee! + +5. And, to sum up all--more than your humility, more than your +watchfulness, more than your prayerfulness, more than to teach you +war, and more than to try your love, the dregs and remainders of +sin have been left in your regenerate heart to exalt and to extol +the grace of God. In Emmanuel's very words, it has all been to +make you a monument of God's mercy. I put it to yourselves, then, +ye people of God: does that not satisfy you for a reason, and for +an explanation, and for a justification of all your shame and pain, +and of all your bondage and misery and wretchedness since you knew +the Lord? Is there not a heart in you that says, Yes! it was worth +all my corruption and pollution and misery to help to manifest +forth and to magnify the glory of the grace of God? You seize on +Emmanuel's word that you are a monument of mercy. Somehow that +word pleases and reposes you. Yes, that is what out of all these +post-regeneration years you are. You would have been a monument to +God's mercy had you, like the thief on the cross, been glorified on +the same day on which you were first justified. But it will +neither be the day of your justification nor the day of your +glorification that will make you the greatest of all the monuments +that shall ever be raised to the praise of God's grace; it will be +the days of your sanctification that will do that. Paul was a +blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious at his conversion, but he +had to be a lifetime in grace and an apostle above all the twelve +before he became the chiefest of sinners and the most wretched of +saints. And though your first forgiveness was, no doubt, a great +proof of the grace of God, yet it was nothing, nothing at all, to +your forgiveness to-day. You had no words for the wonder and the +praise of your forgiveness to-day. You just took to your lips the +cup of salvation and let that silent action speak aloud your +monumental praise. You were a sinner at your regeneration, else +you would not have been regenerated. But you were not then the +chief of sinners. But now. Ah, now! Those words, the chief of +sinners, were but idle words in Paul's mouth. He did not know what +he was saying. For, what has horrified and offended other men when +it has been spoken with bated breath to them about envy, and hate, +and malice, and revenge, and suchlike remainders of hell, all that +has been a breath of life and hope to you. It has been to you as +when Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, heard a voice +in the darkness which proved to him that there was another sinner +at the mouth of hell besides himself. There is no text that comes +oftener to your mind than this, that whoso hateth his brother is a +murderer; and, communicant as you are, you feel and you know and +you are sure that there are many men lying in lime waiting the day +of judgment to whom it would be more tolerable than for you were it +not that you are to be at that day the highest monument in heaven +or earth to the redeeming, pardoning, and saving grace of God. +Yes, this is the name that shall be written on you; this is the +name that shall be read on you of all who shall see you in heaven; +this name that Emmanuel pronounced over Mansoul that day from His +ascending chariot-steps, a very Spectacle of wonder, and a very +Monument of the mercy and the grace of God. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Bunyan Characters 3rd Series by A. Whyte + diff --git a/old/3bnch10.zip b/old/3bnch10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f9edea --- /dev/null +++ b/old/3bnch10.zip |