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diff --git a/2308.txt b/2308.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..264025b --- /dev/null +++ b/2308.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7418 @@ +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*** + + + + + + +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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