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diff --git a/old/3bnch10.txt b/old/3bnch10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8da5a34 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/3bnch10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7939 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Bunyan Characters 3rd Series by A. Whyte +#3 in our series by Alexander Whyte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk +from the 1895 Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier edition. + + + + + +BUNYAN CHARACTERS (THIRD SERIES) + +by Alexander Whyte + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE BOOK + + + +'--the book of the wars of the Lord.'--Moses. + +John Bunyan's Holy War was first published in 1682, six years +before its illustrious author's death. Bunyan wrote this great +book when he was still in all the fulness of his intellectual power +and in all the ripeness of his spiritual experience. The Holy War +is not the Pilgrim's Progress--there is only one Pilgrim's +Progress. At the same time, we have Lord Macaulay's word for it +that if the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist the Holy War would be +the best allegory that ever was written: and even Mr. Froude +admits that the Holy War alone would have entitled its author to +rank high up among the acknowledged masters of English literature. +The intellectual rank of the Holy War has been fixed before that +tribunal over which our accomplished and competent critics preside; +but for a full appreciation of its religious rank and value we +would need to hear the glad testimonies of tens of thousands of +God's saints, whose hard-beset faith and obedience have been +kindled and sustained by the study of this noble book. The +Pilgrim's Progress sets forth the spiritual life under the +scriptural figure of a long and an uphill journey. The Holy War, +on the other hand, is a military history; it is full of soldiers +and battles, defeats and victories. And its devout author had much +more scriptural suggestion and support in the composition of the +Holy War than he had even in the composition of the Pilgrim's +Progress. For Holy Scripture is full of wars and rumours of wars: +the wars of the Lord; the wars of Joshua and the Judges; the wars +of David, with his and many other magnificent battle-songs; till +the best known name of the God of Israel in the Old Testament is +the Lord of Hosts; and then in the New Testament we have Jesus +Christ described as the Captain of our salvation. Paul's powerful +use of armour and of armed men is familiar to every student of his +epistles; and then the whole Bible is crowned with a book all +sounding with the battle-cries, the shouts, and the songs of +soldiers, till it ends with that city of peace where they hang the +trumpet in the hall and study war no more. Military metaphors had +taken a powerful hold of our author's imagination even in the +Pilgrim's Progress, as his portraits of Greatheart and Valiant-for- +truth and other soldiers sufficiently show; while the conflict with +Apollyon and the destruction of Doubting Castle are so many sure +preludes of the coming Holy War. Bunyan's early experiences in the +great Civil War had taught him many memorable things about the +military art; memorable and suggestive things that he afterwards +put to the most splendid use in the siege, the capture, and the +subjugation of Mansoul. + +The Divine Comedy is beyond dispute the greatest book of personal +and experimental religion the world has ever seen. The consuming +intensity of its author's feelings about sin and holiness, the +keenness and the bitterness of his remorse, and the rigour and the +severity of his revenge, his superb intellect and his universal +learning, all set ablaze by his splendid imagination--all that +combines to make the Divine Comedy the unapproachable masterpiece +it is. John Bunyan, on the other hand, had no learning to be +called learning, but he had a strong and a healthy English +understanding, a conscience and a heart wholly given up to the life +of the best religion of his religious day, and then, by sheer dint +of his sanctified and soaring imagination and his exquisite style, +he stands forth the peer of the foremost men in the intellectual +world. And thus it is that the great unlettered religious world +possesses in John Bunyan all but all that the select and scholarly +world possesses in Dante. Both Dante and Bunyan devoted their +splendid gifts to the noblest of services--the service of +spiritual, and especially of personal religion; but for one +appreciative reader that Dante has had Bunyan has had a hundred. +Happy in being so like his Master in so many things, Bunyan is +happy in being like his unlettered Master in this also, that the +common people hear him gladly and never weary of hearing him. + +It gives by far its noblest interest to Dante's noble book that we +have Dante himself in every page of his book. Dante is taken down +into Hell, he is then led up through Purgatory, and after that +still up and up into the very Paradise of God. But that hell all +the time is the hell that Dante had dug and darkened and kindled +for himself. In the Purgatory, again, we see Dante working out his +own salvation with fear and trembling, God all the time working in +Dante to will and to do of His good pleasure. And then the +Paradise, with all its sevenfold glory, is just that place and that +life which God hath prepared for them that love Him and serve Him +as Dante did. And so it is in the Holy War. John Bunyan is in the +Pilgrim's Progress, but there are more men and other men than its +author in that rich and populous book, and other experiences and +other attainments than his. But in the Holy War we have Bunyan +himself as fully and as exclusively as we have Dante in the Divine +Comedy. In the first edition of the Holy War there is a +frontispiece conceived and executed after the anatomical and +symbolical manner which was so common in that day, and which is to +be seen at its perfection in the English edition of Jacob Behmen. +The frontispiece is a full-length likeness of the author of the +Holy War, with his whole soul laid open and his hidden heart +'anatomised.' Why, asked Wordsworth, and Matthew Arnold in our day +has echoed the question--why does Homer still so live and rule +without a rival in the world of letters? And they answer that it +is because he always sang with his eye so fixed upon its object. +'Homer, to thee I turn.' And so it was with Dante. And so it was +with Bunyan. Bunyan's Holy War has its great and abiding and +commanding power over us just because he composed it with his eye +fixed on his own heart. + + +My readers, I have somewhat else to do, +Than with vain stories thus to trouble you; +What here I say some men do know so well +They can with tears and joy the story tell . . . +Then lend thine ear to what I do relate, +Touching the town of Mansoul and her state: +For my part, I (myself) was in the town, +Both when 'twas set up and when pulling down. +Let no man then count me a fable-maker, +Nor make my name or credit a partaker +Of their derision: what is here in view +Of mine own knowledge, I dare say is true. + + +The characters in the Holy War are not as a rule nearly so clear- +cut or so full of dramatic life and movement as their fellows are +in the Pilgrim's Progress, and Bunyan seems to have felt that to be +the case. He shows all an author's fondness for the children of +his imagination in the Pilgrim's Progress. He returns to and he +lingers on their doings and their sayings and their very names with +all a foolish father's fond delight. While, on the other hand, +when we look to see him in his confidential addresses to his +readers returning upon some of the military and municipal +characters in the Holy War, to our disappointment he does not so +much as name a single one of them, though he dwells with all an +author's self-delectation on the outstanding scenes, situations, +and episodes of his remarkable book. + +What, then, are some of the more outstanding scenes, situations, +and episodes, as well as military and municipal characters, in the +book now before us? And what are we to promise ourselves, and to +expect, from the study and the exposition of the Holy War in these +lectures? Well, to begin with, we shall do our best to enter with +mind, and heart, and conscience, and imagination into Bunyan's +great conception of the human soul as a city, a fair and a delicate +city and corporation, with its situation, surroundings, privileges +and fortunes. We shall then enter under his guidance into the +famous and stately palace of this metropolitan city; a palace which +for strength might be called a castle, for pleasantness a paradise, +and for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the world. +The walls and the gates of the city will then occupy and instruct +us for several Sabbath evenings, after which we shall enter on the +record of the wars and battles that rolled time after time round +those city walls, and surged up through its captured gates till +they quite overwhelmed the very palace of the king itself. Then we +shall spend, God willing, one Sabbath evening with Loth-to-stoop, +and another with old Ill-pause, the devil's orator, and another +with Captain Anything, and another with Lord Willbewill, and +another with that notorious villain Clip-promise, by whose doings +so much of the king's coin had been abused, and another with that +so angry and so ill-conditioned churl old Mr. Prejudice, with his +sixty deaf men under him. Dear Mr. Wet-eyes, with his rope upon +his head, will have a fit congregation one winter night, and +Captain Self-denial another. We shall have another painful but +profitable evening before a communion season with Mr. Prywell, and +so we shall eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Emmanuel's +livery will occupy us one evening, Mansoul's Magna Charta another, +and her annual Feast-day another. Her Established Church and her +beneficed clergy will take up one evening, some Skulkers in Mansoul +another, the devil's last prank another, and then, to wind up with, +Emmanuel's last speech and charge to Mansoul from his chariot-step +till He comes again to accomplish her rapture. All that we shall +see and take part in; unless, indeed, our Captain comes in anger +before the time, and spears us to the earth when He finds us asleep +at our post or in the act of sin at it, which may His abounding +mercy forbid! + +And now take these three forewarnings and precautions. + +1. First:- All who come here on these coming Sabbath evenings will +not understand the Holy War all at once, and many will not +understand it at all. And little blame to them, and no wonder. +For, fully to understand this deep and intricate book demands far +more mind, far more experience, and far more specialised knowledge +than the mass of men, as men are, can possibly bring to it. This +so exacting book demands of us, to begin with, some little +acquaintance with military engineering and architecture; with the +theory of, and if possible with some practice in, attack and +defence in sieges and storms, winter campaigns and long drawn-out +wars. And then, impossible as it sounds and is, along with all +that we would need to have a really profound, practical, and at +first-hand acquaintance with the anatomy of the human subject, and +especially with cardiac anatomy, as well as with all the +conditions, diseases, regimen and discipline of the corrupt heart +of man. And then it is enough to terrify any one to open this book +or to enter this church when he is told that if he comes here he +must be ready and willing to have the whole of this terrible and +exacting book fulfilled and experienced in himself, in his own body +and in his own soul. + +2. And, then, you will not all like the Holy War. The mass of men +could not be expected to like any such book. How could the vain +and blind citizen of a vain and blind city like to be wakened up, +as Paris was wakened up within our own remembrance, to find all her +gates in the hands of an iron-hearted enemy? And how could her +sons like to be reminded, as they sit in their wine gardens, that +they are thereby fast preparing their city for that threatened day +when she is to be hung up on her own walls and bled to the white? +Who would not hate and revile the book or the preacher who +prophesied such rough things as that? Who could love the author or +the preacher who told him to his face that his eyes and his ears +and all the passes to his heart were already in the hands of a +cruel, ruthless, and masterful enemy? No wonder that you never +read the Holy War. No wonder that the bulk of men have never once +opened it. The Downfall is not a favourite book in the night- +gardens of Paris. + +3. And then, few, very few, it is to be feared, will be any better +of the Holy War. For, to be any better of such a terrible book as +this is, we must at all costs lay it, and lay it all, and lay it +all at once, to heart. We must submit ourselves to see ourselves +continually in its blazing glass. We must stoop to be told that it +is all, in all its terrors and in all its horrors, literally true +of ourselves. We must deliberately and resolutely set open every +gate that opens in on our heart--Ear-gate and Eye-gate and all the +gates of sense and intellect, day and night, to Jesus Christ to +enter in; and we must shut and bolt and bar every such gate in the +devil's very face, and in the face of all his scouts and orators, +day and night also. But who that thinks, and that knows by +experience what all that means, will feel himself sufficient for +all that? No man: no sinful man. But, among many other noble and +blessed things, the Holy War will show us that our sufficiency in +this impossibility also is all of God. Who, then, will enlist? +Who will risk all and enlist? Who will matriculate in the military +school of Mansoul? Who will submit himself to all the severity of +its divine discipline? Who will be made willing to throw open and +to keep open his whole soul, with all the gates and doors thereof, +to all the sieges, assaults, capitulations, submissions, +occupations, and such like of the war of gospel holiness? And who +will enlist under that banner now? + +'Set down my name, sir,' said a man of a very stout countenance to +him who had the inkhorn at the outer gate. At which those who +walked upon the top of the palace broke out in a very pleasant +voice, + + +'Come in, come in; +Eternal glory thou shalt win.' + + +We have no longer, after what we have come through, any such +stoutness in our countenance, yet will we say to-night with him who +had it, Set down my name also, sir! + + + +CHAPTER II--THE CITY OF MANSOUL AND ITS CINQUE PORTS + + + +'--a besieged city.'--Isaiah. + +Our greatest historians have been wont to leave their books behind +them and to make long journeys in order to see with their own eyes +the ruined sites of ancient cities and the famous fields where the +great battles of the world were lost and won. We all remember how +Macaulay made a long winter journey to see the Pass of +Killiecrankie before he sat down to write upon it; and Carlyle's +magnificent battle-pieces are not all imagination; even that +wonderful writer had to see Frederick's battlefields with his own +eyes before he could trust himself to describe them. And he tells +us himself how Cromwell's splendid generalship all came up before +him as he looked down on the town of Dunbar and out upon the ever- +memorable country round about it. John Bunyan was not a great +historian; he was only a common soldier in the great Civil War of +the seventeenth century; but what would we not give for a +description from his vivid pen of the famous fields and the great +sieges in which he took part? What a find John Bunyan's 'Journals' +and 'Letters Home from the Seat of War' would be to our historians +and to their readers! But, alas! such journals and letters do not +exist. Bunyan's complete silence in all his books about the +battles and the sieges he took his part in is very remarkable, and +his silence is full of significance. The Puritan soldier keeps all +his military experiences to work them all up into his Holy War, the +one and only war that ever kindled all his passions and filled his +every waking thought. But since John Bunyan was a man of genius, +equal in his own way to Cromwell and Milton themselves, if I were a +soldier I would keep ever before me the great book in which +Bunyan's experiences and observations and reflections as a soldier +are all worked up. I would set that classical book on the same +shelf with Caesar's Commentaries and Napier's Peninsula, and +Carlyle's glorious battle-pieces. Even Caesar has been accused of +too great dryness and coldness in his Commentaries, but there is +neither dryness nor coldness in John Bunyan's Holy War. To read +Bunyan kindles our cold civilian blood like the waving of a banner +and like the sound of a trumpet. + +The situation of the city of Mansoul occupies one of the most +beautiful pages of this whole book. The opening of the Holy War, +simply as a piece of English, is worthy to stand beside the best +page of the Pilgrim's Progress itself, and what more can I say than +that? Now, the situation of a city is a matter of the very first +importance. Indeed, the insight and the foresight of the great +statesmen and the great soldiers of past ages are seen in nothing +more than in the sites they chose for their citadels and for their +defenced cities. Well, then, as to the situation of Mansoul, 'it +lieth,' says our military author, 'just between the two worlds.' +That is to say: very much as Germany in our day lies between +France and Russia, and very much as Palestine in her day lay +between Egypt and Assyria, so does Mansoul lie between two immense +empires also. And, surely, I do not need to explain to any man +here who has a man's soul in his bosom that the two armed empires +that besiege his soul are Heaven above and Hell beneath, and that +both Heaven and Hell would give their best blood and their best +treasure to subdue and to possess his soul. We do not value our +souls at all as Heaven and Hell value them. There are savage +tribes in Africa and in Asia who inhabit territories that are +sleeplessly envied by the expanding and extending nations of +Europe. Ancient and mighty empires in Europe raise armies, and +build navies, and levy taxes, and spill the blood of their bravest +sons like water in order to possess the harbours, and the rivers, +and the mountains, and the woods amid which their besotted owners +roam in utter ignorance of all the plots and preparations of the +Western world. And Heaven and Hell are not unlike those ancient +and over-peopled nations of Europe whose teeming millions must have +an outlet to other lands. Their life and their activity are too +large and too rich for their original territories, and thus they +are compelled to seek out colonies and dependencies, so that their +surplus population may have a home. And, in like manner, Heaven is +too full of love and of blessedness to have all that for ever shut +up within itself, and Hell is too full of envy and ill-will, and +thus there continually come about those contentions and collisions +of which the Holy War is full. And, besides, it is with Mansoul +and her neighbour states of Heaven and Hell just as it is with some +of our great European empires in this also. There is no neutral +zone, no buffer state, no silver streak between Mansoul and her +immediate and military neighbours. And thus it is that her +statesmen, and her soldiers, and even her very common-soldier +sentries must be for ever on the watch; they must never say peace, +peace; they must never leave for one moment their appointed post. + +And then, as for the wall of the city, hear our excellent +historian's own words about that. 'The wall of the town was well +built,' so he says. 'Yea, so fast and firm was it knit and compact +together that, had it not been for the townsmen themselves, it +could not have been shaken or broken down for ever. For here lay +the excellent wisdom of Him that builded Mansoul, that the walls +could never be broken down nor hurt by the most mighty adverse +potentate unless the townsmen gave their consent thereto.' Now, +what would the military engineers of Chatham and Paris and Berlin, +who are now at their wits' end, not give for a secret like that! A +wall impregnable and insurmountable and not to be sapped or mined +from the outside: a wall that could only suffer hurt from the +inside! And then that wonderful wall was pierced from within with +five magnificently answerable gates. That is to say, the gates +could neither be burst in nor any way forced from without. 'This +famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, out of +which to go; and these were made likewise answerable to the walls; +to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened or forced +but by the will and leave of those within. The names of the gates +were these: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate; in short, 'the five +senses,' as we say. + +In the south of England, in the time of Edward the Confessor and +after the battle of Hastings, there were five cities which had +special immunities and peculiar privileges bestowed upon them, in +recognition of the special dangers to which they were exposed and +the eminent services they performed as facing the hostile shores of +France. Owing to their privileges and their position, the 'Cinque +Ports' came to be cities of great strength, till, as time went on, +they became a positive weakness rather than a strength to the land +that lay behind them. Privilege bred pride, and in their pride the +Cinque Ports proclaimed wars and formed alliances on their own +account: piracies by sea and robberies by land were hatched within +their walls; and it took centuries to reduce those pampered and +arrogant ports to the safe and peaceful rank of ordinary English +cities. The Revolution of 1688 did something, and the Reform Bill +of 1832 did more to make Dover and her insolent sisters like the +other free and equal cities of England; but to this day there are +remnants of public shows and pageantries left in those old towns +sufficient to witness to the former privileges, power, and pride of +the famous Cinque Ports. Now, Mansoul, in like manner, has her +cinque ports. And the whole of the Holy War is one long and +detailed history of how the five senses are clothed with such power +as they possess; how they abuse and misuse their power; what +disloyalty and despite they show to their sovereign; what +conspiracies and depredations they enter into; what untold miseries +they let in upon themselves and upon the land that lies behind +them; what years and years of siege, legislation, and rule it takes +to reduce our bodily senses, those proud and licentious gates, to +their true and proper allegiance, and to make their possessors a +people loyal and contented, law-abiding and happy. + +The Apostle has a terrible passage to the Corinthians, in which he +treats of the soul and the senses with tremendous and overwhelming +power. 'Your bodies and your bodily members,' he argues, with +crushing indignation, 'are not your own to do with them as you +like. Your bodies and your souls are both Christ's. He has bought +your body and your soul at an incalculable cost. What! know ye not +that your body is nothing less than the temple of the Holy Ghost +which is in you, and ye are not any more your own? know ye not that +your bodies are the very members of Christ?' And then he says a +thing so terrible that I tremble to transcribe it. For a more +terrible thing was never written. 'Shall I then,' filled with +shame he demands, 'take the members of Christ and make them the +members of an harlot?' O God, have mercy on me! I knew all the +time that I was abusing and polluting myself, but I did not know, I +did not think, I was never told that I was abusing and polluting +Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, too awful thought. And yet, stupid +sinner that I am, I had often read that if any man defile the +temple of God and the members of Christ, him shall God destroy. O +God, destroy me not as I see now that I deserve. Spare me that I +may cleanse and sanctify myself and the members of Christ in me, +which I have so often embruted and defiled. Assist me to summon up +my imagination henceforth to my sanctification as Thine apostle has +here taught me the way. Let me henceforth look at my whole body in +all its senses and in all its members, the most open and the most +secret, as in reality no more my own. Let me henceforth look at +myself with Paul's deep and holy eyes. Let me henceforth seat +Christ, my Redeemer and my King, in the very throne of my heart, +and then keep every gate of my body and every avenue of my mind as +all not any more mine own but His. Let me open my eye, and my ear, +and my mouth, as if in all that I were opening Christ's eye and +Christ's ear and Christ's mouth; and let me thrust in nothing on +Him as He dwells within me that will make Him ashamed or angry, or +that will defile and pollute Him. That thought, O God, I feel that +it will often arrest me in time to come in the very act of sin. It +will make me start back before I make Christ cruel or false, a +wine-bibber, a glutton, or unclean. I feel at this moment as if I +shall yet come to ask Him at every meal, and at every other +opportunity and temptation of every kind, what He would have and +what He would do before I go on to take or to do anything myself. +What a check, what a restraint, what an awful scrupulosity that +will henceforth work in me! But, through that, what a pure, +blameless, noble, holy and heavenly life I shall then lead! What +bodily pains, diseases, premature decays; what mental remorses, +what shames and scandals, what self-loathings and what self- +disgusts, what cups bitterer to drink than blood, I shall then +escape! Yes, O Paul, I shall henceforth hold with thee that my +body is the temple of Christ, and that I am not my own, but that I +am bought with a transporting price, and can, therefore, do nothing +less than glorify God in my body and in my spirit which are God's. +'This place,' says the Pauline author of the Holy War--'This place +the King intended but for Himself alone, and not for another with +Him.' + +But, my brethren, lay this well, and as never before, to heart-- +this, namely, that when you thus begin to keep any gate for Christ, +your King and Captain and Better-self,--Ear-gate, or Eye-gate, or +Mouth-gate, or any other gate--you will have taken up a task that +shall have no end with you in this life. Till you begin in dead +earnest to watch your heart, and all the doors of your heart, as if +you were watching Christ's heart for Him and all the doors of His +heart, you will have no idea of the arduousness and the endurance, +the sleeplessness and the self-denial, of the undertaking. + + +'Mansoul! Her wars seemed endless in her eyes; +She's lost by one, becomes another's prize. +Mansoul! Her mighty wars, they did portend +Her weal or woe and that world without end. +Wherefore she must be more concern'd than they +Whose fears begin and end the self-same day.' + + +'We all thought one battle would decide it,' says Richard Baxter, +writing about the Civil War. 'But we were all very much mistaken,' +sardonically adds Carlyle. Yes; and you will be very much mistaken +too if you enter on the war with sin in your soul, in your senses +and in your members, with powder and shot for one engagement only. +When you enlist here, lay well to heart that it is for life. There +is no discharge in this war. There are no ornamental old +pensioners here. It is a warfare for eternal life, and nothing +will end it but the end of your evil days on earth. + + + +CHAPTER III--EAR-GATE + + + +'Take heed what ye hear.'--Our Lord in Mark. +'Take heed how you hear.'--Our Lord in Luke. + +This famous town of Mansoul had five gates, in at which to come, +out at which to go, and these were made likewise answerable to the +walls--to wit, impregnable, and such as could never be opened nor +forced but by the will and leave of those within. 'The names of +the gates were these, Ear-gate, Eye-gate,' and so on. Dr. George +Wilson, who was once Professor of Technology in our University, +took this suggestive passage out of the Holy War and made it the +text of his famous lecture in the Philosophical Institution, and +then he printed the passage on the fly-leaf of his delightful book +The Five Gateways of Knowledge. That is a book to read sometime, +but this evening is to be spent with the master. + +For, after all, no one can write at once so beautifully, so +quaintly, so suggestively, and so evangelically as John Bunyan. +'The Lord Willbewill,' says John Bunyan, 'took special care that +the gates should be secured with double guards, double bolts, and +double locks and bars; and that Ear-gate especially might the +better be looked to, for that was the gate in at which the King's +forces sought most to enter. The Lord Willbewill therefore made +old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow, captain of +the ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty men, called +Deafmen; men advantageous for that service, forasmuch as they +mattered no words of the captain nor of the soldiers. And first +the King's officers made their force more formidable against Ear- +gate: for they knew that unless they could penetrate that no good +could be done upon the town. This done, they put the rest of their +men in their places; after which they gave out the word, which was, +Ye must be born again! And so the battle began. Now, they in the +town had planted upon the tower over Ear-gate two great guns, the +one called High-mind and the other Heady. Unto these two guns they +trusted much; they were cast in the castle by Diabolus's +ironfounder, whose name was Mr. Puff-up, and mischievous pieces +they were. They in the camp also did stoutly, for they saw that +unless they could open Ear-gate it would be in vain to batter the +wall.' And so on, through many allegorical, and, if sometimes +somewhat laboured, yet always eloquent, pungent, and heart-exposing +pages. + +With these for our text let us now take a rapid glance at what some +of the more Bunyan-like passages in the prophets and the psalms say +about the ear; how it is kept and how it is lost; how it is used +and how it is abused. + +1. The Psalmist uses a very striking expression in the 94th Psalm +when he is calling for justice, and is teaching God's providence +over men. 'He that planted the ear,' the Psalmist exclaims, 'shall +he not hear?' And, considering his church and his day, that is not +a bad remark of Cardinal Bellarmine on that psalm,--'the Psalmist's +word planted,' says that able churchman, 'implies design, in that +the ear was not spontaneously evolved by an act of vital force, but +was independently created by God for a certain object, just as a +tree, not of indigenous growth, is of set purpose planted in some +new place by the hand of man.' The same thing is said in Genesis, +you remember, about the Garden of Eden,--the Lord planted it and +put the man and the woman, whose ears he had just planted also, +into the garden to dress it and keep it. How they dressed the +garden and kept it, and how they held the gate of their ear against +him who squatted down before it with his innuendoes and his lies, +we all know to our as yet unrepaired, though not always +irreparable, cost. + +2. One would almost think that the scornful apostle had the Garden +of Eden in his eye when he speaks so bitterly to Timothy of a class +of people who are cursed with 'itching ears.' Eve's ears itched +unappeasably for the devil's promised secret; and we have all +inherited our first mother's miserable curiosity. How eager, how +restless, how importunate, we all are to hear that new thing that +does not at all concern us; or only concerns us to our loss and our +shame. And the more forbidden that secret is to us, and the more +full of inward evil to us--insane sinners that we are--the more +determined we are to get at it. Let any forbidden secret be in the +keeping of some one within earshot of us and we will give him no +rest till he has shared the evil thing with us. Let any specially +evil page be published in a newspaper, and we will take good care +that that day's paper is not thrown into the waste-basket; we will +hide it away, like a dog with a stolen bone, till we are able to +dig it up and chew it dry in secret. The devil has no need to +blockade or besiege the gate of our ear if he has any of his good +things to offer us. The gate that can only be opened from within +will open at once of itself if he or any of his newsmongers but +squat down for a moment before it. Shame on us, and on all of us, +for our itching ears. + +3. Isaiah speaks of some men in his day whose ears were 'heavy' +and whose hearts were fat, and the Psalmist speaks of some men in +his day whose ears were 'stopped' up altogether. And there is not +a better thing in Bunyan at his very best than that surly old churl +called Prejudice, so ill-conditioned and so always on the edge of +anger. By the devil's plan of battle old Prejudice was appointed +to be warder of Ear-gate, and to enable him to keep that gate for +his master he had sixty deaf men put under him, men most +advantageous for that post, forasmuch as it mattered not to them +what Emmanuel and His officers said. There could be no manner of +doubt who composed that inimitable passage. There is all the truth +and all the humour and all the satire in Old Prejudice that our +author has accustomed us to in his best pieces. The common people +always get the best literature along with the best religion in John +Bunyan. 'They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and +which will not hearken to the voice of charmers charming never so +wisely,' says the Psalmist, speaking about some bad men in his day. +Now, I will not stand upon David's natural history here, but his +moral and religious meaning is evident enough. David is not +concerned about adders and their ears, he is wholly taken up with +us and our adder-like animosity against the truth. Against what +teacher, then; against what preacher; against what writer; against +what doctrine, reproof, correction, has your churlish prejudice +adder-like shut your ear? Against what truth, human or divine, +have you hitherto stopped up your ear like the Psalmist's serpent? +To ask that boldly, honestly, and in the sight of God, at yourself +to-night, would end in making you the lifelong friend of some +preacher, some teacher, some soul-saving truth you have up till to- +night been prejudiced against with the rooted prejudice and the +sullen obstinacy of sixty deaf men. O God, help us to lay aside +all this adder-like antipathy at men and things, both in public and +in private life. Help us to give all men and all causes a fair +field and no favour, but the field and the favour of an open and an +honest mind, and a simple and a sincere heart. He that hath ears, +let him hear! + +4. As we work our way through the various developments and +vicissitudes of the Holy War we shall find Ear-gate in it and in +ourselves passing through many unexpected experiences; now held by +one side and now by another. And we find the same succession of +vicissitudes set forth in Holy Scripture. If you pay any attention +to what you read and hear, and then begin to ask yourselves fair in +the face as to your own prejudices, prepossessions, animosities, +and antipathies,--you will at once begin to reap your reward in +having put into your possession what the Scriptures so often call +an 'inclined' ear. That is to say, an ear not only unstopped, not +only unloaded, but actually prepared and predisposed to all manner +of truth and goodness. Around our city there are the remains, the +still visible tracks, of roads that at one time took the country +people into our city, but which are now stopped up and made wholly +impassable. There is no longer any road into Edinburgh that way. +There are other roads still open, but they are very roundabout, and +at best very up-hill. And then there are other roads so smooth, +and level, and broad, and well kept, that they are full of all +kinds of traffic; in the centre carts and carriages crowd them, on +the one side horses and their riders delight to display themselves, +and on the other side pedestrians and perambulators enjoy the sun. +And then there are still other roads with such a sweet and gentle +incline upon them that it is a positive pleasure both to man and +beast to set their foot upon them. And so it is with the minds and +the hearts of the men and the women who crowd these roads. Just as +the various roads are, so are the ears and the understandings, the +affections and the inclinations of those who walk and ride and +drive upon them. Some of those men's ears are impassably stopped +up by self-love, self-interest, party-spirit, anger, envy, and ill- +will,--impenetrably stopped up against all the men and all the +truths of earth and of heaven that would instruct, enlighten, +convict or correct them. Some men's minds, again, are not so much +shut up as they are crooked, and warped, and narrow, and full of +obstruction and opposition. Whereas here and there, sometimes on +horseback and sometimes on foot; sometimes a learned man walking +out of the city to take the air, and sometimes an unlettered +countryman coming into the city to make his market, will have his +ear hospitably open to every good man he meets, to every good book +he reads, to every good paper he buys at the street corner, and to +every good speech, and report, and letter, and article he reads in +it. And how happy that man is, how happy his house is at home, and +how happy he makes all those he but smiles to on his afternoon +walk, and in all his walk along the roads of this life. Never see +an I incline' on a railway or on a driving or a walking road +without saying on it before you leave it, 'I waited patiently for +the Lord, and He inclined His ear unto me and heard my cry. +Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call +upon Him as long as I live. Incline not my heart to any evil +thing, to practise wicked works with them that work iniquity. +Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. I +have inclined mine heart to perform Thy statutes alway, even unto +the end.' + +5. Shakespeare speaks in Richard the Second of 'the open ear of +youth,' and it is a beautiful truth in a beautiful passage. Young +men, who are still young men, keep your ears open to all truth and +to all duty and to all goodness, and shut your ears with an adder's +determination against all that which ruined Richard--flattering +sounds, reports of fashions, and lascivious metres. 'Our souls +would only be gainers by the perfection of our bodies were they +wisely dealt with,' says Professor Wilson in his Five Gateways. +'And for every human being we should aim at securing, so far as +they can be attained, an eye as keen and piercing as that of the +eagle; an ear as sensitive to the faintest sound as that of the +hare; a nostril as far-scenting as that of the wild deer; a tongue +as delicate as that of the butterfly; and a touch as acute as that +of the spider. No man ever was so endowed, and no man ever will +be; but all men come infinitely short of what they should achieve +were they to make their senses what they might be made. The old +have outlived their opportunity, and the diseased never had it; but +the young, who have still an undimmed eye, an undulled ear, and a +soft hand; an unblunted nostril, and a tongue which tastes with +relish the plainest fare--the young can so cultivate their senses +as to make the narrow ring, which for the old and the infirm +encircles things sensible, widen for them into an almost limitless +horizon.' + +Take heed what you hear, and take heed how you hear. + + + +CHAPTER IV--EYE-GATE + + + +'Mine eye affecteth mine heart.'--Jeremiah. + +'Think, in the first place,' says the eloquent author of the Five +Gateways of Knowledge, 'how beautiful the human eye is. The eyes +of many of the lower animals are, doubtless, very beautiful. You +must all have admired the bold, fierce, bright eye of the eagle; +the large, gentle, brown eye of the ox; the treacherous, green eye +of the cat, waxing and waning like the moon; the pert eye of the +sparrow; the sly eye of the fox; the peering little bead of black +enamel in the mouse's head; the gem-like eye that redeems the toad +from ugliness, and the intelligent, affectionate expression which +looks out of the human-like eye of the horse and dog. There are +many other animals whose eyes are full of beauty, but there is a +glory that excelleth in the eye of a man. We realise this best +when we gaze into the eyes of those we love. It is their eyes we +look at when we are near them, and it is their eyes we recall when +we are far away from them. The face is all but a blank without the +eye; the eye seems to concentrate every feature in itself. It is +the eye that smiles, not the lips; it is the eye that listens, not +the ear; it is the eye that frowns, not the brow; it is the eye +that mourns, not the voice. The eye sees what it brings the power +to see. How true is this! The sailor on the look-out can see a +ship where the landsman can see nothing. The Esquimaux can +distinguish a white fox among the white snow. The astronomer can +see a star in the sky where to others the blue expanse is unbroken. +The shepherd can distinguish the face of every single sheep in his +flock,' so Professor Wilson. And then Dr. Gould tells us in his +mystico-evolutionary, Behmen-and-Darwin book, The Meaning and the +Method of Life--a book which those will read who can and ought-- +that the eye is the most psychical, the most spiritual, the most +useful, and the most valued and cherished of all the senses; after +which he adds this wonderful and heart-affecting scientific fact, +that in death by starvation, every particle of fat in the body is +auto-digested except the cream-cushion of the eye-ball! So true is +it that the eye is the mistress, the queen, and the most precious, +to Creator and creature alike, of all the five senses. + +Now, in the Holy War John Bunyan says a thing about the ear, as +distinguished from the eye, that I cannot subscribe to in my own +experience at any rate. In describing the terrible war that raged +round Ear-gate, and finally swept up through that gate and into the +streets of the city, he says that the ear is the shortest and the +surest road to the heart. I confess I cannot think that to be the +actual case. I am certain that it is not so in my own case. My +eye is very much nearer my heart than my ear is. My eye much +sooner affects, and much more powerfully affects, my heart than my +ear ever does. Not only is my eye by very much the shortest road +to my heart, but, like all other short roads, it is cram-full of +all kinds of traffic when my ear stands altogether empty. My eye +is constantly crowded and choked with all kinds of commerce; whole +hordes of immigrants and invaders trample one another down on the +congested street that leads from my eye to my heart. Speaking for +myself, for one assault that is made on my heart through my ear +there are a thousand assaults successfully made through my eye. +Indeed, were my eye but stopped up; had I but obedience and courage +and self-mortification enough to pluck both my eyes out, that would +be half the cleansing and healing and holiness of my evil heart; or +at least, the half of its corruption, rebellion, and abominable +wickedness would henceforth be hidden from me. I think I can see +what led John Bunyan in his day and in this book to make that too +strong statement about the ear as against the eye; but it is not +like him to have let such an over-statement stand and continue in +his corrected and carefully finished work. The prophet Jeremiah, I +feel satisfied, would not have subscribed to what is said in the +Holy War in extenuation of the eye. That heart-broken prophet does +not say that it has been his ear that has made his head waters. It +is his eye, he says, that has so affected his heart. The Prophet +of the Captivity had all the Holy War potentially in his +imagination when he penned that so suggestive sentence. And the +Latin poet of experience, the grown-up man's own poet, says +somewhere that the things that enter by his eye seize and hold his +heart much more swiftly and much more surely than those things that +but enter by his ear. I shall continue, then, to hold by my text, +'Mine eye affecteth mine heart.' + +1. Turning then, to the prophets and proverb-makers of Israel, and +then to the New Testament for the true teaching on the eye, I come, +in the first place, on that so pungent saying of Solomon that 'the +eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.' Look at that born +fool, says Solomon, who has his eyes and his heart committed to him +to keep. See him how he gapes and stares after everything that +does not concern him, and lets the door of his own heart stand open +to every entering thief. London is a city of three million +inhabitants, and they are mostly fools, Carlyle once said. And let +him in this city whose eyes keep at home cast the first stone at +those foreign fools. I will wager on their side that many of you +here to-night know better what went on in Mashonaland last week +than what went on in your own kitchen downstairs, or in your own +nursery or schoolroom upstairs. Some of you are ten times more +taken up with the prospects of Her Majesty's Government this +session, and with the plots of Her Majesty's Opposition, than you +are with the prospects of the good and the evil, and the plots of +God and the devil, all this winter in your own hearts. You rise +early, and make a fight to get the first of the newspaper; but when +the minister comes in in the afternoon you blush because the +housemaid has mislaid the Bible. Did you ever read of the +stargazer who fell into an open well at the street corner? Like +him, you may be a great astronomer, a great politician, a great +theologian, a great defender of the faith even, and yet may be a +stark fool just in keeping the doors and the windows of your own +heart. 'You shall see a poor soul,' says Dr. Goodwin, 'mean in +abilities of wit, or accomplishments of learning, who knows not how +the world goes, nor upon what wheels its states turn, who yet knows +more clearly and experimentally his own heart than all the learned +men in the world know theirs. And though the other may better +discourse philosophically of the acts of the soul, yet this poor +man sees more into the corruption of it than they all.' And in +another excellent place he says: 'Many who have leisure and parts +to read much, instead of ballasting their hearts with divine truth, +and building up their souls with its precious words, are much more +versed in play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, and feigned +staves, which are but apes and peacocks' feathers instead of pearls +and precious stones. Foreign and foolish discourses please their +eyes and their ears; they are more chameleons than men, for they +live on the east wind.' + +2. 'If thine eye offend thee'--our Lord lays down this law to all +those who would enter into life--'pluck it out and cast it from +thee; for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, +rather than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.' Does +your eye offend you, my brethren? Does your eye cause you to +stumble and fall, as it is in the etymology? The right use of the +eye is to keep you from stumbling and falling; but so perverted are +the eye and the heart of every sinner that the city watchman has +become a partaker with thieves, and our trusted guide and guardian +a traitor and a knave. If thine eye, therefore, offends thee; if +it places a stone or a tree in thy way in a dark night; if it digs +a deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee +astray, or lets in upon thee thine enemies--then, surely, thou wert +better to be without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, +what is still harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil +thing out of it. Shut up that book and put it away. Throw that +paper and that picture into the fire. Cut off that companion, even +if he were an adoring lover. Refuse that entertainment and that +amusement, though all the world were crowding upto it. And soon, +and soon, till you have plucked your eye as clean of temptations +and snares as it is possible to be in this life. For this life is +full of that terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of all +His people, that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You +will know whether or no you are one of them just by the number of +the beautiful things, and the sweet things, and the things to be +desired, that you have plucked out of your eye at His advice and +demand. True religion, my brethren, on some sides of it, and at +some stages of it, is a terribly severe and sore business; and +unless it is proving a terribly severe and sore business to you, +look out! lest, with your two hands and your two feet and your two +eyes, you be cast, with all that your hands and feet and eyes have +feasted on, into the everlasting fires! Woe unto the world because +of offences, but woe much more to that member and entrance-gate of +the body by which the offence cometh! Wherefore, if thine eye +offend thee -! + +3. 'Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look +straight before thee.' Now, if you wish both to preserve your +eyes, and to escape the everlasting fires at the same time, attend +to this text. For this is almost as good as plucking out your two +eyes; indeed, it is almost the very same thing. Solomon shall +speak to the man in this house to-night who has the most +inflammable, the most ungovernable, and the most desperately wicked +heart. You, man, with that heart, you know that you cannot pass up +the street without your eye becoming a perfect hell-gate of lust, +of hate, of ill-will, of resentment and of revenge. Your eye falls +on a man, on a woman, on a house, on a shop, on a school, on a +church, on a carriage, on a cart, on an innocent child's +perambulator even; and, devil let loose that you are, your eye +fills your heart on the spot with absolute hell-fire. Your +presence and your progress poison the very streets of the city. +And that, not as the short-sighted and the vulgar will read +Solomon's plain-spoken Scripture, with the poison of lewdness and +uncleanness, but with the still more malignant, stealthy, and +deadly poison of social, professional, political, and +ecclesiastical hatred, resentment, and ill-will. Whoredom and wine +openly slay their thousands on all our streets; but envy and spite, +dislike and hatred their ten thousands. The fact is, we would +never know how malignantly wicked our hearts are but for our eyes. +But a sudden spark, a single flash through the eye falling on the +gunpowder that fills our hearts, that lets us know a hundred times +every day what at heart we are made of. 'Of a verity, O Lord, I am +made of sin, and that my life maketh manifest,' prays Bishop +Andrewes every day. Why, sir, not to go to the street, the +direction in which your eyes turn in this house this evening will +make this house a very 'den,' as our Lord said--yes, a very den to +you of temptation and transgression. My son, let thine eyes look +right on. Ponder the path of thy feet, turn not to the right hand +nor to the left--remove thy foot from all evil! + +4. There is still another eye that is almost as good as an eye out +altogether, and that is a Job's eye. Job was the first author of +that eye and all we who have that excellent eye take it of him. 'I +have made a covenant with mine eyes,' said that extraordinary man-- +that extraordinarily able, honest, exposed and exercised man. Now, +you must all know what a covenant is. A covenant is a compact, a +contract, an agreement, an engagement. In a covenant two parties +come to terms with one another. The two covenanters strike hands, +and solemnly engage themselves to one another: I will do this for +you if you will do that for me. It is a bargain, says the other; +let us have it sealed with wax and signed with pen and ink before +two witnesses. As, for instance, at the Lord's Table. I swear, +you say, over the Body and the Blood of the Son of God, I swear to +make a covenant with mine eyes. I will never let them read again +that idle, infidel, scoffing, unclean sheet. I will not let them +look on any of my former images or imaginations of forbidden +pleasures. I swear, O Thou to whom the night shineth as the day, +that I will never again say, Surely the darkness shall cover me! +See if I do not henceforth by Thy grace keep my feet off every +slippery street. That, and many other things like that, was the +way that Job made his so noble covenant with his eyes in his day +and in his land. And it was because he so made and so kept his +covenant that God so boasted over him and said, Hast thou +considered my servant Job? And then, every covenant has its two +sides. The other side of Job's covenant, of which God Himself was +the surety, you can read and think over in your solitary lodgings +to-night. Read Job xxxi. 1, and then Job xl. to the end, and then +be sure you take covenant paper and ink to God before you sleep. +And let all fashionable young ladies hear what Miss Rossetti +expects for herself, and for all of her sex with her who shall +subscribe her covenant. 'True,' she admits, 'all our life long we +shall be bound to refrain our soul, and keep it low; but what then? +For the books we now refrain to read we shall one day be endowed +with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen to we +shall join in the song of the redeemed. For the pictures from +which we turn we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific Vision. For +the companionship we shun we shall be welcomed into angelic society +and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we +avoid we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasures we +miss we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of +heaven.' + +5. And then there is the Pauline eye. An eye, however, that Job +would have shared with Paul and with the Corinthian Church had the +patriarch been privileged to live in our New Testament day. Ever +since the Holy Ghost with His anointing oil fell on us at +Pentecost, says the apostle, we have had an eye by means of which +we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are +not seen. Now, he who has an eye like that is above both plucking +out his eyes or making a covenant with them either. It is like +what Paul says about the law also. The law is not made for a +righteous man. A righteous man is above the law and independent of +it. The law does not reach to him and he is not hampered with it. +And so it is with the man who has got Paul's splendid eyes for the +unseen. He does not need to touch so much as one of his eye-lashes +to pluck them out. For his eyes are blind, and his ears are deaf, +and his whole body is dead to the things that are temporal. His +eyes are inwardly ablaze with the things that are eternal. He +whose eyes have been opened to the truth and the love of his Bible, +he will gloat no more over your books and your papers filled with +lies, and slander, and spite, and lewdness! He who has his +conversation in heaven does not need to set a watch on his lips +lest he take up an ill report about his neighbour. He who walks +every day on the streets of gold will step as swiftly as may be, +with girt loins, and with a preoccupied eye, out of the slippery +and unsavoury streets of this forsaken earth. He who has fast +working out for him an exceeding and eternal weight of glory will +easily count all his cups and all his crosses, and all the crooks +in his lot but as so many light afflictions and but for a moment. +My Lord Understanding had his palace built with high perspective +towers on it, and the site of it was near to Eye-gate, from the top +of which his lordship every day looked not at the things which are +temporal, but at the things which are eternal, and down from his +palace towers he every day descended to administer his heavenly +office in the city. + +Your eye, then, is the shortest way into your heart. Watch it +well, therefore; suspect and challenge all outsiders who come near +it. Keep the passes that lead to your heart with all diligence. +Let nothing contraband, let nothing that even looks suspicious, +ever enter your hearts; for, if it once enters, and turns out to be +evil, you will never get it all out again as long as you live. +'Death is come up into our windows,' says our prophet in another +place, 'and is entered into our palaces, to cut off our children in +our houses and our young men in our streets.' Make a covenant, +then, with your eyes. Take an oath of your eyes as to which way +they are henceforth to look. For, let them look this way, and your +heart is immediately full of lust, and hate, and envy, and ill- +will. On the other hand, lead them to look that way and your heart +is as immediately full of truth and beauty, brotherly kindness and +charity. The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine +eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine +eye be evil, thy whole body is full of darkness. If, therefore, +the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! + + + +CHAPTER V--THE KING'S PALACE + + + +'The palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.'--David. + +'Now, there is in this gallant country a fair and delicate town, a +corporation, called Mansoul: a town for its building so curious, +for its situation so commodious, for its privileges so +advantageous, that I may say of it, there is not its equal under +the whole heaven. Also, there was reared up in the midst of this +town a most famous and stately palace: for strength, it might be +called a castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a +place so copious as to contain all the world. This place the King +intended for Himself alone, and not for another with Him, so great +was His delight in it.' Thus far, our excellent allegorical +author. But there are other authors that treat of this great +matter now in hand besides the allegorical authors. You will hear +tell sometimes about a class of authors called the Mystics. Well, +listen at this stage to one of them, and one of the best of them, +on this present matter--the human heart, that is. 'Our heart,' he +says, 'is our manner of existence, or the state in which we feel +ourselves to be; it is an inward life, a vital sensibility, which +contains our manner of feeling what and how we are; it is the state +of our desires and tendencies, of inwardly seeing, tasting, +relishing, and feeling that which passes within us; our heart is +that to us inwardly with regard to ourselves which our senses of +seeing, hearing, feeling, and such like are with regard to things +that are without or external to us. Your heart is the best and +greatest gift of God to you. It is the highest, greatest, +strongest, and noblest power of your nature. It forms your whole +life, be it what it will. All evil and all good come from your +heart. Your heart alone has the key of life and death for you.' I +was just about to ask you at this point which of our two authors, +our allegorical or our mystical author upon the heart, you like +best. But that would be a stupid and a wayward question since you +have them both before you, and both at their best, to possess and +to enjoy. To go back then to John Bunyan, and to his allegory of +the human heart. + +1. To begin with, then, there was reared up in the midst of this +town of Mansoul a most famous and stately palace. And that palace +and the town immediately around it were the mirror and the glory of +all that its founder and maker had ever made. His palace was his +very top-piece. It was the metropolitan of the whole world round +about it; and it had positive commission and power to demand +service and support of all around. Yes. And all that is +literally, evidently, and actually true of the human heart. For +all other earthly things are created and upheld, are ordered and +administered, with an eye to the human heart. The human heart is +the final cause, as our scholars would say, of absolutely all other +earthly things. Earth, air, water; light and heat; all the +successively existing worlds, mineral, vegetable, animal, +spiritual; grass, herbs, corn, fruit-trees, cattle and sheep, and +all other living creatures; all are upheld for the use and the +support of man. And, then, all that is in man himself is in him +for the end and the use of his heart. All his bodily senses; all +his bodily members; every fearfully and wonderfully made part of +his body and of his mind; all administer to his heart. She is the +sovereign and sits supreme. And she is worthy and is fully +entitled so to sit. For there is nothing on the earth greater or +better than the heart, unless it is the Creator Himself, who +planned and executed the heart for Himself and not for another with +Him. 'The body exists,' says a philosophical biologist of our day, +'to furnish the cerebral centres with prepared food, just as the +vegetable world, viewed biologically, exists to furnish the animal +world with similar food. The higher is the last formed, the most +difficult, and the most complex; but it is just this that is most +precious and significant--all of which shows His unrolling purpose. +It is the last that alone explains all that went before, and it is +the coming that will alone explain the present. God before all, +through all, foreseeing all, and still preparing all; God in all is +profoundly evident.' Yes, profoundly evident to profound minds, +and experimentally and sweetly evident to religious minds, and to +renewed and loving and holy hearts. + +2. For fame and for state a palace, while for strength it might be +called a castle. In sufficiently ancient times the king's palace +was always a castle also. David's palace on Mount Zion was as much +a military fortress as a royal residence; and King Priam's palace +was the protection both of itself and of the whole of the country +around. In those wild times great men built their houses on high +places, and then the weak and endangered people gathered around the +strongholds of the powerful, as we see in our own city. Our own +steep and towering rock invited to its top the castle-builder of a +remote age, and then the exposed country around began to gather +itself together under the shelter of the bourg. And thus it is +that the military engineering of the Holy War makes that old +allegorical book most excellent to read, not only for common men +like you and me, who are bent on the fortification and the defence +of our own hearts, but for the military historians of those old +times also, for the experts of to-day also, and for all good +students of fortification. And the New Testament of the Divine +peace itself, as well as the Old Testament so full of the wars of +the Lord--they both support and serve as an encouragement and an +example to our spiritual author in the elaboration of his military +allegory. Every good soldier of Jesus Christ has by heart the +noble paradox of Paul to the Philippians--that the peace of God +which passeth all understanding shall keep their hearts and minds +through Christ Jesus. Let God's peace, he says, be your man of +war. Let His surpassing peace do both the work of war and the work +of peace also in your hearts and in your minds. Let that peace +both fortify with walls, and garrison with soldiers, and watch +every gate, and hold every street and lane of your hearts and of +your minds all around your hearts. And all through the Prince of +Peace, the Captain of all Holy War, Jesus Christ Himself. No +wonder, then, that in a strength--in a kind and in a degree of +strength--that passeth all understanding, this stately palace of +the heart is also here called a well-garrisoned castle. + +3. And then for pleasantness the human heart is a perfect +paradise. For pleasantness the human heart is like those famous +royal parks of Nineveh and Babylon that sprang up in after days as +if to recover and restore the Garden of Eden that had been lost to +those eastern lands. But even Adam's own paradise was but a poor +outside imitation in earth and water, in flowers and fruits, of the +far better paradise God had planted within him. Take another +Mystic at this point upon paradise. 'My dear man,' exclaims Jacob +Behmen, 'the Garden of Eden is not paradise, neither does Moses say +so. Paradise is the divine joy, and that was in their own hearts +so long as they stood in the love of God. Paradise is the divine +and angelical joy, pure love, pure joy, pure gladness, in which +there is no fear, no misery, and no death. Which paradise neither +death nor the devil can touch. And yet it has no stone wall around +it; only a great gulf which no man or angel can cross but by that +new birth of which Christ spoke to Nicodemus. Reason asks, Where +is paradise to be found? Is it far off or near? Is it in this +world or is it above the stars? Where is that desirable native +country where there is no death? Beloved, there is nothing nearer +you at this moment than paradise, if you incline that way. God +beckons you back into paradise at this moment, and calls you by +name to come. Come, He says, and be one of My paradise children. +In paradise,' the Teutonic Philosopher goes on, 'there is nothing +but hearty love, a meek and a gentle love; a most friendly and most +courteous discourse: a gracious, amiable, and blessed society, +where the one is always glad to see the other, and to honour the +other. They know of no malice in paradise, no cunning, no +subtlety, and no sly deceit. But the fruits of the Spirit of God +are common among them in paradise, and one may make use of all the +good things of paradise without causing disfavour, or hatred, or +envy, for there is no contrary affection there, but all hearts +there are knit together in love. In paradise they love one +another, and rejoice in the beauty, loveliness, and gladness of one +another. No one esteems or accounts himself more excellent than +another in paradise; but every one has great joy in another, and +rejoices in another's fair beauty, whence their love to one another +continually increases, so that they lead one another by the hand, +and so friendly kiss one another.' Thus the blessed Behmen saw +paradise and had it in his heart as he sat over his hammer and +lapstone in his solitary stall. For of such as Jacob Behmen and +John Bunyan is the kingdom of heaven, and all such saintly souls +have paradise restored again and improved upon in their own hearts. + +4. And for largeness a place so copious as to contain all the +world. Over against the word 'copious' Bunyan hangs for a key, +Ecclesiastes third and eleventh; and under it Miss Peacock adds +this as a note--'Copious, spacious. Old French, copieux; Latin, +copiosus, plentiful.' The human heart, as we have already read to- +night, is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest part of +human nature. And so it is. Fearfully and wonderfully made as is +the whole of human nature, that fear and that wonder surpass +themselves in the spaciousness and the copiousness of the human +heart. For what is it that the human heart has not space for, and +to spare? After the whole world is received home into a human +heart, there is room, and, indeed, hunger, for another world, and +after that for still another. The sun is--I forget how many times +bigger than our whole world, and yet we can open our heart and take +down the sun into it, and shut him out again and restore him to his +immeasurable distances in the heavens, and all in the twinkling of +an eye. As for instance. As I wrote these lines I read a report +of a lecture by Sir Robert Ball in which that distinguished +astronomer discoursed on recent solar discoveries. A globe of +coal, Sir Robert said, as big as our earth, and all set ablaze at +the same moment, would not give out so much heat to the worlds +around as the sun gives out in a thousandth part of a second. +Well, as I read that, and ere ever I was aware what was going on, +my heart had opened over my newspaper, and the sun had swept down +from the sky, and had rushed into my heart, and before I knew where +I was the cry had escaped my lips, 'Great and marvellous are Thy +works, Lord God Almighty! Who shall not fear Thee and glorify thy +name?' And then this reflection as suddenly came to me: How good +it is to be at peace with God, and to be able and willing to say, +My Father! That the whole of the surging and flaming sun was +actually down in my straitened and hampered heart at that idle +moment over my paper is scientifically demonstrable; for only that +which is in the heart of a man can kindle the passions that are in +the heart of that man; and nothing is more sure to me than that the +great passions of fear and love, wonder and rapture were at that +moment at a burning point within me. There is a passage well on in +the Holy War, which for terror and for horror, and at the same time +for truth and for power, equals anything either in Dante or in +Milton. Lucifer has stood up at the council board to second the +scheme of Beelzebub. 'Yes,' he said, amid the plaudits of his +fellow-princes--'Yes, I swear it. Let us fill Mansoul full with +our abundance. Let us make of this castle, as they vainly call it, +a warehouse, as the name is in some of their cities above. For if +we can only get Mansoul to fill herself full with much goods she is +henceforth ours. My peers,' he said, 'you all know His parable of +how unblessed riches choke the word; and, again, we know what +happens when the hearts of men are overcharged with surfeiting and +with drunkenness. Let us give them all that, then, to their +heart's desire.' This advice of Lucifer, our history tells us, was +highly applauded in hell, and ever since it has proved their +masterpiece to choke Mansoul with the fulness of this world, and to +surfeit the heart with the good things thereof. But, my brethren, +you will outwit hell herself and all her counsellors and all her +machinations, if, out of all the riches, pleasures, cares, and +possessions, that both heaven and earth and hell can heap into your +heart, those riches, pleasures, cares, and possessions but produce +corresponding passions and affections towards God and man. Only +let fear, and love, and thankfulness, and helpfulness be kindled +and fed to all their fulness in your heart, and all the world and +all that it contains will only leave the more room in your +boundless heart for God and for your brother. All that God has +made, or could make with all His counsel and all His power laid +out, will not fill your boundless and bottomless heart. He must +come down and come into your boundless and bottomless heart +Himself. Himself: your Father, your Redeemer, and your Sanctifier +and Comforter also. Let the whole universe try to fill your heart, +O man of God, and after it all we shall hear you singing in famine +and in loneliness the doleful ditty: + + +'O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, +There is room in my heart for Thee. + + +5. 'Madame,' said a holy solitary to Madame Guyon in her misery-- +'Madame, you are disappointed and perplexed because you seek +without what you have within. Accustom yourself to seek for God in +your own heart and you will always find Him there.' From that hour +that gifted woman was a Mystic. The secret of the interior life +flashed upon her in a moment. She had been starving in the midst +of fulness; God was near and not far off; the kingdom of heaven was +within her. The love of God from that hour took possession of her +soul with an inexpressible happiness. Prayer, which had before +been so difficult, was now delightful and indispensable; hours +passed away like moments: she could scarcely cease from praying. +Her domestic trials seemed great to her no longer; her inward joy +consumed like a fire the reluctance, the murmur, and the sorrow, +which all had their birth in herself. A spirit of comforting +peace, a sense of rejoicing possession, pervaded all her days. God +was continually with her, and she seemed continually yielded up to +God. 'Madame,' said the solitary, 'you seek without for what you +have within.' Where do you seek for God when you pray, my +brethren? To what place do you direct your eyes? Is it to the +roof of your closet? Is it to the east end of your consecrated +chapel? Is it to that wooden table in the east end of your chapel? +Or, passing out of all houses made with hands and consecrated with +holy oil, do you lift up your eyes to the skies where the sun and +the moon and the stars dwell alone? 'What a folly!' exclaims +Theophilus, in the golden dialogue, 'for no way is the true way to +God but by the way of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be +found. And the heart itself cannot find Him but by its own love of +Him, faith in Him, dependence upon Him, resignation to Him, and +expectation of all from Him.' 'You have quite carried your point +with me,' answered Theogenes after he had heard all that Theophilus +had to say. 'The God of meekness, of patience, and of love is +henceforth the one God of my heart. It is now the one bent and +desire of my soul to seek for all my salvation in and through the +merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, resigned, +suffering Lamb of God, who alone has power to bring forth the +blessed birth of those heavenly virtues in my soul. What a comfort +it is to think that this Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Light of +the World; this Glory of heaven and this Joy of angels is as near +to us, is as truly in the midst of us, as He is in the midst of +heaven. And that not a thought, look, or desire of our heart that +presses toward Him, longing to catch one small spark of His +heavenly nature, but is as sure a way of finding Him, as the +woman's way was who was healed of her deadly disease by longing to +touch but the border of His garment.' + +To sum up. 'There is reared up in the midst of Mansoul a most +famous and stately palace: for strength, it may be called a +castle; for pleasantness, a paradise; and for largeness, a place so +copious as to contain all the world. This palace the King intends +but for Himself alone, and not another with Him, and He commits the +keeping of that palace day and night to the men of the town.' + + + +CHAPTER VI--MY LORD WILLBEWILL + + + +- 'to will is present with me.'--Paul + +There is a large and a learned literature on the subject of the +will. There is a philosophical and a theological, and there is a +religious and an experimental literature on the will. Jonathan +Edwards's well-known work stands out conspicuously at the head of +the philosophical and theological literature on the will, while our +own Thomas Boston's Fourfold State is a very able and impressive +treatise on the more practical and experimental side of the same +subject. The Westminster Confession of Faith devotes one of its +very best chapters to the teaching of the word of God on the will +of man, and the Shorter Catechism touches on the same subject in +Effectual Calling. Outstanding philosophical and theological +schools have been formed around the will, and both able and learned +and earnest men have taken opposite sides on the subject of the +will under the party names of Necessitarians and Libertarians. +This is not the time, nor am I the man, to discuss such abstruse +subjects; but those students who wish to master this great matter +of the will, so far as it can be mastered in books, are recommended +to begin with Dr. William Cunningham's works, and then to go on +from them to a treatise that will reward all their talent and all +their enterprise, Jonathan Edwards's perfect masterpiece. + +1. But, to come to my Lord Willbewill, one of the gentry of the +famous town of Mansoul:- well, this Lord Willbewill was as high- +born as any man in Mansoul, and was as much a freeholder as any of +them were, if not more. Besides, if I remember my tale aright, he +had some privileges peculiar to himself in that famous town. Now, +together with these, he was a man of great strength, resolution, +and courage; nor in his occasion could any turn him away. But +whether he was too proud of his high estate, privileges, and +strength, or what (but sure it was through pride of something), he +scorns now to be a slave in Mansoul, as his own proud word is, so +that now, next to Diabolus himself, who but my Lord Willbewill in +all that town? Nor could anything now be done but at his beck and +good pleasure throughout that town. Indeed, it will not out of my +thoughts what a desperate fellow this Willbewill was when full +power was put into his hand. All which--how this apostate prince +lost power and got it again, and lost it and got it again--the +interested and curious reader will find set forth with great +fulness and clearness in many powerful pages of the Holy War. + +John Bunyan was as hard put to it to get the right name for this +head of the gentry of Mansoul as Paul was to get the right name for +sin in the seventh of the Romans. In that profoundest and +intensest of all his profound and intense passages, the apostle has +occasion to seek about for some expression, some epithet, some +adjective, as we say, to apply to sin so as to help him to bring +out to his Roman readers something of the malignity, deadliness, +and unspeakable evil of sin as he had sin living and working in +himself. But all the resources of the Greek language, that most +resourceful of languages, utterly failed Paul for his pressing +purpose. And thus it is that, as if in scorn of the feebleness and +futility of that boasted tongue, he tramples its grammars and its +dictionaries under his feet, and makes new and unheard-of words and +combinations of words on the spot for himself and for his subject. +He heaps up a hyperbole the like of which no orator or rhetorician +of Greece or Rome had ever needed or had ever imagined before. He +takes sin, and he makes a name for sin out of itself. The only way +to describe sin, he feels, the only way to characterise sin, the +only way to aggravate sin, is just to call it sin; sinful sin; 'sin +by the commandment became exceeding sinful.' And, in like manner, +John Bunyan, who has only his own mother tongue to work with, in +his straits to get a proper name for this terrible fellow who was +next to Diabolus himself, cannot find a proud enough name for him +but just by giving him his own name, and then doubling it. Add +will to will, multiply will by will, and multiply it again, and +after you have done all you are no nearer to a proper name for that +apostate, who, for pride, and insolence, and headstrongness, in one +word, for wilfulness, is next to Diabolus himself. But as +Willbewill, if he is to be named and described at all, is best +named and described by his own naked name; so Bunyan is always best +illustrated out of his own works. And I turn accordingly to the +Heavenly Footman for an excellent illustration of the wilfulness of +the will both in a good man and in a bad; as, thus: 'Your self- +willed people, nobody knows what to do with them. We use to say, +He will have his own will, do all we can. If a man be willing, +then any argument shall be matter of encouragement; but if +unwilling, then any argument shall give discouragement. The saints +of old, they being willing and resolved for heaven, what could stop +them? Could fire and fagot, sword or halter, dungeons, whips, +bears, bulls, lions, cruel rackings, stonings, starvings, +nakedness? So willing had they been made in the day of His power. +And see, on the other side, the children of the devil, because they +are not willing, how many shifts and starting-holes they will have! +I have married a wife; I have a farm; I shall offend my landlord; I +shall lose my trade; I shall be mocked and scoffed at, and +therefore I cannot come. But, alas! the thing is, they are not +willing. For, were they once soundly willing, these, and a +thousand things such as these, would hold them no faster than the +cords held Samson when he broke them like flax. I tell you the +will is all. The Lord give thee a will, then, and courage of +heart.' + +2. Let that, then, suffice for this man's name and nature, and let +us look at him now when his name and his nature have both become +evil; that is to say, when Willbewill has become Illwill. You can +imagine; no, you cannot imagine unless you already know, how evil, +and how set upon evil, Illwill was. His whole mind, we are told, +now stood bending itself to evil. Nay, so set was he now upon +sheer evil that he would act it of his own accord, and without any +instigation at all from Diabolus. And that went on till he was +looked on in the city as next in wickedness to very Diabolus +himself. Parable apart, my ill-willed brethren, our ill-will has +made us very fiends in human shape. What a fall, what a fate, what +a curse it is to be possessed of a devil of ill-will! Who can put +proper words on it after Paul had to confess himself silent before +it? Who can utter the diabolical nature, the depth and the +secrecy, the subtlety and the spirituality, the range and the +reach-out of an ill-will? Our hearts are full of ill-will at those +we meet and shake hands with every day. At men also we have never +seen, and who are totally ignorant even of our existence. Over a +thousand miles we dart our viperous hearts at innocent men. At +great statesmen we have ill-will, and at small; at great churchmen +and at small; at great authors and at small; at great, and famous, +and successful men in all lines of life; for it is enough for ill- +will that another man be praised, and well-paid, and prosperous, +and then placed in our eye. No amount of suffering will satiate +ill-will; the very grave has no seal against it. And, now and +then, you have it thrust upon you that other men have the same +devil in them as deeply and as actively as he is in you. You will +suddenly run across a man on the street. His face was shining with +some praise he had just had spoken to him, or with some recognition +he had just received from some great one; or with some good news +for himself he had just heard, before he caught sight of you. But +the light suddenly dies on his face, and darkness comes up out of +his heart at his sudden glimpse of you. What is the matter? you +ask yourself as he scowls past you. What have you done so to +darken any man's heart to you? And as you stumble on in the +sickening cloud he has left behind him, you suddenly recollect that +you were once compelled to vote against that man on a public +question: on some question of home franchise, or foreign war, or +church government, or city business; or perchance, a family has +left his shop to do business in yours, or his church to worship God +in yours, or such like. It will be a certain relief to you to +recollect such things. But with it all there will be a shame and a +humiliation and a deep inward pain that will escape into a cry of +prayer for him and for yourself and for all such sinners on the +same street. If you do not find an escape from your sharp +resentment in ejaculatory prayer and in a heart-cleansing great +good-will, your heart, before you are a hundred steps on, will be +as black with ill-will as his is. But that must not again be. +Would you hate or strike back at a blind man who stumbled and fell +against you on the street? Would you retaliate at a maniac who +gnashed his teeth and shook his fist at you on his way past you to +the madhouse? Or at a corpse being carried past you that had been +too long without burial? And shall you retaliate on a miserable +man driven mad with diabolical passion? Or at a poor sinner whose +heart is as rotten as the grave? Ill-will is abroad in our learned +and religious city at all hours of the day and night. He glares at +us under the sun by day, and under the street lamps at night. We +suddenly feel his baleful eye on us as we thoughtlessly pass under +his overlooking windows: it will be a side street and an +unfrequented, where you will not be ashamed and shocked and pained +at heart to meet him. Public men; much purchased and much praised +men; rich and prosperous men; men high in talent and in place; and, +indeed, all manner of men,--walk abroad in this life softly. Keep +out of sight. Take the side streets, and return home quickly. You +have no idea what an offence and what a snare you are to men you +know, and to men you do not know. If you are a public man, and if +your name is much in men's mouths, then the place you hold, the +prices and the praises you get, do not give you one-tenth of the +pleasure that they give a thousand other men pain. Men you never +heard of, and who would not know you if they met you, gnaw their +hearts at the mere mention of your name. Desire, then, to be +unknown, as A Kempis says. O teach me to love to be concealed, +prays Jeremy Taylor. Be ambitious to be unknown, Archbishop +Leighton also instructs us. And the great Fenelon took Ama nesciri +for his crest and for his motto. No wonder that an apostle cried +out under the agony and the shame of ill-will. No wonder that to +kill it in the hearts of men the Son of God died under it on the +cross. And no wonder that all the gates of hell are wide open, day +and night, for there is no day there, to receive home all those who +will entertain ill-will in their hearts, and all the gates of +heaven shut close to keep all ill-will for ever out. + +3. But, bad enough as all that is, the half has not been told, and +never will be told in this life. Butler has a passage that has +long stumbled me, and it stumbles me the more the longer I live and +study him and observe myself. 'Resentment,' he says, in a very +deep and a very serious passage--'Resentment being out of the case, +there is not, properly speaking, any such thing as direct ill-will +in one man towards another.' Well, great and undisputed as +Butler's authority is in all these matters, at the same time he +would be the first to admit and to assert that a man's inward +experience transcends all outward authority. Well, I am filled +with shame and pain and repentance and remorse to have to say it, +but my experience carries me right in the teeth of Butler's +doctrine. I have dutifully tried to look at Butler's inviting and +exonerating doctrine in all possible lights, and from all possible +points of view, in the anxious wish to prove it true; but I dare +not say that I have succeeded. The truth for thee--my heart would +continually call to me--the best truth for thee is in me, and not +in any Butler! And when looking as closely as I can at my own +heart in the matter of ill-will, what do I find--and what will you +find? You will find that after subtracting all that can in any +proper sense come under the head of real resentment, and in cases +where real resentment is out of the question; in cases where you +have received no injury, no neglect, no contempt, no anything +whatsoever of that kind, you will find that there are men innocent +of all that to you, yet men to whom you entertain feelings, +animosities, antipathies, that can be called by no other name than +that of ill-will. Look within and see. Watch within and see. And +I am sure you will come to subscribe with me to the humbling and +heart-breaking truth, that, even where there is no resentment, and +no other explanation, excuse, or palliation of that kind, yet that +festering, secret, malignant ill-will is working in the bottom of +your heart. If you doubt that, if you deny that, if all that kind +of self-observation and self-sentencing is new to you, then observe +yourself, say, for one week, and report at the end of it whether or +no you have had feelings and thoughts and wishes in your secret +heart toward men who never in any way hurt you, which can only be +truthfully described as pure ill-will; that is to say, you have not +felt and thought and wished toward them as you would have them, and +all men, feel and think and wish toward you. + +4. 'To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not,' +says the apostle; and again, 'Ye cannot do the things that ye +would.' Or, as Dante has it, + + +'The power which wills +Bears not supreme control; laughter and tears +Follow so closely on the passion prompts them, +They wait not for the motion of the will +In natures most sincere.' + + +Now, just here lies a deep distinction that has not been enough +taken account of by our popular, or even by our more profound, +spiritual writers. The will is often regenerate and right; the +will often bends, as Bunyan has it, to that which is good; but +behind the will and beneath the will the heart is still full of +passions, affections, inclinations, dispositions that are evil; +instinctively, impulsively, involuntarily evil, even 'in natures +most sincere.' And hence arises a conflict, a combat, a death- +grip, an agony, a hell on earth, that every regenerate and +advancing soul of man is full of His will is right. If his will is +wrong; if he chooses evil; then there is no mystery in the matter +so far as he is concerned. He is a bad man, and he is so +intentionally and deliberately and of set purpose; and it is a rule +in divine truth that 'wilfulness in sinning is the measure of our +sinfulness.' But his will is right. To will is present with him. +He is every day like Thomas Boston one Sabbath-day: 'Though I +cannot be free of sin, God Himself knows that He would be welcome +to make havoc of my sins and to make me holy. I know no lust that +I would not be content to part with to-night. My will, bound hand +and foot, I desire to lay at His feet.' Now, is it not as clear as +noonday that in the case of such a man as Boston his mind is one +thing and his heart another? Is it not plain that he has both a +good-will and an ill-will within him? A will that immediately and +resolutely chooses for God, and for truth, and for righteousness, +and for love; and another law in his members warring against that +law of his mind? 'Before conversion,' says Thomas Shepard, 'the +main wound of a man is in his will. And then, after conversion, +though his will is changed, yet, ex infirmitate, there are many +things that he cannot do, so strong is the remnant of malignity +that is still in his heart. Let him get Christ to help him here.' +In all that ye see your calling, my brethren. + +5. 'Now, if I do that I would not,' adds the apostle, extricating +himself and giving himself fair-play and his simple due among all +his misery and self-accusation--'Now, if I do that I would not, it +is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.' Or, again, +as William Law has it: 'All our natural evil ceases to be our own +evil as soon as our will turns away from it. Our natural evil then +changes its nature and loses all its poison and death, and becomes +an holy cross on which we die to self and this life and enter the +kingdom of heaven.' My dear brethren, tell me, is your sin your +cross? Is your sinfulness your cross? Is the evil that is ever +present with you your holy cross? For, every other cross beside +sin is a cross of straw, a cross of feathers, a paste-board and a +painted cross, and not a real and genuine cross at all. The wood +and the nails and the spear all taken together were not our Lord's +real cross. His real cross was sin; our sin laid on His hands, and +on His heart, and on His imagination, and on His conscience, till +it was all but His very own sin. Our sin was so fearfully and +wonderfully laid upon Christ that He was as good as a sinner +Himself under it. So much so that all the nails and all the +spears, all the thirst and all the darkness that His body and His +soul could hold were as nothing beside the sin that was laid upon +Him. And so it is with us; with as many of us as are His true +disciples. Our sin is our cross; not our actual transgressions, +any more than His; but our inward sinfulness. And not the +sinfulness of our will; that is no real cross to any man; but the +sinfulness of our hearts against our will, and beneath our will, +and behind our will. And this is such a cross that if Christ had +something in His cross that we have not, then we have something in +ours that He had not. He made many sad and sore Psalms His own; +but even if He had lived on earth to read the seventh of the +Romans, He could not have made it His own. His true people are +beyond Him here. The disciple is above his Master here. The +Master had His own cross, and it was a sufficient cross; but we can +challenge Him to come down and look and say if He ever saw a cross +like our cross. He was made a curse. He was hanged on the tree. +He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But his people are +beyond Him in the real agony and crucifixion of sin. For He never +in Gethsemane or on Calvary either cried as Paul once cried, and as +you and I cry every day--To will is present with me! But the good +that I would I do not! And, oh! the body of this death! + +6. Now, if any total stranger to all that shall ask me: What good +there is in all that? and, Why I so labour in such a world of +unaccustomed and unpleasant things as that? I have many answers to +his censure. For example, and first, I labour and will continue to +labour more and more in this world of things, and less and less in +any other world, because here we begin to see things as they are-- +the deepest things of God and of man, that is. Also, because I +have the precept, and the example, and the experience of God's +greatest and best saints before me here. Because, also, our full +and true salvation begins here, goes on here, and ends here. +Because, also, teaching these things and learning these things will +infallibly make us the humblest of men, the most contrite, the most +self-despising, the most prayerful, and the most patient, meek, and +loving of men. And, students, I labour in this because this is +science; because this is the first in order and the most fruitful +of all the sciences, if not the noblest and the most glorious of +all the sciences. There is all that good for us in this subject of +the will and the heart, and whole worlds of good lie away out +beyond this subject that eye hath not seen nor ear heard. + + + +CHAPTER VII--SELF-LOVE + + + +'This know, that men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, +boasters, proud, unthankful, without natural affection, truce- +breakers, false accusers, traitors, heady, high-minded: from all +such turn away.'--Paul. + +'Pray, sir, said Academicus, tell me more plainly just what this +self of ours actually is. Self, replied Theophilus, is hell, it is +the devil, it is darkness, pain, and disquiet. It is the one and +only enemy of Christ. It is the great antichrist. It is the +scarlet whore, it is the fiery dragon, it is the old serpent that +is mentioned in the Revelation of St John. You rather terrify me +than instruct me by this description, said Academicus. It is +indeed a very frightful matter, returned Theophilus; for it +contains everything that man has to dread and to hate, to resist +and to avoid. Yet be assured, my friend, that, careless and merry +as this world is, every man that is born into this world has all +those enemies to overcome within himself; and every man, till he is +in the way of regeneration, is more or less governed by those +enemies. No hell in any remote place, no devil that is separate +from you, no darkness or pain that is not within you, no antichrist +either at Rome or in England, no furious beast, no fiery dragon, +without you or apart from you, can do you any real hurt. It is +your own hell, your own devil, your own beast, your own antichrist, +your own dragon that lives in your own heart's blood that alone can +hurt you. Die to this self, to this inward nature, and then all +outward enemies are overcome. Live to this self, and then, when +this life is out, all that is within you, and all that is without +you, will be nothing else but a mere seeing and feeling this hell, +serpent, beast, and fiery dragon. But, said Theogenes, a third +party who stood by, I would, if I could, more perfectly understand +the precise nature of self, or what it is that makes it to be so +full of evil and misery. To whom Theophilus turned and replied: +Covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath are the four elements of self. +And hence it is that the whole life of self can be nothing else but +a plague and torment of covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath, all +of which is precisely sinful nature, self, or hell. Whilst man +lives, indeed, among the vanities of time, his covetousness, his +envy, his pride, and his wrath, may be in a tolerable state, and +may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble; they may have their +gratifications as well as their torments. But when death has put +an end to the vanity of all earthly cheats, the soul that is not +born again of the supernatural Word and Spirit of God must find +itself unavoidably devoured by itself, shut up in its own +insatiable, unchangeable, self-tormenting covetousness, envy, +pride, and wrath. O Theogenes! that I had power from God to take +those dreadful scales off men's eyes that hinder them from seeing +and feeling the infinite importance of this most certain truth! +God give a blessing, Theophilus, to your good prayer. And then let +me tell you that you have quite satisfied my question about the +nature of self. I shall never forget it, nor can I ever possibly +after this have any doubt about the truth of it.' + +1. 'All my theology,' said an old friend of mine to me not long +ago--'all my theology is out of Thomas Goodwin to the Ephesians.' +Well, I find Thomas Goodwin saying in that great book that self is +the very quintessence of original sin; and, again, he says, study +self-love for a thousand years and it is the top and the bottom of +original sin; self is the sin that dwelleth in us and that doth +most easily beset us. Now, that is just what Academicus and +Theophilus and Theogenes have been saying to us in their own +powerful way in their incomparable dialogue. All sin and all +misery; all covetousness, envy, pride, and wrath,--trace it all +back to its roots, travel it all up to its source, and, as sure as +you do that, self and self-love are that source, that root, and +that black bottom. I do not forget that Butler has said in some +stately pages of his that self-love is morally good; that self-love +is coincident with the principle of virtue and part of the idea; +and that it is a proper motive for man. But the deep bishop, in +saying all that, is away back at the creation-scheme and Eden-state +of human nature. He has not as yet come down to human nature in +its present state of overthrow, dismemberment, and self- +destruction. But when he does condescend and comes close to the +mind and the heart of man as they now are in all men, even Butler +becomes as outspoken, and as eloquent, and as full of passion and +pathos as if he were an evangelical Puritan. Self-love, Butler +startles his sober-minded reader as he bursts out--self-love rends +and distorts the mind of man! Now, you are a man. Well, then, do +you feel and confess that rending and distorting to have taken +place in you? Butler is a philosopher, and Goodwin is a preacher, +but you are more: you are a man. You are the owner of a human +heart, and you can say whether or no it is a rent and a distorted +heart. Is your mind warped and wrenched by self-love, and is your +heart rent and torn by the same wicked hands? Do you really feel +that it needs nothing more to take you back again to paradise but +that your heart be delivered from self-love? Do you now understand +that the foundations of heaven itself must be laid in a heart +healed and cleansed and delivered from self-love? If you do, then +your knowledge of your own heart has set you abreast of the +greatest of philosophers and theologians and preachers. Nay, +before multitudes of men who are called such. It is my meditation +all the day, you say. I have more understanding now than all my +teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more +than the ancients; because now I keep Thy precepts. + +2. 'Self-love has made us all malicious,' says John Calvin. We +are Calvinists, were we to call any man master. But we are to call +no man master, and least of all in the matters of the heart. Every +man must be his own philosopher, his own moralist, and his own +theologian in the matters of the heart. He who has a heart in his +bosom and an eye in his head can need no Calvin, no Butler, no +Goodwin, and no Law to tell him what goes on in his own heart. +And, on the other hand, his own heart will soon tell him whether or +no Calvin, and Butler, and Goodwin, and Law know anything about +those matters on which some men would set them up as our masters. +Well, come away all of you who own a human heart. Come and say +whether or no your heart, and the self-love of which it is full, +have made you a malicious man. I do not ask if you are always and +to everybody full of maliciousness. No; I know quite well that you +are sometimes as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. For, has +not even Theophilus said that whilst a man still lives among the +vanities of time, his covetousness, his envy, his pride, and his +wrath may be in a tolerable state, and may help him to a mixture of +peace and trouble; these vices may have their gratifications as +well as their torments. No; I do not trifle with you and with this +serious matter so as to ask if you are full of malice at all times +and to all men. No. For, let a man be fortunate enough to be on +your side; let him pass over to your party; let him become +profitable to you; let him be clever enough and mean enough to +praise and to flatter you up to the top of your appetite for praise +and flattery, and, no doubt, you will love that man. Or, if that +is not exactly love, at least it is no longer hate. But let that +man unfortunately be led to leave your party; let him cease being +profitable to you; let him weary of flattering you with his praise; +let him forget you, neglect you, despise you, and go against you, +and then look at your own heart. Do you care now to know what +malice is? Well, that is malice that distorts and rends your heart +as often as you meet that man on the street or even pass by his +door. That is malice that dances in your eyes when you see his +name in print. That is malice with which you always break out when +his name is mentioned in conversation. That is malice that heats +your heart when you suddenly recollect him in the multitude of your +thoughts within you. And you are in good company all the time. +'We, ourselves,' says Paul to Titus, 'we also at one time lived in +malice and in envy. We were hateful and we hated one another.' +'Hateful,' Goodwin goes on in his great book, 'every man is to +another man more or less; he is hated of another and he hateth +another more or less; and if his nature were let out to the full, +there is that in him, "every man is against every man," as is said +of Ishmael. Homo homini lupus,' adds our brave preacher. And Abbe +Grou speaks out with the same challenge from the opposite church +pole, and says: 'Yes; self-love makes us touchy, ready to take +offence, ill-tempered, suspicious, severe, exacting, easily +offended; it keeps alive in our hearts a certain malignity, a +secret joy at the mortifications which befall our neighbour; it +nourishes our readiness to criticise, our dislike at certain +persons, our ill-feeling, our bitterness, and a thousand other +things prejudicial to charity.' + +3. 'Myself is my own worst enemy,' says Abbe Grou. That is to +say, we may have enemies who hate us more than we hate ourselves, +and enemies who would hurt us, if they could, as much as we hurt +ourselves; but the Abbe's point is that they cannot. And he is +right. No man has ever hurt me as I have hurt myself. There are +men who hate me so much that they would poison my life of all its +peace and happiness if they could. But they cannot. They cannot; +but let them not be cast down on that account, for there is one who +can do, and who will do as long as he lives, what they cannot do. +A man's foes, to be called foes, are in his own house: they are in +his own heart. Let our enemies attend to their own peace and +happiness, and our self-love will do all, and more than all, that +they would fain do. At the most, they and their ill-will can only +give occasion to our self-love; but it is our self-love that seizes +upon the occasion, and through it rends and distorts our own +hearts. And were our hearts only pure of self-love, were our +hearts only clothed with meekness and humility, we could laugh at +all the ill-will of our enemies as leviathan laughs at the shaking +of a spear. 'Know thou,' says A Kempis to his son, 'that the love +of thyself doth do thee more hurt than anything in the whole +world.' Yes; but we shall never know that by merely reading The +Imitation. We must read ourselves. We must study, as we study +nothing else, our own rent and distorted hearts. Our own hearts +must be our daily discovery. We must watch the wounds our hearts +take every day; and we must give all our powers of mind to tracing +all our wounds back to their true causes. We must say: 'that sore +blow came on my mind and on my heart from such and such a quarter, +from such and such a hand, from such and such a weapon; but this +pain, this rankling, poisoned, and ever-festering wound, this +sleepless, gnawing, cancerous sore, comes from the covetousness, +the pride, the envy, and the wrath of my own heart.' When we begin +to say that, we shall then begin to understand and to love Thomas; +we shall sit daily at his feet and shall be numbered among his +sons. + +4. And this suffering at our own hands goes on till at last the +tables are completely turned against self-love, and till what was +once to us the dearest thing in the whole world becomes, as Pascal +says, the most hateful. We begin life by hating the men, and the +things, who hurt us. We hate the men who oppose us and hinder us; +the men who speak, and write, and act, and go in any way against +us. We bitterly hate all who humble us, despise us, trample upon +us, and in any way ill-use us. But afterwards, when we have become +men, men in experience of this life, and, especially, of ourselves +in this life; after we gain some real insight and attain to some +real skill in the life of the heart, we come round to forgive those +we once hated. We have come now to see why they did it. We see +now exactly how much they hurt us after all, and how little. And, +especially, we have come to see,--what at one time we could not +have believed,--that all our hurt, to be called hurt, has come to +us from ourselves. And thus that great revolution of mind and that +great revulsion of feeling and of passion has taken place, after +which we are left with no one henceforth to hate, to be called +hating, but ourselves. We may still continue to avoid our enemies, +and we may do that too long and too much; we may continue to fear +them and be on the watch against them far too much; but to +deliberately hate them is henceforth impossible. All our hatred,-- +all our deliberate, steady, rooted, active hatred,--is now at +ourselves; at ourselves, that is, so far and so long as we remain +under the malignant and hateful dominion of self-love. When Butler +gets our self-love restored to reasonableness, and made coincident +with virtue and part of the idea; when our self-love becomes +uniformly coincident with the principle of obedience to God's +commands, then we shall love ourselves as our neighbour, and our +neighbour as ourselves, and both in God. But, till then, there is +nothing and no one on earth or in hell so hateful to us as +ourselves and our own hateful hearts. And if in that we are +treading the winepress alone as far as our fellow-men are +concerned, all the more we have Him with us in all our agony who +wept over the heart of man because He knew what was in it, and what +must always come out of it. Evil thoughts, He said, and +fornications, and murders, and thefts, and covetousness, and +wickedness, and deceit, and an evil eye, and pride, and folly, and +what not. And Paul has the mind of Christ with him in the text. I +do not need to repeat again the hateful words. Now, what do you +say? was Pascal beyond the truth, was he deeper than the truth or +more deadly than the truth when he said with a stab that self is +hateful? I think not. + +5. 'Oh that I were free, then, of myself,' wrote Samuel Rutherford +from Aberdeen in 1637 to John Ferguson of Ochiltree. 'What need we +all have to be ransomed and redeemed from that master-tyrant, that +cruel and lawless lord, ourself! Even when I am most out of +myself, and am best serving Christ, I have a squint eye on myself.' +And to the Laird of Cally in the same year and from the same place: +'Myself is the master idol we all bow down to. Every man blameth +the devil for his sins, but the house devil of every man that +eateth with him and lieth in his bosom is himself. Oh blessed are +they who can deny themselves!' And to the Irish ministers the year +after: 'Except men martyr and slay the body of sin in sanctified +self-denial, they shall never be Christ's. Oh, if I could but be +master of myself, my own mind, my own will, my own credit, my own +love, how blessed were I! But alas! I shall die only minting and +aiming at being a Christian.' + + + +CHAPTER VIII--OLD MR. PREJUDICE, THE KEEPER OF EAR-GATE, WITH HIS +SIXTY DEAF MEN UNDER HIM + + + +'Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the +waters of Israel?'--Naaman. + +'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?'--Nathanael. + +' . . observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by +partiality.'--Paul. + +Old Mr. Prejudice was well known in the wars of Mansoul as an +angry, unhappy, and ill-conditioned old churl. Old Mr. Prejudice +was placed by Diabolus, his master, as keeper of the ward at the +post of Ear-gate, and for that fatal service he had sixty +completely deaf men put under him as his company. Men eminently +advantageous for that fatal service. Eminently advantageous,-- +inasmuch as it mattered not one atom to them what was spoken in +their ear either by God or by man. + +1. Now, to begin with, this churlish old man had already earned +for himself a very evil name. For what name could well be more +full of evil memories and of evil omens than just this name of +Prejudice? Just consider what prejudice is. Prejudice, when we +stop over it and take it to pieces and look well at it,--prejudice +is so bad and so abominable that you would not believe it could be +so bad till you had looked at it and at how it acts in your own +case. For prejudice gives judgment on your case and gives orders +for your execution before your defence has been heard, before your +witnesses have been called, before your summons has been served, +ay, and even before your indictment has been drawn out. What a +scandal and what an uproar a malfeasance of justice like that would +cause if it were to take place in any of our courts of law! Only, +the thing is impossible; you cannot even imagine it. We shall have +Magna Charta up before us in the course of these lectures. Well, +ever since Magna Charta was extorted from King John, such a scandal +as I have supposed has been impossible either in England or in +Scotland. And that such cases should still be possible in Russia +and in Turkey places those two old despotisms outside the pale of +the civilised world. And yet, loudly as we all denounce the Czar +and the Sultan, eloquently as we boast over Magna Charta, Habeas +Corpus, and what not, every day you and I are doing what would cost +an English king his crown, and an English judge his head. We all +do it every day, and it never enters one mind out of a hundred that +we are trampling down truth, and righteousness, and fairplay, and +brotherly love. We do not know what a diabolical wickedness we are +perpetrating every day. The best men among us are guilty of that +iniquity every day, and they never confess it to themselves; no one +ever accuses them of it; and they go down to death and judgment +unsuspicious of the discovery that they will soon make there. You +would not steal a stick or a straw that belonged to me; but you +steal from me every day what all your gold and mine can never +redeem; you murder me every day in my best and my noblest life. +You me, and I you. + +2. Old Mr. Prejudice. Now, there is a golden passage in Jonathan +Edwards's Diary that all old men should lay well to heart and +conscience. 'I observe,' Edwards enters, 'that old men seldom have +any advantage of new discoveries, because these discoveries are +beside a way of thinking they have been long used to. Resolved, +therefore, that, if ever I live to years, I will be impartial to +hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them, if +rational, how long soever I have been used to another way of +thinking. I am too dogmatical; I have too much of egotism; my +disposition is always to be telling of my dislike and my scorn.' +What a fine, fresh, fruitful, progressive, and peaceful world we +should soon have if all our old and all our fast-ageing men would +enter that extract into their diary! How the young would then love +and honour and lean upon the old; and how all the fathers would +always abide young and full of youthful life like their children! +Then the righteous should flourish like the palm-tree; he should +grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They that be planted in the house of +the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still +bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing. +What a free scope would then be given to all God's unfolding +providences, and what a warm welcome to all His advancing truths! +What sore and spreading wounds would then be salved, what health +and what vigour would fill all the body political, as well as all +the body mystical! May the Lord turn the heart of the fathers to +the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest +the earth be smitten with a curse! + +3. Mr. Prejudice was an old man; and this also has been handed +down about him, that he was almost always angry. And if you keep +your eyes open you will soon see how true to the life that feature +of old Mr. Prejudice still is. In every conversation, discussion, +debate, correspondence, the angry man is invariably the prejudiced +man; and, according to the age and the depth, the rootedness and +the intensity of his prejudices, so is the ferocity and the +savagery of his anger. He has already settled this case that you +are irritating and wronging him so much by your still insisting on +bringing up. It is a reproach to his understanding for you to +think that there is anything to be said in that matter that he has +not long ago heard said and fully answered. Has he not denounced +that bad man and that bad cause for years? You insult me, sir, by +again opening up that matter in my presence. He will have none of +you or of your arguments either. You are as bad yourself as that +bad man is whose advocate you are. We all know men whose hearts +are full of coals of juniper, burning coals of hate and rage, just +by reason of their ferocious prejudices. Hate is too feeble a word +for their gnashing rage against this man and that cause, this +movement and that institution. There is an absolutely murderous +light in their eye as they work themselves up against the men and +the things they hate. Charity rejoices not in iniquity; but you +will see otherwise Christian and charitable men so jockeyed by the +devil that they actually rejoice in iniquity and do not know what +they are doing, or who it is that is egging them on to do it. You +will see otherwise and at other times good men so full of the rage +and madness of prejudice and partiality that they will storm at +every report of goodness and truth and prosperity in the man, or in +the cause, or in the church, or in the party, they are so demented +against. Jockey is not the word. There is the last triumph of +pure devilry in the way that the prince of the devils turns old +Prejudice's very best things--his love of his fathers, his love of +the past, his love of order, his love of loyalty, his love of the +old paths, and his very truest and best religion itself--into so +much fat fuel for the fires of hate and rage that are consuming his +proud heart to red-hot ashes. If the light that is in us be +darkness, how great is that darkness; and if the life that is in us +be death, how deadly is that death! + +4. Old, angry, and ill-conditioned. Ill-conditioned is an old- +fashioned word almost gone out of date. But, all the same, it is a +very expressive, and to us to-night a quite indispensable word. An +ill-conditioned man is a man of an in-bred, cherished, and +confirmed ill-nature. His heart, which was a sufficiently bad +heart to begin with, is now so exercised in evil and so accustomed +to evil, that,--how can he be born again when he is so old and so +ill-natured? All the qualities, all the passions, all the emotions +of his heart are out of joint; their bent is bad; they run out +naturally to mischief. Now, what could possibly be more ill- +conditioned than to judge and sentence, denounce and execute a man +before you have heard his case? What could be more ill-conditioned +than positively to be afraid lest you should be led to forgive, and +redress, and love, and act with another man? To be determined not +to hear one word that you can help in his defence, in his favour, +and in his praise? Could a human heart be in a worse state on this +side hell itself than that? Nay, that is hell itself in your evil +heart already. Let prejudice and partiality have their full scope +among the wicked passions of your ill-conditioned heart, and lo! +the kingdom of darkness is already within you. Not, lo, here! or, +lo, there! but within you. Look to yourselves, says John to us +all, full as we all are of our own ill-conditions. Look to +yourselves. But we have no eyes left with which to see ourselves; +we look so much at the faults and the blames of our neighbour. +'Publius goes to church sometimes, and reads the Scriptures; but he +knows not what he reads or prays, his head is so full of politics. +He is so angry at kings and ministers of state that he has no time +nor disposition to call himself to account. He has the history of +all parliaments, elections, prosecutions, and impeachments by +heart, and he dies with little or no religion, through a constant +fear of Popery.' Poor, old, ill-conditioned Publius! + +5. And, then, his sixty deaf men under old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice. We read of engines of sixty-horse power. And here is a +man with the power of resisting and shutting out the truth equal to +that of sixty men like himself. We all know such men; we would as +soon think of speaking to those iron pillars about a change of mind +as we would to them. If you preach to their prejudices and their +prepossessions and their partialities, they are all ears to hear +you, and all tongues to trumpet your praise. But do not expect +them to sit still with ordinary decency under what they are so +prejudiced against; do not expect them to read a book or buy a +passing paper on the other side. Sixty deaf men hold their ears; +sixty ill-conditioned men hold their hearts. Habit with them is +all the test of truth; it must be right, they've done it from their +youth. And thus they go on to the end of their term of life, full +of their own fixed ideas, with their eyes full of beams and +jaundices and darkness and death. Some people think that we take +up too much of our time with newspapers in our day, and that, if +things go on as they are going, we shall soon have neither time nor +taste for anything else but half a dozen papers a day. But all +that depends on the conditions with which we read. If we would +read as Jonathan Edwards read the weekly news-letters of his day; +if we read all our papers to see if the kingdom of God was coming +in reply to our prayer; if we read, observing all things, like +Timothy, without prejudice or partiality, then I know no better +reading for an ill-conditioned heart begun to look to itself than +just a good, out-and-out party newspaper. And if it is a church +paper all the better for your purpose. If you read with your +fingers in your ears; if you read with a beam in your eye, you had +better confine yourself in your reading; if you feel that your +prejudices are inflamed and your partiality is intensified, then +take care what paper you take in. But if you read all you read for +the love of the truth, for justice, for fair-play, and for +brotherly love, and all that in yourself; if you read all the time +with your eyes on your own ill-conditioned heart, then, as James +says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Take +up your political and ecclesiastical paper every morning, saying to +yourself, Go to, O my heart, and get thy daily lesson. Go to, and +enter thy cleansing and refining furnace. Go to, and come well out +of thy daily temptation.--A nobler school you will not find +anywhere for a prejudiced, partial, angry, and ill-conditioned +heart than just the party journals of the day. For the abating of +prejudice; for seeing the odiousness of partiality, and for putting +on every day a fair, open, catholic, Christian mind, commend me to +the public life and the public journals of our living day. And it +is not that this man may be up and that man down; this cause +victorious and that cause defeated; this truth vindicated and that +untruth defeated, that public life rolls on and that its +revolutions are reported to us. Our own minds and our own hearts +are the final cause, the ultimate drift, and the far-off end and +aim of it all. We are not made for party and for the partialities +and prosperities of party; party and all its passions and all its +successes and all its defeats are made, and are permitted to be +made for us; for our opportunity of purging ourselves free of all +our ill-conditions, of all our prejudices, of all our partialities, +and of all the sin and misery that come to us of all these things. + +6. 'It is the work of a philosopher,' says Addison in one of his +best Spectators, 'to be every day subduing his passions and laying +aside his prejudices.' We are not philosophers, but we shall be +enrolled in the foremost ranks of philosophy if we imitate such +philosophers in their daily work, as we must do and shall do. +Well, are we begun to do it? Are we engaged in that work of theirs +and ours every day? Is God our witness and our judge that we are? +Are we so engaged upon that inward work, and so succeeding in it, +that we can read our most prejudiced newspaper with the same mind +and spirit, with the same profit and progress, with which we read +our Bible? A good man, a humble man, a man acutely sensible of his +ill-conditions, will look on every day as lost or won according as +he has lost or won in this inward war. If his partialities are +dropping off his mind; if his prejudices are melting; if he can +read books and papers with pleasure and instruction that once +filled him with dark passions and angry outbursts; if his Calvinism +lets him read Thomas A Kempis and Jeremy Taylor and William Law; if +his High-Churchism lets him delight to worship God in an +Independent or a Presbyterian church; if his Free-Churchism permits +him to see the Establishment reviving, and his State-Churchism +admits that the Free Churches have more to say to him than he had +at one time thought; if his Toryism lets him take in a Radical +paper, and his Radicalism a Unionist paper--then let him thank God, +for God is in all that though he knew it not. And when he counts +up his incalculable benefits at each return of the Lord's table, +let him count up as not the least of them an open mind and a well- +conditioned heart, an unprejudiced mind, and an impartial heart. + +7. And now, to conclude: Take old, angry, ill-conditioned +Prejudice, his daily prayer: 'My Adorable God and Creator! Thy +Holy Church is by the wickedness of men divided into various +communions, all hating, condemning, and endeavouring to destroy one +another. I made none of these divisions, nor am I any longer a +defender of them. I wish everything removed out of every communion +that hinders the Common Unity. The wranglings and disputings of +whole churches and nations have so confounded all things that I +have no ability to make a true and just judgment of the matters +between them. If I knew that any one of these communions was alone +acceptable to Thee, I would do or suffer anything to make myself a +member of it. For, my Good God, I desire nothing so much as to +know and to love Thee, and to worship Thee in the most acceptable +manner. And as I humbly presume that Thou wouldst not suffer Thy +Church to be thus universally divided, if no divided portion could +offer any worship acceptable unto Thee; and as I have no knowledge +of what is absolutely best in these divided parts, nor any ability +to put an end to them; so I fully trust in Thy goodness, that Thou +wilt not suffer these divisions to separate me from Thy mercy in +Christ Jesus; and that, if there be any better ways of serving Thee +than those I already enjoy, Thou wilt, according to Thine infinite +mercy, lead me into them, O God of my peace and my love.' After +this manner old, angry, ill-conditioned Prejudice prayed every day +till he died, a little child, in charity with all men, and in +acceptance with Almighty God. + + + +CHAPTER IX--CAPTAIN ANYTHING + + + +'I am made all things to all men . . . I please all men in all +things.'--Paul + +Captain Anything came originally from the ancient town of Fair- +speech. + +Fair-speech had many royal bounties and many special privileges +bestowed upon it, and Captain Anything and his family had come to +many titles and to great riches in that ancient, loyal, and +honourable borough. My Lord Turn-about, my Lord Time-server, my +Lord Fair-speech (from whose ancestors that town first took its +name), as also such well-known commoners as Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. +Facing-both-ways, and Mr. Two-tongues were all sprung with Captain +Anything from the same ancient and long-established ancestry. As +to his religion, from a child young Anything had sat under the +parson of the parish, the same Reverend Two-tongues as has been +mentioned above. And our budding soldier followed the example of +his minister in that he never strove too long against wind or tide, +or was ever to be seen on the same side of the street with Religion +when she was banished from court or had lost her silver slippers. +The crest of the Anythings was a delicately poised weather-cock; +and the motto engraved around the gyrating bird ran thus: 'Our +judgment always jumps according to the occasion.' As a military +man, Captain Anything is described in military books as a proper +man, and a man of courage and skill--to appearance. He and his +company under him were a sort of Swiss guard in Mansoul. They held +themselves open and ready for any master. They lived not so much +by religion or by loyalty as by the fates of worldly fortune. In +his secret despatches Diabolus was wont to address Captain Anything +as My Darling; and be sure you recruit your Switzers well, Diabolus +would say; but when the real stress of the war came, even Diabolus +cast Captain Anything off. And thus it came about that when both +sides were against this despised creature he had to throw down his +arms and flee into a safe skulking place for his life. +*** Spell checked to here--85 *** +1. In that half-papist, half-atheistic country called France there +is a class of politicians known by the name of Opportunists. They +are a kind of public men that, we are thankful to say, are not +known in Protestant and Evangelical England, but they may be +pictured out and described to you in this homely way: An +Opportunist stands well out of the sparks of the fire, and well in +behind the stone wall, till the fanatics for liberty, equality, and +fraternity have snatched the chestnuts out of the fire, and then +the Opportunist steps out from his safe place and blandly divides +the well-roasted tid-bits among his family and his friends. As +long as there is any jeopardy, the Jacobins are denounced and held +up to opprobrium; but when the jeopardy and the risk are well past, +the sober-minded, cautious, conservative, and responsible statesmen +walk off with the portfolios of place and privilege and pay under +their honest arms. But these are the unprincipled papists and +infidels of a mushroom republic; and, thank God, such spurious +patriotism, and such sham and selfish statesmanship, have not yet +shown their miserable heads among faithful, fearless, +straightforward, and uncalculating Englishmen. At the same time, +if ever that continental vice should attack our national character, +we have two well-known essays in our ethical and casuistical +literature that may with perfect safety be pitted against anything +that either France or Italy has produced. Even if they are but a +master's irony, let all ambitious men keep Of Cunning and Of Wisdom +for a Man's Self under their pillow. Let all young men who would +toady a great man; let all young ministers who would tune their +pulpit to king, or court, or society; let all tradesmen and +merchants who prefer their profits to their principles--if they +have literature enough, let them soak their honest minds in our +great Chancellor's sage counsels; and he who promoted Anything and +dubbed him his Darling, he will, no doubt, publish both a post and +a title on his birthday for you also. + +2. 'What religion is he of?' asks Dean Swift. 'He is an +Anythingarian,' is the answer, 'for he makes his self-interest the +sole standard of his life and doctrine.' And Archbishop Leighton, +a very different churchman from the bitter author of the Polite +Conversations, is equally contemptuous toward the self-seeker in +divine things. 'Your boasted peaceableness often proceeds from a +superficial temper; and, not seldom, from a supercilious disdain of +whatever has no marketable use or value, and from your utter +indifference to true religion. Toleration is an herb of +spontaneous growth in the soil of indifference. Much of our union +of minds proceeds from want of knowledge and from want of affection +to religion. Many who boast of their church conformity, and that +no one hears of their noise, may thank the ignorance of their minds +for that kind of quietness.' But by far the most powerful assault +that ever was made upon lukewarmness in religion and upon self- +seeking in the Church was delivered by Dante in the tremendous +third canto of his Inferno:- + +Various tongues, +Horrible languages, outcries of woe, +Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse, +With hands together smote that swelled the sounds, +Made up a tumult that for ever whirls +Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd, +Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies. +I then, with error yet encompass'd, cried, +'O master! What is this I hear? What race +Are these, who seem so overcome with woe?' +He then to me: 'This miserable fate +Suffer the wretched souls of those who lived +Without or praise or blame, with that ill band +Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved, +Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves +Were only. Mercy and Justice scorn them both. +Speak not of them, but look and pass them by.' +Forthwith, I understood for certain this the tribe +Of those ill spirits both to God displeasing +And to His foes. Those wretches who ne'er lived, +Went on in nakedness, and sorely stung +By wasps and hornets, which bedewed their cheeks +With blood, that mix'd with tears dropp'd to their feet, +And by disgustful worms was gathered there. + + +3. Now, we must all lay it continually and with uttermost +humiliation to heart that we all have Captain Anything's +opportunism, his self-interest, his insincerity, his instability, +and his secret deceitfulness in ourselves. That man knows little +of himself who does not despise and hate himself for his secret +self-seeking even in the service of God. For, how the love of +praise will seduce and corrupt this man, and the love of gain that +man! How easy it is to flatter and adulate this man out of all his +former opinions and his deepest principles, and how an expected +advantage will make that other man forget now an old alliance and +now a deep antipathy! How often the side we take even in the most +momentous matters is decided by the most unworthy motives and the +most contemptible considerations! Unstable as water, Reuben shall +not excel. Double-minded men, we, like Jacob's first-born, are +unstable in all our ways. We have no anchor, or, what anchor we +sometimes have soon slips. We have no fixed pole-star by which to +steer our life. Any will-o'-the-wisp of pleasure, or advantage, or +praise will run us on the rocks. The searchers of Mansoul, after +long search, at last lighted on Anything, and soon made an end of +him. Seek him out in your own soul also. Be you sure he is +somewhere there. He is skulking somewhere there. And, having +found him, if you cannot on the spot make an end of him, keep your +eye on him, and never say that you are safe from him and his +company as long as you are in this soul-deceiving life. And, that +Anything will not be let enter the gates of the city you are set on +seeking, that will go largely to make that sweet and clean and +truthful city your very heaven to you. + +4. 'I am made all things to all men, and I please all men in all +things.' One would almost think that was Captain Anything himself, +in a frank, cynical, and self-censorious moment. But if you will +look it up you will see that it was a very different man. The +words are the words of Anything, but the heart behind the words is +the heart of Paul. And this, again, teaches us that we should be +like the Messiah in this also, not to judge after the sight of our +eyes, nor to reprove after the hearing of our ears. Miserable +Anything! outcast alike of heaven and hell! But, O noble and +blessed Apostle! the man, says Thomas Goodwin, who shall be found +seated next to Jesus Christ Himself in the kingdom of God. Happy +Paul: happy even on this earth, since he could say, and in the +measure he could say with truth and with sincerity, such self- +revelations as these: 'Unto the Jews I am become as a Jew that I +might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the +law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that +are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are +without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the +weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means +save some. Giving none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the +Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. Even as I please all men in +all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, +that they may be saved.' Noble words, and inspiring to read. Yes: +but look within, and think what Paul must have passed through; +think what he must have been put through before he,--a man of like +selfish passions as we are, a man of like selfish passions as +Anything was,--could say all that. Let his crosses and his thorns; +his raptures up to the third heaven, and his body of death that he +bore about with him all his days; let his magnificent spiritual +gifts, and his still more magnificent spiritual graces tell how +they all worked together to make the chief of sinners out of the +blameless Pharisee, and, at the same time, Christ's own chosen +vessel and the apostle of all the churches. Boasting about his +patron apostle, St. Augustine says: 'Far be it from so great an +apostle, a vessel elect of God, an organ of the Holy Ghost, to be +one man when he preached and another when he wrote; one man in +private and another in public. He was made all things to all men, +not by the craft of a deceiver, but from the affection of a +sympathiser, succouring the diverse diseases of souls with the +diverse emotions of compassion; to the little ones dispensing the +lesser doctrines, not false ones, but the higher mysteries to the +perfect--all of them, however, true, harmonious, and divine.' The +exquisite irony of Socrates comes into my mind in this connection, +and will not be kept out of my mind. By instinct as well as by art +Socrates mixed up the profoundest seriousness with the humorous +affectation of qualities of mind and even of character the exact +opposite of what all who loved him knew to be the real Socrates. +'Intellectually,' says Dr. Thomson, 'the acutest man of his age, +Socrates represents himself in all companies as the dullest person +present. Morally the purest, he affects to be the slave of passion +and borrows the language even of the lewd to describe a love and a +goodwill far too exalted for the comprehension of his +contemporaries. This irony of his disarmed ridicule by +anticipating it; it allayed jealousy and propitiated envy; and it +possibly procured him admission into gay circles from which a more +solemn teacher would have been excluded. But all the time it had +for its basis a real greatness of soul, a hearty and an unaffected +disregard of public opinion, a perfect disinterestedness, and an +entire abnegation of self. He made himself a fool in order that +fools by his folly might be made wise; he humbled himself to the +level of those among whom his work lay that he might raise some few +among them to his own level; he was all things to all men, if by +any means he might save some. Till Alcibiades ends the splendid +eloge that Plato puts into his mouth with these words, "All my +master's vice and stupidity and worship of wealthy and great men is +counterfeit. It is all but the Silenus-mask which conceals the +features of the god within; for if you remove the covering, how +shall I describe to you, my friends and boon companions, the +excellence of the beauty you will find within! Whether any of you +have seen Socrates in his serious mood, when he has thrown aside +the mask and disclosed the divine features beneath it, is more than +I know. But I have seen them, and I can tell you that they seemed +to me glorious and marvellous, and, truly, godlike in their +beauty."' + +Well, now, I gather out of all that this great lesson: that it is, +to begin with, a mere matter of temperament, or what William Law +would call a mere matter of complexion and sensibility, whether, to +begin with, a man is hard, and dry, and narrow, and stiff, and +proud, and scornful, and cruel; or again, whether he is soft and +tender, broad and open, and full of sympathy and of the milk of +human kindness. At first, and to begin with, there is neither +praise nor blame as yet in the matter. A man is hard just as a +stone is hard; it is his nature. Or he is soft as clay is soft; it +is again his nature. But, inheriting such a nature, and his +inherited nature beginning to appear, then is the time when the +true man really begins to be made. The bad man dwells in +contentment, and, indeed, by preference, at home in his own hard, +proud, scornful, resentful heart; or, again, in his facile, +fawning, tide-waiting, time-serving heart; and thus he chooses, +accepts, and prefers his evil fate, and never seeks the help either +of God or man to enable him to rise above it. Paul was not, when +we meet him first, the sweet, humble, affable, placable, makeable +man that he made himself and came to be after a lifetime of gospel- +preaching and of adorning the gospel he preached. And all the +assistances and all the opportunities that came to Paul are still +coming to you and to me; till, whether naturally pliable and +affectionate or the opposite, we at last shall come to the +temperament, the complexion, and the exquisite sensibility of Paul +himself. Are you, then, a hard, stiff, severe, censorious, proud, +angry, scornful man? Or are you a too-easy, too-facile man-pleaser +and self-seeker, being all things to all men that you may make use +of all men? Are you? Then say so. Confess it to be so. Admit +that you have found yourself out. And reflect every day what you +have got to do in life. Consider what a new birth you need and +must have. Number your days that are left you in which to make you +a new heart, and a new nature, and a new character. Consider well +how you are to set about that divine work. You have a minister, +and your minister is called a divine because by courtesy he is +supposed to understand that divine work, and to be engaged on it +night and day in himself, and in season and out of season among his +people. He will tell you how you are to make you a new heart. Or, +if he does not and cannot do that; if he preaches about everything +but that to a people who will listen to anything but that, then +your soul is not in his hands but in your own. You may not be able +to choose your minister, but you can choose what books you are to +buy, or borrow, and read. And if there is not a minister within a +hundred miles of you who knows his right hand from his left, then +there are surely some booksellers who will advise you about the +classical books of the soul till you can order them for yourselves. +And thus, if it is your curse and your shame to be as spongy, and +soapy, and oily, and slippery as Anything himself; if you choose +your church and your reading with any originality, sense, and +insight, you need not fear but that you will be let live till you +die an honest, upright, honourable, fearless gentleman: no timid +friend to unfashionable truth, as you are to-night, but a man like +Thomas Boston's Ettrick elder, who lies waiting the last trump +under a gravestone engraven with this legend: Here lies a man who +had a brow for every good cause. Only, if you would have that +written and read on your headstone, you have no time to lose. If I +were you I would not sit another Sabbath under a minister whose +preaching was not changing my nature, making my heart new, and +transforming my character; no, not though the Queen herself sat in +the same loft. And I would leave the church even of my fathers, +and become anything as far as churches go, if I could get a +minister who held my face close and ever closer up to my own heart. +Nor would I spend a shilling or an hour that I could help on any +impertinent book,--any book that did not powerfully help me in the +one remaining interest of my one remaining life: a new nature and +a new heart. No, not I. No, not I any more. + + + +CHAPTER X--CLIP-PROMISE + + + +' . . . the promise made of none effect.'--Paul + +Toward the end of the thirteenth century Edward the First, the +English Justinian, brought a select colony of artists from Italy to +England and gave them a commission to execute their best coinage +for the English Mint. Deft and skilful as those artists were, the +work they turned out was but rude and clumsy compared with some of +the gold and silver and copper coins of our day. The Florentine +artists took a sheet of gold or of silver and divided the sheet up +with great scissors, and then they hammered the cut-out pieces as +only a Florentine hammerman could hammer them. But, working with +such tools, and working on such methods, those goldsmiths and +silversmiths, with all their art, found it impossible to give an +absolutely equal weight and worth to every piece of money that they +turned out. For one thing, their cut and hammered coins had no +carved rims round their edges as all our gold and silver and even +copper coinage now has. And, accordingly, the clever rogues of +that day soon discovered that it was far easier for them to take up +a pair of shears and to clip a sliver of silver off the rough rim +of a shilling, or a shaving of gold off a sovereign, than it was to +take of their coats and work a hard day's work. Till to clip the +coin of the realm soon became one of the easiest and most +profitable kinds of crime. In the time of Elizabeth a great +improvement was made in the way of coining the public money; but it +was soon found that this had only made matters worse. For now, +side by side with a pure and unimpaired and full-valued currency, +and mingled up everywhere with it, there was the old, clipped, +debased, and far too light gold and silver money; till troubles +arose in connection with the coinage and circulation of the country +that can only be told by Macaulay's extraordinarily graphic pen. +'It may well be doubted,' Macaulay says, in the twenty-first +chapter of his History of England, 'whether all the misery which +has been inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century +by bad Kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments, and bad Judges was +equal to the misery caused in a single year by bad crowns and bad +shillings. Whether Whigs or Tories, Protestants or Papists were +uppermost, the grazier drove his beasts to market, the grocer +weighed out his currants, the draper measured out his broadcloth, +the hum of buyers and sellers was as loud as ever in the towns; the +cream overflowed the pails of Cheshire; the apple juice foamed in +the presses of Herefordshire; the piles of crockery glowed in the +furnaces of the Trent, and the barrows of coal rolled fast along +the timber railways of the Tyne. But when the great instrument of +exchange became thoroughly deranged all trade and all industry were +smitten as with a palsy. Nothing could be purchased without a +dispute. Over every counter there was wrangling from morning to +night. The employer and his workmen had a quarrel as regularly as +Saturday night came round. On a fair day or a market day the +clamours, the disputes, the reproaches, the taunts, the curses, +were incessant. No merchant would contract to deliver goods +without making some stipulation about the quality of the coin in +which he was to be paid. The price of the necessaries of life, of +shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The bit of metal called a +shilling the labourer found would not go so far as sixpence. One +day Tonson sends forty brass shillings to Dryden, to say nothing of +clipped money. The great poet sends them all back and demands in +their place good guineas. "I expect," he says, "good silver, not +such as I had formerly." Meanwhile, at every session of the Old +Bailey the most terrible example of coiners and clippers was made. +Hurdles, with four, five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting +or mutilating the money of the realm, were dragged month after +month up Holborn Hill.' But I cannot copy the whole chapter, +wonderful as the writing is. Suffice it to say that before the +clippers could be rooted out, and confidence restored between buyer +and seller, the greatest statesmen, the greatest financiers, and +the greatest philosophers were all at their wits' end. Kings' +speeches, cabinet councils, bills of Parliament, and showers of +pamphlets were all full in those days of the clipper and the +coiner. All John Locke's great intellect came short of grappling +successfully with the terrible crisis the clipper of the coin had +brought upon England. Carry all that, then, over into the life of +personal religion, after the manner of our Lord's parables, and +after the manner of the Pilgrim's Progress and the Holy War, and +you will see what an able and impressive use John Bunyan will make +of the shears of the coin-clippers of his day. Macaulay has but +made us ready to open and understand Bunyan. 'After this, my Lord +apprehended Clip-Promise. Now, because he was a notorious villain, +for by his doings much of the king's coin was abused, therefore he +was made a public example. He was arraigned and judged to be set +first in the pillory, then to be whipped by all the children and +servants in Mansoul, and then to be hanged till he was dead. Some +may wonder at the severity of this man's punishment, but those that +are honest traders in Mansoul they are sensible of the great abuse +that one clipper of promises in little time may do in the town of +Mansoul; and, truly, my judgment is that all those of his name and +life should be served out even as he.' + +The grace of God is like a bullion mass of purest gold, and then +Jesus Christ is the great ingot of that gold, and then Moses, and +David, and Isaiah, and Hosea, and Paul, and Peter, and John are the +inspired artists who have commission to take both bullion and +ingot, and out of them to cut, and beat, and smelt, and shape, and +stamp, and superscribe the promises, and then to issue the promises +to pass current in the market of salvation like so many shekels, +and pounds, and pence, and farthings, and mites, as the case may +be. And it was just these royal coins, imaged and superscribed so +richly and so beautifully, that Clip-Promise so mutilated, abused, +and debased, till for doing so he was hanged by the neck till he +was dead. + +1. The very house of Israel herself, the very Mint-house, Tower +Hill, and Lombard Street of Israel herself, was full of false +coiners and clippers of the promises; as full as ever England was +at her very worst. Israel clipped her Messianic promises and lived +upon the clippings instead of upon the coin. Her coming Christ, +and His salvation already begun, were the true spiritual currency +of Old Testament times; while round that central Image of her great +promise there ran an outside rim of lesser promises that all took +their true and their only value from Him whose image and +superscription stood within. But those besotted and infatuated men +of Israel, instead of entering into and living by the great +spiritual promises given to them in their Messiah, made lands, and +houses, and meat, and drink, all the Messiah they cared for. +Matthew Henry says that when we go to the merchant to buy goods, he +gives us the paper and the pack-thread to the bargain. Well, those +children and fools in Israel actually threw away the goods and +hoarded and boasted over the paper and the pack-thread. Our old +Scottish lawyers have made us familiar with the distinction in the +church between spiritualia and temporalia. Well, the Jews let the +spiritualia go to those who cared to take such things, while they +held fast to the temporalia. And all that went on till His +disciples had the effrontery to clip and coin under our Lord's very +eyes, and even to ask Him to hold the coin while they sharpened +their shears. 'O faithless and perverse generation! How long +shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Have I been so +long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? O fools, +and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! +And beginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded to them in +all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.' + +2. But those who live in glass houses must take care not to throw +stones. And thus the greatest fool in Israel is safe from you and +me. For, like them, and just as if we had never read one word +about them, we bend our hearts and our children's hearts to things +seen and temporal, and then, after things seen and temporal have +all cast us off, we begin to ask if there is any solace or +sweetness for a cast-off heart in things unseen and eternal. There +are great gaps clipt out of our Bibles that not God Himself can +ever print or paste in again. Look and see if half the Book of +Proverbs, for instance, with all its noble promises to a godly +youth, is not clipt clean out of your dismembered Bible. That fine +leaf also, 'My son, give Me thine heart,' is clean gone out of the +twenty-third chapter of the Proverbs years and years ago. As is +the best part of the noble Book of Daniel, and almost the whole of +Second Timothy. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His +righteousness, and meat and drink, and wife and child shall be +added unto you.' Your suicidal shears have cut that golden promise +for ever out of your Sermon on the Mount. So much so that if any +or all of these temporal mercies ever come to you, they will come +of pure and undeserved mercy, for the time has long passed when you +could plead any promise for them. Still, there are two most +excellent uses left to which you can even yet put your mangled and +dismembered Bible. You can make a splendid use of its gaps and of +its gashes, and of those waste places where great promises at one +time stood. You can make a grand use even of those gaps if you +will descend into them and draw out of them humiliation and +repentance, compunction, contrition, and resignation. And this use +also: When you are moved to take some man who is still young into +your confidence, ask him to let you see his Bible and then let him +see yours, and point out to him the rents and wounds and wilderness +places in yours. And thus, by these two uses of a clipped-up and +half-empty Bible, you may make gains that shall yet set you above +those whose Bibles of promises are still as fresh as when they came +from God's own hand. And Samson said, I will now put forth a +riddle unto you: Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the +strong came forth sweetness. + +3. 'Go out,' said the Lord of Mansoul, 'and apprehend Clip-Promise +and bring him before me.' And they did so. 'Go down to Edinburgh +to-night, and go to the door of such and such a church, and, as he +comes out arrest Clip-the-Commandments, for he has heard My word +all this day again but will not do it.' Where would you be by +midnight if God rose up in anger and swore at this moment that your +disobedient time should be no longer? You would be speechless +before such a charge, for the shears are in your pocket at this +moment with which you have clipped to pieces this Sabbath-day: +shears red with the blood of the Fourth Commandment. For, when did +you rise off your bed this resurrection morning? And what did you +do when you did rise? What has your reading and your conversation +been this whole Lord's day? How full your heart would have been of +faith and love and holiness by this time of night had you not +despised the Lord of the Sabbath, and cast all His commandments and +opportunities to you behind your back? What private exercise have +you had all day with your Father who sees in secret? How often +have you been on your knees, and where, and how long, and for what, +and for whom? What work of mercy have you done to-day, or +determined to do to-morrow? And so with all the divine +commandments: Mosaic and Christian, legal and evangelical. Such +as: A tenth of all I have given to thee; a covenant with a +wandering eye; a mouth once speaking evil, is it now well watched? +not one vessel only, but all the vessels of thy body sanctified +till every thought and imagination is well under the obedience of +Christ. Lest His anger for all that begin to burn to-night, make +your bed with Eli and Samuel in His sanctuary to-night, lest the +avenger of the blood of the commandments leap out on you in your +sleep! + +4. The Old Serpent took with him the great shears of hell, and +clipped 'Thou shalt surely die' out of the second chapter of +Genesis. And the same enemy of mankind will clip all the terror of +the Lord out of your heart to-night again, if he can. And he will +do it in this way, if he can. He will have some one at the church +door ready and waiting for you. As soon as the blessing is +pronounced, some one will take you by the arm and will entertain +you with the talk you love, or that you once loved, till you will +be ashamed to confess that there is any terror or turning to God in +your heart. No! Thou shalt not surely die, says the serpent +still. Why, hast thou not trampled Sabbaths and sermons past +counting under thy feet? What commandment, laid on body or soul, +hast thou not broken, and thou art still adding drunkenness to +thirst, and God doth not know! 'The woman said unto the serpent, +We may not eat of it, neither may we touch it, lest we die. And +the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.' + +5. You must all have heard of Clito, who used to say that he +desired no more time for rising and dressing and saying his prayers +than about a quarter of an hour. Well, that was clipping the thing +pretty close, wasn't it? At the same time it must be admitted that +a good deal of prayer may be got through in a quarter of an hour if +you do not lose any moment of it. Especially in the first quarter +of the day, if you are expeditious enough to begin to pray before +you even begin to dress. And prayer is really a very strange +experience. There are things about prayer that no man has yet +fully found out or told to any. For one thing, once well began it +grows upon a man in a most extraordinary and unheard-of way. This +same Clito for instance, some time after we find him at his prayers +before his eyes are open; and then he keeps all morning making his +bath, his soap, his towels, his brushes, and his clothes all one +long artifice of prayer. And that till there is not a single piece +of his dressing-room furniture that is not ready to swear at the +last day that its master long before he died had become a man full +of secret prayer. There is a fountain filled with blood! he +exclaims, as he throws himself into his bath; and Jeremiah second +and twenty-second he uses regularly to repeat to himself half a +dozen times a day as he washes the smoke and dust of the city off +his hands and face. And then Revelation third and eighteenth till +his toilet is completed. Nay, this same Clito has come to be such +a devotee to that he had at one time been so expeditious with, that +I have seen him forget himself on the street and think that his +door was shut. But there is really no use telling you all that +about Clito. For, till you try closet-prayer for yourself, all +that God or man can say to you on that subject will be water spilt +on the ground. All we can say is, Try it. Begin it. Some +desperate day try it. Stop when you are on the way to the pond and +try it. Stop when you are fastening up the rope and try it. When +the poison is moving in the cup, stop, shut your door first. Try +God first. See if He is still waiting. And, always after, when +the steel shears of a too early, too crowded, and far too exacting +day are clipping you out of all time for prayer, then what should +you do? What do you do when you simply cannot get your proper +fresh air and exercise everyday? Do you not fall back on the +plasticity and pliability of nature and take your air and exercise +in large parcels? You take a ride into the country two or three +times a week. Or, two afternoons a week you have ten miles alone +if you cannot get a godly friend. And then two or three times a +year, if you can afford it, you climb an Alp or a Grampian every +day for a week or a month; and, so gracious and so adaptable is +human nature, that, what others get daily, you get weekly, or +monthly, or quarterly, or yearly. And, though a soul is not to be +too much presumed upon, Clito came to tell his friends that his +soul could on occasion take in prayer and praise enough for a week +in a single morning or afternoon, and, almost, for a whole year in +a good holiday. As Christ Himself did when He said: Come away +apart into a desert place and rest a while; for there are so many +people coming and going here that we have no time so much as to +eat. + +6. But I see I must clip off my last point with you, which was to +tell you what you already know only too well, and that is, what +terrible shears a bad conscience is armed with, and what havoc she +makes at all ages of a poor sinner's Bible. But you can spare that +head. You can preach on that text to yourselves far better than +all your ministers. Only, take home with you these two lines I +have clipped out of Fraser of Brea for you. Nothing in man, he +says to us, is to be a ground of despair, since the whole ground of +all our hope is in Christ alone. Christ's relation is always to +men as they are sinners and not as they are righteous. I came not +to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 'Tis with +sinners, then, Christ has to do. Nothing damns but unbelief; and +unbelief is just holding back from pressing God with this promise, +that Christ came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying, and +worthy of all acceptation, and it is still to be found standing in +the most clipped-up Bible, that Christ Jesus came into the world to +save sinners; of whom I am chief. + + + +CHAPTER XI--STIFF MR. LOTH-TO-STOOP + + + +'Thy neck is an iron sinew.'--Jehovah to the house of Jacob. + +'King Zedekiah humbled not himself, but stiffened his neck.'--The +Chronicles. + +'He humbled himself.'--Paul on our Lord. + +All John Bunyan's Characters, Situations, and Episodes are +collected into this house to-night. Obstinate and Pliable are +here; Passion and Patience; Simple, Sloth, and Presumption; Madame +Bubble and Mr. Worldly-wiseman; Talkative and By-ends; Deaf Mr. +Prejudice is here also, and, sitting close beside him, stiff Mr. +Loth-to-stoop; while good old Mr. Wet-eyes and young Captain Self- +denial are not wholly wanting. It gives this house an immense and +an ever-green interest to me to see character after character +coming trooping in, Sabbath evening after Sabbath evening, each man +to see himself and his neighbour in John Bunyan's so truthful and +so fearless glass. But it stabs me to the heart with a mortal stab +to see how few of us out of this weekly congregation are any better +men after all we come to see and to hear. At the same time, such a +constant dropping will surely in time wear away the hardest rock. +Let that so stiff old man, then, stiff old Mr. Loth-to-stoop, came +forward and behold his natural face in John Bunyan's glass again +to-night. 'Lord, is it I?' was a very good question, though put by +a very bad man. Let us, one and all, then, put the traitor's +question to ourselves to-night. Am I stiff old Loth-to-stoop?--let +every man in this house say to himself all through this service, +and then at home when reviewing the day, and then all to-morrow +when to stoop will be so loathsome and so impossible to us all. + +1. To begin, then, at the very bottom of this whole matter, take +stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner in the sight of God. +Let us take this stiff old man in this dreadful character to begin +with, because it is in this deepest and most dreadful aspect of his +nature and his character that he is introduced to us in the Holy +War. And I shall stand aside and let John Bunyan himself describe +Loth-to-stoop in the matter of his justification before God. 'That +is a great stoop for a sinner to have to take,' says our apostolic +author in another classical place, 'a too great stoop to have to +suffer the total loss of all his own righteousness, and, actually, +to have to look to another for absolutely everything of that kind. +That is no easy matter for any man to do. I assure you it +stretches every vein in his heart before he will be brought to +yield to that. What! for a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw +away all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of Sabbaths, hearing, +reading, and all the rest, and to admit both himself and them to be +abominable and accursed, and to be willing in the very midst of his +sins to throw himself wholly upon the righteousness and obedience +of another man! I say to do that in deed and in truth is the +biggest piece of the cross, and therefore it is that Paul calls it +a suffering. "I have suffered the loss of all things that I might +win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own +righteousness."' That is John Bunyan's characteristic comment on +stiff old Loth-to-stoop as a guilty sinner, with the offer of a +full forgiveness set before him. + +2. And then our so truthful and so fertile author goes on to give +us Loth-to-stoop as a half-saved sinner; a sinner, that is, trying +to make his own terms with God about his full salvation. Through +three most powerful pages we see stiff old Loth-to-stoop engaged in +beating down God's unalterable terms of salvation, and in bidding +for his full salvation upon his own reduced and easy terms. It was +the tremendous stoop of the Son of God from the throne of God to +the cradle and the carpenter's shop; and then, as if that were not +enough, it was that other tremendous stoop of His down to the +Garden and the Cross,--it was these two so tremendous stoops of +Jesus Christ that made stiff old Loth-to-stoop's salvation even +possible. But, with all that, his true salvation was not possible +without stoop after stoop of his own; stoop after stoop which, if +not so tremendous as those of Christ, were yet tremendous enough, +and too tremendous, for him. Old Loth-to-stoop carries on a long +and a bold debate with Emmanuel in order to lessen the stoop that +Emmanuel demands of him; and your own life and mine, my brethren, +at their deepest and at their closest to our own heart, are really +at bottom, like Loth-to-stoop's life, one long roup of salvation, +in which God tries to get us up to His terms and in which we try to +get Him down to our terms. His terms are, that we shall sell +absolutely all that we have for the salvation of our souls; and our +terms are, salvation or no salvation, to keep all that we have and +to seek every day for more. God absolutely demands that we shall +stoop to the very dust every day, till we become the poorest, the +meanest, the most despicable, and the most hopeless of men; whereas +we meet that divine demand with the proud reply--Is Thy servant a +dog? It was with this offended mind that stiff old Loth-to-stoop +at last left off from Emmanuel's presence; he would die rather than +come down to such degrading terms. And as Loth-to-stoop went away, +Emmanuel looked after him, well remembering the terrible night when +He Himself was, not indeed like Loth-to-stoop, nor near like him, +but when His own last stoop was so deep that it made Him cry out, +Father, save Me from this hour! and again, If it be possible let +this so tremendous stoop pass from Me. For a moment Emmanuel +Himself was loth to stoop, but only for a moment. For He soon rose +from off His face in a bath of blood, saying, Not My will, but +Thine be done! When Thomas A Kempis is negotiating with the Loth- +to-stoops of his unevangelical day, we hear him saying to them +things like this: 'Jesus Christ was despised of men, forsaken of +His friends and lovers, and in the midst of slanders. He was +willing, under His Father's will, to suffer and to be despised, and +darest thou to complain of any man's usage of thee? Christ, thy +Master, had enemies and back-biters, and dost thou expect to have +all men to be thy friends and benefactors? Whence shall thy +patience attain her promised crown if no adversity befall thee? +Suffer thou with Jesus Christ, and for His sake, if thou wouldst +reign with Him. Set thyself, therefore, to bear manfully the cross +of thy Lord, who, out of love, was crucified for thee. Know for +certain that thou must lead a daily dying life. And the more that +thou diest to thyself all that the more shalt thou live unto God.' +With many such words as these did Thomas teach the saints of his +day to stoop to their daily cross; a daily cross then, which has +now been for long to him and to them an everlasting crown. + +3. And speaking of A Kempis, and having lately read some of his +most apposite chapters, such as that on the Holy Fathers and that +on Obedience and Subjection, leads me on to look at Loth-to-stoop +when he enters the sacred ministry, as he sometimes does. When a +half-converted, half-subdued, half-saved sinner gets himself called +to the sacred ministry his office will either greatly hasten on his +salvation, or else it will greatly hinder and endanger it. He will +either stoop down every day to deeper and ever deeper depths of +humility, or he will tower up in pride of office and in pride of +heart past all hope of humility, and thus of salvation. The holy +ministry is a great nursing-house of pride as we see in a long line +of popes, and prelates, and priests, and other lords over God's +heritage. And our own Presbyterian polity, while it hands down to +us the simplicity, the unity, the brotherhood, and the humility of +the apostolic age, at the same time leaves plenty of temptation and +plenty of opportunity for the pride of the human heart. Our +preaching and pastoral office, when it is aright laid to our +hearts, will always make us the meekest and the humblest of men, +even when we carry the most magnificent of messages. But when our +own hearts are not right the very magnificence of our message, and +the very authority of our Master, become all so many subtle +temptations to pride, pique, self-importance, and lothness-to- +stoop. With so much still to learn, how slow we ministers are to +stoop to learn! How still we stand, and even go back, when all +other men are going forward! How few of us have made the noble +resolution of Jonathan Edwards: 'Resolved,' he wrote, 'that, as +old men have seldom any advantage of new discoveries because these +are beside a way of thinking they have been long used to: +resolved, therefore, if ever I live to years, that I shall be +impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and to +receive them, if rational how long soever I have been used to +another way of thinking.' Let all ministers, then, young and old, +resolve to stoop with Jonathan Edwards, who shines, in his life and +in his works, like the cherubim with knowledge, and burns like the +seraphim with love. + +And then, when, not having so resolved, our thin vein of youthful +knowledge and experience has been worked to the rock; when grey +hairs are here and there upon us, how slow we are to stoop to that! +How unwilling we are to let it light on our hearts that our time is +past; that we are no longer able to understand, or interest, or +attract the young; and, besides, that that is not all their blame, +no, nor ours either, but simply the order and method of Divine +Providence. How slow we are to see that Divine Providence has +other men standing ready to take up our work if we would only +humbly lay it down;--how loth we are to stoop to see all that! How +unwilling we are to make up our minds, we old and ageing ministers, +and to humble our hearts to accept an assistant or to submit to a +colleague to stand alongside of us in our unaccomplished work! + +4. In public life also, as we call it, what disasters to the +state, to the services, and to society, are constantly caused by +this same Loth-to-stoop! When he holds any public office; when he +becomes the leader of a party; when he is promoted to be an adviser +of the Crown; when he is put at the head of a fleet of ships, or of +an army of men, what untold evils does Loth-to-stoop bring both on +himself and on the nation! An old statesman will have committed +himself to some line of legislation or of administration; a great +captain will have committed himself to some manoeuvre of a squadron +or of a division, or to some plan of battle, and some subordinate +will have discovered the error his leader has made, and will be +bold to point it out to him. But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has taken +his line and has passed his word. His honour, as he holds it, is +committed to this announced line of action; and, if the Crown +itself should perish before his policy, he will not stoop to change +it. How often you see that in great affairs as well as in small. +How seldom you see a public man openly confessing that he has +hitherto all along been wrong, and that he has at last and by +others been set right. Not once in a generation. But even that +once redeems public life; it ennobles public life; and it saves the +nation and the sovereign who possess such a true patriot. +Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high- +sounding words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, +and humility always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate +success and lasting honour. + + + +CHAPTER XII--THAT VARLET ILL-PAUSE, THE DEVIL'S ORATOR + + + +'I made haste and delayed not.'--David. + +John Bunyan shall himself introduce, describe, and characterise +this varlet, this devil's ally and accomplice, this ancient enemy +of Mansoul, whose name is Ill-pause. Well, this same Ill-pause, +says our author, was the orator of Diabolus on all difficult +occasions, nor took Diabolus any other one with him on difficult +occasions, but just Ill-pause alone. And always when Diabolus had +any special plot a-foot against Mansoul, and when the thing went as +Diabolus would have it go, then would Ill-pause stand up, for he +was Diabolus his orator. When Mansoul was under siege of Emmanuel +his four noble captains sent a message to the men of the town that +if they would only throw Ill-pause over the wall to them, that they +might reward him according to his works, then they would hold a +parley with the city; but if this varlet was to be let live in the +city, then, why, the city must see to the consequences. At which +Diabolus, who was there present, was loth to lose his orator, +because, had the four captains once laid their fingers on Ill- +pause, be sure his master had lost his orator. And, then, in the +last assault, we read that Ill-pause, the orator that came along +with Diabolus, he also received a grievous wound in the head, some +say that his brain-pan was cracked. This, at any rate, I have +taken notice of, that never after this was he able to do that +mischief to Mansoul as he had done in times past. And then there +was also at Eye-gate that Ill-pause of whom you have heard before. +The same was he that was orator to Diabolus. He did much mischief +to the town of Mansoul, till at last he fell by the hand of the +Captain Good-hope. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Ill-pause was a filthy Diabolonian +varlet; a treacherous and a villainous old varlet, the author of +the Holy War calls him. Now, what is a varlet? Well, a varlet is +just a broken-down old valet. A varlet is a valet who has come +down, and down, and down, and down again in the world, till, from +once having been the servant and the trusty friend of the very best +of masters, he has come to be the ally and accomplice of the very +worst of masters. His first name, the name of his first office, +still sticks to him, indeed; but, like himself, and with himself, +his name has become depraved and corrupted till you would not know +it. A varlet, then, is just short and sharp for a scoundrel who is +ready for anything; and the worse the thing is the more ready he is +for it. There are riff-raff and refuse always about who are ready +to volunteer for any filibustering expedition; and that full as +much for the sheer devilry of the enterprise as for any real profit +it is to be to themselves. Wherever mischief is to be done, there +your true varlet is sure to turn up. Well, just such a land-shark +was this Ill-pause, who was such an ally and accomplice to Diabolus +that he had need for no other. What possible certificate in evil +could exceed this--that the devil took not any with him when he +went out on his worst errand but this same Ill-pause, who was his +orator on all his most difficult occasions? + +2. Ill-pause was a varlet, then, and he was also an orator. Now, +an orator, as you know, is a great speaker. An orator is a man who +has the excellent and influential gift of public speech. And on +great occasions in public life when people are to be instructed, +and impressed, and moved, and won over, then the great orator sets +up his platform. Quintilian teaches us in his Institutes that it +is only a good man who can be a really great orator. What would +that fine writer have said had he lived to read the Holy War, and +seen the most successful of all orators that ever opened a mouth, +and who was all the time a diabolical old varlet? What would the +author of The Education of an Orator have said to that? Diabolus +did not on every occasion bring up his great orator Ill-pause. He +did not always come up himself, and he did not always send up Ill- +pause. It was only on difficult occasions that both Diabolus and +his orator also came up. You do not hear your great preachers +every Sabbath. They would not long remain great preachers, and you +would soon cease to pay any attention to them, if they were always +in the pulpit. Neither do you have your great orators at every +street corner. Their masters only build theatres for them when +some great occasion arises in the land, and when the best wisdom +must straightway be spoken to the people and in the best way. Then +you bring up Quintilian's orator if you have him at your call. As +Diabolus has done from time to time with his great and almost +always successful orator Ill-pause. On difficult occasions he came +himself on the scene and Ill-pause with him. On such difficult +occasions as in the Garden of Eden; as when Noah was told to make +haste and build an ark; as also when Abraham was told to make haste +and leave his father's house; when Jacob was bid remember and pay +the vow he had made when his trouble was upon him; as also when +Joseph had to flee for what was better than life; and on that +memorable occasion when David sent Joab out against Rabbah, but +David tarried still at Jerusalem. On all these essential, first- +class, and difficult occasions the old serpent brought up Ill- +pause. As also when our Lord was in the wilderness; when He set +His face to go up to Jerusalem; when He saw certain Greeks among +them that came up to the passover; as also again and again in the +Garden. As also on crucial occasions in your own life. As when +you had been told not to eat, not to touch, and not even to look at +the forbidden fruit, then Ill-pause, the devil's orator, came to +you and said that it was a tree to be desired. And, you shall not +surely die. As also when you were moved to terror and to tears +under a Sabbath, or under a sermon, or at some death-bed, or on +your own sick-bed--Ill-pause got you to put off till a more +convenient season your admitted need of repentance and reformation +and peace with God. On such difficult occasions as these the devil +took Ill-pause to help him with you, and the result, from the +devil's point of view, has justified his confidence in his orator. +When Ill-pause gets his new honours paid him in hell; when there is +a new joy in hell over another sinner that has not yet repented, +your name will be heard sounding among the infernal cheers. Just +think of your baptismal name and your pet name at home giving them +joy to-night at their supper in hell! And yet one would not at +first sight think that such triumphs and such toasts, such medals, +and clasps, and garters were to be won on earth or in hell just by +saying such simple-sounding and such commonplace things as those +are for which Ill-pause receives his decorations. 'Take time,' he +says. 'Yes,' he admits, 'but there is no such hurry; to-morrow +will do; next year will do; after you are old will do quite as +well. The darkness shall cover you, and your sin will not find you +out. Christ died for sin, and it is a faithful saying that His +blood will cleanse you later on from all this sin.' Everyday and +well-known words, indeed, but a true orator is seen in nothing more +than in this, that he can take up what everybody knows and says, +and put it so as to carry everybody captive. One of Quintilian's +own orators has said that a great speaker only gives back to his +hearers in flood what they have already given to him in vapour. + +3. 'I was always pleased,' says Calvin, 'with that saying of +Chrysostom, "The foundation of our philosophy is humility"; and yet +more pleased with that of Augustine: "As," says he, "the +rhetorician being asked, What was the first thing in the rules of +eloquence? he answered, Pronunciation; what was the second? +Pronunciation; what was the third? and still he answered, +Pronunciation. So if you would ask me concerning the precepts of +the Christian religion, I would answer, firstly, secondly, thirdly, +and for ever, Humility."' And when Ill-pause opened his +elocutionary school for the young orators of hell, he is reported +to have said this to them in his opening address, 'There are only +three things in my school,' he said; 'three rules, and no more to +be called rules. The first is Delay, the second is Delay, and the +third is Delay. Study the art of delay, my sons; make all your +studies to tell on how to make the fools delay. Only get those to +whom your master sends you to delay, and you will not need to envy +me my laurels; you will soon have a shining crown of your own. Get +the father to delay teaching his little boy how to pray. Get him +on any pretext you can invent to put off speaking in private to his +son about his soul. Get him to delegate all that to the minister. +And then by hook or by crook get that son as he grows up to put off +the Lord's Supper. And after that you will easily get him to put +off purity and prayer till he is a married man and at the head of a +house. Only get the idea of a more convenient season well into +their heads, and their game is up, and your spurs are won. Take +their arm in yours, as I used to do, at their church door, if you +are posted there, and say to them as they come out that to-morrow +will be time enough to give what they had thought of giving while +they were still in their pew and the minister or missionary was +still in the pulpit. Only, as you value your master's praises and +the applause of all this place, keep them, at any cost, from +striking while the iron is hot. Let them fill their hearts, and +their mouths too, if it gives them any comfort, with the best +intentions; only, my scholars, remember that the beginning and +middle and end of your office is by hook or by crook to secure +delay.' And a great crop of young orators sprang up ready for +their work under that teaching and out of the persuasionary school +of Ill-pause. In fine, Mansoul desired some time in which to +prepare its answer.' + +There are many men among ourselves who have been bedevilled out of +their best life, out of the salvation of their souls, and out of +all that constitutes and accompanies salvation now for many years. +And still their sin-deceived hearts are saying to them to-night, +Take time! For many years, every new year, every birthday, and, +for a long time, every Communion-day, they were just about to be +done with their besetting sin; and now all the years lie behind +them, one long downward road all paved, down to this Sabbath night, +with the best intentions. And, still, as if that were not enough, +that same varlet is squat at their ear. Well, my very miserable +brother, you have long talked about the end of an old year and the +beginning of a new year as being your set time for repentance and +for reformation. Let all the weight of those so many remorseful +years fall on your heart at the close of this year, and at last +compel you to take the step that should have been taken, oh! so +many unhappy years ago! Go straight home then, to-night, shut your +door, and, after so many desecrated Sabbath nights, God will still +meet you in your secret chamber. As soon as you shut your door God +will be with you, and you will be with God. With GOD! Think of +it, my brother, and the thing is done. With GOD! And then tell +Him all. And if any one knocks at your door, say that there is +Some One with you to-night, and that you cannot come down. And +continue till you have told it all to God. He knows it all +already; but that is one of Ill-pause's sophistries still in your +heart. Tell your Father it all. Tell Him how many years it is. +Tell Him all that you so well remember over all those wild, +miserable, mad, remorseful years. Tell Him that you have not had +one really happy, one really satisfied day all those years, and +tell Him that you have spent all, and are now no longer a young +man; youth and health and self-respect and self-command are all +gone, till you are a shipwreck rather than a man. And tell Him +that if He will take you back that you are to-night at His feet. + +4. 'We seldom overcome any one vice perfectly,' complains A +Kempis. And, again, 'If only every new year we would root out but +one vice.' Well, now, what do you say to that, my true and very +brethren? What do you say to that? Here we are, by God's grace +and long-suffering to usward, near the end of another year, another +vicious year; and why have we been borne with through so many +vicious years but that we should now cease from vice and begin to +learn virtue? Why are we here over Ill-pause this Sabbath night? +Why, but that we should shake off that varlet liar before another +new year. That is the whole reason why we have been spared to see +this Sabbath night. God decreed it for us that we should have this +text and this discourse here to-night, and that is the reason why +you and I have been so unaccountably spared so long. Let us select +one vice for the axe then to-night, and give God in heaven the +satisfaction of seeing that His long-suffering with us has not been +wholly in vain. Let us lay the axe at one vice from this night. +And what one from among so many shall it be? What is the mockery +of preaching if a preacher does not practise? And, accordingly, I +have selected one vice out of my thicket for next year. Will you +do the same? The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. +Just make your selection and keep it to yourself, at least till you +are able this time next year to say to us--Come, all ye that fear +God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul. Yes, come +on, and from this day all your days on earth, and all the days of +eternity, you will thank God for John Bunyan and his Holy War and +his Ill-pause. Make your selection, then, for your new axe. +Attack some one sin at this so auspicious season. Swear before +God, and unknown to all men--swear sure death, and that without any +more delay, to that selected sin. Never once, all your days, do +that sin again. Determine never once to do it again. Determine +that by prayer, by secret, and at the same time outspoken, prayer +on your knees. Determine it by faith in the cleansing blood and +renewing spirit of Jesus Christ. Determine it by fear of instant +death, and by sure hope of everlasting life. Determine it by +reasons, and motives, and arguments, and encouragements known to +no-one but yourself, and to be suspected by no human being. Name +the doomed sin. Denounce it. Execrate it. Execute it. Draw a +line across your short and uncertain life, and say to that +besetting and presumptuous sin, Hitherto, and no further! Do not +say you cannot do it. You can if you only will. You can if you +only choose. And smiting down that one sin will loosen and shake +down the whole evil fabric of sin. Breaking but that one link will +break the whole of Satan's snare and evil fetter. Here is A +Kempis's forest of vices out of which he hewed down one every year. +Restless lust, outward senses, empty phantoms, always longing to +get, always sparing to give, careless as to talk, unwilling to sit +silent, eager for food, wakeful for news, weary of a good book, +quick to anger, easy of offence at my neighbour, and too ready to +judge him, too merry over prosperity, and too gloomy, fretful, and +peevish in adversity; so often making good rules for my future +life, and coming so little speed with them all, and so on. And, in +facing even such a terrible thicket as that, let not even an old +man absolutely despair. At forty, at sixty, at threescore and ten, +let not an old penitent despair. Only take axe in hand and see if +the sun does not stand still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the +valley of Ajalon till you have avenged yourself on your enemies. +And always when you stop to wipe your brow, and to whet the edge of +your axe, and to wet your lips with water, keep on saying things +like those of another great sinner deep in his thicket of vice, say +this: O God, he said, Thou hast not cut off as a weaver my life, +nor from day even to night hast Thou made an end of me. But Thou +hast vouchsafed to me life and breath even to this hour from +childhood, youth, and hitherto even unto old age. He holdeth our +soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to slide, rescuing me from +perils, sicknesses, poverty, bondage, public shame, evil chances; +keeping me from perishing in my sins, and waiting patiently for my +full conversion. Glory be to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee, for +Thine incomprehensible and unimaginable goodness toward me of all +sinners far and away the most unworthy. The voices and the concert +of voices of angels and men be to Thee; the concert of all thy +saints in heaven and of all Thy creatures in heaven and on earth; +and of me, beneath their feet an unworthy and wretched sinner, Thy +abject creature; my praise also, now, in this day and hour, and +every day till my last breath, and till the end of this world, and +then to all eternity, where they cease not saying, To Him who loved +us, Amen! + + + +CHAPTER XIII--MR. PENNY-WISE-AND-POUND-FOOLISH, AND MR. GET-I'-THE- +HUNDRED-AND-LOSE-I'-THE-SHIRE + + + +'For, what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, +and lose his own soul?'--Our Lord. + +This whole world is the penny, and our own souls are the pound. +This whole world is the hundred, while heaven itself is the shire. +And the question this evening is, Are we wise in the penny and +foolish in the pound? And, are we getting in the hundred and +losing in the shire? + +1. Well, then, to begin at the beginning, we are already begun to +be penny-wise and pound-foolish with our children when we are so +particular with them about their saying their little prayers night +and morning, while all the time we are so inattentive and so +indolent to explain to them how they are to pray, what they are to +pray for, and how they are to wait and how long they are to wait +for the things they pray for. Then, again, we are penny-wise and +pound-foolish with our children when we train them up into all the +proprieties and etiquettes of family and social life, and at the +same time pay so little attention to their inward life of opening +thought and quickening desire and awakening passion. When we are +so eager also for our children to be great with great people, +without much regard to the moral and religious character of those +great people, then again we are like a man who may be wise for a +penny, but is certainly a fool for a pound. When we prefer the gay +and the fashionable world to the intellectual, the religious, and +the philanthropical world for our children, then we lose both the +penny and the pound as well. Almost as much as we do when we +accept the penny of wealth and station and so-called connection for +a son or a daughter, in room of the pound of character, and +intelligence, and personal religion. + +Then, again, even in our own religious life we are ourselves often +and notoriously wise in the penny and foolish in the pound. As, +for instance, when we are so scrupulous and so conscientious about +forms and ceremonies, about times and places, and so on. In short, +the whole ritual that has risen up around spiritual religion in all +our churches, from that of the Pope himself out to that of George +Fox--it is all the penny rather than the pound. This rite and that +ceremony; this habit and that tradition; this ancient and long- +established usage, as well as that new departure and that +threatened innovation;--it is all, at its best, always the penny +and never the pound. Satan busied me about the lesser matters of +religion, says James Fraser of Brea, and made me neglect the more +substantial points. He made me tithe to God my mint, and my anise +and my cummin, and many other of my herbs, to my all but complete +neglect of justice and mercy and faith and love. Whether there are +any of the things that Brea would call mint and anise and cummin +that are taking up too much of the time of our controversially- +minded men in all our churches, highland and lowland, to-day is a +matter for humbling thought. Labour, my brethren, for yourselves, +at any rate, to get yourselves into that sane and sober habit of +mind that instantly and instinctively puts all mint and all cummin +of all kinds into the second place, and all the weightier matters, +both of law and of gospel, into the first place. I wasted myself +on too nice points, laments Brea in his deep, honest, clear-eyed +autobiography. I did not proportion my religious things aright. +The laird of Brea does not say in as many words that he was wise in +the penny and foolish in the pound, but that is exactly what he +means. + +Then, again, the narrowness, the partiality, the sickliness, and +the squeamishness of our consciences,--all that makes us to be too +often penny-wise and pound-foolish in our religious life. A well- +instructed, thoroughly wise, and well-balanced conscience is an +immense blessing to that man who has purchased such a conscience +for himself. There is an immense and a criminal waste of +conscience that goes on among some of our best Christian people +through the want of light and space, room, and breadth, and balance +in their consciences. We are all pestered with people every day +who are full of all manner of childish scrupulosity and sickly +squeamishness in their ill-nourished, ill-exercised consciences. +As long as a man's conscience is ignorant and weak and sickly it +will, it must, spend and waste itself on the pennyworths of +religion and' morals instead of the pounds. It will occupy and +torture itself with points and punctilios, jots and tittles, to the +all but total oblivion, and to the all but complete neglect, of the +substance and the essence of the Christian mind, the Christian +heart, and the Christian character. The washing of hands, of cups, +and of pots, was all the conscience that multitudes had in our +Lord's day; and multitudes in our day scatter and waste their +consciences on the same things. A good man, an otherwise good and +admirable man, will absolutely ruin and destroy his conscience by +points and scruples and traditions of men as fatally as another +will by a life of debauchery. Some old and decayed ecclesiastical +rubric; some absolutely indifferent form in public worship; some +small casuistical question about a creed or a catechism; some too +nice point of confessional interpretation; the mint and anise and +cummin of such matters will fill and inflame and poison a man's +mind and heart and conscience for months and for years, to the +total destruction of all that for which churches and creeds exist; +to the total suspense, if not the total and lasting destruction, of +sobriety of mind, balance and breadth of judgment, humility, +charity, and a hidden and a holy life. The penny of a perverted, +partial, and fanaticised conscience has swallowed up the pound of +instruction, and truth, and justice, and brotherly love. + +2. 'Nor is the man with the long name at all inferior to the +other,' said Lucifer, in laying his infernal plot against the peace +and prosperity of Mansoul. Now, the man with the long name was +just Mr. Get-i'-the-hundred-and-lose-i'-the-shire. A hundred in +the old county geography of England was a political subdivision of +a shire, in which five score freemen lived with their freeborn +families. A county or a shire was described and enumerated by the +poll-sheriff of that day as containing so many enfranchised +hundreds; and the total number of hundreds made up the political +unity of the shire. To this day we still hear from time to time of +the 'Chiltern Hundreds,' which is a division of Buckinghamshire +that belongs, along with its political franchise, to the Crown, and +which is utilised for Crown purposes at certain political +emergencies. This proverb, then, to get i' the hundred and lose i' +the shire, is now quite plain to us. You might canvass so as to +get a hundred, several hundreds, many hundreds on your side, and +yet you might lose when it came to counting up the whole shire. +You might possess yourself of a hundred or two and yet be poor +compared with him who possessed the whole shire. And then the +proverb has been preserved out of the old political life of +England, and has been moralised and spiritualised to us in the Holy +War. And thus after to-night we shall always call this shrewd +proverb to mind when we are tempted to take a part at the risk of +the whole; to receive this world at the loss of the next world; or, +as our Lord has it, to gain the whole world and to lose our own +soul. Lot's choice of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Esau's purchase of +the mess of pottage in the Old Testament; and then Judas's thirty +pieces of silver, and Ananias and Sapphira's part of the price in +the New Testament, are all so many well-known instances of getting +in the hundred and losing in the shire. And not Esau's and Lot's +only, but our own lives also have been full up to to-day of the +same fatal transaction. This house, as our Lord again has it, this +farm, this merchandise, this shop, this office, this salary, this +honour, this home--all this on the one hand, and then our Lord +Himself, His call, His cause, His Church, with everlasting life in +the other--when it is set down before us in black and white in that +way, the transaction, the proposal, the choice is preposterous, is +insane, is absolutely impossible. But preposterous, insane, +absolutely impossible, and all, there it is, in our own lives, in +the lives of our sons and daughters, and in the lives of multitudes +of other men and other men's sons and daughters besides ours. +Every day you will be taken in, and you will stand by and see other +men taken in with the present penny for the future pound: and with +the poor pelting hundred under your eye for the full, far- +extending, and ever-enriching shire. Lucifer is always abroad +pressing on us in his malice the penny on the spot, for the pound +which he keeps out of sight; he dazzles our eyes with the gain of +the hundred till we gnash our teeth at the loss of the shire. + + +'He hath in sooth good cause for endless grief, +Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, +Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.' + + +3. 'What also if we join with those two another two of ours, Mr. +Sweet-world and Mr. Present-good, namely, for they are two men full +of civility and cunning. Let these engage in this business for us, +and let Mansoul be taken up with much business, and if possible +with much pleasure, and this is the way to get ground of them. Let +us but cumber and occupy and amuse Mansoul sufficiently, and they +will make their castle a warehouse for goods instead of a garrison +for men of war.' This diabolical advice was highly applauded all +through hell till all the lesser devils, while setting themselves +to carry it out, gnashed their teeth with envy and malice at +Lucifer for having thought of this masterpiece and for having had +it received with such loud acclamation. 'Only get them,' so went +on that so able, so well-envied, and so well-hated devil, 'let us +only get those fribble sinners for a night at a time to forget +their misery. And it will not cost us much to do that. Only let +us offer them in one another's houses a supper, a dance, a pipe, a +newspaper full of their own shame, a tale full of their own folly, +a silly song, and He who loved them with an everlasting love will +soon see of the travail of His soul in them!' Yes, my fellow- +sinners, Lucifer and his infernal crew know us and despise us and +entrap us at very little trouble, till He who travailed for us on +the tree covers His face in heaven and weeps over us. As long as +we remember our misery, all the mind, and all the malice, and all +the sleeplessness in hell cannot touch a hair of our head. But +when by any emissary and opportunity either from earth around us or +from hell beneath us we for another night forget our misery, it is +all over with us. And yet, to tell the truth, we never can quite +forget our misery. We are too miserable ever to forget our misery. +In the full steam of Lucifer's best-spread supper, amid the shouts +of laughter and the clapping of hands, and all the outward +appearance of a complete forgetfulness of our misery, yet it is not +so. It is far from being so. Our misery is far too deep-seated +for all the devil's drugs. Only, to give Lucifer his due, we do +sometimes, under him, so get out of touch with the true consolation +for our misery that, night after night, through cumber, through +pursuit of pleasure, through the time being taken up with these and +other like things, we do so far forget our misery as to lie down +without dealing with it; but only to have it awaken us, and take +our arm as its own for another miserable day. Yes; though never +completely successful, yet this masterpiece of hell is sufficiently +successful for Satan's subtlest purposes; which are, not to make us +forget our misery, but to make us put it away from us at the +natural and proper hour for facing it and for dealing with it in +the only proper and successful way. But, wholly, any night, or +even partially for a few nights at a time, to forget our misery-- +no, with all thy subtlety of intellect and with all thy hell-filled +heart, O Lucifer, that is to us impossible! Forget our misery! O +devil of devils, no! Bless God, that can never be with us! Our +misery is too deep, too dreadful, too acute, too all-consuming ever +to be forgotten by us even for an hour. Our misery is too terrible +for thee, with all thy overthrown intellect and all thy malice- +filled heart, ever to understand! Didst thou for one midnight hour +taste it, and so understand it, then there would be the same hope +for thee that, I bless God, there still is for me! + +Let us bend all our strength and all our wit to this, went on +Lucifer, to make their castle a warehouse instead of a garrison. +Let us set ourselves and all our allies, he explained to the +duller-witted among the devils, to make their hearts a shop,--some +of them, you know, are shopkeepers; a bank,--some of them are +bankers; a farm,--some of them are farmers; a study,--some of them +are students; a pulpit,--some of them like to preach; a table,-- +some of them are gluttons; a drawing-room,--some of them are +busybodies who forget their own misery in retailing other people's +misery from house to house. Be wise as serpents, said the old +serpent; attend, each several fallen angel of you, to his own +special charge. Study your man. Get to the bottom of your man. +Follow him about; never let him out of your sight; be sure before +you begin, be sure you have the joint in his harness, the spot in +his heel, the chink in his wall full in your eye. I do not surely +need to tell you not to scatter our snares for souls at random, he +went on. Give the minister his study Bible, the student his +classic, the merchant his ledger, the glutton his well-dressed dish +and his elect year of wine, the gossip her sweet secret, and the +flirt her fool. Study them till they are all naked and open to +your sharp eyes. Find out what best makes them forget even for one +night their misery and ply them with that. If I ever see that soul +I have set thee over on his knees on account of his misery I shall +fling thee on the spot into the bottomless pit. And if any of you +shall anywhere discover a man--and there are such men--a man who +forgets his misery through always thinking and speaking about it, +only keep him in his pulpit, and off his knees, and no man so safe +for hell as he. There are fools, and there are double-dyed fools, +and that man is the chief of them. Give him his fill of sin and +misery; let him luxuriate himself in sin and misery; only, keep him +there, and I will not forget thy most excellent service to me. + +Make all their hearts, so Lucifer summed up, as he dismissed his +obsequious devils, make all their several hearts each a warehouse, +a shop, a farm, a pulpit, a library, a nursery, a supper-table, a +chamber of wantonness--let it be to each man just after his own +heart. Only, keep--as you shall answer for it,--keep faith and +hope and charity and innocence and patience and especially +prayerfulness out of their hearts. And when this my counsel is +fulfilled, and when the pit closes over thy charge, I shall pay +thee thy wages, and promote thee to honour. And before he was well +done they were all at their posts. + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE DEVIL'S LAST CARD + + + +'Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light'--Paul. + +Wodrow has an anecdote in his delightful Analecta which shall +introduce us into our subject to-night. Mr. John Menzies was a +very pious and devoted pastor; he was a learned man also, and well +seen in the Popish and in the Arminian controversies. And to the +end of his life he was much esteemed of the people of Aberdeen as a +foremost preacher of the gospel. And yet, 'Oh to have one more +Sabbath in my pulpit!' he cried out on his death-bed. 'What would +you then do?' asked some one who sat at his bedside. 'I would +preach to my people on the tremendous difficulty of salvation!' +exclaimed the dying man. + +1. Now, the first difficulty that stands in the way of our +salvation is the stupendous mass of guilt that has accumulated upon +all of us. Our guilt is so great that we dare not think of it. It +is too horrible to believe that we shall ever be called to account +for one in a thousand of it. It crushes our minds with a perfect +stupor of horror, when for a moment we try to imagine a day of +judgment when we shall be judged for all the deeds that we have +done in the body. Heart-beat after heart-beat, breath after +breath, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, and all +full of sin; all nothing but sin from our mother's womb to our +grave. Sometimes one outstanding act of sin has quite overwhelmed +us. But before long that awful sin fell out of sight and out of +mind. Other sins of the same kind succeeded it. Our sense of sin, +our sense of guilt was soon extinguished by a life of sin, till, at +the present moment the accumulated and tremendous load of our sin +and guilt is no more felt by us than we feel the tremendous load of +the atmosphere. But, all the time, does not our great guilt lie +sealed down upon us? Because we are too seared and too stupefied +to feel it, is it therefore not there? Because we never think of +it, does that prove that both God and man have forgiven and +forgotten it? Shall the Judge of all the earth do right in the +matter of all men's guilt but ours? Does the apostle's warning not +hold in our case?--his awful warning that we shall all stand before +the judgment-seat? And is it only a strong figure of speech that +the books shall be opened till we shall cry to the mountains to +fall on us and to the rocks to cover us? Oh no! the truth is, the +half has not been told us of the speechless stupefaction that shall +fall on us when the trumpet shall sound and when Alp upon Alp of +aggravated guilt shall rise up high as heaven between us and our +salvation. Difficulty is not the name for guilt like ours. +Impossibility is the better name we should always know it by. + +2. Another difficulty or impossibility to our salvation rises out +of the awful corruption and pollution of our hearts. But is there +any use entering on that subject? Is there one man in a hundred +who even knows the rudiments of the language I must now speak in? +Is there one man in a hundred in whose mind any idea arises, and in +whose heart any emotion or passion is kindled, as I proceed to +speak of corruption of nature and pollution of heart? I do not +suppose it. I do not presume upon it. I do not believe it. That +most miserable man who is let down of God's Holy Spirit into the +pit of corruption that is in his own heart,--to him his corruption, +added to his guilt, causes a sadness that nothing in this world can +really relieve; it causes a deep and an increasing melancholy, such +as the ninety and nine who need no repentance and feel no pollution +know nothing of. All living men flee from the corruption of an +unburied corpse. The living at once set about to bury their dead. +'I am a stranger and a sojourner among you,' said Abraham to the +children of Heth; 'give me a possession of a burying-place among +you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.' But Paul could find +no grave in the whole world in which to bury out of his sight the +body of death to which he was chained fast; that body of sin and +death which always makes the holiest of men the most wretched of +men,--till the loathing and the disgust and the misery that filled +the apostle's heart are to be understood by but one in a thousand +even of the people of God. + +3. And then, as if to make our salvation a very hyperbole of +impossibility, the all but almighty power of indwelling sin comes +in. Have you ever tried to break loose from the old fetter of an +evil habit? Have you ever said on a New Year's Day with Thomas A +Kempis that this year you would root that appetite,--naming it,-- +out of your body, and that vice,--naming it,--out of your heart? +Have you ever sworn at the Communion table that you would watch and +pray, and set a watch on your evil heart against that envy, and +that revenge, and that ill-will, and that distaste, dislike, and +antipathy? Then your minister will not need to come back from his +death-bed to preach to you on the difficulty of salvation. + +4. And yet such is the grace of God, such is the work of Christ, +and such is the power and the patience of the Holy Ghost that, if +we had only an adequate ministry in our pulpits, and an assisting +literature in our homes, even this three-fold impossibility would +be overcome and we would be saved. But if the ministry that is set +over us is an ignorant, indolent, incompetent, self-deceived +ministry; if our own chosen, set-up, and maintained minister is +himself an uninstructed, unspiritual, unsanctified man; and if the +books we buy and borrow and read are all secular, unspiritual, +superficial, ephemeral, silly, stupid, impertinent books, then the +impossibility of our salvation is absolute, and we are as good as +in hell already with all our guilt and all our corruption for ever +on our heads. Now, that was the exact case of Mansoul in the +allegory of the Holy War at one of the last and acutest stages of +that war. Or, rather, that would have been her exact case had +Diabolus got his own deep, diabolical way with her. For what did +her ancient enemy do but sound a parley till he had played his last +card in these glozing and deceitful words;--'I myself,' he had the +face to say to Emmanuel, 'if Thou wilt raise Thy siege and leave +the town to me, I will, at my own proper cost and charge, set up +and maintain a sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul, +who shall show to Mansoul that transgression stands in the way of +life; the ministers I shall set up shall also press the necessity +of reformation according to Thy holy law.' And even now, with the +two pulpits, God's and the devil's, and the two preachers, and the +two pastors, in our own city,--how many of you see any difference, +or think that the one is any worse or any better than the other? +Or, indeed, that the ministry of the last card is not the better of +the two to your interest and to your taste, to the state of your +mind and to the need of your heart? Let us proceed, then, to look +at Mansoul's two pulpits and her two lectureships as they stand +portrayed on the devil's last card and in Emmanuel's crowning +commission; that is, if our eyes are sharp enough to see any +difference. + +5. The first thing, then, on the devil's last card was this, 'A +sufficient ministry, besides lecturers, in Mansoul.' Now, a +sufficient ministry has never been seen in the true Church of +Christ since her ministry began. And yet she has had great +ministers in her time. After Christ Himself, Paul was the greatest +and the best minister the Church of Christ has ever had. But such +was the transcendent greatness of his office, such were its +tremendous responsibilities, such were its magnificent +opportunities and its incessant demands, such were its ceaseless +calls to consecration, to cross-bearing, to crucifixion, to more +and more inwardness of holiness, and to higher and higher heights +of heavenly-mindedness, that the apostle was fain to cry out +continually, Who is sufficient for these things! But so well did +Paul learn that gospel which he preached to others that amid all +his insufficiency he was able to hear his Master saying to him +every day, My grace is sufficient for thee, and, My strength is +made perfect in thy weakness! And to come down to the truly +Pauline succession of ministers in our own lands and in our own +churches, what preachers and what pastors Christ gave to +Kidderminster, and to Bedford, and to Down and Connor, and to Sodor +and Man, and to Anwoth, and to Ettrick, and to New England, and to +St. Andrews, and places too many to mention. With all its +infirmity and all its inefficiency, what a truly heavenly power the +pulpit is when it is filled by a man of God who gives his whole +mind and heart, his whole time and thought to it, and to the +pastorate that lies around it. His mind may be small, and his +heart may be full of corruption; his time may be full of manifold +interruptions, and his best study may yield but a poor result; but +if Heaven ever helps those who honestly help themselves, then that +is certainly the case in the Christian ministry. Let the choicest +of our children, then, be sought out and consecrated to that +service; let our most gifted and most gracious-minded sons be sent +to where they shall be best prepared for the pulpit and the +pastorate,--till by the blessing of her Head all the congregations +and all the parishes, all the pulpits and all the lectureships in +the Church, shall be one garden of the Lord. And then we shall +escape that last curse of a ministry such as John Bunyan saw all +around him in the England of his day, and which, had he been alive +in the England and Scotland of our day, he would have painted again +in colours we have neither the boldness nor the skill to mix nor to +put on the canvas. But let all ministers put it every day to +themselves to what descent and succession they belong. Let those +even who believe that they have within themselves the best seal and +evidence attainable here that they have been ordained of Emmanuel, +let them all the more look well every day and every Sabbath day how +much of another master's doctrine and discipline, motives, and +manners still mixes up with their best ministry. And the surest +seal that, with all our insufficiency, we are still the ministers +of Christ will be set on us by this, that the harder we work and +the more in secret we pray, the more and ever the more shall we +discover and confess our shameful insufficiency, and the more shall +we, till the day of our death, every day still begin our ministry +of labour and of prayer anew. Let us do that, for the devil, with +all his boldness and all his subtilty, never threw a card first or +last like that. + +6. After offering a sufficient ministry to Mansoul, and that, too, +at his own proper cost and charge, Diabolus undertook also to see +that the absolute necessity of a reformation should be preached and +pressed from the pulpit he set up. Now, reformation is all good +and necessary, in its own time and place and order, but God sent +His Son not to be a Reformer but to be a Redeemer. John came to +preach reformation, but Jesus came to preach regeneration. Except +a man be born again, Jesus persistently preached to Nicodemus. +'Did it begin with regeneration?' was Dr. Duncan's reply when a +sermon on sanctification was praised in his hearing. And like so +much else that the learned and profound Dr. John Duncan said on +theology and philosophy, that question went at once to the root of +the matter. For sanctification, that is to say, salvation, is no +mere reformation of morals or refinement of manners. It is a maxim +in sound morals that the morality of the man must precede the +morality of his actions. And much more is it the evangelical law +of Jesus Christ. Make the tree good, our Lawgiver aphoristically +said. Reformation and sanctification differ, says Dr. Hodge, as +clean clothes differ from a clean heart. Now, Diabolus was all for +clean clothes when he saw that Mansoul was slipping out of his +hands. He would have all the drunkards to become moderate +drinkers, if not total abstainers; and all the sensualists to +become, if need be, ascetics; and all those who had sowed out their +wild oats to settle down as heads of houses, and members, if not +ministers and elders, in his set-up church. But we are too well +taught, surely; we have gone too long to another church than that +which Diabolus ever sets up, to be satisfied with his superficial +doctrine and his skin-deep discipline. We know, do we not, that we +may do all that his last card asks us to do, and yet be as far, ay, +and far farther from salvation than the heathen are who never heard +the name. A hundred Scriptures tell us that; and our hearts know +too much of their own plague and corruption ever now to be +satisfied short of a full regeneration and a complete +sanctification. 'Create in me a clean heart and renew a right +spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. And +the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your +whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the +coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' The last card has many +Scriptures cunningly copied upon it; but not these. Its pulpit +orators handle many Scripture texts, but never these. + +7. Yes, the devil comes in even here with that so late, so subtle, +and so contradicting card of his. Where is it in this world that +he does not come in with some of his cards? And he comes in here +as a very angel of evangelical light. He puts on the gown of +Geneva here, and he ascends Emmanuel's own maintained pulpit here, +and from that pulpit he preaches, and where he so preaches he +preaches nothing else but the very highest articles of the Reformed +faith. Carnal-security was strong on assurance, no other man in +Mansoul was so strong; and the devil will let us preachers be as +strong and as often on election, and justification, and +indefectible grace, and the perseverance of the saints as we and +our people like, if we but keep in season and out of season on +these transcendent subjects and keep off morals and manners, walk +and conversation, conduct and character. In Hooker's and Travers' +day, Thomas Fuller tells us, the Temple pulpit preached pure +Canterbury in the morning and pure Geneva in the afternoon. And +you will get the highest Calvinism off the last card in one pulpit, +and the strictest and most urgent morality off the same card in +another; but never, if the devil can help it, never both in one and +the same pulpit; never both in one and the same sermon; and never +both in one and the same minister. You have all heard of the +difficulty the voyager had in steering between Scylla and Charybdis +in the Latin adage. Well, the true preacher's difficulty is just +like that. Indeed, it is beyond the wit of man, and it takes all +the wit of God, aright to unite the doctrine of our utter inability +with the companion doctrine of our strict responsibility; free +grace with a full reward; the cross of Christ once for all, with +the saint's continual crucifixion; the Saviour's blood with the +sinner's; and atonement with attainment; in short, salvation +without works with no salvation without works. Deft steersman as +the devil is, he never yet took his ship clear through those +Charybdic passages. + +One thing there is that I must have preached continually in all my +pulpits and expounded and illustrated and enforced in all my +lectureships, said Emmanuel, and that is, my new example and my new +law of motive. My own motives always made me in all I said and did +to be well-pleasing in My Father's eyes, and at any cost I must +have preachers and lecturers set up in Mansoul who shall assist Me +in making Mansoul as well-pleasing in My Father's sight as I was +Myself. + + +'For I am ware it is the seed of act +God holds appraising in His hollow palm, +Not act grown great thence as the world believes, +Leafage and branchage vulgar eyes admire.' + + +Motives! gnashed Diabolus. And he tore his last card into a +thousand shreds and cast the shreds under his feet in his rage and +exasperation. Motives! New motives! Truly Thou art the +threatened Seed of the woman! Truly Thou art the threatened Son of +God!--Let all our preachers, then, preach much on motive to their +people. The commonplace crowd of their people will not all like +that preaching any more than Diabolus did; but their best people +will all afterwards rise up in their salvation and bless them for +it. On reformation also, let them every Sabbath preach, but only +on the reformation that rises out of a reformed motive, and that +again out of a reformed heart. And if a reformed motive, a +reformed heart, and a reformed life are found both by preacher and +hearer to be impossible; if all that only brings out the +hopelessness of their salvation by reason of the guilt and the +pollution and power of sin; then all that will only be to them that +same ever deeper entering of the law into their hearts which led +Paul to an ever deeper faith and trust in Jesus Christ. With a +guilt, and a pollution, and a slavery to sin like ours, salvation +from sin would be absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible, +that is, but for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. But with His atoning +blood and His Holy Spirit all things are possible--even our +salvation. + +Let us choose, then, a minister like Mr. John Menzies. Let us read +the great books that make salvation difficult. Let us work out our +own salvation, day and night, with fear and trembling, and when +Wisdom is justified in her children, we shall be found justified +among them. We shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the +day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of +God to all eternity. + + + +CHAPTER XV--MR. PRYWELL + + + +'Search me, O God, and know my heart.'--David. + +'Let a man examine himself.'--Paul + +'Look to yourselves.'--John. + +'Know thyself.'--Apollo. + +The year 1668 saw the publication of one of the deepest books in +the whole world, Dr. John Owen's Remainders of Indwelling Sin in +Believers. The heart-searching depth; the clear, fearless, +humbling truth, the intense spirituality, and the massive and +masculine strength of John Owen's book have all combined to make it +one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the great Puritan school. +Had John Owen's style been at all equal to his great learning, to +the depth and the grasp of his mind, and to the lofty holiness of +his life, John Owen would have stood in the very foremost and +selectest rank of apostolical and evangelical theologians. But in +all his books Owen labours under the fatal drawback of a bad style. +A fine style, a style like that of Hooker, or Taylor, or Bunyan, or +Howe, or Leighton, or Law, is such a winning introduction to their +works and such an abiding charm and spell. The full title of Dr. +Owen's great work runs thus: The Nature, Power, Deceit, and +Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers--a +title that will tell all true students what awaits them when they +have courage and enterprise enough to address themselves to this +supreme and all-essential subject. Fourteen years after the +publication of Dr. Owen's epoch-making book, John Bunyan's Holy War +first saw the light. Equal in scriptural and in experimental +depth, as also in their spiritual loftiness and intensity, those +two books are as different as any two books, written in the same +language, and written on the same subject, could by any possibility +be. John Owen's book is the book of a great scholar who has read +the Fathers and the Schoolmen and the Reformers till he knows them +by heart, and till he has been able to digest all that is true to +Scripture and to experience in them into his rich and ripe book. A +powerful reasoner, a severe, bald, muscular writer, John Owen in +all these respects stands at the very opposite pole to that of John +Bunyan. The author of the Holy War had no learning, but he had a +mind of immense natural sagacity, combined with a habit of close +and deep observation of human life, and especially of religious +life, and he had now a lifetime of most fruitful experience as a +Christian man and as a Christian minister behind him; and, all +that, taken up into Bunyan's splendid imagination, enabled him to +produce this extraordinarily able and impressive book. A model of +English style as the Holy War is, at the same time it does not +attain at all to the rank of the Pilgrim's Progress; but then, to +be second to the Pilgrim's Progress is reward and honour enough for +any book. Let all genuine students, then, who would know the best +that has been written on experimental religion, and who would +preach to the deepest and divinest experience of their best people, +let them keep continually within their reach John Owen's +Temptation, his Mortification of Sin in Believers, his Nature and +Power of Indwelling Sin, and John Bunyan's Holy War made for the +Regaining of the Metropolis of this World. + +Well, then, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was one +whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of Mansoul. And he, as +his manner was, did go listening up and down in Mansoul to see and +hear, if at any time he might, whether there was any design against +it or no. For he was always a jealous man, and feared some +mischief would befall it, either from within or from some power +without. Mr. Prywell was always a lover of Mansoul, a sober and a +judicious man, a man that was no tattler, nor a raiser of false +reports, but one that loves to look into the very bottom of +matters, and talks nothing of news but by very solid arguments. +And then, after our historian has told us some of the eminent +services that Mr. Prywell was able to perform both for the King and +for the city, he goes on to tell us how the captains determined +that public thanks should be given by the town of Mansoul to Mr. +Prywell for his so diligent seeking of the welfare of the town; +and, further, that, forasmuch as he was so naturally inclined to +seek their good, and also to undermine their foes, they gave him +the commission of Scoutmaster-general for the good of Mansoul. And +Mr. Prywell managed his charge and the trust that Mansoul had put +into his hands with great conscience and good fidelity; for he gave +himself wholly up to his employ, and that not only within the town, +but he also went outside of the town to pry, to see, and to hear. +Now, that being so, it may interest and perhaps instruct you to- +night to look for a little at some of the features and at some of +the feats of the Scoutmaster-general of the Holy War, Mr. Prywell, +of the town of Mansoul. + +1. 'Well, now, as He who dwells on high would have it, there was +one whose name was Mr. Prywell, a great lover of the town of +Mansoul.' In other words: self-observation, self-examination, +strict, jealous, sleepless self-examination, is of God. Our God +who searches our hearts and tries our reins would have it so. And +if He does not have it so in us, our souls are not as our God would +have them to be. + +'Bunyan employs pry,' says Miss Peacock in her excellent notes, 'in +a more favourable sense than it now bears. As, for instance, it is +said in another part of this same book that the men of Mansoul were +allowed to pry into the words of the Holy Ghost and to expound them +to their best advantage. Honest anxiety for the welfare of his +fellow-townsmen was Mr. Prywell's chief characteristic. Pry is +another form of peer--to look narrowly, to look closely.' And God, +says John Bunyan, would have it so. + +2. 'A great lover of Mansoul,' 'always a lover of Mansoul'; again +and again that is testified concerning Mr. Prywell. It was not +love for the work that led Mr. Prywell to give up his days and his +nights as his history tells us he did. Mr. Prywell ran himself +into many dangerous situations both within and without the city, +and he lost himself far more friends than he made by his devotion +to his thankless task. But necessity was laid upon him. And what +held him up was the sure and certain knowledge that his King would +have that service at his hands. That, and his love for the city, +for the safety and the deliverance of the city,--all that kept Mr. +Prywell's heart fixed. Am I therefore your enemy? he would say to +some who would have had it otherwise than the King would have it. +But it is a good thing to be zealously affected in a work like +mine, he would say, in self-defence and in self-encouragement. And +then, though not many, there were always some in the city who said, +Let him smite me and it shall be a kindness; let him reprove me and +it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head. It was +in Mansoul with Mr. Prywell as it was in Kidderminster with Richard +Baxter, when some of his people said to one another, 'We will take +all things well from one that we know doth entirely love us.' +'Love them,' said Augustine, 'and then say anything you like to +them.' Now, that was Mr. Prywell's way. He loved Mansoul, and +then he said many things to her that a false lover and a flatterer +would never have dared to say. + +3. Then, as the saying is, it goes without saying that 'Mr. +Prywell was always a jealous man.' Great lovers are always jealous +men, and Mr. Prywell showed himself to be a great lover by the +great heat of his jealousy also. 'Vigilant,' says the excellent +editress again; 'cautious against dishonour, reasonably +mistrustful--low Latin zelosus, full of zeal. "And he said, I have +been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts."' Now, it so happened +that some of Mr. Prywell's most private and not at all professional +papers--papers evidently, and on the face of them, connected with +the state of the spy's own soul--came into my hands as good lot +would have it just the other night. The moth-eaten chest was full +of his old papers, but the pieces that took my heart most were, as +it looked to me, actually gnashed through with his remorseful +teeth, and soaked and sodden past recognition with his sweat and +his tears and his agonising hands. But after some late hours over +those remnants I managed to make some sense to myself out of them. +There are some parts of the parchments that pass me; but, if only +to show you that this arch-spy's so vigilant jealousy was not all +directed against other people's bad hearts and bad habits, I shall +copy some lines out of the old box. 'Have I penitence?' he begins +without any preface. 'Have I grief, shame, pain, horror, weariness +for my sin? Do I pray and repent, if not seven times a day as +David did, yet at least three times, as Daniel? If not as Solomon, +at length, yet shortly as the publican? If not like Christ, the +whole night, at least for one hour? If not on the ground and in +ashes, at least not in my bed? If not in sackcloth, at least not +in purple and fine linen? If not altogether freed from all, at +least from immoderate desires? Do I give, if not as Zaccheus did, +fourfold, as the law commands, with the fifth part added? If not +as the rich, yet as the widow? If not the half, yet the thirtieth +part? If not above my power, yet up to my power?' And then over +the page there are some illegible pencillings from old authors of +his such as this from Augustine: 'A good man would rather know his +own infirmity than the foundations of the earth or the heights of +the heavens.' And this from Cicero: 'There are many hiding-places +and recesses in the mind.' And this from Seneca: 'You must know +yourself before you can amend yourself. An unknown sin grows worse +and worse and is deprived of cure.' And this from Cicero again: +'Cato exacted from himself an account of every day's business at +night'; and also Pythagoras, + + +'Nor let sweet sleep upon thine eyes descend +Till thou hast judged its deeds at each day's end.' + + +And this from Seneca again: 'When the light is removed out of +sight, and my wife, who is by this time aware of my practice, is +now silent, I pass the whole of my day under examination, and I +review my deeds and my words. I hide nothing from myself: I pass +over nothing.' And then in Mr. Prywell's boldest and least +trembling hand: 'O yes! many shall come from the east and the west +and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom +of heaven, when many of the children of the kingdom shall be cast +out. O yes.' Now, this 'O yes!' Miss Peacock tells us, is the +Anglicised form of a French word for our Lord's words, Take heed +how ye hear! + +4. 'A sober and a judicious man' it is said of Mr. Prywell also. +To a certainty that. It could not be otherwise than that. For Mr. +Prywell's office, its discoveries and its experiences, would sober +any man. 'I am sprung from a country,' says Abelard, 'of which the +soil is light, and the temper of the inhabitants is light.' So was +it with Mr. Prywell to begin with. But even Abelard was sobered in +time, and so was Mr. Prywell. Life sobered Abelard, and Mr. +Prywell too; life's crooks and life's crosses, life's duties and +life's disappointments, especially Mr. Prywell. 'The more narrowly +a man looks into himself,' says A Kempis, 'the more he sorroweth.' +Not sober-mindedness alone comes to him who looks narrowly into +himself, but great sorrow of heart also. And if you are not both +sobered in your mind and full of an unquenchable sorrow in your +heart, O yes! attend to it, for you are not yet begun to be what +God would have you to be. Dr. Newman, with all his mistakes and +all his faults, was a master in two things: his own heart and the +English language. And in writing home to his mother a confidential +letter from college on his birthday, he confides to her that he +often 'shudders at himself.' 'No,' he answered to his mother's +fears and advices about food and air and exercise: 'No, I am +neither nervous, nor in ill-health, nor do I study too much. I am +neither melancholy, nor morose, nor austere, nor distant, nor +reserved, nor sullen. I am always cheerful, ready and eager to +join in any merriment. I am not clouded with sadness, nor absent +in mind, nor deficient in action. No; take me when I am most +foolish at home and extend mirth into childishness; yet all the +time I am shuddering at myself.' There spake the future author of +the immortal sermons. There spake a mind and a heart that have +deepened the minds and the hearts of Christian men more than any +other influence of the century; a mind and a heart, moreover, that +will shine and beat in our best literature and in our deepest +devotion for centuries to come. You must all know by this time +another classical passage from the pen of another spiritual genius +in the Church of England, that greatly gifted church. Let me +repeat it to illustrate how sober-mindedness and great sorrow of +heart always come to the best of men. 'Let any man consider that +if the world knew all that of him which he knows of himself; if +they saw what vanity and what passions govern his inside, and what +secret tempers sully and corrupt his best actions; and he would +have no more pretence to be honoured and admired for his goodness +and wisdom than a rotten and distempered body is to be loved and +admired for its beauty and comeliness. And, perhaps, there are +very few people in the world who would not rather choose to die +than to have all their secret follies, the errors of their +judgments, the vanity of their minds, the falseness of their +pretences, the frequency of their vain and disorderly passions, +their uneasinesses, hatreds, envies, and vexations made known to +the world. And shall pride be entertained in a heart thus +conscious of its own miserable behaviour?' No wonder that Mr. +Prywell was sober-minded! No wonder that Dr. Newman shuddered at +himself! And no wonder that William Law chose strangling and the +pond rather than that any other man should see what went on in his +heart! + +5. And as if all that were not enough, and more than enough, to +commend Mr. Prywell to us--to our trust, to our confidence, and to +our imitation--his royal certificate continues, 'One that looks +into the very bottom of matters, and talks nothing of news, but by +very solid arguments.' The very bottom of matters--that is, the +very bottom of his own and other men's hearts. Mr. Prywell counts +nothing else worth a wise man's looking at. Let fools and children +look at the painted and deceitful surface of things, but let men, +men of matters, and especially men of divine matters, look only at +their own and other men's hearts. The very bottom of all matters +is there. All wars, all policies, all debates, all disputes, all +good and all evil counsels, all the much weal and all the +multitudinous woe of Mansoul--all have their bottom in the heart; +in the heart of God, or in the heart of man, or in the heart of the +devil. The heart is the root of absolutely every matter to Mr. +Prywell. He would not waste one hour of any day, or one watch of +any night, on anything else. And it was this that made him both +the extraordinarily successful scout he was, and the +extraordinarily sober and thoughtful and judicious man he was. O +yes, my brethren, the bottom of matters, when you take to it, will +work the same change in you. 'Two things,' says one who had long +looked at his own matters with Mr. Prywell's eyes--'two things, O +Lord, I recognise in myself: nature, which Thou hast made, and +sin, which I have added.' My brethren, that recognition, that +discovery in yourselves, when it comes to you, will sober you as it +has sobered so many men before you: when it comes to you, that is, +about yourselves. That discovery made in yourselves will make you +deep-thinking men. It will make common men and unlearned men among +you to be philosophers and theologians and saints. It will work in +you a thoughtfulness, a seriousness, a depth, an awe, a holy fear, +and a great desire that will already have made you new creatures. +When, in examining yourselves and in characterising yourselves, you +come on what some clear-eyed men have come on in themselves, and +what one of them has described as 'the diabolical animus of the +human mind'--when you make that discovery in yourselves, that will +sober you, that will humble you and fill you full of remorse and +compunction. And if in God's grace to you, that were to begin to +be wrought in you this week, there would be one, at any rate, +eating of that bread next Lord's day, and drinking of that cup as +God would have it. + +6. 'A man that is no tattler, nor raiser of false reports, and +that talks nothing of news, but by very solid arguments.' Mr. +Prywell was more taken up with his own matters at home, far more +than the greatest busybodies are with other men's matters abroad. +His name, I fear, will still sound somewhat ill in your ears, but I +can assure you all the ill for you lies in the sound. Mr. Prywell +would not hurt a hair of your head: the truth is, he does not know +whether there is a hair on your head or no. This man's name comes +to him and sticks to him, not because he pries into your affairs, +for he does not, and never did, but because he is so drawn down +into his own. Mr. Prywell has no eye for your windows and he has +no ear for your doors. If your servant is a leaky slave, Prywell, +of all your neighbours, has no ear for his idle tales. This man is +no eavesdropper; your evil secrets have only a sobering and a +saddening and a silencing effect upon him. Your house might be +full of skeletons for anything he would ever discover or remember. +The beam in his own eye is so big that he cannot see past it to +speak about your small mote. 'The inward Christian,' says A +Kempis, 'preferreth the care of himself before all other cares. He +that diligently attendeth to himself can easily keep silence +concerning other men. If thou attendest unto God and unto thyself, +thou wilt be but little moved with what thou seest abroad.' At the +same time, Mr. Prywell was no fool, and no coward, and no +hoodwinked witness. He could tell his tale, when it was demanded +of him, with such truth, and with such punctuality, and on such +ample grounds, that a conviction of the truth instantly fell on all +who heard him. 'Sirs,' said those who heard him break silence, 'it +is not irrational for us to believe it,' with such solid arguments +and with such an absence of mere suspicion and of all idle tales +did he speak. On one occasion, on a mere 'inkling,' he woke up the +guard; only, it was so true an inkling that it saved the city. But +I cannot follow Mr. Prywell any further to-night. How he went up +and down Mansoul listening; how he kept his eyes and his ears both +shut and open; what splendid services he performed in the progress, +and specially toward the end, of the war; how the thanks of the +city were voted to him; how he was made Scoutmaster-general for the +good of the town of Mansoul, and the great conscience and good +fidelity with which he managed that great trust--all that you will +read for yourselves under this marginal index, 'The story of Mr. +Prywell.' + +Now, my brethren, as the outcome of all that, we must all examine +ourselves as before God all this week. We must wait on His word +and on His providences while they examine us all this week. We +must pry well into ourselves all this week. Come, let us compel +ourselves to do it. Let us search and try our ways all this week +as we shall give an account. Let us ask ourselves how many +Communion tables we have sat at, and at how many more we are likely +to sit. Let us ask why it is that we have got so little good out +of all our Communions. Let us ask who is to blame for that, and +where the blame lies. Let us go to the bottom of matters with +ourselves, and compel ourselves to say just what it is that is the +cause of God's controversy with us. What vow, what solemn promise, +made when trouble was upon us, have we completely cast behind our +back? What about secret prayer? At what times, for what things, +and for what people do we in secret pray? What about secret sin? +What is its name, and what does it deserve, and what fruit are we +already reaping out of it? What is our besetting sin, and what +steps do we take, as God knows, to crucify it? Do we love money +too much? Do we love praise too much? Do we love eating and +drinking too much? Does envy make our heart a very hell? Let us +name the man we envy, and let us keep our Communion eye upon him. +Let us mix his name with all the psalms and prayers and sermons of +this Communion season. Or is it diabolical ill-will? Or is it a +wicked tongue against an unsuspecting friend? Let us examine +ourselves as Paul did, as Prywell did, and as God would have us do +it, and we shall discover things in ourselves so bad that if I were +to put words on them to-night, you would stop your ears in horror +and flee out of the church. Let a man see himself at least as +others see him; and then he will be led on from that to see himself +as God sees him; and then he will judge himself so severely as that +he shall not need to be judged at the Judgment Day, and will +condemn himself so sufficiently as that he shall not be condemned +with a condemned world at the last. + + + +CHAPTER XVI--YOUNG CAPTAIN SELF-DENIAL + + + +'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross daily and follow Me.'--Our Lord. + +'Now the siege was long, and many a fierce attempt did the enemy +make upon the town, and many a shrewd brush did some of the +townsmen meet with from the enemy, especially Captain Self-denial, +to whose care both Ear-gate and Eye-gate had been intrusted. This +Captain Self-denial was a young man, but stout, and a townsman in +Mansoul. This young captain, therefore, being a hardy man, and a +man of great courage to boot, and willing to venture himself for +the good of the town, he would now and then sally out upon the +enemy; but you must think this could not easily be done, but he +must meet with some sharp brushes himself, and, indeed, he carried +several of such marks on his face, yea, and some on some other +parts of his body.' Thus, Bunyan. I shall now go on to-night to +offer you some annotations and some reflections on this short but +excellent history of young Captain Self-denial. + +1. Well, to begin with, this Captain Self-denial was still a young +man. 'And, now, it comes into my mind, said Goodman Gains after +supper, I will tell you a story well worth the hearing, as I think. +There were two men once upon a time that went on pilgrimage; the +one began when he was young and the other began when he was old. +The young man had strong corruptions to grapple with, whereas the +old man's corruptions were decayed with the decays of nature. The +young man trod his steps as even as did the old one, and was every +way as light as he; who, now, or which of them, had their graces +shining clearest, since both seemed to be alike? Why, the young +man's, doubtless, answered Mr. Honest. For that which heads +against the greatest opposition gives best demonstration that it is +strongest. A young man, therefore, has the advantage of the +fairest discovery of a work of grace within him. And thus they sat +talking till the break of day.' + +Now, I have taken up Captain Self-denial to-night because the young +men and I are to begin a study to-night to which I was first +attracted because it taught me lessons about myself, and about +self-denial, and thus about both a young man's and an old man's +deepest and most persistent corruptions--lessons such as I have +never been taught in any other school. In all my philosophical, +theological, moral, and experimental reading, so to describe it, I +have never met with any school of authors for one moment to be +compared with the great evangelical mystics, especially when they +treat of self, self-love, self-denial, the daily cross, and all +suchlike lessons. Take the great doctrinal and experimental +Puritans, such as John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Richard Baxter, John +Howe, and Jonathan Edwards, and add on to them the greatest and +best mystics, such as Jacob Behmen, Thomas A Kempis, Francis +Fenelon, Jeremy Taylor, Samuel Rutherford, Robert Leighton, and +William Law, and you will have the profoundest, the most complete, +the most perfect, and, I will add, the most fascinating and +enthralling of spiritual teaching in all the world. And I will be +bold enough to promise you that if you will but join our Young +Men's Class to-night, and will buy and read our mystical books, and +will resolve to put in practice what you hear and read in the +class, I will promise you, I say, that by the end of our short +session you will not only be ten times more open and hospitably- +minded men, but also ten times more spiritually-minded men, ten +times more Christ-like men, and with your joy in Christ and His joy +in you all but full. + +2. The Captain Self-denial was a young man, and he was also a +townsman in Mansoul. Young Self-denial and one other were all of +Emmanuel's captains who were townsmen in Mansoul. All his other +captains Emmanuel had brought with him; but the Captains Self- +denial and Experience were both born and reared to their full +manhood in that besieged city. 'A townsman.' How much there is +for us all in that one word! How much instruction! How much +encouragement! How much caution and correction! Our greatest +grace; our most essential and indispensable grace; our most +experimental and evidential grace; that grace, indeed, without +which all our other graces are but specious shows and painted +surfaces of graces; that grace into which our Lord here gathers up +all our other graces;--that greatest of graces cannot be imputed, +imported, or introduced; it must be born, bred, exercised, reared +up to its full maturity, and sent forth to fight and to conquer, +and all within the walls of its own native town; in short, our +self-denial must have its beginning and middle and end in our own +heart. Antinomians there were, as our Puritan fathers nicknamed +all those persons who glorified Christ by letting Him do all things +for them, both His own things and their things too, both their +justification and their sanctification too. And there are many +good but ill-instructed men among ourselves who have just this +taint of that old heresy cleaving to them still--this taint, +namely, that they are tempted to carry over the suretyship and +substitutionary work of Christ into such regions, and to carry it +to such lengths in those regions, as, practically, to make Christ +to minister to their soft and sinful living, and to their excuse +and indulgence of themselves. I will put it squarely and plainly +to some of my very best friends here to-night. Is it not the case, +now, that you do not like this direction into which this text, and +the truth of this text, are now travelling? Is it not so that you +shift back in your seat from the approaching cross? Is it not the +very and actual fact that you have secret ways of sin, secret +habits of self-indulgence in your body and in your soul, in your +mind and in your heart, secret sins that you mantle over with the +robe of Christ's righteousness? His spotless and imputed +righteousness? In your present temper you would have disliked +deeply the Sermon on the Mount had you heard it; and I see you +shaking your head over your Sabbath-day dinner at this text when it +was first spoken. Lay this down for a law, all my brethren,--a New +Testament and a never-to-be-abrogated law,--that the best and the +safest religion for you is that way of religion that is hardest on +your pride, on your self-importance, on your self-esteem, as well +as on your purse and on your belly. You are not likely to err by +practising too much of the cross. You may very well have too much +of the cross of Christ preached to you, and too little of your own. +Why! did not Christ die for me? you indignantly say. Yes; so He +did. But only that you might die too. He was crucified, and so +must you be crucified every day before one single drop of His sin- +atoning blood shall ever be wasted on You. Be not deceived: the +cross is not mocked; for only as a man nails himself, body and +soul, to the cross every day shall he ever be saved from sin and +death and hell by means of it. And, exactly as a man denies +himself--no more and no less--his appetites, his passions, his +thoughts and words and deeds, every day and every hour of every +day, just so much shall He who searches our hearts and sees us in +secret, acknowledge us, both every day now, and at the last day of +all. + +3. This same Captain Self-denial, his history goes on, was stout, +he was an hardy man also, and a man of great courage. Stout and +hardy and of great courage at home, that is; in his own mind and +heart, soul and body, that is. Young Captain Self-denial was a +perfect hero at saying No! and at saying No! to himself. It is a +proverb that there is nothing so difficult as to say that +monosyllable. And the proverb is Scripture truth if you try to say +No! to yourself. It takes the very stoutest of hearts, the most +noble, the most manly, the most soldierly, and the most saintly of +hearts to say No! to itself, and to keep on saying No! to itself to +the bitter end of every trial and temptation and opportunity. I +remember reading long ago a page or two of a medical man's diary. +And in it he made a confession and an appeal I have never forgot; +though, to my loss, I have not always acted upon it. He said that +for many years he had never been entirely well. He had constant +headaches and depressions, and it was seldom that he was not to +some extent out of sorts. But, all the time, he had a shrewd guess +within himself as to what was the matter with him. He felt ashamed +to confess it even to himself that he over-ate himself every day at +table; till, at last, summoning up all divine and human help, he +determined that, however hungry he was, and however savoury the +dish was, and however excellent the wine was, he would never either +ask for or accept a second helping. And this was his testimony, +that from that stout and hardy day he grew better in health daily; +'my head became clear, my eye bright, my complexion pure, my mind +and feelings were redeemed from all clouds and depressions. And +to-day I am a younger man at fifty than I was at thirty.' Now, if +just saying No! to himself and to the waiter at table did work such +a new birth in a confirmed gourmand of middle life, what would it +not have wrought for him had he carried his answer stoutly and +courageously through all the other parts of his body and soul?--as +perhaps he did. Perhaps, having tasted the sweet beginnings of +salvation, he carried his short and sure regimen through. If he +has done so, let him give us his full autobiography. What a +blessed, what a priceless book it would be! + +4. Stout Captain Self-denial was commanded to begin his life as an +officer in Emmanuel's army by taking especial watch over Ear-gate +and Eye-gate; and at our last accounts of our abstemious doctor he +had only got the length of Mouth-gate. But having begun so well +with those three great outposts of the soul, if those two trusty +officers only held on, and played the man courageously enough, they +would soon be promoted to still more important, still more central, +and, if more difficult and dangerous, then also much more +honourable and remunerative posts. Appetite, deep and deadly as +its evils are, is, after all, only an outwork of the soul; and the +same sharp knife that the epicure and the sot in all their stages +must put to their throat, that same knife must be made to draw +blood in all parts of their mind and their heart, in their will and +in their imagination, till a perfect chorus of self-denials rings +like noblest martial music through all the gates, and streets, and +fortresses, and strongholds, and very palaces and temples of the +soul. I shall here stand aside and let the greatest of the English +mystics speak to you on this present point. 'When we speak of +self-denial,' he says, in his Christian Perfection, 'we are apt to +confine it to eating and drinking: but we ought to consider that, +though a strict temperance be necessary in these things, yet that +these are the easiest and the smallest instances of self-denial. +Pride, vanity, self-love, covetousness, envy, and other +inclinations of the like nature call for a more constant and a more +watchful self-denial than the appetites of hunger and thirst. And +till we enter into this course of universal self-denial we shall +make no progress in real piety, but our lives will be a ridiculous +mixture of I know not what; sober and covetous, proud and devout, +temperate and vain, regular in our forms of devotion and irregular +in all our passions, circumspect in little modes of behaviour and +careless and negligent of tempers the most essential to piety. And +thus it will necessarily be with us till we lay the axe to the root +of the tree, till we deny and renounce the whole corruption of our +nature, and resign ourselves up entirely to the Spirit of God, to +think and speak and act by the wisdom and the purity of religion.' + +5. Stout as Captain Self-denial was, and notable alarms and some +brisk execution as he did upon the enemy, yet he must meet with +some brushes himself; indeed, he carried several of the marks of +such brushes on his face as well as on some other parts of his +body. If I had read in his history that Young Captain Self-denial +had left his mark upon his enemies, I would have said, Well done, +and I would have added that I always expected as much. But it is +far more to my purpose to read that he had not always got himself +off without wounds that left lasting scars both where they were +seen of all, and where they were seen and felt only by Self-denial +himself. And not Self-denial only, but even Paul, in our flesh, +and with like passions with us, had the same experience and has +left us the same record. 'I keep my body under': so our +emasculated English version makes us read it. But the visual image +in the masterly original Greek is not so mealy-mouthed. I box and +buffet myself day and night, says Paul. I play the truculent +tyrant over a lewd and lazy slave. I hit myself blinding blows on +my tenderest part. I am ashamed to look at myself in the glass, +for all under my eyes I am black and blue. If David, after the +matter of Uriah, had done that to himself, and even more than that, +we would not have wondered; we would have expected it, and we would +have said, It is no more than we would have done ourselves. But +that a spotless, gentle, noble soul like Paul should so have +mangled himself,--that quite dumfounders us. If Paul, then, who, +touching the righteousness which is in the law, was blameless, had +to handle himself in that manner in order to keep himself +blameless, shall any young man here hope to escape temptation +without such blows at himself as shall leave their mark on him all +his days? Nay, not only so, but after Self-denial had thus +exercised himself and subdued himself, still his enemy sometimes +got such an advantage over him as left him as his history here +describes him. All which is surely full of the most excellent +heartening to all who read, in earnest and for an example, his fine +history. + +6. The last and crowning exploit of our matchless captain was to +capture, and execute, and quarter, and hang up on a gallows at the +market-cross, the head and the hands and the feet of his oldest, +most sworn, and most deadly enemy, one Self-love. So stout and so +insufferable was our captain in the matter of Self-love that when +it was proposed by some of his many influential friends and high- +in-place relations in the city that the judgment of the court- +martial on Self-love should be deferred, our stout soldier with the +cuts on his face and in some other parts of his body stood up, and +said that the city and the army must make up their mind either to +relieve him of his sword, hacked and broken off as it was, or else +to execute the law upon Self-love on the spot. I will lay down my +commission this very day, he said, with an extraordinary +indignation. Many rich men in the city, and many men deep in the +King's service, muttered mutinous things when their near relative +was hurried to the open cause-way, but by that time the soldiers of +Self-denial's company had brained Self-love with the butts of their +muskets. And it was the stand that our captain made in the matter +of Self-love that at last lifted the young soldier where many had +felt he should have been lifted long ago. From that day he was +made a lord, a military peer, and an adviser of the crown and the +crown officers in all the deepest counsels concerning Mansoul. +Only, with the cloak and the coronet of Self-denial the present +history all but comes to an end. For, before the outcast remains +of Self-love had mouldered to their dust on the city gate, the +King's chariot had descended into the street, had ascended up to +the palace at the head of the street, and a new age of the city +life had begun, the full history of which has yet to be told. + +Remain behind, then, and begin with us to-night, all you young men. +You cannot begin this lifelong study and this lifelong pursuit of +self-denial too early. For, even if you begin to read our books +and to practise our discipline in your very boyhood, when you are +old men and very saints of God you will feel that your self-love is +still so full of life and power, that your self-denial has scarcely +begun. Ah, me! men: both old and young men. Ah, me! what a +life's task set us of God it is to make us a new heart, to cleanse +out an unclean heart, to lay in the dust a proud heart, and to keep +a heart at all times, and in all places, and toward all people, +with all diligence! Who is sufficient for these things? + +'Now was Christian somewhat in a maze. But at last, when every man +started back for fear, Christian saw a man of a very stout +countenance come up to him that sat there with the inkhorn to +write, saying, Set down my name, sir! At which there was a +pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those who +walked upon the top of that place, saying, + + +"Come in, come in: +Eternal glory thou shalt win." + + +Then Christian smiled, and said: I think, verily, that I know the +meaning of all this now.' + + + +CHAPTER XVII--FIVE PICKT MEN + + + +'I took wise men and known and made them captains.'--Moses. + +John Bunyan never lost his early love for a soldier's life any more +than he ever forgot the rare delights of his bell-ringing days. +John Bunyan, all his days, never saw a bell-rope that his fingers +did not tingle, and he never saw a soldier in uniform without +instinctively shouldering his youthful musket. Bunyan was one of +those rare men who are of imagination all compact; and consequently +it is that all his books are full of the scenes, the occupations, +and the experiences of his early days. Not that he says very much, +in as many words, about what happened to him in the days when he +was a soldier; it is only once in all his many books that he says +that when he was a soldier such and such a thing happened to him. +At the same time, all his books bear the impress of his early days +upon them; and as for this special book of Bunyan's now open before +us, it is full from board to board of the strife and the din of his +early battles. The Holy War is just John Bunyan's soldierly life +spiritualised--spiritualised and so worked up into this fine +English Classic. + +Well, then, after Mansoul was taken and reduced, the victorious +Prince determined so to occupy the town with His soldiers that it +should never again either be taken by force from without, or ever +again revolt by weakness or by fear from within. And with this +view He chose out five of His best captains--My five pickt men, He +always called them--and placed those five captains and their +thousands under them in the strongholds of the town. On the margin +of this page our versatile author speaks of that step of Emmanuel's +in the language of a philosopher, a moralist, and a divine. 'Five +graces,' he says, 'pickt out of an abundance of common virtues.' +This summing-up sentence stands on his stiff and dry margin. But +in the rich and living flow of the text itself our author goes on +writing like the man of genius he is. With all the warmth and +colour and dramatic movement of which this whole book is full, this +great writer goes on to set those five choice captains of our +salvation before us in a way that we shall never forget. + +1. 'The first was that famous captain, the noble Captain Credence. +His were the red colours, and Mr. Promise bare them. And for a +scutcheon he had the Holy Lamb and the golden shield; and he had +ten thousand men at his feet.' Now, this same Captain Credence +from first to last of the war always led the van both within and +around Mansoul. In ordinary and peaceful days; in days of truce +and parley; when the opposite armies were laid up in their winter +quarters, or were, for any cause, drawn off from one another, some +of the other captains might be more in evidence. But in every +exploit to be called an exploit; in every single enterprise of +danger; when any new position was to be taken up, or any forlorn +hope was to be led, there, in the very van of labour and of danger, +was sure to be seen Captain Credence with his blood-red colours in +his own hand. You understand your Bunyan by this time, my +brethren? Captain Credence, your little boy at school will tell +you, is just the soldier-like faith of your sanctification. Credo, +he will tell you, is 'I believe'; it is to have faith in God and in +the word of God. You will borrow your Latin from your little boy, +and then you will pay him back by telling him how Captain Credence +has always led the van in your soul. You will tell him and show +him what a wonderful writer on the things of the soul John Bunyan +is, till you make John Bunyan one of your son's choicest authors +for all his days. You will do this if you will tell him how and +when this same Captain Credence with his crimson colours first led +the van in your salvation. You will tell him this with more and +more depth and more and more plainness as year after year he reads +his Holy War, and better and better understands it, till he has had +it all fulfilled in himself as a pickt captain and good soldier of +Jesus Christ. You will tell him about yourself, till, at this +forlorn hope in his own life, and at that sounded advance, in some +new providence and in some new duty; in this commanded attack on an +inwardly entrenched enemy, and in that resolute assault on some +battlement of evil habit, he recollects his noble, confiding, and +loving father and plays the man again, and that all the more if +only for his father's sake. Ask your son what he knows and what +you do not know, and then as long as his heart and his ear are open +tell him what you know and what you have by faith come through, and +that will be a priceless possession to him, especially when he is +put in possession of it by you. + +Well on toward the end of the war, the Captain Credence had so +acquitted himself that he was summoned one day to the Prince's +quarters, when the following colloquy ensued: 'What hath my Lord +to say to His servant?' And then, after a sign or two of favour, +it was said to him: 'I have made thee lieutenant over all the +forces in Mansoul; so that, from this day forward, all men in +Mansoul shall be at thy word; and thou shalt be he that shall lead +in and that shall lead out Mansoul. And at thy command shall all +the rest of the captains be.' My brethren, you will have the whole +key to all that in yourselves if this same war has gone this length +in you. Faith, your faith in God, and in the word of God, will, as +this inward war goes on, not only lead the van in your heart and in +your life, but just because your faith so leads in all things, and +is so fitted to lead in all things, it will at last be lifted up +and set over your soul, and all the things of your soul, till +nothing shall be done in any of the streets, or gates, or walls +thereof that faith in God and in His word does not first allow and +admit. And then, when it has come to that within you, that is the +best mind, that is the safest, the happiest, and the most heavenly +mind that you can attain to in this present life; and when faith +shall thus lead and rule over all things in thy soul, be thou +always ready, for thy speedy translation to a still better life is +just at the door. + +2. 'The second was that famous captain, Good-hope. His were the +blue colours. His standard-bearer was Mr. Expectation, and for a +scutcheon he had three golden anchors; and he had ten thousand men +at his feet.' The time was, my brethren, when all your hopes and +mine were as yet anchored without the veil. But all that is now +changed. We still hope, in a mild kind of way, for this thing and +for that in this present life; but only in a mild kind of way. It +would not be right in us not to look forward, say, from spring-time +to summer, and from summer to harvest. If the husbandman had not +hope in the former and in the latter rain he would not sow; and as +it is with the husbandman so it is with us all: so ought it to be, +and so it must be. But we say God willing! all the time that we +plot and plan and hope. And we say God willing! no longer with a +sigh, but, now, always with a smile. In His will is our +tranquillity, we say, and we know that if it is not His will that +this and that slightly anchored hope should be fulfilled, then that +only means that all our hopes, to be called hopes, are soon to be +realised. Our green and salad days in the matter of hope are for +ever past. If we had it all absolutely secured to us that this +world is still promising to its salad dupes, it would not come +within a thousand miles of satisfying our hearts. Whether the +hopes of our hearts are to be fulfilled within the veil or no, that +remains to be seen; but all the things without the veil taken +together do not any longer even pretend to promise a hope to hearts +like ours. Our Forerunner has carried away our hearts with Him. +We have no heart left for any one but Him, or for anything without +or within the veil that He is not and is not in. And till that +hope also has made us ashamed,--till He and His promises have +failed us like all the rest,--we are going to anchor our hearts on +that, and on that only, which we believe is with Him within the +veil. If our Forerunner also disappoints us; if we enter where He +is, only to find that He is not there; or that, though there, He is +not able to satisfy our hope in Him, and make us like Himself, then +we shall be of all men the most miserable. But not till then. No; +not till then. And thus it is that Captain Good-hope has his +billet in our heart; thus it is that his blue colours float over +our house; and thus it is that his three golden anchors are blazing +out in all their beauty on the best wall of our earthly house. + +3. 'The third was that valiant captain, the Captain Charity. His +standard-bearer was Mr. Pitiful, and for his scutcheon he had three +naked orphans embraced in his bosom; and he also had ten thousand +men at his feet.' O Charity! O valiant and pitiful Charity! +Divine-natured and heavenly-minded Charity! When wilt thou come +and dwell in my heart? When, by thine indwelling, shall I be able +to love my neighbour, and all my neighbours, as myself? When, in +thy strength, shall I cease from repining at my neighbour's good; +and when shall I cease secretly rejoicing over his evil? When +shall I by thee renewing me, be made able to cease in everything +from seeking first my own will and my own way; my own praise and my +own glory? When shall it be as much my new nature to love my +neighbour as it is now my old nature to hate him? When shall I +cease to be so soon angry, and hard, and bitter, and scornful, and +unrelenting, and unforgiving? When shall my neighbour's presence, +his image, and his name always call up only love and honour, good- +will and affectionate delight? When and where shall I, under thee, +feel for the last time any evil of any kind in my heart against my +brother? Oh! to see the day when I shall suffer long and be kind! +When I shall never again vaunt myself or be puffed up! When I +shall bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure +all things! O blessed, blessed Charity! with thy divine heart, +with thy dove-like eyes, and with thy bosom full of pity, when wilt +thou come into my sinful heart and bring all heaven in with thee! +O Charity! till thou so comest I shall wait for thee. And, till +thou comest, thy standard-bearer shall be my door porter, and thy +scutcheon shall hang night and day at my door-post! + +4. 'The fourth captain was that gallant commander, the Captain +Innocent. His standard-bearer was Mr. Harmless; his were the white +colours, and for his scutcheon he had three golden doves.' My +brethren, how well it would have been with us to-day if we had +always lived innocently! Had we only been innocent of that man's, +and that man's, and that man's, and that man's hurt! (Let us name +all the men to ourselves.) How many men have we, first and last, +hurt! Some intentionally, and some unintentionally; some +deliberately, and some only by accident; some of malice, and some +only of misfortune; some innocently and unknowingly, and whom we +never properly hurt. Some, also, by our mere existence; some by +our best actions; some because we have helped and not hurt others; +and some out of nothing else but the pure original devilry of their +own evil hearts. And then, when we take all these men home to our +hearts, what hearts all these men give us! Who, then, is the man +here who has done to other men the most hurt? Who has caused or +been the occasion of most hurt? Let that so unhappy man just think +that the gallant commander, the Captain Innocent himself, with his +white colours and with his golden doves, is standing and knocking +at your evil door. O unhappy man! By all the hurt and harm you +have ever done--by all that you can never now undo--by those +spotless colours that are still snow and not yet scarlet as they +wave over you--by those three golden doves that are an emblem of +the life that still lies open before you, as well as an invitation +to you to enter on that life--why will you die of remorse and +despair? Open the door of your heart and admit Captain Innocent. +He knows that of all hurtful men on the face of the earth you are +the most hurtful, but he is not on that account afraid at you; +indeed, it is on that account that he has come so near to you. By +admitting him, by enlisting under him, by serving under him, some +of the most hurtful and injurious men that ever lived have lived +after to be the most innocent and the most harmless of men, with +their hands washed every day in innocency, and with three golden +doves as the scutcheon of their new nature and their Christian +character. Oh come into my heart, Captain Innocent; there is room +in my heart for thee! + +5. 'And then the fifth was that truly royal and well-beloved +captain, the Captain Patience. His standard-bearer was Mr. Suffer- +long, and for a scutcheon he had three arrows through a golden +heart.' Three arrows through a golden heart! Most eloquent, most +impressive, and most instructive of emblems! First, a heart of +gold, and then that heart of gold pierced, and pierced, and then +pierced again with arrow after arrow. Patience was the last of +Emmanuel's pickt graces. Captain Patience with his pierced heart +always brought up the rear when the army marched. But when Captain +Patience and Mr. Suffer-long did enter and take up their quarters +in any house in Mansoul,--then was there no house more safe, more +protected, more peaceful, more quietly, sweetly, divinely happy +than just that house where this loyal and well-beloved captain bore +in his heart. Entertain patience, my brethren. Practise patience, +my brethren. Make your house at home a daily school to you in +which to learn patience. Be sure that you well understand the +times, the occasions, the opportunities, and the invitations of +patience, and take profit out of them; and thus both your profit +and that of others also will be great. Tribulation worketh +patience. Endure tribulation, then, for the sake of its so +excellent work. Nothing worketh patience like tribulation, and +therefore it is that tribulation so abounds in the lives of God's +people. So much does tribulation abound in the lives of God's +people that they are actually known in heaven and described there +by their experience of tribulation. 'These are they which came out +of great tribulation, and therefore are they before the throne.' +These are they with the three sharp arrows shot through and through +their hearts of gold. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--MR. DESIRES-AWAKE + + + +'One thing have I desired.'--David. + +Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in a very mean cottage in Mansoul. There +were two very mean cottages in Mansoul, and those two cottages +stood beside one another and leaned upon one another and held one +another up. Mr. Desires-awake dwelt in the one of those cottages +and Mr. Wet-eyes in the other. And those two mendicant men were +wont to meet together for secret prayer, when Mr. Desires-awake +would put a rope upon his head, while Mr. Wet-eyes would not be +able to speak for wringing his hands in tears all the time. Many a +time did those two meanest and most despised of men deliver that +city, according to the proverb of the Preacher: Wisdom is better +than strength, and the words of wisdom are to be heard in secret +places, where wisdom is far better than weapons of war. Why should +I not do all for them and the best I can? said Mr. Desires-awake +when the men of Mansoul came to him in their extremity. I will +even venture my life again for them at the pavilion of the Prince. +And accordingly this mean man put his rope upon his head, as was +his wont, and went out to the Prince's tent and asked the +reformades if he might see their Master. Then the Prince, coming +to the place where the petitioner lay on the ground, demanded what +his name was and of what esteem he was in Mansoul, and why he, of +all the multitudes of Mansoul, was sent out to His Royal tent on +such an errand. Then said the man to the Prince standing over him, +he said: Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after +the name of such a dead dog as I am? Pass by, I pray Thee, and +take not notice of who I am, because there is, as Thou very well +knowest, so great a disproportion between Thee and me. For my +part, I am out of charity with myself; who, then, should be in love +with me? Yet live I would, and so would I that my townsmen should; +and because both they and myself are guilty of great +transgressions, therefore they have sent me, and I have come in +their names to beg of my Lord for mercy. Let it please Thee, +therefore, to incline to mercy; but ask not who Thy servant is. +All this, and how Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet-eyes sped in their +petition, is to be read at length in the Holy History. And now let +us take down the key that hangs in our author's window and go to +work with it on the sweet mystery of Mr. Desires-awake. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, this poor man's name need not delay +us long seeking it out. In shorter time, and with surer success +than I could give you the dictionary root of his name, if you will +look within you will all see the visual image of this poor man's +name in your own heart. For our hearts are all as full as they can +hold of all kinds of desires; some good and some bad, some asleep +and some awake, some alive and some dead, some raging like a +hundred hungry lions, and some satisfied as a sleeping child. +Well, then, this mean man was called Mr. Desires-awake, and what +his desires were awake after and set upon we have already seen in +his head-dress and heard in his prayer. His house, on the other +hand, will not be so well known. For it was less a house than a +hut--a hut hidden away out of sight and back behind Mr. Wet-eyes' +hut. Mr. Desires-awake's cottage was so mean and meagre that no +one ever came to visit him unless it was his next-door neighbour. +They never left their cottages, those two poor men, unless it was +to see one another; or, strange to tell, unless it was to go out at +the city gate to see and to speak with their Prince. And at such +times their venturesomeness both astonished themselves and amused +their Prince. Sometimes he laughed to see them back at his door +again; but more often he wept to see and hear them; all which made +the guards of his pavilion to wonder who those two strange men +might be. And thus it was that if at any long interval of time any +of the men of the city desired to see Mr. Desires-awake, he was +sure to be found at the pavilion door of his Prince, or else in his +neighbour's cottage, or else at home in his own. From year's end +to year's end you might look in vain for either of those two poor +men in the public resorts of Mansoul. When all the town was abroad +on holidays and fair-days and feast-days, those two mean men were +then closest at home. And when the booths of the town were full of +all kinds of wares and merchandise, and all the greens in the town +were full of games, and plays, and cheats, and fools, and apes, and +knaves, only those two penniless men would abide shut up at home. +At home; or else together they would go to a market-stance set up +by their Prince outside the walls where one was stationed to stand +and to cry: 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, +and he that hath no money. Wherefore do ye spend money for that +which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? +Incline your ear and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live.' +And sometimes the Prince would go out in person to meet the two men +with nothing to pay, and would Himself say to them, I counsel thee +to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, and white raiment, and anoint +thine eyes with eye-salve, till the two men, Mr. Desires-awake and +Mr. Wet-eyes, would go home to their huts laden with their Prince's +free gifts and royal bounties. + +2. But, with all that, Mr. Desires-awake never went out to his +Prince's pavilion till he had again put his rope upon his head. +And, however laden with royal presents he ever returned to his mean +cottage, he never laid aside his rope. He ate in his rope, he +slept in his rope, he visited his next-door neighbour in his rope, +till the only instruction he left behind him was to bury him in a +ditch, and be sure to put his rope upon his head. The men and the +boys of the town jeered at Mr. Desires-awake as he passed up their +streets in his rope, and the very mothers in Mansoul taught their +children in arms to run after him and to cry, Go up, thou roped +head! Go up, thou roped head! We be free men, the men of the town +called after him; and we never were in bondage to any man'. Out +with him; out with him! He is beside himself. Much repentance +hath made him mad! But through all that Mr. Desires-awake was as +one that heard them not. For Mr. Desires-awake was full of louder +voices within. The voices within his bosom quite drowned the babel +around him. The voices within called him far worse names than the +streets of the city ever called him; till all he could do was to +draw his rope down upon his head and press on again to the Prince's +pavilion. You understand about that rope, my brethren, do you not? +Mr. Desires-awake's continual rope? In old days when a guilty man +came of his own accord to the judge to confess himself deserving of +death, he would put a rope upon his head. And that rope as much as +said to the judge and to all men--the miserable man as good as +said: This is my desert. This is the wages of my sin. I justify +my judge. I judge myself. I hereby do myself to death. And it +was this that so angered the happy holiday-makers of Mansoul. For +they forgave themselves. They justified themselves. They put a +high price upon themselves. Humiliation and sorrow for sin was not +in all their thoughts; and they hated and hunted back into his hut +the humble man whose gait and garb always reminded them of their +past life and of their latter end. But for all they could do, Mr. +Desires-awake would wear his rope. My soul chooseth strangling +rather than sin, he would say. My sin hath found me out, he would +say; I hate myself, he would say, because of my sin. I condemn and +denounce myself. I hang myself up with this rope on the accursed +tree. And thus it was that while other men were crucifying their +Prince afresh, Mr. Desires-awake was crucifying himself with and +after his Prince. And thus it was that while the men and the women +of the town so hated and so mocked Mr. Desires-awake, his Prince so +loved and so honoured him. + +3. 'Oh let not my Lord be angry; and why inquirest Thou after the +name of such a dead dog as I am?' said Desires-awake to his Prince. +'Behold, now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am +but dust and ashes,' said Abraham. 'If I wash myself with snow +water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me +into the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me,' said Job. +'My wounds stink and are corrupt; my loins are filled with a +loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh,' said +David. 'But we are all as an unclean thing,' said Isaiah, 'and all +our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' 'I am the chief of +sinners,' said the apostle. 'Hold your peace; I am a devil and not +a man,' said Philip Neri to his sons. 'I am a sinner, and worse +than the chief of sinners, yea, a guilty devil,' said Samuel +Rutherford. 'I hated the light; I was a chief--the chief of +sinners,' said Oliver Cromwell. 'I was more loathsome in my own +eyes than a toad,' said John Bunyan. 'Sin and corruption would as +naturally bubble out of my heart as water would bubble out of a +fountain. I could have changed hearts with anybody. I thought +none but the devil himself could equal me for wickedness and +pollution of mind.' 'O Despise me not,' said Bishop Andrewes, 'an +unclean worm, a dead dog, a putrid corpse. The just falleth seven +times a day; and I, an exceeding sinner, seventy times seven. Me, +O Lord, of sinners chief, chiefest, and greatest.' And William +Law, 'An unclean worm, a dead dog, a stinking carcass. Drive, I +beseech Thee, the serpent and the beast out of me. O Lord, I +detest and abhor myself for all these my sins, and for all my abuse +of Thine infinite mercy.' From all this, then, you will see that +this dead dog of ours with the rope upon his head was no strange +sight at Emmanuel's pavilion. And you and I shall still be in the +same saintly succession if we go continually with his words in our +mouth, and with his instrument in our hands and on our heads. + +4. 'The Prince to whom I went,' said Mr. Desires-awake, 'is such a +one for beauty and for glory that whoso sees Him must ever after +both love and fear Him. I, for my part,' he said, 'can do no less; +but I know not what the end will be of all these things.' What +made Mr. Desires-awake say that last thing was that when he was +prostrate in his prayer the Prince turned His head away, as if He +was out of humour and out of patience with His petitioner; while, +all the time, the overcome Prince was weeping with love and with +pity for Desires-awake. Only that poor man did not see that, and +would not have believed that even if he had seen it. 'I cannot +tell what the end will be,' said Desires-awake; 'but one thing I +know, I shall never be able to cease from both loving and fearing +that Prince. I shall always love Him for His beauty and fear Him +for His glory.' Can you say anything like that, my brethren? Have +you been at His seat with sackcloth, and a rope, and ashes, and +tears, and prayers, like Abraham, and David, and Isaiah, and Paul, +and John Bunyan, and Bishop Andrewes? And, whatever may be the +end, do you say that henceforth and for ever you must both love and +fear that Prince? 'Though He slay me,' said Job, 'yet I shall both +love and trust Him.' Well, the Prince is the Prince, and He will +take both His own time and His own way of taking off your rope and +putting a chain of gold round your neck, and a new song in your +mouth, as He did to Job. There may be more weeping yet, both on +your side and on His before He does that; but He will do it, and He +will not delay an hour that He can help in doing it. Only, do you +continue and increase to love His beauty, and to fear His glory. +And that of itself will be reward and blessing enough to you. Nay, +once you have seen both His beauty and His glory, then to lie a dog +under His table, and to beg at His door with a rope on your head to +all eternity would be a glorious eternity to you. Samuel +Rutherford said that to see Christ through the keyhole once in a +thousand years would be heaven enough for him. Christ wept in +heaven as Rutherford wrote that letter in Aberdeen, and if you make +Him weep in the same way He will soon make you to laugh too. He +will soon make you to laugh as Samuel Rutherford and Mr. Desires- +awake are laughing now. Only, my brethren, answer this--Are your +desires awakened indeed after Jesus Christ? You know what a desire +is. Your hearts are full to the brim of desires. Well, is there +one desire in a day in your heart for Christ? In the multitude of +your desires within you, what share and what proportion go out and +up to Christ? You know what beauty is. You know and you love the +beauty of a child, of a woman, of a man, of nature, of art, and so +on. Do you know, have you ever seen, the ineffable beauty of +Christ? Is there one saint of God here,--and He has many saints +here--is there one of you who can say with David in the text, One +thing do I desire? There should be many so desiring saints here; +for Christ's beauty is far better and far fairer, far more +captivating, far more enthralling, and far more satisfying to us +than it could be to David. Shall we call you Desires-awake, then, +after this? Can you say--do you say, One thing do I desire, and +that is no thing and no person, no created beauty and no earthly +sweetness, but my one desire is for God: to be His, and to be like +Him, and to be for ever with Him? Then, it shall soon all be. +For, what you truly desire,--all that you already are; and what you +already are,--all that you shall soon completely and for ever be. +Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that +I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is +the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. + +'As for me,' says the great-hearted, the hungry-hearted Psalmist, +'I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' One would +have said that David had all that heart could desire even before he +fell asleep. For he had a throne, the throne of Israel, and a son, +a son like Solomon to sit upon it. A long life also, full to the +brim of all kinds of temporal and spiritual blessings. Bless the +Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all +thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy +life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and +tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that +thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. All that, and yet not +satisfied! O David! David! surely Desires-awake is thy new name! +One of our own poets has said:- + + +'All thoughts, all passions, all delights, +Whatever stirs this mortal frame, +All are but ministers of Love, +And feed His sacred flame.' + + +Now, if that is true, as it is true, even of earthly and ephemeral +love, how much more true is it of the love that is in the immortal +soul of man for the everlasting God? And what a blessed life that +already is when all things that come to us--joy and sorrow, good +and evil, nature and grace, all thoughts, all passions, all +delights--are all but so many ministers to our soul's desire after +God, after the Divine Likeness and for the Beatific Vision. + + +'Oh! Christ, He is the Fountain, +The deep sweet Well of Love! +The streams on earth I've tasted, +More deep I'll drink above; +There, to an ocean fulness, +His mercy doth expand; +And glory--glory dwelleth +In Emmanuel's land.' + + + +CHAPTER XIX--MR. WET-EYES + + + +'Oh that my head were waters!'--Jeremiah. + +'Tears gain everything.'--Teresa. + +Now Mr. Desires-awake, when he saw that he must go on this errand, +besought that they would grant that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with him. +Now this Mr. Wet-eyes was a near neighbour of Mr. Desires-awake, a +poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, yet one that could speak +well to a petition; so they granted that he should go with him. +Wherefore the two men at once addressed themselves to their serious +business. Mr. Desires-awake put his rope upon his head, and Mr. +Wet-eyes went with his hands wringing together. Then said the +Prince, And what is he that is become thy companion in this so +weighty a matter? So Mr. Desires-awake told Emmanuel that this was +a poor neighbour of his, and one of his most intimate associates. +And his name, said he, may it please your most excellent Majesty, +is Wet-eyes, of the town of Mansoul. I know that there are many of +that name that are naught, said he; but I hope it will be no +offence to my Lord that I have brought my poor neighbour with me. +Then Mr. Wet-eyes fell on his face to the ground, and made this +apology for his coming with his neighbour to his Lord:- + +'Oh, my Lord,' quoth he, 'what I am I know not myself, nor whether +my name be feigned or true, especially when I begin to think what +some have said, and that is that this name was given me because Mr. +Repentance was my father. But good men have sometimes bad +children, and the sincere do sometimes beget hypocrites. My mother +also called me by this name of mine from my cradle; but whether she +said so because of the moistness of my brain, or because of the +softness of my heart, I cannot tell. I see dirt in mine own tears, +and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers. But I pray Thee (and +all this while the gentleman wept) that Thou wouldst not remember +against us our transgressions, nor take offence at the +unqualifiedness of Thy servants, but mercifully pass by the sin of +Mansoul, and refrain from the magnifying of Thy grace no longer.' +So at His bidding they arose, and both stood trembling before Him. + +1. 'His name, may it please your Majesty, is Wet-eyes, of the town +of Mansoul. I know, at the same time, that there are many of that +name that are naught.' Naught, that is, for this great enterprise +now in hand. And thus it was that Mr. Desires-awake in setting out +for the Prince's pavilion besought that Mr. Wet-eyes might go with +him. Mr. Desires-awake felt keenly how much might turn on who his +companion was that day, and therefore he took Mr. Wet-eyes with +him. David would have made a most excellent associate for Mr. +Desires-awake that day. 'I am weary with my groaning; all the +night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.' And +again, 'Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not +Thy law.' This, then, was the only manner of man that Mr. Desires- +awake would stake his life alongside of that day. 'I have seen +some persons weep for the loss of sixpence,' said Mr. Desires- +awake, 'or for the breaking of a glass, or at some trifling +accident. And they cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a +bigger rate than they will confess their passion to be when they +weep. Some are vexed for the dirtying of their linen, or some such +trifle, for which the least passion is too big an expense. And +thus it is that a man cannot tell his own heart simply by his +tears, or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of +sorrow.' Well, then, my brethren, tell me, Do you think that Mr. +Desires-awake would have taken you that day to the pavilion door? +Would his head have been safe with you for his associate? Your +associates see many gusts in your heart. Do they ever see your +eyes red because of your sin? Did you ever weep so much as one +good tear-drop for pure sin? One true tear: not because your sins +have found you out, but for secret sins that you know can never +find you out in this world? And, still better, do you ever weep in +secret places not for sin, but for sinfulness--which is a very +different matter? Do you ever weep to yourself and to God alone +over your incurably wicked heart? If not, then weep for that with +all your might, night and day. No mortal man has so much cause to +weep as you have. Go to God on the spot, on every spot, and say +with Bishop Andrewes, who is both Mr. Desires-awake and Mr. Wet- +eyes in one, say with that deep man in his Private Devotions, say: +'I need more grief, O God; I plainly need it. I can sin much, but +I cannot correspondingly repent. O Lord, give me a molten heart. +Give me tears; give me a fountain of tears. Give me the grace of +tears. Drop down, ye heavens, and bedew the dryness of my heart. +Give me, O Lord, this saving grace. No grace of all the graces +were more welcome to me. If I may not water my couch with my +tears, nor wash Thy feet with my tears, at least give me one or two +little tears that Thou mayest put into Thy bottle and write in Thy +book!' If your heart is hard, and your eyes dry, make something +like that your continual prayer. + +2. 'A poor-man,' said Mr. Desires-awake, about his associate. +'Mr. Wet-eyes is a poor man, and a man of a broken spirit.' 'Let +Oliver take comfort in his dark sorrows and melancholies. The +quantity of sorrow he has, does it not mean withal the quantity of +sympathy he has, and the quantity of faculty and of victory he +shall yet have? Our sorrow is the inverted image of our nobleness. +The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of +claim we have to hope. Black smoke, as of Tophet, filling all your +universe, it can yet by true heart-energy become flame, and the +brilliancy of heaven. Courage!' + + +'This is the angel of the earth, +And she is always weeping.' + + +3. 'A poor man, and a man of a broken spirit, and yet one that can +speak well to a petition.' Yes; and you will see how true that +eulogy of Mr. Wet-eyes is if you will run over in your mind the +outstanding instances of successful petitioners in the Scriptures. +As you come down the Old and the New Testaments you will be +astonished and encouraged to find how prevailing a fountain of +tears always is with God. David with his swimming bed; Jeremiah +with his head waters; Mary Magdalene over His feet with her welling +eyes; Peter's bitter cry all his life long as often as he heard a +cock crow, and so on. So on through a multitude whose names are +written in heaven, and who went up to heaven all the way with +inconsolable sorrow because of their sins. They took words and +turned to the Lord; but,--better than the best words,--they took +tears, or rather, their tears took them. The best words, the words +that the Holy Ghost Himself teacheth, if they are without tears, +will avail nothing. Even inspired words will not pass through; +while, all the time, tears, mere tears, without words, are +omnipotent with God. Words weary Him, while tears overcome and +command Him. He inhabits the tears of Israel. Therefore, also, +now, saith the Lord, turn ye unto Me with all your heart, and with +weeping and with mourning. And rend your heart, and not your +garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and +merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him +of the evil. It is the same with ourselves. Tears move us. Tears +melt us. We cannot resist tears. Even counterfeit tears, we +cannot be sure that they are not true. And that is the main reason +why our Lord is so good at speaking to a petition. It is because +His whole heart, and all the moving passions of His heart, are in +His intercessory office. It is because He still remembers in the +skies His tears, His agonies, and cries. It is because He is +entered into the holiest with His own tears as well as with His own +blood. And it is because He will remain and abide before the +Father the Man of Sorrows till our last petition is answered, and +till God has wiped the last tear from our eyes. When He was in the +coasts of Caesarea-Philippi, our Lord felt a great curiosity to +find out who the people thereabouts took Him to be. And it must +have touched His heart to be told that some men had insight enough +to insist that He was the prophet Jeremiah come back again to weep +over Jerusalem. He is Elias, said some. No; He is John the +Baptist risen from the dead, said others. No, no; said some men +who saw deeper than their neighbours. His head is waters, and His +eyes are a fountain of tears. Do you not see that He so often +escapes into a lodge in the wilderness to weep for our sins? No; +He is neither John nor Elijah; He is Jeremiah come back again to +weep over Jerusalem! And even an apostle, looking back at the +beginning of our Lord's priesthood on earth, says that He was +prepared for His office by prayers and supplications, and with +strong crying and tears. From all that, then, let us learn and lay +to heart that if we would have one to speak well to our petitions, +the Man of Sorrows is that one. And then, as His remembrancers on +our behalf, let us engage all those among our friends who have the +same grace of tears. But, above all, let us be men of tears +ourselves. For all the tears and all the intercessions of our +great High Priest, and all the importunings of our best friends to +boot, will avail us nothing if our own eyes are dry. Let us, then, +turn back to Bishop Andrewes's prayer for the grace of tears, and +offer it every night with him till our head, like his, is holy +waters, and till, like him, we get beauty for ashes, the oil of joy +for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of +heaviness. + +4. 'Clear as tears' is a Persian proverb when they would praise +their purest spring water. But Mr. Wet-eyes has from henceforth +spoiled the point of that proverb for us. 'I see,' he said, 'dirt +in mine own tears, and filthiness in the bottom of my prayers.' +Mr. Wet-eyes is hopeless. Mr. Wet-eyes is intolerable. Mr. Wet- +eyes would weary out the patience of a saint. There is no +satisfying or pacifying or ever pleasing this morbose Mr. Wet-eyes. +The man is absolutely insufferable. Why, prayers and tears that +the most and best of God's people cannot attain to are spurned and +spat upon by Mr. Wet-eyes. The man is beside himself with his +tears. For, tears that would console and assure us for a long +season after them, he will weep over them as we scarce weep over +our worst sins. His closet always turns all his comeliness to +corruption. He comes out of his closet after all night in it with +his psalm-book wrung to pulp, and with all his righteousnesses torn +to filthy rags; till all men escape Mr. Wet-eyes' society--all men +except Mr. Desires-awake. I will go out on your errand now, said +Mr. Desires-awake, if you will send Mr. Wet-eyes with me. And thus +the two twin sons of sorrow for sin and hunger after holiness went +out arm in arm to the great pavilion together, Mr. Desires-awake +with his rope upon his head, and Mr. Wet-eyes with his hands +wringing together. Thus they went to the Prince's pavilion. I +gave you a specimen of one of Mr. Wet-eyes' prayers in the +introduction to this discourse, and you did not discover much the +matter with it, did you? You did not discover much filthiness in +the bottom of that prayer, did you? I am sure you did not. Ah! +but that is because you have not yet got Mr. Wet-eyes' eyes. When +you get his eyes; when you turn and employ upon yourselves and upon +your tears and upon your prayers his always-wet eyes,--then you +will begin to understand and love and take sides with this +inconsolable soul, and will choose his society rather than that of +any other man--as often, at any rate, as you go out to the Prince's +pavilion door. + +5. 'Mr. Repentance was my father, but good men sometimes have bad +children, and the most sincere do sometimes beget great hypocrites. +But, I pray Thee, take not offence at the unqualifiedness of Thy +servant.' Take good note of that uncommon expression, +'unqualifiedness,' in Mr. Wet-eyes' confession, all of you who are +attending to what is being said. Lay 'unqualifiedness' to heart. +Learn how to qualify yourselves before you begin to pray. In his +fine comment on the 137th Psalm, Matthew Henry discourses +delightfully on what he calls 'deliberate tears.' Look up that +raciest of commentators, and see what he there says about the +deliberate tears of the captives in Babylon. It was the lack of +sufficient deliberation in his tears that condemned and alarmed Mr. +Wet-eyes that day. He felt now that he had not deliberated and +qualified himself properly before coming to the Prince's pavilion. +Do not take up your time or your thoughts with mere curiosities, +either in your Bible or in any other good book, says A Kempis. +Read such things rather as may yield compunction to your heart. +And again, give thyself to compunction, and thou shalt gain much +devotion thereby. Mr. Wet-eyes, good and true soul, was afraid +that he had not qualified himself enough by compunctious reading +and self-recollection. The sincere, he sobbed out, do often beget +hypocrites! 'Our hearts are so deceitful in the matter of +repentance,' says Jeremy Taylor, 'that the masters of the spiritual +life are fain to invent suppletory arts and stratagems to secure +the duty.' Take not offence at the lack of all such suppletory +arts and stratagems in thy servant, said poor Wet-eyes. All which +would mean in the most of us: Take not offence at my rawness and +ignorance in the spiritual life, and especially in the life of +inward devotion. Do not count up against me the names and the +numbers and the prices of my poems, and plays, and novels, and +newspapers, and then the number of my devotional books. Compare +not my outlay on my body and on this life with my outlay on my soul +and on the life to come. Oh, take not mortal offence at the +shameful and scandalous unqualifiedness of Thy miserable servant. +My father and my mother read the books of the soul, but they have +left behind them a dry-eyed reprobate in me! Say that to-night as +you look around on the grievous famine of the suppletory arts and +stratagems of repentance and reformation in your heathenish +bedroom. + +Spiritual preaching; real face to face, inward, verifiable, +experimental, spiritual preaching; preaching to a heart in the +agony of its sanctification; preaching to men whose whole life is +given over to making them a new heart--that kind of preaching is +scarcely ever heard in our day. There is great intellectual +ability in the pulpit of our day, great scholarship, great +eloquence, and great earnestness, but spiritual preaching, +preaching to the spirit--'wet-eyed' preaching--is a lost art. At +the same time, if that living art is for the present overlaid and +lost, the literature of a deeper spiritual day abides to us, and +our spiritually-minded people are not confined to us, they are not +dependent on us. Well, this is the Communion week with us yet once +more. Will you not, then, make it the beginning of some of the +suppletory arts and stratagems of the spiritual life with +yourselves? I cannot preach as I would like on such subjects, but +I can tell you who could, and who, though dead, yet speak by their +immortal books. You have the wet-eyed psalms; but they are beyond +the depth of most people. Their meaning seems to us on the +surface, and we all read and sing them, but let us not therefore +think that we understand them. I cannot compel you to read the +books, and to read little else but the books, that would in time, +and by God's blessing, lead you into the depths of the psalms; but +I can wash my hands so far in making their names so many household +words among my people. The Way to Christ, the Imitation of Christ, +the Theologia Germanica, Tauler's Sermons, the Mortification of +Sin, and Indwelling Sin in Believers, the Saint's Rest, the Holy +Living and Dying, the Privata Sacra, the Private Devotions, the +Serious Call, the Christian Perfection, the Religious Affections, +and such like. All that, and you still unqualified! All that, and +your eyes still dry! + + + +CHAPTER XX--MR. HUMBLE THE JURYMAN, AND MISS HUMBLE-MIND THE +SERVANT-MAID + + + +'Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'--Our Lord. + +'Be clothed with humility.'--Peter. + +'God's chiefest saints are the least in their own eyes.'--A Kempis. + +'Without humility all our other virtues are but vices.'--Pascal. + +'Humility does not consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves +than we deserve.'--Law. + +'Humility lies close upon the heart, and its tests are exceedingly +delicate and subtle.'--Newman. + +Our familiar English word 'humility' comes down to us from the +Latin root humus, which means the earth or the ground. Humility, +therefore, is that in the mind and in the heart of a man which is +low down even to the very earth. A humble-minded man may not have +learning enough to know the etymology of the name which best +describes his character, but the divine nature which is in him +teaches him to look down, to walk meekly and softly, and to speak +seldom, and always in love. For humility, while it takes its lowly +name from earth, all the time has its true nature from heaven. +Humility is full of all meekness, modesty, submissiveness, +teachableness, sense of inability, sense of unworthiness, sense of +ill-desert. Till, with that new depth and new intensity that the +Scriptures and religious experience have given to this word, as to +so many other words, humility, in the vocabulary of the spiritual +life, has come to be applied to that low estimate of ourselves +which we come to form and to entertain as we are more and more +enlightened about God and about ourselves; about the majesty, +glory, holiness, beauty, and blessedness of the divine nature, and +about our own unspeakable evil, vileness, and misery as sinners. +And, till humility has come to rank in Holy Scripture, and in the +lives and devotions of all God's saints, as at once the deepest +root and the ripest fruit of all the divine graces that enter into, +and, indeed, constitute the life of God in the heart of man. +Humility, evangelical humility, sings Edwards in his superb and +seraphic poem the Religious Affections,--evangelical humility is +the sense that the true Christian has of his own utter +insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, a sense which is +peculiar to the true saint. But to compensate the true saint for +this sight and sense of himself, he has revealed to him an +accompanying sense of the absolutely transcendent beauty of the +divine nature and of all divine things; a sight and a sense that +quite overcome the heart and change to holiness all the +dispositions and inclinations and affections of the heart. The +essence of evangelical humility, says Edwards, consists in such +humility as becomes a creature in himself exceeding sinful, but at +the same time, under a dispensation of grace, and this is the +greatest and most essential thing in all true religion. + +1. Well, then, our Mr. Humble was a juryman in Mansoul, and his +name and his nature eminently fitted him for his office. I never +was a juryman; but, if I were, I feel sure I would come home from +the court a far humbler man than I went up to it. I cannot imagine +how a judge can remain a proud man, or an advocate, or a witness, +or a juryman, or a spectator, or even a policeman. I am never in a +criminal court that I do not tremble with terror all the time. I +say to myself all the time,--there stands John Newton but for the +preventing grace of God. 'I will not sit as a judge to try General +Boulanger, because I hate him,' said M. Renault in the French +Senate. Mr. Humble himself could not have made a better speech to +the bench than that when his name was called to be sworn. Let us +all remember John Newton and M. Renault when we would begin to +write or to speak about any arrested, accused, found-out man. Let +other men's arrests, humiliations, accusations, and sentences only +make us search well our own past, and that will make us ever +humbler and ever humbler men ourselves; ever more penitent men, and +ever more prayerful men. + +2. And then Miss Humble-mind, his only daughter, was a servant- +maid. There is no office so humble but that a humble mind will not +put on still more humility in it. What a lesson in humility, not +Peter only got that night in the upper room, but that happy +servant-maid also who brought in the bason and the towel. Would +she ever after that night grumble and give up her place in a +passion because she had been asked to do what was beneath her to +do? Would she ever leave that house for any wages? Would she ever +see that bason without kissing it? Would that towel not be a holy +thing ever after in her proud eyes? How happy that house would +ever after that night be, not so much because the Lord's Supper had +been instituted in it, as because a servant was in it who had +learned humility as she went about the house that night. Let all +our servants hold up their heads and magnify their office. Their +Master was once a servant, and He left us all, and all servants +especially, an example that they should follow in His steps. +Peter, whose feet were washed that night, never forgot that night, +and his warm heart always warmed to a servant when he saw her with +her bason and her towels, till he gave her half a chapter to +herself in his splendid First Epistle. 'Servants, be subject,' he +said, till his argument rose to a height above which not even Paul +himself ever rose. Servant-maids, you must all have your own half- +chapter out of First Peter by heart. + +3. But I have as many students of one kind or other here to-night +as I have maid-servants, and they will remember where a great +student has said that knowledge without love but puffeth a student +up. Now, the best knowledge for us all, and especially so for a +student, is to know himself: his own ignorance, his own +foolishness, his blindness of mind, and, especially, his corruption +of heart. For that knowledge will both keep him from being puffed +up with what he already knows, and it will also put him and keep +him in the way of knowing more. Self-knowledge will increase +humility, and all the past masters both of science and of religion +will tell him that humility is the certain note of the true +student. You who are students all know The Advancement of +Learning, just as the servants sitting beside you all know the +second chapter of First Peter. Well, your master Verulam there +tells you, and indeed on every page of his, that it is only to a +humble, waiting, childlike temper that nature, like grace, will +ever reveal up her secrets. 'There is small chance of truth at the +goal when there is not a childlike humility at the starting-post.' +Well, then, all you students who would fain get to the goal of +science, make the Church of Christ your starting-post. Come first +and come continually to the Christian school to learn humility, and +then, as long as your talents, your years, and your opportunities +hold out, both truth and goodness will open up to you at every +step. Every step will be a goal, and at every goal a new step will +open up. And God's smile and God's blessing, and all good men's +love and honour and applause will support and reward you in your +race. And, humble-minded to the truth herself, be, at the same +time, humble-minded toward all who like yourself are seeking to +know and to do the truth. A lately deceased student of nature was +a pattern to all students as long as he waited on truth in his +laboratory; and even as long as he remained at his desk to tell the +world what he and other students had discovered in their search. +But when any other student in his search after truth was compelled +to cross that hither-to so exemplary student, he immediately became +as insolent as if he had been the greatest boor in the country. +Till, as he spat out scorn at all who differed from him we always +remembered this in A Kempis--'Surely, an humble husbandman that +serveth God is better than a proud philosopher that, neglecting +himself, laboureth to understand the course of the heavens. It is +great wisdom and perfection to esteem nothing of ourselves, and to +think always well and highly of others.' Students of arts, +students of philosophy, students of law, students of medicine, and +especially, students of divinity, be humble men. Labour in +humility even more than in your special science. Humility will +advance you in your special science; while, all the time, and at +the end of time, she will be more to you than all the other +sciences taken together. And since I have spoken of A Kempis, take +this motto for all your life out of A Kempis, as the great and good +Fenelon did, and it will guide you to the goal: Ama nescia et pro +nihilo reputari. + +4. But of all the men in the whole world it is ministers who +should simply, as Peter says, be clothed with humility, and that +from head to foot. And, first as divinity students, and then as +pastors and preachers, we who are ministers have advantages and +opportunities in this respect quite peculiar and private to +ourselves. For, while other students are spending their days and +their nights on the ancient classics of Greece and Rome, the +student who is to be a minister is buried in the Psalms, in the +Gospels, and in the Epistles. While the student of law is deep in +his commentaries and his cases, the student of divinity is deep in +the study of experimental religion. And while the medical student +is full of the diseases of animals and of men, the theological +student is absorbed in the holiness of the divine nature, and in +the plague of the human heart, and, especially, he is drowned +deeper every day in his own. And he who has begun a curriculum +like that and is not already putting on a humility beyond all other +men had better lose no more time, but turn himself at once to some +other way of making his bread. The word of God and his own heart,- +-yes; what a sure school of evangelical humility to every +evangelically-minded student is that! And, then, after that, and +all his days, his congregational communion-roll and his visiting- +book. Let no minister who would be found of God clothed and +canopied over with humility ever lose sight of his communion-roll +and pastoral visitation-book. I defy any minister to keep those +records always open before him and yet remain a proud man, a self- +respecting, self-satisfied, self-righteous man. For, what secret +histories of his own folly, neglect, rashness, offensiveness, hot- +headedness, self-seeking, self-pleasing vanity, now puffed up over +one man, now cast down and full of gloom over another, what self- +flattery here, and what resentment and retaliation there; and so +on, as only his own eyes and his Divine Master's eye can read +between every diary line. What shame will cover that minister as +with a mantle when he thinks what the Christian ministry might be +made, and then takes home to himself what he has made it! Let any +minister shut himself in with his communion-roll and his visiting- +book before each returning communion season, and there will be one +worthy communicant at least in the congregation: one who will have +little appetite all that week for any other food but the broken +Body and the shed Blood of his Redeemer. But these are +professional matters that the outside world has nothing to do with +and would not understand. Only, let all young men who would have +evangelical humility absolutely secured and sealed to them,--let +them come and be ministers. Just as all young men who would have +any satisfaction in life, any sense of work well done and worthy of +reward, any taste of a goal attained and an old age earned, let +them take to anything in all this world but the evangelical pulpit +and its accompanying pastorate. + +5. But humility is not a grace of the pulpit and the pastorate +only. It is not those who are separated by the Holy Ghost to study +the word of God and their own hearts all their life long only, who +are called to put on humility. All men are called to that grace. +There is no acceptance with God for any man without that grace. +There is no approach to God for any man without it. All salvation +begins and ends in it. Would you, then, fain possess it? Would +you, then, fain attain to it? Then let there be no mystery and no +mistake made about it. Would any man here fain get down to that +deep valley where God's saints walk in the sweet shade and lie down +in green pastures? Well, I warrant him that just before him, and +already under his eye, there is a flight of steps cut in the hill, +which steps, if he will take them, will, step after step, take him +also down to that bottom. The whole face of this steep and +slippery world is sculptured deep with such submissive steps. +Indeed, when a man's eyes are once turned down to that valley, +there is nothing to be seen anywhere in all this world but downward +steps. Look whichever way you will, there gleams out upon you yet +another descending stair. Look back at the way you came up. But +take care lest the sight turns you dizzy. Look at any spot you +once crossed on your way up, and, lo! every foot-print of yours has +become a descending step. You sink down as you look, broken down +with shame and with horror and with remorse. There are people, +some still left in this world, and some gone to the other world, +people whom you dare not think of lest you should turn sick and +lose hold and hope. There are places you dare not visit: there +are scenes you dare not recall. Lucifer himself would be a humble +angel with his wings over his face if he had a past like yours, and +would often enough return to look at it. And, then, not the past +only, but at this present moment there are people and things placed +close beside you, and kept close beside you, and you close beside +them, on divine purpose just to give you continual occasion and +offered opportunity to practise humility. They are kept close +beside you just on purpose to humiliate you, to cut out your +descending steps, to lend you their hand, and to say to you: Keep +near us. Only keep your eye on us, and we will see you down! And +then, if you are resolute enough to look within, if you are able to +keep your eye on what goes on in your own heart like heart--beats, +then, already, I know where you are. You are under all men's feet. +You are ashamed to lift up your eyes to meet other men's eyes. You +dare not take their honest hands. You could tell Edwards himself +things about humiliation now that would make his terribly searching +and humbling book quite tame and tasteless. + +Come, then, O high-minded man, be sane, be wise. If you were up on +a giddy height, and began to see that certain death was straight +and soon before you, what would you do? You know what you would +do. You would look with all your eyes for such steps as would take +you safest down to the solid ground. You would welcome any hand +stretched out to help you. You would be most attentive and most +obedient and most thankful to any one who would assure you that +this is the right way down. And you would keep on saying to +yourself--Once I were well down, no man shall see me up here again. +Well, my brethren, humiliation, humility, is to be learned just in +the same way, and it is to be learned in no other way. He who +would be down must just come down. That is all. A step down, and +another step down, and another, and another, and already you are +well down. A humble act done to-day, a humble word spoken to- +morrow; humiliation after humiliation accepted every day that you +would at one time have spurned from you with passion; and then your +own vile, hateful, unbearable heart-all that is ordained of God to +bring you down, down to the dust; and this last, your own heart, +will bring you down to the very depths of hell. And thus, after +all your other opportunities and ordinances of humility are +embraced and exhausted, then the plunges, the depths, the abysses +of humility that God will open up in your own heart will all work +in you a meetness for heaven and a ripeness for its glory, that +shall for ever reward you for all that degradation and shame and +self-despair which have been to you the sure way and the only way +to everlasting life. + + + +CHAPTER XXI--MASTER THINK-WELL, THE LATE AND ONLY SON OF OLD MR. +MEDITATION + + + +'As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.'--A Proverb. + +It was a truly delightful sight to see old Mr. Meditation and his +only son, our little Think-well, out among the woods and hedgerows +of a summer afternoon. Little Think-well was the son of his +father's old age. That dry tree used to say to himself that if +ever he was intrusted with a son of his own, he would make his son +his most constant and his most confidential companion all his days. +And so he did. The eleventh of Deuteronomy had become a greater +and greater text to that childless man as he passed the mid-time of +his days. 'Therefore,' he used to say to himself, as he walked +abroad alone, and as other men passed him with their children at +their side--'Therefore ye shall teach them to your children, +speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou +walkest by the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up. +And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house and +upon thy gates.' And thus it was that, as the little lad grew up, +there was no day of all the seven that he so much numbered and +waited for as was that sacred day on which his father was free to +take little Think-well by the hand and lead him out to talk to him. +'No,' said an Edinburgh boy to his mother the other day--'No, +mother,' he said, 'I have no liking for these Sunday papers with +their poor stories and their pictures. I am to read the Bible +stories and the Bible biographies first.' He is not my boy. I +wish my boys were all like him. 'And Plutarch on week-days for +such a boy,' I said to his mother. How to keep a decent shred of +the old sanctification on the modern Sabbath-day is the anxious +inquiry of many fathers and mothers among us. My friend with her +manly-minded boy, and Mr. Meditation with little Think-well had no +trouble in that matter. + + +'And once I said, +As I remember, looking round upon those rocks +And hills on which we all of us were born, +That God who made the Great Book of the world +Would bless such piety;-- +Never did worthier lads break English bread: +The finest Sunday that the autumn saw, +With all its mealy clusters of ripe nuts, +Could never keep those boys away from church, +Or tempt them to an hour of Sabbath breach, +Leonard and James!' + + +Think-well and that mother's son. + +Old Mr. Meditation, the father, was sprung of a poor but honest and +industrious stock in the city. He had not had many talents or +opportunities to begin with, but he had made the very best of the +two he had. And then, when the two estates of Mr. Fritter-day and +Mr. Let-good-slip were sequestered to the crown, the advisers of +the crown handed over those two neglected estates to Mr. Meditation +to improve them for the common good, and after him to his son, +whose name we know. The steps of a good man are ordered of the +Lord, and He delighteth in his way. I have been young and now am +old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed +begging bread. + +Now, this Think-well old Mr. Meditation had by Mrs. Piety, and she +was the daughter of the old Recorder. 'I am Thy servant,' said +Mrs. Piety's son on occasion all his days--'I am Thy servant and +the son of Thine handmaid.' And at that so dutiful acknowledgment +of his a long procession of the servants of God pass up before our +eyes with their sainted mothers leaning on the arms of their great +sons. The Psalmist and his mother, the Baptist and his mother, our +Lord and His mother, the author of the Fourth Gospel and his +mother, Paul's son and successor in the gospel and his mother and +grandmother, the author of The Confessions and his mother; and, in +this noble connection, I always think of Halyburton and his good +mother. And in this ennobling connection you will all think of +your own mother also, and before we go any further you will all +say, I also, O Lord, am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid. +'Fathers and mothers handle children differently,' says Jeremy +Taylor. And then that princely teacher of the Church of Christ +Catholic goes on to tell us how Mrs. Piety handled her little +Think-well which she had borne to Mr. Meditation. After other +things, she said this every night before she took sleep to her +tired eyelids, this: 'Oh give me grace to bring him up. Oh may I +always instruct him with diligence and meekness; govern him with +prudence and holiness; lead him in the paths of religion and +justice; never provoking him to wrath, never indulging him in +folly, and never conniving at an unworthy action. Oh sanctify him +in his body, soul, and spirit. Let all his thoughts be pure and +holy to the Searcher of hearts; let his words be true and prudent +before men; and may he have the portion of the meek and the humble +in the world to come, and all through Jesus Christ our Lord!' How +could a son get past a father and a mother like that? Even if, for +a season, he had got past them, he would be sure to come back. +Only, their young Think-well never did get past his father and his +mother. + +There was not so much word of heredity in his day; but without so +much of the word young Think-well had the whole of the thing. And +as time went on, and the child became more and more the father of +the man, it was seen and spoken of by all the neighbours who knew +the house, how that their only child had inherited all his father's +head, and all his mother's heart, and then that he had reverted to +his maternal grandfather in his so keen and quick sense of right +and wrong. All which, under whatever name it was held, was a most +excellent outfit for our young gentleman. His old father, good +natural head and all, had next to no book-learning. He had only +two or three books that he read a hundred times over till he had +them by heart. And as he sighed over his unlettered lot he always +consoled himself with a saying he had once got out of one of his +old books. The saying of some great authority was to this effect, +that 'an old and simple woman, if she loves Jesus, may be greater +than our great brother Bonaventure.' He did not know who +Bonaventure was, but he always got a reproof again out of his name. +Think-well, to his father's immense delight, was a very methodical +little fellow, and his father and he had orderly little secrets +that they told to none. Little secret plans as to what they were +to read about, and think about, and pray about on certain days of +the week and at certain hours of the day and the night. You must +not call the father an old pedant, for the fact is, it was the son +who was the pedant if there was one in that happy house. The two +intimate friends had a word between them they called agenda. And +nobody but themselves knew where they had borrowed that uncouth +word, what language it was, or what it meant. Only in the old +man's tattered pocket-book there were things like this found by his +minister after his death. Indeed, in a museum of such relics this +is still to be read under a glass case, and in old Mr. Meditation's +ramshackle hand: 'Monday, death; Tuesday, judgment; Wednesday, +heaven; Thursday, hell; Friday, my past life back to my youth; +Saturday, the passion of my Saviour; Lord's day, creation, +salvation, and my own.--M.' And then, on an utterly illegible +page, this: 'Jesus, Thy life and Thy words are a perpetual sermon +to me. I meditate on Thee all the day. Make my memory a vessel of +election. Let all my thoughts be plain, honest, pious, simple, +prudent, and charitable, till Thou art pleased to draw the curtain +and let me see Thyself, O Eternal Jesu!' If I had time I could +tell you more about Think-well's quaint old father. But the above +may be better than nothing about the rare old gentleman. + +A great authority has said--two great authorities have said in +their enigmatic way, that a 'dry light is ever the best.' That may +be so in some cases and to some uses, but nothing can be more sure +than this, that the light that little Think-well got from his +father's head was excellently drenched in his mother's heart. The +sweet moisture of his mother's heart mixed up beautifully with his +father's drier head and made a fine combination in their one boy as +it turned out. Her minister, preaching on one occasion on my text +for to-night, had said--and she had such a memory for a sermon that +she had never forgotten it, but had laid it up in her heart on the +spot--'As the philosopher's stone,' the old-fashioned preacher had +said, 'turns all metals into gold, as the bee sucks honey out of +every flower, and as the good stomach sucks out some sweet and +wholesome nourishment out of whatever it takes into itself, so doth +a holy heart, so far as sanctified, convert and digest all things +into spiritual and useful thoughts. This you may see in Psalm +cvii. 43.' And in her plain, silent, hidden, motherly way Mistress +Piety adorned her old minister's doctrine of the holy heart that he +was always preaching about, till she shared her soft and holy heart +with her son, as his father had shared his clear and deep, if too +unlearned, head. + +We have one grandmother at least signalised in the Bible; but no +grandfather, so far as I remember. But amends are made for that in +the Holy War. For Think-well would never have been the man he +became had it not been for the old Recorder, his grandfather on his +mother's side. Some superficial people said that there was too +much severity in the old Recorder; but his grandson who knew him +best, never said that. He was the best of men, his grandson used +to stand up for him, and say, I shall never forget the debt I owe +him. It was he who taught me first to make conscience of my +thoughts. Indeed, as for my secret thoughts, I had taken no notice +of them till that summer afternoon walk home from church, when we +sat down among the bushes and he showed me on the spot the way. +And I can say to his memory that scarce for one waking hour have I +any day forgotten the lesson. The lesson how to make a conscience, +as he said, of all my thoughts about myself and about all my +neighbours. Such, then, were Think-well's more immediate +ancestors, and such was the inheritance that they all taken +together had left him. + +Think-well! Think-well! My brethren, what do you think, what do +you say, as you hear that fine name? I will tell you what I think +and say. If I overcome, and have that white stone given to me, and +in that stone a new name written which no man shall know saving he +that receiveth it; and if it were asked me here to-night what I +would like my new name to be, I would say on the spot, Let it be +THINK-WELL! Let my new name among the saved and the sanctified +before the throne be THINK-WELL! As, O God, it will be the +bottomless pit to me, if I am forsaken of Thee for ever to my evil +thoughts. Send down and prevent it. Stir up all Thy strength and +give commandment to prevent it. Do Thou prevent it. For, after I +have done all,--after I have made all my overt acts blameless, +after I have tamed my tongue which no man can tame--all that only +the more throws my thoughts into a very devil's garden, a thicket +of hell, a secret swamp of sin to the uttermost. How, then, am I +ever to attain to that white stone and that shining name? And that +in a world of such truth that every man's name and title there +shall be a strict and true and entirely accurate and adequate +description and exposition of the very thoughts and intents and +imaginations of his heart? How shall I, how shall you, my +brethren, ever have 'Think-well' written on our forehead?--Well, +with God all things are possible. With God, with a much meditating +mind, and a true and humble and tender heart, and a pure +conscience, a conscience void of offence, working together with +Him--He, with all these inheritances and all these environments +working together with Him, will at last enable us, you and me, to +lift up such a clear and transparent forehead. But not without our +constant working together. We must ourselves make head, and heart, +and, especially, conscience of all our thoughts--for a long +lifetime we must do that. The Ductor Dubitantium has a deep +chapter on 'The Thinking Conscience.' And what a reproof to many +of us lies in the mere name! For how much evil-thinking and evil- +speaking we have all been guilty of through our unthinking +conscience and through a zeal for God, but a zeal without +knowledge. Look back at the history of the Church and see; look +back at your own history in the Church and see. Yes, make +conscience of your thoughts: but let it first be an instructed +conscience, a thinking conscience, a conscience full of the best +and the clearest light. And then let us also make ourselves a new +heart and a new spirit, as Ezekiel has it. For our hearts are +continually perverting and polluting and poisoning our thoughts. +That is a fearful thing that is said about the men on whom the +flood soon came. You remember what is said about them, and in +explanation and justification of the flood. God saw, it is said, +that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was evil, +and only evil continually. Fearful! Far more fearful than ten +floods! O God, Thou seest us. And Thou seest all the imaginations +of the thoughts of our hearts. Oh give us all a mind and a heart +and a conscience to think of nothing, to fear nothing, to watch and +to pray about nothing compared with our thoughts. 'As for my +secret thoughts,' says the author of the Holy War and the creator +of Master Think-well--'As for my secret thoughts, I paid no +attention to them. I never knew I had them. I had no pain, or +shame, or guilt, or horror, or despair on account of them till John +Gifford took me and showed me the way.' And then when John Bunyan, +being the man of genius he was,--as soon as he began to attend to +his own secret thoughts, then the first faint outline of this fine +portrait of Think-well began to shine out on the screen of this +great artist's imagination, and from that sanctified screen this +fine portrait of Think-well and his family has shined into our +hearts to-night. + + + +CHAPTER XXII--MR. GOD'S-PEACE, A GOODLY PERSON, AND A SWEET-NATURED +GENTLEMAN + + + +'Let the peace of God rule in your hearts,--the peace of God that +passeth all understanding.'--Paul. + +John Bunyan is always at his very best in allegory. In some other +departments of work John Bunyan has had many superiors; but when he +lays down his head on his hand and begins to dream, as we see him +in some of the old woodcuts, then he is alone; there is no one near +him. We have not a few greater divines in pure divinity than John +Bunyan. We have some far better expositors of Scripture than John +Bunyan, and we have some far better preachers. John Bunyan at his +best cannot open up a deep Scripture like that prince of +expositors, Thomas Goodwin. John Bunyan in all his books has +nothing to compare for intellectual strength and for theological +grasp with Goodwin's chapter on the peace of God, in his sixth book +in The Work of the Holy Ghost. John Bunyan cannot set forth divine +truth in an orderly method and in a built-up body like John Owen. +He cannot Platonize divine truth like his Puritan contemporary, +John Howe. He cannot soar high as heaven in the beauty and the +sweetness of gospel holiness like Jonathan Edwards. He has nothing +of the philosophical depth of Richard Hooker, and he has nothing of +the vast learning of Jeremy Taylor. But when John Bunyan's mind +and heart begin to work through his imagination, then - + + +'His language is not ours. +'Tis my belief God speaks; no tinker hath such powers.' + + +1. In the beginning of his chapter on 'Speaking peace,' Thomas +Goodwin tells his reader that he is going to fully couch all his +intendments under a metaphor and an allegory. But Goodwin's reader +has read and re-read the great chapter, and has not yet discovered +where the metaphor and the allegory came in and where they went +out. But Bunyan does not need to advertise his reader that he is +going to couch his teaching in his imagination. + + +'But having now my method by the end, +Still, as I pulled it came: and so I penned +It down; until at last it came to be +For length and breadth the bigness that you see.' + + +The Blessed Prince, he begins, did also ordain a new officer in the +town, and a goodly person he was. His name was Mr. God's-peace. +This man was set over my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. +Recorder, the subordinate preacher, Mr. Mind, and over all the +natives of the town of Mansoul. Himself was not a native of the +town, but came with the Prince from the court above. He was a +great acquaintance of Captain Credence and Captain Good-hope; some +say they were kin, and I am of that opinion too. This man, as I +said, was made governor of the town in general, especially over the +castle, and Captain Credence was to help him there. And I made +great observation of it, that so long as all things went in the +town as this sweet-natured gentleman would have them go, the town +was in a most happy condition. Now there were no jars, no chiding, +no interferings, no unfaithful doings in all the town; every man in +Mansoul kept close to his own employment. The gentry, the +officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed their order. +And as for the women and the children of the town, they followed +their business joyfully. They would work and sing, work and sing, +from morning till night; so that quite through the town of Mansoul +now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and +health. And this lasted all the summer. I shall step aside at +this point and shall let Jonathan Edwards comment on this sweet- +natured gentleman and his heavenly name. 'God's peace has an +exquisite sweetness,' says Edwards. 'It is exquisitely sweet +because it has so firm a foundation on the everlasting rock. It is +sweet also because it is so perfectly agreeable to reason. It is +sweet also because it riseth from holy and divine principles, +which, as they are the virtue, so are they the proper happiness of +man. This peace is exquisitely sweet also because of the greatness +of the good that the saints enjoy, being no other than the infinite +bounty and fulness of that God who is the Fountain of all good. It +is sweet also because it shall be enjoyed to perfection hereafter.' +An enthusiastic student has counted up the number of times that +this divine word 'sweetness' occurs in Edwards, and has proved that +no other word of the kind occurs so often in the author of True +Virtue and The Religious Affections. And I can well believe it; +unless the 'beauty of holiness' runs it close. Still, this sweet- +natured gentleman will continue to live for us in his government +and jurisdiction in Mansoul and in John Bunyan even more than in +Jonathan Edwards. + +2. 'Now Mr. God's-peace, the new Governor of Mansoul, was not a +native of the town; he came down with his Prince from the court +above.' 'He was not a native'--let that attribute of his be +written in letters of gold on every gate and door and wall within +his jurisdiction. When you need the governor and would seek him at +any time or in any place in all the town and cannot find him, +recollect yourself where he came from: he may have returned +thither again. John Bunyan has couched his deepest instruction to +you in that single sentence in which he says, 'Mr. God's-peace was +not a native of the town.' John Bunyan has gathered up many gospel +Scriptures into that single allegorical sentence. He has made many +old and familiar passages fresh and full of life again in that one +metaphorical sentence. It is the work of genius to set forth the +wont and the well known in a clear, simple, and at the same time +surprising, light like that. There is a peace that is native and +natural to the town of Mansoul, and to understand that peace, its +nature, its grounds, its extent, and its range, is most important +to the theologian and to the saint. But to understand the peace of +God, that supreme peace, the peace that passeth all understanding,- +-that is the highest triumph of the theologian and the highest +wisdom of the saint. The prophets and the psalmists of the Old +Testament are all full of the peace that God gave to His people +Israel. My peace I give unto you, says our Lord also. Paul also +has taken up that peace that comes to us through the blood of +Christ, and has made it his grand message to us and to all sinful +and sin-disquieted men. And John Bunyan has shown how sure and +true a successor of the apostles of Christ he is, just in his +portrait of this sweet-natured gentleman who was not a native of +Mansoul, but who came from that same court from which Emmanuel +Himself came. And it is just this outlandishness of this sweet- +natured gentleman; it is just this heavenly origin and divine +extraction of his that makes him sometimes and in some things to +surpass all earthly understanding. 'I am coming some day soon,' +said a divinity student to me the other Sabbath night, 'to have you +explain and clear up the atonement to me.' 'I shall be glad to see +you,' I said, 'but not on that errand.' No. Paul himself could +not do it. Paul said that the atonement and the peace of it passed +all his understanding. And John Bunyan says here that not the +Prince only, but his officer Mr. God's-peace also, was not native +to the town of Mansoul, but came straight down from heaven into +that town--and what can the man do who cometh after two kings like +Paul and Bunyan? I have not forgotten my Edwards where he says +that the exquisite sweetness of this peace is perfectly agreeable +to reason. As, indeed, so it is. And yet, if reason will have a +clear and finished and all-round answer to all her difficulties and +objections and fault-findings, I fear she cannot have it here. The +time may come when our reason also shall be so enlarged, and so +sanctified, and so exalted, that she shall be able with all saints +to see the full mystery of that which in this present dispensation +passeth all understanding. But till then, only let God's peace +enter our hearts with God's Son, and then let our hearts say if +that peace must not in some high and deep way be according to the +highest and the deepest reason, since its coming into our hearts +has produced in our hearts and in our lives such reasonable, and +right, and harmonious, and peaceful, and every way joyful results. + +3. Governor God's-peace had not many in the town of Mansoul to +whom he could confide all his thoughts and with whom he could +consult. But there were two officer friends of his stationed in +the town with whom he was every day in close correspondence, viz., +the Captain Credence and the Captain Good-hope. Their so close +intimacy will not be wondered at when it is known that those three +officers had all come in together with Emmanuel the Conqueror. +Those three young captains had done splendid service, each at the +head of his own battalion, in the days of the invasion and the +conquest of Mansoul, and they had all had their present titles, and +privileges, and lands, and offices, patented to them on the +strength of their past services. The Captain Credence had all +along been the confidential aide-de-camp and secretary of the +Prince. Indeed, the Prince never called Captain Credence a servant +at all, but always a friend. The Prince had always conveyed his +mind about all Mansoul's matters first to Captain Credence, and +then that confidential captain conveyed whatever specially +concerned God's-peace and Good-hope to those excellent and trusty +soldiers. Credence first told all matters to God's-peace and then +the two soon talked over Good-hope to their mind and heart. Some +say that the three officers, Credence, God's-peace, and Good-hope, +were kin, adds our historian, and I, he adds, am of that opinion +too. And to back up his opinion he takes an extract out of the +Herald's College books which runs thus: 'Romans, fifteenth and +thirteenth: Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace +in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the +Holy Ghost.' Some say the three officers were of kin, and I am of +that opinion too. + +4. On account both of his eminent services and his great +abilities, the Prince saw it good to set Mr. God's-peace over the +whole town. And thus it was that the governor's jurisdiction +extended and held not only over the people of the town, but also +over all the magistrates and all the other officers of the town, +such as my Lord Will-be-will, my Lord Mayor, Mr. Recorder, Mr. +Mind, and all. It needed all the governor's authority and ability +to keep his feet in his office over all the other rulers of the +town, but by far his greatest trouble always was with the Recorder. +Old Mr. Conscience, the Town Recorder, had a very difficult post to +hold and a very difficult part to play in that still so divided and +still so unsettled town. What with all those murderers and man- +slayers, thieves and prostitutes, skulkers and secret rebels, on +the one hand, and with Governor God's-peace and his so +unaccountable and so autocratic ways, on the other hand, the +Recorder's office was no sinecure. All the misdemeanours and +malpractices of the town,--and they were happening every day and +every night,--were all reported to the Recorder; they were all, so +to say, charged home upon the Recorder, and he was held responsible +for them all; till his office was a perfect laystall and cesspool +of all the scum and corruption of the town. And yet, in would come +Governor God's-peace, without either warning or explanation, and +would demand all the Recorder's papers, and proofs, and affidavits, +and what not, it had cost him so much trouble to get collected and +indorsed, and would burn them all before the Recorder's face, and +to his utter confusion, humiliation, and silence. So autocratic, +so despotic, so absolute, and not-to-be-questioned was Governor +God's-peace. The Recorder could not understand it, and could +barely submit to it; my Lord Mayor could not understand it, and his +clerk, Mr. Mind, would often oppose it; but there it was: Mr. +Governor God's-peace was set over them all. + +5. But the thing that always in the long-run justified the +governorship of Mr. God's-peace, and reconciled all the other +officers to his supremacy, was the way that the city settled down +and prospered under his benignant rule. All the other officers +admitted that, somehow, his promotion and power had been the +salvation of Mansoul. They all extolled their Prince's far-seeing +wisdom in the selection, advancement, and absolute seat of Mr. +God's-peace. And it would ill have become them to have said +anything else; for they had little else to do but bask in the sun +and enjoy the honours and the emoluments of their respective +offices as long as Governor God's-peace held sway, and had all +things in the city to his own mind. Now, it was on all hands +admitted, as we read again with renewed delight, that there were no +jars, no chiding, no interferings, no unfaithful doings in the town +of Mansoul; but every man kept close to his own employment. The +gentry, the officers, the soldiers, and all in place, observed +their orders. And as for the women and children, they all followed +their business joyfully. They would work and sing, work and sing, +from morning till night, so that quite through the town of Mansoul +now nothing was to be found but harmony, quietness, joy, and +health. What more could be said of any governorship of any town +than that? The Heavenly Court itself, out of which Governor God's- +peace had come down, was not better governed than that. Harmony, +quietness, joy, and health. No; the New Jerusalem itself will not +surpass that. 'And this lasted all that summer.' + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF MANSOUL, AND MR. +CONSCIENCE ONE OF HER PARISH MINISTERS + + + +'The Highest Himself shall establish her.'--David. + +The princes of this world establish churches sometimes out of piety +and sometimes out of policy. Sometimes their motive is the good of +their people and the glory of God, and sometimes their sole motive +is to buttress up their own Royal House, and to have a clergy +around them on whom they can count. Prince Emmanuel had His +motive, too, in setting up an establishment in Mansoul. As thus: +When this was over, the Prince sent again for the elders of the +town and communed with them about the ministry that He intended to +establish in Mansoul. Such a ministry as might open to them and +might instruct them in the things that did concern their present +and their future state. For, said He to them, of yourselves, +unless you have teachers and guides, you will not be able to know, +and if you do not know, then you cannot do the will of My Father. +At this news, when the elders of Mansoul brought it to the people, +the whole town came running together, and all with one consent +implored His Majesty that He would forthwith establish such a +ministry among them as might teach them both law and judgment, +statute and commandment, so that they might be documented in all +good and wholesome things. So He told them that He would +graciously grant their requests and would straightway establish +such a ministry among them. + +Now, I will not enter to-night on the abstract benefits of such an +Establishment. I will rather take one of the ministers who was +presented to one of the parishes of Mansoul, and shall thus let you +see how that State Church worked out practically in one of its +ministers at any rate. And the preacher and pastor I shall so take +up was neither the best minister in the town nor the worst; but, +while a long way subordinate to the best, he was also by no means +the least. The Reverend Mr. Conscience was our parish minister's +name; his people sometimes called him The Recorder. + +1. Well, then, to begin with, the Rev. Mr. Conscience was a native +of the same town in which his parish church now stood. I am not +going to challenge the wisdom of the patron who appointed his +protege to this particular living; only, I have known very good +ministers who never got over the misfortune of having been settled +in the same town in which they had been born and brought up. Or, +rather, their people never got over it. One excellent minister, +especially, I once knew, whose father had been a working man in the +town, and his son had sometimes assisted his father before he went +to college, and even between his college sessions, and the people +he afterwards came to teach could never get over that. It was not +wise in my friend to accept that presentation in the circumstances, +as the event abundantly proved. For, whenever he had to take his +stand in his pulpit or in his pastorate against any of their evil +ways, his people defended themselves and retaliated on him by +reminding him that they knew his father and his mother, and had not +forgotten his own early days. No doubt, in the case of Emmanuel +and Mansoul and its minister, there were counterbalancing +considerations and advantages both to minister and people; but it +is not always so; and it was not so in the case of my unfortunate +friend. + +Forasmuch, so ran the Prince's presentation paper, as he is a +native of the town of Mansoul, and thus has personal knowledge of +all the laws and customs of the corporation, therefore he, the +Prince, presented Mr. Conscience. That is to say, every man who is +to be the minister of a parish should make his own heart and his +own life his first parish. His own vineyard should be his first +knowledge and his first care. And then out of that and after that +he will be able to speak to his people, and to correct, and +counsel, and take care of them. In Thomas Boston's Memoirs we +continually come on entries like this: 'Preached on Ps. xlii. 5, +and mostly on my own account.' And, again, we read in the same +invaluable book for parish ministers, that its author did not +wonder to hear that good had been done by last Sabbath's sermon, +because he had preached it to himself and had got good to himself +out of it before he took it to the pulpit. Boston kept his eye on +himself in a way that the minister of Mansoul himself could not +have excelled. Till, not in his pulpit work only, but in such +conventional, commonplace, and monotonous exercises as his family +worship, he so read the Scriptures and so sang the psalms that his +family worship was continually yielding him fruit as well as his +public ministry. As our family worship and our public ministry +will do, too, when we have the eye and the heart and the conscience +that Thomas Boston had. 'I went to hear a preacher,' said Pascal, +'and I found a man in the pulpit.' Well, the parish minister of +Mansoul was a man, and so was the parish minister of Ettrick. And +that was the reason that the people of Simprin and Ettrick so often +thought that Boston had them in his eye. Good pastor as he was, he +could not have everybody in his eye. But he had himself in his +eye, and that let him into the hearts and the homes of all his +people. He was a true man, and thus a true minister. + +2. Both Boston and the minister of Mansoul were well-read men +also; so, indeed, in as many words, their fine biographies assure +us. But that is just another way of saying what has been said +about those two ministers over and over again already. William Law +never was a parish minister. The English Crown of that day would +not trust him with a parish. But what was the everlasting loss of +some parish in England has become the everlasting gain of the whole +Church of Christ. Law's enforced seclusion from outward +ministerial activity only set him the more free to that inward +activity which has been such a blessing to so many, and to so many +ministers especially. And as to this of every minister being well +read, that master in Israel says: 'Above all, let me tell you that +the book of books to you is your own heart, in which are written +and engraven the deepest lessons of divine instruction. Learn, +therefore, to be deeply attentive to the presence of God in your +own hearts, who is always speaking, always instructing, always +illuminating the heart that is attentive to Him.' Jonathan Edwards +called the poor parish minister of Ettrick 'a truly great divine.' +But Law goes on to say, 'A great divine is but a cant expression +unless it signifies a man greatly advanced in the divine life. A +great divine is one whose own experience and example are a +demonstration of the reality of all the graces and virtues of the +gospel. No divine has any more of the gospel in him than that +which proves itself by the spirit, the actions, and the form of his +life: the rest is but hypocrisy, not divinity.' Let all our +parish ministers, then, give themselves to this kind of reading. +Let them all aim at a doctor's degree in the divinity of their own +hearts. + +3. We are done at last, and we are done for ever, in Scotland, +with patrons and with presenters; but I daresay our most Free +Church people would be quite willing to surrender their dear-bought +franchise if the old plan could even yet be made to work in all +their parishes as it worked in Mansoul. For not only was the +presented minister in this case a well-read man; he was also, what +the best of the Scottish people have always loved and honoured, a +man, as this history testifies, with a tongue as bravely hung as he +had a head filled with judgment. In Scotland we like our minister +to have a tongue bravely hung, even when that is proved to our own +despite. When any minister, parish minister or other, is seen to +tune his pulpit, our respect for him is gone. The Presbyterian +pulpit has been proverbially hard to tune, and it will be an ill +day when it becomes easy. 'Here lies a man who had a brow for +every good cause.' So it was engraven over one of Boston's elders. +And so is it always: like priest, like people in the matter of the +hang of the minister's tongue and in the boldness of the elder's +brow. + +'Bravely hung' is an ancient and excellent expression which has +several shades of meaning in Bunyan. But in the present instance +its meaning is modified and fixed by judgment. A bravely hung +tongue; at the same time the parish minister of Mansoul's tongue +was not a loosely-hung tongue. It was not a blustering, headlong, +scolding, untamed tongue. The pulpit of Mansoul was tuned with +judgment. He who filled that pulpit had a head filled with +judgment. The ground of judgment is knowledge, and the minister of +Mansoul was a man of knowledge. It was his early and ever- +increasing knowledge of himself, and thus of other men; and then it +was his excellent judgment as to the use he was to make of that +knowledge; it was his sound knowledge what to say, when to say it, +and how to say it,--it was all this that decided his Prince to make +him the minister of Mansoul. How excellent and how rare a gift is +judgment--judgment in counsel, judgment in speech, and judgment in +action! 'I am very little serviceable with reference to public +management,' writes the parish minister of Ettrick, 'being +exceedingly defective in ecclesiastical prudence; but the Lord has +given me a pulpit gift, not unacceptable: and who knows what He +may do with me in that way?' Who knows, indeed! Now, there are +many parish ministers who have a not unacceptable pulpit gift, and +yet who are not content with that, but are always burying that gift +in the earth and running away from it to attempt a public +management in which they are exceedingly and conspicuously +defective. Now, why do they do that? Is their pulpit and their +parish not sphere and opportunity enough for them? Mine is a small +parish, said Boston, but then it is mine. And a small parish may +both rear and occupy a truly great divine. Let those ministers, +then, who are defective in ecclesiastical prudence not be too much +cast down. Ecclesiastical prudence is not in every case the +highest kind of prudence. The presbytery, the synod, and the +assembly are not any minister's first or best sphere. Every +minister's first and best sphere is his parish. And the presbytery +is not the end of the parish. The parish, the pastorate, and the +pulpit are the end of both presbytery and synod and assembly. As +for the minister of Mansoul, he was a well-read man, and also a man +of courage to speak out the truth at every occasion, and he had a +tongue as bravely hung as he had a head filled with judgment. + +4. But there was one thing about the parish pulpit of Mansoul that +always overpowered the people. They could not always explain it +even to themselves what it was that sometimes so terrified them, +and, sometimes, again, so enthralled them. They would say +sometimes that their minister was more than a mere man; that he was +a prophet and a seer, and that his Master seemed sometimes to stand +and speak again in His servant. And 'seer' was not at all an +inappropriate name for their minister, so far as I can collect out +of some remains of his that I have seen and some testimonies that I +have heard. There was something awful and overawing, something +seer-like and supernatural, in the pulpit of Mansoul. Sometimes +the iron chains in which the preacher climbed up into the pulpit, +and in which he both prayed and preached, struck a chill to every +heart; and sometimes the garment of salvation in which he shone +carried all their hearts captive. Some Sabbath mornings they saw +it in his face and heard it in his voice that he had been on his +bed in hell all last night; and then, next Sabbath, those who came +back saw him descending into his pulpit from his throne in heaven. + + +'Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-page +Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. +Thou tremblest, and the whiteness in thy cheek +Is apter than thy tongue to tell thine errand.' + + +If you think that I am exaggerating and magnifying the parish +pulpit of Mansoul, take this out of the parish records for +yourselves. 'And now,' you will read in one place, 'it was a day +gloomy and dark, a day of clouds and thick darkness with Mansoul. +Well, when the Sabbath-day was come he took for his text that in +the prophet Jonah, "They that observe lying vanities forsake their +own mercy." And then there was such power and authority in that +sermon, and such dejection seen in the countenances of the people +that day that the like had seldom been heard or seen. The people, +when the sermon was done, were scarce able to go to their homes, or +to betake themselves to their employments the whole week after. +They were so sermon-smitten that they knew not what to do. For not +only did their preacher show to Mansoul its sin, but he did tremble +before them under the sense of his own, still crying out as he +preached, Unhappy man that I am! that I, a preacher, should have +lived so senselessly and so sottishly in my parish, and be one of +the foremost in its transgressions! With these things he also +charged all the lords and gentry of Mansoul to the almost +distracting of them.' It was Sabbaths like that that made the +people of Mansoul call their minister a seer. + +5. And, then, there was another thing that I do not know how +better to describe than by calling it the true catholicity, the +true humility, and the true hospitality of the man. It is true he +had no choice in the matter, for in setting up a standing ministry +in Mansoul Emmanuel had done so with this reservation and addition. +We have His very words. 'Not that you are to have your ministers +alone,' He said. 'For my four captains, they can, if need be, and +if they be required, not only privately inform, but publicly preach +both good and wholesome doctrine, that, if heeded, will do thee +good in the end.' Which, again, reminds me of what Oliver Cromwell +wrote to the Honourable Colonel Hacker at Peebles. 'These: I was +not satisfied with your last speech to me about Empson, that he was +a better preacher than fighter--or words to that effect. Truly, I +think that he that prays and preaches best will fight best. I know +nothing that will give like courage and confidence as the knowledge +of God in Christ will. I pray you to receive Captain Empson +lovingly.' + +6. The standing ministry in Mansoul was endowed also; but I cannot +imagine what the court of teinds would make of the instrument of +endowment. As it has been handed down to us, that old +ecclesiastical instrument reads more like a lesson in the parish +minister's class for the study of Mysticism than a writing for a +learned lord to adjudicate upon. Here is the Order of Council: +'Therefore I, thy Prince, give thee, My servant, leave and licence +to go when thou wilt to My fountain, My conduit, and there to drink +freely of the blood of My grape, for My conduit doth always run +wine. Thus doing, thou shalt drive from thine heart all foul, +gross, and hurtful humours. It will also lighten thine eyes, and +it will strengthen thy memory for the reception and the keeping of +all that My Father's noble secretary will teach thee.' Thus the +Prince did put Mr. Conscience into the place and office of a +minister to Mansoul, and the chosen and presented man did +thankfully accept thereof. + +(1) Now, there are at least three lessons taught us here. There +is, to begin with, a lesson to all those congregations who are +about to choose a minister. Let all those congregations, then, who +have had devolved on them the powers of the old patrons,--let them +make their election on the same principles that the Prince of +Mansoul patronised. Let them choose a probationer who, young +though he must be, has the making of a seer in him. Let them +listen for the future seer in his most stammering prayers. +Somewhere, even in one service, his conscience will make itself +heard, if he has a conscience. Rather remain ten years vacant than +call a minister who has no conscience. The parish minister of +Mansoul sometimes seemed to be all conscience, and it was this that +made his head so full of judgment, his tongue so full of a brave +boldness, and his heart so full of holy love. Your minister may be +an anointed bishop, he may be a gowned and hooded doctor, he may be +a king's chaplain, he may be the minister of the largest and the +richest and the most learned parish in the city, but, unless he +strikes terror and pain into your conscience every Sabbath, unless +he makes you tremble every Sabbath under the eye and the hand of +God, he is no true minister to you. As Goodwin says, he is a +wooden cannon. As Leighton says, he is a mountebank for a +minister. + +(2) The second lesson is to all those who are politically +enfranchised, and who hold a vote for a member of Parliament. Now, +crowds of candidates and their canvassers will before long be at +your door besieging it and begging you for your vote for or against +an Established church. Well, before Parliament is dissolved, and +the canvass commences, look you well into your own heart and ask +yourself whether or no the Church of Christ has yet been +established there. Ask if Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, +has yet set up His throne there, in your heart. Ask your +conscience if His laws are recognised and obeyed there. Ask also +if His blood has been sprinkled there, and since when. And, if +not, then it needs no seer to tell you what sacrilege, what +profanity it is for you to touch the ark of God: to speak, or to +vote, or to lift a finger either for or against any church +whatsoever. Intrude your wilful ignorance and your wicked passions +anywhere else. March up boldly and vote defiantly on questions of +State that you never read a sober line about, and are as ignorant +about as you are of Hebrew; but beware of touching by a thousand +miles the things for which the Son of God laid down His life. +Thrust yourself in, if you must, anywhere else, but do not thrust +yourself and your brutish stupidity and your fiendish tempers into +the things of the house of God. Let all parish ministers take for +their text that day 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7:- And when they came to +Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of +God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of +the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his +error; and there he died by the ark of God. + +(3) There is a third lesson here, but it is a lesson for +ministers, and I shall take it home to myself. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--A FAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + +'Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all +the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God.'-- +Joel. + +In our soft and self-indulgent day the very word 'to fast' has +become an out-of-date and an obsolete word. We never have occasion +to employ that word in the living language of the present day. The +men of the next generation will need to have it explained to them +what the Fast-days of their fathers were: when they were +instituted, how they were observed, and why they were abrogated and +given up. If your son should ever ask you just what the Fast-days +of your youth were like, you will do him a great service, and he +may live to recover them, if you will answer him in this way. Show +him how to take his Cruden and how to make a picture to his opening +mind of the Fast-days of Scripture. And tell him plainly for what +things in fathers and in sons those fasts were ordained of God. +And then for the Fast-days of the Puritan period let him read aloud +to you this powerful passage in the Holy War. Public preaching and +public prayer entered largely into the fasting of the Prophetical +and the Puritan periods; and John Bunyan, after Joel, has told us +some things about the Fast-day preaching of his day that it will be +well for us, both preachers and people, to begin with, and to lay +well to heart. + +1. In the first place, the preaching of that Fast-day was +'pertinent' and to the point. William Law, that divine writer for +ministers, warns ministers against going off upon Euroclydon and +the shipwrecks of Paul when Christ's sheep are looking up to them +for their proper food. What, he asks, is the nature, the +direction, and the strength of that Mediterranean wind to him who +has come up to church under the plague of his own heart and under +the heavy hand of God? You may be sure that Boanerges did not +lecture that Fast-day forenoon in Mansoul on Acts xxvii. 14. We +would know that, even if we were not told what his text that +forenoon was. His text that never-to-be-forgotten Fast-day +forenoon was in Luke xiii. 7--'Cut it down; why cumbereth it the +ground?' And a very smart sermon he made upon the place. First, +he showed what was the occasion of the words, namely, because the +fig-tree was barren. Then he showed what was contained in the +sentence, to wit, repentance or utter desolation. He then showed +also by whose authority this sentence was pronounced. And, lastly, +he showed the reasons of the point, and then concluded his sermon. +But he was very pertinent in the application, insomuch that he made +all the elders and all their people in Mansoul to tremble. Sidney +Smith says that whatever else a sermon may be or may not be, it +must be interesting if it is to do any good. Now, pertinent +preaching is always interesting preaching. Nothing interests men +like themselves. And pertinent preaching is just preaching to men +about themselves,--about their interests, their losses and their +gains, their hopes and their fears, their trials and their +tribulations. Boanerges took both his text and his treatment of +his text from his Master, and we know how pertinently The Master +preached. His preaching was with such pertinence that the one half +of His hearers went home saying, Never man spake like this man, +while the other half gnashed at Him with their teeth. Our Lord +never lectured on Euroclydon. He knew what was in man and He +lectured and preached accordingly. And if we wish to have praise +of our best people, and of Him whose people they are, let us look +into our own hearts and preach. That will be pertinent to our +people which is first pertinent to ourselves. Weep yourself, said +an old poet to a new beginner; weep yourself if you would make me +weep. 'For my own part,' said Thomas Shepard to some ministers +from his deathbed, 'I never preached a sermon which, in the +composing, did not cost me prayers, with strong cries and tears. I +never preached a sermon from which I had not first got some good to +my own soul.' + + +'His office and his name agree; +A shepherd that and Shepard he.' + + +And many such entries as these occur in Thomas Boston's golden +journal: 'I preached in Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly on my own +account.' Again: 'Meditating my sermon next day, I found +advantage to my own soul, as also in delivering it on the Sabbath.' +And again: 'What good this preaching has done to others I know +not, yet I think myself will not the worse of it.' + +2. The preaching of that Fast-day was with great authority also. +'There was such power and authority in that sermon,' reports one +who was present, 'that the like had seldom been seen or heard.' +Authority also was one of the well-remembered marks of our Lord's +preaching. And no wonder, considering who He was. But His +ministers, if they are indeed His ministers, will be clothed by Him +with something even of His supreme authority. 'Conscience is an +authority,' says one of the most authoritative preachers that ever +lived. 'The Bible is an authority; such is the Church; such is +antiquity; such are the words of the wise; such are hereditary +lessons; such are ethical truths; such are historical memories; +such are legal saws and state maxims; such are proverbs; such are +sentiments, presages, and prepossessions.' Now, the well-equipped +preacher will from time to time plant his pulpit on all those kinds +of authority, as this kind is now pertinent and then that, and +will, with such a variety and accumulation of authority, preach to +his people. Thomas Boston preached at a certain place with such +pertinence and with such authority that it was complained of him by +one of themselves that he 'terrified even the godly.' Let all our +young preachers who would to old age continue to preach with +interest, with pertinence, and with terrifying authority, among +other things have by heart The Memoirs of Thomas Boston, 'that +truly great divine.' + +3. A third thing, and, as some of the people who heard it said of +it, the best thing about that sermon was that--'He did not only +show us our sin, but he did visibly tremble before us under the +sense of his own.' Now I know this to be a great difficulty with +some young ministers who have got no help in it at the Divinity +Hall. Are they, they ask, to be themselves in the pulpit? How far +may they be themselves, and how far may they be not themselves? +How far are they to be seen to tremble before their people because +of their own sins, and how far are they to bear themselves as if +they had no sin? Must they keep back the passions that are tearing +their own hearts, and fill the forenoon with Euroclydon and other +suchlike sea-winds? How far are they to be all gown and bands in +the pulpit, and how far sackcloth and ashes? One half of their +people are like Pascal in this, that they like to see and hear a +man in his pulpit; but, then, the other half like only to see and +hear a proper preacher. 'He did not only show the men of Mansoul +their sin, but he did tremble before them under the sense of his +own. Still crying out as he preached to them, Unhappy man that I +am! that I should have done so wicked a thing! That I, a preacher, +should be one of the first in the transgression!' + +This you will remember was the Fast-day. And so truly had this +preacher kept the Fast-day that the Communion-day was down upon him +before he was ready for it. He was still deep among his sins when +all his people were fast putting on their beautiful garments. He +was ready with the letter of his action-sermon, but he was not +equal to the delivery of it. His colleague, accordingly, whose +sense of sin was less acute that day, took the public worship, +while the Fast-day preacher still lay sick in his closet at home +and wrote thus on the ground: 'I am no more worthy to be called +Thy son,' he wrote. 'Behold me here, Lord, a poor, miserable +sinner, weary of myself, and afraid to look up to Thee. Wilt Thou +heal my sores? Wilt Thou take out the stains? Wilt Thou deliver +me from the shame? Wilt Thou rescue me from this chain of sin? +Cut me not off in the midst of my sins. Let me have liberty once +again to be among Thy redeemed ones, eating and drinking at Thy +table. But, O my God, to-day I am an unclean worm, a dead dog, a +dead carcass, deservedly cast out from the society of Thy saints. +But oh, suffer me so much as to look to the place where Thy people +meet and where Thine honour dwelleth. Reject not the sacrifice of +a broken heart, but come and speak to me in my secret place. O +God, let me never see such another day as this is. Let me never be +again so full of guilt as to have to run away from Thy presence and +to flee from before Thy people.' He printed more than that, in +blood and in tears, before God that Communion-morning, but that is +enough for my purpose. Now, would you choose a dead dog like that +to be your minister? To baptize and admit your children and to +marry them when they grow up? To mount your pulpits every Sabbath- +day, and to come to your houses every week-day? Not, I feel sure, +if you could help it! Not if you knew it! Not if there was a +minister of proper pulpit manners and a well-ordered mind within a +Sabbath-day's journey! 'Like priest like people,' says Hosea. +'The congregation and the minister are one,' says Dr. Parker. +'There are men we could not sit still and hear; they are not the +proper ministers for us. There are other men we could hear always, +because they are our kith and our kin from before the foundation of +the world.' Happy the hearer who has hit on a minister like the +minister of Mansoul, and who has discovered in him his everlasting +kith and kin. And happy the minister who, owning kith and kin with +Boanerges, has two or three or even one member in his congregation +who likes his minister best when he likes himself worst. + +But what about the fasting all this time? Was it all preaching, +and was there no fasting? Well, we do not know much about the +fasting of the prophets and the apostles, but the Puritans +sometimes made their people almost forget about fasting, and about +eating and drinking too, they so took possession of their people +with their incomparable preaching. I read, for instance, in +Calamy's Life of John Howe that on the public Fast-days, it was +Howe's common way to begin about nine in the morning and to +continue reading, preaching, and praying till about four in the +afternoon. Henry Rogers almost worships John Howe, but John Howe's +Fast-days pass his modern biographers patience; till, if you would +see a nineteenth-century case made out against a seventeenth- +century Fast-day, you have only to turn to the author of The +Eclipse of Faith on the author of Delighting in God. And, no +doubt, when we get back our Fast-days, we shall leave more of the +time to reading pertinent books at home and to secret fasting and +to secret prayer, and shall enjoin our preachers, while they are +pertinent and authoritative in their sermons, not to take up the +whole day with their sermons even at their best. And then, as to +fasting, discredited and discarded as it is in our day, there are +yet some very good reasons for desiring its return and +reinstatement among us. Very good reasons, both for health and for +holiness. But it is only of the latter class of reasons that I +would fain for a few words at present speak. Well, then, let it be +frankly said that there is nothing holy, nothing saintly, nothing +at all meritorious in fasting from our proper food. It is the +motive alone that sanctifies the means. It is the end alone that +sanctifies the exercise. If I fast to chastise myself for my sin; +if I fast to reduce the fuel of my sin; if I fast to keep my flesh +low; if I fast to make me more free for my best books, for my most +inward, spiritual, mystical books--for my Kempis, and my Behmen, +and my Law, and my Leighton, and my Goodwin, and my Bunyan, and my +Rutherford, and my Jeremy Taylor, and my Shepard, and my Edwards, +and suchlike; if I fast for the ends of meditation and prayer; if I +fast out of sympathy with my Bible, and my Saviour, and my latter +end, and my Father's house in heaven--then, no doubt, my fasting +will be acceptable with God, as it will certainly be an immediate +means of grace to my sinful soul. These altars will sanctify many +such gifts. For, who that knows anything at all about himself, +about his own soul, and about the hindrances and helps to its +salvation from sin; who that ever read a page of Scripture +properly, or spent half an hour in that life which is hidden in +God--who of such will deny or doubt that fasting is superseded or +neglected to the sure loss of the spiritual life, to the sensible +lowering of the religious tone and temper, and to the increase both +of the lusts of the flesh and of the mind? It may perhaps be that +the institution of fasting as a church ordinance has been permitted +to be set aside in order to make it more than ever a part of each +earnest man's own private life. Perhaps it was in some ways full +time that it should be again said to us, 'Thou, when thou fastest, +appear not unto men to fast.' As also, 'Is not this the fast that +I have chosen: to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed +go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread +to the hungry, and that thou bring the outcast to thy house?' Let +us believe that the form of the Fast-day has been removed out of +the way that the spirit may return and fashion a new form for +itself. And in the belief that that is so, let us, while parting +with our fathers' Fast-days with real regret--as with their +pertinent and pungent preaching--let us meantime lay in a stock of +their pertinent and pungent books, and set apart particular and +peculiar seasons for their sin-subduing and grace-strengthening +study. + +The short is this. The one real substance and true essence of all +fasting is self-denial. And we can never get past either the +supreme and absolute duty of that, or the daily and hourly call to +that, as long as we continue to read the New Testament, to live in +this life, and to listen to the voice of conscience, and to the +voice of God speaking to us in the voice of conscience. Without +strict and constant self-denial, no man, whatever his experiences +or his pretensions, is a disciple of Jesus Christ, and secret +fasting is one of the first, the easiest, and the most elementary +exercises of New Testament self-denial. And, besides, the lusts of +our flesh and the lusts of our minds are so linked and locked and +riveted together that if one link is loosened, or broken, or even +struck at, the whole thrall is not yet thrown off indeed, but it is +all shaken; it has all received a staggering blow. So much is this +the case that one single act of self-denial in the region of the +body will be felt for freedom throughout the whole prison-house of +the soul. And a victory really won over a sensual sin is already a +challenge sounded to our most spiritual sin. And it is this +discovery that has given to fasting the place it has held in all +the original, resolute, and aggressive ages of the Church. With +little or nothing in their Lord's literal teaching to make His +people fast, they have been so bent on their own spiritual +deliverance, and they have heard and read so much about the +deliverances both of body and of soul that have been attained by +fasting and its accompaniments, that they have taken to it in their +despair, and with results that have filled them in some instances +with rapture, and in all instances with a good conscience and with +a good hope. You would wonder, even in these degenerate days,--you +would be amazed could you be told how many of your own best friends +in their stealthy, smiling, head-anointing, hypocritical way deny +themselves this and that sweetness, this and that fatness, this and +that softness, and are thus attaining to a strength, a courage, and +a self-conquest that you are getting the benefit of in many ways +without your ever guessing the price at which it has all been +purchased. Now, would you yourself fain be found among those who +are in this way being made strong and victorious inwardly and +spiritually? Would you? Then wash your face and anoint your head; +and, then, not denying it before others, deny it in secret to +yourself--this and that sweet morsel, this and that sweet meat, +this and that glass of such divine wine. Unostentatiously, +ungrudgingly, generous-heartedly, and not ascetically or morosely, +day after day deny yourself even in little unthought-of things, and +one of the very noblest laws of your noblest life shall immediately +claim you as its own. That stealthy and shamefaced act of self- +denial for Christ's sake and for His cross's sake will lay the +foundation of a habit of self-denial; ere ever you are aware of +what you are doing the habit will consolidate into a character; and +what you begin little by little in the body will be made perfect in +the soul; till what you did, almost against His command and +altogether without His example, yet because you did it for His sake +and in His service, will have placed you far up among those who +have forsaken all, and themselves also, to follow Jesus Christ, Son +of Man and Son of God. Only, let this always be admitted, and +never for a moment forgotten, that all this is said by permission +and not of commandment. Our Lord never fasted as we fast. He had +no need. And He never commanded His disciples to fast. He left it +to themselves to find out each man his own case and his own cure. +Let no man, therefore, take fasting in any of its degrees, or +times, or occasions, on his conscience who does not first find it +in his heart. At the same time this may be said with perfect +safety, that he who finds it in his heart and then lays it on his +conscience to deny himself anything, great or small, for Christ's +sake, and for the sake of his own salvation,--he will never repent +it. No, he will never repent it. + + + +CHAPTER XXV--A FEAST-DAY IN MANSOUL + + + +'He brought me into his banqueting house.'--The Song. + +Emmanuel's feast-day in the Holy War excels in beauty and in +eloquence everything I know in any other author on the Lord's +Supper. The Song of Solomon stands alone when we sing that song +mystically--that is to say, when we pour into it all the love of +God to His Church in Israel and all Israel's love to God, and then +all our Lord's love to us and all our love back again to Him in +return. But outside of Holy Scripture I know nothing to compare +for beauty, and for sweetness, and for quaintness, and for +tenderness, and for rapture, with John Bunyan's account of the +feast that Prince Emmanuel made for the town of Mansoul. With his +very best pen John Bunyan tells us how upon a time Emmanuel made a +feast in Mansoul, and how the townsfolk came to the castle to +partake of His banquet, and how He feasted them on all manner of +outlandish food--food that grew not in the fields of Mansoul; it +was food that came down from heaven and from His Father's house. +They drank also of the water that was made wine, and, altogether, +they were very merry and at home with their Prince. There was +music also all the time at the table, and man did eat angels' food, +and had honey given him out of the rock. And then the table was +entertained with some curious and delightful riddles that were made +upon the King Himself, upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon His wars and +doings with Mansoul; till, altogether, the state of transportation +the people were in with their entertainment cannot be told by the +very best of pens. Nor did He, when they returned to their places, +send them empty away; for either they must have a ring, or a gold +chain, or a bracelet, or a white stone or something; so dear was +Mansoul to Him now, so lovely was Mansoul in His eyes. And, going +and coming to the feast, O how graciously, how lovingly, how +courteously, and how tenderly did this blessed Prince now carry it +to the town of Mansoul! In all the streets, gardens, orchards, and +other places where He came, to be sure the poor should have His +blessing and benediction; yea, He would kiss them; and if they were +ill, He would lay His hands on them and make them well. And was it +not now something amazing to behold that in that very place where +Diabolus had had his abode, the Prince of princes should now sit +eating and drinking with all His mighty captains, and men of war, +and trumpeters, and with the singing men and the singing women of +His Father's court! Now did Mansoul's cup run over; now did her +conduits run sweet wine; now did she eat the finest of the wheat, +and now drink milk and honey out of the rock! Now she said, How +great is His goodness, for ever since I found favour in His eyes, +how honourable have I ever been! + +1. Now, the beginning of it all was, and the best of it all was, +that Emmanuel Himself made the feast. Mansoul did not feast her +Deliverer; it was her Deliverer who feasted her. Mansoul, in good +sooth, had nothing that she had not first and last received, and it +was far more true and seemly and fit in every way that her Prince +Himself should in His own way and at His own expense seal and +celebrate the deliverance, the freedom, the life, the peace, and +the joy of Mansoul. And, besides, what had Mansoul to set before +her Prince; or, for the matter of that, before herself? Mansoul +had nothing of herself. Mansoul was not sufficient of herself for +a single day. And how, then, should she propose to feast a Prince? +No, no! the thing was impossible. It was Emmanuel's feast from +first to last. Just as it was at the Lord's table in this house +this morning. You did not spread the table this morning for your +Lord. You did not make ready for your Saviour and then invite Him +in. He invited you. He said, This is My Body broken for you, and +This is My Blood shed for you; drink ye all of it. And had any one +challenged you at the fence door and asked you how one who could +not pay his own debts or provide himself a proper meal even for a +single day, could dare to sit down with such a company at such a +feast as that, you would have told him that he had not seen half +your hunger and your nakedness; but that it was just your very +hunger and nakedness and homelessness that had brought you here; +or, rather, it was all that that had moved the Master of the feast +to send for you and to compel you to come here. There was nothing +in your mind and in your mouth more all this day than just that +this is the Lord's Supper, and that He had sent for you and had +invited you, and had constrained and compelled you to come and +partake of it. It was the Lord's Table to-day, and it will be +still and still more His table on that great Communion-Day when all +our earthly communions shall be accomplished and consummated in +heaven. + +2. All that Mansoul did in connection with that great feast was to +prepare the place where Diabolus at one time had held his orgies +and carried on his excesses. Her Prince, Emmanuel, did all the +rest; but He left it to Mansoul to make the banqueting-room ready. +When our Lord would keep His last passover with His disciples, He +said to Peter and John, Go into the city, and there shall meet you +a man bearing a pitcher of water, and he will show you a large +upper room furnished and prepared. There is some reason to believe +that that happy man had been expecting that message and had done +his best to be ready for it. And now he was putting the last touch +to his preparations by filling the water-pots of his house with +fresh water; little thinking, happy man, that as long as the world +lasts that water will be holy water in all men's eyes, and shall +teach humility to all men's hearts. And, my brethren, you know +that all you did all last week against to-day was just to prepare +the room. For the room all last week and all this day was your own +heart, and not and never this house of stone and lime made with +men's hands. You swept the inner and upper room of your own heart. +You swept it and garnished its walls and its floors as much as in +you lay. He, whose the supper really was, told you that He would +bring with Him what was to be eaten and drunken to-day, while you +were to prepare the place. And, next to the very actual feast +itself, and, sometimes, not next to it but equal to it, and even +before it and better than it, were those busy household hours you +spent, like the man with the pitcher, making the room ready. In +plain English, you had a communion before the Communion as you +prepared your hearts for the Communion. I shall not intrude into +your secret places and secret seasons with Christ before His open +reception of you to-day. But it is sure and certain that, just as +you in secret entertained Him in your mother's house and in the +chambers of her that bare you, just in that measure did He say to +you openly before all the watchmen that go about the city and +before all the daughters of Jerusalem, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, +drink abundantly, O beloved. Yes; do you not think that the man +with the pitcher had his reward? He had his own thoughts as he +furnished, till it was quite ready, his best upper room and carried +in those pitchers of water, and handed down to his children in +after days the perquisite-skin of the paschal lamb that had been +supped on by our Lord and His disciples in his honoured house that +night. Yes; was it not amazing to behold that in that very place +where sometimes Diabolus had his abode, and had entertained his +Diabolonians, the Prince of princes should sit eating and drinking +with His friends? Was it not truly amazing? + +3. Now, upon the feasting-day He feasted them with all manner of +outlandish food--food that grew not in all the fields of Mansoul; +it was food that came down with His Father's court. The fields of +Mansoul yielded their own proper fruits, and fruits that were not +to be despised. But they were not the proper fruits for that day, +neither could they be placed upon that table. They are good enough +fruits for their purpose, and as far as they go, and for so long as +they last and are in their season. But our souls are such that +they outlive their own best fruits; their hunger and their thirst +outlast all that can be harvested in from their own fields. And +thus it is that He who made Mansoul at first, and who has since +redeemed her, has out of His own great goodness provided food +convenient for her. He knows with what an outlandish life He has +quickened Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to +provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked +the children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round +thing, as small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not +what it was. And Moses said, Gather of it every man according to +his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your +persons. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna, +and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. He gave them +of the corn of heaven to eat, and man did eat in the wilderness +angels' food. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and +are dead; but this is the bread of which if any man eat he shall +not die. And the bread that I will give is My Flesh, which I will +give for the life of the world. And so outlandish, so +supernatural, and so full of heavenly wonder and heavenly mystery +was that bread, that the Jews strove among themselves over it, and +could not understand it. But, by His goodness and His truth to us +this day, we have again, to our spiritual nourishment and growth in +grace, eaten the Flesh and drunk the Blood of the Son of God; a +meat that, as He who Himself is that meat has said of it, is meat +indeed and drink indeed--as, indeed, we have the witness in +ourselves this day that it is. They drank also of the water that +was made wine, and were very merry with Him all that day at His +table. And all their mirth was the high mirth of heaven; it was a +mirth and a gladness without sin, without satiety, and without +remorse. + +4. There was music also all the while at the table, and the +musicians were not those of the country of Mansoul, but they were +the masters of song come down from the court of the King. 'I love +the Lord,' they sang in the supper room over the paschal lamb--'I +love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication. +Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call +upon Him as long as I live. What shall I render to the Lord,' they +challenged one another, 'for all His benefits towards me? I will +take the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the +Lord.' 'Sometimes imagine,' says a great devotional writer with a +great imagination--'Sometimes imagine that you had been one of +those that joined with our blessed Saviour as He sang an hymn. +Strive to imagine to yourself with what majesty He looked. Fancy +that you had stood by Him surrounded with His glory. Think how +your heart would have been inflamed, and what ecstasies of joy you +would have then felt when singing with the Son of God! Think again +and again with what joy and devotion you would have then sung had +this really been your happy state; and what a punishment you would +have thought it to have then been silent. And let that teach you +how to be affected with psalms and hymns of thanksgiving.' Yes; +and it is no imagination; it was our own experience only this +morning and afternoon to join in a music that was never made in +this world, but which was as outlandish as was the meat which we +ate while the music was being made. + + +'Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, +And not forgetful be +Of all His gracious benefits +He hath bestow'd on thee. + +Who with abundance of good things +Doth satisfy thy mouth; +So that, ev'n as the eagle's age, +Renewed is thy youth.' + + +The 103rd Psalm was never made in this world. Musicians far other +than those native to Mansoul made for us our Lord's-Table Psalm. + +5. And then, the riddles that were made upon the King Himself, and +upon Emmanuel His Son, and upon Emmanuel's wars and all His other +doings with Mansoul. And when Emmanuel would expound some of those +riddles Himself, oh! how they were lightened! They saw what they +never saw! They could not have thought that such rarities could +have been couched in so few and such ordinary words. Yea, they did +gather that the things themselves were a kind of portraiture, and +that, too, of Emmanuel Himself. This, they would say, this is the +Lamb! this is the Sacrifice! this is the Rock! this is the Door! +and this is the Way! with a great many other things. At Gaius's +supper-table they sat up over their riddles and nuts and sweetmeats +till the sun was in the sky. And it would be midnight and morning +if I were to show you the answers to the half of the riddles. Take +one, for an example, and let it be one of the best for the +communion-day. 'In one rare quality of the orator,' says Hugh +Miller, writing about his adored minister, Alexander Stewart of +Cromarty, 'Mr. Stewart stood alone. Pope refers in his satires to +a strange power of creating love and admiration by just "touching +the brink of all we hate." Now, into this perilous, but singularly +elective department, Mr. Stewart could enter with safety and at +will. We heard him, scarce a twelvemonth since, deliver a +discourse of singular power on the sin-offering as minutely +described by the divine penman in Leviticus. He described the +slaughtered animal--foul with dust and blood, its throat gashed +across, its entrails laid open and steaming in its impurity to the +sun--a vile and horrid thing, which no one could look on without +disgust, nor touch without defilement. The picture appeared too +vivid; its introduction too little in accordance with a just taste. +But this pulpit-master knew what he was all the time doing. "And +that," he said, as he pointed to the terrible picture, "that is +SIN!" By one stroke the intended effect was produced, and the +rising disgust and horror transferred from the revolting, material +image to the great moral evil.' And, in like manner, This is the +LAMB! we all said over the mystical riddle of the bread and the +wine this morning. This is the SACRIFICE! This is the DOOR! This +is EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US, and made sin for us! + +6. In one of his finest chapters, Thomas A Kempis tells us in what +way we are to communicate mystically: that is to say, how we are +to keep on communicating at all times, and in all places, without +the intervention of the consecrated sacramental elements. And John +Bunyan, the sweetest and most spiritual of mystics, has all that, +too, in this same supreme passage. Every day was a feast-day now, +he tells us. So much so that when the elders and the townsmen did +not come to Emmanuel, He would send in much plenty of provisions to +them. Yea, such delicates would He send them, and therewith would +so cover their tables, that whosoever saw it confessed that the +like could not be seen in any other kingdom. That is to say, my +fellow-communicants, there is nothing that we experienced and +enjoyed in this house this day that we may not experience and enjoy +again to-morrow and every day in our own house at home. All the +mystics worth the noble name will tell you that all true +communicating is always performed and experienced in the prepared +heart, and never in any upper room, or church, or chapel, or new +heaven, or new earth. The prepared heart of every worthy +communicant is the true upper room; it is the true banqueting +chamber; it is the true and the only house of wine. Our Father's +House itself, with its supper-table covered with the new wine of +the Kingdom--the best of it all will still be within you. Prepare +yourselves within yourselves, then, O departing and dispersing +communicants. Prepare, and keep yourselves always prepared. And +as often as you so prepare yourselves your Prince will come to you +every day, and will cat and drink with you, till He makes every day +on earth a day of heaven already to you. See if He will not; for, +again and again, He who keeps all His promises says that He will. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--EMMANUEL'S LIVERY + + + +'And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, +clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of +saints.'--John. + +The Plantagenet kings of ancient England had white and scarlet for +their livery; white and green was the livery of the Tudors; the +Stuarts wore red and yellow; while blue and scarlet colours adorn +to-day the House of Hanover. And the Prince of the kings of the +earth, He has his royal colours also, and His servants have their +badge of honour and their blazon also. Then He commanded that +those who waited upon Him should go and bring forth out of His +treasury those white and glittering robes, that I, He said, have +provided and laid up in store for my Mansoul. So the white +garments were fetched out of the treasury and laid forth to the +eyes of the people. Moreover, it was granted to them that they +should take them and put them on, according, said He, to your size +and your stature. So the people were all put into white--into fine +linen, clean and white. Then said the Prince, This, O Mansoul, is +My livery, and this is the badge by which Mine are known from the +servants of others. Yea, this livery is that which I grant to all +them that are Mine, and without which no man is permitted to see My +face. Wear this livery, therefore, for My sake, and, also, if you +would be known by the world to be Mine. But now can you think how +Mansoul shone! For Mansoul was fair as the sun, clear as the moon, +and terrible as an army with banners. + +White, then, and whiter than snow, is the very livery of heaven. A +hundred shining Scriptures could be quoted to establish that. In +the first year of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, +and visions of his head came to Daniel upon his bed. And, behold, +the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and +the hair of his head like the pure wool. My beloved, sings the +spouse in the Song, is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten +thousand, and altogether lovely. Then, again, David in his +penitence sings, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash +me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And what is it that sets +Isaiah at the head of all the prophets? What but this, that he is +the mouth-piece of such decrees in heaven as this: Though your +sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red +like crimson, they shall be as wool. The angel, also, who rolled +away the stone from the door of the sepulchre was clothed in a long +white garment. Another evangelist says that his countenance was +like lightning and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him +the keepers did quake, and became as dead men. But before that we +read that Jesus was transfigured before Peter and James and John on +the Mount, and that His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment +was white as the light. And, then, the whole Book of Revelation is +written with a pen dipped in heavenly light. The whole book is +glistening with the whitest light till we cannot read it for the +brightness thereof. And the multitude that no man can number all +display themselves before our eyes, clothed with white robes and +with palms in their hands, so much so that we sink down under the +greatness of the glory, till One with His head and His hairs white +like wool, as white as snow, lays His hand upon us, and says to us, +Fear not, for, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from +thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. + + +'I also saw Mansoul clad all in white, +And heard her Prince call her His heart's delight, +I saw Him put upon her chains of gold, +And rings and bracelets goodly to behold. +What shall I say? I heard the people's cries, +And saw the Prince wipe tears from Mansoul's eyes, +I heard the groans and saw the joy of many; +Tell you of all, I neither will nor can I. +But by what here I say you well may see +That Mansoul's matchless wars no fable be.' + + +'And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine +linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of +saints.' We need no exegesis of that beautiful Scripture beyond +that exegesis which our own hearts supply. And if we did need that +shining text to be explained to us, to whom could we better go for +its explanation than just to John Bunyan? Well, then, in our +author's No Way to Heaven but by Jesus Christ, he says: 'This fine +linen, in my judgment, is the works of godly men; their works that +spring from faith. But how came they clean? How came they white? +Not simply because they were the works of faith. But, mark, they +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. +And therefore they are before the throne of God. Yea, therefore it +is that their good works stand in such a place.' 'Nor must we +think it strange,' says John Howe, in his Blessedness of the +Righteous, 'that all the requisites to our salvation are not found +together in one text of Scripture. I conceive that imputed +righteousness is not here meant, but that righteousness which is +truly subjected in a child of God and descriptive of him. The +righteousness of Him whom we adore as made sin for us that we might +be made the righteousness of God in Him, that righteousness has a +much higher sphere peculiar and appropriate to itself. Though this +of which we now speak is necessary also to be both had and +understood.' Emmanuel's livery, then, is the righteousness of the +saints. Emmanuel puts that righteousness upon all His saints; +while, at the same time, they put it on themselves; they work it +out for themselves, and for themselves they keep it clean. They +work it out, put it on, and keep it clean, and yet, all the time, +it is not they that do it, but it is Emmanuel that doeth it all in +them. The truth is, you must all become mystics before you will +admit all the strange truth that is told about Emmanuel's livery. +For both heaven and earth unite in this wonderful livery. Nature +and grace unite in it. It is woven by the gospel on the loom of +the law--till, to tell you all that is true about it, I neither can +nor will I. Albert Bengel tells us that the court of heaven has +its own jealous and scrupulous etiquette; and our court journalist +and historian, John Bunyan, has supplied his favoured readers with +the very card of etiquette that was issued along with Mansoul's +coat of livery, and it is more than time that we had attended to +that card. + +1. The first item then in that etiquette-card ran in these set +terms: 'First, wear these white robes daily, day by day, lest you +should at some time appear to others as if you were none of Mine.-- +Signed, EMMANUEL.' + +Now, we put on anew every morning the garments that we are to wear +every new day. We have certain pieces of clothing that we wear in +the morning; we have certain pieces that we wear when we are at our +work; and, again, we have certain other pieces that we put on when +we go abroad in the afternoon; and, yet again, certain other pieces +that we array ourselves in when we go out into society in the +evening. After a night in which Mercy could not sleep for blessing +and praising God, they all rose in the morning with the sun; but +the Interpreter would have them tarry a while, for, said he, you +must orderly go from hence. Then said he to the damsel, Take them, +and have them into the garden to the bath. Then Innocent the +damsel took them, and had them into the garden, and brought them to +the bath. Then they went in and washed, yea, they and the boys and +all, and they came out of that bath, not only clean and sweet, but +also much enlivened and much strengthened in their joints. So when +they came in they looked fairer a deal than when they went out. +Then said the Interpreter to the damsel that waited upon those +women, Go into the vestry, and fetch out garments for these people. +So she went and fetched out white raiment and laid it down before +him. And then he commanded them to put it on. It was fine linen, +white and clean. Now, therefore, they began to esteem each other +better than themselves. For, You are fairer than I am, said one; +and, You are more comely than I am, said another. The children +also stood amazed to see into what fashion they had been brought. +William Law--I thank God, I think, every day I live for that good +day to me on which He introduced me to His gifted and saintly +servant--well, William Law used every morning after his bath in the +morning to put on his livery, piece by piece, in order, and with +special prayer. The first piece that he put on, and he put it on +every new morning next his heart to wear it all the day next his +heart, was gratitude to God. And it was a real, feeling, active, +and operative gratitude that he so put on. On each new morning as +it came, that good man was full of new gratitude to God. For the +sun new from his Almighty Maker's hands he had gratitude. For his +house over his head he had gratitude. For his Bible and his +spiritual books he had gratitude. For his opportunities of reading +and study, as also for ten o'clock in the morning when the widows +and orphans of King's Cliffe came to his window, and so on. A +grateful heart feeds itself to a still greater gratitude on +everything that comes to it. So it was with William Law, till he +wakened the maids in the rooms below with his psalms and his hymns +as he went into his vestry and put on his singing robes so early +every morning. And then, after his morning hours of study and +devotion, Law had a piece of livery that he always put on and never +came downstairs to breakfast without it. Other men might put on +other pieces; he always clothed himself next to gratitude with +humility. Men differ, good men differ, and Emmanuel's livery-men +differ in what they put on, at what time, and in what order. But +that was William Law's way. You will learn more of his way, and +you will be helped to find out a like way for yourselves, if you +will become students of his incomparable books. You will find how +he put on charity, 1 Cor. thirteenth chapter; and then how, over +all, he put on the will of God; till, thus equipped and thus +accoutred, he was able to say, as it has seldom been said since it +was first said, 'I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my +judgment was to me as a robe and as a diadem. The Almighty was +then with me, and my children were about me. When I washed my +steps with butter, and when the rock poured me out rivers of oil!' +So much for that livery-man of Emmanuel, the author of the +Christian Perfection and the Spirit of Love. As for the women's +vestry in the Interpreter's House, Matthew Henry saw the thirty- +first chapter of the Proverbs hung up on that vestry wall, and +Christiana making her morning toilet before it with Mercy beside +her. Who would find a virtuous woman, let him look before that +looking-glass for her, and he will be sure to find her and her +daughters and her daughters-in-law putting on their white raiment +there. + +2. 'Secondly, keep your garments always white; for if they be +soiled, it is a dishonour to Me. I have a few names even in Sardis +which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me +in white, for they are worthy.' Even in Sardis, with every street +and every house full of soil and dishonour to the name of Christ, +even in Sardis Emmanuel had some of whom He could boast Himself. +Would you not immensely like at the last day to be one of those +some in Sardis? Shall it not be splendid when Sardis comes up for +judgment to be among those few names that Emmanuel shall then read +out of His book, and when, at their few names, two or three men +shall step out into the light in His livery? Some of you are in +Sardis at this moment. Some of you are in a city, or in a house in +a city, where it is impossible to keep your garments clean. And +yet, no; nothing is impossible to Emmanuel and His true livery-men. +Even in that house where you are, Emmanuel will say over you, I +have one there who is thankful to My Father and to Me; thankful to +singing every morning where there is little, as men see, to sing +for. There is one in that house humble, where humility itself +would almost become high-minded. And meek, where Moses himself +would have lost his temper. And submissive, where rebelliousness +would not have been without excuse. Mark these few men for Mine, +says Emmanuel. Mark them with the ink-horn for Mine. For they +shall surely be Mine in that day, and they shall walk with Me in +white, for they are worthy. + +3. 'Wherefore gird your garments well up from the ground.' A +well-dressed man, a well-dressed woman, is a beautiful sight. Not +over-dressed; not dressed so as to call everybody's attention to +their dress; but dressed decorously, becomingly, tastefully. Each +several piece well fitted on, and all of a piece, till it all looks +as if it had grown by nature itself upon the well-dressed wearer. +Be like him--be like her--so runs the third head of the etiquette- +card. Be not slovenly and disorderly and unseemly in your livery. +Let not your livery be always falling off, and catching on every +bush and briar, and dropping into every pool and ditch. Hold +yourselves in hand, the instruction goes on. Brace yourselves up. +Have your temper, your tongue, your eyes, your ears, and all your +members in control. And then you will escape many a rent and many +a rag; many a seam and many a patch; many a soil and many a stain. +And then also you will be found walking abroad in comeliness and at +liberty, while others, less careful, are at home mending and +washing and ironing because they went without a girdle when you +girt up your garments well off the ground. Wherefore always gird +well up the loins of your mind. + +4. 'And, fourthly, lose not your robes, lest you walk naked and +men see your shame'; that is to say, the supreme shame of your +soul. For there is no other shame. There is nothing else in body +or soul to be ashamed about. There is a nakedness, indeed, that +our children are taught to cover; but the Bible is a book for men. +And the only nakedness that the Bible knows about or cares about is +the nakedness of the soul. It was their sudden soul-nakedness that +chased Adam and Eve in among the trees of the garden. And it is +God's pity for soul-naked sinners that has made Him send His Son to +cry to us: 'I counsel thee,' He cries, 'to buy of Me gold tried in +the fire, that thou mayest be rich; white raiment, that thou mayest +be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. +Behold!' He cries in absolute terror, 'Behold! I come as a thief! +Blessed is he that walketh and keepeth his garments, lest he walk +naked, and they see his shame.' Were your soul to be stripped +naked to all its shame to-morrow; were all your past to be laid out +absolutely naked and bare, with all the utter nakedness of your +inward life this day; were all your secret thoughts, and all your +stealthy schemes, and all your mad imaginations, and all your +detestable motives, and all your hatreds like hell, and all your +follies like Bedlam to be laid naked--I suppose the horror of it +would make you cry to the rocks and the mountains to cover you this +Sabbath night, or the weeds of the nearest sea to wrap you down +into its depths. It would be hell before the time to you if your +soul were suddenly to be stripped absolutely bare of its ragged +body, and naked of all the thin integuments of time, and were for a +single day to stand naked to its everlasting shame. And it is just +because Jesus Christ sees all that as sure as the judgment-day +coming to you, that He stands here to-night and calls to you: I +counsel thee! I counsel thee! Before it be too late, I again +counsel thee! + +5. But the Prince Emmanuel is persuaded better things of all His +livery-men, though He thus speaks to them to put them on their +guard. Yes, sternly and severely and threateningly as He sometimes +speaks, yet, in spite of Himself, His real grace always breaks +through at the last. And, accordingly, his fifth command runs +thus: But, it runs, if you should sully them, if you should defile +them, the which I am greatly unwilling that you should, then speed +you to that which is written in My law, that yet you may stand, and +not fall before Me and before My throne. Always know this, that I +have provided for thee an open fountain to wash thy garments in. +Look, therefore, that you wash often in that fountain, and go not +for an hour in defiled garments. Let not, therefore, My garments, +your garments, the garments that I gave thee be ever spotted by the +flesh. Keep thy garments always white, and let thy head lack no +ointment.--Signed in heaven, EMMANUEL. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--MANSOUL'S MAGNA CHARTA + + + +'A better covenant.'--Paul. + +Magna Charta is a name very dear to the hearts of the English +people. For, ever since that memorable day on which that noble +instrument was extorted from King John at the point of the sword, +England has been the pioneer to all the other nations of the earth +in personal freedom, in public righteousness, in domestic +stability, and in foreign influence and enterprise. Runnymede is a +red-letter spot, and 1215 is a red-letter year, not only in the +history of England, but in the history of the whole modern world. +The keystone of all sound constitutional government was laid at +that place on that date, and by that great bridge not England only, +but after England the whole civilised world has passed over from +ages of bondage and oppression and injustice into a new world of +personal liberty and security, public equity and good faith, +loyalty and peace. All that has since been obtained, whether on +the battle-field or on the floor of Parliament, has been little +more than a confirmation of Magna Charta or an authoritative +comment upon Magna Charta. And if every subsequent law were to be +blotted out, yet in Magna Charta the foundations would still remain +of a great state and a free people. 'Here commences,' says +Macaulay, 'the history of the English nation.' + +Now, after the Prince of Peace had subjugated the rebellious city +of Mansoul, He promulgated a proclamation and appointed a day +wherein He would renew their Charter. Yea, a day wherein he would +renew and enlarge their Charter, mending several faults in it, so +that the yoke of Mansoul might be made yet more easy to bear. And +this He did without any desire of theirs, even of His own frankness +and nobleness of mind. So when He had sent for and seen their old +Charter, He laid it by and said, Now that which decayeth and waxeth +old is ready to vanish away. An epitome, therefore, of that new, +and better, and more firm and steady Charter take as follows: I do +grant of Mine own clemency, free, full, and everlasting forgiveness +of all their wrongs, injuries, and offences done against My Father, +against Me, against their neighbours and themselves. I do give +them also My Testament, with all that is therein contained, for +their everlasting comfort and consolation. Thirdly, I do also give +them a portion of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in +My Father's heart and Mine. Fourthly, I do give, grant, and bestow +upon them freely, the world and all that is therein for their true +good; yea, all the benefits of life and death, of things present +and things to come. Free leave and full access also at all seasons +to Me in My palace, there to make known all their wants to Me; and +I give them, moreover, a promise that I shall hear and redress all +their grievances. To them and to their right seed after them, I +hereby bestow all these grants, privileges, and royal immunities. +All this is but a lean epitome of what was that day laid down in +letters of gold and engraven on their doors and their castle gates. +And what joy, what comfort, what consolation, think you, did now +possess every heart in Mansoul! The bells rang out, the minstrels +played, the people danced, the captains shouted, the colours waved +in the wind, and the silver trumpets sounded, till every enemy +inside and outside of Mansoul was now glad to hide his head. + +Our constitutional authors and commentators are wont to take Magna +Charta clause by clause, and word by word, and letter by letter. +They linger lovingly and proudly over every jot and tittle of that +splendid instrument. And you will indulge me this Communion night +of all nights of the year if I expatiate still more lovingly and +proudly on that great Covenant which our Lord has sealed to us +again to-day, and has written again to-day on the walls of our +hearts. Moses made haste as soon as the old Charter was read over +to him, and nothing shall delay us till we have feasted our eyes, +and our ears, and our hearts to-night on the contents of this our +new and better covenant. + +1. The first article of our Magna Charta is free, full, and +everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, injuries, and offences +we have ever done against God, against our Saviour, against our +neighbour, and against ourselves. The English nobles extorted +their Charter from their tyrannical king with their sword at his +throat, and after he had signed it, he cast himself on the ground +and gnawed sticks and stones in his fury, so mad was he at the men +who had so humiliated him. 'They have set four-and-twenty kings +over my head,' he gnashed out. How different was it with our +Charter! For when we were yet enemies it was already drawn out in +our name. And after we had been subdued it would never have +entered our fearful hearts to ask for such an instrument. And, +even now, after we have entered into its liberty, how slow we are +to believe all that is written in our great Charter, and read to us +every day out of it. And who shall cast a stone at us for not +easily believing all that is so written and read? It is not so +easy as you would think to believe in free forgiveness for all the +wrongs, injuries, and offences we have ever done. When you try to +believe it about yourselves, you will find how hard it is to accept +that covenant and always to keep your feet firm upon it. That the +forgiveness is absolutely free is its first great difficulty. If +it had cost us all we could ever do or suffer, both in this world +and in the world to come, then we could have come to terms with our +Prince far more easily; but that our forgiveness should be +absolutely free, it is that that so staggers us. When I was a +little boy I was once wandering through the streets of a large city +seeing the strange sights. I had even less Latin in my head that +day than I had money in my pocket. But I was hungry for knowledge +and eager to see rare and wonderful things. Over the door of a +public institution, containing a museum and other interesting +things, I tried to read a Latin scroll. I could not make out the +whole of the writing; I could only make out one word, and not even +that, as the event soon showed. The word was gratia, or some +modification of gratia, with some still deeper words engraven round +about it. But on the strength of that one word I mounted the steps +and rang the bell, and asked the porter if I could see the museum. +He told me that the cost of admission was such and such. Little as +it was, it was too much for me, and I came down the steps feeling +that the Latin writing above the door had entirely deceived me. It +has not been the last time that my bad Latin has brought me to +shame and confusion of face. But Latin, or Greek, or only English, +or not even English, there is no deception and no confusion here. +Forgiveness is really of free grace. It costs absolutely nothing, +the door is open; or, if it is not open, then knock, and it shall +be opened, without money and without price. + +'Free and full.' I could imagine a free forgiveness which was not +also full. I could imagine a charter that would have run somehow +thus: Free forgiveness and full, up to a firmly fixed limit. Free +and full forgiveness for sins of ignorance and even of infirmity +and frailty; for small sins and for great sins, too, up to a +certain age of life and stage of guilt. Free and full forgiveness +up to a certain line, and then, that black line of reprobation, as +Samuel Rutherford says. Indeed, it is no imagination. I have felt +oftener than once that I was at last across that black line, and +gone and lost for ever. But no - + + +'While the lamp holds on to burn, +The greatest sinner may return.' + + +'Free, full, and everlasting.' Pope Innocent the Third came to the +rescue of King John and issued a Papal bull revoking and annulling +Magna Charta. But neither king, nor pope, nor devil can revoke or +annul our new Covenant. It is free, full, and everlasting. If God +be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the +love of Christ? Neither death nor life, nor angels nor +principalities nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. + +2. 'Free, full, and everlasting forgiveness of all the wrongs, the +injuries, and the offences you have done against My Father, Me, +your neighbours, and yourselves.' Now, out of all that let us fix +upon this--the wrongs and the injuries we have done to our +neighbours. For, as Calvin says somewhere, though our sins against +the first table of the law are our worst sins, yet our sins against +the second table, that is, against our neighbours, are far better +for beginning a scrutiny with. So they are. For our wrongs +against our neighbours, when they awaken within us at all, awaken +with a terrible fury. Our wrongs against our neighbours wound, and +burden, and exasperate an awakened conscience in a fearful way. We +come afterwards to say, Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned! But +at the first beginning of our repentances it is the wrongs we have +done to our neighbours that drive us beside ourselves. What +neighbour of yours, then, have you so wronged? Name him; name her. +You avoid that name like poison, but it is not poison--it is life +and peace. More depends on your often recollecting and often +pronouncing that hateful name than you would believe. More depends +upon it than your minister has ever told you. And, then, in what +did you so wrong him? Name the wrong also. Give it its Bible +name, its newspaper name, its brutal, vulgar, ill-mannered name. +Do not be too soft, do not be too courtly with yourself. Keep your +own evil name ever before you. When you hear any other man +outlawed and ostracised by that same name, say to yourself: Thou, +sir, art the man! Put out a secret and a painful skill upon +yourself. Have times and places and ways that nobody knows +anything about--not even those you have wronged; have times and +places and ways they would laugh to be told of, and would not +believe it; times, I say, and places and ways for bringing all +those old wrongs you once did ever and ever back to mind; as often +back and as keen to your mind as they come back to that other mind, +which is still so full of the wrong. Even if your victim has +forgiven and forgotten you, never you forget him, and never you +forgive yourself when you again think of him. Welcome back every +sudden and sharp recollection of your wrong-doing. And make haste +at every such sudden recollection and fall down on the spot in a +deeper compunction than ever before. Do that as you would be a +forgiven and full-chartered soul. For, free and full and +everlasting as God's forgiveness is, you have no assurance that it +is yours if you ever forget your sin, or ever forgive yourself for +having done it. 'Forgive yourself,' says Augustine, 'and God will +condemn you. But continually arraign and condemn yourself, and God +will forgive and acquit and justify you.' + +3. 'I give also My holy law and testament, and all that therein is +contained, for their everlasting comfort and consolation.' This is +not the manner of men, O my God. Kind-hearted men comfort and +console those who have suffered injuries and wrongs at our hands, +but the kindest-hearted of men harden their hearts and set their +faces like a flint against us who have done the wrong. All Syria +sympathised with Esau for the loss of his birthright, but I do not +read that any one came to whisper one kind word to Jacob on his +hard pillow. All the army mourned over Uriah, but all the time +David's moisture was dried up like the drought of summer, and not +even Nathan came to the King till he could not help coming. All +Jericho cried, Avenge us of our adversary! But it was Jesus who +looked up and saw Zaccheus and said: Zaccheus, come down; make +haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house. 'The +injuries they have done themselves also,' so runs the very first +head of our forgiveness covenant. Ah! yes; O my Lord, Thou knowest +all things; Thou knowest my heart. Thou knowest that irremediably +as I have injured other men, yet in injuring them I have injured +myself much more. And much as other men need restitution, +reparation, and consolation on my account, my God, Thou knowest +that I need all that much more--ten thousand times more. Oh, how +my broken heart within me leaps up and thanks Thee for that +Covenant. Let me repeat it again to Thy praise: 'Full, free, and +everlasting forgiveness of all wrongs, injuries, and offences done +by him against his neighbours and against himself.' Who, who is a +God, O my God, who is a God like unto Thee! + +4. 'I do also give them a portion of the self-same grace and +goodness that dwells in My Father's heart and Mine.' The self-same +grace and goodness, that is, that My Father and I have shown to +them. That is to say, we shall be made both willing and able to +grant to all those men who have wronged us the very same charter of +forgiveness that we have had granted to us of God. So that at all +those times when we stand praying for forgiveness we shall suspend +that prayer till we have first forgiven all our enemies, and all +who have at any time and in any way wronged or injured us. Even +when we had the Communion cup at our lips to-day, you would have +seen us setting it down till we had first gone and been reconciled +to our brother. Yes, my brethren, you are His witnesses that He +has done it. He has taken you into His covenant till He has made +you both able and willing, both willing and able, to grant and to +bequeath to others, all that free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness and love that He has bequeathed to you. Till under the +very last and supreme wrong that your worst enemy can do to you and +to yours, you are able and forward to say: Father, forgive him, +for he knows not what he has done. Forgive me my debts, you will +say, as I forgive my debtors. And always, as you again say and do +that, you will on the spot be made a partaker of the Divine Nature, +according to the heavenly Charter, 'I do also give them a portion +of the self-same grace and goodness that dwells in My Father's +heart and in Mine.' + +5. 'I do also,' so Mansoul's Magna Charta travels on, 'I do also +give, grant, and bestow upon them freely the world and all that is +therein for their good; yea, I grant them all the benefits of life +and of death, and of things present and things to come.' What a +magnificent Charter is that! 'All things are yours: whether Paul, +or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things +present, or things to come; all are yours.' What a superb Charter! +Only, it is too high for us; we cannot attain to it. Has any human +being ever risen to anything like the full faith, full assurance, +and full victory of all that in this life? No; the thing is +impossible! Reason would fall off her throne. The heart of a man +would break with too much joy if he tried to enter into the full +belief of all that. No; it hath not entered into the heart of a +still sinful man what God hath chartered to them whom He loves. +This world, and all that therein is, and then all the coming +benefits of life and of death. What benefits do believers receive +from Christ at their death? We all drank in the answer to that +with our mother's milk, but what is behind the words of that answer +no mortal tongue can yet tell. All are yours, and ye are Christ's, +and Christ is God's. Till, what joy, what comfort, what +consolation, think you, did now possess the hearts of the men of +Mansoul! The bells rang, the minstrels played, the people danced, +the captains shouted, the colours waved in the wind, and the silver +trumpets sounded. + +6. 'And till the glory breaks suddenly upon you, and as long as +you yet live in this life of free grace I shall give and grant you +leave and free access to Me in My palace at all seasons, there to +make known all your wants to Me; and I give you, moreover, a +promise that I will hear and redress all your grievances.' At all +seasons; in season and out of season. There to make known all your +wants to Me. And all your grievances. All that still grieves and +vexes you. All your wrongs. All your injuries. All that men can +do to you. Let them do their worst to you. My grace is sufficient +for all your grievances. My goodness in you shall make you more +than a conqueror. I undertake to give you before you have asked +for it a heart full of free, full, and everlasting forgiveness and +forgetfulness of all that has begun to grieve you. No word or +deed, written or spoken, of any man shall be able to vex or grieve +the spirit that I shall put within you. You will immediately +avenge yourselves of your adversaries. You will instantly repay +them all an hundredfold. For, when thine enemy hungers, thou shalt +feed him; when he is athirst, thou shalt give him drink. For thou +shalt not be overcome of evil, but thou shalt overcome evil with +good. + +7. 'All these grants, privileges, and immunities I bestow upon +thee; upon thee, I say, and upon thy right seed after thee.' O +Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us such a seed! Give us a +seed right with Thee! Smite us and our house with everlasting +barrenness rather than that our seed should not be right with Thee. +O God, give us our children. Give us our children. A second time, +and by a far better birth, give us our children to be beside us in +Thy holy Covenant. For it had been better we had never been born; +it had been better we had never been betrothed; it had been better +we had sat all our days solitary unless all our children are to be +right with Thee. Let the day perish, and the night wherein it was +said, There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be darkness; +let not God regard it from above; neither let the light shine upon +it, unless all our house is yet to be right with God. O my son +Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O +Absalom, my son, my son! But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, +and thus hast in Thyself a Father's heart. Hear us, then, for our +children, O our Father, for such of our children as are not yet +right with Thee! In season and out of season; we shall not go up +into our bed; we shall not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to +our eyelids till we and all our seed are right with Thee. And then +how we and all our saved seed beside us shall praise Thee and bless +Thee above all the families on earth or in heaven, and shall say: +Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, +and hath bestowed upon us a free, full, and everlasting +forgiveness, and hath made us partakers of His Divine Nature, to +Him be our love and praise and service to all eternity. Amen and +Amen! + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--EMMANUEL'S LAST CHARGE TO MANSOUL: CONCERNING THE +REMAINDERS OF SIN IN THE REGENERATE + + + +'Hold fast till I come.'--Our Lord. + +There are many fine things in Emmanuel's last charge to Mansoul, +but by far the best thing is the answer that He Himself there +supplies to this deep and difficult question,--to this question, +namely, Why original sin is still left to rage in the truly +regenerate? Why does our Lord not wholly extirpate sin in our +regeneration? What can His reason be for leaving their original +sin to dwell in His best saints till the day of their death? For, +to use His own sad words about sin in His last charge, nothing +hurts us but sin. Nothing defiles and debases us but sin. Why, +then, does He not take our sin clean out of us at once? He could +speak the word of complete deliverance if He only would. Why, +then, does He not speak that word? That has been a mystery and a +grief to all God's saints ever since sanctification began to be. +And the great interest and the great value of Emmanuel's last +charge to Mansoul stands in this, that He here tells us, if not +all, then at least some of His reasons for the policy He pursues +with us in our sanctification. Dost thou know, He asks, as He +stands on His chariot steps, surrounded with His captains on the +right hand and the left--Dost thou know why I at first did, and do +still, suffer sin to live and dwell and harbour in thy heart? And +then, after an O YES! for silence, the Prince began and thus +proceeded: + +1. Dost thou ask at Me why I and My Father have seen it good to +allow the dregs of thy sinfulness still to corrupt and to rot in +thine heart? Dost thou ask why, amid so much in thee that is +regenerate, there is still so much more that is unregenerate? Why, +while thou art, without controversy, under grace, indwelling sin +still so festers and so breaks out in thee? Dost thou ask that? +Then, attend, and before I go away to come again I will try to tell +thee, if, indeed, thou art able and willing to bear it. Well, +then, be silent while I tell thee that I have left all that of thy +original sin in thee to tempt thee, to try thee, to humble thee, +and to thrust, day and night, upon thee, what is still in thine +heart. To humble thee, take knowledge, take warning, and take +forethought. To make thee humble, and to keep thee humble. To +hide pride from thee, and to lay thee all thy days on earth in the +dust of death. I tell thee this day that in all thy past life I +have ordered and administered all My providences toward thee to +humble thee and to prove thee, and to make thee dust and ashes in +thine own eyes. And I go away to carry on from heaven this same +intention of My Father's and Mine toward thee. We shall try thee +as silver is tried. We shall sift thee as wheat is sifted. We +shall search thee as Jerusalem is searched with lighted candles. I +tell thee the truth, I shall bend from heaven all My power which My +Father has given Me, and all My wisdom, and all My love, and all My +grace. What to do, dost thou think? What to do but to make thee +to know and to acknowledge the plague of thine own heart. The +deceitfulness, that is, the depth of wickedness, and the +abominableness, past all words, of thine own heart. I do not +ascend to My Father, with all things in My hand, to make thy seat +soft, and thy cup sweet, and thy name great, and thy seed +multiplied. I have far other predestinations before Me for thee. +I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and it is to +everlasting life that I am leading thee. And thou must let Me lead +thee through fire and through water if I am to lead thee to heaven +at last. I shall have to utterly kill all self-love out of thy +heart, and to plant all humility in its place. Many and dreadful +discoveries shall I have to make to thee of thy profane and inhuman +self-love and selfishness. Words will fail thee to confess all thy +selfishness in thy most penitent prayer. Thy towering pride of +heart also, and thy so contemptible vanity. As for thy vanity, I +shall so overrule it that double-minded men about thee shall make +thee and thy vanity their sport, their jest, and their prey. And I +shall not leave thee, nor discharge Myself of My work within thee, +till I see thee loathing thyself and hating thyself and gnashing +thy teeth at thyself for thy envy of thy brother, thy envy +concerning his house, his wife and his man-servant, and his maid- +servant, and his ox, and his ass, and everything that is his. Thou +shalt find something in thee that shall allow thee to see thine +enemy prosper, but not thy friend. Something that shall keep thee +from thy sleep because of his talents, his name, his income, and +his place which I have given him above thee, beside thee, and +always in thy sight. It will be something also that shall make his +sickness, his decay, his defamation, and his death sweet to thee, +and his prosperity and return to life bitter to thee. Thou shalt +have to confess something in thyself--whatever its nature and +whatever its name--something that shall make thee miserable at good +news, and glad and enlarged and full of life at evil tidings. It +will be something also that shall give a long life in thy evil +heart to anger, and to resentment, and to retaliation, and to +revenge. For after years and years thou shalt still have it in +thine heart to hate and to hurt that man and his house, because +long ago he left thy side, thy booth in the market, thy party in +the state, and thy church in religion. As I live, swore Emmanuel, +standing up on the step of His ascending chariot, I shall show thee +thyself. I shall show thee what an unclean heart is and a wicked. +I shall teach to thee what all true saints shudder at when they are +let see the plague of their own hearts. I shall show thee, as I +live, how full of pride, and hate, and envy, and ill-will a +regenerate heart can be; and how a true-born man of God may still +love evil and hate good; may still rejoice in iniquity and pine +under the truth. I shall show thee, also, what thou wilt not as +yet believe, how thy best friend cannot trust his good name with +thee; such a sweet morsel to thee shall be the mote in his eye and +the spot on his praise. Yes, I shall show thee that I did not die +on the cross for nothing when I died for thee; when I went out to +Calvary a shame and a spitting, an outcast and a curse for thee! +Thou shalt yet arise up and fall down in thy sin and shalt justify +all my thorns, and nails, and spears, and the last drop of My blood +for thee! Yea, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy +God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, +and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, and whether +thou wouldest keep His commandments or no. + +2. It is also, the still tarrying Prince proceeded--it is also to +keep thee wakeful and to make thee watchful. Now, what conceivable +estate could any man be put into even by his Maker and Redeemer +more calculated to call forth wakefulness and watchfulness than to +have one half of his heart new and the other half old? To have one +half of his heart garrisoned by the captains of Emmanuel, and the +other half still full of the spies and the scouts and the +emissaries of hell? Nay, to have the great bulk of his heart still +full of sin and but a small part of his heart here and there under +grace and truth? Here is material for fightings without and fears +within with a vengeance! If it somehow suits and answers God's +deep purposes with His people to teach them watchfulness in this +life, then here is a field for watchfulness, a field of divine +depth and scope and opportunity. There used to be a divinity +question set in the schools in these terms: Where, in the +regenerate, hath sin its lodging-place? For that sin does still +lodge in the regenerate is too abundantly evident both from +Scripture and from experience. But where it so lodges is the +question. The Dominican monks, and some others, were of opinion +that original sin is to be found only in the inferior part of the +soul, but not in the mind or the will. Which, I suppose, we shall +soon find contrary both to Scripture and reason and experience. +Old Andrew Gray speaks feelingly and no less truly concerning the +heart, when he says, 'I think,' he says, 'that if all the saints +since Adam's day, and who shall be to the end of the world, had but +one deceitful heart to guide they would misguide it.' What a plot +of God, then, it is to seat grace, a little saving grace, in the +midst of such a sea of corruption as a human heart is, and then to +set a sinful man to watch over that spark and to keep the boiling +pollutions of his own heart from extinguishing that spark! Well +may Paul exclaim: Yea, what carefulness it calls forth in us; yea, +what indignation; yea, what fear; yea, what vehement desire; yea, +what zeal; yea, what revenge! And, knowing to what He has left our +hearts, well may Emmanuel say to us from His ascending steps, +'Watch ye, therefore; and what I say unto you, I say unto all, +Watch!' + +3. It is to keep thee watchful and to teach thee war also, the +Prince went on. Bishop Butler is about the last author that we +would think of going to for light on any deep and intricate +question in the evangelical and experimental life. But Butler is +so deeply seen into much of the heart of man, as also into many of +the ways of God, that even here he has something to say to the +point. 'It is vain to object,' he says in his sober and sobering +way, 'that all this trouble and danger might have been saved us by +our being made at once the creatures and the characters which we +were to be. For we experience that what we are to be is to be the +effect of what we shall do. And that the conduct of nature is not +to save us trouble and danger, but to make us capable of going +through trouble and danger, and to put it upon us to do it.' The +Apostle Peter has the same teaching in a passage too little +attended to, in which he tells us that we are set here to work out +our own salvation, and that our salvation will just be what, with +fear and trembling, or, as Butler says, with trouble and danger, we +work out. No man, let all men understand, is to have his salvation +thrust upon him. No man need expect to waken up at the end of an +idle, indifferent, inattentive life and find his salvation +superinduced upon all that. No man shall wear the crown of +everlasting life who has not for himself won it. As every man +soweth to the Spirit so also shall he reap. As a soldier warreth, +so shall he hear it said to him, Well done. And as a sinner keeps +his heart with all diligence, and holds it fast till his King +comes, so shall he hear it said to him, Thou hast been faithful +over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. If thy +sins, then, are left in thee to teach thee war, O poor saint of +God, then take to thee the whole armour of God; thou knowest the +pieces of it, and where the armoury is, and, having done all, +stand! + +4. And dost thou know, O Mansoul, that it is all to try thy love +also? Now, how, just how, do the remainders of sin in the +regenerate try their love? Why, surely, in this way. If we really +loved sin at the deepest bottom of our hearts, and only loved +holiness on the surface, would we not in our deepest hearts close +with sin, give ourselves up to it, and make no stand at all against +it? Would we not in our deepest and most secret hearts welcome it, +and embrace it, look out for it with desire and delight, and part +with it with regret? But if, as a matter of fact, we at our +deepest and most hidden heart turn from sin, flee from it, fight +against it, rejoice when we are rid of it, and have horror at the +return of it,--what better proof than that could Christ and His +angels have that at bottom we are His and not the devil's? And +that grace, at bottom, has our hearts, and not sin; heaven, and not +hell? The apostle's protesting cry is our cry also; we also +delight in the law of God after our most inward man. For, after +our saddest surprises into sin, after its worst outbreaks and +overthrows, such all the time were our reluctances, +recalcitrations, and resistances, that, swept away as we were, yet +all the time, and after it was again over, it was with some good +conscience that we said to Christ that He knew all things, and that +He knew that we loved Him. + + +'O benefit of ill! now I find true +That better is by evil still made better; +And ruined love, when it is built anew, +Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater, +So I return rebuked to my content, +And gain by ill thrice more than I have spent.' + + +Yes; it is a sure and certain proof how truly we love our dearest +friend, that, after all our envy and ill-will, yet it is as true as +that God is in heaven that, all the time, maugre the devil of self +that remains in our heart,--after he has done his worst--we would +still pluck out our eyes for our friend and shed our blood. I have +no better proof to myself of the depth and the divineness of my +love to my friend than just this, that I still love him and love +him more tenderly and loyally, after having so treacherously hurt +him. And my heavenly friends and my earthly friends, if they will +still have me, must both be content to go into the same bundle both +of my remaining enmity and my increasing love; my remainders of +sin, and my slow growth in regeneration. So when they had dined, +Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me +more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I +love Thee. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest +that I love Thee. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of +Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him +the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou +knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee! + +5. And, to sum up all--more than your humility, more than your +watchfulness, more than your prayerfulness, more than to teach you +war, and more than to try your love, the dregs and remainders of +sin have been left in your regenerate heart to exalt and to extol +the grace of God. In Emmanuel's very words, it has all been to +make you a monument of God's mercy. I put it to yourselves, then, +ye people of God: does that not satisfy you for a reason, and for +an explanation, and for a justification of all your shame and pain, +and of all your bondage and misery and wretchedness since you knew +the Lord? Is there not a heart in you that says, Yes! it was worth +all my corruption and pollution and misery to help to manifest +forth and to magnify the glory of the grace of God? You seize on +Emmanuel's word that you are a monument of mercy. Somehow that +word pleases and reposes you. Yes, that is what out of all these +post-regeneration years you are. You would have been a monument to +God's mercy had you, like the thief on the cross, been glorified on +the same day on which you were first justified. But it will +neither be the day of your justification nor the day of your +glorification that will make you the greatest of all the monuments +that shall ever be raised to the praise of God's grace; it will be +the days of your sanctification that will do that. Paul was a +blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious at his conversion, but he +had to be a lifetime in grace and an apostle above all the twelve +before he became the chiefest of sinners and the most wretched of +saints. And though your first forgiveness was, no doubt, a great +proof of the grace of God, yet it was nothing, nothing at all, to +your forgiveness to-day. You had no words for the wonder and the +praise of your forgiveness to-day. You just took to your lips the +cup of salvation and let that silent action speak aloud your +monumental praise. You were a sinner at your regeneration, else +you would not have been regenerated. But you were not then the +chief of sinners. But now. Ah, now! Those words, the chief of +sinners, were but idle words in Paul's mouth. He did not know what +he was saying. For, what has horrified and offended other men when +it has been spoken with bated breath to them about envy, and hate, +and malice, and revenge, and suchlike remainders of hell, all that +has been a breath of life and hope to you. It has been to you as +when Christian, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, heard a voice +in the darkness which proved to him that there was another sinner +at the mouth of hell besides himself. There is no text that comes +oftener to your mind than this, that whoso hateth his brother is a +murderer; and, communicant as you are, you feel and you know and +you are sure that there are many men lying in lime waiting the day +of judgment to whom it would be more tolerable than for you were it +not that you are to be at that day the highest monument in heaven +or earth to the redeeming, pardoning, and saving grace of God. +Yes, this is the name that shall be written on you; this is the +name that shall be read on you of all who shall see you in heaven; +this name that Emmanuel pronounced over Mansoul that day from His +ascending chariot-steps, a very Spectacle of wonder, and a very +Monument of the mercy and the grace of God. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Bunyan Characters 3rd Series by A. Whyte + |