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diff --git a/39309-0.txt b/39309-0.txt index 9ee1155..c9cb2fe 100644 --- a/39309-0.txt +++ b/39309-0.txt @@ -1,28 +1,4 @@ - ONE DAY AT A TIME - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: One Day at a Time - and Other Talks on Life and Religion - -Author: Arch. Alexander - -Release Date: March 29, 2012 [EBook #39309] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39309 *** Produced by Al Haines. @@ -4013,374 +3989,4 @@ silent, and the night is waiting. Put us to sleep in a chamber of peace whose windows open toward the sun rising, and, when we awake, may we be still with Thee. For Jesus’ sake. Amen. - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the Project -Gutenberg™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered -trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you -receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of -this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: One Day at a Time - and Other Talks on Life and Religion - -Author: Arch. Alexander - -Release Date: March 29, 2012 [EBook #39309] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - A DAY AT A TIME - - - AND OTHER TALKS - ON LIFE AND RELIGION - - - BY THE REV. - ARCH. ALEXANDER, M.A., B.D. - - Author of - "The Glory in the Grey" - - - - - SECOND EDITION - - - - - LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LIMITED - RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. - - - - - _Printed in Great Britain_ - _by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_ - - - - - THIS BOOK - WRITTEN IN WAR-TIME - TO MINISTER COMFORT - AND IF IT MAY BE TO REINFORCE HOPE - AND FAITH - IS DEDICATED - BY PERMISSION - TO - SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE - G.C.B., K.C.V.O. - ADMIRAL OF THE GRAND FLEET - - - - -"There are nettles everywhere, -But smooth green grasses are more common still; -The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud." - E. B. BROWNING - - - - - CONTENTS - -1. A DAY AT A TIME -2. GOD IN THE WHEELS -3. A TRIPLE BEST -4. FINICAL FARMING -5. THE DOCTOR -6. WELL AND NOW -7. THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME -8. THE REAL MARTHA -9. OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT -10. SMOKING WICKS -11. CULPABLE GOODNESS -12. A KHAKI VIRTUE -13. THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC -14. THE DAY'S DARG -15. GASHMU THE GOSSIP -16. GOD IN FRONT -17. "UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET" -18. THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY -19. THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN -20. UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE -21. INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY -22. GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE -23. NOWADAYS -24. ROUNDABOUT ROADS -25. THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE -26. THE ART OF DOING WITHOUT -27. WONDER -28. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD -29. THE UNRETURNING BRAVE -30. THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET - - - - - - -"_As thy days, so shall thy strength be._" - (DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 25.) - - - I - - A DAY AT A TIME - -If any one of us knows a word of hope or has picked up a message of -comfort anywhere, it is his plain duty to share it, these days. We owe -it to each other to cherish as exceeding precious, and to pass on to -others, every brave and helpful word or thought we come across. - -Well, here is a splendid one for us all, and especially for those who -have most at stake in this great conflict, and are looking anxiously -ahead and fearing what the weeks may have in store,--"As thy days, so -shall thy strength be." It is a great and glorious promise. And just a -couple of verses further on, it is caught up and included in one greater -still,--"The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the -everlasting arms." Fathers and mothers, with a boy, or more than one, -perhaps, away on active service for King and country, this promise is -for you, to take to your heart and hide there, like some precious secret -between you and God,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be. - -Notice carefully, however, how the promise runs. Not, mark you, as your -life is, not as your years are, not even as your weeks are, but as your -days, so shall your strength be. For each day as it comes, God's -promise is that strength will be given you, but just for a day at a -time. The way to live under any circumstances, but especially in these -hard weeks, is just a day at a time. Leave to-morrow with God, my -brother, until it comes. That is what the Word of God lays upon you as -a duty. Live this day at your best and bravest, trusting that God's -help will not fail you. And for the duties and trials of to-morrow, -however hard and heavy, believe that strength for that day also will be -given you, when it comes. - -You cannot have failed to observe what an important place this way of -living had in the teaching of Jesus Christ. He was always trying to get -men to trust the coming days to God, and to live fully worthily and -nobly to-day. He was dead against the practice of adding to the burdens -of to-day fears and forebodings for to-morrow. It is in love to us, in -His desire to save us unnecessary pain, that He bids us remember that -"sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." - -In one of R. D. Blackmore's fine open-air stories, there is a character -who talks at length about horses. After comparing good ones and bad -ones in their behaviour the first time they breast a hill with a load -behind them, he sums the matter up thus: "Howsoever good a horse be, he -longeth to see over the top of the hill before he be half-way up it." -The man who is listening to him confesses that he has often felt that -way himself! And I do not know that there are many of us who can claim -to be guiltless in this respect. Yet it is perfectly plain that the men -and women who are living the bravest and most successful lives around -us, and are proving towers of strength to others, are those who have -learned the art of living just a day at a time, and of depending upon -God for strength for that day in the simplest and most trustful fashion. - -Why, my brothers, if God our Father had meant us to carry on our backs -the fears and anxieties of the coming days, He would surely have told us -more about them! If we were meant to bear to-day what next week holds, -surely we should have been permitted to see into next week. But we -cannot. We cannot see a single second ahead. God gives us Now, and -To-Morrow He keeps to Himself. Is there anything wiser or better we can -do with our to-morrows than just to leave them quietly and trustfully -with Him? - -The habit of living ahead, as so many of us do, prevents us from getting -the full taste and flavour of the happiness and blessing that are ours -to-day. I defy any man to be adequately grateful for this day's -sunshine if he is worrying all the time about the chance of a bad day -to-morrow. Mark Rutherford, merciless self-critic as he was, takes -himself severely to task for this habit in his "Autobiography." "I -learned, alas! when it was almost too late," he says, "to live in each -moment as it passed over my head, believing that the sun as it is now -rising, is as good as it ever will be." Yes, in great things as well as -in little things, that is true. If we are to live our lives at the -full, and anywhere on the Christian level, the only way is to live one -day at a time. - -Our forefathers in the pulpit were fond of reminding their hearers to -live each day as if it were their last. And in solemn truth, without -being in the least morbid, that is the way to live. If a man knew that -after to-day, he would not smell the sea again, how fully and gratefully -would he fill his lungs with its ozone to-day! If he knew he were not -to enter God's House again, how earnestly and sincerely and reverently -he would join in its worship to-day! Yes, but the point is, why should -his hope, that he has other days to come, prevent him taking out of this -day all that he possibly can? Why should this day be any less prized, -because others in all probability will follow it? - -But the great value of this word is the comfort of it to those who are -anxious and fear the coming days. And which of us is not in that -category? I do not suppose there is one of my readers upon whom, -somehow or other, the war has not levied its tax. Nearly every one has -somebody belonging to him or her who is in this gigantic struggle, and -whose welfare is a matter of real concern. And, closer still, there are -fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, whose very dearest are "in -it" or are getting ready to do their share. They have joined, and we -are proud that they have joined, for this is a cause that ennobles every -mother's son who fights for it. But who shall say what the mother's -thoughts are, these days? How proud, and justly proud, the father is -that his boy has played the man, and offered himself to his King and for -his country! But only God, who made the father--and the mother--heart, -knows what the surrender costs. And only God knows how eagerly and -anxiously they look ahead to try to see what the future may hold. - -And, knowing that, He sends His comfort to you, fathers and mothers. The -comfort of His promise,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Just a -day at a time, my friend! Do not take fears for next month on your -shoulders now. You will get strength given you for to-day, certain and -sure, and when next month comes, the strength and comfort for that day -will come too, as certain and as sure. Be not over-anxious about the -morrow. Leave your to-morrow, and your soldier-son, in God's hands. -You can do nothing more at the best, and this is the best. But it is -such a mistake to do anything less. Leave all your to-morrows with -God--it is what He wants you to do--and humbly and gratefully take from -His hands His gift of To-day, and the strength that comes with it. If -that be not enough--and it is not enough for God has said more--when -that is not enough, still your heart a moment, and listen! And you will -hear, beneath that promise for to-day, like the grand deep tones of an -organ, the magnificent diapason of the Father's constant love and -mindfulness,--"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the -everlasting arms." And surely that is enough! - - "So for To-morrow and its needs - I do not pray, - But keep me, guide me, help me, Lord, - Just for To-Day." - - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, who dost appoint the way for each of us, give us the -grace to trust that as Thou hast helped us hitherto, so, in Thy great -mercy, Thou wilt bless us still. We do not ask to see the distant -scene. Keep us, and our beloved, this day; and in quietness and -confidence teach us to leave to-morrow with Thee, our Father. Through -Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - - - -"_The Spirit of life was in the wheels._" - (EZEKIEL i. 21.) - - - II - - GOD IN THE WHEELS - -The prophet Ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of God. He tries -to tell us about it, but his description seems to be a meaningless -jumble of cherubim, and wheels,--wheels within wheels, complex, -wonderful, unresting. Behind all, he saw the Glory of God. And again -and again he tells us that "the Spirit of Life was in the wheels." - -Now that at least is intelligible, and it is a good thing for us to -think about. The Spirit of God is in the wheels. - -I want to suggest to you that He is in the wheels of industry. We have -no hesitation in saying that God gives the farmer his harvest, and we -actually thank Him for it in His temple. A shepherd with a lamb in his -arms is for a pastoral people like the Jews the very image of the -Saviour God. But men who dwell in towns, and work in mills and -factories and yards and railways, or who control or manage such places, -have little to do with either corn or sheep. Is it not worth while to -remind them that God is also in the wheels? Do you remember how -Kipling's old chief engineer Macandrew believed that his twin monsters, -driving the liner onward on her way, sang their hourly hymn of praise to -God? And why not? From all the wheels of industry and man's -inventiveness, goes there not up to Him a praise as real as the song of -His little birds? - -Where two or three gather together on Lord's days, God is truly and -graciously present. But I want you to remember that out in the noisy -moving world of industry and business, God is present also, guiding, -controlling and bringing His long, long plans to pass. It is by His -decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and -spin, for He needs them all, and has brought them into being by the -hands of men, and they are His, as the Church is His. I would not have -you, as Christian men, look upon your week-day world with its mechanism -and its traffic, that world of yours that goes so literally upon wheels, -as a province of life very far remote from the presence of God. I would -remind you rather that God's spirit is in those wheels, that they move -at His bidding, and that they are working out His purposes upon the -earth. - -I would suggest, further, that God is in those wheels whose turning -brings us Change. If you will allow the figure, I would say that God is -in the wheels of Change and time. - -As we grow older, we resent more and more the constant alteration of the -surroundings of life. It saddens us that there should be such a -continual moving on. But perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and -practice that changes hurt and perplex us most. Godly old customs die -out. The face of truth seems to alter. Old notes in religion disappear -and new ones take their place, and we are sorely tempted to ask if it be -possible that the children can know God better or serve His Christ more -truly than their fathers. Ah yes, from forty years and upwards, men are -very apt to have a quarrel with change. They resent it, and would spike -Time's wheels if they could. - -Forgetting that the Spirit of God is in those very wheels. Change is -God's method and His blessing. The Bible does not envy the man who has -no changes. It is afraid for him, afraid that for want of them, he may -settle on his lees, and forget the fear of God. - -Of course, no one will defend every new fashion, or assert that -everything recent is an improvement on what went before. But I, for -one, do believe that generation after generation men are moving up, -being shepherded up, the long slope of history nearer to God. I believe -that God's promise is that He will do better for us than at the -beginnings, and I believe He is keeping His promise. I must believe -that the history of this world which man rough hews, is--spite of all -the wars--being shaped by God Himself, or else there is no God at all. -And so I would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life, -and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt, "Fear -not! Be of good courage! For aback of all change is God our Father, -and it is His Spirit that is working in the wheels." - -Again, I would suggest to you that God is in the wheels that shape your -own lot and mine. The wheels of Chance, they are sometimes called, the -mere whirligig of destiny, as if the world were some blind irresponsible -machine grinding on in the dark, and heeding not which or how many lives -were broken in its teeth. - -And I grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible. For -life is full of mysterious happenings, and chance sometimes seems the -most probable explanation. The tragedy of Job is always being played -somewhere. There are men who up to a certain point in life have known -nothing but good fortune, and after that, nothing but disappointment and -disaster. Out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one; while from -clouds lowering and heavy, it is waited for, expected and dreaded--and -never comes! The merest knife-edge of circumstance sometimes affects -results out of all proportion to its importance. "A grain of sand in a -man's flesh" as Pascal remarks, "has changed the course of Empires." -Yes, I grant you, there be times when the blind chance theory does -suggest itself. - -But by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it. And -best of all, Jesus Christ, our supreme authority, has pledged Himself in -His life and death, that the Ruler and Disposer of all events is Eternal -Love. We have learned from Jesus to say and to trust "Our Father who -art in Heaven." We know and believe that whatever is to come falls not -by chance, but is sent and permitted by the Love of God, who makes no -mistakes. Taught and inspired by Jesus, many thousands of men and women -have committed themselves and all their interests--home, health, -happiness, reputation, loved ones--to the keeping of God the Father, and -known by the peace that came to them, that it was a real transaction. - -Soulless wheels of destiny! say some. The blind mechanism of law! Ah, -no, Jesus is the refutation of that. Law there is, and mechanism there -must be. But neither blind nor soulless. For, above all, is the Father -Love of God, and it is His spirit that is guiding and governing the -wheels. - -Wheels of Industry, Wheels of Change, Wheels of Destiny. And God's -Spirit in them all! - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, to whom not only the Church but our whole work-a-day -world belongs, give us the purged sight that can see Thy tokens there. -Deliver us from all foolish fear of changes since the goad moving all -things onward is in our Father's hand. And help us to be sure that -whatsoever befalleth us and ours has been permitted and appointed by a -Love that passeth knowledge. Amen. - - - -"_The just shall live by faith._" - (ROMANS i. 17.) - - - III - - A TRIPLE BEST - -Some time ago I came across the life-motto of George Stephenson, the -"father of the locomotive," as he has been called, the man whose brains -and sagacity made possible the network of railways which spreads now -over the earth. The crystallised experience of such a life is worth -studying Here, then, was Stephenson's working formula:--"Make the best -of everything; think the best of everybody; hope the best for yourself." - -First, MAKE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. In every set of circumstances -possible or conceivable, there are always, at any rate, two ways of -acting. You can look for the helpful, bright, and hopeful things, and -"freeze on" to these meantime. Or, you can select all the doleful, -sombre aspects, and sit down in the dust with them. Now, if it did not -matter which a man did, there would be no good saying any more. But it -has long since become abundantly clear that the man who makes the best -of his circumstances, however hard they be, comes most happily out of -them in the end. In other words, it pays to make the best of things. It -is the cheery people who recover quickest when they are sick. There are -men who, if their house should fall in ruins about them, will contrive -some sort of shelter meantime with the broken beams! That is the type -that wins out in the end somehow; these are the men to whom the miracles -happen--who never know when they are beaten, who will face the most -tremendous odds with "the half of a broken hope" for a shield, who are -never done until they are dead. What makes for success or failure in a -man is nothing external to him at all. It is something within him. It -is the temper of his spirit. It is the way he captains his own soul. - -The other day I saw a photograph of a backyard. It was a little bit of -a place, of the most forlorn appearance, littered with tin cans, -overgrown with weeds, and hemmed round with blank walls of brick. But -it came into the hands of a man who believed in making the best of -things. Another photograph showed that same backyard after a year had -passed. It was still as small as ever, still overlooked by high walls -and surrounded by chimneys. But it was now a perfect little oasis of -beauty amid a wilderness of bricks and slates. Will anybody deny that -that spirit pays? - -Right up the scale, from little things to the highest things, the man -who looks for the shining possibilities and follows them, is the man on -whom, in our short-sighted way, we say that Fortune smiles. Rather, he -smiles in such a determined way to Fortune, that she has at length to -smile back! - -Nobody pretends that it is easy, when we have failed, to gather our -powers together and try again. But nearly all the big men have had to -do that very thing. It certainly is not easy, when you have a heavy -burden of your own, to spare a cheery word or a hand of sympathy for -somebody who is really much better off, but there are plenty of people -doing it at this moment. Nero's palace is the last place in this world -where you would expect to find a company of loyal Christian folk. Yet -there were such people there, "the saints of Csar's household." And -the grace of God that made that possible can achieve all these lesser -wonders too. - -Second, THINK THE BEST OF EVERYBODY. There is a winsome legend that -Jesus once revealed Himself in this way:--A knot of idlers had gathered -in the street round a dead dog. One remarked how mangy and unkempt its -hide was. Another said, "What ugly ears!" But a stranger, who had come -forward, said, "Pearls are not whiter than its teeth!" And men said to -one another, "This must be Jesus of Nazareth, for nobody but He would -find something good even in a dead dog." Certainly it is the mark of -the most Christlike men and women that they delight rather in -emphasising the merest speck of goodness than in denouncing the too -visible evil. We can, all too easily, see the fault in another. What -we cannot see is the heart of the defaulter, the weight of temptation he -struggled under, and his bitter inner penitence. "Granted," as Carlyle -says, "the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged; the -pilot is blameworthy. He has not been all-wise and all-powerful. But, -to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his voyage has been round -the globe, or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs." - -The way to get the best out of people is to think the best about them. -Let a man see that you have good hopes of him, and recognise what is -best in him, and, in ways of which science can give no explanation, you -add to his chances of reaching better things. In any case, who would -not wish to stand on Christ's side rather than on Judas's. "This -ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the -poor." That is Judas. "Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath -wrought a good work in me. She hath done what she could." That is -Jesus Christ. - -Third,--Don't leave yourself out of the picture. HOPE THE BEST FOR -YOURSELF. George Eliot, in her "Scenes of Clerical Life," gives, in one -chapter, an account of how the Rev. Amos Barton is criticised and -discussed in his parish. In the next chapter we see the Rev. Amos -himself going on his way blissfully unconscious of the poor opinion in -which he is held, believing quite honestly in himself, and not a little -proud of his abilities. "We are poor plants," says this keen student of -character, "buoyed up by the air vessels of our own conceit." And a -blessed thing, too, when you think of it! If we only knew all the -disparaging remarks people make about us, we should never face up to our -duties at all. What helps us along is our innocent belief in our -powers, in the esteem in which we are held--our little conceits, if you -like. Since they send us to our tasks with more spirit, and keep us at -them with more determination, aren't they good things in their way? They -are indeed just a lower form of that hope that we are speaking -of--Hope's poor relations. - -If these are of such value, how much more pure quiet steady Hope itself, -purged of all pride and undue self-esteem? Hope the best for yourself, -and you are already a good way on the road to it. Suggestion is a -tremendously powerful instrument, even when you make it yourself. By -self suggestion, the psychologists tell us, you can influence your -actions, your character, and your general outlook in a wonderful -fashion, either to your advantage or your hurt. Therefore, they say, be -careful never to suggest evil to yourself. Never say to yourself, "I'm -going to make a mess of this," or "I am not fit for that." Suggest -success, happiness, health, and you beckon them to you. Hope the best -for yourself, and you pave the way for its coming. - -On higher planes, the same holds true. Hope on, and, though you fall -you will rise again. Believe that you will be enabled to face your -trouble or temptation, and you will be brought through it somehow. Even -when the end of life is near, hope still, for beyond this best there is -a better, and God's road winds uphill all the way. - -But, you say, this is just faith. I know it is. Run your hopes for -yourself up as high as you can reach, and they will touch God and become -faith. That is why you are to hope the best for yourself. Because--God. -Because God the Father loves you, and desires the best for you too. I -believe in the optimism which Stephenson's motto embodies, because I -believe in the Fatherhood of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is -why I counsel you to go on hoping that the best is yet to be. Not that -we can earn it at all, or that we deserve it at all. But--because God, -our Father. And, for the daring and faith of that saying, this -sufficient ground.--Because--Jesus Christ. - - PRAYER - -Help us all, Heavenly Father, to meet the discipline of life with -stouter hearts. May we all try harder to cultivate the Christ-like mark -of charity. And spite of our many sins and shortcomings, and our poor -love of Thee, grant us the courage to believe that all things, in Thy -great Love for us, are working together for our good. We ask it for -Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_He that observeth the wind_ -_shall not sow, and he that_ -_regardeth the clouds shall not_ -_reap._" - (ECCLESIASTES ii. 4.) - - - IV - - FINICAL FARMING - -When a man like the writer of Ecclesiastes gives his views on life, it -is worth everybody's while to listen. A tabloid of experience is worth -a ton of theory. And it is from his own knowledge of men and experience -of life that he has discovered that "he that observeth the wind shall -not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." - -Was ever a temper of mind, that we all know something about, more neatly -hit off than that? You can see the very picture which this wise -preacher had before his eyes. Agricola was a farmer in his parish who -would not sow his fields unless the wind was blowing soft and gentle -from a certain direction, and the clouds were just as he wished to see -them. He held there was no hope of a harvest unless wind and clouds -were right. And I observed, says the wise man, that Agricola, my farmer -friend, waiting for the exactly suitable conditions, never got his seed -in at all. - -He was speaking chiefly about benevolence and charity when he used this -figure. And that is one reason why we need to give heed to it. For -ours is an age of charity. We give more to the poor and needy to-day -than ever any nation gave before. It is said, indeed, that a good deal -of our giving is not very wise. Our charities overlap. The truly -necessitous are forgotten, and the improvident, the lazy, and the -wasteful reap the largest share. Certainly that is one of the perils of -charity-giving. But I question very much if, in our efforts to avoid -it, we are not running the risk of falling into a graver mistake still, -namely, of observing the wind overmuch before we sow. If I refuse to -give my mite for Christ's sake till I have made perfectly certain that -it will not be misused, if we withhold our subscription from a charity -till we are assured that it is managed in the very most economical -fashion, it will end in us giving nothing at all. There is, of course, -a reasonable amount of inquiry that is not only legitimate but -necessary. Just as there is a regarding of the clouds before reaping -which is simply wise. But, to wait till every scruple is satisfied, -till every risk has been eliminated and there is not a cloud in the sky, -is to wait for a state of matters that may be long enough in coming. -Meantime the needy person may die; or the corn blacken in the fields. - -Charity, however, is but a small part of Christian benevolence. The law -of Christ says "neighbour" whether he be poor or not. He is in trouble, -and I feel inclined to visit him. Must I wait till I am sure he will -not misunderstand my motive? I have it in my heart to forgive him. -Shall I defer the reconciliation till I am convinced he will not offend -again? Or I have hurt and offended him, and wish to apologise. Had I -not better wait till I know that he will not reject my advances? The -wise man's answer to all these questions is an emphatic No. If you wait -for all that, he says, you will wait too long, and the chance will go -past. Wait till the wind and the clouds are just as you would wish -them, and you will neither sow nor reap at all. - -What to do, then? The wise man answers: "In the morning sow thy seed, -and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether -shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike -good." Just because you can never fully calculate what the result of -your labours may be, give up trying. Don't trouble about it, but do -what comes to your hand at the time. If it is sowing time, don't wait -for the perfect day. If the weather will do at all, sow thy seed in the -morning, and in the evening do not stop. In other words, Take life more -royally. Do not be deterred by its ordinary risks. Seize your chance -like a brave man. You do not know, of course, whether that seed you sow -will prosper or not. But sow it, all the same. Don't let the fact that -you don't know cause you to hold your hand. It is just because you do -not know but that the kindness which you offer your neighbour may be -ill-requited, that there is a royal free-handed self-forgetfulness in -offering it. That a man should live his life and do his good deeds with -a certain dash and carelessness of consequence--that, the Preacher -thought the ideal of noble living. And when we measure it by the -standard of Him who said, Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, it -does not seem to come so very far short. - -For, of course, there are the continual surprises that life holds for -faith. If only the corn reaped when the clouds were just right was -safely gathered in, then indeed we might feel that we could not be too -careful. But what do we find again and again? Why, we find that men -who have had the faith to sow when the day was by no means perfect have -been blessed beyond their expectations. We find our barns full and -running over, though we reaped on a cloudy day. We have seen men cast -their bread upon the waters, where you would say it was certain to be -lost, and find it again, after many days. It's perfectly true that you -don't know whether shall prosper this or that. Yet how often have you -been surprised to find that where you thought you knew, you were proved -mistaken, and where you dealt in faith, it stood justified beyond your -dreams. - -And so, the end of the matter for the Preacher is, once more, Live your -life royally, with a certain loving wastefulness, and an easy disregard -of calculations. Do all the good you can, and do it with a free hand, -not asking to see your harvest before you sow, but taking your risk of -it, and leaving the outcome with God. "Cast your bread on the waters, -and you will find it after many days." - -But what of the bread one has cast on the waters, only to see it carried -away, apparently of no use to anybody? What of the faith that has not -been justified? What of the good done to the ill-deserving, of the -kindly-meant act repaid with indignity and scorn? It is a hard -question, not easy to answer, not fully to be answered at all. "After -many days," said the Preacher. And there is no sign yet, we say. -Patience, brothers, patience! God's day is not yet done. When the days -have run out to the end, it will be time enough to say if we miss the -bread returning. We shall be better able to count the gains and the -losses, if there are any then,--when the "days" are done. - - PRAYER - -Teach us, O Lord and Master, the high and difficult lesson that only -those who lose their lives shall truly find them. Show us that the -manna hoarded in miserly fashion is always touched by Thy curse. In -small things as in great, may this be a token that we are Thy disciples, -that virtue also goeth out of us. Amen. - - - -"_But when Jesus heard_ -_that, he said unto them, they_ -_that be whole need not a physician,_ -_but they that are sick._" - (MATTHEW ix. 12.) - - - V - - THE DOCTOR - -Jesus is Himself the best witness as to what He was, and what He wished -to do for men. It is a fact, moreover, for which we cannot be too -thankful that, in explaining Himself, Jesus used not the language of -doctrine, but living figures and symbols which the humblest and youngest -could not fail to understand. - -When, for example, He compared Himself to a shepherd leaving the ninety -and nine in the fold and braving the darkness and the steep places that -he might bring back the one that had wandered, He opens a window into -His own love for men which is worth pages of description. For those who -are familiar with the daily life and work of a shepherd, it means a -great deal that Jesus waits to be the Shepherd of men. - -But, in these very different days of ours, there are multitudes in -streets and tenements who have never seen a shepherd, and know not what -manner of life is his. So that one is glad that Jesus gave Himself -other names as well. When Matthew Arnold met the pale-faced preacher in -the slums of Bethnal Green, and asked him how he did-- - - "Bravely," he said, "for I of late have been - Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread." - - -If that name for Christ brought him comfort, another preacher may be -allowed to confess that he has often been cheered and helped by the -thought of Jesus as the Good Physician. I am glad that in effect, at -least, if not in actual words, He called Himself by that name. - -This is His apology for consorting with publicans and sinners, for being -so accessible to those who had lost caste and character. He says it is -the sick who need a Physician, not those who are well. And His defence -implies that Jesus regarded Himself as being in a true sense a -Physician, not for outward ills merely, but for the whole man, body, -mind, and spirit. - -The days were, as you know, when priest and physician were one calling; -and it is doubtless to the advantage of both vocations that their -spheres are now distinct. But it may be, and I think it is, unfortunate -that Jesus should be regarded by many as so entirely identified with the -priestly side of life and the priestly calling. It is beyond question -that a faithful priest is, in his degree, a mirror of Christ, and helps -men to see Him more clearly. But it is also true--and a truth worth -underlining in these days--that the Doctor, too, is a symbol of what -Christ means to be to men--nay, more, that there are respects in which -the figure of a beloved physician of to-day comes nearer to the reality -of the living human Christ than any other calling in the world. - -It is a sure and unique place which the Doctor holds in the esteem and -confidence of the community. He is the most accessible of all -professional men, the most implicitly trusted, and, I think, the best -beloved. At all hours of the day and night he is ready to give his -services to those who need him. His mere presence in the sick room -inspires confidence. In the poor districts of town and city especially, -he is more really the friend and confidant and helper of everybody than -any other person whatever. As no other man does, the Doctor goes about -continually doing good. His life is a constant self-sacrifice for his -fellow-men. He wears himself out in the interests of the needy. He -runs risks daily from which other men flee. He asks not to be ministered -unto, but to minister, and often and literally he gives his life a -ransom for many. - -And I do not know what we have been thinking of that we have not oftener -made use of this as Christ's claim for Himself, that we have not told -the ignorant and the very poor especially, who know far more about the -Doctor than they do about the Church, who are, in fact, shy of all that -is priestly, but who do understand and appreciate the Doctor, I say, I -do not know why we have not oftener told them to forget that Jesus is -the King and Head of the Church and remember only that He is the best of -all Physicians. That Christ is compassionate, sympathetic, and -approachable, like the Doctor, would be veritable good news to many a -poor ignorant soul who is mightily afraid of His priests. - -The word which comes to our lips when we seek to characterise the life -and work of the true Doctor is Christlike. And big as the title is, it -is deserved. In sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, in his care most for -those who most need him, in the way he identifies himself with his -patient, bearing with, because understanding, his weakness and petulance -and fears, and seeking all the while only to heal and help and save him, -there is no more Christlike character or calling in the modern world -than the Doctor. - -I am the happy possessor of an engraving--a gift from one whose calling -is to teach doctors--of Luke Fildes' famous picture. Most of you -doubtless are familiar with it. It represents the interior of a humble -home where a little child lies critically ill. The father and mother, -distracted with grief, have yielded their place beside the couch to the -Doctor, who sits watching and waiting, all-absorbed in the little one's -trouble. It is a noble face, strong, compassionate, resourceful, -gentle; and if the Eternal Christ of God is to be represented to us in -His strength and gentleness by any human analogy or likeness whatever, -as He wished to be, and indeed must be, no finer figure could be found, -I think, than that, none more certain to draw out the reverence and -gratitude and trust of men. - -Men of all grades and classes appeal to and trust the Doctor. But how -many of them realise that Jesus desires that men should come to Him and -trust His willingness to help and save them, just as they would do to -some good physician? How many men who have found comfort by taking -their fears and forebodings to the Doctor and hearing his authoritative -"Go in peace!" know or realise that just so would Jesus have us bring -Him our unworthiness and shame and sin? Jesus never preached at those -whom His compassion drew to Him. He never lectured them, He just helped -them, and that at once. He lifted them to their feet and gave them a -new hope. He, straightway, in God's name, assured them of forgiveness. - -Ah, if men only understood that Jesus is to be found to-day down among -the world's burdened and weary souls, not as a Priest begirt with -ceremony and aloof from daily life, but as a Physician, approachable, -helpful, human, who sees and pities their weakness, and longs to save -them and help them to their best. If men only understood that! - - PRAYER - -We come to Thee, Thou Good Physician, with all our ills and fears. We -would whisper in Thine ear the troubles that frighten and shame us. -Surely Thou wilt hear. Draw near us in Thy strength and Pity, and in -Thy Mercy heal us all. Amen. - - - -"_Whatsoever thy hand findeth_ -_to do, do it with thy might,_ -_for there is no work nor device_ -_nor knowledge nor wisdom in_ -_the grave whither thou goest._" - (ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.) - - - VI - - WELL AND NOW - -In popular and condensed form, the golden rule according to Ecclesiastes -is, "Do it well and do it now." His own words are, "Whatsoever thy hand -findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work nor device nor -knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." We want to let -that precept soak into our minds for a little. - -DO IT WELL. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." -Among the lesser joys of life there are few that thrill one with a more -pleasurable sense of satisfaction than that which goes with the bit of -work finished, rounded-off and done as well as one can do it. No matter -what the job may be, if it is worth doing at all, or if it is one's -business to do it, it is not difficult to recognise in the curious -inward glow over its honourable completion, a token of God's good -pleasure, some far-off echo of His "Well done!" - -It is a truism which never loses its point that it is enthusiasm that -commands success. In her weird book called "Dreams," Olive Schreiner -tells the parable of an artist who painted a beautiful picture. On it -there was a wonderful glow which drew the admiration of all his -compeers, but which none could imitate. The other painters said, Where -did he get his colours? But though they sought rich and rare pigments -in far-off Eastern lands they could not catch the secret of it. One day -the artist was found dead beside his picture, and when they stripped him -for his shroud they found a wound beneath his heart. Then it dawned -upon them where he had got his colour. He had painted his picture with -his own heart's blood! It is the only way to paint it, if the picture -is to be worth while at all. If we would have the work that we do live -and count, our heart's blood must go into it. Whatsoever thy hand -findeth to do, do it with thy might. - -What magnificent heart-stirring examples are coming to us every day just -now, from sea and battle-field, of the good old British virtue of -sticking in gamely to the end and "seeing the thing through!" If the -stories of the old English Admirals are calculated, as Stevenson says, -to "send bank clerks back with more heart and spirit to their -book-keeping by double entry," shall not the story that unfolds day by -day of what our own kith and kin are doing, nerve and inspire us all to -"do OUR bit," to face up to OUR duty, humdrum and ordinary though it be, -with the same grit and energy, with the same determination to see it -through, and make as good a job of it as we can? - -The Preacher has his reason for this advice. Because, he says, some day -you will have to stop and lay down your tools, and that will be the end. -No more touching botched work after that. No going back to lift dropped -stitches then. Such as it is, your record will have to stand as you -leave it, when Death raps at your door. Even for us in this Christian -age, this ancient Preacher's reason still stands valid and solemn. Do -what you are at now as well as ever you can, for you shall pass that way -no more again for ever. - -The Apostle Paul, who expresses practically the same sentiment, gives a -different reason. "Whatever ye do," he writes to the Colossians, "do it -heartily as to the Lord." And that is the point for you and me. Not -merely because we have a limited time to work, but because our work is -Christ's service, we must do it heartily, with all our might. It is to -the Lord. To us all in our different labours, in the things we work at -day by day, and the worthy interests we endeavour to support, there -comes this call that transforms the very commonest duty into an -honourable obligation to a personal living Master--Whatever ye do, do it -heartily as to the Lord. - -Yes, and DO IT NOW. For the amount of misery and suffering and remorse -that is directly due to putting off the God-given impulse or generous -purpose to some other season, is simply incalculable. If all the kind -letters had been written when the thought of writing was fresh and -insistent--ah me, how many burdened souls would have been the braver and -the stronger. If only the friendly visit had been paid when we thought -about it--and why wasn't it? "Never suppose," says Bagshot, "that you -can make up to a neglected friend by going to visit him in a hospital. -Repent on your own death-bed, if you like, but not on another's." - -An old writer on agriculture says that there are seasons when if the -husbandman misses a day he falls a whole year behind. But in life the -result is often more serious still. When you miss the day, you miss it -for ever. Wherefore, let us hear the words of the Preacher. If we have -a kind purpose in our heart towards any living soul, let us do it now. -If we think of beginning a better way of living, let us begin now. If -we propose to end our days sworn and surrendered servants and soldiers -of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us volunteer now, for this is the day of -salvation. - -It is said that a great English moralist had engraved on his watch the -words, "The night cometh," so that whenever he looked at the time he -might be reminded of the preciousness of the passing moment. The night -cometh. How far away it may be, or how near to any one of us, no one of -us knows. But near or far it cometh with unhalting step. Wherefore, -whatsoever the thing be that is in your heart to do, great or little, -for yourself or for others, for man or for God--DO IT NOW! - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, by whose command it is that man goeth forth to his work -and his labour until the evening, grant us all a more earnest regard for -the sacredness of each passing moment, and help us to do with our whole -heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_And he washed his face,_ -_and went out, and refrained_ -_himself, and said, Set on bread._" - (GENESIS xliii. 31.) - - - VII - - THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME - -That is what Joseph did when his feelings nearly overmastered him at the -sight of his brother Benjamin standing before him, all unconscious of -who he was. He "sought where to weep," says the record with quaint -matter-of-factness, for of course he did not want his brothers to see -him weeping just yet. So "he entered into his chamber and wept there." -But Joseph's secret affections being thus recognised and allowed their -expression, he had a duty to perform. He put a curb upon his feelings. -He took a firm grip of himself. He "washed his face and went out, and -refrained himself, and said, Set on bread." One cannot help admiring -that. It was a fine thing to do. - -And there are two classes of people in our own time in whom one sees -this same attitude, and never without a strange stirring of heart. - -The first and most honourable are those who have already tasted of the -sorrows of war and lost some dear one in the service of King and -country. We speak of the courage and sacrifice of our men, and we -cannot speak too highly or too gratefully about that. But there is -something else that runs it very close, if it does not exceed it, and -that is the quiet heroism and endurance of many of those who have been -bereaved. Time and again one sees them facing up to all life's calls -upon them with a marvellous spirit of self-restraint. God only knows -how sad and sore their loss is. And upon what takes place when they -enter into their chamber and shut the door and face their sorrow alone -with God, it does not beseem us to intrude. Such sorrow is a sacred -thing, but at least we know, and are glad to know, that God Himself is -there as He is nowhere else. It is never wrong and never weak to let -the tears come before Him. As a father understands, so does He know all -about it. As a mother comforteth, so does the touch of His Hand quieten -and console. - -But what fills one with reverent admiration is that so many of those -whose hearts we know have been so cruelly wounded have set up a new and -noble precedent in the matter of courage and self-control. They are not -shirking any of the duties of life. They are claiming no exemptions on -the ground of their sorrow, and they excuse themselves from no duty -merely because it would hurt. They wear their hurt gently like a flower -in the breast. They carry their sorrow like a coronet. Out from their -secret chambers they come, with washen face and brave lips to do their -duty and refrain themselves. How beautiful it is! What a fine thing to -see! The sorrowing mother of a noble young fellow I am proud to have -known, said to a friend recently who was marvelling at her fortitude, -"My boy was very brave and I must try to be brave, too, for his sake." -Dear, gentle mother! One cannot speak worthily about a spirit so sweet -and gracious as that. One can only bow the head and breathe the inward -prayer, "God send thee peace, brave heart!" But, surely, to accept -sorrow in that fashion is to entertain unawares an angel of God! The -feeling which underlies this new etiquette of sorrow with the washen -face is not very easily put into words. But it rests, I think, upon the -dim sense that the death which ends those young lives on this noble -field of battle is something different from the ordinary bleak fact of -mortality. If death is ever glorious, it is when it comes to the -soldier fighting for a pure and worthy cause. There is something more -than sorrow, there is even a quiet and reverent pride in the remembrance -that the beloved life was given as "a ransom for many." When one thinks -what we are fighting for, one can hardly deny to the fallen the supreme -honour of the words "for Christ's sake." And it is not death to fall so. -Rather is it the finding of life larger and more glorious still. It is -that that marks the war-mourners of to-day as a caste royal and apart. -It is that that moves so many of them by an inward instinct to wear -their sorrow royally. Hidden in the heart of their grief is a tender -and wistful pride. Lowell has put this feeling into very fine words: - - "I, with uncovered head, - Salute the sacred dead, - Who went and who return not-- - Say not so. - 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, - But the high faith that fails not by the way. - Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; - No bar of endless night exiles the brave, - And, to the saner mind, - We rather seem the dead that stayed behind." - -The other class who are teaching us a new and better way to bear burdens -are the friends at home of those who are on active service. Men, with -sons in the trenches, are going about our streets these days almost as -if nothing were happening, making it a point of honour not to let the -lurking fear in their hearts have any outward expression. Wives and -mothers and sisters are filling their hands and their hearts full of -duties, and putting such a brave face on life that you would never -suspect they have a chamber that could tell a different tale. It is -absolutely splendid. There is no other word for it. I walked a -street-length with a young wife recently whose man has been ill and out -of the fight for a while. She hoped that he might have been sent home, -and who can blame her? but he has gone back to the trenches instead. And -how bravely and quietly she spoke of it! Pride, a true and noble pride -in her beloved soldier, a resolute endeavour to do her difficult bit as -uncomplainingly and willingly as he--it seemed to me that I saw all that -in her brave smile. And I said to myself, "Here is the cult of the -washen face! And a noble cult too! Britain surely deserves to win when -her women carry their crosses so!" - -It is easy, of course, to read the thought in their minds. Our men, -they say, are splendid, why should we be doleful and despondent? They -have made a new virtue of cheerfulness; let us try to learn it too. They -have offered everything in a cause which it is an honour to help in any -degree; let us lay beside theirs the worthy sacrifice of the washen face -and a brave restraint. Such, I imagine, is the unconscious kind of -reasoning which results in the resolute and cheerful bearing you may see -on all sides of you every day. - -And wherever it is seen, it carries its blessing with it. Others with -their own private burdens and anxieties are encouraged to hold on to -that hope and cheerfulness which are just the homely side of our faith -in God and in the righteousness of our cause. - -The cult of the washen face is contagious. It spreads like a beneficent -stain. And since it is entirely praiseworthy, we can but wish it to -spread more and more. Those who come out from the chambers where they -have kept company with sorrow or anxiety, to face life and duty with -shining face and mastered feelings, are not only proving their faith in -the Divine Strength, they are making a precious contribution to the -moral stedfastness of the nation. - -"And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself." Good man! - - PRAYER - -We bless Thee, O God, for the assurance that Thine ear is ever open to -our cry, that it is never wrong to take our sorrows and our cares to -Thee. But help us also, endowed with Thy strength in our secret -chambers, to bear our burdens bravely in the sight of men. For Thy -Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_But few things are needful,_ -_or one._" R. V. (margin). - (LUKE X. 42.) - - - VIII - - THE REAL MARTHA - -When Jesus said, upon one occasion, that He had not where to lay His -head, He was speaking the bitter and literal truth. He had really no -home of His own, but was everywhere a wanderer, dependent on others for -shelter and food; and though the New Testament draws a veil over all the -hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable East, imagination -can picture something at least of what the homelessness of Jesus must -have meant. - -But He had close and warm friends who made it up to Him as far as -friends could, and of these were the two sisters, Martha and Mary, who -with their brother, Lazarus, had a house in Bethany. This place was His -haven and shelter, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." -The sisters were unlike in disposition. Mary, we can imagine, was -dreamy, meditative, perhaps a little delicate and fragile, and gifted -with a quick and loving sympathy. Martha was robust, practical, -energetic. Her way of showing the Master that she considered it an -honour to have Him for a guest was to give Him the very best that her -housewifely skill could suggest. No trouble was too much for her. And -it is very possible that one of the charms which this home had for -Jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real place of rest--was its -well-ordered arrangements, the quiet, efficient, capable way in which -things were done. And whose was the credit for that? Martha's. - -What would that household have been like without Martha? And what would -any home that is fortunate enough to have a Martha in it, be like -without her? The truth is our debt to the Marthas is one which we have -never fully acknowledged. You would imagine, hearing the way in which -her name is sometimes used, that it has an apologetic character, as if -the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly -esteemed in comparison, for example, with the ability to write verse! It -is foolish to play Mary off against her sister in this way. Martha did -what she could do best, and showed her love for Christ in that fashion, -and you may be quite sure that He understood. Mary served Him in her -way, by giving Him what He needed more at times than food--a heart to -listen to His message, and a sympathy which made the telling of it meat -and drink to Him. Each sister was the complement of the other. - -But we wrong Martha, of course, in thinking of her as always in the -kitchen. Certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would find -her there, and well that was for the household and the servants. But -nobody is always eating or thinking about eating; and often of an -evening, doubtless, when the labours of the day were over, Martha would -join her sister at the feet of the Master whom she loved as much as Mary -did. - -The incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of -Martha's character occurred during a visit which Jesus paid in the days -before Lazarus fell sick. Something went wrong in Martha's department -that day. Perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the -usually self-controlled Martha, or maybe some oversight of her own. At -anyrate, it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add -to itself, as its habit is, seven other devils. And as Martha went out -and in the dining chamber getting things ready, the sight of Mary -sitting there at the Master's feet doing nothing, struck her, perhaps -for the first time, as rather out of place. Things began to go further -wrong. Just when Martha wanted to do special honour to Jesus, the -ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind. -Each time she entered the room where Christ and Mary were, Martha's -steps grew brisker and more emphatic; and then the last straw was laid -on, and the outburst came! Martha asked Jesus if He really did not care -that Mary was leaving her to do everything. Bid her come and help me, -she said. - -Of course, Jesus knew that it was for His sake that Martha was giving -herself all this trouble. He saw, as even we can see, that this -kind-hearted, worried woman was speaking crossly, as the very best will -do at times, because she was tired and a bit overdriven. And with a -perfect and gentle chivalry and tact He made His reply. As the -Authorised Version puts it, it jars on one, somehow. But King James' -translators have misread their text. What Jesus said was: "Martha, -Martha, you are unduly anxious and troubled. Only a few things are -necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen a good part, and I cannot allow -you to take it from her." - -Martha, remember, was making a feast worthy of the Master, and Jesus, -looking upon the various dishes being got ready, said, in effect, I do -not really need so many as that. One would do quite well. And I must -not let you think that Mary is doing nothing. She, too, is ministering -to me by her sympathy and her willing ear, and you must not take away -the good part she has chosen. - -Jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either Mary or -her sister. He was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of -His who had not served Him as she had wished to do. When He spoke of -what was needful, He meant needful for Himself, the Guest whom both the -sisters were seeking to honour. - -He made no comparison between Martha's service and Mary's. He did not -say, as we have read it so often, that Mary had chosen the better part. -He said, in her defence, that Mary's was also a good part. He is not -blaming Martha, but only expostulating with her in the gentlest fashion, -and defending Mary from the charge which Martha in her heat had made -against her, the charge of being useless, and doing nothing to help to -entertain the Master. Jesus said, She is helping to entertain Me in her -own way, and, He added, it is a good way. - -When Jesus having said that only a few things were necessary, dropped -His voice, as we may imagine, and added "or indeed one," He may have -meant more than He seemed to say. For there was one thing that was more -than meat to our Lord, and that was to find a soul with heart and -sympathy open to His message. And it may be that He felt, as He said -the words, that Mary's ministry met a need of His deeper than that for -which Martha was catering. At anyrate, the oldest and best versions of -this Gospel give Christ's words as we have rendered them, and they stand -here, not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines, but rather as -a proof of the gentle courtesy of our Lord, of His insight into -character and motive, and of His gracious recognition of the worth of -any and every kind of service that has love at its heart. - -Martha went back to her kitchen, and Mary remained where she was. Mary -was not asked to go and help. Martha would have protested if she had -come. Martha was not called upon to go and sit beside Mary. Each -continued the service for which she was best fitted. But each, I think, -had learned something that day. And you and I must not leave this page -of our New Testament till we have learned it too--that we serve best -when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified; that it belongs -to our Christian service to recognise in all loyalty that, though others -find different ways of expressing it, theirs is a good part; and that we -must never either belittle it or seek to take it from them. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, Who by many diverse ways dost bring us near to Thee, and -in differing modes and stations dost appoint our service, help us gladly -and gratefully to do the things we can do, neither envying those whose -opportunities are greater, nor forbidding those who follow not us. For -Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_He giveth (to) His beloved_ -_(in their) sleep._" - (PSALM cxxvii. 2.) - - - IX - - OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT - -"It is vain for you," says the writer of the 127th Psalm, "to rise early -and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrow, for so He giveth to His -beloved (in their) sleep." That is the true reading, and I want you to -think about it. "God giveth to His beloved while they sleep." Over and -above what you have yourself achieved, you GET something you have never -worked for. And you get that, as it were, in your sleep. This is a -beautiful thought, and there are three people to whom I want to offer it -as God's comfort. - -The first is the worried man. It is indeed directly against worry that -this psalmist sets forth his reminder. It is not that he minimises the -need for hard work and watchful care. But he tells the man who is -feverishly burning his candle at both ends, and consuming himself in a -frenzy of tense anxiety, to leave something for God to do. It is as if -he said, "Why so hot, little man, why so fiercely clutching all the -ropes? Remember that God is working too as well as you, working in your -interest and in love for you. When you have done your best therefore, -go to your bed and sleep with a quiet mind, for God giveth to His -beloved even so." - -One can imagine how a word like that would relax the tension and lead -some persuadable Hebrew who heard it to say, "Ah, well, I worry far too -much. After all, I am not Providence. I am always getting a great many -things I have not wrought for. I shall worry less about securing the -good things I desire for me and mine, and trust more to God to give them -as He sees fit." If all of us who needed this reminder just had the -sense to come to the same conclusion! - -I have seen a man compass his family with so many careful regulations -and observances that the criticism of a candid friend seemed entirely -just. "You would think," he said, "to see so-and-so shepherding his -family, that there was no other providence than his own." You can't be -with your best beloved all the while. And you ought to know that God -too is watching even while you sleep. - -If there be some plan on which you have set your heart, and you are -over-anxious about it, quote this text to yourself. Do your best, of -course, but, having done so, leave the outcome with God. About a great -many of the things over which we worry ourselves needlessly, I believe -God's word to us is:--Leave these things to Me. You can't work for -them. And anxiety won't bring them. But you will get them, as you need -them, just as if they came to you in your sleep. - -Said one hermit to another in the Egyptian desert, as he looked at a -flourishing olive tree near his cave, "How came that goodly tree there, -brother? For I too planted an olive, and when I thought it wanted -water, I asked God to give it rain and the rain came, and when I thought -it wanted sun I asked God and the sun shone, and when I deemed it needed -strengthening, I prayed and the frost came--God gave me all I demanded -for my tree, as I saw fit, and yet it died." "And I, brother," replied -the other hermit, "I left my tree in God's hands, for He knew what it -wanted better than I, and behold what a goodly tree it has become." - -The second man to whom I would offer the comfort of this word of God is -the man who is disappointed. Things have gone wrong with him. The plan -on which he spent so much of his time and energy has miscarried, and a -very different result has emerged from what he counted on. His way, as -he saw it, is blocked, and he has had to turn aside. - -Now, there are not many things one can say usefully to a disappointed -man. And it is cruel kindness to try to heal his hurt lightly. -Nevertheless, to him also the psalmist's message applies, and what he -needs to remember, that he may pick up heart and go on again, is that -God giveth to His beloved while they sleep. - -We have all had disappointments, sore enough at the time, which -after-experience proved to have been blessings in disguise. Many a man -can point to a signal failure as the beginning of a true success or -usefulness or happiness. We did not feel as if we were being enriched -when our plan fell through, and we were bitter and rebellious enough at -the time, it may be, but it is quite clear to us now that God was at -that very time giving to us with both His hands. - -No one, of course, can see that about any more than a few of his -disappointments. It would be false to experience to speak as if we -could. But what is manifestly true about one or two may conceivably -hold with regard to them all, if we knew more, or could see better. And -the Christian Gospel calls us to believe and trust that that is so. -There is another Hand than ours shaping our life, a wiser Hand. Better -things are being done for us than we can see in the meantime. And the -man whose hopes and plans have turned out amiss, but whose trust is -still in God, is invited by our psalmist to reason with himself -thus:--"I am like a man asleep, and I do not rightly understand at -present, but I will trust that it is not for nothing that misfortune has -come, and when I wake I shall hope to see that God has been giving to me -in love and mercy when I was not aware of it at all." - -The third man whom this text will help and comfort is the worker, the -man or woman who is trying to do something for Christ's sake. The -Christian worker needs to be told that what he is trying to do is not -nearly all that he is doing. What he is, is speaking as loudly as what -he does or says. There is an aroma and fragrance about the life of the -consecrated Christ-like man or woman which sweetens and sanctifies other -lives beyond what he or she can ever know. Some of the best sermons in -the world have been preached by people who least suspected what they -were doing. The invalid in the home does not know how real religion -becomes to all who watch her patience and unselfishness. And among the -busy and vigorous we often catch hints and reflections, that they never -suspect, of what Christ-likeness means. The man who has surrendered his -life to God, indeed, is a channel of blessing to others beyond all he -ever dreams of. He must not be disheartened when he realises how little -he is doing, for the truth is he is doing far, far more than he knows. -Wherefore, my brother, be of good cheer, and render your service to -Christ with a quiet heart. Lay your course, and work your ship, and -hoist your sail and trust. And the gifts of God will enrich you, and -the winds of heaven will bring you on your way, even while you sleep. - - PRAYER - -We give Thee thanks, O God, for all Thy bounties, undeserved and -unearned; for the increase Thou dost send us while the stars are -shining; for Thy gracious thirty-fold and sixty-fold beyond what we have -sown. Every morning Thou leavest gifts upon our doorstep and dost -depart unthanked. But this day we remember, and we bow our heads to -render unto Thee our humble and our hearty thanks for all that Thou hast -given us while we slept. Amen. - - - -"_The smoking flax he shall not quench._" - (ISAIAH xlii. 3.) - - - X - - SMOKING WICKS - -We read the 42nd chapter of Isaiah now as if it were a part of the -Christian Evangel. And that is right. For whoever the Servant may have -been, of whom Isaiah was thinking, it is Christ and only Christ who -completely fulfils this prophecy. This is a true description of His -spirit and His method. "The dimly-burning wick he shall not quench." - -The figure is easily understood. Here is a piece of flax floating in -oil, and burning so faintly that it seems a mere charred end from which -the smoke coils thinly upwards. Some one comes and snuffs it out, -because it smells. That is the way of the world's reformers, as Isaiah -saw it, and we can see it still. By and by they will trim the wick and -light it with fire of their own, but first they will quench the spark. -But there is One to come, said Isaiah, shooting his arrow of prophecy in -the air, who will go otherwise about it. He will not despise the spark -because it is so feeble. He will tend it and foster it, and make the -evil-smelling bundle of flax into a clear, shining light. And the -saying has found its mark in Jesus Christ. - -When a woman that was a sinner made her way into the house where He sat -at meat, and wept at His feet, He amazed all those present by the -extraordinary gentleness of His dealing with her. He did not refer to -the evil in her life. He did not, as other good men would have done, -first cast her down, that He might afterwards lift her up. He simply -took the beautiful impulse after good which she brought Him out of a -life besmirched and tawdry, held it in His hands--a mere spark of -virtue--and breathing on it, blessed it, and behold it was a flame, -burning up the evil in her life, a lamp lighting her path along a new -and hopeful way. That was Christ. He does not, He will not quench the -dimly-burning wick. - -Now--and this is our point--if those who profess and call themselves -Christians are to have the spirit in them that was also in Christ Jesus, -must not this be their mark too? Does not this prescribe their attitude -to life, that many-coloured, strangely-mixed compound of good and evil? -Good in any form, however feeble, however mixed, as in this world it -inevitably is, with what is evil, should find in those who call -themselves by Christ's name, its truest supporters, sympathisers, -friends. - -To the eye and heart in sympathy with it, beauty often peeps out in -strange places. - - "The poem hangs on the berry bush, - When comes the poet's eye, - And the whole street is a masquerade - When Shakespeare passes by." - -So the mark of the Christ-like heart is just that it discerns, and, -discerning, loves the feeblest tokens of some inward grace that redeems -a life from evil. Do not be afraid that by welcoming the scant good, -you may be held to approve of the greater evil. That is a risk that God -Himself rejoices to take. Did not Christ risk that, when He accepted -that poor woman's worship? Did He not risk it when He held out His -hands to a man like Zaccheus? Does He not risk it always when He -declares, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out?" And -shall we refuse because the risk is too great? - -Life presents us with many anomalies that refuse to square with our -theories. You find men exhibiting qualities of character, which any -Christian might be proud to emulate, outside of the Church altogether. -And you cannot simply label these--"glittering vices," and pass on. God -is not two but One, and goodness is His token wherever it be found. "The -World," says John Owen, "cannot yet afford to do without the good acts -even of its bad men." And the truth for us to learn is that the grace -of God is not bound by our standards or limits. Make the circle as wide -as you like, you will still discover fruits of the Spirit outside, where -by all our canons they were never to be expected. - - "And every virtue we possess, - And every victory won, - And every thought of holiness - Are His alone." - - -It is for something more than tolerance I am pleading. For that may be -a weak and a wrong thing, if it spring not from belief in the good. What -our calling demands is something more, the rejoicing, hopeful -recognition of the good deed or purpose anywhere, and the offer of a -sympathy and a faith in which it can grow. That gift of yours may -actually be the decisive factor in a life balancing perilously betwixt -good and evil. Three times, the other evening, I tried to light my -study fire, and each time it went out. The paper burned, but the sticks -apparently would not light. At last in despair I flung in a burning -match and went away--and when I returned I found a cheerful blaze: the -brief glimmer of that last match had been the determining factor. You -will smile perhaps at the illustration, but you will remember, all the -better, that where the flax is even smouldering, there the angels are -still fighting for a soul. And you will, maybe, remember also that even -your warm sympathy may turn the scale, and fan the flicker to a flame. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that -the mind that was in Him may more and more be found in us. Help us to -offer to what is good anywhere a sympathy in which it may grow and -increase. Grant us a helpful faith in the struggling good in every man, -even as Thou, our Father, dost call us sons while as yet we are but -prodigals, afar off. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_Let not then your good be_ -_evil spoken of._" - (ROMANS xiv. 16.) - - XI - - CULPABLE GOODNESS - -In his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul counsels them -not to let their "good be evil spoken of." And at first we ask -ourselves if this is a possible thing. Can you have good that is evil -spoken of? Since this is a matter that ought to concern us all, I want -to suggest one or two ways in which this very result may be brought -about, that those of us who are trying to follow an ideal of goodness -may be on our guard. - -First, we can very readily have what is good in us evil spoken of -because of our CENSORIOUSNESS. When men come upon some fruit that grows -upon a goodly-looking tree, or one at least that has a trustworthy label -attached to it, and find it sour or bitter to the taste, they are apt to -be particularly resentful. And it is with precisely such indignation -that they observe men and women who profess themselves followers of -Christ exhibiting a censorious and critical spirit. Where ought you to -find the broadest charity, the kindliest judgment, the most Christ-like -forbearance and restraint? Among Christians, of course. And yet--alas! -alas! - -Just keep your ears open with this end in view for a week, and you will -be surprised at the appallingly hard judgments that come tripping -daintily from the lips of some of those you know best. And if that line -of investigation be not very handy, just watch yourself for the same -time, and you will learn what a rare thing Christian charity is. - -We talk a lot about it, but in real life we "forbid" men very readily -"because they follow not us," we belittle things which we do not -understand, we speak rashly about people whom we do not know, and we are -ready, without the least consideration, with our label for the movement -or the man, who happens to be brought to our notice. - -Ah, if we could only see how far astray we often are, what a libel our -label is, and how unChrist-like many of our speeches appear! We don't -know enough of the inner life of any man to entitle us to pass judgment -upon him. A critical spirit never commends its possessor to the -affection or the good-will of men. Besides, it blinds him to much that -is really beautiful, and cuts him off from many sources of happiness. -You will see evil in almost anything if you look for it, but that is not -a gift that makes either for helpfulness or popular esteem. "I do not -call that by the name of religion," says Robert Louis Stevenson, "which -fills a man with bile," and, on the whole, the ordinary man is of the -same mind with him. - - "Judge not; the workings of his brain - And of his heart thou canst not see. - What looks, to thy dim eyes, a stain, - In God's pure light may only be - A scar brought from some well-won field, - Where thou wouldst only faint and yield." - - -Sometimes one must, in the interests of true religion, pass judgment, -but these times are not so frequent as we suppose. And if there are -occasions more than others when the disciple needs an overflowing -measure of Christ's spirit, it is when it is his clear duty to diagnose, -disapprove, and condemn. - -Secondly, we may have our good evil spoken of by our EXTREMENESS. I -should be very chary of saying that there is such a thing as being -righteous overmuch, but for two reasons. The first is that there is an -injunction in Scripture against it. And the second is that I have met -people, of whom, in all charity, it was true! The modern name for being -righteous overmuch is being a "crank." Now, nobody loves a crank. The -extremist always does his own cause harm. Carefulness about one's food -is a good thing, but to take an analytical chemist's outfit to table -with us is simply to ask for the contempt of all sensible people. - -Paul's advice to the Philippians was, "Let your moderation be known to -all men." And Paul was himself a splendid example of the true -moderation as distinguished from that which is merely indolent and -uninterested. Earnest, enthusiastic, loyal, there was yet about him a -big and healthy sanity, a sweet reasonableness, and--what the extremist -always lacks--an engaging tact. In other words, Paul was a Christian -gentleman, and if you want to know what that means, read his letter to -Philemon about Onesimus the runaway slave. There are blunt words with -which a man can be felled as effectually as with the "grievous crab-tree -cudgel" of which Bunyan speaks. Paul did not consider it any special -virtue to employ such words. His Christian zeal did not lead him to -make a statement in a way that would irritate and rasp a man's soul. -There is a certain extreme candour affected by some Christian people, -who pride themselves on always calling a spade a spade. But if it hurts -my friend to hear me say "spade" I know of no law of God that compels me -to name the implement at all! - -And then, lastly, we can have our goodness "evil spoken of" because it -is so COLD. It sometimes seems as if, in our day, warmth of manner had -gone out of fashion. Ian Maclaren once said of our generation that it -will "smile feebly when wished a happy New Year as if apologising for a -lapse into barbarism." But I don't think any sensible person, not -blinded by an absurd convention, cares for that type of rarified -demeanour. No one likes to get a hand to shake which feels like a dead -fish! - -In one of his books, Dr Dale of Birmingham criticised that line in -Keble's hymn which speaks about the trivial round and the common task -giving us "room to deny ourselves." "No doubt," he says, "but I should -be very sorry for the people I live with to discharge their home duties -in the spirit of martyrs. God preserve us all from wives, husbands, -children, brothers, and sisters who go about the house with an air of -celestial resignation." Ah, no, that's not the goodness, either at home -or on the street, which wins men. It is not beautiful because it is too -cold. The religion of Jesus is something much more than duty-doing. -Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD WITH ALL THY HEART. Whosoever compels -thee to go a mile, GO WITH HIM TWAIN. Whatsoever ye do, do it HEARTILY -AS UNTO THE LORD. - - PRAYER - -From all unkind thoughts and uncharitable judgments; from all -intemperate speech and behaviour; from coldness of heart and a frigid -service, Good Lord, deliver us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_God loveth a cheerful giver._" - (2 CORINTHIANS ix. 7.) - - - XII - - A KHAKI VIRTUE - -We are proud to believe that, in the article of courage, our men are -second to none in the world. They have glorious traditions to live up -to, and they are adding to these pages--nay, a whole volume, as splendid -as any in our annals. Yet it is not of our soldiers' courage I wish to -speak. - -For we are told on all hands that there is another quality shining -brighter still these days in the trenches in France and Belgium, in -ambulance waggons and field hospitals, and in the camps at home, namely, -cheerfulness. Again and again the same tale is repeated from one -quarter or another--"our men are simply wonderful," "they treat -discomfort as a joke." They label the very instruments that deal death -among them with names that raise a smile. Nurses, doctors, and -correspondents tell us that the light-hearted way in which our soldiers -face pain and suffering and force twisted lips to smile has created a -new record for the British Army. When the story of this war is written, -and the world gets a nearer glimpse into those awful trenches, I venture -to prophesy that the quality in our countrymen which will most capture -the imagination and fill us with the greatest pride will be the gay, -undaunted cheerfulness with which they faced it all. - -Surely we who stay at home may learn something of that virtue too. For -it is worth learning. Ordinary people who only know what they like, -without knowing why they like it, have a very warm side towards the -person who, when things are grey and gloomy, can keep cheerful. They -would much rather see him come in on a dull day than a wiser man whose -wisdom was a burden to him, or even than a pious person whose piety ran -to solemnity and gloom. It is high time, indeed, that the tradition was -broken for good and all which associates moral excellence with a -funereal heaviness of manner and denies the favour of the Lord to one -who, as Goldsmith has it, "carols as he goes." - -For the blessing of God is written visibly upon the results of -cheerfulness wherever you find it. God rewards the gallant souls who -keep their colours flying through every battle, even though they have to -nail them up over a sorely damaged ship. If you want a proof that the -hopeful and cheery way of facing the rebuffs of life and tholing its -aches and disappointments is more in the line of what God expects from -His children than the doleful whining temper, you have it shown -unmistakably in the fact that the gallant unconquerable soul solves -problems, overcomes difficulties, endures pains, and wins successes -where the solemn and easily depressed would simply have given in and -lain down. You can safely prophesy that the man whom you hear singing -as he goes through the valley, like the pilgrim that Bunyan's Christian -heard, is going to get out of it safely and honourably in the end. The -Lord Himself will deliver him, as He delights to deliver all those who -face life smiling and unafraid, and meet His Fatherly discipline with a -stout heart. - -Cheerfulness, in other words, pays for oneself. But it is also a great -blessing to others. One very safe and sure way to help our fellows up -their hills is to breast our own as bravely and gaily as we can. And -the cheerfulness which heals and blesses like the breath of morning is -that which shows up against a background of cloud and trouble. Let us -all in this year of war and clean courage, register a vow that we shall -take a leaf out of our soldiers' book, and think less about our own -troubles, teach our lips to smile when things are wrong, and keep our -eyes wider open for trouble's danger signals among our friends. It's a -simple way of doing good, but a very effective one. For cheerfulness, -like mercy, is twice blessed. It blesseth him that has, and him that -sees! - - "It was only a glad Good Morning - As she passed along the way, - But it spread the morning's glory - Over the livelong day." - - -But cheerfulness needs its explanation. It implies something. A man is -not cheerful without some underlying philosophy of life to sustain him, -some pillar of faith or hope at his back. When a man faces life -dauntless and smiling, he does so because some inward and, it may even -be, unconscious faith or hope thus finds its expression. What that -faith is, different men will describe in different ways. - -But however much the descriptions vary, it all comes back to this in the -end, that the man who is living bravely and cheerfully is expressing by -his conduct at any rate his faith in the Fatherhood and good Providence -of God. He knows that "God's in His Heaven"; at any rate he believes -so. He believes that things do not just fall out by chance, but that a -Father Hand controls all, and a Father Heart cares even for the -sparrow's unheeded fall. The God who rules all makes no mistakes. - -And is not that a cardinal part of the faith which Jesus brings near to -all who are learning of Him? There are various adjectives used to -qualify the title Christian. One hears, for example, of "earnest -Christians," and earnestness is a very necessary quality, even though -one does occasionally happen upon "earnest Christians" who are rather -unlovable and irritating people. But there's another adjective, not -nearly so common--and yet it denotes a quality just as essential in -those who have taken Christ's gospel of God's Love and Fatherhood to -their hearts--namely, cheerful. A "cheerful Christian." Let us all try -to be that kind of Christian at least. - - PRAYER - -"The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns -and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with -laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us -to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting -beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the -gift of sleep. Amen." - - R. L. STEVENSON. - - - -"(Jeremiah dwelt among the -people that were left in the -land.(" - (JEREMIAH xl. 6.) - - - XIII - - THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC - -Once upon a time Jeremiah the prophet had asked for only one thing, that -he might get away from that strange cityful of perverse men to whom it -was his hard lot to be the mouthpiece of a God they were forgetting. He -was tired of them. "O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of -wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them." - -Well, time passed on. The people got no wiser, and Jeremiah's burden -certainly got no lighter. But the very chance he prayed for came. He -had a clear and honourable opportunity to go to the lodge in the -wilderness, or anywhere else he liked, away from the men who had -disowned his teaching. His work was done apparently, and he had failed. -Yet with the door standing invitingly open, see what Jeremiah did! He -"went and dwelt among the people that were left in the land." He had his -chance and he did not take it! - -We all know something of this desire to get rid of a present hard duty, -or a difficult environment, or a perplexing problem. And yet I wonder, -if the way were similarly opened up for us, how many would seize the -opportunity? I believe that the feature of such a situation would just -be the large number of us who, when it came to the pinch, would choose -as Jeremiah did, to remain where we are! Something would hold us back. - -Yet the desire itself is natural enough, and a man need neither be a -coward nor a weakling who confesses to it. The hours when the daily -round seems altogether flat and unprofitable, and when one would gladly -change places with almost anybody, are real hours in life, and it is no -shame to have known them. But between that knowledge and the actual -escape, the actual fleeing from one's post, there is a great gulf fixed -that, for very many with any high ideal of duty, is impassable. For, -though a man has known the state of mind that looks for some back door -out of a depressing situation, he has had the other experience also, the -joy of self-mastery, the keen sense of pleasure that comes to him when -he discovers that his surroundings do not count for so much as he -himself does. That experience, though it be only in memory, will stand -between a man and retreat. He has conquered before, and the thrill of -victory over material discouragements may be his again. And so, though -the way of escape be open, he will choose to remain and fight it out. - -Sometimes the mere weight of his responsibility may tempt a man to wish -that he might escape. There is a fairly well-known symptom of nervous -disease whose name signifies the fear of being shut in, when the patient -dreads the experience of being in any closed place. Sometimes a moral -panic of that kind comes to a man when he realises that he is shut in -with some duty which must be gone through with. With something of the -instinct of the trapped animal he may look round for a way of escape. - -Yet does that mean that he would take the chance deliberately, with eyes -full open to the consequences, if it were offered? I think not. - -You can apply the test to yourself. Have you ever accepted some -responsibility, and then, when the occasion came nearer, backed out of -it for no other reason than that you were afraid? If you have, you will -perhaps remember whether you felt proud of yourself, whether, beneath -the undoubted relief, there was not a good deal of quiet shame and -self-scorn. If the same thing were to happen again, you might feel the -impulse to desert, but if you remembered your former experience, you -would hardly yield to it, I imagine. - -The plain truth is that no proper man really likes a soft job. "In the -long run," says J. A. Symonds, "we really love the sternest things in -life best." And he speaks truth. There is a certain exhilaration in -the endurance of hardness. Responsibility braces most men like a shock -of cold water. What is arduous calls them as with a trumpet. And in -the general sense of quiet contempt for the person who in a panic flings -up his responsibility, we may recognise one of God's elementary checks -upon cowardice. - -There are those who are reading these words who are enduring hardness -and making sacrifices from which they might easily escape. They do at -times desire relief. But the point is that they don't take it, when it -is possible. And I say there must be some reason for this. What is it -that holds men back from the easy way when it stands open before them? - -For one thing, I think, the sense of the place that hardness and effort -and endurance play in every true life. For centuries men have climbed -up to strength of character, if at all, by ways uniformly arduous and -steep; and distrust of the primrose path, however alluring, has passed -as an instinct into our blood. In the small unheroic affairs of life we -have learned that a difficulty faced and overcome, or a duty doggedly -fulfilled, add a precious something to experience that there is no other -way of securing. The schoolboy on a hot summer day may look up from his -task, away out wistfully to the cool shade of the trees across the -playground, and wish that he were there, rather than where he is. Yet -even he knows, what we all come to learn, that that is not the road to -anything in life worth the gaining. - -Another deterring impulse is the sense of a divine vocation. Our -calling and circumstances are ordained for us by God, and we must not -quit the field till the day is done. It is He who has chosen our lot in -life and summoned us to the sphere we fill. - -We may succeed or fail as seems to Him best. Sometimes he places men, -for reasons of His own, in corners where success, as commonly measured, -is not possible. But one thing--success or failure--we must not do. We -must not shirk. We must not run away. God means us to stand fast and -do our best. For failure even, if it be honourable, He may have His -good word at the last. But to the man who has shirked life's hard -duties, not even God can say, "Well done!" - - PRAYER - -Lord of our life, and God of our salvation, make us strong to endure -hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Thou sendest no man a -warfare upon his own charges. In dependence on Thy help, grant us grace -to do each duty, as the hour and Thy will may bring it. And, with Thy -fear in our hearts, grant us deliverance from all other fears whatever. -For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_Whatsoever ye do, do all_ -_to the glory of God._" - (1 CORINTHIANS x. 31.) - - - XIV - - THE DAY'S DARG - -It is never hard to connect the presence of our Lord and Master Jesus -Christ with our Sabbaths and our hours of worship. If ever Christ comes -near us in spirit at all, we say, it is when in the quiet of the -sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to Him. The link -between our worship and our Lord is strong and obvious. But, when the -din of business shuts out all else, when the hard, toilsome duty of the -ordinary day is to be done, when we are at work amid surroundings that -have no suggestion of sacredness or of God about them--what of the link -with Christ then? It is much harder then, is it not? to imagine any -thinkable and workable connection that our Lord has with that sphere of -life, broad and extensive as it is. There are many indeed who forget -that there is any, and live as if there were none. And yet the solemn -truth is that if that link is not strong and real, we don't know what -religion means. We have hardly the right to call ourselves Christian -men and women unless we can relate our week-day labours to the fact of -Christ. - -So let us try to strengthen that link. Let us look at our daily work in -the light of religion. - -First, let me remind you that our work is by divine commandment. It is -not something that God allows us to do when we are not worshipping. It -is His ordinance that we should all work at something. The business of -life is labour of some sort. I do not know if we all realise how the -Fourth Commandment begins--"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy -work." And the man who is inexcusably idle, or who belittles his work, -even in the interest, as he thinks, of religion, is breaking this -commandment as truly as he who neglects the other half of it and -dishonours the Sabbath day. - -No one will accuse the Apostle Paul of any indifference or lukewarmness -where true religion was concerned. Yet it was this Apostle who ordered -the Thessalonians to go on with their daily occupations even though they -believed, as so many did at that time, that the Return of the Lord to -earth was just at hand. By our daily work we serve the Lord as truly as -when we gather to His worship. Let us get out of our heads, then, the -false and foolish idea that all the working part of our week is the part -at which God looks askance. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and one -of the ways of doing that is by being loyal to the duties of each hour -whatever they may be. - -Secondly, I would ask you to think of those quiet, unrecorded years of -our Lord's life on earth before His public ministry. The Gospels give -no details, but the fact is perfectly certain that up till His thirtieth -year Jesus of Nazareth worked at His trade as a carpenter. If only we -would let that fact soak into us, it would alter our whole idea of the -relation of our daily work to religion. Jesus worked Himself. - -And we have, as has been pointed out, interesting indirect proof as to -what manner of life He lived on those workaday levels that we all know -so much about. For, to this Carpenter of Nazareth there came a day -when, in Nazareth itself, He stood forth as representative of a morality -and religion higher than ever was proclaimed before. He spoke to men -about the true way to live like one having authority. And there were -many who so resented what they deemed His presumption that anything that -reflected on His claims or belittled His authority would gladly have -been seized upon and made the most of. Had there been in Nazareth a bit -of botched work of His doing, "a door of unseasoned wood or a badly made -chest," don't you think it would have been produced to discredit His -mission? If any one could have been found with whom the Carpenter had -not dealt honourably and justly, if, as He walked the streets of His -native town and lived His humble daily life in the sight of all men, -there had been anything that weakened His claim to guide and teach His -brethren, don't you think they would have found it out and taxed Him -with it? - -There was nothing of that. Jesus faced His fellows with His daily duty -behind Him, and it reinforced every word He said. His message to men -was backed up by His daily life. He spoke of religion as no other son -of man ever did, but He lived it long before He ever opened His mouth. -He brought religion down to the workshop and the street, and showed men -what it meant there. And unless He had done that, it is difficult to -conceive that His public ministry of itself would have satisfied men -that He was indeed One sent from God. - -Do you see, then, from this point of view, what a great and vital part -of religion our day's work is, and the way we do it, our life at home, -our ordinary contact with our fellow-men? It is that that gives weight -to any profession we may make. If in our daily life we are not -exhibiting our religion, nothing that we can profess or say on Sunday -will make up for that defect. It is what we are on Monday and Tuesday -that underlines and emphasises the claims we make at church on the -Sunday. Behind all our prayer and profession lies the everyday life. - -Third, our daily work is sanctified by the fact that our Lord and Master -is with us, to help and strengthen us there, as truly as when we pray. -Jesus Christ is not far away, as we so pitifully misconceive it, amid -the dust of business, when we must keep our temper and follow conscience -along the hard way and deal honourably with all men. He is near us -there also, ready and willing to help us to be true to God and man on -that road which once He trod Himself. - -There is a famous unwritten saying of Christ which puts memorably what -the Gospels likewise testify. "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me. -Cleave the wood and there am I." Christ is as near us in our daily work -as that! When Peter and his friends went a-fishing, you remember, with -heavy hearts because the Master had gone away from them, He met them by -the lake as they plied their ordinary calling. So does He wait, my -brother, to meet you and me wherever the duty of the hour may take us. -For our working life is not outside of His interest nor out with His -care and guidance. With reverent imagination Van Dyke has seemed to -hear the Christ speak thus--and the words may perhaps further weld the -link for some of us between our everyday duty and the Christ whom we -worship and seek to serve: - - "They who tread the path of labour follow where My feet have - trod; - They who work without complaining do the holy will of God. - Where the many toil together, there am I among my own; - Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with Him alone. - I, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell amid the daily - strife, - I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the sacrament of life. - Every task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free, - Every deed of love and mercy done to man is done to Me. - Nevermore thou needest seek Me; I am with thee everywhere-- - Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and I am - there." - - - PRAYER - -Our Lord and Master, whose command it is that we do with our whole heart -whatsoever our hand findeth to do, grant that we may so yield and -surrender ourselves, body, mind and spirit, unto Thee, that even in the -common business of each ordinary day we may serve Thee and glorify Thy -great Name. Amen. - - - -"_Gashmu saith it._" - (NEHEMIAH vi. 6.) - - - XV - - GASHMU THE GOSSIP - -Gashmu is a mere name in Scripture. He is mentioned only three -times--twice as acting with Sanballat against Nehemiah, and once as the -authority for a false piece of news. It is reported, wrote Sanballat in -a cruel letter to Nehemiah, that you are plotting against the king, and -"Gashmu saith it." That is what Gashmu stands for in Scripture, a -tale-bearer, a slanderer, a gossip. What an unenviable immortality to -be remembered only as the pedlar of a tale he knew to be untrue! - -As long as we live together in society, there will be a kind of gossip -that is inevitable, the kindly or merely casual relation of small and -insignificant matters of fact, as that the painters are in next door, or -that Mrs So-and-So has got a new bonnet. It is not of that I want to -speak. - -For there is another sort as deadly as the plague, and in civilised -countries the cruellest and most devilish instrument that one man or -woman can use against another. And that is the inventing of an untrue -report about a man's doings or character, or the unthinking repetition -of the same. That is the pestilence that walketh in darkness; that is -the destruction that wasteth at noonday. And I wish I had the pen to -write of it as it deserves. - -It is very, very common. We are all too ready to repeat what we have -heard, with a "Gashmu saith it," as if that certified the tale correct. -And the harm done is simply incalculable. If my house is burned or I -lose my money, I can still get along by the kindness of my friends for a -little, till I find my feet again. But whoever by some lying story -takes away my character, deals me a blow from which there is no -recovering, which my loyalest friends can do nothing to avert. I have -no redress, no compensation, and no help. Any one may be a victim, and -you and I, by thoughtlessly passing on the deadly thing, may all -unconsciously be driving another nail into a man's coffin. - -Did you ever lie awake at night and think that even now the cancer may -have begun on YOUR good name, that whispers may be going about among -your friends concerning you? Those who know you will hear it, and will -say, It's a lie! But that won't stop it. And you will never know till -some day you waken up and find that your reputation is in danger. And -not one word or vestige of truth may be in it. It may be a lie pure and -simple, or a colourable counterfeit of some quite innocent truth. That -won't make any difference. It is enough merely to start it, and, like a -stone thrown down an Alpine slope, it gathers others in its train, till -an avalanche swoops down on some unsuspecting head. - -When King Arthur enrolled his Knights of the Round Table, he made them -take the oath to "speak no slander." And there is a knightly chivalry -of speech which ought to be the mark of all those who have promised -fealty to Jesus Christ. Our discipleship of Jesus demands of us the -high endeavour to love our neighbour as ourselves, and that presupposes, -as one of its consequences, that we guard his name against false witness -as carefully as we protect our own. If we hear a good story about some -one, a report that is to his credit and honour, let us blazon that -abroad. We are all far too slow at that, and somehow the tale that is a -little damaging has a far easier and more rapid circulation. Might we -not make more of our brother's successes? Might we not oftener repeat -about him what he is too modest ever to say about himself? It were a -true and kindly Christian act. But never, as we call ourselves servants -of Christ, never do our brother such a grievous irreparable wrong as to -start about him a tale which may not be true. God can and will forgive -you your sins of speech. But even He cannot make clean the character -which a foolish word has sullied. - -King Arthur went further, however, than demanding that his knights -should speak no slander. Their vow included the words, "no, nor listen -to it." And that is a high and difficult course to keep. It is not -easy, when you are being told of something that is striking or -sensational of a merely gossipy character, to stop the conversation and -lead it into other channels. It requires great courage and as great -tact. But how many of us ever try it? - -If, however, the refusal to listen be regarded as a counsel of -perfection, there remains yet the further injunction--never REPEAT the -gossip you have heard. That at least is homely and possible. - -We used to read in our book of Fables of the lamb that noticed this -significant thing about the track that led to the lion's den--that all -the footprints pointed inwards, but there were none returning. "Vestigia -nulla retrorsum." No footprints backwards. It would be a good motto -for us all. Let the stories, the ill-humoured, unkind, uncharitable -sayings that float and wander about everywhere, let them come to us as -they will, but let the traces end there. Be such a person that men may -trace a story from its source down the chain TO you, but never PAST you. - -We can do that much at least for our friends. All about us is the -constant, unquiet drift of gossip and distorted half-truth, as restless -as the sand in the desert, dancing and whirling with every puff of wind. -We can do something to arrest that drift. We can be for our friends in -some measure what Isaiah said that God's Servant, when He came, should -be, the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land, stopping the drift of -the sand, and sheltering our friends by our loyalty and our silence. - -Don't even repeat the gossip that comes to you, not only for the strong -reason already given, but also for this little one, that you won't -likely repeat it correctly. With all the will in the world, it is one -of the hardest things to retail a story just exactly as you heard it. -Sir Walter Scott, speaking about anecdotes that he had heard, said he -always liked to cock up their bonnets a bit and put a staff in their -hands that they might walk on a little brisker and sprightlier than when -they came to him! But we all do that, without meaning to do it at all. -We add a little bit. We exaggerate just the tiniest fraction, and our -hearer when he repeats the story does the same, and so the matter grows -till it is big enough to do much mischief. - - "A Whisper broke the air, - A soft light tone and low, - Yet barbed with shame and woe. - Now, might it only perish there, - Nor further go! - - Ah me! A quick and eager ear - Caught up the little meaning sound; - Another voice has breathed it clear, - And so it wandered round, - From ear to lip, from lip to ear, - Until it reached a gentle heart, - And that--it broke." - - -There is a legend that once a king avoided death in a poisoned cup that -had been handed to him by making over it the sign of the Cross--when it -broke in pieces at his feet. Let us, when we are tempted to retail the -vivid, poisonous piece of scandal, stop and invoke the Spirit of Christ. -Is this that I am going to say about my brother the kind of thing I -should say if Christ were standing by? Am I justified in turning over -that bit of gossip which may be true, but which ought not to be true? -Our duty, who profess and call ourselves Christians, is clear. We are -to speak no slander no, nor listen to it. We are to retail evil about -no man. We are to love one another. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, whose command it is that we love our neighbour as -ourselves, help us to cherish and protect his good name as carefully as -we guard our own. Make us more willing to repeat the good about him, -but slower to retail or exaggerate the evil. Grant us all a deeper -sense of the deadly wrong a foolish tongue can work, and keep Thou the -door of our lips. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_Thou preventest him with_ -_the blessings of goodness._" - (PSALM xxi. 3.) - - - XVI - - GOD IN FRONT - -You know how, in a happy home, the near approach of a birthday is -signalised, how parcels are mysteriously smuggled in and hidden in -secret places, and, though everything seems to be going on as usual, yet -the plans are being laid in train that will surprise and delight the -fortunate owner of the birthday when the festal day dawns. That is our -feeble, human way of trying to surprise one another with the blessings -of goodness. That is how we "prevent" our beloved with tokens of our -remembrance. So, says the Psalmist, does God deal with us. Not only -have we--what we so much need--His forgiveness of our past, and His help -and presence for the day which now is; He is working for us in the -future too, sowing the days to come with blessings for us to pick up -when the passage of time brings us to the places where He has hidden -them. - -The idea that God has been beforehand in our history, getting ready, as -it were, for our coming, though not a very usual one, is very helpful, -and it finds abundant illustration and proof in all directions. When a -child arrives on this earth, he enters into the enjoyment of bounties -and blessings prepared, not merely weeks, but literally ages before his -coming. Warmth he needs, and aeons ago the coal beds were formed in the -bowels of the earth. Food he needs, and God "laboured for ages," as Sir -Oliver Lodge puts it, to bring corn into existence. For corn needs -soil, and, to make that, the Creator had to set the glaciers grinding -over the granite, and to loosen the forces of rain and frost and running -water over great stretches of time. - -Every child born into the world becomes the heir of all the ages past. -What blessings have been prepared for most of us, in advance, in the -homes into which we were born, and the gracious influences under which -we have grown up! "I have to thank the gods," says Marcus Aurelius the -pagan Emperor, "that my grandfathers, parents, sisters, preceptors, -relations, friends and domestics were almost all of them persons of -probity." "I have to thank the gods." Who else is there to thank but -God who prevents us in this way with the blessings of goodness? God is -working beforehand in our interest in all these things. So, when we -awaken to a sense of Him, there is His Church, established of old, -awaiting to take us by the hand and help us on our way. When we learn -our need of a Saviour, behold Christ stands at the door and knocks. -When, in penitence of heart, we ask God's mercy, we learn that, long -since, it was laid up in store for us. Before we thought of loving God, -He first loved us, and gave Himself for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Is -it not gloriously true all the way along that God has been beforehand -with His goodness? - -And that, of course, is the explanation of all the glad surprises of -life. The Lord has prepared them for us beforehand. He has sown the -future with good things and watched our surprise as we picked them up. -When Mary Mardon and her father, in Mark Rutherford's "Autobiography," -went to the seaside to look for lodgings they saw a dismal row of very -plain-looking houses. Mary objected instinctively to the dull street, -but her father said he could not afford to pay for a sea view, so they -went in to inquire. To their delight they found that what they thought -were the fronts of the houses were really the backs, for the real fronts -faced the bay, had pretty gardens before the doors, and a glorious sunny -prospect over the ocean. Isn't that what we often find to be the case? -Our most treasured friends are not always those whom we fall in love -with at first sight. The thing we greatly fear dissolves like mist. An -envied, but despaired-of, blessing is flung into our lap. A door of -splendid hope opens in a dead wall. Life is full of the unexpected as -if wonder were one of the things God wanted very much to keep alive in -us. When, as you think, everything has been exhausted, God surprises -you with a fresh gladness. And, aback of all, there is the unending -surprise of God's patience with us, and of that daily mercy of His, -which we so ill requite, and so often forget. - -Of course, no one dreams of suggesting that all our surprises are of a -happy sort. It is not so. But the point is that if it is God who has -hidden the blessings for us to come upon, it is He also who has hidden -the other things. God's hand does not slip so that we get the wrong -parcel by accident. He prevents us also with the blessings that we do -not call by that name at all. In his Lay Sermons, Huxley, describing -the tadpole in its slimy cradle, says: "After watching the process hour -after hour, one is almost possessed by the notion that some more subtle -aid to vision than an achromatic object-glass would show the hidden -artist with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to -perfect his work." If, in that wonderful fashion, God is working -beforehand according to a plan of His own, in the life of a tadpole, is -it not much more likely that He is so working in your life and mine, not -in its joys only, but also in its dark hours and its sorrows? That, -indeed, is the very message and comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ, that -not even a sparrow falleth to the ground--calamity indeed for the -sparrow--without our Father. - -If it be true that God our Father is working in advance of us all the -time, then surely it is wrong to speak of the monotony of life? For we -are on a road which God Himself has sown with surprises for us, and the -hour of our deadliest weariness may be the immediate percursor of our -richest and most joyous find. Who could have supposed, at the end of -the eighteenth century, when poetry in England seemed dead, that a great -galaxy of stars--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats--was on -the very eve of rising? The unexpected can always happen. You may come -upon another of God's hidden blessings to-morrow. Let us not talk of -monotony, therefore, in an age which has seen so many wonderful things -happen. Rather let us hold to the faith that all the while God is going -before us with the blessings of goodness. - -This faith puts another complexion on all our fears and forebodings. -Before we live it, the web of our life passes through God's hands. And -the shaded parts, as well as the bright parts, are in His wise and -loving design. Nobody can promise us freedom from sorrow, but the Bible -promises that God is beforehand to make the sorrow bearable. He has -adjusted our temptations to our strength, and never a one has He hidden, -where we come upon it, that it is impossible for us by His help to -withstand. Before the mother puts her little child into his hot bath at -night, she tests the water first with her fingers. And the Psalmist -means us to believe that life comes to us from God, who has measured and -adapted it for us, beforehand, in a like fashion. - -Viewed in the light of this faith, Death itself takes on a different -aspect. Oliver Wendell Holmes has suggested that the story of this life -and the next can be fully written in two strokes of the pen, an -interrogation-point, and, above it, a mark of exclamation--fear and -question here below, and, above, adoration, wonder, surprise. "I go to -prepare a place for you," said Christ to His disciples. If the -preparation for us here is so wonderful, is it likely to fail yonder? If -Love made ready for us here, shall it not be beforehand there too? Yea, -verily. Our experience of how God prevents us here with His loving -kindness ought to strengthen in us all the "faith of our Lord Jesus -Christ, and the saint's trust in every age, that when we pass hence it -will be to meet the grandest, the most blessed, and the most surprising -provision of all." - - PRAYER - -Our Father in Heaven, we shall not be afraid of what life may hold for -us when we have learned that our little web has first passed through Thy -merciful and loving hands. We have often prayed that Thou wouldest go -with us; but Thou hast answered us beyond our asking, for Thou goest -before us all. In the faith of that leading, make us to journey bravely -and to sleep secure. Amen. - - - -"_Fight the good fight of faith._" - (1 TIMOTHY vi. 12.) - - - XVII - - "UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET" - -We are often told that this is not an age of faith, that the day of the -beautiful, old, simple acquiescence is past, whether it ever comes again -or not. Some one has wittily suggested that the coat of arms of the -present age is "an interrogation-point rampant, above three bishops -dormant, and the motto 'Query.'" But, like a great many more witty -things, that saying leaves one questioning whether, after all, it be -really true. I venture, for my part, to assert that a great many more -people are really interested in this matter of faith than most of us -imagine. There is something that haunts men as with a sense of hidden -treasure about this wonderful thing in life called Faith, that always -seems to be going to disappear, and yet somehow does not. With a -strange, wistful persistence men linger about this pool, though there -are many to tell them that the "desired angel bathes no more." - -I wish to speak a word of encouragement to-day to all who are finding -faith hard. "Fight the good fight of faith," says Paul to his young -friend, Timothy. Fight. I want to remind you that faith often implies -effort, that there is nothing in the idea of faith which is incompatible -with struggle, that the very form of Paul's advice implies an -antagonism. - -It is true that many think of the "faith of the saints" as a quiet, -contented habit of gentle acquiescence, a sweet and beautiful state of -mind very far removed from the restless, questioning, analytic temper of -the man of to-day. Now, I do not say that faith is never seen now in -that placid form, but I do say that that was not the type Paul had in -mind when he wrote Timothy, it is not the figure which best described -his own faith, and it is certainly not the aspect he would require to -deal with, were he writing to the men of to-day. - -For they are only too conscious of much inward suspense of judgment and -uncertainty concerning many things in Heaven and earth. And that inward -conflict seems to many of them a sign that faith is waning, if not dead. -They have forgotten that it is that very sense of inward conflict which -proves that faith is not dead. Dead things do not offer any resistance. -We ought by this time to have learned that a thing "may be for us an -intellectual puzzle, and yet a sheer spiritual necessity," and that the -Christian faith is, for every soul who has once caught it. There are a -great many earnest and honest men to whom it is the best of news that -Christian faith is not incompatible with very grave perplexities. The -real opposite of faith is not doubt, as so many suppose, but deliberate -and satisfied denial. Faith can live in the same life along with very -many doubts--as a matter of fact, in the case of not a few of the most -Christ-like men of our time, it is living beside them constantly. Paul -assures us that outside of him he found fightings and within him he -found fears. Yet he kept the faith for all that. They start up on all -sides, these spectres of the mind and reason, and they ask questions -which a man cannot answer. Yet Faith may be dwelling in his life in -very deed and truth, because faith is something more than the sum of all -his beliefs. It is the whole conscious and deliberate set and desire of -his being. - -It is a well-known fact that a man may be truly courageous, acting, -speaking, thinking bravely at the very moment when panic fears are -gripping his heart. I like that fine old story of the soldier advancing -into the fire zone with steady step, and taunted by a comrade for his -pale face. "You're afraid," said the other. "I know I am afraid," said -he, "and if you felt half as much afraid as I do, you would turn and -flee." It is the very finest courage that dominates and controls a -sensitive organisation, and holds the shrinking other-half to its -purpose with firm grip. Just so is it with faith. A man keeps his -course, lifts up his eyes to the hills, lives for God and His Christ, -prays on, struggles on, and hopes for the home beyond the edge of life, -while often enough his mind is full of questioning and the puzzle of -God's deep mysteries. For faith is not what the intellect says merely. -It is what the whole man is struggling and trying to say. - - "With me, faith means perpetual unbelief - Kept quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot, - Who stands calm just because he feels it writhe." - -Don't do yourself the wrong of thinking that faith has vanished because -the snake is felt to be writhing. "Perpetual unbelief kept quiet." Yes, -but what keeps the clamouring doubts and fears under foot? Just -yourself, just your highest self, the bit of you made for God, and -unable to do without Him! Faith is the vote of the whole man, of the -best of the man, in the face of a protesting minority. In other words, -fight is a splendid word to use in speaking about faith. - -Let a man ask himself--Does he really wish that the best he has dreamed -or heard about God and His love for men, His passion to deliver them -from evil, and His pity and nearness to us all in Jesus Christ His -Son--does he wish all that to be true? No man is without faith who does -wish that, and is living in the direction of his desire. In that man's -life who, despite all the clamour and philosophy of Babylon, is keeping -his window open towards where he believes Jerusalem to be, there is that -vital element of faith that is linking his life to God even now, and -will bring him where he would be at last. - -I do not think that the prodigal was at all sure of the welcome that -awaited him. Probably his mind, as he limped along in his rags, was -full of misgivings and fears. But the father hailed him as his son -whenever he saw afar off that the lad's face was set for home. I do not -imagine our Father will concern Himself very much about the gaps in our -creed if only our faces are turned homewards and towards Him. Let the -man I have tried to speak to be of good courage, and fight on with a -stout heart. Faith is not sight. It may not even be assurance, may be -only hope and longing, and a reaching towards the Highest. But I firmly -believe that no man, even though he may fall on the way home, and before -he knows of his welcome, I believe that no man shall be cast out at the -last, whose arms, as he fell, were outstretched in desire to God. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, Author and Finisher of our faith, help us with all our -strength to fight the good fight. When our defence is being broken, do -Thou garrison our souls, O God, that we may be able to stand in the evil -day, and, having done all, to stand. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. -Amen. - - - -"_The joy of the Lord is your strength._" - (NEHEMIAH viii. 10.) - - - XVIII - - THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY - -Let us talk about joy, and especially that kind of it of which Nehemiah -was thinking when he said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." It -is strange that while practically everybody would agree as to the -wholesomeness and the duty of joy in the ordinary sense of the term, to -add the words "of the Lord" to it, seems, to some, completely to alter -its character and in fact to spoil it, to turn it into an unreal sort of -joy which is not true joy at all. - -I wish emphatically to protest against such a conception of religious -joy as an injustice to the Father Love of God. The joy of the Lord, as -I understand it, is not different in quality from wholesome human -gladness, it is, in fact, just that gladness deepened and sanctified by -the sense of God, and the knowledge of Him brought to us by Jesus Christ -our Lord. There is not a single innocent and pure source of gladness -open to men and women on this earth but is made to taste sweeter when -they have opened their hearts to the love of God. It is the very crown -of happy living that is reached when a man can say, "My Lord and my -God." Once I have dared to accept the wonderful truth that even for me -the Eternal Father has His place and His plan and His care, every -simplest happiness, every common joy of living, every delight in the -beauty of the world and the pleasures of home and work and -friendship--every one of these takes on a keener edge. It is a -pestilent heresy to declare that a Christian ought to walk through life -like a man with a hidden sickness. On the contrary, there is no one who -has a better right to be joyous and happy-hearted. Do you think it is -for nothing that the "joy of our salvation" is a Bible phrase? And -shall we believe that that salvation is ours and not be mighty glad -about it all the time? What is the good of translating "Gospel" as -"good news" and at the same time living as if religion were a bondage -and a burden grievous to be borne? Of all the strange twists of human -convention, it is surely the strangest to allow ordinary human joy to be -happy and cheerful, and to insist that those whose joy is in the Lord -should pull a long face, and forswear laughter, and crawl along -dolefully as if to the sound of some dirge! The "morning face and the -morning heart" belong of right to the truly religious, and no one ought -to be gladder, come what may, than the man who has made the highest and -best disposal of his little life that any one can make, namely, -surrendered it in faith and obedience to his Lord. - -A gloomy, ponderous, stiff religion which looks askance at innocent -merriment and is afraid to pull a long breath of enjoyment has the mark -of "damaged goods" on it somehow, and no one will take it off your -hands. It is not catching, and certainly your children will never catch -it. It is said to be a good test of a religion that it can be preached -at a street corner. But I know a better test than that. Preach it to a -child. Set him in the midst of those who profess it. If their religion -frightens him, freezes the smiles on his lips, and destroys his -happiness, depend upon it, whatever sort of religion it be, it lacks the -essential winsomeness of the religion of Jesus Christ. - -I need not say, of course, that I am not pleading for a more hilarious -religious life. And, equally of course, empty frivolity, and the cult -of the continual grin are insufferable things to endure either in the -name of religion or anything else. Not by a single word would I lessen -the condemnation which such aberrations deserve. But I do say, and with -all my heart I believe that a deep, abiding well-spring of -happiness--which our author calls the "joy of the Lord"--is of the very -essence of true religion, and is indeed, what he asserts it, actually -our strength. Actually our strength. Let us be quite clear about that. - -The man in whose heart there dwells this best of all joys is a strength -to other people. We don't need any one to prove that to us, I imagine. -We have all been helped and revived many a time merely by contact with -some hearty cheerful soul. Who, for example, that had his choice, would -elect for his family physician a man with a doleful air? Have we not -all found that a doctor's cheery manner was as potent a medicine as any -drug that he called by a Latin name? Ay, and even when we are in -trouble, and our hearts are sad and sore, I think we would all rather -see the friend whose faith in God showed in a brave and buoyant outlook -than one whose religion was of the dowie and despondent sort. - -I have heard it said of an employee who had the gift of the joyous heart -that the twinkle of his eyes was worth 100 a year to his firm. I could -easily believe it, though the money value might well have been set at -any figure, seeing that the thing itself is really priceless. Did not -the most famous modern apostle of the duty of happiness--himself a -signal proof that joy is something more than the mere easy overflow of -health and animal spirits--did not Stevenson declare that "by being -happy we sow anonymous benefits," and that "the entrance of such a -person into a room is as if another candle had been lighted?" I take it -the proof is ample that a joyous heart is a strength to others. - -But more, it is a strength to oneself. That may not be so obvious, and -yet the result here is even more certain. Ordinary experience tells us -that joy is good for us, that depression and gloom work us bodily harm. -But from one province of scientific study especially there has come a -wonderful array of evidence that makes it as certain as any fact can be -that the happy states of mind do literally add to our strength in quite -measurable directions. There is, in strict fact, no tonic in all the -world like gladness. - -That being so, joy, and especially the best kind of it of which Nehemiah -speaks, is not a luxury, not a condition you may legitimately cherish if -you are fortunate enough to possess it. It is a sheer necessity. You -can't do without it. Even to meet your sorrows, even to gird you for -service, even to run your race without fainting, you need the joy of the -Lord, which is strength. And since the Father has stored up such an -abundant supply of it in this world of His, since it is knocking at our -doors every day, and only our distrust and suspicion keep it outside, we -know what to do to secure this good gift of God. We have only to open -our doors to let it in, and give it room. - - "So take Joy home - And make a place in thy great heart for her, - And give her time to grow, and cherish her, - Then will she come and oft will sing to thee - When thou art working in the furrows--ay, - Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. - It is a comely fashion to be glad-- - Joy is the grace we say to God." - - - PRAYER - -Help us, O God, beyond our poor and forgetful thanksgiving, to show -forth the praise of Thy loving kindness by our joy and gladness. For -Thy great grace and mercy toward us, and for all the gifts of Thy -sleepless Providence, we offer Thee the joy of our hearts. Accept our -offering, we beseech Thee; forgive its scant measure, and teach us to be -glad in Thee. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_The God of Jacob is our refuge._" - (PSALM xlvi. 11.) - - - XIX - - THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN - -There is a phrase which echoes through the Old Testament like the -refrain of some solemn music--the "God of Jacob." "The God of Jacob," -says the 46th Psalmist, "is our refuge." Yet when you think of it, it -is a strange title. The "God of Abraham" you can understand, for -Abraham was a great and faithful soul. And the "God of Isaac," also, -for Isaac was a saint. But the "God of Jacob" is a combination of ideas -of a very different sort. For though, by God's grace, Jacob became a -saint in the end, it took much discipline and trouble to mould him into -a true godliness. And, for the greater part of his life, and many of -his appearances on the stage of Scripture, his actions and ideals are -not such as to make us admire him very passionately. We like Esau for -all his faults, but we do not like Jacob for all his virtues. There is -something cold and calculating about Jacob that repels affection. For -all his religion, the Jacob of the earlier chapters is a mean soul, -successful but unscrupulous, pious but not straight, spiritually-minded -but not lovable. And yet the Almighty condescends to be known as the -God of Jacob, and the Bible loves that name for God! - -What does that say to you? To me it says this--and I think we all need -to learn it--that God is the God even of unlovable people! That even -unlovable people have a God! That the Lord is very gracious to sinners, -we all rejoice to believe, for that is the Evangel of Jesus, and He -Himself was found practising it even among the waifs and outcasts of -society. But that unlovable people have a God, too, is actually harder -for us to realise, for the plain fact is that unlovable, disagreeable -people irritate and annoy us more even than the sinners. If you -question that, just analyse your attitude to the Prodigal in our Lord's -wonderful story, compared with that toward his respectable, cold-hearted -and priggish elder brother. The brother irritates us. We call him, -with some heat, as Henry Drummond did, a baby, and we want to shake him. -But we never want to shake the prodigal. - -Now, we all have, on our list of acquaintances, people whom we have -labelled disagreeable, who continually rub us the wrong way, as we put -it. There is the man who is always talking about himself, and is filled -with conceit like a bladder with air. "There is the man," says Hazlitt -in one of his Essays, "who asks you fifty questions as to the commonest -things you advance, and, you would sooner pardon a fellow who held a -pistol at your breast and demanded your money." There is the -ill-tempered, sulky person, and the grumbling, whining, dolorous soul -never without an ache or a grievance. So we can all draw up our own -private "Index Expurgatorius" of the people we bar or dislike. We say -these people are unlovable. - -And, since the corruption of the best is the worst, we are agreed that -the most unlovable of all types is the religious undesirable, the smug, -unctuous, oily person, for example, whose sincerity is continually in -question, the narrow, intolerant, little soul who cannot see any sort of -truth or righteousness except his own, or the prim and pious man who is -cocksure of his interest in the life to come, but is not straight in the -affairs of the life which now is. There are others, but enumeration is -not a very profitable or a pleasant task. Take them all together, -gather them in a crowd in your memory, and then set yourself this -exercise for your sanctification and growth in grace. Realise that the -Lord your God is the God also of these unlovable people. Get that idea -thoroughly into your heart, and say it to yourself, if need be, many -times a day. These people look up to Him in worship just as you do. -They have their sacred hours in His presence just as you have. There is -nothing you look for to God, that they do not seek, too, from Him. They -are not of a different order from you, but the same order. And though -you do not love them, God does. Though they are outside of your circle, -they are not outside of His. The God of Jacob is their God. And -therein lies for them, as it did for Jacob, the hope and promise of -better things to come. - -If we remembered that, should we not be more patient and forbearing with -them than we are, keener to look for the best in them, and to make the -best of them than we are? Just to think of what is meant by the "God of -Jacob" is to set our sharp and bitter judgments of others over against -the infinitely tender compassion and patience and longsuffering of God. -All the wonder of the divine grace is hidden in the phrase. And this is -the wonder--that God never grows tired even of disagreeable people. He -does not give up caring even for the unlovable. But oh! what poor sons -and daughters of the Lord Almighty _we_ are, with our quick, rash final -judgments and our hard, unbrotherly hearts! - -Did you ever ask yourself what some of these unlovable people are doing, -the while you and I are telling each other how impossible and unlovable -they are? George Eliot suggests it somewhere thus:--"While we are -coldly discussing a man's career, sneering at his mistakes, and -labelling his opinions 'Evangelical and narrow' or 'Latitudinarian and -pantheistic,' or 'Anglican and supercilious,' that man in his solitude -is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one, -because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult -word and do the difficult deed." Ah, yes, it's a mercy that there is a -God even for unlovable people! - -But there is a question that has been waiting all this time, and we must -ask it before we close. _What about ourselves, you and me_? Are we -such lovable people that we can afford to judge others? Do we never rub -our friends the wrong way, and, without meaning it, annoy and disappoint -and repel them? Are _our_ religious profession and our daily practice -so very much in keeping that we may talk about prigs and self-righteous -people as if they belonged to an entirely different world? May I speak -for you all and say humbly "No"? No, God knows they are not! The fact -is that if we know ourselves at all well, we must be aware that we have -it in us to be quite as disagreeable and selfish and self-righteous as -anybody. It is only our best beloved who do not get tired of us, and -sometimes even they must be hard put to it. - -But there is a blessed Gospel for those who have made that discovery -about themselves. There is a God of Jacob. Abraham is too high for us, -and Isaac is too saintly, but Jacob, faulty, disappointing, unlovable, -yet by God's grace redeemed and perfected at last, Jacob is the man for -us! The hope and comfort of all who have learned what they really are -is that "the God of Jacob is our refuge." - - PRAYER - -Bring us, we pray Thee, O God, into a truer knowledge of ourselves. Make -us to learn how frail we are, how poor and blind and naked; to the end -we may regard with due charity the shortcomings of others, and may -worthily praise Thy great Mercy, who yet hast not turned away Thy face -from us. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_Elijah went a day's journey_ -_into the wilderness, and came_ -_and sat under a juniper tree, and_ -_requested for himself that he_ -_might die._" - (1 KINGS xix. 4.) - - - XX - - UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE - -A well-known writer relates that, when passing through Edinburgh once, -he saw a procession of Friendly Societies, and observed on one of the -banners the name emblazoned, The Order of the Juniper Tree. His comment -is:--"Many of us belong to that order." So we do. And, because of -that, we can diagnose Elijah's trouble quite accurately. He is -suffering, as we have all suffered at some time or other, from the pains -and penalties of reaction. Just because he had climbed to a height -almost superhuman, the reaction when it came was very black and -terrible. The Bible is too wise and too true to human nature to conceal -the fact that for his hour of splendid daring, Elijah had his price to -pay. - -It's a commonplace, of course, but just one of those commonplaces which -in the bulk spell wisdom, that there was a physical reason for this -condition. To put it plainly, Elijah was tired out. He had been using -up his physical and nervous energy at such a ruinous rate during the -past few hours, that he had overdrawn his account. It strikes one as a -very significant fact that when God's angel took the prophet in hand, -the first thing he did was to provide him with a meal. Elijah was -actually on his way back to his normal condition when he had had -something to eat. - -That is not a mere incident in the story. It is exceedingly important, -because, sometimes the religious depression with which we are acquainted -arises in a similar way. It is a very useful fact to remember that a -man's whole religious outlook is coloured by the condition of his -health. We may be slow to admit such a low and material cause for -effects so apparently spiritual. But it is a fact all the same. And it -is only wise to recognise it. - -But Elijah's reaction was not entirely or even mainly physical in its -origin. He had been in a very exalted spiritual condition during the -contest on Carmel. Think what the man had done! He had stood alone in -the path of a whole nation rioting down to idolatry and shamelessness, -and with voice and presence and fire from Heaven had stopped and turned -them, driven the huddled, frightened sheep back again to the ways and -the worship of God. Was it to be wondered at that his very soul within -him was faint under the strain? - -Though the vision and the privileges of the hill-top are what the best -men covet most, it is but little of it at a time that any one can stand. -Do you remember that Jesus would not let Peter and James and John remain -long on the Mount of the Transfiguration, even though they wanted to -build tabernacles and dwell there? There have been few greater -spiritual experts than John Bunyan, and when he has described how his -pilgrim fared in the Palace Beautiful, how he slept in a chamber called -Peace, how he saw afar off the Delectable Land, whither he was -journeying, where does he take him next? Straight down into the Valley -of Humiliation, where he has to fight for his life against the darts of -the Evil One flying as thick as hail! - -There is no cure for reaction, of course, but there are one or two rules -which experience has proved to be helpful. - -For example, it is never a wise thing, when you are depressed, to -attempt to form any judgment about yourself, your service, or your -standing in the sight of God. By some Satanic impulse, that is the very -time, of course, when you will be tempted to do it. It may appear a -very wholesome spiritual exercise when you have gone a day's journey -into the wilderness and are faint, to reckon up what manner of man and -disciple of Christ you are. But don't do it then. Nobody sees truly -either himself or God, under a juniper tree. - -And then, if possible, do not speak about your despondency. Don't -express your mood outwardly at all, if you can help it. Bottle it up if -you can, and you will starve it all the sooner. His biographer relates -of the late Ian Maclaren that, like many people who have Celtic blood in -their veins, he was subject to curious fits of depression and gloom -which did not seem to be in any way connected with bodily health. "But," -he goes on to say, "he never inflicted his melancholy moods on his -family, was only very quiet and absorbed, and kept more closely to his -study. In a day or two he would emerge again, like a man coming out -into the sunshine." - -And lastly. Once a man has sworn himself a disciple and soldier of -Jesus Christ, neither doubt nor depression, neither darkness nor -reaction absolves him from the obligation to follow and to serve when he -is called. It must be confessed that it is an undue sense of the -importance of our own feelings that makes the juniper-tree-mood the -peril and hindrance that it is. We need to remember that the call of -Christ overrides personal feelings. In His army too, there is -discipline to be thought of, and "it is not soldierly to skulk." When -the bugle calls to action, nobody but a coward would make the fact that -he is not feeling quite up to the mark, an excuse for sitting still. -Reaction is a natural thing, but cowardice is always shameful. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, we bless Thee for the comfort of Thy perfect knowledge -of us. We are glad to think that Thou knowest our frame and rememberest -that we are dust. Make us more wise to bring the burden of our moods of -darkness and reaction to the footstool of Thy perfect understanding; but -save us, we beseech Thee, from all yielding in the long fight against -them. Seeing that Thy grace is sufficient for us and Thy strength made -perfect in our weakness, grant us a godly fear of all unmanly surrender. -For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_If any man will do his will_ -_he shall know of the doctrine._" - (JOHN vii. 17.) - - - XXI - - INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY - -When John Wesley was on his way home from Georgia, he wrote this record -of the voyage in his Journal:--"Being sorrowful and very heavy (though I -could give no particular reason for it) and utterly unwilling to speak -close to any of my little flock (about twenty persons), I was in doubt -whether my own neglect of them was not one cause of my heaviness. In the -evening, therefore, I began instructing the cabin boy, after which I was -much easier." - -This is a significant passage for various reasons. For one thing, it -lets us see that even a spiritual genius like Wesley sometimes fell into -the mood of doubt. And, for another, it shows how, almost by accident, -as it seems, he found a cure for his trouble. It is plain that religion -just then had lost its savour for the great evangelist. The joy had gone -out of his service and the power from his prayers, and he was not sure -of anything at all. This is practical doubt, the only serious kind -there is. "Being sorrowful and very heavy and very unwilling." - -There are not a few men and women whose trouble this is. They are in -straits to know what is really God's truth. They greatly desire to lay -hold of it surely for themselves. The tremendous earnestness of those -who have found the old dogmas unsatisfying, and are adrift again in a -twentieth century search for God, is one of the most significant -features of the situation. Can a man really come in touch with God? -they ask. Is there a living Christ whose presence redeems men from evil -and can lift them up to what they long to be? Is there a life with God -which even Death cannot end? And those who are in such deep earnest to -know God vitally for themselves, are sorrowful and heavy indeed to find -that all their thinking and reading and inquiry do so little for them. -They pray for light, and examine all the evidence with a wistful -eagerness, but the clouds still lie around them, and they are still -wandering, now in this direction, now in that, like men lost in a mist. - -Is there no way out of this tangle? Yes, there is. To all who are -sorrowful and heavy because they know so little they can call their own -about God and spiritual living, I want to say, There is a way forward, a -safe, sure way. It is the way that Wesley stumbled upon. "I began -instructing the cabin boy." That is the way for you and me to a fuller -experience of God. - -That is the simple solution which so many thousands of us have -overlooked, and it was the discovery of Jesus Christ. When asked how He -knew about God, He answered that it was because He was doing God's will, -and He added, If any man, no matter who, no matter what his doubts be, -if any man be willing to do God's will, where, and as, it is clear to -him, he too shall know. God will not leave him in ignorance of what is -really essential. - -Nowhere, except in the Bible, do you find such a method of learning -recommended. From nobody but Christ could such a precept come, for it -is clean contrary to all that we know about learning in other spheres. -Study and you will know, think, investigate, ask questions--that, we can -understand. That is how knowledge comes to us in the realms with which -we are acquainted. But when men asked Christ how they could learn God's -truth for themselves, He said, First of all you must obey it. Do, and -you will know. - -You remember the lepers whom Christ touched, of whom it is written that -"as they went, they were healed?" That is how the only sort of doubt -that really matters is healed. As you go, not as you sit still and -puzzle, but as you shoulder the nearest duty and obey what light and -knowledge you have. - -"I don't know," Wesley would say to himself, "whether I am in my right -place here or not, whether I am really Christ's servant or not. I am in -the dark, and don't seem to be sure of anything. But there is that -cabin boy. I can at least do him some good. That is right anyhow, -whatever be uncertain." "After which," he says, "I was much easier." It -is marvellous to read, but it is a law as certain and safe as -gravitation. Do God's will as you know it, and you will get more light. -"Doubt of any sort," said Thomas Carlyle, "cannot be removed except by -action." - -It is hardly necessary to say, of course, that the knowledge which -Christ promises to those who will obey God's will is not of dogma in its -restricted theological sense. It was life Christ talked about, it was -life He was concerned with, and, for Him, life meant not head-knowledge, -but heart-experience and heart-hold of God. It is that He promises in -His great saying. So do not make the mistake of thinking that when you -seek to do the Will of God, all your mental difficulties, about miracles -or inspiration or what not else, will come to an end. These are -problems, not of life, but of mind, and you have them because God has -given you a mind, and you will probably have them as long as your mind -is growing. What Christ does promise is of vastly more importance, -namely, the light of God's truth in your heart, the assurance of God in -your inmost soul, that you shall know for yourself that God is, and that -He is near to you, and that your true life is in Him; and when a man has -got that length, there are many doctrinal and other mental puzzles for -the solution of which he is content to wait with an easy trust and -patience. - -I like that saying of Viscount Kenmure's, away back in the sixteenth -century, "I will lie at Christ's door like a beggar, and, if I may not -knock, I will scrape." I like it, for this reason, that I am quite sure -there is no essential door of God in earth or heaven which is shut -against the man who casts himself so utterly on Him as that. And I take -Kenmure's word to illustrate what Jesus meant by If any man will do -God's will. It is when a man says, I cannot see, I do not know, my mind -is filled with spectres and doubts and questions, but, so help me God, I -will do the thing that is right for me, I will walk by what little light -I have--it is then, it is to that man that there come infallibly the -knowledge which no criticism can shake, and the peace which the world -can neither give nor take away. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, we thank Thee for this one straight road out of our -doubts, and the difficulties we so often make for ourselves. We bless -Thee for the stedfast certainty that no man, who will rise and follow -what light he has, shall finally be left in darkness. By doing shall we -come to know. As we go upon our clear duty, other truths become more -clear. It is our Lord's own doctrine, and in His Name we pray that Thou -would'st help us to learn it. Amen. - - - -"_The valley of Achor for a_ -_door of hope._" - (HOSEA xxv. 15.) - - - XXII - - GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE - -The world has a scheme of redemption of its own, and men can themselves -do something for the brother who has fallen. But the plan involves, -invariably, a change of surroundings. Worldly wisdom says, of the youth -who is making a mess of his life, "Ship him off to the colonies, try him -with a new start on another soil." But the grace of God promises a far -more wonderful salvation. It makes possible a new start on the very -spot of the old failure. It leads a man back to the scene of his old -disloyalty, and promises him a new memory that shall blot out and redeem -the old. God does not take the depressed and discouraged out of their -surroundings. He adds an inward something that enables them to conquer -where they stand. It is not some new untried sphere that God gilds with -promise. It is the old place where one has already failed and fallen. -It is the valley of Achor, the scene of Israel's defeat, and Achan's -shame and sin, that God gives to His people as a door of hope. - -In Italian history, during the Middle Ages, the republics of Pisa and -Genoa were often at war, and at one time the Genoese were badly beaten -in a sea-fight near the little island of Meloria. Some years after, a -Genoese admiral took his fleet to that same spot and said, "Here is the -rock which a Genoese defeat has made famous. A victory would make it -immortal." And sure enough, the fight that followed ended in a great -victory for Genoa. It is that sort of hope that God holds out to all -defeated souls who put their trust in Him. He points us back to our -valley of Achor, the place with a memory we do not like to think of, and -He says, There is your door of Hope, Go back and try again. And those -who go back in His strength are enabled to write a new memory upon the -old shame. - -Our Lord and Master is very gracious to forgive us when we come to Him -in penitence to tell Him of the position we have lost by our -faithlessness or our cowardice, but He does not consent to the ultimate -defeat of the very feeblest of His soldiers. "Go back and try again," -is His order. There are many, as Dr Matheson says, who offer us a -golden to-morrow, but it is only Christ who enables us to retrieve our -yesterday. For His grace is more than forgiveness. It is the promise -to reverse the memory of Achor, to turn defeat into victory even yet. - -Achor, further, literally means Trouble, and it is a great thing for us -when we have learned that even there God has for us a door of hope. - -The valley of Trouble is perhaps the last place in the world where the -uninstructed would look for any fruit of harvest, and yet again and -again men have brought the fairest flowers of character and holiness out -of it. How many a devout and useful servant of Christ owes the -beginning of his allegiance to a serious illness, to some crippling -disappointment, to an overwhelming sorrow? In all humility there are -many who can say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, and -there are many, many more about whom their friends often quote that -text. - - "I walked a mile with Pleasure; - She chattered all the way, - But left me none the wiser - For all she had to say. - - "I walked a mile with Sorrow, - And ne'er a word said she, - But oh, the things I learned from her, - When Sorrow walked with me!" - -There is a door of Hope even in the valley of Trouble, and those who -tread it in God's company shall not fail to find it. - -There is one other class who need to know that even in Achor there is a -door of hope, the depressed and discouraged. Phillips Brooks once -declared, "I came near doing a dreadful thing the other day. I was in -East Boston and I suddenly felt as if I must get away from everything -for a while. I went to the Cunard dock and asked if the steamer had -sailed. She had been gone about an hour. I believe if she had still -been there, I should have absconded." I wonder if there is any one who -has not known that feeling? When duty is dull, and circumstances -discouraging, when we seem to be merely ploughing the sands, "Oh," we -say, "for the wings of a dove!" Comfort and happiness and salvation -seem to lie solely in escape. And it may be that they do. But more -often the trouble is in ourselves, and would travel with us to the new -post. - -If there be any depressed or discouraged reading these lines, I should -like to remind them of God's promise to give the valley of Achor--that -is the depressing scene of your labours, my brother--for a door of hope. -You are looking for your hope somewhere else, anywhere else provided it -be out of your present rut and drudgery. In reality your door of hope -lies in the rut, in the valley itself. It is not escape you need. It -is just a braver faith that God is in your valley with you, and that He -needs you there. - -Take a firmer grip of that, and go back to where you serve, and you will -find, please God, that even in your valley He has opened for you a door -of Hope and Gladness. - -May all those who are living and working these days in the valley of -Achor find in it somewhere God's Door of Hope. - - PRAYER - -Grant us, O God, the faith that in Thy strength we can yet succeed even -in the place where we have failed. Teach us that it is Thy whisper we -hear, when we have fallen into Despond, bidding us rise and try again. -And grant us the courage to be sure, since Thou hast a tryst to meet and -help us there, that even our Achor shall open to us its door of hope. -Amen. - - - -"_There be many servants_ -_now-a-days that break away_ -_every man from his master._" - (1 SAMUEL xxv. 10.) - - - XXIII - - NOW-A-DAYS - -Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request -some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered -sheep-farmer broke out, "Who is David? There be many servants -now-a-days that break away every man from his master." It was a -singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is -not about Nabal's truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think about -that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said. "Now-a-days." -The implication, of course, is that servants did not break away from -their masters in _his_ young days. Things were different in the times -_he_ could remember. - -You will recognise this peculiar intonation of "Now-a-days" as something -fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Now-a-days the Church -has lost caste. Now-a-days the Bible is a neglected book. Now-a-days -faith is on the wane, and most people don't believe anything at all. -There are many such sentences, beginning with the word Now-a-days and -sounding like a chant on a minor key. - -This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is -unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close -quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible opposite -that "Now-a-days" of Nabal. - -And the first is--What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by -his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting -entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very -different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to -maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal -manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to -break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal -to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants now-a-days, -when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he may -see about him, he is himself largely responsible. - -I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes of -quite a number of pious "inexactitudes." When I hear a man talking -about the lost influence of the Church now-a-days, I am always tempted -to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally -supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught me -that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church's past records, at -the expense of its position to-day, comes from men who are themselves -doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are exceptions, -of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in any worthy -cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the country is -going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most part, lolling -in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of Christ's -kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to those who -are fond of the Now-a-days type of complaint, I would suggest the -inquiry--What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old -standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also -tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you -deplore, namely, down the hill? - -The second query on Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Can his memory be relied -upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it -in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows -from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long -and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all -agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were -using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are all -apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it has a -way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that, and -allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with "Now-a-days," -and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh. - -But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with false -romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred years or -more; read such a book as H. G. Graham's "Social Life in Scotland in the -Eighteenth Century"; and you will soon discover what a fine word -Now-a-days really is. - -As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true -religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts -now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not -know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and -radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or -decay. - -I can partly understand a man without faith in God giving his vote for a -general falling off in human progress, but I cannot understand a man who -believes in God, and in the presence in the world of a living spirit of -Christ, being a pessimist. No one affirms, of course, that we are -progressing everywhere, and all the time. Set-backs here and there, -there are in human history just as in a successful campaign. But that, -on the whole, the world grows better, the Kingdom comes, and earth draws -nearer to Heaven, seems to me to be simply a corollary from the fact -that God reigns, and has blessed us with knowledge of Himself. - -I grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far -mankind still has to travel. But, as far as we are concerned, I am not -disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account -of it. A people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like -honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making, -can hardly be said to be degenerating, especially when we remember some -of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and generations -gone by. But even though the clock of progress be set back awhile--and -that does not seem so likely now as when the war began--it is simply not -possible that, in this world of God's, evil should ultimately vanquish -good, that the Spirit of Christ should finally be crushed by the forces -that oppose it. That can never be. As soon might the germs of disease -which the sun destroys turn round upon it and quench its blessed light. - -The third query opposite Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Does he truly discern -the present time? Does he know "now-a-days" even as well as he knows -the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had -broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little longer -he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of the times. - -That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Now-a-days things -are out of joint. Maybe you don't clearly see these very days you are -disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village where He had -been brought up, the people said, Is not this the Carpenter? and in -their anger at His presumption, as they thought it, they wanted to make -away with Him. If they had only known! - -It is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future. We cannot -even see the present. Think what it would be like if we could see the -great men, the prophets, poets, reformers, leaders, who are at this -present moment in our nurseries and schools, or if we were able to -recognise in the--at present--small shoot of a cause, the great tree -into which in God's providence it is destined to grow! - -Now-a-days; now-a-days! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he -knows "now-a-days" well enough to call it names! It is not with -observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a new -and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and me -to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way and -time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we can -to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a better -place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is going on -about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in the world -than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and bare -to-day.[1] It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears now-a-days. -Yet _even now_ the sap is mounting quickly in every living stem, and -Spring is getting ready while we sleep. - -[1] Written in February. - -So, let us have the courage to believe--so is it with every worthy cause -of God and man. - - PRAYER - -Almighty God, Ruler and Disposer of all events, we would remember that -this world of ours is, first of all, Thine. We believe that, though Thy -Kingdom comes not with observation yet it does come more and more. We -believe that, with Thee, the best is yet to be. And we pray that, with -that faith in our hearts, we may leave the large campaign with quietness -and confidence to Thee, and seek rather to discharge the duties of that -post Thou hast assigned to us, with loyalty and good hope. Amen. - - - -"_And a certain man drew a_ -_bow at a venture._" - (2 CHRONICLES xviii. 33) - - - XXIV - - ROUNDABOUT ROADS - -It sounds improbable that though a whole army was trying to kill Ahab, -it should be an arrow which a man shot at a venture, or as the Hebrew -has it, quaintly, "in his simplicity"--when twanging his bow carelessly, -or trying a new string perhaps--that should find the king's heart. - -And yet it is the thing that does happen occasionally in real life. We -sometimes do get the target when we are aiming for something else. The -name which we have been worrying to recall strolls casually into our -memory when we have given up trying and are not thinking of it at all. -There are certain stars, astronomers tell us, which they see best when -they look askance. And I have come to think that there are certain -precious goods of His which God allows us to possess on the same -conditions. You see them by looking past them. You get them by aiming -at something else. "Look at your goal and go for it straight," says -worldly wisdom, wisely and truly enough in many instances. All the same -there are good things in life to which that is emphatically NOT the -road. The real way to secure these is to aim for something else. - -This is true, for example, of Happiness. Everyone of us wants to be -happy. And there is such a bountiful provision of the means of -happiness all about us that it is difficult to resist the conclusion -that God means us all to be happy. Yet when those for whom happiness is -meant and prepared seek it directly and for itself, it is as certain as -anything can be that they won't find it. You ask, perhaps you pray for -this boon, and God shows you only some bare duty that is clearly yours. -Out to it you go, like a brave man, not thinking there can be any -blessings on that road, when, lo! as you journey, happiness comes to -you, quietly, filling your heart with peace. - -One does not find that the New Testament, as a matter of fact, has much -to say about being happy at all. There is so little reference to it -that it looks as if God had forgotten our need. I find that the Book -which I had thought might tell me how to find happiness tells me instead -of "bearing one another's burdens," doing it "unto one of the least of -these"; tells me about my brother's need of me when he is sick or naked -or hungry; tells me even about such a thing as a cup of cold water to a -thirsty disciple. Ah! but when, in however poor a fashion, I forget my -own quest and gird myself in Christ's name and try to DO some of these -things, I find that God has not forgotten after all, that, all the time -He has been showing me THE way to happiness, and I did not recognise it -because it is not a straight road. It's not a question of seeking, but -of forgetting to seek. Happiness comes to you oftenest when you are -intent on bringing it to your brother. - -The same principle holds true also with regard to Influence. It is -natural that a man should desire that his shadow when it falls on others -should heal and not hurt. But the healing, helpful shadow is not got by -wishing for it. As soon as you begin to think about it and aim for it, -you will go astray. Here is a little poem which tells how the strange -magnetic quality of influence for good comes to a man:-- - - "He kept his lamp still lighted, - Though round about him came - Men who, by commerce blighted, - Laughed at his little flame. - - He kept his sacred altar - Lit with the torch divine, - Nor let his purpose falter, - Like yours, O World, and mine. - - And they whose cold derision - Had mocked him, came one day - To beg of him the vision - To help them on their way. - - And, barefoot or in sandal, - When forth they fared to die, - They took from his poor candle - One spark to guide them by." - -That is the secret--a roundabout way, as you see. If Influence is to be -ours, that is how it will come, not by our trying to be influential, but -by our striving to be upright, loyal, and true. - -In the third place, this is true of Life in Christ's sense of the term. -Life was one of His favourite words. It was Life, in the highest sense, -that He claimed to bring to men. And the greatest calamity in His eyes -that could fall on any man is that that inward soul-life should die. - -Yet when those in whom He has awakened it, aim directly for its growth -and culture, they make mistakes. To the question--Shall I regard the -development and deepening of that soul-life of mine as the one end and -object of my living? the answer of Jesus, as I understand it, is No. -Life, said He, at its highest and fullest and most perfect, is reached -by giving it away. He that loseth his life shall save it. - -What a long way from this ideal are those good people who are for ever -laying their fingers on their spiritual pulse and plucking their -soul-life up by the roots to see how it is growing! There is a nobler -use of life than to save it in that fearful fashion. There is a truer -way to grow in grace than by hoarding up virtue so, namely, by letting -it go generously out from us. When St Nicholas got to Heaven with his -white robes of sainthood stained with mud through stopping on his way to -help a carter pull his waggon out of a rut--a task which his fellow St -Cassianus, for the sake of his robes, avoided and declined--it was the -muddy saint whom the Master welcomed with the sweetest smile and the -most gracious words. Whoso loseth his life, the same shall save it. - -Happiness, Influence, Life, these three, and the road to each of them is -indirect. May God bless it to us that we have stood for a little to -mark the flight of an arrow shot "in simplicity!" - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, may we have grace to discover the blessings that lie on -Thy roundabout roads. May we never make the mistake of thinking that -the path to true happiness is the one that runs straight towards it. -Keep us true to Christ, and we shall not then be false to any man. And -give us to know that we are likest Him, not when we hoard and cherish -life and virtue, but when we spend them without stint or measure in any -worthy cause of God or man, for His sake. Amen. - - - -"_Why was not this ointment_ -_sold for three hundred pence,_ -_and given to the poor?_" - (JOHN xii. 5.) - - - XXV - - THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE - -"Wherever this Gospel is preached, this that she had done shall be told -as a memorial of her." What a gracious memorial, and how worthy of it -was Mary's beautiful outburst of generosity! But what a pity that the -speech of Judas should be recorded also, as a memorial of him! And yet, -on mature consideration, we would not have the Judas criticism -forgotten. Because it called forth what we might not otherwise have -had, the vindication of Jesus Himself. And because, as a matter of -fact, we are constantly hearing the protest of Judas repeated in our own -day, and are often ill-held to know how to meet it. - -"This he said," records our evangelist bluntly, "not because he loved -the poor, but because he was a thief and kept the bag." Yet he might -have been an honest man and said the same thing. For very many honest -and earnest men and women are repeating this criticism still. It is -repeated whenever it is taken for granted that practical utility is the -only standard by which to judge actions and offerings, that God and man -can be served in no other way than by "iron bars and perspiration." - -How often do we meet the type of mind that admits the service of a -ploughman and denies that of poet or artist, for whom a waterfall, as -somebody has said, exists merely as so much power for driving turbines, -and whose sole test of usefulness is that of making two blades grow--and -corn blades at that!--where but one grew before. We are commonly -browbeaten by this type of person, and yet we feel that somehow, if we -could only say it, he is wrong--that the poet's is as divine a vocation -as the farmer's, that God meant a silver band of falling water in a -green glade to suggest other things besides dynamos, and that he who -even paints some blades of grass, and paints them pleasingly, has his -place somewhere in the great guild of servants of God and man. - -One has heard the same attitude taken up in other directions too. Why -spend so much money on a Church, you will be asked, when there are so -many poor people in the land? What need for stone pillars and a fine -organ, when a plain building and a harmonium would do as well? Why try -to secure what is called a beautiful Church service, dignified, stately, -musical, when the very baldest worship is acceptable in God's sight, if -only it be sincere? We have heard all that, and other remarks like -that, often, and we have seldom been able to give reasons against them. -A mere instinctive sentiment seems a feeble thing to oppose to such cold -and hard facts. Yet somehow we feel that it is all wrong if only we -knew how to convict it. - -Did it ever occur to you that Jesus Himself has answered that objection -and others like it when He vindicated Mary's action that night? There -is no doubt that her ointment cost a deal of money, money that could -have fed many hungry people. It was an extravagant offering, without -any practical outcome, save that Jesus was refreshed. There is no doubt -also about our Lord's sympathy with the poor and needy. And yet He -upheld Mary's action, and would not have it called wasteful! All that -could be said in its favour was that it was beautiful, that it touched -Jesus keenly, and influenced all who saw it done. And that, as I read -the story, was one reason at least why Jesus defended it. He allows the -Beautiful. He would have the Beautiful honoured for its own sake even -in a world so full of sorrow and trouble as this. - -For my part, I am very grateful that this word of Christ's has been -recorded. For it affords sufficient warrant for declaring the poet, the -artist, the architect, and all those who are trying to make the world -more beautiful, God's servants too, offering Him a gift He does not -disdain to recognise, as truly as the physician, the philanthropist, and -the preacher whose object is to make it better. - -Beauty of form and structure has been lavished profusely by the Creator -on creatures too small to be seen. There are more things grow out of -God's earth than corn for food or timber for building houses. There's -the heather and the wild flowers, the daisies and the violets. -Hard-headed common-sense asks--What's the use of them? What good do -they do? The answer is that they are beautiful, and that seems in God's -sight to be justification enough for having made them. - -So when we see Love breaking her alabaster box, and pouring forth her -offering without stint, as she is doing every day--a mother lavishing -care upon an ungrateful son, a husband surrounding a peevish wife with a -tireless devotion, or a sister keeping her own love-dream at arm's -length that she may guard and guide some graceless brother--let us lay -our hands upon our lips when we are tempted to criticise. These actions -may be foolish, extravagant, quixotic, and may outrage every canon of -common-sense. But there is a fragrance about them without which the -world would be much poorer. They are morally beautiful, and for that -reason, our Lord Himself would teach us, they are not to be rudely -handled nor judged by any hard standard. - -Yes, but He said more than that. He found a more complete extenuation -of Mary's extravagance. It was because she loved much. Her gift was an -offering of love to Himself. "She hath done it for my burial." And -that is the end of the whole matter, my brothers. Love is always -extravagant when measured by the tape-line of bare duty. It always -overflows. It breaks its box and gives everything it has. Yet, like -the widow's cruse of old, its casket is never empty, for even when it -has given its all, the next needy case will find succour at that door. -Take your charity subscription sheet to the man who loudly asserts that -too much money is being given to the Kirk this dull season, and what -will you get? Take it also to the man who has signed a bigger cheque -than he can well afford that the House of his God may be made beautiful, -and it will be strange if you are sent empty away. Ah no, it is not -Mary, whose devotion has found outlet in some sudden generosity, it is -not she who neglects the poor. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, whose we are and Whom we seek to serve, enlighten us, we -pray Thee, in the knowledge and practice of that supreme service which -is love. May we learn that the greatest thing in our little lives is -the love they hold for God and man. Teach us to appraise love's extra -everywhere as those who have also felt and understand. And when our own -gift and offering must needs be poor and small, may we be encouraged by -the remembrance that even a widow's mite that love has offered is -precious in Thy sight. Amen. - - - -"_I know both how to be_ -_abased, and I know how to_ -_abound._" - (PHILIPPIANS iv. 12.) - - - XXVI - - THE ART OF "DOING WITHOUT" - -In one of his letters, Paul declares that he knows both how to be abased -and how to abound. Most people, who did not stop to think, would be -inclined to assert that the second of these lessons did not require much -learning. It's an easy enough thing to be content, they would say, when -you have plenty. Far harder is it to learn how to do without. I am not -at all sure that that is right. I rather think that, of the two, -abundance is a more searching test of a man's true quality than scarcity -ever is. Carlyle has declared that for one man who will stand -prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity. - -But whether that be so or not, there is no question that it is a great -thing to have the secret of doing without. And the merest glance abroad -convinces us that it is of the utmost importance. In literature, for -example, the quality which confers most distinction upon style is the -art of omission. Did not Stevenson, himself a master, say that one who -knew what to omit could make an Iliad of the daily newspaper? And the -commonest blunders in the great business of living spring from ignorance -of this secret. Why do some people make themselves disagreeable in a -community by their touchiness and sulkiness? Simply because they have -not learned how to be abased, how to live without getting their own way -always, or without getting the praise or recognition to which they feel -themselves entitled. It's an art, you see, which is well worth -studying. - -It has to be added that opportunities for practising it are never long -wanting from anybody. We don't need to choose what things we shall do -without, as a rule. The things are simply taken from us, or we never -get them. It may be our own fault, or it may not. The result is the -same. We have to do without. And we give away our inmost self by the -fashion in which we do it. - -There is, for example, the question of material goods. It's easy to -talk unreal nonsense here, and we all must confess to wishing to have -more of this sort of property than we do possess. But I honestly -believe that the Apostle Paul did not greatly concern himself whether he -was, materially speaking, well-off or ill-off. There are other men that -one knows who have attained to the same point of view. There's no -question either that for those whose religion is a vital thing it is the -right point of view. The real man is independent of either riches or -poverty, because the real man is the man inside. Riches is not you. -Poverty is not you. You are what you are in your inner spirit. The -riches there are invisible, but they are eternal--love, faith, hope, -peace. And the man who has these, as Paul had them, can honestly say -that it is of relatively small moment whether he is in a material sense, -rich or poor. - -Or take the question of friendship. Who can tell in adequate words what -it means to have one true, loyal friend? But it has happened sometimes -that the very closest friendships are broken and a man has to stand -alone, not by his own choice, but in the grim ordering of things. There -is a higher obligation than that you keep faith with your friends. -First and foremost you must keep faith with yourself, with your own -conscience, with the voice within. And it may be that obedience to that -involves seeming disloyalty to your friends, either for a while or -permanently. - -Such a time came to Paul. He had for conscience' sake to stand alone; -and he did it. He was able to do it because his life did not rest for -its ultimate pillar on his friendships any more than on his riches. -Paul's real life was within. That inner life of his was enriched and -made radiant and constant by one supreme fact--he believed that Jesus -Christ his Lord deigned to share it with him in spirit. It is not -irreverent to say that in his inner soul Paul lived with Christ. - -Maybe his words are too big for us to use, but each of us who, at some -hard bit of our journey, has appealed beyond friends to the Christ -within, saying, "I have done, O Lord, what seemed to me right. And my -friends are hurt and angry. But Thou knowest"--that man has learned, -even in a slight degree, that there is a nearer and truer blessing -possible for sinful men than even human friendship. - -Then there is another thing that has sometimes to be done without. There -are privileges that belong to every Christian man and woman, and are in -a sense their birthright--the sense of God, confidence, quietness of -heart, hope. There is no doubt that every real Christian should be -walking and working in the light and gladness of God's presence. - -But it is just as clear that not all are so blessed. It may be their -own fault. Doubtless in many cases it is. Or it may be temperament or -outward circumstances that determine it. Anyhow, many have to walk, not -in the light but in uncertainty, perplexity, and misgiving, and -sometimes even in darkness. - -But "a bird is a bird even though it cannot sing." And a Christian is a -Christian still even though his soul is dark within him, and he goes on -in fear, never daring to look up and hope at all. - -That is spiritual abasement. It ought not to be. It is never to be -lightly acquiesced in. But it happens sometimes to earnest men and -women, and it seems to be the settled condition of a few. Is it -possible to do without these things? Can a man manage to exist and even -move forward who has for a while lost his hold on his faith and on God? -There are good and godly men who have done it. Brother Lawrence did it. -Robertson of Brighton did it. Horace Bushnell did it. And many, many -more. When all that they held most precious in faith had been eclipsed -for the time, they steered still by the little light they knew. Though -there should be no heaven, they resolved that they were called to be -pure, truthful, patient, kind, since these things could never be wrong. -Though there were no Christ, they would still follow where He had once -seemed to invite them. And so doing and so following they came again to -know. The darkness passed, and faith and gladness returned. They had -lost hold of God for a little, but He had never lost hold of them. And, -brethren, whatever the doubt or darkness be, that's always true. That -is what makes it possible at all. That is what may make it even -blessed. For - - "It's better to walk in the dark with God - Than to walk alone in the light; - Better to walk with God by faith - Than to walk alone by sight." - - PRAYER - -Our Gracious God and Father in Heaven, whether Thou dost appoint for us -poverty or riches, save us from thinking that a man's life consisteth in -the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Beyond all our -friendships, be Thou our Friend and Helper, and grant us to seek first -the blessing of our God. Make us very sure, for their comforting and -our own, that when men in their darkness sorely seek Thy face, the very -ache of their quest is token that Thou hast already found them. For -Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_And Moses said, I will now_ -_turn aside and see this great sight._" - (EXODUS iii. 3.) - - - XXVII - - WONDER - -Moses, adds one commentator significantly, was then eighty years of age. -By the ordinary standards, he was an old man, yet he had not lost his -youthful sense of wonder. It is a good sign, the best of signs, when a -man has lived so long and yet finds wonder in his heart. It is a bad -sign when a man at any age, or when a generation of men, find nothing in -all God's world to wonder at. - -Yet in many quarters it is regarded as the correct attitude to refrain -from expressing surprise at anything, no matter how striking. The -utmost concession to be made to what is really wonderful is a languid -and patronising "Really?" That is always a pitiful thing. For where -there is no wonder there can be no religion worthy of the name. - -The instinct of worship and the instinct of wonder are very intimately -related. And where the one has died, the other cannot be in a very -healthy state. "I had rather," said Ruskin once, "live in a cottage and -wonder at everything, than live in Warwick Castle and wonder at -nothing." And his preference is to be commended. For he who has never -wondered has never thought about God in any way to be called thinking. - -It was our Lord Himself who said that the ideal of religion was the -child-like heart. Everyone knows that these little people are always -being brought to a halt to wonder at something. And Heaven is in very -truth nearer to them then, and they are more truly filled with its -spirit, than either you or I are when the glory and bloom of this world -unfold before our eyes, or the thought of the Infinite and Eternal God -comes to us and we have not felt impelled to bow our heads in silence -and worship, spell-bound, and in a godly fear. - -It is not hard to lay one's finger on some of the causes that have -brought about this state of things. A silly fashion, for one cause, has -decreed that wonder is vulgar. Why that should be so, no one can tell. -But if there be higher intelligences than ours in God's Universe, and -they see the sons of men, as they have plenty of chances to do, casting -an indifferent glance at the full pomp and majesty of the setting sun, -or reading such a Psalm as the 103rd with an untouched heart, how they -must marvel indeed! - -And then, of course, familiarity tends to blunt the sense of wonder in a -certain and common type of mind. The best men have always resisted that -tendency and recognised that it works harm to life and character. They -have remembered to look for God in the common and familiar, and that is -a search that goes far to make a man a saint, just because it is a -continual prayer, a continual holding open of the heart to God. His -answer is to fill the wondering heart, bit by bit, with Himself. - -Ignorance, too, is often a cause, the kind of ignorance that calls -itself knowledge. It is an innocent delusion on the part of the -youthful tyro in Science that after he has made a little experiment with -a prism and a beam of sunlight, there is nothing wonderful in the -rainbow. Pure, profound Science on the other hand, speaks very -humbly--and wonders all the while. - -Nature is dumb and silent concerning the Infinite behind it to him who -goes but to catalogue and dissect. Take a heart that can wonder with -you on your country-walk, open your eyes and look, open your heart like -a child and listen, and you will find, as Moses found, that even in a -bush there may be the Voice of God. Hold the door of your heart ajar in -simple wonder, and some thing of God will enter to cleanse and freshen -it, as the hot and dusty street is washed by the rain from Heaven. - -Just as he who goes to Nature with a heart that cannot wonder, will find -no message there for him, so he who looks out upon the sanctities of -home, of human life and love, in that dull mood of mere acceptance, must -often find himself hard pressed for material when he makes his -thanksgiving to God. George Eliot has spoken somewhere of the agony of -the thought that we can never atone to the dead for the stinted -affection we gave them, for the "little reverence we showed to that -sacred human soul that lived so close to us, and was the divinest thing -God has given us to know." The divinest thing God has given us to know! - -Have we realised that that gift of God to us lives now in the same home -with us? Do you know what it is? It is a wife's devotion, a mother's -care, a brother's comradeship, a sister's love. It is the trust and -affection of little children, and the patience of those who love us. And -yet there have been men--judge ye if this be not true--who have lived -close to gifts of God like these, and taken them all unquestioned and -never wondered at the undeserved bounty of them or their continuance -from day to day. - -How easy it is to discover the gifts and charm of a stranger, how easy -to wonder at that! But to wonder at the sacrifice and the patience of -the love that dwells under the same roof with us, and stoops, in Mrs -Browning's happy phrase, "to the level of each day's most quiet need," -how few of us do that! And yet, without daily wonder, how can we be -sure that we do not slight it, or requite it ill, how can we truly give -our thanks to God whose gift it is? - -Most important of all, he who brings no wonder in his heart can never be -touched with the sense of God. The lack of the great deep and awful -wonder of our fathers in all their thought and speech about God, has -brought it about that our religious speech to-day is too often either -superficial, flippant and easy, or syllogistic, mechanical, and hard. It -is the absence of wonder that tempts men to imagine that God can be -enclosed in any formula whatever, or brought to the hearts of men in so -many rigid propositions. If men would but give their wonder expression -when they frame their creeds, there would be less chafing where the -edges are too sharp. - -I am bound to confess that my sympathies are altogether with a working -man who once listened to a fervid evangelist at a street corner -unfolding a scheme of salvation as clean-cut and mechanical as a problem -of Euclid, and buttonholed him afterwards to inquire if he had ever read -any astronomy. No, he said, he had not. "That's a pity," said the -artisan, "for, eh, man, but ye have an awfu' wee God." In all -reverence, my brothers, that is what the absence of wonder brings us to, -a small God, a small salvation, and a merely mechanical Christ. - -Men have sometimes asked what that childhood of the Kingdom is on which -Jesus laid so much stress, and some have taken it to mean renunciation -of intellect and reason in favour of a Church's dogma. But it means, -says John Kelman, something far more human and more beautiful--"it means -wonder and humility and responsiveness, the straight gaze of childhood -past conventionalities, the simplicity of a mind open to any truth, and -a heart with love alive in it." That is surely right. That is what -becoming a little child in Christ's sense does mean. First of all, -wonder. - - PRAYER - -Almighty and eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the Universe, dwelling in -light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no man hath seen or -can see, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man -that Thou visitest him? Behold what manner of love the Father hath -bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Such -knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain unto it. -O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our -Maker. Amen. - - - -"_If ye then, being evil, know_ -_... how much more ... your_ -_heavenly Father._" - (LUKE xi. 13.) - - - XXVIII - - THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD - -If it were a conceivable thing that we had to part with all the words of -Scripture save one, and if we were allowed to choose that one, there are -some of us who would elect to retain that great declaration of -Jesus--"If ye being evil know ... how much more ... your heavenly -Father." For, having that, we should still be rich in knowledge of the -Love and Fatherhood of God. We should still know Christ's dominating -conception of God, and have His last and highest word regarding Him. We -should still be able to rise, as Jesus not only warrants but invites us -to do, from the little broken arc of true fatherhood on earth to the -perfect round in Heaven. - -At the warm reassuring touch of that "How much more your heavenly -Father" whole systems of brainy divinity vanish away! The truth of the -Fatherhood of God, vouched for and lived on by Jesus, kills men's hard -and unworthy and hurtful thoughts about God as sunshine kills the -creatures that breed and prevail in darkness and ignorance. They can no -more live alongside of a realisation that Christ's name for God is His -true name, and really describes His attitude to all the sons of men, -than the dark, creepy things that live under the stone can remain there -when you turn it over and let in the air and the light. - -But, say some, you must not carry the truth of God's Fatherhood too far. -What is too far? I ask. I want to carry it, and I believe Christ means -us to carry it, as far as ever it will stretch, and that is "as far as -the East is from the West." Think of a father's GOOD-WILL. It is -conceivable that other men may do you a deliberate wrong. But you are -entitled to believe that your father won't. You may not understand what -he proposes, but you can be quite sure that he means only your good. -Henry Drummond tells how his early days were made miserable by the -conception he had of God as of some great staring Eye in the heavens -watching all he did. But that is a policeman's eye, not a father's. - -There are many tokens that, even yet, we have not realised what these -blessed words of Jesus mean and imply. A mother vainly trying to answer -the old, old question why her little one was taken from her, will say, -"Perhaps I was too fond of him." Or, should sudden sorrow come, the -explanation suggested by the troubled one himself is, "I was too happy." -There are plenty of people who are afraid to declare that they feel very -well or are very happy, in case the upper Powers should hear and send -trouble, apparently out of sheer malice! "Bethankit, what a bonny -creed!" Oh! what a dreadful caricature of God! How it must pain the -Father to hear His children talking so! - -There is another mark of fatherhood, as we know it on earth--COMPASSION, -pity, the willingness to forgive. There is no forgiveness on earth like -a father's or a mother's, none so willing, none that will wait so long -and yet give itself without stint at last. Pity, as the world of -business and of ordinary relationship knows it, is at best a transient -emotion. It murmurs a few easy words and then forgets. But parent love -suffereth long and is kind, hopes against hope, and waits and is still -hopeful when every one else has written the offender down irreclaimable. -It is such compassion and pity for us sinners, how great soever our sins -be, that Jesus would have us come for to God in Heaven. - -But will not men abuse such patience and long-suffering? it is asked. Is -it not a risky thing to tell them that God is our Father? It is. But it -is the risk that Love takes cheerfully, and that only Love can take. -And when men talk lightly and complacently about the great mercy of God, -there is something, I think, which they have forgotten, namely, that at -the heart of the divine Fatherly forgiveness there lies the shadow of -the Cross. I do not say that in any conventional sense. I say it -because I have seen for myself that at the heart of all true earthly -forgiveness of a fatherly sort there lies this same mysterious shadow. -Shall not the father forgive his returning prodigal? Yea, verily, and -with all his heart. But, ah, before that, think how the father has -suffered with his son, and for his son. The prodigal's shame is the -father's shame too, and lies heavy on his heart. And it is out of a -chamber where he and that pain have long been companions that the -earthly father issues to welcome and receive at last the lad who has -sought his face penitent and in his right mind. The welcome is real. -The forgiveness is full and free. And yet behind it there is sacrifice. -The price of it is suffering. Aback of it lies--the Cross! That is what -silences cheap thinking and glib speech about the forgiveness of God. -If God's long-suffering be like a father's here, it is, first, long -suffering. - -The danger, however, is not that we abuse God's grace knowingly and in -callous complacency. Far more is it, I think, that we never actually -accept and realise and build our lives upon the gracious compassion of -the Heavenly Father and His willingness to forgive. - -Every parent ought to know Coventry Patmore's beautiful lyric, "The -Toys." In it a father tells how, when his little son had been -disobedient again and again, he struck him, and sent him with hard words -and unkissed to bed--"his mother, who was patient, being dead." And -when, later, he went upstairs to see him, he found him asleep, his -lashes still wet with tears, and--what touched him most--on a table -beside his bed all his little treasures heaped together to comfort his -sad heart--a box of counters, and a red-veined stone, a piece of glass -abraded by the beach, and six or seven shells, a bottle with blue bells, -and two French copper coins--all his little store of precious things. - - So when that night I prayed - To God, I wept and said-- - "Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath, - Not vexing Thee in death, - And Thou rememberest of what toys - We made our joys, - How weakly understood - Thy great commanded good, - Then, fatherly not less - Than I, whom Thou hast moulded from the clay, - Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say: - 'I will be sorry for their childishness.'" - - -One word more about our Father's SILENCE. Our fathers here on earth had -their silences when we were children. We asked him for something that -we wanted very much. And he gave no reply. We went on asking. We -expected to get what we had set our hearts on. He heard us hoping and -believing that this good thing would come to us, and he held his peace. -But we knew that silence, and we trusted it. We were quite sure that he -would have told us if we were deceiving ourselves, that his gift, when -it came, would, at least, not be a mere mockery of our hopes. - -And I often think of these words of Christ's, "If a son shall ask bread -of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?" when I stand -by a graveside, and speak the words of radiant hope with which we lay -our beloved to rest. Our Father hears us speak that hope. He has heard -hearts in an agony through all the generations wish that it might be -true--that this bleak fact of Death is not the end, but only the -beginning of a better thing. But He keeps silence. We have no sure -proof, only the blessed hope of the Christian evangel. - -He keeps silence. But, my brethren, can we not trust that silence since -it is our Father's? We have asked this bread in our pain and through -our tears. We have asked it because it seems to us we need it so. And -whatever gift His silence hides, this at least is certain, it is not, it -cannot be, only a stone. - - PRAYER - -Almighty God, who through Jesus Christ has taught us to call Thee our -Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast chosen a name so dear to us to -reveal Thy care and Love. When our way is dark and our burden is heavy -and our hearts are perplexed, grant us the grace to know that Thou who -art directing every step of our journey art a God of Love, and Thy true -and perfect Name is Our Father in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our -Lord. Amen. - - - -"_Whosoever will lose his_ -_life for my sake shall find it._" - (MATTHEW xvi. 25.) - - - XXIX - - THE UNRETURNING BRAVE - - (EASTER DAY, 1915) - -NOTE.--I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sir Wm. Robertson -Nicoll's "When the Wounded Go Home," a tender and courageous message. - -Christmas in war time was like an evil dream. Easter is like a breath -from Heaven itself, a wind from the pure and blessed heights of God -blowing the clouds of battle-smoke apart for a brief space so that we -all may see again that beyond the smoke and beyond grim death itself -there is the Life Enduring, a Divine Love compared to which ours at the -best is untender and hard, a Fatherly welcome beside which welcomes here -are faint and cold. This is the strangest Easter Day the world has ever -known, yet never have the thousands and thousands of stricken homes and -sore hearts needed more the living hope that is begotten anew in the -Christian Church this day by our Lord's rising again from the dead. It -is assuredly of God's mercy that Easter should fall in these days, when -so many fathers and mothers, wives and sisters and lovers need its hope -and comfort so. - -We cannot but think to-day of the many, many homes in our own and other -lands from which strong and brave men marched away weeks or months ago, -because they had heard the call, and were willing to make the supreme -sacrifice for righteousness' sake, who will never come back again, who -have died a soldier's death and sleep in a soldier's grave--fathers, -husbands, sons, lovers, gallant men, dear lads, cheerful, willing, -dauntless. You find their names by the hundred and the thousand in the -casualty lists, but the loss you cannot measure unless you could see all -the shadowed homes. How many such homes there are in our own land -alone, How many such in our own little circle! - -Try to realise that, and then ask if a more gracious message could fall -upon all these hearts to-day than the Easter message of the Christian -Church,--that there is no death and that its seeming victory is not a -victory. The old, old question, If a man die shall he live again? is -answered to-day by the triumphant Yes! of Christendom. Yes, he never -ceases to live. From the inferno of the battlefield the mortally -stricken do but pass across the bridge and stream of death to God's -Other Side. When they fall in battle, they fall into His everlasting -Arms. They do not die. They are not dead. It is only their poor -mortal bodies that the shrieking shells can maim or destroy. They -themselves, the real self and spirit of them, no material force can -hurt, for that belongs to a higher kingdom than the visible, and its -true goal and home are not here at all. - -To all who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death in these -days, to all who have watched their beloved go out where every true man -would wish to go, and know only too surely that they shall never -return,--to these to-day Jesus Christ has His Word to speak,--and would -that all might hear it and give it room in their hearts to do its -blessed work! It is to Him we owe it, and He is our authority for -believing that beyond the darkness and separation of death there is the -morning of a new and fairer day. The valley of the Shadow, yea, the -valley of battle itself opens out again at its far end to the sun's -rising and the untrammelled life in the light and liberty of God. The -happy warrior is borne by gentle hands to God's own land of peace, where -the fret and fury of battle slip from him like a discarded garment, and -beside the still waters of that better country he finds healing for his -hurt. It is that quiet and blessed hope that is being reborn in our -hearts this day as the Church keeps her festival of a Risen and a Living -Christ. It is that lively hope the Church offers for comfort to all -stricken homes and to every sorrowing heart. - -They offered themselves, these gallant lads, not for anything they hoped -to gain, but for the sake of honour and liberty, of justice and -righteousness. And when a man casts himself on God in that fashion, -offering not the words of his lips, nor the homage of his worship, but -himself, all that he has, his life and all that life holds for him, -think you that upon that poor soul, with his priceless offering borne -humbly in his hands, the God and Father of us all is going to turn His -back? "He that loseth his life," said Jesus, "for my sake shall find -it." - -There are times when the most gracious doctrine is not gracious enough -to represent and embody the Spirit of Christ to us. We want something -more, and we often seek it and sometimes find it in poetry, in art, or, -best of all, in the silence of our own hearts when God-given instinct -whispers what no words or doctrine can ever express. Such a time is -now. Such a need is ours to-day. - -I make no defence of it theologically, and I ask no man to accept it who -does not feel it clamouring at his heart for entrance, but I confess -that for me a couple of lines of John Hay's in his "Pike County Ballads" -strike a note which all that I know in my heart of the Spirit of Christ -leaps up to welcome and approve. It is when he has told the story of -Jim Bludso's sacrifice. Jim was engineer on the "Prairie Belle," a -river-steamboat, and he was rather a rough, careless man. But when the -steamer took fire, it was Jim who held her against the bank till -everybody got safely off except himself. With eyes wide open to what he -did, he sacrificed his life to save the other souls on board. Hay sums -up in these lines:-- - - "And Christ ain't going to be too hard - On a man that died for men." - -I leave it there. I trust I am a loyal son of the Church, but I must -have a place in my creed somewhere for the hope which these lines -express that Christ ain't going to be too hard on a man that died for -men. - -But there is something more to be said. Every chaplain at the front -tells us that the most careless and irreligious youths and men take up a -wonderfully different attitude out there. Men pray in the trenches who -have never prayed before. I heard some stories recently that brought -tears to my eyes, of brave and simple confessions made at little -gatherings for prayer in strange places, by some of those very lads whom -we reckoned indifferent and heedless before they left home. And some of -then, turning their faces simply and earnestly, and by an old, old -instinct of the heart, towards God and His Christ before the battle -broke upon them, some of them have fallen on the field! - -Many, many more there must be who turned them Godwards even at the -eleventh hour in one brief upward glance to ask forgiveness and strength -to play the man, about whom no chaplain can report, for no one knows or -saw or heard save Christ Himself. But there's a glorious page in the -Gospel to assure us beyond all doubt or question that no one who makes -that appeal, though it be the dying thief himself, ever makes it in -vain. - -And there we leave the issue--with God, who is kinder than our kindest, -and whose mercy is from everlasting. It is He who has brought us this -blessed hope, through His Son, this Easter Day, and we honour His gift -best by taking it in all its breadth and comfort to our hearts. To the -broken-hearted wife or mother, to whom the bald War Office report has -come, let us take this comfort,--"Your beloved is not dead. God has him -in His gracious care and keeping till the day break and the shadows flee -away." For that is the Easter message, God be thanked. And this is -Easter Day. - - PRAYER - -To Thy merciful care and keeping we commend all the sons and daughters -of affliction, and especially those who in this great contest have lost -some loved one. Grant that even through their tears they may discern -the glory that belongs to those who have given their lives a ransom for -many. Be Thou their help and their strength, and may the sympathy of -all who know them be for them an earnest and token of Thy great Love and -Compassion. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - - - -"_The heavens declare the_ -_glory of God._" - (PSALM xix. 1.) - - - XXX - - THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET - -"The sky," says Ruskin, "is the part of Nature in which God has done -more for the sake of pleasing man, more from the sole and evident -purpose of touching him, than in any other of His works." It looks like -the truth. For there is no scene of earth so fair or majestic that man -cannot spoil it. Where the "cataract exults among the hills, and wears -its crown of rainbows all alone," he will build him a power-house to -supply current to some distant town. But he cannot touch the heavens. -In the heart of some fairy glen he will placard the virtues of -somebody's pills, and plaster the gate-posts in a sweet country lane -with the specious claims of some quack doctor, but above it all, it is -God, and God alone, who spreadeth out the heavens like a curtain and in -them has set a tabernacle for the sun. Even in places where the face of -earth wears no suggestion of natural beauty the face of the sky redeems -it from evil. For, above the squalor of the city's meanest slum, burn -the great fires of the setting sun, and overhead the fleecy white clouds -sail silently all night long. - -But, of it all, the glory of the sunset is chief. The dawn has its cold -splendours too, but not many of us are there to see it when it is at its -best. It is at eventide, when the work of the day is done, and the -spell of its restfulness lays the senses open, it is then chiefly that -God unfolds these splendid harmonies of colour in the western heavens. -And, by consent, on this Ayrshire coast, on which I look out as I write, -these glories can be seen to great advantage. It is into no flat -expanse of water that the dying sun sinks here. The peaks and crags of -Arran invest its passage with an indescribable pomp and majesty, -standing out against it like the massive pillars of some giant gateway -of the West. It is never twice the same. Sometimes lurid and blazing, -with masses of thunder-cloud piled high, all their outer edges rimmed -with fire; and, next night, peaceful and level, a study in straight -lines, as if the great Artist, with even brush, had washed the sky with -bands of grey and blue and gold. Each evening God has His own picture -for us, His own handiwork, unspoiled by man. How many of us ever pause -to recognise its beauty? What does it mean that such a prodigality of -harmonious colours should be the most ordinary feature of our evening -hour? Is it that God Himself takes delight in the beauty of it all, for -its own sake, rejoicing, like all good workmen, in the work of His -hands? Or has He some purpose with regard to His children of mankind? -Is it, as Ruskin says, for the sake of pleasing man? How unthankful and -unmindful we are, if that be so! - -The sunset teaches us to put together these two ideas--beauty, beyond -the wit of man to portray, and God. There is plenty of ugliness and sin -in the world, and the life of men. Man himself recognises how much of -the beauty that might have been has been marred and disfigured by him. -Yet in his heart he worships it, and feels after it afar off. And in the -evening sky it is written that Beauty belongeth supremely unto God. - -Whatever that far-off divine event be, to which the whole creation -moves, one of its features shall be, must be, a beauty which shall fully -satisfy. For beauty and God cannot be divorced. And when, of an -evening, God for His own good pleasure, working with those material -elements which have no power to disobey His behests, unfolds His will in -such dazzling visions of splendour, is He not declaring that the end and -goal of life itself, when His purpose therewith is completed, and Man, -too, has fallen into harmony with His will, shall be fair, and -satisfying, and beautiful? - -Let us not be afraid to say and believe that God speaks to us in the -sunset. If I pick up the receiver of a telephone and hear my friend -announce some good news that fills my heart with gladness, it does not -disturb me to remember that the wire itself has no power to speak. For -I feel that somewhere at the end of the wire is a mind and a heart like -my own who is using the dead, soulless wire as a medium of speech with -me. When the glories of the sun's setting fall upon your heart like a -benediction, stirring you to devout and grateful thought, breathing -peace upon you, cleansing your desires of all that is mean and sordid, -do not be afraid to believe that, behind and beyond all that is material -and visible, there is the Mind and Heart in whose image yours was made, -whose gift peace is, whose whisper, though it come along dead -ether-waves to reach you, is His whisper nevertheless. - -It is perhaps natural that the prevailing quality of the thoughts that -arise within us when we watch the setting sun should be pensive, tender, -and, not seldom, a little sad. For it speaks of the end of the day and -the coming night. Its charm and spell are like that of autumn, the -remembrance of what has gone, the tender grace of a day that is dead. -For all the beauty and wonder of this world, there is a tear at the -heart of things. Beneath all our laughter and happiness there lies that -deeper note. The night cometh. There is an end to it all--friendship, -love, happiness, work, life itself. - - "For be the long day never so long, - At last it ringeth to evensong." - - -And yet, and yet, my brothers, the end is beautiful, more beautiful even -than the beginning. God has made the day's death to be exceeding fair. -The sun passes gloriously to its rest. Hopefully too, for, passing -thus, it promises a new and fairer morning. So do God's children die. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, who hast written Thy Word of hope and promise in the -evening sky, be near us when our day is done, and the wind has fallen -silent, and the night is waiting. Put us to sleep in a chamber of peace -whose windows open toward the sun rising, and, when we awake, may we be -still with Thee. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a -registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, -unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything -for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. 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The replaced older file is renamed. -_Versions_ based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving -new filenames and etext numbers. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg(tm), -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/39309-8.zip b/39309-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 582caa1..0000000 --- a/39309-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/39309-h.zip b/39309-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 5eb4ab3..0000000 --- a/39309-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/39309-h/39309-h.html b/39309-h/39309-h.htm index 269a21a..bac4c0d 100644 --- a/39309-h/39309-h.html +++ b/39309-h/39309-h.htm @@ -431,35 +431,9 @@ pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap </style> </head> <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39309 ***</div> <div class="document" id="one-day-at-a-time"> <h1 class="document-title level-1 pfirst title">ONE DAY AT A TIME</h1> - -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="align-None container language-en noindent pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<p class="noindent pfirst">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the <a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a> -included with this eBook or online at -<a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a>.</p> -<p class="noindent pnext"></p> -<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="align-None container noindent white-space-pre-line" id="pg-machine-header"> -<p class="noindent pfirst white-space-pre-line"><span class="white-space-pre-line">Title: One Day at a Time<br /> - and Other Talks on Life and Religion<br /> -<br /> -Author: Arch. Alexander<br /> -<br /> -Release Date: March 29, 2012 [EBook #39309]<br /> -<br /> -Language: English<br /> -<br /> -Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p> -</div> -<div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line">*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK <span>ONE DAY AT A TIME</span>***</p> <div class="noindent vspace" style="height: 4em"> </div> <p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> @@ -4508,346 +4482,6 @@ we be still with Thee. For Jesus' sake. Amen.</p> <!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> <div class="backmatter"> </div> -<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line">*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK <span>ONE DAY AT A TIME</span>***</p> -<div class="cleardoublepage"> -</div> -<div class="language-en level-2 pgfooter section" id="a-word-from-project-gutenberg" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<span id="pg-footer"></span><h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title">A Word from Project Gutenberg</h2> -<p class="pfirst">We will update this book if we find any errors.</p> -<p class="pnext">This book can be found under: <a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309"><span>http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309</span></a></p> -<p class="pnext">Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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-
-.. meta::
- :PG.Id: 39309
- :PG.Title: One Day at a Time
- :PG.Released: 2012-03-29
- :PG.Rights: Public Domain
- :PG.Producer: Al Haines
- :DC.Creator: Arch. Alexander
- :DC.Title: One Day at a Time
- and Other Talks on Life and Religion
- :DC.Language: en
- :DC.Created: 1920
-
-.. role:: small-caps
- :class: small-caps
-
-=================
-ONE DAY AT A TIME
-=================
-
-.. pgheader::
-
-.. class:: center large
-
- |
- |
- |
- | A DAY AT A TIME
- |
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | AND OTHER TALKS
- | ON LIFE AND RELIGION
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | BY THE REV.
- | ARCH. ALEXANDER, M.A., B.D.
- |
- | Author of
- | "The Glory in the Grey"
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | SECOND EDITION
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LIMITED
- | RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | *Printed in Great Britain*
- | *by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh*
- |
- |
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | THIS BOOK
- | WRITTEN IN WAR-TIME
- | TO MINISTER COMFORT
- | AND IF IT MAY BE TO REINFORCE HOPE
- | AND FAITH
- | IS DEDICATED
- | BY PERMISSION
- | TO
- | SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE
- | G.C.B., K.C.V.O.
- | ADMIRAL OF THE GRAND FLEET
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- | "There are nettles everywhere,
- | But smooth green grasses are more common still;
- | The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud."
- | E. B. BROWNING
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | CONTENTS
-
-.. class:: left medium
-
- | 1. `A DAY AT A TIME`_
- | 2. `GOD IN THE WHEELS`_
- | 3. `A TRIPLE BEST`_
- | 4. `FINICAL FARMING`_
- | 5. `THE DOCTOR`_
- | 6. `WELL AND NOW`_
- | 7. `THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME`_
- | 8. `THE REAL MARTHA`_
- | 9. `OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT`_
- | 10. `SMOKING WICKS`_
- | 11. `CULPABLE GOODNESS`_
- | 12. `A KHAKI VIRTUE`_
- | 13. `THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC`_
- | 14. `THE DAY'S DARG`_
- | 15. `GASHMU THE GOSSIP`_
- | 16. `GOD IN FRONT`_
- | 17. `"UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET"`_
- | 18. `THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY`_
- | 19. `THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN`_
- | 20. `UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE`_
- | 21. `INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY`_
- | 22. `GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE`_
- | 23. `NOWADAYS`_
- | 24. `ROUNDABOUT ROADS`_
- | 25. `THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE`_
- | 26. `THE ART OF DOING WITHOUT`_
- | 27. `WONDER`_
- | 28. `THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD`_
- | 29. `THE UNRETURNING BRAVE`_
- | 30. `THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET`_
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. _`A DAY AT A TIME`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*As thy days, so shall thy strength be.*"
- | (DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 25.)
- |
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | I
- |
- | A DAY AT A TIME
-
-If any one of us knows a word of hope or has picked up a message of
-comfort anywhere, it is his plain duty to share it, these days. We owe
-it to each other to cherish as exceeding precious, and to pass on to
-others, every brave and helpful word or thought we come across.
-
-Well, here is a splendid one for us all, and especially for those who
-have most at stake in this great conflict, and are looking anxiously
-ahead and fearing what the weeks may have in store,--"As thy days, so
-shall thy strength be." It is a great and glorious promise. And just
-a couple of verses further on, it is caught up and included in one
-greater still,--"The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the
-everlasting arms." Fathers and mothers, with a boy, or more than one,
-perhaps, away on active service for King and country, this promise is
-for you, to take to your heart and hide there, like some precious
-secret between you and God,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be.
-
-Notice carefully, however, how the promise runs. Not, mark you, as
-your life is, not as your years are, not even as your weeks are, but as
-your days, so shall your strength be. For each day as it comes, God's
-promise is that strength will be given you, but just for a day at a
-time. The way to live under any circumstances, but especially in these
-hard weeks, is just a day at a time. Leave to-morrow with God, my
-brother, until it comes. That is what the Word of God lays upon you as
-a duty. Live this day at your best and bravest, trusting that God's
-help will not fail you. And for the duties and trials of to-morrow,
-however hard and heavy, believe that strength for that day also will be
-given you, when it comes.
-
-You cannot have failed to observe what an important place this way of
-living had in the teaching of Jesus Christ. He was always trying to
-get men to trust the coming days to God, and to live fully worthily and
-nobly to-day. He was dead against the practice of adding to the
-burdens of to-day fears and forebodings for to-morrow. It is in love
-to us, in His desire to save us unnecessary pain, that He bids us
-remember that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
-
-In one of R. D. Blackmore's fine open-air stories, there is a character
-who talks at length about horses. After comparing good ones and bad
-ones in their behaviour the first time they breast a hill with a load
-behind them, he sums the matter up thus: "Howsoever good a horse be, he
-longeth to see over the top of the hill before he be half-way up it."
-The man who is listening to him confesses that he has often felt that
-way himself! And I do not know that there are many of us who can claim
-to be guiltless in this respect. Yet it is perfectly plain that the
-men and women who are living the bravest and most successful lives
-around us, and are proving towers of strength to others, are those who
-have learned the art of living just a day at a time, and of depending
-upon God for strength for that day in the simplest and most trustful
-fashion.
-
-Why, my brothers, if God our Father had meant us to carry on our backs
-the fears and anxieties of the coming days, He would surely have told
-us more about them! If we were meant to bear to-day what next week
-holds, surely we should have been permitted to see into next week. But
-we cannot. We cannot see a single second ahead. God gives us Now, and
-To-Morrow He keeps to Himself. Is there anything wiser or better we
-can do with our to-morrows than just to leave them quietly and
-trustfully with Him?
-
-The habit of living ahead, as so many of us do, prevents us from
-getting the full taste and flavour of the happiness and blessing that
-are ours to-day. I defy any man to be adequately grateful for this
-day's sunshine if he is worrying all the time about the chance of a bad
-day to-morrow. Mark Rutherford, merciless self-critic as he was, takes
-himself severely to task for this habit in his "Autobiography." "I
-learned, alas! when it was almost too late," he says, "to live in each
-moment as it passed over my head, believing that the sun as it is now
-rising, is as good as it ever will be." Yes, in great things as well
-as in little things, that is true. If we are to live our lives at the
-full, and anywhere on the Christian level, the only way is to live one
-day at a time.
-
-Our forefathers in the pulpit were fond of reminding their hearers to
-live each day as if it were their last. And in solemn truth, without
-being in the least morbid, that is the way to live. If a man knew that
-after to-day, he would not smell the sea again, how fully and
-gratefully would he fill his lungs with its ozone to-day! If he knew
-he were not to enter God's House again, how earnestly and sincerely and
-reverently he would join in its worship to-day! Yes, but the point is,
-why should his hope, that he has other days to come, prevent him taking
-out of this day all that he possibly can? Why should this day be any
-less prized, because others in all probability will follow it?
-
-But the great value of this word is the comfort of it to those who are
-anxious and fear the coming days. And which of us is not in that
-category? I do not suppose there is one of my readers upon whom,
-somehow or other, the war has not levied its tax. Nearly every one has
-somebody belonging to him or her who is in this gigantic struggle, and
-whose welfare is a matter of real concern. And, closer still, there
-are fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, whose very dearest are
-"in it" or are getting ready to do their share. They have joined, and
-we are proud that they have joined, for this is a cause that ennobles
-every mother's son who fights for it. But who shall say what the
-mother's thoughts are, these days? How proud, and justly proud, the
-father is that his boy has played the man, and offered himself to his
-King and for his country! But only God, who made the father--and the
-mother--heart, knows what the surrender costs. And only God knows how
-eagerly and anxiously they look ahead to try to see what the future may
-hold.
-
-And, knowing that, He sends His comfort to you, fathers and mothers.
-The comfort of His promise,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be.
-Just a day at a time, my friend! Do not take fears for next month on
-your shoulders now. You will get strength given you for to-day,
-certain and sure, and when next month comes, the strength and comfort
-for that day will come too, as certain and as sure. Be not
-over-anxious about the morrow. Leave your to-morrow, and your
-soldier-son, in God's hands. You can do nothing more at the best, and
-this is the best. But it is such a mistake to do anything less. Leave
-all your to-morrows with God--it is what He wants you to do--and humbly
-and gratefully take from His hands His gift of To-day, and the strength
-that comes with it. If that be not enough--and it is not enough for
-God has said more--when that is not enough, still your heart a moment,
-and listen! And you will hear, beneath that promise for to-day, like
-the grand deep tones of an organ, the magnificent diapason of the
-Father's constant love and mindfulness,--"The eternal God is thy
-refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." And surely that is
-enough!
-
- | "So for To-morrow and its needs
- | I do not pray,
- | But keep me, guide me, help me, Lord,
- | Just for To-Day."
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, who dost appoint the way for each of us, give us the
-grace to trust that as Thou hast helped us hitherto, so, in Thy great
-mercy, Thou wilt bless us still. We do not ask to see the distant
-scene. Keep us, and our beloved, this day; and in quietness and
-confidence teach us to leave to-morrow with Thee, our Father. Through
-Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`GOD IN THE WHEELS`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The Spirit of life was in the wheels.*"
- | (EZEKIEL i. 21.)
- |
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | II
- |
- | GOD IN THE WHEELS
-
-The prophet Ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of God. He tries
-to tell us about it, but his description seems to be a meaningless
-jumble of cherubim, and wheels,--wheels within wheels, complex,
-wonderful, unresting. Behind all, he saw the Glory of God. And again
-and again he tells us that "the Spirit of Life was in the wheels."
-
-Now that at least is intelligible, and it is a good thing for us to
-think about. The Spirit of God is in the wheels.
-
-I want to suggest to you that He is in the wheels of industry. We have
-no hesitation in saying that God gives the farmer his harvest, and we
-actually thank Him for it in His temple. A shepherd with a lamb in his
-arms is for a pastoral people like the Jews the very image of the
-Saviour God. But men who dwell in towns, and work in mills and
-factories and yards and railways, or who control or manage such places,
-have little to do with either corn or sheep. Is it not worth while to
-remind them that God is also in the wheels? Do you remember how
-Kipling's old chief engineer Macandrew believed that his twin monsters,
-driving the liner onward on her way, sang their hourly hymn of praise
-to God? And why not? From all the wheels of industry and man's
-inventiveness, goes there not up to Him a praise as real as the song of
-His little birds?
-
-Where two or three gather together on Lord's days, God is truly and
-graciously present. But I want you to remember that out in the noisy
-moving world of industry and business, God is present also, guiding,
-controlling and bringing His long, long plans to pass. It is by His
-decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and
-spin, for He needs them all, and has brought them into being by the
-hands of men, and they are His, as the Church is His. I would not have
-you, as Christian men, look upon your week-day world with its mechanism
-and its traffic, that world of yours that goes so literally upon
-wheels, as a province of life very far remote from the presence of God.
-I would remind you rather that God's spirit is in those wheels, that
-they move at His bidding, and that they are working out His purposes
-upon the earth.
-
-I would suggest, further, that God is in those wheels whose turning
-brings us Change. If you will allow the figure, I would say that God
-is in the wheels of Change and time.
-
-As we grow older, we resent more and more the constant alteration of
-the surroundings of life. It saddens us that there should be such a
-continual moving on. But perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and
-practice that changes hurt and perplex us most. Godly old customs die
-out. The face of truth seems to alter. Old notes in religion
-disappear and new ones take their place, and we are sorely tempted to
-ask if it be possible that the children can know God better or serve
-His Christ more truly than their fathers. Ah yes, from forty years and
-upwards, men are very apt to have a quarrel with change. They resent
-it, and would spike Time's wheels if they could.
-
-Forgetting that the Spirit of God is in those very wheels. Change is
-God's method and His blessing. The Bible does not envy the man who has
-no changes. It is afraid for him, afraid that for want of them, he may
-settle on his lees, and forget the fear of God.
-
-Of course, no one will defend every new fashion, or assert that
-everything recent is an improvement on what went before. But I, for
-one, do believe that generation after generation men are moving up,
-being shepherded up, the long slope of history nearer to God. I
-believe that God's promise is that He will do better for us than at the
-beginnings, and I believe He is keeping His promise. I must believe
-that the history of this world which man rough hews, is--spite of all
-the wars--being shaped by God Himself, or else there is no God at all.
-And so I would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life,
-and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt,
-"Fear not! Be of good courage! For aback of all change is God our
-Father, and it is His Spirit that is working in the wheels."
-
-Again, I would suggest to you that God is in the wheels that shape your
-own lot and mine. The wheels of Chance, they are sometimes called, the
-mere whirligig of destiny, as if the world were some blind
-irresponsible machine grinding on in the dark, and heeding not which or
-how many lives were broken in its teeth.
-
-And I grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible. For
-life is full of mysterious happenings, and chance sometimes seems the
-most probable explanation. The tragedy of Job is always being played
-somewhere. There are men who up to a certain point in life have known
-nothing but good fortune, and after that, nothing but disappointment
-and disaster. Out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one; while
-from clouds lowering and heavy, it is waited for, expected and
-dreaded--and never comes! The merest knife-edge of circumstance
-sometimes affects results out of all proportion to its importance. "A
-grain of sand in a man's flesh" as Pascal remarks, "has changed the
-course of Empires." Yes, I grant you, there be times when the blind
-chance theory does suggest itself.
-
-But by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it. And
-best of all, Jesus Christ, our supreme authority, has pledged Himself
-in His life and death, that the Ruler and Disposer of all events is
-Eternal Love. We have learned from Jesus to say and to trust "Our
-Father who art in Heaven." We know and believe that whatever is to
-come falls not by chance, but is sent and permitted by the Love of God,
-who makes no mistakes. Taught and inspired by Jesus, many thousands of
-men and women have committed themselves and all their interests--home,
-health, happiness, reputation, loved ones--to the keeping of God the
-Father, and known by the peace that came to them, that it was a real
-transaction.
-
-Soulless wheels of destiny! say some. The blind mechanism of law! Ah,
-no, Jesus is the refutation of that. Law there is, and mechanism there
-must be. But neither blind nor soulless. For, above all, is the
-Father Love of God, and it is His spirit that is guiding and governing
-the wheels.
-
-Wheels of Industry, Wheels of Change, Wheels of Destiny. And God's
-Spirit in them all!
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, to whom not only the Church but our whole work-a-day
-world belongs, give us the purged sight that can see Thy tokens there.
-Deliver us from all foolish fear of changes since the goad moving all
-things onward is in our Father's hand. And help us to be sure that
-whatsoever befalleth us and ours has been permitted and appointed by a
-Love that passeth knowledge. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`A TRIPLE BEST`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The just shall live by faith.*"
- | (ROMANS i. 17.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | III
- |
- | A TRIPLE BEST
-
-Some time ago I came across the life-motto of George Stephenson, the
-"father of the locomotive," as he has been called, the man whose brains
-and sagacity made possible the network of railways which spreads now
-over the earth. The crystallised experience of such a life is worth
-studying Here, then, was Stephenson's working formula:--"Make the best
-of everything; think the best of everybody; hope the best for yourself."
-
-First, MAKE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. In every set of circumstances
-possible or conceivable, there are always, at any rate, two ways of
-acting. You can look for the helpful, bright, and hopeful things, and
-"freeze on" to these meantime. Or, you can select all the doleful,
-sombre aspects, and sit down in the dust with them. Now, if it did not
-matter which a man did, there would be no good saying any more. But it
-has long since become abundantly clear that the man who makes the best
-of his circumstances, however hard they be, comes most happily out of
-them in the end. In other words, it pays to make the best of things.
-It is the cheery people who recover quickest when they are sick. There
-are men who, if their house should fall in ruins about them, will
-contrive some sort of shelter meantime with the broken beams! That is
-the type that wins out in the end somehow; these are the men to whom
-the miracles happen--who never know when they are beaten, who will face
-the most tremendous odds with "the half of a broken hope" for a shield,
-who are never done until they are dead. What makes for success or
-failure in a man is nothing external to him at all. It is something
-within him. It is the temper of his spirit. It is the way he captains
-his own soul.
-
-The other day I saw a photograph of a backyard. It was a little bit of
-a place, of the most forlorn appearance, littered with tin cans,
-overgrown with weeds, and hemmed round with blank walls of brick. But
-it came into the hands of a man who believed in making the best of
-things. Another photograph showed that same backyard after a year had
-passed. It was still as small as ever, still overlooked by high walls
-and surrounded by chimneys. But it was now a perfect little oasis of
-beauty amid a wilderness of bricks and slates. Will anybody deny that
-that spirit pays?
-
-Right up the scale, from little things to the highest things, the man
-who looks for the shining possibilities and follows them, is the man on
-whom, in our short-sighted way, we say that Fortune smiles. Rather, he
-smiles in such a determined way to Fortune, that she has at length to
-smile back!
-
-Nobody pretends that it is easy, when we have failed, to gather our
-powers together and try again. But nearly all the big men have had to
-do that very thing. It certainly is not easy, when you have a heavy
-burden of your own, to spare a cheery word or a hand of sympathy for
-somebody who is really much better off, but there are plenty of people
-doing it at this moment. Nero's palace is the last place in this world
-where you would expect to find a company of loyal Christian folk. Yet
-there were such people there, "the saints of Cæsar's household." And
-the grace of God that made that possible can achieve all these lesser
-wonders too.
-
-Second, THINK THE BEST OF EVERYBODY. There is a winsome legend that
-Jesus once revealed Himself in this way:--A knot of idlers had gathered
-in the street round a dead dog. One remarked how mangy and unkempt its
-hide was. Another said, "What ugly ears!" But a stranger, who had
-come forward, said, "Pearls are not whiter than its teeth!" And men
-said to one another, "This must be Jesus of Nazareth, for nobody but He
-would find something good even in a dead dog." Certainly it is the
-mark of the most Christlike men and women that they delight rather in
-emphasising the merest speck of goodness than in denouncing the too
-visible evil. We can, all too easily, see the fault in another. What
-we cannot see is the heart of the defaulter, the weight of temptation
-he struggled under, and his bitter inner penitence. "Granted," as
-Carlyle says, "the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle
-damaged; the pilot is blameworthy. He has not been all-wise and
-all-powerful. But, to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his
-voyage has been round the globe, or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of
-Dogs."
-
-The way to get the best out of people is to think the best about them.
-Let a man see that you have good hopes of him, and recognise what is
-best in him, and, in ways of which science can give no explanation, you
-add to his chances of reaching better things. In any case, who would
-not wish to stand on Christ's side rather than on Judas's. "This
-ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the
-poor." That is Judas. "Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath
-wrought a good work in me. She hath done what she could." That is
-Jesus Christ.
-
-Third,--Don't leave yourself out of the picture. HOPE THE BEST FOR
-YOURSELF. George Eliot, in her "Scenes of Clerical Life," gives, in
-one chapter, an account of how the Rev. Amos Barton is criticised and
-discussed in his parish. In the next chapter we see the Rev. Amos
-himself going on his way blissfully unconscious of the poor opinion in
-which he is held, believing quite honestly in himself, and not a little
-proud of his abilities. "We are poor plants," says this keen student
-of character, "buoyed up by the air vessels of our own conceit." And a
-blessed thing, too, when you think of it! If we only knew all the
-disparaging remarks people make about us, we should never face up to
-our duties at all. What helps us along is our innocent belief in our
-powers, in the esteem in which we are held--our little conceits, if you
-like. Since they send us to our tasks with more spirit, and keep us at
-them with more determination, aren't they good things in their way?
-They are indeed just a lower form of that hope that we are speaking
-of--Hope's poor relations.
-
-If these are of such value, how much more pure quiet steady Hope
-itself, purged of all pride and undue self-esteem? Hope the best for
-yourself, and you are already a good way on the road to it. Suggestion
-is a tremendously powerful instrument, even when you make it yourself.
-By self suggestion, the psychologists tell us, you can influence your
-actions, your character, and your general outlook in a wonderful
-fashion, either to your advantage or your hurt. Therefore, they say,
-be careful never to suggest evil to yourself. Never say to yourself,
-"I'm going to make a mess of this," or "I am not fit for that."
-Suggest success, happiness, health, and you beckon them to you. Hope
-the best for yourself, and you pave the way for its coming.
-
-On higher planes, the same holds true. Hope on, and, though you fall
-you will rise again. Believe that you will be enabled to face your
-trouble or temptation, and you will be brought through it somehow.
-Even when the end of life is near, hope still, for beyond this best
-there is a better, and God's road winds uphill all the way.
-
-But, you say, this is just faith. I know it is. Run your hopes for
-yourself up as high as you can reach, and they will touch God and
-become faith. That is why you are to hope the best for yourself.
-Because--God. Because God the Father loves you, and desires the best
-for you too. I believe in the optimism which Stephenson's motto
-embodies, because I believe in the Fatherhood of God through our Lord
-Jesus Christ. That is why I counsel you to go on hoping that the best
-is yet to be. Not that we can earn it at all, or that we deserve it at
-all. But--because God, our Father. And, for the daring and faith of
-that saying, this sufficient ground.--Because--Jesus Christ.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Help us all, Heavenly Father, to meet the discipline of life with
-stouter hearts. May we all try harder to cultivate the Christ-like
-mark of charity. And spite of our many sins and shortcomings, and our
-poor love of Thee, grant us the courage to believe that all things, in
-Thy great Love for us, are working together for our good. We ask it
-for Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`FINICAL FARMING`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*He that observeth the wind*
- | *shall not sow, and he that*
- | *regardeth the clouds shall not*
- | *reap.*"
- | (ECCLESIASTES ii. 4.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | IV
- |
- | FINICAL FARMING
-
-When a man like the writer of Ecclesiastes gives his views on life, it
-is worth everybody's while to listen. A tabloid of experience is worth
-a ton of theory. And it is from his own knowledge of men and
-experience of life that he has discovered that "he that observeth the
-wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap."
-
-Was ever a temper of mind, that we all know something about, more
-neatly hit off than that? You can see the very picture which this wise
-preacher had before his eyes. Agricola was a farmer in his parish who
-would not sow his fields unless the wind was blowing soft and gentle
-from a certain direction, and the clouds were just as he wished to see
-them. He held there was no hope of a harvest unless wind and clouds
-were right. And I observed, says the wise man, that Agricola, my
-farmer friend, waiting for the exactly suitable conditions, never got
-his seed in at all.
-
-He was speaking chiefly about benevolence and charity when he used this
-figure. And that is one reason why we need to give heed to it. For
-ours is an age of charity. We give more to the poor and needy to-day
-than ever any nation gave before. It is said, indeed, that a good deal
-of our giving is not very wise. Our charities overlap. The truly
-necessitous are forgotten, and the improvident, the lazy, and the
-wasteful reap the largest share. Certainly that is one of the perils
-of charity-giving. But I question very much if, in our efforts to
-avoid it, we are not running the risk of falling into a graver mistake
-still, namely, of observing the wind overmuch before we sow. If I
-refuse to give my mite for Christ's sake till I have made perfectly
-certain that it will not be misused, if we withhold our subscription
-from a charity till we are assured that it is managed in the very most
-economical fashion, it will end in us giving nothing at all. There is,
-of course, a reasonable amount of inquiry that is not only legitimate
-but necessary. Just as there is a regarding of the clouds before
-reaping which is simply wise. But, to wait till every scruple is
-satisfied, till every risk has been eliminated and there is not a cloud
-in the sky, is to wait for a state of matters that may be long enough
-in coming. Meantime the needy person may die; or the corn blacken in
-the fields.
-
-Charity, however, is but a small part of Christian benevolence. The
-law of Christ says "neighbour" whether he be poor or not. He is in
-trouble, and I feel inclined to visit him. Must I wait till I am sure
-he will not misunderstand my motive? I have it in my heart to forgive
-him. Shall I defer the reconciliation till I am convinced he will not
-offend again? Or I have hurt and offended him, and wish to apologise.
-Had I not better wait till I know that he will not reject my advances?
-The wise man's answer to all these questions is an emphatic No. If you
-wait for all that, he says, you will wait too long, and the chance will
-go past. Wait till the wind and the clouds are just as you would wish
-them, and you will neither sow nor reap at all.
-
-What to do, then? The wise man answers: "In the morning sow thy seed,
-and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether
-shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
-good." Just because you can never fully calculate what the result of
-your labours may be, give up trying. Don't trouble about it, but do
-what comes to your hand at the time. If it is sowing time, don't wait
-for the perfect day. If the weather will do at all, sow thy seed in
-the morning, and in the evening do not stop. In other words, Take life
-more royally. Do not be deterred by its ordinary risks. Seize your
-chance like a brave man. You do not know, of course, whether that seed
-you sow will prosper or not. But sow it, all the same. Don't let the
-fact that you don't know cause you to hold your hand. It is just
-because you do not know but that the kindness which you offer your
-neighbour may be ill-requited, that there is a royal free-handed
-self-forgetfulness in offering it. That a man should live his life and
-do his good deeds with a certain dash and carelessness of
-consequence--that, the Preacher thought the ideal of noble living. And
-when we measure it by the standard of Him who said, Do good and lend,
-hoping for nothing again, it does not seem to come so very far short.
-
-For, of course, there are the continual surprises that life holds for
-faith. If only the corn reaped when the clouds were just right was
-safely gathered in, then indeed we might feel that we could not be too
-careful. But what do we find again and again? Why, we find that men
-who have had the faith to sow when the day was by no means perfect have
-been blessed beyond their expectations. We find our barns full and
-running over, though we reaped on a cloudy day. We have seen men cast
-their bread upon the waters, where you would say it was certain to be
-lost, and find it again, after many days. It's perfectly true that you
-don't know whether shall prosper this or that. Yet how often have you
-been surprised to find that where you thought you knew, you were proved
-mistaken, and where you dealt in faith, it stood justified beyond your
-dreams.
-
-And so, the end of the matter for the Preacher is, once more, Live your
-life royally, with a certain loving wastefulness, and an easy disregard
-of calculations. Do all the good you can, and do it with a free hand,
-not asking to see your harvest before you sow, but taking your risk of
-it, and leaving the outcome with God. "Cast your bread on the waters,
-and you will find it after many days."
-
-But what of the bread one has cast on the waters, only to see it
-carried away, apparently of no use to anybody? What of the faith that
-has not been justified? What of the good done to the ill-deserving, of
-the kindly-meant act repaid with indignity and scorn? It is a hard
-question, not easy to answer, not fully to be answered at all. "After
-many days," said the Preacher. And there is no sign yet, we say.
-Patience, brothers, patience! God's day is not yet done. When the
-days have run out to the end, it will be time enough to say if we miss
-the bread returning. We shall be better able to count the gains and
-the losses, if there are any then,--when the "days" are done.
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Teach us, O Lord and Master, the high and difficult lesson that only
-those who lose their lives shall truly find them. Show us that the
-manna hoarded in miserly fashion is always touched by Thy curse. In
-small things as in great, may this be a token that we are Thy
-disciples, that virtue also goeth out of us. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE DOCTOR`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*But when Jesus heard*
- | *that, he said unto them, they*
- | *that be whole need not a physician,*
- | *but they that are sick.*"
- | (MATTHEW ix. 12.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | V
- |
- | THE DOCTOR
-
-Jesus is Himself the best witness as to what He was, and what He wished
-to do for men. It is a fact, moreover, for which we cannot be too
-thankful that, in explaining Himself, Jesus used not the language of
-doctrine, but living figures and symbols which the humblest and
-youngest could not fail to understand.
-
-When, for example, He compared Himself to a shepherd leaving the ninety
-and nine in the fold and braving the darkness and the steep places that
-he might bring back the one that had wandered, He opens a window into
-His own love for men which is worth pages of description. For those
-who are familiar with the daily life and work of a shepherd, it means a
-great deal that Jesus waits to be the Shepherd of men.
-
-But, in these very different days of ours, there are multitudes in
-streets and tenements who have never seen a shepherd, and know not what
-manner of life is his. So that one is glad that Jesus gave Himself
-other names as well. When Matthew Arnold met the pale-faced preacher
-in the slums of Bethnal Green, and asked him how he did--
-
- | "Bravely," he said, "for I of late have been
- | Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread."
- |
-
-If that name for Christ brought him comfort, another preacher may be
-allowed to confess that he has often been cheered and helped by the
-thought of Jesus as the Good Physician. I am glad that in effect, at
-least, if not in actual words, He called Himself by that name.
-
-This is His apology for consorting with publicans and sinners, for
-being so accessible to those who had lost caste and character. He says
-it is the sick who need a Physician, not those who are well. And His
-defence implies that Jesus regarded Himself as being in a true sense a
-Physician, not for outward ills merely, but for the whole man, body,
-mind, and spirit.
-
-The days were, as you know, when priest and physician were one calling;
-and it is doubtless to the advantage of both vocations that their
-spheres are now distinct. But it may be, and I think it is,
-unfortunate that Jesus should be regarded by many as so entirely
-identified with the priestly side of life and the priestly calling. It
-is beyond question that a faithful priest is, in his degree, a mirror
-of Christ, and helps men to see Him more clearly. But it is also
-true--and a truth worth underlining in these days--that the Doctor,
-too, is a symbol of what Christ means to be to men--nay, more, that
-there are respects in which the figure of a beloved physician of to-day
-comes nearer to the reality of the living human Christ than any other
-calling in the world.
-
-It is a sure and unique place which the Doctor holds in the esteem and
-confidence of the community. He is the most accessible of all
-professional men, the most implicitly trusted, and, I think, the best
-beloved. At all hours of the day and night he is ready to give his
-services to those who need him. His mere presence in the sick room
-inspires confidence. In the poor districts of town and city
-especially, he is more really the friend and confidant and helper of
-everybody than any other person whatever. As no other man does, the
-Doctor goes about continually doing good. His life is a constant
-self-sacrifice for his fellow-men. He wears himself out in the
-interests of the needy. He runs risks daily from which other men flee.
-He asks not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and often and
-literally he gives his life a ransom for many.
-
-And I do not know what we have been thinking of that we have not
-oftener made use of this as Christ's claim for Himself, that we have
-not told the ignorant and the very poor especially, who know far more
-about the Doctor than they do about the Church, who are, in fact, shy
-of all that is priestly, but who do understand and appreciate the
-Doctor, I say, I do not know why we have not oftener told them to
-forget that Jesus is the King and Head of the Church and remember only
-that He is the best of all Physicians. That Christ is compassionate,
-sympathetic, and approachable, like the Doctor, would be veritable good
-news to many a poor ignorant soul who is mightily afraid of His priests.
-
-The word which comes to our lips when we seek to characterise the life
-and work of the true Doctor is Christlike. And big as the title is, it
-is deserved. In sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, in his care most for
-those who most need him, in the way he identifies himself with his
-patient, bearing with, because understanding, his weakness and
-petulance and fears, and seeking all the while only to heal and help
-and save him, there is no more Christlike character or calling in the
-modern world than the Doctor.
-
-I am the happy possessor of an engraving--a gift from one whose calling
-is to teach doctors--of Luke Fildes' famous picture. Most of you
-doubtless are familiar with it. It represents the interior of a humble
-home where a little child lies critically ill. The father and mother,
-distracted with grief, have yielded their place beside the couch to the
-Doctor, who sits watching and waiting, all-absorbed in the little one's
-trouble. It is a noble face, strong, compassionate, resourceful,
-gentle; and if the Eternal Christ of God is to be represented to us in
-His strength and gentleness by any human analogy or likeness whatever,
-as He wished to be, and indeed must be, no finer figure could be found,
-I think, than that, none more certain to draw out the reverence and
-gratitude and trust of men.
-
-Men of all grades and classes appeal to and trust the Doctor. But how
-many of them realise that Jesus desires that men should come to Him and
-trust His willingness to help and save them, just as they would do to
-some good physician? How many men who have found comfort by taking
-their fears and forebodings to the Doctor and hearing his authoritative
-"Go in peace!" know or realise that just so would Jesus have us bring
-Him our unworthiness and shame and sin? Jesus never preached at those
-whom His compassion drew to Him. He never lectured them, He just
-helped them, and that at once. He lifted them to their feet and gave
-them a new hope. He, straightway, in God's name, assured them of
-forgiveness.
-
-Ah, if men only understood that Jesus is to be found to-day down among
-the world's burdened and weary souls, not as a Priest begirt with
-ceremony and aloof from daily life, but as a Physician, approachable,
-helpful, human, who sees and pities their weakness, and longs to save
-them and help them to their best. If men only understood that!
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-We come to Thee, Thou Good Physician, with all our ills and fears. We
-would whisper in Thine ear the troubles that frighten and shame us.
-Surely Thou wilt hear. Draw near us in Thy strength and Pity, and in
-Thy Mercy heal us all. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`WELL AND NOW`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Whatsoever thy hand findeth*
- | *to do, do it with thy might,*
- | *for there is no work nor device*
- | *nor knowledge nor wisdom in*
- | *the grave whither thou goest.*"
- | (ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | VI
- |
- | WELL AND NOW
-
-In popular and condensed form, the golden rule according to
-Ecclesiastes is, "Do it well and do it now." His own words are,
-"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is
-no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou
-goest." We want to let that precept soak into our minds for a little.
-
-DO IT WELL. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."
-Among the lesser joys of life there are few that thrill one with a more
-pleasurable sense of satisfaction than that which goes with the bit of
-work finished, rounded-off and done as well as one can do it. No
-matter what the job may be, if it is worth doing at all, or if it is
-one's business to do it, it is not difficult to recognise in the
-curious inward glow over its honourable completion, a token of God's
-good pleasure, some far-off echo of His "Well done!"
-
-It is a truism which never loses its point that it is enthusiasm that
-commands success. In her weird book called "Dreams," Olive Schreiner
-tells the parable of an artist who painted a beautiful picture. On it
-there was a wonderful glow which drew the admiration of all his
-compeers, but which none could imitate. The other painters said, Where
-did he get his colours? But though they sought rich and rare pigments
-in far-off Eastern lands they could not catch the secret of it. One
-day the artist was found dead beside his picture, and when they
-stripped him for his shroud they found a wound beneath his heart. Then
-it dawned upon them where he had got his colour. He had painted his
-picture with his own heart's blood! It is the only way to paint it, if
-the picture is to be worth while at all. If we would have the work
-that we do live and count, our heart's blood must go into it.
-Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
-
-What magnificent heart-stirring examples are coming to us every day
-just now, from sea and battle-field, of the good old British virtue of
-sticking in gamely to the end and "seeing the thing through!" If the
-stories of the old English Admirals are calculated, as Stevenson says,
-to "send bank clerks back with more heart and spirit to their
-book-keeping by double entry," shall not the story that unfolds day by
-day of what our own kith and kin are doing, nerve and inspire us all to
-"do OUR bit," to face up to OUR duty, humdrum and ordinary though it
-be, with the same grit and energy, with the same determination to see
-it through, and make as good a job of it as we can?
-
-The Preacher has his reason for this advice. Because, he says, some
-day you will have to stop and lay down your tools, and that will be the
-end. No more touching botched work after that. No going back to lift
-dropped stitches then. Such as it is, your record will have to stand
-as you leave it, when Death raps at your door. Even for us in this
-Christian age, this ancient Preacher's reason still stands valid and
-solemn. Do what you are at now as well as ever you can, for you shall
-pass that way no more again for ever.
-
-The Apostle Paul, who expresses practically the same sentiment, gives a
-different reason. "Whatever ye do," he writes to the Colossians, "do
-it heartily as to the Lord." And that is the point for you and me.
-Not merely because we have a limited time to work, but because our work
-is Christ's service, we must do it heartily, with all our might. It is
-to the Lord. To us all in our different labours, in the things we work
-at day by day, and the worthy interests we endeavour to support, there
-comes this call that transforms the very commonest duty into an
-honourable obligation to a personal living Master--Whatever ye do, do
-it heartily as to the Lord.
-
-Yes, and DO IT NOW. For the amount of misery and suffering and remorse
-that is directly due to putting off the God-given impulse or generous
-purpose to some other season, is simply incalculable. If all the kind
-letters had been written when the thought of writing was fresh and
-insistent--ah me, how many burdened souls would have been the braver
-and the stronger. If only the friendly visit had been paid when we
-thought about it--and why wasn't it? "Never suppose," says Bagshot,
-"that you can make up to a neglected friend by going to visit him in a
-hospital. Repent on your own death-bed, if you like, but not on
-another's."
-
-An old writer on agriculture says that there are seasons when if the
-husbandman misses a day he falls a whole year behind. But in life the
-result is often more serious still. When you miss the day, you miss it
-for ever. Wherefore, let us hear the words of the Preacher. If we
-have a kind purpose in our heart towards any living soul, let us do it
-now. If we think of beginning a better way of living, let us begin
-now. If we propose to end our days sworn and surrendered servants and
-soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us volunteer now, for this is
-the day of salvation.
-
-It is said that a great English moralist had engraved on his watch the
-words, "The night cometh," so that whenever he looked at the time he
-might be reminded of the preciousness of the passing moment. The night
-cometh. How far away it may be, or how near to any one of us, no one
-of us knows. But near or far it cometh with unhalting step.
-Wherefore, whatsoever the thing be that is in your heart to do, great
-or little, for yourself or for others, for man or for God--DO IT NOW!
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, by whose command it is that man goeth forth to his work
-and his labour until the evening, grant us all a more earnest regard
-for the sacredness of each passing moment, and help us to do with our
-whole heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*And he washed his face,*
- | *and went out, and refrained*
- | *himself, and said, Set on bread.*"
- | (GENESIS xliii. 31.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | VII
- |
- | THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME
-
-That is what Joseph did when his feelings nearly overmastered him at
-the sight of his brother Benjamin standing before him, all unconscious
-of who he was. He "sought where to weep," says the record with quaint
-matter-of-factness, for of course he did not want his brothers to see
-him weeping just yet. So "he entered into his chamber and wept there."
-But Joseph's secret affections being thus recognised and allowed their
-expression, he had a duty to perform. He put a curb upon his feelings.
-He took a firm grip of himself. He "washed his face and went out, and
-refrained himself, and said, Set on bread." One cannot help admiring
-that. It was a fine thing to do.
-
-And there are two classes of people in our own time in whom one sees
-this same attitude, and never without a strange stirring of heart.
-
-The first and most honourable are those who have already tasted of the
-sorrows of war and lost some dear one in the service of King and
-country. We speak of the courage and sacrifice of our men, and we
-cannot speak too highly or too gratefully about that. But there is
-something else that runs it very close, if it does not exceed it, and
-that is the quiet heroism and endurance of many of those who have been
-bereaved. Time and again one sees them facing up to all life's calls
-upon them with a marvellous spirit of self-restraint. God only knows
-how sad and sore their loss is. And upon what takes place when they
-enter into their chamber and shut the door and face their sorrow alone
-with God, it does not beseem us to intrude. Such sorrow is a sacred
-thing, but at least we know, and are glad to know, that God Himself is
-there as He is nowhere else. It is never wrong and never weak to let
-the tears come before Him. As a father understands, so does He know
-all about it. As a mother comforteth, so does the touch of His Hand
-quieten and console.
-
-But what fills one with reverent admiration is that so many of those
-whose hearts we know have been so cruelly wounded have set up a new and
-noble precedent in the matter of courage and self-control. They are
-not shirking any of the duties of life. They are claiming no
-exemptions on the ground of their sorrow, and they excuse themselves
-from no duty merely because it would hurt. They wear their hurt gently
-like a flower in the breast. They carry their sorrow like a coronet.
-Out from their secret chambers they come, with washen face and brave
-lips to do their duty and refrain themselves. How beautiful it is!
-What a fine thing to see! The sorrowing mother of a noble young fellow
-I am proud to have known, said to a friend recently who was marvelling
-at her fortitude, "My boy was very brave and I must try to be brave,
-too, for his sake." Dear, gentle mother! One cannot speak worthily
-about a spirit so sweet and gracious as that. One can only bow the
-head and breathe the inward prayer, "God send thee peace, brave heart!"
-But, surely, to accept sorrow in that fashion is to entertain unawares
-an angel of God! The feeling which underlies this new etiquette of
-sorrow with the washen face is not very easily put into words. But it
-rests, I think, upon the dim sense that the death which ends those
-young lives on this noble field of battle is something different from
-the ordinary bleak fact of mortality. If death is ever glorious, it is
-when it comes to the soldier fighting for a pure and worthy cause.
-There is something more than sorrow, there is even a quiet and reverent
-pride in the remembrance that the beloved life was given as "a ransom
-for many." When one thinks what we are fighting for, one can hardly
-deny to the fallen the supreme honour of the words "for Christ's sake."
-And it is not death to fall so. Rather is it the finding of life
-larger and more glorious still. It is that that marks the war-mourners
-of to-day as a caste royal and apart. It is that that moves so many of
-them by an inward instinct to wear their sorrow royally. Hidden in the
-heart of their grief is a tender and wistful pride. Lowell has put
-this feeling into very fine words:
-
- | "I, with uncovered head,
- | Salute the sacred dead,
- | Who went and who return not--
- | Say not so.
- | 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay,
- | But the high faith that fails not by the way.
- | Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave;
- | No bar of endless night exiles the brave,
- | And, to the saner mind,
- | We rather seem the dead that stayed behind."
-
-The other class who are teaching us a new and better way to bear
-burdens are the friends at home of those who are on active service.
-Men, with sons in the trenches, are going about our streets these days
-almost as if nothing were happening, making it a point of honour not to
-let the lurking fear in their hearts have any outward expression.
-Wives and mothers and sisters are filling their hands and their hearts
-full of duties, and putting such a brave face on life that you would
-never suspect they have a chamber that could tell a different tale. It
-is absolutely splendid. There is no other word for it. I walked a
-street-length with a young wife recently whose man has been ill and out
-of the fight for a while. She hoped that he might have been sent home,
-and who can blame her? but he has gone back to the trenches instead.
-And how bravely and quietly she spoke of it! Pride, a true and noble
-pride in her beloved soldier, a resolute endeavour to do her difficult
-bit as uncomplainingly and willingly as he--it seemed to me that I saw
-all that in her brave smile. And I said to myself, "Here is the cult
-of the washen face! And a noble cult too! Britain surely deserves to
-win when her women carry their crosses so!"
-
-It is easy, of course, to read the thought in their minds. Our men,
-they say, are splendid, why should we be doleful and despondent? They
-have made a new virtue of cheerfulness; let us try to learn it too.
-They have offered everything in a cause which it is an honour to help
-in any degree; let us lay beside theirs the worthy sacrifice of the
-washen face and a brave restraint. Such, I imagine, is the unconscious
-kind of reasoning which results in the resolute and cheerful bearing
-you may see on all sides of you every day.
-
-And wherever it is seen, it carries its blessing with it. Others with
-their own private burdens and anxieties are encouraged to hold on to
-that hope and cheerfulness which are just the homely side of our faith
-in God and in the righteousness of our cause.
-
-The cult of the washen face is contagious. It spreads like a
-beneficent stain. And since it is entirely praiseworthy, we can but
-wish it to spread more and more. Those who come out from the chambers
-where they have kept company with sorrow or anxiety, to face life and
-duty with shining face and mastered feelings, are not only proving
-their faith in the Divine Strength, they are making a precious
-contribution to the moral stedfastness of the nation.
-
-"And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself." Good man!
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-We bless Thee, O God, for the assurance that Thine ear is ever open to
-our cry, that it is never wrong to take our sorrows and our cares to
-Thee. But help us also, endowed with Thy strength in our secret
-chambers, to bear our burdens bravely in the sight of men. For Thy
-Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE REAL MARTHA`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*But few things are needful,*
- | *or one.*" R. V. (margin).
- | (LUKE X. 42.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | VIII
- |
- | THE REAL MARTHA
-
-When Jesus said, upon one occasion, that He had not where to lay His
-head, He was speaking the bitter and literal truth. He had really no
-home of His own, but was everywhere a wanderer, dependent on others for
-shelter and food; and though the New Testament draws a veil over all
-the hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable East,
-imagination can picture something at least of what the homelessness of
-Jesus must have meant.
-
-But He had close and warm friends who made it up to Him as far as
-friends could, and of these were the two sisters, Martha and Mary, who
-with their brother, Lazarus, had a house in Bethany. This place was
-His haven and shelter, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
-Lazarus." The sisters were unlike in disposition. Mary, we can
-imagine, was dreamy, meditative, perhaps a little delicate and fragile,
-and gifted with a quick and loving sympathy. Martha was robust,
-practical, energetic. Her way of showing the Master that she
-considered it an honour to have Him for a guest was to give Him the
-very best that her housewifely skill could suggest. No trouble was too
-much for her. And it is very possible that one of the charms which
-this home had for Jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real
-place of rest--was its well-ordered arrangements, the quiet, efficient,
-capable way in which things were done. And whose was the credit for
-that? Martha's.
-
-What would that household have been like without Martha? And what
-would any home that is fortunate enough to have a Martha in it, be like
-without her? The truth is our debt to the Marthas is one which we have
-never fully acknowledged. You would imagine, hearing the way in which
-her name is sometimes used, that it has an apologetic character, as if
-the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly
-esteemed in comparison, for example, with the ability to write verse!
-It is foolish to play Mary off against her sister in this way. Martha
-did what she could do best, and showed her love for Christ in that
-fashion, and you may be quite sure that He understood. Mary served Him
-in her way, by giving Him what He needed more at times than food--a
-heart to listen to His message, and a sympathy which made the telling
-of it meat and drink to Him. Each sister was the complement of the
-other.
-
-But we wrong Martha, of course, in thinking of her as always in the
-kitchen. Certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would
-find her there, and well that was for the household and the servants.
-But nobody is always eating or thinking about eating; and often of an
-evening, doubtless, when the labours of the day were over, Martha would
-join her sister at the feet of the Master whom she loved as much as
-Mary did.
-
-The incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of
-Martha's character occurred during a visit which Jesus paid in the days
-before Lazarus fell sick. Something went wrong in Martha's department
-that day. Perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the
-usually self-controlled Martha, or maybe some oversight of her own. At
-anyrate, it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add
-to itself, as its habit is, seven other devils. And as Martha went out
-and in the dining chamber getting things ready, the sight of Mary
-sitting there at the Master's feet doing nothing, struck her, perhaps
-for the first time, as rather out of place. Things began to go further
-wrong. Just when Martha wanted to do special honour to Jesus, the
-ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind.
-Each time she entered the room where Christ and Mary were, Martha's
-steps grew brisker and more emphatic; and then the last straw was laid
-on, and the outburst came! Martha asked Jesus if He really did not
-care that Mary was leaving her to do everything. Bid her come and help
-me, she said.
-
-Of course, Jesus knew that it was for His sake that Martha was giving
-herself all this trouble. He saw, as even we can see, that this
-kind-hearted, worried woman was speaking crossly, as the very best will
-do at times, because she was tired and a bit overdriven. And with a
-perfect and gentle chivalry and tact He made His reply. As the
-Authorised Version puts it, it jars on one, somehow. But King James'
-translators have misread their text. What Jesus said was: "Martha,
-Martha, you are unduly anxious and troubled. Only a few things are
-necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen a good part, and I cannot
-allow you to take it from her."
-
-Martha, remember, was making a feast worthy of the Master, and Jesus,
-looking upon the various dishes being got ready, said, in effect, I do
-not really need so many as that. One would do quite well. And I must
-not let you think that Mary is doing nothing. She, too, is ministering
-to me by her sympathy and her willing ear, and you must not take away
-the good part she has chosen.
-
-Jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either Mary or
-her sister. He was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of
-His who had not served Him as she had wished to do. When He spoke of
-what was needful, He meant needful for Himself, the Guest whom both the
-sisters were seeking to honour.
-
-He made no comparison between Martha's service and Mary's. He did not
-say, as we have read it so often, that Mary had chosen the better part.
-He said, in her defence, that Mary's was also a good part. He is not
-blaming Martha, but only expostulating with her in the gentlest
-fashion, and defending Mary from the charge which Martha in her heat
-had made against her, the charge of being useless, and doing nothing to
-help to entertain the Master. Jesus said, She is helping to entertain
-Me in her own way, and, He added, it is a good way.
-
-When Jesus having said that only a few things were necessary, dropped
-His voice, as we may imagine, and added "or indeed one," He may have
-meant more than He seemed to say. For there was one thing that was
-more than meat to our Lord, and that was to find a soul with heart and
-sympathy open to His message. And it may be that He felt, as He said
-the words, that Mary's ministry met a need of His deeper than that for
-which Martha was catering. At anyrate, the oldest and best versions of
-this Gospel give Christ's words as we have rendered them, and they
-stand here, not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines, but
-rather as a proof of the gentle courtesy of our Lord, of His insight
-into character and motive, and of His gracious recognition of the worth
-of any and every kind of service that has love at its heart.
-
-Martha went back to her kitchen, and Mary remained where she was. Mary
-was not asked to go and help. Martha would have protested if she had
-come. Martha was not called upon to go and sit beside Mary. Each
-continued the service for which she was best fitted. But each, I
-think, had learned something that day. And you and I must not leave
-this page of our New Testament till we have learned it too--that we
-serve best when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified; that
-it belongs to our Christian service to recognise in all loyalty that,
-though others find different ways of expressing it, theirs is a good
-part; and that we must never either belittle it or seek to take it from
-them.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, Who by many diverse ways dost bring us near to Thee,
-and in differing modes and stations dost appoint our service, help us
-gladly and gratefully to do the things we can do, neither envying those
-whose opportunities are greater, nor forbidding those who follow not
-us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*He giveth (to) His beloved*
- | *(in their) sleep.*"
- | (PSALM cxxvii. 2.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | IX
- |
- | OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT
-
-"It is vain for you," says the writer of the 127th Psalm, "to rise
-early and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrow, for so He giveth to
-His beloved (in their) sleep." That is the true reading, and I want
-you to think about it. "God giveth to His beloved while they sleep."
-Over and above what you have yourself achieved, you GET something you
-have never worked for. And you get that, as it were, in your sleep.
-This is a beautiful thought, and there are three people to whom I want
-to offer it as God's comfort.
-
-The first is the worried man. It is indeed directly against worry that
-this psalmist sets forth his reminder. It is not that he minimises the
-need for hard work and watchful care. But he tells the man who is
-feverishly burning his candle at both ends, and consuming himself in a
-frenzy of tense anxiety, to leave something for God to do. It is as if
-he said, "Why so hot, little man, why so fiercely clutching all the
-ropes? Remember that God is working too as well as you, working in
-your interest and in love for you. When you have done your best
-therefore, go to your bed and sleep with a quiet mind, for God giveth
-to His beloved even so."
-
-One can imagine how a word like that would relax the tension and lead
-some persuadable Hebrew who heard it to say, "Ah, well, I worry far too
-much. After all, I am not Providence. I am always getting a great
-many things I have not wrought for. I shall worry less about securing
-the good things I desire for me and mine, and trust more to God to give
-them as He sees fit." If all of us who needed this reminder just had
-the sense to come to the same conclusion!
-
-I have seen a man compass his family with so many careful regulations
-and observances that the criticism of a candid friend seemed entirely
-just. "You would think," he said, "to see so-and-so shepherding his
-family, that there was no other providence than his own." You can't be
-with your best beloved all the while. And you ought to know that God
-too is watching even while you sleep.
-
-If there be some plan on which you have set your heart, and you are
-over-anxious about it, quote this text to yourself. Do your best, of
-course, but, having done so, leave the outcome with God. About a great
-many of the things over which we worry ourselves needlessly, I believe
-God's word to us is:--Leave these things to Me. You can't work for
-them. And anxiety won't bring them. But you will get them, as you
-need them, just as if they came to you in your sleep.
-
-Said one hermit to another in the Egyptian desert, as he looked at a
-flourishing olive tree near his cave, "How came that goodly tree there,
-brother? For I too planted an olive, and when I thought it wanted
-water, I asked God to give it rain and the rain came, and when I
-thought it wanted sun I asked God and the sun shone, and when I deemed
-it needed strengthening, I prayed and the frost came--God gave me all I
-demanded for my tree, as I saw fit, and yet it died." "And I,
-brother," replied the other hermit, "I left my tree in God's hands, for
-He knew what it wanted better than I, and behold what a goodly tree it
-has become."
-
-The second man to whom I would offer the comfort of this word of God is
-the man who is disappointed. Things have gone wrong with him. The
-plan on which he spent so much of his time and energy has miscarried,
-and a very different result has emerged from what he counted on. His
-way, as he saw it, is blocked, and he has had to turn aside.
-
-Now, there are not many things one can say usefully to a disappointed
-man. And it is cruel kindness to try to heal his hurt lightly.
-Nevertheless, to him also the psalmist's message applies, and what he
-needs to remember, that he may pick up heart and go on again, is that
-God giveth to His beloved while they sleep.
-
-We have all had disappointments, sore enough at the time, which
-after-experience proved to have been blessings in disguise. Many a man
-can point to a signal failure as the beginning of a true success or
-usefulness or happiness. We did not feel as if we were being enriched
-when our plan fell through, and we were bitter and rebellious enough at
-the time, it may be, but it is quite clear to us now that God was at
-that very time giving to us with both His hands.
-
-No one, of course, can see that about any more than a few of his
-disappointments. It would be false to experience to speak as if we
-could. But what is manifestly true about one or two may conceivably
-hold with regard to them all, if we knew more, or could see better.
-And the Christian Gospel calls us to believe and trust that that is so.
-There is another Hand than ours shaping our life, a wiser Hand. Better
-things are being done for us than we can see in the meantime. And the
-man whose hopes and plans have turned out amiss, but whose trust is
-still in God, is invited by our psalmist to reason with himself
-thus:--"I am like a man asleep, and I do not rightly understand at
-present, but I will trust that it is not for nothing that misfortune
-has come, and when I wake I shall hope to see that God has been giving
-to me in love and mercy when I was not aware of it at all."
-
-The third man whom this text will help and comfort is the worker, the
-man or woman who is trying to do something for Christ's sake. The
-Christian worker needs to be told that what he is trying to do is not
-nearly all that he is doing. What he is, is speaking as loudly as what
-he does or says. There is an aroma and fragrance about the life of the
-consecrated Christ-like man or woman which sweetens and sanctifies
-other lives beyond what he or she can ever know. Some of the best
-sermons in the world have been preached by people who least suspected
-what they were doing. The invalid in the home does not know how real
-religion becomes to all who watch her patience and unselfishness. And
-among the busy and vigorous we often catch hints and reflections, that
-they never suspect, of what Christ-likeness means. The man who has
-surrendered his life to God, indeed, is a channel of blessing to others
-beyond all he ever dreams of. He must not be disheartened when he
-realises how little he is doing, for the truth is he is doing far, far
-more than he knows. Wherefore, my brother, be of good cheer, and
-render your service to Christ with a quiet heart. Lay your course, and
-work your ship, and hoist your sail and trust. And the gifts of God
-will enrich you, and the winds of heaven will bring you on your way,
-even while you sleep.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-We give Thee thanks, O God, for all Thy bounties, undeserved and
-unearned; for the increase Thou dost send us while the stars are
-shining; for Thy gracious thirty-fold and sixty-fold beyond what we
-have sown. Every morning Thou leavest gifts upon our doorstep and dost
-depart unthanked. But this day we remember, and we bow our heads to
-render unto Thee our humble and our hearty thanks for all that Thou
-hast given us while we slept. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`SMOKING WICKS`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The smoking flax he shall not quench.*"
- | (ISAIAH xlii. 3.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | X
- |
- | SMOKING WICKS
-
-We read the 42nd chapter of Isaiah now as if it were a part of the
-Christian Evangel. And that is right. For whoever the Servant may
-have been, of whom Isaiah was thinking, it is Christ and only Christ
-who completely fulfils this prophecy. This is a true description of
-His spirit and His method. "The dimly-burning wick he shall not
-quench."
-
-The figure is easily understood. Here is a piece of flax floating in
-oil, and burning so faintly that it seems a mere charred end from which
-the smoke coils thinly upwards. Some one comes and snuffs it out,
-because it smells. That is the way of the world's reformers, as Isaiah
-saw it, and we can see it still. By and by they will trim the wick and
-light it with fire of their own, but first they will quench the spark.
-But there is One to come, said Isaiah, shooting his arrow of prophecy
-in the air, who will go otherwise about it. He will not despise the
-spark because it is so feeble. He will tend it and foster it, and make
-the evil-smelling bundle of flax into a clear, shining light. And the
-saying has found its mark in Jesus Christ.
-
-When a woman that was a sinner made her way into the house where He sat
-at meat, and wept at His feet, He amazed all those present by the
-extraordinary gentleness of His dealing with her. He did not refer to
-the evil in her life. He did not, as other good men would have done,
-first cast her down, that He might afterwards lift her up. He simply
-took the beautiful impulse after good which she brought Him out of a
-life besmirched and tawdry, held it in His hands--a mere spark of
-virtue--and breathing on it, blessed it, and behold it was a flame,
-burning up the evil in her life, a lamp lighting her path along a new
-and hopeful way. That was Christ. He does not, He will not quench the
-dimly-burning wick.
-
-Now--and this is our point--if those who profess and call themselves
-Christians are to have the spirit in them that was also in Christ
-Jesus, must not this be their mark too? Does not this prescribe their
-attitude to life, that many-coloured, strangely-mixed compound of good
-and evil? Good in any form, however feeble, however mixed, as in this
-world it inevitably is, with what is evil, should find in those who
-call themselves by Christ's name, its truest supporters, sympathisers,
-friends.
-
-To the eye and heart in sympathy with it, beauty often peeps out in
-strange places.
-
- | "The poem hangs on the berry bush,
- | When comes the poet's eye,
- | And the whole street is a masquerade
- | When Shakespeare passes by."
-
-So the mark of the Christ-like heart is just that it discerns, and,
-discerning, loves the feeblest tokens of some inward grace that redeems
-a life from evil. Do not be afraid that by welcoming the scant good,
-you may be held to approve of the greater evil. That is a risk that
-God Himself rejoices to take. Did not Christ risk that, when He
-accepted that poor woman's worship? Did He not risk it when He held
-out His hands to a man like Zaccheus? Does He not risk it always when
-He declares, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out?" And
-shall we refuse because the risk is too great?
-
-Life presents us with many anomalies that refuse to square with our
-theories. You find men exhibiting qualities of character, which any
-Christian might be proud to emulate, outside of the Church altogether.
-And you cannot simply label these--"glittering vices," and pass on.
-God is not two but One, and goodness is His token wherever it be found.
-"The World," says John Owen, "cannot yet afford to do without the good
-acts even of its bad men." And the truth for us to learn is that the
-grace of God is not bound by our standards or limits. Make the circle
-as wide as you like, you will still discover fruits of the Spirit
-outside, where by all our canons they were never to be expected.
-
- | "And every virtue we possess,
- | And every victory won,
- | And every thought of holiness
- | Are His alone."
- |
-
-It is for something more than tolerance I am pleading. For that may be
-a weak and a wrong thing, if it spring not from belief in the good.
-What our calling demands is something more, the rejoicing, hopeful
-recognition of the good deed or purpose anywhere, and the offer of a
-sympathy and a faith in which it can grow. That gift of yours may
-actually be the decisive factor in a life balancing perilously betwixt
-good and evil. Three times, the other evening, I tried to light my
-study fire, and each time it went out. The paper burned, but the
-sticks apparently would not light. At last in despair I flung in a
-burning match and went away--and when I returned I found a cheerful
-blaze: the brief glimmer of that last match had been the determining
-factor. You will smile perhaps at the illustration, but you will
-remember, all the better, that where the flax is even smouldering,
-there the angels are still fighting for a soul. And you will, maybe,
-remember also that even your warm sympathy may turn the scale, and fan
-the flicker to a flame.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that
-the mind that was in Him may more and more be found in us. Help us to
-offer to what is good anywhere a sympathy in which it may grow and
-increase. Grant us a helpful faith in the struggling good in every
-man, even as Thou, our Father, dost call us sons while as yet we are
-but prodigals, afar off. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`CULPABLE GOODNESS`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Let not then your good be*
- | *evil spoken of.*"
- | (ROMANS xiv. 16.)
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XI
- |
- | CULPABLE GOODNESS
-
-In his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul counsels them
-not to let their "good be evil spoken of." And at first we ask
-ourselves if this is a possible thing. Can you have good that is evil
-spoken of? Since this is a matter that ought to concern us all, I want
-to suggest one or two ways in which this very result may be brought
-about, that those of us who are trying to follow an ideal of goodness
-may be on our guard.
-
-First, we can very readily have what is good in us evil spoken of
-because of our CENSORIOUSNESS. When men come upon some fruit that
-grows upon a goodly-looking tree, or one at least that has a
-trustworthy label attached to it, and find it sour or bitter to the
-taste, they are apt to be particularly resentful. And it is with
-precisely such indignation that they observe men and women who profess
-themselves followers of Christ exhibiting a censorious and critical
-spirit. Where ought you to find the broadest charity, the kindliest
-judgment, the most Christ-like forbearance and restraint? Among
-Christians, of course. And yet--alas! alas!
-
-Just keep your ears open with this end in view for a week, and you will
-be surprised at the appallingly hard judgments that come tripping
-daintily from the lips of some of those you know best. And if that
-line of investigation be not very handy, just watch yourself for the
-same time, and you will learn what a rare thing Christian charity is.
-
-We talk a lot about it, but in real life we "forbid" men very readily
-"because they follow not us," we belittle things which we do not
-understand, we speak rashly about people whom we do not know, and we
-are ready, without the least consideration, with our label for the
-movement or the man, who happens to be brought to our notice.
-
-Ah, if we could only see how far astray we often are, what a libel our
-label is, and how unChrist-like many of our speeches appear! We don't
-know enough of the inner life of any man to entitle us to pass judgment
-upon him. A critical spirit never commends its possessor to the
-affection or the good-will of men. Besides, it blinds him to much that
-is really beautiful, and cuts him off from many sources of happiness.
-You will see evil in almost anything if you look for it, but that is
-not a gift that makes either for helpfulness or popular esteem. "I do
-not call that by the name of religion," says Robert Louis Stevenson,
-"which fills a man with bile," and, on the whole, the ordinary man is
-of the same mind with him.
-
- | "Judge not; the workings of his brain
- | And of his heart thou canst not see.
- | What looks, to thy dim eyes, a stain,
- | In God's pure light may only be
- | A scar brought from some well-won field,
- | Where thou wouldst only faint and yield."
- |
-
-Sometimes one must, in the interests of true religion, pass judgment,
-but these times are not so frequent as we suppose. And if there are
-occasions more than others when the disciple needs an overflowing
-measure of Christ's spirit, it is when it is his clear duty to
-diagnose, disapprove, and condemn.
-
-Secondly, we may have our good evil spoken of by our EXTREMENESS. I
-should be very chary of saying that there is such a thing as being
-righteous overmuch, but for two reasons. The first is that there is an
-injunction in Scripture against it. And the second is that I have met
-people, of whom, in all charity, it was true! The modern name for
-being righteous overmuch is being a "crank." Now, nobody loves a
-crank. The extremist always does his own cause harm. Carefulness
-about one's food is a good thing, but to take an analytical chemist's
-outfit to table with us is simply to ask for the contempt of all
-sensible people.
-
-Paul's advice to the Philippians was, "Let your moderation be known to
-all men." And Paul was himself a splendid example of the true
-moderation as distinguished from that which is merely indolent and
-uninterested. Earnest, enthusiastic, loyal, there was yet about him a
-big and healthy sanity, a sweet reasonableness, and--what the extremist
-always lacks--an engaging tact. In other words, Paul was a Christian
-gentleman, and if you want to know what that means, read his letter to
-Philemon about Onesimus the runaway slave. There are blunt words with
-which a man can be felled as effectually as with the "grievous
-crab-tree cudgel" of which Bunyan speaks. Paul did not consider it any
-special virtue to employ such words. His Christian zeal did not lead
-him to make a statement in a way that would irritate and rasp a man's
-soul. There is a certain extreme candour affected by some Christian
-people, who pride themselves on always calling a spade a spade. But if
-it hurts my friend to hear me say "spade" I know of no law of God that
-compels me to name the implement at all!
-
-And then, lastly, we can have our goodness "evil spoken of" because it
-is so COLD. It sometimes seems as if, in our day, warmth of manner had
-gone out of fashion. Ian Maclaren once said of our generation that it
-will "smile feebly when wished a happy New Year as if apologising for a
-lapse into barbarism." But I don't think any sensible person, not
-blinded by an absurd convention, cares for that type of rarified
-demeanour. No one likes to get a hand to shake which feels like a dead
-fish!
-
-In one of his books, Dr Dale of Birmingham criticised that line in
-Keble's hymn which speaks about the trivial round and the common task
-giving us "room to deny ourselves." "No doubt," he says, "but I should
-be very sorry for the people I live with to discharge their home duties
-in the spirit of martyrs. God preserve us all from wives, husbands,
-children, brothers, and sisters who go about the house with an air of
-celestial resignation." Ah, no, that's not the goodness, either at
-home or on the street, which wins men. It is not beautiful because it
-is too cold. The religion of Jesus is something much more than
-duty-doing. Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD WITH ALL THY HEART.
-Whosoever compels thee to go a mile, GO WITH HIM TWAIN. Whatsoever ye
-do, do it HEARTILY AS UNTO THE LORD.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-From all unkind thoughts and uncharitable judgments; from all
-intemperate speech and behaviour; from coldness of heart and a frigid
-service, Good Lord, deliver us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`A KHAKI VIRTUE`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*God loveth a cheerful giver.*"
- | (2 CORINTHIANS ix. 7.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XII
- |
- | A KHAKI VIRTUE
-
-We are proud to believe that, in the article of courage, our men are
-second to none in the world. They have glorious traditions to live up
-to, and they are adding to these pages--nay, a whole volume, as
-splendid as any in our annals. Yet it is not of our soldiers' courage
-I wish to speak.
-
-For we are told on all hands that there is another quality shining
-brighter still these days in the trenches in France and Belgium, in
-ambulance waggons and field hospitals, and in the camps at home,
-namely, cheerfulness. Again and again the same tale is repeated from
-one quarter or another--"our men are simply wonderful," "they treat
-discomfort as a joke." They label the very instruments that deal death
-among them with names that raise a smile. Nurses, doctors, and
-correspondents tell us that the light-hearted way in which our soldiers
-face pain and suffering and force twisted lips to smile has created a
-new record for the British Army. When the story of this war is
-written, and the world gets a nearer glimpse into those awful trenches,
-I venture to prophesy that the quality in our countrymen which will
-most capture the imagination and fill us with the greatest pride will
-be the gay, undaunted cheerfulness with which they faced it all.
-
-Surely we who stay at home may learn something of that virtue too. For
-it is worth learning. Ordinary people who only know what they like,
-without knowing why they like it, have a very warm side towards the
-person who, when things are grey and gloomy, can keep cheerful. They
-would much rather see him come in on a dull day than a wiser man whose
-wisdom was a burden to him, or even than a pious person whose piety ran
-to solemnity and gloom. It is high time, indeed, that the tradition
-was broken for good and all which associates moral excellence with a
-funereal heaviness of manner and denies the favour of the Lord to one
-who, as Goldsmith has it, "carols as he goes."
-
-For the blessing of God is written visibly upon the results of
-cheerfulness wherever you find it. God rewards the gallant souls who
-keep their colours flying through every battle, even though they have
-to nail them up over a sorely damaged ship. If you want a proof that
-the hopeful and cheery way of facing the rebuffs of life and tholing
-its aches and disappointments is more in the line of what God expects
-from His children than the doleful whining temper, you have it shown
-unmistakably in the fact that the gallant unconquerable soul solves
-problems, overcomes difficulties, endures pains, and wins successes
-where the solemn and easily depressed would simply have given in and
-lain down. You can safely prophesy that the man whom you hear singing
-as he goes through the valley, like the pilgrim that Bunyan's Christian
-heard, is going to get out of it safely and honourably in the end. The
-Lord Himself will deliver him, as He delights to deliver all those who
-face life smiling and unafraid, and meet His Fatherly discipline with a
-stout heart.
-
-Cheerfulness, in other words, pays for oneself. But it is also a great
-blessing to others. One very safe and sure way to help our fellows up
-their hills is to breast our own as bravely and gaily as we can. And
-the cheerfulness which heals and blesses like the breath of morning is
-that which shows up against a background of cloud and trouble. Let us
-all in this year of war and clean courage, register a vow that we shall
-take a leaf out of our soldiers' book, and think less about our own
-troubles, teach our lips to smile when things are wrong, and keep our
-eyes wider open for trouble's danger signals among our friends. It's a
-simple way of doing good, but a very effective one. For cheerfulness,
-like mercy, is twice blessed. It blesseth him that has, and him that
-sees!
-
- | "It was only a glad Good Morning
- | As she passed along the way,
- | But it spread the morning's glory
- | Over the livelong day."
- |
-
-But cheerfulness needs its explanation. It implies something. A man
-is not cheerful without some underlying philosophy of life to sustain
-him, some pillar of faith or hope at his back. When a man faces life
-dauntless and smiling, he does so because some inward and, it may even
-be, unconscious faith or hope thus finds its expression. What that
-faith is, different men will describe in different ways.
-
-But however much the descriptions vary, it all comes back to this in
-the end, that the man who is living bravely and cheerfully is
-expressing by his conduct at any rate his faith in the Fatherhood and
-good Providence of God. He knows that "God's in His Heaven"; at any
-rate he believes so. He believes that things do not just fall out by
-chance, but that a Father Hand controls all, and a Father Heart cares
-even for the sparrow's unheeded fall. The God who rules all makes no
-mistakes.
-
-And is not that a cardinal part of the faith which Jesus brings near to
-all who are learning of Him? There are various adjectives used to
-qualify the title Christian. One hears, for example, of "earnest
-Christians," and earnestness is a very necessary quality, even though
-one does occasionally happen upon "earnest Christians" who are rather
-unlovable and irritating people. But there's another adjective, not
-nearly so common--and yet it denotes a quality just as essential in
-those who have taken Christ's gospel of God's Love and Fatherhood to
-their hearts--namely, cheerful. A "cheerful Christian." Let us all
-try to be that kind of Christian at least.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-"The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns
-and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with
-laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give
-us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting
-beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the
-gift of sleep. Amen."
-
-R. L. STEVENSON.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "(Jeremiah dwelt among the
- | people that were left in the
- | land.("
- | (JEREMIAH xl. 6.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XIII
- |
- | THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC
-
-Once upon a time Jeremiah the prophet had asked for only one thing,
-that he might get away from that strange cityful of perverse men to
-whom it was his hard lot to be the mouthpiece of a God they were
-forgetting. He was tired of them. "O that I had in the wilderness a
-lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from
-them."
-
-Well, time passed on. The people got no wiser, and Jeremiah's burden
-certainly got no lighter. But the very chance he prayed for came. He
-had a clear and honourable opportunity to go to the lodge in the
-wilderness, or anywhere else he liked, away from the men who had
-disowned his teaching. His work was done apparently, and he had
-failed. Yet with the door standing invitingly open, see what Jeremiah
-did! He "went and dwelt among the people that were left in the land."
-He had his chance and he did not take it!
-
-We all know something of this desire to get rid of a present hard duty,
-or a difficult environment, or a perplexing problem. And yet I wonder,
-if the way were similarly opened up for us, how many would seize the
-opportunity? I believe that the feature of such a situation would just
-be the large number of us who, when it came to the pinch, would choose
-as Jeremiah did, to remain where we are! Something would hold us back.
-
-Yet the desire itself is natural enough, and a man need neither be a
-coward nor a weakling who confesses to it. The hours when the daily
-round seems altogether flat and unprofitable, and when one would gladly
-change places with almost anybody, are real hours in life, and it is no
-shame to have known them. But between that knowledge and the actual
-escape, the actual fleeing from one's post, there is a great gulf fixed
-that, for very many with any high ideal of duty, is impassable. For,
-though a man has known the state of mind that looks for some back door
-out of a depressing situation, he has had the other experience also,
-the joy of self-mastery, the keen sense of pleasure that comes to him
-when he discovers that his surroundings do not count for so much as he
-himself does. That experience, though it be only in memory, will stand
-between a man and retreat. He has conquered before, and the thrill of
-victory over material discouragements may be his again. And so, though
-the way of escape be open, he will choose to remain and fight it out.
-
-Sometimes the mere weight of his responsibility may tempt a man to wish
-that he might escape. There is a fairly well-known symptom of nervous
-disease whose name signifies the fear of being shut in, when the
-patient dreads the experience of being in any closed place. Sometimes
-a moral panic of that kind comes to a man when he realises that he is
-shut in with some duty which must be gone through with. With something
-of the instinct of the trapped animal he may look round for a way of
-escape.
-
-Yet does that mean that he would take the chance deliberately, with
-eyes full open to the consequences, if it were offered? I think not.
-
-You can apply the test to yourself. Have you ever accepted some
-responsibility, and then, when the occasion came nearer, backed out of
-it for no other reason than that you were afraid? If you have, you
-will perhaps remember whether you felt proud of yourself, whether,
-beneath the undoubted relief, there was not a good deal of quiet shame
-and self-scorn. If the same thing were to happen again, you might feel
-the impulse to desert, but if you remembered your former experience,
-you would hardly yield to it, I imagine.
-
-The plain truth is that no proper man really likes a soft job. "In the
-long run," says J. A. Symonds, "we really love the sternest things in
-life best." And he speaks truth. There is a certain exhilaration in
-the endurance of hardness. Responsibility braces most men like a shock
-of cold water. What is arduous calls them as with a trumpet. And in
-the general sense of quiet contempt for the person who in a panic
-flings up his responsibility, we may recognise one of God's elementary
-checks upon cowardice.
-
-There are those who are reading these words who are enduring hardness
-and making sacrifices from which they might easily escape. They do at
-times desire relief. But the point is that they don't take it, when it
-is possible. And I say there must be some reason for this. What is it
-that holds men back from the easy way when it stands open before them?
-
-For one thing, I think, the sense of the place that hardness and effort
-and endurance play in every true life. For centuries men have climbed
-up to strength of character, if at all, by ways uniformly arduous and
-steep; and distrust of the primrose path, however alluring, has passed
-as an instinct into our blood. In the small unheroic affairs of life
-we have learned that a difficulty faced and overcome, or a duty
-doggedly fulfilled, add a precious something to experience that there
-is no other way of securing. The schoolboy on a hot summer day may
-look up from his task, away out wistfully to the cool shade of the
-trees across the playground, and wish that he were there, rather than
-where he is. Yet even he knows, what we all come to learn, that that
-is not the road to anything in life worth the gaining.
-
-Another deterring impulse is the sense of a divine vocation. Our
-calling and circumstances are ordained for us by God, and we must not
-quit the field till the day is done. It is He who has chosen our lot
-in life and summoned us to the sphere we fill.
-
-We may succeed or fail as seems to Him best. Sometimes he places men,
-for reasons of His own, in corners where success, as commonly measured,
-is not possible. But one thing--success or failure--we must not do.
-We must not shirk. We must not run away. God means us to stand fast
-and do our best. For failure even, if it be honourable, He may have
-His good word at the last. But to the man who has shirked life's hard
-duties, not even God can say, "Well done!"
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Lord of our life, and God of our salvation, make us strong to endure
-hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Thou sendest no man a
-warfare upon his own charges. In dependence on Thy help, grant us
-grace to do each duty, as the hour and Thy will may bring it. And,
-with Thy fear in our hearts, grant us deliverance from all other fears
-whatever. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE DAY'S DARG`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Whatsoever ye do, do all*
- | *to the glory of God.*"
- | (1 CORINTHIANS x. 31.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XIV
- |
- | THE DAY'S DARG
-
-It is never hard to connect the presence of our Lord and Master Jesus
-Christ with our Sabbaths and our hours of worship. If ever Christ
-comes near us in spirit at all, we say, it is when in the quiet of the
-sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to Him. The link
-between our worship and our Lord is strong and obvious. But, when the
-din of business shuts out all else, when the hard, toilsome duty of the
-ordinary day is to be done, when we are at work amid surroundings that
-have no suggestion of sacredness or of God about them--what of the link
-with Christ then? It is much harder then, is it not? to imagine any
-thinkable and workable connection that our Lord has with that sphere of
-life, broad and extensive as it is. There are many indeed who forget
-that there is any, and live as if there were none. And yet the solemn
-truth is that if that link is not strong and real, we don't know what
-religion means. We have hardly the right to call ourselves Christian
-men and women unless we can relate our week-day labours to the fact of
-Christ.
-
-So let us try to strengthen that link. Let us look at our daily work
-in the light of religion.
-
-First, let me remind you that our work is by divine commandment. It is
-not something that God allows us to do when we are not worshipping. It
-is His ordinance that we should all work at something. The business of
-life is labour of some sort. I do not know if we all realise how the
-Fourth Commandment begins--"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy
-work." And the man who is inexcusably idle, or who belittles his work,
-even in the interest, as he thinks, of religion, is breaking this
-commandment as truly as he who neglects the other half of it and
-dishonours the Sabbath day.
-
-No one will accuse the Apostle Paul of any indifference or lukewarmness
-where true religion was concerned. Yet it was this Apostle who ordered
-the Thessalonians to go on with their daily occupations even though
-they believed, as so many did at that time, that the Return of the Lord
-to earth was just at hand. By our daily work we serve the Lord as
-truly as when we gather to His worship. Let us get out of our heads,
-then, the false and foolish idea that all the working part of our week
-is the part at which God looks askance. Man's chief end is to glorify
-God, and one of the ways of doing that is by being loyal to the duties
-of each hour whatever they may be.
-
-Secondly, I would ask you to think of those quiet, unrecorded years of
-our Lord's life on earth before His public ministry. The Gospels give
-no details, but the fact is perfectly certain that up till His
-thirtieth year Jesus of Nazareth worked at His trade as a carpenter.
-If only we would let that fact soak into us, it would alter our whole
-idea of the relation of our daily work to religion. Jesus worked
-Himself.
-
-And we have, as has been pointed out, interesting indirect proof as to
-what manner of life He lived on those workaday levels that we all know
-so much about. For, to this Carpenter of Nazareth there came a day
-when, in Nazareth itself, He stood forth as representative of a
-morality and religion higher than ever was proclaimed before. He spoke
-to men about the true way to live like one having authority. And there
-were many who so resented what they deemed His presumption that
-anything that reflected on His claims or belittled His authority would
-gladly have been seized upon and made the most of. Had there been in
-Nazareth a bit of botched work of His doing, "a door of unseasoned wood
-or a badly made chest," don't you think it would have been produced to
-discredit His mission? If any one could have been found with whom the
-Carpenter had not dealt honourably and justly, if, as He walked the
-streets of His native town and lived His humble daily life in the sight
-of all men, there had been anything that weakened His claim to guide
-and teach His brethren, don't you think they would have found it out
-and taxed Him with it?
-
-There was nothing of that. Jesus faced His fellows with His daily duty
-behind Him, and it reinforced every word He said. His message to men
-was backed up by His daily life. He spoke of religion as no other son
-of man ever did, but He lived it long before He ever opened His mouth.
-He brought religion down to the workshop and the street, and showed men
-what it meant there. And unless He had done that, it is difficult to
-conceive that His public ministry of itself would have satisfied men
-that He was indeed One sent from God.
-
-Do you see, then, from this point of view, what a great and vital part
-of religion our day's work is, and the way we do it, our life at home,
-our ordinary contact with our fellow-men? It is that that gives weight
-to any profession we may make. If in our daily life we are not
-exhibiting our religion, nothing that we can profess or say on Sunday
-will make up for that defect. It is what we are on Monday and Tuesday
-that underlines and emphasises the claims we make at church on the
-Sunday. Behind all our prayer and profession lies the everyday life.
-
-Third, our daily work is sanctified by the fact that our Lord and
-Master is with us, to help and strengthen us there, as truly as when we
-pray. Jesus Christ is not far away, as we so pitifully misconceive it,
-amid the dust of business, when we must keep our temper and follow
-conscience along the hard way and deal honourably with all men. He is
-near us there also, ready and willing to help us to be true to God and
-man on that road which once He trod Himself.
-
-There is a famous unwritten saying of Christ which puts memorably what
-the Gospels likewise testify. "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me.
-Cleave the wood and there am I." Christ is as near us in our daily
-work as that! When Peter and his friends went a-fishing, you remember,
-with heavy hearts because the Master had gone away from them, He met
-them by the lake as they plied their ordinary calling. So does He
-wait, my brother, to meet you and me wherever the duty of the hour may
-take us. For our working life is not outside of His interest nor out
-with His care and guidance. With reverent imagination Van Dyke has
-seemed to hear the Christ speak thus--and the words may perhaps further
-weld the link for some of us between our everyday duty and the Christ
-whom we worship and seek to serve:
-
- | "They who tread the path of labour follow where My feet have trod;
- | They who work without complaining do the holy will of God.
- | Where the many toil together, there am I among my own;
- | Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with Him alone.
- | I, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell amid the daily strife,
- | I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the sacrament of life.
- | Every task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free,
- | Every deed of love and mercy done to man is done to Me.
- | Nevermore thou needest seek Me; I am with thee everywhere--
- | Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and I am there."
- |
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Our Lord and Master, whose command it is that we do with our whole
-heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do, grant that we may so yield and
-surrender ourselves, body, mind and spirit, unto Thee, that even in the
-common business of each ordinary day we may serve Thee and glorify Thy
-great Name. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`GASHMU THE GOSSIP`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Gashmu saith it.*"
- | (NEHEMIAH vi. 6.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XV
- |
- | GASHMU THE GOSSIP
-
-Gashmu is a mere name in Scripture. He is mentioned only three
-times--twice as acting with Sanballat against Nehemiah, and once as the
-authority for a false piece of news. It is reported, wrote Sanballat
-in a cruel letter to Nehemiah, that you are plotting against the king,
-and "Gashmu saith it." That is what Gashmu stands for in Scripture, a
-tale-bearer, a slanderer, a gossip. What an unenviable immortality to
-be remembered only as the pedlar of a tale he knew to be untrue!
-
-As long as we live together in society, there will be a kind of gossip
-that is inevitable, the kindly or merely casual relation of small and
-insignificant matters of fact, as that the painters are in next door,
-or that Mrs So-and-So has got a new bonnet. It is not of that I want
-to speak.
-
-For there is another sort as deadly as the plague, and in civilised
-countries the cruellest and most devilish instrument that one man or
-woman can use against another. And that is the inventing of an untrue
-report about a man's doings or character, or the unthinking repetition
-of the same. That is the pestilence that walketh in darkness; that is
-the destruction that wasteth at noonday. And I wish I had the pen to
-write of it as it deserves.
-
-It is very, very common. We are all too ready to repeat what we have
-heard, with a "Gashmu saith it," as if that certified the tale correct.
-And the harm done is simply incalculable. If my house is burned or I
-lose my money, I can still get along by the kindness of my friends for
-a little, till I find my feet again. But whoever by some lying story
-takes away my character, deals me a blow from which there is no
-recovering, which my loyalest friends can do nothing to avert. I have
-no redress, no compensation, and no help. Any one may be a victim, and
-you and I, by thoughtlessly passing on the deadly thing, may all
-unconsciously be driving another nail into a man's coffin.
-
-Did you ever lie awake at night and think that even now the cancer may
-have begun on YOUR good name, that whispers may be going about among
-your friends concerning you? Those who know you will hear it, and will
-say, It's a lie! But that won't stop it. And you will never know till
-some day you waken up and find that your reputation is in danger. And
-not one word or vestige of truth may be in it. It may be a lie pure
-and simple, or a colourable counterfeit of some quite innocent truth.
-That won't make any difference. It is enough merely to start it, and,
-like a stone thrown down an Alpine slope, it gathers others in its
-train, till an avalanche swoops down on some unsuspecting head.
-
-When King Arthur enrolled his Knights of the Round Table, he made them
-take the oath to "speak no slander." And there is a knightly chivalry
-of speech which ought to be the mark of all those who have promised
-fealty to Jesus Christ. Our discipleship of Jesus demands of us the
-high endeavour to love our neighbour as ourselves, and that
-presupposes, as one of its consequences, that we guard his name against
-false witness as carefully as we protect our own. If we hear a good
-story about some one, a report that is to his credit and honour, let us
-blazon that abroad. We are all far too slow at that, and somehow the
-tale that is a little damaging has a far easier and more rapid
-circulation. Might we not make more of our brother's successes? Might
-we not oftener repeat about him what he is too modest ever to say about
-himself? It were a true and kindly Christian act. But never, as we
-call ourselves servants of Christ, never do our brother such a grievous
-irreparable wrong as to start about him a tale which may not be true.
-God can and will forgive you your sins of speech. But even He cannot
-make clean the character which a foolish word has sullied.
-
-King Arthur went further, however, than demanding that his knights
-should speak no slander. Their vow included the words, "no, nor listen
-to it." And that is a high and difficult course to keep. It is not
-easy, when you are being told of something that is striking or
-sensational of a merely gossipy character, to stop the conversation and
-lead it into other channels. It requires great courage and as great
-tact. But how many of us ever try it?
-
-If, however, the refusal to listen be regarded as a counsel of
-perfection, there remains yet the further injunction--never REPEAT the
-gossip you have heard. That at least is homely and possible.
-
-We used to read in our book of Fables of the lamb that noticed this
-significant thing about the track that led to the lion's den--that all
-the footprints pointed inwards, but there were none returning.
-"Vestigia nulla retrorsum." No footprints backwards. It would be a
-good motto for us all. Let the stories, the ill-humoured, unkind,
-uncharitable sayings that float and wander about everywhere, let them
-come to us as they will, but let the traces end there. Be such a
-person that men may trace a story from its source down the chain TO
-you, but never PAST you.
-
-We can do that much at least for our friends. All about us is the
-constant, unquiet drift of gossip and distorted half-truth, as restless
-as the sand in the desert, dancing and whirling with every puff of
-wind. We can do something to arrest that drift. We can be for our
-friends in some measure what Isaiah said that God's Servant, when He
-came, should be, the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land, stopping
-the drift of the sand, and sheltering our friends by our loyalty and
-our silence.
-
-Don't even repeat the gossip that comes to you, not only for the strong
-reason already given, but also for this little one, that you won't
-likely repeat it correctly. With all the will in the world, it is one
-of the hardest things to retail a story just exactly as you heard it.
-Sir Walter Scott, speaking about anecdotes that he had heard, said he
-always liked to cock up their bonnets a bit and put a staff in their
-hands that they might walk on a little brisker and sprightlier than
-when they came to him! But we all do that, without meaning to do it at
-all. We add a little bit. We exaggerate just the tiniest fraction,
-and our hearer when he repeats the story does the same, and so the
-matter grows till it is big enough to do much mischief.
-
- | "A Whisper broke the air,
- | A soft light tone and low,
- | Yet barbed with shame and woe.
- | Now, might it only perish there,
- | Nor further go!
-
- | Ah me! A quick and eager ear
- | Caught up the little meaning sound;
- | Another voice has breathed it clear,
- | And so it wandered round,
- | From ear to lip, from lip to ear,
- | Until it reached a gentle heart,
- | And that--it broke."
- |
-
-There is a legend that once a king avoided death in a poisoned cup that
-had been handed to him by making over it the sign of the Cross--when it
-broke in pieces at his feet. Let us, when we are tempted to retail the
-vivid, poisonous piece of scandal, stop and invoke the Spirit of
-Christ. Is this that I am going to say about my brother the kind of
-thing I should say if Christ were standing by? Am I justified in
-turning over that bit of gossip which may be true, but which ought not
-to be true? Our duty, who profess and call ourselves Christians, is
-clear. We are to speak no slander no, nor listen to it. We are to
-retail evil about no man. We are to love one another.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, whose command it is that we love our neighbour as
-ourselves, help us to cherish and protect his good name as carefully as
-we guard our own. Make us more willing to repeat the good about him,
-but slower to retail or exaggerate the evil. Grant us all a deeper
-sense of the deadly wrong a foolish tongue can work, and keep Thou the
-door of our lips. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`GOD IN FRONT`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Thou preventest him with*
- | *the blessings of goodness.*"
- | (PSALM xxi. 3.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XVI
- |
- | GOD IN FRONT
-
-You know how, in a happy home, the near approach of a birthday is
-signalised, how parcels are mysteriously smuggled in and hidden in
-secret places, and, though everything seems to be going on as usual,
-yet the plans are being laid in train that will surprise and delight
-the fortunate owner of the birthday when the festal day dawns. That is
-our feeble, human way of trying to surprise one another with the
-blessings of goodness. That is how we "prevent" our beloved with
-tokens of our remembrance. So, says the Psalmist, does God deal with
-us. Not only have we--what we so much need--His forgiveness of our
-past, and His help and presence for the day which now is; He is working
-for us in the future too, sowing the days to come with blessings for us
-to pick up when the passage of time brings us to the places where He
-has hidden them.
-
-The idea that God has been beforehand in our history, getting ready, as
-it were, for our coming, though not a very usual one, is very helpful,
-and it finds abundant illustration and proof in all directions. When a
-child arrives on this earth, he enters into the enjoyment of bounties
-and blessings prepared, not merely weeks, but literally ages before his
-coming. Warmth he needs, and aeons ago the coal beds were formed in
-the bowels of the earth. Food he needs, and God "laboured for ages,"
-as Sir Oliver Lodge puts it, to bring corn into existence. For corn
-needs soil, and, to make that, the Creator had to set the glaciers
-grinding over the granite, and to loosen the forces of rain and frost
-and running water over great stretches of time.
-
-Every child born into the world becomes the heir of all the ages past.
-What blessings have been prepared for most of us, in advance, in the
-homes into which we were born, and the gracious influences under which
-we have grown up! "I have to thank the gods," says Marcus Aurelius the
-pagan Emperor, "that my grandfathers, parents, sisters, preceptors,
-relations, friends and domestics were almost all of them persons of
-probity." "I have to thank the gods." Who else is there to thank but
-God who prevents us in this way with the blessings of goodness? God is
-working beforehand in our interest in all these things. So, when we
-awaken to a sense of Him, there is His Church, established of old,
-awaiting to take us by the hand and help us on our way. When we learn
-our need of a Saviour, behold Christ stands at the door and knocks.
-When, in penitence of heart, we ask God's mercy, we learn that, long
-since, it was laid up in store for us. Before we thought of loving
-God, He first loved us, and gave Himself for us in Jesus Christ our
-Lord. Is it not gloriously true all the way along that God has been
-beforehand with His goodness?
-
-And that, of course, is the explanation of all the glad surprises of
-life. The Lord has prepared them for us beforehand. He has sown the
-future with good things and watched our surprise as we picked them up.
-When Mary Mardon and her father, in Mark Rutherford's "Autobiography,"
-went to the seaside to look for lodgings they saw a dismal row of very
-plain-looking houses. Mary objected instinctively to the dull street,
-but her father said he could not afford to pay for a sea view, so they
-went in to inquire. To their delight they found that what they thought
-were the fronts of the houses were really the backs, for the real
-fronts faced the bay, had pretty gardens before the doors, and a
-glorious sunny prospect over the ocean. Isn't that what we often find
-to be the case? Our most treasured friends are not always those whom
-we fall in love with at first sight. The thing we greatly fear
-dissolves like mist. An envied, but despaired-of, blessing is flung
-into our lap. A door of splendid hope opens in a dead wall. Life is
-full of the unexpected as if wonder were one of the things God wanted
-very much to keep alive in us. When, as you think, everything has been
-exhausted, God surprises you with a fresh gladness. And, aback of all,
-there is the unending surprise of God's patience with us, and of that
-daily mercy of His, which we so ill requite, and so often forget.
-
-Of course, no one dreams of suggesting that all our surprises are of a
-happy sort. It is not so. But the point is that if it is God who has
-hidden the blessings for us to come upon, it is He also who has hidden
-the other things. God's hand does not slip so that we get the wrong
-parcel by accident. He prevents us also with the blessings that we do
-not call by that name at all. In his Lay Sermons, Huxley, describing
-the tadpole in its slimy cradle, says: "After watching the process hour
-after hour, one is almost possessed by the notion that some more subtle
-aid to vision than an achromatic object-glass would show the hidden
-artist with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to
-perfect his work." If, in that wonderful fashion, God is working
-beforehand according to a plan of His own, in the life of a tadpole, is
-it not much more likely that He is so working in your life and mine,
-not in its joys only, but also in its dark hours and its sorrows?
-That, indeed, is the very message and comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ,
-that not even a sparrow falleth to the ground--calamity indeed for the
-sparrow--without our Father.
-
-If it be true that God our Father is working in advance of us all the
-time, then surely it is wrong to speak of the monotony of life? For we
-are on a road which God Himself has sown with surprises for us, and the
-hour of our deadliest weariness may be the immediate percursor of our
-richest and most joyous find. Who could have supposed, at the end of
-the eighteenth century, when poetry in England seemed dead, that a
-great galaxy of stars--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley,
-Keats--was on the very eve of rising? The unexpected can always
-happen. You may come upon another of God's hidden blessings to-morrow.
-Let us not talk of monotony, therefore, in an age which has seen so
-many wonderful things happen. Rather let us hold to the faith that all
-the while God is going before us with the blessings of goodness.
-
-This faith puts another complexion on all our fears and forebodings.
-Before we live it, the web of our life passes through God's hands. And
-the shaded parts, as well as the bright parts, are in His wise and
-loving design. Nobody can promise us freedom from sorrow, but the
-Bible promises that God is beforehand to make the sorrow bearable. He
-has adjusted our temptations to our strength, and never a one has He
-hidden, where we come upon it, that it is impossible for us by His help
-to withstand. Before the mother puts her little child into his hot
-bath at night, she tests the water first with her fingers. And the
-Psalmist means us to believe that life comes to us from God, who has
-measured and adapted it for us, beforehand, in a like fashion.
-
-Viewed in the light of this faith, Death itself takes on a different
-aspect. Oliver Wendell Holmes has suggested that the story of this
-life and the next can be fully written in two strokes of the pen, an
-interrogation-point, and, above it, a mark of exclamation--fear and
-question here below, and, above, adoration, wonder, surprise. "I go to
-prepare a place for you," said Christ to His disciples. If the
-preparation for us here is so wonderful, is it likely to fail yonder?
-If Love made ready for us here, shall it not be beforehand there too?
-Yea, verily. Our experience of how God prevents us here with His
-loving kindness ought to strengthen in us all the "faith of our Lord
-Jesus Christ, and the saint's trust in every age, that when we pass
-hence it will be to meet the grandest, the most blessed, and the most
-surprising provision of all."
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Our Father in Heaven, we shall not be afraid of what life may hold for
-us when we have learned that our little web has first passed through
-Thy merciful and loving hands. We have often prayed that Thou wouldest
-go with us; but Thou hast answered us beyond our asking, for Thou goest
-before us all. In the faith of that leading, make us to journey
-bravely and to sleep secure. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`"UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET"`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Fight the good fight of faith.*"
- | (1 TIMOTHY vi. 12.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XVII
- |
- | "UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET"
-
-We are often told that this is not an age of faith, that the day of the
-beautiful, old, simple acquiescence is past, whether it ever comes
-again or not. Some one has wittily suggested that the coat of arms of
-the present age is "an interrogation-point rampant, above three bishops
-dormant, and the motto 'Query.'" But, like a great many more witty
-things, that saying leaves one questioning whether, after all, it be
-really true. I venture, for my part, to assert that a great many more
-people are really interested in this matter of faith than most of us
-imagine. There is something that haunts men as with a sense of hidden
-treasure about this wonderful thing in life called Faith, that always
-seems to be going to disappear, and yet somehow does not. With a
-strange, wistful persistence men linger about this pool, though there
-are many to tell them that the "desired angel bathes no more."
-
-I wish to speak a word of encouragement to-day to all who are finding
-faith hard. "Fight the good fight of faith," says Paul to his young
-friend, Timothy. Fight. I want to remind you that faith often implies
-effort, that there is nothing in the idea of faith which is
-incompatible with struggle, that the very form of Paul's advice implies
-an antagonism.
-
-It is true that many think of the "faith of the saints" as a quiet,
-contented habit of gentle acquiescence, a sweet and beautiful state of
-mind very far removed from the restless, questioning, analytic temper
-of the man of to-day. Now, I do not say that faith is never seen now
-in that placid form, but I do say that that was not the type Paul had
-in mind when he wrote Timothy, it is not the figure which best
-described his own faith, and it is certainly not the aspect he would
-require to deal with, were he writing to the men of to-day.
-
-For they are only too conscious of much inward suspense of judgment and
-uncertainty concerning many things in Heaven and earth. And that
-inward conflict seems to many of them a sign that faith is waning, if
-not dead. They have forgotten that it is that very sense of inward
-conflict which proves that faith is not dead. Dead things do not offer
-any resistance. We ought by this time to have learned that a thing
-"may be for us an intellectual puzzle, and yet a sheer spiritual
-necessity," and that the Christian faith is, for every soul who has
-once caught it. There are a great many earnest and honest men to whom
-it is the best of news that Christian faith is not incompatible with
-very grave perplexities. The real opposite of faith is not doubt, as
-so many suppose, but deliberate and satisfied denial. Faith can live
-in the same life along with very many doubts--as a matter of fact, in
-the case of not a few of the most Christ-like men of our time, it is
-living beside them constantly. Paul assures us that outside of him he
-found fightings and within him he found fears. Yet he kept the faith
-for all that. They start up on all sides, these spectres of the mind
-and reason, and they ask questions which a man cannot answer. Yet
-Faith may be dwelling in his life in very deed and truth, because faith
-is something more than the sum of all his beliefs. It is the whole
-conscious and deliberate set and desire of his being.
-
-It is a well-known fact that a man may be truly courageous, acting,
-speaking, thinking bravely at the very moment when panic fears are
-gripping his heart. I like that fine old story of the soldier
-advancing into the fire zone with steady step, and taunted by a comrade
-for his pale face. "You're afraid," said the other. "I know I am
-afraid," said he, "and if you felt half as much afraid as I do, you
-would turn and flee." It is the very finest courage that dominates and
-controls a sensitive organisation, and holds the shrinking other-half
-to its purpose with firm grip. Just so is it with faith. A man keeps
-his course, lifts up his eyes to the hills, lives for God and His
-Christ, prays on, struggles on, and hopes for the home beyond the edge
-of life, while often enough his mind is full of questioning and the
-puzzle of God's deep mysteries. For faith is not what the intellect
-says merely. It is what the whole man is struggling and trying to say.
-
- | "With me, faith means perpetual unbelief
- | Kept quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot,
- | Who stands calm just because he feels it writhe."
-
-Don't do yourself the wrong of thinking that faith has vanished because
-the snake is felt to be writhing. "Perpetual unbelief kept quiet."
-Yes, but what keeps the clamouring doubts and fears under foot? Just
-yourself, just your highest self, the bit of you made for God, and
-unable to do without Him! Faith is the vote of the whole man, of the
-best of the man, in the face of a protesting minority. In other words,
-fight is a splendid word to use in speaking about faith.
-
-Let a man ask himself--Does he really wish that the best he has dreamed
-or heard about God and His love for men, His passion to deliver them
-from evil, and His pity and nearness to us all in Jesus Christ His
-Son--does he wish all that to be true? No man is without faith who
-does wish that, and is living in the direction of his desire. In that
-man's life who, despite all the clamour and philosophy of Babylon, is
-keeping his window open towards where he believes Jerusalem to be,
-there is that vital element of faith that is linking his life to God
-even now, and will bring him where he would be at last.
-
-I do not think that the prodigal was at all sure of the welcome that
-awaited him. Probably his mind, as he limped along in his rags, was
-full of misgivings and fears. But the father hailed him as his son
-whenever he saw afar off that the lad's face was set for home. I do
-not imagine our Father will concern Himself very much about the gaps in
-our creed if only our faces are turned homewards and towards Him. Let
-the man I have tried to speak to be of good courage, and fight on with
-a stout heart. Faith is not sight. It may not even be assurance, may
-be only hope and longing, and a reaching towards the Highest. But I
-firmly believe that no man, even though he may fall on the way home,
-and before he knows of his welcome, I believe that no man shall be cast
-out at the last, whose arms, as he fell, were outstretched in desire to
-God.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, Author and Finisher of our faith, help us with all our
-strength to fight the good fight. When our defence is being broken, do
-Thou garrison our souls, O God, that we may be able to stand in the
-evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Through Jesus Christ our
-Lord. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The joy of the Lord is your strength.*"
- | (NEHEMIAH viii. 10.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XVIII
- |
- | THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY
-
-Let us talk about joy, and especially that kind of it of which Nehemiah
-was thinking when he said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." It
-is strange that while practically everybody would agree as to the
-wholesomeness and the duty of joy in the ordinary sense of the term, to
-add the words "of the Lord" to it, seems, to some, completely to alter
-its character and in fact to spoil it, to turn it into an unreal sort
-of joy which is not true joy at all.
-
-I wish emphatically to protest against such a conception of religious
-joy as an injustice to the Father Love of God. The joy of the Lord, as
-I understand it, is not different in quality from wholesome human
-gladness, it is, in fact, just that gladness deepened and sanctified by
-the sense of God, and the knowledge of Him brought to us by Jesus
-Christ our Lord. There is not a single innocent and pure source of
-gladness open to men and women on this earth but is made to taste
-sweeter when they have opened their hearts to the love of God. It is
-the very crown of happy living that is reached when a man can say, "My
-Lord and my God." Once I have dared to accept the wonderful truth that
-even for me the Eternal Father has His place and His plan and His care,
-every simplest happiness, every common joy of living, every delight in
-the beauty of the world and the pleasures of home and work and
-friendship--every one of these takes on a keener edge. It is a
-pestilent heresy to declare that a Christian ought to walk through life
-like a man with a hidden sickness. On the contrary, there is no one
-who has a better right to be joyous and happy-hearted. Do you think it
-is for nothing that the "joy of our salvation" is a Bible phrase? And
-shall we believe that that salvation is ours and not be mighty glad
-about it all the time? What is the good of translating "Gospel" as
-"good news" and at the same time living as if religion were a bondage
-and a burden grievous to be borne? Of all the strange twists of human
-convention, it is surely the strangest to allow ordinary human joy to
-be happy and cheerful, and to insist that those whose joy is in the
-Lord should pull a long face, and forswear laughter, and crawl along
-dolefully as if to the sound of some dirge! The "morning face and the
-morning heart" belong of right to the truly religious, and no one ought
-to be gladder, come what may, than the man who has made the highest and
-best disposal of his little life that any one can make, namely,
-surrendered it in faith and obedience to his Lord.
-
-A gloomy, ponderous, stiff religion which looks askance at innocent
-merriment and is afraid to pull a long breath of enjoyment has the mark
-of "damaged goods" on it somehow, and no one will take it off your
-hands. It is not catching, and certainly your children will never
-catch it. It is said to be a good test of a religion that it can be
-preached at a street corner. But I know a better test than that.
-Preach it to a child. Set him in the midst of those who profess it.
-If their religion frightens him, freezes the smiles on his lips, and
-destroys his happiness, depend upon it, whatever sort of religion it
-be, it lacks the essential winsomeness of the religion of Jesus Christ.
-
-I need not say, of course, that I am not pleading for a more hilarious
-religious life. And, equally of course, empty frivolity, and the cult
-of the continual grin are insufferable things to endure either in the
-name of religion or anything else. Not by a single word would I lessen
-the condemnation which such aberrations deserve. But I do say, and
-with all my heart I believe that a deep, abiding well-spring of
-happiness--which our author calls the "joy of the Lord"--is of the very
-essence of true religion, and is indeed, what he asserts it, actually
-our strength. Actually our strength. Let us be quite clear about that.
-
-The man in whose heart there dwells this best of all joys is a strength
-to other people. We don't need any one to prove that to us, I imagine.
-We have all been helped and revived many a time merely by contact with
-some hearty cheerful soul. Who, for example, that had his choice,
-would elect for his family physician a man with a doleful air? Have we
-not all found that a doctor's cheery manner was as potent a medicine as
-any drug that he called by a Latin name? Ay, and even when we are in
-trouble, and our hearts are sad and sore, I think we would all rather
-see the friend whose faith in God showed in a brave and buoyant outlook
-than one whose religion was of the dowie and despondent sort.
-
-I have heard it said of an employee who had the gift of the joyous
-heart that the twinkle of his eyes was worth £100 a year to his firm.
-I could easily believe it, though the money value might well have been
-set at any figure, seeing that the thing itself is really priceless.
-Did not the most famous modern apostle of the duty of
-happiness--himself a signal proof that joy is something more than the
-mere easy overflow of health and animal spirits--did not Stevenson
-declare that "by being happy we sow anonymous benefits," and that "the
-entrance of such a person into a room is as if another candle had been
-lighted?" I take it the proof is ample that a joyous heart is a
-strength to others.
-
-But more, it is a strength to oneself. That may not be so obvious, and
-yet the result here is even more certain. Ordinary experience tells us
-that joy is good for us, that depression and gloom work us bodily harm.
-But from one province of scientific study especially there has come a
-wonderful array of evidence that makes it as certain as any fact can be
-that the happy states of mind do literally add to our strength in quite
-measurable directions. There is, in strict fact, no tonic in all the
-world like gladness.
-
-That being so, joy, and especially the best kind of it of which
-Nehemiah speaks, is not a luxury, not a condition you may legitimately
-cherish if you are fortunate enough to possess it. It is a sheer
-necessity. You can't do without it. Even to meet your sorrows, even
-to gird you for service, even to run your race without fainting, you
-need the joy of the Lord, which is strength. And since the Father has
-stored up such an abundant supply of it in this world of His, since it
-is knocking at our doors every day, and only our distrust and suspicion
-keep it outside, we know what to do to secure this good gift of God.
-We have only to open our doors to let it in, and give it room.
-
- | "So take Joy home
- | And make a place in thy great heart for her,
- | And give her time to grow, and cherish her,
- | Then will she come and oft will sing to thee
- | When thou art working in the furrows--ay,
- | Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn.
- | It is a comely fashion to be glad--
- | Joy is the grace we say to God."
- |
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Help us, O God, beyond our poor and forgetful thanksgiving, to show
-forth the praise of Thy loving kindness by our joy and gladness. For
-Thy great grace and mercy toward us, and for all the gifts of Thy
-sleepless Providence, we offer Thee the joy of our hearts. Accept our
-offering, we beseech Thee; forgive its scant measure, and teach us to
-be glad in Thee. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The God of Jacob is our refuge.*"
- | (PSALM xlvi. 11.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XIX
- |
- | THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN
-
-There is a phrase which echoes through the Old Testament like the
-refrain of some solemn music--the "God of Jacob." "The God of Jacob,"
-says the 46th Psalmist, "is our refuge." Yet when you think of it, it
-is a strange title. The "God of Abraham" you can understand, for
-Abraham was a great and faithful soul. And the "God of Isaac," also,
-for Isaac was a saint. But the "God of Jacob" is a combination of
-ideas of a very different sort. For though, by God's grace, Jacob
-became a saint in the end, it took much discipline and trouble to mould
-him into a true godliness. And, for the greater part of his life, and
-many of his appearances on the stage of Scripture, his actions and
-ideals are not such as to make us admire him very passionately. We
-like Esau for all his faults, but we do not like Jacob for all his
-virtues. There is something cold and calculating about Jacob that
-repels affection. For all his religion, the Jacob of the earlier
-chapters is a mean soul, successful but unscrupulous, pious but not
-straight, spiritually-minded but not lovable. And yet the Almighty
-condescends to be known as the God of Jacob, and the Bible loves that
-name for God!
-
-What does that say to you? To me it says this--and I think we all need
-to learn it--that God is the God even of unlovable people! That even
-unlovable people have a God! That the Lord is very gracious to
-sinners, we all rejoice to believe, for that is the Evangel of Jesus,
-and He Himself was found practising it even among the waifs and
-outcasts of society. But that unlovable people have a God, too, is
-actually harder for us to realise, for the plain fact is that
-unlovable, disagreeable people irritate and annoy us more even than the
-sinners. If you question that, just analyse your attitude to the
-Prodigal in our Lord's wonderful story, compared with that toward his
-respectable, cold-hearted and priggish elder brother. The brother
-irritates us. We call him, with some heat, as Henry Drummond did, a
-baby, and we want to shake him. But we never want to shake the
-prodigal.
-
-Now, we all have, on our list of acquaintances, people whom we have
-labelled disagreeable, who continually rub us the wrong way, as we put
-it. There is the man who is always talking about himself, and is
-filled with conceit like a bladder with air. "There is the man," says
-Hazlitt in one of his Essays, "who asks you fifty questions as to the
-commonest things you advance, and, you would sooner pardon a fellow who
-held a pistol at your breast and demanded your money." There is the
-ill-tempered, sulky person, and the grumbling, whining, dolorous soul
-never without an ache or a grievance. So we can all draw up our own
-private "Index Expurgatorius" of the people we bar or dislike. We say
-these people are unlovable.
-
-And, since the corruption of the best is the worst, we are agreed that
-the most unlovable of all types is the religious undesirable, the smug,
-unctuous, oily person, for example, whose sincerity is continually in
-question, the narrow, intolerant, little soul who cannot see any sort
-of truth or righteousness except his own, or the prim and pious man who
-is cocksure of his interest in the life to come, but is not straight in
-the affairs of the life which now is. There are others, but
-enumeration is not a very profitable or a pleasant task. Take them all
-together, gather them in a crowd in your memory, and then set yourself
-this exercise for your sanctification and growth in grace. Realise
-that the Lord your God is the God also of these unlovable people. Get
-that idea thoroughly into your heart, and say it to yourself, if need
-be, many times a day. These people look up to Him in worship just as
-you do. They have their sacred hours in His presence just as you have.
-There is nothing you look for to God, that they do not seek, too, from
-Him. They are not of a different order from you, but the same order.
-And though you do not love them, God does. Though they are outside of
-your circle, they are not outside of His. The God of Jacob is their
-God. And therein lies for them, as it did for Jacob, the hope and
-promise of better things to come.
-
-If we remembered that, should we not be more patient and forbearing
-with them than we are, keener to look for the best in them, and to make
-the best of them than we are? Just to think of what is meant by the
-"God of Jacob" is to set our sharp and bitter judgments of others over
-against the infinitely tender compassion and patience and longsuffering
-of God. All the wonder of the divine grace is hidden in the phrase.
-And this is the wonder--that God never grows tired even of disagreeable
-people. He does not give up caring even for the unlovable. But oh!
-what poor sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty *we* are, with our
-quick, rash final judgments and our hard, unbrotherly hearts!
-
-Did you ever ask yourself what some of these unlovable people are
-doing, the while you and I are telling each other how impossible and
-unlovable they are? George Eliot suggests it somewhere thus:--"While
-we are coldly discussing a man's career, sneering at his mistakes, and
-labelling his opinions 'Evangelical and narrow' or 'Latitudinarian and
-pantheistic,' or 'Anglican and supercilious,' that man in his solitude
-is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one,
-because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult
-word and do the difficult deed." Ah, yes, it's a mercy that there is a
-God even for unlovable people!
-
-But there is a question that has been waiting all this time, and we
-must ask it before we close. *What about ourselves, you and me*? Are
-we such lovable people that we can afford to judge others? Do we never
-rub our friends the wrong way, and, without meaning it, annoy and
-disappoint and repel them? Are *our* religious profession and our
-daily practice so very much in keeping that we may talk about prigs and
-self-righteous people as if they belonged to an entirely different
-world? May I speak for you all and say humbly "No"? No, God knows
-they are not! The fact is that if we know ourselves at all well, we
-must be aware that we have it in us to be quite as disagreeable and
-selfish and self-righteous as anybody. It is only our best beloved who
-do not get tired of us, and sometimes even they must be hard put to it.
-
-But there is a blessed Gospel for those who have made that discovery
-about themselves. There is a God of Jacob. Abraham is too high for
-us, and Isaac is too saintly, but Jacob, faulty, disappointing,
-unlovable, yet by God's grace redeemed and perfected at last, Jacob is
-the man for us! The hope and comfort of all who have learned what they
-really are is that "the God of Jacob is our refuge."
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Bring us, we pray Thee, O God, into a truer knowledge of ourselves.
-Make us to learn how frail we are, how poor and blind and naked; to the
-end we may regard with due charity the shortcomings of others, and may
-worthily praise Thy great Mercy, who yet hast not turned away Thy face
-from us. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Elijah went a day's journey*
- | *into the wilderness, and came*
- | *and sat under a juniper tree, and*
- | *requested for himself that he*
- | *might die.*"
- | (1 KINGS xix. 4.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XX
- |
- | UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE
-
-A well-known writer relates that, when passing through Edinburgh once,
-he saw a procession of Friendly Societies, and observed on one of the
-banners the name emblazoned, The Order of the Juniper Tree. His
-comment is:--"Many of us belong to that order." So we do. And,
-because of that, we can diagnose Elijah's trouble quite accurately. He
-is suffering, as we have all suffered at some time or other, from the
-pains and penalties of reaction. Just because he had climbed to a
-height almost superhuman, the reaction when it came was very black and
-terrible. The Bible is too wise and too true to human nature to
-conceal the fact that for his hour of splendid daring, Elijah had his
-price to pay.
-
-It's a commonplace, of course, but just one of those commonplaces which
-in the bulk spell wisdom, that there was a physical reason for this
-condition. To put it plainly, Elijah was tired out. He had been using
-up his physical and nervous energy at such a ruinous rate during the
-past few hours, that he had overdrawn his account. It strikes one as a
-very significant fact that when God's angel took the prophet in hand,
-the first thing he did was to provide him with a meal. Elijah was
-actually on his way back to his normal condition when he had had
-something to eat.
-
-That is not a mere incident in the story. It is exceedingly important,
-because, sometimes the religious depression with which we are
-acquainted arises in a similar way. It is a very useful fact to
-remember that a man's whole religious outlook is coloured by the
-condition of his health. We may be slow to admit such a low and
-material cause for effects so apparently spiritual. But it is a fact
-all the same. And it is only wise to recognise it.
-
-But Elijah's reaction was not entirely or even mainly physical in its
-origin. He had been in a very exalted spiritual condition during the
-contest on Carmel. Think what the man had done! He had stood alone in
-the path of a whole nation rioting down to idolatry and shamelessness,
-and with voice and presence and fire from Heaven had stopped and turned
-them, driven the huddled, frightened sheep back again to the ways and
-the worship of God. Was it to be wondered at that his very soul within
-him was faint under the strain?
-
-Though the vision and the privileges of the hill-top are what the best
-men covet most, it is but little of it at a time that any one can
-stand. Do you remember that Jesus would not let Peter and James and
-John remain long on the Mount of the Transfiguration, even though they
-wanted to build tabernacles and dwell there? There have been few
-greater spiritual experts than John Bunyan, and when he has described
-how his pilgrim fared in the Palace Beautiful, how he slept in a
-chamber called Peace, how he saw afar off the Delectable Land, whither
-he was journeying, where does he take him next? Straight down into the
-Valley of Humiliation, where he has to fight for his life against the
-darts of the Evil One flying as thick as hail!
-
-There is no cure for reaction, of course, but there are one or two
-rules which experience has proved to be helpful.
-
-For example, it is never a wise thing, when you are depressed, to
-attempt to form any judgment about yourself, your service, or your
-standing in the sight of God. By some Satanic impulse, that is the
-very time, of course, when you will be tempted to do it. It may appear
-a very wholesome spiritual exercise when you have gone a day's journey
-into the wilderness and are faint, to reckon up what manner of man and
-disciple of Christ you are. But don't do it then. Nobody sees truly
-either himself or God, under a juniper tree.
-
-And then, if possible, do not speak about your despondency. Don't
-express your mood outwardly at all, if you can help it. Bottle it up
-if you can, and you will starve it all the sooner. His biographer
-relates of the late Ian Maclaren that, like many people who have Celtic
-blood in their veins, he was subject to curious fits of depression and
-gloom which did not seem to be in any way connected with bodily health.
-"But," he goes on to say, "he never inflicted his melancholy moods on
-his family, was only very quiet and absorbed, and kept more closely to
-his study. In a day or two he would emerge again, like a man coming
-out into the sunshine."
-
-And lastly. Once a man has sworn himself a disciple and soldier of
-Jesus Christ, neither doubt nor depression, neither darkness nor
-reaction absolves him from the obligation to follow and to serve when
-he is called. It must be confessed that it is an undue sense of the
-importance of our own feelings that makes the juniper-tree-mood the
-peril and hindrance that it is. We need to remember that the call of
-Christ overrides personal feelings. In His army too, there is
-discipline to be thought of, and "it is not soldierly to skulk." When
-the bugle calls to action, nobody but a coward would make the fact that
-he is not feeling quite up to the mark, an excuse for sitting still.
-Reaction is a natural thing, but cowardice is always shameful.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, we bless Thee for the comfort of Thy perfect knowledge
-of us. We are glad to think that Thou knowest our frame and
-rememberest that we are dust. Make us more wise to bring the burden of
-our moods of darkness and reaction to the footstool of Thy perfect
-understanding; but save us, we beseech Thee, from all yielding in the
-long fight against them. Seeing that Thy grace is sufficient for us
-and Thy strength made perfect in our weakness, grant us a godly fear of
-all unmanly surrender. For Thy Name's sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*If any man will do his will*
- | *he shall know of the doctrine.*"
- | (JOHN vii. 17.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXI
- |
- | INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY
-
-When John Wesley was on his way home from Georgia, he wrote this record
-of the voyage in his Journal:--"Being sorrowful and very heavy (though
-I could give no particular reason for it) and utterly unwilling to
-speak close to any of my little flock (about twenty persons), I was in
-doubt whether my own neglect of them was not one cause of my heaviness.
-In the evening, therefore, I began instructing the cabin boy, after
-which I was much easier."
-
-This is a significant passage for various reasons. For one thing, it
-lets us see that even a spiritual genius like Wesley sometimes fell
-into the mood of doubt. And, for another, it shows how, almost by
-accident, as it seems, he found a cure for his trouble. It is plain
-that religion just then had lost its savour for the great evangelist.
-The joy had gone out of his service and the power from his prayers, and
-he was not sure of anything at all. This is practical doubt, the only
-serious kind there is. "Being sorrowful and very heavy and very
-unwilling."
-
-There are not a few men and women whose trouble this is. They are in
-straits to know what is really God's truth. They greatly desire to lay
-hold of it surely for themselves. The tremendous earnestness of those
-who have found the old dogmas unsatisfying, and are adrift again in a
-twentieth century search for God, is one of the most significant
-features of the situation. Can a man really come in touch with God?
-they ask. Is there a living Christ whose presence redeems men from
-evil and can lift them up to what they long to be? Is there a life
-with God which even Death cannot end? And those who are in such deep
-earnest to know God vitally for themselves, are sorrowful and heavy
-indeed to find that all their thinking and reading and inquiry do so
-little for them. They pray for light, and examine all the evidence
-with a wistful eagerness, but the clouds still lie around them, and
-they are still wandering, now in this direction, now in that, like men
-lost in a mist.
-
-Is there no way out of this tangle? Yes, there is. To all who are
-sorrowful and heavy because they know so little they can call their own
-about God and spiritual living, I want to say, There is a way forward,
-a safe, sure way. It is the way that Wesley stumbled upon. "I began
-instructing the cabin boy." That is the way for you and me to a fuller
-experience of God.
-
-That is the simple solution which so many thousands of us have
-overlooked, and it was the discovery of Jesus Christ. When asked how
-He knew about God, He answered that it was because He was doing God's
-will, and He added, If any man, no matter who, no matter what his
-doubts be, if any man be willing to do God's will, where, and as, it is
-clear to him, he too shall know. God will not leave him in ignorance
-of what is really essential.
-
-Nowhere, except in the Bible, do you find such a method of learning
-recommended. From nobody but Christ could such a precept come, for it
-is clean contrary to all that we know about learning in other spheres.
-Study and you will know, think, investigate, ask questions--that, we
-can understand. That is how knowledge comes to us in the realms with
-which we are acquainted. But when men asked Christ how they could
-learn God's truth for themselves, He said, First of all you must obey
-it. Do, and you will know.
-
-You remember the lepers whom Christ touched, of whom it is written that
-"as they went, they were healed?" That is how the only sort of doubt
-that really matters is healed. As you go, not as you sit still and
-puzzle, but as you shoulder the nearest duty and obey what light and
-knowledge you have.
-
-"I don't know," Wesley would say to himself, "whether I am in my right
-place here or not, whether I am really Christ's servant or not. I am
-in the dark, and don't seem to be sure of anything. But there is that
-cabin boy. I can at least do him some good. That is right anyhow,
-whatever be uncertain." "After which," he says, "I was much easier."
-It is marvellous to read, but it is a law as certain and safe as
-gravitation. Do God's will as you know it, and you will get more
-light. "Doubt of any sort," said Thomas Carlyle, "cannot be removed
-except by action."
-
-It is hardly necessary to say, of course, that the knowledge which
-Christ promises to those who will obey God's will is not of dogma in
-its restricted theological sense. It was life Christ talked about, it
-was life He was concerned with, and, for Him, life meant not
-head-knowledge, but heart-experience and heart-hold of God. It is that
-He promises in His great saying. So do not make the mistake of
-thinking that when you seek to do the Will of God, all your mental
-difficulties, about miracles or inspiration or what not else, will come
-to an end. These are problems, not of life, but of mind, and you have
-them because God has given you a mind, and you will probably have them
-as long as your mind is growing. What Christ does promise is of vastly
-more importance, namely, the light of God's truth in your heart, the
-assurance of God in your inmost soul, that you shall know for yourself
-that God is, and that He is near to you, and that your true life is in
-Him; and when a man has got that length, there are many doctrinal and
-other mental puzzles for the solution of which he is content to wait
-with an easy trust and patience.
-
-I like that saying of Viscount Kenmure's, away back in the sixteenth
-century, "I will lie at Christ's door like a beggar, and, if I may not
-knock, I will scrape." I like it, for this reason, that I am quite
-sure there is no essential door of God in earth or heaven which is shut
-against the man who casts himself so utterly on Him as that. And I
-take Kenmure's word to illustrate what Jesus meant by If any man will
-do God's will. It is when a man says, I cannot see, I do not know, my
-mind is filled with spectres and doubts and questions, but, so help me
-God, I will do the thing that is right for me, I will walk by what
-little light I have--it is then, it is to that man that there come
-infallibly the knowledge which no criticism can shake, and the peace
-which the world can neither give nor take away.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, we thank Thee for this one straight road out of our
-doubts, and the difficulties we so often make for ourselves. We bless
-Thee for the stedfast certainty that no man, who will rise and follow
-what light he has, shall finally be left in darkness. By doing shall
-we come to know. As we go upon our clear duty, other truths become
-more clear. It is our Lord's own doctrine, and in His Name we pray
-that Thou would'st help us to learn it. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The valley of Achor for a*
- | *door of hope.*"
- | (HOSEA xxv. 15.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXII
- |
- | GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE
-
-The world has a scheme of redemption of its own, and men can themselves
-do something for the brother who has fallen. But the plan involves,
-invariably, a change of surroundings. Worldly wisdom says, of the
-youth who is making a mess of his life, "Ship him off to the colonies,
-try him with a new start on another soil." But the grace of God
-promises a far more wonderful salvation. It makes possible a new start
-on the very spot of the old failure. It leads a man back to the scene
-of his old disloyalty, and promises him a new memory that shall blot
-out and redeem the old. God does not take the depressed and
-discouraged out of their surroundings. He adds an inward something
-that enables them to conquer where they stand. It is not some new
-untried sphere that God gilds with promise. It is the old place where
-one has already failed and fallen. It is the valley of Achor, the
-scene of Israel's defeat, and Achan's shame and sin, that God gives to
-His people as a door of hope.
-
-In Italian history, during the Middle Ages, the republics of Pisa and
-Genoa were often at war, and at one time the Genoese were badly beaten
-in a sea-fight near the little island of Meloria. Some years after, a
-Genoese admiral took his fleet to that same spot and said, "Here is the
-rock which a Genoese defeat has made famous. A victory would make it
-immortal." And sure enough, the fight that followed ended in a great
-victory for Genoa. It is that sort of hope that God holds out to all
-defeated souls who put their trust in Him. He points us back to our
-valley of Achor, the place with a memory we do not like to think of,
-and He says, There is your door of Hope, Go back and try again. And
-those who go back in His strength are enabled to write a new memory
-upon the old shame.
-
-Our Lord and Master is very gracious to forgive us when we come to Him
-in penitence to tell Him of the position we have lost by our
-faithlessness or our cowardice, but He does not consent to the ultimate
-defeat of the very feeblest of His soldiers. "Go back and try again,"
-is His order. There are many, as Dr Matheson says, who offer us a
-golden to-morrow, but it is only Christ who enables us to retrieve our
-yesterday. For His grace is more than forgiveness. It is the promise
-to reverse the memory of Achor, to turn defeat into victory even yet.
-
-Achor, further, literally means Trouble, and it is a great thing for us
-when we have learned that even there God has for us a door of hope.
-
-The valley of Trouble is perhaps the last place in the world where the
-uninstructed would look for any fruit of harvest, and yet again and
-again men have brought the fairest flowers of character and holiness
-out of it. How many a devout and useful servant of Christ owes the
-beginning of his allegiance to a serious illness, to some crippling
-disappointment, to an overwhelming sorrow? In all humility there are
-many who can say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, and
-there are many, many more about whom their friends often quote that
-text.
-
- | "I walked a mile with Pleasure;
- | She chattered all the way,
- | But left me none the wiser
- | For all she had to say.
-
- | "I walked a mile with Sorrow,
- | And ne'er a word said she,
- | But oh, the things I learned from her,
- | When Sorrow walked with me!"
-
-There is a door of Hope even in the valley of Trouble, and those who
-tread it in God's company shall not fail to find it.
-
-There is one other class who need to know that even in Achor there is a
-door of hope, the depressed and discouraged. Phillips Brooks once
-declared, "I came near doing a dreadful thing the other day. I was in
-East Boston and I suddenly felt as if I must get away from everything
-for a while. I went to the Cunard dock and asked if the steamer had
-sailed. She had been gone about an hour. I believe if she had still
-been there, I should have absconded." I wonder if there is any one who
-has not known that feeling? When duty is dull, and circumstances
-discouraging, when we seem to be merely ploughing the sands, "Oh," we
-say, "for the wings of a dove!" Comfort and happiness and salvation
-seem to lie solely in escape. And it may be that they do. But more
-often the trouble is in ourselves, and would travel with us to the new
-post.
-
-If there be any depressed or discouraged reading these lines, I should
-like to remind them of God's promise to give the valley of Achor--that
-is the depressing scene of your labours, my brother--for a door of
-hope. You are looking for your hope somewhere else, anywhere else
-provided it be out of your present rut and drudgery. In reality your
-door of hope lies in the rut, in the valley itself. It is not escape
-you need. It is just a braver faith that God is in your valley with
-you, and that He needs you there.
-
-Take a firmer grip of that, and go back to where you serve, and you
-will find, please God, that even in your valley He has opened for you a
-door of Hope and Gladness.
-
-May all those who are living and working these days in the valley of
-Achor find in it somewhere God's Door of Hope.
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Grant us, O God, the faith that in Thy strength we can yet succeed even
-in the place where we have failed. Teach us that it is Thy whisper we
-hear, when we have fallen into Despond, bidding us rise and try again.
-And grant us the courage to be sure, since Thou hast a tryst to meet
-and help us there, that even our Achor shall open to us its door of
-hope. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`NOWADAYS`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*There be many servants*
- | *now-a-days that break away*
- | *every man from his master.*"
- | (1 SAMUEL xxv. 10.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXIII
- |
- | NOW-A-DAYS
-
-Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request
-some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered
-sheep-farmer broke out, "Who is David? There be many servants
-now-a-days that break away every man from his master." It was a
-singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is
-not about Nabal's truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think
-about that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said.
-"Now-a-days." The implication, of course, is that servants did not
-break away from their masters in *his* young days. Things were
-different in the times *he* could remember.
-
-You will recognise this peculiar intonation of "Now-a-days" as
-something fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Now-a-days
-the Church has lost caste. Now-a-days the Bible is a neglected book.
-Now-a-days faith is on the wane, and most people don't believe anything
-at all. There are many such sentences, beginning with the word
-Now-a-days and sounding like a chant on a minor key.
-
-This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is
-unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close
-quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible
-opposite that "Now-a-days" of Nabal.
-
-And the first is--What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by
-his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting
-entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very
-different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to
-maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal
-manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to
-break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal
-to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants now-a-days,
-when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he
-may see about him, he is himself largely responsible.
-
-I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes
-of quite a number of pious "inexactitudes." When I hear a man talking
-about the lost influence of the Church now-a-days, I am always tempted
-to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally
-supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught
-me that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church's past records,
-at the expense of its position to-day, comes from men who are
-themselves doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are
-exceptions, of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in
-any worthy cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the
-country is going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most
-part, lolling in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of
-Christ's kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to
-those who are fond of the Now-a-days type of complaint, I would suggest
-the inquiry--What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old
-standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also
-tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you
-deplore, namely, down the hill?
-
-The second query on Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Can his memory be relied
-upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it
-in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows
-from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long
-and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all
-agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were
-using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are
-all apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it
-has a way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that,
-and allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with
-"Now-a-days," and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh.
-
-But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with
-false romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred
-years or more; read such a book as H. G. Graham's "Social Life in
-Scotland in the Eighteenth Century"; and you will soon discover what a
-fine word Now-a-days really is.
-
-As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true
-religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts
-now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not
-know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and
-radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or
-decay.
-
-I can partly understand a man without faith in God giving his vote for
-a general falling off in human progress, but I cannot understand a man
-who believes in God, and in the presence in the world of a living
-spirit of Christ, being a pessimist. No one affirms, of course, that
-we are progressing everywhere, and all the time. Set-backs here and
-there, there are in human history just as in a successful campaign.
-But that, on the whole, the world grows better, the Kingdom comes, and
-earth draws nearer to Heaven, seems to me to be simply a corollary from
-the fact that God reigns, and has blessed us with knowledge of Himself.
-
-I grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far
-mankind still has to travel. But, as far as we are concerned, I am not
-disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account
-of it. A people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like
-honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making,
-can hardly be said to be degenerating, especially when we remember some
-of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and
-generations gone by. But even though the clock of progress be set back
-awhile--and that does not seem so likely now as when the war began--it
-is simply not possible that, in this world of God's, evil should
-ultimately vanquish good, that the Spirit of Christ should finally be
-crushed by the forces that oppose it. That can never be. As soon
-might the germs of disease which the sun destroys turn round upon it
-and quench its blessed light.
-
-The third query opposite Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Does he truly discern
-the present time? Does he know "now-a-days" even as well as he knows
-the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had
-broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little
-longer he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of
-the times.
-
-That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Now-a-days
-things are out of joint. Maybe you don't clearly see these very days
-you are disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village
-where He had been brought up, the people said, Is not this the
-Carpenter? and in their anger at His presumption, as they thought it,
-they wanted to make away with Him. If they had only known!
-
-It is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future. We cannot
-even see the present. Think what it would be like if we could see the
-great men, the prophets, poets, reformers, leaders, who are at this
-present moment in our nurseries and schools, or if we were able to
-recognise in the--at present--small shoot of a cause, the great tree
-into which in God's providence it is destined to grow!
-
-Now-a-days; now-a-days! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he
-knows "now-a-days" well enough to call it names! It is not with
-observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a
-new and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and
-me to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way
-and time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we
-can to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a
-better place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is
-going on about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in
-the world than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and
-bare to-day.[1] It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears
-now-a-days. Yet *even now* the sap is mounting quickly in every living
-stem, and Spring is getting ready while we sleep.
-
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- | [1] Written in February.
-
-
-So, let us have the courage to believe--so is it with every worthy
-cause of God and man.
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Almighty God, Ruler and Disposer of all events, we would remember that
-this world of ours is, first of all, Thine. We believe that, though
-Thy Kingdom comes not with observation yet it does come more and more.
-We believe that, with Thee, the best is yet to be. And we pray that,
-with that faith in our hearts, we may leave the large campaign with
-quietness and confidence to Thee, and seek rather to discharge the
-duties of that post Thou hast assigned to us, with loyalty and good
-hope. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`ROUNDABOUT ROADS`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*And a certain man drew a*
- | *bow at a venture.*"
- | (2 CHRONICLES xviii. 33)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXIV
- |
- | ROUNDABOUT ROADS
-
-It sounds improbable that though a whole army was trying to kill Ahab,
-it should be an arrow which a man shot at a venture, or as the Hebrew
-has it, quaintly, "in his simplicity"--when twanging his bow
-carelessly, or trying a new string perhaps--that should find the king's
-heart.
-
-And yet it is the thing that does happen occasionally in real life. We
-sometimes do get the target when we are aiming for something else. The
-name which we have been worrying to recall strolls casually into our
-memory when we have given up trying and are not thinking of it at all.
-There are certain stars, astronomers tell us, which they see best when
-they look askance. And I have come to think that there are certain
-precious goods of His which God allows us to possess on the same
-conditions. You see them by looking past them. You get them by aiming
-at something else. "Look at your goal and go for it straight," says
-worldly wisdom, wisely and truly enough in many instances. All the
-same there are good things in life to which that is emphatically NOT
-the road. The real way to secure these is to aim for something else.
-
-This is true, for example, of Happiness. Everyone of us wants to be
-happy. And there is such a bountiful provision of the means of
-happiness all about us that it is difficult to resist the conclusion
-that God means us all to be happy. Yet when those for whom happiness
-is meant and prepared seek it directly and for itself, it is as certain
-as anything can be that they won't find it. You ask, perhaps you pray
-for this boon, and God shows you only some bare duty that is clearly
-yours. Out to it you go, like a brave man, not thinking there can be
-any blessings on that road, when, lo! as you journey, happiness comes
-to you, quietly, filling your heart with peace.
-
-One does not find that the New Testament, as a matter of fact, has much
-to say about being happy at all. There is so little reference to it
-that it looks as if God had forgotten our need. I find that the Book
-which I had thought might tell me how to find happiness tells me
-instead of "bearing one another's burdens," doing it "unto one of the
-least of these"; tells me about my brother's need of me when he is sick
-or naked or hungry; tells me even about such a thing as a cup of cold
-water to a thirsty disciple. Ah! but when, in however poor a fashion,
-I forget my own quest and gird myself in Christ's name and try to DO
-some of these things, I find that God has not forgotten after all,
-that, all the time He has been showing me THE way to happiness, and I
-did not recognise it because it is not a straight road. It's not a
-question of seeking, but of forgetting to seek. Happiness comes to you
-oftenest when you are intent on bringing it to your brother.
-
-The same principle holds true also with regard to Influence. It is
-natural that a man should desire that his shadow when it falls on
-others should heal and not hurt. But the healing, helpful shadow is
-not got by wishing for it. As soon as you begin to think about it and
-aim for it, you will go astray. Here is a little poem which tells how
-the strange magnetic quality of influence for good comes to a man:--
-
- | "He kept his lamp still lighted,
- | Though round about him came
- | Men who, by commerce blighted,
- | Laughed at his little flame.
- |
- | He kept his sacred altar
- | Lit with the torch divine,
- | Nor let his purpose falter,
- | Like yours, O World, and mine.
- |
- | And they whose cold derision
- | Had mocked him, came one day
- | To beg of him the vision
- | To help them on their way.
- |
- | And, barefoot or in sandal,
- | When forth they fared to die,
- | They took from his poor candle
- | One spark to guide them by."
-
-That is the secret--a roundabout way, as you see. If Influence is to
-be ours, that is how it will come, not by our trying to be influential,
-but by our striving to be upright, loyal, and true.
-
-In the third place, this is true of Life in Christ's sense of the term.
-Life was one of His favourite words. It was Life, in the highest
-sense, that He claimed to bring to men. And the greatest calamity in
-His eyes that could fall on any man is that that inward soul-life
-should die.
-
-Yet when those in whom He has awakened it, aim directly for its growth
-and culture, they make mistakes. To the question--Shall I regard the
-development and deepening of that soul-life of mine as the one end and
-object of my living? the answer of Jesus, as I understand it, is No.
-Life, said He, at its highest and fullest and most perfect, is reached
-by giving it away. He that loseth his life shall save it.
-
-What a long way from this ideal are those good people who are for ever
-laying their fingers on their spiritual pulse and plucking their
-soul-life up by the roots to see how it is growing! There is a nobler
-use of life than to save it in that fearful fashion. There is a truer
-way to grow in grace than by hoarding up virtue so, namely, by letting
-it go generously out from us. When St Nicholas got to Heaven with his
-white robes of sainthood stained with mud through stopping on his way
-to help a carter pull his waggon out of a rut--a task which his fellow
-St Cassianus, for the sake of his robes, avoided and declined--it was
-the muddy saint whom the Master welcomed with the sweetest smile and
-the most gracious words. Whoso loseth his life, the same shall save it.
-
-Happiness, Influence, Life, these three, and the road to each of them
-is indirect. May God bless it to us that we have stood for a little to
-mark the flight of an arrow shot "in simplicity!"
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, may we have grace to discover the blessings that lie on
-Thy roundabout roads. May we never make the mistake of thinking that
-the path to true happiness is the one that runs straight towards it.
-Keep us true to Christ, and we shall not then be false to any man. And
-give us to know that we are likest Him, not when we hoard and cherish
-life and virtue, but when we spend them without stint or measure in any
-worthy cause of God or man, for His sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Why was not this ointment*
- | *sold for three hundred pence,*
- | *and given to the poor?*"
- | (JOHN xii. 5.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXV
- |
- | THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE
-
-"Wherever this Gospel is preached, this that she had done shall be told
-as a memorial of her." What a gracious memorial, and how worthy of it
-was Mary's beautiful outburst of generosity! But what a pity that the
-speech of Judas should be recorded also, as a memorial of him! And
-yet, on mature consideration, we would not have the Judas criticism
-forgotten. Because it called forth what we might not otherwise have
-had, the vindication of Jesus Himself. And because, as a matter of
-fact, we are constantly hearing the protest of Judas repeated in our
-own day, and are often ill-held to know how to meet it.
-
-"This he said," records our evangelist bluntly, "not because he loved
-the poor, but because he was a thief and kept the bag." Yet he might
-have been an honest man and said the same thing. For very many honest
-and earnest men and women are repeating this criticism still. It is
-repeated whenever it is taken for granted that practical utility is the
-only standard by which to judge actions and offerings, that God and man
-can be served in no other way than by "iron bars and perspiration."
-
-How often do we meet the type of mind that admits the service of a
-ploughman and denies that of poet or artist, for whom a waterfall, as
-somebody has said, exists merely as so much power for driving turbines,
-and whose sole test of usefulness is that of making two blades
-grow--and corn blades at that!--where but one grew before. We are
-commonly browbeaten by this type of person, and yet we feel that
-somehow, if we could only say it, he is wrong--that the poet's is as
-divine a vocation as the farmer's, that God meant a silver band of
-falling water in a green glade to suggest other things besides dynamos,
-and that he who even paints some blades of grass, and paints them
-pleasingly, has his place somewhere in the great guild of servants of
-God and man.
-
-One has heard the same attitude taken up in other directions too. Why
-spend so much money on a Church, you will be asked, when there are so
-many poor people in the land? What need for stone pillars and a fine
-organ, when a plain building and a harmonium would do as well? Why try
-to secure what is called a beautiful Church service, dignified,
-stately, musical, when the very baldest worship is acceptable in God's
-sight, if only it be sincere? We have heard all that, and other
-remarks like that, often, and we have seldom been able to give reasons
-against them. A mere instinctive sentiment seems a feeble thing to
-oppose to such cold and hard facts. Yet somehow we feel that it is all
-wrong if only we knew how to convict it.
-
-Did it ever occur to you that Jesus Himself has answered that objection
-and others like it when He vindicated Mary's action that night? There
-is no doubt that her ointment cost a deal of money, money that could
-have fed many hungry people. It was an extravagant offering, without
-any practical outcome, save that Jesus was refreshed. There is no
-doubt also about our Lord's sympathy with the poor and needy. And yet
-He upheld Mary's action, and would not have it called wasteful! All
-that could be said in its favour was that it was beautiful, that it
-touched Jesus keenly, and influenced all who saw it done. And that, as
-I read the story, was one reason at least why Jesus defended it. He
-allows the Beautiful. He would have the Beautiful honoured for its own
-sake even in a world so full of sorrow and trouble as this.
-
-For my part, I am very grateful that this word of Christ's has been
-recorded. For it affords sufficient warrant for declaring the poet,
-the artist, the architect, and all those who are trying to make the
-world more beautiful, God's servants too, offering Him a gift He does
-not disdain to recognise, as truly as the physician, the
-philanthropist, and the preacher whose object is to make it better.
-
-Beauty of form and structure has been lavished profusely by the Creator
-on creatures too small to be seen. There are more things grow out of
-God's earth than corn for food or timber for building houses. There's
-the heather and the wild flowers, the daisies and the violets.
-Hard-headed common-sense asks--What's the use of them? What good do
-they do? The answer is that they are beautiful, and that seems in
-God's sight to be justification enough for having made them.
-
-So when we see Love breaking her alabaster box, and pouring forth her
-offering without stint, as she is doing every day--a mother lavishing
-care upon an ungrateful son, a husband surrounding a peevish wife with
-a tireless devotion, or a sister keeping her own love-dream at arm's
-length that she may guard and guide some graceless brother--let us lay
-our hands upon our lips when we are tempted to criticise. These
-actions may be foolish, extravagant, quixotic, and may outrage every
-canon of common-sense. But there is a fragrance about them without
-which the world would be much poorer. They are morally beautiful, and
-for that reason, our Lord Himself would teach us, they are not to be
-rudely handled nor judged by any hard standard.
-
-Yes, but He said more than that. He found a more complete extenuation
-of Mary's extravagance. It was because she loved much. Her gift was
-an offering of love to Himself. "She hath done it for my burial." And
-that is the end of the whole matter, my brothers. Love is always
-extravagant when measured by the tape-line of bare duty. It always
-overflows. It breaks its box and gives everything it has. Yet, like
-the widow's cruse of old, its casket is never empty, for even when it
-has given its all, the next needy case will find succour at that door.
-Take your charity subscription sheet to the man who loudly asserts that
-too much money is being given to the Kirk this dull season, and what
-will you get? Take it also to the man who has signed a bigger cheque
-than he can well afford that the House of his God may be made
-beautiful, and it will be strange if you are sent empty away. Ah no,
-it is not Mary, whose devotion has found outlet in some sudden
-generosity, it is not she who neglects the poor.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, whose we are and Whom we seek to serve, enlighten us,
-we pray Thee, in the knowledge and practice of that supreme service
-which is love. May we learn that the greatest thing in our little
-lives is the love they hold for God and man. Teach us to appraise
-love's extra everywhere as those who have also felt and understand.
-And when our own gift and offering must needs be poor and small, may we
-be encouraged by the remembrance that even a widow's mite that love has
-offered is precious in Thy sight. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE ART OF DOING WITHOUT`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*I know both how to be*
- | *abased, and I know how to*
- | *abound.*"
- | (PHILIPPIANS iv. 12.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXVI
- |
- | THE ART OF "DOING WITHOUT"
-
-In one of his letters, Paul declares that he knows both how to be
-abased and how to abound. Most people, who did not stop to think,
-would be inclined to assert that the second of these lessons did not
-require much learning. It's an easy enough thing to be content, they
-would say, when you have plenty. Far harder is it to learn how to do
-without. I am not at all sure that that is right. I rather think
-that, of the two, abundance is a more searching test of a man's true
-quality than scarcity ever is. Carlyle has declared that for one man
-who will stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity.
-
-But whether that be so or not, there is no question that it is a great
-thing to have the secret of doing without. And the merest glance
-abroad convinces us that it is of the utmost importance. In
-literature, for example, the quality which confers most distinction
-upon style is the art of omission. Did not Stevenson, himself a
-master, say that one who knew what to omit could make an Iliad of the
-daily newspaper? And the commonest blunders in the great business of
-living spring from ignorance of this secret. Why do some people make
-themselves disagreeable in a community by their touchiness and
-sulkiness? Simply because they have not learned how to be abased, how
-to live without getting their own way always, or without getting the
-praise or recognition to which they feel themselves entitled. It's an
-art, you see, which is well worth studying.
-
-It has to be added that opportunities for practising it are never long
-wanting from anybody. We don't need to choose what things we shall do
-without, as a rule. The things are simply taken from us, or we never
-get them. It may be our own fault, or it may not. The result is the
-same. We have to do without. And we give away our inmost self by the
-fashion in which we do it.
-
-There is, for example, the question of material goods. It's easy to
-talk unreal nonsense here, and we all must confess to wishing to have
-more of this sort of property than we do possess. But I honestly
-believe that the Apostle Paul did not greatly concern himself whether
-he was, materially speaking, well-off or ill-off. There are other men
-that one knows who have attained to the same point of view. There's no
-question either that for those whose religion is a vital thing it is
-the right point of view. The real man is independent of either riches
-or poverty, because the real man is the man inside. Riches is not you.
-Poverty is not you. You are what you are in your inner spirit. The
-riches there are invisible, but they are eternal--love, faith, hope,
-peace. And the man who has these, as Paul had them, can honestly say
-that it is of relatively small moment whether he is in a material
-sense, rich or poor.
-
-Or take the question of friendship. Who can tell in adequate words
-what it means to have one true, loyal friend? But it has happened
-sometimes that the very closest friendships are broken and a man has to
-stand alone, not by his own choice, but in the grim ordering of things.
-There is a higher obligation than that you keep faith with your
-friends. First and foremost you must keep faith with yourself, with
-your own conscience, with the voice within. And it may be that
-obedience to that involves seeming disloyalty to your friends, either
-for a while or permanently.
-
-Such a time came to Paul. He had for conscience' sake to stand alone;
-and he did it. He was able to do it because his life did not rest for
-its ultimate pillar on his friendships any more than on his riches.
-Paul's real life was within. That inner life of his was enriched and
-made radiant and constant by one supreme fact--he believed that Jesus
-Christ his Lord deigned to share it with him in spirit. It is not
-irreverent to say that in his inner soul Paul lived with Christ.
-
-Maybe his words are too big for us to use, but each of us who, at some
-hard bit of our journey, has appealed beyond friends to the Christ
-within, saying, "I have done, O Lord, what seemed to me right. And my
-friends are hurt and angry. But Thou knowest"--that man has learned,
-even in a slight degree, that there is a nearer and truer blessing
-possible for sinful men than even human friendship.
-
-Then there is another thing that has sometimes to be done without.
-There are privileges that belong to every Christian man and woman, and
-are in a sense their birthright--the sense of God, confidence,
-quietness of heart, hope. There is no doubt that every real Christian
-should be walking and working in the light and gladness of God's
-presence.
-
-But it is just as clear that not all are so blessed. It may be their
-own fault. Doubtless in many cases it is. Or it may be temperament or
-outward circumstances that determine it. Anyhow, many have to walk,
-not in the light but in uncertainty, perplexity, and misgiving, and
-sometimes even in darkness.
-
-But "a bird is a bird even though it cannot sing." And a Christian is
-a Christian still even though his soul is dark within him, and he goes
-on in fear, never daring to look up and hope at all.
-
-That is spiritual abasement. It ought not to be. It is never to be
-lightly acquiesced in. But it happens sometimes to earnest men and
-women, and it seems to be the settled condition of a few. Is it
-possible to do without these things? Can a man manage to exist and
-even move forward who has for a while lost his hold on his faith and on
-God? There are good and godly men who have done it. Brother Lawrence
-did it. Robertson of Brighton did it. Horace Bushnell did it. And
-many, many more. When all that they held most precious in faith had
-been eclipsed for the time, they steered still by the little light they
-knew. Though there should be no heaven, they resolved that they were
-called to be pure, truthful, patient, kind, since these things could
-never be wrong. Though there were no Christ, they would still follow
-where He had once seemed to invite them. And so doing and so following
-they came again to know. The darkness passed, and faith and gladness
-returned. They had lost hold of God for a little, but He had never
-lost hold of them. And, brethren, whatever the doubt or darkness be,
-that's always true. That is what makes it possible at all. That is
-what may make it even blessed. For
-
- | "It's better to walk in the dark with God
- | Than to walk alone in the light;
- | Better to walk with God by faith
- | Than to walk alone by sight."
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Our Gracious God and Father in Heaven, whether Thou dost appoint for us
-poverty or riches, save us from thinking that a man's life consisteth
-in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Beyond all our
-friendships, be Thou our Friend and Helper, and grant us to seek first
-the blessing of our God. Make us very sure, for their comforting and
-our own, that when men in their darkness sorely seek Thy face, the very
-ache of their quest is token that Thou hast already found them. For
-Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`WONDER`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*And Moses said, I will now*
- | *turn aside and see this great sight.*"
- | (EXODUS iii. 3.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXVII
- |
- | WONDER
-
-Moses, adds one commentator significantly, was then eighty years of
-age. By the ordinary standards, he was an old man, yet he had not lost
-his youthful sense of wonder. It is a good sign, the best of signs,
-when a man has lived so long and yet finds wonder in his heart. It is
-a bad sign when a man at any age, or when a generation of men, find
-nothing in all God's world to wonder at.
-
-Yet in many quarters it is regarded as the correct attitude to refrain
-from expressing surprise at anything, no matter how striking. The
-utmost concession to be made to what is really wonderful is a languid
-and patronising "Really?" That is always a pitiful thing. For where
-there is no wonder there can be no religion worthy of the name.
-
-The instinct of worship and the instinct of wonder are very intimately
-related. And where the one has died, the other cannot be in a very
-healthy state. "I had rather," said Ruskin once, "live in a cottage
-and wonder at everything, than live in Warwick Castle and wonder at
-nothing." And his preference is to be commended. For he who has never
-wondered has never thought about God in any way to be called thinking.
-
-It was our Lord Himself who said that the ideal of religion was the
-child-like heart. Everyone knows that these little people are always
-being brought to a halt to wonder at something. And Heaven is in very
-truth nearer to them then, and they are more truly filled with its
-spirit, than either you or I are when the glory and bloom of this world
-unfold before our eyes, or the thought of the Infinite and Eternal God
-comes to us and we have not felt impelled to bow our heads in silence
-and worship, spell-bound, and in a godly fear.
-
-It is not hard to lay one's finger on some of the causes that have
-brought about this state of things. A silly fashion, for one cause,
-has decreed that wonder is vulgar. Why that should be so, no one can
-tell. But if there be higher intelligences than ours in God's
-Universe, and they see the sons of men, as they have plenty of chances
-to do, casting an indifferent glance at the full pomp and majesty of
-the setting sun, or reading such a Psalm as the 103rd with an untouched
-heart, how they must marvel indeed!
-
-And then, of course, familiarity tends to blunt the sense of wonder in
-a certain and common type of mind. The best men have always resisted
-that tendency and recognised that it works harm to life and character.
-They have remembered to look for God in the common and familiar, and
-that is a search that goes far to make a man a saint, just because it
-is a continual prayer, a continual holding open of the heart to God.
-His answer is to fill the wondering heart, bit by bit, with Himself.
-
-Ignorance, too, is often a cause, the kind of ignorance that calls
-itself knowledge. It is an innocent delusion on the part of the
-youthful tyro in Science that after he has made a little experiment
-with a prism and a beam of sunlight, there is nothing wonderful in the
-rainbow. Pure, profound Science on the other hand, speaks very
-humbly--and wonders all the while.
-
-Nature is dumb and silent concerning the Infinite behind it to him who
-goes but to catalogue and dissect. Take a heart that can wonder with
-you on your country-walk, open your eyes and look, open your heart like
-a child and listen, and you will find, as Moses found, that even in a
-bush there may be the Voice of God. Hold the door of your heart ajar
-in simple wonder, and some thing of God will enter to cleanse and
-freshen it, as the hot and dusty street is washed by the rain from
-Heaven.
-
-Just as he who goes to Nature with a heart that cannot wonder, will
-find no message there for him, so he who looks out upon the sanctities
-of home, of human life and love, in that dull mood of mere acceptance,
-must often find himself hard pressed for material when he makes his
-thanksgiving to God. George Eliot has spoken somewhere of the agony of
-the thought that we can never atone to the dead for the stinted
-affection we gave them, for the "little reverence we showed to that
-sacred human soul that lived so close to us, and was the divinest thing
-God has given us to know." The divinest thing God has given us to know!
-
-Have we realised that that gift of God to us lives now in the same home
-with us? Do you know what it is? It is a wife's devotion, a mother's
-care, a brother's comradeship, a sister's love. It is the trust and
-affection of little children, and the patience of those who love us.
-And yet there have been men--judge ye if this be not true--who have
-lived close to gifts of God like these, and taken them all unquestioned
-and never wondered at the undeserved bounty of them or their
-continuance from day to day.
-
-How easy it is to discover the gifts and charm of a stranger, how easy
-to wonder at that! But to wonder at the sacrifice and the patience of
-the love that dwells under the same roof with us, and stoops, in Mrs
-Browning's happy phrase, "to the level of each day's most quiet need,"
-how few of us do that! And yet, without daily wonder, how can we be
-sure that we do not slight it, or requite it ill, how can we truly give
-our thanks to God whose gift it is?
-
-Most important of all, he who brings no wonder in his heart can never
-be touched with the sense of God. The lack of the great deep and awful
-wonder of our fathers in all their thought and speech about God, has
-brought it about that our religious speech to-day is too often either
-superficial, flippant and easy, or syllogistic, mechanical, and hard.
-It is the absence of wonder that tempts men to imagine that God can be
-enclosed in any formula whatever, or brought to the hearts of men in so
-many rigid propositions. If men would but give their wonder expression
-when they frame their creeds, there would be less chafing where the
-edges are too sharp.
-
-I am bound to confess that my sympathies are altogether with a working
-man who once listened to a fervid evangelist at a street corner
-unfolding a scheme of salvation as clean-cut and mechanical as a
-problem of Euclid, and buttonholed him afterwards to inquire if he had
-ever read any astronomy. No, he said, he had not. "That's a pity,"
-said the artisan, "for, eh, man, but ye have an awfu' wee God." In all
-reverence, my brothers, that is what the absence of wonder brings us
-to, a small God, a small salvation, and a merely mechanical Christ.
-
-Men have sometimes asked what that childhood of the Kingdom is on which
-Jesus laid so much stress, and some have taken it to mean renunciation
-of intellect and reason in favour of a Church's dogma. But it means,
-says John Kelman, something far more human and more beautiful--"it
-means wonder and humility and responsiveness, the straight gaze of
-childhood past conventionalities, the simplicity of a mind open to any
-truth, and a heart with love alive in it." That is surely right. That
-is what becoming a little child in Christ's sense does mean. First of
-all, wonder.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Almighty and eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the Universe, dwelling
-in light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no man hath seen
-or can see, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of
-man that Thou visitest him? Behold what manner of love the Father hath
-bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Such
-knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain unto
-it. O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord
-our Maker. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*If ye then, being evil, know*
- | *... how much more ... your*
- | *heavenly Father.*"
- | (LUKE xi. 13.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXVIII
- |
- | THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD
-
-If it were a conceivable thing that we had to part with all the words
-of Scripture save one, and if we were allowed to choose that one, there
-are some of us who would elect to retain that great declaration of
-Jesus--"If ye being evil know ... how much more ... your heavenly
-Father." For, having that, we should still be rich in knowledge of the
-Love and Fatherhood of God. We should still know Christ's dominating
-conception of God, and have His last and highest word regarding Him.
-We should still be able to rise, as Jesus not only warrants but invites
-us to do, from the little broken arc of true fatherhood on earth to the
-perfect round in Heaven.
-
-At the warm reassuring touch of that "How much more your heavenly
-Father" whole systems of brainy divinity vanish away! The truth of the
-Fatherhood of God, vouched for and lived on by Jesus, kills men's hard
-and unworthy and hurtful thoughts about God as sunshine kills the
-creatures that breed and prevail in darkness and ignorance. They can
-no more live alongside of a realisation that Christ's name for God is
-His true name, and really describes His attitude to all the sons of
-men, than the dark, creepy things that live under the stone can remain
-there when you turn it over and let in the air and the light.
-
-But, say some, you must not carry the truth of God's Fatherhood too
-far. What is too far? I ask. I want to carry it, and I believe Christ
-means us to carry it, as far as ever it will stretch, and that is "as
-far as the East is from the West." Think of a father's GOOD-WILL. It
-is conceivable that other men may do you a deliberate wrong. But you
-are entitled to believe that your father won't. You may not understand
-what he proposes, but you can be quite sure that he means only your
-good. Henry Drummond tells how his early days were made miserable by
-the conception he had of God as of some great staring Eye in the
-heavens watching all he did. But that is a policeman's eye, not a
-father's.
-
-There are many tokens that, even yet, we have not realised what these
-blessed words of Jesus mean and imply. A mother vainly trying to
-answer the old, old question why her little one was taken from her,
-will say, "Perhaps I was too fond of him." Or, should sudden sorrow
-come, the explanation suggested by the troubled one himself is, "I was
-too happy." There are plenty of people who are afraid to declare that
-they feel very well or are very happy, in case the upper Powers should
-hear and send trouble, apparently out of sheer malice! "Bethankit,
-what a bonny creed!" Oh! what a dreadful caricature of God! How it
-must pain the Father to hear His children talking so!
-
-There is another mark of fatherhood, as we know it on
-earth--COMPASSION, pity, the willingness to forgive. There is no
-forgiveness on earth like a father's or a mother's, none so willing,
-none that will wait so long and yet give itself without stint at last.
-Pity, as the world of business and of ordinary relationship knows it,
-is at best a transient emotion. It murmurs a few easy words and then
-forgets. But parent love suffereth long and is kind, hopes against
-hope, and waits and is still hopeful when every one else has written
-the offender down irreclaimable. It is such compassion and pity for us
-sinners, how great soever our sins be, that Jesus would have us come
-for to God in Heaven.
-
-But will not men abuse such patience and long-suffering? it is asked.
-Is it not a risky thing to tell them that God is our Father? It is.
-But it is the risk that Love takes cheerfully, and that only Love can
-take. And when men talk lightly and complacently about the great mercy
-of God, there is something, I think, which they have forgotten, namely,
-that at the heart of the divine Fatherly forgiveness there lies the
-shadow of the Cross. I do not say that in any conventional sense. I
-say it because I have seen for myself that at the heart of all true
-earthly forgiveness of a fatherly sort there lies this same mysterious
-shadow. Shall not the father forgive his returning prodigal? Yea,
-verily, and with all his heart. But, ah, before that, think how the
-father has suffered with his son, and for his son. The prodigal's
-shame is the father's shame too, and lies heavy on his heart. And it
-is out of a chamber where he and that pain have long been companions
-that the earthly father issues to welcome and receive at last the lad
-who has sought his face penitent and in his right mind. The welcome is
-real. The forgiveness is full and free. And yet behind it there is
-sacrifice. The price of it is suffering. Aback of it lies--the Cross!
-That is what silences cheap thinking and glib speech about the
-forgiveness of God. If God's long-suffering be like a father's here,
-it is, first, long suffering.
-
-The danger, however, is not that we abuse God's grace knowingly and in
-callous complacency. Far more is it, I think, that we never actually
-accept and realise and build our lives upon the gracious compassion of
-the Heavenly Father and His willingness to forgive.
-
-Every parent ought to know Coventry Patmore's beautiful lyric, "The
-Toys." In it a father tells how, when his little son had been
-disobedient again and again, he struck him, and sent him with hard
-words and unkissed to bed--"his mother, who was patient, being dead."
-And when, later, he went upstairs to see him, he found him asleep, his
-lashes still wet with tears, and--what touched him most--on a table
-beside his bed all his little treasures heaped together to comfort his
-sad heart--a box of counters, and a red-veined stone, a piece of glass
-abraded by the beach, and six or seven shells, a bottle with blue
-bells, and two French copper coins--all his little store of precious
-things.
-
- | So when that night I prayed
- | To God, I wept and said--
- | "Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,
- | Not vexing Thee in death,
- | And Thou rememberest of what toys
- | We made our joys,
- | How weakly understood
- | Thy great commanded good,
- | Then, fatherly not less
- | Than I, whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,
- | Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say:
- | 'I will be sorry for their childishness.'"
- |
-
-One word more about our Father's SILENCE. Our fathers here on earth
-had their silences when we were children. We asked him for something
-that we wanted very much. And he gave no reply. We went on asking.
-We expected to get what we had set our hearts on. He heard us hoping
-and believing that this good thing would come to us, and he held his
-peace. But we knew that silence, and we trusted it. We were quite
-sure that he would have told us if we were deceiving ourselves, that
-his gift, when it came, would, at least, not be a mere mockery of our
-hopes.
-
-And I often think of these words of Christ's, "If a son shall ask bread
-of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?" when I stand
-by a graveside, and speak the words of radiant hope with which we lay
-our beloved to rest. Our Father hears us speak that hope. He has
-heard hearts in an agony through all the generations wish that it might
-be true--that this bleak fact of Death is not the end, but only the
-beginning of a better thing. But He keeps silence. We have no sure
-proof, only the blessed hope of the Christian evangel.
-
-He keeps silence. But, my brethren, can we not trust that silence
-since it is our Father's? We have asked this bread in our pain and
-through our tears. We have asked it because it seems to us we need it
-so. And whatever gift His silence hides, this at least is certain, it
-is not, it cannot be, only a stone.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-Almighty God, who through Jesus Christ has taught us to call Thee our
-Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast chosen a name so dear to us to
-reveal Thy care and Love. When our way is dark and our burden is heavy
-and our hearts are perplexed, grant us the grace to know that Thou who
-art directing every step of our journey art a God of Love, and Thy true
-and perfect Name is Our Father in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our
-Lord. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE UNRETURNING BRAVE`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*Whosoever will lose his*
- | *life for my sake shall find it.*"
- | (MATTHEW xvi. 25.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXIX
- |
- | THE UNRETURNING BRAVE
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | (EASTER DAY, 1915)
-
-.. class:: left small
-
-NOTE.--I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sir Wm. Robertson
-Nicoll's "When the Wounded Go Home," a tender and courageous message.
-
-..
-
-Christmas in war time was like an evil dream. Easter is like a breath
-from Heaven itself, a wind from the pure and blessed heights of God
-blowing the clouds of battle-smoke apart for a brief space so that we
-all may see again that beyond the smoke and beyond grim death itself
-there is the Life Enduring, a Divine Love compared to which ours at the
-best is untender and hard, a Fatherly welcome beside which welcomes
-here are faint and cold. This is the strangest Easter Day the world
-has ever known, yet never have the thousands and thousands of stricken
-homes and sore hearts needed more the living hope that is begotten anew
-in the Christian Church this day by our Lord's rising again from the
-dead. It is assuredly of God's mercy that Easter should fall in these
-days, when so many fathers and mothers, wives and sisters and lovers
-need its hope and comfort so.
-
-We cannot but think to-day of the many, many homes in our own and other
-lands from which strong and brave men marched away weeks or months ago,
-because they had heard the call, and were willing to make the supreme
-sacrifice for righteousness' sake, who will never come back again, who
-have died a soldier's death and sleep in a soldier's grave--fathers,
-husbands, sons, lovers, gallant men, dear lads, cheerful, willing,
-dauntless. You find their names by the hundred and the thousand in the
-casualty lists, but the loss you cannot measure unless you could see
-all the shadowed homes. How many such homes there are in our own land
-alone, How many such in our own little circle!
-
-Try to realise that, and then ask if a more gracious message could fall
-upon all these hearts to-day than the Easter message of the Christian
-Church,--that there is no death and that its seeming victory is not a
-victory. The old, old question, If a man die shall he live again? is
-answered to-day by the triumphant Yes! of Christendom. Yes, he never
-ceases to live. From the inferno of the battlefield the mortally
-stricken do but pass across the bridge and stream of death to God's
-Other Side. When they fall in battle, they fall into His everlasting
-Arms. They do not die. They are not dead. It is only their poor
-mortal bodies that the shrieking shells can maim or destroy. They
-themselves, the real self and spirit of them, no material force can
-hurt, for that belongs to a higher kingdom than the visible, and its
-true goal and home are not here at all.
-
-To all who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death in these
-days, to all who have watched their beloved go out where every true man
-would wish to go, and know only too surely that they shall never
-return,--to these to-day Jesus Christ has His Word to speak,--and would
-that all might hear it and give it room in their hearts to do its
-blessed work! It is to Him we owe it, and He is our authority for
-believing that beyond the darkness and separation of death there is the
-morning of a new and fairer day. The valley of the Shadow, yea, the
-valley of battle itself opens out again at its far end to the sun's
-rising and the untrammelled life in the light and liberty of God. The
-happy warrior is borne by gentle hands to God's own land of peace,
-where the fret and fury of battle slip from him like a discarded
-garment, and beside the still waters of that better country he finds
-healing for his hurt. It is that quiet and blessed hope that is being
-reborn in our hearts this day as the Church keeps her festival of a
-Risen and a Living Christ. It is that lively hope the Church offers
-for comfort to all stricken homes and to every sorrowing heart.
-
-They offered themselves, these gallant lads, not for anything they
-hoped to gain, but for the sake of honour and liberty, of justice and
-righteousness. And when a man casts himself on God in that fashion,
-offering not the words of his lips, nor the homage of his worship, but
-himself, all that he has, his life and all that life holds for him,
-think you that upon that poor soul, with his priceless offering borne
-humbly in his hands, the God and Father of us all is going to turn His
-back? "He that loseth his life," said Jesus, "for my sake shall find
-it."
-
-There are times when the most gracious doctrine is not gracious enough
-to represent and embody the Spirit of Christ to us. We want something
-more, and we often seek it and sometimes find it in poetry, in art, or,
-best of all, in the silence of our own hearts when God-given instinct
-whispers what no words or doctrine can ever express. Such a time is
-now. Such a need is ours to-day.
-
-I make no defence of it theologically, and I ask no man to accept it
-who does not feel it clamouring at his heart for entrance, but I
-confess that for me a couple of lines of John Hay's in his "Pike County
-Ballads" strike a note which all that I know in my heart of the Spirit
-of Christ leaps up to welcome and approve. It is when he has told the
-story of Jim Bludso's sacrifice. Jim was engineer on the "Prairie
-Belle," a river-steamboat, and he was rather a rough, careless man.
-But when the steamer took fire, it was Jim who held her against the
-bank till everybody got safely off except himself. With eyes wide open
-to what he did, he sacrificed his life to save the other souls on
-board. Hay sums up in these lines:--
-
- | "And Christ ain't going to be too hard
- | On a man that died for men."
-
-I leave it there. I trust I am a loyal son of the Church, but I must
-have a place in my creed somewhere for the hope which these lines
-express that Christ ain't going to be too hard on a man that died for
-men.
-
-But there is something more to be said. Every chaplain at the front
-tells us that the most careless and irreligious youths and men take up
-a wonderfully different attitude out there. Men pray in the trenches
-who have never prayed before. I heard some stories recently that
-brought tears to my eyes, of brave and simple confessions made at
-little gatherings for prayer in strange places, by some of those very
-lads whom we reckoned indifferent and heedless before they left home.
-And some of then, turning their faces simply and earnestly, and by an
-old, old instinct of the heart, towards God and His Christ before the
-battle broke upon them, some of them have fallen on the field!
-
-Many, many more there must be who turned them Godwards even at the
-eleventh hour in one brief upward glance to ask forgiveness and
-strength to play the man, about whom no chaplain can report, for no one
-knows or saw or heard save Christ Himself. But there's a glorious page
-in the Gospel to assure us beyond all doubt or question that no one who
-makes that appeal, though it be the dying thief himself, ever makes it
-in vain.
-
-And there we leave the issue--with God, who is kinder than our kindest,
-and whose mercy is from everlasting. It is He who has brought us this
-blessed hope, through His Son, this Easter Day, and we honour His gift
-best by taking it in all its breadth and comfort to our hearts. To the
-broken-hearted wife or mother, to whom the bald War Office report has
-come, let us take this comfort,--"Your beloved is not dead. God has
-him in His gracious care and keeping till the day break and the shadows
-flee away." For that is the Easter message, God be thanked. And this
-is Easter Day.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-To Thy merciful care and keeping we commend all the sons and daughters
-of affliction, and especially those who in this great contest have lost
-some loved one. Grant that even through their tears they may discern
-the glory that belongs to those who have given their lives a ransom for
-many. Be Thou their help and their strength, and may the sympathy of
-all who know them be for them an earnest and token of Thy great Love
-and Compassion. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-
-
-
-
-.. _`THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET`:
-
-.. class:: left small
-
- |
- |
- |
- | "*The heavens declare the*
- | *glory of God.*"
- | (PSALM xix. 1.)
- |
-
-
-.. class:: center medium
-
- | XXX
- |
- | THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET
-
-"The sky," says Ruskin, "is the part of Nature in which God has done
-more for the sake of pleasing man, more from the sole and evident
-purpose of touching him, than in any other of His works." It looks
-like the truth. For there is no scene of earth so fair or majestic
-that man cannot spoil it. Where the "cataract exults among the hills,
-and wears its crown of rainbows all alone," he will build him a
-power-house to supply current to some distant town. But he cannot
-touch the heavens. In the heart of some fairy glen he will placard the
-virtues of somebody's pills, and plaster the gate-posts in a sweet
-country lane with the specious claims of some quack doctor, but above
-it all, it is God, and God alone, who spreadeth out the heavens like a
-curtain and in them has set a tabernacle for the sun. Even in places
-where the face of earth wears no suggestion of natural beauty the face
-of the sky redeems it from evil. For, above the squalor of the city's
-meanest slum, burn the great fires of the setting sun, and overhead the
-fleecy white clouds sail silently all night long.
-
-But, of it all, the glory of the sunset is chief. The dawn has its
-cold splendours too, but not many of us are there to see it when it is
-at its best. It is at eventide, when the work of the day is done, and
-the spell of its restfulness lays the senses open, it is then chiefly
-that God unfolds these splendid harmonies of colour in the western
-heavens. And, by consent, on this Ayrshire coast, on which I look out
-as I write, these glories can be seen to great advantage. It is into
-no flat expanse of water that the dying sun sinks here. The peaks and
-crags of Arran invest its passage with an indescribable pomp and
-majesty, standing out against it like the massive pillars of some giant
-gateway of the West. It is never twice the same. Sometimes lurid and
-blazing, with masses of thunder-cloud piled high, all their outer edges
-rimmed with fire; and, next night, peaceful and level, a study in
-straight lines, as if the great Artist, with even brush, had washed the
-sky with bands of grey and blue and gold. Each evening God has His own
-picture for us, His own handiwork, unspoiled by man. How many of us
-ever pause to recognise its beauty? What does it mean that such a
-prodigality of harmonious colours should be the most ordinary feature
-of our evening hour? Is it that God Himself takes delight in the
-beauty of it all, for its own sake, rejoicing, like all good workmen,
-in the work of His hands? Or has He some purpose with regard to His
-children of mankind? Is it, as Ruskin says, for the sake of pleasing
-man? How unthankful and unmindful we are, if that be so!
-
-The sunset teaches us to put together these two ideas--beauty, beyond
-the wit of man to portray, and God. There is plenty of ugliness and
-sin in the world, and the life of men. Man himself recognises how much
-of the beauty that might have been has been marred and disfigured by
-him. Yet in his heart he worships it, and feels after it afar off.
-And in the evening sky it is written that Beauty belongeth supremely
-unto God.
-
-Whatever that far-off divine event be, to which the whole creation
-moves, one of its features shall be, must be, a beauty which shall
-fully satisfy. For beauty and God cannot be divorced. And when, of an
-evening, God for His own good pleasure, working with those material
-elements which have no power to disobey His behests, unfolds His will
-in such dazzling visions of splendour, is He not declaring that the end
-and goal of life itself, when His purpose therewith is completed, and
-Man, too, has fallen into harmony with His will, shall be fair, and
-satisfying, and beautiful?
-
-Let us not be afraid to say and believe that God speaks to us in the
-sunset. If I pick up the receiver of a telephone and hear my friend
-announce some good news that fills my heart with gladness, it does not
-disturb me to remember that the wire itself has no power to speak. For
-I feel that somewhere at the end of the wire is a mind and a heart like
-my own who is using the dead, soulless wire as a medium of speech with
-me. When the glories of the sun's setting fall upon your heart like a
-benediction, stirring you to devout and grateful thought, breathing
-peace upon you, cleansing your desires of all that is mean and sordid,
-do not be afraid to believe that, behind and beyond all that is
-material and visible, there is the Mind and Heart in whose image yours
-was made, whose gift peace is, whose whisper, though it come along dead
-ether-waves to reach you, is His whisper nevertheless.
-
-It is perhaps natural that the prevailing quality of the thoughts that
-arise within us when we watch the setting sun should be pensive,
-tender, and, not seldom, a little sad. For it speaks of the end of the
-day and the coming night. Its charm and spell are like that of autumn,
-the remembrance of what has gone, the tender grace of a day that is
-dead. For all the beauty and wonder of this world, there is a tear at
-the heart of things. Beneath all our laughter and happiness there lies
-that deeper note. The night cometh. There is an end to it
-all--friendship, love, happiness, work, life itself.
-
- | "For be the long day never so long,
- | At last it ringeth to evensong."
- |
-
-And yet, and yet, my brothers, the end is beautiful, more beautiful
-even than the beginning. God has made the day's death to be exceeding
-fair. The sun passes gloriously to its rest. Hopefully too, for,
-passing thus, it promises a new and fairer morning. So do God's
-children die.
-
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- | PRAYER
-
-O Lord our God, who hast written Thy Word of hope and promise in the
-evening sky, be near us when our day is done, and the wind has fallen
-silent, and the night is waiting. Put us to sleep in a chamber of
-peace whose windows open toward the sun rising, and, when we awake, may
-we be still with Thee. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
-
- |
- |
- |
- |
-
-.. pgfooter::
diff --git a/39309.txt b/39309.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3fd91b5..0000000 --- a/39309.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4392 +0,0 @@ - ONE DAY AT A TIME - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: One Day at a Time - and Other Talks on Life and Religion - -Author: Arch. Alexander - -Release Date: March 29, 2012 [EBook #39309] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - A DAY AT A TIME - - - AND OTHER TALKS - ON LIFE AND RELIGION - - - BY THE REV. - ARCH. ALEXANDER, M.A., B.D. - - Author of - "The Glory in the Grey" - - - - - SECOND EDITION - - - - - LONDON: H. R. ALLENSON, LIMITED - RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C. - - - - - _Printed in Great Britain_ - _by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_ - - - - - THIS BOOK - WRITTEN IN WAR-TIME - TO MINISTER COMFORT - AND IF IT MAY BE TO REINFORCE HOPE - AND FAITH - IS DEDICATED - BY PERMISSION - TO - SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE - G.C.B., K.C.V.O. - ADMIRAL OF THE GRAND FLEET - - - - -"There are nettles everywhere, -But smooth green grasses are more common still; -The blue of heaven is larger than the cloud." - E. B. BROWNING - - - - - CONTENTS - -1. A DAY AT A TIME -2. GOD IN THE WHEELS -3. A TRIPLE BEST -4. FINICAL FARMING -5. THE DOCTOR -6. WELL AND NOW -7. THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME -8. THE REAL MARTHA -9. OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT -10. SMOKING WICKS -11. CULPABLE GOODNESS -12. A KHAKI VIRTUE -13. THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC -14. THE DAY'S DARG -15. GASHMU THE GOSSIP -16. GOD IN FRONT -17. "UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET" -18. THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY -19. THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN -20. UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE -21. INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY -22. GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE -23. NOWADAYS -24. ROUNDABOUT ROADS -25. THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE -26. THE ART OF DOING WITHOUT -27. WONDER -28. THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD -29. THE UNRETURNING BRAVE -30. THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET - - - - - - -"_As thy days, so shall thy strength be._" - (DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 25.) - - - I - - A DAY AT A TIME - -If any one of us knows a word of hope or has picked up a message of -comfort anywhere, it is his plain duty to share it, these days. We owe -it to each other to cherish as exceeding precious, and to pass on to -others, every brave and helpful word or thought we come across. - -Well, here is a splendid one for us all, and especially for those who -have most at stake in this great conflict, and are looking anxiously -ahead and fearing what the weeks may have in store,--"As thy days, so -shall thy strength be." It is a great and glorious promise. And just a -couple of verses further on, it is caught up and included in one greater -still,--"The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the -everlasting arms." Fathers and mothers, with a boy, or more than one, -perhaps, away on active service for King and country, this promise is -for you, to take to your heart and hide there, like some precious secret -between you and God,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be. - -Notice carefully, however, how the promise runs. Not, mark you, as your -life is, not as your years are, not even as your weeks are, but as your -days, so shall your strength be. For each day as it comes, God's -promise is that strength will be given you, but just for a day at a -time. The way to live under any circumstances, but especially in these -hard weeks, is just a day at a time. Leave to-morrow with God, my -brother, until it comes. That is what the Word of God lays upon you as -a duty. Live this day at your best and bravest, trusting that God's -help will not fail you. And for the duties and trials of to-morrow, -however hard and heavy, believe that strength for that day also will be -given you, when it comes. - -You cannot have failed to observe what an important place this way of -living had in the teaching of Jesus Christ. He was always trying to get -men to trust the coming days to God, and to live fully worthily and -nobly to-day. He was dead against the practice of adding to the burdens -of to-day fears and forebodings for to-morrow. It is in love to us, in -His desire to save us unnecessary pain, that He bids us remember that -"sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." - -In one of R. D. Blackmore's fine open-air stories, there is a character -who talks at length about horses. After comparing good ones and bad -ones in their behaviour the first time they breast a hill with a load -behind them, he sums the matter up thus: "Howsoever good a horse be, he -longeth to see over the top of the hill before he be half-way up it." -The man who is listening to him confesses that he has often felt that -way himself! And I do not know that there are many of us who can claim -to be guiltless in this respect. Yet it is perfectly plain that the men -and women who are living the bravest and most successful lives around -us, and are proving towers of strength to others, are those who have -learned the art of living just a day at a time, and of depending upon -God for strength for that day in the simplest and most trustful fashion. - -Why, my brothers, if God our Father had meant us to carry on our backs -the fears and anxieties of the coming days, He would surely have told us -more about them! If we were meant to bear to-day what next week holds, -surely we should have been permitted to see into next week. But we -cannot. We cannot see a single second ahead. God gives us Now, and -To-Morrow He keeps to Himself. Is there anything wiser or better we can -do with our to-morrows than just to leave them quietly and trustfully -with Him? - -The habit of living ahead, as so many of us do, prevents us from getting -the full taste and flavour of the happiness and blessing that are ours -to-day. I defy any man to be adequately grateful for this day's -sunshine if he is worrying all the time about the chance of a bad day -to-morrow. Mark Rutherford, merciless self-critic as he was, takes -himself severely to task for this habit in his "Autobiography." "I -learned, alas! when it was almost too late," he says, "to live in each -moment as it passed over my head, believing that the sun as it is now -rising, is as good as it ever will be." Yes, in great things as well as -in little things, that is true. If we are to live our lives at the -full, and anywhere on the Christian level, the only way is to live one -day at a time. - -Our forefathers in the pulpit were fond of reminding their hearers to -live each day as if it were their last. And in solemn truth, without -being in the least morbid, that is the way to live. If a man knew that -after to-day, he would not smell the sea again, how fully and gratefully -would he fill his lungs with its ozone to-day! If he knew he were not -to enter God's House again, how earnestly and sincerely and reverently -he would join in its worship to-day! Yes, but the point is, why should -his hope, that he has other days to come, prevent him taking out of this -day all that he possibly can? Why should this day be any less prized, -because others in all probability will follow it? - -But the great value of this word is the comfort of it to those who are -anxious and fear the coming days. And which of us is not in that -category? I do not suppose there is one of my readers upon whom, -somehow or other, the war has not levied its tax. Nearly every one has -somebody belonging to him or her who is in this gigantic struggle, and -whose welfare is a matter of real concern. And, closer still, there are -fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, whose very dearest are "in -it" or are getting ready to do their share. They have joined, and we -are proud that they have joined, for this is a cause that ennobles every -mother's son who fights for it. But who shall say what the mother's -thoughts are, these days? How proud, and justly proud, the father is -that his boy has played the man, and offered himself to his King and for -his country! But only God, who made the father--and the mother--heart, -knows what the surrender costs. And only God knows how eagerly and -anxiously they look ahead to try to see what the future may hold. - -And, knowing that, He sends His comfort to you, fathers and mothers. The -comfort of His promise,--As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Just a -day at a time, my friend! Do not take fears for next month on your -shoulders now. You will get strength given you for to-day, certain and -sure, and when next month comes, the strength and comfort for that day -will come too, as certain and as sure. Be not over-anxious about the -morrow. Leave your to-morrow, and your soldier-son, in God's hands. -You can do nothing more at the best, and this is the best. But it is -such a mistake to do anything less. Leave all your to-morrows with -God--it is what He wants you to do--and humbly and gratefully take from -His hands His gift of To-day, and the strength that comes with it. If -that be not enough--and it is not enough for God has said more--when -that is not enough, still your heart a moment, and listen! And you will -hear, beneath that promise for to-day, like the grand deep tones of an -organ, the magnificent diapason of the Father's constant love and -mindfulness,--"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the -everlasting arms." And surely that is enough! - - "So for To-morrow and its needs - I do not pray, - But keep me, guide me, help me, Lord, - Just for To-Day." - - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, who dost appoint the way for each of us, give us the -grace to trust that as Thou hast helped us hitherto, so, in Thy great -mercy, Thou wilt bless us still. We do not ask to see the distant -scene. Keep us, and our beloved, this day; and in quietness and -confidence teach us to leave to-morrow with Thee, our Father. Through -Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - - - -"_The Spirit of life was in the wheels._" - (EZEKIEL i. 21.) - - - II - - GOD IN THE WHEELS - -The prophet Ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of God. He tries -to tell us about it, but his description seems to be a meaningless -jumble of cherubim, and wheels,--wheels within wheels, complex, -wonderful, unresting. Behind all, he saw the Glory of God. And again -and again he tells us that "the Spirit of Life was in the wheels." - -Now that at least is intelligible, and it is a good thing for us to -think about. The Spirit of God is in the wheels. - -I want to suggest to you that He is in the wheels of industry. We have -no hesitation in saying that God gives the farmer his harvest, and we -actually thank Him for it in His temple. A shepherd with a lamb in his -arms is for a pastoral people like the Jews the very image of the -Saviour God. But men who dwell in towns, and work in mills and -factories and yards and railways, or who control or manage such places, -have little to do with either corn or sheep. Is it not worth while to -remind them that God is also in the wheels? Do you remember how -Kipling's old chief engineer Macandrew believed that his twin monsters, -driving the liner onward on her way, sang their hourly hymn of praise to -God? And why not? From all the wheels of industry and man's -inventiveness, goes there not up to Him a praise as real as the song of -His little birds? - -Where two or three gather together on Lord's days, God is truly and -graciously present. But I want you to remember that out in the noisy -moving world of industry and business, God is present also, guiding, -controlling and bringing His long, long plans to pass. It is by His -decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and -spin, for He needs them all, and has brought them into being by the -hands of men, and they are His, as the Church is His. I would not have -you, as Christian men, look upon your week-day world with its mechanism -and its traffic, that world of yours that goes so literally upon wheels, -as a province of life very far remote from the presence of God. I would -remind you rather that God's spirit is in those wheels, that they move -at His bidding, and that they are working out His purposes upon the -earth. - -I would suggest, further, that God is in those wheels whose turning -brings us Change. If you will allow the figure, I would say that God is -in the wheels of Change and time. - -As we grow older, we resent more and more the constant alteration of the -surroundings of life. It saddens us that there should be such a -continual moving on. But perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and -practice that changes hurt and perplex us most. Godly old customs die -out. The face of truth seems to alter. Old notes in religion disappear -and new ones take their place, and we are sorely tempted to ask if it be -possible that the children can know God better or serve His Christ more -truly than their fathers. Ah yes, from forty years and upwards, men are -very apt to have a quarrel with change. They resent it, and would spike -Time's wheels if they could. - -Forgetting that the Spirit of God is in those very wheels. Change is -God's method and His blessing. The Bible does not envy the man who has -no changes. It is afraid for him, afraid that for want of them, he may -settle on his lees, and forget the fear of God. - -Of course, no one will defend every new fashion, or assert that -everything recent is an improvement on what went before. But I, for -one, do believe that generation after generation men are moving up, -being shepherded up, the long slope of history nearer to God. I believe -that God's promise is that He will do better for us than at the -beginnings, and I believe He is keeping His promise. I must believe -that the history of this world which man rough hews, is--spite of all -the wars--being shaped by God Himself, or else there is no God at all. -And so I would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life, -and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt, "Fear -not! Be of good courage! For aback of all change is God our Father, -and it is His Spirit that is working in the wheels." - -Again, I would suggest to you that God is in the wheels that shape your -own lot and mine. The wheels of Chance, they are sometimes called, the -mere whirligig of destiny, as if the world were some blind irresponsible -machine grinding on in the dark, and heeding not which or how many lives -were broken in its teeth. - -And I grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible. For -life is full of mysterious happenings, and chance sometimes seems the -most probable explanation. The tragedy of Job is always being played -somewhere. There are men who up to a certain point in life have known -nothing but good fortune, and after that, nothing but disappointment and -disaster. Out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one; while from -clouds lowering and heavy, it is waited for, expected and dreaded--and -never comes! The merest knife-edge of circumstance sometimes affects -results out of all proportion to its importance. "A grain of sand in a -man's flesh" as Pascal remarks, "has changed the course of Empires." -Yes, I grant you, there be times when the blind chance theory does -suggest itself. - -But by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it. And -best of all, Jesus Christ, our supreme authority, has pledged Himself in -His life and death, that the Ruler and Disposer of all events is Eternal -Love. We have learned from Jesus to say and to trust "Our Father who -art in Heaven." We know and believe that whatever is to come falls not -by chance, but is sent and permitted by the Love of God, who makes no -mistakes. Taught and inspired by Jesus, many thousands of men and women -have committed themselves and all their interests--home, health, -happiness, reputation, loved ones--to the keeping of God the Father, and -known by the peace that came to them, that it was a real transaction. - -Soulless wheels of destiny! say some. The blind mechanism of law! Ah, -no, Jesus is the refutation of that. Law there is, and mechanism there -must be. But neither blind nor soulless. For, above all, is the Father -Love of God, and it is His spirit that is guiding and governing the -wheels. - -Wheels of Industry, Wheels of Change, Wheels of Destiny. And God's -Spirit in them all! - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, to whom not only the Church but our whole work-a-day -world belongs, give us the purged sight that can see Thy tokens there. -Deliver us from all foolish fear of changes since the goad moving all -things onward is in our Father's hand. And help us to be sure that -whatsoever befalleth us and ours has been permitted and appointed by a -Love that passeth knowledge. Amen. - - - -"_The just shall live by faith._" - (ROMANS i. 17.) - - - III - - A TRIPLE BEST - -Some time ago I came across the life-motto of George Stephenson, the -"father of the locomotive," as he has been called, the man whose brains -and sagacity made possible the network of railways which spreads now -over the earth. The crystallised experience of such a life is worth -studying Here, then, was Stephenson's working formula:--"Make the best -of everything; think the best of everybody; hope the best for yourself." - -First, MAKE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. In every set of circumstances -possible or conceivable, there are always, at any rate, two ways of -acting. You can look for the helpful, bright, and hopeful things, and -"freeze on" to these meantime. Or, you can select all the doleful, -sombre aspects, and sit down in the dust with them. Now, if it did not -matter which a man did, there would be no good saying any more. But it -has long since become abundantly clear that the man who makes the best -of his circumstances, however hard they be, comes most happily out of -them in the end. In other words, it pays to make the best of things. It -is the cheery people who recover quickest when they are sick. There are -men who, if their house should fall in ruins about them, will contrive -some sort of shelter meantime with the broken beams! That is the type -that wins out in the end somehow; these are the men to whom the miracles -happen--who never know when they are beaten, who will face the most -tremendous odds with "the half of a broken hope" for a shield, who are -never done until they are dead. What makes for success or failure in a -man is nothing external to him at all. It is something within him. It -is the temper of his spirit. It is the way he captains his own soul. - -The other day I saw a photograph of a backyard. It was a little bit of -a place, of the most forlorn appearance, littered with tin cans, -overgrown with weeds, and hemmed round with blank walls of brick. But -it came into the hands of a man who believed in making the best of -things. Another photograph showed that same backyard after a year had -passed. It was still as small as ever, still overlooked by high walls -and surrounded by chimneys. But it was now a perfect little oasis of -beauty amid a wilderness of bricks and slates. Will anybody deny that -that spirit pays? - -Right up the scale, from little things to the highest things, the man -who looks for the shining possibilities and follows them, is the man on -whom, in our short-sighted way, we say that Fortune smiles. Rather, he -smiles in such a determined way to Fortune, that she has at length to -smile back! - -Nobody pretends that it is easy, when we have failed, to gather our -powers together and try again. But nearly all the big men have had to -do that very thing. It certainly is not easy, when you have a heavy -burden of your own, to spare a cheery word or a hand of sympathy for -somebody who is really much better off, but there are plenty of people -doing it at this moment. Nero's palace is the last place in this world -where you would expect to find a company of loyal Christian folk. Yet -there were such people there, "the saints of Caesar's household." And -the grace of God that made that possible can achieve all these lesser -wonders too. - -Second, THINK THE BEST OF EVERYBODY. There is a winsome legend that -Jesus once revealed Himself in this way:--A knot of idlers had gathered -in the street round a dead dog. One remarked how mangy and unkempt its -hide was. Another said, "What ugly ears!" But a stranger, who had come -forward, said, "Pearls are not whiter than its teeth!" And men said to -one another, "This must be Jesus of Nazareth, for nobody but He would -find something good even in a dead dog." Certainly it is the mark of -the most Christlike men and women that they delight rather in -emphasising the merest speck of goodness than in denouncing the too -visible evil. We can, all too easily, see the fault in another. What -we cannot see is the heart of the defaulter, the weight of temptation he -struggled under, and his bitter inner penitence. "Granted," as Carlyle -says, "the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged; the -pilot is blameworthy. He has not been all-wise and all-powerful. But, -to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his voyage has been round -the globe, or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs." - -The way to get the best out of people is to think the best about them. -Let a man see that you have good hopes of him, and recognise what is -best in him, and, in ways of which science can give no explanation, you -add to his chances of reaching better things. In any case, who would -not wish to stand on Christ's side rather than on Judas's. "This -ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the -poor." That is Judas. "Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath -wrought a good work in me. She hath done what she could." That is -Jesus Christ. - -Third,--Don't leave yourself out of the picture. HOPE THE BEST FOR -YOURSELF. George Eliot, in her "Scenes of Clerical Life," gives, in one -chapter, an account of how the Rev. Amos Barton is criticised and -discussed in his parish. In the next chapter we see the Rev. Amos -himself going on his way blissfully unconscious of the poor opinion in -which he is held, believing quite honestly in himself, and not a little -proud of his abilities. "We are poor plants," says this keen student of -character, "buoyed up by the air vessels of our own conceit." And a -blessed thing, too, when you think of it! If we only knew all the -disparaging remarks people make about us, we should never face up to our -duties at all. What helps us along is our innocent belief in our -powers, in the esteem in which we are held--our little conceits, if you -like. Since they send us to our tasks with more spirit, and keep us at -them with more determination, aren't they good things in their way? They -are indeed just a lower form of that hope that we are speaking -of--Hope's poor relations. - -If these are of such value, how much more pure quiet steady Hope itself, -purged of all pride and undue self-esteem? Hope the best for yourself, -and you are already a good way on the road to it. Suggestion is a -tremendously powerful instrument, even when you make it yourself. By -self suggestion, the psychologists tell us, you can influence your -actions, your character, and your general outlook in a wonderful -fashion, either to your advantage or your hurt. Therefore, they say, be -careful never to suggest evil to yourself. Never say to yourself, "I'm -going to make a mess of this," or "I am not fit for that." Suggest -success, happiness, health, and you beckon them to you. Hope the best -for yourself, and you pave the way for its coming. - -On higher planes, the same holds true. Hope on, and, though you fall -you will rise again. Believe that you will be enabled to face your -trouble or temptation, and you will be brought through it somehow. Even -when the end of life is near, hope still, for beyond this best there is -a better, and God's road winds uphill all the way. - -But, you say, this is just faith. I know it is. Run your hopes for -yourself up as high as you can reach, and they will touch God and become -faith. That is why you are to hope the best for yourself. Because--God. -Because God the Father loves you, and desires the best for you too. I -believe in the optimism which Stephenson's motto embodies, because I -believe in the Fatherhood of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is -why I counsel you to go on hoping that the best is yet to be. Not that -we can earn it at all, or that we deserve it at all. But--because God, -our Father. And, for the daring and faith of that saying, this -sufficient ground.--Because--Jesus Christ. - - PRAYER - -Help us all, Heavenly Father, to meet the discipline of life with -stouter hearts. May we all try harder to cultivate the Christ-like mark -of charity. And spite of our many sins and shortcomings, and our poor -love of Thee, grant us the courage to believe that all things, in Thy -great Love for us, are working together for our good. We ask it for -Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_He that observeth the wind_ -_shall not sow, and he that_ -_regardeth the clouds shall not_ -_reap._" - (ECCLESIASTES ii. 4.) - - - IV - - FINICAL FARMING - -When a man like the writer of Ecclesiastes gives his views on life, it -is worth everybody's while to listen. A tabloid of experience is worth -a ton of theory. And it is from his own knowledge of men and experience -of life that he has discovered that "he that observeth the wind shall -not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." - -Was ever a temper of mind, that we all know something about, more neatly -hit off than that? You can see the very picture which this wise -preacher had before his eyes. Agricola was a farmer in his parish who -would not sow his fields unless the wind was blowing soft and gentle -from a certain direction, and the clouds were just as he wished to see -them. He held there was no hope of a harvest unless wind and clouds -were right. And I observed, says the wise man, that Agricola, my farmer -friend, waiting for the exactly suitable conditions, never got his seed -in at all. - -He was speaking chiefly about benevolence and charity when he used this -figure. And that is one reason why we need to give heed to it. For -ours is an age of charity. We give more to the poor and needy to-day -than ever any nation gave before. It is said, indeed, that a good deal -of our giving is not very wise. Our charities overlap. The truly -necessitous are forgotten, and the improvident, the lazy, and the -wasteful reap the largest share. Certainly that is one of the perils of -charity-giving. But I question very much if, in our efforts to avoid -it, we are not running the risk of falling into a graver mistake still, -namely, of observing the wind overmuch before we sow. If I refuse to -give my mite for Christ's sake till I have made perfectly certain that -it will not be misused, if we withhold our subscription from a charity -till we are assured that it is managed in the very most economical -fashion, it will end in us giving nothing at all. There is, of course, -a reasonable amount of inquiry that is not only legitimate but -necessary. Just as there is a regarding of the clouds before reaping -which is simply wise. But, to wait till every scruple is satisfied, -till every risk has been eliminated and there is not a cloud in the sky, -is to wait for a state of matters that may be long enough in coming. -Meantime the needy person may die; or the corn blacken in the fields. - -Charity, however, is but a small part of Christian benevolence. The law -of Christ says "neighbour" whether he be poor or not. He is in trouble, -and I feel inclined to visit him. Must I wait till I am sure he will -not misunderstand my motive? I have it in my heart to forgive him. -Shall I defer the reconciliation till I am convinced he will not offend -again? Or I have hurt and offended him, and wish to apologise. Had I -not better wait till I know that he will not reject my advances? The -wise man's answer to all these questions is an emphatic No. If you wait -for all that, he says, you will wait too long, and the chance will go -past. Wait till the wind and the clouds are just as you would wish -them, and you will neither sow nor reap at all. - -What to do, then? The wise man answers: "In the morning sow thy seed, -and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether -shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike -good." Just because you can never fully calculate what the result of -your labours may be, give up trying. Don't trouble about it, but do -what comes to your hand at the time. If it is sowing time, don't wait -for the perfect day. If the weather will do at all, sow thy seed in the -morning, and in the evening do not stop. In other words, Take life more -royally. Do not be deterred by its ordinary risks. Seize your chance -like a brave man. You do not know, of course, whether that seed you sow -will prosper or not. But sow it, all the same. Don't let the fact that -you don't know cause you to hold your hand. It is just because you do -not know but that the kindness which you offer your neighbour may be -ill-requited, that there is a royal free-handed self-forgetfulness in -offering it. That a man should live his life and do his good deeds with -a certain dash and carelessness of consequence--that, the Preacher -thought the ideal of noble living. And when we measure it by the -standard of Him who said, Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, it -does not seem to come so very far short. - -For, of course, there are the continual surprises that life holds for -faith. If only the corn reaped when the clouds were just right was -safely gathered in, then indeed we might feel that we could not be too -careful. But what do we find again and again? Why, we find that men -who have had the faith to sow when the day was by no means perfect have -been blessed beyond their expectations. We find our barns full and -running over, though we reaped on a cloudy day. We have seen men cast -their bread upon the waters, where you would say it was certain to be -lost, and find it again, after many days. It's perfectly true that you -don't know whether shall prosper this or that. Yet how often have you -been surprised to find that where you thought you knew, you were proved -mistaken, and where you dealt in faith, it stood justified beyond your -dreams. - -And so, the end of the matter for the Preacher is, once more, Live your -life royally, with a certain loving wastefulness, and an easy disregard -of calculations. Do all the good you can, and do it with a free hand, -not asking to see your harvest before you sow, but taking your risk of -it, and leaving the outcome with God. "Cast your bread on the waters, -and you will find it after many days." - -But what of the bread one has cast on the waters, only to see it carried -away, apparently of no use to anybody? What of the faith that has not -been justified? What of the good done to the ill-deserving, of the -kindly-meant act repaid with indignity and scorn? It is a hard -question, not easy to answer, not fully to be answered at all. "After -many days," said the Preacher. And there is no sign yet, we say. -Patience, brothers, patience! God's day is not yet done. When the days -have run out to the end, it will be time enough to say if we miss the -bread returning. We shall be better able to count the gains and the -losses, if there are any then,--when the "days" are done. - - PRAYER - -Teach us, O Lord and Master, the high and difficult lesson that only -those who lose their lives shall truly find them. Show us that the -manna hoarded in miserly fashion is always touched by Thy curse. In -small things as in great, may this be a token that we are Thy disciples, -that virtue also goeth out of us. Amen. - - - -"_But when Jesus heard_ -_that, he said unto them, they_ -_that be whole need not a physician,_ -_but they that are sick._" - (MATTHEW ix. 12.) - - - V - - THE DOCTOR - -Jesus is Himself the best witness as to what He was, and what He wished -to do for men. It is a fact, moreover, for which we cannot be too -thankful that, in explaining Himself, Jesus used not the language of -doctrine, but living figures and symbols which the humblest and youngest -could not fail to understand. - -When, for example, He compared Himself to a shepherd leaving the ninety -and nine in the fold and braving the darkness and the steep places that -he might bring back the one that had wandered, He opens a window into -His own love for men which is worth pages of description. For those who -are familiar with the daily life and work of a shepherd, it means a -great deal that Jesus waits to be the Shepherd of men. - -But, in these very different days of ours, there are multitudes in -streets and tenements who have never seen a shepherd, and know not what -manner of life is his. So that one is glad that Jesus gave Himself -other names as well. When Matthew Arnold met the pale-faced preacher in -the slums of Bethnal Green, and asked him how he did-- - - "Bravely," he said, "for I of late have been - Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread." - - -If that name for Christ brought him comfort, another preacher may be -allowed to confess that he has often been cheered and helped by the -thought of Jesus as the Good Physician. I am glad that in effect, at -least, if not in actual words, He called Himself by that name. - -This is His apology for consorting with publicans and sinners, for being -so accessible to those who had lost caste and character. He says it is -the sick who need a Physician, not those who are well. And His defence -implies that Jesus regarded Himself as being in a true sense a -Physician, not for outward ills merely, but for the whole man, body, -mind, and spirit. - -The days were, as you know, when priest and physician were one calling; -and it is doubtless to the advantage of both vocations that their -spheres are now distinct. But it may be, and I think it is, unfortunate -that Jesus should be regarded by many as so entirely identified with the -priestly side of life and the priestly calling. It is beyond question -that a faithful priest is, in his degree, a mirror of Christ, and helps -men to see Him more clearly. But it is also true--and a truth worth -underlining in these days--that the Doctor, too, is a symbol of what -Christ means to be to men--nay, more, that there are respects in which -the figure of a beloved physician of to-day comes nearer to the reality -of the living human Christ than any other calling in the world. - -It is a sure and unique place which the Doctor holds in the esteem and -confidence of the community. He is the most accessible of all -professional men, the most implicitly trusted, and, I think, the best -beloved. At all hours of the day and night he is ready to give his -services to those who need him. His mere presence in the sick room -inspires confidence. In the poor districts of town and city especially, -he is more really the friend and confidant and helper of everybody than -any other person whatever. As no other man does, the Doctor goes about -continually doing good. His life is a constant self-sacrifice for his -fellow-men. He wears himself out in the interests of the needy. He -runs risks daily from which other men flee. He asks not to be ministered -unto, but to minister, and often and literally he gives his life a -ransom for many. - -And I do not know what we have been thinking of that we have not oftener -made use of this as Christ's claim for Himself, that we have not told -the ignorant and the very poor especially, who know far more about the -Doctor than they do about the Church, who are, in fact, shy of all that -is priestly, but who do understand and appreciate the Doctor, I say, I -do not know why we have not oftener told them to forget that Jesus is -the King and Head of the Church and remember only that He is the best of -all Physicians. That Christ is compassionate, sympathetic, and -approachable, like the Doctor, would be veritable good news to many a -poor ignorant soul who is mightily afraid of His priests. - -The word which comes to our lips when we seek to characterise the life -and work of the true Doctor is Christlike. And big as the title is, it -is deserved. In sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, in his care most for -those who most need him, in the way he identifies himself with his -patient, bearing with, because understanding, his weakness and petulance -and fears, and seeking all the while only to heal and help and save him, -there is no more Christlike character or calling in the modern world -than the Doctor. - -I am the happy possessor of an engraving--a gift from one whose calling -is to teach doctors--of Luke Fildes' famous picture. Most of you -doubtless are familiar with it. It represents the interior of a humble -home where a little child lies critically ill. The father and mother, -distracted with grief, have yielded their place beside the couch to the -Doctor, who sits watching and waiting, all-absorbed in the little one's -trouble. It is a noble face, strong, compassionate, resourceful, -gentle; and if the Eternal Christ of God is to be represented to us in -His strength and gentleness by any human analogy or likeness whatever, -as He wished to be, and indeed must be, no finer figure could be found, -I think, than that, none more certain to draw out the reverence and -gratitude and trust of men. - -Men of all grades and classes appeal to and trust the Doctor. But how -many of them realise that Jesus desires that men should come to Him and -trust His willingness to help and save them, just as they would do to -some good physician? How many men who have found comfort by taking -their fears and forebodings to the Doctor and hearing his authoritative -"Go in peace!" know or realise that just so would Jesus have us bring -Him our unworthiness and shame and sin? Jesus never preached at those -whom His compassion drew to Him. He never lectured them, He just helped -them, and that at once. He lifted them to their feet and gave them a -new hope. He, straightway, in God's name, assured them of forgiveness. - -Ah, if men only understood that Jesus is to be found to-day down among -the world's burdened and weary souls, not as a Priest begirt with -ceremony and aloof from daily life, but as a Physician, approachable, -helpful, human, who sees and pities their weakness, and longs to save -them and help them to their best. If men only understood that! - - PRAYER - -We come to Thee, Thou Good Physician, with all our ills and fears. We -would whisper in Thine ear the troubles that frighten and shame us. -Surely Thou wilt hear. Draw near us in Thy strength and Pity, and in -Thy Mercy heal us all. Amen. - - - -"_Whatsoever thy hand findeth_ -_to do, do it with thy might,_ -_for there is no work nor device_ -_nor knowledge nor wisdom in_ -_the grave whither thou goest._" - (ECCLESIASTES ix. 10.) - - - VI - - WELL AND NOW - -In popular and condensed form, the golden rule according to Ecclesiastes -is, "Do it well and do it now." His own words are, "Whatsoever thy hand -findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work nor device nor -knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." We want to let -that precept soak into our minds for a little. - -DO IT WELL. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." -Among the lesser joys of life there are few that thrill one with a more -pleasurable sense of satisfaction than that which goes with the bit of -work finished, rounded-off and done as well as one can do it. No matter -what the job may be, if it is worth doing at all, or if it is one's -business to do it, it is not difficult to recognise in the curious -inward glow over its honourable completion, a token of God's good -pleasure, some far-off echo of His "Well done!" - -It is a truism which never loses its point that it is enthusiasm that -commands success. In her weird book called "Dreams," Olive Schreiner -tells the parable of an artist who painted a beautiful picture. On it -there was a wonderful glow which drew the admiration of all his -compeers, but which none could imitate. The other painters said, Where -did he get his colours? But though they sought rich and rare pigments -in far-off Eastern lands they could not catch the secret of it. One day -the artist was found dead beside his picture, and when they stripped him -for his shroud they found a wound beneath his heart. Then it dawned -upon them where he had got his colour. He had painted his picture with -his own heart's blood! It is the only way to paint it, if the picture -is to be worth while at all. If we would have the work that we do live -and count, our heart's blood must go into it. Whatsoever thy hand -findeth to do, do it with thy might. - -What magnificent heart-stirring examples are coming to us every day just -now, from sea and battle-field, of the good old British virtue of -sticking in gamely to the end and "seeing the thing through!" If the -stories of the old English Admirals are calculated, as Stevenson says, -to "send bank clerks back with more heart and spirit to their -book-keeping by double entry," shall not the story that unfolds day by -day of what our own kith and kin are doing, nerve and inspire us all to -"do OUR bit," to face up to OUR duty, humdrum and ordinary though it be, -with the same grit and energy, with the same determination to see it -through, and make as good a job of it as we can? - -The Preacher has his reason for this advice. Because, he says, some day -you will have to stop and lay down your tools, and that will be the end. -No more touching botched work after that. No going back to lift dropped -stitches then. Such as it is, your record will have to stand as you -leave it, when Death raps at your door. Even for us in this Christian -age, this ancient Preacher's reason still stands valid and solemn. Do -what you are at now as well as ever you can, for you shall pass that way -no more again for ever. - -The Apostle Paul, who expresses practically the same sentiment, gives a -different reason. "Whatever ye do," he writes to the Colossians, "do it -heartily as to the Lord." And that is the point for you and me. Not -merely because we have a limited time to work, but because our work is -Christ's service, we must do it heartily, with all our might. It is to -the Lord. To us all in our different labours, in the things we work at -day by day, and the worthy interests we endeavour to support, there -comes this call that transforms the very commonest duty into an -honourable obligation to a personal living Master--Whatever ye do, do it -heartily as to the Lord. - -Yes, and DO IT NOW. For the amount of misery and suffering and remorse -that is directly due to putting off the God-given impulse or generous -purpose to some other season, is simply incalculable. If all the kind -letters had been written when the thought of writing was fresh and -insistent--ah me, how many burdened souls would have been the braver and -the stronger. If only the friendly visit had been paid when we thought -about it--and why wasn't it? "Never suppose," says Bagshot, "that you -can make up to a neglected friend by going to visit him in a hospital. -Repent on your own death-bed, if you like, but not on another's." - -An old writer on agriculture says that there are seasons when if the -husbandman misses a day he falls a whole year behind. But in life the -result is often more serious still. When you miss the day, you miss it -for ever. Wherefore, let us hear the words of the Preacher. If we have -a kind purpose in our heart towards any living soul, let us do it now. -If we think of beginning a better way of living, let us begin now. If -we propose to end our days sworn and surrendered servants and soldiers -of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us volunteer now, for this is the day of -salvation. - -It is said that a great English moralist had engraved on his watch the -words, "The night cometh," so that whenever he looked at the time he -might be reminded of the preciousness of the passing moment. The night -cometh. How far away it may be, or how near to any one of us, no one of -us knows. But near or far it cometh with unhalting step. Wherefore, -whatsoever the thing be that is in your heart to do, great or little, -for yourself or for others, for man or for God--DO IT NOW! - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, by whose command it is that man goeth forth to his work -and his labour until the evening, grant us all a more earnest regard for -the sacredness of each passing moment, and help us to do with our whole -heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_And he washed his face,_ -_and went out, and refrained_ -_himself, and said, Set on bread._" - (GENESIS xliii. 31.) - - - VII - - THE "WASHEN FACE" IN WAR TIME - -That is what Joseph did when his feelings nearly overmastered him at the -sight of his brother Benjamin standing before him, all unconscious of -who he was. He "sought where to weep," says the record with quaint -matter-of-factness, for of course he did not want his brothers to see -him weeping just yet. So "he entered into his chamber and wept there." -But Joseph's secret affections being thus recognised and allowed their -expression, he had a duty to perform. He put a curb upon his feelings. -He took a firm grip of himself. He "washed his face and went out, and -refrained himself, and said, Set on bread." One cannot help admiring -that. It was a fine thing to do. - -And there are two classes of people in our own time in whom one sees -this same attitude, and never without a strange stirring of heart. - -The first and most honourable are those who have already tasted of the -sorrows of war and lost some dear one in the service of King and -country. We speak of the courage and sacrifice of our men, and we -cannot speak too highly or too gratefully about that. But there is -something else that runs it very close, if it does not exceed it, and -that is the quiet heroism and endurance of many of those who have been -bereaved. Time and again one sees them facing up to all life's calls -upon them with a marvellous spirit of self-restraint. God only knows -how sad and sore their loss is. And upon what takes place when they -enter into their chamber and shut the door and face their sorrow alone -with God, it does not beseem us to intrude. Such sorrow is a sacred -thing, but at least we know, and are glad to know, that God Himself is -there as He is nowhere else. It is never wrong and never weak to let -the tears come before Him. As a father understands, so does He know all -about it. As a mother comforteth, so does the touch of His Hand quieten -and console. - -But what fills one with reverent admiration is that so many of those -whose hearts we know have been so cruelly wounded have set up a new and -noble precedent in the matter of courage and self-control. They are not -shirking any of the duties of life. They are claiming no exemptions on -the ground of their sorrow, and they excuse themselves from no duty -merely because it would hurt. They wear their hurt gently like a flower -in the breast. They carry their sorrow like a coronet. Out from their -secret chambers they come, with washen face and brave lips to do their -duty and refrain themselves. How beautiful it is! What a fine thing to -see! The sorrowing mother of a noble young fellow I am proud to have -known, said to a friend recently who was marvelling at her fortitude, -"My boy was very brave and I must try to be brave, too, for his sake." -Dear, gentle mother! One cannot speak worthily about a spirit so sweet -and gracious as that. One can only bow the head and breathe the inward -prayer, "God send thee peace, brave heart!" But, surely, to accept -sorrow in that fashion is to entertain unawares an angel of God! The -feeling which underlies this new etiquette of sorrow with the washen -face is not very easily put into words. But it rests, I think, upon the -dim sense that the death which ends those young lives on this noble -field of battle is something different from the ordinary bleak fact of -mortality. If death is ever glorious, it is when it comes to the -soldier fighting for a pure and worthy cause. There is something more -than sorrow, there is even a quiet and reverent pride in the remembrance -that the beloved life was given as "a ransom for many." When one thinks -what we are fighting for, one can hardly deny to the fallen the supreme -honour of the words "for Christ's sake." And it is not death to fall so. -Rather is it the finding of life larger and more glorious still. It is -that that marks the war-mourners of to-day as a caste royal and apart. -It is that that moves so many of them by an inward instinct to wear -their sorrow royally. Hidden in the heart of their grief is a tender -and wistful pride. Lowell has put this feeling into very fine words: - - "I, with uncovered head, - Salute the sacred dead, - Who went and who return not-- - Say not so. - 'Tis not the grapes of Canaan that repay, - But the high faith that fails not by the way. - Virtue treads paths that end not in the grave; - No bar of endless night exiles the brave, - And, to the saner mind, - We rather seem the dead that stayed behind." - -The other class who are teaching us a new and better way to bear burdens -are the friends at home of those who are on active service. Men, with -sons in the trenches, are going about our streets these days almost as -if nothing were happening, making it a point of honour not to let the -lurking fear in their hearts have any outward expression. Wives and -mothers and sisters are filling their hands and their hearts full of -duties, and putting such a brave face on life that you would never -suspect they have a chamber that could tell a different tale. It is -absolutely splendid. There is no other word for it. I walked a -street-length with a young wife recently whose man has been ill and out -of the fight for a while. She hoped that he might have been sent home, -and who can blame her? but he has gone back to the trenches instead. And -how bravely and quietly she spoke of it! Pride, a true and noble pride -in her beloved soldier, a resolute endeavour to do her difficult bit as -uncomplainingly and willingly as he--it seemed to me that I saw all that -in her brave smile. And I said to myself, "Here is the cult of the -washen face! And a noble cult too! Britain surely deserves to win when -her women carry their crosses so!" - -It is easy, of course, to read the thought in their minds. Our men, -they say, are splendid, why should we be doleful and despondent? They -have made a new virtue of cheerfulness; let us try to learn it too. They -have offered everything in a cause which it is an honour to help in any -degree; let us lay beside theirs the worthy sacrifice of the washen face -and a brave restraint. Such, I imagine, is the unconscious kind of -reasoning which results in the resolute and cheerful bearing you may see -on all sides of you every day. - -And wherever it is seen, it carries its blessing with it. Others with -their own private burdens and anxieties are encouraged to hold on to -that hope and cheerfulness which are just the homely side of our faith -in God and in the righteousness of our cause. - -The cult of the washen face is contagious. It spreads like a beneficent -stain. And since it is entirely praiseworthy, we can but wish it to -spread more and more. Those who come out from the chambers where they -have kept company with sorrow or anxiety, to face life and duty with -shining face and mastered feelings, are not only proving their faith in -the Divine Strength, they are making a precious contribution to the -moral stedfastness of the nation. - -"And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself." Good man! - - PRAYER - -We bless Thee, O God, for the assurance that Thine ear is ever open to -our cry, that it is never wrong to take our sorrows and our cares to -Thee. But help us also, endowed with Thy strength in our secret -chambers, to bear our burdens bravely in the sight of men. For Thy -Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_But few things are needful,_ -_or one._" R. V. (margin). - (LUKE X. 42.) - - - VIII - - THE REAL MARTHA - -When Jesus said, upon one occasion, that He had not where to lay His -head, He was speaking the bitter and literal truth. He had really no -home of His own, but was everywhere a wanderer, dependent on others for -shelter and food; and though the New Testament draws a veil over all the -hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable East, imagination -can picture something at least of what the homelessness of Jesus must -have meant. - -But He had close and warm friends who made it up to Him as far as -friends could, and of these were the two sisters, Martha and Mary, who -with their brother, Lazarus, had a house in Bethany. This place was His -haven and shelter, for "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." -The sisters were unlike in disposition. Mary, we can imagine, was -dreamy, meditative, perhaps a little delicate and fragile, and gifted -with a quick and loving sympathy. Martha was robust, practical, -energetic. Her way of showing the Master that she considered it an -honour to have Him for a guest was to give Him the very best that her -housewifely skill could suggest. No trouble was too much for her. And -it is very possible that one of the charms which this home had for -Jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real place of rest--was its -well-ordered arrangements, the quiet, efficient, capable way in which -things were done. And whose was the credit for that? Martha's. - -What would that household have been like without Martha? And what would -any home that is fortunate enough to have a Martha in it, be like -without her? The truth is our debt to the Marthas is one which we have -never fully acknowledged. You would imagine, hearing the way in which -her name is sometimes used, that it has an apologetic character, as if -the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly -esteemed in comparison, for example, with the ability to write verse! It -is foolish to play Mary off against her sister in this way. Martha did -what she could do best, and showed her love for Christ in that fashion, -and you may be quite sure that He understood. Mary served Him in her -way, by giving Him what He needed more at times than food--a heart to -listen to His message, and a sympathy which made the telling of it meat -and drink to Him. Each sister was the complement of the other. - -But we wrong Martha, of course, in thinking of her as always in the -kitchen. Certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would find -her there, and well that was for the household and the servants. But -nobody is always eating or thinking about eating; and often of an -evening, doubtless, when the labours of the day were over, Martha would -join her sister at the feet of the Master whom she loved as much as Mary -did. - -The incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of -Martha's character occurred during a visit which Jesus paid in the days -before Lazarus fell sick. Something went wrong in Martha's department -that day. Perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the -usually self-controlled Martha, or maybe some oversight of her own. At -anyrate, it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add -to itself, as its habit is, seven other devils. And as Martha went out -and in the dining chamber getting things ready, the sight of Mary -sitting there at the Master's feet doing nothing, struck her, perhaps -for the first time, as rather out of place. Things began to go further -wrong. Just when Martha wanted to do special honour to Jesus, the -ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind. -Each time she entered the room where Christ and Mary were, Martha's -steps grew brisker and more emphatic; and then the last straw was laid -on, and the outburst came! Martha asked Jesus if He really did not care -that Mary was leaving her to do everything. Bid her come and help me, -she said. - -Of course, Jesus knew that it was for His sake that Martha was giving -herself all this trouble. He saw, as even we can see, that this -kind-hearted, worried woman was speaking crossly, as the very best will -do at times, because she was tired and a bit overdriven. And with a -perfect and gentle chivalry and tact He made His reply. As the -Authorised Version puts it, it jars on one, somehow. But King James' -translators have misread their text. What Jesus said was: "Martha, -Martha, you are unduly anxious and troubled. Only a few things are -necessary, or even one. Mary has chosen a good part, and I cannot allow -you to take it from her." - -Martha, remember, was making a feast worthy of the Master, and Jesus, -looking upon the various dishes being got ready, said, in effect, I do -not really need so many as that. One would do quite well. And I must -not let you think that Mary is doing nothing. She, too, is ministering -to me by her sympathy and her willing ear, and you must not take away -the good part she has chosen. - -Jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either Mary or -her sister. He was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of -His who had not served Him as she had wished to do. When He spoke of -what was needful, He meant needful for Himself, the Guest whom both the -sisters were seeking to honour. - -He made no comparison between Martha's service and Mary's. He did not -say, as we have read it so often, that Mary had chosen the better part. -He said, in her defence, that Mary's was also a good part. He is not -blaming Martha, but only expostulating with her in the gentlest fashion, -and defending Mary from the charge which Martha in her heat had made -against her, the charge of being useless, and doing nothing to help to -entertain the Master. Jesus said, She is helping to entertain Me in her -own way, and, He added, it is a good way. - -When Jesus having said that only a few things were necessary, dropped -His voice, as we may imagine, and added "or indeed one," He may have -meant more than He seemed to say. For there was one thing that was more -than meat to our Lord, and that was to find a soul with heart and -sympathy open to His message. And it may be that He felt, as He said -the words, that Mary's ministry met a need of His deeper than that for -which Martha was catering. At anyrate, the oldest and best versions of -this Gospel give Christ's words as we have rendered them, and they stand -here, not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines, but rather as -a proof of the gentle courtesy of our Lord, of His insight into -character and motive, and of His gracious recognition of the worth of -any and every kind of service that has love at its heart. - -Martha went back to her kitchen, and Mary remained where she was. Mary -was not asked to go and help. Martha would have protested if she had -come. Martha was not called upon to go and sit beside Mary. Each -continued the service for which she was best fitted. But each, I think, -had learned something that day. And you and I must not leave this page -of our New Testament till we have learned it too--that we serve best -when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified; that it belongs -to our Christian service to recognise in all loyalty that, though others -find different ways of expressing it, theirs is a good part; and that we -must never either belittle it or seek to take it from them. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, Who by many diverse ways dost bring us near to Thee, and -in differing modes and stations dost appoint our service, help us gladly -and gratefully to do the things we can do, neither envying those whose -opportunities are greater, nor forbidding those who follow not us. For -Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_He giveth (to) His beloved_ -_(in their) sleep._" - (PSALM cxxvii. 2.) - - - IX - - OUR UNEARNED INCREMENT - -"It is vain for you," says the writer of the 127th Psalm, "to rise early -and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrow, for so He giveth to His -beloved (in their) sleep." That is the true reading, and I want you to -think about it. "God giveth to His beloved while they sleep." Over and -above what you have yourself achieved, you GET something you have never -worked for. And you get that, as it were, in your sleep. This is a -beautiful thought, and there are three people to whom I want to offer it -as God's comfort. - -The first is the worried man. It is indeed directly against worry that -this psalmist sets forth his reminder. It is not that he minimises the -need for hard work and watchful care. But he tells the man who is -feverishly burning his candle at both ends, and consuming himself in a -frenzy of tense anxiety, to leave something for God to do. It is as if -he said, "Why so hot, little man, why so fiercely clutching all the -ropes? Remember that God is working too as well as you, working in your -interest and in love for you. When you have done your best therefore, -go to your bed and sleep with a quiet mind, for God giveth to His -beloved even so." - -One can imagine how a word like that would relax the tension and lead -some persuadable Hebrew who heard it to say, "Ah, well, I worry far too -much. After all, I am not Providence. I am always getting a great many -things I have not wrought for. I shall worry less about securing the -good things I desire for me and mine, and trust more to God to give them -as He sees fit." If all of us who needed this reminder just had the -sense to come to the same conclusion! - -I have seen a man compass his family with so many careful regulations -and observances that the criticism of a candid friend seemed entirely -just. "You would think," he said, "to see so-and-so shepherding his -family, that there was no other providence than his own." You can't be -with your best beloved all the while. And you ought to know that God -too is watching even while you sleep. - -If there be some plan on which you have set your heart, and you are -over-anxious about it, quote this text to yourself. Do your best, of -course, but, having done so, leave the outcome with God. About a great -many of the things over which we worry ourselves needlessly, I believe -God's word to us is:--Leave these things to Me. You can't work for -them. And anxiety won't bring them. But you will get them, as you need -them, just as if they came to you in your sleep. - -Said one hermit to another in the Egyptian desert, as he looked at a -flourishing olive tree near his cave, "How came that goodly tree there, -brother? For I too planted an olive, and when I thought it wanted -water, I asked God to give it rain and the rain came, and when I thought -it wanted sun I asked God and the sun shone, and when I deemed it needed -strengthening, I prayed and the frost came--God gave me all I demanded -for my tree, as I saw fit, and yet it died." "And I, brother," replied -the other hermit, "I left my tree in God's hands, for He knew what it -wanted better than I, and behold what a goodly tree it has become." - -The second man to whom I would offer the comfort of this word of God is -the man who is disappointed. Things have gone wrong with him. The plan -on which he spent so much of his time and energy has miscarried, and a -very different result has emerged from what he counted on. His way, as -he saw it, is blocked, and he has had to turn aside. - -Now, there are not many things one can say usefully to a disappointed -man. And it is cruel kindness to try to heal his hurt lightly. -Nevertheless, to him also the psalmist's message applies, and what he -needs to remember, that he may pick up heart and go on again, is that -God giveth to His beloved while they sleep. - -We have all had disappointments, sore enough at the time, which -after-experience proved to have been blessings in disguise. Many a man -can point to a signal failure as the beginning of a true success or -usefulness or happiness. We did not feel as if we were being enriched -when our plan fell through, and we were bitter and rebellious enough at -the time, it may be, but it is quite clear to us now that God was at -that very time giving to us with both His hands. - -No one, of course, can see that about any more than a few of his -disappointments. It would be false to experience to speak as if we -could. But what is manifestly true about one or two may conceivably -hold with regard to them all, if we knew more, or could see better. And -the Christian Gospel calls us to believe and trust that that is so. -There is another Hand than ours shaping our life, a wiser Hand. Better -things are being done for us than we can see in the meantime. And the -man whose hopes and plans have turned out amiss, but whose trust is -still in God, is invited by our psalmist to reason with himself -thus:--"I am like a man asleep, and I do not rightly understand at -present, but I will trust that it is not for nothing that misfortune has -come, and when I wake I shall hope to see that God has been giving to me -in love and mercy when I was not aware of it at all." - -The third man whom this text will help and comfort is the worker, the -man or woman who is trying to do something for Christ's sake. The -Christian worker needs to be told that what he is trying to do is not -nearly all that he is doing. What he is, is speaking as loudly as what -he does or says. There is an aroma and fragrance about the life of the -consecrated Christ-like man or woman which sweetens and sanctifies other -lives beyond what he or she can ever know. Some of the best sermons in -the world have been preached by people who least suspected what they -were doing. The invalid in the home does not know how real religion -becomes to all who watch her patience and unselfishness. And among the -busy and vigorous we often catch hints and reflections, that they never -suspect, of what Christ-likeness means. The man who has surrendered his -life to God, indeed, is a channel of blessing to others beyond all he -ever dreams of. He must not be disheartened when he realises how little -he is doing, for the truth is he is doing far, far more than he knows. -Wherefore, my brother, be of good cheer, and render your service to -Christ with a quiet heart. Lay your course, and work your ship, and -hoist your sail and trust. And the gifts of God will enrich you, and -the winds of heaven will bring you on your way, even while you sleep. - - PRAYER - -We give Thee thanks, O God, for all Thy bounties, undeserved and -unearned; for the increase Thou dost send us while the stars are -shining; for Thy gracious thirty-fold and sixty-fold beyond what we have -sown. Every morning Thou leavest gifts upon our doorstep and dost -depart unthanked. But this day we remember, and we bow our heads to -render unto Thee our humble and our hearty thanks for all that Thou hast -given us while we slept. Amen. - - - -"_The smoking flax he shall not quench._" - (ISAIAH xlii. 3.) - - - X - - SMOKING WICKS - -We read the 42nd chapter of Isaiah now as if it were a part of the -Christian Evangel. And that is right. For whoever the Servant may have -been, of whom Isaiah was thinking, it is Christ and only Christ who -completely fulfils this prophecy. This is a true description of His -spirit and His method. "The dimly-burning wick he shall not quench." - -The figure is easily understood. Here is a piece of flax floating in -oil, and burning so faintly that it seems a mere charred end from which -the smoke coils thinly upwards. Some one comes and snuffs it out, -because it smells. That is the way of the world's reformers, as Isaiah -saw it, and we can see it still. By and by they will trim the wick and -light it with fire of their own, but first they will quench the spark. -But there is One to come, said Isaiah, shooting his arrow of prophecy in -the air, who will go otherwise about it. He will not despise the spark -because it is so feeble. He will tend it and foster it, and make the -evil-smelling bundle of flax into a clear, shining light. And the -saying has found its mark in Jesus Christ. - -When a woman that was a sinner made her way into the house where He sat -at meat, and wept at His feet, He amazed all those present by the -extraordinary gentleness of His dealing with her. He did not refer to -the evil in her life. He did not, as other good men would have done, -first cast her down, that He might afterwards lift her up. He simply -took the beautiful impulse after good which she brought Him out of a -life besmirched and tawdry, held it in His hands--a mere spark of -virtue--and breathing on it, blessed it, and behold it was a flame, -burning up the evil in her life, a lamp lighting her path along a new -and hopeful way. That was Christ. He does not, He will not quench the -dimly-burning wick. - -Now--and this is our point--if those who profess and call themselves -Christians are to have the spirit in them that was also in Christ Jesus, -must not this be their mark too? Does not this prescribe their attitude -to life, that many-coloured, strangely-mixed compound of good and evil? -Good in any form, however feeble, however mixed, as in this world it -inevitably is, with what is evil, should find in those who call -themselves by Christ's name, its truest supporters, sympathisers, -friends. - -To the eye and heart in sympathy with it, beauty often peeps out in -strange places. - - "The poem hangs on the berry bush, - When comes the poet's eye, - And the whole street is a masquerade - When Shakespeare passes by." - -So the mark of the Christ-like heart is just that it discerns, and, -discerning, loves the feeblest tokens of some inward grace that redeems -a life from evil. Do not be afraid that by welcoming the scant good, -you may be held to approve of the greater evil. That is a risk that God -Himself rejoices to take. Did not Christ risk that, when He accepted -that poor woman's worship? Did He not risk it when He held out His -hands to a man like Zaccheus? Does He not risk it always when He -declares, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out?" And -shall we refuse because the risk is too great? - -Life presents us with many anomalies that refuse to square with our -theories. You find men exhibiting qualities of character, which any -Christian might be proud to emulate, outside of the Church altogether. -And you cannot simply label these--"glittering vices," and pass on. God -is not two but One, and goodness is His token wherever it be found. "The -World," says John Owen, "cannot yet afford to do without the good acts -even of its bad men." And the truth for us to learn is that the grace -of God is not bound by our standards or limits. Make the circle as wide -as you like, you will still discover fruits of the Spirit outside, where -by all our canons they were never to be expected. - - "And every virtue we possess, - And every victory won, - And every thought of holiness - Are His alone." - - -It is for something more than tolerance I am pleading. For that may be -a weak and a wrong thing, if it spring not from belief in the good. What -our calling demands is something more, the rejoicing, hopeful -recognition of the good deed or purpose anywhere, and the offer of a -sympathy and a faith in which it can grow. That gift of yours may -actually be the decisive factor in a life balancing perilously betwixt -good and evil. Three times, the other evening, I tried to light my -study fire, and each time it went out. The paper burned, but the sticks -apparently would not light. At last in despair I flung in a burning -match and went away--and when I returned I found a cheerful blaze: the -brief glimmer of that last match had been the determining factor. You -will smile perhaps at the illustration, but you will remember, all the -better, that where the flax is even smouldering, there the angels are -still fighting for a soul. And you will, maybe, remember also that even -your warm sympathy may turn the scale, and fan the flicker to a flame. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray that -the mind that was in Him may more and more be found in us. Help us to -offer to what is good anywhere a sympathy in which it may grow and -increase. Grant us a helpful faith in the struggling good in every man, -even as Thou, our Father, dost call us sons while as yet we are but -prodigals, afar off. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_Let not then your good be_ -_evil spoken of._" - (ROMANS xiv. 16.) - - XI - - CULPABLE GOODNESS - -In his letter to the Christians at Rome, the Apostle Paul counsels them -not to let their "good be evil spoken of." And at first we ask -ourselves if this is a possible thing. Can you have good that is evil -spoken of? Since this is a matter that ought to concern us all, I want -to suggest one or two ways in which this very result may be brought -about, that those of us who are trying to follow an ideal of goodness -may be on our guard. - -First, we can very readily have what is good in us evil spoken of -because of our CENSORIOUSNESS. When men come upon some fruit that grows -upon a goodly-looking tree, or one at least that has a trustworthy label -attached to it, and find it sour or bitter to the taste, they are apt to -be particularly resentful. And it is with precisely such indignation -that they observe men and women who profess themselves followers of -Christ exhibiting a censorious and critical spirit. Where ought you to -find the broadest charity, the kindliest judgment, the most Christ-like -forbearance and restraint? Among Christians, of course. And yet--alas! -alas! - -Just keep your ears open with this end in view for a week, and you will -be surprised at the appallingly hard judgments that come tripping -daintily from the lips of some of those you know best. And if that line -of investigation be not very handy, just watch yourself for the same -time, and you will learn what a rare thing Christian charity is. - -We talk a lot about it, but in real life we "forbid" men very readily -"because they follow not us," we belittle things which we do not -understand, we speak rashly about people whom we do not know, and we are -ready, without the least consideration, with our label for the movement -or the man, who happens to be brought to our notice. - -Ah, if we could only see how far astray we often are, what a libel our -label is, and how unChrist-like many of our speeches appear! We don't -know enough of the inner life of any man to entitle us to pass judgment -upon him. A critical spirit never commends its possessor to the -affection or the good-will of men. Besides, it blinds him to much that -is really beautiful, and cuts him off from many sources of happiness. -You will see evil in almost anything if you look for it, but that is not -a gift that makes either for helpfulness or popular esteem. "I do not -call that by the name of religion," says Robert Louis Stevenson, "which -fills a man with bile," and, on the whole, the ordinary man is of the -same mind with him. - - "Judge not; the workings of his brain - And of his heart thou canst not see. - What looks, to thy dim eyes, a stain, - In God's pure light may only be - A scar brought from some well-won field, - Where thou wouldst only faint and yield." - - -Sometimes one must, in the interests of true religion, pass judgment, -but these times are not so frequent as we suppose. And if there are -occasions more than others when the disciple needs an overflowing -measure of Christ's spirit, it is when it is his clear duty to diagnose, -disapprove, and condemn. - -Secondly, we may have our good evil spoken of by our EXTREMENESS. I -should be very chary of saying that there is such a thing as being -righteous overmuch, but for two reasons. The first is that there is an -injunction in Scripture against it. And the second is that I have met -people, of whom, in all charity, it was true! The modern name for being -righteous overmuch is being a "crank." Now, nobody loves a crank. The -extremist always does his own cause harm. Carefulness about one's food -is a good thing, but to take an analytical chemist's outfit to table -with us is simply to ask for the contempt of all sensible people. - -Paul's advice to the Philippians was, "Let your moderation be known to -all men." And Paul was himself a splendid example of the true -moderation as distinguished from that which is merely indolent and -uninterested. Earnest, enthusiastic, loyal, there was yet about him a -big and healthy sanity, a sweet reasonableness, and--what the extremist -always lacks--an engaging tact. In other words, Paul was a Christian -gentleman, and if you want to know what that means, read his letter to -Philemon about Onesimus the runaway slave. There are blunt words with -which a man can be felled as effectually as with the "grievous crab-tree -cudgel" of which Bunyan speaks. Paul did not consider it any special -virtue to employ such words. His Christian zeal did not lead him to -make a statement in a way that would irritate and rasp a man's soul. -There is a certain extreme candour affected by some Christian people, -who pride themselves on always calling a spade a spade. But if it hurts -my friend to hear me say "spade" I know of no law of God that compels me -to name the implement at all! - -And then, lastly, we can have our goodness "evil spoken of" because it -is so COLD. It sometimes seems as if, in our day, warmth of manner had -gone out of fashion. Ian Maclaren once said of our generation that it -will "smile feebly when wished a happy New Year as if apologising for a -lapse into barbarism." But I don't think any sensible person, not -blinded by an absurd convention, cares for that type of rarified -demeanour. No one likes to get a hand to shake which feels like a dead -fish! - -In one of his books, Dr Dale of Birmingham criticised that line in -Keble's hymn which speaks about the trivial round and the common task -giving us "room to deny ourselves." "No doubt," he says, "but I should -be very sorry for the people I live with to discharge their home duties -in the spirit of martyrs. God preserve us all from wives, husbands, -children, brothers, and sisters who go about the house with an air of -celestial resignation." Ah, no, that's not the goodness, either at home -or on the street, which wins men. It is not beautiful because it is too -cold. The religion of Jesus is something much more than duty-doing. -Thou shalt love the Lord thy GOD WITH ALL THY HEART. Whosoever compels -thee to go a mile, GO WITH HIM TWAIN. Whatsoever ye do, do it HEARTILY -AS UNTO THE LORD. - - PRAYER - -From all unkind thoughts and uncharitable judgments; from all -intemperate speech and behaviour; from coldness of heart and a frigid -service, Good Lord, deliver us. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_God loveth a cheerful giver._" - (2 CORINTHIANS ix. 7.) - - - XII - - A KHAKI VIRTUE - -We are proud to believe that, in the article of courage, our men are -second to none in the world. They have glorious traditions to live up -to, and they are adding to these pages--nay, a whole volume, as splendid -as any in our annals. Yet it is not of our soldiers' courage I wish to -speak. - -For we are told on all hands that there is another quality shining -brighter still these days in the trenches in France and Belgium, in -ambulance waggons and field hospitals, and in the camps at home, namely, -cheerfulness. Again and again the same tale is repeated from one -quarter or another--"our men are simply wonderful," "they treat -discomfort as a joke." They label the very instruments that deal death -among them with names that raise a smile. Nurses, doctors, and -correspondents tell us that the light-hearted way in which our soldiers -face pain and suffering and force twisted lips to smile has created a -new record for the British Army. When the story of this war is written, -and the world gets a nearer glimpse into those awful trenches, I venture -to prophesy that the quality in our countrymen which will most capture -the imagination and fill us with the greatest pride will be the gay, -undaunted cheerfulness with which they faced it all. - -Surely we who stay at home may learn something of that virtue too. For -it is worth learning. Ordinary people who only know what they like, -without knowing why they like it, have a very warm side towards the -person who, when things are grey and gloomy, can keep cheerful. They -would much rather see him come in on a dull day than a wiser man whose -wisdom was a burden to him, or even than a pious person whose piety ran -to solemnity and gloom. It is high time, indeed, that the tradition was -broken for good and all which associates moral excellence with a -funereal heaviness of manner and denies the favour of the Lord to one -who, as Goldsmith has it, "carols as he goes." - -For the blessing of God is written visibly upon the results of -cheerfulness wherever you find it. God rewards the gallant souls who -keep their colours flying through every battle, even though they have to -nail them up over a sorely damaged ship. If you want a proof that the -hopeful and cheery way of facing the rebuffs of life and tholing its -aches and disappointments is more in the line of what God expects from -His children than the doleful whining temper, you have it shown -unmistakably in the fact that the gallant unconquerable soul solves -problems, overcomes difficulties, endures pains, and wins successes -where the solemn and easily depressed would simply have given in and -lain down. You can safely prophesy that the man whom you hear singing -as he goes through the valley, like the pilgrim that Bunyan's Christian -heard, is going to get out of it safely and honourably in the end. The -Lord Himself will deliver him, as He delights to deliver all those who -face life smiling and unafraid, and meet His Fatherly discipline with a -stout heart. - -Cheerfulness, in other words, pays for oneself. But it is also a great -blessing to others. One very safe and sure way to help our fellows up -their hills is to breast our own as bravely and gaily as we can. And -the cheerfulness which heals and blesses like the breath of morning is -that which shows up against a background of cloud and trouble. Let us -all in this year of war and clean courage, register a vow that we shall -take a leaf out of our soldiers' book, and think less about our own -troubles, teach our lips to smile when things are wrong, and keep our -eyes wider open for trouble's danger signals among our friends. It's a -simple way of doing good, but a very effective one. For cheerfulness, -like mercy, is twice blessed. It blesseth him that has, and him that -sees! - - "It was only a glad Good Morning - As she passed along the way, - But it spread the morning's glory - Over the livelong day." - - -But cheerfulness needs its explanation. It implies something. A man is -not cheerful without some underlying philosophy of life to sustain him, -some pillar of faith or hope at his back. When a man faces life -dauntless and smiling, he does so because some inward and, it may even -be, unconscious faith or hope thus finds its expression. What that -faith is, different men will describe in different ways. - -But however much the descriptions vary, it all comes back to this in the -end, that the man who is living bravely and cheerfully is expressing by -his conduct at any rate his faith in the Fatherhood and good Providence -of God. He knows that "God's in His Heaven"; at any rate he believes -so. He believes that things do not just fall out by chance, but that a -Father Hand controls all, and a Father Heart cares even for the -sparrow's unheeded fall. The God who rules all makes no mistakes. - -And is not that a cardinal part of the faith which Jesus brings near to -all who are learning of Him? There are various adjectives used to -qualify the title Christian. One hears, for example, of "earnest -Christians," and earnestness is a very necessary quality, even though -one does occasionally happen upon "earnest Christians" who are rather -unlovable and irritating people. But there's another adjective, not -nearly so common--and yet it denotes a quality just as essential in -those who have taken Christ's gospel of God's Love and Fatherhood to -their hearts--namely, cheerful. A "cheerful Christian." Let us all try -to be that kind of Christian at least. - - PRAYER - -"The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns -and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with -laughter and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us -to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting -beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the -gift of sleep. Amen." - - R. L. STEVENSON. - - - -"(Jeremiah dwelt among the -people that were left in the -land.(" - (JEREMIAH xl. 6.) - - - XIII - - THE OVERCOMING OF PANIC - -Once upon a time Jeremiah the prophet had asked for only one thing, that -he might get away from that strange cityful of perverse men to whom it -was his hard lot to be the mouthpiece of a God they were forgetting. He -was tired of them. "O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of -wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them." - -Well, time passed on. The people got no wiser, and Jeremiah's burden -certainly got no lighter. But the very chance he prayed for came. He -had a clear and honourable opportunity to go to the lodge in the -wilderness, or anywhere else he liked, away from the men who had -disowned his teaching. His work was done apparently, and he had failed. -Yet with the door standing invitingly open, see what Jeremiah did! He -"went and dwelt among the people that were left in the land." He had his -chance and he did not take it! - -We all know something of this desire to get rid of a present hard duty, -or a difficult environment, or a perplexing problem. And yet I wonder, -if the way were similarly opened up for us, how many would seize the -opportunity? I believe that the feature of such a situation would just -be the large number of us who, when it came to the pinch, would choose -as Jeremiah did, to remain where we are! Something would hold us back. - -Yet the desire itself is natural enough, and a man need neither be a -coward nor a weakling who confesses to it. The hours when the daily -round seems altogether flat and unprofitable, and when one would gladly -change places with almost anybody, are real hours in life, and it is no -shame to have known them. But between that knowledge and the actual -escape, the actual fleeing from one's post, there is a great gulf fixed -that, for very many with any high ideal of duty, is impassable. For, -though a man has known the state of mind that looks for some back door -out of a depressing situation, he has had the other experience also, the -joy of self-mastery, the keen sense of pleasure that comes to him when -he discovers that his surroundings do not count for so much as he -himself does. That experience, though it be only in memory, will stand -between a man and retreat. He has conquered before, and the thrill of -victory over material discouragements may be his again. And so, though -the way of escape be open, he will choose to remain and fight it out. - -Sometimes the mere weight of his responsibility may tempt a man to wish -that he might escape. There is a fairly well-known symptom of nervous -disease whose name signifies the fear of being shut in, when the patient -dreads the experience of being in any closed place. Sometimes a moral -panic of that kind comes to a man when he realises that he is shut in -with some duty which must be gone through with. With something of the -instinct of the trapped animal he may look round for a way of escape. - -Yet does that mean that he would take the chance deliberately, with eyes -full open to the consequences, if it were offered? I think not. - -You can apply the test to yourself. Have you ever accepted some -responsibility, and then, when the occasion came nearer, backed out of -it for no other reason than that you were afraid? If you have, you will -perhaps remember whether you felt proud of yourself, whether, beneath -the undoubted relief, there was not a good deal of quiet shame and -self-scorn. If the same thing were to happen again, you might feel the -impulse to desert, but if you remembered your former experience, you -would hardly yield to it, I imagine. - -The plain truth is that no proper man really likes a soft job. "In the -long run," says J. A. Symonds, "we really love the sternest things in -life best." And he speaks truth. There is a certain exhilaration in -the endurance of hardness. Responsibility braces most men like a shock -of cold water. What is arduous calls them as with a trumpet. And in -the general sense of quiet contempt for the person who in a panic flings -up his responsibility, we may recognise one of God's elementary checks -upon cowardice. - -There are those who are reading these words who are enduring hardness -and making sacrifices from which they might easily escape. They do at -times desire relief. But the point is that they don't take it, when it -is possible. And I say there must be some reason for this. What is it -that holds men back from the easy way when it stands open before them? - -For one thing, I think, the sense of the place that hardness and effort -and endurance play in every true life. For centuries men have climbed -up to strength of character, if at all, by ways uniformly arduous and -steep; and distrust of the primrose path, however alluring, has passed -as an instinct into our blood. In the small unheroic affairs of life we -have learned that a difficulty faced and overcome, or a duty doggedly -fulfilled, add a precious something to experience that there is no other -way of securing. The schoolboy on a hot summer day may look up from his -task, away out wistfully to the cool shade of the trees across the -playground, and wish that he were there, rather than where he is. Yet -even he knows, what we all come to learn, that that is not the road to -anything in life worth the gaining. - -Another deterring impulse is the sense of a divine vocation. Our -calling and circumstances are ordained for us by God, and we must not -quit the field till the day is done. It is He who has chosen our lot in -life and summoned us to the sphere we fill. - -We may succeed or fail as seems to Him best. Sometimes he places men, -for reasons of His own, in corners where success, as commonly measured, -is not possible. But one thing--success or failure--we must not do. We -must not shirk. We must not run away. God means us to stand fast and -do our best. For failure even, if it be honourable, He may have His -good word at the last. But to the man who has shirked life's hard -duties, not even God can say, "Well done!" - - PRAYER - -Lord of our life, and God of our salvation, make us strong to endure -hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Thou sendest no man a -warfare upon his own charges. In dependence on Thy help, grant us grace -to do each duty, as the hour and Thy will may bring it. And, with Thy -fear in our hearts, grant us deliverance from all other fears whatever. -For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_Whatsoever ye do, do all_ -_to the glory of God._" - (1 CORINTHIANS x. 31.) - - - XIV - - THE DAY'S DARG - -It is never hard to connect the presence of our Lord and Master Jesus -Christ with our Sabbaths and our hours of worship. If ever Christ comes -near us in spirit at all, we say, it is when in the quiet of the -sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to Him. The link -between our worship and our Lord is strong and obvious. But, when the -din of business shuts out all else, when the hard, toilsome duty of the -ordinary day is to be done, when we are at work amid surroundings that -have no suggestion of sacredness or of God about them--what of the link -with Christ then? It is much harder then, is it not? to imagine any -thinkable and workable connection that our Lord has with that sphere of -life, broad and extensive as it is. There are many indeed who forget -that there is any, and live as if there were none. And yet the solemn -truth is that if that link is not strong and real, we don't know what -religion means. We have hardly the right to call ourselves Christian -men and women unless we can relate our week-day labours to the fact of -Christ. - -So let us try to strengthen that link. Let us look at our daily work in -the light of religion. - -First, let me remind you that our work is by divine commandment. It is -not something that God allows us to do when we are not worshipping. It -is His ordinance that we should all work at something. The business of -life is labour of some sort. I do not know if we all realise how the -Fourth Commandment begins--"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy -work." And the man who is inexcusably idle, or who belittles his work, -even in the interest, as he thinks, of religion, is breaking this -commandment as truly as he who neglects the other half of it and -dishonours the Sabbath day. - -No one will accuse the Apostle Paul of any indifference or lukewarmness -where true religion was concerned. Yet it was this Apostle who ordered -the Thessalonians to go on with their daily occupations even though they -believed, as so many did at that time, that the Return of the Lord to -earth was just at hand. By our daily work we serve the Lord as truly as -when we gather to His worship. Let us get out of our heads, then, the -false and foolish idea that all the working part of our week is the part -at which God looks askance. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and one -of the ways of doing that is by being loyal to the duties of each hour -whatever they may be. - -Secondly, I would ask you to think of those quiet, unrecorded years of -our Lord's life on earth before His public ministry. The Gospels give -no details, but the fact is perfectly certain that up till His thirtieth -year Jesus of Nazareth worked at His trade as a carpenter. If only we -would let that fact soak into us, it would alter our whole idea of the -relation of our daily work to religion. Jesus worked Himself. - -And we have, as has been pointed out, interesting indirect proof as to -what manner of life He lived on those workaday levels that we all know -so much about. For, to this Carpenter of Nazareth there came a day -when, in Nazareth itself, He stood forth as representative of a morality -and religion higher than ever was proclaimed before. He spoke to men -about the true way to live like one having authority. And there were -many who so resented what they deemed His presumption that anything that -reflected on His claims or belittled His authority would gladly have -been seized upon and made the most of. Had there been in Nazareth a bit -of botched work of His doing, "a door of unseasoned wood or a badly made -chest," don't you think it would have been produced to discredit His -mission? If any one could have been found with whom the Carpenter had -not dealt honourably and justly, if, as He walked the streets of His -native town and lived His humble daily life in the sight of all men, -there had been anything that weakened His claim to guide and teach His -brethren, don't you think they would have found it out and taxed Him -with it? - -There was nothing of that. Jesus faced His fellows with His daily duty -behind Him, and it reinforced every word He said. His message to men -was backed up by His daily life. He spoke of religion as no other son -of man ever did, but He lived it long before He ever opened His mouth. -He brought religion down to the workshop and the street, and showed men -what it meant there. And unless He had done that, it is difficult to -conceive that His public ministry of itself would have satisfied men -that He was indeed One sent from God. - -Do you see, then, from this point of view, what a great and vital part -of religion our day's work is, and the way we do it, our life at home, -our ordinary contact with our fellow-men? It is that that gives weight -to any profession we may make. If in our daily life we are not -exhibiting our religion, nothing that we can profess or say on Sunday -will make up for that defect. It is what we are on Monday and Tuesday -that underlines and emphasises the claims we make at church on the -Sunday. Behind all our prayer and profession lies the everyday life. - -Third, our daily work is sanctified by the fact that our Lord and Master -is with us, to help and strengthen us there, as truly as when we pray. -Jesus Christ is not far away, as we so pitifully misconceive it, amid -the dust of business, when we must keep our temper and follow conscience -along the hard way and deal honourably with all men. He is near us -there also, ready and willing to help us to be true to God and man on -that road which once He trod Himself. - -There is a famous unwritten saying of Christ which puts memorably what -the Gospels likewise testify. "Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me. -Cleave the wood and there am I." Christ is as near us in our daily work -as that! When Peter and his friends went a-fishing, you remember, with -heavy hearts because the Master had gone away from them, He met them by -the lake as they plied their ordinary calling. So does He wait, my -brother, to meet you and me wherever the duty of the hour may take us. -For our working life is not outside of His interest nor out with His -care and guidance. With reverent imagination Van Dyke has seemed to -hear the Christ speak thus--and the words may perhaps further weld the -link for some of us between our everyday duty and the Christ whom we -worship and seek to serve: - - "They who tread the path of labour follow where My feet have - trod; - They who work without complaining do the holy will of God. - Where the many toil together, there am I among my own; - Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with Him alone. - I, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell amid the daily - strife, - I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the sacrament of life. - Every task, however simple, sets the soul that does it free, - Every deed of love and mercy done to man is done to Me. - Nevermore thou needest seek Me; I am with thee everywhere-- - Raise the stone and thou shalt find Me, cleave the wood and I am - there." - - - PRAYER - -Our Lord and Master, whose command it is that we do with our whole heart -whatsoever our hand findeth to do, grant that we may so yield and -surrender ourselves, body, mind and spirit, unto Thee, that even in the -common business of each ordinary day we may serve Thee and glorify Thy -great Name. Amen. - - - -"_Gashmu saith it._" - (NEHEMIAH vi. 6.) - - - XV - - GASHMU THE GOSSIP - -Gashmu is a mere name in Scripture. He is mentioned only three -times--twice as acting with Sanballat against Nehemiah, and once as the -authority for a false piece of news. It is reported, wrote Sanballat in -a cruel letter to Nehemiah, that you are plotting against the king, and -"Gashmu saith it." That is what Gashmu stands for in Scripture, a -tale-bearer, a slanderer, a gossip. What an unenviable immortality to -be remembered only as the pedlar of a tale he knew to be untrue! - -As long as we live together in society, there will be a kind of gossip -that is inevitable, the kindly or merely casual relation of small and -insignificant matters of fact, as that the painters are in next door, or -that Mrs So-and-So has got a new bonnet. It is not of that I want to -speak. - -For there is another sort as deadly as the plague, and in civilised -countries the cruellest and most devilish instrument that one man or -woman can use against another. And that is the inventing of an untrue -report about a man's doings or character, or the unthinking repetition -of the same. That is the pestilence that walketh in darkness; that is -the destruction that wasteth at noonday. And I wish I had the pen to -write of it as it deserves. - -It is very, very common. We are all too ready to repeat what we have -heard, with a "Gashmu saith it," as if that certified the tale correct. -And the harm done is simply incalculable. If my house is burned or I -lose my money, I can still get along by the kindness of my friends for a -little, till I find my feet again. But whoever by some lying story -takes away my character, deals me a blow from which there is no -recovering, which my loyalest friends can do nothing to avert. I have -no redress, no compensation, and no help. Any one may be a victim, and -you and I, by thoughtlessly passing on the deadly thing, may all -unconsciously be driving another nail into a man's coffin. - -Did you ever lie awake at night and think that even now the cancer may -have begun on YOUR good name, that whispers may be going about among -your friends concerning you? Those who know you will hear it, and will -say, It's a lie! But that won't stop it. And you will never know till -some day you waken up and find that your reputation is in danger. And -not one word or vestige of truth may be in it. It may be a lie pure and -simple, or a colourable counterfeit of some quite innocent truth. That -won't make any difference. It is enough merely to start it, and, like a -stone thrown down an Alpine slope, it gathers others in its train, till -an avalanche swoops down on some unsuspecting head. - -When King Arthur enrolled his Knights of the Round Table, he made them -take the oath to "speak no slander." And there is a knightly chivalry -of speech which ought to be the mark of all those who have promised -fealty to Jesus Christ. Our discipleship of Jesus demands of us the -high endeavour to love our neighbour as ourselves, and that presupposes, -as one of its consequences, that we guard his name against false witness -as carefully as we protect our own. If we hear a good story about some -one, a report that is to his credit and honour, let us blazon that -abroad. We are all far too slow at that, and somehow the tale that is a -little damaging has a far easier and more rapid circulation. Might we -not make more of our brother's successes? Might we not oftener repeat -about him what he is too modest ever to say about himself? It were a -true and kindly Christian act. But never, as we call ourselves servants -of Christ, never do our brother such a grievous irreparable wrong as to -start about him a tale which may not be true. God can and will forgive -you your sins of speech. But even He cannot make clean the character -which a foolish word has sullied. - -King Arthur went further, however, than demanding that his knights -should speak no slander. Their vow included the words, "no, nor listen -to it." And that is a high and difficult course to keep. It is not -easy, when you are being told of something that is striking or -sensational of a merely gossipy character, to stop the conversation and -lead it into other channels. It requires great courage and as great -tact. But how many of us ever try it? - -If, however, the refusal to listen be regarded as a counsel of -perfection, there remains yet the further injunction--never REPEAT the -gossip you have heard. That at least is homely and possible. - -We used to read in our book of Fables of the lamb that noticed this -significant thing about the track that led to the lion's den--that all -the footprints pointed inwards, but there were none returning. "Vestigia -nulla retrorsum." No footprints backwards. It would be a good motto -for us all. Let the stories, the ill-humoured, unkind, uncharitable -sayings that float and wander about everywhere, let them come to us as -they will, but let the traces end there. Be such a person that men may -trace a story from its source down the chain TO you, but never PAST you. - -We can do that much at least for our friends. All about us is the -constant, unquiet drift of gossip and distorted half-truth, as restless -as the sand in the desert, dancing and whirling with every puff of wind. -We can do something to arrest that drift. We can be for our friends in -some measure what Isaiah said that God's Servant, when He came, should -be, the shadow of a great Rock in a weary land, stopping the drift of -the sand, and sheltering our friends by our loyalty and our silence. - -Don't even repeat the gossip that comes to you, not only for the strong -reason already given, but also for this little one, that you won't -likely repeat it correctly. With all the will in the world, it is one -of the hardest things to retail a story just exactly as you heard it. -Sir Walter Scott, speaking about anecdotes that he had heard, said he -always liked to cock up their bonnets a bit and put a staff in their -hands that they might walk on a little brisker and sprightlier than when -they came to him! But we all do that, without meaning to do it at all. -We add a little bit. We exaggerate just the tiniest fraction, and our -hearer when he repeats the story does the same, and so the matter grows -till it is big enough to do much mischief. - - "A Whisper broke the air, - A soft light tone and low, - Yet barbed with shame and woe. - Now, might it only perish there, - Nor further go! - - Ah me! A quick and eager ear - Caught up the little meaning sound; - Another voice has breathed it clear, - And so it wandered round, - From ear to lip, from lip to ear, - Until it reached a gentle heart, - And that--it broke." - - -There is a legend that once a king avoided death in a poisoned cup that -had been handed to him by making over it the sign of the Cross--when it -broke in pieces at his feet. Let us, when we are tempted to retail the -vivid, poisonous piece of scandal, stop and invoke the Spirit of Christ. -Is this that I am going to say about my brother the kind of thing I -should say if Christ were standing by? Am I justified in turning over -that bit of gossip which may be true, but which ought not to be true? -Our duty, who profess and call ourselves Christians, is clear. We are -to speak no slander no, nor listen to it. We are to retail evil about -no man. We are to love one another. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, whose command it is that we love our neighbour as -ourselves, help us to cherish and protect his good name as carefully as -we guard our own. Make us more willing to repeat the good about him, -but slower to retail or exaggerate the evil. Grant us all a deeper -sense of the deadly wrong a foolish tongue can work, and keep Thou the -door of our lips. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_Thou preventest him with_ -_the blessings of goodness._" - (PSALM xxi. 3.) - - - XVI - - GOD IN FRONT - -You know how, in a happy home, the near approach of a birthday is -signalised, how parcels are mysteriously smuggled in and hidden in -secret places, and, though everything seems to be going on as usual, yet -the plans are being laid in train that will surprise and delight the -fortunate owner of the birthday when the festal day dawns. That is our -feeble, human way of trying to surprise one another with the blessings -of goodness. That is how we "prevent" our beloved with tokens of our -remembrance. So, says the Psalmist, does God deal with us. Not only -have we--what we so much need--His forgiveness of our past, and His help -and presence for the day which now is; He is working for us in the -future too, sowing the days to come with blessings for us to pick up -when the passage of time brings us to the places where He has hidden -them. - -The idea that God has been beforehand in our history, getting ready, as -it were, for our coming, though not a very usual one, is very helpful, -and it finds abundant illustration and proof in all directions. When a -child arrives on this earth, he enters into the enjoyment of bounties -and blessings prepared, not merely weeks, but literally ages before his -coming. Warmth he needs, and aeons ago the coal beds were formed in the -bowels of the earth. Food he needs, and God "laboured for ages," as Sir -Oliver Lodge puts it, to bring corn into existence. For corn needs -soil, and, to make that, the Creator had to set the glaciers grinding -over the granite, and to loosen the forces of rain and frost and running -water over great stretches of time. - -Every child born into the world becomes the heir of all the ages past. -What blessings have been prepared for most of us, in advance, in the -homes into which we were born, and the gracious influences under which -we have grown up! "I have to thank the gods," says Marcus Aurelius the -pagan Emperor, "that my grandfathers, parents, sisters, preceptors, -relations, friends and domestics were almost all of them persons of -probity." "I have to thank the gods." Who else is there to thank but -God who prevents us in this way with the blessings of goodness? God is -working beforehand in our interest in all these things. So, when we -awaken to a sense of Him, there is His Church, established of old, -awaiting to take us by the hand and help us on our way. When we learn -our need of a Saviour, behold Christ stands at the door and knocks. -When, in penitence of heart, we ask God's mercy, we learn that, long -since, it was laid up in store for us. Before we thought of loving God, -He first loved us, and gave Himself for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Is -it not gloriously true all the way along that God has been beforehand -with His goodness? - -And that, of course, is the explanation of all the glad surprises of -life. The Lord has prepared them for us beforehand. He has sown the -future with good things and watched our surprise as we picked them up. -When Mary Mardon and her father, in Mark Rutherford's "Autobiography," -went to the seaside to look for lodgings they saw a dismal row of very -plain-looking houses. Mary objected instinctively to the dull street, -but her father said he could not afford to pay for a sea view, so they -went in to inquire. To their delight they found that what they thought -were the fronts of the houses were really the backs, for the real fronts -faced the bay, had pretty gardens before the doors, and a glorious sunny -prospect over the ocean. Isn't that what we often find to be the case? -Our most treasured friends are not always those whom we fall in love -with at first sight. The thing we greatly fear dissolves like mist. An -envied, but despaired-of, blessing is flung into our lap. A door of -splendid hope opens in a dead wall. Life is full of the unexpected as -if wonder were one of the things God wanted very much to keep alive in -us. When, as you think, everything has been exhausted, God surprises -you with a fresh gladness. And, aback of all, there is the unending -surprise of God's patience with us, and of that daily mercy of His, -which we so ill requite, and so often forget. - -Of course, no one dreams of suggesting that all our surprises are of a -happy sort. It is not so. But the point is that if it is God who has -hidden the blessings for us to come upon, it is He also who has hidden -the other things. God's hand does not slip so that we get the wrong -parcel by accident. He prevents us also with the blessings that we do -not call by that name at all. In his Lay Sermons, Huxley, describing -the tadpole in its slimy cradle, says: "After watching the process hour -after hour, one is almost possessed by the notion that some more subtle -aid to vision than an achromatic object-glass would show the hidden -artist with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to -perfect his work." If, in that wonderful fashion, God is working -beforehand according to a plan of His own, in the life of a tadpole, is -it not much more likely that He is so working in your life and mine, not -in its joys only, but also in its dark hours and its sorrows? That, -indeed, is the very message and comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ, that -not even a sparrow falleth to the ground--calamity indeed for the -sparrow--without our Father. - -If it be true that God our Father is working in advance of us all the -time, then surely it is wrong to speak of the monotony of life? For we -are on a road which God Himself has sown with surprises for us, and the -hour of our deadliest weariness may be the immediate percursor of our -richest and most joyous find. Who could have supposed, at the end of -the eighteenth century, when poetry in England seemed dead, that a great -galaxy of stars--Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats--was on -the very eve of rising? The unexpected can always happen. You may come -upon another of God's hidden blessings to-morrow. Let us not talk of -monotony, therefore, in an age which has seen so many wonderful things -happen. Rather let us hold to the faith that all the while God is going -before us with the blessings of goodness. - -This faith puts another complexion on all our fears and forebodings. -Before we live it, the web of our life passes through God's hands. And -the shaded parts, as well as the bright parts, are in His wise and -loving design. Nobody can promise us freedom from sorrow, but the Bible -promises that God is beforehand to make the sorrow bearable. He has -adjusted our temptations to our strength, and never a one has He hidden, -where we come upon it, that it is impossible for us by His help to -withstand. Before the mother puts her little child into his hot bath at -night, she tests the water first with her fingers. And the Psalmist -means us to believe that life comes to us from God, who has measured and -adapted it for us, beforehand, in a like fashion. - -Viewed in the light of this faith, Death itself takes on a different -aspect. Oliver Wendell Holmes has suggested that the story of this life -and the next can be fully written in two strokes of the pen, an -interrogation-point, and, above it, a mark of exclamation--fear and -question here below, and, above, adoration, wonder, surprise. "I go to -prepare a place for you," said Christ to His disciples. If the -preparation for us here is so wonderful, is it likely to fail yonder? If -Love made ready for us here, shall it not be beforehand there too? Yea, -verily. Our experience of how God prevents us here with His loving -kindness ought to strengthen in us all the "faith of our Lord Jesus -Christ, and the saint's trust in every age, that when we pass hence it -will be to meet the grandest, the most blessed, and the most surprising -provision of all." - - PRAYER - -Our Father in Heaven, we shall not be afraid of what life may hold for -us when we have learned that our little web has first passed through Thy -merciful and loving hands. We have often prayed that Thou wouldest go -with us; but Thou hast answered us beyond our asking, for Thou goest -before us all. In the faith of that leading, make us to journey bravely -and to sleep secure. Amen. - - - -"_Fight the good fight of faith._" - (1 TIMOTHY vi. 12.) - - - XVII - - "UNBELIEF KEPT QUIET" - -We are often told that this is not an age of faith, that the day of the -beautiful, old, simple acquiescence is past, whether it ever comes again -or not. Some one has wittily suggested that the coat of arms of the -present age is "an interrogation-point rampant, above three bishops -dormant, and the motto 'Query.'" But, like a great many more witty -things, that saying leaves one questioning whether, after all, it be -really true. I venture, for my part, to assert that a great many more -people are really interested in this matter of faith than most of us -imagine. There is something that haunts men as with a sense of hidden -treasure about this wonderful thing in life called Faith, that always -seems to be going to disappear, and yet somehow does not. With a -strange, wistful persistence men linger about this pool, though there -are many to tell them that the "desired angel bathes no more." - -I wish to speak a word of encouragement to-day to all who are finding -faith hard. "Fight the good fight of faith," says Paul to his young -friend, Timothy. Fight. I want to remind you that faith often implies -effort, that there is nothing in the idea of faith which is incompatible -with struggle, that the very form of Paul's advice implies an -antagonism. - -It is true that many think of the "faith of the saints" as a quiet, -contented habit of gentle acquiescence, a sweet and beautiful state of -mind very far removed from the restless, questioning, analytic temper of -the man of to-day. Now, I do not say that faith is never seen now in -that placid form, but I do say that that was not the type Paul had in -mind when he wrote Timothy, it is not the figure which best described -his own faith, and it is certainly not the aspect he would require to -deal with, were he writing to the men of to-day. - -For they are only too conscious of much inward suspense of judgment and -uncertainty concerning many things in Heaven and earth. And that inward -conflict seems to many of them a sign that faith is waning, if not dead. -They have forgotten that it is that very sense of inward conflict which -proves that faith is not dead. Dead things do not offer any resistance. -We ought by this time to have learned that a thing "may be for us an -intellectual puzzle, and yet a sheer spiritual necessity," and that the -Christian faith is, for every soul who has once caught it. There are a -great many earnest and honest men to whom it is the best of news that -Christian faith is not incompatible with very grave perplexities. The -real opposite of faith is not doubt, as so many suppose, but deliberate -and satisfied denial. Faith can live in the same life along with very -many doubts--as a matter of fact, in the case of not a few of the most -Christ-like men of our time, it is living beside them constantly. Paul -assures us that outside of him he found fightings and within him he -found fears. Yet he kept the faith for all that. They start up on all -sides, these spectres of the mind and reason, and they ask questions -which a man cannot answer. Yet Faith may be dwelling in his life in -very deed and truth, because faith is something more than the sum of all -his beliefs. It is the whole conscious and deliberate set and desire of -his being. - -It is a well-known fact that a man may be truly courageous, acting, -speaking, thinking bravely at the very moment when panic fears are -gripping his heart. I like that fine old story of the soldier advancing -into the fire zone with steady step, and taunted by a comrade for his -pale face. "You're afraid," said the other. "I know I am afraid," said -he, "and if you felt half as much afraid as I do, you would turn and -flee." It is the very finest courage that dominates and controls a -sensitive organisation, and holds the shrinking other-half to its -purpose with firm grip. Just so is it with faith. A man keeps his -course, lifts up his eyes to the hills, lives for God and His Christ, -prays on, struggles on, and hopes for the home beyond the edge of life, -while often enough his mind is full of questioning and the puzzle of -God's deep mysteries. For faith is not what the intellect says merely. -It is what the whole man is struggling and trying to say. - - "With me, faith means perpetual unbelief - Kept quiet, like the snake 'neath Michael's foot, - Who stands calm just because he feels it writhe." - -Don't do yourself the wrong of thinking that faith has vanished because -the snake is felt to be writhing. "Perpetual unbelief kept quiet." Yes, -but what keeps the clamouring doubts and fears under foot? Just -yourself, just your highest self, the bit of you made for God, and -unable to do without Him! Faith is the vote of the whole man, of the -best of the man, in the face of a protesting minority. In other words, -fight is a splendid word to use in speaking about faith. - -Let a man ask himself--Does he really wish that the best he has dreamed -or heard about God and His love for men, His passion to deliver them -from evil, and His pity and nearness to us all in Jesus Christ His -Son--does he wish all that to be true? No man is without faith who does -wish that, and is living in the direction of his desire. In that man's -life who, despite all the clamour and philosophy of Babylon, is keeping -his window open towards where he believes Jerusalem to be, there is that -vital element of faith that is linking his life to God even now, and -will bring him where he would be at last. - -I do not think that the prodigal was at all sure of the welcome that -awaited him. Probably his mind, as he limped along in his rags, was -full of misgivings and fears. But the father hailed him as his son -whenever he saw afar off that the lad's face was set for home. I do not -imagine our Father will concern Himself very much about the gaps in our -creed if only our faces are turned homewards and towards Him. Let the -man I have tried to speak to be of good courage, and fight on with a -stout heart. Faith is not sight. It may not even be assurance, may be -only hope and longing, and a reaching towards the Highest. But I firmly -believe that no man, even though he may fall on the way home, and before -he knows of his welcome, I believe that no man shall be cast out at the -last, whose arms, as he fell, were outstretched in desire to God. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, Author and Finisher of our faith, help us with all our -strength to fight the good fight. When our defence is being broken, do -Thou garrison our souls, O God, that we may be able to stand in the evil -day, and, having done all, to stand. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. -Amen. - - - -"_The joy of the Lord is your strength._" - (NEHEMIAH viii. 10.) - - - XVIII - - THE EQUIPMENT OF JOY - -Let us talk about joy, and especially that kind of it of which Nehemiah -was thinking when he said, "The joy of the Lord is your strength." It -is strange that while practically everybody would agree as to the -wholesomeness and the duty of joy in the ordinary sense of the term, to -add the words "of the Lord" to it, seems, to some, completely to alter -its character and in fact to spoil it, to turn it into an unreal sort of -joy which is not true joy at all. - -I wish emphatically to protest against such a conception of religious -joy as an injustice to the Father Love of God. The joy of the Lord, as -I understand it, is not different in quality from wholesome human -gladness, it is, in fact, just that gladness deepened and sanctified by -the sense of God, and the knowledge of Him brought to us by Jesus Christ -our Lord. There is not a single innocent and pure source of gladness -open to men and women on this earth but is made to taste sweeter when -they have opened their hearts to the love of God. It is the very crown -of happy living that is reached when a man can say, "My Lord and my -God." Once I have dared to accept the wonderful truth that even for me -the Eternal Father has His place and His plan and His care, every -simplest happiness, every common joy of living, every delight in the -beauty of the world and the pleasures of home and work and -friendship--every one of these takes on a keener edge. It is a -pestilent heresy to declare that a Christian ought to walk through life -like a man with a hidden sickness. On the contrary, there is no one who -has a better right to be joyous and happy-hearted. Do you think it is -for nothing that the "joy of our salvation" is a Bible phrase? And -shall we believe that that salvation is ours and not be mighty glad -about it all the time? What is the good of translating "Gospel" as -"good news" and at the same time living as if religion were a bondage -and a burden grievous to be borne? Of all the strange twists of human -convention, it is surely the strangest to allow ordinary human joy to be -happy and cheerful, and to insist that those whose joy is in the Lord -should pull a long face, and forswear laughter, and crawl along -dolefully as if to the sound of some dirge! The "morning face and the -morning heart" belong of right to the truly religious, and no one ought -to be gladder, come what may, than the man who has made the highest and -best disposal of his little life that any one can make, namely, -surrendered it in faith and obedience to his Lord. - -A gloomy, ponderous, stiff religion which looks askance at innocent -merriment and is afraid to pull a long breath of enjoyment has the mark -of "damaged goods" on it somehow, and no one will take it off your -hands. It is not catching, and certainly your children will never catch -it. It is said to be a good test of a religion that it can be preached -at a street corner. But I know a better test than that. Preach it to a -child. Set him in the midst of those who profess it. If their religion -frightens him, freezes the smiles on his lips, and destroys his -happiness, depend upon it, whatever sort of religion it be, it lacks the -essential winsomeness of the religion of Jesus Christ. - -I need not say, of course, that I am not pleading for a more hilarious -religious life. And, equally of course, empty frivolity, and the cult -of the continual grin are insufferable things to endure either in the -name of religion or anything else. Not by a single word would I lessen -the condemnation which such aberrations deserve. But I do say, and with -all my heart I believe that a deep, abiding well-spring of -happiness--which our author calls the "joy of the Lord"--is of the very -essence of true religion, and is indeed, what he asserts it, actually -our strength. Actually our strength. Let us be quite clear about that. - -The man in whose heart there dwells this best of all joys is a strength -to other people. We don't need any one to prove that to us, I imagine. -We have all been helped and revived many a time merely by contact with -some hearty cheerful soul. Who, for example, that had his choice, would -elect for his family physician a man with a doleful air? Have we not -all found that a doctor's cheery manner was as potent a medicine as any -drug that he called by a Latin name? Ay, and even when we are in -trouble, and our hearts are sad and sore, I think we would all rather -see the friend whose faith in God showed in a brave and buoyant outlook -than one whose religion was of the dowie and despondent sort. - -I have heard it said of an employee who had the gift of the joyous heart -that the twinkle of his eyes was worth L100 a year to his firm. I could -easily believe it, though the money value might well have been set at -any figure, seeing that the thing itself is really priceless. Did not -the most famous modern apostle of the duty of happiness--himself a -signal proof that joy is something more than the mere easy overflow of -health and animal spirits--did not Stevenson declare that "by being -happy we sow anonymous benefits," and that "the entrance of such a -person into a room is as if another candle had been lighted?" I take it -the proof is ample that a joyous heart is a strength to others. - -But more, it is a strength to oneself. That may not be so obvious, and -yet the result here is even more certain. Ordinary experience tells us -that joy is good for us, that depression and gloom work us bodily harm. -But from one province of scientific study especially there has come a -wonderful array of evidence that makes it as certain as any fact can be -that the happy states of mind do literally add to our strength in quite -measurable directions. There is, in strict fact, no tonic in all the -world like gladness. - -That being so, joy, and especially the best kind of it of which Nehemiah -speaks, is not a luxury, not a condition you may legitimately cherish if -you are fortunate enough to possess it. It is a sheer necessity. You -can't do without it. Even to meet your sorrows, even to gird you for -service, even to run your race without fainting, you need the joy of the -Lord, which is strength. And since the Father has stored up such an -abundant supply of it in this world of His, since it is knocking at our -doors every day, and only our distrust and suspicion keep it outside, we -know what to do to secure this good gift of God. We have only to open -our doors to let it in, and give it room. - - "So take Joy home - And make a place in thy great heart for her, - And give her time to grow, and cherish her, - Then will she come and oft will sing to thee - When thou art working in the furrows--ay, - Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. - It is a comely fashion to be glad-- - Joy is the grace we say to God." - - - PRAYER - -Help us, O God, beyond our poor and forgetful thanksgiving, to show -forth the praise of Thy loving kindness by our joy and gladness. For -Thy great grace and mercy toward us, and for all the gifts of Thy -sleepless Providence, we offer Thee the joy of our hearts. Accept our -offering, we beseech Thee; forgive its scant measure, and teach us to be -glad in Thee. For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_The God of Jacob is our refuge._" - (PSALM xlvi. 11.) - - - XIX - - THE GOD OF THE UNLOVABLE MAN - -There is a phrase which echoes through the Old Testament like the -refrain of some solemn music--the "God of Jacob." "The God of Jacob," -says the 46th Psalmist, "is our refuge." Yet when you think of it, it -is a strange title. The "God of Abraham" you can understand, for -Abraham was a great and faithful soul. And the "God of Isaac," also, -for Isaac was a saint. But the "God of Jacob" is a combination of ideas -of a very different sort. For though, by God's grace, Jacob became a -saint in the end, it took much discipline and trouble to mould him into -a true godliness. And, for the greater part of his life, and many of -his appearances on the stage of Scripture, his actions and ideals are -not such as to make us admire him very passionately. We like Esau for -all his faults, but we do not like Jacob for all his virtues. There is -something cold and calculating about Jacob that repels affection. For -all his religion, the Jacob of the earlier chapters is a mean soul, -successful but unscrupulous, pious but not straight, spiritually-minded -but not lovable. And yet the Almighty condescends to be known as the -God of Jacob, and the Bible loves that name for God! - -What does that say to you? To me it says this--and I think we all need -to learn it--that God is the God even of unlovable people! That even -unlovable people have a God! That the Lord is very gracious to sinners, -we all rejoice to believe, for that is the Evangel of Jesus, and He -Himself was found practising it even among the waifs and outcasts of -society. But that unlovable people have a God, too, is actually harder -for us to realise, for the plain fact is that unlovable, disagreeable -people irritate and annoy us more even than the sinners. If you -question that, just analyse your attitude to the Prodigal in our Lord's -wonderful story, compared with that toward his respectable, cold-hearted -and priggish elder brother. The brother irritates us. We call him, -with some heat, as Henry Drummond did, a baby, and we want to shake him. -But we never want to shake the prodigal. - -Now, we all have, on our list of acquaintances, people whom we have -labelled disagreeable, who continually rub us the wrong way, as we put -it. There is the man who is always talking about himself, and is filled -with conceit like a bladder with air. "There is the man," says Hazlitt -in one of his Essays, "who asks you fifty questions as to the commonest -things you advance, and, you would sooner pardon a fellow who held a -pistol at your breast and demanded your money." There is the -ill-tempered, sulky person, and the grumbling, whining, dolorous soul -never without an ache or a grievance. So we can all draw up our own -private "Index Expurgatorius" of the people we bar or dislike. We say -these people are unlovable. - -And, since the corruption of the best is the worst, we are agreed that -the most unlovable of all types is the religious undesirable, the smug, -unctuous, oily person, for example, whose sincerity is continually in -question, the narrow, intolerant, little soul who cannot see any sort of -truth or righteousness except his own, or the prim and pious man who is -cocksure of his interest in the life to come, but is not straight in the -affairs of the life which now is. There are others, but enumeration is -not a very profitable or a pleasant task. Take them all together, -gather them in a crowd in your memory, and then set yourself this -exercise for your sanctification and growth in grace. Realise that the -Lord your God is the God also of these unlovable people. Get that idea -thoroughly into your heart, and say it to yourself, if need be, many -times a day. These people look up to Him in worship just as you do. -They have their sacred hours in His presence just as you have. There is -nothing you look for to God, that they do not seek, too, from Him. They -are not of a different order from you, but the same order. And though -you do not love them, God does. Though they are outside of your circle, -they are not outside of His. The God of Jacob is their God. And -therein lies for them, as it did for Jacob, the hope and promise of -better things to come. - -If we remembered that, should we not be more patient and forbearing with -them than we are, keener to look for the best in them, and to make the -best of them than we are? Just to think of what is meant by the "God of -Jacob" is to set our sharp and bitter judgments of others over against -the infinitely tender compassion and patience and longsuffering of God. -All the wonder of the divine grace is hidden in the phrase. And this is -the wonder--that God never grows tired even of disagreeable people. He -does not give up caring even for the unlovable. But oh! what poor sons -and daughters of the Lord Almighty _we_ are, with our quick, rash final -judgments and our hard, unbrotherly hearts! - -Did you ever ask yourself what some of these unlovable people are doing, -the while you and I are telling each other how impossible and unlovable -they are? George Eliot suggests it somewhere thus:--"While we are -coldly discussing a man's career, sneering at his mistakes, and -labelling his opinions 'Evangelical and narrow' or 'Latitudinarian and -pantheistic,' or 'Anglican and supercilious,' that man in his solitude -is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one, -because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult -word and do the difficult deed." Ah, yes, it's a mercy that there is a -God even for unlovable people! - -But there is a question that has been waiting all this time, and we must -ask it before we close. _What about ourselves, you and me_? Are we -such lovable people that we can afford to judge others? Do we never rub -our friends the wrong way, and, without meaning it, annoy and disappoint -and repel them? Are _our_ religious profession and our daily practice -so very much in keeping that we may talk about prigs and self-righteous -people as if they belonged to an entirely different world? May I speak -for you all and say humbly "No"? No, God knows they are not! The fact -is that if we know ourselves at all well, we must be aware that we have -it in us to be quite as disagreeable and selfish and self-righteous as -anybody. It is only our best beloved who do not get tired of us, and -sometimes even they must be hard put to it. - -But there is a blessed Gospel for those who have made that discovery -about themselves. There is a God of Jacob. Abraham is too high for us, -and Isaac is too saintly, but Jacob, faulty, disappointing, unlovable, -yet by God's grace redeemed and perfected at last, Jacob is the man for -us! The hope and comfort of all who have learned what they really are -is that "the God of Jacob is our refuge." - - PRAYER - -Bring us, we pray Thee, O God, into a truer knowledge of ourselves. Make -us to learn how frail we are, how poor and blind and naked; to the end -we may regard with due charity the shortcomings of others, and may -worthily praise Thy great Mercy, who yet hast not turned away Thy face -from us. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_Elijah went a day's journey_ -_into the wilderness, and came_ -_and sat under a juniper tree, and_ -_requested for himself that he_ -_might die._" - (1 KINGS xix. 4.) - - - XX - - UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE - -A well-known writer relates that, when passing through Edinburgh once, -he saw a procession of Friendly Societies, and observed on one of the -banners the name emblazoned, The Order of the Juniper Tree. His comment -is:--"Many of us belong to that order." So we do. And, because of -that, we can diagnose Elijah's trouble quite accurately. He is -suffering, as we have all suffered at some time or other, from the pains -and penalties of reaction. Just because he had climbed to a height -almost superhuman, the reaction when it came was very black and -terrible. The Bible is too wise and too true to human nature to conceal -the fact that for his hour of splendid daring, Elijah had his price to -pay. - -It's a commonplace, of course, but just one of those commonplaces which -in the bulk spell wisdom, that there was a physical reason for this -condition. To put it plainly, Elijah was tired out. He had been using -up his physical and nervous energy at such a ruinous rate during the -past few hours, that he had overdrawn his account. It strikes one as a -very significant fact that when God's angel took the prophet in hand, -the first thing he did was to provide him with a meal. Elijah was -actually on his way back to his normal condition when he had had -something to eat. - -That is not a mere incident in the story. It is exceedingly important, -because, sometimes the religious depression with which we are acquainted -arises in a similar way. It is a very useful fact to remember that a -man's whole religious outlook is coloured by the condition of his -health. We may be slow to admit such a low and material cause for -effects so apparently spiritual. But it is a fact all the same. And it -is only wise to recognise it. - -But Elijah's reaction was not entirely or even mainly physical in its -origin. He had been in a very exalted spiritual condition during the -contest on Carmel. Think what the man had done! He had stood alone in -the path of a whole nation rioting down to idolatry and shamelessness, -and with voice and presence and fire from Heaven had stopped and turned -them, driven the huddled, frightened sheep back again to the ways and -the worship of God. Was it to be wondered at that his very soul within -him was faint under the strain? - -Though the vision and the privileges of the hill-top are what the best -men covet most, it is but little of it at a time that any one can stand. -Do you remember that Jesus would not let Peter and James and John remain -long on the Mount of the Transfiguration, even though they wanted to -build tabernacles and dwell there? There have been few greater -spiritual experts than John Bunyan, and when he has described how his -pilgrim fared in the Palace Beautiful, how he slept in a chamber called -Peace, how he saw afar off the Delectable Land, whither he was -journeying, where does he take him next? Straight down into the Valley -of Humiliation, where he has to fight for his life against the darts of -the Evil One flying as thick as hail! - -There is no cure for reaction, of course, but there are one or two rules -which experience has proved to be helpful. - -For example, it is never a wise thing, when you are depressed, to -attempt to form any judgment about yourself, your service, or your -standing in the sight of God. By some Satanic impulse, that is the very -time, of course, when you will be tempted to do it. It may appear a -very wholesome spiritual exercise when you have gone a day's journey -into the wilderness and are faint, to reckon up what manner of man and -disciple of Christ you are. But don't do it then. Nobody sees truly -either himself or God, under a juniper tree. - -And then, if possible, do not speak about your despondency. Don't -express your mood outwardly at all, if you can help it. Bottle it up if -you can, and you will starve it all the sooner. His biographer relates -of the late Ian Maclaren that, like many people who have Celtic blood in -their veins, he was subject to curious fits of depression and gloom -which did not seem to be in any way connected with bodily health. "But," -he goes on to say, "he never inflicted his melancholy moods on his -family, was only very quiet and absorbed, and kept more closely to his -study. In a day or two he would emerge again, like a man coming out -into the sunshine." - -And lastly. Once a man has sworn himself a disciple and soldier of -Jesus Christ, neither doubt nor depression, neither darkness nor -reaction absolves him from the obligation to follow and to serve when he -is called. It must be confessed that it is an undue sense of the -importance of our own feelings that makes the juniper-tree-mood the -peril and hindrance that it is. We need to remember that the call of -Christ overrides personal feelings. In His army too, there is -discipline to be thought of, and "it is not soldierly to skulk." When -the bugle calls to action, nobody but a coward would make the fact that -he is not feeling quite up to the mark, an excuse for sitting still. -Reaction is a natural thing, but cowardice is always shameful. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, we bless Thee for the comfort of Thy perfect knowledge -of us. We are glad to think that Thou knowest our frame and rememberest -that we are dust. Make us more wise to bring the burden of our moods of -darkness and reaction to the footstool of Thy perfect understanding; but -save us, we beseech Thee, from all yielding in the long fight against -them. Seeing that Thy grace is sufficient for us and Thy strength made -perfect in our weakness, grant us a godly fear of all unmanly surrender. -For Thy Name's sake. Amen. - - - -"_If any man will do his will_ -_he shall know of the doctrine._" - (JOHN vii. 17.) - - - XXI - - INSTRUCTING THE CABIN BOY - -When John Wesley was on his way home from Georgia, he wrote this record -of the voyage in his Journal:--"Being sorrowful and very heavy (though I -could give no particular reason for it) and utterly unwilling to speak -close to any of my little flock (about twenty persons), I was in doubt -whether my own neglect of them was not one cause of my heaviness. In the -evening, therefore, I began instructing the cabin boy, after which I was -much easier." - -This is a significant passage for various reasons. For one thing, it -lets us see that even a spiritual genius like Wesley sometimes fell into -the mood of doubt. And, for another, it shows how, almost by accident, -as it seems, he found a cure for his trouble. It is plain that religion -just then had lost its savour for the great evangelist. The joy had gone -out of his service and the power from his prayers, and he was not sure -of anything at all. This is practical doubt, the only serious kind -there is. "Being sorrowful and very heavy and very unwilling." - -There are not a few men and women whose trouble this is. They are in -straits to know what is really God's truth. They greatly desire to lay -hold of it surely for themselves. The tremendous earnestness of those -who have found the old dogmas unsatisfying, and are adrift again in a -twentieth century search for God, is one of the most significant -features of the situation. Can a man really come in touch with God? -they ask. Is there a living Christ whose presence redeems men from evil -and can lift them up to what they long to be? Is there a life with God -which even Death cannot end? And those who are in such deep earnest to -know God vitally for themselves, are sorrowful and heavy indeed to find -that all their thinking and reading and inquiry do so little for them. -They pray for light, and examine all the evidence with a wistful -eagerness, but the clouds still lie around them, and they are still -wandering, now in this direction, now in that, like men lost in a mist. - -Is there no way out of this tangle? Yes, there is. To all who are -sorrowful and heavy because they know so little they can call their own -about God and spiritual living, I want to say, There is a way forward, a -safe, sure way. It is the way that Wesley stumbled upon. "I began -instructing the cabin boy." That is the way for you and me to a fuller -experience of God. - -That is the simple solution which so many thousands of us have -overlooked, and it was the discovery of Jesus Christ. When asked how He -knew about God, He answered that it was because He was doing God's will, -and He added, If any man, no matter who, no matter what his doubts be, -if any man be willing to do God's will, where, and as, it is clear to -him, he too shall know. God will not leave him in ignorance of what is -really essential. - -Nowhere, except in the Bible, do you find such a method of learning -recommended. From nobody but Christ could such a precept come, for it -is clean contrary to all that we know about learning in other spheres. -Study and you will know, think, investigate, ask questions--that, we can -understand. That is how knowledge comes to us in the realms with which -we are acquainted. But when men asked Christ how they could learn God's -truth for themselves, He said, First of all you must obey it. Do, and -you will know. - -You remember the lepers whom Christ touched, of whom it is written that -"as they went, they were healed?" That is how the only sort of doubt -that really matters is healed. As you go, not as you sit still and -puzzle, but as you shoulder the nearest duty and obey what light and -knowledge you have. - -"I don't know," Wesley would say to himself, "whether I am in my right -place here or not, whether I am really Christ's servant or not. I am in -the dark, and don't seem to be sure of anything. But there is that -cabin boy. I can at least do him some good. That is right anyhow, -whatever be uncertain." "After which," he says, "I was much easier." It -is marvellous to read, but it is a law as certain and safe as -gravitation. Do God's will as you know it, and you will get more light. -"Doubt of any sort," said Thomas Carlyle, "cannot be removed except by -action." - -It is hardly necessary to say, of course, that the knowledge which -Christ promises to those who will obey God's will is not of dogma in its -restricted theological sense. It was life Christ talked about, it was -life He was concerned with, and, for Him, life meant not head-knowledge, -but heart-experience and heart-hold of God. It is that He promises in -His great saying. So do not make the mistake of thinking that when you -seek to do the Will of God, all your mental difficulties, about miracles -or inspiration or what not else, will come to an end. These are -problems, not of life, but of mind, and you have them because God has -given you a mind, and you will probably have them as long as your mind -is growing. What Christ does promise is of vastly more importance, -namely, the light of God's truth in your heart, the assurance of God in -your inmost soul, that you shall know for yourself that God is, and that -He is near to you, and that your true life is in Him; and when a man has -got that length, there are many doctrinal and other mental puzzles for -the solution of which he is content to wait with an easy trust and -patience. - -I like that saying of Viscount Kenmure's, away back in the sixteenth -century, "I will lie at Christ's door like a beggar, and, if I may not -knock, I will scrape." I like it, for this reason, that I am quite sure -there is no essential door of God in earth or heaven which is shut -against the man who casts himself so utterly on Him as that. And I take -Kenmure's word to illustrate what Jesus meant by If any man will do -God's will. It is when a man says, I cannot see, I do not know, my mind -is filled with spectres and doubts and questions, but, so help me God, I -will do the thing that is right for me, I will walk by what little light -I have--it is then, it is to that man that there come infallibly the -knowledge which no criticism can shake, and the peace which the world -can neither give nor take away. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, we thank Thee for this one straight road out of our -doubts, and the difficulties we so often make for ourselves. We bless -Thee for the stedfast certainty that no man, who will rise and follow -what light he has, shall finally be left in darkness. By doing shall we -come to know. As we go upon our clear duty, other truths become more -clear. It is our Lord's own doctrine, and in His Name we pray that Thou -would'st help us to learn it. Amen. - - - -"_The valley of Achor for a_ -_door of hope._" - (HOSEA xxv. 15.) - - - XXII - - GOD'S DOOR OF HOPE - -The world has a scheme of redemption of its own, and men can themselves -do something for the brother who has fallen. But the plan involves, -invariably, a change of surroundings. Worldly wisdom says, of the youth -who is making a mess of his life, "Ship him off to the colonies, try him -with a new start on another soil." But the grace of God promises a far -more wonderful salvation. It makes possible a new start on the very -spot of the old failure. It leads a man back to the scene of his old -disloyalty, and promises him a new memory that shall blot out and redeem -the old. God does not take the depressed and discouraged out of their -surroundings. He adds an inward something that enables them to conquer -where they stand. It is not some new untried sphere that God gilds with -promise. It is the old place where one has already failed and fallen. -It is the valley of Achor, the scene of Israel's defeat, and Achan's -shame and sin, that God gives to His people as a door of hope. - -In Italian history, during the Middle Ages, the republics of Pisa and -Genoa were often at war, and at one time the Genoese were badly beaten -in a sea-fight near the little island of Meloria. Some years after, a -Genoese admiral took his fleet to that same spot and said, "Here is the -rock which a Genoese defeat has made famous. A victory would make it -immortal." And sure enough, the fight that followed ended in a great -victory for Genoa. It is that sort of hope that God holds out to all -defeated souls who put their trust in Him. He points us back to our -valley of Achor, the place with a memory we do not like to think of, and -He says, There is your door of Hope, Go back and try again. And those -who go back in His strength are enabled to write a new memory upon the -old shame. - -Our Lord and Master is very gracious to forgive us when we come to Him -in penitence to tell Him of the position we have lost by our -faithlessness or our cowardice, but He does not consent to the ultimate -defeat of the very feeblest of His soldiers. "Go back and try again," -is His order. There are many, as Dr Matheson says, who offer us a -golden to-morrow, but it is only Christ who enables us to retrieve our -yesterday. For His grace is more than forgiveness. It is the promise -to reverse the memory of Achor, to turn defeat into victory even yet. - -Achor, further, literally means Trouble, and it is a great thing for us -when we have learned that even there God has for us a door of hope. - -The valley of Trouble is perhaps the last place in the world where the -uninstructed would look for any fruit of harvest, and yet again and -again men have brought the fairest flowers of character and holiness out -of it. How many a devout and useful servant of Christ owes the -beginning of his allegiance to a serious illness, to some crippling -disappointment, to an overwhelming sorrow? In all humility there are -many who can say, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, and -there are many, many more about whom their friends often quote that -text. - - "I walked a mile with Pleasure; - She chattered all the way, - But left me none the wiser - For all she had to say. - - "I walked a mile with Sorrow, - And ne'er a word said she, - But oh, the things I learned from her, - When Sorrow walked with me!" - -There is a door of Hope even in the valley of Trouble, and those who -tread it in God's company shall not fail to find it. - -There is one other class who need to know that even in Achor there is a -door of hope, the depressed and discouraged. Phillips Brooks once -declared, "I came near doing a dreadful thing the other day. I was in -East Boston and I suddenly felt as if I must get away from everything -for a while. I went to the Cunard dock and asked if the steamer had -sailed. She had been gone about an hour. I believe if she had still -been there, I should have absconded." I wonder if there is any one who -has not known that feeling? When duty is dull, and circumstances -discouraging, when we seem to be merely ploughing the sands, "Oh," we -say, "for the wings of a dove!" Comfort and happiness and salvation -seem to lie solely in escape. And it may be that they do. But more -often the trouble is in ourselves, and would travel with us to the new -post. - -If there be any depressed or discouraged reading these lines, I should -like to remind them of God's promise to give the valley of Achor--that -is the depressing scene of your labours, my brother--for a door of hope. -You are looking for your hope somewhere else, anywhere else provided it -be out of your present rut and drudgery. In reality your door of hope -lies in the rut, in the valley itself. It is not escape you need. It -is just a braver faith that God is in your valley with you, and that He -needs you there. - -Take a firmer grip of that, and go back to where you serve, and you will -find, please God, that even in your valley He has opened for you a door -of Hope and Gladness. - -May all those who are living and working these days in the valley of -Achor find in it somewhere God's Door of Hope. - - PRAYER - -Grant us, O God, the faith that in Thy strength we can yet succeed even -in the place where we have failed. Teach us that it is Thy whisper we -hear, when we have fallen into Despond, bidding us rise and try again. -And grant us the courage to be sure, since Thou hast a tryst to meet and -help us there, that even our Achor shall open to us its door of hope. -Amen. - - - -"_There be many servants_ -_now-a-days that break away_ -_every man from his master._" - (1 SAMUEL xxv. 10.) - - - XXIII - - NOW-A-DAYS - -Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request -some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered -sheep-farmer broke out, "Who is David? There be many servants -now-a-days that break away every man from his master." It was a -singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is -not about Nabal's truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think about -that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said. "Now-a-days." -The implication, of course, is that servants did not break away from -their masters in _his_ young days. Things were different in the times -_he_ could remember. - -You will recognise this peculiar intonation of "Now-a-days" as something -fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Now-a-days the Church -has lost caste. Now-a-days the Bible is a neglected book. Now-a-days -faith is on the wane, and most people don't believe anything at all. -There are many such sentences, beginning with the word Now-a-days and -sounding like a chant on a minor key. - -This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is -unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close -quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible opposite -that "Now-a-days" of Nabal. - -And the first is--What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by -his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting -entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very -different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to -maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal -manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to -break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal -to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants now-a-days, -when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he may -see about him, he is himself largely responsible. - -I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes of -quite a number of pious "inexactitudes." When I hear a man talking -about the lost influence of the Church now-a-days, I am always tempted -to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally -supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught me -that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church's past records, at -the expense of its position to-day, comes from men who are themselves -doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are exceptions, -of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in any worthy -cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the country is -going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most part, lolling -in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of Christ's -kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to those who -are fond of the Now-a-days type of complaint, I would suggest the -inquiry--What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old -standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also -tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you -deplore, namely, down the hill? - -The second query on Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Can his memory be relied -upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it -in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows -from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long -and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all -agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were -using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are all -apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it has a -way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that, and -allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with "Now-a-days," -and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh. - -But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with false -romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred years or -more; read such a book as H. G. Graham's "Social Life in Scotland in the -Eighteenth Century"; and you will soon discover what a fine word -Now-a-days really is. - -As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true -religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts -now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not -know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and -radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or -decay. - -I can partly understand a man without faith in God giving his vote for a -general falling off in human progress, but I cannot understand a man who -believes in God, and in the presence in the world of a living spirit of -Christ, being a pessimist. No one affirms, of course, that we are -progressing everywhere, and all the time. Set-backs here and there, -there are in human history just as in a successful campaign. But that, -on the whole, the world grows better, the Kingdom comes, and earth draws -nearer to Heaven, seems to me to be simply a corollary from the fact -that God reigns, and has blessed us with knowledge of Himself. - -I grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far -mankind still has to travel. But, as far as we are concerned, I am not -disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account -of it. A people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like -honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making, -can hardly be said to be degenerating, especially when we remember some -of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and generations -gone by. But even though the clock of progress be set back awhile--and -that does not seem so likely now as when the war began--it is simply not -possible that, in this world of God's, evil should ultimately vanquish -good, that the Spirit of Christ should finally be crushed by the forces -that oppose it. That can never be. As soon might the germs of disease -which the sun destroys turn round upon it and quench its blessed light. - -The third query opposite Nabal's "Now-a-days" is--Does he truly discern -the present time? Does he know "now-a-days" even as well as he knows -the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had -broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little longer -he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of the times. - -That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Now-a-days things -are out of joint. Maybe you don't clearly see these very days you are -disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village where He had -been brought up, the people said, Is not this the Carpenter? and in -their anger at His presumption, as they thought it, they wanted to make -away with Him. If they had only known! - -It is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future. We cannot -even see the present. Think what it would be like if we could see the -great men, the prophets, poets, reformers, leaders, who are at this -present moment in our nurseries and schools, or if we were able to -recognise in the--at present--small shoot of a cause, the great tree -into which in God's providence it is destined to grow! - -Now-a-days; now-a-days! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he -knows "now-a-days" well enough to call it names! It is not with -observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a new -and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and me -to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way and -time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we can -to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a better -place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is going on -about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in the world -than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and bare -to-day.[1] It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears now-a-days. -Yet _even now_ the sap is mounting quickly in every living stem, and -Spring is getting ready while we sleep. - -[1] Written in February. - -So, let us have the courage to believe--so is it with every worthy cause -of God and man. - - PRAYER - -Almighty God, Ruler and Disposer of all events, we would remember that -this world of ours is, first of all, Thine. We believe that, though Thy -Kingdom comes not with observation yet it does come more and more. We -believe that, with Thee, the best is yet to be. And we pray that, with -that faith in our hearts, we may leave the large campaign with quietness -and confidence to Thee, and seek rather to discharge the duties of that -post Thou hast assigned to us, with loyalty and good hope. Amen. - - - -"_And a certain man drew a_ -_bow at a venture._" - (2 CHRONICLES xviii. 33) - - - XXIV - - ROUNDABOUT ROADS - -It sounds improbable that though a whole army was trying to kill Ahab, -it should be an arrow which a man shot at a venture, or as the Hebrew -has it, quaintly, "in his simplicity"--when twanging his bow carelessly, -or trying a new string perhaps--that should find the king's heart. - -And yet it is the thing that does happen occasionally in real life. We -sometimes do get the target when we are aiming for something else. The -name which we have been worrying to recall strolls casually into our -memory when we have given up trying and are not thinking of it at all. -There are certain stars, astronomers tell us, which they see best when -they look askance. And I have come to think that there are certain -precious goods of His which God allows us to possess on the same -conditions. You see them by looking past them. You get them by aiming -at something else. "Look at your goal and go for it straight," says -worldly wisdom, wisely and truly enough in many instances. All the same -there are good things in life to which that is emphatically NOT the -road. The real way to secure these is to aim for something else. - -This is true, for example, of Happiness. Everyone of us wants to be -happy. And there is such a bountiful provision of the means of -happiness all about us that it is difficult to resist the conclusion -that God means us all to be happy. Yet when those for whom happiness is -meant and prepared seek it directly and for itself, it is as certain as -anything can be that they won't find it. You ask, perhaps you pray for -this boon, and God shows you only some bare duty that is clearly yours. -Out to it you go, like a brave man, not thinking there can be any -blessings on that road, when, lo! as you journey, happiness comes to -you, quietly, filling your heart with peace. - -One does not find that the New Testament, as a matter of fact, has much -to say about being happy at all. There is so little reference to it -that it looks as if God had forgotten our need. I find that the Book -which I had thought might tell me how to find happiness tells me instead -of "bearing one another's burdens," doing it "unto one of the least of -these"; tells me about my brother's need of me when he is sick or naked -or hungry; tells me even about such a thing as a cup of cold water to a -thirsty disciple. Ah! but when, in however poor a fashion, I forget my -own quest and gird myself in Christ's name and try to DO some of these -things, I find that God has not forgotten after all, that, all the time -He has been showing me THE way to happiness, and I did not recognise it -because it is not a straight road. It's not a question of seeking, but -of forgetting to seek. Happiness comes to you oftenest when you are -intent on bringing it to your brother. - -The same principle holds true also with regard to Influence. It is -natural that a man should desire that his shadow when it falls on others -should heal and not hurt. But the healing, helpful shadow is not got by -wishing for it. As soon as you begin to think about it and aim for it, -you will go astray. Here is a little poem which tells how the strange -magnetic quality of influence for good comes to a man:-- - - "He kept his lamp still lighted, - Though round about him came - Men who, by commerce blighted, - Laughed at his little flame. - - He kept his sacred altar - Lit with the torch divine, - Nor let his purpose falter, - Like yours, O World, and mine. - - And they whose cold derision - Had mocked him, came one day - To beg of him the vision - To help them on their way. - - And, barefoot or in sandal, - When forth they fared to die, - They took from his poor candle - One spark to guide them by." - -That is the secret--a roundabout way, as you see. If Influence is to be -ours, that is how it will come, not by our trying to be influential, but -by our striving to be upright, loyal, and true. - -In the third place, this is true of Life in Christ's sense of the term. -Life was one of His favourite words. It was Life, in the highest sense, -that He claimed to bring to men. And the greatest calamity in His eyes -that could fall on any man is that that inward soul-life should die. - -Yet when those in whom He has awakened it, aim directly for its growth -and culture, they make mistakes. To the question--Shall I regard the -development and deepening of that soul-life of mine as the one end and -object of my living? the answer of Jesus, as I understand it, is No. -Life, said He, at its highest and fullest and most perfect, is reached -by giving it away. He that loseth his life shall save it. - -What a long way from this ideal are those good people who are for ever -laying their fingers on their spiritual pulse and plucking their -soul-life up by the roots to see how it is growing! There is a nobler -use of life than to save it in that fearful fashion. There is a truer -way to grow in grace than by hoarding up virtue so, namely, by letting -it go generously out from us. When St Nicholas got to Heaven with his -white robes of sainthood stained with mud through stopping on his way to -help a carter pull his waggon out of a rut--a task which his fellow St -Cassianus, for the sake of his robes, avoided and declined--it was the -muddy saint whom the Master welcomed with the sweetest smile and the -most gracious words. Whoso loseth his life, the same shall save it. - -Happiness, Influence, Life, these three, and the road to each of them is -indirect. May God bless it to us that we have stood for a little to -mark the flight of an arrow shot "in simplicity!" - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, may we have grace to discover the blessings that lie on -Thy roundabout roads. May we never make the mistake of thinking that -the path to true happiness is the one that runs straight towards it. -Keep us true to Christ, and we shall not then be false to any man. And -give us to know that we are likest Him, not when we hoard and cherish -life and virtue, but when we spend them without stint or measure in any -worthy cause of God or man, for His sake. Amen. - - - -"_Why was not this ointment_ -_sold for three hundred pence,_ -_and given to the poor?_" - (JOHN xii. 5.) - - - XXV - - THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF LOVE - -"Wherever this Gospel is preached, this that she had done shall be told -as a memorial of her." What a gracious memorial, and how worthy of it -was Mary's beautiful outburst of generosity! But what a pity that the -speech of Judas should be recorded also, as a memorial of him! And yet, -on mature consideration, we would not have the Judas criticism -forgotten. Because it called forth what we might not otherwise have -had, the vindication of Jesus Himself. And because, as a matter of -fact, we are constantly hearing the protest of Judas repeated in our own -day, and are often ill-held to know how to meet it. - -"This he said," records our evangelist bluntly, "not because he loved -the poor, but because he was a thief and kept the bag." Yet he might -have been an honest man and said the same thing. For very many honest -and earnest men and women are repeating this criticism still. It is -repeated whenever it is taken for granted that practical utility is the -only standard by which to judge actions and offerings, that God and man -can be served in no other way than by "iron bars and perspiration." - -How often do we meet the type of mind that admits the service of a -ploughman and denies that of poet or artist, for whom a waterfall, as -somebody has said, exists merely as so much power for driving turbines, -and whose sole test of usefulness is that of making two blades grow--and -corn blades at that!--where but one grew before. We are commonly -browbeaten by this type of person, and yet we feel that somehow, if we -could only say it, he is wrong--that the poet's is as divine a vocation -as the farmer's, that God meant a silver band of falling water in a -green glade to suggest other things besides dynamos, and that he who -even paints some blades of grass, and paints them pleasingly, has his -place somewhere in the great guild of servants of God and man. - -One has heard the same attitude taken up in other directions too. Why -spend so much money on a Church, you will be asked, when there are so -many poor people in the land? What need for stone pillars and a fine -organ, when a plain building and a harmonium would do as well? Why try -to secure what is called a beautiful Church service, dignified, stately, -musical, when the very baldest worship is acceptable in God's sight, if -only it be sincere? We have heard all that, and other remarks like -that, often, and we have seldom been able to give reasons against them. -A mere instinctive sentiment seems a feeble thing to oppose to such cold -and hard facts. Yet somehow we feel that it is all wrong if only we -knew how to convict it. - -Did it ever occur to you that Jesus Himself has answered that objection -and others like it when He vindicated Mary's action that night? There -is no doubt that her ointment cost a deal of money, money that could -have fed many hungry people. It was an extravagant offering, without -any practical outcome, save that Jesus was refreshed. There is no doubt -also about our Lord's sympathy with the poor and needy. And yet He -upheld Mary's action, and would not have it called wasteful! All that -could be said in its favour was that it was beautiful, that it touched -Jesus keenly, and influenced all who saw it done. And that, as I read -the story, was one reason at least why Jesus defended it. He allows the -Beautiful. He would have the Beautiful honoured for its own sake even -in a world so full of sorrow and trouble as this. - -For my part, I am very grateful that this word of Christ's has been -recorded. For it affords sufficient warrant for declaring the poet, the -artist, the architect, and all those who are trying to make the world -more beautiful, God's servants too, offering Him a gift He does not -disdain to recognise, as truly as the physician, the philanthropist, and -the preacher whose object is to make it better. - -Beauty of form and structure has been lavished profusely by the Creator -on creatures too small to be seen. There are more things grow out of -God's earth than corn for food or timber for building houses. There's -the heather and the wild flowers, the daisies and the violets. -Hard-headed common-sense asks--What's the use of them? What good do -they do? The answer is that they are beautiful, and that seems in God's -sight to be justification enough for having made them. - -So when we see Love breaking her alabaster box, and pouring forth her -offering without stint, as she is doing every day--a mother lavishing -care upon an ungrateful son, a husband surrounding a peevish wife with a -tireless devotion, or a sister keeping her own love-dream at arm's -length that she may guard and guide some graceless brother--let us lay -our hands upon our lips when we are tempted to criticise. These actions -may be foolish, extravagant, quixotic, and may outrage every canon of -common-sense. But there is a fragrance about them without which the -world would be much poorer. They are morally beautiful, and for that -reason, our Lord Himself would teach us, they are not to be rudely -handled nor judged by any hard standard. - -Yes, but He said more than that. He found a more complete extenuation -of Mary's extravagance. It was because she loved much. Her gift was an -offering of love to Himself. "She hath done it for my burial." And -that is the end of the whole matter, my brothers. Love is always -extravagant when measured by the tape-line of bare duty. It always -overflows. It breaks its box and gives everything it has. Yet, like -the widow's cruse of old, its casket is never empty, for even when it -has given its all, the next needy case will find succour at that door. -Take your charity subscription sheet to the man who loudly asserts that -too much money is being given to the Kirk this dull season, and what -will you get? Take it also to the man who has signed a bigger cheque -than he can well afford that the House of his God may be made beautiful, -and it will be strange if you are sent empty away. Ah no, it is not -Mary, whose devotion has found outlet in some sudden generosity, it is -not she who neglects the poor. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, whose we are and Whom we seek to serve, enlighten us, we -pray Thee, in the knowledge and practice of that supreme service which -is love. May we learn that the greatest thing in our little lives is -the love they hold for God and man. Teach us to appraise love's extra -everywhere as those who have also felt and understand. And when our own -gift and offering must needs be poor and small, may we be encouraged by -the remembrance that even a widow's mite that love has offered is -precious in Thy sight. Amen. - - - -"_I know both how to be_ -_abased, and I know how to_ -_abound._" - (PHILIPPIANS iv. 12.) - - - XXVI - - THE ART OF "DOING WITHOUT" - -In one of his letters, Paul declares that he knows both how to be abased -and how to abound. Most people, who did not stop to think, would be -inclined to assert that the second of these lessons did not require much -learning. It's an easy enough thing to be content, they would say, when -you have plenty. Far harder is it to learn how to do without. I am not -at all sure that that is right. I rather think that, of the two, -abundance is a more searching test of a man's true quality than scarcity -ever is. Carlyle has declared that for one man who will stand -prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity. - -But whether that be so or not, there is no question that it is a great -thing to have the secret of doing without. And the merest glance abroad -convinces us that it is of the utmost importance. In literature, for -example, the quality which confers most distinction upon style is the -art of omission. Did not Stevenson, himself a master, say that one who -knew what to omit could make an Iliad of the daily newspaper? And the -commonest blunders in the great business of living spring from ignorance -of this secret. Why do some people make themselves disagreeable in a -community by their touchiness and sulkiness? Simply because they have -not learned how to be abased, how to live without getting their own way -always, or without getting the praise or recognition to which they feel -themselves entitled. It's an art, you see, which is well worth -studying. - -It has to be added that opportunities for practising it are never long -wanting from anybody. We don't need to choose what things we shall do -without, as a rule. The things are simply taken from us, or we never -get them. It may be our own fault, or it may not. The result is the -same. We have to do without. And we give away our inmost self by the -fashion in which we do it. - -There is, for example, the question of material goods. It's easy to -talk unreal nonsense here, and we all must confess to wishing to have -more of this sort of property than we do possess. But I honestly -believe that the Apostle Paul did not greatly concern himself whether he -was, materially speaking, well-off or ill-off. There are other men that -one knows who have attained to the same point of view. There's no -question either that for those whose religion is a vital thing it is the -right point of view. The real man is independent of either riches or -poverty, because the real man is the man inside. Riches is not you. -Poverty is not you. You are what you are in your inner spirit. The -riches there are invisible, but they are eternal--love, faith, hope, -peace. And the man who has these, as Paul had them, can honestly say -that it is of relatively small moment whether he is in a material sense, -rich or poor. - -Or take the question of friendship. Who can tell in adequate words what -it means to have one true, loyal friend? But it has happened sometimes -that the very closest friendships are broken and a man has to stand -alone, not by his own choice, but in the grim ordering of things. There -is a higher obligation than that you keep faith with your friends. -First and foremost you must keep faith with yourself, with your own -conscience, with the voice within. And it may be that obedience to that -involves seeming disloyalty to your friends, either for a while or -permanently. - -Such a time came to Paul. He had for conscience' sake to stand alone; -and he did it. He was able to do it because his life did not rest for -its ultimate pillar on his friendships any more than on his riches. -Paul's real life was within. That inner life of his was enriched and -made radiant and constant by one supreme fact--he believed that Jesus -Christ his Lord deigned to share it with him in spirit. It is not -irreverent to say that in his inner soul Paul lived with Christ. - -Maybe his words are too big for us to use, but each of us who, at some -hard bit of our journey, has appealed beyond friends to the Christ -within, saying, "I have done, O Lord, what seemed to me right. And my -friends are hurt and angry. But Thou knowest"--that man has learned, -even in a slight degree, that there is a nearer and truer blessing -possible for sinful men than even human friendship. - -Then there is another thing that has sometimes to be done without. There -are privileges that belong to every Christian man and woman, and are in -a sense their birthright--the sense of God, confidence, quietness of -heart, hope. There is no doubt that every real Christian should be -walking and working in the light and gladness of God's presence. - -But it is just as clear that not all are so blessed. It may be their -own fault. Doubtless in many cases it is. Or it may be temperament or -outward circumstances that determine it. Anyhow, many have to walk, not -in the light but in uncertainty, perplexity, and misgiving, and -sometimes even in darkness. - -But "a bird is a bird even though it cannot sing." And a Christian is a -Christian still even though his soul is dark within him, and he goes on -in fear, never daring to look up and hope at all. - -That is spiritual abasement. It ought not to be. It is never to be -lightly acquiesced in. But it happens sometimes to earnest men and -women, and it seems to be the settled condition of a few. Is it -possible to do without these things? Can a man manage to exist and even -move forward who has for a while lost his hold on his faith and on God? -There are good and godly men who have done it. Brother Lawrence did it. -Robertson of Brighton did it. Horace Bushnell did it. And many, many -more. When all that they held most precious in faith had been eclipsed -for the time, they steered still by the little light they knew. Though -there should be no heaven, they resolved that they were called to be -pure, truthful, patient, kind, since these things could never be wrong. -Though there were no Christ, they would still follow where He had once -seemed to invite them. And so doing and so following they came again to -know. The darkness passed, and faith and gladness returned. They had -lost hold of God for a little, but He had never lost hold of them. And, -brethren, whatever the doubt or darkness be, that's always true. That -is what makes it possible at all. That is what may make it even -blessed. For - - "It's better to walk in the dark with God - Than to walk alone in the light; - Better to walk with God by faith - Than to walk alone by sight." - - PRAYER - -Our Gracious God and Father in Heaven, whether Thou dost appoint for us -poverty or riches, save us from thinking that a man's life consisteth in -the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Beyond all our -friendships, be Thou our Friend and Helper, and grant us to seek first -the blessing of our God. Make us very sure, for their comforting and -our own, that when men in their darkness sorely seek Thy face, the very -ache of their quest is token that Thou hast already found them. For -Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - -"_And Moses said, I will now_ -_turn aside and see this great sight._" - (EXODUS iii. 3.) - - - XXVII - - WONDER - -Moses, adds one commentator significantly, was then eighty years of age. -By the ordinary standards, he was an old man, yet he had not lost his -youthful sense of wonder. It is a good sign, the best of signs, when a -man has lived so long and yet finds wonder in his heart. It is a bad -sign when a man at any age, or when a generation of men, find nothing in -all God's world to wonder at. - -Yet in many quarters it is regarded as the correct attitude to refrain -from expressing surprise at anything, no matter how striking. The -utmost concession to be made to what is really wonderful is a languid -and patronising "Really?" That is always a pitiful thing. For where -there is no wonder there can be no religion worthy of the name. - -The instinct of worship and the instinct of wonder are very intimately -related. And where the one has died, the other cannot be in a very -healthy state. "I had rather," said Ruskin once, "live in a cottage and -wonder at everything, than live in Warwick Castle and wonder at -nothing." And his preference is to be commended. For he who has never -wondered has never thought about God in any way to be called thinking. - -It was our Lord Himself who said that the ideal of religion was the -child-like heart. Everyone knows that these little people are always -being brought to a halt to wonder at something. And Heaven is in very -truth nearer to them then, and they are more truly filled with its -spirit, than either you or I are when the glory and bloom of this world -unfold before our eyes, or the thought of the Infinite and Eternal God -comes to us and we have not felt impelled to bow our heads in silence -and worship, spell-bound, and in a godly fear. - -It is not hard to lay one's finger on some of the causes that have -brought about this state of things. A silly fashion, for one cause, has -decreed that wonder is vulgar. Why that should be so, no one can tell. -But if there be higher intelligences than ours in God's Universe, and -they see the sons of men, as they have plenty of chances to do, casting -an indifferent glance at the full pomp and majesty of the setting sun, -or reading such a Psalm as the 103rd with an untouched heart, how they -must marvel indeed! - -And then, of course, familiarity tends to blunt the sense of wonder in a -certain and common type of mind. The best men have always resisted that -tendency and recognised that it works harm to life and character. They -have remembered to look for God in the common and familiar, and that is -a search that goes far to make a man a saint, just because it is a -continual prayer, a continual holding open of the heart to God. His -answer is to fill the wondering heart, bit by bit, with Himself. - -Ignorance, too, is often a cause, the kind of ignorance that calls -itself knowledge. It is an innocent delusion on the part of the -youthful tyro in Science that after he has made a little experiment with -a prism and a beam of sunlight, there is nothing wonderful in the -rainbow. Pure, profound Science on the other hand, speaks very -humbly--and wonders all the while. - -Nature is dumb and silent concerning the Infinite behind it to him who -goes but to catalogue and dissect. Take a heart that can wonder with -you on your country-walk, open your eyes and look, open your heart like -a child and listen, and you will find, as Moses found, that even in a -bush there may be the Voice of God. Hold the door of your heart ajar in -simple wonder, and some thing of God will enter to cleanse and freshen -it, as the hot and dusty street is washed by the rain from Heaven. - -Just as he who goes to Nature with a heart that cannot wonder, will find -no message there for him, so he who looks out upon the sanctities of -home, of human life and love, in that dull mood of mere acceptance, must -often find himself hard pressed for material when he makes his -thanksgiving to God. George Eliot has spoken somewhere of the agony of -the thought that we can never atone to the dead for the stinted -affection we gave them, for the "little reverence we showed to that -sacred human soul that lived so close to us, and was the divinest thing -God has given us to know." The divinest thing God has given us to know! - -Have we realised that that gift of God to us lives now in the same home -with us? Do you know what it is? It is a wife's devotion, a mother's -care, a brother's comradeship, a sister's love. It is the trust and -affection of little children, and the patience of those who love us. And -yet there have been men--judge ye if this be not true--who have lived -close to gifts of God like these, and taken them all unquestioned and -never wondered at the undeserved bounty of them or their continuance -from day to day. - -How easy it is to discover the gifts and charm of a stranger, how easy -to wonder at that! But to wonder at the sacrifice and the patience of -the love that dwells under the same roof with us, and stoops, in Mrs -Browning's happy phrase, "to the level of each day's most quiet need," -how few of us do that! And yet, without daily wonder, how can we be -sure that we do not slight it, or requite it ill, how can we truly give -our thanks to God whose gift it is? - -Most important of all, he who brings no wonder in his heart can never be -touched with the sense of God. The lack of the great deep and awful -wonder of our fathers in all their thought and speech about God, has -brought it about that our religious speech to-day is too often either -superficial, flippant and easy, or syllogistic, mechanical, and hard. It -is the absence of wonder that tempts men to imagine that God can be -enclosed in any formula whatever, or brought to the hearts of men in so -many rigid propositions. If men would but give their wonder expression -when they frame their creeds, there would be less chafing where the -edges are too sharp. - -I am bound to confess that my sympathies are altogether with a working -man who once listened to a fervid evangelist at a street corner -unfolding a scheme of salvation as clean-cut and mechanical as a problem -of Euclid, and buttonholed him afterwards to inquire if he had ever read -any astronomy. No, he said, he had not. "That's a pity," said the -artisan, "for, eh, man, but ye have an awfu' wee God." In all -reverence, my brothers, that is what the absence of wonder brings us to, -a small God, a small salvation, and a merely mechanical Christ. - -Men have sometimes asked what that childhood of the Kingdom is on which -Jesus laid so much stress, and some have taken it to mean renunciation -of intellect and reason in favour of a Church's dogma. But it means, -says John Kelman, something far more human and more beautiful--"it means -wonder and humility and responsiveness, the straight gaze of childhood -past conventionalities, the simplicity of a mind open to any truth, and -a heart with love alive in it." That is surely right. That is what -becoming a little child in Christ's sense does mean. First of all, -wonder. - - PRAYER - -Almighty and eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the Universe, dwelling in -light that is inaccessible and full of glory, whom no man hath seen or -can see, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man -that Thou visitest him? Behold what manner of love the Father hath -bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God! Such -knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain unto it. -O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our -Maker. Amen. - - - -"_If ye then, being evil, know_ -_... how much more ... your_ -_heavenly Father._" - (LUKE xi. 13.) - - - XXVIII - - THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD - -If it were a conceivable thing that we had to part with all the words of -Scripture save one, and if we were allowed to choose that one, there are -some of us who would elect to retain that great declaration of -Jesus--"If ye being evil know ... how much more ... your heavenly -Father." For, having that, we should still be rich in knowledge of the -Love and Fatherhood of God. We should still know Christ's dominating -conception of God, and have His last and highest word regarding Him. We -should still be able to rise, as Jesus not only warrants but invites us -to do, from the little broken arc of true fatherhood on earth to the -perfect round in Heaven. - -At the warm reassuring touch of that "How much more your heavenly -Father" whole systems of brainy divinity vanish away! The truth of the -Fatherhood of God, vouched for and lived on by Jesus, kills men's hard -and unworthy and hurtful thoughts about God as sunshine kills the -creatures that breed and prevail in darkness and ignorance. They can no -more live alongside of a realisation that Christ's name for God is His -true name, and really describes His attitude to all the sons of men, -than the dark, creepy things that live under the stone can remain there -when you turn it over and let in the air and the light. - -But, say some, you must not carry the truth of God's Fatherhood too far. -What is too far? I ask. I want to carry it, and I believe Christ means -us to carry it, as far as ever it will stretch, and that is "as far as -the East is from the West." Think of a father's GOOD-WILL. It is -conceivable that other men may do you a deliberate wrong. But you are -entitled to believe that your father won't. You may not understand what -he proposes, but you can be quite sure that he means only your good. -Henry Drummond tells how his early days were made miserable by the -conception he had of God as of some great staring Eye in the heavens -watching all he did. But that is a policeman's eye, not a father's. - -There are many tokens that, even yet, we have not realised what these -blessed words of Jesus mean and imply. A mother vainly trying to answer -the old, old question why her little one was taken from her, will say, -"Perhaps I was too fond of him." Or, should sudden sorrow come, the -explanation suggested by the troubled one himself is, "I was too happy." -There are plenty of people who are afraid to declare that they feel very -well or are very happy, in case the upper Powers should hear and send -trouble, apparently out of sheer malice! "Bethankit, what a bonny -creed!" Oh! what a dreadful caricature of God! How it must pain the -Father to hear His children talking so! - -There is another mark of fatherhood, as we know it on earth--COMPASSION, -pity, the willingness to forgive. There is no forgiveness on earth like -a father's or a mother's, none so willing, none that will wait so long -and yet give itself without stint at last. Pity, as the world of -business and of ordinary relationship knows it, is at best a transient -emotion. It murmurs a few easy words and then forgets. But parent love -suffereth long and is kind, hopes against hope, and waits and is still -hopeful when every one else has written the offender down irreclaimable. -It is such compassion and pity for us sinners, how great soever our sins -be, that Jesus would have us come for to God in Heaven. - -But will not men abuse such patience and long-suffering? it is asked. Is -it not a risky thing to tell them that God is our Father? It is. But it -is the risk that Love takes cheerfully, and that only Love can take. -And when men talk lightly and complacently about the great mercy of God, -there is something, I think, which they have forgotten, namely, that at -the heart of the divine Fatherly forgiveness there lies the shadow of -the Cross. I do not say that in any conventional sense. I say it -because I have seen for myself that at the heart of all true earthly -forgiveness of a fatherly sort there lies this same mysterious shadow. -Shall not the father forgive his returning prodigal? Yea, verily, and -with all his heart. But, ah, before that, think how the father has -suffered with his son, and for his son. The prodigal's shame is the -father's shame too, and lies heavy on his heart. And it is out of a -chamber where he and that pain have long been companions that the -earthly father issues to welcome and receive at last the lad who has -sought his face penitent and in his right mind. The welcome is real. -The forgiveness is full and free. And yet behind it there is sacrifice. -The price of it is suffering. Aback of it lies--the Cross! That is what -silences cheap thinking and glib speech about the forgiveness of God. -If God's long-suffering be like a father's here, it is, first, long -suffering. - -The danger, however, is not that we abuse God's grace knowingly and in -callous complacency. Far more is it, I think, that we never actually -accept and realise and build our lives upon the gracious compassion of -the Heavenly Father and His willingness to forgive. - -Every parent ought to know Coventry Patmore's beautiful lyric, "The -Toys." In it a father tells how, when his little son had been -disobedient again and again, he struck him, and sent him with hard words -and unkissed to bed--"his mother, who was patient, being dead." And -when, later, he went upstairs to see him, he found him asleep, his -lashes still wet with tears, and--what touched him most--on a table -beside his bed all his little treasures heaped together to comfort his -sad heart--a box of counters, and a red-veined stone, a piece of glass -abraded by the beach, and six or seven shells, a bottle with blue bells, -and two French copper coins--all his little store of precious things. - - So when that night I prayed - To God, I wept and said-- - "Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath, - Not vexing Thee in death, - And Thou rememberest of what toys - We made our joys, - How weakly understood - Thy great commanded good, - Then, fatherly not less - Than I, whom Thou hast moulded from the clay, - Thou'lt leave Thy wrath and say: - 'I will be sorry for their childishness.'" - - -One word more about our Father's SILENCE. Our fathers here on earth had -their silences when we were children. We asked him for something that -we wanted very much. And he gave no reply. We went on asking. We -expected to get what we had set our hearts on. He heard us hoping and -believing that this good thing would come to us, and he held his peace. -But we knew that silence, and we trusted it. We were quite sure that he -would have told us if we were deceiving ourselves, that his gift, when -it came, would, at least, not be a mere mockery of our hopes. - -And I often think of these words of Christ's, "If a son shall ask bread -of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?" when I stand -by a graveside, and speak the words of radiant hope with which we lay -our beloved to rest. Our Father hears us speak that hope. He has heard -hearts in an agony through all the generations wish that it might be -true--that this bleak fact of Death is not the end, but only the -beginning of a better thing. But He keeps silence. We have no sure -proof, only the blessed hope of the Christian evangel. - -He keeps silence. But, my brethren, can we not trust that silence since -it is our Father's? We have asked this bread in our pain and through -our tears. We have asked it because it seems to us we need it so. And -whatever gift His silence hides, this at least is certain, it is not, it -cannot be, only a stone. - - PRAYER - -Almighty God, who through Jesus Christ has taught us to call Thee our -Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast chosen a name so dear to us to -reveal Thy care and Love. When our way is dark and our burden is heavy -and our hearts are perplexed, grant us the grace to know that Thou who -art directing every step of our journey art a God of Love, and Thy true -and perfect Name is Our Father in Heaven. Through Jesus Christ our -Lord. Amen. - - - -"_Whosoever will lose his_ -_life for my sake shall find it._" - (MATTHEW xvi. 25.) - - - XXIX - - THE UNRETURNING BRAVE - - (EASTER DAY, 1915) - -NOTE.--I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Sir Wm. Robertson -Nicoll's "When the Wounded Go Home," a tender and courageous message. - -Christmas in war time was like an evil dream. Easter is like a breath -from Heaven itself, a wind from the pure and blessed heights of God -blowing the clouds of battle-smoke apart for a brief space so that we -all may see again that beyond the smoke and beyond grim death itself -there is the Life Enduring, a Divine Love compared to which ours at the -best is untender and hard, a Fatherly welcome beside which welcomes here -are faint and cold. This is the strangest Easter Day the world has ever -known, yet never have the thousands and thousands of stricken homes and -sore hearts needed more the living hope that is begotten anew in the -Christian Church this day by our Lord's rising again from the dead. It -is assuredly of God's mercy that Easter should fall in these days, when -so many fathers and mothers, wives and sisters and lovers need its hope -and comfort so. - -We cannot but think to-day of the many, many homes in our own and other -lands from which strong and brave men marched away weeks or months ago, -because they had heard the call, and were willing to make the supreme -sacrifice for righteousness' sake, who will never come back again, who -have died a soldier's death and sleep in a soldier's grave--fathers, -husbands, sons, lovers, gallant men, dear lads, cheerful, willing, -dauntless. You find their names by the hundred and the thousand in the -casualty lists, but the loss you cannot measure unless you could see all -the shadowed homes. How many such homes there are in our own land -alone, How many such in our own little circle! - -Try to realise that, and then ask if a more gracious message could fall -upon all these hearts to-day than the Easter message of the Christian -Church,--that there is no death and that its seeming victory is not a -victory. The old, old question, If a man die shall he live again? is -answered to-day by the triumphant Yes! of Christendom. Yes, he never -ceases to live. From the inferno of the battlefield the mortally -stricken do but pass across the bridge and stream of death to God's -Other Side. When they fall in battle, they fall into His everlasting -Arms. They do not die. They are not dead. It is only their poor -mortal bodies that the shrieking shells can maim or destroy. They -themselves, the real self and spirit of them, no material force can -hurt, for that belongs to a higher kingdom than the visible, and its -true goal and home are not here at all. - -To all who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death in these -days, to all who have watched their beloved go out where every true man -would wish to go, and know only too surely that they shall never -return,--to these to-day Jesus Christ has His Word to speak,--and would -that all might hear it and give it room in their hearts to do its -blessed work! It is to Him we owe it, and He is our authority for -believing that beyond the darkness and separation of death there is the -morning of a new and fairer day. The valley of the Shadow, yea, the -valley of battle itself opens out again at its far end to the sun's -rising and the untrammelled life in the light and liberty of God. The -happy warrior is borne by gentle hands to God's own land of peace, where -the fret and fury of battle slip from him like a discarded garment, and -beside the still waters of that better country he finds healing for his -hurt. It is that quiet and blessed hope that is being reborn in our -hearts this day as the Church keeps her festival of a Risen and a Living -Christ. It is that lively hope the Church offers for comfort to all -stricken homes and to every sorrowing heart. - -They offered themselves, these gallant lads, not for anything they hoped -to gain, but for the sake of honour and liberty, of justice and -righteousness. And when a man casts himself on God in that fashion, -offering not the words of his lips, nor the homage of his worship, but -himself, all that he has, his life and all that life holds for him, -think you that upon that poor soul, with his priceless offering borne -humbly in his hands, the God and Father of us all is going to turn His -back? "He that loseth his life," said Jesus, "for my sake shall find -it." - -There are times when the most gracious doctrine is not gracious enough -to represent and embody the Spirit of Christ to us. We want something -more, and we often seek it and sometimes find it in poetry, in art, or, -best of all, in the silence of our own hearts when God-given instinct -whispers what no words or doctrine can ever express. Such a time is -now. Such a need is ours to-day. - -I make no defence of it theologically, and I ask no man to accept it who -does not feel it clamouring at his heart for entrance, but I confess -that for me a couple of lines of John Hay's in his "Pike County Ballads" -strike a note which all that I know in my heart of the Spirit of Christ -leaps up to welcome and approve. It is when he has told the story of -Jim Bludso's sacrifice. Jim was engineer on the "Prairie Belle," a -river-steamboat, and he was rather a rough, careless man. But when the -steamer took fire, it was Jim who held her against the bank till -everybody got safely off except himself. With eyes wide open to what he -did, he sacrificed his life to save the other souls on board. Hay sums -up in these lines:-- - - "And Christ ain't going to be too hard - On a man that died for men." - -I leave it there. I trust I am a loyal son of the Church, but I must -have a place in my creed somewhere for the hope which these lines -express that Christ ain't going to be too hard on a man that died for -men. - -But there is something more to be said. Every chaplain at the front -tells us that the most careless and irreligious youths and men take up a -wonderfully different attitude out there. Men pray in the trenches who -have never prayed before. I heard some stories recently that brought -tears to my eyes, of brave and simple confessions made at little -gatherings for prayer in strange places, by some of those very lads whom -we reckoned indifferent and heedless before they left home. And some of -then, turning their faces simply and earnestly, and by an old, old -instinct of the heart, towards God and His Christ before the battle -broke upon them, some of them have fallen on the field! - -Many, many more there must be who turned them Godwards even at the -eleventh hour in one brief upward glance to ask forgiveness and strength -to play the man, about whom no chaplain can report, for no one knows or -saw or heard save Christ Himself. But there's a glorious page in the -Gospel to assure us beyond all doubt or question that no one who makes -that appeal, though it be the dying thief himself, ever makes it in -vain. - -And there we leave the issue--with God, who is kinder than our kindest, -and whose mercy is from everlasting. It is He who has brought us this -blessed hope, through His Son, this Easter Day, and we honour His gift -best by taking it in all its breadth and comfort to our hearts. To the -broken-hearted wife or mother, to whom the bald War Office report has -come, let us take this comfort,--"Your beloved is not dead. God has him -in His gracious care and keeping till the day break and the shadows flee -away." For that is the Easter message, God be thanked. And this is -Easter Day. - - PRAYER - -To Thy merciful care and keeping we commend all the sons and daughters -of affliction, and especially those who in this great contest have lost -some loved one. Grant that even through their tears they may discern -the glory that belongs to those who have given their lives a ransom for -many. Be Thou their help and their strength, and may the sympathy of -all who know them be for them an earnest and token of Thy great Love and -Compassion. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - - - -"_The heavens declare the_ -_glory of God._" - (PSALM xix. 1.) - - - XXX - - THE SACRAMENT OF SUNSET - -"The sky," says Ruskin, "is the part of Nature in which God has done -more for the sake of pleasing man, more from the sole and evident -purpose of touching him, than in any other of His works." It looks like -the truth. For there is no scene of earth so fair or majestic that man -cannot spoil it. Where the "cataract exults among the hills, and wears -its crown of rainbows all alone," he will build him a power-house to -supply current to some distant town. But he cannot touch the heavens. -In the heart of some fairy glen he will placard the virtues of -somebody's pills, and plaster the gate-posts in a sweet country lane -with the specious claims of some quack doctor, but above it all, it is -God, and God alone, who spreadeth out the heavens like a curtain and in -them has set a tabernacle for the sun. Even in places where the face of -earth wears no suggestion of natural beauty the face of the sky redeems -it from evil. For, above the squalor of the city's meanest slum, burn -the great fires of the setting sun, and overhead the fleecy white clouds -sail silently all night long. - -But, of it all, the glory of the sunset is chief. The dawn has its cold -splendours too, but not many of us are there to see it when it is at its -best. It is at eventide, when the work of the day is done, and the -spell of its restfulness lays the senses open, it is then chiefly that -God unfolds these splendid harmonies of colour in the western heavens. -And, by consent, on this Ayrshire coast, on which I look out as I write, -these glories can be seen to great advantage. It is into no flat -expanse of water that the dying sun sinks here. The peaks and crags of -Arran invest its passage with an indescribable pomp and majesty, -standing out against it like the massive pillars of some giant gateway -of the West. It is never twice the same. Sometimes lurid and blazing, -with masses of thunder-cloud piled high, all their outer edges rimmed -with fire; and, next night, peaceful and level, a study in straight -lines, as if the great Artist, with even brush, had washed the sky with -bands of grey and blue and gold. Each evening God has His own picture -for us, His own handiwork, unspoiled by man. How many of us ever pause -to recognise its beauty? What does it mean that such a prodigality of -harmonious colours should be the most ordinary feature of our evening -hour? Is it that God Himself takes delight in the beauty of it all, for -its own sake, rejoicing, like all good workmen, in the work of His -hands? Or has He some purpose with regard to His children of mankind? -Is it, as Ruskin says, for the sake of pleasing man? How unthankful and -unmindful we are, if that be so! - -The sunset teaches us to put together these two ideas--beauty, beyond -the wit of man to portray, and God. There is plenty of ugliness and sin -in the world, and the life of men. Man himself recognises how much of -the beauty that might have been has been marred and disfigured by him. -Yet in his heart he worships it, and feels after it afar off. And in the -evening sky it is written that Beauty belongeth supremely unto God. - -Whatever that far-off divine event be, to which the whole creation -moves, one of its features shall be, must be, a beauty which shall fully -satisfy. For beauty and God cannot be divorced. And when, of an -evening, God for His own good pleasure, working with those material -elements which have no power to disobey His behests, unfolds His will in -such dazzling visions of splendour, is He not declaring that the end and -goal of life itself, when His purpose therewith is completed, and Man, -too, has fallen into harmony with His will, shall be fair, and -satisfying, and beautiful? - -Let us not be afraid to say and believe that God speaks to us in the -sunset. If I pick up the receiver of a telephone and hear my friend -announce some good news that fills my heart with gladness, it does not -disturb me to remember that the wire itself has no power to speak. For -I feel that somewhere at the end of the wire is a mind and a heart like -my own who is using the dead, soulless wire as a medium of speech with -me. When the glories of the sun's setting fall upon your heart like a -benediction, stirring you to devout and grateful thought, breathing -peace upon you, cleansing your desires of all that is mean and sordid, -do not be afraid to believe that, behind and beyond all that is material -and visible, there is the Mind and Heart in whose image yours was made, -whose gift peace is, whose whisper, though it come along dead -ether-waves to reach you, is His whisper nevertheless. - -It is perhaps natural that the prevailing quality of the thoughts that -arise within us when we watch the setting sun should be pensive, tender, -and, not seldom, a little sad. For it speaks of the end of the day and -the coming night. Its charm and spell are like that of autumn, the -remembrance of what has gone, the tender grace of a day that is dead. -For all the beauty and wonder of this world, there is a tear at the -heart of things. Beneath all our laughter and happiness there lies that -deeper note. The night cometh. There is an end to it all--friendship, -love, happiness, work, life itself. - - "For be the long day never so long, - At last it ringeth to evensong." - - -And yet, and yet, my brothers, the end is beautiful, more beautiful even -than the beginning. God has made the day's death to be exceeding fair. -The sun passes gloriously to its rest. Hopefully too, for, passing -thus, it promises a new and fairer morning. So do God's children die. - - PRAYER - -O Lord our God, who hast written Thy Word of hope and promise in the -evening sky, be near us when our day is done, and the wind has fallen -silent, and the night is waiting. Put us to sleep in a chamber of peace -whose windows open toward the sun rising, and, when we awake, may we be -still with Thee. For Jesus' sake. Amen. - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE DAY AT A TIME*** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39309 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a -registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, -unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything -for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. 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