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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79039-0.txt b/79039-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c67b175 --- /dev/null +++ b/79039-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4191 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79039 *** + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE + MANLINESS OF CHRIST + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE + + Manliness of Christ + + + + + BY + + THOMAS HUGHES, Q.C. + + AUTHOR OF + ‘TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS,’ ETC. + + + + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND NEW YORK + 1894 + + + All rights reserved + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + First Edition. Crown 8vo. 1879. + Reprinted 1880. + Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 1894. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + DEDICATORY PREFACE + + +WHEN this book was first published I was Principal of the Working Men’s +College in London, and had in my mind the students there, who came as a +rule from poorer homes, and had grown up under different surroundings +and influences from those in and under which I had myself been brought +up at Rugby and Oxford. It is now twelve years since I have retired from +the principalship of the W. M. C., and, except occasional visits at +Christmas to attend the anniversary meetings of the Old Students’ Club, +my direct connection with the College has practically ceased, though my +interest in its special work is as strong as ever. On the other hand, in +the last few years my direct connection with Rugby has been revived in +an unexpected manner. At the request of Dr. Percival I have delivered +“Layman’s Sunday evening addresses,” to the School in the course which +he, wisely in my opinion, established three years since. Judging by my +own case, it is a very healthy, and rather pathetic, experience for an +old man to be thus brought back into touch with that far-away time in +his own life, + + “When all the world was young, lads, + And all the trees were green.” + +At any rate it has been so with me, and has revived a wish I had long +entertained, in a fitful sort of way, of drawing somewhat closer the +bonds which connect the beginning and end of a long life, now that the +end is so well in sight. That wish came upon me again when, at the +request of the school, I agreed to print the first address of 1891, and +more strongly when the same request was renewed as to those of 1892 and +1894, and with it the question whether I might not put them in some less +ephemeral shape than that of pamphlets of ten pages, printed by the +School bookseller. While I was correcting the proofs of my last address +an unexpected offer came from Messrs. Macmillan for a new edition of +_The Manliness of Christ_, which has been for some time out of print. + +This offer seemed to give me just the opportunity I was in search of. In +all human likelihood this is the last book I shall ever publish, and on +reading it again I cannot but think that the three addresses now added +are in harmony with, and fit well enough into, the text and argument of +the book. Of this at any rate I am sure, that no better specimen of true +Christian manliness has appeared in my day than that of my old +schoolfellow William Cotton Oswell. So these three addresses have been +added, and they give me some excuse for gratifying my wish, and +dedicating this enlarged edition of the book to my young schoolfellows +of this last decade of the century and the students of the Working Men’s +College. If, as I hope, it should lead to some alliance or connection +between the school and the Working Men’s College, and should incline +Rugby boys who settle in London, either as professional or business men, +to join the College and take part in its educational work, I believe +that both School and College will benefit. There remains one point upon +which I feel bound to say a few words, and which I have had to +reconsider carefully before consenting to the republication of this +book. On reading the _Second Charge of the Bishop of Oxford_, published +last year, I found that he insists strongly on the omniscience of Christ +being of the essence of His human personality, and that He did not +divest Himself of His almightiness or all-knowledge on becoming man. My +respect—I may say my reverence for Bishop Stubbs both as a theologian +and a man, is so deep that I hesitated before allowing a book of mine to +go forth again which assumes the opposite view; viz. that He did so +divest Himself, and that when He became man He became man in all things +like as we are, which of course excludes omniscience. After the best +consideration I could give, I found that I could not abandon my old +belief, in the face of Christ’s own sayings, and above all of that last +cry on the cross of “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani.” However, the Bishop +says truly in this same charge, “the Church has lived patiently for 1900 +years without having other mysteries solved or explained,” and I venture +to think that this of Christ’s omniscience while in the flesh is one of +those as to which it can safely be left for each of us to hold the faith +which best approves itself to his own conscience. + + THOMAS HUGHES. + +1894. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + CONTENTS + + INTRODUCTORY + + PAGE + + The Motive of the Book 1 + + + PART I + + The Holy Land, A.D. 30—The 9 + Battle-Field of the Great + Captain + + + PART II + + The Tests of Manliness 20 + + + PART III + + Christ’s Boyhood 42 + + + PART IV + + The Call of Christ 73 + + + PART V + + Christ’s Ministry, Act I. 92 + + + PART VI + + Christ’s Ministry, Act II. 113 + + + PART VII + + Christ’s Ministry, Act III. 131 + + + PART VIII + + The Last Act 150 + + + CONCLUSION + + An Address delivered at Clifton 163 + College, Sunday Evening, + October 1879 + + An Address delivered at Rugby 189 + School, February 1891 + + An Address delivered at Rugby 209 + School, June 1892 + + William Cotton Oswell, 1894 231 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + INTRODUCTORY + THE MOTIVE OF THE BOOK + + +SOME time ago, when I was considering what method it would be best to +adopt in Sunday afternoon readings with a small class in the Working +Men’s College, I received a communication which helped me to come to a +decision. It came in the form of a proposal for a new association, to be +called “The Christian Guild.” The promoters were persons living in our +northern towns, some of which had lately gained a bad reputation for +savage assaults and crimes of violence. My correspondents believed that +some organised effort ought to be made to meet this evil, and that there +was nothing in existence which would serve their purpose. The Young +Men’s Christian Associations had increased of late indeed in numbers, +but had failed to reach the class which most needed Christian +influences. There was a widespread feeling, they said, that these +associations—valuable as they allowed them to be in many ways—did not +cultivate individual manliness in their members, and that this defect +was closely connected with their open profession of Christianity. They +had separated their members too much from the ordinary habits and life +of young men; and had set before them a wrong standard, which taught, +not that they were to live in the world and subdue it to their Master, +but were to withdraw from it as much as possible. + +Therefore they would found their new “Christian Guild” on quite other +principles. They aimed, indeed, at something like a revival of the +muscular Christianity of twenty-five years ago, organised for missionary +work in the great northern towns. The members of the Guild must be first +of all Christians, but selected as far as possible for some act of +physical courage or prowess. It was proposed that the medal of the Royal +Humane Society, or the championship of a town or district in running, +wrestling, rowing, or other athletic exercise, should qualify at once +for membership. These first members were to form the root, as it were, +out of which branches of the Guild were to grow—one, they hoped, in +every great centre of population. Each branch, if properly supported, +might attract the most vigorous and energetic young men of its district, +and so by degrees give a higher tone to the sports and occupations which +absorb the spare time and energies of young Englishmen. + +I did not see my way to joining any such movement, which indeed never +seemed at all hopeful to me: nor do I know whether anything more has +been done in the matter. But the proposal set me thinking on the state +of things amongst us which “The Christian Guild” was intended to meet. I +was obliged to admit that my own experience, now stretching over a +quarter of a century in London, agreed to some extent with that of my +northern correspondents. Here too this same feeling exists, or it may be +this same prejudice, as to “Young Men’s Christian Associations” amongst +the class from which their members are for the most part taken. Their +tone and influence are said to lack manliness, and the want of manliness +is attributed to their avowed profession of Christianity. If you pursue +the inquiry, you will often come upon a distinct belief that this +weakness is inherent in our English religion; that our Christianity does +appeal and must appeal habitually and mainly to men’s fears—to that in +them which is timid and shrinking, rather than to that which is +courageous and outspoken. This strange delusion is often alleged as the +cause of the want of power and attraction in these associations. + +I do not myself at all share this opinion as to the Young Men’s +Christian Associations, for, so far as I have had the means of judging, +they seem to me, especially in the last few years, to have been doing +excellent service, though they work in a narrow groove. But whether this +be so or not, is a matter of comparative indifference, and the +controversy may safely be left to settle itself. But the underlying +belief in the rising generation that Christianity is really responsible +for this supposed weakness in its disciples, is one which ought not to +be so treated. The conscience of every man recognises courage as the +foundation of manliness, and manliness as the perfection of human +character; and if Christianity runs counter to conscience in this +matter, or indeed in any other, Christianity will go to the wall. + +But does it? On the contrary, is not perfection of character—“Be ye +perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,” perfection to be reached +by moral effort in the faithful following of our Lord’s life on +earth—the final aim which the Christian religion sets before individual +men—and constant contact and conflict with evil of all kinds the +necessary condition of that moral effort, and the means adopted by our +Master, in the world in which we live, and for which He died? In that +strife then, the first requisite is courage or manfulness, gained +through conflict with evil—for without such conflict there can be no +perfection of character, the end for which Christ says we were sent into +this world. But was Christ’s own character perfect in this respect—not +only in charity, meekness, purity, long-suffering, but in courage? If +not, can He be anything more than the highest and best of men, even if +He were that; can He be the Son of God in any sense except that in which +all men are sons? + +This was the question which was forced on me at the time by the +proposals of “The Christian Guild,” and it gave me the hint I was in +search of as to the method of our Sunday readings. We followed it up as +well as we could through the events recorded in the gospels, applying +the test at every stage of the drama. The results are collected in the +following papers. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART I + THE HOLY LAND A.D. 30—THE BATTLE FIELD OF THE GREAT CAPTAIN + + “Phœnicia and Palestine were sometimes annexed to and + sometimes separated from the jurisdiction of Syria. The + former was a narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a + territory scarcely superior to Wales in fertility or extent! + Yet Phœnicia and Palestine will ever live in the memory of + mankind, since America as well as Europe has received + letters from the one and religion from the other.”—GIBBON, + Chap. i. + + +IN order to approach our subject with any chance of making the central +figure clear to ourselves, and getting out of the atmosphere of +unreality in which our ordinary religious training is too apt to leave +us, we must make an effort to understand the condition and the +surroundings of life in Palestine when our Lord appeared in it as a +leader and teacher. + +Take first the southern portion, the scene of the opening and closing +days of His ministry, and of periodical visits during those three years. +While He was still a boy under ten years of age, the Romans had deposed +Herod Archelaus, and had annexed Judæa, which was from thenceforth ruled +as a province of the empire by a Roman procurator. The rebellion of +Judas of Gamala, which followed shortly afterwards, was a fierce protest +of the Jews against the imperial taxation and the yoke of Rome. It was +suppressed in the stern Roman fashion, and from that time till the +commencement of Christ’s public ministry, Jerusalem and the surrounding +country were on the verge of revolt, a constant source of anxiety to the +Roman procurators, and held down with difficulty by the heavy hand of +the legions which garrisoned them. + +All that was best and worst in the Jewish character and history combined +to render the Roman yoke intolerably galling to the nation. The peculiar +position of Jerusalem—a sort of Mecca to the tribes acknowledging the +Mosaic law—made Syria the most dangerous of all the Roman provinces. To +that city enormous crowds of pilgrims, of the most stiff-necked and +fanatical of all races, flocked three times at least in every year, +bringing with them offerings and tribute for the Temple and its +guardians, on a scale which must have made the hierarchy at Jerusalem +formidable even to the world’s master, by their mere command of wealth. + +But this would be the least of the causes of anxiety to the Roman +governor, as he spent year after year face to face with these terrible +leaders of a terrible people. + +These high priests and rulers of the Jews were indeed quite another kind +of adversaries from the leaders, secular or religious, of any of those +conquered countries, which the Romans were wont to treat with +contemptuous toleration. They still represented living traditions of the +glory and sanctity of their nation, and of Jerusalem, and exercised +still a power over that nation which the most resolute and ruthless of +Roman procurators did not care wantonly to brave. + +At the same time the yoke of high priest and scribe and pharisee was +even heavier on the necks of their own people than that of the Roman. +They had built up a huge superstructure of traditions and ceremonies +round the law of Moses, which they held up to the people as more sacred +and binding than the law itself. This superstructure was their special +charge. This was, according to them, the great national inheritance, the +most valuable portion of the covenant which God had made with their +fathers. To them, as leaders of their nation—a select, priestly, and +learned caste—this precious inheritance had been committed. Outside that +caste, the dim multitude, “the people which knoweth not the law,” were +despised while they obeyed, accursed as soon as they showed any sign of +disobedience. Such being the state of Judæa, it would not be easy to +name in all history a less hopeful place for the reforming mission of a +young carpenter, a stranger from a despised province, one entirely +outside the ruling caste, though of the royal race, and who had no +position whatever in any rabbinical school. + +In Galilee the surroundings were slightly different, but scarcely more +promising. Herod Antipas, the weakest of that tyrant family, the seducer +of his brother’s wife, the fawner on Cæsar, the spendthrift oppressor of +the people of his tetrarchy, still ruled in name over the country, but +with Roman garrisons in the cities and strongholds. Face to face with +him, and exercising an _imperium in imperio_ throughout Galilee, was the +same priestly caste, though far less formidable to the civil power, and +to the people, than in the southern province. Along the western coast of +the Sea of Galilee, the chief scene of our Lord’s northern ministry, lay +a network of towns densely inhabited, and containing a large admixture +of Gentile traders. This infusion of foreign blood, the want of any such +religious centre at Jerusalem, and the contempt with which the southern +Jews regarded their provincial brethren of Galilee, had no doubt +loosened to some extent the yoke of the priests and scribes and lawyers +in that province. But even here their traditionary power over the masses +of the people was very great, and the consequences of defying their +authority as penal, though the penalty might be neither so swift nor so +certain, as in Jerusalem itself. Such was the society into which Christ +came. + +It is not easy to find a parallel case in the modern world, but perhaps +the nearest exists in a portion of our own empire. The condition of +parts of India in our day resembles in some respects that of Palestine +in the year A.D. 30. In the Mahratta country, princes, not of the native +dynasty, but the descendants of foreign courtiers (like the Idumæan +Herods), are reigning. British residents at their courts, hated and +feared, but practically all-powerful as Roman procurators, answer to the +officers and garrisons of Rome in Palestine. The people are in bondage +to a priestly caste scarcely less heavy than that which weighed on the +Judæan and Galilean peasantry. If the Mahrattas were Mohammedans, and +Mecca were situate in the territory of Scindiah or Holkar; if the +influence of twelve centuries of Christian training could be wiped out +of the English character, and the stubborn and fierce nature of the Jew +substituted for that of the Mahratta; a village reformer amongst them, +whose preaching outraged the Brahmins, threatened the dynasties, and +disturbed the English residents, would start under somewhat similar +conditions to those which surrounded Christ when He commenced His +ministry. + +In one respect, and one only, the time seemed propitious. The mind and +heart of the nation were full of the expectation of a coming Messiah—a +King who should break every yoke from off the necks of His people, and +should rule over the nations, sitting on the throne of David. The +intensity of this expectation had, in the opening days of His ministry, +drawn crowds into the wilderness beyond Jordan from all parts of Judæa +and Galilee, at the summons of a preacher who had caught up the last +cadence of the song of their last great prophet, and was proclaiming +that both the deliverance and the kingdom which they were looking for +were at hand. In those crowds who flocked to hear John the Baptist there +were doubtless some even amongst the priests and scribes, and many +amongst the poor Jewish and Galilean peasantry, who felt that there was +a heavier yoke upon them than that of Rome or of Herod Antipas. But the +record of the next three years shows too clearly that even these were +wholly unprepared for any other than a kingdom of this world, and a +temporal throne to be set up in the holy city. + +And so, from the first, Christ had to contend not only against the whole +of the established powers of Palestine, but against the highest +aspirations of the best of His countrymen. These very Messianic hopes, +in fact, proved the greatest stumbling-block in His path. Those who +entertained them most vividly had the greatest difficulty in accepting +the carpenter’s son as the promised Deliverer. A few days only before +the end He had sorrowfully to warn the most intimate and loving of His +companions and disciples, “Ye know not what spirit ye are of.” + +We must endeavour to keep these external conditions and surroundings of +the life of a Galilean peasant in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius +Cæsar in our minds, if we really wish honestly to understand and +appreciate the work done by one of them in those three short years, or +the character of the doer of it. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART II + THE TESTS OF MANLINESS + + “Obvius in palatio Julius Atticus speculator, cruentum + gladium ostentans, occisum a se Othonem, exclamavit; et + Galba, ‘Commilito,’ inquit, ‘quis jussit?’ insigni animo ad + coercendam militarem licentiam, minantibus intrepidus, + adversus blandientes incorruptus.”—Tacit. Hist., lib. i. + cap. xxxv. + + +ONE other precaution we must take at the outset of our inquiry, and that +is, to settle for ourselves, without diverging into useless +metaphysics—what we mean by “manliness, manfulness, courage.” My friends +of “The Christian Guild” seemed to assume that these words all have the +same meaning, and denote the same qualities. Now, is this so? I think +not, if we take the common use of the words. “Manliness and manfulness” +are synonymous, but they embrace more than we ordinarily mean by the +word “courage”; for instance, tenderness, and thoughtfulness for others. +They include that courage, which lies at the root of all manliness, but +is, in fact, only its lowest or rudest form. Indeed, we must admit that +it is not exclusively a human quality at all, but one which we share +with other animals, and which some of them—for instance, the bull-dog +and weasel—exhibit with a certainty and a thoroughness which is very +rare amongst mankind. + +In what, then, does courage, in this ordinary sense of the word, +consist? First, in persistency, or the determination to have one’s own +way, coupled with contempt for safety and ease, and readiness to risk +pain or death in getting one’s own way. This is, let us readily admit, a +valuable, even a noble quality, but an animal quality rather than a +human or manly one, and obviously not that quality of which the +promoters of the Christian Guild were in search. For I fear we cannot +deny that this kind of courage is by no means incompatible with those +savage or brutal habits of violence which the Guild was specially +designed to put down and root out amongst our people. What they desired +to cultivate was obviously, not animal, but manly courage; and the fact +that we are driven to use these epithets “animal” and “manly” to make +our meaning clear, shows, I think, the necessity of insisting on this +distinction and keeping it well in mind. + +We should note, also, that the tests of the Guild were, with one +exception, not really adapted as tests even of animal courage, much less +of manliness. For they proposed that the possession of the Royal Humane +Society’s medal, or the badge of excellence in athletic games, should be +the qualification for the first members. Now the possession of the medal +does amount to _primâ facie_ evidence, not only of animal courage but of +manliness; for it can only be won by an act involving not only +persistency and contempt of pain and danger, but self-sacrifice for the +welfare of another. But proficiency in athletic games has no such +meaning, and is not necessarily a test even of animal courage, but only +of muscular power and physical training. Even in those games which, to +some extent, do afford a test of the persistency, and contempt for +discomfort or pain, which constitute animal courage—such as rowing, +boxing, and wrestling—it is of necessity a most unsatisfactory one. For +instance, Nelson—as courageous an Englishman as ever lived, who attacked +a Polar bear with a handspike when he was a boy of fourteen, and told +his captain, when he was scolded for it, that he did not know Mr. +Fear—with his slight frame and weak constitution, could never have won a +boat race, and in a match would have been hopelessly astern of any one +of the crew of his own barge; and the highest courage which ever +animated a human body would not enable the owner of it, if he were +himself untrained, to stand for five minutes against a trained wrestler +or boxer. + +Athleticism is a good thing if kept in its place, but it has come to be +very much over-praised and over-valued amongst us, as I think these +proposals of the Christian Guild for the attainment of their most +admirable and needful aim tend to show clearly enough, if proof were +needed. We may say, then, I think, without doubt, that its promoters +were not on the right scent, or likely to get what they were in search +of by the methods they proposed to use. For after getting their Society +of Athletes it might quite possibly turn out to be composed of persons +deficient in real manliness. + +While, however, keeping this conclusion well in mind, we need not at all +depreciate athleticism, which has in it much that is useful to society, +and is indeed admirable enough in its own way. But as the next step in +our inquiry, let us bear well in mind that athleticism is not what we +mean here. True manliness is as likely to be found in a weak as in a +strong body. Other things being equal, we may perhaps admit (though I +should hesitate to do so), that a man with a highly trained and +developed body will be more courageous than a weak man. But we must take +this caution with us, that a great athlete may be a brute or a coward, +while a truly manly man can be neither. + +Having got thus far, and satisfied ourselves what is not of the essence +of manliness, though often assumed to be so (as by the promoters of the +Christian Guild), let us see if we cannot get on another step, and +ascertain what is of that essence. And here it may be useful to take a +few well-known instances of courageous deeds, and examine them; because +if we can find out any common quality in them we shall have lighted on +something which is of the essence of, or inseparable from, that +manliness which includes courage—that manliness of which we are in +search. + +I will take two or three at hazard from a book in which they abound, and +which was a great favourite here some years ago, as I hope it is still, +I mean Napier’s _Peninsular War_. At the end of the storming of Badajoz, +after speaking of the officers, Napier goes on, “Who shall describe the +springing valour of that Portuguese grenadier who was killed the +foremost man at Santa Maria? or the martial fury of that desperate +rifleman, who, in his resolution to win, thrust himself beneath the +chained sword blades, and then suffered the enemy to dash his head in +pieces with the ends of their muskets?” Again, at the Coa, “a north of +Ireland man named Stewart, but jocularly called ‘the Boy’ because of his +youth, nineteen, and of his gigantic stature and strength, who had +fought bravely and displayed great intelligence beyond the river, was +one of the last men who came down to the bridge, but he would not pass. +Turning round, he regarded the French with a grim look, and spoke aloud +as follows: ‘So this is the end of our brag. This is our first battle, +and we retreat! The boy Stewart will not live to hear that said.’ Then +striding forward in his giant might he fell furiously on the nearest +enemies with the bayonet, refused the quarter they seemed desirous of +granting, and died fighting in the midst of them.” + +“Still more touching, more noble, more heroic, was the death of Sergeant +Robert McQuade. During McLeod’s rush, this man, also from the north of +Ireland, saw two men level their muskets on rests against a high gap in +a bank, awaiting the uprise of an enemy. The present Adjutant-General +Brown, then a lad of sixteen, attempted to ascend at the fatal spot. +McQuade, himself only twenty-four years of age, pulled him back, saying, +in a calm decided tone, ‘You are too young, sir, to be killed,’ and then +offering his own person to the fire, fell dead pierced with both balls.” +And, speaking of the British soldier generally, he says in his preface, +“What they were their successors now are. Witness the wreck of the +_Birkenhead_, where four hundred men, at the call of their heroic +officers, Captains Wright and Girardot, calmly and without a murmur +accepted death in a horrible form rather than endanger the women and +children saved in the boats. The records of the world furnish no +parallel to this self-devotion.” Let us add to these, two very recent +examples of which we have all been reading in the last few months: the +poor colliers who worked day and night at Pont-y-pridd, with their lives +in their hands, to rescue their buried comrades; and the gambler in St. +Louis who went straight from the gaming-table into the fire, to the +rescue of women and children, and died of the hurts after his third +return from the flames. + +Looking, then, at these several cases, we find in each that resolution +in the actors to have their way, contempt for ease, and readiness to +risk pain or death, which we noted as the special characteristics of +animal courage, which we share with the bull-dog and weasel. + +So far all of them are alike. Can we get any further? Not much, if we +take the case of the rifleman who thrust his head under the sword-blades +and allowed his brains to be knocked out sooner than draw it back, or +that of “the boy Stewart.” These are intense assertions of individual +will and force—avowals of the rough hard-handed man that he has that in +him which enables him to defy pain and danger and death—this and little +or nothing more; and no doubt a very valuable and admirable thing as it +stands. + +But we feel, I think, at once that there _is_ something more in the act +of Sergeant McQuade, and of the miners in Pont-y-pridd—something higher +and more admirable. And it is not a mere question of degree, of more or +less, in the quality of animal courage. The rifleman and “the boy +Stewart” were each of them persistent to death, and no man can be more. +The acts were, then, equally courageous, so far as persistency and scorn +of danger and death are concerned. We must look elsewhere for the +difference, for that which touches us more deeply in the case of +Sergeant McQuade than in that of “the boy Stewart,” and can only find it +in the motive. At least it seems to me that the worth of the last lies +mainly in the sublimity of self-assertion, of the other in the sublimity +of self-sacrifice. + +And this holds good again in the case of the _Birkenhead_. Captain +Wright gave the word for the men to fall in on deck by companies, +knowing that the sea below them was full of sharks, and that the ship +could not possibly float till the boats came back; and the men fell in, +knowing this also, and stood at attention without uttering a word, till +she heeled over and went down under them. And Napier, with all his +delight in physical force and prowess, and his intense appreciation of +the qualities which shine most brightly in the fiery action of battle, +gives the palm to these when he writes, “The records of the world +furnish no parallel to this self-devotion.” He was no mean judge in such +a case; and, if he is right, as I think he is, do we not get another +side-light on our inquiry, and find that the highest temper of physical +courage is not to be found, or perfected, in action but in repose? All +physical effort relieves the strain, and makes it easier to persist unto +death, under the stimulus and excitement of the shock of battle, or of +violent exertion of any kind, than when the effort has to be made with +grounded arms. In other words, may we not say that in the face of danger +self-restraint is after all the highest form of self-assertion, and a +characteristic of manliness as distinguished from courage? + +But we have only been looking hitherto at one small side of a great +subject, at the courage which is tested in times of terror, on the +battle-field, in the sinking ship, the poisoned mine, the blazing house. +Such testing times come to few, and to these not often in their lives. +But, on the other hand, the daily life of every one of us teems with +occasions which will try the temper of our courage as searchingly, +though not as terribly, as battle-field, or fire, or wreck. For we are +born into a state of war; with falsehood, and disease, and wrong, and +misery in a thousand forms, lying all around us, and the voice within +calling on us to take our stand as men in the eternal battle against +these. + +And in this life-long fight, to be waged by every one of us +single-handed against a host of foes, the last requisite for a good +fight, the last proof and test of our courage and manfulness, must be +loyalty to truth—the most rare and difficult of all human qualities. For +such loyalty, as it grows in perfection, asks ever more and more of us, +and sets before us a standard of manliness always rising higher and +higher. + +And this is the great lesson which we shall learn from Christ’s life, +the more earnestly and faithfully we study it. “For this end was I born, +and for this cause came I into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” +To bear this witness against avowed and open enemies is comparatively +easy. But to bear it against those we love, against those whose judgment +and opinions we respect, in defence or furtherance of that which +approves itself as true to our own inmost conscience, this is the last +and abiding test of courage and of manliness. How natural, nay, how +inevitable it is that we should fall into the habit of appreciating and +judging things mainly by the standards in common use amongst those we +respect and love. But these very standards are apt to break down with us +when we are brought face to face with some question which takes us ever +so little out of ourselves and our usual moods. At such times we are +driven to admit in our hearts that we, and those we respect and love, +have been looking at and judging things, not truthfully, and therefore +not courageously and manfully, but conventionally. And then comes one of +the most searching of all trials of courage and manliness, when a man or +woman is called to stand by what approves itself to their consciences as +true, and to protest for it through evil report and good report, against +all discouragement and opposition from those they love or respect. The +sense of antagonism instead of rest, of distrust and alienation instead +of approval and sympathy, which such times bring, is a test which tries +the very heart and reins, and it is one which meets us at all ages, and +in all conditions of life. Emerson’s hero is the man who, “taking both +reputation and life in his hand, will with perfect urbanity dare the +gibbet and the mob, by the absolute truth of his speech and rectitude of +his behaviour.” And, even in our peaceful and prosperous England, +absolute truth of speech and rectitude of behaviour will not fail to +bring their fiery trials, if also in the end their exceeding great +rewards. + +We may note too that in testing manliness as distinguished from courage, +we shall have to reckon sooner or later with the idea of duty. Nelson’s +column stands in the most conspicuous site in all London, and stands +there with all men’s approval, not because of his daring courage. Lord +Peterborough in a former generation, Lord Dundonald in the last, were at +least as eminent for reckless and successful daring. But it is because +the idea of devotion to duty is inseparably connected with Nelson’s name +in the minds of Englishmen, that he has been lifted high above all his +compeers in England’s capital. + +In the throes of one of the terrible revolutions of the worst days of +imperial Rome,—when probably the cruellest mob, and most licentious +soldiery, of all time were raging round the palace of the Cæsars, and +the chances of an hour would decide whether Galba or Otho should rule +the world, the alternative being a violent death,—an officer of the +guard, one Julius Atticus, rushed into Galba’s presence with a bloody +sword, boasting that he had slain his rival, Otho. “My comrade, by whose +order?” was his only greeting from the old Pagan chief. And the story +has come down through eighteen centuries, in the terse strong sentences +of the great historian prefixed to this chapter, a test for all times. + +Comrade, who ordered thee? whose will art thou doing? It is the question +which has to be asked of every fighting man, in whatever part of the +great battle-field he comes to the front, and determines the manliness +of soldier, statesman, parson, of every strong man, and suffering woman. + + “Three roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,— + These twain are strong, but stronger yet the third,— + Obedience,—’tis the great tap-root that still, + Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred, + Though Heaven-loosed tempests spend their utmost skill.”[1] + +I think that the more thoroughly we sift and search out this question, +the more surely we shall come to this as the conclusion of the whole +matter. Tenacity of will, or wilfulness, lies at the root of all +courage, but courage can only rise into true manliness when the will is +surrendered; and the more absolute the surrender of the will, the more +perfect will be the temper of our courage and the strength of our +manliness. + + “Strong Son of God, immortal Love,” + +our laureate has pleaded, in the moment of his highest inspiration, + + “Our wills are ours, to make them thine.” + +And that strong Son of God to whom this cry has gone up in our day, and +in all days, has left us the secret of His strength in the words, “I am +come to do the will of my Father and your Father.” + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + “The Washers of the Shroud.”—J. R. LOWELL. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART III + CHRIST’S BOYHOOD + + “So close is glory to our dust, + So near is God to man; + When duty whispers low, Thou must, + The youth replies, I can.”—EMERSON. + + +ONE great difficulty meets the student of our Lord’s life and character, +from whatever side, and with whatever purpose, he may approach it. The +whole authentic record of that life, up to the time of His baptism, when +He was already thirty years old, is comprised in half-a-dozen sentences. +All that we know is the story of His visit to Jerusalem at the age of +twelve, when He was lost in the crush of the great feast, and His +parents turned back to look for Him: “And it came to pass, that after +three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the +doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that +heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. And when +they saw Him, they were amazed: and His mother said unto Him, Son, why +hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee +sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye +not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not +the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down to Nazareth, and +was subject unto them.” + +The silence of the evangelists as to all other details of His youth and +early manhood, except this one short incident, which belongs rather to +His public than to His private life, is intended no doubt to fix our +attention on the former, as that which most concerns us. At the same +time it is impossible for those who will follow, as best they may, +Christ’s steps and teaching, setting before themselves that highest +outcome and aim of it all, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is +perfect,” not to turn often in thought to those early years of His in +which the weapons must have been forged, and the character formed and +matured, for the mighty war. + +And it cannot be denied that, to such seekers, this short Temple story +is in many ways baffling, even discouraging. There is something at first +sight, wilful indeed, possibly courageous, but not manly, in a boy of +twelve staying behind his parents in a strange city, without their +knowledge or consent; something thoughtless, almost ungracious, in the +words of reply to Mary’s “thy father and I have sought thee +sorrowing”—“How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be +about my Father’s business?” (or “in my Father’s courts,” as the words +are more truly translated). + +The clue to this apparent divergence from the perfect manly life is +given with rare insight and beauty in Mr. Holman Hunt’s great picture. +At any rate the face and attitude of the boy there seemed for the first +time to make clear to me the meaning of the recorded incident, and to +cast a flood of light on those eighteen years of preparation which yet +remained before He should be ready for His public work. The real meaning +and scope of that work, in all its terrible majesty, and suffering, and +grandeur, have just begun to dawn on the boy’s mind. The first sight of +Jerusalem, and of the Temple, has stirred new and strange thoughts +within Him. The replies of the doctors to His eager questionings have +lighted up the consciousness, which must have been dimly working in Him +already, that He was not altogether like those around Him—the children +with whom He was accustomed to play, the parents at whose knees He had +been brought up. + +Many of us must have seen, all must have read of, instances of a call to +their spirits being clearly recognised by very young children, and +colouring and moulding their whole after-lives. We can scarcely say how +early this awakening of a consciousness of what he is, of what he is +meant to do, has come to this or that young child, but no one will +question that it does so come in many instances long before the age of +twelve. And so I think we may safely assume that when Christ came up for +the first time to the feast which commemorated the great deliverance of +His nation, the boy was already conscious of a voice within, calling Him +to devote Himself to the work to which the God of His fathers had in +like manner called in their turn, Moses, and Samuel, and David, and +Elijah, and Judas Maccabæus, and all that grand roll of patriot +prophets, and kings, and warriors, with whose names and doings He would +be already familiar. Amidst all the pomp of the great festival He found +the chosen people weighed down by a sterner and more degrading bondage +than had befallen them in all their long annals. And all that He heard +and saw in the holy city, amongst the crowds of worshippers, and the +rabbis teaching in the Temple courts—the first view of the holy hill of +Sion, the joy of the whole earth—the strange contrast of the eager +traffic, the gross Mammon-worship, the huge slaughtering of beasts with +all the brutal accompaniments, with that universal longing and +expectation in those multitudes for the Messiah who should lead and work +out the final deliverance and triumph of the people of God in that +generation—must have stirred new questionings within Him, questionings +whether that voice which He had been already hearing in His own heart +was not only _a_ call, such as might come to any Hebrew boy, but _the_ +call—whether amongst all that vast assembly He was not the one upon whom +the supreme task must be laid, who must be the deliverer of this people, +so certainly and eagerly looked for. + +To the young spirit before whose inward eye such a vision is opening, +all human ties would shrink back, and be for the moment forgotten. And, +when recalled suddenly by the words of His mother, the half-conscious +dreamy answer, “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be +in my Father’s courts, about His business?” loses all its apparent +wilfulness and abruptness. + +And so, full of this new question and great wonder, He went home to the +village in Galilee with His parents, and was subject to them; and the +curtain falls for us on His boyhood, and youth, and early manhood. But +as nothing but what is most important, and necessary for understanding +all of His life which we need for our own growth into His likeness, is +told in these simple gospel narratives, it would seem that this vivid +light is thrown on that first visit to Jerusalem because it was the +crisis in our Lord’s early life which bears most directly on His work +for our race. If so, we must I think allow that the question once fairly +presented to the boy’s mind would never again have left it. Day by day +it would have been coming back with increasing insistency, gathering +power and weight. And as He submitted it day by day to the God whom +prophet and psalmist had taught every child of the nation to look upon +as “about his path and about his bed, and knowing every thought of his +heart,” the consciousness must have gained strength and power. As the +habit of self-surrender, and simple obedience to the voice within, grew +more perfect, and more a part of His very being, the call must have +sounded more and more clearly. + +And, as He was in all things tempted like as we are, again and again +must His human nature have shrunk back, and tried every way of escape +from this task, the call to which was haunting Him; while every +succeeding month and year of life must have disclosed to Him more and +more of its peril and its hopelessness, as well as of its majesty. + +We have, then, to picture to ourselves this struggle and discipline +going on for eighteen years—the call sounding continually in His ears, +and the boy, the youth, the strong man, each in turn solicited by the +special temptations of His age, and rising clear above them through the +strength of perfect obedience, the strength which comes from the daily +fulfilment of daily duties—that “strength in the Lord” which St. Paul +holds up to us as possible for every human being. Think over this long +probation, and satisfy yourselves, whether it is easy, whether it is +possible, to form any higher ideal of perfect manliness. + +And, without any morbid curiosity, and I think with profit, we may +follow out the thoughts which this long period of quiet suggests. We +know from the evangelists only this, that He remained in obscurity in a +retired village of Galilee, and subject to His reputed father and +mother. That He also remained in great seclusion while living the simple +peasant life of Nazareth, we may infer from the surprise, not unmixed +with anger and alarm, of His own family, when, after His baptism, He +began His public career amongst them. And yet, on that day when He rose +to speak in the synagogue, it is clear that the act was one which +commended itself in the first instance to His family and neighbours. The +eyes of all present were at once fixed on Him, as on one who might be +expected to stand in the scribe’s place, from whom they might learn +something, a Man who had a right to speak. + +Indeed, it is impossible to suppose that He could have lived in their +midst from childhood to full manhood without attracting the attention, +and stirring many questionings in the minds, of all those with whom He +was brought into contact. The stories in the Apocryphal Gospels of the +exercise of miraculous powers by Christ as a child and boy may be wholly +disregarded; but we may be sure that such a life as His, though lived in +the utmost possible seclusion, must have impressed every one with whom +He came in contact, from the scribe who taught the scriptures in +Nazareth to the children who sat by his side to learn, or met Him by +chance in the vineyards or on the hill-sides. That He was diligent in +using such means for study as were within His reach, if it needed proof, +would appear from His perfect familiarity with the laws and history of +His country at the opening of His ministry. And the mysterious story of +the crisis immediately following His baptism, in which He wrestled, as +it were, face to face with the tempter and betrayer of mankind, +indicates to us the nature of the daily battle which He must have been +waging, from His earliest infancy, or at any rate ever since His first +visit to Jerusalem. No one can suppose for a moment that the trial came +on Him for the first time after the great prophet to whom all the nation +were flocking had owned Him as the coming Christ. That recognition +removed, indeed, the last doubt from His mind, and gave Him the signal +for which He had been patiently waiting, that the time was come and He +must set forth from His retirement. But the assurance that the call +would come at some time must have been growing on Him in all those +years, and so when it does come He is perfectly prepared. + +In His first public discourse in the synagogue of Nazareth we find Him +at once announcing the fulfilment of the hopes which all around Him were +cherishing. He proclaims, without any preface or hesitation, with the +most perfect directness and confidence, the full Gospel of the Kingdom +of Heaven. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” +He takes for the text of His first discourse the passage in Isaiah: “The +Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the +Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to +preach deliverance to the captive, the recovery of sight to the blind, +to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year +of the Lord,” and proceeds to expound how “this day is this scripture +fulfilled in your ears.” And within the next few days He delivers His +Sermon on the Mount, of which we have the full record, and in which we +find the meaning, and character, and principles of the kingdom, laid +down once and for all. Mark, that there is no hesitation, no ambiguity, +no doubt, as to who He is, or what message He has to deliver. “I have +not come to destroy, but to fulfil, the law which my Father and your +Father has given you, and which you have misunderstood. This which I am +now unfolding to you, is the meaning of that law, this is the will of my +Father who is in heaven.” + +Thus He springs at once, as it were, full-armed into the arena; and it +is this thorough mastery of His own meaning and position from the +first—this thorough insight into what He has to do, and the means by +which it is to be done—upon which we should fix our thoughts if we want +to understand, or to get any notion at all of, what must have been the +training of those eighteen years. + +How had this perfect insight and confidence been reached? “This young +peasant, preaching from a boat or on a hill-side, sweeps aside at once +the traditions of our most learned doctors, telling us that this, which +we and our fathers have been taught, is not what the God of Israel +intended in these Commandments of His; but that He, this young Man, can +tell us what God did really intend. He assumes to speak to us as one +having authority. Who gave Him this authority?” These we know are the +kind of questionings with which Christ was met at once, and over and +over again. And they are most natural and necessary questionings, and +must have occurred to Himself again and again, and been answered by Him +to Himself, before He could have stood up to proclaim with the tone of +absolute authority His good news to the village congregations in +Galilee, or the crowds on the Mount or by the lake. + +Who gave Thee this authority? We can only reverentially and at a +distance picture to ourselves the discipline and struggles by which the +answer was reached, which enabled Him to go out without the slightest +faltering or misgiving, and deliver His full and astounding message, the +moment the sign came that the time had come, and that it was indeed +Himself and no other to whom the task was entrusted. + +But the lines of that discipline, which in a measure is also the +discipline of every one of us, are clearly enough indicated for us in +the story of the temptation. + +In every subtle form this question must have been meeting the maturing +Christ day after day. Art thou indeed the Son of God who is said to be +coming to redeem this enslaved and degraded people, and with and besides +them all the kingdoms of the world? Even if these prophets have not been +dreaming and doting, art not Thou at least dreaming and doting? At any +rate, if that is your claim put it to some test. Satisfy yourself, and +show us, while satisfying yourself, some proof of your title which we +too can recognise. Here are all these material visible things, which, if +your claim be true, must be subject to you. Show us your power over some +of them—the meanest if you will, the common food which keeps men alive. +There are spiritual invisible forces too, which are supposed to be the +ministers of God, and should therefore be under the control of His +Son—give us some sign that you can guide or govern the least of them. +Why pause or delay? Is the burthen growing lighter on this people? Is +the Roman getting year by year less insolent, the publican less +fraudulent and exacting, the Pharisees and rulers less godless, the +people, your own kin amongst them, less degraded and less brutal? You +are a grown man, with the full powers of a man at any rate. Why are you +idling here when your Father’s work (if God be your Father) lies +broadcast on every side, and no man standing forth to “the help of the +Lord against the mighty,” as our old seers used to rave? + +I hope I may have been able to indicate to you, however imperfectly, the +line of thought which will enable each of you for yourselves to follow +out and realise, more or less, the power and manliness of the character +of Christ implied in this patient waiting in obscurity and doubt through +the years when most men are at full stretch—waiting for the call which +shall convince Him that the voice within has not been a lying voice—and +meantime making Himself all that God meant Him to be, without haste and +without misgiving. + +In the time of preparation for the battle of life this is the true +touchstone. Haste and distrust are the sure signs of weakness, if not of +cowardice. Just in so far as they prevail in any life, even in the most +heroic, the man fails, and his work will have to be done over again. In +Christ’s life up to the age of thirty there is not the slightest trace +of such weakness, or cowardice. From all that we are told, and from all +we can infer, He made no haste, and gave way to no doubt, waiting for +God’s mind, and patiently preparing Himself for whatever His work might +be. And so His work from the first was perfect, and through His whole +public life He never faltered or wavered, never had to withdraw or +modify a word once spoken. And thus He stands, and will stand to the end +of time, the true model of the courage and manliness of boyhood, and +youth, and early manhood. + +Before passing on to the public life of Christ, there is one point which +has been raised, and upon which perhaps a few words should be said, +although it does not directly bear upon our inquiry. I refer to the +supernatural power which all Christians hold to have dwelt in Him, and +to have been freely exercised within certain limits during His public +career. Was He always conscious of it? And, if so, did He exercise it +before His call and baptism? Here we get not the slightest direct help +from the Gospel narratives, and (as has been already said) no reliance +whatever can be placed on the apocryphal stories of His boyhood. We are +therefore left to our own judgment and reason, and there must always be +differences between the conclusions at which one man and another will +arrive, however honestly each may search for the truth. + +To me, however, one or two matters seem to be clear enough. The first +is, that He had only the same means as the rest of us of becoming +conscious of his relationship to God. For, if this were not so, He is no +example for us, He was not “tempted like as we are.” Now the great +difference between one man and another depends upon how these means are +used; and, so far as they are used according to the mind and will of +God, we gain mastery over ourselves and our surroundings. “As the world +was plastic and fluid in the hands of God, so it is ever to so much of +His attributes as we bring to it,” may be a startling saying of Mr. +Emerson’s, but is one which commends itself to our experience and +reason, if we only consult them honestly. Let us take the most obvious +example of this law. Look at the relations of man to the brute creation. +One of us shall have no difficulty in making friends of beasts and +birds, while another excites their dread and hate, so that even dogs +will scarcely come near him. There is no need to go back to the +traditions of the hermits in the Thebaid, or St. Francis of Assisi, for +instances of the former class. We all know the story of Cowper and his +three hares from his exquisite letters and poem, and most of you must +have read, or heard of, the terms on which Waterton lived with the birds +and beasts in his Yorkshire home: and of Thoreau, unable to get rid of +wild squirrels and birds who would come and live with him, or from a +boat taking up fish, which lay quietly in his hand till he chose to put +them back again into the stream. But I suppose there is scarcely one of +us who has not himself seen such instances again and again, persons of +whom the old words seemed literally true, “At destruction and famine +thou shalt laugh; neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the +earth. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, and the +beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.” + +I remember myself several such: a boy who was friend even with rats, +stoats, and snakes, and generally had one or other of them in his +pockets; a groom upon whose shoulders the pigeons used to settle, and +nestle against his cheeks, whenever he went out into the stable-yard or +field. Is there any reasonable way of accounting for this? Only one, I +think, which is, that those who have this power over, and attraction +for, animals, have always felt towards them, and treated them, as their +Maker intended—have unconsciously perhaps, but still faithfully, +followed God’s mind in their dealings with His creatures, and so have +stood in true relations to them all, and have found the beasts of the +field at peace with them. + +In the same way the stones of the field are in league with the +geologist, the trees and flowers with the botanist, the component parts +of earth and air with the chemist, just in so far as each, consciously +or unconsciously, follows God’s methods with them—each part of His +creation yielding up its secrets and its treasures to the open mind of +the humble and patient, who is also at bottom always the most +courageous, learner. + +And what is true of each of us beyond all question—what every man who +walks with open eyes, and open heart, knows to be true of himself—must +be true also of Christ. And so, though we may reject the stories of the +clay birds, which He modelled as a child, taking wing and bursting into +song round Him (as on a par with St. Francis’s address to his sisters +the swallows at Alvia, or the flocks in the Marshes of Venice, who +thereupon kept silence from their twitterings and songs till his sermon +was finished), we cannot doubt that in proportion as Christ was more +perfectly in sympathy with God’s creation than any mediæval saint, or +modern naturalist, or man of science, He had more power than they with +all created things from His earliest youth. Nor could it be otherwise +with the hearts and wills of men. Over these we know that, from that +time to this, He has exercised a supreme sway, infinitely more wonderful +than that over birds and beasts, because of man’s power of resistance to +the will Christ came to teach and to do, which exists, so far as we can +see, in no other part of creation. + +I think, then, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that He must +have had all these powers from His childhood, that they must have been +growing stronger from day to day, and He, at the same time, more and +more conscious of possessing them; not to use on any impulse of +curiosity or self-will, but only as the voice within prompted. And it +seems the most convincing testimony to His perfect sonship, manifested +in perfect obedience, that He should never have tested His powers during +those thirty years as He did at once and with perfect confidence as soon +as the call came. Had He done so His ministry must have commenced +sooner; that is to say, before the method was matured by which He was to +reconstruct, and lift into a new atmosphere, and on to a higher plane, +the faith and life of His own nation and of the whole world. For it is +impossible to suppose that the works which He did, and the words He +spoke, at thirty—which at once threw all Galilee and Judæa into a +ferment of hope and joy, and doubt and anger—should have passed +unnoticed had they been wrought and spoken when He was twenty. Here, as +in all else, He waited for God’s mind: and so, when the time for action +came, worked with the power of God. And this waiting and preparation +must have been the supreme trial of His faith. The holding this position +must have been in those early years the holding of the very centre of +the citadel of Man’s Soul (as Bunyan so quaintly terms it), against +which the assaults of the tempter must have been delivered again and +again while the garrison was in training for the victorious march out +into the open field of the great world, carrying forth the standard +which shall never go back. + +And while it may be readily admitted that Christ wielded a dominion over +all created things as well as over man, which no other human being has +ever approached, it seems to me to be going quite beyond what can be +proved, or even fairly assumed, to speak of His miracles as +supernatural, in the sense that no man has ever done, or can ever do, +the like. The evidence is surely all the other way, and seems rather to +indicate, that if we could only have lived up to the standard which we +acknowledge in our inmost hearts to be the true one—could only have +obeyed every motion and warning of the voice of God speaking in our +hearts, from the day when we first became conscious of, and could hear +it—if, in other words, our wills had from the first been disciplined, +like the will of Christ, so as to be in perfect accord with the will of +God—I see no reason to doubt that we too should have gained the power +and the courage to show signs, or, if you please, to work miracles, as +Christ and His apostles worked them. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART IV + THE CALL OF CHRIST + + “Sound, thou trumpet of God! come forth, great cause, to array us! + King and leader, appear! thy soldiers sorrowing seek thee.”—A. CLOUGH. + + +AT last the good news for which they had been longing comes to the +expecting nation. A voice is heard in the lonely tracts beyond +Jordan—the route along which the caravans of pilgrims from Galilee +passed so often, to and from the feasts at Jerusalem—proclaiming that +the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The news is soon carried to the +capital, and from Jerusalem and all Judæa, and all the region round +about Jordan, the people go out to hear it; and, when they have heard +it, are baptized in crowds, eagerly claiming each for himself a place in +this kingdom. It gathers strength till it moves rulers and priests, +council and Sanhedrim, as well as the people who know not the law; and +presently priests and Levites are sent out from Jerusalem to test +messenger and message, and ask, “Who art thou? What kingdom is this thou +art proclaiming without our sanction?” It spreads northward also, and +the despised Galileans, from lake-shore and half-pagan cities, flock +down to hear it for themselves, and the simplest and bravest souls +amongst them, such as Andrew and Simon Peter, to attach themselves to +the preacher. From the highways and lake cities it pierces the Galilean +valleys, and comes to the ears of Jesus, in the carpenter’s cottage at +Nazareth. + +He, too, is moved by the call, and starts for the Jordan, filled, we may +be sure, with the hope that the time for action has come at last, that +the God of Israel is again about to send deliverance to His people. May +we not also fairly conjecture that, on His way to Bethabara, to claim +His place in the national confession and uprising, He must have had +moments of rejoicing that the chief part in the great drama seemed +likely after all to be laid on another? As a rule, the more thoroughly +disciplined and fit a man may be for any really great work, the more +conscious will he be of his own unfitness for it, the more distrustful +of himself, the more anxious not to thrust himself forward. It is only +the zeal of the half-instructed when the hour of a great deliverance has +come at last—of those who have had a glimpse of the glory of the goal, +but have never known or counted the perils of the path which leads to +it—which is ready with the prompt response, “Yes—we _can_ drink of the +cup; we _can_ be baptized with the baptism.” + +But in Christ, after the discipline of those long waiting years, there +was no ambition, no self-delusion. He had measured the way, and counted +the cost, of lifting His own people and the world out of bondage to +visible things and false gods, and bringing them to the only Father of +their spirits, into the true kingdom of their God. He must, indeed, have +been well enough aware how infinitely more fit for the task He Himself +was than any of His own brethren in the flesh, with whom He was living +day by day; or of the men of Nazareth with whom He had been brought up. +But He knew also that the same voice which had been speaking to Him, the +same wisdom which had been training Him, must have been speaking to and +training other humble and brave souls, wherever there were open hearts +and ears, in the whole Jewish nation. As the humblest and most guileless +of men He could not have assumed that no other Israelite had been able +to render that perfect obedience of which He was Himself conscious. And +so He may well have hurried to the Jordan in the hope of finding there, +in this prophet of the wilderness, “him who should come,” the Messiah, +the great deliverer—and of enlisting under his banner, and rendering him +true and loyal service, in the belief that, after all, He Himself might +only be intended to aid, and hold up the hands of, a greater than +Himself. For, we must remember that Christ could not have heard before +He came to Bethabara that John had disclaimed the great title. It was +not till the very day before His own arrival that the Baptist had told +the questioners from Jerusalem, “I am not He.” + +But if any such thought had crossed His mind, or hope filled His heart, +on the way to the Baptist, it was soon dispelled, and He, left again in +His own loneliness, now more clearly than ever before, face to face with +the task before which even the Son of God appointed to it before the +world was, might well quail, as it confronted Him in His frail human +body. For John recognises Him, singles Him out at once, proclaims to the +bystanders, “This is He! Behold the Lamb of God! This is He who shall +baptize with the fire of God’s own Spirit. Here is the Deliverer whom +all our prophets have foretold.” And by a mysterious outward sign, as +well as by the witness in His own heart and conscience, Christ is at +once assured of the truth of the Baptist’s words—that it is indeed He +Himself and no other, and that His time has surely come at last. + +That He now thoroughly realised the fact for the first time, and was +startled and severely tried by the confirmation of what He must have +felt for years to be probable, is not only what we should look for from +our own experiences, but seems the true inference from the Gospel +narratives. For, although as soon as the full truth breaks upon Him He +accepts the mission and work to which God is calling Him, and speaks +with authority to the Baptist, “Suffer it to be so now,” yet the +immediate effect of the call is to drive Him away into the wilderness, +there in the deepest solitude to think over once again, and for the last +time to wrestle with, and master, the tremendous disclosure. And the +story of the temptation which immediately follows—so full of mystery and +difficulty in many ways—is invaluable for the light which it casts, not +only on this crisis of His life, but before and after—on the history of +the world’s redemption, and the method by which that redemption is to be +accomplished, the part which each individual man and woman is called to +play in it. + +For Christ’s whole life on earth was the assertion and example of true +manliness—the setting forth in living act and word what man is meant to +be, and how he should carry himself in this world of God’s—one long +campaign, in which “the temptation” stands out as the first great battle +and victory. The story has depths in it which we can never fathom, but +also clear sharp lessons which he who runs may read, and no man can +master too thoroughly. We must follow Him reverently into the +wilderness, where He flies from the crowds who are pressing to the +Baptist, and who to-morrow will be thronging round Him, if He goes back +amongst them, after what the Baptist has said about Him to-day. + +Day after day in the wilderness the struggle goes on in His heart. He is +faint from insufficient food in those solitudes, and with bodily +weakness the doubts grow in strength and persistence, and the tempter is +always at His side, soliciting Him to end them once for all, by one act +of self-assertion. All those questionings and misgivings as to His +origin and mission, which we have pictured to ourselves as haunting Him +ever since His first visit to Jerusalem, are now, as it were, focused. +There are mocking voices whispering again, as of old, but more +scornfully and keenly, in His ear, “Are you really the Messiah, the Son +of God, so long looked for? What more proof have you to go upon than you +have had for these thirty years, during which you have been living as a +poor peasant in a Galilean village? The word of this wild man of the +wilderness? He is your own cousin, and a powerful preacher, no doubt, +but a wayward, wilful man, clad and fed like a madman, who has been +nursing mad fancies from his boyhood, away from the holy city, the +centre of national life and learning. This sign of a descending dove, +and a voice which no one has heard but yourself? Such signs come to +many—are never wanting when men are ready to deceive themselves—and each +man’s fancy gives them a different meaning. But the words, and the sign, +and the voice, you say only meet a conviction which has been growing +these thirty years in your own heart and conscience? Well, then, at +least for the sake of others if not for your own sake, put this +conviction to the proof, here, at once, and make sure yourself, before +you go forth and deceive poor men, your brethren, to their ruin. You are +famishing here in the wilderness. This, at least, cannot be what God +intends for His Son, who is to redeem the world. Exercise some control +over the meanest part of your Father’s kingdom. Command these stones to +become bread, and see whether they will obey you. Cast yourself down +from this height. If you are what you think, your Father’s angels will +bear you up. Then, after they have borne you up, you may go on with some +reasonable assurance that your claim is not a mere delusion, and that +you will not be leading these poor men whom you call your brethren to +misery and destruction.” + +And when neither long fasting and weakness, nor natural doubt, distrust, +impatience, nor the most subtle suggestions of the tempter, can move His +simple trust in His Father, or wring from Him one act of self-assertion, +the enemy changes front, and the assault comes from another quarter. +“You may be right,” the voices seem now to be saying; “you may not be +deceived, or dreaming, when you claim to be the Son of God, sent to +redeem this fair world, which is now spread out before you in all its +glory. That may be your origin, and that your work. But, living as you +have done till now in a remote corner of a despised province, you have +no experience or knowledge of the methods or powers which sway men, and +establish and maintain these kingdoms of the world, the glory of which +you are beholding. These methods and powers have been in use in your +Father’s world, if it be His, ever since man has known good from evil. +You have only to say the word, and you may use and control these methods +and powers as you please. By their aid you may possibly ‘see of the +travail of your soul and be satisfied’; without them you will redeem +nothing but perhaps a man here and there—without them you will postpone +instead of hastening the coming of your Father’s kingdom, to the sorrow +and ruin of many generations, and will die a foiled and lonely man, +crushed by the very forces you have refused to use for your Father’s +service. If they were wholly evil, wholly unfit for the fulfilment of +any purpose of His, would He have left them in command of His world till +this day? It is only through them that the world can be subdued. Your +time is short, and you have already wasted much of it, standing +shivering on the brink, and letting the years slip by in that cottage at +Nazareth. The wisest of your ancestors acknowledged and used them, and +spread his kingdom from the river to the Great Sea. Why should you +reject them?” + +This, very roughly and inadequately stated, is some shadow of the utmost +part or skirt, as it were, of the trial crisis, lasting forty days, +through which Christ passed from His private to His public career. For +forty days the struggle lasted before He could finally realise and +accept His mission with all that it implied. At the end of that time He +has fairly mastered and beaten down every doubt as to His call, every +tempting suggestion to assert Himself, or to accept or use any aid in +establishing His Father’s kingdom which does not clearly bear His +Father’s stamp and seal on the face of it. In the strength of this +victory He returns from the desert, to take up the burthen which has +been laid on Him, and to set up God’s kingdom in the world by the +methods which He has learnt of God Himself—and by no other. + +Thus in following the life of Christ up to this point, so far as we have +any materials, we have found its main characteristic to be patience—a +resolute waiting on God’s mind. I have asked you to test in every way +you can, whether this kind of patience does not constitute the highest +ideal we can form of human conduct, is not in fact the noblest type of +true manliness? Pursue the same method as to this isolated section of +that life, the temptation, which I readily admit has much in it that we +cannot understand. But take the story simply as you find it (which is +the only honest method unless you pass it by altogether which would be +cowardly), and see whether you can detect any weakness, any flaw, in the +perfect manliness of Christ under the strain of which it speaks—whether +He does not here also realise for us the most perfect type of manliness +in times of solitary and critical trial. Spare no pains, suppress no +doubt, only be honest with the story, and with your own consciences. + +There is scarcely any life of first-rate importance to the world in +which we do not find a crisis corresponding to this, but the nearest +parallel must be sought amongst those men, the greatest of their kind, +who have founded or recast one of the great religions of the world. Of +these (if we except the greatest of all, Moses) Mohammed is the only one +of whose call we know enough to speak. Whatever we may think of him, and +the religion he founded, we shall all probably admit that he was at any +rate a man of the rarest courage. In his case too, it is only at the end +of long and solitary vigils in the desert that the vision comes which +seals him for his work. The silver roll is unfolded before his eyes, and +he who holds it bids him read therein the decrees of God, and tells him, +“Thou art the prophet of God, and I his angel.” + +He is unmanned by the vision, and flies trembling to his wife, whose +brave and loving counsel, and those of his friends and first disciples, +scarcely keep him from despair and suicide. + +I would not press the parallel further than to remark, that Christ came +out of the temptation with no human aid, having trod the wine-press +alone, serene and resolute from that moment for the work to which God +had called Him. + +It remains to follow His life in action, and to scrutinise its special +characteristics there. And again I would ask you to sift every step +thoroughly for yourselves, and see whether it will not bear the supreme +crucial test, from first to last. Apply that test therefore without +scruple or limitation in respect of this special quality of manliness, +from which we started on our inquiry. I have admitted, and admit again, +frankly and at once, that if the life will not stand the test +throughout, in every separate action and detail, the Christian +hypothesis breaks down. For we may make allowances for the noblest and +bravest men, for Moses and Elijah and St. Paul, for Socrates and Luther +and Mohammed, and every other great prophet, but we can make none for +the perfect Son of man and Son of God. His life must stand the test +under all circumstances, and at every moment, or the ground breaks +through under our feet, and God has not revealed Himself in man to men, +or redeemed the world by the methods in which Christendom has believed +for nineteen hundred years. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART V + CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT I + + “This perfect man, by merit called my Son, + To earn salvation for the sons of men.” + + MILTON, Paradise Regained, Book I. + + +IT will be necessary for our purpose to follow in outline the events of +our Lord’s ministry as a consecutive narrative. If I do so without +calling your attention to the endless difficulties and questions which +have been fairly raised as to the occurrence and sequence of many or +those events, it is not because I wish to ignore them myself, or to lead +you away from the examination of them. In our time, which is, perhaps, +before all things an age of criticism, much has been done towards the +creation of a science of history, and therefore of a science of +religion, which is the highest part of history. We have discovered, or +at any rate have done much to perfect, the use of new and searching +methods of investigation, and have applied, and are applying, these to +every department of human knowledge and human life. + +It was not to be expected, or indeed to be wished, that the new +criticism should pause before that history, or the books containing it, +which our forefathers held too sacred to be looked upon or treated as +ordinary history. It has not paused, and—while respecting our fathers’ +reverent feeling for the books which have done so much for our nation, +and for the world—we may rejoice that it has not; and that friend and +foe in this generation have been alike busy in turning all the light +which recent research has placed within their reach upon the story of +our Lord’s ministry, and the gospel narratives in which it is contained. + +We English were in danger of idolatry in this matter—of putting the Book +in the place of Him of whom it testifies—and it is well for us that we +have been shaken, however roughly, out of a habit which fostered +unreality in the very centre of our lives. We were inclined to claim for +Christ’s religion, and for its evidences, immunities which neither He +nor His apostles ever claimed. That position has been abandoned, and the +best representatives of every school of religious thought amongst us (so +far as I am aware) now challenge the freest inquiry, and lend their own +aid in carrying it on. And amongst the first, and not least formidable, +difficulties which have met Christian writers has been that of +harmonising the writings of the four evangelists so as to make the +several narratives fit into one continuous whole. + +Whether it is possible that this can ever be done completely, in the +absence of the discovery of new evidence, which there is no reason to +look for, seems to be very doubtful. At any rate it has not been +accomplished hitherto. But the general outline comes out clearly enough, +and this is all we need in order to pursue our own particular inquiry +satisfactorily. + +Turning, then, to the point at which we have arrived, we shall find +ourselves at once met by questions of detail as to our Lord’s return +from the wilderness after His temptation. Whether He returned to the +scene of John’s baptism, on the Jordan, and remained there for some +days, or went straight back into Galilee from the desert; whether He +commenced His active ministry at once, or even yet postponed it until +John had been put in prison—are questions about which there is as yet no +general concurrence of opinion. + +You may each of you judge for yourselves of the difficulties by +comparing the passages in the four Gospels which relate to this period. + +Taking this warning with us, we need trouble no further about the +harmonies. Indeed, for our purpose, they are of very little consequence, +for, take the narrative how we will, it divides itself beyond all +question into several distinct and clearly marked periods. The first of +these is that between the temptation and the formal opening of Christ’s +ministry in Galilee, (marked by His first great discourse at Nazareth), +the abandonment of His home, and the selection of the five first +apostles for special and continuous service. This first period extends +at most over a few months, or more probably weeks, beginning a few days +before the feast of the Passover, and ending in the early summer; at the +time, not (so far as I am aware) exactly ascertained, when Herod Antipas +seized John the Baptist and put him in prison. We must run through it +shortly, noting the principal events, and then applying our test to such +of them as seem to come within the scope of our inquiry. + +The temptation over, Christ appears to have returned by Bethabara on His +way to His Galilean home. The crowds were still pressing to John’s +baptism, and a group of the most earnest amongst them had already +gathered round the Baptist, and were attaching themselves to his person, +as the sons of the prophets round Elisha, the apostles round Christ +Himself, the companions of Medina round Mohammed. + +To two of these disciples John points out Christ as that Son of God, of +whom he was sent to bear record. They follow Him, spend a few hours of +the afternoon with Him, and recognise Him as the Messiah. One of them, +Andrew, brings his brother Simon Peter to Christ. He Himself calls +Philip, who in his turn brings his friend Nathanael. With these five +Christ starts for His home in Galilee. + +These earliest followers, we may note, are almost certainly of the +twelve apostles. As to Andrew, Simon Peter, and Philip, who are +expressly named, there is no question; and there is good reason to +believe that the companion of Andrew, whose name is not given, was John, +the son of Zebedee, and that Nathanael was the apostle Bartholomew, +whose name is constantly coupled in the Gospels with that of Philip. +Nathanael was of Cana of Galilee, of what trade we do not know; the +other four were of Bethsaida, a suburb of Capernaum, fishermen on the +Sea of Galilee. + +They accompany Christ to Cana, Nathanael’s home, where they meet +Christ’s mother, and are present at the marriage feast, at which His +first miracle is wrought. From thence they follow Him to Capernaum, and +some of them go on with Him to Jerusalem to the Passover, at which He +drives out the cattle-dealers from the outer court of the Temple, and +overthrows the tables of the money-changers. + +This act fixes the attention of all Jerusalem upon Him, and brings Him +at once under the notice of the Sanhedrim. One of its members, a +Pharisee, seeks an interview with Him by night. He commits Himself +neither to the mob, nor to the nobleman. After the feast He remains for +some time in the northern part of Judæa, where His fame attracts +followers, whom His disciples baptize. He then passes through Samaria, +still attended by his followers, stopping some days in the city of that +name, and preaching there. They then go into Galilee, and, while the +disciples, apparently, separate for the time to their own homes and +pursuits, He returns to Nazareth, to begin His formal ministry amongst +those who had known Him from His childhood. They turn upon Him in the +middle of His first discourse, and attempt to murder Him. He leaves His +old home for the neighbouring village of Cana, where He is found by the +ruler whose son is sick at Capernaum. He heals the child, and follows +the father to that city, where He hears of the imprisonment of the +Baptist, and at once enters on the second stage of His public career. + +And now, following the narrative step by step so far, see if you can +find any trace in it of a failure of courage, even for a moment. In the +first place you will find, generally, that there is no wavering or +hesitation at any point. The time for these is past, and, the call once +recognised and accepted, there is no shrinking, or looking round, or +going back. The strain and burthen of a great message of deliverance to +men has again and again found the weak places in the faith and courage +of the most devoted and heroic of those to whom it has been entrusted. +Moses pleads under its pressure that another may be sent in his place, +asking despairingly, “Why hast thou sent me?” Elijah prays for death. +Mohammed passes years of despondency and hesitation under the sneers of +those who scoff, “There goeth the son of Abdallah, who hath his converse +with God!” Such shrinkings and doubtings enlist our sympathy, make us +feel the tie of a common humanity which binds us to such men. But no +one, I suppose, will maintain that perfect manliness would not suppress, +at any rate the open expression of, any such feelings. The man who has +to lead a great revolution should keep all misgivings to himself, and +the weight of them so kept must often prove the sorest part of his +burthen. + +But let us pass on to the particular events of this period. As to many +of them the question of whether they are courageous or not, perhaps, +does not arise, except in so far as it arises on every act in our lives, +each of which may, and indeed must, be done either manfully with perfect +directness, or unmanfully with more or less adroitness. The man whose +“yea is yea and his nay nay,” is, we all confess, the most courageous, +whether or no he may be the most successful, in daily life. And He who +gave the precept has left us the most perfect example of how to live up +to it. And this quality you will find shines out at once in these early +conversations with Nathanael, Nicodemus, and the woman of Samaria, as +much as in the discourses of His later years. + +Before considering them we may glance at the purification of the Temple, +an act which at any rate should satisfy those who think courage best +proved by physical daring. At this time, we must remember, He had no +following, such as the crowd that swept after Him on Palm Sunday, three +years later, into the Temple courts. But, leaving the act to speak for +itself, look at the rare courage of the speech by which that act is +justified when it is challenged. He, not even a Levite, a mere peasant +from a despised province, had presumed to exercise authority in the very +Temple precincts! Jerusalem was full of worse idolatries, but the +idolatry of the Temple buildings was, perhaps, the strongest. The Jews +seem to have regarded them as Christians have sometimes regarded the +visible Church, or the Bible—as an object of worship; to have thought +that if they perished God Himself would perish. And so Christ’s answer +goes straight to the root of their idolatry. His words were not +understood by the crowd, or even by His own disciples, in their full +meaning—that His body, and the body of every man, is the true temple of +God. But they understood enough of them to see that He had no +superstition about these splendid buildings of theirs, and was trying to +lift all of them above local and national prejudices. Those who would +not be lifted brooded over them till their day of vengeance came. + +But there were those on whom the daring acts and words of Christ were +already taking hold. Many of those who had come up to the Passover +believed in Him, some even amongst the rulers. One of these we hear more +of at once. + +Nicodemus, we must remember, was a leading member of the Sanhedrim, a +representative of that section of the rulers, who, like the rest of the +nation, were expecting a deliverer, a king who should prevail against +the Cæsar. They had sent to the Baptist, and had heard of his testimony +to this young Galilean, who had now come to Jerusalem, and was showing +signs of a power which they could not but acknowledge. For, had He not +cleansed the Temple, which they had never been able to do; but, +notwithstanding their pretended reverence for it, had allowed to be +turned into a shambles and an exchange? They saw that a part of the +people were ready to gather to Him, but that He had refused to commit +Himself to them. This, then, the best of them must have felt, was no +mere leader of a low, fierce, popular party or faction. Nicodemus at any +rate was evidently inclined to doubt whether He might not prove to be +the king they were looking for, as the Baptist had declared. The doubt +must be solved, and he would see for himself. + +And so he comes to Christ, and hears directly from Him, that He has +indeed come to set up a kingdom, but that it is no visible kingdom like +the Cæsar’s, but a kingdom over men’s spirits; one which rulers as well +as peasants must become new men before they can enter—that a light has +come into the world, and “he that doeth truth cometh to that light.” + +From beginning to end there is no word to catch this ruler, or those he +represented; no balancing of phrases or playing with plausible religious +shibboleths, with which Nicodemus would be familiar, and which might +please, and, perchance, reconcile, this well-disposed ruler, and the +powerful persons he represented. There is, depend upon it, no severer +test of manliness than our behaviour to powerful persons, whose aid +would advance the cause we have at heart. We know from the later records +that the interview of that night, and the strange words he had heard +then, made a deep impression on this ruler. His manliness, however, +breaks down for the present. He shrinks back and disappears, leaving the +strange young peasant to go on His way. + +The same splendid directness and incisiveness characterise His teaching +at Samaria. There, again, He attacks at once the most cherished local +traditions, showing that the place of worship matters nothing, the +object of worship everything. That object is a Father of men’s spirits, +who wills that all men shall know and worship Him, but who can only be +worshipped in spirit and in truth. He, the peasant who is talking to +them, is Himself the Messiah, who has come from the Father of them and +Him, to give them this spirit of truth in their own hearts. + +The Jews at Jerusalem had been clamouring round Him for signs of His +claim to speak such words, and in the next few days His own people would +be crying out for His blood when they heard them. These Samaritans make +no such demand, but hear and recognise the message and the messenger. +The seed is sown, and He passes on, never to return, so far as we know, +and garner the harvest; deliberately preferring the hard, priest-ridden +lake cities of the Jews as the centre of His ministry. He will leave +ripe fields for others to reap. This decision, interpret it as we will, +is that of no soft or timid reformer. Take this test again and compare +Christ’s choice of His first field for work with that of any other great +leader of men. + +This first period fitly closes with the scene of Nazareth. Here He +returns, while the reports of His doings at the feast at Jerusalem are +fresh in the minds of His family and fellow-townsmen. They are excited +and divided as to Him and His doings. A thousand reasons would occur for +speaking soft things, at such a moment, for accommodating His teaching, +here at any rate, to the wants and tastes of His hearers, so as to keep +a safe and friendly asylum at Nazareth, amongst the scenes and people He +had loved from childhood. It is clear that some of His family, if not +His mother herself, were already seriously alarmed and displeased. They +disliked what they had heard of His teaching at Jerusalem and on His way +home, which they felt must bring Him to ruin, in which they might be +involved. He must have seen and conversed with them in His own home +before that scene in the synagogue, and have had then to endure the +bitter pain of alienating those whom He loved and respected, and had +reason to love and respect, but who could not for the time rise out of +the conventional, respectable, way of looking at things. + +To stand by what our conscience witnesses for as truth, through evil and +good report, even against all opposition of those we love, and whose +judgment we look up to and should ordinarily prefer to follow; to cut +ourselves deliberately off from their love and sympathy and respect; is +surely, I repeat, one of the most severe trials to which we can be put. +A man has need to feel at such times that the Spirit of the Lord is upon +him in some measure, as it was upon Christ when he rose in the synagogue +of Nazareth, and, selecting the passage of Isaiah which speaks most +directly of the Messiah, claimed that title for Himself and told them +that to-day this prophecy was fulfilled in Him. + +The fierce, hard, Jewish spirit is at once roused to fury. They would +kill Him then and there, and so settle His claims, once for all. He +passes through them, and away from the quiet home where He had been +brought up—alone it would seem, so far as man could make Him so, and +homeless for the remainder of His life. Yet not alone, for His Father is +with Him; nor homeless, for He has the only home of which man can be +sure, home of His own heart shared with the Spirit of God. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART VI + CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT II + + “What is it that ye came to note? + A young man preaching from a boat.” + + A. CLOUGH. + + +THE second period of our Lord’s ministry is one, in the main, of joyful +progress and triumph, in which the test of true manliness must be more +subtle than when the surroundings are hostile. It consists, I think, at +such times in the careful watchfulness not to give wrong impressions, +not to mislead those who are touched by enthusiasm, conscious of new +life, grateful to Him who has kindled that life in them. + +It is then that the temptation to be all things to all men in a wrong +sense,—to adapt and accommodate teaching and life to a lower standard in +order to maintain a hold upon the masses of average men and women, who +have been moved by the words of lips touched by fire from the altar of +God,—has generally proved too much for the best and strongest of the +world’s great reformers. It is scarcely necessary to labour this point, +which would, I think, be sorrowfully admitted by those who have studied +most lovingly and carefully the lives of such men for instance as +Savonarola, or Wesley. If you will refer to a recent and valuable work +on the life of a greater than either of these, Mr. Bosworth Smith’s +_Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, you will find there perhaps the best +illustration which I can give you of this sad experience. + +When Mohammed returns from Medina, sweeping at last all enemies out of +his path, as the prophet of a new faith, and the leader of an awakened +and repentant people, his biographer pauses to notice the lowering of +the standard, both in his life and teaching. Power, he pleads, brings +with it new temptations, and new failures. The more thoroughly a man is +carried away by his inspiration, and convinced of the truth and goodness +of his cause and his message, the more likely is he to forget the means +in the end, and to allow the end to justify whatever means seem to lead +to its triumph. He must maintain as he can, and by any means, his power +over the motley mass of followers that his mission has gathered round +him, and will be apt to aim rather at what will hold them than at what +will satisfy the highest promptings of his own conscience. + +We may allow the plea in such cases, though with sorrow and humiliation. +But the more minutely we examine the life of Christ, the more we shall +feel that, here again, there is no place for it. We shall be impressed +with the entire absence of any such bending to expediency, or forgetting +the means in the end. He never for one moment accommodates His life or +teaching to any standard but the highest: never lowers or relaxes that +standard by a shade or a hair’s breadth, to make the road easy to rich +or powerful questioners, or to uphold the spirit of His poorer followers +when they are startled and uneasy, as they begin half blindly to +recognise what spirit they are of. This unbending truthfulness is, then, +what we have chiefly to look for in this period of triumphant progress +and success, questioning each act and word in turn whether there is any +swerving in it from the highest ideal. + +It is not easy to mark off distinctly the time over which it extends, +but it seems to me to commence with His return to Capernaum, after the +healing of the centurion’s son, when He hears of the imprisonment of +John, and to end with the estrangement of many of His followers at His +teaching as to the bread of life, and the nearly contemporaneous and +final and open rupture with, and defiance of, the chief priests and +scribes and Pharisees, when they change from suspicious and watchful +critics into open and avowed enemies, baffled for the moment, but +dogging His footsteps and thirsting for His blood. + +It is upon His relations with these scribes and Pharisees more +particularly that we must keep our attention fixed, as it is here, if +anywhere, that we may look for a failure of nerve and truthfulness, and +therefore of manliness. + +We must gather our connected view of this period from all the +narratives, and shall find the beginning most clearly indicated in St. +Matthew, in the last part of the 4th chapter, where He recalls to His +side Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee—who appear to have left +Him for the moment and to have returned to their boats and nets at +Bethsaida—and opens His ministry in the lake cities by the Sermon on the +Mount. For the end we must go to the 11th chapter of St. Luke, where, in +the house of a Pharisee, He speaks the words which madden Pharisees and +lawyers into urging Him vehemently to speak of many things, and watching +for the words which will enable them to entangle, and, as they think, to +destroy Him. + +First, then, as to the main facts so far as they are necessary for our +purposes. We may note that our Lord accepts at once the imprisonment of +the Baptist as the final summons to Himself. Gathering, therefore, a few +of John’s disciples round Him, and welcoming the restless inquiring +crowds who had been roused by the voice crying in the wilderness, He +stands forward at once to proclaim and explain the nature of that new +kingdom of God, which has now to be set up in the world. Standing forth +alone, on the open hill-side, the young Galilean peasant gives forth the +great proclamation, which by one effort lifted mankind on to that new +and higher ground on which it has been painfully struggling ever since, +but on the whole with sure though slow success, to plant itself and +maintain sure foothold. + +In all history there is no parallel to it. It stands there, a miracle or +sign of God’s reign in this world, far more wonderful than any of +Christ’s miracles of healing. Unbelievers have been sneering at and +ridiculing it, and Christian doctors paring and explaining it away, ever +since. But there it stands, as strong and fresh as ever, the calm +declaration and witness of what mankind is intended by God to become on +this earth of His. + +As a question of courageous utterance (with which we are here mainly +concerned), I would only ask you to read it through once more, bearing +in mind who the preacher was—a peasant, already repudiated by His own +neighbours and kinsfolk, and suspected by the national rulers and +teachers; and who were the hearers—a motley crowd of Jewish peasants and +fishermen, Romish legionaries, traders from Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon, +and the distant isles of Greece, with a large sprinkling of publicans, +scribes, Pharisees and lawyers. + +The immediate result of the sermon was to bow the hearts of this crowd +for the time, so that He was able to choose followers from amongst them, +much as He would. He takes fishermen and peasants, selecting only two at +most from any rank above the lowest, and one of these from a class more +hated and despised by the Jews than the poorest peasant, the publicans. +It is plain that He might at first have called apostles from amongst the +upper classes had He desired it—as a teacher with any want of courage +would surely have done. But the only scribe who offers himself is +rejected. + +The calling of the apostles is followed by a succession of discourses +and miracles, which move the people more and more, until, after that of +the loaves, the popular enthusiasm rises to the point it had so often +reached in the case of other preachers and leaders of this strange +people. They are ready to take Him by force and make Him a king. + +The apostles apparently encourage this enthusiasm, for which He +constrains them into a ship, and sends them away before Him. After +rejoining them and rebuking their want of understanding and faith, He +returns with them to the multitudes, and at once speaks of Himself as +the bread from heaven, in the discourse which offends many of His +disciples, who from this time go back and walk no more with Him. The +brief season of triumphant progress is drawing to an end, during which +He could rejoice in spirit in contemplating the human harvest which He +and His disciples seem to be already successfully garnering. + +But, even while the prospect was fairest, while the people were surging +round Him in the first enthusiasm of their new faith, there had been +ominous signs of that antagonism of the rulers which was to end on +Calvary, and we have now to glance at the relations of Christ with them +during this same period. + +This antagonism was of gradual growth. In the first instance many of the +scribes and Pharisees seem to have followed Him, more for the purpose of +hearing and watching, than in a spirit of direct hostility. In the +Sermon on the Mount He only once alludes to them directly, when He tells +His hearers that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the scribes +and Pharisees, there can be no place for them in this kingdom of which +He is now proclaiming the laws. It does not appear however at first that +they were alienated by what was then said, for soon afterwards we find +Pharisees and doctors of the law from Jerusalem “and every town of +Galilee and Judæa” sitting by while He teaches, “and the power of the +Lord was present to heal them.” + +Now, however, they are aroused and startled by Christ’s address to the +palsied man—“Thy sins are forgiven thee.” The cure of the man silences +them for the moment. They are filled with fear, and glorify God, saying, +“We have seen strange things to-day.” But Christ’s next act again rouses +their jealousy afresh. He has not called any of them to His side; that, +probably, they would have deemed presumption. They are waiting and +watching; thinking, doubtless, that their presence gives a sanction and +respectability to the young teacher, which He, and the crowds who come +to hear and be healed, will in due course learn to appreciate. Meantime +it might restrain Him and them from rash acts and words, which would +ruin a national movement that might possibly be hereafter guided to the +advantage of Israel. + +But now, while the great men are thus balancing, and probably admiring +themselves for their liberality, Christ singles out Levi the publican, +calls him as an apostle, and goes to his house to feast with a large +company of other publicans. The great people remonstrate angrily. Such +an act outrages all their notions of the orthodox conduct of a prophet. +Christ replies simply, that He has come to call sinners, not the +righteous, to repentance. + +A few days later an even more serious question is raised between them. +On a Sabbath day His disciples pluck and eat the corn, and Christ +justifies them. On the next Sabbath, while they are watching Him, He +heals a man, with the obvious purpose of trying them, and claims to be +Lord of the Sabbath, as He had claimed power to forgive sins. They begin +to be filled with madness, and commune what they can do to Him. + +Still, however, the breach is not final. They have not abandoned the +hope of using the young preacher and prophet for their purposes. So +Simon, one of their number, invites Him to his house, and, though +neglecting the usual courtesies of an entertainer (as out of place in +the case of a peasant), is evidently not treacherous in the invitation. +He might well flatter himself on his freedom from class prejudices, and +feel that such condescension would have a good effect on his guest, and +might lead Him in good time to rely on and consult persons moving in the +upper ranks of Jewish society as to His future course. + +The story of the woman, a sinner, who gets into the room and anoints +Christ’s feet, and the use which He makes of the incident—to bring home +to Simon’s mind, with the most exquisite temper and courtesy, but with +the most faithful firmness, his shortcomings as a host, and his want of +true insight as a man—are amongst the finest illustrations we have of +His method with the great and powerful of His nation. Before leaving the +house He once more reasserts His power to forgive sins. + +We must now follow Him to Jerusalem, to which He goes up to one of the +feasts, and, at the headquarters of the scribes and Pharisees, +deliberately raises afresh, at headquarters, the burning questions which +He had left rankling in the minds of the provincial hierarchy. He heals +the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, and sends +him through the streets carrying his bed. Challenged to defend Himself +(probably before the Sanhedrim), He claims, more explicitly than ever +before, that God is His Father, and has given Him not only power to do +mighty works, but “authority to execute judgment”; that their own +scriptures testify of Him, as He who can give them life if they will +come to Him for it. Upon which they, naturally enough, seek to slay Him; +but He gets back unscathed to Galilee, and then follows the scene which +I have referred to as the end of this period of His ministry. + +The Pharisees are now dogging his footsteps wherever He goes, but even +yet have not given up the hope of coming to some terms with One whom +they cannot help acknowledging to wield a power over the people which +has slipped away from themselves. Influenced possibly by a discourse in +which He upbraids the people as an evil generation, without specially +alluding, as was so often His custom, to the people’s leaders and +teachers as those upon whom the chief guilt rested, they again invite +Him into their own circle. But now the time is past for the kindly +courtesy of the feast in Simon’s house. The usual means of washing +before meat are there, but He rejects them. They express a well-bred +astonishment, and then follows that scathing denunciation of their +hypocrisies and tyrannies, of their “inward parts full of ravening +wickedness,” which makes the breach final and irrevocable between the +Son of man and the rulers of Israel. + +Thenceforth Christ has more and more to “tread the wine-press alone,” +surrounded by bewildered followers, and powerful enemies resolved on His +destruction, and unscrupulous as to the means by which it must be +compassed. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART VII + CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT III + + “By the light of burning martyr-fires Christ’s bleeding feet I track, + Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back.” + + LOWELL. + + +WE have now reached the critical point, the third act in the world’s +greatest drama. All chance of the speedy triumph of the kingdom of God, +humanly speaking, in this lake country of Galilee—the battle-field +chosen by Himself, where His mightiest works had been done and His +mightiest words spoken—the district from which His chosen companions +came, and in which clamorous crowds had been ready to declare Him +king—is now over. The conviction that this is so, that He is a baffled +leader, in hourly danger of His life, has forced itself on Christ. +Before entering that battle-field, face to face with the tempter in the +wilderness, He had deliberately rejected all aid from the powers and +kingdoms of this world, and now, for the moment, the powers of this +world have proved too strong for Him. + +The rulers of that people—Pharisee, Sadducee, and Herodian, scribe and +lawyer—were now marshalled against Him in one compact phalanx, +throughout all the coasts of Galilee, as well as in Judæa. + +His disciples, rough, most of them peasants, full of patriotism but with +small power of insight or self-control, were melting away from a leader +who, while He refused them active service under a patriot chief at open +war with Cæsar and his legions, bewildered them by assuming titles and +talking to them in language which they could not understand. They were +longing for one who would rally them against the Roman oppressor, and +give them a chance at any rate of winning their own land again, purged +of the heathen and free from tribute. Such an one would be worth +following to the death. But what could they make of this “Son of man,” +who would prove His title to that name by giving His body and pouring +out His blood for the life of man—of this “Son of God,” who spoke of +redeeming mankind and exalting mankind to God’s right hand, instead of +exalting the Jew to the head of mankind? + +In the face of such a state of things, to remain in Capernaum or the +neighbouring towns and villages, would have been to court death, there, +and at once. The truly courageous man, you may remind me, is not turned +from his path by the fear of death, which is the supreme test and +touchstone of his courage. True;—nor was Christ so turned, even for a +moment. + +Whatever may have been His hopes in the earlier part of His career, by +this time He had no longer a thought that mankind could be redeemed +without His own perfect and absolute sacrifice and humiliation. The cup +would indeed have to be drunk to the dregs, but not here, nor now. This +must be done at Jerusalem, the centre of the national life and the seat +of the Roman Government. It must be done during the Passover, the +national commemoration of sacrifice and deliverance. And so He +withdraws, with a handful of disciples, and even they still wayward, +half-hearted, doubting, from the constant stress of a battle which has +turned against Him. From this time He keeps away from the great centres +of population, except when, on two occasions—at the Feast of Tabernacles +and the Feast of the Dedication—He flashes for a day on Jerusalem, and +then disappears again into some haunt of outlaws, or of wild beasts. +This portion of His life comprises something less than the last twelve +months: from the summer of the second year of His ministry till the eve +of the last Passover, at Easter, in the third year. + +In glancing at the main facts of this period, as we have done in the +former ones, we have to note chiefly His intercourse with the twelve +apostles, and His preparation of them for the end of His own career and +the beginning of theirs; His conduct at Jerusalem during those two +autumnal and winter feasts; and the occasions when He again comes into +collision with the rulers and Pharisees, both at these feasts and in the +intervals between them. + +The keynote of it, in spite of certain short and beautiful interludes, +appears to me to be a sense of loneliness and oppression, caused by the +feeling that He has work to do, and words to speak, which those for whom +they are to be done and spoken, and whom they are, first of all men, to +bless, will either misunderstand or abhor. Here is all the visible +result of His labour, and of His travail, and the enemy is gathering +strength every day. + +This becomes clear, I think, at once, when, in the first days after His +quitting the lake shores, He asks His disciples the question, “Whom do +the world, and whom do ye, say that I am?” He is answered by Peter in +the well-known burst of enthusiasm, that, though the people only look on +Him as a prophet, such as Elijah or Jeremiah, His own chosen followers +see in Him “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” + +It is this particular moment which He selects for telling them +distinctly, that Christ will _not_ triumph as they regard triumphing, +that He will fall into the power of His enemies, and be humbled and +slain by them. At once the proof comes of how little even the best of +His own most intimate friends had caught the spirit of His teaching or +of His kingdom. The announcement of His humiliation and death, which +none but the most truthful and courageous of men would have made at such +a moment, leaves them almost as much bewildered as the crowds in the +lake cities had been a few days before. + +Their hearts are faithful and simple, and upon them, as Peter has +testified, the truth has flashed once for all, that there can be no +other Saviour of men than this Man with whom they are living. Still, by +what means and to what end the salvation shall come, they are scarcely +less ignorant than the people who had been in vain seeking from Him a +sign such as they desired. His own elect “understood not His saying, and +it was hid from them, that they perceived it not.” Rather, indeed, they +go straight from that teaching to dispute amongst themselves who of them +shall be the greatest in that kingdom which they understand so little. +And so their Master has to begin again at the beginning of His teaching, +and, placing a little child amongst them, to declare that not of such +men as they deem themselves, but of such as this child, is the kingdom +of heaven. + +The episode of the Transfiguration follows; and immediately after it, as +though purposely to warn even the three chosen friends who had been +present against new delusions, He repeats again the teaching as to His +death and humiliation. And He reiterates it whenever any exhibition of +power or wisdom seems likely to encourage the frame of mind in the +twelve generally which had lately brought the great rebuke on Peter. How +slowly it did its work, even with the foremost disciples, there are but +too many proofs. + +Amongst His kinsfolk and the people generally, His mission, thanks to +the cabals of the rulers and elders, had come by this time to be looked +upon with deep distrust and impatience. “How long dost Thou make us to +doubt? Go up to this coming feast, and there prove your title before +those who know how to judge in such matters,” is the querulous cry of +the former as the Feast of Tabernacles approaches. He does not go up +publicly with the caravan, which would have been at this time needlessly +to incur danger, but, when the feast is half over, suddenly appears in +the Temple. There He again openly affronts the rulers by justifying His +former acts, and teaching and proclaiming, that He who has sent Him is +true, and is their God. + +It is evidently on account of this new proof of daring that the people +now again begin to rally round Him. “Behold, He speaketh boldly. Do our +rulers know that this is Christ?” is the talk which fills the air, and +induces the scribes and Pharisees, for the first time, to attempt His +arrest by their officers. + +The officers return without Him, and their masters are, for the moment, +powerless before the simple word of Him who, as their own servants +testify, “speaks as never man spake.” But if they cannot arrest and +execute, they may entangle Him further, and prepare for their day, which +is surely and swiftly coming. So they bring to Him the woman taken in +adultery, and draw from Him the discourse in which He tells them that +the truth will make them free—the truth which He has come to tell them, +but which they will not hear, because they are of their father the +devil. He ends with asserting His claim to the name which every Jew held +sacred, “before Abraham was, I am.” The narrative of the 7th and 8th +chapters of St. John, which record these scenes at the Feast of +Tabernacles, has, I believe, done more to make men courageous and truly +manly, than all the stirring accounts of bold deeds which ever were +written elsewhere. + +The report of what had happened at the Feast of Tabernacles seems to +have rekindled for a moment the fitful zeal of the people of Galilee. +Christ does not, however, avail Himself of this reaction until the time +comes for another return to Jerusalem to the Feast of Dedication, when, +probably in the month of November, or early in December, He returns once +more to Capernaum, to prepare for His last journey. The Pharisees, +impotent themselves for the moment, now hurry to warn Him that Herod is +seeking to kill Him; but He passes on His way with perfect indifference. + +The crowds seem, as of old, inclined to gather round Him again. He +selects seventy from amongst them, and sends them on to prepare His +route, following Himself, and, this time, it being His last pilgrimage, +with the multitude. + +And now, again, in the first days of this progress, the most trusted of +the apostles show how little, even yet, they understand their Lord, or +their own work. When they see their Master once more at the head of a +throng of followers, the old spirit comes back on them as strongly as +ever, and they are anxious to call down fire from Heaven to consume +those who will not receive Him. His rebuke and warning, yet again, pass +by them, and get no hold on them. + +Rather, the incidents of the journey impress them more and more with the +belief that, at last, the kingdom is coming with power. At length, at +some point in the progress, they are amazed, and as they follow are +afraid. Once more Christ takes them aside, and endeavours to dispel +their dreams, repeating to them, in painful detail, what will happen to +Himself at Jerusalem at the end of this journey: that He will be +betrayed, delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, scourged, spat upon, +crucified. In spite of this warning, and while it is yet ringing in +their ears, we find James and John asking for the places of honour in +the kingdom of their own imaginations! + +At the feast he is met by the Pharisees and scribes in a somewhat +different temper from that which they had shown at the end of His last +visit. For He is once again at the head of a vast and eager multitude. +They know that some, even of their own number, are inclined to believe +in Him. They appeal to Him, passionately, to say who He is. He replies +by referring to His former teaching about His Father, whom they claimed +as their God, adding, “I and my Father are one.” + +Such a reply He well knew could only have one result. He was alone; and +in the ears of those who surrounded Him He was speaking blasphemy, which +could only be expiated by instant death. Yet He neither hesitates nor +temporises, but, when they seize stones to inflict the penalty, meets +them with a bearing so calm and manly, that they can no more cast the +first stone at Him than they could three months before at the woman +taken in adultery. + +He leaves Jerusalem once more after the feast, going across Jordan with +His apostles to the country where John came preaching and baptizing, and +remains there preaching to those who come to Him until the news of +Lazarus’s death takes Him for a few days to Bethany. After the raising +of His friend He returns to Peræa again, and leaves it only when the +great caravan is passing by on its way to the Passover, in the early +spring. He joins the caravan with His disciples, passing with it through +Jericho, the city of priests, and selecting there the publican Zacchæus +as His host,—a last lesson, by example, of the kind of material which +will be used in building up His kingdom. + +On the first day of the feast He rides into Jerusalem in apparent +triumph, the city mob joining the pilgrim mob in greeting Him with loud +Hosannas. Once more He cleanses the Temple, and rouses the covetousness +of the money-changers into active alliance with the bigotry of the +priests, and the wild anger and jealousy of the rulers, to sweep this +terrible Galilean revolutionist from the face of the earth, before He +shall ruin them all. + +For two days He continues to meet them in the Temple and public resorts +of the city, shaming, confuting, and denouncing them; and widening hour +by hour that breach which was already gaping wide between the nation and +city and their true Lord and King. The last scene in the Temple, +recorded in John, brings the long struggle to a close. + +The more carefully you study this long wrestle with the blind leaders of +a doomed nation, which has now come to an end, the more you will +recognise the perfect truthfulness, and therefore the perfect courage, +which marks Christ’s conduct of it. From beginning to end there is no +word or act which can mislead friend or foe. The strife, though for life +and death, has left no trace or stain on His manhood. Fresh from the +last and final conflict in the Temple court, He can pause on the side of +Olivet to weep over the city, the sight of which can still wring from +Him the pathetic yearnings of a soul purified from all taint of +bitterness. + +It is this most tender and sensitive of the sons of men—with fibres +answering to every touch and breath of human sympathy or human hate—who +has borne with absolutely unshaken steadfastness the distrust and anger +of kinsfolk, the ingratitude of converts, the blindness of disciples, +the fitful and purblind worship, and hatred, and fear, of the nation of +the Jews. So far, we can estimate to some extent the burthen and the +strain, and realise the strength and beauty, of the spirit which could +bear it all. Beyond and behind lie depths into which we can but glance. +For in those last hours of His life on earth the question was to be +decided whether we men have in deed and in truth a brotherhood, in a Son +of Man, the head of humanity, who has united mankind to their Father, +and can enable them to know Him. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PART VIII + THE LAST ACT + + “Thou seemest human and divine, + The highest, holiest manhood, Thou!” + + TENNYSON. + + +WE have reached the last stage, which is also the most critical one, of +our inquiry. It is upon the accounts which we have of Christ’s Agony +that the scornful denials of his manliness mainly rest. How, it is +asked, can you Christians recognise as perfect man, as the head and +representative of humanity, one who showed such signs of physical fear +and weakness as Christ, by your own confession, showed in the garden of +Gethsemane? Even without going to the roll of saints and martyrs, +hundreds of men and women can be named who have looked a cruel death in +the face without flinching, and endured tortures at least as painful as +His with a constancy which was wanting in Him. + +It was, indeed, a speech of this kind, in which the death of the +Abolitionist leader, John Brown, was contrasted with that of Christ, as +one so far superior in manliness that it ought to be enough of itself to +shame Christians out of their superstition, which confirmed me in +proposing this inquiry to you, as the most necessary and useful one we +could engage in. + +Now I freely admit that there is no recorded end of a life that I know +of more entirely brave and manly than this one of Captain John Brown, of +which we know every minutest detail, as it happened in the full glare of +our modern life not twenty years ago. About that I think there would +scarcely be disagreement anywhere. The very men who allowed him to lie +in his bloody clothes till the day of his execution, and then hanged +him, recognised this. “You are a game man, Captain Brown,” the southern +sheriff said in the waggon. “Yes,” he answered, “I was so brought up. It +was one of my mother’s lessons. From infancy I have not suffered from +physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness”; +and then he kissed a negro child in its mother’s arms, and walked +cheerfully on to the scaffold, thankful that he was “allowed to die for +a cause, and not merely to pay the debt of nature, as all must.” + +There is no simpler or nobler record in the Book of Martyrs, and in +passing I would only remind you, that he at least was ready to +acknowledge from whence came his strength. “Christ, the great Captain of +liberty as well as of salvation,” he wrote just before his death, “saw +fit to take from me the sword of steel after I had carried it for a +time. But He has put another in my hand, the sword of the Spirit, and I +pray God to make me a faithful soldier wherever He may send me.” And to +a friend who left him with the words, “If you can be true to yourself to +the end how glad we shall be,” he answered, “I cannot say, but I do not +think I shall deny my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.” The old +Abolitionist would have been as amazed as any man at such a comparison +as we are dealing with, and would have reminded us that, so far from +treading the wine-press alone, he was upheld by the sympathy and +enthusiasm of all of his own nation, and of the world outside his own +nation, for whom he cared. + +No such support had Christ. He knew too well that even the strongest of +the little band which came with Him to the garden would deny Him before +the light dawned over Olivet. And that sense of utter loneliness it was, +more probably than all the rest of the burthen which He was carrying, +that wrung from Him the prayer of agony, recalled almost before it was +uttered, that the cup might pass from Him, and caused the sweat as it +were great drops of blood to fall from His brow as He knelt and prayed. + +How the tradition of that agony and bloody sweat has come to us is hard +to say, as the nearest witnesses were asleep; but no Christian doubts +that it is a true one, or that the passion of human weakness which then +passed over His soul was a genuine shrinking from the unutterable +anguish which was weighing it down to the dust. + +But even admitting frankly all that is recorded of the agony and bloody +sweat, such admission can only enhance the sublime courage of all that +follows. It is his action when the danger comes, not when he is in +solitary preparation for it, which marks the man of courage. + +Let us just glance at this action. As Judas with his torchmen draws near +He gathers Himself together, rouses His sleepy followers, and meets His +enemy in the gate. There could have been no quailing in the glance +before which the armed crowd of priests’ retainers went backward and +fell to the ground. + +Follow Him through that long night: to the Sanhedrim chamber, where He +Himself furnishes the evidence which the chief priest sought for in vain +while He was silent—to the court of the palace, where He bore the +ribaldry and dastard tortures and insults of the low Jewish crowd till +morning, turning in the midst of them with the reminding look to Peter, +which sent His last friend, broken down by the consciousness of his own +cowardice, weeping into the night—to the judgment-seat of Pilate, and +the scourgings of the Roman soldiers—to Herod’s hall and the insults of +the base Galilean court—back again to the judgment-seat of the +representative of the divine Tiberius, and so to the final brutalities +in the prætorium while the cross is preparing, and the blood which is +dripping from the crown of thorns on His brow, mingles with that which +flows from the wounds of His scourgings—and find, if you can, one +momentary sign of terror or of weakness. + +In all the world’s annals there is nothing which approaches, in the +sublimity of its courage, that last conversation between the peasant +prisoner, by this time a mass of filth and blood, and the Roman +procurator, before Pilate led Him forth for the last time, and pleaded +scornfully with His nation for the life of their King. The canon from +which we started must guide us to the end. There must be no flaw or spot +on Christ’s courage, any more than on His wisdom, and tenderness, and +sympathy. And for the last time I repeat, the more unflinchingly we +apply the test, the more clear and sure will the response come back to +us. + +We have been told recently, by more than one of those who profess to +have weighed and measured Christianity and found it wanting, that +religion must rest on reason, based on phenomena of this visible +tangible world in which we are living. + +Be it so. There is no need for a Christian to object. He can meet this +challenge as well as any other. We need never be careful about choosing +our own battle-field. Looking, then, at that world as we see it, +labouring heavily along in our own time—as we hear of it through the +records of the ages—I must repeat that there is no phenomenon in it +comparable for a moment to this of Christ’s life and work. The more we +canvass and sift and weigh and balance the materials, the more clearly +and grandly does His figure rise before us, as the true Head of +humanity, the perfect Ideal not only of wisdom and tenderness and love, +but of courage also, because He was and is the simple Truth of God—the +expression, at last, in flesh and blood, of what He who created us means +each one of our race to be. + + * * * * * + +We have now finished our endeavour to look at the life of Christ from +one point of view, and in special connection with one human quality. I +trust it may prove to be only the first step for many of you in a study +which will last your lives. At any rate it is one which the reverence +which is felt by every member of this College for our founder ought to +commend to us above all others. + +He, as you all know, was never weary of impressing on us, term after +term, year after year, that the aim of this place is to make good +citizens, and that this can only be done by keeping vividly before +ourselves, in all our work here, that common humanity which binds us all +together by the ties of family, of neighbourhood, of country. What that +common humanity means and implies, he taught us, can only be understood +by reference to a Son of man, and Son of God, in whom we have all a +common interest, through whom we have all a common spiritual +relationship to His and our Father. + +To bring this home to us all, as the central truth of our own lives, as +the master-key of the confusions and perplexities in our own hearts, and +in the world around us, was the crowning work of his life, and I trust +we have been true to his principle and his method in our attempt to +realise the life of this Son of Man, and Son of God, on this earth, +which is so mysteriously at strife with the will of its Creator and +Redeemer. + +Into the heart of the mystery of that strife the wisest and best of us +cannot penetrate, but the wayfaring man cannot help seeing that it is +precisely around this life of the Son of Man, and Son of God, that the +fiercest controversies of our time are raging. Is it not also becoming +clearer every day that they will continue to rage more and more +fiercely—that there can be no rest or peace possible for mankind—until +all things are subdued to Him, and brought into harmony with His life? + +It is to this work that all Churches and Sects, Catholic and Protestant, +that all the leading nations of the world, known collectively as +Christendom, are pledged: and the time for redeeming that pledge is +running out rapidly, as the distress and perplexity, the threatening +disruption and anarchy, of Christendom too clearly show. It is to this +work too that you and I, every man and woman of us, are also called; and +if we would go about it with any hope and courage, it can only be by +keeping the life of Christ vividly before us day by day, and turning to +it as to a fountain in the desert, as to the shadow of a great rock in a +weary land. + +From behind the shadow the still small voice—more awful than tempest or +earthquake—more sure and persistent than day and night—is always +sounding, full of hope and strength to the weariest of us all, “Be of +good cheer, I have overcome the world.” + + πορεύου καὶ σὺ ποίει ὁμοίως. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + CONCLUSION[2] + + AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT CLIFTON COLLEGE, SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 1879. + + “They crowd upon us in this shade, + The youth who own the coming years— + Be never God or land betrayed + By any son our Harvard rears!” + + THE REV. R. LOWELL. + + +WHAT is it in such societies as yours that gives them so strong a hold +on, so unique an attraction for, those who have been for years engaged +in the rough work of life? That the fact is so I think no one will deny, +explain it how they will. I at least cannot remember to have met with +any man who will not own that a visit to one of our great schools moves +and touches him on a side of his nature which for the most part lies +quiet, almost dormant, but which he feels it is good for him should be +stirred. He may go back to his work without an effort to explain to +himself why these unwonted sensations have visited him, but not without +a consciousness that he has had a change of air which has done him +good—that he has been in a bracing atmosphere, like that at the top of +some high mountain pass, where the morning sun strikes earlier and more +brightly than in the valleys where his daily task must be done. + +To him who cares to pursue the inquiry, I think the conviction will +come, that to a stranger there is something at once inspiring and +pathetic in such societies as this, standing apart as they do from, and +yet so intimately connected with, the great outside world. + +Inspiring, because he finds himself once again amongst those before whom +the golden gates of active life are about to open, for good or evil—each +one of whom holds in his hands the keys of those gates, the keys of +light or of darkness, amongst whom faith is strong, hope bright, and +ideals, untainted as yet by the world’s slow stain, still count for a +great power. + +Pathetic, because he knows but too well how hard the path is to find, +how steep to climb, on the further side of those golden gates—how often +in the journey since he himself passed out from under them, his own +faith and hope have burned dimly, and his ideal has faded away as he +toiled on, or sat by the wayside, looking wistfully after it; till in +the dust and jar, the heat and strain of the mighty highway, he has been +again and again tempted to doubt whether it was indeed anything more +than a phantom exhalation, which had taken shape in the glorious morning +light, only to vanish when the work-day sun had risen fairly above the +horizon, and dispersed the coloured mists. + +He may well be pardoned if, at such times, the remembrance of the actual +world in which he is living, and of the generation which moved into line +on the great battle-field when he himself shouldered musket and +knapsack, and passed into action out of the golden gates, should for a +moment or two bring the pathetic side of the picture into strongest +relief. “Where are they now who represented genius, valour, +self-sacrifice, the invisible heavenly world, to these? Are they dead? +Has the high ideal died out of them? Will it be better with the new +generation?”[3] + +Such thoughts, such doubts, will force themselves at times on us all, to +be met as best we may. Happy the man who is able, not at all times and +in all places, but on the whole, to hold them resolutely at arm’s +length, and to follow straight on, though often wearily and painfully, +in the tracks of the divine visitor who stood by his side in his youth, +though sadly conscious of weary lengths of way, of gulfs and chasms, +which since those days have come to stretch and yawn between him and his +ideal—of the difference between the man God meant him to be—of the +manhood he thought he saw so clearly in those early days—and the man he +and the world have together managed to make of himself. + +I say, happy is that man. I had almost said that no other than he is +happy in any true or noble sense, even in this hard materialist +nineteenth century, when the faith that the weak must to the wall, that +the strong alone are to survive, prevails as it never did before—which +on the surface seems specially to be organised for the destruction of +ideals and the quenching of enthusiasms. I feel deeply the +responsibility of making _any_ assertion on so moot a point to such an +audience in such a place as this; nevertheless, even in our materialist +age I must urge you all, as you would do good work in the world, to take +your stand resolutely and once for all, at school and all your lives +through, on the side of the idealists. + +In doing so I trust and believe I shall not be running counter to the +teaching you are accustomed to hear in this place. I know that I +_should_ be running counter to it if anything I may say were to give the +least encouragement to dreaminess or dawdling. Let me say then at once +and emphatically, that nothing can be farther from my wish, or thought. +The only idealism I plead for is not only compatible with sustained and +vigorous work: it cannot be maintained without it. + +The gospel of work is a true gospel, though not the only one, or the +highest, and has been preached in our day by great teachers. And I do +not deny that the advice I have just been giving you may seem at first +sight to conflict with the work-gospel. Listen, for instance, to the +ring of it in the rugged and incisive words of one of our strongest +poets. + + “That low man seeks a little thing to do, + Sees it and does it. + This high man, with a great thing to pursue, + Dies ere he knows it. + That low man goes on adding one to one, + His hundreds soon hit. + This high man aiming at a million, + Misses an unit.” + +This sounds like a deliberate attack on the idealist, a direct +preference of low to high aims and standards, of the seen to the unseen. +It is in reality only a wholesome warning against aiming at any ideal by +wrong methods, though the use of the words “low” and “high” is no doubt +likely to mislead. The true idealist has no quarrel with the lesson of +these lines; indeed he would be glad to see them written on one of the +door-posts of every great school, if only they were ballasted on the +other by George Herbert’s quaint and deeper wisdom, + + “Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high, + So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be. + Sink not in spirit: who aimeth at the sky, + Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.” + +Both sayings are true, and worth carrying in your minds as part of their +permanent furniture, and you will find that they will live there very +peaceably side by side. + +There is in truth no real antagonism between them. The seeming paradox, +like so many others, disappears in the working world. In the stress of +the great battle of life it will trouble no soldier who keeps a single +eye in his head, and a sound heart in his bosom. For he who has the +clearest and intensest vision of what is at issue in that battle, and +who quits himself in it most manfully, will be the first to acknowledge +that for him there has been no approach to victory except by the +faithful doing day by day of the work which lay at his own threshold. + +On the other hand the universal experience of mankind—the dreary +confession of those who have merely sought a “low thing,” and “gone on +adding one to one,” making that the aim and object of their lives—unite +in warning us that on these lines no true victory can be had, either for +the man himself or for the cause he was sent into the world to maintain. + +No, there is no victory possible for boy or man without humility and +magnanimity; and no humility or magnanimity possible without an ideal. I +have been pleading with you boys to take sides with the idealists at +once and through life. I have told you unless you do so you can neither +be truly humble nor truly magnanimous. You may reply, “Well, that advice +may be good or bad, we cannot tell, until you tell us _how_ we are to +side with them, and what you mean by an idealist.” Such a reply would be +only reasonable, and I will try to answer the demand it makes, or at any +rate to give you a few hints which will enable you to work out the +question for yourselves. + +There is not one amongst you all, I care not how young he may be, who +has not heard or felt the call in his own heart, to put aside all evil +habits, and to live a brave, simple, truthful life in this school. It +may have come to you while listening in chapel or elsewhere to religious +teaching, or in the play fields or dormitories; when you have been alone +or in company, at work or at play; but that it has come, at some time, +in some place, there is not a boy in this chapel who will deny. It is no +modern, no Christian, experience this. The choice of Hercules, and +numberless other Pagan stories, the witness of nearly all histories and +all literatures, attest that it is an experience common to all our race. +It is of it that the poet is thinking in those fine lines of Emerson +which are written up in the Hall of Marlborough College:— + + “So close is glory to our dust, + So near is God to man, + When duty whispers low, ‘Thou must,’ + The youth replies, ‘I can.’” + +It does not wait for the reasoning powers to be developed, but comes +right in upon the boy himself, appealing to him to listen and follow. + +It is this whisper, this call, which is the ground of what I have, for +want of a better name, been speaking of as idealism. Just in so far as +the boy listens to and welcomes it, he is becoming an idealist—one who +is rising out of himself, and into direct contact and communion with +spiritual influences, which, even when he shrinks from them, and tries +to put them aside, he feels and knows to be as real (and will live I +hope to acknowledge to be more real) than all influences coming to him +from the outside world—one who is bent on bringing himself and the world +into obedience to these spiritual influences. If he turns to meet the +call and answers ever so feebly and hesitatingly, it becomes clearer and +stronger. He will feel next, that just in so far as he is loyal to it he +is becoming loyal to his brethren: that he must not only build his own +life up in conformity with its teaching, must not only find or cut his +own way straight to what is fair and true and noble, but must help on +those who are around him and will come after him, and make the path +easier and plainer for them also. + +I have indicated in outline, in a few sentences, a process which takes a +lifetime to work out. You all know too, alas! even those who have +already listened most earnestly to the voice, and followed most +faithfully, how many influences there are about you and within you which +stand across the first steps in the path, and bar your progress; which +are for ever dwarfing and distorting the ideal you are painfully +struggling after, and appealing to the cowardice, and laziness, and +impurity, which are in every one of us, to thwart obedience to the call. +But here, as elsewhere, it is the first step which costs, and tells. He +who has once taken that, consciously and resolutely, has gained a +vantage ground for all his life. That first step, remember, ought to be +taken by English boys at our English schools. + +And here let me turn aside for a moment to note for you what seems to +me, looking from outside, the ideal for which you English boys should +just now be specially striving. The strength and weakness of the nation +of which you are a part will always be reflected powerfully in these +miniature Englands, and there is a national weakness which is alarming +all thoughtful Englishmen at this time. Our race on both sides of the +Atlantic has, for generations, got and spent money faster than any +other, and this spendthrift habit has had a baleful effect on English +life. It has made it more and more feverish and unsatisfying. The +standard of expenditure has been increasing by leaps and bounds, and +demoralising trade, society, every industry and every profession, until +a false ideal has established itself, and the aim of life is too +commonly to get, not to be, while men are valued more and more for what +they have, not for what they are. + +The reaction has, I trust, set in. A period of depression, such as has +not been known for half a century, has come, happily in time to show us +how unreal and transitory is all such material prosperity, that a +nation’s life cannot stand any more than a man’s in the things which it +possesses. But the reign of Mammon will be hard to put down, and all +wholesome influences which can be brought to bear upon that evil +stronghold will be sorely needed. + +Amongst these none should be more potent than that of our great schools. +It is probably too late for the present generation of grown men to +restore a sounder tone, and set up a higher ideal. Those by whom it must +be done, if it be done at all, are now growing up in such schools as +this. There can be, I fear, no question that the outside world has been +reflected in our schools. I hear on all sides stories of increased +expenditure of all kinds. There must be fancy dresses for all games, and +boys are made to feel uncomfortable who do not conform to the fashion, +or who practise such useful and often necessary economies as wearing old +clothes or travelling third-class. You know whether such things are true +here. If they are, they are sapping true manliness, and tainting our +national life at its roots. But the stain, I believe, has not sunk so +deep, and the reaction may be swifter and deeper than elsewhere in +societies bound together in so close an intimacy as must exist in such +schools as this. + +In no other portions of English society can public opinion be modified +so swiftly and so radically as in a public school. One generation of +brave boys may do it, and a school generation is only a short four or +five years. I say then deliberately, that no man can gauge the value in +English life, at this present critical time, of a steady stream of young +men, flowing into all professions and all industries from our public +schools, who have learnt resolutely to use those words so hard to speak +in a society such as ours, “I can’t afford”; who have been trained to +have few wants and to serve these themselves, so that they may have +always something to spare, of power and of means, to help others; who +are “careless of the comfits and cushions of life,” and content to leave +them to the valets of all ranks. Many of us have hopes, from all we hear +and know of this and other such schools, that such a stream of free and +helpful young men may be looked for. Will you, boys, and above all you +elder boys, who can give a tone to the standards and ideals of to-day +here, which may last for many years, see that, so far at any rate as +Clifton is concerned, such hopes shall not be disappointed? + +And take my word for it, while you will be doing a great work for your +country, and restoring an ideal which has all but faded out, you will be +taking the surest road to all such success as becomes honest men to +achieve, in whatever walk of life you may choose for yourselves. The +outlook is by no means cheerful even for those who have learnt to live +simply, and to estimate “comfits and cushions” at their true value, +either in England or elsewhere. The following of false ideals has, I +fear, thrown heavy odds for many years to come against the chances in +our modern life of those who will not bow down to them. + +It is more than thirty years since the wisest of American writers, and +one of the best of American gentlemen, speaking to the young men of New +England, made much the same sad confession as I am making to you to-day. +“The young man,” he says, “on entering life finds the way to lucrative +employment blocked by abuses. The ways of trade are grown selfish to the +borders of theft, and supple to the borders (if not beyond the borders) +of fraud. The employments of commerce are not intrinsically unfit for a +man, or less genial to his faculties; but these are now in their general +course so vitiated by derelictions and abuses, at which all connive, +that it requires more vigour and resources than can be expected of every +young man to right himself in them. Has he genius and virtue? the less +does he find them fit for him to grow in, and if he would thrive in them +he must sacrifice all the brilliant dreams of boyhood and youth; he must +forget the prayers of his childhood, and must take on him the harness of +routine and obsequiousness.... I do not charge the merchant or +manufacturer. The sins of our trade belong to no class, to no +individual. One plucks, one distributes, one eats. Everybody partakes, +everybody confesses—with cap and knee volunteers his confession, yet +none feels himself accountable. He did not create the abuse, he cannot +alter it.... It happens, therefore, that all such ingenuous souls as +feel in themselves the irrepressible strivings of a noble aim, who by +the law of their nature must act simply, find these ways of trade unfit +for them, and they come forth from it. Such cases are becoming more +common every day. But by coming out of trade you have not cleared +yourselves—the trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative +professions and practices of men. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds a +very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success.” And so +further on he adds—“Considerations of this kind have turned the +attention of many philanthropists and intelligent persons to the claims +of manual labour as part of the education of every young man. If the +accumulated wealth of the past generation is thus tainted—no matter how +much of it is offered to us—we must begin to consider if it were not the +nobler part to renounce it, and to put ourselves into primary relations +with the soil and nature, and, abstaining from whatever is dishonest and +unclean, to take each of us bravely his part with his own hands in the +manual labour of the world.” + +It is a sad confession that our modern society has come to such a pass, +but one which I fear holds as true for England as for America. That it +will continue so, no one who has faith in a righteous government of the +world can believe. There seem to me signs on all sides that it is coming +to an end, and that a new industrial world is already forming under the +wreck of the old. But the time of change must be one of sore trial, and +your generation will have to bear the strain of it. In such a time as +this they only will be able to help their country in her need who have +learnt in early life the great lessons of simplicity and self-denial, +and I don’t hesitate to say, that the worst education which teaches +simplicity and self-denial is better than the best which teaches all +else but this. + +The first aim then for your time and your generation should be, to +foster, each in yourselves, and each in your school, a simple and +self-denying life—your ideal to be a true and useful one must have these +two characteristics before all others. Of course purity, courage, +truthfulness are as absolutely necessary as ever, without them there can +be no ideal at all. But as each age and each country has its own special +needs and weaknesses, so the best mind of its youth should be bent on +serving where the need is sorest, and bringing strength to the weak +places. There will be always crowds ready to fall in with the dapper +pliant ways which lead most readily to success in every community. +Society has been said to be “always and everywhere in conspiracy against +the true manhood of every one of its members”; and the saying, though +bitter, contains a sad truth. So the faithful idealist will have to +learn, without arrogance and with perfect good temper, to treat society +as a child, and never to allow it to dictate. So treated, society will +surely come round to those who have a high ideal before them, and +therefore firm ground under their feet. + + “Coy Hebe flies from those that woo, + And shuns the hand would seize upon her; + Live thou thy life, and she will sue, + To pour for thee the cup of honour.” + +Let me say a word or two more on this business of success. Is it not, +after all, the test of true and faithful work? Must it not be the +touchstone of the humble and magnanimous, as well as of the +self-asserting and ambitious? Undoubtedly; but here again we have to +note that what passes with society for success, and is so labelled by +public opinion, may well be, as often as not actually is, a bad kind of +failure. + +Public opinion in our day has for instance been jubilant over the +success of those who have started in life penniless, and have made large +fortunes. Indeed this particular class of self-made men is the one which +we have been of late invited to honour. Before doing so, however, we +shall have to ask with some care, and bearing in mind Emerson’s +warnings, by what methods the fortune has been made. The rapid +accumulation of national wealth in England can scarcely be called a +success by any one who studies the methods by which it has been made, +and its effects on the national character. It may be otherwise with this +or that millionaire, but each case must be judged on its own merits. + +I remember hearing, years ago, of an old merchant who on his death-bed +divided the results of long years of labour, some few hundreds in all, +amongst his sons. “It is little enough, my boys,” were almost his last +words, “but there isn’t a dirty shilling in the whole of it.” He had +been a successful man too, though not in the “self-made” sense. For his +ideal had been, not to make money, but to keep clean hands. And he had +been faithful to it. + +In reading the stories of these last persons whom the English nation is +invited to honour, I am generally struck with the predominance of the +personal element. The key-note seems generally some resolve taken in +early youth connected with their own temporal advancement. This one will +be Lord Mayor; this other Prime Minister; a third determines to own a +fine estate near the place of his birth; a fourth to become head of the +business in which he started as an errand-boy. They did indeed achieve +their ends, were faithful to the idea they had set before themselves as +boys; but I doubt if we can put them anywhere but in the lower school of +idealists. For the predominant motive being self-assertion, their +idealism seems never to have got past the personal stage, which at best +is but a poor business as compared with the true thing. Try the case by +a test every one of you can apply directly and easily. One boy here +resolves—I will win this scholarship; I will be head of the school; I +will be captain of the eleven; and does it. Another resolves—this school +shall be purer in tone, simpler in habits, braver and stronger in +temper, for my presence here; does his best, but doubts after all +whether he has succeeded. I need not say that the latter is the best +idealist; but which is the most successful Clifton boy? + +I must bring these remarks to an end, and yet have only been able to +touch, and that very lightly, the fringe of a great subject. I am sure +many of you have felt this; and I shall be surprised if some amongst you +are not already listening to me with a shade of jealousy in your minds, +which might formulate itself somehow perhaps thus:—“Is this talk about +idealism quite straightforward? Haven’t we heard all this +before?—Self-denial, simplicity of life, courage, and the rest, are they +not the first fruits of Christianity as we have been taught it? And we +have been told, too, that this call of which you have been talking is +the voice of Christ’s spirit speaking to ours. Can any good come of +swaddling these truths in other clothes which will scarcely fit them +better, or make them more easy, or more acceptable?” + +To which I am glad to reply from my heart—Truly; so it is. _Rem acu +tetigisti._ Christ is, indeed, the great idealist. “Be ye perfect, as +your Father in heaven is perfect,” is the ideal He sets before us—the +only one which is permanent and all-sufficing. His own spirit communing +with ours _is_ that call which comes to every human being. But my object +has been to get you to-night to look at the facts of your own +experience—and, as I have said already, the youngest has _some_ +experience in these deep matters—without connecting them for the moment +with any form of religion. + +Supposing the whole Bible, every trace of Christendom, to disappear +to-morrow, the same thing would, nevertheless, be occurring to you, and +me, and every man. We should each of us still be conscious of a +presence, which we are quite sure is not ourself, in the deepest +recesses of our own heart, communing with us there and calling us to +take up our twofold birthright as man—the mastery over visible things, +and above all the mastery over our own bodies, actions, thoughts—and the +power, always growing, of this mysterious communion with the invisible. + +It is therefore that I have abstained from the use of religious +phraseology, believing that, apart altogether from the Christian +revelation, the idealist will and must always remain nearest to the +invisible world, and therefore most powerful in this visible one. + +I think this method is worth using now and then, because no doubt the +popular verdict of this time is against idealism. If you have not +already felt it, you will assuredly feel as soon as you leave these +walls, that your lot is cast in a world which longs for nothing so much +as to succeed in shaking off all belief in anything which cannot be +tested by the senses, and gauged and measured by the intellect, as the +trappings of a worn-out superstition. + +Men have been trying, so runs the new gospel, to live by faith, and not +by sight, ever since there is any record at all of their lives; and so +they have had to manufacture for themselves the faiths they were to live +by. What is called the life of the soul or spirit, and the life of the +understanding, have been in conflict all this time, and the one has +always been gaining on the other. Stronghold after stronghold has +fallen, till it is clear almost to demonstration that there will soon be +no place left for that which was once deemed all-powerful. The spiritual +life can no longer be led honestly. Man has no knowledge of the +invisible upon which he can build. Let him own the truth and turn to +that upon which he _can_ build safely—the world of matter, his knowledge +of which is always growing; and be content with the things he can see +and taste and handle. Those who are telling you still in this time that +your life can and ought to be lived in daily communion with the +unseen—that so only you can loyally control the visible—are either +wilfully deceiving you, or are dreamers and visionaries. + +So the high priests of the new gospel teach, and their teaching echoes +through our literature, and colours the life of the streets and markets +in a thousand ways; and a Mammon-ridden generation longing to be rid of +what they hope are only certain old and clumsy superstitions—which they +_try_ to believe injurious to others, and are quite sure make them +uneasy in their own efforts to eat, drink, and be merry—applauds as +openly as it dare, and hopes soon to see the millennium of the +flesh-pots publicly declared and recognised. + +Against which, wherever you may encounter them, that you young +Englishmen may be ready and able to stand fast, is the hope and prayer +of many anxious hearts; in a time, charged on every side with signs of +the passing away of old things, such as have not been seen above the +horizon in Christendom since Luther nailed his protest on the church +door of a German village. + +----- + +Footnote 2: + + Printed by request. T. H. + +Footnote 3: + + Emerson. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + DELIVERED ON 8TH FEBRUARY 1891, IN THE COURSE OF LAYMEN’S SUNDAY + EVENING ADDRESSES AT RUGBY. + + +JUST fifty years ago, in February 1841, I was a Rugby boy, sitting where +you sit now. That half-year was my last at school. It was Dr. Arnold’s +last year. He died in June 1842. I had been at the school for eight +years, and had gone through it from the third to the sixth, in the +School House. It had been a notable eight years in Rugby’s history. +Stanley and Vaughan were sixth form boys in their last year when I was a +new boy. I was Clough’s study fag. Matthew Arnold, the present Dean of +Westminster, and Franklin Lushington were my contemporaries. Theodore +Walrond was head of the school when I left, with Conington next, or next +but one, to him. I need not name a score of others + + “fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cleanthum” + +who have done good work for England in Church and State, in India and +the Colonies, in this eventful half-century. I only name those who occur +to me as the typical Rugbeians of those years. You can fill up the list +yourselves if you like from the school register. You will find it a +noteworthy roll-call. + +When I was a new boy, Christmas 1833, the tide of religious and +political bigotry, which would surely have drowned a weaker man, was in +full flood against our headmaster. He was forbidden to preach the sermon +on the installation of Arthur Stanley’s father to the Bishopric of +Norwich. Many of his oldest and dearest Oxford friends were openly +alienated from him, and bitterly opposed to his teaching. Even those who +remained staunch were seriously alarmed at many of the doings and +sayings of this new type of headmaster. + +When I left, the tide had turned. Even the (so-called) religious +newspapers were silenced. He had been made Queen’s Chaplain, and, what +he valued most, Professor of Modern History at his old university. In my +undergraduate year I attended his inaugural lecture and his first course +on Modern History, and witnessed the noble amends which Oxford then made +to one whom she now recognised as amongst her noblest and most attached +sons. + +You may well believe then what a power Rugby has been in my life, and so +far as I can judge, in the life of most of my schoolfellows. For, though +there may be exceptions to the rule, it is undoubtedly true, that the +years from ten till eighteen or nineteen are those in which the seed is +sown and the bent given which determine the after-life of men. I passed +all those years under the spell of this place and Arnold, and for half a +century have never ceased to thank God for it. + +My first duty then to-day is to confess this in the fullest and frankest +words. So far I have felt my course clear, but no further. From +circumstances to which I need not refer, my connection with Rugby has +been less close than with other schools. When my own boys were old +enough, I had to look round and choose the school which answered best to +the Rugby of my day. Happily for me—happily too for England—my choice +was ample. Three of my old schoolfellows were headmasters,—Vaughan of +Harrow, Bradley of Marlborough (where Bishop Cotton, my old private +tutor here, had preceded him), Bradby of Haileybury (in succession to +Arthur Butler, another distinguished Rugbeian). So my eldest son went to +Marlborough, and the younger ones to Haileybury, and I have thus seen +more of these daughters, as I may call them, of the old Rugby, than of +my own old school. + +For attendance at Rugby dinners and flying visits on Speech days and +other special occasions, however pleasant, are not enough to keep one in +touch with the place—to know how far the old lines have been kept, the +old traditions cherished—what are the new tendencies and temptations +which have arisen as the years rolled by. And yet without such knowledge +how could I hope to respond to any good purpose to the desire of your +headmaster that I should deliver this address? A question which I own I +found it difficult to answer to my own satisfaction; but in such cases +one has no right to rely on one’s own judgment. Obedience to the man at +the helm is the only true rule; and so in deference to his wish I am +here to-night to do my best to justify his choice. + +After thinking the matter over with some care, I resolved that I cannot +do better than give you my view of what it was that the average boy +carried away from our Rugby of half a century ago which stood him in the +best stead—was of the highest value to him in after-life. By the average +boy I mean, one who entered into the life and caught some of the spirit +of the place, without distinguishing himself as a scholar, or coming +under the direct personal teaching and influence of the man of genius +who was our headmaster. Indirectly, no boy could help being more or less +under that influence, for the air of the whole place was full of it. + +I have been in some doubt as to what to put first, and am by no means +sure that the few who are left of my old schoolfellows would agree with +me; but, speaking for myself, I think this was our most marked +characteristic, the feeling that in school and close we were in training +for a big fight—were in fact already engaged in it—a fight which would +last all our lives, and try all our powers, physical, intellectual, and +moral, to the utmost. I need not say that this fight was the world-old +one of good with evil, of light and truth against darkness and lies, of +Christ against the devil. + +Of course all education worthy of the name teaches this lesson +indirectly, but to have it vividly and directly brought home to us, as +it was here fifty years ago, was a boon beyond price. I have always +thought that it was his recognition of this in the Rugby boys of that +time which drew that well-known testimony from Dr. Moberly, then an +Oxford tutor, afterwards headmaster of Winchester, and one of the +greatest educators of our time,—“Arnold’s pupils,” he wrote, “brought up +to Oxford a quite different character from what we knew elsewhere. They +were thoughtful, manly-minded, conscious of duty and obligation when +they first came up; and we looked on him as exercising an influence for +good which (for how many years I know not) had been absolutely unknown +to our public schools.” But this testimony I believe could never have +been given had Arnold’s teaching stopped here. What gave, I think, the +character Dr. Moberly recognised to Rugby boys, was, not the mere +conviction that we were soldiers in a war, but that we were soldiers who +were absolutely sure to win if only we were true to our Captain,—that He +was actually present with every one of us, and would surely give the +battle to our hands if we would loyally surrender our wills to Him. Let +me express what I want to say in the noble words of Arnold’s most famous +pupil. You all, I hope, know A. Stanley’s hymn for Ascension Day. One +verse runs: + + “He is gone, towards their goal + World and Church must onward roll. + Far behind we leave the past, + Forwards are our glances cast. + Still His words before us range + Through the ages as they change; + Wheresoe’er the Truth shall lead + He will give whate’er we need.” + +The youngest boy here, we were taught in no faltering speech, has an +utterly trustworthy guide in his own heart and conscience, if he will +only listen to Him and trust Him—if he will only follow the Truth and go +forward boldly. “It is a lying spirit,” was one of Arnold’s most +emphatic sayings, “that says, ‘Look backwards.’” + +There was an inspiring ring in such teaching as this; and for my part, +with half-a-century’s experience behind me, I hold it to-day to be +simply and absolutely true, in spite of oft-repeated criticisms as to +Arnold’s methods in teaching and ruling. It is written of the most +self-willed of American Presidents: + + “He couldn’t see but jest one side; + Ef his ’twas God’s, and that was plenty: + And so his ‘forrard’ multiplied + An army’s fighting power by twenty.” + +And I have heard the words applied to Arnold. His habit of ignoring the +other side of questions, it has been urged, combined with his +masterfulness of character, when brought to bear on young minds, +exercised an influence on them, which, though undoubtedly powerful, was +by no means free from serious drawbacks; and often had the effect of +making his pupils dogmatists, or of weakening their hold on truth in +after years, when they came to know the difficulties which surround all +the serious problems of our complicated and rudderless time. + +Were that criticism true it would be undoubtedly damaging; but, is it +true? In preparing this address I once more read through his lectures on +Modern History and Stanley’s Life, and rose from them with my own old +memories and belief confirmed, that never was there a teacher who took +more conscientious pains to understand himself, and make his pupils see +all sides of, the political and social problems which met them in their +reading. But, while scrupulously fair in weighing both sides, there was +no faltering or counting the cost in his own verdicts—no “patting the +devil on the back and calling him poor mistaken angel.” And I am +inclined to think (though by no means sure at this distance of time that +it is not a mere afterthought) that this vigour and directness may have +made some of his pupils, though not those who had profited most by his +teaching, more ready to take sides, and more sure of their own +judgments, than young men on entering life ought to be. In my own case, +at any rate—the only one in which a man can really speak with +confidence—I think on looking back I can detect a readiness to take +sides before I had qualified myself to judge which was right and which +wrong. And perhaps this was more or less characteristic of a good many +Rugbeians of that day, of whom it might be said in the words of Hosea +Biglow— + + “Nothin’ from Adam’s fall to Huldy’s bonnet + That we warn’t full cocked with our judgment on it.” + +But we paid for our haste. For one of the results of this characteristic +was that old Rugby friends of that time were apt to find themselves, +both at the universities and in active life, not only in opposite camps, +but in sharp antagonism. There were burning questions then as now which +divided men sharply, such as the Tractarian movement and the People’s +Charter; and like Home Rule to-day were of a kind which tried +friendships to the breaking-point. If you boys know A. Clough’s poems as +you ought, you must remember those lines in which this pathetic side of +the after-life of many of Arnold’s pupils, as it had been of his own +life, is touched so vividly and tenderly:— + + “Qua cursum ventus. + + As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay + With canvas drooping, side by side, + Two towers of sail at dawn of day + Are scarce long leagues apart descried; + + When fell the night, upsprung the breeze, + And all the darkling hours they plied, + Nor dreamt but each the self-same seas + By each was cleaving, side by side: + + E’en so—but why the tale reveal + Of those, whom year by year unchanged, + Brief absence joined anew to feel, + Astounded, soul from soul estranged? + + At dead of night their sails were filled, + And onward each rejoicing steered— + Ah, neither blame, for neither willed, + Or wist, what first with dawn appeared! + + To veer, how vain! On, onward strain, + Brave barks! In light, in darkness too, + Through winds and tides one compass guides— + To that, and your own selves, be true. + + But O blithe breeze; and O great seas, + Though ne’er, that earliest parting past, + On your wide plain they join again, + Together lead them home at last. + + One port, methought, alike they sought, + One purpose hold where’er they fare,— + O bounding breeze, O rushing seas! + At last, at last, unite them there!” + +So far I have been able to speak with confidence, but I cannot do so on +the next point. For I cannot be sure now whether it was while at school +or after I had left, though I am quite sure it was from Arnold’s +teaching, that I learnt the invaluable lesson in early life, that there +are subjects—such as the origin of evil, and the co-existence of man’s +free will and God’s omnipotence and omniscience—which lie beyond the +range of the human intellect; and before which, if we are in a healthy +moral state, we shall be content to sit down patiently and quietly, +without attempting to solve problems which lie at depths which no lead +or line of man’s invention can ever sound. Let me enforce this lesson in +his own words—“It should always be remembered that there are +difficulties in the way of all religion which can never be solved by +human powers. Intellectually, we can point out the greater difficulties +of Atheism and Scepticism. Practically, they yield to faith sought in +God’s way by doing His will.” “Living thus by faith, a man finds that +his course is one of perfect light: the moral result is so certain that +he is sure he has truth on his side.” + +I have tried to indicate the main lines of the education we got here +fifty years ago (apart, of course, from our school studies). It was +undoubtedly before all things training for a big fight—or rather for +_the_ big fight to which we had all been pledged at our baptism, +“manfully to fight under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the +devil, and to continue His faithful soldiers and servants unto our +life’s end.” + +And has not this, my young schoolfellows, been the aim of all education +in England worthy of the name since Alfred, a thousand years ago, caused +to be written up on the walls of his schools, + + “With all thy might + Stand by the right, + And be thou strong + Against the wrong.” + +It was probably brought more vividly before Rugby boys in Arnold’s time +than has often been the case in our schools, as he was himself so +essentially a fighting man—“one,” to use his own words, “whose spirit of +pugnacity would rejoice in fighting out this battle in a saw-pit.” But +the more you think of it, and the longer you live, the more firmly will +you get to hold the truth, that you _must_ be fighting men if you would +keep your self-respect, or do any stroke of work worth doing in this +tough old world. If you learn here to make pleasure or comfort or +success your aim, or to turn aside to any siren call from the steady +summons of duty, depend upon it, even if you attain them, you will find +long before you reach my age, that they have turned into ashes in your +mouth, and are like Dead Sea apples, fair to look on, but only fit for +the dust-heap. + +There will always be plenty of men in all times, especially in old and +rich countries, who take no side on great questions, having enough work +and enjoyment to satisfy all their own wants, like Isaak Walton and his +friends in our great civil war. Of them Arnold said, “I know not how the +peaceableness of such persons can be either admirable or amiable”; +contrasting them with Lord Falkland and others, who left the popular +side when it was triumphing, and joined the opposite ranks without +changing their principles or becoming renegades. Such men, he taught us, +are amongst the noblest characters in history; but they change their +sides not to conquer but to die—uncheered by sympathy, and therefore the +purest of martyrs. These were the models he set before Rugby boys in my +time, and lived up to himself. Our spokesman of that time, the most +typical poet that Rugby has bred, sang of such— + + “So thou but strive, thou soon shalt see + Defeat itself is victory.” + +Or, if that saying seem to you mere paradox, take this expansion of it +in one of the noblest of his later poems— + + “Say not the struggle nought availeth, + The labour and the wounds are vain, + The enemy faints not, nor faileth, + And as things have been they remain. + + If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; + It may be, in yon smoke concealed, + Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers, + And, but for you, possess the field. + + For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, + Seem here no painful inch to gain, + Far back, through creeks and inlets making, + Comes silent, flooding in, the main. + + And not by eastern windows only, + When daylight comes, comes in the light, + In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, + But westward, look, the land is bright.” + +Well, my boys, I can fancy that by this time some of you are thinking +that I might as well turn to the Rugby of to-day, if I have anything to +say about it, instead of dwelling all the time on the old Rugby of +half-a-century ago. And so I will turn, for the few minutes that are +left to me, to the present and the future. But after all, the times +differ much less, in this place at any rate, than would appear +superficially. It is still the old fight you are training for as we +were, and must be fought under the old banner and with the old weapons. + +No doubt some of the old pitfalls have been filled up, and new ones +opened by the enemy, who is always alert and on the watch for the +laggards and the half-hearted. And, judging from my general +experience—for as I have confessed already my special experience here is +scarcely more than that of a stranger—I think that one of the sides on +which the attack presses more than of old lies in the temptation and +tendency to careless expense; and to a taking it for granted that the +world is to be made easy for you; that you have all a sort of +prescriptive right to enjoyments and advantages: or, as the Americans +say, “to a good time,” without any special effort or vigilance of your +own. Depend upon it, all such notions are lies, and come from the father +of lies. The more you train yourselves here to do everything for +yourselves—even in your games—to look for no good thing for which you +have not strenuously striven yourselves—the better and happier men will +you be in after-life. Happy is the man, has been most truly said, who +can help himself, for he shall be waited upon. The most pitiable man in +these, or indeed in any, times, is he who has only learned to ring a +bell. And as to carelessness in expense, no doubt England is immensely +richer than it was fifty years ago, and so probably you come mostly from +richer homes than we did. But for all that, I am quite sure that there +must be many boys here who are only kept here by friends to whom the +cost is a serious consideration. To all such I would say that there is +no discipline of more value than to learn to say frankly and positively, +and to act on the words, “I can’t afford it.” + +And now my time is up, and I have only to wish our noble old school and +you of this generation who belong to it, God’s speed. + +It is allowed to few men to revisit their old boyish haunts, and revive +old school memories, after fifty years, and to come in touch with one +company of that great host in whose hands the future of our England +rests for good or ill, who are even now buckling on the armour which we +are laying down. + +If ever one of you should chance to come back here in 1940 to speak to +the Rugby boys who will then be sitting on those benches, he will know +how pathetic an experience it is: he will be able to appreciate the +solemn but yet hopeful thoughts which crowd on me to-night—solemn +indeed, but yet full of hope. For I will never believe that the living +faith which was breathed into this school fifty years ago will ever be +allowed to fade out while the world stands: the faith which made the +Rugby of my time a missionary school, from which the whole higher +education of England drew a new inspiration, and a new life: the faith, +once more to quote Arnold’s own words, “which is the opposite of all +idolatry, the doctrine of the person of Christ, not His church, not His +sacraments, not His teaching: not even the truths about Him, or the +virtues He most enforced, but Himself—the only object which bars +fanaticism and idolatry on the one hand and gives life and power to all +morality on the other.” + +Keep Him alive in your hearts, my boys, and go forward bravely, you + + “Who stand before us in this shade, + The youth who own the coming years: + Be never God or land betrayed + By any son our Rugby rears.”[4] + +----- + +Footnote 4: + + It is not “Rugby” but “Harvard” in the original, which is taken from + the Commemoration hymn written by the Rev. J. R. Lowell. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + AN ADDRESS DELIVERED ON 12TH JUNE 1892, THE ANNIVERSARY OF DR. + ARNOLD’S DEATH. + + +WE are gathered here on this great Christian festival to keep what I +may, with our preacher of this afternoon, call our second founder’s day. +I am sure that every good Rugbeian is proud of Queen Elizabeth’s sturdy +and loyal grocer, who bore testimony to his “gracious lady and mistress” +before Bishop Bonner and the other commissioners of her sister, at the +risk of being burnt as a heretic in Smithfield. Lawrence Sheriff’s day, +20th October, will never be forgotten or neglected in this place. But, +as the United States do wisely and well to recognise Abraham Lincoln as +the second father and founder of their Republic, so may we rightly +honour Thomas Arnold as the second father and founder of Rugby School, +and set apart this 12th of June, the day on which he passed away here +fifty years ago, as one to be kept sacred to his memory. + +This Saint’s day then I hope and believe will be kept while Rugby +stands, for in so keeping it we are carrying out his own wish, that the +English Church might learn in the new time to restore, amongst other +practices she has abandoned, “Commemorations of holy men of all times +and all countries.” + +This 12th of June is then the 50th anniversary of the death of our +second founder, who was taken in the fulness of his strength, and in the +hour of his triumph, when his long battle was really won, and his old +university, and his country, were vying with one another to honour the +man, who it was at last recognised had raised the true standard of +education again in England, and had inspired it with a soul and a +purpose which it had wanted since Elizabeth’s day. + +I am here to-night to tell you what I can from my own experience of this +great life’s work. First, however, let me give it you in the words of +his poet son, from the lines on Rugby Chapel, which I hope are well +known to most of you: + + “O strong soul, by what shore + Tarriest thou now? For that force, + Surely, has not been left vain! + Somewhere, surely, afar, + In the sounding labour-house vast + Of being, is practised that strength, + Zealous, beneficent, firm! + + Yes, in some far-shining sphere, + Conscious or not of the past, + Still thou performest the word + Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live— + Prompt, unwearied, as here! + Still thou upraisest with zeal + The humble good from the ground, + Sternly repressest the bad! + Still, like a trumpet, dost rouse + Those who with half-open eyes + Tread the border-land dim, + ’Twixt vice and virtue; reviv’st, + Succourest!—this was thy work, + This was thy life upon earth.” + +And surely such is the work still of such as he, the born leaders of +men; and in the darkest hour, again and again will such as they come to +our minds when our need is sorest. + + “Beacons of hope, ye appear! + Languor is not in your heart, + Weakness is not in your word, + Weariness not on your brow. + Ye alight in our van! at your voice, + Panic, despair, flee away. + Ye move through the ranks, recall + The stragglers, refresh the outworn, + Praise, reinspire the brave! + Order, courage, return. + Eyes rekindling, and prayers, + Follow your steps as ye go. + Ye fill up the gaps in our files, + Strengthen the wavering line, + Stablish, continue our march, + On, to the bound of the waste, + On, to the City of God.” + +Such prosaic details of personal experience as I can give you, my boys, +will fall flat enough after a trumpet call like this; but they are what +I am come here to give you, and I will try to give them as simply and +truthfully as I can. + +Nearly forty years ago, when I first came across, in Stanley’s _Life of +Arnold_, a passage in one of his letters to a friend as to the treatment +of unpromising pupils, describing it as “very often like kicking a +football up hill,” the truth as well as the humour of the saying came +home to me very vividly—“You kick it onwards,” he says, “twenty yards, +and it rolls back nineteen: still you have gained one yard, and thus in +a good many kicks you make some progress.” + +Now I don’t believe that any boy had more reason than I to be thankful +for this kicking-up process, and for the Doctor’s patient use of it. As +long as you didn’t roll back _more_ than the nineteen yards he stuck to +you, and used whatever germ he could detect of intellectual activity in +you to rouse you, and hinder the fatal rolling back over the twentieth +yard of the descent. + +I will illustrate this by my own case. I went up to Rugby at ten from a +preparatory school for Winchester, where a different grammar from the +Rugby one was in use, and we were taught a different pronunciation of +Greek. Partly owing to discouragement at first from this cause, but more +to my inaptitude for languages and excessive fondness for games, I soon +lost any real interest in the form work, and only did just enough to get +my yearly remove. On the other hand I was fond of reading history and +current literature, and knew more of both than most of my form-fellows. +So for three years I was kicked slowly up the school hill, in no small +danger all the time of rolling back over the twentieth yard, and so +ending my school career. However, I managed to arrive safely in the +Shell, though I fear with the character of a boy who took little +interest in his work, and never did more than he could help. + +In those days the Doctor used to come round once a month and examine +each form in some book they had been reading, an ordeal which all but +the brightest and best boys looked forward to with no little uneasiness. +I was very low in the Shell when he came round to examine us in the +first book of Horace’s Odes, and towards the end of the terrible hour +asked the head of the form, who was construing the 11th Ode, what made +the Romans so especially grateful to Augustus in his dealings with the +Parthians. He and some other boys made shots, but the Doctor shook his +head, and the question came slowly down past some thirty boys to me, +when I timidly ventured “the recovery of the eagles and standards taken +from Crassus.” “Quite right! Go up!” the Doctor said, evidently pleased; +and I marched up for the first time to the top of my form. My stay in +that exalted region was short, but from that time I felt his manner to +me changed. He may have noticed, too, that I had taken a volume of Sir +W. Raleigh’s _History of the World_ out of the school library, and found +out that I was familiar with Scott’s poetry and novels. At any rate, +from that time I used to fancy he always gave me an easy piece to +construe, and instead of horrid questions on grammar and scholarship, +would ask for some illustration of the passage from an English classic. + +I will give the last instance I remember of this method in the Doctor’s +teaching. It was in my last half at school when I had reached the lower +bench of the sixth. We were reading the second book of Aristotle’s +_Rhetorica_, and had come to the chapter on old men, whom that +disagreeable philosopher describes as μικρόψυχοι—“small-souled”—caring +about nothing great, but only what tends to the ease of their own lives. +“Do you remember a striking illustration of this in one of Scott’s +novels?” the Doctor asked the head of the school, Theodore Walrond.—No +answer, and the question came all round the form,—when it came to me he +paused for several seconds and seemed disappointed (so at least I +thought) when he had to pass on. I shall remember the pang of +self-reproach which shot through me to the last day of my life. No one +answered, so he referred us to the end of the Abbot, where in her flight +after the defeat of Langside, Queen Mary with her small band of devoted +followers pause at the convent garden on the Border, where the old monk +is digging. He leans on his spade watching them, as they ride off, and +mutters, “I could pity this poor Queen and these men. But what are these +things to a man of fourscore? and it’s a fine dropping morning for the +young kale wort.” + +As I have just told you, I shall always remember the sore feeling at +having disappointed him whom of all men I most wished to please, when +that question passed me. But this after all was only an intellectual +failure. I wish I could stop here, but as I have come to make a clean +breast to you my young schoolfellows, I have a further confession to +make which I hope may be of use as a warning to some of you. I was +captain of Big-Side in my last year, which, as you all know, involves +the practical control of the Cricket and Football Funds. Now there was a +custom in those days to have a School House supper on the last day +before the Christmas holidays, the cost of which was paid out of the +Big-Side fund. The Doctor’s leave had to be asked, but it was looked +upon as a matter of course, and so, great and sore was the surprise and +indignation, when on the eve of the Christmas holidays 1841, a message +came from the Doctor that there was to be no house supper. There can be +no doubt he was perfectly in the right, as “Big-Side fund” belonged to +the whole school, and it was a misappropriation of trust funds to spend +any part of it for the benefit of a single house. But this objection I +don’t think occurred to any one, and the indignant athletes determined, +as there could be no house supper, there should be a smaller one of +select men for which no leave should be asked. The necessary funds could +not have been reached except with my consent, and this I gave without +thought, as I rather sympathised with the rebels; and I not only let +them have the money but went to the supper. As old Thomas would of +course give out no beer, several bottles of wine and spirits were +smuggled into the house, with the result that some half-dozen of the +wilder spirits got uproariously drunk, and besides destroying some of +the Library books, made a serious row in the bed-rooms and damaged some +of the furniture. I went off by an early train next morning, but was so +thoroughly ashamed that I wrote, on reaching home, to the Doctor to tell +him I had been at the party. I transcribe a part of his answer from the +old yellow sheet which I have kept religiously from that day. + + “FOX HOWE, Dec. 18, 1840. + + “MY DEAR HUGHES—I did not know nor should I probably ever + have known of your share in the business of Friday last had + it not been for your own letter. Officially, therefore, I do + not know it now—for of course it would be utterly out of the + question to use your own letter as evidence against you. The + matter therefore being set at rest so far as any public + notice of your conduct is concerned, I have the less + difficulty in writing to you fully and plainly, not as + master of Rugby school, but as an old acquaintance of your + father’s, and as a man who feels very sincerely interested + about yourself. I cannot deny that your letter gave me a + very great and unexpected shock; for I had no notion that + you or any one else in the sixth form was concerned with the + party. I have been so accustomed on these points to feel + confidence in the sixth form, that I really am apt to have + no suspicion whatever of them in such matters; and I am + quite sure that if I am obliged to resign this confidence + the school must speedily go to ruin. Farther, I think that + according to my school recollections, good and steady + fellows at Winchester would have taken no part in such a + business, and it would grieve me very much to think that at + Rugby such characters could not equally be depended + upon—that companionship or any other motives might lead into + mischief those on whom I ought to be able to rely.” + +I will not quote further from this and another later letter; but, though +no eye but mine has seen them till to-day, I felt that I could not +honestly speak to you to-night without alluding to this matter. Perhaps +some of you may have noticed in the anonymous dedication of _Tom Brown’s +Schooldays_ to Mrs. Arnold, the words “who owes more than he can ever +acknowledge or repay to her and her’s.” You will now perhaps understand +them. It may also, perhaps, encourage some one here or there to take +heart again, on seeing how a moral breakdown in early life, if wisely +handled by a master like Arnold, may become a source of strength in +later years. + +These few memories of Arnold as headmaster may fitly close with his +parting words to a favourite pupil, “Whatever profession you choose +doesn’t much matter if you follow steadily our great common profession, +Christ’s service.” I believe that our loyalty to his memory in this +place would be as genuine if his work had begun and ended here, as our +great Headmaster and second founder; but a crowd of the foremost of +living Englishmen would not be going to meet in the Jerusalem Chamber +to-morrow, to arrange for a worthy memorial to him in the Abbey, fifty +years after his death, if he had not been a great benefactor to England +outside these walls. + +Let me in conclusion, then, glance shortly at his work for the nation. +As an historian I believe there is not one of the brilliant group of +writers of history in the last half-century but would acknowledge their +debt to his example and his method; but I am not an expert, and so will +say no more on this point. To some extent, however, I can speak as an +expert as to the movement which has revolutionised the social and +industrial life of England in the last fifty years; and with the +exceptions, perhaps, of Mr. Maurice’s and Lord Shaftesbury’s, I know of +no name which can be put before Dr. Arnold’s amongst those who, in the +first rank, have helped to tide our country over the dangerous time of +that crisis, which came to a head in Europe in 1848, and is still trying +and proving every nation in Christendom. + +After watching for years the condition into which the Corn Laws on the +one hand, and the orthodox dogma of the Economists of that day (of +salvation by _laissez-faire_—or by buying in the cheapest and selling in +the dearest markets)—he was convinced in 1831, to put it in his own +words, that a time was at hand “when the devil will fight his best in +good earnest.” In the October of that year he wrote to a friend, after +describing his field of wholesome and happy labour in his family and the +school, “but my sense of the evils of the times, and to what prospects I +am bringing up my children, is overwhelmingly bitter. All in the moral +and physical world appears so exactly to announce the coming of the +“great day of the Lord,” _i.e._ a period of fearful visitation to +terminate the existing state of things—whether to terminate the whole +existence of the human race neither man nor angel knows—that no +entireness of private happiness can possibly close my mind against the +sense of it.” + +And so, as he could not close his eyes to the danger but was haunted by +it, he set to work to combat “the two great opposite forms of human +wickedness”—priestcraft and Benthamism—or, as he called them, “white and +red Jacobinism”—and went into the fight with all the thoroughness and +independence which made him such a power in whatever he undertook. He +could find no place in which he could speak out in the Press, and so +started a weekly journal of his own, _The Englishman’s Register_, +without any illusion as to its prospects. “Every selfish motive,” he +writes, “would deter me from the _Register_: it will be a pecuniary +loss, it will bring me no credit, but much trouble and probably abuse, +and some of my dearest friends look on it not only coldly, but with +aversion. But I _do_ think it a most solemn duty to make the attempt.” +He put his nephew, Mr. Ward, in as editor, writing the principal leaders +himself and giving a general supervision. “The difficulty of the +undertaking,” he soon found, “is indeed most serious. All the Tories +turn from me as a Liberal, whilst the strong Reformers think me timid +and half corrupt.” And again, “If I had two necks I should think I had a +good chance of being hanged by both sides, as I think I shall by the one +that gets the better if it comes to a fight; there is not a man in +England who is less a party man than I am, for in fact no party would +own me.” A year later he writes, “_Experto crede_, it is expensive work +to push an infant journal up hill.” + +The life of the _Register_ was short, but it did good work, and by +introducing him to the _Sheffield Courant_ gave him the opening he +wanted for the future. He was, I think, scarcely prepared for the flood +of angry and scurrilous abuse and ridicule which the _Register_ drew on +him (notably from Theodore Hook in the _John Bull_), but he was +splendidly indifferent to it all. “It is an immense blessing,” was his +answer to indignant friends, “to be perfectly callous to ridicule, or, +which comes to the same thing, to be thoroughly conscious that what we +have in us of noble and delicate is not ridiculous to any but fools, and +that, if fools will laugh, wise men will do well to let them.” And +again, “I have lived for many years in entire indifference to the +opinion of people, unless I have reason to think them good and wise; and +I wish my friends would share this indifference as far as I am +concerned.” + +It would be out of place here to go into any detail as to these +political writings, or to do more than glance at his long struggle on +the council of the London University for the necessity of maintaining a +Christian character in national education. With astonishing patience he +tried again and again to find a common ground with his colleagues, and +only left them when convinced that it was hopeless, thereby drawing on +himself more suspicion and attacks from quite a different quarter. +“Better go on as we are than set up national education on any but a +Christian basis,” was his final decision; for “the moment you enter on +moral subjects—history or philosophy—you must be Christian or +Antichristian.” And again, “What is the impartiality talked of? That a +man shall be neither a Christian, nor yet not a Christian? The fact is, +that religious veneration is inconsistent with what is called +impartiality, which means that you see some good and some evil on both +sides, and so identify yourselves with neither, and can judge of both. +That is true of all persons and things human; not of what is divine. If +Christ was no more than Socrates, I can speak of Him impartially: can +judge Him: but if I believe in Him, I am not His judge, but His servant +and creature. He claims the devotion of my whole nature, for He is +identical with goodness, wisdom, holiness.” + +And thus I come naturally to the last part of our subject, the influence +of Arnold on the spiritual or religious life of England. In his last +years the time of a great revival had come, which would cast that life, +as it were, in a new mould—into what mould was the vital question. The +decisive crisis was in its most acute phase when he passed away fifty +years ago. How well I remember it, for I was at its very centre from +1842 to 1845, at Oriel, Arnold’s own college, and that of the foremost +men in the Tractarian movement—of Newman, Keble, and Hurrell Froude, of +Pusey, and Marriott, and Church—when Tract Ninety was dividing Oxford +common-rooms into hostile camps, and its author was spending the last +sad years at Littlemore before leaving the church of his fathers, and +dragging with or after him some of the brightest and best of my +contemporaries. It was a time of sore rebuke and distress to our church, +and to none of its sons sorer than to Arnold, scores of whose pupils +were in residence. + +At Oxford in those years, Bishop Cotton, my last tutor here, had given +me, when I left school, the volume of _Sermons on Christian Life_, +published in 1841, and I had read the famous introduction again and +again in the Christmas holidays before I went up to Oriel. The pathos of +that appeal came right home to me, and I think, even if my reason and +conscience had remained unconvinced, I could not have resisted it. “Mr. +Newman’s system,” he wrote, “is now at its flood; it is daily making +converts; it is daily swelled by many of those who neither love it nor +understand it, but who hope to make it serve their purpose, or like to +swim with the stream. A strong profession therefore of an opposite faith +at the present moment must expect to meet with little favour; nor indeed +have I any hope of turning the tide, which will flow for its appointed +season, and its ebb does not seem to be at hand. But whilst the +hurricane rages, those exposed to it may well encourage one another to +hold fast their own foundations against it; and many are exposed to it +in whose welfare I naturally have the deepest interest, and in whom old +impressions may be supposed to have still so much force that I may claim +for them, at least, a patient hearing.” But far from remaining +unconvinced, both my reason and conscience went frankly and cordially +with him when he urged, “Christ’s church is absolutely without a human +earthly priesthood, for it has the eternal priesthood of Christ which +leaves no place for any other; there is no priesthood without mediation, +and we have one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. Do we want the priest +for sacrifice? Nay, there is no place for him at all; for our one +atoning sacrifice has been once offered, and by its virtue we are +enabled to offer daily our spiritual sacrifices of ourselves, which no +other man can offer for us. Do we want him for intercession? Nay, there +is one who ever liveth to make intercession for us, through whom we have +access to the Father, and for whose sake Paul, Apollos and Peter, and +things present and things to come, are ours already.” + +And so I and many others passed through that time unscathed, and all the +more easily because he had also taught us that all there is of good, or +noble, or self-denying, in this system is altogether independent of the +doctrine of the priesthood—that there are many good practices in the +Romish Church which it would be most desirable to restore among +ourselves, such as “daily church services, frequent communions, +memorials of our Christian calling continually presented to our notice, +in crosses and wayside oratories, commemorations of holy men of all +times and all countries; the doctrine of the communion of saints +practically taught; religious orders, especially of women, of different +kinds, and under different rules, delivered only from the snare and sin +of perpetual vows.” So he pleaded in 1841. Half a century has gone by +since those words were written. The movement which was to remould the +Church, and human society through the Church, is still with us; several +of the good practices which Arnold approved have established themselves +already, the rest seem to be on the way. But how stands the crucial +question of the priesthood? Is the Church Arnold loved so well and +served so faithfully destined to lose all truly courageous faith, and to +teach her children cowardly to crave for some man, as liable to sin as +themselves, to stand between them and Christ, who has redeemed them, and +bidden them to come straight to Him? Upon the answer which your +generation will give to that question depends, I believe, more than upon +anything else, the future of England. May it be that for which Arnold +pleaded half a century ago, and which the brave old Poet Laureate has +voiced for us of this generation who are passing away, in his latest +words, + + I hope to see my Pilot face to face + When I have crossed the bar. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL + AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT RUGBY SCHOOL ON 24TH JUNE 1894 + + +I HOPE you boys in this last decade of the century are as great +hero-worshippers as we were in the fourth. Speech-day, 1834, was the +first I was at, as I had come as a new boy in February of that year, +just sixty years ago. It was held at Easter then, in the middle of the +long half-year, which lasted for five months with only a break of three +days. That year, 1834, was a famous one for Rugby. At Oxford, Arthur +Stanley had got a Balliol, and at Cambridge, Dean Vaughan a Trinity +scholarship, while still sixth-form boys, and the reputation of the +school was going up by leaps and bounds at the universities and in the +country. But though we small boys were proud in a way of Stanley and +Vaughan, of Clough and Burbidge, and other scholars and poets, we looked +on them more as providential providers of extra half-holidays than with +the enthusiasm of hero-worship. This we reserved for the kings of the +Close, round whom clustered legends of personal encounters with drovers +at the monthly cattle-fairs (which were then held in High Street, and +came right up to the school gates, tempting curious yokels to trespass +on the sacred precincts), or the navvies who were laying down the first +line of the London and North-Western Railway, or the gamekeepers of a +neighbouring squire with whom the school was in a state of open war over +the right of fishing in the Avon. + +I did not myself share this rather indiscriminate enthusiasm; for the +kings of the Close were, as a rule, a rough and hard set of taskmasters, +who fagged us for whole afternoons, and were much too ready with the +cane. But for this very reason I had all the more to bestow on the one +who, to my boyish imagination, stood out from the rest as Hector from +the ruck of the Trojan princes; and this hero was William Cotton Oswell, +whose portrait took its honoured place yesterday on the walls of our +Rugby Valhalla. It was not from any personal knowledge of or contact +with him, for we were at different boarding-houses and at opposite ends +of the school; and I doubt whether he ever spoke to me in his life, +though I often shared his kindly nod and smile when we met in the Close +or quadrangle. It was the rare mixture of kindliness and gentleness with +marvellous strength, activity, and fearlessness, which made him _facile +princeps_ among his contemporaries. I don’t believe he ever struck a +small boy here, or even spoke to one, in anger. + +And so there was no drawback to the enthusiasm with which one watched +him leading a charge at football, or bowling in a Big-Side match, or +jumping two or three pegs higher on the gallows than any other boy. He +cleared eighteen feet nine inches of water in Clifton brook, which +means, as you know, at least twenty-one feet from take-off to landing. +No doubt his good looks added to the fascination. You can see from the +portrait what a noble face his must have been even in boyhood, and his +figure was quite as striking. He stood six feet in his stockings when he +left school at eighteen, but did not look his height from the perfection +of his figure; broad in shoulder, thin in flank, and so well developed +that he was called “the Muscleman.” I must not dwell on that time, so +will give you one instance only of his early prowess in athletics. I +don’t know what the record has been in late years, but in my time Parr +was the only man who was ever known to have thrown a cricket-ball a +hundred yards both ways. No record was kept here, but this I saw Oswell +do. From a group of boys at a wicket on Little-Side ground, as it then +was, he threw a cricket-ball, over as I believe, or at any rate through, +the great elms (which were then standing in a close row at right angles +to the school buildings) into the Doctor’s garden, for there it was +picked up. Measure it how you will, that throw must have been +considerably over a hundred yards. + +He left a great blank in the school life in 1836. We heard he had gone +to Haileybury for a year on his way to India, where he had got an +appointment as writer. In those days there was no telegraph, no cheap +post, no overland passage, and no penny papers to spread every scrap of +news, true or false, over the whole kingdom. No one thought of a +pleasure trip to India for a month or two in the winter to look up +friends or young relations, for the voyage round the Cape even in the +Company’s finest ships took from three to four months. The two worlds +were wide apart, and the young subaltern or civilian was lucky who +managed to get a run home once in ten years. So a curtain fell between +Oswell and his old schoolfellows, which was not lifted, for me at any +rate, for more than a generation. Now and again, at long intervals, +thinking over schooldays, his figure would rise up as attractive as +ever, and I would wonder what had become of him, and that no heroic +rumour of him had floated back from the other side of the world. + +You may fancy, then, the shock of joy which I felt when the lift came at +last. I, like every one else, had rushed to get Livingstone’s first book +on South Africa, and was deep in the second chapter, in which he details +the drought at his station, the threats of the Boers, and the rumours of +a lake and rivers and a rich country to the north that had determined +him to attempt the crossing of the Kalahari desert which lay between, +when I came on this passage: “I communicated my intention to an African +traveller, Colonel Steele, and he made it known to another gentleman, a +Mr. Oswell. He undertook to defray the entire expense of guides, and +fully executed his generous intention.” Surely, thought I, that must be +“the Muscleman,” or “handsome Oswell,” as we used sometimes to call him; +that’s just what he would have done. I was not long in doubt; it was my +boyhood’s hero sure enough. “Oswell was one of Arnold’s Rugby boys,” +Livingstone wrote; “one could see his training in always doing what was +brave, and true, and right.” Now let us see how it was that he managed +to turn up in Africa at this critical moment. + +In India he spent ten years, rising rapidly to the post of collector and +judge. His station was thirty miles from the nearest English doctor, so +he added the study of medicine to his regular work. This was heavy +enough, but did not hinder him from joining any young Englishman who +came to hunt. In one of these hunts he saved the life of the then Lord +Gifford, shooting a tiger which his lordship, who was short-sighted, had +not noticed, and which was in the act of springing. On another of these +excursions the party encamped on ground full of malaria, and were struck +with jungle fever, of which several died. Oswell, thanks to his splendid +constitution, struggled through, after being insensible for several +days. No sooner had he recovered consciousness than he set to work on a +pile of his district papers—complaints from villages, reports of +gang-robberies, etc.—with a wet towel round his head. He cleared his +table at the cost of a dangerous relapse, the effects of which he could +not shake off; so he was sent to the Cape on sick-leave, those who saw +him embark doubting if he would ever reach the Cape alive. + +Once landed, however, the dry warm air revived him, and in a few months +he was away to the north, exploring and elephant-shooting, in which +pursuits he came across Dr. Moffat, the great missionary Livingstone’s +father-in-law, and Captain Steele, the hunter of big game, who directed +him to Livingstone’s station, Kolabeng, two hundred miles to the north +on the borders of the Kalahari desert. He had with him a brother +sportsman, Mr. Murray, and they at once joined eagerly in Livingstone’s +project to attempt to cross the Kalahari desert. “Mr. Oswell,” to repeat +his words, “at once undertook to defray the whole cost of guides, and +fully executed his generous intention.” They started on the 1st of June +1849, and reached Lake Ngami in two months, on the 1st of August, the +first white men who had ever seen it. The story of their journey has +been told both by Livingstone in his first book, and by Oswell in the +chapter he wrote for the Badminton volume on _Big Game Shooting_, +published after his death in 1893. I know no reading of more absorbing +interest, but you should all read it for yourselves. And when you are +reading, remember that the whole of Central Africa was a blank then on +our school atlases, while every lake and river and mountain range is now +laid down, right away to the Red Sea, the South Atlantic, and the +Mediterranean. Here I can only give you the estimate that Livingstone +formed of his companion before they got back to Kolabeng. “When my men +wished to flatter me,” he wrote, “they would say, ‘If you were not a +missionary you would be just like Oswell; you would not hunt with dogs.’ +They declare he is the greatest hunter that ever came into the country.” +His method was to get within twenty or thirty yards of his game—lion, +elephant, or rhinoceros—whereas most men fired at fifty or sixty. Of +course this doubled the danger while it made surer work, and his +marvellous escapes were frequent. One I will content myself with on this +journey, an encounter with a rhinoceros, which he killed at last, but +which had tossed him and torn the scalp of his head almost off. Murray +went to look for him, and told Livingstone, “I found that beggar Oswell +sitting under a bush and holding on his head.” He had in fact adjusted +his scalp, and the blood was streaming through his fingers. Let me here +cite another witness or two as to his character as a hunter. Mr. Horace +Waller, of the Oxford Mission, writes: “Livingstone, who knew no fear +himself, spoke of Oswell’s desperate courage in hunting as quite +wonderful; not but what he suffered from it to the day of his death, the +result of an engagement with a rhinoceros. Oswell would, for instance, +ride up alongside of a hyæna, and, unloosing his stirrup leather while +at full gallop, brain the beast with the heavy stirrup.” Again, Sir +Samuel Baker says: “His extreme gentleness, utter recklessness of +danger, and complete unselfishness, made him friends everywhere, but +attracted the native mind to a degree of adoration. He was the Nimrod of +South Africa, without a rival and without an enemy, the greatest hunter +ever known in modern times, the truest friend and most thorough example +of an English gentleman.” + +In April 1851 Livingstone started again from Kolabeng, this time with +his wife and children, on the invitation of Sebituane, the great chief +of the Makololo, who offered him a settlement wherever he might choose. +Oswell was again with him, and went ahead of the waggons to dig wells +and provide water; but even with this precaution the party, which +included Mrs. Livingstone and the children, were at one point four days +without it, and nearly perishing. Leaving Mrs. Livingstone and the +children as the guests of Sebituane, Livingstone and Oswell explored +north and east, and discovered the Zambesi River, and the great Victoria +Falls from which it becomes navigable for ships to the Indian Ocean. For +this he was voted the gold medal of the French Geographical Society. On +their return Sebituane was attacked by inflammation of the lungs, and +died in a few days. His death altered all Livingstone’s plans, and +probably the subsequent history of the continent; for now Livingstone +resolved to send his family home, and return alone the next year to find +a way either to the west or east coast. He had already drawn his whole +salary for 1852 and half that for 1853, and so would have been quite +unable to start on the career which opened Africa and gained him a tomb +in Westminster Abbey, but for Oswell; but _he_ proved the friend who +“sticketh closer than a brother.” He accompanied them to Cape Town, and +in Livingstone’s words “made all comfortable,” giving the children who +were in rags a new outfit which cost £200, and enabling Livingstone to +start once more for the north. He answered all remonstrances by +laughingly protesting that it all came from ivory, and that the Doctor +and his wife had as good a right as he to the money drawn from the +preserves on their estates. + +Before leaving his African career I must give shortly a characteristic +story which was told incidentally by him in “South Africa Fifty Years +ago,” and unconsciously, as though he were quite unaware of what I +cannot but call its beauty and pathos. It is of his relations with an +Africander who bore the (to us rather comic) name of John Thomas, one of +the men he hired at the Cape to accompany him and Livingstone on their +first expedition. The contract was that these men should be bound to go +as far as the Lake Ngami, but no farther. When therefore Oswell and +Livingstone determined to go on to the north, they called the men +together and told them they need not go any farther, but could choose +between waiting for their return or accompanying them. At first the men +hesitated, and seemed likely to refuse to go farther, when Bono Johnny +(as he was called by this time) jumped up, and in Dutch, which he spoke +when excited, said, “What you eat I can eat, where you sleep I can +sleep, where you go I will go; I will come with you.” The others paused +for a moment or two, and then chorused, “We will go.” “Do you think +after that,” Oswell writes, “it was much matter to us whether our +brother was black or white?” Johnny stayed with him through four years, +at the end of which Oswell wrote of him, “as a grand specimen of +manhood, good nature, faithfulness, and cheerful endurance I have never +met his equal, white or black.” Johnny at the last moment begged his +master to take him over to see England, which he did, and got him a +temporary place as coachman to his brother, a country parson. A few +weeks later Oswell met Johnny in the village with the cook on one arm +and the lady’s maid on the other, and found that they were going on with +his education, which Oswell had begun in the bush, the cook undertaking +his reading and the lady’s maid his writing. At the end of six months +Johnny had to return to Africa, and Oswell lost sight of him. It was +eighteen months before they met again. Oswell, who had volunteered on +the outbreak of the war with Russia, was carrying secret service money +for Government in the East, and came across the camp of the Sixtieth +Rifles. He was talking to an officer from horseback, when he felt a hand +laid on his off stirrup, and looking round found Johnny there, who had +become messman to the regiment and was in high favour. He jumped down, +and they had a long African talk, and from that time till Johnny’s death +Oswell kept his eye on him, and got him at last a place as butler to a +friend in England, where, as everywhere else, he made himself +indispensable by cheerful and faithful service. There Johnny was struck +by a fatal illness, and died in a few hours. “I heard of his illness,” +Oswell writes, “too late to see him on earth; but I trust master and man +may yet meet as brothers in heaven.” + +The modesty and self-depreciation of his character were strong to the +end. Looking back at his relations with Livingstone, he writes in “South +Africa Fifty Years ago”: “He could talk to the Kaffir ears and hearts, +we only to their stomachs; but I would fain believe his grand work was +made a little smoother by our guns.” I should rather think it was. Thus, +when a tribe in Livingstone’s district was on the point of starvation +from the long drought, and the people reduced to mere walking skeletons, +he and Murray took more than six hundred men, women, and children with +them, fed them for several months till they were “all fat and shining,” +and sent them back with a store of dried meat enough to last for months, +without one missing, sick, or feeble. + +How one wishes that England were still represented by Oswells in South +and Central Africa! Happily Rugby again has sent one such in Mr. Selous, +who has sustained the high type set by Oswell in early days. But I much +question whether the ordinary type of African sportsman of to-day will +benefit Africa, or raise the native enthusiasm or admiration for +Englishmen. A few days ago I was reading a review of the last book +published by two of them on African sport. They would seem to have taken +with them a staff of trained servants, and horses and donkeys loaded +with supplies sufficient to have made the adventure at any rate quite +comfortable. Small blame to them for that, you will say, if they could +afford it; and I agree. But what shall we say as to their method of +shooting lions? It seems to have been, to tether an unfortunate donkey +in a clearing, and leave him there for hours till a lion sprang on the +poor shuddering jackass and had taken a good suck at his blood, and then +to shoot him from a neighbouring place of safety. Well, we will say at +any rate that Oswell would probably have as soon thought of tethering +his black brother Bono Johnny for bait to a lion as a poor jackass. + +To go back to our story. After sending off Mrs. Livingstone and the +children, Oswell followed to England for family reasons, and was at home +when the Crimean War broke out a year later. He at once volunteered, as +I have already told you, went out to Constantinople, and was employed by +Lord Raglan to carry despatches and secret service money to Sir Lintorn +Simmons at Shumla, and on other missions. On the fall of Sebastopol he +returned to England, and at once, without waiting for the shower of +titles and decorations which came when peace was made, the old longing +for wandering and adventure being still strong, sailed for South +America, in November 1855. On board the mail-steamer he met his future +wife, who was going out to her sister, Lady Lees, the wife of the Chief +Justice of the Bahamas. After wandering through Chili, the West Indies, +and the United States, he came home, renewed his acquaintance with Miss +Agnes Rivaz, who had also returned, and they were married. From that +time he settled down to the quiet life of an English country gentleman, +built himself a house at Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells, which he +filled with his African trophies, and found a sphere for his energy in +his parish and neighbourhood. Every neighbour who needed him became his +special care. To the poor he was not a mere benefactor, but each man’s +and woman’s and child’s personal friend. His Indian experience here came +into play. Every little ailment or accident was a certain summons to +“the Master,” as he was generally called; and if remonstrated with he +would smile and say, “there was something in being able to send for a +doctor whom they had not to pay.” He was an enthusiastic gardener, and +the whole neighbourhood was stocked with plants and flowers from +Hillside. His great strength remained to the end. One day calling at an +old friend’s he found him very ill, and his wife and son consulting how +he could be moved. In a moment he was in Oswell’s arms, carried and +placed gently in the place they had prepared for him. The Paris +Geographical Society, as has been said, had sent him their gold medal, +and he was made a Fellow of the English Society; but, writes Francis +Galton, another African explorer and admirer of Oswell, “he was too shy +and modest, and could not be induced to take that prominent share in +those stirring times of the Geographical Society which was his right, +and which he was often urged to take.” In the same way, though an +excellent recounter to friends of his exploring and sporting +experiences, he steadily resisted the offers of publishers and the +persuasion of friends to take the public into his confidence in print. + +It was only in the last year of his life that he was induced to put pen +to paper as to his hunting and exploring work. Happily the editor of the +Badminton Library persuaded him to write in the volume on _Big Game +Shooting_. The result was the chapters on “South Africa Fifty Years ago” +in that volume, which in my judgment stand quite foremost in our +sporting literature. Read them, and, while the interest is absorbing, +you will not find a trace of that delight in and relish for mere +slaughter which is so offensive in most books of sport. Here is a short +characteristic quotation, which will give you the mood in which the +mighty hunter looked back on his own exploits. “I am sorry now for all +the fine old beasts I have killed: but I was young then; there was +excitement in the work; I had large numbers of men to feed, and every +animal _except three elephants_ was eaten by man, and so put to good +use.[5] I filled their stomachs, and thus in some mysterious way, as +they assured me, made their hearts white.” + +On the other hand, the zest for the old desert life of his early manhood +comes back even as he writes: “There is a fascination to me in the +remembrance of the free life, the self-dependence, the feeling as you +lay under your kaross that you were looking at the stars from a point on +the earth whence no other European eye had ever seen them; these are +with me still, and were I not a married man, with children and +grandchildren, I believe I should head back to Africa again and end my +days in the open air. Take the word of one who has tried both; there is +a charm in the wild life; the ever-increasing never-satisfied needs of +the tame my soul cannot away with.” + +I could call a dozen well-known witnesses to confirm everything I have +said as to the charm of a character to which Lamartine’s saying, “Rien +n’est si doux que ce qui est fort,” applies more truly than to any one I +can remember. I will cite one only whose testimony will, I know, be of +special interest here, as it comes from an intimate friend of Oswell, +but not a Rugbeian, Lord Rendel. “He carried, as well as deepened, the +stamp of Rugby at its best; fearless of soul and body, yet tender, +kindly, gay; wise with a large experience, but utterly unworldly, I +would, as an Etonian, give all the mere gentlemen Eton could breed for a +handful of such men as Oswell. Manliness without coarseness, polish +without complacency, nobility without caste! May Rugby keep the mould, +and multiply the type!” Amen! + +----- + +Footnote 5: + + These three elephants, which he regrets were not eaten by man, were + shot by him away from camp in order to send the valuable ivory to an + Englishman who was shooting in the neighbourhood, to buy a supply of + lead, Oswell having run short, and the nearest store at which he could + buy being fourteen hundred miles away to the south. Mr. Webb, of + Newstead Abbey, the sportsman in question, sent the ivory back to + Oswell with a liberal gift of bars of lead, and they became intimate + friends. + + + Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND CO.’S + PUBLICATIONS. + + + BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + + TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. With Illustrations by A. HUGHES and S. + P. HALL. Uniform Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. + + TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. Golden Treasury Edition. 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Preface by C. + KINGSLEY. + + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Transcriber’s Notes + + ▪ Printers’ errors, punctuation, and spelling inaccuracies were + silently corrected. + ▪ Variations in hyphenation have been preserved + ▪ New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the + public domain. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79039 *** diff --git a/79039-h/79039-h.htm b/79039-h/79039-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba12381 --- /dev/null +++ b/79039-h/79039-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7370 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Manliness of Christ | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/front_cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.4em; } + h2 { text-align: center; 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margin-right: 20%; + font-size: 105%; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + </style> + </head> + + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79039 ***</div> + + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_i'>i</span> + <h1 class='c001'>THE <br> MANLINESS OF CHRIST</h1> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/front_cover.jpg' alt='Front Cover' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_ii'>ii</span> +<img src='images/i_f002.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span><span class='xlarge'>THE</span></div> + <div class='c000'><span class='xxlarge'>Manliness of Christ</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='large'>BY</span></div> + <div class='c000'><span class='xlarge'>THOMAS HUGHES, Q.C.</span></div> + <div class='c000'>AUTHOR OF</div> + <div>‘TOM BROWN’S SCHOOLDAYS,’ ETC.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='large'><b>London</b></span></div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>MACMILLAN AND CO.</span></div> + <div>AND NEW YORK</div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>1894</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div><i>All rights reserved</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='pageno' id='Page_iv'>iv</span><i>First Edition. Crown 8vo. 1879.</i></div> + <div><i>Reprinted 1880.</i></div> + <div><i>Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 1894.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> +<img src='images/i_f005.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='pref' class='c004'>DEDICATORY PREFACE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c005'><span class='sc'>When</span> this book was first published I +was Principal of the Working Men’s +College in London, and had in my +mind the students there, who came as +a rule from poorer homes, and had +grown up under different surroundings +and influences from those in and under +which I had myself been brought up +at Rugby and Oxford. It is now +twelve years since I have retired from +<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>the principalship of the W. M. C., +and, except occasional visits at Christmas +to attend the anniversary meetings +of the Old Students’ Club, my direct +connection with the College has +practically ceased, though my interest +in its special work is as strong as ever. +On the other hand, in the last few +years my direct connection with Rugby +has been revived in an unexpected +manner. At the request of Dr. +Percival I have delivered “Layman’s +Sunday evening addresses,” to the +School in the course which he, wisely +in my opinion, established three years +since. Judging by my own case, it is +a very healthy, and rather pathetic, +experience for an old man to be thus +<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>brought back into touch with that +far-away time in his own life,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“When all the world was young, lads,</div> + <div class='line'>And all the trees were green.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>At any rate it has been so with me, +and has revived a wish I had long +entertained, in a fitful sort of way, of +drawing somewhat closer the bonds +which connect the beginning and end +of a long life, now that the end is so +well in sight. That wish came upon +me again when, at the request of the +school, I agreed to print the first +address of 1891, and more strongly +when the same request was renewed +as to those of 1892 and 1894, and +with it the question whether I might +<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>not put them in some less ephemeral +shape than that of pamphlets of ten +pages, printed by the School bookseller. +While I was correcting the +proofs of my last address an unexpected +offer came from Messrs. Macmillan +for a new edition of <i>The Manliness of +Christ</i>, which has been for some time +out of print.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This offer seemed to give me just +the opportunity I was in search of. +In all human likelihood this is the +last book I shall ever publish, and on +reading it again I cannot but think +that the three addresses now added are +in harmony with, and fit well enough +into, the text and argument of the book. +Of this at any rate I am sure, that no +<span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>better specimen of true Christian +manliness has appeared in my day +than that of my old schoolfellow +William Cotton Oswell. So these +three addresses have been added, and +they give me some excuse for gratifying +my wish, and dedicating this +enlarged edition of the book to my +young schoolfellows of this last decade +of the century and the students +of the Working Men’s College. If, +as I hope, it should lead to some +alliance or connection between the +school and the Working Men’s +College, and should incline Rugby +boys who settle in London, either as +professional or business men, to join +the College and take part in its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>educational work, I believe that +both School and College will benefit. +There remains one point upon which +I feel bound to say a few words, and +which I have had to reconsider carefully +before consenting to the republication +of this book. On reading the +<i>Second Charge of the Bishop of +Oxford</i>, published last year, I found +that he insists strongly on the omniscience +of Christ being of the essence +of His human personality, and that +He did not divest Himself of His +almightiness or all-knowledge on +becoming man. My respect—I may +say my reverence for Bishop Stubbs +both as a theologian and a man, is so +deep that I hesitated before allowing a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>book of mine to go forth again which +assumes the opposite view; viz. that +He did so divest Himself, and that +when He became man He became +man in all things like as we are, +which of course excludes omniscience. +After the best consideration I could +give, I found that I could not abandon +my old belief, in the face of Christ’s +own sayings, and above all of that +last cry on the cross of “Eloi Eloi +lama sabachthani.” However, the +Bishop says truly in this same charge, +“the Church has lived patiently for +1900 years without having other +mysteries solved or explained,” and I +venture to think that this of Christ’s +omniscience while in the flesh is one +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>of those as to which it can safely be +left for each of us to hold the faith +which best approves itself to his own +conscience.</p> + +<div class='c008'>THOMAS HUGHES.</div> + +<p class='c007'>1894.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_f012.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span> +<img src='images/i_f013.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='toc' class='c004'>CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> +<colgroup> +<col class='colwidth33'> +<col class='colwidth33'> +<col class='colwidth33'> +</colgroup> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>INTRODUCTORY</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'><span class='fss'>PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#intro'>The Motive of the Book</a></td> + <td class='c011'>1</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART I</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p1'>The Holy Land, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 30—The Battle-Field of the Great Captain</a></td> + <td class='c011'>9</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART II</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p2'>The Tests of Manliness</a></td> + <td class='c011'>20</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART III</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p3'>Christ’s Boyhood</a></td> + <td class='c011'>42</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART IV</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p4'>The Call of Christ</a></td> + <td class='c011'>73</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART V</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p5c1'>Christ’s Ministry, Act I.</a></td> + <td class='c011'>92</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART VI</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p5c2'>Christ’s Ministry, Act II.</a></td> + <td class='c011'>113</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART VII</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p5c3'>Christ’s Ministry, Act III.</a></td> + <td class='c011'>131</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>PART VIII</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#p5c4'>The Last Act</a></td> + <td class='c011'>150</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span> </td> + <td class='c010'> </td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009'> </td> + <td class='c010'>CONCLUSION</td> + <td class='c011'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#con1'>An Address delivered at Clifton College, Sunday Evening, October 1879</a></td> + <td class='c011'>163</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#con2'>An Address delivered at Rugby School, February 1891</a></td> + <td class='c011'>189</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#con3'>An Address delivered at Rugby School, June 1892</a></td> + <td class='c011'>209</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c009' colspan='2'><a href='#con4'>William Cotton Oswell, 1894</a></td> + <td class='c011'>231</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_f015.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> +<img src='images/i_p001.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='intro' class='c004'>INTRODUCTORY <br> <span class='large'>THE MOTIVE OF THE BOOK</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_s.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_0'> +SOME time ago, when I was +considering what method it +would be best to adopt in +Sunday afternoon readings +with a small class in the Working +Men’s College, I received a communication +which helped me to come to a +decision. It came in the form of a +proposal for a new association, to be +called “The Christian Guild.” The +promoters were persons living in our +<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>northern towns, some of which had +lately gained a bad reputation for +savage assaults and crimes of violence. +My correspondents believed that some +organised effort ought to be made +to meet this evil, and that there was +nothing in existence which would +serve their purpose. The Young +Men’s Christian Associations had increased +of late indeed in numbers, but +had failed to reach the class which most +needed Christian influences. There +was a widespread feeling, they said, +that these associations—valuable as +they allowed them to be in many ways—did +not cultivate individual manliness +in their members, and that this +defect was closely connected with their +open profession of Christianity. They +had separated their members too much +from the ordinary habits and life of +young men; and had set before them +a wrong standard, which taught, not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>that they were to live in the world +and subdue it to their Master, but +were to withdraw from it as much as +possible.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Therefore they would found their +new “Christian Guild” on quite other +principles. They aimed, indeed, at +something like a revival of the muscular +Christianity of twenty-five years +ago, organised for missionary work in +the great northern towns. The members +of the Guild must be first of +all Christians, but selected as far as +possible for some act of physical +courage or prowess. It was proposed +that the medal of the Royal Humane +Society, or the championship of a town +or district in running, wrestling, rowing, +or other athletic exercise, should +qualify at once for membership. +These first members were to form the +root, as it were, out of which branches +of the Guild were to grow—one, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>they hoped, in every great centre of +population. Each branch, if properly +supported, might attract the most +vigorous and energetic young men +of its district, and so by degrees give +a higher tone to the sports and occupations +which absorb the spare time +and energies of young Englishmen.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I did not see my way to joining +any such movement, which indeed +never seemed at all hopeful to me: +nor do I know whether anything +more has been done in the matter. +But the proposal set me thinking on +the state of things amongst us which +“The Christian Guild” was intended +to meet. I was obliged to admit that +my own experience, now stretching +over a quarter of a century in London, +agreed to some extent with that of +my northern correspondents. Here +too this same feeling exists, or it +may be this same prejudice, as to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>“Young Men’s Christian Associations” +amongst the class from which +their members are for the most part +taken. Their tone and influence are +said to lack manliness, and the want +of manliness is attributed to their +avowed profession of Christianity. If +you pursue the inquiry, you will often +come upon a distinct belief that this +weakness is inherent in our English +religion; that our Christianity does +appeal and must appeal habitually and +mainly to men’s fears—to that in +them which is timid and shrinking, +rather than to that which is courageous +and outspoken. This strange delusion +is often alleged as the cause of the +want of power and attraction in these +associations.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I do not myself at all share this +opinion as to the Young Men’s +Christian Associations, for, so far as +I have had the means of judging, they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>seem to me, especially in the last few +years, to have been doing excellent +service, though they work in a narrow +groove. But whether this be so or +not, is a matter of comparative indifference, +and the controversy may +safely be left to settle itself. But +the underlying belief in the rising +generation that Christianity is really +responsible for this supposed weakness +in its disciples, is one which ought not +to be so treated. The conscience of +every man recognises courage as the +foundation of manliness, and manliness +as the perfection of human character; +and if Christianity runs counter to +conscience in this matter, or indeed +in any other, Christianity will go to +the wall.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But does it? On the contrary, is +not perfection of character—“Be ye +perfect, as your Father in heaven is +perfect,” perfection to be reached by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>moral effort in the faithful following +of our Lord’s life on earth—the final +aim which the Christian religion sets +before individual men—and constant +contact and conflict with evil of all +kinds the necessary condition of that +moral effort, and the means adopted +by our Master, in the world in which +we live, and for which He died? In +that strife then, the first requisite is +courage or manfulness, gained through +conflict with evil—for without such +conflict there can be no perfection of +character, the end for which Christ +says we were sent into this world. +But was Christ’s own character perfect +in this respect—not only in charity, +meekness, purity, long-suffering, but +in courage? If not, can He be anything +more than the highest and best +of men, even if He were that; can He +be the Son of God in any sense except +that in which all men are sons?</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>This was the question which was +forced on me at the time by the +proposals of “The Christian Guild,” +and it gave me the hint I was in search +of as to the method of our Sunday +readings. We followed it up as well +as we could through the events recorded +in the gospels, applying the +test at every stage of the drama. +The results are collected in the +following papers.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p008.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span> +<img src='images/i_p009.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p1' class='c004'>PART I <br> <span class='large'>THE HOLY LAND A.D. 30—THE BATTLE FIELD OF THE GREAT CAPTAIN</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'>“Phœnicia and Palestine were sometimes +annexed to and sometimes separated from the +jurisdiction of Syria. The former was a +narrow and rocky coast; the latter was a +territory scarcely superior to Wales in fertility +or extent! Yet Phœnicia and Palestine will +ever live in the memory of mankind, since +America as well as Europe has received letters +from the one and religion from the other.”—<span class='sc'>Gibbon</span>, +Chap. i.</p> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_i.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi0_7'> +IN order to approach our +subject with any chance of +making the central figure +clear to ourselves, and +getting out of the atmosphere of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>unreality in which our ordinary religious +training is too apt to leave us, +we must make an effort to understand +the condition and the surroundings +of life in Palestine when our Lord +appeared in it as a leader and +teacher.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Take first the southern portion, the +scene of the opening and closing days +of His ministry, and of periodical +visits during those three years. While +He was still a boy under ten years of +age, the Romans had deposed Herod +Archelaus, and had annexed Judæa, +which was from thenceforth ruled as +a province of the empire by a Roman +procurator. The rebellion of Judas +of Gamala, which followed shortly +afterwards, was a fierce protest of the +Jews against the imperial taxation and +the yoke of Rome. It was suppressed +in the stern Roman fashion, and from +that time till the commencement of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>Christ’s public ministry, Jerusalem and +the surrounding country were on the +verge of revolt, a constant source of +anxiety to the Roman procurators, and +held down with difficulty by the heavy +hand of the legions which garrisoned +them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>All that was best and worst in the +Jewish character and history combined +to render the Roman yoke intolerably +galling to the nation. The peculiar +position of Jerusalem—a sort of +Mecca to the tribes acknowledging +the Mosaic law—made Syria the most +dangerous of all the Roman provinces. +To that city enormous crowds of +pilgrims, of the most stiff-necked and +fanatical of all races, flocked three +times at least in every year, bringing +with them offerings and tribute for +the Temple and its guardians, on a +scale which must have made the +hierarchy at Jerusalem formidable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>even to the world’s master, by their +mere command of wealth.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But this would be the least of the +causes of anxiety to the Roman +governor, as he spent year after year +face to face with these terrible leaders +of a terrible people.</p> + +<p class='c007'>These high priests and rulers of the +Jews were indeed quite another kind +of adversaries from the leaders, secular +or religious, of any of those conquered +countries, which the Romans were +wont to treat with contemptuous +toleration. They still represented +living traditions of the glory and +sanctity of their nation, and of +Jerusalem, and exercised still a power +over that nation which the most +resolute and ruthless of Roman procurators +did not care wantonly to +brave.</p> + +<p class='c007'>At the same time the yoke of high +priest and scribe and pharisee was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>even heavier on the necks of their +own people than that of the Roman. +They had built up a huge superstructure +of traditions and ceremonies +round the law of Moses, which they +held up to the people as more sacred +and binding than the law itself. This +superstructure was their special charge. +This was, according to them, the great +national inheritance, the most valuable +portion of the covenant which +God had made with their fathers. +To them, as leaders of their nation—a +select, priestly, and learned caste—this +precious inheritance had been +committed. Outside that caste, the +dim multitude, “the people which +knoweth not the law,” were despised +while they obeyed, accursed as soon +as they showed any sign of disobedience. +Such being the state of Judæa, +it would not be easy to name in all +history a less hopeful place for the reforming +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>mission of a young carpenter, +a stranger from a despised province, +one entirely outside the ruling caste, +though of the royal race, and who +had no position whatever in any +rabbinical school.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In Galilee the surroundings were +slightly different, but scarcely more +promising. Herod Antipas, the +weakest of that tyrant family, the +seducer of his brother’s wife, the +fawner on Cæsar, the spendthrift +oppressor of the people of his +tetrarchy, still ruled in name over the +country, but with Roman garrisons +in the cities and strongholds. Face +to face with him, and exercising an +<em>imperium in imperio</em> throughout +Galilee, was the same priestly caste, +though far less formidable to the +civil power, and to the people, than +in the southern province. Along the +western coast of the Sea of Galilee, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>the chief scene of our Lord’s northern +ministry, lay a network of towns +densely inhabited, and containing a +large admixture of Gentile traders. +This infusion of foreign blood, the +want of any such religious centre at +Jerusalem, and the contempt with +which the southern Jews regarded +their provincial brethren of Galilee, +had no doubt loosened to some extent +the yoke of the priests and scribes +and lawyers in that province. But +even here their traditionary power +over the masses of the people was +very great, and the consequences of +defying their authority as penal, +though the penalty might be neither +so swift nor so certain, as in Jerusalem +itself. Such was the society into +which Christ came.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is not easy to find a parallel case +in the modern world, but perhaps the +nearest exists in a portion of our own +<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>empire. The condition of parts of +India in our day resembles in some +respects that of Palestine in the year +<span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 30. In the Mahratta country, +princes, not of the native dynasty, +but the descendants of foreign courtiers +(like the Idumæan Herods), are reigning. +British residents at their courts, +hated and feared, but practically all-powerful +as Roman procurators, +answer to the officers and garrisons +of Rome in Palestine. The people +are in bondage to a priestly caste +scarcely less heavy than that which +weighed on the Judæan and Galilean +peasantry. If the Mahrattas were +Mohammedans, and Mecca were +situate in the territory of Scindiah +or Holkar; if the influence of twelve +centuries of Christian training could +be wiped out of the English character, +and the stubborn and fierce nature of +the Jew substituted for that of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>Mahratta; a village reformer amongst +them, whose preaching outraged the +Brahmins, threatened the dynasties, +and disturbed the English residents, +would start under somewhat similar +conditions to those which surrounded +Christ when He commenced His +ministry.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In one respect, and one only, the +time seemed propitious. The mind +and heart of the nation were full of the +expectation of a coming Messiah—a +King who should break every yoke +from off the necks of His people, and +should rule over the nations, sitting +on the throne of David. The intensity +of this expectation had, in the +opening days of His ministry, drawn +crowds into the wilderness beyond +Jordan from all parts of Judæa and +Galilee, at the summons of a preacher +who had caught up the last cadence of +the song of their last great prophet, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>and was proclaiming that both the +deliverance and the kingdom which +they were looking for were at hand. +In those crowds who flocked to hear +John the Baptist there were doubtless +some even amongst the priests and +scribes, and many amongst the poor +Jewish and Galilean peasantry, who +felt that there was a heavier yoke +upon them than that of Rome or of +Herod Antipas. But the record of +the next three years shows too clearly +that even these were wholly unprepared +for any other than a kingdom +of this world, and a temporal throne +to be set up in the holy city.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so, from the first, Christ had +to contend not only against the whole +of the established powers of Palestine, +but against the highest aspirations of +the best of His countrymen. These +very Messianic hopes, in fact, proved +the greatest stumbling-block in His +<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>path. Those who entertained them +most vividly had the greatest difficulty +in accepting the carpenter’s son +as the promised Deliverer. A few +days only before the end He had +sorrowfully to warn the most intimate +and loving of His companions and +disciples, “Ye know not what spirit +ye are of.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>We must endeavour to keep these +external conditions and surroundings +of the life of a Galilean peasant in +the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius +Cæsar in our minds, if we really wish +honestly to understand and appreciate +the work done by one of them in +those three short years, or the character +of the doer of it.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span> +<img src='images/i_p020.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p2' class='c004'>PART II <br> <span class='large'>THE TESTS OF MANLINESS</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'>“<span lang="la">Obvius in palatio Julius Atticus speculator, +cruentum gladium ostentans, occisum a se +Othonem, exclamavit; et Galba, ‘Commilito,’ +inquit, ‘quis jussit?’ insigni animo ad coercendam +militarem licentiam, minantibus intrepidus, +adversus blandientes incorruptus.</span>”—Tacit. +<i>Hist.</i>, lib. i. cap. xxxv.</p> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_o.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_0'> +ONE other precaution we must +take at the outset of our +inquiry, and that is, to +settle for ourselves, without +diverging into useless metaphysics—what +we mean by “manliness, manfulness, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>courage.” My friends of “The +Christian Guild” seemed to assume +that these words all have the same +meaning, and denote the same qualities. +Now, is this so? I think not, +if we take the common use of the +words. “Manliness and manfulness” +are synonymous, but they embrace +more than we ordinarily mean by the +word “courage”; for instance, tenderness, +and thoughtfulness for others. +They include that courage, which lies +at the root of all manliness, but is, in +fact, only its lowest or rudest form. +Indeed, we must admit that it is not +exclusively a human quality at all, +but one which we share with other +animals, and which some of them—for +instance, the bull-dog and weasel—exhibit +with a certainty and a +thoroughness which is very rare +amongst mankind.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In what, then, does courage, in this +<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>ordinary sense of the word, consist? +First, in persistency, or the determination +to have one’s own way, coupled +with contempt for safety and ease, and +readiness to risk pain or death in +getting one’s own way. This is, let +us readily admit, a valuable, even a +noble quality, but an animal quality +rather than a human or manly one, +and obviously not that quality of +which the promoters of the Christian +Guild were in search. For I fear we +cannot deny that this kind of courage +is by no means incompatible with those +savage or brutal habits of violence +which the Guild was specially designed +to put down and root out amongst +our people. What they desired to +cultivate was obviously, not animal, +but manly courage; and the fact that +we are driven to use these epithets +“animal” and “manly” to make our +meaning clear, shows, I think, the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>necessity of insisting on this distinction +and keeping it well in mind.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We should note, also, that the tests +of the Guild were, with one exception, +not really adapted as tests even of +animal courage, much less of manliness. +For they proposed that the +possession of the Royal Humane +Society’s medal, or the badge of excellence +in athletic games, should be +the qualification for the first members. +Now the possession of the medal does +amount to <i><span lang="la">primâ facie</span></i> evidence, not +only of animal courage but of manliness; +for it can only be won by an +act involving not only persistency and +contempt of pain and danger, but +self-sacrifice for the welfare of another. +But proficiency in athletic games has +no such meaning, and is not necessarily +a test even of animal courage, but only +of muscular power and physical training. +Even in those games which, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>to some extent, do afford a test of the +persistency, and contempt for discomfort +or pain, which constitute animal +courage—such as rowing, boxing, and +wrestling—it is of necessity a most +unsatisfactory one. For instance, +Nelson—as courageous an Englishman +as ever lived, who attacked a Polar +bear with a handspike when he was a +boy of fourteen, and told his captain, +when he was scolded for it, that he +did not know Mr. Fear—with his +slight frame and weak constitution, +could never have won a boat race, and +in a match would have been hopelessly +astern of any one of the crew of his +own barge; and the highest courage +which ever animated a human body +would not enable the owner of it, if he +were himself untrained, to stand for +five minutes against a trained wrestler +or boxer.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Athleticism is a good thing if kept +<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>in its place, but it has come to be very +much over-praised and over-valued +amongst us, as I think these proposals +of the Christian Guild for the attainment +of their most admirable and +needful aim tend to show clearly +enough, if proof were needed. We +may say, then, I think, without doubt, +that its promoters were not on the +right scent, or likely to get what they +were in search of by the methods they +proposed to use. For after getting +their Society of Athletes it might quite +possibly turn out to be composed of +persons deficient in real manliness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>While, however, keeping this conclusion +well in mind, we need not at +all depreciate athleticism, which has +in it much that is useful to society, +and is indeed admirable enough in its +own way. But as the next step in +our inquiry, let us bear well in mind +that athleticism is not what we mean +<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>here. True manliness is as likely to +be found in a weak as in a strong +body. Other things being equal, we +may perhaps admit (though I should +hesitate to do so), that a man with a +highly trained and developed body +will be more courageous than a weak +man. But we must take this caution +with us, that a great athlete may be a +brute or a coward, while a truly manly +man can be neither.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Having got thus far, and satisfied +ourselves what is not of the essence +of manliness, though often assumed to +be so (as by the promoters of the +Christian Guild), let us see if we cannot +get on another step, and ascertain +what is of that essence. And here it +may be useful to take a few well-known +instances of courageous deeds, +and examine them; because if we can +find out any common quality in them +we shall have lighted on something +<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>which is of the essence of, or inseparable +from, that manliness which includes +courage—that manliness of +which we are in search.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I will take two or three at hazard +from a book in which they abound, +and which was a great favourite here +some years ago, as I hope it is still, I +mean Napier’s <i>Peninsular War</i>. At +the end of the storming of Badajoz, +after speaking of the officers, Napier +goes on, “Who shall describe the +springing valour of that Portuguese +grenadier who was killed the foremost +man at Santa Maria? or the martial +fury of that desperate rifleman, who, +in his resolution to win, thrust himself +beneath the chained sword blades, and +then suffered the enemy to dash his +head in pieces with the ends of their +muskets?” Again, at the Coa, “a +north of Ireland man named Stewart, +but jocularly called ‘the Boy’ because +<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>of his youth, nineteen, and of his +gigantic stature and strength, who had +fought bravely and displayed great +intelligence beyond the river, was one +of the last men who came down to +the bridge, but he would not pass. +Turning round, he regarded the +French with a grim look, and spoke +aloud as follows: ‘So this is the end +of our brag. This is our first battle, +and we retreat! The boy Stewart +will not live to hear that said.’ Then +striding forward in his giant might he +fell furiously on the nearest enemies +with the bayonet, refused the quarter +they seemed desirous of granting, and +died fighting in the midst of them.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Still more touching, more noble, +more heroic, was the death of Sergeant +Robert McQuade. During McLeod’s +rush, this man, also from the north of +Ireland, saw two men level their muskets +on rests against a high gap in a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>bank, awaiting the uprise of an enemy. +The present Adjutant-General Brown, +then a lad of sixteen, attempted to +ascend at the fatal spot. McQuade, +himself only twenty-four years of age, +pulled him back, saying, in a calm +decided tone, ‘You are too young, +sir, to be killed,’ and then offering his +own person to the fire, fell dead pierced +with both balls.” And, speaking of +the British soldier generally, he says +in his preface, “What they were their +successors now are. Witness the +wreck of the <i>Birkenhead</i>, where four +hundred men, at the call of their +heroic officers, Captains Wright and +Girardot, calmly and without a murmur +accepted death in a horrible form +rather than endanger the women and +children saved in the boats. The +records of the world furnish no +parallel to this self-devotion.” Let +us add to these, two very recent +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>examples of which we have all been +reading in the last few months: the +poor colliers who worked day and +night at Pont-y-pridd, with their +lives in their hands, to rescue their +buried comrades; and the gambler in +St. Louis who went straight from the +gaming-table into the fire, to the +rescue of women and children, and +died of the hurts after his third return +from the flames.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Looking, then, at these several +cases, we find in each that resolution +in the actors to have their way, contempt +for ease, and readiness to risk +pain or death, which we noted as the +special characteristics of animal courage, +which we share with the bull-dog +and weasel.</p> + +<p class='c007'>So far all of them are alike. Can +we get any further? Not much, if +we take the case of the rifleman who +thrust his head under the sword-blades +<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>and allowed his brains to be knocked +out sooner than draw it back, or that +of “the boy Stewart.” These are +intense assertions of individual will +and force—avowals of the rough hard-handed +man that he has that in him +which enables him to defy pain and +danger and death—this and little or +nothing more; and no doubt a very +valuable and admirable thing as it +stands.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But we feel, I think, at once that +there <em>is</em> something more in the act of +Sergeant McQuade, and of the miners +in Pont-y-pridd—something higher +and more admirable. And it is not +a mere question of degree, of more or +less, in the quality of animal courage. +The rifleman and “the boy Stewart” +were each of them persistent to death, +and no man can be more. The acts +were, then, equally courageous, so far +as persistency and scorn of danger +<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>and death are concerned. We must +look elsewhere for the difference, for +that which touches us more deeply in +the case of Sergeant McQuade than +in that of “the boy Stewart,” and can +only find it in the motive. At least +it seems to me that the worth of the +last lies mainly in the sublimity of +self-assertion, of the other in the +sublimity of self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And this holds good again in the +case of the <i>Birkenhead</i>. Captain +Wright gave the word for the men to +fall in on deck by companies, knowing +that the sea below them was full of +sharks, and that the ship could not +possibly float till the boats came back; +and the men fell in, knowing this also, +and stood at attention without uttering +a word, till she heeled over and +went down under them. And Napier, +with all his delight in physical force +and prowess, and his intense appreciation +<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>of the qualities which shine most +brightly in the fiery action of battle, +gives the palm to these when he writes, +“The records of the world furnish no +parallel to this self-devotion.” He +was no mean judge in such a case; +and, if he is right, as I think he is, do +we not get another side-light on our +inquiry, and find that the highest +temper of physical courage is not to +be found, or perfected, in action but +in repose? All physical effort relieves +the strain, and makes it easier to persist +unto death, under the stimulus and +excitement of the shock of battle, or +of violent exertion of any kind, than +when the effort has to be made with +grounded arms. In other words, may +we not say that in the face of danger +self-restraint is after all the highest +form of self-assertion, and a characteristic +of manliness as distinguished +from courage?</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>But we have only been looking +hitherto at one small side of a great +subject, at the courage which is tested +in times of terror, on the battle-field, +in the sinking ship, the poisoned mine, +the blazing house. Such testing times +come to few, and to these not often +in their lives. But, on the other +hand, the daily life of every one of us +teems with occasions which will try +the temper of our courage as searchingly, +though not as terribly, as +battle-field, or fire, or wreck. For +we are born into a state of war; with +falsehood, and disease, and wrong, and +misery in a thousand forms, lying all +around us, and the voice within +calling on us to take our stand as +men in the eternal battle against +these.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And in this life-long fight, to be +waged by every one of us single-handed +against a host of foes, the last requisite +<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>for a good fight, the last proof and test +of our courage and manfulness, must be +loyalty to truth—the most rare and +difficult of all human qualities. For +such loyalty, as it grows in perfection, +asks ever more and more of us, and +sets before us a standard of manliness +always rising higher and higher.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And this is the great lesson which +we shall learn from Christ’s life, the +more earnestly and faithfully we study +it. “For this end was I born, and +for this cause came I into the world, +to bear witness to the truth.” To +bear this witness against avowed and +open enemies is comparatively easy. +But to bear it against those we love, +against those whose judgment and +opinions we respect, in defence or +furtherance of that which approves +itself as true to our own inmost conscience, +this is the last and abiding +test of courage and of manliness. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>How natural, nay, how inevitable it +is that we should fall into the habit of +appreciating and judging things mainly +by the standards in common use +amongst those we respect and love. +But these very standards are apt to +break down with us when we are +brought face to face with some +question which takes us ever so little +out of ourselves and our usual moods. +At such times we are driven to admit +in our hearts that we, and those we +respect and love, have been looking at +and judging things, not truthfully, +and therefore not courageously and +manfully, but conventionally. And +then comes one of the most searching +of all trials of courage and manliness, +when a man or woman is called to +stand by what approves itself to their +consciences as true, and to protest for +it through evil report and good report, +against all discouragement and opposition +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>from those they love or respect. +The sense of antagonism instead of +rest, of distrust and alienation instead +of approval and sympathy, which such +times bring, is a test which tries the +very heart and reins, and it is one +which meets us at all ages, and in all +conditions of life. Emerson’s hero is +the man who, “taking both reputation +and life in his hand, will with perfect +urbanity dare the gibbet and the mob, +by the absolute truth of his speech +and rectitude of his behaviour.” And, +even in our peaceful and prosperous +England, absolute truth of speech and +rectitude of behaviour will not fail to +bring their fiery trials, if also in the +end their exceeding great rewards.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We may note too that in testing +manliness as distinguished from courage, +we shall have to reckon sooner +or later with the idea of duty. +Nelson’s column stands in the most +<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>conspicuous site in all London, and +stands there with all men’s approval, +not because of his daring courage. +Lord Peterborough in a former generation, +Lord Dundonald in the last, +were at least as eminent for reckless +and successful daring. But it +is because the idea of devotion to +duty is inseparably connected with +Nelson’s name in the minds of Englishmen, +that he has been lifted high +above all his compeers in England’s +capital.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In the throes of one of the terrible +revolutions of the worst days of imperial +Rome,—when probably the +cruellest mob, and most licentious +soldiery, of all time were raging +round the palace of the Cæsars, and +the chances of an hour would decide +whether Galba or Otho should rule +the world, the alternative being a +violent death,—an officer of the guard, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>one Julius Atticus, rushed into Galba’s +presence with a bloody sword, boasting +that he had slain his rival, Otho. +“My comrade, by whose order?” +was his only greeting from the old +Pagan chief. And the story has come +down through eighteen centuries, in +the terse strong sentences of the great +historian prefixed to this chapter, a +test for all times.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Comrade, who ordered thee? whose +will art thou doing? It is the +question which has to be asked of +every fighting man, in whatever part +of the great battle-field he comes to +the front, and determines the manliness +of soldier, statesman, parson, of +every strong man, and suffering +woman.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Three roots bear up Dominion: Knowledge, Will,—</div> + <div class='line'>These twain are strong, but stronger yet the third,—</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>Obedience,—’tis the great tap-root that still,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Knit round the rock of Duty, is not stirred,</div> + <div class='line'>Though Heaven-loosed tempests spend their utmost skill.”<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c013'><sup>[1]</sup></a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>I think that the more thoroughly +we sift and search out this question, +the more surely we shall come to this +as the conclusion of the whole matter. +Tenacity of will, or wilfulness, lies at +the root of all courage, but courage +can only rise into true manliness when +the will is surrendered; and the more +absolute the surrender of the will, the +more perfect will be the temper of +our courage and the strength of our +manliness.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Strong Son of God, immortal Love,”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>our laureate has pleaded, in the +moment of his highest inspiration,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Our wills are ours, to make them thine.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>And that strong Son of God to whom +<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>this cry has gone up in our day, and +in all days, has left us the secret of +His strength in the words, “I am +come to do the will of my Father and +your Father.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p041.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span> +<img src='images/i_p042.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p3' class='c004'>PART III <br> <span class='large'>CHRIST’S BOYHOOD</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“So close is glory to our dust,</div> + <div class='line in2'>So near is God to man;</div> + <div class='line'>When duty whispers low, Thou must,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The youth replies, I can.”—<span class='sc'>Emerson.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_o.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_0'> +ONE great difficulty meets +the student of our Lord’s +life and character, from +whatever side, and with +whatever purpose, he may approach +it. The whole authentic record of +that life, up to the time of His +<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>baptism, when He was already thirty +years old, is comprised in half-a-dozen +sentences. All that we know +is the story of His visit to Jerusalem +at the age of twelve, when He was +lost in the crush of the great feast, +and His parents turned back to look +for Him: “And it came to pass, +that after three days they found Him +in the temple, sitting in the midst of +the doctors, both hearing them, and +asking them questions. And all that +heard Him were astonished at His +understanding and answers. And +when they saw Him, they were +amazed: and His mother said unto +Him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt +with us? behold, thy father and I +have sought thee sorrowing. And He +said unto them, How is it that ye +sought me? wist ye not that I +must be about my Father’s business? +And they understood not the saying +<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>which He spake unto them. And He +went down to Nazareth, and was subject +unto them.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>The silence of the evangelists as to +all other details of His youth and +early manhood, except this one short +incident, which belongs rather to His +public than to His private life, is +intended no doubt to fix our attention +on the former, as that which most +concerns us. At the same time it is +impossible for those who will follow, +as best they may, Christ’s steps and +teaching, setting before themselves +that highest outcome and aim of it +all, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in +heaven is perfect,” not to turn often +in thought to those early years of His +in which the weapons must have been +forged, and the character formed and +matured, for the mighty war.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And it cannot be denied that, to +such seekers, this short Temple story +<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>is in many ways baffling, even discouraging. +There is something at +first sight, wilful indeed, possibly +courageous, but not manly, in a boy +of twelve staying behind his parents +in a strange city, without their +knowledge or consent; something +thoughtless, almost ungracious, in the +words of reply to Mary’s “thy father +and I have sought thee sorrowing”—“How +is it that ye sought me? wist +ye not that I must be about my +Father’s business?” (or “in my +Father’s courts,” as the words are +more truly translated).</p> + +<p class='c007'>The clue to this apparent divergence +from the perfect manly life is given +with rare insight and beauty in Mr. +Holman Hunt’s great picture. At +any rate the face and attitude of the +boy there seemed for the first time to +make clear to me the meaning of the +recorded incident, and to cast a flood +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>of light on those eighteen years of +preparation which yet remained before +He should be ready for His public +work. The real meaning and scope +of that work, in all its terrible majesty, +and suffering, and grandeur, have just +begun to dawn on the boy’s mind. +The first sight of Jerusalem, and of +the Temple, has stirred new and +strange thoughts within Him. The +replies of the doctors to His eager +questionings have lighted up the +consciousness, which must have been +dimly working in Him already, that +He was not altogether like those +around Him—the children with +whom He was accustomed to play, +the parents at whose knees He had +been brought up.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Many of us must have seen, all +must have read of, instances of a call +to their spirits being clearly recognised +by very young children, and colouring +<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>and moulding their whole after-lives. +We can scarcely say how early this +awakening of a consciousness of what +he is, of what he is meant to do, has +come to this or that young child, but +no one will question that it does so +come in many instances long before +the age of twelve. And so I think +we may safely assume that when +Christ came up for the first time to +the feast which commemorated the +great deliverance of His nation, the +boy was already conscious of a voice +within, calling Him to devote Himself +to the work to which the God of His +fathers had in like manner called +in their turn, Moses, and Samuel, +and David, and Elijah, and Judas +Maccabæus, and all that grand roll +of patriot prophets, and kings, and +warriors, with whose names and +doings He would be already familiar. +Amidst all the pomp of the great +<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>festival He found the chosen people +weighed down by a sterner and more +degrading bondage than had befallen +them in all their long annals. And +all that He heard and saw in the holy +city, amongst the crowds of worshippers, +and the rabbis teaching in +the Temple courts—the first view of +the holy hill of Sion, the joy of the +whole earth—the strange contrast of +the eager traffic, the gross Mammon-worship, +the huge slaughtering of +beasts with all the brutal accompaniments, +with that universal longing +and expectation in those multitudes +for the Messiah who should lead and +work out the final deliverance and +triumph of the people of God in that +generation—must have stirred new +questionings within Him, questionings +whether that voice which He had been +already hearing in His own heart was +not only <em>a</em> call, such as might come to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>any Hebrew boy, but <em>the</em> call—whether +amongst all that vast assembly He was +not the one upon whom the supreme +task must be laid, who must be the +deliverer of this people, so certainly +and eagerly looked for.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To the young spirit before whose +inward eye such a vision is opening, all +human ties would shrink back, and be +for the moment forgotten. And, +when recalled suddenly by the words +of His mother, the half-conscious +dreamy answer, “How is it that ye +sought me? wist ye not that I must +be in my Father’s courts, about His +business?” loses all its apparent +wilfulness and abruptness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so, full of this new question +and great wonder, He went home to +the village in Galilee with His parents, +and was subject to them; and the +curtain falls for us on His boyhood, +and youth, and early manhood. But +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>as nothing but what is most important, +and necessary for understanding all of +His life which we need for our own +growth into His likeness, is told in +these simple gospel narratives, it +would seem that this vivid light is +thrown on that first visit to Jerusalem +because it was the crisis in our Lord’s +early life which bears most directly +on His work for our race. If so, we +must I think allow that the question +once fairly presented to the boy’s +mind would never again have left it. +Day by day it would have been +coming back with increasing insistency, +gathering power and weight. +And as He submitted it day by day +to the God whom prophet and +psalmist had taught every child of +the nation to look upon as “about +his path and about his bed, and +knowing every thought of his heart,” +the consciousness must have gained +<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>strength and power. As the habit +of self-surrender, and simple obedience +to the voice within, grew more perfect, +and more a part of His very being, +the call must have sounded more and +more clearly.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And, as He was in all things +tempted like as we are, again and +again must His human nature have +shrunk back, and tried every way of +escape from this task, the call to which +was haunting Him; while every succeeding +month and year of life must +have disclosed to Him more and more +of its peril and its hopelessness, as +well as of its majesty.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We have, then, to picture to ourselves +this struggle and discipline +going on for eighteen years—the call +sounding continually in His ears, and +the boy, the youth, the strong man, +each in turn solicited by the special +temptations of His age, and rising +<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>clear above them through the strength +of perfect obedience, the strength +which comes from the daily fulfilment +of daily duties—that “strength in the +Lord” which St. Paul holds up to +us as possible for every human being. +Think over this long probation, and +satisfy yourselves, whether it is easy, +whether it is possible, to form any +higher ideal of perfect manliness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And, without any morbid curiosity, +and I think with profit, we may follow +out the thoughts which this long +period of quiet suggests. We know +from the evangelists only this, that +He remained in obscurity in a retired +village of Galilee, and subject to His +reputed father and mother. That +He also remained in great seclusion +while living the simple peasant life +of Nazareth, we may infer from the +surprise, not unmixed with anger and +alarm, of His own family, when, after +<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>His baptism, He began His public +career amongst them. And yet, on +that day when He rose to speak in +the synagogue, it is clear that the act +was one which commended itself in +the first instance to His family and +neighbours. The eyes of all present +were at once fixed on Him, as on one +who might be expected to stand in +the scribe’s place, from whom they +might learn something, a Man who +had a right to speak.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Indeed, it is impossible to suppose +that He could have lived in their +midst from childhood to full manhood +without attracting the attention, +and stirring many questionings in the +minds, of all those with whom He +was brought into contact. The stories +in the Apocryphal Gospels of the +exercise of miraculous powers by +Christ as a child and boy may be +wholly disregarded; but we may be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>sure that such a life as His, though +lived in the utmost possible seclusion, +must have impressed every one with +whom He came in contact, from the +scribe who taught the scriptures in +Nazareth to the children who sat +by his side to learn, or met Him by +chance in the vineyards or on the +hill-sides. That He was diligent in +using such means for study as were +within His reach, if it needed proof, +would appear from His perfect +familiarity with the laws and history +of His country at the opening of His +ministry. And the mysterious story +of the crisis immediately following +His baptism, in which He wrestled, +as it were, face to face with the +tempter and betrayer of mankind, +indicates to us the nature of the daily +battle which He must have been +waging, from His earliest infancy, or +at any rate ever since His first visit +<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>to Jerusalem. No one can suppose +for a moment that the trial came +on Him for the first time after the +great prophet to whom all the nation +were flocking had owned Him as +the coming Christ. That recognition +removed, indeed, the last doubt from +His mind, and gave Him the signal +for which He had been patiently waiting, +that the time was come and He +must set forth from His retirement. +But the assurance that the call would +come at some time must have been +growing on Him in all those years, +and so when it does come He is +perfectly prepared.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In His first public discourse in the +synagogue of Nazareth we find Him +at once announcing the fulfilment of +the hopes which all around Him were +cherishing. He proclaims, without +any preface or hesitation, with the +most perfect directness and confidence, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>the full Gospel of the Kingdom of +Heaven. “The time is fulfilled, and +the kingdom of God is at hand.” +He takes for the text of His first +discourse the passage in Isaiah: “The +Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because +he hath anointed me to preach the +Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me +to heal the broken-hearted, to preach +deliverance to the captive, the recovery +of sight to the blind, to set at liberty +them that are bruised, to preach the +acceptable year of the Lord,” and +proceeds to expound how “this day is +this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” +And within the next few days He +delivers His Sermon on the Mount, +of which we have the full record, and +in which we find the meaning, and +character, and principles of the kingdom, +laid down once and for all. +Mark, that there is no hesitation, no +ambiguity, no doubt, as to who He +<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>is, or what message He has to deliver. +“I have not come to destroy, but to +fulfil, the law which my Father and +your Father has given you, and which +you have misunderstood. This which +I am now unfolding to you, is the +meaning of that law, this is the will +of my Father who is in heaven.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>Thus He springs at once, as it were, +full-armed into the arena; and it is +this thorough mastery of His own +meaning and position from the first—this +thorough insight into what He +has to do, and the means by which it +is to be done—upon which we should +fix our thoughts if we want to understand, +or to get any notion at all of, +what must have been the training of +those eighteen years.</p> + +<p class='c007'>How had this perfect insight and +confidence been reached? “This +young peasant, preaching from a boat +or on a hill-side, sweeps aside at once +<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>the traditions of our most learned +doctors, telling us that this, which +we and our fathers have been taught, +is not what the God of Israel intended +in these Commandments of His; but +that He, this young Man, can tell us +what God did really intend. He +assumes to speak to us as one having +authority. Who gave Him this +authority?” These we know are +the kind of questionings with which +Christ was met at once, and over and +over again. And they are most +natural and necessary questionings, +and must have occurred to Himself +again and again, and been answered +by Him to Himself, before He could +have stood up to proclaim with the +tone of absolute authority His good +news to the village congregations in +Galilee, or the crowds on the Mount +or by the lake.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Who gave Thee this authority? +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>We can only reverentially and at a distance +picture to ourselves the discipline +and struggles by which the answer +was reached, which enabled Him to go +out without the slightest faltering or +misgiving, and deliver His full and +astounding message, the moment the +sign came that the time had come, and +that it was indeed Himself and no +other to whom the task was entrusted.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But the lines of that discipline, which +in a measure is also the discipline of +every one of us, are clearly enough +indicated for us in the story of the +temptation.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In every subtle form this question +must have been meeting the maturing +Christ day after day. Art thou indeed +the Son of God who is said to be +coming to redeem this enslaved and +degraded people, and with and besides +them all the kingdoms of the world? +Even if these prophets have not been +<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>dreaming and doting, art not Thou at +least dreaming and doting? At any +rate, if that is your claim put it to +some test. Satisfy yourself, and show +us, while satisfying yourself, some +proof of your title which we too can +recognise. Here are all these material +visible things, which, if your claim be +true, must be subject to you. Show +us your power over some of them—the +meanest if you will, the common food +which keeps men alive. There are +spiritual invisible forces too, which are +supposed to be the ministers of God, +and should therefore be under the +control of His Son—give us some sign +that you can guide or govern the least +of them. Why pause or delay? Is +the burthen growing lighter on this +people? Is the Roman getting year +by year less insolent, the publican less +fraudulent and exacting, the Pharisees +and rulers less godless, the people, your +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>own kin amongst them, less degraded +and less brutal? You are a grown +man, with the full powers of a man at +any rate. Why are you idling here +when your Father’s work (if God be +your Father) lies broadcast on every +side, and no man standing forth to +“the help of the Lord against the +mighty,” as our old seers used to +rave?</p> + +<p class='c007'>I hope I may have been able to indicate +to you, however imperfectly, the +line of thought which will enable each +of you for yourselves to follow out +and realise, more or less, the power and +manliness of the character of Christ +implied in this patient waiting in obscurity +and doubt through the years +when most men are at full stretch—waiting +for the call which shall convince +Him that the voice within has not +been a lying voice—and meantime +making Himself all that God meant +<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>Him to be, without haste and without +misgiving.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In the time of preparation for the +battle of life this is the true touchstone. +Haste and distrust are the sure signs +of weakness, if not of cowardice. Just +in so far as they prevail in any life, +even in the most heroic, the man fails, +and his work will have to be done over +again. In Christ’s life up to the age +of thirty there is not the slightest trace +of such weakness, or cowardice. From +all that we are told, and from all we +can infer, He made no haste, and gave +way to no doubt, waiting for God’s +mind, and patiently preparing Himself +for whatever His work might be. And +so His work from the first was perfect, +and through His whole public life He +never faltered or wavered, never had +to withdraw or modify a word once +spoken. And thus He stands, and will +stand to the end of time, the true model +<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>of the courage and manliness of boyhood, +and youth, and early manhood.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Before passing on to the public life +of Christ, there is one point which has +been raised, and upon which perhaps a +few words should be said, although it +does not directly bear upon our inquiry. +I refer to the supernatural power which +all Christians hold to have dwelt in +Him, and to have been freely exercised +within certain limits during His public +career. Was He always conscious of +it? And, if so, did He exercise it +before His call and baptism? Here +we get not the slightest direct help +from the Gospel narratives, and (as has +been already said) no reliance whatever +can be placed on the apocryphal stories +of His boyhood. We are therefore +left to our own judgment and reason, +and there must always be differences +between the conclusions at which one +man and another will arrive, however +<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>honestly each may search for the +truth.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To me, however, one or two matters +seem to be clear enough. The first is, +that He had only the same means as +the rest of us of becoming conscious of +his relationship to God. For, if this +were not so, He is no example for us, +He was not “tempted like as we are.” +Now the great difference between one +man and another depends upon how +these means are used; and, so far as +they are used according to the mind +and will of God, we gain mastery over +ourselves and our surroundings. “As +the world was plastic and fluid in the +hands of God, so it is ever to so much +of His attributes as we bring to it,” +may be a startling saying of Mr. +Emerson’s, but is one which commends +itself to our experience and +reason, if we only consult them +honestly. Let us take the most obvious +<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>example of this law. Look at +the relations of man to the brute +creation. One of us shall have no +difficulty in making friends of beasts +and birds, while another excites their +dread and hate, so that even dogs will +scarcely come near him. There is no +need to go back to the traditions of +the hermits in the Thebaid, or St. +Francis of Assisi, for instances of the +former class. We all know the story +of Cowper and his three hares from his +exquisite letters and poem, and most +of you must have read, or heard of, +the terms on which Waterton lived +with the birds and beasts in his Yorkshire +home: and of Thoreau, unable to +get rid of wild squirrels and birds who +would come and live with him, or +from a boat taking up fish, which lay +quietly in his hand till he chose to put +them back again into the stream. +But I suppose there is scarcely one of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>us who has not himself seen such +instances again and again, persons of +whom the old words seemed literally +true, “At destruction and famine thou +shalt laugh; neither shalt thou be +afraid of the beasts of the earth. For +thou shalt be in league with the stones +of the field, and the beasts of the field +shall be at peace with thee.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>I remember myself several such: a +boy who was friend even with rats, +stoats, and snakes, and generally had +one or other of them in his pockets; +a groom upon whose shoulders the +pigeons used to settle, and nestle +against his cheeks, whenever he went +out into the stable-yard or field. Is +there any reasonable way of accounting +for this? Only one, I think, which +is, that those who have this power +over, and attraction for, animals, have +always felt towards them, and treated +them, as their Maker intended—have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>unconsciously perhaps, but still faithfully, +followed God’s mind in their +dealings with His creatures, and so +have stood in true relations to them +all, and have found the beasts of the +field at peace with them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In the same way the stones of the +field are in league with the geologist, +the trees and flowers with the botanist, +the component parts of earth and air +with the chemist, just in so far as each, +consciously or unconsciously, follows +God’s methods with them—each part +of His creation yielding up its secrets +and its treasures to the open mind of +the humble and patient, who is also at +bottom always the most courageous, +learner.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And what is true of each of us +beyond all question—what every man +who walks with open eyes, and open +heart, knows to be true of himself—must +be true also of Christ. And so, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>though we may reject the stories of +the clay birds, which He modelled as +a child, taking wing and bursting into +song round Him (as on a par with St. +Francis’s address to his sisters the +swallows at Alvia, or the flocks in the +Marshes of Venice, who thereupon +kept silence from their twitterings and +songs till his sermon was finished), we +cannot doubt that in proportion as +Christ was more perfectly in sympathy +with God’s creation than any mediæval +saint, or modern naturalist, or man of +science, He had more power than they +with all created things from His earliest +youth. Nor could it be otherwise +with the hearts and wills of men. +Over these we know that, from that +time to this, He has exercised a +supreme sway, infinitely more wonderful +than that over birds and beasts, +because of man’s power of resistance +to the will Christ came to teach and to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>do, which exists, so far as we can see, +in no other part of creation.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I think, then, it is impossible to +resist the conclusion that He must +have had all these powers from His +childhood, that they must have been +growing stronger from day to day, +and He, at the same time, more and +more conscious of possessing them; +not to use on any impulse of curiosity +or self-will, but only as the voice +within prompted. And it seems the +most convincing testimony to His +perfect sonship, manifested in perfect +obedience, that He should never have +tested His powers during those thirty +years as He did at once and with +perfect confidence as soon as the call +came. Had He done so His ministry +must have commenced sooner; that is +to say, before the method was matured +by which He was to reconstruct, and +lift into a new atmosphere, and on to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>a higher plane, the faith and life of +His own nation and of the whole +world. For it is impossible to suppose +that the works which He did, and the +words He spoke, at thirty—which at +once threw all Galilee and Judæa into +a ferment of hope and joy, and doubt +and anger—should have passed unnoticed +had they been wrought and +spoken when He was twenty. Here, +as in all else, He waited for God’s +mind: and so, when the time for +action came, worked with the power +of God. And this waiting and +preparation must have been the +supreme trial of His faith. The +holding this position must have been +in those early years the holding of the +very centre of the citadel of Man’s +Soul (as Bunyan so quaintly terms it), +against which the assaults of the +tempter must have been delivered +again and again while the garrison was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>in training for the victorious march +out into the open field of the great +world, carrying forth the standard +which shall never go back.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And while it may be readily admitted +that Christ wielded a dominion +over all created things as well as over +man, which no other human being +has ever approached, it seems to me +to be going quite beyond what can be +proved, or even fairly assumed, to +speak of His miracles as supernatural, +in the sense that no man has ever +done, or can ever do, the like. The +evidence is surely all the other way, +and seems rather to indicate, that if +we could only have lived up to the +standard which we acknowledge in +our inmost hearts to be the true one—could +only have obeyed every motion +and warning of the voice of God +speaking in our hearts, from the day +when we first became conscious of, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>and could hear it—if, in other words, +our wills had from the first been +disciplined, like the will of Christ, so +as to be in perfect accord with the +will of God—I see no reason to doubt +that we too should have gained the +power and the courage to show signs, +or, if you please, to work miracles, as +Christ and His apostles worked them.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p072.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span> +<img src='images/i_p073.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p4' class='c004'>PART IV <br> <span class='large'>THE CALL OF CHRIST</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Sound, thou trumpet of God! come forth, great cause, to array us!</div> + <div class='line'>King and leader, appear! thy soldiers sorrowing seek thee.”—<span class='sc'>A. Clough.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_a.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_0'> +AT last the good news for +which they had been longing +comes to the expecting +nation. A voice is heard +in the lonely tracts beyond Jordan—the +route along which the caravans of +pilgrims from Galilee passed so often, +to and from the feasts at Jerusalem—proclaiming +<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>that the kingdom of +heaven is at hand. The news is soon +carried to the capital, and from Jerusalem +and all Judæa, and all the region +round about Jordan, the people go +out to hear it; and, when they have +heard it, are baptized in crowds, +eagerly claiming each for himself a +place in this kingdom. It gathers +strength till it moves rulers and +priests, council and Sanhedrim, as well +as the people who know not the law; +and presently priests and Levites are +sent out from Jerusalem to test messenger +and message, and ask, “Who +art thou? What kingdom is this +thou art proclaiming without our +sanction?” It spreads northward +also, and the despised Galileans, from +lake-shore and half-pagan cities, flock +down to hear it for themselves, and +the simplest and bravest souls amongst +them, such as Andrew and Simon +<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>Peter, to attach themselves to the +preacher. From the highways and +lake cities it pierces the Galilean +valleys, and comes to the ears of +Jesus, in the carpenter’s cottage at +Nazareth.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He, too, is moved by the call, and +starts for the Jordan, filled, we may +be sure, with the hope that the time +for action has come at last, that the +God of Israel is again about to send +deliverance to His people. May we +not also fairly conjecture that, on His +way to Bethabara, to claim His place +in the national confession and uprising, +He must have had moments of rejoicing +that the chief part in the great +drama seemed likely after all to be +laid on another? As a rule, the more +thoroughly disciplined and fit a man +may be for any really great work, the +more conscious will he be of his own +unfitness for it, the more distrustful +<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>of himself, the more anxious not to +thrust himself forward. It is only +the zeal of the half-instructed when +the hour of a great deliverance has +come at last—of those who have had +a glimpse of the glory of the goal, +but have never known or counted the +perils of the path which leads to it—which +is ready with the prompt +response, “Yes—we <em>can</em> drink of the +cup; we <em>can</em> be baptized with the +baptism.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>But in Christ, after the discipline of +those long waiting years, there was no +ambition, no self-delusion. He had +measured the way, and counted the +cost, of lifting His own people and +the world out of bondage to visible +things and false gods, and bringing +them to the only Father of their +spirits, into the true kingdom of +their God. He must, indeed, have +been well enough aware how infinitely +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>more fit for the task He Himself was +than any of His own brethren in the +flesh, with whom He was living day +by day; or of the men of Nazareth +with whom He had been brought up. +But He knew also that the same voice +which had been speaking to Him, +the same wisdom which had been +training Him, must have been +speaking to and training other humble +and brave souls, wherever there were +open hearts and ears, in the whole +Jewish nation. As the humblest and +most guileless of men He could not +have assumed that no other Israelite +had been able to render that perfect +obedience of which He was Himself +conscious. And so He may well +have hurried to the Jordan in the +hope of finding there, in this prophet +of the wilderness, “him who should +come,” the Messiah, the great deliverer—and +of enlisting under his banner, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>and rendering him true and loyal +service, in the belief that, after all, +He Himself might only be intended +to aid, and hold up the hands of, a +greater than Himself. For, we must +remember that Christ could not have +heard before He came to Bethabara +that John had disclaimed the great +title. It was not till the very day +before His own arrival that the Baptist +had told the questioners from Jerusalem, +“I am not He.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>But if any such thought had crossed +His mind, or hope filled His heart, +on the way to the Baptist, it was soon +dispelled, and He, left again in His +own loneliness, now more clearly than +ever before, face to face with the task +before which even the Son of God +appointed to it before the world was, +might well quail, as it confronted +Him in His frail human body. For +John recognises Him, singles Him +<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>out at once, proclaims to the bystanders, +“This is He! Behold the +Lamb of God! This is He who shall +baptize with the fire of God’s own +Spirit. Here is the Deliverer whom +all our prophets have foretold.” And +by a mysterious outward sign, as well +as by the witness in His own heart +and conscience, Christ is at once +assured of the truth of the Baptist’s +words—that it is indeed He Himself +and no other, and that His time has +surely come at last.</p> + +<p class='c007'>That He now thoroughly realised +the fact for the first time, and was +startled and severely tried by the +confirmation of what He must have +felt for years to be probable, is not +only what we should look for from +our own experiences, but seems the +true inference from the Gospel narratives. +For, although as soon as the +full truth breaks upon Him He +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>accepts the mission and work to +which God is calling Him, and speaks +with authority to the Baptist, “Suffer +it to be so now,” yet the immediate +effect of the call is to drive Him away +into the wilderness, there in the deepest +solitude to think over once again, and +for the last time to wrestle with, and +master, the tremendous disclosure. +And the story of the temptation +which immediately follows—so full of +mystery and difficulty in many ways—is +invaluable for the light which it +casts, not only on this crisis of His +life, but before and after—on the +history of the world’s redemption, +and the method by which that redemption +is to be accomplished, the +part which each individual man and +woman is called to play in it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For Christ’s whole life on earth was +the assertion and example of true +manliness—the setting forth in living +<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>act and word what man is meant to +be, and how he should carry himself +in this world of God’s—one long +campaign, in which “the temptation” +stands out as the first great battle and +victory. The story has depths in it +which we can never fathom, but also +clear sharp lessons which he who runs +may read, and no man can master too +thoroughly. We must follow Him +reverently into the wilderness, where +He flies from the crowds who are +pressing to the Baptist, and who to-morrow +will be thronging round Him, +if He goes back amongst them, after +what the Baptist has said about Him +to-day.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Day after day in the wilderness the +struggle goes on in His heart. He +is faint from insufficient food in those +solitudes, and with bodily weakness +the doubts grow in strength and persistence, +and the tempter is always at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>His side, soliciting Him to end them +once for all, by one act of self-assertion. +All those questionings and misgivings +as to His origin and mission, +which we have pictured to ourselves +as haunting Him ever since His first +visit to Jerusalem, are now, as it were, +focused. There are mocking voices +whispering again, as of old, but more +scornfully and keenly, in His ear, +“Are you really the Messiah, the Son +of God, so long looked for? What +more proof have you to go upon than +you have had for these thirty years, +during which you have been living as +a poor peasant in a Galilean village? +The word of this wild man of the +wilderness? He is your own cousin, +and a powerful preacher, no doubt, +but a wayward, wilful man, clad and +fed like a madman, who has been +nursing mad fancies from his boyhood, +away from the holy city, the centre of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>national life and learning. This sign +of a descending dove, and a voice +which no one has heard but yourself? +Such signs come to many—are never +wanting when men are ready to +deceive themselves—and each man’s +fancy gives them a different meaning. +But the words, and the sign, and the +voice, you say only meet a conviction +which has been growing these thirty +years in your own heart and conscience? +Well, then, at least for the +sake of others if not for your own +sake, put this conviction to the proof, +here, at once, and make sure yourself, +before you go forth and deceive poor +men, your brethren, to their ruin. +You are famishing here in the wilderness. +This, at least, cannot be what +God intends for His Son, who is to +redeem the world. Exercise some +control over the meanest part of your +Father’s kingdom. Command these +<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>stones to become bread, and see +whether they will obey you. Cast +yourself down from this height. If +you are what you think, your Father’s +angels will bear you up. Then, after +they have borne you up, you may go +on with some reasonable assurance +that your claim is not a mere delusion, +and that you will not be leading these +poor men whom you call your brethren +to misery and destruction.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And when neither long fasting and +weakness, nor natural doubt, distrust, +impatience, nor the most subtle suggestions +of the tempter, can move His +simple trust in His Father, or wring +from Him one act of self-assertion, +the enemy changes front, and the +assault comes from another quarter. +“You may be right,” the voices seem +now to be saying; “you may not be +deceived, or dreaming, when you +claim to be the Son of God, sent to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>redeem this fair world, which is now +spread out before you in all its glory. +That may be your origin, and that +your work. But, living as you have +done till now in a remote corner of a +despised province, you have no experience +or knowledge of the methods +or powers which sway men, and +establish and maintain these kingdoms +of the world, the glory of which you +are beholding. These methods and +powers have been in use in your +Father’s world, if it be His, ever +since man has known good from evil. +You have only to say the word, and +you may use and control these +methods and powers as you please. +By their aid you may possibly ‘see +of the travail of your soul and be +satisfied’; without them you will +redeem nothing but perhaps a man +here and there—without them you +will postpone instead of hastening the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>coming of your Father’s kingdom, to +the sorrow and ruin of many generations, +and will die a foiled and lonely +man, crushed by the very forces you +have refused to use for your Father’s +service. If they were wholly evil, +wholly unfit for the fulfilment of any +purpose of His, would He have left +them in command of His world till +this day? It is only through them +that the world can be subdued. Your +time is short, and you have already +wasted much of it, standing shivering +on the brink, and letting the years +slip by in that cottage at Nazareth. +The wisest of your ancestors acknowledged +and used them, and spread his +kingdom from the river to the Great +Sea. Why should you reject them?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>This, very roughly and inadequately +stated, is some shadow of the +utmost part or skirt, as it were, of +the trial crisis, lasting forty days, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>through which Christ passed from +His private to His public career. +For forty days the struggle lasted +before He could finally realise and +accept His mission with all that it +implied. At the end of that time +He has fairly mastered and beaten +down every doubt as to His call, +every tempting suggestion to assert +Himself, or to accept or use any aid +in establishing His Father’s kingdom +which does not clearly bear His +Father’s stamp and seal on the face of +it. In the strength of this victory +He returns from the desert, to take +up the burthen which has been laid +on Him, and to set up God’s kingdom +in the world by the methods +which He has learnt of God Himself—and +by no other.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Thus in following the life of Christ +up to this point, so far as we have +any materials, we have found its main +<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>characteristic to be patience—a resolute +waiting on God’s mind. I have +asked you to test in every way you +can, whether this kind of patience +does not constitute the highest ideal +we can form of human conduct, is +not in fact the noblest type of true +manliness? Pursue the same method +as to this isolated section of that life, +the temptation, which I readily admit +has much in it that we cannot understand. +But take the story simply as +you find it (which is the only honest +method unless you pass it by altogether +which would be cowardly), +and see whether you can detect any +weakness, any flaw, in the perfect +manliness of Christ under the strain of +which it speaks—whether He does +not here also realise for us the most +perfect type of manliness in times of +solitary and critical trial. Spare no +pains, suppress no doubt, only be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>honest with the story, and with your +own consciences.</p> + +<p class='c007'>There is scarcely any life of first-rate +importance to the world in which +we do not find a crisis corresponding +to this, but the nearest parallel must +be sought amongst those men, the +greatest of their kind, who have +founded or recast one of the great +religions of the world. Of these (if +we except the greatest of all, Moses) +Mohammed is the only one of whose +call we know enough to speak. +Whatever we may think of him, and +the religion he founded, we shall all +probably admit that he was at any +rate a man of the rarest courage. In +his case too, it is only at the end of +long and solitary vigils in the desert +that the vision comes which seals him +for his work. The silver roll is unfolded +before his eyes, and he who +holds it bids him read therein the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>decrees of God, and tells him, “Thou +art the prophet of God, and I his +angel.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>He is unmanned by the vision, and +flies trembling to his wife, whose +brave and loving counsel, and those of +his friends and first disciples, scarcely +keep him from despair and suicide.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I would not press the parallel +further than to remark, that Christ +came out of the temptation with no +human aid, having trod the wine-press +alone, serene and resolute from +that moment for the work to which +God had called Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It remains to follow His life in +action, and to scrutinise its special +characteristics there. And again I +would ask you to sift every step +thoroughly for yourselves, and see +whether it will not bear the supreme +crucial test, from first to last. Apply +that test therefore without scruple or +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>limitation in respect of this special +quality of manliness, from which we +started on our inquiry. I have admitted, +and admit again, frankly and +at once, that if the life will not stand +the test throughout, in every separate +action and detail, the Christian hypothesis +breaks down. For we may +make allowances for the noblest and +bravest men, for Moses and Elijah +and St. Paul, for Socrates and Luther +and Mohammed, and every other +great prophet, but we can make none +for the perfect Son of man and Son of +God. His life must stand the test +under all circumstances, and at every +moment, or the ground breaks through +under our feet, and God has not revealed +Himself in man to men, or +redeemed the world by the methods +in which Christendom has believed for +nineteen hundred years.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span> +<img src='images/i_p092.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p5c1' class='c004'>PART V <br> <span class='large'>CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT I</span><a id='tn001'></a></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“This perfect man, by merit called my Son,</div> + <div class='line'>To earn salvation for the sons of men.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c014'><span class='sc'>Milton</span>, <i>Paradise Regained</i>, Book I.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_i.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi0_7'> +IT will be necessary for our +purpose to follow in outline +the events of our Lord’s +ministry as a consecutive +narrative. If I do so without calling +your attention to the endless difficulties +and questions which have been +fairly raised as to the occurrence and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>sequence of many or those events, it +is not because I wish to ignore them +myself, or to lead you away from the +examination of them. In our time, +which is, perhaps, before all things an +age of criticism, much has been done +towards the creation of a science of +history, and therefore of a science of +religion, which is the highest part of +history. We have discovered, or at +any rate have done much to perfect, +the use of new and searching methods +of investigation, and have applied, and +are applying, these to every department +of human knowledge and human +life.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was not to be expected, or indeed +to be wished, that the new criticism +should pause before that history, or +the books containing it, which our +forefathers held too sacred to be +looked upon or treated as ordinary +history. It has not paused, and—while +<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>respecting our fathers’ reverent +feeling for the books which have done +so much for our nation, and for the +world—we may rejoice that it has +not; and that friend and foe in this +generation have been alike busy in +turning all the light which recent +research has placed within their reach +upon the story of our Lord’s ministry, +and the gospel narratives in which it +is contained.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We English were in danger of +idolatry in this matter—of putting +the Book in the place of Him of +whom it testifies—and it is well for +us that we have been shaken, however +roughly, out of a habit which fostered +unreality in the very centre of our +lives. We were inclined to claim for +Christ’s religion, and for its evidences, +immunities which neither He nor His +apostles ever claimed. That position +has been abandoned, and the best +<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>representatives of every school of +religious thought amongst us (so far +as I am aware) now challenge the +freest inquiry, and lend their own +aid in carrying it on. And amongst +the first, and not least formidable, +difficulties which have met Christian +writers has been that of harmonising +the writings of the four evangelists +so as to make the several narratives +fit into one continuous whole.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Whether it is possible that this +can ever be done completely, in the +absence of the discovery of new +evidence, which there is no reason to +look for, seems to be very doubtful. +At any rate it has not been accomplished +hitherto. But the general +outline comes out clearly enough, +and this is all we need in order to +pursue our own particular inquiry +satisfactorily.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Turning, then, to the point at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>which we have arrived, we shall find +ourselves at once met by questions of +detail as to our Lord’s return from +the wilderness after His temptation. +Whether He returned to the scene +of John’s baptism, on the Jordan, and +remained there for some days, or +went straight back into Galilee from +the desert; whether He commenced +His active ministry at once, or even +yet postponed it until John had been +put in prison—are questions about +which there is as yet no general +concurrence of opinion.</p> + +<p class='c007'>You may each of you judge for +yourselves of the difficulties by comparing +the passages in the four Gospels +which relate to this period.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Taking this warning with us, we +need trouble no further about the +harmonies. Indeed, for our purpose, +they are of very little consequence, +for, take the narrative how we will, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>it divides itself beyond all question +into several distinct and clearly marked +periods. The first of these is that +between the temptation and the formal +opening of Christ’s ministry in Galilee, +(marked by His first great discourse +at Nazareth), the abandonment of His +home, and the selection of the five +first apostles for special and continuous +service. This first period extends +at most over a few months, or more +probably weeks, beginning a few days +before the feast of the Passover, and +ending in the early summer; at the +time, not (so far as I am aware) +exactly ascertained, when Herod +Antipas seized John the Baptist and +put him in prison. We must run +through it shortly, noting the principal +events, and then applying our +test to such of them as seem to come +within the scope of our inquiry.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The temptation over, Christ appears +<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>to have returned by Bethabara on His +way to His Galilean home. The +crowds were still pressing to John’s +baptism, and a group of the most +earnest amongst them had already +gathered round the Baptist, and were +attaching themselves to his person, +as the sons of the prophets round +Elisha, the apostles round Christ +Himself, the companions of Medina +round Mohammed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To two of these disciples John +points out Christ as that Son of God, +of whom he was sent to bear record. +They follow Him, spend a few hours +of the afternoon with Him, and +recognise Him as the Messiah. One +of them, Andrew, brings his brother +Simon Peter to Christ. He Himself +calls Philip, who in his turn brings +his friend Nathanael. With these +five Christ starts for His home in +Galilee.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>These earliest followers, we may +note, are almost certainly of the +twelve apostles. As to Andrew, +Simon Peter, and Philip, who are +expressly named, there is no question; +and there is good reason to believe +that the companion of Andrew, whose +name is not given, was John, the son +of Zebedee, and that Nathanael was +the apostle Bartholomew, whose name +is constantly coupled in the Gospels +with that of Philip. Nathanael was +of Cana of Galilee, of what trade we +do not know; the other four were +of Bethsaida, a suburb of Capernaum, +fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.</p> + +<p class='c007'>They accompany Christ to Cana, +Nathanael’s home, where they meet +Christ’s mother, and are present at +the marriage feast, at which His first +miracle is wrought. From thence +they follow Him to Capernaum, and +some of them go on with Him to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>Jerusalem to the Passover, at which +He drives out the cattle-dealers from +the outer court of the Temple, and +overthrows the tables of the money-changers.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This act fixes the attention of all +Jerusalem upon Him, and brings Him +at once under the notice of the +Sanhedrim. One of its members, a +Pharisee, seeks an interview with +Him by night. He commits Himself +neither to the mob, nor to the nobleman. +After the feast He remains +for some time in the northern part +of Judæa, where His fame attracts +followers, whom His disciples baptize. +He then passes through Samaria, still +attended by his followers, stopping +some days in the city of that name, +and preaching there. They then go +into Galilee, and, while the disciples, +apparently, separate for the time to +their own homes and pursuits, He +<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>returns to Nazareth, to begin His +formal ministry amongst those who +had known Him from His childhood. +They turn upon Him in the middle +of His first discourse, and attempt to +murder Him. He leaves His old +home for the neighbouring village +of Cana, where He is found by the +ruler whose son is sick at Capernaum. +He heals the child, and follows the +father to that city, where He hears of +the imprisonment of the Baptist, and +at once enters on the second stage of +His public career.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And now, following the narrative +step by step so far, see if you can find +any trace in it of a failure of courage, +even for a moment. In the first place +you will find, generally, that there is +no wavering or hesitation at any point. +The time for these is past, and, the +call once recognised and accepted, +there is no shrinking, or looking +<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>round, or going back. The strain +and burthen of a great message of +deliverance to men has again and +again found the weak places in the +faith and courage of the most devoted +and heroic of those to whom it has +been entrusted. Moses pleads under +its pressure that another may be sent +in his place, asking despairingly, +“Why hast thou sent me?” Elijah +prays for death. Mohammed passes +years of despondency and hesitation +under the sneers of those who scoff, +“There goeth the son of Abdallah, +who hath his converse with God!” +Such shrinkings and doubtings enlist +our sympathy, make us feel the tie of +a common humanity which binds us +to such men. But no one, I suppose, +will maintain that perfect manliness +would not suppress, at any rate the +open expression of, any such feelings. +The man who has to lead a great +<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>revolution should keep all misgivings +to himself, and the weight of them +so kept must often prove the sorest +part of his burthen.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But let us pass on to the particular +events of this period. As to many of +them the question of whether they +are courageous or not, perhaps, does +not arise, except in so far as it arises +on every act in our lives, each of which +may, and indeed must, be done either +manfully with perfect directness, or +unmanfully with more or less adroitness. +The man whose “yea is yea and +his nay nay,” is, we all confess, the +most courageous, whether or no he +may be the most successful, in daily +life. And He who gave the precept +has left us the most perfect example +of how to live up to it. And this +quality you will find shines out at +once in these early conversations with +Nathanael, Nicodemus, and the woman +<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>of Samaria, as much as in the discourses +of His later years.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Before considering them we may +glance at the purification of the +Temple, an act which at any rate +should satisfy those who think courage +best proved by physical daring. +At this time, we must remember, He +had no following, such as the crowd +that swept after Him on Palm Sunday, +three years later, into the Temple +courts. But, leaving the act to speak +for itself, look at the rare courage of +the speech by which that act is justified +when it is challenged. He, not even +a Levite, a mere peasant from a +despised province, had presumed to +exercise authority in the very Temple +precincts! Jerusalem was full of +worse idolatries, but the idolatry of +the Temple buildings was, perhaps, +the strongest. The Jews seem to +have regarded them as Christians +<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>have sometimes regarded the visible +Church, or the Bible—as an object of +worship; to have thought that if they +perished God Himself would perish. +And so Christ’s answer goes straight +to the root of their idolatry. His +words were not understood by the +crowd, or even by His own disciples, +in their full meaning—that His body, +and the body of every man, is the true +temple of God. But they understood +enough of them to see that He had +no superstition about these splendid +buildings of theirs, and was trying to +lift all of them above local and national +prejudices. Those who would not be +lifted brooded over them till their day +of vengeance came.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But there were those on whom the +daring acts and words of Christ were +already taking hold. Many of those +who had come up to the Passover +believed in Him, some even amongst +<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>the rulers. One of these we hear +more of at once.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Nicodemus, we must remember, +was a leading member of the Sanhedrim, +a representative of that section +of the rulers, who, like the rest of the +nation, were expecting a deliverer, a +king who should prevail against the +Cæsar. They had sent to the Baptist, +and had heard of his testimony to this +young Galilean, who had now come +to Jerusalem, and was showing signs +of a power which they could not but +acknowledge. For, had He not +cleansed the Temple, which they had +never been able to do; but, notwithstanding +their pretended reverence for +it, had allowed to be turned into a +shambles and an exchange? They +saw that a part of the people were +ready to gather to Him, but that He +had refused to commit Himself to +them. This, then, the best of them +<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>must have felt, was no mere leader +of a low, fierce, popular party or +faction. Nicodemus at any rate was +evidently inclined to doubt whether +He might not prove to be the king +they were looking for, as the Baptist +had declared. The doubt must be +solved, and he would see for himself.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so he comes to Christ, and +hears directly from Him, that He has +indeed come to set up a kingdom, +but that it is no visible kingdom like +the Cæsar’s, but a kingdom over men’s +spirits; one which rulers as well as +peasants must become new men before +they can enter—that a light has come +into the world, and “he that doeth +truth cometh to that light.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>From beginning to end there is no +word to catch this ruler, or those he +represented; no balancing of phrases +or playing with plausible religious +shibboleths, with which Nicodemus +<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>would be familiar, and which might +please, and, perchance, reconcile, this +well-disposed ruler, and the powerful +persons he represented. There is, +depend upon it, no severer test of manliness +than our behaviour to powerful +persons, whose aid would advance the +cause we have at heart. We know +from the later records that the interview +of that night, and the strange +words he had heard then, made a deep +impression on this ruler. His manliness, +however, breaks down for the +present. He shrinks back and disappears, +leaving the strange young +peasant to go on His way.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The same splendid directness and +incisiveness characterise His teaching +at Samaria. There, again, He attacks +at once the most cherished local traditions, +showing that the place of +worship matters nothing, the object of +worship everything. That object is +<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>a Father of men’s spirits, who wills +that all men shall know and worship +Him, but who can only be worshipped +in spirit and in truth. He, the peasant +who is talking to them, is Himself the +Messiah, who has come from the +Father of them and Him, to give them +this spirit of truth in their own hearts.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The Jews at Jerusalem had been +clamouring round Him for signs of +His claim to speak such words, and in +the next few days His own people +would be crying out for His blood +when they heard them. These Samaritans +make no such demand, but hear +and recognise the message and the +messenger. The seed is sown, and He +passes on, never to return, so far as we +know, and garner the harvest; deliberately +preferring the hard, priest-ridden +lake cities of the Jews as the centre of +His ministry. He will leave ripe fields +for others to reap. This decision, interpret +<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>it as we will, is that of no soft or +timid reformer. Take this test again +and compare Christ’s choice of His first +field for work with that of any other +great leader of men.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This first period fitly closes with the +scene of Nazareth. Here He returns, +while the reports of His doings at the +feast at Jerusalem are fresh in the +minds of His family and fellow-townsmen. +They are excited and +divided as to Him and His doings. +A thousand reasons would occur for +speaking soft things, at such a moment, +for accommodating His teaching, here +at any rate, to the wants and tastes of +His hearers, so as to keep a safe and +friendly asylum at Nazareth, amongst +the scenes and people He had loved +from childhood. It is clear that some +of His family, if not His mother herself, +were already seriously alarmed and +displeased. They disliked what they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>had heard of His teaching at Jerusalem +and on His way home, which they +felt must bring Him to ruin, in which +they might be involved. He must +have seen and conversed with them +in His own home before that scene in +the synagogue, and have had then to +endure the bitter pain of alienating +those whom He loved and respected, +and had reason to love and respect, +but who could not for the time rise out +of the conventional, respectable, way of +looking at things.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To stand by what our conscience +witnesses for as truth, through evil and +good report, even against all opposition +of those we love, and whose judgment +we look up to and should +ordinarily prefer to follow; to cut +ourselves deliberately off from their +love and sympathy and respect; is +surely, I repeat, one of the most severe +trials to which we can be put. A man +<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>has need to feel at such times that the +Spirit of the Lord is upon him in some +measure, as it was upon Christ when +he rose in the synagogue of Nazareth, +and, selecting the passage of Isaiah +which speaks most directly of the +Messiah, claimed that title for Himself +and told them that to-day this prophecy +was fulfilled in Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The fierce, hard, Jewish spirit is at +once roused to fury. They would +kill Him then and there, and so settle +His claims, once for all. He passes +through them, and away from the +quiet home where He had been +brought up—alone it would seem, so +far as man could make Him so, and +homeless for the remainder of His life. +Yet not alone, for His Father is with +Him; nor homeless, for He has the +only home of which man can be sure, +home of His own heart shared with +the Spirit of God.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span> +<img src='images/i_p113.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p5c2' class='c004'>PART VI <br> <span class='large'>CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT II</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“What is it that ye came to note?</div> + <div class='line'>A young man preaching from a boat.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c014'><span class='sc'>A. Clough.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_t.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_0'> +THE second period of our +Lord’s ministry is one, in +the main, of joyful progress +and triumph, in which the +test of true manliness must be more +subtle than when the surroundings are +hostile. It consists, I think, at such +times in the careful watchfulness not to +give wrong impressions, not to mislead +those who are touched by enthusiasm, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>conscious of new life, grateful to Him +who has kindled that life in them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is then that the temptation to be +all things to all men in a wrong sense,—to +adapt and accommodate teaching +and life to a lower standard in order +to maintain a hold upon the masses +of average men and women, who have +been moved by the words of lips +touched by fire from the altar of God,—has +generally proved too much for +the best and strongest of the world’s +great reformers. It is scarcely necessary +to labour this point, which would, +I think, be sorrowfully admitted by +those who have studied most lovingly +and carefully the lives of such men +for instance as Savonarola, or Wesley. +If you will refer to a recent and +valuable work on the life of a greater +than either of these, Mr. Bosworth +Smith’s <i>Mohammed and Mohammedanism</i>, +you will find there perhaps the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>best illustration which I can give you +of this sad experience.</p> + +<p class='c007'>When Mohammed returns from +Medina, sweeping at last all enemies +out of his path, as the prophet of +a new faith, and the leader of an +awakened and repentant people, his +biographer pauses to notice the +lowering of the standard, both in his +life and teaching. Power, he pleads, +brings with it new temptations, and +new failures. The more thoroughly +a man is carried away by his inspiration, +and convinced of the truth and goodness +of his cause and his message, the +more likely is he to forget the means +in the end, and to allow the end to +justify whatever means seem to lead +to its triumph. He must maintain as +he can, and by any means, his power +over the motley mass of followers +that his mission has gathered round +him, and will be apt to aim rather at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>what will hold them than at what +will satisfy the highest promptings of +his own conscience.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We may allow the plea in such +cases, though with sorrow and humiliation. +But the more minutely we +examine the life of Christ, the more +we shall feel that, here again, there is +no place for it. We shall be impressed +with the entire absence of any such +bending to expediency, or forgetting +the means in the end. He never for +one moment accommodates His life or +teaching to any standard but the +highest: never lowers or relaxes that +standard by a shade or a hair’s breadth, +to make the road easy to rich or +powerful questioners, or to uphold the +spirit of His poorer followers when +they are startled and uneasy, as they +begin half blindly to recognise what +spirit they are of. This unbending +truthfulness is, then, what we have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>chiefly to look for in this period of +triumphant progress and success, +questioning each act and word in turn +whether there is any swerving in it +from the highest ideal.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is not easy to mark off distinctly +the time over which it extends, but it +seems to me to commence with His +return to Capernaum, after the healing +of the centurion’s son, when He hears +of the imprisonment of John, and to +end with the estrangement of many of +His followers at His teaching as to +the bread of life, and the nearly +contemporaneous and final and open +rupture with, and defiance of, the +chief priests and scribes and Pharisees, +when they change from suspicious and +watchful critics into open and avowed +enemies, baffled for the moment, but +dogging His footsteps and thirsting +for His blood.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is upon His relations with these +<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>scribes and Pharisees more particularly +that we must keep our attention fixed, +as it is here, if anywhere, that we may +look for a failure of nerve and truthfulness, +and therefore of manliness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We must gather our connected +view of this period from all the +narratives, and shall find the beginning +most clearly indicated in St. Matthew, +in the last part of the 4th chapter, +where He recalls to His side Peter +and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee—who +appear to have left Him for +the moment and to have returned to +their boats and nets at Bethsaida—and +opens His ministry in the lake cities +by the Sermon on the Mount. For +the end we must go to the 11th +chapter of St. Luke, where, in the +house of a Pharisee, He speaks the +words which madden Pharisees and +lawyers into urging Him vehemently +to speak of many things, and watching +<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>for the words which will enable them +to entangle, and, as they think, to +destroy Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>First, then, as to the main facts so +far as they are necessary for our +purposes. We may note that our +Lord accepts at once the imprisonment +of the Baptist as the final summons to +Himself. Gathering, therefore, a few +of John’s disciples round Him, and +welcoming the restless inquiring +crowds who had been roused by the +voice crying in the wilderness, He +stands forward at once to proclaim and +explain the nature of that new kingdom +of God, which has now to be set +up in the world. Standing forth alone, +on the open hill-side, the young +Galilean peasant gives forth the great +proclamation, which by one effort +lifted mankind on to that new and +higher ground on which it has been +painfully struggling ever since, but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>on the whole with sure though slow +success, to plant itself and maintain +sure foothold.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In all history there is no parallel to +it. It stands there, a miracle or sign +of God’s reign in this world, far more +wonderful than any of Christ’s miracles +of healing. Unbelievers have been +sneering at and ridiculing it, and +Christian doctors paring and explaining +it away, ever since. But there it +stands, as strong and fresh as ever, +the calm declaration and witness of +what mankind is intended by God to +become on this earth of His.</p> + +<p class='c007'>As a question of courageous utterance +(with which we are here mainly +concerned), I would only ask you to +read it through once more, bearing in +mind who the preacher was—a peasant, +already repudiated by His own neighbours +and kinsfolk, and suspected by +the national rulers and teachers; and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>who were the hearers—a motley +crowd of Jewish peasants and fishermen, +Romish legionaries, traders from +Damascus, Tyre, and Sidon, and the +distant isles of Greece, with a large +sprinkling of publicans, scribes, Pharisees +and lawyers.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The immediate result of the sermon +was to bow the hearts of this crowd +for the time, so that He was able to +choose followers from amongst them, +much as He would. He takes fishermen +and peasants, selecting only two +at most from any rank above the lowest, +and one of these from a class more +hated and despised by the Jews than +the poorest peasant, the publicans. +It is plain that He might at first have +called apostles from amongst the +upper classes had He desired it—as a +teacher with any want of courage +would surely have done. But the only +scribe who offers himself is rejected.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>The calling of the apostles is +followed by a succession of discourses +and miracles, which move the people +more and more, until, after that of +the loaves, the popular enthusiasm +rises to the point it had so often +reached in the case of other preachers +and leaders of this strange people. +They are ready to take Him by force +and make Him a king.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The apostles apparently encourage +this enthusiasm, for which He constrains +them into a ship, and sends +them away before Him. After +rejoining them and rebuking their +want of understanding and faith, He +returns with them to the multitudes, +and at once speaks of Himself as the +bread from heaven, in the discourse +which offends many of His disciples, +who from this time go back and walk +no more with Him. The brief season +of triumphant progress is drawing to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>an end, during which He could rejoice +in spirit in contemplating the human +harvest which He and His disciples +seem to be already successfully garnering.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But, even while the prospect was +fairest, while the people were surging +round Him in the first enthusiasm of +their new faith, there had been ominous +signs of that antagonism of the +rulers which was to end on Calvary, +and we have now to glance at the +relations of Christ with them during +this same period.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This antagonism was of gradual +growth. In the first instance many +of the scribes and Pharisees seem to +have followed Him, more for the +purpose of hearing and watching, than +in a spirit of direct hostility. In the +Sermon on the Mount He only once +alludes to them directly, when He +tells His hearers that unless their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>righteousness exceeds that of the +scribes and Pharisees, there can be no +place for them in this kingdom of +which He is now proclaiming the +laws. It does not appear however at +first that they were alienated by what +was then said, for soon afterwards we +find Pharisees and doctors of the law +from Jerusalem “and every town of +Galilee and Judæa” sitting by while +He teaches, “and the power of the +Lord was present to heal them.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>Now, however, they are aroused +and startled by Christ’s address to the +palsied man—“Thy sins are forgiven +thee.” The cure of the man silences +them for the moment. They are +filled with fear, and glorify God, +saying, “We have seen strange things +to-day.” But Christ’s next act again +rouses their jealousy afresh. He has +not called any of them to His side; +that, probably, they would have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>deemed presumption. They are +waiting and watching; thinking, +doubtless, that their presence gives a +sanction and respectability to the +young teacher, which He, and the +crowds who come to hear and be +healed, will in due course learn to +appreciate. Meantime it might restrain +Him and them from rash acts +and words, which would ruin a national +movement that might possibly be hereafter +guided to the advantage of Israel.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But now, while the great men are +thus balancing, and probably admiring +themselves for their liberality, Christ +singles out Levi the publican, calls +him as an apostle, and goes to his +house to feast with a large company of +other publicans. The great people +remonstrate angrily. Such an act +outrages all their notions of the +orthodox conduct of a prophet. +Christ replies simply, that He has +<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>come to call sinners, not the righteous, +to repentance.</p> + +<p class='c007'>A few days later an even more +serious question is raised between +them. On a Sabbath day His disciples +pluck and eat the corn, and +Christ justifies them. On the next +Sabbath, while they are watching Him, +He heals a man, with the obvious +purpose of trying them, and claims to +be Lord of the Sabbath, as He had +claimed power to forgive sins. They +begin to be filled with madness, and +commune what they can do to Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Still, however, the breach is not +final. They have not abandoned the +hope of using the young preacher and +prophet for their purposes. So Simon, +one of their number, invites Him to +his house, and, though neglecting the +usual courtesies of an entertainer (as +out of place in the case of a peasant), +is evidently not treacherous in the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>invitation. He might well flatter +himself on his freedom from class +prejudices, and feel that such condescension +would have a good effect +on his guest, and might lead Him in +good time to rely on and consult +persons moving in the upper ranks of +Jewish society as to His future course.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The story of the woman, a sinner, +who gets into the room and anoints +Christ’s feet, and the use which He +makes of the incident—to bring home +to Simon’s mind, with the most exquisite +temper and courtesy, but with +the most faithful firmness, his shortcomings +as a host, and his want of +true insight as a man—are amongst +the finest illustrations we have of His +method with the great and powerful +of His nation. Before leaving the +house He once more reasserts His +power to forgive sins.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We must now follow Him to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>Jerusalem, to which He goes up to +one of the feasts, and, at the headquarters +of the scribes and Pharisees, +deliberately raises afresh, at headquarters, +the burning questions which +He had left rankling in the minds of +the provincial hierarchy. He heals +the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda +on the Sabbath day, and sends +him through the streets carrying his +bed. Challenged to defend Himself +(probably before the Sanhedrim), He +claims, more explicitly than ever +before, that God is His Father, and +has given Him not only power to do +mighty works, but “authority to +execute judgment”; that their own +scriptures testify of Him, as He who +can give them life if they will come +to Him for it. Upon which they, +naturally enough, seek to slay Him; +but He gets back unscathed to Galilee, +and then follows the scene which I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>have referred to as the end of this +period of His ministry.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The Pharisees are now dogging +his footsteps wherever He goes, but +even yet have not given up the hope +of coming to some terms with One +whom they cannot help acknowledging +to wield a power over the people +which has slipped away from themselves. +Influenced possibly by a discourse +in which He upbraids the +people as an evil generation, without +specially alluding, as was so often His +custom, to the people’s leaders and +teachers as those upon whom the chief +guilt rested, they again invite Him +into their own circle. But now the +time is past for the kindly courtesy +of the feast in Simon’s house. The +usual means of washing before meat +are there, but He rejects them. They +express a well-bred astonishment, and +then follows that scathing denunciation +<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>of their hypocrisies and tyrannies, +of their “inward parts full of ravening +wickedness,” which makes the +breach final and irrevocable between +the Son of man and the rulers of +Israel.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Thenceforth Christ has more and +more to “tread the wine-press alone,” +surrounded by bewildered followers, +and powerful enemies resolved on +His destruction, and unscrupulous as +to the means by which it must be +compassed.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p130.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span> +<img src='images/i_p131.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p5c3' class='c004'>PART VII <br> <span class='large'>CHRIST’S MINISTRY. ACT III</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“By the light of burning martyr-fires Christ’s bleeding feet I track,</div> + <div class='line'>Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back.”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c014'><span class='sc'>Lowell.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_w.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_2'> +WE have now reached the +critical point, the third act +in the world’s greatest +drama. All chance of the +speedy triumph of the kingdom of +God, humanly speaking, in this lake +country of Galilee—the battle-field +<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>chosen by Himself, where His mightiest +works had been done and His +mightiest words spoken—the district +from which His chosen companions +came, and in which clamorous crowds +had been ready to declare Him king—is +now over. The conviction that +this is so, that He is a baffled leader, +in hourly danger of His life, has +forced itself on Christ. Before entering +that battle-field, face to face with +the tempter in the wilderness, He had +deliberately rejected all aid from the +powers and kingdoms of this world, +and now, for the moment, the powers +of this world have proved too strong +for Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The rulers of that people—Pharisee, +Sadducee, and Herodian, scribe +and lawyer—were now marshalled +against Him in one compact phalanx, +throughout all the coasts of Galilee, as +well as in Judæa.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>His disciples, rough, most of them +peasants, full of patriotism but with +small power of insight or self-control, +were melting away from a leader who, +while He refused them active service +under a patriot chief at open war with +Cæsar and his legions, bewildered +them by assuming titles and talking +to them in language which they could +not understand. They were longing +for one who would rally them against +the Roman oppressor, and give them +a chance at any rate of winning their +own land again, purged of the heathen +and free from tribute. Such an one +would be worth following to the +death. But what could they make of +this “Son of man,” who would prove +His title to that name by giving His +body and pouring out His blood for +the life of man—of this “Son of +God,” who spoke of redeeming mankind +and exalting mankind to God’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>right hand, instead of exalting the Jew +to the head of mankind?</p> + +<p class='c007'>In the face of such a state of +things, to remain in Capernaum or +the neighbouring towns and villages, +would have been to court death, +there, and at once. The truly courageous +man, you may remind me, +is not turned from his path by the +fear of death, which is the supreme +test and touchstone of his courage. +True;—nor was Christ so turned, +even for a moment.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Whatever may have been His hopes +in the earlier part of His career, by +this time He had no longer a thought +that mankind could be redeemed +without His own perfect and absolute +sacrifice and humiliation. The cup +would indeed have to be drunk to +the dregs, but not here, nor now. +This must be done at Jerusalem, the +centre of the national life and the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>seat of the Roman Government. It +must be done during the Passover, +the national commemoration of sacrifice +and deliverance. And so He +withdraws, with a handful of disciples, +and even they still wayward, half-hearted, +doubting, from the constant +stress of a battle which has turned +against Him. From this time He +keeps away from the great centres +of population, except when, on two +occasions—at the Feast of Tabernacles +and the Feast of the Dedication—He +flashes for a day on Jerusalem, +and then disappears again into some +haunt of outlaws, or of wild beasts. +This portion of His life comprises +something less than the last twelve +months: from the summer of the +second year of His ministry till the +eve of the last Passover, at Easter, +in the third year.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In glancing at the main facts of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>this period, as we have done in +the former ones, we have to note +chiefly His intercourse with the twelve +apostles, and His preparation of them +for the end of His own career and +the beginning of theirs; His conduct +at Jerusalem during those two autumnal +and winter feasts; and the occasions +when He again comes into collision +with the rulers and Pharisees, both +at these feasts and in the intervals +between them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The keynote of it, in spite of certain +short and beautiful interludes, appears +to me to be a sense of loneliness and +oppression, caused by the feeling that +He has work to do, and words to +speak, which those for whom they +are to be done and spoken, and whom +they are, first of all men, to bless, +will either misunderstand or abhor. +Here is all the visible result of His +labour, and of His travail, and the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>enemy is gathering strength every +day.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This becomes clear, I think, at +once, when, in the first days after His +quitting the lake shores, He asks His +disciples the question, “Whom do the +world, and whom do ye, say that I +am?” He is answered by Peter in +the well-known burst of enthusiasm, +that, though the people only look on +Him as a prophet, such as Elijah or +Jeremiah, His own chosen followers +see in Him “the Christ, the Son of +the living God.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is this particular moment which +He selects for telling them distinctly, +that Christ will <em>not</em> triumph as they +regard triumphing, that He will fall +into the power of His enemies, and +be humbled and slain by them. At +once the proof comes of how little +even the best of His own most +intimate friends had caught the spirit +<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>of His teaching or of His kingdom. +The announcement of His humiliation +and death, which none but the most +truthful and courageous of men would +have made at such a moment, leaves +them almost as much bewildered as +the crowds in the lake cities had been +a few days before.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Their hearts are faithful and simple, +and upon them, as Peter has testified, +the truth has flashed once for all, that +there can be no other Saviour of men +than this Man with whom they are +living. Still, by what means and to +what end the salvation shall come, +they are scarcely less ignorant than +the people who had been in vain +seeking from Him a sign such as +they desired. His own elect “understood +not His saying, and it was hid +from them, that they perceived it not.” +Rather, indeed, they go straight from +that teaching to dispute amongst +<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>themselves who of them shall be +the greatest in that kingdom which +they understand so little. And so +their Master has to begin again +at the beginning of His teaching, +and, placing a little child amongst +them, to declare that not of such +men as they deem themselves, but of +such as this child, is the kingdom of +heaven.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The episode of the Transfiguration +follows; and immediately after it, as +though purposely to warn even the +three chosen friends who had been +present against new delusions, He +repeats again the teaching as to His +death and humiliation. And He +reiterates it whenever any exhibition +of power or wisdom seems likely to +encourage the frame of mind in the +twelve generally which had lately +brought the great rebuke on Peter. +How slowly it did its work, even +<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>with the foremost disciples, there are +but too many proofs.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Amongst His kinsfolk and the +people generally, His mission, thanks +to the cabals of the rulers and elders, +had come by this time to be looked +upon with deep distrust and impatience. +“How long dost Thou +make us to doubt? Go up to this +coming feast, and there prove your +title before those who know how +to judge in such matters,” is the +querulous cry of the former as the +Feast of Tabernacles approaches. He +does not go up publicly with the caravan, +which would have been at this +time needlessly to incur danger, but, +when the feast is half over, suddenly +appears in the Temple. There He +again openly affronts the rulers by +justifying His former acts, and teaching +and proclaiming, that He who has +sent Him is true, and is their God.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>It is evidently on account of this +new proof of daring that the people +now again begin to rally round Him. +“Behold, He speaketh boldly. Do +our rulers know that this is Christ?” +is the talk which fills the air, and +induces the scribes and Pharisees, for +the first time, to attempt His arrest +by their officers.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The officers return without Him, +and their masters are, for the moment, +powerless before the simple word of +Him who, as their own servants +testify, “speaks as never man spake.” +But if they cannot arrest and execute, +they may entangle Him further, and +prepare for their day, which is surely +and swiftly coming. So they bring +to Him the woman taken in adultery, +and draw from Him the discourse in +which He tells them that the truth +will make them free—the truth which +He has come to tell them, but which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>they will not hear, because they are +of their father the devil. He ends +with asserting His claim to the name +which every Jew held sacred, “before +Abraham was, I am.” The narrative +of the 7th and 8th chapters of St. +John, which record these scenes at +the Feast of Tabernacles, has, I +believe, done more to make men +courageous and truly manly, than all +the stirring accounts of bold deeds +which ever were written elsewhere.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The report of what had happened +at the Feast of Tabernacles seems to +have rekindled for a moment the +fitful zeal of the people of Galilee. +Christ does not, however, avail Himself +of this reaction until the time +comes for another return to Jerusalem +to the Feast of Dedication, when, +probably in the month of November, +or early in December, He returns +once more to Capernaum, to prepare +<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>for His last journey. The Pharisees, +impotent themselves for the moment, +now hurry to warn Him that Herod +is seeking to kill Him; but He passes +on His way with perfect indifference.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The crowds seem, as of old, inclined +to gather round Him again. He +selects seventy from amongst them, +and sends them on to prepare His +route, following Himself, and, this +time, it being His last pilgrimage, +with the multitude.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And now, again, in the first days +of this progress, the most trusted of +the apostles show how little, even yet, +they understand their Lord, or their +own work. When they see their +Master once more at the head of a +throng of followers, the old spirit +comes back on them as strongly as +ever, and they are anxious to call +down fire from Heaven to consume +those who will not receive Him. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>His rebuke and warning, yet again, +pass by them, and get no hold on +them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Rather, the incidents of the journey +impress them more and more with the +belief that, at last, the kingdom is coming +with power. At length, at some +point in the progress, they are amazed, +and as they follow are afraid. Once +more Christ takes them aside, and +endeavours to dispel their dreams, +repeating to them, in painful detail, +what will happen to Himself at +Jerusalem at the end of this journey: +that He will be betrayed, delivered to +the Gentiles, mocked, scourged, spat +upon, crucified. In spite of this warning, +and while it is yet ringing in +their ears, we find James and John +asking for the places of honour in the +kingdom of their own imaginations!</p> + +<p class='c007'>At the feast he is met by the Pharisees +and scribes in a somewhat different +<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>temper from that which they had shown +at the end of His last visit. For He +is once again at the head of a vast +and eager multitude. They know that +some, even of their own number, are +inclined to believe in Him. They +appeal to Him, passionately, to say +who He is. He replies by referring +to His former teaching about His +Father, whom they claimed as their +God, adding, “I and my Father are +one.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>Such a reply He well knew could +only have one result. He was alone; +and in the ears of those who surrounded +Him He was speaking blasphemy, +which could only be expiated +by instant death. Yet He neither hesitates +nor temporises, but, when they +seize stones to inflict the penalty, meets +them with a bearing so calm and manly, +that they can no more cast the first +stone at Him than they could three +<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>months before at the woman taken in +adultery.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He leaves Jerusalem once more after +the feast, going across Jordan with +His apostles to the country where John +came preaching and baptizing, and +remains there preaching to those who +come to Him until the news of +Lazarus’s death takes Him for a few +days to Bethany. After the raising of +His friend He returns to Peræa again, +and leaves it only when the great +caravan is passing by on its way to +the Passover, in the early spring. He +joins the caravan with His disciples, +passing with it through Jericho, the +city of priests, and selecting there the +publican Zacchæus as His host,—a last +lesson, by example, of the kind of +material which will be used in building +up His kingdom.</p> + +<p class='c007'>On the first day of the feast He +rides into Jerusalem in apparent +<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>triumph, the city mob joining the +pilgrim mob in greeting Him with +loud Hosannas. Once more He +cleanses the Temple, and rouses the +covetousness of the money-changers +into active alliance with the bigotry of +the priests, and the wild anger and +jealousy of the rulers, to sweep this +terrible Galilean revolutionist from the +face of the earth, before He shall ruin +them all.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For two days He continues to meet +them in the Temple and public resorts +of the city, shaming, confuting, and +denouncing them; and widening hour +by hour that breach which was already +gaping wide between the nation and +city and their true Lord and King. +The last scene in the Temple, recorded +in John, brings the long struggle to a +close.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The more carefully you study this +long wrestle with the blind leaders of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>a doomed nation, which has now come +to an end, the more you will recognise +the perfect truthfulness, and therefore +the perfect courage, which marks +Christ’s conduct of it. From beginning +to end there is no word or act +which can mislead friend or foe. The +strife, though for life and death, has +left no trace or stain on His manhood. +Fresh from the last and final conflict +in the Temple court, He can pause on +the side of Olivet to weep over the +city, the sight of which can still wring +from Him the pathetic yearnings of a +soul purified from all taint of bitterness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is this most tender and sensitive +of the sons of men—with fibres +answering to every touch and breath +of human sympathy or human hate—who +has borne with absolutely unshaken +steadfastness the distrust and +anger of kinsfolk, the ingratitude of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>converts, the blindness of disciples, the +fitful and purblind worship, and hatred, +and fear, of the nation of the Jews. +So far, we can estimate to some extent +the burthen and the strain, and realise +the strength and beauty, of the spirit +which could bear it all. Beyond and +behind lie depths into which we can +but glance. For in those last hours of +His life on earth the question was to +be decided whether we men have in +deed and in truth a brotherhood, in a +Son of Man, the head of humanity, +who has united mankind to their +Father, and can enable them to know +Him.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span> +<img src='images/i_p150.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='p5c4' class='c004'>PART VIII <br> <span class='large'>THE LAST ACT</span></h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c003'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Thou seemest human and divine,</div> + <div class='line'>The highest, holiest manhood, Thou!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c014'><span class='sc'>Tennyson.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_w.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_2'> +WE have reached the last stage, +which is also the most +critical one, of our inquiry. +It is upon the accounts +which we have of Christ’s Agony that +the scornful denials of his manliness +mainly rest. How, it is asked, can you +Christians recognise as perfect man, as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>the head and representative of humanity, +one who showed such signs of +physical fear and weakness as Christ, +by your own confession, showed in the +garden of Gethsemane? Even without +going to the roll of saints and +martyrs, hundreds of men and women +can be named who have looked a cruel +death in the face without flinching, +and endured tortures at least as painful +as His with a constancy which was +wanting in Him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was, indeed, a speech of this +kind, in which the death of the +Abolitionist leader, John Brown, was +contrasted with that of Christ, as one +so far superior in manliness that it +ought to be enough of itself to shame +Christians out of their superstition, +which confirmed me in proposing +this inquiry to you, as the most +necessary and useful one we could +engage in.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>Now I freely admit that there is +no recorded end of a life that I know +of more entirely brave and manly +than this one of Captain John Brown, +of which we know every minutest +detail, as it happened in the full glare +of our modern life not twenty years +ago. About that I think there would +scarcely be disagreement anywhere. +The very men who allowed him to +lie in his bloody clothes till the day +of his execution, and then hanged +him, recognised this. “You are a +game man, Captain Brown,” the +southern sheriff said in the waggon. +“Yes,” he answered, “I was so +brought up. It was one of my +mother’s lessons. From infancy I +have not suffered from physical fear. +I have suffered a thousand times more +from bashfulness”; and then he +kissed a negro child in its mother’s +arms, and walked cheerfully on to the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>scaffold, thankful that he was “allowed +to die for a cause, and not merely to +pay the debt of nature, as all must.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>There is no simpler or nobler +record in the Book of Martyrs, and +in passing I would only remind you, +that he at least was ready to acknowledge +from whence came his strength. +“Christ, the great Captain of liberty +as well as of salvation,” he wrote just +before his death, “saw fit to take +from me the sword of steel after I +had carried it for a time. But He +has put another in my hand, the sword +of the Spirit, and I pray God to make +me a faithful soldier wherever He +may send me.” And to a friend who +left him with the words, “If you can +be true to yourself to the end how +glad we shall be,” he answered, “I +cannot say, but I do not think I shall +deny my Lord and Master, Jesus +Christ.” The old Abolitionist would +<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>have been as amazed as any man at +such a comparison as we are dealing +with, and would have reminded us +that, so far from treading the wine-press +alone, he was upheld by the +sympathy and enthusiasm of all of his +own nation, and of the world outside +his own nation, for whom he cared.</p> + +<p class='c007'>No such support had Christ. He +knew too well that even the strongest +of the little band which came with +Him to the garden would deny Him +before the light dawned over Olivet. +And that sense of utter loneliness it +was, more probably than all the rest +of the burthen which He was carrying, +that wrung from Him the prayer of +agony, recalled almost before it was +uttered, that the cup might pass from +Him, and caused the sweat as it were +great drops of blood to fall from His +brow as He knelt and prayed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>How the tradition of that agony +<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>and bloody sweat has come to us is +hard to say, as the nearest witnesses +were asleep; but no Christian doubts +that it is a true one, or that the passion +of human weakness which then passed +over His soul was a genuine shrinking +from the unutterable anguish which +was weighing it down to the dust.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But even admitting frankly all that +is recorded of the agony and bloody +sweat, such admission can only enhance +the sublime courage of all that follows. +It is his action when the danger comes, +not when he is in solitary preparation +for it, which marks the man of +courage.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Let us just glance at this action. +As Judas with his torchmen draws +near He gathers Himself together, +rouses His sleepy followers, and meets +His enemy in the gate. There could +have been no quailing in the glance +before which the armed crowd of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>priests’ retainers went backward and +fell to the ground.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Follow Him through that long +night: to the Sanhedrim chamber, +where He Himself furnishes the evidence +which the chief priest sought +for in vain while He was silent—to +the court of the palace, where He +bore the ribaldry and dastard tortures +and insults of the low Jewish crowd +till morning, turning in the midst of +them with the reminding look to +Peter, which sent His last friend, +broken down by the consciousness +of his own cowardice, weeping into +the night—to the judgment-seat of +Pilate, and the scourgings of the +Roman soldiers—to Herod’s hall and +the insults of the base Galilean court—back +again to the judgment-seat +of the representative of the divine +Tiberius, and so to the final brutalities +in the prætorium while the cross +<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>is preparing, and the blood which is +dripping from the crown of thorns +on His brow, mingles with that +which flows from the wounds of His +scourgings—and find, if you can, +one momentary sign of terror or of +weakness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In all the world’s annals there is +nothing which approaches, in the +sublimity of its courage, that last +conversation between the peasant +prisoner, by this time a mass of filth +and blood, and the Roman procurator, +before Pilate led Him forth for the +last time, and pleaded scornfully with +His nation for the life of their King. +The canon from which we started +must guide us to the end. There +must be no flaw or spot on Christ’s +courage, any more than on His wisdom, +and tenderness, and sympathy. And +for the last time I repeat, the more +unflinchingly we apply the test, the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>more clear and sure will the response +come back to us.</p> + +<p class='c007'>We have been told recently, by +more than one of those who profess to +have weighed and measured Christianity +and found it wanting, that religion +must rest on reason, based on +phenomena of this visible tangible +world in which we are living.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Be it so. There is no need for a +Christian to object. He can meet +this challenge as well as any other. +We need never be careful about +choosing our own battle-field. Looking, +then, at that world as we see it, +labouring heavily along in our own +time—as we hear of it through the +records of the ages—I must repeat +that there is no phenomenon in it +comparable for a moment to this of +Christ’s life and work. The more we +canvass and sift and weigh and balance +the materials, the more clearly and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>grandly does His figure rise before us, +as the true Head of humanity, the +perfect Ideal not only of wisdom and +tenderness and love, but of courage +also, because He was and is the simple +Truth of God—the expression, at +last, in flesh and blood, of what He +who created us means each one of our +race to be.</p> + +<hr class='c015'> + +<p class='c007'>We have now finished our endeavour +to look at the life of Christ from one +point of view, and in special connection +with one human quality. I trust +it may prove to be only the first step +for many of you in a study which will +last your lives. At any rate it is one +which the reverence which is felt by +every member of this College for our +founder ought to commend to us +above all others.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He, as you all know, was never +weary of impressing on us, term after +<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>term, year after year, that the aim of +this place is to make good citizens, +and that this can only be done by +keeping vividly before ourselves, in +all our work here, that common +humanity which binds us all together +by the ties of family, of neighbourhood, +of country. What that common +humanity means and implies, he taught +us, can only be understood by reference +to a Son of man, and Son of God, in +whom we have all a common interest, +through whom we have all a common +spiritual relationship to His and our +Father.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To bring this home to us all, as the +central truth of our own lives, as the +master-key of the confusions and +perplexities in our own hearts, and in +the world around us, was the crowning +work of his life, and I trust we have +been true to his principle and his +method in our attempt to realise the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>life of this Son of Man, and Son of +God, on this earth, which is so +mysteriously at strife with the will of +its Creator and Redeemer.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Into the heart of the mystery of +that strife the wisest and best of us +cannot penetrate, but the wayfaring +man cannot help seeing that it is +precisely around this life of the Son of +Man, and Son of God, that the fiercest +controversies of our time are raging. +Is it not also becoming clearer every +day that they will continue to rage +more and more fiercely—that there +can be no rest or peace possible for +mankind—until all things are subdued +to Him, and brought into harmony +with His life?</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is to this work that all Churches +and Sects, Catholic and Protestant, +that all the leading nations of the +world, known collectively as Christendom, +are pledged: and the time for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>redeeming that pledge is running out +rapidly, as the distress and perplexity, +the threatening disruption and anarchy, +of Christendom too clearly show. It +is to this work too that you and I, +every man and woman of us, are also +called; and if we would go about it +with any hope and courage, it can +only be by keeping the life of Christ +vividly before us day by day, and +turning to it as to a fountain in the +desert, as to the shadow of a great +rock in a weary land.</p> + +<p class='c007'>From behind the shadow the still +small voice—more awful than tempest +or earthquake—more sure and persistent +than day and night—is always +sounding, full of hope and strength to +the weariest of us all, “Be of good +cheer, I have overcome the world.”</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span lang="el">πορεύου καὶ σὺ ποίει ὁμοίως.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span> +<img src='images/i_p163.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 id='con' class='c004'>CONCLUSION<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c013'><sup>[2]</sup></a></h2> +</div> +<h3 id='con1' class='c016'><span class='sc'>An Address delivered at Clifton College, Sunday Evening, October 1879.</span></h3> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“They crowd upon us in this shade,</div> + <div class='line'>The youth who own the coming years—</div> + <div class='line'>Be never God or land betrayed</div> + <div class='line'>By any son our Harvard rears!”</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c014'><span class='sc'>The Rev. R. Lowell.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_w.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_2'> +WHAT is it in such societies as +yours that gives them so strong +a hold on, so unique an attraction +for, those who have been +for years engaged in the rough work of +life? That the fact is so I think no one +<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>will deny, explain it how they will. I at +least cannot remember to have met with +any man who will not own that a visit to +one of our great schools moves and touches +him on a side of his nature which for the +most part lies quiet, almost dormant, but +which he feels it is good for him should be +stirred. He may go back to his work +without an effort to explain to himself why +these unwonted sensations have visited him, +but not without a consciousness that he has +had a change of air which has done him +good—that he has been in a bracing +atmosphere, like that at the top of some +high mountain pass, where the morning +sun strikes earlier and more brightly than +in the valleys where his daily task must be +done.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To him who cares to pursue the inquiry, +I think the conviction will come, that to a +stranger there is something at once inspiring +and pathetic in such societies as +this, standing apart as they do from, +and yet so intimately connected with, the +great outside world.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Inspiring, because he finds himself once +again amongst those before whom the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>golden gates of active life are about to open, +for good or evil—each one of whom holds +in his hands the keys of those gates, the +keys of light or of darkness, amongst whom +faith is strong, hope bright, and ideals, +untainted as yet by the world’s slow stain, +still count for a great power.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Pathetic, because he knows but too well +how hard the path is to find, how steep to +climb, on the further side of those golden +gates—how often in the journey since he +himself passed out from under them, his +own faith and hope have burned dimly, +and his ideal has faded away as he toiled +on, or sat by the wayside, looking wistfully +after it; till in the dust and jar, the heat +and strain of the mighty highway, he has +been again and again tempted to doubt +whether it was indeed anything more than +a phantom exhalation, which had taken +shape in the glorious morning light, only +to vanish when the work-day sun had +risen fairly above the horizon, and dispersed +the coloured mists.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He may well be pardoned if, at such +times, the remembrance of the actual world +in which he is living, and of the generation +<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>which moved into line on the great battle-field +when he himself shouldered musket +and knapsack, and passed into action out of +the golden gates, should for a moment or +two bring the pathetic side of the picture +into strongest relief. “Where are they +now who represented genius, valour, self-sacrifice, +the invisible heavenly world, to +these? Are they dead? Has the high +ideal died out of them? Will it be better +with the new generation?”<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c013'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p class='c007'>Such thoughts, such doubts, will force +themselves at times on us all, to be met as +best we may. Happy the man who is +able, not at all times and in all places, but +on the whole, to hold them resolutely at +arm’s length, and to follow straight on, +though often wearily and painfully, in the +tracks of the divine visitor who stood by +his side in his youth, though sadly conscious +of weary lengths of way, of gulfs +and chasms, which since those days have +come to stretch and yawn between him +and his ideal—of the difference between +the man God meant him to be—of the +manhood he thought he saw so clearly in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>those early days—and the man he and the +world have together managed to make of +himself.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I say, happy is that man. I had almost +said that no other than he is happy in any +true or noble sense, even in this hard +materialist nineteenth century, when the +faith that the weak must to the wall, that +the strong alone are to survive, prevails as +it never did before—which on the surface +seems specially to be organised for the +destruction of ideals and the quenching of +enthusiasms. I feel deeply the responsibility +of making <em>any</em> assertion on so moot +a point to such an audience in such a place +as this; nevertheless, even in our materialist +age I must urge you all, as you would do +good work in the world, to take your stand +resolutely and once for all, at school and all +your lives through, on the side of the +idealists.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In doing so I trust and believe I shall +not be running counter to the teaching +you are accustomed to hear in this place. +I know that I <em>should</em> be running counter +to it if anything I may say were to give +the least encouragement to dreaminess or +<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>dawdling. Let me say then at once and +emphatically, that nothing can be farther +from my wish, or thought. The only +idealism I plead for is not only compatible +with sustained and vigorous work: it cannot +be maintained without it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The gospel of work is a true gospel, +though not the only one, or the highest, +and has been preached in our day by great +teachers. And I do not deny that the +advice I have just been giving you may +seem at first sight to conflict with the +work-gospel. Listen, for instance, to the +ring of it in the rugged and incisive words +of one of our strongest poets.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“That low man seeks a little thing to do,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Sees it and does it.</div> + <div class='line'>This high man, with a great thing to pursue,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Dies ere he knows it.</div> + <div class='line'>That low man goes on adding one to one,</div> + <div class='line in4'>His hundreds soon hit.</div> + <div class='line'>This high man aiming at a million,</div> + <div class='line in4'>Misses an unit.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>This sounds like a deliberate attack on the +idealist, a direct preference of low to high +aims and standards, of the seen to the +unseen. It is in reality only a wholesome +warning against aiming at any ideal by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>wrong methods, though the use of the +words “low” and “high” is no doubt +likely to mislead. The true idealist has +no quarrel with the lesson of these lines; +indeed he would be glad to see them written +on one of the door-posts of every great +school, if only they were ballasted on the +other by George Herbert’s quaint and +deeper wisdom,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Pitch thy behaviour low, thy projects high,</div> + <div class='line in2'>So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be.</div> + <div class='line'>Sink not in spirit: who aimeth at the sky,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Both sayings are true, and worth carrying +in your minds as part of their permanent +furniture, and you will find that they will +live there very peaceably side by side.</p> + +<p class='c007'>There is in truth no real antagonism +between them. The seeming paradox, +like so many others, disappears in the +working world. In the stress of the great +battle of life it will trouble no soldier who +keeps a single eye in his head, and a sound +heart in his bosom. For he who has the +clearest and intensest vision of what is at +issue in that battle, and who quits himself +in it most manfully, will be the first to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>acknowledge that for him there has been +no approach to victory except by the +faithful doing day by day of the work +which lay at his own threshold.</p> + +<p class='c007'>On the other hand the universal experience +of mankind—the dreary confession of +those who have merely sought a “low +thing,” and “gone on adding one to one,” +making that the aim and object of their +lives—unite in warning us that on these +lines no true victory can be had, either for +the man himself or for the cause he was +sent into the world to maintain.</p> + +<p class='c007'>No, there is no victory possible for boy +or man without humility and magnanimity; +and no humility or magnanimity possible +without an ideal. I have been pleading +with you boys to take sides with the +idealists at once and through life. I have +told you unless you do so you can neither +be truly humble nor truly magnanimous. +You may reply, “Well, that advice may be +good or bad, we cannot tell, until you tell +us <em>how</em> we are to side with them, and what +you mean by an idealist.” Such a reply +would be only reasonable, and I will try to +answer the demand it makes, or at any rate +<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>to give you a few hints which will enable +you to work out the question for yourselves.</p> + +<p class='c007'>There is not one amongst you all, I care +not how young he may be, who has not +heard or felt the call in his own heart, to +put aside all evil habits, and to live a brave, +simple, truthful life in this school. It may +have come to you while listening in chapel +or elsewhere to religious teaching, or in the +play fields or dormitories; when you have +been alone or in company, at work or at +play; but that it has come, at some time, +in some place, there is not a boy in this +chapel who will deny. It is no modern, +no Christian, experience this. The choice +of Hercules, and numberless other Pagan +stories, the witness of nearly all histories +and all literatures, attest that it is an +experience common to all our race. It is +of it that the poet is thinking in those fine +lines of Emerson which are written up in +the Hall of Marlborough College:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“So close is glory to our dust,</div> + <div class='line in2'>So near is God to man,</div> + <div class='line'>When duty whispers low, ‘Thou must,’</div> + <div class='line in2'>The youth replies, ‘I can.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>It does not wait for the reasoning powers +to be developed, but comes right in upon +the boy himself, appealing to him to listen +and follow.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is this whisper, this call, which is the +ground of what I have, for want of a better +name, been speaking of as idealism. Just +in so far as the boy listens to and welcomes +it, he is becoming an idealist—one who is +rising out of himself, and into direct contact +and communion with spiritual influences, +which, even when he shrinks from them, +and tries to put them aside, he feels and +knows to be as real (and will live I hope to +acknowledge to be more real) than all influences +coming to him from the outside +world—one who is bent on bringing himself +and the world into obedience to these +spiritual influences. If he turns to meet +the call and answers ever so feebly and +hesitatingly, it becomes clearer and stronger. +He will feel next, that just in so far as he +is loyal to it he is becoming loyal to his +brethren: that he must not only build his +own life up in conformity with its teaching, +must not only find or cut his own way +straight to what is fair and true and noble, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>but must help on those who are around +him and will come after him, and make the +path easier and plainer for them also.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I have indicated in outline, in a few +sentences, a process which takes a lifetime +to work out. You all know too, alas! +even those who have already listened most +earnestly to the voice, and followed most +faithfully, how many influences there are +about you and within you which stand +across the first steps in the path, and bar +your progress; which are for ever dwarfing +and distorting the ideal you are painfully +struggling after, and appealing to the +cowardice, and laziness, and impurity, +which are in every one of us, to thwart +obedience to the call. But here, as elsewhere, +it is the first step which costs, and +tells. He who has once taken that, +consciously and resolutely, has gained a +vantage ground for all his life. That first +step, remember, ought to be taken by +English boys at our English schools.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And here let me turn aside for a moment +to note for you what seems to me, looking +from outside, the ideal for which you +English boys should just now be specially +<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>striving. The strength and weakness of +the nation of which you are a part will +always be reflected powerfully in these +miniature Englands, and there is a national +weakness which is alarming all thoughtful +Englishmen at this time. Our race on +both sides of the Atlantic has, for generations, +got and spent money faster than +any other, and this spendthrift habit has +had a baleful effect on English life. It +has made it more and more feverish and +unsatisfying. The standard of expenditure +has been increasing by leaps and bounds, +and demoralising trade, society, every industry +and every profession, until a false +ideal has established itself, and the aim of +life is too commonly to get, not to be, +while men are valued more and more for +what they have, not for what they are.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The reaction has, I trust, set in. A +period of depression, such as has not been +known for half a century, has come, happily +in time to show us how unreal and transitory +is all such material prosperity, that a nation’s +life cannot stand any more than a man’s in +the things which it possesses. But the +reign of Mammon will be hard to put +<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>down, and all wholesome influences which +can be brought to bear upon that evil +stronghold will be sorely needed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Amongst these none should be more +potent than that of our great schools. It +is probably too late for the present generation +of grown men to restore a sounder +tone, and set up a higher ideal. Those by +whom it must be done, if it be done at all, +are now growing up in such schools as this. +There can be, I fear, no question that the +outside world has been reflected in our +schools. I hear on all sides stories of +increased expenditure of all kinds. There +must be fancy dresses for all games, and +boys are made to feel uncomfortable who +do not conform to the fashion, or who +practise such useful and often necessary economies +as wearing old clothes or travelling +third-class. You know whether such things +are true here. If they are, they are sapping +true manliness, and tainting our national life +at its roots. But the stain, I believe, has +not sunk so deep, and the reaction may be +swifter and deeper than elsewhere in societies +bound together in so close an intimacy as +must exist in such schools as this.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>In no other portions of English society +can public opinion be modified so swiftly +and so radically as in a public school. One +generation of brave boys may do it, and a +school generation is only a short four or +five years. I say then deliberately, that no +man can gauge the value in English life, +at this present critical time, of a steady +stream of young men, flowing into all +professions and all industries from our +public schools, who have learnt resolutely +to use those words so hard to speak in a +society such as ours, “I can’t afford”; +who have been trained to have few wants +and to serve these themselves, so that they +may have always something to spare, of +power and of means, to help others; who +are “careless of the comfits and cushions of +life,” and content to leave them to the +valets of all ranks. Many of us have +hopes, from all we hear and know of this +and other such schools, that such a stream +of free and helpful young men may be +looked for. Will you, boys, and above all +you elder boys, who can give a tone to the +standards and ideals of to-day here, which +may last for many years, see that, so far at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>any rate as Clifton is concerned, such +hopes shall not be disappointed?</p> + +<p class='c007'>And take my word for it, while you will +be doing a great work for your country, +and restoring an ideal which has all but +faded out, you will be taking the surest +road to all such success as becomes honest +men to achieve, in whatever walk of life +you may choose for yourselves. The outlook +is by no means cheerful even for those +who have learnt to live simply, and to +estimate “comfits and cushions” at their +true value, either in England or elsewhere. +The following of false ideals has, I fear, +thrown heavy odds for many years to come +against the chances in our modern life of +those who will not bow down to them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is more than thirty years since the +wisest of American writers, and one of the +best of American gentlemen, speaking to +the young men of New England, made +much the same sad confession as I am +making to you to-day. “The young +man,” he says, “on entering life finds the +way to lucrative employment blocked by +abuses. The ways of trade are grown +selfish to the borders of theft, and supple +<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>to the borders (if not beyond the borders) +of fraud. The employments of commerce +are not intrinsically unfit for a man, or less +genial to his faculties; but these are now +in their general course so vitiated by derelictions +and abuses, at which all connive, +that it requires more vigour and resources +than can be expected of every young man +to right himself in them. Has he genius +and virtue? the less does he find them fit +for him to grow in, and if he would thrive +in them he must sacrifice all the brilliant +dreams of boyhood and youth; he must +forget the prayers of his childhood, and +must take on him the harness of routine +and obsequiousness.... I do not charge +the merchant or manufacturer. The sins +of our trade belong to no class, to no +individual. One plucks, one distributes, +one eats. Everybody partakes, everybody +confesses—with cap and knee volunteers +his confession, yet none feels himself +accountable. He did not create the abuse, +he cannot alter it.... It happens, therefore, +that all such ingenuous souls as feel +in themselves the irrepressible strivings of +a noble aim, who by the law of their nature +<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>must act simply, find these ways of trade +unfit for them, and they come forth from +it. Such cases are becoming more common +every day. But by coming out of trade +you have not cleared yourselves—the trail +of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative +professions and practices of men. Each +has its own wrongs. Each finds a very +intelligent conscience a disqualification for +success.” And so further on he adds—“Considerations +of this kind have turned +the attention of many philanthropists and +intelligent persons to the claims of manual +labour as part of the education of every +young man. If the accumulated wealth +of the past generation is thus tainted—no +matter how much of it is offered to us—we +must begin to consider if it were not +the nobler part to renounce it, and to put +ourselves into primary relations with the +soil and nature, and, abstaining from whatever +is dishonest and unclean, to take each +of us bravely his part with his own hands +in the manual labour of the world.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is a sad confession that our modern +society has come to such a pass, but one +which I fear holds as true for England +<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>as for America. That it will continue +so, no one who has faith in a righteous +government of the world can believe. +There seem to me signs on all sides that +it is coming to an end, and that a new +industrial world is already forming under +the wreck of the old. But the time of +change must be one of sore trial, and your +generation will have to bear the strain of +it. In such a time as this they only will +be able to help their country in her need +who have learnt in early life the great +lessons of simplicity and self-denial, and +I don’t hesitate to say, that the worst +education which teaches simplicity and +self-denial is better than the best which +teaches all else but this.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The first aim then for your time and +your generation should be, to foster, each +in yourselves, and each in your school, a +simple and self-denying life—your ideal to +be a true and useful one must have these +two characteristics before all others. Of +course purity, courage, truthfulness are as +absolutely necessary as ever, without them +there can be no ideal at all. But as each +age and each country has its own special +<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>needs and weaknesses, so the best mind of +its youth should be bent on serving where +the need is sorest, and bringing strength +to the weak places. There will be always +crowds ready to fall in with the dapper +pliant ways which lead most readily to +success in every community. Society has +been said to be “always and everywhere in +conspiracy against the true manhood of +every one of its members”; and the saying, +though bitter, contains a sad truth. So the +faithful idealist will have to learn, without +arrogance and with perfect good temper, +to treat society as a child, and never to +allow it to dictate. So treated, society +will surely come round to those who have +a high ideal before them, and therefore +firm ground under their feet.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Coy Hebe flies from those that woo,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And shuns the hand would seize upon her;</div> + <div class='line'>Live thou thy life, and she will sue,</div> + <div class='line in2'>To pour for thee the cup of honour.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Let me say a word or two more on this +business of success. Is it not, after all, +the test of true and faithful work? Must +it not be the touchstone of the humble and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>magnanimous, as well as of the self-asserting +and ambitious? Undoubtedly; but +here again we have to note that what +passes with society for success, and is so +labelled by public opinion, may well be, +as often as not actually is, a bad kind of +failure.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Public opinion in our day has for instance +been jubilant over the success of those who +have started in life penniless, and have made +large fortunes. Indeed this particular class +of self-made men is the one which we have +been of late invited to honour. Before +doing so, however, we shall have to ask +with some care, and bearing in mind +Emerson’s warnings, by what methods +the fortune has been made. The rapid +accumulation of national wealth in England +can scarcely be called a success by any one +who studies the methods by which it has +been made, and its effects on the national +character. It may be otherwise with this +or that millionaire, but each case must be +judged on its own merits.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I remember hearing, years ago, of an +old merchant who on his death-bed divided +the results of long years of labour, some +<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>few hundreds in all, amongst his sons. +“It is little enough, my boys,” were almost +his last words, “but there isn’t a dirty +shilling in the whole of it.” He had been +a successful man too, though not in the +“self-made” sense. For his ideal had +been, not to make money, but to keep +clean hands. And he had been faithful +to it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In reading the stories of these last persons +whom the English nation is invited to +honour, I am generally struck with the +predominance of the personal element. +The key-note seems generally some resolve +taken in early youth connected with +their own temporal advancement. This +one will be Lord Mayor; this other Prime +Minister; a third determines to own a +fine estate near the place of his birth; a +fourth to become head of the business in +which he started as an errand-boy. They +did indeed achieve their ends, were faithful +to the idea they had set before themselves +as boys; but I doubt if we can put them +anywhere but in the lower school of idealists. +For the predominant motive being +self-assertion, their idealism seems never to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>have got past the personal stage, which at +best is but a poor business as compared +with the true thing. Try the case by a +test every one of you can apply directly +and easily. One boy here resolves—I +will win this scholarship; I will be head +of the school; I will be captain of the +eleven; and does it. Another resolves—this +school shall be purer in tone, simpler +in habits, braver and stronger in temper, +for my presence here; does his best, but +doubts after all whether he has succeeded. +I need not say that the latter is the best +idealist; but which is the most successful +Clifton boy?</p> + +<p class='c007'>I must bring these remarks to an end, +and yet have only been able to touch, and +that very lightly, the fringe of a great +subject. I am sure many of you have felt +this; and I shall be surprised if some +amongst you are not already listening to +me with a shade of jealousy in your minds, +which might formulate itself somehow perhaps +thus:—“Is this talk about idealism +quite straightforward? Haven’t we heard +all this before?—Self-denial, simplicity of +life, courage, and the rest, are they not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>the first fruits of Christianity as we have +been taught it? And we have been told, +too, that this call of which you have +been talking is the voice of Christ’s spirit +speaking to ours. Can any good come of +swaddling these truths in other clothes +which will scarcely fit them better, or +make them more easy, or more acceptable?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>To which I am glad to reply from my +heart—Truly; so it is. <i><span lang="la">Rem acu tetigisti.</span></i> +Christ is, indeed, the great idealist. “Be +ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is +perfect,” is the ideal He sets before us—the +only one which is permanent and all-sufficing. +His own spirit communing with +ours <em>is</em> that call which comes to every +human being. But my object has been +to get you to-night to look at the facts of +your own experience—and, as I have said +already, the youngest has <em>some</em> experience +in these deep matters—without connecting +them for the moment with any form of +religion.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Supposing the whole Bible, every trace +of Christendom, to disappear to-morrow, +the same thing would, nevertheless, be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>occurring to you, and me, and every man. +We should each of us still be conscious of +a presence, which we are quite sure is not +ourself, in the deepest recesses of our own +heart, communing with us there and calling +us to take up our twofold birthright +as man—the mastery over visible things, +and above all the mastery over our own +bodies, actions, thoughts—and the power, +always growing, of this mysterious communion +with the invisible.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is therefore that I have abstained +from the use of religious phraseology, +believing that, apart altogether from the +Christian revelation, the idealist will and +must always remain nearest to the invisible +world, and therefore most powerful in this +visible one.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I think this method is worth using now +and then, because no doubt the popular +verdict of this time is against idealism. +If you have not already felt it, you will +assuredly feel as soon as you leave these +walls, that your lot is cast in a world which +longs for nothing so much as to succeed +in shaking off all belief in anything which +cannot be tested by the senses, and gauged +<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>and measured by the intellect, as the trappings +of a worn-out superstition.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Men have been trying, so runs the new +gospel, to live by faith, and not by sight, +ever since there is any record at all of their +lives; and so they have had to manufacture +for themselves the faiths they were to live +by. What is called the life of the soul or +spirit, and the life of the understanding, +have been in conflict all this time, and the +one has always been gaining on the other. +Stronghold after stronghold has fallen, till +it is clear almost to demonstration that +there will soon be no place left for that +which was once deemed all-powerful. The +spiritual life can no longer be led honestly. +Man has no knowledge of the invisible +upon which he can build. Let him own +the truth and turn to that upon which he +<em>can</em> build safely—the world of matter, his +knowledge of which is always growing; +and be content with the things he can see +and taste and handle. Those who are +telling you still in this time that your life +can and ought to be lived in daily communion +with the unseen—that so only you +can loyally control the visible—are either +<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>wilfully deceiving you, or are dreamers and +visionaries.</p> + +<p class='c007'>So the high priests of the new gospel +teach, and their teaching echoes through +our literature, and colours the life of the +streets and markets in a thousand ways; +and a Mammon-ridden generation longing +to be rid of what they hope are only certain +old and clumsy superstitions—which they +<em>try</em> to believe injurious to others, and are +quite sure make them uneasy in their own +efforts to eat, drink, and be merry—applauds +as openly as it dare, and hopes soon to see +the millennium of the flesh-pots publicly +declared and recognised.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Against which, wherever you may encounter +them, that you young Englishmen +may be ready and able to stand fast, is the +hope and prayer of many anxious hearts; +in a time, charged on every side with signs +of the passing away of old things, such as +have not been seen above the horizon in +Christendom since Luther nailed his protest +on the church door of a German +village.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span> +<img src='images/i_p189.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<h3 id='con2' class='c016'><span class='sc'>Delivered on 8th February 1891, in the Course of Laymen’s Sunday Evening Addresses at Rugby.</span></h3> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_j.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi0_8'> +JUST fifty years ago, in February +1841, I was a Rugby boy, +sitting where you sit now. +That half-year was my last at +school. It was Dr. Arnold’s last year. +He died in June 1842. I had been at the +school for eight years, and had gone through +it from the third to the sixth, in the School +House. It had been a notable eight years +in Rugby’s history. Stanley and Vaughan +were sixth form boys in their last year +when I was a new boy. I was Clough’s +study fag. Matthew Arnold, the present +<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>Dean of Westminster, and Franklin Lushington +were my contemporaries. Theodore +Walrond was head of the school when I +left, with Conington next, or next but one, +to him. I need not name a score of others</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“<span lang="la">fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cleanthum</span>”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>who have done good work for England in +Church and State, in India and the Colonies, +in this eventful half-century. I only name +those who occur to me as the typical +Rugbeians of those years. You can fill +up the list yourselves if you like from the +school register. You will find it a noteworthy +roll-call.</p> + +<p class='c007'>When I was a new boy, Christmas 1833, +the tide of religious and political bigotry, +which would surely have drowned a weaker +man, was in full flood against our headmaster. +He was forbidden to preach the +sermon on the installation of Arthur +Stanley’s father to the Bishopric of Norwich. +Many of his oldest and dearest +Oxford friends were openly alienated from +him, and bitterly opposed to his teaching. +Even those who remained staunch were +seriously alarmed at many of the doings +<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>and sayings of this new type of headmaster.</p> + +<p class='c007'>When I left, the tide had turned. Even +the (so-called) religious newspapers were +silenced. He had been made Queen’s +Chaplain, and, what he valued most, +Professor of Modern History at his old +university. In my undergraduate year I +attended his inaugural lecture and his first +course on Modern History, and witnessed +the noble amends which Oxford then +made to one whom she now recognised +as amongst her noblest and most attached +sons.</p> + +<p class='c007'>You may well believe then what a power +Rugby has been in my life, and so far as I +can judge, in the life of most of my schoolfellows. +For, though there may be exceptions +to the rule, it is undoubtedly true, +that the years from ten till eighteen or +nineteen are those in which the seed is +sown and the bent given which determine +the after-life of men. I passed all those +years under the spell of this place and +Arnold, and for half a century have never +ceased to thank God for it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>My first duty then to-day is to confess +<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>this in the fullest and frankest words. So +far I have felt my course clear, but no +further. From circumstances to which I +need not refer, my connection with Rugby +has been less close than with other schools. +When my own boys were old enough, I +had to look round and choose the school +which answered best to the Rugby of my +day. Happily for me—happily too for +England—my choice was ample. Three +of my old schoolfellows were headmasters,—Vaughan +of Harrow, Bradley of Marlborough +(where Bishop Cotton, my old private +tutor here, had preceded him), Bradby +of Haileybury (in succession to Arthur +Butler, another distinguished Rugbeian). +So my eldest son went to Marlborough, +and the younger ones to Haileybury, and +I have thus seen more of these daughters, +as I may call them, of the old Rugby, than +of my own old school.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For attendance at Rugby dinners and +flying visits on Speech days and other +special occasions, however pleasant, are not +enough to keep one in touch with the +place—to know how far the old lines have +been kept, the old traditions cherished—what +<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>are the new tendencies and temptations +which have arisen as the years rolled +by. And yet without such knowledge +how could I hope to respond to any good +purpose to the desire of your headmaster +that I should deliver this address? A +question which I own I found it difficult +to answer to my own satisfaction; but in +such cases one has no right to rely on one’s +own judgment. Obedience to the man at +the helm is the only true rule; and so in +deference to his wish I am here to-night +to do my best to justify his choice.</p> + +<p class='c007'>After thinking the matter over with +some care, I resolved that I cannot do +better than give you my view of what it +was that the average boy carried away from +our Rugby of half a century ago which +stood him in the best stead—was of the +highest value to him in after-life. By the +average boy I mean, one who entered into +the life and caught some of the spirit of +the place, without distinguishing himself +as a scholar, or coming under the direct +personal teaching and influence of the +man of genius who was our headmaster. +Indirectly, no boy could help being more +<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>or less under that influence, for the air of +the whole place was full of it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I have been in some doubt as to what +to put first, and am by no means sure that +the few who are left of my old schoolfellows +would agree with me; but, speaking +for myself, I think this was our most +marked characteristic, the feeling that in +school and close we were in training for +a big fight—were in fact already engaged +in it—a fight which would last all our +lives, and try all our powers, physical, +intellectual, and moral, to the utmost. I +need not say that this fight was the world-old +one of good with evil, of light and +truth against darkness and lies, of Christ +against the devil.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Of course all education worthy of the +name teaches this lesson indirectly, but to +have it vividly and directly brought home +to us, as it was here fifty years ago, was a +boon beyond price. I have always thought +that it was his recognition of this in the +Rugby boys of that time which drew that +well-known testimony from Dr. Moberly, +then an Oxford tutor, afterwards headmaster +of Winchester, and one of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>greatest educators of our time,—“Arnold’s +pupils,” he wrote, “brought up to Oxford +a quite different character from what we +knew elsewhere. They were thoughtful, +manly-minded, conscious of duty and +obligation when they first came up; and +we looked on him as exercising an influence +for good which (for how many years I +know not) had been absolutely unknown +to our public schools.” But this testimony +I believe could never have been given had +Arnold’s teaching stopped here. What +gave, I think, the character Dr. Moberly +recognised to Rugby boys, was, not the +mere conviction that we were soldiers in +a war, but that we were soldiers who were +absolutely sure to win if only we were +true to our Captain,—that He was actually +present with every one of us, and would +surely give the battle to our hands if we +would loyally surrender our wills to Him. +Let me express what I want to say in the +noble words of Arnold’s most famous pupil. +You all, I hope, know A. Stanley’s hymn +for Ascension Day. One verse runs:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He is gone, towards their goal</div> + <div class='line'>World and Church must onward roll.</div> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>Far behind we leave the past,</div> + <div class='line'>Forwards are our glances cast.</div> + <div class='line'>Still His words before us range</div> + <div class='line'>Through the ages as they change;</div> + <div class='line'>Wheresoe’er the Truth shall lead</div> + <div class='line'>He will give whate’er we need.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The youngest boy here, we were taught +in no faltering speech, has an utterly trustworthy +guide in his own heart and conscience, +if he will only listen to Him and +trust Him—if he will only follow the +Truth and go forward boldly. “It is a +lying spirit,” was one of Arnold’s most +emphatic sayings, “that says, ‘Look backwards.’”</p> + +<p class='c007'>There was an inspiring ring in such +teaching as this; and for my part, with +half-a-century’s experience behind me, I +hold it to-day to be simply and absolutely +true, in spite of oft-repeated criticisms as +to Arnold’s methods in teaching and +ruling. It is written of the most self-willed +of American Presidents:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He couldn’t see but jest one side;</div> + <div class='line in2'>Ef his ’twas God’s, and that was plenty:</div> + <div class='line'>And so his ‘forrard’ multiplied</div> + <div class='line in2'>An army’s fighting power by twenty.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>And I have heard the words applied to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>Arnold. His habit of ignoring the other +side of questions, it has been urged, combined +with his masterfulness of character, +when brought to bear on young minds, +exercised an influence on them, which, +though undoubtedly powerful, was by no +means free from serious drawbacks; and +often had the effect of making his pupils +dogmatists, or of weakening their hold on +truth in after years, when they came to +know the difficulties which surround all +the serious problems of our complicated +and rudderless time.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Were that criticism true it would be +undoubtedly damaging; but, is it true? +In preparing this address I once more read +through his lectures on Modern History +and Stanley’s Life, and rose from them with +my own old memories and belief confirmed, +that never was there a teacher who took +more conscientious pains to understand +himself, and make his pupils see all sides +of, the political and social problems which +met them in their reading. But, while +scrupulously fair in weighing both sides, +there was no faltering or counting the +cost in his own verdicts—no “patting the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>devil on the back and calling him poor +mistaken angel.” And I am inclined to +think (though by no means sure at this +distance of time that it is not a mere +afterthought) that this vigour and directness +may have made some of his pupils, +though not those who had profited most +by his teaching, more ready to take sides, +and more sure of their own judgments, +than young men on entering life ought +to be. In my own case, at any rate—the +only one in which a man can really +speak with confidence—I think on looking +back I can detect a readiness to take sides +before I had qualified myself to judge +which was right and which wrong. And +perhaps this was more or less characteristic +of a good many Rugbeians of that day, of +whom it might be said in the words of +Hosea Biglow—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Nothin’ from Adam’s fall to Huldy’s bonnet</div> + <div class='line'>That we warn’t full cocked with our judgment on it.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>But we paid for our haste. For one of +the results of this characteristic was that +old Rugby friends of that time were apt +to find themselves, both at the universities +<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>and in active life, not only in opposite +camps, but in sharp antagonism. There +were burning questions then as now which +divided men sharply, such as the Tractarian +movement and the People’s Charter; and +like Home Rule to-day were of a kind +which tried friendships to the breaking-point. +If you boys know A. Clough’s +poems as you ought, you must remember +those lines in which this pathetic side of +the after-life of many of Arnold’s pupils, as +it had been of his own life, is touched so +vividly and tenderly:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='c017'>“<i><span lang="la">Qua cursum ventus.</span></i></div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>As ships, becalmed at eve, that lay</div> + <div class='line in2'>With canvas drooping, side by side,</div> + <div class='line'>Two towers of sail at dawn of day</div> + <div class='line in2'>Are scarce long leagues apart descried;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>When fell the night, upsprung the breeze,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And all the darkling hours they plied,</div> + <div class='line'>Nor dreamt but each the self-same seas</div> + <div class='line in2'>By each was cleaving, side by side:</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>E’en so—but why the tale reveal</div> + <div class='line in2'>Of those, whom year by year unchanged,</div> + <div class='line'>Brief absence joined anew to feel,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Astounded, soul from soul estranged?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>At dead of night their sails were filled,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And onward each rejoicing steered—</div> + <div class='line'>Ah, neither blame, for neither willed,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Or wist, what first with dawn appeared!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>To veer, how vain! On, onward strain,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Brave barks! In light, in darkness too,</div> + <div class='line'>Through winds and tides one compass guides—</div> + <div class='line in2'>To that, and your own selves, be true.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>But O blithe breeze; and O great seas,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Though ne’er, that earliest parting past,</div> + <div class='line'>On your wide plain they join again,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Together lead them home at last.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>One port, methought, alike they sought,</div> + <div class='line in2'>One purpose hold where’er they fare,—</div> + <div class='line'>O bounding breeze, O rushing seas!</div> + <div class='line in2'>At last, at last, unite them there!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>So far I have been able to speak with confidence, +but I cannot do so on the next +point. For I cannot be sure now whether +it was while at school or after I had left, +though I am quite sure it was from Arnold’s +teaching, that I learnt the invaluable lesson +in early life, that there are subjects—such +as the origin of evil, and the co-existence +of man’s free will and God’s omnipotence +and omniscience—which lie beyond the +range of the human intellect; and before +which, if we are in a healthy moral state, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>we shall be content to sit down patiently +and quietly, without attempting to solve +problems which lie at depths which no +lead or line of man’s invention can ever +sound. Let me enforce this lesson in his +own words—“It should always be remembered +that there are difficulties in the way +of all religion which can never be solved +by human powers. Intellectually, we can +point out the greater difficulties of Atheism +and Scepticism. Practically, they yield to +faith sought in God’s way by doing His +will.” “Living thus by faith, a man finds +that his course is one of perfect light: the +moral result is so certain that he is sure he +has truth on his side.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>I have tried to indicate the main lines +of the education we got here fifty years +ago (apart, of course, from our school +studies). It was undoubtedly before all +things training for a big fight—or rather +for <em>the</em> big fight to which we had all been +pledged at our baptism, “manfully to fight +under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, +and the devil, and to continue His faithful +soldiers and servants unto our life’s end.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And has not this, my young schoolfellows, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>been the aim of all education in +England worthy of the name since Alfred, +a thousand years ago, caused to be written +up on the walls of his schools,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“With all thy might</div> + <div class='line'>Stand by the right,</div> + <div class='line'>And be thou strong</div> + <div class='line'>Against the wrong.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>It was probably brought more vividly +before Rugby boys in Arnold’s time than +has often been the case in our schools, as +he was himself so essentially a fighting man—“one,” +to use his own words, “whose +spirit of pugnacity would rejoice in fighting +out this battle in a saw-pit.” But the +more you think of it, and the longer you +live, the more firmly will you get to hold +the truth, that you <em>must</em> be fighting men +if you would keep your self-respect, or do +any stroke of work worth doing in this +tough old world. If you learn here to +make pleasure or comfort or success your +aim, or to turn aside to any siren call from +the steady summons of duty, depend upon +it, even if you attain them, you will find +long before you reach my age, that they +have turned into ashes in your mouth, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>are like Dead Sea apples, fair to look on, +but only fit for the dust-heap.</p> + +<p class='c007'>There will always be plenty of men +in all times, especially in old and rich +countries, who take no side on great +questions, having enough work and enjoyment +to satisfy all their own wants, like +Isaak Walton and his friends in our great +civil war. Of them Arnold said, “I know +not how the peaceableness of such persons +can be either admirable or amiable”; contrasting +them with Lord Falkland and +others, who left the popular side when it +was triumphing, and joined the opposite +ranks without changing their principles or +becoming renegades. Such men, he taught +us, are amongst the noblest characters in +history; but they change their sides not +to conquer but to die—uncheered by +sympathy, and therefore the purest of +martyrs. These were the models he set +before Rugby boys in my time, and lived +up to himself. Our spokesman of that +time, the most typical poet that Rugby +has bred, sang of such—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“So thou but strive, thou soon shalt see</div> + <div class='line'>Defeat itself is victory.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>Or, if that saying seem to you mere +paradox, take this expansion of it in one +of the noblest of his later poems—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Say not the struggle nought availeth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The labour and the wounds are vain,</div> + <div class='line'>The enemy faints not, nor faileth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And as things have been they remain.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;</div> + <div class='line in2'>It may be, in yon smoke concealed,</div> + <div class='line'>Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And, but for you, possess the field.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Seem here no painful inch to gain,</div> + <div class='line'>Far back, through creeks and inlets making,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Comes silent, flooding in, the main.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And not by eastern windows only,</div> + <div class='line in2'>When daylight comes, comes in the light,</div> + <div class='line'>In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,</div> + <div class='line in2'>But westward, look, the land is bright.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Well, my boys, I can fancy that by this +time some of you are thinking that I might +as well turn to the Rugby of to-day, if I +have anything to say about it, instead of +dwelling all the time on the old Rugby of +half-a-century ago. And so I will turn, +for the few minutes that are left to me, to +the present and the future. But after all, +the times differ much less, in this place at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>any rate, than would appear superficially. +It is still the old fight you are training for +as we were, and must be fought under the +old banner and with the old weapons.</p> + +<p class='c007'>No doubt some of the old pitfalls have +been filled up, and new ones opened by the +enemy, who is always alert and on the +watch for the laggards and the half-hearted. +And, judging from my general +experience—for as I have confessed already +my special experience here is scarcely more +than that of a stranger—I think that one +of the sides on which the attack presses +more than of old lies in the temptation and +tendency to careless expense; and to a +taking it for granted that the world is to +be made easy for you; that you have all a +sort of prescriptive right to enjoyments and +advantages: or, as the Americans say, “to +a good time,” without any special effort or +vigilance of your own. Depend upon it, +all such notions are lies, and come from the +father of lies. The more you train yourselves +here to do everything for yourselves—even +in your games—to look for no good +thing for which you have not strenuously +striven yourselves—the better and happier +<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>men will you be in after-life. Happy is +the man, has been most truly said, who +can help himself, for he shall be waited +upon. The most pitiable man in these, or +indeed in any, times, is he who has only +learned to ring a bell. And as to carelessness +in expense, no doubt England is +immensely richer than it was fifty years +ago, and so probably you come mostly +from richer homes than we did. But for +all that, I am quite sure that there must +be many boys here who are only kept here +by friends to whom the cost is a serious +consideration. To all such I would say +that there is no discipline of more value +than to learn to say frankly and positively, +and to act on the words, “I can’t afford it.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And now my time is up, and I have +only to wish our noble old school and you +of this generation who belong to it, God’s +speed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It is allowed to few men to revisit their +old boyish haunts, and revive old school +memories, after fifty years, and to come in +touch with one company of that great host +in whose hands the future of our England +rests for good or ill, who are even now +<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>buckling on the armour which we are +laying down.</p> + +<p class='c007'>If ever one of you should chance to +come back here in 1940 to speak to the +Rugby boys who will then be sitting on +those benches, he will know how pathetic +an experience it is: he will be able to +appreciate the solemn but yet hopeful +thoughts which crowd on me to-night—solemn +indeed, but yet full of hope. For +I will never believe that the living faith +which was breathed into this school fifty +years ago will ever be allowed to fade out +while the world stands: the faith which +made the Rugby of my time a missionary +school, from which the whole higher +education of England drew a new inspiration, +and a new life: the faith, once more +to quote Arnold’s own words, “which is +the opposite of all idolatry, the doctrine of +the person of Christ, not His church, not +His sacraments, not His teaching: not +even the truths about Him, or the virtues +He most enforced, but Himself—the only +object which bars fanaticism and idolatry +on the one hand and gives life and power +to all morality on the other.”</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>Keep Him alive in your hearts, my boys, +and go forward bravely, you</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Who stand before us in this shade,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The youth who own the coming years:</div> + <div class='line'>Be never God or land betrayed</div> + <div class='line in2'>By any son our Rugby rears.”<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c013'><sup>[4]</sup></a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='c000 figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p208.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span> +<img src='images/i_p209.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<h3 id='con3' class='c016'><span class='sc'>An Address delivered on 12th June 1892, the Anniversary of Dr. Arnold’s Death.</span></h3> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_w.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi1_2'> +WE are gathered here on this great +Christian festival to keep what +I may, with our preacher of +this afternoon, call our second +founder’s day. I am sure that every good +Rugbeian is proud of Queen Elizabeth’s +sturdy and loyal grocer, who bore testimony +to his “gracious lady and mistress” before +Bishop Bonner and the other commissioners +of her sister, at the risk of being burnt as a +heretic in Smithfield. Lawrence Sheriff’s +day, 20th October, will never be forgotten or +neglected in this place. But, as the United +<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>States do wisely and well to recognise +Abraham Lincoln as the second father and +founder of their Republic, so may we +rightly honour Thomas Arnold as the +second father and founder of Rugby School, +and set apart this 12th of June, the day on +which he passed away here fifty years ago, +as one to be kept sacred to his memory.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This Saint’s day then I hope and believe +will be kept while Rugby stands, for in so +keeping it we are carrying out his own +wish, that the English Church might learn +in the new time to restore, amongst other +practices she has abandoned, “Commemorations +of holy men of all times and all +countries.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>This 12th of June is then the 50th +anniversary of the death of our second +founder, who was taken in the fulness of +his strength, and in the hour of his triumph, +when his long battle was really won, and +his old university, and his country, were +vying with one another to honour the man, +who it was at last recognised had raised the +true standard of education again in England, +and had inspired it with a soul and a purpose +which it had wanted since Elizabeth’s day.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>I am here to-night to tell you what I +can from my own experience of this great +life’s work. First, however, let me give it +you in the words of his poet son, from the +lines on Rugby Chapel, which I hope are +well known to most of you:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“O strong soul, by what shore</div> + <div class='line'>Tarriest thou now? For that force,</div> + <div class='line'>Surely, has not been left vain!</div> + <div class='line'>Somewhere, surely, afar,</div> + <div class='line'>In the sounding labour-house vast</div> + <div class='line'>Of being, is practised that strength,</div> + <div class='line'>Zealous, beneficent, firm!</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Yes, in some far-shining sphere,</div> + <div class='line'>Conscious or not of the past,</div> + <div class='line'>Still thou performest the word</div> + <div class='line'>Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live—</div> + <div class='line'>Prompt, unwearied, as here!</div> + <div class='line'>Still thou upraisest with zeal</div> + <div class='line'>The humble good from the ground,</div> + <div class='line'>Sternly repressest the bad!</div> + <div class='line'>Still, like a trumpet, dost rouse</div> + <div class='line'>Those who with half-open eyes</div> + <div class='line'>Tread the border-land dim,</div> + <div class='line'>’Twixt vice and virtue; reviv’st,</div> + <div class='line'>Succourest!—this was thy work,</div> + <div class='line'>This was thy life upon earth.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>And surely such is the work still of such as +he, the born leaders of men; and in the +darkest hour, again and again will such as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>they come to our minds when our need is +sorest.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Beacons of hope, ye appear!</div> + <div class='line'>Languor is not in your heart,</div> + <div class='line'>Weakness is not in your word,</div> + <div class='line'>Weariness not on your brow.</div> + <div class='line'>Ye alight in our van! at your voice,</div> + <div class='line'>Panic, despair, flee away.</div> + <div class='line'>Ye move through the ranks, recall</div> + <div class='line'>The stragglers, refresh the outworn,</div> + <div class='line'>Praise, reinspire the brave!</div> + <div class='line'>Order, courage, return.</div> + <div class='line'>Eyes rekindling, and prayers,</div> + <div class='line'>Follow your steps as ye go.</div> + <div class='line'>Ye fill up the gaps in our files,</div> + <div class='line'>Strengthen the wavering line,</div> + <div class='line'>Stablish, continue our march,</div> + <div class='line'>On, to the bound of the waste,</div> + <div class='line'>On, to the City of God.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Such prosaic details of personal experience +as I can give you, my boys, will fall flat +enough after a trumpet call like this; but +they are what I am come here to give you, +and I will try to give them as simply and +truthfully as I can.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Nearly forty years ago, when I first +came across, in Stanley’s <i>Life of Arnold</i>, a +passage in one of his letters to a friend as to +the treatment of unpromising pupils, describing +it as “very often like kicking a football +<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>up hill,” the truth as well as the humour of +the saying came home to me very vividly—“You +kick it onwards,” he says, “twenty +yards, and it rolls back nineteen: still you +have gained one yard, and thus in a good +many kicks you make some progress.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>Now I don’t believe that any boy had more +reason than I to be thankful for this kicking-up +process, and for the Doctor’s patient use +of it. As long as you didn’t roll back <em>more</em> +than the nineteen yards he stuck to you, +and used whatever germ he could detect of +intellectual activity in you to rouse you, +and hinder the fatal rolling back over the +twentieth yard of the descent.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I will illustrate this by my own case. I +went up to Rugby at ten from a preparatory +school for Winchester, where a different +grammar from the Rugby one was in use, +and we were taught a different pronunciation +of Greek. Partly owing to discouragement +at first from this cause, but +more to my inaptitude for languages and +excessive fondness for games, I soon lost +any real interest in the form work, and +only did just enough to get my yearly +remove. On the other hand I was fond of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>reading history and current literature, and +knew more of both than most of my form-fellows. +So for three years I was kicked +slowly up the school hill, in no small +danger all the time of rolling back over the +twentieth yard, and so ending my school +career. However, I managed to arrive +safely in the Shell, though I fear with the +character of a boy who took little interest +in his work, and never did more than he +could help.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In those days the Doctor used to come +round once a month and examine each +form in some book they had been reading, +an ordeal which all but the brightest and +best boys looked forward to with no little +uneasiness. I was very low in the Shell +when he came round to examine us in the +first book of Horace’s Odes, and towards +the end of the terrible hour asked the head +of the form, who was construing the 11th +Ode, what made the Romans so especially +grateful to Augustus in his dealings with +the Parthians. He and some other boys +made shots, but the Doctor shook his head, +and the question came slowly down past +some thirty boys to me, when I timidly +<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>ventured “the recovery of the eagles and +standards taken from Crassus.” “Quite +right! Go up!” the Doctor said, evidently +pleased; and I marched up for the first +time to the top of my form. My stay in +that exalted region was short, but from that +time I felt his manner to me changed. He +may have noticed, too, that I had taken a +volume of Sir W. Raleigh’s <i>History of the +World</i> out of the school library, and found +out that I was familiar with Scott’s poetry +and novels. At any rate, from that time I +used to fancy he always gave me an easy +piece to construe, and instead of horrid +questions on grammar and scholarship, +would ask for some illustration of the +passage from an English classic.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I will give the last instance I remember +of this method in the Doctor’s teaching. +It was in my last half at school when I had +reached the lower bench of the sixth. We +were reading the second book of Aristotle’s +<i>Rhetorica</i>, and had come to the chapter on +old men, whom that disagreeable philosopher +describes as <span lang="el">μικρόψυχοι</span>—“small-souled”<a id='tn002'></a>—caring +about nothing great, but only +what tends to the ease of their own lives. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>“Do you remember a striking illustration +of this in one of Scott’s novels?” the +Doctor asked the head of the school, +Theodore Walrond.—No answer, and the +question came all round the form,—when +it came to me he paused for several seconds +and seemed disappointed (so at least I +thought) when he had to pass on. I shall +remember the pang of self-reproach which +shot through me to the last day of my life. +No one answered, so he referred us to the +end of the Abbot, where in her flight after +the defeat of Langside, Queen Mary with +her small band of devoted followers pause at +the convent garden on the Border, where +the old monk is digging. He leans on his +spade watching them, as they ride off, and +mutters, “I could pity this poor Queen and +these men. But what are these things to a +man of fourscore? and it’s a fine dropping +morning for the young kale wort.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>As I have just told you, I shall always +remember the sore feeling at having disappointed +him whom of all men I most +wished to please, when that question passed +me. But this after all was only an intellectual +failure. I wish I could stop here, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>but as I have come to make a clean breast +to you my young schoolfellows, I have a +further confession to make which I hope +may be of use as a warning to some of you. +I was captain of Big-Side in my last year, +which, as you all know, involves the practical +control of the Cricket and Football Funds. +Now there was a custom in those days to +have a School House supper on the last day +before the Christmas holidays, the cost of +which was paid out of the Big-Side fund. +The Doctor’s leave had to be asked, but +it was looked upon as a matter of course, +and so, great and sore was the surprise +and indignation, when on the eve of the +Christmas holidays 1841, a message came +from the Doctor that there was to be no +house supper. There can be no doubt he +was perfectly in the right, as “Big-Side +fund” belonged to the whole school, and it +was a misappropriation of trust funds to +spend any part of it for the benefit of a +single house. But this objection I don’t +think occurred to any one, and the indignant +athletes determined, as there could +be no house supper, there should be a +smaller one of select men for which no +<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>leave should be asked. The necessary +funds could not have been reached except +with my consent, and this I gave without +thought, as I rather sympathised with the +rebels; and I not only let them have the +money but went to the supper. As old +Thomas would of course give out no beer, +several bottles of wine and spirits were +smuggled into the house, with the result +that some half-dozen of the wilder spirits +got uproariously drunk, and besides destroying +some of the Library books, made a +serious row in the bed-rooms and damaged +some of the furniture. I went off by an +early train next morning, but was so +thoroughly ashamed that I wrote, on +reaching home, to the Doctor to tell him I +had been at the party. I transcribe a part +of his answer from the old yellow sheet +which I have kept religiously from that +day.</p> + +<div class='c018'>“<span class='sc'>Fox Howe</span>, <i>Dec. 18, 1840</i>.</div> + +<p class='c019'>“<span class='sc'>My dear Hughes</span>—I did not know +nor should I probably ever have known of +your share in the business of Friday last had +it not been for your own letter. Officially, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>therefore, I do not know it now—for of +course it would be utterly out of the question +to use your own letter as evidence against +you. The matter therefore being set at +rest so far as any public notice of your +conduct is concerned, I have the less +difficulty in writing to you fully and plainly, +not as master of Rugby school, but as an +old acquaintance of your father’s, and as a +man who feels very sincerely interested about +yourself. I cannot deny that your letter +gave me a very great and unexpected shock; +for I had no notion that you or any one else +in the sixth form was concerned with the +party. I have been so accustomed on these +points to feel confidence in the sixth form, +that I really am apt to have no suspicion +whatever of them in such matters; and I +am quite sure that if I am obliged to resign +this confidence the school must speedily go +to ruin. Farther, I think that according +to my school recollections, good and steady +fellows at Winchester would have taken no +part in such a business, and it would grieve +me very much to think that at Rugby such +characters could not equally be depended +upon—that companionship or any other +<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>motives might lead into mischief those on +whom I ought to be able to rely.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>I will not quote further from this and +another later letter; but, though no eye +but mine has seen them till to-day, I felt +that I could not honestly speak to you to-night +without alluding to this matter. +Perhaps some of you may have noticed in +the anonymous dedication of <i>Tom Brown’s +Schooldays</i> to Mrs. Arnold, the words “who +owes more than he can ever acknowledge +or repay to her and her’s.” You will +now perhaps understand them. It may +also, perhaps, encourage some one here or +there to take heart again, on seeing how a +moral breakdown in early life, if wisely +handled by a master like Arnold, may +become a source of strength in later years.</p> + +<p class='c007'>These few memories of Arnold as headmaster +may fitly close with his parting +words to a favourite pupil, “Whatever +profession you choose doesn’t much matter +if you follow steadily our great common +profession, Christ’s service.” I believe that +our loyalty to his memory in this place +would be as genuine if his work had begun +<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>and ended here, as our great Headmaster +and second founder; but a crowd of the +foremost of living Englishmen would not +be going to meet in the Jerusalem Chamber +to-morrow, to arrange for a worthy memorial +to him in the Abbey, fifty years +after his death, if he had not been a +great benefactor to England outside these +walls.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Let me in conclusion, then, glance shortly +at his work for the nation. As an historian +I believe there is not one of the +brilliant group of writers of history in the +last half-century but would acknowledge +their debt to his example and his method; +but I am not an expert, and so will say no +more on this point. To some extent, +however, I can speak as an expert as to the +movement which has revolutionised the +social and industrial life of England in the +last fifty years; and with the exceptions, +perhaps, of Mr. Maurice’s and Lord +Shaftesbury’s, I know of no name which +can be put before Dr. Arnold’s amongst +those who, in the first rank, have helped to +tide our country over the dangerous time +of that crisis, which came to a head in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>Europe in 1848, and is still trying and proving +every nation in Christendom.</p> + +<p class='c007'>After watching for years the condition into +which the Corn Laws on the one hand, +and the orthodox dogma of the Economists +of that day (of salvation by <i><span lang="fr">laissez-faire</span></i>—or +by buying in the cheapest and +selling in the dearest markets)—he was +convinced in 1831, to put it in his own +words, that a time was at hand “when the +devil will fight his best in good earnest.” +In the October of that year he wrote to a +friend, after describing his field of wholesome +and happy labour in his family and +the school, “but my sense of the evils of +the times, and to what prospects I am +bringing up my children, is overwhelmingly +bitter. All in the moral and physical world +appears so exactly to announce the coming +of the “great day of the Lord,” <i>i.e.</i> a period +of fearful visitation to terminate the existing +state of things—whether to terminate the +whole existence of the human race neither +man nor angel knows—that no entireness of +private happiness can possibly close my +mind against the sense of it.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so, as he could not close his eyes to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>the danger but was haunted by it, he set to +work to combat “the two great opposite +forms of human wickedness”—priestcraft +and Benthamism—or, as he called them, +“white and red Jacobinism”—and went +into the fight with all the thoroughness +and independence which made him such a +power in whatever he undertook. He +could find no place in which he could speak +out in the Press, and so started a weekly +journal of his own, <i>The Englishman’s +Register</i>, without any illusion as to its +prospects. “Every selfish motive,” he +writes, “would deter me from the <i>Register</i>: +it will be a pecuniary loss, it will bring me +no credit, but much trouble and probably +abuse, and some of my dearest friends look +on it not only coldly, but with aversion. +But I <em>do</em> think it a most solemn duty to +make the attempt.” He put his nephew, +Mr. Ward, in as editor, writing the principal +leaders himself and giving a general +supervision. “The difficulty of the undertaking,” +he soon found, “is indeed most +serious. All the Tories turn from me as a +Liberal, whilst the strong Reformers think +me timid and half corrupt.” And again, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>“If I had two necks I should think I had +a good chance of being hanged by both +sides, as I think I shall by the one that +gets the better if it comes to a fight; there +is not a man in England who is less a party +man than I am, for in fact no party would +own me.” A year later he writes, “<i><span lang="la">Experto +crede</span></i>, it is expensive work to push an infant +journal up hill.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>The life of the <i>Register</i> was short, but it +did good work, and by introducing him to +the <i>Sheffield Courant</i> gave him the opening +he wanted for the future. He was, I think, +scarcely prepared for the flood of angry +and scurrilous abuse and ridicule which +the <i>Register</i> drew on him (notably from +Theodore Hook in the <i>John Bull</i>), but he +was splendidly indifferent to it all. “It is +an immense blessing,” was his answer to indignant +friends, “to be perfectly callous to +ridicule, or, which comes to the same thing, +to be thoroughly conscious that what we +have in us of noble and delicate is not +ridiculous to any but fools, and that, if fools +will laugh, wise men will do well to let +them.” And again, “I have lived for +many years in entire indifference to the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>opinion of people, unless I have reason to +think them good and wise; and I wish my +friends would share this indifference as far +as I am concerned.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>It would be out of place here to go into +any detail as to these political writings, or +to do more than glance at his long struggle +on the council of the London University +for the necessity of maintaining a Christian +character in national education. With +astonishing patience he tried again and +again to find a common ground with his +colleagues, and only left them when convinced +that it was hopeless, thereby drawing +on himself more suspicion and attacks from +quite a different quarter. “Better go on +as we are than set up national education on +any but a Christian basis,” was his final +decision; for “the moment you enter on +moral subjects—history or philosophy—you +must be Christian or Antichristian.” And +again, “What is the impartiality talked of? +That a man shall be neither a Christian, +nor yet not a Christian? The fact is, that +religious veneration is inconsistent with +what is called impartiality, which means +that you see some good and some evil on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>both sides, and so identify yourselves with +neither, and can judge of both. That is +true of all persons and things human; not +of what is divine. If Christ was no more +than Socrates, I can speak of Him impartially: +can judge Him: but if I believe in +Him, I am not His judge, but His servant +and creature. He claims the devotion of +my whole nature, for He is identical with +goodness, wisdom, holiness.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And thus I come naturally to the last +part of our subject, the influence of Arnold +on the spiritual or religious life of England. +In his last years the time of a great revival +had come, which would cast that life, as it +were, in a new mould—into what mould was +the vital question. The decisive crisis was in +its most acute phase when he passed away +fifty years ago. How well I remember it, +for I was at its very centre from 1842 to +1845, at Oriel, Arnold’s own college, and +that of the foremost men in the Tractarian +movement—of Newman, Keble, and Hurrell +Froude, of Pusey, and Marriott, and Church—when +Tract Ninety was dividing Oxford +common-rooms into hostile camps, and its +author was spending the last sad years at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>Littlemore before leaving the church of his +fathers, and dragging with or after him +some of the brightest and best of my contemporaries. +It was a time of sore rebuke +and distress to our church, and to none of +its sons sorer than to Arnold, scores of +whose pupils were in residence.</p> + +<p class='c007'>At Oxford in those years, Bishop Cotton, +my last tutor here, had given me, when I +left school, the volume of <i>Sermons on +Christian Life</i>, published in 1841, and I +had read the famous introduction again and +again in the Christmas holidays before I +went up to Oriel. The pathos of that +appeal came right home to me, and I think, +even if my reason and conscience had +remained unconvinced, I could not have +resisted it. “Mr. Newman’s system,” he +wrote, “is now at its flood; it is daily +making converts; it is daily swelled by +many of those who neither love it nor +understand it, but who hope to make it +serve their purpose, or like to swim with +the stream. A strong profession therefore +of an opposite faith at the present moment +must expect to meet with little favour; nor +indeed have I any hope of turning the tide, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>which will flow for its appointed season, +and its ebb does not seem to be at hand. +But whilst the hurricane rages, those exposed +to it may well encourage one another +to hold fast their own foundations against +it; and many are exposed to it in whose +welfare I naturally have the deepest interest, +and in whom old impressions may be supposed +to have still so much force that I may +claim for them, at least, a patient hearing.” +But far from remaining unconvinced, both +my reason and conscience went frankly +and cordially with him when he urged, +“Christ’s church is absolutely without a +human earthly priesthood, for it has the +eternal priesthood of Christ which leaves +no place for any other; there is no priesthood +without mediation, and we have one +mediator, the man Christ Jesus. Do we +want the priest for sacrifice? Nay, there +is no place for him at all; for our one +atoning sacrifice has been once offered, and +by its virtue we are enabled to offer daily +our spiritual sacrifices of ourselves, which +no other man can offer for us. Do we +want him for intercession? Nay, there is +one who ever liveth to make intercession +<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>for us, through whom we have access to +the Father, and for whose sake Paul, +Apollos and Peter, and things present and +things to come, are ours already.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so I and many others passed through +that time unscathed, and all the more easily +because he had also taught us that all there +is of good, or noble, or self-denying, in this +system is altogether independent of the +doctrine of the priesthood—that there are +many good practices in the Romish Church +which it would be most desirable to restore +among ourselves, such as “daily church +services, frequent communions, memorials of +our Christian calling continually presented to +our notice, in crosses and wayside oratories, +commemorations of holy men of all times +and all countries; the doctrine of the communion +of saints practically taught; religious +orders, especially of women, of different +kinds, and under different rules, delivered +only from the snare and sin of perpetual +vows.” So he pleaded in 1841. Half a +century has gone by since those words +were written. The movement which was +to remould the Church, and human society +through the Church, is still with us; several +<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>of the good practices which Arnold +approved have established themselves already, +the rest seem to be on the way. +But how stands the crucial question of the +priesthood? Is the Church Arnold loved +so well and served so faithfully destined to +lose all truly courageous faith, and to teach +her children cowardly to crave for some +man, as liable to sin as themselves, to stand +between them and Christ, who has redeemed +them, and bidden them to come +straight to Him? Upon the answer +which your generation will give to that +question depends, I believe, more than +upon anything else, the future of England. +May it be that for which Arnold pleaded +half a century ago, and which the brave old +Poet Laureate has voiced for us of this +generation who are passing away, in his +latest words,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>I hope to see my Pilot face to face</div> + <div class='line in2'>When I have crossed the bar.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='c002 figcenter id002'> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span> +<img src='images/i_p231.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> +<h3 id='con4' class='c016'>WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL <br> <span class='sc'>An Address delivered at Rugby School on 24th June 1894</span></h3> + +<div class='c005'> + <img class='drop-capi' src='images/dc_i.jpg' width='80' height='80' alt=''> +</div><p class='drop-capi0_7'> +I HOPE you boys in this last decade +of the century are as great +hero-worshippers as we were in +the fourth. Speech-day, 1834, +was the first I was at, as I had come as a +new boy in February of that year, just sixty +years ago. It was held at Easter then, in +the middle of the long half-year, which +lasted for five months with only a break +of three days. That year, 1834, was a +famous one for Rugby. At Oxford, +Arthur Stanley had got a Balliol, and at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>Cambridge, Dean Vaughan a Trinity +scholarship, while still sixth-form boys, +and the reputation of the school was going +up by leaps and bounds at the universities +and in the country. But though we small +boys were proud in a way of Stanley and +Vaughan, of Clough and Burbidge, and +other scholars and poets, we looked on +them more as providential providers of +extra half-holidays than with the enthusiasm +of hero-worship. This we reserved +for the kings of the Close, round whom +clustered legends of personal encounters +with drovers at the monthly<a id='tn003'></a> cattle-fairs +(which were then held in High Street, and +came right up to the school gates, tempting +curious yokels to trespass on the sacred +precincts), or the navvies who were laying +down the first line of the London and +North-Western Railway, or the gamekeepers +of a neighbouring squire with +whom the school was in a state of open +war over the right of fishing in the Avon.</p> + +<p class='c007'>I did not myself share this rather indiscriminate +enthusiasm; for the kings of +the Close were, as a rule, a rough and hard +set of taskmasters, who fagged us for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>whole afternoons, and were much too +ready with the cane. But for this very +reason I had all the more to bestow on +the one who, to my boyish imagination, +stood out from the rest as Hector from +the ruck of the Trojan princes; and this +hero was William Cotton Oswell, whose +portrait took its honoured place yesterday +on the walls of our Rugby Valhalla. It +was not from any personal knowledge of +or contact with him, for we were at +different boarding-houses and at opposite +ends of the school; and I doubt whether +he ever spoke to me in his life, though +I often shared his kindly nod and smile +when we met in the Close or quadrangle. +It was the rare mixture of kindliness and +gentleness with marvellous strength, activity, +and fearlessness, which made him <i><span lang="la">facile +princeps</span></i> among his contemporaries. I don’t +believe he ever struck a small boy here, or +even spoke to one, in anger.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And so there was no drawback to the +enthusiasm with which one watched him +leading a charge at football, or bowling in +a Big-Side match, or jumping two or three +pegs higher on the gallows than any other +<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>boy. He cleared eighteen feet nine inches +of water in Clifton brook, which means, +as you know, at least twenty-one feet from +take-off to landing. No doubt his good +looks added to the fascination. You can +see from the portrait what a noble face his +must have been even in boyhood, and his +figure was quite as striking. He stood +six feet in his stockings when he left school +at eighteen, but did not look his height +from the perfection of his figure; broad +in shoulder, thin in flank, and so well +developed that he was called “the Muscleman.” +I must not dwell on that time, so +will give you one instance only of his +early prowess in athletics. I don’t know +what the record has been in late years, but +in my time Parr was the only man who +was ever known to have thrown a cricket-ball +a hundred yards both ways. No record +was kept here, but this I saw Oswell do. +From a group of boys at a wicket on +Little-Side ground, as it then was, he +threw a cricket-ball, over as I believe, or +at any rate through, the great elms (which +were then standing in a close row at right +angles to the school buildings) into the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>Doctor’s garden, for there it was picked +up. Measure it how you will, that throw +must have been considerably over a hundred +yards.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He left a great blank in the school life +in 1836. We heard he had gone to +Haileybury for a year on his way to India, +where he had got an appointment as writer. +In those days there was no telegraph, no +cheap post, no overland passage, and no +penny papers to spread every scrap of news, +true or false, over the whole kingdom. +No one thought of a pleasure trip to India +for a month or two in the winter to look +up friends or young relations, for the voyage +round the Cape even in the Company’s +finest ships took from three to four months. +The two worlds were wide apart, and the +young subaltern or civilian was lucky who +managed to get a run home once in ten +years. So a curtain fell between Oswell +and his old schoolfellows, which was not +lifted, for me at any rate, for more than a +generation. Now and again, at long intervals, +thinking over schooldays, his figure +would rise up as attractive as ever, and I +would wonder what had become of him, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>and that no heroic rumour of him had +floated back from the other side of the +world.</p> + +<p class='c007'>You may fancy, then, the shock of joy +which I felt when the lift came at last. +I, like every one else, had rushed to get +Livingstone’s first book on South Africa, +and was deep in the second chapter, in +which he details the drought at his station, +the threats of the Boers, and the rumours +of a lake and rivers and a rich country to +the north that had determined him to +attempt the crossing of the Kalahari desert +which lay between, when I came on this +passage: “I communicated my intention +to an African traveller, Colonel Steele, and +he made it known to another gentleman, a +Mr. Oswell. He undertook to defray the +entire expense of guides, and fully executed +his generous intention.” Surely, thought +I, that must be “the Muscleman,” or +“handsome Oswell,” as we used sometimes +to call him; that’s just what he would have +done. I was not long in doubt; it was my +boyhood’s hero sure enough. “Oswell was +one of Arnold’s Rugby boys,” Livingstone +wrote; “one could see his training in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>always doing what was brave, and true, +and right.” Now let us see how it was +that he managed to turn up in Africa at +this critical moment.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In India he spent ten years, rising +rapidly to the post of collector and judge. +His station was thirty miles from the nearest +English doctor, so he added the study +of medicine to his regular work. This +was heavy enough, but did not hinder him +from joining any young Englishman who +came to hunt. In one of these hunts he +saved the life of the then Lord Gifford, +shooting a tiger which his lordship, who +was short-sighted, had not noticed, and +which was in the act of springing. On +another of these excursions the party encamped +on ground full of malaria, and were +struck with jungle fever, of which several +died. Oswell, thanks to his splendid +constitution, struggled through, after being +insensible for several days. No sooner had +he recovered consciousness than he set to +work on a pile of his district papers—complaints +from villages, reports of gang-robberies, +etc.—with a wet towel round +his head. He cleared his table at the cost +<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>of a dangerous relapse, the effects of which +he could not shake off; so he was sent to +the Cape on sick-leave, those who saw +him embark doubting if he would ever +reach the Cape alive.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Once landed, however, the dry warm air +revived him, and in a few months he was +away to the north, exploring and elephant-shooting, +in which pursuits he came across +Dr. Moffat, the great missionary Livingstone’s +father-in-law, and Captain Steele, +the hunter of big game, who directed him +to Livingstone’s station, Kolabeng, two +hundred miles to the north on the borders +of the Kalahari desert. He had with him +a brother sportsman, Mr. Murray, and they +at once joined eagerly in Livingstone’s +project to attempt to cross the Kalahari +desert. “Mr. Oswell,” to repeat his +words, “at once undertook to defray the +whole cost of guides, and fully executed +his generous intention.” They started on +the 1st of June 1849, and reached Lake +Ngami in two months, on the 1st of +August, the first white men who had ever +seen it. The story of their journey has +been told both by Livingstone in his first +<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>book, and by Oswell in the chapter he +wrote for the Badminton volume on <i>Big +Game Shooting</i>, published after his death in +1893. I know no reading of more absorbing +interest, but you should all read it for +yourselves. And when you are reading, +remember that the whole of Central +Africa was a blank then on our school +atlases, while every lake and river and +mountain range is now laid down, right +away to the Red Sea, the South Atlantic, +and the Mediterranean. Here I can only +give you the estimate that Livingstone +formed of his companion before they got +back to Kolabeng. “When my men +wished to flatter me,” he wrote, “they +would say, ‘If you were not a missionary +you would be just like Oswell; you would +not hunt with dogs.’ They declare he is +the greatest hunter that ever came into +the country.” His method was to get +within twenty or thirty yards of his game—lion, +elephant, or rhinoceros—whereas +most men fired at fifty or sixty. Of +course this doubled the danger while it +made surer work, and his marvellous +escapes were frequent. One I will content +<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>myself with on this journey, an +encounter with a rhinoceros, which he +killed at last, but which had tossed him +and torn the scalp of his head almost off. +Murray went to look for him, and told +Livingstone, “I found that beggar Oswell +sitting under a bush and holding on his +head.” He had in fact adjusted his scalp, +and the blood was streaming through his +fingers. Let me here cite another witness +or two as to his character as a hunter. Mr. +Horace Waller, of the Oxford Mission, +writes: “Livingstone, who knew no fear +himself, spoke of Oswell’s desperate courage +in hunting as quite wonderful; not but +what he suffered from it to the day of his +death, the result of an engagement with a +rhinoceros. Oswell would, for instance, +ride up alongside of a hyæna, and, unloosing +his stirrup leather while at full gallop, +brain the beast with the heavy stirrup.” +Again, Sir Samuel Baker says: “His +extreme gentleness, utter recklessness of +danger, and complete unselfishness, made +him friends everywhere, but attracted the +native mind to a degree of adoration. He +was the Nimrod of South Africa, without +<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>a rival and without an enemy, the greatest +hunter ever known in modern times, the +truest friend and most thorough example +of an English gentleman.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>In April 1851 Livingstone started again +from Kolabeng, this time with his wife and +children, on the invitation of Sebituane, the +great chief of the Makololo, who offered +him a settlement wherever he might choose. +Oswell was again with him, and went ahead +of the waggons to dig wells and provide +water; but even with this precaution the +party, which included Mrs. Livingstone +and the children, were at one point four +days without it, and nearly perishing. +Leaving Mrs. Livingstone and the children +as the guests of Sebituane, Livingstone and +Oswell explored north and east, and discovered +the Zambesi River, and the great +Victoria Falls from which it becomes +navigable for ships to the Indian Ocean. +For this he was voted the gold medal of the +French Geographical Society. On their +return Sebituane was attacked by inflammation +of the lungs, and died in a few +days. His death altered all Livingstone’s +plans, and probably the subsequent history +<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>of the continent; for now Livingstone +resolved to send his family home, and return +alone the next year to find a way either to +the west or east coast. He had already +drawn his whole salary for 1852 and half +that for 1853, and so would have been +quite unable to start on the career which +opened Africa and gained him a tomb in +Westminster Abbey, but for Oswell; but +<em>he</em> proved the friend who “sticketh closer +than a brother.” He accompanied them to +Cape Town, and in Livingstone’s words +“made all comfortable,” giving the children +who were in rags a new outfit which cost +£200, and enabling Livingstone to start +once more for the north. He answered all +remonstrances by laughingly protesting that +it all came from ivory, and that the Doctor +and his wife had as good a right as he to +the money drawn from the preserves on +their estates.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Before leaving his African career I must +give shortly a characteristic story which +was told incidentally by him in “South +Africa Fifty Years ago,” and unconsciously, +as though he were quite unaware of what I +cannot but call its beauty and pathos. It +<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>is of his relations with an Africander who +bore the (to us rather comic) name of John +Thomas, one of the men he hired at the +Cape to accompany him and Livingstone +on their first expedition. The contract +was that these men should be bound to go +as far as the Lake Ngami, but no farther. +When therefore Oswell and Livingstone determined +to go on to the north, they called +the men together and told them they need +not go any farther, but could choose between +waiting for their return or accompanying +them. At first the men hesitated, and +seemed likely to refuse to go farther, when +Bono Johnny (as he was called by this +time) jumped up, and in Dutch, which he +spoke when excited, said, “What you eat +I can eat, where you sleep I can sleep, +where you go I will go; I will come with +you.” The others paused for a moment or +two, and then chorused, “We will go.” +“Do you think after that,” Oswell writes, +“it was much matter to us whether our +brother was black or white?” Johnny +stayed with him through four years, at the +end of which Oswell wrote of him, “as a +grand specimen of manhood, good nature, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>faithfulness, and cheerful endurance I have +never met his equal, white or black.” +Johnny at the last moment begged his +master to take him over to see England, +which he did, and got him a temporary +place as coachman to his brother, a country +parson. A few weeks later Oswell met +Johnny in the village with the cook on one +arm and the lady’s maid on the other, and +found that they were going on with his +education, which Oswell had begun in the +bush, the cook undertaking his reading and +the lady’s maid his writing. At the end of +six months Johnny had to return to Africa, +and Oswell lost sight of him. It was +eighteen months before they met again. +Oswell, who had volunteered on the outbreak +of the war with Russia, was carrying +secret service money for Government in the +East, and came across the camp of the +Sixtieth Rifles. He was talking to an officer +from horseback, when he felt a hand laid +on his off stirrup, and looking round found +Johnny there, who had become messman to +the regiment and was in high favour. He +jumped down, and they had a long African +talk, and from that time till Johnny’s death +<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>Oswell kept his eye on him, and got him +at last a place as butler to a friend in +England, where, as everywhere else, he +made himself indispensable by cheerful and +faithful service. There Johnny was struck +by a fatal illness, and died in a few hours. +“I heard of his illness,” Oswell writes, +“too late to see him on earth; but I trust +master and man may yet meet as brothers +in heaven.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>The modesty and self-depreciation of his +character were strong to the end. Looking +back at his relations with Livingstone, he +writes in “South Africa Fifty Years ago”: +“He could talk to the Kaffir ears and +hearts, we only to their stomachs; but I +would fain believe his grand work was +made a little smoother by our guns.” I +should rather think it was. Thus, when a +tribe in Livingstone’s district was on the +point of starvation from the long drought, +and the people reduced to mere walking +skeletons, he and Murray took more than six +hundred men, women, and children with +them, fed them for several months till they +were “all fat and shining,” and sent them +back with a store of dried meat enough to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>last for months, without one missing, sick, +or feeble.</p> + +<p class='c007'>How one wishes that England were still +represented by Oswells in South and Central +Africa! Happily Rugby again has +sent one such in Mr. Selous, who has +sustained the high type set by Oswell in +early days. But I much question whether +the ordinary type of African sportsman of +to-day will benefit Africa, or raise the +native enthusiasm or admiration for Englishmen. +A few days ago I was reading a +review of the last book published by two of +them on African sport. They would seem +to have taken with them a staff of trained +servants, and horses and donkeys loaded +with supplies sufficient to have made the +adventure at any rate quite comfortable. +Small blame to them for that, you will say, +if they could afford it; and I agree. But +what shall we say as to their method of +shooting lions? It seems to have been, to +tether an unfortunate donkey in a clearing, +and leave him there for hours till a lion +sprang on the poor shuddering jackass and +had taken a good suck at his blood, and then +to shoot him from a neighbouring place of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>safety. Well, we will say at any rate that +Oswell would probably have as soon thought +of tethering his black brother Bono Johnny +for bait to a lion as a poor jackass.</p> + +<p class='c007'>To go back to our story. After sending +off Mrs. Livingstone and the children, +Oswell followed to England for family +reasons, and was at home when the Crimean +War broke out a year later. He at once +volunteered, as I have already told you, +went out to Constantinople, and was employed +by Lord Raglan to carry despatches +and secret service money to Sir Lintorn +Simmons at Shumla, and on other missions. +On the fall of Sebastopol he returned to +England, and at once, without waiting for +the shower of titles and decorations which +came when peace was made, the old longing +for wandering and adventure being still +strong, sailed for South America, in November +1855. On board the mail-steamer +he met his future wife, who was going out +to her sister, Lady Lees, the wife of the +Chief Justice of the Bahamas. After wandering +through Chili, the West Indies, and +the United States, he came home, renewed +his acquaintance with Miss Agnes Rivaz, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>who had also returned, and they were +married. From that time he settled down +to the quiet life of an English country +gentleman, built himself a house at Groombridge, +near Tunbridge Wells, which he +filled with his African trophies, and found +a sphere for his energy in his parish and +neighbourhood. Every neighbour who +needed him became his special care. To +the poor he was not a mere benefactor, but +each man’s and woman’s and child’s personal +friend. His Indian experience here came +into play. Every little ailment or accident +was a certain summons to “the Master,” +as he was generally called; and if remonstrated +with he would smile and say, “there +was something in being able to send for a +doctor whom they had not to pay.” He +was an enthusiastic gardener, and the whole +neighbourhood was stocked with plants and +flowers from Hillside. His great strength +remained to the end. One day calling at +an old friend’s he found him very ill, and +his wife and son consulting how he could +be moved. In a moment he was in +Oswell’s arms, carried and placed gently +in the place they had prepared for him. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>The Paris Geographical Society, as has +been said, had sent him their gold medal, +and he was made a Fellow of the English +Society; but, writes Francis Galton, +another African explorer and admirer of +Oswell, “he was too shy and modest, and +could not be induced to take that prominent +share in those stirring times of the +Geographical Society which was his right, +and which he was often urged to take.” +In the same way, though an excellent +recounter to friends of his exploring and +sporting experiences, he steadily resisted the +offers of publishers and the persuasion of +friends to take the public into his confidence +in print.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was only in the last year of his life +that he was induced to put pen to paper +as to his hunting and exploring work. +Happily the editor of the Badminton +Library persuaded him to write in the +volume on <i>Big Game Shooting</i>. The +result was the chapters on “South Africa +Fifty Years ago” in that volume, which in +my judgment stand quite foremost in our +sporting literature. Read them, and, while +the interest is absorbing, you will not find +<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>a trace of that delight in and relish for +mere slaughter which is so offensive in +most books of sport. Here is a short +characteristic quotation, which will give +you the mood in which the mighty hunter +looked back on his own exploits. “I am +sorry now for all the fine old beasts I have +killed: but I was young then; there was +excitement in the work; I had large +numbers of men to feed, and every animal +<em>except three elephants</em> was eaten by man, +and so put to good use.<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c013'><sup>[5]</sup></a> I filled their +stomachs, and thus in some mysterious +way, as they assured me, made their hearts +white.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>On the other hand, the zest for the old +desert life of his early manhood comes back +even as he writes: “There is a fascination +to me in the remembrance of the free life, +the self-dependence, the feeling as you lay +<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>under your kaross that you were looking +at the stars from a point on the earth +whence no other European eye had ever +seen them; these are with me still, and +were I not a married man, with children +and grandchildren, I believe I should head +back to Africa again and end my days in +the open air. Take the word of one who +has tried both; there is a charm in the +wild life; the ever-increasing never-satisfied +needs of the tame my soul cannot away +with.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>I could call a dozen well-known witnesses +to confirm everything I have said as to the +charm of a character to which Lamartine’s +saying, “<span lang="fr">Rien n’est si doux que ce qui est +fort</span>,” applies more truly than to any one I +can remember. I will cite one only whose +testimony will, I know, be of special interest +here, as it comes from an intimate +friend of Oswell, but not a Rugbeian, +Lord Rendel. “He carried, as well as +deepened, the stamp of Rugby at its best; +fearless of soul and body, yet tender, kindly, +gay; wise with a large experience, but +utterly unworldly, I would, as an Etonian, +give all the mere gentlemen Eton could +<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>breed for a handful of such men as Oswell. +Manliness without coarseness, polish without +complacency, nobility without caste! +May Rugby keep the mould, and multiply +the type!” Amen!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id003'> +<img src='images/i_p252.jpg' alt='Decorative line drawing' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<hr class='c020'> +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c007'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>.  </span>“The Washers of the Shroud.”—<span class='sc'>J. R. Lowell.</span></p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c007'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>.  </span>Printed by request. T. H.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f3'> +<p class='c007'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>.  </span>Emerson.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f4'> +<p class='c007'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>.  </span>It is not “Rugby” but “Harvard” in the original, +which is taken from the Commemoration hymn written +by the Rev. J. R. Lowell.</p> +</div> +<div class='footnote' id='f5'> +<p class='c007'><span class='label'><a href='#r5'>5</a>.  </span>These three elephants, which he regrets were not eaten +by man, were shot by him away from camp in order to +send the valuable ivory to an Englishman who was shooting +in the neighbourhood, to buy a supply of lead, Oswell +having run short, and the nearest store at which he +could buy being fourteen hundred miles away to the south. +Mr. Webb, of Newstead Abbey, the sportsman in question, +sent the ivory back to Oswell with a liberal gift of bars of +lead, and they became intimate friends.</p> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div><i>Printed by</i> <span class='sc'>R. & R. Clark</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span></div> +<div class='adpage'> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>MESSRS. MACMILLAN AND CO.’S <br> PUBLICATIONS.</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c021'>TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. With Illustrations +by <span class='sc'>A. Hughes</span> and <span class='sc'>S. P. Hall</span>. Uniform Edition. +Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. <i>Golden Treasury +Edition.</i> Pot 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. <i>People’s Edition.</i> +2s. <i>People’s Sixpenny Edition.</i> Medium 8vo. Sewed. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>TOM BROWN AT OXFORD. Illustrated. Uniform +Edition. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE SCOURING OF THE WHITE HORSE; +or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk, and The +Ashen Faggot. Illustrated. Uniform Edition. Crown 8vo. +3s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>RUGBY, TENNESSEE. Being some Account of +the Settlement founded on the Cumberland Plateau by the +Board of Aid to Land Ownership. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>GONE TO TEXAS. Letters from Our Boys. Edited +with a Preface by <span class='sc'>Thomas Hughes</span>, Q.C. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>ALFRED THE GREAT. New Edition. Crown 8vo. +6s.</p> + +<p class='c021'>MEMOIR OF DANIEL MACMILLAN. With +Portrait. Fourth Thousand. Crown 8vo. 4s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c019'>⁂ <i>Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, sewed. 1s.</i></p> + +<p class='c021'>JAMES FRASER, SECOND BISHOP OF MANCHESTER: +A Memoir, 1818-1885. With Portrait. Crown +8vo. 6s.</p> + +<p class='c021'>LIVINGSTONE. With Portrait and Map. (<i>English +Men of Action.</i>) Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.</p> + +</div> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span></div> +<div class='adpage'> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>Golden Treasury Series.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>Uniformly printed, with Vignette Titles by Sir <span class='sc'>J. E. Millais</span>, +Sir <span class='sc'>Noel Paton</span>, <span class='sc'>T. Woolner</span>, <span class='sc'>W. Holman Hunt</span>, <span class='sc'>Arthur +Hughes</span>, etc., engraved on Steel. In uniform binding. Pot 8vo. +2s. 6d. each net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST +SONGS AND LYRICAL POEMS IN THE ENGLISH +LANGUAGE. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by +Professor <span class='sc'>F. T. Palgrave</span>. <i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 8vo. +10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE CHILDREN’S TREASURY OF LYRICAL +POETRY. Selected by Professor <span class='sc'>F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE CHILDREN’S GARLAND FROM THE +BEST POETS. Selected by <span class='sc'>Coventry Patmore</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>POEMS OF WORDSWORTH. Chosen and Edited +by <span class='sc'>Matthew Arnold</span>. <i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 8vo. +10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>POETRY OF BYRON. Chosen and arranged by +<span class='sc'>Matthew Arnold</span>. <i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 9s.</p> + +<p class='c021'>POEMS OF SHELLEY. Edited by <span class='sc'>S. A. Brooke</span>. +<i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 8vo. 12s. 6d.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS. +Edited by Professor <span class='sc'>F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>CHRYSOMELA. A Selection from the Lyrical Poems +of Robert Herrick. By Professor <span class='sc'>F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SELECTED POEMS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SELECTIONS FROM THE POEMS OF A. H. +CLOUGH.</p> + +<p class='c021'>BALLADS, LYRICS, AND SONNETS. From the +Works of <span class='sc'>Henry W. Longfellow</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>LYRIC LOVE: An Anthology. Edited by <span class='sc'>William +Watson</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SCOTTISH SONG. Compiled by <span class='sc'>Mary Carlyle +Aitken</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE SONG BOOK. Words and Tunes selected and +arranged by <span class='sc'>John Hullah</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE BALLAD BOOK. Edited by <span class='sc'>William +Allingham</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE FAIRY BOOK. Selected by Mrs. <span class='sc'>Craik</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE JEST BOOK. Arranged by <span class='sc'>Mark Lemon</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>SHAKESPEARE’S SONGS AND SONNETS. +Edited, with Notes, by Professor <span class='sc'>F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>LAMB’S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. Edited +by Rev. <span class='sc'>Alfred Ainger</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SELECTIONS FROM COWPER’S POEMS. With +an Introduction by Mrs. <span class='sc'>Oliphant</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>LETTERS OF WILLIAM COWPER. Edited, +with Introduction, by Rev. <span class='sc'>W. Benham</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE BOOK OF PRAISE. Selected by <span class='sc'>Roundell, +Earl of Selborne</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE SUNDAY BOOK OF POETRY FOR THE +YOUNG. Selected by <span class='sc'>C. F. Alexander</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By <span class='sc'>John Keble</span>. +With Introduction by <span class='sc'>Charlotte M. Yonge</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>LA LYRE FRANÇAISE. Selected and arranged, +with Notes, by <span class='sc'>G. Masson</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>DEUTSCHE LYRIK. The Golden Treasury of the +Best German and Lyrical Poems. Selected by Dr. +<span class='sc'>Buchheim</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>BALLADEN UND ROMANZEN. Being a Selection +of the best German Ballads and Romances. Edited, +with Introduction and Notes, by Dr. <span class='sc'>Buchheim</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THEOCRITUS, BION, AND MOSCHUS. Rendered +into English Prose by <span class='sc'>Andrew Lang</span>. <i>Large Paper +Edition.</i> 9s.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO. Translated by +<span class='sc'>Ll. Davies</span>, M.A., and <span class='sc'>D. J. Vaughan</span>. <i>Large Paper +Edition.</i> 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES. +Being the Euthyphron, Apology, Crito, and Phædo of Plato. +Translated by <span class='sc'>F. J. Church</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>PLATO—PHAEDRUS, LYSIS, AND PROTAGORAS. +A New Translation, by <span class='sc'>J. Wright</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>BACON’S ESSAYS, AND COLOURS OF GOOD +AND EVIL. With Notes and Glossarial Index by <span class='sc'>W. +Aldis Wright</span>, M.A. <i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 8vo. +10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'><span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>THE CAVALIER AND HIS LADY. Selections +from the Works of the First Duke and Duchess of Newcastle. +With an Introductory Essay by <span class='sc'>Edward Jenkins</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS FROM THIS +WORLD TO THAT WHICH IS TO COME. By <span class='sc'>John +Bunyan</span>. <i>Large Paper Edition.</i> 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SIR THOMAS BROWNE’S RELIGIO MEDICI; +LETTERS TO A FRIEND, ETC., AND CHRISTIAN +MORALS. Edited by <span class='sc'>W. A. Greenhill</span>, M.D.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE ESSAYS OF JOSEPH ADDISON. Chosen +and Edited by <span class='sc'>John Richard Green</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>SELECTIONS FROM WALTER SAVAGE +LANDOR. Edited by <span class='sc'>Sidney Colvin</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS. By an <span class='sc'>Old +Boy</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>BALTHASAR GRACIAN’S ART OF WORLDLY +WISDOM. Translated by <span class='sc'>J. Jacobs</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE SPEECHES AND TABLE TALK OF THE +PROPHET MOHAMMAD. Translated by <span class='sc'>Stanley +Lane-Poole</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>THE STORY OF THE CHRISTIANS AND +MOORS IN SPAIN. By <span class='sc'>Charlotte M. Yonge</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS OF ALL TIMES +AND ALL COUNTRIES. By <span class='sc'>C. M. Yonge</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>A BOOK OF WORTHIES. By <span class='sc'>C. M. Yonge</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>A BOOK OF GOLDEN THOUGHTS. By Sir +<span class='sc'>Henry Attwell</span>.</p> + +<p class='c021'>GOLDEN TREASURY PSALTER. <span class='sc'>The +Student’s Edition.</span> Being an Edition with Briefer Notes +of “The Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends.”</p> + +<p class='c021'>THEOLOGIA GERMANICA. Translated by S. +Winkworth. Preface by <span class='sc'>C. Kingsley</span>.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> +<div class='nf-center c003'> + <div>MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> +<div class='tnote'> + +<div class='nf-center-c1'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><span class='large'>Transcriber’s Notes</span></div> + </div> +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li>Printers’ errors, punctuation, and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected. + </li> + <li>Variations in hyphenation have been preserved + </li> + <li>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79039 ***</div> +</body> +<!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i on 2026-07-05 17:13:36 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/79039-h/images/dc_a.jpg b/79039-h/images/dc_a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..87c83ee --- /dev/null +++ b/79039-h/images/dc_a.jpg diff --git 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9a231f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +[Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook [#79039](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79039) |
