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diff --git a/9373-8.txt b/9373-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc12fd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/9373-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1071 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pax Vobiscum, by Henry Drummond + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pax Vobiscum + +Author: Henry Drummond + + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9373] +This file was first posted on September 26, 2003 +Last Updated: May 11, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAX VOBISCUM *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +PAX VOBISCUM + +BY HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., LL.D. + +1890 + + +"PAX VOBISCUM," prepared for publication by the Author, is now published +for the first time, being the second of a series of which "The Greatest +Thing in the World" was the first. + + +Nov. 1, 1890. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and +I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am +meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my +yoke is easy, and my burden is light." + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +PAX VOBISCUM + +EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES + +WHAT YOKES ARE FOR + +HOW FRUITS GROW + + + + +PAX VOBISCUM + + +I heard the other morning a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon +"Rest." It was full of beautiful thoughts; but when I came to ask +myself, "How does he say I can get Rest?" there was no answer. The +sermon was sincerely meant to be practical, yet it contained no +experience that seemed to me to be tangible, nor any advice which +could help me to find the thing itself as I went about the world that +afternoon. Yet this omission of the only important problem was not the +fault of the preacher. The whole popular religion is in the twilight +here. And when pressed for really working specifics for the experiences +with which it deals, it falters, and seems to lose itself in mist. + +The want of connection between the great words of religion and every-day +life has bewildered and discouraged all of us. Christianity possesses +the noblest words in the language; its literature overflows with terms +expressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can fill the soul of +man. Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light--these words occur with such +persistency in hymns and prayers that an observer might think they +formed the staple of Christian experience. But on coming to close +quarters with the actual life of most of us, how surely would he be +disenchanted. I do not think we ourselves are aware how much our +religious life is made up of phrases; how much of what we call Christian +experience is only a dialect of the Churches, a mere religious +phraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and +know. + +To some of us, indeed, the Christian experiences seem further away than +when we took the first steps in the Christian life. That life has not +opened out as we had hoped; we do not regret our religion, but we are +disappointed with it. There are times, perhaps, when wandering notes +from a diviner music stray into our spirits; but these experiences come +at few and fitful moments. We have no sense of possession in them. When +they visit us, it is a surprise. When they leave us, it is without +explanation. When we wish their return, we do not know how to secure +it. All which points to a religion without solid base, and a poor and +flickering life. It means a great bankruptcy in those experiences which +give Christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to the +world, and a great uncertainty as to any remedy. It is as if we knew +everything about health--except the way to get it. + +I am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that +men are not in earnest. This is simply not the fact. All around us +Christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better. The amount +of spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered thousands +of men and women in whom we should never suspect it; among the wise and +thoughtful; among the young and gay, who seldom assuage and never betray +their thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and touching facts of +life. It is not more heat that is needed, but more light; not more +force, but a wiser direction to be given to very real energies already +there. + +The Address which follows is offered as a humble contribution to this +problem, and in the hope that it may help some who are "seeking Rest and +finding none" to a firmer footing on one great, solid, simple +principle which underlies not the Christian experiences alone, but all +experiences, and all life. + +What Christian experience wants is _thread_, a vertebral column, method. +It is impossible to believe that there is no remedy for its unevenness +and dishevelment, or that the remedy is a secret. The idea, also, that +some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, have been given +the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick of it--is +wholly incredible. Religion must ripen its fruit for every temperament; +and the way even into its highest heights must be by a gateway through +which the peoples of the world may pass. + +I shall try to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But as +that path is strangely unfrequented, and even unknown, where it passes +into the religious sphere, I must dwell for a moment on the commonest of +commonplaces. + + + + +EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES + + +Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of +order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never +at random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The +Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, expect +Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from the air like snow +or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they did they +would no less have their origin in previous activities and be controlled +by natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but not without a +long previous history. They are the mature effects of former causes. +Equally so are Rest, and Peace, and Joy. They, too, have each a previous +history. Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, but are brought +about by antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but calms in man's +inward nature, and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable. + +Realize it thoroughly: it is a methodical not an accidental world. If a +housewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound receipt, +carefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients and fire them +for the appropriate time without producing the result. It is not she who +has made the cake; it is nature. She brings related things together; +sets causes at work; these causes bring about the result. She is not +a creator, but an intermediary. She does not expect random causes to +produce specific effects--random ingredients would only produce random +cakes. So it is in the making of Christian experiences. Certain lines +are followed; certain effects are the result. These effects cannot but +be the result. But the result can never take place without the previous +cause. To expect results without antecedents is to expect cakes without +ingredients. That impossibility is precisely the almost universal +expectation. + +Now what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this simple +principle of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And instead of +applying the principle generally to each of the Christian experiences in +turn, I shall examine its application to one in some little detail. +The one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who follows the +application in this single instance will be able to apply it for himself +to all the others. + +Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are subject to fevers +which cause restlessness and delirium. Note the expression, "cause +restlessness." _Restlessness has a cause_. Clearly, then, any one who +wished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once to deal with +the cause. If that were not removed, a doctor might prescribe a hundred +things, and all might be taken in turn, without producing the least +effect. Things are so arranged in the original planning of the world +that certain effects must follow certain causes, and certain causes must +be abolished before certain effects can be removed. Certain parts of +Africa are inseparably linked with the physical experience called fever; +this fever is in turn infallibly linked with a mental experience called +restlessness and delirium. To abolish the mental experience the radical +method would be to abolish the physical experience, and the way of +abolishing the physical experience would be to abolish Africa, or +to cease to go there. Now this holds good for all other forms of +Restlessness. Every other form and kind of Restlessness in the world has +a definite cause, and the particular kind of Restlessness can only be +removed by removing the allotted cause. + +All this is also true of Rest. Restlessness has a cause: must not _Rest_ +have a cause? Necessarily. If it were a chance world we would not expect +this; but, being a methodical world, it cannot be otherwise. Rest, +physical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, every kind of rest has a +cause, as certainly as restlessness. Now causes are discriminating. +There is one kind of cause for every particular effect, and no other; +and if one particular effect is desired, the corresponding cause must be +set in motion. It is no use proposing finely devised schemes, or going +through general pious exercises in the hope that somehow Rest will come. +The Christian life is not casual but causal. All nature is a standing +protest against the absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects, +or any effects, without the employment of appropriate causes. The Great +Teacher dealt what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite +irrelevancy by a single question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or +figs of thistles?" Why, then, did the Great Teacher not educate His +followers fully? Why did He not tell us, for example, how such a thing +as Rest might be obtained? The answer is, that _He did_. But plainly, +explicitly, in so many words? Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many +words. He assigned Rest to its cause, in words with which each of us has +been familiar from his earliest childhood. + +He begins, you remember--for you at once know the passage I refer +to--almost as if Rest could be had without any cause: "Come unto me," He +says, "and I will _give_ you Rest." + +Rest, apparently, was a favour to be bestowed; men had but to come to +Him; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes +that all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously. +For what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an +impossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be _given_? One +could no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We speak +of "causing" laughter, which we can do; but we cannot give it away. When +we speak of giving pain, we know perfectly well we cannot give pain +away. And when we aim at giving pleasure, all that we do is to arrange a +set of circumstances in such a way as that these shall cause pleasure. +Of course there is a sense, and a very wonderful sense, in which a Great +Personality breathes upon all who come within its influence an abiding +peace and trust. Men can be to other men as the shadow of a great rock +in a thirsty land. Much more Christ; much more Christ as Perfect Man; +much more still as Saviour of the world. But it is not this of which I +speak. When Christ said He would give men Rest, He meant simply that +He would put them in the way of it. By no act of conveyance would, or +could, He make over His own Rest to them. He could give them His receipt +for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them; for one thing, +it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men were +not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet another +thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it for +themselves. + +That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the second +sentence: "Learn of Me and ye shall _find_ Rest." Rest, that is to say, +is not a thing that can be given, but a thing to be _acquired_. It comes +not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be found in a happy hour, +as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one finds knowledge. It could +indeed be no more found in a moment than could knowledge. A soil has to +be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, it will grow in one climate and +not in another; at one altitude and not at another. Like all growths it +will have an orderly development and mature by slow degrees. + +The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says we +are to achieve Rest by _learning_. "Learn of Me," He says, "and ye shall +find rest to your souls." Now consider the extraordinary originality +of this utterance. How novel the connection between these two words, +"Learn" and "Rest"? How few of us have ever associated them--ever +thought that Rest was a thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out +for it as we would to learn a language; ever practised it as we would +practise the violin? Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching +still is to the world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should +still be so little applied? The last thing most of us would have thought +of would have been to associate _Rest_ with _Work_. + +What must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find the +soul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation. He +specifies two things--Meekness and Lowliness. "Learn of Me," He says, +"for I am _meek_ and _lowly_ in heart." Now these two things are not +chosen at random. To these accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is +attached. Learn these, in short, and you have already found Rest. These +as they stand are direct causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot +but produce it at once. And if you think for a single moment, you will +see how this is necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the +connection between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies +deep in the nature of things. + +What is the connection, then? I answer by a further question. What are +the chief causes of _Unrest_? If you know yourself, you will answer +Pride, Selfishness, Ambition. As you look back upon the past years of +your life, is it not true that its unhappiness has chiefly come from the +succession of personal mortifications and almost trivial disappointments +which the intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at +lengthened intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty +friction of our every-day life with one another, the jar of business +or of work, the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our +ambition, the crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit, +which make inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed +hopes, unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal +sources of man's unrest. + +Now it is obvious why Christ pointed out as the two chief objects for +attainment the exact opposites of these. To Meekness and Lowliness these +things simply do not exist. They cure unrest by making it impossible. +These remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms; they strike at once +at removing causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a self-centred life can +be removed at once by learning Meekness and Lowliness of heart. He who +learns them is forever proof against it. He lives henceforth a charmed +life. Christianity is a fine inoculation, a transfusion of healthy blood +into an anĉmic or poisoned soul. No fever can attack a perfectly sound +body; no fever of unrest can disturb a soul which has breathed the air +or learned the ways of Christ. Men sigh for the wings of a dove that +they may fly away and be at Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The +Kingdom of God is _within you_." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; +it lies at the bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest +place. So do men. Hence, be lowly. The man who has no opinion of himself +at all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be +meek. He who is without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. +It is self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the +meek man are really above all other men, above all other things. They +dominate the world because they do not care for it. The miser does +not possess gold, gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. "The +meek," said Christ, "inherit the earth." They do not buy it; they do not +conquer it, but they inherit it. + +There are people who go about the world looking out for slights, +and they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such men +as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have had no +real education, for they have never learned how to live. Few men know +how to live. We grow up at random, carrying into mature life the merely +animal methods and motives which we had as little children. And it does +not occur to us that all this must be changed; that much of it must be +reversed, that life is the finest of the Fine Arts, that it has to be +learned with lifelong patience, and that the years of our pilgrimage are +all too short to master it triumphantly. + +Yet this is what Christianity is for--to teach men the Art of Life. +And its whole curriculum lies in one word--"Learn of me." Unlike most +education, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from +books or lectures or creeds or doctrines. It is a study from the life. +Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian graces. He +lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn His art +by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their masters. + +Now we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the weary +and heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new +principle--upon His own principle. "Watch My way of doing things," He +says. "Follow Me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly and you will +find Rest." + +I do not say, remember, that the Christian life to every man, or to any +man, can be a bed of roses. No educational process can be this. And +perhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple "learn" of +Christ, they would not enter His school with so irresponsible a heart. +For there is not only much to learn, but much to unlearn. Many men never +go to this school at all till their disposition is already half ruined +and character has taken on its fatal set. To learn arithmetic is +difficult at fifty--much more to learn Christianity. To learn simply +what it is to be meek and lowly, in the case of one who has had no +lessons in that in childhood, may cost him half of what he values most +on earth. Do we realize, for instance, that the way of teaching humility +is generally by _humiliation_? There is probably no other school for it. +When a man enters himself as a pupil in such a school it means a very +great thing. There is much Rest there, but there is also much Work. + +I should be wrong, even though my theme is the brighter side, to ignore +the cross and minimise the cost. Only it gives to the cross a more +definite meaning, and a rarer value, to connect it thus directly and +_causally_ with the growth of the inner life. Our platitudes on the +"benefits of affliction" are usually about as vague as our theories of +Christian Experience. "Somehow," we believe affliction does us good. But +it is not a question of "Somehow." The result is definite, calculable, +necessary. It is under the strictest law of cause and effect. The first +effect of losing one's fortune, for instance, is humiliation; and the +effect of humiliation, as we have just seen, is to make one humble; and +the effect of being humble is to produce Rest. It is a roundabout way, +apparently, of producing Rest; but Nature generally works by circular +processes; and it is not certain that there is any other way of becoming +humble, or of finding Rest. If a man could make himself humble to order, +it might simplify matters, but we do not find that this happens. Hence +we must all go through the mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, +is the nearest gate and the quickest road to life. + +Yet this is only half the truth. Christ's life outwardly was one of the +most troubled lives that was ever lived: Tempest and tumult, tumult and +tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the worn body was +laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm +was always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found +Rest. And even when the bloodhounds were dogging him in the streets +of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last +legacy, "My peace." Nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of +Christ's life on earth. Misfortune could not reach Him; He had no +fortune. Food, raiment, money--fountain-heads of half the world's +weariness--He simply did not care for; they played no part in His life; +He "took no thought" for them. It was impossible to affect Him by +lowering His reputation; He had already made Himself of no reputation. +He was dumb before insult. When He was reviled He reviled not-again. In +fact, there was nothing that the world could do to Him that could ruffle +the surface of His spirit. + +Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only when we +see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It +lies not in emotions, nor in the absence of emotions. It is not a +hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something that +the preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, or in +music--though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at +leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul; the absolute +adjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things; +the preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured +convictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of +a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with +Browning, "God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world." + +Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of +rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off +mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with +a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the fork of a branch, +almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on its nest. The first +was only _Stagnation_; the last was _Rest_. For in Rest there are always +two elements--tranquillity and energy; silence and turbulence; creation +and destruction; fearlessness and fearfulness. This it was in Christ. + +It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be +or to do, He at least knew how to live. All this is the perfection of +living, of living in the mere sense of passing through the world in the +best way. Hence His anxiety to communicate His idea of life to others. +He came, He said, to give men life, true life, a more abundant life than +they were living; "the life," as the fine phrase in the Revised Version +has it, "that is life indeed." This is what He himself possessed, and it +was this which He offers to all mankind. And hence His direct appeal for +all to come to Him who had not made much of life, who were weary and +heavy-laden. These He would teach His secret. They, also, should know +"the life that is life indeed." + + + + +WHAT YOKES ARE FOR + + +There is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, "Learn of +Me," Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification, "_Take My yoke_ +upon you and learn of Me." Why, if all this be true, does He call it a +_yoke_? Why, while professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath +whisper "_burden_"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies +take it for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life, some +extra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to observances, +some heavy restriction and trammelling of all that is joyous and free in +the world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough without being fettered +with yet another yoke? + +It is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain +sentence should ever have passed into currency. Did you ever stop to +ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which +wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden light. +Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plough would +be intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke is not +an instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy. It is not a +malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle device to +make hard labour light. It is not meant to give pain, but to save pain. +And yet men speak of the yoke of Christ as if it were a slavery, and +look upon those who wear it as objects of compassion. For generations we +have had homilies on "The Yoke of Christ," some delighting in portraying +its narrow exactions; some seeking in these exactions the marks of its +divinity; others apologising for it, and toning it down; still others +assuring us that, although it be very bad, it is not to be compared with +the positive blessings of Christianity. How many, especially among the +young, has this one mistaken phrase driven forever away from the +kingdom of God? Instead of making Christ attractive, it makes Him out +a taskmaster, narrowing life by petty restrictions, calling for +self-denial where none is necessary, making misery a virtue under the +plea that it is the yoke of Christ, and happiness criminal because it +now and then evades it. According to this conception, Christians are +at best the victims of a depressing fate; their life is a penance; and +their hope for the next world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this. + +The mistake has arisen from taking the word "yoke" here in the same +sense as in the expressions "under the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his +youth." But in Christ's illustration it is not _jugum_ of the Roman +soldier, but the simple "harness" or "ox-collar" of the Eastern peasant. +It is the literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in the +carpenter shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference between +a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the difference +also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. The rough yoke +galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke caused no pain, and +the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness was a misery; the +well-fitted collar was "easy." And what was the "burden"? It was not +some special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction that +they alone must bear. It was what all men bear. It was simply life, +human life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry +with them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life +painfully. To some it was a weariness, to others a failure, to many a +tragedy, to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of +life had been the whole world's problem. It is still the whole world's +problem. And here is Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life +as I take it. Look at it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My +principles. Take My yoke and learn of Me, and you will find it easy. +For My yoke is easy, works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and +_therefore_ My burden is light." There is no suggestion here that +religion will absolve any man from bearing burdens. That would be to +absolve him from living, since it is life itself that is the burden. +What Christianity does propose is to make it tolerable. Christ's yoke is +simply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His prescription +for the best and happiest method of living. Men harness themselves to +the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural ways. The +harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted collar at the +best, they make its strain and friction past enduring, by placing it +where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere continuous irritation this +sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is quick and sore. + +This is the origin, among other things, of a disease called "touchiness +"--a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest +sources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes +chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is +self-love inflamed to the acute point; conceit, _with a hair-trigger._ +The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; to let men and things +touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused part of our nature; +to become meek and lowly in heart while the old nature is becoming numb +from want of use. It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to +adjust the burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has +a perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence +to human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all +surrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue +and dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere matter of +altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of things, +its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its own. The +weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. But suppose +the attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other planet, +where the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton. Now +Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one way +in which it diminishes men's burden. It makes them citizens of another +world. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton to-day. So without +changing one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider horizon and a +different standard, it alters the whole aspect of the world. + +Christianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever +spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we +mean Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, +or exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface +readings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the results +wretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what vale of +tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life for him +along this path. + + + + +HOW FRUITS GROW + + +Were rest my subject, there are other things I should wish to say about +it, and other kinds of Rest of which I should like to speak. But that is +not my subject. My theme is that the Christian experiences are not the +work of magic, but come under the law of Cause and Effect. And I have +chosen Rest only as a single illustration of the working of that +principle. If there were time I might next run over all the Christian +experiences in turn, and show how the same wide law applies to each. But +I think it may serve the better purpose if I leave this further exercise +to yourselves. I know no Bible study that you will find more full of +fruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of God, or make the +Christian life itself more solid or more sure. I shall add only a single +other illustration of what I mean, before I close. + +Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of +Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in Heaven, +and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let down and +fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross and material +are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In reality, Joy is +as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one can get Joy by +merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of the Christian +life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a very clever trick +in India called the mango-trick. A seed is put in the ground and covered +up, and after divers incantations a full-blown mango-bush appears within +five minutes. I never met any one who knew how the thing was done, but +I never met any one who believed it to be anything else than a +conjuring-trick. The world is pretty unanimous now in its belief in the +orderliness of Nature. Men may not know how fruits grow, but they do +know that they cannot grow in five minutes. Some lives have not even a +stalk on which fruits could hang, even if they did grow in five minutes. +Some have never planted one sound seed of Joy in all their lives; and +others who may have planted a germ or two have lived so little in +sunshine that they never could come to maturity. + +Whence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into one +of the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance have +appealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do not wish +you to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens that He +has dealt with it in words of unusual fulness. + +I need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the Vine. +Did you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not merely +throw it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. It was +not simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine of an +indwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had said it, +He did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His greatest +lessons. He turned to the disciples and said He would tell them why He +had spoken it. It was to tell them how to get Joy. "These things have +I spoken unto you," He said, "that My Joy might remain in you and that +your Joy might be full." It was a purposed and deliberate communication +of His secret of Happiness. + +Go back over these verses, then, and you will find the Causes of this +Effect, the spring, and the only spring, out of which true Happiness +comes. I am not going to analyse them in detail. I ask you to enter into +the words for yourselves. Remember, in the first place, that the Vine +was the Eastern symbol of Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart +of man. Yet, however innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of +the grape was the common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness +was only a gross and passing thing. This was not true happiness, and the +vine of the Palestine vineyards was not the true vine. _Christ_ was +"the _true_ Vine." Here, then, is the ultimate source of Joy. Through +whatever media it reaches us, all true Joy and Gladness find their +source in Christ. By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy +experienced is transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed +on from Him to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There +is, indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's +sorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy to men +in the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people share His +life, and therefore share its consequences, and one of these is Joy. His +method of living is one that in the nature of things produces Joy. When +He spoke of His Joy remaining with us He meant in part that the causes +which produced it should continue to act. His followers, that is to say, +by _repeating_ His life would experience its accompaniments. His Joy, +His kind of Joy, would remain with them. + +The medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: "He that +abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Fruit first, Joy +next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is +the necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the +necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in +the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy lay +in mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that implied +of peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of that Life +upon mind and character and will; and partly in the inspiration to live +and work for others, with all that that brings of self-riddance and Joy +in others' gain. All these, in different ways and at different times, +are sources of pure Happiness. Even the simplest of them--to do good to +other people--is an instant and infallible specific. There is no mystery +about Happiness whatever. Put in the right ingredients and it must come +out. He that abideth in Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing +forth much fruit is Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, +then, is to do good; and the infallible receipt for doing good is to +abide in Christ. The surest proof that all this is a plain matter of +Cause and Effect is that men may try every other conceivable way of +finding Happiness, and they will fail. Only the right cause in each case +can produce the right effect. + +Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense in +which grapes are our own making, and no more. All fruits _grow_--whether +they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are the fruits of the +wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can _make_ things grow. He can +_get them to grow_ by arranging all the circumstances and fulfilling all +the conditions. But the growing is done by God. Causes and effects are +eternal arrangements, set in the constitution of the world; fixed beyond +man's ordering. What man can do is to place himself in the midst of a +chain of sequences. Thus he can get things to grow: thus he himself can +grow. But the grower is the Spirit of God. + +What more need I add but this--test the method by experiment. Do not +imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get them. +As well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can promise that +if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not fail. Spend the +time you have spent in sighing for fruits in fulfilling the conditions +of their growth. The fruits will come, must come. We have hitherto paid +immense attention to _effects_, to the mere experiences themselves; we +have described them, extolled them, advised them, prayed for them--done +everything but find out what _caused_ them. Henceforth let us deal with +causes. "To be," says Lotze, "is to be in relations." About every other +method of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About +every other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a +"perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it cannot +fail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe, and these are "the +Hands of the Living God." + + + + +THE TRUE VINE + + +"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in +me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth +fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are +clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I +in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in +the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are +the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth +forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not +in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather +them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in +me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be +done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; +so ye shall be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I +loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall +abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and +abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy +might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pax Vobiscum, by Henry Drummond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAX VOBISCUM *** + +***** This file should be named 9373-8.txt or 9373-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/3/7/9373/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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