■ ■ s »t . , - '• 
 
 :.'V I , 
 M ■ 
 
 um 
 
 .■I 
 
 I 
 Effll H 
 
 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 I I 
 
 m H 
 
 i - •» . .<> 
 
 
tibvaxy of Che Cheolocjiccd gtminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 BV 4501 .T48 1892 
 Thorold, Anthony W. 1825- 
 
 1895. 
 Questions of faith and duty 
 
QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
Human nature craves to be both religious 
 and rational; and the life which is not both 
 is neither. — Rev. Aubrey Moore. 
 
 / stretch forth my hands unto Thee; my 
 soul thirslefh after Thee, as a thirsty land. 
 
 PSALM cxliii. *>. 
 
QUESTIONS OF FAITH 
 
 AND DUTY 
 
 JUL 8 /969 
 
 BY THE RIGHjT REV, 
 
 ANTHONY W. THOROLD D.D. 
 
 lord bishop or Winchester 
 
 Prelate of the Most Noble Order of the Garter 
 Hon. Fellow of Queen' s College Oxford 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 ^ 1892 
 
 L- 
 
II- V cannot kin die, when we will, 
 T/n fire, which in the heart resides ; 
 
 The spirit Moweth, and is still, 
 In mystery the soul abides ; 
 
 Hut tasks in hours of insight willed, 
 
 Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled. 
 
 Matthew Arnold. 
 
y 
 $& 
 
 ^ 
 
 To 
 
 Much prized Friend* 
 
 in the Diocese of Rochester, 
 
 Left, but not Lost, 
 
 This ] r olunie is Offered in Grateful 
 
 Affection. 
 
" To love truth for truth's sake is the 
 principal part of perfection in this world, 
 and the seed plot op all other virtues." 
 
 LOCKK. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 1FE is full of compensations, and the mor- 
 tifying interruption of one beautiful duty, 
 is sometimes found in God's kindness to those, 
 whose one ambition is to be useful, to create the 
 opportunity for another. 
 
 These simple pages, covering, though not 
 indeed exhausting, some of the most vital ques- 
 tions of Christian thought and conduct, were 
 mostly composed during the enforced leisure of 
 the Sundays of the past year, when to write the 
 Gospel seemed the next best thing to preaching 
 it. So the pen took the place of the voice. 
 
 A book reaches farther than a sermon, and 
 occasionally lives longer. 
 
 It is the writer's earnest prayer that " the 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 God of all comfort " will enable him by this 
 
 insignificant volume to comfort some who are 
 
 in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith he 
 
 himself has been comforted of God. 
 
 If, further, he is bold enough to hope that a 
 
 sentence may occasionally be found in it by which 
 
 even a saint may consent to be edified ; still 
 
 more he trusts that nothing will be detected in it 
 
 which a ripe student of God's most holy word 
 
 can justly resent or condemn. 
 
 A. W. 
 
 Farnham Castle. 
 Easter, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 THE PERSONAL LIFE 
 
 1. WHAT TO PRAY FOB AS WE OUc.IIT 
 II. WHAT WE OWE TO GOD 
 
 III. TI1K PEARS IN FRONT . 
 
 IV. LIFE LONG AMI SHORT 
 
 9 
 
 IS 
 
 THE HOME 
 
 I. THE ANXIETIES OF LOVE 
 II. A J'ARENT'S COMPLAINT 
 ill. A CHILD'S SELF-ASSERTION . 
 IV. TIES OF FLESH AND OK SPIRIT 
 
 31 
 36 
 41 
 
 47 
 
 CHRIST CRUCIFIED 
 
 I. THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN 
 II. THE MOVING OF CONSCIEN( E 
 
 III. THE SINNER'S DILEMMA 
 
 IV. THE DIVINE ANGUISH 
 v. NO CONDEMNATION 
 
 55 
 60 
 66 
 72 
 78 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHRIST RISEN 
 
 I. THE RESURRECTION CREDIBLE 
 II. THE QUESTION BY THE OPEN TOMB 
 
 III. THE SPIRITUAL BODY . 
 
 IV. THE CHALLENGE TO DEATH 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • 3 7 
 
 • 93 
 
 • 99 
 . 106 
 
 CHRIST ASCENDED 
 
 I. FAITH IN CHRIST . 
 II. JEsUS SINLESS 
 
 III. CHRIST A TEACHER 
 
 IV. CHRIST THE FOOD OF MAN 
 
 1 15 
 122 
 
 *33 
 
 THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 
 
 I. HOLY BAPTISM X43 
 
 II. THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST I50 
 
 III. THE TEMPLE OF GOD 155 
 
 IV. SPIRITUAL DULNESS 160 
 
 V. THE BIBLE l66 
 
 COMING BEHIND IN NO GIFT 
 
 I. SHORTCOMINGS 
 II. DETERIORATION 
 
 III. IMPERFECT FAITH . 
 
 IV. FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES 
 V. THE SECRET OF GRACE 
 
 SORROW 
 
 I. THE CONSOLATIONS OF GOD 
 II. A CLOUDED SOUL . 
 
 III. DISAPPOINTMENTS . 
 
 IV. THE CUP OF THE LORD 
 
 173 
 
 179 
 
 188 
 194 
 
 20I 
 203 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 SECRET FAULTS 
 
 P V .1 
 
 I. SLOTHFULNESS 229 
 
 II. CK\SORIoUSNE>s 236 
 
 III. PUSILLANIMITY 243 
 
 IV. [NO INSISTENCY 249 
 
 SERVICE 
 
 l. I SEP! LNESS 257 
 
 11. m:ighbol"Rlim:s> 262 
 
 iii. openings of good 269 
 
 IV. GIFTS 274 
 
 '•THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED " 
 
 I. SYMPATHY 283 
 
 II. PATIENCE 290 
 
 III. SACRIFICE 297 
 
 IV. REVERENCE 305 
 
 V. HOPE 313 
 
 THE END 
 
 1. THE DREAD SURPRISE 323- 
 
 II. JUDGMENT 331 
 
 III. RECOMPENSE 338 
 
 IV. Tin: WHITE ROBES 344 
 
" Unity is not the first scene, but the last 
 triumph of Christianity and man. Christ 
 Himself could not create unity in His Church. 
 He could pray for it, and His prayer most 
 movingly teaches us to work for it." 
 
 Archbishop Benson. 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 
 
The two constituents of a satisfied life arc in /ah tranquillity 
 and some excitement. — John" Stuart Mill. 
 
WHAT TO PRAY FOR AS WE OUGHT 
 
 What wilt thou that I should Jo unto thee ' — Mark x. 51. 
 
 THIS was Christ's question to a blind beggar, 
 and it was not the first of its kind. To 
 a young king it bad also been put in the form of 
 a gracious command : " Ask what I shall give 
 thee." The question and the command amount 
 to the same thing ; and in each case the answer 
 was almost identical. Solomon asked for insight, 
 the spiritual wisdom that would help him to rule 
 men and do his appointed life-work. Bartimaeus 
 wanted eyesight, the gift indispensable for the 
 material needs of man. For every one, it must 
 be good to remember that God is unchanged in 
 His bountifulncss, and we in our necessity. 
 Sight is still our supreme want ; and to know 
 that we need it is the first condition of asking 
 for it ; to be made to feel it through the deepen- 
 ing, the sifting, and emptying of the soul is the 
 one condition of receiving it ; and to be brought 
 
4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 from time to time (He must do it Himself) into 
 the presence of the Gracious Saviour, that we 
 may feel Him bending over us, looking us 
 through and through with eyes that do not 
 burn, only melt us into love, and then gently 
 asking us, "What shall I do unto thee?" is 
 the experience we need not dread, nay, if we 
 are wise, we shall even welcome. Among the 
 The four multitude of spiritual blessings which a thought- 
 befirst ° ful an d devout heart may well desire for itself, 
 asked for. come first, perhaps, these four. That we may 
 see the Father. That we may be stirred, edi- 
 fied, ripened in personal holiness. That we may 
 keep our faith calm and intelligent and unmoved 
 amid the controversies that surge round us. 
 That we may be continually and abundantly used 
 for the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 When Philip said, " Lord, show us the Father, 
 and it sufficeth us," — quite a different prayer, be 
 it observed, from " Show us God," — Christ did 
 not resent the petition as unreasonable, or pre- 
 sumptuous, or unnecessary. There is a real 
 sense, in which the human spirit, created by God 
 in His own image, and intentionally furnished 
 with moral and spiritual instincts which justly 
 and inevitably claim to be met, may, ought, must 
 desire to see God as Father ; in other words, be 
 morally satisfied that He who claims from it 
 worship, and reverence, and love, justifies that 
 claim by the perfection of His own nature. 
 Christ, as we have seen, did not at all demur to 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE ; 
 
 the claim, for He promptly recognised its reason- 
 ableness. He wondered, rather, with a sense 
 of painful surprise, that He Himself had not 
 been felt already to have answered it : " Have 
 1 been so long time with you, and hast thou 
 not known me, Philip? He that hath seen Thesense 
 me hath seen the Father." The trial of faith in Fatheril- 
 God's Fatherliness is no strange thing to the ness - 
 child of God. Most of us have felt it already, and 
 many of us will feel it again. We are told that 
 God is love, and we have intensely, joyfully 
 believed it, and we have pressed it on others 
 whose hearts were breaking. Some woful 
 morning dawns, when He does to us what we 
 could not conceive ourselves doing to our worst 
 enemy. We ask with some of old, " Lord, 
 carest Thou not that we perish?" At such 
 moments — the crises are not frequent — we are to 
 see, and hear, and trust, and cling to God in 
 Christ. " No man hath seen God at any time. 
 The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom 
 of the Father, He hath declared Him." Christ, 
 in all that God did to Him, in all that fie 
 accepted from God, is the revelation both of the 
 Father and of the Son. In Him we must hide 
 till the bitterness is past, to Him cling, that the 
 Eternal God may be our refuge. At such 
 moments our stammering prayer must be, " O 
 Lord Jesus, pour the divine love into me ! Hold 
 me, I am too weak to cling ; trust me, I am too 
 crushed to pray. ' Show me the Father.' My 
 
6 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 heart is dead, but Thou art greater than my 
 heart and knowest all things. Thine own words 
 shall be my words ; only help me truthfully 
 and reverently to utter them : ' The cup 
 which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
 drink it ? ' " 
 
 Then let us earnestly ask Him to deepen and 
 ripen us in personal holiness. Some are indiffe- 
 Personai rent to holiness, as if to be saved from hell 
 (they little know what hell means) were all they 
 need care for. Others despair about it, having 
 long sought it, but in the wrong way, or having 
 lost their first love, chilled and smothered by the 
 world. Each soul has its personal discipline, 
 its separate treatment, its supply of grace, its 
 opportunities of fellowship, from Him who is 
 Physician, Shepherd, Master, Spouse, " Friend 
 that sticketh closer than a brother." Two 
 things He ever aims at in us — depth and matu- 
 rity. " These have no root." We remember 
 their history. Shallowness of nature, super- 
 ficialness of knowledge, facility of emotion, lack 
 of moral fibre, are fatal to the life of the soul. 
 Immatureness, too, through inexperience of life, 
 and ignorance of the depths of Satan, and unac- 
 quaintance with the deceitfulness of our own 
 hearts, we sometimes see (it is their own fault) 
 even in believers grown grey in Christ. Oh, let 
 us sincerely and even eagerly ask our Lord to 
 deepen and ripen us, consenting to His method 
 of doing it, thirsting for God — the living God, 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 7 
 
 wishing to love Him for Himself, and not only 
 
 for His gifts, recognising that His best reward is 
 
 His own image in us, our highest distinction to 
 
 represent Him to the world. 
 
 Once more to maintain a calm and steadfast 
 
 and cheerful faith, amid the controversies of the Fai i h amia 
 
 contro- 
 
 hour, noble and ignoble, which trouble beautiful versies. 
 souls grandly solicitous for the world's salvation 
 and for the faith once delivered to the Saints, is 
 a gift much to be coveted, and always at the dis- 
 posal of those who can read history, appreciate 
 both the method and purpose of revelation, dis- 
 tinguish between things that differ, and trust 
 Christ with the government of His Body. A 
 book — really one of the inexplicable marvels of 
 the world, except on one hypothesis — which not 
 only outlives attacks, but actually thrives by 
 them, is not likely to be robbed of all its life- 
 giving power because some of its portions may 
 turn out to be not quite so old as they were once 
 thought to be, or because a stupendous and in- 
 evitable mystery, which in our own times is only 
 beginning to receive all the study it deserves, 
 still hangs over the interactings of the human 
 and divine natures in the Person of the incarnate 
 Son. Nothing can rob us of the Gospel story 
 of Christ. Nothing, save the Church's dogmatic 
 faith, can adequately explain His character. 
 Nothing, but wilful, and repeated, and deliberate 
 sin, can separate us from His love. "We have 
 heard Him ourselves." This is the supreme, 
 
S QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the indispensable, the indestructible argument 
 which can accept no substitute, and fears no 
 corrosion. " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou 
 hast the words of eternal life." 
 
 Once more, let us pray that in whatever way 
 it may please Him, He will increasingly and 
 abundantly use us for His kingdom and glory. 
 Working Nothing dissipates cobwebs like active service, 
 and we all occasionally weave cobwebs of some 
 sort or other. Nothing feeds love, stirs devo- 
 tion, retards deterioration, or kindles joy, like 
 working for the Saviour. Our methods of ser- 
 vice may change, our capacity for onerous duty 
 may diminish, opportunities may seem fewer as 
 physical strength decays. But to have the will 
 true, the conscience quick, the mind nimble, the 
 heart burning, is as possible for the autumn 
 years as for the brisk springtime. The secret 
 of this is that His love constrains us. The 
 method of it is to be filled with the Spirit. Not 
 to grow careless or lazy ; not to nurse fads 
 about health, or to be basely and timorously 
 anxious about the care of the body ; not to 
 become torpid or dumb ; not to rest on our oars 
 because we can no longer take the stroke oar ; 
 not to refuse to do only a little, because we are 
 mortified not to be able to do much — for this 
 let us ask Christ, and let us be quite sure He 
 will give it to us. So we shall still bring forth 
 fruit in our old age, and finish our course with 
 
 j°y- 
 
THE PERSON 1/ LIFE 9 
 
 11 
 
 WHAT WE OWE TO GOD 
 
 How much owest thou unto my lord ' — LUKE xvi. 5. 
 
 THIRST in order, as we have seen, comes 
 Christ's question to the soul. God is 
 before the soul, is at once the origin and sphere 
 of its being. But next in order comes the soul's 
 question to itself, a question too often left out 
 of sight through a perilous forgetting of the true 
 place of obedience in God's plan of holiness. 
 God is a debtor to man. That is quite true, and 
 man is in no danger of forgetting it. But man 
 is a debtor to God, which is equally true, but 
 which he is liable continually to ignore. The in- 
 debtedness of God to man (through God's amazing 
 and unaccountable love to him) is indicated in 
 Christ's question to Bartimaeus, and is essentially 
 implied in the reasonableness of prayer. Man's 
 indebtedness to God, with the penitence imposed Indebted- 
 on his conscience, and the praise involved in c.od. 
 his worship, and the gratitude which inspires 
 his will, and the faith that sets his heart at 
 liberty, let us consider now. It must make all 
 the difference possible in the start, and motive, 
 and diligence of our lives, with what purpose we 
 live them, with what aim, and temper, and 
 
io QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 devotion we think of Him Who has graciously 
 spared us for them. To recognise our indebted- 
 ness to God need not paralyse us into a sudden 
 despair, as if it involved our staggering under 
 the awful obligation of ten thousand talents, at 
 the risk of being cast into prison until we pay 
 the debt. For that debt Christ is our ransom 
 and daysman. But " the love of Christ " should 
 constrain us henceforth to live not unto ourselves, 
 but to Him that died for us and rose again. We 
 are debtors, not to the flesh — we live after the 
 flesh. Not fear, not self-interest, but adoring 
 grateful love is the motive of the regenerate life. 
 Let us consider our indebtedness to God, first in 
 The came the cause of it, or how it is that we owe Him 
 debtedness. anything ; and then, in the nature of it — what it 
 is that we owe. 
 
 " I am a debtor," said St. Paul. 
 
 For the four reasons of creation, redemption, 
 election, and grace, each of us owes an infinite 
 debt to God. 
 
 When the general thanksgiving in the English 
 Prayer-book invites the congregation to " bless " 
 God for " creation, preservation, and all the 
 blessings of this life," the question may fairly be 
 asked, if such language can be quite justified by 
 the visible order of the world. We need not, 
 indeed, pay too much attention to the cynical 
 worshipper, who has darkened his. sky with 
 clouds of his own making. A sincere thinker, 
 however, who dares not make things better than 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE n 
 
 they actually are, because he does not know how 
 to account for their being so, and who sadly 
 listens to the wailing voices of the suffering and the 
 oppressed — unless he recollects the irreversible 
 law of compensation indicated in the parable of 
 Dives and Lazarus, and says to himself again and 
 again, " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
 right?" — will be puzzled to explain what cause for 
 thankfulness the victim of some atrocious slave- 
 raid in Africa can be expected to discover for being 
 burdened with a life of such appalling misery. 
 There must be thousands of thousands, we make 
 bold to say, of those who among the cruel habi- 
 tations of the earth, fast bound in misery and 
 iron, wish that they had never been born. But 
 to us, placed in a Christian land, surrounded 
 with the comforts and safeguards of civilisation, 
 who have the fountains of knowledge and the 
 dignity of freedom, the means of grace and the 
 hope of glory, life is not only worth living, but 
 is — in spite of its disappointments and losses, 
 and partings and accidents — a noble and a 
 beautiful thing. 
 
 Yet even a blesseder gift than the first crea- 
 tion is the second ; indeed, but for the second, 
 not only would the first be far less desirable, 
 but it might be doubted if it were worth having 
 at all. We are redeemed from the curse of the 
 law, and from the penalty of sin, and from the 
 fear of death, and from the power of the grave, 
 into the hope and fruition of an endless life. 
 
12 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Death is no longer the end of life : it is " an 
 event in it." We believe in life, not in death. 
 We look across death to something beyond it, 
 and by faith are enabled to say : " We know 
 that when this earthly house of our tabernacle 
 is dissolved we have a building of God, a house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 The mys- Election is another mystery of the divine 
 
 election. love, a word at which we need not start as if 
 it were only to be found in the cruel formulae 
 of hard dogmatists. An election of some kind, 
 both of nations and individuals, to gifts, bless- 
 ings, and privileges, is a fact of the universe, 
 which confronts us everywhere. To deny it, 
 or ignore it, or run away scared from it, be- 
 cause the fact has been logically expanded into 
 an iron doctrinal system, which neither our 
 fathers nor we are able to bear, is as silly as 
 it is perilous. The sovereign, unaccountable, 
 righteous, loving will of God is the only account 
 of it. The fact that it has so pleased Him is 
 the only key to it. But this election, whatever 
 it may mean for others, is for us an unspeak- 
 able blessing ; we, we know not why, are in the 
 Kingdom of God. "O the depth of the riches 
 both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how 
 unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways 
 past finding out ! " 
 
 We thank Him also for grace — the continual, 
 overshadowing, indwelling, inexhaustible gift of 
 the Holy Spirit. What we owe to the Holy 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 13 
 
 Spirit wc shall never know, till we go to drink, 
 in the sinless land, of the water of life that 
 Hows from the throne of God. He regene- 
 rates, converts, stirs, deepens, teaches, guides, 
 consoles, invigorates, perfects us. u By the 
 grace of God I am what I am." 
 
 What do we owe Him ? \yi, al m 
 
 It must be remembered, with a certain awe, " r '" st P:'- v 
 
 ' ' Him in 
 
 that each owes his own separate debt, according return. 
 to the measure and quality of his individual 
 mercies ; and this debt each must discover and 
 discharge for himself. As to the general indebted- 
 ness equally common to all, we owe Him worship, 
 and righteousness, and trustfulness, and love. 
 
 Worship we owe, with a large share of ador- 
 ing praise in it. Almost the surest test of the 
 disinterestedness of our prayers is the propor- 
 tion of thanksgiving they contain. Worship, 
 moreover, to be complete, includes all that ac- 
 centuates and embodies and expresses worship 
 — substance, testimony, and service. 
 
 Then we owe Him righteousness. Christ's 
 fulfilment of the law for us, unto our justifica- 
 tion, is not to dispense with the fulfilment of the 
 law by us in our sanctification. The purpose 
 of God, the end of the atoning sacrifice, the re- 
 ward of Christ's travail, the result of the divine 
 energy of the Holy Ghost is — the Church, " with- 
 out spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that 
 we should be holy and without blemish." 
 
 We owe Him trustfulness. Nothing honours 
 
14 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Him like trusting Him ; or wounds Him like 
 failing to trust Him. Indeed, sometimes all that 
 we can do to prove our steadfastness and to 
 manifest His glory, is to show that we trust 
 Him. This is a service always open to all. 
 " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in 
 Him." 
 The debt Best and last and sum of all, we owe Him 
 
 of love. ,-ii 
 
 love, and as we pay this debt we pay every- 
 thing, and yet feel that nothing is paid. Less 
 we must not give, more we cannot. If you ask 
 how it is that He cares for our love, the only 
 answer is that it is His nature. For God is 
 not content with loving, He desires to be loved 
 — loved even by sinners, for with love goes the 
 life. But it must be a complete love, the love 
 which is " the going out of self," the love which 
 represents and includes every department of our 
 being ; the love of body, which offers every one 
 of its members as a living sacrifice ; the love of 
 mind, which ponders intelligently, and scruti- 
 nises exactly, and compares laboriously, and 
 questions fearlessly, the wonderful works, as 
 well as the revealed mysteries of God ; the 
 love of will, by which obedience is delightful, 
 and the soul mounts on wings to its errands 
 of mercy ; the love of spirit, whereby the soul 
 listens to God, speaks to Him, understands Him, 
 delights in Him, and in His word and sacra- 
 ments. This is the love He claims, the love 
 we must give Him, if we have the slightest 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 15 
 
 wish to pay Him what wc owe Him, while the 
 ages last. 
 
 Ill 
 THE JEANS IN FRONT 
 
 Haw long have I to livet—2 Samuel xix. 34. 
 
 r ~PHlS question from the lips of an old man, 
 with the most and the best of his life be- 
 hind him, was neither petulant nor cynical. 
 David had made a gracious and honourable pro- 
 posal, but it did not occur to him that he was 
 bound to accept it, merely because it was made. 
 A greater than David, who has graciously pro- 
 mised to guide us with His eye, will never be 
 displeased at us when we come to a place where 
 are the dividings of the ways of our life's jour- 
 ney, if we wait, and think, and pray before we 
 venture to go on. 
 
 There is a wrong way of asking this question, The wrong 
 and there is a right way. It is wrong, for*^^^ 
 instance, to ask it curiously, inquisitively, and 
 in a spirit of presumption, which would force 
 the barriers that God has placed in front of us, 
 in a mercy which has many ramifications of 
 tenderness. The young know that they must 
 die presently ; the old that they will die soon ; 
 this is all, and this is enough. To complain of 
 
ib QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 injustice or unkindness because we cannot ascer- 
 tain beforehand the time we have to live, is to 
 betray a curious ignorance of human nature. 
 Saintly Bishop Ken has shown us in one verse 
 of his Evening Hymn the blessed secret of peace 
 and watchfulness : 
 
 Teach me to live that 1 may dread 
 The grave as little as my bed. 
 Teach me to die, that so I may 
 Rise glorious at the awful day. 
 
 It is wrong to ask it in a frivolous, or reck- 
 less, or self-indulgent spirit, as if life were so 
 long and death so distant that the mere thought 
 of it is a gratuitous intrusion on our innocent 
 joy. Life, no doubt, when we are in our teens 
 seems endless. If we live to old age, the fact 
 that we have lived so long encourages us to hope 
 that we may live still longer. But it is ever 
 becoming shorter, and the narrow peninsula on 
 which each human soul is standing is incessantly 
 being washed away by the resistless tide of the 
 surrounding eternity. The great Augustan poet 
 touched the heart of mankind by his exquisite 
 lament over young Marcellus. Yet in some 
 pagan nations — China is an instance — we do 
 not observe that horror of death which the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews pathetically 
 describes as a condition of bondage. The 
 reason no doubt is, that where there is nothing 
 better than materialism to instruct, or elevate, 
 
THE PERSONAL 1.1 1 I 17 
 
 or console the moral nature, death is but a leap 
 into an abyss. " Let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we die." The Christian is destined 
 for higher things, and should live in the strength 
 of nobler promises. " My times are in God's 
 hands " is the one thought which gives peace, 
 dignity, and hope. Until our Master summons 
 us, not a hair of our head can perish, not a 
 moment of our life be snatched from us. When 
 He sends for us, it should seem but the message 
 that the child is wanted at home. 
 
 Once more, it is wrong to ask it pusillani- 
 mously, in lack of nerve and resoluteness for 
 enduring the trials which may yet be in store 
 for us, or of robust and manly diligence in 
 grappling with the duties for which time seems 
 insufficient and vigour gone. There is a great 
 deal of irritating if unconscious unrealit}' in the 
 way in which some people speak about their 
 death, as if life had ceased to have any interest 
 for them, and about their capacities, as if with 
 three-score years and ten the term of their 
 usefulness was past. Such people, however, 
 the moment \X\ey are really ill, send for their 
 physician, and do all they can to avert and 
 retard the foe, whom they once affected to 
 despise. Perhaps also if they were to hear 
 from a neighbour's lips that depreciation of even 
 their physical powers which they gratuitously 
 volunteer, they might resent it, and quickly show 
 it to be otherwise. Let us be men, and make 
 
 B 
 
1 8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the best of ourselves, and live as long as we can 
 and be young to the last. Few things are more 
 exhilarating, I might say inspiring, than the sight 
 of a man or woman full of years, yet not suffering 
 otiose habits to grow on them, never affecting 
 the airs of youth, yet never exaggerating the 
 infirmities of age ; ever in affectionate sympathy 
 with the young ; entering with intelligent and 
 sincere interest into the politics, and literature, 
 and social and religious movements of the day ; 
 not talking much of death, but quietly recognising 
 that it may be imminent ; living in the fear and 
 presence of the risen Saviour, knowing that to 
 depart and be with Him is best of all. 
 The right The right way of asking it is to ask it 
 asking it. solemnly, prudently, cheerfully, penitently. 
 
 Solemnly ; for life is a great trust, and our 
 eternity will hang on the acts and duties and 
 motives and principles of our time here. " Be 
 not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever 
 a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The 
 wisdom with which we shall then be tardily 
 wise, the regrets with which we shall look back 
 on wasted hours and lost opportunities, the sense 
 of the misery and shamefulness of sin, the horror 
 at having made our brother to stumble through 
 tempting him to evil, — all these things will visit 
 us, it may be, when life is ebbing, not to over- 
 whelm us with despair, but to show us the 
 power of the precious blood which alone can 
 cleanse us, and the redeeming love of Him 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 19 
 
 who casts our sins into the deptli of the 
 sea. 
 
 We must ask it prudently, for we are citizens 
 of two worlds, and while the one to which we 
 go is the better of the two, it does not follow 
 that we are to be blind to the interests or 
 responsibilities of the other. For the sake of 
 his family, as well as of his own peace of mind, 
 a man with not many years in front will pause 
 before he builds a new house, or enters on lia- 
 bilities which he may not live to discharge, or 
 commits himself to enterprises which may cripple 
 or burden his children, or risk fatigue and 
 exposure which unrelenting nature will most 
 assuredly punish. It is not pleasant to go about 
 with clipped wings, or in closed carriages to 
 avoid night air ; to be cautious, even fanciful, 
 about diet. But " How long have I to live ? " 
 is a question which has its practical meaning 
 for some of us. If we forget it we shall smart 
 for our forgetting, and it will be of our own 
 earning. 
 
 Cheerfully ; for we know in whom we have 
 believed, and that He is able to keep that which 
 we have committed unto Him against that day. 
 Cheerfulness, however, always depends upon 
 faith. Few things are sadder than the deep, 
 almost irritable, depression whicli creeps over 
 some men when they are nearing their end and 
 they feel they have no compensation for what 
 they must leave behind them. It is true, of 
 
20 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 course (the fact is even sadder, though there is 
 an element of nobleness in it), that some natures 
 are curiously, and almost obstinately, protected 
 against apprehension of the future. They say 
 they will take their chance and face what comes 
 of it. To the Christian, while the thought of 
 death sometimes brings a sinking and a tremor, 
 and a tender thought of those who will say to 
 us, "Do not go, do not go, we cannot live 
 without . you," the presence, the vision of Christ 
 will be joy unspeakable and full of glory. " Lord, 
 now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, 
 for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." 
 
 Once more, let us ask it in humility and 
 penitence. Amid the ardent, but not always 
 judiciously proportioned, declarations of the free- 
 ness of a present forgiveness to those who be- 
 lieve, there is a grave danger in treating sin as 
 if it were less exceeding sinful than the word of 
 God and the cross of Christ declare it to be, 
 and in narrowing faith to the limit of a throb 
 of excited feeling, rather than making it the 
 united action of all the spiritual faculties of man. 
 Where there is shallow repentance there must 
 be perilous reaction. As we ask ourselves, 
 " How long have I to live ? " let us recollect and 
 confess how little we have made of the years 
 that are irrecoverably behind us, how dumb our 
 lips have been for God, how small and scanty 
 our sacrifices, how dull and stunted our devo- 
 tion. We may not have dishonoured Him, but 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 21 
 
 how feebly have we glorified Him; and life is 
 slipping away, and the bend in the road may be 
 at hand, where we shall see the light flashing 
 over the waves of the dark river, and the battle- 
 ments of the city of our King rising against 
 the sky. Oh, that our purpose may be to 
 " redeem the time because the days are evil ! " 
 Oh, that our prayer may be, " So teach us to 
 number our days that we may apply our hearts 
 unto wisdom ! " 
 
 IV 
 LIFE LONG AND SHORT 
 
 .Ire there not twelve hours in the day .' — John xi. 9. 
 
 '"PHE apostles were alarmed for Christ's life. 
 He had gone across Jordan, when the 
 Jews sought to take Him, for the hour of His 
 full sorrow had not yet come. He had just 
 announced His intention of returning, and they 
 were filled with dismay. " Master, the Jews of 
 late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou 
 thither again ? " Observe the calmness and 
 distinctness of the reply. It came to this. For 
 every man, for me as well as for you, the blessed 
 will of God has ordained a life-plan which he is 
 to accomplish, a work which he is to do in ac- 
 complishing it, a time which will be given him 
 
22 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 for doing it. Every life-plan, and life-work, and 
 life-period is absolutely distinct from every other. 
 Time, as it proceeds, will make each of them 
 plain. Wait for them to be made plain, and be 
 ready and obedient for the summons. " I must 
 work the work of Him that sent Me, while it is 
 day." Part of that work is to return into Judea 
 and visit Bethany. What light is to bodily 
 action, opportunity is to dutiful will. The light 
 departs and returns not until the morning, the 
 opportunity once gone is as water spilt on the 
 ground, which cannot be gathered up. "Are 
 there not twelve hours in the day ? " I must 
 use those hours. " The night cometh." 
 
 One or two preliminary reflections it may be 
 convenient to offer here, before more closely 
 examining our Lord's words. 
 
 First, the twelve hours are always a varying 
 quantity, with one man meaning eighty years, 
 with another sixty, with another thirty. God 
 keeps to Himself the precise number of the 
 hours, which in His wise and just sovereignty 
 He allots to the individual. All that Christ 
 means is that each man has his own .allotted 
 time, and that it is precious, and fleeting, and 
 irrevocable. Then surely He meant to say that, 
 just as through all the day while it lasts, there 
 is daylight in which to go about our duty, and 
 transact our affairs, and visit our friends, and 
 fulfil our service ; though in the winter time 
 there is less light than in the summer, and 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 23 
 
 though in sunshine and under bright skies the 
 duty is easier and plcasanter than in gloom or 
 fog ; the true servant of God is never justified 
 in forgetting that whether he eats, or drinks, 
 or sits down, or rises up, he is to glorify God 
 in his body, and in his spirit, which are God's. 
 Now and then there will be great and unusual 
 openings, clear voices from on high beckoning 
 us on ; but life for the most part is made up 
 of the quiet monotony of homely and level tasks, 
 of domestic and family relationships ; of duty 
 to equals as well as inferiors, of quiet and yet 
 dignified self-government amid the wear and 
 tear and smooth routine of home. There are 
 twelve hours in the day, and twelve are enough. 
 Of two things we may be quite sure. That 
 God in His righteousness is pledged to give us 
 abundant time for the " good works, which He 
 has before ordained that we should walk in 
 them." Also that if we choose to do what He 
 has not ordained us to do, either less or more, 
 bigger or smaller, it is our own presumption, 
 not His injustice, that we should blame, if we 
 have not sufficient time for properly doing them, 
 and so they are not done. Christ's twelve hours, 
 so far as His ministry was concerned, lasted per- 
 haps three years, or four at the utmost. (John 
 Baptist's may have been six months.) Yet before 
 He suffered, He could say, " 1 have glorified 
 Thee on the earth." As He died, He said, " It is 
 finished." But though the twelve hours allotted 
 
24 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 to us are sufficient, they are only twelve, and 
 are not more than we need. Our Lord evidently 
 felt the time to be short. Though the eternal 
 Son, " the Ancient of Days," He voluntarily 
 submitted Himself for our sakes to its limita- 
 tions. " I must work the work of Him which 
 sent Me while it is day." He felt there was 
 only one day for Him, with but twelve hours 
 in it. It is not the length of life, it is the 
 quality of it, that glorifies God. Sometimes a 
 life of thirty years is of more significance to 
 the race and more honour to God than a life of 
 ninety. 
 
 There are twelve hours in the day ; and 
 some of them are already gone ; and we do 
 not know how many are yet left to us. Some- 
 times, no doubt, to those who are in the autumn 
 of life, it may be depressing and discouraging 
 to reflect that there is so little time remaining 
 in front of them. "Is it worth while?" is a 
 question often intruding itself on the judgment 
 of the Christian who feels himself to be de- 
 scending the western slope of the hill. The 
 question has a noble side and a base side. If 
 it is a plain duty, and one which will not bear 
 deferring, and one which a younger or stronger 
 person would undoubtedly set himself to begin 
 or be thankful to finish, one of two alternatives 
 must be chosen, and at once. Either he must 
 manfully, cheerfully, thoroughly grasp it, thank- 
 ful to be allowed to have any share in it at all, 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 25 
 
 honoured if he has the harder share in laying but 
 
 the foundation on which others may rear the 
 edifice ; or, he must decline to stop the Church's 
 work by filling a place he is no longer com- 
 petent to fill ; and he should resign it to 
 others. 
 
 There are twelve hours in the day, and when 
 they are gone " the night cometh." It comes in 
 various ways, — sometimes in forced inaction, 
 sometimes in waning strength, sometimes in 
 wasting sickness, sometimes in indecisiveness 
 and nervelessness of purpose ; at last, and in- 
 evitably, in death. Then the working day is 
 over, and the rest is come, and so far as this 
 world is concerned the books are sealed and 
 the record finished. 
 
 Now the labourer s task is o'er, 
 
 Now the battle day is past ; 
 Now upon the farther shore 
 Lands the voyager at last. 
 Father, in Thy gracious keeping 
 Leave we now Thy servant sleeping. 
 
 It is a reasonable, a searching, an urgent, a. The results 
 solemn thought for each of us, When my twelve °f our l,,c ' 
 hours are over, what shall I have to show for 
 them ? When in judgment Jesus stands on the 
 shore as of old, and says, " Bring of the fish which 
 ye have now caught," shall we have anything to 
 bring Him ; spoils of His cross, wandering sheep 
 whom we went out into the wilderness to seek, 
 
26 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 and went on seeking till we found them, and 
 brought back on our shoulders rejoicing, and 
 placed them in the good Shepherd's fold ? Shall 
 we leave any behind us to miss us ? Have we 
 earned any to welcome us — saved souls, who will 
 be to us a joy and a crown of rejoicing at the 
 marriage of the Lamb ? 
 
 It is true that no one uses all his twelve 
 hours. No one can say, as the Master said, " I 
 have finished the work which Thou gavest Me 
 to do " — meaning all the work ; no one who really 
 works but is conscious of the imperfection and 
 unworthiness of his duty ; no one who loves to 
 work in the fear, presence, and under the wel- 
 comed gaze of Christ, but wonders, with an 
 astonishment in which humility and thankfulness 
 strangely mingle, how God could ever endure to 
 use one so unworthy for duty so full of honour 
 and of bliss. The truth remains, that while our 
 Lord does not desire fussy, or egotistical, or self- 
 important, or self-absorbed workers, who con- 
 trive to impress society with the conviction not 
 only that they are indispensable to the Church, 
 but that they are the only people who are really 
 working for it ; He does seek, and love, and 
 use, and honour the diligent, the humble, the 
 persevering, the cheerful, the self-denying, the 
 devout disciple, who serves the Lord not for 
 praise but for love ; not because he must, but 
 because he cannot help himself; who is sur- 
 
THE PERSONAL LIFE 27 
 
 prised, not to say mortified and even vexed, 
 by too much public laudation, the secret of 
 whose service is gratitude for the cross, and 
 his reward the presence and the image of the 
 Lord. 
 
THE HOME 
 
Corporate life is God's great instrument in the edification 
 of character. — R. Ottlf.y. 
 
THE ANXIETIES OE LOVE 
 
 What manner of child shall this be f— LUKE i. 66. 
 
 THIS question has again and again been 
 asked by all sorts of parents about all 
 sorts of children ever since the world began, — 
 over Cain and over David, over Tiberius and 
 over St. Paul, over Alexander Borgia and over 
 Martin Luther, over John Wesley and over 
 Voltaire. The best and the worst of mankind 
 have had their time of innocence and beauty ; 
 have been welcomed, caressed, loved, talked 
 over by those who cared more for them and 
 deserved more from them than any one else in 
 the world. If in some respects it is a useless 
 question, for time is indispensable for a full 
 answer to it, and those who ask it may have 
 disappeared long before the answer is ready, it 
 is full of nature and pathos. Nay, where there 
 goes with it an intelligent appreciation of a 
 parent's responsibility, not to ask it means to 
 
ones/ ions 
 
 32 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 be quite unworthy of the blessing of a 
 child. 
 Tin- two Two questions meet us here. 
 
 What goes to the making a child to be what 
 Christian parents ought to wish him to be ? 
 
 What share in that making is within a parent's 
 power ? 
 
 Four things at least go to the making of a 
 child. Its own personality. The home sur- 
 roundings. The training. The grace of God. 
 
 It must always be remembered that every 
 human being is absolutely distinct from every 
 other, in mental capacity, in turn and shape 
 of disposition, in tastes and gifts, in physical 
 nature. This comes in the sovereign inevitable 
 providence of Almighty God ; and we must 
 take it as we find it, and make the best of it. 
 The home surroundings make an enormous dif- 
 ference to a child's future, whether in material 
 or immaterial things. The house in which it lives, 
 the comforts or the discomforts, the abundance 
 or the penury, the healthiness or the squalor of 
 its daily lot ; the protection from coarse temp- 
 tation or the liability to it, the suitableness or 
 the unsuitableness of its social environment, arc 
 all powerful if invisible factors in its growth 
 and moral development, all gravely influence its 
 future. 
 
 The training is of unspeakable moment. 
 This, be it observed, is something more than the 
 individual instruction, the quiet vigilance, the 
 
THE HOME y 3 
 
 occasional correction, the parental tenderness, 
 which, perhaps too hopefully, ma}' be assumed 
 as a matter of course. It includes the atmo- 
 sphere of the home, in the tone of its conversa- 
 tion, in the aim of its ambitions, in the spirit 
 of its pursuits, in the scope of its activities. 
 Where from Monday morning to Saturday night 
 the main subjects of domestic interest or family 
 talk arc money-making, or frivolous pleasure, or 
 the affairs of neighbours, or personal gossip, such 
 atmosphere is absorbed into all the innermost 
 tissues of the child's spirit, and what the parents 
 are the children are likely to become. 
 
 Nothing does more for or against the moral, 
 intellectual, religious level of a family than the 
 ordinary conversation at meal-times or in the 
 home evening hours. It is not books that 
 mould character ; it is speech. Then there is 
 the grace of God, promised at baptism, given 
 again and again to the receptive heart in the 
 opening years, which godly parents ask God, 
 by the m : ghty plea of His FatherhooJ, continu- 
 ally to give to the children of the'r home, and 
 of which they themselves may be the conduits 
 and channels in more ways than they suspect. 
 " By the grace of God I am what I am." What 
 was true of an apostle is equally true of the 
 humblest child of God. It is equally true — why 
 arc we so unmindful of it and indifferent to it ? 
 — that our Father which is in Heaven gives 
 I lis Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 What is 
 
 impossible 
 to do. 
 
 What is 
 possible. 
 
 Now let us observe what it is we cannot do 
 either with or for our children. If a sense of 
 helplessness is a fatal extreme on one side, the 
 presumption which springs from ignorance is 
 almost as fatal on the other. To know our 
 limitations is ever the first condition of success. 
 
 We cannot make a child to order. Most of 
 us would like to be able to do so, and a curious 
 creature we should make of it, if we tried. God 
 in I lis kindness and wisdom reserves this pre- 
 rogative to Himself. We cannot abrogate or 
 repeal the awful law of heredity. While we do 
 not bear the moral punishment of our parents' 
 sins, we continually suffer the consequences of 
 them, whether in vicious propensities, personal 
 habits, or physical disease. We cannot, at any 
 rate after a certain age, lock a child up in a 
 glass case. If we choose to do so, it is usually 
 bad for the glass case, but much worse for the 
 child. Nor can we padlock a child's mind. Any 
 real or continuous effort to conceal from his 
 awakening and growing faculties the laws of the 
 universe, the melancholy facts of the world, the 
 existence of unbelief, and the divisions of 
 Christendom, will, supposing he has a mind to 
 be padlocked, only compel a woful " Nemesis 
 of faith," when the padlock is forced open. 
 
 There is, however, much that" we can do, and 
 which God expects us to do. Let us do it, and 
 with our might. Notwithstanding the fact that 
 so much is absolutely out of our power, with 
 
THE HOME 35 
 
 sons even in their boyhood, and with daughters 
 when they exchange their lather's house for their 
 husband's ; notwithstanding also the fact that 
 some parents are so incredibly careless, indolent, 
 incautious, even reckless with their children (we 
 think with a shudder of the deliberate education 
 into evil that spoiled the nature and blighted the 
 career of Charles James Fox), there is no nobler 
 opportunity, no more awful talent, no loftier 
 or blesseder duty, than that of nurturing and 
 training a Christian child in the love and fear 
 of God. By our own life and example and 
 conversation \vc can make a good soil for the 
 young plant to grow in, and set a high ideal 
 of motive and principle and duty before the eyes 
 of the young heart, which see, admire, love, and 
 absorb without knowing it. 
 
 From the earliest dawn of moral consciousness 
 — far earlier than many parents either suspect 
 or care — we can begin to train and discipline 
 and rule. A child cannot be too soon taught 
 two things — to obey, and to deny itself. We 
 can give them the great baptismal privilege, and 
 admit them into the household of faith, and make 
 them free of the Church's privileges, and so 
 have an irresistible claim on the faithfulness of 
 God. 
 
 We can always give them sympathy, and 
 intercession, and love ; and wherever they are, 
 ami whatever becomes of them, they cannot, 
 while they live, be out of the reach of God. 
 
36 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND Dm 
 
 II 
 A PARENTS COMPLAINT 
 
 Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us t — LUKE ii. 40. 
 
 T T were useless, even dishonest, to pretend 
 that the Lord's mother was not seriously 
 disappointed with Him ; nay, if the word had 
 not a disrespectful sound with it, we might he 
 bold to say that she was vexed. Certainly He 
 defended Himself with a warmth which implied 
 that some injustice had been done Him. It is 
 clear, however, that great indulgence must be 
 shown in our criticism of her conduct. She was 
 weary with long searching, unnerved by serious 
 anxiety, and (for she was a woman after all) 
 somewhat discomposed at finding that the dearly 
 loved Child, about whose safety, and even life, 
 her motherly fancy (as is the way with mothers) 
 had conjured up even dismal forebodings, was 
 safe and happy and diligently employing Himself, 
 apparently without any consciousness of the 
 uneasiness she was suffering on account of Him, 
 or any notion that it was other than right and 
 suitable for Him to be there. The recollection 
 of a past oi unbroken dutifulness, flawless inno- 
 cence, ineffable love did not come to reassure her 
 
THE HOME 37 
 
 of His motive and rectitude, as we gently think 
 it might have clone. It simply placed in mure 
 vivid contrast with all she had hitherto known 
 of Him this first act of self-emancipation from 
 her control. In the overwhelming emotion of 
 the moment she lost her balance. We neither 
 revere nor love her the less for acting as any 
 true woman must have acted, and as all of us 
 might almost have been glad to have acted 
 ourselves. 
 
 The incident itself, however, is full of interest 
 and importance for the government of a Christian 
 home. While of course it has a unique interest 
 as an event in that earlier history of our Lord, 
 of which we are permitted to know so little, it 
 also disphrys Him as the type and ideal for 
 opening youth, as well as for ripened manhood. 
 In this incident, as in every other of His life 
 which the Holy Ghost has recorded for us, He 
 "has left us an example, that we should follow 
 in His steps." 
 
 i. There are stages, epochs, crises of growth Important 
 and progress in the spirit as well as in the body / 
 of man to be expected, appreciated, and recog- 
 nised as they occur. The laws of our moral as 
 well as of our physical nature are inexorable 
 and benignant. We must neither lament, nor 
 resent, nor ignore, nor resist them ; but face, 
 accept, and use them as they manifest themselves 
 in the opening years. 
 
 2. Occasionally there will he an apparent 
 
38 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 suddenness in their manifestation. Ripeness 
 will seem to come all at once. There will be a 
 sudden spring from April to June in the soul. 
 The secret fancy has been dreaming, the will 
 maturing, the nature discovering itself, while the 
 parent knew not of it. It seems as if a mine 
 had been sprung on him, and a sense of unfair- 
 ness goes with it. This is natural, but unreason- 
 able. Nature cannot wait for us until we choose 
 to open our eyes and say we are read}'. When 
 the blossom sets the fruit appears. There is no 
 sin in this. It cannot be otherwise. 
 
 3. The fact that surprise, or disappointment, 
 or even pain results from it, is not of necessity 
 through any fault of the child. Who besides 
 Mary would dare to think a doubtful thought 
 of Jesus ? Probably she soon regretted her 
 momentary if natural heat. Certainly it often 
 does happen with us that there is abruptness 
 and wilfulness, and perhaps (delightful) auda- 
 city, from sons and daughters with earthly 
 parents. This is the accident of the case, and 
 results from human infirmity ; it in nowise 
 affects the essence of it. That the parent 
 feels pain is perhaps inevitable. But love, and 
 good sense, and an instinct of justice, and the 
 compensations that are in store, soon heal the 
 wound. 
 
 4. For if we deal patiently, and tolerantly, 
 and large-heartedly, and do not scarify with too 
 much pungency the eager and almost boyish 
 
THE HOME 39 
 
 dogmatism which with so much charming auda- 
 city settles all the problems under the sun, 
 and harmonises the sciences, and expounds the 
 politics, and arranges the affairs of the universe, 
 the silly season passes, and other and rougher 
 hands than ours put long and sharp pins into 
 the bladders of self-conceit which our boys and 
 girls arc wont to blow up ; and when they subside, 
 as they usually do, they are grateful to us for not 
 having too much made them absurd in their own 
 eyes, while we have pleasantly smiled in our 
 hearts, with no bitterness in the smile. Youth, 
 with all its disdains, and caprices, and conceits, 
 and gasconadings, is still the leverage of the 
 world, is still the most lovable and beautiful 
 thing in it. 
 
 5. Let us remember that a real love of know- 
 ledge is a noble thing, and that what we have 
 to do with the young is not to frown at it, or 
 hinder it, or be frightened at it, but to encourage it 
 thankfully, and to watch it, with eyes half closed, 
 that we may direct it judiciously. The greatest 
 safeguard for the young amid the quicksands and 
 trials of opening manhood is to have a taste, an 
 occupation, an accomplishment, even a hobby of 
 some sort or other, if it only keeps them during 
 the handful of critical years from the grosser 
 stumbling-blocks. The pursuit of knowledge no 
 doubt has risks of its own, but surely they are 
 less deadly and corrupting than those which are 
 concerned with the indulgence of the senses. 
 
40 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Reason is the highest gift of God, and He claims 
 it as a duty that it be trained and cultivated for 
 Him. 
 
 6. In the end, our self-restraint, and human 
 kindness, and faith in God's holy will shall have 
 their reward. We read of the blessed Jesus 
 that " He went down with them, and came to 
 Nazareth, and was subject to them." So, if we 
 deserve it, shall it be between us and our chil- 
 dren in the end. We shall lose nothing by 
 granting them what belongs to them, but we 
 shall gain more. They must be helped, not 
 hindered, over that difficult stage of the life's 
 journey which sees childhood develop into youth, 
 and youth into the independent life. It is only 
 fair to remember that we, too, have been much 
 as they are, and may ourselves occasionally 
 (though it is quite forgotten now) have been 
 somewhat odious, and moody, and self-opinionated, 
 and capable of governing the empire, and masters 
 of taste, and with a formed opinion on every 
 conceivable subject at the ripe age of eighteen. 
 We, long ago, have passed through it, and they, 
 too, will pass through it, if we will give them 
 time. Let us try to make friends with them. It 
 is not always possible, but it is unspeakably wise. 
 Let us encourage them to confide in us. Some- 
 times they will take their confidences to others, 
 and only when strangers have failed, and the 
 irreparable blunder is committed, in their helpless 
 despair they entrust their wrecked fortunes to their 
 
THE HOME 41 
 
 parents. Sometimes all our love, and our counsels, 
 and our example, and our patience will seem 
 to fail, and it is chaos. Our refuge and hope 
 in such a case must be God, Who is their Father 
 as well as our Father, Who has other ways of 
 guiding and healing, and restoring, and blessing 
 than are open to us. Nothing can take from us 
 the inestimable consolation of casting the burdens 
 of our children's needs, and sins, and infirmities 
 on Him to Whom the whole world can come at 
 the same moment, and have a full hearing. 
 Wherever our children may be, whatever they 
 may be, we can always pray for them. Our 
 Father Which is in Heaven understands the 
 burdens of a parent's heart, and can supply all 
 our need according to His riches in glory by 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 Ill 
 A CHILD'S SELF-ASSERTIOX 
 
 Woman, -what have I tj do with theef Mine hour is no! 
 yet come. — John ii. 4. 
 
 T^ IGHTEEN years have passed, and much is 
 changed. The youth has matured into the 
 man. The question is no longer of the child's 
 dutifulness, it has become that of the man's 
 liberty. It is still " My Father's business" that 
 
42 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 has to be done, but of a different kind, and with 
 other methods, and with fresh authorit)'. The 
 parent has to learn, what it is always so hard for 
 the parent to learn, that responsibility implies 
 freedom. The son has to make the parent feel, 
 with respectful distinctness, yet without a thought 
 or intention of rebuff", that unsought and 1111- 
 needed counsel may be unjust interference ; and 
 that even a mother's love must not invade 
 liberty. For let no one think that Christ's reply 
 had any sort of abruptness in it. Our Authorised 
 Version, maybe, gives this impression of it, but 
 it is no necessary deduction from the original 
 text. The Virgin, who for years past had been 
 observing her Son's doings and sayings, and 
 pondering them in her heart, had doubtless con- 
 cluded that a great crisis had arrived in His 
 history, and that He was on the threshold of His 
 prophetic career. 
 
 Two thoughts, perhaps, were in her heart at 
 the same time — one of less, the other of greater 
 moment ; and the Lord addressed Himself to the 
 The village greater. There was a dearth of wine in the 
 modest household, and she keenly felt for the 
 mortification of her kinsfolk. She also may 
 have thought that the opportunity had at length 
 come for a great wonder-work, which should at 
 once reveal His glory, and inaugurate His 
 ministry. One act would accomplish two results, 
 and who could better press it than herself? The 
 Lord detected the motive, appreciated the em- 
 
THE HOME 43 
 
 barrassment, declined the self-revelation, and 
 granted the kindness. " What have I to do 
 with thee ?" He replied ; or, as it may be more 
 exactly rendered, " What is there between ns ? " 
 — a form of expression which frequently occurs 
 in the Old Testament, and which, with dignity 
 and clearness, was to remind His human mother 
 that in the new sphere of life and action into 
 which He had just passed, though hitherto she 
 had known Him after the flesh, and counselled 
 Him as her first-born Son, she had henceforth 
 to know and counsel Him no more. Only to 
 His Father in Heaven could He now go for 
 direction and guidance ; earthly ties, human 
 claims, fleshly affinities had passed for ever. 
 
 But the reason which, in His considerate love, 
 He gave her, and the acquiescence which, on 
 distinctly other grounds, He granted to her 
 petition, were meant to satisfy her heart, and 
 meet her sense of dignity ; and, from the in- 
 struction she gave to the servants, He plainly 
 gave what she desired. His time, that is the 
 time of His public manifestation as Messiah, had 
 not yet come. That peasant's home was not to 
 be the scene of it, nor a bridal the occasion for 
 it. It was to be in Jerusalem presently, and 
 at the Passover. The gift, however, should be 
 bestowed, and in abundance, though so quietly 
 that only a handful of servants knew it at the 
 moment, and perhaps most of the persons there 
 never heard of it at all. While it was indispens- 
 
44 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 able for Him to resist the claim of His mother to 
 interfere in the affairs of His public ministry, her 
 delicate solicitude for the bridegroom's honour, 
 her assurance of His sympathy with her in 
 her wish to terminate it, her faith in His power 
 to do whatever He desired, had their instant 
 reward ; and the ruler of the feast soon joyously 
 commended the bridegroom in words the signifi- 
 cance of which he little guessed, " Thou hast 
 kept the good wine until now." 
 
 There are two important lessons we may 
 gather for our home life from this critical inci- 
 dent — one for parents ; the other for children, 
 in their adult years. 
 
 For parents authoritatively to interfere with 
 either the judgment, or conscience, or personal 
 affairs of their children in mature life is unjust, 
 unwise, and extremely hazardous. There may, 
 of course, be a difference of opinion as to what 
 is meant by mature life ; but it is usually under- 
 stood to be that period when the education is 
 finished and the profession chosen, and when 
 before the law, as well as with societ}', personal 
 independence is a suitable and equitable claim. 
 
 It is unjust, because when a man is of age 
 and has both to speak and act for himself, to 
 interpose an authority, necessary and helpful only 
 in the earlier years, is to usurp a jurisdiction 
 which does not exist in equity, and to jeopardise 
 an influence which will be potent only so far as 
 we do not presume on it. It is unwise, because 
 
THE HOME 45 
 
 if it docs not excite resentment it induces per- 
 plexity, and involves a responsibility which may 
 
 have serious and unlooked-for results. It is 
 also extremely hazardous ; for, in the early years 
 of manhood, characters mature, capacities de- 
 velop, circumstances happen, openings arise of 
 which the well-meaning parent may be supremely 
 ignorant, but which entirely alter all the circum- 
 stances of the case. If counsel is invited the 
 situation is different ; even then, before it is 
 given, it may be well to ascertain if all the facts 
 arc before us, and if any steps have already 
 been taken, or other counsels secretly invited, 
 to vitiate the candour of the applicant, and to 
 mar the result of the appeal. The safest rela- 
 tions between parents and adult children arc 
 those of unbounded tenderness, frank companion- 
 ship, prudent reserve. "Am I not free?" is 
 the suitable, reasonable, self-respecting position 
 of the child. " Be free, but be prudent and 
 self-restrained in the use of thy freedom," is 
 the judicious parent's rejoinder. 
 
 There is also a lesson for the child, which Ussonfa 
 is not always remembered, but which in justice cll ' ldrc "- 
 to the parent ought to be remembered, and 
 acted on as an axiom of family life. He must 
 not expect the concurrent advantages of de- 
 pendence and independence. He must not 
 claim to go his own way just as he pleases, 
 neither recognising parental authority nor in- 
 viting parental advice ; and then, when he has 
 
46 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 made an enormous blunder, and found all the 
 butterfly friends who advised and pushed him 
 into his disasters, to have disappeared, like sum- 
 mer gnats in a frost, claim to go back to those who 
 might at the right moment have wisely advised him 
 if he had cared to consult them ; and coolly to 
 use them as if for them any sort of responsibility 
 in the matter could be thought to remain. It is 
 very unjust toward the parent, and it is a little 
 base in the child. No doubt it is possible, even 
 probable, where an error is honestly confessed, 
 or a sin truly repented of, and proof mani- 
 fested of honest regret and hope assured of 
 better things to come, that, as in the well-known 
 parable, the father's heart relents, and the home 
 is thrown open, and the fault presently forgotten, 
 and the wound finally healed. But this cannot 
 happen often. For the parent to be continually 
 thrown over, and then, when everything else 
 fails, to be again and again made use of, as too 
 weak to deny, too stupid to discern, or too fond 
 to resent, is not only an injustice to the parent, 
 but is also a fatal wound to the little that may be 
 left of the self-respect or integrity of the child. 
 
 There is usually a great power of forgive- 
 ness and a very deep well of tenderness in a 
 Christian parent's heart, but it should neither 
 be trifled with nor presumed upon. Pain is a 
 divine medicine in the spiritual regimen of souls, 
 and sometimes between man and man it is the 
 only, the last, though the painful resort. It is 
 
THE HOME 47 
 
 with man as with God, that sometimes \vc arc 
 never more dearly loved, or more tenderly deside- 
 rated, or more wisely handled, than when the face 
 we should love best has no smile on it, and the lips 
 that should be charged with blessing arc closed. 
 
 IV 
 TIES OF FLESH AND OF SPIRIT 
 
 Who is my mother, and who are my brethren t — Matthew mi. 48. 
 
 CT. MARK gives us the key both to the occa- 
 sion and to the motive of these words. A 
 great multitude had come together so that they 
 could not so much as eat bread, and the Lord's 
 kinsmen became gravely alarmed at it. They 
 did not know what would be the end of all this 
 strange excitement ; they had evidently no sym- 
 pathy with the teaching, or claims, or labours of 
 Jesus ; they may have been really anxious as 
 to the effect that might be produced on the Lord 
 Himself by the exhausting incessancy of His 
 labours; and bringing His mother with them, 
 whom they had no doubt succeeded in frighten- 
 ing if not disturbing about Him, they used her 
 name, and no doubt intended to borrow her 
 influence to induce Him to relinquish His pur- 
 pose, and to return with them to their village 
 home. " When His friends heard of it, they 
 
4 8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 went out to lay hold on Him : for they said, 
 He is beside Himself." It was the tidings of 
 their arrival, that drew from Him this question 
 as He sat in the midst of His disciples con- 
 tending with the blasphemy of the Scribes, and 
 certainly it betrays a pained if not an indig- 
 nant surprise. We must not indeed push it so 
 far as to infer from it that our Lord in the very 
 least degree meant to depreciate the natural re- 
 sponsibilities of near kinsfolk, or to repudiate the 
 claim that blood relationship may press for con- 
 sideration and respect. That would not be 
 justified. 
 
 But this question asserts a great principle, 
 infers a melancholy prospect, and enunciates an 
 inexorable law of immense importance both to 
 the Church and the world. The principle is 
 this, that it is not privilege so much as obedience 
 that constitutes true kinship to Christ. The 
 prospect is, that a man's foes will sometimes be 
 they of his own household, and that in matters 
 of religion almost more than in any ether " a 
 brother offended is harder to be won than a 
 strong city." The law is, that the tie of grace 
 is closer than the tie of blood. Where both 
 meet and are fused into one indissoluble unity, 
 there is no unity under the sun like it. But 
 when it happens, as we often see it happen, that 
 the tie of blood is not consecrated by the tic of 
 grace, it is never, and can never, be so close, 
 so vital, so hallowing, so solemnly tender, as 
 
THE HOME 
 
 l" 
 
 that tie which making both one in the unity 
 of the Body of Christ shall live for ever and 
 ever. 
 
 The principle contained under the figure of The 
 this maternal and brotherly relationship is that /'/.'"/'£/.' 
 obedience, not privilege, constitutes true kinship 
 to Christ. The Lord's family relied on their 
 blood relationship as a justification for their inter- 
 ference with His affairs. But the Lord altogether 
 repudiated the claim. Not that their relationship 
 to Him in other or domestic matters would have 
 had no force in it. When He was dying His 
 last thought was of His mother — His one care 
 and consolation was to find her a home. But 
 no one, not even she, was to come between Him 
 and His Heavenly Father ; between sinners who 
 needed Him, and the work by which they were 
 to be redeemed. So we on our side are not to 
 rest on our baptismal relationship to Christ, 
 blessed, and solemn, and potent though it may 
 be, as if it could be any sort of substitute for 
 that faith working by love, which is at once the 
 true evidence of the sacramental privilege stirred 
 and ripened into spiritual vitality, and of that 
 obedience of which He has Himself asserted, "If 
 ye love Me keep My commandments." " Holi- 
 ness, without which no man shall see the Lord," 
 is the only real proof of loving friendship ; " he 
 that doeth the will of My Father, which is in 
 Heaven, the same is My mother, and sister, and 
 brother." 
 
 D 
 
50 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Again, so far from blood relations being, as a 
 matter of course, belpers and promoters of 
 spiritual duty or lofty sacrifice in the home of 
 which they are inmates, the history of all times 
 goes to prove the very contrary ; and in the 
 persecutions endured for the faith's sake the 
 daughter has risen against her mother, and the 
 father against his son, and the house has been 
 divided against itself ; and the sword (not of the 
 Spirit) has invaded it. We may have to choose 
 between Christ and some one who, after the flesh, 
 is as dear to us as our own soul. Which shall we 
 go with ? "He that loveth father or mother more 
 than Me is not worthy of Me : and he that loveth 
 son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of 
 Me." A call to the mission field, or the preference 
 of a quiet Christian life to a career of splendour 
 and fashion, or a profession which implies the 
 reproach of Christ rather than the riches of 
 Egypt, has often disturbed families and parted 
 kinsfolk. Here, again, Christ's searching sum- 
 mons is heard, " Forsake all and follow Me." 
 
 Lastly, there is no tie so close, so holy, so 
 blessed, so exquisitely tender, as that which joins 
 one regenerate soul to another in the mystical 
 body of Christ. The joy of the common salva- 
 tion, the inheritance of the faith once delivered 
 to the saints, the fellowship in the Gospel, the 
 inexplicable experience of the love which passeth 
 knowledge, the hope laid up in Heaven, the 
 sympathy and zeal and ardour for the honour of 
 
THE HOME 51 
 
 the Saviour, Who died for us and rose again 
 these constitute an unity closer, surer, fonder, 
 deeper than the dearest earthly tie which human 
 souls can know. " In the resurrection there will 
 be neither marrying nor giving in marriage, for 
 we shall be as the angels of God in Heaven." 
 Flesh and blood will have passed ; they cannot 
 inherit the kingdom of God. But love, obedi- 
 ence, and sanctity, and the ties that spring out 
 of them, are for ever. Death cannot touch the 
 life hidden with Christ in God ; the " friend 
 which sticketh closer than a brother " is the 
 friend who is also, and first, the disciple whom 
 Jesus loves. 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 
 
A certain human life, -which cither is or is not the hinge 
 point of alt history -whatever. — PROFESSOR MOBERLY. 
 
THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN 
 
 Who can understand his errors .' — PSALM xix. 12. 
 
 THE sense of sin, the joy of pardon, and 
 the yearning for goodness are essential 
 features in the religion of Christ. If the sense 
 of sin gives the deepest pain, because the soul 
 is divided against itself and becomes its own 
 accuser, the joy of pardon is the sweetest joy, 
 because it fills the spirit with the presence of 
 God, discovered, reconciled, possessed, and 
 enjoyed. The yearning for goodness is the 
 noblest of all spiritual longings, it is so elevating, 
 so transforming, so illimitable. It is no paradox 
 to affirm that often where there is the least sin 
 to confess, there is the keenest and saddest 
 sorrow for it, and that the wonder at forgiveness 
 — it is wonderful and inexplicable — is usually 
 significant of a very saintly heart. The soul 
 moves, grows, blossoms, and brings forth fruit 
 just so far as its one desire is to see and 
 
56 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 resemble God. No man can truly thirst for 
 God without being on the way to being filled 
 with His likeness. 
 
 The thought of the Psalmist in this passage 
 is the difficulty for each man of understanding 
 his sins. Bishop Perowne renders it, " As for 
 errors — who can perceive " (them) ? The word 
 " error " here is analogous to the Greek word 
 amartia, which gives the notion of missing the 
 mark. It means straying, wandering from the 
 path. There are sins of ignorance and of infir- 
 mity unconsciously, unintentionally done through 
 lack of self-knowledge, or of jealous vigilance 
 against the deceits of the world and the snares 
 of Satan. There are also sins of presumption, 
 done with deliberateness and hardened pride, 
 and a sort of insolence against God. There 
 are also sins which do not usually come earliest 
 in the moral history, but which are the inevitable 
 result and penalty of sins of carelessness and 
 infirmity ; and which imply, nay, sooner or later 
 create, that awful insensibility which is the sure 
 symptom of spiritual death, and for which no for- 
 giveness, because no repentance, is possible. 
 
 On the nature of sin and the incessancy of 
 it, and the deceitfulness of it, and its self-inflicted 
 penalty, and last, but most of all, on the blessed 
 instrument or organ, which by the grace of God 
 reveals it in its presence and hatefulness and 
 peril, let me offer a few words. 
 
 The sinfulness of sin consists in its being 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 57 
 
 done against the majesty and holiness, and 
 authority and love of God. Not that we 
 cannot in a real sense offend against each other. 
 Sin against God generally implies offence against 
 man. But it is, first, and most and worst, in 
 its aspect towards Him. So much is this so, 
 that when David, in the fifty-first Psalm, pours 
 out the agony of his soul for his great sin with 
 Uriah's wife, he forgets altogether the corrupted 
 woman and the outraged soldier. " Against 
 Thee, Thee only have I sinned and done this evil 
 in Thy sight." The more we know of God, the 
 more we shall feel the depravity, the wickedness 
 of sin. 
 
 The incessancy of it is a very painful and 
 humbling but incontestable truth. Our sins of 
 omission, which perhaps come most home to us 
 in the riper years of the Christian life ; the sins 
 of commission, in which we actually violate the 
 law of God — were they to be brought up against 
 us at the end of a single day, might turn our 
 very hair white with shame and sorrow. We 
 are always sinning in presence of that spotless 
 Holiness before which the very heavens are not 
 clean. 
 
 Its deceitfulness is one of its most malignant 
 and dangerous features. We gild it with fine 
 names, we excuse it by transparent sophistries, 
 we succumb to it as if our moral power were 
 paralysed ; we connive at it in others, because 
 we may need indulgence for it one da}' ourselves. 
 
58 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 But to call good evil is not to make it evil, and 
 to call evil good is not to make it good. Yet 
 we love to have it so, and God answers us 
 according to the multitude ot our idols. Never- 
 theless, when the moral sense is darkened, it 
 is on the way to be extinguished. When the 
 conscience has lost the faculty of touch and taste, 
 and sight and hearing, the soul is dead and the 
 sentence is sealed. How, then, shall we keep 
 alive in our hearts the instinct of righteousness 
 and the sorrowful consciousness of having come 
 short of it ; how shall we maintain within us a 
 true standard of goodness and a divine ideal of 
 life ; how shall we cultivate a sympathy with the 
 Holy God, Who cannot bear the thing that is 
 evil ? This great Psalm shows us that the key 
 of the secret, and the instrument for each of us 
 to use for it, is the Word of God. " The fear 
 of Jehovah is clean, standing fast for ever. 
 The judgments of Jehovah are truth, they are 
 righteous altogether. More are they to be 
 desired than gold ; yea, than much fine gold, 
 sweeter also than honey, and the droppings of 
 the honeycomb. Moreover, thy servant is 
 enlightened by them, and in keeping of them 
 there is great reward." In the study and obe- 
 dience of God's Word we listen to His Voice, 
 we sit in His Presence, and the breath of His 
 Holiness fills our spirits. It is at once the 
 revelation of His Perfection and the mirror of 
 our own sin. To see Him is to discover our- 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 50 
 
 selves. It is indeed quite possible to sec so 
 much of Him as to be in despair about ourselves, 
 to tremble under the lightnings and thunderings 
 of Sinai. But in the Bible there are promises 
 as well as threatenings, a new covenant as well 
 as an old one. Moses warns and Jesus dies. 
 " Thou shalt not " is the voice of the Old 
 Testament. " Him that cometh unto Me I will 
 in no wise cast out " is the whisper of the New. 
 
 1 . Would we feel about sin as God would Cautions. 
 have us feel, let us pray earnestly and constantly 
 
 for the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, and to 
 reveal to us Jesus ; to make us groan under the 
 burden, and then rejoice in the peace. It is the 
 promise of the Father, a promise which He 
 delights to fulfil. 
 
 2. Let us be on our guard against an artificial, 
 hysterical, morbid, self-inspecting, pusillanimous 
 remorse. " Being justified by faith, let us have 
 peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Let penitence come rather thiough the habitual 
 contemplation of God in Christ than by dwelling 
 in the swamps of our own corrupt nature. To 
 look up to the hills from whence cometh our 
 help, and to breathe their invigorating air, is the 
 secret of Christian manhood. 
 
 3. The sense of sin, if we would avoid un- 
 reality and a sort of complacency in our humble- 
 ness, should ever be accompanied with a con- 
 tinuous and strenuous effort to overcome it. 
 So-called mourning for sin is a nauseous and 
 
6o QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 perilous affectation, if it does not also mean a 
 firm resolution to put it away. 
 
 4. St. Paul never forgot his past: "who 
 was a persecutor, and injurious;" "not meet 
 to be called an apostle because I persecuted the 
 Church of God." Yet he could also say, " I 
 laboured more abundantly than they all." We 
 need not forget that we have sinned, if only we 
 have cause to believe that we are forgiven. 
 We may be perfectly clean, though imperfectly 
 holy. 
 
 II 
 THE MOVING OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 Lord, is it I ?— Matthew xxvi. 22. 
 
 A \7 HERE does this incident occur in the 
 narrative of the Passion ? Most probably 
 while the Paschal meal was still going on, after 
 the washing of the disciples' feet had been done 
 and the Lord had resumed His place among the 
 twelve. The humility and tenderness of that 
 symbolical act touched the disciples to the quick 
 and stirred their love into a glowing flame. 
 The Lord had already asked them if they under- 
 stood what He had done to them, had solemnly 
 impressed that the thing He had done to them 
 they should henceforth do to each other. Then, 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 61 
 
 as His fast-nearing Passion came nearer and 
 more awful before His soul, and the solitariness 
 of His anguish as well as the baseness of His 
 betrayal settled like a gloomy cloud upon His 
 heart, the awful secret, which out of love to 
 them He had so long concealed, He at last and 
 reluctantly disclosed. To have disclosed it 
 sooner would have been to inflict a gratuitous 
 sorrow, to have disclosed all of it might have 
 been to interfere with the divine purpose, to hint 
 a part of it was a discipline which they could 
 not be spared. " And as they did eat Jesus 
 said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you 
 shall betray Me. And they were exceeding 
 sorrowful, and began every one of them to say 
 unto Him, Lord, is it I ? " The question 
 itself indicates a deep stirring of conscience, 
 quickened by God. It is a question of which 
 evciy human soul at some time or other is 
 more or less cognisant, whatever ma)' be the 
 answer given to it. It is a question which is 
 vital to any adequate conception either of the 
 sinfulness of sin, or of the standard of personal 
 duty, or of the ideal walk of the regenerate 
 spirit with God. 
 
 Let us first consider it in some of the various Motives. 
 motives and intentions with which a human soul 
 may conceivably put the question to God ; and 
 then notice some of the circumstances which 
 make it opportune. 
 
 Clearly it may be put (God protect us from 
 
62 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Their it) in a spirit of insolent hardness. Thus Judas 
 put it. It is likely, indeed, that when he heard 
 all the others putting it he felt he must put it 
 likewise, to escape the notice that otherwise 
 would have been attracted to his silence. It is 
 more than likely that when the Lord replied to 
 him, " Thou hast said," it was in a voice inau- 
 dible to the general body of the disciples, and 
 apparent, it may be, only to those close at hand. 
 But there was no honesty in the question, and 
 no repentance. He had received the money, and 
 he must do the work for it. When he took the 
 sop Satan entered in and took possession of his 
 soul, and he went out into the night. A man 
 to whom sin is not sinful, to whom self-gratifi- 
 cation is the law of his being, who neither fears 
 God nor regards man, may say, " Lord, is it I ?" 
 But he will not care for an answer, nor wait to 
 hear it given. 
 
 It may be put also in a spirit of shallow and 
 ignorant levity. " Is thy servant a dog that he 
 should do this thing ? " asked a king's servant, 
 perhaps quite sincerely. Yet the moment he had 
 the chance he did it, for it opened the way to 
 a throne. We little know what possibilities of 
 good and also of evil are hidden in our wonderful 
 and complex nature ; to what heights of good- 
 ness we may rise, into what abysses of infamy 
 we may fall. There is an off-hand, sturdy way 
 of denying and even resenting the possibilities 
 of our weakness, which is very common and very 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 63 
 
 hazardous. " Let him that thinketh he standeth 
 take heed lest he fall." 
 
 It is also the question of a holy self-distrust. 
 Humility is the surest test of saintliness. There 
 are so many pitfalls at our feet, such woful sur- 
 prises, such mortifying recollections of hopes 
 disappointed, opportunities neglected, duties 
 omitted, blessings lost, that " Lord, is it I ?" is 
 often the aching, frightened question of a be- 
 wildered though honest spirit, fearful of losing 
 itself in the mazes and obscurities of its unknown 
 tendencies; and quite distinct from the morbid 
 self-questionings of spiritual egotism. 
 
 For there are circumstances which from time 
 to time suggest if they do not compel it ; and 
 so sinuous and intricate are the windings of the 
 human heart, so apt are even true natures to be 
 deceived by refined sophistries, or encouraged to 
 mistake transient emotion for the continuous 
 action of dominant principles, that it is almost 
 necessary for us, if we would adequately know 
 ourselves, and habitually rule ourselves, to be 
 forced to find ourselves out as we stand in the 
 light of God. 
 
 The sight of a brother's sin maybe wholesome 
 though humbling in making us recognise that 
 only by the grace of God we are what we are. 
 Had we been tempted as he was tempted, might 
 not we have fallen perhaps lower ? Dependence 
 upon God is the one condition of Christian 
 steadfastness ; but a consciousness of our own 
 
64 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 infirmity is the secret of dependence. Or we ma}' 
 ourselves have been exposed to the fiery trial 
 of temptation and been saved, yet so as " by 
 fire." Most of us know to our cost that to come 
 out of a spiritual conflict means to have our 
 armour battered, our spirit weary, our self-respect 
 rent and torn. Our honour is saved, our battle 
 is won, our Lord confessed, but that is all. The 
 grace has been sufficient, and the divine strength 
 has been made perfect in weakness. We never 
 knew till now how strong was the strength of 
 God, how weak the weakness of man. 
 
 There are also occasions in life which, like 
 mountain peaks rising out of a level plain to 
 break its monotony and form its landmarks, bring 
 us face to face with hidden corners in our personal 
 life, and make us feel with a thrill of gladness 
 the good hand of our God upon us. Sometimes 
 it is a special mercy, which makes us wonder 
 how God can be so good to us. 
 
 It was the gift of the miraculous draught of 
 fishes that made Simon Peter say to Christ, 
 " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O 
 Lord." 
 
 It was Christ's turning and looking upon the 
 same Simon Peter, after he had thrice denied 
 " the Lord who bought him," that showed him 
 his sin, and stirred in him that flood of bitter 
 weeping, which meant repentance unto life. 
 
 In conclusion, there is a clear distinction, which 
 we must neither deny nor evade, between for- 
 
 tions. 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 65 
 
 saking Christ, denying Christ, and betraying 
 Christ. The sin of betraying Him was the 
 unique sin of Judas, about which sin the holy 
 lips, that so often declared forgiveness, solemnly 
 uttered, " It were better for that man that he 
 had never been born." 
 
 To deny Him is also frequent enough, and 
 to forsake Him and flee is more frequent still. 
 Each of these sins has its manifold varieties and 
 its woful, saddening phases. Happy the man, 
 if he can be found, who can say, and truly say, 
 " I have never denied Him, never forsaken Him 
 in thought, word, or deed." 
 
 Whether or no, however, we have or have 
 not forsaken or denied Him, this we may be quite 
 sure of, " He died for us." Every sinful soul 
 — in other words, every soul of man — has its 
 blessed share in the redemption of Jesus. " All 
 we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned 
 ever}' one to his own way ; and the Lord hath 
 laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 
 
 Jesus knows us, each of us, and all of each. 
 We could not bear the weight of it, if we did 
 not also know that His knowing us does not 
 hinder His loving us. " When we were yet 
 sinners Christ died for us." Let us consent to 
 know more of ourselves. Be it our earnest and 
 sincere and constant prayer that the blessed 
 Spirit, whose work it is to convince the world 
 of sin, will come to us to convince us of our own 
 sins, though not to leave us there, but to lift us 
 
 E 
 
66 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 out of the slough of despond, and from the mor- 
 tifying, depressing contemplation of our own 
 corruption to the finished work, and free pardon, 
 and glorious righteousness of our incarnate Lord. 
 May we learn to enjoy, no longer as slaves but 
 as sons, the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God, and so walking in the light, as He is in 
 the light, we shall have fellowship one with 
 another — the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, 
 moment by moment, cleansing us from all sin. 
 
 Ill 
 THE SINNER'S DILEMMA 
 
 What shall 1 do lhe?i with ycsits, which is called Christ f 
 Matthew xxvii. 22. 
 
 TDILATE'S questions (in all there are twelve 
 of them) painfully indicate the vacillations 
 between his instinct of justice and his instinct 
 of self-interest ; also make plain in its many- 
 sided and tremendous baseness the culminating 1 
 sin of mankind. Any one reading the Story of 
 the Cross for the first time will naturally wonder 
 (and without raising the average level of human 
 character too high) that not a single voice was 
 raised in the divine sufferer's favour out of the 
 man}' thousands aided and blessed by His works 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 67 
 
 of" mercy, some of whom must have heen 
 present at that very time to keep the feast. It 
 is a sort of answer that the priests had sur- 
 rounded Pilate's judgment-scat with a packed 
 crowd of their own hirelings, and that had there 
 been a feeble, a solitary, though a manful, and piti- 
 ful voice raised on his behalf, it would have been 
 instantly drowned in the savage cries for blood. 
 It still remains true that as all sorts and condi- 
 tions of men conspired for the death of Jesus, 
 so all shapes and varieties of sin made that 
 conspiracy possible. The deepest of pagan 
 thinkers had long before predicted that if ever a 
 perfect man appeared on earth he would sooner 
 or later be doomed to death, by those who at 
 once feared and hated his goodness ; and who, 
 foiled in their attempts to make a tool of him, 
 were at least bent on preventing him from being 
 their king. The civil magistrate, the church 
 ruler, the priest, the religious teacher, the soldier, 
 the rabble, the familiar friend, each separately, 
 all conjointly, shout " Crucify him." Each in 
 his own share of that stupendous crime, mani- 
 fests and represents a special phase of human 
 wickedness ; all, together, at once produce and 
 compel the cross. 
 
 Pilate's sin was that of worldly expediency. All men 
 Christ was not the first martyr to it, nor has He Zf't/n'"^ 
 been the last. The sceptical yet not quite oh- c ''"'"' °f " lc 
 durate pagan, alternating between pity for Christ 
 as one beside himself and fear of Him as in 
 
68 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 some sense a servant of God ; mortified by Him 
 because He refused to recognise his power ; 
 vexed with Him because He gave him such in- 
 finite trouble, never for one moment hesitated as 
 to His innocence, when Barabbas was preferred 
 to Him, asked with palpable sincerity, " Why, 
 what evil hath He done ? " scourged Him, that 
 the sight of His suffering might appease and 
 satisfy their implacable hatred ; sent Him to die 
 " only to content the people," and because he 
 wished to be considered as " Caesar's friend." 
 Caiaphas, there is reason to suppose from St. 
 John's narrative, was personally convinced of 
 His Messiahship ; but Jesus was not the kind of 
 Messiah that he and his friends wished for. 
 They desired a Messiah who would bring back 
 the days of the glorious Maccabees, raise the 
 standard of revolt, drive the Roman eagles into 
 the sea, and restore David's kingdom and David's 
 city. A Messiah who could say, " Blessed are 
 the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," and 
 " Except your righteousness exceed the right- 
 eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
 in no wise enter into the kingdom of Heaven," 
 was to be swept away with a stern and final 
 blow. Some one must die for the people ; let 
 him die, and the sooner the better. The priests 
 could not endure the spiritual teaching of Jesus. 
 Their religion was outside, and they meant to 
 keep it there. So with the scribes, who guessed, 
 rightly guessed, just as Stephen's murderers 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 69 
 
 afterwards saw, that the temple, with its services, 
 and sacrifices, and ceremonial, could not stand, 
 if He were to stand. That one sentence of 
 His, which no doubt He spoke in many other 
 places than Sychar, " God is a spirit," meant the 
 dethroning of Jerusalem and the spiritualising ol 
 worship. They Were formalists, and they meant 
 to be. The soldier, thinking that His claim to 
 be King of the Jews was an insult to his own 
 emperor, heaped on Him his cruel scorn, poured 
 out his vindictive pride on the patient, unresist- 
 ing, sinless Saviour. The mob, fickle, coarse, 
 waiting for signs, ungrateful, brutal over His 
 helplessness, and made more bloodthirsty by the 
 sight of His anguish, sank to the lowest con- 
 ceivable infamy of gratuitous and vindictive 
 wickedness. His own familiar friend robbed 
 Him, accepted the sop as a mark of friendship, 
 mockingly asked " Is it I ? " went out into the 
 night to do his treason ; betrayed Him with the 
 kiss of peace and the old dear word of "master ;" 
 implored them to " hold Him fast," lest per- 
 chance the miserable purchase money should slip 
 through his fingers ; then found himself in the 
 power of the devil and sought death, only to 
 rivet his self-made fetters on his wretched spirit, 
 and to begin to learn the tremendous meaning 
 of Christ's boding words, " Woe to him by 
 whom the Son of Man is betrayed." 
 
 Well, we confess that sin, we comment on its The sin. to 
 ' ' be brought 
 
 hidcousness, we almost feel as if we were religious home. " 
 
70 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 ourselves for deploring its unsurpassed guilt. 
 We half pity while we condemn Pilate gibbeted 
 on the lips of millions each day and hour of the 
 growing centuries for his share in the cross. 
 We shudder for Caiaphas, when he sees in the 
 Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven the 
 Jesus whom he pierced. The priests and scribes 
 are felt to be an awful instance of the soul- 
 hardening power of even the divinest truth, when 
 used for worldly ends, rejected for personal salva- 
 tion. The soldiers knew not what they did ; 
 they had the blessed intercession of Him to Whom 
 they did it. Even before the Passion was over 
 a reaction had begun to pass over the multitude, 
 they beat their breasts and returned to the city, 
 when the midday darkness fell upon them as a 
 cloud of the anger of God. Judas — he has gone 
 to his own place — we leave him to his judge. 
 
 And is this all ? Was that a sort of dramatic 
 spectacle done only in front of us, independently of 
 us, for which we have no responsibility, in which 
 we have no share ? You, my friends, who read 
 these words, I who write them, will humbly, 
 sincerely, penitently confess that they were but 
 the instruments that our sins had made inevitable, 
 the representatives of the race who, before and 
 since the Passion, have needed the blood because 
 they shared the sin. When each of us under 
 the shadow of that cross asks of Him who 
 once did hang there, " Lord, is it I ?" and are 
 willing to hear the answer, which of us docs 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 71 
 
 nut know the answer that will come, " Thou hast 
 said." 
 
 We do not, indeed, know, as has been ob- 
 served already, no one can ever know, the awful 
 possibilities of our fallen nature. No man is 
 tempted to every sin, and some sins may in a 
 sense be impossible to us. We were not there, 
 but those who were there were men of like 
 passions with ourselves. We were not there, 
 but had we been there should we have been 
 braver, kinder, truer, more constant than they ? 
 We will not censure them as if we were sinless; 
 wc will not wonder at them as if it were no 
 longer possible to crucify Him afresh, and to put 
 Him to an open shame. Rather, we will put 
 into our lips the words of that exquisite hymn, 
 and strive day and night to live in the spirit of 
 them : 
 
 Remember me, but not my shame or sin ; 
 
 Thy eh- an sing blood hath washed them all away, 
 Thy precious death for mc did pardon win, 
 
 Thy blood redeemed me in that awful day. 
 
 Remember me ! but how canst Thou forget 
 
 What pain and anguish I have caused to Thee, 
 The cross, the agony, the bloody S7ueat, 
 
 And all the sorrow Thou didst bear for mc .' 
 
72 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 IV 
 THE DIVINE ANGUISH 
 
 My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me / 
 Matthew xxvii. 46. 
 
 '"PHIS is the cry of the sin-bearer ; the revela- 
 tion of the love of the Father, which spared 
 His Son for such unutterable and woful anguish ; 
 the cry which still vibrates in the conscience of 
 the world. There is no despair in it ; only the 
 murmur of an inexpressible sadness : there is no 
 complaint in it ; a perfect human nature must in 
 some way express itself. He still clung to God, 
 Whom he called His own God, and it was the 
 felt preciousness of the presence of Him, in 
 Whose favour is life, that made Him wonder and 
 mourn, and then ask, out of a heart which re- 
 proach had broken, why in that supreme moment 
 of perfect and willing self-surrender to that 
 Father's holy will, the sustaining consciousness 
 of His presence should have been removed ? 
 Other explanations, no doubt, have been given ; 
 but all that fall short of this one may add to the 
 interest and solemnise the pathos of the mystery, 
 but cannot solve it. 
 
 It is true, no doubt, that the physical depres- 
 sion which ever attends crucifixion, and which 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 73 
 
 must have been specially present to the Lord, 
 after the tedious and exhausting hours of the 
 agony and bloody sweat, the trials, and the 
 scourging, must have told on His nervous system, 
 an essential part of His perfect humanity, and 
 produced, apart from any other cause, an utter 
 prostration of body and mind. The shame of 
 the cross, which an inspired writer tells us He 
 despised, but only in contrast to the joy set 
 before Him ; the spitting, the mocking, the song 
 of the drunkards, the gibes of the priests, must, 
 we think, at least in a degree, have keenly lace- 
 rated the inmost fibres of His sensitive nature, 
 in wounding that sense of dignity which belongs 
 to man as man, specially to the most refined, and 
 lofty, and pure of the race. The darkness, too, 
 had its effect upon Him. If he could no longer 
 see the scowl of satisfied revenge on the faces of 
 His enemies, He could no longer descry the little 
 group of friends which, in the sight of the cross, 
 wept and prayed. A great sense of solitariness 
 possessed Him. All His friends and disciples 
 had forsaken Him ; now His Father's face seemed 
 hidden from Him. While He had God He had 
 everything. When God seemed lost the mist of a 
 great darkness settled on His soul. For the 
 question came home to Him, it was meant to 
 come home to Him ; though He shuddered at it, 
 He was glad that it should come home : " Why 
 has He forsaken Me then in the hour of My dis- 
 tress, when I need Him so much ? " 
 
74 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Reflections Reverence and humility make questionings 
 presumptuous and speculation offensive on the 
 threshold of this divine sorrow. But we may 
 surely compare this utterance with the others 
 from the cross ; we may contemplate it in the 
 light of what He elsewhere asserted of His 
 office and purpose ; we will observe what after- 
 wards fell from Him when it passed away. As 
 Priest, he interceded for His murderers; as 
 King, he promised to the penitent thief to wel- 
 come him in Paradise; as man, He thirsted 
 with an awful thirst ; as son, He commended 
 His mother to His apostles' care ; as mortal, yet 
 yielding up His life as and when it pleased Him, 
 He commended His Spirit to His Father's hands ; 
 as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world, He said, " It is finished." But here the 
 calmness, the sublimity, the authority, the con- 
 sciousness of sonship and of bodily suffering, of 
 approaching dissolution and of accomplished 
 duty, are all merged, forgotten, swallowed up in 
 the one overwhelming thought that He had lost 
 God. There is no human anguish like moral 
 anguish ; there is no earthly poverty like spiritual 
 poverty ; there is no loss under the sun like the 
 loss of God. Surely here the agony came back 
 upon Him ; the cup which He had tasted before 
 was put to His lips that He might drink it to 
 the dregs, and the angel was not there to 
 strengthen Him from Heaven. The Lamb of 
 God which taketh away the sin of the world 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 75 
 
 first had to feci it all laid upon Him in its 
 immenseness, in its loathsomeness, in its inso- 
 lence, in its cruelty, in its ingratitude, in its self- 
 will, in its obstinacy, before He could confess it 
 as the world's representative, and expiate it as 
 the world's Redeemer. It was not the pain that 
 was the essence and inseparable accompaniment 
 of it. It is a sort of insult and wrong to God 
 to suppose that pain as pain has any sort of 
 value with Him, or that, except as a remedial 
 and medicinal discipline, it is aught but repulsive 
 in His sight. No, it was the beauty of the 
 perfect sacrifice, the filialness of the submitted 
 will, the spotless holiness, which in its sympathy 
 with the divine Righteousness recognised that 
 sin could be expiated before the universe only in 
 one tremendous way, and which in sympathy with 
 the race of which He had been born the head 
 and representative, out of the great love where- 
 with He loved us, consented to feel the sin, and 
 then to put it away (mystery as that must always 
 remain) by the offering of Himself — here was the 
 acceptable and sufficient atonement in the sight of 
 a Holy God, Who Himself spared Him to be the 
 sacrifice, the sacrifice which once offered needs 
 no repetition, only the constant application of it 
 to the mind and heart of the individual sinner in 
 the power of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Theologians have differed and debated, and even 
 quarrelled, in a perfectly intelligible eagerness, 
 about words and phrases in the scientific expo- 
 
76 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 sition of the atonement ; thereby troubling simple 
 hearts, without solving an unfathomable mystery, 
 and only bringing more mist and darkness between 
 the cross and the sinner. Some questions will 
 always remain in shadow, and to try to explain 
 them merely makes them darker, and multiplies 
 words without knowledge. For some of us — 
 perhaps we are only very simple Christians — it 
 is enough to know " that if any man sin, we 
 have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
 the righteous. And He is the propitiation for 
 our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the 
 sins of the whole world." 
 
 Look, Father, look on His anointed face, 
 And only look on us as found in Him ; 
 
 Look not on our misusings of Thy grace, 
 
 Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim : 
 
 For lo, between our sins and their reward, 
 
 We set the Passion of Thy Son our Lord. 
 
 To some who read these words it may come, 
 not as a punishment, but as a discipline, even 
 an honour, that either on the eve of the spirit's 
 passing into the vision of God, or, as often 
 happens, in a weary interval of languor or suffer- 
 ing, the one sustaining Presence which makes 
 bitter sweet and sadness joy is mysteriously 
 removed. It is now night, and Jesus is not 
 come to us. We have no place to flee unto, and 
 no man cares for our soul. My friends, this is 
 no fanciful sorrow, and some of the purest and 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 77 
 
 noblest souls arc occasionally bidden to pass 
 into it. It is no light sorrow, for just in pro- 
 portion as our Lord is all in all to us do we miss 
 and mourn Him when lie is gone. Any day it 
 may come to me, or it may come to you ; and 
 shall 1 tell you what to do when you, or those 
 you care for, feel that it has arrived ? Trust 
 Him all the same, worship Him all the same, 
 cling to Him all the same, serve Him, confess 
 Him, glorify Him all the same. It will not be 
 unreal in you, for your reason (and at such 
 times you must summon reason to your help) 
 will tell you, that your not being conscious of 
 Him can no more rob you of His love and pre- 
 sence than your being asleep can. It is not 
 insincerity, for it is the strength and the dis- 
 tinctness of your love to Him which makes you 
 long with such an exceeding desire for what to 
 many men is worthless. You will be honouring 
 Him, and manifesting Him, perhaps more than 
 in the sunshine of His presence. For you will 
 be filling up that which is behind of His suffer- 
 ings in your flesh for His body's sake, the 
 Church ; you will be an example to others, that 
 it is not only feeling saved that saves us. So 
 personally believing on the Saviour, and learning 
 the fellowship of His sufferings, you shall one 
 day be partakers of His crown. 
 
7S QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 V 
 
 NO CONDEMNATION 
 
 Who is lie that condemneth t — Romans viii. 34. 
 
 np'HE question and the reply are of more vital 
 moment to the human soul than any others 
 in the world. The question, let it be observed, 
 is not "Who is he that accuseth ? " There are 
 some who accuse, and their accusation is of no 
 consequence ; there are others who accuse, and 
 their accusation, being baseless and untrue, is 
 harmless and soon forgotten ; there are others 
 who accuse, and their accusation has only too 
 much force and truth in it. There is also One, 
 whom Holy Scripture calls by the awful name of 
 " the Accuser of the Saints," who accused Job, 
 who doubtless will one day accuse Judas. His 
 existence is a tremendous mystery, beyond us to 
 fathom, 3'et not beyond us to recognise in some 
 of the most terrible and indisputable experiences 
 of our lives. Yet he can only accuse, he cannot 
 condemn. To condemn is to wield the authority 
 of a judge, who, with the assent of society, 
 knows, weighs, rewards, and punishes. There 
 are many to accuse, and readiness to accuse is 
 not usually a feature of the loftiest or wisest 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 79 
 
 natures, and to he accused (it depends on the 
 accusation and the accuser, however) may he a 
 great honour. The question that really affects 
 us is the Apostle's, " Who is he that con- 
 demneth ? " 
 
 Idle divine condemnation is for sin. The 
 sense of sin, of imperfection, of shortcoming, of 
 mixed, often tainted motive, of lack of a high 
 ideal, of slackness for good, of wishes we could 
 not put into words, of imaginations which would 
 make our dearest friends loathe and despise us, 
 is more or less familiar to us all. To forget 
 them is not to he delivered from them. To 
 palliate or excuse them is not to heal or conquer 
 them. To conceal them from others may only 
 result in their festering more deeply within. Of 
 all condemning voices the most inexorable and 
 depressing is the condemning voice of our own con- 
 science. What matters it though we be acquitted 
 and forgiven by others, if we cannot acquit and 
 forgive ourselves ? " It is Christ that died, yea, 
 rather that is risen again, who is even at the 
 right hand of God, whoever maketh intercession 
 for us." 
 
 In other words, that which makes peace with Whatgives 
 God and frees us from fear and remorse on ,■'„!,','.'/ 
 account of sin, is the life, the death, the resur- A 
 rection, and the ascension of the Lord Jesus. 
 When the sense of sin committed or of duties 
 neglected troubles and harasses me (and I may 
 be glad to be thus troubled), what is my one 
 
So QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 consolation to be ? Christ has lived for me, 
 and thereby done for me what I never could do 
 for myself. " He has magnified the law, and 
 made it honourable ; " and, as man, has fulfilled 
 all righteousness on my behalf ; not to save me 
 the blessed pain and effort of working out my 
 own salvation with fear and trembling, but that 
 I might be made " the righteousness of God in 
 Him." I have sinned every day, almost every 
 hour, since I was born. The better I become, 
 the more conscious I am of my sinfulness ; the 
 more I learn to feel sin and to mourn for it, the 
 more impossible it seems to me that I can ever 
 be forgiven. Christ has died for me. He is 
 the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of 
 the world. " Him hath God set forth to be 
 a propitiation through faith in His blood." When 
 He was on earth He said to sinners, " Thy sins 
 are forgiven thee; go in peace." Does He not, 
 can He not, will He not say the same now ? He 
 will. " God is in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them." If God says this, He expects us to 
 believe Him, or we "make Him a liar." If He 
 is content with declaring but not explaining it, I 
 must be content to take it on His word, and to 
 wait for its being all made clear when we see Him 
 as He is. In the words of the beautiful hymn, 
 which preaches all the gospel we need, and 
 understand, and care for — 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED 8] 
 
 / lay my sins on Jesus, 
 The spotless Lamb of God ; 
 
 lie bears them all and fire* //s 
 From the accursed load. 
 
 When I cast my guilt on Him, He puts His 
 righteousness on me ; for my sins He gives me 
 in exchange I lis own obedience. Having made 
 peace through the hloodofllis cross, He bestows 
 that peace on me, and I am at rest. 
 
 " There is, therefore, now no condemnation 
 to them which arc in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." " Yea, 
 rather that is risen again," St. Paul goes on to 
 say. Christ has risen for me. The resurrection 
 of Christ has a twofold value — as the pledge of 
 victory and as the manifestation of acceptance. 
 He has conquered death. " O death, where is 
 thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" But 
 His resurrection is also His Father's testimony 
 to the sufficiency of the atonement by the cross. 
 " Who was delivered for our offences, and raised 
 again for our justification." " The God of our 
 fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and 
 hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with 
 His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for 
 to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of 
 sins." The risen Saviour is the author and 
 finisher of the new life ; the pledge of acceptance 
 and victory. Again St. Paul goes on : " Who 
 is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh 
 intercession for us." Christ's glorified humanity 
 
 F 
 
82 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 is at once the first-fruits and the earnest of our 
 chnst has own glorification there. When we sin, He is 
 "Heaven for our advocate. He presents before the face of 
 His Father " the blood of sprinkling, which 
 speaketh better things than that of Abel ; " as 
 " the Lamb as it had been slain," He represents 
 the one sacrifice for sins ; whereby He hath 
 " perfected for ever them that are sanctified." 
 His presence is His intercession ; His interces- 
 sion ensures the continual gift of the Holy Ghost 
 for the Church's life and work in the world. 
 " We have not an High Priest which cannot be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but 
 was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin." 
 
 His incarnation is the basis of the atonement, 
 His life the exposition of it, His death the com- 
 pletion of it, His resurrection the evidence of its 
 acceptance, His ascension the application of its 
 virtue. The incarnation makes the atonement 
 possible. The atonement is the expression of 
 the love of God, and the manifestation of the 
 nature of God, in the claims of His holiness, the 
 stupendousness of His sacrifice, the beauty of 
 His humility. The resurrection crowns the 
 crucified with glory and honour, inspires the 
 human family, of which Jesus has become a 
 member, with dignity and hope. The ascension, 
 which opens the kingdom of Heaven to all be- 
 lievers, brings Heaven down to earth, through 
 the power of the indwelling Spirit, into the 
 
CHRIST CRUCIFIED S3 
 
 homes and hearts of men. We, too, who know 
 and believe the love God hath to us, may take up 
 our song and say, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom 
 and strength, and honour and glory and blessing." 
 In conclusion, if the atonement reveals the love 
 of God, and this is its supreme revelation, it also Holiness. 
 reveals the holiness of God. If He yearns to 
 save, He may be forced to condemn. The judge 
 who says to some, " Come, ye blessed of my 
 Father," will say to others, " Depart from me, 
 ye cursed." We read of " the love of Christ 
 which passeth knowledge." We also read (surely 
 it is one of the most tremendous sentences in the 
 Bible) of " the wrath of the Lamb." 
 
 Let no one trifle with sin, or presume on God's 
 forbearance about it, or think it does not matter, 
 or that pardon can come whenever it is con- 
 venient to ask for it. " The agony and the 
 bloody sweat, the cross and the passion," are the 
 measure as much of God's unspeakable horror 
 of sin as of His boundless pity for sinners. 
 
 Then let it be observed that it is an incorrect 
 and perilous notion, that because Christ died for 
 us, the temporal or eternal consequences of sin 
 arc repealed or diverted ; or that because " by 
 Mis stripes we are healed," the process of healing 
 involves neither loss nor suffering to sinners. 
 " The wages of sin is death," and though the 
 gift of God is eternal life — His full, free, present, 
 ungrudged gift to us — sin, even though forgiven 
 
84 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 and forsaken, leaves its lethal effect on us. Old 
 habits, evil memories, indulged propensities, 
 neglected talents go with us to the edge of our 
 grave, make up the total of the character which 
 will sum up our life's history in the world, and 
 be ours when we enter eternity. The apostle of 
 justification in his letter to the " legal " Gala- 
 tians, thought well to press this solemn warning 
 — do not we need it as much as they ? " Be 
 not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever 
 a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Lastly, 
 when the apostle reminds us, as he is careful 
 twice to remind us, that we are bought with a 
 price, the price which St. Peter says is " the 
 precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without 
 blemish and without spot," what is the inference 
 he draws ? In one place, that of glorifying God 
 in our body and in our spirit, which are God's ; 
 and in the other, that of being His willing, ready, 
 obedient slaves. He has bought us ; we are 
 His property ; we owe Him everything ; let us 
 recognise and pay our glorious debt. If anyone 
 has real cause to doubt that he is forgiven, it 
 will be he who has no penitence for past sin, no 
 deep living desire to be pure and holy. If any 
 of us wish to manifest to God and men the 
 glorious liberty of those who arc set free from 
 sin and made servants unto righteousness, let 
 them yield themselves to Gcd, their Master, their 
 Saviour, their Friend, whose yoke is easy and 
 His burden light. 
 
CHRIST RISEN 
 
My joy is death — 
 Death at whose name I oft have been afear'd 
 Because I wish'd this world's eternity. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
THE RESURRECTION CREDIBLE 
 
 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that 
 God should raise the dead f — Acts xxvi. 8. 
 
 TWO difficulties are constantly raised about 
 the resurrection of Christ, one affect- 
 ing the occurrence of the fact, the other denying 
 the possibility of it. The first is reasonable, 
 the second outrageous. The first can be fairl}' 
 met and thoroughly debated, and then rejected 
 or accepted, according to the value of the evi- 
 dence adduced for it. The second starts from the 
 assumption (at once arrogant and unphilosophicalj 
 that physical law includes and limits the know- 
 able, and that anything admittedly outside of it, 
 be the evidence of it what it may, must be in a 
 sphere of which the human mind cannot be 
 expected to take serious notice, and so is either 
 above or beneath acceptance. 
 
 St. Paul surely here addressed himself to the 
 latter of these objections rather than to the 
 
SS QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DU1Y 
 
 former. Not without reason. If an event, how- 
 ever momentous and far-reaching, is instantly, 
 perhaps scornfully, rejected as ludicrously incre- 
 dible, the result is that it is ordered oft" the 
 threshold of the mind, as not deserving even ad- 
 mittance. On the whole, however, the Church 
 has no reason to complain that the stupendous 
 event, which at once creates her life, accen- 
 tuates her message, explains her history, and 
 initiates her triumph, should have been examined, 
 sifted, and weighed as no other event in the 
 world's history has been. Everything, as St. 
 Paul observes in his great argument to the 
 Corinthians, depends upon it. 
 
 If Christ is not raised, there is no redemption 
 for the race. If Christ is not raised, then He 
 deceived Himself, and disappointed His followers. 
 Yet nothing is more certain than that, before He 
 died, He repeatedly told them that after He had 
 died He should rise again. Nothing is more 
 certain than that they did not understand Him 
 when He said it, and that, after His death, not 
 one of them consoled himself with the hope of 
 His resurrection. Nothing further is more 
 certain than the slowness and bewilderment with 
 which they accepted the fact of His resurrection 
 when He at first appeared to them. Nay, so slow, 
 so reluctant were they to accept it, that, in 
 the words of an Evangelist, " He upbraided 
 them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, 
 because they believed not them which had seen 
 
CHRIST RISEN 89 
 
 Him after He was risen." Once more, nothing 
 is more certain than that, when they were finally 
 
 and completely convinced of it, they were never 
 moved out of their conviction, or shaken in their 
 habit of proclaiming it as the keystone of their 
 glorious message. It is hardly too much to say 
 that it had an absolutely transforming power on 
 their entire spiritual nature. It at once inspired 
 them with an irresistible enthusiasm, and in- 
 flamed them with an unspeakable joy. 
 
 St. Paul, in his address to Agrippa and Festus, How the 
 and the glittering crowd of soldiers and courtiers a g£ ti e them 
 in attendance, grapples with this question at 
 once. He does not indeed pause to contend for the 
 power of God to raise the dead. That he seems 
 to assume as beyond questioning. But he says : 
 " Why should not you believe that God is will- 
 ing to raise the dead ? " and " On what grounds 
 is such willingness incredible?" If those who 
 were His companions and followers say that they 
 saw Jesus after death, why do you reject it with 
 a scoff, as if such a thing could not be ? The 
 inference of course follows. If God raised Jesus, 
 that at least is one instance of His willingness 
 to raise the dead. Why should it be the only 
 instance ; and what is the practical good of it, if it 
 does not affect us ? If He raised one from death 
 it is at least conceivable that He will raise others 
 from death ; and such a resurrection is life and 
 hope for the world. There are thus two classes 
 of reasons which should make us refuse to 
 
go QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 think it incredible that God should raise the 
 
 dead. One which has reference to His own 
 
 eternal nature ; the other which impresses itself 
 
 upon us from the serious contemplation of our 
 
 own. 
 
 Rising from the dead implies life beyond the 
 resume- ~ . . , . 
 
 Hon grave. lo speculate on immortality, as apart 
 
 imping. f rom resurrection, is both reasonable and inter- 
 esting, but it would be outside our subject. It 
 may, however, be observed here that the familiar 
 expression " immortal soul " has no place in holy 
 Scripture, and our Lord seems to identify the 
 promise of resurrection with the continuity of 
 the personal life. Thus arguing with the Sad- 
 ducees He says, "As touching the dead that 
 they rise : have ye not read in the book of Moses, 
 how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, 
 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of 
 Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? He is not the 
 God of the dead, but the God of the living ! " 
 The fulfilment of God's purpose, and the mani- 
 festation of God's righteousness, seem further 
 to require a resurrection from the dead. This 
 life of ours on earth is but a short fragment of 
 time. The history of our race in the world is 
 so full of stops and checks ; so slow in its 
 process of development ; so fraught with terrible 
 anguish ; so perplexing with insoluble problems, 
 that it seems incredible that this life could be 
 other than a threshold, a vestibule, to unend- 
 ing aeons in front, where hereafter it shall work 
 
i HRIST RISEN 91 
 
 out its complete destiny, and justify our creation 
 in the image of God. Everything towards a 
 goal of good moves slowly, even unwillingly. 
 It lias been observed by a living writer that 
 there is a " boundless improvablcness of the 
 human lot ; " but also " intense difficulty " in 
 " making life better by ever so little." God is 
 and God rules, yet clouds and darkness are 
 round about Him, and the moan of taunting and 
 weariness still goes up to Heaven, "O that I 
 might find Him." Moreover, God does not inter- 
 fere now, as we might expect Him to interfere, 
 for the vindication of the righteous, and for the 
 punishment of the sinner. Things are inextri- 
 cably mixed. 
 
 There is a reward for the righteous ; but he 
 does not get all of it, sometimes nothing, except 
 the love of God. There is a reward for the 
 sinner ; but if that always came on this side 
 death there would be no test of integrity and no 
 trial of faith. No doubt these reflections are as 
 old as the hills, and they do not go very far ; 
 nevertheless men have muttered them to them- 
 selves, whispered them to each other, and with 
 hope from them have quietly fallen asleep. Old 
 things may be as true as new ; and what has 
 comforted past ages of sorrowful and perplexed 
 hearts may have some force in it to-day. On 
 the side of man there are at least two cogent and 
 irrepressible reasons for suggesting a life to come 
 and the resurrection, which summons us to it, 
 
92 QUESTIONS OF FAITH ANT DUTY 
 
 and equips us for it. One is duty, the other 
 love. 
 
 " Duty is a vast power, and needs a vast world 
 to work in." But what paralyses and depresses 
 us for duty is the chilling thought that we shall 
 never get but a very small part of it done. 
 What is so apt to daunt us in the inception of 
 great plans, or the persevering with vast experi- 
 ments, or the inventing and starting of noble 
 philanthropies, is the inevitable thought that 
 soon we may be called away, before even a very 
 small part of our design is accomplished, and 
 then out of our cold white fingers the thread of 
 the web will drop, which no other hand will 
 weave into our design. The thought of eternity 
 in front — wherein to pick up broken threads, and 
 to perfect self-culture, and to see as we are seen, 
 and to know as we are known — makes men of 
 us, and instantly sets us free with the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. So, too, with 
 love. If there is no resurrection ; if death, in- 
 stead of being an event in life, is the end and 
 grave of it, why am I capable of loving others — 
 why are others capable of loving me ? This soul 
 of mine, with its affections, aspirations, hopes, 
 aims, and longings, becomes the most gratuitous 
 and unaccountable machine of deliberate moral 
 torture that the human mind can conceive. But 
 if in the Father's house there are many mansions, 
 and if some of His children are in the upper 
 story and others in the lower, while all are be- 
 
CHRIST. RISEN 93 
 
 neath the same roof, all breathing the same 
 atmosphere, all looking for one Saviour, all sus- 
 tained by one food, then the life I live is some- 
 thing "more than an insect's life ;" then, strange 
 as it still appears that on such a short trial such 
 eternal issues should hang, I begin to love here, 
 that I may go on to love there. When God 
 made me in His own image, it was that I might 
 live and know and love and worship and serve 
 for ever and ever. 
 
 Thus, " Why should it be thought incredible 
 that GoJ should raise the dead ?" 
 
 II 
 THE QUESTION BY THE OPEN TDM/; 
 
 Why weepest thouf Whom seekest thouf—JoHH xx. 15. 
 
 Pi IE first of these questions was asked by 
 angels ; both of them by the Lord. They 
 were asked, by the side of the empty tomb, of a 
 weeping, desolate woman, the passionateness of 
 whose sorrow for a moment robbed her of the 
 exercise of her understanding. Through the 
 exquisite tears which blinded all the faculties of 
 her being, she could not see that the cause of 
 her disappointment was also the fountain of her 
 hope. Mary Magdalene had come to anoint her 
 
94 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Saviour for His burying. To her dismay, He 
 was gone, and she did not know where they had 
 laid Him ; and clearly it never even occurred to 
 her (had the apostles felt hopeless of impressing 
 it?) that He was gone because He was risen, and 
 that she was seeking the living among the dead. 
 The angels gently asked her, Why she was 
 weeping ? So absorbed was she in her sorrow 
 that it seemed no strange thing to be addressed 
 by them. Suddenly she saw Him, and He, too, 
 asked her why she wept. Only with the insight 
 which He possessed, and angels could not possess, 
 He put a second question, which at once touched 
 the fibres of her nature and produced the answer 
 He desired. " Whom seekest thou ? " The rest 
 followed ; not at once, but as soon as He saw 
 she could bear it. He called her by that familiar 
 name which stirred in her the blessed memories 
 of the past. All flashed on her in a moment. 
 She fell at His feet, as we shall fall at His feet, 
 when with purged eyes we first see Him in His 
 beauty. His instruction to her is a precious 
 comment on the right use of religious feeling. 
 His discouragement of her homage of rapturous 
 worship teaches us, among other things, that to 
 obey is better than sacrifice, and that the 
 highest blessings are given only to be cheerfully 
 shared. 
 
 Why do we weep by the grave of a friend, and 
 how are those tears (tears which Jesus shed, 
 and which are a feature of our true humanity) 
 
CHRIST RISEN 95 
 
 to be explained and justified, and dried and 
 healed ? 
 
 First of all, they arc tears which How from a The mean- 
 feeling of sympathy. Our friend has gone down fr£fa ea 
 to the edge of the river, and we went with him dead - 
 there, but we had to stay on the bank to sec 
 him plunge in and disappear beneath the waters. 
 The pain, the weakness, the decay, the parting, 
 the death are all fresh in our memory, and the 
 lacerated nerves still ache with pain. The 
 thought of our friend's loneliness as he passed 
 away by himself, without one who loved him at 
 his side, is another pang to the heart, though 
 there is a certain unreasonableness in it. Most 
 of all, we feel that what he has gone through we 
 must go through. Whether or no we weep 
 for ourselves, to have no one to weep over us 
 would be the awful Nemesis of a selfish and 
 wicked life. 
 
 We weep also from the fact of separation. 
 The world is emptier than it was, and emptier of 
 the one friend who helped to make it full for us. 
 We cannot go to him now, and he cannot come- 
 back to us. He ma}' be close to us in that 
 invisible world which surrounds us with its 
 peopled and solemn mystery, but that does not 
 seem to go far. When we want counsels of 
 wisdom or glances of tenderness, there is a 
 great gap in life, and no one else can fill it. 
 
 Then sometimes we weep (and these are 
 perhaps the saddest tears of all) from the self- 
 
96 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 accusings of a too late regret. Have we been 
 unjust, impatient, resentful, negligent ? Our 
 faults come back to us in the hour of farewell 
 and sting us like hornets. Or they have sinned, 
 for they were men. Have we done what it 
 was suitable for us to do, with all gentleness, 
 but with all plainness, to point out their sin ? 
 Regrets may be unavailing, but they are at least 
 the pulsings of generous hearts, which in con- 
 fessing the past give hope for the future. 
 
 Once more we weep — and it was this that 
 gave its special mournfulness to Mary's tears — 
 from a sense of irreparable loss. In losing- 
 Jesus she seemed to have lost all that made life 
 beautiful, sorrow bearable, goodness possible, 
 duty joyful. His serene authority, which made 
 it a keen delight to obey Him ; His penetrating- 
 words, which reached all her nature, and at 
 once stirred, illuminated, and satisfied it ; His 
 tender friendship, which discovered and inter- 
 preted and soothed all the innermost longings 
 of her heart ; the spotless holiness, which did 
 not appal but attracted, did not frighten but 
 cheered ; the face so wonderful in its solemn 
 beauty ; the dignity, by which He bore the mien 
 of a king walking through the world in disguise 
 — all this was gone, and nothing of it remained 
 but the recollection of an exquisite goodness. 
 To have even had but one glimpse of it was no 
 doubt a possession for ever, but to have Him 
 only to lose Him was to give her the feeling of 
 
CHRIS I RISEN 97 
 
 being suddenly and hopelessly poor. So we 
 too, in our measure, feel about our friends, 
 when we discover, a little too late, how precious 
 they were to us, and desire to recover the 
 opportunities now for ever gone. A wife 
 mourning for a husband, a child for a parent, 
 a sister for a brother, a friend for a friend, all 
 indicate and express varieties of the loss which 
 death compels. Yet it is also true that — 
 
 ' Tis better to have loved and lost, 
 Than never to have loved at all. 
 
 In conclusion, "Why weepest thou?" will 
 one day be the question put to the child, or Home 
 friend, or kinsman, or neighbour, w r hen strong' 7 ""^" 
 hands carry us to the grave, to which we have 
 so often followed others, and when a not inaccu- 
 rate or unjust verdict on the quality and useful- 
 ness of our lives will be pronounced by those 
 who stand by. Will there really be any to 
 weep for us ? Will there be any whom we 
 have helped, taught, comforted, and brought to 
 Jesus —friends like those who wept for Dorcas, 
 when Peter came to raise her ; friends like those 
 who well-nigh broke St. Paul's heart with then- 
 protestations and weepings, when he was bent 
 on going up to Jerusalem with his life in his 
 hand ? Oh, that we may live, so as after death 
 still to inspire duty, and to check sin, and to 
 restrain indulgence, and to comfort sorrow. 
 Then the sobs of the mourning will mean the 
 
 G 
 
9S QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 song of the angels, and the tears of man will be 
 the smile of God. When we weep for others 
 let not our reasonable, our legitimate sorrow be 
 embittered by rebelliousness, or exasperated by 
 unbelief. If only we can indulge the humble 
 hope that they are with Jesus, of this we may be 
 well assured, that however much they love us 
 and wish for our company — and they do continue 
 to love us and wish for our company — it is not 
 in the direction of wanting to come back to us, 
 but of wanting us to go up to them. If we can 
 hope, with good grounds for our hope, that they 
 are with Jesus, this too may we also hope, that 
 Jesus is with us. He is the living bond between 
 us both. 
 
 He is very gentle and patient and tender with 
 us in the first paroxysm of sorrow. He waits 
 to speak until we are able to hear Him, and then 
 speaks but a few words at a time, as we are 
 ready to bear it. But He expects to be trusted, 
 and He claims to be obeyed. He tasted death 
 that He might conquer death, and in His right 
 hand now are the keys of death and Hades. If 
 we really believe that He died and rose again, 
 even so those that sleep in Jesus shall God bring 
 with Him. 
 
 " Why weepest thou ? Whom seekest thou?" 
 said the Lord. Mary wept for Jesus, and sought 
 Jesus, and this blessed woman found Him, found 
 Him before the disciples found Him, found Him 
 through the greatness of her ignorant love. To 
 
CHRIST RISEN 99 
 
 seek for Jesus, to find Him, to keep Him, and to 
 wait for Him from Heaven is the one secret of 
 peace about our friends when they leave us, of 
 reunion with our friends when we join them. 
 Judging from the somewhat perilous assurance 
 of many who speak about meeting their friends 
 in a better world, when neither they nor their 
 friends gave much attention to it while living in 
 this one, we may well, as there is occasion, 
 remind others, and be continually recollecting 
 ourselves, that the only well-grounded hope of 
 living and reigning with Christ in the world to 
 come, is living and suffering and working for 
 Him in this present world. Balaam could utter 
 the pious hope that he might " die the death of 
 the righteous," but he met his death fighting 
 among the foes of God. 
 
 HI 
 THE SPIRITUAL BODY 
 
 Hcmo are Hie dead raised up; and 70//// what body do they com,- ' 
 1 COH. xv. 35. 
 
 CT. PAUL resents this question, as savouring 
 
 either of levity or captiousness. While, of The nature 
 course, it is possible to ask it in a reasonable %*j? rtsea 
 and becoming spirit — the whole subject is in- 
 tensely interesting to a thoughtful mind — we 
 
ioo QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 must always remember the limitations of our 
 knowledge. We will remember also how the 
 Sadducees, whom the apostle doubtless had in 
 his mind, strove, when tempting the Lord, to 
 discredit the doctrine of the resurrection by the 
 suggestion of extravagant contingencies, which, 
 as he clearly showed, will never happen. To 
 desire to understand all that God reveals, and to 
 be content not to understand what it has not 
 pleased Him to reveal, are but different phases of 
 " the obedience of faith." 
 
 " How are the dead raised up " is a question 
 which apparently points to the mode or manner 
 of the resurrection. The answer to be given, 
 and it is the only answer, is, " by the mighty 
 power of God." Each person of the blessed 
 Trinity is said in Holy Scripture to have a share 
 in it. Call it by whatever name you please, and 
 describe it as miraculous or supernatural, it is, 
 it must be, the direct interposition of the personal 
 action of God. If God is what we usually con- 
 ceive Him to be, Almighty, it is a childish and 
 even fatuous absurdity to deny Him the power 
 of raising the dead ; and this St. Paul had plainly 
 in his mind when he pleaded before Agrippa, 
 " Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
 with you that God should raise the dead ? " If 
 He is not God, and so the attribute of omnipo- 
 tence does not belong to Him, certainly there is 
 no resurrection. The matter is ended ; the 
 grave closes all ; the fool was right when he said, 
 
CHRIST RISEb ioi 
 
 " There is no God." A verse in the Romans 
 compactly summarises the divine agency in the 
 matter. Other passages corroborate the parti- 
 culars of it. " If the spirit of Him that raised 
 up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that 
 raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken 
 your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in 
 you." It was the Father that raised up Jesus. 
 So said St. Peter : " The God of our fathers 
 raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a 
 tree. Him hath God exalted to His right hand 
 to be a Prince and a Saviour." St. Paul wrote 
 to the Romans : " And declared to be the Son of 
 God with power according to the spirit of holi- 
 ness, by the resurrection from the dead." But 
 the work of raising the dead in the general 
 resurrection at the last day the Father has com- 
 mitted to the Son, as a function of the media- 
 torial office. " As the Father raiseth up the 
 dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son 
 quickeneth whom He will. For as the Father 
 hath life in Himself, even so hath He given to 
 the Son to have life in Himself. The hour is 
 coming in the which all that are in the graves 
 shall hear His voice." But as St. Paul makes 
 clear from the passage already quoted, it is 
 the Holy Spirit who will quicken our mortal 
 bodies, when the end comes and the time is 
 ripe. 
 
 Beyond this we cannot tell, for we do not 
 know. The method and the time of the resur- 
 
102 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 rcction are among the hidden things of God, and 
 we will leave them there. 
 
 On the second limb of the question, " With 
 what body are they raised ? " the Apostle 
 animadverts with an almost severe irony. He 
 answers it by constructing a parable. The dead 
 body is the seed. The grave is the earth in 
 which it is deposited. The resurrection body is 
 not a mere reproduction of the seed thus depo- 
 sited, but is something quite different — as diffe- 
 rent as a full head of corn is from a single grain ; 
 and with this additional distinction, that in 
 earthly sowings many seeds prove unproductive 
 and are wasted, here " to every seed its own 
 body." The divine sovereignty is asserted and 
 maintained. " God giveth it a body as it hath 
 pleased Him." It is to be raised in incorruption, 
 in glory, in power, a spiritual body, to bear the 
 image of the heavenly, when this corruptible 
 shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall 
 put on immortality. 
 
 The Lord's It may be said that, after all, these are but 
 
 risen bodv . . . 
 
 typical of vague and somewhat shadowy expressions, sug- 
 
 ours. gesting great ideas, but not clothing them with 
 
 objective realities, enough for hope and a noble 
 
 delight in the contemplation of things which 
 
 "God hath prepared for them that love Him," 
 
 but advisedly and mercifully obscure. We have, 
 
 however, one distinct and typical instance of the 
 
 resurrection life in all its completeness — that of 
 
 our Lord during His forty days' sojourn before 
 
CHRIST RISEN 103 
 
 lie ascended into Heaven; and from the reve- 
 rent consideration of the resurrection body in 
 which He was pleased to clothe His glorified 
 humanity after He had conquered death we may 
 safely and accurately infer these four particulars. 
 There will be a continuity between the earthly 
 body and the glorified body so as to maintain 
 and manifest the personal identity of the two. 
 There will be still the wonderful and perhaps 
 unsurpassable human form, though what will be 
 its organic developments and its methods of 
 sustaining life can hardly be said to be revealed. 
 There will be an adaptation of the risen body to 
 the uses and employments and activities for 
 which in the will of God it will be designed. 
 Our Lord had the power of appearing and dis- 
 appearing, of coming and going, of concealing 
 Himself and revealing Himself, which it is not 
 perhaps necessary to suppose was a prerogative 
 of His divinit}'. Angels, for example, as their 
 appearances in Holy Scripture are from time to 
 time described, seem to possess such a power. 
 'There will be also, as it is not unreasonable to 
 conjecture, a close and inevitable, and even 
 judicial, relation between the life of the body, 
 whether physical, or moral, or intellectual, as 
 lived on earth, and the tabernacle which it will 
 be given to inherit all through the ages to come. 
 A child's risen glory will hardly be as a man's. 
 The thief on the cross will not shine as St. John 
 will shine. Martyrs will have their pre-eminent 
 
104 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 splendour ; and those who have been saved as 
 by fire will have their place, and their song, and 
 their duty, but not in front. 
 
 Let us in conclusion observe three things. 
 There is no real inconsistency between what has 
 been well called "identity and variety"; in our 
 being different in the life to come from what we 
 are now, and yet being the very selves which 
 lived and acted here. There is, for instance, an 
 immense difference between the patriarch of 
 eighty and the infant of an hour, so immense 
 that he who had seen only the infant or only 
 the patriarch would find, in this world at least, 
 recognition impossible. Yet the patriarch is in 
 a real sense the infant, only in its development 
 and completion. So will it be in the resurrec- 
 tion glory of the life to come ; and surely a 
 faculty of recognition will be among the many 
 endowments of that wonderful and incompre- 
 hensible condition to enable us to vindicate the 
 righteousness of God, and to observe the re- 
 compense of man. The seed-corn will be no 
 less identical with the glorious ear that has 
 sprung from it than the glorified saint with the 
 imperfect though sincere believer. 
 
 The apostle again distinctly emphasises the 
 fact of degrees in glory from another side, repro- 
 ducing and enforcing the doctrine in his First 
 Epistle to the Corinthians — "Every man shall 
 receive his own reward according to his own 
 labour." There arc in the physical universe suns 
 and stars ; and in the life to come there will be 
 
CHRIST RISEN 105 
 
 suns and stars. The sun's glory will be greater 
 than the star's ; but the star will have a glory of 
 its own, and need not be ashamed of it, and will 
 not be capable of being mortified by its littleness. 
 There will be no envy, no jealousy, no grudging, 
 no discontent there. The sun's glory will not 
 put out the star's glory ; and the star's glory 
 will add to the splendour of the sun. 
 
 One more lesson, and not quite a needless 
 one. Let us learn from the apostle not only 
 to look upon Heaven as a compensation for our 
 life on earth, but as a development and continua- 
 tion and result of it ; to regard our life here 
 as the school-time, the training-ground, the awful 
 yet delightful threshold for the eternal ages of 
 the life with God. Our self-cultivation, our 
 love of all things beautiful and elevating and 
 pure, our humanness of nature, our aspirations 
 after better things, our noble dreams after human 
 progress, our grand discontent with failure and 
 oppression, our completeness and symmetry and 
 equilibrium of existence in body, soul, and spirit, 
 may or may not be appreciated now, may or 
 may not be self-recompensing in the few years 
 of our mortal life. But they are a portion of 
 ourselves, they are seeds which have their 
 germination and harvesting in front, they are 
 shaping and forming and beautifying that glori- 
 fied nature, in which some day we hope to join 
 the just made perfect, and, better still, to inherit the 
 vision of God : when " They shall see His face, 
 and His name shall be in their foreheads." 
 
106 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 IV 
 
 THE CHALLENGE TO DEATH • 
 
 O death, where is thy sti/i^ .' O grave, where is thy victory f 
 i COR. xv. 55. 
 
 '""PHE apostle's heart is on fire. He is not 
 reasoning or arguing now. Shadows and 
 doubts and perplexities are far beneath him, 
 like mists on the face of a swamp for the tra- 
 veller who is climbing the hill. His enraptured 
 vision already penetrates the invisible world. 
 He hears the trumpet sound, he sees the graves 
 open, above him in the parting clouds the Lord 
 of Hades is seated in glory ; all round him, in 
 the ecstasy of his enraptured vision, the saints 
 are being clothed with their immortal bodies, 
 and death is being swallowed up of life. He 
 even apostrophises and challenges and taunts 
 death, the universal conqueror, with its own 
 discomfiture and disgrace ; and dares to make 
 nothing of it, with all its anguish and terror, 
 in view of the resurrection triumph. "O death, 
 where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy 
 victory ? " 
 Why has Let us glance for a moment at what the 
 
 apostle calls the sting of death, and the victory 
 of the grave ; and then try to steep and envelop 
 
 death 
 slins 
 
CHRIST RISEN 107 
 
 our spirits in the golden atmosphere of hope 
 
 and gladness and triumph in which his lofty 
 spirit rose above the lamentations and desola- 
 tions and partings and lonelinesses of death, to 
 the contemplation of the final joy. The word 
 "sting" here is in the original the word which 
 in the Acts (in St. Paul's defence of himself 
 before Agrippa) is rendered " prick." It is a 
 sting that gives a sharp and piercing wound. 
 
 There are many things to make death sad, 
 lonely, and terrible. But the sting is in the 
 recollection of sin. Whether the apostle here 
 had in his mind the deepening penitence of the 
 dying saint, who, while he clings to the cross, 
 does not wish to forget why he needs to cling 
 to it ; who, while he has perfect and unwavering 
 trust in the power of the precious blood to make 
 him whiter than snow, feels the shamefulness 
 of the stains while he accepts the gift of the 
 whiteness, we will not pause to inquire. To 
 some it is a needful though an awful discipline 
 to have the heart once more broken for the sins 
 of years ago, before they go to the Judge. 
 Others, not of necessity saintlier, seem to dis- 
 appear in a rapture of thankfulness. This also 
 is worth observing, that those about whose ac- 
 ceptance we feel most uneasy and uncertain are 
 not unfrequently those who have no sense of 
 sin and no fear of judgment, who go because 
 they can't help going, but to whom God is not 
 Father nor Heaven home. There is not uncom- 
 
io8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 monly a curious stolidity and insensibility about 
 the very souls which we should have thought 
 beforehand would have shivered and trembled at 
 death. They pass, and we do not know what 
 happens to them, except that God is more mer- 
 ciful than man, and that His righteousness is 
 the righteousness of Him whose name and nature 
 is Love. 
 The nature The sting of death perhaps means three 
 s "^'things. So far as anything we can do is con- 
 cerned, sin is irremediable, it is irrevocable, it is 
 inextinguishable. No tears, no sacrifices, no 
 prayers of ours can heal its deadly wound. 
 There it is still doing its deadly work, sowing 
 itself, multiplying itself, from soul to soul, from 
 family to family, from nation to nation, from age 
 to age. Our sins against our own souls are 
 bad enough, but the sins which we have tempted 
 others to sin are perhaps the most intolerable. 
 But as we tempted our fellows, they have 
 tempted others ; and sometimes to a good man, 
 even in his latest days, the thought of a youthful 
 folly or the companionship with a multitude to do 
 evil, works in the memory with a sharp jerk of 
 anguish. 
 
 How does the resurrection turn this " mourn- 
 ing into joy, and give us the garment of praise 
 for the spirit of heaviness ? " St. Paul answers 
 the question elsewhere in his great argument to 
 the Romans on peace by faith — " Who shall lay 
 anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is 
 
CHRIST RISEN 109 
 
 God that justifieth." " Who shall separate us 
 from the love of Christ ? .... As it is written, 
 for Thy sake we are killed all the clay long, we 
 
 are accounted as sheep for the slaughter 
 
 Nay, in all these things we are more than con- 
 querors through Him that loved us." He Who 
 has seen it all, and abhors it all, He against 
 Whom it was sinned, He Who suffered, as no 
 human mind can know, to put it away, is pleased 
 to forgive, wholly, freely, publicly, instantly, 
 finally ; and if He can forgive us, who are we 
 to say it is impossible we can be forgiven ? If 
 His death procures the forgiveness, and His 
 resurrection confirms it, and His ascension applies 
 it, and His advent in glory proclaims it, let us 
 not presume to be holier or wiser than He is : 
 our faith shall save us, we will go in peace. 
 
 / know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art ; 
 
 jfesus, the feeble sinner's friend ! 
 Nor wilt Thou with the night depart, 
 
 But stay, and love me to the end/ 
 Thy mercies never shall remove, 
 Thy nature and Thy name is love. 
 
 The victory of the grave is to the eye of sense, The resur- 
 and in the experience of humanity, a victory 
 indeed. Of all the millions that have lived upon 
 the earth since man was placed in it, but two 
 have escaped its doom. It is not only an uni- 
 versal victory, but it is such a complete one. 
 Any one who had not the Christian's Gospel to 
 
 rection 
 rictory. 
 
no QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 instruct him, and the Christian's hope to inspire 
 him, might be pardoned for thinking that when 
 the grave is shut all is buried there. It is 
 silence, and a silence that sinks into the soul with 
 an appalling frost. It is not only a complete 
 victory, but apparently it is a final one. In a 
 few years' time all that is left of the form once 
 radiant with beauty, and active with intelligence, 
 is a handful of bones between some mouldering 
 boards. It is also a disappointing and a humili- 
 ating victory. The Lord stooped to taste it, but 
 it was one of the profoundest features in the 
 history of His Passion. Not all, however, have 
 a tragic dignity about their death, not all die at a 
 solemn gathering of their friends. Some die by 
 inches long before death actually seizes them : 
 the pain and the slowness and the humiliations 
 and infirmities of dying almost earn death his 
 awful title of "king of terrors" more than the 
 dissolution itself. And to this the apostle puts 
 the jubilant, triumphant question, " Where is tlry 
 victory ? In the resurrection thou shalt be 
 robbed of it ; in the resurrection thou shalt con- 
 fess thy discomfiture, and surrender thy power." 
 When there is no more sin there is no more 
 death. Whatever the promise may actually 
 mean, whenever the time for accomplishing it 
 arrives, the word of God standeth sure. 
 
 " I saw the dead small and great stand before 
 God ; and the books were opened, and another 
 book was opened, which is the book of life, and 
 
I HRIST RISEN in 
 
 the dead were judged out of the things which 
 
 were written in the hooks according to their 
 
 works. And the sea gave up the dead which 
 
 were in it, and death and hell delivered up the 
 
 dead which were in them ; and they werejudged 
 
 every man according to his works. And death 
 
 and hell were cast into the lake of fire." 
 
 Three inspiring lessons St. Paul presses on /.,•„„„, ,,/• 
 
 the Church from this doctrine of the resurrection. /he n ' u "'- 
 
 recnon, 
 
 The first is thankfulness, the second is diligence, 
 the third is hope. We are to be thankful, for 
 the resurrection is a victory, and the victory is 
 God's gift to us, and the gift comes by and 
 through Christ. " Thanks be to God, which 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." St Paul was no pessimist, and the 
 religion of Christ is an anthem of joy. St. Paul, 
 out of his Roman prison, could press on the 
 Church as its grand duty to rejoice in the Lord. 
 We are not to look back, but to look forward ; 
 not only to look round, but to look up. Our 
 best is coming, and to think of it helps us to earn 
 it. Our sorrow is passing, and soon it will be 
 swallowed up in joy. " Our light affliction, 
 which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far 
 more exceeding and eternal weight of glory — for 
 we have a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
 This being so, how diligent we ought to be, 
 presses the apostle. " Be ye steadfast, immov- 
 able, always abounding in the work of the Lord." 
 
H2 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Filled hands and filled hours and filled hearts 
 shall mean one day a glad welcome and a bright 
 crown. Let us think not only of dear and dying- 
 faces, bearing in their worn outlines the marks of 
 the Lord Jesus, but of saints and prophets of 
 God, radiant in their resurrection glory and un- 
 fading brightness, rejoicing as a giant to run their 
 race. 
 
 This being so, let us hope, and not be 
 ashamed ; hope, and not be wailing with dismal 
 voices over buried efforts and wasted strength ; 
 hope, for Jesus is the Saviour of the world, and 
 He has given us a share in His saving work, and 
 He will see that His grace sfoes with it. 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 
 
Faith is moved by but one solitary passion — the hope oj 
 cleaving closer and ever closer to the Being of God. 
 
 Canon Scott Holland. 
 
FAITH IN CHRIST 
 
 Dost than believe on the Son of God f — JOHN ix. 35. 
 
 TWO assertions may be made about Jesus 
 of Nazareth without fear of contradiction 
 from any one. One is, that His life and death, 
 and teaching and claims have made more stir, 
 compelled more controversy, and produced more 
 results, than the life and death, and the teaching 
 and claims of any figure in history during the 
 last two thousand years. The other is, that 
 while those who have not felt able to concede all 
 His claims sometimes outvie those who do con- 
 cede them in their reverence for His character, 
 and their recognition of His influence, those 
 who give Him what he asks for — intelligent and 
 devout worship — have ever ranked among the 
 purest and most beneficent of mankind. During 
 His earthly ministry, while public opinion, both 
 in the provinces and in the capital, was violently 
 agitated with discussing His motives and His 
 
Il6 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 authority, Christ Himself again and again 
 inquired of His disciples, not only " Whom do 
 men say that I the Son of Man am ? " but also 
 "Whom say ye that I am?" He was very 
 careful to make it plain, that though for other 
 persons, and in questions of less import, a position 
 of indecision and of neutrality might be reason- 
 able and prudent, in His case such an attitude 
 was impossible. There are not three sides in 
 the Kingdom of God, there are only two. " He 
 that is not with Me is against Me." Not to 
 take the side of Jesus is to go against Him. 
 Indecision is the moral condition of a heart 
 which really says " No." 
 The The Church declares of the Lord, that He 
 
 teaching, is " perfect God and perfect man, of a reason- 
 able soul and human flesh subsisting ; who, 
 although He be God and man, yet He is not 
 two but one Christ ; one not by conversion 
 of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of 
 the manhood into God." In His life on earth, 
 He emptied Himself of His glory, suffering not 
 His eternal Godhead to obtrude its majesty, so 
 as to compel men to a submission which could 
 be of no moral value, unless it were the obedi- 
 ence of faith. He would not use the super- 
 natural power bestowed on Him for the supply 
 of His own necessities, or for the diminution of 
 the discomforts and inconveniences which con- 
 tinually beset Him, or for the defeat of His 
 enemies, or for any other purpose whatever 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 117 
 
 except that for which it was given Him — the 
 manifestation of the Father's purpose and char- 
 acter, and the practical illustration and expo- 
 sition of the Kingdom of Heaven He had come 
 to set up on the earth. Now and then, as it must 
 be admitted, flashes of His divine glory seem 
 to come forth from Him, to the dismay and 
 wonder of men, and at moments when we should 
 least have looked for them. Once He walks on 
 the water, made angry by a midnight storm, as 
 no other son of man ever did before or after 
 Him, as if to show to His apostles, tossed in 
 the waves, that He was Lord of nature as well 
 as of men. When they came to seize Him for 
 His Passion, before the traitor's kiss defiled Him 
 or Simon's rashness strove to defend Him, as 
 He met them to surrender Himself and to pro- 
 tect His disciples, such was the unspeakable 
 majesty of One Who had just been wrestling 
 with God, and to Whose exhausted nature angels 
 had ministered, that a strange awe fell on them, 
 and His voice had a presage of judgment in it. 
 They went back, and fell to the ground, unmanned 
 for their deed of treason. 
 
 But it was His rule to conceal the mystery of 
 His Godhead, and when St. Peter confessed it, 
 he was bidden to keep it secret ; men were to 
 discover it for themselves, by the teaching ol 
 the Spirit and their own reflection. No one is 
 ever compelled to believe. The worship is ac- 
 ceptable only when the will is free. There are, 
 
nS QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 however, four crucial instances, that may be called 
 specimen and typical cases, in which the Lord 
 distinctly and unreservedly disclosed the august 
 secret of His work and person. We will glance 
 at them, that we may learn from them the 
 abiding and immutable conditions under which, 
 to-day, He discovers Himself to men. In each 
 of these He gives a different glimpse of His 
 work and office. One was to a stranger ; one to 
 a person whom He had healed ; one to a beloved 
 friend ; one to a heathen. In three of them His 
 message wins, in the last it fails. 
 ^ our The first is by a well near a Samaritan village, 
 
 incidents. . J . . ° 
 
 where, in the sovereign exercise of an inscrutable 
 but pitiful goodness, He shows to a churlish 
 and stained woman, yet one who, as we say, 
 had good points in her, at once her great sin 
 and her full salvation. " I that speak to thee 
 am He." Was there ever a fuller, plainer, 
 kinder gospel than this preached to a sin- 
 burdened soul ? Why did the Lord do this 
 there, then, and with that woman ? His errand 
 to Samaria was an anticipation and presage 
 (St. Peter must often have thought of it after- 
 wards) of the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 to the Gentile world. This was in the com- 
 mencement of the first Galilean ministry, and 
 might have been impossible afterwards. The 
 woman was a born missionary. The Lord saw 
 this quality in her, and resolved to use it, and 
 bore with her till she was qualified to use it. 
 
CHRIS1 ISCENDED tig 
 
 " Come and sec a man which told me all that 
 
 ever I did — is not this the Christ ? " Here is 
 at once the missionary errand, the missionary 
 tidings, and the missionary spirit. We never 
 hear of her again ; but we think of the fields made 
 white with the harvest of those Samaritan souls 
 the Lord reaped afterwards with His own hands. 
 
 Time goes on. In Jerusalem the Lord sees 
 a man who was blind from his birth, puts clay 
 on his eyes, bids him go wash in Siloam, leaves 
 him and goes His way. The man is cured, but 
 has a bad time of it. The Jews are not pleased 
 with him for having giving Jesus an opportunity 
 of manifesting His divine power. When they 
 cannot by browbeating and cross-questioning 
 force him to any disparagement of his unknown 
 friend's character and life, they goad him into 
 a generous anger, and then cast him out. He 
 does not ask to be kept in. Jesus finds him, 
 reads his heart, admires his courage, sees that 
 there is the making of a disciple in him, puts to 
 him the most crucial, searching, tremendous 
 question even He ever put to any one, " Dost 
 thou believe on the Son of God ? " and when 
 the healed man replied, " Who is He, Lord, 
 that I might believe on Him ?" answered, "Thou 
 hast both seen Him, and it is He which speaketh 
 unto thee." We know what followed : " Lord, 
 I believe ; and he worshipped Him." 
 
 We pass to a little mountain village on the 
 slope of a hill that overlooks the Holy City. 
 
120 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Jesus, His disciples behind Him, is speaking 
 tenderly and soothingly to a beloved friend who 
 has just lost her brother, and whose heart is 
 lacerated by the thought that if Jesus had been 
 there he would not have died. But her tears are 
 not murmuring tears, and she has no reproach 
 in her heart for the absence of the one friend 
 who could have saved her all this sorrow. Here 
 comes in a more astounding message than has 
 ever yet left His lips. He is not only Messiah, 
 He is not only Son of God, but He is the con- 
 queror of death. " I am the Resurrection and 
 and Life ; he that believeth in Me, though he be 
 dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth 
 and believeth in Me shall never die." 
 
 First, the Saviour, because He is God and 
 man ; then the Friend, because He is God and 
 man ; then the Resurrection and the Life, be- 
 cause He is God and man. The august majesty 
 of His incarnate being makes Him mighty to save, 
 tender to love, strong to deliver. 
 
 Once more we see Him, at the supreme moment 
 of His life, when to all human appearance He 
 had utterly and hopelessly failed, and when He 
 who, as some had hoped, might have redeemed 
 Israel was given up into the hands of wicked 
 men to suffer death upon the cross. He stands 
 before the Roman procurator. The priests 
 savagely denounce Him ; the mob shout for His 
 blood ; the soldiers laugh with savage insolence 
 at this new rival to Caesar's power. Jesus is 
 
CHRIST ASCEND!-: J > 121 
 
 silent. The pagan, uneasy, filled with bitter 
 disdain for the Jews, touched with a pity in 
 which awe was strangely mingled with contempt, 
 and with an evident vexation that the prisoner at 
 his bar seemed to care for him no more than 
 for a slave, asks Him, among other questions, 
 these three, which include and recognise His 
 claims. " Whence art Thou ? " No answer. 
 14 Art Thou a King, then ? " " Thou sayest 
 that I am a King," was the calm reply. " What 
 is truth ? " a question to which he did not believe 
 there was an answer, a.id so he would not wait 
 for it. Jesus, because He is God and man, is 
 King ; but no false, or worldly, or unstable, or 
 sin-loving soul ma}' reckon itself among His 
 subjects. To be kings hereafter we must be 
 kings now : ruling ourselves, and sacrificing our- 
 selves for others. When He stood before Pilate, 
 the people were divided between those who 
 wished to crucify Him and those who wished to 
 crown Him. There are no others to-day. 
 
122 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 11 
 
 JESUS SINLESS 
 
 Which of yon convinceth me of sin f — John viii. 46. 
 
 (~\F all Christ's claims on the faith and alle- 
 ^■^ giance of mankind, this, perhaps, is the 
 most astounding. When He promised rest to 
 the weary and heavy-laden, only experience 
 could test the worth of His promise, and ex- 
 perience takes time. When He said that if 
 lifted up from the earth He would draw all men 
 unto Him, He uttered a prophecy, and anticipated 
 a triumph, both of which were in the dim future. 
 But this assertion of His sinlessness — the chal- 
 lenge both to friend and foe in respect of an 
 obedience without a flaw, an innocence without 
 a stain, a character without a blemish, a life 
 without a shortcoming, at once created a moral 
 chasm between Himself and other men, which 
 was not likely to predispose their self-love to 
 accept it instantly or cheerfully. It is instruc- 
 tive also to observe that the verdict which He 
 claimed was readily and unhesitatingly pro- 
 nounced by those who were with Him in the 
 most intimate moments of an unreserved com- 
 panionship, when weariness might have unhinged 
 His nerves, or opposition tempted His resentment, 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED [23 
 
 when even a momentary gesture of impatience 
 would have stamped itself on their memories as 
 inconsistent with His divine Sonship, and when 
 the neglect of but one opportunity for kindness or 
 mercy might have had a look of self-love. Yet 
 it is St. John, who shared His deepest intimacy, 
 who alone of the four Evangelists records this 
 challenge ; and St. Peter, in his first Epistle, 
 adds his own testimony, " Who did no sin, neither 
 was guile found in His mouth." His enemies 
 at the moment had nothing to say. It is im- 
 portant, also, to remark, in corroboration of His 
 absolute sinlessness, that when Pilate repeatedly 
 asked the priests, who were clamouring for His 
 blood, " Why, what evil hath he done ? " all the 
 answer they could give (suflicient, no doubt, for 
 their purpose) was, " We have a law, and by 
 that law he ought to die, because he made him- 
 self the Son of God." The two unique testi- 
 monies at His death — unique because given under 
 circumstances where they could least have been 
 expected, and from persons presumably quite 
 devoid of prejudice in His favour — are those of 
 two pagans, the Roman governor and the Roman 
 soldier. Pilate repeatedly declared, " I find no 
 fault in him ; " the centurion, as Jesus died, 
 said of Him, "Truly this was a righteous 
 man." 
 
 First, let us consider some features in the Somefaa- 
 sinlessness of Christ, which give it significance ^isshiless- 
 and moment, and then reflect upon its value. "*•*■ 
 
I2 4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Christ was sinless, in the incorrupt human 
 nature which He inherited from His mother, 
 " born of a pure virgin." Nothing of what we 
 call " original sin " was transmitted to Him, Who 
 was conceived by the Holy Ghost, as well as 
 born of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Then, though He was sinless, His sinlessness 
 was not that of one who was never tempted 
 to sin, and whose moral steadfastness had never 
 any strain put upon it. " He was tempted in all 
 things like as we are." The temptation in the 
 wilderness, of which He Himself must have given 
 the narrative to the apostles (who else could 
 have given it ?), is confessedly only an episode 
 in a continually tempted life. The Evangelist, 
 indeed, expressly records that the devil departed 
 from Him for a season. In the garden and on 
 the cross we feel sure that He was assaulted 
 again. 
 
 Further, the Lord's natural disposition, as the 
 Gospels make it abundantly evident, was not of that 
 impassive, unemotional, phlegmatic kind which 
 implies a sort of moral imperviousness to injus- 
 tice or opposition, and which creates a sort of 
 temperate zone in which tropical storms or arctic 
 icebergs neither wreck nor freeze. He longed 
 for human sympathy ; He missed, and once 
 noticed when they were denied Him, the cour- 
 tesies of social life. He was stirred to the 
 depths of His soul by formalism, cruelty, and 
 injustice. On the Pharisees His indignation 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 125 
 
 blazed in sentences that gleam with fire. Though 
 we never find Him confessing sin, whether in 
 word or in deed, whether in omission or commis- 
 sion, to God or to man, He delighted in unfolding 
 His plans to His disciples, and in receiving, not 
 indeed their advice, which He never asked for, 
 but their reflections, which showed Him as well 
 as themselves what was passing in their minds. 
 His moral sense was full of pores, sensitive to 
 every passing circumstance. A nature such as 
 His must have been peculiarly liable to lose its 
 moral equilibrium ; and whether by the taunts 
 of enemies or the dulness of friends, become 
 unbalanced and out of control. 
 
 Once more, His sinlessness must not only 
 be explained by the protecting environment of 
 His Godhead sheltering His humanity, united to it 
 in the One Personality, from all breath or chance of 
 sin. Were this all the account of the case, how 
 could He have been tempted in all things as we 
 are ? How could He, in the fulness of a personal 
 sympathy, succour us who are tempted to-day ? 
 Rather it was by the unfailing presence of the 
 Holy Ghost vouchsafed to Him without measure 
 at His baptism, and in absolute harmony with 
 the freedom of His human nature, illuminating 
 His mind with truth, inspiring His will with 
 duty, inflaming His heart with love, elevating 
 His conscience with devotion. It is a great 
 mystery, this human life, this sinless perfection, 
 this offering of Himself without spot to God by 
 
126 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 one Who was perfect God and perfect man ; a 
 mystery full of wonderful teaching for reverent 
 intelligences ; a mystery, also, about which we 
 only possess scanty though priceless hints. 
 \i7ia/ His The sinlessness of Jesus is an inestimable truth 
 means/or b° tn °f doctrinal and practical value. 
 "•>'• It affects the value of His sacrifice. The sin- 
 
 bearer, as all the types of the Mosaic law 
 prefigured, must be himself sinless — " a lamb 
 without blemish and without spot." Such is, 
 indeed, " the Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
 sins of the world." It affects the worth of His 
 righteousness. The eternal, immutable, inevit- 
 able law of God claims an entire fulfilment. 
 Who is to fulfil it ? One has said, " Lo, I come 
 to do thy will, O God." Did He do it, or did 
 He not ? He twice says of Himself that He 
 did do it ; and at the supreme moments of His 
 life. Once in His High Priest's prayer, after 
 the Paschal supper — " I have glorified Thee on 
 the earth ; I have finished the work which Thou 
 gavest me to do." Once, just before He died — 
 " It is finished." As to this, let us put in His 
 own claim. " If I say the truth, why do ye not 
 believe me ? " St. Paul corroborates, and presses 
 home the claim. " Christ is the end of the law 
 for righteousness to every one that believeth." 
 The righteousness of the head is the righteous- 
 ness of the body. In vital conscious union with 
 Him, we are by faith as righteous as He is, 
 because righteous with His righteousness. But 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 127 
 
 if He was not righteous after all, where are 
 we ? 
 
 It touches His example. " Who gave us an 
 example," writes St. Peter, " that we should 
 follow His steps." Of no saint in the eternal 
 glory will it be said that he exactly resembles 
 Jesus. No created soul can be quite or alto- 
 gether like Him. But each, according to his 
 individuality, will resemble Him then, and must 
 follow Him now. Yet if He were not sinless, 
 how should we wish to be, how could we 
 try to be ? 
 
 Once more, it affects His friendship. His 
 sympathy is so tender, so delicate, so exquisite, 
 so all-satisfying, just because it is so holy. We 
 are not afraid of His knowing all about us ; we 
 do not shrink from His doing all He will with 
 us. He reads our secrets ; we put ourselves in 
 His hands, and we are at rest. But only 
 because He is sinless. If Jesus is not sinless, 
 the sun has fallen out of the sky. 
 
128 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 III 
 
 CHRIST A TEACHER 
 
 How knowetk this man letters, having never learned f 
 John vii. 15. 
 
 r ~PHIS was a perfectly reasonable question to 
 ask, both from the side of the facts which 
 justified it and of the motive which actuated 
 it. Though authority to teach is not the only 
 credential to be demanded of a teacher, it is a 
 credential which has great weight with it. If a 
 teacher who claims a public hearing on subjects 
 the loftiest and most important that can occupy 
 the human mind, not only teaches in admitted 
 contravention of the creeds of his day, but asserts 
 in defence of his doctrine that he has received it 
 direct from Heaven, so far from taking umbrage 
 at a certain slowness and indocility of temper on 
 the part of his hearers, such a teacher, if wise, 
 will expect and welcome and do his best to 
 recognise it. Tenacity is no sordid quality of 
 the human mind, and it is useful for the pro- 
 tecting of truth as well as for the development of 
 knowledge. 
 The sub- Rightly to appreciate Christ as a teacher, we 
 
 S imtedch- must consider, however briefly, the substance 
 "'£■ of His teaching and the methods of it. They 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 129 
 
 hang together, and to divide them is to destroy 
 them. 
 
 Christ as a Teacher came to reveal God, to 
 spiritualise worship, to proclaim forgiveness, to 
 demand faith. What He omitted is perhaps as 
 remarkable as what He expounded ; and though 
 all He did and taught was to impress on men the 
 importance of the present life as continuous with, 
 and in a sense resulting from, the life on the 
 other side of death, He never, except in the case 
 of a single parable, lifted up the curtain that 
 separates the visible and invisible worlds. We 
 must wait until we are there to know. God, He 
 taught, was the Father of mankind, and all the 
 human race belonged to Him, and was dear to 
 Him, and contemplated in His purpose of mercy. 
 He Himself had come to reveal Him, for man 
 can only comprehend human ideas and human 
 qualities, and human lips must declare them to 
 human intelligences. The essence of acceptable 
 worship does not consist in the country in which 
 it is offered, nor in the shrine where priests con- 
 duct it, nor in the rites and ceremonies which 
 are the vehicle of it from the hearts of men, but 
 in the sincerity and devoutness and truth in the 
 hearts of the worshippers. Man can be forgiven 
 (mystery though such forgiveness must always 
 be to the mere reasoning faculty) for the sake of 
 God's Son, Who as man lived and died, and rose 
 again to put sin away. Faith is indispensable, 
 not to deserve the grace, but to receive it. It is 
 
 1 
 
130 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the homage of the will, the obedience of the 
 understanding, the voice of the conscience, and 
 the movement of the heart. It is not indeed 
 believing about something which saves us ; it is 
 believing on some one, and that some one is the 
 Son of God. Goodness, whether toward God or 
 man, consists in love. 
 
 Other truths than these the Lord privately 
 unfolded to His apostles as they were able to 
 bear them, and we possess them chiefly in the 
 records of the fourth Gospel. St. Luke also 
 gives us a hint, but only a hint, of other com- 
 mandments which He gave to the apostles in 
 the interval of the forty days between the resur- 
 rection and the ascension, the precise nature of 
 which is not disclosed. What, however, He 
 taught publicly, whether in Galilee or Jerusalem, 
 stirred, both among the unlettered and the lettered 
 classes, a fermentation of opinion which almost 
 amounted to revolution. At an early period in 
 His history an irreparable breach was made 
 between Himself and the religious leaders of the 
 time, while up to the last the common people 
 heard Him gladly, and the very servants sent to 
 take Him excused their helplessness by saying, 
 " Never man spake as this man." 
 The method But the methods of Christ's teaching were if 
 possible more remarkable than the substance of 
 it, and compelled surprise by their boldness as 
 well as by their wisdom, by their originality, and 
 yet by their profound acquaintance with the 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED iji 
 
 human heart. While lie taught with no mis- 
 giving, no hesitation, no 'sort of embarrassment 
 or diffidence, the people especially noted of Him 
 that it was "with authority." He did not quote, 
 as the religious teachers of the age did, Rabbinical 
 books to make good His assertions. His one 
 aim was not to destroy the law and the prophets, 
 but to fulfil them ; and He scrupulously reve- 
 renced the Holy Scriptures, to which He ap- 
 pealed in testimony to Himself. He did not so 
 much enunciate a s}'stem as declare seed truths 
 which He dropped into men's minds, to fructify 
 as occasion offered. What he seemed most to 
 dread was any coercing of the reason or will of 
 His hearers, so as not to leave them perfectly 
 free in the weighing and handling of what He 
 said to them. He aimed at convincing them, 
 not compelling them. He never gave them evi- 
 dence enough to constrain their intellectual assent, 
 for then there would have been no moral value 
 in it. A man is neither better nor worse for 
 admitting that two sides of a triangle are together 
 greater than a third. If he has a mind at all, 
 he cannot help admitting it. 
 
 In the same direction of thought we may ob- 
 serve that, in our sense of the word, our Lord 
 was never eloquent, never declaimed, never (except 
 when He was denouncing evil) suffered passion 
 to set His words on fire, never tried to throw 
 people off their guard, or to upset their moral 
 and mental equilibrium, in the way that merely 
 
132 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 human orators, bent on winning a victory, try as 
 a matter of course to do, and when they succeed 
 are praised for doing. He always desired to 
 leave them in entire possession of all their facul- 
 ties, and therefore addressed them with calmness 
 and quietness, that they might think as well as 
 feel — think, indeed, before they began to feel. 
 He appealed to a faculty within them, as well as 
 to an authority above them. He respected their 
 gift of reason, and often wondered that they did 
 not understand. His miracles, with one or two 
 trifling exceptions, were signs and accompani- 
 ments of His teaching, intended to illustrate and 
 expand it, as well as to accentuate and seal it as 
 sent from Heaven. When He taught in para- 
 bles, it was partly because they would be likely 
 to be more attractive, and be more easily remem- 
 bered afterwards ; also because the very form 
 and obscurity of them stimulated curiosity, and 
 provoked the discovery of the hidden meaning 
 from those who really cared to find it. His rule 
 was never to make men right, or good, or wise 
 against their will. What would such goodness 
 or wisdom be worth when it was gained ? But 
 He strove to win the will first, and then the rest 
 would follow. For, to repeat what cannot be 
 made too clear, our Lord never intended, and 
 the Church must never claim it, that the evidence, 
 whether for His doctrine or His claims, should 
 be irresistibly, overwhelmingly strong. Christ 
 drew — never drove. For what He said was 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 133 
 
 this : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
 shall see God." " If any man will do His will, 
 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
 God." "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
 shall make you free." 
 
 IV 
 CHRIST THE FOOD OF MAN 
 
 How can this man give //< his flesh to cat .' — JOHN vi. 52. 
 
 A PART from the spirit in which this question 
 was proposed, in its substance it was both 
 reasonable and just. To the people who had 
 followed Him over the sea, Christ, not without 
 deep purpose, whether to test their motives, to 
 stimulate their interest, or to encourage their 
 devoutness, had made claims and propounded 
 doctrine both novel and striking. First, He had 
 declared that there was a living bread which had 
 come down from Heaven, that men might eat 
 thereof and not die. When, further, as He had 
 intended them to do, His hearers understood 
 Him to mean Himself by the heavenly bread, 
 and naturally were perplexed by it, so far from 
 withdrawing what He had said, or explaining it 
 away, or making it easier for them, or at once 
 turning to another subject, He repeated his 
 
134 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 statement just as He had before done when 
 revealing to Nicodemus the mystery of the new 
 birth, in language even fuller of paradox and still 
 more certain to offend. He changed the figure 
 from bread to meat, and from describing a 
 privilege He proceeded to press a duty. " Except 
 ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His 
 blood, ye have no life in you. For my flesh is 
 meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." 
 Christ the food of the soul, as an elemental and 
 glorious verity ; the method and channel of this 
 food, as a practical and essential consolation, we 
 will consider now. When we think of Christ as 
 the food of the soul, these essential truths will 
 be found to be included in it. He is the life of 
 the soul before He can be its food. His entire 
 incarnate personality is the food and sustenance 
 He offers us. Each department of the spirit 
 needs and finds its sustenance from Him. 
 ChHsi the Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of man, 
 Life. is the author of our spiritual life conveyed to us 
 
 and fashioned in us by the Holy Ghost. " As 
 the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given 
 to the Son to have life in Himself." " As the 
 Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, 
 even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." 
 " He that hath the Son hath life, and He that 
 hath not the Son of God hath not life." " Ye 
 will not come unto Me that ye might have life." 
 But He Who is in the first instance the life of 
 man, sustains and preserves it through being 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 135 
 
 Himself its food. " I am the bread of life." 
 " The bread of God is He which comet h down 
 from Heaven, and giveth life nnto the world." 
 
 In language as explicit, as forcible, and even 
 as startling as illustration can make it, our Lord 
 declares that He Himself — His very substance, 
 His flesh and blood — is to be the meat and 
 drink of man, in the first instance conveying 
 eternal life to the soul, afterwards nourishing it 
 and maintaining it. Christ Himself, the undi- 
 vided, indivisible, incarnate Jesus, only begotten 
 Son of God from all eternity, born Son of man 
 in time, and God-man for ever, is the soul's life 
 and food. He is also the food of all man's 
 being. In a real sense our bodily life is bound 
 up with His. " In Him we live and move and 
 have our being." But to all our invisible and 
 spiritual faculties, whether those of the under- 
 standing, or the affections, or the moral sense, 
 Christ is in a wonderful and blessed way (oh ! 
 that we understood it more) refreshment and 
 vigour, and progress and food. He has solemnly 
 said of Himself that He is the truth as well as 
 the life. 
 
 The mind has its hunger, its poverty, its 
 barrenness, its very famine, and need not have 
 them. He who is the Word of God, the ex- 
 pression and revelation of His mind and will, 
 offers Himself to us to lead us on into further 
 tracts of truth, to enrich our mental faculties 
 with deeper visions and apprehensions of Him- 
 
ij6 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 self. We are to love God with the mind, and 
 the reward of it shall be that Christ will feed the 
 noblest part of us, that which is the threshold 
 and ante-chamber of all the rest, with that 
 truth which is Himself, with that doctrine which 
 is not His but the Father's. So, too, He will 
 nourish and stir and deepen and enrich the 
 affections by coming to dwell in our hearts by- 
 faith, and teaching us increasingly the glory and 
 holiness of love, and expanding in us the capacity 
 of it, and by concentrating our hearts on Himself, 
 thereby making us capable of more purely and 
 spontaneously and naturally loving others. Christ 
 does not do with us as we do with each other, 
 absorb and usurp our heart that it may be alien- 
 ated from others, but that it may have a nobler 
 and more beautiful hospitality for them. 
 
 The more that divine love is shed abroad in 
 our hearts, the more will human love blossom 
 and bring forth fruit, and what has finely been 
 called " the greatest thing in the world " be in- 
 creasingly our ennobling possession. Christ also 
 feeds and enlarges the horizon of our moral sense 
 by helping us to contemplate the perfection of 
 God manifested in His own nature. Our moral 
 sense in itself is apt to be narrow, small, poor, 
 circumscribed. In Christ a new world of good- 
 ness is opened out to us. " Old things are 
 passed away ; behold all things are become new. " 
 We never see the sinfulness of sin until we see 
 Jesus dying for it. We never care to rescue 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 137 
 
 others from it until we begin to discover what 
 exile from Mis love and presence must mean for 
 a lost soul. 
 
 But what arc the channels and methods and 
 conditions by which our Lord feeds us ? 
 
 Here, at the outset, on the very threshold of The me- 
 all we have to say, we name and press Faith as 'j asn *& by 
 the one absolute condition for knowing Christ, u ' hilh "•' 
 
 feeds us. 
 
 and feeding on Him, and finding in the ordinances 
 He has directed, strength and peace. " He that 
 cometh to Me shall never hunger ; he that believeth 
 on Me shall never thirst." " This is the word of 
 God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." 
 " This is the will of Him that sent Me, that 
 every one that seeth the Son and believeth on Him 
 may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up 
 at the last day." Faith is so indispensable be- 
 cause it is the homage of the will to God, and the 
 will is the man. Then, when we are quite clear 
 of this as the one indispensable, primary, essen- 
 tial condition of man's spiritual capacity for the 
 life and grace and food that are in Christ for him, 
 and as much of them as he pleases, the path is 
 open for inquiring as to the usual modes and 
 channels by which the Lord imparts Himself to 
 the soul as its nourishment and food. 
 
 Sometimes we may believe (and it is whole- 
 some to be reminded of it) our Lord visits and 
 blesses us, quite independently of any channels 
 and ordinances at all. Most believing men can 
 recall moments of blessedness, of divine nearness 
 
138 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 and communion, of indisputable accessions and 
 visitations of grace, which have lingered in the 
 soul for years, with an indescribable and hallow- 
 ing fragrance, which came and went, we knew 
 not why, but that the Lord willed it so. He is 
 not bound by means, and He has times and 
 seasons in His own hand ; but usually He honours 
 them, and He delights to meet us in His temple. 
 In His Word He feeds us. " Thy word was 
 found and I did eat it, and it was the joy and 
 rejoicing of my heart." " O how sweet are Thy 
 words unto my throat, yea, sweeter than honey 
 unto my mouth." In our worship of Him He 
 feeds us, and gives us back more than we have 
 given Him. " My soul shall be satisfied as with 
 marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth 
 Thee with joyful lips." By the spoken and 
 written words of His servants He feeds us. 
 " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one 
 to another. " 
 
 Oh, what Christian friendship might impart, 
 through the close and devout interchange of heart 
 and mind about the personal living Jesus, between 
 soul and soul. Reserve, coldness, timidity rob 
 us of priceless blessing. Through the pages of 
 a book, from the glowing lips of an ambassador 
 of Christ, from the patient face of a sufferer, or 
 from the calm smile of one who in a real sense is 
 " crucified with Christ," the Bread of God de- 
 scends from Heaven into the soul. There is one 
 channel more — the feast of holy love, at once a 
 
CHRIST ASCENDED 139 
 
 memorial, a prophecy, a banquet, where we love 
 to fulfil the dying command, " Take, eat, this is 
 My Body ;" where we may recognise at least 
 one, though not the exclusive, application of the 
 profound sentence at Capernaum, " He that eateth 
 My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me 
 and I in him. " If Jesus does not feed us here, 
 where does He feed us ? If He does not possess 
 us with His incarnate presence, cleanse us in His 
 precious blood, welcome us with that unspeakable 
 tenderness which we expect to feel resting on us 
 when we are passing into His immediate pre- 
 sence, and comfort us with the thought of His 
 unchanging love, where may we look for it on 
 earth ? This presence is not something for con- 
 troversy to wrangle over, or for schoolmen to 
 define : it is to be expected with meekness, and 
 to be received with gratitude. Strength and joy, 
 if the Psalmist's figures are correct, are the 
 blessings conveyed by the outward symbols, 
 which were ordained by the Saviour. To be 
 made strong in the Lord, and then to go on our 
 way rejoicing in His company, is the end and 
 sift of the Eucharistic feast. 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 
 
Science not less than theology is the inheritance of the 
 Christian. — Bishop Lightfoot. 
 
G 
 
 HOLY BAPTISM 
 
 What dotk hinder mc to be baptized ?— ACTS viii. 36. 
 
 OD the Holy Ghost is the author and 
 giver of life. By His divine operation 
 the Son of God became incarnate. On Jesus 
 at His baptism the fulness of His grace was 
 poured out without measure. At the creation of 
 the material world He " moved on the face of 
 the waters." By Him we are born again, " not 
 of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible." He 
 intercedes within us, as the Lord Jesus intercedes 
 above us, " with groanings which cannot be 
 uttered." It was in prospect of His being sent 
 to the world that the Lord promised to His 
 disciples that they should do greater works than 
 He had done. Sin against the Holy Spirit is 
 the unpardonable sin, because there can be no 
 repentance for it, and therefore no forgiveness of 
 it. We may grieve Him and we may quench 
 Him; we may continually "increase" in Him, 
 
i 4 4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 and it is our blessed duty to be filled with His 
 presence. His operations are manifold, His 
 work is invisible, His gifts are sovereign, His 
 grace indispensable. By Him the Son of God 
 makes the heart of man His personal and royal 
 habitation. The Church is His temple because 
 He is pleased to abide there. Before Christ 
 went back to Heaven He distinctly and solemnly 
 ordained two sacraments to be observed and 
 cherished by His Church, one on the eve of His 
 Passion, the other in view of His ascension. 
 The communion of His body and blood, which 
 was to be a memorial of His death, a prophecy 
 of His return, and a channel of His life, is one 
 of these sacraments, and (as we may have an 
 opportunity of seeing hereafter) it is the Holy 
 Ghost that makes this sacramental ordinance 
 potent with consolation and strength. This is 
 the sacrament of edification. The other sacra- 
 ment, ordained for all time, and for all men, He 
 imposed upon His followers as at once their 
 privilege and duty, and in language as clear, as 
 explicit, and as authoritative as human speech 
 could possibly make it. When He commanded 
 baptism with water into the name of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, He enacted a 
 sacrament of initiation, which should commence 
 what the other should mature, and should also 
 be the successor of the primitive rite of circum- 
 cision ordained for Abraham's seed. 
 
 The blessedness of this first sacrament has 
 
THE 1'h'OMISE OF THE FATHER 145 
 
 stirred, in all ages of the Church, though with 
 manifold degrees of importance, acute and almost 
 implacable controversies. Some have doubted 
 if sin after baptism could be forgiven — anyhow, 
 if the offender could be readmitted during his 
 lifetime to the full privileges of the Church. 
 Others (certainly not those who have thought 
 lightly of its privilege) have refused it to infants 
 and confined it to adults. The English Church 
 ordains the sponsorial office for those baptized 
 in infancy. Some have made the manner of 
 baptism as important as its matter, and have 
 refused to acknowledge the validity of its ad- 
 ministration except to those who receive it b} r 
 immersion. On the precise nature of the bless- 
 ing conferred in it there is a greater controvers}' 
 still, one, moreover, which cannot be pronounced 
 to be unreasonable, by those who would not 
 postpone the spirit to the letter, and who claim 
 as the essential condition of a capacity for grace 
 the conscious obedience of an intelligent faith. 
 While a few (not all of them scholars) decline to 
 recognise in our Lord's conversation with Nico- 
 demus any reference whatever either to the 
 form or grace of baptism, those who remember 
 the continual references which St. Paul makes to 
 it, as bearing closely and practically on Christian 
 doctrine, accept without difficulty the more than 
 probable conclusion that our Lord then had in 
 His mind the sacramental ordinance, which after- 
 wards was to be one of His last commands to 
 
 K 
 
146 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the apostles whom He had chosen. Nevertheless 
 they are not inconsiderably at variance among 
 themselves as to the exact bearing of the words 
 " born again " ; and in what sense and degree 
 the meaning, whatever it may be proved to be, 
 is applicable in the case (which it must be ad- 
 mitted imports into the controversy one of the 
 greatest difficulties of all) of those baptized in 
 infancy. On one point, however, all are abso- 
 lutely of one mind : that whatever may be the 
 grace or change conferred in baptism, that grace 
 or change is the invisible and divine work of 
 God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Baptism may truly be considered as a sign or 
 seal of personal covenant with God. It is also, 
 as at least one branch of the Catholic Church 
 holds it to be, a sure witness and effectual sign 
 of grace actually bestowed by God therein on 
 those who worthily receive it, according to their 
 capacity at the time. In the case of those who 
 receive it in riper years, with instructed intelli- 
 gence, sincere repentance, and personal faith, it 
 means the present and conscious forgiveness of 
 sins, the being made partakers of the divine 
 nature, the entrance of the illuminated and re- 
 generated soul into the fellowship of the saints 
 and the fruition of God. This is what it must 
 have been to Saul when Ananias was sent to bap- 
 tize him; also what, through default of the needful 
 repentance and faith, evidently it was not to 
 Simon Magus. Here, moreover, the work of the 
 
THE I'ROMISE OF THE FATHER 147 
 
 Holy Spirit on the mind and conscience of the 
 person desiring baptism anticipates in a pre- 
 venient gift of grace the fuller blessing given in 
 the sacrament itself. The eunuch in his chariot 
 had been personally dealt with by the Holy 
 Ghost, or he had not desired baptism at all. It 
 was because the Holy Ghost fell on the centurion 
 and his friends at Cassarea after St. Peter's dis- 
 course to them, that the apostle exclaimed in 
 evident joy, " Can any one forbid water that 
 these should be baptized which have received 
 the Holy Ghost as well as we ? " 
 
 It is when we come to infant baptism — and infant 
 we cannot be too frank about it — that difficulties * ' 
 thicken, and that Christian men, who wish to 
 understand their brethren rather than quarrel 
 with them, should generously and equitably en- 
 deavour to appreciate the reluctance felt about 
 the administration of such a lofty privilege, where 
 there is neither the intellectual nor spiritual 
 capacity for apprehending its grace. Some argu- 
 ments are adduced in favour of it which are not 
 worth the breath that utters them ; feeble, in 
 fact, if not dishonest. Yet much unnecessary 
 opposition is provoked by a grave misinter- 
 pretation of the language used by the English 
 Church in her baptismal office, and by sup- 
 posing her to include in " regeneration " 
 grace which an infant is obviously incapable 
 of receiving, as well as to ignore a subse- 
 quent activity of grace, which is requisite to 
 
i 4 S QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the full enjoyment of the baptismal privilege in 
 the after years. 
 
 The first thing to assert about infant baptism 
 (though it may be alleged to be an unproved asser- 
 tion) is that it is " most agreeable with the 
 institution of Christ." No one can deny that in 
 the earlier covenant male infants were circum- 
 cised at eight days old, and that the New Testa- 
 ment, written by Hebrews, and in the first in- 
 stance addressed to them, may, by the absence 
 of any prohibitory regulation on the subject, 
 fairly be held to have left the principle unchanged. 
 The vital point is : What does that " regenera- 
 tion " mean, for which the Church, in one great 
 reformed communion at least, publicly and dis- 
 tinctly thanks God, and which presumably the bap- 
 tized infant, whose unconsciousness is at least no 
 bar to the divine mercy, may be thought to have 
 then received ? First let it be clearly explained 
 Regmera- what it does not mean. It does not mean a 
 change of heart, or of mind, or of conscience, or 
 of will, for the simple reason that change of this 
 kind cannot presumably be effected without the 
 personal consciousness of the person in whom 
 the change takes place, and that with an infant 
 they are impossible. All such changes, which 
 practically are bound up with what we commonly 
 understand by conversion, happen, if at all, after- 
 wards, when the moral sense is quickened, when 
 the opening mind apprehends the faith of the 
 Gospel, when the will deliberately moves to duty, 
 when the heart begins to beat with love to God. 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 149 
 
 Such conversion may be slow or rapid, sudden 
 or unconscious, taking years before it is recog- 
 nised or experienced, often dating from later 
 childhood ; but it is simply indispensable in 
 every soul which would live in conscious union 
 with God ; and it must obey the laws both of 
 the moral and intellectual life before it can be 
 felt and known. But the baptized infant is 
 admitted into the divine society called the Church, 
 indwelt and sanctified by the Holy Ghost ; it is 
 brought thereby into direct spiritual contact with 
 Christ, Who is the head of the body, and Who 
 belongs to all, even its least and most insignifi- 
 cant members ; it is adopted into the household 
 of faith ; it is introduced into what is quite a 
 new order of things — that invisible spiritual 
 kingdom which has laws and privileges and 
 citizenship and dignities of its own. Out of 
 darkness into light, out of love hoped for into 
 love assured, out of a fatherhood of creation into 
 a fatherhood of adoption, out of nature into 
 grace, the sacrament of baptism, the favour of 
 God, the welcome of Christ, the prayers of the 
 Church admit it. Surely it is no exaggeration 
 of language to describe such a mighty transition 
 as this, which baptism confers — if it confers any- 
 thing — as a birth into a condition of unspeakable 
 privilege out of a condition of at least shadowed 
 uncertainty. Never docs a Christian parent 
 more tenderly love his child than when he comes 
 to place his little one at the font of baptism in 
 the kind arms of the Good Shepherd. Never 
 
150 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 does he hear the voice of Jesus with more 
 thrilling, almost awful, blessedness, than when 
 he hears Him say, as some of us do hear Him 
 say, " Take this child, and nurse him for Me, 
 and I will give thee thy wages." 
 
 II 
 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST 
 
 Have ve received the Holy Ghost since ye believed .' 
 Acts xix. 2. 
 
 T3 0TH the question and the answer have light 
 thrown on them by a careful investigation 
 of their force and meaning. " Since ye believed " 
 probably means, since ye confessed your faith, 
 and received the seal of it in baptism. There 
 was a gift of the Holy Spirit then, or how could 
 the soul be quickened thereby from a death in 
 sin into a life unto righteousness ? " We have 
 not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
 Ghost " may be otherwise rendered as " We 
 have not so much as heard that the Holy Ghost 
 has been given " — an answer which no doubt 
 differs on the surface from that in the Authorised 
 Version, but in its essence and results amounts 
 to much the same. First, however, let some 
 words be premised on the supreme blessedness 
 
THE PROMISE OE THE FATHER 151 
 
 and the perpetual necessity of this gift, whether 
 
 for the universal body or for its separate members, 
 for duty and for faith. Take two men, such as 
 we see every day of our lives, equally orthodox, 
 equally desirous to contend for the faith once 
 delivered to the saints, equally accepting the Word 
 of God as the final authority for the mind and 
 will of God. Yet a wide gulf severs them, and 
 how is the gulf to be explained ? One holds 
 these dear and inestimable truths in a congealed 
 and solid condition, with no delight in them, no 
 power from them ; as a guide-post, not as a 
 companion ; for a chart of security, not as an 
 inspiration of life. The other feeds on them, 
 lives by them, continually assimilates more and 
 more of them, presses them on others, is un- 
 conscious either of shame or fear in vindicating 
 them before the world. The difference is in 
 this. One has received the Holy Ghost since 
 he believed, and goes on receiving it ; the other 
 has not received it, hardly knowing or caring if 
 it is to be received. One reads and learns his 
 Bible with the heavenly light of the indwelling 
 monitor vitalising and illuminating every page. 
 The other reads it just as he would read any 
 other book, and with this difference, that he does 
 not go there to listen to a friend, to receive a 
 message, to taste a felicity. " Joy in the Holy 
 Ghost " is the experience of the first : " We 
 have not so much as heard if there be any Holy 
 Ghost " is the confession of the other. 
 
152 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 So with duty. Two men have each the same 
 duty, and equally recognise its importance, 
 accept its obligation, and fulfil its commands. 
 But one runs to it with willing feet, as one 
 who finds a great spoil ; the other moves 
 slowly and reluctantly, as a schoolboy to his 
 lessons. One has his heart and his lips 
 full of it ; the other dismisses it from his 
 thoughts at the first opportunity, and does not 
 think of it again until he is compelled. One 
 does as much as he can, the other as little as he 
 can. The one feeds his inmost soul in doing it, 
 the other stills his conscience and is content. 
 Here, again, where is the difference ? Simply 
 in this — the possession of the Holy Ghost. The 
 Spirit of God, who turns Saul into Paul, gives 
 wings to the feet, fire to the heart, brightness to 
 the mind, freedom to the will. " Where the 
 Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
 
 So, apprehending and grasping the great 
 
 truth, that it is the Indwelling Spirit who makes 
 
 Methods truth living and duty blessed, we will proceed 
 
 and times . • , i i, TT .. 
 
 of the gift, briefly to consider, how and when He is given. 
 
 Let me premise, what all will accept ; then 
 discuss, where some will differ ; then suggest 
 what most will approve. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is pre-eminently the " pro- 
 mise of the Father," the only gift of God about 
 which we may be perfectly sure that it will be 
 given to those who ask for it — given, of course, 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 15? 
 
 according to their capacity for receiving it. The 
 Holy Spirit is poured out on men at sundry 
 times and in divers manners, as the Holy 
 Scripture leads us to expect, and as the history 
 of the Church justifies us in assuming. The 
 promise was not exhausted at Pentecost, though 
 then the initial and prominent endowment of it 
 was given. The intercession of the Great High 
 Priest, which procured it then, procures it con- 
 tinually now. 
 
 Eager and devout souls, to whom the creed 
 of creeds is, " I believe in the Holy Ghost, the 
 Lord and Giver of life," ask, not unreasonably, 
 not presumptuously, " How may this special gift 
 be best procured ? Has God indicated any 
 special methods by which it can be secured for 
 men ? " 
 
 To these questions answers are sometimes 
 given which may be thought to savour (without 
 any thought or consciousness of it) of fanaticism, 
 if not of presumption. We hear now of " the 
 baptism of the Spirit," alleged to be communi- 
 cated to those who, already " walking in the 
 Spirit and bringing forth the fruits of His 
 indwelling life," desire to increase and abound 
 more and more. Meetings are held of godly 
 souls to plead for such baptism, and persons are 
 bidden, almost with authority, to expect it, and 
 (usually by young and rash lips) even upbraided 
 for unbelief for not feeling to receive it, and 
 
154 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 perhaps dismissed abruptly at last as under the 
 displeasure of God. Not only does such unscrip- 
 tural teaching wound gentle and timid hearts, 
 but it comes very near indeed to presumptuous 
 interference with the sovereign prerogative of 
 divine mercy, and dictates to Him, Who keeps 
 times and seasons in His own hands, when He 
 is to obey the commands of His creatures and to 
 put the sceptre of His eternal sovereignty into 
 their keeping. The Church of England loves to 
 recognise in the laying on of hands, as recorded 
 in the apostolic history and ministered by apos- 
 tolic men, what other branches of the Catholic 
 Church accept as the ordinance of confirmation, 
 the essence and value of which is in the special 
 gift of the Holy Ghost, conveyed to those who 
 accept that simple and very ancient ordinance in 
 sincerity and earnestness and faith. 
 
 About and over these matters there are and 
 must be grave differences of opinion, and harshly 
 to dogmatise may only be still further to sever. 
 
 But no one will doubt that He who has 
 redeemed the human soul, and yearns over it, 
 and desires its sanctification, and watches over 
 its discipline, does from time to time visit it 
 with special grace and endow it with exceptional 
 power. For seasons of trial, for periods of con- 
 flict, for duties exceptionally hard, for privileges 
 unusually lofty, He commands our strength and 
 supplies our need by gifts of the Holy Ghost. 
 We must recognise these times of visitation, and 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 155 
 
 listen to these voices of grace, dutifully and 
 thankfully, as those who hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness. At Holy Communion let us ask 
 for the Spirit, that we may see and find Jesus. 
 Let us remember that every duty is possible, and 
 if we are told to be filled with the Spirit, we may 
 be quite sure that to be filled is within our power. 
 To care and ask and wait and expect His blessing 
 is the one indispensable condition. " To him 
 that hath shall more be given." Is there a better 
 prayer in all that manual of public devotion which 
 devout Christians, of whatever communion they 
 may be, so deeply revere, than this, that we " may 
 daily increase in God's Holy Spirit more and 
 more, until we come to His everlasting kingdom?" 
 
 Ill 
 THE TEMPLE OF COD 
 
 Know ir not that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 Spirit o f God dwelletli in you t — 1 COR. iii. 16. 
 
 ~\ \ THEN the apostle wrote " Know ye not," 
 he not only asserted a fact which he held 
 to be beyond controversy with one calling himself 
 a Christian, he also meant to imply that a failure 
 to recognise its importance was a very grave 
 ignorance. " Know ye not that we shall judge 
 
156 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 angels ? " " Know yc not that the unrighteous 
 shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? " In the 
 passage before us, he emphasised the great truth 
 that the Church as the Body of Christ is inhabited 
 by the Holy Spirit of God, and that His influ- 
 ence at once pervades, directs, and sanctifies it 
 as an unbroken and majestic whole. But in a 
 later chapter of this Epistle, still using this same 
 emphatic question " Know ye not," he pressed 
 the illustration much further, and indicated a 
 doctrine, which if it were universally recognised 
 and acted upon in daily life, would involve an 
 immense advance in purity, dignity, and useful- 
 ness. From the body he passed to the members. 
 From the corporate life he travelled to the indi- 
 vidual and separate personality. Each human 
 soul, incorporated by baptism into the divine 
 society, thereby becomes a member of Christ, and 
 the temple of the Holy Ghost. " Know ye not," 
 he asked, " that your bodies are the members of 
 Christ ? " from which awful but blessed truth he 
 instantly deduced the need of purity. But Christ 
 dwells in the soul, through the Holy Ghost, 
 therefore he repeated the question, as if to make 
 it impossible for any one to miss the scope of 
 his application : " What, know ye not that your 
 body " (observe the singular number) "is the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, 
 which ye have of God .... therefore glorify 
 God in your body, and in your spirit, which are 
 God's." 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 157 
 
 It is, of course, open to any one to say that 
 this far-reaching statement is painfully incon- 
 sistent with things as we find them, and that be- 
 tween the apostolic ideal of the primitive Church 
 and the normal condition of professing Christians 
 a great gulf is fixed. It is more to the purpose 
 to admit that a gift may be offered without its 
 value being recognised ; that if it is not recog- 
 nised or cared for, the law of the divine king- 
 dom comes in, " From him that hath not, shall 
 be taken away even that which he hath." St. 
 Paul himself makes the woful exception, " Know 
 ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be 
 reprobates?" The Holy Spirit may enter a soul 
 and be banished from it by wilful sin. " Quench 
 not the Spirit," unless the inspired writer was 
 capable of dramatic thunder, is the solemn warn- 
 ing against a possible sin. 
 
 The Church as a body, the Christian as an The 
 individual, the temple of the Holy Ghost, form cfrurc/i. 
 the subject on which we will meditate now. 
 The practical lessons to be drawn from it are 
 the atmosphere of grace, the comfort of fellow- 
 ship, the value of influence, the presence of 
 Christ. 
 
 The figure under which St. Paul presses this 
 magnificent doctrine demands a momentary at- 
 tention. Imagine a vast mansion with various 
 stories, numerous rooms, a single owner, and an 
 atmosphere which pervades the place. The 
 stories are separated from each other, and their 
 
158 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 several inhabitants do not mingle. The rooms 
 are, some of them open, and some shut, by the 
 will of the several inmates. Those which are 
 left purposely open are filled with the atmo- 
 sphere which specially pervades the place. Those 
 which are partially or entirely closed shut out 
 part or all of it. The rooms when shut can be 
 opened, and when opened can be closed, and at 
 will. They are opened or shut from inside, and 
 some when once closed are never opened again. 
 The parable, let us hope, explains itself. The 
 atmosphere of grace — that is, the light and com- 
 fort and help of the Holy Ghost — fills the corridors 
 and passages and assembly rooms of the Church, 
 also penetrates each separate soul, according to 
 the measure with which it opens itself to receive 
 His blessing. We may have as much of the 
 presence of the living God as we will. " Open 
 thy mouth wide and I will fill it." But " no 
 man liveth to himself" in the temple of God. 
 We cannot tell how much we lose for ourselves, 
 or what we take from others, by a selfish or 
 gloomy isolation. Unsociableness is one of the 
 great sins of the Christian Church. We have 
 all much to impart, as well as to receive. If 
 we rob others of their rights through an exclu- 
 sive or chilly selfishness, we rob ourselves of 
 more. Christians are meant to be means of 
 grace to each other, and too often are not. The 
 value and power of influence who shall measure? 
 It is the very air we breathe, and without knowing 
 
THE PROMISE OF I 111- FATHER 15., 
 
 it. It is the irresistible, inevitable, continuous, 
 pervasive el'lluence of our own personal character 
 on those with whom we mix and live. No one 
 knows how much he influences others, they 
 hardly know it themselves ; but the influence 
 either heals or poisons, warms or chills, depresses 
 or exhilarates, enfeebles or invigorates. A look, 
 a gesture, a sigh, a movement, a smile, a frown, 
 all tell, all influence. We are always influencing 
 some one, and some one is always influencing 
 us ; and if the Holy Spirit of God has open 
 access to mind and conscience, and heart and 
 will, always, everywhere, our speech is for God, 
 and our activities also ; in our body and in our 
 spirit we glorify God, who bought us with a price 
 that we might live to His praise. 
 
 Last and best of all, through the indwelling 
 of His eternal Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells 
 in our hearts by faith, and the promise of the 
 Comforter means the presence of Jesus. " If 
 any man love Me he will keep My words, and 
 My Father will love him, and We will come to 
 him, and make Our abode with him." This is a 
 great mystery and an indisputable truth. Just 
 so far as we surrender ourselves absolutely and 
 constantly and cheerfully to the control and 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, just so far 
 does the blessed Saviour consent and become 
 able to be the Lord of our will, the guide of 
 our conscience, the light of our understanding, 
 and the king of our heart. But all is by the 
 
160 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Spirit, and all is in the Spirit. " If any man 
 hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 
 " Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the 
 Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
 Father." 
 
 If only we claim our sonship, and prove it 
 and enjoy it, Christ will live in us, and the life 
 we now live in the flesh we shall live by the 
 faith of the Son of God, who " loved us and gave 
 Himself for us." 
 
 IV 
 SPIRITUAL DULNESS 
 
 How is it that ye do not understand ? — John viii. 43. 
 
 T 
 
 'WO defects in the religious character of the 
 disciples continually perplexed the Lord : 
 their want of faith and their want of intelligence. 
 Again and again they come before us in the 
 Gospel record, and if they surprised Him much, 
 they pained Him more. Whether they were 
 baffled by the case of the lunatic child, or alarmed 
 by the midnight storm, or were reluctant to 
 accept His resurrection, they drew from Him the 
 expression of wonder, which had a note of rebuke 
 The nature i n it. Whether it was their slowness to catch 
 His deeper meaning, or their lack of spiritual 
 perception to interpret His parables, or, even 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE F ITHER 161 
 
 after so long a sojourn in His company, their 
 utter failure to see in His life and character a 
 revelation of the Father, their opportunities for a 
 fuller progress in divine knowledge made ignor- 
 ance something worse than regrettable misfortune. 
 " Having eyes see ye not, and having ears hear 
 ye not, and do ye not remember ?" While we 
 fully take into account the fact that the Holy 
 Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not 
 yet glorified, and gladly observe how, after 
 Pentecost, they seemed to have passed out of the 
 twilight of the breaking day into the blaze of 
 light when the sun had leapt into the sky, that 
 Christ was surprised indicates that He was dis- 
 appointed ; if He was disappointed, there must 
 have been sin in them. 
 
 Let us put this question to ourselves, the 
 heirs of the ages on whom Pentecost has fallen, 
 and of the truths which the Church's saints and 
 doctors have digested, formulated, and explained, 
 in the light of the mighty fact that we are bidden 
 remember that we are the temple of God, and 
 that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us. The pro- 
 mise to the twelve, from their departing Master, 
 " He shall guide you [more exactly, show you 
 the way] unto all truth," has its meaning and 
 value for us in our eager, humble study of the 
 divine verities. The Psalmist's prayer shall be 
 answered for all who sincerely offer it, " Open 
 Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous 
 things out of Thy law." 
 
 L 
 
162 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Therea- Why do we not understand ' ? And how may we 
 
 come to understand better f are the two questions 
 which I would briefly handle now. One reason 
 why we do not understand whether it be the 
 principles of the divine government, or the direc- 
 tion of the divine purpose, or the meaning of the 
 divine oracles (and all these things from time to 
 time come under our attention, and compel our 
 conclusions), is that we do not always care enough 
 to understand, and so will not be at the pains to 
 discover. The wise man speaks of seeking for 
 wisdom as for silver, and of digging for it as for 
 hid treasures. There is not much seeking or 
 digging in the common run of minds, which are 
 satisfied with the first result that comes under 
 their notice, and which must be superficial, if it 
 is nothing worse. To take trouble is the one 
 condition of success in every department of 
 human activity, and the law holds good in the 
 kingdom of God as much as in the kingdom of 
 this world. 
 
 Another reason why we do not under- 
 stand is that we are far too apt, though often 
 quite unaware of it, to discover and adopt 
 only what is in sufficient harmony with our own 
 preconceived opinions, and that to modify, or 
 change, or even let go anything (whatever 
 the authority for so doing may be) in 
 the system of the truth we have already 
 adopted, would appear to be a treason to the 
 God of truth and a perilous departure for 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 163 
 
 ourselves. No doubt there is such a thing as 
 a dangerous and even contemptible facility in 
 changing our opinions, as if they were but old 
 clothes, worn out and only to be thrown away. 
 We know who has warned us against a class of 
 persons who are " ever learning and never able 
 to come to the knowledge of the truth." Stability 
 is an essential feature of Christian manhood, 
 and fickleness is the foible of the w T eak. But 
 an active, generous, fearless, and candid intelli- 
 gence in assimilating truth must shed error. 
 There is no growth without pain, there is no 
 learning without some unlearning. If we are to 
 really maintain as a primary maxim of morals 
 in religious thought that change is decay, and 
 that to modify former conceptions (when there is 
 reason for doing so) is to unloose the moorings 
 of faith, and to send the spirit drifting over a 
 shoreless sea, we must be consistent in our 
 principles, and leave others in their twilight 
 because we wish to be protected in our own. 
 A Mussulman, a Romanist, a Buddhist, a Deist 
 may just as fairly claim as ourselves to be left 
 unmolested in their inherited creeds and their 
 cherished convictions. We will all stand still 
 where we are and fall asleep as we stand, but our 
 slumber may become death. 
 
 Another reason is that we do not use the right 
 helps to enable us to understand ; or, having the 
 right helps, we do not use them in the right way. 
 Reflection, conversation, mingling with those who 
 
1 64 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 distinctly and even seriously differ from us, and 
 the habitual study of books which handle the 
 matters we would learn with depth and thorough- 
 ness, will soon bring us out of the deep ruts in 
 which many so completely bury themselves, that, 
 instead of gazing above on the inspiring and 
 ennobling firmament gemmed with flashing 
 worlds, all they see is a barren belt of sky, with 
 two or three twinkling stars, if ever indeed they 
 care and try to see so much. We must be content 
 sometimes to learn by collision and by conflict, 
 by being shocked and even distressed, from per- 
 sons whom we secretly distrust, and through 
 channels which stir every prejudice of our soul. 
 We shall not, we need not, we must not retain 
 all we take, or assimilate all that we receive ; but 
 a genuine love of truth is capable of a mental 
 hospitality which has a great reward ; and those 
 who consent to learn only from those who flatter 
 their self-love by always agreeing with them, 
 cease to learn because their capacity for learning 
 is deadened and become unable to think be- 
 cause controversy never keenly stimulates their 
 intellectual powers, nor puts them at their best. 
 
 One more reason is that we so seldom go to the 
 Holy Scriptures as the final tribunal of revealed 
 truth, or place ourselves in the keeping of the 
 Holy Spirit to be our counsellor and guide. "Ye 
 do err, not knowing the Scriptures," was our Lord's 
 warning in His day, and it must still be a warn- 
 ing to us in our day. The living Word of God 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 165 
 
 appealed to the written word, for " the Scripture 
 cannot be broken." " Bonus textuarius, bonus 
 theologus." There is no excuse in our day for 
 an uncritical and slovenly and puerile interpre- 
 tation of the one book which is able to make us 
 wise unto salvation. Every intelligent Christian 
 who has leisure, culture, and means, should have 
 a book of Scripture always in hand for patient 
 and exact and critical as well as devotional study. 
 To know what the Bible means is the first step 
 to knowing what it teaches. If we read the 
 Bible more and other books less, there might be 
 more steadiness and dignity in our thinking, more 
 comfort and diligence in our lives. The Holy 
 Spirit, while He observes the laws of the human 
 mind, and will not give the saintliest soul fuller 
 or riper understanding, except in the way and 
 on the methods prescribed for it for its highest 
 advantage, will graciously consent to take the 
 things of Christ to the devout heart that longs to 
 see them, and will fill with the presence of Christ, 
 and with the sense of His illuminating and inspir- 
 ing love, every heart which truly says to Him, 
 " Lord, I would see Jesus." 
 
1 66 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 V 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 What saitk the Scripture? — Romans iv. 3. 
 
 C^T. PAUL in this question appeals to the Old 
 Testament Scripture, and quotes it under 
 a mystical illustration, rather than a formulated 
 dogma. But his quotation implies the final 
 authority of Scripture, and the authority of 
 Scripture means the teaching of the Holy Ghost. 
 From one point of view, almost in the front 
 rank of questions pressing for settlement on a 
 sincere thinker, is what is usually known as the 
 inspiration of the Bible. Yet there is hardly 
 any question of supreme importance so greatly 
 needing the preliminary settlement of under- 
 lying principles ; none which is so hopelessly 
 obscured and so mischievously complicated by 
 assumptions without foundation, and conclu- 
 sions without validity. On some common points 
 of inestimable importance all Christendom con- 
 curs. The Bible is the word of God. As such, 
 for the Church collectively, for the Christian in- 
 dividually, it is the final court of appeal. It 
 is the woid of God, because God the Holy Ghost 
 has superintended and guided its composition 
 in fulfilment of the Father's will, and in a 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER 167 
 
 purpose to narrate the history of the faith 
 and growth of the kingdom of His Son. Here, 
 however, the entire concurrence terminates. 
 Some doubt as to the scope of its purpose, as 
 to the quality of its contents, as to the exact- 
 ness of its accuracy, as to the history of its 
 canon. Was it meant to declare principles or to 
 define rules ? Was it to reveal the character of 
 God, or in addition to expound and describe 
 His creative wisdom ? Shall we find in it 
 organisations, or (judging from God's methods 
 elsewhere) must we expect to be left free to 
 make them for ourselves ? Is worship only in- 
 culcated, or, in addition, are the universal formu- 
 laries of it to be discovered ? Have its truths 
 been shaped into dogmas, and harmonised and 
 compacted into creeds ? Once more, are the 
 words of the holy book inspired, or simply the 
 men who wrote them inspired ? Also, if there are 
 variations (which we are unable to harmonise) 
 between some of these good men's statements 
 and others, are we bound in self-defence to 
 construct a theory which shall at least attempt 
 superficially to explain them, or shall we treat 
 the apparent discrepancies as of no real import- 
 ance ; and in simple reliance on the wisdom and 
 righteousness of the incarnate Jesus, the living 
 Word of the Father, possess our souls in peace ? 
 A very few words may suffice, not indeed to 
 set these matters at rest — they arc too profound 
 and important for that — but to help simple souls 
 
1 68 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 to hold fast by their faith, notwithstanding the 
 plausible difficulties urged against it, and to 
 cherish their Bible as the rudder of their life, 
 and so bringing with it the silent company of their 
 Saviour, even when all the claims made for it can- 
 not be admitted, and when some of the familiar 
 buttresses of its authenticity cannot now be ac- 
 counted solid by the bulk of thinking men. 
 in what it The Bible is God's mouthpiece to men. Men 
 
 consists. , 
 
 are meant to read it for themselves, and while 
 thankfully using such helps and explanations as 
 oral counsel and written commentary may afford, 
 they must surrender their liberty of private judg- 
 ment to no man. They will make some mistakes, 
 they will occasionally miss the right meaning, 
 and while they live they will never extract all 
 the sweetness from the divine honeycomb. But 
 they will have no artificial fetters on their con- 
 sciences, and with free access to the blessed 
 Holy Spirit they will learn by degrees all God 
 means them to know, and with a zest and assur- 
 ance no human teacher could give them. The 
 words are not inspired. The Bible never claims 
 this for itself. How, indeed, would it help us 
 if it were so ? The original languages in which 
 it was first written are not the languages in 
 which we study them. There are varieties of 
 text, differences of translation, controversies of 
 meaning. The simple fact that the writers 
 were inspired to write them, with the aids and 
 on the methods and for the purpose which God 
 
THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER [69 
 
 bestowed, selected, and ordained in His unvary- 
 ing and redeeming wisdom, is amply sufficient 
 for those who prefer to conclude a system from 
 what they actually see, rather than to construct 
 a theory from what they expect to see, and 
 who do not presume to be wiser than God in 
 His providential and eternal method of illumi- 
 nating and instructing the soul. 
 
 The Bible needs to be more studied in its 
 own light, and with a comparative survey of 
 its multifarious contents. Not all of it is 
 equally edifying, but all of it is where we 
 find it in the far-seeing purpose of God. As 
 the Holy Spirit assisted the writers to indite 
 it, He enables the disciple to understand it, 
 not by sudden illumination or by the neglect- 
 ing of the laws of the mind, but by patient 
 investigation, aided by dutiful obedience. 
 " The meek will He guide in judgment ; the 
 meek will He teach His way." As " holy men 
 of old spake and wrote as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost," holy men now search the 
 deep things of God, and fathom something of 
 His purpose, and catch a glimpse of His ways, 
 not through a penetrating cleverness, but by the 
 insight of faith and love. Most of all when 
 temptation assaults us, conflicts enfeeble us, 
 sorrows unman us, and disappointment corrodes 
 the very tissues of life, let us flee to the God 
 of the Bible to hide us — let us say even from 
 the depths, " Whom have I in Heaven but Thee ; 
 
170 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 there is none upon earth that I desire in com- 
 parison of Thee." Then we shall practically use 
 and honour the Bible much more surely, much 
 more soberly, than by adopting any theory of 
 inspiration, however lofty, which will not stand its 
 ground an hour when face to face with absolute 
 facts; we shall win that "joy in the Holy 
 Ghost " which is the sure reward of all who 
 trust and worship Him as " the Lord and giver 
 of life." 
 
COMING BEHIND IN NO GIFT" 
 
Christian holiness is the reproduction in the individual 
 of the life of the incarnate Son of God. — Robert Ottley. 
 
SHORTCOMINGS 
 
 What lack I yctf— MATTHEW xix. 20. 
 
 THIS was the second question that the rich 
 young man put to the Lord. Like the 
 first, it was the utterance of a sincere and trans- 
 parent spirit ; unlike the first, it betrays disap- 
 pointment and surprise. Wishing to inherit 
 eternal life, he asked to be shown the way of 
 earning it. Christ's method here was perfectly 
 His own. Instead of telling him, as some of 
 our modern teachers would have told him, that 
 " doing was deadly," and that all claimed of him 
 was to believe, He distinctly and emphatically 
 enjoined the observing of the moral law, and 
 urged that the keeping of the commandments, so 
 far from having become a matter that might now 
 be dispensed with, was the one essential con- 
 dition of entering into life. The answer instantly 
 came, " All these things have I kept from my 
 youth up. What lack I yet ? " That he really 
 
174 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 thought so is plain from the way in which Jesus 
 treated him and felt towards him. St. Mark, 
 always quick to note details, and the only one of 
 the Evangelists who observes that he " came 
 running, and kneeled to Him," also remarks, 
 "Jesus beholding him loved him." It is impos- 
 sible for Christ to love a false soul, and it is 
 equally impossible for Him to be feeble in His 
 treatment of any soul, or to withhold the truth 
 because it might inflict pain. We know what 
 followed and the result that came of it. " If 
 thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, 
 and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
 in Heaven ; and come and follow me." Instantl}' 
 the young man started back. He had not been 
 prepared for a sacrifice which seemed both above 
 and beyond him. He took one quick peep 
 through the opened door into the kingdom of 
 Heaven, found that there was no rose-strewn 
 way to the King's feet, and, with the profound 
 sadness of one who had seen Christ, weighed 
 Him, and did not think Him worth as much to 
 him as the world was, quietly went away. 
 
 We need not pass judgment on him. In our 
 secret hearts, if we please, we may cherish tender 
 hopes of him. But it was a frightful risk he 
 ran in saying No to Christ, and it is a significant 
 circumstance that we never hear of him again. 
 Now this question, "What lack I yet?" is 
 the normal, irresistible, and constantly recurring 
 question of every Christian soul that seeks salva- 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO GIFT" 175 
 
 tion from the power of sin, as well as from the 
 punishment of it, and that desires to put on Christ 
 as well as to be made white in 1 1 is blood. Among 
 many others, it includes these four things — 
 essential, and among the first : an absolute spirit 
 of sacrifice ; a systematic and continuous devo- 
 tion ; growth in the intellectual as well as in the 
 moral apprehension of God ; a vital and joyful 
 anticipation of the glory in front. The first Sacrifice. 
 condition is, to be quite, and always, and alto- 
 gether for God. This young man had not yet 
 attained to this perfection, and felt for the 
 moment unwilling to attain to it. He kept 
 something back, and in keeping it back kept 
 himself back. As already observed, the Lord 
 did not wait to parley with his ignorance, or to 
 reason with him about his self-righteousness, or 
 to make it plain to him that a better obedience 
 than his own was needful to justify him before 
 God. It would have been at that moment beside 
 the purpose, and a mere waste of time. To see 
 Jesus is the only, and also the shortest, way of 
 discovering our own insufficiency and sinfulness. 
 Had he followed Jesus, as he was asked to do, 
 he would soon have learned two things, and in 
 the learning of them he would have found great 
 reward : that Jesus can recompense us more 
 than heart can think for all we surrender for 
 His sake ; and that to be found in Him, not 
 having our own righteousness, but His, through 
 personal and spiritual union with Him, is the 
 
176 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 way of holiness, and of usefulness, and of 
 peace. 
 
 We, too, are apt to deceive ourselves as he 
 did. We, too, in our own way, though we do 
 not express it in the same language, have often 
 a quiet impression that we are keeping all the 
 commandments sufficiently, and inheriting the 
 eternal life. One day a tremendous duty opens 
 before us, and we are aghast at its hardness. 
 What shall we do? What shall we answer? 
 Is Christ deserving of everything from us, or 
 only of part ? It is a tremendous test, which 
 Devotion, all cannot stand. A systematic and continuous 
 devotion is essential to close union with Christ, 
 and to the enjoyment of what some of us feel 
 to be the blessedest, yet also the rarest, of all 
 Christian privileges — a constant sense of His 
 presence. No doubt Christian souls greatly 
 differ in this matter. For some much less time 
 actually spent in prayer is needful than for 
 others, though it should be premised that where 
 the time is short, all the more need is there to 
 protect it from distraction, and to make it, what 
 all real prayer ever must be, hard work. We 
 have no right to impose on others rules of 
 devotion which Christ has not ordained. He is 
 the soul's Master, we must each of us give 
 account to Him. Yet there are some features 
 which our Lord has emphasised, and St. Paul 
 pressed — incessancy, simplicity, filialness, reve- 
 rence, submission, full assurance of faith, adorn- 
 
••COMING BEHIND IN NO GIFT. ' 177 
 
 lion of God for His own sake, praise, and inU / - 
 cession. The measure of our sanctity, the fruitful- 
 ness of our labours, the influence of our example, 
 the serenity of our temper, the manhood of 
 our entire nature, and the joy of our daily service 
 will all depend on prayer. Christ could not dis- 
 pense with prayer, and the more filled His life 
 was with duty the fuller was it of prayer. So must 
 it be with us. Then, and then only, we shall 
 come to understand that deep sentence, " Hence- 
 forth I call you not servants, but friends." To 
 be living under His eye, seeking His glory, 
 continually going to Him for the cleansing of 
 His blood, looking for His appearing, and anti- 
 cipating 1 1 is welcome— here is the secret of 
 knowing the love which passeth knowledge, and 
 so of being surely, constantly, if unconsciously, 
 transformed into His likeness. 
 
 Growth in the apprehension of the truth of Knawledgi 
 God, as well as in the fruition of His love, is 
 another secret of progressive holiness. All 
 departments of the regenerate spirit should move 
 and grow together. The understanding must 
 not be starved, for it is the organ by which we 
 apprehend God. It is wonderful how greatly St. 
 Paul, whom some apparently suppose to be ex- 
 clusively occupied with faith, insists on the value 
 of knowledge, as edifying as well as illuminative, 
 edifying because illuminative. So our Lord. 
 " This is life eternal, that they might know 
 Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 
 M 
 
178 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 whom Thou hast sent." To know is to live ; 
 but we do not know all at once, and life, being 
 capable of illimitable increase, is always incom- 
 plete, often feeble, languid, and slow. We need 
 nimbleness as well as solidity of mind ; elasticity 
 as well as tenacity ; humility, which dreads 
 arrogance in the science of heavenly things ; 
 firmness, lest we let go that which we have, and 
 so lose our crown. We must not be content 
 with rudiments and elements, but must press on 
 to those things which are before. Then a double 
 reward will ensue. We shall grow steadily into 
 a better understanding of each other, and we 
 shall not treat our brother when he differs from 
 us as if he sought a quarrel, or meant an insult. 
 It will also help us to stability. A receptive, 
 candid, modest, assimilating temper of mind is 
 a great protection against rapid changes, and 
 quick impulses to novelty. A mind shut up in 
 a cast-iron envelope, when one of its barriers 
 is suddenly removed, and it looks out into a 
 new world, the existence of which it had 
 not previously suspected, is first bewildered, 
 then delighted, then tempted to make a 
 somersault, and at last finds itself in the 
 end landed it hardly knows where. To be 
 kept from being tossed about with every 
 wind of doctrine, ripe and complete knowledge 
 is the first condition. But it cannot all come 
 at once just by wishing for it when it is 
 wanted, and the temper that desires, acquires, 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO Gil- 1 " 179 
 
 digests, and assimilates knowledge cannot be 
 ours in a day. 
 
 The hope of glory as the secret consolation of 
 the soul is an unspeakable stimulant to duty, and 
 steadies while it exhilarates. If that young man 
 could have looked forward, and just asked him- 
 self what his great possessions would be worth 
 to him when life was waning and eternity opening 
 to his gaze, he would have thought more ot 
 Christ and less of the world. We need not 
 speculate ; we ought to contemplate. We do 
 not wish to die ; but just because we see how 
 little death can spoil or even interrupt 
 God's plans for us, it is hardly even a factor in 
 our calculations. " To be with Christ is far 
 better," though, in the apostle's mind, " to live 
 is Christ." 
 
 II 
 DETERIORATION 
 
 If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be 
 seasoned? — Matthew v. 13. 
 
 ^~*HRIST told His disciples that they were to 
 be the light of the world and the salt of 
 the earth ; and He pressed the responsibility by 
 emphasising the fact. " Ye arc " this already, 
 He said ; recognise it, and live up to it. Chris- 
 
180 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 tians arc the light of the world in the sense of 
 revealing God to men in His purpose, character, 
 and government by their own personal disposi- 
 tions and conduct. Man is in a real sense the 
 mirror of God. A Christian is but little aware 
 how he is constantly either prejudicing men 
 against God, or attracting them to Him by his 
 daily life. So again they are the salt of the 
 earth. Salt has two properties : one of protect- 
 ing from decay, the other of flavouring food. 
 Christians have by their character and diligence 
 to keep alive in men's hearts the divine ideal of 
 duty and goodness. They have also by their 
 very presence and conversation, without a thought 
 of arrogance, without a feeling of superiority, 
 with tact and gentleness, wisdom and charity, to 
 make men round them feel that there are two 
 worlds to be thought of and lived for; and that' 
 here is not our rest. 
 
 The question which our Lord put so directly 
 and solemnly suggests a very common tendency, 
 indicates also a subtle, and almost fatal, peril. 
 The tendency is that of deterioration ; the peril 
 is that of its irremediableness. There is such a 
 thing as moral and spiritual decay, in standard, 
 motive, devotion, sacrifice, and goodness. The 
 Epistles to the Seven Churches give proof enough 
 of this were it wanted. Each true and tender 
 heart will readily, tremblingly, ask itself, " Lord, 
 is it I?" 
 
 What are the signs of it ? Where is the danger 
 of it? 
 
•'COMIXG BEHIND IX XO GIFT" 181 
 
 One sign is to be found in a lowered and 
 attenuated ideal. Christ has little by little be- 
 come almost a personal stranger. We do not 
 seek Mis company, watch His eye, listen for Mis 
 voice. The thought of Him does not send a 
 thrill of joy into the heart. We have not re- 
 nounced Him, nor consciously taken another Lord 
 in His place. But we have lagged so far behind 
 in the journey that He is quite out of our sight 
 and reach. We can no more honestly say, as 
 once we could say with a kind of rapture, " He 
 is chief among ten thousand, and altogether 
 lovely." It is the inevitable result from this 
 changed relationship to Christ that the cross has 
 dropped from our back (we did not feel it drop, 
 nor do we miss it now that it is gone) ; there is 
 nothing in our lives, or activities, or general pro- 
 fession, that is irksome or troublesome, compel- 
 ling sacrifice, and earning joy. The world is 
 apparently neither better nor worse for us. 
 Really it is worse. The candlestick is still in its 
 place, still feebly burning, but in a moment it 
 may go out, and then where shall we be ? 
 
 Another indication of this common and woful 
 deterioration is a growing indifference to all 
 great enterprise for Christ. Mission work must 
 we think be very near the heart of the Saviour 
 who died to redeem the world. Few things are 
 more exhilarating, more invigorating, more up- 
 lifting, more solemnising than a mighty gathering 
 of Christian people, met, let us say, for a great 
 
182 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 missionary anniversary, to hear the glad tidings 
 of the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom, and 
 to return to their homes, stirred, joyful, thankful. 
 The heart that is cold to all this, sceptical about 
 it, indifferent to it, and that yet looks back on 
 days when every word spoken, every blow 
 struck, every triumph won for Jesus, was a joy 
 which few things else equalled, has good reason 
 for asking itself what has happened to it to make 
 the growth of the kingdom of Christ so small 
 and dull, and unattractive and commonplace a 
 thing. The change is assuredly not in the pur- 
 pose of Jesus, nor in the value of the soul, nor 
 in the duty of the Church, which is His Body. 
 
 Another sign of the salt losing its saltness is 
 in a deepening indifference to truth for its own 
 sake, though not unfrequently accompanied with an 
 augmenting fierceness of controversy and a spirit 
 of partisanship in contending with those who are 
 on the other side. There is no test of the sin- 
 cerity of our love of truth when we are fulfilling 
 the duty (so unspeakably irksome to some of us) 
 of trying to show our brother, who is presump- 
 tuous enough to differ from us, that we are right 
 and that he is wrong, surer than this — Is the 
 one wish of our heart to win him into the deeper 
 and richer knowledge of Jesus ; or do we simply 
 wish to vanquish him as a spoil for our self-love ? 
 We ought to be more and more in love with 
 truth, and to be increasingly capable of learning 
 it and of passing it on to others, and of separating 
 
OMING BEHIND IN NO GIF! " 183 
 
 the wheat from the chaff and the spirit from the 
 form. Whin we become careless about truth we 
 arc becoming careless towards God. Yet most 
 of the heat and passion of religious controversy 
 has nothing of the fire of God in it. Few forms 
 of self-deceit are more treacherous or more 
 hardening than that which thinks to contend for 
 the truth without love. Once more, nothing- 
 tends more to rob salt of its saltness, and the 
 Christian of his usefulness, than inconsistency in 
 the use and enjoyment of what we understand 
 by earthly and worldly things. "All things are 
 lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. 
 All things are lawful for me, but I will not be 
 brought under the power of any. " 
 
 We are not so strict as our fathers were, and 
 we may be wise in our fuller liberty. We love 
 art and music. Fiction is no longer tabooed as 
 an altogether evil thing. We have ceased to 
 try to discipline our children into a wise Christian 
 liberty by a perpetual No. It is to be hoped 
 that they will requite us. But it still remains 
 as true as it ever was, that there is a world we 
 are not to love, if the Father's love is to be in 
 us ; that the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the 
 eye, and the pride of the life are not of the 
 Father but of the world. It is still true that the 
 fashion of this world passeth away, and that he 
 who will be the friend of the world must be con- 
 tent to be the enemy of God. Nothing so 
 weakens, paral} r ses, finally destroys a Christian's 
 
1 84 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 influence as worldliness. To aim at both worlds 
 is usually to end in enjoying neither. If we 
 want to have our aims lowered, our ideals de- 
 spised, our aspirations crushed, our secret long- 
 ing for God and communion with Him little by 
 little dissipated, let us use our freedom and go 
 where others do, and do what others do, letting 
 Sunday lose its hallowed repose, and making 
 our devotions short, that we may fill up the 
 languid spaces with visiting our friends. But 
 we do it at our peril. No man can serve two 
 masters. There can be for us no new gospel to 
 stir us into repentance ; it is an old worn-out 
 story. Not even the Holy Spirit of God can 
 rekindle the fire that has gone out in a soul that 
 has deliberately quenched His presence. 
 
 Ill 
 IMPERFECT FAITH 
 
 Who touched me? — LUKE viii. 45. 
 
 '""THE action of this poor woman has been pitied 
 as feeble, and even blamed as superstitious. 
 Surely such a censure is as silly as it is cruel. 
 Could she have done anything else ? Nay, could 
 she have done anything better ? The crowd 
 hindered her from closer access to the Lord. So 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO Gil- I 185 
 
 simple and true was her faith in Him, that all she 
 deemed needful was just to touch Him. Some- 
 where, whether hand or raiment, mattered not. 
 She was sure of His pity, and of His power. 
 Where she failed was in her promptness to con- 
 fess Him. But when she felt that tender, search- 
 ing, encouraging look gazing full on her she 
 threw her fears to the winds, and like a lame 
 man who has no more need of his crutches, made 
 her difficult way to the Saviour's feet. He, at 
 least, did not upbraid her for unbelief; all He 
 desired, for her own good and that of the multi- 
 tude, was that she should give glory to God. If 
 that was superstitious, the more we have of such 
 superstitiousness the better. If hers was but a 
 weak faith, where is the happy Christian to show 
 us a stronger ? 
 
 There is a mystery, let us confess, in Christ's 
 question, "Who touched me?" and His ex- 
 planation of the question does not make it less 
 mysterious. " Some one hath touched me, for I 
 perceive that virtue hath gone out of me." A 
 similar incident is recorded in an earlier part of 
 the Gospel, where we read, " the whole multi- 
 tude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue 
 out of Him, and healed them all." 
 
 Whatever other truths may be contained in 
 this question, one is plain, and very pertinent to 
 our subject — the Way of Holiness. The truth 
 is, that in the person of our incarnate Lord 
 dwells all the fulness of the Godhead in a body, 
 
1 86 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 that fulness being for the life and growth and 
 usefulness of His Church. The inference from 
 this truth — it is impossible to exaggerate the 
 importance of it — is that it is the personal 
 touch of the regenerate soul in its spiritual 
 union with Christ, in the exercise of its daily 
 activities, its private devotion, its continuous 
 self-surrender, that differentiates the standing 
 and usefulness of one soul from another soul, 
 and at once creates and explains the difference 
 between one and another in joy and sanctity and 
 power. We need to be in constant, though not 
 always conscious, touch with the incarnate 
 Lord, if we are to receive fresh supplies of His 
 grace and helpful glimpses of His presence. Too 
 many of His true and faithful followers are 
 content to stand outside in the ante-chamber, 
 knowing that He is at hand if He is wanted, 
 instead of pressing into His presence to be under 
 the very gaze of the King. We need to touch 
 Him, as that blessed woman did, in our humblest 
 and most commonplace duties, that He may be 
 glorified in the motive which discharges them as 
 unto Him, and that we be strengthened and 
 consoled in the thought that they secretly help 
 to edify us into His image. We need to touch 
 Him — how strange that it should be needful to 
 say it — in our prayers. Do we always feel 
 that He hears us, and that we deserve (so far as 
 it is possible) that He should hear us ? Do we 
 always see the sceptre held out and touch the 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO GIF! 1S7 
 
 tip of it, and feel a smile on the King's face, and 
 rise gladdened by the assurance of I lis love ? I ><> 
 we always touch Him when we read His word 
 — that meeting-place of God and man — where 
 He speaks and we listen, where He feeds and we 
 cat ? No, we know that we do not. The king- 
 dom of Heaven is not taken by languor, but by 
 strenuous effort, and only the violent — i.e., those 
 who greatly care — are conquerors by the power 
 of God. Do we always touch Him in the Com- 
 munion of His love ? There we come to obey 
 His dying word, to commemorate His atoning 
 sacrifice, to feed on Him the living bread, to be 
 washed and made white in the precious blood, 
 one drop of which could wash all the sin of the 
 world into perfect whiteness. Yet often we are 
 so dull, so sleepy, so formal, so mechanical, that 
 instead of touching Jesus, whereby virtue goes 
 out of Him into us, we simply touch Him as the 
 ignorant, curious multitude touched and jostled 
 Him ; and we wonder that we arc not stronger 
 for our heavenly food, and the fault is in our- 
 selves. Loving, constant, personal fellowship 
 with Jesus in all we do, wherever we may be, in 
 the world or out of the world, in the busy street 
 or on a sick-bed, is the one secret of a growing 
 and consistent holiness, — not the Bible, without 
 Him ; not the Sacraments, without Him ; not a 
 dozen lives feverish with restless activities, with- 
 out Him ; not all our goods given to feed the 
 poor ; not even the yielding of our bodies to be 
 
1 88 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 burned. "Abide in Me and I in you;" "As 
 the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in 
 the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in Me ;" 
 " He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit ; for without Me ye can 
 do nothing." 
 
 Blessed, blessed Jesus ! why should it be so 
 hard for us ever to cleave to Thee, closely to 
 walk with Thee, to cast all our cares on Thee, 
 to make Thee our guide, and master, and friend ? 
 Conquer us by Thy love, and draw us by Thy 
 constraining tenderness, and never let us rest 
 till we are quite Thine. 
 
 IV 
 FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES 
 
 Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I 
 forgive him ?■ — MATTHEW xviii. 2T. 
 
 \1 7E are not told what suggested this question. 
 Possibly it was some personal trouble in 
 the apostle's own experience, which, while re- 
 vealing to him the exceeding difficulty of sincere 
 forgiveness under certain circumstances, also 
 made him really anxious to know his duty both 
 towards man and God. Christ answered him, 
 first of all by what sounds like a counsel of 
 
'•COVING BEHIND IN NO GIFT" \S<, 
 
 perfection, in showing the bewildered disciple 
 how little he had as yet gauged the wideness 
 and loftiness of his duty ; then enforced it by 
 a parable, in which he was to contemplate the 
 boundless love of God as the ensample and 
 model for His children ; and the absolute in- 
 compatibleness of resentment harboured in the 
 soul either with our acceptance with God as 
 His reconciled children, or our growth into His 
 image. " So likewise shall my heavenly Father 
 do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive- 
 not every one his brother their trespasses." 
 
 The point on which 1 desire now to dwell is The peril 
 to show that a harboured resentment — or what %sett/»u»t 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews omi- 
 nously calls a " root of bitterness " — is fatal both 
 to the life and growth of the soul ; and that no 
 amount of religious activity, no punctuality of 
 attendance on divine ordinances, no righteous 
 jealousy for sound doctrine, no amount of phi- 
 lanthropic effort or self-sacrificing devotion, can 
 in any sense compensate for the lack of charity. 
 The supreme effort of charity — to strong and 
 deeply sensitive natures it is sometimes an effort 
 like tearing out a heart-string with one's own 
 hands — and the indispensable test of personal 
 forgiveness by God, is readiness to forgive others, 
 again and again and again where the sin is 
 confessed, and the genuineness of the repentance 
 manifested. Where this is not recognised or 
 yielded, the heart must be shrouded in a frightful 
 
qfforgi-c 
 
 190 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 delusion as to its own forgiveness ; and the moral 
 tissues of the soul will be slowly petrifying into 
 death. In a subject like this, so vital to salva- 
 tion and to holiness, we must be sure of our 
 principles, distinct in our definitions, and real in 
 our claims. In other words, we must be quite 
 clear as to the nature of Christ's command ; we 
 must be reasonably sure that the conditions He 
 imposed are actually fulfilled ; we must not be 
 extravagant or exacting in claiming from human 
 nature what Christ Himself did not claim, and 
 which it might be even injurious as well as in- 
 equitable to enforce. 
 
 First of all there must be confession of the 
 sin about which forgiveness is asked, or for- 
 giveness of it would only be thrown back in our 
 face as a sort of gratuitous insult, and harden 
 the offender as well as wound ourselves. Con- 
 fession is an indispensable condition of forgive- 
 ness, and a condition not always fulfilled. 
 
 Then repentance must go with confession, to 
 test its sincerity and accentuate its value, or we 
 shall be merely helping a soul to deceive and 
 corrupt itself by self-interested mendacity, and 
 give it no sort of aid in restoring it to self- 
 respect and virtue. Of course there are different 
 tests of repentance. One is, not to repeat the 
 offence. Another is, to accept a salutary disci- 
 pline. Another, as indicated in the parable, to 
 attempt at least reparation and atonement. 
 
 Again, the more frequently that the offence is 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO GIF1 191 
 
 repeated, and advantage taken of a facile and 
 generous charity, the greater will be the need 
 of sufficiently assuring ourselves that the repent- 
 ance is not the expression of deliberate hypocrisy, 
 and so of protecting ourselves, in the interests 
 of society as well as our own, from being inso- 
 lent!}' imposed upon. In our Lord's own parable 
 we possess a flagrant instance of the hardening 
 effect on a base soul of a magnificent and entire 
 forgiveness. The unrighteous servant at any 
 rate had no second chance of liberty and pardon. 
 "His lord was wroth and delivered him to 
 the tormentors till he should pay all that was 
 due unto him." It is a question of course what 
 is precisely meant by the word " trespasses.'' 
 The Greek word in the Lord's prayer means 
 " debts." Our Lord did not mean that we are 
 in all cases to excuse money obligations, merely 
 because it may be inconvenient to discharge 
 them. In some cases it may be right. Yet it 
 cannot be enforced as an universal law, or the 
 very principles of commercial integrity would 
 be continually violated, and society could not 
 hold together for a week. But it must mean 
 offences in backbiting, in temper, in neglect of 
 obvious duties, in flagrant deceit, in wrongs 
 which pierce as with the wound ings of a sword, 
 and lacerate the very tissues of the soul. Now 
 here it is that we must face things with absolute 
 truthfulness, and consider our Lord's command 
 with dutiful, sincere, and intelligent reverence. 
 
192 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Our /.onfs i. We are always in our heart to forgive, I 
 meaning, , . , , . . r . ... 
 
 take it, though until forgiveness is craved, it is 
 
 neither wise nor necessary to express it. 
 
 2. When we think of injuries, debts, offences, 
 it is always well to recollect that self-love is very 
 apt to exaggerate such things, and that a day or 
 two's calm reflection will often convince us that 
 we have made too much ado about nothing ; and 
 that the sensible as well as the right thing to do 
 is to treat the matter as if it had never happened. 
 
 3. Especially is this the case with hot and 
 unpremeditated words, spoken when our friend 
 was off his guard, or repeated to us by some one 
 who ought to have known better. " Also take 
 no heed to all words that are spoken, lest thou 
 hear thy servant curse thee." 
 
 4. Bishop Butler has taught us that resent- 
 ment is a moral faculty bestowed on the human 
 soul for its protection and self-assertion. Not 
 all anger is sinful. Sometimes not to be angry 
 is the basest and most cowardly of sins. St. 
 Paul does not tell us not to be angry ; only not 
 to harbour and cherish our resentment. " Be ye 
 angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down 
 upon your wrath." Our blessed Lord, we read, 
 was sometimes angry ; and it was a holy anger. 
 The Revelation tells us of " the wrath of the 
 Lamb." 
 
 5. There are offences and offences. Some 
 offences, let us confess, while they ought always 
 to be forgiven, make the restoration of love, 
 
'•COMING LSI- HIND IN NO GIFT" 19? 
 
 and the rekindling of friendship impossible. 
 " There is a sin unto death/' says St. John ; 
 and this is true of man, as well as of God, in 
 the sense that some sins, such as repeated in- 
 gratitude, constant deceit, and flagrant dishonesty 
 make love, in the fullest sense of the word, not 
 only impossible but unjustifiable. Did Christ 
 love the scribes and Pharisees, who not only 
 would not enter the kingdom of God themselves, 
 but also prevented others from entering in ? 
 Did He love the "fox" Herod, or the self- 
 blinded Caiaphas ? We need not think or try 
 to love better than the Saviour loved. But this 
 moral impossibility of loving those who have 
 proved themselves utterly unworthy of it must 
 not, need not, hinder our doing them a kindness 
 whenever it is in our power to do so, or fulfilling 
 the reasonable claims of vicinage, or affinity, or 
 relationship. In our hearts we can wish them 
 well ; before God we sometimes remember them, 
 though we do not tell them so. He Who knoweth 
 our hearts and understandeth our nature, is full 
 of pity, and also of justice. We only wish to 
 love as the Son of His love loved. We recog- 
 nise with all our heart that the secret of progress, 
 and the way of holiness, is to walk in love, as 
 Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us. 
 
194 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 V 
 THE SECRET OF GRACE 
 
 Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the 
 hearing of faith f — GALATIANS iii. 2. 
 
 HID the apostle refer in this question to a 
 special gift of the Spirit, such as he 
 assumed the disciples at Ephesus to have re- 
 ceived, when he asked them if they had received 
 the Holy Ghost since they believed, and which 
 after their baptism was bestowed on them through 
 the laying on of hands ? Or is it merely a gene- 
 ral allusion to that essential and indispensable 
 operation of the Holy Spirit by which man is 
 born again in the divine act of regeneration, 
 wherein he is grafted into Christ, that afterwards, 
 day by day, he may put on Christ ? The ques- 
 tion is immaterial, except in this respect, that the 
 receiving of the Holy Ghost is the supreme con- 
 dition of spiritual life. The point, surely, which 
 the apostle presses, and which is vital to our 
 subject of personal holiness, is the secret of 
 obtaining this indispensable and supernatural 
 grace. 
 
 There are two ways possible, and he instantly 
 rejects one of them. This divine grace may 
 conceivably be earned by the faithful discharge 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO GIFT" 195 
 
 of duty (" the works of the law "), as a labourer 
 earns wages by toil. St. Paul almost scornfully 
 rejects this explanation by an appeal to their own 
 experience. Was the Holy Spirit paid to them 
 as a reward ? They knew better. The alterna- 
 tive explanation is that it was given to their faith. 
 They heard, they listened, they pondered, they 
 believed ; and their faith was sealed by grace. 
 Now what was true of the beginning of their 
 spiritual life, must also be true of the continuance 
 and perfection of it. If it is by faith in the one, 
 it must be by faith in the other. In a sentence, 
 the two great laws and conditions of personal 
 holiness as taught in this Epistle are these : that 
 the work of holiness in the soul is from first to 
 last the work of the Holy Spirit, and that this 
 Holy Spirit is freely and abundantly and con- 
 tinually given to those who believe. 
 
 When the apostle affirms the great principle 
 of grace as essential to holiness, he does not 
 content himself with a sonorous generality ; but 
 he indicates in a very clear and precise fashion 
 that holiness means a struggle and conflict 
 between two opposing principles, and that what 
 has been beautifully called "the positiveness of the 
 divine life" is the true method of a progressive 
 sanctity. 
 
 Under three distinct illustrations, and in three 
 different portions of his writings, the apostle 
 portrays, emphasises, and defines the conflict of 
 the regenerate soul. In the famous seventh 
 
196 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, susceptible 
 no doubt of many explanations, and capable of 
 application to various stages of the soul's expe- 
 rience, St. Paul speaks — it is a personal expe- 
 rience, but common to all of us — of delighting 
 in the law of God after the inward man ; yet of 
 his also seeing another law in his members 
 warring against the law of his mind, and bring- 
 ing him into captivity to the law of sin in his 
 members. It is not the past which he recalls ; 
 it is the present which he laments ; and a mighty 
 groan goes forth from that saintly conscience, 
 " O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
 me from the body of this death ? " In the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians the same truth is 
 asserted, not now under the figure of a battle, but 
 under that of a garment. " That ye put off" fas 
 an old and defiled robe) " concerning the former 
 conversation the old man, which is corrupt 
 according to the deceitful lusts .... and that 
 ye put on the new man, which after God is 
 created in righteousness, and true holiness." 
 Writing to the Galatians, he reverts to a figure 
 analogous to that in his letter to the Romans, 
 of incessant inevitable conflict between flesh 
 and spirit, " for the flesh lusteth against the 
 spirit" (the old against the new nature), "and 
 the spirit against the flesh ; and these arc 
 contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot 
 do the things that ye would." But the infer- 
 ence he draws is direct, and the counsel he 
 
"COMING BEHIND IN NO GIF1 197 
 
 offers practical in the highest degree. " This 
 I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh." "If we live in 
 the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." 
 
 In other words, the only way of subduing the 
 old nature is by cultivating the new ; and if we 
 would not do the works of the flesh, we must 
 bring forth the fruits of the spirit. The Divine 
 Voice whispers not only " Thou shalt not," but 
 " Thou shalt." The way to conquer selfishness 
 is to do little constant, delicate, secret acts of 
 self-denying love ; and to subdue pride, we must 
 wash our brothers' feet, and seek the lowest 
 room, in honour preferring one another, and 
 never laying traps for praise. If we are covetous, 
 let us regularly and resolutely lay aside a definite 
 portion of our income for judicious and well- 
 proportioned distribution as "every man hath 
 need." If we are tempted to resentment or 
 irritability, let us cultivate gentleness and a 
 manful forbearance. If we are apt to be self- 
 indulgent, let us, without making life intolerable 
 and so provoking a swift reaction, often den}' 
 ourselves in little things. If we are unsociable 
 and self-sufficing, let us go into society, and give 
 all our sympathies to those who need them. In 
 this way, most surely, solidly, rapidly, the divine 
 life is built up within us, and we become in- 
 creasingly partakers of the divine nature. In 
 this \vay,too,we form the habit of goodness, which 
 becomes easier, sweeter, more self-recompen-ing, 
 
198 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 more natural, year by year. In this way, further, 
 we cultivate the friendship of our Lord, and He can 
 come to visit us, sure of a welcome, sure of abundant 
 heart-room, sure of being listened to, even in His 
 faintest whispers, sure of being obeyed, when He 
 would guide us with but a look of His eye. 
 
 Christian reader, we talk about holiness, and 
 we admire it, and we press it on others, and 
 with lip-service at least we affect to lament the 
 lack of it in ourselves. But are we so sure that 
 we really and deeply care for it ? Are we ready 
 to practise that inward discipline of spirit, with- 
 out which it can only be a vain dream ? The 
 Spirit comes to us by the hearing of faith ; and 
 in this sense it is that holiness comes by faith. 
 It is equally true that it will never come to those 
 who are content with hearing it preached about, 
 but whose only actual approach to it is in the 
 perilous luxury of books of devotion. Prayer, 
 as we said before, means hard work, and holi- 
 ness is hard work ; and we shall never come to 
 resemble or enjoy God by sitting on a sofa and 
 feebly sighing after it. St. Paul bids us work 
 out our own salvation with fear and trembling. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ has pronounced a special 
 beatitude and a mighty satisfaction on those 
 who hunger and thirst after righteousness. He 
 has also said — and who shall gauge the awful 
 depths of those tremendous words ? — " Whoso- 
 ever forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my 
 disciple." 
 
SORROW 
 
Sorrow is the deepest thins; in the world. 
 
 Prebendary Eyton. 
 
THE CONSOLATIONS OF GOD 
 
 Arc the consolations of God small with thcc ? — Jon xv. it. 
 
 TWO striking and consoling suggestions have 
 been made about sorrow. One points out 
 that it marks a real era in life when a man begins 
 to feel that he needs comforting at all. In the 
 earl)' morning of our fresh and indefatigable 
 energies it is not rest, or peace, or healing that 
 we care for, so much as an opening to give us 
 the chance of showing what we are fit for. It 
 is the first breakdown, whether in bodily health 
 or in the companionships that make home lovely 
 and desirable, or in the favour of our fellow- 
 men, or in our own capacity and self-respect, 
 that brings a darkness over our sky and checks 
 us in our headlong speed, and keenly humbles 
 us, and impels us to plead for the sympathy of 
 men and the kindness of God. There is, more- 
 over, no truer test of a man's spiritual condition 
 than the sort of remedy which gives him comfort. 
 
erti 
 
 202 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Some think of their money. Some plunge into 
 diversion and business. Some forget their 
 trouble in incessant distraction. Some, not too 
 many, flee in their distress to God. 
 An info-- The question before us is emphasised by the 
 inevitable inference that with most of us the 
 consolations of God are small when they might 
 be, are meant to be, large. For, first of all, 
 even when a man has no wish to harden himself 
 in his grief, yet, though he may be content to 
 be helped by man, he may refuse to be comforted 
 by God. There is sometimes a resentment 
 within him, a sense of inequitableness and wrong, 
 which tempt him to hard thoughts of One Who, 
 he always thought, called Himself Father, but 
 Who is putting him to intolerable anguish 
 without sufficient cause. We all of us know 
 something of this feeling. Even if it passes, it 
 visits us. With some it lingers, by others it is 
 instantly rejected as an injury and dishonour. 
 Some never escape from it till they die. More- 
 over, we are all apt to forget that the consolations 
 of God chiefly flow to us through the sympathies 
 of men ; that the glance of infinite compassion, 
 the pressure of the trembling hand, the silence 
 so full of wisdom and tact, the bright radiant 
 smile of faith and hope, the kneeling down for 
 the quiet intercession that may not be uttered, 
 the kiss of peace, and the wrestlings in prayer 
 afterwards for the wounded sufferer left alone in 
 the darkness of the blinding and crushing loss, 
 
SORROW 20 \ 
 
 are all from God and through Him — His gift. 
 His consolation, though in the shape of tin 
 ministries of men. 
 
 What arc the consolations of God J Theconso- 
 
 First, the thought of His power. This, ofgjj?"'* 
 course, may only convey the sense of an unspeak- 
 able alarm ; and indeed never do we feel more as 
 clay in the hand of the potter, than in the crises 
 of our life which sorrow brings. But is there 
 any promise in all the world better than that 
 which St. Paul has given us, that " all things 
 work together for good to them that love God?" 
 This divine alchemy for those who can suffer, 
 trust, and wait, is the certain end of all. " All 
 power belongeth unto God," and His power is 
 for His people, and ever exercised for their good. 
 The end of Job, the career of Joseph, the cap- 
 tivity of St. Paul, all justify His wisdom and 
 glorify His power. The thought of His cha- 
 racter is another consolation. God is love. 
 " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the 
 Lord pitieth them that fear Him." But His love, 
 just because it is divine, ever aims at the holiness 
 of His children. We are to be transformed into 
 the image of His Son, that He may be made 
 "firstborn among many brethren." Sorrow has 
 the unique faculty of illuminating and purifying, 
 and weaning and elevating the soul. It opens 
 for a man a window into his spirit, and enables 
 him to see, what otherwise he never could have 
 seen, some of the deeper secrets of his inmost 
 
204 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 life. They are not pleasant to see, and some- 
 times it is real anguish to see them ; but they 
 must be seen, and the seeing comes through the 
 pain. This was Job's experience. " I have 
 heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now 
 mine eye seeth Thee : therefore I abhor myself, 
 and repent in dust and ashes." 
 
 It purifies, through the grace of God bringing 
 home to the awakened conscience the power of 
 the cleansing blood, and the promise of the free 
 and present and full forgiveness. God's gifts all go 
 together. Sorrow weans us, for we see how little 
 to be trusted, whether for permanency or life, are 
 the things on which once we set our hearts, and for 
 which we were content to risk everything. In 
 the moment when we discover how little the 
 whole world is worth, our hearts go up to God 
 -and rest on Him. For sorrow, rightly inter- 
 preted, elevates us, and lifts us up to Him for 
 Whose presence it is preparing us, and Whose 
 love we are beginning to understand. "Whom 
 have I in Heaven but Thee, and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee," 
 is the soul's address to God, first learnt and 
 understood when He has been made its refuge. 
 There is also the thought of His purpose, in which 
 His consolations come to be so blessed and so 
 real. His purpose is twofold. To reveal Him- 
 self, and to enable us thereby to reveal Him to 
 others. We should never know the beautiful- 
 ness, the tenderness, the unspeakable kindness 
 
SORROW 205 
 
 of God but through the discipline of sorrow, even 
 when continuous and interrupting all active duty 
 — sorrow that hinders devotion, and sorrow that 
 benumbs the soul. 
 
 Some who read these words may be able to 
 appreciate from their own experience that never 
 is it more possible to say, " O God, how Thou 
 dost love me — how my heart trembles and longs 
 to love Thee in return," than in moments of keen 
 anguish, paralysing disappointment, or inconsol- 
 able distress. For some distress is inconsolable, 
 and is meant to be. Even into the mystery of 
 the incarnate life came the discipline of sorrow, 
 as if no real human soul could reach its best 
 without it. " Though he were a Son, yet learned 
 He obedience through the things which lie 
 suffered." To be taught the loveliness of God, 
 and thereby to learn the fruition of His glorious 
 Godhead, is worth a good deal of earthly loss. 
 Then there is the blessed duty of revealing Him 
 to others, the insight and capacity for which can 
 only be learned by personal sorrow. Here, and 
 also hereafter. The life-long sorrows of some 
 of God's saints need from them no explanations, 
 no defence. They are not the persons to wonder 
 at it, or to murmur about it, nor do you ever 
 hear them querulously complaining of their use- 
 lessness, though their years arc passed in the 
 four corners of a room. It is often the patient 
 sufferers who are the most potent instruments for 
 God. Those who stand by and wonder will do 
 
message to 
 men. 
 
 206 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 well to remember that we are made and trained 
 for eternity : that life is just going to school with 
 our Father; that in the coming aeons of joy, and 
 service, and knowledge, and worship, the weak 
 here will be the strong there. Those whom we 
 ignorantly pitied and tenderly comforted here 
 may be in the van of the multitude which no 
 man can number. 
 Sorrow a But also to men now have those who suffer a 
 true mission from God. That it is so the 
 apostle makes very plain, " Blessed be the God 
 of all comfort, Who comforteth us in all our tri- 
 bulation, that we may be able to comfort them 
 which are in any trouble, by the comfort where- 
 with we ourselves are comforted of God. " We 
 are pupils that we may be teachers, we receive 
 to share, we take what we are to pass on. We 
 are to be witnesses of God to men, to feel able 
 and thankful to tell them what He is in Himself, 
 and what He is willing to become to them, if 
 they will sit at His feet and hear His voice ; and 
 as the evidence and proof of it all to learn to 
 say, "Time was when I knew nothing of Him, 
 but He knew me, and waited to be gracious to 
 me, and when He saw me lonely and weary and 
 sad, came to visit me, and little by little explained 
 Himself to me, until I knew and believed His 
 love, and opened all my heart for Him to come 
 in and be King. What He has been to me He 
 will be to you, and the comfort He has given to 
 me He will give to you, but on the one condition 
 
SORROW 207 
 
 that you ask Him for it. He will conic Lo you, 
 but you must go to meet Him. When you hear 
 Him knocking, lift up the latch and let Him in." 
 We shall never have done with sorrow until we 
 die. It is of course a mistake to say that we do 
 not also need what is understood by prosperity. 
 The earth needs sunshine as well as cloud. To 
 be constantly anticipating sorrow breeds a mor- 
 bidness of soul, inconsistent with the joyousness 
 of faith. To wish for it is to do violence to the 
 soul's healthy instincts. Trials will change with 
 the changing years ; but they bring strength and 
 grace with them as our characters need it. The 
 soul's refuge is in God. If we flee to Him to 
 hide us, He will be the cup of our inheritance, 
 and the portion of our lot, and our souls shall 
 be kept in perfect peace. " My son, despise not 
 thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
 thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord 
 loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son 
 whom He receiveth." 
 
2o8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 II 
 
 A CLOUDED SOUL 
 
 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice 
 
 of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light .' 
 Let him trust in the name of the Lord, let him stay upon 
 his God. — Isaiah 1. 10. 
 
 ET it be clearly understood that this is the 
 case of a believer, whose loss of God is not 
 brought about by his own misconduct, and whose 
 want of light does not come from lack of love. 
 A believer's The mystery may be greater, and the cloud that 
 encompasses the working of the divine Righteous- 
 ness may have less of silver to its lining, but the 
 fact comes out with all its melancholy but most 
 instructive emphasis, that a loss of the sense of 
 God's favour does not of necessity imply a loss 
 of the favour itself, and that among the manifold 
 and disciplinary processes of the divine correc- 
 tion a shadowed and lonely experience has a 
 foremost, an intentional place. 
 
 It matters little by what special methods God's 
 providence may fashion the trial. The trial is 
 the same, whatever brings it about. Physical 
 disease, hereditary temperament, abnormal and 
 exhausting labour, sensitiveness of the nervous 
 forces in turn produce, or accentuate, or more 
 
SORROW 209 
 
 or less explain, the gloom or solitariness of the 
 troubled soul. They arc simply instruments of 
 the divine will, which is fulfilling itself by means 
 of them. The Fatherliness of God's love has 
 something to teach and to give His child — to 
 teach and to give the Church, through and by 
 means of His child, in this way, and in no other. 
 The believer himself is to trust and to wait. 
 Those who look on in the solemn consciousness 
 that some day that darkest and bitterest of cups 
 may be put to their own lips, are to pity, inter- 
 cede, and adore. What is meant by the dark- The nature 
 ness in which one who fears God and does His'^.ff' ' 
 will is permitted, even ordained, to walk by One 
 Who has expressly told us that joy is to be in 
 the dwellings of the righteous, and that His 
 own joy is to be His people's strength ? First 
 of all the darkness may be of an intellectual 
 character, and may affect the very acceptance 
 of a revelation from God. To most sincere 
 thinkers who come into contact with the current 
 literature of our age, not through any reluctance 
 to believe, but through the very honesty that 
 forbids them to accept too easily a religion which 
 promises so much in itself, there will come occa- 
 sionally misgivings and doubts as to the docu- 
 ments which profess to record the history of its 
 origin, or as to the adequacy of the materials 
 offered to substantiate it. We have a good 
 deal more to do with second causes than our 
 fathers had, and the machinery of creation seems 
 
 o 
 
210 ESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 to hide and complicate the agency of the Hand 
 behind it. God does not demonstrate Himself, 
 or there would be no such thing possible as 
 faith. Perhaps to see God there must be a sort 
 of moral affinity that makes us desire Him. 
 Few things to a soul truly longing to walk in 
 the light of God's countenance are more disturb- 
 ing, some would even say more agonising, than 
 even the bare possibility that there may be no 
 God after all whom human spirits can know, 
 hear, worship, resemble, serve, love, with any 
 adequate sense of security that they are not 
 pursuing a shadow, which their own fancy has 
 projected on the invisible world. Such doubts 
 are not sins ; some would go so far as to say 
 that they are not even temptations ; but to pure 
 and devout souls they are an unspeakable and 
 awful trial. The very truthfulness of a man's 
 intellectual nature seems to turn against him 
 and torment him as he lies stretched on the 
 rack of this awful conflict. 
 
 This darkness is also created for some of us 
 by the perplexing nature of God's moral govern- 
 ment of the world. This is so much the case 
 that good men without duties or interests can 
 easily think themselves into misapprehension of 
 the gravest kind about the God Whom in their 
 own case they long ago learned to recognise 
 and adore as full of fatherly love and kindness. 
 The loftier our ideal of God, the nobler our 
 moral instincts of justice and mercy, the larger 
 
SORROW 2ii 
 
 our spirit (it philanthropy, the more burning' and 
 vehement our hatred of cruelty and wrong, the 
 harder may be the problem for us to reconcile 
 what we think God ought to do, with what we 
 find I [e actually does do. We often torture 
 ourselves with speculations as to the entrance 
 of evil into the world, and instead of setting 
 ourselves to try to overcome it with good, we 
 waste time and temper in quenching a volcano 
 with tears. An earnest man wishes to under- 
 stand all about God. God does not promise 
 anything of the kind on this side the grave, but 
 claims to be trusted. If He were to try to 
 make everything plain to us, the probability is 
 that we should be no better off than before. If 
 we cannot trust Him, we only make the outside 
 darkness darker, and extinguish the light which 
 faith would bring into the soul. 
 
 There is another sort of darkness, which I 
 have kept to the last. It is the darkest and 
 saddest of all. I mean the darkness of the soul 
 which feels deserted by the Presence of the 
 Lord ; which clings, but feels nothing to cling 
 to ; which prays, but no sense of being heard 
 comes back to help and cheer ; which loves, and 
 pleads, and waits, and all is like winter at the 
 pole. Sometimes this comes towards the close 
 of life, sometimes in the midst of its activities ; 
 sometimes the preacher almost feels himself a 
 hypocrite in promising consolations which he 
 does not taste himself; sometimes the troubled 
 
212 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 spirit, bereft of everything else but its Lord, at 
 last seems to be bereft of all that made other 
 losses tolerable, other silences beautiful. If God 
 goes, the universe goes. " Let me die, I am no 
 better than my fathers." 
 
 The greatest and the strongest have passed 
 through these deep waters, and the deepest and 
 the bravest know no immunity from it. It is 
 the consolation of consolations that the Son of 
 God, at the moment when He was expiating the 
 world's sin and manifesting His Father's love to 
 the universe, lost the sustaining sense of His 
 presence, and mourned for it with a cry that still 
 echoes in the conscience of the world. If God 
 hid Himself from His Son on the cross, it was 
 not because He did not love Him, but because 
 He desired that all down the ages that exceeding- 
 bitter cry should be the typical utterance of filial 
 trust in the Eternal Father. When God hides 
 Himself from us it need not be either because 
 He is displeased with us or has ceased to love us. 
 He trusts us so much that He honours us in 
 making us the witnesses of His faithfulness. Be- 
 cause we follow Him so much, we will trust and 
 confess Him unto death. 
 
 When we see those whom we love and revere 
 wrapped in this mantle of darkness ; when we 
 feel it approaching us from the distance, and 
 watch its gathering shadows covering our own 
 clear sky with its pall of ink ; what shall we feel, 
 what shall we do, what shall our answer be to 
 
SORROW 213 
 
 those whose faith is tried by it, perhaps far more 
 than our own? 
 
 First, let us remember, as lias been grandly Our eon- 
 said, that the two greatest moral evils are levity [^ //,',''., '/'' 
 and despair, and that when God would help us 
 to protect ourselves and others against them, He 
 prevents levity by deepening us through the 
 discipline of sorrow ; He makes despair impos- 
 sible, by proposing duty to the soul. Shallowness 
 is fatal, whether to usefulness or sanctity or 
 knowledge. How can God occupy a soul which 
 has no room for Him ? God makes room, but 
 the process of breaking idols, and cleansing the 
 temple of their presence, is never without pain. No 
 one can despair who is at work. It is the useless, 
 the idle, the loungers who pass their lives stand- 
 ing on the river-bank, and watching their fellows 
 drift down the rapids into the sea without putting 
 forth a hand to save them, who think there is 
 nothing to be done, because they are doing 
 nothing themselves. The souls on whom this 
 trial of fire passes should be thankful to be made 
 more capacious for the possession of God ; they 
 should not let duty go, because no joy comes in 
 the doing of it. Any one can work for wages. 
 God wants men who will work without wages, 
 except the honour of serving Him. The fact that 
 He sent us into the vineyard, and that it is for 
 Him we till it, must be enough. Again, let us 
 clearly distinguish between the joy of possessing 
 God and the joy of the sense of possessing Him. 
 
2i 4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 One is the essence, the other is the accident ; 
 the one is salvation, the other comfort. Our 
 religion needs robustness ; we must not expect 
 sweetmeats or cordials as daily food. Barley 
 bread and two small fishes were the food of the 
 apostles, and must be ours. Of course, I remem- 
 ber that in the trouble I am writing about there 
 is frequently not only the sense of loss, but even 
 of estrangement ; not merely that there is no 
 smile on the Father's face, but that there is the 
 felt shadow of a frown. It is not midnight, it 
 is darkness at noonday. Still God is, and He is 
 ours. His perfections, His government, His 
 purpose, are unchanged. Nothing can rob us 
 of the exquisite revelation of His past mercy, 
 and who shall separate us from the everlasting 
 arms of His love ? " Though He slay me, yet 
 will I trust Him ;" " If I die, I will die clinging 
 to the cross." 
 
 Lastly, this depression and loneliness, though 
 real, acute, absorbing, are only for a time, and 
 affect not the substance of our life, but the sur- 
 face of it ; not our inheritance in God, but our 
 enjoyment of its bliss. By patience, by cheer- 
 fulness, by sympathy, by going out of ourselves 
 to comfort and help others, by forgetting our own 
 misery in promoting the kingdom of God, we 
 manifest God's faithfulness, and (without knowing 
 it) we help ourselves on to the end of the cloud. 
 " At evening time it shall be light." Above 
 the darkest cloud, in the light which no man 
 
SORROW 215 
 
 can approach unto, the Lord God Omnipotent 
 reigneth. 
 
 Ill 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS 
 
 Who hath believed our report i — Isaiah liii. 1. 
 
 C\\ : all kinds of sorrow, disappointment is at 
 once the most universal, inevitable, abiding - , 
 pathetic, and in some aspects of it noble. The 
 man who fails, and docs not care for failing, will 
 never deserve to succeed. The man who desires, 
 if it be a good and lofty thing that he desires, 
 supposing him to be a man of purpose, tender- 
 ness, and insight, should he desire it in vain, 
 cannot be quite the same man afterwards. It 
 is not too much to say that the greatest men in 
 the world — those whom we respect, admire, even 
 love more than any others — are those who, when 
 they missed their aim, even though they did not 
 take the world into their confidence, carried the 
 marks of their trouble on them to the grave. 
 Elijah on Horeb, John Baptist in the dungeon of 
 Machaerus, ma)' we not add the apostle in his 
 prison at Caesarea, longing for liberty and for 
 Rome, touch our hearts and win our enthusiasm, 
 even more than the grandest of conquerors at the 
 pinnacle of their triumph. For prophets and cvan- 
 
216 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 gclists to be human, and to make us feel it, tightens 
 the cord that unites the least and the greatest. 
 Let us glance at some of the disappointments 
 which fill such a large place in the chapter of 
 earthly sorrow ; and then ask what we are to do 
 with them, if we would fulfil the counsel of God. 
 There are — to select a few out of many — 
 disappointments in our earthly affairs, in our 
 moral and religious progress, and (as the 
 prophet's question indicates) in our public 
 duty for God. Disappointments in earthly 
 affairs come to all of us in turn, and in the 
 Hush of youth cause us keener pain than at 
 any other period. Nay, they are often the only 
 sorrows we are then called to know. They 
 pass ; they leave their mark, which is what they 
 are meant to do ; when we look back at them 
 over a vista of years, how thankful we feel they 
 came. God said No to us about what would 
 have been harmful, presently to say Yes to 
 us about what was helpful. To all who are sore 
 with trouble of this kind, the Psalmist's words 
 should come home, full of healing wisdom: "Rest 
 in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Be 
 of good courage and He shall strengthen your 
 heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." Disap- 
 pointments in our moral and religious progress 
 have a morbid as well as a healthy side ; are 
 occasionally the result of over-introspection, are 
 suggested by the secret repinings of spiritual 
 pride. Self-consciousness is the bane of sim- 
 
sokkow 217 
 
 plicity, and simplicity is the flower of the soul. 
 To forget ourselves as much as possible, to walk 
 in the light as God is in the light, without too 
 much thinking about it, but as a simple matter 
 of course, because we belong to Him ; to avoid 
 watching our growth, but to trust God with it, 
 while we do our duty in and for Him, is the ideal 
 life, and the life that is also possible for all. 
 
 But often it is too high for us, we cannot 
 attain unto it. Our faults are like weeds, which 
 may be cut down with the mower's scythe, but 
 which have their living roots far down below. 
 Sometimes they take us by surprise, and are too 
 much for us ; and then in an unguarded moment 
 we seem to have lost the spoils of years, and to 
 have gone back to our petulant and undisciplined 
 childhood. It is still hard to love God for 
 Himself, it is still hard to carry the cross which 
 I le chooses for us, and to surrender the treasures 
 which He claims. Jealousy, or selfishness, or 
 pride, or worldliness seem as vital and mis- 
 chievous in us as ever. There is but one thing 
 wc seem to be sure of — and the multiplying 
 years have at least done this for us ; we see 
 more than we ever did how beautiful, how glo- 
 rious, how heart-satisfying the Lord Jesus 
 Christ is ; and if we seem as far off as ever 
 from having attained to anything of His perfec- 
 tion, His image seems more desirable than ever, 
 His love passeth knowledge. All sorts of 
 remedies are given us : this teacher and that 
 
218 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 teacher profess to tell the secret of a sinless 
 life. One tells us that holiness is by faith. 
 So it is, if it is meant that faith is the secret 
 of that plentiful grace which can alone build us 
 up into our Lord. So it is not, if it is meant 
 that faith or anything else can modify, suspend, 
 or repeal the immutable laws of the spiritual 
 kingdom, or that any amount of believing what 
 is not true can make what is never promised or 
 intended come to pass. To all souls beauti- 
 fully, grandly disappointed from time to time, by 
 the shallowness of their knowledge, or the incon- 
 sistency of their lives, or the indevoutness of 
 their worship, or the poverty of their love (these 
 disappointments are in God's good providence 
 transitory phases, not permanent depressions), 
 let me offer a word of warning and a word of 
 counsel. 
 
 While there is practically no limitation set to 
 our moral and spiritual progress, the old Adam 
 nature in us makes absolute sinlessness a pre- 
 sumptuous dream. We cannot hate sin too 
 much, nor watch against it too constantly, nor 
 crucify it too relentlessly. But it is always 
 here — living, and visible, till death translates 
 us into the sinless land. The constant imita- 
 tion of the Lord must be our one purpose, " Let 
 this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
 Jesus." The Indwelling Christ must be our safe- 
 guard : " I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless 
 I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and 
 
SORROW 219 
 
 the life which I now live in the flesh 1 live by 
 
 the faitli of the Son of God, who loved me and 
 gave Himself for me." Walking in the light 
 shall ensure our continual pardon : " If we walk 
 in the light as He is in the light we have fellow- 
 ship one with another ; and the blood of Jesus 
 Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
 
 The other kind of disappointment — that in- 
 curred in our public duty towards God — is 
 indicated by the prophet's complaint. It is the 
 noblest of all, for it ought to have the least amount 
 of self in it. " Who hath believed our report ? " 
 The preacher preaches, and hearts are still hard. 
 The mother prays, but the son of her love will 
 not yield himself to the Saviour. There is the 
 philanthropist, who yearns for the deliverance 
 of the tempted and oppressed ; the teacher, 
 who feels that the message he has to deliver, 
 were it believed, would change the face of the 
 world ; the statesman, who longs for measures 
 to make it easier for men to be virtuous and 
 temperate ; the missionary, who sees millions 
 for whom his Lord suffered under the iron yoke 
 of corruption and idolatry, but who year after 
 year utters his message, and men are as deaf to 
 it as the fury of the sea to the song of a child. 
 These know what disappointment is ; we respect, 
 we honour, we love them for their disappoint- 
 ment. All we say is, and with the deepest reve- 
 rence, God feels it as much as you do, and be- 
 cause He feels it you feel it. But if He will not 
 
220 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 take short cuts for healing the world's miseries, 
 you must not wish to take them. You have 
 only a part of the task to do. Bless Him that 
 you have any of it, whether in seedtime or 
 harvest, whether in winter or spring. Do what 
 He gives you to do, and pass on the torch and 
 the plough, and the seed-basket and the sickle, 
 when your work is done ; and be well assured 
 that your name, as one of His workers, when 
 He comes back to pay His wages, shall be found 
 written in His book in the end of the years. 
 The disaf- Does any one ask if Jesus was disappointed ? 
 
 point incuts TT j tt tt 
 
 of Jesus. He was, and He was not. He was so occa- 
 sionally, but not finally. He was disappointed 
 when the disciples could not cast out the demoniac 
 child. He was disappointed when they under- 
 stood not the miracle of the loaves, for their 
 heart was hardened. He was disappointed, 
 keenly disappointed, when St. Peter tried to 
 dissuade Him from His cross. He was dis- 
 appointed when, after His great discourse in the 
 synagogue of Capernaum, many of His disciples 
 went away and walked no more with Him. He 
 was disappointed because Jerusalem would not 
 let Him save her, and showed His disappoint- 
 ment in a flood of tears. He was disappointed 
 when His disciples slept, while He was in His 
 agony. But He was not disappointed in the 
 work of His life, nor in the results of His 
 Passion. Never was His spirit in more perfect 
 and joyous peace than when in the upper 
 
SORROW 221 
 
 chamber He said to His holy Father, " I have 
 glorified Thee on the earth ; 1 have finished the 
 work Thou gavest Me to do ; " when on the 
 cross He said, as He died, " It is finished ;" 
 " He saw the travail of His soul, and was satis- 
 fied." 
 
 IV 
 
 THE CUP OF THE LORD 
 
 Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, or be ye baptized with 
 the baptism wherewith I am baptized .' — Mark x. 38. 
 
 TT is common to blame these two disciples for 
 what seems like selfishness, and even ambi- 
 tion, in making this petition to the Lord. Cer- 
 tainly the displeasure of their fellow-disciples, 
 who may be supposed to have been in the secret 
 of their motive more than we can be, gives 
 colour to such censure. It is also easy to say 
 that, in their inevitable ignorance of what their 
 Master's cup and baptism could mean, they were 
 somewhat in a hurry with their reply. It is, 
 however, to be observed that Christ, Who knew 
 them far better than they knew themselves, or 
 than their fellows knew them, did not reprove 
 them for motives which, had they really existed, 
 would have drawn from Him an instant rebuke. 
 Their petition must have had something right at 
 
222 QUESTIONS OF FAITH I X I > DUTY 
 
 the bottom of it. They wished to be at His 
 right hand and His left hand, because they so 
 dearly loved Him. Part of their petition he 
 granted, part He deferred. His cup they should 
 drink, His baptism they should share. But 
 nearness to Him in His kingdom was a reward 
 which could not be promised until the lives had 
 been accomplished which could alone decide it. 
 Every man shall finally receive in his body the 
 things he hath done, whether they be good or 
 bad. Until they are done, the balance cannot be 
 struck, nor the crown fitted to the brow. 
 
 What is this cup, this baptism of Jesus ? Is 
 it for all to drink, or only for some to drink ? 
 What shall come from drinking it ? How is it 
 that His right hand and left hand, in glory, 
 have anything to do with partaking of His 
 sorrow ? 
 
 There are these three elements in the cup and 
 baptism of Jesus which give it its supreme and 
 exemplary value — loneliness, and martyrdom, 
 and sacrifice. He was absolutely alone. Even 
 the disciple whom He loved, and who leant on 
 His breast at supper, was not in perfect sym- 
 pathy with Him. He was seldom understood 
 by those who loved Him best, and when He first 
 disclosed His Passion, the temptation was sug- 
 gested to Him by an apostle to put it away. In 
 His last discourse He observed, with touching 
 pathos, " Ye shall leave Me alone, yet I am not 
 alone, because the Father is with Me." When 
 
SORROW 22} 
 
 He fell into the hands of I lis enemies, " the3' all 
 forsook llim and fled." Of all the thousands 
 whom He had led, healed, taught, comforted 
 during His earthly ministry, not one was man 
 enough to stand by Him in Pilate's hall, and 
 to say, " Crown Him," when the mob said, 
 "Crucify Him." He was a martyr. lie wit- 
 nessed for the truth by His life. When He 
 could no longer speak for it, He died for it. 
 He was King and Leader of the noble army 
 of martyrs, who, fired by His example, in- 
 spired by His love, fortified by His grace, and 
 saved by His Passion, loved not their lives unto 
 the death. The other feature, which explains 
 and unites all, was His absolute spirit of sacrifice. 
 He was altogether and always for God. " Lo, 
 I come to do Thy will, O God," was the sentence 
 with which, so to speak, He became incarnate. 
 " Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," 
 was the closing sentence in which His earthly 
 life was ended. He never thought of Himself, 
 spoke of Himself, acted of Himself. " I can of 
 Mine own self do nothing ; as I hear I judge, 
 and My judgment is just, because I seek not 
 Mine own will, but the will of the Father which 
 hath sent Me." 
 
 When we proceed to ask if this cup is for all For -whom 
 to drink, or only for some to drink, on the ^")'" / ' 
 threshold of so solemn a question these things 
 must be premised. No human soul can be 
 invited or permitted or enabled to share the 
 
224 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Lord's sufferings in the sense of their aton- 
 ing or satisfying for the sins of men. Only 
 One Spirit has been bathed with the tears of a 
 redeeming anguish. There is only one Lamb 
 of God who taketh away the sins of the world. 
 This premised, we reverently, wonderingly recall 
 the apostle's prayer that he might know the 
 fellowship of the Lord's sufferings, being made 
 conformable unto His death ; and we attach to it 
 a cognate and significant sentence out of a very 
 profound Epistle written probably at the same 
 time — "Who can rejoice in my sufferings for 
 you, and fill up that which is behind of the suffer- 
 ings of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, 
 which is the Church." We also observe facts ; 
 and it is a fact beyond dispute that in various 
 ages of the Church, and in most critical epochs 
 of her history, there have been royal heroic souls 
 who have suffered for Christ, whether in the fire, 
 or in the arena, with bonds and imprisonment — 
 souls of whom the world was not worthy — 
 kissing their chains and singing hymns of joy as 
 the cruel flames reached their limbs — saints, of 
 whom St. John wrote: "These are they which 
 came out of great tribulation, and have washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb." Still further, in quiet homes, in 
 days of peace and rest, on sick-beds, with duties 
 foul, squalid, offensive, and unrequiting, in the 
 wards of hospitals, with the wounded and dying 
 on battle-fields, with tasks commonplace in out- 
 
SORROW 225 
 
 ward garb, uninviting- and even perilous in actual 
 experience, for Christ's sake, and to be closer to 
 Mini, and to be ever deeper and more blessed in 
 the fruition of Mis love, men and women have sur- 
 rendered tender hopes, dropped noble enterprises, 
 yielded self and fortune and opportunities, with- 
 out a thought of murmuring, to Mini who embraced 
 the cross for their salvation, and for Whom a 
 thousand lives would be but a poor, meagre ex- 
 pression of the rapture and passion of their love. 
 
 Henry Martyn knew something of his Saviour's 
 solitariness. Xavier died, off the coast of China, 
 of fever, with his real work but just begun. 
 Savonarola, heroic among heroes, rejoiced to suffer 
 shame for Mis name. Gordon had but one wish, 
 to deserve to see His face. " One star differeth 
 from another star in glory." Shall we grudge 
 them the brightness of their crown — envy them 
 the tender reverence of the wondering angels ? 
 
 Yes, there are degrees of suffering for Christ, Degrees of 
 and He, in His sovereign government of His m ' 
 Church, mixes the cup and puts it to our lips, by 
 which we are severally to glorify Him. Suffer- 
 ing is a form of service, and a very noble form, 
 and a very blessed form. For sanctity goes with 
 it more easily than with the activities of strength 
 or zeal. Let us accept humbly, thankfully, trust- 
 fully whatever He sends us, in whatever shape, 
 at whatever time. We arc always to glorify 
 Him ; we do not know how till He tells us. 
 
 There arc also degrees of glory, at the right 
 
 p 
 
226 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 hand, and at the left hand, in the mighty concourse 
 of beatified souls. We shall see Him according 
 to our spiritual eyesight, and our capacity of 
 vision will depend on our usefulness and our holi- 
 ness here. Let us observe further that before we 
 can know the fellowship of His sufferings — in 
 other words, attain to conformity with His death 
 to sin, to self, to the world — we must first have 
 learnt the power of His resurrection. Being 
 risen with Christ, we must seek those things 
 which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right 
 hand of God. There is no learning to suffer 
 with Him but through sharing His risen life. 
 But when we have learned the fellowship of His 
 sufferings, even in a degree, we think no more of 
 being first or second, on the right hand or on the 
 left. To be with Him, where He is, that is all 
 we care for. To be with Him will mean to be 
 like Him. To be like Him is Heaven. 
 
 O the joy to see Thee reigning, 
 
 Thee, my ozvn beloved Lord! 
 Every tongue Thy name confessing, 
 Worship, honour, glory, blessing. 
 
 Brought to Thee with one accord. 
 Thee, my Master and my Friend, 
 
 Vindicated and enthroned, 
 Unto earth's remotest end 
 
 Glorified, adored, and owned. 
 
SECRET FAULTS 
 
There is a kind of atheism oj which churches arc in peril. 
 
 Rev. R. Dale. 
 
I 
 
 SLOTHFULNESS 
 
 Why sleep ye f — Luke xxii. 46. 
 
 AMONG the manifold infirmities of the 
 Christian life none is more specious, more 
 pervasive, more general than slothfulness. More 
 specious, because there are such fine names by 
 which we hide it, and such plausible excuses 
 with which we defend it ; more pervasive, because 
 it so often passes out of one department of our 
 life's activity into another, and at last sheds the 
 atmosphere and habits of a lotus-eater over the 
 entire being ; more general, because all of us are 
 idle in some way or other ; and c.ireful obser- 
 vation compels the admission that intellectual 
 nimbleness is often to be found in company witli 
 bodily inertness. No sort of slothfulness is 
 tolerable which is preventable ; the world and 
 the Church need every man's complete powers 
 put into their full use, and with their entire 
 energy. 
 
230 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 As hinted already, there are different varieties 
 Varieties of slothfulness. The pictures of sluggards 
 ness, drawn in the Book of Proverbs, and the incisive 
 
 scorn heaped upon them there, are familiar to 
 all. "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a 
 little folding of the hands to sleep." "A slothful 
 man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not 
 so much as bring it to his mouth again." No 
 doubt there may be detected here the instinct 
 of a statesman's apprehension of loss to the well- 
 being of the State through the imperfect dis- 
 charge of individual duty. Slothfulness in the 
 discharge of the daily offices of life is not with- 
 out blame before God, since it is more or less 
 the hiding of a talent in the earth, and the neg- 
 lecting of a responsibility with which God has 
 entrusted us. It also leaves the commonwealth 
 poorer through the lack of what a full diligence 
 might have supplied. Almost as reprehensible 
 in its way, though not so apparent on the surface 
 and not so palpable in its inevitable, though 
 may be distant, results, is slothfulness of intellect. 
 Through this it comes that so many of us will 
 not be at the pains of exerting such intellectual 
 faculties as we possess for careful study, patient 
 weighing of arguments, sustained reflection, and 
 even keen analysis, whether for ascertaining a 
 practical duty, or solving a difficulty which 
 rightly falls to us to master, or apprehending 
 precious truth. Thinking is hard work. Balanc- 
 ing one statement against another and coming 
 
SECRET FAU1 FS 231 
 
 finally, and perhaps slowly, to an actual result 
 about them, implies painstaking of a rare kind. 
 Many never open a book except to while away 
 a passing hour. There are not too many English 
 Bereans who search the Scriptures for them- 
 selves to find out the mind of God. It is not 
 the mere listening to sermons, i-t is the comparing 
 and testing them by the word of God that at 
 once strengthens, inspires, and illuminates the 
 understanding. " If thou seekest Wisdom as 
 silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, 
 then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord 
 and find the knowledge of God." 
 
 Akin to this is a slothful indifference to the 
 growth of Christ's kingdom in the world and to 
 the hope of His second appearing in glory. " Let 
 us not sleep as do others," wrote St. Paul to the 
 Roman Church, " but let us watch and be sober." 
 As Bishop Reichel has remarked, "It is difficult 
 to read the New Testament attentively without 
 being struck with the difference between the 
 feelings of the first Christians and our own, re- 
 garding the second coming of our Lord. We 
 hardly ever look forward to it, I fancy ; with 
 the exception of a few, death seems to be our 
 horizon. The first Christians, on the other hand, 
 appear to have thought very little about death. 
 All such considerations were absorbed in the 
 expectation of that, great event which to us has 
 all but vanished." We are asleep about it, the 
 Church and the world alike ; and we ought not 
 
232 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 to be asleep. Last of all, but not least, there is 
 slothfulness in our devotion. We give but little 
 time to prayer, considering what we expect from 
 it and mean by it ; and of that little how much 
 we deliberately waste through distraction and 
 inertness. Praying, like thinking, to be worth 
 anything, means real exertion. "The kingdom 
 of Heaven is taken by violence, and the violent 
 take it by force." 
 
 How can we account for this slothfulness ? 
 To account for it is to go half-way towards 
 remedying it. One cause of it, no doubt, is 
 weakness of body. When the fires of life burn 
 slowly the forces of life move feebly. We have 
 our treasure in earthen vessels. The body of 
 our humiliation is, within certain limits, a stand- 
 ing and an incontrovertible plea on behalf of a 
 merciful judgment for shortcomings and defi- 
 ciencies of duty with Him, whose hands have 
 made and fashioned us, and Who pities as well 
 as knows the creatures He has made. Sorrow 
 is another reason for it, which, in one memor- 
 able instance, the inspired penman has adduced 
 as the reason why the apostles slept, instead 
 of watching with their suffering Lord. " When 
 He rose up from prayer, and was come to His 
 disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow." 
 It is not, however, clear that He altogether ac- 
 quitted them of blame in their thus sleeping. To 
 Peter He said, " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldest 
 not thou watch one hour ? " Is there not also 
 
SECRET FAULTS 233 
 
 a delicate undertone of almost ironical reproach 
 in I lis last words, when the lanterns and torches 
 were already Hashing in the near distance — 
 " Sleep on, now, and take your rest ; it is 
 enough, the hour is come ; behold, the Son of 
 Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners." 
 
 Another cause of slothfulness, obvious enough, 
 and, alas ! common enough, on which it can 
 hardly be necessary to dwell at any length, is 
 that people as a whole never exert themselves 
 for objects which have neither interest nor 
 value for them ; and if they do not care for 
 spiritual truth, they are not likely to study the 
 one book which professes to teach it. If Christ 
 is not real to them, His presence will have no 
 charm or power. If the invisible world with 
 its penalties, and its worship, and its rewards, 
 and its society, is either an attractive myth but 
 not an actual reality, or a contingency possible 
 but not probable enough for sensible people to 
 make it a real factor in their conduct or motives, 
 of course they will not trouble themselves to 
 think twice about it ; they will go on to meet 
 it, and it will be awfully and quietly waiting 
 for them, and when it is too late they will find 
 out what they have been doing. On one other 
 cause, however, I. will for a moment touch. It 
 is suggested by the brilliant and thoughtful 
 divine I have already quoted — I mean hope- 
 lessness. Men aie tempted to be slothful in 
 duty, because they are doubtful if it is worth 
 
2; l4 " ESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 while ; or in philanthropic efforts for others, 
 because they never seem to see much good 
 resulting from it ; or in religious investigation, 
 because there is so much to be said on both 
 sides that prolonged inquiry produces only aug- 
 mented irresolution ; or in the hope of the 
 Lord's coming, for they have waited so long 
 and to so little purpose, that the scoff has entered 
 into their ears and benumbed their hearts. 
 " Where is the promise of His coming ? " The 
 years go on, and no sign of the Son of Man 
 appears in the sky. Not only do the foolish 
 virgins sleep, but the wise sleep as well. They, 
 too, succumb to profound exhaustion. On them 
 the bridegroom's delay has a sort of paralysing 
 effect. 
 
 The baneful result of slothfulness as a whole 
 is self-evident. The individual soul, like the 
 garden of the sluggard in the Proverbs, grows 
 weeds instead of fruit, and its walls are broken 
 down for all who will to enter. The growth 
 in divine knowledge is checked, and the mental 
 forces through not being put into exercise grow 
 feeble and out of hand. Idleness is catching. 
 The tone and atmosphere of the Church's life 
 are demoralised by the listless indifference of 
 her professed children. Christ is put aside and 
 slighted, if not resisted and wounded, in the 
 house of His friends. The entire body suffers 
 loss through the decay or inactivity of the least 
 of its members. It is only when compacted by 
 
SECRET FAULTS 255 
 
 that which every joint supplicth that it makes 
 increase of itself in love. 
 
 Three concluding thoughts may complete and 
 rivet this subject. Slothfulness is in truth a 
 base, a humiliating thing, of whatever sort it 
 be, in whomsoever it happens to manifest itself. 
 The Bible is full of warning against it. While 
 we will not discourage quietness, patience, sober- 
 ness, humility — they are the essential virtues 
 — we must, in our Lord's words, work while it 
 is called to-day ; " the night cometh, when no 
 man can work." Then let us think of the love 
 of Christ ; what we owe to it, what it claims 
 from us. " Herein is My Father glorified, that 
 ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be My disciples." 
 Once more, when He comes in His glory, and 
 all the holy angels with Him, what shall we 
 have to show Him, out of all the good works 
 which He before ordained for us to walk in, and 
 all of which were possible ? No one, I suppose, 
 will have done all ; a few will have done many. 
 The question is, What shall we have done ? 
 
236 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 II 
 
 CENSOR! O USNESS 
 
 But why dost thou judge thy brother ? — ROMANS xiv. 10. 
 
 A CORRECT answer to this question, and 
 there is a correct answer, will help us to 
 define and to avoid the too common fault of 
 censoriousness. For not every censure is " cen- 
 sorious," and sometimes not to judge our brother 
 is a graver defect of duty than to judge him un- 
 justly. We must weigh and consider the simple 
 fact that God has deliberately planted in every 
 human breast at least the germ and beginning of 
 a sense of right and wrong, which if it has any 
 vitality must result in some kind of moral standard 
 intended to be used and is being used. Then 
 the circumstance that in a civilised society — 
 we might almost add, in uncivilised also — the 
 most potent and irresistible, and tremendous 
 and continuous factor is public opinion — in other 
 words, the aggregate result of these multitudinous 
 moral tribunals acting and deciding together 
 points equally in the direction of the inquiry, not 
 how we may forbid and extinguish this faculty of 
 judging as altogether displeasing to God and 
 cruel to men, but how we may differentiate the 
 right and justifiable use of it from the wrong and 
 
SECRET FAULTS 237 
 
 unjustifiable, and thereby ascertain how we 
 should limit and regulate and explain the right 
 and justifiable use of it without breach of charity 
 or taint of Pharisaism. Why are we so eager to 
 judge each other, usually, alas ! with a certain 
 harshness ; and why do we need warning and 
 restraining in judging each other at all ? 
 
 Undoubtedly most persons are in haste to Mo 
 judge their neighbours, not so much from any 
 intrinsic hatred of evil or zeal for good, as be- 
 cause it gives them a sense of importance to pro- 
 nounce a verdict which possibly may be in itself 
 supremely worthless and only deserve to be treated 
 by the supposed offender with contempt. A love 
 of power goes with it which feeds vanity, and is 
 gratifying to puny souls. Another reason is that 
 it feeds self-esteem, and appears to condone for 
 our own frailties if we can pick a hole in the fair 
 garment of our neighbour's character, which, 
 only it may be through absence of any predis- 
 position in ourselves to committing a like fault, 
 he would be unable to pick in ours. There is 
 often a curious and utterly contemptible feeling, 
 that to drag down a better man than ourselves to 
 our own level — and there is no easier or cheaper 
 way of doing it than by sitting in severe judg- 
 ment upon him — is a sure method of raising our- 
 selves to his, the fact being that he remains as 
 much above us as he ever was, and we descend 
 a little lower. Another reason — this shall be the 
 last — is that v. c really think ourselves virtuous in 
 
2j8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 either beginning or swelling a chorus of indignant 
 criticism on some supposed delinquency which 
 shocks what we call our moral instincts. The 
 fact is that such cheap virtue is often in the sight 
 of God far less acceptable than the penitent con- 
 fession of even a grievous offender. Real good- 
 ness appreciates the difficulty of resisting evil, and 
 the righteousness which cares more for condemn- 
 ing than forgiving is lacking in that divine and 
 essential charity which is the mind of Christ. 
 
 There are cases in which, while some are called 
 to pass judgment about them, we are not so 
 called, and it is unnecessary for us to consider 
 them at all. We have neither leisure nor re- 
 sponsibility for weighing in the scales of our per- 
 sonal moral judgment everything that happens; 
 and what is not our business we had best leave 
 to those whose business it is. This is possibly 
 what our Lord had in view when He said, 
 " Judge not that ye be not judged." He pro- 
 bably had in mind the mischievous habit of judg- 
 ing and condemning actions or persons with 
 which we have no concern, just from a feeling 
 of moral fussiness and a fondness of interference 
 in other men's matters. In such a case our 
 Lord practically says, " Leave the matter alone 
 and attend to your own affairs. If you do not, 
 you must be prepared to expect that the world 
 which you go out of the way to censure will pay 
 you back in your own coin. When you writhe 
 under the lacerating tongues of ill-natured and 
 
SECRET FAULTS 239 
 
 meddlesome people, you have only yourselves to 
 thank for it, in setting an example which others 
 have been only eager to follow." 
 
 Again, there arc cases in which words or Judgment 
 actions do concern us, and we have no right to a 
 ignore or pass them by. They touch us so 
 closely that not to judge them would be an injury 
 to society and an offence against God. But let 
 us be careful how we judge. Let us take pains 
 to hear what is said on both sides, and not to 
 arrive at our decision until there has been ample 
 time to mature a sound conclusion. Very many 
 people do not wish to be merciful, or to have 
 reasons given them why they should be. " Ad 
 lcones" was of old the passionate cry of pagan 
 against Christian. Now it is too often the 
 thoughtless exclamation of Christians against 
 each other. Another rule to be borne in mind 
 is this — that while we may be in possession 
 of all that goes against the accused person, 
 we may not be acquainted with all that goes in 
 his favour, whether in the way of extenuating 
 or of explaining, or even of defending his con- 
 duct. If we knew all, as God knows it, how 
 often we should be much more merciful in our 
 criticisms and judgments ! It must always be 
 right to bear in mind that while there must be 
 no false kindness, no misplaced or spurious 
 charity, no feeble hanging back from exacting 
 righteous penalties, no unmanly softness which 
 postpones the interests of society to the private 
 
240 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 feelings of an individual, there is no need for us 
 to go beyond what is absolutely necessary in 
 the sternness of our judgment. We punish, not 
 out of revenge, but partly to deter and partly to 
 reform. St. Paul has admonished us that we 
 are to look forward as well as to look back in 
 our administration of discipline. If any one be 
 overtaken in a fault, we are to restore such a 
 one in a spirit of meekness, considering ourselves 
 lest we also be tempted. We are (in such 
 matters) to bear one another's burdens, and so 
 to fulfil the law of Christ. 
 
 One other observation must be added here, 
 pertinent to the whole subject. It may be in- 
 evitable, and also becoming, that we pass judg- 
 ment in the secret place of our conscience on 
 acts and persons which come under our review. 
 It does not by any means follow from that as a 
 matter of course that it is either incumbent on 
 us or right for us to express that judgment 
 either in words or in writing for the information 
 of others. Yet to some people, without doubt, the 
 chief satisfaction in forming a judgment, notably 
 if it be an unfavourable one, is at the earliest 
 possible moment to communicate it to some 
 one else. If it be our duty to make it known to 
 others, let the terms in which we express it be 
 guarded, moderate, and with as little as possible 
 of the knife in them. To be found guilty is, to 
 a sensitive and good though erring nature, often 
 punishment enough in itself. Also, there is no 
 
/>/•:/ FAULTS 241 
 
 need why we should put a trumpet to our lips 
 and announce to all the world, not always too 
 anxious to know our mind nor too careful to 
 remember it, what it is we have to say. 
 
 So far we have considered censoriousness as 
 a fault of which we ourselves may from time to 
 time be guilty. Let me add a word of counsel Counsel 
 and encouragement for those who, whether with^"l A " 
 or without fault of their own, will occasionally 
 be the victims. The Psalmist is not the only 
 person in the world who has suffered from " the 
 strife of tongues." While the happiest condi- 
 tion is that of ignorance of what others unkindly 
 or thoughtlessly say of us, usually there are 
 people enough who, either out of an odd con- 
 sideration of what friendship demands or a spite- 
 ful impulse of what envy suggests, protect us 
 from living in a fool's paradise by sending us 
 bad news of ourselves, as a kind of duty, in a 
 letter with no name to it. If we are very wise, 
 we shall not treat such communications as some 
 undoubtedly strong-minded people do, throw 
 them into the fire unread, when we find no sig- 
 nature to them ; nor, in the opposite extreme, 
 fret and trouble ourselves about them, as if such 
 criticisms deserved more than a mere passing 
 notice, to be glanced at, considered, and then 
 forgotten. Archbishop Tait, as his biographers 
 inform us, always read such letters for the in- 
 formation or advantage that might be derived 
 from them. Undoubtedly they come in the pre- 
 
242 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 vidence of God, just as hornets and centipedes 
 come, with some function to fulfil. Those who 
 watch such things, and love to trace the divine 
 purpose in everything, will occasionally notice 
 that they are apt to come in moments of personal 
 elation when the bladder of self-love is blowing 
 itself a little too full, or when the kindness of 
 friends and the sunshine of some unlooked-for 
 prosperity need the counteracting monition that 
 we should walk humbly with God. 
 
 St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that it was a 
 very small thing with him to be judged of man. 
 God was his judge. " He that judgeth me is the 
 Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time 
 until the Lord come .... and then shall every 
 man have praise of God." 
 
 When we are censured, justly or unjustly, no 
 matter how or by whom, there is a rule we 
 should follow, a baseness we should avoid, and 
 a gain we should ensure. The rule is to take 
 it instantly to God and ask Him to tell us His 
 mind about it in His own tender, wise, and truth- 
 ful way. This will take the poison out of the 
 wound and the resentment out of the nature. 
 The baseness is to go to the world and whimper 
 about it. Such things a really strong man, in 
 the reserve ever indicative of a manly nature, 
 will usually keep to himself, and not consent to 
 share with wife or friend or child. The gain 
 is, even from the exaggerated censure to gather 
 the wholesome reproof, and to learn better how 
 
SECRET /•' WLTS 
 
 243 
 
 to breathe the saint's prayer, " Nearer, my God, 
 to Thee ; nearer to Thee." 
 
 Ill 
 PUSILLANIMITY 
 
 thou of Utile faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ' 
 
 Matthew xiv. 31. 
 
 TTIERE are all sorts and conditions of men 
 in the world, with every possible variety of 
 bigness in body and character and understand- 
 ing. This is meant to be so, and within certain 
 limits we shall not be held responsible because we 
 are not so big, or so strong, or so clever as our 
 neighbours. Nevertheless, there is such a thing 
 as smallness of heart and mind, which goes b} r 
 the Latin word pusillanimity, a meanness of soul, 
 which is preventable and remediable, which chills 
 enterprise, depresses courage, invents difficulties, 
 and empties pails of water on the fires of zeal. 
 Few of us are quite free from it. It is quite 
 distinct from the shrewdness which hesitates, 
 from the prudence which balances, and from the 
 sagacity which divines. It may be well to look 
 into some of the varieties of it, and then to 
 explain how it can best be remedied. 
 
 First, this meanness of spirit is quick to show 
 
244 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 itself in questioning the necessity or advantage of 
 some philanthropic or Christian enterprise that 
 may be brought under our notice, as well as in 
 proving the absolute impossibility of accomplishing 
 it, whether needed or not. Such persons are like 
 the disciples who, when Christ pitied the hungry 
 multitudes, querulously objected that the wilder- 
 ness was not the place in which to buy bread. 
 
 These good people would never have started 
 the Church Missionary Society, though they 
 gladly help it now that it is started ; and they 
 would not have much encouraged William Wilber- 
 force in suppressing the slave trade. 
 
 Another variety is shown in a carping and 
 ungenerous and illiberal treatment of those who 
 differ from them in important particulars, such 
 as those of Church government and ritual, while 
 substantially one with them in the faith of the 
 creeds and in zeal for the kingdom of Christ. 
 Eccentricity of method, even though compen- 
 sated by work which they could not do them- 
 selves and which few other people could do, 
 frightens them out of their wits, as well as out 
 of their charity. For divergence of doctrine 
 from their own standards they have neither 
 justice nor mercy, while they are unable to 
 explain what voice from Heaven justifies them 
 in assuming that they are always in the right 
 and their neighbours always in the wrong. 
 
 No doubt such persons have their value in 
 maintaining the balance of opinion and in pro- 
 
SECRET FAULTS 245 
 
 tecting the discipline of the Church. The point 
 is whether they would not effect these two 
 objects much more completely, and with far less 
 friction, if they were less careful to magnify the 
 mote in their brother's eye, and to observe the 
 beam in their own. 
 
 Another variety is to be found in the use and 
 giving of money and of other material resources 
 for the grand and ever-expanding activities of the 
 Church and the world. There arc many people 
 amply able to do it without any diminution of 
 their personal comforts or any sort of injustice to 
 their own families, who, if you quietly asked 
 them to give a hundred or a thousand pounds to 
 some great cause worthy to stir them into joy, 
 would be startled into a kind of fit. Such 
 people want windows opening into their souls. 
 They need to learn as they have never learnt 
 yet, what they owe to Christ and to the souls for 
 which Christ died. 
 
 They have to be taught the sweetest as well 
 as the noblest of all joys — the joy of giving 
 away. If rich Christian people would learn to 
 give as poor Christian people give, if English 
 Churchmen would emulate their Wesleyan and 
 Presbyterian brethren in the proportion of their 
 systematic contributions to home and foreign 
 Church objects, a quick harvest would be reaped 
 for God. 
 
 One more variety of this small-mindedness is 
 to be found in the cold though intelligible sus- 
 
246 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 piciousness with which many sincere believers, 
 who have never inquired, studied, or even 
 doubted about the graver difficulties of Christian 
 belief, regard those pioneers of truth who give 
 their lives to what they feel to be the noblest 
 cause on which their years can be spent, the 
 criticism and interpretation of the Bible. There 
 can be no doubt whatever that we are now 
 passing through a transition period of supreme 
 importance. The text, the antiquity, the author- 
 ship, the mutual relations of the divine books are 
 being rigorously examined by a body of scholars 
 whose competence for their task is in many cases 
 elevated and transfigured by the beautiful joy 
 with which they give themselves to it as a labour 
 of love, and whose absolute intrepidity in com- 
 municating the result of their inquiry is, at least 
 in some cases, equalled only by the reverence 
 and devoutness of their minds. We have al- 
 ready profited by them, though not always in 
 the way that we expected or desired ; and we 
 shall profit more if we can use their weapons 
 and meet their criticism with adequate scholar- 
 ship of our own. Times and circumstances 
 differ. There will often be a fair occasion for a 
 stand-up honest fight, in which may truth pre- 
 vail ! But if our objection to such researches 
 springs simply from the fact of their being 
 seriously at variance with our own opinions, and 
 we dislike them not because we can prove that 
 they are wrong but because they compel us to be 
 
SECRET FAULTS 247 
 
 at the pains oi' modifying our present opinions, 
 opposition becomes irrational and without mean- 
 ing, and thereby we may be found righting even 
 against God. 
 
 The last variety of this small-mindedness is in 
 the lack of hope, courage, and resolution with 
 which even Christian men watch and share and 
 push the great conflict ever going on in the world 
 between good and evil. If St. Paul is right in 
 saying " we arc saved by hope," the inference 
 is just that we are lost for want of it. The 
 Church is on the winning side, because Christ 
 is her head and victory is promised in the end. 
 Self-confidence is one thing, trusting God is 
 another. " Fear not, but let your hands be 
 strong." 
 
 Let us now briefly consider in what sense and 
 by what means we may deepen and stir Christian 
 manhood in our hearts, and how, instead of 
 going among our fellows with the depressing 
 atmosphere and demeanour of a Scotch mist, we 
 may act and speak as those who can say the 
 joy of the Lord is their strength. First of all, 
 we want more faith. Faith creates joy, stimu- joy. 
 lates effort, inspires courage, laughs at the thought 
 of failure. As to the Bible, it says, "The Scrip- 
 ture cannot be broken." As to the Church, it 
 remembers the promise, " The gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." As to error and schism 
 and wickedness and unbelief, it notes the promise, 
 " When the enemy shall come in like a flood the 
 
248 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against 
 him." Let our prayer be, " Lord, increase our 
 faith ;" and our answer shall be, " According to 
 your faith shall it be done unto you." 
 
 Another way of enlarging our hearts and 
 minds is to put ourselves in company with great 
 and noble spirits of all times, who have turned 
 the world upside down by their preaching and 
 their goodness, and who fire our hearts with the 
 wish to be like them. If a man is known by 
 the company he keeps, he is also continually in- 
 fluenced by it, whether for better or for worse. 
 We should read history, which more than any- 
 thing prevents despair. We should read bio- 
 graphy, especially of such men as Livingstone and 
 Steere and Patteson and Hannington. Nothing 
 also more helps to stir blood in the soul than 
 occasional attendance at a well-arranged mis- 
 sionary meeting, where the simple but fervent 
 enthusiasm of the hearers creates an atmosphere 
 as near that of Heaven as anything we are ever 
 likely to breathe on earth, and where the narra- 
 tives of the missionaries, fresh from the battle- 
 field, vividly recall the first missionary meetings 
 of the apostolic times. But the best way of 
 all, though perhaps the hardest, is to be alone 
 with God, and there think out upon our knees 
 the vast purposes of His redeeming love and the 
 inexhaustible resources purchased by the blood 
 of His Son. Thus, and there only, will the will 
 unbend, the mind open itself, the heart thaw, 
 
SECRE1 FAULTS 249 
 
 the imagination burn and thrill at the final pros- 
 pect of the salvation of humanity, and the final 
 victory over evil, when the kingdoms of this 
 world shall have become the kingdoms of our 
 God and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever 
 and ever. To have but a little share in helping 
 this on, to break even one vase of ointment at 
 the King's feet, just to show how we love Him, to 
 swell the chorus of the new song which only the 
 redeemed can sing, to deserve to recognise among 
 the ranks of the great multitude which no man 
 can number radiant spirits which we helped to 
 join them — all this is surely worth tears and 
 watchings and money and disappointment and 
 sacrifice for the welcome of Jesus and the vision 
 of God. 
 
 IV 
 INCONSISTENCY 
 
 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place szveet water 
 and bitter f— James iii. ex. 
 
 '"PHE opportunity that is seldom prized, the 
 faculty that should be sedulously cultivated, 
 the talent, for which there is an untold responsi- 
 bility, the gift, which, at its best, is born with us, 
 and owes so much to practice and observation and 
 earnestness of spirit, is that of conversation. 
 
250 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Conversa- Our Lord, in anticipation of the final judgment, 
 tells us that by our words we shall be justified, 
 and by our words we shall be condemned. St. 
 Paul, in his practical way, while he cautions us 
 against the commonplaces of a speech which is 
 to be seasoned with salt, recognises it as an im- 
 portant instrument for defending and expounding 
 the faith. " That ye may know how to answer 
 every man." St. James lays stress on the power 
 of the tongue, for harm as well as for good, and 
 impresses on us that the most grievous and 
 unnatural of all inconsistencies is a Christian 
 misuse of speech. The subject is large enough 
 for a big volume to itself. Let me now simply 
 try to show what infirmities in the exercise of 
 this great talent mar our own character, act as 
 stumbling-blocks to others, and grieve the spirit 
 of Christ. 
 
 First of all — and this remark holds good of 
 course of all people, and not only of those who 
 desire and profess to live as disciples of Christ 
 — the familiar topics of ordinary conversation, 
 even when not directly harmful, are sadly lacking 
 in dignity and interest and value. What most 
 people like to talk about is each other ; but this 
 is exactly the topic that is so full of peril and so 
 empty of good. If we talked of things instead 
 of persons and pleasantly discussed daily events, 
 art and books, and especially politics, which 
 need not be fought over in a bitter and contro- 
 versial spirit, but which ought to be full of 
 
>/.( RET FAULTS 251 
 
 interest to those who love their country, in the 
 place of clothes and entertainments and novels, 
 our daily life would be education instead of dis- 
 sipation ; and we should insensibly acquire what 
 Lord Beaconsfield described as the highest wisdom 
 in the best way — not from books, but from the 
 lips of men. I know that we don't want pedants 
 or coxcombs, to air their own accomplishments 
 at our expense ; or intellectual prigs, who like 
 t<> dwarf others by exalting themselves. But 
 conversation is becoming a lost art. It is very 
 much to be doubted if there is to be found any- 
 where in Europe, except in a handful of choice 
 houses in the great capitals, anything to approach 
 the salons of Paris in the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century for graceful badinage, accurate 
 erudition, or grand courtesy. A good talker, 
 whose sayings we write down in our journals 
 when we get home, is a rare possession. Why 
 arc not there more ? 
 
 Fellowship with brother Christians on the 
 great blessed realities which we hold and love in 
 common, if wisely arranged and safeguarded 
 with wise restrictions, may become a real means 
 of grace. It may mean a handful of friends 
 meeting together over their Bibles, in hope of 
 also meeting their Lord. It may also be con- 
 fined to the intercourse of two individual souls. 
 It is not to be forced ; and if artificial and self- 
 displaying, it becomes hurtful, and when unreal 
 acts like a moral poison. It is more than doubtful 
 
252 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 if we use it as much as we ought to use it. 
 At such moments which bring into the horizon 
 of our own experience the walk to Emmaus, a 
 third sometimes joins us ; and though presently 
 He disappears, the recollection beatifies our 
 life. 
 
 Conversation in mixed society is by no means 
 an easy art, if we would do a little good, 
 without doing much more harm. As a rule it 
 should be in the first instance indirectly helpful, 
 aiming at raising the tone of the general talk, 
 and waiting for an opportunity to attract notice 
 to some event or person which leads to important 
 inferences. Expressions of an unctuous or highly 
 spiritual character are best avoided. They raise 
 prejudice, stir disdain, and even provoke alarm. 
 Religious phraseology has sometimes a hollow 
 ring about it ; and if we want men to listen to 
 us, it must be by persuasion, not rebuke. It has 
 more than once been observed that when some 
 profane expression or jest of dubious taste has 
 been uttered before one whose character or pro- 
 fession must make such allusions intensely pain- 
 ful, quite the best way of rebuking, and also 
 preventing it hereafter, is silence. There is a 
 great power in silence, and, be it added, a real 
 courage also ; and it conveys its message more 
 rapidly and more permanently than words. 
 
 The infirmities to be shunned in our daily 
 talk, the dead flies in the apothecary's ointment, 
 are on the surface. We all know them. Loqua- 
 
SECRE1 FAULTS 153 
 
 city has great danger with it and an inevitable 
 loss of influence. We remember what the wise 
 man says about the multitude of words. Few 
 things arc more irritating or fatiguing when we 
 are compelled to listen to them. It is true that 
 for a considerable portion of civilised society 
 what may be not disrespectfully described as 
 purring is the chief solace and the one occupa- 
 tion. Well, if it is a kindly purring, and there 
 are no claws going with it, we need not be too 
 hard upon it. But we should respect those who 
 only speak when they have something worth 
 saying ; and we do not confide our troubles to 
 sieves. Exaggeration — the offspring of vanity 
 — is a habit to be constantly checked. It soon 
 grows into a habit of untruthfulness. Picking- 
 holes in our neighbours is a sin ; we should 
 resist it to the uttermost. Prebendary Eyton 
 has written of the man who has no eye for a 
 great cause or a great work, but a good eye for 
 a blot. This is a character not unfamiliar to 
 modern society; may we never deserve to have it 
 said of us ! 
 
 In conclusion, there are four great moral 
 qualities which we should aim at if we would 
 serve God with our words day and night, 
 naturally, easily, successfully, and almost without 
 knowing it. Let there be reserve in our talk. 
 A nature that has no reserve has no dignity. 
 Let us have tact, not only of breeding, but, which 
 is much higher and better, of nature. Also let 
 
254 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 us be brave, gently, quietly brave ; saying what 
 we think wants to be said, and all of it, but with 
 a modest diffidence, and an evident desire to 
 learn as well as to teach. Then society will be 
 better for us and we for society. We shall be 
 fulfilling the idea of Jesus in being the salt of the 
 earth. 
 
SERVICE 
 
The substance of the Church's work is doing good. 
 
 Archbishop Benson. 
 
USEFL LNESS 
 
 /.* a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, 
 and not to be set on a candlestick .' — MARK iv. 21. 
 
 THE duty which no one can disclaim, the 
 test which no one may evade, and the 
 praise which no one will despise, are all included 
 in the homely word of usefulness. Who will say 
 that it is not his duty to be useful ? Who will 
 pretend that he cannot be useful if only he cares 
 to be ? Who will deny that, after all, the most 
 equitable verdict on a man's life, when it is done, 
 will be passed on the amount of usefulness that 
 can be discovered in it ? We admire a man's 
 brilliancy, or we envy his capacity, or we listen 
 to his eloquence ; but a man may be brilliant 
 and capable and eloquent, and yet the world may 
 not be much the better fur him, possibly even 
 the worse. But to say that a man is useful — in 
 other words, that he has served God and his 
 generation with such gifts as were at his disposal, 
 
 R 
 
inevitable. 
 
 258 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 and earned, when he died, the two great rewards, 
 of being missed and being regretted — is, after all, 
 the greatest commendation that a human soul 
 can receive. 
 Usefulness First let us notice what may be called the 
 inevitableness of usefulness for every one who is 
 in spirit as well as profession a true disciple of 
 Christ. The Lord Himself reasons about it in 
 the verse that prefaces this passage, and shows 
 how it must be so if there is light in us at all. 
 He had already told His followers that they were 
 the light of the world. But the use of light as 
 well as its function is to shine. So it is with 
 the Christian. " Is a candle brought to be put 
 under a bushel, or under a bed, and not to be set 
 on a candlestick ?" 
 
 A Christian is a Christian, not merely for the 
 personal object of his individual salvation, but 
 that he may glorify God in saving others. True, 
 he must divest himself of self-consciousness. He 
 must not feel himself, not suffer other people to 
 discover, that he thinks himself to be indispens- 
 able to the accomplishment of the divine designs, 
 or that he can ever be more than a very insigni- 
 ficant factor in the mighty work of the world's 
 salvation. Also, if he is not to destroy his own 
 changes of usefulness, he must be constantly on 
 his guard against religious priggishness, as well 
 as against the habit of forcing divine things, 
 either with arrogance or untimeliness, on the 
 attention of his neighbours. But he is to shine 
 
SERVICE 259 
 
 as a light in the world, if he would not be missing 
 
 one of the chief ends of his salvation. 
 
 The scope of a Christian's usefulness is very n,, 
 wide indeed. "Before men," Christ said, His 
 disciples were to make their light to shine. But 
 there arc several spheres of usefulness, in their 
 order of importance and necessity, more or less 
 open to us all. First of all, there is the home. 
 Wherever else we may or may not be useful, let 
 us, above all things, endeavour to be useful at 
 home. No doubt it will often be hardest here, 
 for the last place where a prophet has honour 
 is his own country ; and we remember the warn- 
 ing, " that a man's foes shall be they of his own 
 household." But if we are prophets only away 
 from home, and neglect kinsfolk and servants, 
 as if we had no sort of responsibility for them, 
 an abyss of startling disappointment may one 
 day yawn under our feet. Our first duties are 
 with those who arc nearest and dearest to us. 
 We need not assume a superiority or claim a 
 deference which do not properly belong to us. 
 Nevertheless, if our light does not shine at 
 home, gently, steadily, continuously, naturally, 
 we must not expect it to make much impression 
 on people outside. 
 
 In society we can be very useful, if we are 
 only earnestly bent on it, and cultivate tact 
 and modesty and self-effacement. It is not 
 the mere utterance of religious opinion which 
 is resented, so much as the harshness and 
 
260 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 dogmatic self-assertion with which it is too 
 often accompanied. It is a great art to know 
 how to converse in a mixed society on the highest 
 of all topics ; yet it comes by practice and skill 
 in using opportunity, and by a heart made calm 
 and brave through prayer. Christ cherished in 
 the heart will mean Christ confessed by the lips. 
 It is often to the surprise and disappointment of 
 careless people that Christians are so dumb and 
 timid about the things which as they profess to 
 believe are before everything else in the world. 
 
 One other observation may be made here : 
 it will be recognised as true in the experience of 
 some of us. It is extraordinary, uncalled for, 
 even unreasonable, calls to usefulness which, if 
 accepted at the cost of personal sacrifice, simply 
 from the mere joy of going out of our way to 
 serve Christ, that bring often the happiest results 
 and the deepest gladness. " I do it, not because 
 I must, not because it belongs to me, but because 
 He loved me and gave Himself for me, and I wish 
 to please Him." Such occasions of usefulness 
 may not come often. Let them not be neglected 
 when they offer themselves. The heart, which 
 is listening for the voice of Christ, will always 
 be rightly advised about them. He knows our 
 limitations, and He will only expect us to do the 
 "good works which He hath Himself ordained, 
 that we should walk in them." 
 The A few words on the method of usefulness, will 
 
 method. in 11 • c 11 
 
 handle not the least important part ot all. 
 
SERVICE 2C1 
 
 First, all our usefulness, whatever it may be, 
 
 must drpend on our character. Character means 
 life. People find us out much sooner than we 
 think of, and if we expect them to receive our 
 testimony, the)' claim of us that we shall believe it 
 for ourselves. Christ in the heart must precede 
 Christ on the lips. What He is felt to be to 
 ourselves in the surrender of our lives to Him, 
 He is likely to be accepted as capable of becoming 
 when we press Him on others. 
 
 The discharge of our daily duty will immensely 
 affect our influence with others. People are very 
 practical. They do not care to know only what 
 a man thinks or professes, but also what he is, and 
 what he docs. On the integrity, and diligence, and 
 scrupulousness, and cheerfulness, and punctuality, 
 and exactness, and completeness, and kindness 
 with which we discharge our professional duties 
 in relationship with those who come into contact 
 with us, much of our usefulness must depend. 
 
 Friendship gives another scope for usefulness. 
 Ever)' human being is more or less affecting some 
 other human being for good or evil ; and it is a 
 tremendous question — which of these two it is. 
 We should try to win our friends to Christ : 
 those whom we would not deceive if we could ; 
 those, also, who would find it out in a moment 
 if we were trying to deceive them, or were tainted 
 with the least taint of unreality. A friend means 
 an opportunitv. Let us not lose it ; it is a talent 
 which we must not bury in the earth. 
 
262 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Once more, for each one, if lie cares to trust 
 it and to use it, Christ offers some special ser- 
 vice, according to capacity, age, and gift. " Why 
 stand ye all the day idle ? " is His question still 
 to every one of us. " Go ye also into the vine- 
 yard " is still His honourable command. One 
 duty, if well done, makes another duty. Our 
 years multiply and our opportunities of useful- 
 ness change, though they do not diminish with the 
 ripening years. " Here am I, Lord, send me," 
 should be the utterance of every Christian heart, 
 until service is exchanged for rest, in the vision 
 of the Lamb. Then " She hath done what she 
 could," shall be the Master's praise for us, when 
 we go to see His face, and are welcomed into 
 the everlasting: habitations. 
 
 II. 
 NEIGH BO URLINESS 
 
 WJw is my neighbour?- — Luke x. 29. 
 
 T^HIS is the question of questions ; the ques- 
 Hon which underlies all the good that will 
 ever be done in the world ; the question which 
 each of us should face and get settled for himself, 
 if he would not only do a little good before he 
 dies, but do the right sort of good, and as much 
 
SERVICE 265 
 
 of it as God means him to do, and for the right 
 people ; a question which, as this Gospel shows 
 us, it is possible to put in a wrong spirit, hut 
 which assuredly it is also possible to put in a 
 right spirit, and which it argues, if not levity, 
 most certainly negligence, not to put at all. It 
 is quite true that the scribe in the narrative put 
 it with the object of evading his duty. Christ's 
 precept when enforced may have seemed extra- 
 vagant, unreasonable, impossible. It is equally 
 true that Christ was simply approving what had 
 just come out of the scribe's own mouth, who 
 moreover had defined the scope of the law of 
 love on its side towards mankind, in the words : 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 But, either because he had never really accepted 
 it as a positive and needful duty, or because he 
 had not before recognised that eternal life hung 
 upon it, he is startled at his own words, he 
 shrinks from the yoke he has unwittingly im- 
 posed on himself, he secretly hopes that Christ 
 in His reply will make this lofty duty of loving 
 our neighbour facile, and so tolerable. 
 
 The answer in one sense was no answer at 
 all. In another sense it was a much better and 
 deeper answer than what he had desired. Christ 
 declined, as He always did, to lay down rules, 
 and so to make it possible for any one to abdicate 
 the responsibility of consulting his conscience, 
 and to shirk the duty of applying eternal and 
 unchanging principles to each ense as it occurred. 
 
264 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 What practically He said was this : " Love, and 
 your question will settle itself." The loving 
 heart never makes difficulties, rather it multiplies 
 opportunities for satisfying itself. Instead of 
 asking how little it can do, or how few it can 
 help, it discovers (always in proportion to its 
 sincerity and depth) how much it can do, and 
 how many it can help. When, moreover, the 
 love to God precedes the love to man, that love 
 will measure, qualify, inspire, direct it. To feel 
 that man belongs to God, and is unspeakably 
 precious to Him, is to any one who loves God 
 the greatest incentive possible to love man for 
 God's sake. Admitting all this, it is still fair 
 and reasonable for any one who feels, and 
 justifiably feels, that his opportunities are limited, 
 and that some people are a long way off, to 
 inquire on what principles he should try to use 
 gifts and resources he possesses to the best 
 possible account. 
 
 Perhaps a tolerably complete answer to the 
 Who "my scribe's question is that "my neighbour" is he 
 who comes in my way, and who needs some- 
 thing from me, whatever it may be, which it is 
 actually in my power to give him. It is he, 
 further, whom I can help without injustice to 
 others, and in a measure which will neither 
 impair nor imperil the ordinary responsibilities 
 of my life. The man who comes in my way is 
 clearly the man to whom I have the best oppor- 
 tunities for being neighbourly when his circum- 
 
 eiekbour 
 
SERVICE 265 
 
 stances force themselves on my notice. There 
 are many ways in which n man can come in our 
 way and assert his right to neighbourliness. 
 
 We may pass him in the street, we may meet 
 him in a friend's house, we may read about him 
 in the newspapers, he may live in the neigh- 
 bourhood of our own home. Unless, however, 
 we are actually in possession of his circumstances 
 and definitely understand his case — so far as we 
 are concerned — he and his claims practically do 
 not exist. 
 
 There arc some things which all men may 
 claim when there is an opportunity for granting 
 them, and when they wish the opportunity to be 
 used. To all men we owe truth, example, kind- 
 ness, charity. To some we owe personal sym- 
 pathy, money, or the equivalent of money, honest 
 counsel, and tender care. To some, I say, and 
 not to all, for it is plain that there must be in 
 this neighbourliness limitations and exceptions, 
 with the conscience of judgment behind them, and 
 the selection that results from choice. Some 
 persons come first, and some second, and some 
 nowhere. Children, parents, belongings, friends 
 have claims on us, which are paramount, and it 
 is sin to repudiate them. But it does not 
 therefore follow that they exhaust our possibi- 
 lities of duty, or relieve us from an occasional 
 and exceptional service such as the parable of 
 the Good Samaritan has indelibly engraved on 
 the conscience of humanity. My child is my 
 
266 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 first neighbour, but the sick labourer in the next 
 street may be my second. If I have to weigh 
 the claims of spiritual distress at my own door, 
 against the silent yet irrepressible cry of a vast 
 heathendom, " Come over and help us," I shall 
 give a larger share of my help to those who 
 are living close to me, and for whose highest 
 welfare I feel specially responsible. But I also 
 remember the great legacy of duty bequeathed 
 by the divine founder of our religion to His dis- 
 ciples in all ages to preach the Gospel to every 
 creature. Is there any work under the sun that 
 we can conceive of as nearer to the heart of the 
 glorified Saviour than that of declaring the Gospel 
 of Redemption to the race He yearns and waits 
 to save ? 
 
 A few concluding sentences may help to rescue 
 this subject from the inaccessible cloudland of a 
 sentimental and impracticable philanthropy into 
 the humble but practical region of daily life. 
 The secret The first secret of neighbourliness is, as has 
 already been hinted, to have a great love for men 
 as men. No doubt we are very differently con- 
 stituted in this respect, and it is well that we 
 should be, or society would be at the mercy of 
 the rogues. Not all men have the genius of 
 benevolence which Lord Shaftesbury and John 
 Howard had. If we have not got it, we had 
 better not pretend to have it, nor to embark on 
 enterprises of which we shall soon tire. But 
 there are constant openings for kindness, for 
 
 of neigh- 
 bourlines 
 
SERVICE 2<, 7 
 
 compassion, for pulling men out of a pit instead 
 of keeping them there, for making the hest of 
 men instead of thinking the worst of them. 
 Never to despair <>f any one as helpless, never to 
 despise a soul which the Saviour bought with Mis 
 blood, is a golden rule for all. To be willing to 
 take trouble is the great condition of being useful 
 to others ; to be prepared to make sacrifices is 
 the only way to success. 
 
 Then we must not be too much afraid of being 
 taken in, or of being disappointed, or of being 
 treated with ingratitude. " To do good, hoping 
 for nothing again," is the Master's lofty com- 
 mand. Only one of the ten lepers came back to 
 thank Christ for being cured. Of the hundreds 
 and thousands whom He taught, fed, and healed, 
 how many stood by Him at His cross? Form}' 
 own part, I would not give much for the man 
 who is never taken in. His cleverness and in- 
 sight probably do not run much risk, and he who 
 is so constantly on his guard against the mischief 
 of mistaken kindness may come in the end to 
 have neither heart nor courage for kindness at 
 all. Let us share the divine risks, and the 
 divine disappointments, if only we may earn the 
 divine welcome. In our neighbourliness, of 
 course, there must be prudence. Who denies it ? 
 Who would make light of it ? There must now 
 and then also be a venture, an experiment, a net 
 cast into a deep sea, a toil or a journey which 
 seems to bring no reward. Yet such acts keep 
 
268 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the heart alive, stir the embers of Christian love, 
 make hope at once an anchor and a leverage, and 
 compel the violence of intercessory prayer. 
 
 In all our neighbourliness there must be 
 simplicity and self-effacement, naturalness, and 
 an absence of superiority. To serve man well, 
 we must not only love him well, but know him 
 well. Not unfrequently the people who are best 
 worth saving are those about whom in approach- 
 ing them there is a great deal of obstinate pride 
 to reckon with. This barrier can be overcome, 
 but not by storming it. It can be sapped only 
 by delicate and respectful kindness. 
 
 Lastly, faith must be coupled with all we do, 
 or we shall lose perseverance, and God will refuse 
 His blessing. There is something of the divine 
 left in every man. Let us be quite sure of that 
 on starting with him. We should always keep 
 it before us, and reckon it as something on our 
 side while dealing with him. Also let us re- 
 member that man was born into the world to be 
 saved, not to be lost, and that God's purpose, 
 God's sympathy, God's power, are all for us in 
 keeping him. He may not suffer us to see all 
 your success : " One soweth and another reapeth." 
 But the Holy Ghost is the lord and giver of life, 
 and it is still His work to convince the world of 
 sin. 
 
SERVICE 269 
 
 111 
 
 OPENINGS OF GOOD 
 
 /A'.c' many haves have yei— Matthew xv. 34. 
 
 /^\UI\. Lord, while He never asked advice, was 
 ^^ wont to take His disciples into I lis con- 
 fidence, and to draw out of them what was at 
 work in their minds by inviting their observation 
 and sympathy. This incident is an excellent 
 illustration of the full-orbedness of Christ's 
 nature. No clement was lacking in it to give it 
 perfection. While nothing was in excess, all 
 worked together in unerring and instant harmony. 
 He had compassion on the people, for they had 
 nothing to cat, and divers of them came from 
 afar. Vet pity in Him was steadied by reflec- 
 tion. Intending to help them, He was careful to 
 help them in the wisest way. Had He pleased 
 He might have been prodigal of His almighty 
 power, and have bewildered them with marvels 
 as well as satisfied them with bounty. But He 
 wished to teach the world that economy both of 
 power and resource is a primary law in the 
 divine government ; and perhaps of all the 
 thousands who were nourished by this quiet 
 and simple multiplication of a humble store 
 which a boy could carry, not a hundred ever 
 
270 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 discovered that they had been supernaturally 
 fed. 
 
 This question of Christ's is wonderfully sug- 
 gestive for those — they are many — who are 
 tempted to be content with doing nothing for 
 Christ because they cannot do much for Him, and 
 who honestly though ignorantly suppose that an 
 acceptable excuse for their standing all the day 
 idle, is that no man hath hired them. 
 Conditions. The first condition of usefulness absolutely 
 indispensable for every one, is to see the need 
 of it and to observe the scope of it. Too 
 many of us have our eyes closed to our brother's 
 need, and our consciences insensible about our 
 own responsibility for it. When Christ inquired, 
 "Whence shall we buy bread that these may 
 eat ? " He desired to suggest to the disciples 
 that the people were starving. The answer He 
 received was that the idea of feeding them was 
 simply impossible. We always see lions in the 
 way when we would avoid the road. 
 
 The next condition is to recognise that the 
 opportunity of usefulness is ever at hand if we 
 are only willing to perceive it. Hearts have 
 eyes, but selfishness and laziness too often shut 
 them. To love is to see. The world round us 
 is a great hospital full of the sick and weary and 
 needy and dying. If we coldly ask, " Who is my 
 neighbour ? " we shall be punished by not being 
 able to discharge the office of neighbourliness. 
 If we are wishing to help, Lazarus is at our door. 
 
SERVICE 271 
 
 Another condition of usefulness is to be per- 
 fectly sure that every duty is possible ; and that 
 If we will take the trouble to inquire, each and all 
 of us have resources as well as opportunities 
 for diminishing the anguish of the world. Every 
 widow has her mite, though few give it all. Our 
 blessings are given to be divided, not hoarded. 
 Each has something to own, and therefore some- 
 thing to share. 
 
 Again, we must not be daunted or bafllcd by 
 the insignificance of the help it ma}' be in our 
 power to give, or by the poverty, even the scanti- 
 ness, of our resources. Here were only five 
 barley loves and two small fishes. The fare how 
 meagre, the quantity how small ! Yet the Lord 
 used and multiplied it for almost the greatest 
 miracle He ever performed. It was rare, for 
 Me only once repeated it; didactic, for He founded 
 on it next day in the synagogue at Capernaum 
 one of the profoundest discourses that ever left 
 His lips. It is not only they who have much 
 money, or abundant leisure, or great knowledge, 
 or commanding influence to place at the disposal 
 of mankind who glorify God and serve their 
 generation, though indeed we need such and 
 many more of them. We should be grateful for 
 their sympathy and cannot dispense with their 
 support. It is the tens and hundreds of thou- 
 sands of humble teachers, quiet w r orkers, patient 
 nurses, thoughtful friends, who soothe the world's 
 heartaches, and, if for a brief hour, make the 
 
272 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 weary sufferer forget the sharpness of his pain. 
 Thunderstorms have value, but it is the showers 
 and the dew that fill the brooks which run among 
 the hills, and yet the myriad drops that water the 
 earth are unseen and unregarded. 
 
 Once more : the great thing is to brush away 
 difficulties, to remember that waiting and trem- 
 bling and reasoning and putting off never yet 
 made a duty easier, or lightened a sufferer with 
 the burden on his back. Most of all, the great 
 thing is to begin. "Make the men sit down," 
 said Christ. Do not you see the wisdom of this ? 
 It filled the people with expectation, and assured 
 them that something was coming if they would 
 only wait for it. As for the disciples, it made 
 them see,- perhaps with a sort of shame, that 
 the Lord had a bountiful purpese in His heart 
 which in spite of their objections and hesitations 
 He was resolved to accomplish. St. John, who 
 records the miracle and the discourse that came 
 out of it, may have remembered the marriage 
 feast in the little Galilean village two years before, 
 and have recalled the Virgin's instructions to the 
 chagrined but expectant servants, " Whatsoever 
 He saith unto you, do it." 
 
 Again, observe how the Lord would not do it 
 all Himself, nor would He summon angels to do 
 it with Him. He was bent on using, in blessed 
 co-operation with His divine power, the humble 
 services of men. We too are fellow- workers 
 with Him, and it would be well if we remem- 
 
Shin' 1 CI: 273 
 
 bered it mure, for the joy of the service and for 
 the assurance of the result. He is with us 
 when we are doing what He bids us do, and for 
 
 Him. lie takes care, if we will also take care 
 by diligence and obedience, that those whom we 
 help arc filled. He gives thanks, for them and 
 for us, and we should share His thankfulness, at 
 being permitted to serve them at all. We may rely 
 upon it, that of all the blessings of life on which 
 we shall look back with grateful wonder from 
 our glorified home, nothing will move us more 
 than that we were permitted to help His poor 
 and sick and afflicted ones, who represented Him 
 to us, and in serving and loving whom we served 
 and loved our Lord. 
 
 Lastly, after He had fed the people He sent 
 them away and dismissed the disciples to the 
 ship. There may have been several reasons for 
 this. Perhaps He already detected in them 
 indications of their wishing to make Him a king, 
 and He ma}- have felt that it was not safe to 
 trust them with the excited multitude, lest the}' 
 should combine with them in their proposal and 
 so make His personal embarrassment greater. 
 Another reason may have been that He wished 
 to spare them, though He refused to spare 
 Himself. He saw that they were weary with 
 much ministering. He had compassion on them 
 as He had had on the multitude. In dismissing 
 them to the ship, where they could quietly wait 
 for Him till He was ready, they would find a 
 
 s. 
 
274 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 good opportunity for at least an hour's repose. 
 There was one reason more. Would that we 
 could all learn it ! Then our activities would be 
 less feverish, and our sense of God more quick. 
 He needed the refreshment of prayer. There is 
 a waste not only of bodily strength but of 
 spiritual freshness in incessant exertion even for 
 the glory of God and the service of man. This 
 waste must be repaired or the spirit will suffer 
 loss and damage. It can only be repaired by 
 quiet and devotion in close communion with 
 God. 
 
 IV 
 
 GIFTS 
 
 Arc all prophets?- — t Cor. xii. 29. 
 
 'TWO great hindrances to usefulness in those 
 who think they wish to be useful, yet have 
 never really tried to be, are pusillanimousness 
 and ambition. They are twin sisters. To put 
 it otherwise, there is the fault of not thinking 
 it worth while to do a little because it is little, 
 and of not caring to do something because it 
 may not lead to much. Further, if we were 
 also to inquire from which of these faults the 
 world has suffered most loss, the answer would 
 probably be from the former. It is the million 
 
SERVICE 275 
 
 workers who keep the world moving and grow- 
 ing by their industry and cheerfulness, though 
 of course these millions need daring and original 
 leaders to inspire them with enthusiasm and to 
 give them their start. Of either fault, no doubt, 
 pride is at the bottom. 
 
 The point of the apostle's argument is clear 
 enough. After stating a fact, which is so con- 
 spicuous and so undeniable that it needs no 
 further proving, — the fact of the existence of gifts 
 and the diversity of them, — and after referring all 
 to the divine sovereignty, which in an often un- 
 accountable exercise of mercy and righteousness 
 bestows these gifts where and how it pleases, he 
 proceeds to press that while no man possesses 
 all these gifts, and few have many of them, each 
 man has at least one, and instead of complaining 
 that it is not some other which perhaps might 
 earn him more distinction and bring him more 
 advantage, he is to remember how much poorer 
 the world would be if gifts were limited instead 
 of being various, that the distribution of them 
 is with the intention of making them more ex- 
 tensively useful, and that each man has the exact 
 gift given to him for doing the work that God 
 has ordained for him to do. 
 
 Are all prophets ? No, but some are. This 
 gift of prophecy was not the faculty of foreseeing 
 the future, but the much more important one 
 of interpreting and expounding the word of God. 
 This gift in our time has a wide scope. It 
 
276 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 includes, often outside the limits of an ordained 
 ministry, the gift of simply and attractively ex- 
 plaining the Scriptures, so indispensable for all 
 who would teach the ignorant, visit the sick, or 
 do in any degree or fashion what St. Paul calls 
 the work of an evangelist. It includes also the 
 duty of teaching the young in day or Sunday- 
 schools ; where the work if disciplinary is also 
 didactic, where the task of bringing Christ in 
 His word to the minds and hearts of His re- 
 deemed children has to be constantly, intelligently, 
 and perseveringly done. 
 
 Are all prophets ? No, and there is no need 
 that they should be. Some have not leisure for 
 the work of prophesying ; others are too old, or 
 too young, or too inexperienced. Others have 
 not health. St. James has said, " My brethren, 
 be not many masters, knowing that we shall re- 
 ceive greater condemnation." The word masters 
 is better rendered teachers. But there are other 
 things to do for God and men beside prophesying, 
 and one of them is the good that is to be done 
 by our influence on society. There are some 
 people who, without opening their lips or saying 
 a word, create an atmosphere which by itself 
 elevates, purifies, protects, consoles. They help 
 the world by what they are, even more than by 
 what they do. A virtue goes out of them of 
 which they are quite unconscious, and, like 
 the waters of Ezekiel's river, they bring life 
 and healing wherever they go or stay. This 
 
SERVICE 277 
 
 is a wonderful power, for it cannot be evaded 
 nor contradicted, nor escaped nor quarrelled The genius 
 with, and the strangest thing about it is that '',. 
 it is in the power of us all. It is true, as has 
 been quaintly and not quite inexactly observed, 
 that some men have a genius for goodness. 
 They seem to have less to contend with in their 
 personal nature than other men. In a way they 
 are born saints, and grow up in saintlincss. But 
 it is even with them only by effort and struggle, 
 and duty and prayer, and grace and truth, that 
 the divine presence is manifested and augmented 
 in them, and that Christ's promise about life is 
 literally fulfilled, that " ye might have it more 
 abundantly." To be able, just because we arc 
 at hand, to check uncharitableness, to silence 
 mischievous gossip, to make irreverence shocking, 
 and scoffing impossible ; to kindle a glow of 
 devotion, to move the springs of duty, to make 
 Christ understood, and to touch hearts with the 
 thought of His unspeakable love, ought not to 
 be something far up among the stars, or hope- 
 lessly out of our reach ; will be blessedly possible, 
 though usually they do not know it, for all those 
 who walk closely and humbly with Him. 
 
 Are all prophets ? No, but all may be the 
 friends of some lonely stranger, the consolers of 
 some sorrowful mourner, the guide of some little 
 orphan child, the means and instruments, by ways 
 easily discovered and delightfully practicable for 
 tender and kind hearts, of bringing sunshine and 
 
278 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the feeling of being cared for to those for whom 
 earth has become a desolate and flowerless habi- 
 tation, and life a dull monotony of duties without 
 a break and cares without a change. Who of us 
 does not know the joy and power of small kind- 
 nesses ; or how one, who perhaps owns only one 
 talent, certainly not more than two, can double 
 them by a quiet diligence, never intermitting in 
 acts of secret beneficence, and by the steady im- 
 provement of moderate capacity always put out 
 to usury in the service of the Lord ? 
 
 In the well-known fable the tortoise beat the 
 hare because the hare slept, and the tortoise 
 always moved on. Unthinking people might 
 prefer to be the hare and despise the tortoise. 
 But, on the whole probably, the perseverance of 
 the tortoise does more for society than the swift- 
 ness of the hare ; though it must be confessed 
 that the tortoise might with advantage be a little 
 quicker in its movements, and the hare not rely 
 so much on its great speed. Activity and per- 
 severance are both needed, and should never be 
 kept apart. 
 
 Are all prophets ? No ; but we can pray, 
 even though we are not prophets ; and who shall 
 limit the power, the usefulness, or the final 
 results of fervent and believing prayer ? The 
 little child can pray, and its heavenly Father will 
 not despise its innocent, lisping words. The 
 bedridden patient can pray, and from the four 
 corners of a sick-room can set constantly in 
 
SER] h i 
 
 motion the invisible forces which strengthen the 
 distant missionary with a power which he feels 
 but cannot trace ; which blesses the physician's 
 skill to a struggling life and snatches it from the 
 jaws of dissolution ; which brings quick and deep 
 repentance to some prodigal son, far from his 
 father's house, but not far from a parent's 
 prayers ; which gives courage and purpose to 
 some brave reformer struggling against evil and 
 beaten to his knees by almost fatal blows. 
 Moment by moment the prayers of the saints rise 
 up like incense before the throne of God, made 
 acceptable and potent through the name of the 
 one Mediator. Moment by moment they return 
 to us in showers of blessing. 
 
 Are all prophets ? No ; but whether pro- 
 phets or no there is a way even more excellent 
 open to all of us ; there is a duty even more 
 pressing and more lofty from which none of us 
 need wish to escape. " Covet earnestly the best 
 gifts," says the apostle. Do not be guilty of the 
 paltry meanness of underrating gifts you are not 
 conscious of possessing, or of depreciating duties 
 which you are not qualified to discharge. Never- The way 
 theless, there is a higher and a better way than ^ 
 any, and that is the way of love. Love has its 
 phases, its varieties, its manifestations, its 
 characteristic activities ; but the ethical definition 
 of it is the going out of self, and the divine 
 example of it is the love of God in Christ. 
 Nothing can make up for the lack of it ; nothing 
 
280 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 can exaggerate the power of it ; nothing can 
 describe the sweetness of it ; nothing can fathom 
 the springs of it in the eternal nature of God. A 
 man is like God, just so far as he loves. He 
 represents God, just to the extent that he mani- 
 fests his love. He understands God, only to the 
 extent that he knows and believes the divine 
 love to his own soul. He possesses and enjoys 
 God, just so far as God's love in him flows out 
 of him on to his fellows ; and men take know- 
 ledge of him that he is with Jesus, because Jesus 
 living within him lives his life. 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE 
 MOVED" 
 
The sun has set, but it will rise again. Let us go home. 
 
 John Inglesant. 
 
SYMPATHY 
 
 Who ii weak, and I am n who ii offended, and I 
 
 burn not .' — 2 COR. xi. 29. 
 
 MANY-SIDEDNESS, which is an invariable 
 characteristic of all really great men, 
 was indisputably a feature in St. Paul. No 
 doubt it has risks and disadvantages. There is 
 the chance of shallowness, for no one can dis- 
 cipline or cultivate all the parts of his nature with 
 equal sedulity or success. It is often, and with 
 supreme unfairness, identified with insincerity, or 
 a dramatic posing after goodness. Capricious- 
 ness, too, is imputed to these large and sensitive 
 natures, because we cannot always find them in 
 the same mood ; and having settled for ourselves 
 the action or judgment they would be likely to 
 take under particular circumstances, to our sur- 
 prise and mortification we find them going their 
 own way. No man, in all the history of the 
 race, was more many-sided than St. Paul ; and, 
 
284 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 perhaps, that one feature of his nature which has 
 done more than any other to conciliate the affec- 
 tion, as well as to excite the admiration of the 
 Church, is sympathy — the sympathy which burns 
 so brightly and steadily in the question prefixed to 
 this chapter ; and in which, almost before any- 
 thing else, we are to follow him as he followed 
 Christ. Sympathy is feeling with others, and it 
 is quite a distinct thing from feeling for them. 
 The latter is more of a quick and evanescent 
 sentiment, good as far as it goes, but not often 
 going far ; laudable as long as it lasts, but not 
 always lasting over the hour. Sympathy is a 
 habit, or temper of mind, which means prayer and 
 effort and sacrifice, and a sense of the common 
 lot, with firmness and discrimination, and, best 
 of all, "the mind of Christ" — a quality which, 
 almost more than any other, makes religion a 
 real and beautiful and practical thing ; and helps 
 men to believe that Christ still lives and pities 
 and reigns. 
 
 Let us first select certain types of circumstance 
 which sympathy springs to meet with a certain 
 eagerness of purpose, with which, nevertheless, 
 it has to deal in a circumspect and even invigor- 
 ating wisdom ; concluding with a few preceptive 
 remarks on the divine education of sympathy, 
 and the moral force which it exercises in the 
 affairs of men. 
 
 First, let us not forget our apostle's precept, 
 " Rejoice with them that do rejoice," and not be 
 
"THINGS WIIK 11 CANNOT BE MOVED" 285 
 
 so ignorant as to suppose that men do not value 
 
 sympathy with happiness, though they may need / .,;., 
 it more in sorrow. All conditions of life, as well ' v '"'''" hy - 
 as all classes of men, claim and appreciate sym- 
 pathy. Our Lord's presence at the marriage 
 feast at Cana, as well as at the feast at Bethany 
 after the raising of His friend Lazarus, is an 
 instance in point. Disappointment and wounded 
 self-love may occasionally have something to do 
 with our lack of sympathy in a friend's happi- 
 ness, but thoughtlessness and a certain lazy 
 selfishness have more. Let it not be supposed 
 that inattention at such times is not felt, or leaves 
 no impression on the soul. We should remember 
 the Gospel parable, where even God Himself, 
 under a figure, is represented by the Lord as desir- 
 ing sympathy, and asking for it. "Rejoice with 
 me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." 
 There are difficulties in religion, where honest 
 and even reverent souls demand sympathy, and 
 do not always get it. What sincere thinker has 
 not at some time or other felt it hard, painfully 
 hard, to comprehend all our Lord's actions, or to 
 accept the entire teaching of the Creeds ? "A 
 bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking 
 flax shall He not quench," was once said of 
 Christ. Let us deserve to have it said of us. 
 If blessed are they who have no difficulties, still 
 more blessed are they who have had them and 
 overcome them, and thereby are better able to 
 guide and encourage others who are wandering 
 
diffiailth 
 
 286 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 in the same darkness and stumbling over the 
 spiritual same pitfalls. Nothing so tends to discourage, 
 or harden, or anger men into actual unbelief, as 
 a cold, harsh, dogmatic treatment, of their difficul- 
 ties, too often resulting in a deliberate rejection 
 of God. Sympathy here, indeed, must be prudent 
 and frank, and not treat doubt and unbelief as if 
 either were rather a grand thing almost to be 
 admired, as showing acuteness of intellect, and of 
 no such great consequence after all. " Such 
 questions can wait," people say. Difficulties like 
 these are of consequence — they rob us of noble 
 comfort, divine illumination, and a straight road 
 in life. But while treated gently they should be 
 handled firmly. While not spoken of as sins, 
 they should not be commended as if they were 
 magnificent virtues. If we cannot argue, we can 
 at least in our own humble and gentle way show 
 what the Bible has taught us, and what Jesus has 
 done for us. The Christian's life, as an evidence 
 of the truth of revealed religion, is worth more 
 than all the folios in the Bodleian Library. 
 " Come and see a man which told me all things 
 that ever I did : is not this the Christ ? " 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add how needful 
 and blessed, in hours of personal sorrow, is the 
 felt sympathy of a friend. Felt, I say, for 
 often it is premature to speak and intrusive to 
 write. People who don't know are apt, by way 
 of excusing themselves for negligence, to allege 
 that sympathy at such times has no real value. 
 
■ THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 287 
 
 Little they know about it. The poor, broken 
 heart may make no sign, pen no thanks, send 
 no message, but it feels the kindness, and the 
 kindness soothes if it may not heal Whatever Sympathy 
 the trouble may be, to know that friends, and 
 even strangers, are entering into your grief, 
 praying about it before God, thinking how they 
 can help you, impatient for the moment when 
 they may begin to try, is a comfort that goes 
 down into the very depth of the wound and 
 takes its healing there. A child's sin, the 
 going out of a life, which for years to come 
 seems to blot the sun out of the sky, an in- 
 terrupted duty as dear as life itself, a protracted 
 sickness which, such are the subtle cruelties of 
 human nature, has a knack of making people who 
 have never been ill themselves impatient and 
 rough, and even unkind, need sympathy, and 
 stir an unspeakable and tender gratitude when 
 it is given. Jesus knew how to give it. He 
 wept before He raised His friend, and that raising 
 cost Him His life. 
 
 Here, again, we must premise that true 
 sympathy has nothing morbid or softening about 
 it. It braces, while it sighs ; it points to Christ, 
 instead of leaning on man. It means great ten- 
 derness and wise discrimination, the choice of oc- 
 casion and of the method of comfort. If it means 
 tact and skill, it also means courage and power. 
 
 In conclusion, let us say other things about 
 sympathy, or some may be disappointed and 
 
288 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 others be even paralysed. No doubt there are 
 some people in whom it is a born instinct ; so to 
 speak, it is neither hard for them nor eas}'. It 
 is a matter of course, for it is a part of them- 
 selves. Yet, even in them, it needs educating 
 and disciplining by experience. This is what is 
 meant, when it is said of our Lord that " though 
 He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by 
 the things which He suffered;" and again, 
 " We have not an High Priest which cannot be 
 touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was 
 tempted in all points like as we are, yet without 
 sin." 
 The need of Then let us be careful how, with the best 
 experience. meanm g possible, we express sympathy with 
 troubles and losses of which we have no sort 
 of personal knowledge ; thereby, it may be, 
 making our kindly intended consolations clumsy, 
 ludicrous, or even painful. Let us leave it to 
 those who do know what they are doing, and so 
 avoid the danger of making a second wound in 
 our attempt to heal the first. An earnest inter- 
 cession to God that He will comfort as only He 
 knows how, must be safe, must also be helpful. 
 Inquiry, or a message, or some simple act of 
 kindness, will convey the thing you wish to 
 express. The gathering years quickly bring 
 their teaching with them. Let us wait till we 
 are taught. Not every duty is laid on any man. 
 Once more, no quality of the soul, when it is 
 genuine and ripe and wise, is so gratefully 
 
■'THINGS WHICH C INNOT BE MOVED" 2S9 
 
 accepted, so tenderly cherished, so lavishly 
 repaid, as this grace of sympathy ; and it does 
 not need money, talent, cleverness — only the 
 presence of love. The love of God and the love 
 of man react upon each other. But while it is 
 true that we love God, because He first loved 
 us, and has told us so, whereas we can love 
 each other without any conscious love of God, 
 or even the knowledge that He exists, the 
 highest, sweetest, fullest, truest, usefullest, and 
 most enduring love can transfigure and fill the 
 soul only when the love of God is shed abroad 
 in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Who teaches 
 us to see something of God in every man, and 
 to see in man the most precious treasure that 
 God can own. The most blessed reward that 
 He can receive will mean our showing love to 
 our brother, because God loves him ; will also 
 mean our some day hearing from the divine 
 lips before the universe, " Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, 
 ye have done it unto Me." 
 
290 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 II 
 
 PA TIENCE 
 
 Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have 
 caused that even this man should not have died? — John 
 si. 37. 
 
 CURELY there is no need to suppose that 
 this question had a malevolent purpose with 
 it. No doubt it shows what a deep impression 
 the miracle to which it refers made on the people 
 of Jerusalem ; and it also perhaps indicates that 
 the two former acts of raising — that of the widow's 
 son, and that of the daughter of Jairus — had not 
 yet made their way from Galilee to the metro- 
 polis, or their surprise would have been greater 
 still. Moreover, it is precisely the same feeling 
 which underlies the utterances of the bereaved 
 sisters : " Lord, if Thou hadst been here my 
 brother had not died." Nevertheless, it is a 
 striking commentary on that quality of patience 
 of which the Bible says so much, and which we 
 all recognise as the rarest and ripest of the 
 Christian virtues ; the virtue which is not only 
 the occasional ornament of sluggish and un- 
 attractive natures, but is the strength as well as 
 the beauty of saints. For it is not grown in a 
 day, though it may be lost in a moment ; with 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANN01 BE MOVED 1 
 
 respect to it the apostle writes when lie makes as 
 his ground of appeal " the meekness and patience 
 
 of Christ." First, we have to learil patience Patience 
 
 with the delays of God : whether in fulfilling our delays. 
 desires, or bestowing the comfort <>f I lis pr< sence, 
 or healing sickness, or overcoming sin. God 
 can wait, wrote a great Father, for lie is eternal. 
 We, on the contrary, so far as our earthly life is 
 concerned, are the creatures of a moment, and 
 feel we cannot wait. " In the morning it 
 flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening it is 
 cut down, and withereth." We greatly wish 
 for something, and the swift years pass on until 
 the time for enjoying it is past, and the old 
 eagerness is forgotten. It comes, at last, but 
 grey hairs have come with it. The delay has 
 had its meaning, which we shall see hereafter ; 
 but the hope deferred has made the heart sick. 
 Then there arc moments when to feel His pre- 
 sence, and hear His voice, and taste I lis love, 
 and anticipate His glory, would more than recom- 
 pense us for bitter pain, or the tossings of long 
 night watches. Yet He does not come, nor send, 
 nor speak, nor even look at us ; though we have 
 gone to Him and told Him how we trust Him 
 and lie humbly at His feet. 
 
 His ways and times of consoling arc not 
 always the same. " In a little wrath I hid My 
 face from thee for a moment ; for a small 
 moment have I forsaken thee ; but with ever- 
 lasting kindness will I have mere)- on thee, saith 
 
292 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 the Lord thy Redeemer." Sickness comes, and 
 to some of us it is no new thing, we have been 
 fighting with it all our lives. We humbly and 
 earnestly ask that we may recover, for life is 
 beautiful, duty is noble, opportunities are few, 
 and we think of the time we have lost. But the 
 Lord seems to have gone to the other side of 
 Jordan ; and Jairus, while his little daughter is at 
 the very point of death, stands by, in an agony 
 of impatience, compelled to spare the Lord for an 
 afflicted woman, who might well have waited till 
 the morrow. 
 The dis- We need patience for the disappointments of 
 
 appoiyit- ,,_ , , .. . _ , . , 
 
 menisof life ; not least those disappointments of which 
 we have no need to be ashamed when they affect 
 the discharge of our duty, and which seem even to 
 punish us for doing it. What Noah suffered while 
 the ark was preparing in preaching righteousness 
 to a disobedient and gainsaying generation, who 
 shall tell ? What Joseph endured when thrown 
 into prison and tortured by the thought of his 
 master's reasonable displeasure, the Psalmist 
 suggests in the unique expression, " the iron 
 entered into his soul." St. Paul's two weary 
 years at Caesarea, followed by two more at Rome, 
 were not indeed, as we see them at a distance, in 
 their great results a loss of time in a life worth 
 so much to the world. To them we not impro- 
 bably owe the Gospel of St. Luke, the Acts, and 
 the Epistles of the Imprisonment. But the time 
 was slipping by ; he was getting older and 
 
•'THINGS WHICH C.INNOT BE MOVED" 293 
 
 feebler. Not even for him could the hands be 
 put back on the dial-plate. God seldom repeats 
 His miracles. 
 
 Almost hardest of all, the Baptist's career was 
 cut short by the malignity of a wicked woman and 
 the caprice of a cruel girl, which hustled him into 
 his grave. Let us learn from him, that if we are 
 bent on doing our duty we must be prepared to 
 suffer for it. The day of vengeance will come, 
 when the resentment stirred and the hope of 
 reprisals nurtured shall have their full satisfaction. 
 But we will take our punishment quietly, for a dis- 
 tinction goes with it. Never to suffer for doing 
 our duty may be to fail in doing it at all. 
 
 Over the mysteries of truth we must learn Tk 
 patience, for there are limitations to our faculty Faith. 
 of comprehending ; and circumstances by degrees 
 will help us to understand, as well as the ex- 
 perience of the multiplying years. Perhaps the 
 most precious element in this kind of patience 
 is readiness to wait, for we know our dulness, 
 and we can trust better than before the wisdom 
 and righteousness of God. There are some 
 mysteries which we shall never understand on 
 this side of death. We will be content to wait 
 to understand them, not out of a stolid indiffer- 
 ence, but because it so pleases God. There arc 
 others about which we have glimpses sufficient to 
 assure us that there is a key to them, though not 
 sufficient to give us that intellectual satisfaction 
 which, in the day when we see as we are seen, shall 
 
294 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 have its full and njble fulfilment. There are 
 other mysteries which are little by little emerging 
 out of shadow and passing into light. Once they 
 troubled us ; now they trouble us no longer. The 
 heart sees as well as the understanding. " Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 
 Once more, there is patience with the in- 
 firmities of our brethren, which exist notwith- 
 standing their excellence ; nay, may have a real 
 connection with it ; and which it is impossible to 
 mend, irritating to endure, useless to deplore, and 
 which, no doubt, have their counterpart in our- 
 selves. Some friends are moral blisters ; but, 
 notwithstanding the blistering, we would not lose 
 the friendship. There is no need to go into par- 
 ticulars. Who does not know what is meant ? 
 Besides, there is no occasion to do so. A quiet 
 sense of humour is a great help to equanimity ; 
 and honest love is the best thing for human gnat- 
 bites. What is the surest test of patience ? 
 Self-control, I suppose ; shown especially in the 
 government of the tongne : "If any man offend 
 not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able 
 also to bridle the whole body." Silence is often 
 the supreme virtue to keep down the sharp and 
 biting retort, and to express anger without violat- 
 ing charity, and to be slow in finding fault with 
 others, and to have a sort of grand reluctance to 
 explain or defend ourselves. We are the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost, and the tongue is an organ 
 of the consecrated body, and the Judge Himself 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 295 
 
 has i<ikl us that by our words we shall be justi- 
 fied, and by our words we shall be condemned, as 
 if speecb was life. Let tin's be tbc aim set before 
 us, steadily and joyfully, and we shall have our 
 reward, and our neighbour edification. 
 
 The discipline of patience is sorrow. " Tribu- 
 lation workcth patience," saith St. Paul. " To 
 knowledge add temperance, and to temperance 
 patience," inculcates St. Peter. We can afford 
 to wait for things when we have learnt by experi- 
 ence how little they arc worth waiting for at the 
 best. The flail of affliction beats us flat and 
 empties us, and we have hardly strength to 
 murmur. God and our own soul are so promi- 
 nent and absorbing, that other things come and 
 go without our noticing them. The heart feels 
 as it never felt before, and the lesson is full of 
 patience. " The world passeth away, and the 
 lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God 
 abideth for ever." 
 
 St. James writes of patience as the top stone 
 of Christian perfection, and gives Job as the 
 supreme instance of it. " Behold we count them 
 happy which endure. Ye have heard of the 
 patience of Job, and seen the end of the Lord, 
 that the Lord is very pitiful, and of lender 
 mercy." It is because God is so patient with us 
 that we are to be patient with Him ; and to be 
 patient with Him will mean to be patient with 
 each other. The patient soul is not the dull, 
 stupid, opaque soul, but the soul which has been 
 
296 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 so much in communion with God, and been so 
 closely, searchingly, tenderly dealt with by Him, 
 that it can say, what very few indeed can say 
 honestly and intelligently, even in the thick 
 darkness, " I was dumb, I opened not my 
 mouth, because Thou didst it." 
 
 The end of all things shall be the coronation 
 day of patient souls ; the day when innocence 
 shall be vindicated, justice satisfied, and unseen 
 charity have its glorious recognition from the lips 
 of the Judge. Then the Son of God shall come 
 to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired 
 by all them that believe. Be patient, therefore, 
 "unto the coming of the Lord." There will be 
 no need of patience afterwards. " They shall 
 hunger no more, neither thirst any more." 
 " There the wicked cease from troubling, and 
 there the weary are at rest." The strife of 
 tongues will no longer disturb or distract us. 
 The poison of asps will be under none of the 
 lips which have learned the new song. If we 
 thought more of the joy of the life to come, and 
 less of the troubles of the life that is now, in 
 patience we should possess our souls, and God 
 Himself would be our exceeding joy ; and as it 
 was with Francis d'Assisi in the Middle Ages, 
 and the saintly Fletcher in the time of our 
 fathers, the exceeding weight of glory that is just 
 in front of us would make our present affliction 
 light and short indeed. 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 297 
 
 III 
 SACRIFICE 
 
 Wilt thou lay dawn thy lift !<>r My stikc .' — JOHN xiii. 38. 
 
 '"PI IK spirit of sacrifice is the supreme virtue 
 of our religion. The habit of it tests its 
 solidity, the motive of it indicates its value. It 
 is quite a mistake to suppose that Christ's claim 
 for a total surrender to Him invariably acts as a 
 hindrance or paralysis to devotion. With some 
 natures, and at certain periods of life, and when 
 the heart is first entranced by the divine sweet- 
 ness, the value of any possession consists simply 
 in this, that we can give it or use it for Him. 
 Nothing goes so far or operates so quickly to 
 convince the world outside that we are in 
 earnest, and that Christ is worth everything we 
 can do or suffer for His cause, as the radiance 
 of the living joy which inspires a transfigured 
 heart to follow the Lamb whithersoever He 
 goeth. The martyrs had as much to do with 
 the victory of the Cross as the preachers had. 
 Suffering was even more potent because less 
 liable to misconstruction than activity. 
 
 But it is not only of the sacrifices which (ire 
 the Church with joy and awe the world into 
 silence that I want to write now. It is of 
 
298 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 something much humbler, and more common- 
 place, and yet perhaps more useful for our daily 
 modern life, that I would suggest some prac- 
 tical reflections. Lofty sacrifices and deaths of 
 agony which write themselves in letters of fire 
 on the memory of the world are rare and within 
 the scope of few. Nay, heroic as they are, and 
 seem to be to the bulk of men and women, they 
 are by no means so difficult as patient continu- 
 ance in well-doing. Mr. Maclaren, I think, has 
 observed somewhere that where ten might be 
 ready quickly and sharply to die for Christ, only 
 one would consent really to live for Him. In 
 the passage before us St. Peter offered to die 
 for Christ, and we know what that ended in. 
 His duty then was to confess Him in his life ; 
 in the end of the years he should stretch forth 
 his hands, and another should gird him and 
 carry him whither he would not. 
 
 The sacrifices I would speak of now, which 
 no one can evade or ignore, but which show the 
 real though invisible dividing line between those 
 who are scarcely saved and those who shall have 
 an abundant entrance, are for home as well as 
 abroad, for kinsfolk, neighbours and friends, as 
 well as for the distant heathen ; apparently only 
 for man's sake, they are really even more for 
 Christ's sake, and they have a preciousness in 
 His sight which will surprise us when we see 
 Him as He is. They are habits rather than 
 isolated acts, the offspring more often of a strong, 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 299 
 
 resolute sense of duty than of an enthusiasm 
 which at first blazes so fiercely that it is apt 
 to burn itself out, and then a fatal chill falls 
 upon the soul. Reaction is a law of our moral 
 nature, but it is as perilous as it is inevitable. 
 What a gulf, though soon traversed, we sec 
 between Simon Peter smiting the servant of the 
 high priest and hotly affirming, an hour after- 
 wards, " I know not the man ! " 
 
 Let me give some concrete and quite familiar 
 illustrations of the operation of this spirit of 
 sacrifice in the often homely task of diminishing 
 the temptations and elevating the moral sense, 
 and regulating the habits and guiding the reli- 
 gion of our neighbours. It is only the spirit 
 and motive of sacrifice which will justify them 
 as reasonable or even tolerable. Apart from 
 Christ, and simply as a new sort of self-display, 
 they become an arrogant and burdensome 
 tyranny. First, there is the much debated 
 
 question (can it be debated too much?) of the 
 
 M r . . ,. .-, . . ' , . The use ef 
 
 use of intoxicating liquors. I his is a subject intoxi- 
 
 on which an honest and fearless thinker is very c jji u n f rSM 
 
 apt to fall between two stools, and he must not 
 
 be too much troubled if he does. Never to 
 
 stand alone, means never to be a witness for 
 
 Christ. That to make, or sell, or in moderation 
 
 use such things, is to defy God and to tempt 
 
 man is a baseless and mischievous paradox. 
 
 Shall we cast a slur on the spotless Saviour, 
 
 Who first manifested Mis glory in the turning of 
 
300 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 water into wine, presumably for the enjoyment 
 of His fellow-guests ; Who was Himself called 
 a wine-bibber, and took no pains to deny 
 the fact, though He observed the inconsistency 
 of the accusation ; Who in ordaining the blessed 
 sacrament which is to us at once the memorial 
 of His death, the promise of His return, the 
 vehicle of His presence to the faithful, and the 
 spiritual communion of those who feed on Him 
 there, deliberately ordained wine as one of the 
 elements of the Eucharistic feast ? If it is lawful 
 to use it, it must be lawful both to make and to 
 sell it. What we should inexorably press is the 
 prevention of adulteration, the diminution of 
 perilous facilities, the curtailing of the hours of 
 sale, the protection of young girls and children 
 from public-houses, and the steady and reason- 
 able temperate education of public opinion. 
 
 " Am I not free ? " once asked St. Paul. So 
 might Christians say now. Though at the pre- 
 sent moment English society betrays no sign of 
 being infected with either Manicheism or asce- 
 ticism, it is natural and even equitable to decline 
 to have our liberty snatched from us at the point 
 of the bayonet. " Why should I be judged by 
 another man's conscience ? " " Every man shall 
 give account of himself to God." But liberty is 
 a large word ; and if I am free to use these 
 things, I am free not to use them ; and if to 
 cherish liberty for my own sake is a good thing, 
 to surrender it for my brother's sake may be 
 
'THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED 1 ' 301 
 
 better. I will not judge my brother because he 
 uses these things temperately, but he shall nol 
 prevent me (he may despise me if he pleases) 
 from giving up a small indulgence if it helps me 
 to put out a long and a strong arm to snatch out 
 of the deep waters a poor drowning soul, which 
 sympathy and kindness and quick effort may, 
 with God's blessing, rescue and restore. We 
 will not praise ourselves for what we do, nor 
 flaunt it in the world's face, nor think to convince 
 or persuade by any other method than reason 
 and truth blessed by the Spirit of God. But let 
 us remember that if men are to be left to die 
 because they deserve it, and we will do nothing 
 to save them because they have no claim on us, 
 and we defend our contention as reasonable and 
 just, how can we explain the mystery of the 
 Incarnation, which had its exemplary as well as 
 atoning value ? How do we expect to escape 
 the reproach in one of the most terrible of all our 
 Lord's parables, " O thou wicked servant, I for- 
 gave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me. 
 Shouldst not thou also have compassion on thy 
 fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ? " 
 
 Another opportunity for the exercise of this The drama. 
 spirit of sacrifice (I tread on ashes over living 
 fire) is in the use and enjoyment of the drama. 
 Let us frankly make some admissions which 
 justice and observation and common-sense may 
 perhaps make us more than willing to make. 
 The}' ought to be made, and to make them may 
 
302 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 be of service. There is a dramatic instinct in 
 human nature, delightfully perceptible even in a 
 little child, which presumably, like other instincts, 
 was deliberately placed there by the all-wise 
 Creator, and which, under suitable conditions, is 
 meant to be cultivated and indulged. In classical 
 times the drama was one of the most important 
 factors in the education of the people through its 
 appeal to the imagination and the historic sense 
 and the conscience. It may be urged further 
 that there is no conceivable reason why it should 
 not become so again. A jaded and harassed 
 man of business going to see a play in the 
 evening becomes pleasantly transported into a 
 new world, forgets the anxieties of the morning, 
 drops for an hour or two, as if he was stripping 
 off his garments, the burdens and vexations of 
 the day. Kings, statesmen, the learned profes- 
 sions, and not a few of the working class, both 
 seek and find their recreation there. Men must 
 have their recreation ; and the Church will do well 
 to remember that one of the most important points 
 in the training and government of a nation is the 
 supply of cheap, abundant, and wholesome re- 
 creation ; and without dispute, in the long winter 
 nights the place where it ought to be found is a 
 cheap and wholesome, well-conducted theatre. 
 Some of us indeed can go so far as to say dis- 
 tinctly that in our judgment no enjoyment comes 
 near to the drama for its exhilarating and recu- 
 perative power. 
 
•THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 30.5 
 
 But the question is, Can it he right for us as 
 Christians to go there ourselves, when, notwith- 
 standing the efforts of the cultivated and high- 
 spirited artists who now preside over the stage, 
 
 and whose sincerity of purpose in elevating and 
 purifying we have every desire to recognise, the 
 ballet dancing, the tone, the atmosphere, the 
 allusions, the occasional coarsenesses it is im- 
 possible for us to encourage, with any sense of 
 responsibility for others, by our presence and 
 example ? It is not that we want an unmixed 
 Puritanism back again. Charles II. and the 
 dramatists of the Restoration were a terrible 
 price to pay for Cromwell and Milton. While 
 we presume to pass judgment on no one who 
 frequents the theatre ; while we cheerfully admit 
 that Shakespeare's plays, acted as the)- are acted 
 now, are of educational as well as recreative 
 value ; while we hope for the time when a purified 
 drama not confined to the greatest of English 
 poets may become the safe and elevating resource 
 of all Englishmen, clergy and laity, young and 
 old ; nay, while we will do what wc can, each in his 
 own way, to help that time on, the time has not 
 yet come when it would be prudent for those who 
 dislike the tone of the modern theatre themselves 
 to frequent it in the hope of mitigating or removing 
 its evils. The Church would only become more 
 worldly and society more immoral. " All things 
 are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient." 
 
30 4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 u Happy is he that condemneth not himself in 
 that thing which he alloweth." 
 Sunday Once more, there is the increasingly important 
 
 observance. q ues tj on f Sunday observance. Some things 
 are quite clear about this almost greatest of 
 subjects ; other things not so clear. To set 
 apart one day in the week for relaxation from 
 business, for domestic intercourse, for bodily rest, 
 for contemplation of the things which are not 
 seen and are eternal, is agreeable to the will of 
 God, is inferentially imposed by the Fourth Com- 
 mandment, is the charter of the artisan's security, 
 is that which more than anything else, to borrow 
 a striking expression of Bishop Temple, keeps 
 us in touch with God. It is also clear that it is 
 not on identical lines with the Jewish Sabbath, 
 that our Lord left us no rules about it, and that 
 it is a matter in which every Christian man, ac- 
 cording to his light and knowledge, must be a 
 law to himself. On the exercise of this law I 
 would suggest one last word. Let us not use all 
 our liberty merely because it is ours, if so to use 
 it would scandalise or injure our neighbour. Let 
 us not suppose that what is harmless to us must 
 be harmless to others. Most of all, let us re- 
 member that the one end of it is the worship of 
 God and the edification of the personal soul, and 
 that the law holds good here as elsewhere, the 
 law of sacrifice. " We then that are strong 
 ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not 
 to please ourselves." 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANN01 BE MOVED" 305 
 
 Sacrifice, if hard at first — and this it must 
 often be — will grow easier, and even sweeter, 
 through being practised. " I will run the way 
 of Tli}' commandments when Thou hast enlarged 
 my heart." The love of Christ, the joy of service 
 for Him, the unspeakable honour of bringing but 
 one soul to His feet, or of preventing one from 
 leaving its place there, shall all go to make His 
 yoke easy and His burden light. 
 
 IV 
 REVERENCE 
 
 W'Jio art Thou, Lord.' — Acts i.\. 5. 
 
 T T has been observed that three qualities re- 
 present the main conditions of a "complete 
 effective human life," and that reverence is one 
 of them. 
 
 Reverence — if we may venture, though with 
 much diffidence, to define it — is the habitual, 
 almost instinctive recognition of a goodness 
 which it cannot emulate ; of a wisdom which it 
 cannot fathom ; of an almighty power which fills 
 the soul with unspeakable awe, yet of a love 
 which in its inexpressible tenderness passeth 
 knowledge. It is the strongest as well as the 
 deepest souls that arc fullest of reverence ; it is 
 
 u 
 
306 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 also they who know most, and love best, who are 
 readiest to say, 
 
 Let knowledge grow from more to man-, 
 But more of reverence in us dwell, 
 
 That mind and will according well, 
 May make one music as before, 
 
 But vaster. 
 
 Reverence, in a sentence, is created and sus- 
 tained by the constant thought of God, which 
 helps us not so much to go in and out of His 
 presence, as ever to stand in it, with heart and 
 mind and feet and eyes veiled, lest His glory 
 smite them. Reverence, which, while it re- 
 strains the lips, feeds the fire within of holy and 
 even rapturous meditation, is slow to promise, 
 but does not perform less for its not promis- 
 ing, and invisibly moulds the highest and finest 
 type of character the Church can ever see on 
 earth. 
 
 The scope of reverence is fourfold : in our 
 daily common life ; in the doing of Christian 
 service ; in the enduring of trouble ; in the offer- 
 ing of worship. In each of these departments 
 of our existence we should, again and again, with 
 all his sincerity, if with none of his bewilder- 
 ment, humbly put the apostle's question, "Who 
 art Thou, Lord ? " Then all our life through, 
 with more or less imperfectness and lack of con- 
 tinuity, His promise will be felt to be fulfilled to 
 us, " My presence shall go with thee and give 
 
"THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED'' 307 
 
 thee rest"; and our hearts' adoration to Him 
 shall be in the words we all love : 
 
 Holy, Holy, Holy, though the darkness hide Thee, 
 Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may //.> 
 
 Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, 
 Perfect in powir, in love and purity. 
 
 In daily life, with its secular activities, its 
 pleasant companionships, its sudden and some- 
 times critical vicissitudes, and its swoops of temp- 
 tation on the will, nothing so exalts, steadies, 
 dignifies us, as the thought of the nearness of 
 God. To fear God is quite a distinct thing 
 from feeling terror of Him. Mow can we be 
 terrified at one Who we know loves us, and 
 Whom we constantly, though with a deep sense 
 of shortcoming, desire to love in return ? A 
 somewhat inexact way of talking is prone to 
 dwell on our being on the way to Heaven ; and 
 it is quite true that an apostle cheers us " by the 
 hope that is laid up for us in Heaven." So far as 
 Heaven is to be understood as a locality, " where 
 faith is lost in sight, and patient hope is crowned, 
 and everlasting light its glory throws around," 
 the expression is correct. But in a very real 
 and exalted sense, we are in Heaven now, — 
 "the Hcavenlies," as St. Paul so often describes 
 them. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 did not conceive himself to be holding up a future 
 promise, so much as declaring a present reality, 
 when he wrote to his troubled brethren, " Ye 
 
3o8 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 are come unto Mount Zion, and to the city of 
 the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an 
 innumerable company of angels, to the general 
 assembly and church of the first-born which are 
 written in Heaven, and to God, the judge of all, 
 and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and 
 unto Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant." 
 We are there now, though the limitations of 
 the body make an impenetrable barrier that 
 debars us of the sensible fruition of all that glory 
 and joy. We cannot hear the fluttering of the 
 angels' wings, nor watch the greeting of the 
 saints as they walk under the tree of life, nor 
 hear the harpers harping upon their harps, nor 
 catch the strain of the new song from the lips of 
 the hosts of the redeemed. But it is all there 
 for us to see. when we are ready. Death will 
 not so much take us there, as do for us what 
 Elisha did for his servant Jothan, open our eyes 
 that we may see what has been all round us for 
 years. This being so, how the thought of our 
 citizenship in that glorified society, and our 
 place in the rest that remaineth for the people of 
 God, should help us to walk in the commonest 
 acts of our life, worthily of the vocation wherein 
 we are called ! We are on earth, and we must 
 fulfil the duties and taste the joys of earth. But 
 we are also in Heaven, and there need be no in- 
 consistency between the two. It will take the 
 edge off the keenest disappointment to remember 
 that our treasure is in Heaven. The occasional 
 
•THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 369 
 
 sadness that comes with the recollection of the 
 shortening" years should be chased away by the 
 feeling that we are a day's march nearer home. 
 
 To say again and again to ourselves, " Be- 
 loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
 not yet appear what we shall be, but we know 
 that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, 
 for we shall see Him as He is," softens the 
 annoyances of life, and smooths its frictions, and 
 widens its horizon, and on the dullest homes, as 
 well as on the most commonplace duties, brings 
 the splendour of the eternal day. 
 
 In the service which from time to time He 
 permits us to do for Him, it helps us to reve- 
 rence, and exactness, and fidelity, and diligence, 
 to remember that the Master's eye is upon us, 
 that He has given us our work, and will pay us 
 our wages ; that He is full of kindness and con- 
 sideration, not repelling us because our motives 
 are sometimes mixed, not taking it too ill of us 
 If we wish to do the best we can, where it is to 
 be done best. It will keep us from being too 
 much elated by man's praise, or cast down by 
 his censure. We bow our heads and hold our 
 peace, and wait. 
 
 In the sorrows of life how reverence helps us, Help in 
 how beautiful, how edifying, how sustaining, yet s " 
 how hard it is ! Take illness, of which most of 
 us know something. It is a great trial, it may 
 also be an unspeakable blessing. When it takes 
 from us the duties we love, even to the extent of 
 
310 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 indefinitely postponing them ; when it brings 
 with it sharp pain, with much sorrow and alarm 
 to those we love, who can only watch us and pray 
 for us ; when even doubts distract us, and the 
 tempter puts it into our heart to ask, "What is 
 it we have done, that we are so sorely punished ? " 
 reverence helps us to see God not only near, but 
 all round us, clasping us in the everlasting arms. 
 We do not care to search for second causes ; of 
 these there are always enough and to spare. The 
 great first cause is enough : " It is the Lord, let 
 Him do what seemeth Him good." Some may 
 even have known what it means to be on the 
 very threshold of the invisible land. The flutter 
 of the angels' wings ready to take us away was 
 almost audible ; and as through gently opening 
 doors a distant strain came near as of one of the 
 songs of Zion. Those who stood by watched to 
 see us pass, and all seemed to be just over. But 
 we were called back, and we live, for our task is 
 not yet finished. 
 
 Yet for weeks and months there rested an awe 
 over our spirits, as on those who have been 
 fetched in to see the Lord ; an awe which we 
 would not lose too soon, for it makes the Saviour, 
 Who has tasted death and conquered it, unspeak- 
 ably and blessedly near. 
 
 Once more, in worship, how reverence helps 
 us, and helps others ! I do not mean an osten- 
 tatious exhibition of bodily reverence, which to 
 some minds is even disturbing, but the bowed 
 
••THINGS WHICH CAN NO! BE MOVED" \\\ 
 
 knee; the face covered with reverent hands ; the 
 lips resonant with praise ; the intelligent spirit 
 eagerly drinking in the Gospel of its salvation. 
 Think how reverent and solemn and yet ardent 
 the worship in Heaven must he ! Letus honour 
 God, and help His Church by making ours so 
 now. 
 
 Once more, reverence, to he acceptable to God Reverence 
 and complete in itself, includes reverence of our- 
 selves. Self-respect is not self-conceit ; it is 
 only the rightful measure of a soul which has 
 been thought worthy to be redeemed by the blood 
 of the Son of God, and whose name is written in 
 Heaven. " What, know ye not that ye are the 
 temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwellcth 
 in you ?" Joseph's answer is good and fitted for 
 us all. How can I do this sin against God, when 
 I am His adopted child, and share His very 
 nature ? It means reverence for the famil}' ; a 
 reverence which should show itself in restrained 
 speech, in judicious kindness, and in sagacious 
 discipline. When we think what a making there 
 is in every child, what innate capacities, what 
 inherited infirmities, what manifold temptations, 
 what great opportunities must more or less be in 
 store for him, how can we refuse the kindness of 
 helping him a little on his way, and of removing 
 from his path the stones over which he might 
 stumble ? 
 
 It means reverence for the poor. Their hard- 
 ships, their difficulties, their necessities are greater 
 
312 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 than we think of. They deserve our respect and 
 our courtesy, as well as the justice which the law 
 gives them. Jesus was poor ; the poor are 
 especially His kinsfolk. 
 
 It means reverence for the sorrowful, and the 
 disappointed, and the dying. We cannot as yet 
 know or fathom the tremendous meaning of life, 
 or the account we shall have to give of it, or the 
 reward we shall one day receive for the things 
 done in it. 
 
 Every human soul has something of the nature 
 of God left in it. About every human soul we 
 may safely say, we shall do well to remember, 
 there is room for it in the heart of God. 
 
 Finally, let us have reverence even for the 
 straying, and tempting, and sinful. We may 
 find it our duty to rebuke them with stern words, 
 but so long as there is life there is hope ; and 
 the way both to hope and to save is to love. In 
 revering them, at least in being willing to see 
 what is good in them, we only do what the Lord 
 Himself did, what we too must do, if we would 
 have our part in His work of salvation. To 
 despise man is to despise God. To despair of 
 man is to dishonour God. We are none of us 
 able to throw many stones at each other ; we 
 have sins enough of our own, from which only 
 Christ's blood can wash us into perfect whiteness. 
 " Such were some of you, but ye are washed, 
 ye are justified, ye are sanctified in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 
 
'THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED" 
 
 V 
 HOPE 
 
 And now, Lord, what is my hop,' truly my hup,- is 
 in 1 ln\ ■■. Ps. \ 
 
 "\A7"HEN Paul wrote about hope that we arc 
 " saved " by it, he announced not onl}- 
 the experience of an individual, but the history 
 of a nation. Bishop Butler's greatest successor 
 in the Chair of Durham has pointed out, with 
 that rare admixture of historical research and 
 spiritual insight which characterised him, that 
 the history of Israel is a scries of crushed hopes 
 to become presently splendid successes, and of 
 disastrous defeats which were to result in the 
 salvation of the world. Egypt, Babylon, Rome — 
 what memories of agony and shame these terrific 
 names must have stirred in the hearts of God's 
 chosen people ! Hard must it have been for the 
 poor brick-makers under Pharaoh, or for the melan- 
 choly captives by Euphrates, or for the Jewish 
 patriots sold into a brutal slavery, when Titus had 
 laid Jerusalem in the dust, to dare to hope again, 
 whether for liberty, or happiness, or faith. Yet 
 each of these overwhelming tribulations was 
 turned by the good hand of God into an occa- 
 sion of eventual and mighty blessing. Certainly 
 
314 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 but for the Roman ploughshares levelling the 
 streets of Zion the little Hebrew society con- 
 fessing the name of Jesus would never have 
 grown into the mighty Catholic Church. 
 
 Let us meditate for a moment or two on hope. 
 Hope is not only a privilege, but a duty ; not 
 only a gift, but a reward ; not only a feature of 
 natural character, but a grace of the indwelling 
 Spirit ; not only an ornament of saintliness and 
 a test of manhood, but the strength of Jesus 
 and the perfection of God. For St. Paul goes 
 so far as to call God Himself " the God of 
 Hope " ; Who not only inspires hope in us, but 
 Who is Himself inspired by it (to speak as a 
 man) in His government and redemption of the 
 world ; and he asked God for his Roman 
 brethren, as the one end of their being filled with 
 joy and peace in believing, that they might 
 " abound in hope, through the power of the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 Tin- object There are many and divers things to hope 
 about which it is rightful and natural to hope 
 about, though some may be high in the scale 
 of dignity and importance and others of com- 
 paratively transient and personal interest. The 
 young are right to hope for the fulness and 
 completion of their life. It is in their nature that 
 they should do so ; and the God of nature frowns 
 not on the workmanship of His hands. Thoughts 
 and wishes and plans which cannot without loss 
 of dignity be breathed even into a friend's ear, 
 
 of hope 
 
-THINGS WHICH CANN01 BE MOVED" 315 
 
 may be taken to the footstool of Him Who calls 
 1 [imself the God of all the families of Israel, ami 
 Who knoweth the things we have need of before 
 we ask Him. We are justified further in hoping 
 about the duties of life and the opportunities of 
 service. When we arc conscious of capacity, 
 not always in self-conceit, and of experience, 
 which is sometimes more useful than the most 
 brilliant gifts unballasted by actual knowledge, 
 we may, we ought, we must, hope for an occasion 
 of using them. There is an ambition which is 
 but a selfish eagerness for displaying and aggran- 
 dising ourselves. There is also an ambition 
 which is indispensable to activity and essential 
 to the onward movement of the world. The 
 great thing here to remember is that promotion 
 cometh neither from the cast, nor the west, nor 
 yet from the south. " God is the Judge." To 
 push ourselves is usually to defeat ourselves. 
 Also let us notice that quiet and patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing is observed by God and 
 valued by man. Then again, in the pressure of 
 grievous calamity of whatever kind, a cheerful, 
 buoyant spirit not only helps us to bear it while 
 it lasts, and enables us to comfort others, who in 
 our suffering, themselves suffer ; but occasionally 
 it helps the burden to disappear, by the vital 
 elasticity it imparts to the entire being. 
 
 Then, for the growth of the Kingdom of Christ 
 and the spread of the Gospel over all the world, 
 hope, and a strong hope, is indispensable. 
 
316 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Where would St. Paul have been without hope ; 
 or where any of the great pioneers and philan- 
 thropists of our own time ? Would the slave 
 ever have been free but for the glorious hope 
 that burned within the heart of William Wilber- 
 force ? What kept Mackay at Uganda but the 
 profound conviction that his labour was not in 
 vain in the world ? Cheerfulness, which is hope 
 in expression, is the one indispensable gift for 
 all who would bring the dark places of the earth 
 into the light of God. Not " I am going to fail," 
 but " Some day or other I must succeed," is 
 the only watchword that tells. Whether in the 
 Sunday-school or from the pulpit, by the sick- 
 bed, or in the close and searching talk, be it 
 the printed book or the oral message, the promise 
 stands sure, and let us hope about it : " My 
 word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall 
 accomplish that which I please, and prosper in 
 the thing whereto I sent it." 
 The neces- This great promise indicates some further 
 Tics of hope, reflections about the hope that is to be cherished 
 in the soul. It must be a reasonable hope. The 
 sick do not always recover, for it is given to all 
 men once to die ; and we must not pray as if 
 there was no such thing as death, or as if useful 
 careers were never interrupted, and loss and 
 tribulation had ceased to be the lot of men. It 
 must be an obedient hope — that is, we must not 
 hope for what may prove inconsistent with the 
 purpose of God, and contrary to His holy will. 
 
•'THINGS WHICH CANNOT. BE MOVED" \VJ 
 
 Everything has its time and limitation. The 
 
 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. 
 St. Paul would not have left Trophimus at 
 Milctum sick if he had had the power of curing 
 him. It must be a believing hope — that is, a 
 hope which is quite confident that God can do 
 what is asked of Him, and will do it if it is good 
 that it should be done. But there must be the 
 conviction that He knows best, and so there is 
 no rebelliousness, no impatience in the hope, only 
 a strong nature. " Thy will be done ! " is the 
 prayer that lies at the root of all prayers. For, 
 once more, hope must be a spiritual hope, with 
 the one aim that God may be glorified, and we 
 made more like Him. We are His children, 
 and we need not forget that He loves to re- 
 member us ; but we are not at home yet in the 
 House of our Father. In mairy things we 
 cannot help being ignorant, and so praying 
 ignorantly; and were the gifts we ask for always 
 given us, they would disappoint us, even harm 
 us, when we received them, and the eternal 
 purpose could not be fulfilled of conforming us 
 to the image of Christ. 
 
 The hope of hopes, the promise of promises, 
 the joy of joys, the crown of crowns, is being 
 with Him, where He is, that we may see His 
 glory. If Christians in their daily lives, and 
 useful activities, and frequent sorrows would but 
 take this more to heart, how different our whole 
 lives would be, in their level of attainment and 
 
318 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 in their interpretation of circumstances ! The 
 peace of God would rule in their hearts, and 
 God Himself would be their exceeding joy. It 
 is earthliness — an immoderate care for this pre- 
 sent life, its joys, occupations, and possessions — 
 that makes the life to come, not the prospect to 
 be desired and contemplated, so much as to be 
 endured and accepted, because we cannot help 
 ourselves. Life is beautiful and desirable, 
 chiefly on account of what it leads to and edu- 
 cates us for. But what will it be, when we see 
 God face to face, in the sinless, tearless land ? 
 Only let Christ be King in our hearts, and our 
 true satisfaction and consolation about every- 
 thing ; the Friend on whom we lean without 
 knowing it ; the Master from whom we take our 
 orders, and Who has given each of us our task 
 to do. When that is done He will send for us. 
 Then surely we should have an unspeakable 
 rest flowing into us : we should cease to fear 
 circumstances, we should only fear to miss using 
 and interpreting them properly. We should be 
 always hoping, with a hope that never makes 
 ashamed ; and our joy no man would take away. 
 For once more to revert to a thought already 
 expressed, we are to be filled with joy and peace 
 in believing — that we may abound in hope 
 through the power of the Holy Ghost. What 
 great truths are here, so tersely and compactly 
 bound up ! Joy and peace in believing is to be 
 our normal condition, given to us by the God of 
 
•'THINGS WHICH CANN01 BE MOVED" 319 
 
 hope, and to be expected and enjoyed not as an 
 exceptional privilege, but as an ordinary bless- 
 ing. Tbc object of this is that we ma}' abound 
 in hope. See then, what stress God lays on it, 
 how important Me considers it ; what pains He 
 takes to produce it in us ; what loss to the 
 Church, and to our duty, and to ourselves must 
 accrue, if it is not to be found in our conversa- 
 tion and life. Hope, we see, is not merely the 
 physical accident of a vigorous and sanguine 
 constitution, it is at once the leverage and the 
 test of a soul in which God is pleased to dwell. 
 It docs not spring from a good opinion of our- 
 selves, or from any undue valuation of our gifts 
 and powers, or from the praise of men ; it is the 
 work of God the Holy Ghost — "through the 
 power of the Holy Ghost" — whom we must invite 
 into our hearts to show us the loveliness and the 
 glory of Jesus ; and to bring Him to dwell there 
 — Himself the hope of glory, and the way to it. 
 Hope, hope, oh ! let us cultivate it more ; if there 
 is much to mourn over, there is still more to 
 hope about. The world is not the devil's world, 
 it is God's world. The world is not lost, it 
 is redeemed. There is much evil, and we will 
 not make light of it ; there is much good, and we 
 will keep it to breed and stir more. There are 
 better times coming, let us hasten their coming, 
 when the whole creation, travailing and burdened 
 now, shall be delivered into the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God. 
 
THE END 
 
"Judgment is a re, •elation of character. Punishment is the 
 unchecked stream of consequences. — Whichcote, quoted by 
 Bibhoo Westcott. 
 
THE DREAD SURPRISE 
 Who is this t — Matthew xxi. 10. 
 
 WE know who asked this question, and when 
 it was asked, and what gave rise to it. 
 It was not a question for that place only, or for 
 that age. This surely may be claimed for the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that, it is impossible to treat 
 His claims with indifference, as if they were of 
 no consequence, or to defer a decision upon them, 
 as if they could afford to wait. By every 
 thinking man and woman under the sun, since 
 lie disappeared from the earth, this question 
 has been eagerly asked when tidings have come 
 of Him, though the right answer is not always 
 found for it, even by those who trouble them- 
 selves to find it, or honestly acted upon when 
 found. It will be asked once more, at a moment 
 of unspeakable awe, when the King comes back. 
 " Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man 
 in Heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the 
 
j2 4 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man 
 coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and 
 great glory. And He shall send His angels 
 with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 
 gather together His elect from the four winds, 
 from one end of Heaven to the other." 
 
 Christ had come up from the Jordan Valley, 
 with Bartimeus of Jericho in His train, and had 
 rested with His friends at Bethany, where they 
 made a feast in His honour, " and Lazarus was 
 one of them who sat at the table with Him." 
 The Synoptic Gospels make no allusion to this 
 visit, and they are equally silent as to the 
 miracle itself which consummated the betrayal 
 and the cross. The procession into the city, 
 and to the Temple, which provoked the question, 
 " Who is this ? " was a mingled crowd of young 
 and old, friends and foes, those who blessed, 
 and those who cursed ; and it is impossible not 
 to ask, what was the real end which it was 
 intended to accomplish ? St. Matthew no doubt 
 explains that " all this was done, that it might 
 be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," 
 but this only sends us one step back. We still 
 wish to know to what divine intention the 
 prophet then testified. On the surface of things 
 the results which at first came out of it were a 
 tremendous disappointment, a revelation sadder 
 than the world had ever seen before or has seen 
 since of the caprice and fickleness in the heart 
 oi men. It meant the final exasperation of the 
 
THE END 
 
 Pharisees, and the immediate weaving oi the 
 
 last threads of the conspiracy which was to take 
 away Christ's life. Possibly it may have been 
 the divine purpose to bequeath a supreme and 
 pathetic and ineffaceable impression of the 
 spiritual kingdom which the meek and lowly 
 Saviour had come to set up in the world ; of the 
 disappointments and failures to he expected and 
 endured in setting it up, by I lis Church after 
 Him, as well as by Himself; of the wonderful 
 combination in His heart of joy and sorrow, pity 
 and indignation at the same moment ; of the 
 supreme duty of accomplishing a predestined 
 task, even with the depressing consciousness 
 that it would all be for a time in vain. 
 
 " Who is this? " He is a King, though His 
 kingdom is not of this world, and those who 
 accept His sway arc not the wise after the flesh, 
 not the mighty, not the noble ; but little children 
 who read His royalty in His face, the poor 
 whom He has taught, the sick whom He has 
 healed, the sinful whom He has forgiven, the 
 lonely and sorrowful whom He has drawn to 
 'Himself with an infinite pity, and consoled with 
 a love which passeth knowledge. He will pre- 
 sently be asked, in accents of quiet scorn, " Art 
 thou a king then?" The heathen soldiers will 
 mock and buffet Him, because in His ragged 
 purple and His crown of thorns, He may seem 
 to dispute the authority of Tiberius in distant 
 Caprca?. Over His cross it will be written, with 
 
326 (QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 an unconscious tribute to Him, though with the 
 purpose of keen insult in it, "Jesus of Nazareth, 
 the King of the Jews." When He is dead, His 
 life and name will still have such power, that 
 Pilate will be asked to send a watch to His 
 tomb, lest anything should happen to give Him 
 liberty. But from that hour to this, He has in 
 a most true sense been King of kings and Lord 
 of lords to millions and millions of human souls. 
 His own prediction of Himself is being constantly 
 fulfilled, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
 draw all men unto Me." 
 
 When the people in the Temple asked, " Who 
 is this?" the reply given was, "This is Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the prophet of Galilee." They 
 knew Him best as a Teacher. He was so simple, 
 so true, so dignified, so painstaking and gentle ; 
 so courageous, so penetrating, nay, sometimes 
 so tremendously severe. They heard Him even 
 with eagerness and delight ; for His one pur- 
 pose was not to display His own wisdom, nor to 
 mortify them with an exhibition of their ignor- 
 ance, but to win them into the spiritual know- 
 ledge and service of His Father. Sometimes 
 they said, " This is a hard saying " — and left 
 Him. But His own disciples, who knew Him 
 best, and were always in His company, said, 
 " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life." 
 
 " Who is this ? " It is Jesus, and Jesus is 
 Saviour. Months before John the Baptist had 
 
THE END ;J7 
 
 said of Him, " Behold the Lamb of God which 
 takcth away the sin of the world ;" years, years 
 before, an angel had directed that this name 
 should be given Him: "Thou shalt call His 
 name Jesus, for He shall save His people from 
 their sins." A wonderful glimpse of His saving 
 purpose is given us in the course of His entry 
 into Jerusalem. As He drew near to the city, 
 and all its wonderful beauty burst upon His 
 vision, and, what was far more, the thought of 
 the unspeakable preciousness of the great con- 
 course of souls gathered within the walls at that 
 moment, souls for which He had come to die, 
 yet which He might not save, He wept. While 
 there was joy in His heart that the time of His 
 sacrifice had come, which He elsewhere called The 
 His glorification, the joy was marred by the / .J"' ) ' i f ll , 
 question, "Who hath believed our report, to arrived. 
 whom is the arm of the law revealed ?" We 
 know of the blaze of indignation in His heart, 
 especially on the false, cruel, worldly, hardened 
 Pharisees, and yet as His gaze travelled round 
 the city, and He looked on to the time of the 
 Roman siege, and counted the sixty thousand 
 crosses of tortured and dying countrymen, on 
 whom the wrath both of God and man had come 
 to the uttermost, compassion got the better of 
 wrath ; He still loved, and because He loved He 
 wept. 
 
 ; ' Who is this?" This question must have 
 seemed yet more forcible and reasonable when 
 
328 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 this same Jesus, surrounded, as we may suppose, 
 by His enthusiastic and excited followers, looked 
 round Him in the Temple, and observing the 
 same scandalous irreverence and covetous bar- 
 gainings which three years before He had seen 
 and punished all come back, as bad as ever, 
 " cast out all them that sold and bought in the 
 temple, and overthrew the tables of the money- 
 changers and the seats of them that sold doves, 
 and said unto them, It is written, My house 
 shall be called a house of prayer ; but ye have 
 made it a den of thieves." We do not wonder 
 that the chief priests and scribes were sore dis- 
 pleased. What does surprise us is that they 
 did not lay hands at the moment on Him. But 
 conscience made cow T ards of them. " His hour 
 was not yet come." 
 
 This question, "Who is this?" I desire, 
 Christian reader, to put straight to you. What 
 sort of an answer can you give about Him, to 
 any one who asks you a reason of the hope that 
 is in you, supposing that you have a hope. 
 When you see Him, as you pass into His pre- 
 sence, see Him when He is seated on His throne 
 of judgment, it will be too late to find the answer, 
 if not found before. The foolish virgins who 
 went to buy oil at midnight found the bride- 
 groom's door shut in their faces. In a very real, 
 and not an artificial sense, " Now is the accepted 
 time, now is the day of salvation." Have you 
 recognised Him as your King? Have you 
 
THE END 529 
 
 asked llim to occupy and possess and fill your 
 Ikmi ( ; and do you keep Mini there, and Peed 
 "ii Mini there, by faith, through the power ■ >! 
 the Holy Ghost? Have you taken I lis yoke 
 on you, and cast your burden on Him ? Is the 
 thought of His unchanging and eternal love a 
 joy to soothe your heart ? 
 
 "Who is this?" Is He your Saviour ? If 
 you think so, how do you know ; and what has 
 given you the right to say it ? It is quite true, 
 that nothing you can do, or say, or feel, can make 
 I Iim your Saviour. He is " born " your Saviour: 
 and you can no more obtain or purchase a privi- 
 lege which is yours by virtue of your humanity 
 and your baptism, than you can by the payment 
 of all the world's treasure make yourself a king's 
 son. But it is not enough for you to be told that 
 He is your Saviour; you must go to Him, and 
 ask Him to give you your salvation from the guilt 
 of sin and from the power of it. There must 
 be a conscious turning of your will — an intelli- 
 gent comprehension of Him and His Person and 
 His work, through the illumination of His holy 
 word. He says, " Come unto Me " — and I Ie 
 expects us to come to Him. Our baptismal 
 privilege, unless appreciated, vitalised, and taken 
 up in all its blessed and wonderful fulness, will 
 only be our condemnation. It is in conscious 
 union with Him, in the daily augmenting, ma- 
 turing experience of what He is, and was, and 
 will be, that we find our liberty, and enter on 
 
33o QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 our inheritance, and accept our sonship. If we 
 stay outside, we shall be left outside. If we 
 cannot say to any one who asks " Who is this ? " 
 "it is my Saviour, who has died for me, and died 
 for you, because He loves us both ; go to Him 
 and ask Him to tell you this Himself" ; when the 
 time comes, that you first look on His face, what 
 will you have to say to Him ? Much it is to be 
 feared that He may be forced to say to you, " I 
 know you not." 
 
 " Who is this ? " There is one more answer 
 to this question that may be given, ought to be, 
 nay, must be given, by all those who would 
 welcome Him when He comes in glory. He 
 who is King, who is Saviour, is also the Beloved. 
 God is Love, and Christ is Love. He wept over 
 Jerusalem. Have you not sometimes made Him 
 weep over you ? Do not scorn His love ; do 
 not refuse His friendship ; do not give the best 
 of your life to the world, and then reserve the 
 dregs for Him ; do not think that you can use 
 Him as a Saviour and neglect Him as a friend. 
 What are you doing for His honour ? How are 
 you helping on His Kingdom ? Will Heaven be 
 any fuller for your life, your words, your efforts, 
 your prayers ? Is it your shame to be lazy and 
 selfish ? Is it your joy and your blessedness to 
 live for Him who lived and died and reigns and 
 waits for you ? 
 
 "Who is this?" 
 
////■■ END 
 
 JJI 
 
 II 
 
 THE JUDGMENT 
 
 Lord, when taw »'<■ Thee </// hungered <uid fed T/n;-, or thirsty, 
 and gave Thee drink: Matthew \w. 37. 
 
 1"^) I VINES are all but unanimous in referring 
 this parable to the final judgment of the 
 heathen world. " All nations," must include the 
 entire human race, of whom, even at the present 
 day, two- thirds are ignorant of Christ. Among 
 the heathen there have ever been all varieties of 
 benevolence, wisdom and virtue, from Plato, who 
 came as close to the discovery of God as any 
 man ever did without the help of revelation, to 
 Tiberius, whom it is hardly unjust to define as 
 the incarnation of all possible wickedness. To 
 live up to light, however dim the light may be, 
 is acceptable to God. No knowledge of truth, 
 clear and vital as it may be, can ever permit us 
 to dispense with the practice of goodness. Nay, 
 if we had to choose between understanding 
 accurately, and doing virtuously, the doing would 
 come first. Of all doing, charity is the queen, 
 fountain, and ornament. To love, whoever we 
 may be, or whatever religion we may profess, is 
 to obey and resemble God. 
 
W QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 Surely it is a very consoling, as well as noble, 
 reflection, that He who made us in His own 
 image, and stooped to share our nature that He 
 might win it back into more than its first per- 
 fection, not only hates nothing that He hath 
 made, but loves and cherishes it, watches over 
 it, and longs for its salvation. He does not 
 make the worst of us, but the best of us. If 
 He cannot have all that He desires and deserves, 
 He takes what He can find, to make it the step- 
 ping stone of better things to come. Let no 
 one, however, suppose that because the Redeemer 
 of the world in His infinite compassion clasps 
 mankind to His heart, that He is satisfied the}' 
 should remain in the darkness of spiritual death, 
 or that He views with complacency or indiffer- 
 ence our leaving them to perish outside His 
 sheepfold. While it is true that we may safety 
 leave to the divine righteousness the awful 
 mystery of the pagan world still lying in the 
 Wicked One — " Shall not the Judge of all the 
 earth do right ?" — we cannot safely wrap our- 
 selves up in the selfish comfort of our own 
 salvation. This great parable may some day be 
 found to have its spiritual as well as its moral 
 significance ; and Christians may be roused to a 
 sense of their own shortcomings, for not having 
 seen in the ignorance of a heathen's soul the 
 silent plea of Christ. 
 
 While, however, we may be justified in in- 
 cluding the heathen within the scope of these 
 
THE END J33 
 
 wonderful words, and observe, not without 
 
 emotion touched with awe, that all will have to 
 
 give an account of themselves to God, from the 
 
 least to the greatest, we must be careful to ,., 
 
 ° The four 
 
 remember that the principles implied here are of principles. 
 
 universal application. They are four, and they 
 are essential with Christ. First, they show the 
 dignity and preciousness of every human bcinj;, 
 and of its kinship and dearncss to God ; second, 
 they recognise the tremendous reality and extent 
 and wofulness of bodily suffering, and that God 
 docs not mean it to go unheeded or untended ; 
 third, they do not profess to confine the acts and 
 emotions of just benevolence simply to those who 
 deserve them. " When we were sinners Christ 
 died for us ;" and the Saviour says here, " I 
 was in prison and ye came to Me." Fourth, 
 Christ plainly expects us, in the discharge of our 
 common obligations, in payment of the debt we 
 owe to the society in which we live, most of all 
 in the spiritual recognition of Himself in every 
 sick and troubled and wounded soul, for which, 
 and by which, in a real sense, He silently 
 appeals to our compassion and tests our sin- 
 cerity, to take our regular personal share in 
 ministering, according to our opportunity, to the 
 material needs of men ; and teaches us that all 
 our devotions and sacrifices and self-discipline 
 are worthless in His eyes, unless transfigured 
 and beautified by tender human charity. 
 
 We sec and hear, and occasionally express 
 
334 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 our sense of the degradation of human nature, 
 and there is a peril as well as a loss in doing 
 so. We do not make ourselves better by making 
 others out to be worse. To magnify the diffi- 
 culty may be only to augment the despair, and 
 degradation at least implies a previous elevation 
 from which the lamentable fall has been made. 
 Oh ! to learn how to look out upon the world 
 with the pitiful, hopeful, redeeming heart of 
 Jesus. Oh ! to come to see both in the misery 
 and in the sinfulness of even the worst men 
 that there is something for us to remedy as well 
 as for them to endure. The most pungent and 
 cynical of Latin satirists once observed that 
 there was nothing harder to bear in poverty 
 than that it made men ridiculous. The self- 
 imposed poverty of the incarnate Son of God 
 should by this time have indignantly swept that 
 base reproach away. " He was rich, yet for 
 our sakes He became poor, that we through His 
 poverty might be rich." Once more, every 
 human being is a personal kinsman of Christ, 
 and has something } T et left in him of the divine 
 image, and there are possibilities and heights of 
 blessedness, which eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard. Even in prison, he who visits the 
 criminal may feel Christ's face looking at him, 
 and see on that face a smile. We want more 
 faith, more hope, more love, in our attempts to 
 make the world better. Of course it takes a 
 long time to do it. A living philosopher has 
 
THE END 
 
 written ol" " the intense: difficulty <>f making life 
 better by ever so little." Our impatience will 
 always be in proportion to our eagerness, but 
 every one belongs to Christ, and the Spirit of 
 Christ secretly deals with him, though in a \\a\ 
 we know hot ; and if we want to show our love 
 to Christ, and our sense of what lie has doni 
 for us, let us see Him appealing to our com- 
 passion, and inviting our co-operation for men 
 that seem utterly hardened against every good 
 impression, nay, that arc even earning their 
 bread by the wages of sin. 
 
 Then, the world is in a very real sense a Occasion* 
 hospital, with hunger and thirst, shame and c,/ " 
 cruelty, poverty and crime, necessity and deatli 
 ever busy ; and instead of racking our brains 
 to find the cause of it, and wasting energy and 
 time in searching into the secrets of the divine 
 consistency, we arc to do what lies in us, to use 
 our surroundings as a discipline of charity and 
 an occasion for service. It is a great thing for 
 us to have " a sense of our share in every 
 public wrong." It may be quite impossible for 
 us to convert a soul from sin ; it need not be 
 so, to restore the sick to health, or to protect the 
 hungry from starving. Our Lord did not lay 
 down any laws of social economy in this para- 
 ble. That He foresaw we could do for ourselves 
 presently, and He left us to do it. But He did 
 know the coldness of a sellish spirit, and Il< 
 foresaw that we should sometimes ask the qucs- 
 
336 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 tion, " Who is my neighbour ?" not that we might 
 multiply our opportunities of kindness, but that 
 we might escape them. In speaking of the body 
 He did not forget the soul. " What shall it 
 profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul?" But the body is close to 
 us, and it is the shrine of the soul, and its organ. 
 Also, it is the temple of the indwelling God. 
 What Isaiah pressed on the Church of his time, 
 the Lord will make His test of sincerity when 
 He comes to judge the world. If we feel there 
 is but little we can do, and that we have not 
 much to do it with, there is this consolation, " It 
 is not what man does that exalts him, but what 
 man would do." 
 
 Then, how often we are told, told by those 
 who would not touch one of the world's lightest 
 burdens with the tip of a little finger, that only 
 at a great risk of encouraging improvidence and 
 wickedness can we make our benevolent crusades 
 against folly and sorrow ! To help those who 
 have forfeited all claim to help by misconduct 
 or unthriftiness may seem to proclaim to the 
 world a perfect immunity for what is on the 
 way to wreck it, and to discourage virtue by 
 patronising vice. Let us admit, instantly, hon- 
 estly, fearlessly, continually, that much circum- 
 spection is needed in the relief of material dis- 
 tress ; that it is possible to foster a detestable 
 hypocrisy by listening too hopefully to the peni- 
 tent cant of smooth rogues ; and that a sagacity 
 
THE END 537 
 
 and painstaking knowledge ol the ways and 
 
 dispositions of men can alone help us to make 
 our footsteps sure, and our kindness prudent in 
 the ministries of benevolence. But there are 
 risks also on the other side, risks of hardening 
 our own nature, risks of steeling our sympathies 
 against righteous distress, and poverty with no 
 reproach in it. Waiting for perfect wisdom 
 means waiting until the}' who need our help 
 and we who ought to give it, have both gone 
 to the face of the Judge. There ma}- be 
 risks also of neglecting, refusing, disobeying, 
 and displeasing Christ in the person of His 
 suffering brethren. " Inasmuch as ye did 
 it not to one of the least of these My brethren, 
 ye did it not to Me." Oh, what an awful 
 sentence to hear from the " meek and gentle 
 Christ ! " 
 
 Once more, what are we ourselves doing for 
 the sake and in the cause of Christ, for His 
 suffering kinsfolk ? Some arc spending their 
 lives on Him and His. Blessed, thrice blessed 
 will they be when He welcomes them to glory. 
 Some are doing a little, but rather grudgingly 
 and fearfully, and with no sense of joy, but 
 simply because they are obliged. We do not 
 know what He will say to them, but this we do 
 know, that we had better not wait to find out 
 until He comes. Some will have done nothing 
 for Him or His, and have lived only for them- 
 selves. He has told us what will be their 
 
 v 
 
338 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 sentence ; what mortal spirit can fathom all that 
 it means? " Depart from Me." 
 
 Ill 
 RECOMPENSE 
 
 What shall we have, therefore? — MATTHEW xix. 27. 
 
 TT is easy to object to this question of the 
 apostle that it has a ring of self-interest 
 about it, in the sense of one who was driving 
 a clever bargain. Christ, however, if we may 
 judge from His instant and full reply, did not 
 look at it in this light. Had it been a question 
 of gross selfishness, would He not have exposed 
 and rebuked it, instead of satisfying it at once ? 
 Besides, what is the meaning or the value of 
 promises of any kind, " the exceeding great and 
 precious promises " not excluded, if they are not 
 to encourage us to sacrifice and to feed the heart 
 with not ungenerous hope ? In the Sermon on 
 the Mount each beatitude has its corresponding 
 reward attached to it. The meek shall inherit the 
 earth, and the peacemakers shall be called the 
 children of God, and the persecuted for right- 
 eousness' sake shall have a great reward in 
 Heaven, and the pure shall see God. Even at 
 the end of his life St. Paul looked on with eager 
 
THE END J39 
 
 .anticipation t^> " the crown of righteousness " 
 which the Lord, " the righteous judge," would 
 give him ; and not to him only, but unto nil 
 them also who love I lis appearing. The simple 
 truth is that Christ meets and recognises instead 
 of ignoring and repudiating the instincts and 
 needs of our complicated nature ; and in one 
 memorable instance lie goes so far as to invite 
 His disciples, as in a matter of gain and loss, to 
 calculate for themselves which was better worth 
 their while to do, to gain the whole world or to 
 lose their souls. To the rich young man, if he 
 would follow Him, He proposed as His reward 
 " treasure in Heaven." The young man prefer- 
 ring a present treasure to a future prospect, 
 went away sorrowful. 
 
 Let us, then, divest our minds of any unjust 
 suspicion of the apostle's disinterestedness, and 
 proceed to consider what the Lord really meant 
 by the remarkable assurance He gave him, and 
 how it is still and completely fulfilled for the 
 Christian of to-day. In the general way of 
 putting it, Christ's undertaking amounts to this, 
 that His disciples shall be none the worse for 
 choosing His service, whatever may be the pre- 
 sent losses such discipleship may seem to entail 
 with it. Pursuing His words into detail we 
 observe that the divine promise has its future 
 as well as its present blessedness. In the life 
 to come there is to be a sharing of the divine 
 government, or, as St. Paul puts it, " Know ye 
 
340 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 not that the saints shall judge the world ? " In 
 the present life those who have forsaken houses 
 or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or 
 wife, or children, or lands, shall receive — as St. 
 Mark relates it — " now, in this time, houses and 
 brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, 
 and lands, with persecutions" ; or, as St. Luke 
 words it, " manifold more." Some of this it is 
 easy, some it is not so easy, to understand. 
 
 Of all the acute sorrows which the confession 
 of Christ, in the early days of the Church, en- 
 tailed on His followers, the most acute was the 
 loss of the respect and love, not only of friends, 
 but even of relations — relations so close as those 
 of parent, or child, or wife. Not unfrequently the 
 first person to accuse the detected Christian was 
 his own father; and the utter disdain of the 
 pagan wife came as a scorching anguish to the 
 soul. Here, however, there was speedy and, 
 perhaps, adequate compensation in the tender 
 and holy friendship of the faithful in Christ. If 
 some friends were lost, others were gained ; and 
 in a very real sense the gain overbalanced the 
 loss. In those terrible yet blessed days men 
 drew near to each other in the bonds of the 
 Gospel. The Church was compensation for the 
 world. Then was understood, with vividness of 
 delight hardly intelligible now, " We know that 
 we have passed from death unto life, because we 
 love the brethren." 
 
 What, however, is meant by " houses and 
 
THE END ;ii 
 
 lands," as here promised by Christ? A literal Christ's 
 
 interpretation of the word seems at variance both / '"' 
 with facts and principles. For beyond the tran- 
 sient spasm of self-imposed poverty whereby, 
 soon after Pentecost, the wealthier believers in 
 Christ sold their houses and lands for the imme- 
 diate relief of their poorer brethren ; and our 
 Lord could hardly have had this in His mind ; 
 the Christian Church, for several generations, 
 was steeped in almost abject poverty. If no 
 lands were acquired, few were surrendered ; and 
 God's appointed way of rewarding His people 
 for moral or spiritual deserts is not' by the 
 material things of this life. God, no doubt, be- 
 stows them, but they are regulated by laws quite 
 outside the spiritual world. A truly Christian 
 man may be constantly in a state of embarrass- 
 ment and impecuniousness, from total lack of 
 what we call habits of business. A man who is 
 a Christian only in privilege, or, it may be, not 
 even in that, simply by the careful and diligent 
 exercise of worldly shrewdness and the use ol 
 opportunity, may have houses and lands and 
 riches, and enjoy them for himself until the day 
 comes when he has to leave them all. 
 
 Surely, what our Lord meant to promise was, 
 not the things themselves but their equivalent ; 
 the peace, the contentment, the inward inde- 
 scribable joy, the supreme faith about the future, 
 which God ever gives to those who trust Him 
 utterly. St. Paul is an instance in point. He 
 
342 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 has himself told us that he had suffered the loss 
 of all things, but that he counted them as dung 
 if he might win Christ ; and in the very same 
 Epistle he proceeds to tell us, writing from a 
 dungeon, in what shape houses and lands and 
 brethren had been repaid to him. " I know both 
 how to be abased, and how to abound ; I am in- 
 structed both to be full and to be hungry, both 
 to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things 
 through Christ which strengtheneth me. I have 
 all and abound." 
 
 Yes, God gives us Himself in place of all we 
 lose by following Him. A man of the world 
 may coldly scoff at this, as something a little too 
 shadowy for pressing earthly wants. A Christian 
 remembers that God knows his needs, and in His 
 righteousness will supply them, and that He never 
 withholds any good thing from those who lead 
 a godly life. He makes our cares His own ; 
 and though from the exact knowledge He has 
 of each of us, some He sees can be more safely 
 trusted than others with earthly prosperity or 
 material well-being, for all His children He has 
 a personal, tender, incessant consideration. He 
 claims our prayers, and He bestows the peace 
 which passeth understanding. 
 
 Two thoughts more may suffice for this great 
 subject. It is always to be remembered that 
 there are different epochs or zones in the spiritual 
 history of the soul, and that the epoch of infancy, 
 when the first dawning of life is felt, needs a very 
 
THE END J43 
 
 different treatment from that in which the aged 
 believer desires to depart in peace because his 
 eyes have seen salvation. To encourage us in 
 our start, the kind and pitiful Lord points us 
 not only to the end of the race, but to the entire 
 course of it. We have not learnt His goodn< :ss 
 yet ; we arc but mastering the alphabet of His 
 love. We cannot take Him on trust as we shall 
 do presently. We want questions answering, 
 doubts dissipating, hope to be stirred, faith to be 
 matured. lie, at such moments, is as tender 
 and patient as a nurse cherishing her children, 
 lie gives us all we want ; and we are encouraged 
 to follow. The time will come when we shall 
 cease to ask, " What shall we have, therefore?" 
 Not because it is a matter of indifference, but 
 because we know it is settled for us. We have 
 Him, and with Him all thimgs. We arc also 
 learning how to love Him for His own sake, not 
 for His gifts. He is sure to do for us whatever 
 is righteous and loving and merciful. Our silence 
 is the measure of our faith, our peace is the 
 sense of His promises. 
 
 Yet it is also true — solemnly, blessedly true — 
 that, as I have already hinted, the question 
 "What shall we have, therefore?" must never 
 become an indifferent thing to us. If we do not 
 put it, it must not be because we do not care 
 for it. Wc ought to care for it more than we 
 do, and he who cares most for Christ's reward 
 is he who most cares for Christ Himself. To be 
 
344 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 with Him, and to see Him as He is, and to be 
 like Him ; to be sitting on His throne, and 
 sharing His ministry, and communing with His 
 saints, and listening to His angels ; these are 
 but feeble and scanty and shallow expressions 
 for that wonderful fulness of light and sanctity, 
 worship and service, fellowship and praise, know- 
 ledge and love, which are wrapped up in the words 
 "eternal life." "Blessed are they that hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be 
 filled." " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
 give thee the crown of life." 
 
 IV 
 THE WHITE ROBES 
 
 What arc these which are arrayed in white rates, and 
 whence came they? — Revelation vii. 13. 
 
 "\"\/"E do not wonder that among all the re- 
 vealed glories of the heavenly place, this 
 white-robed multitude should have seemed to 
 the elder standing by St. John most worthy of 
 observation and inquiry. Nor do we wonder 
 that the apostle, unable himself to understand 
 what he saw, instantly asked him to explain. 
 Nor again do we wonder that place so high, 
 robes so glittering, worship so lofty, joy so 
 
THE END 
 
 triumphant should be the portion of thu.-.c: who 
 h;ul deserved those rewards so well. What we 
 may well wonder at is, that we who have so 
 
 often heard and read, and in a degree pondered 
 these words, should so feebly translate them into 
 our daily life, or use them as our supreme con- 
 solation, or hide them in our inmost hearts, 
 when the days come which have no pleasure in 
 them. For arc they not the true commentary on 
 the apostle's hope ? "I reckon that the suffer- 
 ings of this present time arc not to be compared 
 with the glory that shall be revealed to us." 
 
 It is quite true, and a truth that needs to be 
 remembered, that in all human probability the 
 vast and glorified multitude on which the apostle 
 gazed with such solemn yet delighted awe, was 
 the great army of martyrs, fresh from the Nero- 
 nian persecution, and from the hideous cruelties 
 of pagan Rome. St. John, if a beautiful though 
 unauthenticated tradition be correct, had himself 
 escaped from the jaws of the lion by the super- 
 natural interference of God ; and to him, who 
 was left, a martyr in will though not in deed, 
 the great mercy was vouchsafed of beholding 
 those who had been thus taken in their new 
 glory and their crowned blessedness in the pre- 
 sence of Him whom they had revealed in life and 
 confessed in death : their shame and agony, and 
 horror and contumely all vanished and forgotten 
 in rejoicing, as only those can rejoice, who have 
 conquered death and behold God. 
 
346 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 When we say in the Te Deum " The noble 
 army of martyrs praise Thee," we use that great 
 word in the restricted and unique sense of those 
 who "were slain for the word of God, and for 
 the testimony which they held," or as we read 
 it here, " come out of the great tribulation." 
 
 Martyrdom of course, in this its exceptional 
 and loftiest meaning, is not done with yet, never 
 will be done with, until the world ceases to hate 
 the Church, and the great adversary of God and 
 men becomes weary of inflaming the forces of 
 evil against the saints. All down the course of 
 history, as the Kingdom of God achieved its 
 victories and extended its sway, the axe has 
 been sharpened, and the fire kindled, and the 
 gallows reared, and the prisons filled for the 
 quenching of the courage and the shedding of 
 the blood of infant Churches. In modern times 
 Japan, Madagascar, Central Africa, China tell all 
 the same tale, illustrate the same principle, in- 
 dicate the same ordeal, narrate the same triumph. 
 Not only in public but in private, not only by 
 the State but by individuals, not only by 
 strangers but by relatives, not only in the street 
 but in the house, have a Christian's deadliest 
 foes been found among his own kinsfolk. " We 
 must through much tribulation enter into the 
 Kingdom of God " is a truth as much illumined 
 by the fires of Smithfield as in the gardens of 
 the Imperial Palace, when to hide Nero's crime 
 from his threatening and outraged subjects, 
 
////•: END 
 
 J47 
 
 hundreds of Christians, slowly binning as living 
 torches in the night, triumphantly passed to their 
 crown. It is also true, that while there arc dif- 
 ferent kinds of martyrdom, and some full of 
 physical anguish, the one essential kind, indis- 
 pensable for all who would follow Christ, and 
 not to be shirked or dreaded by any who would 
 glorify Him, is the bearing steadfast, cheerful, 
 and self-denying witness to His name. Martyr 
 means witness. It means one who believes in 
 Christ, and who is neither ashamed nor afraid 
 to show it, and whose life is a testimony to the 
 reality of his faith, and whose death is a seal- Testimony 
 ing of his life. It is for God in His sovereign martyrs. 
 will to decide of what quality our witness shall 
 be, and under what circumstances it is to be 
 made. 
 
 That we leave to Him. It is for us to collect 
 for our own guidance and edification the motives, 
 ideas, principles which constitute the martyrdom, 
 which fills Heaven, smiles at death, looks pain in 
 the face without trembling, and makes Christ real, 
 intelligible, and beautiful to mankind. Of the 
 great multitude that St. John beheld, we read 
 these several things. They had gone into and 
 come out of awful suffering. They were a 
 countless throng. They were in white robes. 
 The robes they had themselves cleansed in the 
 blood of the Lamb. The multitude of the saved 
 is a magnificent thought for the heart to rest 
 upon. Here we are told even more, that those 
 
34^ QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 who have gloritied God by willing, conscious 
 suffering are not to be counted by the wit of 
 man. Oh ! what a blessed thought is this for 
 all to whom Christ's honour is dear, and His 
 cross the supreme blessedness. Their sorrow 
 has been great ; but now that they look back at 
 it, all its bitterness is gone for the love of Jesus. 
 It cannot be doubted that the ecstasy of martyr- 
 dom dulled, if it did not quite extinguish, the 
 intenseness of the pain. It was over, and the 
 Lord had kept them true. They were in white 
 robes. White is the colour of innocence and of 
 triumph. Palms tell of festal joy. It is espe- 
 cially to be noted that they are said themselves 
 to have washed their robes and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb. This surely 
 indicates a personal, conscious, penitent, obedient 
 faith. Christ says to Peter, "If I wash thee 
 not thou hast no part with Me." St. John says 
 of the martyrs that their cleansing came through 
 their own personal contact with the only blood 
 that can give perfect whiteness. 
 
 They were worshipping, and their worship 
 was not confessing sin, nor soliciting grace, nor 
 deprecating sorrow. It was all praise. " Sal- 
 vation unto our God which sitteth upon the 
 throne, and unto the Lamb." Oh, if we would 
 have more of the felicity and the joy of Heaven, 
 we must be content to enter more into the un- 
 selfish grandeur of its worship, we must some- 
 times forget ourselves to contemplate God and 
 
THE END J49 
 
 to worship Him, not for His gifts, but For I lis 
 holiness. Once more, notice their fellowship. It 
 
 is with the angels, the angels who watched over 
 their childhood, ministered to them in their lives, 
 soothed and cheered them in their agony, carried 
 their freed spirits into the presence of the 
 King. It is not permitted to us now to know 
 what we owe to the angels. Some day we 
 shall know, for they will themselves tell us, and 
 how wondering and how profound will our 
 gratitude be ! 
 
 But the martyrs' chief reward is that they The 
 are right in front of the throne. They live in ,/,'/,/ 
 Christ's presence, and enjoy in a special way rewa ra. 
 Mis society. They serve Him without a break. 
 No bodily need or suffering, no sickness or dis- 
 tress can disturb them more. They will have 
 spiritual necessities, for they will still be crea- 
 tures, and creatures are dependent. But living 
 fountains of water, the abundant and continual 
 gift of the Hoi}' Spirit, shall be at their disposal. 
 Though it is inconceivable that the faculty 
 of pain should absolutely cease to exist in a per- 
 fect moral being; indeed, no perfected creature 
 would wish to be unable to suffer, when there 
 was scope or reason for it ; so far as we can 
 understand what is full of mystery, in the new 
 heavens and new earth, all occasion of pain will 
 have disappeared. When God wipes away all 
 tears from the eyes of His saints, surely it must 
 mean not only that He dries up all sad memories 
 
350 QUESTIONS OF FAITH AND DUTY 
 
 of the past, and makes the present a joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory, but that no cloud 
 shall ever dim the brightness of the celestial 
 sky with the foreboding of coming sorrow. If 
 death and Hell and sin are banished, where will 
 be the pain to make the tears flow ? 
 
 Are we in any sense martyrs ? Do our lives, 
 duties, friendships, enjoyments, words, sacrifices 
 bear witness to God ? If we are not told to 
 make pain for ourselves, when it comes with 
 duty or confession, do we shirk or refuse it ? 
 Are our lives all softness, with no hardness in 
 them ? 
 
 Then are all the crosses we ever see or bear 
 in books and ornaments? If Jesus were to 
 speak to our conscience and say, " Take my 
 Gospel to the heathen and witness for me there," 
 should we go ? The secret of martyrdom in 
 daily life is simple enough. It means faith and 
 hope and love. It means faith, which is our 
 accepting and understanding and trusting Christ 
 for everything, for life and for death, for peace 
 and for joy. It means hope ; for what dull, 
 poor, halting creatures we are without hope ! 
 Oh, if we thought a little more than we do of 
 St. John's vision, how different this earthly life 
 would look to us, how we should rejoice at seeing 
 Him who is invisible ! It means love ; for as 
 we love Christ and open our hearts, down to 
 their very depth, to receive His love flowing 
 into them, do we feel that if we had a thousand 
 
THE END \$i 
 
 lives, all should be given to Him . J Then when 
 we see Him we shall be surprised, and not be 
 surprised. It will be the wonder of joy and of 
 adoration and of gratitude. What a change it 
 will he from the weakness and infirmity of the 
 last struggle to the radiance of the Saviour's 
 presence and the chorus of the new song ! " This 
 is our God, wc have waited for Him and He 
 will save us. He is our God, we have waited 
 for Him, we will rejoice and be glad in I lis 
 salvation." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ambition, 315; its su] 
 object, 317, 318 
 
 Anonymous letters, 241, 242 
 Ascension, The, 82 
 Aubrey Moore, quoted, ii 
 
 Benevoi km e, its risk , 
 
 336, 337 
 Benson, Archbishop, quoted, xii. 
 
 Bible study, 168, 169 
 Biblical criticism, 7, 246 
 Bonar, quoted, 81 
 Bright, Canon, quoted, 76 
 
 CENSORIOUSNESS, 230 ; its mo- 
 tive, 237, 238 
 
 < hild's making, The, 32, 38 
 Christ, conceals His God-head, 
 
 117; the cup of, 222, 223 ; the 
 King, 325 ; the Teacher, 320 ; 
 Saviour, 327 
 
 < onsolations of God, 203 ; flow 
 chiefly through men, 202 
 
 ' ont.ut with Christ, 185 ft" 
 Conversation, 250; a means of 
 
 grace, 251 
 Conversion, 148 
 
 < 'rime of Cross shared 1 J 
 
 t 'ry of the I brsaken, 72 
 
 D sir, R. \\\, quoted. 228 
 
 I larkness, 208 ; intellectual, 201/; 
 
 spiritual, 212,213; moral, 210 
 Death, its forecast, 15, 21 ; win 
 
 we weep at the grave, 95 
 Delays of God, 
 Deterioration, signs of, 181 
 Disappointments, 215, 292 ; 
 
 earthly, 216; religious, 217: 
 
 of Jesus, 220 
 Drama, The, 301 ft" 
 Dulness, causes of spiritual, 162 
 
 Election, 12 
 
 Ellerton, quoted, 25 
 
 1 Experience our chief argument, 
 
 7 
 Eyton, Prebendary, quoti 
 
 FAl HERHOOD of God, 41 ; dif- 
 ficult t>> real 
 
 ! God, 207 
 Food of Man, Christ the, 
 Forgiveness, (iod's, 80: unfail- 
 ing possibility of, 108, 109 
 Forgiveness, Man'-, its condi- 
 
 / 
 
$54 
 
 INDEX 
 
 tions, 190 : it? obligations, 
 192, 193 
 Friendship, its responsibility, 
 261 
 
 Gloky, grades of, 104 
 
 Heathen, The, 332 
 
 Heaven, a development, 105 ; 
 
 on earth, 307 
 Holiness, 6 ; is hard work, 198 
 Holland, Canon Scott, quoted, 
 
 iH 
 
 Holy Baptism, the Sacrament of 
 
 initiation, 144 ; the seal of 
 
 covenant, 146 
 Holy Communion, The, 138, 139 
 Holy Ghost illumines Faith and 
 
 Duty, 151, 152 ; how and 
 
 when given, 152 ff" 
 Hope, 314 ; its limitations, 316 
 
 Indebtedness of man to God, 
 does not paralyse, 10 ; reason 
 of it, 10, 13; its nature, 13, 
 
 14 
 
 Indecision is negation, 115, 116 
 Infant Baptism, 147 
 Influence, 159 ; its power, 276 
 Inglesant, quoted, 282 
 Inspiration, 106, 107 
 Interference with adult children, 
 44 
 
 Judgments sometimes inevit- 
 able, 239; rules of guidance, 
 239, 240 
 
 Ken, Bishop, quoted, 16 
 Kingship with Christ, 248 ; in- 
 volves obedience, 249 
 Knowledge, growth in, 177 
 
 Learning and unlearning, 162, 
 
 178 
 Life-plan, the allotted, 21, 25 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, quoted, 142, 
 
 Locke, quoted, vi 
 Love, 279, 280 
 
 Maclagan, Archbp. quoted, 7r 
 Maclaren, quoted, 298 
 Martyrdom, 246 ; a witnessing, 
 
 347 ; its secret, 350 
 Matthew Arnold, quoted, iv 
 Maturity in Christ, 6 
 Mill, J. S., quoted, xiv. 
 Moberly, Prof., quoted. 54 
 Mysteries, 293 
 Mystical union, 50 
 
 Neighbour, our, 264 ; grades 
 of duty towards, 265 
 
 Old age, how to meet it, 18, 21 
 Open-mindedness, its value, 
 
 164, 178 
 Ottley, R., quoted, 30, 172 
 
 Parental sympathy, 40 
 
 Patience, born of sorrow, 205 ; 
 vindicated, 296 
 
 Pilate, 66 
 
 Positiveness of the divine life, 
 197 
 
 Poverty, 334 
 
 Prayer, its refreshment, 174; 
 devotion in, 176 ; its power, 
 178 
 
 Prophecy, gift of. 275 
 
 Pusillanimity, 243 ff. ; irra- 
 tional, 246 
 
INDEX 
 
 
 REGENERATION, I | I! 
 
 Results, 25, 26 
 
 Resurrection, Tlic, 81 ; legiti- 
 mate inquiry into, 87 ; its 
 mental environment, 88 ; moral 
 problems partly solved by, 90, 
 
 93 
 Resurrection, Man's, ascribed 
 
 to the Holy Trinity, 100, ioi 
 Resurrection, Body, The, 102 , 
 
 its continuity, form, identity, 
 
 103, 104 
 Reverence, defined, 305 ; its 
 
 scope, 307 ; for all, 312 
 Rewards, 338 ; not material. 341 ; 
 
 not matter of indifference, 343 
 
 Si 1.1 -< ONDEMNATION, 79 
 Self-enlargement, means of, 247 
 
 ff. 
 Self-knowledge, 63. 64 
 Self-respect, 311 
 Service, its stimulus, 3 ; never 
 
 rejected, if sincere, 26 
 Shakespeare, quote 
 Sickness, s oftened by reverence, 
 
 307 
 
 Silence, power of, 252 
 
 Sin. kinds of, 56 ; its nature, 57 ; 
 its incessancy, 57 ; its. deceit- 
 fulness, 57 ; its discovery, 58 ; 
 conviction of, 59 ; morbid 
 dwelling in, 50 ; its conse- 
 quences, 83, 84 
 
 oui Lord 
 
 123 ; wot result ui imp 1 
 ness nor unfreedom, [24, 1. 
 
 its import, 126, 127 ; human 
 SinleSSneSS a dream, 218 
 Slothfulness. 230 ; its cau 1 
 
 232 ft'. 
 
 Sorrow, purifies and disciplines, 
 
 204 ; witnesses, 205, 206 
 Spiritual conflicts, 195, [9 
 Sunday observance, 304 
 Sympathy. 284 ; with happiness, 
 
 285 ; with doubt, 28; 
 
 its value, 287; its limitation . 
 
 28,-1 
 
 Ti.ai HING of Jesus, 129; con- 
 vincing not compelling, 131, 
 
 Temperance question, The, 299 
 
 ff. 
 Tolerance, 244 
 
 i mi 1 1 sess, at home 
 
 in society, 259 ; conditions of. 
 270 ff. 
 
 Wi -1 1^ . t harles, quoti 1 
 Whichcote, quoted, 322 
 Worldliness, 184 
 
 Y( it in- spi ingtide, culture "f. 
 }7. !' 
 
n 
 
1 1012 01002 6922 
 
 ■V,V I 
 
 ■ 
 ■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■