THE CALL OF THE LORD
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE WONDROUS PASSION. With an Introduction 
 by the BISHOP OF LONDON. Crown 8vo. as. 6d. net. 
 
 THE WAY OF FELLOWSHIP. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 IDEALS OF HOLINESS: an Aid to Preparation for 
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 ** Thin Paper Edition, Impl. 321110. Bound in Rexine. as. net. 
 
 I,ONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON, NBW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
 
 THE 
 CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 BY 
 
 F. W. DRAKE 
 
 rRiUT-iN-CHA*Gc or s. JOHN'S CHUKCH, WILTON BOAD, s.w. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 89 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA 
 
 1914 
 
 AH rifki*
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book suggests lines of meditation upon 
 the revelation of Christ after the Resurrec- 
 tion and dwells especially upon the way in which 
 the risen Lord called His followers one by one to 
 their particular work of witness. 
 
 The events of the great Forty Days between the 
 Resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy 
 Spirit at Pentecost form a theme peculiarly suitable 
 for meditation, partly because the Bible narratives 
 are so concise, and partly because a true under- 
 standing of the period when our Lord was teaching 
 His Apostles " the things pertaining to the King- 
 dom of God " is so critical for a sound knowledge 
 of the history and faith of the Church. The danger 
 of thinking that our Lord's work and ministry were 
 finished at the Crucifixion is still a real one. Medita- 
 tion upon the revealed activities of the risen and 
 ascended Lord will prevent us from an unthinking 
 acceptance of theories and estimates of the Person 
 of Jesus Christ, which, however beautiful in con- 
 ception and generous in their tributes of worship, 
 
 1C'
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 are yet merely humanitarian. Jesus is God. And 
 the activities of His Incarnate Life are not bounded 
 by His Death upon the Cross. He ever liveth to 
 make intercession, to bless and to draw men to 
 God and to crown their happiness by union with 
 Himself. 
 
 I have ventured to think that such a book as 
 this may be useful to maintain and to deepen that 
 quickened habit of devotional reading and medita- 
 tion, which is often one of the most precious gains 
 of Lent, but which is so apt to be lost for want of 
 further help after Easter. No book of meditation 
 is ever meant to take the place of our own Bible 
 reading. Rather such books succeed in their 
 purpose only when they send us back renewed 
 to a more loving and patient study of the Scriptures, 
 for there we find ourselves nearest to Christ. And 
 the old saying remains ever true, " Life without 
 books is sleep, life without Christ is death." 
 
 F. W. D.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 MM 
 
 I. THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION . . i 
 
 II. S. MARY MAGDALENE . . 16 
 
 III. S. PETER . . ... 31 
 
 IV. EMMAUS . . ... 45 
 V. THE CALL OF THE CHURCH . . . 56 
 
 VI. S. THOMAS . . ... 70 
 
 VII. GALILEE . . . 84 
 
 VIII. S. JOHN .- . . 94 
 
 IX. THE ASCENSION . . . . .in 
 
 X. PENTECOST . . . . . 124 
 
 XI. S. PAUL . . '. ... 138 
 
 XII. THE VISION OF THE LORD . . .155 
 
 vii
 
 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 
 S. MATTHEW xxvm. 1-8. S. LUKE xxiv. 1-12 
 
 THE Call of the Resurrection is the most 
 triumphant Call that ever rang through a 
 weary and expectant world. It is the call of the 
 Lord to victory. It is the vindication of Christ 
 as the Source of Life to the souls of men. Rightly 
 has Easter been called the Queen of Festivals, for 
 it has set the seal of fulfilment upon all the glorious 
 promise of the Incarnation. It is the festival of 
 undying hope, the charter of human gladness, the 
 pledge of the eternal triumph of good over all the 
 forces of evil. To all sorrowing hearts Easter 
 brings a glad Sursum corda, for the long tyrannies 
 of sin and of death are broken. From the risen 
 Christ comes power to conquer sin. From the 
 risen Christ comes forgiveness to bind us close to 
 God. The Sacraments that minister sure grace 
 and strength to the bodies and souls of men are 
 
 B
 
 2 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the Sacraments of a risen Life. The transfiguring 
 power that shall change this body of humiliation 
 and make it like unto Christ's glorious Body is the 
 power of the risen Lord. The Call of the Lord is 
 the Call of the Resurrection. 
 
 A. 
 
 " Verily Thou art a God that h'idest Thyself." 
 It is the humility of God that so mysteriously 
 baffles human expectation. In humility all the 
 great acts of God were wrought. The lowliness of 
 the Incarnation is matched by the silence of the 
 Resurrection. For an act so transcendent in its 
 significance, so crucial for faith, so supreme in its 
 revelation of divine power, man is tempted to seek 
 surroundings of majestic glory and splendour. 
 But more secret even than the Birth in the cave 
 at Bethlehem was the Rising from the rock-hewn 
 tomb in the garden at Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph 
 might bend wondering eyes upon the Holy Babe, 
 while Nature was stilled to peace and Angels sang 
 of the Glory of God. But at the bursting of the 
 sepulchre, the rocks might be rent and the Angel 
 of the Lord, rolling back the stone, might strike 
 terror into the hearts of the keepers, but no human 
 eyes beheld the Lord of Life rising from the tomb. 
 
 Perhaps men might have seen, had they believed. 
 But none believed. Men watched lest the disciples 
 might come and steal away the Body, but none
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 3 
 
 watched to greet the Rising Lord. And when He 
 had broken the barrier of the tomb, there was no 
 radiant Presence visible to the eyes of men to 
 attest the new miracle of Man triumphant over 
 Death. When Mary Magdalene first saw Him there 
 was no glory to distinguish him from Joseph's 
 gardener. The disciples on the way to Emmaus 
 saw no peculiar glory in the Stranger Who joined 
 them as they talked. The Apostles speak of no 
 unwonted splendour in the familiar Form of their 
 Master as He visited them in the Upper Room. 
 He entered indeed while the doors were shut. 
 There was that inner glory of a new submissiveness 
 of the material to the control of the Spirit, which 
 marked the distinctive character of the Resurrec- 
 tion Body. But there was no outward splendour, 
 no arresting majesty of form, no radiance, no 
 heavenly light. If the disciples could have indulged 
 any expectancy at all of their Master's life after 
 death, it was not even the Resurrection Body as 
 Christ shewed it to them that they would have 
 pictured. It would have been some dazzling, re- 
 splendent vision, victorious, all-compelling, that 
 would have fulfilled their hopes. 
 
 But the ways of God are not our ways. And 
 the Divine Wisdom was justified by the complete 
 and convinced assurance of the Resurrection which 
 the lowly appearances of the risen Lord wrought 
 in the minds of those to whom He shewed Himself.
 
 4 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 They had seen Him lying dead in the tomb, the 
 bruised and pierced Body duly swathed in the 
 linen of the grave, anointed and, made fragrant 
 with spices of embalming. And while they mourned 
 Him dead, God raised Him up, " having loosed 
 the pains of death, because it was not possible 
 that He should be holden of it." In the Prince 
 of Life there was a natural, inherent energy of 
 vital power which could not be repressed. That 
 Body, unique in its property of sinless perfection, 
 was not subject to those forces of corruption to 
 which our sinful bodies are exposed. That sinless 
 Body, united to His Divine Person, could not be 
 holden of death. It did indeed experience death. 
 That was the crowning humiliation of the Incarnate. 
 Jesus rejected that which was due to His own 
 sinlessness and accepted the lot of the sinful, 
 identifying Himself with us in death, that He 
 might redeem us from its terrors. Down into the 
 dark valley of the shadow of death went the Sinless 
 One to make reparation for the sin of the world. 
 His perfect love made Him identify Himself with 
 us in the experience of death. And in suffering 
 death He transfigured it, cast His redemptive 
 power over it, and freed us from its dominion. 
 Death did not mean for Him corruption. He 
 could not be holden by death. His perfect Body 
 passed through death and was transfigured by 
 the energies of the Holy Spirit into conditions
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 5 
 
 of spiritual glory. His Body received new capa- 
 cities, became a freer organ for the expression of 
 personal activities, responding to the control of 
 the will in ways more exact, more immediate, more 
 complete than were possible under the conditions 
 which prevailed before. 
 
 What the Resurrection began the Ascension 
 completed. The Resurrection was a step in the 
 full glorification of the Humanity of Christ. The 
 appearances of Jesus during the Great Forty Days 
 were epiphanies of the Body of Christ, emerging at 
 His will from the hidden sphere of the risen Life, 
 accommodated to the special purposes of the 
 divine revelation, and continued until the work of 
 comfort, of conviction and of instruction had been 
 achieved for those who were to be primary witnesses 
 to the world of the reality of the Resurrection. It 
 was Jesus Himself in the fulness of His perfect 
 Manhood Whom they saw risen from the dead. 
 " Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. 
 Handle Me and see." And the Apostles have borne 
 their witness, unanimously, triumphantly, and the 
 Church which was founded in the power of the 
 Spirit is the Church of the risen Christ. To-day 
 we bow before the great miracle of God and appeal 
 to the Bodily Resurrection of Christ as the pledge 
 of our own justification and the promise of that 
 perfect consummation both of body and of soul, 
 which is the hope of the redeemed.
 
 6 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 So we look forward with humble reliance upon 
 our risen Lord, knowing that the Great Shepherd 
 of the sheep will lead us whither* He Himself is 
 gone, and the God of Peace who raised Him so 
 surely from the dead, will likewise raise us too 
 lifting us up here to a new and risen life of 
 spiritual power, planting in our lives already, by 
 the sacramental gift of His own risen Humanity, 
 the seed of the Body that shall be, and then 
 after the great Easter day, clothing us with the 
 radiant Body of the Resurrection, no longer the 
 body of humiliation, but like unto His glorious 
 Body. 
 
 Pray for the grace of the Risen Life. 
 
 Almighty and eternal God, Who hast given 
 Thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for 
 our sins and to rise again for our justification, 
 grant that we who do acknowledge the grace of 
 His Resurrection may ourselves through the love 
 of the Spirit rise from the death of the soul and 
 be renewed unto eternal life. 
 
 B. 
 
 To the Apostles the Resurrection of Jesus was 
 the summary proof of His Deity. That great truth 
 which Christ had laboured to teach them under 
 conditions of weakness and infirmity was brought 
 home to them by His victory over death. Men 
 may ask for other proofs to-day, because the
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 7 
 
 conditions of life and experience are different. But 
 for those who had companied with Him all the 
 time that He went in and out among them, begin- 
 ning from the baptism of John unto that same 
 day that He was taken up from them into heaven, 
 it was the fact of the Resurrection which convinced 
 them beyond all doubt that Jesus was God. To 
 the intimations of unique fellowship with God, 
 to the evidences of superhuman insight, profound 
 wisdom and miraculous power, which the experi- 
 ences of the Ministry afforded, were added the 
 convincing certainties of Divine Authority, of 
 Divine Wisdom and Divine Love which the facts 
 of the risen Life disclosed. Jesus Christ our Lord 
 " was declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead." It was the Resurrection which 
 threw a new light upon all that He had done 
 and said in the days of their discipleship. It gave 
 coherence and point to all that He had taught. 
 It changed a tragedy of failure into a miracle of 
 divine success. It gave new values to every 
 incident of human experience. The Birth, Suffer- 
 ing, Death, Resurrection, Ascension were successive 
 steps in one continuous progress of divine redemp- 
 tion, wrought out in the Manhood of Jesus. The 
 Passion and Death were recognised in the fulness 
 of their atoning power, because He Who suffered 
 and died was declared to be God by the fact of
 
 8 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the Resurrection. The permanence of that Man- 
 hood was assured, which God has taken to Him- 
 self as the instrument of man's* salvation. He 
 " Who was delivered for our offences " was "raised 
 again for our justification." The risen Body is not 
 merely evidential for faith, it is actually instru- 
 mental in man's redemption, the perpetual organ 
 of the divine approach to man. 
 
 The Call of the risen Lord is the call to thanks- 
 giving for the victory over sin achieved in His own 
 sacred Humanity and assured to us through the 
 powers of His risen Life. " If Christ be not raised, 
 your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins." It is 
 the glorious risen Humanity of our Lord that is 
 the pledge to-day of our own victory over sin, of 
 our own renewed fellowship with God. The Sacra- 
 ments of Life are the Sacraments of the Resurrection. 
 It is the risen and ascended Lord Who is the food 
 of Immortality to the souls of men. At the Chris- 
 tian Altar we offer the glad Sacrifice of praise and 
 thanksgiving which the Resurrection has made 
 possible. Here we greet, here we adore, the very 
 Presence of our risen and ascended Lord. It is 
 not a dead Christ, but the living Christ Who gives 
 Himself to us, refreshing all the powers of life with 
 the quick, vital energies of His own risen and 
 glorified Body. We speak lightly enough of a 
 risen life. That risen life may be fuller, truer, 
 greater in power and permanence than we allow
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 9 
 
 ourselves to think. For it is a life lived actually 
 in vital union with all the victorious energies of 
 the hallowed Body of the risen Lord. Union with 
 that Life means the triumph of holiness, the assur- 
 ance of gladness, the gift of power for those who 
 are in Christ. Always as we look up to God with 
 penitent, faithful and loving hearts, we may find 
 all our weaknesses, failures and sorrows trans- 
 figured with the glory which streams from the 
 Face of Jesus Christ, our risen and triumphant 
 Lord. And the power and gladness of Easter will 
 overflow from our lives into the souls of others, 
 so that even those who understand little of the 
 supreme significance of the Easter Victory of Christ 
 will be caught up into the triumphant gladness of 
 our Alleluias and will find themselves nearer God 
 for their great joy. 
 
 Pray for the grace and perseverance of the Risen Life. 
 
 Almighty God, Who through Thy only-begotten 
 Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death and opened 
 unto us the gate of everlasting life, we humbly 
 beseech Thee that, as by Thy special grace prevent- 
 ing us, Thou dost put into our minds good desires, 
 so by Thy continual help we may bring the same 
 to good effect, through the same Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the 
 Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
 
 io THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 C. 
 
 " Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." The risen Lord 
 has not only broken the power of sin, He has taken 
 victory from the grave and robbed death of all its 
 gloom. In the Resurrection of Jesus we find the 
 promise of our own bodily resurrection, and in the 
 very form of His Resurrection Body we see the 
 marks of that glorious body into which our body 
 of humiliation shall be changed, according to the 
 working whereby He is able even to subdue all 
 things unto Himself. 
 
 The Resurrection of Christ proclaims that Life 
 is the goal of man's existence Life which embraces 
 man in the entirety of all his powers, in all the 
 fulness of his manifold activities of body, soul and 
 spirit. Death, as we know it, is not natural but 
 abnormal to man in his perfection. It is not truly 
 the debt of nature, but the outrage and violation 
 of man's nature, as originally planned and consti- 
 tuted by God. We cannot place man simply among 
 the brute creation. There must be a distinction 
 marked between the death of animals and of men. 
 To man God gave a spiritual nature in which the 
 brute creation had no share. He was made in the 
 image of God. God made him for ever-growing 
 communion with Himself. That spiritual nature, 
 had it remained untouched by sin, would have
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION u 
 
 been brought to perfection in unbroken union with 
 the body through a gradual process of increasing 
 glorification. That spiritual endowment was not 
 simply an added gift, to be held side by side with 
 the material nature, but it was to dominate and 
 control man in his whole being, to penetrate, 
 subdue and hallow his lower nature. The material 
 nature by itself admitted the physical liability to 
 dissolution, but it was destined through a life 
 of sustained fellowship with God to escape cor- 
 ruption, and under the quickening influence of the 
 Spirit to become the obedient organ and expressive 
 instrument of the sinless soul. But sin intervened 
 and the line of ordered development was broken. 
 Death, as we know it, is the wages of sin. The 
 sting of death is sin. " By one man sin entered 
 into the world, and death by sin ; so death passed 
 upon all men, for that all have sinned." And " the 
 strength of sin is the law." For it was the law 
 which revealed God's will and provoked our corrupt 
 nature to wanton sin and deliberate rebellion 
 against God. Man had fallen far from God's 
 original purpose of happy and perfect life. 
 
 But God's strength came to the rescue of man's 
 weakness, and the Lord of Life redeemed the 
 " firstfruits of His creatures" from death. Christ 
 as the last Adam delivered us from the curse of 
 the first Adam. The Word became flesh. God 
 brought Himself into personal union with our race.
 
 12 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 Very God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, took upon 
 Himself all the original constituents of perfect 
 human nature and became the n?w Head of the 
 race. In Him was Life. " The second Man is the 
 Lord from heaven," the source of spiritual life to 
 mankind. Apart from Him man would be of the 
 earth, earthy, unable by any process of natural 
 evolution to rise by himself to any higher life. It 
 is union with the Eternal Word, that union for 
 which man was prepared by his creation in the 
 image of God, which alone can bring life to the 
 whole man. 
 
 The full glory of man's bodily life could only be 
 attained, quite apart from the question of sin, by 
 union with the Incarnate. The need for that 
 Incarnation lay already in the primary constitution 
 of man's nature. Only by the grace of union with 
 the Incarnate could human life be quickened to 
 the fulfilment of its high destiny. Sin apart, 
 the entrance of Christ into human life would 
 have been the happy leading of man's nature on 
 its upward path from glory to glory in unbroken 
 harmony of praise and gladness and peace. But 
 sin brought agony, bloodshedding and the horror 
 of death into what should have been a life of joy 
 and undimmed glory. Jesus Christ was One in 
 Whom no sin found place, on Whom death had no 
 claim. His perfect Humanity, had He so willed it, 
 could have passed into the larger world beyond this
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 13 
 
 life without the experience of death as we know it. 
 But for our sakes Christ rejected that exodus of 
 glory which was the natural prerogative of His 
 sinlessness, and being found in fashion as a man 
 He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto 
 death, yea, the death of the Cross. So in tasting 
 death for our sakes Jesus hallowed it and took from 
 it all its hopelessness and terror. 
 
 And in the hidden glory of His risen Body, as He 
 revealed it to His disciples, He has left us a dis- 
 closure of hope for our own bodily resurrection. 
 Those who are in Christ are assured that there 
 awaits them after death a glorious resuscitation of 
 the Body, which in the fulness of new and untiring 
 energy shall be the perfect vehicle and expression 
 of the soul. Here in this life we see how spirit 
 partly moulds the body. Only with great limita- 
 tions can the body attempt to express the character 
 of the soul that dwells within. But the Resurrec- 
 tion Body will be the perfect and unhindered 
 organ of the soul's activities, a glorified Body no 
 longer weighed down by the burden of this life's 
 frailties. There will be no need to gather together 
 from every quarter the scattered material atoms 
 that have gone to make up our bodies in this life. 
 The identity oi the Resurrection Body with the 
 Body of this life is the identity of the full-grown 
 plant with the seed from which it sprang. The 
 source of life is God alone. " God giveth it a body,
 
 14 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own 
 body." The quickening is a divine act. " The 
 body that shall be " is the gift of God. It is raised 
 a spiritual body. Glory, incorruption, power shall 
 take the place of the dishonour, corruption and 
 weakness of this life. Recognition is assured. 
 As the risen Lord was known to His disciples, so 
 shall we be known to one another. Indeed, in 
 proportion as we have a soul-knowledge one of 
 another here and are able to read the truth of one 
 another's lives, so will be the measure of our 
 readiness to recognise one another in that life 
 where the spiritual body is the expression of the 
 perfected soul. The very persistence of the sacred 
 wound-prints, which remained visible in the Resur- 
 rection Body of Christ, suggests to us how real and 
 abiding in effect are the acts of this life upon the 
 Body of the Resurrection. We must reverently 
 imagine that the influence on the body of the 
 actions of our considered and deliberate will in 
 this life is fashioning some of the outlines of the 
 Body of the Resurrection. 
 
 Words of our Lord revealed by S. John suggest 
 an even more profound influence which can be 
 exercised by us in this life. Jesus said, " Whoso 
 eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath 
 eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 
 Our true and living food, alike for body and for 
 soul, is the Humanity of our Lord in its present
 
 THE CALL OF THE RESURRECTION 15 
 
 spiritual and glorified condition. Does it not seem 
 that by our Eucharistic life, as we take into our- 
 selves that " food of immortality, the antidote that 
 we should not die," we are building up in secret that 
 Resurrection Body, which one day in its glory shall 
 prove to be the veritable gift of God to us in that 
 " perfect consummation and bliss both of body and 
 soul " towards which we look ? Certain it is that 
 this need not be beyond our hope. However little 
 we may be able to grasp the details, or forecast the 
 glory, of the Resurrection of the Body, we may 
 recall with joy the wide-embracing comprehensive- 
 ness of the prayer of S. Paul, " May the very God 
 of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your 
 whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- 
 less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Pray for a worthy preparation of the body in this life for 
 the bliss of the Resurrection. . 
 
 Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptised into the 
 death of Thy Blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections 
 we may be buried with Him, and that through the 
 grave and gate of death we may pass to our joyful 
 resurrection, for His merits Who died and was 
 buried and rose again for us, Thy Son Jesus Christ 
 our Lord.
 
 II 
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 
 S. MARK xvi. 1-8. S. JOHN xx. 1-18 
 
 /UIETLY dawned the first Easter day. A great 
 peace lay upon the Holy City after the rough 
 scenes of the Paschal week. No longer the 
 turmoil of arrest, no longer the mockeries of public 
 trial, no railing soldiers, no agonising Cross, but 
 the unbroken stillness of the virgin sepulchre, as 
 the holy women came bearing their tribute of 
 love to the tomb of their Master. So absorbed 
 had they been in the thought of Him that the 
 difficulty of moving the great stone placed at the 
 mouth of the grave had never troubled them till 
 they had reached the very precincts of the garden. 
 And even then they were not deterred. They held 
 on their way hopefully. " And when they looked, 
 they saw the stone was rolled away." God had 
 made the path easy for their offering of love. Eagerly 
 they pressed on, bearing their sweet spices into the 
 very sepulchre itself. And there a great wonder 
 turned their confidence into fear. The Body that 
 
 16
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 17 
 
 they looked for was not there. But an Angel, sit- 
 ting on the right side of the tomb, welcomed them 
 with the words, " Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, Which 
 was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. Be- 
 hold the place where they laid Him." And as they 
 stood terrified and bewildered, realising only the 
 failure of their loving plans for His anointing, they 
 heard themselves charged with a new mission for 
 the Master Himself. " Go your way, tell His dis- 
 ciples and Peter that He goeth before you into 
 Galilee. There shall ye see Him, as He said unto 
 you." Dazed with wonder, the women turned im- 
 mediately and fled out of the tomb, bearing to 
 the startled Apostles in the city a confused story 
 of "a vision of Angels which said that He was 
 alive." 
 
 But Mary of Magdala had already broken away 
 from the others and carried to S. Peter and S. John 
 the first news that the Body of Jesus was gone. 
 " They have taken away the Lord out of the sepul- 
 chre, and we know not where they have laid Him." 
 And as the two disciples hastened to the garden, 
 Mary followed and waited without, while they 
 entered into the sepulchre. It was indeed true. 
 They " found it even so as the women had said, but 
 Him they saw not." The two disciples turned away 
 from the tomb to carry their news to the brethren 
 in Jerusalem. But Mary still lingered. If He was 
 not here, still this was the last place where she had 
 c
 
 i8 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 seen Him, and the spell of the sepulchre, that sad 
 trysting - place of bereaved love, held her fast. 
 " Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping." 
 Presently looking in, she saw " two angels in white 
 sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, 
 where the Body of Jesus had lain." To them she 
 told the burden of her sorrow, " They have taken 
 away my Lord, and I know not where they have 
 laid Him." Then it was that turning back she 
 found herself face to face with Jesus Himself, and 
 received with wonder and adoring love the first 
 revelation of the risen Lord. 
 
 A. 
 
 In Mary of Magdala Christ shewed the trans- 
 forming power of His redemptive love. Before ever 
 that first Easter day had dawned, the glory of 
 Christ's inherent resurrection power had already 
 shined in the heart of Mary. First amongst those 
 to whom Christ shewed himself alive after His 
 Passion stands Mary Magdalene, whose life already 
 had been a witness to the divine power of the Master. 
 In her Christ seems to shew the purpose of many 
 a silent life. How little we know of all that Mary 
 said. How much the simple story of her life has 
 meant. Life is so much more than speech. 
 
 We are asked at times to piece together the 
 precious fragmentary words of Jesus, and from 
 them alone men would compile His Gospel, as
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 19 
 
 though Christ's spoken words were the sum and 
 head of all His teaching. Gracious indeed, powerful 
 and pregnant with the beauty of eternal truth, are 
 the words of Christ. But more powerful, more sig- 
 nificant still of the Divine purpose, are His acts. 
 What He did and what He suffered in His own 
 Incarnate Person must far outweigh in significance 
 all that He ever said. The revelation of His Life is 
 more than the revelation of His Word. The death 
 upon the Cross itself means more, infinitely more, 
 than the seven Words from the Cross can ever 
 express. The Resurrection in itself means more 
 than any words of the risen Lord can ever reveal. 
 We may marvel sometimes at the scanty record 
 left of the public teaching of One Who, proclaiming 
 Himself the very Prophet and Teacher of God, 
 spake as never man spake. But the reverent 
 thinker, meditating upon the ways of God, may 
 read something of the Divine purpose in the very 
 meagreness of the written record of Christ's spoken 
 words. God would point us to what Christ is in 
 Himself, to the wonder of His Person, to the influ- 
 ence of His Life, to the triumph of His Death. 
 Christ Himself is the truest Word of God. In His 
 very acts God speaks. 
 
 So also in the lives rather than in the words of 
 those whom Christ gathers round Himself, God 
 speaks. The power of personality is seen at its 
 greatest in its influence upon the lives of others.
 
 20 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 The men and women, so unexpectedly but so con- 
 vincingly transfigured by the glory of Christ's life, 
 were to be the witnesses, whose* testimony should 
 be beyond gainsaying, whose simple lives of holiness 
 should speak more powerfully than any eloquence 
 of words, more lastingly than any glorious deed. 
 This was the purpose of the Magdalene's life. 
 
 The dear Lord's best interpreters 
 
 Are humble, human souls. 
 The gospel of a life like hers 
 
 Is more than books or scrolls. 
 From scheme and creed the light dies out, 
 
 The saintly fact survives. 
 The Blessed Master who can doubt 
 
 Revealed in holy lives ? 
 
 Such indeed was she to whom Jesus first revealed 
 Himself after His Resurrection. Mary Magdalene 
 witnesses to the glorious power of Christ that can 
 avail to free a soul from the passionate entangle- 
 ments of sin and set it triumphant on the heights 
 of holy love, radiant in the light and peace of God. 
 And many a quiet life, lived in our midst to-day, 
 bears the same holy witness, and spreads the same 
 gospel of divine redemption, responding to the Call 
 of the Lord with grateful love. 
 
 What is the witness which my own life bears ? 
 
 B. 
 
 Mary " turned herself back and saw Jesus stand- 
 ing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith 
 unto her, ' Woman, why weepest thou ? Whom
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 21 
 
 seekest thou ? ' She, supposing Him to be the 
 gardener, saith unto Him, ' Sir, if thou have borne 
 Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him and I 
 will take Him away.' " So the eager Magdalene 
 pressed on in the search after her Lord. In that calm 
 face, touched now with the beauty of a noble grief, 
 in those clear eyes lit with the lustre of a pure and 
 holy love, who would have recognised that Mary, 
 whose insolent defiance of the cherished sanctities 
 of home had made her name an evil byword in 
 Magdala ? 
 
 Those days of sorrow, since in sad wonder she had 
 watched the death of Christ upon the Cross, had 
 been days of revelation for her. Never had she 
 realised more clearly all that she owed to the love 
 and power of Him, Whom she delighted to call 
 Rabboni, Master, With deepening glow of penitence 
 and shame she recalled the passionate splendours of 
 that old life of sin from which she had been drawn. 
 Hers was that mysterious gift of beauty which, 
 wherever it may be found, reflects the uncreated 
 loveliness of God Himself. Wealth added to beauty 
 exposed her to fresh temptations of selfishness and 
 pleasure. Quick vitality and eager impulse gave 
 keenness to her enthusiasm and depth to her de- 
 sires. Nobler ideals of truer happiness may have 
 stirred at times in the sanctuary of her heart, but 
 the joy, which she knew by experience, was the pass- 
 ing, passionate joy of sensuous bliss. At first indeed
 
 22 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the rapture of such abandonment would absorb all 
 the energies of life. Passion so intense could readily 
 defy the rigorous conventions 'even of that strict 
 social code in which she had been brought up. 
 When religion so often meant the formalism of 
 pharisaic pride, when conventional devotion was so 
 frequently the cloak of hypocrisy and avarice, was it 
 strange that an enthusiastic and impulsive nature 
 should cast off the sanctions of a morality which 
 was so impotent to govern the lives of those around 
 her ? The very intensity of her nature became the 
 measure of her misery. " Seven devils " took pos- 
 session of the soul that was made for the dwelling- 
 place of God Himself. It seemed as though the 
 Magdalene had lost control of her own soul. The 
 city in its righteous wrath had nothing but scorn 
 and condemnation for the outcast. But scorn never 
 heals and condemnation never restores an erring 
 soul. Who can tell what was passing hi the heart 
 of Mary herself ? How often the acts of a life belie 
 both what the heart desires and what the mind 
 approves. It needs time for the will to regain power 
 over the life, even after new hopes have come to 
 birth. This only we can tell. Whether confirmed in 
 hardness by the cruelty of the world, or touched at 
 heart by the stirring of new ideals and the hope of 
 better things, Mary felt herself alone. There was 
 none that understood, none that cared, none that 
 could draw her from her isolation and reveal the
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 23 
 
 true self hidden beneath the cloak of wanton gaiety 
 and pleasure. It was no wonder that she could 
 recall with the vividness of immediate vision the 
 first glance from the Eyes of Jesus. Before His 
 gaze her passions fell, at His command the devils 
 left her. An agony of shame and fear broke over 
 her. Slowly conscience resumed its sway. The look 
 of holy Love piercing through the secrets of her 
 heart revealed the love of holier things within. The 
 voice of Truth and Holiness called to that inner 
 truth of self and roused response. Mary came to 
 herself, and coming to herself, came to Him for 
 Whom she had been made. Upon Him now were 
 outpoured the rich treasures of a soul restored to 
 peace, quickened to pure desire, touched with that 
 spirit of reparation which no sacrifice, no toil, no 
 suffering can ever satisfy. In her were seen the 
 vivifying powers of the divine pardon separation 
 from sin, the glad assurance of sin forgiven at the 
 very moment when it was most recognised as sin, 
 the soul attuned to lowliness, prepared for happy 
 ministries of service and of love. She made glad 
 offering of her wealth, and the days that followed, 
 with their manifold duties of generous service and 
 watchful ministry, had been all too short for the 
 Magdalene to prove her grateful devotion to the 
 Lord and Master of her life. 
 
 Thus the Magdalene waited at the tomb, renew- 
 ing her penitence with every throb of anxiety and
 
 24 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 fear. And to her before all others Jesus shewed 
 Himself, that her penitence might be rewarded, and 
 that the world might know it was indeed the Saviour 
 of souls Who, coming to seek and to save that which 
 was lost, had risen from the dead, that He might carry 
 out His work of salvation and stablish the hearts of 
 the faithful and the penitent in the power of the 
 Resurrection. It is indeed to the penitent that the 
 revelation of Christ first comes. Penitence is the 
 measure of our capacity for revelation. Without 
 holiness no man can see the Lord. It is only by 
 penitence that we can achieve holiness. We must 
 put away our sin and forsake all that is unholy. 
 Our sin may not take the actual form of Mary's sin. 
 But we must reflect that the sin which shews most 
 openly to human eyes is not always the most deadly 
 in the sight of God. Shis of the flesh have indeed 
 a peculiarly devastating power, paralysing the con- 
 science, narrowing the vision, poisoning the springs 
 of love, making havoc of all the holiest relations of 
 life, carrying sacrilege into the very temple of God 
 Himself, pitiless in the injuries that they inflict on 
 the lives of others. But there are spiritual sins more 
 deadly still. And these may be ours. The pride of 
 the self-blinded pharisee, the cruel arrogance of the 
 worldly and ambitious, the complacent self-sufficiency 
 of the slothful are more fatal than the sin of the 
 wanton. But in the sin of the Magdalene perhaps 
 the essence of all sin is most clearly visible. For
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 25 
 
 sin is always the misdirection of love, sin is always 
 the violation of the divine Will of Holiness, sin is 
 always an injury inflicted upon other lives. So also 
 in Mary's penitence can we see the mirror of all true 
 and godly sorrow for sin. For penitence must be 
 always the right direction of love, penitence must 
 ever identify self with the holy Will of God, and 
 bring the soul back into loving and fruitful fellow- 
 ship with others. 
 
 And to-day if we wish for the clear vision of the 
 risen Lord it will be through penitence that our eyes 
 will be opened. There is no sin that is beyond the 
 forgiving power of God, if we are seeking to be for- 
 given. Mysterious and wonderful are the ways of 
 the divine healing. To the pardoned the very ex- 
 perience of sin creates the opportunity of a new 
 ministry of sympathetic helpfulness to other souls. 
 The very extravagances of misdirected love point 
 the way to a new fruitfulness of loving service. The 
 remembrance of faculties once misused and degraded 
 stirs the renewed will to a more generous and un- 
 selfish exercise of the same capacities, now hallowed 
 by the cleansing grace of God. And as it was with 
 Mary of Magdala, so will it be with us. Every day 
 will add to our sorrow for the sin that is past. 
 Shame will grow as the sense of forgiveness becomes 
 more and more assured. However great may be 
 the miracle of God's restoring power, we shall never 
 be glad that we have sinned. But we shall live in
 
 26 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the joy of Christ's forgiveness. And the gladness 
 of it will make us gentle towards those who sin. Not 
 only shall we find that Jesus Himself looks upon us 
 in our forgiveness with eyes of eternal hope and love, 
 untouched with any spirit of reproof, not only does 
 He assure us that we can indeed forget those things 
 which are now behind and in His resurrection power 
 press toward the mark for the prize of the upward 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus. But those also who 
 are Christ's, will look upon us in our penitence with 
 the eyes of Christ Himself, welcoming us gently and 
 hopefully to their fellowship. Assuredly it must 
 have been one of the wonders of the Magdalene's 
 life that she found herself unquestioningly accepted 
 at the Master's bidding into the company of the 
 Virgin Mother and the holy women. We, too, in our 
 turn, as we are gathered into the fellowship of the 
 Crucified, can never forget the duty of glad, generous 
 welcome which we ourselves shall give to those 
 whom Jesus calls to share the joy of forgiveness 
 and the peace of the divine pardon. 
 
 Thank God for the gift of penitence. 
 
 O Almighty and eternal God, Who through the 
 merits of Thy Son Jesus Christ hast forgiven me 
 all my sin, I thank Thee for the enabling grace of 
 the Holy Spirit which has led me to true repentance. 
 Teach me day by day to grow in penitence and 
 love, that I may give myself to Thy service and 
 may win others to the knowledge of Thy grace, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 27 
 
 C. 
 
 " Jesus saith unto her, Mary." The call of the 
 risen Lord reveals the secret of all vocation. It is 
 the call of One Who knows us better than we know 
 ourselves, Who loves us even as we are with an 
 eternal steadfastness and hope. It is the call of One 
 Who never despairs, Who will never allow the 
 creature to feel itself bereft of the infinite resources 
 of the almighty Creator. It was thus that with one 
 word of intimate recollection Christ called Mary to 
 the startled recognition of her Master, " Rabboni." 
 It was indeed the very voice of Jesus Himself. What 
 memories it stirred in Mary's heart ! His Presence 
 aroused at once all the old instincts of worship. She 
 would fling herself at His feet as in those first days 
 of penitential adoration. But no, this was to be no 
 moment of selfish gladness. She must not think 
 that this was only the return of those first days of 
 continued visible companionship. There are others, 
 too, waiting for the certified assurance that He lives, 
 others who have slowly to be guided into the under- 
 standing of that new and wondrous Resurrection 
 Life which shall find its consummation in the Ascen- 
 sion and in the unseen fellowship of the glorified 
 Lord. Mary is the first to receive the promise of that 
 new Presence, to hear of that fellowship which, 
 extending through the ages, shall give to all men 
 those very opportunities of re-birth and renewal
 
 28 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 through the touch of Christ, which Mary had herself 
 enjoyed. " Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended 
 to My Father. But go to My brethren and say unto 
 them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, 
 and to My God and your God." 
 
 Mary waited for no other blessing for herself, 
 content with this simple duty. The certainty that 
 Christ lived filled all her heart. She could wait the 
 Master's time for His fuller revelation. It is this 
 mutual trust which makes the glory of vocation. 
 Christ knows that we, with all our individual weak- 
 nesses, are really able to fulfil the work for which 
 He has chosen us. Indeed He knows the utter 
 weakness of our natural powers. Even the greatest 
 of human capacities, the most subtle powers of 
 intellect, the deepest faculties of affection, the 
 surest instincts of goodness, apart from Him are 
 unstable and can never abidingly excel. But He 
 also sees that which we cannot see. He sees how, 
 within the soul united faithfully to Himself, all the 
 natural powers of the life are subtly reinforced by 
 the quickening grace of His own sacred Humanity. 
 He sees how beneath the manifest poverty of un- 
 successful endeavour and the futile weariness of 
 imperfect human effort there lie the inexhaustible 
 riches, the unfailing perfection, and the hidden 
 splendour of the energies of the Divine Spirit Him- 
 self, suffusing all the faculties of life with the promise 
 of eternal achievement.
 
 S. MARY MAGDALENE 29 
 
 That is why the first vocation of the soul is always 
 to God Himself. For in Him alone lies the power of 
 fulfilment. To the Mind of the Eternal, with Whom 
 there is nothing but the timeless present, the call 
 to God and the call to work are one and simultaneous. 
 But with us creatures of time, the vocations are 
 recognised, and must be realised, in successive 
 moments of time. And it is the call to God which 
 must be satisfied first. It is the work which most 
 often is the first to engage our notice. We recognise 
 in ourselves peculiar aptitudes and faculties which 
 suggest a definite career and point to a particular 
 work. The work stands there primarily calling us, 
 before we have seen that behind it is God, drawing us 
 by the very work to find Himself. Many never 
 realise more than the relentless call of the work. 
 Work thus undertaken, however noble, will always 
 fall short of perfection, will always lack the fullest 
 consecration, and in time of strain will suffer for 
 want of adequate inspiration. It misses the true 
 note of eternity and achievement. 
 
 The nature of our work may be simple, as the 
 work of Mary was, or it may be difficult. But the 
 work itself is not all, is not the end. The end is God, 
 Who, just because He is also the Beginning, can alone 
 enable us for what He calls us to do. Then all work 
 wakes God in us, if we understand the call of life 
 aright. So indeed was it with Mary of Magdala. 
 Christ, Who had called her, was the God Who
 
 30 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 enabled her, the God Who trusted her, Who, in the 
 struggling loyalty and humble obedience which she 
 herself distrusted, could see the growing perfection 
 for which in the destinies of God she had been created. 
 And have we not here one of the most neglected 
 inspirations of life to-day ? Do we not most intensely 
 need this sense of our individual vocation coming 
 out of the Heart and Mind of a personal God ? 
 Would not my own work to-day, simple as it is, 
 gain not only in nobility, but in efficiency also, if I 
 could really give myself to the Master before I dare 
 to lift my hands to the work ? " Mary," " Rabboni." 
 That is all I need to hear my own name breathed 
 by the Voice of God and to cry with the worshipping 
 penitent of Magdala, " Rabboni, Master." 
 
 Meditate on the Divine promise of vocation. 
 
 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect 
 in whom My soul delighteth. Thus saith the Lord 
 that created thee, and He that formed thee, 
 " Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have 
 called thee by thy name. Thou art Mine. When 
 thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
 thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
 thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou 
 shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle 
 upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy 
 One of Israel, thy Saviour." Ye have not chosen 
 Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that 
 ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your 
 fruit should remain.
 
 Ill 
 
 S. PETER 
 S. LUKE xxiv. 33, 34. i COR. xv. 5. S. JOHN xxi. 15-19 
 
 TO the penitent Magdalene succeeds the peni- 
 tent Apostle, S. Peter. On that very Easter 
 Day when the two disciples from Emmaus had 
 returned to Jerusalem with their wonderful news 
 of the appearance of Jesus, they were themselves 
 greeted with the happy cry, " The Lord is risen 
 indeed and hath appeared unto Simon." Of that 
 first meeting between S. Peter and his risen Lord 
 we are told nothing. The fact of it was well known 
 to the Church. " He was seen of Cephas, then of 
 the twelve." 
 
 A. 
 
 Reverent fancy can picture the impulsive despair 
 of the eager disciple, confronted now with a double 
 treachery. Not only had he made denial of his 
 Lord in the courtyard of Caiaphas, but he had dis- 
 believed all that had been said of the promised 
 Resurrection. If no one else could have been found 
 to sustain the broken hopes of the bewildered 
 31
 
 32 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 disciples, should it not at least have been the part 
 of S. Peter to cheer their flagging hearts with the 
 remembrance of all that the Master had said ? 
 He had been chosen by the Master Himself for the 
 most intimate revelations of His ministry. He had 
 been called into closest association with the mind 
 and purpose of Christ. He had marked himself out 
 amongst his fellows as leader in critical moments 
 of danger and anxiety. He had confessed that 
 Jesus was indeed the Christ and that in Him alone 
 were the words of eternal life. Yet now in the hour 
 of utmost need, when the truth of those words was 
 put to the question, when the faith of his com- 
 panions was shattered by the tragedy of the Cross, 
 the leader himself had failed more utterly than 
 they all. In the inspiring Presence of his Master 
 S. Peter felt himself ready for every service and 
 equal to every danger. Even death itself would not 
 daunt him. But the unexpected surrender of 
 Christ in Gethsemane, the unimagined horrors of 
 the arrest, the trial and the Cross, had swept away 
 all his confidence. He found himself groping, 
 miserable and wretched, in dark uncertainties, 
 which grew more terrible with every day that passed. 
 Would that he had perished by his Master's side ! 
 At least there would have been the glory of un- 
 broken loyalty. And the companionship of Jesus, 
 even on the Cross, would have assuaged something 
 of the bitterness of death. But now that oppor-
 
 S. PETER 33 
 
 tunity of faithfulness had passed, and he lay in 
 inglorious hiding, loathing himself for the craven 
 cowardice of his denial, stung with remorse for the 
 undreamed-of treachery. 
 
 Startled at the call of Mary of Magdala he had 
 hurried to the sepulchre. Its emptiness only added 
 to his bewilderment. He had searched the very 
 tomb and had come away uncomforted. And now 
 to him, bereft of all self-confidence, humbled and 
 full of fear, came Jesus, not to upbraid, but to 
 uplift, not to dismay, but to raise and re-create 
 the fallen leader. And though we know no word of 
 what Christ said, and though we have no record 
 of the mingled shame and gladness that strove for 
 mastery in the Apostle's heart, yet we do know 
 this : we know that Christ's coming to S. Peter 
 was the acceptance of his penitence. We see in 
 this visit of Jesus another signal witness of His 
 self-revelation to the penitent. For from this 
 moment S. Peter began to assume his place of 
 leadership among the Apostles and presently led 
 them forth to Galilee at the Master's bidding. So 
 marked at the very outset is the Lord's approval 
 of penitence as the gateway of the risen Life. There 
 can be no leadership, no certainty of guidance, no 
 voice of authority where there is not the Divine 
 forgiveness. It is God's absolution that recruits 
 and restores, and lays the foundation of new great- 
 ness. 
 D
 
 34 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 Pray for the spirit of true penitence. 
 
 O Lord Jesus Christ, Holy and True, pour into 
 my soul the light of Thy Ho ] y Spirit, that I may 
 see my sins. Give me true sorrow, deepen in me 
 true repentance, and quicken my heart and will 
 that I may ardently desire and steadfastly seek all 
 that is holy and good, for Thy sake, O Lord, Who 
 art my Saviour and my merciful God. 
 
 B. 
 
 This meeting with Jesus was the most crucial 
 moment in the history of S. Peter. Other landmarks 
 there were in the story of his life which could never 
 be forgotten the impulsive response to the call of 
 his brother Andrew, the welcome of penetrating 
 insight and love with which Jesus received him, 
 the outspoken confession of faith which brought 
 such joy to the heart of the Master, the broken 
 loyalty and repeated denial in the courtyard of the 
 high priest, the vision of Christ dead upon the Cross. 
 But none of these were of such vital moment as 
 this call of the risen Lord. Yet no word remains 
 of all that Jesus said. The solemn secrecy of that 
 first meeting of the shamed Apostle with the risen 
 Lord of Love remains inviolate. A sacred reticence 
 prevails where the deepest spiritual experience of 
 the soul is touched. The reality, the fulness, the 
 intensity of that profound experience must be
 
 S. PETER 35 
 
 read in the changed spirit of the life that followed. 
 Changes in the heart of S. Peter, radical and deep, 
 which three years of fellowship with Jesus had 
 not yet been able to effect, were achieved in the 
 silence of that intercourse with the risen Saviour. 
 The hour which Jesus had foretold was come. 
 " When thou art converted, strengthen thy 
 brethren." It is the conversion of S. Peter. He 
 turns from self to God, from doubt to faith, from 
 ease to sacrifice. He is ready now to strengthen his 
 brethren. Through more than thirty years of 
 steadfast leadership, with all its varied labour, 
 suffering and toil, it must have been to this 
 moment that S. Peter ever looked back as the 
 crisis of his life, when in the humble fervour of 
 a true contrition he gave himself to the Call of 
 the Lord. 
 
 And with us, too, the moments of our deepest 
 spiritual experience must be the moments of silence. 
 Over the most profound intimacies of the soul with 
 Christ a veil of secrecy must ever be drawn. That 
 which is most real can least endure to be expressed 
 in word. The delicate bloom of spiritual beauty is 
 quickly spoiled by the rude breath of speech. The 
 most profound events hi our spiritual life are those 
 which we treat with sacred reserve. It cannot be 
 unknown to others that we have this holy inter- 
 course with Jesus. For our lives are changed and 
 the reality of those inner experiences is witnessed
 
 36 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 by the new beauty and strength which fellowship 
 with Christ bestows. But the secret of those 
 moments of fellowship remains our own. " To 
 him that overcometh will I give to eat of the 
 hidden manna, and will give him a white stone and 
 in the stone a new name written, which no man 
 knoweth saving he that receiveth it." There are 
 secrets which we are asked to share with Jesus 
 alone. 
 
 But we know the temptation to break through 
 that sacred reserve. Shallow natures there are, 
 which are ready to speak glibly of the most holy 
 intimacies of the soul. If we have realised the 
 closeness of Christ's fellowship, if we have reverenced 
 rightly the sanctity of His approach, the instinctive 
 delicacy of true love for Him will make us guard 
 the door of our lips. The Spirit of Holy Fear will 
 keep us from irreverent speaking of holy things. 
 Times there are, of course, when, in word as well 
 as in deed, we must bear witness to the reality of 
 our deepest spiritual life. But we shall ask the 
 Spirit's guidance when to speak. We must be 
 convinced that we are speaking for Christ's sake 
 only, not for our own glory or satisfaction. There 
 are friendships in spiritual things which justify a 
 sacred interchange of the most intimate experiences 
 of the soul. But these must be entered upon only 
 in the spirit of prayer. It is the secret of Jesus 
 Himself which we are opening to others, and His
 
 S. PETER 37 
 
 honour must be safely guarded. S. Peter will be 
 ready to bear his bold witness for Christ when the 
 Master calls, and will proclaim faithfully and fully 
 the reality of those intimacies of the soul with Jesus, 
 which fellowship with Him in life and sacrament 
 bestows. But both Jesus before the other disciples, 
 and S. Peter before his converts, observed the secret 
 of that great moment of divine Absolution. 
 
 It is this reverent spirit of reticence and reserve 
 which makes us treasure the moments of silence 
 after every Communion. In the quiet hush as 
 we kneel still before the Altar, we seek to make 
 real to ourselves the great experience of Christ's 
 coming. Deeper even than our poor consciousness 
 can grasp is the reality of that fellowship with Jesus. 
 But as we ponder upon it and give ourselves faith- 
 fully to its influence, its sacredness lays a new claim 
 upon our lives and its power impels us to new service. 
 We go forth into the world, as Christ-bearers, 
 quickened with a new and vital experience of God, 
 pledged to a reverent and holy witness to the power 
 of that Presence, Whose very secrecy in the soul 
 is the guarantee of its abiding reality and power. 
 
 Pray for the Spirit of Holy Fear. 
 
 O Holy Spirit of God, Fount of holiness and truth, 
 implant in my heart the gift of Holy Fear, that I 
 may realise the sanctity of holy things. Guard 
 Thou the door of my lips and keep me from all
 
 38 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 irreverence of thought and word and deed. Enable 
 me to keep close to Christ that I may live in the 
 fellowship of His love, and quicken Thou me in 
 His ways, Lord, Thou Giver of Life. 
 
 C. 
 
 It was very characteristic of the delicate and 
 penetrating insight of Jesus that He had at once 
 sought out S. Peter, and had chosen a moment of 
 private intercourse in which to assure him of his 
 Master's trust and forgiveness. When the disciples 
 knew that Jesus had shewn Himself to S. Peter 
 alone, they recognised at once that he had been 
 restored and forgiven. They must have looked for 
 some sign that they might be able to trust him as 
 before. And now Jesus had given them a sign of 
 His approval, and S. Peter began to take his old 
 place among them again. But Jesus yet waited 
 for an occasion when He might publicly and openly, 
 in the presence of his fellow- Apostles, give S. Peter 
 an opportunity of witnessing to his loyalty and of 
 receiving from the hands of his Master a new 
 commission. His fall had been an act of open 
 disloyalty, his restoration should be equally open 
 and authoritative. After the first appearances of 
 the risen Christ at Jerusalem, the Apostles moved 
 to Galilee again under the leadership of S. Peter. 
 Still Jesus had made no public recognition of the
 
 S. PETER 39 
 
 individual work and mission of S. Peter. It was 
 as though Christ waited for him to regain his old 
 position of pre-eminence among his fellows in the 
 most natural way upon the lake, before He con- 
 firmed his spiritual leadership by a definite public 
 commission. S. Peter had gone back to the Sea of 
 Galilee and had resumed the familiar fishing with 
 his old partners upon the lake, awaiting the promised 
 call. It may be that those days were meant to be 
 days of trial, in which S. Peter was to prove whether 
 the fascination of the old habits of life upon the 
 lake was stronger than the call of new-found 
 loyalty. There was no hesitation in S. Peter's 
 choice. No sooner was the Master recognised upon 
 the shore than S. Peter threw himself into the 
 water to come to Jesus. In the presence of the 
 risen Lord, what place was there for fishing ? 
 His impulsive action was symbolic of his new 
 devotion. 
 
 And Jesus used that moment to ratify his call 
 and to restore him publicly in the presence of his 
 brethren to the work of the Apostolate. " Simon, 
 son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these ? 
 He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest 
 that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed my 
 lambs." The two great requisites in the life of one 
 who would work for Christ are love and humility. 
 Christ would give the Apostle an opportunity of 
 shewing that he had left behind his eager self-
 
 40 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 confidence and had outgrown his old habit of 
 extravagant promise. And at the same time by the 
 solemn emphasis of the word which He used for love, 
 Jesus pointed to the deep-seated character and 
 deliberate resolve of that devotion of the soul 
 which in the name of love God asks of men. Thus 
 straightly and simply challenged, S. Peter can no 
 longer protest that his love for Jesus is greater 
 than that of his brethren. Indeed, he will not dare 
 even to call it love in the sense in which Jesus 
 uses the term. He will not claim for himself that 
 deep love of deliberate and steadfast choice, that 
 whole-hearted devotion and adoring submission of 
 soul, of which the Master speaks. He can only throw 
 himself upon the infinite knowledge of Christ and 
 protest humbly that at least he loves Him truly 
 with all the sincerity of natural friendship and 
 affection. The repeated questions of Jesus cannot 
 move the Apostle from his lowlier claim. But that 
 is enough for Jesus to accept. He is satisfied 
 with the utter truthfulness and simplicity of that 
 affection. Here is a foundation rock, firm and true, 
 upon which He can build. Here is the heart of a 
 pastor. " Feed My sheep." 
 
 There is only one real and lasting basis for 
 ministerial work the love of Jesus. For all 
 fruitful service of God there must be the motive 
 and inspiration of love. At a great moment in 
 his life S. Peter had witnessed to the reality and
 
 S. PETER 41 
 
 power of his faith, and at his words Jesus had given 
 thanks to God for the glorious Vision of the Church, 
 which, founded upon this rock, was to triumph ever- 
 lastingly. But S. Peter could not sustain his faith 
 at that high level. It was a flash of inspired vision 
 which many a moment of faithless bewilderment 
 and shrinking anxiety seemed to belie. Indeed, 
 faith cannot be perfected without love. And it was 
 the true love which was wanting. S. Peter loved 
 activity, loved success and happiness, and was ready 
 to give himself without stint for the practical 
 attainment of his eager ideals. But the ideals were 
 his and not Christ's. His faith was faith in himself. 
 He had not yet the love which made him distrust 
 self and see all things with the eyes of the Beloved. 
 Unselfish, disinterested love had yet to be born in 
 him, before even faith could be brought to perfec- 
 tion. Faith is the condition of love, and itself comes 
 to fulfilment when it is crowned by love. It was 
 this love, completing faith and giving it stability 
 and permanence, which Jesus sought in His Apostle 
 as the pledge and guarantee of effective and abiding 
 service. 
 
 Love is indeed the secret of all faithful ministry. 
 True it is that in the service of the priesthood Christ 
 works without any uncertainty through the grace 
 of Orders and of Sacraments. The priest who is 
 validly ordained ministers valid sacraments of grace. 
 But alike for priest and for people, for the full proof
 
 42 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 of every ministry there must be the love of Jesus 
 as the spring of all endeavour and the end of all 
 ambition. The priest who by the official acts of 
 his sacred ministry is daily feeding souls with the 
 food of immortality may himself become a castaway, 
 if there is not in his heart a growing personal devo- 
 tion to our Blessed Lord. The soul that frequents 
 the sacraments is misusing opportunities, neglecting 
 to develop the gifts of grace and losing something 
 of the power of the sacraments, if there is not a 
 growing love of Jesus. For at the Altar it is not 
 holiness alone, not efficiency, not safety, but Jesus 
 Himself that we seek, that we may love Him more 
 and more as we live upon the sacraments of His 
 Love. It is upon this love that the life of the 
 Christian is built. 
 
 S. Peter will not claim to surpass the other 
 Apostles in love. He will not compare himself at 
 all with others. He throws himself on the certain 
 knowledge of the Master. " Thou knowest that I 
 love Thee." And Christ, Who reads the hearts of 
 men and knows us better than we know ourselves, 
 saw the love that was stirring in the heart of His 
 disciple and accepted it as the basis of His com- 
 mission, " Feed My sheep." It must be love of 
 Christ alone that enables us for ministry, for the 
 sheep that we feed are not ours, but His. " My 
 sheep." Those whom we serve we must love in 
 Christ, because they are His. We must try to see
 
 S. PETER 43 
 
 them as Christ sees them with His divine hopeful- 
 ness and unfailing faith. Always they are objects 
 of love. And wonderfully did S. Peter fulfil the 
 hopes of Jesus. It was love that gave him courage 
 for his first bold witness in Jerusalem, it was love 
 that clothed him with humility, it was love that 
 made him willingly accept suffering as part of the 
 imitation of Christ, it was love that led him forth 
 to the death of glorious martyrdom at Rome, 
 witnessing bravely for the Master in the very capital 
 of the world. 
 
 And the spirit of S. Peter is the spirit in which 
 we accept our work from God. Our belief is that 
 Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. 
 He reads the hidden longings, the secret aspirations 
 that stir beneath the hideous failures of our life. 
 He knows the repeated struggles, the brave en- 
 deavours that end so often only in defeat. Beneath 
 all that looks to human eyes so unloving, so un- 
 faithful, so disloyal and so mean, Christ sees the true 
 love that only seeks to grow in holiness and power. 
 " Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest 
 that I love Thee." That is the cry with which we 
 commit ourselves once more to the risen Lord for 
 ministry and service. And in trustful response 
 Jesus calls us to our work for Him, " Feed My 
 sheep," enabling us with power for His high 
 mission.
 
 44 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 Pray for faithful obedience to Christ's call. 
 
 O Almighty God, Who by Thy Son Jesus Christ 
 didst give to Thy Apostle Saint Feter many excellent 
 gifts and commandedst him earnestly to feed Thy 
 flock ; Make, we beseech Thee, all Bishops and 
 Pastors diligently to preach Thy holy Word, and 
 the people obediently to follow the same, that they 
 may receive the crown of everlasting glory, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
 IV 
 EMMAUS 
 
 S. LUKE xxiv. 13-35. S. MARK xvi. 12, 13 
 
 ALREADY the afternoon of the first Easter 
 Day had come and yet the Apostles had no 
 clear knowledge of the Resurrection. "Idle tales " 
 had reached them from the Holy Women. S. Peter 
 and S. John had even seen the empty tomb, " but 
 Him they saw not." Many followers of Christ had 
 gathered at Jerusalem for the Passover in expecta- 
 tion of the coming Kingdom, and had waited after 
 the Crucifixion until that " third day " of which 
 the Master had spoken in words of such mysterious 
 hope. No wonder that now they began to melt 
 away, leaving the Holy City in sad bewilderment. 
 They had been ready to venture all, and their hopes 
 had been so rudely frustrated. 
 
 A. 
 
 In some such mood of disappointment Cleopas 
 and his friend made their way out of Jerusalem, 
 hoping to reach the village of Emmaus by night- 
 45
 
 46 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 fall. And to them Jesus chose to reveal Himself 
 that Easter Day. These two disciples were not of 
 the chosen Twelve. They represented that outer 
 band of followers whose hearts had been stirred 
 by the gracious words and mighty deeds of the 
 Prophet of Nazareth and who were ready at the 
 first clear call to follow Christ. The Gospels tell 
 us very little of this band of expectant disciples 
 whom Jesus had gradually gathered round Him 
 in the course of His ministry. It is from these that 
 the hundred and twenty " names " were recruited, 
 who after the Ascension formed the nucleus of the 
 infant Church. It was the presence of so many 
 whose hearts were already touched by the appeal of 
 Christ, that made it possible for S. Peter's first 
 words on the day of Pentecost to come home 
 effectually to three thousand souls. 
 
 This manifestation of Jesus to these two disciples 
 lifts the veil of His individual care for the most 
 lowly of His followers. It is not only to the Twelve 
 that He makes His self-disclosure. Wherever there 
 are faithful, eager hearts, wherever there are earnest 
 souls in distress of faith, there is the loving care of 
 Jesus. The marvellous growth of the Church in 
 its first days was surely due to the convinced 
 response of ardent faith and glowing love, which the 
 hearts of so many unknown and lowly disciples 
 made to the realised love of the Saviour. Pride of 
 place and dignity of office bring no special privilege
 
 EMMAUS 47 
 
 of divine revelation in the Church of God. Christ 
 loves each soul with a love that is infinite and 
 bestows upon each the same tender care. And 
 upon the steadfast witness of the humblest of His 
 disciples Jesus relies for the spread of His gospel. 
 He spares no pains upon the training of each 
 separate soul. No revelation of which we are 
 capable is ever denied to the very least of us all. As 
 we go on our way in sadness and perplexity, be- 
 wildered with the seeming reversal of all our hopes 
 and the apparent failure of so many promises of 
 divine achievement, Jesus meets us, and taking us 
 just as we are in our simple ignorance and blindness 
 of vision, leads us step by step to a new experience 
 of faith and lively hope, until with our own eyes 
 we see the risen Lord in our midst and take joy in 
 the certainty of His abiding Presence. Only we 
 must be true to all we have already learned and 
 cling to the glory of discipleship. In an age above 
 all, when few men stand out as pre-eminently great 
 among their fellows and the genius of leadership 
 seems wanting, we must believe that God sets a 
 special store upon the faithfulness of the many, 
 and looks even to ourselves for special witness and 
 example. 
 
 Meditate upon the consecration of your own service at the 
 call of the Lord. 
 
 Think of what you have yet to learn of self- 
 dedication in the service of God. Recall the gifts
 
 48 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 which God has given you health, activity, enthu- 
 siasm, the love of goodness, ideals of what is noble 
 and beautiful, sympathy, endurance gifts of 
 leadership and influence, of charm and attractive- 
 ness. How far have they been used definitely in 
 the service of Christ and of His Church ? Think 
 of the friends who lean upon you for affection and 
 guidance. Have you helped them to love Jesus, 
 have you guided them towards God, have you led 
 them to find happiness in the worship of the Church, 
 have you taught them to seek strength in the 
 sacraments ? Think of your powers of life, growing 
 newly with each day's experience. Is each new 
 gift of knowledge and of strength used to enrich 
 your life of prayer ? Is it recognised as God's 
 gift to you, preparing you for higher service ? 
 Will you let your daily life bear witness to what 
 you are at your best ? Will you meet difficulties 
 in the spirit of faith, saying, " I can do all things 
 through Christ which strengtheneth me " ? 
 
 B. 
 
 " We trusted that it had been He which should 
 have redeemed Israel." There are few of us who 
 have not at some time trodden the very way of 
 disappointment along which these two disciples 
 passed. We have started work for God with such 
 high hopes. In very definite ways we have been 
 led to expect the intervention of God. We have 
 looked for evident success. The redemption of 
 Israel seemed so sure, so near. Then failure has
 
 EMMAUS 49 
 
 dashed all our hopes. In the Church which we 
 trusted to be the home of unity and truth and 
 peace, discord and controversy have revealed sad 
 dissensions, and the voice of authority which we 
 thought so clear has been difficult to discern. In the 
 State which we hoped was Christian there has been 
 no attempt to live up to the ideals of Christ or 
 to legislate on the basis of obedience to His declared 
 Will. In the experience of our own life there has 
 been so little attainment of all the happiness and 
 victory and peace which were promised us in Christ 
 Jesus. Again and again we are thrust rudely back 
 upon ourselves, dazed at the powerlessness of God 
 in human life, ready to question the reality of all 
 our happiest experience. 
 
 Jesus Himself suggests the true remedy for such 
 moments of perplexity. We must tell Him. We 
 must pray. That is the secret. Our prayer has 
 failed. We have not told Jesus. For to tell Jesus 
 is the way to revelation. Prayer means not only a 
 God Who listens, but a God Who reveals. Prayer 
 is vision. In prayer all the interests and experi- 
 ences of life are lifted up into the light of God. We 
 see them as they are in the sight of God, with the 
 light of eternity streaming upon them. Prayer is 
 Jesus teaching, as well as Jesus hearing. For in 
 prayer we have the guidance of the Spirit of God, 
 Who, as we tell out our story to Jesus, recalls to 
 our minds the very words of Jesus Himself, enabling
 
 50 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 us to see the meaning which hitherto has escaped 
 us, to recall the truth which we have neglected, to 
 correct the impression which /4ias deceived us. 
 Prayer opens to us afresh the revelation of God 
 and attunes our ears anew to the voice of Christ. 
 Our hearts burn and glow with the fire of conviction. 
 For as in " the heavenly places " of prayer we bring 
 ourselves once more into touch with the deepest 
 experiences of our soul in its closest relationship 
 to God, there is stirred within us a new apprehension 
 of all that God has already revealed to us and a 
 sense of communion with God, which revivifies 
 faith and restores to us confidence in the truth of 
 His promises. Thus prayer anticipates and super- 
 sedes the slower processes of logic and of reasoned 
 thought. Contact with God immediately gives us 
 a certainty and peace which can afterwards be 
 justified by calm reflection and dleb erate thought, 
 but which can never first be gained by unaided 
 reason. What God requires is truthfulness and 
 reality in our attitude of prayer. We must tell Him 
 just what we are. W T e may not indeed realise all 
 that He is. Our eyes may be holden. But our very 
 earnestness will be the guarantee of our truth. We 
 speak of that which is the one interest of our life. 
 We have no other hope. We have ventured all here. 
 Prayer is not day-dreaming, nor castle-building, 
 but truth-telling. And upon truth God can build 
 securely. Yet how often in our prayers we are
 
 EMMAUS 51 
 
 living in a world of unrealities. High sentiment 
 and emotional ecstasy, poetic imaginings and 
 pretty symbolism do not these sometimes take 
 the place of that stern reality and hard fact which 
 are the real issues with which God can deal ? Not 
 that prayer is not poetry. Prayer is indeed the 
 flower of spiritual poetry, breathing the fragrance 
 of all that is most beautiful in the life of the soul. 
 Prayer is the romance of the soul, but it is the 
 romance which God weaves out of reality, the 
 poetry which God beats out of life. There is one 
 way out of all despair, one balm for all agony of 
 soul to tell Jesus. 
 
 Pray for the spirit of prayer. 
 
 O Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Eternal Son of 
 God Most High, Whom truly to know is everlasting 
 life, grant us so perfectly to know and to trust Thee, 
 that we may give ourselves to Thee in unceasing 
 prayer. May the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts 
 that we may unburden our souls to Thee in peni- 
 tence and faith, may praise Thee for Thy mercies, 
 may adore Thee in Thy Majesty, and lifting up 
 holy hands may call upon Thee in all dangers and 
 necessities, Who art with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, one God world without end. 
 
 C. 
 
 " And their eyes were opened and they knew Him 
 and He vanished out of their sight." In love they 
 had constrained Jesus to abide. As the darkness
 
 52 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 fell without, the Light of the World crossed the 
 threshold of that simple home, and in the familiar 
 breaking of the bread the heavenly Guest was 
 made known to the faithful hearts of His disciples. 
 Faith had been kindled out of the very embers of 
 despair. The eyes of the soul were opened now, 
 and Cleopas gazed with joyful reverence at the 
 Master Whom he had so lately mourned. Wonder- 
 ful beyond all expectation was the manner of His 
 appearing. Never in all their hopes had the two 
 friends dreamed of such a possibility as this. That 
 He would redeem Israel by might of sword and 
 holiness of deed, that He would reign victoriously 
 as King and sway the world in righteousness and 
 peace this had been their splendid hope. But 
 that He Who had died the death of shame upon 
 the Cross should rise triumphant from the grave, 
 and in the spiritual glory of the Body of the Resur- 
 rection should manifest Himself once more to His 
 disciples in the intimacies of daily life this was 
 an experience beyond all imagining. Yet there 
 was no shadow of doubt. Their eyes were no longer 
 holden. He Who held the key to those wonderful 
 prophecies of old, Who had cast the light of revela- 
 tion so clearly upon dark symbol and forgotten 
 type in the Scriptures, was the very One Who had 
 spoken with authority and not as the scribes, Whose 
 Voice had stilled the waves and healed the sick and 
 called Lazarus from the tomb, Who had said that
 
 EMMAUS 53 
 
 He Himself would rise the third day from the 
 dead. The conviction was unassailable. He stood 
 before them in the full reality of His risen Manhood. 
 The Christ Who had suffered had entered into His 
 glory. It was the new birth of Faith. Jesus was 
 alive. In Him life took on a new value. The world 
 was changed because of Him. The vision of Jesus 
 was the opening to their eyes of a whole world of 
 new spiritual realities. No longer did they need 
 the outward assurance of His visible companion- 
 ship. It was enough that they knew that He lived 
 and was the Master of the souls of men. The 
 need of faith did not end with the revelation of His 
 Presence. Rather was the revelation a call to new 
 and fuller faith. He would not satisfy their love 
 with any abiding vision, but vanishing out of their 
 sight at the very moment of recognition He 
 challenged them to a more profound exercise of 
 faith. And that is ever the way of divine revelation. 
 No manifestation of God can ever take away the 
 need of faith. Each fresh disclosure of God deepens 
 human faith and makes new demands upon our 
 trust in Him. Faith can never really be lost in 
 sight, either in this world or the next. The revelation 
 of the Infinite to the finite must always necessitate 
 faith on man's part in his intercourse with God. 
 Faith is the glory of the creature in his attitude 
 towards the Creator. Love does not annul faith, 
 but rather completes and stablishes it.
 
 54 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 So is it always with God's varied revelations of 
 Himself to us in this life. Each revelation is a call 
 
 ^ 
 
 to deeper faith. Faith rises with each new vision 
 to greater heights and finds more spacious regions 
 for its exercise. Here is the trial of faith. We are 
 prone to expect that when God gives us each new 
 disclosure of Himself, faith will be satisfied, and 
 the moment of sight at last has come, and we may 
 rest in open vision. But the experience of the 
 greatest saints teaches us otherwise. The result 
 of revelation is more food for faith. Faith, enriched 
 and assured by each fresh experience of God, is to 
 be lifted up to new endeavours, to be carried up to 
 higher ranges of flight, to make more daring 
 ventures, to apprehend realities yet more spiritual 
 and divine. Jesus makes Himself known. There 
 is the gladness of vision which rewards our longing 
 eyes. But then, because now we know Him and 
 recognition is complete, He vanishes from our 
 sight, calling us to follow Him with the untiring 
 energies of quickened faith into new spheres of 
 fuller fellowship and spiritual glory. Faith is 
 realised not merely in the hidden activities of the 
 soul, but in the outward relations of our life. It 
 was the pulsing certainty of faith that urged the two 
 disciples back upon the way to Jerusalem that they 
 might share their joy with their brethren. With us, 
 too, faith leads to action and impels us to immediate 
 witness. And there are few more effective ways of
 
 EMMAUS 55 
 
 deepening and stablishing faith than by bringing 
 to other souls the joy that God has brought to us. 
 When Christ makes Himself known to us in the 
 great Breaking of the Bread, we shall realise that it 
 is not only the Call of the Lord to deeper personal 
 apprehension of His hidden and invisible glory in 
 the power of a faith which He has enriched by His 
 sacramental Presence, but also the call of the 
 Saviour to a new missionary activity of service 
 which shall lead others to the vision of His Love. 
 
 Pray for Faith that grows with each fresh revelation of God. 
 
 Almighty God, glorious in wisdom and power, 
 Who hast revealed to us Thy Love through the 
 Incarnation of Thy Son Jesus Christ, grant that 
 day by day our eyes may see the King in His 
 beauty, and that looking unto Jesus and beholding 
 in Him the brightness of Thy glory, we may go 
 from faith to faith, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before may press on toward the 
 mark for the prize of Thy high calling in Christ 
 Jesus, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the 
 Holy Ghost, one God for ever and ever.
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 
 S. LUKE xxiv. 36-48. S. JOHN xx. 19-23 
 
 THE two disciples hurrying back from Emmaus 
 to Jerusalem came at length in the dark of 
 the evening to the house in which the Apostles were 
 gathered. The doors were shut and barred as they 
 had left them earlier in the day, for there was still 
 reason to fear the hostility of the Jewish leaders. 
 Arrests might yet be attempted. The followers of 
 the Crucified were still watched. At any moment 
 the fury of the priests or the people might break in 
 upon their peace. The two disciples had left the 
 little company in gloom and bewilderment. They 
 found them radiant with glad excitement, raised to 
 new hopes by -the undoubted appearance of Jesus 
 to S. Peter. And these hopes were quickened by 
 the story which they also had to tell of the manifesta- 
 tion of the risen Lord to them at Emmaus. Hardly 
 had they finished the graphic story of their experi- 
 ence when the very Presence of Which they had 
 been speaking was revealed before their eyes. " As 
 56
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 57 
 
 they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst 
 of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." 
 Terror fell upon them as they beheld that familiar 
 Figure in their very midst. The doors were still 
 shut. But Jesus stood there before them in all the 
 vigour of life, inviting them to assure themselves 
 that it was He. " Behold My Hands and My Feet, 
 that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see ; for a spirit 
 hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." And 
 they looked with awe upon the print of the nails in 
 His sacred Hands and Feet. And as they gazed, 
 awe gave way to overpowering joy. " Then were 
 the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." 
 
 A. 
 
 Who can picture the wonder of that scene ? 
 Jesus, the forsaken Master, the crucified Leader, 
 the beloved Friend restored to those who had 
 mourned Him as dead, who had lost hope in His 
 sovereignty and doubted His promises. He came, 
 the Messenger of Peace, to hearts that had been 
 troubled with most exquisite fears. He came to call 
 them once more to Himself, to repeat in tones of 
 new authority, in terms of new power, the call to 
 personal service and obedience to the Will of the 
 Father. 
 
 So it is that Jesus comes to us with the message 
 of Peace and the mission of service. No doors can
 
 58 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 shut Him out. No barriers are too strong for Him 
 to break. Fear may paralyse the soul, difficulties 
 may oppress, doubts may tenrfy and foes may 
 threaten. But Jesus comes. And with His coming 
 peace falls upon the life, the peace that passes 
 understanding, the peace to men of goodwill that 
 is the very promise of the Incarnation. For He 
 comes as the risen Lord of power, the Victor over 
 death and over sin. And the peace of a great sur- 
 render comes to us as we commit our weak and 
 wayward wills to the strong keeping of His trium- 
 phant Love. As then He opened their understanding, 
 that they might understand the Scriptures, so He 
 pours into our souls the peace of illumination, 
 kindling the light of new revelation, making clear 
 God's eternal purpose for us, throwing the light of 
 His victory upon the dark pathway of our lives. 
 In Him, the risen Conqueror, we see One Who is 
 stronger than the strong man, Who assures to us 
 the peace of divine protection. " The God of peace 
 shall bruise Satan." We shall not be free from 
 conflict, but we can fight in the spirit of assured 
 victory. The foe may not yet be beaten, but he has 
 lost his sway over our imagination, he no longer 
 fascinates our will. We rest in the power of the risen 
 Lord, Who manifests Himself afresh to us and assures 
 us that Satan is a beaten, discredited foe, and that 
 the peace of divine forgiveness waits to bless the soul 
 that forsakes sin in the power of the Resurrection,
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 59 
 
 and stays itself upon its God. Refreshed indeed 
 in the multitude of peace is the soul that is thus 
 assured of fellowship with God through the risen 
 and victorious Humanity of Jesus Christ. It is 
 this gift of Peace with which God starts us upon 
 our work for Him. Enabled by His grace, we have 
 the peace, not of idleness and inactive repose, but 
 of effective energy, of harmonious and untiring 
 activity, of sufficiency for all our tasks. It is the 
 very Peace of God Himself Who works ever in the 
 tranquil bliss of a patient and perpetual calm. 
 May this very God of peace sanctify us wholly as 
 we give ourselves without fear to the Call of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Pray for the gift of Peace. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, the peace of Thy one, only, 
 holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Grant that all 
 peoples may be refreshed in the multitude of peace. 
 Grant to us the peace that is from heaven, and the 
 peace of this life also bestow upon us graciously, 
 that all our ways may be ordered in safety. To 
 every soul that is oppressed give mercy, give rest, 
 give help, give peace. O God of peace, sanctify 
 us wholly and grant us Thy peace all the days of our 
 life, for His sake Who is the Prince of Peace, our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 B. 
 
 " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
 you." This is the Mission for which the divine Peace
 
 60 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 prepared the hearts of the Apostles. The work of 
 Jesus is not completed. His Mission is not yet 
 exhausted. In words which never failed in certainty 
 and clearness, Jesus had declared the work of His 
 Life to be the fulfilling of the Mission which His 
 Father had given Him. " He that sent Me is true, 
 and I speak to the world those things which I have 
 heard of Him. He that sent Me is with Me. The 
 Father hath not left Me alone, for I do always those 
 things that please Him. I came down from heaven 
 not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that 
 sent Me." That mission is to seek and to save the 
 world that is lost. Death has not annulled that 
 mission. The Resurrection in itself has not fulfilled 
 it. The eager love that drew the Saviour to the 
 Cross still urged Him on to the fulfilment of His 
 redemptive work. A new stage in the development 
 of that work began with the Resurrection. The 
 Sacred Humanity of Jesus, which God had chosen 
 as the divine instrument of man's redemption, 
 having passed through all the experiences of life, 
 sinless and perfect, and having triumphed over 
 death, must now pass on to the fuller glories of the 
 Ascension, in the power of which the limitations of 
 the life of this visible world shall be transcended, 
 and a new condition of spiritual glory shall be at- 
 tained which will make it the ever-communicable 
 source of eternal life. The stage of His own per- 
 sonal visible ministry on earth is finished. But in
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 61 
 
 the powers of His consummated Manhood He will 
 yet act toward the world through the agency of His 
 Church. His Apostles shall be lifted up to share hi 
 the very Mission which the Father gave Him to 
 accomplish. They shall represent Him to the world 
 as He had represented the Father. As the Father 
 had sent Him, so would He send the Apostles. They 
 were to be actually identified with Him hi the 
 reality and power of His ministry. No words could 
 emphasise more clearly the solemn character of 
 that divine mission. They were called to share in 
 the very commission of Christ Himself. The secret 
 of those years of jealous training and loving friend- 
 ship was revealed. It was the preparation of the 
 disciples to share in His divine mission. When the 
 visible Presence of Jesus should be withdrawn, He 
 would yet live on in the Society which thus He 
 founded. The very work which He had begun 
 should now be carried to perfection by the ministry 
 of the Church. The Church was commissioned with 
 the plenitude of His divine power. The power 
 which the Church wielded would be the power of 
 God Himself. We may wonder at the human frailty 
 and weakness of the instruments which Christ chose 
 to carry on His work. Their lowliness and imper- 
 fection may hide from us the divine authority with 
 which they were clothed. But it is no new wonder. 
 It is just the wonder of the Incarnation itself. God 
 chooses the weak and the lowly hi this world to
 
 62 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 confound the wise and the great. We have the 
 divine treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency 
 of power may be of God and not,pf us. And history 
 shews that we can set no limits to the glorifying 
 and enabling power of God in human life. Christ 
 would not send His Apostles to their work till they 
 were endued with power from on high. So on that 
 first Easter night Jesus declared to His disciples 
 the glory for which they had been prepared. They 
 were to become participators with Him in His 
 Mission. What that should mean, there would be 
 the instruction and the experience of the great 
 Forty Days to reveal. 
 
 The Mission of the Church is the Mission of Christ. 
 And the life of the Church reproduces all the char- 
 acteristics of the Incarnate Life of Christ. We can 
 understand the persecution, the failures, the weak- 
 nesses, the hindrances, the suffering of the Church 
 when we recall the experiences of the Incarnate 
 Himself. Just as the Magi with eyes of faith could 
 see beneath the lowly form of the little Infant in 
 the poverty of Bethlehem the very King Whom they 
 were come to worship, so we cannot fail beneath 
 all the limitations and infirmities of Church life to 
 see the hidden glory of the Incarnate Christ. The 
 power of the Church is the power of Christ. The 
 suffering of the Church is the suffering of Christ, 
 and the victory of Christ is the victory of His 
 Church. Upon the fulness of that victory we are
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 63 
 
 not yet entered, but the power of the Resurrection 
 is the energy of daily renewal by which the Church 
 repeats in its earthly warfare the triumph of the risen 
 Christ. If the Church shares in the loneliness of the 
 Incarnate, it is also instinct with His sovereign 
 power and assured of divine victory. The condi- 
 tions of the Church's warfare change from age to 
 age. But for the needs of each crisis the power of 
 Christ manifested in His Church will ever be ade- 
 quate. There is no faithlessness so paralysing to 
 the energy of Christian life and hope as the 
 forgetfulness of the divine mission and divine 
 authority of the Church. " God is in the midst of 
 her, therefore shall she not be removed. God shall 
 help her and that right early." That is the confi- 
 dence which inspires us to fruitful activity and to 
 patient, hopeful and glad service. It is no blind 
 confidence, for the history of the Church throughout 
 the ages has shewn us that, however great the peril 
 and however tyrannous the powers of evil, the 
 victory has ever been with that Church of Christ 
 against which neither hell nor death can prevail. 
 
 Pray for the Church that its witness may be faithful in 
 times of adversity. 
 
 O God, Who hast promised that Thou wilt never 
 be absent from Thy Church unto the end of the 
 world, and that the gates of hell and of death shall 
 not prevail against it, graciously make Thy 
 strength perfect in our weakness and shew the
 
 64 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 might of Thy divine promise, that we, jealously 
 guarding the faith and steadfastly living in holiness, 
 may cleave to Thee in the ways of grace and may 
 be safe under the protection ot^Thy Presence, now 
 and ever. 
 
 C. 
 
 " He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re- 
 ceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, 
 they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins 
 ye retain, they are retained." The Church of Christ 
 was to be instinct with the life of God. Even as at 
 the first creation of man it was the Breath of God 
 that made him a living soul, so now into this body 
 of re-created Manhood must be breathed the very 
 Breath of undying and eternal life from the Lips 
 of the risen Lord. To Him in the truth of His perfect 
 Humanity belonged the fulness of the Spirit. To 
 Him was given the Spirit without measure. " As 
 the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." 
 The Mission of the Father can only be fulfilled in 
 the power of the Spirit. The Human Nature which 
 Jesus took as the instrument of man's redemption 
 was conceived by the Holy Ghost. At His Baptism 
 He received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, not 
 merely for Himself, as His public designation to the 
 supreme work of Prophet, Priest and King, but for 
 our sakes also, that from the Spirit-filled treasury 
 of His sacred Humanity He might pour out the
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 65 
 
 Spirit upon us who are called into fellowship with 
 Him. And in the power of the Spirit all the acts of 
 His Ministry were fulfilled. What He had begun 
 in the Spirit must be carried on in the Spirit also. 
 The Spirit of God, mediated by the Incarnate in 
 Whom He dwells in the plenitude of divine power, 
 must be the inspiration of the Body through which 
 Christ was to continue His redemptive work. The 
 fulness of that Gift could not yet be given, "because 
 Jesus was not yet glorified." The Humanity of 
 Jesus had not yet attained that fulness of spiritual 
 glory which the Spirit had still to communicate to 
 it at the Ascension. Only then from the fully 
 glorified and ascended Humanity of Christ could 
 the destined outpouring of the Spirit be effectually 
 bestowed. But already at His first meeting with 
 His Apostles, Jesus would prepare them for the 
 fulness of that gift. " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." 
 As He breathed upon them, He not only designated 
 them formally as those who should carry on the 
 work of the Spirit which He had begun, but He 
 imparted to them a first gift of the Spirit, conveying 
 to them a personal consecration, a quickening of 
 vision, an illumination of will, a spiritual energy, 
 which should enable them to use aright the great 
 days of preparation, beyond which there waited 
 the plenitude of the Holy Spirit's power for the 
 life-giving ministries to which they were called. 
 And with the first gift of the Spirit, Christ de- 
 F
 
 66 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 clared the authority with which the Church should 
 be endowed. As the work of the Church was to 
 extirpate sin and to win the world to holiness in the 
 power of the risen Lord and of His Holy Spirit, 
 Christ entrusted it with that authority over sin 
 which He Himself had exercised upon earth. " The 
 Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 
 If the Church could not have authority to deal 
 effectually with sin, to bind and to loose, to retain 
 and to remit, there would be no continuation of the 
 work of Christ, Who came to beat down Satan under 
 our feet. But the mission of the Church is the very 
 mission of Christ. The Church with its sacraments 
 and ministry is not something apart from Christ 
 which comes between the soul and its Saviour, but 
 it is the very Body of Christ Himself Who touches 
 us with His own Hand and blesses us with His own 
 Lips, and takes us up into His own life in the sacra- 
 mental ministries of His Church. 
 
 The thought of Christ and His activities toward 
 mankind is incomplete without the thought of His 
 Church. In all the sacraments of the Church, the 
 ministration of which has been so jealously guarded 
 by the Apostles and their divinely commissioned 
 successors, Christ Himself comes to each individual 
 soul, and deals with us, not as lonely isolated indi- 
 viduals, but as those who, being united to Him, are 
 thereby lifted out of ourselves into fellowship with 
 others. The very mediation of our fellows which,
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 67 
 
 according to the principle of the Incarnation, God 
 uses for our redemption, is meant to help us to 
 realise the fellowship of the Church in Christ. With 
 God all things are possible. And it would be possible 
 for God to grant the spiritual grace of union with 
 Himself without the intervention of any human 
 agency. It is possible. But it is not God's revealed 
 way. God's normal way of giving grace is through 
 the mediation of our fellows. The mediation does 
 not obscure nor impair the immediacy of God's 
 personal dealing with the soul, but it does empha- 
 sise our fellowship one with another in Christ. God 
 does not mean to save us and keep us as elect souls, 
 single and separate, but He saves us as members of 
 one great fellowship, and it is into a corporate life 
 that we are freshly drawn with every gift of sacra- 
 mental grace. " For their sakes I sanctify myself." 
 Sanctity is the death of all selfishness. Salvation is 
 the life of fellowship. 
 
 When the child is taken into the arms of the 
 priest and baptised with water and the Holy Ghost, 
 it is indeed the Church which is exercising the 
 authority given to it by Christ of opening for the 
 souls of men the doors of the kingdom of heaven. 
 And Christ, according to His promise, ratifies its 
 act with the seal of divine fulfilment. For to the 
 eyes of faith it is Christ Himself Who through the 
 external agency of His priest takes the Child up 
 into His own Arms and receives him into the King-
 
 68 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 dom of Heaven. It is Christ Who receives him, 
 releases him of his sins, sanctifies him with the Holy 
 Ghost and gives him the kingdom of heaven and 
 everlasting life. Christ alone can deal with the issues 
 of sin, but He deals with them from the very begin- 
 ning of our human life through the regular agency 
 of His Church. So when later the deepening sense 
 of sin leads us to seek the certainty of divine for- 
 giveness, we shall find it once more in the ministra- 
 tions of Christ's Church. The treasury of grace 
 which the Church ministers is His, the authority 
 with which the Church speaks is His. Nothing is 
 abated of power or of certainty, although it comes 
 through human channels. It is the very agency of 
 His own creating, and He Himself is acting through 
 it. Thus when we tell out our sins before the priest, 
 who is there not in any individual and personal 
 capacity, but as representative of the Church, we 
 know that we are speaking into the ears of Christ. 
 And the sentence which he gives is the sentence of 
 Christ, whether to remit or to retain. It is Christ 
 Himself Who has dealt with my soul, using the 
 means of certitude which He ordained when He 
 gave His first commission to the Apostles. And 
 again, when we approach the Altar, it is Christ Who 
 is the true Consecrator at every Eucharist. The 
 human priest indeed speaks the words and performs 
 the outward acts which bring Heaven to earth, but 
 what is done on earth is ratified according to His
 
 THE CALL OF THE CHURCH 69 
 
 promise by God in Heaven, and Jesus is with us, 
 drawn to us in the most immediate personal union 
 through the very agency of the sacramental means 
 which He ordained. 
 
 Thus it is ever the part of faith to accept the 
 ministries of God's Church in simple obedience 
 and thankfulness, and to see in them the highest 
 fulfilment of the Saviour's promise of abiding 
 Presence with those whom He has come to seek and 
 to save. " Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
 the end of the world." 
 
 Pray for those who minister the sacraments of the Church 
 of Christ. 
 
 O Everlasting God, Who art ever adored by the 
 Holy Angels, yet dost choose men to be the stewards 
 of Thy mysteries, bless, we beseech Thee, those 
 whom Thou hast called to the sacred work of holy 
 Ministry in Thy Church, that they who cannot do 
 any good without Thee may by Thee be won to 
 purity and love, and illuminated with a true 
 knowledge of Thy Word and Sacraments, and so 
 being made able ministers of the New Testament, 
 may advance Thy glory and the salvation of Thine 
 elect servants, through Jesus Christ our Saviour 
 and Redeemer.
 
 VI 
 
 S. THOMAS 
 S. JOHN xx. 24-29 
 
 S THOMAS was not with the others when Jesus 
 came to the Upper Room on the day of the 
 Resurrection. The news which greeted him on his 
 return was too wonderful for him to believe. It 
 passed his understanding. He felt that he must see 
 the risen Lord himself and touch Him, even as the 
 others had done, before he could believe. And Jesus, 
 Who ever stoops in love to the weakness and infirmity 
 of those who truly seek Him, came once more to the 
 Upper Room eight days after, when S. Thomas was 
 now with them, and offered to the eager disciple 
 the very opportunity which he sought. " Reach 
 hither thy finger, and behold My Hands; and reach 
 hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side : and be 
 not faithless, but believing." And S. Thomas, yield- 
 ing himself to the Call of the Lord, " answered and 
 said unto Him, My Lord and my God." Such was 
 the first adoring confession of His Deity which 
 greeted the risen Lord. 
 
 70
 
 S. THOMAS 71 
 
 A. 
 
 Few indeed are the lines in which the character of 
 S. Thomas is sketched in the Gospels, yet it is 
 impossible to mistake the frank manliness and 
 candour which he displays. In many ways he 
 typifies the average hard-headed, matter-of-fact 
 fisherman of Galilee. It must have been with a very 
 definite expectation of success that he had attached 
 himself to the new religious movement which 
 centred round the Prophet of Nazareth. He had 
 clear ideals. He had high hopes. His was a nature 
 earnestly religious and intense, which had not found 
 satisfaction in the pharisaic formalism or rabbinic 
 teaching of his day. With the ardour of loyal 
 devotion, with impulsive sympathy, and yet in 
 no spirit of blind enthusiasm, he had joined the 
 venture of his comrades and accepted the call of 
 Christ. He had not been one of the earliest disciples. 
 Doubtless he had watched the first experiences of 
 his friends and with the penetration of true insight 
 had quickly realised the unique Personality of the 
 Master, so that at the call of Jesus S. Thomas rose 
 from his work and without misgiving took his place 
 in the inner circle of Christ's followers. And in 
 those first days of the Galilean Ministry all his 
 hopes seemed bounding to a quick fulfilment. Here 
 was all that he expected activity, enthusiasm,
 
 72 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 exciting and crowded days, popular response and 
 every sign of that material success for which his 
 patriotic heart was longing. The withdrawal of 
 Christ from the offered kingship must have been a 
 great disappointment, but, however difficult to 
 understand, S. Thomas felt with S. Peter that Jesus 
 alone had the words of eternal life. The crisis only 
 threw him back upon a closer study of Christ's 
 words and a more determined and deliberate 
 observation of His Person. And with deeper study 
 devotion quickened. S. Thomas was as enthusiastic 
 as S. Peter in readiness to sacrifice himself for the 
 Master's cause. When it was evident that the 
 authorities at Jerusalem were plotting to take Jesus, 
 and that no word of remonstrance, no counsel of 
 caution or delay, could keep Him from going up to 
 Bethany and Jerusalem, it was S. Thomas who 
 urged the brethren to go with Him, even though it 
 were to certain death. " Let us also go, that we may 
 die with Him." Where he understood he followed 
 readily. But there were moments when the words 
 of Christ outran his comprehension. Probably of all 
 the disciples there was hardly any one, not even 
 Judas, who was more honestly bewildered than S. 
 Thomas at the scene in the Upper Room at the last 
 Passover. He had expected the pronouncement of 
 a plan of campaign, the happy inauguration of the 
 promised kingdom. Christ was in the midst of His 
 disciples. The moment was propitious for the final
 
 S. THOMAS 73 
 
 revelation. In the very heart of the Holy City 
 Christ should be enthroned in His kingdom. But 
 at that very moment Jesus spoke of going away. 
 "I go to prepare a place for you. And whither I 
 go ye know, and the way ye know." It was a 
 bewildering situation. S. Thomas at once grappled 
 with the problem and said frankly, " Lord, we 
 know not whither Thou goest; and how can we 
 know the way ? " The reply of Jesus threw the 
 Apostle back upon the deep mystery of Christ's 
 Personality, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the 
 Life." And before he had time to accommodate 
 his thoughts to the more spiritual meaning which so 
 evidently dominated the Master's words at this 
 crisis, the shadow of Death had fallen across the 
 path of the Apostles, and S. Thomas with the rest, 
 lost in bewilderment and surprise, had forsaken 
 Him and fled. Truthfulness up to the limit of 
 understanding, dogged obedience and surrender 
 to known truth, religious earnestness, spiritual 
 insight, enthusiastic loyalty these were the great 
 characteristics of S. Thomas. The Cross arrested 
 the development of his thought. It seemed as 
 though he were already on the road to vision, when 
 he was confounded by the death of the Master. 
 The Resurrection found him still groping his way 
 up towards the truth. The great hope which was 
 beginning to dawn upon his heart that Jesus was 
 God was too splendid and glorious to believe without
 
 74 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 sure confirmation. If Jesus had really risen from 
 the tomb, bearing that very Body once so surely dead 
 upon the Cross, now glorious with the energies of a 
 higher life, then there could be no doubt that He was 
 God. It was for such proof that S. Thomas waited 
 with an eager and loyal heart. 
 
 It may be often with ourselves too that the ways of 
 God outstrip our comprehension. We have ideals 
 which have slowly to be corrected by the experience 
 of our lives. Our hearts must be open to the divine 
 instruction. We must be ready to learn the ways of 
 God from the events of our own life. Supreme 
 loyalty to His revealed Will, as we are allowed to 
 know it, will make us worthy of His fuller revelation. 
 If we reverence the Truth, and give up all to follow 
 the Truth as it becomes known to us, God will not 
 fail to stoop to our lowly needs and grant to us 
 such proof as shall satisfy all our doubts and lead 
 us to the risen Saviour with the adoring cry of the 
 Apostle, " My Lord and my God." 
 
 Pray for faith. 
 
 Almighty and overliving God, Who for the more 
 confirmation of the Faith didst suffer Thy holy 
 Apostle S. Thomas to be doubtful in Thy Son's 
 resurrection, grant us so perfectly and without 
 all doubt to believe in Thy Son Jesus Christ, that 
 our faith in Thy sight may never be reproved. 
 
 Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, 
 to Whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost be all 
 honour and glory, now and for evermore.
 
 S. THOMAS 75 
 
 B. 
 
 When Jesus came on the first Easter night to shew 
 Himself to all the disciples in the Upper Room, 
 S. Thomas had been absent. It may be that in the 
 eagerness of his hope he had turned his steps towards 
 some investigation of his own, and in the absence of 
 fuller knowledge was following up some clue that he 
 had obtained in his search for news of Jesus. The 
 varying reports of the first appearance of the risen 
 Lord may well have suggested to him some fresh 
 line of enquiry, which took him away at an unusual 
 hour from the assembly of the Brethren. He had 
 returned to find the Apostles overjoyed with the 
 surprising visit of the Lord. It was more than 
 S. Thomas could have hoped. It was too good to 
 believe. No, he could not himself believe it, unless 
 his own eyes and hands could give him actual proof. 
 And so the days passed by, the disciples abating 
 none of their certainty and gladness, S. Thomas 
 withholding his personal assent until he had found 
 the certainty of visible testimony, which could 
 not be gainsaid. He did not separate himself at all 
 from the others. Their certainty remained his 
 hope. If only it- could be verified and proved true ! 
 Then after eight days Jesus came again within the 
 shut doors of the Upper Room, displaying the 
 wonder of His divine knowledge by supplying the
 
 76 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 very witness which S. Thomas in His absence had 
 demanded. " Reach hither thy finger, and behold 
 My Hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust 
 it into My side." That Body, risen from the grave, 
 still carried the marks of His Passion. It was indeed 
 Jesus. S. Thomas had made certain of those wounds. 
 They had been to him the sad guarantee of death. 
 Now they were the proof of the identity of life. 
 At once he bowed in adoration before the Master, 
 to Whom his life was so surely devoted. He had 
 thought it all out. If this were indeed He, then 
 indeed He was none other than God. Others might 
 withhold their witness or take time to adjust their 
 views. But S. Thomas was definite and quick of 
 action. He knew what proofs he needed, and they 
 had been given given in all fulness and reality. 
 With the cry "My Lord, and my God" he wor- 
 shipped the risen Christ. 
 
 The certainty which Jesus gave to S. Thomas He 
 gives equally to us. God does not normally reveal 
 Himself to us by any isolated wonder of glory or 
 brilliant manifestation of power. It is true that 
 there are souls who have been first brought to 
 the realisation of God by some violent catastrophe 
 in nature or some unusual occurrence in human life. 
 By some such lightning-stroke of power God may 
 sometimes flash upon the soul the conviction of His 
 Deity. But that is not the familiar way of God's 
 manifestation. S. Thomas came to the vision of the
 
 S. THOMAS 77 
 
 risen Christ, prepared by all the experiences of his 
 three years' discipleship. He had walked with Him 
 before he knew He was God. He had enjoyed the 
 intimacies of His friendship, He had listened eagerly 
 to His teaching, He had watched Him as He went 
 in and out on His errands of blessing and mercy. 
 Thus he had learned to trust Him. He had followed 
 Him up to the limits of his understanding. Only 
 at the Cross he had fallen behind. He had not lost 
 trust. But he had lost vision. Through the darkness 
 of his clinging loyalty the story of the Resurrection 
 opened a way of light. But it was an experience 
 too new and too unique to be credible, except on 
 evidence the most clear and most unmistakable. 
 As soon as Jesus gave Himself to his touch, con- 
 viction broke upon him and he worshipped. 
 
 So it is that belief is not forced upon us to-day 
 either by striking acts of almighty power or by the 
 incontrovertible logic of complete demonstration, 
 apart from the preparation of personal experience. 
 Men walk with Jesus before they know He is God. 
 They drink in the lore of His teaching, they move 
 in the atmosphere of His love as they see Him 
 reflected in the lives and experience of those who 
 follow Him. There is an unconscious preparation 
 of the heart, an awakening of moral sympathy, 
 a kindling of hope in Him, before the final proof 
 which God offers can bring conviction. It is the 
 task of the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Fellow-
 
 78 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 ship, to effect the link between the soul and God, 
 which prepares the way for final belief. Proofs 
 converge along manifold lines ol^evidence to meet 
 in the great truth of the Deity of Jesus. But no 
 proof carries the certainty needed, not merely for 
 intellectual belief, but for moral obedience and 
 surrender, unless it can appeal to that hidden sense of 
 fellowship, that inner hope, that unrealised aptitude 
 for God, which is the ground of every religious 
 experience. The difficulties of belief are more 
 frequently moral than intellectual. Conduct reacts 
 upon creed quite as surely as creed shapes conduct. 
 We may be sure in all our intellectual difficulties 
 that where the will is set towards moral obedience 
 to righteousness and conformity to the holy law of 
 Christ, God will provide such proofs as shall satisfy 
 all our hopes of His Deity, and bring our whole life 
 into worshipful adoration of Jesus, the risen Lord. 
 Two things only are needed, definiteness and 
 decision. We must be quite sure along what lines 
 we need proof. We must not drift in continual 
 suspense. For S. Thomas decision was vital. He 
 sought it eagerly. He found it reverently. It came 
 as the crown of faithful discipleship. It brought 
 the fulness of immediate surrender. It cast the 
 light of revelation upon all that had been dark, 
 and through all the days to come God shined in his 
 heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory 
 of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.
 
 S. THOMAS 79 
 
 So will it be for us. God has an answer for all our 
 doubts. Only let us be true to the deepest ex- 
 periences of heart and life, and here in this world 
 God will give us certainty if we seek it. He will 
 enable us to respond faithfully to the Call of the 
 Lord and to know the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Pray for preparedness of heart and for capacity of fuller 
 belief in Jesus. 
 
 Lord Jesus, Eternal Word of God, Who art the 
 Way, the Truth and the Life, Who hast promised 
 that the pure in heart shall see God, grant to us 
 purity of heart and obedience to the ways of 
 holiness, that we may give ourselves without 
 hindrance to the revelation of Thy Truth. Bestow 
 upon us abundantly the gifts of Wisdom, Under- 
 standing, and Knowledge, that in the power of the 
 Spirit we may be filled with the knowledge of Thy 
 Will, and though we see Thee not, yet believing, 
 may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, 
 receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation 
 of our souls, through Thy merits, Who art our 
 only Mediator and Advocate. 
 
 C 
 
 "My Lord and my God." The words of S. Thomas 
 express the spirit of adoration which marks the 
 believing life. The soul that truly believes gives 
 itself to thankful praise of the beauty and glory of 
 God. By meditation upon the greatness of God 
 Himself we are lifted out of the selfishness of our
 
 80 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 own natural instincts into that sense of the divine 
 claim upon our lives which makes us ready to give 
 all to Him. Jesus is not onlr? Lord and God. 
 He is my Lord and my God. We do not think of 
 Him merely in the terms of His universal glory, but 
 in His own personal and intimate relation to our- 
 selves. He is Sovereign of the world. But it is 
 enough for the conduct of my life that He is Sovereign 
 of my soul. To think of Him as Lord is to acknow- 
 ledge not only His Mastery, but His protection, His 
 enabling power, His sufficiency for our needs. To 
 move about our tasks with the confession of S. 
 Thomas in our hearts is to make life one long melody 
 of praise and service. It is to have a foretaste of 
 the adoring ministries of Heaven. We know that 
 Heaven rings with the glad melody of the Saints. 
 Not only do those heavenly courts re-echo the 
 loud Alleluias of the redeemed, not only do the 
 praises of the Blessed mingle with the songs of the 
 angelic hosts, but the very lives of the Saints, 
 their adoration, their happy obedience, their supreme 
 delight in God are a perpetual melody and music 
 which gladdens the Heart of the Eternal. Fulness 
 of joy is in the presence of God, and to take part 
 in the praises of the Blessed before the Throne is one 
 of our most treasured hopes. But the saintly life 
 which stirs to the melody of the Eternal need not be 
 only the hope of years to come. It may be, it must 
 be, our present possession, the prized reality of our
 
 S. THOMAS 81 
 
 earthly experience. Even in this loud, stunning tide 
 of human care and crime there are those with whom 
 the melodies abide of the everlasting chime. " My 
 Lord, my God." Ever the Saint carries this music 
 in his heart, the music of worship and of praise. 
 He knows that from his Lord and his God come all 
 the joys of his life. Baptism lifts him first into the 
 chorus of worship, as the Holy Spirit of glory and of 
 joy takes him for His own. Confirmation gives him 
 new themes of praise, as he rejoices in the quickening 
 of all his powers with the gift of ghostly strength. 
 Throwing himself happily into the sternest conflicts 
 of life, he sings as he fights, and finds joy in the 
 very heat and strain of the battle. Eucharist after 
 Eucharist finds him saying " My Lord and my 
 God," as he is refreshed with the glad and radiant 
 powers of the glorified Humanity of the victorious 
 King of Saints. Where can there be any moment 
 in the progress of such a life which has not its own 
 experience of present joy ? Doubtless on earth a 
 broken music, a stifled melody at times. But already 
 here, in secret prayer and aspiration, the holy strain 
 wells up in the sanctuary of our souls, and amid 
 all the wrangling and noise of life reaches the listen- 
 ing ears of the Eternal "My Lord and my God." 
 That is the song of faith eternally. The discords 
 and the failures here are the promises of harmony 
 and triumph which the fulness of the days shall 
 bring. No single note of that divine music, uttered 
 G
 
 82 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 with whatever imperfections here, but shall sound 
 on eternally, attuned to the perfect harmonies of 
 heaven. Not only are we cheered by the glad chorus 
 of praise which rises from the spirits of just men 
 made perfect, but we ourselves, as we pass along 
 the hard pilgrim way towards the abiding city, 
 have already the privilege of song, and may raise our 
 eager hymns of thankfulness and joy with those who 
 sing the new song of Victory before the Throne. 
 
 Is it not this joyful spirit of adoration that we 
 need, to widen the vision, to quicken the activities 
 of our lives to-day ? We look in upon ourselves 
 too much. We see no further than our sufferings. 
 We feel nothing deeper than our nerves. And all the 
 while there is this great pulsing life of God into 
 which we are asked to throw ourselves, taking 
 delight in the grandeur of His divine purpose, 
 surrendering in love to the magnificent wonder of 
 His providing care, rising in faith to the glories of 
 His Revelation. It is this which lifts us out of our- 
 selves and gives us the true vision of life, enabling 
 us to see the things of time in the light of the Eternal. 
 In such a spirit of true adoration we need the faith 
 that can greet each new revelation of the risen 
 Saviour with the words of the worshipping disciple, 
 " My Lord and my God."
 
 S. THOMAS 83 
 
 Make an act of praise. 
 
 O Lord God Almighty, great and marvellous are 
 Thy works, righteous and true are Thy ways, 
 Thou King of the Ages. Who shall not fear, O 
 Lord, and glorify Thy Name ? For Thou only art 
 holy, for all the nations shall come and worship 
 before Thee, for Thy righteous acts have been made 
 manifest. Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our 
 God, to receive the glory and the honour and the 
 power, for Thou didst create all things, and because 
 of Thy will they were, and were created. Blessing 
 and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and 
 honour and power and might be unto Thee, our 
 God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 
 VII 
 
 GALILEE 
 
 S. JOHN xxi. 1-14 
 
 T ESUS had promised that He would meet the 
 I disciples in Galilee. Already they had spent 
 eight days since the Resurrection at Jerusalem 
 and, now that He had revealed Himself to all the 
 Apostles in the Holy City, the time had come for them 
 to withdraw from the busy streets of Jerusalem to the 
 quiet country of the North for His fuller revelation. 
 As in the days of His ministry they had been with- 
 drawn from the crowded scenes of popular welcome 
 into the quiet retreats of Northern Galilee, that 
 Jesus might draw them closer to Himself and 
 impart to them the deeper things of His law, so 
 now for the further revelation of His will He would 
 visit them in the quietude of the North, in the 
 places which had already been hallowed by so many 
 tender memories of fellowship and affection. Jesus 
 would bind the new life to the certainties of the old, 
 and by the calm rest of a retreat in Galilee prepare 
 them for the coming labours of the Apostolate. 
 84
 
 GALILEE 85 
 
 A. 
 
 " There were together Simon Peter and Thomas 
 called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee 
 and the sons of Zebedee and two other of His 
 disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, ' I go a 
 fishing.' They say unto him, ' We also go with 
 thee.' " Thus the disciples, released from the 
 immediate strain of their apostleship, went back 
 to the familiar scenes in Galilee to find recupera- 
 tion and rest in their old trade of fishing upon the 
 Lake. That they might well be in need of leisure 
 and rest no one will deny who reflects upon the 
 conditions of their three years' ministry. It had 
 been a time of deepening anxiety and ever-increas- 
 ing strain. At first, discipleship seemed to lay no 
 heavy burden upon them. In public, there was the 
 glad welcome with which expectant Galilee ac- 
 claimed the Prophet of Nazareth. In the intimacies 
 of private intercourse, there were the powerful 
 charm of a great Personality, the loving instruction 
 of One Who read the secrets of their hearts, and on 
 their part a glad surrender to the spell of a unique 
 attraction. At first, the abandonment of all the 
 accustomed ties of home and work might well seem 
 amply repaid. The early days of that bright com- 
 panionship were full of hope and ease of heart and 
 radiant expectancy. But then came days of per-
 
 86 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 plexity and clouded thought. It was not all glad 
 welcome, not all a simple listening to words of 
 grace. The thronging crowds fiifed the day with 
 laborious duties. The mission tour among the 
 villages brought its own insistent work. With 
 increasing notoriety came increasing burdens. 
 Bewilderment, suspicion, resentment followed fast 
 upon one another, when Christ refused to be made 
 king. Opposition asserted itself in high places, 
 the organised and bitter hatred of the jealous 
 leaders of religion. So the days by the lakeside 
 and among the open hills of Galilee closed in with 
 ugly portents of disaster. In the ministry which 
 followed in Jerusalem the conflict became violently 
 embittered. Each day brought fresh strife, blas- 
 phemies, threats of violence and of death. As the 
 disciples moved uneasily through the streets of the 
 Holy City, the objects of scorn, suspicion and 
 growing hatred, they must have longed for just 
 one of the old days upon the Lake of Galilee 
 away from all the turmoil of this dusty city life, 
 out of the shadow of the houses, away from the 
 gossiping bazaars and the gaze of scowling eyes 
 just one breath of the old free life in the familiar 
 scenes. And then came the last days of accumula- 
 ting horror and distress the arrest, the forsaking, 
 the trial, the Crucifixion the strain of mingled 
 suspense and self-reproach, of agonised shame and 
 nameless fears. Surely it was upon a band of weary,
 
 GALILEE 87 
 
 harassed, broken men that the Resurrection burst 
 with its unexpected triumph. And Jesus knew 
 their weariness and saw their need of rest. The 
 work that He had in store for them would tax all 
 their human strength. Inspired as they were with 
 the growing certainties of Easter joy, and quickened, 
 as they soon would be, with the new and vital 
 energies of the Holy Spirit, they would yet need to 
 be in full and untired possession of all their faculties 
 of body and of soul, if their great work of witness 
 was to be faithfully accomplished. So Jesus sent 
 them away to Galilee for rest, for recreation, to 
 recruit their bodies, to refresh their minds, to 
 prepare them for the stress of the life-work that 
 lay before them. And He would meet them there. 
 It was thus in some way the holiday of the Apostles, 
 when S. Peter said to his fellow- disciples "I go a 
 fishing," and his brethren followed him with the 
 cry, " We also go with thee." 
 
 Pray for perseverance in the faithful following of Christ. 
 Almighty God, Who didst give such grace unto 
 Thy holy Apostles that they readily obeyed the 
 calling of Thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed Him 
 without delay, Grant unto us all that we, being 
 called by Thy holy Word, may forthwith give up 
 ourselves obediently to fulfil Thy holy command- 
 ments, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
 88 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 B. 
 
 It is not hard for us to recognise where the forces 
 of recuperation lay in the time of rest which Christ 
 prepared for His disciples. There was relief from 
 the actual strain of work and anxiety. The powers 
 of body, mind and soul which had been overtaxed 
 had leisure to regain freshness and vitality. For 
 the most active, for the most willing worker there 
 must be days of relaxation. We need to be lifted 
 out of the routine of daily life. Our work seldom 
 puts pressure on all the faculties alike. Some few 
 bear all the strain. And while in our leisure hours 
 these are resting, there are set free and brought 
 into play forces and aptitudes and capacities which 
 in the daily work have to find severe repression and 
 restraint. Holidays help to preserve the whole man. 
 They not only give rest to the old, outworn faculties, 
 but they develop other faculties and keep us from 
 the threatened atrophy of many a fine instinct and 
 beautiful possibility in life. Thus the whole person- 
 ality is led on to new and happy development. 
 Change of circumstance helps us to get a truer and 
 wider view of life. We see things in their right 
 perspective. We learn to estimate more clearly 
 the proportionate value of our work. A new light 
 breaks upon familiar duties. As we stand out- 
 side the machinery of our work, we can realise our 
 freedom, and feel the inspiration of a deep and vital
 
 GALILEE 89 
 
 motive of which we are often unconscious while we 
 are actually absorbed in the pressing activities of 
 the daily routine. So it was that the disciples, 
 reassured and glad at heart, freed from anxiety, 
 went off to their fishing and found rest. 
 
 Doubtless it was their close contact with Nature 
 which was to help in their restoration. They went 
 back to that open-air life in which they were con- 
 tinually in the grip of the elemental forces of 
 Nature. Whether consciously realised, whether 
 adequately expressed or no, such a life has never 
 ceased to exercise a powerful influence upon the 
 hearts of men. We need not fear to ascribe to the 
 disciples those very feelings of reverence and awe, 
 those stirrings of freedom, majesty and peace, 
 which our own experience of Nature rouses in us 
 to-day. It is true that the ancient world was 
 strangely blind to the beauties of Nature. Yet 
 Christ's joy in the lavish glories of His creation was 
 neither stinted nor hidden. The disciples had the 
 recent memories of three years' companionship 
 and three years' teaching to reinforce the spontane- 
 ous promptings of Nature. In the glory and 
 splendour of the world they had begun to read 
 the infinite Beauty which eye hath not seen nor 
 the heart of man conceived. Nature opened to them 
 afresh all her treasures of healing and of peace. To 
 us, who live in Christ, the holiday that brings closer 
 contact with Nature brings a new revelation of God.
 
 90 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 For to us, who come with our eyes enlightened with 
 the faith of the Incarnation, Nature is the very veil 
 of God, a Sacrament of His Beauty, the green robe 
 which hides the lineaments of the divine Majesty 
 present in the glories of His Creation. In the healing 
 power, the soothing influence, the alluring sug- 
 gestiveness, the bracing strength of the beauties 
 of Nature, we come very close to God. Wherever 
 we find the loveliness of Nature, shall we not feel 
 that it is the Call of the Lord, Who has brought us 
 to this hour of happiness and blessed us with a 
 new vision of Himself ? 
 
 There was no other within sight or sound, 
 Only the pines, the snows and peace profound. 
 And may not He, Who willed whatever is, 
 Amid the birth of worlds have thought on this, 
 Even on this hour of happiness for me ? 
 
 A Holiday Prayer. 
 
 God of Life and of Love, Who art the true Rest 
 of the soul, sanctify to me my hours of rest. Keep 
 me from all harm and evil and draw me nearer to 
 Thyself. Enlighten my eyes that I may see Thee 
 in the beauties of Thy creation and find Thee in 
 all the ways of happiness. And grant that, strength- 
 ened in body, refreshed in mind and purified in 
 soul by the vital energies of Thy indwelling Spirit, 
 I may serve Thee faithfully in the life to which 
 Thou hast called me, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.
 
 GALILEE 91 
 
 C. 
 
 Galilee had been the scene of their vocation. 
 Our Lord may have counted upon the old associa- 
 tions of happiness which clustered round the Lake, 
 when He sent His disciples back to that familiar 
 spot. The very genius of the place was to share 
 in the work of recuperation. There, in the old, 
 familiar haunts, what tender memories crowded 
 upon them, visions of early boyhood, of eager 
 enterprise upon the Lake, of that momentous Call 
 to forsake all and follow Christ which had appealed 
 to their first enthusiasm. The Lake had been the 
 centre of all the joyous memories of their ministry. 
 And now the genius of the place was to work its 
 will upon them and the spell of old associations 
 was to charm them back to happiness and strength 
 and re-create them for the Master's work. 
 
 Those days by the lakeside were indeed a test of 
 vocation. Was it not a severe test of loyalty to 
 their mission that the Apostles should thus be sent 
 back to their old life upon the lake ? Might not 
 the spell of old scenes have wrought upon them 
 now so powerfully that they would once for all 
 return to the fisherman's life ? During these days 
 they learnt where their real vocation lay, and the 
 Call of the Lord sank abidingly into their hearts. 
 They realised the greatness of the work from which 
 they were resting, for which they were newly pre-
 
 92 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 paring, and the old ambitions of life sank back into 
 their proper insignificance. These days were a 
 final test of vocation, a last temptation to with- 
 draw from the Master's service. 
 
 And when they had proved their steadfastness, 
 Jesus shewed Himself to them as He had promised, 
 confirmed their call and gave them a pledge of the 
 success of the new work to which He was leading 
 them. They had toiled all the night and taken 
 nothing. So human toil apart from Christ must be 
 ever fruitless. Casting the net anew at Christ's 
 own bidding, they presently " drew the net to land 
 full of great fishes." God alone would be the source 
 of true success in the work of the Church. Christ 
 stood upon the shore, unrecognised till the eyes of 
 love discerned Him. So is the Lord ever among 
 us, directing our work, blessing our toil, yet long 
 unrecognised until love finds Him out, detecting 
 in those tones of imperious command the voice of 
 God Himself. The meal that Jesus had prepared 
 upon the shore was ample for them all, yet He 
 would have them bring of the fish which they had 
 caught. The Divine Sufficiency needs not our 
 work, but welcomes it with loving acceptance and 
 uses it for His own glory and our happiness. With 
 such symbolic acts Jesus unveiled before His 
 Apostles the glorious mission and victory of the 
 Church. " Full of great fishes " the net of the 
 Church shall be, and never a break in all its strain-
 
 GALILEE 93 
 
 ing meshes. Such was the vision of hope with 
 which Christ renewed the vocation of the disciples, 
 and bound them once more to their high task. 
 This is the vision which we must keep before our 
 eyes as Jesus call us one by one to take our part 
 in the mission of His Church. Amid all the present 
 failures, even while we toil all the night and take 
 nothing, there is Jesus watching from the shore, if 
 only our eyes could see Him, through the gloom of 
 the breaking dawn. Love will find Him. We can 
 trust His power. We will obey His Word. And 
 on the great feast day of the victorious Church, He 
 will call us to Himself, who have shared with Him 
 the Mission of the Father, and will crown our happi- 
 ness by His loving acceptance of our work. That 
 is the vision which will inspire us in all our mini- 
 stries for Him on earth, the vision of triumphant 
 success in the power of the risen Lord. 
 
 Make an offering of your work to God. 
 
 O Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who in Thy 
 love hast chosen me and ordained me that I should 
 go and bring forth fruit to Thy honour, accept, I 
 beseech Thee, the offering of my work done in Thy 
 Name and through Thy power, and grant to me 
 ever the spirit of true obedience, increasing diligence, 
 patient endurance, and such success as is according 
 to Thy will, O Lord Thou Lover of my soul.
 
 VIII 
 
 S. JOHN 
 S. JOHN xxi. 20-24. REV. i. 1-3, 9-20 
 
 " T ORD, and what shall this man do ? If I 
 -I/ will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
 to thee ? " The delicate reserve of the writers of 
 the New Testament shews itself in the sacred 
 silences which surround the lives of those who 
 were nearest to Jesus. It is not likely that we 
 have the record of all the appearances of the risen 
 Lord. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, we are only told what is needful 
 for the understanding of the history of the Church, 
 for assurance as to the details of Christ's purpose, 
 for certainty as to the methods by which the divine 
 intention was to be fulfilled. We hear how S. Peter 
 received his public recognition as leader and how 
 the Apostles received their definite commission. 
 The story of the conviction of S. Thomas is told 
 that we might know the unanimity of witness which 
 the Apostles bore to the resurrection of Jesus. The 
 Blessed Virgin is spoken of among the company of 
 
 94
 
 S. JOHN 95 
 
 the Upper Room, that we might know how humbly 
 she took her place in the Church of the redeemed. 
 Yet can we doubt that Jesus had His own special 
 message of comfort and revelation to bear to her 
 whose heart had been pierced by the sword of so 
 great a sorrow ? But the revelation was for the 
 comfort of her own soul alone, appropriate to her 
 own unique office as His Virgin Mother, not for the 
 general knowledge of the Church. Thus it remains 
 among the wondrous silences of Scripture. Next to 
 the Virgin Mary, S. John stands in the relation of 
 closest intimacy to Jesus. We can hardly doubt 
 that Jesus would have wished to explain to S. John 
 all that He meant by the sacred legacy from the 
 Cross, " Behold thy Mother." No one so closely 
 as S. John could penetrate the inner mystery of the 
 divine purpose of love. 
 
 Yet there is no recorded appearance of our Lord 
 to the beloved Apostle alone. The only definite 
 intimation of his future work lies implicit in Christ's 
 answer to the anxious question of S. Peter : " Lord, 
 and what shall this man do ? " It was a natural 
 query for S. Peter. He felt it strange, especially 
 in his mood of chastened humility, that he himself 
 should be marked out for the feeding of Christ's 
 sheep by a definite commission, while S. John was 
 passed over in silence. S. Peter was at all times 
 generous and clear-sighted enough to recognise 
 that here in the young Apostle who had been so
 
 96 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 close to Jesus all the days of His ministry, lay gifts 
 and capacities of service which must be of peculiar 
 value to the future development of the Master's 
 work. 
 
 It was inconceivable that to one who had the 
 unerring insight of Christ, S. John should be lost 
 in the mediocrity of his fellows. S. Peter recognised 
 the greatness of S. John. What then could his 
 work be ? He had gifts of leadership quite as 
 conspicuous, quite as sure and effective as those of 
 S. Peter. He had a spiritual power, a patient 
 tenderness and a sympathetic love, which would 
 give him unique powers of usefulness both in the 
 sphere of teaching and of government. What then 
 shall this man do ? And in effect Jesus told the 
 eager disciple that He had His own place for S. John 
 and his work. There should be no waste of gifts in 
 the work of the Kingdom. When the older man 
 had borne his witness and had passed through the 
 glorious gate of martyrdom to his rest, then the 
 younger should take up his work and carry it on 
 victoriously. For the moment the two Apostles 
 together should unite in leadership of the infant 
 Church in its first persecution at Jerusalem. Then 
 for a while S. John should withdraw from the fierce 
 light of public leadership and in some sequestered 
 place give himself to the care of the Virgin Mother, 
 till reinforced by the experiences of that sacred 
 intimacy he should come forth at length in the hour
 
 S. JOHN 97 
 
 of need, and take the protagonist's place in the 
 great victory of Faith. So should he " tarry " till 
 Jesus came. 
 
 A. 
 
 It is a delight to picture the childhood and youth 
 of S. John, the son of Zebedee. It seems natural 
 to think of him growing up at his mother's knee, 
 drinking into his pure and loving heart the great 
 words of Messianic prophecy, hoping with all the 
 ardour of young Galilean chivalry that he might 
 play some noble part in the coming of the Kingdom. 
 The fiery energy of his character, which earned for 
 him and his brother the title " Sons of Thunder," 
 would mark him out in his mother's lovingly 
 ambitious heart as a lad of unusual hope and 
 promise. The wealth of Zebedee may have added 
 special opportunities of culture and refinement, 
 which would be turned to advantage in his quest 
 of the coming Kingdom. High ideals of righteous- 
 ness and growing sanctity of personal life quickened 
 his flaming hope of national regeneration, so that 
 he responded readily to the call of the Baptist. In 
 the company of the Baptist his hopes kindled as 
 he watched the marvellous response of every class 
 to the startling appeal for personal holiness with 
 which the wilderness of Judaea echoed. But the 
 Baptist himself declared his work to be a mission 
 of preparation. It evoked a sense of sin, quickened 
 H
 
 9 8 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 conscience and roused the will to new determina- 
 tion. The Lamb of God that could take away sin 
 was yet to be revealed. Not 311 of the Baptist's 
 disciples were ready for that revelation. But the 
 preacher of the wilderness knew to whom it might 
 first be made. To the two young Galilean disciples, 
 Andrew and John, he pointed out Jesus as He 
 walked. And the heart of the son of Zebedee leapt 
 up at once to meet the love of his Saviour. Of that 
 first day spent by S. John with the Master to Whom 
 from henceforth his life was pledged we have no 
 record. We can but reverently picture the human 
 delight of Jesus at finding one so pre-eminently 
 fitted by affection, by sympathy, by insight and by 
 purity of character to become His disciple. Easier 
 still is it to imagine the fervid loyalty and generous 
 ardour with which the young disciple would yield 
 himself to the new allegiance to which his old 
 master had so confidently committed him. And 
 thus the wonderful days of the Ministry began. 
 Admitted with his brother and S. Petef to the 
 special intimacies of Christ, S. John was able to 
 enter more deeply than they into the inner mind of 
 Christ. There was a response of affection and a 
 sympathy of understanding which marked him out 
 from all others as the Apostle whom Jesus loved. 
 Of any special marks of favour or opportunities of 
 personal revelation the Gospels say nothing. Of 
 his own love for Jesus he never speaks. It is a
 
 S. JOHN 99 
 
 mark of his gentle humility that to his own mind 
 his greatest distinction lay in the title " the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved." It is only as we meditate upon 
 the Gospel story and study what he himself after- 
 wards wrote, that we recognise how far more truly 
 he was able to discern the mind of Christ than any 
 of his fellow -disciples. Love gave insight. The 
 wonder of Christ's Person had more significance for 
 him. But he too failed at Gethsemane, and in all 
 the miserable hours of the trial he could speak no 
 word to save the Master. 
 
 The sacred charge of the Virgin Mother given to 
 him from the Cross was indeed the tender sign of 
 the Master's trust and forgiveness. Who can picture 
 the anxious questionings of love, the yearning hopes, 
 the dreadful fears that filled the disciple's heart 
 when Jesus lay dead in the tomb ? None could 
 recall so well as he the mysterious words of hope 
 and triumphant promise with which the Master had 
 spoken of the rising on the third day. At the first 
 call of Mary of Magdala S. John, outstripping 
 S. Peter, rushed to the sepulchre. And as he stood 
 within the tomb " he saw and believed." It was 
 natural that he should be the first Apostle to 
 " believe." But even so, his belief was not yet so 
 strong and sure that he could rouse his brethren 
 from their gloom. Not till Jesus had appeared to 
 the Apostles on the evening of the first Easter Day 
 could they be persuaded of the reality of His
 
 ioo THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 Resurrection. We can imagine how deeply S. John 
 entered into the mystery of the Resurrection Life of 
 the Master. It was he who was able first to recog- 
 nise Christ upon the shore of the Lake of Galilee. 
 " It is the Lord." The eyes of love could no longer 
 be holden. 
 
 He who soon was to witness so wonderfully to 
 the Deity of Jesus must have lost no opportunity 
 of revelation during those forty days of intercourse 
 with the risen Christ. Even the beloved Apostle 
 had let slip precious opportunities in the last three 
 years, through preoccupation with splendid dreams 
 and visions of his own. He must have felt the need 
 of instruction. He was well prepared to learn. The 
 overpowering marvel of the Resurrection had 
 suddenly opened the eyes of his spirit. And he had 
 for preceptor the very Prince of Teachers. At last 
 the Kingdom was to be founded, and founded 
 through him. It was to be his life-work. It was to 
 begin at once. Jesus would speak " of the things 
 pertaining to the Kingdom of God." And if we 
 have no written record of that very teaching, where 
 else can we read its meaning so clearly as in the 
 work and life of the beloved Apostle of the Lord ? 
 The organisation, clear, precise, unfaltering, which 
 the Church at once received at the hands of the 
 Apostles after the day of Pentecost is record 
 sufficient of what the Master had commanded and 
 taught. We may not determine exactly how far
 
 S. JOHN 101 
 
 Christ was content only to lay down the general 
 and broad principles of the work which should 
 carry on the fruits of His redemption upon earth, 
 or how far He descended to definite detail. Nor 
 need we ask. The authority of that organisation, 
 so clearly seen, so unhesitatingly developed, has 
 for us the authority of Christ Himself, even if in 
 His wisdom He left the fashioning of the details 
 unreservedly to the Apostles, guided by the heavenly 
 assistance of the Holy Ghost. Their definite work 
 was to frame the constitution, create the organisa- 
 tion and lay down the lines upon which the abun- 
 dant grace of God was to be ministered unfailingly 
 and assuredly to the needy souls of men. They 
 worked, they spoke with the certain promise of the 
 Divine help. " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
 and to us " is the authoritative phrase with which 
 S. John and his fellow-Apostles speak of their formal 
 decisions. They spoke, they acted, conscious of 
 the plenary authority of Christ. And in no life so 
 clearly as in the long ministry of S. John can we 
 see the character of that government and faith of 
 the Church, which the risen Lord committed to 
 His Apostles. The witness of S. John is unequalled 
 for cogency and truth, not only because he lived 
 so long, but also because as the Apostle of Love he 
 would seek to fulfil studiously the will of the Master. 
 " If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Thus, 
 with calm certainty, the early Church rested upon
 
 102 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the ordinances of the Apostles. The sanction of 
 their authority was the court of final appeal in 
 matters of faith, government and, worship. 
 
 And we are proud to-day, confessing our faith in 
 the Church Apostolic, to accept the same authority 
 and to appeal with confidence to the same tribunal. 
 The recorded utterances of the Apostles may be 
 few, the story of their lives almost unknown, but 
 it is not hard in the history of the Church to see 
 their clear, decisive teaching, to trace surely the 
 lines of gradual development which they secured, 
 to note the way in which their plenary authority 
 was used to guide the Church of Christ, to safe- 
 guard all essential truths and to preserve the Faith 
 undefiled in the midst of generations crooked and 
 perverse. It was the work of S. John " tarrying " 
 beyond all the other Apostles to emphasise these 
 first traditions of the Church, which from the very 
 Lips of Christ he transmitted in his own person, 
 pure and undefiled, to the Church of the second 
 century. 
 
 Pray for loyalty to the faith of the Apostles. 
 
 O Almighty God, Who hast built Thy Church 
 upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 
 Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner-stone, 
 grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit 
 by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy 
 temple acceptable unto Thee, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord.
 
 S. JOHN 103 
 
 B. 
 
 " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
 to thee ? Follow thou Me." For S. John the Call 
 of the Lord was the call to " tarry." The martyr- 
 dom of a life of tarrying witness involved sufferings 
 quite as great, and required courage quite as un- 
 daunted, as the martyrdom of a sudden and 
 agonising death. One by one his friends and 
 fellow-labourers passed from him his brother 
 James, first Apostle to win the martyr's crown, 
 the Virgin Mary whose loving intercourse and 
 sacred confidences had helped to build him up in 
 the faith of the Incarnation, the Apostles S. Peter 
 and S. Paul dying nobly for the Master in the very 
 capital of the world. Again and again S. John 
 bade farewell to those who had laboured with him 
 in the Gospel, to converts whom he had brought to 
 the knowledge of the Truth, to friends made dear 
 by the daily fellowship of grace. One by one they 
 passed from him, through such different doors of 
 death by fire, by sword, by persecution, through 
 suffering and sickness, some in sorrow, some in 
 peace, some after long lingering, some on a sudden 
 call. So we watch S. John tarrying till his Lord 
 comes, a very Apostle of bereavement. 
 
 The deaths of S. Peter and S. Paul must have been 
 a call to wider work and more extended ministry. 
 With new fervour of earnestness S. John gave
 
 104 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 himself to the instruction of those young disciples, 
 who were presently to make the Church ring with 
 the echoes of his teaching. With patient steadfast- 
 ness he provided in the cities of Asia Minor for the 
 permanence of Church life by the establishment of 
 episcopal ministries. And with the fall of Jerusalem 
 came the divine sanction of his apostolic work. The 
 fall of the Holy City was God's call to the Church 
 to realise its world-wide mission and to separate 
 itself from every merely local limitation. To one 
 who " tarried " no event could have been so signifi- 
 cant for the future of the Church. But while it 
 obliterated old landmarks and swept away old 
 privileges, it added new dangers of persecution. 
 For not only were the Jews embittered afresh 
 against the Church, but the difference between 
 Jew and Christian was made manifest, and the 
 tolerance of Judaism which hitherto had screened 
 the infant Church from Roman persecution, no 
 longer availed to protect the Christians from the 
 attack of the pagan state. The life of the Church 
 over which S. John presided became increasingly 
 a life of suffering, anxiety and persecution. In 
 this persecution the tarrying Apostle was himself 
 called to share. The day came when S. John found 
 himself a prisoner " for the testimony of Jesus 
 Christ " in the isle of Patmos. As he looked over 
 the blue sea and saw in the east the dim outline of 
 the beautiful, sin-stricken city of Ephesus, he
 
 S. JOHN 105 
 
 knew the deep agony of the pastoral heart, sorrow- 
 ing for " the beautiful flock " left a prey to the 
 " grievous wolves " that waited to enter in. But 
 if he " tarried " for sorrow, he tarried also for joy, 
 the joy of an ever-growing revelation. The very 
 crisis of his loneliness and spiritual anguish at 
 Patmos became the opportunity of his most glorious 
 vision. Heaven opened before the prophet's eyes. 
 In clear vision he beheld the King of kings and 
 Lord of lords, the Lamb reigning upon the Throne, 
 and in words of glowing beauty and glorious faith 
 S. John declared the triumph of God's Church over 
 all the powers of evil and of death. 
 
 But Patmos, the prison-isle of Vision, was not the 
 end of the Apostle's " tarrying." There was a 
 witness yet to be borne which none but he could 
 bear. As the years went by and the story of the 
 Lord's life became more widely known, there were 
 those who, steeped in the mystic spirit of the East, 
 tried to adapt the Gospel story to the needs of 
 their own philosophies. For them the Gospels were 
 a symbolic poem, a message of great intellectual 
 and moral beauty, but not the narrative of a real 
 life, not the history of the actual entrance of God 
 upon the plane of human existence. The risen 
 Christ was to them a beautiful myth, the poetic 
 embodiment of a great idea. There was only one 
 way by which such false teaching could be effectu- 
 ally d^roved. The evidence of an eye-witness
 
 106 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 could not be gainsaid. Thus in his last years 
 S. John, who had tarried so long in the ministry 
 of witness to the risen Lord, who for more than 
 seventy years had proclaimed the story of his 
 intercourse with the Incarnate in the intimacies of 
 daily life, set himself to leave a written record of 
 his own experience. He had seen, he had handled 
 the Word of Life. For those whom his spoken 
 word could never reach he would leave in writing 
 his clear personal testimony to the reality of the 
 Incarnate Christ. "It was so ; so I heard and 
 saw." For this he waited. No one but he who had 
 lived in such close fellowship with the Incarnate 
 during the days of His ministry, could so con- 
 vincingly give the lie to those false and specious 
 teachings which struck at the very life of Chris- 
 tianity. It was a witness which no later generation 
 could give. Only one who had " tarried " could 
 offer his personal testimony at the very moment 
 when the danger was most grave. So wonderfully 
 did S. John follow the Call of the Lord and prove 
 himself faithful to that essential and primary work 
 of the Apostolate personal witness to the reality 
 and truth of the Resurrection of the Incarnate. 
 
 Pray for faith in the truth of the Incarnation. 
 
 Merciful Lord, we beseech Thee to cast Thy 
 bright beams of light upon Thy Church, that it 
 being enlightened by the doctrine of Thy blessed
 
 S. JOHN 107 
 
 Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may so walk in 
 the light of Thy truth that it may at length attain 
 to the light of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 C. 
 
 And we too are called to " tarry till the Lord 
 come." There is no ministry so difficult to us as 
 the ministry of tarrying. Especially if there be 
 the Boanerges spirit of enthusiastic devotion, it is 
 the more hard to conform to the Divine Will which 
 bids us tarry. Most difficult of all is the patience 
 with ourselves which all true spiritual progress 
 needs. There is innate in most of us a desire for 
 outward activity, which more and more becomes 
 to us the measure and standard of success. The 
 quick ministry of S. Peter is more attractive to us 
 than the " tarrying " service of S. John. Yet it 
 is by the restful tarrying till the Lord Himself 
 become more fully revealed and recognised in our 
 hearts, that true advance is made in our spiritual 
 life. It takes so long to make secure each step 
 which we have gained. We long to be going 
 forward, when we have not yet made the last step 
 permanently secure. This " Lord's leisure " which 
 we have to wait for in the spiritual life may seem 
 strangely slow, but we must remember that it is 
 not due to any want of power on God's part, nor 
 to any desire of God's to hold us back, but it is
 
 io8 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 governed by His unerring knowledge of our powers. 
 We must learn to be content to " tarry till the Lord 
 come," as we submit our wills te'Him for consecra- 
 tion and our minds for enlightenment and our souls 
 for grace. How many a vocation has been lost by 
 impatience! An eagerness and zeal not according 
 to knowledge have urged men on to snatch a 
 vocation which was not really theirs. They have 
 not waited patiently upon the Lord in prayer and 
 obedience. 
 
 And through many an agony of suffering God may 
 ask us to tarry, as He did S. John. For God comes 
 in suffering. His Love is expressed upon the Cross, 
 and by the Cross the lovers of God must tarry with 
 the very Apostle of love. Of that love of God the 
 Apostle who tarried never failed to bear convincing 
 witness. It was at the very end of his life that he 
 wrote. Having behind him that long life, touched 
 with so many sorrows, enriched by such a tender 
 and brave spirit of patience, ennobled with so many 
 marks of suffering and sacrifice, out of the depths of 
 that unique experience S. John called the wide 
 world to witness that God is love. Had the Apostle 
 written earlier in his life, his message could never 
 have had such convincing power. But now at the 
 very end of life he speaks, and interpreting for us 
 the lessons of a crowded lifetime declares, with 
 unhesitating certainty and with all the fervour of 
 a man who has lived very near to God, that the
 
 S. JOHN 109 
 
 Lord for Whom he has patiently tarried is indeed 
 the Lord of Love. 
 
 It is hard to tarry when physical powers begin to 
 fail. It is difficult to be sure that the Lord will 
 really come to us just in those very failing powers 
 of body and of mind. Yet it is true that this 
 weakening of the powers of the body is the Lord's 
 opportunity. With the fading memory familiar 
 words of prayer and hymn may not be so easily 
 recalled, we may not remember for long the words 
 of comfort and teaching which we have only just 
 read. But then is it not God's way of asking for 
 an ever-fresh renewal of consecration, an ever- 
 present act of oblation ? We feel that from moment 
 to moment we are living on the fresh grace of God. 
 And if the intellectual powers seem to grip less 
 firmly the actualities of daily life, yet there is an 
 inner quickening of the soul by the grace of the 
 indwelling Spirit, which makes us realise increas- 
 ingly the things of God and brings us peace, so 
 that at eventide there is light. For such tarrying, 
 till the Lord come, we need the strength of love 
 " Tarry thou the Lord's leisure, be strong and He 
 shall comfort thy heart. And put thou thy trust 
 in the Lord." 
 
 Pray for endurance to tarry till the Lord come. 
 
 Almighty and eternal Father, Who didst give such 
 grace to Thy Apostle S. John that he tarried 
 patiently for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
 
 no THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 and served Him faithfully in his ministry of 
 witness and of love, grant that by the grace of 
 Thy Holy Spirit we may watf steadfastly upon 
 Thy Will and through all tarrying and toil may 
 be strengthened in obedience and hope until He 
 come, Who is our Saviour and our God, even Jesus 
 Christ our Lord.
 
 IX 
 
 THE ASCENSION 
 S. MARK xvi. 19, 20. S. LUKE xxiv. 50-53. ACTS i. 1-12 
 
 " AND He led them out as far as to Bethany, 
 xV and He lifted up His Hands, and blessed 
 them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, 
 He was parted from them, and carried up into 
 Heaven." In such simple words S. Luke describes 
 the wonder of the Ascension. 
 
 A. 
 
 Whenever we speak about God we are reminded 
 that we have no heavenly language. Our poor words 
 are miserably inadequate to express the realities of the 
 Divine Life. It is hard to describe fitly even what 
 our minds are able to conceive. We can understand 
 more than we can express, and even our understand- 
 ing at its best follows the great Realities a long way 
 off. It is natural that it should be so, for there 
 remains ever the abiding difference between the 
 Creator and the creature. And nowhere is this 
 inadequacy of speech more deeply felt than in our
 
 H2 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 attempts to describe the Ascension of our Lord. 
 It is not merely that God is a mystery. Man in the 
 fulness of his being is a mystery too. There are 
 depths in human life which we cannot yet fully 
 fathom. There are powers which we cannot truly 
 define, intimations of hidden glory which cannot be 
 fully revealed. The Ascension not only opens up 
 a view into these profound reaches of human ex- 
 perience, which science is not yet able to explore, 
 but also reveals something of the glory of God 
 Himself which passes understanding. It thins for a 
 moment the veil behind which the glories of the 
 life of God are hid. 
 
 In the Ascension of Christ we see the fulfilment 
 of the great purpose of the Incarnation. Man in the 
 Person of the Incarnate attained at the Ascension 
 to the glory for which he was made. The whole 
 purpose of Christ's life was to fill man's life with 
 glory. God Himself has the glory proper to His 
 own Life. The eternal bliss of unoriginate, self- 
 existent Being, of infinite power, of inexhaustible 
 love that is the glory of God. Not mere eternal 
 splendour and brilliance, but inherent power of life 
 that is the divine glory. And God had a purposed 
 glory for man, a glory which was to pass to man 
 through the Incarnation of His Son. That was the 
 meaning of Christ's life on earth. He came to crown 
 human life with glory. The Ascension is the fulfil- 
 ment of that mission. That Humanity which had
 
 THE ASCENSION 113 
 
 passed scatheless through all the temptations of 
 life, which had received increasing gifts of glory 
 from the Spirit, passed triumphant into the very 
 Presence of God, consummated in perfection and 
 beauty. The glory of man as revealed in the life 
 of the Incarnate was manifested not in any outward 
 splendour, but in the power of perfect obedience, 
 in the happiness of perfect sonship. It shewed itself 
 in miracles, manifesting forth His glory so that the 
 disciples believed in Him. It was seen in the suffer- 
 ing of the Passion. " Now is the Son of Man glorified 
 and God is glorified in Him." In the prayer before 
 the Crucifixion, Jesus affirmed the fulfilment of His 
 task: "The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have 
 given them." So Christ passed to the death upon 
 the Cross. And beyond the Cross there was a new 
 glory. Manhood received a new glory in the new 
 powers of Christ's risen Body. But not yet had the 
 full destiny of man been achieved. The Ascension 
 had a final glory to add to the Body of Jesus by 
 taking it up into new conditions of existence higher 
 than those of earth. Through all the ranks of 
 human and angelic glory, Jesus lifted up our Man- 
 hood to the very Throne of God, the Holy Spirit 
 imparting new gifts of beauty and power as it 
 passed from glory to glory. That was the gift of the 
 Ascension. Doubtless there was an outward 
 splendour, the symbol and sign of the inward, which 
 began to radiate from Christ's ascended Body as He 
 i
 
 H4 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 became lost to the view of the Apostles in the cloud 
 of light. But the real glory was the spiritual 
 exaltation, the new dignifying of that Human Nature 
 which He bore, as He raised it beyond the mere 
 glory of the Resurrection and filled it with the glory 
 of heaven. Thus Jesus set Man, perfectly and 
 supremely glorified, on the right Hand of the Father. 
 And His Manhood thus glorified is the instrument 
 through which God the Father acts for the sanctifica- 
 tion of the world. In the Ascension lies the achieve- 
 ment of the purpose of the Incarnation. Man has 
 been brought to God and his life has been filled with 
 glory. 
 
 Perhaps it is just this sense of the dignity of our 
 human nature which we need to cherish to-day. 
 It is not merely that we have the promise of a glori- 
 ous future, if in this life we follow after holiness and 
 truth. But already our life is touched with glory. 
 Jesus did not so take our Manhood into new con- 
 ditions of glory, that it should be kept in isolated 
 splendour, a mere marvel to be gazed at from afar. 
 But at once the glory which He won for man was 
 imparted to mankind through the gift of the Spirit. 
 And into that glory of human life we enter to-day 
 by the gate of Baptism. Our individual life is filled 
 with new capacities, new hopes and new powers of 
 spiritual apprehension. The glory which others 
 cannot see is not only given, but made visible to us 
 who are baptised. The fellowship of the Church is a
 
 THE ASCENSION 115 
 
 fellowship of glory. And the glory is like that of the 
 Incarnate Life of Christ Himself. It is not an 
 eternal splendour, it is not a power of ecstatic 
 vision granted to the soul, in order that it may live 
 consciously in regions of high rapture and exalta- 
 tion, but it is the glory of obedience, of ability to 
 endure suffering according to God's will, the glory 
 of holiness, of communion with God, the glory of 
 achievement through the grace of the indwelling 
 Spirit, the glory of realised fellowship with one 
 another in Christ. This is the Ascension glory, 
 in the power of which each one of us may enrich his 
 life to-day. We know indeed our own weaknesses, 
 we are conscious of our failures and our sins, but 
 looked at in the light of God Who has created, 
 redeemed and sanctified us, we are equal to the 
 high destiny of divine fellowship to which He has 
 called us, we are sufficient for those services of 
 high thought, unselfish sacrifice and generous 
 obedience which our Lord has set before us. 
 
 In our work we can feel that we have the glorious 
 powers of the Ascension to draw upon for the perfect 
 fulfilment of our daily duty. In our prayer, let us 
 realise that even where our conscious powers of 
 spiritual apprehension may fail, there is yet a 
 real life of spiritual glory which is most surely ours 
 through our sacramental union with the ascended 
 Christ. We shall try in heart and mind to ascend 
 into the heavens and with Christ continually to
 
 n6 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 dwell. And as we persevere in prayer, we shall 
 certainly grow more conscious of the uplifting 
 powers of that heavenly sphere in, which all our acts 
 of devotion are made. But it is not the conscious- 
 ness itself that is the measure of our heavenly glory. 
 Those who are in Christ are already enjoying a life 
 whose " citizenship is in heaven." What we need, 
 in order to make full proof of these heavenly powers, 
 is not so much consciousness of spiritual glory, as 
 faith in the reality of our present heavenly life. We 
 must be assured of our present position of privilege 
 and power as sons of God and joint heirs with Christ, 
 already partakers of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light. When we kneel to pray, it helps us, if we 
 picture to ourselves either the Throne of God and 
 of the Lamb, or the dear and familiar Altar where we 
 are accustomed to seek the grace of God. It helps us 
 because we are lifted at once into the consciousness 
 of those heavenly realities which by the Ascension 
 have been brought so near. And as we pass upon 
 our way and take up the burden of our work, the 
 days will always be filled with a sense of glory and 
 the peace of heaven, if we can lift up our hearts to 
 recognise the ascended Lord, Whose Hands of 
 Benediction are resting ever upon our lives. 
 
 Pray for heavenly-mindedness in our daily work. 
 
 Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that 
 like as we do believe Thy only begotten Son our 
 Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens,
 
 THE ASCENSION 117 
 
 so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend 
 and with Him continually dwell, Who liveth and 
 reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, 
 world without end. 
 
 B. 
 
 When after forty days of the risen Life Jesus led 
 forth the Apostles to Bethany, it was that they 
 might witness His entrance upon the final state of 
 human glory. It was expedient for them that He 
 should go away. In the disappearances of the 
 Resurrection Life they had learned the reality of 
 His continued existence in the fulness of His risen 
 humanity, even while He remained invisible to their 
 eyes. They were now prepared for that final dis- 
 appearance of His visible Presence, which was to 
 be the characteristic of the ascended Life. Yet He 
 would still accommodate His actions to the under- 
 standing of His Apostles. Visibly before their eyes 
 His Body rose from the earth until it was lost in a 
 cloud of glory. The visible uplifting towards 
 heaven was symbolic of the spiritual elevation of 
 His Humanity to a higher state of glory. The 
 essence of the Ascension was not the upward move- 
 ment of the risen Body through the air, but the 
 exaltation of the Human Nature into a new condition 
 of glory. Visibly before the eyes of the Apostles 
 the bright cloud of glory received the Body of their 
 Lord. It was the symbol of that new condition of
 
 u8 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 spiritual life upon which His Manhood was then 
 entering. And the Hands uplifted in blessing were 
 a token of that perpetual Benedi^ion which should 
 flow continually from His ascended Manhood. 
 It was expedient for them that the Master should 
 go away. He went, that in His Manhood He might 
 receive gifts for men, that He might pour forth 
 from His fully glorified Humanity gifts of grace 
 and power for the quickening of human life upon 
 earth. Not for Himself, but for us did He receive 
 glory. With the Ascension Jesus entered upon a 
 wider mission. No longer was the Incarnate Pre- 
 sence to observe the limitations of earthly life. 
 Hitherto that Presence had only been revealed 
 acting at one place at one time. Now He entered 
 Heaven as the God-Man, that He might from the 
 very throne of Heaven operate towards men 
 in new life-giving agencies of grace which should 
 extend throughout all the world. At one place, 
 and at one place only at one time, had He visibly 
 appeared before His Apostles as He consecrated 
 that first Eucharist in the Upper Room at Jerusalem. 
 Now when the glory of the Ascension has culminated 
 in the gift of Pentecost, at myriad Altars at once 
 He is the Consecrator to-day. In the days before 
 the Ascension the words He spoke, the virtue which 
 went forth from Him were confined to one small 
 circle of influence. Now to-day through multitudin- 
 ous agencies His glorified Humanity acts in certitude
 
 THE ASCENSION 119 
 
 of sacramental power. The Ascension might seem 
 at first to hide from us the risen Christ. It might 
 seem a withdrawal, an unexpected absence, a 
 sudden cessation of His Incarnate work. But, looked 
 at closely, it is seen to be the revelation of a new 
 and wider activity of the Incarnate in the souls of 
 men. It is not a forsaking, but a more intimate 
 approach, a nearness that can be more universally 
 appropriated, a Presence that can penetrate into the 
 most secret sanctuary of the human soul and re- 
 create man with the life of God. 
 
 Pray thai we may be steadfast in the faith of the Ascension. 
 
 Almighty God, Glorious and Eternal, Whose 
 only begotten Son Jesus Christ has been exalted 
 to the highest Heaven and has opened to us men 
 the way to ascend up whither He Himself is gone, 
 Grant that we who do believe the Saviour of 
 mankind to be seated with Thee in Thy Majesty, 
 may feel that He abideth with us here according 
 to His promise even unto the end of the world, Who 
 liveth and reigneth with Thee, one God, for ever 
 and ever. 
 
 The Ascension of Christ marks the beginning of a 
 new work in Heaven. Jesus Christ, Who is become 
 our great High Priest by identifying Himself with 
 our human nature, pleads before the Father the 
 merits of His eternal Sacrifice. It is not as God, but
 
 120 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 as God-Man, that He stands before the Throne of 
 God, ever offering the great Sacrifice, ever living 
 to make intercession for us by virtue of His Perfect 
 Manhood. The Lamb was slain before the foundation 
 of the world. Sacrifice began in Heaven in the 
 eternal love of the ever-blessed Trinity. It was 
 manifested on earth in the Incarnation. But neither 
 the sacrifice of Bethlehem, nor the sacrifice of 
 Calvary, neither the human Birth nor the Death 
 upon the Cross, exhausted the sacrificial work of 
 Jesus. Most conspicuously and gloriously sacrifice 
 was manifested in the redemptive Death upon the 
 Cross. But the end was not reached at Calvary. 
 Sacrifice finds its fulfilment in the perpetual offer- 
 ing of man to God in Heaven itself. The sacrifice 
 of God means that God has stooped to raise man 
 to Himself in Heaven. And Man is in Heaven 
 in the Person of the Son of God made Man, 
 in Whom we see the destiny of the whole race 
 fulfilled. In the sacrifices of the Old Covenant it was 
 not the act of killing the victim which consummated 
 the sacrifice. The sacrifice was only completed 
 when the blood of the dead victim was presented 
 upon the Altar. It was that which symbolised the 
 actual bringing to God of the life that had passed 
 through death. In the same way the Eternal 
 Sacrifice does not find its completed and perfect 
 consummation upon the Cross. The crisis is there, 
 but the true and final fulfilment of the Sacrifice is the
 
 THE ASCENSION 121 
 
 carrying of that perfect and obedient Humanity, 
 which has passed through death, into the very 
 Presence of God. There in Heaven is the Sacrifice 
 of the High Priest achieved, as He presents that 
 Humanity now triumphant and glorified before the 
 Throne. In the perfection of that Manhood which 
 He had taken to Himself, bearing in His glorified 
 Body all the marks of His earthly experience, Christ 
 presents and pleads the offering of perfect Obedience, 
 the acceptable Sacrifice. The Presence of the God- 
 Man in Heaven is the perpetual sacrifice. 
 
 But that Sacrifice made by Him Who is our 
 Representative is not made apart from us. We 
 who yet live on earth, bound still in sin, but filled 
 with hope of victory, are not denied participation 
 there. We are in Christ, and Christ acts towards the 
 Father not only in the work of His heavenly plead- 
 ing, but He acts towards the Father also on earth 
 through the Church which is His Body. Here below 
 He presents Himself to us in the sacramental gifts 
 upon the earthly Altar, that we may present Him, 
 not typically, but actually and really, in the fulness 
 of His Sacramental Presence before the Father. 
 It was to the Ascension that our Lord Himself 
 appealed as the explanation of all the mysteries of 
 the Sacramental Life. " What and if ye shall see 
 the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? " 
 
 The gift of His true Presence upon our earthly 
 Altars is the opportunity of our offering upon earth.
 
 122 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 The Memorial of His Death, even His Presence 
 which is the guarantee of His victory over Death 
 and of His completed Atonement, is offered by us 
 before the Father. It is the same Christ Who is 
 offered, there in the undimmed splendour of His 
 Heavenly Beauty, here in the veiled glory of His 
 Sacramental Presence. That very Humanity which 
 pleads so effectually on Heaven's eternal Throne 
 is offered by us here in the sacramental Mysteries 
 of the Altar. Here in the Holy Eucharist it is 
 Christ giving Himself to us that we may give our- 
 selves in Him to God. For it is not a merely 
 mechanical offering. We have our opportunity of 
 willing co-operation, of sympathetic identification 
 with His perfect offering of obedient Manhood. 
 On our side the Eucharist is the sign of man's 
 readiness to offer, if only we have something worthy 
 to offer. In ourselves we have no worthy, no 
 sufficient, no sinless offering. But when Jesus is our 
 offering, then the Eucharist becomes for us on earth 
 the consummation of sacrifice. God has placed in 
 our unworthy hands that sacrifice of obedience, 
 that spotless surrender, that stainless offering of 
 adoring homage which by our sin we had lost. 
 He Whom we offer is the Perfect Sacrifice, the Sin- 
 less, the Righteous One. In Him, by virtue of the 
 powers of His Ascended Life, the sacrifice of praise 
 and thanksgiving for which we were made is at 
 length offered by us upon earth. What a glory it is
 
 THE ASCENSION 123 
 
 to think that we can offer ! What a joy to know 
 that we have something to uplift ! This is the 
 gift of the Ascension. Responding with humble 
 gladness to the Call of the Ascended Lord, we can 
 approach the Altar of His Love and there gather up 
 all our own weak efforts, our struggling endeavours, 
 our imperfect obedience, and offer them under the 
 cover of His Perfect Offering, knowing that we are 
 accepted in the Beloved. 
 
 We here present, we here spread forth to Thee 
 That only offering perfect in Thine Eyes, 
 The one true, pure, immortal Sacrifice. 
 
 Pray that the gifts of the Ascension may be ours through 
 the grace of the Altar. 
 
 O God, Who art the Life of the faithful, the 
 Glory of the humble and the Blessedness of the 
 righteous, make us through the grace of Thy 
 Holy Mysteries partakers of life eternal and fellow- 
 heirs with Christ of Thy heavenly kingdom, and 
 grant that through this Sacrament of union we may 
 attain to a sure hope, that that shall be accom- 
 plished in the Body of Thy whole Church which 
 has already been fulfilled in its Head, even Jesus 
 Christ, our ascended Lord and Saviour.
 
 X 
 
 PENTECOST 
 ACTS ii. i-n 
 
 THE days between the Ascension and the out- 
 pouring of the Spirit were days of prayer and 
 adoration and gladness for the disciples. Already 
 they had become inspired with a great hope. They 
 had entered into the Mind of Christ and were ready 
 to give themselves gladly to fulfil His sovereign 
 purpose. They waited for the " Promise of the 
 Father," for that communication of Life which 
 should come from the ascended and glorified Lord 
 through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first 
 gift of the Resurrection Day, when Christ breathed 
 upon His disciples and said " Receive ye the 
 Holy Ghost," had yet to be completed by the full 
 indwelling of the Spirit coming forth from the per- 
 fected Humanity of Christ. 
 
 A. 
 
 Jesus had always spoken of His going to the 
 Father, not as the end of His work, but as the begin- 
 
 124
 
 PENTECOST 125 
 
 ning of His greatest activity. " Greater works than 
 these shall ye do, because I go to the Father." The 
 Ascension would lead to the inauguration of a wider 
 work which should be carried on in His power. His 
 earthly life had been the preparation for that work 
 of the kingdom which His disciples were to carry 
 on in the power of the Spirit. The Humanity which 
 Jesus bore was the fulfilment of the divine hope, 
 so long frustrated by man's sin, of finding a holy 
 abiding-place for the indwelling of the Spirit in man. 
 The Sacred Humanity of Christ, conceived of the 
 Holy Ghost, was ever perfectly responsive to the 
 Divine Will. And in the days of Christ's life before 
 the Ascension the operation of that Humanity was 
 confined within the limits of His own visible activities. 
 Its powers were at work to heal, its wisdom to teach, 
 its virtues to give strength and cleansing to men, 
 but its operation was external to human personality. 
 It acted on man, not yet in men. " He dwelleth with 
 you and shall be in you." The Apostles were already 
 moved by the Spirit to faith and obedience and love, 
 but they could not yet have the full communication 
 of the gift of Christ's sacred Humanity. That was 
 to come through the indwelling Spirit, Who should 
 be poured out upon them from the glorified Manhood 
 of the Incarnate. It was for our sakes that Jesus 
 received the Holy Ghost in the fulness of His 
 Humanity. He was baptised with the Holy Ghost 
 in order that He might impart to the world the gifts
 
 126 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 of His Spirit-bearing Manhood. This would be the 
 fulfilment of the work of the Incarnation. And for 
 this the Apostles waited at Jerusalem. It was on 
 the day of Pentecost when all the brethren were 
 gathered together that this gift of the Spirit was 
 made, which quickened the Church upon earth and 
 endowed it with divine authority and power. The 
 Church was the extension of the Sacred Humanity 
 of Jesus, the actual Body of Christ, quickened by 
 His own Life through the Spirit. In clear and evident 
 form the great gift was given. All ears heard the 
 sound of the rushing mighty wind from heaven, 
 which filled all the house where they were sitting. 
 The outward glory of the flames of fire lighting upon 
 each gave visible witness of the promised outpour- 
 ing of the Spirit of God. The flame " sat upon each 
 of them." Each received the gift of the Spirit, 
 empowering him for the individual work to which 
 Christ had called him and for which he had been 
 prepared during the great Forty Days. To the 
 Apostles came the power of the Spirit, conveying 
 plenary authority in the Society of God upon earth 
 for government, for discipline, and for teaching of 
 the truth. To all alike came the initial gift of the 
 Holy Spirit's indwelling with the power to respond 
 to the individual vocation of God. To those who 
 were there gathered in the Upper Room on the day 
 of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was thus given imme- 
 diately by the direct act of God. They were the
 
 PENTECOST 127 
 
 firstfruits of Christ's Redemption, the elect, through 
 whom the gifts of the Spirit should be handed on 
 to others. For upon all others the outpouring of 
 the Spirit and His consecrating grace came by the 
 mediatorial agency of sacrament. Thus the Church 
 of God started upon its way, going forth with the 
 Presence of Christ and in the Power of the Spirit 
 to claim the whole world for God, Who made it for 
 Himself and had redeemed it from sin with the 
 precious Blood of His dear Son. 
 
 Pray for the Church of God, as the instrument of man's 
 redemption. 
 
 O God of unchangeable power and eternal light, 
 look favourably on Thy whole Church, that wonder- 
 ful and sacred Mystery. And by the tranquil 
 operation of Thy perpetual providence carry out 
 the work of man's salvation, and let the whole world 
 feel and see that things which were cast down are 
 being made new, and that all things are returning 
 to perfection through Him from Whom they took 
 their origin, even through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 B. 
 
 The day of Pentecost was the Birthday of a society 
 in whose life Christ Himself would live, through 
 whose acts He would work. It was the return of 
 Christ upon earth through the ministry of the Spirit. 
 The Spirit came charged with a new mission of life, 
 coming as the Spirit of Christ, bringing into human
 
 128 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 life not only a Divine Presence but the Presence of 
 the Incarnate. The Spirit bestows upon us not 
 merely union with God but union through God made 
 Man. For Christ has not gone back into the hidden 
 glories of Godhead as He came forth. He has 
 taken Humanity up into the presence of God for 
 ever. 
 
 The Church is then the Body of Christ in simple 
 reality, the living organism which He uses to do His 
 work, the society of His foundation in which the 
 deeds wrought by Him in His earthly life are per- 
 petuated by the Holy Spirit to the end of the world. 
 The Holy Spirit is the Source of its Life and of its 
 Unity. The Unity of the Spirit is the Spirit -given 
 Life of the Church. The Christian Unity is a deeper 
 unity than that of race. S. Paul realised that. 
 Brought up in religious surroundings which breathed 
 the spirit of exclusive unity, he lived to cast away 
 the fetters of Jewish exclusiveness, while he retained 
 in a more impressive and enduring form the ideal 
 of unity. He saw that the Unity of Christ's Church 
 broke down the barrier between Jew and Gentile. 
 It was a unity of inner life which transcended all 
 differences of natural character and individual gifts. 
 In the dissensions at Corinth he had healed the 
 external breaches of Church life by reminding his 
 converts that the Spirit by Whom they had been 
 baptised into one Body was a Spirit of order and not 
 of confusion a Spirit with manifold gifts of
 
 PENTECOST 129 
 
 grace, vitalising with individual powers of ministry 
 each separate personality, but subordinating the 
 work of each single member to the needs of the 
 whole Body, inspiring varieties of service, differ- 
 ences of administration, but energising all with one 
 life. 
 
 And that one life is the very life of God. There 
 lies the secret of Unity. It is the Unity of the Life of 
 God. S. Paul looked at the Church on the practical 
 side, as it expressed itself in the world of men. 
 He saw men caught up into the fellowship of the 
 Body by the gift of the Spirit, and thus united to the 
 One Lord, whose Life the Holy Ghost transmits. 
 Behind and beyond, as the ultimate source, he saw 
 the Father, the very Fount of Godhead, Who while 
 he remains ever supreme over all by virtue of His 
 infinite transcendence, yet moves through all in the 
 power of Divine Immanence and is in a special way 
 in all through the ministry of the Spirit. The unity 
 is a unity of Life the very Life of Christ the Head. 
 Into that one Life man is actually and definitely 
 incorporated by the gift of Baptism. This is the 
 fulfilment of the great Intercession of Christ for the 
 unity of His Church : "That they all may be one ; as 
 Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they 
 also may be one in Us." The unity for which Christ 
 looked was founded in the life of God Himself. Just 
 as the Father lives in the Son as His organ and instru- 
 ment of revelation and as the Object also of His
 
 130 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 infinite Love, just as the Son lives in the Father, 
 as the express Image of His Person and the efful- 
 gence of His glory, so His followers are to have not 
 merely harmony of moral purpose and unity of 
 affection, but actual unity of substance, a deep 
 fundamental unity of life. This one life is communi- 
 cated through sacramental ministries, the validity 
 of which is guaranteed by the preservation of 
 Apostolic Order. This unity of life, in itself invisible 
 though sacramentally imparted, when duly and 
 fully cherished shews itself in external marks of 
 union and fellowship. It is the life of the glorified 
 Humanity of Christ, manifesting itself normally in 
 concord and amity, a unity which is marred and 
 outraged, though not broken, by every self-willed 
 thought, by every deed of unkindness and of sin. 
 
 This is the Unity which binds together the living 
 and the dead in one unbroken fellowship of Life. 
 It is a Unity of divine Life, ministered to us first by 
 the Spirit through the Sacrament of Baptism, into 
 which we enter more consciously and more deeply 
 by the consecration of our lives at Confirmation, in 
 the fellowship of which we grow with every Eucharist. 
 
 It is this vital union with Jesus which determines 
 the Holiness of the Church. The Church is not holy 
 because it is made up of holy men, but it is holy 
 because it possesses the valid sacraments of holiness, 
 by which men grow in righteousness and truth, 
 because it upholds in its teaching the supreme idea
 
 PENTECOST 131 
 
 of Holiness, which the life of Christ reveals. The 
 Church ever stands for the highest and holiest con- 
 ception of human life. For it presents to man the 
 ideal of the Life of Christ made accessible to us 
 through the grace of the sacraments. And to-day 
 the duty of the Church in the face of growing laxity 
 of public opinion is to uphold bravely the Christian 
 ideal of holiness in all relations of life. If the ideal 
 of the Church is high and puts a strain upon our 
 obedience, at least it has the supreme authority of 
 Christ. For the Church, duly guided into all wisdom 
 by the Holy Spirit according to Christ's promise, 
 speaks with the authority of Christ Himself. There 
 may be points of minor detail upon which the verdict 
 of the Church is uncertain, but on the fundamental 
 duties of morality in such relations as those of the 
 home and of marriage, the Church speaks with no 
 uncertain voice and claims our ready and frank 
 obedience. Only those who fully recognise in the 
 Church the authority of Christ can have the strength 
 to obey. What most we need is the solemn convic- 
 tion that with all its mistakes and failures and weak- 
 nesses the Church is yet the Body of Christ, invested 
 with His authority, quickened with His life, sus- 
 tained by His Presence. The Church is in a real 
 and full sense the Kingdom of God. His Kingship 
 is mediated naturally through human agents and 
 by visible means, because it is the Kingdom of the 
 Incarnate. It is to-day, as ever, the promised
 
 132 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 sphere of Divine activity, of Divine revelation, the 
 sphere in which the supreme sovereignty of God 
 is welcomed by hearts of willing obedience. May 
 it be ours so to use the gifts of Churchmanship that 
 our lives may testify by their beauty and holiness 
 to the grace and power of the Sacraments, and may 
 win others to accept the Divine authority of the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 Pray for the quickening of Church, life and witness. 
 
 Almighty and everlasting God, by Whose Spirit 
 the whole Body of the Church is governed and 
 sanctified, receive our supplications and prayers, 
 which we offer before Thee for all estates of men 
 in Thy Holy Church, that every member of the 
 same in his vocation and ministry may truly and 
 godly serve Thee, through our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 C. 
 
 The gift of the Holy Spirit is the quickening of 
 individual life. Man cannot live by bread alone. 
 Earthly things do not suffice. God's grace is needed. 
 Not merely because of sin, but always in the eternal 
 decrees of God, grace was needed for the fulfilment 
 of human life. Man, by the very terms of creation, 
 was to be developed by fellowship with God. And 
 that fellowship was eternally designed to be a fellow- 
 ship with the Incarnate Son of God, achieved through 
 the indwelling Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is a
 
 PENTECOST 133 
 
 needed gift, such as even Christ Himself received 
 for the perfection of His peerless Manhood. It is an 
 eternal gift, completing human personality, opening 
 out the prospect of a wider, fuller, richer life than 
 this world can ever understand or attain. It sug- 
 gests the possibility of a fellowship with God, which, 
 without confusing the human and divine, yet 
 achieves in us a vital union with God, in intimacy 
 and reality transcending all that in this life we can 
 ever realise of personal fellowship. The indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit, the first and earliest spring of 
 spiritual life, is the source of continual development 
 and growth at every stage, the promise of perfected 
 personality hereafter. It is the gift of true Sonship. 
 " As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
 the sons of God." It is not that we have to become 
 sons in some distant future. But we are led by the 
 Spirit. We are sons already. Sonship is God's gift 
 to us, a present possession, a privilege to be exercised, 
 a power to be used. Sonship means a real assured 
 trust the very starting-point of our spiritual life 
 is meant to be a great assurance. God is faithful. 
 Yet day by day this initial glory of Sonship is for- 
 gotten. The divine Fatherhood is slighted. We 
 cease to trust. We grow anxious and perturbed, 
 not in the great things of life, but in the small 
 things, the things that make up our daily life, the 
 things that really matter. We need the stillness 
 and the quiet of a great conviction. We may not
 
 134 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 indeed have full vision, because we are but children. 
 But children are called to trust. Calm, unquestion- 
 ing trust, simple loyalty, utter faith this is the 
 glory of childhood. " Beloved, now are we the 
 children of God." So, led by the Spirit, we make 
 our act of faith and realise our Sonship day by day. 
 Whether it be the infirmities of advancing years, 
 the uncertainties of daily work, the difficult decisions 
 of life, the pressure of repeated temptations, the 
 consciousness of moral weakness and ineffectiveness, 
 or the sense of unutterable need in all alike we 
 must exercise the calm trust of Sonship in the power 
 of the Spirit. Let us go on, as Francis de Sales used 
 to say to his pupils, in all simplicity. Do not be so 
 anxious to win a quiet mind and it will be all the 
 quieter. Do not examine so closely the progress of 
 your soul. Do not crave so much to be perfect, but 
 just let your spiritual life be guided by your duties. 
 God, Who has led you so far already by the Spirit, 
 will lead you safely on. Be altogether at rest in the 
 assurance of His loving care. The leading of the 
 Spirit, true Sonship, means trust. 
 
 And the leading of the Spirit means personal 
 holiness. Perhaps we are in danger of forgetting 
 how and where this holiness is really achieved. 
 We are inclined to regard holiness as some delicate 
 grace of spiritual refinement which is too tender to 
 have any relation to the rougher aspects of daily 
 life. It becomes a beautiful ideal, which those who
 
 PENTECOST 135 
 
 have the hard work of life to endure are apt regret- 
 fully to set aside as impossible for them. But that 
 is not the holiness of Sonship. Sonship means the 
 fulfilment of duties. In and through those very 
 duties we shall find the way of holiness. It is the 
 perfect fulfilment of daily obligations which is the 
 means and measure of our holiness. All life is 
 touched with God. And all our faculties are en- 
 riched with the power of the indwelling Spirit. 
 There is no aptitude, no impulse, no faculty, no 
 power of life which is not touched with the genius 
 and fire of the Holy Spirit. Where the indwelling 
 Spirit is, it is the whole personality, the whole man 
 that receives enrichment. As many as are led by 
 the Spirit of God are empowered with the perfection 
 of filial happiness, strength and love. Thus in simple 
 obedience to the guiding of the Spirit, in the faithful 
 submission of all our powers to His consecration, 
 we shall find the way of holiness in the very paths 
 of our daily duties. We long to be perfect in some 
 way of our own. That is not the way of the Spirit. 
 The son is content with the guiding providence of 
 the Father. In the way of filial obedience through 
 the grace of the Spirit we shall find growth in holi- 
 ness. 
 
 And the Spirit gives Vision. Those who are led 
 by the Spirit have a growing insight into Truth. 
 In the power of the Spirit we recognise the dignity 
 of our individual life. We see ourselves as we truly
 
 136 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 are, created, redeemed, sanctified by God Himself. 
 A new value attaches to us because we are God's. 
 To think of ourselves in the dignity of Sonship will 
 prove one of the greatest remedies for that self- 
 consciousness which is the perpetual perplexity of 
 the earnest life. For whenever our thoughts rest 
 upon ourselves, our own doings, our successes, our 
 influence, our activities of any kind, then we shall 
 remember that after all it is not our bare, isolated, 
 natural selves upon which our mind is reflecting, 
 but our eye rests upon God the Holy Spirit, whose 
 energies and vigour suffuse all our activities with 
 power. Look down whatever avenue of life and 
 action that we will, it is not our mere unaided human 
 selves that we see, but the soul inspired and upheld 
 by the Spirit, and our thoughts rest ultimately not 
 on self but on God. 
 
 It is in such ways that the gift of the Spirit en- 
 riches the individual life. And it is for us, who have 
 the Spirit of God, to shew to others the happiness 
 of such a Spirit-guided life and to lead them by the 
 very joy of our own Christian experience to seek the 
 secret of a life so blest. 
 
 I would my friends should see 
 In my glad eyes the beauty of His Face, 
 Should learn that in His presence there is peace, 
 Strength and contentment that can never cease.
 
 PENTECOST 137 
 
 Pray for the help of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 O Holy Spirit of God, Fount of Wisdom and of 
 Grace, enlighten me in heart and mind and will 
 that I may see God and learn to do His Will. 
 Lead me in the way of holiness and guide me into 
 all truth, for His sake Who is the W r ay, the Truth 
 and the Life, even Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
 XI 
 S. PAUL 
 
 ACTS ix. 1-20; xxn. 3-21 ; xxvi. 9-20 
 
 A r TER the great day of Pentecost there was 
 no event more pregnant with mighty issues 
 for the Church than the Conversion of Saul. That 
 great conversion not only brought a pure and 
 zealous soul under the dominion of Christ, not only 
 claimed a splendid intellect for the propagation of 
 the truth and bound a powerful and energetic will 
 to the unceasing service of God, but it coloured all 
 S. Paul's conception of God and provided the very 
 categories of thought under which he was able to 
 present the revelation of Christ in his mission 
 teaching. It explained the reason why S. Paul 
 never ceased in all his sufferings to apprehend 
 Christ as the King of Glory, the triumphant Victor 
 over death and sin, bringing freedom and redemp- 
 tion to fettered and sin-laden souls. And for the 
 Church it was a critical moment. It marked the 
 opening of a new era. For in the soul of the con- 
 verted persecutor lay the seed of a world- wide 
 138
 
 S. PAUL 139 
 
 revolution. It was through the ministry of this 
 latest-bora Apostle that the Society of Jesus was 
 to free itself from the bonds of Judaic prejudice 
 and the dangers of local environment, and to claim 
 its true place in God's purpose as the Universal 
 Church, co-extensive with all mankind, the re- 
 generator of the nations, the bearer of the light 
 of truth to all the world, embracing within the 
 scope of its redemptive powers every aspect and 
 mode of human life and activity. 
 
 A. 
 
 In studying the life of S. Paul as an illustration 
 of the Call of the Lord we can see the course of 
 silent training by which God prepared him for his 
 wonderful mission. It may be that the very 
 success with which S. Paul accomplished his work 
 blinds us to the great difficulty of his task. S. Paul 
 was able to take such a conspicuous part in the 
 history of the Church of the first century because of 
 his own catholicity. The Catholicity of the Church 
 was not the creation of S. Paul. But it needed a 
 catholic man to interpret aright to the world the 
 Catholicity of Christ and His Church. And in 
 S. Paul there was an Apostle whose whole life, up 
 till the moment of his conversion, had been a divinely 
 ordered preparation for manifesting effectively to 
 the world what the other Apostles could only pro-
 
 140 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 claim immediately to a very limited circle. The 
 training of S. Peter and S. Matthew had been but a 
 poor preparation for an appeal to the Roman world. 
 To say this is not to cast doubts upon the power of 
 the Holy Spirit's inspiration. But the Spirit uses 
 human personality as He finds it. The life of the 
 Galilean Apostles was a circumscribed one. Their 
 sympathies were Jewish. Their thoughts and 
 habits were those of Palestine. They were un- 
 lettered, untrained men, sufficient and able enough 
 as witnesses to the facts of Christ's life indeed the 
 more credible, the more effective for that purpose 
 just because they had no intellectual theories of 
 their own to warp their natural powers of observa- 
 tion. But the Church was to be world-wide. The 
 truths of Christ's life must be presented by an 
 Apostle in full sympathy with all the movements 
 of the age. It needed one who knew what was best 
 in Judaism and could yet enter into all the diffi- 
 culties and hopes of the Gentile world, who had 
 insight into the practical working of- idolatry, who 
 had a knowledge of the world, who could claim a 
 commanding position in provincial society by 
 reason of his Roman citizenship, who could compel 
 the attention of the learned by the weight of his 
 own splendid intellect, who could meet the philo- 
 sopher, the aristocrat, the cultured pagan, the 
 state official, each on his own ground. Such indeed 
 was S. Paul. Trained at Tarsus, one of the three
 
 S. PAUL 141 
 
 great universities of the world, he was in touch with 
 the best thought, philosophy and science of his age. 
 Living in no secluded way, but enjoying the full 
 freedom of a Jew of the Dispersion, he knew the 
 difficulties and temptations of social life. As a Jew 
 he was versed in the hopes of his own nation, and 
 living a life of rigorous integrity and religious 
 earnestness, he looked for the consolation of Israel, 
 and was thus able to bring the new facts of the life 
 of Christ to the test of a mind stored with a loving 
 and accurate remembrance of Jewish tradition. 
 As a Roman, from his study of Roman law and his 
 frank admiration of the wonderful unity of the 
 Roman Empire, S. Paul had gained that great 
 genius for organisation which was needed to guide 
 aright the spreading Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 It is very comforting to reflect on this guiding 
 preparation of God. The life which may at this 
 moment seem confused in its purpose, disappointing 
 in its present achievements, or ineffective in its 
 witness for holiness and truth, is being silently led 
 on all the while towards a happy issue. It is 
 easier to think of God as the Omega than to realise 
 that He is the Alpha of each individual life. God 
 has been before us in all things and is before us 
 each day, preparing our world for us and leading us 
 surely by the Holy Spirit through all the mazy 
 wanderings of life. He leaves no aptitude unused. 
 He takes joy in the quickening of every faculty, in
 
 142 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 the development of every natural gift. He brings 
 our manhood to perfection that it may witness more 
 fully to His grace and love. " I hve called thee by 
 thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou 
 hast not known Me. I girded thee, though thou 
 hast not known Me." So God Who has called us 
 is silently preparing us. For us, as for Saul, the 
 issue may well be hidden. We may hardly be 
 conscious of the Divine purpose. But if in all our 
 work we have just that fundamental sense of 
 Vocation, which leads us to give ourselves with all 
 our hearts to the work which is before us, as Saul 
 ever did, then such a spirit of dedication and 
 obedience will prove a true preparation for fulfilling 
 the higher Call of the Lord when it shall be more 
 clearly revealed. That is the glory of Saul. He 
 was convinced of divine mission, he surrendered 
 himself without reserve to the duty that lay before 
 him, he waited upon God and when the Will of the 
 Lord was revealed with convincing certainty, he 
 was at once obedient to the heavenly vision. " One 
 step enough for me " is true of our daily response to 
 the divine leading. We may not see far before us, 
 we may even mistake the real issue towards which 
 we are tending, but where there is a faithful use of 
 all our gifts and a willing and holy dedication of 
 all our powers, where there is a pure love of the 
 truth and a steadfast obedience to the highest, 
 there can be no failure in fulfilling the divine
 
 S. PAUL 143 
 
 purpose. But for the happiness of our own lives 
 and for the true understanding of so many great 
 and gifted souls to whom God has not yet revealed 
 Himself in the fulness of His loving purpose, we 
 need to remember the long and silent preparation 
 through which God patiently disciplines and 
 lovingly trains those whom He calls to be His 
 servants. It was truly said of that most majestic 
 figure of Old Testament prophecy, the Servant of 
 the Lord, " In the shadow of His Hand hath He hid 
 me and made me a polished shaft." So does God 
 hide us in the shadow of His Hand, when He would 
 polish His shafts and prepare us for His work. 
 
 Recall the secret leadings of God's Providence and offer 
 yourself afresh to fulfil your Vocation. 
 
 Almighty and loving God, Who hast made me 
 for Thyself and hast led me all the days of my life 
 in the ways of Thy Providence, grant me a know- 
 ledge of Thy Will and grace to obey Thee, that I 
 may praise Thee for Thy protection and may follow 
 whithersoever Thy love has called me, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 B. 
 
 " God, Who commanded the light to shine out of 
 darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
 Face of Jesus Christ." "It pleased God, Who 
 separated me from my mother's womb, and called 
 me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me." Those
 
 144 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 are the phrases in which S. Paul afterwards spoke 
 of the wonder of his Conversion. The Call of the 
 Lord had truly been a Call " from my mother's 
 womb," though not realised in its glorious certainty 
 till God shined upon him out of darkness before 
 the Damascus gate. The conversion of S. Paul 
 was not the turning of a sinner from the ways of 
 evil into the path of holiness and love. It was not 
 like the conversion of S. Francis of Assisi, the 
 sudden yielding of a soul to new ideals of beauty 
 and of God, not like that of S. Augustine, the 
 conquest of the better self over the lower nature 
 after long years of wilful sin, nor like that of 
 S. Ignatius Loyola, the sudden sense of the claim 
 of God over human life. The conversion of S. Paul 
 was not a moral change but a mental and spiritual 
 illumination. He had always been a servant of God. 
 The Jewish element had always been strongest in 
 S. Paul's deeply religious character. He had a 
 solemn reverence for the supremacy of God, a high 
 ideal of righteousness and a zeal for the expression 
 of that reverence and that righteousness according 
 to the Law. He was not an ordinary Pharisee, not 
 a formalist. He was a man of deep moral instincts. 
 For him the Law of God was holy and good and 
 demanded righteousness. To fight against the Law 
 was to fight against God. When, then, a new 
 agitation was stirred in Christian circles by the 
 work of S. Stephen, and the Pharisees were drawn
 
 S. PAUL 145 
 
 to take part with the Sadducees in the persecution 
 of the Church, Saul leapt to take the lead in defence 
 of the Law. With the passionate zeal of sincere 
 conviction he was ready to avenge the Christian 
 contempt of the Mosaic Commandment. With the 
 new leader came new methods. The death of 
 S. Stephen had scattered the Christian evangelists. 
 Saul would follow them throughout the Dispersion 
 and with the authority of the Sadducees bring the 
 Christians out of the control of the local synagogues 
 into the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, 
 which alone had power to condemn to death. 
 
 And as he hasted on this mission, relentlessly 
 pushing on in the midday heat, even as the very 
 goal of the Damascus gateway was in sight he 
 met Jesus. He had no doubt that Jesus was dead. 
 Yet here in a light from heaven above the bright- 
 ness of the sun was Jesus Jesus in glory, radiant, 
 risen, triumphant. " I am Jesus Whom thou 
 persecutest." It was no hallucination, no subjective, 
 imaginary vision. It was an actual appearance. 
 With his outward eyes Saul saw the glory, his lips 
 framed the question, " Who art Thou, Lord ? " his 
 ears caught the answer, " I am Jesus Whom thou 
 persecutest." S. Paul in after days was always 
 wont to distinguish this appearance of the Risen 
 Lord from all the visions and other revelations 
 of which he afterwards had peculiar experience. 
 This was no ecstasy nor rapture. It was the 
 
 L
 
 146 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 presentation of the risen Lord to him in visible 
 form. S. Paul based his claim to Apostleship upon 
 this vision of the Lord in glory meeting him before 
 the gate of Damascus. If the other Apostles were 
 qualified for their work of witness to Christ's 
 Resurrection by their vision of Him during the 
 great Forty Days, he too realised his own Call to 
 the Apostolate in the epiphany of the Risen Lord 
 before Damascus. It drove in upon him the 
 certain conviction that Jesus lived. The Cross 
 had not been the end as he had believed. The 
 disciples were not impostors as he had thought. 
 It was God Himself Who had chosen this way of 
 conviction for His future Apostle. S. Paul always 
 felt the pressure of the divine Will, the sovereignty 
 of the divine Call, the urgency of the divine pursuit 
 revealed at his conversion. He felt himself to be 
 " apprehended by Christ Jesus." Nor can we 
 wonder that to one who was to be such a unique 
 instrument of the divine Will, God should be 
 pleased to make special revelation. The physical 
 blindness which followed upon the revelation of 
 the risen Christ was doubtless a merciful provision 
 for S. Paul, enforcing retreat and seclusion. His 
 obedience was immediate and complete. He was 
 brought to Ananias and as " less than the least of 
 all saints " entered the Society of the risen Christ by 
 the lowly door of Baptism. A short ministry of 
 witness to the Deity of Jesus enabled him to attest
 
 S. PAUL 147 
 
 before the astonished Jews at Damascus the 
 sincerity of his conversion. Then he withdrew to 
 the solitude of Arabia that he might surrender 
 himself entirely to the new Call of the Lord. 
 
 There in the retreat of Arabia, the Apostle 
 meditating upon the new revelation of the risen 
 Christ, gained a conviction of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, an experience of the intimate nearness of 
 Jesus the Saviour, a sense of the joy of forgiveness 
 and of the glorious freedom of the service of God, 
 which never left him. Recalling his old life of 
 faithfulness under the Law, he realised how it was 
 the discipline of the Law that had urged him 
 forward to the obedience of Christ. The Law had 
 demanded a righteousness which it was powerless 
 itself to create. The Law left men with the sense 
 of sin and gave no opportunity of forgiveness. In 
 Christ there was not only a higher revelation of 
 holiness and love which was the fulfilment of the 
 very ideals of the Law, but there was the power of 
 an endless life, which re-created men with the gift 
 of the divine pardon and strengthened them with 
 grace to obey the divine Will. The intense moral 
 struggle which had torn the soul of the Apostle 
 was ended. In surrendering every thought to the 
 captivity of Christ he had found peace. And here 
 S. Paul found the explanation of that mystery of 
 triumphant happiness which had marked the lives 
 of those followers of Christ whom he had harried
 
 148 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 with persecution. He found how the words of 
 Stephen the martyr must have been actually true. 
 Before his eyes the heavens had indeed been opened 
 and he had seen the Son of Man standing at the 
 right hand of God. It was not blasphemy after all. 
 It was not mere imagining nor the illusory vision 
 of a dying man. The Face of Christ, triumphant, 
 glorious and loving, did beam upon His disciples, 
 as they served Hun in the path of witness and of 
 daily duty. It was from that Face that light 
 flowed upon all the ways of life, giving to men in 
 direst need and sadness the glowing certainty of 
 victory and of peace. Thus the meaning of the 
 new faith sank into his soul and the days of solitude 
 brought a new and deep spiritual experience which 
 ratified his conviction of the reality of the risen 
 life of our Lord. 
 
 And we too need solitude and retreat for the 
 deepening of our convictions and the steadying of 
 our beliefs. New truth may flash suddenly upon 
 our lives. We need to brood and meditate upon it 
 hi reverent silence that we may assimilate it and 
 really make it our own. Grace is given to us at 
 moments of sacramental approach to God. We 
 need quiet times of recollection and thought to 
 gather up all our powers and submit them wholly 
 to the new influence that God has set working in 
 our souls. Each day we make our little Retreat of 
 prayer and meditation and Bible-reading. It is
 
 S. PAUL 149 
 
 our " Arabia," confirming us in faith, opening up 
 for us new experiences of fellowship with Christ, 
 preparing us for our work of witness, assuring us of 
 reality in our spiritual life. And sometimes we 
 shall find leisure for a longer Retreat, in which God 
 will take us up into the Mount and shew us the 
 pattern of holy things and draw us nearer to Him 
 in penitence and surrender, that He may send us 
 forth like S. Paul, strengthened, assured, convinced, 
 ready to make full proof of our ministry, pressing 
 ever toward the mark for the prize of the high 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Pray that we may steadfastly follow in the faith and 
 teaching of S. Paid. 
 
 O God, Who through the preaching of the blessed 
 Apostle Saint Paul hast caused the light of the 
 Gospel to shine throughout the world, Grant, 
 we beseech Thee, that we, having his wonderful 
 conversion in remembrance, may shew forth our 
 thankfulness unto Thee for the same, by following 
 the holy doctrine which he taught, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 C. 
 
 The experience of his own conversion left a 
 mark on all the teaching of S. Paul. His own 
 personal experience was so intense and his person- 
 ality so forceful that it dominated all his thought 
 and language. Even in the most impersonal letters 
 his teaching is cast in terms of his own marvellous
 
 150 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 experience, his own individuality suddenly breaks 
 through in flashes of rare revelation. It constitutes 
 at once the charm and the bewildering difficulty of 
 his writings. No one ever cared less for style. 
 His thoughts pour out like a torrent. His sentences, 
 with their lavish wealth of vocabulary, their abrupt 
 transitions and unexpected parentheses, are the 
 natural expression of his rugged, strenuous and 
 sincere character. He could not write an epistle 
 which was not in some way a self-disclosure. And 
 always the three great thoughts which are upper- 
 most in his mind are the Grace of God, the glory 
 of Christ and the union of Christ with His Church. 
 It was his own sense of the undeserved favour of 
 God in calling him, the persecutor and blasphemer, 
 to be the Apostle of His Love, that gave to S. Paul 
 his characteristic doctrine of Grace. God was to 
 him sovereign and supreme, guiding all the issues 
 of life by His eternal decrees. And God had deigned 
 to give to him the unmerited grace of becoming the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, by the effectual working 
 of His power, so that he could preach among the 
 heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. The 
 riches of God, the wealth of grace, the eternity of 
 the divine purpose, the supremacy of the divine 
 Call, the loving kindness of God to the undeserving 
 sinner, the unworthiness of man, the irresistible 
 power of the divine Will these are the most 
 pregnant themes of S. Paul's teaching about God
 
 S. PAUL 151 
 
 in His relation to man, and they are based upon the 
 spiritual experience of his own conversion. 
 
 And because it was the triumphant Christ Who 
 appeared to him in the splendour of His risen and 
 ascended glory, S. Paul's conception of the Lord 
 was always touched with the thought of victory. 
 He had never passed through the anxiety and 
 bewilderment of the Twelve. He had never lost 
 his Leader in the tomb. He had never known 
 Christ in the flesh. Jesus was always the risen 
 Christ to him, the Lord of glory, of life and of 
 power. Light ever streamed from His Face. It is 
 the reigning and triumphant Christ that is before 
 the Apostle's eyes. There is a ringing tone of 
 certainty and joy, of thankfulness and praise, of 
 life and power in all his teaching. The Christian 
 life is a risen life. The source and centre of its 
 power are to be found in the Throne of God. 
 Heaven is the true sphere of all Christian activities, 
 because they are wrought in God. Our citizenship 
 is in Heaven. It is in vital union with the glorified 
 and triumphant Lord that all our Christian life is 
 passed. There is no failure there, there can be no 
 defeat. The Christian can speak in tones of con- 
 viction and assurance, for God is faithful. Here 
 and now the heavenly life begins. God, Who is rich 
 in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, 
 even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 
 together with Christ and hath raised us up together
 
 152 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
 Christ Jesus. Thus it is Christ as risen and trium- 
 phant Who is our hope and glory..* 
 
 S. Paul had a very sincere and deep experience of 
 his own individual relation to Christ, but with all 
 his individualism he never forgot that the individual 
 could only be perfected in the fellowship and society 
 of others. And at the moment of his conversion, 
 when Christ had said to the persecutor of the 
 Christian Church, "Why persecutest thou Me?" 
 S. Paul had learnt the vital union of Christ with 
 His Church. To persecute the Church was to 
 persecute Christ. Christ Himself lived in His 
 Church. The Church was the very Body of Christ, 
 in which all the members were knit together in 
 unity of life by the indwelling Spirit. The corporate 
 perfection of the Church was marred and broken 
 by the failure of any member to perform its due 
 function in the organism of the Body. If one 
 member suffered, all the members suffered with it. 
 If one member was honoured, all the members 
 rejoiced with it. And Christ was so identified with 
 the life of the Church that S. Paul could speak of 
 the possibility of its members " filling up that 
 which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His 
 Body's sake which is the Church." The life of 
 Christ was reproduced not only in the individual, 
 but in the whole Church. Its authority, its liberty, 
 its holiness, were derived from Christ Himself. It
 
 S. PAUL 153 
 
 was the school of human life. No life could be 
 brought to perfection in loneliness. Human life 
 was to be made perfect that it might be offered to 
 God. The Church was the only fellowship in which 
 that individual life could be truly and fully con- 
 summated and prepared for God, because in it 
 alone through the vital energies of the indwelling 
 Spirit were to be found the re-creating powers of 
 the divine life. Thus for S. Paul Christ was in- 
 separable in thought from His Church. The Church 
 was Christ in His redemptive activities towards men. 
 Such are some of the chief characteristics of the 
 Apostle's teaching, which owed their emphasis and 
 their very form to the circumstances of his con- 
 version. The proof of them lies in the experience 
 of S. Paul himself. They were not just the sudden 
 impressions of early enthusiasm. But they stood 
 the test of all the work of life. Persecution, failure, 
 suffering, the shock of contact with the sordid 
 ambition of the pagan world, the assaults of intel- 
 lectual criticism and opposition, disappointments 
 in the Christian witness of his early converts, the 
 disillusionment of life in the great Roman cities, the 
 temptations of court and camp and commerce 
 none of these things could shake his trust in the 
 power of the risen Lord. When at length S. Paul 
 crowned a life of heroic labour and perpetual 
 suffering with the supreme witness of a martyr's 
 death upon the Ostian Way at Rome, the light had
 
 154 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 not died down. His faith had borne the brunt 
 of all the hard experiences of life. Christ had 
 sufficed. The revelation of G>d in Christ had 
 equipped, sustained and strengthened a strong 
 man for the work of a giant. It had satisfied all 
 the claims of the intellect. It had responded to all 
 the demands of a passionate, vigorous and enthusi- 
 astic nature. May it be ours also at the end of our 
 earthly conflict to take upon our lips with lowly 
 confidence the words of the brave Apostle, with 
 which he closed his ministry of faithful witness: 
 " I have fought the good fight. I have finished my 
 course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there 
 is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
 Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that 
 day, and not to me only, but unto all them also 
 that love His appearing." 
 
 Pray for steadfastness and courage in our witness for 
 Christ. 
 
 Almighty and merciful God, Who didst call Saint 
 Paul to be the Apostle of the Gentiles and didst 
 enable him to fight the good fight and finish his 
 course, keeping the faith, grant that in our service 
 we may abound yet more and more in knowledge 
 and in all judgment, that we may approve things 
 that are excellent and may be sinless and without 
 offence, and being stablished in holiness and 
 rilled with the fruits of righteousness, may adorn 
 the doctrine of Christ our Saviour in all things to 
 Thy honour and glory.
 
 XII 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 
 
 REVELATION i. 10-20 ; iv. ; v. 
 
 ' 1DLESSED are the eyes which see the things 
 -U that ye see." The words might have been 
 spoken to us to-day. We are like the disciples to 
 whom Christ spoke. We recognise the possibilities 
 of Vision and the blessedness of our opportunities 
 just as little as they. The Apostles and the gazing 
 crowds had actually before them that very Vision 
 for which the noblest of the ages had yearned 
 unsatisfied, for which the wisest had strained their 
 eyes unblessed, for which the aching and sorrowing 
 hearts of the world had pined, dying uncomforted, 
 for which all good and holy men had longed and 
 hoped. The Desire of all nations had come. God 
 made Man, Love Incarnate stood before them the 
 perfect Man with words of grace and piercing eyes 
 of flashing sympathy that read the souls of men, 
 with heart of love, infinite in holiness and mercy 
 the world's Ideal, its Redeemer and its King, the 
 only Son of God. And the world was not seized
 
 156 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 with the wonder of its blessing, the world did not 
 prostrate itself at His feet, it raised no song of 
 triumph at His Coming, nor gave love for Love, 
 nor yielded sovereignty nor gave Him worship. 
 Only men were moved with strange, momentary 
 wonder at His words, seeing no god-like beauty in 
 His sorrowing Love. Blindly they closed their 
 hearts to His appeal and drove Him down the 
 dolorous way to Calvary. 
 
 Are we much better than they ? To us too the 
 Vision will not come in ways that we expect. We 
 are not without vision. We have our hopes, great 
 and noble hopes, but they are not God's. His ways 
 are so different from our ways. The Vision of God, 
 even of the risen Christ, is not yet a vision of 
 ecstatic loveliness and ineffable splendour. It is a 
 vision first of lowliness, so lowly that perhaps we say 
 we have no vision. For all is grey and dull and 
 dark. There is no clear prospect, no bright outline, 
 only a vague and formless haze. Yet all the while 
 we might hear the words of Jesus ringing in our 
 ears, " Blessed are the eyes which see the things 
 that ye see." The vision is ours already. We see. 
 We see enough to know that God is with us. We 
 know that the Hand of everlasting Love has never 
 ceased to guide us, that God Himself feeds and 
 strengthens us with His own perfect Life. We 
 know that His merciful forgiveness has raised us 
 from the depths of sin and set us upon the hills
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 157 
 
 of hope. We know that sorrow and trouble and 
 the ache of heart and brain are but the messengers 
 of a Love that waits upon us with gifts that pass 
 man's understanding. All this we know. And 
 thus we see Christ already standing before us. 
 " When we see God," says the old saint, " we see 
 what we desire." And with the opening vision of 
 God desire grows. For as in the great Forty Days, 
 so is it now. The risen Christ leads on His disciples 
 with ever-growing revelation of Himself to a vision 
 yet more glorious. 
 
 A. 
 
 And for that Vision the risen Christ Himself 
 prepares us by the discipline of faith, by the revela- 
 tion of truth, by the quickening of hope. The 
 vision is the gift of God indeed, but there is a 
 preparation needed on our part to make the gift 
 possible and profitable to our souls. There must 
 be moral integrity, purity of intention, uprightness 
 of character, truthfulness and sincerity. The great 
 cardinal virtues of justice, honour, truthfulness and 
 chastity must prepare our eyes for spiritual vision. 
 Without them there can be no door opened in 
 Heaven. Men ask why they have not greater 
 vision. The quest of the grail is for the pure in 
 heart, the guileless, the loving. The elementary 
 laws of love and truth and equity must be obeyed 
 before higher truth can be recognised. The con-
 
 158 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 science must be both alert and pure. Yet often the 
 morality of the devout has proved the casuistry of 
 Satan. No sanctity, no height of ecstasy in spiri- 
 tual things can absolve from the rigorous obliga- 
 tions of truth and simple honesty. Sometimes the 
 spiritual vision is dark because the character is 
 warped with evil. Without holiness no man can 
 see the Lord. That holiness is not the high devotion 
 of some superior soul, but the plain goodness of a 
 soul that simply seeks to do right. From such 
 the vision of the risen Christ will not be long 
 withheld. 
 
 And where there is to be growing vision, there 
 must be docility, the alert ear, the readiness to 
 learn, the willingness to take pains and make effort. 
 The mind and conscience alike must be educated and 
 put to school. There must be welcome given to all 
 that disciplines the powers of the mind to a readier 
 apprehension of the truth. The love of truth itself 
 must be sought, prejudices set aside and preposses- 
 sions questioned. There must be an outgoing of 
 the self not only in the ways of thought, but in 
 ways of fellowship with others, as we seek to take 
 up the interests of other lives into the progress and 
 growth of our own. While we are ready to shirk 
 no issue which new discovery suggests in the realm 
 of thought and knowledge, we shall open our eyes 
 wide, and keep them open, to the reality and 
 fulness of the great life that surrounds us, and we
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 159 
 
 shall seek to know it at its best. The world and its 
 work need be no hindrance to our vision of God. 
 Has it not been said that the wonders of creation 
 are the very footprints of the Creator ? Himself as 
 yet we cannot see, but we are on the road that leads 
 to vision when we admire Him in the things that He 
 has made. So life with all it brings of responsibility 
 and fellowship and work may be for us the very 
 mirror of God. 
 
 But to gain the fulness of vision there must be 
 true spiritual aspiration, a real use of the spiritual 
 side of our nature. All men have the spiritual 
 faculty. It is that which prompts all ideals, which 
 urges us perpetually forward. It is the very breath 
 of God in our lives, separating us from the brute 
 creation. We must recognise the spirit as the 
 master-element in human life. Such spiritual 
 aspiration means the recognition of the eternal and 
 heavenly behind the veil of the temporal, the 
 acknowledgment of the supremacy of the spirit 
 even in the realm of matter. When that aspiration 
 is touched with belief in Christ, it gives a very 
 definite vision of the unseen. God, the personal, 
 loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is recognised 
 as the ultimate, ever-present reality of life, revealed 
 through Jesus the Incarnate and working to-day 
 through the sacramental agencies of His Church 
 for the restoration of mankind. This power of 
 spiritual apprehension must be trained and exer-
 
 160 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 cised by acts of simple faith. There must be great 
 hopes, high ideals, bold expectations of God. This 
 faculty is fed upon the Revelation of God in 
 Scripture, in Prayer and Sacrament. There is a 
 perpetual reaching out after God, if haply we may 
 find Him. Such are the conditions of preparedness 
 for vision truth of heart, truth of mind and truth 
 of soul. 
 
 These cannot compel vision. The vision is God's 
 gift. But the gift will never fail where the con- 
 ditions for its possibility are found. The awakened 
 heart, the eager hope, the direction of the life 
 towards the highest, the desire for service, the 
 humble thought of self, the sense of the Infinite 
 these are the sure harbingers of vision. God will 
 make Himself known. Our eyes shall see the King 
 in His Beauty even now. The vision of the risen 
 Christ comes with the power of immediate convic- 
 tion. It holds supreme sway over life, determining 
 all relations, sanctifying every interest, enhancing 
 all the values of life. In the fullest sense which the 
 words can bear, the words of the old saint are true, 
 " The life of man is the vision of God." The vision 
 of God is our life. It may come in myriad ways, it 
 may shew itself in various forms, but it brings 
 always the same assurance of power, the same 
 certitude of victory, the same sense of joy and 
 peace, ratifying with the conviction of undeniable 
 truth the great Call of the risen Lord.
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 161 
 
 Pray for the right direction of heart and will. 
 
 O Almighty God, Who alone canst order the 
 unruly wills and affections of sinful men, grant unto 
 Thy people that they may love the thing which 
 Thou commandest and desire that which Thou 
 dost promise, that so, among the sundry and 
 manifold changes of the world, our hearts may 
 surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be 
 found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 B. 
 
 For all time S. John has pictured to us the Vision 
 of Heaven with a beauty of symbol which must 
 colour all our thoughts about God. Not only is 
 he conscious of the shining Figure of " one like 
 unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down 
 to the feet and girt about at the breasts with a 
 golden girdle," with snow-white hair and flaming 
 eyes, with glistening feet and resounding voice, 
 walking in the midst of the seven candlesticks of 
 His Church on earth, but he looks through the 
 opened door of Heaven and sees the Throne on 
 high, where One sat that " was to look upon like 
 a jasper and a sardine stone," where in the midst 
 " stood a Lamb as it had been slain," with " seven 
 lamps of fire burning before the Throne, which are 
 the seven Spirits of God," before which the living 
 creatures and the twenty-four elders bowed in
 
 162 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 adoration, joining with the angelic chorus in the 
 worship of the Lamb. For S. John, since the 
 Incarnation, earth is the sphere-of heavenly min- 
 istries, the seat of heavenly worship, the home of 
 heavenly vision. " Behold, the tabernacle of God 
 is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they 
 shall be His people, and God Himself shall be 
 with them, and be their God." Jesus walks in 
 the midst of His Church. There can be no ministry 
 of the Church in which Jesus is not revealed. We 
 can see that divine Form moving in and out in 
 the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. It 
 was the vision of this glorious Presence in the 
 lowly surroundings of the infant Church of Asia 
 Minor that had cheered the Apostle through his 
 long years of faithful ministry and witness. The 
 powers of the world might persecute, the forces of 
 paganism might threaten to overwhelm the faith of 
 the Church, but the Presence of the Saviour was the 
 pledge of victory and the assurance of life. S. John 
 knew that it was the Christians that walked in 
 light. The powers of regeneration, the strength 
 that goes to ensure social progress, the forces that 
 purify and ennoble life, these he knew could be 
 found only in the new and vital energies of divine 
 grace which fructified life through the sacraments 
 of the Church of Christ. However strong the present 
 forces of the world might be, the future lay with 
 Christ and His Church. Thus in the daily services
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 163 
 
 of the Christian Altar, in the gathering of two or 
 three in Christian worship, the Apostle saw the 
 cheering Presence of the risen Christ, the Lord of 
 victories and of life. And beyond, S. John had the 
 still more wonderful vision of the heavenly Throne, 
 the seat of all energy and power and love. Before 
 the majestic Vision of the Father and the Lamb, his 
 spirit bowed in adoration. With the songs of the 
 redeemed and of the angels he joined his cry of 
 praise and worshipped with the elders round the 
 Throne. It was this spirit of adoring worship that 
 gave him that deeper insight into the mysteries of 
 God, that strong assurance of the divine triumph, 
 that glad thankfulness for the daily blessings of 
 redemption, which his great vision of the Apocalypse 
 reveals. And for us too the same Vision waits. 
 Ever hi the frequent sacramental ministries of 
 Church life, we see Christ Himself, in the power of 
 His risen and ascended glory, passing in and out 
 amongst us here on earth, quickening our souls 
 with new energy of life, healing all sorrow, and 
 curing all evil with the touch of His holy Hand, 
 pouring His benediction upon every interest and 
 relation of life. The world becomes aflame with 
 God. As this Vision holds our eyes, we lose sight 
 of all the inadequacy of ritual, the poverty of 
 symbol, the meanness of outward expression, the 
 unworthiness of service, we see only the great and 
 essential reality, the Presence of Jesus. We strive
 
 164 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 with all beauty and dignity of ritual to express 
 something of the inward loveliness and glory of 
 that great gift. But even wbfcre that outward 
 dignity and reverence may fail, we shall lose the 
 sense of all else hi the certainty and joy of our 
 Lord's Presence. Nothing can dim for us the 
 glorious consciousness of the Presence of our 
 blessed Lord. Where He is content to manifest 
 Himself, there are we glad to be. So we move 
 through the world with the vision of Heaven before 
 us, not as some prophetic interpretation of glories 
 yet to come, but as the mirror of what already is. 
 We are in heavenly places. The worship of Heaven 
 begins for us already. All sacrifice and suffering is 
 the vision of the " Lamb as it had been slain." All 
 joy and gladness must bring to our eyes the worship 
 of the living creatures and the adoring elders before 
 the Throne. All gifts of intellect, and capacity and 
 worth, all spiritual power and sympathy and in- 
 sight, recall the " pure river of water of life, clear 
 as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and 
 of the Lamb." Over all the sorrows and distresses, 
 over all the fierce temptations and assaults of evil, 
 shines the vision of the glorious Victor, going forth 
 in His might, conquering and to conquer. Above 
 all the wailings and laments, above all the cowardice 
 and shrinking fears of the weak, rises the strong cry 
 of faith, " as it were the voice of a great multitude, 
 and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 165 
 
 of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia : for the 
 Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 
 
 Contemplate the glories of Heaven. 
 
 " I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God 
 Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
 And the city had no need of the sun, neither 
 of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God 
 did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof." 
 " These are they which came out of great tribulation 
 and have washed their robes and made them white 
 in the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they 
 before the Throne of God and serve Him day and 
 night in His temple. And He that sitteth on the 
 Throne shall dwell among them. They shall 
 hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither 
 shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the 
 Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall 
 feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains 
 of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes." 
 
 C. 
 
 So in the very midst of our work we who respond 
 to the Call of the risen Lord may climb the Mount 
 of Vision and lose ourselves hi the cloud of glory. 
 When God gives vision, He gives it not for the 
 mere indulgence of the soul's desire of beauty, but 
 as a preparation for new work and fresh endeavour. 
 Just as He took the disciples up into the Mount of 
 Transfiguration that they might be strengthened 
 to understand the coming Passion, just as He
 
 166 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 shewed Himself in His risen glory to the disciples 
 that they might be equipped for the mighty work 
 of witness that lay before them, so when the Vision 
 comes to us in sacrament and meditation and 
 prayer, it is to lead us on to new obedience and 
 higher sacrifice and service of love. Under the 
 impulse of that vision we carry God Himself into 
 our work. And the vision never fails. Through 
 all the work itself we see God. It is not that we 
 have a deep apprehension of the glorious mystery of 
 the Divine Being. God does sometimes grant to us 
 wonderful visions of spiritual things, which uplift 
 the soul for many a day and make the dullest 
 service bright with the divine glory. That may be 
 sometimes. But there is yet a vision for all times. 
 In all our activity it is not just the work in its im- 
 mediate usefulness or beauty that we see, but we 
 see God Himself. We desire and we see, not 
 success, not perfection, not merely the Will of God, 
 but God Himself. He is the conscious end of all. 
 This, and this alone, gives to our work the spirit 
 of abiding endurance, and stamps it with the 
 mark of eternity. No other vision can sustain 
 us through all the drudgery of life. " Only work 
 that is for God alone hath an unceasing guerdon of 
 delight." The vision is the vision not merely of 
 God, but of God made Man, the vision of the 
 Incarnate. This is the revelation of power under 
 conditions of weakness, of glory hidden under the
 
 THE VISION OF THE LORD 167 
 
 veil of misery, of beauty under the guise of un- 
 loveliness. This is the Vision that stimulates to 
 suffering and to work, for the Incarnate has given 
 Himself victoriously to the suffering of the Cross 
 and has achieved triumphantly the work of 
 Redemption. And those who would follow in the 
 blessed steps of His most holy Life are called not 
 only to the joys of intimate fellowship, not only 
 to the happiness of undying Vision, but to the 
 ministry of service. " His servants shall serve Him 
 and they shall see His Face." With service the 
 vision grows. In prayer and sacrament the new 
 vision of God dawns with fresh power upon the 
 soul. He makes Himself known to us in the Break- 
 ing of the Bread, that we may make Him known 
 to others. The Vision is given to us that we may 
 lead others to vision also. So with our very faces 
 reflecting the divine glory we descend from the 
 Mount of Vision, coming in the power of God to 
 the help of the world. And with every act of love 
 and sacrifice and pain, the Vision glows afresh. 
 Day by day joy grows in our hearts that above all 
 the loud voices of the world we have heard and 
 we have followed the great Call of the risen Lord. 
 This is the Call to victory and to vision. Already 
 God hath shined hi our hearts to give the know- 
 ledge of the glory of God in the Face of Jesus 
 Christ. Day by day the light grows and the glory 
 of the Lord shines in more perfectly upon our lives.
 
 168 THE CALL OF THE LORD 
 
 Our thanksgiving rises to God that with unveiled 
 face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord we 
 are transformed into the same umage from glory 
 to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. 
 
 Make an act of self-oblation to God. 
 
 O my Lord, I am not mine own, but Thine. Take 
 me for Thine own. I give myself to Thee for joy, 
 for sorrow, for sickness, for health, for life, for 
 death, for time and for eternity. Make me and 
 keep me Thine own. 
 
 O Lord Jesus Christ, I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I 
 worship Thee, I glorify Thee, I give thanks to Thee 
 for Thy great glory. I desire in all things to submit 
 myself unto Thee ; and I ask the help of Thy Holy 
 Spirit, that I may so love that which Thou hast 
 revealed, that I may be more and more conformed 
 to that which Thou dost will. And what I ask for 
 myself I ask for all those for whom Thou hast died, 
 that those who sin against Thee may be turned to 
 love Thee, and that those who love Thee may be 
 drawn closer to Thee to the glory of the Father. 
 
 Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to 
 the Holy Ghost ; as it was in the beginning, is now 
 and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 
 
 WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD. 
 PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH
 
 A 000 034 921 7