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TIE ORIGIN OF EVIL

" TRUTH is THE PROPERTY OF GOD ; THE PURSUIT OF

TftUTH IS WHAT BELONGS TO MAN."

Von Miilkr.

THE ORIGIN OP EVIL

. ' AND OTHER SERMONS

in t $etet*js,

ALFEED WILLIAMS MOMEEIE

M.A., D.SC., LL.D. l

SOMETIME FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

AND PEOFESSOE OF LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS

IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON

EIGHTH EDITION, RE VISED

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBUEGH AND LONDON

MDCCCXCIY

A 77. 7??./r7)./fi vo.80.fnp.fl. 1

CONTENTS,

PAGE

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL, 1

THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING!

I. ITS USES, ; ... 12

II. THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, . . . 25

III. THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S SUFFERING UPON

HIS CHARACTER, 37

IV. DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT, . ... 50
THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER

I. HUMILITY, 62

II. THE NECESSITY FOR FAITH, . . .74

III. THE MAGNITUDE OF LITTLE SINS, . . 87

IV. THE LAW OF HABIT, 98

V. RETRIBUTION, .111

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-DENIAL AND SELF-
DEVELOPMENT

I. THE USE OF THE WORLD, . . . , 123

II. THE ABUSE OF THE WORLD, . . .135

vi Contents.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-DENIAL AND SELF-
DEVELOPMENT : continued

III. THE PARTIAL AND THE PEEFEOT SELF, . 147

IV. LOVE ESSENTIAL TO SELF-DEVELOPMENT, . 160
V. SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS SALVATION, . 172

"WHAT is TRUTH?" 185

CHRISTIAN MANLINESS

I. RIGHT DOING, 197

II. RIGHT THINKING, 210

III. THE VALUE OF MANLINESS, . . . 223

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

I. PRAYER, 236

II. THE SUPERNATURALNESS OF NATURE, . 248

III. THE NATURALNESS OF THE SUPERNATURAL, 259

IV. THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN, . . . 272
V. THE VISION OF GOD, 284

THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD, 293

ETERNAL LIFE (EASTER-DAY SERMON), . , . 307

THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, , 320

The Origin of Evil.

"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of the know-
ledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." GENESIS ii.
16,17.

TS the existence of evil compatible with the
-* existence of God ?

This is a problem which in reality admits of
a comparatively simple solution. It has often
however been made to appear unnecessarily diffi-
cult, and indeed unanswerable, through ignor^
ance or forgetfulness of the nature of the process
which in Logic is called abstraction. Some
thinkers, for instance, have attempted to mini-
mise the evilness of evil by maintaining that it
did not really exist at all, that it was purely
negative, the mere absence of goodness. But
manifestly this argument cuts both ways. If
nothing can exist which is the negation of any-

2 The Origin of Evil.

thing else, goodness itself must be non-existent
Good is as much the negation of evil as evil
is the negation " of good. And, indeed, goodness
does not exist in one sense ; it does not exist as
a definite concrete thing. The term merely sums
up the common qualities of a certain class of
actions. It is what is called an abstract term.
After a number of actions have been compared,
they are found to agree in certain particulars,
and these particulars common to all, having been
abstracted in thought from everything peculiar to
each, are formed into a separate notion or con-
ception. One of the most fruitful sources of
human error has been the fact that these abstract
notions are so frequently mistaken for actual
concrete things. If we use the word goodness
as a synonym for God, reflection ' will show we
cannot mean that the Deity is nothing more
than a quality of His own actions, but that the
quality in question is the most characteristic of
His divine nature. Similarily in regard to evil.
It is not a concrete thing, but an abstract term.
It represents the common qualities of a certain
class of actions. The existence of evil, therefore,
means the existence of beings who act evilly.
And so the problem as to the origin of evil re-
solves itself simply into this, Is God responsi-

The Origin of Evil. 3

ble foi the evil acts of these beings? or if not,
who is? 1

Theologians generally tell us that evil must
have been* permitted by God for some wise pur-
pose; but that it is impossible to imagine what
that purpose could have been. They talk as if
reason, apart from faith, would suggest that God
ought to have prevented evil, and that, had He
done so, we should have found ourselves much
more fortunately situated than we are. Now
reason, I take it, teaches no such thing. It
shows us, on the contrary, that the prevention
of evil would have made our world not better
than it is, but infinitely worse.

There are only three conceivable ways in which
evil could have been prevented. (1) God might
have refrained from creating beings capable of
sinning ; or (2), having created such beings, He
might have kept them from temptation ; or (3),
allowing them to be tempted, He might have
forcibly prevented them from yielding.

1st, Suppose that He had created only beings
incapable of sinning. That would have been to

1 One of my reviewers asks, "What can we mean by 're-
sponsible ' in relation to' God ? " On this subject see a sermon
on the "Obligations of the Deity" in my 'Preaching and
Hearing.'

4 The Origin of Evil.

create nothing higher than a brute. If He had
not formed creatures capable of doing wrong, He
could not have formed any capable of doing right :
for the two things inevitably go together. He
only is able to do right, who is able at the same
time (if he please) to do wrong. Let me give
you a very simple illustration. I wish this desk
to hold my sermon-case, and it does so. Do I
therefore thank and praise it, and feel grateful to
it, and call it good and kind, for obeying me?
No ! Why ? Because it cannot disobey; and for
this reason it cannot be properly said to obey.
Take, again, the case of the lower animals. At
first sight it might seem as if some animals could
lay more claim than many men to the possession
of a conscience. But it is probable that their
best actions are done merely from an instinc-
tive and irresistible impulse of affection. They
can, of course, be kept from doing certain things,
by the knowledge that if they do them they
will be punished: they may be cured of steal-
ing, for example, by being whipped when they
do steal. But they could not be taught to re-
frain from it because it was an infringement of
another's rights. Since they have no language
properly so called, and since (so far as we are
able to judge) their reasoning is always restricted

The Origin of Evil. 5

to matters connected with the senses, it is
unlikely that they ever reach the conception
of duty. This lack of endowment renders it
impossible for them to do wrong; and it is
manifest that the same lack of endowment
must render it equally impossible for them to
do right.

Beings incapable of sinning must be ignorant
of the difference between right and wrong, or
must be destitute of the power of choice, or
must always be impelled by irresistible instincts.
In none of these cases could their conduct be
really moral or right. Had God therefore only
created creatures of this description, He would, it
is true, have prevented the possibility of evil;
but He would at the same time also have pre-
vented the possibility of good.

2d, Suppose that God had resorted to the
second expedient, that after giving us a moral
nature, He had shielded us from all temptation.
What would have been the result ? Why, this.
We could never have attained to the possession
of a good character, for that comes only through
the conquest of temptation. We might have
been innocent as animals, but never upright as
men. You mothers, as you look into the smiling
.faces of your infants, sometimes wish that you

6 The Origin of Evil,

could always shield them from the deceits of the
world, the flesh and the devil. It is a natural,
but an unwise, wish. Their present innocence
is a quality they possess in common with stocks
and stones. If they are ever to rise into the
moral sphere, it can only be through the medium
of temptation. You should rather wish for them
moral conflict,-^conflict no matter how fierce and
how long protracted, no matter though it call for
resistance " even unto blood," so long only as they
are victors in the end.

If .we take the trees of which Adam and Eve
were allowed to eat to represent lawful pleasures,
and the tree of which they were not allowed to
eat to represent unlawful pleasures, and the com-
mand of God to represent the voice of conscience,
then the account of Adam's fall will be for us a
literal history of our own. Temptation has in
our case led to a fall, to many falls. We are all
constantly falling by eating forbidden fruit. But,
thank God, though temptations have led to pur
fall, they may' lead to our rising eventually to a
height which, apart from conflict, we could never
have attained. It would have been better for us,
no doubt, to have been tempted without falling ;
but it is better to fall, and to rise again, than
never to have experienced temptation : since this

The Origin of Evil. 7

is absolutely essential for the moral development
of every finite being. Even Christ, divine though
He was, had to be made " perfect through suffer-
ing " ; and much of . this suffering was due, we
may be sure, to the discipline of temptation.
There is a glory possible for you and me, my
brother a regal, godlike glory which but for
moral conflict could never be ours, any more
than it could belong to zoophytes or machines.
"To him. that overcometh," says Christ, "will I
grant to sit with me on my throne."

But, 3d, it is said that God, at any rate, might
have resorted to the last of the three expedients :
He might have prevented man's yielding to
temptation by giving him at the outset a will
strong enough infallibly to resist, or by compel-
ling him on every occasion to use his will in the
right way. To say this is, however, to talk
nonsense. A will cannot be strong enough to
choose only one course, for it is the essential,
nature of a will that it can choose either of two
alternative and opposite courses. Nor can any
one possibly be compelled to use his will in a
particular way : that would be to deprive him of
his will altogether. So long as he has it, there
is, in virtue thereof, a choice of conduct open to
him. God could of course have refrained from

8 The Origin of Evil.

making us free; but then we should not have
been men we should have been only automata
or brutes. God could of course, at any moment,
deprive us of our wills and make us act in a
particular way, but we should then for the time
cease to -be men. A man must be capable of
moral action, and a moral agent must be free.
A forced goodness is a contradiction in terms.
There is no difference in moral value between
constrained obedience and free disobedience. If
God used a man's will for him, or prevented
him from using it in the way he preferred, that
man would be no longer responsible for his con-
duct, and so would be reduced to the level of
dead, unreasoning matter. You may keep your
boy's hands out of mischief by tying them behind
his back ; but to the extent to which this takes
away from him the power of doing wrong, to
the very same extent does it deprive him of the
power of doing right. To ask why God did not
give Adam a more perfect will, is as absurd as to
ask why the square has not been endowed with
the properties of the circle. 1 God could not have
given Adam a more perfect will. Every will is
a perfect will. The perfection of a will consists,

1 The philosophical reader will remember a similar argument
in Spinoza's ' Ethics.

The Origin of Evil. 9

not in being able, to choose only one course, but
in being able to choose either of two courses.
Eight - doing is praiseworthy just because it
implies that wrong might have been done but
was not. John Stuart Mill argues in his Post-
humous Essays that had God desired -His crea-
tures to be virtuous, He would have made them
so if He could. Now, from what I have already
said, you will see that to make a man virtuous is
an impossibility, even for omnipotence. 1 It is a
contradiction in terms. A man might be divinely
compelled to refrain from evil ; but if he were so
compelled there would be no moral value in his
refraining. Hence compelling him to refrain from
evil is not, after all, compelling him to be vir-
tuous. A virtuous character cannot be bestowed
upon any one by a creative fiat from without.
It must be the outcome of his own free will
within. God can create innocent beings, and
every child that He sends into the world is
innocent; but He cannot create a perfect char-
acter ; for character is the result of a man's own
voluntary choice. So that (Mill notwithstanding)
it is " possible for a human being to produce by a

1 Omnipotence, it must always be remembered, is not the
power to do all things, possible and impossible ; it is the
power to do all possible things.

io The Origin of Evil.

succession of efforts what God Himself had no
other means of creating."

The origin of evil, then, just like that of good,
lies in the power of choice. God must have been
(if I may so speak) necessitated, by His very good-
ness, to create beings capable of goodness. Such
beings must be free. And this freedom carries
with it an inevitable liability to sin. It lies in
the very nature of things, that pleasure and 'duty
must sometimes clash, and that he who is free to
choose between them, may sometimes choose amiss.
When men were once created, it was not for God
it was for them, and for them alone to decide
whether there should be evil in the world or no.
Alas ! they have decided that there should. But
even so, a world without any human goodness in
it, without any noble Christ-like men and women,
would have been infinitely inferior to our own,
in spite of all its wickedness. You must remem-
ber that the righteousness of one righteous man
will atone for the wickedness of many wicked.
Sodom, we are told, would have been spared for
the sake of ten righteous persons, Jerusalem for
the sake of one. So that since much evil can be
compensated for by a little good, since the pre-
vention of evil would have been the prevention
of good, since evil (as the fact has proved) is the

The Origin of Evil. 1 1

necessary concomitant of good, just as shade is
the invariable accompaniment of light, it is as
absurd to wish that evil had been prevented, as
to try and do away with light for the sake of
getting rid of shadows. 1

1 See also some remarks on the Limitations of Omnipotence
in my ' Inspiration, ''pp. 1,08 and 145-149,

The Mystery of Suffering.
I

ITS USES.

" It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain
of their salvation perfectthrough sufferings. " HEBREWS ii. 10.

"WHY is the world so full of suffering ? This
' " is a question which every thoughtful man
has asked. But it is answered in different ways.
Some say the existence of suffering shows that
there is no God, that there is no one who at once
desires our happiness and is capable of effecting
it. If any superior intelligence wishes us to be
happy, he is unable to accomplish his desire,
since he often allows us to be miserable. Or
conversely, if he could make us happy, since. he
does not do so, our happiness must be a matter
of indifference to him. The world, so says this

Its Uses. 13

class of thinkers, is the outcome of a fortuitous
play of atoms, which on account of their want
of reason produce much mischief and misery,
and there is no one in the universe able and
willing to prevent them. Other persons, again,
take quite a different view. They believe in
what they call ' a God, but they ascribe to
him many characteristic attributes of the devil.
Their God is full of evil passions, of hatred and
malice and vengeance. And they look upon
suffering as a sort of vindictive retaliation on
the part of this Being, to compensate himself
for having been thwarted in his intentions' and
plans. He is furious with men and women
because they do not act as he would like ; so he
tortures them from sheer spite, and while he is
about it, he tortures at the same time the inno-
cent race of brutes. Nay, these persons even go
so far as to declare that the whole agony of
creation is the punishment of a single act. For
one case of disobedience all sentient beings have
been placed upon the rack ! Others, again, con-
fess that to them the problem of suffering is
absolutely insoluble. They worship a Being who
is not only called God, but who is God, who is
good and kind, as well as powerful. They believe
that He desires the welfare of all His creatures,

14 The Mystery of Suffering.

and they cannot understand why He does not
exercise His omnipotence so as to bring about at
once the universal reign of happiness.

Now I propose to show you that the prob-
lem of suffering is not completely insoluble;
that sometimes we may discover, in human
misery at any rate, a rational meaning and
a beneficent purpose; and that therefore the
existence of pain is not necessarily incompatible
with the existence of infinite wisdom and power
and love.

The words of our text are full of suggestive-
ness. " Perfect through sufferings ! " We have
grown accustomed to this phrase, but it would
sound very strangely to any one who heard it
for the first time. . Perfect through sufferings!
he would exclaim. Surely the writer must have
made a mistake. He should have said perfect
through joy. Suffering must be a sign and a
cause of imperfection.

Now, it is quite true that suffering is always a
sign of present imperfection. But it may be the
cause of future perfection which could not have
been attained without it. On the assumption that
the ultimate end of our existence is the develop-
ment of a noble character, the necessity of suffer-
ing may be proved. Eor it can be shown that such

Its Uses. 15

a character could never be produced apart from
the instrumentality of pain.

In the first place, suffering acts as a check
upon our evil tendencies. Here we may be met
with the objection that if God had not allowed
sin to exist, the suffering now required to check

it would have been unnecessary. We disposed of
this difficulty, however, when we were consider-
ing the origin of evil. "We then saw that the
existence of evil could only have been prevented
by means which would, at the same time, have
prevented the existence of good. And since
much evil can be compensated for by a little
good, its prevention would have been an irra-
tional and ungodlike act.

Evil then being a necessary fact, some suffer-
ing is also a necessity. It is the desire for
present enjoyment that leads men astray; and
they can only be brought back by the counter-
active influence of pain. So far as suffering
fulfils this purpose, it is manifestly the outcome
of love. I say manifestly ; and yet the Puritan
and Oalvinistie theologians never saw it. They
represented God as justice rather than as love;
whereas, according to the teaching of Christ,
God's justice is but one phase of His love. All
He does apparently in justice, He really does in

1 6 The Mystery of Suffering.

love. It is just that the sinner should be pun-
ished for his sin. Why ? Because in no other
way can he be made to give up his sin ; and this
is the consummation Love desires. The suffer-
ing which follows sin is the outcome, not of a
justice which can only be appeased by wreaking
out a certain quantity of agony as an equivalent
for a certain quantity of sin, but of a wise and
tender love which punishes only that it may
save. 1 Suffering, so far as it corrects evil, is not
an argument against, but an argument for, the
existence and beneficence of God.

The point, however, upon which I want chiefly
to dwell is, not the negative value of suffering in
correcting evil tendencies, but its positive value
in developing good ones. It is needless to say
there is an enormous amount of suffering in the
world which cannot be intended for the punish-
ment of sin, inasmuch as it has to be borne by
men, women and children quite out of proportion
to the sins which they have committed ; ay, very
often they are called upon to suffer because they
are less sinful than their neighbours.

Now, I want to show you that unmerited suf-
ferings may be useful and even necessary. Pain

1 See a sermon on " Punishment," in my ' Defects of Modern
Christianity.'

Its. Uses. 17

has many purposes to fulfil in addition to the
eradication of evil. If evil had never existed,
suffering would nevertheless have been essential
to the perfecting of the human race. Shake-
speare, the profoundest of all students of human
nature, who knew better than any one else has
ever done what made or marred men, says (you
remember) in " As You Like It " :

" Sweet are the uses of adversity ;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
"Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

Just let us consider one or two of the positive
uses of adversity.

Account for it how you may, suffering often
acts as an intellectual and spiritual stimulus. The
world's greatest teachers have usually been men
of sorrow. I do not mean whining, puling, sickly,
sentimental sorrow like that of Byron, or Alfred
de Musset, or Heine. The sorrow which a man
feels because he cannot satisfy his greedy thirst
for pleasure is not at all ennobling. But for sor-
row manly and heroic, we~may well thank God.
When Dumas asked Eeboul, " What made you a
poet?" the answer was "Suffering." "If I had
not been so great an invalid," said Dr Darwin to
a friend, " I should not have done nearly so much
work." "We will not complain," says Thomas

1 8 The Mystery of Suffering.

Carlyle, " of Dante's miseries : had all gone right
with him, as he wished it, Florence would have had
another prosperous lord mayor, but the world
would have lost the ' Divina Commedia.' " We do
not know much about Shakespeare's life ; but we
do know, from his sonnets, that he had suffered
vastly. His heart had been wrung till it almost
broke. And in Tennyson we have another strik-
ing illustration of the educative effects of suffer-
ing. ' In Memoriam ' is by far his greatest poem ;
there are single stanzas in it worth almost all the
rest of his works put together ; and this poem was
inspired by a great grief, by the death, namely, of
his friend Arthur Hallam. Nor is it only those
who will have a niche in the Temple of Fame
that are teachers of sorrow's divine lessons. I
have known women of whom the world will
never hear, whose whole life was one protracted
grief, who, by their patience, their faith, their
cheerfulness, their unselfishness; have preached
to all who came near them sermons more elo-
quent by far than were ever delivered from any
pulpit sermons in comparison with which the
discourses of Chrysostom or Savonarola must
have been tame and dull. 1

i See also a sermon on the " Rest of Faith," in my ' Defects
of Modern Christianity.'

Its Uses. 19

Again, suffering is necessary for the develop-
ment in us of pity, mercy, and the spirit of self-
sacrifice the noblest of all our endowments. Dr
Johnson had a curious notion that pity was
acquired by the exercise of reason. He might
almost as well have maintained that a blind man
could acquire by reason an idea of colour. The
well-known line " haud ignara mali miseris suc-
currere disco" contains .a profound psychologi-
cal truth. Only those who have experienced
calamity themselves can understand what it
means. And unless we know what it is, we
cannot sympathise with it ; nor are we likely to
make any efforts for averting it. No character
can be perfect which has not acquired the capacity
for pity. In the acquisition of this capacity we
receive our highest development, and realise most
fully the solidarity of the race to which we belong. 1
You who know how to pity, and how to benefit
another at some pain to yourself, are you not
thankful that you have this knowledge ? It cost
you suffering to learn it, it costs you suffering to
practise it. But do you grudge the suffering ? I
know you do not. Spinoza has an odd defini-
tion of suffering as " the passage to a lower state

1 See a sermon on the "Culture of the Heart," in my
'Preaching and Hearing.'

2O The Mystery of Suffering.

of perfection." It is much more frequently the
passage to a higher state of perfection. Spinoza's
definition is singularly inconsistent with his own
acknowledgment, that the Man of Sorrows was
the embodiment of the wisdom and perfection
'of God. If suffering were really a passage to a
lower state of perfection, then we should have
this singular anomaly, that He who was always
passing to a lower state came out at last at the
highest. Through suffering, says the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ was made
perfect. And what is true of Christ, in regard
to the helpful effects of suffering, is true in some
degree of others. As far as my experience goes,
it is this the noblest men and the sweetest
women I have known have been those who have
suffered most. No doubt we do now and then
meet with persons of rare tenderness, who have
had few troubles of their own, and are yet exqui-
sitely sensitive to the grief of others. They re-
mind one of what Coleridge says of Genevieve :

"Few SOITOWS hath she of her own,
My hope ! my joy ! my Genevieve !
She loves me best, -whene'er I sing
The songs that make her grieve."

But as a rule those who have suffered little have
.little sympathy for suffering; and without any

Its Uses. 21

exception I think we may say, that those who
have not had some personal experience of sorrow
are altogether incapable of understanding or pity-
ing the sufferings of others. They decline to take
their part in bearing the common burden of
human woe. And what contemptible objects
they are ! They are far less human, in spite of
their human form, than many a dog. Well does
Mr Greg say in his ' Enigmas of Life,' " I have
seen on the same day brutes at the summit, and
men at the foot, of the Great St Bernard, with
regard to whom no one would hesitate to assign
to the quadruped superiority in all that we call
good." Dogs ! Why, a dog is always sorry when
he sees his master in distress. Dogs ! Why, if it
were ordained that I should be left in the world
with but one companion, and if I were allowed
to select between a faithful dog and a human
being incapable of sympathy, without a moment's
hesitation I should choose the companionship of
the dog !

Lastly, some amount of suffering appears neces-
sary for the development in us of self-reliance,
self-respect, and all that is implied in the expres-
sion "strength of character." And it is only say-
ing the same thing in other words to maintain
that, without suffering, we could not attain to the

22 The Mystery of Suffering.

highest happiness of which we are capable. Just
look, by way of illustration, at the advantages to
be derived from the struggle for success in life,
painful as that struggle must often of necessity be.
We cannot be born successful, and it would be
a great pity if we could; Good fortune and pros-
perity are worth most when they have been
achieved in spite of hindrances and difficulties.
The happiness that we have obtained by effort is
far sweeter than that which we have inherited,
or which has come to us by chance : and the very
effort we have made to acquire it has tended to
our own self-development. To; be born at the
top of the tree, as it is called in common parlance,
would be a tremendous misfortune for a man were
it not that the name is a misnomer. There is no
top of the tree for a finite being. Existence, or
rather life, for the king no less than for the peas-
ant, means progress ; and therefore there is hope
for a man, notwithstanding the fact of his having
been born into a comfortable or exalted sphere.
If progress were impossible for him, his lot
would be pitiable indeed. And what is true of
individuals is true of races. It would have been
a grievous disadvantage had they been created
perfect. The possibility of developing them-
selves is their grandest and noblest pxeroga-

Its Uses. . 23

tiye. John Stuart Mill argues in his ' Posthumous
Essays ' that this would be a superior world, if
the whole human race were already in posses-
sion of everything which it seems desirable they
should have. But surely it is infinitely better
for races, as for individuals, to struggle up to
material prosperity and to spiritual perfection,
than to have been created incapable of progress.
In the latter case they might have been com-
fortable and satisfied : -but their comfort and
satisfaction would have been no higher than a
brute's.

It would seem then that pain, difficulty, trial,
grief in one word, suffering is absolutely essen-
tial to our highest development and our greatest
good. Most truly therefore may suffering be
represented as an angel, sent to earth from the
bhrone of God ; and most truly may she be re-
garded as uttering the words Mr Greg ascribes
to her :

" I am one of those bright angels

Passing earthwards, to and fro,
Heavenly messengers to mortals,
Now of gladness, now of woe.

Might I bring from the Almighty
Strength from Him who maketh strong ;

Not as alms I drop the blessing,
From my grasp it must be wrung.

24 The Mystery of Suffering.

Child of earth, I come to prove thee,
Hardly, sternly -with thee deal ;

To mould thee in the forge and furnace,
Make thine iron tempered steel.

Come, then, and in loving Tyarftire
Let us wrestle, tug, and strain,

Till thy breath comes thick and panting,
And the sweat pours down like rain.

Man with angel thus contending,
Angel-like in strength shall grow,

And the might of the Immortal
Pass into the mortal so."

The Mystery of Suffering.
II.

THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.

" It became Him, for whom are all tilings, and by whom are all
tilings, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10.

T HAVE already offered you one or two sug-
. gestions tending to show that perfection of
character is produced, and can only be produced,
by means of suffering. I propose now to take a
concrete example viz., the character of Christ.
In the present sermon I shall give you a slight
sketch of His sufferings. In the next we will
endeavour to trace their effect in bringing about
His perfection.

"Well, to begin with, Christ was poor; and
poverty is an affliction, although its praises are
often sung by the rich. The trade to which He

26 The Mystery of Suffering.

was apprenticed would be anything "but lucrative
in a small village like Nazareth. The house in
which He dwelt would be no better than the
houses of artisans in Nazareth at the present day,
which consist of but one room, serving at once
for shop, kitchen, and bedroom : they are lighted
only by the door, and are almost destitute of fur-
niture. Thus for thirty years Christ lived in
one of the smallest houses, of the most disre-
garded village, of the most despised province, of
a conquered land. His poverty must have caused
Him suffering, not so much because of the priva-
tions it involved, as because it induced His con-
temporaries to despise His teaching. In those
days to be poor was to be contemptible. "Is
not this the carpenter ? " asked one. " Can any
good thing come out of Nazareth ? " inquired
another. "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,"
said a third. All were agreed that it was absurd
to look for moral or religious instruction from a
man of such low extraction and such mean sur-
roundings. Christ would be constantly reminded
that His social position was the greatest barrier
to His usefulness in the world.

Again, He suffered from the physical pains
that flesh is heir to. In common with the fallen
sons of the Father, He had to earn His bread by

The Sufferings of Christ. 2 7

the sweat of His brow ; and such earnings must
often involve pain. Christ suffered, too, like
other men and more than most men from
hunger and thirst, from exposure to heat and
cold, from sleepless nights, and from the number-
less and nameless ills that arise from a delicate
constitution. We might have guessed that He
could not be physically strong. There are souls
that consume the bodies in which they dwell.
Severe mental conflict and intense moral earnest-
ness are rarely, if ever, combined with perfect
health. Christ at any rate, we find from our New
Testaments, was weak and frail. For example,
He was weary with His journey to Samaria, and
sat on the well to rest; but the disciples were
not fatigued they went away directly to buy
food. In one of their discussions the Jews said
to Him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and
hast Thou seen Abraham ? " They did not guess,
owing to His worn and wasted appearance, that
He was little more than thirty. He fainted
under the burden of the cross; but the other
prisoners did not faint. And He died more
quickly than was usually the case ; so that when
the soldiers came, according to custom, to put an
end to the torture, they found Him already dead.
Again, what unspeakable misery is involved in

28 The Mystery of Suffering.

the word homeless! It matters little how mel-
ancholy in other respects may he a man's life, if
only he have a happy home. In that case, in
spite of all his troubles, his is an enviable lot.
However isolated and worried he may feel when
in the outside world, if there be somewhere a
spot which he calls home, and which really
deserves that name, then he is a happy man.
Though his lot may have been cast in a desert,
yet it is a desert that contains an oasis, to which
he can constantly return. There are to be found
sparkling streams and refreshing shade ; and
there the wayworn, footsore traveller may rest
and be refreshed. There for a little season the
weary can find repose and the sorrowing sym-
pathy. There, by the subtle power of love, bur-
dens are lightened, disappointments are alleviat-
ed, and the saddest heart is cheered. I imagine
there would be many more madmen and suicides
in the world than there are, were it not for the
blessedness of home. But Christ was homeless.
"The foxes have holes," He said, "and the birds
of the air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath
not where to lay His head." .

Once more. Christ suffered from intellectual,
moral, and social isolation. He was very little
appreciated by any one, and entirely misunder-

The Sufferings of Christ. 29

stood by all. He felt that He was born to a
godlike work. A mysterious purpose lay in His
heart, which was to lead the Father's fallen sons
to glory. The very nature of this purpose would,
as Dr Young remarks, make Him more keenly
susceptible, and more eagerly desirous for sym-
pathy. But in regard to the one great object of
His life, He stood entirely alone. The Pharisees
and Scribes and the upper classes generally op-
posed Him, not only on account of His poverty,
but also on account of His doctrines. He had
kind words for the publicans and harlots, but
none for them. The common people at first
heard Him gladly ; but when they found He had
no intention of improving their earthly circum-
stances, they became dissatisfied. As Christ put
it, they only followed Him because of the miracle
of the loaves. They wanted bread for the body,
not food for the mind. His own relations, too,
were an obstacle in His path. "Not even His
brethren believed, on Him." Christ must have
suffered inexpressibly in seeing how little spirit-
ual good He was accomplishing. His very dis-
ciples seemed to make no progress. They under-
stood Him as little at the end of His ministry
as at the beginning. For example, Philip said,
" Lord, show us the Father." He did not perceive

3O The Mystery of S^l : ffer^ng.

that Christ's whole life had been one prolonged
manifestation of God. James and John wanted
to call down fire on the inhabitants of a Samari-
tan village. How infinitely far must they have
been, at that time, from the kingdom of God !
Peter rebuked Him for prophesying His own
death, and was thus, as Christ said, a real stum-
bling-block in His way. He was urging Him, as
the devil did in the wilderness, to sacrifice God
and the world rather than Himself. Peter could
discover no needs-be in the humiliation and death
of Christ. He would have been quite content
with a throne for his Master : he did not desire
a cross. And so it was with the rest of the
disciples. .They persisted in thinking, notwith-
standing all Christ could say to the contrary,
that He intended to deliver the Jews from the
dominion of the Eomans : they could not grasp
the notion that He wished to deliver all men from
the dominion of sin. They would have it that
He ought to be king of the Jews : it never
entered into their thoughts that He was to be
the Saviour of the world. They were willing
to struggle and to fight, if they might thereby
secure for their Master an earthly empire; but
they could not appreciate, nor even comprehend,
that kingdom of righteousness which it was

The Sufferings of Christ. 3 1

Christ's sole aim to establish. This misunder-
standing would lead, of course, to want of sym-
pathy. Daily and almost hourly Christ must
have been pained by proofs of their selfishness ;
and He must have been sadly prepared for their
conduct at the last, when one betrayed Him for
thirty pieces of silver, another denied on oath
having ever had anything to. do with Him, and
all the rest forsook Him and fled.

Once more. " Christ suffered being tempted."
Temptation was to Him as real as to us. He
would have fallen, as we sometimes fall, unless
He had resisted as we ought always to resist.
" He passed through the moral conflict," says
Pressense, " as we do, with all the perils of free-
dom. If it is maintained that He could not have
yielded to temptation, and that He knew it all
along, His humanity remains only an illusion,
and He was not really tempted at all. Let us
bring Christ down from this cold empyrean of
theology, and receive that sublime text, ' He
learned obedience'; which signifies that from
a state of natural innocence, He was to raise
Himself to the holiness that follows choice. A
perilous transit; but in it Christ conquered,
conquered by the sole arms of faith and prayer,
and not by girding on Godhood as an impene-

3 2 The Mystery of Suffering.

trable panoply." The same view is taken by
Canon Farrar. "Some," he says, "have claimed
for Christ not only actual . sinlessness, but a
nature to which sin was miraculously impossible.
What, then ? If His great conflict were a mere
deceptive phantasmagoria, how can the narrative
of it profit us ? If we have to fight the battle
clad in the armour .of human free-will, which has
been hacked and riven about our bosom by so
many a cruel blow, what comfort is it to, us if
our great Captain fought, not only victoriously,
but without real danger, not only uninjured, but
without even the possibility of a wound ? Where
is the warrior's courage, if he knows that for him
there is but the semblance of a battle against the
simulacrum of a foe ? They who would thus
honour Him rob us of our living Christ, and
substitute for Him a perilous phantom, incapable
of kindling devotion or inspiring trust."

The account of the Temptation, as it is called,
is generally understood in a more or less alle-
gorical sense. Origen, Lange,. Schleiermacher,
Olshausen, Neander, and Calvin understood it thus.
But it is, at any rate, an allegorical representa-
tion of a fact, the fact, namely, that Jesus Christ
was brought face to face with the powers of dark-
ness, and had to struggle in order to overcome.

The Sufferings of Christ. 33

" Command that these stones be made bread,"
said the tempter. In other words : Spend those
powers in the service of the senses and the body,
which ought only to be spent in the service of
God. "Cast Thyself down from hence." In
other words: Improvidence and presumption
would be no sin in Thee, if Thou art the Son
of God. "All these things will I give Thee if
Thou wilt fall down and worship me." In other
words : Would it not be better to gain the world
in the service of the devil than to lose it in the
service of God? The alternatives presented to
Christ were very similar to those presented to
every member of the human race. He was called
on to decide whether or not He would sacrifice
duty to pleasure; whether He would take His
ease, or work the work of God ; whether He would
strive for temporal prosperity, or seek the salva-
tion of the world. This temptation was constantly
being repeated by His disciples and by His rela-
tions. " Since Thou canst do these things," said
the latter, " show Thyself to the world," and take
what the world will give Thee. He conquered, as
we know ; but the amount of suffering involved in
the conquest is not generally realised. He had to
choose between selfishness and self-sacrifice. He
determined to obey instead of to be obeyed. He

34 The Mystery of Sitffering.

accepted shame instead of glory. He drew on
Himself execration instead of popularity. He
consigned Himself to a cross instead of to a throne.
If you doubt the agony involved in all this, try
and imagine what you would have suffered under
similar circumstances. Would not the conflict
have torn your very heart in twain ?

Further, as Ullmann has observed, the Man of
Sorrows must have been always enduring the
temptation of su/ering, in one of its many forms.
Not only did He suffer being tempted, but He
was tempted being in suffering. We have seen
that suffering may be, and frequently is, a means
to moral progress ; but it has also its drawbacks
and disadvantages. It brings with it temptations
to fretfulness, to repining, to faithlessness, and, if
it be very severe, the temptation which poor Job
felt, to curse God and die.

Lastly, Christ suffered death. And the fact
that His death was no ordinary death, may be
clearly seen from the agony He experienced in the
anticipation of it. It was no vulgar fear of dying,
we may be sure, that so weighed down the Sav-
iour's spirit. It was rather sorrow for the blind-
ness and hardness of those who had rejected Him,
sorrow for the comparative failure of His life.
The inducement to make a compromise with the

The Sufferings of Christ. 35

Pharisees must now have been very strong. He
had accomplished little in the world as yet: but
He was only thirty-three ; He might do so much
if He could only live. He might then " see of the
travail of His soul and be satisfied," instead of
having to die in the faith. Death by crucifixion,
too, was socially the most ignominious, and physi-
cally the most agonising, which it was possible to
endure. It was a Eornan punishment, which was
only inflicted upon slaves or captives. The cruci-
fixion of a Koman citizen would have been con-
sidered a reflection upon the dignity of Eome.
"It includes all that death can have of the
horrible and ghastly. Dizziness, cramp, thirst,
tetanus, starvation, sleeplessness, fever, publicity
of shame, mortification of untended wounds, all
intensified just up to that point at which they can
be endured, but all stopping short, for long weary
hours, of the point which gives to the sufferer the
relief of unconsciousness. Every variety of anguish
went on increasing, until the crucified yearned for
death as for a delicious and exquisite release."

All His previous sufferings, moreover, were
gathered up and repeated with tenfold intensity
upon Calvary. He was poorer than ever now, for
His very clothes were being divided among His
executioners : more homeless than ever now, since

36 The Mystery of Suffering.

His last resting-place was a cross : more tempted
than ever now, since the temptations that are
born of anguish had reached their climax : more
isolated than ever now, for not only were the
Pharisees against Him; but the common people,
who had once heard Him gladly, were ridicul-
ing and insulting Him ; and the single disciple
who was there to see the end, as well as the.
three Marys who were with Him, had a won-
dering pity depicted in their countenances, that
seemed to say they had hoped better things from
Him, that seemed to reproach Him with the fail-
ure of His life. To crown all, in His last mo-
ments Christ experienced that ineffable bitterness
of spirit, compared to which all other suffering is
joy the feeling that He was forsaken, by God.
From His breaking heart was wrung the bitter cry,
" My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? "
Die on now, Saviour of mankind ! Now
truly Thou canst say, "It is finished." "Thou
hast learned obedience with strong crying and
tears." Thou hast drunk to the dregs the cup
which the Father hath given Thee. Thou hast
sacrificed Thyself wholly, unreservedly. Thou
hast omitted nothing that could help us to see
the beauty and divinity of self-sacrificing love.
Thou hast been made perfect through sufferings.

The Mystery of S^lffering.
III.

THE EFIECT OF CHRIST'S SUFFERING UPON HIS
CHARAGTEK.

" It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10.

TN" the last sermon I endeavoured to give you
* a slight sketch of the sufferings of Christ. I
propose in the present sermon to offer a few
suggestions as to the way in which these suffer-
ings tended to the perfecting of His character.

First of all, what do you suppose that Christ
was like in person? There are two statements
in the Bible which are generally understood as
referring to Him. "He was altogether lovely."
" His countenance was more marred than all the
sons of men." Now I apprehend that both these

38 The Mystery of Siiffering*

statements were literally true. The painters who
have represented Christ with a smooth and placid
face have made, I think, a great mistake. We
have seen that He was in bad health towards the
close of His life, and that He looked much older
than He really was. The fact that His tempta-
tions and afflictions were so numerous and so
severe renders it almost indisputable that His
countenance would be marred. Yet we may be
sure that, to those who had eyes to see it, the
face of Christ was beautiful. There are two dis-
tinct kinds of beauty. The soft, rosy, dimpled,
laughing face, lovely though it be, is not the
only fair countenance the world contains. No,
Is there not beauty also in a face like that of
Livingstone's, all covered with scars and seams ?
For does -not each one of those so-called defor-
mities tell of moral conflicts and moral victories,
of profound thought and intense feeling, of tre-
mendous earnestness and enthusiasm, of self-
abnegation and self -conquest? To those who
had no spiritual insight Christ would appear " as
a root out of a dry ground," having "no form
nor comeliness " : but in reality, " the beauty of
the Lord God was upon Him."

"We have seen how solitary Christ was in :
tellectually, morally, socially. No one under-

The Character of Christ. 39

stood His purposes, no one cared for His ideal
morality, no one sympathised with Him in His
efforts to make the world better. But it is not
difficult to see how this painful experience tended
to His general self -development, and how in par-
ticular it increased His moral strength. The
man will never be worth much who is on good
terms with everybody, who is continually courted
and petted by all with whom he comes in con-
tact. He who is content to take things as he
finds them, who has never had an idea which the
meanest of his neighbours could not appreciate,
who has never felt himself morally indignant
with any of his surroundings, such a person is
not half a man.

Lonely as Christ was socially, He often courted
physical solitude as well, and many a night He
passed by Himself on the silent slopes of the
Mount of Olives. It was thus, no doubt, that
He discovered the greatness and the infinite
possibilities that were latent within Him. We
lose ourselves in the company of our fellows:
we find ourselves when alone. I pity the man
who has never stood upon the mountain -side
or in some retired spot, far away from the
"din of human words" stood there in the
dusk of evening or the gloom of night, till the

40 The Mystery of Suffering.

silence became intense enough to make him
feel

" So lonely 'twas that God Himself
Scarce seemed there to be."

He who has not had some such experience as
this knows little more of the mystery of his own
nature than does the child yet unborn. The
intense mental tension that accompanies such
physical isolation is akin to pain. But how
good it is in its results ! A man learns in
solitude something of his own capabilities. He
learns that he is not like a drop in the ocean,
obliged to move with the tide ; nor like a leaf in
the forest, obliged to bend to the wind ; but that
he is a free and godlike agent, and that, feeble
as he has been accustomed to think himself, he
is in reality strong enough to resist a universe of
evil and to conquer even death and hell. Christ's
isolation, social and physical, made Him calmly
and divinely self-reliant. How strong He was!
Since the world began, there have been no such
scathing denunciations as He uttered against the
Pharisees and Scribes, uttered to their very face
and in the hearing of the populace, though He
knew all the while that they had power to put
Him to death.
Isolation, moreover, tends not only to self-

The Character of Christ. 41

development, or to the growth of a man's self-
consciousness, but also to the intensification of
his God-consciousness. It not only teaches him
how great he is in himself, but it also reveals to
him how much greater is the God from whom
his own greatness is derived. At first it makes
him feel that he is alone; but afterwards he
perceives that God is with him. I suppose that
most of us have had more or less experience of
this, amid the lonely scenes of nature. "Words-
worth says of the Wanderer that

" In the mountains he did/eeZ his faith ;
Nor did he believe, he SAW."

, But social isolation, that is, want of sympathy
and appreciation still more, perhaps, than mere
physical solitude tends to the development of
our God-consciousness. "It is not till we feel
we are alone on earth, that we know for a cer-
tainty we are not alone in heaven." It was the
utter want of sympathy that Christ experienced
which, more than anything else, taught Him
to say, " I am not alone, for the Father is with
me." Moreover, this want of human sympathy,
of which His homelessness formed a conspicuous
part, combined with the sorrowful tenor of His
whole life, must have made it easier for Him to
set His affections entirely upon His mission

42 The Mystery of Siiffering,

upon the accomplishment of the Father's will.
So long as He acted conscientiously, there would
be nothing to live for in this world, and hence it
was but natural for Him (so to speak) to dwell in
another. This idea is well expressed by John
Henry Newman:

" Thrice bless'd are they who feel their loneliness,

Till, sick at heart, beyond the veil they fly,
Seeking His presence who alone can bless."

How completely Christ lived beyond the veil!
" I have meat to eat," He said to His disciples,
" that ye know not of." And He spoke of Him-
self as the " Son of Man which is in heaven"

"With regard to Christ's temptations, I need
only repeat what we have already seen, that
unless He had suffered under them, He would
not really have been tempted.; and that without
temptation it is impossible to acquire a perfect
character, or indeed any character at all.

Once more, we have seen that pity, tenderness,
mercy, compassion and the spirit of self-sacrifice,
which are essential elements in a perfect charac-
ter, can only be developed by suffering. If you
want any further proof of this, look at the great
cruelty of young boys, who have generally speak-
ing unless, from being delicate, they understand

The Character of Christ. 43

what suffering means no greater delight than
to cause pain. Tennyson speaks of some one
who was

" As cruel as a schoolboy, ere lie grow
To pity."

It is not till the schoolboy begins to experience
suffering, that he ceases to take delight in inflict-
ing it.

Now He who was pre-eminently acquainted
with grief, was pre-eminently remarkable for His
tenderness and compassion. Eead those loving
words of His to the disciples, and His prayer for
them as recorded in the fourteenth and following
chapters of St John. He knew that the darkest
scenes of His life, were at hand, yet He thought
only of comforting them. This pity He mani-
fested all through His ministry, under the most
varied circumstances. Listen : " Suffer little chil-
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not."
" Woman, where are those thine accusers ? hath
no man condemned thee ? Neither do I con-
demn thee." "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not ! " " Go into all the world and preach

44 The Mystery of Suffering.

the remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem/'
the scene of His crucifixion. "Could ye not
watch with me one hour? The spirit, indeed,
was willing, but the flesh was weak." "Son,
behold thy mother ! Woman, behold thy son ! "'
"Father, forgive them ; for they know not what
they do."

The death of Christ was the perfecting of His
perfection. It was the last and steepest step of
the altar of self-sacrifice He had been so long
ascending. All the sufferings of His previous
life were, as we have seen, there gathered up
and consummated. He who had borne all His
previous troubles unblenchingly, shrank and
shuddered at the thought of Calvary and the
anguish it involved. "We saw that, among
other things, it meant leaving the world when
He had, to all outward appearance, scarcely
accomplished anything. We saw that the in-
ducement must have been terribly strong to
parley with conscience, to make a compromise
with the Pharisees, to do evil that good might
come. This temptation would be the severest
He had ever experienced, and overcoming it
must have involved the extremest suffering.
But had He failed here, all would have been
lost. He would have shown that He was un-

The Character of Christ. 45

selfish, but only within certain limits. He would
have shown that He had faith in God, but only
up to a certain point. He would have proved
Himself in the battle with sin a brave soldier,
yet conquerable, and therefore unfitted to be the
Captain of our salvation. But He persevered
even unto death. The cross has ever since been
a symbol and synonym of all that Christ thought
and did and was. And rightly so; for it was
the summing up and completion of all.

" In the Cross of Christ we glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time ;
All the light of sacred story
GATHERS round its head sublime."

Well, now, is He not perfect, this Man of Sor-
rows? Did He not unite in Himself all good
qualities which in others are only found apart,
and even then in an inferior degree ? Do we not
find in Him, for example, more than the tender-
ness of woman, combined with more than the
strength of man? Has not the story of His
self-sacrificing love purified many of the vilest
hearts, and brought some of the most abandoned
of the devil's votaries to the very feet of God?
Did not everything good in the world before
Christ point to something better far in Him ?
Does not everything that is best in the world

46 The Mystery of Suffering.

to-day owe its origin to Him? How much, of
what is sweetest in art, how much of what is
noblest in life, would never have existed but for
Christ ! Must we not thank Him for all that is
most beautiful in our social intercourse, in our
friendships, in our homes? Can we not trace
His influence wherever there is progress in right
and freedom and toleration and joy ? The
thoughts of the Nazarene lie at the basis of
modern civilisation, and are inextricably bound
up with the future progress of the world. 1

The glory of Christ has been seen and acknow-
ledged not only by clergymen, not only by ortho-
dox Trinitarians, not only by those who profess
to be entirely consecrated to His service; but
wherever He has been understood, He has been
invariably admired, and more or less believed in,
if not loved. Nearly all the greatest minds of
the last two thousand years, though holding the
most divergent religious opinions, and differing
perhaps in regard to almost every other subject,
have been unanimous in their praise of Christ.
Milton, Shakespeare, Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, New-
ton, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Herder,
G-oethe, Napoleon, Jean Paul Eichter, Carlyle,
Eousseau, Eenan, John Stuart Mill, and a host

1 See also concluding sermon.

The Character of Christ. 47

of others, have been at one in lauding the beauty
of His life, the wisdom of His teaching, the bless-
edness of His work. For instance, Napoleon
said, "Alexander, Cassar, Charlemagne, and my-
self, founded great empires ; but the creations of
our genius depended upon force. Jesus alone
founded His empire upon love, and to this day
millions would die for Him." Eichter said,
" Christ was the holiest among the mighty, and
the mightiest among the holy. He lifted with
His pierced hands empires off their hinges ; He
turned the stream of history, and still governs
the ages." Eousseau said, " If the life and death
of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and
death of Jesus were those of a God." Eenan has
said, " Thanks to Jesus, the dullest existence, the
most absorbed by sad and humiliating duties, has
had its glimpse of heaven : " and again, " To tear
the name of Jesus from the world would be to
shake it to its very foundations."

And there have been some who have conceived
for Him a passionately enthusiastic devotion, that
was a copy and not a faint copy either of His
own self-sacrificing love. There have been some
who have surrendered for Christ pleasure, money,
fame, health, family, friends, position, prospects,
life ; who for His sake have suffered the loss of

48 The Mystery of Suffering.

all things. There have been some who, for Christ's
sake, were tortured, arid had trial of cruel mock-
ings and scourgings, and bonds and imprison-
ment ; who wandered over deserts and dwelt in
caves; who were destitute, afflicted, tormented;
who were stoned, or sawn asunder, or slain with
the sword; and who not only endured these
things, but gloried in them, counting it ALL JOY
thafc they were thought worthy to suffer shame
for Christ. And there have been many a vast
multitude that no man can number, belonging to
all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues
who, though coming short of this enthusiastic
devotion, have yet loved and served Christ to the
best of their ability, following Him sometimes
closely, sometimes from afar off; sometimes for-
saking Him, but always returning to Him again.
They differ from one another in all conceivable
respects; they agree in nothing save their love
for Christ. And this love is no superficial senti-
mentalism, no transitory caprice. It is the deep-
est reality in their lives. It is slowly very
slowly, alas! but still surely and perceptibly
transforming their inclinations and aims, so that
for them "old things are passing away, and all
things are becoming new."
. And Christ's influence is by no means restricted

The Character of Christ. 49'

to those who professedly admire and love Him.
Many, unknown to themselves, have caught some-
thing of His divine spirit of self-abnegation. Of
all the best and noblest men now living, whether
they profess to be Christ's disciples or not, it may
without hesitation be affirmed, that they are ready
to deny themselves for the welfare of others, and
that, to a greater or less extent, they have merged
their own life and wellbeing in the life and well-
being of the race. From whom can they have
learnt this enthusiasm for humanity if not from
the crucified Nazarene ? Must he not then have
been perfect, this Man of Sorrows, to have accom-
plished such effects as these ?

The Mystery of Suffering.

IV.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT.

' It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. "HEBREWS ii. 10.

line of thought in the previous sermons
has been that the existence of suffering, so
far as it tends to the perfecting of character, is
not an argument against, but an argument for,
the beneficence of God. It must be admitted,
however, that all suffering does not appear to
have this beneficial tendency. It may perhaps
have occurred to you already, that suffering
sometimes seems to have a haidening, rather
than a softening, effect; in some cases it seems
not to improve, but rather to deteriorate, character.
Upon this point I would offer two remarks.

Difficulties of the Subject. 5 1

First, the man who is apparently injured by
suffering may be in reality benefited. He may
seem, to the careless observer, to be very harsh
and bitter; but those who know him more
intimately may discover an infinite depth of
tenderness, underlying this superficial cynicism.
A striking example of this was afforded by the
late George Dawson. He had experienced the
severest trials, the greatest of all being this,
that his only daughter, who as a child had been
brilliantly clever, became at the age of twenty,
owing to over-study, very nearly an idiot. Well,
one Sunday he astonished his congregation,
who were accustomed to clever sermons, by
preaching a peculiar discourse, consisting of the
shortest sentences and the simplest ideas, fit
only for an infant class. The explanation was
this : his daughter was at church that morning,
and her mind happened, as he knew, to be less
obscured than usual. The sermon was addressed
to her. The text was, " Like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
Him." IsTow the man who could do this must
have been possessed of the very rarest tender-
ness ; yet if you had met him only casually, you
would have said he was the most cynical and
misanthropical person you had ever known. So

52 The Mystery of Suffering*

that I say, suffering, even when it seems to have
injured any one, may after all have had the
opposite effect.

But, secondly, I do not deny I acknowledge
that suffering does occasionally deteriorate char-
acter. You remember the words which Shake-
speare puts into the mouths of the two murderers
in " Macbeth." The first of them says

" I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile hlows and buffets of the world
Have so incensed, that I am reckless what
I do to spite the world."

The second says

"And I another

So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune,
That I would set my life on any chance
To mend it, or lie rid on't."

It is in the moral as in the physical sphere;
the self-same causes will produce, under different
circumstances, totally different results. The most
useful agents in nature have sometimes the most
deadly effects. The atmosphere, which is essen-
tial to life, is the chief source of putrefaction and
decay. The sea, which bears one mariner safely
to the desired haven, buries another in a watery
grave. Electricity, which carries a message across
the world at the bidding of one man, strikes an-
other dead. So the very circumstances of which

Difficulties of the Subject. 53

a good man makes stepping-stones to heaven, a
bad man will turn into a pathway to hell. The
responsibility for this, however, rests not with
God, but with men. As we saw in considering
the origin of evil, we must be free, or we should
not be moral agents ; and being free, it is for us,
not for God, to decide how we shall deal with our
opportunities and temptations.

But further, it must be acknowledged that
there is an immense amount of suffering in the
world, the inevitable tendency of which is to de-
velop evil and to stifle good. Thousands at home
and abroad are brought up in the midst of filth,
obscenity and blasphemy, so that for them health,
virtue and religion are impossibilities. Justice
seems to demand that these men and women
should not be made to suffer in the future for
the sins which were, unavoidable in their case
in the past ; and that, somehow and somewhere,
they should receive compensation for all the
calamities which they suffered here on earth. If
there be a future life where compensation can be
made, then this suffering, horrible as it at first
sight appears, does not necessarily tell against
either the power or goodness of God. Even these
hapless souls may by-and-by be able to say that
it was " good for them to be afflicted."

54 The Mystery of Suffering.

But what are we to think of the suffer-
ings of the brute creation? Ages before man
appeared on the earth, animals were "groaning
and travailing in pain together," having to bear
the pangs of disease and death, and in most cases
being preyed upon and devoured by creatures
stronger than themselves. They will probably
continue to suffer long after human life has be-
come extinct upon our planet. Their sensuous
suffering is at least as great as ours:

" The poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds as great a pang
As when a giant dies."

And they have few of the reliefs from suffering
which we enjoy. They seldom get the benefit
of medical advice or surgical skill. They do
not often, except when we choose to. make pets
of them, meet with manifestations of sympathy.
They have no mental resources, as we have, for
alleviating physical pains. They cannot, like
Pascal, cure the toothache with mathematics.
They cannot, like you or me, forget their troubles
by taking up an amusing book or resorting to
cheerful society. If, when they die, they die for
ever, it follows that, in being deprived of the
pleasures of sense, they lose their little all.
What have they done to deserve this ? Nothing.

Difficulties of Jhe Subject. 55

Indeed, some of them, in spite of their poor
mental endowments, have exhibited a wealth of
affection and self-sacrifice such as is rarely found
in human beings. What are we to make of their
sufferings ?

Of course, the old theory that they result from
man's fall is worse than worthless. For, in the
first place, no reason can be shown why they
should be made to suffer for our transgressions ;
and, in the second place, they began to suffer
long before man came into existence. Horace
Bushnell, in his 'Moral Uses of Dark Things,'
has an interesting and suggestive chapter upon
physical pain; but I cannot accept his solution
of the, problem. He argues that God foresaw
the fall, and prepared the world accordingly
that is, He made it a suitable habitation for
sinners. " The very rocks of the world," he says,
" are monuments of buried pain, themselves also
racked and contorted, as if meant to be lithograph
types of general anguish. Making all the world
follow the fortunes of man, and in some sense go
down with him and groan with him in his evil,
carries with it an immense power of moral benefit.
No matter if the pains were initiated long ages
before his arrival, still they are just as truly of
him and from him as if they had come after."

56 The Mystery of Suffering.

But this cannot be the meaning of the sufferings
of the animal creation. To make the innocent
suffer for the guilty would he unjust and immoral,
and could not possibly therefore carry with it any
"power of moral benefit." Bushnell says that
animals are merely things, and not in any such
relation to God as to have a moral right against
pain. To this I reply, that if they are but things,
they are in no such relation to us as to have a
moral right against pain ; and that therefore the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
is engaged in as foolish a work, as if they tried to
prevent tourists from cutting their initials upon
trees or geologists from breaking the rocks ^with
their hammers.

Justice would seem to require that somehow
and somewhere, the brute creation should receive
compensation for the vast amount of unmerited
suffering which they have been called on to en-
dure. The idea of a future for animals would
generally be considered extremely heterodox and
absurd. There is nothing, however, in the Bible
against it. 1 And Bishop Butler, the author of
the celebrated ' Analogy ' a book in which most
of the bishops examine candidates for holy

1 For the meaning of the often-quoted verse in Ecclesiastes
(iii. 21), see my 'Agnosticism,' p. 201.

Difficidiies of the S^tbject. 57

orders justly says that there is no reason why
animals should not be immortal, and that many
of the arguments commonly urged in favour of
human immortality are equally applicable to
theirs. "Even if it were necessary for animals
to arrive at great attainments, and become
rational and moral agents, even in this there
would be no difficulty, since we know not with
what latent powers they may be endowed." In
fact it seems a general law of nature that crea-
tures, endowed with capacities of virtue and
religion, should be at first placed in a condition
in which they are altogether without the use of
these faculties. This is the case, for example,
with ourselves in infancy; and since a large
proportion of the human species die soon after
they are born, it follows that many, capable of
becoming moral agents, go out of the present
world before they have reached the moral stage
of being. And further, contends the Bishop, the
lower animals might be immortal, even though
they were incapable of any high development.
The economy of the universe might require that
there should always be living creatures of an
inferior kind. And all difficulties, he concludes,
as to the manner in which they would be dis-
posed of, are so wholly founded in our ignorance,

58 The Mystery of Suffering.

that "it is wonderful they should be insisted
upon by any but such as are weak enough to
think that they are acquainted with the whole
system of things."

There seems no reason then why we should
not hope

" That nothing walks with aimless feet ;
That not one life shall be destroy'd
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete ;

That not a worm is cloven in vain ;

That not a moth with vain desire

Is shrivel'd in & fruitless fire,
Or but subserves another's gain."

But it must also be added,

" Behold, we know not anything ;

I can but trust that good shall fall
- At last far off at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

So runs my dream : but what am I?

An infant crying in the night :

An infant crying for the light :
And with no language but a cry."

Leaving then what is doubtful, let us sum
up the actual results of our investigation. We
have seen that evil could not have been pre-
vented, without the prevention of a more than
compensatory amount of good. The existence of
suffering, so far as it is required for the destruc-

Difficulties of the Subject. 59

tion of evil, is manifestly not a curse but a
blessing. We noticed too how much there was
to be learnt from sorrow that could never be
learnt from joy, The world's most inspired
teachers have generally been men of suffering.
As Shelley finely says,

" Most \vretched men are cradled into poetry by wrong ;
They learn in suffering what they teach in song. "

We noticed, again, that battling with adverse
circumstances, though painful while it lasts,
gives us a self-respect and a claim to the re-
spect of others, which we could not otherwise
acquire. We saw that social isolation and want
of sympathy threw a man back upon himself,
made him self-reliant, taught him something of
the infinite possibilities of his nature, and above
all enabled him more vividly and blessedly to
realise the presence of God. We saw too that
some kind of suffering was absolutely essential to
the development of the benevolent affections, such
as pity, tenderness and the spirit of self-sacrifice,
without which every character must be contemp-
tible. As a general rule, the men and women who
have suffered much are sweeter and nobler than
those who have suffered little. Even Christ, we
are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, required
the discipline of grief. Now, since a perfect

60 The Mystery of Suffering.

character is the best of all possessions, cheaply
purchased (if need be) by a long-protracted agony
of pain, those sufferings which are required to
bring us to perfection must be regarded as proofs
of the great Father's care. If God failed to inflict
them, if He interfered to prevent them, He would
not be a God of love.

Hence we have found a rational basis small
it may be, but immovably secure for that faith
which believes that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory that shall be revealed ; that our light afflic-
tion, which is but for a moment, is working out
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory; that the Creator is the Father of His
creatures, extending His tender mercies over all
His works, and leading the whole creation by a
right way, though it be oftentimes by a way they
do not understand. With this foundation for our
faith, we may look forward with sure and certain

hope to that

" One far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves."

Just as a grain of seed falls into the ground
and dies, that it may rise again the blade, the ear,
the full corn in the ear ; just as babyhood gives
place to childhood, childhood to youth, youth to

Difficulties of the Subject. 61

manhood; just as the sublimest music involves
the resolution of discords ; just as there are men
and women in the world to-day who feel already
more than compensated for the toils, struggles
and privations of the past, who can say with
Newman,

" I would not miss one sigh or tear,
Heart-pang, or throbbing brow :
Sweet was the chastisement severe,
And sweet its memory now ; "

so all the chances and changes of this mortal life
are but preparations for a better, where we shall
be made glad according to the days wherein we
have been afflicted, and the years in which we
have seen evil, with a gladness sweeter, purer,
deeper than could ever have been ours but for
those days of evil and those years of affliction. 1

1 See also some remarks 'on the necessity for pain in my
'Inspiration,' pp. 151-160.

The Formation of Character

HUMILITY.

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already per-
fect ; . . . but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus." PHILIPPIANS iii. 12-14.

I" PEOPOSE in this and the four following
*- sermons to discuss some fundamental prin-
ciples, which it is absolutely essential for us to
bear in mind, if we would succeed in forming for
ourselves a perfect character. Let us look, in the
first instance, at the virtue of humility, which is
the prerequisite, the sine gud non, of the attain-
ment of moral perfection.

Aristotle, in his 'Ethics,' gives a curious de-
scription of what he considered an ideal char-
acter. The " large -souled " or "high-minded"

Humility. 63

man occupies himself entirely with honour. He
receives a certain amount of pleasure, just so
much as is compatible with his dignity, when the
illustrious treat, him with respect ; but he justly
despises the majority of his neighbours. He
hates to accept a favour, for he wants his superi-
ority to be universally recognised. When he is
compelled to accept presents, he always gives
larger presents in return, so that he may never
be under an obligation. There is nothing which
he considers great : hence he never wonders.
His lofty-mindedness even shows itself by his
speaking in a loud voice, and walking with a
stately gait. This ideal, as Aristotle himself
pointed out, could of course . only be attained by
a man of birth, brains and wealth. If others
aimed at it, the virtue of magnanimity became in
them the vice of conceit.

Now, as Aristotle always tested the correctness
of his doctrines by their agreement or disagree-
ment with popular opinions and practices, we
may be sure that, in this description, he was only
generalising views which were common at the
time. And though, owing mainly to the influ-
ence of Christ, such grotesque exhibitions of
pride would no longer be tolerated, that vice is
even yet more frequently to be met with than

64 The Formation of Character.

any other, human failing. " Other vices," says Dr
Johnson, " tyrannise over particular ages, and
triumph in particular countries. Eage is a failing
of youth, avarice of age. Eevenge is the predom-
inant passion of one country, avarice of another.
But pride is a native of every country, infects
every climate, and corrupts every nation."

What makes pride so common is the fact that
it can adapt itself to all circumstances, it can be
exercised upon anything. It is just taking too
exalted an estimate of our own qualities, because
they are our own. If a man has no good charac-
teristics of which to be proud, he will pride him-
self on bad ones. As old John Berridge quaintly
puts it, "Pride has such a wonderful appetite
that it can feed kindly even on grease and gar-
bage. It will be as warm and snug in a cloister
as in a palace, and be equally delighted with a
foul oath and a fine prayer." The virtuous man
thinks too much of himself on account of his
virtue, while the thoroughly vicious man plumes
himself on the success and magnitude of his
crimes. Some take pride in being rich, others
in being poor; some in good clothes, others in
bad ; some in their education, others in their
want of education ; some in having had a grand-
father, others in the fact that they are self-made ;

Humility. 65

some are proud of being religious, others of being
irreligious ; some of their asceticism, others of
their luxuriousness ; some take pride in being
proud and in showing that they are proud, others
in an ostentatious exhibition of humility. The
Cynic philosophers, who professed to have eradi-
cated all human passions, were very proud of
their supposed freedom from pride. " I trample
upon the pride of Plato," said Diogenes. " Yes,"
said -Plato, "but it is with another kind of pride."
Socrates once said very naively to Antisthenes,
" I see your vanity through your threadbare
cloak." This is the worst kind of pride. The
devil's darling sin, as Coleridge has it, is the
pride that apes humility.

Now the evil effects of pride are manifest.
It is incompatible, first of all, with sympathy
and philanthropy, which are among the surest
manifestations of the Christian life and character.
If we despise our neighbours, we can take no
interest in their welfare ; and even if we did, we
could not do them any good. You cannot really
benefit any one unless you respect him. You
may contemptuously fling half-a-crown to a poor
man, but your unkind demeanour will have done
him more harm morally, than can be compensated
for by any physical good that the thirty pence

66 The Formation of Character.

are capable of accomplishing. And this want of
sympathy is visited upon . the proud man's own
head. He cannot but live a lonely, isolated,
melancholy life.

Again, pride is at the bottom of most of the
quarrels of the human race, quarrels, of course,
quite incompatible with a perfect Christian char-
acter. You may trace its influence in civil and
international wars, in private duels and family
feuds, and in the religious persecutions which
have done so much' to bring the name of religion
into contempt and to justify the sarcastic ex-
clamation of Lucretius, "To so many evils has
religion persuaded men." Eegarding their own
set of opinions as an absolute standard of saving
truth, men have come to the conclusion that all
who differed from themselves must be children
of the devil, whom it was a work of piety to
despise, excommunicate, anathematise, torture
and slay.

Once more, pride is incompatible with progress,
mental or moral. The man who is proud of the
achievements of his intellect proves by his very
pride the incurable denseness of his ignorance.
"Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
there is more hope of a fool than of him." The
fool who is conscious of his folly has really

Humility. 67

advanced far on the road to wisdom; but the
man who thinks he is already wise is proceeding
in the opposite direction, is approaching nearer
and nearer to idiocy every day. Similarly in the
moral sphere. He who is proud of his virtues,
who thanks God that he is not as other men, has
reached his moral goal, such as it is, and he will
be quite content to stay there. But he cannot
stay there. In the moral sphere there is no
standing still. Every man who is not making
progress is really retrogressing. So the proud
Pharisee is not only a very sorry specimen of
virtue to begin with, but he is constantly becom-
ing sorrier. He grows contented with less and
less actual merit, and makes up for the diminu-
tion of his virtue by the increase of his insuffer-
able pride.

Having thus seen the unreasonableness . of
pride, let us look for a moment at the reason-
ableness of humility. The word, as you see, is
derived from humus, the ground, and it is thus
equivalent to the Saxon word lowliness. It is
also synonymous with modesty, which latter term
is derived from modus, a measure, and means
therefore the measuring faculty. All this is
instructive. Humility being synonymous with
modesty will mean, not underestimating, but

68 The Formation of Character.

correctly estimating ourselves. A great deal of
nonsense is often talked on this subject. A man
is sometimes called conceited because he believes
in himself. Whereas, if he didn't do so, he
would be either a very commonplace man or a
fool. He who can do anything well ought to recog-
nise the fact; and if he can do it letter than other
people, it is right that he should know it, or else he
might be content to do it only as well. " I believe,"
says Euskin, " the first test of the truly great man
is his humility. I do not mean by humility doubt
of his own, powers, or hesitation to speak his
opinions ; but a right understanding of the rela-
tion between what he can say and do, and the
rest of the world's sayings and doings. Arnolfo
knows that he can build a good dome at Florence.
Albert Diirer writes calmly, to one who has found
fault with his work, that it cannot be better done.
Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked out
a problem or two that would have puzzled any
one else. Only they do not expect their fellow-
men to fall down and worship them. They have
a curious under-sense of powerlessness, feeling
that the greatness is not m them but through
them; that they could not be or do anything
else than God made them; and they see some-
thing divine and God-made in every other man

Humility. 69

they meet." Hence, just as there is a seeming
humility which is nothing but pride, so there may
be a seeming pride which is really humility.

However, though it is not our duty to under-
estimate ourselves, we must bear in mind that
only a lowly self -valuation can be correct. The
man who is possessed of the measuring faculty
will be aware that for every thing he can do well,
there are hundreds of things he can effect but
indifferently, and hundreds more he cannot do
at all; that for every thing he knows, there
are thousands and tens of thousands of things
of which he is ignorant; that though he may
possess good qualities, he is not without bad;
that if in certain particulars he is really wiser
and better than his neighbours, this superiority
is due in a great degree to the fact that he has
been placed in more favourable circumstances;
and that his improvement under those circum-
stances has been by no means proportionate
to the advantages which they offered. If we
would but reflect, we should sometimes discover
that it was we ourselves who deserved the scorn
we were so lavishly bestowing upon others. I
have not unf requently caught myself, I am
sorry to say, despising persons for certain opin-
ions and practices, which I by-and-by remem-

70 The Formation of Character.

bered were once my own, and would probably
have been so still, had not some tutor or pro-
fessor or writer or friend taught me a more
excellent way.

When, one's pride is thus changed by reflection
into humility, contempt is at the same time con-
verted into sympathy. And sympathy is the
chief criterion of the perfect Christian character.
By sympathy we can make men better, whereas
by contempt we only make them worse. Byron
says of the Corsair,

" There was a laughing devil, in his sneer,
That raised emotions both of hate and fear."

Sneering only excites what is bad in men. If
you want to raise or teach them, you must appeal
to their better nature ; you must treat them with
sympathy and even with respect. And this of
course you will never do unless you have formed
a lowly estimate of yourself.

Then, again, humility is a means to progress.
When we realise how little we know, and not till
then, we shall yearn and strive to know more.
When we feel how imperfect is our character,
and not till then, we shall make earnest efforts
after improvement. Our success in life, whether
moral or social, our making the best use of our
opportunities, temporal and spiritual, will depend

Humility. 7 1

very greatly upon our forming a correct estimate
of ourselves. Swift truly says, "No man ever
made an ill figure who understood his own talents,
nor a good one who mistook them." The humble
man, seeing what is within the scope of his pres-
ent power, does it ; and every such achievement
paves the way -for greater. The proud man, on
the contrary, will perhaps make one or two spas-
modic endeavours to attain something that is quite
beyond his reach, and after he has failed, will
give up all further effort in disgust. Many a
man fails to become great merely because he can-
not become great all at once.

" That low man seeks a little thing to do,

Sees it and does it :

This high man, with a great thing to' pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.

That low man goes on adding one to one,

His hundred's soon hit :
This high man, aiming at a million,

Misses an unit."

Let me, in conclusion, remind you that there
is nothing mean nothing of the Uriah Heep
in true humility. A genuine humility will in-
crease our self-respect. We must surely esteem
ourselves, when honestly endeavouring to ascer-
tain our merits and defects, more not less, than
when we were laying a flattering unction to our

72 The Formation of Character.

squls, which we might have known all along to
be false. It is only the humble man who has any
right to self-respect. Milton speaks somewhere
~of a "lowliness majestic." The profoimdest hu-
mility is perfectly compatible with the profoundest
veneration for one's own God-made nature. Al-
though correct self-valuation involves the recog-
nition of our present littleness, it also includes
the realisation of our potential greatness. This
latter element is most important, as important
for the building up of a perfect character, as it is
for getting on in the world. Unless we take a
lowly view of our actual attainments, we shall
see no necessity for persevering efforts to improve.
Unless we take a lofty view of our possible fu-
ture, we shall lack the patience and the courage
to endure. This is the rationale of Christ's doc-
trine of humility. He that exalteth himself shall
be abased ; in other words, he who would make
himself out to be already great, is, and will ever
be, infinitesimally small. On the contrary, he
that humbleth himself he that thinks little of
his present worth shall by-and-by be exalted,
shall by-and-by become really great. But this
exaltation will be in the eyes of others rather
than his own. He will still take a lowly estimate
of himself. If you see an ear of corn holding

Humility. 73

itself very high, you may be sure there is nothing
in it ; and a similar inference may be drawn in
regard to a human head. The more a man knows,
the clearer becomes his consciousness of ignorance.
The greater his virtues, the more keenly sensible
is he of his defects. The nearer he approaches
to perfection, the more strongly does he feel that,
his aspirations can only be fully realised in the
great hereafter.

The Formation of Character.
II.

THE NECESSITY FOR FAITH. 1

" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect." MATTHEW v. 48.

TF we. are to obey the injunction of the text, it

is necessary that we have faith in the/act.
Faith, in the first instance, seems necessary to
a hearty endeavour after goodness. I am bound
in common honesty to admit that there have been
"men to whom the dignity of manhood and the
fellowship of this life, undazzled by the magic of
any revelation, unholpen by promises of anything
higher or more enduring than the fruition of
human love and the fulfilment of human duties,
are sufficient to bear the weight of life and death."

1 This subject is discussed more fully iu my 'Basis of Re-
ligion.'

The Necessity for Faith. 75

I am bound in common honesty to admit that
there are -men here and there who, with no con-
scious faith in God, are yet living noble, useful,
self-denying lives, spending and being spent for
others, taking the most enthusiastic interest in
all that concerns the wellbeing of their fellow-
men, content to work for blessings to be enjoyed
by humanity, when they themselves shall have
passed (as they think) into non-existence. I
marvel at the goodness of these men, but I con-
fess to you frankly that I could not hope to imi-
tate it, if I held their creed. And I think I do
no injustice to the majority of men when I say,
that they would be equally incapable of this
atheistic morality. If there be no loving God,
the universe is fundamentally and thoroughly irra-
tional and immoral. Just think of it. Just run
over its history as sketched for us by nineteenth-
century materialists. In the beginning there was
an infinite number of dead, inanimate atoms.
These, falling .through space, came into contact
with one another, and by their haphazard con-
currence were evolved, first of all a mass of fiery
vapour, and then worlds, animals, men, instinct,
reason, memory, imagination, will, thought, wor-
ship,, love. If this were all, we could rest con-
tent: progressive evolution must be the work

76 The Formation of Character.

of God. But this is not all, according to the
materialistic philosophers. They sketch for us
the future work of evolution as well as the past,
and that future work consists in undoing every-
thing that has been done. Instinct, reason,
memory, imagination, will, thought, worship, love,
are all to pass away and be no more. The planets
and the stars, after having lasted long enough to
be the charnel-houses of the sentient creatures
which at some time or other probably existed
upon all of them, will gradually be forced to-
gether into one central mass, which will radiate
its heat into space, and at last become a frozen
block. That is to be the denouement. The cur-
tain of history is to fall upon a lump of ice! 1
If then the universe be so fundamentally irra-
tional and so diabolically tantalising, why I can-
not help asking myself why should I trouble
myself about character ? If in so ridiculous and
contemptible a world there be one thing more
stupid than another, would it not be the attempt
to act as if we were rational and moral beings ?
Would not a belief in the reality of right and

1 See Clifford's Lectures and Essays. If the laws of nature
turn out to be less exact, and unchangeable than has been
commonly supposed, the end, though less tame, would be
undesirable.

The Necessity for Faith. 77

wrong be the maddest of all delusions? What
does it matter, what can it matter, how I act, if
my life be but a momentary and accidental gleam
of consciousness in the passage of the atoms from
the fiery cloud to the frozen block ? Surely there
can be no right and wrong for a being who has
been made, and who will be unmade, at the caprice
of dead, unthinking atoms. I am certain I may
say for myself I think I may venture, may I
not ? to say for most of you that if we believed
ourselves to be in a godless, soulless universe, our
moral progress would be at an end ; we should be
stricken with the paralysis of despair. 1

But whether or not faith in God be necessary
to stimulate you and me to try and form for our-
selves a perfect character, there is one thing very

1 My reviewer in the '"Westminster* says I speak here
foolishly, not to say immorally. That is, of course, precisely
what I meant to do. My argument is, that if the material-
istic assumptions he logically followed out, foolish thinking
and speaking and acting are the inevitable consequences.

It has been suggested to me by a correspondent that a dis-
belief in immortality is the greatest stimulus to kindliness and
self-denial; that if we are thoroughly convinced the present
life is the only life men will have, we shall be all the more
anxious to do what we can for them here and now. But surely
belief in the essential irrationality and immorality of the
universe can never afford a logical basis for rational and
moral conduct. The art of life is to be in harmony with
one's environment.

78 The Formation of Character.

certain, it is absolutely necessary, if we are ever
to succeed in achieving such a character. For
we are morally very weak, and we need super-
human help. Without faith we can do (com-
paratively at any rate) nothing. St Paul was
assuredly not weaker than other men, but you
remember his passionate lamentation " To will
is present with me; but how to perform that
which is good I find not. For the good that I
would, I do not : but the evil which I would not,
that I do. ... I delight in the law of God after
the inward man: but I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which
is in my members. wretched man that I am !
who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ? " This is no rhetorical rhapsody, but
mere sober fact, as our own experience may
suffice to show. How often, when we know and
approve the right, do we reject it and choose the
wrong! How often have we tried in vain to
give up evil habits ! How often have our efforts
to live worthily ended only in disappointment
and remorse ! Every one who is not totally des-
titute of a conscience, must in effect have some-
times despondingly declared

The Necessity for Faith. 79

" I see, but cannot reach, the height
That lies for ever in the light ;

And still, for ever and for ever,
What seeming just within my grasp,
I feel my feeble hands unclasp,
And sink, discouraged, into night. "

Now, it is implied, in our text, it is taught
throughout the New Testament, and it is con-
firmed by experience, that there is nothing so
morally helpful as faith in God. We shall not
be surprised at the practical value and the moral
effects of faith, if we consider for 'a moment all
that it implies. It implies, first of all, a con-
viction that the forces of nature are being made
to work together for good, under the guidance
and control of an intelligent and beneficent Will.
If. so, it is worth our while to strive after perfec-
tion. Do not misunderstand my phrase " worth
our while." I am not thinking only, nor chiefly,
of rewards and punishments. That would be a
very low view to take of the matter. There is
nothing more contemptible than the other-world-
liness manifested by numbers of men and women,
who seem to regard the working out of salvation
as a mere business transaction, in which, by the
performance of a few disagreeable actions in the
present, they purchase for themselves the title

8o The Formation of Character.

to a comfortable state of existence by -and -by.
What I meant by saying that, on the Christian
view of things, it was worth our while to strive
after perfection, was this. On the Christian view
the universe is rationally organised and morally
governed, and therefore attempting to act ration-
ally and morally is attempting to bring one's self
into harmony with one's surroundings. Where-
as, on the atheistic view, since there is no ration-
ality or goodness outside of us, endeavouring to
be wise or good is, in reality, going contrary to
nature, acting in opposition to the laws of the
universe. If Christianity be true, it signifies but
little what becomes of that which we call matter.
It may be the case, it probably is the case,
as Shelley has magnificently put it in his
'Hellas'

"Worlds on worlds are rolling ever

Prom creation to decay,
Like the bubbles on a river
Sparkling, bursting, borne away. "

But the man of faith is not to be dismayed by
the dissolution of a planet, nor a systenij nor a
galaxy of stars. He sees a " ring of light round
nature's last eclipse." He believes that before
Nature is dissolved, if that be her future destiny,
the universe will have been peopled with beings

The Necessity for Faith. 81

capable of an eternally intensifying life. So
that, whatever be the end of Nature, she will at
all events have been subservient to. rational and
moral ends. Hence it is evident that to be in
harmony with Nature in other words, to be in
harmony with those surroundings upon which
our welfare depends we must live a. rational
and moral life. In the conviction then of the
existence and beneficence of God, we find a
reasonable basis for morality.

Further. Faith implies much more than con- .
viction. It is an unfortunate thing that the
word belief should be so frequently used as a
synonym for faith. Belief is not faith. St
James, you remember, says, "Thou believest
that there is one God; thou doest well:, the
devils also believe." The devils are as religious
as you are, if your belief in the existence of God
constitutes the whole of your religion. Suppose
a man believes in Thirty-nine Articles or, for
the matter of that, in 399 if his religion ends
there, what is he the better for it ? He might just
as well be without it. Suppose a man believes in
the righteousness and binding force of the Ten
Commandments, and breaks them all, his belief, so
far from making him a good man, is the strongest
proof of his unutterable degradation. No more

82 The Formation of Character.

demoralising doctrine was ever taught by ignor-
ant fanatics than the doctrine that a man's belief
will save him. " "What doth it profit, niy breth-
ren," says St James, "though a man say he hath
faith, and have not works ; can faith save him ?
. . . Faith, if it hath not works, is dead." Luther
did not care for the Epistle of James. He called
it an epistle of straw, and would have liked to
expunge it from the Bible. But the doctrine of
St James is most certainly the doctrine of Christ.
" Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father." The doctrine
of St James is also that of St Paul. The faith
which St James says cannot save is the faith of
mere belief. The faith which St Paul says can
save is the faith that "worketh by love." The
proper synonym for faith is trust ; and trust is an
. affection of the heart, not a faculty of the head. 1
It is the acting out of belief. " Christian faith,"
says Dr Bushnell, " is the faith of a transaction ;
it is not the committing of one's thought in assent
to a proposition, but it is the trusting of one's
being to a Being, there to be rested, kept, guided,

* See a sermon on " The Function of Faith " in my ' Defects
of Modern Christianity,' and a sermon on the " Connection be-
tween Creed and Conduct" in my ' Church and Creed.'

The Necessity for Faith. 83

moulded, governed and possessed for ever." That
passionate devotion to Himself which Christ re-
quired from His followers, and which He describes
in vehement terms as " eating the flesh and drink-
ing the blood of the Son of Man," is evidently
something very different from a mere passive in-
tellectual belief. To have faith in God is to have
had one's heart beating in sympathetic unison
with God's heart;' to have been inspired with the
divine enthusiasm for righteousness ; to have felt
one with God in nature, in sympathy, in aim.

Once more. Faith implies joy in the present
life and hope for the future , and these are states
of mind peculiarly conducive to right -doing.
The tendency of the atheistic theory is to drive
men to despair, than which there is nothing
more enervating and more deadening to all the
higher faculties. . The late Professor Clifford,
(who, curiously enough, began his career at Cam-
bridge as a ritualist and ended it as an atheist),
speaks in touchingly pathetic words of his change
of views. "We have seen," he says, "the spring
sun shine out of an empty heaven upon a soulless
earth; we have felt with utter loneliness that
the Great Companion was dead." And John
Stuart Mill, (who was brought up an atheist,
but at the close of his life was verging towards

84 The Formation of Character.

Theism, not to say Christianity), tells us, in the
saddest of all autobiographies, how for many
months he suffered such deep distress from ima-
gining there was nothing worth living for, that
he kept' constantly thinking he could hear it no
longer, but would soon be obliged to make away
with himself. The man of faith, on the other
hand, is in possession of a joy that dwells in the
very depths of his being, and is neither dissipated
nor distxirbed by the chances and changes of this
mortal life. There are no storms at the bottom '
of the sea. On the surface the waves may mingle
with the clouds; the waters may roar and be
troubled, and the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof; but. there it is calm as on the
stillest day in summer. So the man of faith
may be happy amid external disasters ay, too
happy to do wrong.

That such communion with God is possible for
men is neither more nor less than a fact of ex-
perience. No one has a right to say that the
efficacy of faith is a delusion of half-crazy fana-
tics. Though it has not been experienced by some
men, it has been experienced by others. From the
days of the Psalmist until now there have always
been men and women in the world who could
exultingly declare, "The Lord is my strength
and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I

The Necessity for Faith. 85

am helped : therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth."
The efficacy of faith has been attested by thou-
sands and tens of thousands of human beings,
and among them some of the best and wisest
and noblest of the race. On the other hand,
the want of faith has been the ruin of many a
man whose early life was full of brilliant promise.
You remember those touching lines of Burns's,

" If I have wander'd in those paths

Of life I ought to shun,
As something loudly in my breast,
Eemonstrates I have done ;

Thou Jcnow'st that Thou hast form'd me
With passions wild and strong ;

And list'ning to their witching voice
Has often led me wrong."

Poor Burns! hadst thou but learnt the secret
of faith thou wouldst have found, that though
thy passions were strong, there was a strength
stronger than theirs, which could enable thee to
regulate and subdue them. There have been
men with passions as strong as thine, who have
nevertheless become saints; of whom it was true,
in a spiritual sense, that they " stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of tire,
escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weak-
ness were made strong."

Permit me to make one practical remark in
conclusion to draw your attention once more to

86 The Formation of Character .

the infinite distance that there is between faith
and belief. The profession of a creed may give
us for a time an air of respectability or an odour
of sanctity, but, alas for us ! if our religion
ends with mere belief. If our belief be good
and our actions bad, all that our belief does
for us is to enhance the enormity of our guilt.
I have watched the sun, as he sank into his ocean
bed, and paved the sea with a golden pathway
that seemed to lead to the very gates of glory ;
and I have seen the golden hues gradually
fading into gloom, till soon the blackest part
of the whole horizon was that which but a few
moments before had been so glorious and so
bright. No less delusive is a spurious faith.
Our belief in the divine Father's perfection is
worthless ay, it is even worse than worthless;
it is a mockery and a blasphemy unless it is
changing us into the same image from glory to
glory, and making us perfect even as He is per-
fect. If we have a genuine faith, we shall be
willing to agonise (if need be) in the conflict with
temptation, that so we may be in harmony with
the God-ordered universe in which we have been
placed, and eventually come to

" That perfect presence of His face,
Which we, for want of words, call heaven. "

The Formation of Character.
m.

THE MAGNITUDE OF LITTLE SINS.

" Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines : for our
vines have tender grapes." SONG OF SOLOMON ii. 15.

WITH regard to the formation of character,
we have already seen that the first great
requisite is humility, a profound sense that we
have not already attained neither are already
perfect. We have further seen the necessity for
faith, as a stimulus and inspiration in the struggle
after perfection. In the present sermon I wish
to direct your attention to a third point viz.,
the importance of seeming trifles, or, in other
words, the magnitude of little sins.

There is a well-known anecdote told of Michael
Angelo which illustrates how a wise man respects
what a foolish man despises. A friend called

&8 The Formation of Character.

one day upon the sculptor and found him finish-
ing a statue. Some time after, when he called
again, Angelo was still engaged upon the same
work. His friend, looking at the figure, said,
" You have been idle since I saw you last." " By
no means," replied Angelo. "I have retouched
this part, and polished that ; I have softened this
feature and brought out this muscle ; I have given
more expression to this lip, and more energy to
this limb." "Well, well," said his friend, "but
all these are trifles." "It may be so," said the
sculptor, " but recollect that trifles make perfec-
tion, and perfection is no trifle." It is equally
true that trifles mar perfection;

" It is the little rift -within the lute,
That by-and-by will make the music mute."

The phrase " little sins," common though it be,
is highly unscriptural. In the Bible you will
frequently find such sins as lying, slander, and
selfishness classed with sins like drunkenness,
theft, or murder. The former are represented
as equally effective with the latter in excluding
from the kingdom of God.

Again, the expression " little sins " is highly im-
moral. You will find that the common distinction
between great and little sins, exactly coincides

The Magnitude of Little Sins. 89

with the distinction between sins that are recog-
nised and punished by law, and sins which are not
so recognised and punished. Drunkenness, for ex-
ample, would be a great sin, and gluttony a little
sin. But the non-recognition of a sin by juridical
law does not in the least diminish its magnitude.
The laws ordained by society are necessarily very
limited in their scope. They can take no such
cognisance of evil as would involve, either great in-
trusion upon the privacy of domestic life, or great
interference with the liberty of the individual.
The purpose of social laws is to augment social
happiness. If, therefore, they interfered too much,
they would be self-destructive, they would frus-
trate their own end. Suppose, for example, that
society determined to compel every member of a
family to do the whole of his duty to all the other
members, in that case the emissaries of the law
would have to be constantly present in every
home, listening to all our words, and even scruti-
nising our very looks. Great though the mischief
be which is caused in family life by unkind looks
and ungenerous words, yet if the law were to step
in and endeavour to compel men into kindness and
generosity, the remedy would be worse than the
disease. So again, to take another illustration, a
man may do much injury, directly to himself and

go The Formation of Character.

indirectly to society, by taking too little exercise
or too much sleep ; but the law does not attempt
to hinder him. And it is right in refraining.
"Within certain limits, it is better to be voluntarily
ill than involuntarily well. Life would be intol-
erable if police regulations extended to all its
minutest details. For these reasons the law of
the land is often obliged to wink at wrong-doing,
notwithstanding the fact of its causing an enor-
mous amount of misery. Any attempt to lessen
the misery would only produce still greater suffer-
ing of another kind. The non-interference then
of society- with any particular form of miscon-
duct, does not prove that the wrong-doing is un-
important, but only that it is a kind of wrong-
doing which cannot be dealt with by juridical law.
Every sin however, whether it be a violation of
the laws of society or not, must be' a violation of
moral and divine law, or it would not be a sin ;
it must have been committed in opposition to the
warning voice of conscience, or it would not be
a sin ; it must have been productive of injurious
effects upon the character of the man who per-
formed it, or it would not be a sin ; and when we
know all this about it, to call it little is, in reality,
to express the extremest contempt for morality.

The Magnitude of Little Sins. 91

The persistent use of the expression "little
sins" is most demoralising. People think to
themselves, if the -sin which doth so easily
beset them be a little one, it is comparatively
unimportant, scarcely worth the trouble of giv-
ing up. Whereas, on the contrary, it may actu-
ally be doing them and their neighbours more
injury than was ever inflicted by any sin that
would commonly be called great.

The sins of the tongue the sins of evil speak-
ing, rash speaking, unkind speaking, and so forth
are all, according to the common way of think-
ing, little sins. But listen to what St James says
in regard to them : " The tongue is a little mem-
ber. . . . Behold, how great a matter a little fire
kindleth ! And the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity: so is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on
fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire of
hell. For every kind of beasts and of birds, and
of serpents and of things in the sea, hath been
tamed of mankind : but the tongue can no man
tame ; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."
He could not have said in more emphatic language
that the sins of the tongue are among the great-
est of sins. And his emphasis is perfectly just.

92 The Formation of Character.

"Little words," says Sophocles, "make or mar
men." The words of scandal-mongers have black-
ened irretrievably many a fair reputation, destroyed
ruthlessly many a valuable friendship, blasted for
ever many an innocent life. Society may wink
at such sins and call them little ; the law may be
unable to protect us from them or to punish
them; but an uncorrupted moral sense will al-
ways pronounce them great and grievous in the
extreme.

It is curious to notice that the very character-
istics which commonly earn for a sin the name
of little, are often just the characteristics which
in reality enhance its sinfulness, and render it
pre-eminently worthy of being called great. For
example, an ingenious prevarication would be
usually considered far less sinful than a down-
right and awkward falsehood. It would be digni-
fied with a euphemistic title, and called " a white
lie." But the kernel of truth which it contains
makes it more sinful, not less. It shows its per-
petrator to be a cultivated liar. Judged, too, by
its effects, it may often be discovered to be a lie
of surpassing magnitude.

" A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.

A lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright,

But a lie which is half a truth is a harder matter to fight."

The Magnitiide of Little Sins. 93

A little sin, if there were such a thing, would
be one that did little harm. But you will ob-
serve that the sins commonly called little are
sins which can be, and which as a matter of fact
are, constantly repeated. Hence, in the long-run,
it is these sins that do the greatest amount of
mischief. A man cannot commit many murders.
He is generally hanged for the first, and there is
an end of him. But the sins of temper and of
speech and of heart, the sins of unMndness, of
unneighbourliness, of selfishness, are sins which
we can go on committing without fear of pun-
ishment, every day, every hour, every moment.
The amount of suffering, therefore, which can be
inflicted by them is practically infinite. Allow
rne to illustrate this point. In common parlance,
theft is a great sin and bad temper is a little sin.
But suppose that a member of your family, with
whom you are compelled to live, is incessantly
annoying, incessantly torturing you by his mor-
oseness, by his spitefulness, by his paroxysms of
horrible rage, will you say that he is less of a
sinner than a pickpocket ? Will you say that
the man who has made your home a very hell is
more righteous than the man who has taken away
your handkerchief ? Why, the misery caused by
all the pickpockets in the world to the whole

94 The Formation of Character.

human race, is less than that inflicted on your
single self by the so-called little sins of your
relative's detestable temper.

And the sins of which we are speaking not
only cause a vast amount of suffering, but they
have the most fatal effect upon our character. A
great sin, severely punished and bitterly repented
of, is not at all likely to be repeated. Whatever
crime it may have been that was committed by
the author of ' Five Tears' Penal Servitude,' any
one who has read that book can see that its
writer was in no danger of becoming a felon a
second time. He evidently felt his punishment
so acutely, that the remembrance of it would
be practically omnipotent as a warning for the
future. On the contrary, the sins which seem
to be little, just for that very reason, and also
because they are generally unpunished, are likely
to be first of all ignored by a man, and then
repeated, till at last their total effect may be to
render his character hopelessly and irretrievably
bad. A number of very little sins will make a
very great sinner.

"Sands make the mountain, moments make the year."

Again, our so-called little sins have the most
fatal moral effect upon the characters of others.

The Magnitude of Little Sins. 95

They are just the sins which others will be likely
to imitate. The average man is more likely to be
infected by such a sin as scandal than he is to be
infected by such a sin as theft. Therefore .these
little sins do the most widespread moral mischief
in society. They not only diminish our neigh-
bour's happiness, but they injure his moral
nature. And this deterioration of his character
will have a similar tendency to deteriorate the
character of others. Thus our neighbour's neigh-
bours, persons whom we do not know and whom
we cannot directly influence, may be morally
injured, may be even morally ruined, by what we
choose to consider our little sins.

From what I have said it must be sufficiently
evident that if we desire to form for ourselves
a perfect character, a studied avoidance of little
sins is of the first importance. There is a wise
maxim, current in common life, which tells us
that if we take care of the pence the pounds will
take care of themselves. I think we may coin a
moral maxim, containing not less wisdom, to the
effect that if we take care of the little sins the
great sins will take care of themselves. He who
is economical with a penny is not very likely to
be extravagant with a pound. Similarly, he who
is conscientious about his words and his thoughts

96 The Formation of Character.

and the minor details of his life, is surely in a
fair way to act conscientiously upon the most
important and serious. occasions. Whereas, the
man who acts foolishly or wrongly in regard to
what may seem trivial matters, is almost certain,
from the mere force of hahit, to act foolishly and
wrongly in regard to the most momentous. Our
habits depend upon the way in which we com-
port ourselves, not in great and startling emer-
gencies, hut rather under the simple, common
events of our everyday life. It is scarcely
conceivable that circumstances could arise in
which you or I should feel tempted to commit
a murder. On the other hand it is quite as
difficult to imagine, that a day could ever elapse
without our being tempted to say something
which it would have been better to leave un-
said. The oft-recurring circumstances of daily
life bring with them oft-recurring opportunities
to sin. The temptations may not at first be very
strong, but they are constantly present with us,
and they are strengthened in proportion as we
yield. A sin may imperceptibly become the pre-
dominant habit of a man's life. Before he is
aware of it, it may become his second nature.

" 111 habits gather by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. "

The Magnitude of Little Sins, 97

A man would think twice before he deliberately
made over his soul to the devil after the manner
of Faust. But the bargain may be completed,
though more slowly, yet quite as effectually, by
a series of partial transfers.

To the thoughtful man there can be nothing
little, least of all in the moral sphere. It was a
favourite idea with Leibnitz that every particle
of matter reflected in a manner, and carried latent
in itself, the history of the entire universe ; that
is to say, if we knew whatever could be known
about any single particle, we should be omnis-
cient. All the forces in nature have been at
work to make that little atom exactly what it
is. Everything influences, and is in turn influ-
enced by, the infinite whole. From this point
of view how unspeakably solemn appears our
human life ! Almost every moment brings with
it at once an opportunity to do right and a temp-
tation to 'do wrong. Everything we do or say
leaves us somewhat different from our former
selves, and is productive of good or evil to num-
bers of our fellow-men. Every action we per-
form, every word we utter, every thought we
think, has widespreading, far-reaching effects
eifects that will eternally endure. Let us stand
in awe and sin not.

The Formation of Character.

IV.

THE LAW OF HABIT.
"If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." GENESIS iv. 7.

TF the angels weep, as they are said to do, over
-*- human follies and shortcomings, there can
be nothing which more frequently elicits their
tears than the ignorance and thoughtlessness of
men in regard to the laws of their own nature.
It is strange that they should know, and care
to know, so little of the world they live in ; that
many of them should leave it without having
made much more acquaintance with its laws
than could be achieved by an unthinking brute.
But it is still more strange that thousands should
live and die in almost equal ignorance of them-
selves. The knowledge of human nature should

The Law of Habit. 99

be the first business of education, but it is usually
the last, if indeed it be not altogether ignored.
And yet the old Delphic maxim, " Know thyself,"
was one of the wisest ever uttered. He who
does not know himself will inevitably make a
failure of his life. Just as the labour of a
mechanic will be good, bad, or indifferent, accord-
ing to his knowledge of the material upon which,
and the instruments with which, he works, so
the value of your life-work and mine will de-
pend mainly upon the amount of attentive con-
sideration which we have given to the laws of
our own nature. For that nature is at once the
material upon which we work since all our
actions change it for the .better or the worse ; and
it is also the instrument with which we work
since the actions that change us originate from
ourselves. Bacon, you remember, urged men to
the study of the world without, on the ground
that knowledge was power. x Would that some
moral philospher would urge us, with the same
earnestness and success, to the study of the world
within ! In both .cases it is possible to turn the
very same forces to a good or to a bad account.
And the goodness or the badness of the use we
make of them will depend very mainly upon the
state of our knowledge. The more men ^

ioo The Formation of Character.

about the laws of nature, the more advantage
are they able to derive from them. Electricity,
for example, by which our ancestors allowed
themselves to be destroyed, we have now com-
pelled into our service, and send it round the
world at our bidding. So, too, there are laws in
our personality which may be our salvation or
our ruin. They may ruin us if we are ignorant ;
they will save us if we are wise.

Now of all these laws, there is perhaps none
so important as the law of habit, according to
which actions, by being often repeated, become,
first of all, easier to be performed, and afterwards
difficult, if not impossible, to be avoided. It is
to this law of habit, I think, that the text refers,
"If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door."
Sin is here , personified, and represented as a
beast of prey ready to spring upon its victim.
Our actions have a tendency to enslave us. The
wrong deeds which we once voluntarily chose to
perform are very apt to grow into wrong practices,
which we shall at last perform mechanically,
without any choice, or even in opposition to
the most earnest desire to refrain. So when
a man sins he may fairly be represented, in
the graphic language of the text, as having
called something into existence which, like

The Law of Habit. 101

an evil beast, is waiting to seize and devour
him.

Every one has heard of the terrible suffering
De Quincey endured, when he was trying to give
up the practice of eating opium. Every one has
heard how Samuel Taylor Coleridge, when he
found himself enslaved by the same habit, used
to order his servant to follow him in his walks,
and forcibly prevent him from entering an opium
shop. We all know that men are constantly, as
in the case of drunkards, ruined by the force of
habit, when " their iniquities have taken hold of
them, so that they are not able to look up." We
have all known or heard of cases in which the
grasp of habit became so deadly, that it crushed
out of its wretched victim every trace of man-
hood or of womanhood, and what had once been
a human being was left no better than a brute.
No better? Ay, infinitely .worse. For, to use
the words of the prophet, it is " gold which has
become dim," it is " most fine gold which has been
changed." It is the image of God which has given
place to the image of the devil.

But though we are all familiar with such
illustrations as these of the law of habit, we do
not sufficiently realise the wide scope of that
law. We think that if we are not the slaves,

i O2 The Formation of Character.

and are not likely to become the slaves, of any
great vice or crime, the law of habit has com-
paratively little to do with us. Now we could
not make a greater or more serious mistake.
Paley truly says, "There are habits not only
of drinking, swearing, lying, and so on, but of
every modification of action, speech and thought.
Man is a "bundle, of habits. There are habits of
industry, attention, and vigilance; of obedience
to the judgment-, or of yielding to the first impulse
of passion ; of extending our views to the future,
or of resting in the present ; of indolence, dilatori-
ness, vanity, self-conceit, melancholy, partiality,
fretfulness, suspicion, captiousness, censorious-
ness; of pride, ambition, covetousness ; in a
word, there is not a quality or function, either
of body or mind, which does not feel the influ-
ence of this great law."

According to the .law of habit, everything we
begin to do is difficult, and in some degree pain-
ful ; everything we have done often is easy, and
in some degree pleasurable. So great is the irk-
someness of making a commencement, that it
may be truly said, when anything is begun it is
in reality half done. If practice did not make
things easier, life would be a most worthless
possession. If, for example, the difficulty we

The Law of Habit. 103

experienced in our infantile efforts to walk had
continued, we should long ago have given up
the effort at locomotion in disgust. But we are
so constituted that the results of our actions, and
even of our ancestors' actions, are embedded in
our frame. Every thought, every feeling, every
action is preceded, accompanied and followed
by changes in the nervous system; and these
changes leave their marks behind them, in the
form of a predisposition to similar experiences.
When we first attempt any new kind of action,
as, for example, playing upon a musical instru-
ment, our muscles have to be schooled and dis-
ciplined to their unaccustomed task. But when
they have got used to it, they work almost auto-
matically ; and eventually, just as if they had a
will of their own, they seem to resent any attempt
to change their mode of action. The Greek
flute-player was a wise man, who demanded a
double fee from any pupil w#b had been taught
by a bad master; for, however hard it may be
to learn anything, it is harder still to unlearn it.
Again, what is true of the body is true of the
mind. The presence in the mind of an idea or
a train of ideas, predisposes it to a recurrence
of the same or similar ideas. Each thought
seems, so to speak, to make a road in the ner-

1 04 The Formation of Character.

vous system, along, which track similar thoughts
can more easily travel. The same law holds, too,
in regard to our customary manner of speaking,
as well as in regard to our customary manner
of thinking. Sir Joshua Eeynolds once asked
Dr Johnson by what means he had attained
his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language.
Johnson told him he had early laid it down as
a fixed rule to do his best, on every occasion and
in every company, to impart whatever he knew
in the most forcible style; and that, as he never
suffered any careless expressions to escape him,
nor attempted to deliver his thoughts without
arranging them in the clearest manner, correct
speaking had become habitual to him.

Not only does habit make actions easier, but
it also makes them, as I have already intimated,
more or less agreeable. Custom is so powerful,
that it can even transmute pain into pleasure.
Let a man perform a disagreeable action often
enough, and he will by-and-by experience a sort
of enjoyment in its performance. Let him live
long enough in the midst of unpleasant circum-
stances and surroundings, and they will at last
acquire a strange and inexplicable fascination.
The dullest, dirtiest, dreariest dungeon may in
time become to him a home, which he could not

The Law of Habit. 105

exchange for a palace without a sigh. You re-
member the words which Byron puts into the
mouth of Bonnivard, the prisoner of Chillon, -

" At last men came to set me free ;

I asked not why, and recked not where 5
It was at length the same to me,
Fettered or fetterless to be ;

I learned to love despair.
And thus, when they appeared at last,
And all my bonds aside were east,
These heavy walls to me had grown
A hermitage, and all my own !
And half I felt as they were come
To tear me from a second home.
With spiders I had friendship made,
And watched them in their sullen trade.

My very chains and I grew friends.
So much a long communion tends
To make us what we are : even I
Eegained my freedom with a sigh."

Since then everything becomes easy, and more
or less pleasant, by custom ; and since our exist-
ence is made up, for the most part, of a number
of little actions, which we do just because we
have been accustomed to do them, it is manifest
that the art of life is the art of forming habits.
It must be admitted that men owe much, for
good or for evil, to their ancestors. The scientific
doctrine of heredity, no less than the theological
doctrine of original sin, teaches us that tendencies

io6 The Formation of Character.

are inherited. Men owe much, too, for good or
for evil, to their mothers, God only knows how
much. A mother has an almost infinite power
of moulding her child's disposition during the first
few years of its existence. But, of course, per-
sonal responsibility only begins with voluntary
actions ; and the most important voluntary actions
are those which are done in youth. Then we sow
the seed ; in the years of our maturity we reap
the harvest. "Live as long as you may," said
Southey, " the first twenty years of your life is
the longest half." It is by far the most preg-
nant in consequences, physical, intellectual, and
moral.

To those of you who are as yet in the first
flush of early youth, I say emphatically that
"now is the accepted time; now -is the day of
salvation." You might now, with comparative
ease, acquire such habits of right-doing, that by-
and-by you would never feel any inclination to
act differently. " He that is born of God," says
St John, "sinneth not. He cannot sin, because
he is born of God." Choose now the best mode
of life, and custom will soon render it the most
agreeable. Day by day and hour by hour, try to
acquire habits of talking sensibly, acting kindly,
and thinking wisely. This may need at first a

The Law of Habit. i o 7

good deal of effort, but if you persevere it will
by-and-by become your second nature ; and then
you may find it more difficult to do wrong than
you have ever found it to do right. Euripides
truly says, good habits are more to be relied on
thaii good laws. A strong temptation will often
cause a man to run the risk of punishment by
violating a law; but temptation is powerless
against the force of habit. And remember, that
of the three things I have urged you to cultivate
talking sensibly, acting kindly, and thinking
wisely the last is quite as important as the
other two. Your health, your happiness, your
moral worth, will largely depend upon your
thoughts, for these will mainly determine the
quality of your words and acts. The tendency
of a man's thoughts in the long-run, believe me,
is to make him Christ-like or Satanic.

If, on self-examination, you find, as I am
afraid you will find, that now and again you are
guilty of -thinking, speaking or acting in a way
which your better nature condemns, for God's
sake determine to desist. These evil practices
are the beginnings of evil habits. Destroy them
while you can.

" A little fire is quickly trodden out,
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench."

io8 The Formation of Character.

If you do not eradicate these habits now, one of
two things must inevitably happen: either you
will go on from, bad to worse, till your character,
in the sight of God and in the sight of your own
conscience, has become irretrievably bad; or if
the end is to be better than that, you will have
to endure nothing short of agony in the struggle
to reform.

And if with any of you things have come to
such a pass, that to root up your besetting sin is
a work of agony, do it, notwithstanding the agony;
do it, ere it be too late. There is this for your
encouragement : the first effort will be the worst.
No succeeding struggle will be half so hard. The
law of habit applies not only to the adoption of
new practices, but also to the discarding of old
ones. Every time you struggle to be free, you
have made your freedom easier to be obtained.
Every temptation you conquer has* diminished
the force of the next. Every time you refrain
from an evil practice, you have made each suc-
ceeding abstinence less difficult. When the queen
says to Hamlet

" Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain !"

he replies

" throw away the worser part of it
And live the purer with the other half.

The Law of Habit, 109

Refrain to-night,

And that will lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence ; the next more easy :
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency."

By one of those curious contradictions that we
sometimes meet with in philology, the word habit
is applied at once to' a vestment, which may be
easily at a moment's notice removed, and also to
customary conduct, which may take such a hold
upon us that to give it up seems like parting with
our very life. "He that cornmitteth sin is the
servant of sin." Bad practices may now be sit-
ting loosely upon us, so to speak, like a garment ;
we might lay them aside with comparative ease.
But if we do not interfere, they will go on tight-
ening their grasp, till at last it will become
impossible to wrench ourselves free. "Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots? then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do eviL" Alas! alas! for the
man

" That all in later, sadder age begins
To war against ill uses of a life ;
But these from all his life arise, and cry
' Thou hast made us lords, and canst not put us down ! ' "

" Custom," says St Augustine, " custom unre-

no The Formation of Character.

sisted hardens into necessity ; " and then it is too
late to repent. Then even agonising efforts may
end only in failure and despair. " If thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door." Beware!
Beware !

Ill

Formation of Character,
v.

EETEIBUTION.

" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
GALATIANS vi. 7.

TTJST as it is impossible, in the physical world,
^ to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles,
so is it impossible in the moral world to reap, in
the end and in the long-run, anything but reward
for the good which we do, anything but punish-
ment for the evil. This assertion is demonstrably,
I had almost said undeniably, true. But there
have always been moralists, from the Sophists
of Greece to Professor Bain among ourselves,
who have asserted that the only punishment to
be feared by wrong-doers was that which could
be inflicted from without, fines, imprisonment,
social ignominy, and so forth. If this were really

1 1 2 The 'Formation of Character.

so, if there were no other form in which retribu-
tion could come, our text would not be univer-
sally valid. Its truth in any particular case
would depend upon whether the wrong-doer could,
or could not, escape detection. If he could, it
might be possible to sow one thing and reap
another, to sow evil and to reap good. It not
unfrequently happens, indeed, that a man who is
dishonest, by managing to appear honest, reaps
the external rewards of honesty. But neverthe-
less, it is true of him also that " Whatsoever he
has sown, that shall he also reap," ay, that he
has already begun to reap. There is a harvest of
character that follows from human actions, and
this is at once the most important and the most
certain form of retribution.

Some of you will remember having read an
interesting discussion on this subject in .Plato's
'Eepublic.' Thrasymachus, one of the Sophists,
undertakes to prove that the wicked, if only they
are wicked on a large enough scale, are always
gainers by their wickedness. If, for example, an
honest and a dishonest man are partners in any
business undertaking, the dishonest man over-
reaches the honest man, and so gets the best of
the bargain. In the case of the income-tax, an
untruthful person will pay less than the man

Retribution. 113

who gives an accurate return. In an official
situation, again, he who is conscientious will
neglect Ms own affairs for the sake of the gen r
eral good, instead of enriching himself from the
public purse, as he might have done if he had
not been troubled with a conscience. To be bad
on a small scale, says Thrasymachus, procures for
men the names of burglar, swindler, thief, &c.;
but to. be bad on a large scale, like a tyrant
usurper for instance, who has forced his way, to
a throne through rivers of blood, and has then
sacrificed without stint the happiness and the
lives of his subjects for his own private enjoy-
ment, to be wicked on a magnificent scale like
that, is the way to procure for one's self all that
heart can wish.

It must be admitted, I think, that if there
were no retribution to be feared by us except
that which society inflicts, there would be con-
siderable force in the position which is here
taken up by Thrasymachus. Much of what he
says is as true to-day in England as it was
formerly in Greece. The man who steals a
turnip is called a thief and sent to prison.
Whereas, on the other hand and those of you
who know anything of the history of public
companies will bear me out in what I say

U4 The Formation of Character.

many a man, who" has amassed a fortune by
ingenious swindling, has been allowed to pass
muster as a gentleman.

Another speaker in the same dialogue, named
Glaucon, supports a somewhat different position.
He argues, that generally speaking it is impos-
sible to commit injustice with impunity, either
on a large scale or on a small scale. He admits
that if it were possible to injure our neighbours
without any fear of civil punishment, it would
be the best thing we could do ; but, he says, as
men cannot count on acting injuriously to others
without running the risk of being injured by
them in return, they have wisely agreed among
themselves that they will mutually refrain. So
virtue is the result of a compromise between the
best mode of life, which would be to do injustice
to others without suffering it from them in re-
turn, and the worst, which is to suffer injustice
without the power of retaliation. He goes on
to assert, what I hope for the sake of humanity
is not true, that if the virtuous and the vicious
had entire liberty given them to do what they
liked, they would both go the same way, they
would both become unjust. Supposing that each
had a Gyges' ring, by which he could become invis-
ible when he pleased, the actions of both would be

Retribution. 115

identical. All men are at heart equally vicious ;
only some are more afraid of detection. Glaucon
further maintains that the appearance of virtue is
alone necessary to secure happiness ; because if a
man seems to be virtuous, he will obtain for him-
self the rewards of society and the smiles of his
fellow-men, quite as much as if he were really
what he seemed. Hence if it were possible for
us to appear virtuous and to l& vicious, that
should be the object of our endeavours ; for we
should then reap a twofold advantage, we
should obtain the rewards, without the punish-
ments, of vice, and we should also receive the
rewards of virtue ; we should enjoy the pleasures
of sin without its pains, and we should also share
the favours which society is in the habit of
bestowing upon honest and honourable men.
Still, as a rule, Glaucon says, if a man has only
the appearance of virtue, the chances of exposure
are great, and therefore honesty is on the whole
the best policy. It is a sacrifice of one's own
interest, but it is one which pays.

Here Socrates takes up the discussion. He

proceeds to argue that virtue is desirable not

only for its extrinsic, but also for its intrinsic,

rewards ; not only because it procures for us the

goodwill and kindly offices of our fellow -men,

1 1 6 The Formation of Character.

but also, and chiefly, because of what it is in
itself. Virtue, says Socrates, is the wellbeing of
the soul, and therefore it is its own reward. The
virtuous soul is as superior to the vicious, as a
well-ordered and well-governed state is superior
to a country which is embroiled in civil war.
The heart of the vicious man is necessarily more
or less filled, even in prosperity, with tumult and
discord ; while the heart of the virtuous man is
tranquil, content and happy, even in the direst
adversity.

In the Dialogue called ' Gorgias,' Plato takes a
somewhat similar view. He there compares the
virtuous to the healthy man. Just as a man
afflicted with some excruciating and loathsome
disease is to be pitied, even, though he be a mill-
ionaire, so a man whose soul is impure is in an
unenviable state, however magnificent, may be
his possessions and surroundings. His evil deeds
may have procured for him, so far as appearances
are concerned, only wealth and fame and power ;
but if, during the process, his soul has contracted
an incurable disease, he is after all the most
miserable of men. What shall it profit a man,
Plato asks in effect, if he gain the whole world,
and yet lose himself ?

Now the views of Thrasymachus and Glaucon,

Retribution. 117

which Socrates and Plato controverted, are held
at the present time in a somewhat less extreme
form, not only by thinkers, but also by a great
many persons who never think.

"When men have escaped the detection and
punishment of society, they fancy they have got
off altogether scot-free. The professional thief,
who has been successful in a robbery, imagines
that, as he has balked the police, he is at liberty
to offer himself unqualified congratulations. The
person who has said something that is not strictly
true in order to shield himself from blame, knows
that if he is detected he will fall urthe esteem
of his fellow-men ; but if he is not detected, he
flatters himself that all is right, that he need
not trouble himself any further ; that, though it
would not be safe to try the experiment too often,
yet for this once he has sown without having
reaped, or rather has sown evil and reaped only
good. And all of us are too much in the habit
of thinking, in regard to actions which lie on the
border-land between the good and the bad, that it
really does not matter whether we do them or
not, since in neither case does there seem much
prospect of reaping either punishment or reward.
Eor instance, we decide on amusing ourselves
when, perhaps, we ought to be at Work. The

ii8 The Formation of Character.

work may not promise any immediate remuner-
ation, and the amusement seems self-evidently
desirable. So we imagine that, in choosing the
latter, we must he acting wisely, or at any rate
that we are doing ourselves no harm.

Now, in reasoning thus, we are guilty of two
mistakes. In the first place, we assume that
if retribution does not come at once, it will not
come at all. We might as well argue, because
the harvest does not come in the spring-time,
that therefore it will not come in the autumn.
" Crime and punishment," says Emerson, " grow
out of one*stem. Punishment is the fruit that,
unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the
[sinful] pleasure that conceals it. The retribu-
tion is inseparable from the thing, though it is
often spread over a long time, and so does not
become distinct for many years."

In the second place, we assume that pain is
the only form of retribution. It is true that in
the long-run, and as a rule, we do reap a harvest
of pleasure or of pain, according to the moral
goodness or badness of the actions we have sown
" In the weary satiety of the idle," says Mr Greg,
" in the healthy energy of honest labour, in the
irritable temper of the s$Ssh, in the serene peace
of the benevolent, in the startling tortures of the

Retribution. 119

soul where the passions have the mastery, in the
calm Elysium which succeeds their subjugation,
may be traced materials of retribution sufficient
to satisfy the severest justice." But even when
punishment for evil deeds does not take the form
of actual pain, it by no means follows that those
deeds have been committed with impunity. The
retribution may have come as deterioration of
character. This deterioration is the worst con-
ceivable punishment; though it often exercises
on men a benumbing, stupefying influence, and
makes them insensible to the pain they would
have felt had- they lived a nobler life.

However fond we may be of pleasure, there
are few of us, I suppose, who care for nothing
else. We would not be always children, even if
the pleasures of children were greater than any
that can be experienced in maturer years. It is
better to be a man than an ape, even though the
ape may have more pleasure and less pain in his
life than the man. An'd surely it is better for a
human being to act in a way which will develop
a noble character, though he may thereby lose
pleasure, not only at the time but even in the
long-run. As Mrs Barbauld quaintly puts it:
" Is it not some reproach on the economy of Pro-
vidence that such an one, who is a mean dirty

1 20 The Formation of Character.

fellow, should have amassed wealth enough to
buy half a nation ? Not in the least. He made
himself a mean dirty fellow for that very end.
He has paid his health, his conscience, his liberty
for it; and will you envy him the bargain?"
Even granting the extreme supposition, which I
do not think at all likely to be true, but grant-
ing, for argument's sake, that such a man had
more pleasure in his life than you who are striv-
ing honestly to do your duty, would you change
places with him ? I know you would not. The
good seed you have sown, in the shape of these
conscientious endeavours, has resulted in the
harvest of an honourable character; and that
is a possession beyond all price, cheaply pur-
chased, if need be, by ar long-protracted agony
of pain.

Let us learn, then, to look at our actions, ay,
even at our words and thoughts, from this point
of view. The safest criterion of their quality- is,
not what effect will they have in winning for us
the smiles of our fellow-men, nor how far will
they procure for us pleasure or pain, but what
will be their influence upon our character? If
an action tends to make us wiser, stronger,
nobler, more sympathetic, more unselfish in

Retribution. 121

one word, better than we were before, then, even
though it may involve pain and odium, it is
pre-eminently right and desirable and good, both
for ourselves and for the world, both as regards
the present and the future, both for this life
and that which is to come. Yes ; even for that
which is to come. "We brought nothing into
the world, and it is certain we can carry noth-
ing out," nothing except character. That is a
man's greatest blessing or greatest curse, as the
case may be, in the present state of existence,
and it is the only thing which he can take
with him into the next. There will be a time
when our bodies must mingle with the dust.
There will be a time when this earth, which
seems so solid and so permanent, will come to
an end. But character can never die: it is
immortal as God Himself. The things which
are seen, on which we lavish so much love, are
temporal. Character, which is not seen, and
which we too often lamentably neglect, is eternal.
They shall perish, but character remaineth ; they
all shall wax old, as doth a garment, and as a
vesture they shall be folded up and set aside,
but character will endure as long as eternity
shall last. We must take up our life in the next

1 2 2 The Formation of Character.

world where we leave it off in the present. Let
us see to it, then, that we do not enter into the
great Hereafter with a mean, sordid, despicable
character. Let us see to it that our thoughts
and words and deeds are such as will tend to the
development of a character noble and divine.

123

The Connection between Self-denial
and Self -development.

THE USE OF THE WORLD.
"The Son of Man came eating and 'drinking. "MATT. xi. 19.

A LL the moral disciplines that the world has
*-*- seen have used the instrument of self-
denial. But -Christ's view of it is in many
respects peculiar and unique. My purpose in
this sermon is to show that Christian self-sacrifice
is not asceticism.

A college friend of mine has told me that
when he was about seventeen years of age, he
became for a while, owing to the loss of his
mother, a prey to morbid melancholy. In this
condition it was a maxim with him that every-
thing pleasant ought to be avoided, and he tried

124 Self-denial and Self -development.

hard to act up to his conviction. At meal-times
he would always take what he liked least ; and if
there were anything on the table he particularly
disliked, he would restrict himself entirely to
that. He only allowed himself one enjoyment,
and that was watching the sunsets, which in his
part of the country were often remarkably fine.
But the pleasure he derived from this was so
great, that he by-and-by came to the conclusion
he ought to give it up. His life was to be in
future, he resolved, one of never-ceasing un-
pleasantness.

Now this idea of the essential badness of pleas-
ure, which had so strong an influence over my
friend during his morbM state of mind, has been
very commonly held and advocated by the pro-
pounders of ethical and religious systems. Dio-
genes and the Cynics he attracted to his tub,
discarded all the comforts of life, with the single
exception of clothing. The Gymnosophists dis-
pensed with that last relic of civilisation, and
looked upon the luxury of raiment as a culpa-
ble self-indulgence. Even Plato sometimes sup-
ports the doctrine that pain is essentially prefer-
able to pleasure. In the 'Phsedo 5 he says that
the soul is imprisoned in the body as a punish-
ment for sins committed in a pre-existent state.

The Use of the World. 125

Every pleasure enjoyed, he says, is a nail fast-
ening the soul more securely in its dungeon;
every pleasure given up is a nail withdrawn,
and hastens on the period of its release. The
religions of the Hindus and the Buddhists aim
at the gradual suppression of the body and the
entire eradication of desire. Hinduism endeav-
ours to attain this result chiefly by means of
penance ; Buddhism by means of reflection.
Hinduism advocates the surrender of the good
things of this life, because they are in themselves
bad. Buddhism advocates the same sacrifice,
because, though in themselves indifferent, they
are likely to prolong our love of life, which it
regards as the root of all evil. In short, it seems
to have been a fundamental doctrine in the
majority of religions, that our first and all-com-
prehensive duty in the world was to make our-
selves as miserable as we could.

Like many other views which find no war-
rant in the Christianity of Christ, it has had a
considerable influence upon the Christianity of
Christendom. The pillar saints, for example,
stood for years on the top of lofty columns, till
they became a mass of corruption too loathsome
to be described. They were firmly convinced
that if heaven were to be attained by them, it

1 26 Self-denial and Self-development.

could only be won through agony. The words
which the poe-laureate puts into the mouth of
Stylites express the feelings of an ascetic with
much force and pathos, and are, it seems to
me, a reductio ad absurdim of asceticism. Let
us listen for a moment to the poor saint's
prayer :

" I will not cease to grasp tlie hope I hold
Of saintdom, and to clamour, mourn, and soh,
Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer,
Hare mercy, Lord, and take away my sin.
Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty God,
This not be all in vain, that thrice ten years,
Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs,
In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and colds,
In coughs, aches, stitch.es, ulcerous throes and cramps,
A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud,
Patient on this tall pillar I have borne
Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow

Thou know'st I bore this better at the first,
For I was strong and hale of body then.

Now am I feeble grown ; my end draws nigh ;
I hope my end draws nigh ; half deaf I am,
So that I scarce can hear the people hum
About the column's base, and almost blind,
And scarce can recognise the fields I know.

Yet cease I not to clamour and to cry,

Have mercy, mercy : take away my sin.
Jesus ! if thou wilt not save my soul,

The Use of the World. 127

Who may be saved ? who is it may be saved ?
Who may be made a saint, if I fail here ?
Show me the man hath suffer'd more than I,
For did not all thy martyrs die one death ?

But I die here
To-day, and whole years long, a life of death.

I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light,
Bow down one thousand and two hundred times
To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints ;
Or in the night, after a little sleep,
I wake : the chill stars sparkle ; I am wet.
With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost.
I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back,
A grazing iron collar grinds my neck ;
And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross,
And strive and wrestle with thee till I die :
mercy, mercy ! wash away my sin. "

Now if pleasure were essentially sinful, then
Stylites was the wisest of men. If heaven be
worth winning, .and if it can only be won by
agony, then the more agony we cause ourselves to
bear, the surer we shall be of an eternal reward.
But the majority of ascetics are far less con-
sistent. They believe that they can best please
God by painful penances and wearisome pilgrim-
ages, by bodily flagellations and mortifications, by
fasting till they are almost starved, and keeping
vigils till they are nearly mad, by depriving
themselves of what is agreeable, by choosing
what is disgusting, by refraining from worldly

T 28 Self-denial and Self-development.

pursuits and amusements, by attempting. to eradi-
cate every natural instinct by acting, in short,
as if pain were the chief end of life. That is
their creed. But, unlike Stylites, they do not
act up to it. They try to make a compromise
between their inclinations and their beliefs.
They endeavour to intersperse enjoyment with
their sufferings, in the hope that the former may
be sufficiently atoned for by the latter. This
half-hearted policy seems to me most irrational.
The man who deliberately and systematically
chooses what is unpleasant may be acting a wise
and prudent part ; but the ordinary semi-ascetic,
though he makes himself very miserable, will
possibly have had too much pleasure after all
to pass muster with his god of pain. He loses
this world to a very considerable extent, and
by no means makes sure of the next.

Asceticism in its extreme form, in which it
is synonymous with the worship of pain, will
scarcely bear a moment's examination. The
supposition that God takes delight in agony
is the foulest of all conceivable blasphemies.
The Being who could make His creatures ex-
quisitely sensitive, place them in a world teem-
ing with sources of enjoyment, and then require
them to act continuously in violation of their

The Use of .the World. 129

nature by- making -pain the chief., end of their
existence the Being who was capable of such
a refinement of cruelty, instead of deserving to
be worshipped as a god, ought to be execrated as
the very prince of fiends. 1

Pain, so far from being that in which the
Author of the Universe takes delight, is very
frequently a clear sign that His laws have been
disobeyed. It is the great criterion of evil. One
of the most convincing arguments against crime
is, that it causes misery and must therefore be
out of harmony with man's nature and with
God's. If we take a comprehensive view of a
bad man's life, the proof that he has done wrong
will be found in the fact, not that he has had too
much pleasure, but that he has had (upon the
whole) too little, his pleasure having been pur-
chased by too prodigal an expenditure of suffering.

Asceticism however often takes, especially in
Christendom, a somewhat different form. Pleas-
ure and pain are regarded as neither good nor
bad in themselves ; but it is said that the choice
of pain and the rejection of pleasure are the
means we should employ to disgust ourselves

1 This argument, I know, will not appear conclusive to every-
body. Some people don't mind worshipping the devil, if only
they are allowed to call Mm God.

1 30 Self-denial and Self -development.

with the present world, and to get our affections
fixed entirely on another. Many persons seem
to think that they ought by rights to care for
nothing but heaven. They seem to think, as
they lavish their affections upon those who are
dear to them, that God is .watching them with
an angry,- greedy jealousy, and that He will never
be satisfied till He has concentrated the whole
wealth of their love upon Himself.

Now I want to point out that this is not the
kind of self-denial which Christ requires from us.
Serious and earnest as the Saviour was, no one
can say that He was a harsh or gloomy ascetic.
Think of Him' at the, marriage festival. Think
of His friendly, visits to. the family at Bethany.
Think of Him" at the great feast in Levi's house.
Call to mind how He commended the poor woman
who anointed His feet with ointment, and cen-
sured the host for neglecting to .perform the
customary social courtesies. Think of His final
interview with the disciples on. the shore of the
Sea of Tiberias, when He accosted them with the
words, " Children, have ye any meat ? " and then,
leading the way to a fire, " with fish laid thereon
and bread," said to them, "Come and dine."
When asked, "Why do the disciples of John
and of the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples

The Use of the World. 131

fast not ?" Christ gave the significant reply, " Can
the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long
as the bridegroom is with them ? but the days
will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken
from them, and then shall they fast." That is
to say, There will come to them pain enough by-
and-by after I am gone, which must be accepted
in the way of duty: it is needless to endure it
for its own sake. Think of these and similar
instances in that short public life of three -years,
and you will discover what a bright, sunny, genial
nature the Saviour had. You will perceive that
He never refused anything agreeable, except when
it would have hindered Him in the accomplish-
ment of His Father's work.

The idea that genuine discipleship is incom-
patible with a cultured, beautiful, and happy life
which grew probably, in the first instance, out
of that belief in the essential baseness of pleasure
which we have seen to be so common has been
strengthened and perpetuated by a misinterpreta-
tion of two different kinds of texts. The first are
those in which the Saviour uses what may be
called vehement hyperbole. For example, " If
any man hate not his father and his mother, he
cannot be my disciple." If we look below the
surface of the words, we see that His meaning is,

1 32 Self-denial and Self -development.

as He Himself is elsewhere declared to have put
it, " He that loveth father or mother more than
me, is not worthy of me." He did not intend
that the family affections should be ignored or
depreciated; they were not to be set aside, un-
less they clashed with duty. But when a man
could not be loyal to an earthly love without
being disloyal to Christ, then the natural affection
must be suppressed then, and them, alone.

Again, there is another set of passages in which
Christ's meaning has been misunderstood, because
it has not been sufficiently borne in mind that
He is referring, not to disciples generally, but only
to disciples under certain special circumstances.
For example, when He sends away the twelve to
preach, He tells them to provide neither gold nor
silver in their purses, to take no scrip for their
journey, nor even two coats. It was necessary to
remind the apostles, as it is still necessary to
remind those who are about to engage in any
great and dangerous achievement, that they must
be prepared to subdue and set at nought all
interfering interests and feelings. The words of
Christ I have just quoted are still almost literally
applicable to the missionaries of the Cross. They
must, if they are to be successful, relinquish the
comforts, the enjoyments, the attractions, and the

The Use of the World. 133

prospects of life. Much of the language of the
apostles is to be explained in a similar way.
They were always within sight of death ; and the
world therefore was necessarily a very different
place to them from what it may legitimately
be to us. " In the present day," says Mr Greg,
"the profession of Christianity is attended with
no peril; its practice even demands no sacrifice,
save that preference of duty to enjoyment, which
is the first law of cultivated humanity. Hence
for us to repeat the language and profess the
feelings of men who lived in daily dread of an
awful martyrdom, is neither more nor less than
the enactment of a gigantic lie." To assert that
we regard the world as a howling wilderness, yet
to be scrupulously careful in plucking such of its
flowers as attract us ; to assert that the sole duty
of life is to prepare for heaven, and yet to spend
most of our waking moments in promoting our
earthly comfort ; to vociferate that we believe one
thing, when by the continual practice of our lives
we show that we believe another, to do this is to
be, not religious, but dishonest.

And all for what? for the sake of appearing
to manifest a quality which Christ never desired
His followers to possess. " I pray not," said our
Lord, " that Thou shouldest take them out of the

1 34 Self-denial and Self-development.

world, but that TKou shouldest keep them from
the evil." The world we are not to love is the
world that lieth in wickedness. To love it, so
far as it is not wicked, is to love it as "the
garden on which the Creator has lavished mir-
acles of beauty, as the habitation of humanity,
the arena of its conflicts, the scene of its illimit-
able progress, the dwelling-place of the wise, the
good, the active, the loving, and the dear." Such
an affection for it is no ignoble love.

The life of earth is doubtless inferior to the life
of heaven, as the studies and games of a schoolboy
are inferior to the pursuits that await him when
he reaches manhood. But, just as the boy best
prepares for his future by valuing and improving
all the varied advantages of his preliminary career,
so we shall best fit ourselves for the great here-
after, not by despising, but by duly appreciating,
the work and the joy of earth. Christ never
bids us give up anything that is good, unless it
would keep us from something that is better.
" The Son of Man came eating and drinking."
Ay, the very Man of Sorrows refused to join in
the irrational worship of pain.

The Connection between Self-denial
and Self-development.

IT.

THE ABUSE OF THE WOKLD.
" Man shall not live by bread alone." MATTHEW iv. 4.

rriHERE are two opposite mistakes, as it seems
to me, regarding pleasure, into which men
frequently fall. Some look upon it as ignoble
and degrading, and believe that the invariable
rejection of it is the only proof of wisdom.
Others think that it is the sole end of life,
and that there is nothing which can be legiti-
mately valued higher. In the previous sermon
we noticed the first of these views, and we saw,
I think, that it was not the doctrine of .Christ.
"The Son of Man came eating and drinking."
We saw that our great Exemplar never avoided

136 Self-denial and Self -development.

what was agreeable, merely because it was pleas-
ant, and that He did not require His disciples
to eradicate the sensuous elements of their being.
In the present discourse I want, to direct your
attention to the other side of the subject, to
the fact that "man shall not live by bread
alone."

Our sensuous nature is not the whole of our
being ; it is but a part, the lowest part. Plea-
sure is but one element, and that a compara-
tively unimportant element, in our complex hu-
man life. Tor complete self-development it is

necessary that we regard our nature as a whole,
and estimate its various elements at their proper
worth.

" What is a man,

If the chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast, no more."

A beast can be satisfied with a succession of
momentary pleasures ; and for him therefore rest
and peace are within easy reach. But a man
is "a being of a large discourse, looking before
and after." He is obliged to bring his varied
experiences together, and regard them as making
up a continuous history ; and this history he is
constrained to compare with an ideal history,

The Abiise of the World. 137

presented to him by reason and conscience, an
ideal history of what he ought to be. Hence
rest and peace seem for ever to elude man's
grasp. " Our very wishes give us not our wish."
But this wretchedness is a most striking proof
of greatness. The higher elements in our nature
are the cause of a divine discontent. There is
a contradiction, a rivalry, an antagonism, between
the nobler and the less noble elements of our
being ; and unless this contradiction be satisfac-
torily solved, unless this rivalry and antagonism
be put an end to, we shall be harassed by the
painful consciousness that our life is a deplor-
able failure.

Some have tried, as we have already seen, to
bring the conflict to a conclusion by getting rid
altogether of the lower elements: they have
attempted to eradicate desire, to extinguish in-
stinct, to suppress and annihilate the bodily
nature. This mistake, as Principal Caird says,
is not unnatural. " If the spiritual self is essen-
tially greater than the lower tendencies, why
should it not exist without them ? If desire
and passion drag me down from my ideal life,
why should I not escape from their thraldom,"
and live as if I were a disembodied spirit ?

1 38 Self-denial and Self -development.

" Snap the ties that bind me to the satisfactions
of the moment; that absorb me in the transient
and perishable, and will not my spirit gain at a
bound its proper sphere? But the ties cannot
be snapped, and even if they could, the end pro-
posed would not be gained. The violent self-
diremption at which the ascetic aims can never
be effected ; and if it could, it would be, not the
fulfilment, but the extinction of a moral life.
In our self-development; the lower natural ten-
dencies have an indispensable part to play. Apart
from them, the realisation of our ideal nature

would be utterly impossible." To live the best
human life is to live, not without desires and
enjoyments, but with duly regulated desires and
enjoyments ; it is to live, not out of the world,
away from all temptations, but in the world,
with its snares and pitfalls, avoiding its evil
and choosing its good. Even if it were possible
for a man to escape temptation by living the
life of a hermit, he would not in that way
achieve self-conquest, any more than a soldier
could vanquish the enemy by flight. Even if
it were possible for a man to eliminate the lower
elements of his nature, he would not in that
way make the other elements more perfect, any

The A buse of the World. 139

more than lie could improve one half of his
body by cutting off the other half.

Some, however, with whom we are at present
more specially concerned, have attempted to
eliminate, not the lower elements of their being,
but the higher. The sensualist tries to live in
forgetfulness of the fact that he is a rational,
moral, and spiritual being. Now manifestly it
must lead to the mosfc disastrous results, when
the lower elements of a man's nature are treated
as if they were the only, or at any rate the
most important, elements. The soul of the sen-
sualist is like a State in which the ignorant,
vulgar and stupid mob has usurped the reins
of government, and is proceeding to destroy
everything better than itself. Enjoyment, which
is the proper satisfaction for the sensuous part
of our being, is no. satisfaction at all for the
mind and heart and spirit. The unsatisfactori-
ness of a life devoted to pleasure may be proved,
not only by abstract considerations, but by the
fact that those who have lived in this fashion
invariably speak of their existence with disap-
pointment and disgust. Take, for example, the
testimony of Lord Chesterfield and Lord Byron.
No men ever had better opportunities for extract-

140 Self-denial and Self-development.

ing from the present life all the pleasure it was
capable of affording. They availed themselves of
their opportunities to the full, and what was the
result ? "I have seen the silly rounds of business
and pleasure," said Lord Chesterfield, " and have
done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleas-
ures of the world and consequently know their
futility, and do not regret their loss. Their real
value is very, very low ; but those who have not ex-
perienced them always overrate them. For myself,
I by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose."
Listen again to Byron's estimate of his own life,
as you have it in one of the Hebrew melodies :

" Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,

And health and youth possessed me ;
My goblets blushed from every vine,

And lovely forms caressed me :
I sunned my heart in beauty's eyes,

And felt my soul grow tender ;
All earth can give, or mortal prize,

Was mine of regal splendour.

I strive to number o'er what days

Remembrance can discover,
Which all that life or earth displays

Would lure me to live over.
There rose no day, there rolled no hour

Of pleasure unembittered ;
And not a trapping decked my power

That galled not while it glittered.

The Abuse of the World. 141

The serpent of the field by art

And spells is won from harming;
But that which coils around the heart,

Oh ! who hath power of charming ?
It will not list to wisdom's lore,

Nor music's voice can lure it ;
But there it stings for evermore

The soul that must endure it."

Since man has a complex nature, his life must
inevitably be a failure, in so far as he neglects to
bring that nature in its entirety to the greatest
possible perfection. For this it is necessary that
the lower principles be guided and controlled by
the higher. Neither the narrow desires of sense,
nor the wider and more comprehensive desires,
such as love of wealth or power, are to be eradi-
cated; but their original character of indepen-
dence is to be changed. In the well-regulated
life these desires are moralised, rationalised and
ennobled, by being made to contribute not merely
to the gratification of the moment, but to the per-
manent, enduring ends of the spirit. " The spirit-
ual nature cannot be severed from the carnal, any
more than the plant can be separated from the
common earth out of which it grows ; but it trans-
figures the carnal with its own essence, as truly
as the life of the plant transmutes into fruit and
flower the grossness and foulness of the soil."

142 Self-denial and Self -development.

Let me illustrate this. The ascetic fasts when
he ought to eat, because he fancies that the more
pain he can manage to endure, the more he will
honour God. But the discomfort and ill-health
he causes himself do not assist him either to
work or to worship. They, greatly hinder and
hamper him. The sensualist, on the contrary,
eats when he ought to fast, from the mistaken
idea that there is nothing worth living for but
pleasure. Consequently both his health and his
appetite are injured. So that even from his own
point of view he is extremely foolish : he would
have had more pleasure if he had not striven for so
much. But the man who is seeking to develop his
whole nature imitates neither the sensualist nor
the ascetic: he follows Franklin's advice, and " eats
so much as is necessary for bodily health, con-
sidered with reference to the employment of the
mind." Our Church, though expressly discoun-
tenancing the doctrine of penance, has wisely
taught us to pray for grace " to use such abstin-
ence that our flesh may be subdued to the spirit."
For most of us, no doubt, this will mean abstin-
ence from eating too much ; but for some it will
mean abstinence from eating too little. We
should always remember that the mind and the
spirit need all the help which the body can give

The Abuse of the World. 143

them, and that there is nothing more helpful than
perfect health. 1

Complete self-development thus requires that
we regard our nature as a whole estimating at
their proper value all its various elements, and
using them according to their respective char-
acters of subordination and supremacy.

But, further, complete self -development re-
quires that we rememher the next life as well
as the present. I pointed out in the last sermon
that it was a mistake to live as if there were no
life but the future, and no world but heaven.
Now I must remark that it is a yet more
grievous blunder to live as if there were no
life but the present, and no world but earth.
To recur to our old illustration, though the
schoolboy best prepares for his after-career by
appreciating and making the most of his educa-
tional advantages, yet it is of the utmost import-
ance that he should regard his school life as a
preparation for the pursuits of manhood. Other-
wise he will be too anxious to gain prizes, and
so sacrifice his health; or too eager to excel in
sports, and so neglect his studies. In either case,
when he comes out into the world he will find

1 See a sermon on the " Culture of the Body " in my ' Preach-
ing and Hearing.'

144 Self-denial and Self -development.

himself at a terrible disadvantage, owing to his
previous want of forethought. Similarly, it is
imperative on us all to remember that the. "grave
is not our goal," and that our life on earth is but
an elementary stage in our existence. " The con-
templation of the future," says Mr Greg, " will let
in much light upon the present, and have a con-
siderable effect in the development of the higher
portions of our nature. Without this reflection
upon the future, though a man may be perfectly
upright and even philanthropic, he will go out of
the world with many depths of his being alto-
gether unsounded, with many of the loftiest por-
tions of his character still latent and unimproved ;
and when he passes through the portals of the
grave and reaches the new existence, he will enter
it a wholly unprepared and astonished stranger."
"When the lower elements of our being come
to be regarded as instruments of the higher,
when moreover we take into account the fact
that we are to live for ever, then we begin to
see that pleasure and pain are of far less import-
ance than we had formerly been accustomed to
think. For one thing, they are very evanescent.

" Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ;
Or like the snow-flake in the river,
A moment white then gone for ever."

The Abuse of the World. " 145

So, too, with pain. It is hard to hear while it
lasts, but when it is over we "remember no more
the anguish." That pleasure and pain are com-
paratively superficial elements in human life may
be seen from the fact, that the very same circum-
stances which give pleasure to one man will often
give pain to another. To a considerable extent
we may teach ourselves to feel pleasure at what
once caused us pain, and to feel pain at what,
once caused us pleasure. It has been well said,
that "if we choose the mode of life which is
most commendable, habit will in time render it
the most agreeable." The actual value of a pleas-
ure or pain can only be estimated by its effect
upon a man's life regarded as a whole. Other
things being equal, a wise man will always choose
pleasure in preference to pain ; but the wise man
knows that very frequently other things are not
equal. Pleasure may be the cause of disgrace,
remorse, self-contempt, anguish. On the other
hand, pain may tend to the perfecting of char-
acter, may lead eventually to a joy that is un-
speakable and full of glory. By the thoughtful
man, therefore, pleasure and pain are regarded
not simply nor chiefly according to their inherent
qualities of comfort or of discomfort; he looks
rather to the conditions out of which they spring,

146 Self-denial and Self -development.

and to the consequences by which they will be
followed. Our real life is something far other
and deeper than its fleeting pleasures and pains
something infinitely more sacred and sublime.

In a word, though there is not required from
us any irrational rejection of pleasure, there is
required from us the reasoning and reasonable re-
jection of it, where it would be incompatible with
our complete, all-round development. Though
there is not required from us any hypocritical
profession -of contempt for the world in which
we live, there is required from us serious reflec-
tion upon the fact that we carry latent within
us "the power of an endless life." Though we
should not ignore nor attempt to destroy the

lower elements of our nature, we should, and if
we would be perfect we must, subdue them, and
press them into ,the service of the spirit.

" Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end and way ;
But to act, that eacli to-morrow
Find us further than to-day."

The Connection between Self-denial
and Self-development.

in.

THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT SELF.

" He that findeth his life shall lose it : and he that loseth Ms life
for my sake shall find it. "MATTHEW x. 39.

TW the last sermon we saw that self-denial was
necessary to self-development. The tendency
with a sensuous being is always to obtain imme-
diate pleasure. But if we would be perfect, it is
often necessary to sacrifice the pleasure of the
moment, for the sake of greater and more en-
during pleasure later on; and further it is nec-
essary to sacrifice pleasure, not merely at the
moment but even in the long-run, for the sake
of those parts of our nature which are higher
than the sensuous. This kind of self-denial how-
ever, though necessary and important as far as

148 Self-denial and Self -development.

it goes, does not go very far. If a man denies
himself merely for himself, irrespective of any
consideration for others, his self-denial is after all
only a refined form of selfishness. Kochefou-
cauld's cynical definitions of friendship and of
liberality, though not universally true, cannot be
said to be universally false. He speaks, you
remember, of friendship as a mere traffic, wherein
self-love always proposes to be the gainer. Of
liberality he says that it is seldom more than
the vanity of giving, and that we are fonder of
the vanity than the generosity of the action. It
cannot be doubted that we have in these bitter
sentences a correct analysis, though not, thank
God! of all friendship and generosity, yet of a
good deal that frequently passes current as such.
When some persons do us a kindness, we cannot
help suspecting- that they are up to mischief.
Love itself, or rather something simulating the
name of love, may only be selfishness in disguise.
Individuals may be loved by us merely because,
and in so far as, they contribute to our own
personal enjoyment. More frequently, far more
frequently than we should be at first inclined
to think, selfishness is

' ' Disguised in gentle names
Of peace and quiet and domestic love."

The Partial and the Perfect Self. 149

In other words, there is a self-denial which is
merely an elaborate and subtle form of self-
seeking.

Christian self-denial involves, as you all know,
the sacrifice of one's self, not merely for one's
own sake, but also for the sake of others. " We
ought," says St John, " to lay down our lives for
the brethren." Now I wish to point out to you
that the self-sacrifice required of Christians is, in
this respect as in others, a reasonable service ; that
when we directly aim at doing good to others, we
indirectly achieve greater good for ourselves than
any selfish conduct could accomplish ; that, as our
text puts it, he who loseth his life for Christ's
sake shall find it.

A great many moralists and philosophers have
insisted on self-surrender, because they despised
and depreciated the individual. Gautama, the
founder of Buddhism, maintained that belief in
one's own personality was an illusion, which
ought to be as speedily as possible dispelled ;
and he taught his disciples to look forward to ex-
tinction as the highest good. Buddhists therefore*
regard the mesmeric trance, in which all con-
sciousness is lost, as the sublimest conquest
of mind over matter the nearest approach to
perfection which is possible for us on this side

1 50 Self-denial and Self -development.

annihilation. The philosophies of the Neo-Plat-
onists and others are dominated by a similar
notion. They teach that as God is one, human
individuality (which of course involves plurality)
must be something different from God, and there-
fore bad. Hence in these systems the highest
form of mental activity is represented as a sort of
swoon, in which the sense of personality is lost,
and the individual spirit is absorbed into the
divine.

Christ did not insist on self-denial from any
such notions as these. He did not inculcate it
because he thought less of the individual than
others, but because He thought more. The
preciousness of every human being was one of our
Lord's most fundamental doctrines. " How think
ye ? " He said to His disciples. " If a man have
an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone
astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine,
and goeth into .the mountains, and seeketh that
which is gone astray ? And if so be that he find
it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more over
.that sheep, than over the ninety and nine which
went not astray. Even so it is not the will of
your Father which is in heaven, that one of these
little ones should perish." His belief in the . im-
portance and infinite value of the individual may

The Partial and the Perfect Self, \ 5 1

be traced throughout the whole of the Saviour's
teaching. 1

In harmony with this is Christ's view of self-
denial. One kind of moral training uses self-
denial as a punishment or atonement. Because
you have done so much which you ought not to
have done, you shall surrender so much pleasure
and suffer so much pain ; or, if you will endure a
certain number of fastings and flagellations, you
may be allowed a certain amount of indulgence
in your favourite vices. Another use to which
self-denial is sometimes applied, is "to express
the essential badness of the thing surrendered."
Because the earth is inherently and altogether
wicked, therefore, by all means in your power,
endeavour to cultivate disgust for it. But with
Jesus, self-sacrifice is always a necessary means to
a reasonable end, and that end is self -develop-
ment We lose our life in order that we may
truly gain it. This is what gives, it has been
well said, to the self-denial which Christ demands
of us, " a triumphant and enthusiastic air." " Eot
because you have not deserved to enjoy it, not
because it is wicked to enjoy it, but because
there is another enjoyment," or it may be sonie-

1 See a sermon on the "Culture of the Spirit" in my
'Preaching and Hearing.'

152 Self-denial and Self -development.

thing better than enjoyment, "more worthy of
your nature, therefore let this inferior enjoy-
ment go."

It is instructive to contrast the kingdom of
Christ with the Eepuhlic of Plato. In Plato's
ideal State the individual was regarded as existing
merely for the good of the community, and on
behalf of the community he was entirely and
ruthlessly sacrificed. All the details of his life
his prospects, his profession, his marriage, and so
forth were to be arranged for him by the State,
just as the State thought best. The individual
was to be allowed nothing which would not be
directly conducive to the welfare of the society of
which he was a member. But in the kingdom of
Christ, on the other hand, nothing is demanded
from the individual which is incompatible with
his own wellbeing. He is required to sacrifice
himself for others, but only in such ways' as
indirectly conduce at the same time to his own
highest good, only to such an extent as is abso-
lutely necessary for his own complete develop-
ment. Let us look at the rationale of this for a
moment ; let us try and see the part played by
our fellow-men in maturing and perfecting our
own individuality.

We have seen that a man is distinguished

The Partial and the Perfect Self. 1 5 3

from an animal by the fact that he is able to
regard his nature as a whole, and to gather up
its passing experiences into the unity of a con-
sistent life. But he is also, and still more strik-
ingly, distinguished by the fact that he can live
in the lives of others. He may so identify him-
self with others as to make their lives his own.
And unless he does this he is not really human.
The isolated individual is not (properly speaking)
a man, but only a fragment of humanity, as
really dead as an amputated limb which, in being
cat off from the organism, is virtually cut off from
itself. A man cannot realise himself within him-
self, cannot come to perfection by himself, but
only in and through communion with others.
There are some parts of the individual's life
which are always in his brethren's keeping, and
which he can only receive from them. A deeper
self-hood, a richer personality, comes to a man
from communion with others and sacrifice for
others, than he could possibly have gained by any
amount of solitary contemplation or self-aggran-
disement. It is only as our individual, narrow,
exclusive, isolated self is developed into a larger,
inclusive, sympathetic self, that we come to our
highest life. To go forth out of self, to have all
the hidden wealth of feeling of which I am cap-

154 Self-denial and Self -development.

able called forth towards others, and to receive
back again this wealth redoubled in reciprocated
affection and increased power of loving, this is
to live wisely and well. Not to do this is to
eliminate from life all that makes it most truly
human, all that makes it most really valuable.

The capacity of love and self-sacrifice is the
capacity to make the happiness of others my
own, to identify my life with an ever- widening
sphere of life beyond myself. As a rule, this
capacity is called forth in early life ; and when
once it has been brought into exercise, it should
grow with our .growth and strengthen with our
strength. In the home of our childhood we first

began to learn that we were more than self-con-
tained individuals; that we were capable of a
larger and fuller life than 'such as pertains to
mere isolated units ; that our own happiness and
wellbeing were enormously increased, when we
contributed to the happiness and wellbeing of
those with whom we lived. Then, as we grow
older, we are brought into relationship with the
community, the state, the race ; and these more
comprehensive relationships should develop in us
more comprehensive affections. The members of
the society in which I live may seem to be inde-
pendent of me and foreign to me. But in reality

The Partial and the Perfect Self. 155

they are not ; they are part of myself ; without
them I have no real self, but merely the false
self of a fragment taking itself for the whole.
It is only when the life of society flows into
me that my own nature is fully developed ; it is
only when, like my Master, I go about doing
good, gladdening and elevating the lives of all
who come within my reach, it is only then that
I avail myself of the most glorious prerogative of
my manhood.

Once more. The love of kindred and countrv

may expand into a yet more comprehensive
affection the love of humanity ; and when this
affection is developed, the happiness of the in-
dividual becomes identified with the life and
perfection of the race. " It is an indication,"
says Principal Caird, " of the highest moral pro-
gress, when nationality ceases to be the limit of
sympathy, when the oppression of the remotest
nation begins to appeal to us with a sense of
personal injury, or when the story of a great act
of injustice done to a single human soul breaks
down the barrier of national exclusiveness, and
evokes from all lands a cry as of pain and indig-
nation for a universal wrong. In such incidents
there is a witness to the slow advance of mankind
towards that ideal of goodness, which Christians

156 Self-denial and Self-development.

have ever recognised in One who loved all men
with a love more intense than the- love of kin-
dred and country, and who offered up life itself
a sacrifice for the redemption of the world from
evil." 1

The self-denial, then, which Christ requires of
us is not self-destruction, but self-completion ; it
is not self -mutilation, but self-development; it
is not self-neglect, but self-fulfilment. It will
bring us 'gradually to the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ. It does not ignore nor
undervalue any of the various elements in our
nature, but it enables them all to work together
harmoniously for the perfecting of the whole
man. He who has learned the lesson of self-
sacrifice is so changed from what he was before
he learned it, that he may emphatically be called
a new creature, and yet he is not less a man
than formerly; rather we should say, it is he
and such as he alone who really deserve that
exalted title. In one sense the lower elements
have ceased to be ; they are no longer what they
were supreme ; they no longer blindly seek

1 For much of the thought and expression on pp. 153-155 I
am indebted to ' The Philosophy of Religion,' by Principal
Caird, and 'The Influence of Jesus,' by the Rev. Phillips
Brooks, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston.

The Partial and the Perfect Self. 157

their own unguided or misguided ends ; they are
now instrumental in accomplishing the higher
ends of the mind, the heart and the spirit. They
have ceased to be, just as dead matter, in becom-
ing part of a living organism, passes out of its
former state of existence into a higher. In one
sense, the narrow, partial, and exclusive self has
ceased to be, for it is no longer narrow; it has
been developed into a self of broader views, of
loftier aims, of enlarged capacities for enjoyment.
It has ceased to be, as a child that has grown
into manhood.

Since, then, Christian, self-sacrifice is so emi-
nently reasonable, it might appear as if every
reasonable creature would find it easy. But we
all know by our own sad experience that it is
hard. Schleiermacher has well observed, that the
lower elements in our nature, the more exclusive-
ly selfish tendencies, get the start of the higher
and more unselfish; and as they are not only
sooner developed, but more frequently exercised,
they become strengthened by that tremendous
power which is known as the force of habit. Tor
some men the struggle between inclination and
duty. is terrific ; for all of us, to say the least, it is
difficult. . We may delight in the law of God after
the inward man, and yet find another law in our

158 Self-denial and Self-development.

members warring against the law of our minds,
and bringing it into subjection to the law of sin
which is in our members. We may see and ap-
prove the better course, and yet choose the worse.
However clearly we may discern the folly of an
excessive indulgence in selfish enjoyments ; how-
ever clearly we may perceive the importance of
subordinating the lower elements of our nature
to the higher, and of considering others as well
as ourselves; however strongly we may be con-
vinced as to the reasonableness of the course
which it is our duty to pursue, nevertheless,
acting up to our convictions will cost us effort,
suffering, it may be anguish. For a while we
may feel as if, in the emphatic language of the
apostle, we were dying daily, as if we were being
crucified with Christ.

After a time, however, the conflict will become
less severe. By-and-by it may almost entirely
cease. The force of habit, which at first was on
the side of the lower tendencies and the narrower
self, will, if we persevere, at length be ranged
against them. The more we experience the
noble enjoyment of doing good the less attrac-
tion will selfish indulgences possess for us. At
last the very pain of self-sacrifice will become
sweeter than the pleasure of self -aggrandisement.

The Partial and the Perfect Self. 159

"There have been men," says Principal Caird,
"who have felt in their country's humiliation
and loss a far sharper pang than in any personal
suffering, and the offering up of life itself has
had a strange sweetness in it, if the sacrifice
could avert or retrieve her ruin. For such a
man pain and pleasure are words which have
almost ceased to have any personal significance.
Self-indulgence at the expense of others would
be a greater self-denial, a thing fraught with
keener anguish, than any private suffering; it
would be an injury done to a dearer self for the
sake of a self he has ceased to care for nay,
which in one sense has ceased to exist." Of
such a man it may be truly as well as poetically
said,

" Love.took up the harp of life, and smote on all the chords

with might,
Smote the chord of .self, that trembling passed in music out of

sight."

The old meagre paltry life is gone. The life
which he now lives is broad and deep, noble and
heroic, Christ-like and divine.

i6o

The Connection between Self-denial
and Self -development.

LOVE ESSENTIAL TO SELF-DEVELOPMENT.
"Love is the fulfilling of the law. "ROMANS xiii, 10.

fllHE context reads, "Owe no man anything,
-*- but to love one another : for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou
shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill,
Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false
witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be
any other commandment, it is briefly compre-
hended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill
to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law."

We have seen that to live a completely human
life is to live in the lives of others. The attempt

Love essential to Self-development. 161

to live entirely for one's self is to make, not the
best of one's life, but the worst. Unless we do
our duty towards our neighbour, we fail to do
our whole duty towards ourselves. We only find
our life by losing it; that is to say, then only
do we truly live, when the narrow, meagre,
self-contained life belonging to us as isolated
individuals, has given place to the broad, deep,
sympathetic life of communion and affection,
which belongs to us as members of a family, of a
country, of a race. Now it is manifest that the
development of this higher life will involve self-
denial. Personal inclinations must be subordi-
nated to the general good. Our own pleasure
must be foregone if it would cause pain to others.
Private interests must give way when they clash
with the larger interests of society. But, as
Burns truly says,

" But och ! mankind are unco weak,

And little to be trusted ;
If seethe wavering balance shake,
It's rarely right adjusted ! "

It would seem then, at first sight, as if the
higher life of unselfishness were quite beyond
our reach. How can we ever hope to ,fulfil the
law which saith, "Thou shalt do no ill to thy
neighbour"? How shall we ever be able to

1 6 2 Self-denial and Self -development.

practise the requisite amount of. self-denial?
This question is, I think, answered in our next,
"Love is the fulfilling of the law."

The "natural man," as he is called in the
New Testament that is, the -man who is trying
to live exclusively for himself looks upon the
law as a nuisance. Why, he asks, should it be
fulfilled? It acts as a check upon his inclina-
tions and passions, and so he considers it his
enemy ; he would fain do away with it alto-
gether. His duty towards his neighbour he
regards as a curtailment of his own rightful
pleasures. To any one in this state of mind I
should like to say, My good sir, if you will
reflect upon the matter for a very little, you can
scarcely fail to see that law is in reality your
most useful friend. Law, throughout the whole
universe, is the essential condition, the sine qud
non, of wellbeing. Would the world be a better
place to live in, think you, if there were no
law of planetary motion? if the stars, instead
of revolving as they do, with mathematical
precision in orbits marked out for them by
the law of gravitation, were at liberty to move
in any direction with any velocity? Better!
Why, this earth , of ours, set free from the con-
trol of law, might one day be as far from the

Love essential to Self -development. 163

sun as Neptune, where we should die of cold,
and the next as near as Mercury, where our
frozen remains would be cremated. And law is
infinitely more .necessary in the social than in
the physical sphere. The great thing requisite
to make human life even tolerable is security;
and this, of course, we could never feel if every
one were at liberty to treat every one else exactly
as he might happen to please. In that case we
should live in a state of universal warfare and
continual dread. .'Without law the human race
would quickly perish, self-destroyed. We owe
to law, therefore, a debt of gratitude as well as
a debt of obedience. Though it forbids our In-
juring others, it also forbids our being injured
by others. Though it marks out our duties, it
also protects our rights. Though it has punish-
ments for the guilty, it also has rewards for the
just. As the water which is evaporated from
the surface of the earth returns again in fertilis-
ing showers, so we are compensated for the self-
restraint which the law demands of us by that
which it exacts from others, and by the conse-
quent security in which we are enabled to live.
" Of law," says Hooker, in the celebrated sentence
with which he closes the first book of his ' Eccle-
siastical Polity,' " Of law there can be no less

1 64 Self-denial and Self -development.

acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of
God, her voice the harmony of the world. All
things in heaven and earth do her homage : the
least as not beneath her care, and the greatest as
not exempted from her power : both angels and
men, and all creatures of what condition soever,
though each in a different sort and manner, yet
each with uniform consent, admiring her as the
mother of their peace and joy." If this, then,
be the nature and value of law, its fulfilment
will be eminently rational and desirable.

We thus arrive, I may point out in passing,
by another route, at a similar conclusion to that
which we reached in the last discourse. We
there saw that our lives could only be perfected
by the sacrifice of personal gratification for the
general good. We now perceive that law, though
at first sight it may appear to have been
devised solely in the interest of others, is abso-
lutely essential for our own wellbeing.

The point, however, with which we are at pre-
sent specially concerned is this, we shall only be
able to achieve the self-denial that is involved
in the fulfilment of the law, when love becomes
the ruling passion of our lives.

The law, of course, is often obeyed on account
of the punishment which would follow its viola-

Love essential to Self -development. 165

tion. A person may pay his debts, for instance,
because, if he do not, he will go to prison. But
you can never be quite sure that the law will
be obeyed when you only appeal to fear. If a
man be a clever scoundrel he may avoid detec-
tion, or, if detected, he may perhaps be able to
make his escape before the punishment can be
inflicted. And a stupid scoundrel, probably not
knowing that he is stupid, will often run a
similar risk. So, while the law depends solely
upon fear for its fulfilment, however vigilant
may be our police, however upright our courts
of justice, however severe may be the condemna-
tion of society, we have no security for its ful-
filment, and as a matter of fact we know that
it is constantly being violated.

Further, the law is not fulfilled by those who
are satisfied with the mere fulfilment of its letter.
You see the letter of the law is enforced by the
punishment of society, and just because so en-
forced it is of necessity very limited in its scope.
As Bentham explains- in his principles of juris-
prudence, the written law only takes cognisance
of vices which can be clearly defined and readily
distinguished. If it attempted to cover a larger
area if, for example, it endeavoured to punish
ingratitude or unkindness it would do more

1 66 Self -denial and Seif-development.

harm than good. It is difficult, or rather im-
possible, to find out when and to what extent
such sins have been committed. If, therefore,
the law attempted to deal with them, it would
be in constant danger of punishing the less guilty
or even the innocent, and of allowing the more
guilty to get off scot-free. And further, this
unjust administration of justice, would involve
an amount of inquisitive surveillance, which would
be more hurtful to society than the evils which,
after all, it failed to prevent. For these reasons
then, the spirit of the law, which is " Thou shalt
do no ill to thy neighbour," has to be narrowed
in the letter, where we read only, " Thou shalt not
injure thy neighbour in a certain few definite
ways." From this, of course, it follows that the
man who is contented with keeping the letter of
the law is most undoubtedly guilty of violating
its spirit. He goes but a little way along the
path of duty. We sometimes meet with men
who never commit any punishable injury, but
who are to the last degree cold, callous, hard-
hearted, and selfish. We are quite sure they
would not rob or murder us, but we are equally
sure they would not move their little finger to
do us any good, they would not raise their hand
to save us from destruction. These men do in-

Love essential to Self-development. 167

calculable mischief, and that of the worst kind.
They injure the moral nature of their neighbours,
whose best affections are dwarfed, or it may be
destroyed, by their inhumanity, just as fruit is
blighted by. the frost. They do all that in them
lies to make other men into moral pigmies like
themselves. Hence, though they are not guilty
of any punishable breach of the law, they are
guilty of violating its spirit, they do ill to their
neighbours.

Now Christ saw, what the wisest philosophers
before him Had failed to see, that the law could
only be fulfilled by love in other words, that
we could only avoid injuring others by actually
doing them good. In the kingdom of Christ, not
only has a man's neighbour ceased to be his
enemy, but he has actually become his friend.
This idea lies at the root of all Christ's work
and teaching. The kingdom which He founded
is one in which the members are to be united
by the ties of brotherly kindness. " All ye are
brethren," he said to His disciples ; and, again,
"A new commandment I give unto you, That
ye love one another; as I have loved you, that
ye also love one another." This new command-
ment summed up and supplemented all the old.
Understood in the sense in which Christ meant

1 68 'Self-denial and Self-development.

it to be understood, as referring not to a transi-
ent sentimentalism but to a life-long practice,
it covers the whole field of human existence.
Love inevitably leads to those self-sacrificing
acts of kindness which we have seen to be
essential to complete self - development ; and
therefore St John says, " We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren." The narrow, meagre, paltry, isolated
life which the unloving live is more properly
called death. Then alone do we truly live, then
alone do we live the Christ-like and divine life
for which we were created, when we are inspired
and actuated by love ; for nothing but this can
enable us to find our happiness, as we ought to
find it, in the happiness of others. The import-
ance of the new commandment is everywhere
insisted upon throughout the New Testament.
" Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels," says St Paul, " and have not charity,
I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith, so that I could re-
move mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to
feed the poor, and though I give my body to be

Love essential to Self -development. 1 69

burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me
nothing." But the strongest evidence as to the
comprehensiveness of the new commandment is
to he found in the fact, that Christ intimates the
divine verdict upon our life will be favourable or
unfavourable, according as this commandment
has been obeyed or neglected. " Come ! . . . for
I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger,
and ye took me in." " Depart ! . , . for I was
an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a
stranger, and ye took me not in."

According to the plain teaching of the New
Testament, then according to the explicit state-
ment of our Lord no man can be a Christian,
however orthodox his creed, however numerous
his religious observances, unless he is inspired and
actuated by the spirit of love.

And if you ask me how you may become so
inspired, I answer, first of all and to some extent
by reflection. This love is far more amenable to
reason than the passion which goes by the same
name. " "We may set ourselves," as George Eliot
has put it, we may studiously set ourselves " to
learn something of the poetry and pathos lying
in the experience of all human souls ; poetry and

1 70 Self-denial and Self -development.

pathos that look out through dull grey eyes, and
that speak in a voice of quite ordinary tones."
We might know something of this if we would
only thinJe. And such knowledge would inevi-
tably give birth to sympathy.

But though reflection will do much to develop
in us a loving spirit, attachment to Christ Him-
self will do infinitely more. This was why
Christ so strongly insisted upon the necessity
of His disciples loving Him. As the author of
' Ecce Homo ' truly says, " Christ required personal
devotion from His followers so vehemently, that
they often, in describing their relation to Him,
overleap the bounds of ordinary figurative lan-
guage. They speak of hating father and mother
for the sake of Christ, that is, their love for
their earthly relations seemed but as hatred
when compared with their passionate love for
Him. St Paul speaks of Christ being his life,
his very self. It is this intense personal devo-
tion, this habitual feeding on the character of
Christ, so that the essential nature of the Master
seems to pass into and become the essential
nature of the servant, that is expressed in the
words, ' eating the flesh and drinking the blood
of the Son of man/ " Christ insisted upon this
devotion, because He knew the invaluable effect

Love essential to Self -development. 171

it would have upon the lives of His disciples.
Just as a ray of light, when " examined by the
spectroscope, reveals the nature of the medium
through which it has travelled, so our lives will
undoubtedly show whether or not we have been
influenced by the teaching and the example of
the Eazarene. If we are genuine jiisciples, men
will take knowledge of us that we have been
with Jesus. If we are genuine disciples, we
shall manifest something of His sublime spirit
of self-abnegation, something of His passionate
enthusiasm for the wellbeing of the race. If
we are genuine disciples, we shall go about con-
stantly, not so much getting, as doingj .good ;
seeking to minister rather than to be ministered
unto ; rinding our supreme happiness in contrib-
uting to the happiness of others. Passing-from
the society of those who are utterly destitute of
Christ's spirit into the company of those, who, are
somewhat imbued with it, is like migrating from
the cutting east winds of our English climate to
the gentle, sweet-scented breezes of the South.
Nay, it is like going into another and a grander
world. Christ's kingdom, as He said, is not of
this world. It is the kingdom of God! It is
the kingdom, of heaven!

172

The Connection between Self-denial
and Self -development *

SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS SALTATION.

" Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is
God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good
pleasure." PHILIPHANS ii. 12, 13.

A MONGr all the spurious forms of Christianity
-* there is nothing worse than the doctrine,
that we are saved if we are saved, and lost if we
are lost, according to the will of God and not
according to our own. The theory of fatalism
has sometimes unhappily been adopted by Chris-
tian theologians, who have maintained that men
were not free agents, but necessitated, irresist-
ibly compelled to work out the will of a higher
Power. If that were really the case, we might
say mournfully and indignantly with the poet,

Self -development is Salvation. 173

" We are no better than a moving row
Of tragic shadow-shapes, that come and go
Bound with the sun -illuminated lantern, held
At midnight by the master of the show ;
Impotent pieces of the game he plays
Upon his chequer-board of nights and days ;
Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays,
And one by one back in the cupboard lays."

If the salvation of Christ were a benefit con-
ferred only upon a few arbitrarily selected in-
dividuals; if God forced some men into the
kingdom of heaven and only some, leaving the
rest bad and wretched, when He might have
made them good and happy; if He ordained
that they should be heirs of eternal life when
He wanted them in heaven, but allowed them to
remain heirs of death when He preferred their
going to hell, if this were the character of the
strongest Power in the universe, then the human
race would be merely a collection of puppets,
played with according to the caprice of a Being
the very opposite of love, a Being in com-
parison with whom the cruellest tyrant of his-
tory or fiction appears kind - hearted, amiable,
and beneficent. 1

1 The impossibility of worshipping Power as such, I have
endeavoured to show in the 'Basis of Religion, 'passim. The
fundamental objection to Mr Drummond's 'Natural Law in
the Spiritual "World ' is, that it supposes spiritual life to come

1 74 Self-denial and Self -development.

There is another almost equally gross carica-
ture of Christianity, which represents salvation as
being merely a rescue from the punishment of
sin. This is a theology worthy only of a savage.
Many barbarians believe that religion consists
in appeasing the anger of the gods, which accord-
ingly they attempt to do by the grateful savour
of barley, wine, or blood. They are firmly con-
vinced that if their spiteful deities can be propi-
tiated, they themselves will be able to do what
they please with impunity. They are not more
in error than those who imagine that Christ
lived and died merely to save men from the
punishment of sin. His aim was to save us from
sin itself. Unless we are saved from that, it is
impossible, even for Omnipotence, to save us from
its punishment. Sin is not something which
God has chosen ' capriciously to forbid and to
punish, but something which, by its own essential
nature, must inevitably be productive of misery
and degradation. So long as the cause continues
in operation, the effect must necessarily follow.
Heaven and hell are not spheres to which men
are arbitrarily consigned. The. place a man goes
to in the future, as in the present, must be

to men in. this haphazard, Calvinistic fashion, and so virtually
denies all human responsibility.

Self -development is Salvation. 175

emphatically Ms own place, the place for which
he has prepared himself. As Milton finely puts
it-

" The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

' ' "Which way I fly is hell, "

says Satan

"Myself am hell."

The worst of all torture for a bad man is to'
bring him into the society of the good. To one
who hated righteousness, heaven would be a more
frightful place than hell. How could he bear, in
the tattered and filthy rags of his uncleanness,
to come into contact with those who had washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb ? If the worm that dieth not and- the
flame that is not quenched if the pangs of
conscience and remorse would plague him in
hell, when surrounded by those who were as bad
or worse than himself, think you not that they
would plague him with an infinitely sharper sting
in heaven, where. he would be confronted by the
spirits of the just made perfect? To take any
one who was unfitted for it into the highest
heaven, would be in reality to thrust him lower
than the lowest hell.
We cannot, therefore, be saved from punish-

1 76 Self-denial and Self-development.

ment without being saved from sin ; nor can we
be saved from sin without our own co-opera-
tion. That our salvation, in the last resort,
depends upon ourselves, is brought out very
strikingly in our text. The meaning of the
expression, "God worketh in you both to will
and to do of His good pleasure," is, that ac-
cording to His good pleasure that is, in har-
mony with His love He makes us free agents.
The freedom of the will is one of the most
fundamental doctrines of Christianity. But, as
you are aware, ideas exist in men's minds long
before words have been coined to correspond.
This is why the Apostle Paul speaks here
somewhat periphrastically. Instead of saying,
as we should now say, God makes you free
agents, he says, God works in you to will and
to do.

The gift of freedom is our most glorious pre-
rogative. In making us free, God created us in
His own image. Descartes truly says, "It is
chiefly my will that leads me to discern that I
bear a certain similitude to Deity. Tor although
the faculty of will is incomparably greater in
God than in myself, in so far as it extends to a
greater number of objects, it does not seem to be
greater considered in itself. For the power of

Self -development is Salvation. 177

will consists only in this, that we are able to do
or not to do the same thing, undetermined by
any external force."

But the possession of this faculty involves the
most serious responsibility. No one who has a
will can be saved against his will. We saw,
when we. were considering the origin of evil, that
a man could not be compelled to do right, for
if compelled he would be deprived of his free-
dom, and if he were deprived of his freedom he
would cease to be a man. An action performed
on compulsion has no 'moral value, however de-
sirable it may be in itself. The worth of an
action depends on the fact that something else
might have been done, but was not. If God
could compel any man to do right, He ought to
compel all. That He does not compel all, should
be proof enough (if proof were needed) that He
cannot compel any. Hence the fact that we are
free is a reason why we should work with fear
and trembling. It is possible for us to prostitute
our freedom, and with it to work out our ruin.
Every time we suffer ourselves to be conquered
by temptation our will is weakened. By con-
stantly yielding we may, to all intents and pur-
poses, completely lose our power of choice. It is
possible for a man, although created originally in

1 78 Self -denial and Self-development.

the image of God, to sink below the level of a
brute, and become as incapable of self-control as
a feather fluttering in the wind. By an uninter-
rupted course of persistence in evil we may make
our salvation practically impossible.

" The bough that went, when green, awry,
Will not come straight when old and dry."

On the other hand, every time we conquer temp-
tation our own strength is increased, and the
forces opposed to us are practically weakened.
We may rise eventually into a sphere where evil
will cease to be attractive, and where conflict
will therefore give place to repose.

" Our deeds still travel with us from afar,
And what we have been makes us what we are. "

Our salvation then cannot be thrust upon us
by God. It depends upon the use which we
make of our freedom. Why, external influences
will not do everything even for a vegetable.
Not all the sunshine and rain and air in the
universe will ever, of themselves, clothe a tree
with leaves. Without the responsive action of
the sap within, the tree will remain barren and
unsightly, a blot upon the fairest summer land-
scape. Still less can mere external influences
bring to perfection a rational child of God. The

Self-development is Salvation. 1 79

great Father has done for us, we may be sure, all
that He can do. What remains must be done,
if done at all, by ourselves. God can no more do
our work than we can do God's. "We could not
have created ourselves ; we could not have taught
ourselves what Christ has taught us. But having
been created, and having been taught, we alone
can decide whether we will be true to the nature
with which we have been endowed, whether we
will be loyal followers of the Kazarene. Christ
finished our salvation on the divine side; we
must finish it on the human. Christ made it
possible; we must make it real.

Now salvation, properly so called, is, as I said,
salvation from sin, and sin is only another name
for selfishness. Sin results, as we have seen, from
the narrow, sensuous self being made supreme,
instead of being subordinated, as it should be, to
the broader, spiritual, sympathetic self, which
finds its chief happiness in contributing to the
happiness of others. What is the one character-
istic which belongs alike to your dishonest trades-
men and to your dishonourable professional men
to your oppressive masters and fraudulent ser-
vants, to your cruel husbands and faithless wives,
and so forth ? Why, just selfishness. If these
men and women could only be made to obey the

1 80 Self-denial and Self -development.

golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth ; if they could
be made to feel that it is really more blessed to
give than to receive ; if they could be imbued
with the spirit which is thoughtfully considerate
for others ; then, instead of making the world
more wretched every hour they live, they would
be transformed into useful members of society,
each one of them contributing to the welfare of
the rest.

Christ saw what none had seen before Him,
that men needed to be saved, not from divine
vengeance, but from themselves from their
lower, meaner selves. We noticed that the
subjugation of the lower self to the higher,
the development of the narrower self into the
broader, is possible only for the man who is
inspired and actuated by the spirit of love ; and
that the possession of such a spirit is made, in the
New Testament, the criterion of genuine disciple-
ship. " By this," said our Lord, " shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another." Nay more, Christ declared that
our acceptance or rejection upon the great day
of reckoning, would depend upon whether or not
we had performed the self-sacrificing acts of
kindliness by which a loving spirit is inevitably
manifested. We further noticed that the greatest

Self-development is Salvation. 1 8 r

aid in living a life of self-denial was personal
devotion to Christ Himself, devotion so intense,
that the nature of the Master seemed to pass into,
and become, the nature of the servant. Now this
devotion, this absorption of the character of Christ,
is not only the very essence of Christian worship,
but it is also the earnest of immortality. " Whoso
eateth my flesh," said our Lord, "and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him
up at the last day."

So when we thus take a comprehensive view
of the matter, we discover that self-development
by means of self-denial involves nothing short of
everlasting salvation. There is absolute harmony
between our own highest good and the highest
good of others.

"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

There is absolute harmony between our proper
work in this world and our proper preparation
for the next, " He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey Him." ""We
debate," says the rector of a church in Boston,
"whether self - culture or our brethren's service
is the true purpose of life ; we vacillate aimlessly
between them. Now we shut ourselves up, and

1 82 Self-denial and Self-development.

meditate and try to grow. Now we rush forth
and make the world ring with what we call our
work. The two so often have no connection
with each other. We are so apt to live two
lives. Jesus knows but one. All culture of His
soul is part of our salvation. All doing of His
work is ripening of His nature. Jesus in the
still night, far off upon the solitary hill-top;
Jesus in. the broad daylight, dragged by the
hooting mob to Calvary, both of them are
Jesus saving the world. Christ escaped the
perplexity of many of the questions with which
our lives are troubled, as the eagle flying through
the sky is not worried how to cross the rivers."
The salvation of Christ is all-comprehensive in
its scope, and therefore well worth the effort of
working out. Saving ourselves is no selfish
task, it is learning to le kind. On the one
hand, no man can come to his best by selfish-
ness; and on the other, no man can do much
for his fellow -men who is not much himself.
On the one hand, no man can make the best
of his present without regarding it as prepara-
tory to the future; and on the other, no man
can properly fit himself for the next world
unless he does his duty here. To prepare for
heaven is not merely to build up a noble

Self-development is Salvation. 183

character, but to become a creator of happiness,
an inspirer of nobility. It is to work for the
good of humanity, for the good of the entire
universe.

Our proper life-work can be accomplished by
no one but ourselves. Unless we do it, ifc will
remain eternally undone.

" Remember every soul He made
Is different, has some deed to do,
Some work to work ; be iindismayed
Though thine be humble : do it too."

If you do it, rest assured the good that results'
will be eternal. There is a conservation of
energy in the moral, as in the physical, sphere.
Not a single particle of matter is ever destroyed.
It may pass into new shapes, it may combine
with other elements, it may float away into
vapour; but it will come back, possibly in the
dewdrop or the rain, helping the leaf to grow
and the fruit to swell. "So is it," says Leo
Grindon, "with every generous self-denying effort.
It may escape our observation and be utterly
forgotten, it may seem to have been altogether
useless; but it has become part of the moral
world, it has given it new enrichment and
beauty, the whole universe partakes of its in-
fluence." It is possible for each of us so to live

1 84 Self-denial and Self-development.

as to leave this world better than we found it,
and to enhance by our presence the happiness
and glory of the next. This is the work which
God has given us to do. Shall it be accom-
plished by us, or shall it not? It ought to be,
it can be.

" So nigh to grandeur is our dust.

So nigh is God to man,
"When duty whispers low, ' Thou must ! '
The soul replies, 'I can.'"

" What is Truth ?"

The context reads : " Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth ? And
when he had said this, he went out." JOHN xviii. 38.

T)ILATE, you see, did not wait for a reply.
*- Bacon calls him "jesting Pilate." Hegel
speaks of Ms " genteel indifference." But I think
his conduct is rather to be explained by the fact
that he belonged to the class of men called some-
times Pyrrhonists, sometimes Sceptics, and some-
times Agnostics, who hold that it is impossible
for us to attain to any certain knowledge. And
so he said half contemptuously, half sadly, " What
is truth?" and with a shrug of the shoulders
turned upon his heel. But whatever may have
been Pilate's state of mind on this occasion, let
us avoid imitating his example in one respect at
least, let us wait for a reply. 1

'The majority of men, as the author of 'Obiter Dicta'
bluntly puts it, instead of seeking an answer to the question,
"What is truth?" are content with the humbler inquiry,
"What is trumps?"' Man has been denned as a rational

1 86 <( What is Truth?"

I do not propose in the present sermon to
criticise Agnosticism. My aim is rather to throw
a little light on the subject, if I can, for those
who have already some faith in the possibility of
attaining to certainty.

There are two senses in which the word truth
is commonly employed, either for fact, or for the
harmony between our thought and fact. This
harmony between thought and fact, or between
thought and its object, may be better expressed
by the term koowledge. We are said to know
anything when we think about it just what we
should, when we think it as it is. I should
prefer to apply the term truth to that which is
known, rather than to the knowledge itself. This
is the way in which it is often used in common
speech. For example, when we speak of revealed
truths, we are 'manifestly referring to certain
objects of knowledge, to certain persons, events,
and doctrines that may be known. Christ too
used the word in this sense when He said, " I am
the Truth," the supreme object of knowledge.

But in whichever sense we use the term,
whether for fact or for the knowledge of fact, it

animal, a laughing animal, a cooking animal, and in a hundred
other ways, but 1 never heard of his having been, called a truth-
ful animal.

" What is Truth?" 187

is of the utmost importance to distinguish truth
from opinion. The word "truth" is no doubt
connected etymologically with the verb to trow.
Accordingly Home Tooke tells us, truth is "that
which a man troweth." But this is precisely
what truth is not, if we understand "troweth"
in its present acceptation of holding an opinion.
We must go back to its original meaning.
"Trow" is derived from an old Sanscrit root
signifying fixed or firm, and this suggests the
proper signification of the word truth. While
opinions constantly change, truth is that which
does not and cannot change. While opinions
may be false, truth cannot but be true. Truth
is something which is the same for all, whatever
may be their opinions or absence of opinions;
something which should be believed in because
it can be proved, not something which should
be considered proved because it. is believed in
Opinion at the best is but a subjective copy of
objective truth. Eact, therefore, is a very good
synonym for truth. To " hold the truth " is not
to possess an opinion but to know a fact. Facts
do not alter with our ever-varying opinions ; for
a thing must be what it is whether we believe
it or not. If a man takes poison he will be
poisoned, however loudly he may vociferate that/

1 88 " What is Truth?"

he believed it to be medicine. Fact is firm,
steadfast, reliable, remaining always the same;
however much our opinions may change in regard
to it. Generally the word Truth is restricted to
the most important kinds of facts. We speak
of physical facts, and of moral or religious truths.
But this distinction is unnecessary and rather
misleading. For all facts are realities ; and truth
comprehends everything that is real.

If then you understand truths to be synony-
mous with facts, you may say that all facts are
parts of that whole which is summed up in
the word Truth. Or, if you prefer to use the
term in the second sense, for the harmony be-
tween thought and fact that is, for knowledge
it will follow that all facts are parts of that
whole, the knowledge of which is summed up in
the word Truth.

Broadly speaking, we may distinguish three
spheres of truth. There is, first, the truth in-
volved in and revealed by nature ; second, that
involved in and revealed by man; third, that
involved in and revealed by Christ. Though
these spheres of truth may be legitimately re-
cognised as distinct, yet it must be remem-
bered their connection with one another is very
close and very important. Knowledge of one of

"What is Truth?" 189

them will throw great light upon the others, and
ignorance in regard to one will inevitably darken
and confuse the rest.

First as to physical truth, or the truth of
nature. The Duke of Argyll has well said, that
"indifference to truth, in apparently the most
distant spheres of thought, may and does relax
the most powerful springs of action." He is
right. The connection, e.g., between hygiene, or
the laws of health, and your religious welfare,
is closer perhaps than you imagine. The more
extensive is your knowledge of those laws, the
better will it be for you spiritually as well as
temporally. The more you know of your body
the better will it be for your soul, If you eat
too much or too little, if you sleep too long or too
short a time, if you work too hard or not hard
enough, if you indulge in recreations too often or
too seldom, if you in any way violate the laws of
your own nature laws which can be fully under-
stood only after careful investigation and study
not only will your life be shortened, but your
character will be deteriorated. It is of little
avail for the spirit to be willing when the flesh
is weak. Discontent, despondency, despair and
suicide, not unfrequently result from a dyspepsia
which is due to ignorance or carelessness.

190 " What is Truth?"

Tho laws of the human body, however, are
only a very small portion of physical truth, in-
difference to any part of which is the sign of a
moral languor incompatible with real greatness
or goodness. How common such indifference is !
And yet every fact of nature is "a window
through which we can look into infinity." How
constantly Christ discovered spiritual meanings
in natural objects and events ! And we ought, in
some degree, to do the same. To the far-seeing
man the vision of nature is the vision of God.

Secondly, there is the truth involved in and
revealed by man, by man, that is, considered as
a mental and spiritual being. The facts and laws
of the human mind are worthy of study, partly
for their own sake, partly for the intellectual
vigour and discipline to be gained in the process,
but especially, I apprehend, because the mind of
man is in some respects similar to the mind of
God. "Were it different in Tdnd as well as in
degree, knowledge of God, and still more com-
munion with God, would be impossible. He has
breathed into us His Spirit, we have been created
in His image, we are the sons of God. Such
expressions as King, Judge, Sovereign, Father,
when applied to God, mean nothing if they do
not mean that there is a resemblance between

" What is Truth?" 191

the divine and human natures, as well as between
the divine and human relationships. The late
Dean Mansel, I know, in his Bampton Lecture
on ' The Limits of Eeligious Thought/ maintains
the opposite view. He says that we cannot
argue from ourselves to God; that the words
personality, justice, love, &c., when applied to
God, are used in different senses from those in
which we apply them to men, and that in the
one application they may mean quite the con-
trary of what they mean in the other. JSTow
nothing could have been further from the Dean's
intention than to reduce the Christian G-od
to the same level of abstraction as Herbert
Spencer's "Unknowable"; but this is the only
possible conclusion from his premisses. 1 If words
meant one thing when applied to man, and an-
other when applied to God, then all reasoning
and speaking about the Divine Being would be a
ridiculous waste of time. It is of no use to say
that God is just, unless we mean by "just" what
we generally mean when we use that word. "We
had better say we do not know whether He is
just or unjust. And the same remark applies to

1 Indeed Herbert Spencer, in the 'First Principles,' illus-
trates and supports Ms own. views by long quotations from the
Bampton Lecture.

192 " What. is Truth?"

every other attribute. It is evident therefore
that God can be for us, on this view, nothing
more than the Great Unknown. The doctrine
of St Chrysostom and St Augustine seems to
me far more correct. "Through my own mind
I ascend to God." " Self-knowledge is the high-
est of all knowledge, for he who truly knows
himself knows God." Just as an orrery will
enable a child to understand something of the
mechanism of the heavens, whereas he would be
perfectly bewildered if he were to contemplate
the heavens themselves, so the finite could never
know anything of the infinite, except through
the medium of its own finitude. God, like the
noonday sun, can only be seen " through a glass
darkly," in other words, through the human
mind.

The macrocosm and the microcosm then the
great world without us and the little world with-
in are important spheres of truth; important
for their own sake, but especially important for
what they suggest and reveal of God. There is
however, as I have intimated, a third sphere
more important still, namely, that which is
contained in and revealed by Christ. Christ
taught men that their Creator was no capricious
or spiteful being, but a God of love, who is their

What is Truth?" 193

Judge and King only in virtue of, and in sub-
serviency to, His Fatherhood. Christ taught men
that their profound, and, hitherto unintelligible,
yearnings were but the natural longing of the
human heart for filial communion with the
divine ; and He declared that there was no bar-
rier between themselves and God, except their
own mistaken notion that He was unforgiving
and revengeful. Christ's ministry, crowned, com-
pleted and glorified by His death, was one pro-
longed manifestation of love and of the fact that
God is love. " In Him dwelt all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily." Christ was therefore the
great revealer of religious truth. He was, we
may say, that truth itself, in its deepest and
sublimest phases, sensibly presented before the
world, so that to look on Christ is to see the
truth. "The truth of truths is love."

Now let us ask, What is the relation between
creeds and truth ? l Surely I need 'scarcely say,
that if yon wish in the very faintest measure to
apprehend any fragment of the truth as it is in
Jesus, you must penetrate far below the surface-
meaning of any mere form of words. The know-
ledge of a creed can be, at the best, but elemen-
tary knowledge. It should be the beginning of

1 See also my volume on ' Church and Creed.'

194 "What is Truth?"

our acquaintance with truth it can never be the
end. A creed is just a register of results in the
search for truth. It has been transmitted to us,
or should have been transmitted, for the guidance,
and not for the extinction, of future thought and
investigation. It is a starting-point not a goal.
Just as an invading army makes good each posi-
tion gained by planting a citadel, so creeds are
fortresses as it were, from which we can make
further incursions into the still outstanding, still
unconquered realms of truth. 'Truth cannot be
symbolised by a circle, but rather by an infinite
line.

Theology, like all other sciences, should be pro-
gressive. The Eegius Professor of Divinity in the
University of Oxford drew attention some time
ago to the danger of theology becoming stagnant,
and warned theologians against resting contented
with a mere reproduction of the past. But there
are many persons who believe that theology ought
to be stagnant, who regard any attempt to get
beyond our ancestors as a sort of juvenile im-
pertinence. This is not the doctrine of our
Church. Our daily services are brought to a close
with the prayer of St Chrysostom, in which we
use the words, " Granting us in this world know- .
ledge of Thy truth." The self-satisfied dogmatists,

" What is Truth?" 195

if they were consistent/should say instead, "Grant-
ing us in this world remembrance of our creed."

You laugh at the infant who cries for the moon,
and thinks that his nurse, if she were only so
disposed, might fetch it and give it him for a
football. You laugh at the child who sets him-
self the task of carrying away the waters of the
ocean in his tiny pail. You laugh at the bar-
barian who fancies, when he first comes upon the
sea, that he has reached the end of the world.
You would laugh if a man, who proposed to build
himself a house, became so pleased with the
foundation that he thought it unnecessary to go
on with the building. You would laugh if an
athlete, who was going to run a race, grew en-
amoured of the arrangements at the first end of
the course, and while others were pressing on
towards the goal, contented himself with running
round and round the starting-post. But I will
tell you of something more laughable still. There
is no conceivable object in the universe of God
half so ludicrous or absurd, as the being who
thinks that as soon as he can repeat his creed like
a parrot, he has mastered truth; who imagines
that truth illimitable, infinite, ever - unfolding
truth is deposited in a corner of his own finite
mind, a mind that is not only finite but small,

196 " What is Truth?"

shrivelled into almost nothing for the want of
use. Did I say such an one was a fit object for
laughter ? I was wrong. I should have said for
tears ; for he too might have been a man.

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole
matter? Why, this. Truth has heights and
depths and lengths and breadths, which eternity
itself will be too short to traverse and explore.
Truth is high as heaven, deep as hell, broad as
the universe, infinite as God, everlasting as eter-
nity. The answer to the question, "What is
truth?" is one which will be ever telling, yet
never completely told. In our present state we
are at a disadvantage. We are painfully con-
scious that there is

" A deep below the deep,

And a height beyond the height :
Our hearing is not hearing,
And our seeing is not sight."

But, throughout the never-ending cycles of eter-
nity, we may, if we will, continually rise, by
means of the truths already acquired, as upon
stepping-stones, to truth still higher, still nobler,
still more sublime. 1

1 See also paper on the "Antagonism between Dogma and
Philosophy" in my 'Preaching and Hearing. 1

197

Christian Manliness.
I.

EIGHT DOING.

' Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now,
and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find
a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh
the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEEEMIAH v. 1.

TN Hebrew, just as in Latin and Greek and
other languages, there are two words for
Man, the one applicable to the whole human
species, as distinguished from the lower animals,
the other applicable only to those who possess
the noblest characteristics of manhood, to those
whom, in English, we should call manly men, or
heroes. It is, of course, the latter of these words
that is used in our text. There were thousands
of beings in Jerusalem who had the outward sem-
blance of men; but the question was, whether

198 Christian Manliness.

any . of them .had a manly character. Alas ! the
expression, " a manly man," is by no means tauto-
logical. The noun refers to the body, the adjec-
tive to the soul. It is quite possible to have
the body of a man and the soul of a baby; or
worse, to have the body of a man and the soul
of a beast ; or worst of all, to have the body of
a man and the soul of a fiend.

Two qualities are mentioned in our text as
characteristic of the real, genuine, lond fide man
lie executeth judgment, and seeketh the truth.
Executing judgment may be better expressed in
modern English by the phrase "doing right."
And there is no article before the word truth in
the original, so it should be taken in its widest
signification. A manly man, then, is one who
does right and seeks for truth.

I may perhaps just point out, parenthetically
in passing, that the same . qualities are charac-
teristic of a womanly woman. Women should
be in some respects different from men, though
not a few of them at present seem in danger of
forgetting this. We do not admire if we be
refined and sensible persons women who dress
like men, and walk like men, and talk like men,
and look like men. And similarly we do not
like a woman whose character, considered as a

Right Doing. 199

whole, would be called masculine. There are
qualities which are charming in a woman but
contemptible in a man. There are qualities,
again, which both should possess, but which we
expect to find more highly developed in the one
sex than in the other. But the genuine woman,
no less than the genuine man, must do right and
seek truth.

I have selected this passage from the Old
Testament, because it sums up in a striking man-
ner almost the whole of what I shall have to say.
The doctrine of the Old Testament in regard to
manliness is, however, the doctrine of the New.
The importance of what, in theological language,
is called " works," is not diminished, but increased,
in the Christian dispensation. Genuine faith in
Christ inevitably produces a more or less Christ-
like life. Some professed followers of the Na-
zarene are so utterly ignorant of the first prin-
ciples of His religion, as to believe that the
advantage of being a Christian lies mainly in the
fact that it relieves them from the necessity of
doing right. If such persons have ever opened
their Bibles, they certainly cannot have read as
far as the seventh chapter of St Matthew's
Glospel, where we read, "Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the

2oo Christian Manliness.

kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. Many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not pro-
phesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have
cast out devils ? and in Thy name done many
wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye
that work iniquity." Again, with regard to the
search for truth, St Paul speaks as emphatically
as Jeremiah : " Prove all things ; hold fast that
which is good." And lastly, as to the social
value of manliness, implied in the words " I will
pardon it," we find the same idea expressed by
Christ in such passages as the following "Ye
are the salt of the earth." "'For the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened." Now all these
scattered thoughts seem to be gathered up and
forcibly expressed in the passage which I have
chosen as a text.

In the present sermon we must restrict our-
selves to the first test of genuine manliness. The
question whether or not a human being deserves
to be called a man, in the highest signification of
that word, is to be decided in the first instance
by the criterion, Does he or does he not do right ?
It is a matter for serious reflection, whether real,
genuine men are not almost as rare in England

Right Doing. 201

to-day, as they would appear to have been in
Palestine in the days of ..Jeremiah.

Just think, first of all, of the frauds daily
perpetrated in commerce. You have heard the
phrase " commercial morality," and you know it
is a -euphonious expression for the immoralities
of trade, immoralities which men try to per-
suade themselves the force of custom has rendered
moral. The commonest form of cheating is per-
haps the adulteration of food. There is scarcely
anything we eat or drink which is not, to a greater
or less extent, different from what it professes to
be. I need. not remind you that there was a time
when chalk and water were continually being sold
for milk. Thanks however to the invention of
the lactometer and the vigilance of the inspector,
this practice is not so common as it was. But
milk is about the only article of our diet over
which a careful watch is kept. To this day an
immense quantity of what is called by way of
courtesy port wine, is made, and made with im-
. punity, in London. And we are very lucky if
we only get worthless ingredients in our diet;
we are very lucky if we are not supplied with
downright poisons. Poisons are unfortunately so
very cheap, and so easily worked up into the
semblance of food. If any one discovers that his

2O2 Christian Manliness.

marmalade is made of turnips and treacle, he
should be thankful it is no worse. For, however
nasty this composition may be, it is not actuall}'
poisonous. The adulterators as a rule supply us
with what is positively deleterious. Stilton cheese
sometimes grows green, not with age, but by the
aid of copper nails. Tea is not unfrequently
mixed with a considerable proportion of iron
filings, because they are so conveniently heavy.
Children's sweets are made tasty by sulphuric acid,
and pretty by fed-lead. Beer is flavoured with
copperas, Cocculus indicus, and even strychnine.
What is euphemistically called butterine has
been analysed into Thames mud and pounded
stones. It is of course the smaller tradesman
who is most tempted to resort to these extreme
dodges, and it is therefore the poor who are the
worst sufferers from commercial dishonesty in its
most disgusting forms. As Tennyson says :

" Chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread,
And the spirit of' murder works in the very means of life."

And you will find the same kind of conduct
running through all the trades. You buy a horse.
You see, as you think, that he is so many years
old ; but, poor man ! you are taken in. The other
clay that horse was made to grow a year .or two
younger in five minutes by the skilful operation

Right Doing. 203

of a dentist. You buy a picture which has all
the appearance of being ancient. But again you
are deceived : this appearance was created a week
ago by a few pennyworths of paint. You buy
some silver. It has the mark which stamps it
as antique ; but that mark is a forgery, and was
put on the day before yesterday. You buy a
house, which you imagine will be a shelter from
wind and rain; but if it is built on nineteenth-
century principles that is to say, of the very
worst materials that can by any possibility be
made to hold together by the time your house
has " settled," as they call it, there will, not' be a
single window tjiat will shut, nor a single door
that will fasten.

Think again of the frauds so common on the
Stock Exchange. There, as you know, it is a
common practice for a man to spread false reports,
in order that he may further his own specula-
tions. Think of the immense number of persons
too respectable to steal, but not too respectable
to make purchases for which they have no inten-
tion of paying. Think of the enormous amount
of crime that has been perpetrated this century
in connection with public companies. A very
large number of these companies have been
begun, continued and ended in chicanery. Often

2O4 Christian Manliness.

they could only be started by the publication of
that string of lies technically known as " rigging
the market " ; and the promoters were well aware
that their pockets could only be filled if those
of the shareholders were emptied. Thus, on a
foundation of falsehood has been based a super-
structure of robbery; and when the whole con-
cern falls to the ground, those who are buried in
the ruins find out, too late, that they have trusted,
not in men, but in knaves.

Sometimes these knaves are diabolical enough
to veil their rascality with a hypocritical cloak of
canting religiousness. One of the directors of the
Glasgow Bank, you remember, Fas too pious to
read Monday's newspaper "because it was printed
on Sunday. Tennyson, in his " Sea Dreams," has
given us a striking sketch of this kind of creature,

" With, his fat affectionate smile
That makes the widow lean. . . .
Who, never naming God except for gain,
So never took that useful name in vain,
Made Him his catspaw and the Cross his tool,
And Christ the bait to trap his dupe and fool."

There is nothing in the universe so contemptible
as a hypocrite. It is bad to be a knave, but it is
infinitely worse to be a pious knave.

The professions, I am sorry to say, cannot by
any means be exonerated from the charge of

Right Doing. 205

dishonesty. There are doctors who never tell a
patient they can make nothing of his case, or
that it is one which requires the attention of a
specialist. They would rather kill a man them-
selves than allow any one else to cure him.
There are lawyers who only " rescue your estate
from your enemy to keep it for themselves."
There are clergymen who talk merely because
they are paid to talk, or because they have got
into the habit of talking, or because they want to
make a name for themselves, and who do not care
three straws whether they benefit or injure their
congregations.

No doubt this is a glorious era in which we
live. In some respects it deserves to be called
a golden age. It is an age pregnant with in-
vention and discovery and freedom of thought.
But, on the other hand, there never was a time
when so many persons lived by cheating. Almost
every week we read in the papers of some clever
scoundrel, who has discovered a new method of
getting money by false pretences. It is appalling
to think how much mental ability is prostituted
in the service of the devil. Few children are so
carefully and systematically trained as the chil-
dren of thieves, who are destined to pursue the
dishonourable profession of their fathers. And

2O2 Christian Manliness.

marmalade is made of turnips and treacle, he
should be thankful it is no worse. For, however
nasty this composition may be, it is not actually
poisonous. The adulterators as a rule supply us
with what is positively deleterious. Stilton cheese
sometimes grows green, not with age, but by the
aid of copper nails. Tea is not unfrequently
mixed with a considerable proportion of iron
filings, because they are so conveniently heavy.
Children's sweets are made tasty by sulphuric acid,
and pretty by fed-lead. Beer is flavoured with
copperas, Cocculus indicus, and even strychnine.
What is euphemistically called butterine has
been analysed into Thames mud and pounded
stones. It is of course the smaller tradesman
who is most tempted to resort to these extreme
dodges, and it is therefore the poor who are the
worst sufferers from commercial dishonesty in its
most disgusting forms. As Tennyson says :

"Chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread,
And the spirit of' murder works in the very means of life."

And you will find the same kind of conduct
running through all the trades. You buy a horse.
You see, as you think, that he is so many years
old ; but, poor man ! you are taken in. The other
day that horse was made to grow a year .or two
younger in five minutes by the skilful operation

Right Doing. 203

of a dentist. You buy a picture which has all
the appearance of being ancient. But again you
are deceived : this appearance was created a week
ago by a few pennyworths of paint. You buy
some silver. It has the mark which stamps it
as antique ; but that mark is a forgery, and was
put on the day before yesterday. You buy a
house, which you imagine will be a shelter from
wind and rain; but if it is built on nineteenth-
century principles that is to say, of the very
worst materials that can by any possibility be
made to hold together by the time your house
has " settled," as they call it, there will not' be a
single window tjiat will shut, nor a single door
that will . fasten.

Think again of the frauds so common on the
Stock Exchange. There, as you. know, it is a
common practice for a man to spread false reports,
in order that he may further his own specula-
tions. Think of the immense number of persons
too respectable to steal, but not too respectable
to make purchases for which they have no inten-
tion of paying. Think of the enormous amount
of crime that has been perpetrated .this century
in connection with public companies. A very
large number of these companies have been
begun, continued and ended in chicanery. Often

2O4 Christian Manliness.

Sometimes these knaves are diabolical enough
to veil their rascality with a hypocritical cloak of
canting religiousness. One of the directors of the

Glasgow Bank, you remember, ^as too pious to
read Monday's newspaper because it was printed
on Sunday. Tennyson, in his " Sea Dreams," has
given us a striking sketch of this kind of creature,

" With his fat affectionate smile
That makes the widow lean. . . .
Who, never naming God except for gain,
So never took that useful name in vain,
Made Him his catspaw and the Cross his tool,
And Christ the hait to trap his dupe and fool. "

There is nothing in fche universe so contemptible
as a hypocrite. It is bad to be a knave, but it is
infinitely worse to be a pious knave.

The professions, I am sorry to say, cannot by
any means be exonerated from the charge of

Right Doing. 205

No doubt this is a glorious era in which we
live. In some' respects it deserves to be called
a golden age. It is an age pregnant with in-
vention and discovery and freedom of thought.
But, on the other hand, there never was a time
when so many persons lived by cheating. Almost
every week we read in the papers of some clever
scoundrel, who has discovered a new method of
getting money by false pretences. It is appalling
to think how much mental ability is prostituted
in the service of the devil. Few children are so
carefully and systematically trained as the chil-
dren of thieves, who are destined to pursue the
dishonourable profession of their fathers. And

206 Christian Manliness.

fraud, as I have intimated, is by no means con-
fined to the lower classes. Of six persons im-
prisoned the other day for this offence, one was
a barrister and another a clergyman. There was
a time when the word of an English gentleman
was "as good as his bond"; but that can never
be again. There has been too much cheating
perpetrated, by persons who were gentlemen in
virtue of position and education and even birth.

I have dwelt upon dishonesty,- because it seems
to me one of the most characteristic sins of our
day. It springs from that love of money, which
may be truly called " the root of all evil," that
inordinate passion for wealth, which makes men
feel that they must and will have it, if not by
fair means, then by foul. This delirious thirst
for money has never been more general than it
is at present. Its pernicious influence may be
traced in almost every sphere of life. To say
that a thing is not worth doing, and that it will
not pay, are nowadays synonymous modes of
expression. So too a man's value is estimated
by the world in pounds sterling. He is " worth "
neither more nor less than his balance at the
bankers. This insane thirst for money may be
seen exercising its baleful influence upon the
education of the period. Mr Goschen, speaking

Right Doing. 207

a year or two ago to the students of University
College, Bristol, made an earnest protest against
the tendency to acquire what he called " saleable
knowledge," to the exclusion of that training
which would enlarge the capacities of the mind.
The protest is much needed. Boys at school and
young men at college are sorely tempted nowa-
days to learn only what will pay, and to regard
everything as useless if its value cannot be ex-
pressed in terms of money. Education ought to
mean self-development, the development of that
personality of ours which we believe to bear
some resemblance to the Divine. But instead
of this, education is too frequently believed to
consist merely in the acquisition of the art of
money-making. Hence the passion for wealth
has led men not only -to be dishonest in their
dealings with others, but also to be dishonest to-
wards themselves. For a few paltry pounds they
barter away the glorious birthright of their man-
hood. If they can but fill their pockets, they
are ready to sell their very souls.

There is another characteristic fault of our
day, which I can only just mention the fault,
namely, of paying too much regard -to appear-
ances and too little regard to reality. " Strive to
be rather than to seem," was a wise and honour-

208 Christian Manliness.

able maxim laid down by .^Eschylus. But the
nineteenth-century prophets of expediency have
reversed this law. Strive to seem rather than
to be, is the maxim of our time. It is the great
aim nowadays to pass examinations, and so to
appear clever; to live in good style, and so to
appear rich; to conform outwardly to the de-
mands of society, and so to appear respectable.
I fear that most of us, in one way or another, are
apt to pay more attention to seeming than to
being. And what can be more unmanly, what
can be more contemptible, than to consider the
estimate the erroneous estimate of our neigh-
bours, as of more value than the approval of
conscience and the favour of God ?

I am afraid you will think I have been harsh
and severe ; but it is a preacher's duty some-
times to speak plainly. I have not spared my
own profession ; I have no wish to spare myself.
I would remind myself, as well as you, that in so
far as we knowingly and voluntarily do wrong,
either in ways more peculiar to our own age, or
in ways common to all ages, in so far as we fail
to do right, according to the measure of our light
and ability, we are unworthy of the name of
men. A man, properly so called, does not, like a
beast, act with a view to the pleasure of the next

Right Doing. 209

succeeding moment : he is " a being of a large
discourse, looking before and after." A man
properly so called does not float upon the waves
of inclination : when they threaten to sweep Mm
from the path of rectitude, he majestically bids
them back, saying, " Hitherto shall ye come, but
here shall ye be stayed." A man properly so
called dares to tread the path of duty, however
steep it may be, however difficult, for he per-
ceives that it "leads through darkness up to
God."

Do your duty, then, come what may ; and be-
lieve me, that even here, in the very midst of the
darkness and the gloom, deep down in your heart
of hearts, there will be peace, perfect peace, the
peace of God which passeth all understanding.
But

" Quit the grand ranks of manhood, 1 you will walk
For ever with, a tortured double self ;
A self that will be hungry while you feast,
Will blush, for shame while you are glorified,
Will feel the ache and chill of desolation
E'en in. the very bosom of your home."

1 I have taken the liberty of substituting this word for
George Eliot's "knighthood."

2IO

Christian Manliness.
II.

RIGHT THINKING.

11 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now,
and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find
a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh
the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEREMIAH v. 1.

WE have already noticed the first quality
which, according to Jeremiah, is char-
acteristic of the genuine man the quality,
namely, of executing judgment or doing right.
Our business in the present sermon is with the
second characteristic attribute of every such
man, which is, that he seeks for truth.

We have seen in a previous sermon that truth
means either fact, or the harmony between
thought and fact, that is to say, knowledge.
We have seen that it must be carefully distin-

Right Thinking. 2 1 1

guished from opinion, and from everything cap-
able of change. Truth is something which is the
same for all, whatever be their opinions or absence
of opinions. We saw that a creed, even supposing
it to be absolutely correct, differs from truth as
the part differs from the whole ; as the beginning
differs from the end ; as the starting-point differs
from the goal; as the finite differs from the
infinite. At the best it is but the A B C of
truth. The more extensive is any one's acquaint-
ance with truth, the more clearly does he perceive
that what he knows is as nothing in comparison
with what he does not know.

When the Delphic oracle declared that Socrates
was the wisest man in Greece, the philosopher
said he was at first very much puzzled, for he
had a painful consciousness that he was not
really wise. He saw afterwards, however, that
the wisdom with which the oracle" credited him
consisted in this: that while, in common with
other men, he knew nothing, Tie recognised his
ignorance, while they prided themselves on their
knowledge.

But even those of us who have got so far as to
feel that we know very little, are sadly contented
with our ignorance, are sadly too lukewarm in
our pursuit of truth. The very mystery of our

212 Christian Manliness.

own existence can scarcely arouse us into thought.
"We come into this world," says Faraday, "we
live and depart from it, without ever thinking
how it all takes place ; and were it not for the
exertion of a few inquiring minds, who have
ascertained the heautiful laws and conditions by
which we live, we should hardly be aware that
there was anything wonderful in it at all."
Thank God for those few inquiring minds,
minds that will take more trouble "to win the
secret of a weed's plain heart " than most of us
would take to solve the riddle of the universe.
Should they not shame us into thought ?

The power of seeking for truth is, if we only
knew it, one of the grandest of human preroga-
tives. An intuitive acquaintance with every-
thing we ever required to know would have been
comparatively worthless. Nothing is worth much
to finite beings that has not been acquired by
effort. The search for truth is even more
beneficial than its actual acquisition. "If/'
says Malebranche, "I held truth captive in my
hand, I should open my hand and let it fly, that
I might again pursue and catch it." "Did the
Almighty," says Lessing, " hold in His right hand
truth, and in His left hand the search after truth,
and deign to tender me the one I might prefer, I

Right Thinking, 213

should in all humility but without hesitation
request the search after truth." There is, no
doubt, an immense advantage and a great joy in
the acquisition of fresh knowledge ; but still the
advantage and the joy I apprehend are due chiefly
to the fact, that we are thereby better equipped
for continuing our search.

Seeking after truth involves, first of all, the
critical investigation of the opinions and beliefs
of our ancestors, with the view of ascertaining
how far these were correct ; and, secondly, it in-
volves the effort to acquire new knowledge for
ourselves.

For these tasks we need at once humility and'
self-respect. Opinions which have been widely
and warmly held are not to be hastily rejected.
It is sometimes counted an axiom in the present
day, that everything old must be bad ; whereas,
on the contrary, there is really a presumption
in favour of the old, which the new can never
boast. Nothing can be more disgusting than
to see some conceited youth pooh-poohing, with-
out having expended the slightest study upon
the subject, opinions and beliefs at which his
ancestors arrived, it may be, after months and
years of mental conflict, and for which they were
willing to sacrifice their lives. These opinions

214 Christian Manliness,

may be wrong, but they are not to be so lightly
set aside : they deserve the most serious and
reverential investigation. On the other hand,
nothing can be more exasperating than to be told
that we are not at liberty to inquire into a sub-
ject ourselves, because, forsooth, our ancestors
believed that they knew all about it. It is a
very common but a very false argument from
analogy, to maintain that our ancestors must have
known more than we can know, because they
were born before us. But the reason why a
father is wiser than his child (if he be wiser) is
not, of course, that he was born first, but that he
has lived longer, and therefore had more experi-
ence. Bacon long ago pointed out, that if he who
has had most experience be rightly regarded as
the father of him who has had least, then we are
the fathers and grandfathers of our ancestors, for
they had their experience but not ours we have
had the advantage of both. All honour to them
for the truths they discovered ! All shame to us
if We do not discover more ! 1

Of course there are many subjects in regard to

1 "Truth," says Milton, "is compared in Scripture to a
streainiug fountain : if her waters flow not in a perpetual
progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity
and tradition."

Right Thinking. 215

which we are altogether incompetent to form an
independent judgment: and in these cases we
should thankfully accept the teaching of others.
It would be extremely absurd for most of us to
question the validity of received astronomical
measurements, for we do not possess such a
knowledge of mathematics as their legitimate
criticism would require. But in regard to theol-
ogy, the case is somewhat different. " Theology,"
says Locke, "is a study which is every man's
duty." We Protestants believe in the possibility
of direct communion between the individual and
his God. "We believe that the teaching of the
Spirit is not confined to the schools, but may be
enjoyed even by an unlettered peasant. The
right of private judgment, that glorious privilege
won for us by the Eeformation, though often
abused, is nevertheless the inalienable prerogative
of every human being. Still, even in theology,
there is much need for humility. The fact that
all men have more or less opportunity of study-
ing it, does not make it an easy science. For
instance, to a large number of us the Bible itself,
in its original languages, would be a useless book.
So far we are manifestly obliged to submit our-
selves to the teaching of others. Again, anything
like a comprehensive and consistent interpreta-

2 1 6 Christian Manliness.

tion of the Bible demands great learning and
ability. And far greater learning and ability
still are required for the intelligent and sympa-
thetic study of other religions, without which we
cannot understand the full value of our own.
It is well, therefore, that we should all find some
spiritual teacher to whom we can look up with
reverence, as more likely to arrive at the truth
than ourselves, and whose opinions will be re-
garded by us, though not as law, yet with
thoughtful respect. "We have to beware on
the one hand of a flippant contempt for author-
ity, and on the other of a slavish cringing to
authority,

" Not clinging to some ancient saw,
Not mastered by some modern term,
Not swift, nor slow, to change, but firm,"

firm in our allegiance to the truth ; so firm that
when we really find an opinion to be erroneous,
we shall venture to discard it, no matter whose
opinion it may have been.

Preaching, I conceive, has two objects the
one emotional, the other intellectual. The former
can only be attained by a direct transfer of feel-
ing from, the preacher to the hearer. Unless the
audience be made to experience the same sort of
feelings as the speaker, unless there be this con-

Right Thinking. 217

tagion of enthusiasm, the emotional object has
not been gained, and so far the sermon is a fail-
ure. But it is different with the intellectual
result. Though the emotional object cannot be
gained without the transfer of feelings, the in-
tellectual may be gained without the transfer of
opinions. The hearer may not adopt the preacher's
views ; he may come to the conclusion that they
are altogether wrong ; and yet the discourse may
have been extremely useful to him. From the
emotional point of view, that sermon is most
valuable which brings the feelings of the hearers
most into accord with those of the preacher. But
from the intellectual standpoint, the most useful
sermon is not that which gives the hearers the
greatest number of ready-made opinions, but that
which affords them the strongest stimulus to
thought. Preachers are not exempted from the
fallibility common to men. It cannot therefore
be necessary, nor even desirable, that their hearers
should always agree with them. " The clergyman
said so, therefore it must be true," " I have not
been accustomed to think so, therefore it must
be false," are both erroneous modes of criticism.
The illustrious writer just taken from us, affords
a striking example of the fact that the highest
usefulness is consistent with a very meagre trans-

2. 1 8 Christian Manliness.

fer of opinions. Those who have derived the
greatest profit from the writings of Thomas
Carlyle, are probably those who differ from him
most frequently and most seriously. For example
all of us, I suppose, disagreed entirely with his
theory of hero-worship ; the more eloquently he
expounded it, the more clearly we saw that he
was wrong ; and yet all of us are wiser and better
for that exposition. It has helped us to more
satisfactory views of our own.

There are three things which may keep us from
seeking for truth conceit, laziness, and fear.
First, there is conceit. Some persons look upon
their little stock of beliefs as the sum of human
knowledge. Haying been providentially preserved
from the possibility of error, it is needless for
them to test the accuracy of their opinions ; and
they enjoy a pleasing conviction, as George Eliot
says, that if there are any facts which have
escaped their observation, they must be facts not
worth observing. A search for truth would be of
course superfluous on the part of persons so highly
endowed. You all know many people of this
kind, people who make a pre-eminent profession
of wisdom, but who are pre-eminently fools.

Then there is laziness. You remember the
inimitable description of Cervantes, in which the

Right Thinking. 219

knight of La Mancha is represented as construct-
ing for himself a helmet. When it was finished
the gallant knight smote it with his sword to try
its strength. The blow broke it in halves, and
so he was obliged to make another. But this
time he did not test it ; he persuaded himself it
was strong enough to render any trial unneces-
sary. On the same principle there are persons
who once in their lives tried to think ; but when
many of their old and long- cherished beliefs
began to give way under the process, they de-
sisted, and argued with themselves that thought
was unnecessary or even sinful. You will gen-
erally find that if a man is too idle to seek for
religious truth, he justifies his laziness by main-
taining that such a search is tantamount to scep-
ticism. There is a good deal of indolence in the
world, as well as a good deal of stupidity, which
is dignified with the name of faith.

Lastly, fear keeps many from seeking truth.
Some persons seem to imagine that God will
judge them according to the state of their opinions,
and not according to the state of their hearts.
They imagine that if, in seeking after truth, they
were to form an erroneous judgment, they would
be visited with the divine vengeance. Hence
they want to receive their opinions especially

220 Christian Manliness.

their religious opinions upon authority ; for by
so doing they think that their own responsibility
will cease. Some time ago I met an old friend,
who told me he thought of becoming a Eoman
Catholic. I asked him why. "Well," he said,
" I'll tell you. Theology is in such an unsettled
condition in my own denomination, that I don't
know what I am to believe. One man, for
example, teaches the eternity of future punish-
ment; another insists on universalism ; and a
third maintains the doctrine of annihilation.
One man holds the old substitutionary view of
the atonement ; and another the modern revelatory
view. I should like to belong to a Church which
would tell me authoritatively what I ought to
believe, and then I would believe it." This is
not an uncommon state of mind. It has led
thousands of men and women to join the Church
of Borne.

Now it is quite true that the search for religious
truth is a serious and solemn thing : and it is also
true that this search often leads men for a time
into a very unenviable state of perplexity, un-
certainty and doubt. The old foundations of
their existence totter and threaten to fall, and
they feel as if they were sinking, sinking, sink-
ing into the blackness of despair. But such a

Right Thinking. 221

state of mind, though painful, is neither wicked
nor ignoble. "Behold, I go forward," said poor
broken-hearted Job, " Behold, I go forward, but
He is not there; and backward, but I cannot
perceive Him ; on the left hand, where He doth
work, but I cannot behold Him ; He hideth Him-
self on the right hand, and I cannot see Him.
But He knoweth the way that I take : when He
hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." If
you would see this strikingly fulfilled, read the
life of Frederick Eobertson.

The creed which a man accepts merely because
he has been told it is correct, and which he has
not made his 'own by thought, investigation and
study, is for him a worthless creed. He does
not really believe, but merely, as Coleridge puts
it, "believes that he believes." Holding his
creed in this stupid way, it becomes to him, not
(as it should be) a means to progress, but (as it
should not be) a barrier against progress. He
believes, as he thinks, what he ought to believe;
hence he has no anxiety to make any further
acquisitions ; and even what he thinks he believes
has no practical influence upon his life.

The only excuse to be made for such men is,
that, they have not known the truth, and there-
fore they are ignorant what it is they are despis-

222 Christian Manliness.

ing. "Ye shall know the truth," said Christ,
" and the truth shall make you free," free from
such pitiful conceit, free from such contemptible
indolence, free from such unworthy fear :

" For truth Las such a face and such a mien,
As to be loved needs only to be seen."

He who has once stood face to face with Truth,
and gazed upon her matchless beauty, loves her
with more than a lover's love, and will not grudge
an eternity of effort or of peril, spent in wooing
and winning her for his own.

223

Christian Manliness*
III.

THE VALUE OF MANLINESS.

" Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now,
and know, and 1 seek in the "broad places thereof, if ye can find
a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh
the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEREMIAH v. 1.

T HAVE already mentioned that the word used
-*- for man in the Hebrew of our text is a term
which stands for a high type of man as distin-
guished from a low. Some are men in outward
semblance only, but the manly man or hero is a
man in soul. His character is manly and heroic.
According to Jeremiah, he has two distinguishing
attributes. 1. He does right. He obeys the dic-
tates of conscience, however strong may be the
enticements of expediency or of pleasure ; feeling
that "because right is right, to choose the right

224 Christian Manliness.

is wisdom, in the scorn of consequence." 2. He
seeks truth. He does not profess to believe things
merely because others believe them. He examines,
to the best of His ability, the worth of currently
received opinions; and, recognising that his ac-
tual knowledge involves but the most fragmentary
acquaintance with the truth, he strives diligently
and continuously to make further acquisitions.
Upon these points I have already dwelt.

Such a conception of manhood no doubt is
idealistic. The best of us will sometimes slip.
The wisest of us will sometimes feel incapable
of mental effort. But it behoves us to ask our-
selves whether or not this ideal is our standard
of excellence, towards which we are honestly
and earnestly doing our utmost to approximate.

It remains now to consider the value of true
manliness. I need scarcely say that, from the
point of view of political economy, it is a worth-
less possession, or even worse than worthless.
It is not a marketable commodity. It will not
increase any one's income, nor improve his posi-
tion in society. History teaches us that men
who have been in any marked degree wiser or
better than the vulgar herd, have usually suffered
in proportion to their superiority. Those to
whom Greece was most indebted, for example,

The Value of Manliness, 225

were almost always rewarded with imprisonment
or exile or some other form of punishment. Sev-
eral names will readily occur to you as illustrative
of this such as Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Themis-
tocles, Aristides, Cimon, and Pericles. You maj
remember, too, the well-known couplet,

" Seven cities quarrelled over Homer dead,
Through, which, the living Homer begged his "bread."

While he was alive people thought Ms effusions
amply repaid by a beggar's crust ; but when he
was dead they fought for the honour of calling
him fellow-townsman. If this is not historically
true in regard to Homer, it may nevertheless be
regarded as a figurative biography of the world's
greatest men. Their greatness was rarely recog-
nised till long after they were gone; or if it
were recognised, it elicited envy rather than ad-
miration, punishment rather than reward. The
nearer men have approached to the lofty ideal of
manliness described in our text, the more loyal
they have been in their devotion to right and to
truth, the more, generally speaking, have they
been called upon to suffer. "A noble nature,"
observes Goethe, " can only attract the noble."
"We may even go further, and say, a noble nature
repels and excites the animosity of the ignoble.
It may seem cynical to assert that the majority

226 Christian Manliness.

of mankind have always . had degraded concep-
tions of. human duty, but it is demonstrably
true, proved by the fact that real nobility of
character has almost invariably cost a man very,
very dear. Unflinching devotion to right and
truth has led to ignominy and persecution, to
the loss of pleasure, property, freedom, life. It
is scarcely a poetical exaggeration when James
Russell Lowell speaks of

"Truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the throne."

The world that is to say, the ignoble many
as opposed to the noble few the world approves
of doing right up to a certain point, up to the
point of expediency; but there-it.. stops. To go
beyond this, to be honest when honesty is not
the best policy, it considers a sign of lunacy.
Even to-day, in civilised and Christian England,
a tradesman whose code of morals is that which
is technically called commercial, will not respect
an apprentice who refuses to tell a useful lie ; he
will despise and dismiss him. Similarly, the
man or woman who persistently discouraged
scandal would most probably be regarded as a
bore. The world, again, approves of seeking after
truth up to a certain point ; it has no objection
to the investigation of nature so far as such a

The Value of Manliness. 227

pursuit is likely to increase capital or to raise the
rate of profit. But that is all. It despises facts
which cannot be turned to pecuniary account.
It never seeks after truth in the moral or reli-
gious sphere, and it hates all who do. It believes
that it knows everything worth knowing, every-
thing necessary for its present and future salva-
tion. It dislikes being disturbed with new ideas.
There has been no prophet, nor apostle, nor phil-
osopher, nor reformer whom it has not execrated,
against whom it has not howled out the accusa-
tion which the Ephesians brought against St Paul,
that the world was being turned by him upside
down. The very truisms of one age were often
regarded in the preceding generation as impious
blasphemies, justly punished by fines and im-
prisonment, by torture and death :

" For all the past of time reveals,
A bridal dawn 'of thunder-peals,
"Whenever thought hath wedded fact."

Let me recall to your minds one or two familiar
illustrations. Anaxagoras, after the early Greek
philosophers had long groped in vain for a Eirst
Cause, saw and said that the origin of all things
must be ultimately traced to Intelligence. This
his countrymen could not tolerate; it was too
novel, too absurd. Private judgment must be

228 Christian Manliness.

punished when it wandered so far from the truth;
he was therefore banished from Greece, and had
a narrow escape of death. Socrates, whose con-
ceptions oi Deity were too lofty to tally with the
childish orthodoxy of his contemporaries; Soc-
rates, who was brave enough to express the mem-
orable utterance, "I will venture to be true to
my conviction, though all the world oppose it,"
Socrates, the purest, wisest, noblest of men, was
accused, forsooth, of being an atheist and of
corrupting the young, and was despatched with
a cup of hemlock. Galileo, for saying that the
earth moved, was tortured into perjury. 1 The
world, I am sorry to say, was in this instance
represented by a section of the Christian Church.
Giordano Bruno, one of the subtlest thinkers of
the middle ages, suggested the hypothesis that
the earth was not the only abode of life in the
universe ; and he was burnt at the stake,
"for the maintenance of the Holy Church and

1 After preaching this sermon, I was favoured with an indig-
nant and anonymous note, to the effect that "every student
of history " was aware that Galileo was not tortured. Every
student of history is doubtless aware that Galileo was not put
upon the rack. But to say that the pressure which was brought
to bear upon him, and which ended in his recantation, did not
cause him torture, is to say that there is no such thing as men-
tal suffering.

The Value of Manliness. 229

the rights and liberties of the same." Think, too,
of the thousands and tens of thousands of less
celebrated martyrs, who have proved the beauty
of truth and the divinity of right by the eloquent
testimony of anguish ; who, because they refused
to be false to their convictions, had trial of cruel
mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds
and imprisonment; who were stoned, or sawn
asunder, or slain with the sword ; who dwelt in
deserts and in mountains, in dens and caves of
the earth; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
Lastly and chiefly, call to remembrance how the
world treated Christ. In Him the ideal of man-
hood was completely realised ; on Him, therefore,
the world inflicted its most cruel vengeance, and
against Him it directed its vilest blasphemies.
You know His character: I need not describe
it. Pure, unselfish, noble as was His own life,
He was full of tenderness and helpful sympathy
for the sinful and fallen and debased. Yet He
was almost universally hated. He was hated by
the Pharisees because He had shown the worth-
lessness of their broad phylacteries and long
prayers and orthodox platitudes, the worse than
worthlessness of their lying, canting hypocrisy.
He was hated in the end by the common people,
when they found that, notwithstanding all His

230 Christian Manliness.

kindness, He was not likely to improve their
social condition. As soon as they made this
discovery, Christ ceased to be a favourite with
them. With the usual fickleness of the mob, they
suddenly transferred their enthusiasm. "Not
this man, but Barabbas," they shouted. "Now
Barabbas," as the evangelist sarcastically adds,
"was a robber." For once high and low, rich
and poor, priest and layman, patrician and ple-
beian, educated and unlettered, the man of culture
and the boor, for once these were all agreed.
They were unanimous in taking away the life of
Him who had made it possible, by His teaching
and example, for all future lives to become noble
and sublime.

" Enough ! high words abate no jot or tittle, of what while

life still lasts will still be true.
Heaven's great ones must be slandered by earth's little : and

God makes no ado."

You and I, however, are not likely to suffer
death or torture for fidelity to conscience or to
reason. Things have so far improved that we
shall probably, by such fidelity, meet with sym-
pathy that will be unspeakably precious and
helpful. Still, if we are unswervingly noble, if
we lift up our voice against fraud and cant, if we
choose to be heterodox and unfashionable rather

The Value of Manliness. 231

than false to our convictions, if we always and
everywhere prefer right to wrong, truth to error,
God to mammon, we shall certainly, sooner
or later, and to a greater or less extent, have to
suffer for so doing. "We shall lose money, it may
be, or forfeit esteem, or terminate old friendships,
or injure our prospects. That we do not suffer
more, will be due to the sacrifices of the noble
men and women who have gone before us.
And surely we shall not hesitate to offer our
own oblation of anguish upon the altars of right
and of truth.

The value of manliness, then, does not consist
in its conferring any pecuniary or social advan-
tages. He who would be a true man must be
willing, if necessary, to dispense with these. Its
real worth is twofold. First of all, it entitles us
to self-respect ; and any evil which the world can
inflict is insignificant, when compared with this
privilege which it cannot take away. There can
be no sweeter experience than the knowledge
that we have done our best to be true to ourselves,
to walk worthy of the manhood with which we
have been endowed. But, secondly, and this is
the point suggested by our text, a point on which,
I am sure, Christ would have us lay stress, the
value of manliness consists, not in what we gain

232 Christian Manliness.

by it for ourselves, but in what we give by it to
others. " Kun ye to and fro through the streets
of Jerusalem, and see if ye can find a man, one
that doeth right and seeketh truth; and I will
pardon it," pardon thousands of human beings
who might have been men but were not, for the
sake of one who was really a man. Now since
pardon would be immoral, and therefore im-
possible, without genuine repentance, the divine
forgiveness, to which the prophet refers, must
imply that the one true man would, by his con-
scious and unconscious influence, gradually con-
vert the other inhabitants of Jerusalem or their
descendants from the error of their ways, and
induce them also to be loyal to right and truth.
What ! you say, one man do all that ! Yes ; if
he be a man why not ? "We are inclined very
much to underrate the power which every human
being possesses over the future of his race. There
must be some whom each of us can directly influ-
ence. Every one of these will, in his turn, exert
a similar influence upon several others ; and the
descendants of all these, to the end of time, will
be the better for every effort we have made to
be true to the nature with which we have been
endowed. " We see human heroism," says George
Eliot, " broken into units, and we say this unit did

The Value of Manliness. 233

little might as well not have been ; but in this
way we might break up a great army into units ;
hi this way we might break the sunlight into frag-
ments, and think that this and the other might
be lightly parted with." The number of true
men is on the increase, and they are more and
more tolerated, not to say respected, by the rest
of their fellow-creatures. So it seems but reason-
able to look forward to a final victory in the far-
off future for right and for truth. And each one
of us may contribute something to this glorious
consummation. "There needs not a great soul
to make a hero," says Carlyle ; " there needs but
a God-created" soul, which will be true to its
origin." As surely as every ray of light has a
tendency to dissipate darkness, or every grain of
salt to prevent corruption, so surely does every
good action we perform confer some blessing upon
our race. Here there is no such thing as failure.
Apparent failure is often the most splendid suc-
cess. It was so, pre-eminently, in the case of
Christ ; it is so oftentimes, in some measure, in
the case of His followers. Martyrdom, since it
is the subliinest testimony to the value of right
and to the beauty of truth, martyrdom is not
defeat it is victory.
To be a man is no easy task, I admit. The

234 Christian Manliness.

constant doing of what is right implies continual
self-denial, than which there is nothing in the
world more painful.. The earnest search after
truth implies hard thinking; and I know of
nothing that requires a greater effort. It is be-
cause true manliness is so difficult of attainment
that it is so rarely attained. " Nothing great is
easy," says Plato. "All noble things are rare/'
says Spinoza ; " all noble things are difficult."
There is this for our consolation. Indifference
to right and truth, though they would save us
trouble, would assuredly degrade our nature ;
whereas the pain we may experience in trying to
live a manly life is noble and elevating in itself,
and will lead eventually to "a joy that is un-
speakable and full of glory."

Let us remember, however, that we shall never
succeed without the strength that comes from
communion with God.

" God, our spirits, unassisted,

Must unsuccessful be.
Who ever hath the world resisted

Except by help of Thee ?
But, saved by a divine alliance,

Erom terrors of defeat,
TJnvauntingly, yet with defiance,

One man the world may meet.

The Value of Manliness. 235

My soul is for a crown aspiring

The crown of righteousness ;
My soul is for the truth inquiring

For God, and nothing less.
Sin, sorrow, and the world conspiring,

Assault me, and I bleed :
Tired am I ; yet, through love untiring,

I know I shall succeed."

Do not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage.
What shall it profit you if you gain the whole
world and lose yvwsdws ? Sirs ! I beseech you,
for your own sakes, for Christ's sake, for God's
sake be menl

236

Science and Religion.

PUAYER. 1

"Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and sup-
plication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all \mder-
standing, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus." PHILIPPIANS iv. 6, 7.

fTlHIS, and one or two similar passages of Scrip-
-^ ture, have given rise to a celebrated mis-
representation of Christianity. "Be careful for
nothing/' " take no thought for the morrow," &c.,
were alleged by Strauss, Buckle and others, as
proofs that the New Testament is opposed to in-
dustry and commerce. It was further maintained
that the world could do better without Chris-
tianity than it could without commerce ; and we
were therefore advised to discard Christianity as

1 Upon this subject see also a sermon on "Elihu's Speech"
in my ' Defects of Modern Christianity.'

Prayer. 237

a thing of the past, opposed to the better instincts
and wiser reflections of the nineteenth century.
But a glance into your Greek Testament nay, a
little common-sense will suffice to show you that
this objection to Christianity is utterly without
foundation. When Christ tells us to "take no
thought for the morrow," it is plain, from the
word used in the Greek, that He is warning us,
not against prudent, but against anxious thought.
If a man insures his life, though he is in one sense
taking thought not only for the morrow but for
an event that may not happen for thirty, forty,
fifty years, he is in np way violating Christ's
commandment; he is performing a duty which
necessarily follows from the golden rule. So in
regard to our text, "Be careful for nothing"
might be better rendered, " Be not anxious about
anything." It is the same word that is translated
elsewhere, " take no thought." And without con-
sulting our Greek Testaments, we might surely
have guessed that the active, earnest, energetic,
hard - working Paul was not exhorting us to
apathy, to indolence, to a care-for-nothing-and-
nobody state of mind. On the contrary, the
freedom from anxiety which he commends to us
is the essential condition of true work. There is
nothing more enervating than worry.

238 Science and Religion.

Now, according to the apostle, we are to get rid
of anxiety, and so to be prepared for success-
ful work, by means of prayer. " Be careful for
nothing: but ... let your requests be made
known unto God." In this sceptical age how-
ever, when the very foundations of our faith are
being shaken, it is somewhat difficult to believe
in the efficacy of prayer. The opinion is becom-
ing general that answers to prayer must be im-
possible, inasmuch as they would imply violations
of natural law. But this difficulty may, I think,
be at once removed. Let us ask ourselves what
we mean by a law of nature. What do we
mean, for example, when we speak of the law of
gravitation ? Why, simply that all bodies . or
particles of matter in the universe attract one
another, and so tend to come together. But
mark you, though they tend to come together,
this can be prevented. Suppose your child is
leaning from a window at the top of the house,
and that he leans a little too far, loses his bal-
ance, and falls out. Gravitation will inevitably
and remorselessly drag him to the ground unless
some one interferes. But if you see his danger,
and rush forward and catch him, he will be
saved in spite of gravity. That law has not been
violated ; it is still acting, still tending to drag the

Prayer. 239

child downwards; but you have counteracted it.
You, who were born yesterday and will die. to-
morrow, you, with your puny strength, have got
the better of a force that is perhaps as old as
f eternity and as infinite as the universe.

There is another point I should like you to
notice. The unchangeableness of these laws is the
very quality that enables us to counteract them.
If we could not depend upon the way in which
any force was going to act, we should not know
with what other forces it might be resisted. Take
the case of lightning. We know that a lofty
building has a tendency to attract electricity
from a thunder-cloud. We also know that some
rnetals are good conductors. Hence we attach
metallic rods to every valuable structure, so that
the electricity may be conducted thereby into the
ground, instead of lingering about the edifice and
destroying it. But if the laws of electricity were
changeable, if, for example, the same metal was
sometimes a conductor and sometimes a non-con-
ductor, we should be altogether helpless. It is
only when we foresee precisely the effects of
natural forces, that we understand what to do if
we wish to counteract them. As the Duke of
Argyll says in his ' Eeign of Law/ " It is the
very inviolability of these laws which makes

240 Science and Religion.

them subject to contrivance through endless
cycles of design."

This word law, therefore, is not such a bug-
bear as it looks. It does not prevent us from
accomplishing our purposes and plans ; and if we t
can frustrate the natural tendency of natural
forces by the introduction of other forces, why
cannot God do the same ? Between law and
prayer there is not the slightest incompatibility.
Answers to prayer would be impossible in a
lawless chaos, but they are perfectly natural, or .
at any rate conceivably possible, in a universe
governed by unchanging laws. In so far as God's
knowledge and power are greater than our own,
He will be able to achieve what it is impos-
sible for us to effect. Well then, supposing we

are in any trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or other
adversity, from which we are unable to extricate
ourselves, God could perhaps deliver us from it,
without any violation or violent rupture of the
laws of nature, but merely in virtue of His
superior knowledge of those laws, and His supe-
rior power of wielding, combining, and adapting
them.

But further and this is the point I want you
specially to notice: The end and use of prayer
is not to bring God's will into harmony with

Prayer, 241

ours ; it is to bring our wills into harmony with.
God's. Prayer certainly will not bring us every-
thing we want, just when and as we want it. It
will not remove from us everything we dislike,
just because we dislike it. Alas ! for ourselves
alas ! for the world, if it could. When we pray
for the good things of this life, we know not what
we ask. We may be praying for what cannot
possibly be granted, consistently with the welfare
of others, or even with our own. Juvenal says
in one of his Satires, " You pray for money and
children and long life, forgetting that you may un-
knowingly be praying for curses instead of bless-
ings. Why do you not," he asks, " pray the gods
to give you what they see to be best ? " The old
Eoman satirist had more faith in heaven than
most of us. We say often enough, "Thy will
be done;"- but we do not mean it. And it is
( not words that constitute prayer. "My words
fly up" (says the King in 'Hamlet')

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below ;
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go."

" The peculiar significance of prayer," says Prin-
cipal Caird, "lies in this, that therein we rise
above ourselves; we leave behind the interests
that belong to us as creatures of time ; we enter
into that sphere in which all the discords and

242 Science and Religion.

evils of the world possess no more reality than
the passing cloud-shadows that lie beneath our
feet." Do you know what it means, " Thy will
be done"? It means this: Send me wealth or
poverty, friends or enemies, health or sickness,
success or failure, bliss or anguish, life or death,
as seemeth best unto Thy godly wisdom. Is
there one of us who has ever said that in his
heart of hearts? Is there one of us who could
honestly kneel down and say it now ? Yet that
is what we ought to feel, that is what we ought
to mean, every time we say " Thy will be done.'

The true purpose of prayer is brought out
strikingly in our text. The apostle does not
say, "Let your requests be made known unto
God, and your requests will be granted;" but,
" Let your requests be made known unto God,
and the peace of God shall keep your hearts
and minds."

Here lies the answer to Professor Tyndall and
others, who some time ago proposed to test the
efficacy of prayer by a series of scientific experi-
ments. A hospital was to be taken and divided
into two sections : the one was to contain patients
who prayed and were prayed for ; the other was
to be restricted to patients for whom no prayer
was offered; and then it was to be noticed

Prayer. 243

whether or not the recoveries were more numer-
ous in the former case. But those who made
this proposal forgot that prayer may be answered
by mental peace as well as by bodily health, by a
translation to heaven as well as by a prolongation
of life. If all those who prayed died, and all
those who did not pray recovered, the efficacy
of prayer would not be disproved. Hezekiah
prayed to be restored to health, and " there were
added to his life fifteen years." Solomon prayed
for wisdom, and he became wise. St Paul prayed
thrice that his thorn in the flesh might be re-
moved, but the answer he received was, "My
grace is sufficient for thee." And he was per-
fectly satisfied. "Most gladly," he says, "will
I glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me."

We find it so difficult nowadays to believe
in anything unless it can be seen or touched or
weighed. But before we venture to say that a
man's prayer has been unavailing, we should
be quite sure of one thing, that there has not
come to him in answer to it a divine, ineffable
peace, which passeth all understanding, and there-
fore passeth all scientific tests. I have known
men and women pray year after year for bless-
ings which they never received; but I have

244 Science and Religion.

never known them pray without receiving the
answer of peace. This is the only answer
which the Bible always and under all circum-
stances guarantees ; and it is an answer that
will not always he detected by the curious
experimenter. We read of men, ay, .and even
women, who were seen to smile amid their
martyr flames

"And lift their raptured looks on high,
As though it were a joy to die."

To a superficial observer they may have appeared
to be in a sorry plight ; but they were in the en-
joyment of a peace which they would not have
exchanged for all that the world calls good.

The apostle says we should make known our
requests "in everything," or upon every occasion,
unto God. The life we are obliged to live may
sometimes appear to us paltry and contemptible.
But since it is the life which God has ordained
for us, there must be a sublimity in it after all,
such as to render it worthy of His regard. It is
the ever-recurring little troubles that do most to
mar our happiness ; and these, therefore, are pre-
eminently fit subjects for prayer. But let us try
and remember that the Great Father knows far
better than we do what we really need, what we
should really desire if we saw things as He alone

Prayer. 245

can see them. We look at our lives from the low
standpoint of to-day, and we consequently get
but a blurred and partial view of them. G-od
regards them from the lofty standpoint of eter-
nity. Hence it is no wonder that His ways with
us are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our
thoughts. We have all probably yearned for
something, which we afterwards discovered would
have been most injurious. We have all probably
had occasion to thank God that He did not grant
our requests; and it is oftentimes a matter for
equal thankfulness that our requests on lelialf of
others have been denied. Those who were hon-
oured with the friendship of the illustrious states-
man whose death we are deploring, 1 doubtless
offered up many fervent prayers that his life might
be prolonged; and yet it seems to me it was
better for him that these prayers should not be
answered. The words which he put into the
mouth of the hero of his last romance, were
true in a most remarkable degree of himself.
"All I have desired," says Endymion, "all I
have dreamed of, has come to pass." But greater,
perhaps, than any achievement of his life was
the "peace with honour" which came to him in

1 This sermon was preached on the Sunday after Lord
Beaconsfield's death.

246 Science and Religion.

death, the enthusiasm of sympathy manifested
by the whole nation, from her Majesty the Queen
down to the prattling village child. If he had
been spared, it is simply impossible that, at his
advanced age and after so serious an illness, he
could have been again quite what he was ; the
rest of his life would have been an anti-climax.
And the world very quickly forgets. So that, if
Lord Beaconsfield had died ten years hence, the
homage paid him by the nation at large would
undoubtedly have been less. Those who loved
him best therefore, those who miss him most,
will, I feel sure, after the keenest paroxysms of
grief are past, rejoice for his sake that their
prayers were not answered ; that he did not out-
live himself; and that the marvellous triumphs
of his life were at once surpassed and completed
by the still more marvellous triumph of his
death.

The fact that we are never willing to allow our
loved ones to go from this world to a better, is
just an illustration of the general truth, that we
are constantly forming erroneous opinions as to
what would be good for ourselves and for them.
These opinions we are frequently enabled to
rectify even in this life. But if we should be
called to go down to the grave with some desire

Prayer. 247

unfulfilled, let us try to look forward with a sure
and certain nope to the time when we shall see,
in our Father's more immediate presence, that He
has been making all things, even our unanswered
prayers, to work together for our good. Let us
endeavour to say with Faber

"I worship Thee, sweet Will of God,

And all Thy ways adore ;
And every day I live I seem
To love Thee more and more.

I love to kiss each print where Thou

Hast set Thine unseen feet :
I cannot fear Thee, blessed Will !

Thine empire is so sweet.

Ill that God blesses is our good,

And tinblest good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,

If it be His sweet Will."

248

Science and Religion.
II.

THE SUPERNATUKALNESS OF NATUKE.

"Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray tliee, open his eyes, that
he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man ; and he saw : and, behold, the mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire." 2 KINGS vi. 17.

distinction commonly made between the
-*- natural and the supernatural, though useful
and convenient for certain purposes, becomes
misleading and false, if understood to mean that
a hard and fast line can be drawn between the
two, or that the one necessarily excludes the
other. 1 They are in reality always combined. It
is possible to see the unseeable. What is invis-
ible to the bodily eye may be plain enough to the
mind or to the heart; and thus the apparently

1 On this subject see my ' Basis of Eeligiou,' pp. 13-19,

The Sitpernaturalness of Natiire. 249

bare mountain is often discovered to be full of
horses and chariots of fire. If we do not find
something supernatural in the- commonest objects
and phenomena, it must be, not because there is
nothing supernatural in them, but because our
own vision is defective. Of many a man it may,
alas ! be said

"A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose is to him,
And it is nothing more."

Nothing more ? Why, the whole history of the
universe is bound up in the heart of that tiny
flower! If we could trace it back to its very
first beginnings, we should have solved the riddle
of life, we should have detected the method of
creation, we should know the very nature of
God. To the vulgar man, matter is but another
name for dirt : to the man who is a physicist and
only a physicist, it is a curious combination of
atoms; but to poets and philosophers it is the
Shechinah of infinite mystery.

There is a line of argument I should like to
take up, which I am afraid, however, is too
long and too difficult for a sermon, and which
I will therefore only mention. Hegel, the prince

250 Science and Religion.

of thinkers, has shown that matter can neither
be known nor conceived of except as permeated
through and through with thought ; and he has
thus for ever precluded any one from being a
materialist, who will take the trouble to master
the first principles of his philosophy. 1

But leaving this, let us look at our subject
from a simpler and more popular point of view.
There is a class of thinkers in the present day
who persist in talking as if naming a thing
and telling us a little about it/ were equivalent
to giving its complete explanation, and removing
from it every vestige of mystery. But this short
and easy method of annihilating the super-
natural is altogether unwarranted. Let us take
an illustration. The force of gravity is probably,
of all natural phenomena, the one with which
science has made us most familiar. She has
given us in regard to it what, at first sight,
may seem a comprehensive and final account.
We know that this force is not confined to
our own world or to our own time, but that
it is at work in distant planets and in still
more distant stars, and that its operations must
have continued for millions and millions of years.
We know, too, precisely the law of this attrac-
1 See my 'Belief in God,' pp. 69-76.

The Supernatwralness of Naiure. 251

tive influence which material bodies exert on each
other viz., that it varies directly as their mass
and inversely as the square of their distance.
By means of this intimate knowledge we are
able to explain the motions and positions of the
heavenly bodies, we can foretell the return of
comets that have not been visible for generations,
and predict, centuries beforehand, the time when
eclipses may be expected, almost to the fraction
of a second. So that if science has seen through
anything, if it has mastered anything, if it has
exorcised the supernatural from anything, it
must have seen through and mastered and exor-
cised the supernatural from the phenomenon of
gravitation. And yet, after all, if we think a
little longer, we shall see that even in this case
science has but revealed the magnitude of a mys-
tery which remains, as of yore, insoluble. Think
how much is yet untold. We may ask, Whence
comes that force? Is it older or younger than
the particles of matter in which it acts ? Or is
it coeval with them ? Is it something separable
from them ? Or is it part of their very essence ?
What makes it act as it does? Will it always
act thus ? Is it connected, and if so how, with
mind and will? These are questions which we
cannot answer ; upon which, at any rate, physical

252 Science and Religion.

science can throw no light. And this is but an
illustration of what seems to me universally true.
If we look long and earnestly into the com-
monest natural object or phenomenon, we shall
by -and -by begin to perceive a supernatural
mystery, before which we shall be humbled and
amazed. 1

Again. The feelings excited in us by natural
scenery are quite incompatible with the suppo-
sition that there is nothing in it but a mere
fortuitous concurrence of atoms. Physical science
can neither explain nor explain away the fact
that Nature, besides producing impressions on
our senses, appeals to our minds and hearts.
" Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language; their voice is not heard. Yet
their line is gone out through all the earth,
and their words unto the end of the world."
Nature, the uncrowned queen of song, is con-
tinually producing poems that need not "the
din of words." With her silent eloquence she
makes us now pensive and now glad ; she arouses
our hopes and excites our fears ; she inspires us
with yearnings after the Unseen and Eternal.
You remember "Wordsworth's lines,

1 See also my ' Agnosticism,' pp. 4042.

The Supernaturalness of Nature. 253

" I have learned

To look on Nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth.

I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts : a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,

. Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man :

A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."

Call it what you will, name it how you please,
men of all creeds, and men of no creed, have
felt this mysterious presence. It cannot pos-
sibly be explained by any mechanical play of
atoms : but it is none the less real for that. It
is as much a fact as electricity or heat. Its
existence is proved by its effects. A German
writer, Lotze, who is no less versed in physics -
than in metaphysics, truly says that science can
never give us the whole of what is to be said
about the universe ; it can but give us the smaller
half. "Above and beneath and around the bit
of nature which we can weigh and measure and
dissect and fit into our formulae, there is a region
which is for us the realm of wonder." The
mechanical action and reaction of material atoms

254 Science and Religion,

is but one phase of the universe. There is in
addition something that leads to art and poetry
and religion. To ignore this is to ignore what is
highest and best.

The design, meaning, and purpose which can
be detected in Nature afford the most striking
instances of its supernaturalness. I can but
allude to them at present. In another sermon
I shall endeavour to show that these evidences
of a Mind and Will underlying Nature have not
been nullified by modern discoveries or theories. 1

Let me call your attention to one other point.
"We are apt just now to underrate, or even to
ignore altogether, the mystery of ourselves.
There is a danger of our being led to believe, not
only that mystery lias been exorcised from the
external world, but that we ourselves have been
likewise reduced to the level of commonplace
machines. Owing to the triumphs of physiology,
there is a- growing inclination to think that the
nerves and brain are everything, that there is
no need for a mind or soul. But if this view
be examined, it will be seen that it is pre-
eminently absurd. It may be true it probably
is true that our sensations; thoughts and voli-

1 Pp. 271-282. See also -'Belief in God,' chaps, iv. and v.;
' Personality,' sect, iv ; and the first half of 'Agnosticism.'

The Supernaturalness of Nature. 255

tions, are preceded, accompanied and followed by.
molecular changes in the nerve-fibres ; but these
material disturbances of the nervous system do
not themselves feel or think or will. They are
not conscious of themselves ; and therefore they
cannot in the least degree do away with the
necessity for a sentient, percipient, intelligent
mind. This has been sometimes acknowledged
even by writers of the Positive school, like John
Stuart Mill and Professor Tyndall. You may
follow up nervous vibrations to their last flutter
in the brain, but the material flutter is not con-
sciousness, bears not the slightest resemblance to
consciousness, throws no light whatsoever upon
any of the phenomena of consciousness. So
that physiology in reality can do nothing more
than lead us up to the mystery of mind ; it can
neither explain that mystery nor explain it awaj.
In addition to the common consciousness of
our everyday working life, there are also inner
recesses of consciousness (so to speak) which can
be even less explained, if that were possible, by
the methods and formulse of physics. We some-
times experience such an awe, such a faith, such
unutterable yearnings, such an agony of grief,
such a rapture of hope, as may alone suffice for
proof, that we are something more than, some-

256 Science and Religion.

tiling other than, dust. " So long," says Busldn,
" as you have that fire of the heart within you,
and know the reality of it, you need be under no
alarm as to its chemical or mechanical analysis.
The philosophers are very humorous in their
ecstasy of hope ahout it, but the real interest
of their discoveries in this direction is very small
to human kind. It is quite true that the tym-
panum of the ear vibrates under sound, and that
the surface of the water in a ditch vibrates too ;
but the ditch hears nothing for all that, and my
hearing is still to me as blessed a mystery as
ever, and the interval between the ditch and me
quite as great. If the trembling sound in my
ears was once of the marriage bells which began
my happiness, and is now of the passing bell
which ends it, the difference between those two
sounds to me cannot be counted by the number
of concussions.' There have been some curious
speculations lately as to the conveyance of men-
tal changes by brain -waves. What does it
matter how they are conveyed ? The con-
sciousness itself is not a wave. It may be accom-
panied here and there by any quantity of quivers
and shakes of anything you can find in the uni-
verse that is shakeable. What is that to me?
My friend is dead, and my according to modern

The Supernaturalness of Nature. 257

views vibratory sorrow is not one whit less, or
less mysterious, than my old quiet one."

The attempt, then, to ignore the supernatural
is most unphilosophical. But we are so terribly
afraid nowadays of being over-credulous. We
should remember, however, that believing too
much is not the only sign of a weak mind. "We
may show our mental incapacity by believing too
little. A child, for instance, can. only believe in
the multiplication table as far as he has gone;
and when he begins to be in doubt, it is not the
table, but his own mind, which is at fault. He
who regards a human being as a mere mass of
nerves, he who maintains that there is nothing
in Nature but a mechanical combination of
atoms, must be a very superficial thinker.
The chemical analysis of a tear into oxygen,
hydrogen, chlorine, and sodium is not a complete
explanation of the mystery of grief: nor is the
supernaturalness of nature disproved by the fact
that it cannot be depicted upon the retina of the
eye. It may be discovered by -the mind : it may
be felt by the heart. Let us search diligently
until we find it. "When thou shalt seek the
Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou shalt
seek Him with thy whole heart."

258 Science and Religion.

" God's in matter everywhere :

Flower, bird, beast, and man and woman,
Earth and "water, fire and air,

All divine is all that's human.
Only matter's dense opaqueness

Cheeks God's light from shining through it ;
And our senses (such their weakness)

Cannot help our souls to view it,
Till Low lends the world translucence :

Then we see God clear in all things.
Love's the new sense, Love's the true sense,

Which teaches us how we should call things."

259

Science and Religion,
III.

THE NATUEALNESS OF THE SUPEENATUEAL.

"The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning." JAMES i. 17.

TT is interesting and suggestive to observe how,
-^ with the progress of science, our notions
of the universe have been revolutionised. Once
men believed in the universal reign of caprice;
now they believe in the universal reign of law.
Formerly earth and air and sea were peopled
with a host of imaginary beings, and the human
race was supposed to be at the mercy of their
changeable whims or of their unchangeable vin-
dictiveness. It was thought that any one of
theni 3 if strong enough to prevail over the rest,
might alter the course of nature at a moment's
notice. Religion therefore consisted in appeas-

260 Science and Religion.

ing these divinities, so powerful for evil, with
barley, wine or "blood. In the darkness of an
eclipse, in the rolling peal of thunder, in a vol-
canic eruption, in the devastation of a plague,
and even in an unusual state of the weather,
men saw, as they- thought, the capricious in-
terference of these supernatural powers. But
observation and reflection have made us wiser.
The more that Nature has been, investigated, the
more has her uniformity been brought to light.
Eesemblances have been discovered even where
they were least expected ; as, for example, in the
similarity of structure belonging to animals of
different species, which at first sight appeared to
be altogether diverse. And not only has Nature
been discovered to be uniform in our own time
and in our own world, but the most remote
spheres and ages, regarding which we are able to
gather any information, have been found to be
subject to the same laws which obtain here and
now. We know beyond a doubt that the force
which causes a leaf to fall to the ground is con-
cerned in the revolutions of the most distant
star; that "the law which moulds a planet
rounds a tear ; " and that the light of to-day has
exactly the same properties as the light of the
prehistoric world. So certain are we of the

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 261

universality of law, that we know apparent ex-
ceptions cannot be real. In fact, a seeming
violation of law has not imfrequently led to a
fresh confirmation of its absolute inviolability.
For example, the fact that Uranus did not move
in exact accordance with astronomical calcula-
tions, suggested that there must exist somewhere
a disturbing cause. The amount of divergence
from the calculated path pointed to the exact
spot where that disturbing cause must be looked
for ; and there, accordingly, Adams and Leverrier
(almost simultaneously) discovered a new planet,
the planet which is now called Neptune. Even
in cases where, owing to the complexity of the
problem, our knowledge is less exact, even where
we have not been able to ascertain the precise
manner in which certain results are produced,
we yet feel absolutely sure that these results are
brought about by unchanging and unchangeable
laws. Epidemics of cholera and plague, for
instance, which our ancestors attributed to the
anger of Heaven, we believe to be due to a viola-
tion of the laws of health ; we no longer connect
them with a sudden interference of Providence,
but we set about tracing them to impure water,
or to some other equally simple and natural
cause. And similarly in regard to the weather,

262 Science and Religion.

though it is the very type of fickleness, and
though our knowledge of the laws which govern
it is exceedingly imperfect, yet there is not an
educated man in the world to-day who does not
feel certain that rain and drought, heat and cold,
good seasons and had, depend upon laws as
stringent and immutable as those which deter-
mine the planetary motions. In a word, to us in
this nineteenth century the universe is essen-
tially and pre-eminently a universe of order and
of law.

Now it is on this ground that so many persons
object to what is called supernatural religion. To
them Christianity appears a sort of chaos, where
chance and disorder and irrationality reign su-
preme. I wish to point out to you that this
notion of Christianity is not correct. I wish to
call your attention to the reign of law in the
religion of Christ ; or, in other words, to the
naturalness of the supernatural. 1

And first of all, with regard to the general
subject of miracles. To any one puzzled about
this matter, I would recommend the Duke of
Argyll's ' Eeign of Law,' and Butler's ' Analogy '
(part II. chapter iv.) Butler there points out that
our knowledge of Nature and her laws is ex-

1 See also my ' Basis of Religion,' pp. 13-19.

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 263

tremely limited and partial. We know scarcely
anything of the laws of tempests, earthquakes,
famines, pestilence ; or of the laws regulating the
respective capacities of the individual. The
forces by which many things of great importance
happen are so unknown to us, that we call their
results accidental. In fact, we only guess that
the whole course of nature is capable of being
reduced to general laws ; we do not know it.
We have found it to be so with a part, and we
imagine, therefore, it must be so with the whole.
On the supposition then of a God, wiser and
more powerful than ourselves, there is room for
any number of interpositions, which from our
human point of view may seem unnatural, but
which are nevertheless in perfect harmony with
laws more general and comprehensive than those
we have hitherto discovered. Let me give you
an illustration. As water cools, it contracts and
grows heavier, till it has reached a temperature
of about forty degrees Fahrenheit. Then it sud-
denly proceeds in an exactly opposite manner,
and any further cooling makes it expand. Now,
if our observations and experiments had always
been made at temperatures higher than forty
degrees, or if they had always been made at
temperatures lower than forty degrees, however

264 Science and Religion.

numerous these observations and experiments
had been, they would not have led us to the com-
plete law. You remember how well this idea is
put in ' Sartor Eesartus.' " To the wisest man,
wide as is his vision, Nature remains of quite
infinite depth, of quite infinite expansion; and
all Experience thereof limits itself to some few
computed centuries and measured square miles.
The course of Nature's phases on this our little
fraction of a Planet is partially known to us:
but who knows what deeper courses these depend
on ; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) our
little Epicycle revolves on ? To the Minnow,
every cranny and pebble and quality and aeci--
dent of its little native Creek may have become
familiar: but does the Minnow understand the
Ocean Tides and periodic Currents, the Trade-
winds and Monsoons and Moon's Eclipses; by
all which the condition of its little Creek is reg-
ulated, and may from time to time (wraniracu-
lously enough) be quite overset and reversed ?
Such a minnow' is Man ; his Creek this Planet
Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; his
Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious
Course of Providence through Jons of ^Eons."
Manifestly then it is quite possible, theoretically
at least, that in connection with Christianity and

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 265

other religions events may have happened, which
to us in our ignorance seem miraculous, but
which notwithstanding are in accordance with
wider and more comprehensive laws than those
with which we are acquainted. 1

So much for the abstract possibility of miracles.
Now let me suggest to you/ in the briefest pos-
sible manner, the naturalness of three of the
most fundamental doctrines of Christianity viz.,
prayer-, the Atonement, and immortality. In a
previous sermon, I pointed out to you that belief
in the efficacy of prayer did not involve any belief
in the violability of natural laws. 2 The same ex-
perience which has taught us that these laws are
unchangeable, has also taught us that they may
be counteracted. We dissipate cold by lighting
a fire ; we prevent our buildings from being de-
stroyed in a thunderstorm by means of lightning-
conductors ; we avoid a sunstroke by retiring into
the shade ; and so on, and so on. It is a matter
of common observation, you see, that the tendency
of natural forces can be naturally counteracted
by the judicious introduction of other forces.
"Well then, supposing we are in any trouble,

1 In fact \ve might a priori expect "wonders" from a per-
sonality sufficiently strong and unique to found a new religion.

2 Pp. 238, 239.

266 Science and Religion*

sorrow, need, sickness, or other adversity, from
which we are unable to extricate ourselves, God
miffht conceivably deliver us without any violent
rupture of law, but merely by a supernaturally
skilful combination and adjustment of natural
forces. I pointed out to you, however, that after
all the end and use of prayer was not to bring
God's will into conformity with ours, but that it
was intended on the contrary to bring our wills
into conformity with God's. The apostle does
not say, Let your requests be made known unto
God, and your requests will be granted ; but, " Let
your requests be made known unto God, and the
peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds."
It might be impossible, even for Omnipotence, to
grant our requests, consistently with the welfare
of others, or even consistently with our own.
Hence the only answer to prayer which the
Christian religion always guarantees is the an-
swer of peace. And if there be in the universe
a Mind and Heart superior to our own, the
very effort that we make in prayer to realise
His existence and to submit ourselves to His
will must, naturally and inevitably, lead to peace.
Now, I ask, is there anything chaotic, lawless,
disorderly, or irrational in such a doctrine of
prayer ?

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 267

Secondly, look at the Atonement. So far from
the sufferings of Christ having been arbitrarily
inflicted by a capricious and revengeful God,
they are the most striking exemplifications of
a universal law. When we were considering
the Mystery of Suffering, we saw that no char-
acter could be perfected except through the
instrumentality of sorrow. The painful battling
with difficulties develops strength, self-reliance
and self-respect. Moreover, pity, mercy and
the spirit of self - sacrifice can only exist in
beings who have been called upon to suffer. Ifc
was a matter of common experience, we found,
that suffering is needful for moral perfection.
Now, according to the writer of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, the anguish of the Man of Sorrows
is an exemplification of this universal law. " It
became Him, for whom are all things and by
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the Captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings." In other words,
God Himself could only bring about the salva-
tion of men, by making even Christ, their leader
and example, perfect through that very discipline
of sorrow, which we have seen reason to believe
is always necessary for the formation of a noble
character, Christ is no exception to the reign

268 Science and Religion.

of law. He is the most remarkable example
of its absolute universality.

Thirdly, I think we may see that even the
doctrine of immortality is an instance of the
naturalness of the supernatural. Though our
sensations and thoughts and volitions may be
always preceded, accompanied and followed by
changes in the nerves, those mental states them-
selves are totally different from any neural pro-
cess. As Aristotle and Plato long ago explained,
it is not our eyes that see, nor is it our ears that
hear; it is we that see and hear by means of
those organs: they are but the instruments of
the mind. If you take away a man's telescope,
you deprive him of the kind of vision which a
telescope affords. Similarly the destruction of
the eye by death is the destruction of common
sight. But there is no more reason in the one
case than in the other to suppose that the mind
which sees is thereby destroyed. And since we
have not the remotest idea of the nature of
the connection between mind and body, since
we cannot, for example, conceive how it is that
an impression on the retina produces in us the
sensation of sight, there is nothing to prevent
our supposing that the mind could perceive with-
out material organs, or at any rate by means of

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 269

organs altogether different from those with which
it is at present provided. As Bishop Butler says,
" It is not even probable that the mind has any
kind of relation to the body, which it might not
have to any other foreign matter formed into
instruments of perception." The indivisible con-
scious mind (whatever it may be or may not be)
cannot conceivably be the same thing as the divi-
sible and unconscious brain. 1 Nor can it be iden-
tified with its own states of sensation or of thought,
which are many and transient, while it remains
permanently one. There is therefore no a priori
reason to suppose that the destruction of the soul
is involved, either in the dissolution of its present
brain, or in the cessation of its present experience.
There is no scientific ground for believing that
the law of the Dissipation of Energy, which threat-
ens in time to bring the whole material universe
to a dead-lock, 2 can in any way affect the essential
vitality of the soul.

Let me press upon your careful and protracted
consideration the line of thought which I have
endeavoured to open up in this and the preced-

1 The proof that the ego must be something different from
the brain, I have attempted to develop in my Essay on ' Person-
ality,' sect. 1, also ' Belief in God,' chapters ii. and iii. ; and on
the subject of Immortality, see 'Agnosticism,' pp. 47-60.

2 See Stewart's ' Conservation of Energy,' pp. 152, 153.

270 Science and Religion.

ing sermon. Those persons who have chosen
to style themselves with more assurance than
accuracy " exact thinkers," want to persuade us
that the physical methods of investigation can
fathom nature to its very deepest depths; that
everything which those methods fail to discover
should be considered non-existent ; and above all
that the doctrines of religion are superlatively
absurd. The natural they regard as the realm of
light, in which wise men dwell ; the supernatural
they look upon as the region of darkness, into
which fools and fanatics are prone to wander.
But we have seen (have we not ?) that the natural
and supernatural are really inseparable. On the
one hand, if we look deeply enough into nature,
we come to something which, though it can
be detected neither by the ^microscope nor by
chemical reagent, we are nevertheless compelled
to recognise as real.. When our eyes are opened,
the mountain, which once appeared bare, is seen
to be full of horses and chariots of fire. In other
words, the natural is essentially supernatural.
Again, if we carefully examine the fundamental
doctrines of religion, we do not find, as the exact
thinkers say we must find, disorder, lawlessness
and chaos. We discover on the contrary that
these doctrines, if properly understood, are in

Naturalness of the Supernatural. 271

perfect harmony with our common everyday
experience. With the course of nature, in the
widest sense of the term, God never interferes.
In other words, the supernatural is essentially
natural. The God of creation is the God of
redemption: and with "the Father of lights"
there is "no variableness, neither shadow of
turning."

272

Science and Religion.

IV.

THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN.

" He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire ; "
or rather it should be rendered, " He maketh the winds His
angels, and flaming fires His ministers." PSALM eiv. 4;
HEBREWS i. 7.

T\0 you believe it ? In the present day, a large
*J number of scientific men maintain that the
appearance of design in nature is an appearance
only, not a reality. This view is supposed to be
established in two ways first, by the general
doctrine of the universal reign of law"; and
secondly, by the particular theory of evolution.
Let us look for a moment at the argument
drawn from the universality of law. The regu-
larity of nature is supposed by many to disprove
the existence of God, or at any rate to disprove
the religious doctrine that God is the King of

The Argument from Design. 273

Nature. Now, in the first place, I may remark
that law is a very misleading word. It is
generally printed with a capital L, which gives
it a more imposing appearance than it justly
deserves. Law only means invariable sequence.
A law of nature is merely the fact that certain
causes produce certain effects, that certain ante-
cedents are always followed by certain eonse*
quents, that under the same circumstances the
same events will always happen. You will some-
times hear it said, the universe is governed by
laws. The universe is not governed by laws.
It is governed according to laws, but no one
can suppose that the laws make themselves ; no
one can imagine, for example, that water deter-
mines of its own accord always to freeze at one
temperature and to boil at another, that snow-
flakes make up their minds to assume certain
definite and regular shapes, or that fire burns
of malice aforethought. The sequences of nature
will not explain themselves. The regularity of
nature, therefore, needs to be explained. It can-
not explain itself, nor can it disprove the exist-
ence of a controlling Will.

I have pointed out to you more than once that
the reign of law does not hinder us in the accom-
plishment of our human purposes and plans. On

274 Science and 'Religion.

the contrary, the immutability of the laws of
nature is the " very characteristic which makes
them subject to contrivance through endless cycles
of design." But it is often assumed that we
are their slaves. Professor Huxley, for example,
says, "The progress of science in all ages has
meant the extension of the province of what
we call matter and causation, and the con-
comitant banishment of what we call spirit
and spontaneity." But the Professor admits, in
so many words, that man is " capable within cer-
tain limits of self -adjustment ;" and every one
knows that man is capable within certain limits
of adjusting external forces. Hence it is un-
deniable that there is such a thing as human
spontaneity. Now this power of initiating, con-
trolling and modifying events, is the most im-
portant of all our faculties. If, therefore, the
progress of science has consisted in throwing
the fact of spontaneity into the shade, so much
the worse for science.

Since however physicists have often forgotten
their own freedom and spontaneity, it is scarcely
to be wondered at that they have ignored the
divine. " Nowadays," says Comte, " the heavens
declare no other glory than that of Hipparchus,
Kepler, Newton and the rest, who have found

The Argument from Design. 275

out the laws of their sequence." Comte assumes,
you see, that the sequences, being regular, cannot
possibly have had a cause. But to treat this as
an axiom, is the very acme of illogical flippancy.
True, there is no sign of anything approaching to
fickleness or caprice in nature. True, the many
gods of fetishism have been annihilated by scien-
tific investigation. But the same unity and har-
mony, which prove that there are not many wills,
go far to show at the same time that there is one.
The cosmic results of the combined operations of
natural forces testify to some unity of design and
purpose. Nothing can be on the face of it more
absurd than Comte's theory, that 'an irregular
and disorderly system of nature would require
a supernatural explanation, but that a regular
and orderly system requires none. To say this
is to maintain that God could only be manifested
by the attributes of fickleness and impotence.
If He were always interfering with things like an
operative in a mill, who has constantly to stop
his machinery to join a broken thread, if Nature
were so paltry a system, that God had continu-
ally to interpose in order to rectify her defects,
then He would be recognised. But His existence
is denied, forsooth, because it is not revealed by
failures and mistakes. You might as well main-

2 76 Science and Religion.

tain that the unpredictable actions of a madman
imply mind, but that the orderly and methodical
actions of a sane man imply none. Unless
method and regularity be proofs of irrationality,
the reign of law does not compel us to reject the
evidence of design in nature. Law means, as we
have seen, nothing more than an orderly sequence
of events. The question will always arise, Why
is the reign of law productive, on the whole, of
order, harmony and beauty ? The only reign of
law incompatible with volition, would be the reign
of the law of chaos. We ourselves are constantly
using the forces of nature, controlling them,
adapting them, and making them subservient to
our purposes and desires. And since these forces,
apart from human control, continue working
together for good, since their united effect is to
produce a cosmos, an order of nature, a system of
things in which it is (generally speaking) desir-
able to live, the only reasonable conclusion the
only conclusion warranted by experience is that
they are connected with a supernatural mind
and will. Since "the voice of law is the har-
mony of the world," there is strong ground for
the presumption that "her seat is the bosom
of God."

So much for the objection drawn from the

The Argument from Design. 277

general doctrine of the reign of law. Secondly,
let us look at the bearing of the particular theory
of evolution upon theology. I might premise
that this theory cannot be considered proved
except 'so far as species are concerned ; l and that
no less eminent an evolutionist than Mr "Wallace
refuses <even to admit -that it will account for
man. But we will suppose, for argument's sake,
that, even in its most comprehensive shape, the
doctrine has been proved true ; we will imagine
it to be a demonstrated certainty that vegetable,
animal, and even human life, have been evolved
from some primordial germ or germs originally
latent in a fiery cloud; and that the development
of higher from lower forms of existence is suffi-
ciently accounted for by natural selection by
the fact, namely, that the less desirable forms
have an inherent tendency to give place to the
more desirable. If we grant all this, what fol-
lows? What is the effect upon our theology?
Why, simply that a certain mode of statement
of a certain argument of Paley's is seen to be
unsound, and this unsoundness had been already
recognised on other grounds. Paley maintained
that every definite organ and portion of an organ
throughout the world is specially, by a particular
1 See ' Agnosticism,' p. 84.

278 Science and Religion.

creative fiat, adapted to a certain end; just as
every .portion, of a watch implies a special con-
trivance on the part of the watchmaker. But
this, as every one now knows, is completely dis-
proved, by the existence in most animals of rudi-
mentary and abortive organs, which are evidently
not adapted to any end: as, for example, the
rudiments of fingers in a horse's hoof ; the teeth
in a whale's mouth; or the eyes in an unborn
mole, which, though perfect in themselves to be-
gin with, dry up before they can be used. But
though we no longer profess to trace divine
design in every minute fraction of an organism,
this does not hinder us from seeing it in organ-
isms regarded in their entirety, and in Nature
considered as a whole. Professor Huxley ima-
gines, however, that he has driven us from this
second position. He maintains it to be con-
ceivable that a watch might be made without
contrivance. " Suppose," he says, " that any one
had been able to show that the watch had not
been made directly by any one person, but that
it was the result of the modification of another
watch which kept time but poorly ; and that this,
again, had proceeded from a structure that could
hardly be called a watch at all, seeing that it
had no figures on the dial, and the hands were

The A rgument from Design. 279

rudimentary; and that, going back and back in
time, we came at last to a revolving barrel, as the
earliest traceable rudiment of the whole fabric.
And imagine it had been possible to show that
all those changes had resulted, first from a ten-
dency in the structure to vary indefinitely, and
secondly, from something in the surrounding
world which helped all variations in the direc-
tion of an accurate time-keeper, and checked all
those in other directions, and then it is obvious
that the force of Paley's argument would be gone.
For it would be demonstrated that an apparatus,
thoroughly well adapted to a particular purpose,
might be the result of a method of trial and error,
worked out by unintelligent agents, as well as of
the direct application of the means appropriate
to the end."

Yery good. But whence came that " tendency
in the structure to vary," and that "something
in the surrounding world " ? The " agents " may
be "unintelligent"; but the method of their
working implies that they are directed and con-
trolled by intelligence. When we consider their
results, we are forbidden, both by experience and
by reason, to suppose that their combined work-
ing is the effect of chance. The further back you
trace their operation, the greater becomes the

280 . Science and Religion.

necessity for connecting them with an intelligent
mind ; since the longer you suppose them to have
been at work, the less likely does it become that
their rational results can be the effects of irration-
ality. .If two things by their interaction, extend-
ing over long periods of time, produce progressive
and intelligible results, the only legitimate hypo-
thesis is that they were intended and adapted for
that purpose. So that, after all, the watch made
according to the ingenious theory of the professor
has not been produced without design. He has
got rid of one kind of contrivance only by substi-
tuting another.

Professor Huxley's argument has been parodied
in this way. Two ignorant men might have a
controversy as to the origin of a bronze statue.
Says the one, " He must have been a great sculp-
tor who made that statue." To this the other
replies, "You are quite wrong, my .friend; no
sculptor ever touched that statue. I saw it made
myself. I saw the metal, a formless molten mass,
flow out of the furnace into the sand, and then in
a while come out, as you see it, a bronze statue.
It was not the sculptor who made the statue, but
the sand. There was first a tendency in the
molten metal to vary indefinitely ; and secondly,
there was something in the surrounding sand

The Argiiment from Design. 281

that helped all variations in the direction of a
beautiful statue, and checked all those in other
directions. The result is a statue made, not
by contrivance, but by natural selection." The
answer to this is of course very simple. The
molten metal and the sand, the tendency in the
structure to vary, and the something outside the
structure helping one kind of variation and
checking other kinds, were intended and adapted
to work together for the production of the statue.
Natural selection is but a form of contrivance.

The doctrine of the survival of the fittest does
not account for the fact that there are fittest
to survive. It does not, in other words, explain
the existence of organisms, nor the existence of
any measure of adaptation between the organ-
ism and environment. It merely explains the
method according to which this adaptation has
been increased. The purpose, which from the
days of Anaxagoras has been more or less ob-
served in nature, is not proved to be no pur-
pose, because it is accomplished by means that
work together systematically and unchangingly.
Evolution does not disprove a Designer ; it only
proves that he works in a different way from that
which had formerly been supposed. There is no
reason why things may not be made for their cir-

282 Science and Religion.

cumstances, though they are partly made by them.
Till it has been proved that the working together
of internal and external relations, so as to accom-
plish a progressive result, is not due to design,
we are compelled to suppose that it is. The fact
that natural forces work together regularly and
methodically, does not prove that they have no
master it suggests rather His absolute control.
The fact that lower forms of existence are con-
tinually evolving higher, need not prevent us
from believing in God. On the contrary, this
eternal evolution of the more desirable from the
less cannot be logically accounted for, except
on the ground that it is effected by infinite
power and wisdom and skill. The atheistical
argument is most illogical. In human ( affairs
and in human works, we never except within
very narrow limits find order or progress, har-
mony or adaptation, due to anything but design.
To assert, therefore, that these attributes of
Nature are the result of chance, is to main-
tain a hypothesis which is not only unwar-
ranted, but which is absolutely contradicted,
by experience. On the other hand, the argu-
ment from design is a strictly logical argument.
I believe that, my neighbour is a personal, free,
intelligent being like myself, because of the con-

The Argument from Design. 283

sistency and purpose manifested in his words
and deeds, The fact that the forces of Nature
produce their results according to an absolutely
unchanging method, leads inevitably to the con-
clusion that they are connected with a Will, in
whom there is neither variableness nor shadow of
turning, and who is the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever. Further, when we remember that
each one of these forces, if it worked irregu-
larly instead of regularly, would be capable
of throwing the entire universe into confusion,
we are confirmed in our conviction that the
world in which we find ourselves is not the
production of a fortuitous concurrence of atoms,
but that there is a Being working through all
atoms and forces, who loves beaiity, harmony,
progress and joy, "who maketh the winds His
angels, and flaming fires His ministers." 1

1 For a fuller treatment of the connection, between Evolution
and Design, see my volume on ' Agnosticism.'

284

Science and Religion.

THE VISION OF GOD.'

" Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God."
MATTHKW v. 8.

T APPBEHEND that Christ was referring as
-*- much to our present as to our future life,
when He uttered these words. Let me direct your
attention to one phase of the subject viz., to the
vision of God which exists for us in nature.

There are three distinct kinds of sight. There
is, first of all, physical sight, which depends
chiefly on "bodily organs, and which merely
enables us to distinguish material objects from
one another. Then, secondly, there is mental
sight the sight of the scientist and the poet.
This faculty helps men to discover analogies and
resemblances and connections between dissimilar

The Vision of God. 285

and distant things ; and hence it gives rise to the
metaphors and similes of poetry, and leads to
the discovery of the laws of nature. It was the
faculty of mental vision, for example, which led
to the establishment of the widest scientific gen-
eralisation, by suggesting to Newton that perhaps
the earth might exercise the same attractive
influence upon the moon which it did upon a
falling apple. Then, thirdly, thero is spiritual
sight, which belongs to the metaphysical philoso-
pher and to the man of faith. Spiritual vision
enables men to "see Him who is invisible,"
Him who is unseeable by either the first or the
second kind of sight.

We may call these powers of vision, if we
please, the sight of the body, mind, and spirit
respectively. Of course this is only a rough
classification. Strictly speaking even in the first
case it is the mind that sees, and not the bodily
eye. Still, for the lowest kind of vision there is
needed only such an exercise of mind as is possible
for a brute. Again, in our present state of exist-
ence, there is no such thing as purely spiritual
sight. Our materials must be received through
the senses. If we are spiritually to see God in
nature, it is necessary that we first of all physi-
cally see nature itself. " That is not first which

286 Science and Religion.

is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after-
ward that which is spiritual." And once more,
you must remember the distinction between mind
and spirit does not imply two separate entities,
but only distinct faculties in the one indivisible
man. The mind stands for the lower intellec-
tual faculties, such as imagination or generalisa-
tion, the spirit for the higher, such as faith and
the religious affections. With these qualifications,
we may, if we please, talk of the three kinds of
sight as bodily, mental, and spiritual, remember-
ing that these adjectives refer only to the most
striking factor in the process of vision in each
particular case.

Now not one of these three faculties of sight
is used by any of us as much as it should be.
Even the first and simplest kind we often allow
to lie dormant, though it requires no more exer-
tion than to open our eyes and look about us.
I remember noticing on a summer's evening at an
English watering-place, while the spectacle of one
of the most glorious sunsets ever seen was being
unfolded on the horizon, there were a number of
persons sitting on the promenade with their lacks
to it. That is the way in which nature's beauty
is not unfrequently ignored. "Men have eyes,
but they see not."

The Vision of God. 287

The second faculty of sight is still more
neglected by most of us, for this requires not
only that we use our eyes, but that we think
about what we see. We might know a great
deal more about Nature's ways than we do, we
might decipher for ourselves some of her un-
spoken poems, if we would but use our mental
vision. Carlyle truly says, "We have to regret
not only that men have no religion, but that they
have no reflection. They go about with their
heads full of mere extraneous noises, with their
eyes wide open but visionless, for the most
part in the somnambulist state." And I think
that the diversity between men, in regard to their
scientific or poetic insight into nature, is deter-
mined more by industry than by talent. No
man can be a poet or philosopher without hard
work. Why, genius itself has been defined as
patience; and patience is, at any rate, its most
important constituent. Intellectual vision re-
quires a determined effort ay, thousands of
determined efforts to think. We must "in-
terrogate nature," as Bacon puts it that is, we.
must inquire carefully into the causes and effects
and uses and meanings of the phenomena taking
place everywhere around us. And we might
all do this if we would. It is quite true that

288 Science and Religion.

"the eye can only see what it brings with it
the power of seeing." But it is also true that
the power which it brings with it may be in-
tensified by practice. Even our physical faculty
of sight (as I have called it) can only be de-
veloped by experience. Those of you who know
anything of psychology, or have read Berkeley's
' Theory of Vision,' will understand what I mean.
All that you actually see at any moment is a
little flat patch of colour on the retina of your
eye. "What yon seem to see namely, such and
such an object at such and such a distance
is an inference. The correctness of such infer-
ences is due to the constant and lifelong practice
you have had in drawing them. This practice
is forced upon you by the common experiences
of life. But the development of mental vision
requires not only long - continued involuntary
practice, but long - continued voluntary effort.
I venture to say that there is not one young
man now present who might not before he died
discover something in nature, either after the
manner of the scientist or of the poet, which
has never yet been seen and which the world
would be much the better for knowing, if only
.he would take the trouble to look for it.
Similarly, in regard to spiritual vision, we all

The Vision of God. 289

have the capacity within us latent if not de-
veloped. This kind of sight Christ teaches us
depends on pureness of heart. A pure heart/I
take it, is one that is not entirely consecrated to
the acquisition of pleasure, or money, or fame, or
any other form of self-seeking, a heart that is
not altogether set upon self -gratification, a
heart "at leisure from itself/' and so at leisure
to seek for God.

Some of you may be inclined to ask, How is
it, then, that modern scientists find the vision
of God in nature so blurred and indistinct?
They are certainly not selfish pleasure-seekers
or money-makers. They are for the most part
disinterested and enthusiastic seekers after truth.
But to them, generally speaking, the Deity is an
unknown God. Yet others far less gifted than
they, and not more unselfish, have "seen the
King in His beauty," and while they traversed
the mazes of this present world, have felt their
hearts " burn within them " as He talked to them
by the way. I think the chief reason is this.
Just as the body .may be over-trained, and its
powers developed to the injury of the mind, so
the mental faculties may be over -educated,
educated, that is, at the expense of the spiritual.
This has been the case, ib seems to me, with a

290 Science and Religion.

good many modern physicists. Their whole lives
are spent in weighing, measuring and analysing
things, so that they feel hopelessly lost in regard
to subjects which do not admit of such treat-
ment. Lalande once said, "I have swept the
heavens with my telescope, and have not seen
a God." And though there are few scientists in
the present day who would express themselves
so crudely, there are many who have unwarrant-
ably maintained that our knowledge is necessarily
confined within the limits of "the methods and
formulae of physics." 1 It is a pity that they
should make this mistake; but still it is not
altogether surprising. " Let him among you that
is without sin," who is quite sure that all his
faculties are developed in due proportion, " cast
the first stone." As for the theologians, they
should be the last people in the world to com-
plain of one-sidedness in other people, for it has
been their own most remarkable characteristic.

Still, though I am not desirous of condemning
those who have failed to see the vision of God,
I am anxious to point out to you that this vision
really exists, and that it has been seen by many
in all its mysterious grandeur. . It is useless to
say that those who see it, or think they see it, are

1 See my ' Agnosticism ' and ' Personality.'

The Vision of God. 291

mere visionary fanatics, whom too much or too
little learning has made mad. For it has been
seen by such men (to take only three examples)
as Goethe, Caiiyle, and Tennyson. You may re-
member the Earth-spirit in ' Faust ' says

" Thus at the roaring loom of time I ply,
And weave for God the garment thou seest Him by."

That is Goethe's idea of Nature. Ifc is " the gar-
ment of God." Again, Carlyle says in 'Sartor
Kesartus/ " This fair universe, even in the meanest
province, is in very deed the star-domed city of
God. Through every star, through every grass-
blade, the glory of a present God still beams."
And Tennyson, in yet more eloquent language,
says

"The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the

plains,
Are not these, soul, the vision of Hinj who reigns ?

Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb,
Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him ?

Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with Spirit can

meet.
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. "

Well then this vision, since others have seen
it, may be seen by you and me. Let us look for
God in the future more earnestly than we have

292 Science and Religion.

done in the past, look for Him in vineyards
and orchards and harvest-fields, in the bright
plumage of birds, and the delicate bloom of fruit,
and the sweet gracefulness of flowers, in the
dense foliage of the forest, and the sparse heather
of the moor, in the rich luxuriance of fertile
valleys, and the rugged grandeur of the everlast-
ing hills, in the merry dance of the rivulet,
and the majestic tides of the ocean, in the gay
colours of the rainbow, and the quiet splendour
of the starry heavens, in the gentle radiance of
the moon, and the gorgeous light of setting suns,
in the clear azure sky, and the weird pageantry
of clouds, in the snow-mantled wintry landscape,
and the brilliant effulgence of a summer's noon
in the virgin loveliness of spring, and in the
pensive fading beauty of autumn; let us look
for Him with an earnest, eager and unwearied
gaze,' till we see Sim to be a God of wisdom as
well as power, of love as well as sovereignty, of
beauty as well as glory.

293

The Divine Fatherhood.

" Our Father."

"TF there were no God," said Voltaire, "it
*- would be necessary to create one." Men
must have some object of worship. ^ They can-
not avoid forming a conception of the Being,
or Cause, or Force however they may please
to term it which they regard as the one great
fact of the universe. The impossibility of dis-
pensing altogether with religion is often very
curiously illustrated. For example, it is not
uncommon to find persons at the same time
Agnostics and Spiritualists. They cannot bring
themselves to believe in the _ One Omniscient
Being, and yet they are very confident of the
existence of an infinite number of pottering
spirits, who are ready at any moment to predict
the future by means of a pack of cards or some
other equally trivial expedient. The impossi-

294 The Divine Fatherhood.

bility of dispensing with religion has received its
most striking illustration from Comte, the author
of the Positive Philosophy. He rejected what
he considered the fiction of a God, but supplied
its place by the abstract idea, of humanity, which
he called the Grand $tre. The cultus which he
instituted in honour of this conception involved
a doctrine of immortality and the practice of
prayer ; and it included the tyranny of a despotic
priesthood, who were to determine not only what
common people should believe, but also the sub-
jects which thinkers and scientists should in-
vestigate. The religion of Comte has been well
described by Professor Huxley as "a sort of
Kornan Catholicism minus Christianity."

The human heart, at any rate in its quieter
and more sober moments when it is resting from
the rush of life, craves and demands a God.
The universality of this yearning has been for-
cibly described by Max Mtiller in his lectures
on the Science of Eeligion. "There was in the
heart of man from, the very first, a feeling of
incompleteness, of weakness, of dependence, of
whatever we like to call it in our abstract
language. We can explain it as little as we
can explain why a new-born child feels the
cravings of hunger or of thirst; but it was so

The Divine Fatherhood. 295

from the first, and is even so now. Man knows
not whence he comes and whither he goes; he
looks for a guide, a friend ; he wearies for some
one on whom he can rest; he wants something
like a Eather in heaven. In addition to all the
impressions he receives from the outer world,
there is a stronger impulse from within ; a yearn-
ing for something that should not come and
go like everything else; that should be before
and after and for ever; that should hold and
support everything; that should make man feel
at home in this strange universe."

We are likely to forget the debt of gratitude
which we owe to Christ for having revealed to
us the doctrine of our text. The conception of
the Fatherhood of God may seem 'a simple and
natural idea, that might have easily occurred to
any one. But this is not the case. History, and
still more philology, show how hard and how
long men struggled unsuccessfully to find a word
which would fitly express, and an emblem which
would worthily symbolise, the Deity. Max
Miiller has pointed out that the name of sky
has been chosen for this purpose, at one time or
other, by almost all nations. . We have examples
of this in the Eoman Jupiter and in the Greek
Zeus. But he asks, "Was the sky the full ex-

296 The Divine Fatherhood.

pression of that within the mind which wanted
expression? Far from it. The first man who,
after looking everywhere for what he wanted,
and who at last from sheer exhaustion grasped
at the name of sky as better than nothing, knew
but too well that after all his success was a
miserable failure. The sky was no doubt the
most exalted, the only unchanging and infinite
being that had received a name, and that could
lend its name to the as yet unborn idea of the
Infinite, which disquieted the human mind. But
the man who chose the name could not have
meant that the visible sky was all he wanted,
and that the blue canopy above was his God."
This was the best, however, that could be done in
the days of the world's infancy. Age succeeded
age, and thinker followed thinker; men still
yearned to comprehend the Being from whom
their life was derived : but they could not. The
Athenians, you remember, erected an altar with
the inscription, "To the unknown God." They
could not name him ; they did not try to do so.
They felt that every word which suggested it-
self was inadequate, misleading and false. The
Christian idea of the Fatherhood of God had
scarcely occurred even to such a poet as Plato.
We find from the Old Testament that it had now

The Divine Fatherhood. 297

and again flashed through the minds of one or
two of the most spiritual of the Jewish seers.
And we find too, in studying philology, that the
idea had suggested itself to our old Aryan an-
cestors in prehistoric times. 1 But, this notwith-
standing, we may safely say, that the conception
was never fully realised or developed before the
time of Christ,

I have no intention in this sermon of attempt-
ing to prove the legitimacy of the. idea that is
to say, its conformability with reason. 2 I will
merely suggest to any one who may doubt this
conformability, that there is nothing in Nature
to contradict it. True, our own world has in it
a vast amount of suffering, but still it has in it a
much greater amount of joy. This is clearly and
dispassionately argued in one of John Stuart
Mill's posthumous essays. 3 It is also forcibly
stated in Lewis Morris's exquisite poem entitled
" Evensong " :

"Pain comes,, hopeless pain, God knows and we know, again
and again ;

1 See 'Defects of Christianity, and other Sermons,' p. 183.

2 For this, see my ' Belief in God.'

3 This argument in Mill's mouth is doubly powerful,
because he was naturally inclined rather to pessimism thai)
to optimism.

298 The Divine Fatherhood.

But e'en pain has its intervals blest, when 'tis heaven to be

free from pain.
And I think that the wretch who lies, pressed by a load of

incurable ill,
"With a grave pity pities himself, but would choose to have

lived it still :
He pities himself, and yet knows, as -he casts up life's

chequered sum,
It were best on the whole to have lived, whatever calamity

come.
And the earth is full of joy. Every blade of grass that

springs ;

Every cool worm that crawls, content as the eagle on soar-
ing wings ;
Every summer's day instinct with life ; every dawn when

from waking bird

And morning hum of the bee a chorus of praise is heard ;
Every gnat that sports in the sun for his little life of a

day;
Every flower that opens its cup to the dews of a perfumed

May ;
Every child that wakes with a smile, and sings to the ceiling

at dawn ;
- Every bosom which knows a new hope stir beneath its

virginal lawn ;
Every young soul ardent and high, rushing forth into life's

hot fight ;
Every home of happy content, lit by love's own mystical

light ;
Every worker who works till the evening, and takes before

night his wage ;
Be his work a furrow straight down, or the joy of a bettered

age ;
Every thinker who, standing aloof from the throng, finds a

high delight
In striking, with voice or with pen, a stroke for the triumph

of right ;

The Divine Fatherhood, 299

All these know that life is sweet, all tliese with a consonant

voice,
Read the legend of time with a smile, and that which they

read is 'Kejoice.'"

Since then the pain and sorrow of our world
seem to be more than counterbalanced by its
pleasure and its joy; since, moreover, we know
that suffering is sometimes productive of good,
and do not know but that it may be always pro-
ductive of good, it follows that the idea of the
Fatherhood of God is a conception which, to say
the least of it, cannot be disproved by any of the
facts of experience.

Our text embodies the most fundamental, the
most comprehensive, doctrine of Christianity; and
no system of theology can lay claim to any value
which does not start from this point. Oliver
Wendell Holmes tells us that, when asked by
some one what was his creed, he replied, "The
first two words of the Paternoster." Those who
think that his answer indicated a feeble faith and
a contracted belief do not know the meaning of
the words our Father. They are pregnant with
significance. Some persons are afraid that if the
love of God be too much insisted upon, there is a
danger of His justice being ignored. They seem
to imagine that if we too often speak about the

3OQ The Divine Fatherhood.

Divine Fatherhood, it will be forgotten that pun-
ishment must follow sin. Now there could not
be a greater mistake. All the more important
practical doctrines of Christianity inevitably fol-
low, and can be easily deduced, from the state-
ment that God is our Father; whereas the sys-
tems of theology which have started from God's
sovereignty, or omnipotence, or justice, have never
reached His love. The only thing they have re-
cognised under that name is so limited, so capri-
cious, and so unreasonable, as to be altogether
beneath contempt. Instead of representing God's
tender mercies as " over all His works," they have
made Him care only for a few, and for these few
simply in order that by them His own isolated
"glory" might be promoted. Such systems of
theology, in fact, have never recognised a God at
all. They have placed upon the throne of the
universe a narrow-minded, mean-spirited man,
possessed of more power, and therefore capable of
doing more mischief, than the rest of his fellows.
From a narrow conception like that of justice,
it is impossible to deduce a broad conception like
that of love. To make the attempt is like trying
to extract the whole from the part, the greater
from the less. On the other hand, we can
scarcely fail to see that the idea of justice fol-

The Divine Fatherhood. 301

lows necessarily from that of love, is in fact
included in it. A father worthy of the name
must evidently be just, that is, must deal with
his children according to their deserts. Simi-
larly, from the fact of punishment we cannot
prove love; for punishment may be inflicted out
of hate: but love implies the possibility of pun-
ishment. A father worthy of the name must
punish his children when their welfare demands
this discipline. The doctrine of God's Father-
hood, then, does not destroy any wholesome dread
of retribution. On the contrary, the very inten-
sity of the Infinite Father's affection makes it
certain that no sin will be overlooked, but that
every delinquency will be followed by the con-
suming fire of suffering, in order that the sinner
himself may if possible be made perfect. So that
you see the broad idea of Fatherhood necessarily
involves the narrower ideas of justice and of
punishment.

After all however, the fear of punishment,
though a help to right-doing, is not the only, nor
is it the greatest, help. We may be terrified
away from the bad, but we may be also attracted
and charmed towards the good. "If for every
rebuke," says Buskin, "that we utter of men's
vices, we put forth a claim upon their hearts;

3O2 The Divine Fatherhood.

if for every assertion of God's demands from
them, we could substitute a display of His kind-
ness to them ; if side by side with every warning
of death we could exhibit promises of immor-
tality; if in fine, instead of assuming the being
of an awful Deity, which men are sometimes
unable to conceive, we were to show them a near,
visible, all-beneficent Deity, whose presence makes
the earth itself- a heaven, I think there would be
fewer deaf children sitting in the market-place."
Euskin is right. Men may be more easily drawn
than driven. Even punishment itself, when it is
seen to proceed from love, becomes attractive,
irresistibly attractive. But unless, or until, this
origin can be discovered for it, it may have a
hardening, rather than a subduing, influence.
Strong, brave, high-spirited men will be inclined
to resist, even unto death. It is impossible

' ' By tyrannous threats to force them into faith."

According to the old classic legend, when Jove
seemed to be hurling his thunderbolts in a tyran-
nical and unjust fashion, the Titans endeavoured
to scale heaven and wrest them from his grasp.
So it will ever be. Supposing that the strongest
Power in the universe were not good but evil, not
God but devil, there would always be

The- Divine Fatherhood. 303

" Souls who dared look the Omnipotent Tyrant in
His everlasting face, and tell Him that
His evil is not good."

Those who are endowed with true nobility of soul
will be but little influenced by fear. But if you
can bring to bear upon them motives of admira-
tion, of gratitude, of affection, you may do with
them almost what you will. Hence a belief in
the Fatherhood of God is the strongest and the
best stimulus to right-doing.

The words of our text involve almost the
whole of practical religion. It is impossible to
overrate the value of the work which succeeds in
instilling them into young minds and hearts, not
as a dead intellectual dogma, but as an active
principle, permeating the whole of life. In the
heyday of youth and health and pleasure, men
may feel self-sufficient ; they may not recognise
their need of the Infinite Father. But they will
not always be young and well and happy, and
what then? What then? As Burns truly says

" When ranting round in pleasure's ring,

Eeligion may be blinded ;
Or if she gie a random sting,
It may be little minded.

But when on life we're tempest-driven,

And conscience but a canker,
A correspondence fixed with heavea

Is sure a noble anchor."

304 The Divine Fatherhood.

There will come to many of the children now in
our homes and schools, seasons of affliction, when
they will be wellnigh crushed beneath the bur-
den of life, when its dull monotony or poignant
anguish will make them yearn for the rest and
peace of death. There will come to most of the
children of the rising generation, seasons of fierce
mental conflict and -dense spiritual darkness,
when they will feel painfully conscious of the
mystery of existence, and painfully unconscious
.of any satisfactory solution for the mystery.
Faith for them, believe me, will be no easy
matter. Scarcely a week will pass but they
will read in some newspaper or review ingenious
and powerful attacks, not only upon Christian-
ity, but even upon theism. They will not be
able, like so many of their predecessors, to
believe that they believe everything which has
been handed down to them upon authority. In
the agony of scepticism many of them may be
driven for the moment to think, with Schopen-
hauer, that the universe is an egregious blunder,
that life is a horrid mockery, that there is no-
thing desirable but annihilation. "We tremble
as we picture to ourselves the voyage of these
little ones over life's wild waste of waters.
Yet we need not despair. We too perhaps have

The Divine Fatherhood. 305

been overtaken by the same terrible tempest, and
enveloped in the same blackness of darkness.
Through the storm, however, there have come
echoes, faint but passing sweet, of the music of
our childhood. There have thrilled through us
memories of the time when we were first taught
to say, " Our Father." And we have taken cour-
age; hoping even against: hope, that after all
there may be a meaning and a use in our calam-
ity, that the tempest may be but wafting us more
swiftly to a desirable haven, that the darkness
may be but the prelude of dawn. We have been
enabled to say with poor broken-hearted Job,
" Behold, I go forward, but He is not there : and
backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the
left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot be-
hold Him : He hideth Himself on the right hand,
that I cannot see Him. But He knoweth the way
that I take : when He hath tried me, I shall come
forth as gold"

One of the most difficult problems in the
present day, is this, what are we to teach our
children? We cannot teach them all the com-
plicated and unsatisfactory theology of the past.
What are we to put in its place ? Well, if you
can honestly and earnestly teach them the first
two words of the Lord's Prayer it is quite

306 The Divine Fatherhood.

enough. Teach them to believe that they have
a Father in heaven, and they will have all the
theology they need. Teach them to feel it, and
they will have all the religion that even Christ
could desire for them. If you teach them this,
their future can never be altogether wretched.
If you do not teach them this, their future can
never be for any length of time even tolerably
sweet.

307

Eternal Life.
(EASTEE-DAY SERMON.)

" To Mm that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life."
REVELATION ii. 7.

"CHOW me," says Fichte, "what thou truly
^ lovest, show me what thou seekest and
strivest for with thy whole heart, and thou hast
thereby shown me thy life. This love is the root
and central part of thy being. What thou lovest
is that thou livest."

There goes a man shabbily dressed, looking
very anxious and careworn. He is hurrying on

at a great pace, but suppose we stop him and say,
" Sir, what is life ? " " What is life ? " he replies ;
"' why, life is money. I toil and scheme for it day
and night. I am worth a good deal already. I
may one day be a millionaire. That is my fondest

308 Eternal Life.

hope. Then I may truly say I have lived."
With this short but pregnant reply he hastens
on his way.

He has no sooner gone than we meet a young
man, faultlessly attired, with a remarkably hand-
some, and still more remarkably vacant, counte-
nance, lounging slowly along, looking unutterably
bored. Let us ask him the same question.
"Life," he replies, "is pleasure. Man's chief
end is to enjoy himself. Philosophers, poets,
statesmen, philanthropists, scientists, all earnest
thinkers and workers, I look upon either as
drudges to be pitied or as fools to be despised.
I go in for enjoyment. I have broken my
mother's heart ; I have sent my father in sorrow
to the grave; I have ruined scores who were
fools enough to trust in me. I wish there were
more pleasure than there is to be thus obtained.
It is much less than it ought to be. Still it is
the only thing worth living for. To continue in
this course as long as possible is, I believe, to
make the best use of my existence." With these
remarks he leaves us and saunters on.

We next encounter a placid - looking couple,
man and wife. There is nothing at all note-
worthy in their appearance. They would seem
to be moderately well to do, and in all other

Eternal Life. 309

respects very much like a great many other
couples. To our question, " What is life ? " the
gentleman replies, " Why, the proper way to live
is to take things easy. It is not worth while to
aim at being very rich this would require too
much exertion. It is not worth while to seek
after enjoyment. It is better to be contented
with what the gods send. Look at me. I make
a pretty good income without any trouble. I
never do what I dislike doing, with the exception
of going to church on Sunday morning ; and that
is an unavoidable annoyance

' At church on Sunday to attend
"Will serve to keep the world your friend.'

Of course I never think thinking is troublesome,
and does not pay. My actions and opinions are
all that can be desired, for they are just like
those of my neighbours. My outward conduct
is always irreproachable ; my opinions are al-
ways orthodox." Here the lady chimes in and
says, " Yes, and we hate enthusiasm ; enthusiasm
is so vulgar. It disturbs the delicious calmness
of a well-regulated existence. We live in a
delightful, half-conscious dream."

We allow these good people to pass on, and to
relapse into their usual state of semi-conscious-

3 1 o Eternal Life.

ness. Then we espy a man with a well-shaped
head, and a quick, eager, penetrating glance. We
put to him our old question; we tell him the
answers we have already received; and we ask
him if he agrees with any of them. "No," he
replies ; "ten thousand times no. Money is
mere dross. Pleasure is but vanity. An easy-
going, indolent, useless life is an existence worthy
only of a vegetable. Life is fame. Ambition is
my goal. For this I strive with all the energy of
my nature. I am willing to ' sacrifice everything
for fame. To be acknowledged as one of the
ablest men of my age, and at last to be received
into Westminster Abbey that would be life."

Now these persons, whom we have thus been
fortunate enough to meet one after another,
though somewhat extreme, are still typical ex-
amples of very large classes of men and women.
But if we criticise these ideals of life even from
a temporal standpoint, if we regard them for a
moment without any reference to a future state
of existence, their unsatisfactoriness must be very
evident. It will be clear enough to us, at any
rate, if these ideals are not our own. It is always
easy to see that others are in the wrong.

First of all, as to the money ideal. Though
money may be very productive of good, the love

Eternal Life. 311

of it is the root of all evil. As Dickens has
very well said, and illustrated in the character
of Ralph Mckleby, "Gold conjures up a mist
about a man, more destructive of all his senses
and dulling to his feelings than the fumes of
charcoal." And, even if it be not loved for its
own sake, its power is often exaggerated. It is but
little after all, comparatively speaking, that money
can accomplish. It may buy for us dozens of
houses, but it cannot make one of them a home.
It may purchase for us hundreds of acquaint-
ances, .but it cannot give us a single friend. So
that to spend one's days in struggling only or
chiefly for money is, surely, to mistake the husk
of life for the kernel.

With regard to the second case, even if it
could be proved, which it cannot, that pleasure
was the only thing worth living for, still a reck-
less indulgence in it would be the supremest
madness. Such indulgence necessarily outwits
itself. It is inevitably followed by a weary
sense of satiety and disgust that no amount of
enjoyment can ever afterwards dispel. Esti-
mated from their own point of view, the lives of
such men are failures. These men of pleasure
are pre-eminently men of pain

3 1 2 Eternal Life.

; "Who, by their own desire accomplished, bring

Their own grey hairs in sorrow to the grave."

It is scarcely necessary to say anything about
the third case. To go through life taking every-
thing just as it comes, avoiding as far as possible
all thought, all effort, all excitement, all enthusi-
asm, all individuality, this, as our friend the
ambitious man told us just now, is an ideal
worthy only of a vegetable. It may be life for
a cabbage; but for a man it is death.

And with regard to ambition itself, what shall
we say ? It is a good thing in its way, a very
good thing. It has been called the last infirmity
of noble minds. But it is not always an infir-
mity; it is oftener an inspiration. Without it
human excellence would be much rarer than it
is. JFame however, as all who have enjoyed it
testify, is never a sufficient recompense for the
trouble expended in acquiring it. It is a useful
motive, but a very poor reward.

"Ambition's temple never yet

Let in a well-contented guest ;
Some spoil unwon, some deed undone,
MAES the sweet accents ( rest is won.' "

There is another ideal of life which is very
commonly adopted just now, and that is the
ideal of culture ; culture not in the sense of all-

Eternal Life. 313

round, complete development, but in the con-
tracted sense of merely intellectual and aesthetic
education. In the last eloquent chapter of his
' Studies in the Renaissance,' Pater says : " Every
moment some form grows perfect in hand or
face ; some tone on the hills or sea is choicer
than the rest; some mood or passion of intel-
lectual excitement is irresistibly attractive for us,
and for that moment only. A counted number
of pulses is given to us of a variegated life. We
are all condemned to die. We have an interval,
and then our place knows us no more. Our one
chance is in getting into this interval as many
pulsations as possible. Some spend it in listless-
ness, some in high passions, the wisest in art and
song." But art and song, good though they be,
do not satisfy the whole of our nature. We are
something more than sensuous and aesthetic
beings, and that something more is the crown
and completion of our personality. The man
with half his body paralysed is but half alive,
and we are in a similar predicament if we
destroy or ignore our spiritual nature. Nay, in
a worse ; for we are neglecting that part of our
being which is of paramount importance. Sir !
you may obtain all that can be got for money,
you may secure all the pleasures of sense and

3 14 Eternal Life.

of intellect, you may surround yourself with
the most refined productions of art, you may
extract all possible sweetness from, friendship
and from love, you may "be the idol of society
and the admiration of the world, but if there
is nothing more in your existence, it is incom-
plete and imperfect, unworthy of being called
life.

Mark me i I do not underrate the world's
ordinary pleasures and pursuits. I only say that
they are not everything. I do not say that all
your thoughts and attention should be exclusively
devoted to your character ; that would be an im-
possibility. There are few worse men in the
world than the lying hypocrites who profess to
care for nothing but what they call their souls.
You have a complex nature, and you must live a
complex life. But I do say that the spiritual
element of your being is the highest, and that
the acquisition of a noble character should be
your chief concern. For character can never
perish.

This earth of ours, which seems the very em-
blem of permanence, is doomed to come to an^
end. The wonderful power of renewing her
youth, which Nature now possesses, she will not
retain for ever. The sweet beautv that is com-

Eternal Life. 3 1 5

ing back again to her face in this genial spring-
tide will some day depart never to return.
Science teaches us most certainly that our earth
cannot always remain what and where it is.
There will come a time when

" Like the baseless fabric of a vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve ;
And, like an insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."

We cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought
of this universal dissolution. There are within
us immortal longings. In the presence of this
yearning for eternal life, which possibly on this
Easter-day, by the power of association, is more
than usually strong, in the presence of this
yearning for immortality, how paltry seems our
little span of threescore years and ten ! "We
feel constrained mournfully to exclaim, "What
is our life ? It is even a vapour, that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away." "As
for man, his days are as grass : as a flower of the
field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth
over it and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall
know it no more." We cannot but feel that if
death is to be the end of us, life is -not worth

316 Etern&l Life.

the trouble of living. To many a man it
brings a decided preponderance of suffering.
Manifestly, if death ends all, it would have
been better for that man if he had not been
born, better for him if he had been left in the*
rest of non-existence. And the thought of death
will be even more grievous to us if our lives have
been prosperous and happy. Oh the pity of it !
if, just after we have tasted the joy of being, we
must cease to be.

Twelve centuries and a half ago there was
a discussion in the Court of Edwin, King of
Northumbria, as to whether Christianity was a
religion worthy of being adopted. An old Earl
spoke as follows in its defence. "The life of
man reminds me," he said, " of a sparrow which
in the winter time flies through a well -lighted
and well -heated hall. It enters by one door,
and rapidly passes out by another. It has a brief
escape from the chilling storms of rain and snow
without. It enjoys a momentary calm and shel-
ter. But again it goes forth to another winter,
and vanishes from our sight. So also seems the
short life of man. Of what went before it, and
what is to follow it, we know not. If this new
doctrine, brings us something more certain, it is
in my mind worthy of adoption." The old Earl

Eternal Life. 317

was right. It is one of the crowning glories of
the Gospel, that it has brought life and immor-
tality to light. We find in the New Testament
that the doubt and despair, so often noticeable in
the Old, have given place to a hopeful moral
certainty. Job had asked anxiously and timidly,
" If a man die, shall he live again ? " The Psalm-
ist had inquired, still more sceptically, "Wilt
Thou show wonders to the dead? . . . Shall
Thy loving -kindness be declared in the grave?
. . . Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark ;
and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetful-
ness?" 1 But St Paul declared without hesita-
tion, " God will render to every man according
to his deeds: to them who, by patient continuance
in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and
immortality, eternal life."

Yes ; the wages of virtue is not to be dust.
It could not be, except in a universe that
was fundamentally irrational and immoral. As
Tennyson finely says

" My own dim life should teach me this,
That life shall live for evermore,
Else earth is darkness at the core,
And dust and ashes all that is."

1 On the Jewish disbelief in immortality, see also my 'Defects
of Modern Christianity,' pp. 99 and 104; and 'Agnosticism,'
pp. 297-302.

318 Eternal Life.

Without immortality our present life is a ghastly
mockery. The " still sad music of humanity " is
but an unceasing wail attending an infinite series
of abortions, hopes born only to be blighted,
yearnings roused only to be crushed, beings
created only to be destroyed. It is the future
alone that redeems the present from contempt.
When regarded as an opportunity for the develop-
ment of " the power of an endless life " that is
latent within us, when viewed in the light of
eternity, our life on earth acquires infinite sig-
nificance and value. It is no longer paltry. It
is sublime.

But let us remember that eternal life life in
the highest and fullest sense of the word comes
only to those who seek it " by patient continuance
in well-doing." It must be won by effort, conflict,
suffering. There must be a struggle for existence
in eternity as in time. Just as we only exist
physically by resisting the adverse forces in sur-
rounding nature, so we can only exist spiritually
if we conquer our ghostly enemies. Each of us
has daily and hourly to choose, to choose be-
tween right and wrong, between gratification and
duty, between pleasing ourselves to the injury of
others, and benefiting others at the cost of self-

Eternal Life. 319

denial. To choose in the one way is easy, and
at the time agreeable; but it means defeat and
death. To choose in the other way is difficult,
and at the time painful; but it means victory
and life. To him that overcometh, and to him
alone,, is it granted to eat of the tree of life.

320

The Progress of Christianity.

"I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
JOHN xii. 32.

TS there any proof that this prediction is likely
*- to be fulfilled? Was not Christ too san-
guine? Is not His influence already on the
wane ? Ten years ago a gifted poet sang a paean
on the supposed decay of Christianity, and he
ventured to speak of the Cross of Calvary in the
following terms :

" It creaks and rocks to left and right,

Consumed of rottenness and rust,
Worm-eaten of the worms of night,

Dead as their spirits who put trust,
Round its hase muttering as they sit,
In the time-cankered name of it."

Moreover, several of the leaders of thought in
Europe have of late been asking the question,
Are we still Christians ? and answering this
question in the negative. Let us look into the
matter a little, and see how it actually stands.

The Progress of Christianity. 321

In the first place, I would remark that those
who honestly disbelieve in Christianity are igno-
rant of the actual nature of that religion. They
have either mistaken its accidents for its essence,
or they have accepted for a portrait what is only
a caricature. Like Strauss, perhaps, they imagine
that it is opposed to industry and commerce;
or, like Swinburne, that it is synonymous with
priestcraft; or, like James Mill, that it is but
another name for Calvinism. The Saviour has
been injured far more by unconscious misrepre-
sentations than by any openly avowed . hostility.
He Himself foretold that there would arise false
teachers, and that they would deceive many.
His prophecy has been strangely; sadly fulfilled.
All kinds of absurdities and blasphemies have
been shouted forth by persons suffering under
the mad delusion that they were preaching the
gospel. 1 There have been men calling themselves
Christians, who have said that the sweetest
music of heaven would be the wailings of the
lost in hell. There have been men calling them-
selves Christians, who have maintained that God
created the vast majority of mankind for the
express purpose of consigning them to ever-

1 See also sermons on "The Gospel," and on "The Practical
Nature of Christianity " in my ' Preaching and Hearing.'

322 The Progress of Christianity.

lasting flames, in order that he might be, as
they strangely term it, glorified. There have
been men calling themselves Christians, whose
religion has consisted in breaking on the wheel
or burning at the stake those who differed in.
doctrine from themselves. There have been men
calling themselves Christians, who have asserted
that the grossest sins they might please to com-
mit, after what they dignified with the name
of conversion, would be matters of the most
perfect indifference. There have been men call-
ing themselves Christians, who were remarkable
for nothing save the conceited ignorance of the
bigot, the Satanic fury of the persecutor, the
childish puerilities of the formalist, or the sick-
ening cant of the hypocrite. Now so long as
any one believes that such men are the genuine
representatives of the teaching of Christ, he
cannot be censured for refusing to call himself
a Christian. You remember in Goethe's won-
derful drama, when Marguerite makes anxious
inquiries about Faust's theological opinions, he
tells her he cannot accept any of the religions
with which he is acquainted. She asks him
why. He answers, "Even from religiousness;"
meaning that these religions appeared to him,
rightly or wrongly, to violate what he believed

The Progress of Christianity. 323

to be eternally sacred moral principles. All
honour to the men who refuse to accept a blas-
phemous representation of the Deity! When
they come to know the real Christ, they will be
among His most zealous disciples. Already they

"Adore and worship when they know it not ;
Pious beyond the intention of their thought,
Devout beyond the meaning of their will."

"Whenever Christ has been understood, He has
been invariably admired, and more or less be-
lieved in, if not loved. In a former sermon I
mentioned the names of a number of illustrious
men who had all testified enthusiastic admira-
tion for Jesus of Nazareth ; and I gave you some
examples of the terms in which they had spoken
of Him. 1 Christ has been eulogised not only
by those who profess to be entirely consecrated
to His service, not only by the ignorant and
unlettered, who might possibly be the slaves of
an unreasoning fanaticism, but nearly all the
greatest minds of the last eighteen hundred
years, though holding the most divergent reli-
gious opinions, and differing in regard to almost
every other subject on which they wrote, have
been unanimous in their praise of Jesus. When-
ever men have caught a glimpse of the real

1 Pp. 46, 47.

324 The Progress of Christianity.

Christ, they have invariably felt drawn to Him
by an irresistible fascination. No one, except
through ignorance or misconception, has ever
formed any but the highest estimate of the
Saviour's character and work.

In the second place, I would remark that
Christ and His Gospel are inextricably bound up
with the future progress of the world. This has
been acknowledged over and over again by men
belonging to the strictest school of literary and
historical criticism. For example, in a paper
read some years ago before the Institute of
France, M. Troplong said, "Christian philosophy
lies at the root of our principles of right." M.
Eenan, too, has declared that " to tear the name
of Jesus from the world would be to shake it to
its very foundations." That this is no rhetorical
exaggeration, but mere sober fact, you may see
if you will call to mind the moral reformations
and the social improvements which can be indis-
putably traced to the teaching of the Nazarene.
The poet from whom I just now quoted speaks
as if Christ had accomplished nothing.

" The nineteenth wave of the ages rolls

Now deathward since His death and birth.
Has He fed full men's starved-out souls ?

Has he brought freedom upon earth ?
Or are there less oppressions done
On this wild world beneath the sun ? "

The Progress of Christianity. 325

Nothing but the most bitter prejudice could
lead an educated man to speak like this. The
world is resonant with voices that contradict him,
if he would but unstop his ears. Think first of
the wonderful influence Christ has exerted upon
individual lives. It is a fact, not less certain
than any in the physical sciences, that the story
of His self-sacrificing love has purified some of
the vilest hearts, and brought many of the most
abandoned of the devil's votaries to the very
feet of God. It is a fact, which no one can
even hesitate to admit, that He has inspired vast
numbers of His followers with such a passionate
devotion, that they have for His sake endured
the loss of all things, and have counted it all joy
that they were thought worthy to suffer shame
for Christ. It is a fact no less incontrovertible,
that a yet vaster company " a multitude which
no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues " though coming short
of entire self-surrender, have yet loved and served
Him to the best of their ability, faithfully though
fitfully; sometimes forsaking Him, yet always
returning to Him again. Moreover, as I have
said before, there are many who have caught
something of His own divine spirit of self-ab-
negation, and who know not, or scarcely know,
from whence it comes, Of all the best and

326 The Progress of Christianity.

noblest men now living, whether they profess
to be Christ's disciples or not, it may without
hesitation be affirmed that they are ready to deny
themselves for the welfare of others, and that> to
a greater or less extent, they have merged then-
own life and wellbeing in the life and wellbeing
of the race. From whom can they have learnt
this enthusiasm for humanity if not from the
crucified Nazarene?

Think once more how successful Christ has
been in changing men's opinions as to the right
and the good and the beautiful. In all these
matters He was opposed to the most brilliant
intellects of Greece, and in the conflict they have
been vanquished, He has been victorious. I can-
not now work this out in detail. I cannot dwell
upon the reformations He has effected in giving
liberty to slaves, in elevating the social position
of women, in getting men to believe in the manli-
ness of pity, the beauty of humility, the dignity
of labour, and the sanctity of marriage. These
are, after all, but necessary consequences or de-
ductions from His golden rule, by which rule He
completely revolutionised the whole of the world's
moral ideas. 1

1 How it was Christ succeeded in getting men to adopt the
golden rule, when Buddha and Confucius comparatively failed,

The Progress of Christianity. 327

Just contrast the commonplace morality of to-
day, I will not say with the ordinary notions that
were prevalent before the time of Christ, but
compare it with the teaching of the best and
wisest philosophers. Plato somewhere congratu-
lates the Athenians on having exhibited towards
the Persians a pure and heartfelt hatred. But
to-day any one would be considered a barbarian
if he were to utter a similar sentiment. Aristotle's
description of the ideal man the large-souled or
high-minded man, as he called him is one that
we cannot now read without a smile. He who
occupies himself solely with honour, walking with
a stately gait, speaking with an imperious voice,
despising the majority of his neighbours, but re-
ceiving a certain amount of dignified enjoyment
where the illustrious treat him with respect,
such a man Christ has taught us to regard, not as
great, but as pitifully, contemptibly small.

The fundamental moral principles of Jesus,
His golden rule, His new commandment, His
doctrine of the brotherhood of humanity, His
substitution of self-denial for self-aggrandisement
as the test of human excellence, these ideas have
been adopted by almost every thinker of repute.

I have elsewhere endeavoured to explain. 'Defects of Modern
Christianity, and other Sermons/ pp. 218-230.

328 The Progress of Christianity.

You will find them permeating the writings even
of the Positivists. John Stuart Mill, in his tract .
on Utilitarianism, says that when we have re-
ceived a proper moral education, the feeling of
unity with our fellow -men will "be as deeply
rooted -in our consciousness as the horror of par-
ticular crimes ; the good of others will be to us
a thing naturally and necessarily to be attended
to, like any of the physical conditions of exist-
ence; we shall be unable to conceive the possi-
bility of getting personal happiness by conduct
opposed to the general good ; and we shall never
think of, or desire, any beneficial condition for
ourselves in which others are not included. This
is, of course, neither more nor less than an ex-
position of the ethical doctrines of our Lord.

There are many signs that human conduct is
now being increasingly regulated according to
the law of Christ. There never was so much
philanthropy in the world: witness our ragged-
schools and asylums and reformatories, our Hos-
pital Sundays and Saturdays, our Oxford and
Cambridge Missions in Whitechapel and Bethnal
Green. There never was so much sympathy:
witness the increased tolerance for diversity of
opinion, the increased courtesy of controversial-
ists, the growing tendency to dwell upon the

The Progress of Christianity. 329

good side of men and systems, and to pass lightly
over the evil. Humanity really seems to be
making progress very slow, no doubt, but yet
steady progress towards that happy state,

" When each shall find his own in all men's good,
And all shall work in noble brotherhood."

Now in the marked increase of self-sacrifice,
and the growing recognition of its importance,
we may discover a striking proof of the increas-
ing influence of Jesus. We saw, when we were
discussing the connection between self-denial and
self-development, the immense importance which
Christ attached to self-denial; that He regarded
it as absolutely essential for the perfecting of the
individual and of the race, both for this life and
for the life which is to come. He made the
possession of a loving, self-sacrificing spirit the
test of genuine discipleship. Shortly before the
end He summed up His teaching in the words,
".A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another. . . .. By this shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one
to another." We noticed, too, that He insisted
strongly on the necessity of His disciples loving
Him, because He knew that they would find in
such a love a most powerful stimulus to unselfish-
ness. " If a man love me," said our Lord, " he

330 The Progress of Christianity.

will keep my words." In the growing appreci-
ation and practice of self-denial, then, we cannot
fail to see the gradual accomplishment of the
Saviour's purpose, the progressive fulfilment of
the prophecy of our text.

If there be any such thing as certainty, if there
be any meaning in the word fact, if there be any
credibility in experience, if there be any truth in
history, if there be any critical discernment in
the world's greatest thinkers, it is demonstrated,
beyond the possibility of doubt, that tho amelio-
ration effected in our race by Christ is already
incalculably great. From the Cross of the
despised Nazarene a flood of glory has radiated
over the ages, and it is illumining our own with
undiminished, nay, with ever -increasing bright-
ness. Christ has inspired much of what is
sweetest and noblest in music and painting and
literature. Christ has "given us all that is most
beautiful in our social intercourse, in our friend-
ships, in our homes. Christ has shed a light upon
the mystery of existence, making us to see the
infinite possibilities of our nature, and transform-
ing the despair of humanity into hope. Wherever
we find progress in love and right and freedom
and toleration and peace and hope, there we can
trace the influence of Christ. And, since it is

The Progress of Christianity. 331

more and more generally acknowledged that the
progress still to be desired can only be effected
upon Christian principles ; since, further, the
number of those who act upon these principles is
continually on the increase, we are compelled to
admit that the crucified Jesus has been, is being,
and will yet be, the Saviour of the world.

Christ ! we feel drawn to Thee to-day. Thou
hast revealed to us the value of our manhood.
Thou hast taught us the beauty of holiness, the
grandeur of self-sacrifice, the divinity of Love.
Our lives have been illumined by the brightness
of Thy glory. Thine agony has ennobled us.
"With Thy stripes we have been healed. We
thank, we praise, we love Thee.

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BI.ACKWOOD JJfD SONS.

WORKS BY REV. A. W. MOMERIE, LL.D.

PERSONALITY}

THE BEGINNING AND END OF METAPHYSICS,

AND A NECESSARY ASSUMPTION IN ALL POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY.
Fourth Edition, revised. Crown 8vo, 3s.

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II.
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AND OTHER SERMONS.
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AND OTHER SERMONS.
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which he has already produced Whatever views readers may detect as

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second part of the volume, nine lectures on the Book of Job; and we have
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reading The volume deserves to be widely read ; and whether readers

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THE BASIS OF RELIGION;

BEING AN EXAMINATION OF 'NATURAL RELIGION.'
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AGNOSTICISM,

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BELIEF IN GOD,

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