Some thoughts from the ordinal

Thoughts

Ordinal

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SOME THOUGHTS

THE ORDINAL

DEC 13 1954

SOME THOUGHT§^G/WLS^

THE ORDINAL

BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, D.D., D.C.L.

Honfcon anb <&ambntrge:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1884

[The Right of Translation is reserved.']

Cambridge :

NTKD BV C. J. CLAY, M A. * SOW,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRES<V

PREFACE.

The substance of these addresses was given to
the Candidates for Ordination at Addington
last Christmas, and the addresses are printed
by their request. They may, I hope, be of
some use to those who are encouraged by
them to study the characteristic teachings of
our Ordinal more carefully than perhaps is
commonly done.

The addresses make no claim to complete-
ness either in subject or in treatment ; but
I have endeavoured to keep faithfully to the
lessons of our own Office in touching on the
topics which have been chosen for considera-
tion. In these services, as elsewhere, the patient
student will often find more than he expects ;

PREFACE.

and I do not think that anything is more likely
to deepen the spirit of self-sacrificing and sober
devotion, of vigorous and sustained study, of
unwearied and effective ministrations among
us, than habitual and systematic meditation on
the promises which we made and received, on
the charges which were addressed to us, on
the charges with which we were entrusted, at
the most solemn moments of our lives. We
can see in those unchanging words the fulness
and meaning of life, the fulness and meaning
of the Gospel of the grace of God which
we have to bring home to men. Where they
condemn us they offer us still the hope and
the power of truer service.

B. F. W.

Ilam, Dovedai.e,
Jan. 26t/i, 1884.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Outline , x

The Call g

The Rule tj

The Work 25

The Witness 33

The Spirit 4i

The End 4p

The Strength 57

Growth 65

£N 17ANTI TH npULtYX^ KAI T^ A6HL6I TA AITHMATA

Ymcon rN(opi2£cBoi npdc TON Oco'n.

Gedc ecnN 6 eNepru>N en y^in km to 6eAeiN
km to eNepreiN Y^ep thc cyAokiac.

Phil. iv. 6; it. 13.

THE OUTLINE.

TAYTHN THN TTApAlTeAlAN TTApATlGeMAl' COI, T6KN0N

Tiiwoeee, kata tac npoAroy'cAc erri ce npoc()HTeiAc,

FnA CTpATeyH €N ALTAIC THN KAAHN CTpATeiAN, i){(X>H
niCTIN KAI AfAGHN cyneiAhcin.

i Tim. i. 1 8.

TAYTA M6A6TA, 6N TOYTOIC ICQl, INA coy h npoKoriH
4)ANepA H TTACIN.

i Tim. iv. 1 5.

It is my wish to offer in these short addresses
some suggestions for the guidance of our thoughts
on the subject which fills our minds now, the
confessions and exhortations and promises of
the Ordination Service, our promises and the
promises of God, which it includes. It may
be that we shall be enabled in this way to give
more directness to our self-questionings and to
our prayers, to apprehend a little more clearly
what we mean and what we need in offering
ourselves for Christ's Ministry ; to gain definite
points round which the lessons of the Divine
Spirit may be gathered ; so that in after time we
may be better able to recal the resolves and
aspirations and assurances which are given to us
at this time for our abiding encouragement.

And before going into any detail let me
endeavour to mark the line of reflection which
I desire to follow. Our Ordinal then, as it seems
to me, so far as we consider it now, sets before

I — 2

4

THE OUTLINE.

us in words whose meaning grows with our growth,
our Call, our Rule, our Work, our Witness, our
Spirit, our End, our Strength. We shall

therefore touch upon these points severally, but
first let us bring the whole picture before our
eyes that we may see in a general view what it
is to which God calls us, what it is which He
requires of us, what it is which He gives us.

Let us, I say, think what it is to which GOD
calls us. Yes : what it is to which God calls us:
He and no other. This is the first thing which
we must consider, our Call. We trust and

think that we hear within us and without us a
divine voice. The Holy Spirit, so we trust,
moves us to take that which God has placed
within our reach. We think in our hearts,

and by careful recollection we shall strive to give
vividness to the thought, that the whole order of
things which has led to this issue is according to
the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we

stand in this act of self-surrender, in this act of
choice, in direct personal relation with God, our
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctificr.

GOD calls us : and He gives us our Rule.
We accept as the central subject of our study,
as the supreme standard of our teaching, all the

THE OUTLINE. 5

Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Tes-
tament. These we undertake to read di-
ligently ourselves and to read diligently to o-
thers. We require nothing as of necessity to
eternal salvation but what they sufficiently con-
tain. We exclude no variety in the apprehension
of infinite Truth which they hallow. And
let us reflect at once what this means. We
make our own, God helping us, the manifold
experience of the long ages in which He trained
the world for the Coming of His Son, and the
many points in which He enabled the apostles
to interpret the Work and the Person of the In-
carnate Word. We welcome all : we use
that which God gives us the power of using.

We acknowledge our Call and our Rule.
We have next to consider our Work. This we
are taught to consider as an office and as a
ministration : as endowed with powers and privi-
leges, as charged with grave duties. At
present we regard it chiefly in the light of a
ministration. In this aspect it is set before us
as triply threefold. It is of the body, and

of the soul and of the spirit. It is of outward
help, to seek poor and impotent people : of
thoughtful study and teaching for young and

6

THE OUTLINE.

old, public and private, as well to the whole as
to the sick: of prayer and praise and ministra-
tion of the Sacraments. It is directed to
ourselves, that we may be better furnished for
our office : to men that they may be built up in
the faith : to God, that His glory may be spread.

Our Witness — the witness which we give —
answers to our Work. We must regard it both in
respect of that which we should avoid and in re-
spect of that which we should seek. We
are seen and marked of others. Our faults
become their excuses. Our endeavour to frame
and fashion our lives according to the doctrine
of Christ is an evidence of the Truth beyond
words. And in all self-humiliation let us re-
member this. We cannot at our will
limit our influence and the influence of those
whom we help to mould. We shrink instinc-
tively from the thought that we are to be
examples to Christ's flock. Yet for good or for
evil this is what we must be. Men look
to us for the testimony of life ; and this testi-
mony— most overwhelming confession — we pro-
mise to give, the Lord being our helper.

This being so, we welcome what is set
before us as our true Spirit. We are servants,

THE OUTLINE.

7

servants of God and of man, charged to do the
will of Him that sent us. We know the terms of
our service, and we bind ourselves to fulfil them
with a glad mind and will. This gladness

will, I think, be real if we strive to reckon up
what we receive from our fellowship with others.
For if our powers soon fail us in this effort, we
shall measure less grudgingly what we have to
surrender in turn of our own fancies or judg-
ments or convictions. Reverent obedi-
ence is a spring of strength which we cannot
leave unused without grievous loss. If we can
give up what is dear to us, submitting ourselves
to the godly admonitions of those set over us,
and perhaps so only, we shall receive the fulness
of that very blessing which we have feared to
lose.

That blessing lies in realising our End, which
is simply this, to serve GOD for the promoting of
His glory and the edifying of His people. To
serve Him just as He wills and not as we think
best, following the path which He opens before
us, listening to His word interpreted in our
hearts, drawing all our cares and studies this
way, that we may offer every gift with which He
has enriched us as a better sacrifice to His praise.

8

THE OUTLINE.

Of ourselves we cannot do this : but that we
have a mind thereto is a sign of God's working
in us ; and our Strength is that we continually
pray to God the Father by the mediation of our
only Saviour Jesus Christ, for the heavenly
assistance of the Holy Spirit which He hath
promised to those who love Him : the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel
and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the
fear of the Lord : even as the One and the self-
same Spirit worketh, dividing to every man
severally as He will.

Brethren, as this sevenfold order rises before
us, our Call, our Rule, our Work, our Witness,
our Spirit, our End, our Strength, thoughts must
crowd upon us which turn to prayers. So let
the prayers find silent expression in a brief
space before we go on to consider our Call a
little more fully.

I.

THE CALL.

AKoAcfGei moi.

St John i. 43.

ttictoc d k&Aoon.

1 Thess. v. 23.

Psalm cxxiL
St Luke ix. 57—62.

CANDIDATES for the Diaconate express their
trust that they are 'inwardly moved by the
Holy Ghost to take upon them' that office, and
their conviction that they are 'truly called
according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the due order of this realm/

Whether it be in looking forward to the
office with thoughtful preparation, or in looking
back upon the hour when it was given to us,
you and I, brethren, make this trust, this convic-
tion our own to-day.

We are inclined perhaps to think that when
the Lord called His immediate disciples, when,
for example, He found Philip and first said
those decisive words Follow me, the call was far
more direct and more easy to obey, more autho-
ritative and more assuring, than any which we
can receive. I do not stop now to enter

into the comparison which is thus suggested. I
do not indeed admit the conclusion ; but it will

12

THE CALL.

be enough for our encouragement if I offer some
points for meditation whereby we may know
with a sense of practical power that Christ has
indeed found us and called us.

And I will ask you to observe that in these
answers which our Ordinal requires us to make,
we recognise an outward call and an inward
call. Christ finds us and calls us through

the circumstances of our life, which represent for
each one of us the expression of the Divine
Will. Christ finds us and calls us, touch-

ing our souls with desires and encouragements
which are not of the earth.

We recognise an outward call. The fact is of
deep importance and yet it is often disregarded.
We may, I mean, when we look without find
occasions for personal thanksgiving which we do
not commonly realise; and to find an occa-
sion for thanksgiving is to find fresh confi-
dence. There is indeed a depth of
thought in that phrase ' the due order of the
realm' which we shall do well to consider. It
brings the whole fabric of society into imme-
diate relation with the will of GOD. As we
ponder the words we see how it is that He
speaks to us through the institutions, the

THE CALL.

IS

opportunities, the trials, the gifts, the discipline,
of civil life. He speaks to us through these, and
as soon as we feel that it is so, the past becomes
a school for gratitude, and therefore a school of
strength.

There are both general and special circum-
stances in which we may each severally give
distinctness to this outward call and acknow-
ledge the good hand of God upon us. Let
us ask ourselves, for example, how far the
special bent of character which we have received,
as Englishmen or as members of a particular
School or College or University, has tended to
define or deepen our desire to serve God in the
ministry of His Church ? how far the great
questions of the time, the problems of society
or the problems of thought, have made our hearts
long to bring to bear upon them the message of
the Word ?

Or again let us recal the peculiar experiences
of our individual lives, the manifold influences of
home and school : of studies and friendships :
of what we call chance meetings and casual
words : and trace in the long retrospect how
they have contributed to shape and settle our
resolve. Here also it will not be difficult

14 THE CALL.

for us to acknowledge now when we look upon
the fulfilment of our life's purpose, signs of
a divine guidance, and, seeing them, to gain
strength by acknowledging their meaning.

There is need for us, far more need than we
allow, to recognise with devout thankfulness
this outward calling through the facts of life.
But the inward calling first interprets and quick-
ens it. Such an inward calling also we
think that we have received. We first take it
to ourselves in faith, and as it is welcomed it
grows clearer and more decisive. It
comes to us in many ways, awakening the
answer of service, of sacrifice, of love, revealing
the urgency of an overwhelming work and
receiving the offer of complete devotion.

For instance it may be that at times in look-
ing forward to the ministry of Christ we have
felt doubts, discouragements, disappointments :
we have taken a sad measure of our faith, of
our resources, of our achievements : and just
then God has allowed us to feel with a sense
of personal consolation that His strength is
perfected in weakness. That is His voice
calling us.

Or again : we may have known the joy of

THE CALL.

15

something borne or done for Christ's sake ; we
may have felt how the fulness of life comes
through what seemed to be loss, and through
that we may have been led to understand a little
better than before what is the secret power of
His service, what are its victories and rewards ;
and we may have taken heart for fresh effort.
That again is the voice of God calling us.

Yes : I repeat these swift revelations in the
soul of the nature and power of the Divine
service are voices of God. If we think that they
need an interpreter, let us remember that it was
so too with that command to Philip of which we
spoke before. He could not feel at first all that
it meant or even what it meant. He had not
learnt Christ's all-sufficiency long after when he
asked, W licit are tliese among so many? He had
not learnt Christ's nature on the eve of the
Passion, when he said, Lord shew us the Father
and it snfficeth us. But he had heard the voice,
and he followed still.

Even so, brethren, let us cling to the con-
viction which we have gained and which brings
us together here: let us cherish the trust which
we have known : let us summon now before us
in thanksgiving the many leadings by which

i6

THE CALL.

God has been pleased to bring us to our present
choice; the many silent whisperings by which
He has made us feel His will : the many signs
by which we know that He has found us. Face
to face with Him in the Person of Jesus Christ
let us confess His constraining call and in
absolute faith let us follow as He guides.
Where I am, He said Himself, there shall also
my servant be.

He called us and He calls us still, and
He will call us to the end of our days : call
us in 'all the changes and chances of our
mortal life,' so that we may hear if we listen
in stillness : call us in the word read and in the
work done : call us in the great questions of
social life : call us in the experience of our own
souls.

Faithful is He that calleth. So may we trust
Him, ever ready to offer the prayer, as certain
of an answer : Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.

II.

THE RULE.

w. o.

2

OCA TTpOerpA<t>H, 6IC THN HMCTtpAN Al&ACKAAlAN
erpA(J)H.

Rom. xv. 4.

noAywepojc kai noAyTpdnooc ttaAai 6 Oedc AaAh-

CAC TOIC TTATpACIN 6N TOIC TTpO(}>HTAIC, tfl' 6C)(AT0Y
TOJN HMeptON TOyTtoN cAaAhCCN HMIN €N

Hep. i. i.

Psalm cxix.

2 Tim. iii. 14—17.

No one can study our Ordinal without being
struck by the place which it assigns to Holy
Scripture in the life of the Minister. Here, I
think, we find that which is specially charac-
teristic of our particular Commission: that in
which we may recognise our peculiar difference
whereby God in His Providence would have us
contribute to the fulness of the whole work of
His Church.

Let me ask you, brethren, to collect for your-
selves, to write out and to weigh, the promises
which we are called to make, the charges which
we receive in this respect. Let me ask

you to consider with what solemn emphasis the
Scriptures are set before us as the central object
of our personal study, the treasury of our public
teaching, the final standard of all necessary
doctrine.

These three points you will find clear beyond
controversy; and I do not wish to dwell upon
them now, for they will strike you more forcibly

20

THE RULE.

if you work out the facts for yourselves. I wish
rather therefore to invite you to join with me in
recognising some of the blessings which the loyal,
thankful, reverent, acceptance of our Rule brings
with it.

First then let us observe how our unfeigned
acceptance of ' all the Canonical Scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments' deepens and
strengthens our sympathy. Every human

expression of truth must more or less bear upon
it the impress of time and place. This is true
also of the several Books of the Bible. But then
with what a majestic sweep the ' Bibliothcca
Divina] which is one Book, embraces the great
sum of human experiences : how these records of
a spiritual life of more than two thousand years
include in many parts and in many fashions the
largest variety of circumstances, thoughts, duties,
brought within the Divine influence and conse-
crated to the Divine service : how we can each
find there something which corresponds with our
own nature and our own needs and yet so find
it that we must acknowledge that this is but a
fragment, one ray of a glory fitted to enlighten
the world.

This reflection at once suggests a second. If

THE RULE.

21

the frank, faithful, study of the breadth of Scrip-
ture quickens us with sympathy, it quickens
us with hope too. Without sympathy hope
is selfishness. And we are all tempted by the
limits of our individual powers, to narrow our
hope. But let us once look at the vast

range of the Bible : let us realise in the sacred
history of the discipline of the world the large-
ness of the mode of God's action : let us ponder
the manifestations of His love, of His patience,
of His long-suffering, sometimes even startling
to our eyes : let us trace, if with aching sight,
how He makes man minister to man, and race
to race, and generation to generation : let us
notice how He accepts in compassion varieties
of service according to the state and means of
those who render it : how He turns to a source of
blessing what appears to our eyes simple misery
and ruin: and a hope will rise upon us which we
often sorely want : a hope which will not cover
with a dull, colourless cloud of indifference the
religious positions of men, but on the contrary
make us feel, since we have received a priceless
heritage, what is perilled in our energy, what we
owe and what we can render to others who are
heirs with us of a common salvation.

22

THE RULE.

And there is yet a third thought which our
Rule offers to us. Our Rule is of life, through
life, for life. Every command, every les-

son, every motive, comes to us with the strength
of true human experience, and brings to us the
conviction of present spiritual fellowship with
men and God. The Bible teaches us by

shewing how God dealt with men one by one,
and how he dealt with nations. It lifts the
veil, so to speak, from His hidden movements;
and at the same time we hear the voice of in-
numerable witnesses telling of victories of
faith. In the Bible our Creed is trans-

lated into action ; or rather we see there in the
intercourse of God and Man, broken and restored,
the Truth which our Creed expresses. We carry
there the definitions of Councils and divines and
find that isolated intellectual propositions are
quickened into a moral force: that what appeared
to be abstract dogmas are revelations of God
whereby we maybe enabled to grow after His like-
ness. The Book itself forces us to go beyond
the Book to a Person. It constrains us to find
the only rest of the soul in Him Whom it reveals.

T u fecisti nos ad Te, Domine, et inqnietum est
cor nostrum donee rcqniescat in Te.

THE RULE.

23

As we think of these things, our souls must
be filled with joy and gratitude that we have
been called to serve God under such conditions;
that the object of our study, the source of our
teaching, the test of our opinions, is that which
must, if we keep open tlic eyes of our hearts, bring
us a wider sympathy, a fuller hope, a closer
fellowship with Saints and with God in Christ.

No criticism can rob the Scripture of this
power. We do not think that we have life in them
but in Him of Whom they witness. In each

act we catch some vision of the Divine Worker.
In each word wc listen for some accent of the
Divine Speaker. As He wrought in old times
He works still: as He spoke in old times He
speaks still. The Bible is not merely the

Charter of our Faith written in a language obso-
lete and only half-intelligible, but a message of the
Living God to struggling men. Through this —
through this illuminated by every ray of truth
which can be gathered from every source — He
shews Himself to us. We lose our highest pri-
vilege, we leave undone our proper work, unless
we fix our eyes upon the glorious image that we
may ourselves reflect it, and shew it to those
who are committed to our care.

24 THE RULE.

We fix our thoughts upon the records of the
past, and forthwith old tilings are passed away 1
behold they are become new. Through these the
Spirit sent in Christ 's Name takes of His and
shews it unto us.

III.

THE WORK.

ofTOi>c hmac Aonzeceoa ANGpoonoc obc YTTHpeTAC
XpicTof kai oikonomoyc MycTHpi'ooN Oeof.

i Cor. iv. i.

ynep XpicTof npecBeyoweN <i>c toy Oeof napA-

K&AofNTOC Al' HMOON.

2 Tim. iv. i— 6.

We have thought of our Call and of our
Rule : we have next to consider our Work. And
here I wish to confine myself to the human side
of the work as a personal ministration. It is in
this respect a work for God and for men : for
God through men, for men through God.

It is a work for God in two senses. It is for
Him, inasmuch as His glory is the one end
which we propose to ourselves. It is also for
Him, inasmuch as we plead in His name, on
His behalf.

The first of these thoughts will come before us
at a later time. The second we must endeavour
to take to ourselves now. We must endea-
vour to do so, for we naturally shrink from
it. What are we that we should claim

for ourselves such a dignity ; that we should be

2S

THE WORK.

ambassadors for Christ? What are wc?

Simply nothing, save so far as He is pleased to
use us. It is this commission, given to us in the
eyes of men, after Christ's ordinance, which
inspires us with courage. If our hearts

fail us, we call back the words: 'Take thou
authority to execute the office of a Deacon in
the Church of God....'

' Take thou authority to read the Gospel in
the Church of God and to preach the same....'

' Take thou authority to preach the Word of
God, and to minister the Holy Sacraments to
the Congregation....'

And yet again in correspondence with the
fulness of this authority we remember that there
is the gift which quickens it :

' Receive'— more closely ' Take,' — 'the Holy
Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the
Church of God....'

So the charge, the authority, is laid upon us.
So the endowment is conveyed. We come for-
ward therefore not because of our own merits, or
of our own qualifications, or of our own will, but
because we are sent, as though God were intreat-
ing by us. Just as we have in Baptism

the grace and seal of our Sonship, we have in

THE WORK.

29

Ordination the grace and seal of our ministerial
office. The thought of self passes away except
as self is that which we offer for God's use.

Conscious then of our debt, of our duty, of
our commission, of our right, which is of God,
as stewards of His mysteries, who have to bring
out things new and old, while we present in due
proportion the revelation of His love and truth,
we work for men : we work through ourselves
and for others. We work through our-

selves ; for though our unworthiness does not
hinder God's grace through the Sacraments, He
is pleased to accept and to use whatever
we have or are for the furtherance of His
will. We work for others ; since our aim

in every effort of self-culture is social and not
personal; and by this we 'fan into flame' the
gift which is in us, by the laying on of apostolic
hands.

We work, I repeat, through ourselves. We
offer ourselves at our best to God. And
indeed the Christian minister has the strongest
motive which man can have for cultivating
according to his opportunity every power
which he possesses, because he has the noblest
object. We more than any owe our

So

THE WORK.

uttermost to God, inasmuch as we have
offered ourselves to Him. Let us think well of
this. We are tempted to measure our-

selves by others, to acquiesce in an average
standard and an average attainment. We for-
get that while we are not required to judge
our neighbours, we are required to judge our-
selves. We alone can do this ; and in
full view of all that has been entrusted to us,
let us ask ourselves whether we strive at least,
God helping us, to put all — our one talent, it
may be — to good account. A traditional
saying very generally attributed to the Lord in
early times speaks to us a lesson of daily
application : ^ivecrOe Tpcnre&Tai BoKtfioi. We
must, that is, use our heritage and not guard it
only. Every faculty of body soul and spirit
is to be disciplined and strengthened for minis-
try, for thought, for devotion.

So we work through ourselves ; and we
work through ourselves for others. Our Ordinal
speaks of the Ministers of Christ as Messengers,
Watchmen, Stewards. As Messengers

we have a gospel to proclaim, always the same
and always new. As Watchmen we have foes
to keep off. As Stewards we have treasures to

THE WORK.

31

increase by wise forethought, and to dispense
with just counsel. And in doing this

threefold work we must not be satisfied with
that which first meets the eye. We must look
below the surface. Our business is to search for
such as need help : to seek Christ's sheep scat-
tered abroad. Let us reflect then what it means,
that He Himself came to seek and to save
that which was lost — to seek, not to save with-
out seeking.

Christ sought that which was His own ; and
this is our confidence, that they are His children
for whom we look and labour. They are His ;
and our part is to call out in them the sense of
their privilege. They are His : and in them we
serve Him.

Multum facit qui multiim diligit.

Bene facit qui comniunitati viagis quam sucb
voluntati servit.

Such ministry knows no limit and no relaxa-
tion. That others may ' wax riper and stronger'
through our service, we must wax riper and
stronger ourselves. And far beyond every suc-
cess which can crown our labours, is the issue
towards which we are bidden to strive when ' no
place shall be left among us, either for error in

32 THE WORK.

religion or viciousness in life' That is the aim
which is proposed to us : looking to it may
we cling to the Apostle's faith : 6 ivapgafievo?
[ev r/fiiv] epyov dyadbv i-TrtTeXecrei «'%/?£? rjnepas
'Itjgov ~Kpi<7T0V.

IV.

THE WITNESS.

w. o.

3

nepi ttanta ceayt6n nApe^MCNOC Ty'noN k&Ao>n
Tit. ii. 5.

Psalm xlviii.
1 Tim. iv. 10— 1G.

Under one aspect our Work is our Witness;
and under another aspect our Witness is our
Work. What we are seen to be is in many-
ways the measure of what we can do. We are,
we must be, regarded by men as tests and types
of our teaching. They will judge our words by
our acts. So far (I do not say as we fall

short, but) as we appear to acquiesce in falling
short of our precepts they will hold that we
speak for form's sake, and the suspicion of in-
sincerity will take away the influence which lies
in the single heart. We must evidently ' venture
our own souls' where we ask others to place
theirs. This is the thought which occupies us
now.

When the Lord said to the disciples gathered
round Him : Ye are the salt of the earth. . . Ye are
the light of the world...: He declared for ever
the position which His ambassadors must occupy.
No consciousness of weakness, of sin, of igno-

3—2

36

THE WITNESS.

ranee, of dulness, can change it. By His

call, by His charge, this is given to us, that we
should shew, that at least we should strive to
shew, before men, that the Gospel is a power to
preserve from corruption that which is in itself
hastening to decay, a power to enlighten the
whole area of life.

We are guided by our Ordinal to regard this
duty both negatively and positively. We are
solemnly cautioned against occasioning offence
to others : we are stirred again and again to
make our lives and the lives of our families
wholesome examples to the flock of Christ.

The shortest retrospect of a few days or
weeks will suggest to us points in which we have
lowered, points in which perhaps we habitually
lower, the opinion which others hold as to what
our Faith is fitted to do. We can recal,

for example, occasions in which we have been
impatient, inconsiderate, self-willed, self-assert-
ing. We have sharply resented some want of
good taste : we have made light of a scruple or
of a difficulty which weighed heavily on another :
we have yielded ungraciously a service which
may have been claimed inopportunely : we have
been exact in requiring conventional deference

THE WITNESS. 37

to our judgment : we have not checked the keen
word or the smile which might be interpreted to
assert a proud superiority.

In all this we may have been justifiable
according to common rules of conduct ; but we
have given offence. We have not, that is, shewn
when we might have shewn, that Christian sym-
pathy, devotion, fellowship, come down to little
things ; that the generosity of love looks tender-
ly if by any means it may find the soul which
has not revealed itself. Here also it is

true, true with an efficacy which we cannot
measure, that it is more blessed to give than
to receive ; that the recognition of duty is the
surest protection of rights.

We may give offence by our manner of deal-
ing with persons, and we may give offence by
our manner of dealing with opinions. We
can indeed never for one moment lower our
reverence for that which we hold to be truth, or
pay respect to that which we hold to be error ;
but we can patiently keep within the present
limits of our actual experience, hastening
neither to affirm nor to condemn, waiting till
a fuller knowledge shall enlighten our dark-
ness. We shall not indeed by such for-

3«

THE WITNESS.

bearance escape enmity and we shall not win
over our adversaries. This (most mysterious
of all mysteries of sin) the Lord Himself did
not do on earth. But we shall be seen to love
the Truth : and we shall not offend by seeming
to care only for victory or for favour.

We shall be seen, I say, to love the Truth
for which men were made. Yes : ' for which men
were made:' and here we come to our positive
duty. We are led to ask ourselves how far
we do ourselves in any way directly help those
about us to rise to a higher conception of
life. Have we, for example, an ideal

towards which we are striving ? Do we

confess, secretly at once and openly, the motive
by which we are impelled and the force in which
we trust ? Do we move about our work

as those who are mindful of a charge spiritual
and eternal ? Would strangers watching

us soon see that we believe that we have received
a power not of this world ?

There is a perilous facility of putting on the
outward signs of a consecrated life ; but what
we are looking for is not that which either in
essence or in appearance distinguishes Christian
ministers from others; but that in which they

THE WITNESS.

39

may, we must not shrink from saying it, offer
a pattern to others. We, who have the

office of ministers or who look for the office, owe
it to our neighbours that they should feel that,
as believers, we differ in virtue of our Faith
from those who have not the Faith. The light
shines because it is light.

We cannot dare to say with the Gospels
before us that a witness however wise and bold,
a life however pure and loving, will prevail at
once : but we can say that it kindles a flame
which will not be extinguished. The
witness of the martyr is the witness of the
believer. The witness of Christian life and the
witness of Christian death are one in their scope
and in their persuasiveness, the witness to the
powers of an unseen world about us and in us.

This witness we pledge ourselves to give 'the
Lord being our helper' even that we will be
'diligent to frame and fashion our own selves
and our families according to the doctrine of
Christ.' We recognise our duty towards

those over whom we have authority or in-
fluence. We strive towards the fulness
of a larger life. We seek, if it may be,
to make plain the presence of a Father's love

4Q

THE WITNESS.

binding us together in spite of our repulsions.
We appeal from man's self-will and man's self-
ishness to ' the soul naturally Christian.' We
pray for wisdom and courage that we may
give the testimony of Faith in deed and in
truth. We may see no immediate fruit,

but the very effort will bring to us a new con-
viction of the blessings which lie within our
grasp.

0 si adver teres quantam tibi pacem et ah is
Icetitiam faceres te ipsum bene habendo, puto quod
solicitior esses ad spiritualem profcctuin.

V.

THE SPIRIT.

TOyTO OpONeiTe 6N YM?N 6 KAI £N XpiCTO) 'iHCOf.

Phil. ii. 5.

Psalms cxxx. cxxxi.
1 Pet. v. 1— 11.

SOME traits in the character of the Christian
minister, as it is drawn for us in the Ordinal, are
so obvious that we need not dwell upon them :
his devotion, whereby he ' gives himself wholly'
to the work to which he has been called : his
singleness of purpose, whereby he ' draws all
his cares and studies ' to one end : his sense
of dependence whereby he is constrained to
' continually pray for the heavenly assistance
of the Holy Spirit.' We naturally take

for granted that this mind is in him, not indeed
in its full power, but in beginning and in
promise.

There are however two features in this por-
traiture which are perhaps less present to our
minds though they are even more character-
istic than devotion, single-heartedness, humility.
These are the spirit of reverence, and the spirit
of obedience. Perhaps we shall all feel if we
examine honestly our habitual methods of judg-

44

THE SPIRIT.

ment and action that we need both. We
are tempted — let me extend to you, brethren,
what I know of myself — by the current modes
of thought to refuse, in a sense different from
that of Christ, to call any man master. We
yield when the command at last approves it-
self to our minds or is pressed upon us by
irresistible force. The temper of the time

is equally indisposed to recognise authority and
to incur responsibility.

In saying this I do not wish to disparage the
blessings which have come to us and (as I
hope) will yet come through the working of a
courageous independence. I wish only

that we should consider with ourselves whether
we have not now to cultivate another mind:
whether we may not do well to cherish with
a more watchful solicitude the reverence which
honours a presence not more than dimly appre-
hended : the obedience which does not measure
its service by the power of distinct personal ap-
proval of the command. It is a trial, I believe,
second to none which we have to bear that
being what we are we cannot naturally see the
grandeur of life or the ' fearfulness and wonder-
fulness ' of men. The infinite details, the

THE SPIRIT.

45

infinite disguises, by which our attention is
diverted, make us for the most part incapable
of taking a fair estimate of the spiritual forces
and of the spiritual issues in the midst of which
we move. The Christian minister is placed

at once in a position to gain a truer view. 'The
Lord's poor,' the poor in material resources,
the poor in intellectual endowments, the poor,
I will add, in moral capacities and attainments,
are committed to his charge. For him men,
this man and this, are beings 'for whom Christ
shed His blood,' whom 'He has bought with
His death.' The Church is 'His Body.' Life,
our one life, is the occasion for doing His will.

Viewed under this aspect earthly differences
vanish. The meanest thing is seen to open
infinite depths of thought. The power of awe
is reawakened in us and with it a new avenue
is made into the spiritual world. Rever-
ence becomes necessary : reverence for the great
and reverence for the weak : reverence in each
case alike for Christ, present under those con-
ditions, Who allows Himself to be seen through
thickest veils. But each form of reverence

brings a separate reward. The reverence for the
great brings that trustful confidence which leads

46

THE SPIRIT.

to calm peace : the reverence for the weak
brings that tender considerateness which is pure
joy.

Reverence in feeling corresponds in part with
obedience in action. The foundation of rever-
ence is the conviction that beneath that which
we see there is something concealed or only
half-revealed to which we are bound to do
homage. Obedience springs out of the

same conviction. To obey is to bow to a power
which we acknowledge as having authority with-
out passing judgment upon its separate orders.
Obedience implies some sacrifice, some faith.
To do at another's bidding that which falls in
with our pleasure or with our judgment is not
to obey. He who obeys enters by faith

on the unseen : he recognises more than man in
the ordinance of society.

Every act of faith is difficult, and obedience
is no exception to the rule. But it is propor-
tionately fruitful. He who obeys has
gained fellowship with the authority which he
recognises. He has practically come to under-
stand the greatness of the body of which he is a
part. We cannot each of us arrange every-
thing, test everything. Our strength is to feel

THE SPIRIT.

47

that there is a life, a divine life, working in due
measure through every part, and to yield our-
selves gladly to its influence.

Such a reverent spirit of obedience more-
over seems to me to be the truest safeguard of
freedom. It challenges watchful care on the
part of those who have the responsibility of
rule. It must temper in every noble nature
the strictness of command. He who

obeys when he plainly yields his own opinion,
sets his opinion in the most favourable light.
It is not by claiming the fullest measure of our
rights but by respecting the least presumption
of duty that we win spiritual victories. The
burden of government must be hard to bear.
Do not we whose happier work is to obey often
make it heavier? But we still believe that
government represents a divine purpose; and
we desire that it should mould men after a
divine pattern. The belief, the desire

carry obligations with them. Let us then ask
whether we cannot on our part frame ourselves
better according to our promise to 'observe with
a ready will all spiritual discipline': whether,
without any dissembling of our convictions, we
cannot strive in thought and in deed to live as

4S

THE SPIRIT.

feeling more that there are powers to which we
are bound to render cheerful submission without
waiting for a personal conviction as to the
wisdom of every detail of requirement, and
without endeavouring to reduce to the utter-
most the force and the range of our obligation.

For whatever may be the case with other
men our duty is clearly marked out for us. The
spirit of reverence, and the spirit of obedience,
one spirit in two shapes, is the true spirit of the
Christian ministry. It is the spirit of the

vision of God : the spirit whereby we appre-
hend His Presence and His will everywhere
about us : the spirit which is able to bring hope
in the face of human misery and rest in the face
of human conflicts.

VI.
THE END.

ei" tic AaAcT, (Lc Aopa Oeof' er tic AiakongT, ojc
icxyoc hc xopHre? d Oedc* Tna cn ttacin AoSazhtai
Oedc Aia'Ihcoy XpicTof.

i Pet. iv. ix.

Psalm xcvi.

Apoc v. 8—14.

The first question which is addressed to Can-
didates for the diaconate defines the end of
ministerial work, even ' to serve God for the
promoting of His glory and the edifying of His
people.' For these two are indeed one. It
is only by promoting God's glory that we can
edify His people: it is only by edifying His
people that we can promote His glory.

The glory of God is the manifestation of His
perfection: of His wisdom, His righteousness,
His love. He who makes this perfection clearer
or better seen in himself or in others promotes
God's glory: and again he who does this at the
same time helps to transfigure those upon whom
the glory falls by opening a fuller prospect of
the divine beauty. We promote God's

glory not by adding to it, which is impossible,
but by acknowledging it, by displaying it, by
reflecting it.

4—2

52 THE END.

Gloria Dei, Irenasus said, vivens homo. So
Christ, the absolute revelation of the Father to
men is absolutely the glory of God ; and every
man who partially reflects Christ's likeness shews
the divine glory.

It is important to dwell on this truth for we
are naturally apt to think of God as of some
human king whose glory is swelled by the
homage, the presents, the triumph-songs of His
subjects, who bring of their own to him. So
it is that we are tempted to suppose that our
end can be gained by outward means. Yet it
may be that multiplied services, forms and the
like, really tend to hide God's glory from us, to
keep us from seeking it by occupying and satis-
fying our thoughts. In this respect we have
great need to prove ourselves.

In saying this I gladly acknowledge that
outward observances may help us, and help us
to help others. We cannot dispense with them.
They kindle imagination and feeling. But they
must be used as means by which we may reach
something beyond. The danger is lest we rest
in them: lest we fall into the fatal error of sup-
posing that when we are occupied with thoughts
of God, or in the external worship of God, we

THE END.

53

are necessarily promoting His glory. But
for the promotion of God's glory far more is
required than any outward act. To promote

God's glory is to lift the veil in some degree
from His creatures, from our own hearts and
eyes, and from the hearts and eyes of others: to
use every means which He has provided whereby
the world which he Has created and redeemed
may be made to appear in its true character: to
spare no pains that men may be led to strive
visibly after His likeness, and study nature reve-
rently as the thought of His goodness and
righteousness and wisdom brought within the
reach of our intelligence.

It has been finely said that 'wicked men
bury their souls in their bodies.' Something of
the same kind, I fear, happens also as to things
without us. Our want of sensibility, our dead-
ness, turns creation into the tomb of God's glory,
when it is truly the living shrine through which
His glory is brought near to us. Here again we
must try ourselves. Let this divine pre-

sence be revealed to us, and the dreary wilder-
ness will be changed into a garden of the Lord.
We too shall say of that which seemed most
barren and desolate: This is none other but the

54 THE END.

Jionse of God; and this is tlie gate of heaven. And
the power of this transformation is within our
reach as we believe in the purpose of God to
reconcile all things to Himself in Christ.

Yes: if we are to fulfil our office we must
undertake it with the surest conviction that man
and the world are made to be temples of
God in which He will shew Himself. These
temples may be defaced and dishonoured: they
may seem to be deserted and desolate: but the
capacity with which they were created is the
sufficient assurance of our effort, and of our
hope. We can, in virtue of our faith, in

virtue of Christ's coming, 'see all things in God
and see God in all things.' We can first rise to
some faint idea of His counsel of love in which
all the phantoms of succession are gathered into
one : and then we can turn again to the trivial
details of duty and find that through them He
is fulfilling His will. In this way as we

see His glory we can build up His people. They
can be led to feel that we have seen God and
that He is visible.

The work is not done at once, and we are poor
judges of what is done even to the last. Nothing
is more eloquent to us in this respect than the

THE END.

55

long silence of the Lord's Life. Looking
back upon that long silence followed by a short
ministry of active service He said: Father... I
glorified Thee upon earth, having perfected the
work which Thou hast given me to do. The flight
of the disciples, and the Cross, might have
seemed to shew failure: the unbelief of Israel,
and the corruption of the Church might have
seemed to seal it. But the work was done: the
glory was shewn. Without haste and

without rest Christ first won for men, and now
brings home to them, the fulness of divine son-
ship. That is the message which we on our part
have to bear and to shew in ourselves, glorifying
God.

Ad major em Dei gloriam: the great watch-
word of the Jesuits is, in a far different sense
from that which they have associated with it,
the watchword of all Christian teachers. It
speaks of efforts not for the extension of our own
influence, not for the spread of our own fancies,
not for the aggrandizement of a party, not for the
triumph of a system: but that the light of the
Divine Presence may shine within us and about
us with fewer obstacles and purer radiance : this
is our end. We seek so to regard men

56

THE END.

and our office as objects and instruments for
reflecting the truth. We rest in nothing

short of issues which pass out of time. So
we fulfil our promise to 'forsake all worldly care
and studies' while our zeal to understand all
that lies before us knows no respite, for we
accept no final aim here.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam. The call is to us
a guard and a guide. It sounds in our ears in
moments of temptation: it leads us forward in
moments of doubt. Other purposes may-

fall short of the measure of our powers: other
objects maybe withdrawn from the possibility of
our attainment: but this calls for all we have and
consecrates the least which we are able to offer.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam: the weariness of
effort belongs to time. That glory, so we trust,
when it shall be unveiled, as it is being unveiled,
will reconcile, and even now begins to reconcile,
perfect energy with perfect rest.

VII.

THE STRENGTH.

o eN<\p2<\MeN0c cn ym?n IproN apj.96n enueAecei

AXRIC HMepAc'lHCOf XpiCTof.

Phil. i. 6.

TTANTA ICVJW €N TCp 6N AyNAMOfNTl' M£.

Phil. iv. 13.

Psalm xlvi.
Phil. iv. 8—13.

Udvra l<ryia> ev tw ivSvva/iovvTL fie. I can
do all things in Him tliat strcngtJie)ictli me. These
words contain the secret of prevailing power.
They speak of a victorious might rather than of
mere ability: iravra lo-yyw. They speak of a
communion of life and not of simple assistance:
iv tw evhwafiovvri fie.

They speak, I say, of a communion of life:
of a communion of divine life. Man is born for
fellowship. He is strong only so far as he can
go out of himself. The experience of everyone
shews that isolation of thought and spirit brings
weakness and pain. Work is dissatisfying

when we think of it only in relation to ourselves.
Life itself is a sad mystery if our own pleasure
or gain forms the measure of its worth. But
if the end of life is, as we have seen, the reflec-
tion of the glory of God: if the strength of life
is a living union with Him, a life in Him, then

6o

THE STRENGTH.

our estimate of things is wholly changed. We
have each one of us a divine object which we
can trust: we have each one of us all that is re-
quired for attaining it. The Christian
minister in particular is 'sent;' and his mission
is the unchanging pledge to him that he is duly
furnished for his services.

What we need therefore in order that we may
realise the strength which is offered to us is to
strive to regard the world and men, and to re-
gard our office, as they are in the sight of God :
to give a present meaning to the fact of the In-
carnation which is too apt to pass away into the
region of speculation : to bring down to this trial,
this conflict, this problem, the revelation of the
righteousness and love of God which it conveys:
to ask ourselves what indeed Christ would have
us to understand now by His 'little ones,' and
by the 'childly mind.' Such efforts, such

questionings are not soon satisfied : but the effort
to satisfy them by placing us silently face to
face with things unseen and eternal strength-
ens us. We feel more justly what we can do;
what God requires of us, and what He Himself
does through us in ways which we can dimly trace.

So, brethren, I say that if we would be strong

THE STRENGTH.

61

we must endeavour to connect our weakness no
less than our power, the thought of what has
been denied us no less than the thought of what
has been given us, our position, our opportunities
— yes even our failures and our defects — with the
thoughts of God. Through these He disciplines
us: through these He strengthens us. The
review of a short space of life will shew how
strangely we miscalculate in our estimates of
great and small, what unimagined force there is
in a word, a touch of faith: how the powers of
the age to come — the age which has already come
— move about us, powers which we are required
to use and to administer.

Let us therefore consider as the years go
on what we have been called to do, what we
have sought to do, what we have failed to
do. Let us consider how far we have tried
to make the simplicity and breadth of the
Scriptures the standard of our faith and sym-
pathy: how far we have studied the endowments
and the duties of that which is both an office and
a ministry: how far we have shewn in common
things that our faith is a new force in life: how
far we have acknowledged cheerfully that the in-
stitutions of society claim loyal obedience: how

62

THE STRENGTH.

far we have realised that the glory of God is
that which we are sent to lay open, the grace of
God that on which we can trust. Let us

consider, in a word, our Call, our Rule, our Work,
our Witness, our Spirit, our End, our Strength,
as they are laid before us in the Ordinal.

One result of such communing with ourselves
and with GOD, of such seeking after the true
nature and proportion of the ways and aims of
life, will be to lead us to forget ourselves that we
may find ourselves. Such forgetfulness is not
the loss of our special faculties but the consecra-
tion of them. Of all men St Paul per-
haps has left the impress of his natural character
most deeply on the Western world, and this is
the account which he gives of himself: I have
been crucified with Christ — I have endured death
in its most terrible form, a death which is pre-
sent still — -yet I live, no longer 'I' indeed, but
Christ livcth in me. That passage
through death to life shews us yet again what
strength is. The personal inspiration follows
the personal devotion. First we bring ourselves
'body soul and spirit' to God: we are in Him;
and then the fire of His love kindles the offering
in a new energy: He is in us.

THE STRENGTH.

63

The promise of this fellowship, doubly ful-
filled, is the promise of strength proportional to
our nature, proportional to our growth. We
all feel, I believe, when we are conscious of our
true selves, that we were made for it and that
we can rest in it only. At such moments the
purpose of the will answers to the promptings of
the heart. So may He who gives us the

will, grant us also strength and power to fulfil
it: that He may accomplish His work which He
hath begun in us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

TTICTOC O KAAOJN

d eNApSAiweNOc eniTeAecei.

VIII.
GROWTH.

w. o.

5

AlOOKCO 61 KAI KATAA<\B(jO, €<}> tp KAI KAT6AhM({)6HN

yno XpicTof 'Ihcoy.

IT has been seen that the Christian minister
can gain only little by little the spiritual force
which God is pleased to use through him for the
fulfilment of His divine work. This consideration
leads me to add in this last address some words
on the subject of Christian growth. It is

clear that we must, unless we fail utterly, ' wax
riper and stronger in our ministry.' ' He who is
a Christian,' Luther said, ' is no Christian.' And
the truth is doubly true of a Christian minister.
He who thinks, that is, that he has at any
moment gained a position where he may remain
in indolent quiet has abandoned the service to
which he was pledged. Faith, inasmuch as it is
living, must be in movement. That which is
stationary is dead. If we rest in what we have
already gained, our treasure perishes in our
hands. Each victory which we win must

be so used that it may furnish the vantage
ground for further conquests. Each new vision

5—2

68

GROWTH.

of the truth which we gain must be so regarded
that it may prepare us for a wider survey of the
infinite expanse of truth, and for a further in-
sight into its immeasurable depths. The
principle is true universally: it is true of men
and of churches : it is true of thought and of
action : it is true of teachers and of learners ;
true beyond all controversy and still at every
moment it is imperilled by the veiled assaults of
restless occupation and of spiritual indolence.

No one can escape these temptations, but
they are, I think, specially formidable to those
whose ordinary life keeps them in familiar con-
tact with great thoughts and great duties : who
are shielded from manyobvious dangers : who are
necessarily engaged in serious work. We
are busy and we are inclined to think that all
is well with us. We are led to discuss and
to commend noble truths, and we take it
for granted that they are influencing our-
selves. We come to forget that intellec-
tual and spiritual privileges are talents lent to us
for use, and not fruits of our own husbandry
on which we can pride ourselves. They in-
crease our obligations : they do not compensate
for our failures.

GROWTH. 69

How then can we best meet and overcome
this outward distraction, this inward sloth? By
prayer, you will say, by meditation, by the
untiring use of the ordinary means of grace.
And you will say so truly ; and yet there is
quite another thing which should go before to
give intensity to our prayers and religious exer-
cises, and to interpret sacraments. Wc should
strive to rise in thought to an adequate con-
ception of what Christianity claims to be ; for if
we do so we shall not rest till we have set dis-
tinctly before ourselves some method by which
we may little by little, through pain and error
and disappointment, fashion the ideal which we
shall see ever rising above us in more unap-
proachable glory as we climb higher and come
nearer to it.

It may seem strange that I should say that
we must strive to gain an adequate conception
of what our Christian Faith claims to be. Too
commonly we take for granted that this is quite
obvious. We know indeed many most

precious applications of it. We know something
of its personal power in meeting the sins and
sorrows of daily life. But in this way we do not
know all. And I venture to think that eighteen

70

GROWTH.

Christian centuries have not yet exhausted the
teaching of St Paul and St John. As
Christians we may rejoice — it is our duty to
learn to rejoice — when we see how men move
victoriously forward from age to age and add
new domains to the empire of order and know-
ledge. We may rejoice to see how each
extension of the idea of Law enables us to
apprehend something more of the Gospel of
Christ Incarnate and Ascended. And
above all we may rejoice to see, if we trust the
simple teaching of God's Word, that our faith is
infinitely vaster than we are apt to believe,
reaching far beyond the utmost limit of human
progress with promises and pledges of Unity
and Truth yet unrealised.

We do not, I think, for the most part take
account as we should do of these wider relations
of the Gospel.

Let us look at man himself, and ask whether
we habitually reflect what is the full meaning of
the apostle's prayer that our whole spirit and
soul and body may be preserved blameless at the
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we, my
friends, do you and I, keep before our minds as
a fact that every endowment of sense and reason

GROWTH, 71

and intuition belongs to the undying fulness of
our nature, and that we shall carry all these with
their fruits of use and misuse before the judg-
ment seat of God ? Is it not true that the
heathen guess of the soul's immortality practi-
cally usurps the place in our common thoughts
and even in popular teaching of the Christian
verity of the Resurrection?

Or again, let us look at the Church, and ask
whether we attach any definite sense to that
revelation wherein it is described as the Body of
Christ, living by His life and completing His
manifestation to the world. We separate

unit from unit, and congregation from congrega-
tion, with jealous anxiety. In action we must
do so; but do we ever rise or strive to rise in the
thoughts of our secret chamber, before the face
of God, to the vision of that vital union in Christ
of all believers, deeper than we can see, which
can alone bring peace to souls worn and wearied
with sorrowful controversies and divisions?

Or yet again, let us look at the world, and
ask whether we draw any inspiration of comfort
from those marvellous words which tell us of the
whole creation groaning and travailing in pain
together until now in the agonies not of dissolu-

72

GROWTH.

tion but of birth ? which tell us of that last
triumph when God shall be all in all ? We
may not be able as yet, and I do not suppose
that we ever shall be able in our earthly state, to
enter far into this mystery of light. Yet it is good
for us to feel that the light shineth in the dark-
ness and that it cannot suffer eclipse ; it is good
for us to feel that it streams even from the clouds
upon our blinded sight.

No doubt such thoughts as these as to the
universality of our faith in relation to our own
nature, to the Catholic Church, to the entire sum
of finite being, thoughts which are characteristic
of our Christian Scriptures, thoughts which be-
long to the essence of our Faith, may seem to
lie out of the way of our beaten track of duty j
but none the less they illuminate it. And we to
whom large opportunities of study are given, we
to whom the office of teachers is given, are bound
to strive to gain the widest prospects of the
Truth. We dishonour no less than en-

danger our deposit when we limit its application
to the narrow wants which we can see or
feel. We cannot perhaps determine from

our own limited experience why this is written
or that, why we must believe this or that. The

GROWTH.

73

whole experience of humanity will be required
before that can be clear. But of this we can be
sure that as long as we guard scrupulously the
unproved wealth of the Gospel, we shall find
ourselves prepared for any revolution of science
or history. It needs but little reflection

to find that this is so in the crisis of our own
age.

Physicists tell us, with an air of triumph, that
man's highest powers are dependent upon his
material frame : that he cannot truly exist apart
from it. Christ told us so long ago, and

guarded the truth from exaggeration, though we
may not before have felt the full significance of
His Message, when He raised His Body from
the grave to the right hand of God in token of
His victory over Death.

Physicists tell us that the dead rule the
living, that man is bound to man, by an inexora-
ble law. Christ told us so long ago, when
He presented the relation of Himself to His
disciples as that of the Vine and Branches, of
which each part is energetic and fruitful by the
ministry of all according to the operation of one
life.

Physicists tell us that we are but fragments

74

GROWTH.

of a vast whole which, though we may seek to
isolate ourselves from it with a vain pride, yet can-
not be separated from our destiny. Christ
told us so long ago, when by the mouth of
His apostle he spoke of the summing up, the
reconciliation of all things in Himself as the
Divine purpose before the foundation of the
world and, as it seems to me, essentially in-
dependently of the Fall.

Yes, my friends, let us look if we would grow
in faith, in grace, in knowledge, to the Gospel, not
only as we in our little ways can easily realise
and use it, but also as it is seen in its absolute
glory, in the Person of Christ, perfect God and
perfect man, and even if we thus gain only rare
glimpses we shall find in them that which will
raise us above our routine anxieties to loftier
efforts and a more far-seeing trust. In
the vision of that most awful and most loving
Presence, the temptations of distraction and
sloth will lose their power. If we understand in
any measure what our faith is we cannot ever
think that the busiest occupation can dispense
with silent, solemn meditation on the mys-
teries which we are commissioned to dis-
pense. We cannot ever think that we have

GROWTH. 75

attained in our own lives even that standard
which we feel to be within our reach. We shall
in obedience to a divine necessity strive to go
forwards — to grow in faith. In the midst

of our engagements, when we are cumbered with
much serving, and in times of rest, when we are
lost in our own thoughts, a voice will sound in
our ears from the heights of heaven, Follow thou
Me, and we shall know the voice ; and we shall
find no peace till we can answer in our
hearts : ' Yea Lord we will follow Thee, follow
Thee, if it be Thy will, through the thirty years
of obscurity, follow Thee through the three years
of mixed welcome and reproach, follow Thee
through the dark valley, follow Thee to Thy
throne above, follow Thee, as those who have
not attained and cannot attain, but who strain
forward with a zeal which cannot tire towards an
ideal which cannot disappoint'

Luther's paradox, as I said before, expresses
very tersely the lesson which I wish to learn and
to convey, but that one word of St Paul eVe/tret-
vo/J.evo<;, which I have just paraphrased, expresses
it yet more vividly. Take then that simple word
as one of your mottoes. Carry it with you for
your daily use. As often as Christ's call

76

GROWTH.

comes to you, and the call will come in the press
of business and in the still languor of disap-
pointment, may you, may I, be able to reply,
gathering at the moment the force of a heaven-
ward impulse : 'EireKTelvofiai, I see Thee O
Lord in Thy glory, I stretch forward towards
Thee, unhasting, unresting.

^E-n-eKreivofiai. I do by God's help strain the
manifold energies of my nature in continuous
exertion for the better service of Him to Whom
I am dedicated body, soul and spirit.

'E-n-eKTelvo/xaL. I do in all my efforts grate-
fully acknowledge that I have been borne year
by year and day by day nearer to the one true
goal of all Christian desire, by forces not my
own, strengthening my weakness.

'E-n-eKTelvofiat,. I do keep my eyes fixed in
the concentration of devout hope upon Him
Who is the Light of men and the Light of the
world.

Now we see by a glass in a riddle, but then
face to face. Yes, feeble and imperfect as our
vision may be, we see not fleeting shadows but
unchangeable realities. We see in part what
hereafter we shall see perfectly, and in that

GROWTH.

77

supreme moment we shall be like Him, for zve
shall see Him as He is.

This is the end: the vision of God in Christ
shall transform us into His image : and mean-
while this is the rule of our progress here: He
that hath this hope set on Him, purifietli Himself
even as He is pare.

CKINTUD BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON, AT THE UNIVERSITY PKESS.

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