{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16979/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16979","id":"gutenberg_16979","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16979","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","World War I","World War, 1914-1918 -- Sermons"],"text":"Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE DISCIPLINE OF WAR\n\n\n_Nine Addresses on the Lessons of the War in Connection with Lent_\n\nFROM ASH WEDNESDAY to EASTER SUNDAY\n\nWITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING\n\nSUGGESTED SUBJECT FOR MEDITATION, AND SUITABLE PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE,\nFOR EACH DAY IN LENT\n\n\nBY THE REV.\n\nJ. HASLOCH POTTER, M.A.\n\n_Hon. Canon of Southwark and Vicar of St. Mark's, Surbiton, Surrey_\n\n\n  London\n  SKEFFINGTON & SON\n  34, Southampton Street, Strand, W.C.\n  _Publishers to His Majesty the King_\n\n  1915\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S PREFACE\n\n\nThe war has introduced into countless lives new conditions, and has\nstrangely modified, or emphasised, those already existing. These\nAddresses, prepared under much stress of other work, are intended to\nsupply, in very simple fashion, hints for conduct and points for thought\nalong the lines of our fresh or deepened responsibilities. An Appendix\ngives a suggested subject and a passage of Scripture for each day during\nLent. May God the Holy Ghost, without Whom man's best labours are in\nvain, bless this little book to its purpose. Please say a prayer for the\nwriter, who, as much as any, needs grace that he may try to practise\nwhat he preaches.\n\n  J. HASLOCH POTTER.\n\n  Surbiton.\n    The Conversion of St. Paul. 1915.\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\n  Kingston House,\n    Clapham Common.\n\n  _January 19th, 1915._\n\nMy dear Canon,--\n\nYou have invited me to say a few words introductory to the little book\nyou are putting forth, and of which you have sent me the advance proofs.\n\nFrom the great excellence of that which I have read, I am convinced\nthat your Lenten meditations on the Discipline of War, will be of\npre-eminently spiritual value in a time when publications on the\nsubject are multiplied. That the war is to leave us on a higher\nplane of self-discipline, and with higher ideals of citizen life and\nresponsibility, every Christian must acknowledge. Your little Lenten\nscheme is just that which is needed to give reality and action to what\nmight otherwise be left in the realm of theory. May the Holy Spirit make\nuse of your work to the benefit of us all and for the Glory of God.\n\n  Your sincere friend,\n\n  CECIL HOOK,\n    _Bishop._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  I\n                                        PAGE\n\n  The Discipline of the Will              1\n\n  II\n\n  The Discipline of the Body              9\n\n  III\n\n  The Discipline of the Soul             18\n\n  IV\n\n  The Discipline of the Spirit           27\n\n  V\n\n  Discipline through Obedience           35\n\n  VI\n\n  The Discipline of Sorrow               44\n\n  VII\n\n  Discipline through bereavement         52\n\n  VIII\n\n  Discipline through Self-sacrifice      62\n\n  IX\n\n  Discipline through Victory             70\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Appendix                               81\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE DISCIPLINE OF WAR\n\nI\n\n=The Discipline of the Will=\n\nASH WEDNESDAY\n\nIsaiah lviii. 6\n\n  \"Is not this the fast that I have chosen?\"\n\n\nDiscipline is the central idea of the observance of Lent. An\nopportunity, rich in its splendid possibilities, comes before us this\nyear. Much of the discipline of this Lent is settled for us by those\ntragic circumstances in which we find ourselves placed.\n\nGod seems to be saying to us, in no uncertain tones, \"Is not this the\nfast that I have chosen?\"\n\nOur amusements are already to a large extent curtailed, maybe by our own\nindividual sorrows or anxieties; maybe by the feeling of the incongruity\nof enjoying ourselves while anguish and hardship reign supreme around\nus.\n\nOur self-denials are already in operation, under the stress of\nstraitened means, or the vital necessity of helping others less favoured\nthan ourselves.\n\nOur devotions have already been increased in frequency and in\nearnestness, for the call upon our prayers has come with an insistence\nand an imperiousness that brook no denial.\n\nTo this extent, and further in many directions, our Lent has been taken\nout of our own hands; ordered and pre-arranged by that inscrutable, yet\nloving, Providence which has permitted the War to come about.\n\nThus, at the very outset, we are brought into harmony with the central\nidea of discipline--not my will, but God's will.\n\nBroadly, discipline is defined as \"Mental and moral training, under\none's own guidance or under that of another\": the two necessarily\noverlap, and therefore we shall speak of God's discipline, acting upon\nus from outside, and of our own co-operation with divine purposes, which\nis our discipline of self from within.\n\nIn the forefront of the subject, and including every aspect of it upon\nwhich we shall touch, stands that tremendous word--_will_.\n\nHave you ever attempted to gauge the mystery, to sound the depth of\nmeaning implied in the simple sentence \"I will\"?\n\nFirst of all what is the significance of \"I\"? You are the only one who\ncan say it of yourself. Any other must speak of you as \"he\" or \"she\";\nbut \"I\" is your own inalienable possession.\n\nThis is the mystery of personality. That accumulation of experience,\nthat consciousness of identity which you possess as absolutely, uniquely\nyour own; which none other can share with you in the remotest degree. \"A\nthing we consider to be unconscious, an animal to be conscious, a person\nto be self-conscious.\"\n\nThis leads on to a further mystery, alike concerned with so apparently\nsimple a matter that its real complexity escapes us.\n\n\"I _will_\": I, the self-conscious person, have made up my mind what\nI am going to do, and, physical obstacles excepted, I will do it.\n\nThe freedom of man's will has been the subject of endless dispute from\nevery point of view, theistic, atheistic, Christian and non-Christian.\n\nMerely as a philosophic controversy it has but little bearing upon daily\nlife. The staunchest necessitarian, who argues _theoretically_ that\neven when he says \"I will\" he is under the compulsion of external force,\nyet acts _practically_ in exactly the same fashion as the rest of\nmankind.\n\nWhen the freedom of the will is considered in relation to religion, then\nit bears a totally different aspect. If the will be not free, religion,\nas a personal matter, falls to the ground, for its very essence is man's\nvoluntary choice of God.\n\nHere too those who deny the freedom of man's will doctrinally yet accept\nit as a working fact. Calvin, whose theory of Predestination and\nIrresistible Grace seems to exclude man from any co-operation in his own\nsalvation, yet preached a Gospel not to be distinguished from that of\nJohn Wesley!\n\nFor us Christians the freedom of the will is absolutely settled by Him\nWho says, \"Whosoever will let him come.\"\n\nIf you are sometimes troubled by certain passages in Scripture which\nseem to imply that God's predestination overrides man's will, remember,\nthat whenever we are considering any question which concerns both God's\nnature and man's nature, difficulty must arise, from the very fact that\nour finite mind can only comprehend, and that but imperfectly, man's\nside of the transaction. Things which now seem incompatible, such as\nprayer and law; miracle and, what we are pleased to call, nature; God's\nforeknowledge and man's free-will in the light of eternity will be seen\nas only complementary parts of one divine whole.\n\nRemember too that you must take the general bearing of Scripture; not\nisolated passages in which, for the necessity of the argument, one side\nis strongly emphasised. The Apostle who, thinking of the boundless power\nof God's grace, says, \"So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him\nthat runneth, but of God that showeth mercy\" (Rom. ix. 16) is the one\nwho says \"He willeth that all men should be saved\" (1 Tim. ii. 4).\n\nThe love by which the Father gave up His Son; the life and death of that\nSon; the ministry of God the Holy Ghost; the whole dispensation of the\nCatholic Church, form one great tender appeal to the free-will of man.\nYour free-will, my free-will, before which is placed the tremendous\nresponsibility of choosing or rejecting.\n\nAnd now from the broad thought of will, at its highest point, occupied\nwith eternal choices and spiritual decisions, we turn to will as the\ngoverning power in our lives.\n\nIt is, to a certain extent, self in action, for before even the\nslightest movement of any part of the body, there must have gone,\nautomatically and unconsciously, an act of will.\n\nBefore every deliberate action there takes place a discussion, which\nultimately decides the attitude of the will, that is your final purpose.\nPut quite simply, the _motives_ determine the _will_, and are\nthemselves decided by the _principles_ at the back of them.\n\nLet us make this plain by an illustration. It is pouring with rain, you\nare sitting cosily over the fire with an interesting book. The thought\ncomes into your mind, I ought to go and see my sick friend. Then follows\nthe deliberation: the flesh says, \"To-morrow will do just as well.\" The\nspirit says, \"No, it won't; you may both be dead to-morrow.\" The flesh\nsays, \"Perhaps I shall catch a cold\"; the spirit says, \"That fear\nwouldn't keep you from going to a Picture Palace.\" The flesh says,\n\"Perhaps he won't care to see me to-day\"; the spirit replies, \"It's a\ndull, wet afternoon, and he's very likely to be alone.\"\n\nNow notice that at the back of each set of motives is a vital principle.\nIn the one case the lower self, in the other the higher self, that is to\nsay \"I\" and \"God.\"\n\nThe purely natural, human side of even the greatest saint would prefer\nto sit over the fire; but then our nature is not left unassisted, and\neven in a simple thing like this God the Holy Ghost comes to our aid\nwith His suggestions of the higher course, and illuminates the path of\nduty. That is one of the most blessed features of the ministry of the\nSpirit; He enlightens, He persuades, He never compels: if He did, your\nwill would not be free.\n\nThis explains what the discipline of the will really means. It is just\nthe laying of ourselves open to the voice of the living God, speaking\nwithin us.\n\nAs we do this, day by day, the will itself becomes braced and\nstrengthened, so that the struggle against the lower nature grow less\nand less fierce, the power of choosing the higher course more and more\neasy.\n\nHere is our first practical thought for this Lent.\n\nWatch yourself and your life, especially in those particulars in which\nyou know that you have been getting out of hand. The prayers omitted,\ncurtailed, said carelessly, said or attempted in bed, instead of on your\nknees: what a grievous failure, isn't it?\n\nThe carelessness about preparation before and thanksgiving after\nCommunion, the irregularity of your attendances; the habit of\nSelf-Examination, or of Confession, dropped--why? The Bible neglected.\n\nThen the self-indulgences in the matter of sleep, food, drink, and\npurely wasted hours.\n\nAll these things are sapping the manhood and dignity of the will.\nSometimes even more dangerously and insidiously than open sins, because\nwith regard to these conscience does speak; but when we are merely\ndrifting down the stream of time, the pleasant lapping of the ripples on\nthe side of the bark lulls conscience into fatal sleep.\n\nLook at your life, ask yourself the question, boldly and honestly, what\nis the principle upon which it is being lived, God or self? When the\nanswer comes you will see clearly the first steps to take in the\ndisciplining of the will.\n\nGlorious examples of what can be done abound around you. Think you there\nhas been no struggle on the part of those tens of thousands who have\ngiven up comforts, home, prospects, harmless pleasures, in exchange for\nthe ghastly miseries of the trenches, the appalling risks by land, on or\nbeneath the sea, in the air, all at the call of a stern, compelling\nduty, which told them that the life really worth living was the one\nspent, laid down if need be, for King and country?\n\nThink too of the heroism of the wives, the mothers, the sweethearts, on\nwhose lips there must have trembled over and again, \"I will not, I\ncannot let you go.\" Yet the will was disciplined, the words remained\nunspoken, the tears were shed in secret, and these brave hearts, even in\nbreaking, shall find their reward.\n\nIt was at Waterloo one afternoon, a young officer was being seen off for\nthe front by father, brother, and _fiancee_. The two former bravely\nand cheerily said their good-bye, and withdrew a little to leave the\nyoung couple for their farewell; a kiss, a close embrace, outward\nsmiles, but tears very near the eyes; and then as the officer got into\nthe carriage just this one remark: \"It's precious hard upon the women.\"\nWhat a world of meaning there was in that.\n\nAbove all, as your pattern and your power, look to Him Who said, \"I came\ndown from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent\nMe.\"\n\n_For suggested meditations during the week, see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nII\n\n=The Discipline of the Body=\n\nFIRST SUNDAY IN LENT\n\n1 Cor. ix. 27\n\n  \"I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage.\"\n\n\nOn Ash Wednesday we were considering some purely subjective realities,\nsuch as principles, motives, will--things we could not see. To-day we\nthink about a very objective substance, ever present to our senses--our\nbody. A man may deny point blank the existence of his soul--using the\nword in its ordinary acceptation--he cannot say, \"I have not got a\nbody.\" Even if he should conceive of that body as a mere bundle of\nideas, an accumulation of sensations, yet there it is, making itself\nfelt in countless ways.\n\nSo intimately bound up is it with every part of our life, apparently so\ninfinitely the most real part of us, that we often think of it as being\nour true self. Yet every cell and fibre of it changes in the course of\nseven years. Therefore in itself it cannot maintain our identity. Have\nyou ever pinched your nail, right down at its base, and watched the dark\nmass of congealed blood making its way to the tip of the finger, and\nthen dispersing? This gives you some idea of the pace at which the body\nis being burned up and renewed.\n\nAll the while the personal \"I\" remains, deep-seated in the\nself-conscious intellect, memory, will.\n\nOf course the body plays an immensely important part in the complex\nstory of our existence. It is the machine by which the personal self\nacts, speaks, loves, hates, chooses, refuses; therefore we can neither\nignore it nor despise it.\n\nThe popular notion concerning religion is that it is meant only for the\nsalvation of the soul. If this were so, then the coming of the Holy\nGhost would have sufficed for all needs.\n\nOne manifest purpose of the Incarnation was to give to the body the\npossibility of holiness here, resurrection hereafter.\n\nVery marvellous is the dignity conferred upon the body by the fact the\n\"Word was made flesh.\" From that flows forth the high position of the\nChristian, whose body is a \"temple of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nIt is through the body that we receive the Sacraments, which are means\nof grace to the soul.\n\nDid time permit, it would be deeply interesting to trace out the use of\nthe word body in this connection--the natural body of our Lord, His\nspiritual body after the Resurrection, His mystical body, the Church, in\nwhich sense He Himself is called \"the Saviour of the body\" (Eph. v. 23),\nHis Sacramental Body, of which He says, \"This is my body.\"\n\nThe discipline of the body.\n\nThe thought is prominently before us at the present moment, and first\nlet us look at it from its purely material side. Thousands of youths who\na few months ago were slouching, narrow-chested, feeble specimens of\nunderbred humanity, have now-expanded into well set up, hardened men.\nThe body has been disciplined by drill, exercises, route-marching, and\nthe like. Those who return from the war uninjured will, we may hope, be\nin such improved condition as may somewhat compensate for the terrible\nloss of vigorous life which is taking place.\n\nHad there been universal military training of the youth of our land for\nthe past few generations, either the present war would never have taken\nplace; or the results of the first three weeks of it would have been\nvastly different from what they were.\n\nNow take another significant fact: letter after letter from the front\nsays, \"We are all very fit.\" The average \"fitness\" in the trenches is,\nbroadly speaking, higher than that of training camps at home, especially\nof those where little or no supervision is exercised as to strong drink.\nHow plainly this shows that hardness, even of an extreme character,\nbraces up the body; softness and self-indulgence enfeeble it.\n\nS. Paul affords a wonderful illustration of this; obviously a man of\nvery delicate health, frequently ill (probably this was the thorn in the\nflesh), yet accomplishing vast labours, and, in addition, buffeting his\nown flesh lest it should get the upper hand.\n\nHere, then, we reach the first great principle in the discipline of the\nbody. It must not have its own way, or it will infallibly assert its\nsway over the man's real self.\n\nThat is what happens in the case of the habitual drunkard or the slave\nof lust. That which at first is a temptation, perfectly capable of being\nresisted, becomes at last what the doctors call a \"physical\" craving\nthat, humanly speaking, cannot be overcome. By constant yielding the\nwill has been weakened to such an extent that the personal \"I\" no longer\nreigns; the usurping body has taken its place and rules supreme.\n\nLet us take the main thought of self-control, which is the true\nrendering of the word temperance, the state in which, as S. James says,\nthe man is \"able to bridle the whole body\" (S. James iii. 2), and test\nourselves by it this Lent. Am I retaining my dominion over my body, or\nis it gradually pushing itself into my place?\n\nSelf-examination, honestly performed, will reveal this at once, for\nconscience, unless blunted by neglect, will speak infallibly.\n\nFor instance, when you find some indulgence of the flesh concerning\nwhich you say \"I can't help it,\" there your body has vanquished you. It\nis absorbing your personality, robbing you of your divine birthright, in\nwhich you say, \"I will,\" \"I will not.\"\n\nAnd now to go a step further--the disciplining of the body, care in\nregard to eating, drinking, amusements, and the like; strictness as to\nluxuries and things which, though lawful, may not be expedient, not only\ntend to bodily strength and mere physical well-being, but brace up the\nwill power, because they entail the constant exercise of it.\n\nHere is where the practical wisdom of the Church comes in as regards\nfasting. One day in every week is set apart, beside other days and\nseasons, as a reminder of the fact that fasting is a duty of the\nChristian life, just as much as almsgiving and prayer--a duty sanctified\nby the example enjoined by the precept of our Lord Himself.\n\nTrue, no hard and fast rules are laid down, but a little sanctified\ncommon sense will dictate to us how to make fast-days a reality, by some\nsimple acts of self-denial.\n\nOur last thought is one of intense practical importance--our attitude at\nthe present moment towards strong drink.\n\nLord Kitchener and the Archbishop of Canterbury have both on several\noccasions called the attention of the nation to the terrible evils\narising from the unhappy custom of treating soldiers to strong drink.\n\n_Punch_, always on the side of morality and rightness, has dealt\nwith it in the following trenchant fashion:--\n\n\nTO A FALSE PATRIOT\n\n\n  He came obedient to the Call;\n    He might have shirked, like half his mates\n  Who, while their comrades fight and fall,\n    Still go to swell the football gates.\n\n  And you, a patriot in your prime,\n    You waved a flag above his head,\n  And hoped he'd have a high old time,\n    And slapped him on the back, and said:\n\n  \"You'll show 'em what we British are!\n    Give us your hand, old pal, to shake\";\n  And took him round from bar to bar\n    And made him drunk--for England's sake.\n\n  That's how you helped him. Yesterday\n    Clear-eyed and earnest, keen and hard,\n  He held himself the soldier's way--\n    And now they've got him under guard.\n\n  That doesn't hurt you; you're all right;\n    Your easy conscience takes no blame;\n  But he, poor boy, with morning's light,\n    He eats his heart out, sick with shame.\n\n  What's that to you? You understand\n    Nothing of all his bitter pain;\n  You have no regiment to brand;\n    You have no uniform to stain;\n\n  No vow of service to abuse;\n    No pledge to King and country due;\n  But he has something dear to lose,\n    And he has lost it--thanks to you.[1]\n\n\n[Footnote 1: O.S. in _Punch_, November 4th, 1914. By kind\npermission of the Proprietors.]\n\nA man who had so distinguished himself at the front as to be mentioned\nin a despatch came home slightly wounded. In less than twenty-four hours\nhe was in a cell at a police station, and the next day fined forty\nshillings. Oh! the pathetic pity of it. That man got into trouble\nthrough the exhibition of one of the purest and best features of our\nhuman nature, the desire to show kindness. In their well-intentioned\nignorance this man's friends--yes, they were real friends--knew of only\none way of displaying friendliness--they gave him liquor.\n\nI am not going to blame them, nor him entirely; I am going to lay some\nof the fault upon ourselves.\n\nSince the beginning of the last century the habits of the upper classes,\nto use a generic though unpleasant term, have improved immeasurably.\nThen excess was more or less the rule among men of good position, was to\na certain extent expected and provided for; witness _The School for\nScandal_, or the leading novels of the period. Now, the man who\ndisgraces himself at a dinner-table is never invited again.\n\nAnd even as we go down in the social scale much improvement is apparent.\nThose who remember Bank Holidays on their first introduction will\nrecollect that the excess of the working classes was quite open and\nshameless; but to-day some effort is generally made by the victims, or\ntheir friends, to hide the disgrace, because Public Opinion is\nimproving. That is where we come in.\n\nMany causes of intemperance in strong drink are matters for legislative\nor municipal action; for example, overcrowding, insanitary dwellings or\nsurroundings, sweating, excessive hours of labour, adulteration of\nliquors. But there are two factors upon which we can exercise direct\ninfluence, because they are connected with that great corporate entity\ncalled Public Opinion.\n\nFirst let us take the one upon which we have already touched--the notion\nthat friendliness and good fellowship are essentially connected with\nstrong drink. This is at the bottom of those terrible scenes when troops\nare leaving our great London railway stations. Scenes so inexpressibly\nsad to all thinking people.\n\nEveryone who abstains entirely, or who takes the khaki button--a pledge\nnot to treat nor be treated to strong drink during the continuance of\nthe war--is helping to knock a nail into the coffin of one of the\nsilliest and most fatal delusions that has ever wrought havoc to body,\nsoul, and spirit.\n\nAnd then there is that other weird notion that you cannot be really\nstrong and healthy without stimulant. For you the glass of beer or wine\nmay be a mere harmless luxury, in the way in which you take it. I\npurposely exclude spirits, which I am fanatic enough to think should\nonly be used medicinally. But every individual total abstainer helps to\nswell the testimony not only to the non-necessity of alcohol, but to the\nfact that, according to the view of a large part of the medical\nprofession, the human frame is better without it.\n\nYou may say, \"What good will my abstinence do to people with whom I\nnever come in contact?\" Tell me what influence really is; how it\nspreads, by what unseen modes it ramifies and extends.\n\nTell me the real significance, the true spiritual value, of the fact\nthat \"if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it: if one\nmember rejoice, all the members rejoice with it.\"\n\nThen perhaps you can explain in some way, how your abstinence shall\nspread to desolated homes, to stricken lives, in crowded slums or quiet\nvillages, in fire-raked trenches or storm-tossed ships.\n\nNo act of self-sacrifice for His sake, Who though He was rich yet for\nour sakes became poor, ever went without its rich reward.\n\nNo tiny wave of influence ever yet sped forth from a Christian heart,\nbut what reached its mark and wrought its work of beneficent power.\n\n_For suggested meditations during the week, see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\n=The Discipline of the Soul=\n\nSECOND SUNDAY IN LENT\n\nSt. John vi. 38\n\n  \"For I am come down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but\n  the will of Him that sent Me.\"\n\n\nTo-day we are going to speak of the soul not in its popular sense, as\nset over against the body, but in the scriptural meaning of the word as\nthe broad equivalent of life.\n\nTo enter upon a philosophical discussion might prove interesting from a\nmerely academic point of view, but would be eminently unpractical.\nSuffice it to say that when S. Paul speaks of the \"body, soul and\nspirit\" (1 Thess. v. 23), he takes the two latter as different faculties\nof the invisible part of man.\n\nSoul ([Greek: psyche]) is the lower attribute which man has in common\nwith the animals; spirit ([Greek: pneuma]) the higher one which they do\nnot possess, and which makes man capable of religion.\n\nIn this sense, then, the soul would mean the life the man or woman is\nleading, in the home, the business, the pleasures, the relaxations, as\ndistinct from the definite exercise of devotion or worship.\n\nOf course it is absolutely impossible to draw a hard and fast line\nbetween sacred and secular. All secular affairs, rightly conducted, have\ntheir sacred side; and conversely all sacred matters have their secular\nside, for they form part of the life the man is living \"in the age.\"\n\nIt is the neglect of this truth which is responsible for much of the\nmoral and religious failure of the day.\n\nBusiness is secular, prayer is sacred, and so they have no practical\nconnection each with other.\n\nAmusement is secular (often vastly too much so, in the very lowest sense\nof the word); Holy Communion is sacred; therefore there is no link\nbetween them. Whereas the prayer and the Communion should be the\nennobling and sanctifying power alike of work and play.\n\nBearing this caution in mind, we shall to-day look at certain features\nof the so-called secular life of the day in which discipline needs to be\nstrongly exercised.\n\nNo doubt about it, the soul of the nation has been growing sick, sick\n\"nigh unto death.\"\n\nLuxury has been increasing with giant strides; the mad race for pleasure\nhas helped to empty our Churches, to rob our Charities, to diminish the\nnumber of our Candidates for Holy Orders, to make countless ears deaf to\nthe call which the country, through that magnificent Christian soldier,\nLord Roberts, and many others, has been making to manhood of the land.\nWeek-ending, meals in restaurants, turning night into day, have robbed\nhome-life of its grace and power, and produced a generation of young\nfolk _blase_ and discontented before they are out of girlhood and\nboyhood.\n\nWith this has come, inevitably, the loss of sense of responsibility. So\nlong as I can enjoy myself and get my own way, why should I vex myself\nwith the outworn question, \"Am I my brother's keeper?\" No! That has gone\ninto the limbo of effete superstition.\n\nAnd further, loss of the sense of proportion. There are some to whom it\ncauses no moral shock to wear a dress costing a hundred guineas, while a\nvast number of seamstresses, shirtmakers, artificial flower makers,\nboot-closers, and the like, are working seventy hours for 5s. to 8s. a\nweek. One mantle-presser, in Dalston, receives 1/2_d._ per mantle;\nshe is most respectable, has four children, and earns from 5_s._\n6_d._ to 7_s._ a week!\n\nWe do not grumble at the hundred guineas being spent upon the dress, or\na thousand guineas even, if the money went in due proportion all round\nto supply the _full living wage to each one engaged in its production_:\nand if the wearer interested herself keenly in social problems, and used\nher means wisely and well to afford relief where it was needed. This,\nalas! does not happen when the sense of proportion is lacking.\n\nTake another case--alas! a fearfully common one. Men and women will\ngamble recklessly at Bridge, lose heavily, pay up, at whatever cost,\nbecause it is _a debt of honour_. All the while a hard-pressed\ntailor, a famished dressmaker and her children are kept out of their\nmoney, because it is only _a debt of commerce_. Could there be a\nmore ghastly parody on the word honour?\n\nYet once more--the lack of seriousness. By seriousness we do not mean\ngloominess, nor withdrawal from society, or anything of the kind. We\nmean the flippant attitude towards life, the lack of serious, sustained\ninterest in literature, in music, in art, in the legitimate drama;\nwitness the theatres being turned into cinema shows, and the terrible\npaucity of sound, strong plays. Everything must be scrappy, light, and\nif a little (or more than a little) risky, so much the better.\n\nWe do not for a moment say that these evils are universal, God forbid,\nbut none can deny that they have eaten deep into a large part of\nsociety, using the word in its broadest, not in its technical sense.\n\nThe soul of the nation needed discipline, and it has come suddenly,\nsharply, but, who shall dare to say, not mercifully?\n\nAnd even in its very coming it brought a tremendous opportunity, for we\nwere not compelled to make war, notice that!\n\nWe had an option. The temptation was subtle. You have no concern with\nServia, throw over Belgium, let France take care of itself.\n\nFor a time, probably a very short time, we should have avoided war and\nits horrors. The bait was held out by some peddling politicians that we\nshould have stood in a magnificent position to obtain trade, to control\nmarkets, to dictate prices to the rest of the world. Magnificent\nprospect! We went to war, and, by a strange paradox, secured peace with\nhonour: peace of the national conscience. Had we forsaken Belgium we\ncould never again have held up our heads among civilised honourable\nnations. Thus the very circumstances under which the War came about\nformed an appeal to the soul of the nation as embodied in its\nlegislature; the Government rang true, and the nation, as one man,\nendorsed its decision.\n\nAnd now the discipline has commenced.\n\nWho can be flippant and careless with our coast towns liable to\nbombardment, and over a hundred lives already sacrificed in this little\nisland, which we have always deemed to be the one absolutely secure spot\nin the whole world? Five months ago an earthquake in London would have\nseemed a far more likely event than the bombardment of Hartlepool,\nScarborough, Whitby, and the dropping of shells on Yarmouth foreshore,\nor of bombs at Dover and Southend.\n\nWho can be unconcerned when our ships are liable at any moment, and\napparently in almost any place, to be sent headlong to the bottom of the\nsea by torpedoes or mines; possibly sometimes by those very mines we\nhave been compelled to lay, and which happen to have broken loose?\n\nThis is one of the unavoidable hazards of war under modern conditions.\nIt does not make us ignore the magnificent work of our Fleet, nor\ntremble for the ultimate issue.\n\nWho can be giddy and careless with darkened streets, trains, trams, all\ntelling of the awful possibilities of the new development of aerial\nwarfare?\n\nWho, even among those not directly touched by anxiety or bereavement,\ncan go on just as usual in luxury, self-indulgence, and ease amid the\ncrushing mass of suffering around them on all sides?\n\nThank God that, though we may have erred very grievously through\nsoftness of living, we are not a callous people, but we needed a strong,\nstern discipline of the national soul; some stirring and trumpet-tongued\nappeal to the national life, and in the righteous mercy of God it has\ncome.\n\nSome of the immediate effects are obvious; but what are the lasting\nresults to be?\n\nThe _Guardian_, of a few weeks back, thus soundly comments upon the\nmatter:--\n\n  \"It is true that the outbreak of war put a sudden end to much that\n  was thoughtless, stupid, and even base in contemporary life. 'Tango\n  teas' and afternoon Bridge among women have receded almost as far\n  into ancient history as dinners at Ranelagh or suppers at Cremorne.\n  But human nature is easily frightened into propriety by a crisis;\n  it is not so easy to maintain the new way of life when the fright\n  is safely over. The things that are amiss in our national life, and\n  above all that lack of seriousness which so many observers have\n  lamented during the last few years, can be amended only by a clear\n  conviction of the inherent unsoundness of our outlook, and a firm\n  determination to rebuild it upon new and more stable foundations.\"\n\n\nThe soul of the nation needs discipline, and that can only come through\nthe effort of the individual to discipline his own life.\n\nThere is a ceaseless temptation to echo the cry of the disciples in\nregard to the few loaves and fishes: \"What are they among so many?\"\n\nOf what value or power is my feeble little life among the teeming\nmillions that go to make up the nation?\n\nPut away the thought, for it is a direct temptation of the Devil.\n\nIt was just when, in the very depths of his human despair, Elijah cried\nout, \"I, I only am left,\" that God revealed to him the seven thousand\nmen who had not bowed the knee to Baal.\n\nIt was because Athanasius was content to stand _contra mundum_,\nagainst the world, that the Catholic faith was preserved to the Church.\n\nLet us very seriously examine ourselves as to the use we are making of\nour life with regard to other people.\n\nWe have considered that life, in various details, in respect to\nourselves, and only incidentally as it affects others, but now let us\nput away all thought of self.\n\nTake the one absolute standard of life as set in the text, \"I came down\nfrom Heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.\"\n\nThe result was a life entirely devoted, from the first moment to the\nlast, to one stupendous cause: the lifting up of humanity to the very\nthrone of God.\n\nYou and I cannot reach even a fraction of the way towards that perfect\nstandard; but it is our pattern, our plummet, our measuring-line.\n\nVery practically, then, we must ask ourselves such questions as these:\n\nWhat proportion of my time is spent for others?\n\nHave I any method of employing time or any stated hours that I give to\nphilanthropic or religious work; or do I just, in a casual way, let\nother people have odd moments, when I happen to think of it?\n\nSimilar questions should be asked as to money. Many people, especially\nthose who do not keep accounts (which everyone ought to do), would be\nshocked if at the end of a year they could see the enormous\ndisproportion between the vast amount they have frittered away on self,\nand the pitiful little doles they have handed out in the cause of\ncharity.\n\nOne man, who kept three cars for private use, reduced an already paltry\nallowance made to a dependent because the price of petrol had gone up!\n\nIt is not that people cannot give; it is often only that they do not\nthink. Look at the vast sums being poured into the Relief Funds. Why has\nnot some proportion of it gone long ago to Hospitals obliged to close\ntheir wards, Waifs and Strays Societies compelled to refuse poor little\noutcasts? The money was there; it could have been spared then as well as\nnow, but it needed some great shock to wake its owners up to the sense\nof proportion, the realisation of responsibilities.\n\nAnd so in regard to such gifts as music, painting, acting, mechanics,\nstitchery; even such simple things as reading and writing. Have you ever\nread a book to, or written a letter for, anyone else? We might multiply\nthese questions indefinitely, but enough has been said to enable us\nseriously to take in hand the disciplining of the soul, remembering that\nthis life of ours is a precious loan entrusted to us by God the Father,\nredeemed for us by God the Son, sanctified in us by God the Holy Ghost,\nto be used by us, in due proportion, for our neighbours and ourselves.\n\n_For suggested meditations during the week, see Appendix_.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\n=The Discipline of the Spirit=\n\nTHIRD SUNDAY IN LENT\n\nSt. Luke vi. 12.\n\n  \"He continued all night in Prayer to God.\"\n\n\nLast week we looked at the soul as that faculty of life which, to a\ncertain extent, we share with animals; to-day we pass on to consider,\nunder the title of spirit, the higher endowment by which man is enabled\nto look up and, in the fullest exercise of his whole being, to say\n\"my God.\"\n\nA man without religion is undeveloped in regard to the highest part of\nhis complex nature. In attaining to self-consciousness, and the special\npowers it brings, he has gone one step further than the animal, but\nhas utterly failed of his true purpose. The supreme object of the\nself-consciousness, which reveals to him his personality, is that it\nshould disclose its own origin in the personality of God.\n\nOne very striking effect of the War has been to produce a vast amount of\ntestimony to the fact that man is, broadly speaking, religious by\nnature.\n\nThe services in the places of worship all over the land have been\nmultiplied, intercession is becoming a felt reality, congregations have\ngrown.\n\nIt is asserted, by those who have the best means of knowing, that by\nfar the majority of the letters from the front contain references to\nreligion, such as acknowledgments of God's providence, prayer for His\nhelp, or requests for the prayers of others. Sometimes, in the strange\ndouble-sidedness of human nature, accompanied by expletives obviously\nprofane. Mention is often made of the bowed heads, and the prayer, in\nwhich both sides join, at the time of a joint burial during a temporary\ntruce.\n\nAll these things show that the deeps of the fountains of natural\nreligion have been broken up in wondrous fashion.\n\nOur question to-day is: How shall we discipline that spirit which\nenables us to realise religion as a fact?\n\nLet us try to get to the root of the matter.\n\nThere are two chief derivations of the word religion. One comes from the\nverb which means \"to go through, or over again, in reading, speech, or\nthought.\" Hence religion is the regular or constant habit of revering\nthe gods, and would be represented by the word devotion--an aspect most\nimportant to bear in mind.\n\nThe other derivation, and the more usual, derives religion from the idea\nof binding together, and tells of communion between man and God. For us\nChristians this thought finds its highest ideal and fulfilment in the\nIncarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nThe great characteristic action of religion is prayer; varying in its\nmethods and degrees from merely mechanical performances, like the\npraying wheels of the Chinese up to the heart devotion of the Christian,\npoured out when commemorating, in the Holy Communion, the death and\nresurrection of His Lord.\n\nThe first essential of any prayer which is to be of value in the\ndiscipline of the spirit is regularity. No words can exaggerate the\nimportance of morning prayer. Yet, alas! tens of thousands of professing\nChristians are content with evening prayer alone. The one who goes forth\nin the morning prayerless is just as ill-equipped to do his duty, and\nmeet his temptations, as the foodless man is to perform physical work.\n\nThe whole story of the saintly life, alike in the Old Testament, the New\nTestament, and the Church, is that of diligence in prayer. It was to\npromote that spirit that the Church of Christ, following on the lines of\nthe Jewish Church, from very early days adopted special hours for stated\ndevotions, with the daily offering of the Holy Eucharist linking the\nwhole system together.\n\nThe lowest standard to aim at is private prayer morning and evening,\nmidday too if possible, and regular attendances at God's House on\nSundays and Feast Days. The guiding principle, to be kept ever in mind,\nis not what my own inclinations suggest, but what the glory of God\ndemands. Were this always the case, what magnificent congregations there\nwould be.\n\nPrayer represents a real business of the spirit into which we put the\nwhole endowment of our being, intellect, memory, emotion, will.\n\nOh! those wandering thoughts, how they do distress us; and just in\nproportion as we wish to pray and are learning to pray, so we feel our\ndeficiencies the more keenly.\n\nA few moments before we commence our prayers spent in saying very\nquietly, \"Thou God seest me,\" or \"In the name of the Father and of the\nSon and of the Holy Ghost,\" coupled with a simple yet earnest act of the\nrealisation of God's presence, will be of infinite use.\n\nThe railway train coming into a station does not draw up with a jerk,\nbut gradually slows down. So with us; we cannot come out of our rushing\nlives all in a moment into the quiet of God's presence; we need to slow\ndown.\n\nBut much of the wandering in prayer is the direct result of the habit of\nwandering in life. Flitting from one subject, one book, one occupation\nto another; scrappy reading, talking, thinking; then, as a natural\nconsequence, scrappy praying. A great master of the spiritual life used\nto say, \"You will get far more help in your prayers by leading a more\nuseful life, than by making tremendous efforts after concentration when\nyou are actually at prayer.\"\n\nThe one who tries to keep alive the habitual sense of God's presence\nmakes his whole life a prayer, of which the stated devotions only form a\nnatural part. It is comparatively easy for such a one to concentrate his\nthought and to keep his attention fixed when engaged in his prayers.\n\nJust a word or two about books of devotion. They serve a most useful\npurpose, especially in preparation and thanksgiving for Confession or\nCommunion, but should never be allowed to take the entire place of the\nChristian's glorious privilege of pleading the \"Abba Father,\" and\nspeaking to God in his own words, day by day.\n\nBe careful not to use prayers which are manifestly beyond your own\nstandpoint or out of harmony with your own feeling. The mere repetition\nof phrases that do not represent your inner attitude towards truth only\ntends to formality; the effort to force a kind of artificial conformity,\nbecause you think you ought to feel this or that, invariably ends in\nunreality. Given these cautions, devotional books may be of great use,\neven for regular daily prayer, and often help to call back the thoughts\nwhich are flying off at a tangent.\n\nTo speak of discipline without touching upon Confession would be to omit\none of its most essential features. Nightly self-examination must be\nperformed, and that not perfunctorily, but with real intention of\nrepentance and strictness of living. Self-examination is nothing more\nnor less than spiritual account-keeping; without it the man has no real\nidea of how the business of his soul stands.\n\nWhen it reveals the fact that sin is making headway and the spirit\nlosing ground, then the wise teaching of the Prayer Book should be\nfollowed; \"the grief\"--for such it ought to be--opened in Confession to\nGod, before one of God's ministers, and the benefit of absolution\nsecured.\n\nMuch of the terrible prejudice felt against this practice arises from\nthe mistaken idea that the priest professes to forgive us our sins. The\nwords of the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, in our own Prayer\nBook, put the matter on its true footing:--\"Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who\nhath left power to His Church to absolve, ... _forgive_ thee ... and\nby His authority ... I _absolve_ thee.\" The source of all pardon and\nthe right to exercise it rest in God alone, but the message declaring\nthe fact is part of the \"ministry of reconciliation,\" committed, in the\ninfinite condescension of God, to the \"earthen vessels.\" An illustration\nmay be taken from the pardon of a criminal condemned to death; the Home\nSecretary recommends it, but the King, on his sole authority, grants it,\nand then the message, the _absolvo te_, which lets the man go free,\nis delivered by the governor of the gaol.\n\nPenitents, especially after a first confession at some crisis in mature\nlife, often bear witness to the fact that it seemed to bring them\nstraight into the presence of Jesus Christ; to make them feel the\nreality of His pardoning blood in a way they never could have believed\npossible. How strange that the very thing which by so many pious and\nthoroughly honest souls is dreaded because it is supposed to bring a man\nin between God and the soul, should yet so often be used by the Holy\nSpirit to give a wondrous and precious vision of Christ the Saviour.\n\nThus far we have spoken only of that kind of occasional Confession which\nis obviously contemplated by the Prayer Book; we have no time to dwell\non its habitual use.\n\nSuffice it to quote some words from the first English Prayer Book:--\n\n  \"Requiring such as shall be satisfied with a general confession, not\n  to be offended with them that do use, to their further satisfying,\n  the auricular and secret confession to the priest; nor those which\n  think needful or convenient to open their sins to the priest to be\n  offended with them that are satisfied with their humble confession\n  to God, and the general confession to the Church.\"\n\n\nThat staunch Evangelical Churchman, Bishop Thorold, who was strongly\nopposed to habitual Confession in our Communion, once said, \"We cannot\nignore the fact that the giants of old owed much of that saintliness,\nwhich we of the present day can only wonder at but cannot reproduce, to\nthe practice of Confession.\"\n\nIf you should be in doubt about it for yourself, consult some\nspiritually-minded person who possesses experience in the matter. Not,\non the one hand, the man who will tell you that it is the greatest curse\nthe Church has ever known; nor, on the other, the one who would have it\npractised by everybody.\n\nSurely for us sober Church folk there must be a loyal middle course,\nwhich leaves absolute freedom, so long as the individual \"follows and\nkeeps the rule of charity, and is satisfied with his own conscience.\"\n\nLast, but most important of all, in the discipline of the spirit comes\nthe Holy Communion, about which we shall speak next week.\n\nAs our closing thought, let us go back to what we said just now. The\nobject of religion is God's glory, not man's enjoyment. See how this\nputs feelings down into their right, and subordinate, place. They are\nsometimes very delightful, sometimes very depressing, but always liable\nto be misleading. A great saint of old used to say:--\"If God never gave\nme another moment of sensible devotion in prayer, I would go on praying,\nbecause His glory demands it.\"\n\nReligion has to do with facts: the facts of what God the Father, God the\nSon, and God the Holy Ghost have done, and are doing, for us; the facts\nof what we have to do, to make the finished work of Christ our own.\n\nHere, as always, our Lord Himself gives us the highest illustration.\nNeither as God, nor yet as perfect Man, was there an actual need for Him\nto pray; yet His whole life was punctuated with prayer: first because\nthe glory of the Father required it, and next because His chosen\nApostles must be taught by example as well as precept.\n\nLet the same mind dwell in us. It is for the glory of God that I should\nhave salvation; therefore by the help of God I will discipline my\nspirit.\n\n_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nV\n\n=Discipline through Obedience=\n\nFOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT\n\nSt. Luke xxii. 19\n\n  \"This do in remembrance of Me.\"\n\n\nOur subject of to-day flows quite naturally out of what we said last\nweek. Religion rests on facts, and its object is God's glory, not merely\nour profit. Our duty, therefore, is an absolute submission to those\nfacts--in other words, implicit obedience.\n\nThis is being illustrated on all sides in regard to the War.\n\nThe facts are indisputable. Lord Selborne put the matter in a nutshell\nwhen he said: \"The task in front of us is colossal. We are fighting for\nnothing less than our lives, in circumstances which make it the duty of\nevery Englishman to put everything in the world he possesses, everything\nthat he values, into the scale to ensure success, and I am sure there is\nnot one of us, whatever his position, who would flinch in the slightest\nfrom the duty he owes to his country and to his deepest self.\"\n\nThe response to the facts has been obedience, immediate and\nunquestioning, on the part of a vast number. True, not all have yet been\nreached who ought to come forward, and some are even now crying out for\nthat compulsory service which may yet prove inevitable. They forget that\nthe obedience of one free man is worth more than the forced submission\nof many. Let us wait hopefully, energetically; losing no opportunity of\npressing the stern logic of facts wherever we may.\n\nAnd those who have joined the services have come at once under a\ndiscipline totally different from that of the sternest school or the\nstrictest house of business. The surrender has been made voluntarily,\nand it has placed the whole life in each detail under the claim of an\nabsolute obedience.\n\nThe disposal of every moment of time belongs to the authorities. The\nprivate in high social position must obey the orders of a young\nlance-corporal just as exactly as he expected his own commands to be\ncarried out in his business or his household.\n\nWho can estimate the immense development of moral fibre that surely must\ntake place in succeeding generations from the fact that so vast a\nnumber, in all ranks of society, are now under obedience? Not because\nthey were driven to it, but because they embraced it by an initial act\nof obedience.\n\n    --Thus they answered,--hoping, fearing,\n      Some in faith, and doubting some,\n    Till a trumpet-voice proclaiming,\n      Said, \"My chosen people, come!\"\n          Then the drum,\n          Lo! was dumb,\n  For the great heart of the nation throbbing,\n      Answered, \"Lord we come.\"[2]\n\n\n[Footnote 2: _The Reveille_, Bret Harte.]\n\nLet us apply this thought to the command in our text, \"Do this in\nremembrance of Me.\" The facts are undisputed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in\nthe tenderness of His compassion, instituted an ordinance by which we\nmight remember Him and feed upon Him.\n\nFurther than this we cannot go on the ground of universal consent.\nStrangely enough, that rite which is the same in its central act,\nwhether celebrated by the nonconformist in his ordinary dress, or the\npriest clad in costly vestments, whether in the humble room or the\nstately cathedral, which is, on the one hand, the well-nigh universal\nmark of all who profess and call themselves Christians, is yet the\nbattle-ground of fierce dispute and bitter disagreement.\n\nThe present crisis is undoubtedly deepening in our minds the exceeding\nvalue of this blessed gift of Christ to His Church.\n\nIt is deeply suggestive of the spirit of our young officers that a group\nof old public-school boys, just about to leave for the front, should\nhave begged their late schoolmaster--now a Bishop--to give them a\nCelebration of Holy Communion in his own private Chapel on their last\nSunday in England. What a beautiful send-off!\n\nThen, turning to the scene of operations itself, we find a touching\nwitness in the simple record sent by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to his\nbrother at Southampton. \"We spent our Christmas Day waiting for the\nGermans, who did not appear. But we managed to find time for church and\nfor three celebrations of Holy Communion, although the whole time we\nwere cleared for action and the men were at their guns.\"\n\nWho can contemplate unmoved that spectacle of the men, not gathered in\nthe peaceful security of the House of God, but out upon the ocean,\nexpecting attack, realising the possible nearness of the end, leaving\ntheir guns but for the moment, then back again, strengthened for life or\ndeath by the sacred Body and Blood.\n\nOr take the witness of Rev. E.R. Day, one of our Senior Army Chaplains\nserving with the Expeditionary Force. While home on a few days' leave he\npreached at Lichfield Cathedral, and, touching upon the efficacy of\nprayer, testified how enormously it was valued by our soldiers now\nserving at the front. The Holy Communion was especially appreciated. On\nChristmas Day there were no fewer than seven hundred communicants from\none regiment and four hundred from another, and the service was held in\na ploughed field with a packing-case for an altar. He had conducted\nthese services sometimes in the back-parlour of a public-house, in a\nstable, in a loft, in a lean-to shed, and in the open; anywhere, in\nfact, where room could be found. Out on the battlefield there was hardly\nany need for a compulsory parade service; the men had only to hear that\na service was to be held and they would crowd to it.\n\nMost of the reasons given by those who stop away from Communion centre\nin self.\n\n\"I am not worthy.\" Of course not, nor is the priest who celebrates, nor\nis any member of the congregation. We sadly misread that caution of S.\nPaul about receiving \"unworthily.\"\n\nLet us take a homely illustration. Our good Queen Victoria was very fond\nof visiting cottagers in the Highlands and reading the Scriptures to\nthem. You can imagine how one of them might say, \"I am not worthy of\nsuch an honour; this little place is so poor and mean.\" Quite true, yet\nshe could tidy up the home, mend her frock, make everything neat and\nclean, so as to receive the Queen \"worthily.\" Until you realise the\nfact--\n\n  \"I am not worthy, gracious Lord,\"\n\nyou will never receive Him worthily. No one who examines himself,\nconfesses his sins, and firmly purposes to amend, ever yet came to\nCommunion unworthily.\n\n\"I don't feel inclined to come.\" Because you have not realised in its\nfull meaning two facts: yourself as a great sinner, Christ as a great\nSaviour. Feelings have nothing to do with duty. If they had, our army\nwould be about half the size it is. Do you suppose that all those who\nare joining the Services like leaving home, wife, friends, comforts?\nFeelings have been sacrificed to facts.\n\n\"I'm too great a sinner.\" Then you are not fit to die. Repent, turn to\nthe Saviour, and then in His holy ordinance you will find the very\nstrength you need to keep you from falling back.\n\n\"I have such terrible temptations.\" So we all have, priest and people\nalike. Temptations are not sins; they are the enemies on the\nbattlefield, and if you never meet them, you--the Christian soldier\nenlisted at your Baptism--will never have the chance of winning a\nvictory. The one who stays away from Communion because of temptations or\nsins, which he is really trying to resist, is like the sick man who\nlooks at the bottle of medicine and says, \"I will take it when I get\nwell.\"\n\n\"So many communicants are hypocrites.\" That shows that you know enough\nabout the Christian life to be able to judge your fellow creatures. Are\nyou making things any better by neglecting your duty?\n\n\"I have got an enemy.\" Have you honestly tried to be reconciled; are you\nwilling to forgive and bury the past? \"Yes, but he is not.\" All the more\nneed then for you to come to the Communion and pray for his heart to be\nchanged.\n\nIt was said of one great saint that some people might never have had the\nblessing of his prayers for them but that they were his enemies.\n\nAll these excuses centre in self. They could not do otherwise, for no\none has ever yet found in Christ any reason why they should stay away\nfrom Him.\n\nObedience forms so large a part of discipline--nay, is almost identical\nwith discipline--because it takes us out of self.\n\nOur Lord Who has bidden us \"do this\" knows exactly what is best for us.\nIn putting aside feelings, fancies, unworthy scruples, and casting\nourselves unreservedly upon His boundless mercy, we shall taste of the\ntreasures of His grace and be satisfied.\n\nOne important part of the discipline of this obedience is making a\nspecial and very careful preparation before, and thanksgiving after,\neach Communion.\n\nPreparation which consists first of all of real self-examination and\nrepentance, using fearlessly the \"ministry of reconciliation\" when\nnecessary, and then of special prayers which help to put us into the\nattitude of hopeful, grateful anticipation.\n\nThanksgiving; definite prayers and praises, continued for a day or two,\nunless we are very frequent communicants, so that we may lose none of\nthe preciousness of the blessing by our own forgetfulness or\ningratitude.\n\nIn this, as we said last week, books can _help_, but that is all;\nthey cannot make the preparation or the thanksgiving for us.\n\nEarly Communion, quite apart from the doctrinal question of fasting\nreception, is a useful feature of the discipline of obedience. It is a\ncustom which comes from primitive times, and is universal in the greater\npart of the Catholic Church.\n\nTo give the early hours of the day to our Blessed Lord is surely more in\naccordance with what His great love requires than to choose our own time\nand come when it suits us best: that is when it requires less effort and\nself-denial, and when our minds have been distracted by the cares of the\nadvancing day.\n\nThe coming on of old age or sickness may necessarily debar us from the\nprivilege and joy of early Communion, but, while we can, let us make the\nmost of the blessed morning hours, when in all the freshness of our\nnewly awakened life we draw near to Him Who ceaselessly watches over us.\n\nThe question is often asked: \"How often ought I to receive the Holy\nCommunion?\" The answer depends upon so large a number of considerations\nthat no general rules can possibly be given. Spiritual capacities vary\ninfinitely.\n\nOne broad principle we can lay down: Do not receive so often that you\nbegin to neglect preparation and thanksgiving. Better by far six\nCommunions a year, which have meant real, living intercourse between\nyourself and your Saviour, than a weekly one which has degenerated into\na perfunctory form.\n\nIt is to be remembered that there is nothing to prevent your attending\nthe service whenever you wish, joining in the praises and prayers, even\nthough for some good reason you are not going to receive.\n\nBut, whatever your custom may be, have a rule about your times of\nreceiving, and keep to it strictly.\n\nAim at regularity for your own sake. One of the greatest causes of\nmany of the obscure modern complaints is the irregularity of meals,\nconsequent upon the exacting conditions of life. Precisely so, much\nsickness of spirit springs from the careless way in which the chief\nspiritual food is treated. People go to the Holy Communion when they\nfeel inclined, instead of according to a fixed rule, modifying the rule,\njust as they would in the case of their meals, by circumstances which\nmay arise; spiritual sickness might dictate abstention from Communion\nfor a while, just as bodily disease might require a period of fasting.\n\nBe regular for others' sake. The consistent example of the communicant\nwho lets neither weather nor inclination interfere with duty exercises\nan influence far wider than he could imagine possible.\n\nBe regular for Christ's sake, in grateful recognition of that tender\nlove which has given us the highest privilege of the Christian life.\nSurely never is our Lord more satisfied in seeing of the travail of His\nsoul than when His faithful ones are gathered before His Holy Table,\nworshipping Him in the tremendous reality of His spiritual presence,\nfeeding upon Him in the mystery of His Body and His Blood.\n\nThus out of our obedience to the great \"Do this\" comes discipline of the\nhighest kind. That discipline which is ever putting self in the\nbackground, ever exalting the person and the work of Christ.\n\nThen follows the reward, never attained by those who in self-interest\nseek it, only poured forth upon such as are content to lose their life\nin finding it, \"He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.\"\n\n_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\n=The Discipline of Sorrow=\n\nFIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT\n\nRevelations vii. 14\n\n  \"These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed\n  their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.\"\n\n\nTwo considerations only can throw any light on the dark mystery of\nsuffering, the problem which has baffled the intellect, the perplexity\nwhich has torn the heart of mankind from the dawn of conscious life--\"I\nbelieve that Jesus Christ was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin\nMary, and was made man\"; \"I believe in the life of the world to come.\"\n\nThe two thoughts blend in our text with a harmony of illumination which,\nthough it does not solve the problem, renders it less dark.\n\nOnly in the light of another world, where the seed sown here shall bear\nwondrous fruit, can we even begin to reconcile the existence of\nsuffering with the goodness of Almighty God. If there be no hereafter,\nthen indeed suffering must be the work of a vengeful tyrant rejoicing in\ncruelty, or of a fatalistic machine grinding out its foreordained\nconsequences.\n\nWhat we require is some comprehensive plan which will knit together\npast, present, future in one great purpose of progress towards ultimate\nperfection, which will guarantee not only _an_ existence hereafter,\nbut will render that existence personal, conscious, capable of the\nhighest development.\n\nWe find this in the Incarnation, the eternal purpose of God the Father,\nformed in the eternity of _the past_, that His Son should take our\nhuman flesh.\n\nThis plan is working itself out in _the present_ by the power of\nGod the Holy Ghost, through the life of the great Church of Christ,\nmilitant and expectant.\n\nIt stretches forth into the future, with regard to which we have\nparables, promises, visions, warnings, all pointing to a continuously\nprogressive growth till the perfect manifestation of the Kingdom of\nChrist be reached.\n\nThus the Incarnation supplies the unifying principle, and in its light\nwe catch some ray of hope on the dark problem of suffering.\n\nIn consequence of sin our Lord was a sufferer, even in some mysterious\nsense was \"made perfect through suffering\" (Heb. ii. 10).\n\nThe climax came in the \"full, perfect, and complete sacrifice, oblation,\nand satisfaction for the sins of the whole world\" made upon the Cross.\n\nIt is suggestive that these words should occur in the Consecration\nPrayer of the Holy Communion Service, as if to remind us that our true\nspiritual and commemorative sacrifice draws all its validity, power, and\npreciousness from the one offering of Christ made by Himself in His\ndeath.\n\nThus we see that most essential act for our salvation was not one of\nvictory, triumph, or glory, as the world reckons these things. Oh, no!\nIt was one of absolute self-surrender, involving untold anguish of soul\nand body. The results of the sufferings of our Lord have justified their\ntremendous cost.\n\nIts efficacy consisted not in the physical pains, but in the entire\nyielding up of the will. Thus it represents for us that victory over\nself which is the only path to eternal life.\n\nBut this victory, even now in these emphatically feather-bed days, is\nalways more or less painful. In the early times it meant persecution,\npoverty, isolation, death, for the sake of Jesus Christ.\n\nIt is always so; the greatest deeds the world has ever known,\nnationally, or individually, have been wrought out by suffering; because\nsuffering, more than any other agent, deepens character.\n\nLook around among your friends and acquaintances. Who are the morally\nstrongest? To whom do you turn in your times of difficulty, doubt,\ntrouble? Not to those whose lives have been easy, to whom the lines have\nfallen in pleasant places, to whom success has come without effort! No!\nYou turn to the one who has fought his way through the doubt, the\ndifficulty, the trouble, and you find a tower of strength. There is the\nsecret of Charles Kingsley's power as a counsellor; once he did not\nbelieve that there was a God; he went through the agonies of doubt.\n\nThere is the secret of the wondrous force of Archbishop Temple. Rough,\nrugged, almost discourteous at times; hating shams and penetrating\nthem with an unerring instinct, but tenderness itself to the really\ndistressed. He knew what it was as a lad to do field labour in poor\nclothes and with insufficient food. In later years, when up at College,\nhe was wont to study by the light in the passage, because he could not\nafford oil for his own lamp.\n\nYet another illustration, showing the directly spiritual influence\nof suffering--those countless cases of bed-ridden invalids, often in\nintense pain, who develop an intense, fervent, yet restful piety, seldom\nattained even by the most devout in active life.\n\nThose who have had experience in missions or dealing with individual\nsouls know how constantly suffering--especially in middle life--lays the\nfoundations of conversion. Ay, and lays them strong and deep. The soul\nin trouble feels its need of God, turns to Him, and then gets to know\nthe fulness of His mercy, even in and through the affliction.\n\nAnd now, how stands it in regard to the War? We need not repeat in\ndetail those various points on which we have already dwelt. Spite of\nall the ghastly sufferings the War is bringing in its train, nay, in a\nsense, because of them, it has linked together the Empire in the closest\nbonds, allayed political and polemical strife, evoked a wealth of\nheroism, self-sacrifice, prayer, and benevolence, and braced up the\nmoral fibre of countless lives.\n\nYet all this does not explain the existence of suffering, the why and\nthe wherefore still lie hidden in that region of the infinite which we,\nfinite beings, cannot penetrate. We can see, from its results, that\nsuffering is no more incompatible with the eternal love of God, than the\nsurgeon's knife is inconsistent with the tenderness of his heart. \"Whom\nthe Lord loveth He chasteneth,\" \"God dealeth with you as with sons\"\n(Heb. xii., 6, etc.). Our great mistake is to look upon trouble as\npunishment, inflicted by an angry God, and to rebel under the chastening\nhand. When God sees that His child, whether the nation or the\nindividual, needs discipline He sends it, and there is no more lack of\nlove than there is on the part of the wise earthly parent, when he\ncorrects his child and makes him suffer pain. Nay, it is the very love\nthat prompts the discipline.\n\nOnce more, let us look at suffering in its power of producing sympathy.\n\nThe Incarnation was the greatest act of sympathy the world has ever\nknown. The Word made flesh, our Saviour born as a babe, that He might\nenter into all the experiences of our human nature; that He might not\nsimply feel _for_ us, but feel _with_ us.\n\nHere is the essence of the word; take it in Latin, compassion; take it\nin Greek, sympathy--alike it means feeling with. And in the wondrous\nmystery of the Church, the spiritual body of Christ, the same great\nprinciple is still working itself out.\n\nVery strange, very mysterious, yet real with the essence of reality, is\nthe connection between the suffering Christ and the suffering Church,\n\"inasmuch as ye have ministered to one of the least of these My\nbrethren, ye have done it unto Me.\" And yet it is the Christ Who helps\nand sustains us from on high. The same Christ Who was here upon earth,\nsuffering in His martyr Stephen was yet standing at the Father's right\nhand to succour him.\n\nThe same Christ Who flashed the wondrous vision of Himself on the eyes\nof S. Paul, was yet so intimately present in and with His infant Church\nthat he \"thundered\" forth the question, \"Saul, Saul, why persecutest\nthou Me?\"\n\nIt is just this thought of Christ still present in the person of His\nsuffering children, that gives the glow of enthusiasm to philanthropic\nwork of a definitely Christian character. But may we not go a step\nfurther and try to see Christ, in a measure, in all suffering, even that\nof the animals? He came to redeem the world, and we in our little view\nare apt to narrow down the purposes, and limit the possibilities within\nvery contracted lines.\n\nThe War is opening up to us opportunities boundless in their character\nand scope. Probably to-day tens of thousands who have hitherto spent\naimless lives; whose time, means, gifts have gone in the shallow channel\nof self, now know something at least of the joy of launching out on to\nthe broad stream of living, loving sympathy. This has been because,\nthough in some instances unconsciously to themselves, Christ, in the\npower of His Holy Spirit, has touched their lives.\n\nIf anguish has come to our hearts let it work its discipline upon us in\nand through Christ, by the opening out of ourselves to Him, that we may\ntake in the full measure of His priceless sympathy. Let us try to lose\nourselves in ministering to others, one of the surest anodynes for grief\nand pain.\n\nBut if we have, as yet, passed unscathed, let us be all the more\ndiligent, tender, and loving in our care for others.\n\nThere is no need to go into details. Wherever your lot be cast you have\nonly just to look around and you will find there are individuals, wives\nat home, soldiers at the front, whose lot you can brighten in very\nsimple yet very real ways; perhaps institutions, such as Red Cross\nHomes, Hospitals, Belgian Hostels, to which you can render practical\nservice; Funds to which you can send your money; all these are means\nthrough which you may enter into the glorious discipline of opportunity\nthat comes through suffering.\n\nHave you ever thought how infinitely poorer the world would be in all\nthat is highest and purest in its life, were there no suffering to call\nforth the tender ministry of sympathy?\n\nAnd now let us summarise what we have been saying. Suffering is a\ngreat mystery, but two facts throw light upon it--the hereafter, the\nIncarnation; suffering does discipline character, therefore, judging by\nresults, it is not incompatible with the love of God, even though its\nexistence be still a problem; suffering presents us with the splendid\npossibility of sympathy, to be exercised in the power of the loving\nChrist.\n\nCan we close better than with the thought of the saints in Paradise?\n\nOn earth they lived in the always realised consciousness of a personal\nChrist. When the Apostles were persecuted and beaten, they departed from\nthe Council \"rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for\nHis name.\" So it has been all down the long story of the ages. And the\nsaints are those \"who have washed their robes and made them white in the\nblood of the Lamb\"; their sufferings sanctified by, and borne in, the\npower of Him Who was made perfect by the things which He endured. Their\n\"light affliction, which was but for a moment, has worked out for them\nthe exceeding abundant and eternal weight of glory.\"\n\nThus the Incarnation, the eternal counsel of the past, that embraced\nthem while they were on earth, is still enfolding them, while they,\nwith us, wait and pray for its final consummation, in the coming of\nthe Kingdom.\n\nLet us so use our opportunities for discipline now, that the uplifting\nof character shall be permanent; not a mere spasm of passing enthusiasm,\nbut a real growth into the character and likeness of Him Who suffered\ndeath upon the Cross, that all might live unto Him.\n\n_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\n=Discipline through Bereavement=\n\nSIXTH SUNDAY IN LENT\n\n1 Thess. iv. 13\n\n  \"We would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that fall\n  asleep; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope.\"\n\n\nOf all kinds of sorrow, bereavement is in some senses the sternest,\nthe most irrevocable, and the one in which human compassion is of\nleast avail.\n\nAll that we said last week on the discipline of suffering applies here,\nbut with enhanced force. If suffering generally cannot be rationally\ncontemplated outside of the doctrine of a future existence, still less\ncan death be tolerated unless it lead to further life. If sorrow in the\nbulk needs the Incarnation to throw upon it the light of God's love,\nstill more does this particular grief require the assurance that the\nfinished work of Christ operates within, as well as without, the vail.\n\nBroadly speaking, all over the world there are torn and bleeding hearts\nmourning the nearest, the dearest; in the vast majority of instances,\nfrom the circumstances of the case, men in the beginning or the very\nprime of life.\n\nThe heroism of the women has been as magnificent as that of the\nmen--nay, in a sense, more so. For those who go forth there is the\nnovelty, the excitement, the nerving sense of duty. Their time is so\nceaselessly occupied that but little space remains for brooding or for\nanxious thought, on behalf of themselves or those at home. The men who\nremain behind, the fathers, brothers, friends, have the priceless boon\nof daily occupation, often vastly increased in amount. There is no such\ninfallible anodyne of care as plenty of honest work.\n\nBut the women--theirs is the harder task, the fiercer trial, of keeping\nup the brave appearance, the show of cheerfulness, whilst all the time\nthe load of apprehension and fear lies heavy on their hearts. None will\never know the crushing reality of the offering the women are making to\ntheir country, in one great stream of self-sacrifice.\n\nNor can we forecast the end, nor estimate the claims that are yet to be\nmade in the cause of patriotism. The nations engaged, at least the chief\nof them, are fixed irrevocably in their determination that peace, when\nit comes, shall be no temporary patching up of hostilities and arranging\nof indemnities, but a solid, lasting settlement, which shall, as far as\npossible, place another vast European war out of the range of practical\npolitics.\n\nTo tens of thousands there has come the ceaseless yearning for\n\n  The touch of a vanished hand,\n  The sound of a voice that is still.\n\n\nNow notice how S. Paul deals with the matter. \"That ye sorrow not as\nothers which have no hope.\" There is no injunction here not to sorrow\nat all; that would be contrary to human nature, and would bespeak\ncallousness rather than resignation. Our Blessed Lord wept at the grave\nof Lazarus, and in so doing sanctified human grief. The keenest faith,\nto which the other world is an absolute reality; the fullest hope of the\nsure and certain resurrection for the dear one; the most disciplined and\nsubmissive will which accepts unquestioningly the dispensations of the\nFather; all these are not proof against the natural grief at the removal\nof a loved one from this sphere of tender intimacies, into another,\nwhere we can only commune with him in thought and prayer.\n\nHow often this is illustrated at the death of a chronic invalid who has\nsuffered much. With tears streaming down the cheeks, the mourner will\nsay, \"I am so thankful he is at rest.\" No selfish, rebellious side of\ngrief is exhibited by those tears; only human sorrow, blending in loving\nharmony with perfect resignation.\n\nNow notice carefully the ground on which S. Paul bases the Christian's\nhope for the departed; first, faith in the death and resurrection of\nChrist; \"if we believe that Jesus died and rose again.\" It is a mere\nplatitude to say that the whole of S. Paul's teaching is founded on the\nactuality of the resurrection. \"If Christ hath not been raised, your\nfaith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen\nasleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in\nChrist, we are of all men most miserable\" (1 Cor. xv. 17). Then out of\nthis fact of the resurrection flows a consequence: the dead, as we call\nthem, \"sleep in Jesus,\" and will be His immediate companions at the last\nday. We cannot enter into a discussion as to the exact conditions of\nwhat is called \"Hades\" or the \"intermediate state\"; suffice it to say\nthat one great feature of it is nearness to Jesus, \"having a desire to\ndepart and be with Christ\" (Phil. i. 23); \"absent from the body, present\nwith the Lord\" (2 Cor. v. 8). Herein consists the blessed hope set\nbefore us in regard to the faithful departed; the crucified, risen,\nascended Jesus has them in His keeping; we and they alike are parts of\nthe one great Church, knit into the \"Communion of Saints\" by the mystic\nbond of the sacred bread, linked each to the other by mutual prayer;\nthey for us and we for them.\n\nVery beautifully and tenderly does the Archbishop of Canterbury deal\nwith this thought in one of his late sermons:--\n\n  \"As with bowed head and quivering lip we commend their souls into\n  the hands of a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour we feel\n  how the very passing of those brave and buoyant lives into the\n  world beyond pierces the flimsy barrier between the things which\n  are seen and temporal and the things which are unseen and eternal,\n  and again we can and do give thanks. God is not the God of the dead,\n  but of the living:--\n\n\n  \"Nor dare to sorrow with increase of grief\n  When they who go before\n  Go furnished, or because their span was brief.\n  For doubt not but that in the worlds above\n  There must be other offices of love,\n  That other tasks and ministries there are,\n  Since it is promised that His servants there\n  Shall serve him still. Therefore be strong, be strong,\n  Ye that remain, nor fruitlessly revolve,\n  Darkling, the riddles which ye cannot solve,\n  But do the works that unto you belong.\"\n\n\nHere is the magnificent prospect of hope for those who mourn: that\nthe Incarnation of our Lord is still working itself out in all its\nbeneficent purposes. By the power of the Holy Ghost, in the Church\nexpectant as in the Church militant, the answer to the constant prayer,\n\"Thy Kingdom come,\" is being ceaselessly given; and the fulness thereof\nwill be realised in the Church triumphant. The saints on earth and those\nin Paradise are equally in the hands of the Lord, though the latter have\nclearer vision and nearer sense of the fact than the former. By some\nthis is used as an argument against the practice of prayer for the\ndeparted, but surely this thought of the unity of the whole body leads\nin exactly the opposite direction. No argument can be adduced against\nthis most ancient and primitive custom, observed by the Jews long before\nthe coming of Christ, but what equally applies to any petition for an\nabsent friend still on earth. In each case they are in the keeping of\nHim Who knows best and will do right, yet for those still here we pray,\nbelieving that in His own way God will take account of our prayers and\nknit them up into His own dealings, so that they become part of His\neternal purposes. When commending the departed to Him, naturally our\nwords will be chastened and restrained because we know somewhat less of\nthe conditions of the \"intermediate state\" than we do of those of our\nown dispensation. Somewhat less; for how little do we really understand\nof the circumstances around us now in all their bearings as they lie\nopen beneath the eye of God. Therefore it is that whenever we pray we\nmust ask in full submission to our own limitations and in the spirit of\nthe Master, \"Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.\"\n\nThank God this matter is not one of argument; no, it lies in another\nplane: the innate feeling of one who really knows what prayer means and\nwho has grasped in some degree the doctrine of the \"Communion of\nSaints.\"\n\nA pious evangelical, well fortified with arguments against prayer for\nthe departed, had been nursing her sick sister and taking care of the\nlittle daughter of the house. The sister died, and the same evening\nthe motherless girl knelt down at her aunt's side to say her prayers.\n\"Auntie, may I say God bless dear mother?\" The whole drift of the aunt's\ntraining and theology would have led her to say \"No\" point blank. There\nwas no time for argument or explanation, for facing the inevitable \"If\nnot, why not?\" The instincts of natural religion prevailed; the aunt\nreplied, \"Yes, dear\"; and from that day onward never failed herself to\nsay, when remembering her dear ones, \"God bless my sister.\"\n\nWhatever the effect of such prayers in the other world, there is no\nshade of doubt that to the bereaved they bring an infinite sense of\nnearness to their beloved, and of the reality of the life of the world\nto come.\n\nThus far we have been speaking of those who may fairly be called the\nfaithful departed, the cases in which hope may be reasonable and assured\nalmost to certainty.\n\nNow let us go a step further. The mind staggers as it contemplates the\ntens of thousands being hurried into eternity who, either according to\nthe teaching of the Catholic Church or the notions of popular theology,\nwould be deemed unprepared.\n\nWe trust, in a dim sort of way, that the all-embracing mercy of God\nwill accept their sacrifice of themselves for their country, and in\nsome fashion place it to the credit side of their account. No doubt\nHe will. But can we not get a more evangelical, and at the same time\nmore catholic, view of the matter? We find it in an extension of our\nconception of the possibilities of the intermediate state, the condition\nof souls between death and judgment. Evangelical to the backbone,\nbecause it is the work of Christ which we conceive of as being there\ncarried on. Catholic, because the Church from very early times has\nrecognised the idea of the discipline of souls as being a process\ncontinued after death. The authority of S. Paul has been appealed to on\naccount of his words to the Philippians (i. 6), \"being confident of this\nvery thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until\nthe day of Jesus Christ\"; and to the Corinthians in that mysterious\npassage concerning \"the fire which shall try every man's work\" (1 Cor.\niii. 13). The doctrine was developed and materialised till it resulted\nin those corruptions which were so largely responsible for the\nReformation. In their zeal to root out error, the Reformers fell into\nthe opposite extreme and abolished the idea of the intermediate state\naltogether. Hence arose the popular notion, unknown to the Catholic\nChurch till then, of Heaven or Hell as the immediate issue of death.\n\nOf course, the Church's teaching had regard to the condition of its own\nmembers after death, and we cannot press it into an argument as to those\nnot dying, technically, in a state of grace; but at least this much we\nmay say: Surely no intelligent person can contemplate the thought of\nthese vast hosts being hurried off into eternal perdition, and at the\nsame time retain his reason or his faith in a God of love. Whatever the\npossibilities of the world to come, they are but the extension of the\nboundless love of God in Christ, and hold out no promise for us if we\nwilfully neglect our day of grace.\n\nBut now to pass on to one further source of consolation which comes\nin its measure to all the bereaved alike; the chastened joy from the\nthought of the splendid sacrifice the dear one has been privileged\nto make.\n\nTake an illustration--a letter from Major-General Allenby to Lady de\nCrespigny on the death of her son:--\n\n\n  \"Dear Lady de Crespigny,--I and the whole of the Cavalry\n  Division sympathise with you, and we feel deeply for Norman's loss.\n  But I must tell you that he died a hero's death. The brigade was hotly\n  engaged, and on the Bays fell the brunt of the fighting on September\n  1st. Norman, with a few men, was holding an important tactical point,\n  and he held it till every man was killed or wounded. No man could have\n  done more, few would have done so much.\n\n  \"With deepest sympathy, yours sincerely,\n\n  \"E.H.H. Allenby.\"\n\n\nHow the bereaved hearts in the midst of crushing grief must have lit up\nwith gladness at such a record as that!\n\nBut to close. The discipline of bereavement consists essentially in the\ntrial of faith, yet at the same time brings with it the power of faith.\nIn bereavement, above all other forms of sorrow, comes the felt need of\nGod; it has been so with countless souls. The answer to the need is the\nrevelation that God makes of Himself in Christ; then comes the peace of\nGod, which passeth all understanding, which dries the tears and heals\nthe broken heart.\n\n_Note_.--The question of prayer in connection with God's foreknowledge\nis so admirably treated in \"Some Elements of Religion\" (Liddon) that we\nappend an extract:--\n\n\n  \"What if prayers and actions, to us at the moment perfectly spontaneous,\n  are eternally foreseen and included within the all-embracing\n  Predestination of God, as factors and causes, working out that final\n  result which, beyond all dispute, is the product of His Good Pleasure?\n\n  \"Whether I open my mouth or lift my hand is, before my doing it,\n  strictly within the jurisdiction and power of my personal will: but\n  however I may decide, my decision, so absolutely free to me, will have\n  been already incorporated by the All-seeing, All-controlling Being as an\n  integral part, however insignificant, of His one all-embracing purpose,\n  leading on to effects and causes beyond itself. Prayer, too, is only a\n  foreseen action of man which, together with its results, is embraced in\n  the eternal Predestination of God. To us this or that blessing may be\n  strictly contingent on our praying for it; but our prayer is\n  nevertheless so far from necessarily introducing change into the purpose\n  of the Unchangeable, that it has been all along taken, so to speak, into\n  account by Him. If, then, with 'the Father of Lights' there is in this\n  sense 'no variableness, neither shadow of turning,' it is not therefore\n  irrational to pray for specific blessings, as we do in the Litany,\n  because God works out His plans not merely in us but by us; and we may\n  dare to say that that which is to us a free self-determination, may be\n  not other than a foreseen element of His work.\"\n\n_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\n=Discipline through Self-sacrifice=\n\nGOOD FRIDAY\n\n1 Tim. ii. 6\n\n  \"Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all.\"\n\n\nTo-day we reach the solemn climax which embraces in itself the whole\nidea of discipline under each of those aspects upon which we have\ntouched. Will, body, soul, spirit, obedience, suffering, death, all\nsummed up in the tremendous self-sacrifice declared by the Cross of\nChrist.\n\nThe principle of sacrifice is one of those deep mysteries which seem,\nas it were, to be rooted in the very nature of our being. It begins\nin the initial fact by which man's existence is maintained upon\nearth--motherhood, a vast vicarious sacrifice. Yet borne with gratitude,\nreadiness, ay, even with joy because of the dignity, the love, the\ndelights it brings with it. One of the surest signs of the decadence\nof a nation is when its women, through desire of merely living for\nthemselves, begin to rebel against the high privilege of motherhood, or\nto neglect the duties it should entail. This attitude of mind poisons\nlife at its fountain-head.\n\nTime would fail us, nor indeed would it be profitable, to enter upon a\ndiscussion as to the exact theological bearing of the death of Christ\nupon the forgiveness of sins. This is a matter which may rightly occupy\nthe attention of theologians and scholars who endeavour, so far as\ninfinite verities can be expressed in finite language, to give a reason\nfor the hope that is in them. Such books as Liddon's Bampton Lectures,\nDale on the Atonement, or Illingworth on Personality, will be found most\nvaluable by those who have the time and the capacity for studying them.\nIt is a good thing, especially in these days, that the intellect of the\nChristian should be well-equipped, so that he may silence the taunts of\nthose who say Christianity is purely a matter of emotion.\n\nThe personal acceptance of Christ as a personal Saviour rests, not so\nmuch on arguments, as on a sense of need; when this is accompanied by\nstrong intellectual grip of truth then the influence of the Christian\nupon others becomes a great missionary factor. The beauty of the Gospel\nstory lies in its wonderful adaptability. It is the same in its power to\na Pascal, a Butler, a Liddon, as it is to the unlettered peasant, who\ncan neither read nor write.\n\nScripture declares quite plainly that the death of Christ was \"for us\";\nhow far this may be pressed to mean \"instead of us\" is a very grave\nquestion. The words will bear that interpretation, no doubt, but we must\nremember that they do not necessarily involve any more than \"in our\nbehalf,\" that is, for our benefit.\n\nIt has been the forcing of the words into an unnatural and immoral\ntheory of substitution, the notion of an angry God claiming a victim,\nthat has done such terrible harm to the cause of Christianity, and has\nled many thoughtful minds to give it up in disgust or despair. Probably\nin a wise commingling of the two lines of thought we shall arrive most\nnearly at the truth. We all agree that our Blessed Lord's death was \"in\nbehalf of us\"; that is for our everlasting welfare; in a very real sense\nthis was \"instead of us,\" since His sufferings were endured so that we\nmight not lose the blessing of salvation.\n\nVery beautifully is the matter summed up by a modern writer: \"In the\ndeath of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Sacrifice and Propitiation for the\nsins of the world, the moral perfections of God find their highest\nexpression, and the deepest necessities of man's moral and spiritual\nlife their only complete satisfaction.\"[3]\n\n[Footnote 3: Dale on the Atonement.]\n\nThe death of Christ was not only typically but, in a certain sense,\nactually the offering up of our bodies on the Cross. Notice very\ncarefully the words of St. Paul, \"I have been crucified with Christ\"\n(Gal. ii., 20 R.V.). Not simply, as in the old Authorised Version,\n\"I am crucified with Christ,\" but something much more definite and exact.\nWhen Christ ascended the Cross He took up with Him our human nature\ncollectively, as bound up in Himself by virtue of His Incarnation. Hence\nit follows that you, the individual, have been crucified with Him; just\nas you, the individual, have been buried with Him, and raised with Him\nin your Baptism (Rom. vi., 4). How completely this takes the sting out\nof the reproach brought against Christianity, on the ground of the\nimmorality of the Crucifixion! It is no longer the Innocent one\nsuffering instead of the guilty, but it is the sinless One taking upon\nHimself human nature, with all its guilt and consequent punishment, and\n\"in His own body on the tree,\" offering that human nature up to God. He\nin us, we in Him, that the redemption of human nature may be complete.\nCanon Liddon thus puts it in one of his University sermons, \"The\nsubstitution of the suffering Christ arose directly out of the terms of\nthe Incarnation. The human nature which our Lord assumed was none other\nthan the very nature of the sinner, only without its sin. Therefore He\nbecomes the Redeemer of our several persons, because He is already the\nRedeemer of this our common nature, which He has made for ever His own.\"\n\nWe have already noticed that it was not the sufferings of Christ which\nwere acceptable to God the Father. To think this would be to fall back\ninto the very crudest and most repulsive idea of substitution. No, it\nwas the offering up of the will of Christ that formed the essence of the\nsacrifice. If we may presume to attempt a mere earthly illustration of\nso tremendous a matter, let us take the case of a General whose son\nmeets with a terrible death while leading a forlorn hope. The father's\nheart is torn with anguish both for the death and the circumstances of\nit; but at the same time the father's heart swells with pride, ay, even\nwith joy, that his son should have been true to the highest thing in the\nworld--duty.\n\nHe Who said, \"I come not to do mine own will but the will of Him that\nsent Me,\" also said, \"I lay My life down of Myself, no man taketh it\nfrom Me.\" Herein is the discipline of sacrifice complete by the using\nof one's own will to surrender it absolutely to the will of another.\n\nWe have spoken so fully of the surrenders of will being made on all\nsides that we need say no more now on that point, but for further\nillustration let us turn our thoughts in a somewhat fresh direction.\n\nThe example of Belgium is a living witness of the power of\nself-sacrifice.\n\nG.K. Chesterton has put forth a striking pamphlet entitled \"The\nMartyrdom of Belgium\"; in it he says:\n\n  \"There are certain quite unique and arresting features about the case\n  of Belgium. To begin with, it cannot be too much considered what a\n  daring stroke of statesmanship--far-sighted, perhaps, but of frightful\n  courage--the King of the Belgians ventured in resisting at all. Of\n  that statesmanship we had the whole advantage, and Belgium the whole\n  disadvantage: she saved France, she saved England--herself she could\n  not save.\"\n\n\nHad Belgium yielded instead of standing out, then, humanly speaking,\nnothing could have averted the immediate success of the German dash\nfor Paris.\n\nNow think for one moment of the solemn obligation this lays upon us in\nregard to that gallant, struggling, yet temporarily dismembered little\nnation. We must look after the refugees. There are those who say, \"The\nGovernment have brought the Belgians over here, let the Government make\ntheir support a State matter.\"\n\nOne almost blushes to have to deal with such a sentiment. Could\n1_s._ in the L income-tax take the place, morally, spiritually, or\nethically, of the rich profusion of voluntary aid now being poured\nforth? The loss to the nation, of that which is purest and noblest in\nits life, would be simply unspeakable. It is suffering that provides\nopportunity for the exercise of the highest duty known to man, \"Bear ye\none another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.\" Try to picture\nto yourself, quietly yet resolutely, what it would mean to you to-morrow\nmorning, to find suddenly that you had to leave your house, not in a\nmotor-car for a railway train; no! but to turn out at once, without time\nto put together any belongings; to tramp, perhaps in pouring rain, along\nmiles of road, foodless, cold, exhausted; seeing those around you\ndropping out to faint or die by the wayside; not knowing where or how\nthe journey should end. This is what has happened to tens of thousands\nof Belgians; many, cultured and refined, coming forth penniless from\nhomes of comfort and plenty!\n\nIn ministering to the needs of the Belgians you find a glorious\nprivilege, a priceless opportunity. Again, to quote G.K. Chesterton:\n\n  \"In a sense Belgium could still have saved her face; but she preferred\n  to save Europe. This, it seems to me, gives her a claim on something\n  beyond pity or even gratitude--a claim on our intellectual honour beyond\n  anything that even suffering could extort.\"\n\n\nOur Lent is nearly over. With all its opportunities, its calls,\nits privileges, it is now behind us. Some perhaps began it with high\nresolves and brave hopes, and are disappointed at the apparently small\nresults. None, we trust, are wholly satisfied with themselves, for that\nwould point to a condition far worse than despair. There is such a thing\nas divine discontent, and every true Christian should know something of\nit. For all the conscious failures ask pardon, but do not give up\nstriving.\n\nStanding under the Cross of Christ, as we do to-day, we have a standard\nfor the measuring of ourselves which makes our little efforts at\ndiscipline look very poor indeed. Yet He remembers our frame, He knows\nwhereof we are made; He can and will accept the feeblest struggles of\nour will towards His. Perhaps some progress in the life of grace may\nhave been made, then thank Him and take courage.\n\nLet us just cast our minds back. The discipline of the will means,\nlaying ourselves open to listen to the voice of the living God. The\ndiscipline of the body means, never letting it get the upper hand of the\nreal self. The discipline of the soul means the taking a very serious\nview of the responsibility of life. The discipline of the spirit means,\na close approach to God by every channel of worship. The discipline of\nobedience means, that we put self in the background, so that we may\nexalt the person of Christ. The discipline of sorrow means, that Christ\nis still present in His suffering ones, and there is our opportunity.\nThe discipline of bereavement means, the trial of our faith that it may\nenter into the realities of the spiritual kingdom.\n\nThen comes the crown and climax, the discipline of self-sacrifice.\nPlace steadily before you the thought of Christ crucified, see there the\nculmination of all possibility of the offering up of self for others.\nNo element of completeness was wanting. The sacrifice was voluntary,\nwas made for enemies, brought no return to self.\n\nStrong in His strength go forth ready to spend and be spent, if only by\nthe discipline of self-sacrifice you can lighten the load borne by any\none of your fellow-creatures.\n\n\n  What hast Thou done for me, O\n    Mighty Friend,\n    Who lovest to the end?\n  Reveal Thyself that I may now behold\n    Thy love unknown, untold,\n  Bearing the curse and made a curse for me\n    That blessed and made a blessing I might be.\n\n  Wounded for my transgressions, stricken sore,\n    That I might sin no more,\n  Weak, that I might be always strong in Thee:\n    Bound, that I might be free;\n  Acquaint with grief that I might only know\n    Fulness of joy, in everlasting flow.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_For suggested Meditations during the week see Appendix._\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\n=Discipline through Victory=\n\nEASTER DAY\n\nRomans vi. 9\n\n  \"Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.\"\n\n\nTo couple the word discipline with victory may seem incongruous almost\nto the point of impossibility. Yet, if we look below the surface, we\nshall see that never is the connection more strong and the need for\nrealising it more urgent.\n\nLent is over, its special discipline has passed, and now the danger\nbegins. The danger is lest any progress made, any victory won, should\nlead to that self-confidence which can only end in disaster. Success is\noften a discipline far more fatal in its results than failure.\n\nWe celebrate to-day the grandest victory the world has ever known: a\nvictory which sprang out of the depths of an apparently complete defeat.\n\"We trusted that it was He which should have redeemed Israel.\" Vain\nconfidence, for how could One Who had died as a malefactor, Who could\nnot save Himself, rescue His nation from the tyranny of the Roman power?\nAnd then He, this stranger Whom they knew not, opened to them the\nScriptures; showed them the necessity of the sufferings, and the great\nclimax, in the Resurrection. The ears were dull, the hearts unconvinced,\nas they generally are by mere argument, till he revealed Himself in \"the\nbreaking of bread.\" The eyes of love could not be deceived and sorrow\ngave place to joy.\n\nSome dispute has arisen as to whether we ought to pray for victory in\nthis War. The matter is well put by an anonymous writer: \"If we are only\nto pray in matters wherein there is no difference of opinion our prayers\nwill be few, and if we cannot pray for the triumph of honour over\nfalsehood, of respect for treaties over unscrupulousness, of order\nover cruelty and outrage, for what are we ever to pray? We must pray\naccording to the light we have. And if we end our prayers with the truly\nChristian supplement 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt,'\nwe cannot be doing anything contrary to the principles of the highest\nreligion. Surely prayer is, or should be, merely the expression of our\nbest hopes and wishes submitted to a Divine tribunal.\"\n\nPutting aside the question of prayer, let us consider for a moment what\nshould be our attitude as we look into the future. First and foremost\none of confidence and hopefulness. Without arrogance we can say that we\nbelieve firmly and strongly in the absolute righteousness of our cause.\nIn violating the neutrality of Belgium, Germany itself confesses that\na wrong was done. A wrong which necessity compelled, as they say. What\nnecessity? That of getting to Paris at the earliest possible moment. And\nso when Germany prays for victory, as of course it does, and ought, at\nthe same time it has to confess to an initial wrong, which was certainly\nnot made right by the fact that it was the quickest way of accomplishing\nan end.\n\nWe have purposely abstained in these Addresses from fanning flames, or\nappealing to passions. But here is a broad ground upon which, by the\nvery confession of our enemies, we stand on a higher platform. We went\nto war because we would not break a treaty, nor forsake a friend too\nweak for self-defence; Germany commenced the war by a treacherous act.\nTherefore, strong in the belief that the God of righteousness will cause\nthe right to triumph, we can calmly look forward to ultimate victory,\n\n  To doubt would be disloyalty,\n    To falter would be sin.\n\n\nMuch more might be said in the same direction, but let the broad thought\nsuffice.\n\nThe war has produced a type of pessimism which, in some instances, runs\nalmost to disturbance of mental balance. Every reverse is exaggerated,\nand accepted with a kind of confident despondency; every success\ndiscounted and treated with half-hearted incredulity: \"The Germans have\ndestroyed another ship; what is our Navy doing?\" \"Oh, but that's only\none little hill; the Germans will have it back soon enough.\" Surely\nthis kind of pessimism, except where the victim of it is not really\nresponsible, must be as offensive to God as it is exasperating to man.\n\nBut now to turn to our chief thought for the day, that is, the\npermanence of the victory of Easter Day, \"Christ dieth no more.\" That\nis why He is called \"The first fruits of them that are asleep.\" Several\nresurrections are recorded both in the Old and New Testaments, but these\nare cases of those who were raised by others, and then died again.\nChrist raised Himself and death hath no more dominion over Him. The\nresurrection is permanent and keeps on perpetuating and extending itself\nin the life of the whole universal Church. It was not an isolated act,\nbut part of a wondrous plan. Not only does it possess doctrinal\nsignificance in that plan, but vital force for the carrying of it out.\n\"He died for our sins,\" but \"He was raised for our justification.\"\n\n  Yes, death's last hope, his strongest fort and prison,\n    Is shattered, never to be built again;\n  And He, the mighty Captive, He is risen,\n    Leaving behind the gate, the bar, the chain.\n\n\nWe are praying constantly, earnestly, that we \"may be brought through\nstrife to a lasting peace\"; and that \"the nations of the world may be\nunited in a firmer fellowship for the promotion of Thy glory and the\ngood of all mankind.\" No conditions of peace are worth accepting unless\nthey will, humanly speaking, secure this result. Germany on the one\nside, and the Allies on the other, both realise that this is a \"fight to\na finish.\" Singularly enough the object of both sides is similar--to\nrender another great European war impossible: but the ideals in respect\nto its attainment are by no means the same; one looks to the setting up\nof a world dominion; the other, to the establishment of a state of\nbalanced power and mutual interests among European nations. We are\nfighting essentially for the principle of \"live and let live,\" and\ntherefore have to face unflinchingly all the sacrifice that still lies\nbefore us. When peace is concluded it must be upon terms which will make\nresults permanent! Should Germany, in the mysterious providence of God,\nbe allowed to become supreme, there will be peace, but, alas! only the\npeace of desolation and the numbness of despair. But, as we have already\nsaid, it seems disloyal to all our deepest instincts, all our truest\nfeelings, even to contemplate such a possibility.\n\nBut when the Allies triumph, what then?--the discipline of victory.\nThink for one moment of what the victory of Christ meant, as the\nratification of the treaty signed upon the Cross, in the very hour of\napparent defeat. It meant for you and me all that is included in the\nwords \"the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; the means\nof grace and the hope of glory.\" The resurrection puts the seal to the\ngreat charter, commenced at Bethlehem, indited page by page through the\nwondrous life of three and thirty years, closed, as to its earthly side,\non Calvary, sealed, signed and delivered on Easter morning. In the power\nof that treaty of peace you and I live, day by day; secure except for\nour own carelessness; beyond all possibility of hurt from spiritual\nenemies, unless by our own traitorous dealings with them. The victory\nwas complete! \"He hath put all enemies under His feet\"; the victory is\npermanent, for, \"death hath no more dominion over Him.\"\n\nIn these Addresses we have said much about those large results which God\nis allowing us already to see as obviously coming out of the war; on our\nDay of \"Humble Prayer to Almighty God\" we solemnly thanked Him:\n\n\n  For the laying aside of controversies at home, and for the unity of\n  the Nation and Empire;\n\n  For the loyal and loving response of our fellow-subjects beyond the\n  seas;\n\n  For the full harmony between our Allies and ourselves, and for the\n  success which has already been granted to our common efforts;\n\n  For the devotion of those who have laid down their lives for their\n  country;\n\n  For the revelation in danger, in suffering, and in death, of the power\n  of the Cross and the benefits of the Lord's Passion.\n\n\nNow remains the question, Are the results to be permanent? That entirely\ndepends upon our attitude towards the discipline of victory; or how we\nare going to behave ourselves in the hour of success. It is written\nconcerning Israel, \"The Lord saved them from the hand of them that hated\nthem: and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Then believed they\nHis words, they sang His praise. They soon forgat His works: they waited\nnot for His counsel.\" God willing we shall ere long be singing our Te\nDeum; oh! yes, we shall do it with all our heart and soul; but how are\nwe to fix the emotions, to render permanent that thankfulness which we\nshall really feel. The Israelites \"waited not for His counsel.\" They\nfailed, that is, under the discipline of success. Victory is given that\nit may be used for good, just as much as failure is sent that we may\nrise on \"stepping-stones of our dead-selves\" to fresh endeavour.\n\nAs a nation we have been single-minded and honourable in our entry upon\nand our waging of the War; when it is over we are to be just the same in\nour use of the fruits of the War. Victory will not come to us simply for\nour own sakes and that it may be selfishly exploited for our own needs.\nNo, assuredly not: it will come for the mutual benefit of all concerned,\nand unless the very first fruits of it be dedicated to the cause of\nheroic Belgium, to her re-instatement in something of her former\ncondition, it will have come in vain. The time of distress and disaster\nhas knit together the Empire in a wondrous unity of brotherhood. There\nwill be debts to be repaid to India and our Colonies, debts which can\nnever be discharged in money, but in those higher acts of fellowship,\njustice, endeavour, which will knit yet closer the bonds that have been\nformed. There will remain a large heritage of disablement and\nunemployment to cope with which will require wise counsel, comprehensive\nmeasures, real self-sacrifice. It is computed that should the war last\nanother eighteen months there will be nearly a quarter of a million men\nmore or less unfitted to resume their ordinary callings.\n\nAll this, you say, is the concern of the State; certainly, but what is\nthe State? Only another term for you and me. Therefore the seriousness\nof attitude, the sense of proportion, the realisation of brotherhood,\nthat by the mercy of God we have gained, must be retained for the facing\nof the new problems that will lie before us.\n\nTurning to the more purely personal aspect of it, there will be the\ntemptation to grow slack and cold in intercessions and communions, when\nthe immediate occasion that prompted them has passed. To be forewarned\nis to be forearmed, let us look out for this, expect it, then we shall\nnot be afraid to meet it. \"Christ being raised from the dead dieth no\nmore\"; think what the permanency of that victory has meant all down the\nages of the past in the triumphs of the saints, in the deaths of the\nmartyrs, in the splendid story of the Church of Christ. Think what it\nmeans to-day in the lives of millions of the faithful; in all the deeds\nof charity which are brightening homes, cheering hearts, giving hope to\nthe hopeless, healing to the sick, and soundness to the maimed: think of\nall it means in rest and refreshment to the souls in Paradise; think of\nall it still will mean in the growth of the Church of Christ up to the\nfulness of its destined and glorious completion; think of all it may\nmean for you in your individual life, right up to the day when you shall\nbe like Him, for you shall see Him as He is.\n\nIn the permanence of the victory of Christ, may we each one of us so use\nthe discipline of victory that it may redound to the glory of Him, in\nWhom we live, and move, and have our being.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nGIVING A SPECIAL THOUGHT AND PASSAGE FOR\nMEDITATION FOR EACH DAY IN LENT\nSUGGESTED BY THE ADDRESSES.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nA SUGGESTED THOUGHT FOR DAILY MEDITATION\n\n_N.B.--You will find it useful to look up references in a reference\nBible._\n\n\nAsh Wednesday: God wishes that we should be saved.--1 Tim. ii. 3, 4; 2\nPet. iii. 9.\n\nThursday: Our natural will is in conflict with God's will.--Rom. vii.\n21-25.\n\nFriday: God the Holy Ghost assists us by illuminating the will.--S. John\nxvi. 13-15.\n\nSaturday: What is the guiding principles of our lives?--Ps. xxxix. 7; S.\nMatt. vi. 19-24.\n\n\n1st Sunday in Lent: The Incarnation the mission of Christ to the\nbody.--S. John i. 1-14; Eph. v. 23.\n\nMonday: The body in its physical aspect wonderfully suited to its\npurposes.--Gen. i. 26-28; ii., 7; Ps. cxxxix. 14.\n\nTuesday: The body the external means by which we receive the\nSacraments.--Heb. x. 22; Acts viii. 14-17; 1 Cor. xi. 26.\n\nWednesday: The body in its ultimate destiny.--1 Cor. xv. 42-49; 1 John\niii. 2, 3.\n\nThursday: Disciplining the body braces the will.--2 Tim. ii. 3; Heb. xi.\n32-40.\n\nFriday: The corporate life of the Church in its bearing on influence and\nconduct.--1 Cor. xii. 12-27.\n\nSaturday: The duty of example in respect of the temperance question.--1\nCor. viii. 7-13; 2 Cor. viii. 9.\n\n\n2nd Sunday in Lent: The inner value of our life.--S. Mark viii. 34-38.\n\nMonday: The deadening effect of prosperity.--S. James v. 1-6.\n\nTuesday: Our Lord's example of single-mindedness.--S. Mark vii. 37; S.\nMatt. xxvi. 39-44.\n\nWednesday: The need for seriousness in thought.--S. Matt. xv. 10-20;\nPhil. iv. 8.\n\nThursday: The need for seriousness in word.--S. James iii. 1-11.\n\nFriday: The need for seriousness in deed.--S. James iii. 13-18; 1 Pet.\nv. 8.\n\nSaturday: The need for perseverance, lest we forfeit our blessings.--Rom\nii. 4-7; Rev. ii. 18-29.\n\n\n3rd Sunday in Lent: Man seeking after God.--Ps. xlii.\n\nMonday: The Incarnation the means by which the union between God and man\nis brought about.--S. John xvii. 17-26.\n\nTuesday: Prayer the characteristic act of religion.--S. Matt. vii. 7-12;\nEph. vi. 18.\n\nWednesday: The importance of self-examination as leading to\nself-knowledge.--Gal. vi. 3-5.\n\nThursday: Confession of sins to God the only condition of\nforgiveness.--1 John i. 5-10.\n\nFriday: Forgiveness of sins comes from God through the blood of\nChrist.--Eph. i. 3-12.\n\nSaturday: The ministry of reconciliation committed to the ministers, as\nChrist's ambassadors.--2 Cor. v. 18; S. John xx. 22, 23.\n\n\n4th Sunday in Lent: The natural body of Christ the source of\nhealings.--S. Matt. xiv. 34-36.\n\nMonday: The spiritual body of Christ found in His Church.--Eph. i.\n18-23.\n\nTuesday: The sacramental body of Christ, given to us in the Holy\nCommunion.--1 Cor. x., 14-21.\n\nWednesday: Obedience the test of religion.--Rom. vi. 16-23.\n\nThursday: Self-indulgence the great obstacle to obedience.--S. Luke xvi.\n19-31.\n\nFriday: Self-renunciation the condition of service.--Acts xx. 17-24.\n\nSaturday: Our Lord's example of obedience.--Phil. ii. 1-11; Heb. xii.\n1-3.\n\n\n5th Sunday in Lent: Suffering in the light of eternity.--Rev. vii. 9-17;\n2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.\n\nMonday: Suffering in the light of the Incarnation.--S. Matt. viii. 16,\n17; Heb. iv. 14-16.\n\nTuesday: Christ still suffering in His people.--S. Matt. xxv. 34-46;\nActs ix. 4.\n\nWednesday: Devotion to Christ the power of endurance.--Acts v. 40-42;\nRom. viii. 35-39.\n\nThursday: Christ succouring those who suffer for Him.--Acts vii. 54-60;\nxxvii. 21-26.\n\nFriday: Character disciplined by suffering.--Heb. x. 32-36; xii. 4-11.\n\nSaturday: Suffering giving opportunity for sympathy.--Heb. xii. 12, 13;\nS. James i. 27; ii. 14-16.\n\n\n6th Sunday in Lent: The resurrection of Christ, the basis of hope.--1\nThess. iv. 13-18.\n\nMonday: The Holy Spirit the power of the risen life, here and\nhereafter.--Rom. viii. 5-11.\n\nTuesday: The communion of Saints in the one body of Christ.--Heb. xii.\n1, 2, and 22-24.\n\nWednesday: The departed remembering us.--S. Luke xvi. 19-31; esp. v. 24;\nRev. vi. 9.\n\nThursday: The glorious reward of faithful service.--S. Matt. xxv. 14-23.\n\nGood Friday: What does the death of Christ mean to me?--S. John xix.\n23-30.\n\nEaster Eve: Am I showing the fruits of my Baptism by leading a risen\nlife?--Rom. vi. 1-11.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD.,\n  BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.","title":"The Discipline of War: Nine Addresses on the Lessons of the War in Connection with Lent","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":19717}