{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29096/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29096","id":"gutenberg_29096","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29096","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Devotional literature"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMemoranda\n\nSacra\n\n\nBY\n\nJ. RENDEL HARRIS\n\n\n\nFOURTH EDITION\n\n\n\nHODDER AND STOUGHTON\n\nLONDON\n\nMCMVII\n\n\n\n\nTO MY BELOVED IN CHRIST JESUS\n\nIt pleased God, in the days when we used to meet together in Cambridge\nfor His worship and for personal help, to draw us unitedly very close\nto Himself, so that few of us are likely to forget the seasons of\nrefreshing which we enjoyed from His presence; and if, by His good\nprovidence, any of us meet in these later days, one of the readiest\nsentences to rise to our lips is the word, \"Do you remember?\"  The\npapers which make up this little volume were originally designed to the\nsame end, the remembrance of one another, and of the truths which God\ntaught us.  How often were the pencilled notes of one and another put\ninto my hand after some bright and happy meeting, that a few copies\nmight be made and circulated!  It is more than fourteen years since\nthis was first done, and the latest fragment of this book is more than\nten years old.  You can see the creases of time in them, and, indeed,\nthey were never properly rounded.  Take them, however, collected and\nreprinted, as a token (the only token I can give) that the moth and\nrust of time have not eaten away the affection which I had for you all,\nand that those two thieves, Change and Death, which were so early busy\nwith us, have not been able to undermine the house of our Love, nor\nabstract the treasure of our common Faith.\n\nJ. RENDEL HARRIS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n    I.  GOD THE GOD OF THE LIVING\n   II.  BELIEVING AND BECOMING\n  III.  GLEAMING AS CRYSTAL\n   IV.  HEART ENLARGEMENT\n    V.  HE RESTORETH MY SOUL\n   VI.  ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION\n  VII.  A CONFERENCE ON DEATH\n VIII.  CHRIST WILL TAKE ALL\n   IX.  STRONG CRYING\n    X.  THE SENTINEL OF THE HEART\n   XI.  THY FATHER IN SECRET\n  XII.  TESTS OF FAITH, LOVE, AND RIGHTNESS\n XIII.  THE ETERNAL IDEA\n  XIV.  MORE LIGHT\n   XV.  OVER-OVERCOMING\n\n\n\n\nGOD THE GOD OF THE LIVING\n\n\n\nI am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up.\n\nForasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He\nalso Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He\nmight destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and\ndeliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject\nto bondage.\n\nWho is like unto Thee, O most mighty LORD, for verily Thy truth is on\nevery side.  Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I\nflee from Thy Presence?  If I climb up into heaven, Thou art there.  If\nI go down unto the dead, Thou art there also.  If I take the wings of\nthe morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there\nalso shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.\nTherefore when I sleep in the grave, I am in Thy cradle; and when I\nshall arise up and awake, behold around me are Thy everlasting arms.\n\n  So not alone we land upon that shore:\n  'Twill be as though we had been there before;\n      We shall meet more we know\n      Than we can meet below,\n  And find our rest like some returning dove,\n  And be at home at once with our Eternal Love.\n\n\n\nI\n\nGOD THE GOD OF THE LIVING[1]\n\n\"Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he\ncalls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of\nJacob.  He is not a God of dead men, but of living men, for all live\nunto Him.\"--LUKE xx. 37, 38.\n\n\nIt is very likely that some of us may have been perplexed in the study\nof this passage at the answer which the Lord Jesus gave to the\nSadducees, and doubtful as to whether their difficulties and questions\nwere fairly met by the text that He quoted.\n\nCertainly if we had been told to search the Scriptures for passages\nbearing on the Future Life and the doctrine of the Resurrection, this\nis about the last text that we should have thought of adducing; we\nshould never have detected in these verses a key that would unlock the\nclosed doors between two worlds and make sunlight be where previously\nall was dark.\n\nAnd even if we had been pointed to this passage containing the\nrevelation of God at the bush, we should probably only have seen in it\nanother of the magnificent affirmations of the Divine self-existence,\nanother of the grand \"I Am's\" which sound forth at times from the mount\nof cloud and vision.  We might even have gone so far as to see how much\nmore wonderful it is to have a faith in which, with wonderful\nsimplicity, God says \"I Am,\" than merely to have a religion which\naffirms \"He is,\" and we should have been glad that at any time there\nwere men to whom God spoke for Himself.  But we should not have\nsupposed that the statement had any bearing on our life and existence,\nor that it solved, or put us in the way of solving, some of the\nquestions that perplex us.  Perhaps the principal reason for this lies\nin the words of Jesus Himself: \"Ye do not understand the scriptures nor\nthe power of God.\"  And yet ought we not to be aware of this, that\nevery revelation of God involves a revelation about the creature, just\nas the earth is affected by every potency and virtue in the sun?\nRevelation is not merely information about God, without relation to our\nown life and being.  For instance: both the Spirit and the Scripture\ncombine to assure us that God is Love.  Is that merely a piece of\ntheological information about God of which the universe is independent,\nor does He not in the revelation spread His wide pinions over all\ncreatures that He has made and gather them together as a hen doth\ngather her brood under her wings?  Out of such a revelation the willing\nsoul discerns the New Jerusalem descend as a bride adorned for her\nhusband; the eager soul receives, the wayward soul returns, the\nsorrowful soul is comforted.  No revelation of God is possible that is\nsimply information without a bearing on my history, my existence, my\nfuture.  And so with our text we may say the \"I Am\" of God involves the\n\"I shall be\" of the creature.  If one comes to me and says, \"I was your\nfather's friend,\" it may be either (i.) that my father is dead, or\n(ii.) that there has been a change in the affection of the person\nspeaking; but if he comes to me and says, \"I am your father's friend,\"\nhe implies two things: the existence of my father and the permanence of\nhis own love for him; and the one just as much as the other.  So when\nGod says, not \"I was the God of Abraham,\" but \"I am,\" etc., He is not\nmerely asserting His own existence and providence, but the continued\nlife of the faithful of ancient days.  And so the \"I Am\" of God\nproclaims the \"I am\" of the creature; the soul looks down the sloping\nyears and says of its prospect, \"God is, and I am.\"  And Christ's\nanswer to the Sadducee comes to this: \"You are inconsistent in denying\nthe future life; you ought first to have denied the being of God; but\nas long as He is, beat His saints small as the dust, scatter them to\nthe four corners of the earth, yet He will send forth His angels and\ngather His elect again from the four winds, and lo! they are sitting\ndown with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God: for He is\nnot the God of dead men, but of living men; and all live unto Him!\"\n\nThose who believe in God can easily take heart to look through the\nmysteries of life and death and to discern glory through the gloom; but\nthe Sadducee did not stand in the line of the sunbeams that come from\nthe other world; no wonder it was dark to him.\n\nNot but what our life is full of mysteries: birth and death alike\nperplex us; the \"Whence\" and the \"Whither.\"\n\nHe who has studied well his coming and his going, has written out two\nbooks of his Bible: the Genesis and Exodus of his book of life.\n\nBirth and death are alike mysterious; they are something like the vails\nof the ancient tabernacle, each curiously wrought of purple and scarlet\nand fine twined linen, but the vail of the most holy place had in\naddition cunning work and tracery of cherubim.  So with our birth and\ndying--we may learn much from either; but death has the greater wonders\ntraced upon its vail, if we could but get into the right light to read\nthem.  There is this difference, too, that, while the first vail is\nmoved aside that we may enter, and closes behind us so that we may not\ntell from whence we came, the second vail is not drawn back but rent\nfrom top to bottom, so that we do not lose our sight of the world that\nis when we are made a part of the world that is to come.\n\nIt is through this rent vail that we are looking to-day.\n\nIt has pleased God that the first-fruits of our meeting should be laid\nupon the altar; He has called our dear Arthur Neale to Himself.\nAlready it has been said over him, \"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust\";\nit remains for us to take up our testimony and say, \"and soul to soul.\"\n\nDear Arthur Neale! it has been said that \"one cross can sanctify a\nsoul,\" and he had many crosses; chiefest of all the fear of death.  He\nwas something like Bunyan's Mr. Fearing, only his fear was physical,\nand not produced by doubts as to his final acceptance.  But it was\ngrand to see how, at the last, this fear of death, which is, in its\nvery nature, a solicitude for self, was transformed to care for others;\njust before he passed away, he turned to the dear one watching beside\nhim and asked if she was afraid to see any one die.\n\nNow let me read you a little about Mr. Fearing.\n\n\"When he was come to the entrance of the valley of the shadow of death,\nI thought I should have lost my man; not for that he had any\ninclination to go back: that he always abhorred; but he was ready to\ndie for fear....  But this I took notice of, that this valley was as\nquiet when he went through it as ever I knew it before or since.  I\nsuppose these enemies had a special check from our Lord, and a\ncommandment not to meddle until Mr. Fearing was passed over it....\nWhen he was come to the river, where was no bridge, he was again in a\nheavy case.  And here, also, I took notice of what was very remarkable:\nthe water of that river was lower at this time than ever I saw it in\nall my life.  So he went over, at last, not much above wet shod....  I\nnever had any doubt about him; he was a man of very choice spirit, only\nhe was always kept very low, and that made his life burdensome to\nhimself and troublesome to others.\"\n\nHe has sent us his last message: being asked if he had any word for\nfriends, he said, \"Tell them all, it's all right.\"\n\nIt comforts me sometimes to believe that, as we advance in the Life,\nthe way becomes easier.  I believe this to be the case not only with\none who has death at his back, but with every one who walks faithfully\nwith God.  Jesus says, \"My yoke is easy and My burden is light\"; and I\nthink to those who follow Him faithfully He says, \"My yoke is easier\nand My burden lighter every day.\"\n\nWe learn to live with God until it becomes impossible to live without\nHim; we learn to lean on Him, until we acquire an instinctive\nabhorrence of all broken reeds.  We begin with cherubim and a flaming\nsword that turns every way to keep the way of the tree of life; but we\nend with the same flashing armoury turning us from every path except\nthat which leads to glory and honour and immortality and the city of\nGod.  We begin with \"He shall give His angels charge against thee,\" but\nwe end with this, \"He giveth His angels charge concerning thee, and in\ntheir hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy\nfoot against a stone.\"  Such guidance and keeping is heaven; such, too,\nis heaven on earth.\n\n\nI have kept a few of his letters from which I should like to read you a\nfew sentences:--\n\n\n23_rd December_ 1878.\n\n... Thoughts seem to go almost instinctively from the cold weather to\nthe apparent state of spiritual life in the congregations of which I\nhave been a very unwilling member (_i.e. pro tem., D. V._)--the latest\ninvention is a system of feeding souls on historical facts dressed up\nin flowery English--perhaps this sounds harsh and resentful; perhaps\nothers have not found it such bad food after all.\n\n\n9_th January_ 1879.\n\n... I do not know that I can tell you anything more than is contained\nin two sentences from the Chronicles of the Schoenberg-Cotta Family: \"I\nfeel an atom--but an atom in a solid, God-governed world, where truth\nis mightiest; insignificant in myself as the little mosses which\nflutter on these ancient stones; but yet a little moss on a great rock\nwhich cannot be shaken--the rock of God's providence and love.\"  \"God's\ncommon gifts are His most precious; and His most precious gifts--even\nlife itself--have no root in _themselves_; not that they are _without_\nroot: they are _better_ rooted in the depths of His unchangeable love.\nHenceforth let me be content with the only security Dr. Luther says God\nwill ever give us--the security of His presence and care.\"  \"I will\nnever leave thee.\"  And yet one longs to be less than moss, to be a\npart of the rock itself; that it may not be I that live, but Christ\nthat liveth in me--that death might be swallowed up of life.\n\n\n7_th March_ 1879.\n\n... It seems that I'm beginning to learn that it is little use\nexpecting to get messages for others, or be able to help them or speak\na word in season unless \"we make mention of them _continually_ in our\nprayers,\" and give up trying to monopolise the Holy Ghost for\nparticular times; _i.e._ the Holy Ghost objects to being a respecter of\npersons at any time.  It remains therefore to pray for you strongly\nthat you may be filled with a knowledge of His will in all wisdom and\nspiritual understanding quite up to the mark of \"rejoicing alway,\" for\nthis is the will of God concerning us....  The verse that brings me\nsoonest to the self-despair point is this: \"Herein is love with us made\nperfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, _because as\nHe is, so are we in this world_\"; the standpoint of \"workers together\nwith God\" is a strong one--\"it lifts, it bears my drooping soul.\"  To\ndo the will of God, surely this is to abide for ever....\n\n\n8_th February_ 1880.\n\nHe begins with two Scripture quotations: one from the Septuagint--\"the\nLord preserveth the infants,\" in the English \"the Lord preserveth the\nsimple\"; the other--\"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the\nkingdom of heaven.\"\n\n\nIt has been an experience of the past week, which I am now beginning\ndimly to recognise, that the child and the child-spirit are necessary\nelements of the presence of the kingdom--as necessary as they are for\n_entrance into_ the kingdom.\n\nAnd the kingdom consists in the keeping; in conscious, clearer, simpler\non-leading in the life of Christ.  I am kept because I am a child--when\nI cease to be kept it is because I become a rebellious child; and of\nthis kingdom and peace there has been no end to-day--there is therefore\nno hindrance (save a divided will) to its continuance, and thus one is\nled into the faith of the Son of God--that _our brothers are not\norphans_, and that prayer and work must in this faith overcome the\nworld.\n\nThe grace of the Lord Jesus be present continually to energise in us\nthis faith, and to work in us all the good pleasure of His will.\n\n----------\n\nAnd so, beloved friends, with these words of his own we conclude our\ntestimony to him; we keep this Memorial of the Blessed Dead, not\nsorrowing, as those do who have no hope; if we grieve at all, it is\nthat our love was so sparing of the spikenard wherewith we should have\nanointed him to his burial.\n\n----------\n\nRequiescit in pace.\n\n\"Thou has made him most blessed for ever, Thou has made him exceeding\nglad with Thy countenace.\"\n\n\n\n[1] _In Memoriam, Arthur George William Neale, B.A. (St. John's\nCollege), who passed through the veil 1st July 1880.  Aged 22 years._\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nBELIEVING AND BECOMING\n\n\"To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons\nof God, even to them that believe on His name.\"--JOHN i. 12.\n\n\nJohn soon gets away from abstract theology and takes the soul up into\nthe mount of contemplation, from which it may discern the length and\nbreadth of the land of promise and privilege.  He knew that our faith\nwas not only \"Emmanuel, God with us\"; but that if we had the skill and\ncould read the word backwards, we might say,--\"and we also with God.\"\nHe begins his Gospel, \"the Word was with God \"; he goes on, \"the Word\nwas with man\"; and then he completes the triangle by saying, \"and man\nalso with God\"; for \"to as many as received Him, He gave power to\nbecome the children of God.\"  And again, later on, in the seventeenth\nchapter, we have the thoughts, \"I in them,\" and \"Thou in Me,\" and \"they\nalso in Us,\" until one is left in a delightful perplexity as to the\nnearness of God to His creatures, and obliged to say that--\n\n  God is never so far off\n    As even to be near;\n  He dwells within, the spirit is\n    The home He holds most dear.\n\nHis faith was not merely that the Word became flesh that He might bring\nGod to us, but the Word living and suffering that He might bring us to\nGod; His religion not merely the humiliation of the Creator, but, in a\nvery real sense, the exaltation of the creature and practical union\nwith the Lord of the spirits of all flesh; not only that He for our\nsakes became poor, but also, that we through His poverty might be made\nrich.  It is into this riches of our inheritance that we want to look\nthis evening.\n\nDo we know what it is to have not only a heaven in prospect but also\none in possession, and to see in Christ a High Priest of good things\npresent as well as of good things to come?  It seems to me that in this\npassage the Religion of Jesus is presented to us in two lights: (i.) as\nbelieving and receiving; (ii.) as believing and becoming.  Some people\nstop short with believing and do not receive.  But our faith is\ncertainly an appropriative faculty; a sort of hand of the soul that can\nbe stretched out to take hold of God's offered gifts; or to link itself\non to God's hand outstretched to guide us.  Of what use would a hand be\nthat never grasped anything?  Perhaps some promise stands out before\nus, telling us His Mind, or it may have been impressed upon us by His\nSpirit.  Even from a weak faith we can obtain promises; because faith\napprehends the nature of God; and as soon as we begin to apprehend\nthat, we see that certain things ought to happen, and ere long these\nthings shape themselves into definite promises which faith applies.  So\nthe life is one of believing and receiving; and as our faith pleads the\npromises, and the appropriative power of the soul is exercised, we find\nthe kingdom of God come to us not in word but in power.  But our\nreligion is also believing and becoming; \"that as many as received Him\nmight become the children of God, even those who believe in His name.\"\nMuch of our faith, so-called, is only a beating of the air, and not\nreally an advancement of the soul; we profess a great deal which has no\npractical bearing on our own lives.  Yet all true believing is\nbecoming, and a man cannot be a follower of the Lamb, in the real sense\nof the term, without his becoming moment by moment a different man; he\nalters his stature, not indeed by taking thought thereunto, but even as\nthe lilies grow; and adding together the receiving and the becoming, we\nfind that we are the children of God.\n\nHence it appears that our faith is not a single definite act, done, and\ndone with; but one done and gone on with.  And our faith is to be not\nonly definite, but progressive and increasing, leading us from grace to\ngrace, from strength to strength, and from glory to glory.\n\nIf we take a stranger to view the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, it\nis possible that he will say that the outside is the finest part of it,\nand that it looks best from a distance; or he may say that the\nentrance-hall, with its display of coloured marbles and polished\ngranite, is the best part of the museum.  Certainly there are many that\nlook at Christianity in this manner; thinking it perhaps a magnificent\nideal of life, especially as seen in history; or perhaps as seen at\nsome distance, as we view Sunday from the other days of the week.  And\nothers there are who think that the entrance of the Christian life is\nthe best part of it, who say honestly from experience that the\nbeginning of the life was the best for them.  The reason being that\nthey stopped there; otherwise people never could think that the\nhappiest part of the life was that immediately consequent on\nconversion; for in reality the path of the just is a shining light,\nthat shines more and more unto the perfect day.  It is not like one of\nthose ancient Egyptian temples of which one reads, in which we pass\nfrom daylight to shade as we enter, and into deeper gloom as we\napproach the secret shrine.\n\nThe life of faith--progressive, increasing faith--is a motion in a\nstraight line, and not in a closed curve; it is not like an Irish\npenance around a sacred well where one makes progress with the final\nresult of being where you started, and, perhaps, ready for another\nrevolution, as, indeed, it must appear to some Christians whose circle\nis a week and whose starting-point a Sunday.  Neither is it like the\npilgrimage up Pilate's staircase at Rome, in which the pain of going up\non one's knees is only varied by the discomfort of coming down again\nand finding ourselves just about where we were before, as it must\nappear to some good people who live the up-and-down life.  It is an\nupward and onward life; on our knees, if you will, but upward and\nupward and, like the stairs in Ezekiel's vision, still upward.  And the\nScriptures encourage us forward, bidding us leave the word of the\nbeginning of Christ and go (not crawl) on unto perfection.\n\n\"He gave the power to become the children of God\"; the margin suggests\n\"right\" or \"privilege.\"  Theologically this seems a high calling; but\nwe are not to deny things because they are high.  \"The devil's darling\nsin is the pride that apes humility,\" and this affectation of humility\nis one of the ways in which souls are constantly kept out of blessing;\nit has been so throughout the history of the Church.  In the matter of\nthe forgiveness of sins, it is not so long since people said that if a\nman knew his sins were forgiven, it would make him conceited; and some\npeople still hold it to be a presumption; at other times that eternal\nlife, which consists in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom\nHe has sent, is denied; because it is presumptuous for a man to say\nthat he knows God in the same simple matter-of-fact way that he is\nacquainted with a friend.  And nowadays this spiritual affectation\ntakes the form of the denial of holiness, because, if you were kept\nfrom sin, you would be sure to be proud of it; as if God were likely to\nhumble a man and make his heart a temple of His own, and then suffer\nhim to be lifted up over the fact.  They do not seem to see the\ncontradiction.  The Lord is pretty sure to humble us a good deal before\nHe gives us anything to be proud of.  People say it is presumptuous to\nbe \"blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke,\" and more\nhumble--to be something else.  Humility is one of those things that lie\nright in the line of our obedience; or, as a dear friend once said to\nme,--\"the righteousness I am striving after, includes humility.\"\n\nIt is a false humility that refuses those good things which God has\nlaid up for those who love Him.  The true humility says, when the Lord\nhas made a feast and bidden His guests, \"I shall go and take the lowest\nplace\"; but the affected humility says, \"Oh! it's too good for me; I\nshall sit down outside\"; and so, practically, it becomes numbered\namongst those of whom it is said, \"They shall not taste of My supper.\"\nWe need to be like Paul, ready to take our place amongst the saints,\nthough less than the least of them; or it may be among the apostles,\nthough not worthy to be called an apostle.\n\nGod gives us power for what He wants us to be; _i.e._ power for the\nnext step; and all our future life is conditioned upon that.  We say,\n\"Increase our faith,\" and He says, \"Exercise the faith you have.\"  We\nmust exercise the lower power before we attain to the higher.  Suppose\nthere is a powerful steam-engine which is able to do for you a year's\nwork in a day: it is a reservoir of power, but the power is conditioned\nupon the exercise of a lower power; you must bring coals and fetch\nwater and make up fire, and by and by the power becomes accessible to\nyou.  He that is faithful in least is faithful also in much; we must be\nfaithful to the light already given us, faithful to our powers of love,\nthought, and obedience, if we are to be brought to the reception of the\npower in which saints have walked.\n\nUsing the marginal suggestion, we have the _right_ given us to be\nchildren of God.  We hear much nowadays of people standing on their\nrights,--on rights real and rights imagined; we have our rights against\nthe enemy of souls; oh! that we would insist on them, and that we would\nrealise how the powers of darkness fly when we look to God bravely and\nconfidently for the promised help.\n\nWhat is involved in thus becoming a child of God?  Well, for one thing,\nGod is pledged to love us just as much as He loves Christ.  We\nsometimes get the idea into our minds that God loves us in a sort of\nafterthought manner, as a superfluous or unnecessary part of creation.\nI have found out that He loves us just as much as He loves Christ;\nJesus Himself said--\"Father, Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved\nMe.\"\n\nWas Christ's consciousness of the love of God a mere wavering thing,\nperhaps known only at critical times; or was it not rather His vital\nbreath and native air?  \"I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me\nmay be with Me where I am\"; and \"the only-begotten Son is in the bosom\nof the Father.\"\n\nAnother side of this privilege is that we may be kept from sin.  Three\npassages I call to mind in which the children of the Highest are spoken\nof: one is in Matt. v. 45: \"That ye may be the children of your Father\nwhich is in heaven.\"  It goes on--\"Be ye therefore perfect, even as\nyour Father in heaven is perfect.\"  Another is in 2 Cor. vi. 18; \"I\nwill be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and My daughters,\nsaith the Lord God Almighty.\"  It goes on--\"Having these promises,\ndearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the\nflesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.\"  The\nthird is in 1 John iii. 1: \"Behold what manner of love the Father hath\nbestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God\"; and the\nbest reading continues--\"and we are so\"; it continues with \"purifieth\nhimself as He is pure,\" and \"he that abideth in Him sinneth not.\"\n\nFinally, does it seem a contradiction in terms to talk of becoming a\nchild?  it is indeed hard to turn the streams of life backward and make\nthem return to their source: a long way back, too, for some of us;\nagain we take comfort from the Scripture, and remember that \"when he\nwas yet a great way off, his father ran and fell on his neck and kissed\nhim.\"\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nGLEAMING AS CRYSTAL\n\n\"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, gleaming as crystal,\nproceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.\"--REV. xxii. 1.\n\n\nIf we are to understand the New Jerusalem properly, we almost need to\nhave been citizens of the _Old_.  On this subject, even more than in\nthe general interpretation of the Scriptures, we are entitled to answer\nthe question--\"What advantage then hath the Jew?\" with an unhesitating\nexpression of \"much every way\"; for unto them pertained the city of\nGod.  For example, when we read, in Galatians, the passage in which St.\nPaul speaks of the old Covenant, under the terms \"Agar\" and \"Mount\nSinai in Arabia,\" who but those who had felt the galling of a foreign\nyoke, and the insolence and exaction of Roman tyranny, could have\nrealised the pathos of the words \"and correspondeth to Jerusalem, which\nnow is, and is in bondage with her children\"; and what citizen of the\nNew and Spiritual City, who had not also dwelt within the ancient and\noutward walls, could have felt the full contrast expressed in the\ntriumphant thanksgiving that \"Jerusalem, which is above, is free\"?  In\nthe same way, if one would understand the magnificent passage in which\nthe writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes the New Jerusalem,\none would need to have worshipped within the courts of the Old.  How\nelse can one see the lines traced in the picture, and mark the analogy\nbetween the multitude of white-robed priests and the innumerable\ncompany of angels; or see the general assembly of folk gathered for\nfestival from all parts of the land? here, too, are the consecrated\neldest-born, and here the rolls in which their names are entered; and,\npassing within the veil, even in ancient days, one might say, in some\nsense, \"We are come to God the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Mediator\nof the covenant, and to the Blood of sprinkling.\"  So you will\nunderstand that the best place to view the New Jerusalem from is the\nruins of the Old.  It is in this spirit that we want to study the\ngleaming waters \"that make glad the city of God.\"\n\nObserve, then, that the ancient Jerusalem was not situated, as most\ncities, on the banks of some river, or the shore of some sea.  It stood\nin a peculiar position, at some distance from either: it was badly\nwatered; we read of a pool or two, of a little brook, of an aqueduct\nand some other artificial water-structures.  Bearing this fact in mind,\nyou will understand how forcible an appeal to the imagination would be\ncontained in the verse of the 46th Psalm, which tells of a river that\nshould \"make glad the city of God.\"\n\nIn evidence of the foregoing you may notice the following remark of\nPhilo on the verse quoted (_de somniis_, ii. 38); \"The holy city, which\nexists at present, in which also the holy temple is established, is at\na great distance from any sea or river, so that it is clear that the\nwriter here means figuratively to speak of some other city than the\nvisible city of God.\"  It is evident, therefore, that the mention of a\npure, fresh stream flowing through the midst of Jerusalem was a figure\nof a very striking nature; and we say, that the basis of this\nmagnificent description in the Apocalypse lies in the insufficiency of\nthe water-supply of the ancient city.  God takes our outward\nnecessities and uses them as figures by which to make us alive to the\nfacts of our inward neediness, and of the abundant power that there is\nin Him to satisfy us.  The Bible is full of promises as outwardly\nimpossible as that a river should flow through the midst of Jerusalem.\nThe streams of life, the floods of holy influence, the manifestations\nof Divine grace, shall be for you like that imagined river; and however\ndifficult it may be to believe such a heaven on earth as that indicated\nto be possible--\n\n  Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,\n   And looks to that alone;\n  Laughs at impossibilities,\n   And cries--\"It shall be done.\"\n\nThe life of the future, and by that we mean heaven on earth as well as\nheaven, shall be as different from that which you are now realising as\nthe water-supply of Jerusalem would be if a river flowed in the midst,\nfrom what it is now with merely Kidron and Bethesda and Siloam and\nSolomon's Pools.  So we say (i.) that the Life is not a half-stagnant\npool, like Siloam; nor (ii.) an intermittent fountain, like Bethesda;\nnor (iii.) an artificial construction, like Solomon's aqueducts; nor\n(iv.) a poor weak puny stream, defiled by the city through which it\npasses, like the brook Kidron.\n\n(1) It is not a standstill life: no one can stand still who lives with\nGod.  If God is the fountain of your life, there will be no green\nmantle on the surface telling how long you have been in one place.\nNeither in earth nor in heaven do we stand still or stay where we are.\nTake up the anchor and the ship follows the tide, and in God the tide\nalways sets one way.  You cannot stand still without anchoring to the\ncreature.  There must be fresh discoveries of truth and duty every day;\nand fresh inquisition made into the heights and depths of Redeeming\nLove.  Abandonment to God must mean advancement in God.\n\n  They who love God cannot love Him by measure,\n  For their love is a hunger to love Him still better.\n\n\n(2) Neither in earth nor in heaven is the Life to be an intermittent\none.  Some have said that the pool of Bethesda was connected with one\nof those intermittent springs that one sometimes comes across, and have\nexplained by that means the periodical disturbances in the waters.\nThere is one of these springs pointed out on the road from Buxton to\nCastleton in Derbyshire, but it showed no signs of anything\nextraordinary when I was there.  However, whether Bethesda is of this\nnature or not, it is certain that the spiritual life of many believers\nis too much of the character of an intermittent spring.  I want to tell\nyou that there should be no such word as \"revival\" in the dictionary of\nthe Christian Church: we want \"life,\" not \"revival.\"  You hear people\nsaying of certain religious movings--\"They are having quite a revival\";\nalas! and were they dead before?  Indeed, I am sure this intermittent\nfountain expresses only too accurately the lives of many of us.  The\nbest that God can do with us is to make us an occasional blessing--a\nsorrowful thing to confess when there are suffering ones around waiting\nand watching the surface of our hearts to see whether there is any\nmoving of the water.  I think, therefore, to tell you the secret of the\nintermittent spring.  Every such spring is fed from an inner chamber in\nthe rock in which the rains accumulate; but it is only as long as the\nwater is above a certain level that the outward flow is maintained.  If\nthe inner chamber be kept full, the outward supply will be constant.\nAnd we know, apart from our figure, that when the inner life is renewed\nday by day, the outward is no longer an intermittent spring, but an\noverflowing cup.\n\nNeither in earth nor in heaven has a Christian a right to go below\n\"par\" in his spiritual life.  I have been trying to imagine what it\nwould be in heaven if angels were to neglect the influx of vital force\nthat comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb; if at any time they\nwere to feel not up to singing-mark or service-mark, what a strange\nheaven it would presently be; and what strange music with notes\nwanting,--sometimes in the air and sometimes in the bass.  We know,\nhowever, that the real character of their life and service is not\nintermittent, but is expressed in the words, \"They rest not day nor\nnight, saying, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts.'\"\n\n(3) It is not a life for which the world is too strong, and which\ncannot therefore be kept pure.  It is not figured by a little brook, as\nKidron, defiled with all the impurities of a city, and that an oriental\ncity.  And yet how many lives there are of which we have to say, \"The\nworld is too strong for them\"; well-intentioned people, but feeble in\ngrace, and who have received but little of the Life of God.  The cup\nwas indeed put into their hands, but they were afraid to drink deeply,\nthough the voice by their side was saying, \"Drink abundantly, O\nbeloved.\"\n\nThey drink down to the level of forgiveness, and, perhaps, grace; but\nnot down to glory and the receiving of the Spirit; they do not realise\nthat \"he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never\nthirst\"; they do not overcome the world; one has almost to make a fresh\ntext for them,--\"This is the defeat wherewith they are worsted, even\ntheir little faith.\"\n\n(4) It is not a humanly-devised life, as Solomon's aqueducts.  Our\nfaith stands not in human structures; not in the Westminster\nConfession; not in the XXXIX. Articles.  It stands not in the wisdom of\nmen, but in the power of God.  The Divine Life is not sect, and it is\nnot system.  What is your sect?  A pipe whose power of supply is\nlimited by its diameter; whatever we can learn from the maxims and\ntraditions of men, is but a little compared with what we may learn from\nGod directly.  The channel of a sect! it is a pipe that bursts when the\ntide of life rises beyond a certain point.  The channel of a system! it\nis an aqueduct through which, if one stone be taken out, the water\nceases to reach you.\n\n  Our little systems have their day;\n   They have their day and cease to be;\n   They are but broken lights of Thee;\n  And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.\n\nIf one travels on the continent, one can see (I think it is at Avignon)\nthe ruins of the ancient Roman aqueduct; but the Rhine and the rest of\nthe rivers of God flow on still, full of water.\n\n  Let names and sects and parties fall,\n  That Jesus may be all in all.\n\nAs we learn to live the life of dependence upon the Lord, we must not\nbe surprised if a great deal of our early theology drops off: it does\nnot always sit down with us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.\nInstead of Solomon's pools and aqueducts there is given to us a pure\nriver of water of life, gleaming as crystal, proceeding out of the\nthrone of God and of the Lamb; and I think we may say of those who\nreceive the life of God in this immediate and wonderful manner, that\n\"not even Solomon, in all his glory, was so well supplied as one of\nthese.\"\n\nFinally, we may say, that the Life is one of absolute dependence, and\nis conditioned on the sovereignty of God and of the Lamb.  Grace and\nthe Holy Ghost are the portions of the dependent soul: they only flow\nfrom the throne of God and of the Lamb.  I am amazed to find how much\nof true religion may be resolved into that one word \"dependence.\"  I\ncan remember the time when I could not enter into the Psalm, \"Lord, my\nheart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself\nin great matters, nor in things too high for me\"; nor sing the verse,\n\"I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go.\"  Now it is, I\nhope, different.  Moreover, we are sure that this spirit of dependence\nis one of the main features of the angelic life; we cannot imagine it\notherwise; for the source of the river is the throne.\n\nWe sang in our hymn the lines--\n\n  I know Thou hast my heart,\n   And I have heaven;\n\nbut we can only sing the second line where we have said or sung the\nfirst.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nHEART ENLARGEMENT\n\n\"I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shall enlarge my\nheart.\"--Ps. cxix. 32.\n\n\nIf we were to study the names of the different sects and parties that\nmake up the \"Ishmael\" of God, we should find them to be singularly\nunsuggestive of such a thing as the existence of a spiritual life; nor\ncould we easily infer from the nomenclature of so-called Christendom\nthat \"there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the\nAlmighty giveth him understanding.\"  Now, this is a very curious fact;\nfor one would have expected that about the first thing suggested by the\nappellations of Christian bodies would have been some phase or other of\nthe inward life.\n\nBut we are not going to spend our time to-night in discussing sects, or\ndeploring their divisions, although we cannot altogether refrain regret\nwhen we contemplate the seamless robe of Christ rent into more than\ntwain, and dabbled in blood worse than Joseph's coat was when his\nfather said, \"Some evil beast hath devoured him\"; and although it does\nseem to us sometimes, as we contemplate the havoc of schisms and strife\nof sects, as if some convulsion from beneath had shaken down the towers\nof the New Jerusalem, and streams from the nether fires had coursed\ndown the channels of the river of life.  What we want to do is to think\na little about the true Broad Church; not that branch of Christianity\nwhich commonly goes under the name, and which makes one of the\ninstances referred to of the unsuitableness of names applied to\nreligious schools and parties, but the spiritual Broad Church, which is\nthe church of enlarged hearts.  The school we want to belong to is the\nschool of spiritual free-thinkers, who are at liberty to learn all that\nGod has to teach them.  The true Broad Church is that in which an\nenlarged obedience to God's commandments is brought about by an\nenlarged experience of His love; and His commandments and His love are\nboth of them exceeding broad.\n\nAll true spiritual life must widen the soul; the more we live with\nJesus, the more impossible will it be for any of us to be narrow.  Our\nlittleness takes refuge with God, and His greatness makes its abode\nwith us; we bring Him our unworthiness and He imparts to us His\nrighteousness; we offer to Him our hearts barren of sympathy and\ndeficient in affection, and presently we find the love of God shed\nabroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given to us.\n\nThus, when acquainted with God we cannot be really narrow; they might\nas well call the Lord Jesus Christ narrow.  We want to be as broad in\nour sympathies and in our views as He was; and neither broader nor\nnarrower.\n\nTrue spiritual life will widen the soul in its _possessions_, its\n_perceptions_, its _will_, and its _love_; it will extend our powers of\n_having_, of _knowing_, of _willing_, and of _loving_; and, in one or\nother of these four, most of our life is included.\n\n(1) How very little we possess, both in outward and inward things.\nThis is one of the points in which we are disposed to agree with the\nsaying that the circumference of our circle is very near to the centre.\nWe can grasp very little.  Our hands are small and the world is large.\n\n\"Tell me how I can make my broad acres more broad,\" is the request of\nthe rich man.  \"Tell me how I can make my narrow holding less narrow,\"\nis the cry of the poor.  But a life in God makes us rich, for \"all\nthings are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or\nlife, or death, or things present or things to come;--all are yours;\nand ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.\"  \"Blessed are the meek; for\nthey shall inherit the earth.\"  \"There is no man that hath left house,\nor brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or\nlands, for My sake and the Gospel's, but he shall receive an\nhundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and\nmothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world\nto come eternal life.\"\n\nAnd Madame Guyon says, \"Have I not infinitely more than a hundredfold,\nin so entire a possession as Thou my Lord hast taken of me, in that\nunshaken firmness which Thou givest me in my sufferings, in a perfect\ntranquillity in the midst of a furious tempest that assails me on every\nside, in an unspeakable joy, enlargedness, and liberty which I enjoy in\na most strait and rigorous captivity?\"\n\n(2) How trifling is our knowledge!  Yet fewer people will assent to the\nlack of knowledge, for many think they know a good deal.  As in the\ntimes of Socrates, it is only the wise man who knows he knows nothing.\nAnd yet how little we know!  We know but little of things in this\nworld, with all our sciences and study, and we know much less about\nGod, and glory, and immortality, and the spirits which live outside the\ntent of this mortal flesh, or of any of those things which \"eye hath\nnot seen, nor ear heard.\"  And with all our books of theology and\ntreatises on spiritual life, we are almost obliged to say that \"all is\nless than nothing and vanity.\"  But we believe that for those whom God\nenlarges, there is an unspeakable increase in the perceptive powers of\nthe soul: they are taught things that no one else knows anything about,\nand that are hidden from the wise and prudent.  There is knowledge for\nthe simple and lowly ones; for those who, in the spiritual strength\nthey have derived from God, run in the way of His commandments.\nLooking into the Father's face, and into the Saviour's heart, the soul\ncan say, \"This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and\nJesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.\"  And with the knowledge there comes\nthe aspiration that we, \"being rooted and grounded in love, may be able\nto comprehend with all saints,\" and to beseech for all souls, \"the\nbreadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of\nChrist, which passeth knowledge.\"  And again it is said, \"Ye have an\nanointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.\"  Is this a little\nknowledge?  All things are possible to you in possession and in\nperception.\n\n(3) How little is our _will-power_.  We often want to do right, and the\nforce of habits or of grooves is too strong for us.  We have not enough\nmomentum to carry us out or enough moral force to deny the past and to\nassert the future.  Constantly rises up in judgment the days that have\nbeen; and when looking at the blessed vision of God of the days that\nshall be, the past rises up and says, \"It is not for you\"; and we have\nnot power to deny this, and to believe in God that He will work all the\ngood pleasure of His will in us.  It seems almost impossible for us\never to become saints.  When we get to understand a little about\nrighteousness and holiness, we do feel utterly inadequate to choose\nsuch a righteousness, or to compel ourselves to live out such a\nholiness.\n\nThe only remedy is the Divine enlargement of heart which comes from the\nvisitation of the Spirit.  We carry our brokenness to God; we put our\nhelpless will at His feet, and He energises it, and sends us back from\nthe altar-steps, or from the glory where we have met with Him, able to\nsay, \"I _delight_ to do _Thy_ will, O my God.\"\n\nAnd although for each one of us there will be a Gethsemane, \"a place of\ntears,\" as there was for the Master, yet we shall come through with our\nwill unbroken, because it will be the will of God strong within us.\n\n(4) How small is our capacity for loving or forgiving.  Many think they\nhave capacity for an infinite love, and would be able to exhibit it if\nthey could find a worthy object.  But I believe our love is a strictly\nmeasurable quantity, and dependent on the state of grace we are in.\nOnly those who have the Spirit within them, energising them, can truly\nlove at all.  Again, we fall at the Lord's feet, and tell Him we have\nno power even to be civil to some people, much less to love them;\nscarcely power to put up the weapons of revenge against some; and even\nto those whom, like the publicans and Pharisees and sinners, we love\nbecause they love us, we have not been able to make an adequate return\nfor the love they have lavished upon us.  Then God teaches us that\nthere lies in Him the power of enlarging the human affections, and He\nenlarges our hearts that we, \"being rooted and grounded in love,\"--not\nonly in the experimental realisation of His love to us, but also in the\nexperimental living out of our love to Him, and to all that He has made\nand given us,--are able to \"run the way of His commandments.\"  For that\nis His new commandment, \"that we love one another.\"  Our practical\nstate will depend on the enlarging of our hearts.  We talk of\nlarge-hearted people, but they are not so by nature in the sense God\nwishes.  It needs a Divine operation and a definite Divine experience\nto enable us to live out the law of the New Testament.\n\nThus to _do_ more, we must first of all _be_ more.  This is the Gospel\nway all through.  God never teaches us that we are to _do_ and\nafterwards to _be_.  What preachers tell you about dead works means\nsimply that it is a mistake for us to try to do before we have learned\nto be.  You may see a little child trying to lift a heavy weight, and\nyou tell it that it must wait till its muscles are stronger: it must\nwait till it has _become_.  This was the way at the beginning in\nconversion: \"dead works\" means that in us there does not dwell force or\npower to lift the great weight of the commandment or righteousness of\nGod; hence they are useless or stupid works.  When you find in your\nheart your inability to fulfil the Divine commandment, and have not the\nstrength and power you want, though all day trying to lift the heavy\nweight, you come to God and say, \"It is plain that, as I am, I cannot\nlive out this righteousness, and I come for a new life to live it out.\nI must have Thine own strength.\"  Then we understand our Lord's saying,\n\"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\"\n\nYou have lived this out in some way since you were converted; but you\nhave not realised enough the more blessed life; you know a little of\nwalking in the way, but running in the way brings you face to face with\nsomething outside your strength and power.  It is no use to try and do\nwork which needs a stronger man, unless we can become stronger men.\nMany make a mistake here; they are trying to live out holiness before\nthey have got the heart-enlarging.  But it is no use our trying to be\nholy, until God makes us holy.  We try to take the first part of the\nverse alone, and then we break down.  \"My heart breaks down: I can\nnever be a runner.\"  You are trying to live out His commandments,\nwithout having the visitation of the enlarged heart; you must get on to\ndefinite dealings with God for a visitation of the Spirit; when He has\ncome, you will have the strength and peace of God with you.  It seems\nto me painfully sad to hear people sorrowing: \"I know it is my\nprivilege, but I cannot make it real; and although one can sometimes do\nlittle acts of mercy, or even attain to humble acts of faith, the life\ndoes not flow on naturally and simply.\"  And _it will not_, unless you\nhave an experience at the back coming out of His visitation.\n\nTo do more we must be more; get a new master, be a new man; get a new\nexperience, and you will be a new Christian.\n\nAll writers who have spoken of the advanced spiritual life have taught\nthat there is an enlargement of the soul, and they use the strongest\nlanguage possible.\n\nSo we find Madame Guyon saying:--\n\n\"This vastness or enlargedness which is not bounded by anything,\nhowever plain and simple it may be, increases every day; so that my\nsoul in partaking of the qualities of her spouse, seems also to partake\nof his immensity.\"--_Madame Guyon_, vie. ii. 4.\n\n\nAnd Philo:--\n\n\"Having broken the chains by which it (the soul) was formerly bound,\nwhich all the empty anxieties of mortal life fastened round it, and\nhaving led it forth and emancipated it from them, he has stretched, and\nextended, and diffused it to such a degree that it reaches even the\nextreme boundaries of the universe, and is borne onwards to the\nbeautiful and glorious sight of the uncreated God.\"--_Philo_, de\nebrietate, 37.\n\n\nSo in Dr. Cudworth's sermon, which was printed some time ago:--\n\n\"When we have cashiered this self-will of ours, which did but shackle\nand confine our soules, our wills shall then become truly free, being\nwidened and enlarged to the extent of God's own will.\"--_Cudworth_,\nSermon before the House of Commons, p. 21.\n\n\"There is a straitnesse, slavery, and narrownesse in all sinne; sinne\ncrowds and crumples up our souls, which, if they were freely spread\nabroad, would be as wide and large as the whole universe.  No man is\ntruly free but he that hath his will enlarged to the extent of God's\nown will, by loving whatsoever God loves, and nothing else....  He\nenjoys a boundlesse liberty and a boundlesse sweetnesse, according to\nhis boundlesse love.  He enclaspeth the whole world within his\noutstretched arms, his soul is as wide as the whole universe, as big as\nyesterday, to-day and for ever.  Whosoever is once acquainted with this\ndisposition of spirit, he never desires anything else; and he loves the\n'life of God' in himself, dearer than his own life.\"--_Id._, p. 56.\n\n\nAnd finally in the _Imitatio Christi_:--\n\n\"They that willingly and freely serve Me shall receive grace for grace.\nBut he who desires to glory in things out of Me, or to take pleasure in\nsome private good, shall not be grounded in true joy, nor be enlarged\nin his heart, but shall many ways be encumbered and straitened....  And\nif heavenly grace enter in and true charity, there will be no envy nor\nnarrowness of heart, neither will self-love busy itself.  For Divine\ncharity overcometh all things and enlargeth all the powers of the\nsoul.\"--_De Imitatione Christi_, iii. 9.\n\n\nWe conclude, then, that self can never measure the length and breadth\nof the Divine love, and run in the way of His commandment.  We need God\nto make us understand God; we must be in union with Him in order to\nobey Him.  Distances on the earth may be measured by a foot-rule or a\nsurveyor's chain, but to measure the spaces between the stars we must\nhave a base-line in the sky.  Only by being partakers of the Divine\nnature can we live out the Divine life; and no man knoweth the Father\nsave the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nHE RESTORETH MY SOUL\n\n\"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of\nJonas, lovest thou Me more than these?  He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord;\nThou knowest that I love Thee.  He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.\n\n\"He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest\nthou Me?  He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee.\nHe saith unto him, Feed My sheep.\n\n\"He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?\nPeter was grieved because He saith unto him the third time, Lovest thou\nMe?  And he saith unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest\nthat I love Thee.  Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.\"--JOHN xxi.\n15-17.\n\n\nThe whole story contained in these verses carries us back in thought to\nthe time when Peter denied the Lord.  They contain the first recorded\nwords which passed between Christ and Peter since the latter had said,\n\"I know not the man,\" and the Lord had \"turned and looked upon Peter.\"\nHe had his special token of lovingkindness at the Resurrection in the\nmessage which the woman brought: \"Tell His disciples and Peter,\" in the\nwitness given to himself, \"The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared\nto Simon,\" and in his participation in the blessing when the Lord stood\nin the midst and said, \"Peace be unto you\"; but these are, I think, the\nfirst recorded words addressed directly to Peter.\n\nPeter had professed to be faithful above others; and now the Lord asks\nhim, \"Lovest thou Me more than these?\" and the question thrice repeated\ncan scarcely fail to remind us of the triple denial.\n\nIf we consider what must have been the state of Peter's mind after he\nhad denied the Lord, we shall see that the circumstances recorded\nindicate a crisis in his life-history.  How the enemy must have come in\nlike a flood! what desolation of spirit he must have experienced during\nthose lonely moments that followed the look of the Lord, when he went\nout, and wept bitterly! the enemy was come against him in full force,\nand legions of evil spirits had arisen to destroy his faith for ever.\n\nOne would say to him, \"Thou hast sinned against special warnings; the\nLord said to thee particularly that Satan had desired to have thee that\nhe might sift thee as wheat.  A little later on He said, 'Pray that ye\nenter not into temptation;' and a sin against special warning is more\nthan twice a sin; and it was that sin which of all others thou didst\nthink to be so great that it was impossible for thee to commit it.\"\n\nThen another spirit would say, \"Thou hast sinned against special\npromise; for thee the Saviour prayed; but now it is clear that thou\nhast outsinned the Mediator's grace and the Intercessor's prayers\"; and\nat the thought black despair and utter hopelessness would enter his\nsoul, as if to make it their eternal abode.\n\nThen a third spirit would suggest the thought, \"I said, 'I know not the\nman!'  Dost remember, Peter, how He Himself said, 'I will declare unto\nyou, that I never knew you;' and again, 'Whosoever denieth Me before\nmen, him will I also deny before My Father in Heaven!'  No word of\nChrist shall be broken; yea, thou thyself hast in past time established\nthyself on the faithfulness of His truth!\"\n\nAgain would come the thought, \"By thy words shalt thou be justified,\nand by thy words thou shalt be condemned; and of every idle word that\nmen shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment--how\nmuch more then for a _deliberate_ word, affirmed, and reaffirmed, and\naffirmed again.\"\n\nIt was as if a judgment-seat were already set up in his soul, and the\nspirits were pleading him outside mercy; not one would speak in his\nbehalf.  Even the promises and the threatenings were against him; the\nfirst saying, we strengthened him; and the second, we warned him.  Then\nsome voices would testify against him on a side where one would think\nnothing would have been said, \"Thou hast injured the faith; thou hast\nweakened the brethren; thou hast been infidel against love, and for\nsuch there is no repentance; thou hast sold thy Lord at a cheaper rate\nthan Judas!\"\n\n\"Dost thou remember, Peter, that tree which the Lord cursed, because,\nwhen He had a right to expect fruit from it, it bore none?  Was there\never a time when the Master expected so much from thee as this? and now\nHe has come, and found 'nothing but leaves.'\"\n\nThen, perhaps, one ray of hope would gleam into his darkened soul--\"But\nthe Lord did pray for me, and He never prayed in vain.  He said,\nFather, I know that Thou hearest Me always; and He prayed for me.\"\n\nAnd then the spirits would answer, \"But the Lord prayed for thee that\nthy faith might not fail, and _it has failed_; where now is the power\nof the Lord's prayer?  And if that has failed what remains for thee\nunless it be a certain fearful looking-for of judgment.  If even He who\nsaid, 'Father, I thank Thee that Thou hearest Me always,' has been\nrefused in His petition; even God is against thee, and the stars in\ntheir courses rule thee down, Simon, son of Jonas.\"\n\nAnother bitter shaft enters his heart: \"Dost thou remember, Peter, how\nthe Lord said of His own followers, 'I have kept them in Thy name, and\nnone of them is lost but the son of perdition'?  Thou hast not only\nmade vain the Lord's prayers, but denied the Lord's faith, and caused\nHim to appear before heaven and earth as a false witness.  Would He\nspeak like that now, if He were beginning His intercessory prayer\nagain?  Would He not have to say, 'None of them is lost, except the\nSons of Perdition, the Denier and the Betrayer'?  So that even Christ's\nwords failed to meet his case.\"\n\n\"And now, Peter, the high priest is asking Him of His disciples and His\ndoctrines; what thoughts must be in His mind about thee when He takes\nup His testimony concerning those for whom He has lavished His life!\nThe question will wring His heart anew into great drops of blood.\"\n\n\"Moreover, thou hast sinned against the strongest light and the highest\nprivilege; it was given to thee to be with Him at the most solemn and\nsacred times: thou wast with Him at the transfiguration in the Holy\nMount; and if ever heaven could strengthen earth, thou shouldst have\nbeen a strong man.  Thou wast with Him at times of special Power, when\nonly two or three were privileged to see the grace and glory flow down\nupon the suffering and the dying.  Will not the greatness of thy\nprivilege be the greatness of thy condemnation?  He always chose thee\nto be with Him in special times when He went apart for prayer: to whom\nmuch is given, of them will much be required.  Oh! how hast thou\nfallen!\" and the spirits away in the darkness would say, \"Thou art\nbecome even as one of us.\"\n\nThen he would remember how in his own family, almost in his own flesh,\nhe had received special mercy; and that work of healing would rise up\nto condemn him.  Sin against mercy is sin without mercy; a thousand\ntimes thou art condemned, having sinned against such light and\nprivilege and grace.\n\nThen some spirits would whisper, \"Dost thou remember how when many were\nleaving the Lord, because His doctrines were hard to receive and His\nsteps hard to follow, He asked the question, 'Will ye also go away?'\nWho was it that answered so readily, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'\nWould it not have been better to have denied Him at the first than to\nhave waited till the light had grown as clear as it has been, and to\nhave deserted Him when He needed thee most?  Better to have denied Him\nthen, when evidence was feeble, than to disown Him, known as thou hast\nbeen privileged to know Him!\"\n\nWe are not told one word about what Peter did or where he went, except\nthat he went out weeping.  When the morning came and they were leading\nJesus away to crucifixion, John was there, but no mention is made of\nPeter.  And yet I think I know where he went, and can see him taking\nhis way across the brook, which so lately he had crossed with Jesus, to\nthe garden of olive-trees.  He would say to himself, \"Here is the place\nwhere the Lord came and found me sleeping\"; and \"Here He said to me,\n'Pray, pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'\"  Going a little\nfarther, he would come to the place where the Master Himself had\nprayed.  He would kneel and pray there too; in the place where there\nwere still lying on the ground great drops of blood, the earth still\nwet with the strange sorrow of the Lamb.  There, in his despair, he\nwould kneel; and yet even in his despair would be turned towards God.\nHis heart would be turned, even when he thought it never would be\nturned again; he would be there, without comfort, and yet God\ncomforting him.  Maybe, for him, too, there were strengthening angelic\nministries; for there are more of these heavenly messengers with us\nthan we think.  Perhaps some words of ancient promise might be brought\nto his mind by God, as he was kneeling there; such as, \"My soul\ncleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou me according to Thy word!\"  \"A\nbruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench,\ntill He bring forth judgment into victory.\"  \"He restoreth my soul, He\nleadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.\"  But\nwhatever means were adopted, we believe that God was with\nhim--comforting, restoring, saving, strengthening him.  All this\nprepares us for the scene by the Lake.\n\nThis must have struck Peter as very like another passage in the\nintercourse between him and Jesus.  Strange scene! we are back in\nGalilee; we experience again a night of fruitless toil.  This was my\nplace of consecration at the first; and these nets, which I borrow now,\nwere then my own; and it was in the morning that the Lord was standing\non the beach, as He did even now.\n\nThere is no mere repetition in this story: to a soul in Peter's case\nthe one impossible thing would be that he should ever regain the place\nfrom whence he fell.  And the Lord was going to convince him, by means\nof these similar circumstances and the miraculous draught of great\nfishes, that there was for him, even for him, such a thing as a fresh\nstart; and that he should not mourn because there was \"no returning\nupon his former track.\"  When the boat had been brought to land, the\nLord questioned Peter, not saying, \"Thou didst deny Me,\" but \"Dost thou\nlove Me?\" and finally repeats in his ears the old word with which He\nmoved him to tread the heavenly way at the first--\"Follow thou Me.\"\n\nThere were now no boats or nets which Peter could leave for the Lord,\nbut the whole drama of consecration is acted over again.  \"Follow Me,\nPeter; what thou hast missed shall yet be given thee; formerly there\nwas a point beyond which thou couldst not follow Me; but now thou shalt\ntread in My footsteps, even to the cross which thou didst fear at the\nfirst, and to the shame from which erewhile thy soul recoiled.\"\n\"Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not: this spake He,\nsignifying by what death he should glorify God.\"\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION\n\n\"He that lacketh these things is blind and short-sighted, and hath\nforgotten that he was purged from his old sins.\"--2 PETER i. 9.\n\n\nThe chapter from which these verses are taken describes two\narithmetical processes, the working out of one of which belongs to us,\nand of the other to our Father in heaven.  The first is an addition\nsum: \"Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to\nknowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience\ngodliness; and to godliness brotherly-kindness; and to\nbrotherly-kindness love.\"  Writing down the figures of the sum, and\ncomputing the total, we have it set out fair and clear,--\"Ye shall\nnever fall.\"  The other is God's multiplication sum:\n\n\"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of\nJesus our Lord\"; and the result of the working comes out,--\"Ye shall be\nmade partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that\nis in the world through lust.\"  I suppose it means that if we are\nwilling to go on at an arithmetical progression, God would work in us\nat a geometrical one; and so, patiently persisting in holiness, and\nhungering after righteousness, we shall be in heaven before we know\nwhere we are.\n\nBut such passages trouble some folk who don't like to think that a\nChristian has anything to do in the matter of his own salvation; who\nsay \"It is finished\" over a work that is only begun in them, and \"Jesus\npaid it all,\" when a voice within is saying, \"How much owest thou unto\nthy Lord?\" or, perhaps, if they do not put it quite so strongly as\nthat, they are, to say the least, gravely suspicious of the existence\nof a creaturely activity in the spiritual life.\n\nLet us settle, then, in the beginning, that God never requires us to\nexercise ourselves to win His favour, nor calls us to work for One in\nwhom we have no faith.  He never says, \"Add to your darkness grace; and\nto grace mercy; and to mercy peace.\"  That would be impossible; for\ngrace, mercy, and peace are experienced in the Divine operation; and it\nis because we have so received them that we are able to fulfil the\ncommandments given to us.  God sets us this sum to work, but He gives\nus a clean slate on which to work it; He cleanses that inward tablet on\nwhich we have been working out quite a different sum, whose total is\ngiven in the words,--\"The wages of sin is death\"; He purifies it, that\nthere may be written thereon the steps and the summation of the\nredemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Now, some one will say, \"Does\nevery one have to go through a process of development of virtues such\nas is indicated in this epistle, and must every one have them all, and\nproduce them in the same order?  May we not develop just a few of them,\nby a sort of spiritual selection, as flowers have their own colours,\nand the creatures their own forms and features?\"  To this we answer\n(i.) that if you are to be a saint, as God has called you to be, you\nmust have the qualifications and nature of a saint; (ii.) we ought not\nto recoil from this sum, as if the casting of the figures were\nnecessarily a long process.  No, not long! how long does it take one to\nreach love?  Why, we commonly use the expression \"falling in love\"; and\nwhen the heart is awakened to the sense of the universal presence of\nthe Father, it is not difficult to love men for His sake.  As for the\nvirtues, we must have them all.  Shall we imagine an impatient saint,\ncalled to follow Him who when reviled, reviled not again; an ignorant\nsaint, a partaker of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom\nand knowledge; an intemperate saint, to follow Him who was living at a\ncheaper rate, for a man, than the foxes or the fowls; an unloving\nsaint! into whose heart have been breathed the words, \"Love is the\nfulfilling of the law,\" or, which is the same thing, \"Christ is the end\nof the law for righteousness to every one that believeth\"?  Yes, we\nmust have them all.  What, will you complain, like little children,\nbecause your Teacher has been giving you too many rows to add up? will\nyou say, \"Lord, you overrate my powers; you think too highly of the\ngrace that you have given me; I know you, that you are a hard man, an\naustere man\"?\n\nDoes it matter in what order we ascend our virtue-scale?  Not at all.\nAn addition sum comes to the same thing whether you put it 2 + 3 or 3 +\n2.  For myself, I would like to begin the addition from the bottom row,\nstarting with love; but it does not matter, so that all the figures are\nincluded.  The Apostle goes on to speak of the effect of such a chain\nof experience upon the perceptive powers of the soul; he who has these\nthings, well; his eye shall see the King in His beauty and the land of\nfar distances; he who has them not, he is blind and short-sighted; or,\nas Luther and the Vulgate render it, is blind, and gropes with his\nhands.  Spiritual short-sightedness is the result of the neglect of the\npursuit of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ.  An\nindistinct vision may result from one of two causes: a fault in the\neye, or an obstruction in the atmosphere.  If you cannot make out a\ndistant object while other people can, they will say to you, \"How\nshort-sighted you are!\" but if no one can discern it, the probability\nis that something external has made vision impossible.  Now, in the\nthings of God, it is almost always the first defect that mars our\nperception; and the main reason why \"eye hath not seen\" is in our own\nnature, and not because God has not prepared nor revealed such things\nfor our perception.  To them that love Him, He reveals; wherefore let\nus add to kindness love, and we shall know.  There are many things to\nwhich we are blind, because we have not practised ourselves in looking\nfor them, nor do we know in what direction to look.  I remember, when\nin the Isle of Arran, watching through a mist for the coming of the\nsteamer from Glasgow; our landlady found it long before we could detect\nit, because she was more used to the quest; her eyes were keener, and\nshe knew the direction in which to look.  And the soul that ardently\nbelieves and hopes, knows well how to lift up its eyes to the hills\nfrom whence its help shall come, and to discern the help when it\nappears.\n\nThere are some people who seem ignorant of the fact that God has given\nthem spiritual faculties suited to the observation of spiritual\nrealities.  They are like folks who, if they were put down ten miles\nfrom home on a clear night, would never be able to tell you on which\nside of the sky the sun would rise; because they never exercised their\npowers in the observation of the way the skies go round.  And not only\nmay we discern spiritual realities, but more than that, it is written\nthat the pure in heart shall see God.  For God has not given up\nrevealing Himself to men yet; but this is an age in which, while there\nare many who know Him a little, there are few who know Him much.  He\nspake to the fathers.  He is speaking still.  Enoch was not the last of\nwhom it should be said, \"He walked with God, he pleased God\"; Isaiah\nnot the only one who could say, \"I beheld the Lord sitting on a throne\nhigh and lifted up\"; Paul not the only one who should be privileged\nwith rapture to the third heaven; George Fox not the only one to whom\nit was given to say, \"I was come up, through the naming sword, into the\nParadise of God.\"  Many there are who have known \"the Most High God no\nvision, nor that One who rose again.\"\n\n  God, who at sundry times, in manners many,\n  Spake to the fathers and is speaking still,\n  Eager to find if ever, or if any\n  Souls will obey and hearken to His\n  Who that one moment has the least descried Him,\n  Dimly and faintly, hidden and afar,\n  Doth not despise all excellence beside Him,\n  Pleasures and powers that are not and that are.\n  Aye, amid all men bear himself thereafter,\n  Smit with a solemn and a sweet surprise,\n  Dumb to their scorn and turning on their laughter\n  Only the dominance of earnest eyes.\n  Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest\n  Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny;\n  Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,\n  Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.\n\n\nYes! things that were seen of old may be seen again; voices that spake\nto prophets and seers be revived in the innermost soul of God's\nfaithful children; God is not dead; the Lord Jesus has not been raised\nfrom the grave to be placed in an inaccessible limbo, far from the\nsight of believing eyes: the Holy Spirit still speaks, as of old time,\nby holy men; He has not left the world yet, He dwelleth with you, He\nshall be in you.\n\nSuppose I were to say to you that if you were to go down to Hastings\nyou would be able to see the French coast clearly and distinctly, you\nwould say, \"Impossible even to the longest-sighted person; it is more\nthan fifty miles away\"; and yet, as you may see in the Philosophical\nTransactions for 1798, the coast of France was so visible, without a\ntelescope, from Calais to St. Vallery, with the fishing-boats, and the\ncolour of the houses clearly perceived.  When you hear this, you say,\n\"Well, if it is in the Philosophical Transactions, it must be true, and\nif it happened once, it may happen again.\"  Good enough reasoning; and\nthe Scriptures are the Spiritual Transactions, the record of God's\ndealings with and revealings to men of old time.  If they are true, He\nhas unveiled the hidden mysteries not once or twice to waiting souls;\nand what He has done, He not only may do again, but will do, wherever\nHe finds a truly humble heart in which to work and rest.  If He stood\nby Paul, saying, \"Fear not,\" just as really and maybe as evidently will\nHe stand by you: If He guided him in his work, restraining him from\npreaching here, and calling him to service there, He will give you also\nleadings just as certain and maybe as distinct.  But, do you say, \"Are\nwe then to seek for signs and wonders, to fast and pray, ardently\nlonging for the Divine revelation, until the vision dawns?\"  I do not\nsay so; but rather add unto your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;\nand to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to\npatience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to\nbrotherly kindness love: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall,\nand an entrance shall be abundantly ministered unto you into the\neverlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nA CONFERENCE ON DEATH\n\n\"And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and\nElias, who appeared in glory, and spake of His exodus which He should\naccomplish at Jerusalem.\"--LUKE ix. 30, 31.\n\n\nWe shall not attempt to explain the whole subject of the\nTransfiguration, but let us consider for what Jesus went up into the\nmountain.  The common opinion is that He went up to enjoy Himself--in\nsearch of some spiritual ecstacy.  But in this case there would have\nbeen no transfiguration.  Spiritual rapture comes after earnest labour\nthrough eager prayer--it is not found by seeking--we have not to look\nfor feelings or ecstacies; we need \"to know the will of God, and to do\nit.\"\n\nJesus went up into the mount to pray about death--the subject which had\na little before been borne in upon His mind--for we read in Matt. xvi.\n21, in the narration of events just preceding the Transfiguration, that\n\"from that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that\nHe must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and\nchief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third\nday.\"  When the devil took Him up into a mountain, he showed Him \"all\nthe kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said unto Him,\n'All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship\nme.'\"  When the Spirit of God took Jesus up into the mountain, He\nshowed Him the cross, the shame, the suffering,--the spear and the\ncrown of thorns, and said, \"All these will I give Thee.\"\n\nThe highest experiences of the Christian life are close bound up, in\nthe Divine will, with suffering.  Jesus went up into the mount to get a\nbetter view of His approaching sorrow.\n\nThe Transfiguration is slightly apprehended and seldom discussed.  Very\nfew sermons are preached, or great pictures painted, or hymns sung, on\nthe subject.  Almost the only verse one knows about it--\n\n  When in ecstacy sublime\n  Tabor's glorious steep I climb,\n  At the too transporting light\n  Darkness rushes o'er my sight,\n\nimplies that it is a subject beyond human understanding.\n\nWe have hymns on His Incarnation and Advent, His Divine Glory and\nWorship, His Mediatorial Character and Titles, Passion, Death,\nResurrection, Ascension, Intercession and Reign, and the Second Advent,\nbut none specially referring to the Transfiguration.  Yet it contains\nmany wonderful lessons we all need to know.  We have felt, perhaps,\nthat it was an experience peculiar to Christ--with which we can have\nnothing to do--but the Scriptures say otherwise; the word here rendered\n\"transfigured\" is the same as that translated \"transformed\" in Romans\nxii. 2, \"but be ye transfigured by the renewing of your minds,\" etc.,\nand \"changed,\" in 2 Cor. iii. 18, \"are transfigured into the same image\nfrom glory to glory.\"  We want so to look at the glory of Jesus, that,\nat the same time, we may see His sorrow as well--and be \"transfigured\ninto the same image; for if we suffer with Him, we shall also be\nglorified together.\"\n\nThere is no man who understands the Transfiguration like John Ruskin.\nHe says: \"We are afraid to harbour in our own hearts, or to utter in\nthe hearing of others, any thought of our Lord as hungering, tired, or\nsorrowful, or having a human soul, a human will, and affected by the\nevents of human life as a finite creature is: and yet one-half of the\nefficacy of His atonement and the whole of the efficacy of His example\ndepend on His having been this to the full.  Consider therefore the\nTransfiguration as it relates to the human feelings of our Lord.  It\nwas the first definite preparation for His death....  What other hill\ncould it have been than the southward slope of that goodly mountain,\nHermon, which is, indeed, the centre of all the promised land, from the\nentering in of Hamath to the river of Egypt; the mount of fruitfulness,\nfrom which the springs of Jordan descended to the valleys of Israel.\nAlong its mighty forest avenues, until the grass grew fair with the\nmountain lilies, His feet dashed with the dew of Hermon, He must have\ngone to pray His first recorded prayer about death; and from the steep\nof it, before He knelt, could see, to the south, all the\ndwelling-places of the people that had sat in darkness, and seen the\ngreat light, the land of Zabulon and of Naphthali, Galilee of the\nGentiles: could see even with His human sight, the gleam of that lake\nby Capernaum and Chorazin, and many a place loved by Him and vainly\nministered to, whose house was now left unto them desolate: and, chief\nof all, far in the utmost blue, the hills above Nazareth, sloping down\nto His old home; hills on which the stones yet lay loose that had been\ntaken up to cast at Him, when He left them for ever.  'And as He prayed\ntwo men stood by Him.'\"\n\n\"Among the many ways in which we miss the help and hold of Scripture,\nthere is none more subtle than our habit of supposing that, even as\nman, Christ was free from the fear of death.  How could He then have\nbeen tempted as we are?--since among all the trials of the earth none\nspring from the dust more terrible than that of fear.  It had to be\nborne by Him ... and the presence of it is surely marked for us enough\nby the rising of those two at His side.\"\n\nIt was Christ's first preparation for death--and, therefore, to\nunderstand His Transfiguration we must understand His Crucifixion too;\nto see Hermon, we must go to Calvary; to discern how the fashion of His\ncountenance was altered, we must witness that other time in the garden,\nwhen \"His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down on the\nground\"; to fathom how the three disciples slept through the glory, we\nmust remember how they slept through the sorrow too.\n\nThe word rendered decease is a strange one.  It is literally\n_exodus_--\"going out.\"  They spake of this exodus which He should\naccomplish at Jerusalem.  The same word occurs in the second epistle of\nPeter: \"I will endeavour that ye may be able after my exodus to have\nthese things always in remembrance\"; and it is worthy of notice that\nthe verses which follow are a reminiscence of the Transfiguration.\n\nWe have conferences on many subjects--on peace, on holiness, on\ntemperance: who ever heard of another conference (as this was) on\n_death_?\n\nA listener might have heard some such words as these:--\n\nFirst Moses might speak: \"I, too, know what it is to want not to die.\nI did not fear the act of dying, but the manner--away out of the\nPromised Land.  But when I saw the will of my God in all its beauty,\nthen even this bitter disappointment seemed bearable, and the kiss of\nmy God at the last made up for all.  Death is only a kiss to those who\nlove God; and if I had not followed the will of my God in this, what\nhad I not lost?  I had missed burial at the hands of the sons of God,\nand my feet would not now be standing in His presence.\"\n\nThen Elias might say: \"I had no fear of death: nay, I even prayed for\nit, saying, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my\nfathers.  It was not death that I feared so much as the fashion of\ndying when I fled from the face of Jezebel.  But to-day I am thankful\nthat my dying was not left to my choosing; if it had been so, I had\nmissed the fiery chariot by which I climbed up to the Presence of my\nKing,--the swift seraphic march that brought me home.\"\n\nAnd then Jesus might say, perhaps, something like these words--\n\n  I wish to have no wishes left,\n  But to leave all to Thee...\n  And yet two wills I find in Me\n  When on My death I muse;\n  But, Lord, I have a death to die,\n  And not a death to choose.\n\n\nThen Moses might speak again: \"Let us call God's providences by their\nsweetest names: death is not death to those who love God.  Thou, O\nSinless One, call it not death, call it exodus.  It was my lot once to\nlead the people of God out of slavery and degradation, out of heavy\nlabour, out of the furnace of iron; and yet methinks that will be the\ntrue exodus when Thy people pass over, O Lord, Thy people, whom Thou\nhast redeemed, when Thou by Thy dying lips dost proclaim deliverance to\nthe captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;\nwhen, through the deep sea of Thy sorrows, a passage is made by which\nthe ransomed shall return.  Call it not death; call it an exodus--a\nmighty deliverance of the people of God.\"\n\nThen Elias: \"O Son of God, right well do I know that the strength of\none man may be made the strength of many; and the triumph of many may\nspring from the victory of one.  I myself have stood alone in the face\nof an opposing people; yet by the strength of God I came off conqueror,\nand many were persuaded to cry, 'The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is\nGod,' and the power yet remains in which I stood; it glows, and grows\nwithin thee; it floods the air; it streams down thy garments.  Fear\nnot! thou shalt bring many souls, not merely to assent to the truth,\nbut to the Truth itself.  And especially standing conqueror over death,\nthou shalt deliver them who were all their lives in bondage through the\nfear of the same.  The love of God shall uphold thee; the strength of\nGod be thine.\"\n\nThen Jesus: \"In the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight\nto do Thy will, O My God.\"\n\nThen Moses might continue: \"Death is our best friend--he strengthens\nour eyes to behold the glory which in the flesh it would blind us to\nsee.  Once I was afraid to behold the glory of God.  I stood in a cleft\nof the rock, covered, as He passed by--but now, now, I can bear to\nstand and gaze in the presence of my King.\"\n\nThen Elias would reply: \"I too knew what it was to be afraid of His\nglory; in the mountain I wrapped my face in my mantle, but when His\nswift messengers came to bear me home, I cast my mantle behind, in\ntoken that I would never need it to shroud my face again.  It is the\nsame for Thee--already that glory smites upon Thy forehead, and gilds\nThy garments, and floods Thy face with light, but beyond, beyond, Thou\nshalt be crowned with glory and honour.\"\n\nAnd Jesus would say, \"Thy will be done--Thy will be done.\"\n\nThen Moses once more: \"A mother has two kisses for her child: one, a\ndaybreak kiss, wherewith she draws aside the curtains of the soul; and\none a good-night kiss, sometimes given in the dark.\n\n\"And so hath the Eternal His two loves: the love in the light, which\nnow encircles us; and the dark love on which our souls lean back to\nsleep.  Those who have felt God's daylight kiss can trust Him for it in\nthe dark.  For thee to die will only be to lie back in the Everlasting\nArms.\"\n\nThen Jesus: \"Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.\"\n\n\"And behold there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias,\nand they spake of His exodus which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.\"\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nCHRIST WILL TAKE ALL\n\n\"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.\"--JOHN vi. 37.\n\n\nIf one were left to determine from our English Bible the meaning of\nthis passage, it would be difficult to avoid the admission that it\ngives countenance to that form of doctrine commonly known as\nCalvinistic; for does it not present to us, in language sufficiently\nclear and obvious, the Divine Sovereignty as shown in Electing Grace?\nMust we not admit that there are those who by a Supreme Deed of Gift\nare allotted to the mercies of the Son; over whom He exercises the care\nof a good Shepherd; and is it not difficult to resist the conclusion\nthat, as there are some who are the objects of special solicitude and\ncare, so there are those who in some degree lie outside the sphere of\nthe Divine Benevolence?\n\nAgain, if we were to look at the 39th verse of this same chapter, and\nread the words, \"This is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of\nall which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it\nup again at the last day,\" should we not say that the natural meaning\nof the passage is that there is a Doctrine of Final Perseverance,\nlinked on to that of the Election of Grace, and a necessary corollary\nto it?\n\nBut when we turn to the Greek, we notice that in the first of the\nverses quoted the word _all_ is in the neuter gender, and so does not\nnecessarily apply to persons at all, and we are more likely to catch\nthe true meaning of the words by reading it as follows: \"Everything\nthat the Father hath given Me shall come to Me\"; and in the other\npassage a similar correction must be made, as is otherwise evident from\nthe last part of the passage, \"I will raise _it_ up at the last day\";\n\"Of everything which the Father hath given Me I should lose nothing.\"\n\nViewed in this light, the words that were supposed to imply election\nteach consecration, and instead of final perseverance we read full\npossession.  And this we do not say with any idea of refuting\nCalvinistic doctrine, having no \"isms\" of our own and little time to\nspend in attacking those of other people.  Likely enough, our rendering\nof the words may be incorrect, and in any case we ought carefully to\ncompare similar passages in the Gospel; but be that as it may, the\ntruth is not affected that the Sovereignty of God and the Love of God\ndemand the full subjection and surrender of our being; and we are\nassured that where these conditions are fulfilled, the Divine\nPossession and Protection become an intense and abiding reality.\n\nNow, in confirmation of our rendering, we will examine the manner in\nwhich the passage is quoted by John Bunyan; and certainly we may say\nthat if there was a Calvinistic meaning to be got out of a passage,\nJohn Bunyan was not the man to miss it; and moreover, since he was\ntotally ignorant of Greek (and I suppose of Latin, too, there being\nonly, as far as I know, the solitary expression in the _Pilgrim's\nProgress_ \"de carne et sanguine Christi,\" accompanied by the marginal\nmodesty, \"the Latin I borrow\"), he is not likely to fall into the\nmistake to which we may be liable, of evading the plain meaning of\nwords by reference to the original tongue.  Turning, then, to the _Holy\nWar_, we shall find the following, giving an account of terms proposed\nby Diabolus for the surrender of the town of Mansoul; the offer of\nsubmission being made through his ambassador, Mr. Loth-to-Stoop.  \"Then\nMr. Loth-to-Stoop said again, 'Sir, behold the condescension of my\nmaster!  He says that he will be content if he may but have some place\nassigned to him in Mansoul as a place to live in privately, and you\nshall be lord of all the rest!'  Then said the Golden Prince, 'All that\nthe father giveth me shall come to me, and of all that he giveth me I\nwill lose nothing, no, not an hoof or an hair.  I will not, therefore,\ngrant him, no, not the least corner in Mansoul to dwell in.  I will\nhave it all to myself.'\"  It is a little singular, to say the least,\nthat he should have apprehended both the passages that we quoted in\ntheir right sense; and we had better attribute his accuracy to a touch\nof true inspiration.\n\nNow, passing on from this point, we may think of the Lord Jesus in a\ntwofold character:--\n\n1. As the Receiver appointed to collect debts due to God.\n\n2. As the Almoner of gifts from God to men.  He can come to us and say,\n\"My Father has appointed Me the heir of all things; He has put His\naffairs into My hands, so that debts to Him are debts to Me; how much,\ntherefore, owest thou to thy Lord?  For, all that the Father giveth Me\nshall come to Me.\"\n\nHe can come to us again and say, \"The Father hath given Me authority\nover all flesh, that I should impart as well as exact; that I may give\neternal life and eternal blessing, and Holy Ghost to as many as\nbelieve; that I should manifest His name to you, and give to you His\nword and His Glory, and all things I have received of Him; that I\nshould give unto you rest and My own joy, and, by way of legacy in a\nwill which the enemy cannot dispute, should leave peace with you;\nfinally, ascending up on high, should send gifts to men, even to the\nrebellious, that the Lord their God might dwell among them.  For He\nthat spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for you all, how\nshall He not with Him also freely give you all things.  How much,\ntherefore, hast thou received from thy Lord?\"\n\nAnd if we look at it rightly, He speaks but little of the dues, and\nmuch of the gifts; for God only exacts from us that He may be able to\nimpart to us; there is no tyrant seated on the throne of the universe,\nbut only a Father waiting to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him;\nand the uttermost farthing that He demands from us is only in order\nthat He may have the right to save us to the uttermost, if we could but\nbelieve it.\n\nWe may say next, that if our ultimate condition must be that of entire\nsubjection and surrender to and harmony with the Divine Will, how sad\nit is that our consecration is so slow, so protracted, so ungracious;\nthat we take so much time to reach the point where we are altogether\nthe Lord's.  People can read the mystery of conversion in the parable\nof the dry bones in Ezekiel; but there is consecration in the story,\ntoo.  Little by little we see the dead man coming into the place of\nblessing; bone to bone, sinew to sinew, nerve to nerve; and when there\nis the complete structure of a man, comes the vivifying breath from the\nfour winds.  Not before, for God must have a man to quicken; He does\nnot inspire skeletons or fragments; as at the first, when a man stands\nbefore Him, He breathes into him the breath of life and he becomes a\nliving soul.\n\nWe may well be ashamed when we think of the way in which consecration\nto God is made.  We are like the man who, because he was irritated at a\nclaim made upon him for a sum of money, went and paid the bill in\nfarthings.  So we pay our dues to God, giving as little as we can, and\ntaking as long about it as we list.  Perhaps it is because we treat Him\nthat way, that God is obliged to appear exacting and talk to us about\nuttermost farthings at all.\n\nPerhaps we shall be right in concluding from the 39th verse, that there\nis something in the resurrection contingent on the consecration: \"I\nwill raise _it_ up at the last day\"; of one thing we may be very sure,\nthat the life to come is not only conterminous with but continuous with\nthe life that is.  Death changes our surroundings but not our\ncharacters.  There is no more breach of continuity in those than there\nis in an algebraical curve that goes to infinity.\n\nWe may, indeed, get dying grace, and hold a consecration meeting upon\nour dying beds, but it is not death that consecrates, nor the grave\nthat sanctifies and cleanses from all sin.  We shall begin the next\nlife pretty much where we left off in this.  We were singing a little\nwhile ago--\n\n  Let the veil become more thin,\n  Let the glory pierce between;\n\nbut, mark you, that veil does not become more thin by pulling out a\nthread here and a thread there; remember how at the Crucifixion the\nveil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; the\nveil that is on your heart will go like that, when the day comes for\nthings to appear which now are numbered amongst things not seen as yet,\nand for you to apprehend and participate in the things which God has\nlaid up for those who love Him.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nSTRONG CRYING\n\n\"The energised prayer of a righteous man is of great force.\"--JAMES v.\n16.\n\n\nIt is strange that we understand so little about prayer: with most\npeople, including the greater part of the professedly religious, it is\nregarded simply as a sort of spiritual safety-valve, adapted to relieve\nthe soul from strain and over-pressure; is any afflicted, they say, let\nhim pray; and as for us, who are merry, we will sing psalms.\n\nNow, if we were looking at a steam-engine, and meditating over the\nmotive power of it, we should scarcely direct our thoughts to the\nsafety-valve, or say of it, \"What a mighty power is stored up in this\nlittle lever.\"  On the contrary, our attention would be fixed on the\npiston and the steam at the back of it, and on the laws which govern\nits production, expansion, and condensation.  And we need scarcely say\nthat there is not much in common between those who regard prayer simply\nas an emotional safety-valve, and those who look upon it as one of the\ngreat moving forces of the spiritual world.  It happens often enough\nthat there are forces in the world of which people generally are\nignorant, or of which they have an idea that is totally inadequate.\nAs, for instance, we have known cynical politicians deride the\nexpression of public opinion, as being only valuable as a political\nsafety-valve, and useful to keep the \"many-headed monster,\" the\npopulace, from more dangerous courses; but not once or twice have they\nbeen awakened to find that there is nothing to stand before the rush of\na well-formed public sentiment.  So that we say rightly public opinion\nis of great force.\n\nAnd certainly the idea which the majority of folk attach to the word\nprayer is but very incommensurate to the part which it occupies, not\nonly in the development of the life of the individual soul, but in the\nlife and lot of the world at large.\n\nOn the other hand, the force of prayer has been understood by the\nreally spiritual writers of every school and of all time.  They knew\nthat prayer is one of the secrets of life; that he who lives, prays,\nand he who prays, lives; that he who prays works, and he who works\nprays; and so large a part of the spiritual life is comprised in the\none word prayer, that we find them describing the soul's advance by the\ncharacter of the prayer which springs from it.\n\nFor instance, Madame Guyon, in her precious A B C of the spiritual\nlife, introduces her book with the title, \"A Short and Easy Method of\nPrayer\"; St. Theresa describes the degrees of the soul's progress as\ndegrees of prayer, styling them Prayer of Quiet, Prayer of Union, and\nso on; St. John of the Cross names his mystical way as the Ascent of\nMount Carmel, the meaning of which is evidently similar to the other.\nAnd so, no doubt one might give other instances, confining ourselves,\nof course, to the experimental Christians only, and letting the divines\nand theologians alone.  May we not say that our dear Lord Himself was\ncareful enough both in example and teaching to lead His scholars along\nthis way, making them aware that a great part of the soul's education\nwas education in prayer?  He began by making them feel that they really\ndidn't know what prayer meant, though they had been taught to say\nprayers almost since they could speak.  So He brings them to a point\nwhere they say, \"Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his\ndisciples\": encourages them further by admonitions to ask, seek, and\nknock; He tells them that if they ask for bread and fish, they won't\nget stones and snakes (but doesn't say that if you ask for a snake,\nyour Father will be so good as to give it to you); leads them on until\nthey acquire the sense of the need of a larger faith; instructs them\nthat prayer is the function of an organ of the spiritual life, and must\nbe as constant and persistent as breathing or other natural functions,\nso that men ought always to pray and not to faint, and that they should\nkeep awake at all times praying, if they are to be found worthy to\nstand before the Son of man.  Finally, one of His last counsels, just\nbefore the last great objective teaching of His own Life on the\nsubject, connects the force of their prayer with the state of their\nlife, saying, \"If ye abide in Me, ye shall ask what ye will and it\nshall be done unto you.\"\n\nNow the verse which we quoted at the beginning speaks of certain\nprayers as of great force; we infer that there are weak prayers as well\nas strong ones--poor little wingless things that cannot rise into the\nCelestial Audience-Chamber.\n\nHermas describes such when he says, \"The prayer of a sad man has no\npower to climb to the altar of God.\"  And it is of great importance\nthat we should know the reasons which contribute to the strength or\nweakness of a prayer.  On such points we shall find the Apostle James\nto be an authority; for he was the great intercessor of the early\nChurch, the man of whom they said that his knees were worn hard like\nthe knees of a camel.  And being in addition the most practical of all\nthe teachers, we shall find in his writing (in spite of the fact that\nLuther called it an \"epistle of straw\") something far more valuable\nthan a merely speculative theology.  For instance, more than any one\nelse, he supplies us with conditions for the success of that great\nexperiment which we call prayer.  Prayer of the powerful, operative\nsort, has its conditions.  We cannot disregard them.  I have seen a man\nin the Cavendish laboratory attempt to make a magnetic measurement in\nthe immediate vicinity of some large iron pipes, and neither of us\ncould tell the cause which made the apparatus behave so unreasonably.\nAnd prayers are often hindered in a similar way by unobserved\ndisturbing causes.  St. James supplies us with several hints:--\n\n(i.) That a double-minded man need not expect to receive anything from\nthe Lord; a waverer, driven with the wind and tossed.\n\n(ii.) That ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may\nconsume it upon your lusts.\n\n(iii.) That it must be believing prayer, if it is to be effectual; let\nhim ask in faith; the prayer of faith shall save the sick.\n\n(iv.) It is the prayer that springs from a rectified heart and life;\nthe prayer of a righteous man is of great force.\n\nHermas, too, a Christian father of the second century, whom we quoted\nbefore, supplies us with some suggestions.  One would almost think, for\nsome reasons, that he had been one of St. James's immediate disciples,\nfor he is fond of using that same word double-minded (more exactly\ndouble-souled), speaks of visiting the orphans and widows, etc.  Thus\nwe find in the ninth chapter of the book of Commands as follows (the\nbook being of a date immediately subsequent to the apostles): \"He said\nunto me, put away from thee all double-mindedness, and have no more\ndivision of heart concerning petitions from God, saying in thyself, How\nshall I be able to ask and receive anything from the Lord, having\nsinned so greatly against Him?  Reason not on this wise, but turn to\nthe Lord with all thy heart, and ask from Him without hesitation, and\nthou shalt know His large-heartedness, that He will certainly never\nleave thee, but will fulfil thy soul's request.  God is not, as men\nare, mindful of wrongs done to Him, but forgetful of them, and He hath\ncompassion upon His workmanship.  Do thou, therefore, cleanse thy heart\nfrom all the vanities of this age, and from things spoken of before,\nand ask from the Lord and thou shalt receive all things; and of all thy\npetitions thou shalt not fail of one, if thou ask of the Lord with an\nunhesitating heart.  But if thou doubtest in thy heart, thou shalt\nreceive none of thy petitions.  For they that are doubtful towards God,\nare the double-minded men, and they shall obtain none at all of their\npetitions.  But they that are perfectly sound in the faith ask for all\nthings in reliance upon the Lord, and receive them, because they ask\nwithout hesitation and with no dividedness of heart.  For every\ndouble-minded man, unless he repent, will scarcely be saved.  Cleanse,\ntherefore, thy heart from double-mindedness, and put on faith, for she\nis mighty, and believe in God, that thou shalt receive all thy requests\nthat thou dost make.  And if ever when thou hast made request thou be\nsomewhat longer in receiving thy petition from the Lord, be not of a\ndouble-mind, that thou didst not swiftly receive thy soul's request,\nfor certainly it is on account of some temptation or some sin that thou\nart longer in receiving thy petition.  Therefore, do not cease making\nthy request, and thou shalt receive it, but if thou faintest and art of\ndoubtful mind in thy petition, blame thyself and not Him who gives to\nthee.\"  It amounts to this, that to have power in prayer is only\npossible as long as and in proportion as we walk with God.\n\nLooking at it in another light, observe that real prayer is connected\nin a most intimate manner with the influences of the Holy Spirit.\nPerhaps this is what is meant by the word rendered by us \"energised,\"\nbut \"effectual and fervent\" in the English Version.  Certainly in\nalmost every case where the word occurs, it has reference to the\noperation of God or the devil.  And if this be so, the prayer must be a\npossessed prayer, and the praying man a possessed person, and so again\nwe are brought face to face with the foundations of mighty prayer lying\nin a holy life.  And what else is taught by the Apostle when he says,\n\"The Spirit maketh intercession _in the Saints_ according to the will\nof God\"?\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nTHE SENTINEL OF THE HEART\n\n\"The peace of God, which exceeds all understanding, shall guard your\nhearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.\"--Phil. iv. 7.\n\n\nOne of the best tests of the value of a religion, and of the degree of\nthe truth enshrined therein, is found in the nature and permanence of\nthe peace which it imparts.  For it is a fact that all religions, or\nalmost all, and especially those which have taken a wide grasp of the\nhearts and minds of men, profess to bring peace to the worshipper.\n\nThe Roman Church, with its history unparalleled alike for saintliness\nor sin, with its offers to resolve all doubts and to forgive all\niniquities, affords a haven and anchorage for those whose bark has been\ntorn by the stormy winds of private judgment.  It is not one or two who\nhave been brought within her pale in search of peace; and, indeed, the\nbosom of Mother Church would be an attractive resting-place, if it did\nnot strike us on the other hand as being too much like the effort of\none baby to carry another of its own size.\n\nWhat is true of the Roman Church is true of the religion which has\nprevailed even more widely amongst the human race; if we ask the\nBuddhist teachers what is offered to the inquiring soul in their sacred\nbooks, or what is revealed as possible in the experience of those men\namongst them who have made the greatest progress in mind-and-spirit\nlore, they would talk to you of Nirvana, or, as I think it was\nunderstood by them at the first, the extinction of the individual, even\nas a candle-flame is blown out.  And however perverted their belief may\nhave become, they seem in early days to have contemplated a real\ndestruction of self,--the flame of self-love and self-life being so put\nout that it should never more be a flame, and should not long be a\nspark.  For instance, their writings tell us such things as follow:--\n\n\"To him who has finished the path and passed beyond sorrow, who has\nfreed himself on every side, and thrown away all fetters, there is no\nmore fever of grief.\"  \"Such an one remains like the broad earth\nunvexed; like the pillar of the city gate, unmoved; like a pellucid\nlake, unruffled.\"\n\n\"Tranquil is the mind, tranquil the words and the deeds, of him who is\nthus set at rest and made free by wisdom.\"  \"The heart, scrupulously\navoiding all idle dissipation, diligently applying itself to the holy\nlaw of Buddha, letting go all lust, and consequent disappointment,\nfixed and unchangeable, enters on Nirvana.\"\n\nAnd so in many other features we may trace the doctrine of inward peace\nas taught in the Buddhist religion.  A similar feature is to be traced\nin the Mohammedan faith, if we are right that Islam means surrender to\nthe will of God, and the Mussulman a surrendered person; and certainly\nthere have been those in the great religion of the East who held\nsurrender in a higher sense than that of the fatalism which we\ngenerally attach to the words.\n\nNow, when we speak of different religions as in the foregoing, it is\nnot that we want to cultivate the science of comparative religious\nanatomy; all we want to say is this, that just as a very rough\nobservation convinces us that corresponding organs in different\ncreatures imply corresponding uses and similar needs, so we discern\nvarious methods of bringing peace to the soul of man in those religions\nwhich have to the greatest extent prevailed in the world.\n\nWe are right to read these features carefully, for they are the\nwatermarks of the absolute religion (which we believe the religion of\nJesus to be), which is to gather in the men of every tribe and kindred\nand nation, and to unite all the children of God who are scattered\nabroad.\n\nWe are too much accustomed to look on these foreign religionists merely\nin the light of compassion, as people for whom we must send the\nmissionary, make the regular collection and offer the periodic prayer;\nand we make maps of the world in which we paint in all the religions\nwhich differ from our own in black, or, if not in black, in other\ncolours only for the sake of distinction.  But, if we were wise, we\nshould see that, where we paint black, it should be black with streaks\nof light; and we should learn, too, to see that our own faith would\nneed, if accurately represented, to be a white colour checked and\nstreaked with spots of the intensest black.  For not all that is called\nChristianity is of Christ.\n\nWe say, then, that one of the characteristics of the absolute religion\nis that it offers to the soul a real and permanent peace.  Here is a\ntest for us: a real peace; it must not be based on deceptive methods: a\npermanent peace, which neither things present can disturb, nor life nor\ndeath dispel.  And the Lord Jesus, who has spoken of the heart of man\nas never man spake, made this one of the keystones of His teaching, as\nit was the cornerstone of His living.\n\n\"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will rest\nyou.\"\n\n\"These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace.\"\n\nAnd thus we hear our blessed Lord whispering to the world of to-day, a\ntired world from the first, but never so tired as now; through these\nlips comes God's answer to the cry of five hundred millions of\nBuddhists, of the millions of Islam, of the Romanist, the Mystic, the\nQuaker--to all, in one breath, the message comes; yes, to me, even to\nme Thou speakest when the word is of that hidden lasting peace which\nThou, Lord Jesus, canst bestow.  And if it was a marvel that at\nPentecost every man should hear in his own language the wonderful works\nof God, much more is it a marvel to speak to all hearts than to speak\nwith all tongues.\n\nAnd what is more than speech, even that which goes to the heart, is the\naction by which Thou, Lord, hast proved Thy speech.  Thy life has given\nThee the right to speak of what Thou givest as _Thy_ peace.  So quiet\nwast Thou that, but for the wrong-doers that crossed Thy path, Thou\nwouldst have seemed to be passionless; yea, some have even spoken of\nThee as the \"cold Galilean,\" because of the marvellous rest of Thy soul\nin Thy Father's arms.\n\nNot only is it a test of the truth of a religion whether it imparts a\nreal and permanent peace, but it is also a test of our attainment in\nthe true religion, when we find it, for us to examine the depth and\ncharacter of our peace.\n\nWe determine the religion of Jesus to be the Absolute Religion, because\nit imparts the highest peace in the manner most suited to the soul of\nman, and most consistent with the character of God.\n\nWe verify our own position in the Life by the simple test of the\nexperience of Peace which we enjoy.\n\nIt is easy to be tranquil under certain circumstances; and there are\ntimes when most of us perceive the connection between quiet and\nholiness.  But then circumstances change, and what becomes of the\npeace?  Drake and his men cross the isthmus of Panama, and from a peak\nthey see below them the smiling ocean on the farther side; so fair and\nstill it looked that it received the name of the Pacific Ocean; but\nthen there were two things to be noticed: first, it was a fine day;\nnext, they probably thought the sea the smoother because of the height\nfrom which they surveyed it.  And it is easy to talk of peace on fine\ndays, and when we are high up above trouble; but our test must be when\nwe are in the midst of the waters, when the waves thereof roar and are\ntroubled.  Is it Pacific Ocean then; or do we find, as may be those\nearly adventurers, that it was too hastily named?  Certain it is that\nmany Christians are disappointed because they do not always realise the\npeace and blessedness of which sometimes they have glimpses and\nenjoyment.\n\nIt is our practical every-day test of our standing in grace; a man who\nis exploring an old well lowers a candle before him, knowing that where\nthat can live, he can live; the Christian's test-flame is the peace of\nGod; when that fails, he ought to know that it is safe to go no\nfarther.  This peace is like some magic mirror, by the dimness growing\non the surface of which we may discern the breath of an unclean spirit\nthat would work us ill.  As the Apostle says, \"Let the peace of God\nrule (_i.e._ be arbiter or umpire) in your hearts.\"  We may almost say\nthat for most of us it is true that what we can do quietly we can do\nsafely.  So we see more and more the importance of having the heart and\nthought kept by the Peace of God.\n\nSome render the passage, \"The peace of God shall stand sentry over your\nheart\"; and this expresses it very well.  Where this sentry stands,\nnothing forbidden can pass either within or without, except the watcher\nbe first destroyed.  If the thirst for wealth or fame enter into a\nman's heart, it is over the slain body of the sentry; our peace is gone\nwhen these things enter in.  And many such like things there are which\nchoke the word and destroy the peace.  Then we turn and look at it in\nanother light, passing on from thoughts concerning the Peace of God to\nhigher ones about the God of Peace, who has promised to sanctify us\nwholly and to preserve spirit, soul, and body blameless unto the coming\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nTHY FATHER IN SECRET\n\n\"Alone, and yet not alone.\"--JOHN xvi. 32.\n\n\nOf all religious ideas, the grandest is that which lay at the root of\nthe monastic system,--that religion is the wedlock of the soul to God;\nalthough the method in which this idea was exemplified was a faulty\none, or, at any rate, one which rapidly became corrupt, even if it was\nnot so at first.  The wonderful worship of the middle ages at least\ntaught men to serve God in retirement of life and unworldliness of\nspirit, and gave demonstration of holiness and righteousness in men who\ndid their work in the world even though they lived out of it, and in\nwomen who were content to view the busy, jocular, combatant,\npleasure-seeking community only from behind the bars of the house of\nrest that they had chosen.  It was a noble object-lesson of the\nspiritual life; and though the symbols used to express it may have\nbecome valueless, the truth that they taught remains yet, that if a man\nor woman seeks the highest good, there must be for such an isolation of\nthe soul from the ordinary course of life and thought in the world\naround us; we must afford ourselves facilities for a sacred loneliness\nwith God.\n\nIt is interesting to notice that St. Luke, probably more than any other\nevangelist, gives record of solitariness and vigil and secret\ncommunion; and it may be that it was a line of experience with which he\nwas familiar; certainly he was careful to chronicle the lonely hours of\nthe Saint when God and the soul are at one, and it needs no prophet to\npray that the Lord will open the young man's eyes that he may see.\nWhat a summary of experience is contained in those words which describe\nthe ministerial preparation of John the Baptist,--\"He was in the desert\nuntil the day of his showing unto Israel, waxing and growing strong in\nspirit\" (Luke i. 80).  Then he speaks of the Master, of His being led\nby the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke iv. 1); of His departing and\ngoing into a desert place (Luke iv. 42); of His withdrawal into the\nwilderness for prayer (Luke v. 16); of His going out into a mountain to\npray, and continuing all night in prayer to God (Luke vi. 12).\n\nWould it not be better, instead of making the commonplace assertion\nthat there was nothing of the ascetic about Jesus Christ, for us to\nrecall to mind His teaching at another time, that every disciple shall\nbe perfected as his Master (Luke vi. 40), and to inquire whether we\nmight not do well to love and covet retirement, even of an external\ncharacter, as a means to the attainment of that perfection?\n\nRetirement with God is the only preparation for success, and the only\nmedicine for failure whether it be Moses wondering at the burning bush\nin the mount of God, or Elijah eating angel's bread under the\njuniper-tree.  We shall do well to observe also that it has been a\nfeature of all the great religions of the East; the secret of all\nstrong souls lies in those times of loneliness when they were bound\nhand and foot as captives to the Everlasting Will.  We deride such\nnowadays; call them mystic, contemplationist, fanatic.  George Fox,\nsitting about in lonely places, reading his Bible in hollow trees, is\nhard to understand.  But if it were anything but religion that was in\nquest, people would not laugh.  Tell them of Demosthenes living in a\ncellar, with head half shaved to prevent his appearing in public, and\nthere will be admiration; was it any wonder that he became an orator?\nBut let a man be as bent on becoming a saint; let him give up one\nhour's frivolous talk in order to commune with his Father in secret;\nthen we suspect that such an one is becoming righteous overmuch.  Mind,\nno one complains of a man being anxious to be wise overmuch, or rich\novermuch, healthy overmuch; he may burn the midnight oil and study,\nwatch the markets and scheme, frequent the gymnasium and develop his\nmuscle, and no one will find fault; but to spend time on what is at\nleast as important as wisdom, wealth, and health, and in a sense\ninvolves them all,--this is fanatical, and not to be encouraged or\napproved.  We miss much through our want of separation from the world,\nand through our deficiency in insulation, or, which is the same word,\nin isolation.  If we go into a science laboratory and examine the great\nbrass machines for holding electrical charges, we find that they are\nall mounted on glass feet.  These are the insulators, and if it were\nnot for them, no electricity would remain on the surface; as it is,\nelectricity is hard enough to keep in charge, even with the best\ninsulators.  And we know sometimes what it is to have life and power\npass into us from above, but we don't know how to retain it, because we\nhave never learnt true retirement of heart and insulation of life.\nThere is good teaching in the following passage from one of Madame\nGuyon's letters: \"It is very desirable, and in the earlier part of your\nministry especially, that you should spend a portion of your time--and\nthat perhaps not a small portion--with God in retirement.  Let your own\nsoul be first filled with God's spirit, and then and not otherwise will\nyou be in a situation to communicate the Divine fulness to others.  No\nman can give what he has not; or if a man has grace, but has it in a\nsmall degree, he may in dispensing to others impart to them what is\nnecessary for himself.\"\n\nNow if any one were to ask what is the especial strength of England as\nregards other empires and commonwealths, the answer would be that it\nlies in her insular position,--in the \"silver streak\" that parts her\nfrom France; and the true Christian is girt round with separating grace.\n\nWe might draw two pictures to remind us how we may become strong for\nGod: one of the solitary vigil of the Great Shepherd keeping watch over\nHis flock by night; the other of the little company who waited with\njoined hands and hearts in the upper room for the coming of the\nComforter; these two pictures representing the solitude of a single\nsoul and of united souls with God.\n\nBy such silent communion God will especially prepare us for service and\nfor suffering.\n\nSome one spoke to John Nelson, making unfavourable comparison of John\nWesley with a prominent religious teacher of the day; and Nelson\nreplied, \"He has not stayed in the upper room like John Wesley.\"  We\nneed our silent preparations for speech; to go forth, like Ezekiel,\ninto the plain to find the glory of the Lord; or like Daniel to the\nriver-side, where we may meet one like unto the Son of man; or like the\ntwo who walked into the country whom Jesus met, and with whom He talked\ntill He made their hearts burn.\n\nEspecial preparation of this kind is necessary for the prosecution of\ngreat enterprises.  We are reminded of this if we observe what followed\nthe all-night of prayer of the Lord Jesus,--how, when it was day, He\ncalled unto Him His twelve apostles, and with them went down into the\nplain to heal diseases and them that were vexed with unclean spirits.\nNapoleon leaves his army, as they near the Russian frontier, and spurs\nhis horse until at last in solitary contemplation he sees before him\nthe river that separates him from the country that he is going to\ninvade: a striking picture, made more so by the thought of the luckless\ntermination of the enterprise.  And some of us, whom God will call to\ngreat enterprises for Him that will not end in failure, will know what\nit is to make a similar solitary advance; and in silent waiting upon\nGod to watch Him unroll before us the map of our journey, telling us\nwhat we must do and what we must suffer for Him: and the silence makes\nus strong when the voice of God has broken in upon it.  And we will not\nmarvel if to us, as to Saul of Tarsus, the answer to the question,\n\"What wilt thou have me to do?\" should come in the form, \"I will shew\nhim how great things he must suffer\"; for our thoughts will turn again\nto Him who said, \"Rise and let us be going\" from the solitude of the\nupper room to the deeper retirement of the olive grove; who went a\nlittle farther, even from those He loved most, as He prayed, \"Not My\nwill but Thine be done\"; and then took His way alone, and yet not\nalone, to be the Redeemer and Reviver of the souls of men.\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nTESTS OF FAITH, LOVE, AND RIGHTNESS\n\nWhat are the experimental bases of our Christianity? and whereby shall\nwe know that we are of the truth and assure our hearts before Him?\n\nOur answers to such questions may appear discouraging, but it is far\nbetter that we should experience discouragement (not that we would\nreally wish to say a word to throw back the weakest believer from his\nfaith), than that we should attempt to fill ourselves with the formulas\nthat the Pharisees do eat.\n\nSome time ago, in discussing the definite points and peculiar\ncharacteristics of Christian life and experiences, we took as a\ncomparison the changes of state in a material body, from solid to\nliquid, and from liquid to gaseous.  We observed that, just as in\nnature the most important practical and theoretical investigations were\nmade upon bodies in the neighbourhood of those points where they\nundergo a change of state, so it is also true in the world of grace\nthat our most valuable observations and inquiries relate to certain\ncritical points in the life--as conversion and sanctification; points\nwhich may sometimes, like the freezing and boiling points of a material\nsubstance, approach almost, if not quite, to coincidence, but which,\nlike them, may be very widely separated.\n\nSuppose, then, to resume our figure, we were to propose to ourselves\nthe question, \"How shall I know whether a body near the melting point\nhas passed from the solid to the liquid state?\"  In some cases it would\nbe extremely easy to give an answer: with ice, under ordinary\ncircumstances, we should simply say that it becomes mobile; the word of\nthe Supreme Law having gone forth, the waters flow.  But our test would\nnot do for all liquids, because there are some that do not answer\nreadily to it, but are extremely sluggish in the neighbourhood of their\nmelting points, so that they seem almost solid even when liquid.  We\nare obliged, then, to look for a better test, and we should probably\nobserve that the most convenient would be found in the fact that an\naddition of heat produces a change in temperature in a body that has\npassed its melting point.  Place a thermometer in melting snow, it\nmarks zero until the snow is really melted, and after that it rises.\n\nNow, in a similar manner, we should find that many of the tests\npopularly applied to discriminate spiritual life, are only partially\naccurate; and since our method is a purely experimental one, we ought\nto see that we apply proper methods of inquiry in an accurate manner.\n\nOur question, then, is, \"Whereby shall we know that we are of the\ntruth?\" and we shall probably look to Scripture for an answer.  Indeed,\nthere is a School which tells us positively that we must try the\ncondition in which we are by the statements of Scripture, holding up\nthe Word of Life as a mirror before our lives, so that we may compare\nthe reflection with the Divine characteristics.\n\nAnd provided this method be honestly applied, and not by the mere\nselection of pet texts, it is probable that it is a correct one.  We\nwill, then, take the 1st Epistle of John, in which we find the most\ndefinite assertions about personal experience, and try ourselves by it.\n\nFirst of all, there is the simple and beautiful statement, \"Beloved,\nnow are we the children of God\"; most of us would quote it freely; but\nour scientific method would at least require that we should harmonise\nthe supposed fact with the asserted consequences, \"Therefore the world\nknoweth us not, even as it knew Him not\"; and if we find that the world\nsmiles on us in a way that it did not upon our Lord, then we must\neither conclude (i.) that we were mistaken in the fact, or (ii.) that\nwhile the word _we_ in the first part of the sentence is capable of\nextension, the _us_ in the second is restricted in its reference to St.\nJohn and the despised and rejected people with him--with, perhaps, a\npossible reference to subsequent isolated instances, down to the\nSalvation Army, and a few more in our own day!\n\nOr, taking another simple assertion, \"We know that we have passed\n(crossed over, transmigrated) from death unto life.\"  We use the words\nto convince people of the definite nature of conversion; we say it is\nas real as a passage from death to life, and as truly marked; it is the\nadvent of a new life in the soul.  But can we honestly go on to base\nthe assertion on the fact of our own love to men, to--souls?  Would we\nventure to stand or fall by this test, \"I have loved, I love,\" and not\nbe afraid that our good angels would rise up to bear witness against us\nas we said it?\n\nA third passage comes before us; for some one will say, \"We believe,\nand is it not written that he that believeth hath everlasting life?\"\nand may we not rest upon the assurance conveyed by the present tense of\nthe verb employed?\n\nWithout going at present into the consideration of this passage from\nthe Gospel, let us say, roughly, that the test of the existence of a\nspiritual life presented by St. John in the Epistle is of a threefold\ncharacter: it is--\n\n([Greek: alpha]) A test of faith: he that believeth that Jesus is the\nChrist is born of God.\n\n([Greek: beta]) A test of love: he that loveth is born of God.\n\n([Greek: gamma]) A test of righteousness: every one that doeth\nrighteousness is born of Him.\n\nAnd if these are true criteria of the life within us, each of these\nstatements, with its necessary consequences, may be predicated of that\nsoul in which the Heavenly Life has been brought forth.\n\nFor instance: we must not take ([Greek: alpha]) and reject ([Greek:\nbeta]) and ([Greek: gamma]); nor must we disregard the consequences\nwhich are a necessary part of our experimental verifications.\n\nOf these three passages we should most probably elect to be tried by\n([Greek: alpha]); for it is comparatively easy for us, especially at\nthe present day, to hold to an intellectual assent to a proposition.\nIn fact the difficulty is that the sieve is too wide; for almost every\none believes that Jesus is the Christ.  It must be evident then that we\nhave misunderstood the text or omitted the consequences which follow\nfrom it.  Now the continuation of the statement is that whatsoever is\nin this holy birth has victory over the world; and if we apply the test\nof an overcoming life to our supposed faith, things look very\ndifferent.  Discouraged, we pass on to the second criterion; if not by\nfaith, let us be judged by love.\n\nSince we all of us love something and some persons, we shall perhaps\nfind ourselves safe under this test.\n\nBut, upon examination, we perceive that he does not simply mean love of\nGod, or love of Jesus, or a merely selective human love; but love of\nthe brethren and of the children of God in a universal manner.  He\ntwists it backwards and forwards, saying at one moment, \"He that loveth\nGod, let him love his brother also\"; at another, \"If he love not his\nbrother whom he hath seen, how _can_ he love God whom he hath not\nseen\"?  and again, \"By this we know that we love the children of God,\nwhen we love God,\" and, breaking off abruptly, \"when we love God, and\nkeep His commandments.\"  Certainly if love is universal and coincident\nwith obedience, we shall scarcely be able to face this test.\n\nSo we pass on to the third criterion--that of righteousness; and here,\nperhaps, we may expect some help, knowing how careful the Lord is to\njudge us by the light we have, how generously He measures every effort\nafter holiness, and blesses every pang of the spiritual hunger.  We may\nnot be able to grasp the creeds which others recite so fluently; we may\nnot be able to give easy expression to the affections which thrill\nwithin us; may, perhaps, wonder if we love at all; but at least we can\nsay this,--we want to be right.  But then we are confronted with the\ndifficulty that what God means is not that we should want to be right,\nbut that we should be right.  He explains and characterises the\nspiritual birth by the words of the Apostle, \"He that doeth\nrighteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous.\"  \"He that is\nborn of God doth not sin.\"  \"Every one that is born of Him sinneth\nnot.\"  It almost seems as if the Apostle of Love had been\nremetamorphosed into the Son of Thunder, and were calling down fire\nfrom heaven upon us to devour us.  And do not let us say that this is\nmerely St. John's extravagant way of preaching holiness; for it is the\nlanguage in which the teachers of the time generally held and\ntransmitted the Christian doctrine.  Thus Ignatius, writing to the\nEphesians, adopts the three tests of faith and love and righteousness:\n\"No man professing the faith sinneth; nor does he who professeth love,\nhate; the tree is known by its fruits; so, likewise, those who profess\nto be Christ's shall be seen from their deeds.\"\n\nAnd Polycarp presents the life-criteria in the same manner: \"You shall\nbe built up in the faith which is given to you: before which is love to\nGod and to Christ and to the neighbour; for he who has love is far from\nall sin.\"  And so we might multiply instances.\n\nWhat shall we then say: Is a new Sinai set up on the square of the New\nJerusalem? or is it a sense of good things not seen as yet that makes\nus cry, \"Search me, O God; ... and see if there be any lack of faith or\nlove or righteousness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting\"?\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nTHE ETERNAL IDEA\n\n\"See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in\nthe Mount.\"--HEB. viii. 5.\n\n\nWhen we speak of a pattern, we generally understand by it some\ntemporary or partial representation of an idea that is to be or has\nbeen realised--such as the plan of a house, or the mould of a casting,\nor, to take a more definite illustration, like the little silver models\nof the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, or the carved wooden lions which are\nsold in the shops in the neighbourhood of the Lion Monument at Lucerne.\nIn these last two instances we see that the greater is made the pattern\nof the less; and it is important for us to remember this; we are not to\nsuppose that God showed to Moses a diminutive tabernacle, a sort of\ndoll's house, in accordance with which he was to construct his house of\nskins, or that He impressed upon him the nature of the priestly and\nsacrificial worship by altars and offerings of a lower degree, of small\nquantities.  It is more like what Philo explained it to be, that the\nouter world is fashioned upon the model of the World of Ideas whose\ncentre is the Divine Word; or like Swedenborg's Doctrine of\nCorrespondence, by which we may learn\n\n          Cup, column, candlestick,\n  All temporal things related royally,\n  And patterns of what shall be in the Mount.\n\nBut, to get a more simple and exact idea, let us observe the means\nwhich those who have studied the heavens have taken to illustrate\nastronomical facts.  There is an astronomical toy called the orrery,\nwhich can be made, by proper mechanism, to represent, with tolerable\naccuracy, the actual motions of the planets in their orbits, and which\ncan serve to illustrate the phenomena which from time to time occur in\nthe heavens.  Now the tabernacle of Moses is precisely like this; it is\na religious orrery, a means of representing religious truths and\nbringing home religious facts to the consciousness of those who are\nunable to study the skies and the lunar and planetary theories for\nthemselves.  But no one who wishes to be a real astronomer would be\ncontent with winding up the orrery and watching the balls go round; he\nwould know that the heavens must be studied for themselves, if one was\never to understand them accurately: and no one who wishes to be more\nthan moderately religious can remain satisfied with the meagre\nassistance obtained by ritual and externalism.\n\nWe observe, too, that no one who wished to chronicle fresh facts would\ngo to the orrery to learn them.  He would, for instance, turn his\nspectroscope on the sun, and not on the great ball which represents it\nin the mechanism, if he wanted to determine the constituents of that\ngreat luminary.  And let us remember that we shall never get at any\nfresh religious truth by means of ritual; the proper destination of all\norreries, religious or otherwise, is the museum.  But meanwhile the\nheavens still go round, which are the work of Thy fingers; and the moon\nand the stars, which Thou hast ordained, can still be studied, even\nwhen all the imitations of the universe have been swept away.  We\ndesire for ourselves an emancipation from all that is merely\ntraditional in the religious life; we would refer back our lives to the\noriginal thought of God concerning them.  Our life needs emendation,\nwhich can only take place satisfactorily by reference to the original\ndesign.  We are often perplexed in our study of Scripture, by various\nreadings and incorrect texts, and we wish that we could attain to\nsomething like the possession of an exact copy, if it were only of a\nsingle gospel.  We read of Tischendorf finding the precious Codex in\nthe monastery on Mount Sinai, and cannot forbear wishing that, perhaps,\nin some of the waste places of the East, there might be found a copy,\nnot of the fourth or fifth century, but, if possible, of the first.\n\nSuppose, for example, that a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, signed\nwith his own hand, should come into our possession, in which it should\nbe stated that \"I, Matthew, sometime a tax-gatherer for the Romans, and\nnow a collector of dues for the Almighty, and one of them that are set\nto ask, 'How much owest thou unto my Lord?' have written this book, by\nthe aid of the Holy Spirit; wherein may be heard many voices of the\nLord; and lo! some of them have already come to pass, and the rest must\nshortly be done.  And may the peace of him that wrote this book abide\nalso with them that read.\"  The supposition is not so very absurd, and\nif it could be demonstrated to the satisfaction of the learned (a\npeople hard to persuade) that the Book and the hand were genuine, what\na number of questions would be settled.  An end would be made of all\nglosses and emendations of the text over which there have been so many\ndisputes, and there would be an excision of all parts that have been\nadded by later hands.\n\nBut we must admit that the corruptions of the sacred text are\ninsignificant in comparison with the deviations that we find in our own\nlives from the original thought of God concerning us.  Registered and\nchronicled in heaven is the mind and will of our Father about us;\nregistered and chronicled also are the defects which have marred the\nhandiwork of God in the soul.  We do not always set out with the\nintention of spoiling our souls, and of keeping them from being holy\nbooks, in which he that runs may read; but as a matter of fact what\nself writes in the margin soon creeps into the text; and what we write\nbetween the lines soon becomes a part of the manuscript.\n\n          Let who says\n  The soul's a clean white paper, rather say\n  A palimpsest, a prophet's holograph,\n  Defiled, erased, and covered by a monk's--\n  . . . . . . . we may discern perhaps\n  Some upstroke of an Alpha and Omega\n  Expressing the Old Scripture.\n\n\nBut if we are to undergo a real emendation, it must be by detecting\nsomething more than an upstroke of the Divine Will; it must be by\nreference to the original plan of God, and by a surrender to the same.\n\nIn the chapels at the back of the choir of Cologne Cathedral are\npreserved the original parchments on which are drawn the plan of the\ngreat minster.  All the centuries through which this building has been\nraising, the men that have been working at it have had in reverence the\noriginal thoughts of the master-minds at the first: and those who have\nbeen chosen to the superintendence of the work have been men who were\nreckoned the most conversant with the laws of the Gothic architecture.\nOne can imagine that Archbishop Englebert sleeps the more softly in his\nsilver shrine because of the completed work of to-day.  So we speak and\nthink of a great stone-temple, the working out of an idea whose details\nwere at first but scantily given, carried out in ages during which the\nmaster-minds that planned it could no more be consulted.\n\nAnd yet when a greater and more perfect tabernacle is in building, not\nplanned of mortal thought, and whose stones were too heavy to be moved\nby mortal hands, how little reference there is to the plan of the\nFounder, how few that are desirous of living according to the counsel\nand will of God, and to see in that will, not a mere legal skeleton of\nthe structure, but a pattern, good and acceptable and perfect, with no\ndetail wanting for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Alas!\nthat our lives should be lived so much at random instead of being so\nfashioned that it might be said over the completed structure at the\nlast, \"Whose architect and craftsman is God.\"  In Christianity the\nideal is to be the actual: there is to be no \"shooting at the moon,\nbecause by that means you reach higher than by aiming at a tree\" (a\nvery doubtful statement even in mechanics); what God wants us to be\nthat we must be; and if He says, \"Be ye perfect,\" then let us go on to\nperfection and reach it.  The Christian is called upon by his Master to\nlive out and actualise God's ideal thought concerning him.  Upon the\nmap of his life is already marked out the road by which he is to reach\nthe heavenly city; if, at least, he reaches it, as God intends, by the\nshortest way.  There are no roundabout roads marked on the map in the\nMount, and yet the Divine Plan of our life will be found inclusive of\nthe minutest necessary details, just as an Ordnance map will tell you\neach feature of interest and importance as you go from place to place.\nIt is of the utmost importance that we should take counsel's opinion\nabout our lives, and that we should pray, \"Lord, what wilt Thou have me\nto do?\" that we should, if need be, weep much, until the Lamb shall\ntake off the seals from that book of life, which, in the archives of\nthe celestial city, is entitled \"The Life of ---- taken from the\nPattern in the Mount\"; that we should learn to conform ourselves to the\nDivine original, just as a manuscript, however deformed by glosses and\ntraditions, is accurately and certainly emended by the discovery of the\noriginal text; that we should know, in some sense, as Christ did,\nwhence we come and whither we go; that, as He said, we also might feel\nthat for this end we were born and for this purpose we came into the\nworld, that we might bear witness to the truth; that, with Him, too, we\nmight in some measure be able to say, \"The son can do nothing but what\nhe seeth the Father do\"; and that at our ending it might be said, \"He\nlived out the secret thought and counsel of the Almighty.\"\n\nBut in thinking of the pattern in the Mount as a pattern of life, it is\nimportant for us to see that, in the first instance, this thought was\npresented to us in connection with that side of life which we call\nworship; for there was to be a sanctuary made, etc., nor must we omit\nto get, with regard to our worship, a glimpse into the thought of God\nbeforehand, consulting the oracle in advance as did men in the old\ndays.  We may not take voyage without the very best map that can be\nhad, lest we make shipwreck; nor, because we have not taken pains to\nobtain the map, may we content ourselves with creeping round shores\nthat we know we ought to leave.\n\nWe must not separate the life from the worship; in fact they are one:\nwe learn that from the description of the ceaseless adoration of those\nnearest the throne; they rest not day nor night saying, \"Holy, holy,\nholy.\"  Are we to suppose from this that their existence is occupied in\nthe mere repetition of an everlasting Trisagion; or that, as Beecher\nonce said, \"they stand like wax candles round the throne, uttering an\noccasional Hallelujah\"?  Is it not rather God's way of showing us how\nHe is unceasingly glorified in those who live nearest Him, whose lives\nworship Him?\n\nThe worship must be continuous with the life.  I have a thermometer\nwhich has become perfectly useless because the air has broken up the\ncontinuity of the alcohol; it is worth next to nothing as an index of\ntemperature.  And little can we learn from any soul in which the\ncontinuity of the religious life is broken, and which has become life\nstreaked with worship.\n\nNow let us learn one or two of the characteristics of a pure\nlife-worship.\n\nOut of the worship according to the pattern in the Mount all\nrespectability has been differentiated: the Christian religion will not\nhold caste in solution; it precipitates it to the bottom; its founder\ndied the death of a slave; how could they give the slave a back seat\nafter that?  On the contrary, they gloried in the name; Paul, a slave\nand an apostle; a slave, and so eligible for the honour of crucifixion;\nan apostle, and so sent with the good news of life.  Respect of persons\nholds not in heaven; none there will criticise the clay out of which\nthe first raiment of your soul was made.  What need is there, then,\nthat we should leave off holding the faith of our Lord Jesus, with\nrespect of persons (there are few churches where the ministers dare to\npreach on such a text as that).  Let us have done with such\nclassifications.  In Jesus Christ there is neither barbarian nor\nScythian, bond nor free, town nor university, but Christ is all, and in\nall.\n\nWe know, too, that the life-worship to which God calls us consists in\nabandonment and surrender to an animating, impelling spirit.  \"The\nSpirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy, and\nthou shalt be turned into another man.  And it shall be, when these\nsigns are come upon thee, that thou shalt do as occasion serve thee,\nfor the Lord is with thee.\"  \"Whither the Spirit was to go, thither was\ntheir spirit to go.\"  The highest life is one in which we realise not\nmerely surrender to the Divine Will, but harmony with it, so that the\nrails on which the life moves, the human and Divine wills, become\nstrictly parallel.\n\nA surrendered life implies surrendered lips: this is the key of true\nworship; every one having a psalm, an interpretation; ye may all of you\nprophesy.  The ideal worship becomes the actual when heaven touches\nearth, as on the day of Pentecost--they were all filled, and, by\nconsequence, they all ran over.  Who would venture to tell the woman\nwho had been a sinner, that it was not seemly that her life should\nproclaim the _magnolia Dei_, the wonders of God; my lips, she says,\nhave touched His feet, and are consecrated for evermore.  Who shall\ntell these prophesying handmaidens of the Lord that their place is in a\ndifferent spiritual order: \"Are there two inner courts, they will\nreply, to the New Jerusalem?\"\n\n  Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest\n    Cannot confound nor doubt Him, nor deny;\n  Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,\n    Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nMORE LIGHT\n\n\"Ye are the light of the world.\"--MATT. v. 14.\n\n\nThere is a great stir nowadays about improved methods of lighting our\nstreets and houses.  Men began with torches and pine splinters; then\nthey advanced to candles and oil lamps; after that to coal gas; and now\nwe are coming to electricity.  In Paris they are experimenting with an\nelectrical system, and we shall have it in England before long, the\nunmistakable cry of the natural world being \"More light, more light.\"\n\nA similar experience prevails in the spiritual life, whether we regard\nthat life in the isolated individual, or fix our attention upon the\ndealings of God with the race of which we form a part.  We need, in\nfact, an improved illumination.  It is plain that we do so.  The light\nof Moses is not enough for us.  His face shines indeed, but with a\nglory that fades away, so that he must put on a veil lest they should\ndetect its evanescence.  The prophets of old days are like the flight\nof meteors across the sky--very bright while they last, but no settled\nand abiding glory.  John the Baptist is a burning and a shining lamp;\nbut he says of himself, \"I must decrease\"; and with the words, \"He must\nincrease,\" we are pointed on to Christ, the true Light of the world,\nwhich if any man follow he shall not walk in darkness, but shall have\nthe light of life; who gives His own name and character to those whom\nHe receives as disciples, telling them, \"Let your light shine.\"  And\nthe individual soul begins with the glimmer of grace and the spark of a\nrespondent love, and the operation of the Lord improves this little\nfitful glimmer, and develops it, until it becomes a clear and strong\nillumination, by which we may read something of the heart of God\ntowards us, and understand that in the spiritual world, as in the\nnatural, the order of this providence is, \"More light, more light.\"\nLight, that we may know our way more accurately; light, by which we may\nwork; light, by which we may read; light, by which we may help others\nto walk and work and read; for \"ye are the light of the world, and\n\n  'Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do,\n  Not light them for themselves.'\"\n\nGod makes one man a lamp for another.  Every saint should be like a\ncranny in the walls of heaven or translucent crystal in its\nfoundations, letting the glory through.  There is a glory within such a\none, because God has shined in his heart: there is a glory without him,\nfor the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon him.  Not once nor\ntwice has the Church historian to record, \"They beheld his face, as it\nhad been the face of an angel.\"\n\nNow in any improved system of illumination we have a right to expect\nthat one of its characteristics will be its capability for a general\napplication.  It must not be as great a blaze as one's eyes can bear in\nthe principal thoroughfares, with thick darkness in the back streets\nand lanes.  The improved light must become more sun-like, more\ncatholic, that is, more for everybody, must rise upon just and unjust;\nand while it participates in the universality of the sun, it must share\nalso the steadiness of the stars.  Such, too, must be the better life\nto which God calls us, not narrowing its sphere from day to day, nor\nfitful, like a star of the first magnitude at one moment and of the\nninth a fortnight after, but burning with a steady patient zeal towards\nall men that God has made.  The light of love will survive the light of\nenthusiasm, as Christ outlasts John the Baptist; enthusiasm must be\nswallowed up of love.\n\nA lighted lamp is no respecter of persons; it shines in all directions\nand upon all people and things, being an imitation, within its measure,\nof the sun, concerning whom it is said, \"There is nothing hid from the\nheat thereof.\"  Is there this property of radiation about the light\nthat God has given you?  Have you learnt and practically entered into\nthe truth that the supreme love is also the universal love, and that\nGod is no respecter of persons?  \"It gives light unto all that are in\nthe house\": every soul truly won for God is marked with this token,\n\"For the sake of God and a perishing world.\"  But perhaps you will say,\n\"My light is so small that I cannot be a help or a witness to any; I\nhave not light enough to show any the right way.\"  Not so: a glow-worm\nin the hedge can tell a man which way to walk, if it will only shine.\nWe may not all of us have the privilege of saying with John Wesley,\n\"The world is my parish.\"  Our parish may be small, and we may be\nlights indoors, shining for only one neglected soul in the house, or\nfor young ones who have to be trained for the Lord, or for the men on\nour own staircase in college, or with whom we walk in afternoons.\n\nThey say the problem about the electric light is the difficulty of its\nsubdivision, that is, of its multiplication; and in the spiritual world\nthe corresponding necessity is to multiply and reproduce the image of\nGod in Jesus Christ.  There was a similar difficulty in the early days\nof photography; they could take one picture, but did not know how to\nproduce copies from it.  The Christian religion has in it the means of\nproducing not only one Light of the world but many--a church of men and\nwomen of whom it may be said, as to the disciples at the first, \"Ye are\nthe light of the world.\"  But will something within us object and say,\n\"Shining means burning up and burning out: the candle will grow\nshorter, and the battery weaker\"?  Now here we get at the root of the\nmatter.  Truly it is impossible to offer any real devotion to God, or\nperform any real service to man, unless we are willing to pay the cost.\nWe are not to offer, either to God or man, of that which costs us\nnothing.  The noblest thing in God's world is a lavished life; whereof\nGod has given us plain proof in this--that \"He so loved the world that\nHe gave His Son\"; and which Paul confirms as he says to some of those\nto whom he had been the means of bringing light, \"I will most gladly\nspend and be spent for you.\"  \"I will burn up for you, and then when I\nam burnt out, I will be content with the mere candle-end of a life,\nextinct for the love of Jesus.\"  And let us remember, too, that old\nproverb, that \"You can't burn a candle at both ends.\"  If our life has\nbeen lighted at one end for God, we must not burn it at the other for\nselfish enjoyments and ambitions.  The work that God has called you to\ndo is a burner that will take all the gas that you can supply.\n\nNow suppose that every time a candle is lighted here, a star were to\nshine out up yonder.  How eager we should all be to make the face of\nheaven sparkle! we should take every candle and lamp that we could lay\nhands on, light them up, and watch for the gleaming of the new wonder\nin the sky.  Does that seem strange?  Did you never read that \"They\nthat are wise shall shine as the sun, and they that turn many to\nrighteousness as the stars for ever and ever\"?  The lamps and candles\nin God's world do become suns and stars; the illumination that you will\nhave by and by will depend on the little candle that you are to-day;\nand if you curtail your service for God and man down here, you will\nclip the wings and shear away the strength of the angel that you hope\nto be.\n\n  O Lord, that I could waste my life for others,\n    With no ends of my own!\n  That I could pour myself into my brothers,\n    And live for them alone!\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nOVER-OVERCOMING\n\n\"We are more than conquerors.\"--ROMANS viii. 37.\n\n\nThe Apostle coins a word to suit his experience.  We should render it\nexactly by saying, \"In these things we over-conquer,\" imitating the\nformation of similar words in our language, such as \"over-master,\"\n\"over-do.\"  More forcibly we might say, \"In all these things we\nover-overcome.\"  Coverdale gives the sense of it well in his\ntranslation, \"We conquer far.\"  Observe some of the ways in which this\nexcess and extravagance of victory may take place, for it is as if one\nshould win a victory over a foe in such a way as to prevent him from\never troubling us again.  Our conquest over special sin is to be of\nthis character.  We are not to be content with winning the field while\nthe foe retires to some more secure position from which he will have to\nbe dislodged.  It is never meant that we should sin the same sin twice,\nthe Lord's purpose concerning us being shown in the Exodus of the\nchildren of Israel: \"The Egyptians which ye see to-day, ye shall see\nthem no more again for ever.\"  \"Let him that stole steal no more.\"\n\"Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.\"  There is a passage in\nMiss Havergal's life which narrates how, after having been angry with a\nservant, the word of comfort came to her through a friend: \"Perhaps\nthis may be the last time that you will ever be so overcome.\"\n\nAnd then our victories are to leave us stronger than before.  This will\nseem quite contrary to the order of nature, in which seldom is there a\nbattle without garments rolled in blood, and where the victory often\ncosts as much to the victors as to the vanquished.  A great general has\nsaid that nothing is half so terrible as a battle lost, except a battle\ngained.  But to be more than conquerors! to rise the stronger for the\nstrife even while we strive! this is what is involved in the Christian\nsong of jubilee in the Eighth of Romans.\n\nWe over-overcome because of the completeness of the victory.  In most\ncampaigns it is by the balance of battles fought that the war is\ndecided.  Seldom does it happen that all the victory is on one side:\nand even then there will be virgin fortresses that never have been\nstormed, over which no alien flag has ever floated, which may be\nyielded indeed by treaty, but not taken by force.  The over-conquering\nChristian can say with the invading Israelites, \"There was not one city\ntoo strong for us: the Lord God delivered all unto us.\"\n\n  And in the strength of this I rode....\n    . . . . . . . .\n  And brake through all, and in the Strength of this come victor.\n\n\nThe triumphant scenes of the Apocalypse are not all future; but even\nnow we know something of living and reigning with Christ in a\nfellowship above sin and above sorrow.  For it was of sorrow rather\nthan of sin that the Apostle was speaking.  Our principle is one of\nholy indifference--an experience far removed from mere apathy.  We do\nnot simply say with Buddha that sorrow drops off from him who has\nfinished the path, as water drops from a lotus leaf.  We are not sure\nwhether the sorrows always do disappear from the burdened life like\nthat.  But when they do not so pass away, the drop is turned to honey\nin the cup of the flower; it is really the richer for its burden, and\nso may well be content.\n\nAnd now how do we come to this place of triumph?  By what means is it\ngranted us to enter so fully into the songs which shall one day resound\nthrough the universe?  \"Through Him that loved us.\"  It is alliance\nwith God that is the secret.  The three steps of the mystics are\n_Purification_, _Illumination_, and _Union_; and simple as the\nstatement is, it is a better theology than many another of much larger\ndimensions.  Many people do not understand this alliance in which we\nare led into union with God, through the Holy Spirit.  They think it is\nmore like the old story of the dwarf and the giant, who went a warfare\ntogether, in which expedition the dwarf lost his arms and legs, and was\nonly saved from imminent death in each conflict by the happy arrival of\nthe giant.  One can scarcely blame the dwarf for breaking up the\npartnership.  We must understand that in Christianity the dwarf is the\ngiant, that the despised deformed puny child of faith is, when he\nrecognises his own weakness and leans upon his own God, big with the\nforce that rolls the stars along.  The might of God is in him: and\nthough he may have no armour nor sword to match the Philistine, he will\ncome home carrying his head for all that; for\n\n  Man's weakness leaning upon God,\n    Its end can never miss.\n\n\n\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nThe Devotional Library\n\n\n1. THE KEY OF THE GRAVE.  A Book for the Bereaved.\n   By W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\n2. MEMORANDA SACRA.\n   By Professor J. RENDEL HARRIS, M.A.,\n   Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.\n\n\n\nSTUDIES IN MYSTICISM\n\nAND CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE SECRET TRADITION.\n\nBy ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.\n\n\nLITTLE BOOKS ON RELIGION.\n\nEdited by the Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D.\n\n\n1. CHRIST AND THE FUTURE LIFE.\n   By R. W. DALE, LL.D.\n\n2. THE SEVEN WORDS FROM THE CROSS.\n   By the Rev. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, LL.D.\n\n3. THE VISIONS OF A PROPHET.  Studies in Zechariah.\n   By the Rev. Professor MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n4. THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS.\n   By the Rev. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D.\n\n5. THE UPPER ROOM.\n   By the Rev. JOHN WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n\n\nWORKS BY THE REV. J. R. MILLER, D.D.\n\n\nA MESSAGE FOR THE DAY.  A Year's Daily Readings.\n\n\nDR. J. R. MILLER'S NEW YEAR BOOKLETS.\n\n1. SECRETS OF A HAPPY HOME LIFE.\n\n2. THE BLESSING OF CHEERFULNESS.\n\n\n\nDr. Miller's \"Silent Times\" Series.\n\n1. MAKING THE MOST OF LIFE.\n\n2. THE EVERY-DAY OF LIFE.\n\n3. SECRETS OF A BEAUTIFUL LIFE.\n\n4. SILENT TIMES.\n\n5. WEEK-DAY RELIGION.\n\n\n\nWORKS BY DR. JAMES STALKER.\n\n\nTHE TRIAL AND DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST.\n\nA Devotional History of our Lord's Passion.\n\nBy JAMES STALKER, M.A., D.D.\n\n\nIMAGO CHRISTI.\n\nThe Example of Christ.\n\n\nTHE FOUR MEN.\n\n\nTHE PREACHER AND HIS MODELS.\n\nYale Lectures on Preaching\n\n\n\nLONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON.","title":"Memoranda Sacra","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":28776}