{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_9373/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_9373","id":"gutenberg_9373","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9373","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and PG\nDistributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPAX VOBISCUM\n\nBY HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., LL.D.\n\n1890\n\n\n\"PAX VOBISCUM,\" prepared for publication by the Author, is now published\nfor the first time, being the second of a series of which \"The Greatest\nThing in the World\" was the first.\n\n\nNov. 1, 1890. \"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and\nI will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am\nmeek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my\nyoke is easy, and my burden is light.\"\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nPAX VOBISCUM\n\nEFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES\n\nWHAT YOKES ARE FOR\n\nHOW FRUITS GROW\n\n\n\n\nPAX VOBISCUM\n\n\nI heard the other morning a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon\n\"Rest.\" It was full of beautiful thoughts; but when I came to ask\nmyself, \"How does he say I can get Rest?\" there was no answer. The\nsermon was sincerely meant to be practical, yet it contained no\nexperience that seemed to me to be tangible, nor any advice which\ncould help me to find the thing itself as I went about the world that\nafternoon. Yet this omission of the only important problem was not the\nfault of the preacher. The whole popular religion is in the twilight\nhere. And when pressed for really working specifics for the experiences\nwith which it deals, it falters, and seems to lose itself in mist.\n\nThe want of connection between the great words of religion and every-day\nlife has bewildered and discouraged all of us. Christianity possesses\nthe noblest words in the language; its literature overflows with terms\nexpressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can fill the soul of\nman. Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light--these words occur with such\npersistency in hymns and prayers that an observer might think they\nformed the staple of Christian experience. But on coming to close\nquarters with the actual life of most of us, how surely would he be\ndisenchanted. I do not think we ourselves are aware how much our\nreligious life is made up of phrases; how much of what we call Christian\nexperience is only a dialect of the Churches, a mere religious\nphraseology with almost nothing behind it in what we really feel and\nknow.\n\nTo some of us, indeed, the Christian experiences seem further away than\nwhen we took the first steps in the Christian life. That life has not\nopened out as we had hoped; we do not regret our religion, but we are\ndisappointed with it. There are times, perhaps, when wandering notes\nfrom a diviner music stray into our spirits; but these experiences come\nat few and fitful moments. We have no sense of possession in them. When\nthey visit us, it is a surprise. When they leave us, it is without\nexplanation. When we wish their return, we do not know how to secure\nit. All which points to a religion without solid base, and a poor and\nflickering life. It means a great bankruptcy in those experiences which\ngive Christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to the\nworld, and a great uncertainty as to any remedy. It is as if we knew\neverything about health--except the way to get it.\n\nI am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that\nmen are not in earnest. This is simply not the fact. All around us\nChristians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better. The amount\nof spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered thousands\nof men and women in whom we should never suspect it; among the wise and\nthoughtful; among the young and gay, who seldom assuage and never betray\ntheir thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and touching facts of\nlife. It is not more heat that is needed, but more light; not more\nforce, but a wiser direction to be given to very real energies already\nthere.\n\nThe Address which follows is offered as a humble contribution to this\nproblem, and in the hope that it may help some who are \"seeking Rest and\nfinding none\" to a firmer footing on one great, solid, simple\nprinciple which underlies not the Christian experiences alone, but all\nexperiences, and all life.\n\nWhat Christian experience wants is _thread_, a vertebral column, method.\nIt is impossible to believe that there is no remedy for its unevenness\nand dishevelment, or that the remedy is a secret. The idea, also, that\nsome few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, have been given\nthe secret--as if there were some sort of knack or trick of it--is\nwholly incredible. Religion must ripen its fruit for every temperament;\nand the way even into its highest heights must be by a gateway through\nwhich the peoples of the world may pass.\n\nI shall try to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But as\nthat path is strangely unfrequented, and even unknown, where it passes\ninto the religious sphere, I must dwell for a moment on the commonest of\ncommonplaces.\n\n\n\n\nEFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES\n\n\nNothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of\norder. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never\nat random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law.\nCharacter is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The\nChristian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, expect\nRest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from the air like snow\nor rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they did they\nwould no less have their origin in previous activities and be controlled\nby natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but not without a\nlong previous history. They are the mature effects of former causes.\nEqually so are Rest, and Peace, and Joy. They, too, have each a previous\nhistory. Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, but are brought\nabout by antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but calms in man's\ninward nature, and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable.\n\nRealize it thoroughly: it is a methodical not an accidental world. If a\nhousewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound receipt,\ncarefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients and fire them\nfor the appropriate time without producing the result. It is not she who\nhas made the cake; it is nature. She brings related things together;\nsets causes at work; these causes bring about the result. She is not\na creator, but an intermediary. She does not expect random causes to\nproduce specific effects--random ingredients would only produce random\ncakes. So it is in the making of Christian experiences. Certain lines\nare followed; certain effects are the result. These effects cannot but\nbe the result. But the result can never take place without the previous\ncause. To expect results without antecedents is to expect cakes without\ningredients. That impossibility is precisely the almost universal\nexpectation.\n\nNow what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this simple\nprinciple of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And instead of\napplying the principle generally to each of the Christian experiences in\nturn, I shall examine its application to one in some little detail.\nThe one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who follows the\napplication in this single instance will be able to apply it for himself\nto all the others.\n\nTake such a sentence as this: African explorers are subject to fevers\nwhich cause restlessness and delirium. Note the expression, \"cause\nrestlessness.\" _Restlessness has a cause_. Clearly, then, any one who\nwished to get rid of restlessness would proceed at once to deal with\nthe cause. If that were not removed, a doctor might prescribe a hundred\nthings, and all might be taken in turn, without producing the least\neffect. Things are so arranged in the original planning of the world\nthat certain effects must follow certain causes, and certain causes must\nbe abolished before certain effects can be removed. Certain parts of\nAfrica are inseparably linked with the physical experience called fever;\nthis fever is in turn infallibly linked with a mental experience called\nrestlessness and delirium. To abolish the mental experience the radical\nmethod would be to abolish the physical experience, and the way of\nabolishing the physical experience would be to abolish Africa, or\nto cease to go there. Now this holds good for all other forms of\nRestlessness. Every other form and kind of Restlessness in the world has\na definite cause, and the particular kind of Restlessness can only be\nremoved by removing the allotted cause.\n\nAll this is also true of Rest. Restlessness has a cause: must not _Rest_\nhave a cause? Necessarily. If it were a chance world we would not expect\nthis; but, being a methodical world, it cannot be otherwise. Rest,\nphysical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, every kind of rest has a\ncause, as certainly as restlessness. Now causes are discriminating.\nThere is one kind of cause for every particular effect, and no other;\nand if one particular effect is desired, the corresponding cause must be\nset in motion. It is no use proposing finely devised schemes, or going\nthrough general pious exercises in the hope that somehow Rest will come.\nThe Christian life is not casual but causal. All nature is a standing\nprotest against the absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects,\nor any effects, without the employment of appropriate causes. The Great\nTeacher dealt what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite\nirrelevancy by a single question, \"Do men gather grapes of thorns or\nfigs of thistles?\" Why, then, did the Great Teacher not educate His\nfollowers fully? Why did He not tell us, for example, how such a thing\nas Rest might be obtained? The answer is, that _He did_. But plainly,\nexplicitly, in so many words? Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many\nwords. He assigned Rest to its cause, in words with which each of us has\nbeen familiar from his earliest childhood.\n\nHe begins, you remember--for you at once know the passage I refer\nto--almost as if Rest could be had without any cause: \"Come unto me,\" He\nsays, \"and I will _give_ you Rest.\"\n\nRest, apparently, was a favour to be bestowed; men had but to come to\nHim; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes\nthat all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously.\nFor what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an\nimpossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be _given_? One\ncould no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We speak\nof \"causing\" laughter, which we can do; but we cannot give it away. When\nwe speak of giving pain, we know perfectly well we cannot give pain\naway. And when we aim at giving pleasure, all that we do is to arrange a\nset of circumstances in such a way as that these shall cause pleasure.\nOf course there is a sense, and a very wonderful sense, in which a Great\nPersonality breathes upon all who come within its influence an abiding\npeace and trust. Men can be to other men as the shadow of a great rock\nin a thirsty land. Much more Christ; much more Christ as Perfect Man;\nmuch more still as Saviour of the world. But it is not this of which I\nspeak. When Christ said He would give men Rest, He meant simply that\nHe would put them in the way of it. By no act of conveyance would, or\ncould, He make over His own Rest to them. He could give them His receipt\nfor it. That was all. But He would not make it for them; for one thing,\nit was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men were\nnot so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet another\nthing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it for\nthemselves.\n\nThat this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the second\nsentence: \"Learn of Me and ye shall _find_ Rest.\" Rest, that is to say,\nis not a thing that can be given, but a thing to be _acquired_. It comes\nnot by an act, but by a process. It is not to be found in a happy hour,\nas one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one finds knowledge. It could\nindeed be no more found in a moment than could knowledge. A soil has to\nbe prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, it will grow in one climate and\nnot in another; at one altitude and not at another. Like all growths it\nwill have an orderly development and mature by slow degrees.\n\nThe nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says we\nare to achieve Rest by _learning_. \"Learn of Me,\" He says, \"and ye shall\nfind rest to your souls.\" Now consider the extraordinary originality\nof this utterance. How novel the connection between these two words,\n\"Learn\" and \"Rest\"? How few of us have ever associated them--ever\nthought that Rest was a thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out\nfor it as we would to learn a language; ever practised it as we would\npractise the violin? Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching\nstill is to the world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should\nstill be so little applied? The last thing most of us would have thought\nof would have been to associate _Rest_ with _Work_.\n\nWhat must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find the\nsoul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation. He\nspecifies two things--Meekness and Lowliness. \"Learn of Me,\" He says,\n\"for I am _meek_ and _lowly_ in heart.\" Now these two things are not\nchosen at random. To these accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is\nattached. Learn these, in short, and you have already found Rest. These\nas they stand are direct causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot\nbut produce it at once. And if you think for a single moment, you will\nsee how this is necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the\nconnection between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies\ndeep in the nature of things.\n\nWhat is the connection, then? I answer by a further question. What are\nthe chief causes of _Unrest_? If you know yourself, you will answer\nPride, Selfishness, Ambition. As you look back upon the past years of\nyour life, is it not true that its unhappiness has chiefly come from the\nsuccession of personal mortifications and almost trivial disappointments\nwhich the intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at\nlengthened intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty\nfriction of our every-day life with one another, the jar of business\nor of work, the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our\nambition, the crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit,\nwhich make inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed\nhopes, unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal\nsources of man's unrest.\n\nNow it is obvious why Christ pointed out as the two chief objects for\nattainment the exact opposites of these. To Meekness and Lowliness these\nthings simply do not exist. They cure unrest by making it impossible.\nThese remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms; they strike at once\nat removing causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a self-centred life can\nbe removed at once by learning Meekness and Lowliness of heart. He who\nlearns them is forever proof against it. He lives henceforth a charmed\nlife. Christianity is a fine inoculation, a transfusion of healthy blood\ninto an an\u00e6mic or poisoned soul. No fever can attack a perfectly sound\nbody; no fever of unrest can disturb a soul which has breathed the air\nor learned the ways of Christ. Men sigh for the wings of a dove that\nthey may fly away and be at Rest. But flying away will not help us. \"The\nKingdom of God is _within you_.\" We aspire to the top to look for Rest;\nit lies at the bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest\nplace. So do men. Hence, be lowly. The man who has no opinion of himself\nat all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be\nmeek. He who is without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him.\nIt is self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the\nmeek man are really above all other men, above all other things. They\ndominate the world because they do not care for it. The miser does\nnot possess gold, gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. \"The\nmeek,\" said Christ, \"inherit the earth.\" They do not buy it; they do not\nconquer it, but they inherit it.\n\nThere are people who go about the world looking out for slights,\nand they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every\nturn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such men\nas for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have had no\nreal education, for they have never learned how to live. Few men know\nhow to live. We grow up at random, carrying into mature life the merely\nanimal methods and motives which we had as little children. And it does\nnot occur to us that all this must be changed; that much of it must be\nreversed, that life is the finest of the Fine Arts, that it has to be\nlearned with lifelong patience, and that the years of our pilgrimage are\nall too short to master it triumphantly.\n\nYet this is what Christianity is for--to teach men the Art of Life.\nAnd its whole curriculum lies in one word--\"Learn of me.\" Unlike most\neducation, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from\nbooks or lectures or creeds or doctrines. It is a study from the life.\nChrist never said much in mere words about the Christian graces. He\nlived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn His art\nby living with Him, like the old apprentices with their masters.\n\nNow we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the weary\nand heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new\nprinciple--upon His own principle. \"Watch My way of doing things,\" He\nsays. \"Follow Me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly and you will\nfind Rest.\"\n\nI do not say, remember, that the Christian life to every man, or to any\nman, can be a bed of roses. No educational process can be this. And\nperhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple \"learn\" of\nChrist, they would not enter His school with so irresponsible a heart.\nFor there is not only much to learn, but much to unlearn. Many men never\ngo to this school at all till their disposition is already half ruined\nand character has taken on its fatal set. To learn arithmetic is\ndifficult at fifty--much more to learn Christianity. To learn simply\nwhat it is to be meek and lowly, in the case of one who has had no\nlessons in that in childhood, may cost him half of what he values most\non earth. Do we realize, for instance, that the way of teaching humility\nis generally by _humiliation_? There is probably no other school for it.\nWhen a man enters himself as a pupil in such a school it means a very\ngreat thing. There is much Rest there, but there is also much Work.\n\nI should be wrong, even though my theme is the brighter side, to ignore\nthe cross and minimise the cost. Only it gives to the cross a more\ndefinite meaning, and a rarer value, to connect it thus directly and\n_causally_ with the growth of the inner life. Our platitudes on the\n\"benefits of affliction\" are usually about as vague as our theories of\nChristian Experience. \"Somehow,\" we believe affliction does us good. But\nit is not a question of \"Somehow.\" The result is definite, calculable,\nnecessary. It is under the strictest law of cause and effect. The first\neffect of losing one's fortune, for instance, is humiliation; and the\neffect of humiliation, as we have just seen, is to make one humble; and\nthe effect of being humble is to produce Rest. It is a roundabout way,\napparently, of producing Rest; but Nature generally works by circular\nprocesses; and it is not certain that there is any other way of becoming\nhumble, or of finding Rest. If a man could make himself humble to order,\nit might simplify matters, but we do not find that this happens. Hence\nwe must all go through the mill. Hence death, death to the lower self,\nis the nearest gate and the quickest road to life.\n\nYet this is only half the truth. Christ's life outwardly was one of the\nmost troubled lives that was ever lived: Tempest and tumult, tumult and\ntempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the worn body was\nlaid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm\nwas always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found\nRest. And even when the bloodhounds were dogging him in the streets\nof Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last\nlegacy, \"My peace.\" Nothing ever for a moment broke the serenity of\nChrist's life on earth. Misfortune could not reach Him; He had no\nfortune. Food, raiment, money--fountain-heads of half the world's\nweariness--He simply did not care for; they played no part in His life;\nHe \"took no thought\" for them. It was impossible to affect Him by\nlowering His reputation; He had already made Himself of no reputation.\nHe was dumb before insult. When He was reviled He reviled not-again. In\nfact, there was nothing that the world could do to Him that could ruffle\nthe surface of His spirit.\n\nSuch living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only when we\nsee what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It\nlies not in emotions, nor in the absence of emotions. It is not a\nhallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something that\nthe preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, or in\nmusic--though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at\nleisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul; the absolute\nadjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things;\nthe preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured\nconvictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of\na heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with\nBrowning, \"God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world.\"\n\nTwo painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of\nrest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off\nmountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with\na fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the fork of a branch,\nalmost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on its nest. The first\nwas only _Stagnation_; the last was _Rest_. For in Rest there are always\ntwo elements--tranquillity and energy; silence and turbulence; creation\nand destruction; fearlessness and fearfulness. This it was in Christ.\n\nIt is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be\nor to do, He at least knew how to live. All this is the perfection of\nliving, of living in the mere sense of passing through the world in the\nbest way. Hence His anxiety to communicate His idea of life to others.\nHe came, He said, to give men life, true life, a more abundant life than\nthey were living; \"the life,\" as the fine phrase in the Revised Version\nhas it, \"that is life indeed.\" This is what He himself possessed, and it\nwas this which He offers to all mankind. And hence His direct appeal for\nall to come to Him who had not made much of life, who were weary and\nheavy-laden. These He would teach His secret. They, also, should know\n\"the life that is life indeed.\"\n\n\n\n\nWHAT YOKES ARE FOR\n\n\nThere is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, \"Learn of\nMe,\" Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification, \"_Take My yoke_\nupon you and learn of Me.\" Why, if all this be true, does He call it a\n_yoke_? Why, while professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath\nwhisper \"_burden_\"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies\ntake it for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life, some\nextra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to observances,\nsome heavy restriction and trammelling of all that is joyous and free in\nthe world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough without being fettered\nwith yet another yoke?\n\nIt is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain\nsentence should ever have passed into currency. Did you ever stop to\nask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which\nwears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden light.\nAttached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plough would\nbe intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke is not\nan instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy. It is not a\nmalicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle device to\nmake hard labour light. It is not meant to give pain, but to save pain.\nAnd yet men speak of the yoke of Christ as if it were a slavery, and\nlook upon those who wear it as objects of compassion. For generations we\nhave had homilies on \"The Yoke of Christ,\" some delighting in portraying\nits narrow exactions; some seeking in these exactions the marks of its\ndivinity; others apologising for it, and toning it down; still others\nassuring us that, although it be very bad, it is not to be compared with\nthe positive blessings of Christianity. How many, especially among the\nyoung, has this one mistaken phrase driven forever away from the\nkingdom of God? Instead of making Christ attractive, it makes Him out\na taskmaster, narrowing life by petty restrictions, calling for\nself-denial where none is necessary, making misery a virtue under the\nplea that it is the yoke of Christ, and happiness criminal because it\nnow and then evades it. According to this conception, Christians are\nat best the victims of a depressing fate; their life is a penance; and\ntheir hope for the next world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this.\n\nThe mistake has arisen from taking the word \"yoke\" here in the same\nsense as in the expressions \"under the yoke,\" or \"wear the yoke in his\nyouth.\" But in Christ's illustration it is not _jugum_ of the Roman\nsoldier, but the simple \"harness\" or \"ox-collar\" of the Eastern peasant.\nIt is the literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in the\ncarpenter shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference between\na smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the difference\nalso it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. The rough yoke\ngalled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke caused no pain, and\nthe load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness was a misery; the\nwell-fitted collar was \"easy.\" And what was the \"burden\"? It was not\nsome special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction that\nthey alone must bear. It was what all men bear. It was simply life,\nhuman life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry\nwith them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life\npainfully. To some it was a weariness, to others a failure, to many a\ntragedy, to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of\nlife had been the whole world's problem. It is still the whole world's\nproblem. And here is Christ's solution: \"Carry it as I do. Take life\nas I take it. Look at it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My\nprinciples. Take My yoke and learn of Me, and you will find it easy.\nFor My yoke is easy, works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and\n_therefore_ My burden is light.\" There is no suggestion here that\nreligion will absolve any man from bearing burdens. That would be to\nabsolve him from living, since it is life itself that is the burden.\nWhat Christianity does propose is to make it tolerable. Christ's yoke is\nsimply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His prescription\nfor the best and happiest method of living. Men harness themselves to\nthe work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural ways. The\nharness they put on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted collar at the\nbest, they make its strain and friction past enduring, by placing it\nwhere the neck is most sensitive; and by mere continuous irritation this\nsensitiveness increases until the whole nature is quick and sore.\n\nThis is the origin, among other things, of a disease called \"touchiness\n\"--a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest\nsources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes\nchronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is\nself-love inflamed to the acute point; conceit, _with a hair-trigger._\nThe cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; to let men and things\ntouch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused part of our nature;\nto become meek and lowly in heart while the old nature is becoming numb\nfrom want of use. It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to\nadjust the burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has\na perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence\nto human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all\nsurrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue\nand dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere matter of\naltering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of things,\nits function in lightening the care of man is altogether its own. The\nweight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. But suppose\nthe attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other planet,\nwhere the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton. Now\nChristianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one way\nin which it diminishes men's burden. It makes them citizens of another\nworld. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton to-day. So without\nchanging one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider horizon and a\ndifferent standard, it alters the whole aspect of the world.\n\nChristianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever\nspoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we\nmean Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures,\nor exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface\nreadings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the results\nwretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what vale of\ntears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life for him\nalong this path.\n\n\n\n\nHOW FRUITS GROW\n\n\nWere rest my subject, there are other things I should wish to say about\nit, and other kinds of Rest of which I should like to speak. But that is\nnot my subject. My theme is that the Christian experiences are not the\nwork of magic, but come under the law of Cause and Effect. And I have\nchosen Rest only as a single illustration of the working of that\nprinciple. If there were time I might next run over all the Christian\nexperiences in turn, and show how the same wide law applies to each. But\nI think it may serve the better purpose if I leave this further exercise\nto yourselves. I know no Bible study that you will find more full of\nfruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of God, or make the\nChristian life itself more solid or more sure. I shall add only a single\nother illustration of what I mean, before I close.\n\nWhere does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of\nJoy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in Heaven,\nand that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let down and\nfitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross and material\nare not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In reality, Joy is\nas much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one can get Joy by\nmerely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of the Christian\nlife, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a very clever trick\nin India called the mango-trick. A seed is put in the ground and covered\nup, and after divers incantations a full-blown mango-bush appears within\nfive minutes. I never met any one who knew how the thing was done, but\nI never met any one who believed it to be anything else than a\nconjuring-trick. The world is pretty unanimous now in its belief in the\norderliness of Nature. Men may not know how fruits grow, but they do\nknow that they cannot grow in five minutes. Some lives have not even a\nstalk on which fruits could hang, even if they did grow in five minutes.\nSome have never planted one sound seed of Joy in all their lives; and\nothers who may have planted a germ or two have lived so little in\nsunshine that they never could come to maturity.\n\nWhence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into one\nof the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance have\nappealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do not wish\nyou to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens that He\nhas dealt with it in words of unusual fulness.\n\nI need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the Vine.\nDid you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not merely\nthrow it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. It was\nnot simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine of an\nindwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had said it,\nHe did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His greatest\nlessons. He turned to the disciples and said He would tell them why He\nhad spoken it. It was to tell them how to get Joy. \"These things have\nI spoken unto you,\" He said, \"that My Joy might remain in you and that\nyour Joy might be full.\" It was a purposed and deliberate communication\nof His secret of Happiness.\n\nGo back over these verses, then, and you will find the Causes of this\nEffect, the spring, and the only spring, out of which true Happiness\ncomes. I am not going to analyse them in detail. I ask you to enter into\nthe words for yourselves. Remember, in the first place, that the Vine\nwas the Eastern symbol of Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart\nof man. Yet, however innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of\nthe grape was the common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness\nwas only a gross and passing thing. This was not true happiness, and the\nvine of the Palestine vineyards was not the true vine. _Christ_ was\n\"the _true_ Vine.\" Here, then, is the ultimate source of Joy. Through\nwhatever media it reaches us, all true Joy and Gladness find their\nsource in Christ. By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy\nexperienced is transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed\non from Him to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There\nis, indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's\nsorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy to men\nin the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people share His\nlife, and therefore share its consequences, and one of these is Joy. His\nmethod of living is one that in the nature of things produces Joy. When\nHe spoke of His Joy remaining with us He meant in part that the causes\nwhich produced it should continue to act. His followers, that is to say,\nby _repeating_ His life would experience its accompaniments. His Joy,\nHis kind of Joy, would remain with them.\n\nThe medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: \"He that\nabideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit.\" Fruit first, Joy\nnext; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is\nthe necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the\nnecessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in\nthe fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy lay\nin mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that implied\nof peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of that Life\nupon mind and character and will; and partly in the inspiration to live\nand work for others, with all that that brings of self-riddance and Joy\nin others' gain. All these, in different ways and at different times,\nare sources of pure Happiness. Even the simplest of them--to do good to\nother people--is an instant and infallible specific. There is no mystery\nabout Happiness whatever. Put in the right ingredients and it must come\nout. He that abideth in Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing\nforth much fruit is Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness,\nthen, is to do good; and the infallible receipt for doing good is to\nabide in Christ. The surest proof that all this is a plain matter of\nCause and Effect is that men may try every other conceivable way of\nfinding Happiness, and they will fail. Only the right cause in each case\ncan produce the right effect.\n\nThen the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense in\nwhich grapes are our own making, and no more. All fruits _grow_--whether\nthey grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are the fruits of the\nwild grape or of the True Vine. No man can _make_ things grow. He can\n_get them to grow_ by arranging all the circumstances and fulfilling all\nthe conditions. But the growing is done by God. Causes and effects are\neternal arrangements, set in the constitution of the world; fixed beyond\nman's ordering. What man can do is to place himself in the midst of a\nchain of sequences. Thus he can get things to grow: thus he himself can\ngrow. But the grower is the Spirit of God.\n\nWhat more need I add but this--test the method by experiment. Do not\nimagine that you have got these things because you know how to get them.\nAs well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can promise that\nif you try in this simple and natural way, you will not fail. Spend the\ntime you have spent in sighing for fruits in fulfilling the conditions\nof their growth. The fruits will come, must come. We have hitherto paid\nimmense attention to _effects_, to the mere experiences themselves; we\nhave described them, extolled them, advised them, prayed for them--done\neverything but find out what _caused_ them. Henceforth let us deal with\ncauses. \"To be,\" says Lotze, \"is to be in relations.\" About every other\nmethod of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About\nevery other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a\n\"perhaps.\" But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it cannot\nfail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe, and these are \"the\nHands of the Living God.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRUE VINE\n\n\n\"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in\nme that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth\nfruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are\nclean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I\nin you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in\nthe vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are\nthe branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth\nforth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not\nin me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather\nthem, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in\nme, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be\ndone unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;\nso ye shall be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I\nloved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall\nabide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and\nabide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy\nmight remain in you, and that your joy might be full.\"\n\n\nTHE END.","title":"Pax Vobiscum","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":7138}