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■>•' 
 
 
 •i 
 

 1 
 
 4 
 
 The Potter's Wheel. 
 
 BY 
 
 IAN MACLAREN. 
 
 (REV. JOHN WATSON, D.D.) 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 FLIiMINvi H. RH:VELL COMPANY, 
 
 154 YONGE STREET 
 
p- 
 
 / 
 
 W3 
 
 Entered according- to Act o^ fh« n v 
 
 r^,. A • . *"® Parliament of 
 
 Canada, ,n the year ,897. by Hodder & 
 
 Stoughton, at the Department 
 
 of Agriculture. 
 
of 
 
 THE POTTER'S WHEEL 
 
BOOKS BY JOHN VVATSON, D.D. 
 
 (lAN MACLARKN.) 
 
 RESIDE THE BOxNNIE hRIER HUSH 
 IHE DAYS OF AULD LANG SYNE 
 
 A DOCTOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL. Wi.h 
 Illustrat.o.is by E. C. Gordon. 
 
 THE UPPER ROOM. 
 
 THE MIND OF THE MASTER 
 
 KATE CARNEGIE. With Illustrations by F C 
 Gordon. 
 
 THE CURE OF SOTTT c t 
 
 .f V , I r ^"UI'S. Lectures on Preaching 
 
 at Yale University, 1S96. 
 
 THE IAN MACLAREN YEAR-BOOK. 
 
TO 
 
 VV. ROBERTSON NICOLL 
 
 WHO CONSTRAINED ME 
 TO WRME 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CIIAI'TKR 
 
 I. 'IHE POTIER'S wheel . . 
 
 11. DEPARTURES IN LIEE 
 
 III. PROKEN HOMES .... 
 
 IV. LOSS OF GOODS .... 
 V. TRIALS OF FAITH . . . 
 
 VI. MISSING THE PRIZE OF LIFE 
 
 VII. VEXATIOUS CHILDREN . . 
 
 VIII. OBSCURITY 
 
 IX. VANISHING ILLUSIONS . . 
 
 X. THE DEFEATS OF THE SOUL 
 
 XI. THE VEILING OF THE SOUL 
 
 XII. PERPLEXING PROVIDENCES . 
 
 XIII. THE WORLD-SORROW . . 
 
 XIV. THE PROBLEM OF PERSONAL SUFFER- 
 
 ING 
 
 XV. DEATH 
 
 XVI. OUR DEPAR'JED .... 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 13 
 27 
 
 40 
 
 53 
 
 65 
 
 73 
 
 92 
 
 103 
 
 116 
 
 128 
 
 140 
 
 152 
 
 164 
 
 185 
 197 
 
yly, note that Potter's Wheel, 
 
 That metaphor, and feel 
 Why Time spins fast, why passive lies our clay. . . 
 
 He fixed thee 'mid this dance 
 
 Of plastic circumstance, 
 This Present, thou, forsooth, would' st fain arrest: 
 
 Maeh inery just meant 
 
 To give thy soul its bent, 
 Try thee and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed. 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE POTTERS WHEEL 
 
 It is inevitable that a serious person 
 should some time or other be per- 
 plexed by the ordering of Providence 
 and ask bitter questions. This may 
 be the best of all possible worlds to 
 people who do not think and have 
 never felt. But to their neighbours 
 It often seems unjustly and foolishly 
 governed. Why should one man be 
 handicapped by hereditary disease 
 of body or a worse hereditary taint 
 of soul, so that he has to fight against 
 odds all his days, while another starts 
 with a superb constitution and an 
 accumulated capital of virtue ? Why 
 
 I I 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ill 
 
 should a man of dull and unimagi- 
 native nature be endowed with riches, 
 so that he can be surrounded with 
 beauty, while one on whom has been 
 bestowed the gift of vision is impris- 
 oned in a sordid environment ? Why 
 should one child be brought up 
 among squalor and vice, so that 
 meanness soaks into the pores of his 
 soul, and another have every ad- 
 vantage of fair circumstances and 
 religious training? Why should 
 calamity of one kind or another 
 hang over some families from 
 year to year, while on others the 
 sun seems ever to be shining ? 
 Why should evil have been allowed 
 at all, and pain and dying? One 
 were either blind or callous if he 
 did not a>k such questions, and 
 wait anxiously for some kind of 
 answer. 
 
 Tliis answer will depend in the 
 last issue on the person's religious 
 
 i 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 standpoint, but both faith and unbe- 
 lief agree that we are in the hands 
 of an Almighty Power. Some power 
 there surely is which from age to 
 age has been moulding the life of 
 the Race and of each individual, 
 unseen, mysterious, potent, against 
 which we dash ourselves in vain. 
 Unbelief can only call it Fate — a 
 combination of socird and physical 
 laws which have no mind and no 
 heart, which act blindly and un- 
 consciously. Faith calls it God, a 
 living, active, personal Being, Who 
 forms and fulfils His purposes 
 after the good pleasure of His 
 will. According to the strenuous 
 and austere habit of Jewish thought, 
 whose first idea was the greatness 
 of God, He is the Potter and we 
 are the clay, and as for the in- 
 numerable and inexplicable circum- 
 stances of life, they are simply the 
 whirling wheel on which the clay 
 
 3 
 
I i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 I'! 
 
 is changed and shaped till the Pot- 
 ter's design is finally accomplished. 
 This is the Bible philosophy of 
 life. 
 
 This doctrine of Providence lays 
 a good foundation for religion, and 
 is an immense i^nin over unbelief. 
 Perhaps one of the most awful and 
 hopeless thoughts which can possess 
 the human mind is that we are all 
 cauofht in the movins: wheels of a 
 huge machine, which has no hand to 
 control it, and 2:oes on relentlesslv 
 of its own accord. It were terrible 
 to be stretched on a rack whose 
 cords were tightened at the com- 
 mand of an inquisitor; but it were 
 ten thousand times worse if the 
 mechaniGm was automatic and un- 
 controlled. Even an inquisitor hath 
 fiesh and blood, but this iron mon- 
 ster, to it there is no appeal, in it no 
 pity: one may be discouraged and 
 baffled by the ways of Providence, 
 
The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 but one knows that the Power which 
 has us at its mercy can see and hear 
 us, and is wise and rio^hteous. If 
 the wheel wiiirls with our poor lives 
 upon it, there is a hand to check and 
 guide it. 
 
 Perhaps the first lesson to be 
 learned from the absolute govern- 
 ment of God, is stidmtssion. We are 
 apt to be contentious, rebellious, 
 self-assertive, and insolent. We com- 
 plain of ill-treatment in the world: 
 we think we have an action against 
 some one: we would sit in judgment 
 on God Himself. This bitter and 
 querulous state of mind is bad for 
 our character, and hinders peace of 
 life. It would be good for us West- 
 erns, with our independence, irrever- 
 ence, and restlessness, to be touched 
 with the spirit whereby the Jew, and 
 no less the Mohammedan, realised 
 the sovereignty of God. God is 
 great, and it is not for us to resist : 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 God knows all, and it is not for us 
 to criticise. We are His creatures, 
 and are at His disposal : we under- 
 stand less of His plans than the 
 dumb unreasoning animal under our 
 roof does of ours. Has He sent 
 good ? Blessed be God. Does He 
 send evil ? Blessed be God. What 
 else can we say ? We are the clay 
 and He is the Potter. 
 
 This faith yields a more gracious 
 lesson, for it is charged with comfort. 
 If God be to us as a potter with his 
 clay, then no one's life can be the 
 play of chance, but must be the re- 
 sult of design. As before the work- 
 man's mind the image of the vessel 
 ever stands when as yet there is 
 nothing but a handful of clay, so be- 
 fore the vision of God the soul of 
 His creature appears complete and 
 perfect, while to the man himself 
 and others that soul is shapeless and 
 
 unformed. Within the Divine mind 
 
 6 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 IS 
 
 be. 
 
 of 
 and 
 
 elf 
 and 
 ind 
 
 i3 
 
 therefore lieth not only the idea of the 
 whole universe, but also the idea of 
 each individual, and as history slowly 
 evolves from the mind of God so also 
 does each life proceed from the same 
 mind. Each man — both his soul 
 and his life — is a calculated work 
 of God, to whose completion the 
 wisdom and power of God will be 
 devoted. And we know the un- 
 changing and eternal model before 
 the Divine Worker's eye, and on 
 which everything coming from His 
 liand is shaped. The vessel may be 
 large or small, it may be of finer or 
 coarser stuff, but it is intended to 
 be after the fashion of Jesus Christ. 
 Amid the innumerable forms of im- 
 perfection, spoiled or in process, 
 amid the confusion and the disasters 
 of life, the excellent imaofe of Christ 
 remains as the type and end of our 
 Race. 
 One also is filled with hope at the 
 
•it 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 I:! 
 
 : I 
 
 1 I 
 
 figure of the clay, because it suggests 
 the immense and unimagined pos- 
 sibilities of human nature. Upon 
 first sight how poor a thing is this 
 man, with his ignorances, prejudices, 
 pettinesses, his envy, jealousy, evil 
 temper. Upon second thoughts, how 
 much may be in this man, how 
 much he may achieve, how high he 
 may attain. This dull and unattrac- 
 tive man must not be despised, 
 whether he be yourself or another : 
 he is incalculable and unfathomable. 
 He is simply raw material, soul stuff, 
 and one can no more anticipate him 
 than you could foresee a Turner 
 from the master s colours — some of 
 them very strange — or a Persian rug 
 from a heap of wool. Out of that 
 unpromising face, that sleeping 
 intellect, those awkward ways, this 
 crust of selfishness and a hundred 
 faults, is going to be made a man 
 whom the world will admire and 
 honour. 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 And one can now understand 
 the function of those circumstances 
 which perplex and try us. They 
 are the rough, unsightly, but most 
 skilful and adaptable machinery by 
 which God changes a lump of clay 
 into a vessel fit for the finest 
 service. No instrument has ever 
 created character, neither books nor 
 influence of friends, like the play 
 of life with God's Hand holding the 
 vessel. A person standing by can 
 see the obedient sentient material 
 respond — taking its appointed pro- 
 portions and gracious lines, here 
 expanding, there retiring, here bear- 
 ing the strokes which cut deep to 
 create beauty, there being hardly 
 pressed to remove roughness. Men 
 had never been made in Eden, in 
 ease, quietness, innocence : they come 
 to their height in struggle, agonies, 
 temptations, dangers, reverses. The 
 descent of Moses from a prince to a 
 
i! I 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 shepherd and his often thankless 
 labours have given him the second 
 place to Christ in the history of the 
 world. Without his shameful sin 
 and passion David had not written 
 the iiftv-first Psalm. Had St. Paul 
 remained a contented Pharisee in 
 Jerusalem instead of being per- 
 secuted through the Roman Empire 
 we had not been reading his Epistles 
 to-day. The lonely martyrdom of 
 the Beloved Apostle cleansed the 
 eyes of his soul and St. John saw 
 the heavenly city. It is with rough 
 and often cruel tools that the Potter 
 achieves the likeness of Christ in a 
 human soul. 
 
 Two conditions are required in 
 the conscious human clay, with its 
 wealth of emotion and power of 
 choice. One is an understanding of 
 the Divine purpose, which is our 
 holiness. This world with its fiery 
 temptations, its searching trials, its 
 
 10 
 
The Potter\s Wheel 
 
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 '{9 
 
 j1 sin 
 
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 4 
 
 fiery 
 
 1 
 
 J, its 
 
 awful mysteries, its passing illusions, 
 its wholesome disappointments, its 
 unsatisfying rewards, its subtle sug- 
 gestions of the unseen, its sudden 
 revelations of the spiritual, is th'^ 
 best of means for the creation of 
 sainthood which is the free choice 
 of God beyond all other treas- 
 ures. What a wise and good 
 world it has been for the soul we 
 shall only know on the other side, 
 when we have the after look and 
 God's plan is accomplished. Here 
 we are looking at the vessel in the 
 rough, there we shall see it when the 
 Potter has perfected the work of His 
 hands. 
 
 And the other condition is that 
 we love, for only in the atmosphere 
 of love can the Divine operations 
 have their full course and succeed. 
 If we be distrustful and rebellious, 
 ever suspecting and complaining of 
 God, then not even His touch can 
 
 II 
 
I ! : 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 beautify our souls. We shall be as 
 foolish hcaclstronGf children whom 
 no wise and kindly chastisements 
 can help, whom they only embitter 
 and disfigure. He only is plastic 
 material for the Potter, who is filled 
 with amazement that God should 
 think of him and with gratitude that 
 God should take such trouble witli 
 him : who sees in every touch of 
 gentle severity another proof of His 
 patience, and who continually be- 
 seeches God not to cease until His 
 Love be satisfied. 
 
 12 
 
 .< -*« 
 
i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 DEPARTURES IN LIFE 
 
 Perhaps Hebrew literature, with its 
 unsuspected tendernesses and win- 
 some simplicities, does not afford a 
 more felicitous figure than the com- 
 parison of the changes God is pleased 
 to send upon His children to an eagle 
 stirring up the nest in which her 
 young are resting. With instinctive 
 wisdom the mother bird has chosen 
 a ledge where the home can be built 
 safe from intrusion and alarms; with 
 liborious effort she shapes it stick 
 by stick, padding the hardness with 
 plumage from her own breast. The 
 eaglets are brought forth in the fast- 
 ness of the everlasting "ocks ; they 
 are kept beneath the shelter of their 
 
 mother's 
 
 wings. 
 
 Day by day she 
 
 13 
 
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 . 1 
 1 
 
 \ i 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ] 
 
 
 w 
 
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 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 goes forth into the unknown to get 
 their food, and they open wide their 
 mouths as she returns. While the 
 young birds are still helpless, the 
 eagle does everything for them : as 
 they grow and their wings gather 
 strength, she invites them to fly. It 
 is natural that they should be afraid 
 to launch into that awful depth with 
 their untried pinions. While a nest 
 remaineth they will never dare to fly, 
 and therefore — so the story goes — 
 the mother deliberately wrecks her 
 own labour of love till it lies in ruins, 
 and the fledolinois have no shelter on 
 the windy height. She then allures 
 them into the air — making short 
 flights by way of example, and safe- 
 JXuardinG: them beneath with her 
 wings. Driven from their security 
 and tempted into the blue, the young 
 eagles make tlieir great venture. 
 
 Very tenderly and very carefully 
 does our Father prepare for His chil- 
 
 14 
 
Departures in Life 
 
 dren an environment In this life, that 
 at no time we may be defenceless 
 One nest after another id built out of 
 many circumstances, all touched and 
 softened by the Divine Love ; from 
 the beautiful world into which we 
 are born, to the house that a hun- 
 dred sacred associations have made 
 home. We settle down in each nest 
 with a sense of rest and finality, and 
 have no wish to risk ourselves in the 
 depths outside our little life. Left 
 to ourselves we had never cherished 
 any spiritual ambition ; we had never 
 wished to use our wings. But Prov- 
 idence, sometimes by rude shocks, 
 sometimes by gentler compulsions, 
 dislodges us from our place and casts 
 us forth where we must fly or be 
 dashed to pieces. The great changes 
 of life are mpments of supreme ad- 
 venture, when we bid good-bye to 
 t\c homes which, with a hundred 
 familiar surroundings, bid us stay 
 
ij I 
 I! 
 
 h I 
 
 an 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 commit ourselves to the 
 nown, 
 
 un- 
 
 ith its depths below and its 
 
 heights above. E 
 
 very ne;v 
 
 depar- 
 
 ture is an abandonment of security : 
 it is an expedition into an unexplored 
 and mysterious region. It is a ven- 
 ture of the soul. 
 
 Chanijes are one of the surest 
 means for bracing and quickening 
 character. Within the bounds of 
 uneventful and secured circum- 
 stances, where from childhood to old 
 age life flows evenly, smoothly, slowly, 
 with no rapids, no pools, no rocks, 
 a type of character is form.ed which 
 is not without beauty. It is gentle, 
 tender, thoughtful, but it cannot be 
 strong. Where life has had its 
 emergencies, its agonies, its sur- 
 prises, its speculations, it has its high- 
 est possibilities. When men have 
 put forth from the shore in search 
 of a new world, when they have 
 staked their all upon a new enter- 
 
 16 
 
Departures in Life 
 
 prise, when they have faced a revo- 
 lution in life, they grow resolute and 
 strenuous. It v/as his emigration 
 from his father's house into an un- 
 known country that brought Abra- 
 ham to his iieight. The crisis in 
 Moses' career was his surrender of 
 princely luxury and his identification 
 of himself with a horde of slaves. 
 A handful of Jewish peasants have 
 changed the face of the world, be- 
 cause there was in them the heart 
 to answer the call of Jesus. No one 
 can ever imagine what power may 
 be lying unused and hidden till a 
 man is driven off his ledge, where 
 he has been fed and warmed, with- 
 out fear and \ ithout thought. Do 
 not judge him while he has only flut- 
 tered his wings at the coming of food ; 
 wait till he stretches them to go up 
 to heaven. It is in the throes of a 
 revolution a nation comes to birth : 
 it is in the moment of change the 
 soul awakes. ' 
 
 * 17 
 
:!l 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 Anioncr the various chani^^es in 
 ordinary life four are conspicuous, 
 a:id the first comes when one leaves 
 home for the first time, and makes 
 his plunge into the world. It does 
 not matter very much whether he is 
 going to a public school or to busi- 
 ness in a great city: he is beginning 
 life on his own account. As the day 
 draws near — a day no one can ever 
 lorget, when he passes out of the old 
 homestead for the first time — there 
 is a tumult in the heart. The un- 
 speakable privileges of a good home 
 — the daily oversight, the spoken 
 advice, the kindly of^ces, the sense 
 of protection, the warmth of love — 
 suddenly arise before the memory 
 and are appreciated to the full, just 
 as they are about to be lost. The 
 vaorue dancfers of the new life, its 
 strange faces, unaccustomed duties, 
 lonely circumstances, unexpected 
 temptations, possible hostilities, 
 
 i8 
 
Departures in Life 
 
 powerfully affect the imagination and 
 darken the future. The lad does his 
 best to show a smiling face, for the 
 sake of those whom he is leaving, 
 and he recognises that this outgoing 
 is inevitable, but there would be 
 something wrong with mm if his 
 heart did not sink and his eyes were 
 not dashed with tears at the turn of 
 the road. These emisfrations are 
 very trying for those who go and 
 those who stay, but both live to 
 appreciate their purpose. Within a 
 few years, and not without a few 
 humiliations, the raw, unformed lad 
 changes into a man, with a sense of 
 responsibility, with serious views of 
 life, with a knowledge of affairs, with 
 brave plans of service. It had been 
 a cruel kindness to save him from 
 this experience: it is a happy condi- 
 tion of things after all that sends us 
 forth from the best of Edens on our 
 * wander year.' 
 
 19 
 
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 11 
 
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 !!!! 
 
 i I 
 
 'ipii: 
 
 'I 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 Another momentous change, and 
 one whose effect on cliaracter is 
 greatly overlooked, is marriage. It 
 will ever remain a chief mystery of 
 human experience, that at the sight 
 of a face and the sound of a voice 
 which yesterday were strange, or 
 rather at the vision of a soul, and the 
 sense of a pre-established harmony, 
 a whole life will be turned upside 
 down. A new-born passion, joyful, 
 masterful, inspiring, seizes the nature, 
 and in a day eclipses the affections 
 of youth, and erases the plans of 
 early manhood as if they had never 
 been made, so that one could leave 
 father and mother, could change 
 even his country and his calling. 
 No words can appraise the sudden- 
 ness and sway of love, before which 
 prudence and selfishness yield and 
 vanish. It is natural that literature 
 should give a solitary place to love 
 among the motives of life ; it is 
 
 20 
 
Departures in Life 
 
 ', and 
 ter is 
 e. It 
 ;ry of 
 sioht 
 voice 
 ^e, or 
 id the 
 mony, 
 ipside 
 joyful, 
 lature, 
 ctions 
 .ns of 
 never 
 leave 
 hange 
 illing. 
 dden- 
 which 
 and 
 rat u re 
 ) love 
 
 it IS 
 
 amazing that ordinary people never 
 seem to take love at its full value. 
 Surely there can be no doubt that, 
 excluding certain profound rehgious 
 experiences given to few, love is the 
 most irresistible force in the story of 
 the individual, and marriage the 
 most dominant event. For two 
 human bein<'s to enter into this un- 
 reserved and irrevocable relationship 
 with its committal of body and soul, 
 of joy and peace, of all life's labour 
 and ideals, into one another's hands, 
 is a supreme act of trust and a last 
 risk. A divine instinct calls us, and 
 is jcistified in the end. Some lives 
 may be broken in this flight, or done 
 to death in black chasms of suffering 
 and shame, but for most marriage be- 
 comes a perfect discipline of charac- 
 ter. Thoughtful and serious people 
 come nearer still to the heart of 
 things, and see the veil lifted from 
 the mysteries of being. Careless 
 
1 1 
 
 i ! 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 i 1 
 
 i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 and frivolous people are solemnised 
 by an immense responsibility and 
 are deepened by an unselfish passion 
 No experience will teach the lesson 
 of sacrifice so successfully, none 
 invest it with such charm. The laws 
 of life have many exceptions, and 
 some choice souls have come into 
 their full estate in solitude; but for 
 most this daring experiment has been 
 the crown of life. 
 
 The "^hird change is more prosaic, 
 and yet in its way very trying and 
 very influential, and it is shifting 
 one's home. After one has lived for 
 some time in the same place, he ac- 
 quires a feeling of permanence. He 
 has grown into his house till it fits 
 him like a shell ; he has completed 
 a circle of friends who amone them 
 afford all he needs ; he has fitted the 
 routine of the day to particular hours, 
 to a certain road, to various expe- 
 dients ; he has a pew in church, 
 
 22 
 
 m^ 
 
Departures in Life 
 
 :;mnised 
 ity and 
 passion 
 i lesson 
 % none 
 'he laws 
 ns, and 
 me into 
 but for 
 \as been 
 
 prosaic, 
 
 ing and 
 
 sh if tins: 
 
 ived for 
 
 , he ac- 
 
 CQ. He 
 
 1 it fits 
 
 mpleted 
 
 g them 
 
 tted the 
 
 r hours, 
 
 IS expe- 
 
 church, 
 
 
 ■t 
 
 4 
 
 where alone he can enjoy a sermon ; 
 he has found a piece of work that is 
 suited to his powers. Here he has 
 lived, here he expects to live, and 
 here he expects to die. In fact, he 
 is in a nest, and one sees him every 
 year snuggling down into its com- 
 fort with great content, when, per- 
 haps without any warning, he is sent 
 forth. Another environment, with a 
 new house, new faces, new customs, 
 a new church, is no light trial to any 
 man above middle age. Why should 
 Providence, which fitted up this 
 home so mindfully not have left me 
 in it till I changed into the house 
 not made with hands ? Very likely 
 because the change will vivify and 
 renew the soul, as a visit to foreign 
 parts quickens the intellect, which 
 has grown jaded and commonplace. 
 A new voice may give a new evangel. 
 Breaking up conventionalities may lay 
 the mind open to fresh ideas. A vari- 
 
Ifil -i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ety of service may afford the oppor 
 tunity for inspiration. The chancre 
 may be into a wider place, where the 
 wind of God blows as it listeth round 
 the soul — nothino- between. 
 
 Some chanores can be avoided — 
 whether for good or ill is another 
 matter ; but one awaiteth us all, 
 when the whole circumstances of this 
 life shall be shattered in a moment, 
 and, willing or not willing, every one 
 of us shall go forth into the unseen. 
 This is the final venture of the soul, 
 and a most tender Providence pre- 
 pares us for it by many hints and 
 warnings. A sharp illness, some 
 failing of mind, a general decay, or 
 the departure of a friend, are all a 
 loosening of the nest and a command 
 to be ready for flight. What an out- 
 going it is, over the brink, where 
 we can see nothing below or above, 
 where we can feel nothing under our 
 
 feet ! Is it cowardly for the average 
 
 24 
 
oppor 
 chanofe 
 lere the 
 1 round 
 
 •idcd — 
 
 another 
 
 us all, 
 
 J of this 
 
 loment, 
 
 ery one 
 
 unseen. 
 
 he soul, 
 
 ICC prc- 
 
 its and 
 
 some 
 
 cay, or 
 
 e all a 
 
 mm and 
 
 an out- 
 
 whcre 
 
 above, 
 
 Jcr our 
 
 iverage 
 
 Departures in Life 
 
 pe.son to trcMnblo at this last emi- 
 gration — this departure into an un- 
 tried and vacant al)yss ? Yet let us 
 not lose heart or be unfaithful. A 
 great abyss it is, as if one should cast 
 himself from the height of a preci- 
 pice into the air. But it is not un- 
 tried, for with every change from 
 childhood an excursion has been at- 
 tempted into the unknown. It was 
 only a flutter on the edge, but still it 
 proved that we had wings, and we 
 came back to our resting-place un- 
 hurt and Ln:idismayed. This time 
 we shall not return ; our wings will 
 have to serve us longer. And the 
 abyss is not empty, for never have 
 we gone out in any journey of the 
 soul but God was with us, guiding 
 us when we had no longer our 
 earthly father, revv?aling Himself 
 through the sacrament of human love, 
 d^velling where we dwell, as with 
 
 the pilgrim patriarchs. The hands 
 
 25 
 

 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 that curiously constructed this kindly 
 nest are the sauie that will take it 
 down. The wings wliich covered 
 us in our callow childhood here will 
 bear us up out yonder. The God 
 who is here, is there and everywhere. 
 The wide and open space is full of 
 sunlight, and underneath our souls 
 for ever shall be the everlasting 
 arms. 
 
 ii 
 
 !!!il! 
 
 1 ^ ! 
 
 ■ ! 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i ^^tik^^ 
 
 
 26 
 
el 
 
 lis kindly 
 II take it 
 covered 
 here will 
 rhe God 
 M*y where, 
 is full of 
 )ur souls 
 'erlasting 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 13R0KEN IIOMKS 
 
 The providence of God never presses 
 more sorely upon the heart, nor raises 
 harder questions in the mind, than 
 when His servant Death knocks at 
 the door of some unconscious con- 
 tented home, and summons an un- 
 likely member across the threshold. 
 We have no quarrel with the kindly 
 office of the dark ano'el, and would 
 not desire that he should delay his 
 coming beyond the time, since many 
 years without strength are only sor- 
 row and humiliation. It is better 
 that the ripe fruit should be plucked 
 before it begins to decay upon the 
 tree, and the golden corn reaped 
 before it runs to waste. Nothinq; can 
 
I ll I I 
 
 i 't 
 
 I H 
 
 I :! 
 
 it 
 
 i; 
 
 >■• 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 be more fitting and seemly than the 
 departure of one whose work has 
 been well finished, and who has 
 reached the evening of his day. 
 What appears utter unreason and 
 cruelty — a mere caprice or blunder 
 of Providence — is the.remcval of the 
 head of a familv in the midst of his 
 days, or a house-mother whose de- 
 serted children follow her to the 
 door, or a young child in the fresh 
 promise of spring. Is not this the 
 wilful wrecking of love's long labour? 
 For a home is a beautiful work which 
 is slovvly created ; it is a perfect unity 
 whose injury cannot be repaired. 
 Why should two people be moved of 
 the Divine Spirit to love, only to be 
 separated after a few years? Why 
 should children be given only to be 
 taken ? Why should a home be en- 
 riched with a wealth of tender asso- 
 ciations, and in a little while the 
 inhabitants sit lonely in its desola- 
 
 28 
 
il 
 
 Broken Homes 
 
 than the 
 ork has 
 .'ho has 
 n's day. 
 5on and 
 blunder 
 al of the 
 t of his 
 iose de- 
 
 to tlie 
 le fresh 
 this the 
 labour? 
 k which 
 ::t unity 
 epaired. 
 oved of 
 [y to be 
 Why 
 y to be 
 
 be en- 
 ^r asso- 
 ile the 
 desola- 
 
 tion, listening for a footstep that 
 will never be heard on the stair 
 again, wearying for a voice that is 
 still? 
 
 When a person in such straits is 
 concerned about the goodness of God, 
 his anxious questions are not to be 
 condemned as a siijn of unbelief, but 
 are ratlier to be welcomed as a fruit 
 of faith. If one docs not believe in 
 his heart that there is any God, or 
 at least quite despairs of knowing 
 Him, then he is not likely to vex 
 himself about the dix'ine character. 
 No circumstances can either make 
 God better or worse, any more than 
 if He were an idea in a book. If, 
 however, one has learned to put all 
 his trust in God, and God has become 
 the portion of his soul, then he can- 
 not help being very jealous about 
 His honour. Any act which suiroests 
 carelessness or cruelty on the part 
 
 of God is an unspeakable and irre- 
 
 29 
 
h 
 
 'ill! :i 
 
 I i 
 
 MW 
 
 ii' 
 
 ml I 
 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 deemaljle calamity. Leave God un- 
 touched in His wisdom and love, and 
 the pious soul can bear nmny afflic- 
 tions, for at the worst it can hide it- 
 self in Him, Who is the soul's refuge 
 and help in time of trouble. With- 
 out God — and if God be unworthy 
 of trust there is no God — tribulation 
 is another name for destruction. The 
 vindication of God is the first thought 
 of faith in face of trial, and we are 
 never inclined to judge our Father 
 more harshly than when standing 
 amid the ruins of a home. 
 
 Before trying to find reasons for 
 the divine action, it is always well 
 to remind ourselves how little we 
 know about anything, and iiow^ very 
 unlikely it is that we shall know 
 much more till we get the after look. 
 We are the victims of the present 
 and the imperfect, seeing only pro- 
 cesses, not ends, understanding only 
 a part, not the whole. We should 
 
 30 — . 
 
^el 
 
 Broken Homes 
 
 God un- 
 love, and 
 my afflic- 
 n hide it- 
 I's refuge 
 . VVith- 
 -inwordiy 
 'ibulation 
 ion. The 
 : thought 
 
 I we are 
 r Father 
 standing: 
 
 sons for 
 ays well 
 little we 
 low very 
 
 II know 
 ter look. 
 
 present 
 nly pro- 
 ing only 
 : should 
 
 never have imagined this lair earth, 
 had it been given us to see fire and 
 water labouring like blind and cha- 
 oHc forces at its ma' ing, and it is 
 at least as impossible to anticipate 
 what gracious products of human 
 character may result from what seems 
 in our day the confused and sense- 
 less agonies of life. What we are 
 alone able to see is the carvinir of 
 the stone, with the dust and broken 
 splinters, the wrong side of the web, 
 with its tangle of threads, the molten 
 metal poured from crucible to cruci- 
 ble. Each generation lives amid the 
 machinery which is making souls, 
 and the individual must be patient 
 \.r^n he fails to understand its whirl- 
 ing wheels and sharp-edged tools. 
 The past with its golden record of 
 conspicuous successes corrects our 
 hasty judgments ; the future with its 
 incalculable possibilities bids us 
 hope. When the day is over and 
 
 31 
 
1 ! 
 
 it • ^ 
 
 li 
 
 ih 
 
 iipi 
 
 ! 
 
 I I 
 
 i| 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 the work is clone it will be soon 
 enough to judge the government of 
 the Eternal. 
 
 Meanwhile one must be very un- 
 observant of life and very unintelli- 
 gent about its meaning if he cannot 
 see some spiritual ends and some 
 kindly alleviations even in these sud- 
 den and crushing blows that shatter 
 happy homes. It does certainly seem 
 wanton to call away a father who is 
 not only the bread-winner but also 
 the councillor of a family, at the very 
 time when his example and influence 
 will mostly tell ; or a mother while 
 her children are still young and 
 chiefly need her sympathy, her care, 
 her love. The loss is so irreparable 
 that we do not reckon the compen- 
 sations. Is there any relation so 
 fond on the one side, so chivalrous 
 on the other, as that between a wid- 
 owed mother and her loyal sons ? 
 Can there be found any one more 
 
 3a 
 
Broken Homes 
 
 JQ soon 
 
 
 ment of 
 
 
 /ery un- 
 
 
 nintelli- 
 
 
 cannot 
 
 
 i some 
 
 
 ^se sud- 
 
 ^ 
 
 shatter 
 
 M 
 
 ly seem 
 
 '1 
 
 who is 
 
 m 
 
 it also 
 
 
 le very 
 
 
 fluence 
 
 
 • while 
 
 i 
 
 g and 
 
 t 
 
 r care, 
 
 4 
 
 )arable 
 
 i 
 
 )mpen- 
 
 '■■^ 
 
 on so 
 
 
 ^alrous 
 
 
 a wid- 
 
 A 
 
 ■f 
 
 sons ? 
 
 \ 
 
 *. 
 
 more 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 thoughtful, more protecting, more 
 tender-hearted than a man who has 
 to be both father and mother to his 
 children ? If marriage be the nor- 
 mal state for the vast majority of 
 men and women, its sad eclipse has 
 often called into exercise the most 
 gentle and winsome virtues, has af- 
 forded the opportunity for the most 
 affectionate and thoughtful services. 
 When one comes to the loss of 
 young children — a sad perplexity — 
 let it not be forgotten that they were 
 s^iven. If in the hour of bitterest o^rief 
 it were asked of a bereaved mother 
 whether she would prefer never to 
 have possessed in order that she 
 might never have lost — her heart 
 would be very indignant. No little 
 child has ever come from God and 
 stayed a brief while in some human 
 home — to return as^ain to the 
 Father — without makinc: elad that 
 home and leaving behind some trace 
 
I ml 
 
 m 
 
 ilill ! 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 of heaven. A family had counted 
 themselves poorer without those 
 quaint sayings, those cunning ca- 
 resses, that soft touch, that sudden 
 smile. This short visit was not an 
 incident: it was a benediction. The 
 child departs, the remembrances, the 
 influence, the associations remain. 
 If one should allow us to have 
 Sarto's Annunciation for a month, 
 we would thank him : when he re- 
 sumed it for his home he would not 
 lake everything, for its loveliness of 
 maid and angel is now ours for 
 ever. And if God recalls the child 
 He lent, then let us thank Him for 
 the loan, and consider that what 
 made that child the messenger of 
 God — its purity, modesty, trustful- 
 ness, gladness — has passed into 
 our soul. 
 
 Is it not the case also in many in- 
 stances that death has been a mer 
 ciful escape for children grievously 
 
 34 
 
Broken Homes 
 
 ;ounted 
 those 
 ng ca- 
 sudden 
 not an 
 1. The 
 :es, the 
 emain. 
 ) liave 
 month, 
 he re- 
 ild not 
 less of 
 rs for 
 ! child 
 im for 
 what 
 ^er of 
 ustful- 
 into 
 
 ny in- 
 
 , mer 
 
 ^ously 
 
 smitten in body or mind? No child 
 calls forth so much tender solicitude, 
 none is so fondly loved, as one af- 
 flicted; none is held more firmly, 
 for none are more prayers offered. 
 If it lay in the will of the parents 
 they would never consent to its 
 removal, so wonderfully do helpless- 
 ness and suffering appeal to the 
 heart. With a just parent there is 
 only one ground of partiality — 
 weakness ; only one child that has 
 more than its share of love — the 
 invalid. Yet is it not an uncon- 
 scious and cruel selfishness of love 
 that would wish for that child a 
 prolonged hospital life? Is it not a 
 merciful release when the prisoner 
 escapes from the bondage of this 
 body, and enters on the fulness of 
 life, where there is no more pain ? 
 
 There are worse evils than pain of 
 body, from which death gives im- 
 munity; and no one can look at the 
 
 35 
 
 a 
 
I I 
 
 n 
 
 ill ! 
 
 i!.::i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 innocent face of a little child that 
 has fallen on sleep without thanking 
 God for victory before the battle. 
 One at least of God's children has 
 been spared the risk of temptation, 
 the bitterness of defeat, the sore 
 struggle after perfection. What an 
 uncertainty is the life before an in- 
 fant in its mother's arms ! What 
 sin and shame may be its experience 
 ere all be over! Has no father ever 
 declared, with a heart broken by 
 some Absalom, ' Would that he had 
 died in his childiiood ? ' Is it not 
 good that some of our race should 
 have but one chapter in their short 
 lives here, and is it to be desired 
 that all should have page upon 
 page that none but God must see, 
 that nothing but Christ's blood can 
 cleanse ? 
 
 Death must always be a dreaded 
 visitor to any house, and it is hard 
 to forgive his robberies, but he 
 
 36 
 
Broken Homes 
 
 'la^m 
 
 leaves behind many peaccal^le fruits. 
 For instance, a certain seriousness of 
 tliousfht and feelin^^ that are not 
 easily learned. People who are 
 strong and busy and successful and 
 glad — who have never been chast- 
 ened in their hearts — are apt to 
 take shallow and trifling views of 
 life. They do not see clearly be- 
 cause of the glare of sunshine in 
 the room, so that they might pass 
 a Crucifixion without notice. Life is 
 but a pleasant day — a pastoral, with 
 song and dancing. By and by one 
 blind after another is drawn down, 
 till the light grows grey and sombre, 
 and the Christ upon His Cross looks 
 out from the shadow. The deeps of 
 life are opened w^ith their solemni- 
 ties, their realities, their tragedies. 
 The character loses its light grace, 
 its gay delight in the comedy of 
 existence ; but it gains instead an 
 understanding of the inwardness of 
 
 37 
 
p 
 
 \ 1 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 things and the responsibilities of the 
 soul. 
 
 Family bereavement also works a 
 singular and beautiful gentleness 
 that can be detected almost without 
 fail in the expression of the eye — in 
 the tone of the voice. Some of the 
 best wine is harsh and unpalatable 
 till it goes a long sea voyage. After 
 it has been tossed on the high seas 
 and gone round the Cape, it becomes 
 mellow and soft. There are strong 
 natures which were once intolerable; 
 they were so self-confident, so master- 
 ful, so inhuman. But Death visited 
 their house, and they came forth 
 from his school other men, and now 
 the strength is touched with sym- 
 pathy and humility. Such men be- 
 come the saviours of the world with 
 Christ, for it is doubtful whether any 
 man has ever helped his fellows in 
 the high affairs of life w^ho has not 
 tasted sorrow. 
 
 38 
 
 / 
 
S*-'-; 
 
 Broken Homes 
 
 And Death Is a very successful 
 teacher of that faith we all Ions': to 
 possess; the conviction of the Un- 
 seen. We may play with the argu- 
 ments against another life when our 
 affections are neutral, and may even 
 pretend that the case is not proven. 
 Let one of our flesh and blood bid 
 us good-bye and pass within the veil, 
 and reason surrenders the place to 
 love. A young child with Christ 
 does more to illuminate the other 
 world than all the books that ever 
 have been written, and it has often 
 come to pass that at the touch of 
 this unseen hand hard and sceptical 
 men have arisen and set their faces 
 towards God, for the hope of seeing 
 again a golden head on which the 
 sun was ever shinine. 
 
 39 
 
9 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LOSS OF GOODS 
 
 •I 
 
 With most people — annuitants and 
 Government pensioners ags perhaps 
 the only exceptions — an unexpected 
 reverse in circumstances must be 
 taken into account as one of the 
 possible incidents of life; and it is 
 harder to bear than the victim is in- 
 clined to confess, or than his neigh- 
 bours ever suspect. A brave man 
 shows a good face for the time, and 
 makes light of the blow — it is, he de- 
 clares, but the fortune of war. Friends 
 surround him with assurances of 
 sympathy — it is, they suggest, only 
 a disguised success. Both sides 
 make an admirable rally, and give 
 one a better idea of human nature ; 
 
 40 
 
h 
 
 1 
 
 of 
 ily 
 
 es 
 
 re; 
 
 i 
 
 Loss of Goods 
 
 but such backsets are not joyful but 
 grievous. When a professional man 
 has given his best brains to his work 
 and is ungratefully treated, or a clerk 
 has slaved for a firm and is dismissed 
 for the sake of petty economy, or a 
 servant has put the family's interests 
 before her own and is made an offen- 
 der for a word, or a merchant ac- 
 cumulates a competency an 1 sees it 
 scattered by some speculator, it does 
 seem as if the times were out of 
 joint, and the heart of the sufferer is 
 apt to grow bitter. What reward 
 has principle, faithfulness, industry, 
 loyalty ? Is there no intelligible law 
 in the moral world, but only a whim- 
 sical Providence which changes a 
 man's wheat into tares, between the 
 seed-time and hai-vest ? 
 
 Loss of goods is a very fair illus- 
 tration of this kind of trial, and is 
 treated too lightly by persons who 
 have not lost any or never had any 
 
 4V 
 
 -^ 
 
m i 
 
 ii >i 
 
 11! 
 
 111 f ' 
 
 i i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 to lose. There are, of course, dis- 
 tinctions between cases, and sym- 
 pathy is sometimes out of place. If 
 one has lost a fraction of the fortune 
 he does not know what to do with, 
 and is only anxious to increase, tlien 
 it is not uncharitable to refuse him 
 pity, or cruel to congratulate him 
 on a wholesome bloodletting. Fewer 
 goods may mean less care for him, 
 'less worldliness for his wife, happier 
 because truer marriao^es for his dau2:h- 
 ters, more strenuous lives for his sons, 
 a hiofher level of life for the whole 
 family. But if a m.an be cast down 
 because yesterday he was rich and 
 to-day he is poor, one who has a 
 wife and children, then let no person 
 despise or belittle him as selfish, or 
 mercenary, or worldly, or unspiritual. 
 You are not entitled to judge him 
 unless you have either made a sacri- 
 fice of your possessions for some 
 great cause, or have taken joyfully 
 
 42 
 
 \i 
 
Loss of Goods 
 
 the spoiling of your goods; and if 
 you have passed through such expe- 
 riences they will have taught you 
 charity. No man need be thouiiht 
 an unworthy Christian because a 
 worldly reverse adds ten years to 
 his age or writes its mark on his 
 brow. 
 
 Various reasons may be imagined 
 for his concern besides disappointed 
 avarice, and one may be a sense of 
 injustice. The activity of life is 
 largely based on the law of work and 
 its reward. It is a perfectly honest 
 instinct which resents the idea of 
 labouring a long day and getting no 
 wages in the evening. This is not a 
 question of selfishness at all, it is a 
 question of righteousness. The one 
 who has been refused his right is in- 
 jured, the one who wronged him is 
 a rascal. If there be any manhood 
 in the worker he will insist on his 
 wage although he give it away next 
 
 43 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 
 minute, and if he fail to sjet it the 
 Bible will express his indignation 
 with power. Suppose he accumu- 
 lates a sum from his earnings as a 
 support in old age or a provision for 
 his family, and he be robbed of it by 
 the strong hand of a merciless firm, 
 or the reckless operations of an un- 
 scrupulous speculator, or the ras- 
 cality of a gang of public swindlers, 
 or the deliberate deceit of a trusted 
 friend, then he has been spoiled of 
 his just possessions, and he does well 
 to be angry. When an industrious 
 and well-doing man is plundered 
 without redress it will be a marvel if 
 he be not bitter. 
 
 Loss of wealth may also be re- 
 gretted because wealth was the means 
 of securing pure and ennobling plea- 
 sures. Money has a different value 
 w^ith different men, and is indeed a 
 symbol for what we chiefly love or 
 need. With some it mavmean meat 
 
 44 
 
Loss of Goods 
 
 e 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 and drink and clothing and luxuries, 
 which things come to sloth, pride, 
 and extravagance. With others it 
 signifies so many books written by 
 the prophets of the Eternal, so many 
 pictures by the interpreters of the 
 Unseen. With certain others morey 
 is the instrument of goodness by 
 which they relieve men in straits, 
 provide for widows left comfortless, 
 educate poor boys of intelligence, 
 and bring some brightness into the 
 lives of poor people. Money is 
 neither culture norcharity — it maybe 
 the enemy of both ; but it can create 
 an atmosphere in which mind and 
 Ivjart will come to their flower. Any 
 man is to be envied wlio can feed the 
 purest tastes and obey the kindliest 
 instincts as he pleases, to whom no 
 treasure in vellum is forbidden, no 
 generous succour of the needy is 
 impossible; and if one is exiled 
 suddenly from this goodly Eden, 
 
 45 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 '11: 
 
 lil 
 
 .1' 
 
 then he is to be pitied and has cause 
 of complaint. 
 
 It would be an injustice, however, 
 to conclude that a true man will ever 
 be much cast down by straitened 
 circumstances if he be alone in the 
 world. He is perfectly aware that 
 any one, sane in soul, mind, and 
 body, cau always earn his living, and 
 that a touch of hardness will only 
 brace his soul. But he is perpetu- 
 ally concerned about the future com- 
 fort of those whom he loves and who 
 have trusted him. Money-making 
 has two sides : one is very ignoble, 
 where an immortal being toils and 
 scrapes and grasps and hoards, simply 
 that he may possess : one is entirely 
 noble, where one strives that he may 
 provide. What heroism may be hid- 
 den behind buying and selling, bar- 
 gaining and speculating! Where a 
 weary, anxious man is ever thinking 
 
 of a woman who must not know 
 
 46 
 
Loss of Goods 
 
 want, of boys who must have their 
 chance in h'fe, one forgives him his 
 carefuhiess, his keenness, his rash- 
 ness, since all he does is for Jove's 
 sake; and one understands that his 
 suffering through a reverse has not 
 in it a single grain of selfishness. 
 
 This man is, however, fortunate in 
 retaining one possession, for loss of 
 goods is not loss of honour. He 
 may have to go into a smaller house, 
 to practise various economies, to 
 withdraw certain subscriptions, to 
 refuse his family some pleasures; 
 but he does not need to lower his 
 head at the meeting of a friend. 
 Nor will his children have cause to 
 be ashamed of their fathers name. 
 There are men on whom the sun has 
 shone, and who are increased in 
 goods, yet none respect them. 
 
 honest souls despise them. Th 
 
 fortu 
 
 th 
 
 Most 
 
 eir 
 
 IS 
 
 nes would be a cheap price for 
 man's character, but that cannot 
 47 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 be bought by gold, nor is it lost 
 when gold departs. After all, it is 
 not required of every one to be suc- 
 cessful either in his business or in 
 his profession — in letters or the 
 Church. What is asked, and eter- 
 nally shall be asked, is that a man 
 shall obey his conscience, and do his 
 duty by God and his neighbour. 
 Has he done so according to his 
 ability ? Then, be his lot prosperity 
 or adversity, let him keep a high 
 heart, for none can put him to 
 shame, either in this world or the 
 next. 
 
 Adversity will also be helpless to 
 deprive him of the love of wife or 
 child, but by a blessed law of human 
 hearts will only make him dearer. 
 Does a woman think less of her hus- 
 band because he has been worsted in 
 the battle, and has been sent out of 
 the lists wounded ? She is so fash- 
 ioned by God that she will claim her 
 
 48 
 
Loss of Goods 
 
 knight before the people and dorv 
 m him, and lavish hitherto unknown 
 riches of love on him, and be prouder 
 of him than if he had come off victor 
 over all opponents. Why? For a 
 woman's reason: because he is not 
 strong and successful; because he 
 has failed, and therefore has need of 
 sympathy and comfort and confi- 
 dence. For another woman's rea- 
 son: because he failed for her so 
 that every wound has become' an 
 evidence of his devotion, a claim on 
 her loyalty. What a love is that 
 which God hath placed in the heart 
 of a woman— so magnanimous, so 
 ungrudging, so forgiving, so stead- 
 fast ! Is there any man living who 
 has ever fathomed that love, who 
 has ever hVed so as to deserve it? 
 Who shall ever be able to repay it ? 
 Dare a man complain of any loss 
 who knows that he has the love of a 
 good woman as his portion ? 
 * 49 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 
 Besides, adversity is a searcliino: 
 . . * ... 
 
 test of friendship — dividing the 
 
 sheep from the goats with unerring 
 accuracy, and this is a good service. 
 Times there are when it seems we 
 cannot count the number of our 
 friends — we see so many smiling 
 faces, we hear so many pleasant 
 words. Times there are when we 
 are not certain and question our 
 heart. Suppose one became unpop- 
 ular or held unworldly opinions, or 
 were reduced to poverty, or were 
 slandered ; how many of this agree- 
 able crowd would come out and take 
 their places by his side against the 
 wall ? We ought not to expect 
 many. We may well be satisfied 
 with six ; and the one good of adver- 
 sity is, that we should discover for 
 certain who the six are. It mioht 
 almost be worth enduring some loss 
 to know how much uncalculating 
 and unhesitating loyalty burns in 
 
 5° 
 
 
Loss of Goods 
 some silent, faithful, unflinching 
 
 But among all the services of ad- 
 yersuy surely the best is this, that 
 It teaches us at last the difference 
 between the goods that are held in 
 barns and those that are stored in 
 the soul. So alluring are the things 
 which are seen, that they fascinate 
 our minds and lead them captive- 
 so severe are the things which are 
 unseen, that they fail to seize our 
 imagmation and inspire our lives 
 
 We are blinded by the gaudy colours 
 and tinsel glory of the material, so 
 that the kingdom of God cannot 
 compete for our love. What advan- 
 tages have the intangible riches of 
 the spiritual world that we should 
 wm them at a sacrifice .? 
 
 Ad' 
 
 ersity 
 
 g-.'esone answer — they last. Vis- 
 
 ion, knowledge, faith, 1 
 
 cannot be taken from 
 
 ove, holiness, 
 
 one by a thief 
 
 they cannot be iost in a day ; they 
 
Ifl 
 
 ' I 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 cannot ooze away before his eyes. 
 They are inalienable, and are never 
 dearer, surer, sweeter, than when all 
 other possessions have failed and 
 disappeared. Does it not too often 
 happen that as people rise in the 
 social scale, their character deterio- 
 rates? They cast off old friends; 
 they lose their former simplicity of 
 manners; they withdraw from the 
 service of Christ. They become af- 
 fected, hollow, ambitious before our 
 eyes. It is a law, with many a splen- 
 did exception, that those who are rich 
 are deaf to the voice of Christ, and 
 refuse His ^ross ; that those who 
 are poor give Him ready welcome 
 and accept His cross as the way of 
 life everlasting. 
 
 52 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TRIALS OF FAITH 
 
 Persons familiar with the Vatican 
 will remember the little chapel of 
 Nicholas v., which opens out of 
 the Constandne chamber, and is a 
 welcome refuge from the crowd of 
 curious sightseers. Beyond quiet- 
 ness and the chastened light its 
 attraction is some of the finest work 
 of Fra Angelico, which he must have 
 done on his last visit to Rome, and 
 not long before his death. He once 
 described himself as a monk who 
 painted for the love of God, and he 
 was so lifted above this world that 
 ne refused the See of Florence It 
 strikes one that Angelico was indeed 
 very meet for the Heavenly King- 
 
■I 
 
 II 
 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 dom when he made the walls of 
 Pope Nicholas' Chapel beautiful 
 with the life of vSt. Stephen ; and 
 there was a fitness that his body 
 should have been laid to rest in that 
 church, S. IMaria Sopra Minerva, 
 whose name is a parable of the 
 triumph of faith over learning. You 
 cannot look on the face of the first 
 Christian martyr without realising a 
 soul separate from the strife of this 
 present world and full of the peace 
 of God. There is not a shadow of 
 doubt or of questioning on the coun- 
 tenances of Angelico's saints. They 
 are a picture of the . ge of faith. 
 
 Very different is the vast picture 
 on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel 
 which was one of Michael Ang^elo's 
 most elaborate efforts, and has an 
 awful fascination for one's mind. 
 The subject is the ' Last Judgment,' 
 and plunges you at once into another 
 world from that in which Angelico 
 
 54 
 
 of 
 
Trials of Faith 
 
 s of 
 
 itiful 
 
 and 
 body 
 
 that 
 
 icrva, 
 
 the 
 
 You 
 I first 
 ;ing a 
 f this 
 peace 
 o\v of 
 
 coun- 
 
 Thcy 
 
 picture 
 Ihapei 
 icrelo's 
 las an 
 
 mind. 
 Iment/ 
 
 lother 
 |n:eUco 
 
 lived and prayed and wrought. The 
 scene is crowded with figures con- 
 tending together in mortal conflict, 
 or striving to make a vain ascent 
 from hell. Devils seize the saints 
 and attempt to pull them down, while 
 angels come to their help. Above 
 sits Christ in His majesty, beneath 
 are the open horrors of hell. The 
 dark and gloomy colours of the back- 
 ground are made more ghastly by 
 the white of unclothed bodies. Very 
 slowly can you trace the details of 
 the confused drama, very hardly can 
 you discover the painter's idea. It 
 is a work of agony and mystery, the 
 reflection of a mind wrestling with 
 the problem of life and history, of 
 man and God. The simplicity of 
 faith has departed and with it 
 the serenity of the soul. Michael 
 Angelo's. strenuous and forceful 
 work belongs to the age of doubt. 
 The parallel between the experi- 
 
 55 
 
 'w 
 

 I m 
 
 li! li 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 ! i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ence of the race and the individual 
 is very conplete, for he also has his 
 age of faith, when it does not occur to 
 him to question, and it is natural for 
 him to believe. Across the troubled 
 seas of manhood one looks back 
 with wistful regret to the inland 
 waters of childhood in whose calm 
 clear surface were reflected the great 
 mountains of God. We stand a^ain 
 by our mother's knee, and in a 
 picture-book, with linen pages, see 
 St. Peter drawing his net full of 
 fishes, and look up on a starry night 
 to the place where heaven is, and 
 try to keep awake till Santa Glaus 
 comes with his gifts. It is the age 
 of wonder when the world is peopled 
 with fairies, and our life with mira- 
 cles ; when every spoken w-ord is true, 
 and every prayer is to be answered 
 at once. God is good — if possible, 
 better than our mother. Jesus is by 
 our side, and the Holy Angels. Our 
 
 56 
 
 i& 
 
Trials of Faith 
 
 ual 
 
 his 
 
 rto 
 
 for 
 
 )led 
 
 ack 
 
 and 
 
 :alm 
 
 reat 
 
 gain 
 
 in a 
 see 
 
 il of 
 
 light 
 and 
 laus 
 age 
 pled 
 iiira- 
 true, 
 
 leered 
 
 ible, 
 
 is by 
 
 Our 
 
 .* 
 % 
 
 sins are giants to be fought. We })lan 
 achievements in the days to come. 
 Like plants that are protected from 
 the storm, we are learning to believe 
 before the storm of doubt bursts on 
 us in the open, and our heads are 
 beaten for a little to the ground. 
 
 Certain favoured people are planted 
 out by God s hand in such sheltered 
 corners of Mis garden that the wind 
 sweeping over the waste of moorland 
 never touches them, and the sun from 
 all the quarters is ever blessing them. 
 Witli every year they know God 
 better and are more firmly persuaded 
 of His love. Jesus' presence is more 
 distinctly felt, and the print of His 
 feet grows clearer on the ways of life. 
 For tliem the miraculous has no diffi- 
 culties, since tlicy have seen greater 
 works than those in their own ex- 
 perience, and the mysteries of faith 
 are the subject of their joyful medi- 
 tation. Cross providences do not 
 
 57 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 *<Ji;;! 
 
 ri If 
 
 dlslurb their liearts, being only the 
 signs of a Leather's love, and great 
 sacrifices do not daunt them, being 
 only tlie opportunity for a new sur- 
 render to the Divine Will. They 
 are the pure in heart who see God ; 
 they are the meek who inherit the 
 earth — who carry with them an 
 atmosphere of calm, in whose eyes 
 Heaven can be seen. They come 
 down swiftly from the sunlit hill of 
 youth like Angelico from Fiesole, 
 and the ordinary affairs of life are 
 illuminated for them, as the bare 
 cells of San Marco glowed with his 
 frescoes. They keep the child heart 
 to the end unspoiled by the world, 
 unvexed by doubts, in whose beauti- 
 ful lives Christ is wonderfully com- 
 mended. 
 
 
 ' Who but a Christian through all life 
 That blessing may prolong? 
 Who, through the world's snd day of strife, 
 Still chant his morning song?' 
 
 5^ 
 
 ! J 
 
Trials of Faith 
 
 [y the 
 
 great 
 
 being 
 vv sur- 
 
 They 
 I God ; 
 rit the 
 em an 
 ;e eyes 
 r come 
 
 hill of 
 Ficsole, 
 life arc 
 le bare 
 ^dth his 
 
 d heart 
 world, 
 
 beauti- 
 
 y com- 
 
 j 
 
 f strife, 
 
 It Is the will of our Father to deal 
 after another fashion with many of 
 Mis children, \\\\o may turn out to 
 be the strongest of the family in the 
 day of their full manhood. Like 
 their Elder Brother they are carried 
 away into the wilderness and are 
 tempted, some for long seasons, some 
 for short, some once only, some at 
 intervals all their life. One has no 
 measure of comparison for the trials 
 of life, but for souls of delicate temper 
 none can be more fiery than the try- 
 ing of faith. For it is faith which re- 
 inforces us in tiie sore straits of life, 
 and ministers to us our chief conso- 
 lations. It assures us of the love of 
 God, of the life be) )nd the grave, of 
 the victory over this present world, 
 of the crow \ that shall be Q:iven to 
 the soul ; wit'i the spell of faith so 
 many afliictions are made light, so 
 many are made acceptable ; heaven 
 opens above our head, this life is 
 
 59 
 
 \ 
 
 s 
 
*!i !l 
 
 |! 
 
 
 ! 1] Ij 
 
 ii 
 
 I !! 
 
 I 
 
 ji 
 11 
 
 ^1 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 shot throut'h witli litjlit. It matters 
 little how rough be the road so long 
 as it stretches before us with some 
 home at its end, or how keen be the 
 wind if the sun be shining. When 
 the track is lost on the hill and the 
 night falls, then one may be excused 
 if his heart fails also, and he is for a 
 space tempted to despair. 
 
 Various circumstances put faith 
 on her trial, and one of the most 
 common is the shattering of a hered- 
 itary creed. Very few^ people in- 
 deed begin their religious life with 
 an open mind, going out each one 
 to find the new world for himself ; 
 and possessing it in his own right. 
 He rather succeeds to an estate 
 which some ancestor has won and 
 bequeathed to following generations. 
 Our opinions both in religion and 
 politics are largely an entail, so that 
 we believe as our fathers believed 
 
 with considerable comfort and assur- 
 
 6o 
 
Trials of Faith 
 
 Iters 
 long 
 ;ome 
 t the 
 /hen 
 I the 
 :used 
 for a 
 
 faith 
 
 most 
 
 \ered- 
 
 ie in- 
 
 with 
 
 I one 
 ill self ; 
 
 ri2;ht. 
 Icstate 
 
 II and 
 ,tions. 
 11 and 
 
 that 
 ieved 
 I assur- 
 
 ance. If no one attacks this creed 
 we may be left in possession all our 
 days and be spared many perplexing 
 questions. But it is well to remem- 
 ber that the title to a hereditary 
 creed is very precarious and that 
 our security may be roughly shaken. 
 A single sentence in a strange book 
 has roused the critical faculty and 
 left the soul without a spiritual roof 
 above its head. When suspicion is 
 once aroused there is no honest or 
 safe escape from the trial. One 
 must go to the bottom of the matter: 
 one cannot rest till he has verified 
 his creed. It is the most anxious 
 work to which a man can put his 
 hand, but it has only to be done 
 once and what remains is his own 
 for ever. 
 
 Another trial of faith is rather 
 physical than spiritual, but is not to 
 be despised on that account. Quite 
 suddenly bright and courageous per- 
 
 6i 
 
 ■r 
 
 m 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 1 . 
 
 i !l 
 
 I I 
 
 l! I 
 
 i 
 
 sons fall into oloom and sadness of 
 heart from which they can hardly 
 be raised. They are haunted by pre- 
 sentiments of calamity, they are as- 
 sailed by evil thoughts, they consider 
 themselves forsaken of God, they 
 despair of goodness. Very likely the 
 cause is physical, and the first medi- 
 cine ought to be that given to the 
 j)rophet Elijah by the angel. But 
 the pain is of the soul and must be 
 assuaged by spiritual remedies. The 
 best of them all is to foro-et one's 
 self and to think of God. Looking 
 within only depresses, looking out is 
 sure to cheer. The strenuous effort 
 to escape from self and rest in God 
 reacts with tonic effect on the soul, 
 bracim^ and restorino- its lost ener- 
 gies, filling it with peace and joy. 
 A third trial of faith comes from 
 the wilful treachery of a friend in 
 whom we have trusted, and this one 
 
 cuts to the quick. No argument 
 
 62 
 
Trials of Faith 
 
 ^ of 
 
 V 
 
 rdly 
 
 ft 
 
 pre- 
 
 ft 
 
 as- 
 
 B 
 
 iider 
 
 ■ 
 
 they 
 
 I 
 
 J the 
 
 Wk 
 
 aedi- 
 
 B 
 
 ) the 
 
 ^^H*' 
 
 But 
 
 
 5t be 
 
 mm 
 
 The 
 
 1 
 
 one's 
 
 I^B 
 
 Dking 
 
 V 
 
 nit is 
 
 ^ 
 
 effort 
 
 
 God 
 
 X^^m 
 
 soul, 
 
 m 
 
 ener- 
 
 9 
 
 joy. 
 
 m 
 
 from 
 
 ^m 
 
 nd in 
 
 wk 
 
 is one 
 .iment 
 
 
 
 4 
 i 
 
 against Christianity, no failure of the 
 body, is so apt to blast our faith in 
 God and men as the kiss of Judas 
 Iscariot. It is a bitter experience 
 and seems to sweep away all our 
 sweet illusions — leaving us without 
 a friend to rely upon, or a hope to 
 cherish. Life is poisoned through 
 all its veins and breeds suspicion, 
 revenge, uncharitableness. Nothing 
 can save us in such circumstances 
 from cynicism and scepticism, except 
 a supreme rally of charity which 
 shall recall the immense goodness 
 that we have all seen and tasted, 
 which shall cast out the remem- 
 brance of Judas with the love of 
 John. 
 
 The trials of faith are innumer- 
 able, but their effect ought to be 
 one to clarify, strengthen, and settle. 
 Surely it is good to learn that the 
 object of faith Is not the Bible, nor 
 creeds, nor ourselves, nor our neigh- 
 
 63 
 
 « 
 
!! ' 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 .1 
 
 i 
 
 i! I 
 
 '1 ! 
 
 hours, hut God Himself and Jesus His 
 Son. It is not the Bible which proves 
 Jesus, but Jesus that proves the 
 Bible. If dogmas have often been 
 unreasonable, Jesus Himself has com- 
 mended Himself to every man's mind. 
 Our feelings may run up or down, 
 God's love remaineth. Men may 
 fall beneath themselves, God is true. 
 When faith is gathered in and con- 
 centrated on the Eternal, it cannot 
 be shaken. With every day's fellow- 
 ship, every day's obedience, every 
 day's knowledge, it strikes its roots 
 deeper in God. It is excellent to 
 say, ' God of our fathers,' and to have 
 one's piety linked to the past, but it 
 is best to say ' my God,' and to pos- 
 sess a faith that is unassailable, be- 
 cause it has been won by our own 
 hand and is part of our own soul. 
 
 64 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MISSING THE PRIZE OF LIFE 
 
 Never is one so utterly overcome 
 by the leaden weight of monotony 
 as in a street of the middle class. 
 The West-end of society stimulates 
 the imagination by its suggestion of 
 historical names, of art treasures, of 
 cultured luxury. The East-end hor- 
 rifies the imagination by its sugges- 
 tion of sanctioned crime, of fierce 
 deeds, of sheer barbarism. One can- 
 not see either the Borghese Palace 
 or a Bedouin's tent without a relief 
 from the ordinary, and a reinforce- 
 ment of romance. But to run the 
 gauntlet of a hundred houses, where 
 each one is the exact reproduction 
 of all the rest, with so many win- 
 5 65 
 
I 
 
 f I 
 
 ^.11 
 
 i , 1 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I i 
 
 I I 
 
 
 11; 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 dows on the first iloor, so many on 
 the second ; with a door of the same 
 height, shape, appearance, and with 
 the very curtains all woven from the 
 same pattern, is a weariness of the 
 soul. What a wilderness of the 
 commonplace ; what a miracle of 
 sameness ! Certainly, as seen from 
 the street ; but open a door and 
 enter. In fifty-seven a young mother 
 is holding her first-L n child ; in 
 forty-two a father is bidding his 
 children farewell before he takes the 
 great journey ; in thirty-one a son is 
 telling his mother of his first suc- 
 cess. Those are events charged with 
 the joy and sorrow of life, chapters 
 in the one lasting romance. Within 
 the smooth unrelieved face of brick 
 goes on the tragedy and victory of 
 being, as surely as in the ancient 
 time, and all the things are happen- 
 ing of which poets sing. 
 
 Sometimes it also appears as if 
 
 66 
 
 iiK'Ji 
 
Missing the Prize of Life 
 
 the mass of people one meets were 
 commonplace and uninteresting to 
 the last extreme. They dress after 
 the same fashion, they say the same 
 things, they have the same tricks of 
 manner ; they are the slaves of the 
 same conventions. If some one 
 would only break away from this 
 conformity, if he would only strike 
 out for himself, what a colour he 
 would give to society ; what a tonic 
 he would be to jaded minds! Ha\e 
 those men and women no dreams, 
 no visions, no passions, no commo- 
 tions in their placid, self-contained, 
 orderly lives ? So in our moods of 
 weariness we fret and complain of 
 our neighbours. Why are we not 
 more understanding and sympa- 
 thetic ? Have we had no experi- 
 ences which we do not hand round 
 for inspection, which we lock up in 
 our hearts ? Perhaps our neighbour 
 
 has his secrets too, and wears the 
 
 67 
 
I; 
 
 Hi 
 
 III 
 
 
 i' /, 
 
 II 
 
 i I 
 
 Ilii 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 thicker mask the more he dreads 
 detection. Once he winced when 
 conversation touched a certain kind 
 of family sorrow; once his laugh was 
 a little forced concerning one of life's 
 comedies; neither husband nor wife 
 joined in your condemnation of that 
 social sinner. You mean .'^ — noth- 
 ing, except that every one likes to 
 have some kind of screen between 
 him and the passers-by. You know.** 
 — nothing, absolutely nothing, ex- 
 cept that every life has had its 
 incidents. 
 
 It has been said that each one of 
 us could write one romance out of 
 his own experiences, and if that be 
 true, the subject would be love. 
 Concerning fhis passion no self- 
 respecting person will say much, and 
 he that has felt its tides at their full- 
 est will say least ; but beyond ques- 
 tion it remains the most irresistible 
 
 and effectual in human experiences, 
 
 68 
 
Missing the Prize of Life 
 
 In the second part nf tlic I loly 
 Scripture it is hardly touched upon, 
 because the New Testament is the 
 history of a cause; in the former 
 part it meets us everywhere, from 
 the idyll of Jacob and Rachel to the 
 lamentable tragedy of Hosea, because 
 the Old Testament is the story of 
 human lives. The glory of pure 
 love is sung in the Canticles; the 
 pollution of unchaste desire is de- 
 clared in Provcrl^s. The romance 
 of Isaac meetinor Rebecca in the 
 
 if 
 
 eventide, and being her true hus- 
 band till death, is an eternal contrast 
 to David's wandering passions and 
 loathly degradation. Outside the 
 Bible creative literature dealinof with 
 many motives has ever returned to 
 love, and lavished its art on the 
 analysis of this supreme passion, 
 which, if bound with many cords, 
 will yet tear itself free, and being 
 outraged, will in the end pull 
 
 69 
 
I 
 
 V 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 'ihl 
 
 i . 
 
 Ill Ni 
 
 clown t]\e very pillars of a luiman 
 life. 
 
 I^ may not be por^sible so to a])- 
 praise the gains of life as to array 
 them on a scale from highest to 
 lowest, giving to culture, happiness, 
 wealth, power, honour, each its own 
 fixed place, since wliat is fascinat- 
 ing to one man is indifferent to his 
 neighbour. No one in his senses 
 can doubt, however, that love is the 
 chief possession within our imagina- 
 tion, and that its power has not 
 failed. For its sake a man has ago- 
 nised and striven with the world and 
 his soul ; for its sake a woman has 
 welcomed hardship and isolation, 
 and both were right. Browning 
 never struck a deeper and truer note 
 than the divinity and sovereignty of 
 love, on which he constructs some 
 of his most captivatinp; poems. As 
 where the middle-ao^ed man mourns 
 
 over the body of ' Evelyn Hope,' 
 
 70 
 
 
Missing the Prize of Life 
 
 whom he loved, but ' it was not her 
 time to love '; wliom he expects one 
 day ' will wake and remember and 
 understand.' As In l\)o Late^ where 
 the lover holds his peace too long, 
 and sees his beloved give herself to 
 another, but after her death is con- 
 soled with the thouii^ht that in eter- 
 nity she will be his. As in the 
 Simi^mim Bon urn, which Brow'ning 
 wrote in old age, when he is think- 
 ing of his poetess wife, and wherein 
 he declares 
 
 ' Truth, that 's brighter than gem. 
 Trust, that 's purer than pearl. 
 ]jrightest truth, purest trust in the universe 
 all were for me 
 In the kiss of one girl.' 
 
 Browning's moral — and many 
 will aijree with him — is that love is 
 the prize of life, and that h(} only 
 has succeeded who has won :t. 
 
 Some account must, however, be 
 
 71 
 
••mtf»mmmik!ti' 
 
 MH<!«. 
 
 "■■'I 
 
 liil 
 
 li(i 
 
 it ' 
 
 ( I! ! ! I 
 
 r ;'i 
 
 •r i 
 
 
 ! ill,' ! 
 ! llliM 
 
 II li'!! 
 
 ' 1 1 
 
 11 
 
 i ii 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 : 1 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ' iji; 
 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 taken of those wlio, having: liad tht'ir 
 cliancc, have deliberately and liiially 
 put love aside. No one exeept tiieir 
 dear Lord and only Bridegroom can 
 reckon the devoted souls wliich in 
 all ages have denied themselves lo 
 human k)ve ^hat they might tlic 
 better follow Christ whithersoever 
 He goeth. And no one can be quitci 
 insensible to the tender purity and 
 spiritual delicacy of certir'ii saintly 
 faces which have been touched by 
 the passion for Christ. Nor must it 
 be supposed that thio is only a clois- 
 tered piety, or that it can only be 
 found within convent walls. Most 
 of us know persons who have come 
 under vow to their own souls and 
 liave taken the sclitary road, not that 
 they might attain to special degree 
 of sanctity, but that they might 
 render some life service. So brothers 
 for sisters, so sisters for brothers, so 
 children for parents have strength- 
 
 72 
 
•"•i^mfrnwi' I 
 
 Missing the Prize of Life 
 
 ened their hearts and remained un- 
 wed. Sometimes their sacrifice — 
 the last that can be offered — has 
 oeen detected and rewarded by a 
 
 fjratitude that ought to know no 
 imits. Son-etimes it may be unsus- 
 pected and receive no return but 
 peevish reproaches, (jod's guerdon, 
 at least, does not tarry, for His hand 
 has already placed the aureole on 
 those modest, unconscious heads, 
 and filled with frac^rance those lives 
 of uncomplaining, unboasthig love. 
 Certain persons have also come to 
 a place w^hcre they had the choice of 
 tearing an unworthy love from their 
 lives or dishonouring their souls. 
 Their love had been belittled, or 
 betrayed, or it had been tlung aside 
 as a common thing, or it had been 
 dragged in the mire. It hod been 
 soiled and tliey would no longer give 
 it heart-room, so they burned it say- 
 ing nothing to any one, but such will 
 
 73 
 
H 
 
 ■ ^^^'j'r-?^^3 
 
 I 
 
 i'!l 
 
 I; 
 
 III . 
 
 I i 
 
 I I! 
 
 t 
 
 il' 
 
 !i I 
 
 i ill, 
 
 li t 
 
 
 IK,! 
 
 'ill:, 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 carry the marks of the fire till they 
 die. Of these Tennyson was think- 
 ing in the //o/y Grail, when he 
 described : 
 
 * — such a fervent flame of human love 
 Which being rudely bhinted, glanced and shot 
 Only to holy things ; to prayer and praise, 
 She gave herself, to fast and alms.' 
 
 This is the transformation of love 
 which, having been sent to the stake 
 for conscience' sake, obtains the 
 martyr's ruby crown 
 
 Within this Hfe the most pitiable 
 of all tragedies, and the most help- 
 less, is a loveless marriage. Just as 
 marriage approaches the estate of 
 heaven for a man and a v/oman 
 whose souls are one in faith and 
 hope, so a marriage approaches the 
 estate of hell for two persons who 
 have no communitv of thought or 
 faith. Where, for instance, a man 
 of briiiht intelliirence is tied to a 
 
 74 
 
 'lii"'lii 
 
they 
 hink- 
 n he 
 
 love 
 nd shot 
 ise, 
 
 )f love 
 I stake 
 IS the 
 
 )itiablc 
 ; heip- 
 lust as 
 ate of 
 ■/on'ian 
 ith and 
 cs the 
 IS who 
 |ght or 
 a man 
 Id to a 
 
 i 
 
 Mii^^sin';^: the Prize of Life 
 
 coarse woman, or a spiritual woman 
 united to an evil-living man, it is not 
 wonderful that husband and wife 
 should drift apart, and in the end 
 come to hate one another. One can 
 understand why some speak bitterly 
 of life and rail against marriage. 
 Others show a nobler courage in 
 such a case, who hide their sorrow 
 from the w^orld and carry their heavy 
 cross without speech, fulhllijig the 
 will of God with a proud patience, 
 and having the nearer support of 
 Mis favour till the kindly hand of 
 death break the voke. 
 
 After the victims of this cross- 
 Providence — but at a lomx distance 
 — are those who ha^"" loved and 
 never been loved. It is surely a very 
 hard lot to be dowered with a wealth 
 '^f love and find none to receive it. 
 We pity him who takes out a bundle 
 of faded letters and reads them with 
 vain reirret, but he is far niore to 
 
 75 
 
tmm0mm 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 be pitied who has no token because 
 there has been for him no lover. 
 All, the silent sorrow of lonely hearts 
 which have never tasted life's cup of 
 joy ! Yet how evident and benef- 
 icent their mission in the world, 
 liow surely they have fulfilled it! 
 There may be unmarried people who 
 are sour and repellent. If so, bear 
 with them who have srstained a 
 severer loss than friends or goods. 
 But they are not typical of that class, 
 who have the warmest hearts in all 
 the world, who are the chosen refuge 
 of every needy unfortunate, from 
 boys in scrapes and poor people in 
 need to men and women with some 
 secret sorrow to tell into a sympa- 
 thetic ear. Their love has not been 
 centred on one, so it embraces a 
 hundred ; their interest has not been 
 narrowed to a single home, so it 
 ranges through a city; no lover has 
 monopolised tlieir devotion, so it is 
 
 76 
 
 ilr 
 
Missing the Prize of Life 
 
 poured on the body of Christ The 
 alabaster box that had been laid 
 aside for a great occasion has been 
 broken, and the house is filled with 
 the odour of the ointment. 
 
 '11 
 
 
"""'wwwiiiiHiHHi 
 
 I 
 
 f f' I 
 
 
 
 I- 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 VEXATIOUS CHILDREN 
 
 Parents at times make a pretty pre- 
 tence of indifference, but they are all 
 aware that their satisfaction in life is 
 bound up with the well-doing of their 
 children. No man will grudge any 
 labour or privation to secure for his 
 son those advantaws of culture which 
 circumstances denied to himself: no 
 woman will ever calculate her service 
 to some delicate child that he may 
 grow into strength. They will only 
 taste regret if that lad fling away his 
 chances, if that invalid live only to 
 suffer. Do not envy any one who 
 has achieved material success and 
 has sons playing the fool ; be sure 
 he would uive his fortune to see 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 'f 
 
 them earninij: their bread after a self- 
 respecting fashion. Do not waste 
 your pity on any one because he 
 has only a poor capital in money, if 
 his son has taken his dec^ree with 
 honour at the University, or has won 
 a name for integrity on the Ex- 
 change ; this man is rich witli treas- 
 ures which no thief can steal, and, as 
 is becoming, that son's father carries 
 a high head. Did you ever grow 
 weary while a mother sang the praises 
 of a well-deserving son ? Were you 
 ever so far left to yourself as to 
 sneer at her fondness .f* Then you 
 sinned against one of the purest and 
 tenderest of human emotions — the 
 joy of a mother over her child. You 
 had been a person to smile at the 
 Virgin Mother herself who could not 
 tiUogether hide from witnesses her 
 delight in the Holy diild ; to belittle 
 God Himself, Who, according: to the 
 beautiful story in the Gospel, v/as so 
 
 79 
 
■■■ 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 If I r 
 
 moved by the life of Jesus, that He 
 spake from an open heaven and said, 
 ' My beloved Son.' The pride which 
 a child has in his parents is excellent, 
 soniethino^ to be for ever cherished 
 • and approved. But tlic pride which 
 parents feel in a good and faithful 
 son is one of the most affecting and 
 sanctifying spectacles in human life. 
 One would like to get the ear of 
 cliildren and suggest to them how 
 much their parents' life — which 
 means peace, hope, faith, and joy — 
 depends on their conduct, in speech 
 and deed, in manner and bearimr. 
 If young people could only put them- 
 selves in their parents' place and im- 
 agine, wonderful things would fol- 
 low. Some idler, who will not work 
 from motives of fear or respect or 
 ambition, might be spurred by love, 
 if only to save his mother from re- 
 proach. Some thoughtless, selfish 
 girl might deny herself whims and 
 
 80 
 
 .ii I 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 pleasures to bring satisfai tion to the 
 hearts of her })eople. vSome young 
 man nnght bear liiniseU with a little 
 more humility, and even condescend 
 to give occasional information about 
 his movements, if he had any idea of 
 liis father's feelings on certain occa- 
 sions. Parents are kept at a distance, 
 are denied proper confidence, have 
 their convictions, wishes, tastes, — if 
 you please foibles, — disregarded, 
 look in vain for signs of affection and 
 gratitude, have their just pride in 
 their children wounded, not because 
 the children are bad or cruel, but 
 only because it does not occur to 
 them that, although they consider 
 themselves independent of the old 
 folks, the old folks are continually, 
 willingly, pathetically dependent on 
 them for what is more than livinir, 
 or rather what is the heart of all 
 livin- — for love. 
 
 Parents ought, however, to be 
 6 Si 
 
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 (716) d72-4503 
 
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t-M '.«HUW«UU&id 
 
 li 
 
 sss» 
 
 m 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 sensible, reminding- iheiriselves that 
 youtli is a stage in life calling for 
 much patience and tolerance. It 
 may rather be taken as a process 
 in the creation of character durincj 
 which the wine is apt to be frothy 
 and unpalatable. Persons about 
 twenty — up or down — are often 
 intoxicated with the first draught 
 of life, and are neither what they 
 were nor what they will be. They 
 are hasty in their judgments, posi- 
 live in their opinions, worshippers of 
 idols, impatient of restraint, ashamed 
 of old-fashioned ways, raised above 
 the domestic affections, and wiser 
 than all the ancients. They will 
 threaten to leave home to become 
 writers, artists, teachers, or some- 
 thing not defined, only misty and 
 grand. Their political, social, and 
 religious views may be amazing. 
 This mio;htiness ought not, however, 
 to be taken too seriously or made a 
 
 82 
 
 Bi 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 ed 
 bove 
 iser 
 will 
 ome 
 t)me- 
 and 
 
 an 
 
 d 
 
 king. 
 Rver, 
 Ide a 
 
 cause of quarrel between parents 
 and children. This is sowinc: wild 
 oats after a harmless fashion, and 
 the wilful sower may be allowed 
 
 some freedom without fear 
 
 H 
 
 IS 
 
 lieart is sound, althou2:h his head 
 be — for the moment — turned, and 
 in a year or two he will laugh at 
 himself openly. Do not let us call 
 it vice, and lie awake of nights be- 
 cause our children, like other young 
 animals, cliamp the bit and toss their 
 heads and threaten to run away, 
 when they are first harnessed to 
 the duties of life. 
 
 With years will come understand- 
 ing and self-restraint: with years 
 will reappear the homely duties and 
 simple ways which were for a little 
 despised, and forty-nine out of fifty 
 will settle down to honest v.ork and 
 filial piety. It may not be so with 
 the fiftieth, and there shall be the 
 
 heartbreak. In his ill-omened life 
 
 83 
 
 m 
 if- 
 
,._v. 
 
 M 
 
 ;i Ml 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 tlie gaiety and irresponsibility of 
 youth deepen into insolence, idle- 
 ness, viciousness, and utter shame- 
 lessness. For a time his faults are 
 excused ; then they are covered ; at 
 last they are flagrant, so that the 
 world knows what has befallen this 
 home. Somewhere in a distant 
 colony a son is living as in the far 
 country, ( arrying beneath his degra- 
 dation the traces of culture and 
 religion. No acquaintance speaks 
 of him to his people ; his name is 
 never mentioned in the home; all 
 traces of him are removed ; his 
 mother alone pities and prays for 
 him. His history is written, for 
 those who can read, in his mother's 
 face, in his father's humiliation. 
 This is the secret chapter in many 
 a family history ; this is the black 
 sorrow in many an English home, 
 beside which worldly losses and be- 
 reavement are as nothini^. , 
 
 84 
 
 ,11 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 The tragedy of prodigalism is 
 often very perplexing and contra- 
 dictory. One can easily find some 
 home within his knowledge where 
 a son received no training in re- 
 ligion, saw no example of piety, was 
 brought up under no restraint. Yet, 
 without a single aid to high living 
 he grows up dutiful, thoughtful, rev- 
 erent — a lad any father would be 
 well satisfied to call his son. Bv 
 the laws of heredity and environ- 
 ment he ought to be a prodigal, but 
 he is not; neither is he a Pharisee. 
 He would be a very creditable prod- 
 uct for a religious home. One can 
 also lay his hand on some other 
 home, where a son has been born in 
 the line of faith ; has been reared 
 in an atmosphere of godliness; has 
 been led into the paths of righteous- 
 ness by a mother's influence, a 
 father's authority. Yet, with every- 
 thing in his favour, he breaks loose, 
 
 85 
 
• l*i 
 
 .1 ( :,:j 
 
 ■I :iii I 
 
 (ll'llli'f 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 and sins grievously before man and 
 God. He was expected to sustain 
 the traditions of his house ; and he 
 might have been the son of a profli- 
 gate. It is nonsense to say that the 
 children of reh'gious people, as a 
 rule, turn out bad, and the chil- 
 dren of irreligious people good ; but 
 Providence, in many cases, docs 
 seem to play at cross purposes with 
 laws. 
 
 Very likely the cases would not 
 seem so unreasonable if all the facts 
 were befor*^ our judgment. It is 
 quite possible tlk^t a father may not 
 attend church nor possess any creed, 
 may not be guarded in speech and 
 conduct, and yet be kindly, gener- 
 ous, unselfish, winning. His children 
 overlook his failinii^s for the real 
 humanity that is in him. They find 
 in his natural goodness a substitute 
 for religious influence. They have 
 
 reasons to love him, and he that 
 
 86 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 and 
 itain 
 d be 
 rofli- 
 ,t the 
 as a 
 
 chil- 
 . ; but 
 
 does 
 3 with 
 
 .d not 
 
 le facts 
 It is 
 ay not 
 creed, 
 h and 
 gener- 
 hildren 
 [C real 
 
 ley fn'^*^^ 
 Institute 
 
 ly have 
 
 LC that 
 
 once loves will not go astray. Yes ; 
 and it is also true that a sincere and 
 consistent Christian may have been 
 hard, severe, forbidding, so that his 
 children trembled before him; and 
 received their reHgion at the end of 
 a stick. Is it altogether wonderful 
 that under such a discipline young 
 people should come to hate religion, 
 and end in disgracing their father's 
 name ? Before any one can estimate 
 the causes of this family disastej* 
 he would require to know not only 
 the creed and order, but also the 
 tone and temper of the prodigal's 
 home. He is sometimes a surprise 
 in nature, sometimes the sudden re- 
 appearance of an evil ancestor, but 
 more often he is the result of an 
 extreme severity, or, it may be, an 
 extreme v/eakness on the part of 
 good people. 
 
 Prodigal is too strong a word to 
 describe a larg'^ number of children, 
 
 8; 
 

 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 who are» however, a constant trial 
 to their parents. They are bad- 
 tempered, sullen, disobliging in the 
 home, or they are frivolous, light- 
 headed, unstable ; or they are ex- 
 travagant, wasteful, luxurious; or 
 they are deceitful, unreliable, schem- 
 ing. Sons will not fall into their 
 father s plans, although they be most 
 just and reasonable ; daughters will 
 form unfortunate attachments, which 
 can only prove disastrous, and which 
 the wider wisdom of older people 
 would have prevented. It is one 
 of the crudest ironies of life that 
 a man should spend the best years 
 of his life in hard, self-denying, suc- 
 cessful work to make a home for 
 his family, such as neither he nor 
 his people before him enjoyed, and 
 that it should be made miserable for 
 him by the disobedient self-will and 
 impracticableness of his children: 
 that a man should amabj wealth, 
 
 ss 
 
Vexatious Children 
 
 every penny of which is a sign oi 
 industry and integrity, and that he 
 should see it become an instrument 
 of mischief — supporting incompe- 
 tent sons in idleness, and making 
 his daughter a gilded bait for mean- 
 spirited fortune-hunters. The possi- 
 bilities of joy and sorrow within a 
 family are known only to God. 
 
 Given the best of children there" 
 must be from time to time some 
 vexation to the heads of the house, 
 and one good of this discipline is 
 to send them back on early days. 
 Were we ourselves always docile, 
 considerate, affectionate, understand- 
 ing ? Did we never try the patience 
 of our elders .f^ did we never dis- 
 appoint them ? did we never grieve 
 them ? We enter into their feelinos 
 now, when it is too late to ask their 
 forgiveness, but not too late to be 
 penitent. Nothing becomes men 
 and women like genuine regret for 
 
 ^9 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 \ I 
 
 Pi! 
 
 the errors of the past. It fosters in 
 us humility, tenderness, and mercy. 
 Prodigalism in children has often 
 produced saintship in parents. 
 
 Does not our pain give us an 
 insight into the heart of the Eter- 
 nal Father, Whose children we all 
 are, and Whom we have all grieved.^ 
 When we read our own feelings, then 
 we have the faint shadow of His 
 Whose love is ever wounded, Whose 
 patience ever waits. Whose hope 
 never fails. Between the earthly 
 parents and their prodigals, and the 
 Heavenly Father with His, there 
 springs up a certain real sym- 
 pathy, a certain community of 
 thought. Both have suffered, both 
 have made sacrifices ; both have 
 their reward in the future, both 
 believe in the final victory of love. 
 And our faint and despairing faith is 
 caught up, established, and crowned 
 in Him Who watcheth and will not 
 
 90 
 
ers in 
 
 mercy. 
 
 often 
 
 us an 
 
 Eter- 
 
 we all 
 
 ieved? 
 
 5, then 
 
 f His 
 
 Vhose 
 
 hope 
 
 jarthly 
 
 nd the 
 
 there 
 
 sym- 
 
 ty ot 
 
 , both 
 
 have 
 
 both 
 
 f love. 
 
 aith is 
 
 owned 
 
 ill not 
 
 Vexatious Children 
 
 cease to watch, till from the whole- 
 son.e n.,scry of the far country in 
 tl^'s wc)rld, or In that uhich is to 
 come, the last of the prodigal chil- 
 dren returns home. 
 
 91 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 OBSCURITY 
 
 ';l 
 
 Every person witli the faintest am- 
 bition of soul has at some time 
 desired fame, and has only resigned 
 himsrlf at last to obscurity with a 
 pang. His achievement was not 
 perhaps to be of the first order — 
 but he hoped for a niche by itself 
 where he would stand, for a space at 
 least, while the multitude passed 
 nameless and unnoticed. Youth is 
 mercifully charged with hope, and 
 casts a golden haze over the distant 
 horizon, so that a bright lad may 
 naturally see himself in high sun- 
 lit places and can hardly imagine 
 the steep grey defile, up which with 
 
 his fellows he must toil. Some 
 
 92 
 
Obscurity 
 
 am- 
 time 
 rned 
 th a 
 not 
 ^r — 
 tsclf 
 :e at 
 Lssed 
 h is 
 and 
 tant 
 may 
 sun- 
 Lcrine 
 with 
 ►ome 
 
 mother, with the pardonable and 
 ever beautiful optiniism of love, is 
 dazzled by her son's precocious clev- 
 erness and gives him to understand 
 that it is the merest question of time 
 when he will have the world at his 
 feet. Various pleasant omens sanc- 
 tion his ambitions — like land birds 
 from the new world welcoming his 
 ship — a prize at school or college, 
 a compliment from a distinguished 
 man, some reference in a paper, a 
 little stroke of orood fortune in busi- 
 ness. Although years come and go 
 without any sign of his kingdom yet 
 is he still confident. One has to 
 make his way sknvly and arduously 
 at first — has it not been so with the 
 masters in every department? and 
 he even congratulates himself on a 
 little touch of adversity. He does 
 not wish for too rapid success, it 
 might spoil him and his work. As 
 he reaches thirtvhis satisfaction with 
 
 93 
 
■ 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 
 W 
 
 "l-ili! 
 
 li'll'l 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 non-rccognition Is a little laboured, 
 and at forty, he has a orrlevance. 
 When he comes to middle age he 
 faces the situation with its hard bare 
 facts and sees his last illusion of 
 success vanish. It comes on him at 
 last that he is not to be a distin- 
 guished person, but only one of the 
 many who make up the mass of 
 human life. For him there will be 
 no excitement of events, no name 
 passed from mouth to mouth, no 
 achievement seen of all men, but 
 only to do the same thing over and 
 over again and as he looks out on 
 the grey sky and the monotony of 
 ordinary life rises up before him, he 
 is cast down and loses heart. 
 
 The sense of obscurity is deepened 
 by the spirit of the day which is rest- 
 less and feverish. Last generation 
 favoured the homelv virtues and was 
 satisfied with people who were dili- 
 gent, faithful, well-living, and kind. 
 
Obsc 
 
 ur^ty 
 
 No doubt they might also be dull but 
 no one seemed to remark this defect 
 or to count them a bore. We have 
 an absurd dread of the commonplace 
 and are devoured with the craving 
 for cler :rness. We toil to speak in 
 epigrams, we upset old customs ; we 
 do oiUre things ; we affect strange 
 views. Wit has replaced wisdom, 
 and eccentricity is confounded with 
 originality. Young people repudiate 
 household duties and give themselves 
 to ' missions ' : every sixth person 
 attempts a book or an art. Wher 
 ordinary people cannot make them- 
 selves heard by sane speech they 
 shriek in order to catch attention 
 and not be as their neighbours. The 
 elders are criticised and belittled as 
 old-fashioned, and the courteous man- 
 ners of the past are despised. If one 
 be aware that he is not in any way 
 distinguished, but is as ten thousand 
 of his neighbours, he is to-day apt 
 
 95 
 
The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 to be confounded and to take shame 
 unto himself. 
 
 An obscure person may however 
 find considerable consolation in the 
 fact that, in spite of all posturing on 
 the part of aml)itious neighbours, 
 the vasl majority are really quite or- 
 dinary people like himself, and that 
 the roll of fame in any age is very 
 small. Will three men out of a city 
 of half-a-million be known a hundred 
 years afterwards ? Do we not see 
 men, who seemed to be something, 
 pass into oblivion within a year of 
 their death ? The mighty man of 
 a town has not been heard of four 
 stations along the line, the oracle of 
 a coterie is unknown in the next 
 street. As generations pass across 
 the stasre — a lono:, unceasinof stream 
 of men and women, each with an 
 individual life, how few faces do 
 we recognise. There, we say, is 
 St. Paul, that is Columbus, here is 
 
Obscurity 
 
 Raphael, and we recognise Dante. 
 Some hundred, or, it may be, only 
 fifty names, and the rest are dust. 
 Let us not, therefore, repine because 
 we share the inevitable lot of our 
 brethren, and have no hope of the 
 greater fame. 
 
 And as for the little fame of our 
 own time, it is shorter than we im- 
 agine. Reputation was never so 
 quickly made, never so quickly dissi- 
 pated as in our hurried day. If the 
 heroes flaunt in the sun of popular 
 applause, they have only an ephem- 
 eral life. The preacher who had a 
 crowd ten years ago, is heard with 
 languid interest to-day. The writer 
 of many editions once is thankful at 
 last to find a publisher. Let a states- 
 man withdraw for a short space from 
 the front, and the people ask them- 
 selves whether he is alive. Very 
 likely the man speaks or writes as 
 well as ever, but his audience is 
 
 1 m 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 fickle, and fashions change. He was 
 once the vogue, and people hidden 
 away in the crowd envied him : now 
 he has disappeared and is also lost. 
 It may be on the other hand that 
 among that crowd there is a man of 
 the first order, whose name will be 
 recorded in the annals of the race, 
 but his own time knows him not or 
 sends him to death. Time, and time 
 here means centuries, is the alone 
 arbiter of fame, and casts contempt 
 on tinsel crowns. 
 
 Besides, if it comes to notoriety, 
 that is easily won. If a writer will 
 only dabble in physical details, which 
 decent minds ignore, he will be cred- 
 ited with nobility of intention and be 
 read with prurient curiosity. Should 
 a preacher fail with the message of 
 the Gospels and the methods of the 
 Master, he can tickle foolish ears 
 with a piquant treatment of wages 
 
 or murders. One has only to dress 
 
 98 
 
Obscurity 
 
 vas 
 ien 
 
 lOW 
 
 ost. 
 :hat 
 11 of 
 I be 
 ace, 
 )t or 
 time 
 lone 
 jmpt 
 
 •iety, 
 will 
 hich 
 cred- 
 dbe 
 ould 
 e of 
 the 
 ears 
 rages 
 iress 
 
 1 
 
 absurdly and to cultivate a certain 
 insolence of manner to have her 
 name in people's mouths. And if 
 all else fail, a shameful scandal or a 
 crime will gain wider notice than is 
 given to a saint. When it came to 
 be a choice, one day long ago, 
 the multitude preferred Barabbas to 
 Christ, and a dancing-girl had more 
 weight than John Baptist. To-day 
 a prize-fighter would be welcomed by 
 a larger crowd than a man of science, 
 and a buffoon have wider apprecia- 
 tion than a poet. So poor and vul- 
 gar a thing is publicity. 
 
 Is it not also the case that we owe 
 some of the greatest blessings in all 
 spheres to men whose names have 
 perished ? Who compiled the Books 
 of Moses ? Who wrote the Epic of 
 Job? Who poured out the bitter- 
 ness of a wounded, disappointed 
 heart in Ecclesiastes, who filled our 
 mouth with the Psalms ? Who first 
 
 99 
 
 ! 
 
I ' ' , 
 
 f If 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 ploughed the earth and sowed the 
 seed ? Who hollowed out a log and 
 put out to sea? Who invented 
 written characters ? Who inaugu- 
 rated commerce or created govern- 
 ment ? We do not know. And for 
 the ordinary gifts on which our life 
 depends, are we not indebted to 
 obscure people ? to sailors, miners, 
 ploughmen, craftsmen, to servants, 
 neighbours, friends. Our mother 
 for instance, to whom we owe more 
 than to any other person except 
 Jesus Christ, was she conspicuous 
 and dazzling by her talents .^^ Per- 
 haps she was, but what we remember 
 was her love. 
 
 What remaineth for us obscurities 
 — ordinary folks in every calling and 
 place — is to accept the situation not 
 only with submission but with per- 
 fect good-nature. Granted that we 
 are not, say, poets or painters or even 
 millionaires, we have some work to 
 
 loo 
 
 |!| 
 
Obscurity 
 
 do and some friends to love us. We 
 have also some successes — when our 
 ])it of work is finished — and some 
 joys, when we can help a brother in 
 the battle. If no one knows our 
 name outside our home and office, let 
 us do our duty there with all our 
 might. And let us lay to heart two 
 consolations. If we have a talent 
 and there be no room for it here w'e 
 shall get our opportunity hereafter. 
 In this life we and our fellows, mil- 
 lions with vast possibilities and no 
 opportunities, are like seedlings 
 packed together in boxes and long- 
 ing for room. By and by the gar- 
 dener wuU prick the young plants out 
 in the open bed and each shall have 
 its place, where in the sunshine and 
 before the owners eye it can come to 
 full height. If this world be narrow 
 the next wall be wide. Nor should 
 we forget, that after all the greatest 
 affair in life is the creation of charac- 
 
 ..-.^-; -..-.. . loi 
 
 Jill 
 
 i 
 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 m 
 
 tcr, and this can be accomplished as 
 well in a cottage as in a palace. 
 Finer webs, with more lasting and 
 richer colour, are wrought in poor 
 Eastern huts than in the husfe sound- 
 ing manufactories whose black smoke 
 trails across the sky. It was in a 
 very humble home that the Perfect 
 man lived ; and he has made the 
 great success who, by patience and 
 obedience in that which is least, 
 has grown into the likeness of the 
 Son of God. 
 
 102 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 VANISHING ILLUSIONS 
 
 1 
 
 . t' 
 
 Many ails of this life are so visible 
 and full-bodied that every person 
 acknowledges their existence and 
 offers his sympathy to their victims, 
 but some are so intangible and 
 shadowy that people without imagi- 
 nation doubt their reality and treat 
 any one who has had experience of 
 them as if he had seen a ghost. If 
 our neighbour has lost a relative, or 
 has shares in a bankrupt bank, or is 
 suffering from a painful disease, or 
 even is crossed in love, we at once 
 appreciate the situation, and give 
 him such aid as we can in his straits. 
 He has established a claim on our 
 
 charity, and no one calls his distress 
 
 103 
 

 i 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 :i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 !! 
 
 '1 
 
 
 Tne Potter's Wheel 
 
 whimsical or affected. Siij:)posc» 
 however, he be cast down witiiin his 
 heart for reasons less easy to put in 
 words. Because he is a true lover 
 of Art and yet must be a clerk. 
 Because he has the gift of song and 
 has to teach little boys arithmetic. 
 Because he had dreams of friend- 
 ship, and tiiey have mocked him. 
 Because he had schemes of philan- 
 thropy, and has to toil for daily 
 bread. Because he expected rest 
 in religion, and behold, a sword. 
 This man should be very careful in 
 whom he places his confidence, and 
 should have modest expectations of 
 sympathy. If he be not laughed at 
 as a fantastic person, he will be con- 
 sidered the creator of his own misery 
 by the run of people, and will be 
 reminded that the world has enouQ^h 
 active trials without adding a crop 
 of afHictions which are quite un- 
 real. J'. , 'i..:".h 
 
 104 
 
u 
 
 Vanishing Illusions 
 
 People who have never been con- 
 scious of any ideals, and who there- 
 fore are safe against all disillusions, 
 can hardly enter into his bitterness 
 who has toiled up a long asce:^t in 
 hope of the view at the top, and has 
 only faced another hill ; who has run 
 for a crown and seen it crurible to 
 dust in his hands. How this man 
 imagined the days that were to be, 
 the works he was to do, the pure joy 
 he was to drink! How for the joy 
 set before liim he endured many a 
 cross, beat down many a temptation, 
 held the world at arm's length. And 
 his reward ? As it seems, nothinsr. 
 He has been deceived, defrauded, be- 
 fooled ; he is set forth as a warning 
 to all who cherish ideals, as a sermon 
 to hold the imagination w-ell in hand. 
 Better to trudi^e alon^r one's road 
 without tliinkinsf of the horizon. 
 Wiser to forget that life has any 
 perspective, and to see it as a fiat 
 
 lO 
 
 o 
 
:!^tl 
 
 !!l 
 
 4 I 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 surface of immediate duty. The pro- 
 saic people have chosen the better 
 part if they be as matter-of-fact as 
 they would have us believe, and if 
 they have any portion at all for the 
 soul, of which one is by no means 
 sure. Better have no ideals that we 
 may have no rude awakenings, since 
 blighted hopes are worse to bear 
 than lost possessions, and withered 
 hearts than empty homes. 
 
 This advice has only one fault; it 
 is a counsel of perfection, since no 
 arguments of prudence or utility can 
 purge human hearts of their secret 
 dreams. As within some common- 
 place smoked-grimed house in a 
 crowded street may be kept half-a- 
 dozen pictures of the great period, 
 so no one can be sure that there is 
 one commonplace man or woman 
 without some fond cherished illusion. 
 This hard-worked general servant, — 
 with only her day out and Sunday 
 
 io6 
 
Vanishing Illusions 
 
 J pro- 
 jetter 
 ,ct as 
 nd if 
 r the 
 ncans 
 at we 
 since 
 bear 
 herccl 
 
 lit; it 
 ce no 
 :y can 
 secret 
 imon- 
 in a 
 lalf-a- 
 eriod, 
 lere is 
 oman 
 Lision. 
 nt,— 
 unday 
 
 
 i? 
 
 
 for bits of blue in her grey stcy — 
 anticipates her own house — three 
 poor rooms, but her home. More 
 washing of dishes and more slaving 
 than ever, yes, but her own dishes 
 now and for her own folk. Von 
 mother, weighed down by the care 
 of a young family and harassed by 
 petty cares, sees her boys arising to 
 call her blessed. That keen business 
 man, the very scorn of sentiment, 
 hopes by and by to have his cottage 
 in the country with old-fashioned 
 roses over the door. 'T is all very 
 absurd, if you please, but 't is a fact 
 to be acknowledged and not to be 
 changed. It is one of the whims of 
 human nature, and cannot be elimi- 
 nated till we be all taken down to 
 the foundation, and rebuilt on a 
 sound, practical plan, without emo- 
 tion, imagination, vision, without 
 faith, hope, spirituality. Which will 
 take some time in doing, and is not 
 
 ! 
 
 ■ 'i. 
 
■laifm 
 
 ' 
 
 :l 1^ 
 
 ^r. 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 going to be attempted in this life, nor 
 even perhaps in the Hfe to come. 
 
 Something, of course, may be done 
 to starve ideals, and to reduce us all to 
 a level or safety and dulness. Books 
 of poetry ought to be placed under 
 lock and key, for no one can estimate 
 the damage done by such writings. 
 Consider what a lift has been given 
 to the soul and on what romantic 
 quests it has been sent by the Idylls 
 of the King, by Rabbi Ben Ezra, by 
 Wordsworth's odes, by Burns's songs. 
 Nor is history absolutely harmless, be- 
 cause some inflammable youth might 
 be set on fire by Motley's Dutch Re- 
 public or Carlyle's French Revolution, 
 Biography is dull enough, and yet 
 who would guarantee that the life of 
 Gordon miHit not lead to some fool- 
 ish scheme of sacrifice. Literature 
 in all her departments, except pure 
 mathematics and natural science, has 
 been a foolish, dotins: foster-mother 
 
 - loS -- ^ - ^ 
 
Vanishing lilusions 
 
 of illusions. Given a book, and any- 
 thing may happen in the way of in- 
 spiration ; given a personality, and 
 some Peter may leave all to follovv 
 him. Nature herself is a conspira- 
 
 )' 
 
 tor, for even after precautioi 
 been taken to refrigerate the soul, 
 one might see a sunset, or a sunrise, 
 and begin to glow. 
 
 What dangerously increases tlie 
 charm and force ri illusions is the 
 evident sympathy of the Bible. It 
 is, from beu;innin2: to end, a record 
 of radiant hopes clouded, of great 
 adventures fruitless, of fond ima«:ina- 
 tions disappointed, as it seems to 
 flesh and blood. Abraham left his 
 own country and his father's house 
 to obtain an unseen land, and died 
 having possessed nothing of Canaan 
 save Sarah's grave. The Hebrews 
 set out from Goshen for a land flow- 
 ing with milk and honey, and 
 
 perished in the wilderness. The 
 
 109 
 
 f! (■: 
 
 i 
 
m 
 
 mm 
 
 iP 
 
 III 
 
 1 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 nation chose a king with vast en- 
 thusiasm, and the kingdom ended 
 in disruption and disaster. The 
 prophets depicted the glory of the 
 Messianic age^ when tne nations 
 should go up to Jerusalem, and the 
 Holy City was laid in ruins. The 
 apostles expected to sit on thrones 
 with Jesus in this kingdom and were 
 put to death by the sword. The 
 early Christians looked unto the 
 clouds of heaven to see Jesus com- 
 ing in tlis power, and for twenty 
 centuries there has been no sign. 
 How the human heart has been ex- 
 cited, gladdened, misled, by the book 
 which is as the shining of God's face. 
 The story of the Bible has been 
 repeated within the soul, for mani- 
 festly this charge of sustained illu- 
 sion can also be brought against the 
 experiences of religion. God reveals 
 Himself to us in some act of Provi- 
 dence or grace, and we set out oa 
 
fll 
 
 Vanishing Illusions 
 
 His pursuit, — Who seems afterwards 
 ever to elude our soul, ever to be 
 just beyond our grasp. We fling 
 ourselves in penitence upon the Di- 
 vine mercy and hear an inward voice 
 bidding us go into peace, and we 
 enter that day on the longest, bitter- 
 est, hardest conflict of our life with 
 sin and self. Magnificent promises 
 embolden us to ask of God whatso- 
 ever we will, and the answers come 
 long afterwards, and as something 
 we never desired. Jesus calls us to 
 the noblest service and speaks of 
 a reward, and all His best disciples 
 ever obtained this side of the grave 
 has been labour, opposition, agony. 
 Our souls picture a heaven of splen- 
 did circumstances and unbroken rest, 
 and heaven will most likely be the 
 beginning of a new service. Never 
 was there any faith so beautiful as 
 that of Jesus, never one has been so 
 unsubstantial. . 
 
 lU 
 
 I! 
 
i> 
 
 iiii 
 
 m 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 Ordinary life itself is only another 
 illustration of illusion from our first 
 day of consciousness to our death. 
 The child builds his castles i i the 
 air and tells his fairy tales, and we 
 smile at the young dreamer. Why 
 should we, who are all such castle 
 builders, such prolific 'makers'? 
 The lad bears the discipline and 
 restraint of school, for the hope of 
 freedom and power held before him. 
 Mow dangerous a liberty, how poor 
 an authority when they come! The 
 young workman in trade or busi- 
 ness, in art or letters, tries to perfect 
 himself in detail that he may achieve 
 something by and by, and twenty 
 years later he is not satisfied. The 
 man of middle acfe bends his neck 
 to the yoke that he mav the sooner 
 enter on his well-earned rest, and 
 when it is eventide he lives a^ain 
 in the efforts of his children. Life 
 is ever an ambition ; never a pos:-es- 
 
 112 
 
 i' M 
 
 aBB 
 
Vanishing Illusions 
 
 sion. Tlie pursuit of the ideal 
 is not really a craze of certain 
 minds, it is the necessity laid on 
 us all: illusion is not one of the 
 disabilities of life, it is a principle 
 of Providence. 
 
 This principle ex^^^his life, clearing 
 up some very perplexing mysteries 
 and changing a riddle into a design. 
 There is a world of difference be- 
 tween delusion and illusion. If life 
 were so arranged that we should 
 be led on in search of El Dorado, 
 and should peri'sh miserably having 
 received nothing, then h.ad we been 
 cruelly wronged, and the evil-doer 
 had been God. Upon those terms 
 one could not believe in God, one 
 must be a pessimist and an atheist. 
 But if we be skilfully tempted to 
 dig for gold in our neglected vine- 
 yard, not that we may find gold 
 which would be a doubtful blessing, 
 but that we may gather every year 
 
 % 
 
•"im^sa 
 
 i 
 
 't ; 
 
 ! I 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 richer dusters of the vine, then we 
 have received beyond our expecta- 
 tions, and this good thing has come 
 from God. 
 
 Our principle also beautifies life, 
 for it suggests the tenderness and 
 thoughtfulness of our Heavenly 
 Father. For there are two methods 
 of government, one by compulsion 
 and one by allurement ; and it is a 
 proof of the Divine wisdom and 
 goodness, that at every step of life 
 we are invited, not threatened. 
 Prizes are continually held before 
 our eyes, and we are strengthened to 
 endure by the joy set before us. For 
 the heritage of manhood a child does 
 not complain of pupilage ; for the 
 achievements of success a young 
 man welcomes risk and peril ; for 
 the sweetness of rest a man accepts 
 the hardships of labour. So we are 
 helped up the steep way that leadeth 
 
 to the stars, ever refreshed with a 
 
 114 
 
Vanishing Illusions 
 
 discovering: a 
 
 new 
 
 new hope, ever 
 horizon. 
 
 And this principle assures us of 
 the real gain of life. It may seem 
 as if we were getting nothing; in 
 reality we are heirs of everything. 
 What a boy earns at school is notli 
 medal ^ but knowledge. What he 
 earns in after years is not wealth but 
 character. What a Christian receives 
 from faith is not an escape from 
 punishment but the gift of everlast- 
 ing life. What Abraham received in 
 the end was not the land of Canaan 
 but God Himself, the strength and 
 portion of the human soul. For 
 illusions are like the bright and fra- 
 grant spring blossom which is scat- 
 tered on the ground, but leaves 
 behind it the sure earnest of a golden 
 autumn. 
 
 P 
 
 ! \i 
 
 1^5 
 
 f 
 
^Sff 
 
 II 
 
 .^^ 
 
 !lll 
 
 -1 ! i! i 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 i ,. :u:t 
 
 II 
 
 'i ; 
 
 ; [ ■ * 
 
 t ^i'll 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE DEFEATS OF THE SOUL 
 
 Each person has two lives — one of 
 which is known to the world, one of 
 which is hidden. The former life 
 could be written by an acquaintance, 
 for tlip material lies ready to his 
 hand and can be gathered in the 
 light of day. It would have chapters 
 on childhood, youth, manhood, middle 
 age ; chapters on school, university, 
 office, home; chapters on politics, 
 creed, philanthropy, public service ; 
 chapters on successes, failures, trials, 
 honours. Perhaps it might even 
 have a chapter on character, whereat 
 this man himself would smile sadly 
 for the virtues he never really had. 
 This biography may be written by 
 
 ii6 
 
 :|- I i 
 
l1. 
 
 y^;' 
 
 The Defeats of the Soul 
 
 by 
 
 any pen, for there is no copyright in 
 these things; and it may be scattered 
 abroad, for there is no secrecy. 
 When people read this Hfe they are 
 apt to imagine that everything has 
 been told, and that the man has been 
 revealed. We are so easily satisfied 
 with an appearance ; we are so slow 
 to suspect the heart within. This 
 catalogue of dates, places, events, 
 words, traditions, functions, the story 
 of a life ! It is only the green grass 
 and flowers which conceals a treasure 
 or a grave — a common photograph 
 of the face which any passer-by can 
 see upon the street. 
 
 The other life is unknown to one's 
 mother, and is barely suspected by 
 the shrewdest friend, but it is real, 
 influential, eternal. It also has 
 chapters which do not turn on num- 
 bers or geography, which have 
 yielded nothing to newspapers or 
 gossip. That Sunday — year forgot- 
 
 117 
 
 1 B 
 
^i 
 
 i 
 
 :;!* 
 
 ;;!) 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ten: the old church — mother re- 
 membered, and the softness of her 
 sealskin jacket: preacher in pulpit 
 — name first unknown : text from 
 somewhere — could not find it for 
 father in evening : could not even 
 give heads afterward — was supposed 
 to have behaved badly in church: 
 and to this day we can recall the 
 sensation. When men write diaries 
 for publication after death they call 
 this experience conversion, but the 
 boy had no name for it — said noth- 
 ing about it — dares hardly believe 
 even to this day that God spoke unto 
 him. One night the lad could not 
 sleep, although in perfect health and 
 very tired after a day out-of-doors. 
 He had been taken unawares that 
 afternoon, and now repented bitterly 
 of the lie. The shinins:of the moon- 
 
 CD 
 
 light, the whiteness of his bed, the 
 
 stillness of the room — all affn'o^ht, 
 
 shame, condemn him. He has been 
 
 ii8 
 
The Defeats of the Soul 
 
 J call 
 t the 
 noth- 
 jlieve 
 unto 
 I not 
 and 
 oors. 
 that 
 terly 
 Gon- 
 , the 
 
 i.crht, 
 
 been 
 
 caught, broken, degraded within him- 
 self, and is a thing of contempt. 1 le 
 is an old man now, and has had many 
 sore tussles with sin, but that wound 
 still smarts at a time, and the scar 
 will always be seen. One morning 
 a man fluni^ aside his books, aiid 
 went out upon the hill. For hours 
 he tramped across the heather till he 
 came to a lonely spot where a river 
 rises from its spring, and then he 
 sat himself down to settle the mat- 
 ter. What matter.? It would hardly 
 be believed by his friends w^ho know 
 the common-sense, hard-headed, mid- 
 dle-aged man, but it was the ques- 
 tion whether there be a God, what 
 He is, and who we are. When he 
 came back in the light of the set- 
 ting sun, his face was full of peace. 
 Unwritten chapters, the origin, may- 
 be, of a long soul biography that shall 
 have in it much of joy and sadness, 
 manv defeats and manv victories. 
 
 any 
 
 119 
 

 Ihc Potter's Wheel 
 
 
 It is indeed diffieult to know 
 whom one oiig'it to pity or envy, 
 for one knows so little about the 
 inner life. You have often been 
 concerned about a neighbour be- 
 cause he had lost a child or was 
 in narrow circumstances, or suffered 
 from weak health, or was out of 
 society. Perhaps you would have 
 saved your sympathy for some more 
 needy case had you dwelt for an 
 hour in that man's soul, which was 
 closed against the vexations of the 
 world, which was enriched with the 
 gifts of God, where the divine peace 
 ever rested, and the angels of God 
 were frequent guests. You have in 
 thou2:ht conorratulated another friend 
 because all things seem to work 
 together for h\6 good, and the sun 
 is ever shining on his life. You 
 had changed your mind after one 
 glimpse into his soul, with its fierce 
 passions, its unredeemed materialism, 
 
 120 
 
 
rr*? 
 
 rhe Defeats of tlie Soul 
 
 its dominant selfishness, its black 
 unbelief. For each nian lives two 
 lives — the one in the outer court, 
 where the world conies and <>oes: 
 and the one within the veil, where 
 he is alone — and the real joy of liv- 
 ing is the light of God within, and 
 the sense of victory over sin. 
 
 Various experiences of the secret 
 life fill one with shame, but the per- 
 sistence of a besetting sin drives one 
 near to despair. Far back in child- 
 hood this evil visitor first appeared 
 in our soul, and filled us with liorror. 
 We shrank from his touch, and or- 
 dered him out at the door. For a 
 while his face was not seen, and we 
 had forgotten the incident. One 
 day he is found hanging round the 
 out-skirts of our life like a restless 
 predatory vagrant, and after a few 
 months, when we are accustomed 
 to his appearance, he crosses the 
 threshold and pleads for house-room. 
 
 I'?t 
 
 121 
 
. ipi 
 
 
 ■i 
 
 If 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 Times there arc when we drive him 
 forth in anger ; times there are when 
 we endure his presence. He comes 
 to have his place and his employ- 
 ment in our soul, a vagabond of 
 whom we are ashamed but whom we 
 tolerate, whom we condemn but 
 whom we would miss. Now and 
 again our conscience awakes and 
 arises to put the house in order, and 
 then there is a fiery scene and our 
 unholy lodger is banished, with strict 
 warninof never to return. Within a 
 few days the unabashed figure finds 
 the door on the latch and makes for 
 his accustomed corner with a leer, 
 and we are so disheartened that it 
 seems no use to dispute his coming. 
 
 The unspeakable disgrace of this 
 lifelong partnership is one of the 
 horrors of the soul and the cause 
 of its bitterest self-reproach. Our 
 friends remarked, say, our fierce tem- 
 per in childhood, but were certain it 
 
 122 
 
 I 11 
 
The Defeats of the Soul 
 
 would be mastered when we had 
 more understandinsf. Ytnitli brought ^' 
 no self-restraint, and our hot head 
 involved us in acts of reckless insub- 
 ordination. Manhood, with its cares 
 and responsibilities, did not lay this 
 evil spirit to rest. The calm dignity 
 of old age was humiliated by the 
 same fi^^s of passion that had devas- 
 tated our youth. We have passed 
 from stacfe to stacfc of life, but have 
 not shaken off lliis sin ; we have 
 changed our house acfain and ai^ain 
 but have not left this fellow-tenant. 
 We have worn out several bodies 
 but not this body of death. It guar- 
 antees our identity, it maintains our 
 continuity, it links us with the past. 
 People who had not seen us for half 
 a lifetime recognise us without hesi- 
 tation. Our eyes are the same 
 colour, our voice is in the same key, 
 and our temper is as fresh and strong 
 
 and masterful as ever. 
 
 123 
 
m\ 
 
 ;i;, i 
 
 I 
 
 Wil 
 
 .11 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 It does sometimes happen that we 
 are rid of a sin not because we have 
 conquered it but because it has 
 grown effete. There are sins of 
 fooHshness that die for want of nour- 
 ishment with the thinner blood of 
 age, but their vacant place is apt to 
 be taken by others which are quite 
 as pestilent and which have come to 
 stay. An exchange of sins can 
 hardly be called a victory of the soul, 
 for one has gained little who was 
 once a voluptuary and now is a 
 miser. The Protean variety of sin 
 gets upon the nerves, and one has 
 the sense of being shadowed by an 
 enemy who is ever appearing in 
 some new disguise and is ever on 
 one's track. It seems an almost 
 hopeless campaign, because it has 
 no truces, because it is an endless 
 series of battle-grounds, because it 
 is not likely to have any end, till 
 
 death. And then, what if death 
 
 124 
 
The Defeats of the Soul 
 
 ii I 
 
 does not cut this miserable union, 
 and our sin and our soul begin life 
 together on the other side? What 
 if the humiliation of these few 
 years be perpetuated through the 
 ages? 
 
 It may seem impossible to get any 
 consolation out of this conflict, but 
 at least the shame of it is certain to 
 cleanse us from all self-righteousness 
 and to inspire us with humility. He 
 is coated with triple brass who should 
 be assailed by fiery temptations and 
 yet have no sympathy with a neigh- 
 bour's conflict, who should be over- 
 come by the power of an ancient sin 
 and yet have no charity for the fall 
 of a brother. When one is fi2:htin<>- 
 for his life every day with tempta- 
 tion he can hardly be a Pharisee. 
 If people, through thinness of nature 
 or an overmastering prudence, are 
 never inclined to transgress, they are 
 
 apt to be censorious and unmerciful, 
 
 125 
 
w 
 
 r^!l!!!!!'!P, 
 
 mwm\\ 
 
 ■ 'li!l 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 but he who has many scars carries a 
 tender heart. 
 
 Frequent disasters of the soul de- 
 liver us from sliallow views of reli- 
 li^ion and convince us that we need 
 more for our security than an ex- 
 ample. No power can be of much 
 avail that does not act from within 
 and reinforce us in the crises of temp- 
 tation. What one lonsfs for is a 
 second alliance — this time with a 
 Saviour. If there be any one in 
 heaven or earth who has gone through 
 the same agony and has come out 
 \ictor. who has a fellovz-feelino* with 
 other men and is ready to join forces 
 with them ; then we need not abandon 
 hope although the past has been one 
 uninterrupted defeat. It is at this 
 point of despair many people have 
 turned to Jesus and made trial of 
 Him for the first time. Before, they 
 may have believed or disbelieved 
 about Him, they knew nothing of 
 
 126 
 
The Defeats of the Soul 
 
 Him, because I le was outside, a his- 
 torical, theological personage. When 
 one, as a last resource, has received 
 Jesus within and begins to wage war 
 in His fellowship, then it comes to 
 pass that the Gospels are repeated in 
 his inner life, and a plain man will 
 have his own materials before he 
 dies, both for a book of Psalms and a 
 biography of Jesus. 
 
 T27 
 
"'ii 
 
 il!!l! 
 
 *■ ! 
 
 . 
 
 9 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE VEILING OF THE SOUL 
 
 1 ! 
 
 ! i 
 
 In one of his Twice-Told Tales, 
 Hawthorne describes how a much- 
 loved Puritan minister conceived 
 the weird idea of conceaHng his face 
 with a veil and how his people were 
 affected with a sense of painful niys- 
 tery as he went in and out among 
 them with covered countenance till 
 the end of his days. His betrothed 
 forsook him ; the bride trembled be- 
 fore him at her marriage; children 
 fled from him on the road ; people 
 whispered as he passed. One real- 
 ises in an instant, as he reconstructs 
 the scene, how much of the confi- 
 dence and joy of life depend on our 
 
 beholding one another, literally, with 
 
 128 
 
 -' 
 
The Veiling of the Soul 
 
 open face. Imagine the change and 
 horror, if one morning each man's 
 face was covered with black and im- 
 penetrable to his neighbour. Laugh- 
 ter would cease on earth ; who then 
 would have the heart for mirth 
 under this cloud ? Non^ would be 
 able to comfort his neighbour, for 
 none could estimate his brother's 
 sorrow. Speech would languish, for 
 it would have no visible response. 
 Love itself would die when every 
 emotion was masked. The very 
 power of association and the in- 
 stinct of trust would be destroyed 
 when every man had withdrawn 
 into darkness. Were there no reve- 
 lation of the face then there would 
 be neither faith nor fellowship pos- 
 sible on earth. 
 
 It is possible to give this image of 
 the veil a more spiritual direction 
 and a more searching meaning. St. 
 Paul in his great chapter on Charity 
 
 9 129 
 
i 
 
 '- 
 
 I 
 
 liiiii! 
 
 Ii!il| 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 imagines that the covering is really 
 upon the soul, and he is much 
 affected by the fact that we see noth- 
 ing, neither truth nor people clear- 
 ly. We see not ' face to face,' but 
 rather as those studying one another 
 ' through a glass darkly.' We do 
 not understand our neio^hbour, we 
 speculate about him. He is to us 
 an unknown quantity, and we deal 
 with him as a chemist with a new 
 material. There are about him 
 certain properties — evidence he 
 has flung out, as it were, for our 
 guidance — his looks, his speech, 
 his actions, his habits. These we 
 collect and analvse ; we form a list of 
 components ; we strike a balance ; 
 we conclude he is this or that. 
 Very likely we assign him a label, 
 and speak as if he were classified. 
 Yet we are aware of our ignorance 
 and helplessness ; we are bitterly 
 conscious that the very essence of 
 
 130 
 
The Veiling of the Soul 
 
 the man has escaped and defied ail 
 our tests. Sometimes we remark of 
 some one ' he is difficult to know'; 
 perhaps it were nearer the truth to 
 say that it is impossible to know any 
 one. 
 
 Consider, for instance, liow seldom 
 six sensible and charitable people 
 will agree as to the character of 
 some mutual friend, so many con-, 
 sidcring that his strong point is 
 sweet temper, while the others insist 
 that it is self-restraint. Consider, 
 also, what a power of surprise lies in 
 even shallow natures, so that one 
 whom we thought the weakest de- 
 velops an immovable obstinacy, and 
 one whom we considered unfeelins" 
 shows himself capable of immense 
 unselfishness. What unexpected 
 loyalties or treacheries; what deeds 
 of heroism or meanness; what intel- 
 lectual achievements or imbecilities 
 emerge in lives we prided ourselves 
 

 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 on having surveyed and sounded. 
 Times there were when we seemed 
 to have mapped out every inch in a 
 friend's Hfe, times there are when it 
 seems as if we had only sailed along 
 the coast. We may ascend some 
 open river for a distance, but the 
 heart of this continent remains a 
 mystery. Is it not the case that a 
 man and a woman may live together 
 in the sacred intimacy of wedlock, 
 sharing as it appears, and as they 
 imagine, every feeling, hope, belief, 
 and yet discover with a shock of 
 disappointment that each is com- 
 pletely fenced round and secluded 
 from the other? 
 
 This veil is not to be thought of 
 as an expedient of the individual to 
 preserve his privacy, for he cannot 
 remove it any more than his neigh- 
 . bour.^ For '^ne thing it is physical, 
 and must last while we are in this 
 present environment. If the body 
 
The Veiling of the Scnil 
 
 1)0 an instrument of reveKition so 
 that by our eyes and mouth and 
 hands we declare ourselves, it is also 
 a thick cloak of concealment, so that 
 only as one pierces through the 
 ficsh can he reach the soul. No 
 doubt the countenance, as the years 
 pass, is dominated by the soul and 
 grows into its likeness. The saint 
 looks out on US through a clear 
 window, and the evil-liver has his 
 character written on his face. One, 
 however, knows how often in the 
 beginning the shape of the body is 
 a contradiction of the soul ; lor 
 nothing is more common than a per- 
 fect face giving a deceptive certifi- 
 cate to hollowness and insincerity, 
 or homely features discrediting hon- 
 esty and affection. We are indeed 
 so sensible of this anomaly that 
 our minds are almost inclined to 
 accept it as an axiom that where 
 Nature has given the form of Venus 
 
i 
 
 % 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 it is safe to expect folly, but where 
 she has condescended to the face 
 of Socrates, there one may be cer- 
 tain of wisdom. 
 
 And this veil is also another 
 patent proof that the mercy of God 
 is over all His works, for surely we 
 ought to be thankful that in this 
 present life our souls are screened 
 from public view. As Nature con- 
 ducts her initial processes in secret 
 — and it were cruel to lay them 
 bare — so does the Divine Spirit 
 pursue His work upon the soul in 
 darkness. If it were permitted to 
 any human hand to expose a soul, 
 then none in this life could stand 
 the trial. What motives of self- 
 interest, movements of unholy pas- 
 sion, base feelings of envy, hot fits 
 of anger disturb and defile the 
 soul even of a saint ! It is in- 
 deed through this very discipline 
 of temptation and ceaseless conflict 
 
The Veiling of the Soul 
 
 with evil that tlie soul is j^urifietl 
 and streni^theneJ, and conits at last 
 to perfection. While we are still 
 struggling through our Purgatorio 
 no prying eye may criticise or con- 
 demn, in the Paradiso the veil can 
 be safely dropped from God's finished 
 work. 
 
 If this veiling of the soul be in- 
 evitable in the present dispensation, 
 it has serious dangers wliich we must 
 remember and conquer. Every one 
 of us is liable to be misunderstood 
 and to suffer injustice. If we could 
 explain ourselves and let everything 
 be known, then they had not called 
 us ungenerous, or proud, or bigoted, 
 or heretical, or something else that 
 may not be worse than we are, but 
 happens not to be what we are. It 
 is quite fair we should be condemned 
 for our faults : it is not fair we should 
 be condemned for our no faults; and 
 yet for the most part any protest is 
 
I . ■:5! 
 i ft 
 
 The Potter\s Wheel 
 
 useless. Many a private person in a 
 hoiiseliold, many a labourer in the 
 public service, m:iny a teacher in 
 the Church, has been misconstrued 
 and misjudged all his days without 
 relief. Let him not complain over- 
 much. When one remembers how 
 hard it is to understand himself, and 
 how often he has erred both in self- 
 depreciation and self-approval, it is 
 not wonderful that one should be 
 misunderstood by other people. The 
 situation is not without its consola- 
 tions: through all His life, from 
 Nazareth to CaK^ary, Jesus was never 
 understood except by Mary of Beth- 
 any and St. John. 
 
 Perhaps it were better for most of 
 us to complain less of being misun- 
 derstood and to take more care that 
 we do not misunderstand other peo- 
 ple. It ought to give us pause at a 
 time to remember that each one has 
 a stock of cut-and-dry judgments on 
 
 136 
 
The Veiling of the Soul 
 
 his neighbours, and that the chances 
 are that most of them are quite 
 erroneous. What our neighbour 
 really is we may never know, but we 
 may be pretty certain that he is not 
 what we have imagined, and that 
 many things we have thought of 
 him are quite beside the mark. What 
 he does we have seen, but we have 
 no idea what may have been his 
 thoughts and intentions. The mere 
 surface of his character may be ex- 
 posed, but of the complexity within 
 we have not the faintest idea. People 
 crammed with self-consciousness and 
 self-conceit are often praised as hum- 
 ble, while shy and reserved people 
 are judged to be proud. Some whose 
 whole life is one subtle studied sel- 
 fishness get the name of self-sacrifice, 
 and other silent heroic souls are con- 
 demned for want of liumanity. 
 
 Perhaps the saddest calamity of 
 our veiled state is the misunderstand- 
 
 137 
 
i 
 
 \'y,i, I 
 
 i 
 
 ■Bill 
 
 
 i'i ' 
 
 M 
 
 i ■: -i H 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ing that sometimes arises between 
 people who are of the same family or 
 are close friends. It is not easily 
 removed or explained ; it may rather 
 deepen than lessen with the years; 
 it may last for life. Nothing surely 
 can be a sorer cross than the 
 alienation of one whom we love, 
 whom we trust, whom once we made 
 our confidant. Whether the outside 
 world appreciate one is of secondary 
 importance, it takes the heart out of 
 one to be daily misread by his ow^n. 
 How one lonQ:s for the shinino: of 
 the sun, and the dispersion of the 
 cloud ! That day may never come 
 this side the grave; in such an 
 event let it be our consolation that 
 those who have been estranged shall 
 at last know even as they are known. 
 Like ships that start on the great 
 voyage together, and lose sight of 
 one another in the fog, what can 
 friends do but feel their way with 
 
 138 
 
 y 
 
 M; 
 
The Veiling of the Soul 
 
 caution and patience, lest there be 
 collision and disaster, till at the final 
 sunrise they cast anchor side by side 
 in the fair haven of peace, and see one 
 another ' face to face.' 
 
 139 
 
i! I 
 
 i ! 
 
 i ;: 
 
 . i.'i-' ' '' '• 
 
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PERPLEXING PROVIDENCES 
 
 No 0*^3 can read the Old Testament 
 without observing that its writers 
 arc greatly concerned about the 
 way in which Providence treats 
 the righteous man. They take for 
 granted that he ought to be favoured 
 of God, and that the unrighteous 
 man ought to suffer; but it appears 
 as if God shone upon the wicked 
 and frowned on the good. The 
 Psalmist complains bitterly that vile 
 men are exalted. The prophets 
 mention as one of the signs of the 
 fjolden ao*e that the churl shall no 
 lonoer be counted bountiful. The 
 Book of Job is a profound discus- 
 sion of the apparent contradiction 
 
 140 
 
Perplexing Providences 
 
 of Justice, and the writer of Eccle- 
 siastes almost lost hope of a world 
 where the same lot is assi^rned to 
 saint and sinner. When the right- 
 eous are blessed or when the un- 
 righteous are punished, a load is 
 lifted from the conscience and reason 
 of these thinkers, and it appears as 
 if their faith would hardly have any 
 trial were this mystery of govern- 
 ment solved. Let every man get 
 his due, then 
 
 * God 's in his heaven, 
 
 All 's right with the world.' 
 
 Perhaps the West can hardly ap- 
 preciate the force of this complaint 
 to the full, because it has not felt its 
 pressure. We have not known what 
 it is to be wronofed and robbed, to 
 be cruelly oppressed, and to suffer 
 the last outrao^e in our homes with- 
 out protection or redress. While 
 
 the hope of justice remains a man 
 
 141 
 
■^ssr"' 
 
 .. \ 
 
 : 
 
 I 
 
 \ !!ill 
 
 ■1 
 
 ill' 
 
 ! ; 
 
 iiii 
 
 ilh 1 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 can endure, when justice sides with 
 the criminal the victim's blood turns 
 to gall. The fierce energy of the 
 West has wrought salvation, break- 
 ing to pieces the power of the tyrant, 
 compelling equal laws, surrounding 
 justice with a wall of fire, casting an 
 invincible shield over the helpless. 
 Certain passages of the Bible are 
 obsolete for the West and are to us 
 hardly intelligible. Our fathers knew 
 their meaning. There are Christians 
 in the East to-day that will still read 
 them with passion. These passages 
 are the litany of the poor, of the 
 helpless, of women and children, the 
 appeal of all miserables to a silent 
 God, Who will not move. Who 
 seems not to care. Who has, not- 
 withstanding, been partaker of the 
 human Gethsemane, and Himself 
 inspired the passion of this cry. , 
 We of tlie West have our own 
 
 quarrel with Providence — although 
 
 142 
 
Perplexing Providences 
 
 it be on a minor scale — and it frets 
 our souls at a time and dashes the 
 sweetness of faith. It appears as if 
 throusfh carelessness or blindness cer- 
 tain individuals had been confused 
 in the arransfement of affairs, so that 
 A receives the recompense of B, and 
 B is condemned to the lot of A. 
 One man is honourable, high-spirited, 
 religious, faithful. His word is cer- 
 tain, his friends trust him unto death, 
 his family adore him, the world 
 counts him riglUeous. Here is one 
 who surely will have riches and 
 power and honour and comfort, who 
 will be crowned with fame before all 
 the people. And instead thereof 
 his whole life is a struggle with 
 poverty, trials, and obscurity. He 
 is not called to dignity but to pity. 
 Another man is selfish, tricky, merci- 
 less, mercenary, whose word goes 
 for nothing, who has done base 
 things, whom no one in private re- 
 Ma 
 

 ■ ; 
 
 J 
 
 
 I ! i 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 spects. He ought to be an object 
 of contempt — left alone in his place 
 till he repents and does righteous- 
 ness. Yet because the fellow has 
 plausible manners and a fluent 
 tongue and a cunning intellect he 
 too often wins his way with the 
 multitude and retains their suffrages 
 and lives at his ease. As he drives 
 into the city, the mud from this 
 intriguer's carriage-wheels defiles 
 the coat of the righteous man. This 
 contrast may not be common, but 
 it does occur, and it raises questions 
 — about the fairness of Providence. 
 
 This immoral situation makes 
 good living harder for us all, and 
 surely any artificial hindrance is 
 scarcely needed. Many of us are 
 bitterly conscious of the temptation 
 to do less than our best and require 
 every enforcement of virtue. Here 
 before our eyes is a parable teaching 
 us in so many words that integrity 
 
 144 
 
Perplexing Providences 
 
 and piety are only the high-road to 
 failure, and that sliowy and un- 
 scrupulous methods are the passport 
 to success. There are some whom 
 no allurements can seduce from the 
 way of righteousness, and whom the 
 sight of the low estate of goodness 
 will only establish in their integrity. 
 Others are ready enough to hearken 
 to any voice which declares that the 
 gods do not see behind but are as 
 easily deceived as foolish people. Is 
 it not dangerous for the individual 
 that the way of unrighteousness be 
 laid out as a primrose path, while 
 the way of honour is narrow and 
 strait ? 
 
 Is not this confusion of lots also 
 like a misdirection from the bench 
 and an injustice to society ? If there 
 be a sense of the distinction between 
 ijoodness and badness in the com- 
 m unity ought it not to receive the 
 support and sanctions of the Eter- 
 
;!l i 
 
 
 ., 
 
 r . 
 
 1 t 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 nal ? Do we not as nations turn to 
 history to read with relish ihe down- 
 fall of iniquity, and the vietory of 
 righteousness ? Are we not in social 
 life ever on the alert for convincini^: 
 illustrations of that unseen power 
 which shapes human life according 
 to the law written in our conscience ? 
 What a wanton blcv to our poor 
 perplexed consciences to see a des- 
 picable person, whose hand we would 
 not take in the way of friendship, 
 selected for a crown, and a saint, 
 who has been an inspiration to us 
 in the conflict of the soul, allotted 
 a cross. Can our com in on wealth be 
 blamed if it follow the lead of Prov- 
 idence and set rascals on his^h and 
 hold the children of the kingdom 
 in scorn ? 
 
 So it comes to pass that we begin 
 by being concerned about good men, 
 and end by being concerned about 
 God. Is He also careless whether 
 
 146 
 
Perplcxiiuj; Providences 
 
 one choose the hii^her or lower 
 way, whether he feed or mortify 
 his evil self? Are fools and cow- 
 ards, vain and proud persons, the 
 same to Him as the men of the 
 Beatitudes ? This is a very serious 
 question, vital and final. If God be 
 on the right side, then there is not 
 a good man anywhere who will not 
 hold up his head : if God goes over 
 to the enemy, then it seems no use 
 that the rest of us continue the fight. 
 Let us fling away our scruples and 
 join in the general scramble. Of 
 course we know what God has said : 
 His words are in the Law of Moses 
 and in the Sermon on the Mount ; 
 they are graven on our hearts. We 
 also see what God does, and His 
 deeds and His words do not cor- 
 respond. This is the problem of 
 Providence, and it is not light. 
 
 We ought carefully to remember 
 first of all that Providence has not 
 
 147 
 
III 
 
 '1 lii 
 
 iji 
 
 
 III 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 • 
 
 finished its work witli those two men 
 and their affairs. It is at the foot 
 of the page the figures are added, 
 and till the columns are filled up no 
 one can say whether the debtor or 
 creditor side has the advantaije. 
 Life has many surprises, and some 
 of them are very cheering. Knaves 
 come oftentimes to shame and beer- 
 gary much to the relief of society: 
 just men suddenly win their rights 
 to every one's delight. Wickedness 
 may succeed to-day and to-morrow, 
 and be made a hissing and a re- 
 proach the third day. Honour may 
 be set in the ; 'llory and be pelted 
 by the rascal multitude for a day and 
 be clothed in purple and borne to 
 her throne at eve of sun. And if 
 this happy event come not to pass 
 in our time, then the fi2:ures will be 
 carried over the page and the bal- 
 ance will be struck on the other side. 
 Dives and Lazarus in this world 
 
 148 
 
 fi 
 
Perplexing Providences 
 
 may seem an argument agauist 
 Providence : the argument has to be 
 modified when you meet the two 
 men in the next world. God has 
 an infinite patience, and does not 
 make haste: it will be soon enough 
 to judge His ways when they are 
 complete. 
 
 Is it not also our misfortune to be 
 dazzled by the glitter of this world 
 and to identify the rewards of God 
 with material prosperity ? If one be 
 rich and increased in goods, if he hold 
 high station in church or state, then 
 is it not evident that God has blessed 
 him? If one live in a small house 
 and his name be not known two 
 streets away, then surely God has 
 not blessed him. Could any stand- 
 ard be more shallow, deceptive, un- 
 believing, ungodly ? It would seem 
 as if the New Testament had never 
 been written and Jesus had never 
 lived in Nazareth ! If the teaching 
 
 H9 
 
1 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 ii 
 
 ! ' li' 
 
 ■J 1 I 
 
 i '; 
 
 iii 
 
 -I! M 
 
 Miti 
 
 of Jesus goes for anything, worldly 
 success is no sign of divine approval, 
 but is rather a very trying discipHne; 
 hardship is no evidence that God is 
 disowning a man, but, maybe, the 
 most convincing gift of His fatherly 
 love. Joseph of Arimathea was no 
 dearer to Christ than St. John, and 
 although Nero lived in a palace and 
 wore the purple, while St. Paul was 
 chained to a soldier and imprisoned 
 in the barracks, the Apostle had not 
 been willing to change with the 
 Emperor. When God is pleased 
 and wishes to bless the men He 
 loves. His hands have other gifts 
 than silver and gold. 
 
 It is more than probable, more- 
 over, that the accounts are being 
 squared here and now but that our 
 eyes are holden. Is it absolutely 
 certain that our Dives rejoices as 
 one on whom God's face is shininc: ? 
 What of the reprobation of good 
 
 150 
 
 ;i;i||, il 
 
worldly 
 Dproval, 
 cipline; 
 
 God is 
 be, the 
 fatherly 
 
 was no 
 hn, and 
 ace and 
 ^aul was 
 prisoned 
 
 had not 
 /ith the 
 
 pleased 
 nen He 
 
 ler 
 
 gifts 
 
 e, more- 
 re being 
 that our 
 3Solutely 
 oices as 
 shining ? 
 of good 
 
 ^1 
 
 3 
 
 Perplexing Providences 
 
 men, the gnawing misery of self- 
 contempt, the conscious impoverish- 
 ment of the soul, the haunting dread 
 of the future ? Are there none who 
 would give all they have won by 
 years of scheming and self-degrada- 
 tion for a quiet conscience and a 
 good character ? Does it go with- 
 out saying that our Lazarus is miser- 
 able because he is not clothed in fine 
 linen and does not dine sumptuously 
 every day ? May he not have his 
 own consolations ? Surely it is no 
 mean compensation for a severe life 
 and narrow circumstances to be able 
 to look every man in the face, to 
 have the loyal friendship of six hon- 
 est men, to leave an unstained name 
 as the heritao^e of his children, to 
 hear God say in the stillness of his 
 soul : ' Well done, my son.' 
 
 Tr 
 
 '5^ 
 
\i.l < 
 
 'S'l 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE WORLD-SORROW 
 
 It must seem to detached minds a 
 very work of perfection, that while 
 each of us has to bear his own bur- 
 den, certain people cannot be con- 
 tent without also adding the burden 
 of the world, and tasting a double 
 share of sorrow. No one, however, 
 may judge this sorrow to be light or 
 fantastic, for this were to shut his 
 eyes to facts and to deny a conspicu- 
 ous trend of present-day thought. 
 Many strong thinkers have sorrow- 
 fully abandoned the idea of divine 
 government, some ordinary folk have 
 lost the comfort of religious faith, 
 hot heads have preached the * Red 
 Terror,' kind hearts have thrown 
 away their enthusiasm on impossible 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 schemes, young people have com- 
 mitted suicide because the creation 
 *groaneth and travaileth in pain.' 
 Our fathers quarrelled with their 
 iieiijh hours and arsrued themselves 
 into madness over metaphysical mys- 
 teries, such as the sovereignty of 
 God. But a larofe number of serious 
 people are chiefly concerned to-day 
 about the problems : ' Is there any 
 Heaven beyond the grave ? ' and 
 * Why are so many of our brethren 
 living in Hell this side of the 
 grave ? ' 
 
 No one can read a newspaper 
 without meeting many horrors, and 
 having his opt'mism very rudely 
 shattered. In Africa, English troops 
 shoot d( \vn savages with arms of 
 scientific | recision ; in Asia, Moham- 
 medans butcher Christians with every 
 circumstance of brutal barbaritv ; in 
 America, white mobs burn negroes 
 to death ; in Europe, armed hosts 
 
 ^33 
 
Ill I 
 
 I I 
 
 II; 
 
 iiiiin 
 
 ii 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 wait the signal for war. Rich peo- 
 ple grow richer and more luxurious, 
 flaunting their extravagances, their 
 insolences, tlieir vices in face of the 
 world ; poor people herded together 
 in great cities grow more discon- 
 tented and bitter in their squalor and 
 poverty. The ancient fear of God, 
 with reverence, loyalty, and purity, 
 seems to be almost dead, and a hun- 
 dred signs go to prove that pleasure 
 is fast becoming our God. In spite 
 of a growing humanitarianism gross 
 outrages are still perpetrated on dumb 
 animals, on helpless women, on inno- 
 cent children. What must be the 
 sum of one day's misery over the 
 world ! 
 
 * Perpetual moanings from the troubled sea 
 Of human thought, and wails from the vexed 
 
 wind, 
 Of mortal feeling, fill our life's wide air.' 
 
 Times there are when we decline 
 to remember this Inferno and refuse 
 
 154 
 
 11 
 III 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 to look over its brink. We are dis- 
 gusted and otfended by any reference 
 to its tragedy, and would prefer that 
 it should be discreetly covered from 
 sjoht. The news from this far coun- 
 try hinders our full enjoyment in the 
 r\ithcrs house. It comes between 
 us and our ease, so that we cannot 
 laugh and talk and eat and sleep so 
 pleasantly, with such pictures forced 
 on our eyes, with such stories in our 
 minds. Certainly the chronicles of 
 life, either on battle-fields or east- 
 ends, are not appetising or agreeable 
 reading; but the reason why we 
 shrink from reading them is not our 
 sensitive tender-heartedness but our 
 fastidious selfishness. If such wicked- 
 ness is being done and such agony 
 beino: endured it is ri^^ht and neces- 
 sary that we should know, and cow- 
 ardly if we refuse to know. He is 
 less than human, to say nothing of 
 Christian, who can walk the streets 
 
 155 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 iflj 
 
 ^:^i i I! ! 
 
 11 
 
 lit! 
 
 ; 
 
 I 
 
 Iv. 
 
 !; 1 
 
 1 ; SiJiii'i 
 
 lii I 
 
 of one of our cities at midnight, or 
 read the reports from the consuls 
 in Armenia without having his heart 
 
 wrung. 
 
 Various questions force themselves 
 upon the most sluggish mind beneath 
 the shadow of this Gethsemane, and 
 the deepest has to do with God. 
 We are driven past the victim and 
 the oppressor, past laws and govern- 
 ments, to the source of power and 
 order. Where is God, what is He 
 doing, how does Me feel about this 
 horror? If one of us had the author- 
 ity, would he not in one hour bring 
 this immense misery to an end } And 
 One has almighty and supreme au- 
 thority. Why does He make no sign } 
 Goaded and maddened by the contra- 
 diction of the situation — the love of 
 God, and the sorrow of men, earnest 
 and reverent minds are driven to 
 abandon one side or the other, and 
 since none can deny the sorrow they 
 
 15^ 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 give up the love. Which means giv- 
 ing up God, for it were better to 
 believe in no God than in a cruel or 
 indifferent God who would not lift a 
 hand although the world were filled 
 with blood and tears. People who 
 cannot believe in a greater devil are 
 not to be counted heretics ; their un- 
 belief is a tribute to the honour of 
 God. The worst heretics are those 
 who have no difficulty about the 
 government of the world because 
 they have comfortable homes and 
 have suffered no wrongs. Their 
 faith is not religion, it is only Phar- 
 isaism and selfishness. 
 
 This fact of world-suffering is per- 
 haps our darkest problem, and it 
 cannot be faced without touching 
 another and earlier. Something goes 
 before suffering, and that is sin ; and 
 it is amazing that we make so much 
 of the one and think so little of the 
 other. No doubt there are people in 
 
 157 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 ii\ 
 
 I 1 
 
 ill!; ; 
 
 'S \ 
 
 iliii : 
 
 
 l!i. 
 
 ^i! 1 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 this world who suffer witliout having 
 sinned — the vicarious victims of the 
 race; but it still remains true that if 
 men had obeyed the Law of Right- 
 eousness written in their hearts, this 
 world had not been a Gehenna. Were 
 men to keep Christ's commandment 
 of love, there is hardly any form of 
 human misery that would not be 
 ended in two generations. It is, 
 therefore, missing the mark to con- 
 clude that this world is misgoverned 
 unless one be sure that the govern- 
 ment has been obeyed, and as a 
 matter of fact we all know very well 
 that the opposite has been the case. 
 Every one does more or less what 
 he ought not to do, and comes into 
 collision with law and so his finsrers 
 and other people's are burned. The 
 punishment is severe; but then that 
 does not prove that the world is an 
 anarchy, it rather proves a very just 
 .and strong government. 
 ^158 
 
 i 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 having 
 
 . of the 
 
 that if 
 
 Right- 
 
 'ts, this 
 
 Were 
 lid men t 
 brm of 
 not be 
 
 It is, 
 to con- 
 jverned 
 govern- 
 as a 
 ry well 
 e case, 
 s what 
 es into 
 fingers 
 The 
 en that 
 1 is an 
 ry just 
 
 It may of course be urged that 
 this only pushes the difficulty a stage 
 farther back and raises the hopeless 
 question: Why God permitted evil. 
 Here the most daring speculator 
 gets beyond his depth and is certain 
 to be carried away. We can only 
 be clear on one point, that liberty 
 of choice implies the possibility of 
 choosing wrong and that liberty of 
 choice is essential to the formation 
 of character. There is no danger 
 that a slave should wander from 
 home, for ere he got any distance he 
 had been caught and brought back. 
 Slaves can be shackled and confined. 
 They are saved from becoming prodi- 
 gals, but under this regime they can 
 never grow into men ; they will 
 remain undeveloped, weakly, neutral, 
 neither good nor evil, mere human 
 chattels. It is the glory of a son 
 that he is free ; it is his perilous 
 privilege to go astray. As a free 
 
 159 
 
 I 
 
i 
 
 : 
 
 ll! 
 
 li 
 
 li! 
 
 I i 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 in i 
 
 The Potter\s Wheel 
 
 man he departs into the far country 
 
 and plays the fool. So it comes to 
 
 pass that he suffers desperately, and 
 
 comes back in hunger and rags. 
 
 When he does return it will not be 
 
 as he went out, but wiser, stronger, 
 
 better in nature. 
 
 If the end of Providence were to 
 
 secure this race in a garden of Eden, 
 
 lapped round with comfort where no 
 
 one should ever tc.^te hunger or pain 
 
 or loss, then let it be freely granted 
 
 that this world is a conspicuous 
 
 failure. It is so badly arranged and 
 
 so loosely governed that it would 
 
 bring scandal on a human monarch. 
 
 Things are so much out of joint that 
 
 we are obliged to seek for another 
 
 working theory of Hfe than the 
 
 garden one, and we find it in the 
 
 New Testament. Jesus and His 
 
 Apostles teach that the supreme 
 
 success of life is not to escape pain, 
 
 but to lay hold on righteousness, not 
 
 i6o 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 to possess, but to be holy, not to get 
 things from God but to be Hke God. 
 They were ever bidding Christians 
 beware of ease, ever rousing them to 
 surrender and sacrifice. They never 
 complained of their own hard lot, 
 but rather considered that it was 
 Grain. Winds blowino^ off the snow 
 breed hardy men, and fierce seas 
 breaking on rocky coasts make skil- 
 ful seamen ; and if the mind of God 
 was to compel this race up the 
 arduous road that leads to perfection, 
 our dark experience is an open 
 secret 
 
 It is a shallow optimism that would 
 take a rose-coloured view of the 
 world, whose moan ought ever to 
 be in our ears. It is an inexcusable 
 pessimism that denies the progress 
 of the race with the centuries. To- 
 day there are wars at a time and in 
 places ; once it was war at all times 
 
 and everywhere. To-day so many 
 
 i6i 
 
 u 
 
p 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 m 
 
 I i i:' Ijlliiiii 
 
 ! ■ ; ■■ 'illii . (I'M 
 
 ■ 
 
 .ill 
 
 i i 
 
 i 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ;) 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 ; ; 
 
 
 
 
 ^l-' 
 
 ■i 
 
 M ;l 
 
 ''1 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 ifeHjj 
 
 i i 
 
 
 
 
 li 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,i 
 
 1 • i i 
 
 lui 1 
 
 •1 
 
 ■ • i 
 
 !i! ! 
 
 iii i! 1 
 
 iji| ; 
 
 
 ll 
 
 i ■ 
 
 
 
 
 women are the victims of man's sin ; 
 once all women were his slaves. 
 To-day a massacre fires our blood; 
 once it was an ordinary event. To- 
 day the poor are at least helped ; 
 once they were left to perish. The 
 agony of one age is the birth of a 
 better life for its child, and every 
 martyr gains • some good for those 
 following. It is a ghastly struggle 
 any way one looks at it, but it is not 
 meaningless nor fruitless. The day 
 breaks slowly, and the sun as yet 
 hardly pierces through the banks 
 of black cloud, but the East is glow- 
 ing and the darkest is past. 
 
 Above all, it ought to be a strong 
 consolation to every one, bitter and 
 perplexed about the sorrow of the 
 race, that God is its partaker. What- 
 ever might be His wise and gracious 
 purpose, and however necessary and 
 proper might be His means of ful- 
 filling it, it were still a trial to faith 
 
 162 
 
 imiii 
 
The World-Sorrow 
 
 to imagine Him watching from a 
 distance and a place of peace this 
 hurly-burly of sin and pain and 
 shame and despair. It is another 
 thing when He comes through Jesus 
 His Son into the midst of the battle, 
 and Himself receives its most cruel 
 wounds, when down the ages He is 
 touched with the feeling of our in- 
 firmities, and in the midst of the 
 Throne there is a Lamb as He once 
 was slain. There is hope and strength 
 in this remembrance that the sorrow 
 of the world is the sorrow of God, 
 and the Redeemer of the world is 
 God Himself. 
 
 163 
 
^j^lgB^m^imms 
 
 Mi 
 
 m 
 
 i?li |:tii:;:!!i| 
 
 
 Hi 
 
 ill 
 
 ■r 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF PERSONAL SUFFERING 
 
 When Jesus' disciples were one day 
 arrested by the sight of a blind man 
 sitting in his pathetic helplessness 
 at the door of God's Temple, and 
 asked the Master the meaning of 
 his calamity, they touched a problem 
 which is fresh in our day, and which 
 has ever in it the blood of the 
 human heart. Every city is studded 
 with hospitals, where hundreds have 
 begun to suffer or have been suffer- 
 ing long. No inconsiderable number 
 of one's acquaintance have never 
 known the joy of full health, but 
 are daily contending against some 
 secret weakness. In our own family 
 
 there may be a member cut off from 
 
 164 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 'ERING 
 
 le day 
 d man 
 issness 
 e, and 
 ing of 
 
 the activities of life, who the day 
 long is wearying for night, and all 
 night is watching for the dawn. 
 What does this calamity mean ? 
 Surely it is not natural that men 
 and women and little children should 
 be blind, or maimed, or paralysed, or 
 in any way crippled. Rather, people 
 ought to be strong and buoyant, 
 able for all the labour and pleasures 
 of life. Why should a certain pro- 
 portion of the race be called forth 
 to live in Gethsemane ? This is a 
 question on which, for his own or 
 his brethren's sake, one longs for 
 light. 
 
 Various answers may be given, 
 and each one may satisfy some mind. 
 It can be urced, for instance, that 
 there is no problem, because a prob- 
 lem means a difKicult principle which 
 can be solved, but this matter of 
 physical suffering is an accident. 
 
 Until the delicate processes of nature 
 
 165 
 
 ■ml 
 
Wi 
 
 !! 
 
 I 
 
 Wi 
 
 f- ^|-:.:-,i 
 
 ; i 
 
 ,,J 
 
 I ill 
 
 I i! 
 
 i'M 
 
 lllliHl 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 and the complicated activity of hu- 
 man life perform their parts with 
 unerring accuracy, there will be fail- 
 ures and calamities. Nature is a 
 huge and intricate machine, from 
 which each person is thrown off like 
 a piece o^ cloth fiom a loom. We 
 watch the whirling wlieels and fly- 
 ing shuttles with some understand- 
 ing of the construction, but with 
 no power of interfereri^e. A wheel 
 drags ever so slightly, a thread has 
 a rough edge — any slight flaw — 
 and a section of the web is damaged. 
 So one of us begins life at a disad- 
 vantage, and this can only be avoided 
 by a series of miracles going back, 
 say, a century. Some day a signal- 
 man, being over-worked or out of 
 sorts, pulls the wrong handle and a 
 train is wrecked, with physical con- 
 sequences which may last for two 
 generations. A child not yet born 
 
 will be a cripple for life, but nothing 
 
 i66 
 
Problem of Personal Siifr'ering 
 
 could have saved that cliild save mi- 
 raculous interference in that signal- 
 box. And God is not prodigal of 
 nuracles, even to avert catastrophes. 
 IHs pro^ idence conies in later to 
 utilise them for material ends ; His 
 
 to 
 
 ritual 
 
 grace sanctifies them to spn-uual 
 issues. Really it is not wonderful, 
 considering how fine and sensitive 
 the eye is that here and there a 
 man is blind; it is amazing that 
 with this exception every person 
 sees. 
 
 Or it may be pointed out with 
 irresistible force that suffering can 
 be traced, often at a long interval, 
 in some cases to sin, and that is 
 simply one of the wholesome sanc- 
 tions of law. We are firmly con- 
 vinced that we live in a moral 
 universe, and by that wc mean in 
 a state where it will be made pleas- 
 ant to do what is right, and very 
 
 unpleasant to do what is wrong, at 
 
 167 
 
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 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 least in pliysical affairs. If one play 
 the fool and slap Nature in the face, 
 that power will take up the qtarrel 
 and pursue it to the end with the 
 man and liis descendants till she 
 has obtained complete satisfaction. 
 If one make a covenant with Nature 
 and keep her laws loyally, this power 
 will remember him for good, and 
 his children after him, opening her 
 hand and blessing them with health 
 and strength. With her saving judg- 
 ments and her auundant mercies, 
 Nature fences up the way of life 
 that we may be induced to walk 
 therein with steadfast step. And if 
 any one break through the hedge, 
 it is good that he suffer; and if it 
 be that its actual transgressor do 
 not pay all the debt, but that the 
 innocent must share his liability, 
 this is only the inevitable conse- 
 quence of the solidarity of the family 
 and the race. None can interfere 
 
 1 68 
 
 :!i'i;!ll 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 between the sinner and his pen- 
 alty, and we can even see that it is 
 well none should, for in so far 
 as one accepts his chastisement with 
 a right mind the pain leaves peace 
 behind. 
 
 One also recognises that suffering 
 is a choice instrument for shaping 
 character, and that without its touch 
 the most delicate chasing on the 
 vessel would be impossible. It is 
 an actual pleasure to look at a per- 
 fectly healthy man, who sleeps with- 
 out a dream and works without 
 fatigue, whose blood is clean, and 
 whose vitality is inexhaustible. He 
 is excellent company for other strong 
 men — a buoyant, opamistic, victo- 
 rious nature — but he has his limita- 
 tions. It is not easy for the preacher 
 of Christ's Evangel to reach this man, 
 for he is entrenched in his fortunate 
 experiences and good-humoured con- 
 tentment. He is glad to know that 
 
 169 
 
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 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 there are promises for broken-down 
 people, but as things have gone well 
 with him they make no impression 
 on his soul. The next world will 
 be remarkable if it excel this present 
 state, which has been excellently 
 arranged and entirely satisfactory. 
 No doubt the soul is superior to the 
 body; but at the same time he can- 
 not forget that his body has served 
 him perfectly. His unshaken and 
 exuberant health leaves him invul- 
 nerable against every spiritual appeal. 
 It is not to this Samson that the 
 vision of the unseen comes, but 
 to St. Paul with his perpetual tor- 
 menting thorn, to St. John cast as 
 a dry seaweed on the shore of 
 Patmos. When one wants to hear 
 the secret things of God, or to delight 
 one's eyes with the finer shades of 
 grace, he leaves the market-place 
 and visits some one who wrestles 
 
 daily with cruel pain and has come 
 
 1 70 
 
 i M 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 to know death as a familiar friend. 
 Without the last touch of pain cer- 
 
 tain natures 
 
 had 
 
 never come to 
 
 their perfect sweetness and autumn 
 colour. 
 
 Nor can it be denied that without 
 the stimulus of suffering the Race 
 had never started on its upward 
 career. When the early physical 
 processes had done their work and 
 man appeared as an animal with the 
 soul inbreathed by God Himself, he 
 was, morals apart, simply a savage, 
 — naked, idle, ignorant, useless. As 
 soon as he was cast forth from Eden, 
 where he had been saved from exer- 
 tion, and set himself to work, he 
 began to rise, and the compelling 
 force was the prick of hunger. The 
 fair house of human achievement 
 contains now many treasures ot 
 letters and art, but its foundations 
 were the hard and inevitable strucfCfle 
 
 for bread. First the rough hoe, and 
 
 171 
 
^ ■ .f 
 
 The Potter's Wheel ^ 
 
 afterwards the lyre, the pen, and the 
 brush. If a vagabond of the cit) is 
 ever to be civiHsed, lie must first of 
 all learn to work, and the one cer- 
 tain persuasive is hunger. When 
 this fiercest of all pangs seizes him, 
 he will bestir himself, and so soon as 
 he puts his foot on the lowest rung 
 of the ladder, he has started on the 
 right way, and either he or his 
 children may reach the top some day. 
 Pain is the spur which drives the 
 Race along its ordered path of 
 progress. 
 
 All those uses and benefits of pain 
 are, however, open to two criticisms. 
 Some of them are ethical but partial 
 in their operations, as, for instance, 
 invalidism, which purifies one person 
 and hardens another; others are uni- 
 versal but not ethical, as, for instance, 
 the action of hunger. One is there- 
 fore moved to seek about for some 
 end of pain which will allect men 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 generally and ethically, and in the 
 search this incident comes under his 
 notice. A congregation made up 
 of well-to-do and easy-going people, 
 whom the preacher has sought to 
 move to the pity and service of their 
 fellow-creatures, as, he fears, in vain, 
 is coming out of church. Just as 
 they emerge from the church a run- 
 away horse knocks down and tramples 
 upon a young child. She is only a 
 child of the city, nameless and not 
 lovely, who has been in the park, and 
 was trudging home with a few butter- 
 cups in her hand. Her misery and 
 suffering are nothing compared with 
 the vast spiritual deprivations of 
 the world which the preacher has 
 laboured. It does not matter: in 
 such circumstances people do not 
 criticise nor calculate. A little maid 
 has been hurt, and her calamity con- 
 quers the heart Men are instantly 
 shaken out of their composure and 
 
 173 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
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 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 
 1! 
 
 
 1 ill Mill!' ^ijii 
 
 rush to her aid ; women forget their 
 finery and wipe away the blood. A 
 whole company are of a sudden de- 
 livered from their selfishness and in- 
 spired with human interest. Every 
 sin — pride, vanity, hardness, envy — 
 is suspended ; every virtue — love, 
 sacrifice, gentleness, humility — is 
 called into exercise. What could 
 not be done by the eloquence of the 
 preacher was accomplished by the 
 suffering of the child. A crowd of 
 ordinary people has been suddenly 
 raised to practical sainthood by a 
 stroke. 
 
 The same effect is produced upon 
 a congregation on Hospital Sunday 
 in an English city. Where the sub- 
 ject of the sermon is dogma or ex- 
 position the chances are that the 
 audience will be more or less bored 
 or divided ; if the plea be for mis- 
 sions, the hearers may have objec- 
 tions on principle or detail. Let the 
 
 ^74 
 
Problem of Pensonal Suffering 
 
 preacher put the case of suffering 
 before their imagination, and a con- 
 gregation is at once simply waiting 
 and longing for the opportunity to 
 give ; so that a deft orator, seeing 
 his jury at fever-heat when he has 
 not yet completed his argument, will 
 close his speaking and take his ver- 
 dict. People of every creed and no 
 creed meet round the suffering and 
 are nearer to one another and to 
 goodness than at any other time in 
 their lives. Jealousy and bigotry, 
 the most unconquerable of sins, to- 
 gether with every other evil w'ork, 
 are vanquished and held for a time 
 in subjection by compassion and 
 sympathy. 
 
 Such conspicuous and undeniable 
 incidents of daily life suggest that 
 one at least of the end:^ of suffering 
 is n^t the effect on the sufferer, but 
 on tie world ; that one at least of 
 the methods of saving the world is 
 
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 the spectacle of suffering. We can 
 also detect the principle which lies 
 beneath the means and gives their 
 particular application. If sin be in- 
 deed the constant and unscrupulous 
 preference of one's self before the 
 interest of every human being, and 
 the consequence of this habitual 
 selfishness an utter and hopeless 
 hardness, then more than half the 
 battle gained will be when the indi- 
 vidual is shaken off his self-centre 
 and moved to die service of others. 
 As soon as the lowest nature has 
 forgotten its ow^n desires and even 
 for five minutes lias lived for another 
 the grip of sin has been loosened 
 and the work of reliscion has begun. 
 And it were difficult to name any 
 influence which so swiftly and effec- 
 tually allures one out of self and so 
 warms the blood with c:enerous emo- 
 tions as the appeal of Pain. 
 
 If Pain be indeed fulfillino: this 
 
 1 76 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 high purpose, it will be easy to ac- 
 cumulate instances, and the first can 
 be found in our homes. It is a dark 
 dispensation of Providence that a 
 tender and gentle woman, a wife 
 and mother, should be nailed, as it 
 were, to a cross for ten years ; but 
 when you turn from this martyr to 
 her household there is light. Her 
 husband, quite a commonplace man 
 once, has been redeemed from coarse- 
 ness of soul, and has attained to 
 the knowledge of deep mysteries of 
 life; her sons have escaped the un- 
 conscious selfishness of youth, and 
 have learned the habit of chivalrous 
 service ; her daughters have been 
 deepened in character and have 
 been lifted above a hundred petty 
 foolishnesses by the sight of that 
 martyrdom. Neighbouring house- 
 holds have not suffered, so they are 
 counted fortunate ; neither have they 
 
 such delicate sensibility, such spirit- 
 i2 177 
 
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 ual insiglit, such ingenuity of sacri- 
 fice, such an atmosphere of love, 
 such a depth of peace. P^or the 
 cross has been set up in this house- 
 hold, and they have Hved under its 
 life-giving shadow. 
 
 Among the various callings there 
 is one which seems to confer a singu- 
 lar elevation and winsomeness of 
 character. Its members have a firmer 
 hold on the love of the people than 
 any other body of men, and they 
 have won their just and enviable 
 esteem by a habit of unparalleled 
 self-sacrifice. No one serves his fel- 
 lows at greater cost to himself, or 
 with a more absolute disregard of 
 himself, than a physician. If any 
 one, indeed, has fulfilled the Sermon 
 on the Mount, and exhibited the 
 very spirit of Christ in action, it is 
 this man. Yet how few have been 
 his religious privileges, who is 
 
 largely cut off from the Word and 
 
 178 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 Sacrament, who labours while others 
 worship, and is apt to be beset by- 
 various trials of faith ? Is it not 
 evident that he must enjoy some 
 powerful compensation and that some 
 influence atones to him for what 
 sanctifies others and he has lost? 
 And is it not certain that this fine 
 influence must be the contact with 
 suffering from day to day, till under 
 the necessary composure of his 
 manner and a natural repudiation 
 of sentiment his heart has been 
 shaped to pity and his will to service ? 
 They who serve unceasingly before 
 the altar of suffering receive their 
 reward. 
 
 This beneficent end of suffering 
 has its chief illustration in the ' Man 
 of Sorrows.' It goes without prov- 
 ing, that no one has ever so affected 
 our Race for weal as our Master, 
 and that the spring of this salvation 
 is in Himself. Partly it is His ex- 
 
 179 
 
 
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 ample of holy living, and partly it is 
 His Gospel of Divine Truth, but a 
 white marble Christ had not touched 
 the human heart, nor loosed the 
 bands of sin. It is the Crucified, in 
 the unutterable pathos of His Pas- 
 sion and Death, who has overcome 
 and gotten unto Himself tlie victory. 
 Because it appears that God also is 
 in the tragedy of life, and in the 
 heart of its mystery. When one 
 enters the dimness of a foreio:n cathe- 
 dral, he sees nothing clearly for a 
 while, save that there is a light from 
 the Eastern v/indow, and it is shin- 
 inor over a fiofure raised hio^h above 
 the choir. As one's eyes grow ac- 
 customed to the gloom, he identifies 
 the Crucifix, repeated in every side 
 Chapel, and marks that to this Suf- 
 ferer all kneel in their trouble, and 
 are comforted. From age to age 
 the shadow hangs heavy on life, and 
 men walk softly in ^he holy place, 
 
 i8o 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 but ever the Crucifix faces them, and 
 they are drawn to His feet and good- 
 ness by the invitation of the pierced 
 hands. 
 
 Had one lived in Jesus' day and 
 realised His excellence, the Cross 
 would have been an almost insuper- 
 able offence to faith. Why should 
 He have had a crown of thorns? 
 Had the veil been lifted from the 
 future, and had one seen the salva- 
 tion flowing from the five wounds 
 of the Redeemer, then he had been 
 comforted and content. No one then 
 imagined that through the mystery 
 of the Lord's Passion so great a 
 blessing was to come on all ages, for 
 none had entered into the secret of 
 suffering. To-day we are perplexed 
 by the Passion, which is not now 
 concentrated like a bitter essence in 
 the Cup of a Divine Person, but dis- 
 tributed in the earthly vessels of or- 
 dinary people, and we stand aghast 
 
 i8x 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
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 at the lot of the victims. Were our 
 vision purged and power given us to 
 detect spiritual effects, then we would 
 understand, and cease to complain. 
 We would see the hard crust of 
 human nature broken up, and the 
 fountains of fine emotion unsealed ; 
 the subtle sins which sap the vigour 
 of character eliminated, and the un- 
 conscious virtues brouG^ht to bloom. 
 Before the widespread, silent, search- 
 ing appeal of the suffering, each in 
 his appointed place, the heart of the 
 Race grows tender and opens its 
 door to goodness. 
 
 This mission of Pain may well be 
 a quick consolation unto them who 
 are its victims. They mourn at 
 times that they are refused a share 
 of the labour of life, and are laid as a 
 burden on their friends. It appears 
 unto those saints in their patience 
 that they are a reduction on the 
 
 sum-total of life and a daily drain 
 
 182 
 
Problem of Personal Suffering 
 
 ^ our 
 us to 
 would 
 i plain, 
 ast of 
 id the 
 ,caled ; 
 vigour 
 ;he un- 
 bloom. 
 search- 
 iacli in 
 : of the 
 .ens its 
 
 well be 
 ;m who 
 )urn at 
 a share 
 aid as a 
 appears 
 [patience 
 on the 
 \y drain 
 
 on human kindness. They make 
 too little of themselves : they do not 
 understand that they are one of the 
 potent forces of salvation. What no 
 ordinary means of Grace has been 
 able to do for members of their 
 household and a circle beyond, they 
 have wrought. From beds of weari- 
 ness as from a Cross they have done 
 mighty works, and in weakness they 
 have been more eloquent than the 
 voices of preachers in a public place. 
 To-day they are broken in body, so 
 that friends have to lift the cup to 
 their lips ; by and by they will slip 
 the body of humiliation, and they 
 will need strong arms in that day to 
 carry their reward. They have gone 
 forth weeping, and sowed their very 
 life in the cold and windy spring- 
 time : they will return rejoicing, and 
 they will be bowed down once more, 
 but now beneath the golden burden 
 of their sheaves. With their Lord 
 
 183 
 
 n 
 
ii^i 
 
 ,.i. 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 they also have seen of the travail of 
 their souls, and are satisfied. By 
 His Grace and in their measure they 
 have filled up that which was behind 
 of the afflictions of Christ. 
 
 i>'« 
 
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 \ 'i; 
 
 184 
 
 JfS 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 i 
 
 DEATH i ' 
 
 Death can be the matter only of a 
 moment, yet it casts its long shadow 
 over a whole life. In death we shall 
 have less to do than in any other 
 affair, yet it is never long absent 
 from our thoughts. No one long 
 ignores this event in his mind; each 
 man takes up his own attitude to the 
 last act. Some accept it as a dark 
 mystery which we cannot pierce, and 
 about which it is vain to speculate, 
 as the Stoic, who in the Roman 
 monuments, holds his wife by the 
 hand and bids her farewell without 
 tears and without hope. Some dread 
 it as an unavoidable catastrophe, 
 which is so far as may be put out of 
 
 185 
 
 I: 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 lf!< 
 
 
 I 
 
 sight and speech, as that unspeakable 
 Louis in whose presence one men- 
 tioned death at his peril, from whose 
 eyes it was hidden by the drapery 
 of foul licence. What the average 
 Christian thinks one can only guess 
 from his tone as he touches on the 
 end, from his habits as he mourns 
 his departed. One fears that his 
 idea of death is as much pagan as 
 Christian, and certainly it seldom 
 rises to the height of faith, as seen in 
 the letters of St. Paul, in which it 
 is counted along with life as one of 
 the Christian's possessions, or in the 
 experience of those triumphant fol- 
 lowers of the Lord who wore white 
 as they buried another martyr. 
 
 Accordins: to the classical idea of 
 St. Paul death was first of all another 
 name for res/. For many a long 
 year the apostle had tabernacled in 
 a body of humiliation, which was tor- 
 tured by disease — a 'thorn in the 
 
 ^1 
 
Death 
 
 flesh' — and vvoundcd by persecu- 
 tions, ' the marks of the Lord Jesus,' 
 He was weary with endless and 
 toilsome journeys by land and sea, 
 through cold and heat, ever homeless, 
 sometimes houseless. His labours 
 passed measure, who wrought for his 
 living as a tent-maker and had on his 
 mind the charge of all the churches. 
 His sensitive soul was also sorely tried 
 by the opposition of enemies, by the 
 treachery of friends, by the ingrati- 
 tude of his converts. From the be- 
 ginning of his career, onwards as a 
 Pharisee and a Christian, St. Paul is 
 the very type of hard and high living. 
 Into his day he surely packed the 
 maximum of thought and feeling 
 and work and suffering. It was nat- 
 ural that he should feel tired and look 
 kindly towards his release. As a 
 reaper pauses in the heat of the day 
 and imagines his return in the cool 
 of the evening, his heart leaps and he 
 
 i8; 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 I 
 
 if 
 
 U" 
 
 is glad. Men who have struggled 
 hard and who carry scars do not cling 
 fiercely to life ; they are prepared to 
 die as one is ready to sleep. Sleep 
 was one of the apostolic names for 
 death, full of tenderness and peace, 
 but it must not be understood to 
 mean inaction. It is rest from the 
 weariness and harassment of the 
 present life, it is the entrance into 
 the freedom and buoyancy of the life 
 to come. 
 
 In the sweetest letter of consola- 
 tion ever written to a parent on the 
 death of a child. Archbishop Leigh- 
 ton says: 'And is he so quickly laid 
 to rest.? Happy he! . . . John is 
 but gone an hour or two sooner to 
 bed, as children used to do, and we 
 are undressing to follow.' Life is a 
 long undressing during which the 
 frailties and faults of our imperfect 
 nature are gradually slipped, and 
 we enter unburdened into the un- 
 
 i88 
 
Death 
 
 seen world. As the wrinkles are 
 smoothed from the face of a sufferer 
 by the gentle hand of death, so that 
 the war-worn veteran returns to his 
 youth, ^o the weariness departs from 
 the soul and it enters into the rest 
 for which amid this struggle we 
 often hunger and thirst. St. Paul, 
 and we keep to him as a typical 
 Christian, regarded his death also 
 as a sacrifice. As a Jewish wor- 
 shipper poured forth his drink-offer^ 
 ing to God, so one day the sain<- 
 hoped to take his life in his hand 
 and spill it at God s feet. His life 
 had been one prolonged sacrifice, 
 during which he had given up his' 
 home, his friends, his country, his 
 reputation, his church. One thing 
 only remained, his cup of life: this 
 he held also in trust for God, and at 
 the appointed moment he would 
 empty it with joy. His special desire 
 was for the martyr's crown — the 
 
 189 
 
 ■\ 
 
 4 
 
The Pottei^s Wheel 
 
 ambition of all the saints — and it 
 
 was not denied him, for he who for 
 
 many a year had tasted martyrdom, 
 
 at last drank his fill of Christ's 
 
 cup. It would be wrong, however, 
 
 to conclude that only he who falls 
 
 by fire or sword offers up his life 
 
 to God, since sacrifice must depend 
 
 on the will not on circumstances. 
 
 When the officers came to take 
 
 Rutherford, the Scots' saint, before 
 
 the council and to death, they found 
 
 him dying, and full of regret that 
 
 he had missed this honour. ' It was 
 
 my wish to have glorified God on 
 
 the scaffold, and I would willingly 
 
 go with you, but I have received a 
 
 summons to go where few kings or 
 
 lords come.' So our brave Scot 
 
 died on his bed and not in face 
 
 of the people, but his surrender of 
 
 himself was a veritable sacrifice. 
 
 Life is made up of innumerable acts, 
 
 and each has its own moral com- 
 
 190 
 
Deatl] 
 
 piexion. If the motive which in- 
 spires be self-will then the colour of 
 life is base and squalid ; if devotion 
 to tlie will of God be the spring of 
 action then is life noble and elevated. 
 And the last and most solemn act 
 in all our life is to die. It as the 
 inevitable will of God appears we 
 repine and rebel, then death will be 
 an act of violence full of indignity 
 and degradation; if we give wel- 
 come to the call of God and go out 
 to meet it, then is death the supreme 
 act of homage and obedience. It is 
 the climax of communion between 
 the soul and God. 
 
 Unto St. Paul death appeared 
 also as a £am, and therein he is 
 comparing it with life. Life is a 
 time of choice, of education, of im- 
 perfection, of probation, and allow 
 as we please for the good-will of God 
 and for the Divine grace, there is an 
 element of uncertainty. No vessel 
 
 191 
 
 si' 
 
a 
 
 ■9 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 If 
 
 saillnof so treacherous a sea is safe 
 till it has reached port and cast 
 anchor. One is delighted by the 
 unexpected recoveries of character 
 in his neighbours ; one is cast down 
 by the amazing catastrophes of 
 character. If it be the case, as one 
 believes, that no man is hopeless, 
 one is also driven to the conclusion 
 that no man is sure. Some latent 
 weakness may be developed ; some 
 unexpected temptation may be too 
 strong. It becometh every one to 
 be humble and diffident. The un- 
 known possibilities in human nature 
 is a chastening and warning fact 
 which only frivolous and foolhardy 
 people can ignore. No one ever 
 had a more absolute faith in God, 
 none ever followed Christ more 
 closely than St. Paul, and yet he 
 was haimted by the thought that in 
 the end he might be a castaway. 
 
 It had been an altogether horrible 
 
 192 
 
Death ' ' - 
 
 thing if one who had besought men 
 to believe in Christ, and suffer for 
 Christ, should himself deny the Lord 
 and put Him to open shame; if 
 one who had testified at all times 
 to the excellent glory of the world 
 to come should himself go into dark- 
 ness. It were, on the other hand, 
 altogether becoming and joyful that 
 St. Paul should come at last to 
 the goal which he saw afar, and 
 receive the crown from his Lords 
 hands. While he lived this could not 
 be; death was the moment of final 
 victory, for him therefore and every 
 sinful man death was great gain. 
 
 And death was above all to such 
 as St. Paul a meeting with Jesus 
 Christ, who was the object of his 
 ceaseless faith, the hope of his long- 
 ing heart. This man did not specu- 
 late about heaven — where it was, 
 what it was. Nor did he imagine 
 its glory as became a mystic like St. 
 
ml 
 
 m 
 
 ■9 
 ' The Potter's Wheel 
 
 John. For him heaven was another 
 name for Christ, the sum of all good- 
 ness, the revelation of all perfection. 
 Between him and Christ there had 
 been a long friendship, with many 
 love passages, which had grown more 
 intimate every year but had never 
 been completed. St. Paul had heard 
 Christ's voice on the road to Damas- 
 cus ; he had seen Him in visions ; 
 for brief moments he had visited the 
 third heavens ; but face to face this 
 great Christian had not set eyes on 
 his Master as had St. Peter and St. 
 John. For an unseen Lord he lived, 
 laboured, suffered as none else has 
 ever done. What wonder that St. 
 Paul hungered and thirsted for the 
 day when that dark servitor death 
 would usher him into the unveiled 
 Presence. 
 
 *That one face, for from vanish, rather grows 
 Or decomposes but to re-compose, 
 Becomes my universe that feels and knows.' 
 
 194 
 
Death 
 
 For this representative Christian 
 to be absent from the body was to 
 be present with the Lord. 
 
 The mystical passion may not rise 
 to this height in ordinary people, 
 but the cloud of death has also for 
 us a silver lining. We have some 
 sense of Christ, and hours when we 
 would go far to see Him in His 
 glory Who has loosed the burden 
 of our sins. With Him are our 
 Departed, waiting for the coming 
 of their friends, so that to die 
 is to meet again our mother. If 
 death veils from our eyes this world 
 in which we have lived, and which 
 to most of us has been on the 
 whole a pleasant world, the same 
 hand will unveil the world to come 
 wherein is contained the reality of 
 those things whereof we have ever 
 dreamed. And if death separates 
 us from those with whom we have 
 lived in peace, we shall be in an in- 
 
 195 
 
 t: I 
 
! I ' 
 
 I i I 
 
 ■9 
 
 ',■*■ 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 slant joined to those who have gone 
 before and who as the years pass 
 become the majority. So heaven 
 grows into Home whereof the door 
 is death. 
 
 is 
 If 
 
 ■lili 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 / • ! •• 
 
 196 
 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 \ 
 
 OUR DEPARTED 
 
 Surely there is no person of human 
 kind who does not wish to believe 
 that those whom we love and have 
 lost awhile are conscious of their 
 friends and are spectators of our 
 lot It were a peculiar grief to con- 
 clude either that we had been blotted 
 out from their memory or that they 
 liad no knowledge of our life. When 
 they leave us and their ship disap- 
 pears m the west, we recognise and 
 bow before the inevitable order of 
 things: we are also fully aware that 
 this ship will not return after a space 
 and as reasonable people, we do not 
 linger on the quay in vain regrets, 
 but at once set ourselves to duty 
 
 '97 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 III 
 
 
 m 
 
 with a steadfast heart. It might 
 seem to those not vet initiated into 
 this mystery of sorrow that we had 
 lost little or could forget at will, but 
 this is not the way of the heart. 
 How much the voyagers have taken 
 with them ! What a void they have 
 left ! Gone from our sight and our 
 affairs, they are enshrined in our 
 memory and more than ever are 
 lords of our love. It were an im- 
 mense consolation to know that they 
 have us in their hearts, and that 
 although they have passed into the 
 other w^orld, yet from their vantage 
 ground they follow us as we pursue 
 our measured way, and that, if we 
 could see, the distant clouds which 
 overhang us are human faces. Is 
 this only a fond imagination ? 
 
 If one goes by reason, and God 
 has surely not given us this noble 
 faculty only to deceive, we may well 
 cherish this confidence. It were 
 
 198 
 
Our Departed 
 
 flight 
 I into 
 e had 
 II, but 
 heart, 
 taken 
 y have 
 id our 
 in our 
 er are 
 an im- 
 lat they 
 d that 
 into the 
 antage 
 pursue 
 , if we 
 which 
 ies. Is 
 
 id God 
 
 noble 
 
 lay well 
 
 t were 
 
 incredible that the scissors of death, 
 which evidently cuts off th's present 
 life and separates a man from his 
 physical environment, should also 
 cut off his memory and isolate him 
 for ever from his dearest interests. 
 When one crosses the dark ocean 
 and settles on the other side, dis- 
 tance does not obliterate the old 
 world : rather it flings it into relief 
 and endears what is unseen. For 
 the past to be blotted out were to 
 annihilate the person, who could no 
 longer say I after this detachment, 
 but would begin life again as an- 
 other person. Is it not more reason- 
 able as well as more just that the 
 noble souls who imagined, suffered 
 and died in the cause of God, Patri- 
 archs, Prophets, Martyrs, should see 
 the Day of Christ and the victory 
 of righteousness? And is it not 
 also fitting that a mother who has 
 planned great things for her son and 
 
 199 
 
The Potter's Wheel 
 
 fi i 
 
 I 
 
 lli 
 
 
 died before they were fulfilled, sliould 
 behold the answer to her prayers 
 and be satisfied? This is how it 
 ought to be in a reasonable universe 
 and this therefore we conclude is 
 how it is, unless God intends to put 
 us to confusion. 
 
 This conclusion of reason is con- 
 firmed by at least one passage in 
 Holy Scripture, and that is an inci- 
 dent in the life of our Lord. As 
 every one must have noticed, Jesus, 
 while in this world, ever suggested 
 another of which He was a native. 
 He was in constant touch with the 
 unseen : He was ever under its in- 
 fluence: He responded to its im- 
 pressions. Angels ministered to 
 Him ; the hviiavens opened above His 
 head: voices were heard calling Him 
 the Beloved Son of God. If ever 
 the veil between the worlds should 
 be lifted it would be through Him 
 the Chief Saint of Religion and the 
 
 200 
 
Our Departed 
 
 Sent One of God, the visible link 
 between the worlds. What was to 
 be expected happened in the Trans- 
 figuration, when the Lord passed 
 for a brief space into the spiritual 
 sphere and two inhabitants of that 
 sphere came unto the very confines 
 of the physical. One was the Law- 
 giver of Israel who made a nation 
 of the Hebrews, the other the most 
 typical of all the prophets who sus- 
 tained that nationality. Two livino- 
 personages they stood with Jesus! 
 and their conversation had to do not 
 with heaven but with earth, not with 
 their present but with their past. 
 As in their day they had thought 
 and toiled only for God's kingdom, 
 and had departed before the day of 
 its glory, so all the ages had those 
 patient saints watched its growth 
 and longed for its completion. They 
 spake with Jesus of the Exodus He 
 should accomplish at Jerusalem. If 
 
 201 
 
y 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 im 
 
 
 m 
 
 the two Jewish leaders were still 
 intent on their life-work it may be 
 taken for granted that in their mea- 
 sure others will still pursue the high 
 ends of their past and that certainly 
 not one who has had a friend on 
 earth will forpct him vonder. 
 
 No doubt this belief collides rudely 
 with a certain idea of conventional 
 piety that a person admitted into 
 Heaven will be so absorbed in the 
 contemplation of God, or the celebra- 
 tion of His praise or the enjoyment 
 of his own high estate — it may be 
 put one way or another — that he 
 will be removed far above former ties 
 and earthly considerations. Which 
 sounds plausible and seems beautiful, 
 but if you look into it is not Chris- 
 tian or religious. Suppose that the 
 head of a household fighting with 
 his family tlie hard battle of life and 
 enduring many trials, should emi- 
 grate to the new wor^d and there 
 
 202 
 
 
Our Departed 
 
 come into great affluence. Would 
 not his first thought, so far as he 
 was a true-hearted man, be of the 
 patient wife and cHnging children 
 he had left, and if through anv bin- 
 drance of circumstances he could not 
 at once share with them his felicity, 
 would he not pursue them with his 
 thoughts and prayers ? What piety 
 is that which rests on disloyalty? 
 Is not love the surest evidence of 
 communion with God? Various 
 heavens have been imagined which 
 do not attract or elevate, but one of 
 sheer selfishness is surely the worst. 
 It may, however, be very fairly 
 urged that if the Departed live in 
 constant sympathy with us in our 
 lower place they must come short of 
 Heaven. If they see our trials and 
 agonies, our afflictions and sorrows, 
 our temptations and sins, or even our 
 failings and weaknesses, to say noth- 
 mg of our physical clangers and pains, 
 
 203 
 
1 — " 
 
 >■ 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 m 
 
 il 
 
 if 
 
 ■111 
 ' j: 
 
 must they not miss tne safety and joy 
 of heaven ? Were it left to our decis- 
 ion, would we not choose rather that 
 our friends should be cut off from all 
 knowledge of us by the thick veil of 
 oblivion than that from their splen- 
 did distance and in their high help- 
 lessness they should see and suffer? 
 But are we not too apt to conclude 
 that peace and suffering are incon- 
 sistent? Has the Eternal been 
 secluded from all knowledge of 
 human lite during those ages ? Has 
 not the cry of the miserable been 
 ever in His ears? has not His heart 
 been melted within Him? Was it 
 not on this account that He sent His 
 Son and endured His dying prayer? 
 Did not Christ rise from the dead 
 and sit down on the right hand of 
 the Divine Majesty, and yet does He 
 not share in all the labours and pains 
 of His disciples ? Pity and sym- 
 pathy are not the contradiction of 
 
 204 . 
 
 m 
 
 III 
 
Our Departed 
 
 spiritual joy: they are two of its 
 elements. 
 
 We must remind ourselves that 
 the Departed will regard life with 
 other eyes than ours. From our 
 lower standpoint, still in the mists of 
 the valley, suffering seems an un- 
 mixed calamity, and we had made a 
 world without the possibility of pain 
 or sm. With their clear vision look- 
 ing from the heights they will not 
 make moan over this Gethsemane 
 with its bitter cryings and bloody 
 sweat. What even we dimly feel to 
 be a good in the midst of our con- 
 flict, is to them a perfect and trium- 
 phant p -inciple, because they behold 
 the end of all things. They see life 
 whole, not only Abraham s exile, but 
 also Abraham's portion: not only 
 St. Stephen's stones, but also St. 
 Stephen's crown: not only St. PaulV 
 long martyrdom, but also St. Paul's 
 unspeakable reward. From their 
 
 •, 205 .^.,,., 
 
iStSlBi 
 
 mmm 
 
 ■9 
 
 The Potter's Wheel 
 
 I 
 
 llil 
 
 vantage ground they see the son in 
 the misery of the far country, and 
 again at home a better son. When 
 we are under the sharp knife, they 
 will not complain of Providence, nor 
 be in despair of us, for already we 
 are again healed and strong. Chil- 
 dren pity themselves at school, be- 
 cause of the toil and discipline, we 
 of older age envy them and wish we 
 were again at school, that by our 
 patience we might earn richer posses- 
 sions. If in this world St. Paul 
 gloried in his afflictions anticipating 
 their peaceable fruits, is he likely 
 to weep over another sinner who 
 agonises to obtain his crown ? 
 
 The conviction that the Departed 
 are not dead, or unconscious, or in- 
 different to us, their poor relations, 
 but are alive for evermore, full of 
 activity and constantly mindful of us 
 — what may be called the sense of 
 
 the Departed — has various excellent 
 
 206 
 
 Ifii 
 
Our Departed 
 
 effects. For one thing it invests the 
 unseen world with reality, so that we 
 are not repelled by the thought of 
 an unknown inhospitable foreign 
 shore. Gradua^'v as we look across, 
 the ^ shadows take form and grow 
 familiar; we recognise those whom 
 we remember and would wish to see 
 again. They are living there as they 
 did in our homes, they are thinking of 
 us as of old ; they are ready to give 
 us welcome; they will have much 
 to tell us. And this faith can alone 
 deliver us from vain regrets; for who 
 has lost a friend and in the hour 
 of reflection has been satisfied with 
 himself.? Wherein the Departed 
 failed you is forgotten, wherein you 
 failed the Departed is bitterly re- 
 membered. Too late, alas, one can- 
 not now ask pardon. If the Departed 
 only could see the tears which have 
 at last burst the barriers of pride, if 
 they only knew the reparation one 
 
 207 
 
mm 
 
 \ni 
 
 The Potter^s Wheel 
 
 was making for their sake ! Are they 
 denied one of the chief satisfactions of 
 the soul — that those whom we love 
 are not unworthy ? If there be joy 
 in the presence of God's angels over 
 the penitent, is there no share for his 
 mother, whose prayers have at last 
 been answered ? It is a pity one can- 
 not get a receipt for the debt he has 
 paid, but let him be sure that it is 
 cancelled. 
 
 And in the witness of the De- 
 parted is one of the strong encour- 
 agements of life. We need not fear 
 that they will regard us with critical 
 and censorious eyes as we toil and 
 strive; sometimes succeeding, some- 
 times failing in this sore conflict. 
 They have been of like passions 
 with ourselves : theirs also are now 
 the infinite pity and charity of God. 
 They continually believe in us as 
 does our Lord Christ : they expect 
 
 noble deeds and holy living of us : 
 
 208 
 
Our Departed 
 
 they beseech God continually on our 
 behalf. If there be none left on 
 earth to bid us good cheer and sus- 
 tain our hearts, there be many on 
 the other side, and as we run our 
 ordered course, the Departed lean 
 forward from their high places and 
 stretch out their hands, rejoicing as 
 we slip each weight, and forsake 
 each sin, full of longing till we also 
 reach the goal, and receive the 
 Crown. 
 
 209