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COUNSELS FOR
CHURCHPEOPLE
FROM THE WRITINGS OF
THE RIGHT HON. AND RIGHT REV
MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D.
Sometime Lord Bishop of London
SELECTED AND ARRANGED
17 5
BY
J. H. BURN, B.D.
Jo
1901
ウ
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HELPS TO GODLY LIVING. From the Writings
of ARCHBISHOP TEMPLE.
HELPS TO FAITH AND PRACTICE.
Writings of CANON SCOTT HOLLAND.
From the
THE LIFE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. From the
Writings of DEAN FARRAR.
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20
PREFACE
THE previous volumes in this Series having
met with wide acceptance, the compiler is
encouraged to offer this further contribu-
tion to the devotional literature of the
Anglican Church. He desires to thank
the Bishop of London for the permission
so readily accorded to make these extracts
from his Lordship's writings.
P.S.-As these sheets are passing through
the press, the Bishop has been called to
his rest. May his wise, hopeful, and broad-
minded counsels find an echo in many
hearts and lives! And may the Great
Head of the Church give to his bereaved
diocese a ruler worthy to take up the
mantle of Dr. Creighton!
324923
Counsels for Churchpeople
Church and State
WE
E are all deeply interested in the
Work of Christ's Church, and are
desirous to promote it by all means in
our power. Of the general nature of that
work we are assured; it is to set forth
the Lord Jesus Christ. The means whereby
this is to be done He has Himself appointed.
But the conditions, under which His Work
has to be accomplished, change from time
to time; and our duty, as Christians, is
to try and grasp their full significance.
The Church must take its stand in the
actual world, and must consider its rela-
tions to things as they are. It is to no
purpose to deplore what we cannot do:
it is for us to discover in what way our
energy may be most profitably applied.
•
Now, if we consider the fortunes of the
B
2 Counsels for Churchpeople
Church throughout Christendom in recent
times, we see everywhere that the political
power of the Church has been steadily
declining. As regards the Church of Eng-
land, such has undoubtedly been the case;
and it is worth while to appreciate the
meaning of this fact.
First, I would point out that it is by
no means a special result of forces which
are working only in our own time, but is
the result of a continuous process. The
Christian Church was organised, from the
beginning, as a Catholic, or Universal
Church. There was no such organisation
of civil society. The English Nation was
formed under the fostering care of the
Church, which at first gave meaning to
the State. But as its lessons were learned,
it was natural, and it was right, that the
organism of the State should grow as an
expression of that natural life, and should
develop capacities for dealing with its
problems. I need not follow the details
of this process, which consisted in trans-
ferring to the State work which had once
been done by the Church; and this in-
evitable transference led to collisions
between what is called Church and State,
but would be more accurately described
Church and State
3
L
as collisions between Churchmen and
Statesmen. It is enough to say that the
excessive centralisation of the Church
under the Papal monarchy put the Church
at a disadvantage, in comparison with the
State, as an organ of national life. The
Reformation of the sixteenth century was
an attempt to remedy a state of things
which every one deplored.
The consequence of the changes then
made-a consequence entirely unforeseen
-was a rapid advance in national self-con-
sciousness. I have spoken of Church and
State, and the terms are generally used as
though between them they comprehended
all the forces which are at work on Society.
Really behind them both lies the Nation.
The Nation means the people as a whole,
with all their desires and aspirations; and
by reference to their capacity for developing
and expressing these desires and aspira-
tions, the institutions, both of Church and
State, may fairly be judged. The changes
of the sixteenth century were due to the
fact that the Church had largely ceased
to be an adequate organ of the Nation. The
experience of the sixteenth century showed
that the State had equally failed. We may
glorify Party Government as we please:
4
Counsels for Churchpeople
we may explain it as the supreme discovery
of English intelligence to promote full
discussion, and secure universal satisfaction.
But the fact remains that no Government
professes to give effect to the unanimous
wishes of the Nation. With the growth
of a higher sense of individual liberty,
unanimity has ceased to be possible, and
all that we can hope for in politics is the
discovery of a workable basis.
I have made these obvious remarks,
because their significance is frequently
overlooked. It is an inevitable result of
freedom that men should not all think
alike; or wish for the same thing, or
pursue the same methods. The State is
a necessary organ of the Nation, and has
to accept these facts. Its action is the
resultant of the organised forces which
are, from time to time, brought to bear
upon it. It is so ordered amongst us that
every man has an opportunity for expressing
his opinions, and ventilating his grievances.
Having done so, he must abide by the
decision of the majority. All political
machinery is an attempt to reach the
justice and good sense which is contained
in the breast of every man. To this we
appeal, as the nearest approach to the
Church and State
5
voice of God, which can be heard amid
the tumult and temptations of life. We
trust it as being, in the long run, more
unselfish than any other utterance which
can be made.
But if the State is a necessary organ of
the Nation, so also is the Church, for its
object is to keep alive, and educate into
increasing sensitiveness, that sense of
righteousness which alone exalteth a Nation.
It is only apparently, and not really true,
that the Church is declined in political
importance. There was a time when the
Church competed with the State as the
director and executor of the Nation's wishes.
The State is now the sole executor, but it has
become so by ceasing to be the director. It
is avowedly the exponent, rather than the
educator, of the national will. The modern
State has maintained its supremacy by
largely abandoning any responsibility for
its contents. Its main concern is with
mechanism rather than with principles.
This is a position which the Church could
not assume. It is concerned with princi-
ples and with principles only. The Church
of England has learned the lesson which
God has taught. She is conscious that she
is but an instrument in His Hand, and that
Į
6 Counsels for Churchpeople
He Who has entrusted to her the truth
which she has to teach, and has appointed
the means whereby she is to teach it-He,
I say, has also prescribed the conditions
within which His Work has to be done.
What then is the result of His Teaching?
What are the conditions which He has
prescribed? What the Church has been
taught is briefly this,-that God works by
influence, not by power. The Church of
England has at present neither the power,
nor the wish, to impose her institutions on
any unwilling mind, or to exercise any
other influence than that which arises from
persuasion and zeal in good works. Such
a position, clearly understood and frankly
accepted, seems to me to be the noblest
and highest which any organised body
could assume.
Disestablishment
That an ancient Nation like England
should deliberately repudiate any organic
connexion between the basis of its national
life and the profession of the Christian
Faith seems to me to be a calamity which
could never be repaired.
Disestablishment
7
The main argument on which such a
proposal rests is that no one religious
organisation expresses exactly what every-
body desires.
This argument would be
fatal to any form of the State. Men never
did agree entirely. There was a time when
disagreement was inarticulate: there was
a time when it was suppressed. It is now
seen that diverging opinions are harmless
and even advantageous about the arrange-
ment of common life, so long as there is
a fundamental trustfulness in the general
desire for order and justice. On this trust-
fulness our political system rests; on the
belief that there are great principles of
mutual goodwill which underlie definite
proposals for altering the machinery of
social order, and indeed give that machinery
its motive power. Those principles are
largely due to the operation of the Christian
religion; and its truths must always supply
the nourishment of national activity. About
these principles, in their bearing upon the
formation of character, there is not much
difference between Christian people. The
differences arise concerning the method of
expressing the truths on which these prin-
ciples rest, of setting them forth to the
world, and of applying them to the indi-
8 Counsels for Churchpeople
vidual soul. The differences themselves
are about questions which can only be
settled by patient inquiry and research,
to which the spirit of partisanship presents
the most serious obstacles. No one can
maintain that that spirit of partisanship will
be diminished by any action that can be taken
by the State. The intellectual causes which
keep men asunder would not be removed
by Disestablishment; the causes which
depend on sentiment would be indefinitely
intensified.
There was a time in England when the
State decided that the national unity was
only possible on the basis of Religious
uniformity. The State failed to secure
uniformity, but discovered that outward
uniformity was no longer necessary for
political security, and consequently with-
drew from the attempt to secure it. The
Nonconformists, finding themselves driven
by the State in a direction in which they
conscientiously objected to go, raised a cry
that the State ought not to meddle with
Religion. Their contention was absolutely
true, so far as it meant that the State ought
not to exercise any coercive power over the
consciences of its subjects. It is absolutely
untrue when it is pressed to the conclusion,
Disestablishment
9
that, to secure this result, the State should
be stripped of all connexion with the
religious life of the Nation. Yet this is
the logical extreme which is being pursued.
It is even erected into an axiom.
There is no political axiom which is, to
me, more repugnant, because it degrades
the conception of the State, which I, for
one, wish to uphold at all costs. I know
the axiom in its mediæval form, when Pope
Gregory VII. laid down that Temporal
authority had its origin in the instigation
of the devil, and drew the conclusion that
Spiritual authority was of necessity its
master and director. I regard with sus-
picion any form in which such an opinion
is revived. To me the institutions by which
my country is governed are precious, and I
should sorely grieve to see their claims on
my allegiance diminished. I can think of
nothing so tending to debase the ideal of
the State as talk about "freeing the Church
from the bondage of the State." This re-
presentation of the State as something
inherently unholy, something stifling to
Spiritual aspirations, something from which
the high-minded man longs to be delivered,
is very dangerous teaching, and indeed is
not seriously meant. But Disestablishment,
10 Counsels for Churchpeople
or, as I prefer to call it, the repudiation of
a Christian basis of the State, would go
far to give real vitality to such opinions.
Deplorable as this result would be, I do
not see on what grounds it could be de-
precated by those who rashly raise so large
an issue to gain such trivial advantage.
The existing state of things in England
may be logically anomalous, but corre-
sponds with the English conception of
liberty. There is a National Church
recognised by the State, and by its side
stand a number of Voluntary Organisations.
Every man's liberty is respected; and
though each may wish that all were of his
own way of thinking, he would be wise, in
my opinion, if he recognised that that
result can best be pursued by discussion
and persuasion rather than by endeavours
for external change. I believe that a recog-
nition of this truth is quite possible, and
that it would correspond to all that is best
in the new aspirations on which the England
of the future will be built.
So
The Church and Society 11
The Church and Society
The Work which Christ committed to
His Church was a Spiritual Work. Its
sphere was in the hearts and consciences
of men.
But men live together in society;
and the individual life is closely bound up
with the lives of others. Men live a
common life, and the promptings of
natural wisdom have always led mankind
to endeavour to arrange that common life
according to some principle of natural
justice. All human laws and institutions
are the means whereby the ideas of justice
prevalent in the community are expressed
and applied. It is obvious that any
spiritual influence which profoundly
affects the individual soul must deepen
his sense of justice, and make him in-
creasingly sensible of the claims of others.
The religion of Jesus Christ from the
beginning exercised this influence in a
marked way. The Incarnation was felt to
obliterate all arbitrary and conventional
differences between man and man.
It was
made known that "there cannot be Greek
and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman;
but Christ is all and in all." This was the
3
12 Counsels for Churchpeople
eternal truth about human society. Dis-
tinctions were abolished; all men were
equal in the equality of one all-embracing
brotherhood.
Liberty is the inalienable possession of .
man; liberty to express himself, to speak
out his thoughts, to become all that he can
become, to find scope for his powers, to
develop his spiritual capacities. But there
is in actual practice the difficulty of ad-
justing each man's claim for himself with
the equally valid claim of every one of his
fellows. This is the problem which society
has to solve, and on its solution social well-
being depends. Liberty is frequently re-
garded as if it were only a right; but it is
also a serious responsibility. The great
question for the modern world to determine
is, how men are to be fitted to bear the
heavy burden of liberty.
All human efforts are conditioned by the
imperfection of human agents. It is easy,
in the retirement of the study, to make the
small assumption that a change in the out-
ward conditions of human life will at once
produce an increase of human capacity.
Alas, the first step in actual practice shows
us that change is slow in coming, that human
nature is stubborn and unyielding, that it
The Church and Society 13
cannot be remodelled from without, but
must develop from within. Social progress
is conditioned by moral progress. The
saying of Montesquieu, "A Republic is
founded on virtue," is insuperably true:
and the virtue of a community rests upon
its religion. Law will never be welcomed,
never be reverenced, unless it is felt that
"its seat is the bosom of God, and its voice
the harmony of the world."
The organ of the community for this
important purpose is the Church, which
must always be the guardian, the educator,
and the exponent of the national conscience.
Now if we look at the past we see that in
former times the influence of the Church
was steadily exercised in the form of
amending the inequalities of defective
social arrangements. The Church, possess-
ing its own conception of the value of man,
strove to supplement the action of society,
or redress its deficiencies. It did so by
providing what the State was unable to
provide schools, universities, hospitals,
almshouses, and the like. In this way it
gradually enforced upon the State a higher
conception of duty towards the community
as a whole. Thus the whole fabric of the
Poor Laws grew up round the alms con-
14 Counsels for Churchpeople
tributed in Church by Christian men for
the relief of the sick and the indigent. The
State took over this work of the Church,
and made binding on all by law the obli-
gation which the Church had enforced on
the consciences of her children. But
though the State has undertaken some
branches of this work, others are still left
to private and voluntary beneficence, which
the Church must always stimulate and
direct. Moreover, new directions for
Christian activity are always being dis-
covered, new lines of work are continually
being opened out. The position of the
Church as a pioneer remains, and always
must remain, unchanged.
But though this part of the work of the
Church still exists, as pressing and as im-
portant as ever, we cannot rest content
with simply following on these old lines.
It is an accusation sometimes made
against Christians that they are too much
immersed in the little sphere within which
they are striving to lead a protected life,
that they are unduly heedless of the cries
which are raised around them, that they
are indisposed towards new movements,
and are not quickly sympathetic with new
aspirations.
The Church and Society 15
Now I am willing to make the greatest
allowance for the truth contained in this
assertion, which I think needs careful
examination. First of all, I cannot deny
that it is possible to be selfish in religion;
that a man who has found peace for his own
soul wonders that every one else does not
follow his exact example, sets a supreme
value on his own experience, and emphasises
that as the solution for every one's troubles.
The richer we know the fruits of our own
intellectual or spiritual efforts to have been
for ourselves, the more we are disposed to
offer them, and them only, as our con-
tribution to the needs of others. Yet we
must remember that our own experience
ought to result in the possession of prin-
ciples which are of infinite power of
application; and we ought to be able to
apply the love of God, which we feel in our
hearts, to any problem which is put before
us. In the next place, it must be admitted
that several questions are not always raised
in the first instance in a form on which
conscience can decide. It is sometimes
difficult to find the exact principle of justice,
to disentangle the ultimate and the proxi-
mate aim. Moreover, it is to be remembered
that the Church is, in a special sense, the
16 Counsels for Churchpeople
guardian of all the good that already exists
in society. She knows with what difficulty
our existing possessions have been acquired,
because she knows the extent of the
dominion of sin. She cannot put aside
the truth about human nature and its
inherent frailty. She knows how much
care is necessary to maintain even the
standard of moral and spiritual effort which
now prevails. She wishes to arrange new
aspirations according to possible principles.
of regular and orderly growth. She feels
bound to invite new ideas to put forward
their best side, to attach themselves to
great and admitted truths, to submit to the
restraints which are necessary for youthful
petulance in individuals and systems alike.
Now, I believe that it is in steadfastly
exercising this purifying and sifting in-
fluence that the great work of the Church
of Christ for human society depends. Let
all men think, and observe, and speak.
Let them consider it a duty to put forward
for the common good the best they know,
the highest they think. But let them do so
with a sense of responsibility, and let them
rest their claims on demonstrable justice.
No legal decision is binding conclusively
which does not carry with it the approval
Social Problems
17
•
of the common conscience.
No system
can prevail which assumes that man is other
than he is. No body of men can be com -
pelled to do what they do not think to be
right and acknowledge as such.
So
Social Problems
The social problems of the present day
are in their nature economic. They are
concerned with the more equal distribution
of material advantages. On the general
principle, that it is desirable to distribute
them as largely as possible, there is no
disagreement among right-minded men.
The question is how far it is possible to
distribute them, and how experiments can
best be made to determine this point. It
is obvious that wealth must be produced
before it can be distributed; and ex-
periments in the mode of its distribution
must not be such as to interfere disastrously
with its production. Hence experiments.
have to be made cautiously, in detail, and
with reference to particular facts. These
facts, moreover, are in their nature hard to
determine; they are complicated; they
с
18 Counsels for Churchpeople
i.
cannot be isolated, but are interwoven
with a huge and somewhat artificial system.
None but those who have given attention
to the particular question which is raised
can justly venture to express a decided
opinion. There is a temptation to express
a rash judgment on the points at issue. But
a Christian is not necessarily an economist;
if he were, he would probably know that he
was entirely incapable of judging in this
particular case; that judgment required a
mass of minute knowledge which he did not
possess and could not hastily acquire.
Has he, therefore, no part to play? I
venture to think that there is much which
he can do. He may not be able to help
intellectually in settling the dispute; but he
can greatly influence the temper in which
it is conducted. The voice which says
"Sirs, ye are brethren," is a grateful
reminder of a necessary truth, which
sometimes threatens to escape. The
pressure of the hand which recognises
the gravity of the situation carries sus-
tainment. The sympathetic criticism which
pleads: “You struggle for a principle;
keep that principle unsullied by passion; I
cannot say if you are intellectually right
in your end, but I can judge if you are
Social Problems
19
morally right in your means;" this is the
support which keeps men true to their best
selves, and makes for peace.
Surely it is the duty of Christian men to
seek out and to manifest the permanent
significance of passing events, to discover
their fruitful principles and to exhibit them
in their inward and abiding meaning. For
this purpose the Christian must avoid
partisanship, and must seek for that quiet
wisdom which comes from the illuminating
power of the Holy Spirit of God. In all
ages there is a desire for the "vir pietate
gravis," whose utterance may compose
discord. It is true that in the heat of dis-
cussion there are loud cries for active help
instead of kindly sympathy. Men need an
ally, not a dispassionate adviser. They
exclaim "What is the Church doing?"
They demand that the judgment of con-
science should be entirely on their side.
But no fair judgment can be given without
a careful sifting of facts; and it is facts
which are in dispute.
The Christian Church is the necessary
link which binds men together. It is the
great guarantee for peaceful progress. The
great need of our day is that all human
relationships should be first moralised and
20 Counsels for Churchpeople
then spiritualised. For this great end we
need not only good intentions, but know-
ledge and wisdom. As society becomes
more complex every form of activity has to
be more specialised, and has to be founded
upon a careful study of details. Legislation
can only follow slowly upon the develop-
ment of the national conscience. Christian
zeal on the other hand is always in the van,
and is striving to occupy new regions. The
world is growing sadly conscious that it
cannot cure the wounds which it inflicts.
Its eyes are more and more fixed upon the
Church, whose attitude and actions are
closely scanned.
Jo
The Church and Education
The question of Education is one in
which the Church must always have an
abiding interest, not so much in particular
details as in its essential principles. There
are many questions which are questions of
administrative detail; but education is
founded on principles, of which the Church
is in a sense the guardian. The Church, as
soon as it was organised, made education
The Church and Education 21
one of its chief aims; and every branch of
the existing system of our national education
grew up under the shadow of the Church,
and under her direction.
It is to be regretted that about education
there exists a difference of opinion, which
was recognised from the first. The first
step in making education national was that
the Church, together with all other religious
bodies, was regarded as an agent of the
State, and received subvention from the
State for educational purposes. The Act of
1870 proposed that all existing schools
should continue as they were, and that the
State should supplement them by providing
means for the compulsory supply of schools
in districts where population was rapidly
increasing.
The Voluntary system and the State
system were to exist side by side, and were
to influence one another beneficially. This
to a large extent has been the case.
The rapid development of general interest
in education, following upon the intro-
duction of a universal system, is a matter
for thankfulness and pride. We rejoice
that education has been made compulsory
and free of charge. We rejoice that
England has recognised the rudiments of
22 Counsels for Churchpeople
education as necessary for every member
of the community, and has placed it at the
disposal of all. We regard such a result
as a worthy token of enlightened con-
scientiousness, and a quickened sense of
universal obligation. In the next place,
this general increase of interest in education
has produced greater attention to educa-
tional methods, and to the conditions in
which education can best be conducted.
In this also we rejoice, and our desire for
educational efficiency is keen. It is true
that changes come quickly, that experiments
are costly. But it cannot be too clearly
stated that the managers of Voluntary
Schools are just as much interested in all
that can promote educational progress as
are the members of a School Board. It is,
however, obvious that members of a body
which has behind it the unlimited resources
of the public purse are not likely to be so
critical of new experiments as are those
who have to render an account to voluntary
subscribers. The members of a Board bow
before the decision of a central authority;
the managers of a voluntary school some-
times criticise, not it may be the abstract
wisdom of its decree, but its applicability
to the conditions of their particular school.
The Church and Education 23
The reason why the Church has main-
tained her schools is simply because she did
not think herself justified in abandoning
her own view of education and of her duty
towards it. The Church continued her
own schools as a security for the religious
teaching of her own children. Was she
right in so doing?
Now in religion, education is more
strongly marked off from instruction than
it is in secular subjects. Provided that a
child is taught to read and write, the mode
by which the result is attained is of
secondary importance. The same cannot
be said of the contents of religious teaching.
In religion instruction cannot well be
separated from education. We all admit
that the most important part of education
is the formation of character. Now
character is only influenced by character;
and the mode in which influence is exerted
is by the exhibition of principles operative
in their application to particular needs.
The whole question of discipline depends
on the attitude of the teacher towards the
children as human beings. There is in
every lesson, no matter what the subject
may be, a perpetual appeal, unconscious I
admit, to some motive in the child's mind.
24 Counsels for Churchpeople
The appeal, I say, is unconscious, but its
effect is cumulative; and the most impor-
tant effect of any educational system is the
general attitude towards life which it has
inculcated.
It may be said that this is over subtle ;
that it is an application of principles, which
are true in the more advanced forms of
education, to the simpler forms where they
cannot be sufficiently developed to be
powerful. The maxim "De minimis non
curat lex" is a statement of human limita-
tions if we said "De minimis non curat
Deus we should be speaking blasphemy.
Everything that concerns the development
of a child's mind and character is of supreme
importance; and that character is un-
doubtedly the result of all the influences
to which it has been subjected.
:
"}
This, then, is the reason why we wish to
preserve education on Christian principles,
and see in it something more than a matter
to be decided by considerations of present
convenience. The method of dichotomy
has always an appearance of simple justice;
but the proposal of Solomon to apply it to a
living organism revealed the true parent.
Doubtless her preference for unity partook
of the nature of obstruction. The Church
Biblical Criticism
25
must run the same risk of misrepresentation
in her desire to be the true mother of her
children.
Jo
Biblical Criticism.
The central object of the Christian Faith
is the Person of the Lord Jesus, in Whom
was made the supreme revelation of God's
purpose to the world. No man's faith is
secure unless it rests on Him, and has
become vital by spiritual experience. Let
us remember that the meaning of Christi-
anity is this: God manifested in Christ
Jesus, Who is to us the Way, the Truth, and
the Life.
This is obvious enough in itself. But the
appreciation of it greatly affects our attitude
towards intellectual questions when they
are raised. The Christian's belief is in a
Person, Who is ever present with him, in
Whose presence his life is lived, and by
Whose aid his soul's activities are developed.
The Bible is to him the divinely ordered
record of that Person. In other words, we
read our Bible that it may show us Christ,
and that by prayerful study and meditation
Christ may grow in our hearts by faith.
26 Counsels for Churchpeople
The Book which is thus intimately asso-
ciated with our life and thought has an
inherent sacredness. The Christian cannot
regard it as like any other book. He
shrinks from subjecting it to ordinary tests,
or treating it in a cold and external manner.
Yet this is precisely what he has had to
endure, and what he cannot hope to escape.
If we ask how this situation comes about,
we must answer that the mind of man is
perpetually curious, and through its growing
curiosity God trains us to a constant increase
of knowledge. God created man after His
own image, and gave him his faculties of
body and mind that he should replenish the
earth and subdue it. Every increase of
knowledge gives man greater power over
his surroundings. It is made, we cannot
doubt it, in accordance with the will of
God, and may be used for good or for evil.
It is used for good if it re-inforces the
spiritual and moral perceptions of man; it
is used for evil if it leads to arrogance and
short-sighted denial of God and His relation
to man. That relation is summed up in the
manifestation of the Lord Jesus; and the
Scriptures show us that manifestation and
the steps which prepare the way for it.
The contents of God's revelation made in
Biblical Criticism
27
the Bible are briefly-the preparation for
Christ, the Coming of Christ, and the
beginnings of Christ's Church; or in other
words, the history of Israel, the life of Christ,
the doings and writings of His Apostles.
Now these are concerned with facts, facts
which have a spiritual significance to the
believer, but which also stand in relation to
other facts of recorded history. Criticism
is the attempt to determine that relation;
and in so doing it examines the records in
which these facts are contained. The
value of such an examination must always
depend on the impartiality with which it is
undertaken. Much of the criticism of the
New Testament has been animated by the
desire to explain away the miraculous
element which it contains, by depriving the
Gospels of the authority of contemporary
records and representing them as the work
of a later age with legendary accretions.
Now if an ingenious writer begins with that
intention, it is comparatively easy to put
together a case. But the case only seems
strong till it is answered. It is only after
a lengthened controversy, when every
available scrap of evidence has been
carefully collected, interpreted in every
possible way, weighed and judged from
28 Counsels for Churchpeople
:
every side, that it is possible to determine
the limits within which two opinions are
tenable. It is enough to say that as regards
the Gospels the controversy has driven their
assailants nearer and nearer to the date of
the authors to whom they are ascribed by
tradition.
Do
The Old Testament
In recent years criticism has been more
busied with the Old Testament than with
the New. It is obvious that the questions
which may be raised concerning the Old
Testament cover a much larger area than
those which can be raised concerning the
brief period which is covered by the New
Testament. The Old Testament, in fact,
contains the whole history and literature of
a people. Those records and that literature
possess a remarkable unity. They show a
consciousness of a Divine purpose running
through human affairs and inspiring human
thought. It is this consciousness of a
purpose, becoming more and more definite
in its expectation of a spiritual redemption,
which gives them their eternal value to the
The Old Testament
29
Christian. But we must admit that, besides
their religious significance, they possess also
a vast historical importance, and have a
unique literary value. They form a central
point of interest for students of ancient
history, of early institutions, and of the
development of human thought. These are
all studies which have an existence in-
dependent of religion. We cannot feel
surprised that students of these subjects
should apply to the records contained in
the Old Testament the same method of
critical examination which they believe to
have been fruitful of results as regards the
records of the history of other nations.
But here I would say at once that all
criticism is after all only conjectural. It
depends partly upon a careful comparison
of the written history with other similar
records, with inscriptions, and the like.
But it depends also largely on the assump-
tion of a certain creative sympathy with
past conditions, which enables the critic
to weave together scattered hints into a
connected system.
We know the development of the English
language, and we could recognise the argu-
ments by which a particular document
could be shown to belong to a particular
30 Counsels for Churchpeople
date. But in the Hebrew writings any
theory of literary development must depend
on reasoning which is rarely beyond dispute.
For instance, no evidence is available which
will enable a decision about the authorship
of the Psalms, so as to supersede authorita-
tively the traditional attribution.
Moreover, the important point about the
history of Israel is its exhibition of the
national consciousness. The Jewish his-
torians set forth a Divine purpose running
through human affairs. It is this inter-
pretation of God's purpose in events, not
the events themselves, which gives this
record of a nation's life its religious signifi-
cance. This remains untouched, whatever
theory be adopted about the authorship
and mode of composition of the records.
This is admitted on all hands. The critics
of the Old Testament do not attempt to
deprive it of its religious importance as a
Divine revelation. They are merely engaged
in investigating the mode in which that
revelation was made. Those who have not
been accustomed to such investigations
shrink from them with a feeling of alarm
at the audacity of the attempt. They have
received the Bible as the Word of God.
They may take courage by thinking that
Suspense of Judgment
31
it may ever remain so. Analysis may, or
may not, succeed in establishing its results
about the mode in which the Old Testament
came into its present shape. But it cannot,
and does not undertake to account for the
spiritual conceptions which it reveals. The
Spirit of God spake to the spirit of man,
"by divers portions and in divers manners."
If God chooses that men should meditate
on these manners, and endeavour to
separate these portions, it is only the
attempt to express in organised form what
was implicitly felt by a writer in apostolic
times.
For my own part I feel that God calls
man to exercise his mental powers, and
wills that we should "prove all things, and
hold fast to that which is good." I would
not venture to check inquiry, conducted in
a reverent spirit, by rash assertion of its
futility, or by appeals to ulterior considera-
tions.
Suspense of Judgment
There are some minds which are im-
patient of anything that resembles sus-
32 Counsels for Churchpeople
pended judgment: indeed, suspended
judgment is impossible as regards vital
principles. We must believe the Bible to
be the Word of God, and Jesus to be the
Word made flesh. But the relation of
God's revelation in Scripture to God's
perpetual revelation, which is being made
in history and in life, is a matter which
may be considered. Scripture has been
interpreted in the past in various ways, and
has been applied to the settlement of
current questions according to prevailing
modes of thought. Some of these modes
of interpretation we now reject as unsound
or partial. As a matter of fact no one part
of man's knowledge can exist by itself.
One truth is insensibly held in relation to
other truths, and derives its vital power
from the questions to which it is applied.
These questions are raised for us. We are
none of us individually responsible for them.
They are there and must be answered.
They are the heritage of our own age and
of the special conditions among which our
life is cast. Are we to say that this is
accidental, or that it is God's purpose for
us? A Christian cannot doubt about the
answer to this question. He must assume
the responsibility which devolves upon him,
Suspense of Judgment 33
}
!
and submit to the discipline by which alone
it can be discharged.
It is the temper of the present day to
ask the question How? about all things.
We can welcome such curiosity; but the
point where we must be cautious is that
the answer given to the question How?
should not be confused with the answer
to that other question Why? No investiga-
tion how the Scriptures are the will of God
can answer the question why they are the
will of God. That can be seen only by the
spiritual consciousness, and the continuous
record of that spiritual consciousness con-
stitutes the authority of the Church.
That authority cannot be impaired unless
the Church, on its side, undertakes to
answer the question How? Such an attempt
has not been made by the Church of
England. It has no utterances to explain
away, no positions which it is bound to
maintain at all hazards. Its great process
of reformation was carried out by the
recognition of a growth of knowledge.
No branch of the Church has made such
weighty contributions to theological know-
ledge since the sixteenth century as has the
Church of England. The temper of that
Church is admirably adapted to foster
D
34 Counsels for Churchpeople
theological development on sound lines.
I think that Biblical Criticism in England
is being conducted in a reverential spirit;
and though a certain amount of speculation
must necessarily be rash, I think that the
sense of responsibility is on the whole
maintained. It is a subject of sincere
thankfulness that controversy is conducted
in the spirit of charity.
The Hope of the Future
Every right-minded man has to emanci-
pate himself from the fetters of his indivi-
dual life, and associate it with a universal
purpose. There may be divers ways, but
the end is the same. The claim for per-
sonal satisfaction can only be answered by
self-surrender to a power which works for
righteousness, and can be traced in its
operation in all that happens around us.
The consciousness of our soul's life with
God is not something given us to withdraw
us from the world, but to show us how our
energies may be applied to work with God
in the world which He has made. We are
taught to labour, not for personal gratifica-
The Hope of the Future 35
tion, not for success to our own plans and
schemes, but for God's good pleasure
towards the children of His hand. More
and more, as life advances, the dream of
opening up for others a happier prospect
than that which opened before ourselves
becomes the great reality of the efforts of
every true-hearted man. With this object
before him he is conscious of freedom, and
amidst all obstacles steadily pursues his
way. He recks not that he is misunderstood
or misrepresented. What is good and true
will live because it has life in itself; not
from the force of his efforts, but from the
source of his inspiration. At times he may
sigh with regret that he will not see the
fruit of his labours with his earthly eyes.
But it is no selfish sigh, for he needs no
such reward. It is only the regret of an
artist that he will not live to see his rough
sketch take definite shape-a regret which
is checked at once by the thought that
sketching has a pleasure of its own, and
the bold outline has a value even beside
the finished picture.
Hope for the future, founded on trust in
God, is in some form or another the sus-
taining principle of a man's activity. It
may not be much that any one can do; but
36 Counsels for Churchpeople
there is something at all events which can
be done.
Some young life can be aided by kindly
sympathy and friendly counsel; some
stumbling-blocks can be removed for the
newcomers who hasten along life's path.
This is an object which the greatest and
the smallest can have in common. It is a
standard by which the value of all good
work can be tested. It corresponds to the
deepest feelings of the human heart; it
appeals to universal instincts; it is the
note of all high endeavour.
National Progress
Progress, for which we labour, can only
be towards greater righteousness, on which
alone prosperity and happiness depend.
Our plans, our hopes, our fears must be
regulated, not by things as they at first
present themselves to us, but by those
things rightly understood by reference to
an ideal conception of a future which is to
be framed by more perfect laws than the
present. The vision of this possible future
lifts us above our momentary and personal
self, the thought of our own immediate
National Progress
37
reputation, our triumphs or our failures,
and gives us a standard by which to judge
the true meaning of our actions. We can
only hope to renew our energies by pene-
trating into a larger and yet larger world,
by striving to bring into play weightier
forces than we ourselves can command.
Patriotism is doubtless a great and neces-
sary virtue; it must always regulate much
that we do, but it should not therefore
narrow our aspirations. A nation, as well
as an individual, has much to learn, and
must learn it, as the individual learns,
mainly by sympathetic intercourse with
like-minded nations. On this gradual
education of nations, more than anything
else, the hope of the world's future depends.
Nations with like ideas of righteousness go
forth on their separate ways, not that they
may emphasise the differences which arise
from differing experience, but that they may
bring the results of their experience to a
common stock. The Teutonic race has the
same fundamental ideas. It has the same
sense of duty, the same conception of
conscience, the same aspiration after justice
as the highest expression of national
righteousness. We cannot shut our eyes
to the responsibility which God's Provi-
38 Counsels for Churchpeople
dence has placed upon the nations of that
Teutonic race. We are driven to consider
how much the future of the world depends
on the extension and purification of the ideas
on which their vigorous life is founded. It
is not enough that each nation should recog-
nise and glorify these ideas as it knows them.
It must learn from the experience of other
nations to understand them better and apply
them more thoroughly. Is not this the task
which lies before the great nations of the
Teutonic stock? Shall we not combine in
a spirit of comradeship to help one another
to perform a work which we all have in
common? God rules over the world, be
the people never so unquiet. It is man's
highest wisdom humbly to seek to under-
stand God's will in things great and small;
in the concerns of a particular hearth and
home; in the questions which concern his
country's welfare; and in those greater
issues on which the future of the world's
progress depends. Our personal efforts,
whatever they be, only avail if they are
in accordance with God's purpose. If we
have done our best to discover this purpose,
and with our whole heart to work for it, we
cannot ultimately fail. This purpose floats
before our eyes in the form of a vision,
The Church of England 39
capable of realisation here and now, of a
time when all peoples shall be happy in the
knowledge of the Lord as their God.
The Fundamental Principle of the
Church of England
I was talking to a Candidate for Ordina-
tion, who was going out to work in the
Mission Field in India. He said to me:
"I wish that I had a clear answer to the
question 'What is the position of the Church
of England in Christendom?' I know the
claim of the Church of Rome-that it is a
universal and Divinely appointed institution,
to which all men must belong. I know the
claim of the Greek Church, that it preserves
the Catholic Faith, and sets it forth in
ancient forms, intelligible to simple people.
I do not know any corresponding formula
to describe the position of the Church of
England."
It may seem to you odd that such a
question should be asked, or that there
should be any difficulty in supplying an
answer. But the English mind is not
fertile in definitions, and we are apt to
40 Counsels for Churchpeople
rejoice in our freedom from the restraints
of mere logic. The test of our institutions
is their general adaptability to the work
which they have to do. We judge them
by the way in which they satisfy our own
needs, not by the ease with which we can
explain them to others. There is no ready
definition of the British Constitution, nor,
indeed, of any part or our national iustitu-
tions. The Church of England has never
undertaken to define its relations to other
bodies, or to put forth any claims for
universal acceptance. It was in the first
instance avowedly an expression of the
religious consciousness of the English
people; and its position in the world
depends upon its power of educating that
consciousness to a true sense of its destiny.
The formula which most explains the
position of the Church of England is that
it rests on an appeal to sound learning.
There were always in the Western Church
two somewhat different lines of thought.
One was concerned with maintaining and
expressing popular devotion, the other with
the great principles of the Catholic Faith.
There came a time when these two
tendencies became conscious of antagonism.
The theology of the Schoolmen which had
The Church of England 41
grown up to explain the practices which
seemed necessary to meet popular demands
was exposed to the criticism of those whom
the Revival of Learning had led to a more
intelligent study of the records of early
times. There was, on the one side, a
massive system of logical theology which
was difficult to attack on its own grounds.
There was, on the other side, a growing
sense that the ecclesiastical system which
it maintained was obscuring rather than
illustrating the vital principles on which the
Christian life is founded. In the fifteenth
century futile attempts were made to reform
the overgrown system of the Church. They
failed, because the logical fabric of that
system was so strong that it was difficult
to deal with it in detail. It was hard to see
where reform was to begin, or where it was
to end. Reforming efforts ended in a sense
of hopeless weariness; but one truth became
apparent, that reform was only possible by
returning to the principles of sound learning.
It was just this principle that was applied
in the changes made in the English Church
in the sixteenth century. It was not that
England alone possessed the necessary
learning; that learning and its conclusions
had long been the common property of
42 Counsels for Churchpeople
serious and thoughtful men. But England
had the unique opportunity of applying it
calmly and dispassionately.
What was the work which this learning
had to do at the Reformation? It was the
removal from the system of the Church of
a mass of accretions which had grown
round it, through its constant desire to meet
the demands of popular devotion. It is an
entirely wrong view to suppose that the
Church of the Middle Ages went astray
through the desire of the priesthood to
grasp at power. Doubtless every man
loves power, and every man tends to
magnify his office; but power comes from
doing what people want, and so long as
people are satisfied, they do not keenly
criticise the nature of the authority which
gives them satisfaction. Curiosity is common
to all men, and is applied to all subjects-
especially to those which are of the greatest
practical importance. It has always been
difficult to preserve the Truth which God
has made known to us from the desire of
man to expand it to meet his own
requirements.
The problem set before the leaders of our
Church in the sixteenth century was to dis-
entangle essential truth from the mass of
The Church of England 43
opinion which had gathered around it.
This opinion was supported by the claim
of the ecclesiastical organisation, not only
to bear witness of the Truth, but to explain
it and amplify it, and incorporate successive
explanations and amplifications with the
Truth itself. The process of dividing ac-
curately between the Truth and the accre-
tions which had grown round it was one
which needed considerable care, and could
only be done by the principles of what I
have called sound learning. These princi-
ples apply, not only to theology, but to
every other subject. The first step of any
inquirer after truth is to consider carefully
the material with which he is dealing and
the evidence which is available. He must
reject specious hypotheses, however attrac-
tive they may be. I do not say that he may
not cherish them for his own delectation,
but he must distinguish clearly between
what is proved and what he finds it helpful
for himself to hold as an aid to his specula-
tions. But truth itself must be regarded
with supreme veneration as something not
to be impaired by the limitations of the
individual inquirer. As regards the Chris-
tian Faith, the evidence is contained in
Scripture and in Scripture only. Good
44 Counsels for Churchpeople
men may explain it, and may use it to
answer those questions which the mind of
man is continually asking about the mystery
of its destiny; but sound learning dictates
that "Holy Scripture containeth all things
necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever
is not read therein, nor may be proved
thereby, is not to be required of any man,
that it should be believed as an article of
the Faith, or be thought requisite or neces-
sary to salvation." This, which I have
called the method of sound learning, is the
fundamental principle of the Church of
England.
The Appeal to the Primitive Church
Beside a clear statement of the nature of
the evidence applicable, it is necessary in
every subject to state also the principles of
interpretation.
The Church of England
refers to the "decent order of the ancient
Fathers"; that is to say, the methods of the
primitive Church.
Reference to primitive times is par-
ticularly valuable for the interpretation of
Scripture; for we tend to approach Scrip-
Appeal to Primitive Church 45
ture with prepossessions of our own. It
has been the object of much misrepresenta-
tion; it has suffered from manifold con-
troversies. Our minds, in fact, are some-
what sophisticated, and we need to step
into a freer atmosphere. We go to primi-
tive times that we may acquire a primitive
attitude of mind and a primitive temper. I
think that if the contents of the Prayer
Book be carefully studied from this point of
view, it is astonishing how primitive they
are. They are singularly free from the
stains of controversy; they aim only at
setting forth the Truth in its purity and in
its due proportion.
Let me apply this to the long controversy
about the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
The Church of England sets aside two
opinions on this point.
(1) "It is not only a sign of the love that
Christians ought to have among themselves,
one to another, but rather is a Sacrament
of our Redemption by Christ's death.
a partaking of the Body and Blood of
Christ."
(2) "Transubstantiation, or the change of
the substance of Bread and Wine, cannot
be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant
to the plain words of Scripture."
46 Counsels for Churchpeople
What is the real nature of the controversy
to which those two statements refer ?
Christians differ about the mode in which
the outward elements become the vehicle
of the Spiritual Grace. Can this question.
be answered? Is it for man's good that it
should be answered? The Church of
England, resting upon sound learning,
refuses to go beyond the words of Scripture
and the practice of the Early Church.
There is no compromise here, there is a
mere reference to the nature of the evi-
dence. If men choose to indulge in specu-
lation on such a point, they do so for
themselves and at their own risk; they
must not claim to have their speculations
incorporated into the system of the Church.
Such an attitude may doubtless seem to
some minds cold and unsatisfactory; but
where God has not spoken, man must keep
silence. It is one duty of the Church to
maintain the Divine reserve, and to uphold
the Divine wisdom, against the specious
demands of even the noblest forms of
purely human emotion.
On the same principle the Church of
England dealt with ecclesiastical discipline.
It retained the framework of the primitive
system, discarding those minute applica-
Appeal to Primitive Church 47
tions in points of detail which had robbed
that system of its educational value. In all
matters punctiliousness about trifles was
avoided. The appeal was made to con-
science. Weight was given to instruction.
The pastoral side of the priestly office was
restored to due prominence. The method
of our Lord's teaching was put before a
mechanical appliance of His merits. In
short, the Church of England was to be the
Church of free men, educating them into a
knowledge of the "liberty wherewith Christ
hath made them free."
Similarly the services of the Church were
brought back to their early simplicity; the
time-honoured structure was retained, and
its system was made "agreeable to the
mind and purpose of the Old Fathers."
Ceremonies were judged by the standard
of order and intelligibility; the Services
were to be stately and dignified, and the
ceremonies were to be such "that every
man may understand what they do mean,
and to what use they do serve." They were
to be an accompaniment to, and an explana-
tion of, the revised Services, not an attempt
to impose upon those Services a meaning
which was not their own.
48 Counsels for Churchpeople
1
The English Type of Character
Every ecclesiastical system stands in
close relationship to the life of the people,
which it undertakes to train in the know-
ledge of God. It has to be judged to some
extent with reference to the type of charac-
ter which it aims at creating and maintain-
ing. We all know the type of character
which, however imperfectly it may be
realised by the individual, still floats before
our minds as the ideal, which we wish
national life to express. The English ideal
is that of a serious-minded, resolute, inde-
pendent man loving justice, making for
righteousness, strong in the fear of God.
It is a great thing to possess such a national
ideal. It will be said that its formation is
not due to the unaided influence of the
Church of England. I fully admit that it is
the product of English Christianity, wrought
out in some degree by the antagonisms
which the system of the Church provoked;
but it was the principles of that Church in
themselves which created the new life of
England in the sixteenth century. The
question of their further extension only
emphasised their inherent power. It is
hard for us now to realise the enormous
English Type of Character 49
gulf which separates the England of Henry
VIII. from the England of Elizabeth. A
stride was unconsciously taken into a new
sphere of ideas, which liberated human
energies, created new aspirations, indicated
new possibilities, and revealed dormant
qualities which then sprang into conscious
being. We may regret that this new life
was too full to be retained within the limits
of one system. Rulers in Church and State
alike were afraid of its manifold activities,
and of the disintegrating power of new
ideas on a people whose training had made
such a rapid advance. The rulers had to
learn by experience the new qualities of the
people. The only use to make of past
mistakes is to accept their lessons. Eng-
lishmen of the present day have learnt, I
hope, to make the best of the robustness of
the English character, even when they find
it for their own purposes excessive.
Perhaps we may all agree that we have
reached a point in the development of the
national character when its sterling qualities
are sufficiently assured. Our task in the
future is to impart to the strength of our
national character some
of the finer
elements which up to the present have not
been unduly cultivated. I may be pre-
E
50 Counsels for Churchpeople
judiced in my opinion, but I think that
the system of the Church affords the best
means for adding still more to our national
character those qualities which it has ever
striven to impart, and which the tendency
of our national growth makes it increasingly
necessary that we should acquire. Let
me point out some of the ways in which
this is done. First, the Church is a great
witness to the continuity of national life,
and the method of the Divine training of
our race. It raises a constant protest
against excessive self-assertion, against
unbridled individualism; it urges the claims
of corporate life as supreme. Secondly, the
system of its Services maintains the due
proportion of Christian truth, and so pre-
serves an even balance of the mind, which
is especially needful when the growing
complexity of society tends to make men fix
their attention on particular points, and
follow individual teachers in particular
causes, disregarding their relation to the
social fabric as a whole. Thirdly, the
dignified language of the Prayer Book sets
a standard of reverence which in the
present day it is specially necessary to
maintain. Fourthly, the system of the
Church affords adequate, but not undue
Some Causes of Disquiet 51
scope for those powers of æsthetic percep-
tion which cannot be repressed without
impairing the fulness of human nature.
Any system which aims at developing
character in its completeness must pay due
regard to the balance of qualities wherewith
that nature has been endowed by its Creator.
The whole of man has to be claimed for
Christ, and purified and sanctified by His
Spirit. The co-ordination of these qualities
so as to work harmoniously for the highest
purpose of man's being is an object which
cannot be neglected.
Some Causes of Disquiet in the
Church
(1) There has been an attempt, on purely
missionary grounds, to adapt the Services
of the Church to what were supposed to be
the needs of the people; to make the
Services more pointed, to emphasise cer-
tain aspects of them, in some cases to
expand and in other cases to narrow their
scope. It is with reference to this that I
have called attention to the danger of inter-
$
52 Counsels for Churchpeople
preting popular demands and taking them
too exclusively as a guide.
(2) Along with this there has been in a
few cases a tendency to introduce teaching
on subjects which were omitted in the
revision of the Prayer Book. I have pointed
out the difference between the Truth of
God and human hypotheses which have
been added to it. We stand, and must
always stand, upon what God has made
known to us. This must not be obscured
by speculation about outlying subjects
which tends to obscure great central
truths.
(3) There has been a desire to give
greater dignity to the Services of the
Church as a part of public life. This is
entirely a question of degree, and might be
discussed by itself as a matter of common
sense, which it is undesirable to mix up
with any theological considerations what-
ever.
(4) There has been a desire to break
down, somewhat too precipitately, the
barriers of our insularity by emphasising
the points of resemblance between the
system of the English Church and that of
foreign Churches. I do not wish to discuss
the wisdom of this attempt; but it accounts
Some Causes of Disquiet 53
for the use of phraseology which has excited
suspicion, and which I think very unwise.
It is enough for me to point out that the
desire to be on better terms with our
neighbours cannot be accomplished by any
sacrifice of our own principles. Other
peoples must clearly understand what we
are, and what we mean, before we can
profitably discuss the question of more
friendly relationship.
If these are some of the broader aspects
of the motives which have led to changes,
it is well to consider the general grounds
on which the opposition to them rests.
(1) It is necessary that there should be a
recognisable type of the Anglican Services,
so that worshippers may not be confused
by the multiplicity of variations. Habit
counts for much in human nature. In a
time when people move about so much, it
is perplexing to find marked variations in
the rendering of the Services. We must
have a clear understanding about the limits
of permissible variation.
(2) There is a dim consciousness that
some of the methods which have been
employed come perilously near to the inau-
guration of a new system of theological
development backwards, with all its ac-
54 Counsels for Churchpeople
companying dangers. All ground for this
fear must be removed.
(3) Unwise attempts to revive ecclesias-
tical discipline on arbitrary lines have led
to a fear lest a new type of character should
be produced, lacking in that robustness
which Englishmen rightly prize.
(4) Things have been done, on principles
which seemed to imply that the system of
the Church of England could be supple-
mented at will, and that the authority of the
officers of the Church of England could be
overruled by an appeal to some more
binding authority, the secret nature of
which was apparently locked up in the
bosom of the individual recalcitrant. This
entirely impossible position must be frankly
abandoned.
I am aware that perfect peace and agree-
ment cannot come at once, or indeed ever
in this imperfect world; but those who are
dealing with the highest interests of man
may at least avoid conscious misrepresenta-
tion and appeals to prejudice. If contro-
versy is inevitable, it should be about
principles and not about petty details.
•
English Christianity
55
Three Great Qualities embodied in
English Christianity
What are the three chief qualities which,
after all, lie at the bottom of the English
temper, and which exhibit themselves most
in the doings of average Englishmen?
They are, I think, first of all, a regard for
truth, and secondly, a regard for liberty,
and thirdly, a regard for order. Truth,
liberty and order, these are the three
qualities which the Englishman, so far as
he succeeds in doing anything in the world,
tries to embody in his life, and in his way
of looking at things, in the actions that he
ordinarily engages in.
You will admit that those are valuable
qualities. Has it ever struck you that what
are called the difficulties of the English
Church arise entirely from the fact that the
English Church tries to set forth those three
qualities-truth, liberty and order? Now
it is quite easy to set forth two, but it is
very difficult to set them forth all three.
What does the Roman Church do? Its claim
is to set forth truth and order. Wherein
is its failure? It has omitted liberty, and
because it is so far concerned with order,
it reduces the truth to error, for the purpose
56 Counsels for Churchpeople
simply of amplifying order and organi-
sation. The consequence is that order and
organisation are put first, the truth is put
second, and liberty is entirely sacrificed.
What, again, are the leading characteristics
of bodies of Christians at large? They
hold the truth, but they hold liberty before
the truth-private judgment first, as much
truth as the individual would take, and
order does not matter. It is because they
are founded upon these principles and
because they put them in that way that they
have got a perfectly clear and perfectly
· simple message to the world. Those who
put liberty and truth first and leave order to
come after their task is comparatively
easy; but ours is difficult. If you take two
of the qualities I have mentioned and make
one of them prominent, then you get a
system that can be set quite simply, and
which can work satisfactorily enough within
the limits which it has defined for itself;
but if you want to be as large as you can, if
you want to face the world as it is and as
God has made it; if you wish to take men
and human society into your survey and
consider what are a man's capacities and
qualities, and what is the Divine will toward
him, and if you try to set forth in the world
English Christianity
57
F
what you believe to be the equilibrium
which God has established for His creatures,
why, then, to preserve the equilibrium be-
tween truth and liberty and order is difficult.
Yet the English character is continually
trying to do so; and the strength of the
English character in everything that it
undertakes is owing to its desire to keep
these two things together. Never willingly
does an Englishman drop out one; in-
stinctively, unconsciously, he tries to hold
them all three. It would be a bad thing for
England if any one of them was dropped
out, if any one of them was left out in the
consideration of the average man in what
he thought and what he said. Truth,
Liberty, Order-we need all three together;
and although the result of holding them
fast together is to produce an unsatisfactory
appearance outside (for now one, now the
other seems to be predominating for the
time, and very often their conclusions
cannot be set forth so clearly and so dis-
tinctly as if you dropped out one of these
qualities), yet still it is the holding them
together which is the glory of the English
nation, and which is the special claim of the
English Church. The English character is
more closely connected with the character
58 Counsels for Churchpeople
¦
of the English Church than English people
ordinarily think, and the English Church
more clearly expresses the ideal aspiration
of the English people than the English
Church knows.
So
The Activities of Modern Life
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a
merchant-man, seeking goodly pearls, who,
having found one Pearl of Great Price,
went and sold all that he had and bought it."
Does not that represent the conditions of
our own day? Does not that represent the
manifold activities of which we are so
proud? "What am I to do?" the young
man asks of the world in which he enters.
And the answer is, "Be industrious, labour
hard, improve yourself, use all your ad-
vantages, develop them to the full." That
is the answer we give, and that is the best
sort of answer the world gives nowadays to
one who asks its advice. "Get on, labour,
be industrious, search for things, find them
out for yourself." It is indeed a day in
which the treasure has to be sought. We
speak of the pressure of daily life, we speak
Activities of Modern Life 59
of the continual strain upon our exertions,
we speak of the energy required to keep
things going, we speak of the high pressure
at which modern life is conducted. Yes,
everything has to be sought. You will get
nothing, we tell one another, you will get
nothing if you do not look for it; you will get
nothing if you do not labour for it; you
have to deserve everything you acquire.
It is a picture of the manifold activities
of modern life, and they are manifold-
a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls!
Never was there a time, we are saying one
to another, never was there a time when
every one had so many opportunities before
him, when education was so easy, when it
was brought to almost everybody's doors,
when the opportunities for self-improve-
ment were so great, when everything was
made so easy, so plain, so simple, when
books could be bought for so small a sum,
the best literature, when no man need be
kept away from all the highest and noblest
thoughts of the past, when every one who
wishes may know the full extent of the
heritage won for him by man's activity in
the days that have been. Goodly pearls,
there are plenty of them-art, and literature,
and culture, and science, and knowledge.
60 Counsels for Churchpeople
Never were they so manifold, never were
they brought so close home to everybody;
never were the means of acquiring them so
easy. And we look forward in future to their
being made easier still. Goodly pearls-they
are strewn about every one's path. Goodly
pearls-there they are; and yet, just in pro-
portion as we have striven to put those pearls
before others, have we not felt how useless it
is to offer those pearls to those who will not
seek for them? You may provide education,
you may provide culture, you may provide
art, you may provide lectures, schools,
reading-rooms, libraries, and put them at
everybody's disposal, but it is no use unless
those to whom they are offered seek them.
Knowledge it has to be gained by the
deliberate and conscious effort of some one.
Culture, fine feeling, noble thoughts, what-
ever you value most, has to be sought for,
has to be acquired as the result of conscious
effort. You must lend yourself to the
necessary process before you can make it
your own. Goodly pearls-it is no use
strewing them about the street; they have
to be sought for, they have to be pursued by
effort; they cannot be given to anybody
who does not know their value or strive to
make them his own.
The Gospel of Christ 61
The Gospel of Christ
In this age of ours, what is the position of
the Gospel of Christ? "The Kingdom of
Heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking
goodly pearls, and when he had found one
Pearl of Great Price, went and sold all that
he had and bought it." Have we know-
ledge on every side of us? have we culture?
have we art? have we science? Do we
value them and prize them? We do well;
but the more we value them and prize them,
and the more we strive to acquire them, the
more there is brought in forcibly to the
inquiring soul the feeling that though these
are good there is something infinitely better
than they; that, though these are goodly
pearls there is beyond them a Pearl of Great
Price, something with which they cannot be
compared, something which is so far beyond
them that compared with it they sink into
insignificance. It is not the case that the
spread of human wisdom, of human know-
ledge, of human thought, the increase of
finer feeling-it is not the case that these
are substitutes for the Gospel of Christ; it
is not the case that the Gospel of Christ is
put on one side for them; it is not so.
}
62 Counsels for Churchpeople
There was a time when men tried to think
so; there was a time when men looked as
though they believed that that was going
to be the case. But I appeal to you all-
that we have lived through that; and the
more we feel that rich are the acquisitions
of the human mind, the more sure we are
that they can only be appropriated and
made our own if they are used in the light
of God's presence, if they are used as ex-
plaining God's Word, if they are used as
the means of inspiring us to seek the gifts
of God's grace that we may use aright
these manifold acquisitions. Still there is
the Pearl of Great Price, and still there is
the call to each of us to go and seek it.
The more life needs conscious effort to
appropriate its good things, the more there
comes back to the Christian soul the feeling
that the conscious effort must be made in
laying hold of and appropriating the great-
ness and the riches of the heavenly message.
The more objects there are put before us
to pursue, the more necessary it becomes
to every one of us that we should know
clearly what is the highest object of our
pursuit. What is the one thing that gives
meaning to all else? Am I clever? Am I
dexterous? Can I earn money
y? The
The Gospel of Christ
63
more I do these things the more I turn
round and ask, What are the contents of
my life? What do I live for? After all,
what am I? Am I simply a bundle of
these capacities, and when I pass away is
that the end of me and of my ability? The
more a man feels he has learnt, the more
he is conscious he has striven, the more he
knows he has done his utmost to lay hold
upon such advantages as were offered to
him, and to gain all that they could teach,
the more there is driven in upon his mind
the sense of the dignity of his life, and of
the sense of the meaning of his life as a
whole, and, therefore, that life, if once it is
dignified and made noble in any kind of
way, that life is driven back again into God's
presence, and is bound to discover that its
meaning must be found there, or it has no
meaning at all.
"A merchant-man seeking goodly pearls."
Why, in the exercise of his business, the
more he seeks them earnestly, and the more
he knows about them, and the more he
learns to value them, and appraise them,
the more his imagination is fired, and his
fancy caught, by seeing one whose intrinsic
value passes all his calculations-one which
takes possession of his imagination, and
64 Counsels for Churchpeople
inspires him with the desire to appropriate
it, and make it his very own.
The Pearl Acquired
The merchant-man sells all that he has
and buys that Pearl of Great Price, that is to
say, withdraws all his capital, and buys this
one great supreme object. And no sooner
has he done so than his whole position in
the world is changed. Before he was only
a merchant, but he has bought that Pearl of
Great Price, and it makes him a prince.
The man who possesses that is conspicuous
throughout the world; he has got what no
one else has, or ventured to have; he has
got a treasure, his very own. No more a
mere merchant-man, one amongst a number
gathering goodly pearls, he steps forth with
added dignity, knowing that now he is a
prince indeed.
So it is with the acquisition of the truth
-the new truth of the Gospel of Christ.
You may spend your life in acquiring good
things, but when it dawns upon you how
great is the richness of the Grace of God,
how incomparably greater than all other
The Pearl Acquired
65
objects of pursuit, then as you pursue it,
then as you cast yourself before God, and
ask Him for it, then as His Spirit directs
you, then you become an altered being, and
go forth in all humility, go forth to your
ordinary occupations, but never finding
them dull or dreary or monotonous, having
a new meaning in your life, and a new
power of realising it. A prince with God,
a prince upon earth, a prince among His
people.
And all this is to be won by effort.
These goodly pearls, they have to be sought,
and the Pearl of Great Price, it has to be
sought with still more stringent effort than
they. All good things we have to make
our own, all good things we have to take
them to ourselves; and the best of things
requires the greatest effort to make it ours.
Such is the process that this parable opens
before us; all founded, remember, first of
all, upon the appreciation of what is good.
Success in life, it depends upon knowing
and getting what we want, does it not?
Knowing what we want and getting what
we want, that, every one of you would say,
is success. But you cannot get what you
want until you know what you want, and
on the greatness of the knowledge of your
F
66 Counsels for Churchpeople
needs depends your ultimate success of
acquiring that necessary for you. Know
what you need, strive to get what you need,
it cannot be got without striving, it cannot
be got without effort. That is what our
Lord put before us in this parable, a
parable specially appropriate for this our
day, a parable that sets before our eyes the
glory and the dignity and the greatness of
that heavenly treasure, not something to be
got by carelessness, indolence and in-
difference, but something that requires all
a man's strength, and all a man's courage,
and all the efforts of his life to make his
own, something whose value is such that
nothing can be compared to it-the Pearl
of Great Price that outvalues all else that
earth contains.
Surely this is a noble view of life itself
and its possibilities; surely this is a view
that every one needs to have put before
him. Effort, and effort for a noble cause,
struggle, and struggle to attain that which
is in every one's power to make his own, if
only with diligence and carefulness, if only
with persistency he strives to acquire it.
The merchant-man in the parable-he had
to outwit his competitors, he had to keep
his desires to himself, he had not to let
Music and Worship
67
others know what he wanted. But there is
no fear of competition if we seek for God's
grace, there is no fear, we may be sure, that
we shall be selfish in seeking for it. God
gives freely. It is only our indolence, our
idleness, our indifference, our carelessness,
our heedlessness, which has stopped us
from following it and making it ours. It is
a pearl of great price-beyond all other
acquisitions. Beyond what the art of man
can set before us, beyond all knowledge
that man has made his own, still there is
the greatness and the glory and the dignity
of the message of the Kingdom of God
which we are bound to make our own, and
pass on to others, and the possession of
which ennobles and dignifies every one
whom it touches; and no one touches the
hem of the garment of the Lord but is the
better and the greater for it.
Music and Worship
We are so accustomed to associate music
with Divine worship that it is almost a
shock to us to be called upon to consider
why the two are connected. Yet it is just
that question that I would put to you,
68 Counsels for Churchpeople
Why is it that music and Divine worship
have always been and always must be so
closely associated the one with the other?
I think these words give the answer: “God
is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises
with understanding." It is the perception.
of the sovereignty of God which animates
men to praise Him; and praise is only
possible by means of song; and that song,
if it is to be dedicated to His purpose, must
be sung, that is uttered, with the under-
standing.
These thoughts explain, I think, if you
will dwell upon them, the connexion of
psalmody and the worship of God. We
praise God because of His greatness; and
it always must remain absolutely true that
the chief part of public worship is praise:
praise-not prayer, not edification, but
praise; because it is clear that prayer might
be private, prayer may be addressed at
home, prayer is for ourselves, for our needs,
our own particular and individual require-
ments. But when we come together we do
not come simply as a number of individuals
each to plead before God his own cause, we
come together in public worship as a
joint assemblage of Christian people; we
come that we may gaze at God and behold
Music and Worship
69
Him. We come together that we may
draw ourselves apart from our common and
ordinary life, and that we may place our-
selves under conditions which fit us to see
God more clearly. And then it is obvious
that the slightest vision of God begets in
our hearts the desire to praise Him. Prayer
is for ourselves, praise is for God. When
we pray we really contemplate ourselves,
and our own needs; when we praise we
are gazing at God and at God only, and it
is the sense of His infinite greatness, of His
majesty, of His dominion, of His power,
which compels us to burst into songs of
praise and gratitude.
Praise! It is not what we can offer by
ourselves. Praise almost necessitates an
assemblage. If we are to express our
thankfulness, if we are to set forth the glory
and the dignity of Another, it requires that
we should gather together for that purpose.
Therefore it is that praise is the most
important part of public worship. Praise!
It is only possible in music of some sort or
another. Praise suggests melody, for this
simple reason: that the contemplation of
the greatness, and the glory, and the
majesty of God fills our hearts with thoughts
which are much too deep to be uttered in
70 Counsels for Churchpeople
words. It is useless that we should
enumerate God's perfection with our lips;
it is useless that we should try to express
simply what we can understand, simply
what we perceive. We naturally wish to
express feelings which soar far beyond our
power of expressing them in words. Thus
it follows that the only mode of giving
expression to such feelings is by music, ist
by the power of sound; for remember,
music is at once the most intimate and the
most sublime of all the arts. It has a
power of expression which is peculiarly its
own, and which goes beyond that of any
other form of expression.
Music and Law
Then see how profound is the lesson
which music, the moment that man uses it
for his purpose, gives him back again.
Why does man have recourse to music to
express these fine thoughts of his heart?
He does so because it seems to him so free
and unfettered. My lips, they stumble
when I speak, I catch after words and I
cannot find them; but, let me betake me
Music and Law
71
to song and the notes well forth, and the
melody tells its own tale, and I am in a
freer atmosphere, and I can soar aloft
untrammelled by sordid considerations
which perforce bind me down so long as I
am merely trying to speak. But the
moment any one betakes himself to music
what does he find? That it is free? that it
is unfettered? that it is capricious? Not
so. Nothing is bound by such stern law,
nothing is regulated by such rules, nothing
requires such absolute obedience on the
part of those who practise it, nothing
demands of its votaries such attention to
law. Law has to be met at every turn;
law, the eternal law, on which harmony
depends, confronts us in everything we do.
Is it not just so that God's law faces us in
the world? Is it not so, that music is
profoundly educational, seeming to be so
free, seeming to soar so spontaneously, and
yet owing its very power to the fact that it
is more rigorously subject to law than any
other art?
What a parable for our moral and
spiritual life! Do we want to be strong?
do we want to be original? do we want to
express ourselves with apparent freedom?
It is only possible if all our life is built upon
72 Counsels for Churchpeople
law-law, rigorous law, sinking deep down
into our being; law teaching us to combine
our life with the life of many; law that
indicates to us the Divine purpose in the
world, and tells us we can only be happy if
we identify our own individual life with
that Divine life which God reveals. Such
were the feelings of the Psalmist when he
said, "God is the King of all the earth, sing
ye praises with understanding." With
understanding. It seems at first sight as
though anybody could sing. You feel
inclined to say, "Few people can talk with
effect, but any one can sing who has got a
decent voice." Yet it is not so. The
highest singing, as you know, requires the
use of the understanding. What is it you
demand in singing? It is expression, it is
flexibility, it is all that comes from an
intelligent interpretation of the thing that is
sung. The more you know about music,
and the more music you listen to, the more
you perceive the intellectual basis of it all;
the more you look through its apparent
arbitrariness the more you see what high
qualities it really demands.
So
The Heritage of the Spirit 73
The Heritage of the Spirit
The transmission of a spiritual heritage
is a concern of our individual lives. The
relationship of father to son, of young to
old, of those who are passing away to those
who are to take their place, is one which
concerns us all. A relationship of some
kind there must be; and the progress of
mankind consists in the regulation of indi-
vidual relationships. The next generation.
will consist of the children of this genera-
tion; and these children will largely owe
their characters to their parents' example
and their parents' precepts. It is a con-
soling thought that, though we may be
helpless to heal the breaches of the present,
we may help towards their healing in the
future. Elijah might be conscious of his
failures, but Elisha could carry on his work.
There may be an Elijah and an Elisha in
every home.
Is this the case? Do men work con-
sciously for this result? Too frequently
we find a wall of separation between the
old and the young. The young complain
that the old are hard, unsympathetic, un-
reasonable, interfering, exacting. The old
complain that the young are ungrateful,
74 Counsels for Churchpeople
arrogant, disrespectful, conceited in un-
grounded opinions. Too often the father
complains that he does not understand his
son: the son complains that he can find no
sympathy from his father. A gulf once
formed soon widens, and the natural link
between generations is unnaturally severed.
There is no more beautiful sight than to
see young faces brighten when an old
man enters the room; to hear young lips
refer to his judgment in their perplexities;
to feel that a strong bond of mutual sym-
pathy and regard exists between them.
There is no more saddening sight than to
hear young voices hush before an old man's
coming; to see animated faces grow re-
signed; to feel that the young heart closes
as against a stranger, and that sympathy
has no place. Much might be said in either
case in excuse of one or the other. The
elder may urge that his heart is full of
tenderness towards the young, but he feels
that their life lies outside the sphere of his
own. Their interests are different from
his; their ideas, however much he tries to
understand them, are to him irritating.
His patience sometimes fails him, and the
mischief is gradually done, sorely against
his will and in spite of his efforts. The
Duties of Parents
75
young, on their side, say that though beset
with perplexities and desirous of sympathy,
they cannot find it; when they wish to
pour out their hearts, they are checked on
the threshold by hopeless misunderstanding;
when they wish to be comforted, they are
distracted by an officious or bustling kind-
ness; when they wish to be consoled, they
meet only with cold maxims which could
never touch their palpitating heart. These
are facts that lie within each one's ex-
perience, and make up much of the per-
petual tragedy of human life. They drive
us to realise our helplessness. They disclose
the deep gulf fixed between what we would
do and what we can do.
Duties of Parents to Children
The duties of children to parents are
perhaps sufficiently emphasised. We forget
that the duties of parents to children must
come first in the order of things. It was
because the character of Elijah had attracted
Elisha that he exclaimed, "I pray thee, let
a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."
(1) It is useless to demand a respect, an
affection, a regard from others which you
76 Counsels for Churchpeople
are conscious in your heart of hearts that
you do not deserve. Could you honestly
wish that the young should say to you,
"Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon
me"? Would all parents be content that
their own spirit should rule their children?
Do they think their own life so lovely
that they wish to see its animating spirit
reproduced? Many-we see it on every
side-will labour day and night to make
money, to lay by riches and hand it on
to those who are to come after them.
They toil with such haste that they have
little leisure to wash their hands in inno-
cency. They excuse an act of dubious
honesty by a plea that their children will
be saved the necessity of performing one
like it. Can such a man hope to gain the
affection, the respect of his children? What,
will he leave them lands and money, and
think that this is all? Will he forget the
richer legacy of a stainless name, a high
character, a noble life? Bring up a child
in a simple way, with few desires, and a
hatred of unrealities, and you have given
him that contentment which is great riches.
Consider that grace and courtesy, kindness,
simplicity, and straightforwardness are
duties towards which the presence of your
Duties of Parents
77
child ought to give a redoubled stimulus.
Do this, and you have given him a rich store
of spiritual wealth of which nothing can
deprive him.
(2) Again, the pressure of daily occupa-
tions is often a cause why a parent sees
little of his children. He is absorbed in
his own pursuits; he is away from home
during the day; when he comes back at
night he is weary. He intends to see
more of his children later on in life, when
they are older and can understand him
more easily. Meanwhile they grow up
strangers to him; and the chances are that
in the future he will find it difficult to
establish satisfactory relations on his own
terms. However busy a man is, he may
spare a few minutes regularly for his chil-
dren. He ought to keep himself acquainted
with their development, and ought by a few
words every day to establish his hold upon
their affections. If a man comes home
wearied, he will find his best relaxation in
a little unbending with his children. If his
coming be a check to their innocent play-
fulness a barrier is erected in early days
between themselves and him. Some men,
again, renowned for social gifts away from
home, are silent and reserved in their own
78 Counsels for Churchpeople
families. This ought not to be so. The
truest social gifts spring from ready geniality
and quick sympathy. A man's character
ought to show itself most fully in his own
home; his social gifts ought first to brighten
his immediate circle; his knowledge, his
interests, his pleasantness ought to be most
clearly seen in the ordinary conduct of his
daily life. Anything done in other spheres
ought to be the natural extension of qualities
which are most constantly exercised at
home. Nothing can excuse a neglect or
scant performance of domestic duties. St.
Paul expresses the Christian view of home
life when he says, "A bishop must be one
that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity."
So
Sympathy with the Young
All of us are in our respective stations
influencing the character of the next
generation. We are doing so unconsciously,
whether we will or no. We are either
giving or withholding the results of our
experience of life. We are either striving
Sympathy with the Young 79
by ready sympathy to smooth the path of
others, or we are making their path more
difficult by our indifference. There is
nothing which more entirely brings its own
recompense than sympathy with the young.
Old age comes upon most men, and brings
its burdens. Happy is the man who has so
arranged his life that the burden falls lightly
upon him. It is not too much to say that
old age divides men sharply into two
strongly contrasted classes. Amongst
some we find isolation and querulousness;
amongst others we find geniality and con-
tentment. We see either a painful spec-
tacle of the natural decay of one whose
spiritual life has long been ended, or we see
the vigorous strength of "the last of life
for which the first was made." We scarcely
recognise as one of the problems of life
how to grow old happily. But, believe me,
that it is one which a clergyman's experience
brings forcibly before him. If you would
solve this problem satisfactorily, resolve in
early life that you will recognise your
duty towards those who are coming after
you, that you will lose no opportunity of
extending ready sympathy to those younger
than yourself. Strive so to walk that the
last wish of others towards you may be, "I
80 Counsels for Churchpeople
pray that
a double portion of thy spirit
may be upon me.'"
(1) Beware of beginning to treat a young
man with a sympathy which you are not
prepared to carry beyond a limited point.
The boy just changing into manhood is
willing enough to treat his elder with the
respect due to his greater age, his longer
experience, his more assured position. If
he is encouraged to talk freely he will open
his heart, and will pour out his real thoughts.
They may be crude, rash, enthusiastic,
impracticable; they may have been many
times disproved, but they are the genuine
expression of his existing state of develop-
ment. For a while the older is content to
argue, to discuss the question; presently
he is wearied by the boy's pertinacity, and
ends by exclaiming testily, "I am older than
you, and wiser. I tell you all this is wrong.
You should not be so arrogant." This is
surely unwise. The boy feels that he has
been unjustly treated. Remember that you
cannot really influence another unless you
are ready to deal with him as an equal.
(2) Beware of demanding gratitude from
the young. It is selfish to expect gratitude :
it is useless to demand it. Take it thank-
fully when it is proffered. The young are
Sympathy with the Young 81
always ungrateful, and they are so in virtue
of their inexperience. They do not know,
and so they cannot appreciate, the in-
numerable acts of self-denial and of self-
sacrifice of which they have been the
objects from their earliest days. Do for
them what you do with a genuine desire
for their good, and let the sincerity of your
own efforts be its own reward. Let the
motive of your action be the sense of the
duty that you owe to the future of your
race.
(3) Do not aim at making the young
mere copies of yourself, repeating the same
opinions, having the same interests, setting
before themselves the same practical aims.
Years are rolling on, and opinions are
changing. The world is not the same as
it was in the old man's younger days. Its
problems are in many ways different. New
difficulties require new armour, new dangers
require new precautions. Do not try to
alter the development of a young heart; try
only to direct it. Remove difficulties, ward
off dangers, give strength by the knowledge
that you are always ready to aid.
20
G
82 Counsels for Churchpeople
The Christian Standard
Christianity is not the moral improvement
of our natural life; it is the offer of a
spiritual life in its stead. It is not con-
cerned with enforcing the world's standard
of respectability; it calls its followers to a
consistent walk with God. It does not
stand at man's judgment-seat; it appeals
to the judgment of God. It does not lay
down a number of maxims for the guidance
of the world; it bids men seek after purity
of intention, after the glory that cometh
of the only God. Its results, its influence,
cannot be weighed as can the results of
human systems, of man's ideas and efforts
after social good. Be they much or be
they little, as man may reckon, they form
the harmony of heaven.
There is a danger to ourselves of taking
too low a view of our religion. We are too
much inclined to meet the world half way,
and let it take us and our efforts at its own
estimate. True, it is not our business to
protest; but we should so behave and
speak as to show our sense of the meaning
of our lives in Christ. The world may
credit us as being worthy folk. We need
not contradict it; but we should so act
The Christian Standard 83
that it should be clear that we do not rest
satisfied with receiving our glory of men,
but seek after the glory that cometh of
God. Christians will not commend their
Christianity by being ready to drop the
supernatural side of it, by speaking as
though they walked according to the
world's maxims, by being ready to trans-
late their notions into the exact form of
which the world approves. Nay, this is
dangerous to our own spiritual progress,
to the work which as members of Christ's
Church we are all called upon to share.
We know of no other remedy for the woes
of the world than faith in Christ. We
know no other source of happiness than
the consciousness of Christ's presence in
the heart through the operation of His
Holy Spirit. It is useless to complain that
we live in a material age. The world at all
ages has been engaged in material things;
it has not grown more material because
it justifies its pursuit on a systematic basis,
instead of acting without feeling any need
of such justification. The world can only
be overcome by a steadfast testimony to
the abiding, unconquerable power of the
soul that seeks its glory from the only God.
:
84 Counsels for Churchpeople
True Greatness.
Consider the beauty, the strength of a
character which seeks its glory from the
only God. Such an one may not be richly
endowed with natural gifts. There may
be nothing remarkable in his deeds or
utterances, nothing that you can clearly
measure out or appraise by the standard
of human achievement. Yet you feel none
the less that round him is breathed the
atmosphere of a higher life, that in his
presence all that is mean and ignoble hides
its head. He may not be identified with
any great movement which commands
your allegiance, he may say nothing which
you carry away with you as pregnant with
instruction for yourself,-yet you feel like
one who has been carried from the sultry
air of the plain to a mountain-top, where
the fresh life-giving breeze blows round
you, till your pulse quickens, your energy
returns, and you feel that you are braced
for new efforts and larger attainments.
What is the secret of the strength of such
an one? It is that his life is harmonious,
and fits together, so that nothing is lost.
He has the simplicity which is the mark of
all true greatness. He gives you a sense
True Greatness
85
of reality and power; he carries you in
spite of yourself before an eternal principle
of judgment. Contrast him for a moment
with many whom you know, who are half-
hearted, and waver between the glory of
man and the glory that cometh of God.
They are conscious of strivings after some-
thing that they cannot obtain; they soar
on uncertain wing, and demand that men
should give them credit for the nobility
of their soaring. They call upon you to
recognise their aspirations, to admire their
originality, to sympathise with their dis-
appointments, to wait with interest for the
shadowy triumph which they one day
promise. One while their glance is directed
upwards; then they pause and look around,
uncertain of their progress. They wish to
receive glory of men; but the world heeds
them not, and they are driven to take refuge
in a little circle of those like minded with
themselves.
Look again at the man who seeks his glory
from God. There is no waste in his life, for
his aspirations and his aims are all part of
his character, and all add to his strength.
He is influential not only by what he does,
but always by what he is. He is a standing
testimony to the existence of something
86 Counsels for Churchpeople
beyond and above the motives and activities
of the world. He makes us feel the truth,
the reality of the great issue of life as a
whole, and shows how it is powerful to
transform even the small details of action.
The Christian Character
Christianity can appeal to the fair-minded
and serious inquirer, on the ground that it
affords the only permanent basis for the
formation of a strong and steadily pro-
gressive character. The more steadfastly
we look at life and its problems, the more
clearly do we see the manifold temptations
to secure immediate success by adopting
limitations which mar, while they seem to
make. The Christian revelation can appeal
confidently to the most cultivated intellect
on the ground that it corresponds with the
largest aspect of actual life. It is quite
possible to create for one's self a world of
one's own choosing, smaller than God's
world, and explicable without the need of
His presence. This smaller world may be
excellent in its own way; but it grows
narrower as life goes on, and the individual
The Christian Character 87
dwindles, as that on which he nourishes
himself diminishes. God's world grows
daily larger and larger, before the attentive
eye, till it broadens into the vastness of
eternity. The individual is ever losing his
scanty life to find a larger one, and new
relationships are perpetually coming into
view. His progress is endless, but its
course is definite; for he grows into closer
communion with a Person, very God and
very Man, and is clothed upon with a
personality not his own.
"That I may
know Christ, and the power of His resur-
rection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
becoming conformed unto His death" is a
real aspiration which has power to extend
infinitely the meaning of life. Sad words
these, it may be said; growth it may be,
but growth through gloom and sorrow.
Did St. Paul find it so? Have you ever
come across the record of a more joyous
and more resolute soul than is revealed in
his writings? And how, in general terms,
are we to explain in modern language the
broad features of St. Paul's attitude towards
life? Surely it was a sense of continual
progress, of constant effort, of repeated
renewal, "Forgetting those things which
are behind, and stretching forward to the
88 Counsels for Churchpeople
things which are before, I press on towards
the goal, unto the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus." He frankly took
life as it came, and transformed it into a
series of splendid opportunities, in each of
which he could live and learn, from each of
which he could emerge with a larger nature,
prepared for fresh adventures, endowed
with new strength.
1
DS
The Knowledge of Christ
(C
'The knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord." This is the element which gives
force to the Christian character, and gives
a power, an efficiency, beyond the attain-
ment of the highest culture, the noblest
development of the natural man. And it
does so because it opens out infinite possi-
bilities, because it delivers from those
limitations which gather round the soul
and impede its progress. We notice
clearly enough the difference between
men's capacities; it is more difficult to
observe the still more important difference
between the worlds in which they elect to
live. Yet it is in the choice, I might almost
The Knowledge of Christ 89
say the creation, of its world that the soul's
success or failure is made manifest.
This is the positive side of the Christian
life: this is the secret of the Christian
character. There is a tendency, especially
in youth, to notice first of all the negative
side of the Christian life, its discipline, its
abstinences, its formation of habit. It
seems to be concerned with the imposition
of limitations upon the freedom and frank-
ness of natural impulses. But habit, in its
true sense, means the garnering of past
experience as a starting-point for future
progress. Discipline means the training of
self into ready obedience, that so the
current business of daily life may be
transacted without needless wear and tear,
and time may be more abundant for new
and fruitful work. The training of the
Christian life is not an end in itself, but a
means. It liberates the faculties from small
perplexities. It carries the man easily and
steadily through the ordinary questions
which beset his daily course. It leaves
him with energies unimpaired for fresh
conquests and further progress.
And that progress is a progress in know-
ledge, "The excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord." The force of
wh
90 Counsels for Ghurchpeople
the Christian character depends upon the
sincerity, the clearness, the fulness of its
manifestation of God's Spirit working in the
heart the knowledge and love of Jesus.
The help that the Christian can give to his
fellows can never go further than the call,
"Come and see what the Lord hath done
for my soul." The message of the Church
to the world cannot be founded on any
stronger basis. What the world needs to
feel is the largeness of the Christian outlook,
the strength of Christian hope, the com-
pleteness of the Christian answer to all
life's problems. To the Church is en-
trusted knowledge, "the knowledge of
Christ Jesus," knowledge which men are
free to accept or reject; but we must be
prepared to show that he who rejects it
maims and cripples his life, here and now,
visibly and manifestly. Great is the dignity
of man; great are the powers of mind and
soul entrusted to him; splendid are the
triumphs which he can win over self and
over the world. I would not underestimate
the power of intellectual and moral forces
exercised without the aid of religion. But
the world's gross lamps cannot rival heaven's
white light. Great is the dignity of man;
greater still the dignity of the Christian ; aye,
Unwise Sympathy
91
of the simple soul to whom it is not given
to know much or speak much, or strive to
move the world, yet who bears the marks
and tokens of the Spirit's power, and is
clothed with a marvellous grace which
passes beyond what is visible. The
Christian life is ofttimes called upon
nowadays to show its potency, to demon-
strate its capacity for doing the work which
the world wishes to have done. That
question ought to receive a ready answer.
"The excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord" should be set forth as
powerful to mould character, as mighty in
operation, as a mainspring of beneficent
energy, as a preservative against narrowness
and imperfect sympathy. "Ye are the salt
of the earth." It is a vast responsibility; it
is also an eternal truth.
Unwise Sympathy
There are manifest dangers in the way of
an attempt to acquire or exercise sympathy.
The evils of its defect are obvious; the evils
of its excess are not so apparent. Yet every
one will recognise that sympathy is useless.
92 Counsels for Churchpeople
unless it is entirely genuine. We cannot
frame ourselves to be sympathetic at a
moment's notice, because we cannot pos-
sibly express what we do not feel. An
affected sympathy becomes the merest
sentimentalism. It is useless to try and say
what we think another expects us to say.
Such utterances are valueless even in
matters of opinion, when only Our
intellectual qualities are called into play;
they are worse than valueless when our
moral nature, whose strength is its absolute
sincerity, is involved. Sympathy must,
above all things, be spontaneous and
genuine. It will not bear unlimited
demands. I remember a wise piece of
advice, "Never pay more than one visit of
condolence in the day. If you are in
earnest, the strain upon your feelings will
be so great that you will not be equal to
a second effort." Perhaps many of you
have suffered from ill-judging attempts at
sympathy, and have winced in mute agony
under the torture inflicted by well-mean-
ing persons who assumed that they under-
stood you, without trying to do so, and
whose precious balms went nigh to break
your heart.
Besides being genuine, sym-
pathy must also be intelligent; and it is
Unwise Sympathy
93
well to be modest about our intelligence,
however convinced we may be of our good
intentions. Sympathy is not an accomplish-
ment, it is a grace; and, if sought for, must
be sought for as a grace, not practised as a
profession.
If excessive display of sympathy is to be
guarded against for the sake of him who
gives, it is equally to be avoided for the sake
of him who receives. There is a class of
moral invalids who clamour for sympathy,
just as hypochondriacs try to cure their
imaginary ailments by relays of quack
medicines. This disease arises from an
overweening self-absorption. Those who
suffer from it, instead of adapting them-
selves to the problems of life, sit with folded
hands waiting till life should adapt itself to
their own exceptional requirements. They
are convinced that any shred of a difficulty
which has occurred to their listless minds
has in itself an inherent preciousness. They
are satisfied that they are not as other men
are, that their finer organisation and more
sensitive perceptions have given them an
insight into things of which those cast in
the ordinary mould are incapable. They
nourish themselves on idle talk and vain
declamation, because thereby they gain a
1
94 Counsels for Churchpeople
sense of doing something, whereas they are
doing nothing. They are clamorous for
sympathy, because it deadens the voice of
conscience, which sometimes urges distrust
in their own wisdom. They do not care
that the sympathy should be intelligent, or
should be helpful; it is enough for them
that it should seem to exist, for its mere
exhibition suffices to lull their indolent
restlessness.
Do
Christian Sympathy
It is sometimes objected to the Christian
view of life that it is selfish, because it
teaches every man to care for his individual
salvation; that it is in some ways a bar to
social progress, because it lays down that
this life is not the ultimate goal of human
effort, but is merely a state of preparation
for another and a better world; that its
exhortations to the virtues of contentment
and resignation are hindrances to the
inevitable struggle after social reorgani-
sation. It is asserted that other systems of
life are really more beneficial to the obvious
and palpable interests of mankind.
Christian Sympathy
95
Is this so? Surely Christianity tells us
that we are a band of brethren bound
together on a common quest, bent on a
journey to a far-off land, each needing help,
and each rendering it in turn. It bids us
think of our common life as that of a band
of emigrants, all expecting great prosperity
on another shore-a mixed company, it is
true, with different aptitudes and different
objects, but recognising the paramount
need of union and mutual help on the way.
So the wise will calm the groundless fears
of the ignorant ; the strong will support the
tottering limbs of the weak; each in his
degree will have his share of work to do in
overcoming the difficulties of the enterprise,
and rendering the common journey easier
to all. And, observe, the object of the
journey is to reach a new land abounding
with blessings for all, and it is the know-
ledge of this fact that most effectually keeps
the band together.
Christianity promotes social progress in
the most effective way, because it has no
definite system of the outward organisation
of human society, but acts upon the wills of
men by urging those great principles which
are the true bonds between man and man.
It is not concerned with the form, but with
96 Counsels for Churchpeople
the spirit. It pleads that, if men would
realise their true position in this world, all
questions of outward organisation would
settle themselves. And surely we may see
the wisdom of that if we look around us.
Men are not moved to rise to a higher life
by considerations of the diminution of rates,
of the increase of industry, of economic
advantages. Such arguments may influence
the zeal of the philanthropist, but they do
not supply him with the means of influenc-
ing others. He must speak, if he is to carry
conviction, as an equal to equals; he must
make his hearers feel that he is seeking their
highest good, which is also his own; he
must appeal to their inherent dignity as
men, and must show them the unknown
and unexpected capacities which are hidden
in every human heart. His power and his
usefulness will depend on his exercise of
genuine sympathy.
This truth is illustrated in a most remark-
able way by the life of St. Francis of Assisi,
a simple man who had no great purpose in
his acts, but only lived a life in accordance
with the truth which he knew; and yet he
wrought the greatest social regeneration
which has been seen since Christianity first
dawned upon the world. It is true that he
Christian Sympathy
97
was a poet whose poetry expressed itself
not in verse but in a character; it is true
that he lived in a state of exaltation beyond
the reasoning powers of most men even to
understand. But his life was one continued
exhibition of sympathy, blessing alike him
who gave and him who took. He saw
Christ on earth in man and beast and
flower; he hailed even the fire as his
brother and the moon as his sister. He
restored on this earth the innocence of
paradise. His belief was to him a source
of supreme pleasure; he was always happy,
joyous, light-hearted, the cause of happiness
wherever he went. He was so satisfied
with the inward treasures of his heart that
he preferred to wander without money or
possessions, so that he might be free from
care. He knew not so much the doctrine
as the Person of Christ, and spoke only of
Christ's love. He opposed no man, he con-
tradicted nothing, he denounced nothing;
he framed no system, he did not wish to
found an order, he had no interest in being
imitated, he merely wished to live his life.
as he conceived it. Yet that life of his
composed differences, dispelled errors,
breathed a new spirit into the world,
proclaimed the aristocratic dignity of
H
98 Counsels for Churchpeople
poverty, created art, revived literature,
awakened learning, remade the future of
society.
Christian Teaching about Forgiveness
It has been urged that the Christian
teaching about forgiveness is immoral and
anti-social; it weakens the sense of respon-
sibility, and hides from a man the inevitable
truth that a wrong done cannot be undone,
a truth which is the real deterrent from
vice. A great deal might be said on this
point; I am only concerned to show that
the desire for pardon is the result of a sense
of failure, and that a sense of failure is
inseparable from any worthy appreciation
of the task undertaken. Destroy the desire
for pardon, and you leave only the motive
of self-satisfaction. I say self-satisfaction;
for the motive of satisfying some standard
of social duty imposed from outside would
be no motive to doing things, but only a
motive to seem to do them, or not to be
discovered in doing the opposite. Moral
motives must appeal to the individual, and
must be voluntarily recognised and adopted
by deliberate choice.
Teaching about Forgiveness 99
Nay, I do not see how a man is ever to
reach self-satisfaction without having passed
through a period where he was very con-
scious of the need for pardon. However
excellent may be our intentions, life is com-
plicated, and our relations to others are
hard to adjust. Ofttimes we do mischief
without meaning to do so; ofttimes we err
through inexperience. In moral matters,
as in all else, a man has frequently to buy
his experience at the cost of others. I do
not think that the abolition of the Christian
conception of forgiveness would dispense
with casuistry, unless, indeed, man were
reduced to an obedient automaton, which
seems to be the ideal of some modern
systems of social reform.
But this is idle. We Christians will not
apologise for the joy of forgiveness; it is
not immoral, but is the sole foundation of
all moral progress. We will not explain
away the language of self-abasement before
God's holiness, for it expresses the very
literal truth about ourselves, and the know-
ledge of this truth is not depressing, but
stimulating; it does not lead to indolence,
but to effort. So far from being an induce-
ment to rest content with feeble achieve-
ments, it renews perpetually the sense of
..
· ·
..
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100 Counsels for Churchpeople
an infinite responsibility. I read a saying
of a simple man which illustrates the pene-
trating power of a sense of unworthiness
to rouse the soul to cheerful effort. Few
men spent a life of more constant labour,
and displayed a more joyous spirit through
it all, than did Egidius, one of the earliest
of the companions of St. Francis of Assisi.
Surprised at seeing him sitting unemployed
for a moment, a passer-by asked him one
day, "Egidius, what are you doing?"
Evil," was the answer. "What, you, a
good friar, doing evil?" "Tell me," said
Egidius, "is God more ready to give His
grace or we to receive?" "God to give,"
was the reply. "Then are we right?
แ
[[
'No, wrong." "Just so," concluded Egi-
dius; "I told you that I was doing wrong."
Such is the temper of the men who move
the world, who labour without ceasing, who
keep alive the belief in the possibility of
progress.
The feeling of our own weakness, the
consciousness of failure, the sense of sin,—
these are not merely individual feelings,
but they are the chief source and spring of
man's moral efforts and of his activity in
the world of men. Without them all work
would be mechanical and external; society
}}
Teaching about Forgiveness 101
would stratify, hypocrisy would be domi-
nant, and all noble aims would decay. And
these feelings can only be kept alive by the
sense of forgiveness, by the joy of pardon,
by the renewal of hope, by the comfort of
restoration, by the sense of increased
strength bestowed from on high. "I can
do nothing by myself," "I can do all things
through God which strengtheneth me."
These are co-ordinate propositions; and
the connecting link between them is the
sense of pardon, the hope of which makes
the first avowal possible, the reception of
which inspires the grand enthusiasm of the
second.
It has been said that the great object of
Christianity, after all, is to make men say,
and mean, and understand, the words,
"Our Father." The chief moral quality
exhibited in the parental relation is that of
forgiveness. The mother views her helpless
babe with the tenderest pity; and the
obviousness of its helplessness is the source
of the depth of her devotion and of the
passion of her love. Each step in the
child's development repeats the same story.
On the one side are rules, precepts, admoni-
tions, given in kindliness and love, given
in wisdom, and enforced to avoid future
102 Counsels for Churchpeople
ills; on the other side, forgetfulness, heed-
lessness, disobedience, powerlessness to
consider and reflect, waywardness, want
of self-restraint, pursuit of the momentary
pleasure. It is only the joy of exercising.
the power of pardon that enables the parent
day by day to resume with new hope a
work which has caused him many dis-
appointments. It is only as the capacity
of remorse for disobedience is displayed,
that the possibility of moral advance be-
comes apparent in the child. It is only
for a few years in the life of each of us
that this relationship exists; and the child
has forgotten his childhood before he be-
comes a father. But God's revelation of
Himself gives back to us in varied forms,
what our own experience might set forth to
each, that the joy of pardon is a joy which
is in the being of God. The joy of receiv-
ing pardon is but a faint reflex of the joy
of Him Who gives. For pardon can only
be given to one who seeks it, and to seek
it is to admit a consciousness of past failure,
and express a desire for future progress.
46
What is Man ?
103
What is Man?
Do we ask "What is man?" in relation
to the outward world? In the light of the
Incarnation we know that we
are the
children of God, here, on this earth; that
nature is not some alien and opposing force,
but is linked with man's destiny. "The
earnest expectation of the creation waiteth
for the revealing of the sons of God, in
hope that it may be delivered from the
bondage of corruption." Yea, nature is
animate with a Divine purpose, which finds
its highest expression in the upward
struggles of the human soul.
Do we ask "What is man?" in relation
to the changes and chances of human
society? In the revelation of the risen
Lord we know that our CC
citizenship is in
heaven,” and are able to seek the things
that are above. There we see the law of
righteousness, which must prevail in all
human relationships, if they are to be of
any abiding worth. We learn to mortify
our members which are upon earth. We
recognise in the history of the past the
operation of those unrighteous desires, on
account of which the wrath of God came
upon the children of disobedience.
We
104 Counsels for Churchpeople
能
​look forward hopefully to the advent of a
time when the kingdoms of the world may
become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ.
Do we ask "What is man?" in relation
to his own individual trials? In the Cross
of Christ we see reflected the sinfulness of
human nature and the possibility of its
re-creation. If the Author of our salvation
was made perfect through suffering, we,
too, can say, "Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation, for when he hath
been approved he shall receive the crown
of life." "When he hath been approved."
Who that claims so great a reward would
refuse to show the stuff of which he is
made, knowing, as he does, that God with
the temptation makes also the way of
escape?
Look at it as we will, we have to face
the fact that neither the study of nature,
nor the study of society, nor the experience
of individual life, can by themselves lead
to results which we can accept as satisfac-
tory. They tell us of struggle and sacrifice,
which, apart from the belief in a higher
life and in a spiritual being, destroy man's
freedom, and reduce him to a machine.
The answers to the question, “What is
What is Man ?
105
man?" are incomplete, unless they attempt
to solve it in union with that further
question, "What is God?" And the claim
of the Christian religion upon the minds of
men rests ultimately upon this, that it
enables the answer to these two questions
to be carried into every detail of human
life and experience. It intimately associates
God and man, and sheds the light of God's
presence on every problem which life or
knowledge can raise. Christianity-let me
put it so is eminently a religion of common
sense. "Looking unto Jesus"; the secret
lies there, in the revelation of the Person
of our Lord. "What is man?" Jesus
Christ Himself is the answer. He alone
explains the possibilities of man's nature
and man's life; nay, that life and nature
He not only explains, but is ready to give.
There may be mysteries in the Christian
conception of life; there are greater
mysteries in any other. "What is man?"
It is a great question which in our indolence
we do not care to face. We may be con-
tent to rest in the region of notions, sugges-
tions, plausibilities. There is a fashion in
modes of thought, as in all else. But he
who wishes to know the truth sweeps
fashion to one side, and penetrates into
106 Counsels for Churchpeople
the reality of things. In answer to the
question, "What is man?" the Christian
silently points to the Person of our Lord.
No one by his thinking has gone further,
or has produced an answer so large, so
universal, so abiding.
45
Our Lord's Passion
Consider the Passion of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ as being a revelation
of human life and of human motive upon
its largest scale.
Everything combined to bring our Lord
to the Cross-not only the evil motives of
the time, but the good motives also; not
only the doings of bad men, but the doings
of good men also; not only the hatred of His
foes, but the cowardice of those who loved
Him. Everything combined to bring Jesus
to the Cross. Alone He went that journey;
alone He faced that mighty issue. It was
one Man against everything else; One alone
and the whole world against Him-the world
in every one of its manifestations, the world
in all its tendencies. All the influences
that count as most respectable-political,
Dur Lord's Passion
107
social, and intellectual; all the parties into
which contemporary life was divided ; public
opinion in every phase in which it expressed
itself; individuals of the most marked differ-
ences; people of every nation, of every
kindred; men brought up under varying
conditions-all coincided on this one point
in condemning Jesus to be crucified. In
this lies the great drama of the Passion ;
in this lies its eternal significance. That
Passion which revealed the grandeur of
Christ, revealed also the baseness of every-
thing else. All in the world that seemed
noblest, all that seemed most dignified, all
that seemed most respectable, all that
seemed most obvious to follow-all alike
was opposed to Jesus.
We live in a traditional world; we are the
product of our surroundings; we are what
we are by our education, by the fact that
we are Englishmen, by the fact that we live
under certain institutions, that we belong to
a nation that has a definite place in the
world. We are proud of possessing all that
heritage; quite right, provided we value
these things at their true value, provided
they are not valued in comparison with the
love of Jesus Christ. All that surrounds me,
all my traditions, all my circumstances-
108 Counsels for Churchpeople
I must be prepared to try them by the
Cross of Christ.
Responsibility for Power
Pilate's fault was that being in possession
of power he shrank from using it. Power
is, after all, the responsibility of saying aye
or nay; and Pilate, though he might have
known how dangerous a thing it was to
possess power, did not recognise the equally
great danger of not exercising definitely the
power that was entrusted to him.
That is a lesson we all need to write on
our hearts. We are fond of saying, “I, at
least, am free from the temptation of
power." You are not. Every man has
power entrusted to him as a father, as an
employer of labour; in all relations of life
almost you stand in the position of superior
more or less to some inferior; and the
relation of superior at any time to an
inferior is a relationship which involves
power, and with it tremendous respon-
sibility, the responsibility of doing right
and doing justice. It is no good to say, “I
do not want to exercise my power, I let it
Responsibility for Power 109
go." You cannot let it go, you are respon-
sible for saying "No" at the right time, and
you cannot rid yourself of that responsibility.
It was just because Pilate wished to please
everybody, wished to behave dexterously
and cleverly at a time when firm decision
was needed, it is just for this that he is con-
demned; it is just for this that his name is
repeated in the creed of Christendom as the
type of an unjust judge. And yet he was so
little unjust after all, and there are so many
excuses for him that we could make for our-
selves if we had been in his place. His crime
was just this: that he did not say "No" dis-
tinctly and definitely at the time that he
ought to have said it. He is the type also
of the superior mind giving way to cynicism,
and thereby allowing himself to fall. It is
so easy to know too much of human nature,
and too much of human motives, and to
think that you can play with them, and use
them for your purpose-so easy, but so
corrupting.
Again, is he not the type of man who tried
to make the best of it, to deal with things as
they presented themselves to him instead of
considering what was right, what justice de-
manded, what we ought to do? I said that
the name of Pontius Pilate appears in the
110 Counsels for Churchpeople
creed of Christendom as the type of the un-
just judge. And yet it is curious how
tenderly our Lord seems to have dealt with
him. He recognised the good points of his
character, and tried even at the last to lead
him aright. When He appeared before
Pilate for the sentence to be pronounced,
Pilate said to Him, "Speakest Thou not unto
me? Knowest Thou not that I have power
to crucify Thee, and have power to release
Thee?" And Jesus answered, "Thou
couldst have no power at all against Me,
except it were given thee from above;
therefore he that delivered Me unto thee
hath the greater sin." How tenderly He
spoke! Those who had brought Him to
Pilate, they had the greatest sin, no doubt;
but then Pilate had that which would lead
him aright, for he had the knowledge that
all power is from above. All power is from
above. In any exercise of power we are
the representatives of God, for all power
comes from Him, and He is the source and
model of all authority. It is as the repre-
sentative of God that every power has to be
exercised and every decision given.
So
Triding with Conscience III
#
Trifling with Conscience
Herod is the picture of the man whose
conscience had been so much dulled by
sensuality that he had become a cold
hypocrite almost without knowing it.
Herod wished to regard himself as a re-
spectable person he thought that life
had dealt hardly with him; that he was a
harmless person who sought nobody's
destruction. So, doubtless, Herod thought
within himself. He trifled with his con-
science till he did not know where he
stood, or what he was, or what he believed.
Depraved by selfish indulgence, he was a
cold-hearted hypocrite to whom nothing
could be said, and on whose seared mind
no impression could be made. And yet
though so cold, and so hypocritical, plunged
in superstition, terrified at his own shadow,
hopelessly uncertain of his own position,
though so depraved, he still retained his
intellectual curiosity, and cherished the
sentiment that he was an earnest inquirer,
that he was seeking after truth, that he
only wished to be convinced. Here was
this Man, this Teacher, Who had so much
to say, let Him say it; did not he represent
independence and an enlightened public
112 Counsels for Churchpeople
opinion? Was not he capable of judging
of what He had to say? Let Him say it ;
let Him convince him, and then he would
be His friend. Further than this, he sought
a sign that is to say, he had a purely
utilitarian view of religion; it was some-
thing to be used for the personal satisfaction
of his own life.
Ah! is not that a stumbling-block in the
way of many? Is not that the cause of so
much hypocrisy amongst professing Chris-
tians? Their view of Christianity, after all,
is this-that it should be useful to them.
In no generation in the world's history is
this so true as now. We revel in our
freedom, we rejoice to call ourselves free
men, we assert ourselves, we are proud of
our character. Here am I, we say, I have
made myself by my own abilities, by my
own capacities, by my own industry, here
am I; and there is religion-highly re-
spectable-much to be said for it; but it
must explain itself to me if I am to accept
it; it must produce its credentials, it must
show its reason why it should command
my belief. I sit here the judge of all
things; I sit here enthroned in the midst
of my own world: let religion come and
justify itself to me, let Christ stand before
+
Trifling with Conscience 113
me, and show reason why I should listen to
His words.
Does not that sentiment, in some form or
another, lie at the bottom of so much that
is written and so much that is said in the
present day about Christianity? "And Jesus
answered nothing." There will be no
answer; there can be no answer to that
demand of the man who sits coldly and
calmly and says, Here am I with my
character formed, let religion come and
answer at my bidding; let it show what
use it is, not to the life of the vulgar, but
to my life, to me, who have read, who have
ruled-let it approve itself to me, to my life
let it show its usefulness, and then I will
give it a hearing, but not till then.
You know the temper, I need not empha-
sise it. No answer can be given to it.
It is impervious to truth because it does not
want truth. It does not even want to know
what truth is; it does not want to recognise
its claims; for truth if recognised claims
obedience, and the man who speaks or
thinks like that is not prepared to obey.
He starts from himself, from his own
character, from his life as a thing which
has been led, which is past-as a thing
which cannot be undone; and therefore it
I
1
114 Counsels for Churchpeople
is no use talking about repenting of it. It
has to be made the best of; if religion will
palliate it, if religion will make that past
look a little better, and the future look a
little more prosperous, why, give me a
little, the modicum needed for that pur-
pose. Can there be an answer to such a
demand as that? Jesus answered nothing.
$&.
Public Opinion
Public opinion! We almost quail in
viewing it in the light of the Cross. It is
the greatest force in the world. It is, upon
the whole, the most beneficent; but it has
its limits, and we are bound to face them.
It is transient; it deals with the facts as
they are presented; and the presentation of
the facts changes rapidly. Look at the
change that came over the multitude within
five brief days-from the cry of "Hosanna!"
to the cry of "Crucify Him!" Jesus was the
same. There had no change come upon
Him; there had only come a change upon
the way in which He was presented to the
popular mind.
Public opinion can only judge upon the
Public Opinion
115
presentation of facts which come before it.
It cannot make itself responsible for much
investigation. Public opinion is founded
upon common sense, and common sense
means the rough-and-ready view of the
moment. Common sense is oftentimes re-
gardless of principle. Yet principle must
lie at the bottom of right opinion; and the
higher and nobler the principle, and the
more deeply it is felt, the more true is the
opinion formed upon it likely to be. Public
opinion is easily swayed by the crafty. See
how the multitude were played upon by the
Chief Priests. After all, though they did not
know it, they were played upon by those
who had already formed a deep-laid plot.
Public opinion is hard to get at definitely
in a moment when we want to find it for
our own use. When we ask ourselves,
"What is the public opinion at this moment?”
-is it an easy matter to find? The best are
the most silent; and at a crisis it is the voice
of the worst that is heard most distinctly.
We can tell who are the noisiest; we can
tell who speak most; we can tell whose
opinions are most definite and distinct; but
we cannot tell, after all, what is public
opinion. Public opinion is very often blamed
for the fault of its unworthy representatives.
116 Counsels for Churchpeople
But more than that, when public opinion
claims to be dominant, under its shelter-let
us remember this-every man is at his worst.
For every man is at his best when he is
saddled most clearly with the sense of his
own individual responsibility, and a man is
at his worst when that sense of individual
responsibility is least felt. When we
commit ourselves to public opinion, and
when we say, "I give my voice with the
majority,” then we are at our worst each one
of us.
We shirk our own individual respon-
sibility; we shrink from undertaking the
task which we cannot possibly refuse.
And yet the Cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ created a new conception of public
opinion, created the public opinion that we
now know; which, after all, is different, far
different from that which was represented
at that time. The Cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ gave to public opinion new possi-
bilities, because it stated, in a way that
henceforth could never be forgotten in the
history of mankind, the folly and the
wickedness and the wrongfulness of public
opinion which did not rest upon principle.
Men may have multitudinous opinions, but
that does not take from us the responsibility
of forming our own. And if we are not
The Cross and its Meaning 117
wise enough to form our opinion upon an
entire knowledge of all the facts, yet we may
be good enough to form our opinion by
praying that we may have a right judgment.
We may not have either intellectual power,
or the knowledge of all the details that will
enable us to form an opinion about current
events; but at least we can say, "Where is
justice? where is fairness? where is equity?
-that side shall have my voice. I want to
see on which side is justice, or the most
justice; that I can find out from my
conscience on my knees. That is a basis
sufficient for my judgment about current
affairs, and, having that, I know how I can
be enlightened, I know where I can find the
advice that befits me best."
ως
The Cross and its Meaning
The Cross of Christ is the supreme
manifestation of these two things brought
together-the sin of man and the love of
God-sin and salvation. We have first of
all to understand what sin is. We know
that sin is not to be accounted for as being
merely a natural misfortune; we know that
118 Counsels for Churchpeople
it is not simply a defect; we know that it is
not only an error of judgment; we know
that it is not merely a failure to realise an
ideal. All those things it doubtless is, but
it is much more than that. Sin comes from
the lack of power which we have not sought,
because we did not feel its need; and the
only remedy for sin is to feel its continual
presence with us-is to know the extent of
its dominion—is to feel our helplessness
before it. A strong sense of the prevailing
power of sin goes with a strong sense of the
love of God. We cannot submit ourselves
to God's love until we have convinced
ourselves of the power of sin, until we have
seen it everywhere, until we have learned
that there is no part of our nature, no use of
our activities, no sphere of our life, which is
free from its dominion, and which can be
secure from its presence. To recognise sin
everywhere is necessary for us if we would
seek the love of God. In the Cross of Jesus
Christ we see sin and love at once manifested,
brought together in one object, presented
before us in one great act, so as to be graven
and written upon our hearts and upon our
consciences.
How do you suppose that the doctrine of
the Incarnation arose? It arose because the
The Cross and its Meaning 119
companions of Jesus-those whom He had
chosen, those who followed Him day by day,
heard His words and saw His life, were led
to feel a growing sense of the strange, the
unutterable difference between themselves
and Him. That sense of the difference
between His nature and their nature bore
itself so steadily and so continuously into
their minds, that they felt that the only
explanation that could be given was that
He was indeed the Son of God. In like
manner no doctrine, no conception of the
Atonement can explain to us the Cross of
Christ. We stand before that Cross that
we may gather its meaning for ourselves,
that we may feel its import, that we may see
its entire and absolute unlikeness to anything
else, and so feel that its significance could
only be explained by some conception of
what we call the Atonement. This cannot
exist to us as a logical statement. It exists
as a vital truth. As we gaze upon the Cross
of Christ, and see the Sacrifice that He there
made, we see and feel that the perfectness
of His suffering, the entire self-control that
He possessed, and all the great drama of
the Crucifixion, showed a beauty, a com-
pleteness of His manhood, which indeed
bore our sins. Great was the power of sin,
120 Counsels for Churchpeople
terrible was the exhibition of its power at
the foot of the Cross; but above all human
vileness and corruption, above all human
selfishness and self-seeking, above all tem-
porary scheming and plotting there rose the
perfect form of Him Who was the Eternal
Truth; Who by His death and suffering
testified against all the false seeming of the
world and its power, Who by His perfect
patience and love overcame the pangs of
death, Who showed that there was some-
thing which was above and beyond the
world, something which raises our hearts to
Him, something which lifts us above those
powers and forces under the influence of
which our ordinary life is lived, something
which gives us a sense of redemption.
Redemption! We feel that we need it;
our experience teaches us that. As we gaze
on the Cross of Christ we find how we can
obtain it. We stand at the Cross of Christ,
poor sinners; we stand at His Cross and
feel the penetrating power of His love; we
stand with our hearts full of natural piety to
listen to the last words of a dying friend,
and that friend our God-our God Who
came down from Heaven that He might
draw us to Himself; our God Who bore our
nature that He might teach us its possibilities;
“Father, Forgive them” 121
our God Who condescended to come to us
that He might thereby raise us to Himself.
"Father, Forgive them!"
'Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do." "Father!" He turns
from man to God. Man was beneath Him
in all his sinfulness, and that sinfulness
displayed in all its hideousness. Still there
was the Father, the God Father, Who had
made all these creatures, who were not
therefore contemptible, for they were God's
children, who could not be forgotten or
neglected, because God had given them
their powers.
<<
(C
Forgive them!" A new force had come
into the world; Jesus had loved men-
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Who “went about
doing good." That was the short compen-
dium of His life and of His doings. Jesus,
Who had loved men, by their sinfulness was
brought to the Cross, and yet His love was
not thereby extinguished. Love, though
hated, still proclaimed its power to love.
"Forgive them!"
And then the plea, "they know not what
122 Counsels for Churchpeople
they do "-not, remember, an extenuating of
sin, not pleading an excuse for it. There
can be no excuse for sin, and no extenuation.
((
They know not what they do." They knew
that they were putting to death an innocent
man on a false charge, and that, surely, is
as great a sin as could be committed. But
though they knew that, they did not know,
they could not know, the full bearing of
their iniquity.
At the moment they had not sufficiently
contemplated what they were doing. If
they had time, time surely would bring
repentance, because time would show them
the greatness of their sin. The ground for
mercy is the hope of repentance; and
repentance can only come from reflection,
from going back on the past, from con-
sidering what it is that we have done, from
seeing it in a fresh light. But forgiveness
cannot come without repentance; and
repentance cannot come without a true
sense of the enormity of sin. "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they
do."
And for ourselves, is not this prayer of
Jesus a crying lesson of the deepest signifi-
cance? Revenge, malice, are for ever
impossible, must be for ever impossible,
44
Father, Forgive them”
123
to the mind of the Christian who regards
the Cross of Christ. Is not much of the
misery of life made up of grudges? Is not
the greater part of our unhappiness due to
the fact that we cannot get on with some-
body? Do not we feel that every irritation
that we give way to, every utterance of
irritability, vulgarises our life, robs it of
some of its beauty? Do not we feel that
grievance caused by every one whose
appearance or manner annoys us, is a
desperate sign of failure-yes, a sign and
token that our heart is not like the heart of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, how the misery
of life and its trouble come from little mis-
understandings, a little pique, a little grudge
kept at the bottom of a man's heart, coming
up from time to time, robbing life of its
beauty, robbing himself of all spontaneity.
and freedom. Can we not say from the
bottom of our heart about every one
towards whom we feel the smallest grudge,
Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do”? It is only by our power
of forgiveness that we reach freedom. We
cannot be free, we cannot be ourselves, if
we are under the bonds of malice or
uncharitableness.
And the power of the Cross to show forth
((
124 Counsels for Churchpeople
!
the greatness of God's love and the impossi-
bility of man's malice, how complete it is!
How it has been felt at all times! There
are few grander stories in history than the
tale of Fra Giovanni Gualberto. He was a
cavalier of Florence. His brother had
been put to death in a duel by an enemy,
and in accordance with the custom of the
time it became his duty to avenge his
brother's death. All his mind was given
to tracking out the slayer of his brother
that he might slay him in turn. For some
time he sought for him in vain, until at last,
one Good Friday morning, as he was riding
up a hill opposite Florence, at a turn in the
road he suddenly came face to face with
the man whom he had so long been seeking.
He leapt from his horse and drew his
sword. His enemy, being entirely unarmed,
could only fall on his knees and extend his
hands and implore pardon.
Gualberto
raised his sword above the head of his foe,
and as he did so he saw a crucifix set up to
mark the road for pilgrims to the church.
As his eye caught the figure on the cross he
was struck with the likeness between it and
the man who knelt with outstretched arms
before him. He paused, drew back his
sword for a moment, and, gazing still on the
The Penitent Robber
125
crucifix, he seemed to see the figure on the
cross bow His head towards him. He
caught the meaning of the lesson and
sheathed his sword, and flung his arms
around his enemy's neck and pardoned
him. They swore eternal friendship, and
there and then agreed to withdraw from
the world with all its malice and hatred,
with all its ungodliness and untruth. They
withdrew from the world, and founded the
great monastery of Vallombrosa. How
beautiful is this story, showing how the
power of the Cross has brought peace into
the world at every age; how the pleading
figure of our Lord bids us to lay aside all
malice and all uncharitableness. Can we
gaze upon the Cross of Christ and retain
any ill-will, or any ill feeling, in the face of
that exhibition of boundless forgiveness and
love? Cannot we cast ourselves before it
and strive to roll away the oppressive, the
unspeakable burden of an unforgiving
spirit?
So
The Penitent Robber
The dying robber turning to the Lord at
the supreme moment of his life, and being
126 Counsels for Churchpeople
:
received by Him with boundless condescen-
sion and mercy, shows us a Gospel within a
Gospel. The redemptive power of Jesus.
was made manifest at this great moment.
Jesus always drawing men unto Him, and
never more truly than when He is seen at
His weakest ; His redemptive power opera-
ting upon the Cross, showing its grandeur
and its dignity. Jesus, still the Master of
the world, Jesus" the King of the whole
earth," visible and invisible alike, after
mediating first of all with God as the Great
High Priest, now, as the Great King of all
men, welcomes to His Kingdom the peni-
tent. The whole meaning of Christ's com-
ing, and of His redemption, is made
manifest in the lightning flash of a moment.
It is a curious example of a real conver-
sion at an unlikely moment. A real conver-
sion; for consider the attitude of those two
robbers. They had lived much of their
lives together day by day, comrades,
engaged in the same expeditions; their
hands against everybody, and everybody's
hands against them. Their outward acts
had been alike throughout all those many
years they had done pretty much the
same things, they had said pretty much
the same things; and yet the whole tendency
The Penitent Robber
127
of their lives must have been very different.
No man could have turned to Jesus at that
last moment, unless ofttimes in solitude and
quietness he had thought about life's mean-
ing, unless there had been many good
aspirations rising in his heart, unless he had
had desires, feelings, and sentiments
peculiarly his own. As they hung side by
side upon the cross the two men's minds
drew asunder. One looked down upon the
earth, the other looked upwards. All that
had been genuine and real in the heart of
one, detached itself and rose above its
former self. "That life," he said, "I have
left, how futile, how valueless, how mis-
taken! I cast it away. It was merely the
clothing of another life which struggled
into being, but could not reach existence,
and now I see what my life meant. Now,
when my ordinary life drops away from
me, I find the germs of another life which
it overlaid in the past, but which now can
burst out; now I feel as I never felt before;
now I see what before I could not recog-
nise; now I can understand those hidden
emotions which at the time came upon me
unexpectedly, and seemed to be foolish-I
see all they were leading me to." He
became conscious of an original character,
128 Counsels for Churchpeople
a decided, real character, separate from a
man's life, which the Christian who labours
among his fellow-men is always striving to
reach and disclose. What is the object of
Christian work? What do the clergy try
to do? It is just this. In dealing with
individuals to penetrate that hard crust of
custom, of tradition, of ordinary life,
of habitual modes of thinking and
of looking at things, which clothes some-
thing more precious within. We want
to get at the real man. Redemption aims
at that, to get inside the man, and show
him where is a source of strength from
which he can vivify all those obscure and
hidden impulses of his nature of which he
is conscious at times, but which we wish to
bring forward as the dominant features of
his life. How are we to do it? By word?
Slightly. By life? Much more. By loving
sympathy above all things; by watchfulness
and quiet waiting for the moment in which
the hard crust is broken, for the appearance
of the real self, trying to nourish it into
force, to give it the power to emerge, that
it may seek the light and enjoy it.
Jo
Mary and John at the Cross 129
Mary and John at the Cross
Many wept at the loss of her Son; John
was weeping at the loss of his Master.
There came to them the word of consola-
tion : "Woman, behold thy son; behold
thy mother." Dost thou weep for the loss
of one who is dear to thee? Lo, there are
others who are dear to thee also; others
who will tend thee with a love that is
precious, because it is a love that is
derived from the same source as His love,
and it can irradiate thy life in the same
way. The restoration of duties remakes
life in time of sorrow, and what the
mourner has to seek for is the recognition
of the duties that await him. Has one
sphere been destroyed; has some dear one,
smitten upon the way, unexpectedly been
removed; has one set of surroundings
suddenly disappeared; has one departed in
whose life we seemed to live? Courage,
courage! There are others amongst whom
thou hast to live, others for whom thou
must labour. Thy duties are due to God,
to be done for Him. Turn to Him and He
will give thee a sphere in which thou canst
work, and in working with Him, and for
Him, thou canst go simply on thy way.
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130 Counsels for Churchpeople
That was the message of Jesus. He
restored some duties. He did not say,
"There is a great opening for you to go
forth as missionaries." He did not say,
"Rebuild your life in preaching Me."
No; their life was to be remade at home.
In home life and home itself, with its scenes
of love and affection-there the true life
was to be rooted-there it was to find its
meaning-from that source and centre it
was to go forth.
Human society is founded upon the
family, and the Christian family takes its
root from the Cross. There it was remade,
there it was re-created, there it received a
new and more complete sanction than ever
it had before. The Cross of Christ founded
the Christian family; and all those qualities
that make us what we are, are to be exer-
cised at home. It is in the most intimate
relationships of life that our true self is
most visible and apparent. This is a truth
which we do not always like to face. So
many people feel that they are not prophets
in their own country; they are not appre-
ciated in their own home; they can act so
much more freely somewhere else; they
resent the perpetual small criticisms which
seem to be applied to them there; they
Mary and John at the Cross 131
feel that more is demanded from them than
is quite fair. There is a growing tendency,
I fear me, at the present day, to find life
somewhere else than at home; to claim for cur
best selves a loftier and ampler sphere, and
to forget that, after all, we are what we are
to those who see us most intimately, to those
who know most completely every side of
our character. It is at home, in the
intimate relationships of life, in the little
things we do, the small duties we perform,
that our real self is most absolutely shown.
There is our probation, there is our train-
ing; there, too, our main work is done-
there and nowhere else. Sometimes we
repine at this; but look at the Cross of
Jesus, look at His wise advice to His
sorrowing mother and
His sorrowing
disciple, and you see the manifestation of
that great, that important, that eternal truth.
Human society is founded upon the family.
We are what we are in our own homes.
We cannot be greater or better than we
appear to be to those who see most of us-
our irritations, our fretfulness. Those are
all part of ourselves; we cannot shake
them off, and claim that they can be dis-
regarded as mere transient weaknesses.
With reference to them, by the way in
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132 Counsels for Churchpeople
which we overcome them and fight our
way through them, we have to stand or
fall.
So
"Why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
What did He mean by that cry, so awful
and so mysterious from His lips?
First of all, the cry, doubtless, was uttered
in the sense in which the writer of the Psalm
had used it. It was the cry of the human
spirit from the dread of death. Jesus, let
us remember, was true man. He did Divine
work under human conditions; and though
He redeemed us by His death, He died as
a man, and as a man He felt, and as a man
He uttered His feelings. Jesus did Divine
work under human conditions. He healed
the sick, yet was Himself weary; and now
He Who died for us, died also as a man dies.
There is a moment in every death when
the soul is almost overwhelmed. Death
appears so cruel and so stern. It has been
said that there is nothing so commonplace
as death, and yet nothing so terribly original.
Is it not true? We know that death is the
end of our life, yet that knowledge does not
Why hast Thou Forsaken 133
help us to face it. It comes to each one of
us as a novelty, a shock, something unex-
pected. The God Whom we had known,
the God Who had helped us hitherto,
that God in Whom we trusted, seems to be
withdrawn. "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me? My life is going, and
Thou seemest to hide Thy face from Me,
and I see Thee not." That is part of
common human experience.
But that does not exhaust the meaning
of the cry on the Redeemer's lips. For
Jesus, though He died as man, died also as
the Christ; and though man feels physical
pain, Jesus felt spiritual sorrow in a way
that mere man could not be called upon to
feel it. It is for ourselves we die; and
it is by ourselves we die; and we bear
our own pains only; and we feel there is
enough-too much, indeed, to endure. But
Jesus died bearing the sins of the world.
There was the horror of all the sin that
brought Him to the Cross, when He came
to face death and bear the weight of all
the sins of the world upon Him; because
to His sensitive nature there was present
in that death all that had led to it, all the
weight of sin which imposed it upon Him.
We cannot gauge the agony His soul passed
134 Counsels for Churchpeople
through; we only hear the end of the pro-
cess in which the harmony of His nature, so
racked and torn, was restored by a cry of
anguish unto God, "My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me?" God had seemed
so far away, that He had to be called back
by a conscious effort to the Redeemer's
presence.
This process is beyond us, beyond our
experience; but we, too, have our times of
dryness and depression; we, too, are tried
sometimes by a sense of dulness, of hardness,
as though God hid His face from us and we
could not find Him. We are tried in the
case of others by seeing the gradual decay
of their faculties. There is nothing more
trying, I imagine, than to tend the declining
years of one whom we deeply love and vene-
rate, as he sinks into an imbecile old age.
How are we to reconcile this physical decay
with the existence of the true man whom
we knew? It is a trial, it is a difficulty in
which we, too, feel inclined to say at times,
'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me?" Sometimes the consolation is felt
that He is hid from us for a time, that we
may struggle to a deeper knowledge of Him;
that by the cry of agony which we' are driven
to utter, we may raise ourselves to a higher
((
·
"44
135
I I thirst"
level and to a fuller knowledge. It is the
experience of all that there are times when
their spiritual forces are taxed to the utter-
most-when they have to fight to retain
their spiritual being.
Stay
So
"I thirst!"
The Redeemer cried out, "I thirst," and
that cry of His has been a consolation to
many sufferers, comfort to many a death-
bed. Many as they lie in pain are comforted
by the thought that those physical pains,
which seem to be so entirely unworthy, were
shared by the Lord Jesus Christ, Who did
not deny them or profess to rise above them,
but Who, in the weakness of His human
nature, cried out, "I thirst." For, indeed,
pain is a great trial; pain does not in itself
elevate very much otherwise. I am sorry
to say that I have been told by nurses that
some of their worst and most impatient
patients are good men and women, devoted
by their calling to Christian work. Surely
that ought not to be so; and yet is it not,
in a sense, natural? Do not we tend
to make a sort of demand that, if we are
136 Counsels for Churchpeople
excellent people, avowedly doing God's
work, God should make everything easy
for us, that we may do it conveniently?
The higher a man's sense of duty is, the
more he resents that he should feel pain and
its limitations; the more, in a sort of way,
he is tempted to claim that he should be free
from them: "I, who have so much to do-
I, who can do so much-why should I be
crippled here?" It is an emotion of human
nature which has to be overcome, which is
condemned by the penetrating power of
the Cross. Once more the utterances of
the Redeemer go down into the smallest
details of life, unveiling all that is unworthy,
and pointing to all that is noble.
Have you ever thought of the terrible
significance of those words, "They gnawed
their tongues in pain, and blasphemed God
because of their pains and sores, and re-
pented not"? It is by no means true that
physical suffering necessarily leads to
penitence, or is a means of amendment.
Physical suffering tends to turn a man's
mind solely upon himself. How often an
invalid is irritable and peevish to those
around him; how little gratitude do those
striving to alleviate his suffering receive.
All this is wrong. Pain is a trial which
44
79
It is Finished
137
has to be faced. Jesus underwent physical
pain. He knows how in itself it tends to
indifference and coarseness and brutality,
how it deadens the finer feelings, how it
makes men selfish and self-centred. The
cry of the Lord, "I thirst," brings the body
with all its feelings within the sphere of
spiritual discipline. It tells us how we
ought to count of ourselves and our bodily
nature, how that is given us by God, and
how we have to endure, and learn to suffer,
and learn to make use of all the sufferings
which God bestows upon us. They do not
explain themselves, and do not operate for
our good by themselves; they have to be
spiritualised, they have to be carried before.
God, they have to be lightened and explained
for us by the Cross of Christ.
})
“It is finished!'
We cannot understand the full meaning
of the cry of Christ; but this utterance of
His, how much does it teach us individually
or separately? When you and I lie upon
the death-bed, how about our life? Can
we face it as a definite thing and say, "It is
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138 Counsels for Churchpeople
finished"? What is finished in our case?
Vague endeavours, vain attempts to do
better, futile aspirations, relapses into sel-
fishness, stirrings of remorse that led to
no repentance—is that the process that is
finished? What is the value of that? "It
is finished." Jesus could regard His life as
a whole, and every true man must try to
look at his life as a whole. As we hear that
cry', "It is finished," we may ask ourselves,
we must ask ourselves, "What is my life?
What is the continuous purpose running
through it? What is its object? What
account can I give of it as I stand before
God's Judgment-seat? If I say anything,
at least, I must say what I have been trying
to do, what I mean, what I am. What
have I got to say? Wandering through so
many days, straggling through so many
years, doing what other people do, saying
what other people say, picking up my ideas,
my aims in the streets"-what account is
that to give of life? What process is that?
What is its value? "It is finished." Is
there a purpose in your life that you can
explain? Do you know what you are doing
or trying to do? The Cross of Jesus Christ
is a revelation of character, and we cannot
gaze upon it without a feeling of dread. It
"It is Finished"
139
is the touchstone of our reality. Have you
got a purpose in your life? Ah! it is not
necessary that it should be a great purpose,
that you can explain in the terms of the
world's activities. Has it ever struck you
about the lives of the greatest men of action
that they die never finishing anything?
Did the greatest statesman ever finish his
work? Years after his death, it may be,
certain tendencies of society which have
succeeded and prevailed, may associate
themselves with his name, may be exhibited
round his efforts, and he may be made
therefore a national hero; but if you take
away all that and regard the facts, no man
ever died having succeeded. He had
begun something, but he never realised
his object; and indeed ofttimes it may
be doubted whether he had any conscious
object before himself. However a man's
life was lived, can you say in history that
he finished anything? There is no com-
pleteness within the sphere of outward
activities; but if there is a purpose in your
life, that purpose realises itself. "Finished."
How different was that word in the mouth
of Jesus to what it was in the ears of the
Jews! "Yes," said the Jews, "finished-
this ridiculous attempt to do something,
140 Counsels for Churchpeople
we do not know what; it is finished-this
career which seemed at one time so pro-
mising and led nowhere." They saw
failure, and He saw success; they saw the
issue of outward efforts, He saw the reali-
sation of inward power and God sees this
in our lives.
:
What am I doing? What is the real
meaning of my life? It is not worth while
to explain that in the terms of outward
activity, however excellent; it is not the
completion of any outward act that you will
carry before the Judgment-seat; it is the
character you have formed, it is the life you
have tried to live, it is the creature you have
tried to be, it is your being and the secret
of your being. His life passed before
Jesus, and He saw it all, the flawless
servant of God the Father: He saw His
life in its completeness and in its beauty.
Oh, the thing we have to finish, the most
real thing about us, is our aspiration, our
desire to draw our character together, and
to be something distinct and definite in the
sight of God. All that we can be before
God is to be continually taking ourselves to
Him, that we may be restored, renewed,
and reinvigorated; all that we can offer
before God is the sacrifice of humility, the
44
Father, into Thy Hands" 141
assurance of our contrition, the complete-
ness of our surrender.
"Father, into Thy Hands"
The cry is the cry of triumph, of the
soul's return, the soul that came from God
speeding back to God. "Father." He
could add that word of His own to the
utterance of the Psalmist of old, because
God was to Him "Father" in a new sense;
and from that time God was the Father of
all men, in a new and more complete sense.
Thenceforth was a certainty unknown
before that the soul returns to God Who
gave it, hastening to the Father from Whom
it came, taking back all that it has gained
and garnered in the world, every power
that has there been given of self-conscious-
ness and self-reliance. Father, into Thy
hands I commend My spirit."
It is the cry of serene resignation to God,
of entire agreement between the will of the
dying and the will of God, to Whom it is
going. It is what we should wish to feel
ourselves. It is what we feel to be, if we
may so put it, the ideal of a death-bed.
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142 Counsels for Churchpeople
Father, into Thy hands I commend My
spirit." The ideal of a death-bed--so many
people have it that it is almost universal.
"Let me die the death of the righteous,"
was the aspiration of Balaam, though he
did not wish to live the life of the righteous;
but the death of the righteous is impossible
without the life of the righteous. For death
has no existence by itself; it is only the end
of life. It bears relation absolutely to the
life that has gone before; and the end of
life is the surrender to God of a gift received
from Him. The question is, Have we
realised that gift? Have we recognised it?
Have we made use of it? What have we made
of it? What have we tried to get out of it?
Justifying faith lifts us, through Christ,
above our natural self to God. It is only
faith in Christ which can teach a soul to
think that it can surrender itself to the God
Who gave it. Through Christ we may learn
to understand what is the meaning of our
life, and then take it back to Him with all
the knowledge which we have gained.
Life must be a perpetual giving up of self
to God, until at last the final surrender seems
to be both natural and easy day by day
dying unto sin, day by day living unto God,
that so that future life may grow more real
((
The Salt of the Earth 143
before us, and that daily death becomes so
easy that it seems obvious, and what is left
to die grows every day smaller and smaller;
while what lives grows every day larger
and larger, and we feel that the future is
more real to us than the present, and hope
more vital than that which we possess.
The perpetual surrender of ourselves to
God-that, and that only, should our life
be, and then the end of it will be natural,
and easy, until at last the final giving of it
up seems the most obvious thing there is,
and we also can exclaim, Father, into
Thy hands I commend My spirit.”
46
The Salt of the Earth
"Ye are the salt of the earth." In rude
days now gone by men felt that; and even
now, when men are disquieted, they turn
mutely and unconsciously to the Church of
Christ. If they break out into reproaches
against our unworthiness we can but sadly
confess that their reproaches are deserved.
The salt may never quite have lost its savour;
but who would say that the savour had been
as strong as it ought to have been? In
(C
144 Counsels for Churchpeople
former days men knew that they were not
leading Christian lives. They knew that
the world was too strong for them. They
built monasteries, and endowed holy men
to help them in their prayers. They looked
forward to end a life of warfare, or political
intrigue, in a monastic cell. They thought
that they could lay up in definite places a
store of salt for the preservation of the
world. We all know how soon the salt lost
its savour when it was removed from the
actual corruption which it was meant to
cure. Nowadays the Church and the world
meet and mingle, and both are better for
it. The savour of the spirit of Jesus finds
its way imperceptibly into unexpected
corners. The world is penetrated by it
more than it knows or we can explain.
One who stands upon the shore in stormy
weather looks at first with terror upon some
huge billow that rears its mighty head, and
dashes forward with irresistible force. A
moment and it has broken, and only the
floating wreckage of its foam is hurled at
his feet. He is alarmed, if the scene is new
to him; but a little thought reminds him
that the advance of the ocean's waters, its
gain upon the coast-line, is wrought by the
steady movement of the weight of water, of
The Salt of the Earth 145
which the threatening billows are merely
the signs and symbols. They are impres-
sive to the mind of the spectator, through
their power to work immediate ruin to
anything which is drawn into the sphere.
of their influence. So is it with human
thought and human progress. We are
fascinated by the appearance of great up-
heavals; we picture the onward movement
of the world as being by leaps and bounds;
we flatter ourselves that we understand the
spirit of the age, and can foretell the future
progress of the ages. History is a record
of storms. We note the raging billows;
we have little to say of the quiet, peaceful
days when the wavelets rippled gently to
the shore. Yet the force lies always in the
mass of the waters; it is their regular and
orderly ebb and flow which effects that
gradual detrition on which the ocean's
advance depends. The waves of fashion-
able opinion ebb and flow; their breakers
cause transient emotions in the bystanders.
The simple and the novice think from time
to time that all is lost, and that the old
landmarks are for ever swept away; those
whose experience is greater tremble indeed
at the storm, and are awestricken at its
destructive power, but they know that,
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146 Counsels for Churchpeople
though the waves rage highly and are
mighty, there is One Who dwelleth on high
and is mightier-One Who for a time dwelt
on this earth, and was an object of derision
to the fashionable opinions and the prevalent
modes of thought of those amongst whom
He moved. Yet He left behind Him truths
which since His day have been the motive-
power of the world's progress; and He
founded a Kingdom which, despite many
shortcomings, has upheld the highest stan-
dard of human endeavour. The growth of
that Kingdom is a slow and gradual process
of extension. Men in their impatience expect
that it should become at once universal;
that its advance should meet with no checks.
They have no such promise from their
King, Who taught them to find comfort not
in the outward recognition or outward
success, but in an inward consciousness of
the greatness of their mission, and the
corresponding greatness of their individual
responsibility. "Ye are the salt of the
earth; but if the salt has lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be savoured?" Let us
deepen in our own minds the sense of the
importance of our duties as members of
Christ's Church, of the eternal value of the
testimony borne by that Church, of the
Christian Common Sense 147
blessings which it bestows on men, whether
they be willing to receive them or no; let
us keep before ourselves a humble sense of
the duty of constant service to our brethren
in the world.
So
Christianity and Common Sense
There is always a desire to bring re-
ligion into connexion with common sense,
to treat it in a reasonable way, to prescribe
for it a practical end, and to apply to a
solution of its problems a clear and rational
method. This tendency is no doubt useful,
and has done much, in England especially,
to keep alive a sound and healthy religious
life. But this tendency cannot without
danger be accepted as sufficient by itself.
It has its limits, and it is well to recognise
those limits. The danger to which common
sense is especially exposed is that of narrow-
ing the problem to the dimensions of its
own capacity for dealing with it. A sensible
view of Christian doctrine is a good thing,
provided that it be not obtained by dropping
out of sight all that presents difficulties of
interpretation or understanding. A sensible
148 Counsels for Churchpeople
view of the duties of the Christian Church
is very useful, provided it does not omit
the chief duty of bearing witness to the
truth as it is in Jesus. A sensible view of
the work of the clergy is most instructive
to them, provided it recognises their chief
function of striving to heighten the Chris-
tian consciousness. It is possible to make
doctrine easy of acceptance by depriving
it of all meaning. It is not difficult for an
institution to gain a reputation for usefulness
by undertaking to do what every one wants
to see done. It is easy for an individual to
gain a character for Christian zeal by
exclusive devotion to the popular form of
philanthropy. It is no doubt the duty of
the Church of Christ to "make herself
servant unto all, that she may gain the
more" for her Master. There is no lack of
suggestions how this may best be done.
All such suggestions are valuable, and merit
careful consideration. But they have
limits which should be clearly admitted.
Christianity is not a matter of common
sense, but of the meaning of the words of
Jesus. The first duty of the Church is to
proclaim the message of Jesus in its fulness,
in the words in which it was delivered. It
cannot be altered to suit the changing
Christian Common Sense 149
requirements of every age. There is always
a class of minds who are like Philip in their
practical enlightenment. Sometimes a little
more, sometimes a little less, and the Gospel
of Christ would suffice them. There are
sincere, serious, thoughtful souls who claim
to have thought things out for themselves.
All fits together, and points clearly in one
direction; the last remaining conclusion
only needs to be clearly stated, and all
would be well. The Christian system
would then be in accordance with the
needs of the highest minds, and would be
unassailable. There
There is always a cry for
this step to be taken, this compromise made.
There is always the honest, heartfelt plea,
"One further admission, and it sufficeth
us." We have need to recall the words of
Jesus: "Have I been so long time with
you, and yet hast thou not known Me?"
We can give no other account of Jesus
than St. Paul gave-to some a stumbling-
block, to others foolishness, but to those
who receive Him, the Power of God and
the Wisdom of God. The Church rests on
a definite foundation, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, the one revelation of the Father.
Those who demand some modification of
this basis urge the needs of their individual
150 Counsels for Churchpeople
satisfaction. It has been well said, "They
confound the right of the individual, which
is to be free, with the duty of an institution,
which is to be something." Philip thought
that he was justified in making a small
demand for the satisfaction of his own
honest, upright, conscientious soul. He
did not see that his demand involved a
contradiction of all that Jesus had come to
declare. With all his reasonableness he
had only taken an outside view of the
matter. He needed some glow of enthu-
siasm, some spark of emotion, some touch
of his spiritual being to raise him to a
higher level, to make him capable of a
larger view. Then he could understand
that Jesus had not come to satisfy the out-
worn traditions of his early training, the
problems of society or politics amongst
which he lived, the questionings which
outward circumstances suggested. He had
come to raise him to newness of life, to
carry him into a higher world than the
world of sense, where, moving in a larger ·
sphere, he might feel and know that "God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
So it is still, and so it must ever be. There
are limits to the sensible, practical spirit as
applied to religion. It deals admirably
Personal Religion
151
with outlying points of doctrine or of
organisation. When it reaches the centre
it is powerless, and the answer to its earnest
and well-meant demands must ever be the
same: "Lift up your hearts."
Personal Religion
Enough is said at the present day about
religious doubt, its causes and its remedies.
But there is a large class of devout and
fervent souls, who yet are dissatisfied in
their inmost hearts. They have no intellec-
tual difficulties, they are entirely and scru-
pulously orthodox ; but they feel that
religion does not do for them all that they
expect, and all that they wish. They want
to be more religious than they feel they are.
Religious motives do not directly inspire
their conduct or animate their lives. Their
opinions are clear on separate points, but
do not somehow unite to form a system
which is present and powerful to direct
their actions and help them in their diffi-
culties. They are anxious for instruction,
but the instruction does not come home to
them. They are like Philip; they have
152 Counsels for Churchpeople
been watching and waiting; but something,
some little thing, is needed to give them
complete satisfaction.
The reason of their difficulty is the same
as that of Philip's. The good, sensible,
sincere mind has limits which it does not
like to admit. Its religion has grown up as
occasion required or as opportunity offered.
Men have taken religion as an accompani-
ment of their ordinary life, an explanation
of what could not otherwise be explained.
They have begun from themselves, from
the facts of their individual life. They
have regarded religion as part of their
mental furniture. It has been kept in a
strictly practical sphere, and has been
directed to strictly practical objects. All
has been done carefully, scrupulously, up-
rightly; but there has been no abandon-
ment of self, no glimpse into a higher
spiritual world.
The temptation is natural and obvious,
to begin from ourselves as we are, from our
own lives, our own characters, our own
ways of looking at things, and then to
demand that to these the eternal order
should be made clear, and that they, just
as they are, should be made part of the
higher harmony. Because this result is
Personal Religion
153
not achieved, there is a sense of dissatisfac-
tion, there is a consciousness of something
lacking. Then this vague sense of dissatis-
faction centres round some particular point:
if only that difficulty were removed, all
would be clear. The sensible man vindi-
cates his claim to common sense by defining
his exact requirements, and is proud of
this display of his capacity. Yet if he
paused to think, he would admit that in
the smaller matters of life this method
had not been the method by which he had
progressed. His practical difficulties had
not been removed by any definite solution
given to the question in the form in which
he first set it before himself. Rather the
experience of life widened his views, en-
larged his sphere of action, and raised him
above his first difficulties by absorbing
them in larger and higher problems. So it
is always. So especially must it be with
the religious life, which will not satisfy the
narrow questionings that are put forward
by imperfect apprehension. Following
Christ means living into a large spiritual
world. Philip followed Christ after the
flesh; Philip interpreted Him according
to his own ideas and prejudices; Philip
constructed a system of his own, and
154 Counsels for Churchpeople
demanded that Jesus should satisfy him by
filling up what was lacking to his well-
meant inquiry. He did not see that the
life of Jesus was in itself the answer to his
demand. He did not see that it was the
only possible revelation of the Father. He
had not caught its spirit, because his eyes
were fixed, not upon Jesus in the first place,
but upon himself. Beginning from himself
he went to Jesus to supply what he could
not by himself discover. Had he looked
more steadfastly on Jesus, he would have
gained a new power of vision; old things
would have passed away, and all things
would have become new. The signs of
the presence of the Father would have
been everywhere manifest to his eyes.
The religious life admits of no limitations.
We must go to God for all that He will
give. What that is we do not know; we
cannot prescribe the way in which He
shall give us our knowledge. We may
have had Jesus a long time with us, and
yet may not have known Him. We may
have asked Him to do for us individually
what is not in accordance with His message
to all mankind. We may go to Him anxious
only about the fashions of a day that pass
away and are forgotten, so anxious about
The Inner World
155
them that we will not lift up our hearts into
the region where joy and peace eternally
dwell.
The Inner World
We talk about the world as if it were
the same thing to us all; but we are each
of us architects and framers of the world
which we choose as our dwelling-place.
We recognise this in outward things; we
speak of men as architects of their own
fortunes; we praise them for their wisdom,
their foresight, their success. But a man's
fortunes are more than can be gauged by
our standards of measurement. We cannot
convert the value of peace of mind, integrity
of conscience, or clearness of purpose into
pounds sterling; nor can we appraise
human happiness by a balance at the
banker's. One man meets another in the
ordinary intercourse of life, and exchanges
ideas about certain definite objects of
practical importance. They may agree
about the points under discussion, and
about the means to be pursued to give them
effect. Neither of them cares to look into
156 Counsels for Churchpeople
the motives of the other. How great may
be the difference, in its real meaning to
each, of the action on which both are
agreed! So long as the action is useful to
society, society gives to both the same
meed of recognition; but there is that in
every action which no outward standard
can rightly appraise. No act is isolated, or
is the result of mere momentary per-
ception; it rests always upon a basis of
character; it contains in embryo all that a
man has been, has thought, has suffered; it
influences to a great extent what he will be,
and think, and suffer in the future.
A man's activity in this inward sense
depends upon the world in which he lives
-the inner world in which, consciously or
unconsciously, every man moves and has
his being. It is to the contents of this
world that a man refers in a crisis; it is
from the experience which this world
affords him that he draws the maxims
which guide his conduct. As this world is
great or small, so is the character of the
individual large or narrow; according as
there is room for new experience, so does
its teaching gradually become effective. It
is the claim of the Christian that he moves
in a large world irradiated with the light of
Christian Experience
157
God's presence.
It is objected that this
world is so large that it disregards the
present, and puts forward motives which
concern another life and another state of
being than this which is common to us all.
But Christianity draws no sharp line between
this world and the next; it promises no
absolutely new being in the future, only a
perfection of the spiritual life which is
begun here.
Repentance does not bring
a merely formal change in the relationship
of man to God: it is the restoration of a
shattered character to the realisation of its
possibilities. Humility is founded on a true
knowledge of self; penitence is the result
of bringing that knowledge before God.
Holiness is the goal of the Christian here in
this world-to be attained by constant
effort, animated by a growing knowledge of
God and a growing sense of His presence
to direct and guide.
So
Christian Experience
The Christian does not live in a world
which is removed from his experience;
nay, rather, every step in his progress is
158 Counsels for Churchpeople
the result of direct experience of God's
presence, either with himself or with others.
As he looks back upon his own past, he sees
how he was guided at great crises; he
recognises perils which he escaped; he is
conscious of issues which were far beyond
his foresight; he has received many answers
to his prayers; he has had times of personal
illuminations; he has heard messages of
comfort. He does not care to speak
commonly about these things; they cannot
be proved, as no facts of the individual life
can be proved. It is only the things which
deal with man's animal life which are
capable of proof; because the existence of
its needs is beyond dispute, and discussion
only concerns the methods by which these
needs can be supplied. If a man proclaims
that life for him contains nothing save a
desire to feed and clothe and house himself,
I do not see how I am to prove that it
contains more. I can show him that many
people see more in it, and that they are
happy in seeing more; but, in the long run,
all that I can do is to try and familiarise
him with their examples, and trust that the
weight and force of those examples will
lead him to enlarge his conceptions. If an
educated and cultivated man were to insist
Christian Experience
159
that, because he had no ear for music,
therefore it was foolish for any one to
continue to be susceptible to the harmony of
sounds, I should judge that he was deficient
in modesty at the least.
The Christian life rests, to the individual
Christian, on an assured basis of experience.
His faith in Jesus as the Son of God, his
sense of his own communion with God
through that belief, his consciousness of the
indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost,-
these things may be separated for con-
venience of definition, but they represent
the one abiding background of his daily life,
from which his separate actions detach
themselves. Without them many of his
actions would still be done, and would
seem the same to outward view; but they
would not, in reality, be the same. For
every act is to some degree penetrated by
its motive, which shines through it, and
gives it a larger or a smaller bearing than
its immediate intent. Unthinking good-
nature, amiability, and geniality, if they
were all combined, could not produce the
effect of an action prompted by Christian
love; still less would an act of philanthropy
which resulted from a careful consideration
of the best interests of society. The act
160 Counsels for Churchpeople
itself in both cases, the definite, tangible
thing done, might be exactly the same; but
there would be a wide difference between
its influence, and the difference would be
immediately felt by the recipient. I dare
say that the men whom the Psalmist saw in
great prosperity (Psa. lxxiii.) were sometimes
very good-natured to him; and I dare say
that many of them justified their prosperity
by far-reaching schemes for social improve-
ment according to their lights. But some-
how the Psalmist felt that there was more
than this. If he had accepted them he
would have dealt treacherously with the
generation of God's children. Acts of
appealing graciousness rose before him,
words of far-reaching sympathy rang in his
ears. He had seen enough of a world of
spiritual beauty to know that, without it,
life for him would be for ever an altered
and a lower thing.
So
Christian Influence
It is worth while to dwell upon the
thought of the power of the Christian life,
which always has a charm, a sweetness, a
Christian Influence
161
virtue peculiarly its own, and which must
ever be the abiding testimony of Christ in
the world. In fact, the Church exists that
it may produce and educate such a life; and
it is the privilege of the followers of Jesus
to set forth in every age some faint reflection
of their Master's spirit. This has been felt
and admitted universally; nowadays there
is a tendency to explain it away. The
Church in the past, it is said, had a monopoly
of the principles of conduct, and so can
claim all those exceptional beings whose
lives profoundly impressed mankind. This
is no longer necessary nor desirable, and
the State, by means of education, can
undertake the production of artists in
virtue. Men can be trained to discharge
definite functions capably and well ; but no
human process can guarantee that integrity
of purpose and singleness of motive on
which the charm of the separate acts
depends. A student of language can point
out the excellences of Shakespere's diction ;
one with a fine ear for verse can analyse the
exquisiteness of his rhythm; but no one can
create for another that large insight into the
human heart which makes him a poet and a
teacher. The charm of Christian saintliness
depends on its view of human nature, which
M
162 Counsels for Churchpeople
cannot be the same thing to him who
believes in the Incarnation as it is to him
who does not believe. Marcus Aurelius
could not speak nor act like Polycarp,
however much he might have been in
common with him on many points of
conduct and in many views of life. I
would ask you, Have others influenced you
or attracted you in proportion to their
capacity, their knowledge, or their wisdom?
Men admire cleverness; they are moved by
love. They listen to good advice; they are
induced to act by quiet sympathy. They
are carried away by declamation and vain
promises; they come back to that which
rests on simple goodness.
The charm of the Christian character is
real and is efficacious-more efficacious, I
think, than is allowed. It would not do for
an artist in virtue to be recognised as such,
or his power would at once be gone. The
ministry of every Christian life is continuous;
but "the kingdom of heaven cometh not
with observation." It is not easy to write
the life of a saint-those who are famous as
saints owe their fame to some other cause,
as a rule, than their saintliness-and it is
often objected that the Calendar of Saints
contains an undue number of those who are
Christian Influence
163
mere names, and of whose actions little is
known. This seems to me natural. When
they were gone, men felt that the world was
immeasurably poorer for their loss, and
showed their sense of this feeling by a
veneration of their memory. Their words,
their acts, had passed into the lives of
others, and left no independent record;
they lived in and for others, and in the
memory of others they survived. The
service of Christ has produced a Christlike
life, from which men have learned, and by
which succeeding ages have been cheered
and strengthened, as by the other gifts of
God-by the starry firmament, by the song
of birds, by the loveliness of the flowers of
the field. Men saw and marvelled while
the little leaven worked its way, till the
Christian life entered into the world's
heritage, to carry on for ever its transform-
ing influence.
The world demands work should be done
according to its pattern, such ends should
be accomplished as it desires, and ofttimes
upbraids the Christian life with its tardiness,
and sometimes exclaims that its day is past,
and its work, such as it is, has come to an
end. In some ways the world's reproaches
are justified, because the Church has too
164 Counsels for Churchpeople
easily followed the world's example. It has
tried to conquer with the world's weapons ;
it has tried to secure itself against the world
by imitating the world's system. Do
Christians, even now, admit that their great
work for the world is simply to lead in it
the Christlike life? Do we not suffer from
panics when we are upbraided with the
want of tangible success in definite fields of
activity? Do we not sacrifice the charm of
the inward life to the outward manifesta-
tions of bustling energy? Is there no
temptation to secure the testimony of the
Church by a copy of worldly organisation
rather than the pleading of the Christian
life? Are we always contented "in quiet-
and confidence to possess
strength"?
ness
Our
I
Political Responsibility
There is a tendency at the present day to
speak as if political responsibility were no
longer vested in the hands of individuals, as
if democratic institutions had put into
commission individual responsibility alto-
gether. We point with horror to the
Political Responsibility 165
doings of absolute monarchs in the past,
and are thankful that the time is gone
when the will of one man could work
such appalling results. Yet it is hard
to admit that the career of a modern
statesman is free from the responsibilities
attaching to the exercise of power, because
he is chosen at intervals to exercise it, and
is subject to periodical removal from its
exercise. Tyranny was always tempered
by revolution; absolute monarchs were
always conscious of practical limits; they
always had to secure a body of adherents
on whom they could rely, and on whose
fidelity their power was based. Despite
their claims of Divine right, they were
always in some sense party leaders, and had
to keep their party together. If their
nature was at all inclined towards good, it
had this immense support, that it was com-
pelled to recognise the absoluteness of
personal responsibility. The office of kings
could scarcely be resigned, the obligations.
were lifelong: the duty of repairing disaster
fell on him who incurred disaster; there
was no chance of avoiding blame or finding
excuses for failure. The theory of the
Divine rights of kings implied a high sense
of responsibility attending on the exercise
166 Counsels for Churchpeople
of power. The theory "Vox populi vox
Dei" may be so interpreted as to absolve
the possessor of power from any moral
responsibility at all. The conditions of
modern life tend to diminish the sense of
responsibility, and make room for political
fatalism. It is assumed that forces are at
work which it is beyond man's power to
direct, forces which are Titanic, monstrous,
indefinite. Provided a politician does what
is popular, it is immaterial whether or no he
does what is right; if he is not prepared to
carry out the popular will, he has no right
to a place in public life at all. Such argu-
ments are equivalent to an abdication of
responsibility on the part of those who aim
at directing affairs. But is this plea
genuine? Is there really an irresistible
current of public opinion which is beyond
human guidance? Is it not the fact that
public opinion is first carefully fostered
and created by politicians, before they
use it? Do they not form it more than
they are formed by it? A politician is not
merely an official of the people; he is an
educator of the people. If it were other-
wise, undoubtedly politics would be
excluded from the sphere of morality
altogether. But a politician cannot be
Religion and Politics
167
allowed to get rid of his conscience so
cheaply as this. The plain facts are against
him. When he is not in power he is
attempting to educate public opinion till it
puts him in power. He is responsible for
the end which he chooses, and the means
which he employs. One who determines
to take part in public life must be exhorted
to recognise the reality of his responsibility,
and to advance to his self-chosen task with
eyes open to the many temptations which
will tend to make him forget it.
So
Religion and Politics
Many men are interested in politics, and
take part in them. Much depends on their
attitude. Let us see how this can be
amended.
(C
Democracy," it was said long ago, “is
founded on virtue." In a democratic state
politics are necessarily a mighty means of
popular education, and every man who
takes any part in them should do so with
the spirit of a teacher. It is saddening to
hear current phrases which imply that an
election is a great calamity, that it stirs up
168 Counsels for Churchpeople
ill-will, that it generates animosity, that its
appeal is to greed on one side and panic on
the other. Why should this be so?
Political discussion presents, or ought to
present, definite issues on which, it is true,
opinions differ; but it is possible that
differences of opinion should be plainly and
clearly stated, and that the points involved
be reasonably and temperately discussed.
Current language implies that this is rarely
what takes place. Surely every one in his
degree can do something to make this the
ordinary mode of procedure. We deplore
wars, and form societies for promoting
peace among all nations. Do we try to
abolish at home that attitude of aggression,
that desire to have our own way at any
cost, which is the cause of war? No points
which concern the national life are so
important as that the national intelligence
should be trained by wise argument, and
the national conscience heightened by a
strict observance of justice and moderation.
He is the truest patriot who proclaims that
he would rather see the second-best way
triumph by worthy means than secure the
victory of the best way by unworthy means.
In no capacity in life so much as in
politics is a man's character immediately
Religion and Politics
169
influential apart from the things which he
does. The moral tone of all Englishmen is
heightened or lowered by the character of
those on whose actions all men's eyes are
fixed, and whose words all men weigh.
Every statesman has much power for good
or evil. Every member of Parliament in
his own neighbourhood has many oppor-
tunities of teaching the people on subjects
on which the popular mind is interested.
He should be saddled with a sense of
his responsibility. His audience come
prepared to applaud, for he is their recog-
nised leader; they do not come to criticise,
but to shout. There is danger in this know-
ledge; there is a temptation to humour
prejudices by empty invective and smart
denunciation. Let us ask him to remember
that he owes a duty to the nation to speak
the truth, to set forth his opinions by honest
arguments, to teach his hearers and not to
corrupt them. This duty of labouring to
sweeten what is bitter in the waters of
political life is one which devolves on those
who have leisure, intelligence, and sufficient
detachment from actual affairs to enable
them to weigh not only the immediate
results but the far-off issues. Such there
are, undoubtedly, everywhere. Do they
170 Counsels for Churchpeople
recognise that they ought to make a return
for their advantages by striving to be of use
to those who are bearing the burden and
heat of the day?
It has been well said, "Good men have
often tended to be too abstract in their
views, to put the general idea of God in the
place of all the particulars which should
come under it, and to forget that a religion
is nothing which does not create out of
itself new politics, a new social and even
economical order of life; which does not
bring beauty and truth with it as well
as piety; which does not make human life
more humane in both senses of the word."
Surely these words deserve weighing.
Christianity beautifies many an individual
life, and sheds a lustre over the life of many
a family. Its influence is less conspicuous
in the life of business; it pales in the sphere
of what is called society, and is still dimmer
in politics; in the region of international
obligations it can scarcely be said to exist.
It is well to begin at the bottom, but we
must not stay there. We need a more
conscious and deliberate application of the
principles of Christian morality to every
department of life. It is not wholesome
that the region of political life should be
The Pursuit of Knowledge 171
regarded as dubious. Christian men must
act with reference to Christian principles.
The Church has a message to the State
which it must deliver with quiet dignity
and unwearied persistence. Above all the
tumults of the world's wordy warfare, it
must point to the great Head of humanity,
Who "did not strive, nor cry, nor lift up
His voice in the street," but transformed
the world by the example of His patience;
to Him, by union with Whom a man
becomes indeed a man; to Him Whose
indwelling Presence alone gives greatness
to the world and its affairs.
$3.
The Pursuit of Knowledge
As we look back upon the past, the
process which we trace seems like the
growth of a mighty river, fed by many little
rills which have their origin in obscure and
desolate regions, whence man would not at
first expect to find profit. Yet we are also
conscious that there were fountains which
sprung up where men were seeking for
water, and once gave promise of abundant
supply, which have nevertheless ceased to
172 Counsels for Churchpeople
香
​flow. There have been movements of
thought, there has been patient research,
which has had a long and laborious course
to run before it reached the point where it
was recognised as part of the great fertilis-
ing current of the world's knowledge.
There have also been movements of
thought which have promised great things,
and yet have dried up and been un-
productive. It is well to take note of this,
lest we fall into an arrogant optimism of
believing that anything that is done, or
thought, or said, in the name of knowledge,
is in itself an addition to man's abiding
store. It is not so. The pursuit of know-
ledge teaches reverence and humility,
teaches the vast gulf between the plausi-
bility which wishes to make a show of
wisdom, and the sincere desire to reach
only what is true. With the growth of
education amongst us has come, first of all,
an increased power of expression; and
with this a sort of belief that anything
which can be expressed has a corresponding
reality. I need not remind you that the
substitution of fancies for facts, the pursuit
of objects which are beyond man's power,
the search for knowledge by fantastic ways,
the longing to transcend rather than in-
The Pursuit of knowledge 173
vestigate nature-these have been ofttimes
the signs of a mental malady which has
palsied the progress of science. The
pursuit of knowledge requires for its success
seriousness, sobriety, a sense of limitation,
above all a sense of relationship to universal
truth.
Again, I am brought back to the concep-
tion of the unity of truth, because without
this conception no grasp of knowledge,
even in particulars, seems to me possible.
And this unity of knowledge is only to be
found in God, the Creator of the world, the
Author of its harmony, Who has given to
man the power of understanding, and of
identifying himself with, the order which
he perceives around him. “In Thy light
shall we see light."
Truth is not a deposit which we enter
upon without any effort of our own; it has
to be appropriated, recognised, taken into
our being, made operative for our individual
self. All truth comes to us as a revelation.
We receive it at first from outside; we
make it our own by reflection, by observa-
tion, by experiment, till we find it luminous,
and enthrone it as director of our life. The
individual receives this revelation from
divers sources, which correspond to his
174 Counsels for Cburchpeople
powers of perception. From science comes
a revelation of nature; from history, and
its results expressed in the community of
which he forms a part, comes a revelation
of man; from life and its experiences
comes a revelation of self. These form
parts of an expanding series-self, the
world of man, the world of nature. But all
these are connected, and become coherent
by the revelation of God contained in
Scripture. That revelation is like the
others, progressive, for it is the revelation
of a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ; and
that Person is the centre of all other
revelations, the point to which they run.
In Him is found the meaning of the life of
the individual. In Him is the life of men
-"All things were made by Him, and
without Him was not anything made that
V. hath been made." In Him man discovers
the law of his life, and is at peace with him-
self. In Him man is united with his fellows
in the glorious sonship of the sons of God.
In Him man takes his place in the outer
world to which he is so closely allied-a
world which is not alien from the Lord, but
which He framed, and whose life comes
from Him.
The Persecuting Spirit 175
The Persecuting Spirit in the Church
The desire of every man to have his own
way becomes all the stronger when he
knows that his way is a good way. It is
appallingly easy to cover this natural desire
with a fair appearance, to claim as from
God authority which He has not conferred,
and to misapply Scripture in justification
of such a claim. This is what the Church
unfortunately did in the fourth century, and
I do not see that any extenuation can be
pleaded for its misdoing. The Church was
in possession of an abiding and unalterable
standard by which to judge its motives and
try its actions. It was untrue to itself if it
did not always act up to its knowledge. It
was wrong when it deliberately abandoned
its standard from reasons of expediency or
self-interest. Its aims were higher than
those of the world, and the two powers
came into inevitable collision. The Church
conquered by suffering, and then, in the
moment of victory, yielded to the attraction
of an alliance with the world to put down
the foes who were undermining the faith
within. The alliance, it is true, failed of its
purpose; and the power of the State was
invoked by both parties in turn. But none
176 Counsels for Churchpeople
the less the precedent was established.
Orthodoxy prevailed by its inherent truth.
But the weapons once grasped remained
in the Church's armoury, where for long
intervals of peace they lay unused. When
battle was impending they were furbished
up anew, and it was claimed that they had
received God's consecration. Popes and
prelates, with their minds made up on
purely worldly grounds, sought for prece-
dents and rejoiced to find them. They
perverted God's message, with which they
were entrusted, to the level of the world's
maxims. They stifled conscience, they
drowned the voice of understanding, they
went far to quench the shining of the Light
of the world, they certainly obscured its
power to illuminate the dark places of
politics and society.
I
Error, and Sin
It is a thought borne home to the mind.
of any one who reflects upon the past, that
the sphere of human error in matters of
morality is smaller than is generally
supposed, and the sphere of sin is greater.
Error, and Sin
177
We must not be misled by the success of
nations, of movements, or of individuals, to
condone their misdoings. We must not be
overcome by the glamour of great names.
Men did wrong, not because they erred
through ignorance, but because they took
the shortest and most obvious means to
secure their own immediate objects. This
is seen clearly cnough in the case of indi-
viduals. The rule, "Do unto others as ye
would they should do unto you," is in some
form or other universally known and recog-
nised. If it were universally acted upon,
the world would be a very different place.
But man waives it, as agent, and only pleads
for its observance as patient. His desires
are his own, and his first struggle is to
attain their fulfilment. The severity of
others' judgment on this outburst of selfish-
ness tends to vary in proportion as they
feel themselves personally menaced by it.
They feel in themselves a certain kinship
with the offender which prompts them to
plead in his behalf when his endeavour
does not threaten any danger to themselves.
"He was ignorant," they say, "ignorant of
the amount of punishment which his act
might bring upon himself, ignorant of the
amount of suffering which it would entail
N
178 Counsels for Churchpeople
on others. Had he known this, he would
have paused; there is hope that the more
perfect realisation of these things may bring
into play counteracting motives which may
be powerful enough to restrain him in the
future." This may be true. But it cannot
be pleaded that he was ignorant that his act
was wrong, that he would not have con-
demned it if it had been wrought upon
himself. If he had thought he might have
known ; but he did not wish for knowledge
lest it might restrain him. Christianity
comes to man's help by developing this
knowledge. It sets over against what man
is, an ideal of what he may become; against
desires pressing from without, a sense of
possibilities within; against the natural self,
the spiritual self; against the tempter, the
vision of the Incarnate Lord. It creates a
consciousness which acts as instantaneously
as the evil against which it is directed.
$6
Right and Wrong in Communities
In the case of a society such as the State,
the same holds good as holds good of the
individual. The State aims at satisfying
Right and Wrong
179
the dominant interests of the community,
and is generally judged simply by refer-
ence to its immediate success. Statesmen
are counted great if they did what they
intended to do. The rightness or wrong-
ness of their aims or methods is only taken
into account when they result in ultimate
failure. Whatever succeeds is assumed to
be a step in human progress; and it is justi-
fied by reference to some general principle
which resolves itself into grateful accept-
ance of the accomplished fact. The actors
in great affairs are, as a rule, leniently dealt
with, till the results of their activity have
been outlived. Their public crimes are
often less harshly judged than their private
vices. They are sometimes condemned as
individuals, but extolled as bodies of men.
Their misdeeds are obscurely palliated by
reference to some supposed standard of
morality peculiar to their age and genera-
tion. But, it may be asked, did mankind
in Christian times ever think that deceit,
treachery, violence or murder were other
than sinful; or that their criminality dimin-
ished if they were perpetrated on a
sufficiently large scale?
The standard of ethical judgment in
dealing with secular history needs raising;
180 Counsels for Churchpeople
but in treating the history of the Christian
Church we are concerned with the actions
of a body which possessed principles above
the motives of temporary expediency. It is
some satisfaction to find that men's con-
sciences are more sensitive when they
judge the Church, than when they judge
the State. They are ready to admit, with
sorrow or with exultation according as they
approach the subject, the discrepancy, too
frequently apparent, between the professed
aims of the religious organisation and the
actual means by which those aims were
pursued. I do not think it right to shrink
from learning the lessons which the
contrast teaches. I think it well that they
should be accepted to the full, and that no
extenuation should be pleaded on the
ground of ignorance of principles. Men
failed because they did not wish to apply
the principles which they professed.
SA
The Educational Value of the Old
Testament
Nowadays we are familiar with the con-
ception of the Old Testament as being a
Walue of Dld Testament 181
record of man's gradual training to appre-
hend spiritual knowledge. We see in it the
history of God's work for man's restoration.
We trace the process of selection, and of
gradual discipline within the selected
sphere. The historical books of the Old
Testament contain the annals of a nation's
life. That national life passed through the
phases and incidents with which we are
familiar in the history of other nations;
but it was animated by a Divine purpose,
which in times of national forgetfulness
was recalled to the popular mind by sig-
nificant manifestations, in forms intelligible
to the conditions into which they had sunk.
What we learn from this record is the
difficulty attending on man's restoration.
What strikes us is not the frequency or the
continuousness of Divine interposition, but
its rarity. A body of men were raised from
savagery to industry by the stern discipline
of slavery, then were trained into a nation
by the hardships of wandering and the
severities of military life. At great crises
God manifests His presence for their
encouragement; for long periods they are
left to work out their problems by them-
selves; appeals are made to their intelli-
gence and their moral sense by purely
182 Counsels for Churchpeople
human means. Only when all else had
failed and national apostasy was imminent,
only when the remnant that did not bow
the knee to Baal was scanty, isolated, and
depressed, only then was a manifestation of
God's power vouchsafed for a brief period
to check the threatened corruption of the
nation. Then that nation, somewhat in-
vigorated from within, was left to learn
from the miseries of political downfall, and
from the sufferings and yearnings of the
exile, which again selected a remnant
sufficiently resolute to take in hand a
restoration of the national life, based on a
firm hold of the national religion. Such are
the lessons which we learn from the Old
Testament. Was there ever any reason
why it should have been regarded as a
collection of examples, to be imitated in
the letter without any consideration of
circumstance or occasion?
I can only answer that writers of the
fourth century regarded the Old Testament
much as we do now; and that St. Chrysos-
tom laid down principles for its practical
use which apply forcibly to the question
before us. Commenting on the Sermon on
the Mount, he discusses the educational
value of the Old Testament, and concludes :
Dur Lord's Denunciations 183
"Let us then not merely look at the facts,
but also carefully investigate the occasion,
the cause, the motive, the difference of
persons, and all the surrounding circum-
stances for only so can we reach the
truth."
Our Lord's Denunciations
The Gospels contain stern and unsparing
denunciation uttered by our Lord against
the Pharisees, together with statements of
the reasons for which they were uttered.
The Pharisees were the religious teachers
of the nation, and the mode in which they
discharged their function was dragged to
light and criticised. They were judged by
the standard which they professed to
follow, and were convicted of being untrue
to their trust. They "made void the Word
of God because of their tradition." They
"left the commandments of God, and held
fast the tradition of men.' They were,
therefore, "blind guides" in relation to
those whom they professed to lead ;³ as
their motives were those of self-interest
2 St. Mark vii. 8.
I St. Matt. xv. 6.
3 St. Matt. xv. 14.
1
184 Counsels for Churchpeople
I
they were consciously "hypocrites"; as
their method consisted in frittering away
great principles, while professing to apply
them to details, they were "foolish.”2
The setting forth of new truth must
necessarily involve some criticism of the
prevailing system, to determine where it is
defective, to show how it is to be supple-
mented, and to discover the points of
attachment of the new system. This is
what our Lord did. He declared that He
came to extend existing knowledge; and if
that knowledge had been held in its purity,
His extention of it would seem natural and
obvious. But the old knowledge had been
corrupted, and He had to waken men to a
sense of its corruption. He traced the
process to its source in the moral defects of
those who were its authorised teachers.
They had abused their position and their
privileges for their own ends; they had
substituted their "tradition" for the Law;
they had done so by methods which would
not stand the test of intelligence; they were
radically insincere and selfish. In short,
our Lord's denunciations were directed
against the rulers of a faithless Church, who
St. Matt. xxiii. 1-34; St. Luke xi. 42-4.
2 St. Luke xi. 40.
Spiritual Weapons
185
were powerful, popular, and domineering.
They were condemned, but no judgment
was executed upon them. No weapons
were used save words. They were
addressed with arguments; with appeals to
conscience; with satire which might rend
the veil of habit; with solemn warnings of
judgment to come. Everything was said
which might carry conviction and reach
the heart or the head. But there was no
hint of human interference, no call upon
men to constitute themselves the instru-
ments of God's judgment.
Spiritual Weapons
Man is born into a world which has
grown old in its own devices. He is
surrounded by habits, conventions, systems,
thoughts and feelings which have been
developed by the wisdom of all the ages
which have gone before. He may know
that he bears a talisman which will guide
him safely through the labyrinth. He may
begin his quest with a firm grasp of the
sword of the Spirit. Will he always have
the constancy to use it against the dragons
186 Counsels for Churchpeople
which confront him in menacing array ?
Will he have the strength to hew his way
through the darkening jungle till he reach
the hidden palace of his dreams? There
are many temptations to rest in pleasant
meadows and let the sword drop from his
nerveless hand. There are
many trim
abodes of grey-haired dotards who seek to
dissuade him by the wise saws of experience.
The sword is heavy: why not exc hange it
for another? Others have done well
enough with lighter weapons.
The apostolic writings come to us as the
voices of leaders who steadfastly wielded
their weapons because they knew their
value; who uttered the needful warnings
to their followers, and repelled the insidious
influences of the world-spirit. For the
object of the world-spirit is ever the same,
to induce man to trust in his natural
strength, to let go his heavenly weapons,
and content himself with some nearer goal
than that which he was bidden to pursue.
What," say some, with an air of superior
wisdom, “what, that the only sword? Nay,
our museums of antiquities contain many
just like it, which have now fallen into
merited disuse." Stop," say others, "and
fit it with a more practicable handle; you
.00
Spiritual Weapons
187
will never be able to use it as it is." There
is no lack of sage advice. "It is too new.”
"It is too old." "How are you sure that it
is right?" The cries are endless, and are
often contradictory. Each age repeats the
process. Each man who grasps the sword
has to endure the same trial. How precious
is the knowledge that it was so from the
beginning! How invigorating the accents
of those whom God appointed to encourage
the pilgrims who first began their progress
through a world forlorn!
For from the very first the difficulty was
to escape the snares, not of the world at its
worst, but of the world at its best. Faithful
souls saw the truth of the Gospel, and
thought that they had made it their own.
But the world-spirit in its most attractive
form gathered round them. They were
men of sincerity, men who were in earnest.
It is just such men of whom the world
stands most in need. Judaism would not
let them go; paganism would not let them
go. They pleaded that they were ancient
systems; they asserted that they contained
much that was true; they professed that
they were willing to be reformed, to be
spiritualised, to be extended: they urged
the vastly superior field of influence which
188 Counsels for Churchpeople
they could offer to those who would make
use of them in moderation: they warned
the inconspicuous body struggling into
existence of the futility of their hopes; they
suggested partnership. Many of the new
converts were ready to listen. The experi-
ment was worth trying. We know as a
matter of history how little the experiment
availed. We hear in the utterances of the
Apostles the cries of leaders who saw the
real issue, the disastrous issue, of this futile
compromise. Men may accept or reject
the Christian faith, they assert; but if they
accept it, they must accept it as it is. Jesus
Christ cannot be obscured by Jewish ritual,
nor will He receive men's souls while their
bodies are left to paganism. Yet the old
systems, which were in possession, strove
desperately to lay their hands on Him, and
make Him and His their own.
Jo
The Truth of Christianity
Much of the prevalent indifference to
religion is due to an impression that there
can be no such thing as truth in religion, or
that it cannot be apprended as truth. The
The Truth of Christianity 189
Church maintains that Jesus Christ is the
Truth. "His own nature must be so
inwardly at one with the nature of man,
and of every world in which man can
move, that in the knowledge of Him must
be folded up the knowledge of all things."
Philosophers and philanthropists are ready
to praise Christianity as a system of morals,
while they destroy it as a religion. The life
of Jesus was beautiful; His precepts were
admirable; His temper was most attractive;
His death was most touching. He is
through all ages a type, a symbol, an
example, round which all the sentiments
which are noblest and most permanent in
man's nature will certainly gather. If this
were all, there would have been no
difficulties, because there would have been
few advantages. A noble example added
to the list of those whose refining influence
is acknowledged by thoughtful minds,
would have raised no question and created
no disturbance. But the Apostles preached
that Jesus was the Son of God, Who died to
redeem men from sin, Who rose again to
assure them of immortality, Who ascended
into Heaven whence He sends down the
perpetual gifts of the Holy Spirit. Such a
I Hort, The Way, the Truth, and the Life, p. 53.
190 Counsels for Churchpeople
statement was the beginning of a new
conception of life among those who
received it. It challenged the acceptance
or rejection of all who heard it. It
suggested to many minds that at least it could
be partially adapted to their own purposes.
It was this last design which the warn-
ings of the Apostles were intended to
frustrate. "The faith of Christ," they said,
"stands by itself: it cannot he mixed with
previous systems, nor adjusted to the
standard of the world." "What a pity,"
says the superior person of the present day,
"what a pity that they insisted so much on
this point. Their insistence certainly
opened the door to wrong-doing and
produced much misery. Christianity by
being made dogmatic lost much of its
spiritual meaning and wasted its force in
barren controversy." This is the line of
argument of an age in which moral
philosophy as a basis for practical phil-
anthropy is the fashion. When the Apostles
wrote, Judaism was the fashion amongst
some, and Paganism amongst others.
Excellent people among the Jews and the
Pagans were willing to absorb something of
the spirit of Christianity. The Apostles had
to warn the disciples that this was not what
7
Influence versus Power 191
Jesus came to accomplish. Tolerance,
sympathy and charity are Christian virtues;
but they must be cultivated without the
sacrifice of truth. The maintenance of the
truth above all things, by living in it,
suffering for it, dying for it: this was what
the Apostles taught. But there is no
warrant in this for compelling others to
accept it, or impressing it upon them by
force. Absolute and unswerving faith,
fervent zeal, persistent courage in witness-
ing the good confession, these are necessary
elements in the Christian character at all
times; but these are possible without the
use of worldly weapons, nay, they die away
and become inoperative if they rest upon
any other basis than that which trust in
God supplies.
Jo
Influence versus Power
Does not the history of the Church bear
record to the superior greatness of the
achievements wrought by influence over
those which were wrought by power?
Who can read unmoved the story of the
foundation of the Northumbrian Church or
192 Counsels for Churchpeople
the lives of St. Francis and his companions?
Does he feel the same charm in the lives of
Pope Gregory VII. or Thomas of Canter-
bury? Who can fail to see the difference
between those who strove to do God's work
in God's way, and those who laboured to
do God's work in man's way?
Do not let us think that this is purely a
modern reflection. It was common in the
mouths of whole-hearted men at all times.
Few texts were more commonly quoted
throughout the Middle Ages than the warn-
ing of Jesus: "The kings of the Gentiles
have lordship over them, but ye shall not
be so." There was a keen perception that
the Church had become corrupted by the
possession of power.¹
“Praesis ut prosis”
was the cry of St. Bernard to Pope
Eugenius IV., "Rule that you may serve.
Act up to this; and do not you, a man,
affect to dominate over men, lest all
injustice dominate over you. I dread no
poison, no sword, so much as I dread the
lust of power. In your power you are the
successor not of Peter but of Constantine." 112
The root of the whole matter lay there.
The power claimed by the ecclesiastical
authorities came to them, not from their
¹ De Consideratione, iii. c. 1.
2 Id., c. 3.
Influence versus Power 193
Master, but from the world: and the gift of
the world could only be used for worldly
purposes. It was a fatal gift, recognised as
fatal, but still regarded as necessary, a
burden that could neither be borne nor be
resigned. There were centuries when the
Church was at peace, occupied in the
splendid work of christianising and civilis-
ing the wild Teutonic races; of mitigating
the savagery of invading hordes; of
providing teaching for the young, and
practising in solitary wastes the hard
labours of pioneers of industry. But then,
as society grew settled, and civilisation
became more complicated, and men's
minds grew restless and inquiring, the
assumed necessities of Church and State
demanded that order should be maintained
at any cost. The public peace seemed to
be threatened by the spread of unauthorised
opinions, and the Church was exhorted to
still the minds of men lest their actions
should leave the accustomed grooves. And
the Church had little faith in argument or
persuasion. Her ministers, immersed in
worldly business, were not prepared to
speak words of reconciliation, her theo-
logians, accustomed to logical argument
beginning from belief, not in Jesus, but in
O
194 Counsels for Churchpeople
His Church, were unable or unwilling to
advance to first principles. Entrenched
behind the bulwarks of a vast system, they
would not venture into the open plain, and
were indignant that they should be called
upon so to do. There were soldiers ready
to sally forth and drag back the rebels
captive. It was a shorter and an easier
method. The object was good, and the
means were lawful. True, quite true;
but
it was the building of Constantine that they
were defending, and the arms with which
they fought were those which were
inherited from the Roman Empire, not
from the teaching of the Lord or His
Apostles.
Jo
Society and the Incarnation
"The development of society" is not
merely a secular phrase. It is rather the
testimony of the world to the work of the
Incarnation. Silently, quietly, in spite of
men's misdoings and perversions, that work
has been accomplishing itself. It has
created a mental attitude; it has engen-
dered hopes and aspirations; it has turned
Society and the Incarnation 195
life into an opportunity; it has raised and
is still raising the standard of human
possibilities. And it has done this for all
who have come within the sphere of its
influence, whether they accept it as a doctrine
or no, whether they live up to their be-
lief in it or no. Still the truth itself urges
them on, and wraps them in an atmosphere
from which they cannot escape despite their
wilfulness. The world, society, civilisation,
call it what you will, is part of the Divine
order, and is affected by the results of His
revelation. And the progress of society,
the growth of the manifold ties which the
increasing complexity of human relation-
ships is ever establishing, this too is God's
doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
When the Church erred, by leaving her
original purpose in obedience to the world's
behest, it is not wonderful that the world
was the first to perceive the error. No
loyalty to a system should prevent us from
admitting its serious mistakes. The Church
throughout the ages, in spite of faults and
of corruptions, was true to its mission as
upholding the testimony to the presence
amongst men of the Incarnate Lord. That
presence wrought in divers ways upon the
hearts and consciences of men. It created
196 Counsels for Churchpeople
a new sense of human relationship; it
engendered new feelings of duty; it
revealed the hideousness of selfishness; it
proclaimed the beauty of self-sacrifice.
The world absorbed somewhat of its mean-
ing, and its efforts grew nobler from what
it learned. The Church, which has seen
many of its projects undertaken by the
world, can afford to bow its head before
merited correction. It has been taught the
meaning of its Master's promise: "I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
men unto Myself." It is for the Church to
lift up her Lord: the attractive power
comes from Him, and human compulsion is
abhorrent to His Spirit. Alas, that for so
long a time human fraility and human sin
should have obscured the high mission of
the Church of Christ, and led her to set the
coarse methods of the world by the side of
the commission of her Master. What
wonder that she should be condemned to
bear her burden of the world's scorn? Oh,
how the world is remorseless to its
instruments as soon as they have served its
purpose. The world seems so lofty, so
powerful, so magnanimous that it is hard to
resist its demands for help, hard to refuse
to sacrifice principles for the purpose of
Society and the Incarnation 197
some beneficent activity. But it is useless
for the individual to turn to the world for
pity when oppressed by the sense of wrong
done from mistaken desire for its service :
"I have sinned in that I have shed innocent
blood." How terrible the cry, how pitiful!
Yet the answer rings out in the sneer,
which is unassailable alike for its justice
and its harshness, "What is that to us?
See thou to that."
INDEX
Activities of Modern Life, The.
Appeal to the Primitive Church, The
Biblical Criticism.
Character, The Christian
Character, The English Type of
Children, Duties of Parents to
Christ, The Gospel of
Christ, The Knowledge of
•
Christian Character, The
Christian Experience
Christian Influence
•
Christianity and Common Sense
Christianity, The Truth of
Christianity, Three Great Qualities embodied in
English
Christian Standard, The
Christian Sympathy
Christian Teaching about Forgiveness.
Church and Education, The
Church and Society, The
Church and State.
•
·
Church of England, The Fundamental Principle of the
Church, Some Causes of Disquiet in the
Church, The Appeal to the Primitive.
Church, The Persecuting Spirit in the
199
+
•
PAGE
58
44
25
86
48
75
61
88
147
ISS
5555
86
157
160
82822
94
98
20
II
Ι
39
51
44
175
200
Inder
Communities, Right and Wrong in
Conscience, Trifling with
Criticism, Biblical
Cross and its Meaning, The
Cross, Mary and John at the
Denunciations, Our Lord's
Disestablishment.
bodied in
English Type of Character, The
Error, and Sin
•
Inner World, The
"I thirst".
Disquiet in the Church, Some Causes of
Duties of Parents to Children
Earth, The Salt of the
Education, The Church and
English Christianity, Three Great Qualities em-
•
Experience, Christian
"Father, forgive them!"
"Father, into Thy Hands"
Forgiveness, Christian Teaching about
Future, The Hope of the
Gospel of Christ, The
Greatness, True
Heritage of the Spirit, The
Hope of the Future, The
Incarnation, Society and the
Influence, Christian
Influence versus Power
'It is finished "
Judgment, Suspense of
Knowledge of Christ, The
·
4
Knowledge, The Pursuit of
Law, Music and
Life, The Activities of Modern
Man? What is
Mary and John at the Cross
·
•
•
•
•
·
·
·
•
J
•
·
▼
I
•
*
•
侮
​•
PAGE
178
II [
25
117
129
183
6
SI
75
143
20
55
48
176
157
121
I4I
98
34
61
84
73
34
194
160
191
155
135
137
31
88
171
70
58
103
129
:
Inder
201
Music and Law
Music and Worship
National Progress
•
Old Testament, The
Old Testament, The Educational Value of the
Opinion, Public
Our Lord's Denunciations
Our Lord's Passion
Parents to Children, Duties of
Pearl Acquired, The
Persecuting Spirit in the Church, The .
Personal Religion
Political Responsibility
•
Politics, Religion and
Power, Influence versus
Power, Responsibility for
Primitive Church, The Appeal to the
Problems, Social
Progress, National
Public Opinion
Pursuit of Knowledge, The
Religion and Politics
•
•
Responsibility for Power
Responsibility, Political.
Right and Wrong in Communities
Robber, The Penitent
·
•
Salt of the Earth, The
Sin, Error and
Social Problems
Society and the Incarnation
Society, The Church and
Spirit, The Heritage of the
Spiritual Weapons
Standard, The Christian
State, Church and
Suspense of Judgment
Sympathy, Christian
•
•
•
·
•
*
•
•
*
•
•
•
•
"
P
PAGE
70
67
36
28
180
114
183
106
75
64
175
151
164
167
191
108
44
17
36
114
171
167
108
164
178
125
143
176
17
194
II
73
185
82
I
31
94
202
Inder
Sympathy, Unwise
Sympathy with the Young
Testament, The Old
Testament, The Educational Value of the Old
Trifling with Conscience
True Greatness
Truth of Christianity, The
Unwise Sympathy
Weapons, Spiritual
What is Man?
Why hast Thou Forsaken Me?"
World, The.Inner
Worship, Music and
Young, Sympathy with the
(0
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