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Conversations with Christ 
 
Conversations 
 with Christ 
 
 A Biographical Study 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE FAITH OF A CHRISTIAN' 
 
 9W TUB 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1905 
 
 j4/1 rights reserved 
 
ST zvi 
 AS- 
 
 mmri 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The four Gospels contain not one but many 
 portraits of Christ, as they reveal one or other 
 aspect of His rich and unique personality. In 
 the narratives, however, the transition from one 
 to the other is so rapid that the mind fails to 
 retain more than a faint impression of each. We 
 need to isolate the different portraits if each aspect 
 of His varied personality is to produce its full 
 impression. The following study is an attempt to 
 present one of these many striking portraits. It 
 brings before us the figure of Christ, as the 
 Prophet of Nazareth of the common people, who 
 moved in and out amongst them in the closest 
 intimacy, who was accessible to all and in sym- 
 pathy with all, who dealt with them as individuals 
 in the intimacy of private and personal inter- 
 course. In the picture thus presented to us the 
 background is so- commonplace, the environment 
 is so ordinary, that the figures stand out in sharp 
 relief, and the faces reveal all the conflicting 
 
 V 
 
v'l CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST 
 
 passions and changing feelings of the soul. This 
 portrait of the Jesus of the Gospel interviews is 
 one which well deserves and amply repays the 
 deepest study. Perhaps one of the most valuable 
 results of such a study is the very strong im- 
 pression it leaves upon the mind, that in these 
 interviews we have before us fact and not fancy, 
 history and not myth. The figures are evidently 
 real men and women, the questions are practical 
 and not academic, the movement of thought is 
 throbbing with life and personality. We may not 
 possess the negatives from which these portraits 
 have been printed, but the pictures have all the 
 characteristics of photographs, and therefore imply 
 both negatives and originals. The portrait of 
 Jesus is too natural to be artificial, too instinct 
 with life to be imaginative, and it has too much 
 personality to be mythical. Here especially we 
 are brought face to face with the Christ of 
 history. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 1. An Israel but not a Jacob 
 
 2. The Rationalist .... 
 
 3. Satiated but not Satisfied 
 
 4. The Eclipse of Faith 
 
 5. Religious Conservatives 
 
 6. The Man whose Suffering debased him 
 
 7. The Ritualists ..... 
 
 8. The Social Problem 
 
 9. The Woman who would not be denied 
 
 10. An Unexpected Day of Judgment 
 
 11. A Degenerate Aristocracy 
 
 12. The Man whose Suffering ennobled him 
 
 13. An Unconventional Lawyer 
 
 14. The Two Sisters .... 
 
 15. Marriage and Divorce 
 
 16. Sacrifice an Essential to Completeness 
 
 17. An Ambitious Mother 
 
 18. A Little Man w^ith a Large Heart 
 
 19. A Question of Authority 
 
 20. Pseudo-Conscientious Objectors 
 
 21. PoSITIVISTS ...... 
 
 22. A Moral Sceptic .... 
 
 23. Faith versus Sight .... 
 
 vii 
 
 FAGX 
 
 I 
 
 12 
 
 25 
 
 43 
 55 
 66 
 
 77 
 
 88 
 
 100 
 
 112 
 
 122 
 
 135 
 150 
 160 
 170 
 182 
 193 
 203 
 213 
 225 
 
 235 
 246 
 269 
 
I 
 
 AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB. 
 John i. 43-51. 
 
 Personal influence is one of those subjects in 
 regard to which our knowledge is in inverse 
 proportion to our familiarity. We are intimately 
 acquainted with it both in ourselves and in others. 
 We speak of it as though it were the simplest 
 conception, and yet the moment we attempt to 
 explain it and account for it, we find ourselves in 
 a region of mystery. In those cases in which it 
 is very pronounced, we acknowledge the mystery 
 in the common terms we use to describe it. We 
 speak of it as an infatuation, thereby acknowledging 
 that the person subject to it acts in a manner 
 which is inexplicable. We talk of the fascination 
 one mind exercises over another, meaning that the 
 influence is beyond our powers of comprehension. 
 We even fall back on the language of superstition, 
 and refer to spells and enchantments. If we are 
 under the tyranny of the new creed which some of 
 our scientific leaders seem inclined to impose, we 
 
 I B 
 
2 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST i 
 
 may possibly talk of telepathy, or affinities, or 
 magnetism, and delude ourselves into the belief 
 that by attaching a label we have explained a 
 mystery. We are apt to forget that every man's 
 inner life is and must be more or less of a mystery 
 to every other man. We are individuals and 
 not atoms, and the atomic theory cannot be 
 applied to us. We cannot be accurately weighed 
 and numbered, and our relations to other atoms 
 definitely fixed. We combine on no fixed principle, 
 we are repelled according to no definite rule. The 
 attraction and repulsion are not necessarily those 
 of one class for another class : they are those of 
 one soul for another soul. The psychologist, if 
 he likes, may, after the manner of the chemist, 
 seek to fix our psychic weight and determine our 
 soul affinity, but we shall behave not according to 
 the laws he may lay down, but according to those 
 of our own personality. We are not concerned 
 with the justification of his theories, but with 
 the satisfaction of our own individuality. The 
 explanation, therefore, of the influence which one 
 person exerts over another must be sought, not 
 so much in the application of general rules, as in 
 the accurate appreciation of the particular relations 
 between the two. There is an explanation which 
 accounts for the fact, though it may not be possible 
 to bring it under any general rule. The response 
 of one nature to another is not irrational, but it is 
 essentially individualistic. 
 
I AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB 3 
 
 One of the chief factors in the personal in- 
 fluence which one character exercises over another, 
 is due to the presence of a sympathy which 
 is anticipative rather than responsive. To the 
 sympathy which responds to our varying moods, 
 we answer with affection, but to the sympathy 
 which reads us and understands our moods, we 
 respond with devotion. In the first case we 
 recognise the reflex action of our own feelings, 
 in the other case we perceive the presence of a 
 nature which acts upon us, and an influence which 
 moves and controls us. The sympathetic nature 
 which is merely responsive, is a companion with 
 whom we can have fellowship, but the sympathetic 
 nature which is anticipative, dominates us with its 
 influence either for good or evil. The one can 
 read the present, the other reads past, present, 
 and future, infers the past from the present, and 
 anticipates the future. The former knows as 
 much or as little as we like to reveal, the other 
 has a kind of telepathic knowledge of us, and 
 seems to understand us better than we do our- 
 selves. It is this superior knowledge which lays 
 its spell upon us, and brings us under that 
 dominating influence which others do not and 
 cannot understand. There is no hypnotism, for 
 we have not lost our personality, but we have 
 found some one who knows us better than we 
 know ourselves, and in whose judgment we have 
 greater confidence. 
 
4 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST i 
 
 It is the richness of Christ's sympathy in both 
 these respects, which accounts for that remark- 
 able personal influence which He seems to have 
 possessed over His disciples. His sympathy was 
 both responsive and anticipative. He knew what 
 was in men ; He could read character as other men 
 read books ; He could understand moods and 
 anticipate feelings in a way which was unique. 
 His nature was, as it were, telepathic, and He was 
 keenly sensitive to what in these days we are 
 accustomed to call the psychological moment. 
 This is perhaps most evident in those seemingly 
 sudden calls which He addressed to His disciples, 
 and the equally sudden response which they made 
 to His call. This is well illustrated in the call 
 of Nathaniel, which in this respect is the most 
 remarkable of them all. 
 
 The information we have about Nathaniel is 
 very meagre. His name is not mentioned by the 
 Synoptists in their list of the disciples, though it 
 has been conjectured that he is the same as the 
 Bartholomew who is generally associated with 
 Philip in their lists. Supposing this to be the 
 case, they give us no information even about Bar- 
 tholomew. We are dependent upon the Gospel 
 according to John, and to its account of his call, 
 for all the information we possess of him. Slight 
 though this is, there are a few touches which 
 give definiteness to an otherwise shadowy figure. 
 Apparently he was a friend of Philip, to whom he 
 
I AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB 5 
 
 owed his introduction to Jesus, and possibly also 
 of Philip's fellow -townsmen, Andrew and Peter. 
 Philip having responded to the invitation of Christ 
 to be one of His disciples, hastens to tell his friend 
 Nathaniel of the discovery which he and his two com- 
 panions have made. There would seem to have 
 been a common understanding between them as to 
 the interests of life about which they were solicitous. 
 They were evidently religious men, and as such 
 the theme of chief moment was the coming of the 
 Messiah of whom Moses and the Prophets had 
 written. Excited with the importance of the dis- 
 covery he had made, Philip wastes no time over pre- 
 liminaries, but eagerly announces his news. *' We 
 have found Him about whom Moses in the Law 
 wrote, and also the Prophets, — Jesus, the son of 
 Joseph, a man of Nazareth." Nathaniel is a man 
 whose mind moves slowly, who needs time to think, 
 and who is not at all in the habit of accepting every 
 opinion which is offered to him. He, too, has his 
 own ideas of the Messiah of prophecy, and has been 
 meditating much upon His coming. Evidently 
 his ideas are such as do not readily fit in with any 
 local personage. His own and the neighbouring 
 village of Nazareth are hardly the places in which 
 he would be prepared to look for the promised 
 Messiah. He is too well acquainted with the 
 condition of things there to expect much from 
 such a quarter. His conception of the Messiah 
 is too exalted to accord well with the probable 
 
6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST i 
 
 character of a man of Nazareth. " Can anything 
 good come out of Nazareth ? '' It is too near his 
 own home to be able to produce anything but the 
 commonplace. It is far too ordinary a town to be 
 the birthplace of the Messiah of his expectations. 
 Philip is a sympathetic friend, but he has not the 
 telepathic nature which can influence one of Na- 
 thaniel's stamp. He knows, however. One who 
 has, and wisely contents himself with answering, 
 " Come and see." 
 
 Nathaniel's pace is all too slow for Philip's 
 eagerness. His manner is too phlegmatic for 
 Philip's enthusiasm. The distance is travelled 
 in silence, each being busy with his own thoughts. 
 At length they are near enough for Nathaniel to 
 get his first view of this man of Nazareth who has 
 made such an impression upon his friend. Before, 
 however, he has even scanned the face, the hps 
 open, and he is astonished with the words, " See, 
 here comes an Israel but not a Jacob ; a true 
 Israelite in whom there is no deceit." The words 
 are no mere hasty character-reading, such as can 
 be described in abstract terms. There is a personal 
 reference which implies an intimate knowledge. 
 A past experience is suddenly revived in Nathaniel's 
 mind. He takes no notice of the testimony to 
 his sincerity, which is but the superficial meaning 
 of the words. It is the distinction between a 
 Jacob and an Israel upon which his mind is centred. 
 Where was it that that struggle took place between 
 
I AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB 7 
 
 the meaner and the nobler nature within him ? 
 Surely he was alone at the time, and the wrestling 
 was in his own mind and heart. How could this 
 man of Nazareth know anything about it ? They 
 had never met before, and not even Philip knew 
 the severe struggle through which he had passed. 
 " An Israel and not a Jacob '' ! Yes, that was 
 exactly descriptive of the struggle through which 
 he had come and had prevailed. But how did this 
 man know it ? His astonishment expresses itself in 
 the question, " How can you possibly know me ? " 
 " Before Philip called you, when you were 
 under the fig-tree I saw you," Christ answers. 
 It is the simplicity in the reply which makes it 
 forcible to Nathaniel. It is its connection with 
 the previous remark which flashes intelligence into 
 Nathaniel's mind. The possession of a kind ot 
 supernatural vision, which most commentators 
 seem to see in the words, is not what strikes 
 Nathaniel. It is rather the insight into his nature 
 and inner life, which strikes with the force of con- 
 viction into his mind. Any one, even though un- 
 noticed by himself, might have seen him under the 
 fig-tree, but who could know the struggle between 
 the Jacob of his birth and the Israel of his striving, 
 between the meanness of his actual and the noble- 
 ness of his ideal, of which that struggle under 
 the fig-tree was the type and symbol? The 
 link of time and place which his mind has been 
 vainly seeking is supplied. It was under that fig- 
 
8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST i 
 
 tree that his wrestling took place, and the nobler 
 Israel triumphed over the meaner Jacob. It was 
 not that this Man of Nazareth had seen him when 
 he thought himself alone, nor even that He had 
 noticed his mental struggle, — another might have 
 done that, — but it was that He had both seen and 
 understood, had both discerned and interpreted. 
 Nathaniel had never understood himself ; his life 
 had been an enigma to him ; along with the loftiest 
 aspirations he had discovered unutterable depths 
 of meanness in his nature. The experience 
 through which he had passed on that memorable 
 day under the fig-tree had been typical of his 
 whole life, though he had not realised it at the 
 time. Yet this stranger whom he had never seen, 
 and with whom he had never talked, had explained 
 in a single sentence the riddle of his life. He had 
 done more than explain the past, He had inter- 
 preted the present, and His forecast of the future 
 inspired Nathaniel with new hope, by declaring 
 him to be not the mean and deceitful Jacob of his 
 pessimistic moods, but the Israel of his hopes and 
 striving. The conviction is borne in upon his 
 mind, that the discovery of the Messiah which 
 Philip had announced, must be true. This must 
 be the greater Son of David, Son of God, and 
 promised King of Israel. His phlegmatic nature 
 is at last aroused, and with an enthusiasm even 
 greater than that of Philip, he exclaims, " Rabbi, 
 you are the Son of God ; you are the King of Israel." 
 
I AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB 9 
 
 Christ notices the quick response to a just 
 estimate and a generous interpretation, and pre- 
 dicts much from one who possesses so sensitive a 
 nature. Greater things were in store for an Israel 
 than were possible for a Jacob. The heart that 
 was so quick to recognise the Divine, on finding 
 itself for the first time understood, would see 
 greater things yet. The vision which Jacob saw 
 in a dream, this real Israel would perceive as a 
 fact. In place of the ladder of Jacob's dream 
 connecting heaven and earth, the Divine and the 
 human, he would see the Ideal realised in the Son 
 of Man who was also Son of God. " Because I 
 said to you, I saw you under the fig-tree, do you 
 believe in Me ? You shall see greater things than 
 that. In most solemn truth I tell you that you 
 shall see heaven opened wide, and the angels of 
 God ascending and descending on the Son of 
 Man." 
 
 To the critical mind unillumined by sympathy, 
 this recognition of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah 
 is inexplicable. The grounds for it are so lament- 
 ably inadequate. " When you were under the 
 fig-tree I saw you," is quite incapable of producing 
 the reply, " You are the Son of God ; you are the 
 King of Israel." A true criticism, however, is 
 sympathetic as well as judicial, it is appreciative as 
 well as intelligent. It distinguishes between the 
 connotation of an expression at diiferent periods 
 of time, and between the objective fact and the 
 
lo CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST i 
 
 subjective appreciation of the fact. Nathaniel is 
 neither a Christian theologian on the one hand, 
 nor a Jewish scribe on the other. His expression, 
 Son of God, means nothing more than the Messiah ; 
 but his Messiah is not simply the Messiah of whom 
 Moses and the Prophets wrote, but the Messiah 
 of whom Nathaniel read and interpreted according 
 to his religious needs. There is a Messiah who 
 satisfies the heart, as well as a Messiah who satis- 
 fies the intellect ; a Messiah who fulfils the desires 
 of the soul, as well as one who fulfils the Scrip- 
 tures. The recognition of the one is intuitive, 
 the recognition of the other is a process of reason- 
 ing. Nathaniel had read the prophecies and was 
 probably familiar with the orthodox interpretation, 
 but deep down in the man's nature there was an 
 interpretation of the prophecies which was based 
 upon the needs of his own heart. When he found 
 One who fulfilled those needs, to whom his secret 
 longings and earnest strivings were an open book, 
 the recognition was the flash of intuition. 
 
 It was this response of the heart which Christ 
 sought for and welcomed. His condemnation of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees for their failure to recog- 
 nise Him, was not a condemnation of intellectual 
 difficulties, but of moral obliquity. They studied 
 the technicalities of the Law, but they ignored the 
 intuitions of the soul. They instituted a minute 
 inquiry into the letter of prophecy, but they were 
 indifl?erent to its spirit. They searched the 
 
I AN ISRAEL BUT NOT A JACOB ii 
 
 Scriptures for indications of the place of the 
 Messiah's birth, but they shut their eyes to His 
 actual presence. What the babes instinctively 
 saw, was hidden from the wise and prudent. It is 
 the response of the heart to the Divine which is 
 the essential feature of the religious life, just as it 
 is the response of the heart to the Good which is 
 essential to the moral life. The intellect may lag 
 a long way behind, its processes of reasoning may 
 require a much longer time to arrive at the con- 
 clusion, but we imperil the life of the soul when 
 we are indifferent to its intuitions. Accuracy in 
 the expression of the truth perceived must be left 
 to the intellect, but it is loyalty to the truth 
 perceived which is the essence of the religious life. 
 Our expressions may need constant revision, but 
 our loyalty must not waver. When we have 
 recognised in Jesus the Christ which the heart 
 needs, loyalty demands that we should leave all 
 and follow Him. 
 
II 
 
 THE RATIONALIST 
 John iii. 1-2 1. 
 
 There is a type of mind which is compelled to 
 look at every subject from the standpoint of pure 
 reason, and whose only method of apprehension is 
 by the exercise of the logical faculty. Its outlook 
 is broad enough to embrace every department of 
 life, but its only avenue of approach is the narrow 
 path of the critical judgment and the strait gate of 
 the logical syllogism. There is a bondage of the 
 intellect as well as a slavery of the passions, and 
 the reason can be as tyrannical as the emotions. 
 There are no departments of human interest where 
 the contrast between the reason and the emotions 
 is so marked as in the case of Art and Religion. 
 They both appeal to the intellectual and emotional 
 side of human nature, and for their truest apprecia- 
 tion, as well as for their best expression, they each 
 need the exercise of both faculties. Neither Art 
 nor Religion can be dominated by either the 
 intellect or the emotions without becoming partial 
 
 t2 
 
II THE RATIONALIST 13 
 
 and one-sided. Under the tyranny of the intellect 
 Art becomes unnatural ; under the tyranny of the 
 emotions it becomes untrue. Similarly, Religion 
 may be so dominated by the reason as to be lifeless, 
 or it may be so subject to the emotions as to be 
 absolutely noxious. There is a constant tendency 
 to exalt the reason above the emotions, or the 
 emotions above the reason ; to regard them as rivals 
 instead of recognising them as copartners. Reason 
 is not the antithesis of faith, nor is faith a sub- 
 stitute for reason. There are things which the 
 reason cannot perceive, because they are spiritually 
 discerned. There are spirits which need to be 
 tried by the critical judgment before they can be 
 pronounced to be of God. Religion is an art as 
 well as a science, and for its just appreciation it 
 needs the help of the emotions as well as of the 
 intellect. 
 
 Nicodemus is the type of the religious rationalist, 
 whose only faculty of perception is the intellect. 
 He is the critic in the sphere of religion, whose 
 reason can approve the things that are excellent, 
 but whose spirit has never been thrilled by a 
 responsive emotion. His mind instinctively recog- 
 nises the true, but his soul is irresponsive to the 
 beautiful. He thinks in logical formulas and 
 speaks in syllogisms. His mind is a rich store- 
 house of convictions, but his heart is destitute of 
 passion. With religion as a branch of human 
 knowledge he is perfectly familiar, but of religion 
 
14 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 as the art of true living he is utterly ignorant. An 
 interview between such a man and Christ is full of 
 interest and instruction. 
 
 The statement that he came by night for fear 
 of the Jews, which is usually interpreted as marking 
 him out as a secret disciple, is far more likely to indi- 
 cate the sensitiveness of intellectual pride than any 
 fear of persecution. Such a mind shrinks from the 
 fear of being regarded as in any need of instruction 
 more than from anything else. It is, as a rule, too 
 serenely philosophical to be troubled by what people 
 may think of its convictions, and its intellectual life 
 is so completely removed from conduct as to be in 
 little danger of encountering persecution. Such 
 a man, however, has so long regarded himself as 
 self-sufficient, that the thought of going to an out- 
 sider for instruction, and, above all, of being seen 
 on such an errand, is intolerable. There may be 
 little likelihood of his being so regarded, but his 
 self-consciousness causes mere shadows to appear 
 like substances, and makes him go out of his way 
 to avoid them. The attraction,- however, which 
 the unknown has produced is too keen to allow 
 him to keep away, and he will seek for an oppor- 
 tunity of doing secretly what he shrinks from 
 doing openly. A ruler of the Jews would naturally 
 not like to be seen going to the young Prophet of 
 Nazareth, and though he might be willing to sacri- 
 fice his own self-esteem, he would hesitate to lose 
 the esteem of the people. The interview itself 
 
II THE RATIONALIST 15 
 
 lends no support to the idea of secret discipleship. 
 The contrast between opposite natures, rather than 
 the sympathy between congenial spirits, is the 
 dominant note in the conversation. Christ seems 
 to be conscious of the presence of the representative 
 of a party rather than of a would-be disciple, while 
 Nicodemus finds himself in a region of antipathies 
 with which he has nothing in common, rather than 
 in the presence of a master mind with whom he is 
 in sympathetic accord as an eager disciple. There 
 is repulsion rather than attraction, a recognition of 
 incompatibility rather than the communion of 
 kindred spirits. In Nicodemus Christ finds the 
 spirit which rejects testimony, the intellectual strait 
 gate which can admit nothing in the shape of faith. 
 Just in the same way Nicodemus finds in Christ, 
 not the philosopher whom he sought, but the mystic 
 whom he cannot understand. His logical faculties 
 have no room for their display ; his critical judgment, 
 accustomed to weigh arguments and analyse pre- 
 misses, is utterly at fault in the presence of a deep 
 religious experience, and the quick insight of 
 personal faith. He visits the studio of the great 
 painter in the capacity of the art critic, rather than 
 as the enthusiastic disciple anxious to be admitted 
 as a pupil of the Great Master. 
 
 His opening sentence reveals the capacity in 
 which his visit is made, and the type of mind 
 which he represents. " We know that you are a 
 teacher come from God, for no one can do the 
 
i6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 works which you are doing except God be with 
 him." The plural pronoun is the substitute for 
 an impersonal cult or school of thought ; the 
 conjunction which introduces the reason for his 
 opinion reveals the mind accustomed to move 
 along the formal processes of thought. His secret 
 visit, however, precludes the idea that he came 
 merely as the representative of a class, and betrays 
 a personal interest which must not be ignored. 
 He is conscious of the impression such a visit is 
 likely to produce, and therefore endeavours to 
 express in an impersonal way the opinion he has 
 formed. This is both easy and natural, for the 
 type of mind which Nicodemus represents prides 
 itself on arriving at its conclusions by such exact 
 reasoning, that every other follower of reason 
 must perforce arrive at the same conclusion. He 
 had observed both the Man and His deeds, and by 
 the strictest logic had concluded that such deeds 
 pointed to a more intimate connection between the 
 Teacher and God than he was accustomed to meet 
 elsewhere. Like the art critic he had studied the 
 painter's pictures, and recognised the hand of the 
 Master, and like the art critic who has discovered 
 a new painter, he was just as anxious to indicate 
 his own penetration as to pay a tribute to the 
 painter's genius. 
 
 There is an abruptness in the answer of Christ 
 which is designed to dispense with all preliminaries, 
 and deal with essentials. Religion is not a mere 
 
II THE RATIONALIST 17 
 
 system of thought upon which the mind can 
 exercise its logic, while the soul is untouched and 
 irresponsive. It is a life produced by the touch 
 of the Divine Spirit, and apart from that contact, 
 even the perception of spiritual verities is impossible. 
 The reason may convince us of the existence of 
 God, it may satisfy us of the reality of the relation 
 between God and man, but it can never enable us 
 to perceive the beauty of that life of communion 
 with God which is the very heart of true religion. 
 Reason is the activity of the human mind working 
 on the materials presented to it, and though it 
 may infer a Mind above the human, it can no 
 more attain to communion with that Mind, than 
 the man can lift himself to the starry world his 
 eyes behold. Religion is the activity of the spirit 
 responding to the influence of the Divine Spirit ; a 
 life of feeling, not a process of thought ; a divine 
 conception within the soul, not a human perception. 
 In the deepest sense it is not the stretching out of 
 lame hands to find a God, it is the grasping of the 
 outstretched hand of God. Its origin therefore is 
 from above and not from beneath ; it is the response 
 of the soul to an influence from above, not the 
 erection of an altar to an unknown power to which 
 man bows in subjection. This latter conception 
 man by his reason might create, but the former he 
 can only receive. Until this influence from above 
 has touched the soul, the Divine is beyond the 
 mental vision, an unseen and unknown province 
 
1 8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 of life. " Except a man is born from above, he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God.'' 
 
 Nicodemus is as much disconcerted by this 
 shifting of the standpoint as he is mystified by the 
 style of the reply. He is carried out of the region 
 of premisses and conclusions in which his mind is 
 in the habit of moving, into the domain of the 
 categorical imperatives of conscience and the 
 testimony of spiritual insight. He is at home 
 in the methods of what Kant has called the Pure 
 Reason, but the affirmations of the Practical 
 Reason are as disconcerting as they are perplexing. 
 He realises, however, that underneath the metaphor 
 employed, an entirely new process for the acquisition 
 of knowledge is insisted on ; that all his previous 
 training is of no avail, and that he is asked to 
 make a fresh start. The impossibility of such a 
 procedure is the outstanding fact which confronts 
 him, an impossibility as great as the physical rebirth 
 of the metaphor. His mind has developed and 
 grown in a certain definite direction quite as much 
 as his body, and to start afresh in an entirely 
 different direction is as impossible as a return to 
 infancy. He does not attempt to ridicule the use 
 of a metaphor, he takes it up and applies it. He 
 does not dispute the necessity of the new method, 
 he fails to see its possibility. How can the mind, 
 he argues, which has grown old in the use of the 
 methods of the Pure Reason, and has known 
 no other, suddenly discard them and apply the 
 
II THE RATIONALIST 19 
 
 methods of the Practical Reason. As well expect 
 the old man to start again as the new-born child. 
 
 In His reply Christ reaffirms the thought, but 
 expands the idea. There is a twofold birth for 
 man, because there is a twofold nature in man. 
 He is a son of man, but he is also a son of God. 
 The one is an actuality, the other a possibility. 
 He is related to Nature, and therefore there is a 
 natural birth which all have experienced ; he is 
 related to God, and therefore there may be a 
 spiritual birth. As long as a man is only conscious 
 of his relationship to Nature, he is merely a natural 
 man, the result of a natural process. To be 
 conscious of his relationship to God, his soul must 
 be responsive to the touch of the Divine Spirit. 
 The germ of the spiritual is in him, but it must 
 be quickened into life, and respond to the influences 
 of the spiritual environment in which alone it can 
 live and move and have its being. The reason is 
 a part of his endowment as a natural man, and its 
 operations are sufficient for all his relationship 
 with Nature, but it deals with sense impressions 
 only, and as long as it is thus limited, it is power- 
 less to bring him into relations with the spiritual. 
 The essence of the religious life, however, is com- 
 munion with God, a response of the human to the 
 Divine spirit. The quickening of the spiritual, 
 therefore, is absolutely necessary if a man is to 
 enter into that relation with the Divine Father 
 which constitutes the essence of the religious life. 
 
20 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 There is no need for astonishment at the necessity 
 for a spiritual birth, nor is there any reason to 
 regard it as impossible. It is mysterious, no 
 doubt, but so are many of even Nature's methods. 
 The eye which observes Nature and her operations 
 cannot see her breathing in the rushing wind, but 
 what the eye cannot see the ear can hear, and 
 though the origin and the goal are alike beyond 
 the reach of either eye or ear, man recognises the 
 presence of one of Nature's forces, and utilises it 
 to bear his boat across the lake, and carry the 
 chaff away from his wheat. It is even so with the 
 breath of God, the Divine Spirit. The reason 
 may not perceive, just as the eye does not see, but 
 the spirit of man feels just as the ear hears, and 
 responding to the inspiration from above, enters 
 into a new kingdom of gracious and life-giving 
 influences. 
 
 The pride of class and the prejudice of early 
 training are too potent with Nicodemus to allow 
 him to be convinced. Such a conception of the 
 religious life is a complete reversal of the teaching 
 of the schools, and subversive of the religious 
 organisation in which he has been brought up. 
 To accept it would mean to part company with 
 the traditions of the past, and surrender the 
 position and power he at present enjoys. A 
 teaching which led to such an impossible result 
 must surely be incredible. He feels the force of 
 what has been said, but his logical mind draws the 
 
II 
 
 THE RATIONALIST 21 
 
 inevitable conclusion from the new premisses, and 
 he shrinks from the prospect which it presents. 
 Unconsciously he has made his choice, and un- 
 knowingly he has rejected the light. Old associa- 
 tions have claimed and secured his allegiance, the 
 ties of party have successfully resisted the at- 
 tractions of the unique personality of the Prophet 
 of Nazareth. His mind has been too long ac- 
 customed to the deductions and conclusions of 
 exact reasoning to accept the testimony of a 
 spiritual experience. 
 
 Christ seems conscious of the crisis through 
 which he has passed and of the choice he has 
 made. The individuality of Nicodemus has been 
 absorbed in the character of the official teacher of 
 Israel, his personality has been lost in the member- 
 ship of a party. The privacy of the interview is 
 at an end ; the man before him is henceforth an 
 official ; his opinions are the views of a party ; his 
 attitude is that of the body of Scribes and Pharisees 
 with which he has identified himself The con- 
 versation, therefore, is no longer of the nature of 
 a private interview : it passes into the nature of a 
 public discourse. This is, at least, a probable 
 explanation of the difference noticeable in the 
 remaining part of the chapter. The transition, 
 however, is perfectly natural. Here is one who 
 professes to be a teacher of religion, whose whole 
 training and upbringing have been intended to fit 
 him for the position he occupies, and to which he 
 
22 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 so tenaciously clings, and yet who is in utter 
 ignorance of the very elements of the subject. 
 He is a teacher of spiritual things, but without a 
 spiritual experience himself, and incapable or un- 
 willing to appreciate one when it is presented to 
 him. Ignorant himself, he is unwilling to learn 
 from those who know ; destitute of any evidence 
 of the spiritual himself, he rejects the testimony 
 which others can offer him. If he will not accept 
 the elementary truth of the necessity for a spiritual 
 birth, how is it possible to impart the deeper truths 
 of the higher life which results from that birth ? 
 The man whose sole guide is the light of his own 
 natural reason working on the results of sense 
 impression, cannot possibly penetrate beyond the 
 veil which conceals the spiritual. No one ever 
 has or ever will do it. That which is at the heart 
 of all religious life, however, is not the conception 
 of an unaided ascent into the higher life of the 
 spiritual : it is the conception of a descent of the 
 Divine into the human life, for the purpose of 
 lifting that lower life to a higher plane. Man is 
 not asked to make himself divine, he is only asked 
 to recognise and respond to the Divine when it is 
 presented to him. Though an ascent has never 
 been made, a descent of the Divine into the human 
 has been made, and stands confronting Nicodemus 
 as he talks. Humanity apart from God is spiritu- 
 ally moribund, as Nicodemus himself bears witness. 
 It attains the more abundant life only as it recog- 
 
ir THE RATIONALIST 23 
 
 nises the Divine Ideal, and fixing its gaze upon 
 the true Son of Man, is changed into His image. 
 Like the old story of life through faith in the 
 brazen serpent, the life which is life indeed, 
 permanent and abiding, is obtained through faith 
 in the Son of Man, the ideal of the Divine con- 
 ception. 
 
 Whether the remainder of the chapter is a 
 continuation of the interview, or the evangelist's 
 comment on the interview, it is difficult to say. 
 The connection, however, in the thought is not 
 difficult to see. The secret of the religious life is 
 not to be found in the conception of man seeking 
 God, but in the truth of God seeking man. It is 
 not the heart of man yearning to express its love 
 for the Creator, it is the heart of God yearning to 
 express its love for His erring children. This is 
 the meaning of the presence of the Son of Man, 
 the unique Son of the Father. He has come not 
 for condemnation but for salvation, not to bring 
 death but life, and life in richer abundance. The 
 life, however, is obtained not by the exercise of 
 the logical faculty, but by the recognition and 
 loyal acceptance of the Son whom the Father has 
 sent as humanity's ideal, and by the outgoing of 
 the heart of man in a loving confidence in the 
 Divine Father. He who accepts that Divine ideal, 
 believing that through Him is obtained the life 
 which is life indeed, is never called up to receive 
 the sentence of condemnation which his past de- 
 
24 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ii 
 
 serves. The rejection of the Divine, however, the 
 refusal to respond to the influence from above, 
 inevitably leads to condemnation and death. This 
 indeed is the test by which all men must be judged 
 — their acceptance or rejection of the light. It is 
 not mental perplexity but moral obliquity which 
 keeps men away from the light. It is the fear of 
 self-condemnation for moral offences which pre- 
 vents men from bringing their actions and motives 
 into the light of God's ideal. And it is this 
 deliberate rejection of the highest which marks the 
 difference between the evil and the good, the 
 honest and the dishonest, the sincere and the 
 insincere. It is not perception of truth which 
 secures Christ's approval, but loyalty to the truth 
 perceived ; it is not mental perplexity which calls 
 forth His condemnation, it is moral obliquity. 
 
Ill 
 
 SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 
 John iv. 4-42. 
 
 The two great impelling forces in human nature 
 are the intellect and the emotions. In the majority 
 of cases the two are fairly evenly balanced and in 
 moderate proportion. In some, on the other hand, 
 the one or the other preponderates, and the life is 
 the response to the stimulus of a great mind, or the 
 impulse of a great passion. The ethical quality of 
 a life is not determined by either an excess of 
 intellect over emotion, or of emotion over intellect. 
 They are but forces which move, not the director 
 which controls. In many cases, however, the 
 absorption of a great mind, or the intensity of a 
 great passion, while powerless to produce a positive 
 morality, is potent to induce a negative one. A 
 man may be too intellectual to be vicious, he may 
 be too aesthetic to be sensual. The perception of 
 the true may be too vivid to allow of the attraction 
 of evil, the response to the beautiful may be too 
 entire to allow of the fascination of vice. While 
 
 25 
 
26 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 it is true that the thinker may be a libertine, and 
 the poet or artist a rake, they are so not by virtue 
 of, but in spite of, their intellectual strength or their 
 aesthetic taste. Vice in their case is due to the re- 
 action of their nature, rather than to the action of 
 their ruling passion. There is a much closer con- 
 nection between these great operative forces in 
 human nature and morality when they are in defect 
 than when they are in excess. The shallow mind 
 and the hollow heart are indications of a nature 
 peculiarly prone to follow the indications of fancy 
 and the inclinations of a passing feeling. In such 
 minds there are no convictions which rule as 
 masters, but only fancies which visit as guests ; in 
 such hearts there are no great passions which make 
 their home within, but only transient feelings 
 which find a temporary lodging. Thoughts have 
 no room to expand into convictions ; feelings have 
 no time to become passions. Such minds are 
 clearing-houses, through which all kinds of 
 merchandise are indiscriminately received and 
 despatched, not treasure-houses in which the jewels 
 and precious stones of thought are carefully 
 deposited and jealously guarded. Such hearts are 
 hotels in which all sorts of feelings are provided 
 with a room, not homes in which the elect are 
 cherished and nurtured. 
 
 The woman of Samaria is a typical illustration 
 of the nature in which fleeting fancy has usurped 
 the place of settled conviction, and passing feeling 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 27 
 
 has seized the throne of a purifying passion. She 
 can talk on any subject, but she has convictions on 
 none. She has many lovers but no husband ; she 
 quickly grasps an idea and as quickly forgets it. 
 Her affection is as easily gained as it is quickly 
 lost. There is a fascination in her which speedily 
 captivates, but she has no power to retain her 
 prize. Her pleasure is in the capture, not in the 
 possession. The capture is an exhilaration, the 
 retention is a weariness. The old love satiates, the 
 new alone affords her pleasure. Such apparently is 
 the character of the woman who with the water- 
 pot deftly balanced upon her head, and the refrain 
 of the latest song upon her lips, comes from the 
 neighbouring village of Sychar to the well where 
 sat the Great Unknown. 
 
 The natural request of a tired and thirsty way- 
 farer which Christ prefers, is addressed to one who 
 is more accustomed to speak without thinking than 
 to think without speaking. The astonishment 
 which another woman might have felt but would 
 not have expressed, this one at once gives 
 expression to. Another might have been glad of 
 the opportunity of avoiding a conversation with a 
 stranger by at once acceding to His request ; this 
 one is glad of the opportunity of a conversation, 
 and therefore postpones acceding to the request. 
 Her curiosity must be satisfied before the stranger's 
 thirst is allayed. Her interest is aroused in this 
 unknown stranger. He is evidently a Jew, but no 
 
28 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST m 
 
 ordinary one, or He would never have asked a 
 Samaritan for a drink, however thirsty He might 
 have been. She expresses her astonishment and 
 asks for an explanation. 
 
 The question was a simple one, but it appealed 
 to the instincts of the Great Teacher, dispelling His 
 weariness and banishing His thirst. It was but 
 a woman's curiosity, but it betokened a quick 
 perception and an inquiring mind. She had used 
 her opportunity for opening a conversation. He 
 would use His for imparting instruction. She 
 had perceived that though His request was an 
 ordinary one, it denoted that He was no ordinary 
 Jew. If she knew who He really was, and what 
 her own actual need was, the positions might have 
 been reversed, and she have been the asker and He 
 the giver. " If you had known that other free 
 gift of God, and who it is who asks you for a 
 drink of water, you would have asked of Him, and 
 He would have given you living water." Her 
 knowledge of life is superficial, not deep. She 
 perceives the obvious, but not the more recondite. 
 She can understand a physical need, she has no 
 knowledge of a spiritual want. She can see that 
 He is no common Jew, she does not yet perceive 
 that He is a prophet. She understands that He is 
 thirsty, she does not realise that her own soul is 
 parched. If her knowledge were deeper, she would 
 perceive that He is other than He seems, and 
 she herself would soon become other than she is. 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 29 
 
 There is a touch of pique in the answer she 
 makes. She has been accustomed to shallow 
 flattery, and resents the commiseration she thinks 
 she perceives in the reply. The good opinion she 
 has of herself has been touched, and her resentment 
 manifests itself in the veiled sarcasm which is 
 characteristic of a little mind. With a woman's 
 ingenuity, however, she conceals it under the mask 
 of a well-feigned astonishment. '' Sir," she answers, 
 " you have nothing to draw with, and the well is 
 deep. From where then do you get this living 
 water ? Are you greater than our forefather Jacob, 
 who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as 
 did also his sons and his cattle .f^" Whatever 
 curiosity she feels is confined to the person, it 
 does not extend to the subject of which He speaks. 
 The living water is only water, the thirst which 
 it allays is merely physical. She perhaps has a 
 suspicion that He may be a magician, she has 
 not yet the conviction that He must be a prophet. 
 
 Christ is as unmindful of the sarcasm as He is of 
 His own thirst ; He is as mindful of the woman's 
 need as He is regardless of her curiosity. That 
 she should understand what He says, is more 
 necessary than that she should know who He is ; 
 that she should recognise the superiority of the 
 living water is of greater importance than that she 
 should acknowledge His pre-eminence over Jacob. 
 He is more anxious to stir her spiritual nature 
 than to satisfy her idle curiosity. There is a 
 
30 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 deeper thirst than the water with which she is 
 familiar can allay ; there is a perennial spring 
 which invests life with a deeper joy than she is 
 acquainted with. The only pleasure with which 
 she is familiar is one that soon palls, the surface 
 knowledge of life which she possesses quickly 
 satiates but never satisfies. The thoughts and 
 ideas to which she gives a ready access are but 
 vagrants of the mind, night revellers who depart 
 as readily as they come, and whose presence is 
 marked by the refuse and defilement they leave 
 behind. There are nobler conceptions and higher 
 ideals, whose presence would enrich and grace the 
 home, which would come not to sojourn but to 
 abide. The passing fancy which she so readily 
 harbours in her heart as quickly departs, leaving 
 her weary and unsatisfied still. There is a deeper 
 and nobler passion which ennobles and purifies. 
 " Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst 
 again, but he who drinks of the water which I can 
 give him, never thirsts, but has a perennial spring 
 which never runs dry, and which can never be 
 exhausted." Christ sees the true woman beneath 
 the domino in which she masquerades ; He hears 
 the sigh of a weary soul above the hollow laugh, 
 and divines the aching heart beneath the disguise 
 of a smiling face. 
 
 His words have as yet only penetrated the 
 outer ear of sense, not the inner ear of her soul. 
 She thinks only of the continual coming to the 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 31 
 
 well for the daily supply ; she is conscious only of 
 the thirst which the hot day and oppressive night 
 induce. Half in earnest and half in mockery she 
 replies, " Sir, give me that kind of water, that I 
 may never be thirsty again, nor be compelled to 
 come all the way here to draw." She has so long 
 ministered to the outer senses that the inner ones 
 are dull and torpid. The superficial has so long 
 absorbed her, that it is difficult to arouse her 
 interest in the deeper things of the spirit. She 
 has grown so accustomed to the loud and coarse 
 voices of sense, that the still small voice of her 
 truer self passes unnoticed. Her conversation has 
 consisted of the flippant word and the unmeaning 
 expression ; her mind has worked automatically, 
 the careless answer following quick upon the 
 careless question, without effort on her part. It 
 needs the shock of an apparently abrupt and 
 startling inconsequence to divert it from the 
 trivial to the serious, to change its automatic 
 responses to the conscious answers of an earnest 
 and thoughtful mind. " Go and call your husband, 
 and come back again.'* 
 
 As far as the woman is concerned there is an 
 abrupt break in the conversation, as far as Christ 
 is concerned there is a distinct logical sequence. 
 He has been speaking to the woman's inner self, 
 she has been listening and responding with her 
 outer self. She has been, as it were, carrying on 
 a conversation at a distance by means of a tele- 
 
32 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 phone ; suddenly there is a cessation, and she is 
 startled by the same voice speaking close beside 
 her. He has been speaking in metaphor, while 
 she has been interpreting literally. He suddenly 
 drops the metaphor, and with startling directness 
 uses plainness of speech. She has asked for the 
 living water that she may never be thirsty again, 
 nor be compelled to come constantly for a fresh 
 supply. Christ sees that unconsciously she has 
 spoken in a metaphor, and expressed in a symbol 
 the tragedy of her life. She has substituted the 
 true for the false, and her life is a weary and end- 
 less attempt to satisfy a thirst which the water 
 with which she is familiar fails to quench. She 
 has no husband to satisfy the love of a deep and 
 passionate nature, and therefore she is thirsty still. 
 She has tried many lovers as substitutes, and she is 
 weary of the constant attempt to satisfy a quench- 
 less thirst. If she is to understand anything about 
 the living water she asks for so lightly, she must 
 first perceive the difference between the real and 
 the false. To her the way of salvation lies in 
 discriminating between the husband her nature 
 needs, and the lover her inclination fancies. Is it 
 water to drink and thirst again, or living water 
 for which she asks ? Hence the command — " Go 
 call thy husband." 
 
 Husband ! what can He mean ? What con- 
 nection can there possibly be between the talk 
 about living water and the invitation to call her 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 33 
 
 husband. Her astonishment this time at the 
 stranger's request is too deep merely to arouse her 
 curiosity, as when the Jew asked the Samaritan for 
 water. The artificial woman in her which is so 
 ready with an answer is silent, and the real woman 
 who is so seldom heard speaks. The lightness of 
 the one has given place to the seriousness of the 
 other. There is neither the flippancy of a coarse 
 nature nor the sensitiveness of a refined nature in 
 her reply, but the spontaneity due to the surprise 
 of her natural self. She does not stop to think 
 what her words mean to herself, nor what im- 
 pression they will produce upon the stranger. 
 His abrupt question has surprised her into a 
 confession of sin, and startled her into an avowal 
 of her shame. Before she knows it, the words 
 have slipped out, " I have no husband." 
 
 With that keen insight which marks the sincere 
 nature, Christ detects the half-truth to which the 
 woman has given expression ; with the delicate 
 sensitiveness which marks the pure nature. He is 
 conscious of the reality which is concealed beneath 
 the ambiguous sentence. " You are correct in 
 saying you have no husband, for those you have 
 had are husbands no more, and he whom you now 
 have is no husband at all. In that matter you 
 spoke truer than you intended." The water of 
 which she has drunk has not satisfied, for she has 
 indeed thirsted and thirsted again. She has capti- 
 vated the eye, but she has failed to capture the 
 
34 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 heart. Divorce has followed marriage, and mar- 
 riage divorce in quick succession. She has gratified 
 a wish, not satisfied a passion ; she has pandered 
 to the animal, not ministered to the spiritual. 
 The temporary has had more attractions than the 
 permanent ; a lodging has been more easily pro- 
 vided than a home. She has tried many husbands 
 but found no true lover ; she has tried a so-called 
 lover, but found he is no husband. She is thirsty 
 still in spite of her constant visits to the well ; her 
 home is desolate in spite of its many visitors. " I 
 have no husband," is not the mere statement of a 
 fact, it is the revelation of a tragedy. It does not 
 merely point to a deserted home, it indicates a 
 desolate heart. It is far more than a literal fact, 
 it is a symbol with a much wider significance. 
 Her life has been the pursuit of a happiness which 
 has eluded her grasp, the substitution of shadows 
 for substances, a carouse which has satiated, not a 
 feast which has satisfied. The past is a record of 
 disillusionment, the present a dissatisfaction, the 
 future a vision of weariness. She has no husband ; 
 she has a house, but no bond to transform it into a 
 home. She has a mind through which idle fancies 
 flit, but no thought to change them into cherished 
 convictions ; she has a heart open to every passing 
 feeling, but with no deep emotion to transfigure 
 affection into a pure and passionate love. She 
 has no husband, and her truer nature protests 
 against its incompleteness. 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 35 
 
 At last she understands something of the true 
 nature of the stranger with whom she is talking. 
 The deeper meaning of His words has forced 
 itself upon her attention. He is not a magician, 
 but a prophet ; the subject of conversation is not 
 material, but religious. Her moral feeling, how- 
 ever, is too deadened to be quickened by a word ; 
 her conscience has been too long neglected for 
 its voice to be familiar. Religion, as she under- 
 stands it, is a subject with which she thinks she 
 is familiar. It has formed the theme of many 
 a discussion, its speculations have afforded her 
 many an opportunity for sharpening her wit at the 
 expense of her neighbour. The controversy 
 between Jew and Samaritan is well known to her, 
 and she welcomes the opportunity of asking this 
 prophet whom she has discovered for His view on 
 the vexed question. " Our forefathers worshipped 
 on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place 
 where people ought to worship is Jerusalem." 
 This is not the adroit turning of the conversation 
 on the perception that it is becoming too serious, 
 in which some women are adepts. It is the 
 counter-attraction of a new subject, which has 
 suddenly come into her mind, by the perception 
 of the character of the person with whom she is 
 conversing. She is too pleased at discovering who 
 the stranger is, to trouble to consider what she 
 herself is. It is the prick of curiosity, not the 
 sting of conscience under which she is acting. To 
 
:^6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 touch upon a new subject is more attractive to her 
 nature than to follow out an old one. She has as 
 superficial a conception of religion as she has an 
 unsatisfactory view of morality. A correct position 
 is of more importance than a contrite heart. The 
 place of worship is of more consideration than the 
 spiritual condition of the worshipper. 
 
 Christ seems to realise that His effort to arouse 
 her conscience has failed. The moral instincts 
 which caused her at first to conceal the looseness 
 of her life under the thin veil of the marriage 
 ceremony have now ceased to be operative. The 
 proprieties have lost their influence over her. The 
 conscience has become so lifeless, that opiates are 
 no longer necessary. The phrase which would 
 have brought the blush of shame to her cheek 
 years ago, is now heard with indifference, and 
 treated with unconcern. She can now say she has 
 no husband, with all that it implies, and think no 
 more about it. She has had a stroke of moral 
 paralysis which has affected one side of her nature. 
 On the side of her relations to her neighbour, she 
 is inacessible. She has no moral feeling, the 
 nerves are incapable of responding to any external 
 stimulus. If she is to be touched at all, it must 
 be on the religious side, in the direction of her 
 relation to God. Here there is some slight sign 
 of life, some faint desire to know what is right. 
 It is nothing more than the desire to be directed 
 to a proper place of worship, but even that is 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 37 
 
 better than absolute indifFerence. Christ therefore 
 takes up the question she has asked, and seeks to 
 deepen the silted-up channel along which it is 
 alone possible for some higher influence to reach 
 her. "A time is coming," He answers, "when 
 the sanctity of place will give way to sincerity of 
 worship ; when both Jew and Samaritan will feel 
 that it is of more consequence how they worship, 
 than where they worship. You worship," He 
 proceeds to say, " One whom you do not really 
 know ; of whom you have heard, but of whom you 
 have no experience. We worship One whom we 
 know, with whom we have intimate relations ; for 
 the true knowledge of God, which is life and 
 salvation to the soul, is the birthright of every 
 Jew. A time is coming however, in fact has 
 already come, when the true worshippers of what- 
 ever race will worship the Divine Father of all 
 men, and worship Him, not with the body but 
 with the spirit, not in pretence but in sincerity, 
 for indeed the Father is Himself seeking such 
 worshippers. God is Spirit, and those who worship 
 Him must do so spiritually and sincerely." Christ 
 recognises that beneath all the shallowness of the 
 woman's mind, there is a saving strain of honesty 
 in her nature. It was this which caused her to 
 dispense with the fiction of the marriage ceremony, 
 when the reality of the marriage bond ceased to 
 have any meaning for her. It was this, too, which 
 prompted the words, ^' I have no husband," and 
 
38 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 denied the name to the man who had no claim to 
 the title. Christ makes His appeal therefore to 
 this leaning of her nature in the direction of 
 sincerity ; this distaste for mere sham and pretence. 
 She has worshipped an unknown God, while her 
 soul has all along cried out for the Divine Father ; 
 she has joined with the crowds in a heartless and 
 unmeaning ritual, while her spirit has craved com- 
 munion with the Father of spirits. The Father 
 has all the time been seeking for the true worshipper 
 within her, and the time is coming, may in fact 
 have already come, when she will have done with 
 an unreal ceremonial, and substituted the sincere 
 devotion of the soul ; when in place of the 
 unknown God whom she has ignorantly worshipped, 
 she will find the Father, and her whole nature will 
 respond in a passion of love and self-abandonment. 
 Christ has at last found a responsive chord in 
 the woman's nature. Her life has been a failure 
 because the right saving influence has never been 
 forthcoming. The true husband would have made 
 her the true wife. The great love which her 
 heart needed had never come ; the one who would 
 have satisfied her better nature had never arrived. 
 An unsatisfied love had but debased her, a love 
 that satisfied would have elevated her. If she had 
 only met the right man, what a wife she would 
 have made ! If the consuming passion of a noble 
 love had but been kindled in her breast, how it 
 would have purified her nature ! If the man had 
 
in SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 39 
 
 come up to the ideal her mind had pictured, he 
 would have satisfied the love of which her heart 
 was capable. It was just the same with her 
 spiritual nature. She knew the Messiah was 
 coming, and that when He did come. He would 
 be able to tell her all she needed to know. But, 
 alas ! He had not come, and she was thirsty still. 
 Her mind was in doubt and perplexity as she 
 listened to the wrangling of Jew with Samaritan 
 over the relative merits of Zion and Gerizim, and 
 her heart longed for One who would tell her what 
 she really wanted to know, in order that the 
 religious instincts of her nature might find their 
 true object of worship. Though the Jew despised 
 the Samaritan, and the Samaritan hated the Jew, 
 yet she knew that both alike awaited the coming 
 of Him who could alone satisfy their common 
 need. She worshipped an unknown God, the 
 shadow of a divinity connected with the shadowy 
 figures of long-dead ancestors, who were but 
 names to her. She longed for the Messiah of the 
 Living God, who should give reality to the religion 
 she still cherished in her heart, but which had long 
 ceased to operate in her life. When He came, 
 for whom her soul waited. He would tell her every- 
 thing, and His presence would give completeness 
 to her life. 
 
 Christ had failed to penetrate beneath the 
 surface of this woman's moral nature, but He had 
 stirred the depths of her religious nature. She 
 
40 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 had utterly failed to see the imperfection of her 
 moral life, but she was deeply conscious of the 
 incompleteness of her religious life. She had 
 long since given up all hope of finding the man 
 of her ideal who would satisfy the yearning of 
 her heart, but she still cherished the hope of the 
 coming of the Messiah who would fulfil the desire 
 of her soul. The death of the one hope had 
 probably given new life to the other. The coming 
 of the Messiah had become a conviction of which 
 she was assured. She did more than hope, she 
 felt that He would come. Christ was deeply 
 moved by this declaration of religious faith in one 
 who was a moral sceptic. Amidst the wreck of 
 her moral ideals, she had retained her faith in the 
 spiritual. She had lost faith in man, but she still 
 retained her faith in God. She who had been so 
 often deceived by men, and disappointed in her 
 social relations, still clung to her faith in God, and 
 expected the coming of the Messiah of promise. 
 Her faith called forth His confidence. Her 
 confident expectation evoked his plain declaration. 
 He could not keep such a soul in suspense. His 
 coming meant salvation to her. Hers was a 
 nature which judged by instinct, recognised by the 
 attraction it felt, estimated by the impulse it 
 received. Moral maxims were impotent, personal 
 influence was all-powerful over her nature. 
 Morality had no attraction for her, the Messiah 
 enraptured her soul. If she was to be saved at all 
 
Ill SATIATED BUT NOT SATISFIED 41 
 
 it could only be by the influence of a personality, 
 not by the injunctions of the moral code. She 
 was of those who never betray a confidence nor 
 prove traitors to a trust. Her nature would 
 respond to a generous confidence, her heart would 
 be loyal to a sacred trust. He could say to her, 
 and be confident that she would believe Him, *' I 
 am He, even I who am talking to you." 
 
 Never did the disciples arrive at a more 
 inopportune time, never was an interruption more 
 exasperating. The interview is cut short just 
 when it is becoming of absorbing interest. The 
 woman departs and leaves us nothing but an 
 empty water-pot. What was the impression which 
 this confidence of Christ produced ? What was 
 the answer she was going to utter, when the 
 sight of the returning disciples closed her lips ? 
 Whatever it was, she evidently felt she could not 
 give expression to it before the disciples. It was 
 too personal to be made public ; it was too sacred 
 for strangers to hear. We may, however, draw an 
 inference, though we are precluded from making 
 an assertion. Her words to her neighbours are 
 full of significance : " Come and see a man who 
 has told me everything I have ever done. Is not 
 this perchance the Messiah ? " There is the echo 
 of the words of her religious anticipation — " When 
 the Messiah comes, He will tell us everything." 
 Has expectation passed into realisation, as she 
 recalls the astonishment with which she heard Him 
 
42 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iii 
 
 refer to her past ? Is she seeking from others a 
 confirmation of the faith which has already found 
 a home in her breast ? Is the eagerness with 
 which she brings her neighbours to His presence, 
 an indication of her consciousness of the blessing 
 she has herself received ? It would seem so, and 
 Christ's words to the disciples confirm the im- 
 pression. He feels that He has been watching 
 the ripening of a soul, and the fields whitening 
 for the harvest are the metaphor which He 
 employs. Fields ripe for the sickle meet the 
 eyes of the disciples ; the Master's gaze is fixed 
 upon the woman returning with her neighbours. 
 Two more days and the harvest is gathered in, 
 the first-fruits of a woman's faith in the Messiah 
 for whom she has waited so long. 
 
IV 
 
 THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 
 Matt. xi. 2-15 ; Luke vii. 18-28. 
 
 Human life is full of contrasts. Light and 
 shadow, joy and sorrow, exhilaration and depres- 
 sion, success and failure, alternate in every life, 
 and leave their indelible marks on every character. 
 Sensitiveness is a swinging pendulum, which the 
 farther it goes in one direction, the farther it is 
 compelled to go in the opposite direction. What 
 the equable temperament gains on the one hand, it 
 of necessity loses on the other. The sorrow of 
 the less sensitive nature may be slight, but its 
 joy is proportionately diminished. A perfect 
 equilibrium would be a complete insensibility. 
 The relation between perception and feeling is 
 similarly proportioned. The keener the perception 
 the more intense is the emotion. Humanity pays 
 for its superiority over the animal, but it receives 
 a just equivalent. The law of compensation is a 
 kind of psychical law of gravity. Like children, 
 playing on the sea-shore, however, we rejoice when 
 the tide is in, but complain when it is out. 
 
 43 
 
44 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 Gravitation is a grand thing when it lifts our 
 weights ; it is anything but a grand thing when it 
 presents its bill for the assistance it has given. 
 
 We should have little to complain of, however, 
 if it were not that the human factor so often 
 interferes with the working of the natural law. 
 The payment which nature demands is but the 
 discharge of a debt which we have already incurred, 
 or the prepayment for a blessing which will un- 
 doubtedly come. We have either already received 
 or may confidently expect to receive an exact 
 equivalent. The inequality comes when the human 
 element interposes and compels us to pay for debts 
 which others have contracted. The stone which 
 another hand has thrown in wantonness, the law 
 of gravity returns upon our heads. The energy 
 we have expended in raising the weight, another 
 makes use of for his own advantage. The possible 
 which we have perceived, another's action converts 
 into an impossible. Nature does not distinguish 
 between individual and individual,; she deals with 
 humanity as a whole, and pays her debts to any one 
 of the partners. To her they are all members of 
 the same firm, and she presents her accounts to all 
 indiscriminately, and cashes every cheque to bearer, 
 never to order. 
 
 In our early days we are all more or less seers, 
 and our souls are entranced as with the vision of an 
 ideal kingdom of heaven, which we announce with 
 joy and proclaim with all the assurance of faith. 
 
IV THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 45 
 
 The experience of life, however, brings us face to 
 face with the actual, our vision becomes dim, or we 
 find "the powers that be" too strong for us, and 
 from the prison-house into which our souls have 
 been thrown captive, we send forth our messengers 
 of perplexity to ask questions which have proved 
 too much for us. There are two kinds of depres- 
 sion resulting from two very different kinds of 
 captivity. There is the depression ending in 
 despair, which comes to us when, like Samson, we 
 are grinding in the prison-house into which our 
 own folly has cast us, and we are paying the price 
 of our own waywardness. But there is also the 
 depression, which is but a temporary clouding of 
 the soul, which comes to us as it came to John the 
 Baptist, cast into the dungeon of a Herod, and 
 excluded from the free and open life to which he 
 had been accustomed. In both cases we are 
 suffering from the swing of the pendulum, and our 
 present depression is in inverse proportion to 
 our former elation. We have encountered the 
 problem of suffering in both cases ; but in one case 
 it is the suffering due to our own sin, while in the 
 other it is the suffering due to the sin of others. 
 There is depression in both cases, but it is only in 
 the latter that mental perplexity adds its more 
 poignant sting to the iron which has entered 
 the soul. 
 
 The captivity of John the Baptist could not fail 
 to work its full measure of depression upon his 
 
46 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 nature. Accustomed to the free air of heaven, the 
 foetid atmosphere of the dungeon asphyxiated his 
 soul. Used to the blue sky, the wide expanse of 
 the desert, the light of the sun by day, and the 
 moon and stars by night, the cramped and dingy 
 quarters in which he was confined could not fail to 
 work their full measure of ill both to body and 
 mind. The vision of the ideal kingdom of heaven 
 which his soul had perceived, his fancy had been 
 accustomed to give form and colour to, out of the 
 fleecy clouds and many-tinted rainbow of his out- 
 of-door environment. It was inevitable that, shut 
 up in the darkness of Herod's dungeon, the vision 
 should grow dim, and his physical discomfort react 
 upon his serenity of soul. Vague and uncertain 
 rumours reached him, probably distorted by the 
 prejudices of some of his own disciples, as to the 
 doings of Him whom he had hailed as the Lord's 
 Anointed. In place of the righteousness and peace 
 of the kingdom of heaven whose near approach he 
 had so confidently announced, he found himself 
 the victim of the actual kingdom of Herod, and 
 suffering for the boldness with which he had 
 denounced the King's adultery. Had he been 
 precipitate in his announcement of the nearness of 
 the heavenly kingdom ? had he mistaken a fellow- 
 herald for the One who must come if Israel were 
 to be redeemed ? Great things were happening in 
 the outside world, the time was big with coming 
 events, yet there was no one to interpret the signs of 
 
IV THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 47 
 
 the time, and he himself, the only seer in Israel, 
 was a captive. If he could but get speech with 
 that other kindred soul, whether he were herald of 
 the One who must come, or the veritable coming 
 One Himself, his perplexity would vanish, his 
 peace of mind would return. A personal interview 
 was impossible, but an interview by deputy was 
 still open to him. Calling two of his disciples 
 upon whom he could depend to faithfully carry his 
 own message, without adding any comments of 
 their own, and who would as faithfully bring back 
 the answer upon which so much depended, he sent 
 them with the message of a perplexed but not 
 despairing mind, a question of faith and hope, not 
 of doubt or despair. The question reveals the 
 man, and adds to our admiration of his character. 
 It was evidently so interpreted by Christ, and called 
 forth His panegyric on the greatest of Israel's 
 seers. While the question shows the perplexity 
 into which circumstances had thrown him, it yet 
 reveals that faith in the ideal which no adversity 
 could touch. It betrays the diffidence of a humble 
 mind, coupled with the confidence of an assured 
 faith. He feels that he may perhaps have been 
 mistaken as to details, but he has no doubt as to 
 the fact. He may have been mistaken as to the 
 nearness of the approach, but he has no fear that 
 he is mistaken as to the reality of the coming. The 
 vision which he has seen is yet for the appointed 
 time, and though it tarry it will not delay. That 
 
48 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 it will surely come he has no doubt, and if he has 
 mistaken the proximity of its fulfilment, he will 
 confidently wait for it. He may have miscalculated 
 distances, but his vision has not betrayed him. 
 He whom he took to be the King may be only the 
 herald, but the King will surely come. 
 
 John had apparently well chosen his messengers, 
 and his reliance was well placed. They add no 
 comments of their own, however much they may 
 have been tempted. They make no attempt to 
 explain the message, but content themselves with 
 asking the question with which they were charged. 
 It would seem from the account in Luke as though, 
 conscious of the importance of their mission, they 
 interrupted the work of healing in which Jesus was 
 engaged, and with an abruptness indicative of the 
 sense of the urgency of the case, asked the 
 question with which they had been charged. With 
 the briefest introduction, " John the Baptist has 
 sent us to you with this question," they repeat the 
 exact words of their master — " Are you the One 
 who must come, or are we to look for Another ? " 
 
 That insight into the heart of a question, which 
 is so characteristic of Christ, is evident in the reply 
 He makes. There is no delay in answering the 
 importunate question. His continuance of the 
 work of healing is a part, and an essential part, 
 of the answer. The question seems to be so 
 simple as to merely necessitate a plain yes or no. 
 Questions, however, must always be interpreted in 
 
IV THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 49 
 
 the light of the questioner's state of mind, not 
 merely in the light of his logical expression. An 
 answer must always be adapted to the capacity of 
 the questioner to understand. The truest and 
 best answer consists in enabling the man to answer 
 his own question. The categorical answer may be 
 a perfect solution of the problem, but it may fail 
 entirely to enable the mind which has perceived 
 the problem to appreciate the solution. The 
 deepest problems of life no one can solve for us, 
 we must solve them ourselves. The mind which 
 has entered the maze of perplexity and doubt 
 must thread its own way through all the intricacies 
 of the path, before it can arrive at the longed-for 
 goal. This is where the test of the true teacher 
 comes in. For a hundred men who can solve a 
 problem, there is only one who can relieve the 
 mind of the perplexity which the problem has 
 produced. The true teacher must not only under- 
 stand his subject, he must equally understand the 
 mind of his pupil. Teaching is causing a man to 
 learn, and he who cannot sit on the pupil's bench 
 has no qualification to occupy the teacher's chair. 
 
 John had recognised in the character of Christ 
 the Messiah of Jewish expectation. He had pro- 
 claimed Him as the Lamb of God who takes away 
 the sin of the world. Of the spiritual nature of 
 the kingdom of God he was fully assured, and his 
 ministry had been a vigorous call to repentance. 
 His perplexity arose out of the rumours which 
 
 £ 
 
50 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 were brought to him of the work of Jesus and the 
 delay in the visible manifestation of the kingdom 
 of his prophetic vision. Could this healer and 
 teacher, great though He might be, be the 
 Messianic King for whom Israel waited ? Had 
 he been over-hasty in judging of the office which 
 Jesus was destined to fill from the character He 
 bore ? This was the difficulty in which John 
 found himself, and Christ enters into it with the 
 fullest sympathy and the keenest insight. He 
 conducts the mind of John back to the old path 
 of spiritual insight ; He leads the captive seer to 
 the Mount from which he had caught his first 
 vision of the coming King. John had made no 
 mistake in method, his vision had played him no 
 tricks, but the walls of the prison had shut out the 
 visible evidence, and only left him the memory of 
 a past experience. The King must be judged and 
 recognised by His character ; the Messiah must do 
 the Messiah's work. The title might be assumed 
 by any one, the work could be done by One alone. 
 The eyes of the captive's disciples must see what 
 the captive himself could not behold ; the disciples' 
 lips must convey what the prisoner could not dis- 
 cover. Christ therefore turns to the work in 
 which He had been interrupted, and continues His 
 ministry of healing and help, that the messengers 
 might see what their master needed to see but 
 was prevented from seeing. 
 
 While there is the keenest insight into John's 
 
IV THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 51 
 
 perplexity, there is the fullest appreciation of his 
 power of discernment. Christ correctly estimates 
 the pupil's difficulty, but He does not make the 
 mistake of underestimating his capacity. John 
 was familiar with the Messianic prophecies, and 
 Isaiah was doubtless his favourite prophet. The 
 description of the Messiah's work contained in 
 the sixty-first chapter was probably his constant 
 meditation. The prophecy with which John was 
 familiar, Christ fulfils in the presence of the 
 messengers, knowing that John's mind will enable 
 him to work his own way to peace and rest. 
 Then turning to the waiting messengers He bids 
 them go and tell John what they had themselves 
 seen and heard, describing almost in the words of 
 Isaiah the work in which they found him engaged. 
 If the answer reveals Christ's appreciation both 
 of John's perplexity and also of his power of dis- 
 cernment, it no less exhibits the sympathy of 
 Christ for the captive prophet. One of the 
 keenest trials of John's imprisonment must have 
 been the cessation of his life's work of preaching 
 the good news to the poor. The coarse prison 
 fare was nothing to the ascetic prophet, the loneli- 
 ness of his confinement was a trifling matter to the 
 dweller in the desert, but the cessation of his work, 
 to one so keenly alive to its importance, must 
 have been the bitterest portion of his cup. Christ 
 felt for the preacher forced into a premature retire- 
 ment, and with a touch of the tenderest sympathy 
 
52 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 bids the disciples tell their master that though he 
 is laid aside, the work still goes on, and the poor 
 have the gospel proclaimed to them. 
 
 His final words ere they return to their captive 
 leader are words of benediction and hope. He 
 recognises how easy it is for the seer, whose en- 
 forced captivity has so cruelly deprived him of 
 sight, to stumble and fall. Unable to see for 
 himself, dependent upon rumour often distorted 
 by prejudice, surrounded by the depressing in- 
 fluence of a prison, it is no easy matter to keep 
 the lamp of faith burning, to avoid the pitfalls 
 and obstacles to which the fervent religious nature 
 is exposed. At the same time, Christ feels con- 
 fident that John's faith will not fail him, that 
 though sight, as it were, has been lost, he will yet 
 be able to enter into the blessedness of those who 
 walk by faith and not by sight. '' Tell him," He 
 seems to call to the departing disciples, " that blessed 
 is he, captive though he be, who finds no occasion 
 for stumbling in Me or My work." 
 
 Religious faith is peculiarly liable to those 
 temporary eclipses which passing events produce 
 upon the keenly sensitive nature. Again and again 
 the question of a perplexed faith comes forth from 
 the prison-house of the soul, inquiring whether the 
 vision which we have perceived in our hours of 
 insight has not, to some extent at least, been mis- 
 understood. In these day of critical inquiry and 
 minute investigation into the records that have 
 
IV THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH 53 
 
 come down to us of the life of the Prophet of 
 Nazareth, rumours often distorted and one-sided 
 are brought as to the nature of His person and His 
 work. Precluded from a personal investigation, 
 depressed by the gloomy environment in which 
 circumstances have placed them, those who in 
 their earlier days recognised in Him the Saviour 
 of the race, and heralded the coming of the 
 kingdom, wonder whether they have not mis- 
 interpreted and misunderstood, and repeat the 
 question of John : Was Jesus of Nazareth the 
 One who must come if the world is to be saved 
 at all, or must we still look for Another? To 
 such natures the answer of Christ is the only one 
 that carries conviction. The character of Jesus 
 which first captivated their souls is the evidence 
 of His fitness for the position they assigned to 
 Him, and the work that He is still doing is the 
 guarantee that He and He alone is the One 
 for whom humanity has waited. Whatever the 
 explanation of His appearance may be, whether 
 an Evolution or an Incarnation, He still stands 
 unrivalled in the history of the race. If He be 
 an evolution, then human nature has apparently 
 exhausted itself in His production, for there has 
 been no second. It is the same with His work. 
 If sin is to be overcome, and man is to be saved at 
 all, there is no evidence that apart from Him and 
 His influence, redemption is possible. Whatever 
 reproach may be brought, and justly brought, 
 
54 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST iv 
 
 against the deeds that have been done in His 
 name, there can be no question that the purest 
 and noblest lives which the world has seen have 
 been the result of His influence. The regenerating 
 influences in the world to-day are all traceable to 
 the life of Jesus of Nazareth. We look in vain 
 for a rival to the character of Christ, and we look 
 equally in vain for a substitute for the salvation 
 which comes through Christ. 
 
RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 
 
 Matt. ix. 14-17 ; Mark ii. 18-22 ; Luke v. 33-39. 
 
 Our true attitude to the past is one of reverence, 
 to the present one of respect, and to the future 
 one of sympathy. We are heirs of the past, 
 stewards of the present, and trustees of the future. 
 The great law of evolution has emphasised our 
 indebtedness to the past by showing us how the 
 permanent and valuable acquisitions of the race 
 are transmitted to the heirs of the ages ; it has 
 emphasised our relations to the present by pointing 
 out the importance of environment ; and it has 
 emphasised our relation to the future by showing 
 how the whole process of Nature is a striving for 
 a richer and more abundant life, and that where 
 one generation fails to attain, it prepares the way 
 for the generation that is to follow. If we despise 
 our inheritance, therefore, we are not likely to make 
 use of the opportunity it affords us of enjoying 
 our possession, nor are we likely to anticipate the 
 still greater enjoyment which is in store for our 
 
 55 
 
56 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST v 
 
 descendants. If we are unmindful of the ac- 
 quisitions of our ancestors, we are not likely to 
 increase the estate that has come into our possession, 
 nor look forward to its still greater increase by 
 those who are to follow us. In the same way, if 
 we are so attached to the past as to be careless or 
 indifferent to the altered conditions of the present, 
 and the tendencies which indicate a still more 
 altered future, we are untrue to the trust which 
 has been committed to our care. The past is a 
 great inheritance, the present a splendid opportunity, 
 and the future a noble incentive. Failure to 
 respond to any one of the influences means delay 
 and hindrance in the direction of true progress. 
 We may be so enamoured of the past as to be 
 indifferent to the claims of the present or the 
 promises of the future. We may be so engrossed 
 in the present as to be oblivious of the past and 
 careless of the future. The influence of the past 
 may be so strong as to lead us to try and reverse 
 the engine ; that of the present may tempt us to a 
 headlong rush down a steep decline ; that of the 
 future may be so inviting as to induce us to leave 
 the highway and try some of the many inviting 
 short cuts which seem to lead to the desired goal. 
 He is the great man who can feel all the influences, 
 and give the right response to each. 
 
 In the sphere of religion the influence of the 
 past is much more powerful than in any other. Its 
 subject-matter is so sacred that reverence becomes 
 
V RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 57 
 
 worship, customs become mysterious rites which it 
 is sacrilege to alter and impious to question, while 
 opinions become fixed beliefs which have long since 
 ceased to inspire, but are all-powerful instruments 
 with which to torture and rack the mind. The 
 living heroes and great men of the past are either 
 deified or canonised, and the innate reverence of 
 humanity for the past is degraded into the worship 
 of innumerable deities, or the prostration of the 
 soul before a host of images of the saints. It is 
 not long before the worship is extended to the 
 place in which they live and the clothes they wore. 
 The holy shrine which marks the resting-place of 
 some dead hero is thronged with pilgrims, while 
 the forum and the temple, in which may be heard 
 the living voice of the hero of the present, are 
 deserted. While we refuse to worship the past, 
 however, we must not be unmindful of the 
 reverence which it rightly claims. Worship of 
 the past may be a sign of debility, but irreverence 
 is a mark of debasement. The abolition of the old 
 may be imperatively demanded, but the abuse of the 
 old is an insult to the dead. A response to the 
 new may be the result of a holy impulse, but a 
 sympathy with the old is a sacred duty. 
 
 The disciples of John the Baptist had come 
 under the influence of a movement which was 
 preparatory to a greater, had followed a leader 
 who announced a mightier than himself. They 
 had responded to the influence of the present, but 
 
58 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST v 
 
 before they had well adapted themselves to the 
 altered conditions, the new had become old, the 
 authority had become obsolete, their leader was in 
 captivity. They were followers of a thinker 
 rather than thinkers themselves, partisans of a 
 leader rather than participators in a movement. 
 They had been carried by the flood-tide of the 
 Baptist's ministry far away from their old 
 moorings, and its ebb had left them high and dry. 
 The new tide had not yet reached them, the old 
 tide had long since receded. They looked back 
 to the old moorings with wistfulness, they 
 anticipated the coming tide with fear. There 
 was much in the new teaching for which the 
 Baptist had not prepared them ; there was much in 
 such of their old associations as he had left 
 undisturbed to which they were deeply attached. 
 He was in captivity, with little likelihood of being 
 released. His movement was beheaded long 
 before he himself was decapitated. His followers 
 therefore, realising that the movement was at an 
 end, felt themselves drawn towards the old, yet 
 attracted to the new. They were conscious that 
 they had more in common with the old, but they 
 could not altogether resist the fascination of the new. 
 They joined with the Pharisees on the question of 
 fasting, but they insisted on an interview with Christ. 
 Old associations drew them in the one direction ; the 
 personal influence of a leader, to which they had 
 responded by following John, drew them to Jesus. 
 
V RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 59 
 
 Great decisions often turn on slight events, and 
 a commonplace occurrence often leads to an 
 extraordinary result. The celebration of a common 
 fast caused these men to see whither events were 
 leading them, and made a decision long postponed 
 a matter of urgency. They found themselves 
 more in accord with the old than with the new ; 
 they perceived a drifting of their bark in the 
 direction of the shore they had left, rather than in 
 the direction of the haven they had set out to find. 
 Their difficulty in the matter of fasting was 
 indicative of much more than the mere keeping of 
 an old custom. It was symbolical of the attitude 
 of their mind in its relation to the past, not merely 
 indicative of their respect for an old habit. The 
 solution they sought meant more than the mere 
 resolution of a doubt, it meant the direction of 
 their future life. They had, in fact, outgrown their 
 old environment ; the new thought was fermenting 
 in their minds. They were more at home among 
 the disciples of the Pharisees than with the 
 disciples of Jesus, but it is to the Master of the 
 latter rather than to the Rabbis of the former that 
 they feel drawn for a solution of their difficulty. 
 They keep the fast with the Pharisees, but they 
 cast longing eyes on the feast with the disciples of 
 Jesus. The fast satisfies their religious scruples, 
 but it is the feast which will alone satisfy their 
 spiritual cravings. The reason for their own 
 observance of the fast, however, is as much a 
 
6o CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST v^ 
 
 mystery to them as the reason for its non- 
 observance by the followers of Jesus. " Why do 
 we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples 
 fast not ? '' 
 
 The question expresses the resentment which 
 the mind instinctively feels at the presence of the 
 new. It is always the new which has to justify its 
 appearance, rather than the old which has to justify 
 its continuance. It is the feast which the new 
 offers, which first calls attention to the fast which 
 the old enjoins. It is the new patch which 
 produces dissatisfaction with the old garment ; it is 
 the new wine which reveals the inadequacy of the 
 old wine-skin. The old custom may continue long 
 after it has lost all meaning, but the moment it is 
 questioned its hour of departure has struck. 
 
 Christ's answer is a justification of the new 
 rather than a condemnation of the old. He calls 
 attention to the altered environment which has 
 produced the new, rather than points out the 
 defects in the old. With the advent of the 
 kingdom of heaven which John announced, the 
 conception of religion has changed. It is no 
 longer a mortification of the flesh, it is a life of 
 the spirit. The mourning and lamentation at the 
 supposed death of the maid have given place to 
 the tabret and harp of the musicians who have 
 come to take part in her marriage festivities. 
 The religious instinct of the Jew was not dead, it 
 only slept. The daughter of Zion had heard the 
 
V RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 6i 
 
 voice of the Bridegroom saying, *' Talitha cumi," 
 and the flush of new life had suffused her pale 
 cheeks. The house, therefore, is no longer one of 
 mourning but of rejoicing, and the fast must give 
 place to the feast. The disciples are the children 
 of the house to which the Bridegroom has come, 
 and His presence makes fasting impossible. With 
 the most sensitive regard for the feelings of John's 
 disciples, and with a keen insight into their sus- 
 ceptibility to the influence of their old master, 
 Christ takes up the illustration which John had 
 himself used, and from the contrast he had drawn 
 between himself as the herald and Christ as the 
 King, justifies the contrast between the fasting on 
 the part of the disciples of the one, and the feasting 
 on the part of the disciples of the other. He also 
 recognises, however, the diff^erent circumstances in 
 which His questioners are placed through the 
 imprisonment of their master, and anticipates a 
 similar change of conditions for His own disciples. 
 The time is coming when His own disciples, like 
 those of John, will be bereft of their Master, and 
 the time of feasting will have to give place to the 
 time of fasting. Instead of discussing abstract 
 principles He takes concrete facts, and suggests an 
 explanation to account for the disappearance of 
 the old and the birth of the new. He goes back 
 to the common ground upon which both the new 
 and the old alike rest. It is not ritual which 
 evokes feeling, it is feeling which gives birth to 
 
62 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST v 
 
 ritual. The outward act must be justified by its 
 appropriateness as an expression of the inner feeling. 
 When the sentiment has ceased to be active, the 
 ceremony has ceased to be effective. When the 
 outward act no longer represents the inner feeling, 
 it has lost its significance and its performance is 
 meaningless. Grief and sorrow will cause fasting, 
 but mere fasting will never evoke a genuine 
 sorrow. It is the spirit which must dictate the 
 act, not the act which must control the spirit. 
 A fast may be appropriate for a funeral, but 
 it is the feast which is appropriate for the 
 wedding. 
 
 The true difficulty, however, of John's disciples 
 was not merely a question of ritual, it was a 
 question of mental attitude. The old clothing 
 to which they had grown accustomed showed 
 signs of decay, and the pieces of new cloth 
 with which they were trying to repair it, only 
 made the rents worse. Their agreement with the 
 Pharisees on the question of fasting, only revealed 
 their disagreement on more serious matters. The 
 sincerity which the preaching of John had evoked, 
 had brought into greater prominence the hypocrisy 
 of much of their religious life. He had provided 
 them with new pieces of cloth, new words and 
 phrases, but not with new clothing. The new 
 wine which he had provided was cracking the old 
 wine-skins of their Pharisaic training. The old 
 conception of religion as ritual, which the Pharisees 
 
V RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 63 
 
 had taught them, would not agree with the new 
 conception of religion as righteousness which John 
 had taught them. They had left their old moor- 
 ings and they found a return impossible. Christ 
 has the fullest sympathy for these disciples in the 
 mental struggle through which they are passing, 
 and His treatment of their difficulty is marked 
 with the delicacy and tact of a refined nature. 
 There is none of the ridicule in which a strong 
 mind often indulges ; there is none of the scornful 
 contempt which a coarse nature so frequently 
 expresses. Their afi^ection for the old is a feeling 
 which He can understand ; their suspicion of the 
 new is one with which He can sympathise. He 
 lays emphasis on the fact that the old which has to 
 be relinquished is merely the external, the old 
 garments which have served their purpose, which 
 were suited to the past, but are no longer a fitting 
 expression for the thought of the present. The 
 new thought which reveals the inadequacy of the 
 old system is the vintage of the present, but reaped 
 from the vineyards of the past. It is not the old 
 truth, but the old expression in which it was clothed, 
 which has to disappear. It is not the truth in the 
 old system which is cast away, it is the old system 
 which is not elastic enough to contain the new 
 truth. A true loyalty to the past demands new 
 clothing in which to express the old truth, the 
 preparation of new wine-skins in which to pre- 
 serve the vintage of the present. They show 
 
64 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST v 
 
 the truest reverence for the past who seek 
 to clothe the old truth in the new and living 
 language of the present. They are the true con- 
 servatives who provide new wine-skins for the 
 fresh vintage. 
 
 The last sentence, which Luke alone records, is 
 suggestive of the intense sympathy Christ felt for 
 the natural hesitation of John's disciples in the 
 personal sacrifice they were called upon to make. 
 The reformer, as a rule, has very little sympathy 
 for the waverers and half-convinced. Strong in 
 his own convictions, he can often understand an 
 opponent better than the moderate man. At- 
 tracted by the new, he is rather repelled by the 
 old. Christ, however, recognises that if personal 
 inclination and individual taste were alone con- 
 sulted, the new truth would invariably be lost. 
 " No one," He says, " who has drunk old wine, 
 relishes all at once the taste of the new, for he 
 feels that the old is better." There is, however, a 
 duty which the present demands, as well as an 
 obligation which the past enjoins. We are 
 stewards for the future as well as heirs of the past. 
 The vineyard with its living plants and its vintage 
 of to-day, as well as the cellar with its wine of the 
 past, is a part of the inheritance which has come 
 into our possession. We may drink the old wine, 
 but we must also gather the fresh grapes. We 
 may empty the old wine-skin, but we must replace 
 it with the new, in which is carefully preserved the 
 
V RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES 6s 
 
 fresh juice of the vintage of to-day. The estate 
 we have inherited is strictly entailed, and we enjoy 
 it as trustees for those who come after us. We 
 must replace the worn-out furniture, we must re- 
 stock the depleted cellars, if we are to fulfil the 
 trust which has been committed to us, and hand 
 on to our descendants a richer inheritance. 
 
VI 
 
 THE MAN WHOSE SUFFERING DEBASED HIM 
 John V. 1-18. 
 
 Individuality is a feature which can never be 
 left out of consideration in dealing with any of 
 the problems of life. Whether it be very. marked 
 or hardly noticeable, it is a factor which enters 
 into every calculation, an element which affects 
 every combination. The effects produced by the 
 influence of education, environment, heredity, and 
 creed, are all liable to modification by means of 
 the individuality of the person subjected to them. 
 Our calculations as to the influence of any one of 
 these factors may be entirely upset by this subtle 
 and incalculable personal element. The order and 
 method even which may mark the individuality of 
 one man affords no safe guide by which to estimate 
 that of another man, for each has a certain definite 
 quality which distinguishes him from his fellows. 
 An environment which is beneficial to one man 
 is positively harmful to another ; an experience 
 which is the making of one is the marring of 
 
 66 
 
VI DEBASED BY SUFFERING 67 
 
 another character. One of the most striking 
 illustrations of this essential difference between 
 man and man is to be found in the very diverse 
 results which are obtained from the ministry of 
 suffering. The same sorrow may yield either a 
 rich harvest of blessing, or a plentiful aftermath of 
 curses, according to the individuality of the person 
 to whom it comes. It leaves its mark upon every 
 face, but one it may transfigure with a divine 
 glory, while it may so disfigure another as to make 
 it positively revolting. Similarly it may refine and 
 purify a character, so that we instinctively reverence 
 it as something godlike, or it may coarsen and 
 harden it, so that we turn away with loathing. 
 Whatever may be the view we take of the meaning 
 and purpose of suffering, there can be no question 
 that its effects are as diverse as light and darkness. 
 Suffering is undoubtedly a great test of character, 
 but it is a test which issues in either of two 
 directions which are the antitheses of each other. 
 The vase that is put into the furnace for completion 
 may come out either perfect or spoiled, and it is 
 almost impossible to foretell which result will be 
 obtained. The man who passes through the 
 furnace of suffering may come out with a character 
 fixed in exquisite beauty, but it is apparently just 
 as possible that he may come forth distorted and 
 disfigured for life. Human nature differs as clays 
 differ, and individuals, even of the same class, are 
 as distinct as pottery made from the same clay. 
 
68 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vi 
 
 The furnace tries them both, and the issue of the 
 trial is equally uncertain. 
 
 The story of the impotent man at the Pool of 
 Bethesda affords an illustration of a case in which 
 suffering had debased rather than elevated the 
 man who had been subjected to its ministry. From 
 the solemn warning which Christ addresses to him 
 after his healing, it seems pretty certain that in his 
 case suffering was the direct result of a life of sin 
 and degradation. In his early days he had probably 
 sown his wild oats with the carelessness and 
 prodigality which is characteristic of youth and 
 inexperience. The crop quickly ripened, and the 
 harvesting extended over thirty-eight years of the 
 man's life. His early sin had apparently quickly 
 found him out, and struck him down, leaving him 
 a helpless paralytic for the rest of his days. 
 Doubtless the calamity which had befallen him 
 had produced an impression upon his mind and 
 conscience in the earlier days of his trouble, but as 
 far as can be judged this had long since passed 
 away, and the continuance of the paralysis had 
 deadened his moral as well as his physical nature. 
 How long he had been a visitor to the healing 
 springs of Bethesda we are not told, but simply 
 that he had been in that condition for a very long 
 period. There was evidently something about the 
 man which arrested Christ's attention, and singled 
 him out from the crowds of other sick people who 
 were lying about. Probably the man had grown 
 
VI DEBASED BY SUFFERING 69 
 
 so accustomed to his complaint that his desire for 
 renewed health was not very great, and it is not at 
 all improbable that he found it lucrative to appeal 
 to the pity of the crowds who congregated there. 
 The paralysis had affected the inner as well as the 
 outer man, it had sapped his moral as well as his 
 physical strength. It is not at all unlikely that it 
 was the unmistakable look on the man's face 
 denoting this moral paralysis which attracted 
 Christ's attention, and aroused His compassion. 
 Weakness of will is far more pitiable than weakness 
 of body, and it is far more difficult to cure. The 
 healing spring may suffice for physical debility, but 
 a miracle is needed for the psychical infirmity. 
 Christ stops before this wreck of what was once a 
 man, and His question is directed to the moral 
 rather than to the physical defect. " Do you 
 wish," He asks, *' to become sound both in body 
 and mind ? " On the surface the question is 
 superfluous, for the man's presence at the Pool of 
 Healing would seem to be a sufficient answer. 
 Christ, however, looked beneath the surface, and 
 there was that about the man which pointed to 
 callousness and indifference. He needed a galvanic 
 shock to rouse him from the torpor which thirty- 
 eight years of impotence, and the customary visit 
 to the Pool had induced in his nature. The man's 
 reply confirms this impression. It is an excuse for 
 his condition, not a reply to the question. He 
 seems to feel that the question implies a doubt as 
 
70 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vi 
 
 to the reality of his desire for healing. '' Sir," he 
 answers, " I have no one to put me into the Pool 
 when the water is active, and while I am coming 
 some one else steps down before me." There is 
 the whine of the beggar rather than the reply of 
 the sufferer in the man's answer. It is like the 
 excuse which the professional tramp makes for his 
 poverty. No one will give him work, and when 
 he hears of a place, he finds another man has 
 forestalled him. He does not even ask for the 
 help which he confesses he needs, although the 
 interest the stranger has shown in him would have 
 justified the request. This throws considerable 
 light upon his long waiting. It is not at all likely 
 that among all the crowds who visited the place, 
 no one could be found ready to give the helping 
 hand he needed. It seems far more probable that 
 he found it more profitable to remain in the 
 Porch than to get inside the Pool, to appeal for 
 alms than to seek for help. He was no great 
 sufferer racked with pain, but merely crippled. 
 Like so many Eastern cripples, he doubtless found 
 begging and the exposure of his paralysed limbs a 
 profitable business, and his visits to the Pool were 
 to solicit charity rather than to seek healing. 
 Christ appears to have felt this, for His answer is 
 a command, " Rise, take up your mat and walk." 
 What the man needed was a reinvigoration of the 
 will, a strengthening of his moral nature, a life of 
 activity, instead of the life of indolence to which 
 
VI DEBASED BY SUFFERING 71 
 
 he had grown accustomed during those thirty-eight 
 years. Suffering had bent him to the earth — he 
 needed to stand erect. His mat had been spread 
 for him to lie upon and beg — he needed to roll it 
 up and carry it out of sight. He had been carried 
 by others and been a burden to all who knew him — 
 he needed to walk himself and learn to carry his 
 own and other people's burdens. The inner man 
 was paralysed as well as the outer man. Suffering 
 had not elevated him — it had debased him. There 
 are cases where the physical paralysis has quickened 
 the life and activity of the soul, so that the bed- 
 ridden cripple who has needed every physical 
 attention has been the spiritual helper and inspirer 
 of all who knew him. With this man, however, it 
 had been the opposite. Suffering had soured him, 
 and filled him with complaints and jealousies. No 
 one would help him, others obtained relief before 
 him. He preferred pity to relief, he would sooner 
 lie and beg than walk and work. Christ seeks to 
 rouse the moral life within him, and therefore adds 
 to the command to rise, the order to take up his 
 mat and walk. As long as his mat was there he 
 might be tempted to lie down again. Unless he 
 walked away, he might be tempted to wait till his 
 friends or relatives came to carry him home. 
 This, rather than any desire to bring about a con- 
 troversy with the authorities on the question of 
 Sabbath observance, is the reason for the command. 
 That He should heaJ a man on the Sabbath is 
 
72 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vi 
 
 perfectly natural, but that He should give such a 
 trifling command as that to carry a mat in order 
 to provoke a controversy is entirely artificial. 
 Christ never avoided a controversy, but He never 
 provoked one unnecessarily. 
 
 The healing accomplished, both Healer and 
 healed depart their several ways, the One seeking 
 to avoid notoriety, and the other too much 
 astonished at his recovery to ask even the name 
 of his benefactor. As he goes along the streets 
 to his home, he is suddenly accosted by some of 
 those strict Sabbatarians with whom Jerusalem 
 abounded, and who were shocked at seeing a man 
 carrying a burden on the Sabbath day. They 
 expostulate with him on the enormity of his 
 offence, and are astonished to find from his reply 
 that a remarkable cure has been effected. The 
 man's nature is evident in his reply to their 
 reproof. He is a man ready with excuses, eager 
 to throw his responsibilities upon others. He has 
 not been cured hitherto because of the fault of 
 others ; he is carrying a burden now because the 
 One who healed him told him to do it. There is 
 doubtless no actual desire to bring his healer into 
 trouble with the authorities, but there is equally 
 no desire to shield his benefactor by taking re- 
 sponsibility for his action. The man is accustomed 
 to finding excuses, and he has no difficulty in the 
 present case. With that utter disregard of the 
 important and emphasis of the trifling which is 
 
VI DEBASED BY SUFFERING 73 
 
 characteristic of the mere literalist, the Pharisees 
 ignore the healing, and eagerly fasten on the 
 trifling act of carrying a mat on the Sabbath. 
 " Who was the man who told you to take up 
 your mat and walk ? " They are not interested 
 in the man who can say to the paralysed cripple, 
 " Rise up and walk," but they will seek high and 
 low for the man who dares to tell another to carry 
 a burden on the Sabbath day. They can get no 
 further information out of the man, for he does 
 not know the name of the One who healed him. 
 Having scented heresy, however, they start off in 
 eager pursuit, leaving the man to himself. 
 
 We next find him in the Temple, and it is a 
 matter of speculation what took him there. It 
 seems more probable that he had gone to make a 
 trespass offering for his unintentional breach of the 
 Sabbath, than to suppose that he had gone to offer 
 thanksgiving for his recovery. The words of the 
 Pharisees would be likely to make a deeper 
 impression upon a nature of his description than 
 the words of Christ, and it is consequently far 
 more probable that his visit to the temple was 
 intended to free himself from the consequences of 
 a sin, than that he went to offer thanks for a 
 recovery of whose advantage he was growing more 
 and more doubtful. Christ meets him in the 
 Temple Courts, and, reading the man's nature, 
 warns him against a repetition of the life of sin, 
 which had brought so much suffering in its train. 
 
74 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vi 
 
 " See," He says, *' you have been restored to health ; 
 sin no more lest a worse evil overtake you." The 
 restored health has itself taken the man back to 
 his early days, and already the old passions are 
 stirring within him. He is afraid of what may 
 happen to him for a breach of the Sabbath, and has 
 hastened to the Temple to make his trespass 
 offering. But he is oblivious of the sins of his 
 early life, and unmindful of the lesson which 
 thirty-eight years of suffering ought to have taught 
 him. He is already considering to what haunt of 
 vice he shall direct his steps after leaving the 
 Temple, and there is a deeper flush than that of 
 health upon his cheek, as his mind has already 
 preceded him to the place. Like a spendthrift 
 who has suddenly come into an unexpected fortune, 
 he is eager to renew the pleasures which have so 
 long been denied him. Suddenly Christ confronts 
 him with the forgotten sins of the past, but linked 
 to the present by those long years of suffering and 
 helplessness. The bond has been severed, but 
 beware lest a new one is made. Beware of the 
 old habit and the old associations, lest an even 
 worse fate befall you. The man's health has been 
 restored, but his nature has not been changed. 
 He can now walk, but his steps are moving in the 
 old direction, and his feet are swift to follow the 
 old paths. His thirty-eight years of suffering are 
 bad enough, but a worse fate is looming in the 
 distance. 
 
VI DEBASED BY SUFFERING 75 
 
 The man makes no reply. He can neither deny 
 the reference to the past, nor can he mistake the 
 allusion to the present. He is one of those, 
 however, to whom a warning is disagreeable, and 
 who resent advice. In place of gratitude he feels 
 dislike. He recognises his Healer in the Friend 
 who warns him, and his mind instantly turns 
 to the command to take up his mat, and the 
 Pharisaic reproof to which it subjected him. 
 Resentment for the warning against a return to 
 the old life overcomes any feeling of gratitude 
 for the restoration to health conferred, and he 
 immediately goes off to the Pharisees to tell them 
 the name of the Man whom they were anxious to 
 persecute. A worse thing may or may not happen 
 to himself, but he will pay off one score at least, 
 and bring upon his Benefactor who has warned 
 him the enmity and opposition of the authorities, 
 and thereby possibly save himself. There is a 
 meanness in the man's nature which neither 
 suffering can eradicate nor benevolence overcome. 
 There is a taint in the blood, which not even an 
 elixir can remove. As a paralytic he will complain 
 that no one will help him, and be jealous of the 
 blessings others receive. As a miracle of healing 
 himself, he will seek to shield himself at the expense 
 of his Benefactor, and in resentment at a warning 
 only too much needed, he will denounce to the 
 authorities the Man who has saved him. He 
 repays the solemn warning with petty spite, and 
 
76 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vi 
 
 presents as his fee for healing, the nails which 
 are to pierce the hands that have blessed him. 
 " On this account the Jews began to persecute 
 Jesus because He did these things on the 
 Sabbath." 
 
VII 
 
 THE RITUALISTS 
 Matthew xv. 1-20 ; Mark vii. 1-23. 
 
 There are some men whose influence is in inverse 
 proportion to the intrinsic merit both of themselves 
 and of their opinions. Attention has to be directed 
 towards them, not ' on account of what they are in 
 themselves, but solely on account of the fungus 
 growth which they encourage. In themselves they 
 call for no more notice than the passing glance; 
 their opinions are intrinsically worthless, yet the 
 influence they wield compels the most careful 
 attention, and the efl^ort to counteract it demands 
 the most strenuous exertion. The explanation of 
 this anomaly is to be found in the abnormal power 
 they possess for exaggeration and distortion, by 
 virtue of which they are able to make the trifling 
 appear the serious, and the serious the trifling. 
 Their mental perspective is the exact reverse of the 
 normal. They see the remote as near, the near as 
 remote, the great appears small and the small great. 
 They make mountains out of mole-hills, and 
 
 77 
 
78 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vii 
 
 scrupulously strain out the gnat while they swallow 
 the camel. If they were mere amateur painters, the 
 lack of normal perspective would be comparatively 
 harmless, but, unfortunately, they generally set 
 up as professional artists, and seek to control 
 the public Galleries. If their opinions were mere 
 private beliefs they would be innocuous, but as a 
 rule they are the dogmas of a propaganda and 
 dangerous to the community. They offer them- 
 selves as guides to the blind, and as physicians to 
 the sick ; hence it is as public men and not as 
 private individuals that they must be regarded. 
 That which is mere delusion in the latter is fraud 
 in the former. 
 
 In the sphere of religion such men find a 
 wide and fruitful field for their activities. In no 
 branch of human knowlege is mental perspective 
 more important, and in none is defective vision so 
 pernicious. Everything is capable of being looked 
 at from two very different standpoints, the human 
 and the divine. That which is near to the one is 
 remote to the other, that which is great to the 
 one is small to the other. The impressions of 
 sight need correcting by means of the intuitions of 
 insight. When the unseen is visualised, it is 
 essential that the material medium be spiritualised. 
 It is here that the perils of ceremonial manifest 
 themselves. Ritual is the attempt to materialise 
 the intangible, to manifest the imperceptible. The 
 spiritual feeling, therefore, must be of the finest, 
 
VII THE RITUALISTS 79 
 
 and the spiritual vision of the keenest, or it 
 degenerates into the grossest materialism. If there 
 is no spiritual insight in the one who celebrates the 
 rite, the celebration is a mere performance ; if 
 there is no perception of the spiritual in the minds 
 of those who look on, the ceremony is a mere 
 spectacle. The ritual of religion, therefore, offers 
 a rich soil in which the poisonous fungus of the 
 unreal flourishes and spreads. The lack of a true 
 perspective is fatal ; an inaccurate sense of pro- 
 portion is disastrous. That which is nearest to 
 the senses is the most remote from the soul ; that 
 which is most striking to the eye is of least 
 importance, while that which to sight is the great, 
 is to insight the least. The man, therefore, who 
 perceives only the medium through which the 
 intangible is materialised, has sight but not insight. 
 He sees everything out of the true perspective, 
 exaggerates the trifling into the serious, mistakes 
 the material for the spiritual, and substitutes the 
 form for the substance. If the rite were always 
 the expression of the spiritual feeling which 
 instituted it, the danger would be reduced to a 
 minimum, but, unfortunately, the origin of the 
 rite is in the dim past. The feeling may long 
 since have passed away but the rite remains, and, 
 separated from the sentiment which gave it life, it 
 is a body without a soul, material and not spiritual. 
 It carries with it no innate authority but rests upon 
 the traditions of the past. In the sphere of 
 
8o CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vii 
 
 religion, therefore, the tendency of ritualism is to 
 place the emphasis not on the response of the soul 
 to the spiritual influences by which it is surrounded, 
 but on the due observance of the ceremonies which 
 a past generation has handed down. It is an 
 attempt to resuscitate the dead, to bring back the 
 life that has passed away, by galvanising the corpse. 
 While in practice it is allied to the Pharisees, in 
 belief it is allied to the Sadducees. It maintains 
 that there is no resurrection nor angel nor spirit. 
 It fails, that is, to see that the life which has passed 
 away cannot be resuscitated — it must rise from the 
 dead and take on a new body. It fails to see that 
 the religious life of the present cannot be con- 
 trolled by the traditions of the past, but must be 
 a reponse to the direction of the Angel of the 
 Covenant. It forgets that the spirit and not 
 the body is the permanent and abiding factor 
 in the religious life. 
 
 Opinions and beliefs which in the private 
 individual merely arouse pity, when found in the 
 public teacher and leader arouse indignation. We 
 feel that the man is not merely blind — he is a blind 
 guide. He is not only risking his own life, he is 
 imperilling the lives of his followers. His conceits 
 may in themselves be contemptuous, but as 
 deceptions practised upon the masses they are 
 criminal. This is the explanation of that scathing 
 denunciation which Christ pronounced upon the 
 Pharisees of His day, and the important place 
 
VII THE RITUALISTS 8i 
 
 the exposure of their teaching occupied in His 
 public ministry. Blind themselves to the spiritual, 
 they professed to be the spiritual leaders of the 
 nation ; their opinions, puerile in themselves, were 
 received as the authoritative utterances of the wise. 
 Conflict was inevitable and He never shirked it. 
 He necessarily laid Himself open to constant 
 attack, and they never missed an opportunity. 
 At the beginning, He merely offended their taste 
 and excited their desire for controversy, but as 
 they became more acquainted with the principles 
 He enunciated, distaste deepened into bitter hatred, 
 and conspiracy took the place of controversy. 
 
 The party of Scribes and Pharisees from Jeru- 
 salem who waited upon Him as He stepped ashore 
 from the Lake of Gennesaret were men whose 
 religious feelings had been offended by the action 
 of His disciples in sitting down to their meal 
 without first performing the religious ceremony of 
 washing their hands. It was not a question of 
 manners, it was one of ritual. It was not a 
 question of eating with clean instead of unclean 
 hands, it was a question of the non-observance of 
 a religious ceremony. It was not a breach of 
 etiquette, it was a transgression against religious 
 authority. " Why do your disciples transgress 
 the tradition of the Elders, in not purifying their 
 hands before meals ? " They do not ask a 
 question, they administer a rebuke. They are 
 not puzzled, they are shocked. They do not 
 
 G 
 
82 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vii 
 
 appeal for a justification, they demand an emphatic 
 condemnation. Their faces are flushed with in- 
 dignation, their brows are contracted with severity. 
 The disciples themselves are overwhelmed with con- 
 fusion, and hang their heads to conceal their shame. 
 There is a flush on the face of Christ as He 
 turns to reply, but it is not from shame at His 
 disciples, but with indignation at their accusers. 
 There is the glint of steel in the flash of His eye 
 as He confronts them with the retort, *' Why do 
 you too transgress the commandments of God on 
 account of this very tradition of yours ? For God 
 said. Honour thy father and thy mother, and 
 again, Let him who reviles father or mother be 
 certainly put to death ; but as for you with your 
 traditions, this is what you say : — If a man declares 
 about anything of which his parents stand in the 
 sorest need, that it is consecrated, he is absolved 
 from the commandment to honour his father and 
 mother, and in this way you have actually cancelled 
 the command of God for the sake of your tradition. 
 You hypocrites ! aptly did Isaiah describe you in 
 anticipation when he wrote — "This is a people who 
 honour me with their lips, while their heart is far 
 away from me ; they worship me to no purpose 
 while they offer as teaching, forsooth, mere human 
 precepts." The retort is overwhelming, but it is 
 richly deserved. It is no mere Tu quoque reply 
 to a charge, it is the triumphant acquittal of the 
 accused by means of the conviction of the accuser. 
 
VII THE RITUALISTS 83 
 
 The charge of pilfering is based upon an inter- 
 pretation of the law which proves that the prose- 
 cutor has all his life been living by highway- 
 robbery. These men who are so particular about 
 washing their hands before sitting down to a meal 
 can be guilty of parricide. Their mental per- 
 spective is so abnormal that the performance of a 
 religious rite must take precedence over the dis- 
 charge of the plainest natural duty. They will 
 allow the utterance of a word to absolve a man 
 from the obligations of a lifetime. They are 
 shocked at the disciples for the omission to wash 
 their hands before taking their food, but they 
 smile approval on the man who, in order to 
 discharge a selfish vow, outrages every natural 
 instinct and cancels the command of God. They 
 are sitting on the judge's bench, when they should 
 be standing in the prisoner's dock. This is no 
 question of the interpretation of a law of Moses, 
 it is the abrogation of a command of God, and 
 the substitution of the figment of the diseased 
 imagination of some egotistical Rabbi. It is not a 
 question of mere difference of opinion, it is the 
 divergence of principles which are as far asunder 
 as the poles. These men are not critics, but 
 hypocrites ; they are not blind, but bUndfolded ; 
 they are not seeking guidance, but are professing 
 to guide. The position they occupy invests their 
 opinions with a moral significance. Their folly is 
 vicious, their mistake criminal. 
 
84 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vii 
 
 Turning from the discomfited Scribes and 
 Pharisees, He addresses the people, upon whose 
 faces, as well as upon those of His disciples, 
 astonishment is plainly depicted. They can to 
 a certain extent appreciate the positive in His 
 teaching, and welcome His vindication of the 
 commandments. They cannot, however, under- 
 stand His defence of a breach of ritual of which 
 they are self-conscious. " Listen to me all of you,'* 
 He says, * * and try and understand. There is nothing 
 external to a man which by getting inside his body 
 can defile the man. It is the things which are 
 internal, and which come out of the man, which 
 defile him." A true mental perspective distin- 
 guishes between the essential and the non-essential, 
 between the external act and the internal spirit. 
 It is neither the ceremony which can produce true 
 purity nor the omission of the ceremony which 
 can produce impurity. The ceremony is external 
 to the man ; purity and impurity are something 
 internal, in the mind and not in the body. It is 
 the impure heart and not the unclean hands which 
 defile the man. 
 
 After the crowd has dispersed, and the Master 
 and His disciples are in the privacy of the house, 
 the disciples, who have apparently been turning 
 the matter over in their minds, trying to under- 
 stand but failing, refer to the subject again. ' " Do 
 you not know," they ask Him, "that the Pharisees 
 were greatly shocked when they heard what you 
 
VII THE RITUALISTS 85 
 
 said ? " They are themselves so conscious of their 
 breach of the traditions, that they are afraid He 
 has said more than He intended in His generous 
 defence of themselves. The teaching of the 
 Pharisees is too deeply planted within them to 
 be easily uprooted. They feel that they were at 
 fault in not performing the ceremony, and that it 
 would perhaps have been wiser if He had acknow- 
 ledged it. 
 
 Christ sees the weed which Pharisaic teaching 
 and training has planted within their minds, and 
 realises that they will find it difficult to pull it up. 
 " Every plant which my Heavenly Father has not 
 planted will be rooted up,'* He answers. The 
 merely human precepts which the Pharisees have 
 substituted for the true teaching which they ought 
 to have imparted will be uprooted as noxious 
 weeds. As for their being shocked, " Let them 
 alone," He adds, " they are not worth considering. 
 They are blind guides leading along blind men, 
 and according to the proverb, if the blind lead the 
 blind, they will both fall into the pit, so it will be 
 with them and those who follow them." 
 
 Peter suddenly interrupts the conversation. 
 He has been going over the answer of Christ, and 
 trying to find out what was meant by the inner 
 which defiles and the outer which does not defile, 
 and he can make nothing of it. Suddenly the 
 proverb which Christ mentions gives him an idea. 
 Perhaps it is a parable, and the words are figures 
 
86 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST vii 
 
 of speech. He has often mistaken the parabolic 
 for the Hteral, now he mistakes the Hteral for the 
 parabolic. *' Explain to us," he exclaims, " this 
 parable'^ 
 
 Christ has no difficulty in understanding the 
 reference. He sees at once the reason for Peter's 
 perplexed look. Pharisaic mystification has made 
 it impossible for Peter to understand a plain state- 
 ment. He is so convinced of the reality of cere- 
 monial impurity, that he cannot grasp the plainest 
 statement of what real impurity actually is. " Are 
 even you, my own disciples, still lacking in per- 
 ception.^" Christ asks. ''Do you not see that 
 what I said was no parable, but literal fact ^ The 
 mouth gives admission to the material only, and 
 the food can affect the body merely. The words, 
 however, which come out of the mouth issue from 
 the heart, and reveal its inner thoughts and desires. 
 These are the things that defile the man. For 
 out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, 
 adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, and blasphemy. 
 These, and not the mere omission of a ceremony, 
 are the things which defile." It is not a question 
 of purity versus impurity, or of the relative im- 
 portance of different ceremonies. It is a question 
 of fact as against fiction, of reality as against sham, 
 which divides Him from the Pharisees, His teach- 
 ing from their traditions. The appeal is not to 
 the dicta of dead Rabbis, but to the living voice of 
 reason and conscience. The fatal error of mere 
 
vn THE RITUALISTS 87 
 
 ceremonialism is in the emphasis it lays upon the 
 external, and in its utter lack of a true perspective. 
 The more logically its system is worked out, the 
 more irrational do its conclusions appear. Like a 
 parasite, it flourishes at the expense of the life which 
 nourishes it. It destroys the religion which has 
 sustained it, and petrifies the heart which has 
 cherished it. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 
 Luke xil. 1-21. 
 
 The inequalities of life have ever been a subject 
 of deep human interest. The affluence of the rich 
 in comparison with the grinding poverty of the 
 poor has presented its striking contrast to every 
 age, and offered its perplexing problem to every 
 generation. The problem is too real to be ignored ; 
 its voice is too clamant to be unheeded. It forces 
 itself into the study of the philosopher, it walks 
 unannounced into the office of the merchant, it 
 interviews the statesman, and pushes its way into 
 the Church. The problem appeals to the reason 
 no less than to the emotions. We are impressed 
 with the irrational as well as with the pathetic in 
 it, and it enlists the head no less than the heart in 
 the attempt at a solution. It cries for justice as 
 well as begs for charity. The question of social 
 reform finds advocates in every rank of life, and 
 draws its supporters from men and women of 
 every shade of opinion. The peer rubs shoulders 
 
 s$ 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 89 
 
 with the peasant, theologian with scientist, states- 
 man with demagogue, Christian with agnostic, and 
 pessimist with optimist. It has a wonderful power 
 of absorbing the attention, so that to some it is the 
 only political question, to others it is the only 
 science, and to others again it is the only religion. 
 The solutions offered are as diverse as the ad- 
 vocates are varied. The panaceas discovered are 
 as numerous as they are ineffective. There is, 
 however, one remarkable uniformity amidst all the 
 variety, one point of agreement amidst all the 
 differences of opinion. Almost without exception 
 every solution involves an appeal to some external 
 authority, whose power is to be invoked to rectify 
 what is wrong. If the evil is regarded as the 
 effect of bad legislation, the remedy is to be found 
 in good legislation. If it is the result of the power 
 of the classes, the remedy is to be found in 
 arousing the dormant power of the masses. The 
 efficacy of the remedies is proportionate to the 
 accuracy of the diagnosis. The real question to 
 be first settled is the accuracy of the diagnosis ; 
 for a blister to the skin is no remedy for a 
 disease which is in the blood. If the disease 
 is in human nature and not in its environment, 
 legislation may to some extent relieve the pain, 
 but it cannot remedy the evil. Strict equity 
 demands that the case of the poor against the 
 rich shall be set side by side with the case of 
 the rich against the poor. The right of the one 
 
90 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST viii 
 
 to obtain must not conflict with the equal right of 
 the other to retain. It is right that Law should 
 remove the evil Law has produced, but it is 
 impossible for Law to remove the pains and 
 penalties which Nature has imposed. These are 
 in a province beyond its jurisdiction. If relief is 
 to be sought from these, the alteration must be 
 effected in the courts of the higher tribunal. 
 Human legislation is but the executive of human 
 nature, and it cannot be in advance of the measures 
 which the latter enjoins. It is the High Court of 
 Parliament and not the executive which can alter 
 the constitution. It is not to a new executive, 
 but to a reformed Parliament that the redress of 
 grievances must be submitted. The evil com- 
 plained of is not so much in bad legislation as in 
 a corrupt human nature. Relief must be sought, 
 therefore, not in a mere alteration of the environ- 
 ment, but in amending the constitution ; not in 
 repealing old laws or enacting new ones, so much 
 as in reforming human nature and ennobling it. 
 The difference between a religious and a non- 
 religious social reformer is to be found not in any 
 indifference on the part of the one, or in any 
 extra sensitiveness on the part of the other, but 
 in the different diagnosis of the disease. The one 
 attributes it to the constitution, the other to the 
 environment ; and as a consequence the one seeks 
 to make men, while the other seeks to make laws. 
 The difference in the diagnosis is sure to lead to 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 91 
 
 the disapproval by the one of the treatment 
 of the other. Misunderstanding and friction are 
 inevitable, but it would be well if both recognised 
 that their aims are one, and gave each other credit 
 for equal sincerity. 
 
 The attitude of Christ to this question of 
 social reform has been very differently interpreted. 
 The non- religious party have both claimed and 
 repudiated Him. The religious party have both 
 claimed and misrepresented Him. His sympathy 
 cannot be questioned, for His life was spent 
 amongst the poor. His attitude, however, must 
 be decided by the sentiments He expressed and 
 the principles He enunciated. His interview with 
 the aggrieved brother who came to solicit His 
 assistance in securing his inheritance is very 
 suggestive of His attitude to the question of 
 social reform. From the account in the Gospel of 
 Luke, where alone the incident is recorded, it 
 would appear that He was in the middle of a 
 discourse to a vast company of people, who, in their 
 eagerness to hear what He had to say, were 
 exhibiting all the selfishness of a great crowd. 
 The discourse began with a reference to the 
 hypocrisy of the Pharisees, which, though carefully 
 concealed, would at length be exposed. Recognis- 
 ing the friendly character of His audience, He 
 speaks to them freely, encouraging them not to 
 be afraid of men, since they are in the keeping of 
 God, the Divine Father. If they are brought 
 
92 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST viri 
 
 before the authorities, whether civil or religious, 
 they need have no anxiety as to their defence, for 
 the Holy Spirit will teach them to suit the word 
 to the occasion. One man in the crowd hears but 
 is not listening. His mind is occupied with a 
 concern which is all-absorbing. He is one of the 
 great unemployed, and has drifted with the crowds 
 who are streaming to listen to the Prophet of 
 Nazareth. His brother has withheld the share of 
 the inheritance which he considers to be due to 
 him, and the injustice rankles in his breast. A 
 word here and there arrests his attention, as it fits 
 in with the one subject which is always occupying 
 his mind. The hypocrisy which is denounced 
 fitly represents his brother's conduct, and the 
 declaration that the thing which has been done 
 in secret shall be exposed openly, gives him a 
 momentary feeling of pleasure as he thinks of his 
 brother's secret injustice. The reference to being 
 brought before magistrates and rulers suddenly 
 quickens his interest in the preacher, and the 
 promise of the gift of speech which will enable 
 a man to say the right thing at the right moment 
 makes him elbow his way through the crowd, and 
 interrupt the discourse with the request for 
 assistance in prosecuting his case against his 
 brother. Like a would-be litigant hanging around 
 a law court, he thinks he has found the advocate 
 he needs. Here is one who can speak fearlessly, 
 can say just what ought to be said, and say it at 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 93 
 
 the right time and with the right feeling. If this 
 man will only undertake his case, it is practically 
 won. Absorbed with the importance of his own 
 grievance, he is oblivious to everything else. 
 " Ho ! Preacher," he cries out, " tell my brother 
 to give me my share of the inheritance." There 
 is a fierceness in the man's tones which indicates 
 suppressed passion. There is an abruptness in the 
 address which reveals his self-absorption. He is 
 unconscious of the thousand eyes which are turned 
 in his direction, he is oblivious to the interruption 
 he has caused. He is typical of a mighty and 
 impatient host, and his fierce appeal against a 
 brother's injustice is representative of the passionate 
 demand for a share in the world's wealth, which 
 the poor make, of the rich. There is the same 
 sense of urgency, the same indifference to every 
 other question. What is the use of talking about 
 the spiritual when the material is so pressing ? 
 Why speak about the hypocrisy of the Pharisee 
 when it is the greed of the brother which calls for 
 denunciation ? If religion is to be of any practical 
 value, let it busy itself with righting crying 
 wrongs, and reinstating the disinherited. Let the 
 preacher descend from the pulpit and settle the 
 dispute between capital and labour, inherent rights 
 and vested interests. Leave the crowds who have 
 merely come to listen to a preacher, and go and 
 speak to the brother who has usurped the 
 inheritance. From the individual man's point of 
 
94 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST viii 
 
 view there is reason in his demand, and justifica- 
 tion for his impatience. To him nothing is of 
 importance as long as his brother is left in 
 undisturbed possession of the inheritance he has 
 usurped. A single word to the brother is worth 
 more than the Sermon on the Mount ; the righting 
 of his wrong is of more value than the Magna 
 Charta of Christendom. 
 
 It is not the interruption which Christ resents, 
 it is the man's selfish absorption which he reproves. 
 It is not the man's view of his case, but the man's 
 view of life which he condemns. " Man," He an- 
 swers, " who has made me a judge or divider over 
 you .? " The title is a reminder that the man is a 
 unit, his case is one among millions of similar ones. 
 It turns his attention to the thronging crowds who 
 have an equal right to be heard, and as important 
 claims upon Christ's attention. What to the indi- 
 vidual may be of supreme concern, may to the race 
 be of little moment. The man has to learn that 
 there are others in the world beside himself and 
 his brother, and that there are greater interests in 
 life than the division of property. The tone is 
 necessarily severe, but the man's self- absorption 
 has demanded it ; his wrong is to a certain extent 
 treated with unconcern, but his over-emphasis has 
 necessitated it. We are all too much inclined to 
 think that the world must be stopped while our 
 grievance is attended to, and that the Almighty 
 Himself must intervene to decide the case in our 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 95 
 
 favour. Christ declines, and that deliberately, to 
 exchange the position of preacher for that of 
 arbitrator. There is no contempt in His refusal, 
 but there is that high conception of the supreme 
 importance of His mission of which mere con- 
 tempt is the shadow and not the substance. There 
 is no mistaking the meaning of His refusal. In 
 His conception the preacher towers above statesman 
 and judge, legislator and lawyer. The reformation 
 of human nature takes precedence over every other 
 reform. A superficial view of life may invest the 
 champion of oppression and the redresser of 
 wrongs with a greater glory than that which it 
 accords to the teacher ; but a true insight into the 
 significance of life will recognise that the teacher's 
 work is more radical, has a more potent influence 
 and a more far-reaching effect. For one wrong 
 which the redresser may set right, there are a 
 thousand which the teacher may prevent. The 
 champion of oppression in denouncing a single 
 wrong may stir up a dozen evil passions to produce 
 their own harvest of injustice, while the teacher 
 may instil a principle rich in gracious influence and 
 potent in blessing to thousands of lives. The 
 beatitudes which Christ uttered on the Mount have 
 had a more potent influence on human life than the 
 legislation which proceeded from that other Mount, 
 all ablaze with fire, shrouded in gloom and tempest, 
 and resounding with the blast of trumpet and the 
 sound of words. The platform may be more 
 
96 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST viii 
 
 popular than the pulpit, but the pulpit will always 
 be more potent for good than the platform. 
 
 The aggrieved brother retired, probably to add 
 to his other grievances resentment against the 
 preacher who declined to interfere in his quarrel. 
 He has accomplished nothing for himself, but un- 
 consciously much for others. He has brought 
 forward a bigger problem than a mere dispute 
 between himself and his brother, about their 
 respective share of the family inheritance. He 
 has raised the social problem, and though Christ 
 will have nothing to do with the private quarrel, 
 He has much to say on the larger question. The 
 preacher may refuse to take sides in private 
 disputes, but he must take a stand on public 
 questions. He is the teacher of all, and therefore 
 he can be the partisan of none. He has the 
 charge of souls, and therefore his office must never 
 be a sinecure. From the man, Christ turns to the 
 many ; from the petty wrong He turns to the 
 public evil. *' Keep a good lookout and a strict 
 guard," He says, " against every kind of avarice — 
 that disposition to take more than your right share, 
 which is the root of the social problem. For no 
 man's life depends upon the extent of his property, 
 or the amount of his possessions." This is no hit 
 at the man who has left, which would be as un- 
 generous as it would be unjust. He has distinctly 
 refused to be a judge in the dispute, and it is unjust 
 both to the aggrieved brother and to Christ to 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 97 
 
 suppose that he is here reproved for avarice. There 
 is, in fact, an absurdity in supposing that the man 
 who has been deprived of his share of the family 
 inheritance is rebuked for avarice in asking for the 
 portion that belonged to him. If any one was open 
 to the charge, it was the brother who was in 
 possession, rather than the brother who was turned 
 out. Christ's reference, however, is general and not 
 particular. He deals with the problem of which the 
 particular case was but an illustration. The social 
 problem is not a question of adjustment of 
 differences, or of arbitration between disputants, it 
 has much deeper roots, which are embedded in 
 human nature. The disease is not a simple 
 eruption of the skin, it is a poison in the blood. 
 It is not a mistaken conception of the relation 
 between capital and labour, employer and employed, 
 it is a mistaken conception of life. At the root of 
 the social problem is a radical misconception as to 
 what constitutes real wealth, and of what is involved 
 in true living. Wealth is a word whose root is in 
 the moral and not in the material classification of 
 thoughts. It denotes quality rather than quantity, 
 refers to what a man is rather than to what he has, 
 signifies the value of a man's life rather than the . 
 amount he leaves behind. The current coin of 
 thought has been debased, and the true prosperity 
 of the race has suffered in consequence. Man has 
 substituted goods for good, riches for rich, 
 price for value, real estate for real condition, 
 
 H 
 
98 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST viii 
 
 effects for effect. Instead of speaking about 
 the good a man has done, we call attention 
 to his goods ; in place of fixing the gaze upon 
 the richness of a man's life, we speak of his 
 riches ; instead of inquiring the value of a man's 
 labour, we ask what is the market price. We 
 have turned the clear limpid stream which rises 
 in the heights of man's moral nature and sets the 
 seal of nobility upon him, namely, the desire for a 
 richer and fuller life, into the turpid, foul-smelling 
 and poisonous town river of avarice — the feverish 
 desire to grasp and hold lands and riches and 
 possessions. It is this degradation of the true con- 
 ception of life which is at the root of the social 
 problem. Christ confronts it with His emphatic 
 and authoritative. No. A man's life does not 
 consist, universal opinion notwithstanding, in the 
 abundance of his possessions. The life is more 
 than meat as the body is more than clothing. 
 Christ refused to act as arbitrator. He abstained 
 from proclaiming any scheme of social reformation, 
 but in placing the emphasis on life rather than 
 on riches, on what a man is rather than on what 
 he has^ He has done more for the regeneration 
 of the world, and the reconstruction of a true 
 social order, than can possibly be effected by 
 the most perfect system of social reform. He 
 has kindled an enthusiasm for humanity, without 
 which no reform is possible. He has inspired a 
 sense of human brotherhood apart from which a 
 
VIII THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 99 
 
 true social order is unattainable, He has given a 
 new meaning to human life, such as we seek 
 in vain apart from His influence. He con- 
 templated a greater end than the reformation of 
 society. He sought the regeneration of the race. 
 
IX 
 
 THE WOMAN WHO WOULD NOT BE DENIED 
 Matt. XV. 21-28 ; Mark vii. 24-30. 
 
 The underlying note in a good deal of our modern 
 literature dealing with the problem of life is 
 pessimistic. It is the acknowledgment that the 
 mystery of existence is past finding out, the riddle 
 which the Sphinx propounds is not worth the 
 attempt at finding an answer. The enthusiasms 
 and visions of early life have been replaced with 
 the doubts and actualities of experience, and the 
 apparent inutility of all the strife and efibrt, the 
 disillusionments and disappointments fill us with an 
 unutterable sense of the vanity and worthlessness 
 of it all, which finds expression in the constantly 
 recurring question, Cui bono ? What is the 
 meaning of the vain show, the painted scenery and 
 the masks and dresses in which humanity parades 
 across the stage, mumbles its part and makes its 
 gestures, ere the curtain drops and the lights are 
 turned out ? Has it indeed any meaning at all ? 
 To some life is a gay comedy, while to others it is 
 
 100 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE loi 
 
 a grim tragedy, but of what advantage is either the 
 humour of the one or the pathos of the other ? 
 Is the pleasure worth the having, is the pathos 
 worth the feeling ? After all is the play, whether 
 comedy or tragedy, worth the money we have to 
 pay for it, is it even worth paying anything at all ? 
 Nay, is the complimentary ticket even worth 
 taking ? We have lost interest even in the 
 discussion of the question as to whether pain is in 
 excess of pleasure or pleasure in excess of pain. 
 What does it matter which ; the one is as insipid 
 as the other is sour. The whole of life is just a 
 clash of atoms in a chaos, out of which something 
 of the nature of a cosmos may perchance come, 
 but at present only chaos is visible. 
 
 Perhaps one of the chief causes of this modern 
 pessimism is the undue emphasis which the spirit 
 of the age has placed on the intrinsic value of 
 mere things. We are accustomed to ask the price 
 of most articles with which we have to deal, and 
 have consequently gained the habit of a quick 
 decision as to whether we think they are worth the 
 money. In our trade we are careful to make 
 things look the value we ask for them. In our 
 scientific pursuits we are always trying to find out 
 the utility of our discoveries, and attach the utmost 
 importance to those which have what we call a 
 marketable value. In literature we first ask 
 whether a work is likely to sell, and only 
 secondarily whether it is of value. The news- 
 
102 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ix 
 
 paper that has the largest circulation, and the 
 novel which has run to the most editions are 
 the things we prize, and of whose value we seem 
 assured. The result is that we apply the same 
 standard to our views of life. Its value must be 
 on the surface and self-evident. The answer to the 
 problem must appeal to this business instinct which 
 judges in a moment, telegraphs its decision, and 
 delivers its order while the messenger waits. 
 
 We are apt to forget that the truly valuable is 
 always the priceless. Our weights and measures 
 and current coins are inapplicable to the real 
 treasures of the world. Their value is not so 
 much in themselves as in the effects they produce. 
 The value of a work of art is not in the cost of 
 the materials, nor even in the price that has been 
 paid for it, but in the emotions it excites and the 
 influence it can exert. The true value of the 
 possession of it is not in the addition it makes to 
 our collection, but in what it is able to extract 
 from us ourselves. It must be judged, therefore, 
 not by what it is intrinsically, but by what it 
 accomplishes in the sphere of the spiritual as dis- 
 tinct from the material. A true conception of 
 life similarly passes by the intrinsic, and fastens on 
 the extrinsic. Life is an education, and its value 
 is not in what we succeed in getting out of it, but 
 rather in what it succeeds in getting out of us. 
 The answer to the question. Is life worth living, 
 cannot be obtained by a debit and credit account 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE 103 
 
 of pain and pleasure, the interesting and the un- 
 interesting, it is obtained by an estimate of the 
 value of the character that has been formed. 
 Events must not be judged by what they are in 
 themselves, but by the eiFects which they are able 
 to produce. The world is a school rather than a 
 stage, and life is an education rather than a piece 
 of acting. We are not Bohemian actors who can 
 throw up an engagement if the part we are cast 
 for is not to our liking, but we are scholars who 
 have to learn our lessons and pass or fail in our 
 examinations. It is the after-life which justifies 
 or condemns the education we have received at 
 school, and of that as long as we are scholars we 
 have no means of judging. Those who sent us 
 are responsible, and we must trust to the wisdom 
 of their choice. The sooner we settle down to 
 our lessons, and leave off both our discussions and 
 our grumbling, the better it will be for us. 
 
 The interview between Christ and the Syro- 
 phcenician woman affords a striking illustration 
 of the higher importance Christ attached to His 
 power to teach as contrasted with the more sensa- 
 tional power which He possessed of working 
 miracles. His philosophy of life was evidently 
 based upon the belief that what could be drawn 
 out of any one was of far greater value than what 
 could be bestowed upon them. His treatment of 
 the woman, which is so unlike what we should 
 have anticipated, must be judged in the light of 
 
I04 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ix 
 
 the corresponding fact that the woman is herself 
 totally unlike anything we should have expected. 
 She was not a Jewess, but a Gentile by birth, yet 
 her character is that of a devout Israelite rather 
 than that of an unbelieving Gentile. Christ is 
 in the parts of Tyre and Sidon, outside the limits 
 of Jewish territory, yet, as in the case of the Roman 
 centurion, so in that of this woman. He finds 
 more faith than even in Israel. Such an impres- 
 sion did His contact with the Gentile world pro- 
 duce, that in His subsequent ministry He contrasts 
 the cities in which the greater part of His ministry 
 was spent with the Tyre and Sidon of this short 
 and apparently only journey thither. He had 
 probably gone over the border to seek a temporary 
 retirement from the strain to which His Galilean 
 ministry exposed Him. He was seeking a much- 
 needed rest, and across the border was a foreign 
 country and a Gentile people, amongst whom He 
 might reasonably expect to find the retirement and 
 rest He sought. His fame, however, had preceded 
 Him, and the quiet of His journey was disturbed 
 by a cry for help from this Syrophoenician woman. 
 She had a little daughter in her home, suffering 
 from one of those mysterious nervous maladies 
 which were associated with the possession of a 
 devil. Her life was clouded by this great sorrow. 
 The origin of the disease was unknown, and after 
 the manner of her people and her time, she attri- 
 buted it to some malign influence whom she had 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE 105 
 
 unwittingly offended. Though the nature and 
 the cause of the trouble were alike unknown, it 
 was the great shadow in her home, and must have 
 had its influence upon her character. Day by 
 day she was face to face with one of life's insoluble 
 enigmas. Hour by hour she had to watch the 
 paroxysms of her child, and feel her utter help- 
 lessness either to understand or to relieve. She 
 must again and again have asked what was the 
 meaning of it all, and how it would end, yet her 
 mother's heart of love sustained her, and her 
 ministration never failed. Vague rumours had 
 probably reached her of the wonder-worker in 
 Galilee, and of the cures He had been able to 
 effect. But Galilee was a long way oif, and her 
 child demanded all her attention. At length 
 report was brought that the Great Healer had 
 crossed the border, entered her own district, and 
 was passing within a short distance of her home. 
 Here was the opportunity of a lifetime, and she 
 started off full of hope to obtain the help for 
 herself and her child of which she stood so much 
 in need. She meets Him as He passes along sur- 
 rounded with His disciples, and cries out, " Sir, 
 Son of David, pity me ; my daughter is cruelly 
 harassed with a devil." 
 
 The Messianic title by which she addresses 
 Him is one which she has picked up, and she 
 probably thinks that its use will be more likely 
 to make Him take notice of her and be favourable 
 
io6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ix 
 
 to her request. She was unfortunate, however, 
 in her choice. Christ has just left Galilee, where 
 day by day the same cry has resounded in His 
 ears, and the same appeal to work a marvel has 
 met Him at every place He has visited. He had 
 given the Galileans His best both of teaching and 
 working, but the response He longed for has not 
 been forthcoming. They would call Him by the 
 Messianic title if they could get anything out of 
 Him, but they would not respond to the higher 
 life and the spiritual truth He had to offer them. 
 He had therefore withdrawn from their midst, 
 that the mere wonders which they demanded to 
 see might be kept in the background, and the 
 teaching He had imparted might have a chance 
 of influencing them. He had made use of the 
 material to illustrate the spiritual, and found that 
 they were too interested in the pictures to attend 
 to the lesson. He had given them the best that 
 was in Him, that He might draw out the best 
 that was in them, and He found that they took 
 all and gave nothing. Here, in the retirement 
 He sought, the same cry for the miraculous meets 
 Him again. The same demand for the marvellous 
 is made to Him, the same title is addressed to 
 Him. He has disregarded it in Galilee, He has 
 withdrawn to avoid it, and when He meets it 
 here. He answers it with silence. He is no mere 
 wonder-worker, He is a teacher, and to draw out 
 the best that is in men is, in His view of life, of 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE 107 
 
 greater value than to grant the relief they are so 
 ready to demand. 
 
 The woman's sense of helplessness, however, is 
 too keen to take silence for refusal, and she 
 follows Him with that persistence and impor- 
 tunity characteristic of the Eastern nature. The 
 disciples, who are aware of the object of their 
 journey, remind Him that the woman is defeat- 
 ing His purpose by exciting that very attention 
 He sought to avoid, and suggest that He should 
 send her away. Her monotonous cry is like the 
 bleating of some ewe who has lost her lamb, and 
 suggests the metaphor Christ uses in His reply. 
 Turning to the woman He answers, " I have no 
 commission save to the lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel." It is a reply called forth by the 
 Messianic title she has used, and is intended to 
 call her attention to the meaning of the words 
 she has caught up and is using without realising 
 their significance. If He is, as she says, the 
 Jewish Messiah, He has no commission for Tyre 
 and Sidon, and she has no claim upon His 
 assistance. Her prayer is the expression of a 
 real need, but her words are meaningless. She 
 has asked for a simple boon, He has a richer 
 blessing in store for her. She wants help for 
 her daughter, He has something for herself as 
 well. 
 
 She is quick to understand that she has made 
 some mistake in the form of the request she has 
 
io8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ix 
 
 preferred, but she reads His face too accurately 
 to mistake delay for dismissal. She falls at His 
 feet, and it is the natural woman who utters the 
 simple but all-powerful prayer, *'Sir, help me." 
 She has dropped all meaningless titles, and all 
 unnecessary expressions. She is helpless, He is 
 the Helper ; she is poor, He is rich. She knows 
 nothing about His commission, she is ignorant 
 of the meaning of His title, but she recognises 
 a heart of compassion, and to that she makes her 
 appeal. 
 
 Christ's heart is touched by the woman's 
 naturalness and sincerity. He sees the mother- 
 heart, with its yearning desire for some help for 
 the little sufferer at home, and His compassion 
 is stirred. Here is some one very different from 
 the mere seeker after a sign, here is something 
 deeper than the mere desire for the marvellous. 
 There is a half-playful smile on His face, but the 
 eyes are wells of compassion as He answers, " It 
 is not allowable to take the bread from the 
 children, and throw it to the dogs on the floor." 
 He is speaking to a mother who is accustomed to 
 give little delicacies to her sick child, and who can 
 therefore appreciate the simile. Her mother's 
 heart will fasten upon the children whose bread 
 is to be taken away, not on the dogs who are 
 waiting round the table. She will institute no 
 comparison of contempt, nor take umbrage at the 
 reference to dogs. Hers is a nature which is 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE 109 
 
 quick to respond, a mind which it is a pleasure to 
 draw out. 
 
 Even Christ Himself is astonished at her reply. 
 The vein of ore which He perceived is richer than 
 even He supposed. He has appealed to her 
 mother-heart as to whether the boon which she 
 asks for her child can be fairly given, and with 
 the quick wit of a keen mind, and the accurate 
 vibration of a sympathetic spirit, she responds 
 with an answer which secured the admiration of 
 Christ, and the applause of the world. "True, 
 Sir, it is not allowable, as you say ; still, help me, 
 for even the dogs eat the scraps which fall from 
 their masters' table." He may be the Jewish 
 Messiah, as she has heard. His commission may 
 be only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, 
 it may not be right to deprive the children of 
 their bread, but she sees a wider sympathy than 
 that of race in the eyes which look into hers, and 
 a wealth of power more than sufficient for Israel's 
 needs in the hands which hover in blessing above 
 her head as she kneels at His feet. There are 
 crumbs which fall from the bountiful table He 
 has spread, and one is sufficient for her need. 
 
 Her education has been completed, and He 
 has brought out of her a treasure which has 
 surprised even Himself. The discipline of life 
 has matured a character which is worth all that 
 has been spent on its education. Those days of 
 anxiety and those nights of watching by the bed- 
 
no CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST ix 
 
 side of her suffering child have not been meaning- 
 Jess, any more than the silence and reluctance 
 with which Christ greeted her appeal for help 
 have been fruitless. The spirit which the former 
 has evoked is as rich and precious as the saying 
 which the latter has called forth. The trial of 
 her life has fulfilled its purpose, and the time 
 for its removal has arrived. The silence and 
 reluctance have called forth this wonderful saying 
 of hers, and the time for granting her request has 
 come. " For the sake of that saying," He 
 answers, " you can go home, the demon has gone 
 out of your child." 
 
 " For the sake of that saying." Yes, it was 
 worth coming into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. 
 To have evoked it was worth the silence and the 
 feigned reluctance in granting her request. She 
 was herself the richer for it, and she has enriched 
 the world with it. And yet, but for the silence 
 and the reluctance she would never have brought 
 forth the best that was in her. So with that 
 apparently useless and unintelligible trial to which 
 she had been subjected. It had, after all, made her 
 the woman she was. The saying had but revealed 
 the fact. For the sake of that thought^ for the 
 sake of that sentiment^ for the sake of that spirit^ 
 how much may be endured, and how long it may 
 be worth our while to wait. The experience of 
 life must be judged not by the terms in which 
 it may be accurately described, but by the very 
 
IX AN IMPORTUNATE GENTILE iii 
 
 different terms in which it must be summed up. 
 Failure may accurately describe a man's actions, 
 while success is the true summing up of his life. 
 The travail of a soul may characterise a life 
 history, while the birth of a hero may be the 
 truer appreciation of the result. Life must not be 
 judged by its Lent, but by its Easter. 
 
AN UNEXPECTED DAY OF JUDGMENT 
 John viii. 2-11. 
 
 Chastity is a divinity whom men admire, but 
 whom women worship. Her admirers secure 
 respect, but her worshippers reverence. The 
 violation of her shrine on the part of man is 
 robbery, on the part of woman it is sacrilege. In 
 strict equity there is no difference between the 
 two ; in the domain of sentiment, however, robbery 
 is more venial than sacrilege. The difference in 
 the sentiment felt is due to the reflex action of 
 the feeling inspired. The man's attitude never 
 produces a deeper impression than that of sincere 
 appreciation, the woman's instinctively reminds us 
 of the holy reverence of a devotee. Chastity in a 
 woman evokes a deeper feeling, and as the result 
 unchastity calls forth a deeper resentment. The 
 higher the position the deeper the fall. While 
 this is probably the explanation of the feeling with 
 which a woman's fall is regarded, it is no justifica- 
 tion for the unequal treatment which is meted out. 
 
 112 
 
X A DAY OF JUDGMENT 113 
 
 The sin in woman is more often due to frailty 
 than to positive vice, to a weak will than to a 
 strong passion. In the man it is the result of a 
 vicious disposition, the effect of an unbridled 
 passion. Society, however, invariably brings the 
 woman to the judgment bar, and allows the man 
 to go free. At frailty and weakness it is ever 
 ready to cast the stone, while it allows brutality 
 and vice to pass along with unblushing effrontery. 
 It treats shame with contempt, but impudence with 
 respect. It forgets that the woman's fall is always 
 the result of the man's failure. If manhood were 
 never debased, womanhood would never be dis- 
 graced. Yet the debased man is tolerated, while 
 the disgraced woman is reprobated. There is 
 immunity for the one, but not even forgiveness 
 for the other. The man who has failed can 
 compound with his creditors, the woman whose 
 fall is the result of his failure is ruined for life. 
 The man's failure is unfortunate, but the woman's 
 fall is criminal. Society will not order even the 
 prosecution of the one, but it will strictly enjoin 
 and eagerly participate in the bitterest persecution 
 of the other. It may shake its head in a half 
 playful disapproval of the man, but it will never- 
 theless receive him at its house, and even marry 
 him to its daughters. For the woman, however, 
 it reserves the name of sinner, and her it religiously 
 outcasts. 
 
 Society is well represented in the select company 
 
114 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST x 
 
 of Scribes and Pharisees, who in resentment at a 
 flagrant breach of the moral code, invaded the 
 sacred precincts of the Temple, and interrupted 
 Christ in His discourse. The manifestation of 
 their own righteous indignation at this breach of 
 the Law, overrides all considerations against the 
 publication of the woman's shame, and the in- 
 terruption of the Teacher's discourse. The 
 vindication of the law must take precedence over 
 the preaching of the Gospel. They have such a 
 keen sense of decorum, that they have none left 
 for delicacy. They are so conscious of their own 
 correctness of behaviour, that they are oblivious of 
 the outrage they are committing against decency. 
 
 While this is their attitude with regard to the 
 woman and her sin, they are inspired with a very 
 different motive in bringing her into the presence 
 of Christ. Like Society they have often been 
 stung by the preacher's denunciation of their 
 hypocrisy, and now they rejoice in the opportunity 
 of paying off old scores. Here is a lost sheep 
 who has strayed into their fold, and whom after 
 it has suffered the penalty of over-confidence, they 
 are able to drag back with torn and bemired fleece 
 to Him who calls Himself the Good Shepherd. 
 How will the popular preacher, who deals in 
 anecdotes and delights in allegory, treat a concrete 
 case of flagrant sin ? Parables may be pretty 
 stories, but adultery is an ugly fact. It is all very 
 well to pose as the friend of publicans and sinners, 
 
X A DAY OF JUDGMENT 115 
 
 but what becomes of the follower of Moses ? 
 They have caught one of His congregation red- 
 handed, and they mean to make the most of it. 
 
 With an utter disregard for the woman's 
 feelings they force her into the centre of the 
 Temple court, and with brutal coarseness they 
 state the case. " Rabbi, this woman has committed 
 adultery and been caught in the very act. Now 
 in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such to 
 death. But what do you say?" The form of the 
 question has been well thought out, the best mode 
 of putting it has been well considered. They 
 address Him by the title of Rabbi, because they 
 wish to compel Him to expound the Law, not to 
 speak in parables. They represent themselves as 
 in a difficulty. They suggest an antithesis between 
 His teaching and that of the Law. They even 
 pose as Counsel for the defence, making an appeal 
 to a higher tribunal. With that cunning which so 
 often overreaches itself, they fail to see that in 
 exposing the woman's shame, they have exposed 
 their own shamelessness. If the woman was 
 caught red-handed, where is the partner of her 
 guilt ^ If they have such reverence for the Law, 
 why do they omit its equal condemnation of the 
 man ? If they feel compelled to carry out the 
 Law to the letter, why are they screening the 
 principal offender ? If they hesitate to expose the 
 woman to the shower of stones, why do they 
 expose her to the gaze of a heartless crowd ? If 
 
ii6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST x 
 
 they feel that the execution of the sentence is 
 committed into their hands, why do they seek to 
 throw the responsibility on to another's shoulders ? 
 " Jesus stooped down and began to write with 
 His finger on the ground.'' There are some faces 
 from which one instinctively turns away. The 
 smirk of self-complacency, the stony stare of empty 
 pride, the cruel smile of exultation which the 
 vindictive nature so readily assumes, are sights at 
 which a glance is more than sufficient. Similarly 
 there are faces so overwhelmed with shame, and 
 eyes that are so piteous in their entreaty not to be 
 looked into, that instinctively we drop our head as 
 in the presence of something so sacred, that the 
 ordinary look secularises, while the common gaze 
 profanes. From the faces of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees Christ turned with loathing ; before the 
 agonised appeal in the woman's eyes. His own 
 dropped with the sympathy of a great compassion. 
 " He began to write with His finger on the 
 ground." There are some subjects upon which 
 comment is an indecency, and discussion an outrage 
 on good taste. There are some sins, the record 
 of which should be written in the sand, that the 
 incoming tide of repentence may obliterate the 
 memory. The case, if it be heard at all, must be 
 heard in camera. The records, if they are made 
 at all, should be written in the sand. These 
 Scribes and Pharisees have already turned the 
 Temple into a market. He will have nothing to 
 
X A DAY OF JUDGMENT 117 
 
 do with converting it into a Divorce Court. It is 
 a house of prayer where the penitent may appeal 
 for mercy and forgiveness, not a Court of Justice 
 where the criminal receives judgment. 
 
 The Scribes and Pharisees are too confident of 
 victory to take advantage of the safe retreat from 
 an untenable position which Christ thus gener- 
 ously offers them. They are too elated at what 
 they consider His confusion to consider their own 
 possible discomfiture. From His reticence they 
 conclude He is silenced ; from His bowed head 
 they infer an attempt to conceal His nervousness. 
 Impatient cries of "Answer, answer," resound 
 through the court. Christ rises, and with calm 
 dignity confronts the accusers of the woman. 
 In place of the confusion they expected to see on 
 His face, there is a look before which their own 
 eyes fall, and the awe of a great silence reigns 
 throughout the Temple. " Let the man who is 
 without sin among you be the first to throw a 
 stone at her," Christ replies, and again stooping 
 down He writes upon the ground. 
 
 The anticipation had silenced them. His reply 
 strikes them dumb. They had demanded sentence 
 upon the woman, they listen to their own con- 
 demnation. They had quoted the words of 
 Moses, they hear the voice of God. This is no 
 opinion of a Rabbi, which can be questioned and 
 discussed ; it is the judgment of their own 
 conscience, from which there is no appeal. The 
 
ii8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST x 
 
 Temple is all at once full of ghosts, in the awful 
 shapes which memory suddenly summons from 
 the dead past. They recognise long -forgotten 
 sins, the companions of earlier days, which they 
 thought were dead and buried in oblivion. As 
 their past rises before them with a vividness which 
 terrifies them, the present scene, with the woman, 
 and Rabbi, and waiting crowd, disappear as with 
 the wave of a magician's rod. Each is so self- 
 conscious that he forgets the others, and one by 
 one they retreat in awe before the day of judg- 
 ment which they have evoked. 
 
 Christ's answer is as remarkable for what it 
 omits as for what it contains, for the feeling He 
 suppresses as for the sentiment He expresses. 
 There is no sarcasm, there is no stern denuncia- 
 tion of their hypocrisy, there is no stinging 
 reproach for their cowardice. He omits all 
 reference to their treatment of the woman, and 
 their attitude to Himself. He contents Himself 
 with making their own conscience articulate, with 
 confronting them with their own judgment on 
 themselves. Having uttered a sentence He does 
 not spoil it with a look. He stoops down and 
 with His finger marks time on the ground. From 
 the grave He had summoned faces which con- 
 veyed a deeper reproach than even He could 
 express. He had caused them to hear voices of 
 a long-forgotten past, which uttered a more awful 
 denunciation than even He could give voice to. 
 
X A DAY OF JUDGMENT 119 
 
 He knew when to speak, but He also knew when 
 to keep silence. He knew when to look, but He 
 knew also when not to look. 
 
 The echo of the last footstep of the accuser 
 has died away, and a quiet stillness reigns 
 throughout the Temple. Jesus was left alone, 
 and the woman stands where she has been placed, 
 in the centre of the court. What feelings are 
 passing through her breast it is impossible to 
 know. Her accusers have all gone, but the 
 accusation remains. Her guards have all dis- 
 appeared, but her conscience keeps her a close 
 prisoner. The jury has been dismissed as dis- 
 qualified, but the Judge still retains His seat. 
 His jurisdiction, which others might dispute, is 
 with her unquestioned. If she could but see His 
 face, she might perhaps anticipate her fate, but it 
 is still bent upon the ground. If He would but 
 speak, the tones of His voice might enable her to 
 guess at the thoughts of His mind, but He is still 
 writing on the ground. 
 
 At length the head is raised, the writing ceases, 
 and as Christ rises, the woman's eyes drop in 
 confusion and shame. There is no contempt in 
 the voice nor harshness in the tones which greet 
 her expectant ear. It is not the sentence of the 
 judge, but the question of a friend which is 
 addressed to her. " Woman, where are they ? 
 Has no one passed sentence upon you ? " The 
 title by which He addresses her is one of respect, 
 
I20 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST x 
 
 not of contempt. It is the same by which He 
 speaks to His own mother, and would perhaps be 
 better rendered as Lady or Madam. He is 
 anxious to evoke her own self-respect, to appeal 
 to her true womanhood, to remind her that she 
 is the mistress of a home, and bears the honoured 
 name of wife. The question is asked not for His 
 own information, but that she may realise the 
 deliverance she has experienced. The surprise 
 in the question is not meant to condone her 
 oiFence, but is intended to arouse wonder and 
 gratitude at her escape. Standing as she does 
 self-condemned at the bar of her own conscience, 
 she has yet escaped the hand of the executioner. 
 Was there no hand clean enough to cast the 
 first stone ? Was her escape due to the guilt of 
 others instead of to her own innocence ^ 
 
 A host of conflicting passions must have swept 
 across her breast since she first entered the 
 precincts of the Temple court. Fierce indigna- 
 tion at her public disgrace, unutterable self- 
 loathing at the consciousness of her sin, and an 
 agony of shame at the position she occupied, 
 must all have alternated during the time she stood 
 the cynosure of all eyes. The accusation of the 
 Scribes and Pharisees has called forth no protesta- 
 tion of innocence, nor confession of guilt. She 
 has neither denounced her betrayer and forsaker, 
 nor pleaded anything in extenuation of her guilt. 
 She has maintained an absolute silence. The 
 
X A DAY OF JUDGMENT 121 
 
 gentle tones, however, and the kindly voice unseal 
 her lips, and she answers,. " No one, Lord." She 
 has heard Him called Rabbi by her accusers, 
 but to her He is Lord. She waits to hear, not 
 what sentence He will pronounce, for the tones 
 are not those of a judge, but what command He 
 will lay upon her. Henceforth He is her Lord 
 and Master, and she is His slave. She is the 
 captive of a great compassion, the bondslave of a 
 Divine mercy. 
 
 Christ is quick to catch her meaning and 
 respond to her request. The seed of loyalty has 
 already taken root, she has already bowed to the 
 sentence which her own conscience has pronounced 
 upon her ; the stones of self-reproach are fall- 
 ing thick and fast upon the false self which has 
 hitherto directed her life. " Neither do I pass 
 sentence," He answers ; " Go and sin no more." 
 
 The authority for this incident is not to be 
 found by consulting ancient manuscripts, it bears 
 its own mark of genuineness. From whatever 
 source it was derived, however it came into its 
 present position in the Gospel of John, it is too 
 lifelike to be fictitious. One and One only could 
 have been the author of the fact, whoever may be 
 the author of the record. It has established a 
 place for itself in the Church's conception of 
 Christ which nothing can affect. The Church 
 could never have invented it, but having once 
 heard it, it could never forget it. 
 
XI 
 
 A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 
 John viii. 31-59. 
 
 Of all the possessions which great men leave to 
 their descendants, their name is the most doubtful 
 legacy. Their estate can be enjoyed and possessed, 
 but their title can only be assumed, and the as- 
 sumption is rarely justified. Great names are 
 always made, they can never be really inherited. 
 They arc priceless to the real owner, but worthless 
 to the mere bearer. They are promissory notes 
 given for value received, and are not transferable. 
 They are payable to order and not to bearer on 
 demand, but are not negotiable. Their possession 
 calls forth respect on the part of the owner, their 
 assumption more often begets mere empty pride 
 on the part of the descendants. It is not mere 
 breeding or mere manners which mark the gentle- 
 man, but good breeding and good manners. It is 
 not the possession of a great name, but the pos- 
 session of a great nature which marks the true 
 aristocracy. Pride of birth is pitiful to see, when 
 
 122 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 123 
 
 it is the birth alone, and not the character, of 
 which a man has cause to be proud. If the man 
 fails to win our reverence, his pedigree fails to 
 command our respect. If the line has been a 
 descent, the lineage betokens a fall. 
 
 While high birth in itself secures no privileges 
 in the republic of Nature, it confers advantages 
 and imposes obligations. Men are born to the 
 positions they really occupy, and the estate to 
 which they actually succeed is heavily mortgaged 
 with duties. Rank has its advantages, but it has 
 also its very definite obligations. The advantages 
 which birth secures are never mere arbitrary gifts, 
 they are in strict proportion to the endowments 
 conferred. The accident of birth is an expression 
 which reveals a very superficial observation and a 
 very shallow thought. There may be something 
 accidental in a man's occupation of a position, but 
 there is none in his birth. His social position 
 may be arbitrarily fixed by custom, but his real 
 position is definitely fixed by Nature. Society 
 may attach privileges to his connection with the 
 past. Nature demands the discharge of duties. She 
 pays her tribute by conferring advantages, but she 
 demands a just equivalent. She takes no notice 
 of name and title, but much of character and en- 
 dowment. From him to whom she has given 
 little she demands little, but from him to whom 
 she has given much she demands much. The 
 title-deeds which she will alone recognise are the 
 
124 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 attainments she has herself transmitted. She 
 regards all claims to position unsupported by 
 these as pretensions which expose the claimant to 
 contempt and ridicule. At the same time she is 
 strict to demand the just payment of her dues 
 from those upon whom she has conferred her 
 advantages, and she will denounce as a defaulter 
 the man who takes her gifts but holds back her 
 tribute. 
 
 The difference between a true nobility and a 
 mere titled aristocracy is well illustrated in the 
 remarkable interview between Jesus and the de- 
 scendants of Abraham recorded in the Gospel of 
 John. A little of the blue blood upon which they 
 prided themselves was apparently flowing in the 
 veins of this remnant, who are described as the 
 believing Jews who had been impressed by the 
 teaching and attracted by the personality of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. There was perhaps a slight trace of 
 that dissatisfaction with the actual, and desire for 
 the ideal, which distinguishes Abraham while he 
 still resided with Terah his father, in Ur of the 
 Chaldees, and which later ripened into that faith 
 in the Unknown which sent him forth on his quest 
 of the ideal. These men were impressed but not 
 convinced, interested but not attached. The 
 teaching of this new Prophet of Galilee was some- 
 thing they liked to listen to, but they had no 
 thoughts of accepting it. The truth had aroused 
 them from sleep, it had not yet delivered them 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 125 
 
 from the prison-house. Their eyes were open, 
 but they had not as yet perceived their chains. 
 Dissatisfaction must deepen into a loathing of the 
 actual, their desire must ripen into a passion for 
 the ideal if they were to obtain the promised in- 
 heritance. They must do more than merely see 
 the ideal, they must seize it ; they must do more 
 than merely admire the truth, they must submit 
 to it, or the promised land of freedom and peace 
 would never be theirs. Like Abraham they must 
 no longer abide in Chaldea, they must settle in 
 Canaan. Looking upon these descendants of a 
 noble house Christ calls for that whole-hearted 
 devotion of which their forefather had given them 
 so perfect an illustration. " If you abide in My 
 teaching,'* He says, " then are you My disciples 
 indeed ; and you shall know the truth, and the 
 truth shall make you freemen.'' 
 
 The call to a nobler life, however, finds no 
 response within their breasts. Their descent has 
 been a degeneration, their lineage has been a 
 decline. They are too proud of their pedigree to 
 seek to earn a patent of nobility. They are too 
 unconscious of their slavery to be stirred by the 
 call to freedom. " Disciples ! Freemen ! " they ex- 
 claim in contempt ; "we are descendants of Abra- 
 ham, and the yoke of bondage has never been on 
 our necks. What do you mean by saying we shall 
 be freemen .? " They have the empty pride of the 
 aristocrat, not the self-respect of the true noble- 
 
126 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 man. They are extremely sensitive as to the 
 name they bear, they are indifferent as to the rags 
 they wear. They are so mindful of their descent 
 from Abraham, that they forget their bondage to 
 Rome ; so conversant with their genealogy that 
 they are ignorant of their history. The position 
 to which they feel themselves entitled makes them 
 oblivious of the position they occupy. Pride in 
 the fact of their long descent leads them unblush- 
 ingly to declare that they have never been in 
 bondage to any one. 
 
 There is a sensitiveness which is the stamp of 
 true nobility, and there is a touchiness which is 
 the mark of a vulgar mind. The hint which the 
 one will respect, the other will resent. The sug- 
 gested help which the one will gratefully accept, 
 the other will reject with scorn. Christ had 
 hinted at discipleship and suggested freedom. 
 Instead of nobility He had encountered vulgarity. 
 His suggestion had been received with the stony 
 stare of astonishment. His hint had been received 
 with the contempt of an empty pride. There is 
 accordingly an alteration in His manner, and a 
 different tone in His voice as He replies to them. 
 The gentle hint and the kindly suggestion are lost 
 upon these degraded scions of a noble house. 
 They need the plain statement of actual fact, the 
 solemn warning as to their real condition. He 
 must point to the rags in which they are clothed, 
 He must call their attention to the chains they 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 127 
 
 wear. " I most solemnly assure you/' He replies, 
 " that every one who commits sin is the bondslave 
 of sin. Ishmael was a son of Abraham as much 
 as Isaac, but he did not remain in his father's 
 house. Your pedigree may show that you are 
 children of Abraham, but your position shows that 
 you are no longer in your father's house. You 
 have sold yourselves into captivity, and if you are 
 to be freed you must be redeemed. It is for that 
 purpose that the Son has come, and if He sets you 
 free, then are you free indeed. It may be true 
 that you are children of Abraham, but there is the 
 hate of Ishmael in your hearts. Murder even 
 now looks out of your eyes, because you resent 
 what I am saying, though you know it is true. 
 Yet I say nothing more than what I have learned 
 from my Father, and if you were worthy of the 
 name you bear, you would believe even as Abraham 
 believed." 
 
 Their hot resentment has died down, but sullen 
 anger remains. The reference to their poverty 
 has told, but their pride is untouched. The 
 mention of their forefather they take notice of, 
 the reference to his character they ignore. They 
 cannot deny their condition, but they reassert their 
 title. " Our father is Abraham." 
 
 Christ does not question their right to the 
 name. He disputes their possession of the nature 
 of Abraham. ** If you were children of Abraham, 
 you would do what Abraham did. But as a 
 
128 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 matter of fact you are seeking for an opportunity 
 to kill me, whose only offence is that I have told 
 you the truth. That is not what Abraham did. 
 The deeds which you do are those of your real 
 father, whose nature you have inherited." The 
 character we possess and not the name we bear, 
 the kind of actions we perform and not the airs 
 we assume, are the true mark of our descent. 
 The likeness that is stamped upon our face and 
 not the name that is engraved upon our card, 
 is the true witness to our parentage. The look 
 in the eye is a truer indication of the nature of the 
 man than the smile upon his face. The expression 
 which escapes the lips under the excitement of 
 passion is a surer guide by which to judge a man's 
 breeding than the artificial phrases he uses in 
 society. There was murder in the hearts of these 
 men, and it manifested itself in the looks of hate 
 which they cast upon Him. 
 
 The flame of resentment burst up in their 
 hearts, and they retorted with fiercest indignation. 
 "We are not bastards. We have one Father, God." 
 True children indeed ! Did He think they were 
 illegitimate ? If it was religious behef He referred 
 to, did they not believe in the One God of their fore- 
 father Abraham ? Works of Abraham forsooth ! 
 What was his distinguishing act but that of faith in 
 God ? They too believed that God was their 
 Father, and could claim a spiritual descent from 
 God, as well as a natural descent from Abraham. 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 129 
 
 The spiritual claim had less to sustain it than 
 the natural. If they were deficient in the faith 
 which distinguished Abraham, they were destitute 
 of the love which was characteristic of God. ** If 
 God were indeed your Father," Christ replies, 
 " you would give evidence of it in the love you 
 show to His Son, for I came from Him and have 
 come to you. I have not come on My own 
 initiative, but it was He who sent Me. How is 
 it that you will not understand what I say ? It 
 is because you will not accept what I tell you." 
 The spiritual claim put forth by men with murder 
 in their hearts was blasphemy. Their attitude to 
 the Son showed the relation in which they stood 
 to the Father. The black hate in their hearts 
 betrayed their origin. " The father whose sons 
 you are," He continues, '' is not God but the 
 Devil, and you desire to do what will please him. 
 He was a murderer from the beginning, and could 
 not stand erect in the truth, for there is no truth 
 in him. When he utters a lie he speaks naturally, 
 for he is a liar and the propagator of lies." The 
 hate in their heart and the lie on their lips were 
 unmistakable evidence of their true parentage. 
 Sons of God in a sense they might be, even as 
 Cain was a son of Adam, but their hate for the 
 true Son, like that of Cain for Abel, denied their 
 right to the title. In their hearts was the same 
 malice which he bore to his brother, and for the 
 same reason:—- the bitter envy of a jealous mind. 
 
 K 
 
I30 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 " Because I speak the truth," Christ continues, 
 " you will not believe Me. Yet which of you 
 convicts Me of sin ? If I speak the truth, why as 
 children of Abraham do you not believe Me ? 
 You claim God as your Father ; but the child of 
 God listens to the Father's words. You, however, 
 will not listen, and the reason is plain ; it is 
 because you are not what you claim to be, true 
 children of God." 
 
 They are too angry and exasperated to continue 
 to defend their claim to superiority of birth, and 
 betake themselves to the taunts of religious pre- 
 judice, and the abuse of petty jealousy. "Are 
 we not right in saying that you are a heretic and 
 a madman ? " Surely no one but an heretical 
 Samaritan would deny their descent from Abraham, 
 and no one but a madman would talk such utter 
 nonsense. Wrapping around them the tattered 
 garment of their pride of birth, they endeavour to 
 conceal their mortification under the guise of a 
 contemptuous pity. The man must be one of 
 the outcast Samaritans, whose ignorance must be 
 excused on the score that he is possessed with a 
 devil. 
 
 Christ is unruffled by either the contempt or 
 the abuse. There is the consciousness of an inner 
 approval which no outer condemnation can touch, 
 the sense of a Divine commendation which no abuse 
 can alter. "I am not mad," He answers, "but 
 on the contrary I am honouring My Father by 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 131 
 
 vindicating His character, while you are revealing 
 your true descent by abusing Me. It is not I, 
 however, who am seeking any glory for Myself ; 
 there is One who is seeking it for Me, and He 
 will judge both of your relationship to Himself 
 and of your attitude to Me." It is not pride of 
 birth or glory in a long descent which distinguishes 
 true nobility. It is in actions worthy of a noble 
 ancestry that the honour of a great name is pre- 
 served. It is not the glory which a man seeks 
 for himself on the strength of high birth, but the 
 glory which comes to him through conduct worthy 
 of his noble lineage, which stamps him as a true 
 descendant of a great ancestor. '' I most solemnly 
 assure you," He continues, " that if any man 
 gives due attention to My instruction he shall 
 never die." 
 
 Ignoring His reference to a higher kind of life, 
 they eagerly lay hold of the reference to never 
 dying, as a confirmation of their opinion that He 
 is mad. " Now," they cry out, " we are convinced 
 that you are mad. Abraham died, and so did the 
 prophets, and yet you say that if any man gives 
 due attention to your teaching he shall never die. 
 Are you greater than our forefather Abraham.? 
 He is dead, and the prophets are dead. Who do 
 you make yourself out to be .f^" Their hatred of 
 the man excludes all consideration of His message. 
 They are so eaten up with pride themselves, that 
 they think He is boasting. They are so conscious 
 
132 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 of their own importance, that they conclude He 
 is equally so. 
 
 Christ denies the petty self-consciousness attri- 
 buted to Him, but He cannot deny true knowledge 
 of Himself. He disclaims any self-glorification, 
 but He cannot repudiate the glory which the 
 Father has given Him. The glory with which a 
 man seeks to cover himself is tinsel, but the glory 
 which comes from the Divine approval is pure 
 gold, which nothing but a false humility will en- 
 deavour to hide. " Were I to glorify Myself," 
 He replies, " I should have no real glory. One 
 there is who glorifies Me — My Father, the very 
 One whom you claim to be your God. You, 
 however, do not even know Him, but I know 
 Him perfectly. Were I, in fact, to deny My 
 knowledge of Him, I should be a liar even like 
 yourselves, for my professed ignorance, like your 
 professed knowledge, would be untrue. On the 
 contrary I know Him, and I obey His commands 
 in making Him known. As for your forefather 
 Abraham, for whom you profess so much reverence, 
 he exulted in looking forward to My day. More- 
 over, far from being dead, he has seen it and 
 rejoiced at the sight." 
 
 The sublimity of the thought they are quite 
 unable to perceive. To them the sublime is the 
 ridiculous, and the ridiculous the sublime. The 
 relationship between Christ and His Father, of 
 which He is conscious, is to them the absurd 
 
XI A DEGENERATE ARISTOCRACY 133 
 
 assertion of a madman, and excites their amuse- 
 ment. The ridiculous claim to greatness which 
 they put forth as their right through long 
 descent, is to them the dignified assertion of 
 their nobility. "You are not yet fifty,*' they 
 exclaim in amusement, " and have you seen 
 Abraham ? " They have such little insight, that 
 the idea of Abraham's foresight never occurs to 
 them. 
 
 Christ realises that the plane of thought in their 
 minds is entirely different from His own. They 
 are concerned with the material, while He is 
 speaking of the spiritual ; they are immersed in the 
 temporal, while He moves in the eternities. They 
 need to be startled into seriousness, their levity 
 needs to be replaced by solemnity. They will 
 doubtless not believe, but at least they must 
 be told that His consciousness extends over a 
 longer period than their lineage, that His life 
 is not bounded by time, but is an ever-present 
 now. ** Before Abraham was even born, I 
 am." 
 
 There is a seriousness in the tone which forbids 
 ridicule ; there is a meaning in the words which, 
 though too deep for them to grasp, is too clear to 
 be mistaken. This is not madness, it is blasphemy ; 
 it is not heresy, it is treason. The smouldering 
 anger which His denial of their claim to true 
 nobility had at first aroused, bursts forth again in 
 fierce resentment at the audacity of this claim on 
 
134 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xi 
 
 His part, and the self-styled aristocrats betake 
 themselves to the weapons of the vulgar mob. 
 The exposure is complete as the descendants of 
 Abraham pick up stones to hurl at the Messiah of 
 promise. 
 
XII 
 
 THE MAN WHOSE SUFFERING ENNOBLED HIM 
 John ix. I -41. 
 
 The problem of suffering ever has been, and as far 
 as we can see is likely to remain, the great enigma, 
 whose solution is for ever attempted and for ever 
 baffles the human mind. Sooner or later the cry, 
 Check, meets us as we try to move our king into 
 one or other of the many positions which seem open 
 to us. Each move of the king only seems to reveal 
 some opposition piece lying in wait, until we give 
 up in despair and confess that the problem which 
 has been set us is insoluble. This is doubtless true 
 of one aspect of the problem, and is largely, if not 
 entirely, due to the position of the pieces on the 
 board when we attempt the solution. We have 
 fixed our conception of the character of God on the 
 one hand, and our perception of the nature of 
 suffering on the other, and have set ourselves the 
 impossible task of reconciling opposites. God 
 is essentially beneficent, suffering is essentially 
 maleficent, and the one is the negative of the other. 
 
 135 
 
136 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 The problem in the majority of cases is not to 
 reconcile the presence of suffering with the 
 existence of God, but to reconcile our conception 
 of that aspect of God's character which we call 
 beneficent, with our perception of that aspect of 
 suffering which we characterise as maleficent. We 
 have surrounded the king with knight and bishop 
 and pawn, so that for every possible move a check 
 is waiting Our various attempts at a solution 
 consist in the exchange of a pawn for some other 
 piece, but the inevitable checkmate is merely post- 
 poned thereby. As long as suffering is looked at 
 as an effect whose cause is to be found in God's 
 activity, the problem set us is more or less in- 
 soluble. This aspect of the question is more or less 
 forced upon us by the constitution of our minds, 
 which demands a cause for every effect, and seeks 
 to replace the many causes by one sole cause. If 
 any light is to come to us from this aspect of the 
 question, it can only come by regarding suffering, 
 not as the effect of God's activity, but as an effect 
 of His existence ; not, that is, from what He does 
 and permits, but from what He Himself is and 
 feels. As long as we regard Him solely as the 
 active or passive producer of suffering, the problem 
 is an enigma leading to despair. If we conceive of 
 Him as Himself a partaker, a voluntary sharer, the 
 problem may not be solved, but it is no longer an 
 enigma. Beneficence and the infliction of suffering 
 in God present a problem which to many minds is 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 137 
 
 inexplicable. Beneficence and voluntary participa- 
 tion in suffering on the part of God, is an entirely 
 different problem. It may present difficulties in 
 another direction, but the moral difficulty has to a 
 large extent disappeared. We may ask why God 
 should suffer, and find the solution just as difficult, 
 but while our failure may convince us of our in- 
 sufficiency for the task we have 'attempted, it will 
 not land us in despair. 
 
 There is, however, another aspect of the problem 
 of suffering which we are in danger of forgetting. 
 Suffering may be regarded as an effect whose cause 
 must in the last resort be sought in God, but it 
 may also be looked at as a cause whose effect, as 
 discovered in human life and conduct, justifies its 
 presence as one of the working forces of the world. 
 The two problems are not the same, but they are 
 two aspects of one subject. The solution of the one 
 does not help us much in the solution of the other, 
 but both are equally important. The consideration 
 of suffering as a cause is productive of much richer 
 results than the consideration of suffering as an 
 effect. In the latter case we are questioning the 
 reason for its presence, in the former we have 
 accepted it as an ultimate, a force in the moral, 
 like gravity in the physical, realm, and we are 
 seeking its reasonableness in the effects it is able to 
 produce. We have ceased to ask the why, we 
 have replaced it with the what, and the results are 
 proportionately greater. Even here there are 
 
138 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 elements of discord and contrariety, but the un- 
 known is not a paralysing influence, while the 
 known is invigorating and inspiring. 
 
 The relation of Christ to the problem of 
 suffering has not received the attention it deserves, 
 largely perhaps because we have been struck with 
 the fact, though we have hardly appreciated its 
 significance, that to Christ apparently the problem 
 did not exist. Though He was pre-eminently the 
 Man of Sorrows, though His life was from beginning 
 to end clouded with suffering, yet, as far as we can 
 see, the problem, as far as we are accustomed to 
 formulate it, never presented itself to His thought, 
 nor entered into His teaching. No one has 
 ever entered into such loving and trustful relation 
 with the Father as did Jesus Christ, no one has 
 ever conceived of God in such deep ethical terms, 
 and yet, as far as we can understand from the 
 records of His life which have come down to us, 
 the problem of His own suffering or the suffering 
 with which He was confronted every day never in 
 the slightest degree interfered with that perfectly 
 trustful communion between His spirit and God 
 which is the distinguishing feature of His unique 
 life. He found no difficulty such as other minds 
 have found in reconciling the presence of suffering 
 with His distinctive conception of God as the 
 Father. From the entire absence of any special 
 reference to the question on the part of Christ, 
 it seems reasonable to conclude that for Christ 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 139 
 
 at least the problem is as though it were not. 
 This cannot be explained by any reference to 
 national life or creed. The Jew felt the problem 
 as keenly, if not more keenly than the Gentile. 
 The book of Job is a sufficient evidence of that. 
 The explanation must be sought in the direction 
 previously indicated, namely, in the conception of 
 suffering, not as an effect of God's activity merely, 
 but as a constituent element in, a sine qua non of 
 the Divine nature. If one were to interpret what 
 apparently was Christ's conception of suffering, 
 we should have to express it in similar terms to 
 those which He applied to His own work. Of 
 that work He said, " My Father worketh hitherto, 
 and I also work." Of His suffering He would 
 have said, " My Father suffereth hitherto, and I 
 also suffer." The cup which He had to drink 
 was one from which His physical nature shrank, 
 but it was one which offered no difficulty to His 
 moral and spiritual nature. He speaks of it as 
 " The cup which My Father giveth Me." If it 
 be possible, He desires that it shall pass from Him 
 untasted, but so convinced is He of its harmony 
 with the conception of God as Father, that He 
 adds, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." 
 Whatever conception we may form as to the real 
 nature of Jesus Christ, whether we regard Him as 
 human or Divine, there can be no doubt that He 
 attained to a sane and healthy conception of the 
 moral character of God which is unique in the 
 
I40 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 history of religious thought. It is in the highest 
 degree significant, therefore, that in those serene 
 heights of rehgious thought and feeUng in which 
 Christ moved we find not a trace of that perplexed 
 thought due to a realisation of what we call the 
 problem of suffering. It is difficult to see what 
 other explanation there can be of this significant 
 fact, besides that which connects suffering, not 
 with the actions, but with the very nature of God. 
 He who was at one with the Father, found no 
 " problem " either in His own personal suffering 
 or in the suffering of others. 
 
 On the question, as distinct from the problem, 
 of suffering, the attitude of Christ is definite and 
 clear. Suffering was constantly before Him, it 
 shaped His ministry and coloured all His teaching. 
 To Christ, however, it was an ultimate beyond 
 which He did not travel. He discussed its 
 justification as little as He did the sequence of 
 the seasons, or any other manifestation of God's 
 natural order. It was something which appealed 
 to His compassion and called forth His help, but 
 as a problem it never presented itself to His mind. 
 This is well seen in the remarkable interview with 
 the man who was born blind, which is recorded 
 in the Gospel of John. As He and His disciples 
 passed along the streets of Jerusalem, they met a 
 blind beggar sitting by the wayside and asking 
 alms. He was evidently a well-known figure, and 
 the disciples appear to have been acquainted with 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 141 
 
 something of his history. Their minds had been 
 quickened by their intercourse with their Master, 
 and the problem of suffering, about which they had 
 probably thought and discussed amongst themselves, 
 was suddenly brought to their minds by the sight 
 of the blind man. " Master," they ask, " who 
 sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born 
 blind ? " They are familiar with the common 
 conception of their day, that sin and suffering 
 are invariably associated as cause and effect. 
 They are curious to know whose sin the present 
 suffering represents, the man's own or his parents*. 
 The Jewish pedants had carried their fanciful 
 interpretation even beyond a man's actual birth, and 
 dealt with prenatal sins, so that the disciples are 
 merely expressing ideas which they had gathered, 
 rather than ideas which they originated. 
 
 Christ's answer is remarkable, not merely for 
 the emphatic negative which it contains, but for 
 its positive assertion. " Neither he nor his parents 
 sinned ; but he was born blind in order that 
 the works of God might be manifested in him." 
 He negatives the idea that suffering must be 
 regarded as invariably connected with sin. Such 
 a conception is unjust as well as untrue, leads to 
 misjudgment as well as to incorrect conclusions. 
 It is due to looking at suffering as an effect. 
 Suffering may be a cause, and the difference of 
 the standpoint at once alters the whole aspect of 
 the case. The man's suffering must not be 
 
142 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 regarded as an effect of sin or of anything else ; 
 it is to be looked at as a cause intended to evoke 
 compassion and help in others, and capable of 
 producing moral effects in the man himself. The 
 answer is remarkable, especially as coming from 
 One who was essentially an Idealist. Christ 
 ignores the '' why '' of the modern problem, and 
 confines His attention to the " what " of practical 
 conduct. In the case of the man who raised the 
 social problem. He goes to the root of the evil, 
 and turns away from the practical redress. In 
 the case of the question of divorce. He replies as 
 the Idealist, ignoring the actual and going back to 
 the origin of the marriage institution. Here on 
 the other hand, when the problem of suffering 
 is raised, He ignores the theory and gives the 
 answer of the practical. There is no inconsistency 
 here, it is due to an essential distinction between 
 the different problems. The social problem and 
 the divorce question have their origin in the 
 human sphere of conduct, and it is the ideal alone 
 which can explain and settle them. The question 
 of suffering is in Christ's mind connected with the 
 Divine nature, its mystery is the mystery that of 
 necessity belongs to the nature of God. It is an 
 ultimate with which we have to deal, to which 
 we have to accommodate ourselves, not something 
 which we can discuss and explain. It has a 
 purpose which it behoves us to find out, it 
 presents us with an opportunity which we do 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 143 
 
 well to seize ere it passes from our grasp. We 
 must do the works of God while the daylight lasts, 
 for the night is coming in which work is impossible. 
 The suffering which paralyses us as a problem, 
 inspires us as an opportunity for a manifestation of 
 that compassion and help which make us akin to 
 God. In the depths of the Divine nature there 
 may be a reconciliation between the thought which 
 institutes, and the feeling which relieves, suffering ; 
 between the pain which feels, and the joy which 
 results from suffering ; but the depths of the 
 Divine nature we cannot fathom. The response 
 of the heart, however, is of more consequence than 
 the answer of the head. 
 
 Having replied to the disciples' question, Christ 
 turns to the blind man, and anointing his eyes 
 with clay, tells him to go to the Pool of Siloam 
 and wash. The man has doubtless listened to the 
 discussion with interest. He has probably raised 
 the same question many a time in his own mind, 
 but has been unable to answer it. Christ's answer 
 impresses him with its justice, and the reference to 
 doing the works of God fills him with a new hope. 
 The command therefore of Christ he receives in 
 silence, but obeys without question. There is 
 something in the tones of the voice which inspires 
 confidence. He cannot read faces, but he is a 
 good judge of people's voices. His faith is 
 rewarded, and he returns in full possession of the 
 sight which from his birth had been denied him. 
 
144 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 His interview with the Pharisees is full of 
 interest, as showing the character of the man, and 
 the influence his infirmity had had upon him. 
 There is an honesty and straightforwardness about 
 him which betoken a character quite the reverse 
 of that which we should expect from one who 
 had been so grievously handicapped. He had 
 been blind from his birth, but the deprivation of 
 one faculty had increased the power of the others, 
 and he reveals a quick and ready mind which no 
 amount of brow-beating can affect. He has been 
 a beggar all his life, but he has not been ungrateful 
 or complaining. He remembers with affection 
 those who have helped him, and his gratitude 
 finds expression in a sturdy defence of his 
 benefactor. He has not been able to work, but 
 he has been accustomed to think and form his 
 own opinions, and his reasoning faculty is more 
 than equal to the demand which his interview with 
 the rulers of the synagogue makes upon it. He 
 has never had a chance of judging men by their 
 countenances, but he has been a keen reader of 
 character, and knows a good man when brought 
 into contact with him. He has his own con- 
 ceptions of religion, though he has probably 
 received little instruction from the religious 
 teachers of his people, and one of his convictions 
 is that, whatever people may think and say about 
 a man, God takes notice of character, and answers 
 the prayer of a righteous man. He has too 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 145 
 
 much honesty to fall in with the suggestion that 
 he should give glory to God when that involves 
 passing condemnation upon the man who has 
 cured him. The rulers may profess to know that 
 his healer is a sinner if they like, but he knows 
 the gracious work He has performed, and there 
 is the echo of those words of Christ still ringing 
 in his ears — *' Neither has this man sinned nor his 
 parents " — and he is not going to repay his 
 benefactor with slander. They may have their 
 own opinion of the nature of the miracle, and 
 refer it to Beelzebub if they will, but he recalls 
 the words, " I must work the works of Him that 
 sent Me," and he stoutly maintains that God does 
 not hear sinners. They may impugn his loyalty 
 to Moses, and cast him out of the synagogue, but 
 they cannot make him disloyal to the One who has 
 given him sight. As the result of his suffering 
 the man is outwardly a beggar, but inwardly he 
 is a royal prince. His infirmity has not soured 
 him, he is ever cheerful. Instead of debasing 
 him, it has ennobled him. Sight has been with- 
 held, but insight has been gained. He may be 
 forsaken even by his parents, but he will not 
 forsake his friend. The ban of excommunication 
 which the Pharisees pass upon him is a patent of 
 nobility. Handicapped though he has been, in 
 character he stands head and shoulders above his 
 persecutors. 
 
 Christ hears that they have excommunicated 
 
146 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 him, and finds him out. Deserted by his own 
 parents for fear of the Jews, the man is alone and 
 friendless. The One Friend, however, for whom 
 he had suffered does not forsake him, but seeking 
 him out asks, " Do you believe in the Son of 
 God ? " The title is that of the Messiah, and as 
 such the man understands it, but though he 
 believes his Healer to be a prophet, he does not 
 yet know that He is the Messiah. He has, how- 
 ever, enough confidence to believe whatever Christ 
 tells him, for he has already realised that He is 
 one who has come from God, and his past con- 
 fidence was justified by results. **Who is he, 
 Sir," he answers ; " tell me, that I may believe in 
 Him?" 
 
 This was another case, like that of the Sa- 
 maritan woman, where Christ felt that He could 
 speak plainly. The man had already proved 
 his loyalty, and had suffered in consequence of 
 it. Cut off from his old life, and excommunicated 
 by the religious authorities, the man needed a new 
 interest in life, a new centre around which his 
 religious thought and feeling could gather. His 
 eyes had been opened by the Messiah, his gaze 
 needed to be directed to the Messiah. Vision had 
 been given, but it needed adjustment. He had 
 recognised the Divine voice when he had heard it, 
 he needed to connect it with the fulfilment of his 
 nation's hopes and aspirations in the actual coming 
 of its Messiah. "You have seen Him," answers 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 147 
 
 Christ ; " and more than that, the One who is now 
 talking to you is He." The new faculty of sight 
 is a confirmation of the old faculty of insight. 
 The man though deprived of sight had recognised 
 the Divine by the exercise of his ear. The tones 
 of the voice had been his guide, and they had not 
 deceived him. He had felt that this Man must 
 be sent of God, and he now learns that He is 
 the Messiah of promise. He had walked by faith 
 hitherto and not by sight, henceforth he would be 
 able to walk by sight as well as by faith. He 
 had heard the voice but had not been able to see 
 the face, yet he had believed that the Healer was 
 a prophet. Now he sees as well as hears, and the 
 recognition is instantaneous. " I believe, Lord," 
 he cries out, and bends the knee in loving 
 reverence to the Saviour who is also the King. 
 
 Christ recognises in the whole incident the 
 working out of a law of just compensation, which 
 His own presence and ministry have emphasised. 
 He has not come to explain the mystery of 
 suffering, or to clear up the darker mystery of 
 sin. The effect of His coming, however, is the 
 manifestation of the just law of compensation. 
 Suffering means deprivation, it involves a life of 
 dependence upon others, but it brings its own 
 compensations. In place of sight there is 
 insight ; in place of material, there is spiritual 
 prosperity ; instead of the exercise of power there 
 is a development of character. The man who is 
 
148 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xii 
 
 blind may see what the man who sees is blind to. 
 Those who have sight are not always possessed 
 of insight. Religion is a great revealer, and life 
 looked at from the spiritual standpoint appears 
 very different from the aspect which the con- 
 templation of it from the non-religious standpoint 
 presents. There are lives which are rich though 
 they seem to be poor, others which are full of 
 joy though they seem to be filled with sorrow, 
 and others again which are blessed with an inner 
 light though the windows seem to be darkened. 
 A just discrimination is what Christ came to 
 accomplish, and indeed has accomplished. He 
 has not solved the problems of life which we have 
 constructed, but He has given us His judgment 
 upon life, and in the light of that judgment 
 things are not what they seem. Suffering stands 
 revealed as beneficent rather than maleficent, 
 sorrow is transfigured with a divine glory, and 
 even around the black cloud with which the 
 problem of evil darkens human life there is a 
 golden glory which points to the final goal of 
 good. " I have come for judgment," He says, as 
 His comment on what has taken place, " so that 
 those who are blind may see, and those who see 
 may become blind.'' The Pharisees catch the 
 words but not the meaning, and with a super- 
 cilious and sarcastic air ask, " We also are blind ; 
 is that what you mean ? " Their words are truer 
 than their thought. What they think is biting 
 
XII ENNOBLED BY SUFFERING 149 
 
 sarcasm is bitter and literal truth. There is a 
 double meaning in the word which Christ takes 
 up. There is a blindness which, like that of the 
 man who has been healed, is a misfortune, but there 
 is another which is a sin. The one is blameless, 
 the other is criminal. If they could not see, they 
 would be guiltless. That they would not see left 
 them without excuse. "If you were blind you 
 would be guiltless ; but as a matter of fact you 
 pose as seers, and as a consequence the sin of 
 wilfully shutting your eyes remains." 
 
XIII 
 
 AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 
 Luke X. 25-37. 
 
 The law of motion, that action and reaction are 
 equal and opposite, applies to the mental as well 
 as to the physical spheres. In estimating the 
 effect of mental training, we must always take 
 into account the character of the mind that is 
 trained, as well as the nature of the training to 
 which it is subjected. Some minds have an elas- 
 ticity which causes them to rebound in the opposite 
 direction from that to which their system of 
 training has forced them. The man who has been 
 trained in the strictest principles of reason will 
 suddenly develop an extraordinary capacity for 
 faith. The materialistic philosopher will suddenly 
 be transformed into the spiritualist or theosophist. 
 The mind which has been brought up in unques- 
 tioning obedience to authority, will as suddenly 
 assert its own innate right to command and think 
 for itself. A man's training is a force which tends 
 in a given direction, and its effect can be calculated 
 
 ISO 
 
XIII AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 151 
 
 with exactness. The man himself, however, is 
 also a force, and his strength or weakness has to 
 be taken into account in determining the final 
 result. Some minds are essentially passive, with 
 a great capacity for receptivity, and as the result 
 the man is more or less what his training has made 
 him. Others, however, are essentially active, they 
 not only assimilate and absorb, but they transform. 
 Their training doubtless acts upon them, but its 
 true effect is seen in the reaction which follows, 
 and this carries them in an entirely different 
 direction from that which their training predicted. 
 A man's knowledge may indicate the value of the 
 training he has received, but it is the use he makes 
 of his knowledge which indicates the value of the 
 man. 
 
 The lawyer who came to Christ with the same 
 question which the young ruler asked, while 
 probably a recipient of the same training, was a 
 very different type of character. There was none 
 of the enthusiasm which characterised the younger 
 man, nor is there any of the admiration for the 
 Prophet of Nazareth, which is so marked in the 
 case of the ruler, both in his approach and in the 
 style of his address. The lawyer is evidently a 
 much older man. Whatever may have been the 
 distinguishing feature of his younger days, en- 
 thusiasm is certainly not that of his later years. 
 If he ever possessed any it has long since died 
 down. A wider experience of life and of the 
 
152 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiii 
 
 character of his fellow-men has made him too 
 cautious to commit himself, like the young ruler, 
 to any description of character by merely scanning 
 a countenance. He has heard of the reputation 
 of the Galilean Prophet, and he is anxious to test 
 the value of the report. It is a mental satisfaction 
 which he seeks, not a yearning of the soul which 
 he feels compelled to satisfy. It is the interest a 
 man feels in an intellectual problem, not the in- 
 tensity of a spiritual craving, which brings him to 
 Jesus of Nazareth. While this is doubtless true, 
 the nature of the question he asks reveals an indi- 
 viduality which distinguishes him from a mere 
 member of a class, one of the many lawyers with 
 whom Jerusalem abounds. Though a lawyer by 
 profession, it is no mere legal question which he 
 asks. However much his training and daily pro- 
 fession may have tended to extinguish any desire 
 for a deeper life which he may once have possessed, 
 there was at least the memory of his earlier aspira- 
 tions, the recollection of the deeper and more 
 earnest questions of life, which in his youth and 
 early manhood had pressed for answer and had 
 pressed in vain. The reports about the young 
 Prophet of Galilee have stirred old memories ; 
 ghosts of the old ideals, which were once so throb- 
 bing with life, emerge from forgotten graves 
 within his mind, and recall his early enthusiasm. 
 Has this Jesus of Nazareth solved the problems 
 which proved too much for himself, and discovered 
 
XIII AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 153 
 
 the answer to the question of questions which he 
 long ago gave up as unanswerable? He is in- 
 different to the quibbles of his professional 
 brethren, the splitting of hairs which they have 
 reduced to a fine art, those fine distinctions which 
 are the delight of the casuistical mind. These are 
 to him no tests by which to discover whether a 
 man has a message for his fellows. Can this 
 prophet answer the problem of the human heart 
 which craves for life, and that in richer abundance ? 
 His answer to this question will determine His 
 position as a religious teacher. His ability to 
 speak to the heart of His fellow-men is the best 
 evidence of the claim which is put forth on His 
 behalf, that He is a prophet of God. He comes 
 therefore to Christ, not as a lawyer primed with 
 some intricate question of law or ritual, but as a 
 man with intensely human interests, seeking an 
 answer to the great question of the human heart. 
 Dispensing with all preliminaries, he comes to the 
 heart of the matter with a directness and plainness 
 of speech, which reveal a human heart, and not a 
 legal mind. '' Rabbi," he asks, " what shall I do 
 to inherit eternal life ? *' 
 
 At first sight it seems as though Christ's answer 
 was ill -adapted to the mental attitude of His 
 questioner. The man had come, not as the lawyer 
 but as the man. He had rid himself of the in- 
 fluence of his training and profession, looked at 
 life with the eyes of a layman, and asked a question. 
 
154 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiii 
 
 not of legal significance, but of deep human interest. 
 His mind was emancipated from the slavery of a 
 special training, and the tyranny of an exclusive 
 profession. He had extricated himself from those 
 class prejudices and professional views of religion 
 which so effectually prevented his fellow-lawyers 
 from taking a human view of things. The reaction 
 of a healthy human mind and heart had come, 
 direct thinking had taken the place of the tortuous 
 windings of a casuistical mind, the honest facing 
 of a problem of real interest had taken the place 
 of quibbling evasions of imaginary difficulties. 
 " What is written in the Law, how have you read 
 it ? '* seems like the tactless answer of a tyro in 
 the art of teaching, rather than the reply of an 
 expert. Instead of leading the man further on 
 in the path of freedom upon which he has entered, 
 it seems like conducting him back to his old 
 captivity. The expert, however, can take risks 
 which are fatal for the tyro to attempt. The 
 skilled physician, with his hand on his patient's 
 pulse, can administer a life-giving stimulant which 
 in the hands of the ordinary practitioner would be 
 attended with fatal results. While in theory the 
 end never justifies the means, in practice the result 
 justifies the act. Reaction is the continuation of 
 the action of the initial force, the rebound of the 
 mind is the result of the action of the same force 
 which originally set it moving. The mind will 
 sometimes respond more readily to the action of 
 
XIII AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 155 
 
 an old impulse than to the attraction of a new 
 motive. A push from behind is sometimes more 
 effective than a pull in front. A man's early 
 training is never altogether in vain, however much 
 he may in later life and with a wider experience 
 deprecate the influences to which he was subjected. 
 In this man's case the Law had been a schoolmaster 
 which had led him to Christ, and Christ rightly 
 interpreted the work which the old master had 
 accomplished. The student is desirous of entering 
 a new school, it is therefore expedient to find out 
 how far he has read in the old. " What is written 
 in the Law, how have you read it ? '' The old 
 text-book may be obsolete, but it is not worthless. 
 The primer may be inadequate, but it is not un- 
 true. The time may have come to discard it, but 
 the time will never come to despise it. All that 
 we are we owe to the Law which has been taught 
 us, and even our present attitude of antipathy is 
 due to the impulse it originally gave us. How 
 have we read the revelation it contained ? What 
 use have we made of the knowledge it imparted ^ 
 If we have failed in our use of the primer, we are 
 hardly likely to succeed with the advanced reader. 
 How we have read is of far more importance than 
 whal we have read. The influence the training 
 has exerted upon us is of far greater importance 
 than the form the training took. 
 
 Christ's method of dealing with His questioner 
 is fully justified by the answer it evoked. The 
 
156 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiii 
 
 Law had stimulated the man's religious thinking, 
 its study had succeeded in enabling him to ask a 
 question which it was inadequate to answer. The 
 old schoolmaster, in spite of his antiquated ways 
 and prosy methods, had successfully accomplished 
 his task. In spite of giving his pupil much that 
 was trifling and commonplace, he had shown him 
 the essentials of a sound education, and opened up 
 to his mind unexplored vistas of a deeper know- 
 ledge. The pupil, too, had not wasted his time 
 in accumulating a mass of rules and formulas 
 which were useless and obsolete. He had gained 
 an insight into the heart of religion which made 
 him long for a deeper knowledge, and produced a 
 dissatisfaction with his present attainments. While 
 his school-fellows were absorbed in the straight 
 lines and pothooks of the infant class, the jots and 
 tittles of the alphabet, he had grasped the great 
 fact that the outgoing of the heart to God and 
 man constituted the very essence of the religious 
 life. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind, and with all thy strength ; and thy 
 neighbour as thyself." 
 
 There is the fullest appreciation of the student's 
 attainments in the answer Christ makes. There is 
 the most generous recognition on the part of the 
 new teacher of the pupil's successful career in the 
 old school. "You have answered correctly, you 
 have grasped the significance of the lessons you 
 
XIII AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 157 
 
 have been taught. The rules have been faithfully 
 committed to memory, the principles have been 
 well understood." With that keen perception of 
 character, however, which marks the perfect teacher. 
 He perceives the defect in the man's character. 
 Intelligence is stamped upon the brow, but in- 
 decision is clearly marked in the lines of the 
 mouth. The failure is not due to any lack of 
 intelligence, but to a defect of will, a lack of 
 application. The pupil knows the rules perfectly, 
 he does not apply them correctly. " This do and 
 you shall live.'' Put into practice the knowledge 
 you have obtained, and the life you desire shall be 
 your own possession. Religion is not knowledge, 
 it is living. Morality is not ethical theory, it is 
 ethical practice. The satisfaction which the heart 
 craves for is different from the satisfaction which 
 the mind discovers. The mind is satisfied with 
 the perception of truth, the heart is only satisfied 
 with its realisation in life. 
 
 The shaft went home, and the man recoils from 
 the sting of his own conscience. He knows his 
 own weakness, and the self-evident truth rouses 
 his slumbering conscience. There is nothing new 
 in the remark, he has known it all the time, but 
 the application of it to his own life and conduct 
 stings him with a sense of shame, and his failure 
 fills him with reproach. The pupil is confronted 
 with his old exercise-books, and the blots and 
 mistakes with which they are filled cause him to 
 
158 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiii 
 
 hang his head in confusion and shame. While 
 the man within him is silent under the sense of 
 guilt, the lawyer within him takes up the defence 
 of the prisoner at the bar. The Law may be 
 simplicity itself, but the application is by no means 
 as easy as it seems. Principles are easy to grasp, 
 but hard to apply. Terms may be so compre- 
 hensive as to be indefinite, duties may be so con- 
 flicting as to be confusing. '' Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself" may be a simple rule of life, 
 but life is by no means simple but complex. Who 
 is the neighbour whom I must love as much as I 
 love myself? While the man is dumbfounded 
 with the directness of the charge, the lawyer is 
 busy arranging the line of defence, and here his 
 training and education stand him in good stead. 
 He is ready with his authorities, and fully primed 
 with precedents. 
 
 Christ's reply is as characteristic of the Teacher 
 as it is appropriate to the pupil. In place of the 
 definition which has been asked. He gives the 
 illustration that is needed. The man's failure has 
 not been due to any inability to perceive, but to 
 an unwillingness to perform. He has again and 
 again perceived the duty, but evaded it. The 
 opportunity has presented itself, but he has passed 
 it by. He has both recognised his neighbour and 
 perceived his need, but, like the priest and the 
 Levite, he has passed by on the other side. The 
 truth which the mind has recognised, the heart has 
 
XIII AN UNCONVENTIONAL LAWYER 159 
 
 not responded to. The knowledge which has 
 been acquired has not been used. Christ takes no 
 notice of the lawyer, He makes His appeal to the 
 man. With the skill of the Master, He depicts 
 in a few bold outlines a well-known landscape 
 with a few familiar figures. With lifelike vivid- 
 ness a simple act of common charity is sketched, 
 and in a few pregnant sentences the natures of 
 priest and Levite and Samaritan are exposed to 
 view. The man is suddenly confronted with the 
 answer to his own question by means of the 
 counter question, *' Which of these three was 
 neighbour to the man who fell among thieves ? " 
 Now it is the lawyer who is silent and the man 
 who speaks. He takes thought neither of race 
 nor position, he sees neither priest nor Levite nor 
 Samaritan, but a brother responding to a brother's 
 need, a human heart overflowing with pity for 
 another's misfortune, bending in compassion to 
 relieve another's distress. Almost before he 
 knows it, there slips from between his lips, Jew 
 and lawyer though he be, the answer, *'The one 
 who had pity on him." 
 
 The first lesson in the new school is over, and 
 the teacher's work for the day is done. The new 
 pupil has been admitted, and the first home lesson 
 has been given. " Go," says Christ, " and act in 
 the same way." 
 
XIV 
 
 THE TWO SISTERS 
 Luke X. 38-42. 
 
 There is a ministry of being as well as of doing, 
 a sanctification of living as well as a consecration 
 of service. There are some natures which are 
 essentially passive, whose power is in their recep- 
 tivity, and whose chief ministry is in their presence. 
 Their lives pronounce benedictions, just as the 
 activities of others confer benefactions. The 
 bequests with which they enrich the world are 
 not great charities and noble deeds, but sacred 
 memories and gracious influences. They are the 
 flower gardens of humanity, whose value is in 
 their beauty, not the orchards and fields, whose 
 value is in their utility. Their ministry is the 
 ministry of flowers, and their charm is not in 
 what they do, but in what they are. They are 
 no drones in the hive of human industry, nor yet 
 busy bees hurrying here and there in the prosecution 
 of their useful task. They are flowers in the 
 garden, distilling fragrance and supplying sweetness. 
 
 l6o 
 
XIV THE TWO SISTERS i6i 
 
 They do not toil neither do they spin, yet the 
 aroma which they exude no toil can produce, and 
 the exquisite beauty in which they are clothed no 
 spinning can equal. They transform the crude 
 materials in their environment into fragrance 
 and sweetness, but the operation is carried on 
 within, the aroma and the nectar are in their own 
 natures. While they thus work for themselves, 
 they live for others. They exude their aroma 
 with generosity, they part with their nectar with 
 liberality. 
 
 Religion is not a revolution which destroys the 
 old order, it is an evolution which transforms it. 
 The spiritual is the perfection, not the destruction, 
 of the natural. It is the legitimate successor not 
 the foreign usurper. '' That is not first which is 
 spiritual, but that which is natural ; the spiritual 
 is that which comes afterwards." Conversion does 
 not change the essentially passive nature into the 
 active, nor the essentially active into the passive. 
 It sanctifies the passive and consecrates the active. 
 It gives a more delicate scent and a richer nectar 
 to the wild flower ; it transforms the crab into the 
 luscious apple, the grass into the life-giving wheat. 
 It is not an alchemy for the transmutation of metals, 
 it is the refiner's fire for their purification. It is 
 not the destruction of the man for the purpose of 
 saving his soul, it is the development of the soul 
 for the purpose of saving the man. The true 
 response therefore to the influence of religion must 
 
 M 
 
1 62 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiv 
 
 be natural and not artificial. It is a transfiguration, 
 not a transmutation. The face, though it shines 
 as the sun, is the same face ; the garments, though 
 white and glistering, are the garments with which 
 we are familiar. It is a manifestation of the real 
 but ideal nature into which the actual has been 
 transformed. The natural disposition is spiritual- 
 ised, the spiritual influence is naturalised. New 
 organs are not created for the spiritual man, the 
 rudimentary organs of the natural man are evolved 
 and perfected. The culture of the soul therefore 
 is not the uprooting of natural graces, but the 
 nurturing and perfecting of them. The wild 
 flowers are not destroyed, they are cultivated. 
 The reception of the Divine Spirit into the heart, 
 which constitutes the essence of the religious life, 
 must not be formal but natural. His presence 
 must deepen feeling and increase activity. The 
 part in the entertainment which we ofl^er must be 
 the one we are naturally fitted to sustain. The 
 guest feels most at home when the host is most 
 natural. The spiritual life is most real when it is 
 least artificial. 
 
 The scene in the home of Bethany is one of 
 those unspoken parables of Jesus, which, like His 
 spoken ones, are pregnant with spiritual meaning, 
 because they are instinct with natural feeling. 
 They illustrate the spiritual by demonstrating the 
 natural. He taught in parables, because the parable 
 is the only medium for the teaching He had to 
 
XIV THE TWO SISTERS 1 63 
 
 impart. We can only arrive at the unknown by 
 means of the known. We can only understand 
 the mental by means of the material, the spiritual 
 by means of the natural. The eye must see before 
 the mind can perceive, the ear must hear before 
 the heart can understand. If the natural is not 
 seen, the spiritual cannot be perceived. True 
 insight into the one is the perception of the other. 
 It is only as we understand the naturalness of the 
 reception of Jesus by the two sisters that we under- 
 stand the spiritual significance of the story. It 
 appeals to us as a parable, because it touches us as 
 a story. It is because it is so perfectly natural 
 that it is so intensely spiritual. 
 
 One of the most pathetic utterances which 
 Christ ever made about Himself is the single 
 reference to His homelessness. " The foxes have 
 holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the 
 Son of Man has not where to lay His head.'' 
 Christ never had a home of His own. From the 
 time when He left His father's home in Nazareth 
 where He was brought up. He was a wanderer. 
 To all the comfort which the word suggests, to all 
 the sacred joy associated with the name. He was a 
 complete stranger. That His nature craved for 
 fellowship is evidenced by the references He made 
 to His loneliness, and by His frequent communion 
 with the Father. That He needed the quietness 
 and peace which others find within the privacy of 
 their own homes is proved by His frequent 
 
1 64 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiv 
 
 retirements to the solitude of the desert or of the 
 mountain. The home at Bethany appears to have 
 been to Christ a haven of rest and quiet calm, 
 where He sought refuge from the storms and 
 tumult to which His Judean ministry exposed 
 Him. It was a land-locked harbour protected 
 from the wild gusts of fierce passion and bitter 
 malice which confronted Him as He steered His 
 course amidst the angry billows and sunken rocks 
 of the neighbouring Jerusalem. In Bethany there 
 was always a home which offered a loving welcome, 
 and hearts which responded with a sincere affection. 
 Of Lazarus little is recorded which reveals the 
 character of the man, but that Jesus called him 
 friend is full of significance, and that He loved 
 him is the highest testimony to his sterling worth. 
 Of the two sisters, however, we have speaking 
 likenesses. Their characters are of that pronounced 
 type which is stamped on every act and manifested 
 in every scene. In joy or in sorrow, at the feast 
 or at the funeral, the individuality of each is 
 clearly marked, the position of each is definitely 
 fixed. Christ knows them perfectly. He has no 
 need to ask Mary where Martha is at the time of 
 feasting, nor to ask Martha where Mary is at the 
 time of mourning. There is the hall-mark of 
 goodness on each of them, but you must look for 
 it in the activity of the one and in the receptivity 
 of the other. The goodness of Martha will be 
 manifested in her many duties, that of Mary in 
 
XIV THE TWO SISTERS 165 
 
 her deep feeling and serious thinking. They were 
 ideal sisters, and together took the place of the 
 ideal wife, whom Lazarus must have despaired 
 of finding. The one sister was the complement 
 of the other in the home of Bethany. Martha 
 made the home complete with every comfort, 
 Mary filled it with peace and joy. If Martha 
 was absent Lazarus felt uneasy, if Mary was away 
 he was depressed. Neither sister could fill the 
 other's place. Martha would have made a most 
 fidgety Mary, and Mary a most unconcerned 
 Martha. The one was a perfect head of the 
 house, the other was the heart of the home. A 
 division of work could never have been discussed 
 between them, for it divided itself. Each instinc- 
 tively took the part that naturally fell to her, and 
 their united efforts made the home at Bethany an 
 elysium of comfort and happiness. 
 
 It was probably at Martha's suggestion that the 
 special feast was prepared with which to welcome 
 Jesus on one of His periodical halts at their home. 
 It afforded her the right opportunity of showing 
 her affection and esteem for her brother's honoured 
 guest. She was probably celebrated for her perfect 
 entertainments, and took a just pride in the satis- 
 faction they invariably elicited. For such a house- 
 keeper as Martha must have been, the feast is the 
 chief way in which she can express her esteem for 
 her guest, and her anxiety to render him a service. 
 That which probably most appealed to Martha and 
 
1 66 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiv 
 
 aroused her compassion, as she thought of the 
 homelessness of Jesus, was the absence of those 
 creature comforts which she regarded as so essential 
 to her brother's welfare. She doubtless listened 
 with interest to the accounts He gave them of His 
 varied receptions at the different towns and villages 
 He visited in His journeyings, but her mind dwelt 
 longest on the irregularity of His meals, and the 
 absence of those little home comforts which bulked 
 so largely in her housekeeper's mind. With the 
 motherly heart with which every true woman is 
 invariably endowed, she pitied the wanderer, and 
 resolved that as long as He was her guest He 
 should be surrounded with every comfort and 
 receive every attention. The feast was but the 
 earnest of the many good things she had in store 
 for Him. 
 
 In the best regulated households, however, 
 things do not always go smoothly. The fire, 
 despite the most careful laying, will smoke, the 
 watched pot will not boil, and the unwatched one 
 will boil over. The best trained servants are 
 servants after all, and the eye is less keen and the 
 hand is less steady than the mistress's own. 
 Martha's eye cannot be in every place, and even 
 Martha has but one pair of hands. She has but 
 time to give the Master a hearty but hasty 
 greeting, when a message calls her back to the 
 kitchen. Her momentary absence, however, has 
 been long enough for something to go wrong. To 
 
XIV THE TWO SISTERS 167 
 
 Mary naturally falls the part of entertaining the 
 guest until the feast is ready and Martha shall call 
 them to take part in the triumph of her skill. 
 While Mary is performing her part as hostess in the 
 reception room, Martha is fully occupied between 
 the kitchen and the dining-hall, in attending to 
 those multifarious details which demand the 
 mistress's personal attention and supervision. 
 Suddenly the hanging purdah which divides the 
 reception room from the more interior apartments 
 of the house is hastily pulled aside, and the flushed 
 face of the worried Martha arrests the flow of 
 conversation, and her querulous tones disturb the 
 quiet of the Httle group : " Master, do you not care 
 that my sister has left me to attend to everything ? 
 Tell her to help me." 
 
 The picture is a perfect photograph of the scene. 
 We can see in the background both the dining-hall 
 and the kitchen. The hurrying figures of the 
 maids enable us to realise that Martha's anxiety as 
 to the feast being ready in time is fully justified, 
 while we can ourselves see that the tablecloth is, 
 as Martha has just declared, not properly laid, and 
 the couches are certainly not quite in line. Poor 
 Martha ! it is this last source of annoyance which 
 has been too much for her, and made her feel that 
 Mary might at least have attended to these matters, 
 instead of leaving her to do everything alone. 
 The many little details to which her anxiety that 
 everything should go off perfectly has called her 
 
1 68 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xiv 
 
 attention have assumed larger proportions than 
 usual. At another time she would have laughed 
 at the idea of needing Mary's help, but to-day her 
 over-anxiety has affected the servants, and their 
 nervous solicitude to please has resulted in the 
 series of mishaps and accidents which have brought 
 that look of worry and helplessness on the face of the 
 usually calm and collected Martha. Mary is more 
 surprised at the look on her sister's face than at 
 the unusual words on her lips. That Martha 
 should be unequal to her task is a greater wonder 
 than that she should complain of being left alone. 
 We are more conscious of kinship through our 
 failures than through our virtues. How perfectly 
 human is Martha's unreasonableness, how natural 
 is her resentment. We are quite ready to admit 
 that Mary's position is nearer to the ideal, but it is 
 Martha's with which we fed the most sympathy. 
 The worry on Martha's face calls forth a deeper 
 note of sympathy than the wonder in Mary's 
 eyes. 
 
 There was none of that irritability in Christ 
 which so often characterises great men when they 
 are interrupted in a conversation. The worried 
 look and the anxious face call forth a compassionate 
 sympathy. He knows that it is all for His sake 
 that Martha has taken so much trouble and tired 
 herself beyond her strength. There is a kindly 
 remonstrance at such needless anxiety, a gentle 
 hint that much less would more than suffice. 
 
XIV THE TWO SISTERS 169 
 
 " Martha, Martha, you are putting yourself to far 
 too much trouble on My account, and worrying 
 about so many things in connection with the feast, 
 forgetting that, agreeable and pleasant though it be, 
 it is only a part of the entertainment which this 
 kindly house provides for Me. The guest's 
 entertainment is the only thing that the hostess 
 need trouble about, and in that entertainment Mary 
 has chosen the part for which she is best fitted, and 
 which is therefore the best for her, and she shall 
 not be deprived of it." The delicacy of the 
 remonstrance addressed to Martha is only equalled 
 by the chivalrous defence of Mary. Martha 
 retired to her many duties, and Mary remained at 
 the feet of the Master, but they both learned the 
 great lesson that we serve best when we do that 
 for which we are best fitted, and that we please 
 the Master most when we cheerfully and gladly 
 recognise the good part which others choose for the 
 expression of their love and devotion to our common 
 Lord. 
 
XV 
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 
 Matt. xix. 3-12 ; Mark x. 2-12. 
 
 Is marriage a failure, is not a modern question ; 
 it is the discussion of the question in the public 
 papers which is the only novelty. Adam must 
 have asked the question first, when he found his 
 paradise exchanged for the wilderness, and his 
 sons and daughters have been repeating the 
 question ever since. It is one of those questions 
 the discussion of which is practically destitute of 
 result. Whether the answer be in the affirmative 
 or in the negative, as it was in the days of Noah 
 so it will continue in every age, men will marry 
 and women will be given in marriage, and settle 
 the question for themselves by actual experiment. 
 Though the question is destitute of result as far 
 as the prevention of marriage is concerned, it has 
 a marked influence on the manner in which the 
 marriage bond is regarded. There are some 
 sentiments which cannot be discussed without 
 being thereby degraded ; there are some instincts 
 
 170 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 171 
 
 which cannot be questioned without thereby being 
 imperilled. When the marriage bond is discussed 
 as though it were a legal contract, an institution 
 which Nature has ordained is degraded into a 
 partnership which Society has recognised. When 
 the indissoluble connection between the parents 
 is called in question, the family life is imperilled. 
 It would considerably purify the atmosphere and 
 elevate the tone of society if the essential dis- 
 tinction between the ideal and the actual were 
 kept well in view. The language of the actual 
 can never interpret aright the thought of the 
 ideal. The thought of the actual can never be 
 accurately translated into the language of the 
 ideal. The two are on different planes, the 
 dimensions of the one cannot be applied to the 
 other. Marriage is an ideal, but there is also an 
 actual. Considerations which are of supreme 
 moment to the one are inapplicable to the other. 
 Deductions which are legitimate from the one 
 are ruled out of court in the other. The idealist 
 speaks gibberish to the actualist, and the actualist 
 speaks jargon to the idealist. Discussion there- 
 fore is impossible between them. We either 
 believe in the unseen ideal and look forward to 
 its realisation, or we accept the actual and either 
 hope for or despair of its improvement. It is not 
 a different point of view, but a different power of 
 vision, which separates the one from the other. 
 The actualist sees the present, but is blind to the 
 
172 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xv 
 
 future ; the idealist sees the future, and disregards 
 the present. To the former the actual is the real, 
 to the latter the ideal is the real. The question 
 between them is not one for argument, it is one 
 of individual choice. Having made their choice 
 they henceforth live on different planes and talk 
 a different language. 
 
 It is said that experience confers the right to 
 speak and inexperience imposes the obligation to 
 keep silence. This, however, is one of those 
 maxims which are only half truths. It is 
 applicable on the plane of the actual, but not on 
 the plane of the ideal. Insight gives a greater 
 right to speak than experience. The man who 
 can see is as great an authority at least as the man 
 who can only feel. Christ had no experience of 
 married life, yet He was consulted on the question 
 of divorce. His pronouncement is not based 
 upon experience, yet it is full of true insight. 
 The Pharisees who came to Him with this 
 question of divorce were as usual inspired with 
 the wish to entrap the Teacher, rather than to be 
 enlightened by Him. Probably the fate of John 
 the Baptist was in their minds, and they took 
 advantage of the presence of Christ in Herod's 
 dominions to involve Him in pronouncing a 
 similar condemnation of the king's immorality. 
 They concealed their real object, however, by 
 asking the question of the schools — May a 
 husband on any account divorce his wife ? It 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 173 
 
 was a question upon which Rabbinical opinion was 
 divided into two hostile camps, so that even if 
 He avoided the political danger by an affirmative 
 answer, He would incur the enmity of the stricter 
 and more religious section of the community. 
 
 Christ is indifferent to all such considerations. 
 He answers the question as though He had been 
 asked in perfect sincerity. He was familiar with 
 the looseness with which the marriage bond was 
 regarded, and His desire to impart truer ideas 
 was greater than any wish to escape personal 
 danger. His answer is the answer of the idealist. 
 He ignores the actual, and points to the ideal as 
 alone furnishing the true conception of the 
 institution. He goes beyond the Law of Moses, 
 around which the discussion in the schools 
 centred, to the law of Him who made man and 
 constituted him as he is. The bond is not a 
 social union, it is a natural institution. It must 
 be interpreted, not by man's custom, but by his 
 constitution. " Have you not read," He answers, 
 *' that He who made man, made him from the 
 very beginning not single but double, two halves 
 of one whole. Moreover," He said further, 
 " that for that very reason a man shall leave his 
 father and his mother and be united to his wife, 
 and the two halves shall become one whole. 
 They are therefore no longer two, but one. 
 What therefore God has united, let not man 
 separate." Man and woman are not two wholes, 
 
174 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xv 
 
 but complements of one unity, and marriage is the 
 completion of the prophecy, the realisation of the 
 ideal. The completion of the union is a new life 
 from which new relationships arise. No law can 
 annul the relationships to which marriage gives 
 rise. The son is for ever a son, the daughter 
 for ever a daughter. It is because the relation- 
 ships to which marriage gives rise are unalterable 
 that the bond is indissoluble. Marriage is the 
 establishment of a new family, and on that 
 account the man leaves his father and his mother, 
 and in union with his wife establishes a new home, 
 a fresh centre of family life. Nature looks to 
 the welfare of the race, and her institutions must 
 be interpreted in the light of the goal she has 
 fixed her eye upon. The union of man and 
 woman is not therefore the establishment of a 
 partnership, it is the institution of a relationship, 
 and once instituted it cannot be dissolved. The 
 union has been foreseen and provided for in the 
 constitution of man's being, and once consum- 
 mated no human law can dissolve it. In marriage 
 fancy has been translated into fact, and the fact 
 abides however much the fancy may change. 
 Law can recognise facts, but it cannot alter them. 
 On the plane of the actual the childless marriage 
 may seem to be a less real union, but on the plane 
 of the ideal the union is just as real. The new 
 relationships to which marriage gives rise are 
 derived from the original relationship which 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 175 
 
 marriage institutes. The derivative may confirm 
 the original, but its absence cannot annul it. On 
 the plane of the ideal the relationship of the wife 
 to the husband and the husband to the wife which 
 their union has constituted is no less sacred and 
 real though no new relationships are derived 
 from it. 
 
 Christ's method of dealing with the question 
 is entirely different from anything which the 
 Pharisees had anticipated. All their discussion 
 gathered round the interpretation of legal 
 phraseology, the exposition of the Law of Moses. 
 They find themselves suddenly referred to the 
 law written by the finger of God in man's con- 
 stitution, instead of to the law written by the 
 fingers of Moses. The question is not decided 
 on the lines of the permissible, but on the lines 
 of the possible. The question is not. May a 
 man divorce his wife, but. Can he, and the answer 
 is the one word, Impossible. God has joined 
 them together and man cannot separate them. 
 The entry has been made in the Court of Nature, 
 and no Court of Law can erase it. The Pharisees 
 are nonplussed at the nature of the reply. They 
 are surprised, but they quickly perceive that it 
 gives them a better opportunity than they 
 expected. It brings Him into opposition, not to 
 one of the schools of the Rabbis but to both, not 
 merely to Herod's act but also to Moses' Law. 
 "Why then," they ask, returning to the purpose 
 
176 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xv 
 
 with which they had first put the question, '' did 
 Moses command the husband to give his wife a 
 written document of divorce, and so put his wife 
 away ? " 
 
 The true significance of Christ's answer is 
 frequently lost sight of, and its bearing on the 
 question of inspiration is almost entirely ignored. 
 It is impossible, however, in the face of His answer 
 to this apparent conflict between one part of 
 Scripture and another, to avoid believing that 
 Christ recognised what in these days we are 
 accustomed to call the progressiveness of revela- 
 tion, and a difference in the degree of inspiration. 
 ** On account of the stubbornness of human nature, 
 and the hardheartedness of men, Moses permitted 
 the putting away of the wife, but the conception 
 of divorce is not contained in the initial institution 
 of marriage." Revelation must of necessity be 
 adapted to the capacity of the hearer. Legislation 
 cannot be too far in advance of the age. In 
 judging of Scripture due regard must be paid to 
 the time and the circumstances in which it was 
 produced. Language itself is not in advance of 
 human nature, it grows with its growth and is 
 refined with its refinement. Moses dealt with the 
 actual, and sought to raise it in the direction of the 
 ideal which man's constitution prophesies. He 
 had to deal with men who were more akin to the 
 animal than the spiritual. In the interest of the 
 too easily and too frequently discarded wife, he 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 177 
 
 sought to replace desertion by a formal divorce, to 
 substitute law for anarchy. He sought, that is, to 
 regulate what he could not forbid. He had to 
 speak in a language which was adapted to the low 
 attainments of his people. His authority was 
 over the actual, not over the ideal. Marriage, 
 however, is an ideal, and its true nature must be 
 sought, not in human institutes, but in the divine 
 constitution of man's nature. That ideal relation 
 makes no provision for divorce. Legislation may 
 substitute divorce for desertion, but it has no 
 authority to change the marriage bond into a social 
 contract. The actual may be elevated in the 
 direction of the ideal, but the ideal cannot be 
 lowered in the direction of the actual. Of the 
 two evils, desertion and divorce, the latter may be 
 the less, but it is still an evil and not a good. 
 There is always an appeal from man's perception 
 to God's conception, — " It has not been so from 
 the beginning." The improvement in the actual 
 which Moses enjoined cannot take the place of the 
 ideal which God enacted. That they may be 
 under no doubt as to His view of the question 
 they have brought forward, Christ proceeds to give 
 a categorical denial of the rightness of divorce. 
 '' I say definitely," He goes on to say, " that who- 
 ever puts away his wife, for any reason except that 
 of her unfaithfulness, and marries another woman, 
 commits adultery." The ceremony does not alter 
 the facts, it can do nothing more than recognise 
 
178 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xv 
 
 them. The first ceremony simply recognised that 
 the two are one, a second ceremony cannot alter 
 that fact. The only fact which the second ceremony 
 recognises is that the married party is living with 
 another. To the actualist such a statement may 
 seem fanciful, to the idealist it is actual fact. The 
 Pharisees retired to make what use they might of 
 the answer they had received. They had not come 
 to learn, and therefore the lesson made no im- 
 pression upon them. With the disciples, however, 
 it is different, and they turn the matter over in 
 their minds as they follow their Master home. 
 
 In the privacy of the house they give expression 
 to the conclusion at which they have arrived. " If 
 this is the true nature of the marriage relationship, 
 they say, it is surely better not to marry at all." 
 The ideal is so high as to be unattainable, and 
 therefore it is prohibitive. If, while human nature 
 is what it is, divorce is not permissible, then in 
 their judgment marriage is impossible. This is 
 ever the reply of the actualist when confronted 
 with the ideal. *' True but impracticable, beautiful 
 but unattainable." It is but a step to the rejection 
 of the ideal and the acceptance of the actual. 
 Marriage as an ideal would doubtless be a success, 
 but marriage as an actual is frequently a failure. 
 Theory is one thing, but practice is another. 
 Divorce may be theoretically wrong, but it is 
 practically necessary. If it is not right it is at 
 least expedient. This step at which the disciples 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 179 
 
 hesitated, the world has no scruples in taking. 
 It fails to see that if marriage is a failure, divorce 
 is no remedy. Acquiescence in the actual never 
 leads or can lead to the acquisition of the ideal. 
 Facilities for divorce are not likely to make 
 marriage a success. To betray the ideal by 
 enthroning the actual, is not the method to secure 
 its realisation. We may recognise and acknow- 
 ledge that we are unequal to the attainment, but 
 we have no right to make the measure of our 
 attainment the standard of the ideal. Neither 
 Moses nor any other legislator can alter man's 
 constitution, he can but regulate human conduct. 
 The true conception of the marriage relation, 
 however, must be Jooked for, not amongst human 
 customs, but in human nature, as that has been 
 constituted by its Creator. The goal which 
 evolution has in view, and not merely the stage at 
 which she has arrived, must be taken into account 
 if we would work in harmony with Nature's 
 laws. 
 
 Christ remains the idealist in the face of the 
 actual. He recognises, however, the weakness of 
 human nature, though He does not acquiesce in 
 it. *' It is not every one," He says in reply to the 
 remark of the disciples, " who can make room in 
 his thought for such an ideal, but only those on 
 whom special grace has been bestowed." To 
 follow the ideal, to refuse to accept the actual, to 
 sacrifice oneself for the sake of the ideal, — these are 
 
i8o CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xv 
 
 not signs of the generality, they are the hall-mark 
 of the elect. There are some cases of abstinence 
 from marriage, the explanation of which is not 
 to be sought either in lack of inclination or in 
 deficiency of feeling, but in the intense devotion 
 to the ideal, which appears incapable of realisation. 
 Let the man who has perceived the ideal retain it. 
 Let the man who sees that from its very nature 
 marriage is an indissoluble bond refuse to entertain 
 the conception of divorce. If in his case marriage 
 has proved a failure, let him not look to divorce 
 to make it a success. For the sake of upholding 
 the ideal, let him refuse at all costs to stoop to 
 the actual. The sacredness of family life, which 
 divorce destroys, is of more consequence than the 
 satisfaction of personal inclination, for which it is 
 intended to provide. A desolate home is preferable 
 to a desertion of the ideal. To the idealist no 
 sacrifice is too great which preserves the ideal, no 
 gratification will satisfy which sacrifices it. 
 
 The disciples doubtless felt that this was a hard 
 saying, — Who could bear it ^ The world feels 
 that it is an impossible saying and rejects it. 
 Time, however, is always on the side of the ideal, 
 and history is a persistent condemnation of the 
 actual. Legislation which provides facilities for 
 divorce inevitably lowers the conception of the 
 marriage relationship, and thereby tends to produce 
 the failure it has anticipated. The offered remedy, 
 instead of preventing, increases the disease. 
 
XV MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE i8i 
 
 Divorce is no remedy ; it is the publication of 
 failure, and the destruction of the last hope of 
 success. It does not, however, merely indicate 
 the failure of the parties concerned, it stamps 
 every marriage with the mark of a licensed partner- 
 ship. It brands with the stigma of a temporary 
 connection that which is essentially a permanent 
 union. It sacrifices the welfare of the race for the 
 sake of the individual, the sacredness of family life 
 for personal gratification. Christ recognises the 
 hardship which may be inflicted upon the indi- 
 vidual ; He does not minimise the sacrifice which 
 the ideal demands, but He appeals to the sanctity 
 of the ideal, and to the idealist the appeal is never 
 in vain. 
 
XVI 
 
 SACRIFICE AN ESSENTIAL TO COMPLETENESS 
 Matt. xix. 16-30 ; Mark x. 17-22 5 Luke xviii. 18-30. 
 
 There is a type of character which presents all the 
 appearance of excellence, and possesses qualities 
 which are in every respect admirable, but which 
 nevertheless fails to win the confidence and approval 
 to which it seems entitled. We can find nothing 
 upon which we can fasten to account for the 
 impression produced, there is no definite trait 
 which calls forth our aversion, yet we have the 
 feeling that the face value is not the real value. 
 We do not for a moment suspect any hypocrisy, 
 for there is an evident sincerity which impresses 
 us with the sense of reality. We are not conscious 
 even of any particular defect which would account 
 for the feeling we entertain, and yet we have a 
 suspicion that something is needed to give warmth 
 and colour to what we instinctively feel to be 
 beautiful but cold, real but not deep, genuine but 
 not complete. It is like the coin which we can 
 easily distinguish from the counterfeit, and yet 
 
 182 
 
XVI SACRIFICE ESSENTIAL 183 
 
 which for some reason or other does not ring true. 
 There is a flaw somewhere we know, but we can- 
 not detect it ; there is something lacking, but we 
 cannot say what. Such characters will pass for 
 years with the flaw unknown to themselves and 
 unperceived by others. Some crisis in their own 
 lives, or the keener insight of a greater soul, is 
 needed to reveal the defect. The young ruler who 
 sought an interview with Christ was a character of 
 this type. 
 
 He was a man of wealth, for he had great 
 possessions ; he was a man of position, for he was 
 a ruler of the Jews. His private and public 
 character were beyond reproach, for he had kept 
 the commandments from his youth up. He had 
 the attractiveness of genuine worth which calls 
 forth affection, for when Jesus saw him He loved 
 him. Despite his excellences, however, he was 
 dissatisfied, and of too earnest a disposition to rest 
 content with anything short of the highest. He 
 felt that there was a life richer than he possessed, 
 an inheritance with a more lasting tenure than that 
 which had come to him from his ancestors, a 
 satisfaction deeper and more abiding than any he 
 had as yet obtained. Kindred souls are mutually 
 attracted, and the love which Christ felt for the 
 young ruler was the response of the heart of Christ 
 to the young man's love for Himself. The 
 Prophet of Nazareth had won the affection and 
 secured the enthusiastic admiration of the young 
 
1 84 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvi 
 
 ruler of the Jews. The impulsiveness of youth 
 and the enthusiasm of the ardent admirer are both 
 evidenced in the manner of his approach. His 
 eagerness overpowers his sense of personal dignity, 
 and he comes running to the place of meeting. 
 His warm admiration for the Prophet of God 
 makes him oblivious of the esteem to which he 
 was accustomed from his official position, and he 
 kneels at the feet of Jesus. 
 
 A question often throws as much light upon 
 the pupiFs character as it does upon his style of 
 thinking, and this is especially the case with a 
 moral or spiritual question. The same question 
 may be asked with very different motives, and 
 may betray a very different type of mind. A 
 different answer is demanded according to the 
 character of the questioner. The expert physician 
 often gains as much, or even more, from his 
 patient's manner of describing his symptoms than 
 he does from the description itself. The teacher 
 will more often understand his pupil's difficulty 
 by taking notice of the terms in which he states 
 it than from the statement itself. " Good Rabbi, 
 what good thing shall I do that I may inherit 
 eternal life ?'' A man's adjectives are often more 
 characteristic than his nouns. His verbs are 
 more significant than his substantives. His nouns 
 are names for common objects which he is more 
 or less forced to use ; his adjectives are the 
 distinguishing marks he places upon them, and 
 
XVI SACRIFICE ESSENTIAL 185 
 
 reveal his individuality. His substantives are the 
 pieces on the chess-board, his verbs are the 
 movements he effects with them and reveal the 
 thought which directs them. " Good Rabbi, what 
 good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal 
 life.^" The adjective is significant, its repetition 
 is suggestive. The verb is indicative of the man. 
 The adjective is evidently a favourite and familiar 
 word, it is applied indiscriminately to persons and 
 things. Familiarity, however, docs not necessarily 
 imply intimacy, and the indiscriminate use of a 
 word generally denotes an indifferent acquaintance 
 with its meaning. There is the suggestion of a 
 superficial knowledge of men in the phrase. Good 
 Rabbi, which is characteristic of a man who has 
 no deep insight into character, and there is the 
 indication of a shallowness of thought in the 
 conception of some good thing to be done to 
 obtain the life he needs, which betrays very little 
 acquaintance with the deeper meaning of the 
 eternal life he seeks. The verb, inherit, similarly 
 points out the inadequacy of his conception, and 
 betrays the man to whom much has been given, 
 but from whom as yet little has been required. 
 His conception of the moral ideal must be 
 deepened if he is to become conscious of the lack 
 in his nature. His mind must be turned from 
 the thought of some definite thing to be accom- 
 plished which will secure for him a great inherit- 
 ance, if he is to enter upon the deeper and higher 
 
1 86 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvi 
 
 life for which he craves. It is the perception of 
 the relation of the good to God which transforms 
 morality into religion; it is the possession of a 
 spirit, not the performance of an act, which 
 enriches a man with the life which is eternal. 
 
 Christ's answer is intended to direct the young 
 man's attention to the true source of that higher 
 life which he seeks, and to correct his mistaken 
 conception of the means by which it is to be 
 obtained. His conception of the good is very 
 little more than that of a kindly disposition, a 
 well-meaning intention. He has the surface 
 knowledge which is associated with the adjective, 
 not the deeper knowledge involved in the noun. 
 He means nothing by the expression. Good 
 Rabbi, beyond ordinary politeness ; he has no 
 greater conception in the use of the term, good 
 thing, than some act of kindness which one in 
 his position and with his wealth can easily 
 accomplish. ** Why," asks Christ in reply, " do 
 you attach the adjective to the noun .? Why do 
 you call me Good Rabbi ? What does the term 
 signify to you, what value do you attach to the 
 conception of the Good ? There is none good 
 but One, even God. The Good is a much 
 bigger conception than you have yet realised. 
 In its perfection it is found only in God, and the 
 only substantive to which the adjective can be 
 rightly attached is God. Though it is a common 
 word in your vocabulary, you have not yet 
 
XVI SACRIFICE ESSENTIAL 187 
 
 grasped its meaning. The kindly disposition and 
 the well-meaning intention which have been the 
 characteristics of your nature must have deeper 
 roots if they are to develop into that moral and 
 spiritual life which you are seeking. In the same 
 way you are too familiar with the idea of acquisi- 
 tion by means of inheritance. You are not 
 sufficiently acquainted with the only true method 
 of obtaining possession by personal effort. Put 
 your ideas to the test. You think life eternal 
 can be gained by the performance of some definite 
 action ; well, you are acquainted with the com- 
 mandments — what more do you want.^^ If the 
 deeper life you crave is to be obtained in the way 
 you suppose, the decalogue furnishes you with 
 not one, but many good actions, which you can 
 do." Christ's answer is intended to enable the man 
 to see that his thought is not deep enough, his 
 apprehension is not keen enough, nor his life 
 strenuous enough for the task which lies before 
 him. The teacher's work is to stimulate thought 
 rather than to furnish it, to enable the pupil to 
 see his mistake for himself, not merely to tell him 
 he is wrong. Deeply rooted in the man's mind 
 is the idea that the richer life of whose need he 
 is dimly conscious can be gained as easily as his 
 own possessions have come to him, or with the 
 exercise of as little effort as he has hitherto been 
 accustomed to put forth. Of great wealth and 
 occupying a good position, life has been easy for 
 
i88 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvi 
 
 him, and has made no demands upon him. He 
 is conscious that something is lacking, but he 
 thinks that all he needs to know is the secret by 
 which it can be obtained and the rest will be 
 easy. 
 
 He seizes with avidity the reference in Christ's 
 answer to the commandments. He thinks that 
 more than half the task is accomplished. Eagerly 
 and joyfully he replies, *' All these have I kept 
 from my youth up ; what lack I yet ? " If the 
 path lies in that direction, then he is familiar with 
 it, and in fact has already gone a very long way 
 on the road. He is conscious, however, that it 
 has not yielded the entire satisfaction he needs, 
 something additional is needed. There is some 
 one thing more which has to be done and the 
 prize is his. 
 
 There is a charm about youthful enthusiasm, 
 and a fascination in the eagerness with which the 
 young anticipate the future, confident in their 
 ability for great tasks, which cannot fail to call 
 forth our love and sympathy, even though we 
 may fear the result of the trial which awaits them. 
 There was a winsomeness about the young ruler's 
 face and a sincerity in his manner which appealed 
 to Christ, and looking into the upturned face 
 radiant with hope and glowing with enthusiasm. 
 His heart went out to him. There is a kindly 
 smile of approval on the face, but a touch of 
 sadness in the voice, as Christ replies, " One thing 
 
XVI SACRIFICE ESSENTIAL 189 
 
 is wanting to complete your character. If you 
 wish to be complete, go and sell all you possess, 
 and distribute your wealth among the poor, and 
 you shall have treasure in heaven ; and then 
 come and follow Me." There was the outline of 
 a noble character, but one thing was missing to 
 complete the picture and give it the warmth and 
 colour of life. The features were perfect and 
 beautifully outlined, but the eyes lacked depth 
 and the mouth needed firmness. The convictions 
 were right, but they were not deeply rooted ; the 
 disposition was excellent, but it needed fixing ; 
 the desires were praiseworthy, but they wanted 
 transforming into passions of the soul. "No 
 heart is pure that is not passionate ; no virtue is 
 safe that is not enthusiastic.'* What the man 
 needed to complete his character was a great 
 consuming passion ; what he required to develop 
 the intrinsic goodness of his nature was a self- 
 abandonment. The depths of his nature had 
 never been stirred, his hidden resources had never 
 been called forth. Life had made no demands 
 upon him, his soul had never been thrilled by the 
 appeal of some high deed or noble cause. The 
 even tenor of his life had never been disturbed by 
 either a great temptation or a great misfortune. 
 His virtue was a disposition of the mind, not a 
 conviction of the soul ; his freedom from vice 
 was rather the result of inertia, than of the 
 controlling force of the passion for righteousness. 
 
I90 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvi 
 
 There was something lacking to complete his 
 nature. Something was needed to give direction 
 to his life and decision to his character. His 
 bosom was a lake whose surface had known 
 nothing but the ripples of the soft zephyr. The 
 eiFect of the lashing of a great storm of passion, 
 whether for good or ill, was an unknown quantity. 
 A sudden temptation which stirred the depths of 
 his being, or a mighty passion which enraptured 
 his soul, might either mar or make the man. 
 With a divine compassion and the tenderest 
 solicitude for the young man's moral welfare, 
 Christ offers him the ministry of a great sacrifice, 
 and the saving influence of a great devotion. 
 ''Sell all you possess, and come and follow Me." 
 Inherited wealth had made life too easy for him, 
 and prevented the discovery of the hidden 
 resources and capabilities of his nature. Affluence 
 had made it easy for him to love his neighbour, if 
 not as much as himself, at least as well as himself, 
 and the distribution of a generous charity had 
 satisfied his sense of responsibility for his fellows. 
 He needed to realise that goodness means more 
 than good-nature, and that the service of man is 
 more than almsgiving. His life hitherto had been 
 aimless and purposeless, inclination had been his 
 only leader. He needed an all-absorbing aim, 
 and a leader who secured an all -compelling 
 devotion. It was no mere increase in almsgiving 
 which Christ recommended ; it was the renuncia- 
 
XVI SACRIFICE ESSENTIAL 191 
 
 tion of all adventitious aids which he demanded. 
 In mere almsgiving there was no virtue by means 
 of which he might expect to obtain as a reward 
 the life that was life indeed, but in the renuncia- 
 tion of all that he possessed there was a determina- 
 tion of character which would inevitably produce 
 that deepening of his life which is the prophecy 
 of its continuance and permanence. The call to 
 forsake the settled and ordered life to which he 
 had been accustomed, and take up the wandering 
 life of an itinerant, was not an intensification of 
 the aimless wandering of inclination, the life of a 
 mere Bohemian ; it was the persistent following of 
 an ideal, the passionate devotion of a pupil to a 
 Great Master. 
 
 It is no wonder that the call found him unpre- 
 pared, that the demand was more than he felt able 
 to supply. The one thing which he was to do 
 proved to be an endless labour, the acquisition of 
 the inheritance was a life-long task. The eager 
 look passed from his face, and the shadow of a 
 great disappointment darkened his brow. For the 
 first time he found his resources insuflicient to 
 secure the object of his desire. He discovered 
 that there were some things which money, however 
 plentiful, could not buy ; that there were possessions 
 which could not be inherited, but must be earned. 
 He turned away sorrowful, for he had great 
 possessions. The great testing had come, the 
 clouds which portended a great storm had already 
 
192 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvi 
 
 gathered, and soon the placid bosom of the lake 
 would be heaving and swelling under the stress 
 and strain of a mighty tempest. He would never 
 be the same man again. The depths of his nature 
 had at last been stirred, and the effect of the storm 
 must give him a deeper peace than he had ever 
 known before, or intensify the unrest which he 
 had already experienced. He goes away sorrowful 
 but not resentful, disappointed but not affronted. 
 The struggle must take place alone, the decision 
 must be his own. With intense sympathy, but 
 with a hopeful anticipation, Christ follows him 
 with a look of love, and turning to the disciples, 
 gives expression to both His sympathy and His 
 hope in the words, " With how hard a struggle 
 will the possessors of wealth enter the kingdom of 
 God.'* The little barque is in the grip of a 
 mighty storm, but its timbers are sound, and 
 though the struggle will leave its marks upon hull 
 and rigging, it will reach its desired haven at last. 
 
XVII 
 
 AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER 
 Matt. XX. 20-28 ; Mark x. 35-45. 
 
 The true difference between seeing and believing 
 is not that of knowledge as contrasted with 
 imagination, it is the difference between sight and 
 insight. Seeing is believing, is not a definition 
 but a sarcasm, to which the appropriate retort is 
 the counter assertion, believing is seeing. A truer 
 definition would be that seeing is the perception 
 of the real, while believing is the perception of the 
 ideal. Sight presents us with the actual, faith with 
 the ideal. Sight gives us a photograph of the 
 building operations, with no more of the edifice 
 than has been actually completed. Faith gives us 
 the plan and sections and elevations of the 
 architect's drawing. If the drawing were never 
 made, the building would never be erected. If 
 there were no idealisation by the mind of man, 
 there would be no realisation by the hand of man. 
 Faith in man is not a new creation, it is an evolu- 
 tion. Nature herself is as much an idealist as 
 
 193 O 
 
194 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvii 
 
 man. She also plans before she builds, designs 
 before she constructs. She starts all her children 
 in life with a plan of the work she expects from 
 them ; while to the more intelligent she gives a 
 sight of the ideal, — that insight into her larger 
 purposes which inspires them to strive for a higher 
 and richer life. The theory of evolution has not 
 changed our various positions, it has simply cleared 
 away some of the mists by which we were sur- 
 rounded. The Materialist is a Materialist still, and 
 the Idealist is an Idealist still. It has not given 
 faith to the man who had none, nor has it taken 
 the faith away from the man who had. Each 
 looks out upon the world from his own hill-top, 
 corrects a few of his old mistakes, verifies some 
 of his old impressions, and readjusts his vision. 
 Though we call things by different names, we 
 have to deal with them as they are, and they 
 sooner or later correct our mistakes, even though 
 they fail to alter our prejudices. In the interests 
 of our scientific theories we banish the word faith 
 from our vocabulary, but we none the less use the 
 thing every day of our lives. In the interests of 
 our creeds we anathematise the word rationalism, 
 but we make use of our reason none the less, and 
 regard as irrational every opinion from which we 
 dissent. The Rationalist believes, and the Believer 
 reasons ; the Realist has his ideals, and the Idealist 
 faces the actual. We are all children of our 
 common mother. Nature, whatever training and 
 
XVII AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER 
 
 95 
 
 education we may have received. It is in her 
 language we think, in whatever speech we may 
 express ourselves. It is the instincts we have in- 
 herited from her which mould our lives, whatever 
 opinions we may hold. 
 
 One of the greatest instincts which we thus 
 inherit is the aspiration after a richer and a higher 
 life. We are all idealists by nature, whatever we 
 may call ourselves in later life. To her great gift 
 of sight, Nature has added more or less of insight. 
 To the consciousness of what we are, she gives us 
 more or less of a revelation of what we may 
 become. To the desire to live, she adds the 
 aspiration after that fuller life she has in store for 
 us. She gives us the foresight by which we are 
 able to see the attainable and desire it, but she 
 graciously withholds the farsight which would 
 reveal all the difficulties in the attainment. From 
 the mountain peak of our knowledge of the actual 
 we are able to see the dazzling peak of the ideal, 
 but between us, wrapped in the thick mists of the 
 future, lies the valley of realisation. We know 
 what will satisfy our aspiration long before we see 
 how the satisfaction is to be obtained or realise 
 the difficulties there are in the way. Faith in the 
 ideal precedes the sight of the real, even as anticipa- 
 tion precedes realisation. While farsight would 
 paralyse all ejffort after advancement, foresight is 
 the sine qua non of all progress. If we saw all 
 the way which lies between the actual we have 
 
196 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvii 
 
 attained to, and the ideal we aspire to, we should 
 never undertake the journey. If the distant peak 
 of the ideal were wrapped in impenetrable cloud, 
 we should never aspire to ascend. From the 
 Palace Beautiful we must be able to see the 
 Delectable Mountains, though the Valley of Hu- 
 miliation be covered with the mists which shut 
 out the trials that await us. 
 
 The interview between Christ and the mother 
 of Zebedee's children is an illustration of the sight 
 of the ideal with that ignorance of the means by 
 which alone it is attainable, which is characteristic 
 of human nature. The mother had caught a 
 glimpse of the place at the right and left hand of 
 the King in His glory, which her sons might 
 perchance occupy, but she was in ignorance of the 
 cup of suffering and the baptism of sorrow by 
 which it was alone attainable. Of the woman 
 herself we know nothing directly, but much 
 indirectly. She was one of those women who are 
 insignificant in themselves, but illustrious in their 
 relationships. They are neither deficient in 
 character nor lacking in individuality, but their 
 character, like a photographic negative, needs 
 printing before its beauty is evident, and their 
 individuality needs another life upon which to 
 leave its impress before it is perceptible. Of the 
 woman herself we are not even certain of her 
 name. It is as Zebedee's wife, and notably as the 
 mother of his children, that she is known to us. 
 
XVII AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER 197 
 
 Whatever greatness she possessed came out, not as 
 the woman, but as the wife and mother. She 
 doubtless had both character and individuality, for 
 the two sons are sufficient evidence of that. Her 
 character, however, developed as wife and mother, 
 and her individuality stamped itself upon her two 
 sons. Hers was no self-contained or self-centred 
 life. Her relations to her husband and children 
 absorbed all her thought, so that she had none for 
 herself She asks for no honour for herself, but 
 only for her sons. The highest and best appeal 
 to her nature, but her ambition expresses itself 
 in bringing forward her children. The personal 
 diffidence and modesty which keep the sons in the 
 background are unfelt by her, for she is pleading 
 for her boys and not for herself. 
 
 As she comes forward, the intensity of her 
 desire is stamped upon her face, and expresses 
 itself in the lowly attitude she assumes, and the 
 humble prostration of the woman of the East. 
 That she has a great favour to ask is evident as 
 much from her own eagerness as from her sons' 
 reluctance. She is a true Eastern woman in the 
 indefiniteness with which she first states her 
 request, hoping to secure a promise beforehand, to 
 which she may afterwards appeal when the great- 
 ness of her petition produces the anticipated 
 hesitation. In answer to the kindly, " What is 
 it that you wish .? " with which Christ replies to 
 her vague request, she at length makes known 
 
198 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvii 
 
 the high ambition she cherishes for her sons. 
 " Command that these my two sons shall sit, one 
 at your right hand and the other at your left, in 
 your kingdom." She is an ambitious woman, but 
 her motherhood has made her unselfish. She 
 aspires to the highest, she aims at the stars. 
 Nothing short of the highest will satisfy her, but 
 it is for her boys and not for herself that she 
 pleads. If she can attain for them the place next 
 the King, she is content to prostrate herself in the 
 dust at His feet. With a true mother's pride in 
 her sons, she has no doubt as to their qualifications. 
 Like a true woman of the East, she has equally no 
 doubt as to the ease with which the King can grant 
 her request. A word from Him and the position 
 is theirs : He has but to command and it is done. 
 It is the peak of the ideal bathed in the glory of 
 sunshine, upon which her eyes are fixed. The 
 valley of realisation, in which is the Gethsemane 
 of agony, and the Golgotha of a shameful death, 
 are mercifully hidden from her sight. The 
 mother's eyes can perceive a future for her sons 
 which fills her heart with joy. The future of 
 attainment through which the sons will have to 
 pass would break her heart. If the mother has no 
 foresight, the sons have no future. If the mother 
 has no aspirations for her children, the children 
 receive no inspiration from the mother. She must 
 see enough to inspire them, not too much to 
 daunt them. 
 
XVII AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER 199 
 
 Christ is touched by the mother's earnestness ; 
 her lofty but unselfish ambition, coupled as it is 
 with so much simplicity, moves His compassion. 
 He sees His own mother's face glowing with 
 pride and joy, and He foresees that same face 
 smitten with grief as she stands at the cross 
 weeping. There is infinite tenderness in His voice 
 as He answers, " Ye know not what ye ask." The 
 disciples see nothing but an overweening ambition, 
 and their faces reveal the condemnation they 
 would fain express. Christ sees a noble aspiration 
 worthy of all commendation, and His face reflects 
 the approval He feels. He sees also, however, the 
 answer to the mother's prayer, the baptism and 
 the cup which await her sons, and His face is 
 transfigured with a Divine compassion. What 
 mother ever can foresee the strange answers which 
 await her prayers ! If she knew all that her prayer 
 means, her heart would fail her, and the prayer 
 would never be uttered. With a tender sympathy 
 for the mother's hopes. He turns to the candidates 
 for high office whom she has brought forward. 
 Their faces are flushed with eager anticipation, the 
 possibilities of greatness are perceptible, character 
 is indicated rather than defined. They are pro- 
 mising recruits from whom good service may be 
 expected, rather than veterans to whom rewards 
 must be given. " Can you drink of the cup from 
 which I am about to drink ? " He asks. " The 
 campaign is before you, the kingdom has yet to be 
 
200 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvii 
 
 won. It is not ministers whom I want for high 
 offices, but soldiers for active service. It is a 
 desperate enterprise calHng for heroic effort which 
 lies before you, not a triumphal procession. Can 
 you face the rigours of the campaign, can you follow 
 in the forlorn hope, can you shed your blood for 
 the King, and if need be lay down your life in His 
 cause ? Can you follow Him through the 
 desperate charge, stand by Him in the hour of 
 apparent defeat and ruin which awaits Him ? To 
 stand by His side in the thick of the fight, to 
 abide with Him in the hour of defeat when all 
 have forsaken Him and fled — these are the positions 
 which are possible to you. Can you occupy these ? " 
 With the ardour of youthful enthusiasm and the 
 confidence of inexperience they eagerly answer, 
 " We can." The spirit is undoubtedly willing, 
 though the future may show that the flesh is weak. 
 Campaigns, however, are more often won by the 
 willingness of the spirit than lost by the weakness 
 of the flesh. The flesh may be responsible for the 
 loss of a battle, but it is the spirit to which the 
 success of the campaign is due. Yes ! these men 
 are able. They are but recruits, and they will run 
 at the first battle, but there is the stuffs in them of 
 which veterans are made. They will sleep at their 
 post as sentries while their Leader is passing 
 through the agony of Gethsemane. The sight of 
 spear and helmet as the Roman guard marches 
 into the garden will throw them into dismay, and 
 
XVII AN AMBITIOUS MOTHER 201 
 
 before a blow is struck they will flee as arrant 
 cowards. All this true, and yet there is a latent 
 courage and a potential tenacity of purpose which 
 shall yet justify the confidence with which they 
 reply, " We can/' 
 
 Christ recognises the truth of the assertion, and 
 accepts the willingness of the spirit, though He 
 knows full well the weakness of the flesh. He 
 sees the veteran in the recruit ; He foresees the 
 triumph of the spirit over the flesh, and overlooks 
 the temporary triumph of the flesh over the 
 spirit. As He gives the recruit his knapsack, 
 He hides in it the Marshal's baton. *' You shall 
 indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with My 
 baptism, for that is possible to you ; but the seat 
 at My right hand and at My left, it is not for Me 
 to allot, but it will be bestowed upon those for 
 whom it has been prepared by My Father." 
 Service can be promised, but position must 
 be earned. The cross can be placed upon our 
 shoulders, but the crown must be won. The 
 travail is here, the satisfaction is there. The ideal 
 which is seen from afar must be realised before it 
 can be possessed, and its realisation involves a 
 Gethsemane and a Calvary. The place at the 
 right hand is not granted as the result of the 
 mother's prayer, it is given as the result of the 
 son's agony. It is not a favour bestowed for the 
 asking, it is an honour awarded for merit. It is 
 reserved for those for whom it is prepared ; it 
 
202 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xvii 
 
 is prepared for those by whom it is deserved. 
 Nature inspires all her children with the desire 
 for the higher place and the increased power, but 
 she awards the prize to those only who have 
 struggled for the richer and fuller life. It is the 
 elect alone who triumph, and for them the place 
 has been reserved. 
 
 The other ten disciples heard and were in- 
 dignant at the presumption of the two. They 
 were rivals for place and position, not competitors 
 for service. It was jealousy of the two, not zeal 
 for arduous service, which stirred them. They 
 coveted the seat, not the cup. Christ heard their 
 loud voices and angry tones, and calling them to 
 Him, explained the meaning of true greatness 
 and the duties of high office. In the kingdoms of 
 the world high position means self-importance, 
 and greatness means self-aggrandisement, but it 
 must not be so among you. Be ambitious for the 
 highest, but understand what the highest means. 
 Strive after greatness, but realise what true great- 
 ness is. In the kingdom of heaven the higher the 
 position the greater the service. The prince in 
 position is the bond-slave in service, just as the Son 
 of Man came not to be served, but to serve, not 
 to preserve His own life, but by the sacrifice of 
 Himself to save the world. 
 
XVIII 
 
 A LITTLE MAN WITH A LARGE HEART 
 Luke xix. i-io. 
 
 Life is full of surprises, and human nature is a 
 bundle of apparent inconsistencies. Great men 
 often manifest unaccountable meanness, and little 
 men as frequently surprise us with true greatness. 
 The heroic soul has its moments of cowardice, 
 and the coward his moments of heroism. The 
 influence of environment at one time appears to 
 be all-powerful, at another it seems to be utterly 
 ineffective. The man whose training and profes- 
 sion prophesy one thing will suddenly astonish 
 us with a display of the opposite. The man 
 whose individuality is so pronounced as to seem 
 to be beyond the reach of external circumstances, 
 will all at once fall a victim to their influence. 
 Rules and maxims which are the generalisations 
 of the widest experience, and the result of genera- 
 tions of observation, are almost as frequently 
 falsified as verified. We are compelled to admit 
 that many of our commonest proverbs are only 
 
 203 
 
204 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xviii 
 
 half-truths, and that the other half almost justifies 
 the inversion of the proverb. The explanation is 
 probably to be found in the fact that human 
 nature is not simple but complex, not a single 
 but a double. There is the ordinary, much-in- 
 evidence self, and a self which may be called the 
 subliminal self. The one usually lives on the 
 ground floor, answers the bell, and attends to 
 callers ; the other lives upstairs and spends most of 
 his time in dreaming. The most frequent callers 
 at the house, tradesmen and visitors, are well 
 acquainted with the one, but hardly know of the 
 other^s existence. It is the latter, however, who 
 is the real proprietor. As a rule he leaves matters 
 of merely mundane or diurnal interest to the 
 dweller on the ground floor, and is indifferent to 
 any complications due to his indolence that may 
 arise in the household affairs. Occasionally, how- 
 ever, he descends to the lower apartments, and 
 there asserts himself On such occasions he may 
 himself answer the door, and then perhaps the 
 visitor will receive a reception as unexpected as it 
 is startling. As Stevenson has so graphically 
 depicted in Br. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, every man 
 is more or less of a contradiction. The ordinary 
 and the subliminal self are not doubles except in 
 appearance, in nature and disposition they are 
 often the exact opposite of each other. The 
 ordinary self is the active partner in the firm, the 
 subliminal self is as a rule the sleeping partner. 
 
XVIII TRUE GREATNESS 205 
 
 It is only when the firm is passing through some 
 crisis that the sleeping partner is seen or his 
 influence felt. 
 
 The sudden conversion of Zaccheus is a case 
 of the awakening of the subliminal self and its 
 sudden assumption of the reins of government. 
 The ordinary self was Zaccheus the publican, the 
 subliminal self was Zaccheus the son of Abraham. 
 He was an Ishmael by training and profession, his 
 hand against every man and every man's hand 
 against him, but he was a son of Abraham by 
 birth. His neighbours and acquaintances knew 
 only the publican who answered the door, and 
 never dreamed of the son of Abraham within. 
 They saw the littleness and meanness of the 
 publican, and despised him accordingly. When 
 they called at the big house in which the rich 
 customs officer lived, it was the little man with the 
 mean appearance and the dirty hands who opened 
 the door and took their cards. The great man 
 with the stamp of nobility upon him was not at 
 home, and they were oblivious of his existence. 
 They called at the house as seldom as possible, 
 and confined their conversations to the conventions. 
 It was at his office that they knew Zaccheus best, 
 and in the transactions they had with him they 
 generally came off second best. All the time, 
 however, there was another Zaccheus living alone 
 in the great house, dreaming his dreams and seeing 
 his visions. Visible to the ordinary eye was the 
 
2o6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xviii 
 
 publican sitting at the receipt of custom and 
 waiting for his dues ; invisible, but none the less 
 real, was the devout Jew waiting for the con- 
 solation of Israel. 
 
 Man is a social animal, and where the social 
 instinct is confined within a narrow channel the 
 stream runs deepest. The publican found him- 
 self shunned by the ordinary Jew, and therefore he 
 naturally drew towards those who were similarly 
 treated. The feast must be given, and if those 
 who are invited refuse to come, the highways and 
 hedges must be searched to obtain the required 
 guests. The publicans found themselves forced 
 to seek society amongst their own class, and 
 consequently they were probably well known to 
 one another, even though their calling was carried 
 on in different centres. We may therefore con- 
 clude that though Zaccheus was unacquainted with 
 Christ, he was well known to Matthew, and had 
 heard much from the disciple of the Master at 
 whose call he had left all to follow Him. In pre- 
 paration for His last great journey to Jerusalem, 
 during which this interview between Christ and 
 Zaccheus took place, Jesus had sent on in advance 
 the seventy specially appointed disciples, to visit 
 every town and village which He Himself 
 intended to visit, to prepare for His coming. 
 It is extremely likely that Matthew was one of 
 the seventy, and therefore reasonable to conclude 
 that if he was one of the two who visited Jericho 
 
XVIII TRUE GREATNESS 207 
 
 in advance, he would be most probably attracted 
 to the house of his fellow publican Zaccheus. 
 There he would probably deepen the interest 
 which Zaccheus already felt in the Prophet of 
 Nazareth, and inform him of the intended visit 
 which Christ purposed paying to his town. The 
 knowledge of the ill-repute in which he was held 
 by the people generally, is quite sufficient to account 
 for Zaccheus giving no invitation to Matthew to 
 bring the Master to his house. Zaccheus would 
 never dream that the Prophet would be willing to 
 stay with him during His visit to Jericho. 
 
 The news of Christ's approach was doubtless 
 heard as Zaccheus was engaged in his public 
 business, and aroused an intense desire within him 
 to see this friend of the publican Matthew. 
 What sort of a man could this Prophet of Galilee 
 be that a publican could resign his lucrative office 
 and become His disciple ? He was at least a man 
 worth looking at. The thronging crowds, how- 
 ever, hid Him from view, and the procession 
 passed on without his being able to satisfy his 
 curiosity. He became conscious of his littleness 
 perhaps for the first time. The handicap of 
 nature, however, can be overcome by artifice, and 
 running on in advance of the crowd to a place 
 where the procession must pass, he climbed up 
 into a sycamore tree by the roadside, and eagerly 
 awaited the arrival of the Master and His 
 disciples. As they drew near Matthew's quick 
 
2o8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xviii 
 
 eye detected his old friend, and he probably drew 
 Christ's attention to the man about whom he had 
 doubtless spoken on his return from his mission. 
 This simple explanation of Christ's subsequent 
 action not only makes the scene far more living 
 and natural, but invests it with a richer meaning. 
 Where a natural explanation is possible, a super- 
 natural should never be supposed. It is not any 
 abnormally keen sight on Christ's part, nor any 
 supernatural knowledge of the name of a man 
 whom He has never seen before, which are the 
 significant features in the narrative. It is the 
 insight into character and the knowledge of the 
 man's nature which are the distinguishing features. 
 The crowd saw nothing but a little man taking 
 advantage of a good position to secure a better sight 
 than his neighbours. Christ saw a great soul trying 
 to overcome the disadvantages of birth and training. 
 If the neighbours saw the symbolical at all, they 
 passed by with the remark that it was just like the 
 publican : what he could not gain in one way he 
 would get in another — if not by fair means, then 
 by foul. Christ saw the symbol and interpreted it 
 with the sympathy of insight. Here was a man 
 greater than his environment, a soul capable of 
 high attainments, a nature susceptible to deep im- 
 pressions. The man had been misjudged all his 
 life, and his life had been a response to the false 
 opinion expressed. The Jews had despised him, 
 and he had made them pay for it in extortion ; 
 
XVIII TRUE GREATNESS 209 
 
 they had withheld from him what was his due, 
 and he had made them pay more than they owed. 
 They had appealed to the worst in his nature, and 
 the worst had answered their expectations. They 
 had treated him with scorn, and he had replied 
 by treating their opinion with contempt. The 
 true Zaccheus had retired more and more within 
 the house, and left the management of his affairs 
 to his major-domo. It was the true Zaccheus, 
 however, who had come out that day, and seeing 
 him, Christ stopped, and looking up, said, "Zac- 
 cheus, come down quickly, for I intend to stay at 
 your house to-day." 
 
 With that sympathetic insight which charac- 
 terised Him, Christ knows what the man really 
 needs, and with the delicacy of fine sentiment 
 expresses as His own sentiment what He knows 
 Zaccheus wishes, but fears to ask. Instead of 
 being perched up in a tree to get a passing glance, 
 he shall sit at his own table with the Prophet at 
 his right hand. In place of contempt and scorn, 
 he shall know that One at least regards him as a 
 friend, treats him as a man and not as a publican, 
 recognises him as a son of Abraham and an heir 
 of the promises. 
 
 Hastily Zaccheus descends, and, with a heart 
 overflowing with the joy of unaccustomed respect, 
 conducts Christ to his house. It is not the little 
 man with the mean appearance and the dirty hands 
 who meets the Prophet of Nazareth at the great 
 
2IO CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xviii 
 
 house. It is the proprietor himself who stands on 
 the steps and welcomes his honoured guest. The 
 crowd, however, cannot see the man for the 
 publican. Their feelings are shocked, their sense 
 of propriety outraged. " He is gone to be the 
 guest of a man who is a notorious and hardened 
 sinner," they exclaim in indignation. Zaccheus 
 hears the contemptuous tones and the abusive 
 words, but they do not affect the proprietor as 
 they did the major-domo. He is indifferent to 
 the reproach himself, for he feels that it is 
 deserved, but he is anxious that none should reach 
 his guest. " Here and now. Master," he says, 
 turning to Christ, " I give half of my property to 
 the poor, and if I have extorted money from any 
 man, I restore fourfold." The real owner has at 
 last been aroused, and has taken charge of his own 
 affairs. The old major-domo is dismissed on the 
 spot. In place of the mean, grasping hand of the 
 publican, there is here the large-handed generosity 
 of the human heart which feels for the poor. 
 Instead of the extortion of the one, there is the 
 liberal restitution of the other. The generosity 
 of Christ has awakened generosity in Zaccheus ; 
 the appeal to the best in him has called forth the 
 highest of which he is capable. The unmerited 
 honour which Christ has bestowed upon him has 
 made him suddenly deserving, and there is no 
 house in Jericho more fitting to receive the Saviour 
 of Israel than the house of Zaccheus, to which 
 
XVIII TRUE GREATNESS 211 
 
 salvation has veritably come. " To-day," Christ 
 answers, " salvation has come to this house, seeing 
 that he too is a son of Abraham." He has heard 
 what the people said, as well as what Zaccheus has 
 promised. This man has received not only the 
 Prophet of Nazareth, but the salvation of Israel. 
 " He has gone to be the guest of a notorious and 
 hardened sinner." Why, they do not know their 
 own townsman, though he has lived among them 
 all his life ! The so-called hardened sinner is 
 giving half his goods to feed the poor. The 
 grasping publican is restoring fourfold. He is 
 showing a princely generosity and the righteous- 
 ness of an Abraham. The old line is not extinct, 
 for in the veins of Zaccheus is the blood of 
 Abraham. There is even a ring in the voice of 
 Zaccheus as he promises to restore fourfold which 
 reminds us of his great ancestor answering the 
 king of Sodom : " I will not take a thread nor a 
 shoe-latchet, nor aught that is thine, lest thou 
 shouldest say, I have made Abram rich." A son 
 of Abraham he is, though there is a touch of the 
 bondwoman as well. The freewoman's jealousy 
 and scorn had turned him out of his home and 
 made an Ishmael of him, with his hand against 
 every man, and every man's hand against him. 
 The royal blood, however, is in his veins, and the 
 princely spirit was in his heart all the time. It 
 needed but to be called forth, and the kingly 
 generosity of One after the order of Melchizedek 
 
212 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xviii 
 
 had summoned it into activity. In going to be the 
 guest of a man who was a hardened sinner, Christ 
 had fulfilled the object of His mission, for He had 
 come to seek and to save that which was lost. 
 The younger son had come to himself, and was 
 already in the Father's home. The elder brother 
 might be angry if he chose, but the Father would 
 find a sufficient answer in the fact that His son 
 who was dead was alive again. His child who was 
 lost was found. 
 
XIX 
 
 A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 
 Matt. xxi. 23-46 ; Mark xi. 27-33 > Luke xx. 1-19. 
 
 From his earliest days man has been a labour- 
 saving animal. This, in fact, has been his distin- 
 guishing feature, and one of the greatest factors 
 in the progress he has made. He has invented 
 instruments to save the labour of his hands, and 
 constructed rules and formulas to save the labour 
 of his head. Most of his superiority over the 
 animal has come from this capacity, and he has 
 been justly proud of the benefits it has conferred 
 upon him. He has been compelled, however, to 
 recognise that certain domains in which his activi- 
 ties have been engaged have persistently defied 
 all attempts to dispense with either the work of 
 his hands or the efforts of his brain. Art and 
 Religion have more or less refused to be brought 
 within the sphere of this labour-saving capacity. 
 Pictures and poems cannot be turned out by 
 machinery ; religious thought and feeling cannot 
 be manufactured to order. They must be free 
 
 213 
 
214 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 and spontaneous or they are lifeless, and being 
 lifeless they are of necessity valueless. They must 
 be stamped with individuality or they are worth- 
 less. When Art is fettered it becomes artificial ; 
 when Religion is regulated it becomes mere ritual. 
 In the domain of Art the influence of a school must 
 be educative, in the etymological meaning of that 
 word. If it becomes tyrannical, it destroys the 
 Art it was intended to foster. In the domain of 
 Religion, when Ecclesiasticism, instead of fostering, 
 fetters the life of the Church, it destroys the body 
 it was meant to preserve ; when systems and 
 creeds, instead of stimulating, stifle thought and 
 act as an anaesthetic upon feeling, they betray the 
 faith they were designed to guard. Both Art and 
 Religion are essentially manifestations of life, not 
 articles of manufacture. If they are to be vital 
 they must grow and develop, each after its kind, 
 and not according to any superimposed pattern or 
 model. They must absorb the light of inspiration, 
 breathe the air of perfect freedom, and draw their 
 nourishment from the rich soil of the emotions. 
 What is true of the productions themselves is true 
 of the criticism pronounced upon them. They 
 must be judged, not by any conformity to precon- 
 ceived canons and prescribed regulations, but solely 
 on the ground of their possession of life — life 
 which is true, and life which is beautiful. They 
 are all alike attempts to realise the ideal, and 
 therefore the true test of their value is not by 
 
XIX A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 215 
 
 comparison with other attempts, but by the 
 measure in which they approach the ideal. Each 
 must be compared with the ideal, — that pattern 
 which is only revealed on the Mount, — and there- 
 fore true criticism must never be stereotyped. 
 
 The two spheres of Art and Religion, however, 
 represent a very small segment of the circle of 
 human activity, and the Masters are the elect few 
 of the race. While man has been compelled to 
 regard these spheres as special preserves into which 
 only the few could enter, he has not so readily recog- 
 nised that the sphere of true criticism is similarly 
 restricted, and the critic is equally an elect soul. 
 The true critic no less than the true poet must be 
 born, and not made. If the poem is an inspiration, 
 the criticism must be a revelation. To such depths, 
 however, has criticism been degraded and our 
 conceptions debased, that the most worthless 
 criticism is that which we characterise as inspired. 
 Religion, however, has a much wider sphere than 
 Art, since it is only the few who profess an interest 
 in the latter, while all are more or less concerned 
 with the former. For every art critic there are a 
 thousand religious critics. The tendency therefore 
 to apply regulations and rules in the judgment 
 passed upon productions in the domain of religion 
 has been far more widespread, and consequently 
 far more mischievous. Select bodies have been 
 established to whom has been remitted all criticism 
 in the sphere of Religion, and whose judgments 
 
2i6 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 have been accepted as final. These in turn have 
 adopted their own regulations and standards by 
 which to judge all the questions submitted to them, 
 and have rigorously imposed their decisions on 
 their followers. The result has invariably been the 
 decay of all real life within the organisation, and 
 the suppression of all attempts at revival. Religion, 
 like Art, however, cannot be bound. Bonds are 
 sooner or later broken asunder, the religious 
 instincts of men recognise the living truth in spite 
 of ban and censure. Authority which is assumed 
 has to give place to the authority which is innate. 
 The living voice is more potent than the dead 
 hand. The body which arrogates to itself the 
 right to question has itself to submit to the greater 
 right of being questioned. If it cannot justify the 
 authority it claims, it will receive no answer to the 
 question it asks. 
 
 Christ's public entry into Jerusalem, followed 
 by the cleansing of the Temple, and the open 
 teaching within its sacred courts, naturally aroused 
 the resentment of the religious authorities who felt 
 themselves to be in supreme charge of the religious 
 interests of their nation. Here was one who 
 ignored their official position, invaded their special 
 province, and taught without their special per- 
 mission. They saw their power over the people 
 slipping from their grasp, their place rocking 
 beneath their feet, and their authority fast becom- 
 ing a dead letter. This obscure provincial had 
 
XIX A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 217 
 
 taken the capital by storm, and the people were 
 following Him in crowds. Who was He, and 
 what credentials could He produce ? What right 
 had He to the position He was taking ? Whence 
 did He derive the authority He was assuming ? 
 Filled with a sense of their own importance, and 
 keenly sensitive to the due exercise of their 
 authority, it was natural that they should demand 
 credentials from one who acted as though He were 
 beyond their jurisdiction. A deputation therefore 
 of the chief priests and elders of the people came 
 to Him as He was engaged in teaching in the 
 Temple, and asked Him by what authority He 
 was acting as He did, and who had given Him 
 this authority. They were themselves accustomed 
 to rely upon authority for everything they did. 
 Religion to them was an elaborate ritual, minutely 
 prescribed by recognised authorities. They re- 
 garded a teacher as one who had been definitely 
 instructed in the schools, and duly licensed by the 
 ruling authorities. They demanded therefore that 
 He should justify His conduct and produce His 
 credentials. 
 
 Christ replies by asking another question. His 
 method, however, is by no means an evasion of a 
 difficulty, it has a definite object in view. Their 
 question is not meant to elicit information, it is a 
 demand that He shall justify action which they 
 repudiate. They do not come to Him to learn, 
 they come to judge. They are not pupils but 
 
2i8 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 examiners. His question therefore is directed to 
 their qualifications for the position they have 
 assumed. They have demanded His diploma ; 
 can they read it if it is shown them ? They have 
 asked for His authority ; can they recognise one 
 when they see it .? They pose as examiners ; have 
 they passed any examination themselves in the 
 subject about which they propose to question Him? 
 " I also will ask you a question," He replies, " and 
 demand an answer. When you have given the 
 answer, I will tell you by what authority I act, and 
 by whom I am accredited. The ministry of John 
 the Baptist, — was it from heaven, or from men ^ 
 Answer me that." They have questioned His 
 authority, they shall first feel it. If they have a 
 right to ask Him for His diploma. He has a right 
 to find out whether they can decipher it. They 
 profess to be able to judge the validity of His 
 authority ; let them first prove that they have 
 recognised as valid an authority which they have 
 already seen. They sent their deputations to the 
 Baptist, and they received their answer. How did 
 they read it ? What did they make of him and 
 his ministry ? Had they recognised the King's 
 seal and signature on the document the herald had 
 brought them ? If so, the credentials of Him 
 whom the herald announced would be intelligible 
 to them. 
 
 The challenge with which they were suddenly 
 confronted could not be evaded. They had 
 
XIX A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 219 
 
 assumed their robes of state, and arrayed them- 
 selves in the insignia of office. The people whose 
 leaders they professed to be, and whose interests 
 they were supposed to guard, were all around 
 them waiting for their reply. Many in the crowd 
 had caught a glimpse of the document the herald 
 had produced, and had their own ideas of the 
 treatment he had received. The haughty look on 
 the faces of priests and elders is exchanged for one 
 of confusion and perplexity ; the imperious tones 
 give place to hurried whisperings. They find 
 themselves on the horns of a dilemma, from which 
 all their writhing and twisting will not extricate 
 them. ** From heaven," suggests one, only to be 
 fiercely answered by another, " NO, NO, or He 
 will say. Why did you not believe him.? " "From 
 men," whispers a second, only to be warned by 
 another to beware of the stones of an exasperated 
 mob. "They reasoned with one another," but 
 were deaf to the still, small voice of their own 
 consciences. They recoiled from hearing the 
 condemnation from His lips which the one answer 
 was sure to produce ; they shrank in abject 
 cowardice from the hurtling stones of the people, 
 which the other answer would just as certainly 
 bring upon their unprotected heads. The Prophet 
 whom they have despised calmly awaits their reply ; 
 the crowd in whose midst they stand is showing 
 signs of impatience. In sullen tones they choose 
 rather to confess their ignorance than encounter 
 
220 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 His condemnation, or face an angry crowd of 
 excited partisans of the Baptist. The answer, " We 
 cannot tell," at length comes from their reluctant 
 lips. They are compelled to confess that they 
 have asked to see a document which they are 
 unable to read. They have demanded to see a 
 seal and a signature which when shown to them 
 they cannot recognise. They have been brought 
 face to face with a reality, and the tests which they 
 have so constantly applied to shams are useless. 
 They have demanded the authority for His ministry, 
 and they are suddenly asked to give their judgment 
 on the ministry of a man who has proved himself 
 to be a prophet of God. They are asked what 
 they know of real credentials, not of spurious 
 imitations. They have asked for authority from 
 man, and they are confronted with approval from 
 God ; they have asked to see a license from a 
 human tribunal, and they are referred to a Divine 
 commission which has already been presented to 
 them. They come to examine, and they are 
 forced to acknowledge that they have themselves 
 failed to pass the preliminary examination. They 
 are robed as leaders and guides of the people, and 
 yet they cannot say what the least instructed in 
 the crowd can tell them, namely, that John was a 
 prophet sent from God. 
 
 Christ hears the words, but detects the falsehood 
 which they conceal. Their answer is the lie 
 dictated by shame and fear. Cannot ! let them say 
 
XIX A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 221 
 
 what they mean, — will not ! It is not that these 
 chief priests and elders of the people cannot read, 
 it is that they will not speak. It is not mental 
 ignorance, but moral obliquity from which they 
 are suffering. For the one He has infinite pity, 
 for the other He has the scorn of a noble mind. 
 If they were blind He could feel compassion ; 
 that they wilfully shut their eyes fills Him with 
 indignation. They are not unable to answer, they 
 are unwilling. He too can also be unwilling. 
 '' Neither will I tell you by what authority I act as 
 I do." Of what use is it to speak to ears which 
 are wilfully shut, or to show to eyes which are 
 wilfully closed. John's credentials should have 
 been a safe-conduct rendering his person inviolable, 
 yet they had allowed him to be cruelly done to 
 death at the instigation of an adulteress. With 
 men who have so shamefully treated His messenger 
 the Messiah will refuse to parley. 
 
 Christ has not yet done with them, however. 
 They will not answer a plain and straightforward 
 question, but an answer He means to extract from 
 them. They have concealed their real thought 
 under words of deceit, but He will get it out of 
 them in spite of themselves. If they will not 
 answer directly they shall do so indirectly. 
 " What is your opinion," He asks them, " of a 
 case like this." In one of those living pictures 
 which He could sketch in a few sentences. He 
 describes two sons asked to work in their father's 
 
222 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 vineyard, and whose answers reveal their very 
 different dispositions. In the one there is the 
 blank refusal followed by the better spirit of 
 obedience, in the other the hypocritical spirit of 
 professed willingness followed by wilful disobedi- 
 ence. " Which of the two," He suddenly asks 
 them, *' did the will of his father ? " There is no 
 whispered consultation now, and unsuspectingly 
 they reply, *' The first." They have committed 
 themselves at last, and stand convicted out of 
 their own mouths. '* I solemnly assure you,'* 
 Christ answers, *' that the publicans and the harlots 
 take precedence of you in entering the kingdom 
 of heaven, which John announced, and in prepara- 
 tion for which his ministry was spent. He came 
 to you in the way of that very ceremonial righteous- 
 ness for which you profess so much reverence, and 
 yet you would not believe him. The publicans 
 and harlots, however, believed him ; but as for you, 
 even when you saw the example they set, you were 
 not even afterwards sorry, so that you too might 
 believe him to be a prophet of God.'* They have 
 asked for His authority, and now they are beginning 
 to feel it, in the uneasy prickings of conscience. 
 He has another parable which they can turn over 
 in their minds, and answer or not as they feel 
 inclined. Again the steady and skilful hand 
 rapidly traces the outline of a fresh scene. Another 
 vineyard rises before their gaze, but this time a 
 tragedy is being enacted. There are faces distorted 
 
XIX A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY 223 
 
 with rage, clubs are uplifted, and servants are 
 fleeing for their lives. The scene changes and 
 the heir himself approaches. There is a hurried 
 consultation among the husbandmen, which ends in 
 these usurpers of the son's inheritance seizing him 
 and cruelly murdering him in cold blood. Once 
 more a question is asked, " What then will the 
 owner do to these professed dressers of his vine- 
 yard ^ '* This time the chief priests and elders are 
 anticipated by the crowd, whose feelings have been 
 stirred by the recital of a dastardly crime, and 
 they finish the story to their own satisfaction. 
 " He will put the wretches to a miserable death, 
 and give his vineyard to worthier men," they cry 
 out. The temper of the crowd is sufficiently 
 evident in their reply, and priest and elder con- 
 gratulate each other with significant looks that 
 they did not commit themselves in the matter of 
 John's baptism. Turning to these professed 
 builders of Sion, Christ reminds them of the verse 
 in the Psalms, " The stone which the builders 
 rejected is become the headstone of the corner," 
 and warns them against the fate upon which they 
 are heedlessly rushing. The rejected stone may 
 prove a stumbling-block to the unwary, but it can 
 also be used as a terrible missile crushing into dust 
 the man against whom it is hurled. They may, 
 if they will, reject the Messiah of promise, and 
 deliver Him over to the Roman power to be 
 crucified as a malefactor, but the awful fate of 
 
224 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xix 
 
 Jerusalem is looming for themselves. If looks 
 could have killed, He v^ould there and then have 
 shared the fate of the heir which He has so 
 graphically described, but they are cowards at 
 heart. The temper of the crowd is too dangerous 
 to be trifled with ; so for the present they must 
 bide their time, and conceal as best they can the 
 confusion with which He has covered them. 
 
XX 
 
 PSEUDO-CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS 
 Matt. xxii. 15-22 ; Mark xii. 13-17 ; Luke xx. 20-26. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that words are common 
 property which any one is entitled to use. Words 
 are coins issued by different mints, and phrases are 
 cheques on varied banks. There ought to be an 
 unwritten, but none the less stringent law of copy- 
 right in words, so that only those who can prove 
 their right to them should be allowed to use them. 
 To debase the current coin of thought is a greater 
 crime than to debase the currency of the realm. If 
 authors and pressmen, to say nothing of the general 
 public, were liable to prosecution, how few would 
 escape conviction. The reading public, however, 
 ought to be sufficiently keen to detect the counter- 
 feit coin, and shun the man who makes a literary 
 profession by tampering with the currency of 
 thought. The cheque, however, cannot be so easily 
 detected. It has to be presented for payment before 
 it can be endorsed, — No effects. There are certain 
 words and ideas which derive all their value from 
 
 22s Q 
 
226 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xx 
 
 the bank which issues them, and the man who has 
 no account with the particular bank upon which 
 the cheque is drawn, has no right to issue it. 
 Cheques which are payable in the gold currency of 
 moral and spiritual thought should not be received 
 from men who have no account with the bank, or 
 whose cheques are drawn on a bank with which it 
 has no relations. One of the chief advantages of 
 controversy is the collection of cheques and their 
 presentation for payment. The much-talked- of 
 controversy between religion and science would 
 lose much of its bitterness if the religious writer 
 who draws cheques which are only payable in the 
 currency of scientific thought would send all such 
 cheques to the proper bank, and be particularly 
 careful not to overdraw his account. Similarly the 
 scientific writer who draws cheques only payable in 
 the currency of religious thought should be equally 
 particular to see that he has a balance at the bank 
 upon which his cheque is drawn. The two banks 
 are separate but not opposed ; the coins which 
 come from the two mints are of different metals, 
 but there is a fixed relation between them. The 
 interests of true thought demand that the language 
 currency should be honestly dealt with. The 
 counterfeit coin and the spurious cheque may 
 circulate a long time, but they are bound to be 
 exposed in the end. In the meantime, however, 
 they may have caused the ruin of many who have 
 handled them. 
 
XX A PERVERTED CONSCIENCE 227 
 
 The Pharisees who consulted with the Herodians 
 how they might entrap Christ in His conversation, 
 were adepts in the uttering of base coin and the 
 issuing of spurious cheques on the bank of thought. 
 Their action was a conspiracy, their instruments 
 consisted of counterfeit coins and spurious cheques. 
 They wished to use Him as their dupe, upon whom 
 they might palm off their counterfeits, and then 
 either expose Him to the public, or denounce Him 
 to the authorities. With the cunning of dealers 
 in deceit, they sought by flattery to bait the 
 hook by which they hoped to catch their victim. 
 " Teacher," they said, " we know that you are a 
 truthful man, and that you teach God's way in 
 truth. You care for no man's person, and are 
 indifferent to what men think. Tell us, therefore, 
 what is your real opinion. Is it lawful to pay 
 tribute to Cassar or not ? " There was something 
 sinister in the conjunction of two such opposed 
 parties as the Pharisees and the Herodians. The 
 coins which such a union issued would need very 
 careful examination. There is hardly a single 
 word which rings true. They give Him the title 
 of Teacher, hoping to represent Him as an 
 agitator ; they suggest that He speaks the truth, 
 that they may be able to charge Him with treason ; 
 they talk religion, that they may induce Him to 
 speak on politics ; they praise Him for His 
 impartiality, with the intention of convicting Him 
 of disloyalty ; they solicit a confidence, with the 
 
228 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xx 
 
 express purpose of betraying it. A common 
 religious hatred has swamped for the time being 
 their mutual political enmity. They have each 
 united to ask a question for the very purpose of 
 betraying to the other side the very man who, by 
 His answer, shows that He agrees with them. 
 If His answer shows that He is at one with the 
 Pharisee, the Pharisee will joyfully hand Him^over 
 to the Herodian. If it shows Him in agreement 
 with the Herodian, the Herodian will as gladly 
 betray Him to the Pharisee. The chief priests and 
 elders who had been so discomfited by Christ's 
 question as to the baptism of John, had been struck 
 with the skill by which He had impaled them on 
 the horns of a dilemma. Could they not turn the 
 tables upon Him, and by the use of a cunningly 
 contrived question, place Him in a similar position ^ 
 They constructed their question accordingly, and 
 sent their disciples along with the Herodians, while 
 they waited with eagerness to see upon which of 
 the horns of their dilemma He would impale 
 Himself 
 
 There is the withering scorn of an honest heart, 
 and the righteous contempt of a clear intellect, for 
 the knavery on the one hand, and the obtuseness 
 on the other. " Hypocrites ! Why are you trying 
 to trap Me ? Your disguise is too transparent ; 
 the net is openly spread in the sight of the bird. 
 Pharisee ! and condescending to argue on such a 
 question as paying tribute to Caesar ! Follower of 
 
XX A PERVERTED CONSCIENCE 229 
 
 the party of Herod ! that puppet of Rome ! and 
 questioning the legality of paying taxes ! " The 
 fraud is too evident, the masks instead of conceal- 
 ing, reveal the features. The carefully constructed 
 dilemma is too manifest, the horns are too 
 prominent and naked. " Show Me the current 
 coin. Lawful ? Tribute ? Cassar ? There is not 
 a single coin which you have brought which is 
 genuine. What is your idea of lawful ? What do 
 you mean by tribute ? Who is the Cassar to whom 
 it is to be paid,'^" He knows them too well to 
 allow them to substitute other counterfeits for 
 those which He has detected. "Show Me the money 
 that passes current, which does not depend upon 
 your imprimatur. Let Me see the thought with 
 which you deal day by day, not the words you use 
 in the tricks of your trade." The answer is no clever 
 and ingenious evasion. He might fairly and honour- 
 ably decline to answer a question which they had no 
 right to ask, and which He had no need to answer. 
 He will not, however, even appear to shuffle a 
 difficulty, far less follow their example in the matter 
 of John's baptism, and retreat under cover of a 
 cowardly lie. There is an answer which it behoves 
 these men to know, a lesson they need to be taught. 
 His eye, however, is too keen to pass a spurious 
 cheque, His ear is too acute to fail to detect the 
 false ring of a counterfeit coin. With the un- 
 rivalled skill of a perfect master in the art of 
 teaching, He first elicits from the pupil the 
 
230 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xx 
 
 meaning of his question. What was their concep- 
 tion of the words they used ? Lawful ? What 
 did they mean by it ? How did they use it in their 
 daily life ? They sought to pose as conscientious 
 objectors. Where was this tender conscience of 
 theirs in the daily duties. Was it asleep when the 
 advantages of the Roman Government manifested 
 itself in the privileges and comforts of their 
 business and social life, and only awake when the 
 tax-collector demanded his dues } What was the 
 current coin of which they availed themselves in 
 the ordinary affairs of life } This would define 
 their real conception of the lawful and the unlawful. 
 Let them produce the current coin of the bank 
 upon which they issued their cheque, and then its 
 true value could be ascertained. 
 
 Abashed by the quickness with which He had 
 detected the object of their temporary union, and 
 the purpose of their question, but still confident 
 in the skilfulness with which their question had 
 been constructed, they produced the denarius of the 
 Roman Empire. " Whose likeness and superscrip- 
 tion is this } " He asks them. It was a coin, 
 not a mere piece of metal. It was stamped and 
 inscribed with an authority which guaranteed its 
 value. Their cheque had come back from the 
 bank, and the current coin of the Roman Empire 
 was in His hand. It was the coin they used in 
 their daily life, its authority was that upon which 
 they relied in all their transactions. They recog- 
 
XX A PERVERTED CONSCIENCE 231 
 
 nised its value, and demanded a just equivalent in 
 exchange for it. It was legal tender, and they 
 used it as such. It was legal, however, because of 
 the likeness and superscription which was stamped 
 upon it. They not only availed themselves of the 
 privilege it conferred upon them as a medium of 
 exchange, they equally took advantage of the 
 political rights and privileges which their relation 
 to the Emperor, whose image it bore, brought to 
 them. They were not conscientious objectors who 
 refused to take Government aid, but political 
 defaulters who refused to pay for the aid they had 
 already taken. They relied upon Caesar's authority 
 for the value of the money they used ; they ques- 
 tioned his authority to demand from them in 
 return a moiety for the upkeep of that authority. 
 Christ's question draws out from their reluctant 
 lips the answer which convicts them of incon- 
 sistency and insincerity. They are compelled to 
 reply, " Cassar's." Their word — lawful — has come 
 back with the impress of Cassar upon it. Tribute 
 has been returned with the superscription of con- 
 tribution written upon it. Cassar means, as they 
 will in a few days openly boast, that they have no 
 king but Caesar. The question they have asked 
 is thus taken out of the region of politics and 
 brought into the domain of ethics. Is it lawful to 
 take something for nothing? Is it allowable to 
 accept Government aid and refuse to pay taxes ? 
 The answer is incontrovertible. " Render unto 
 
232 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xx 
 
 Cassai* what is Caesar's. Having taken the privi- 
 leges, assume the responsibilities. Having defined 
 your conception of what is lawful, keep to it. 
 If it is lawful to take Caesar's doles, it is lawful, 
 and indeed imperative, to pay Caesar's dues." The 
 man whose current coin for right is expediency, 
 has no right to draw cheques on the bank of con- 
 science. They will inevitably be returned with 
 the fatal endorsement, — No effects. The man 
 whose conscience does not forbid him taking a 
 Government grant, cannot honestly put forward 
 a conscientious objection to paying Government 
 taxes. 
 
 They have secured a categorical answer to their 
 question, but not such as they anticipated. They 
 have got one of the two answers they expected, 
 but in such a way that they can make no use of it. 
 Instead of convicting Him of insurrection, they 
 have convicted themselves of inconsistency. They 
 have covered themselves with the very confusion 
 with which they had hoped to cover Him. They 
 can neither justify themselves nor can they entangle 
 Him. Later on they will unblushingly perjure 
 themselves by boldly declaring that He taught that 
 it was not lawful to pay tribute, but at present they 
 are too dumbfounded at His reply to say a word. 
 He does not, however, leave them with the answer 
 to the question they have asked. He answers the 
 question which they had no intention of asking. 
 *' Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God 
 
XX A PERVERTED CONSCIENCE 233 
 
 what is God's'' To these pseudo-conscientious 
 objectors He has a word to say about that con- 
 science for which they profess so much reverence. 
 There is another kind of tribute-money which 
 bears a very different image and superscription. 
 He too will ask them a question, not with any 
 intention of entrapping them in their speech, but 
 in honesty and sincerity of heart. "Is it right to 
 pay tribute to hate and malice ^ " He can produce 
 the tribute-money of the true King, the current 
 coin of His own daily life. The conception of 
 right is that which bears the image and super- 
 scription of the King of Kings. How does the 
 bitter hate and malice of their own hearts stand in 
 relation to the law of loving their neighbour as 
 themselves ? How does their refusal to accept 
 the truth, stand in relation to the law of loving 
 God with all their heart and soul and mind and 
 strength ^. How does their whole life, with all 
 the blessing they receive from on high, stand in 
 relation to their refusal to render back that which 
 belongs to God ^ They are quibbling about the 
 legality of paying taxes to Cassar whose money 
 they use, and on whose authority and power their 
 national existence depends. What of the tribute 
 that is due to God for their religious and spiritual 
 privileges ? If it is lawful to give to Caesar what 
 is Caesar's, is it right to withhold from God what 
 is God's } Will they strain out the gnat and 
 swallow the camel .? The appeal is to their own 
 
234 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xx 
 
 consciences, and it is unanswerable. They heard 
 and were amazed ; they listened and were dumb. 
 The conspiracy has failed, the base coin of their 
 thought is returned to their hands. Instead of 
 separating with mutual congratulations, the union 
 is dissolved in silence, and Pharisee and Herodian 
 go each their own way, amazed at the consummate 
 ease with which the Galilean Peasant has extricated 
 Himself from the net they had so cunningly woven 
 to entrap Him. His appeal to their conscience 
 has been in vain, for it is seared as with a hot 
 iron. In a few days they will accomplish by wilful 
 perjury what they have failed to do by the cunning 
 of deceit, and will confidently affirm that He 
 declared it was unlawful to give tribute to 
 Caesar. "They left Him and went their way." 
 Shame and confusion drove them away, hatred and 
 malice directed their steps. They would confront 
 Him once more with a lie on their lips and murder 
 in their hearts, and joyfully acknowledge Caesar's 
 authority if only Pilate will deliver Jesus into their 
 hands. They will hesitate to go into the judg- 
 ment hall lest they should be defiled, but they will 
 eagerly cry, " His blood be upon us and our 
 children." 
 
XXI 
 
 POSITIVISTS 
 Matt. xxii. 23-33 ; Mark xil. 18-27 5 Luke xx. 27-40. 
 
 Men form opinions, but opinions also form men. 
 The one is the reflex action of the other. While 
 it is unfair to judge any man by his opinions, the 
 influence of his opinions, which is seen in his 
 character, will always either justify or condemn 
 the man. Opinion merely indicates the type of 
 mind, the power of correct or incorrect reasoning 
 which the man possesses. The reflex action of his 
 opinions shows his character, the kind of man 
 he actually is. Opinion belongs to the mental, 
 character to the moral plane. Opinion is subject 
 to criticism, character comes up for judgment. 
 On the mental plane freeciom to speculate is liberty 
 to think for oneself ; on the moral plane freedom 
 to experiment is license to live for oneself. The 
 reason of humanity protects itself on the mental 
 plane by means of its logic. The conscience of 
 humanity vindicates itself on the moral plane by 
 means of its categorical imperatives. Errors in 
 
 23s 
 
236 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxi 
 
 opinion are suits which must be filed in the civil 
 court of the Reason ; errors in character are 
 criminal cases which must be brought before the 
 bar of Conscience. In the one court the claims 
 are adjudicated ; in the other the man is acquitted 
 or condemned. 
 
 Opinions, however, are not merely passive, they 
 are active as well. It is in this latter capacity that 
 they are often aiders and abettors, accomplices or 
 accessories before the act, and as such are liable to 
 prosecution in the criminal court of Conscience. 
 There is a relation between opinion and conduct 
 in some cases, of which the conscience of humanity 
 cannot be oblivious. It regards the world as 
 subject to a moral government, as designed for 
 moral ends, and therefore it judges of things by 
 their effects. It holds that the true is the beautiful 
 in the sphere of mind, and that the beautiful is the 
 true in the sphere of morals. It concludes there- 
 fore that what is true on the mental plane must be 
 beautiful on the moral plane, and vice versa. In 
 cases in which the result is pronounced this is fully 
 recognised. The Indian Government, whose toler- 
 ance is unquestioned, condemned the religious 
 opinion of the Hindus with regard to Suttee, 
 because of this connection between opinion and 
 conduct. The conduct outraged the moral sense, 
 and therefore no argument based on liberty of 
 religious belief was admissible. When esoteric 
 belief translates itself into exoteric ritual, it emerges 
 
XXI 
 
 POSITIVISTS 237 
 
 from the mental to the moral plane, and becomes 
 amenable to the moral tribunal. In cases, however, 
 which are not so pronounced the same feeling is 
 present, though it manifests itself in a different 
 way. Beliefs must always be more or less judged 
 by their tendencies and influences. Humanity 
 is more practical than theoretical. The rule of 
 thumb is more often used than the mathematical 
 formula ; the distance is more often stepped than 
 measured. Men are more inclined to accept an 
 opinion as true, which produces a character which 
 is beautiful, than the reverse. Just as that which 
 makes for life in the physical realm is stamped with 
 Nature's approval, so that which makes for a richer 
 life is stamped with Humanity's approval. Where 
 a mathematical demonstration is impossible, a moral 
 conviction has an imperative value. What the 
 Pure Reason may be forced to reject, the Practical 
 Reason is forced to accept. There are some truths 
 which are arrived at by a process of deduction, 
 there are others which the mind seizes and clings 
 to by intuition. Just as instinct in the animal is 
 the forerunner of reason in the man, so intuition 
 may be the forerunner of a higher reason yet to be 
 evolved. The belief in immortality is not the 
 result of a deductive process of the reason, it is an 
 intuition of the soul which abundantly justifies 
 itself by the results it produces in character and 
 life. It is not a desire for mere existence ; it is a 
 striving for a richer and fuller life. Evolution has 
 
238 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxi 
 
 shown us that Nature does not deceive her children, 
 but that she always has a satisfaction for the desire 
 she creates. The striving is the earnest of the 
 attainment ; the anticipation is the prophecy of a 
 fulfilment. If she teaches us anything, she teaches 
 that life is an ascent to a higher and ever higher 
 manifestation. She always has a goal to be 
 attained, and she inspires her children by planting 
 within them the aspiration for something yet 
 beyond. She is herself responsible for the belief 
 in immortality, and unless she is false to all our 
 knowledge of her working, she must fulfil the 
 desire she has implanted. 
 
 The Sadducees who came to Christ with their 
 question about the Resurrection, were materialists 
 whose creed had coarsened and not refined them. 
 The Sadducee was the Positivist of the pre- 
 Christian era, who rigidly excluded from his belief 
 everything outside the range of sense perception. 
 As a party they were intensely religious and 
 moral. If the deputation who waited upon Christ, 
 however, is fairly representative of the class, we are 
 forced to conclude that their view of life was a 
 distinctly low one. Their lack of faith in 
 immortality had degraded their conception of 
 human life to that of mere animal existence. 
 They were keenly ahve to animal instincts, but 
 dead to those higher instincts of the soul which 
 differentiate man from the animal. In con- 
 templating a future life, therefore, they conceived 
 
XXI POSITIVISTS 239 
 
 of it merely as a continuation of the physical, not 
 as a richer and fuller life of the spiritual. In 
 place of the sublime they saw only the ridiculous, 
 and they accordingly sought to confute the belief 
 by reducing it to an absurdity. " Teacher,'' they 
 said, '' Moses enjoined that if a man should die 
 childless, his brother should marry his widow, and 
 raise up a family for him. Now we had among 
 us seven brothers. The eldest married, but died 
 childless, leaving his wife to his brother. So also 
 did the second and the third, down to the seventh. 
 After surviving them all, the woman also died. 
 At the resurrection, therefore, to which of the 
 seven will she belong, for they all married her.^" 
 Their reference to the Law is not merely to give 
 legality to the supposed action of the brothers, it is 
 intended to emphasise what in their opinion was 
 the only immortality the Law taught, namely, the 
 immortality of the family. The law was instituted 
 to secure that the family should not become extinct. 
 Their contention, therefore, is that the belief 
 in individual immortality is not only an absurdity, 
 but is in contradiction to the direct teaching of 
 the Law. The reductio ad ahsurdum is a legiti- 
 mate form of argument, but the user must be 
 careful that the absurdity is in the conclusion 
 deduced, and not in the premisses assumed. The 
 sublime may appear to be the ridiculous, but it 
 may be entirely due to the transfiguring medium. 
 The mind which perceives, may be like a concave 
 
240 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxi 
 
 or convex mirror, which distorts the object 
 presented to it. These men had not faithfully 
 reflected the belief in immortality, they had 
 distorted it ; the belief did not produce the 
 difficulty, they invented it. They were not 
 anxious to understand another's position, they 
 were simply desirous of ridiculing it. 
 
 There is a dignity in Christ's answer, and a 
 refinement in His manner of dealing with the 
 question, which are in marked contrast with the 
 coarseness of His interviewers. He recognises that 
 their plane of thought is different from His own, 
 that their conception of life needs elevating and 
 ennobling. Their coarseness is due to ignorance 
 both of the Scriptures they profess to read, and of 
 the power of the God they profess to worship. 
 They do not realise that the particular law which 
 they quote was instituted to ensure the preservation 
 of the nation for its mission in the world. Their 
 view is bounded by the present : they cannot see 
 the difference between the temporary and the 
 eternal, the physical and the spiritual. They have 
 no conception of any higher life than that of 
 sensual gratification and self-propagation. They 
 need to be reminded that there is a higher and 
 richer life, like that of the angels in Heaven, who 
 live to serve, and who in service find a perpetual 
 joy. The future life is not a prolongation of the 
 physical, it is an intensification of the spiritual. It 
 is lived not on the plane of the material, but on 
 
XXI POSITIVISTS 241 
 
 that of the spiritual. The conditions of the one 
 are inapplicable to the other. " You are in error," 
 He answers, " through ignorance of the Scriptures 
 and of the power of God. For in the Resurrection, 
 men neither marry nor are women given in 
 marriage, but they are like angels in Heaven." 
 The laws which regulate earthly institutions are 
 not to be applied to heavenly conditions. The 
 relation between spirits cannot be judged by means 
 of the relation between bodies, any more than the 
 relations between atoms can be applied to explain 
 the relations between individuals. The gross and 
 materialistic conception which is responsible for 
 the difficulty they invent, is not applicable to the 
 spiritual conception involved in the resurrection. 
 If they wish to understand this latter, they must 
 rid their minds of the former. The formulas of 
 physical science cannot be applied to psychical 
 phenomena. The man who does so will err 
 through not knowing what science really is. 
 These men were trying to apply the law of 
 succession designed for a life subject to death, to 
 the life which was not subject to death but was 
 immortal. The absurdity lay not in the conclusion 
 they deduced from the belief in immortality, but 
 in the premisses they constructed. 
 
 Christ is not content, however, with merely ex- 
 posing their ignorance, He seeks to convince them 
 of the truth of the belief they have assailed. His 
 argument is neither philosophical on the one hand, 
 
242 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxi 
 
 nor is it a mere verbal quibble on the other. It 
 is an appeal to the intuitions of the race. He 
 relates the belief in immortality to our knowledge 
 of the character of God, and thereby attests the 
 truth of the intuition upon which the belief is 
 based. Humanity has persistently refused to 
 regard its great men as extinct. It has deified and 
 worshipped them, but it has never really treated 
 them as though they had ceased to be. To apply 
 a scientific phrase, it has believed in the persistence 
 of force, and having recognised a force in the lives 
 of its great men, as that was manifested in their 
 earthly lives, it has instinctively felt that the force, 
 though no longer visible, was active and energising 
 elsewhere. The Sadducees might deny the truth of 
 the Resurrection, but they shared in the instincts 
 of the nation, and the nation regarded Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, as living and not dead. " But 
 that the dead rise to life again, even Moses clearly 
 implies in the passage about the Bush, where he 
 calls the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of 
 Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not a God 
 of the dead, but of the living." The instincts of 
 humanity are true intuitions. The relation which 
 subsists between God and man, and which is so 
 pronounced in the case of the spiritually great men 
 of the past, is a guarantee of their immortality. 
 If the relation is real it must be permanent. It is 
 the consciousness of man's kinship to God which 
 distinguishes him from the mere animal. He 
 
XXI POSITIVISTS 243 
 
 enters into communion and fellowship with God ; 
 he is admitted into intimate relation with the 
 Father. The character of God forbids the concep- 
 tion that having once admitted man to the intimacy 
 of friendship, He would allow the relationship to 
 be dissolved. God cannot be bereft of His 
 children ; His heart cannot be impoverished by 
 loss. It is not merely to the constitution of man's 
 nature, therefore, that Christ points as a proof of 
 his immortality, it is upon the nature of God that 
 He bases the assurance. It is not therefore so 
 much a question as to whether man's constitution 
 can survive the shock of death, as it is whether it 
 is consistent with the nature of God for Him to 
 sustain the loss. The Sadducees erred because they 
 did not recognise the power of God. They did 
 not realise that human love experiences the bitter- 
 ness of bereavement, because it has not the power 
 to recall the lost one. We refuse to believe that 
 those whom we have loved and lost are extinct, 
 or that the relationship we sustained with them 
 has exhausted itself. If we had but the power it 
 should never cease ; if their response depended 
 upon us, it would be eternal. Divine love has the 
 power ; the relationship is not that of the hold 
 of man upon God, but the hold of God upon man. 
 Love never faileth, and therefore the life of love 
 never ceaseth. God was the God of Abraham, but 
 Abraham was the friend of God. The relationship 
 was real, and therefore it was eternal. " God is not a 
 
244 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxi 
 
 God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all 
 are alive." The argument is unique, but it is 
 characteristic of Christ. It is based upon His own 
 consciousness of the relation between Himself and 
 the Father, which He knew was indissoluble. He 
 defines eternal life as the consciousness of the 
 relation of the soul to God. *' Eternal life consists 
 in this, — in knowing the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom God has sent." Christ takes therefore 
 the intuitions of the race, and interprets them in the 
 light of His own personal consciousness of the 
 relation between Himself and God. Intuitions of 
 men are the prophecy, of which His own conscious- 
 ness is the fulfilment. 
 
 The modern theory of evolution, rightly 
 interpreted, adds emphasis to these remarkable 
 words of Christ. It shows man to be the crown 
 and head of the great process of Nature. Con- 
 sciousness is his great attainment ; religion is his 
 great achievement. He alone of all creation has 
 worked his way up to a conscious relation with 
 God. That relation once established, his truer 
 and fuller life is no longer a correspondence between 
 his physical frame and its material environment ; it 
 is a correspondence between his soul and God. 
 Immortality therefore is simply the development 
 and perfection of the relation which has been 
 established. The environment of the soul is not 
 an ever-changing Matter, subject to variable forces, 
 but the Unchanging and Eternal God. While the 
 
XXI POSITIVISTS 245 
 
 old environment of his physical frame necessitated 
 sooner or later its dissolution, the new environment, 
 God, guarantees his immortality. The cause of 
 his physical death is not, strictly speaking, in him- 
 self, but in his environment ; his dissolution is the 
 result of the operation of external forces. The 
 guarantee of his continuance must be sought in a 
 new environment, — in God, in whom " we live, and 
 move, and have our being." God is not God to 
 dead and unconscious matter ; He is God to 
 conscious and living minds alone, and all such 
 minds are for ever alive to Him. 
 
XXII 
 
 A MORAL SCEPTIC 
 
 Matt, xxvii. 11-26 ; Mark xv. 1-15 ; Luke xxiii. 1-24 ; 
 John xviii. 28-xix. 16. 
 
 The examinations in the school of life are never 
 notified in advance. We are generally taken by 
 surprise, and the announcement of our success or 
 failure is, as a rule, the first intimation we receive 
 that the examination has taken place. They are 
 tests which are appHed, not to our theories of life, 
 but to our practical living ; they demonstrate, not 
 the amount of knowledge we have gained, but the 
 quality of the character we have formed. We are 
 summoned to no specified place, but the examination 
 takes place in any one of our accustomed haunts 
 of business or of pleasure. It is limited to no one 
 department of life, but may take place in any ; 
 it is confined to no particular branch of study or 
 kind of occupation, it may embrace them all, or 
 select a few, or even one. The examiners may be 
 found amongst our friends or acquaintances, or 
 even amongst our enemies, but the result is never 
 
 246 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 247 
 
 open to question. Success is often as much of a 
 surprise as failure. Everything depends upon our 
 preparedness, not for a formal examination, but 
 for a certain effort we are called upon to make. 
 Though the examination is sprung suddenly upon 
 us, it is never unfair, for it is always concerned 
 with the lessons which experience ought to have 
 taught us. Character is a perfect memory, and 
 nothing that has ever been really learned is lost. 
 Examinations are practically always taking place, 
 but it is only occasionally that something in the 
 event. itself distinguishes it as a special test, and 
 success or failure is written legibly against our 
 names. If we could only recognise that particular 
 something in the common event which is destined 
 to make it one of the test examinations of our 
 life, how careful we should be in the part we 
 played, but, alas ! for reputation so gained, it is 
 hid from our eyes. 
 
 Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry 
 Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet 
 
 earth's chaff must fly ; 
 Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment has 
 
 passed by. 
 
 The Present is not and cannot stand alone ; it is in- 
 dissolubly connected with the Past and the Future. 
 History alone has the true perspective by which to 
 judge what is relatively great or little, what is 
 of vital moment and what is of no consequence. 
 That which we have regarded as trifling, history 
 
248 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 may dignify as of supreme importance ; that which 
 we have thought great, may turn out to be 
 infinitesimal. Our only safety lies in giving heed 
 to that which is permanent and unchanging, — the 
 moral quality of our deeds ; in listening to the still 
 small voice of our own conscience, — that echo of 
 the voice of God within the soul. Truth is not 
 temporary but eternal ; right is not the expedient 
 but the just. 
 
 Whether the crisis produces the great man, or 
 the great man makes the crisis, will always be a 
 matter of dispute. Probably there is as much to 
 be said for the one contention as for the other. 
 However that may be, there is no more pitiable 
 spectacle than the conjunction of a time momentous 
 with great events, and a man or nation utterly 
 unequal to the demands which their time and place 
 make upon them. Perhaps of all the cases which 
 history records of this disparity, that of Pilate 
 stands out the most prominent. The supreme 
 event in the history of humanity is designated as 
 happening " under Pontius Pilate.'* How little 
 did he foresee when he rejoiced in his appointment 
 as Governor of Judaea, that the event which was 
 to happen during his rule, would cover his name 
 with everlasting reproach. If ever a man was 
 unprepared for a great destiny it was Pilate. One 
 cannot but feel infinite pity for the man, so utterly 
 and hopelessly incapable, who was thus suddenly 
 tried by an event destined to prove of world-wide 
 
xxn A MORAL SCEPTIC 249 
 
 significance. His failure, however, is no more and 
 no less than that of thousands like him. It has 
 wider publication because his victim was unique, 
 but as far as Pilate is concerned, his failure has 
 no more moral significance than the thousand 
 similar failures which are taking place every 
 day. He stands condemned, not for having 
 sacrificed the Christ, but for having in the 
 interests of a false expediency sacrificed his 
 conscience. His failure was not in being 
 unable to release Jesus, but in being unwilling 
 to give effect to his own judgment of acquittal. 
 His weakness is not in any intellectual scepticism 
 as to the truth, but in being unwilling through 
 cowardice to listen to the voice of the truth he 
 recognised. 
 
 All the accounts given us of Pilate^s character 
 and official administration are in the closest agree- 
 ment with the picture of the man so graphically 
 depicted in the Synoptics, and especially in the 
 Johannine Gospel. That utter contempt for the 
 Jew, expressed in his reply, "Am I a Jew ? " is 
 manifested at the very beginning of his career, 
 when he allowed his soldiers to bring into the Holy 
 City the silver eagles and other insignia of the 
 legions. Having thereby aroused the fanatical 
 passions of the people, he displays that same weak- 
 ness of character which is evident in the Gospel 
 interviews, by yielding to the tumult he had 
 himself aroused, and sending the images back again 
 
250 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxu 
 
 to Caesarea. The same disregard for religious 
 ideas of all kinds which meets us in the 
 Gospel story, is manifested in the account which 
 is given us of his application of the Temple 
 money in the construction of an aqueduct from 
 the Pools of Solomon. 
 
 Perhaps the nearest parallel that can be found 
 to the position in which Pilate found himself, is 
 that of a District Magistrate in India, who, having 
 given up all religious belief himself, is profoundly 
 contemptuous of the superstitions he finds in 
 India, and particularly irritated by the constant 
 unrest due to the fanatical spirit of Hindu and 
 Mohammedan. Such men soon find themselves 
 thwarted and hindered, misunderstood and mis- 
 judged, because from their very character and type 
 of mind they cannot understand or sympathise with 
 the people over whom they have to rule. They 
 speedily settle down into a purely selfish life, and 
 their views become both pessimistic and cynical. 
 They are hopeless of doing any good, even if they 
 have any strong wish in the matter. In their 
 earlier career they may perhaps have brought upon 
 themselves a reprimand for some well-intentioned 
 but ill-considered scheme or intervention, and their 
 chief desire now is to confine themselves to the 
 ordinary routine of their office, finish the time of 
 exile from their native land at the earliest oppor- 
 tunity, and retire on their pension. Imagine such 
 a type of man finding himself suddenly involved 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 251 
 
 in some religious controversy with a semi-political 
 element thrown in, and a serious riot or insurrection 
 threatened, and you have the case of Pilate in 
 modern dress. Such a man has no strong moral 
 or religious feeling to guide him ; he may be quite 
 conscious that there is something kept in the 
 background, that the motives of the Brahmins are 
 purely obstructive and mischievous, and that the 
 case they have brought before him is concerned 
 with nothing more serious than the efforts of a 
 religious reformer who has in some way offended 
 or outraged their priestly pretensions, and yet he 
 is confronted with the prospect of a political 
 disturbance likely to compromise his career. He 
 is quite convinced that the alleged political offence 
 is a factitious one, yet it is of such a kind that he 
 is bound to take notice of it, and treat it seriously. 
 He perceives that at the bottom it is a question of 
 religious differences with which he has no concern, 
 and for which he feels a genuine contempt. At 
 the same time experience has shown him how 
 easily the religious may run into the political, and 
 he is perfectly aware that the Supreme Government 
 is particularly anxious to prevent all rehgious 
 disturbance, and avoid any occasion for insurrection. 
 His sense of fair play, which is characteristic of 
 his nation, is enlisted on behalf of the victim, and 
 he is determined that he will not allow himself to 
 be made the catspaw of Brahminical intrigue and 
 priestly vindictiveness, yet as the case proceeds he 
 
252 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 finds himself being more and more drawn into the 
 toils which their astuteness and social influence 
 enable them to weave around him. He struggles, 
 but with ever-decreasing strength. After all, his 
 career is worth more to him than anything else, 
 and he is perfectly convinced that if these wily 
 Brahmins do not get their way in one form, they 
 are sure to get it in another. The prisoner is 
 probably innocent of any political crime, but he 
 must have been a fool to arouse the opposition of 
 the priests and leaders amongst his own people, 
 and can hardly expect to escape in any case. All 
 attempts to effect his release have failed, his own 
 temper is getting ruffled, and ominous murmurs 
 amongst the excited and fanatical crowd show him 
 that a spark is all that is necessary to produce an 
 explosion. One thing seems certain, and that is, 
 that they will never go away without their victim. 
 It is equally certain that unless they depart, and 
 that quickly, there will be a serious riot which will 
 compromise him with the Government. Well, he 
 has done his best to save the man, and he will 
 wash his hands of all responsibility, and throw the 
 burden on them, after which they may do what 
 they Hke. Better to err on the side of suppressing 
 an alleged political conspiracy than to lay himself 
 open to the charge, which these wily priests are 
 sure to bring against him, that he has acquitted a 
 dangerous conspirator. With the exception of the 
 power to order instant execution, the case might 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 253 
 
 happen any day in India, even in this twentieth 
 century, and facsimiles of the character of Pilate 
 might not be found so very rare. With such a 
 parallel in our minds we shall be better able to 
 appreciate the remarkable interview between Christ 
 and Pilate. 
 
 Aroused in the very early hours of the morning 
 by the crowd of priests and rulers who brought 
 Jesus from the palace of the high priest to the 
 palace of Herod, in which Pilate was lodged 
 during his temporary residence in the capital, the 
 Governor was in no very good-humour as he came 
 outside to inquire into the case they had brought 
 before him. His ill-humour would be further 
 increased by the religious scruples of the priests 
 to enter the palace for fear of defilement. His 
 official chair is brought out and placed on the 
 raised terrace in front of the judgment hall. 
 Taking his seat, Pilate asks for the charge against 
 the prisoner to be stated. The priests evidently 
 did not anticipate, nor did they relish, the judicial 
 inquiry Pilate is preparing to make. They had 
 come because they were compelled, and they 
 merely wanted the arm of Rome to execute the 
 sentence of death which the Jewish tribunal had 
 already passed. Pilate's ill-humour calls forth a 
 si miliar ill-humour in them, and they haughtily 
 answer that if the man were not a criminal, they 
 would not have brought him. Pilate is fond of 
 sarcasm, and the opportunity is too good to be 
 
254 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 lost. " Very well/' he answers, '' take him and 
 judge him according to your own law." If they 
 have already decided the case, why bring it to 
 him ? They are compelled to confess that they 
 have no power to inflict the death-penalty, and 
 that as this is a capital offence, they have brought 
 the prisoner to Pilate. The charge therefore is 
 formulated as one of political agitation, inciting to 
 refuse to pay tribute to the Emperor, and claiming 
 to be himself an anointed king. Pilate thereupon 
 turns his back upon the priests and rulers, and 
 taking advantage of their unwillingness to enter 
 the judgment hall, proceeds there that he may 
 conduct his inquiry in private. 
 
 He has had a good look at the prisoner while 
 the charge has been formulated, and he is impressed 
 with his insignificance and harmlessness. This is 
 no fierce zealot or political agitator. If it is true 
 that he claims to be a king, it is more likely that 
 he is some harmless lunatic, or some descendant of 
 a former line of kings, a rival rather of Herod 
 than of Cassar. Anyhow, now that they are alone, 
 he will see what the man has to say for himself. 
 " You," he says, turning to the prisoner who has 
 been brought in, and of whose name he is as yet 
 ignorant, " are you the King of the Jews ? " The 
 question is more like a thought that has slipped 
 out, than a direct interrogation. As Pilate looks 
 at the man before him, the groundlessness of the 
 charge is self-evident to him. This man king of 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 255 
 
 the Jews ? The thing is preposterous. The 
 figure before him neither accords with his con- 
 ception of a king, nor with his knowledge of the 
 turbulent people of whom he is said to be the 
 king. 
 
 Christ hears the question, not as that of a 
 judge interrogating a prisoner, but as that of an 
 inquirer asking a teacher. With the teacher's 
 quick insight, He recognises the character of the 
 man before him, " a double-minded man, unstable 
 in all his ways." There are two Pilates, the better 
 and the worse. The one is Pilate the man, the 
 other Pilate the Governor. As the man, Pilate 
 has no sympathy with the priests and rulers ; as the 
 Governor, he is more or less afraid of them. As 
 the man, he feels a kind of sympathy with their 
 victim ; as the Governor, he resents the disturbance 
 of which the prisoner before him is the occasion. 
 In the man, right and justice may perchance secure 
 a hearing in the court of conscience ; in the 
 Governor, expediency and self-interest are the 
 only ministers he ever listens to. It is the 
 recognition of this twofold character of Pilate 
 which explains the whole of this remarkable 
 interview. With the Governor, Christ has nothing 
 to do and nothing to say ; with the man and the 
 moral struggle through which he is passing, He 
 feels the deepest interest, renders what help is 
 possible, and even pities the man whose failure in 
 this crisis of his life resulted in His own death- 
 
256 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 warrant. While Christ's attitude throughout is 
 more that of the teacher than that of the prisoner 
 at the bar, it must be observed that His line of 
 defence was the only one which had a chance of 
 success. There was a conflict in the breast of 
 Pilate between the better and the worse nature. 
 The worse won, and Christ was condemned ; but 
 whatever chance of an acquittal there may have 
 been, lay in an appeal from Pilate the Governor, 
 to Pilate the man. Christ recognised this at the 
 beginning, and therefore His answer to Pilate's 
 first question is a counter-inquiry as to which 
 Pilate is speaking. ** Do you ask this," He says, 
 *' on your own initiative, or are you simply the 
 mouthpiece of others ? " All depends upon which 
 of the two Pilates is going to be master. Is he 
 going to be himself, or, as the priests and rulers 
 expect, their tool ? He has left them outside and 
 entered into his own judgment hall where they 
 cannot come. So far good, but is it the same 
 Pilate who is to examine inside the hall, as the 
 one who merely listens to the calumnies of the 
 Jews, and bends beneath the tumult without ? Is 
 it right and justice who sit at his side as assessors, 
 or fear and expediency ? Pilate knows, as his 
 question shows, that this man is no political 
 conspirator. If, as the man, he asserts himself, 
 he will say distinctly that he acquits the prisoner 
 of the only charge which it is his business to take 
 notice of. If, however, as the Governor, he allows 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 257 
 
 the outside influence to enter into what should be 
 his own inviolable judgment hall and coerce him, 
 he is lost. The counter-question, therefore, is an 
 appeal to the two assessors, right and justice, who 
 sit at Pilate's side, and a challenge to the two 
 other assessors, fear and expediency, who sit at the 
 Governor's side, and who have intruded into a 
 court which their presence defiles. Is it Pilate 
 himself who speaks, or are the words those of the 
 false assessors who ought to be summarily ordered 
 out of court .'' 
 
 The appeal has reached the man, but it has 
 stirred the Roman in him. He sees the reference 
 to outside influence, but why should this Jew 
 complain of his own people and rulers .^^ His 
 former pity for an individual is overwhelmed by 
 contempt for a nation whom he despises. '' Am I 
 a Jew.^^" he asks in deepest scorn ; "it is your own 
 nation and the chief priests who have handed you 
 over to me ; what have you done ? " Does the 
 man think that he has any interest in the petty 
 disputes and empty rivalries of Jews} Let them 
 wrangle and quarrel as much as they please for all 
 he cares, as long as they abstain from interfering 
 with him or his administration. As for this man, 
 whom they are anxious to put to death, what has 
 he done to arouse their enmity ^ It is at least 
 suspicious that Jews and chief priests should hand 
 over to the Roman power one whom they allege 
 to be a political conspirator. He has not found 
 
258 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 them so loyal as a rule, that their conduct in this 
 instance can pass unchallenged. If the prisoner is 
 appealing to Roman against Jew, well let him say 
 what he has done to offend the Jew. If it is as a 
 partisan of Rome, he shall be safe from these 
 howling priests, riot and insurrection notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 Christ sees that Pilate has misunderstood His 
 question, and that he is regarding the case as a 
 political one, though one which may possibly turn 
 out in favour of the prisoner and against His 
 accusers. He returns therefore to the question 
 which Pilate had first asked Him, and answers, 
 " My kingdom does not belong to this world. If 
 My kingdom did belong to this world. My subjects 
 would have resolutely fought on My behalf in order 
 that I might not fall into the hands of the Jews. 
 But, as a matter of fact. My kingdom is neither local 
 nor temporary." The question which Pilate had 
 asked, did not admit of a categorical answer. He 
 was a king in the truest sense ; He was not a king 
 as the priests meant it, and as Pilate might under- 
 stand it. He was no rival of a Caesar, His kingdom 
 had no territorial boundaries. His legions were 
 no fighting army. It was true that the Jews had 
 handed Him over to the Roman, but if He had 
 been the political king they made out. His subjects 
 would have prevented His falling into their hands. 
 Pilate therefore could see for himself that. King 
 though He was, His kingdom was not political. 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 259 
 
 Pilate begins to understand what is at the back 
 of the action of the chief priests in bringing the 
 charge against Him, and his first impression is 
 deepened. He knows perfectly well that if the 
 prisoner had claimed to be king in the political 
 sense, the Jews would never have delivered him 
 over to the Roman power. He also recognises 
 that there is weight in what Christ says, that if His 
 kingdom were political. His subjects and partisans 
 would at least have struck a blow in His defence. 
 The prisoner, therefore, if he has claimed to be a 
 king, must have done so with a special meaning 
 attached to the title, which the chief priests have 
 purposely omitted to mention. His question is 
 accordingly directed to find this out. " You are 
 a king, then ? '' he asks, seeking to elicit the 
 information he wants. 
 
 Christ recognises that it is the man and not the 
 Governor who is asking the question, and feels that 
 He can speak freely. " As you say," He replies, 
 '*I am a king. I was born to the position, and I 
 have come into the world to occupy it. This, in 
 fact, is the meaning of My presence in the world, 
 namely, that I might be a living witness of the 
 Truth. Every one who is a partisan of the Truth 
 listens to My voice." Pilate has invited His con- 
 fidence, and it is freely given. There is an empire 
 of Truth, of which Pilate is not ignorant, and He 
 who is a living witness to the Truth is a king 
 among men. His throne may be a cross, His crown 
 
26o CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 that of the martyr, but every one who is loyal to 
 the Truth, instinctively recognises the King, and 
 listens to His voice. The answer is an appeal to 
 the true man in Pilate ; a solemn warning against 
 listening to the clamours of the crowd, and the 
 false testimony so easily procurable. Does Pilate 
 care more for right than for expediency ; does he 
 belong to the elect party of Truth, as distinct from 
 the party of lies and intrigue which is waiting for 
 blood outside ? The decision is momentous for 
 Pilate, for his failure in this crisis of his life will 
 cover his name with infamy for all time. 
 
 Alas for Pilate, the examination has found out 
 his weakness. On a question of law he is at home ; 
 on one of equity he is at sea without chart 
 or compass. " Truth ! " he exclaims ; " What is 
 truth ?'' A sentiment, an opinion, a question to 
 be discussed in the schools, but out of place in the 
 practical affairs of life. This man who calls himself 
 a^,king, and his teaching a kingdom, is clearly a mere 
 dreamer, and the case has no political significance. 
 There is no need to go into it further, for he has 
 obtained all the information he needs. The appeal 
 to the deeper instincts of Pilate's nature has failed, 
 for the chords which should have vibrated have 
 long since been broken. He has no convictions 
 which can be aroused, no finer sentiment which can 
 be called forth. For Roman justice, however, he 
 has some regard — an inborn respect for its proper 
 administration, but for right and truth, as eternal 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 261 
 
 verities, he has no reverence ; his soul gives forth 
 no response to their invitation. He understands 
 them merely as abstract opinions which the 
 philosophers delight to talk about, but that a man 
 should die for them, never enters his mind. A 
 kingdom of Truth ! Is that all ? Why waste 
 time over such a question ? The whole thing is a 
 mere dispute about words, in which the priests 
 have evidently had the worst of the argument, and 
 are trying to revenge themselves for their defeat. 
 Well, he is not going to be made a tool of, and out 
 he strides to tell them so. 
 
 " I find the man innocent." Thus he announces 
 the result of his examination to the impatient chief 
 priests and rulers who have been waiting outside. 
 He is met with a storm of remonstrance and angry 
 protest. Amidst the babel of voices, he catches 
 the words, *' sedition," " Judaea," " Galilee," and 
 gathers that they are protesting that the prisoner 
 is a dangerous sedition- monger, spreading his 
 obnoxious doctrines through the length and breadth 
 of the land. The mention of Galilee opens out an 
 easy method of getting rid of the whole affair. 
 Herod, the ruler of Galilee, is at present in 
 Jerusalem for the Feast, and if the prisoner is 
 one of his subjects, then the priests can take the 
 case to him, and Pilate will be well rid of it. To 
 Herod, therefore, he sends them with the prisoner 
 under guard, and congratulates himself that he has 
 got rid of an unpleasant business. 
 
262 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxu 
 
 Like so many others, however, who have tried 
 to shirk responsibilities, Pilate finds that the 
 expedient is useless, and the case is returned for 
 his own disposal. Once more the crowd of priests 
 with their prisoner confronts him, and the demand 
 for the sentence of death is shouted at him. Pilate 
 again takes his seat, and hopes to dispose of the 
 matter by means of a compromise. " You have 
 brought this man to me," he says, " on a charge of 
 corrupting the loyalty of the people ; but you see 
 that I have examined him and found that he has 
 done nothing which deserves so severe a penalty as 
 death. Not only so, but Herod also finds him 
 innocent, and has sent him back to us. You must 
 see, therefore, that this is no case for the death- 
 penalty. I shall therefore scourge him and 
 release him." This decision is met with a shout 
 of fury, "Away with the fellow, and release 
 Barabbas." If it is a question of releasing a 
 political prisoner, they will let him know the man 
 they choose. Barabbas, who has been a long time 
 in jail in connection with a riot which had occurred 
 in the city, and during which blood had been shed, 
 is the man of their choice. 
 
 The reference to the release of a prisoner 
 reminds Pilate of a custom connected with the 
 Passover Festival, and he eagerly seizes it as 
 another expedient for getting rid of his responsi- 
 bility. Motioning with his hand for silence, he 
 again addresses them. " You have referred to a 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 263 
 
 custom that I should release a prisoner at the Pass- 
 over. Very well, shall I release you the King of 
 the Jews ? " His address this time is to the 
 people, whom he hopes to find more reasonable 
 than the priests, and he thinks that they may catch 
 at the idea of the release of a king. The priests, how- 
 ever, see the move, and eagerly suggest the name of 
 Barabbas. As with one voice they cry out, " Not 
 this man, but Barabbas." Seeing the temper of the 
 crowd, and hoping that the sight of the terrible 
 Roman scourging will satisfy their lust for blood, 
 Pilate gives order for the infliction of the punish- 
 ment to which he has condemned the man whom he 
 has found to be innocent. The scourging is carried 
 out, and once more the prisoner is brought forth 
 wearing the mock crown of thorns and the purple 
 garment. Even PiJate is struck with the pitiable 
 sight which the prisoner presents, and hoping to 
 arouse some pity in the breast of the crowd, 
 exclaims, "Behold the man!" The crowd, how- 
 ever, fearing that they are going to be baulked of 
 their prey, and that Pilate is about to complete the 
 sentence by releasing him, urged on by the priests, 
 once more take up the cry, " Away with him ! To 
 the cross ! To the cross ! Away with this fellow, 
 and release Barabbas." Pilate persists in trying 
 to argue with the maddened crowd. " Why," he 
 asks, *' what evil has he done ?'' A deafening 
 roar, " To the cross ! To the cross ! " is the only 
 response, " Take him yourselves, and crucify 
 
264 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 him," he answers back, *' for I have found him 
 innocent." The priests see that he is yielding, and 
 cry out, — " We have a law, and according to that 
 law he ought to die, because he claimed to be the 
 Son of God." If Pilate thinks him innocent, they 
 know he is guilty ; if he has not broken the Roman 
 law, he has broken the Mosaic Law, and nothing 
 but his blood can atone for that. 
 
 Like many who have no religious convictions, 
 Pilate is superstitious to a degree, and the words, 
 *' son of God," startle him with a nervous fear. 
 Who is this strange man, calm and silent in the 
 midst of all the tumult of his foes ? Hurriedly he 
 summons the guard to conduct the prisoner once 
 more into the judgment hall that he may question 
 him again in private. " What is your origin ? " he 
 asks in earnestness not unmingled with awe. This 
 time there is no answer. Pilate is no longer a free 
 man, he has given way to the priests and rulers 
 outside. He has deliberately disobeyed his own 
 conscience, has set aside his own judgment of 
 acquittal at the bidding of the prosecution. The 
 judge has thrown in his lot with the prosecutors, 
 and has thereby forfeited all right to a reply. He 
 has turned his back upon the two assessors, right 
 and justice, who have recorded their verdict of not 
 guilty, and is listening to his two ministers, fear 
 and expediency, who are whispering their counsels 
 in his ear. As long as these false counsellors are 
 allowed a place at his side, his court of justice is a 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 265 
 
 mockery, and the prisoner will remain silent. 
 Pilate mistakes his silence, and attributes it to 
 either fear or sullenness. " Will you not speak 
 even to me," he asks ; "do you not know that I have 
 power to release you and power to crucify you ? ' * 
 He can understand the prisoner's silence in the 
 presence of his enemies ; but here in the quiet of 
 the judgment hall it is out of place. Does the 
 man not know that a word here may effect his 
 release, or a stubborn silence may lead him to the 
 cross ? Pilate fails to see that as long as fear and 
 expediency sit in the private judgment hall of 
 conscience, whispering their doubts and suggesting 
 their expedients, the still small voice must of 
 necessity remain unheard. 
 
 " Power ! " answers Christ ; " you would have 
 none over Me except it had been conferred from 
 above. Consequently he who delivered Me up to 
 you has the greater guilt." There is the pity of 
 a great soul at the boast of one dressed in brief 
 authority, who imagines he is anything more than 
 a tool in the hand. Does Pilate imagine for a 
 moment that he is the pivot upon which the whole 
 tragedy is turning ? Power to release ? He had 
 once, and might have earned eternal fame, but it 
 has gone from his nerveless grasp. Power to 
 crucify ? Nay, he is the slave of the chief priests 
 already, and all that he will be allowed to do is 
 to act as executioner of the sentence they have 
 pronounced. Christ foresees the issue, and knows 
 
266 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 that the matter has already passed out of Pilate's 
 hands. He will undoubtedly yield to the outside 
 pressure, he will stifle the voice of his own 
 conscience, and give way to the counsels of fear 
 and expediency. His guilt will remain, and the 
 blot of disgrace will abide for ever on his memory, 
 but he is only a tool after all. The authority which 
 he exercises has been entrusted into his hands 
 from above ; it is the use he makes of it for which 
 alone he is responsible. The greater guilt attaches 
 to that one. High Priest of the chosen people of 
 God, who denies the title of the Lord's Anointed 
 to the One whom the Father has sent, and hands 
 over the Messiah of Israel to the power of Rome. 
 Pilate holds a hurried consultation with his two 
 favourites, fear and expediency. Expediency can 
 suggest nothing new, fear has suddenly grown 
 rehgious at the mention of a son of God, and 
 thinks the man should, if possible, be released. 
 Going outside, Pilate once again announces his 
 intention of releasing the prisoner. The priests 
 and rulers, however, recognise the hesitation in 
 his manner, and they know the man. Growing 
 bolder as Pilate grows weaker, they play upon his 
 fears. " If you release this man, you are no friend 
 of the Emperor's ; every one who sets himself up 
 as a king declares himself a rebel against the 
 Emperor." This last shaft went home, and fear 
 and expediency both alike urged that the man 
 must be sacrificed, if place and position were to be 
 
XXII A MORAL SCEPTIC 267 
 
 retained. The friendship of the Emperor must 
 be preserved even though the hfe of an innocent 
 man be the cost. Pilate orders the guard to bring 
 forth the prisoner, and once more takes his seat 
 on the Judge's chair. Before pronouncing the 
 sentence which he perceives to be inevitable, he 
 indulges once again in his favourite habit of 
 sarcasm. Pointing to the prisoner he exclaims, 
 " See, here is your king." A roar of voices, crying 
 ** Away with him, away with him, crucify him," is 
 the only response he elicits from the maddened 
 crowd. " Am I to crucify your king ?'' he asks 
 in mock surprise. The priests are more than a 
 match for him, and reply with meaning, " We 
 have no king but the Emperor." 
 
 Pilate catches the meaning of their reply, and 
 sees that the situation is becoming serious. It will 
 be so easy for these wily priests to distort and 
 misrepresent the scene. They can take his literal 
 words, carefully leaving out the ironical tones of 
 his voice, and represent him as favouring a usurper. 
 He is well aware of the suspicious nature of the 
 Emperor, and realises that the scene must be cut 
 short, ere worse happens. Calling for a bowl of 
 water, he washes his hands in the sight of the 
 crowd, and declares he is not responsible for the 
 blood of an innocent man, the priests and people 
 must answer for it. " His blood be upon us, and 
 upon our children," they shout in reply, rejoicing 
 that they have got their way at last. 
 
268 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxii 
 
 The trial is over and nothing remains but the 
 formal sentencing of the prisoner. The hands 
 which Pilate has just washed in innocency, must 
 be stained with a dye which no washing can efface. 
 He writes not the condemnation of the prisoner, 
 but his own, and what he has written he has 
 written. He has been brought face to face with 
 incarnate truth, and has asked in hollow mockery, 
 " What is truth ? ' ' He is convinced that the prisoner 
 is innocent, and yet, to save himself, he condemns 
 him to death. Not for the crucifixion of the 
 Christ of God must he be held responsible, for he 
 knew not what he did. But for being traitor to 
 his own conscience, for sacrificing right and justice 
 to cowardly fear and shifting expediency, for 
 bowing to the brutal passions of the mob, and 
 allowing himself to be made the tool of un- 
 scrupulous priests, Pilate must stand condemned 
 for all time. " So Pilate gave judgment, yielding 
 to their demand. The man who was lying in 
 prison charged with riot and murder, and for 
 whom they clamoured, he set free, but Jesus he 
 gave up to be dealt with as they desired." 
 
XXIII 
 
 FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 
 John XX. 24-29. 
 
 That sense perception is at the basis of all our 
 knowledge is one of those axioms with which we 
 are all familiar, even though we have never read 
 a word of philosophy. In the common language of 
 daily life we are accustomed to assertions of assured 
 knowledge, by a reference to the experience of one 
 or other of our five senses. Two of them, those 
 of sight and touch, are indeed the criteria which 
 we apply to knowledge of all kinds. "It is 
 evident," or, " It is palpable," are the two chief 
 phrases, which, through many variations, are the 
 signs we use for certitude. If we wish to describe 
 the illusory or doubtful, we invariably deny in some 
 form or another that they can be seen or felt. 
 They are imperceptible or intangible, unseen by 
 the eye or unfelt by the hand, and as such viewed 
 with suspicion or rejected with incredulity. Tenny- 
 son has expressed a common conviction when he 
 says, "Knowledge is of things we see," and 
 
 269 
 
270 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxiii 
 
 contrasts it with faith. To many the difference 
 between faith and knowledge is the difference 
 between the unknown and the known, and much 
 of the agnosticism of the present day is largely due 
 to this conception that the senses are not a means, 
 but the only means of obtaining assured knowledge. 
 To certain types of mind, however, the limitations 
 of sense perception are as remarkable as the range 
 of their operations, and the conception of limiting 
 knowledge to the impressions of sense, and the 
 mind's working on those impressions, is one which 
 presents insuperable difficulties. They are quite 
 conscious of the inestimable debt the mind owes 
 to the senses, but they refuse to believe that the 
 mind cannot pass into regions which are for ever 
 beyond the reach of the senses, or that it cannot 
 arrive at truth except as the object is presented to 
 it by means of the senses. They are conscious 
 that there is a region which is essentially meta- 
 physical, in which the mind moves not as it is 
 guided or impelled by the senses, but by the laws 
 of its own being, and that the goal at which it 
 arrives by strict obedience to those laws is know- 
 ledge in the highest and best sense, even though 
 inaccessible to sense perception. In some cases the 
 goal arrived at can be tested by the senses, but 
 whether tested or untested, the reality is the same. 
 The discovery of the planet Neptune by the mind 
 before it was brought within the range of telescopic 
 vision, affords an illustration of what is here meant. 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 271 
 
 It was the operation of the mind, working according 
 to its own laws, which established the existence of 
 Neptune, before the telescope discovered it. The 
 mind, in fact, in this case aided the senses, instead 
 of being aided by them. It is true that the mind 
 was here only working on the data presented to it 
 by the senses, but its working was based upon the 
 assumption that a previous intelligence had been 
 at work in the constitution of the universe, and 
 that the working of that Mind was in harmony 
 with the laws of our own minds. This, in fact, is 
 scientific faith as distinct from scientific knowledge. 
 It has been arrived at by means of sense perception, 
 but it is none the less faith, as distinct from 
 knowledge. Our great advance in knowledge is 
 due to our walking by faith as well as by sight. 
 Experience has shown us that what is, conforms to 
 reason, and we therefore conclude that whatever 
 conforms to reason exists, whether it has come 
 within the range of sense perception or not. If the 
 senses have not yet discovered it, we search for it 
 with the belief that sooner or later we shall find it. 
 The atomic theory prophesies the existence of 
 elements which have never come within the range 
 of sense perception, and recent discoveries have 
 simply filled up the places which were vacant, and 
 revealed what faith had already perceived. Science 
 has shown us that what is, ought to be, and it 
 cannot escape creating the suspicion that what ought 
 to be, actually is, whether we perceive it or not. 
 
272 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxm 
 
 The distinction between faith and knowledge, 
 therefore, is imperfectly described as the difference 
 between the unknown and the known ; it is more 
 accurately described as the difference between 
 anticipated and realised knowledge. Knowledge 
 is not only of things we see, but of things we 
 foresee. The mind may anticipate the senses and 
 believe even where the senses cannot see. If this 
 is true even in the sphere of the physical, the 
 presumption is that it is equally true in the spheres 
 which are metaphysical. 
 
 Morality and religion cannot be treated in the 
 same way as the physical sciences. They have 
 their own data which are not material but spiritual. 
 If they are realities, however, they must be intelli- 
 gible ; they must follow similar laws to those which 
 reign in the material realm, or at any rate they 
 must follow law, and not be the result of chance. 
 In the sphere of morals the good must be the 
 reasonable ; actions must be justifiable. In the 
 sphere of religion, beliefs must be reasonable ; the 
 data upon which they are founded must be consis- 
 tent with the working of the Divine Mind, as that 
 is already known to us in other spheres. In these 
 two spheres we walk by faith and not by sight, 
 but the faith must be justified by experience or by 
 reason. Here, however, the same results as we 
 find in the physical meet us, for that which verily 
 is, turns out to be that which ought to be, and 
 religious faith, like scientific faith, cannot help 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 273 
 
 anticipating that what ought to be, either is or 
 will be. There are departments of religious belief 
 which are capable of being tested by experience, 
 but there are others in which no such test is 
 possible. Some minds will hesitate to accept as 
 true what cannot be verified by experience, and 
 will therefore suspend their judgment, neither 
 believing nor denying. There are others, how- 
 ever, who have no such hesitation. To them it is 
 sufficient that reason anticipates ; they wait for 
 the realisation of experience not to confirm, but 
 to enjoy that of which they are already assured. 
 The belief in immortality may be cited as an 
 illustration of this difference. To some the belief 
 is an anticipation of the mind, founded upon in- 
 dications which are perceived, and arrived at by a 
 process of reasoning, but lacking that certitude 
 which experience can alone give them. To others 
 the belief is also an anticipation of the mind, but 
 the data upon which it is founded and the process 
 of reasoning by which it is reached are convincing 
 in themselves. They are so convinced, that is, 
 that there ought to be a life beyond the veil, that 
 they have no doubt there is one. To them the 
 necessity which thought perceives, is a greater 
 guarantee of reality than the necessity involved in 
 an actual experience. They would sooner trust to 
 an examination of the thought of mankind on this 
 question, than they would to the testimony of 
 the actual experience of any one man or any 
 
 T 
 
274 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxiii 
 
 number of men. Of such minds it may be said 
 that while their behef in immortality is supported 
 by the resurrection of Jesus, their acceptance of 
 the fact of that event is due, not merely or chiefly 
 to the historical argument, 'but to their prior belief 
 in the immortality of the soul. They may not 
 commit themselves to any theory which seeks to 
 explain the resurrection, but they are assured that 
 Calvary was not and could not be the end of that 
 unique life of the Man of Sorrows. To them 
 the life of Christ is unintelligible apart from the 
 resurrection. The one is the prelude to the other, 
 and if the prelude is actual fact, the sequel cannot 
 be mere fancy. The resurrection is in a certain 
 degree a confirmation of the behef in immortality, 
 but that which strengthens the belief is not the 
 resurrection, but the life of Jesus. That life has 
 emphasised as no other life has ever done, the idea 
 of the persistence of the individuality of man, its 
 independence of material conditions, its essentially 
 spiritual environment. The grave was^ an impos- 
 sible goal to such a life. The pangs of death were 
 birth-throes for such a life, and the grave could 
 not possibly hold Him (see Acts ii. 24). 
 
 While this is true of some types of mind, it 
 must be confessed that to others the testimony of 
 the senses is a more sure witness. They are slow 
 to believe all that is prophesied. They believe 
 that some things are too good to be true. They 
 are the Thomases of history, loyal to the core, 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 275 
 
 ready to die with their Master, but accepting 
 slowly and cautiously the news which is too optimistic 
 for their belief. Such men and women are wrongly 
 classified as doubters or sceptics, and blamed for 
 their lack of faith. They are under the tyranny 
 of the senses, and their minds cannot move with 
 confidence expect by means of the aids which the 
 senses yield. They are more to be pitied than 
 blamed, for they are themselves the chief sufferers. 
 The interview between Thomas and the risen 
 Christ is full of significance as marking Christ's 
 attitude to a type of mind which was the exact 
 opposite of His own. 
 
 Thomas is only mentioned on one previous 
 occasion, but that throws considerable light upon 
 his character and temperament. When the news 
 was brought to Jesus that His friend Lazarus was 
 ill, and Christ proposed to return to Judasa, the 
 disciples reminded Him that the Jews had but 
 lately sought His life in those parts, and expressed 
 surprise that He should again venture into the 
 midst of His foes. Thomas foreboded the worst, 
 but his loyalty never wavered. " Let us also go, 
 that we may die with Him," he suggested to the 
 other disciples. There was evidently a good deal 
 of the pessimist in the man's nature, but there was 
 a nobility and courage which triumphed over the 
 fear that struck a chill to his heart. If his imagina- 
 tion anticipated the worst, it did not daunt him 
 with a craven fear. His was the courage that was 
 
276 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxiii 
 
 not oblivious of danger, but calmly looked it in the 
 face. The weakness of the flesh doubtless caused 
 him to take part in the sudden panic which took 
 hold of all the disciples when their Master was 
 arrested, but Thomas had the wilhng spirit of the 
 martyr who can face the contemplation of death, 
 and march with steady step to meet his fate. His 
 mind must have chiefly occupied itself after the 
 crucifixion in brooding over his sudden flight, 
 and blaming himself for following the others in 
 their panic of fear. It was the death of Christ 
 upon which he meditated, and the lost opportunity 
 of sharing it with the Master he loved. The news, 
 therefore, of the resurrection took him by surprise, 
 and his mind refused to forsake its accustomed 
 journey to the cross of his lost opportunity. There 
 all his thoughts centred, because it was there he 
 felt he too ought to have died. Nothing would 
 bring back that lost chance, and remorse with 
 sharp teeth bit into his soul. It is extremely 
 probable that while the others went to visit the 
 tomb, Thomas went to Calvary to go over again 
 those last scenes, and scourge his soul afresh with 
 vain regrets. This would account for his absence 
 from the first meeting of Christ with His disciples 
 in the upper room, on that memorable first day of 
 the week. Fresh from the scene of the crucifixion 
 where he has seen the whole tragedy of the nailing 
 to the cross and the spear-thrust into the side re- 
 enacted, his mournful thoughts are suddenly broken 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 277 
 
 in upon by the other disciples with the announce- 
 ment that they have seen the Master, and their 
 hearts are overflowing with joy. The two states 
 of mind are in marked contrast to one another, 
 and hence opposition is to be expected. Thomas 
 is in the depths of despair and humiliation, while 
 they are on the mount of exultation. Over and 
 over again he has said to himself, *'He is dead. 
 He is dead ; would God I had but died with 
 Him." The disciples meet him with the words, 
 " He is alive, and we have seen Him." To 
 Thomas, in the frame of mind in which he is, it is 
 simply incredible. '' Impossible ! " he says. The 
 only conception of his Master in harmony with his 
 thoughts is as he saw Him in the agony of death. 
 What they have seen must be a delusion, a fancy, 
 the construction of their own imaginations, but not 
 the crucified Lord. "I," he answers, "cannot and 
 will not believe it. I must have a greater assurance 
 than that which even sight affords. I must touch 
 the print of the nails with my own finger, I must 
 thrust my hand into the gaping wound which the 
 spear-thrust has made, ere I can believe that He 
 whom I forsook in the hour when He needed me 
 most, is not dead but alive." There is no coarse 
 materialism here ; it is the agony of despair for a 
 crime for which he can never forgive himself. His 
 remorse makes it impossible for him to believe the 
 news, which is too good to be true. It is no trick 
 of the imagination to which the mind of Thomas 
 
 T 2 
 
278 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxiii 
 
 will submit. The wish can never be the father of 
 the thought to the man who is in the despair which 
 remorse produces. The great outstanding fact 
 which haunts him night and day is the dead body 
 of the Master whom he deserted. The print of 
 the nails and the spear-thrust have burnt themselves 
 into his soul. The blow of the hammer is still 
 ringing in his ears. The pierced side with its open 
 wound is ever before his eyes. That is the awful 
 tragedy from which he cannot escape, and by which 
 the fancies of the other disciples must be tested. 
 No ghost or hallucination can alter the terrible 
 reality. Angel, or devil, or shade, he will demand 
 an answer which shall satisfy him. If they are 
 masquerading in some ghostly appearance of his 
 Master, he will demand the one proof which can 
 alone satisfy him, — the print of the nails and the 
 mark of the spear-thrust. The man's courage is 
 equal to the task, for it is the courage of despair, 
 and he is careful to be present at the time and 
 place of the last week's appearance. 
 
 The disciples are waiting in joyful anticipation 
 of a renewal of the visit, but Thomas is still 
 dwelling on his lost opportunity. He is in the 
 upper room with the others, but his mind is still at 
 Calvary, and the cross and the dead Master are 
 before his eyes. Suddenly the words, " Peace to 
 you," break the silence of the room, and Thomas 
 raising his head sees the living Master in their 
 midst. There is the old kindly smile on the face as 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 279 
 
 He calls to the one disciple whose heart is being 
 eaten away with remorse, and invites him to apply 
 the test by which alone he could believe the good 
 news which the others had told him. " Bring," 
 says Christ, "that finger and that hand of yours 
 upon whose testimony you lay so much stress, so 
 that feeling may assure sight ; and be no longer 
 an unbeliever but become a believer." There is a 
 kindly chiding of the man for allowing room to 
 the thought that the news was too good to be true. 
 There is the genial sarcasm at the importance 
 Thomas has attached to the evidence of that finger 
 and hand of his. 
 
 Thomas has no need to apply the tests he has 
 made so much of. This is no masquerade, or 
 shade, or ghost ; it is the Master Himself. The 
 recognition is instantaneous and beyond the possi- 
 bility of a doubt. It is not merely that the body 
 is the same ; it is that the tones of the voice and 
 the character are the same. No one but his 
 Master could have spoken like that, no one but 
 his Lord could have understood him like that. It 
 is this which calls forth his enthusiastic response, 
 '' My Master, and my God." If he has been the 
 last of the disciples to admit the fact of the 
 resurrection, he is the first to recognise its signifi- 
 cance. The conviction is borne in upon his mind 
 that there is more here than mere humanity, there 
 is divinity. This is no theological speculation, it 
 is a spontaneous recognition that in the Master 
 
28o CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxm 
 
 whom he has known and loved, there is a relation- 
 ship to the Father, unique and essentially different 
 from that of other men. 
 
 In Christ's answer there is a recognition of the 
 limitations of Thomas's nature, for while congratu- 
 lating the more fortunate, he does not condemn 
 the others. Thomas is to be pitied rather than 
 blamed for the tyranny of the senses under which 
 he lives. It is a handicap which deprives him of 
 blessings which others receive. In the present 
 instance an unusual experience has been vouchsafed 
 him, but he has to learn that to walk by faith is a 
 happier experience than to walk by sight. Happy 
 indeed are those whose faith is independent of the 
 confirmation of sense perception, whose faith is not 
 a mere hope but a glad and joyful anticipation. 
 " Because you have seen Me, you have believed ; 
 blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believe." 
 This is no arbitrary pronouncement ; it is a 
 declaration of actual fact, which the experience of 
 life fully bears out. Lack of faith is a misfortune, 
 not a fault ; an appeal for compassion, not a cause 
 for blame. Thrice happy are they who can believe 
 even though they cannot see ; whose minds can 
 pass where sense fails, and can arrive at convictions 
 which strengthen and inspire their souls. In the 
 spiritual and moral realms nothing can really be 
 too good to be true. That which establishes its 
 goodness, establishes also its truth. There are 
 things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and 
 
XXIII FAITH VERSUS SIGHT 281 
 
 which it hath not entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive, which God hath prepared for those who 
 have entered into the relationship of love ; but 
 these are the things which being too good to be 
 conceived by the human mind, have been conceived 
 by the Divine Mind. The good must for ever 
 surpass the conception of the human mind, but the 
 reality will always transcend the highest good the 
 human mind can anticipate. We may fear that 
 immortality is too good to be true, but we cannot 
 believe that what awaits us beyond the veil is less 
 than the highest we have been able to conceive. 
 It will doubtless surpass, but it cannot fall short of 
 our highest and best conception. 
 
 We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept 
 
 The best in store : 
 We have enough, yet not too much 
 
 To long for more, — 
 A yearning for a deeper peace 
 
 Not known before. 
 
 Amidst all the discussion to which the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ has given rise, there is one objection 
 that never has, and never can be raised, namely, 
 that it ought not to be true. Almost all the 
 attempts to explain the origin of the belief in the 
 resurrection, make use of the hopes and expecta- 
 tions, not of the disciples, for which there is next 
 to no evidence, but of humanity as it contemplates 
 the life of Christ. The writers seem to feel that 
 they have to show that the belief arose naturally 
 
282 CONVERSATIONS WITH CHRIST xxiii 
 
 from the conviction that the grave is not and 
 cannot be the goal of such a life. The theories 
 therefore derive whatever strength they possess 
 from the plausibility of their explanations of this 
 fact. The fact itself, however, requires explaining. 
 The why, and not the how, is the important factor. 
 Jesus Christ has brought life and immortality to 
 light through His gospel. Even the rejection of 
 the historical fact only leads the mind to predicate 
 an immortality of some kind or other, vague and 
 shadowy though it is. The fact is, the grave 
 cannot hold Him. The stone which our lack of 
 faith places upon the grave is sooner or later rolled 
 away, and we look into an empty tomb. The 
 seal which our rationalistic criticism places upon 
 the death and burial is in vain, for the disciples 
 proclaim that He is risen. The news is not too 
 good to be true ; the opposite is the fact, for the 
 Gospel of Life, and that more abundant, which 
 Christ has given to the world, is too good to be 
 false. There are still some who doubt, to whom 
 the happiness of faith is withheld, who do not 
 believe because they have not seen. Thrice happy 
 are they who though they have not seen have yet 
 believed, and joyfully proclaim their faith " in the 
 resurrection and the life everlasting." 
 
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 TIMES. — "An eloquent and temperate plea for the critical study of the Scriptures." 
 MANCHESTER GUAJin/AIV.—'' An excejlent introduction to the modern view 
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 clearly what has been recently called the ' Analytic ' treatment of the books of the Old 
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 fulfil its purpose of familiarising the minds of earnest Bible readers with the work which 
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 occupied with such studies." 
 
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 THE PROPHETS AND KINGS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
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 THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. An Essay on the 
 
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 EXPOSITORY TIMES.— "He rightly claims that his book possesses that most 
 
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 B 
 
6 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 In the present work the attempt has been made to collect, arrange in 
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 his paraphrases. For the purpose of giving general assistance to students 
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 TIMES. — " This book will be found by students to be a very useful supplement and 
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 The Pentateuch — 
 
 AN HISTORICO-CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 7 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 THE AKHMLM FRAGMENT OF THE APOCRYPHAL 
 GOSPEL OF ST. PETER. By H. B. Swete, D.D. 8vo. 5s. net. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE NEW TESTA- 
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8 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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 Frederic Henry Chase, D.D. Svo. 7s. 6d. net. 
 The sequel of an essay by Dr. Chase on the old Syriac element in the 
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 TIMES. — " An important and scholarly contribution to New Testament criticism." 
 SYNOPTICON : An Exposition of the Common Matter of the Synop- 
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 The author's primary object has been to make available all the facts 
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 tradition. The case for it is fully argued in the introduction. 
 
 THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. By Rev. 
 Arthur Wright. Crown Svo. 5s. 
 
THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 9 
 
 The Gospels — continued. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE R E y/£ fV.—" The wonderful force and freshness which we find on 
 every page of the book. There is no sign of hastiness. All seems to be the outcome of 
 years of reverent thought, now brought to light in the clearest, most telling way. . . . 
 The book will hardly go unchallenged by the different schools of thought, but all will 
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 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS. 
 
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 THE LEADING IDEAS OF THE GOSPELS. By W. Alex- 
 
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 Gospel of St. Matthew — 
 
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 duction and Notes by Rev. A. Sloman, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.—'' It is sound and helpful, and the brief introduc- 
 tion on Hellenistic Greek is particularly good." 
 
 Gospel of St. Mark— 
 
 THE GREEK TEXT. With Introduction, Notes, and Indices. 
 
 By Rev. H. B. Svvete, D.D,, Regius Professor of Divinity 
 
 in the University of Cambridge. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 15s. 
 
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 THE EARLIEST GOSPEL. A Historico-Critical Commentary on 
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 SCHOOL READINGS IN THE GREEK TESTAMENT. 
 Being the Outlines of the Life of our Lord as given by St. Mark, with 
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 and Vocabulary, by Rev. A. Calvert, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 Gospel of St. Luke — 
 
 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. The Greek Text 
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 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE IN GREEK, 
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 Rev. Arthur Wright, M.A. Demy 4to. 7s. 6d. net. 
 
10 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The Gospels — co7itinued. 
 
 ST. LUKE THE PROPHET. By Edward Carus Selwyn, D.D. 
 
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 ADDRESSES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By 
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 THE OLD SYRIAC ELEMENT IN THE TEXT OF THE CODEX 
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 SA TURD AY REVIEW.— "M.x. Rendall has given us a very useful as well as a 
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 BRITISH WEEKLY.—'' Mr. Page's Notes on the Greek Text of the Acts are very 
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 THE EPISTLES— The Epistles of St. Paul— 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. The Greek Text, 
 with English Notes. By Very Rev. C. J. Vaughan. 7th Edition. 
 Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. A New Transla- 
 tion by Rev. W. G. Rutherford. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 P/ZC^r.— "Small as the volume is, it has very much to say, not only to professed 
 students of the New Testament, but also to the ordinary reader of the Bible. . . _. The 
 layman who buys the book will be grateful to one who helps him to realise that this per- 
 plexing Epistle ' was once a plain letter concerned with a theme which plain men might 
 understand.'" 
 
THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE ii 
 
 The Epistles of St. Paul — continued. 
 
 PROLEGOMENA TO ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE 
 
 ROMANS AND THE EPHESIANS. By Rev. F. J. A. Hort. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Dr. Marcus Dods in the Bookman. — " Anything from tlie pen of Dr. Hort is sure to 
 
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 is an air of originality about the whole discussion ; the difficulties are candidly faced, and 
 
 the explanations offered appeal to our sense of what is reasonable." 
 
 TIMES. — "Will be welcomed by all theologians as 'an invaluable contribution to the 
 study of those Epistles ' as the editor of the volume justly calls it." 
 
 DAILY CHRONICLE. — "The lectures are an important contribution to the study 
 of the famous Epistles of wh'ch they treat." 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. An Essay on 
 
 its Destination and Date. By E. H. Askvvith, D.D. Crown 
 
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 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. A Revised 
 
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 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. The Greek Text 
 
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 Robinson, D.D., Dean of Westminster. 2nd Edition. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 GUARDIAN. — "Although we have some good commentaries on Ephesians, ... no 
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 leading ; and the present volume covers a good deal of ground which has not been 
 covered, or not nearly so well covered, before." 
 
 CHURCH TIMES. — "We have no hesitation in saying that this volume will at 
 once take its place as the standard commentary upon the Epistle to the Ephesians. . . . 
 We earnestly beg the clergy and intelligent laity to read and ponder over this most 
 inspiring volume." 
 
 PILOT. — "We can scarcely give higher praise to Dr. Robinson's 'Ephesians' than 
 that which is implied in the expression of our opinion that it is worthy of a place beside 
 the commentaries of Lightfoot, Westcott, and Swete. And an exposition of this Epistle 
 on the scale of their writings was much needed. . . . For soberness of judgment, accuracy 
 of scholarship, largeness of view, and completeness of sympathy with the teaching of 
 St. Paul, the work which is now in our hands leaves nothing to be desired. ... A work 
 which is in every way so excellent, and which in every page gives us a fresh insight into 
 the meaning and purpose of what is, from at least one point of view, the greatest of 
 St. Paul's Epistles." 
 
 ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILTPPIANS. A Revised 
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 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. Analysis and Ex- 
 amination Notes. By Rev. G. W. Garrod. Crown 8vo. 3s. net. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THESSALONIAN EPISTLES. 
 By E. H. Askvvith, D.D., Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Crown 8vo. 4s. net. 
 
12 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
 The Epistles of St. Paul — continued. 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. With 
 
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 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS, THE 
 
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 THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL. For English Readers. Part I. con- 
 taining the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. By Very Rev. C. 
 
 J. Vaughan. 2nd Edition. 8vo. Sewed, is. 6d. 
 NOTES ON EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL FROM UNPUBLISHED 
 
 COMMENTARIES. By Bishop Lightfoot, D.D. Second 
 
 Edition. 8vo. 12s. 
 THE LETTERS OF ST. PAUL TO SEVEN CHURCHES 
 
 AND THREE FRIENDS. Translated by Arthur S. Way, 
 
 M.A. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. 
 AN ANALYSIS OF ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES. By Bishop 
 
 Lightfoot, D.D. 8vo. \In the Press. 
 
 The Epistles of St. Peter— 
 
 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER, L i to IL 17. The Greek 
 Text, with Introductory Lecture, Commentary, and additional 
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 THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PETER (Greek Text). Bj 
 J. Howard B. Masterman, Principal of the Midland Clergy 
 College, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Epistle of St. James — 
 
 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. The Greek Text, with Intro- 
 duction and Notes. By Rev. Joseph B. Mayor, M.A. 2nd 
 Edition. 8vo. 14s. net. 
 EXPOSITORY TIMES.— "The most complete edition of St. James in the English 
 language, and the most serviceable for the student of Greek." 
 
 BOOKMA N.—" Professor Mayor's volume in every part of it gives proof that no time 
 or labour has been grudged in mastering this mass of literature, and that in appraising it 
 he has exercised the sound judgment of a thoroughly trained scholar and critic. . . . 
 The notes are uniformly characterised by thorough scholarship and unfailing sense. The 
 notes resemble rather those of Lightfoot than those of Ellicott. ... It is a pleasure to 
 welcome a book which does credit to English learning, and which will take, and keep, a 
 foremost place in Biblical literature." 
 
 The Epistles of St. John— 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By F. D. Maurice. Crown 
 
 8vo. 3s. 6d. 
 THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Greek Text, with Notes. 
 
 By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. 4th Edition. 8vo. 12s. 6d. 
 
 GUARDIAN. — " It contains a new or rather revised text, with careful critical remarks 
 and helps ; very copious footnotes on the text ; and after each of the chapters, 
 longer and more elaborate notes in treatment of leading or difficult questions, whether in 
 respect of reading or theology. . . . Dr. Westcott has accumulated round them so much 
 matter that, if not new, was forgotten, or generally unobserved, and has thrown so rnuch 
 light upon their language, theology, and characteristics. . . . The notes, critical, 
 
THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 13 
 
 The Epistles of St. John — continued. 
 
 illustrative, and exegetical, which are given beneath the text, are extraordinarily full and 
 careful. . . . They exhibit the same minute analysis of every phrase and word, the same 
 scrupulous weighing of every inflection and variation that characterised Dr. Westcott's 
 commentary on the Gospel. . . . There is scarcely a syllable throughout the Epistles 
 which is dismissed without having undergone the most anxious interrogation." 
 
 SA TURD A Y REVIEW. — " The more we examine this precious volume the more 
 its exceeding richness in spiritual as well as in literary material grows upon the mind." 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews — 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS IN GREEK AND 
 ENGLISH. With Notes. By Rev. F. Rendall. Cr. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. English Text, with Com- 
 mentary. By the same. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. With Notes. By Very 
 Rev. C. J. Vaughan. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
 
 TIMES. — "The name and reputation of the Dean of Llandaff are a better recom- 
 mendation than we can give of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Greek text, with notes ; 
 an edition which represents the results of more than thirty years' experience in the training 
 of students for ordination." 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. The Greek Text, with 
 Notes and Essays. By Right Rev. Bishop Westcott. Svo. 14s. 
 GUARDIAN. — " In form this is a companion volume to that upon the Epistles of St. 
 John. The type is excellent, the printing careful, the index thorough ; and the volume 
 contains a full introduction, followed by the Greek text, with a running commentary, and 
 a number of additional notes on verbal and doctrinal points which needed fuller discus- 
 sion. . . . His conception of inspiration is further illustrated by the treatment of the Old 
 Testament in the Epistle, and the additional notes that bear on this point deserve very 
 careful study. The spirit in which the student should approach the perplexing questions 
 of Old Testament criticism could not be better described than it is in the last essay." 
 
 The Book of Revelations — 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN. The Greek Text, with 
 
 Introduction, Notes, and Indices by the Rev. Professor H. B. 
 
 SwETE, D.D. Svo. \hi the Press. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE. A Study. By Archbishop Benson. 
 
 Svo. 8s. 6d. net. 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 23 
 
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24 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 25 
 
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26 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 27 
 
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28 MACMILLAN AND CO.'S 
 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 29 
 
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THEOLOGICAL CATALOGUE 31 
 
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