GIFT OF 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 JOHN FISKE
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 Southern Branch 
 of the 
 
 jniversity of California 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 hn L
 
 THE OKIGIN OF EVIL
 
 " TRUTH is THE PROPERTY OF GOD ; THE PURSUIT OF 
 TRUTH is WHAT BELONGS TO MAN." 
 
 Von Miilkr.
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL 
 
 in St Jeter's, (Eranleg (Sartens 
 
 M.A., D.SC., LL.D. 
 LATE FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION, REVISED 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 M D c c crx c i 
 
 9 09 o 
 
 All Rights reserved
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL, 1 
 
 THE MYSTERY OP SUFFERING 
 
 I. ITS USES, 12 
 
 II. THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, ... 25 
 
 III. THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S SUFFERING UPON 
 
 HIS CHARACTER, 37 
 
 IV. DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT, ... 50 
 THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER 
 
 I. HUMILITY, . . . r . . . . 62 
 
 II. THE NECESSITY FOR FAITH, ... 74 
 
 III. THE MAGNITUDE OF LITTLE SINS, . . 87 
 
 IV. THE LAW OF HABIT, 98 
 
 V. RETRIBUTION, Ill 
 
 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-DENIAL AND SELF- 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 I. THE USE OF THE WORLD, . . . .123 
 
 II. THE ABUSE OF THE WORLD, . . . 135
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SELF-DENIAL AND SELF- 
 DEVELOPMENT : continued 
 
 III. THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT SELF, . 147 
 
 IV. LOVE ESSENTIAL TO SELF-DEVELOPMENT, . 160 
 V. SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS SALVATION, . 172 
 
 ''WHAT IS TRUTH?" 185 
 
 CHRISTIAN MANLINESS 
 
 I. RIGHT DOING, 197 
 
 II. RIGHT THINKING, 210 
 
 i 
 
 III. THE VALUE OF MANLINESS, . . . 223 
 
 SCIENCE AND RELIGION 
 
 I. PRAYER, 236 
 
 II. THE SUPERNATURALNESS OF NATURE, . 248 
 
 III. THE NATURALNESS OF THE SUPERNATURAL, 259 
 
 IV. THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN, . . . 272 
 V. THE VISION OF GOD, 284 
 
 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD, 293 
 
 ETERNAL LIFE (EASTER-DAY SERMON), . , . 307 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, 320
 
 The Origin of Evil. 
 
 "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the 
 garden thou mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day 
 that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." GENESIS ii. 
 16, 17. 
 
 TS the existence of evil compatible with the 
 
 existence of God ? 
 
 This is a problem which in reality admits of 
 a comparatively simple solution. It has often 
 however been made to appear unnecessarily diffi- 
 cult, and indeed unanswerable, through ignor- 
 ance or forgetfulness of the nature of the process 
 which in Logic is called abstraction. Some 
 thinkers, for instance, have attempted to mini- 
 mise the evilness of evil by maintaining that it 
 did not really exist at all, that it was purely 
 negative, the mere absence of goodness. But 
 manifestly this argument cuts both ways. If 
 nothing can exist which is the negation of any- 
 
 A
 
 2 The Origin of Evil. 
 
 thing else, goodness itself must be non-existent 
 Good is as much the negation of evil as evil 
 is the negation of good. And, indeed, goodness 
 does not exist in one sense ; it does not exist as 
 a definite concrete thing. The term merely sums 
 up the common qualities of a certain class of 
 actions. It is what is called an abstract term. 
 After a number of actions have been compared, 
 they are found to agree in certain particulars, 
 and these particulars common to all, having been 
 abstracted in thought from everything peculiar to 
 each, are formed into a separate notion or con- 
 ception. One of the most fruitful sources of 
 human error has been the fact that these abstract 
 notions are so frequently mistaken for actual 
 concrete things. If we use the word goodness 
 as a synonym for God, reflection will show we 
 cannot mean that the Deity is nothing more 
 than a quality of His own actions, but that the 
 quality in question is the most characteristic of 
 His divine nature. Similarily in regard to evil. 
 It is not a concrete thing, but an abstract term. 
 It represents the common qualities of a certain 
 class of actions. The existence of evil, therefore, 
 means the existence of beings who act evilly. 
 And so the problem as to the origin of evil re- 
 solves itself simply into this, Is God responsi-
 
 The Origin of Evil. 3 
 
 ble for the evil acts of these beings ? or if not, 
 who is ? * 
 
 Theologians generally tell us that evil must 
 have been permitted by God for some wise pur- 
 pose; but that it is impossible to imagine what 
 that purpose could have been. They talk as if 
 reason, apart from faith, would suggest that God 
 ought to have prevented evil, and that, had He 
 done so, we should have found ourselves much 
 more fortunately situated than we are. Now 
 reason, I take it, teaches no such thing. It 
 shows us, on the contrary, that the prevention 
 of evil would have made our world not better 
 than it is, but infinitely worse. 
 
 There are only three conceivable ways in which 
 evil could have been prevented. (1) God might 
 have refrained from creating beings capable of 
 sinning; or (2), having created such beings, He 
 might have kept them from temptation ; or (3), 
 allowing them to be tempted, He might have 
 forcibly prevented them from yielding. 
 
 1st, Suppose that He had created only beings 
 incapable of sinning. That would have been to 
 
 1 One of my reviewers asks, ' ' What can we mean by ' re- 
 sponsible ' in relation to God ? " On this subject see a sermon 
 on the "Obligations of the Deity" in my 'Preaching and 
 Hearing.'
 
 4 The Origin of Evil. 
 
 create nothing higher than a brute. If He had 
 not formed creatures capable of doing wrong, He 
 could not have formed any capable of doing right : 
 for the two things inevitably go together. He 
 only is able to do right, who is able at the same 
 time (if he please) to do wrong. Let me give 
 you a very simple illustration. I wish this desk 
 to hold my sermon-case, and it does so. Do I 
 therefore thank and praise it, and feel grateful to 
 it, and call it good and kind, for obeying me? 
 No! Why? Because it cannot disobey; and for 
 this reason it cannot be properly said to obey. 
 Take, again, the case of the lower animals. At 
 first sight it might seem as if some animals could 
 lay more claim than many men to the possession 
 of a conscience. But it is probable that their 
 best actions are done merely from an instinc- 
 tive and irresistible impulse of affection. They 
 can, of course, be kept from doing certain things, 
 by the knowledge that if they do them they 
 will be punished: they may be cured of steal- 
 ing, for example, by being whipped when they 
 do steal. But they could not be taught to re- 
 frain from it because it was an infringement of 
 another's rights. Since they have no language 
 properly so called, and since (so far as we are 
 able to judge) their reasoning is always restricted
 
 The Origin of Evil. 5 
 
 to matters connected with the senses, it is 
 unlikely that they ever reach the conception 
 of duty. This lack of endowment renders it 
 impossible for them to do wrong; and it is 
 manifest that the same lack of endowment 
 must render it equally impossible for them to 
 do right. 
 
 Beings incapable of sinning must be ignorant 
 of the difference between right and wrong, or 
 must be destitute of the power of choice, or 
 must always be impelled by irresistible instincts. 
 In none of these cases could their conduct be 
 really moral or right. Had God therefore only 
 created creatures of this description, He would, it 
 is true, have prevented the possibility of evil; 
 but He would at the same time also have pre- 
 vented the possibility of good. 
 
 2d, Suppose that God had resorted to the 
 second expedient, that after giving us a moral 
 nature, He had shielded us from all temptation. 
 What would have been the result ? Why, this. 
 We could never have attained to the possession 
 of a good character, for that comes only through 
 the conquest of temptation. We might have 
 been innocent as animals, but never upright as 
 men. You mothers, as you look into the smiling 
 faces of your infants, sometimes wish that you
 
 6 The Origin of Evil. 
 
 could always shield them from the deceits of the 
 world, the flesh and the devil. It is a natural, 
 but an unwise, wish. Their present innocence 
 is a quality they possess in common with stocks 
 and stones. If they are ever to rise into the 
 moral sphere, it can only be through the medium 
 of temptation. You should rather wish for them 
 moral conflict, conflict no matter how fierce and 
 how long protracted, no matter though it call for 
 resistance " even unto blood," so long only as they 
 are victors in the end. 
 
 If we take the trees of which Adam and Eve 
 were allowed to eat to represent lawful pleasures, 
 and the tree of which they were not allowed to 
 eat to represent unlawful pleasures, and the com- 
 mand of God to represent the voice of conscience, 
 then the account of Adam's fall will be for us a 
 literal history of our own. Temptation has in 
 our case led to a fall, to many falls. We are all 
 constantly falling by eating forbidden fruit. But, 
 thank God, though temptations have led to our 
 fall, they may lead to our rising eventually to a 
 height which, apart from conflict, we could never 
 have attained. It would have been better for us, 
 no doubt, to have been tempted without falling ; 
 but it is better to fall, and to rise again, than 
 never to have experienced temptation : since this
 
 The Origin of Evil. 7 
 
 is absolutely essential for the moral development 
 of every finite being. Even Christ, divine though 
 He was, had to be made " perfect through suffer- 
 ing " ; and much of this suffering was due, we 
 may be sure, to the discipline of temptation. 
 There is a glory possible for you and me, my 
 brother a regal, godlike glory which but for 
 moral conflict could never be ours, any more 
 than it could belong to zoophytes or machines. 
 " To him that overcometh" says Christ, " will I 
 grant to sit with me on my throne." 
 
 But, 3d, it is said that God, at any rate, might 
 have resorted to the last of the three expedients : 
 He might have prevented man's yielding to 
 temptation by giving him at the outset a will 
 strong enough infallibly to resist, or by compel- 
 ling him on every occasion to use his will in the 
 right way. To say this is, however, to talk 
 nonsense. A will cannot be strong enough to 
 choose only one course, for it is the essential 
 nature of a will that it can choose either of two 
 alternative and opposite courses. Nor can any 
 one possibly be compelled to use his will in a 
 particular way : that would be to deprive him of 
 his will altogether. So long as he has it, there 
 is, in virtue thereof, a choice of conduct open to 
 him. God could of course have refrained from
 
 8 The Origin of Evil. 
 
 making us free; but then we should not have 
 been men we should have been only automata 
 or brutes. God could of course, at any moment, 
 deprive us of our wills and make us act in a 
 particular way, but we should then for the time 
 cease to be men. A man must be capable of 
 moral action, and a moral agent must be free. 
 A forced goodness is a contradiction in terms. 
 There is no difference in moral value between 
 constrained obedience and free disobedience. If 
 God used a man's will for him, or prevented 
 him from using it in the way he preferred, that 
 man would be no longer responsible for his con- 
 duct, and so would be reduced to the level of 
 dead, unreasoning matter. You may keep your 
 boy's hands out of mischief by tying them behind 
 his back ; but to the extent to which this takes 
 away from him the power of doing wrong, to 
 the very same extent does it deprive him of the 
 power of doing right. To ask why God did not 
 give Adam a more perfect will, is as absurd as to 
 ask why the square has not been endowed with 
 the properties of the circle. 1 God could not have 
 given Adam a more perfect will. Every will is 
 a perfect will. The perfection of a will consists, 
 
 1 The philosophical reader will remember a similar argument 
 iii Spinoza's ' Ethics.
 
 The Origin of Evil. 9 
 
 not in being able to choose only one course, but 
 in being able to choose either of two courses. 
 Eight - doing is praiseworthy just because it 
 implies that wrong might have been done but 
 was not. John Stuart Mill argues in his Post- 
 humous Essays that had God desired His crea- 
 tures to be virtuous, He would have made them 
 so if He could. Now, from what I have already 
 said, you will see that to make a man virtuous is 
 an impossibility, even for omnipotence. 1 It is a 
 contradiction in terms. A man might be divinely 
 compelled to refrain from evil ; but if he were so 
 compelled there would be no moral value in his 
 refraining. Hence compelling him to refrain from 
 evil is not, after all, compelling him to be vir- 
 tuous. A virtuous character cannot be bestowed 
 upon any one by a creative fiat from without. 
 It must be the outcome of his own free will 
 within. God can create innocent beings, and 
 every child that He sends into the world is 
 innocent; but He cannot create a perfect char- 
 acter ; for character is the result of a man's own 
 voluntary choice. So that (Mill notwithstanding) 
 it is " possible for a human being to produce by a 
 
 1 Omnipotence, it must always be remembered, is not the 
 power to do all things, possible and impossible ; it is the 
 power to do all possible things.
 
 io The Origin of Evil. 
 
 succession of efforts what God Himself had no 
 other means of creating." 
 
 The origin of evil, then, just like that of good, 
 lies in the power of choice. God must have been 
 (if I may so speak) necessitated, by His very good- 
 ness, to create beings capable of goodness. Such 
 beings must be free. And this freedom carries 
 with it an inevitable liability to sin. It lies in 
 the very nature of things, that pleasure and duty 
 must sometimes clash, and that he who is free to 
 choose between them, may sometimes choose amiss. 
 When men were once created, it was not for God 
 it was for them, and for them alone to decide 
 whether there should be evil in the world or no. 
 Alas ! they have decided that there should. But 
 even so, a world without any human goodness in 
 it, without any noble Christ-like men and women, 
 would have been infinitely inferior to our own, 
 in spite of all its wickedness. You must remem- 
 ber that the righteousness of one righteous man 
 will atone for the wickedness of many wicked. 
 Sodom, we are told, would have been spared for 
 the sake of ten righteous persons, Jerusalem for 
 the sake of one. So that since much evil can be 
 compensated for by a little good, since the pre- 
 vention of evil would have been the prevention 
 of good, since evil (as the fact has proved) is the
 
 The Origin of Evil. 1 1 
 
 necessary concomitant of good, just as shade is 
 the invariable accompaniment of light, it is as 
 absurd to wish that evil had been prevented, as 
 to try. and do away with light for the sake of 
 getting rid of shadows. 1 
 
 1 See also some remarks on the Limitations of Omnipotence 
 in my ' Inspiration,' pp. 108 and 145-149.
 
 12 
 
 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 ITS USES. 
 
 " It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
 of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10. 
 
 TT7HY is the world so full of suffering ? This 
 is a question which every thoughtful man 
 has asked. But it is answered in different ways. 
 Some say the existence of suffering shows that 
 there is no God, that there is no one who at once 
 desires our happiness and is capable of effecting 
 it. If any superior intelligence wishes us to be 
 happy, he is unable to accomplish his desire, 
 since he often allows us to be miserable. Or 
 conversely, if he could make us happy, since he 
 does not do so, our happiness must be a matter 
 of indifference to him. The world, so says this
 
 Its Uses. 13 
 
 class of thinkers, is the outcome of a fortuitous 
 play of atoms, which on account of their want 
 of reason produce much mischief and misery, 
 and there is no one in the universe able and 
 willing to prevent them. Other persons, again, 
 take quite a different view. They believe in 
 what they call a God, but they ascribe to 
 him many characteristic attributes of the devil. 
 Their God is full of evil passions, of hatred and 
 malice and vengeance. And they look upon 
 suffering as a sort of vindictive retaliation on 
 the part of this Being, to compensate himself 
 for having been thwarted in his intentions and 
 plans. He is furious with men and women 
 because they do not act as he would like ; so he 
 tortures them from sheer spite, and while he is 
 about it, he tortures at the same time the inno- 
 cent race of brutes. Nay, these persons even go 
 so far as to declare that the whole agony of 
 creation is the punishment of a single act. For 
 one case of disobedience all sentient beings have 
 been placed upon the rack ! Others, again, con- 
 fess that to them the problem of suffering is 
 absolutely insoluble. They worship a Being who 
 is not only called God, but who is God, who is 
 good and kind, as well as powerful. They believe 
 that He desires the welfare of all His creatures,
 
 14 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 and they cannot understand why He does not 
 exercise His omnipotence so as to bring about at 
 once the universal reign of happiness. 
 
 Now I propose to show you that the prob- 
 lem of suffering is not completely insoluble ; 
 that sometimes we may discover, in human 
 misery at any rate, a rational meaning and 
 a beneficent purpose; and that therefore the 
 existence of pain is not necessarily incompatible 
 with the existence of infinite wisdom and power 
 and love. 
 
 The words of our text are full of suggestive- 
 ness. " Perfect through sufferings ! " We have 
 grown accustomed to this phrase, but it would 
 sound very strangely to any one who heard it 
 for the first time. Perfect through sufferings! 
 he would exclaim. Surely the writer must have 
 made a mistake. He should have said perfect 
 through joy. Suffering must be a sign and a 
 cause of imperfection. 
 
 Now, it is quite true that suffering is always a 
 sign of present imperfection. But it may be the 
 cause of future perfection which could not have 
 been attained without it. On the assumption that 
 the ultimate end of our existence is the develop- 
 ment of a noble character, the necessity of suffer- 
 ing may be proved. For it can be shown that such
 
 Its Uses. 15 
 
 a character could never be produced apart from 
 the instrumentality of pain. 
 
 In the first place, suffering acts as a check 
 upon our evil tendencies. Here we may be met 
 with the objection that if God had not allowed 
 sin to exist, the suffering now required to check 
 it would have been unnecessary. We disposed of 
 this difficulty, however, when we were consider- 
 ing the origin of evil. We then saw that the 
 existence of evil could only have been prevented 
 by means which would, at the same time, have 
 prevented the existence of good. And since 
 much evil can be compensated for by a little 
 good, its prevention would have been an irra- 
 tional and ungodlike act. 
 
 Evil then being a necessary fact, some suffer- 
 ing is also a necessity. It is the desire for 
 present enjoyment that leads men astray; and 
 they can only be brought back by the counter- 
 active influence of pain. So far as suffering 
 fulfils this purpose, it is manifestly the outcome 
 of love. I say manifestly ; and yet the Puritan 
 and Calvinistic theologians never saw it. They 
 represented God as justice rather than as love ; 
 whereas, according to the teaching of Christ, 
 God's justice is but one phase of His love. All 
 He does apparently in justice, He really does in
 
 1 6 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 love. It is just that the sinner should be pun- 
 ished for his sin. Why ? Because in no other 
 way can he be made to give up his sin ; and this 
 is the consummation Love desires. The suffer- 
 ing which follows sin is the outcome, not of a 
 justice which can only be appeased by wreaking 
 out a certain quantity of agony as an equivalent 
 for a certain quantity of sin, but of a wise and 
 tender love which punishes only that it may 
 save. 1 Suffering, so far as it corrects evil, is not 
 an argument against, but an argument for, the 
 existence and beneficence of God. 
 
 The point, however, upon which I want chiefly 
 to dwell is, not the negative value of suffering in 
 correcting evil tendencies, but its positive value 
 in developing good ones. It is needless to say 
 there is an enormous amount of suffering in the 
 world which cannot be intended for the punish- 
 ment of sin, inasmuch as it has to be borne by 
 men, women and children quite out of proportion 
 to the sins which they have committed ; ay, very 
 often they are called upon to suffer because they 
 are less sinful than their neighbours. 
 
 Now, I want to show you that unmerited suf- 
 ferings may be useful and even necessary. Pain 
 
 1 See a sermon on " Punishment," in my ' Defects of Modern 
 Christianity.'
 
 Its Uses. 17 
 
 has many purposes to fulfil in addition to the 
 eradication of evil. If evil had never existed, 
 suffering would nevertheless have been essential 
 to the perfecting of the human race. Shake- 
 speare, the profoundest of all students of human 
 nature, who knew better than any one else has 
 ever done what made or marred men, says (you 
 remember) in " As You Like It " : 
 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head." 
 
 Just let us consider one or two of the positive 
 uses of adversity. 
 
 Account for it how you may, suffering often 
 acts as an intellectual and spiritual stimulus. The 
 world's greatest teachers have usually been men 
 of sorrow. I do not mean whining, puling, sickly, 
 sentimental sorrow like that of Byron, or Alfred 
 de Musset, or Heine. The sorrow which a man 
 feels because he cannot satisfy his greedy thirst 
 for pleasure is not at all ennobling. But for sor- 
 row manly and heroic, we may well thank God. 
 When Dumas asked Keboul, " What made you a 
 . poet ? " the answer was " Suffering." " If I had 
 not been so great an invalid," said Dr Darwin to 
 a friend, " I should not have done nearly so much 
 work." " We will not complain," says Thomas 
 
 B
 
 1 8 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 Carlyle, " of Dante's miseries : had all gone right 
 with him, as he wished it, Florence would have had 
 another prosperous lord mayor, but the world 
 would have lost the ' Divina Commedia.' " We do 
 not know much about Shakespeare's life ; but we 
 do know, from his sonnets, that he had suffered 
 vastly. His heart had been wrung till it almost 
 broke. And in Tennyson we have another strik- 
 ing illustration of the educative effects of suffer- 
 ing. ' In Memoriam ' is by far his greatest poem ; 
 there are single stanzas in it worth almost all the 
 rest of his works put together ; and this poem was 
 inspired by a great grief, by the death, namely, of 
 his friend Arthur Hallam. Nor is it only those 
 who will have a niche in the Temple of Fame 
 that are teachers of sorrow's divine lessons. I 
 have known women of whom the world will 
 never hear, whose whole life was one protracted 
 grief, who, by their patience, their faith, their 
 cheerfulness, their unselfishness, have preached 
 to all who came near them sermons more elo- 
 quent by far than were ever delivered from any 
 pulpit sermons in comparison with which the 
 discourses of Chrysostom or Savonarola must 
 have been tame and dull. 1 
 
 i See also a sermon on the "Rest of Faith," in my 'Defects 
 of Modern Christianity.'
 
 Its Uses. 19 
 
 Again, suffering is necessary for the develop- 
 ment in us of pity, mercy, and the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice the noblest of all our endowments. Dr 
 Johnson had a curious notion that pity was. 
 acquired by the exercise of reason. He might 
 almost as well have maintained that a blind man 
 could acquire by reason an idea of colour. The 
 well-known line " haud ignara mali miseris suc- 
 currere disco " contains a profound psychologi- 
 cal truth. Only those who have experienced 
 calamity themselves can understand what it 
 means. And unless we know what it is, we 
 cannot sympathise with it ; nor are we likely to 
 make any efforts for averting it. No character 
 can be perfect which has not acquired the capacity 
 for pity. In the acquisition of this capacity we 
 receive our highest development, and realise most 
 fully the solidarity of the race to which we belong. 1 
 You who know how to pity, and how to benefit 
 another at some pain to yourself, are you not 
 thankful that you have this knowledge ? It cost 
 you suffering to learn it, it costs you suffering to 
 practise it. But do you grudge the suffering ? I 
 know you do not. Spinoza has an odd defini- 
 tion of suffering as " the passage to a lower state 
 
 1 See a sermon on the "Culture of the Heart,' in my 
 ' Preaching and Hearing.'
 
 2O The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 of perfection." It is much more frequently the 
 passage to a higher state of perfection. Spinoza's 
 definition is singularly inconsistent with his own 
 acknowledgment, that the Man of Sorrows was 
 the embodiment of the wisdom and perfection 
 of God. If suffering were really a passage to a 
 lower state of perfection, then we should have 
 this singular anomaly, that He who was always 
 passing to a lower state came out at last at the 
 highest. Through suffering, says the author of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ was made 
 perfect. And what is true of Christ, in regard 
 to the helpful effects of suffering, is true in some 
 degree of others. As far as my experience goes, 
 it is this the noblest men and the sweetest 
 women I have known have been those who have 
 suffered most. No doubt we do now and then 
 meet with persons of rare tenderness, who have 
 had few troubles of their own, and are yet exqui- 
 sitely sensitive to the grief of others. They re- 
 mind one of what Coleridge says of Genevieve : 
 
 "Few sorrows hath she of her own, 
 My hope ! my joy ! my Genevieve ! 
 She loves me best, whene'er I sing 
 The songs that make her grieve." 
 
 But as a rule those who have suffered little have 
 little sympathy for suffering ; and without any
 
 Its Uses. 21 
 
 exception I think we may say, that those who 
 have not had some personal experience of sorrow 
 are altogether incapable of understanding or pity- 
 ing the sufferings of others: They decline to take 
 their part in bearing the common burden of 
 human woe. And what contemptible objects 
 they are ! They are far less human, in spite of 
 their human form, than many a dog. Well does 
 Mr Greg say in his ' Enigmas of Life,' " I have 
 seen on the same day brutes at the summit, and 
 men at the foot, of the Great St Bernard, with 
 regard to whom no one would hesitate to assign 
 to the quadruped superiority in all that we call 
 good." Dogs ! Why, a dog is always sorry when 
 he sees his master in distress. Dogs ! Why, if it 
 were ordained that I should be left in the world 
 with but one companion, and if I were allowed 
 to select between a faithful dog and a human 
 being incapable of sympathy, without a moment's 
 hesitation I should choose the companionship of 
 the dog ! 
 
 Lastly, some amount of suffering appears neces- 
 sary for the development in us of self-reliance, 
 self-respect, and all that is implied in the expres- 
 sion " strength of character." And it is only say- 
 ing the same thing in other words to maintain 
 that, without suffering, we could not attain to the
 
 2 2 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 highest happiness of which we are capable. Just 
 look, by way of illustration, at the advantages to 
 be derived from the struggle for success in life, 
 painful as that struggle must often of necessity be. 
 We cannot be born successful, and it would be 
 a great pity if we could. Good fortune and pros- 
 perity are worth most when they havj been 
 achieved in spite of hindrances and difficulties. 
 The happiness that we have obtained by effort is 
 far sweeter than that which we have inherited, 
 or which has come to us by chance : and the very 
 effort we have made to acquire it has tended to 
 our own self-development. To be born at the 
 top of the tree, as it is called in common parlance, 
 would be a tremendous misfortune for a man were 
 it not that the name is a misnomer. There is no 
 top of the tree for a finite being. Existence, or 
 rather life, for the king no less than for the peas- 
 ant, means progress ; and therefore there is hope 
 for a man, notwithstanding the fact of his having 
 been born into a comfortable or exalted sphere. 
 If progress were impossible for him, his lot 
 would be pitiable indeed. And what is true of 
 individuals is true of races. It would have been 
 a grievous disadvantage had they been created 
 perfect. The possibility of developing them- 
 selves is their grandest and noblest preroga-
 
 Its Uses. 23 
 
 tive. John Stuart Mill argues in his ' Posthumous 
 Essays ' that this would be a superior world, if 
 the whole human race were already in posses- 
 sion of everything which it seems desirable they 
 should have. But surely it is infinitely better 
 for races, as for individuals, to struggle up to 
 material prosperity and to spiritual perfection, 
 than to have been created incapable of progress. 
 In the latter case they might have been com- 
 fortable and satisfied: but their comfort and 
 satisfaction would have been no higher than a 
 brute's. 
 
 It would seem then that pain, difficulty, trial, 
 grief in one word, suffering is absolutely essen- 
 tial to our highest development and our greatest 
 good. Most truly therefore may suffering be 
 represented as an angel, sent to earth from the 
 throne of God ; and most truly may she be re- 
 garded as uttering the words Mr Greg ascribes 
 to her : 
 
 " I am one of those bright angels 
 
 Passing earthwards, to and fro, 
 Heavenly messengers to mortals, 
 Now of gladness, now of woe. 
 
 Might I bring from the Almighty 
 Strength from Him who maketh strong ; 
 
 Not as alms I drop the blessing, 
 From my grasp it must be wrung.
 
 24 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 Child of earth. I come to prove tliee, 
 Hardly, sternly with thee deal ; 
 
 To mould thee in the forge and furnace, 
 Make thine iron tempered steel. 
 
 Come, then, and in loving warfare 
 Let us wrestle, tug, and strain, 
 
 Till thy breath comes thick and panting, 
 And the sweat pours down like rain. 
 
 Man with angel thus contending, 
 Angel-like in strength shall grow, 
 
 And the might of the Immortal 
 Pass into the mortal so. "
 
 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 II. 
 
 THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 
 
 ' ' It became Him, for whom are all tilings, and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
 of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10. 
 
 T HAVE already offered you one or two sug- 
 -*- gestions tending to show that perfection of 
 character is produced, and can only be produced, 
 by means of suffering. I propose now to take a 
 concrete example viz., the character of Christ. 
 In the present sermon I shall give you a slight 
 sketch of His sufferings. In the next we will 
 endeavour to trace their effect in bringing about 
 His perfection. 
 
 Well, to begin with, Christ was poor; and 
 poverty is an affliction, although its praises are 
 often sung by the rich. The trade to which He
 
 26 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 was apprenticed would be anything but lucrative 
 in a small village like Nazareth. The house in 
 which He dwelt would be no better than the 
 houses of artisans in Nazareth at the present day, 
 which consist of but one room, serving at once 
 for shop, kitchen, and bedroom : they are lighted 
 only by the door, and are almost destitute of fur- 
 niture. Thus for thirty years Christ lived in 
 one of the smallest houses, of the most disre- 
 garded village, of the most despised province, of 
 a conquered land. His poverty must have caused 
 Him suffering, not so much because of the priva- 
 tions it involved, as because it induced His con- 
 temporaries to despise His teaching. In those 
 days to be poor was to be contemptible. "Is 
 not this the carpenter ? " asked one. " Can any 
 good thing come out of Nazareth ? " inquired 
 another. "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet," 
 said a third. All were agreed that it was absurd 
 to look for moral or religious instruction from a 
 man of such low extraction and such mean sur- 
 roundings. Christ would be constantly reminded 
 that His social position was the greatest barrier 
 to His usefulness in the world. 
 
 Again, He suffered from the physical pains 
 that flesh is heir to. In common with the fallen 
 sons of the Father, He had to earn His bread by
 
 The Sufferings of Christ. 2 7 
 
 the sweat of His brow ; and such earnings must 
 often involve pain. Christ suffered, too, like 
 other men and more than most men from 
 hunger and thirst, from exposure to heat and 
 cold, from sleepless nights, and from the number- 
 less and nameless ills that arise from a delicate 
 constitution. We might have guessed that He 
 could not be physically strong. There are souls 
 that consume the bodies in which they dwell. 
 Severe mental conflict and intense moral earnest- 
 ness are rarely, if ever, combined with perfect 
 health. Christ at any rate, we find from our New 
 Testaments, was weak and frail. For example, 
 He was weary with His journey to Samaria, and 
 sat on the well to rest; but the disciples were 
 not fatigued they went away directly to buy 
 food. In one of their discussions the Jews said 
 to Him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and 
 hast Thou seen Abraham ? " They did not guess, 
 owing to His worn and wasted appearance, that 
 He was little more than thirty. He fainted 
 under the burden of the cross; but the other 
 prisoners did not faint. And He died more 
 quickly than was usually the case ; so that when 
 the soldiers came, according to custom, to put an 
 end to the torture, they found Him already dead. 
 Again, what unspeakable misery is involved in
 
 28 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 the word homeless ! It matters little how mel- 
 ancholy in other respects may be a man's life, if 
 only he have a happy home. In that case, in 
 spite of all his troubles, his is an enviable lot. 
 However isolated and worried he may feel when 
 in the outside world, if there be somewhere a 
 spot which he calls home, and which really 
 deserves that name, then he is a happy man. 
 Though his lot may have been cast in a desert, 
 yet it is a desert that contains an oasis, to which 
 he can constantly return. There are to be found 
 sparkling streams and refreshing shade ; and 
 there the wayworn, footsore traveller may rest 
 and be refreshed. There for a little season the 
 weary can find repose and the sorrowing sym- 
 pathy. There, by the subtle power of love, bur- 
 dens are lightened, disappointments are alleviat- 
 ed, and the saddest heart is cheered. I imagine 
 there would be many more madmen and suicides 
 in the world than there are, were it not for the 
 blessedness of home. But Christ was homeless. 
 " The foxes have holes," He said, " and the birds 
 of the air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath 
 not where to lay His head." 
 
 Once more. Christ suffered from intellectual, 
 moral, and social isolation. He was very little 
 appreciated by any one, and entirely misunder-
 
 *ke Sufferings of Christ. 29 
 
 stood by all. He felt that He was born to a 
 godlike work. A mysterious purpose lay in His 
 heart, which was to lead the Father's fallen sons 
 to glory. The very nature of this purpose would, 
 as Dr Young remarks, make Him more keenly 
 susceptible, and more eagerly desirous for sym- 
 pathy. But in regard to the one great object of 
 His life, He stood entirely alone. The Pharisees 
 and Scribes and the upper classes generally op- 
 posed Him, not only on account of His poverty, 
 but also on account of His doctrines. He had 
 kind words for the publicans and harlots, but 
 none for them. The common people at first 
 heard Him gladly ; but when they found He had 
 no intention of improving their earthly circum- 
 stances, they became dissatisfied. As Christ put 
 it, they only followed Him because of the miracle 
 of the loaves. They wanted bread for the body, 
 not food for the mind. His own relations, too, 
 were an obstacle in His path. "Not even His 
 brethren believed on Him." Christ must have 
 suffered inexpressibly in seeing how little spirit- 
 ual good He was accomplishing. His very dis- 
 -ciples seemed to make no progress. They under- 
 stood Him as little at the end of His ministry 
 as at the beginning. For example, Philip said, 
 " Lord, show us the Father." He did not perceive
 
 30 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 that Christ's whole life had been one prolonged 
 manifestation of God. James and John wanted 
 to call down fire on the inhabitants of a Samari- 
 tan village. How infinitely far must they have 
 been, at that time, from the kingdom of God ! 
 Peter rebuked Him for prophesying His own 
 death, and was thus, as Christ said, a real stum- 
 bling-block in His way. He was urging Him, as 
 the devil did in the wilderness, to sacrifice God 
 and the world rather than Himself. Peter could 
 discover no needs-be in the humiliation and death 
 of Christ. He would have been quite content 
 with a throne for his Master : he did not desire 
 a cross. And so it was with the rest of the 
 disciples. They persisted in thinking, notwith- 
 standing all Christ could say to the contrary, 
 that He intended to deliver the Jews from the 
 dominion of the Eomans : they could not grasp 
 the notion that He wished to deliver all men from 
 the dominion of sin. They would have it that 
 He ought to be king of the Jews : it never 
 entered into their thoughts that He was to be 
 the Saviour of the world. They were willing 
 to struggle and to fight, if they might thereby 
 secure for their Master an earthly empire : but 
 they could not appreciate, nor even comprehend, 
 that kingdom of righteousness which it was
 
 The Siiffenngs of Christ. 3 1 
 
 Christ's sole aim to establish. This misunder- 
 standing would lead, of course, to want of sym- 
 pathy. Daily and almost hourly Christ must 
 have been pained by proofs of their selfishness ; 
 and He must have been sadly prepared for their 
 conduct at the last, when one betrayed Him for 
 thirty pieces of silver, another denied on oath 
 having ever had anything to do with Him, and 
 all the rest forsook Him and fled. 
 
 Once more. " Christ suffered being tempted." 
 Temptation was to Him as real as to us. He 
 would have fallen, as we sometimes fall, unless 
 He had resisted as we ought always to resist. 
 "He passed through the moral conflict," says 
 Pressense, " as we do, with all the perils of free- 
 dom. If it is maintained that He could not have 
 yielded to temptation, and that He knew it all 
 along, His humanity remains only an illusion, 
 and He was not really tempted at all. Let us 
 bring Christ down from this cold empyrean of 
 theology, and receive that sublime text, ' He 
 learned obedience ' ; which signifies that from 
 a state of natural innocence, He was to raise 
 Himself to the holiness that follows choice. A 
 perilous transit ; but in it Christ conquered, 
 conquered by the sole arms of faith and prayer, 
 and not by girding on Godhood as an impene-
 
 32 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 trable panoply." The same view is taken by 
 Canon Farrar. " Some," he says, " have claimed 
 for Christ not only actual sinlessness, but a 
 nature to which sin was miraculously impossible. 
 What, then ? If His great conflict were a mere 
 deceptive phantasmagoria, how can the narrative 
 of it profit us ? If we have to fight the battle 
 clad in the armour of human free-will, which has 
 been hacked and riven about our bosom by so 
 many a cruel blow, what comfort is it to us if 
 our great Captain fought, not only victoriously, 
 but without real danger, not only uninjured, but 
 without even the possibility of a wound ? Where 
 is the warrior's courage, if he knows that for him 
 there is but the semblance of a battle against the 
 simulacrum of a foe ? They who would thus 
 honour Him rob us of our living Christ, and 
 substitute for Him a perilous phantom, incapable 
 of kindling devotion or inspiring trust." 
 
 The account of the Temptation, as it is called, 
 is generally understood in a more or less alle- 
 gorical sense. Origen, Lange, Schleiermacher, 
 Olshausen, Neander, and Calvin understood it thus. 
 But it is, at any rate, an allegorical representa- 
 tion of a fact, the fact, namely, that Jesus Christ 
 was brought face to face with the powers of dark- 
 ness, and had to struggle in order to overcome.
 
 The Sufferings of Christ. 33 
 
 " Command that these stones be made bread," 
 said the tempter. In other words : Spend those 
 powers in the service of the senses and the body, 
 which ought only to be spent in the service of 
 God. "Cast Thyself down from hence." In 
 other words: Improvidence and presumption 
 would be no sin in Thee, if Thou art the Son 
 of God. "All these things will I give Thee if 
 Thou wilt fall down and worship me." In other 
 words : Would it not be better to gain the world 
 in the service of the devil than to lose it in the 
 service of God? The alternatives presented to 
 Christ were very similar to those presented to 
 every member of the human race. He was called 
 on to decide whether or not He would sacrifice 
 duty to pleasure ; whether He would take His 
 ease, or work the work of God ; whether He would 
 strive for temporal prosperity, or seek the salva- 
 tion of the world. This temptation was constantly 
 being repeated by His disciples and by His rela- 
 tions. " Since Thou canst do these things," said 
 the latter, " show Thyself to the world," and take 
 what the world will give Thee. He conquered, as 
 we know ; but the amount of suffering involved in 
 the conquest is not generally realised. He had to 
 choose between selfishness and self-sacrifice. He 
 determined to obey instead of to be obeyed. He 
 c
 
 34 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 accepted shame instead of glory. He drew on 
 Himself execration instead of popularity. He 
 consigned Himself to a cross instead of to a throne. 
 If you doubt the agony involved in all this, try 
 and imagine what you would have suffered under 
 similar circumstances. Would not the conflict 
 have torn your very heart in twain ? 
 
 Further, as Ullmann has observed, the Man of 
 Sorrows must have been always enduring the 
 temptation of suffering, in one of its many forms. 
 Not only did He suffer being tempted, but He 
 was tempted being in suffering. We have seen 
 that suffering may be, and frequently is, a means 
 to moral progress ; but it has also its drawbacks 
 and disadvantages. It brings with it temptations 
 to fretfulness, to repining, to faithlessness, and, if 
 it be very severe, the temptation which poor Job 
 felt, to curse God and die. 
 
 Lastly, Christ suffered death. And the fact 
 that His death was no ordinary death, may be 
 clearly seen from the agony He experienced in the 
 anticipation of it. It was no vulgar fear of dying, 
 we may be sure, that so weighed down the Sav- 
 iour's spirit. It was rather sorrow for the blind- 
 ness and hardness of those who had rejected Him, 
 sorrow for the comparative failure of His life. 
 The inducement to make a compromise with the
 
 The Sufferings of Christ. 35 
 
 Pharisees must now have been very strong. He 
 had accomplished little in the world as yet : but 
 He was only thirty-three ; He might do so much 
 if He could only live. He might then " see, of the 
 travail of His soul and be satisfied," instead of 
 having to die in the faith. Death by crucifixion, 
 too, was socially the most ignominious, and physi- 
 cally the most agonising, which it was possible to 
 endure. It was a Eoman punishment, which was 
 only inflicted upon slaves or captives. The cruci- 
 fixion of a Roman citizen would have been con- 
 sidered a reflection upon the dignity of Eome. 
 " It includes all that death can have of the 
 horrible and ghastly. Dizziness, cramp, thirst, 
 tetanus, starvation, sleeplessness, fever, publicity 
 of shame, mortification of untended wounds, all 
 intensified just up to that point at which they can 
 be endured, but all stopping short, for long weary 
 hours, of the point which gives to the sufferer the 
 relief of unconsciousness. Every variety of anguish 
 went on increasing, until the crucified yearned for 
 death as for a delicious and exquisite release." 
 
 All His previous sufferings, moreover, were 
 gathered up and repeated with tenfold intensity 
 upon Calvary. He was poorer than ever now, for 
 His very clothes were being divided among His 
 executioners : more homeless than ever now, since
 
 36 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 His last resting-place was a cross : more tempted 
 than ever now, since the temptations that are 
 born of anguish had reached their climax : more 
 isolated than ever now, for not only were the 
 Pharisees against Him, but the common people, 
 who had once heard Him gladly, were ridicul- 
 ing and insulting Him ; and the single disciple 
 who was there to see the end, as well as the 
 three Marys who were with Him, had a won- 
 dering pity depicted in their countenances, that 
 seemed to say they had hoped better things from 
 Him, that seemed to reproach Him with the fail- 
 ure of His life. To crown all, in His last mo- 
 ments Christ experienced that ineffable bitterness 
 of spirit, compared to which all other suffering is 
 joy the feeling that He was forsaken by God. 
 From His breaking heart was wrung the bitter cry, 
 " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? " 
 Die on now, Saviour of mankind ! Now 
 truly Thou canst say, " It is finished." " Thou 
 hast learned obedience with strong crying and 
 tears." Thou hast drunk to the dregs the cup 
 which the Father hath given Thee. Thou hast 
 sacrificed Thyself wholly, unreservedly. Thou 
 hast omitted nothing that could help us to see 
 the beauty and divinity of self-sacrificing love. 
 Thou hast been made perfect through sufferings.
 
 37 
 
 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 III. 
 
 THE EFFECT OF CHRIST'S SUFFERING UPON HIS 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 " It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
 of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10. 
 
 TN the last sermon I endeavoured to give you 
 a slight sketch of the sufferings of Christ. I 
 propose in the present sermon to offer a few 
 suggestions as to the way in which these suffer- 
 ings tended to the perfecting of His character. 
 
 First of all, what do you suppose that Christ 
 was like in person? There are two statements 
 in the Bible which are generally understood as 
 referring to Him. " He was altogether lovely." 
 " His countenance was more marred than all the 
 sons of men." Now I apprehend that both these 
 
 90959
 
 38 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 statements were literally true. The painters who 
 have represented Christ with a smooth and placid 
 face have made, I think, a great mistake. "We 
 have seen that He was in bad health towards the 
 close of His life, and that He looked much older 
 than He really was. The fact that His tempta- 
 tions and afflictions were so numerous and so 
 severe renders it almost indisputable that His 
 countenance would be marred. Yet we may be 
 sure that, to those who had eyes to see it, the 
 face of Christ was beautiful. There are two dis- 
 tinct kinds of beauty. The soft, rosy, dimpled, 
 laughing face, lovely though it be, is not the 
 only fair countenance the world contains. No. 
 Is there not beauty also in a face like that of 
 Livingstone's, all covered with scars and seams ? 
 For does not each one of those so-called defor- 
 mities tell of moral conflicts and moral victories, 
 of profound thought and intense feeling, of tre- 
 mendous earnestness and enthusiasm, of self- 
 abnegation and self -conquest? To those who 
 had no spiritual insight Christ would appear " as 
 a root out of a dry ground," having " no form 
 nor comeliness " : but in reality, " the beauty of 
 the Lord God was upon Him." 
 
 We have seen how solitary Christ was in- 
 tellectually, morally, socially. No one under-
 
 The Character of Christ. 39 
 
 stood His purposes, no one cared for His ideal 
 morality, no one sympathised with Him in His 
 efforts to make the world better. But it is not 
 difficult to see how this painful experience tended 
 to His general self-development, and how in par- 
 ticular it increased His moral strength. The 
 man will never be worth much who is on good 
 terms with everybody, who is continually courted 
 and petted by all with whom he comes in con- 
 tact. He who is content to take things as he 
 finds them, who has never had an idea which the 
 meanest of his neighbours could not appreciate, 
 who has never felt himself morally indignant 
 with any of his surroundings, such a person is 
 not half a man. 
 
 Lonely as Christ was socially, He often courted 
 physical solitude as well, and many a night He 
 passed by Himself on the silent slopes of the 
 Mount of Olives. It was thus, no doubt, that 
 He discovered the greatness and the infinite 
 possibilities that were latent within Him. "We 
 lose ourselves in the company of our fellows: 
 we find ourselves when alone. I pity the man 
 -who has never stood upon the mountain -side 
 or in some retired spot, far away from the 
 "din of human words" stood there in the 
 dusk of evening or the gloom of night, till the
 
 4O The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 silence became intense enough to make him 
 feel ' 
 
 " So lonely 'twas that God Himself 
 Scarce seemed there to be. " 
 
 He who has not had some such experience as 
 this knows little more of the mystery of his own 
 nature than does the child yet unborn. The 
 intense mental tension that accompanies such 
 physical isolation is akin to pain. But how 
 good it is in its results ! A man learns in 
 solitude something of his own capabilities. He 
 learns that he is not like a drop in the ocean, 
 obliged to move with the tide ; nor like a leaf in 
 the forest, obliged to bend to the wind ; but that 
 he is a free and godlike agent, and that, feeble 
 as he has been accustomed to think himself, he 
 is in reality strong enough to resist a universe of 
 evil and to conquer even death and hell. Christ's 
 isolation, social and physical, made Him calmly 
 and divinely self-reliant. How strong He was! 
 Since the world began, there have been no such 
 scathing denunciations as He uttered against the 
 Pharisees and Scribes, uttered to their very face 
 and in the hearing of the populace, though He 
 knew all the while that they had power to put 
 Him to death. 
 
 Isolation, moreover, tends not only to self-
 
 The Character of Christ. 41 
 
 development, or to the growth of a man's self- 
 consciousness, but also to the intensification of 
 his God-consciousness. It not only teaches him 
 how great he is in himself, but it also reveals to 
 him how much greater is the God from whom 
 his own greatness is derived. At first it makes 
 him feel that he is alone; but afterwards he 
 perceives that God is with him. I suppose that 
 most of us have had more or less experience of 
 this, amid the lonely scenes of nature. Words- 
 worth says of the Wanderer that 
 
 " In the mountains he did/ceZ his faith ; 
 Nor did he believe, he SAW." 
 
 But social isolation, that is, want of sympathy 
 and appreciation still more, perhaps, than mere 
 physical solitude tends to the development of 
 our God-consciousness. "It is not till we feel 
 we are alone on earth, that we know for a cer- 
 tainty we are not alone in heaven." It was the 
 utter want of sympathy that Christ experienced 
 which, more than anything else, taught Him 
 to say, " I am not alone, for the Father is with 
 me." Moreover, this want of human sympathy, 
 of which His homelessness formed a conspicuous 
 part, combined with the sorrowful tenor of His 
 whole life, must have made it easier for Him to 
 set His affections entirely upon His mission
 
 42 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 upon the accomplishment of the Father's will. 
 So long as He acted conscientiously, there would 
 be nothing to live for in this world, and hence it 
 was but natural for Him (so to speak) to dwell in 
 another. This idea is well expressed by John 
 Henry Newman: 
 
 " Thrice bless'd are they who feel their loneliness, 
 
 Till, sick at heart, beyond the veil they fly, 
 Seeking His presence who alone can bless." 
 
 How completely Christ lived beyond the veil! 
 " I have meat to eat," He said to His disciples, 
 " that ye know not of." And He spoke of Him- 
 self as the " Son of Man which is in heaven." 
 
 With regard to Christ's temptations, I need 
 only repeat what we have already seen, that 
 unless He had suffered under them, He would 
 not really have been tempted ; and that without 
 temptation it is impossible to acquire a perfect 
 character, or indeed any character at all. 
 
 Once more, we have seen that pity, tenderness, 
 mercy, compassion and the spirit of self-sacrifice, 
 which are essential elements in a perfect charac- 
 ter, can only be developed by suffering. If you 
 want any further proof of this, look at the great 
 cruelty of young boys, who have generally speak- 
 ing unless, from being delicate, they understand
 
 The Character of Christ. 43 
 
 what suffering means no greater delight than 
 to cause pain. Tennyson speaks of some one 
 who was 
 
 1 ' As cruel as a schoolboy, ere he grow 
 To pity." 
 
 It is not till the schoolboy begins to experience 
 suffering, that he ceases to take delight in inflict- 
 ing it. 
 
 Now He who was pre-eminently acquainted 
 with grief, was pre-eminently remarkable for His 
 tenderness and compassion. Eead those loving 
 words of His to the disciples, and His prayer for 
 them as recorded in the fourteenth and following 
 chapters of St John. He knew that the darkest 
 scenes of His life were at hand, yet He thought 
 only of comforting them. This pity He mani- 
 fested all through His ministry, under the most 
 varied circumstances. Listen : " Suffer little chil- 
 dren to come unto me, and forbid them not." 
 " Woman, where are those thine accusers ? hath 
 no man condemned thee ? Neither do I con- 
 demn thee." "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
 that killest the prophets and stonest them which 
 -are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
 gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
 would not ! " " Go into all the world and preach
 
 44 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 the remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem," 
 the scene of His crucifixion. " Could ye not 
 watch with me one hour ? The spirit, indeed, 
 was willing, but the flesh was weak." " Son, 
 behold thy mother ! Woman, behold thy son ! *' 
 " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what 
 they do." 
 
 The death of Christ was the perfecting of His 
 perfection. It was the last and steepest step of 
 the altar of self-sacrifice He had been so long 
 ascending. All the sufferings of His previous 
 life were, as we have seen, there gathered up 
 and consummated. He who had borne all His 
 previous troubles unblenchingly, shrank and 
 shuddered at the thought of Calvary and the 
 anguish it involved. We saw that, among 
 other things, it meant leaving the world when 
 He had, to all outward appearance, scarcely 
 accomplished anything. We saw that the in- 
 ducement must have been terribly strong to 
 parley with conscience, to make a compromise 
 with the Pharisees, to do evil that good might 
 come. This temptation would be the severest 
 He had ever experienced, and overcoming it 
 must have involved the extremest suffering. 
 But had He failed here, all would have been 
 lost. He would have shown that He was un-
 
 The Character of Christ. 45 
 
 selfish, but only within certain limits. He would 
 have shown that He had faith in God, but only 
 up to a certain point. He would have proved 
 Himself in the battle with sin a brave soldier, 
 yet conquerable, and therefore unfitted to be the 
 Captain of our salvation. But He persevered 
 even unto death. The cross has ever since been 
 a symbol and synonym of all that Christ thought 
 and did and was. And rightly so; for it was 
 the summing up and completion of all. 
 
 " In the Cross of Christ we glory, 
 
 Towering o'er the wrecks of time ; 
 All the light of sacred story 
 GATHERS round its head sublime." 
 
 Well, now, is He not perfect, this Man of Sor- 
 rows ? Did He not unite in Himself all good 
 qualities which in others are only found apart, 
 and even then in an inferior degree ? Do we not 
 find in Him, for example, more than the tender- 
 ness of woman, combined with more than the 
 strength of man ? Has not the story of His 
 self-sacrificing love purified many of the vilest 
 hearts, and brought some of the most abandoned 
 of the devil's votaries to the very feet of God ? 
 Did not everything good in the world before 
 Christ point to something better far in Him ? 
 Does not everything that is best in the world
 
 46 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 to-day owe its origin to Him ? How much of 
 what is sweetest in art, how much of what is 
 noblest in life, would never have existed but for 
 Christ ! Must we not thank Him for all that is 
 most beautiful in our social intercourse, in our 
 friendships, in our homes ? Can we not trace 
 His influence wherever there is progress in right 
 and freedom and toleration and joy ? The 
 thoughts of the Nazarene lie at the basis of 
 modern civilisation, and are inextricably bound 
 up with the future progress of the world. 1 
 
 The glory of Christ has been seen and acknow- 
 ledged not only by clergymen, not only by ortho- 
 dox Trinitarians, not only by those who profess 
 to be entirely consecrated to His service; but 
 wherever He has been understood, He has been 
 invariably admired, and more or less believed in, 
 if not loved. Nearly all the greatest minds of 
 the last two thousand years, though holding the 
 most divergent religious opinions, and differing 
 perhaps in regard to almost every other subject, 
 have been unanimous in their praise of Christ. 
 Milton, Shakespeare, Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, New- 
 ton, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Herder, 
 Goethe, Napoleon, Jean Paul Eichter, Carlyle, 
 Eousseau, Eenan, John Stuart Mill, and a host 
 
 1 See also concluding sermon.
 
 The Character of Christ. 47 
 
 of others, have been at one in lauding the beauty 
 of His life, the wisdom of His teaching, the bless- 
 edness of His work. For instance, Napoleon 
 said, "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and my- 
 self, founded great empires ; but the creations of 
 our genius depended upon force. Jesus alone 
 founded His empire upon love, and to this day 
 millions would die for Him." Eichter said, 
 "Christ was the holiest among the mighty, and 
 the mightiest among the holy. He lifted with 
 His pierced hands empires off their hinges ; He 
 turned the stream of history, and still governs 
 the ages." Eousseau said, " If the life and death 
 of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and 
 death of Jesus were those of a God." Eenan has 
 said, " Thanks to Jesus, the dullest existence, the 
 most absorbed by sad and humiliating duties, has 
 had its glimpse of heaven : " and again, " To tear 
 the name of Jesus from the world would be to 
 shake it to its very foundations." 
 
 And there have been some who have conceived 
 for Him a passionately enthusiastic devotion, that 
 was a copy and not a faint copy either of His 
 own self-sacrificing love. There have been some 
 who have surrendered for Christ pleasure, money, 
 fame, health, family, friends, position, prospects, 
 life ; who for His sake have suffered the loss of
 
 48 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 all things. There have been some who, for Christ's 
 sake, were tortured, and had trial of cruel mock- 
 ings and scourgings, and bonds and imprison- 
 ment ; who wandered over deserts and dwelt in 
 caves; who were destitute, afflicted, tormented; 
 who were stoned, or sawn asunder, or slain with 
 the sword ; and who not only endured these 
 things, but gloried in them, counting it ALL JOY 
 that they were thought worthy to suffer shame 
 for Christ. And there have been many a vast 
 multitude that no man can number, belonging to 
 all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues 
 who, though coming short of this enthusiastic 
 devotion, have yet loved and served Christ to the 
 best of their ability, following Him sometimes 
 closely, sometimes from afar off; sometimes for- 
 saking Him, but always returning to Him again. 
 They differ from one another in all conceivable 
 respects; they agree in nothing save their love 
 for Christ. And this love is no superficial senti- 
 mentalism, no transitory caprice. It is the deep- 
 est reality in their lives. It is slowly very 
 slowly, alas ! but still surely and perceptibly 
 transforming their inclinations and aims, so that 
 for them "old things are passing away, and all 
 things are becoming new." 
 
 And Christ's influence is by no means restricted
 
 The Character of Christ. 49 
 
 to those who professedly admire and love Him. 
 Many, unknown to themselves, have caught some- 
 thing of His divine spirit of self-abnegation. Of 
 all the best and noblest men now living, whether 
 they profess to be Christ's disciples or not, it may 
 without hesitation be affirmed, that they are ready 
 to deny themselves for the welfare of others, and 
 that, to a greater or less extent, they have merged 
 their own life and wellbeing in the life and well- 
 being of the race. From whom can they have 
 learnt this enthusiasm for humanity if not from 
 the crucified Nazarene ? Must he not then have 
 been perfect, this Man of Sorrows, to have accom- 
 plished such effects as these ?
 
 The Mystery of Stiff ering. 
 IV. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 "It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain 
 of their salvation perfect through sufferings." HEBREWS ii. 10. 
 
 line of thought in the previous sermons 
 has been that the existence of suffering, so 
 far as it tends to the perfecting of character, is 
 not an argument against, but an argument for, 
 the beneficence of God. It must be admitted, 
 however, that all suffering does not appear to 
 have this beneficial tendency. It may perhaps 
 have occurred to you already, that suffering 
 sometimes seems to have a hardening, rather 
 than a softening, effect; in some cases it seems 
 not to improve, but rather to deteriorate, character. 
 Upon this point I would offer two remarks.
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 5 1 
 
 First, the man who is apparently injured by 
 suffering may be in reality benefited. He may 
 seem, to the careless observer, to be very harsh 
 and bitter; but those who know him more 
 intimately may discover an infinite depth of 
 tenderness, underlying this superficial cynicism. 
 A striking example of this was afforded by the 
 late George Dawson. He had experienced the 
 severest trials, the greatest of all being this, 
 that his only daughter, who as a child had been 
 brilliantly clever, became at the age of twenty, 
 owing to over-study, very nearly an idiot. Well, 
 one Sunday he astonished his congregation, 
 who were accustomed to clever sermons, by 
 preaching a peculiar discourse, consisting of the 
 shortest sentences and the simplest ideas, fit 
 only for an infant class. The explanation was 
 this : his daughter was at church that morning, 
 and her mind happened, as he knew, to be less 
 obscured than usual. The sermon was addressed 
 to her. The text was, " Like as a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 Him." Now the man who could do this must 
 have been possessed of the very rarest tender- 
 ness ; yet if you had met him only casually, you 
 would have said he was the most cynical and 
 misanthropical person you had ever known. So
 
 52 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 that I say, suffering, even when it seems to have 
 injured any one, may after all have had the 
 opposite effect. 
 
 But, secondly, I do not deny I acknowledge 
 that suffering does occasionally deteriorate char- 
 acter. You remember the words which Shake- 
 speare puts into the mouths of the two murderers 
 in " Macbeth." The first of them says 
 
 " I am one, my liege, 
 
 Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
 Have so incensed, that I am reckless what 
 I do to spite the world." 
 
 The second says 
 
 "And I another 
 
 So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune, 
 That I would set my life on any chance 
 To mend it, or be rid on't." 
 
 It is in the moral as in the physical sphere ; 
 the self-same causes will produce, under different 
 circumstances, totally different results. The most 
 useful agents in nature have sometimes the most 
 deadly effects. The atmosphere, which is essen- 
 tial to life, is the chief source of putrefaction and 
 decay. The sea, which bears one mariner safely 
 to the desired haven, buries another in a watery 
 grave. Electricity, which carries a message across 
 the world at the bidding of one man, strikes an- 
 other dead. So the very circumstances of which
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 53 
 
 a good man makes stepping-stones to heaven, a 
 bad man will turn into a pathway to hell. The 
 responsibility for this, however, rests not with 
 God, but with men. As we saw in considering 
 the origin of evil, we must be free, or we should 
 not be moral agents ; and being free, it is for us, 
 not for God, to decide how we shall deal with our 
 opportunities and temptations. 
 
 But further, it must be acknowledged that 
 there is an immense amount of suffering in the 
 world, the inevitable tendency of which is to de- 
 velop evil and to stifle good. Thousands at home 
 and abroad are brought up in the midst of filth, 
 obscenity and blasphemy, so that for them health, 
 virtue and religion are impossibilities. Justice 
 seems to demand that these men and women 
 should not be made to suffer in the future for 
 the sins which were unavoidable in their case 
 in the past ; and that, somehow and somewhere, 
 they should receive compensation for all the 
 calamities which they suffered here on earth. If 
 there be a future life where compensation can be 
 made, then this suffering, horrible as it at first 
 sight appears, does not necessarily tell against 
 either the power or goodness of God. Even these 
 hapless souls may by-and-by be able to say that 
 it was "good for them to be afflicted."
 
 54 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 But what are we to think of the suffer- 
 ings of the brute creation ? Ages before man 
 appeared on the earth, animals were "groaning 
 and travailing in pain together," having to bear 
 the pangs of disease and death, and in most cases 
 being preyed upon and devoured by creatures 
 stronger than themselves. They will probably 
 continue to suffer long after human life has be- 
 come extinct upon our planet. Their sensuous 
 suffering is at least as great as ours: 
 
 " The poor beetle, that we tread upon, 
 In corporal sufferance finds as great a pang 
 As when a giant dies." 
 
 And they have few of the reliefs from suffering 
 which we enjoy. They seldom get the benefit 
 of medical advice or surgical skill. They do 
 not often, except when we choose to make pets 
 of them, meet with manifestations of sympathy. 
 They have no mental resources, as we have, for 
 alleviating physical pains. They cannot, like 
 Pascal, cure the toothache with mathematics. 
 They cannot, like you or me, forget their troubles 
 by taking up an amusing book or resorting to 
 cheerful society. If, when they die, they die for 
 ever, it follows that, in being deprived of the 
 pleasures of sense, they lose their little all. 
 What have they done to deserve this ? Nothing.
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 55 
 
 Indeed, some of them, in spite of their poor 
 mental endowments, have exhibited a wealth of 
 affection and self-sacrifice such as is rarely found 
 in human beings. What are we to make of their 
 sufferings ? 
 
 Of course, the old theory that they result from 
 man's fall is worse than worthless. For, in the 
 first place, no reason can be shown why they 
 should be made to suffer for our transgressions ; 
 and, in the second place, they began to suffer 
 long before man came into existence. Horace 
 Bushnell, in his 'Moral Uses of Dark Things/ 
 has an interesting and suggestive chapter upon 
 physical pain; but I cannot accept his solution 
 of the problem. He argues that God foresaw 
 the fall, and prepared the world accordingly 
 that is, He made it a suitable habitation for 
 sinners. " The very rocks of the world," he says, 
 " are monuments of buried pain, themselves also 
 racked and contorted, as if meant to be lithograph 
 types of general anguish. Making all the world 
 follow the fortunes of man, and in some sense go 
 down with him and groan with him in his evil, 
 carries with it an immense power of moral benefit. 
 No matter if the pains were initiated long ages 
 before his arrival, still they are just as truly of 
 him and from him as if they had come after."
 
 56 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 But this cannot be the meaning of the sufferings 
 of the animal creation. To make the innocent 
 suffer for the guilty would be unjust and immoral, 
 and could not possibly therefore carry with it any 
 "power of moral benefit." Bushnell says that 
 animals are merely things, and not in any such 
 relation to God as to have a moral right against 
 pain. To this I reply, that if they are but things, 
 they are in no such relation to us as to have a 
 moral right against pain ; and that therefore the 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
 is engaged in as foolish a work, as if they tried to 
 prevent tourists from cutting their initials upon 
 trees or geologists from breaking the rocks with 
 their hammers. 
 
 Justice would seem to require that somehow 
 and somewhere, the brute creation should receive 
 compensation for the vast amount of unmerited 
 suffering which they have been called on to en- 
 dure. The idea of a future for animals would 
 generally be considered extremely heterodox and 
 absurd. There is nothing, however, in the Bible 
 against it. 1 And Bishop Butler, the author of 
 the celebrated ' Analogy ' a book in which most 
 of the bishops examine candidates for holy 
 
 1 For the meaning of the often-quoted verse in Ecclesiastcs 
 (iii. 21), see my 'Agnosticism,' p. 201.
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 57 
 
 orders justly says that there is no reason why 
 animals should not be immortal, and that many 
 of the arguments commonly urged in favour of 
 human immortality are equally applicable to 
 theirs. "Even if it were necessary for animals 
 to arrive at great attainments, and become 
 rational and moral agents, even in this there 
 would be no difficulty, since we know not with 
 what latent powers they may be endowed." In 
 fact it seems a general law of nature that crea- 
 tures, endowed with capacities of virtue and 
 religion, should be at first placed in a condition 
 in which they are altogether without the use of 
 these faculties. This is the case, for example, 
 with ourselves in infancy; and since a large 
 proportion of the human species die soon after 
 they are born, it follows that many, capable of 
 becoming moral agents, go out of the present 
 world before they have reached the moral stage 
 of being. And further, contends the Bishop, the 
 lower animals might be immortal, even though 
 they were incapable of any high development. 
 The economy of the universe might require that 
 'there should always be living creatures of an 
 inferior kind. And all difficulties, he concludes, 
 as to the manner in which they would be dis- 
 posed of, are so wholly founded in our ignorance,
 
 58 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 that "it is wonderful they should be insisted 
 upon by any but such as are weak enough to 
 think that they are acquainted with the whole 
 system of things." 
 
 There seems no reason then why we should 
 not hope 
 
 " That nothing walks with aimless feet ; 
 That not one life shall be destroy'd 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 When God hath made the pile complete ; 
 
 That not a worm is cloven in vain ; 
 
 That not a moth with vain desire 
 
 Is shrivel'd in a, fruitless fire, 
 Or but subserves another's gain." 
 
 But it must also be added, 
 
 " Behold, we know not anything ; 
 
 I can but trust that good shall fall 
 At last far off at last, to all, 
 And every winter change to spring. 
 
 So runs my dream : but what am I ? 
 
 An infant crying in the night : 
 
 An infant crying for the light : 
 And with no language but a cry." 
 
 Leaving then what is doubtful, let us sum 
 up the actual results of our investigation. We 
 have seen that evil could not have been pre- 
 vented, without the prevention of a more than 
 compensatory amount of good. The existence of 
 suffering, so far as it is required for the destruc-
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 59 
 
 tion of evil, is manifestly not a curse but a 
 blessing. We noticed too how much there was 
 to be learnt from sorrow that could never be 
 learnt from joy. The world's most inspired 
 teachers have generally been men of suffering. 
 As Shelley finely says, 
 
 ' ' Most wretched men are cradled into poetry by wrong ; 
 They learn in suffering what they teach in song. " 
 
 We noticed, again, that battling with adverse 
 circumstances, though painful while it lasts, 
 gives us a self-respect and a claim to the re- 
 spect of others, which we could not otherwise 
 acquire. We saw that social isolation and want 
 of sympathy threw a man back upon himself, 
 made him self-reliant, taught him something of 
 the infinite possibilities of his nature, and above 
 all enabled him more vividly and blessedly to 
 realise the presence of God. We saw too that 
 some kind of suffering was absolutely essential to 
 the development of the benevolent affections, such 
 as pity, tenderness and the spirit of self-sacrifice, 
 without which every character must be contemp- 
 tible. As a general rule, the men and women who 
 have suffered much are sweeter and nobler than 
 those who have suffered little. Even Christ, we 
 are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, required 
 the discipline of grief. Now, since a perfect
 
 60 The Mystery of Suffering. 
 
 character is the best of all possessions, cheaply 
 purchased (if need be) by a long-protracted agony 
 of pain, those sufferings which are required to 
 bring us to perfection must be regarded as proofs 
 of the great Father's care. If God failed to inflict 
 them, if He interfered to prevent them, He would 
 not be a God of love. 
 
 Hence we have found a rational basis small 
 it may be, but immovably secure for that faith 
 which believes that the sufferings of this present 
 time are not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory that shall be revealed ; that our light afflic- 
 tion, which is but for a moment, is working out 
 for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory; that the Creator is the Father of His 
 creatures, extending His tender mercies over all 
 His works, and leading the whole creation by a 
 right way, though it be oftentimes by a way they 
 do not understand. With this foundation for our 
 faith, we may look forward with sure and certain 
 hope to that 
 
 " One far-off divine event 
 To which the whole creation moves." 
 
 Just as a grain of seed falls into the ground 
 and dies, that it may rise again the blade, the ear, 
 the full corn in the ear ; just as babyhood gives 
 place to childhood, childhood to youth, youth to
 
 Difficulties of the Subject. 61 
 
 manhood; just as the sublimest music involves 
 the resolution of discords ; just as there are men 
 and women in the world to-day who feel already 
 more than compensated for the toils, struggles 
 and privations of the past, who can say with 
 Newman, 
 
 " I would not miss one sigh or tear, 
 Heart-pang, or throbbing brow : 
 Sweet was the chastisement severe, 
 And sweet its memory now ; " 
 
 so all the chances and changes of this mortal life 
 are but preparations for a better, where we shall 
 be made glad according to the days wherein we 
 have been afflicted, and the years in which we 
 have seen evil, with a gladness sweeter, purer, 
 deeper than could ever have been ours but for 
 those days of evil and those years of affliction. 1 
 
 1 See also some remarks on the necessity for pain in my 
 4 Inspiration,' pp. 151-160.
 
 62 
 
 The Formation of Character 
 I. 
 
 HUMILITY. 
 
 " Not as though I had already attained, either were already per- 
 fect ; . . . but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
 which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
 are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high 
 calling of God in Christ Jesus." PHILIPPIANS iii. 12-14. 
 
 I" PEOPOSE in this and the four following 
 *- sermons to discuss some fundamental prin- 
 ciples, which it is absolutely essential for us to 
 bear in mind, if we would succeed in forming for 
 ourselves a perfect character. Let us look, in the 
 first instance, at the virtue of humility, which is 
 the prerequisite, the sine guA non, of the attain- 
 ment of moral perfection. 
 
 Aristotle, in his 'Ethics,' gives a curious de- 
 scription of what he considered an ideal char- 
 acter. The "lame-souled " or " high-minded "
 
 Humility. 63 
 
 man occupies himself entirely with honour. He 
 receives a certain amount of pleasure, just so 
 much as is compatible with his dignity, when the 
 illustrious treat him with respect ; but he justly 
 despises the majority of his neighbours. He 
 hates to accept a favour, for he wants his superi- 
 ority to be universally recognised. When he is 
 compelled to accept presents, he always gives 
 larger presents in return, so that he may never 
 be under an obligation. There is nothing which 
 he considers great : hence he never wonders. 
 His lofty-mindedness even shows itself by his 
 speaking in a loud voice, and walking with a 
 stately gait. This ideal, as Aristotle himself 
 pointed out, could of course only be attained by 
 a man of birth, brains and wealth. If others 
 aimed at it, the virtue of magnanimity became in 
 them the vice of conceit. 
 
 Now, as Aristotle always tested the correctness 
 of his doctrines by their agreement or disagree- 
 ment with popular opinions and practices, we 
 may be sure that, in this description, he was only 
 generalising views which were common at the 
 jtime. And though, owing mainly to the influ- 
 ence of Christ, such grotesque exhibitions of 
 pride would no longer be tolerated, that vice is 
 even yet more frequently to be met with than
 
 64 The Formation of Character. 
 
 any other human failing. " Other vices," says Dr 
 Johnson, " tyrannise over particular ages, and 
 triumph in particular countries. Eage is a failing 
 of youth, avarice of age. Revenge is the predom- 
 inant passion of one country, avarice of another. 
 But pride is a native of every country, infects 
 every climate, and corrupts every nation." 
 
 What makes pride so common is the fact that 
 it can adapt itself to all circumstances, it can be 
 exercised upon anything. It is just taking too 
 exalted an estimate of our own qualities, because 
 they are our own. If a man has no good charac- 
 teristics of which to be proud, he will pride him- 
 self on bad ones. As old John Berridge quaintly 
 puts it, "Pride has such a wonderful appetite 
 that it can feed kindly even on grease and gar- 
 bage. It will be as warm and snug in a cloister 
 as in a palace, and be equally delighted with a 
 foul oath and a fine prayer." The virtuous man 
 thinks too much of himself on account of his 
 virtue, while the thoroughly vicious man plumes 
 himself on the success and magnitude of his 
 crimes. Some take pride in being rich, others 
 in being poor; some in good clothes, others in 
 bad ; some in their education, others in their 
 want of education ; some in having had a grand- 
 father, others in the fact that they are self-made ;
 
 Humility. 65 
 
 some are proud of being religions, others of being 
 irreligious ; some of their asceticism, others of 
 their luxuriousness ; some take pride in being 
 proud and in showing that they are proud, others 
 in an ostentatious exhibition of humility. The 
 Cynic philosophers, who professed to have eradi- 
 cated all human passions, were very proud of 
 their supposed freedom from pride. " I trample 
 upon the pride of Plato," said Diogenes. " Yes," 
 said Plato, " but it is with another kind of pride." 
 Socrates once said very naively to Antisthenes, 
 " I see your vanity through your threadbare 
 cloak." This is the worst kind of pride. The 
 devil's darling sin, as Coleridge has it, is the 
 pride that apes humility. 
 
 Now the evil effects of pride are manifest. 
 It is incompatible, first of all, with sympathy 
 and philanthropy, which are among the surest 
 manifestations of the Christian life and character. 
 If we despise our neighbours, we can take no 
 interest in their welfare ; and even if we did, we 
 could not do them any good. You cannot really 
 benefit any one unless you respect him. You 
 nlay contemptuously fling half-a-crown to a poor 
 man, but your unkind demeanour will have done 
 him more harm morally, than can be compensated 
 for by any physical good that the thirty pence 
 E
 
 66 The Formation of Character. 
 
 are capable of accomplishing. And this want of 
 sympathy is visited upon the proud man's own 
 head. He cannot but live a lonely, isolated, 
 melancholy life. 
 
 Again, pride is at the bottom of most of the 
 quarrels of the human race, quarrels, of course, 
 quite incompatible with a perfect Christian char- 
 acter. You may trace its influence in civil and 
 international wars, in private duels and family 
 feuds, and in the religious persecutions which 
 have done so much to bring the name of religion 
 into contempt and to justify the sarcastic ex- 
 clamation of Lucretius, "To so many evils has 
 religion persuaded men." Eegarding their own 
 set of opinions as an absolute standard of saving 
 truth, men have come to the conclusion that all 
 who differed from themselves must be children 
 of the devil, whom it was a work of piety to 
 despise, excommunicate, anathematise, torture 
 and slay. 
 
 Once more, pride is incompatible with progress, 
 mental or moral. The man who is proud of the 
 achievements of his intellect proves by his very 
 pride the incurable denseness of his ignorance. 
 " Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? 
 there is more hope of a fool than of him." The 
 fool who is conscious of his folly has really
 
 Humility. 67 
 
 advanced far on the road to wisdom ; but the 
 man who thinks he is already wise is proceeding 
 in the opposite direction, is approaching nearer 
 and nearer to idiocy every day. Similarly in the 
 moral sphere. He who is proud of his virtues, 
 who thanks God that he is not as other men, has 
 reached his moral goal, such as it is, and he will 
 be quite content to stay there. But he cannot 
 stay there. In the moral sphere there is no 
 standing still. Every man who is not making 
 progress is really retrogressing. So the proud 
 Pharisee is not only a very sorry specimen of 
 virtue to begin with, but he is constantly becom- 
 ing sorrier. He grows contented with less and 
 less actual merit, and makes up for the diminu- 
 tion of his virtue by the increase of his insuffer- 
 able pride. 
 
 Having thus seen the unreasonableness of 
 pride, let us look for a moment at the reason- 
 ableness of humility. The word, as you see, is 
 derived from humus, the ground, and it is thus 
 equivalent to the Saxon word lowliness. It is 
 also synonymous with modesty, which latter term 
 is derived from modus, a measure, and means 
 therefore the measuring faculty. All this is 
 instructive. Humility being synonymous with 
 modesty will mean, not underestimating, but
 
 68 The Formation of Character. 
 
 correctly estimating ourselves. A great deal of 
 nonsense is often talked on this subject. A man 
 is sometimes called conceited because he believes 
 in himself. Whereas, if he didn't do so, he 
 would be either a very commonplace man or a 
 fool. He who can do anything well ought to recog- 
 nise the fact ; and if he can do it letter than other 
 people, it is right that he should know it, or else he 
 might be content to do it only as well. " I believe," 
 says Ruskin, " the first test of the truly great man 
 is his humility. I do not mean by humility doubt 
 of his own powers, or hesitation to speak his 
 opinions ; but a right understanding of the rela- 
 tion between what he can say and do, and the 
 rest of the world's sayings and doings. Arnolfo 
 knows that he can build a good dome at Florence. 
 Albert Diirer writes calmly, to one who has found 
 fault with his work, that it cannot be better done. 
 Sir Isaac Newton knows that he has worked out 
 a problem or two that would have puzzled any 
 one else. Only they do not expect their fellow- 
 men to fall down and worship them. They have 
 a curious under-sense of powerlessness, feeling 
 that the greatness is not in them but through 
 them; that they could not be or do anything 
 else than God made them ; and they see some- 
 thing divine and God-made in every other man
 
 Humility. 69 
 
 they meet." Hence, just as there is a seeming 
 humility which is nothing but pride, so there may 
 be a seeming pride which is really humility. 
 
 However, though it is not our duty to under- 
 estimate ourselves, we must bear in mind that 
 only a lowly self- valuation can be correct. The 
 man who is possessed of the measuring faculty 
 will be aware that for every thing he can do well, 
 there are hundreds of things he can effect but 
 indifferently, and hundreds more he cannot do 
 at all; that for every thing he knows, there 
 are thousands and tens of thousands of things 
 of which he is ignorant; that though he may 
 possess good qualities, he is not without bad; 
 that if in certain particulars he is really wiser 
 and better than his neighbours, this superiority 
 is due in a great degree to the fact that he has 
 been placed in more favourable circumstances ; 
 and that his improvement under those circum- 
 stances has been by no means proportionate 
 to the advantages which they offered. If we 
 would but reflect, we should sometimes discover 
 that it was we ourselves who deserved the scorn 
 we were so lavishly bestowing upon others. I 
 have not unfrequently caught myself, I am 
 sorry to say, despising persons for certain opin- 
 ions and practices, which I by-and-by remeni-
 
 70 The Formation of Character. 
 
 bered were once my own, and would probably 
 have been so still, had not some tutor or pro- 
 fessor or writer or friend taught me a more 
 excellent way. 
 
 When one's pride is thus changed by reflection 
 into humility, contempt is at the same time con- 
 verted into sympathy. And sympathy is the 
 chief criterion of the perfect Christian character. 
 By sympathy we can make men better, whereas 
 by contempt we only make them worse. Byron 
 says of the Corsair, 
 
 " There was a laughing devil in his sneer, 
 That raised emotions both of hate and fear." 
 
 Sneering only excites what is bad in men. If 
 you want to raise or teach them, you must appeal 
 to their better nature ; you must treat them with 
 sympathy and even with respect. And this of 
 course you will never do unless you have formed 
 a lowly estimate of yourself. 
 
 Then, again, humility is a means to progress. 
 When we realise how little we know, and not till 
 then, we shall yearn and strive to know more. 
 When we feel how imperfect is our character, 
 and not till then, we shall make earnest efforts 
 after improvement. Our success in life, whether 
 moral or social, our making the best use of our 
 opportunities, temporal and spiritual, will depend
 
 Humility. 7 1 
 
 very greatly upon our forming a correct estimate 
 of ourselves. Swift truly says, " No man ever 
 made an ill figure who understood his own talents, 
 nor a good one who mistook them." The humble 
 man, seeing what is within the scope of his pres- 
 ent power, does it ; and every such achievement 
 paves the way for greater. The proud man, on 
 the contrary, will perhaps make one or two spas- 
 modic endeavours to attain something that is quite 
 beyond his reach, and after he has failed, will 
 give up all further effort in disgust. Many a 
 man fails to become great merely because he can- 
 not become great all at once. 
 
 " That low man seeks a little thing to do, 
 
 Sees it and does it : 
 
 This high man, with a great thing to pursue, 
 Dies ere he knows it. 
 
 That low man goes on adding one to one, 
 
 His hundred's soon hit : 
 This high man, aiming at a million, 
 
 Misses an unit." 
 
 Let me, in conclusion, remind you that there 
 is nothing mean nothing of the Uriah Heep 
 in true humility. A genuine humility will in- 
 crease our self-respect. We must surely esteem 
 ourselves, when honestly endeavouring to ascer- 
 tain our merits and defects, more not less, than 
 when we were laying a flattering unction to our
 
 72 The Formation of Character. 
 
 souls, which we might have known all along to 
 be false. It is only the humble man who has any 
 right to self-respect. Milton speaks somewhere 
 of a "lowliness majestic." The profoundest hu- 
 mility is perfectly compatible with the profoundest 
 veneration for one's own God-made nature. Al- 
 though correct self-valuation involves the recog- 
 nition of our present littleness, it also includes 
 the realisation of our potential greatness. This 
 latter element is most important, as important 
 for the building up of a perfect character, as it is 
 for getting on in the world. Unless we take a 
 lowly view of our actual attainments, we shall 
 see no necessity for persevering efforts to improve. 
 Unless we take a lofty view of our possible fu- 
 ture, we shall lack the patience and the courage 
 to endure. This is the rationale of Christ's doc- 
 trine of humility. He that exalteth himself shall 
 be abased ; in other words, he who would make 
 himself out to be already great, is, and will ever 
 be, infinitesimally small. On the contrary, he 
 that hunibleth himself he that thinks little of 
 his present worth shall by-and-by be exalted, 
 shall by-and-by become really great. But this 
 exaltation will be in the eyes of others rather 
 than his own. He will still take a lowly estimate 
 of himself. If you see an ear of corn holding
 
 Humility. 73 
 
 itself very high, you may be sure there is nothing 
 in it ; and a similar inference may be drawn in 
 regard to a human head. The more a man knows, 
 the clearer becomes his consciousness of ignorance. 
 The greater his virtues, the more keenly sensible 
 is he of his defects. The nearer he approaches 
 to perfection, the more strongly does he feel that 
 his aspirations can only be fully realised in the 
 great hereafter.
 
 74 
 
 The Formation of Character. 
 II. 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR FAITH. 1 
 
 " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 
 perfect." MATTHEW v. 48. 
 
 TF we are to obey the injunction of the text, it 
 
 is necessary that we have faith in the fact. 
 Faith, in the first instance, seems necessary to 
 a hearty endeavour after goodness. I am bound 
 in common honesty to admit that there have been 
 " men to whom the dignity of manhood and the 
 fellowship of this life, undazzled by the magic of 
 any revelation, unholpen by promises of anything 
 higher or more enduring than the fruition of 
 human love and the fulfilment of human duties, 
 are sufficient to bear the weight of life and death." 
 
 1 This subject is discussed more fully hi my 'Basis of Re- 
 ligion.'
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 75 
 
 I am bound in common honesty to admit that 
 there are men here and there who, with no con- 
 scious faith in God, are yet living noble, useful, 
 self-denying lives, spending and being spent for 
 others, taking the most enthusiastic interest in 
 all that concerns the wellbeing of their fellow- 
 men, content to work for blessings to be enjoyed 
 by humanity, when they themselves shall have 
 passed (as they think) into non-existence. I 
 marvel at the goodness of these men, but I con- 
 fess to you frankly that I could not hope to imi- 
 tate it, if I held their creed. And I think I do 
 no injustice to the majority of men when I say, 
 that they would be equally incapable of this 
 atheistic morality. If there be no loving God, 
 the universe is fundamentally and thoroughly irra- 
 tional and immoral. Just think of it. Just run 
 over its history as sketched for us by nineteenth- 
 century materialists. In the beginning there was 
 an infinite number of dead, inanimate atoms. 
 These, falling through space, came into contact 
 with one another, and by their haphazard con- 
 currence were evolved, first of all a mass of fiery 
 vapour, and then worlds, animals, men, instinct, 
 reason, memory, imagination, will, thought, wor- 
 ship, love. If this were all, we could rest con- 
 tent: progressive evolution must be the work
 
 76 The Formation of Character-. 
 
 of God. But this is not all, according to the 
 materialistic philosophers. They sketch for us 
 the future work of evolution as well as the past, 
 and that future work consists in undoing every- 
 thing that has been done. Instinct, reason, 
 memory, imagination, will, thought, worship, love, 
 are all to pass away and be no more. The planets 
 and the stars, after having lasted long enough to 
 be the charnel-houses of the sentient creatures 
 which at some time or other probably existed 
 upon all of them, will gradually be forced to- 
 gether into one central mass, which will radiate 
 its heat into space, and at last become a frozen 
 block. That is to be the denouement. The cur- 
 tain of history is to fall upon a lump of ice! 1 
 If then the universe be so fundamentally irra- 
 tional and so diabolically tantalising, why I can- 
 not help asking myself why should I trouble 
 myself about character ? If in so ridiculous and 
 contemptible a world there be one thing more 
 stupid than another, would it not be the attempt 
 to act as if we were rational and moral beings ? 
 Would not a belief in the reality of right and 
 
 1 See Clifford's Lectures and Essays. If the laws of nature 
 turn out to be less exact and unchangeable than has been 
 commonly supposed, the end, though less tame, would be 
 equally undesirable.
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 77 
 
 wrong be the maddest of all delusions? What 
 does it matter, what can it matter, how I act, if 
 my life be but a momentary and accidental gleam 
 of consciousness in the passage of the atoms from 
 the fiery cloud to the frozen block ? Surely there 
 can be no right and wrong for a being who has 
 been made, and who will be unmade, at the caprice 
 of dead, unthinking atoms. I am certain I may 
 say for myself I think I may venture, may I 
 not ? to say for most of you that if we believed 
 ourselves to be in a godless, soulless universe, our 
 moral progress would be at an end ; we should be 
 stricken with the paralysis of despair. 1 
 
 But whether or not faith in God be necessary 
 to stimulate you and me to try and form for our- 
 selves a perfect character, there is one thing very 
 
 1 My reviewer in the '"Westminster* says I speak here 
 foolishly, not to say immorally. That is, of course, precisely 
 what I meant to do. My argument is, that if the material- 
 istic assumptions be logically followed out, foolish thinking 
 and speaking and acting arc the inevitable consequences. 
 
 It has been suggested to me by a correspondent that a dis- 
 . belief in immortality is the greatest stimulus to kindliness and 
 self-denial; that if we are thoroughly convinced the present 
 life is the only life men will have, we shall be all the more 
 anxious to do what we can for them here and now. But surely 
 belief in the essential irrationality and immorality of the 
 universe can never afford a logical basis for rational and 
 moral conduct. The art of life is to be in harmony with 
 one's environment.
 
 78 The Formation of Character. 
 
 certain, it is absolutely necessary, if we are ever 
 to succeed in achieving such a character. For 
 we are morally very weak, and we need super- 
 human help. Without faith we can do (com- 
 paratively at any rate) nothing. St Paul was 
 assuredly not weaker than other men, but you 
 remember his passionate lamentation " To will 
 is present with me; but how to perform that 
 which is good I find not. For the good that I 
 would, I do not : but the evil which I would not, 
 that I do. ... I delight in the law of God after 
 the inward man: but I see another law in my 
 members warring against the law of my mind, and 
 bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which 
 is in my members. wretched man that I am ! 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death ? " This is no rhetorical rhapsody, but 
 mere sober fact, as our own experience may 
 suffice to show. How often, when we know and 
 approve the right, do we reject it and choose the 
 wrong! How often have we tried in vain to 
 give up evil habits ! How often have our efforts 
 to live worthily ended only in disappointment 
 and remorse ! Every one who is not totally des- 
 titute of a conscience, must in effect have some- 
 times despondingly declared
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 79 
 
 " I see, but cannot reach, the height 
 That lies for ever in the light ; 
 And still, for ever and for ever, 
 What seeming just within my grasp, 
 I feel my feeble hands unclasp, 
 And sink, discouraged, into night." 
 
 Now, it is implied in our text, it is taught 
 throughout the New Testament, and it is con- 
 firmed by experience, that there is nothing so 
 morally helpful as faith in God. "We shall not 
 be surprised at the practical value and the moral 
 effects of faith, if we consider for a moment all 
 that it implies. It implies, first of all, a con- 
 viction that the forces of nature are being made 
 to work together for good, under the guidance 
 and control of an intelligent and beneficent Will. 
 If so, it is worth our while to strive after perfec- 
 tion. Do not misunderstand my phrase " worth 
 our while." I am not thinking only, nor chiefly, 
 of rewards and punishments. That would be a 
 very low view to take of the matter. There is 
 nothing more contemptible than the other-world- 
 liness manifested by numbers of men and women, 
 who seem to regard the working out of salvation 
 as a mere business transaction, in which, by the 
 performance of a few disagreeable actions in the 
 present, they purchase for themselves the title
 
 8o The Formation of Character. 
 
 to a comfortable state of existence by -and -by. 
 What I meant by saying that, on the Christian 
 view of things, it was worth our while to strive 
 after perfection, was this. On the Christian view 
 the universe is rationally organised and morally 
 governed, and therefore attempting to act ration- 
 ally and morally is attempting to bring one's self 
 into harmony with one's surroundings. Where- 
 as, on the atheistic view, since there is no ration- 
 ality or goodness outside of us, endeavouring to 
 be wise or good is, in reality, going contrary to 
 nature, acting in opposition to the laws of the 
 universe. If Christianity be true, it signifies but 
 little what becomes of that which we call matter. 
 It may be the case, it probably is the case, 
 as Shelley has magnificently put it in his 
 'Hellas'- 
 
 "Worlds on worlds are rolling ever 
 
 From creation to decay, 
 Like the bubbles on a river 
 Sparkling, bursting, borne away. " 
 
 But the man of faith is not to be dismayed by 
 the dissolution of a planet, nor a system, nor a 
 galaxy of stars. He sees a " ring of light round 
 nature's last eclipse." He believes that before 
 Nature is dissolved, if that be her future destiny, 
 the universe will have been peopled with beings
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 81 
 
 capable of an eternally intensifying life. So 
 that, whatever be the end of Nature, she will at 
 all events have been subservient to rational and 
 moral ends. Hence it is evident that to be in 
 harmony with Nature in other words, to be in 
 harmony with those surroundings upon which 
 our welfare depends we must live a rational 
 and moral life. In the conviction then of the 
 existence and beneficence of God, we find a 
 reasonable basis for morality. 
 
 Further. Faith implies much more than con- 
 viction. It is an unfortunate thing that the 
 word belief should be so frequently used as a 
 synonym for faith. Belief is not faith. St 
 James, you remember, says, "Thou believest 
 that there is one God; thou doest well: the 
 devils also believe." The devils are as religious 
 as you are, if your belief in the existence of God 
 constitutes the whole of your religion. Suppose 
 a man believes in Thirty-nine Articles or, for 
 the matter of that, in 399 if his religion ends 
 there, what is he the better for it ? He might just 
 as well be without it. Suppose a man believes in 
 the righteousness and binding force of the Ten 
 Commandments, and breaks them all, his belief, so 
 far from making him a good man, is the strongest 
 proof of his unutterable degradation. No more 
 F
 
 82 The Formation of Character. 
 
 demoralising doctrine was ever taught by ignor- 
 ant fanatics than the doctrine that a man's belief 
 will save him. " What doth it profit, my breth- 
 ren," says St James, "though a man say he hath 
 faith, and have not works ; can faith save him ? 
 . . . Faith, if it hath not works, is dead." Luther 
 did not care for the Epistle of James. He called 
 it an epistle of straw, and would have liked to 
 expunge it from the Bible. But the doctrine of 
 St James is most certainly the doctrine of Christ. 
 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he 
 that doeth the will of my Father." The doctrine 
 of St James is also that of St Paul. The faith 
 which St James says cannot save is the faith of 
 mere belief. The faith which St Paul says can 
 save is the faith that "worketh by love." The 
 proper synonym for faith is trust ; and trust is an 
 affection of the heart, not a faculty of the head. 1 
 It is the acting out of belief. " Christian faith," 
 says Dr Bushnell, " is the faith of a transaction ; 
 it is not the committing of one's thought in assent 
 to a proposition, but it is the trusting of one's 
 being to a Being, there to be rested, kept, guided, 
 
 1 See a sermon on ' ' The Function of Faith " in my ' Defects 
 of Modern Christianity,' and a sermon on the "Connection be- 
 tween Creed and Conduct" in my ' Church and Creed.'
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 83 
 
 moulded, governed and possessed for ever." That 
 passionate devotion to Himself which Christ re- 
 quired from His followers, and which He describes 
 in vehement terms as " eating the flesh and drink- 
 ing the blood of the Son of Man," is evidently 
 something very different from a mere passive in- 
 tellectual belief. To have faith in God is to have 
 had one's heart beating in sympathetic unison 
 with God's heart ; to have been inspired with the 
 divine enthusiasm for righteousness ; to have felt 
 one, with God in nature, in sympathy, in aim. 
 
 Once more. Faith implies joy in the present 
 life and hope for the future ; and these are states 
 of mind peculiarly conducive to right -doing. 
 The tendency of the atheistic theory is to drive 
 men to despair, than which there is nothing 
 more enervating and more deadening to all the 
 higher faculties. The late Professor Clifford, 
 (who, curiously enough, began his career at Cam- 
 bridge as a ritualist and ended it as an atheist), 
 speaks in touchingly pathetic words of his change 
 of views. " We have seen," he says, " the spring 
 sun shine out of an empty heaven upon a soulless 
 earth; we have felt with utter loneliness that 
 the Great Companion was dead." And John 
 Stuart Mill, (who was brought up an atheist, 
 but at the close of his life was versing towards
 
 84 The Formation of Character. 
 
 Theism, not to say Christianity), tells us, in the 
 saddest of all autobiographies, how for many 
 months he suffered such deep distress from ima- 
 gining there was nothing worth living for, that 
 he kept constantly thinking he could bear it no 
 longer, but would soon be obliged to make away 
 with himself. The man of faith, on the other 
 hand, is in possession of a joy that dwells in the 
 very depths of his being, and is neither dissipated 
 nor disturbed by the chances and changes of this 
 mortal life. There are no storms at the bottom 
 of the sea. Oiithe surface the waves may mingle 
 with the clouds ; the waters may roar and be 
 troubled, and the mountains shake with the 
 swelling thereof; but there it is calm as on the 
 stillest day in summer. So the man of faith 
 may be happy amid external disasters ay, too 
 happy to do wrong. 
 
 That such communion with God is possible for 
 men is neither more nor less than a fact of ex- 
 perience. No one has a right to say that the 
 efficacy of faith is a delusion of half-crazy fana- 
 tics. Though it has not been experienced by some 
 men, it has been experienced by others. From the 
 days of the Psalmist until now there have always 
 been men and women in the world who could 
 exultingly declare, "The Lord is my strength 
 aud my shield ; my heart trusted in Him, and I
 
 The Necessity for Faith. 85 
 
 am helped : therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth." 
 The efficacy of faith has been attested by thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of human beings, 
 and among them some of the best and wisest 
 and noblest of the race. On the other hand, 
 the want of faith has been the ruin of many a 
 man whose early life was full of brilliant promise. 
 You remember those touching lines of Burns's, 
 
 " If I have wander'd in those paths 
 
 Of life I ought to shun, 
 As something loudly in my breast, 
 Remonstrates I have done ; 
 
 Thou Tcnow'st that Thou hast form'd me 
 With passions wild and strong ; 
 
 And list'ning to their witching voice 
 Has often led me wrong. " 
 
 Poor Burns ! hadst thou but learnt the secret 
 of faith thou wquldst have found, that though 
 thy passions were strong, there was a strength 
 stronger than theirs, which could enable thee to 
 regulate and subdue them. There have been 
 men with passions as strong as thine, who have 
 nevertheless become saints ; of whom it was true, 
 in a spiritual sense, that they " stopped the 
 mouths of lions, quenched the violence of tire, 
 escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weak- 
 ness were made strong." 
 
 Permit me to make one practical remark in 
 conclusion to draw your attention once more to
 
 86 The Formation of Character . 
 
 the infinite distance that there is between faith 
 and belief. The profession of a creed may give 
 us for a time an air of respectability or an odour 
 of sanctity, but, alas for us ! if our religion 
 ends with mere belief. If our belief be good 
 and our actions bad, all that our belief does 
 for us is to enhance the enormity of our guilt. 
 I have watched the sun, as he sank into his ocean 
 bed, and paved the sea with a golden pathway 
 that seemed to lead to the very gates of glory ; 
 and I have seen the golden hues gradually 
 fading into gloom, till soon the blackest part 
 of the whole horizon was that which but a few 
 moments before had been so glorious and so 
 bright. No less delusive is a spurious faith. 
 Our belief in the divine Father's perfection is 
 worthless ay, it is even worse than worthless ; 
 it is a mockery and a blasphemy unless it is 
 changing us into the same image from glory to 
 glory, and making us perfect even as He is per- 
 fect. If we have a genuine faith, we shall be 
 willing to agonise (if need be) in the conflict with 
 temptation, that so we may be in harmony with 
 the God-ordered universe in which we have been 
 placed, and eventually come to 
 
 "That perfect presence of His face, 
 Which we, for want of words, call heaven. "
 
 The Formation of Character. 
 III. 
 
 THE MAGNITUDE OF LITTLE SINS. 
 
 " Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines : for our 
 vines have tender grapes." SONG OF SOLOMON ii. 15, 
 
 "\T7ITH regard to the formation of character, 
 we have already seen that the first great 
 requisite is humility, a profound sense that we 
 have not already attained neither are already 
 perfect. "We have further seen the necessity for 
 faith, as a stimulus and inspiration in the struggle 
 after perfection. In the present sermon I wish 
 to direct your attention to a third point viz., 
 the importance of seeming trifles, or, in other 
 words, the magnitude of little sins. 
 
 There is a well-known anecdote told of Michael 
 Angelo which illustrates how a wise man respects 
 what a foolish man despises. A friend called
 
 88 The Formation of Character. 
 
 one day upon the sculptor and found him finish- 
 ing a statue. Some time after, when he called 
 again, Angelo was still engaged upon the same 
 work. His friend, looking at the figure, said, 
 " You have been idle since I saw you last." " By 
 no means," replied Angelo. "I have retouched 
 this part, and polished that ; I have softened this 
 feature and brought out this muscle ; I have given 
 more expression to this lip, and more energy to 
 this limb." "Well, well," said his friend, "but 
 all these are trifles." "It may be so," said the 
 sculptor, " but recollect that trifles make perfec- 
 tion, and perfection is no trifle." It is equally 
 true that trifles mar perfection ; 
 
 "It is the little rift within the lute, 
 That by-and-by will make the music mute. " 
 
 The phrase " little sins," common though it be, 
 is highly unscriptural. In the Bible you will 
 frequently find such sins as lying, slander, and 
 selfishness classed with sins like drunkenness, 
 theft, or murder. The former are represented 
 as equally effective with the latter in excluding 
 from the kingdom of God. 
 
 Again, the expression " little sins " is highly im- 
 moral. You will find that the common distinction 
 between great and little sins, exactly coincides
 
 The Magnitude of Little Sins. 89 
 
 with the distinction between sins that are recog- 
 nised and punished by law, and sins which are not 
 so recognised and punished. Drunkenness, for ex- 
 ample, would be a great sin, and gluttony a little 
 sin. But the non-recognition of a sin by juridical 
 law does not in the least diminish its magnitude. 
 The laws ordained by society are necessarily very 
 limited in their scope. They can take no such 
 cognisance of evil as would involve, either great in- 
 trusion upon the privacy of domestic life, or great 
 interference with the liberty of the individual. 
 The purpose of social laws is to augment social 
 happiness. If, therefore, they interfered too much, 
 they would be self-destructive, they would frus- 
 trate their own end. Suppose, for example, that 
 society determined to compel every member of a 
 family to do the whole, of his duty to all the other 
 members, in that case the emissaries of the law 
 would have to be constantly present in every 
 home, listening to all our words, and even scruti- 
 nising our very looks. Great though the mischief 
 be which is caused in family life by unkind looks 
 and ungenerous words, yet if the law were to step 
 in and endeavour to compel men into kindness and 
 generosity, the remedy would be worse than the 
 disease. So again, to take another illustration, a 
 man may do much injury, directly to himself and
 
 go The Formation of Character. 
 
 indirectly to society, by taking too little exercise 
 or too much sleep ; but the law does not attempt 
 to hinder him. And it is right in refraining. 
 Within certain limits, it is better to be voluntarily 
 ill than involuntarily well. Life would be intol- 
 erable if police regulations extended to all its 
 minutest details. For these reasons the law of 
 the land is often obliged to wink at wrong-doing, 
 notwithstanding the fact of its causing an enor- 
 mous amount of misery. Any attempt to lessen 
 the misery would only produce still greater suffer- 
 ing of another kind. The non-interference then 
 of society with any particular form of miscon- 
 duct, does not prove that the wrong-doing is un- 
 important, but only that it is a kind of wrong- 
 doing which cannot be dealt with by juridical law. 
 Every sin however, whether it be a violation of 
 the laws of society or not, must be a violation of 
 moral and divine law, or it would not be a sin ; 
 it must have been committed in opposition to the 
 warning voice of conscience, or it would not be 
 a sin ; it must have been productive of injurious 
 effects upon the character of the man who per- 
 formed it, or it would not be a sin ; and when we 
 know all this about it, to call it little is, in reality, 
 to express the extremest contempt for morality.
 
 The Magnitude of Little Sins. 91 
 
 The persistent use of the expression "little 
 sins" is most demoralising. People think to 
 themselves, if the sin which doth so easily 
 beset them be a little one, it is comparatively 
 unimportant, scarcely worth the trouble of giv- 
 ing up. Whereas, on the contrary, it may actu- 
 ally be doing them and their neighbours more 
 injury than was ever inflicted by any sin that 
 would commonly be called great. 
 
 The sins of the tongue the sins of evil speak- 
 ing, rash speaking, unkind speaking, and so forth 
 are all, according to the common way of think- 
 ing, little sins. But listen to what St James says 
 in regard to them : " The tongue is a little mem- 
 ber. . . . Behold, how great a matter a little fire 
 kindleth ! And the tongue is a fire, a world of 
 iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, 
 that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on 
 fire the course of nature ; and it is set on fire of 
 hell. For every kind of beasts and of birds, and 
 of serpents and of things in the sea, hath been 
 tamed of mankind : but the tongue can no man 
 tame ; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." 
 lie could not have said in more emphatic language 
 that the sins of the tongue are among the great- 
 est of sins. And his emphasis is perfectly just.
 
 92 The Formation of Character. 
 
 " Little words," says Sophocles, " make or mar 
 men." The words of scandal-mongers have black- 
 ened irretrievably many a fair reputation, destroyed 
 ruthlessly many a valuable friendship, blasted for 
 ever many an innocent life. Society may wink 
 at such sins and call them little ; the law may be 
 unable to protect us from them or to punish 
 them ; but an uncorrupted moral sense will al- 
 ways pronounce them great and grievous in the 
 extreme. 
 
 It is curious to notice that the very character- 
 istics which commonly earn for a sin the name 
 of little, are often just the characteristics which 
 in reality enhance its sinfulness, and render it 
 pre-eminently worthy of being called great. For 
 example, an ingenious prevarication 'would be 
 usually considered far less sinful than a down- 
 right and awkward falsehood. It would be digni- 
 fied with a euphemistic title, and called " a white 
 lie." But the kernel of truth which it contains 
 makes it more sinful, not less. It shows its per- 
 petrator to be a cultivated liar. Judged, too, by 
 its effects, it may often be discovered to be a lie 
 of surpassing magnitude. 
 
 " A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies. 
 
 A lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, 
 
 But a lie which is half a truth is a harder matter to fight."
 
 The Magnitude of Little Sins. 93 
 
 A little sin, if there were such a thing, would 
 be one. that did little harm. But you will ob- 
 serve that the sins commonly called little are 
 sins which can be, and which as a matter of fact 
 are, constantly repeated. Hence, in the long-run, 
 it is these sins that do the greatest amount of 
 mischief. A man cannot commit many murders. 
 He is generally hanged for the first, and there is 
 an end of him. But the sins of temper and of 
 speech and of heart, the sins of unkindness, of 
 unneighbourliness, of selfishness, are sins which 
 we can go on committing without fear of pun- 
 ishment, every day, every hour, every moment. 
 The amount of suffering, therefore, which can be 
 inflicted by them is practically infinite. Allow 
 me to illustrate this point. In common parlance, 
 theft is a great sin and bad temper is a little sin. 
 But suppose that a member of your family, with 
 whom you are compelled to live, is incessantly 
 annoying, incessantly torturing you by his mor- 
 oseness, by his spitefulness, by his paroxysms of 
 horrible rage, will you say that he is less of a 
 sinner than a pickpocket ? Will you say that 
 the man who has made your home a very hell is 
 more righteous than the man who has taken away 
 your handkerchief ? Why, the misery caused by 
 all the pickpockets in the world to the whole
 
 94 The Formation of Character. 
 
 human race, is less than that inflicted on your 
 single self by the so-called little sins of your 
 relative's detestable temper. 
 
 And the sins of which we are speaking not 
 only cause a vast amount of suffering, but they 
 have the most fatal effect upon our character. A 
 great sin, severely punished and bitterly repented 
 of, is not at all likely to be repeated. Whatever 
 crime it may have been that was committed by 
 the author of ' Five Years' Penal Servitude,' any 
 one who has read that book can see that its 
 writer was in no danger of becoming a felon a 
 second time. He evidently felt his punishment 
 so acutely, that the remembrance of it would 
 be practically omnipotent as a warning for the 
 future. On the contrary, the sins which seem 
 to be little, just for that very reason, and also 
 because they are generally unpunished, are likely 
 to be first of all ignored by a man, and then 
 repeated, till at last their total effect may be to 
 render his character hopelessly and irretrievably 
 bad. A number of very little sins will make a 
 very great sinner. 
 
 "Sands make the mountain, moments make the year." 
 
 Again, our so-called little sins have the most 
 fatal moral effect upon the characters of others.
 
 The Magnitude of Little Sins. 95 
 
 They are just the sins which others will be likely 
 to imitate. The average man is more likely to be 
 infected by such a sin as scandal than he is to be 
 infected by such a sin as theft. Therefore these 
 little sins do the most widespread moral mischief 
 in society. They not only diminish our neigh- 
 bour's happiness, but they injure his moral 
 nature. And this deterioration of his character 
 will have a similar tendency to deteriorate the 
 character of others. Thus our neighbour's neigh- 
 bours, persons whom we do not know and whom 
 we cannot directly influence, may be morally 
 injured, may be even morally ruined, by what we 
 choose to consider our little sins. 
 
 From what I have said it must be sufficiently 
 evident that if we desire to form for ourselves 
 a perfect character, a studied avoidance of little 
 sins is of the first importance. There is a wise 
 maxim, current in common life, which tells us 
 that if we take care of the pence the pounds will 
 take care of themselves. I think we may coin a 
 moral maxim, containing not less wisdom, to the 
 effect that if we take care of the little sins the 
 great sins will take care of themselves. He who 
 is economical with a penny is not very likely to 
 be extravagant with a pound. Similarly, he who 
 is conscientious about his words and his thoughts
 
 g6 The Formation of Character. 
 
 and the minor details of his life, is surely in a 
 fair way to act conscientiously upon the most 
 important and serious occasions. Whereas, the 
 man who acts foolishly or wrongly in regard to 
 what may seem trivial matters, is almost certain, 
 from the mere force of habit, to act foolishly and 
 wrongly in regard to the most momentous. Our 
 habits depend upon the way in which we com- 
 port ourselves, not in great and startling emer- 
 gencies, but rather under the simple, common 
 events of our everyday life. It is scarcely 
 conceivable that circumstances could arise in 
 which you or I should feel tempted to commit 
 a murder. On the other hand it is quite as 
 difficult to imagine, that a day could ever elapse 
 without our being tempted to say something 
 which it would have been better to leave un- 
 said. The oft-recurring circumstances of daily 
 life bring with them oft-recurring opportunities 
 to sin. The temptations may not at first be very 
 strong, but they are constantly present with us, 
 and they are strengthened in proportion as we 
 yield. A sin may imperceptibly become the pre- 
 dominant habit of a man's life. Before he is 
 aware of it, it may become his second nature. 
 
 " 111 habits gather by unseen degrees, 
 As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. "
 
 The Magnitude of Little Sins. 97 
 
 A man would think twice before he deliberately 
 made over his soul to the devil after the manner 
 of Faust. But the bargain may be completed, 
 though more slowly, yet quite as effectually, by 
 a series of partial transfers. 
 
 To the thoughtful man there can be nothing 
 little, least of all in the moral sphere. It was a 
 favourite idea with Leibnitz that every particle 
 of matter reflected in a manner, and carried latent 
 in itself, the history of the entire universe ; that 
 is to say, if we knew whatever could be known 
 about any single particle, we should be omnis- 
 cient. All the forces in nature have been at 
 work to make that little atom exactly what it 
 is. Everything influences, and is in turn influ- 
 enced by, the infinite whole. From this point 
 of view how unspeakably solemn appears our 
 human life ! Almost every moment brings with 
 it at once an opportunity to do right and a temp- 
 tation to do wrong. Everything we do or say 
 leaves us somewhat different from our former 
 .selves, and is productive of good or evil to num- 
 bers of our fellow-men. Every action we per- 
 form, every word we utter, every thought we 
 think, has widespreading, far-reaching effects 
 effects that will eternally endure. Let us stand 
 in awe and sin not. 
 

 
 The Formation of Character. 
 IV. 
 
 THE LAW OF HABIT. 
 
 " If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." GENESIS iv. 7. 
 
 TF the angels weep, as they are said to do, over 
 human follies and shortcomings, there can 
 be nothing which more frequently elicits their 
 tears than the ignorance and thoughtlessness of 
 men in regard to the laws of their own nature. 
 It is strange that they should know, and care 
 to know, so little of the world they live in ; that 
 many of them should leave it without having 
 made much more acquaintance with its laws 
 than could be achieved by an unthinking brute. 
 But it is still more strange that thousands should 
 live and die in almost equal ignorance of them- 
 selves. The knowledge of human nature should
 
 The Law of Habit. 99 
 
 be the first business of education, but it is usually 
 the last, if indeed it be not altogether ignored. 
 And yet the old Delphic maxim, " Know thyself," 
 was one of the wisest ever uttered. He who 
 does not know himself will inevitably make a 
 failure of his life. Just as the labour of a 
 mechanic will be good, bad, or indifferent, accord- 
 ing to his knowledge of the material upon which, 
 and the instruments with which, he works, so 
 the value of your life-work and mine will de- 
 pend mainly upon the amount of attentive con- 
 sideration which we have given to the laws of 
 our own nature. For that nature is at once the 
 material upon which we work since all our 
 actions change it for the better or the worse ; and 
 it is also the instrument with which we work 
 since the actions that change us originate from 
 ourselves. Bacon, you remember, urged men to 
 the study of the world without, on the ground 
 that knowledge was power. Would that some 
 moral philospher would urge us, with the same 
 earnestness and success, to the study of the world 
 within I In both cases it is possible to turn the 
 very same forces to a good or to a bad account. 
 And the goodness or the badness of the use we 
 make of them will depend very mainly upon the 
 state of our knowledge. The more men know
 
 ioo The Formation of Character. 
 
 about the laws of nature, the more advantage 
 are they able to derive from them. Electricity, 
 for example, by which our ancestors allowed 
 themselves to be destroyed, we have now com- 
 pelled into our service, and send it round the 
 world at our bidding. So, too, there are laws in 
 our personality which may be our salvation or 
 our ruin. They may ruin us if we are ignorant ; 
 they will save us if we are wise. 
 
 Now of all these laws, there is perhaps none 
 so important as the law of habit, according to 
 which actions, by being often repeated, become, 
 first of all, easier to be performed, and afterwards 
 difficult, if not impossible, to be avoided. It is 
 to this law of habit, I think, that the text refers, 
 "If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." 
 Sin is here personified, and represented as a 
 beast of prey ready to spring upon its victim. 
 Our actions have a tendency to enslave us. The 
 wrong dfwh which we once voluntarily chose to 
 perform are very apt to grow into wrong practice*, 
 which we shall at last perform mechanically, 
 without any choice, or even in opposition to 
 the most earnest desire to refrain. So when 
 a man sins he may fairly be represented, in 
 the graphic language of the text, as having 
 called something into existence which, like
 
 The Law of Habit. 101 
 
 an evil beast, is waiting to seize and devour 
 him. 
 
 Every one has heard of the terrible suffering 
 De Quincey endured, when he was trying to give 
 up the practice of eating opium. Every one has 
 heard how Samuel Taylor Coleridge, when he 
 found himself enslaved by the same habit, used 
 to order his servant to follow him in his walks, 
 and forcibly prevent him from entering an opium 
 shop. We all know that men are constantly, as 
 in the case of drunkards, ruined by the force of 
 habit, when " their iniquities have taken hold of 
 them, so that they are not able to look up." We 
 have all known or heard of cases in which the 
 grasp of habit became so deadly, that it crushed 
 out of its wretched victim every trace of man- 
 hood or of womanhood, and what had once been 
 a human being was left no better than a brute. 
 No better ? Ay, infinitely worse. For, to use 
 the words of the prophet, it is " gold which has 
 become dim," it is " most fine gold which has been 
 changed." It is the image of God which has given 
 place to the image of the devil. 
 
 But though we are all familiar with such 
 illustrations as these of the law of habit, we do 
 not sufficiently realise the wide scope of that 
 law. We think that if we are not the slaves,
 
 1O2 The Formation of Character. 
 
 and are not likely to become the slaves, of any 
 groat vice or crime, the law of habit has com- 
 paratively little to do with us. Now we could 
 not make a greater or more serious mistake. 
 Paley truly says, "There are habits not only 
 of drinking, swearing, lying, and so on, but of 
 every modification of action, speech and thought. 
 Man is a bundle of habits. There are habits of 
 industry, attention, and vigilance; of obedience 
 to the judgment, or of yielding to the first impulse 
 of passion ; of extending our views to the future, 
 or of resting in the present ; of indolence, dilatori- 
 ness, vanity, self-conceit, melancholy, partiality, 
 fretfulness, suspicion, captiousness, censorious- 
 ness; of pride, ambition, covetousness ; in a 
 word, there is not a quality or function, either 
 of body or mind, which does not feel the influ- 
 ence of this great law." 
 
 According to the law of habit, everything we 
 begin to do is difficult, and in some degree pain- 
 ful ; everything we have done often is easy, and 
 in some degree pleasurable. So great is the irk- 
 someness of making a commencement, that it 
 may be truly said, when anything is begun it is 
 in reality half done. If practice did not make 
 things easier, life would be a most worthless 
 possession. If, for example, the difficulty we
 
 The Law of Habit. 103 
 
 experienced in our infantile efforts to walk had 
 continued, we should long ago have given up 
 the effort at locomotion in disgust. But we are 
 so constituted that the results of our actions, and 
 even of our ancestors' actions, are embedded in 
 our frame. Every thought, every feeling, every 
 action is preceded, accompanied and followed 
 by changes in the nervous system; and these 
 changes leave their marks behind them, in the 
 form of a predisposition to similar experiences. 
 When we first attempt any new kind of action, 
 as, for example, playing upon a musical instru- 
 ment, our muscles have to be schooled and dis- 
 ciplined to their unaccustomed task. But when 
 they have got used to it, they work almost auto- 
 matically ; and eventually, just as if they had a 
 will of their own, they seem to resent any attempt 
 to change their mode of action. The Greek 
 flute-player was a wise man, who demanded a 
 double fee from any pupil who had been taught 
 by a bad master; for, however hard it may be 
 to learn anything, it is harder still to unlearn it. 
 Again, what is true of the body is true of the 
 mind.' The presence in the mind of an idea or 
 a train of ideas, predisposes it to a recurrence 
 of the same or similar ideas. Each thought 
 seems, so to speak, to make a road in the ner-
 
 i O4 The Formation of Character. 
 
 vous system, along which track similar thoughts 
 can more easily travel. The same law holds, too, 
 in regard to our customary manner of speaking, 
 as well as in regard to our customary manner 
 of thinking. Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked 
 Dr Johnson by what means he had attained 
 his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language. 
 Johnson told him he had early laid it down as 
 a fixed rule to do his best, on every occasion and 
 in every company, to impart whatever he knew 
 in the most forcible style ; and that, as he never 
 suffered any careless expressions to escape him, 
 nor attempted to deliver his thoughts without 
 arranging them in the clearest manner, correct 
 speaking had become habitual to him. 
 
 Not only does habit make actions easier, but 
 it also makes them, as I have already intimated, 
 more or less agreeable. Custom is so powerful, 
 that it can even transmute pain into pleasure. 
 Let a man perform a disagreeable action often 
 enough, and he will by-and-by experience a sort 
 of enjoyment in its performance. Let him -live 
 long enough in the midst of unpleasant circum- 
 stances and surroundings, and they will at last 
 acquire a strange and inexplicable fascination. 
 The dullest, dirtiest, dreariest dungeon may in 
 time become to him a home, which he could not
 
 The Law of Habit. 105 
 
 exchange for a palace without a sigh. You re- 
 member the words which Byron puts into the 
 mouth of Bonnivard, the prisoner of Chillon, 
 
 " At last men came to set me free ; 
 
 I asked not why, and recked not wliere ; 
 It was at length the same to me, 
 Fettered or fetterless to be ; 
 
 I learned to love despair. 
 And thus, when they appeared at last, 
 And all my bonds aside were cast, 
 These heavy walls to me had grown 
 A hermitage, and all my own ! 
 And half I felt as they were come 
 To tear me from a second home. 
 With spiders I had friendship made, 
 And watched them in their sullen trade. 
 
 My very chains and I grew friends. 
 So much a long communion tends 
 To make us what we are : even I 
 Regained my freedom with a sigh." 
 
 Since then everything becomes easy, and more 
 or less pleasant, by custom ; and since our exist- 
 ence is made up, for the most part, of a number 
 of little actions, which we do just because we 
 have been accustomed to do them, it is manifest 
 that the art of life is the art of forming habits. 
 It must be admitted that men owe much, for 
 good or for evil, to their ancestors. The scientific 
 doctrine of heredity, no less than the theological 
 doctrine of original sin, teaches us that tendencies
 
 1 06 The Formation of Character. 
 
 are inherited. Men owe much, too, for good or 
 for evil, to their mothers, God only knows how 
 much. A mother has an almost infinite power 
 of moulding her child's disposition during the first 
 few years of its existence. But, of course, per- 
 sonal responsibility only begins with voluntary 
 actions ; and the most important voluntary actions 
 are those which are done in youth. Then we sow 
 the seed ; in the years of our maturity we reap 
 the harvest. " Live as long as you may," said 
 Southey, " the first twenty years of your life is 
 the longest half." It is by far the most preg- 
 nant in consequences, physical, intellectual, and 
 moral. 
 
 To those of you who are as yet in the first 
 flush of early youth, I say emphatically that 
 "now is the accepted time; now is the day of 
 salvation." You might now, with comparative 
 ease, acquire such habits of right-doing, that by- 
 and-by you would never feel any inclination to 
 act differently. " He that is born of God," says 
 St John, " sinneth not. He cannot sin, because 
 he is born of God." Choose now the best mode 
 of life, and custom will soon render it the most 
 agreeable. Day by day and hour by hour, try to 
 acquire habits of talking sensibly, acting kindly, 
 and thinking wisely. This may need at first a
 
 The Law of Habit. 107 
 
 good deal of effort, but if you persevere it will 
 by-and-by become your second nature ; and then 
 you may find it more difficult to do wrong than 
 you have ever found it to do right. Euripides 
 truly says, good habits are more to be relied on 
 than good laws. A strong temptation will often 
 cause a man to run the risk of punishment by 
 violating a law; but temptation is powerless 
 against the force of habit. And remember, that 
 of the three things I have urged you to cultivate 
 talking sensibly, acting kindly, and thinking 
 wisely the last is quite as important as the 
 other two. Your health, your happiness, your 
 moral worth, will largely depend upon your 
 thoughts, for these will mainly determine the 
 quality of your words and acts. The tendency 
 of a man's thoughts in the long-run, believe me, 
 is to make him Christ-like or Satanic. 
 
 If, on self-examination, you find, as I am 
 afraid you will find, that now and again you are 
 guilty of thinking, speaking or acting in a way 
 which your better nature condemns, for God's 
 sake determine to desist. These evil practices 
 are the beginnings of evil habits. Destroy them 
 while you can. 
 
 " A little fire is quickly trodden out, 
 Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench."
 
 io8 The Formation of Character. 
 
 If you do not eradicate these habits now, one of 
 two things must inevitably happen : either you 
 will go on from bad to worse, till your character, 
 in the sight of God and in the sight of your own 
 conscience, has become irretrievably bad ; or if 
 the end is to be better than that, you will have 
 to endure nothing short of agony in the struggle 
 to reform. 
 
 And if with any of you things have come to 
 such a pass, that to root up your besetting sin is 
 a work of agony, do it, notwithstanding the agony; 
 do it, ere it be too late. There is this for your 
 encouragement : the first effort will be the worst. 
 No succeeding struggle will be half so hard. The 
 law of habit applies not only to the adoption of 
 new practices, but also to the discarding of old 
 ones. Every time you struggle to be free, you 
 have made your freedom easier to be obtained. 
 Every temptation you conquer has diminished 
 the force of the next. Every time you refrain 
 from an evil practice, you have made each suc- 
 ceeding abstinence less difficult. When the queen 
 says to Hamlet 
 
 " Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain !" 
 
 he replies 
 
 ' ' throw away the worser part of it 
 And live the purer with the other half.
 
 The Law of Habit. 109 
 
 Refrain to-night, 
 
 And that will lend a kind of easiness 
 To the next abstinence ; the next more easy : 
 For use almost can change the stamp of nature, 
 And either curb the devil, or throw him out 
 With wondrous potency." 
 
 By one of those curious contradictions that we 
 sometimes meet with in philology, the word habit 
 is applied at once to a vestment, which may be 
 easily at a moment's notice removed, and also to 
 customary conduct, which may take such a hold 
 upon us that to give it up seems like parting with 
 our very life. "He that cornmitteth sin is the 
 servant of sin." Bad practices may now be sit- 
 ting loosely upon us, so to speak, like a garment ; 
 we might lay them aside with comparative ease. 
 But if we do not interfere, they will go on tight- 
 ening their grasp, till at last it will become 
 impossible to wrench ourselves free. "Can the 
 'Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his 
 spots ? then may ye also do good, that are 
 accustomed to do evil." Alas ! alas ! for the 
 man 
 
 " That all in later, sadder age begins 
 To war against ill uses of a life ; 
 But these from all his life arise, and cry 
 ' Thou hast made us lords, and canst not put us down ! ' " 
 
 " Custom," says St Augustine, " custom unre-
 
 no The Formation of Character. 
 
 sisted hardens into necessity ; " and then it is too 
 late to repent. Then even agonising efforts may 
 end only in failure and despair. " If thou doest 
 not well, sin lieth at the door." Beware ! 
 Beware !
 
 Ill 
 
 The Formation of Character. 
 V. 
 
 RETRIBUTION. 
 
 "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' 
 GALATIANS vi. 7. 
 
 TUST as it is impossible, in the physical world, 
 ^ to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, 
 so is it impossible in the moral world to reap, in 
 the end and in the long-run, anything but reward 
 for the good which we do, anything but punish- 
 ment for the evil. This assertion is demonstrably, 
 I had almost said undeniably, true. But there 
 -have always been moralists, from the Sophists 
 of Greece to Professor Bain among ourselves, 
 who have asserted that the only punishment to 
 be feared by wrong-doers was that which could 
 be inflicted from without, fines, imprisonment, 
 social ignominy, and so forth. If this were really
 
 1 1 2 The Formation of Character. 
 
 so, if there were no other form in which retribu- 
 tion could come, our text would not be univer- 
 sally valid. Its truth in any particular case 
 would depend upon whether the wrong-doer could, 
 or could not, escape detection. If he could, it 
 might be possible to sow one thing and reap 
 another, to sow evil and to reap good. It not 
 unfrequently happens, indeed, that a man who is 
 dishonest, by managing to appear honest, reaps 
 the external rewards of honesty. But neverthe- 
 less, it is true of him also that " Whatsoever he 
 has sown, that shall he also reap," ay, that he 
 has already begun to reap. There is a harvest of 
 character that follows from human actions, and 
 this is at once the most important and the most 
 certain form of retribution. 
 
 Some of you will remember having read an 
 interesting discussion on this subject in Plato's 
 'Eepublic.' Thrasymachus, one of the Sophists, 
 undertakes to prove that the wicked, if only they 
 are wicked on a large enough scale, are always 
 gainers by their wickedness. If, for example, an 
 honest and a dishonest man are partners in any 
 business undertaking, the dishonest man over- 
 reaches the honest man, and so gets the best of 
 the bargain. In the case of the income-tax, an 
 untruthful person will pay less than the man
 
 Retribution. 113 
 
 who gives an accurate return. In an official 
 situation, again, he who is conscientious will 
 neglect his own affairs for the sake of the gen- 
 eral good, instead of enriching himself from the 
 public purse, as he might have done if he had 
 not been troubled with a conscience. To be bad 
 on a small scale, says Thrasymachus, procures for 
 men the names of burglar, swindler, thief, &c. ; 
 but to be bad on a large scale, like a tyrant 
 usurper for instance, who has forced his way to 
 a throne through rivers of blood, and has then 
 sacrificed without stint the happiness and the 
 lives of his subjects for his own private enjoy- 
 ment, to be wicked on a magnificent scale like 
 that, is the way to procure for one's self all that 
 heart can wish. 
 
 It must be admitted, I think, that if there 
 were no retribution to be feared by us except 
 that which society inflicts, there would be con- 
 siderable force in the position which is here 
 taken up by Thrasymachus. Much of what he 
 says is as true to-day in England as it was 
 formerly in Greece. The man who steals a 
 turnip is called a thief and sent to prison. 
 Whereas, on the other hand and those of you 
 who know anything of the history of public 
 companies will bear me out in what I say 
 H
 
 114 The Formation of Character. 
 
 many a man, who has amassed a fortune by 
 ingenious swindling, has been allowed to pass 
 muster as a gentleman. 
 
 Another speaker in the same dialogue, named 
 Glaucon, supports a somewhat different position. 
 He argues, that generally speaking it is impos- 
 sible to commit injustice with impunity, either 
 on a large scale or on a small scale. He admits 
 that if it were possible to injure our neighbours 
 without any fear of civil punishment, it would 
 be the best thing we could do ; but, he says, as 
 men cannot count on acting injuriously to others 
 without running the risk of being injured by 
 them in return, they have wisely agreed among 
 themselves that they will mutually refrain. So 
 virtue is the result of a compromise between the 
 best mode of life, which would be to do injustice 
 to others without suffering it from them in re- 
 turn, and the worst, which is to suffer injustice 
 without the power of retaliation. He goes on 
 to assert, what I hope for the sake of humanity 
 is not true, that if the virtuous and the vicious 
 had entire liberty given them to do what they 
 liked, they would both go the same way, they 
 would both become unjust. Supposing that each 
 had a Gyges' ring, by which he could become invis- 
 ible when he pleased, the actions of both would be
 
 Retribution. 1 1 5 
 
 identical. All men are at heart equally vicious ; 
 only some are more afraid of detection. Glaucon 
 further maintains that the appearance of virtue is 
 alone necessary to secure happiness ; because if a 
 man seems to be virtuous, he will obtain for him- 
 self the rewards of society and the smiles of his 
 fellow-men, quite as much as if he were really 
 what he seemed. Hence if it were possible for 
 us to appear virtuous and to be vicious, that 
 should be the object of our endeavours ; for we 
 should then reap a twofold advantage, we 
 should obtain the rewards, without the punish- 
 ments, of vice, and we should also receive the 
 rewards of virtue ; we should enjoy the pleasures 
 of sin without its pains, and we should also share 
 the favours which society is in the habit of 
 bestowing upon honest and honourable men. 
 Still, as a rule, Glaucon says, if a man has only 
 the appearance of virtue, the chances of exposure 
 are great, and therefore honesty is on the whole 
 the best policy. It is a sacrifice of one's own 
 .interest, but it is one which pays. 
 
 Here Socrates takes up the discussion. He 
 proceeds to argue that virtue is desirable not 
 only for its extrinsic, but also for its intrinsic, 
 rewards ; not only because it procures for us the 
 goodwill and kindly offices of our fellow -men,
 
 1 1 6 The Formation of Character. 
 
 but also, and chiefly, because of what it is in 
 itself. Virtue, says Socrates, is the wellbeing of 
 the soul, and therefore it is its own reward. The 
 virtuous soul is as superior to the vicious, as a 
 well-ordered and well-governed state is superior 
 to a country which is embroiled in civil war. 
 The heart of the vicious man is necessarily more 
 or less filled, even in prosperity, with tumult and 
 discord ; while the heart of the virtuous man is 
 tranquil, content and happy, even in the direst 
 adversity. 
 
 In the Dialogue called ' Gorgias,' Plato takes a 
 somewhat similar view. He there compares the 
 virtuous to the healthy man. Just as a man 
 afflicted with some excruciating and loathsome 
 disease is to be pitied, even though he be a mill- 
 ionaire, so a man whose soul is impure is in an 
 unenviable state, however magnificent may be 
 his possessions and surroundings. His evil deeds 
 may have procured for him, so far as appearances 
 are concerned, only wealth and fame and power ; 
 but if, during the process, his soul has contracted 
 an incurable disease, he is after all the most 
 miserable of men. What shall it profit a man, 
 Plato asks in effect, if he gain the whole world, 
 and yet lose himself ? 
 
 Now the views of Thrasymachus and Glaucon,
 
 Retribution. 117 
 
 which Socrates and Plato controverted, are held 
 at the present time in a somewhat less extreme 
 form, not only by thinkers, but also by a great 
 many persons who never think. 
 
 When men have escaped the detection and 
 punishment of society, they fancy they have got 
 off altogether scot-free. The professional thief, 
 who has been successful in a robbery, imagines 
 that, as he has balked the police, he is at liberty 
 to offer himself unqualified congratulations. The 
 person who has said something that is not strictly 
 true in order to shield himself from blame, knows 
 that if he is detected he will fall in the esteem 
 of his fellow-men ; but if he is not detected, he 
 flatters himself that all is right, that he need 
 not trouble himself any further ; that, though it 
 would not be safe to try the experiment too often, 
 yet for this once he has sown without having 
 reaped, or rather has sown evil and reaped only 
 good. And all of us are too much in the habit 
 of thinking, in regard to actions which lie on the 
 border-land between the good and the bad, that it 
 really does not matter whether we do them or 
 not, since in neither case does there seem much 
 prospect of reaping either punishment or reward. 
 For instance, we decide on amusing ourselves 
 when, perhaps, we ought to be at work. The
 
 1 1 8 The formation of Character. 
 
 work may not promise any immediate remuner- 
 ation, and the amusement seems self-evidently 
 desirable. So we imagine that, in choosing the 
 latter, we must be acting wisely, or at any rate 
 that we are doing ourselves no harm. 
 
 Now, in reasoning thus, we are guilty of two 
 mistakes. In the first place, we assume that 
 if retribution does not come at once, it will not 
 come at all. We might as well argue, because 
 the harvest does not come in the spring-time, 
 that therefore it will not come in the autumn. 
 " Crime and punishment," says Emerson, " grow 
 out of one stem. Punishment is the fruit that, 
 unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the 
 [sinful] pleasure that conceals it. The retribu- 
 tion is inseparable from the thing, though it is 
 often spread over a long time, and so does not 
 become distinct for many years." 
 
 In the second place, we assume that pain is 
 the only form of retribution. It is true that in 
 the long-run, and as a rule, we do reap a harvest 
 of pleasure or of pain, according to the moral 
 goodness or badness of the actions we have sown 
 " In the weary satiety of the idle," says Mr Greg, 
 " in the healthy energy of honest labour, in the 
 irritable temper of the selfish, in the serene peace 
 of the benevolent, in the startling tortures of the
 
 Retribution. 1 1 9 
 
 soul where the passions have the mastery, in the 
 calm Elysium which succeeds their subjugation, 
 may be traced materials of retribution sufficient 
 to satisfy the severest justice." But even when 
 punishment for evil deeds does not take the form 
 of actual pain, it by no means follows that those 
 deeds have been committed with impunity. The 
 retribution may have come as deterioration of 
 character. This deterioration is the worst con- 
 ceivable punishment; though it often exercises 
 on men a benumbing, stupefying influence, and 
 makes them insensible to the pain they would 
 have felt had they lived a nobler life. 
 
 However fond we may be of pleasure, there 
 are few of us, I suppose, who care for nothing 
 else. We would not be always children, even if 
 the pleasures of children were greater than any 
 that can be experienced in maturer years. It is 
 better to be a maE than an ape, even though the 
 ape may have more pleasure and less pain in his 
 life than the man. And surely it is better for a 
 human being to act in a way which will develop 
 a noble character, though he may thereby lose 
 pleasure, not only at the time but even in the 
 long-run. As Mrs Barbauld quaintly puts it: 
 " Is it not some reproach on the economy of Pro- 
 vidence that such an one, who is a mean dirty
 
 1 20 The Formation of Character. 
 
 fellow, should have amassed wealth enough to 
 buy half a nation ? Not in the least. He made 
 himself a mean dirty fellow for that very end. 
 He has paid his health, his conscience, his liberty 
 for it ; and will you envy him the bargain ? " 
 Even granting the extreme supposition, which I 
 do not think at all likely to be true, but grant- 
 ing, for argument's sake, that such a man had 
 more pleasure in his life than you who are striv- 
 ing honestly to do your duty, would you change 
 places with him ? I know you would not. The 
 good seed you have sown, in the shape of these 
 conscientious endeavours, has resulted in the 
 harvest of an honourable character; and that 
 is a possession beyond all price, cheaply pur- 
 chased, if need be, by a long-protracted agony 
 of pain. 
 
 Let us learn, then, to look at our actions, ay, 
 even at our words and thoughts, from this point 
 of view. The safest criterion of their quality is, 
 not what effect will they have in winning for us 
 the smiles of our fellow-men, nor how far will 
 they procure for us pleasure or pain, but what 
 will be their influence upon our character? If 
 an action tends to make us wiser, stronger, 
 nobler, more sympathetic, more unselfish in
 
 Retribution. 121 
 
 one word, better than we were before, then, even 
 though it may involve pain and odium, it is 
 pre-eminently right and desirable and good, botli 
 for ourselves and for the world, both as regards 
 the present and the future, both for this life 
 and that which is to come. Yes ; even for that 
 which is to come. "We brought nothing into 
 the world, and it is certain we can carry noth- 
 ing out," nothing except character. That is a 
 man's greatest blessing or greatest curse, as the 
 case may be, in the present state of existence, 
 and it is the only thing which he can take 
 with him into the next. There will be a time 
 when our bodies must mingle with the dust. 
 There will be a time when this earth, which 
 seems so solid and so permanent, will come to 
 an end. But character can never die: it is 
 immortal as God Himself. The things which 
 are seen, on which we lavish so much love, are 
 temporal. Character, which is not seen, and 
 which we too often lamentably neglect, is eternal. 
 They shall perish, but character remaineth ; they 
 all shall wax old, as doth a garment, and as a 
 vesture they shall be folded up and set aside, 
 but character will endure as long as eternity 
 shall last. We must take up our life in the next
 
 122 The Formation of Character. 
 
 world where we leave it off in the present. Let 
 us see to it, then, that we do not enter into the 
 great Hereafter with a mean, sordid, despicable 
 character. Let us see to it that our thoughts 
 and words and deeds are such as will tend to the 
 development of a character noble and divine.
 
 123 
 
 The Connection between Self-denial 
 and Self -development. 
 
 THE USE OF THE WOULD. 
 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking." MATT. xi. 19. 
 
 A LL the moral disciplines that the world has 
 *-*- seen have used the instrument of self- 
 denial. But Christ's view of it is in many 
 respects peculiar and unique. My purpose in 
 this sermon is to show that Christian self-sacrifice 
 is not asceticism. 
 
 A college friend of mine has told me that 
 when he was about seventeen years of age, he 
 became for a while, owing to the loss of his 
 mother, a prey to morbid melancholy. In this 
 condition it was a maxim with him that every- 
 thing pleasant ought to be avoided, and he tried
 
 124 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 hard to act up to his conviction. At meal-times 
 he would always take what he liked least ; and if 
 there were anything on the table he particularly 
 disliked, he would restrict himself entirely to 
 that. He only allowed himself one enjoyment, 
 and that was watching the sunsets, which in his 
 part of the country were often remarkably fine. 
 But the pleasure he derived from this was so 
 great, that he by-and-by came to the conclusion 
 he ought to give it up. His life was to be in 
 future, he resolved, one of never-ceasing un- 
 pleasantness. 
 
 Now this idea of the essential badness of pleas- 
 ure, which had so strong an influence over my 
 friend during his morbid state of mind, has been 
 very commonly held and advocated by the pro- 
 pounders of ethical and religious systems. Dio- 
 genes and the Cynics he attracted to his tub, 
 discarded all the comforts of life, with the single 
 exception of clothing. The Gymnosophists dis- 
 pensed with that last relic of civilisation, and 
 looked upon the luxury of raiment as a culpa- 
 ble self-indulgence. Even Plato sometimes sup- 
 ports the doctrine that pain is essentially prefer- 
 able to pleasure. In the 'Phaedo' he says that 
 the soul is imprisoned in the body as a punish- 
 ment for sins committed in a pre-existent state.
 
 The Use of the World. 125 
 
 Every pleasure enjoyed, he says, is a nail fast- 
 ening the soul more securely in its dungeon ; 
 every pleasure given up is a nail withdrawn, 
 and hastens on the period of its release. The 
 religions of the Hindus and the Buddhists aim 
 at the gradual suppression of the body and the 
 entire eradication of desire. Hinduism endeav- 
 ours to attain this result chiefly by means of 
 penance ; Buddhism by means of reflection. 
 Hinduism advocates the surrender of the good 
 things of this life, because they are in themselves 
 bad. Buddhism advocates the same sacrifice, 
 because, though in themselves indifferent, they 
 are likely to prolong our love of life, which it 
 regards as the root of all evil. In short, it seems 
 to have been a fundamental doctrine in the 
 majority of religions, that our first and all-com- 
 prehensive duty in the world was to make our- 
 selves as miserable as we could. 
 
 Like many other views which find no war- 
 rant in the Christianity of Christ, it has had a 
 considerable influence upon the Christianity of 
 Christendom. The pillar saints, for example, 
 stood for years on the top of lofty columns, till 
 they became a mass of corruption too loathsome 
 to be described. They were firmly convinced 
 that if heaven were to be attained by them, it
 
 126 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 could only be won through agony. The words 
 which the poet-laureate puts into the mouth of 
 Stylites express the feelings of an ascetic with 
 much force and pathos, and are, it seems to 
 me, a reductio ad absurdum of asceticism. Let 
 us listen for a moment to the poor saint's 
 prayer : 
 
 " I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold 
 Of saintdom, and to clamour, mourn, and sob, 
 Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer, 
 Have mercy, Lord, and take away my sin. 
 Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty God, 
 This not be all in vain, that thrice ten years, 
 Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs, 
 In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and colds, 
 In coughs, aches, stitches, ulcerous throes and cramps, 
 A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud, 
 Patient on this tall pillar I have borne 
 Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow, 
 
 Thou know'st I bore this better at the first, 
 For I was strong and hale of body then. 
 
 Now am I feeble grown ; my end draws nigh ; 
 I hope my end draws nigh ; half deaf I am. 
 So that I scarce can hear the people hum 
 About the column's base, and almost blind, 
 And scarce can recognise the fields I know. 
 
 Yet cease I not to clamour and to cry, 
 
 Have mercy, mercy : take away my sin. 
 Jesus ! if thou wilt not save my soul,
 
 The Use of the World. \ 2 7 
 
 Who may be saved ? who is it may be saved ? 
 Who may be made a saint, if I fail here ? 
 Show me the man hath suffer'd more than I, 
 For did not all thy martyrs die one death ? 
 
 But I die here 
 To-day, and whole years long, a life of death. 
 
 I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light, 
 
 Bow down one thousand and two hundred times 
 
 To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints ; 
 
 Or in the night, after a little sleep, 
 
 I wake : the chill stars sparkle ; I am wet 
 
 With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost. 
 
 I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back, 
 
 A grazing iron collar grinds my neck ; 
 
 And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross, 
 
 And strive and wrestle with thee till I die : 
 
 mercy, mercy ! wash away my sin. " 
 
 Now if pleasure were essentially sinful, then 
 Stylites was the wisest of men. If heaven be 
 worth winning, and if it can only be won by 
 agony, then the more agony we cause ourselves to 
 bear, the surer we shall be of an eternal reward. 
 But the majority of ascetics are far less con- 
 sistent. They believe that they can best please 
 God by painful penances and wearisome pilgrim- 
 ages, by bodily flagellations and mortifications, by 
 fasting till they are almost starved, and keeping 
 vigils till they are nearly mad, by depriving 
 themselves of what is agreeable, by choosing 
 what is disgusting, by refraining from worldly
 
 128 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 pursuits and amusements,- by attempting to eradi- 
 cate every natural instinct by acting, in short, 
 as if pain were the chief end of life. That is 
 their creed. But, unlike Stylites, they do not 
 act up to it. They try to make a compromise 
 between their inclinations and their beliefs. 
 They endeavour to intersperse enjoyment with 
 their sufferings, in the hope that the former may 
 be sufficiently atoned for by the latter. This 
 half-hearted policy seems to me most irrational. 
 The man who deliberately and systematically 
 chooses what is unpleasant may be acting a wise 
 and prudent part ; but the ordinary semi-ascetic, 
 though he makes himself very miserable, will 
 possibly have had too much pleasure after all 
 to pass muster with his god of pain. He loses 
 this world to a very considerable extent, and 
 by no means makes sure of the next. 
 
 Asceticism in its extreme form, in which it 
 is synonymous with the worship of pain, will 
 scarcely bear a moment's examination. The 
 supposition that God takes delight in agony 
 is the foulest of all conceivable blasphemies. 
 The Being who could make His creatures ex- 
 quisitely sensitive, place them in a world teem- 
 ing with sources of enjoyment, and then require 
 them to act continuously in violation of their
 
 The Use of the World. 129 
 
 nature by making pain the chief end of their 
 existence the Being who was capable of such 
 a refinement of cruelty, instead of deserving to 
 be worshipped as a god, ought to be execrated as 
 the very prince of fiends. 1 
 
 Pain, so far from being that in which the 
 Author of the Universe takes delight, is very 
 frequently a clear sign that His laws have been 
 disobeyed. It is the great criterion of evil One 
 of the most convincing arguments against crime 
 is, that it causes misery and must therefore be 
 out of harmony with man's nature and with 
 God's. If we take a comprehensive view of a 
 bad man's life, the proof that he has done wrong 
 will be found in the fact, not that he has had too 
 much pleasure, but that he has had (upon the 
 whole) too little, his pleasure having been pur- 
 chased by too prodigal an expenditure of suffering. 
 
 Asceticism however often takes, especially in 
 Christendom, a somewhat different form. Pleas- 
 ure and pain are regarded as neither good nor 
 bad in themselves ; but it is said that the choice 
 of pain and the rejection of pleasure are the 
 means we should employ to disgust ourselves 
 
 1 This argument, I know, will not appear conclusive to every- 
 body. Some people don't mind worshipping the devil, if only 
 they are allowed to call him God. 
 
 I
 
 1 30 Self-denial and Self-development. 
 
 with the present world, and to get our affections 
 fixed entirely on another. Many persons seem 
 to think that they ought by rights to care for 
 nothing but heaven. They seem to think, as 
 they lavish their affections upon those who are 
 dear to them, that God is watching them with 
 an angry, greedy jealousy, and that He will never 
 be satisfied till He has concentrated the whole 
 wealth of their love upon Himself. 
 
 Now I want to point out that this is not the 
 kind of self-denial which Christ requires from us. 
 Serious and earnest as the Saviour was, no one 
 can say that He was a harsh or gloomy ascetic. 
 Think of Him at the marriage festival. Think 
 of His friendly visits to the family at Bethany. 
 Think of Him at the great feast in Levi's house. 
 Call to mind how He commended the poor woman 
 who anointed His feet with ointment, and cen- 
 sured the host for neglecting to perform the 
 customary social courtesies. Think of His final 
 interview with the disciples on the shore of the 
 Sea of Tiberias, when He accosted them with the 
 words, " Children, have ye any meat ? " and then, 
 leading the way to a fire, " with fish laid thereon 
 and bread," said to them, " Come and dine." 
 When asked, "Why do the disciples of John 
 and of the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples
 
 The Use of the World. 131 
 
 fast not ?" Christ gave the significant reply, " Can 
 the children of the bride-chamber mourn as long 
 as the bridegroom is with them? but the days 
 will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken 
 from them, and then shall they fast." That is 
 to say, There will come to them pain enough by- 
 and-by after I am gone, which must be accepted 
 in the way of duty: it is needless to endure it 
 for its own sake. Think of these and similar 
 instances in that short public life of three years, 
 and you will discover what a bright, sunny, genial 
 nature the Saviour had. You will perceive that 
 He never refused anything agreeable, except when 
 it would have hindered Him in the accomplish- 
 ment of His Father's work. 
 
 The idea that genuine discipleship is incom- 
 patible with a cultured, beautiful, and happy life 
 which grew probably, in the first instance, out 
 of that belief in the essential baseness of pleasure 
 which we have seen to be so common has been 
 strengthened and perpetuated by a misinterpreta- 
 tion of two different kinds of texts. The first are 
 those in which the Saviour uses what may be 
 called vehement hyperbole. For example, "If 
 any man hate not his father and his mother, he 
 cannot be my disciple." If we look below the 
 surface of the words, we see that His meaning is,
 
 132 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 as He Himself is elsewhere declared to have put 
 it, " He that loveth father or mother more, than 
 me, is not worthy of me." He did not intend 
 that the family affections should be ignored or 
 depreciated; they were not to be set aside, un- 
 less they clashed with duty. But when a man 
 could not be loyal to an earthly love without 
 being disloyal to Christ, then the natural affection 
 must be suppressed then, and then alone. 
 
 Again, there is another set of passages in which 
 Christ's meaning has been misunderstood, because 
 it has not been sufficiently borne in mind that 
 He is referring, not to disciples generally, but only 
 to disciples under certain special circumstances. 
 For example, when He sends away the twelve to 
 preach, He tells them to provide neither gold nor 
 silver in their purses, to take no scrip for their 
 journey, nor even two coats. It was necessary to 
 remind the apostles, as it is still necessary to 
 remind those who are about to engage in any 
 great and dangerous achievement, that they must 
 be prepared to subdue and set at nought all 
 interfering interests and feelings. The words of 
 Christ I have just quoted are still almost literally 
 applicable to the missionaries of the Cross. They 
 must, if they are to be successful, relinquish the 
 comforts, the enjoyments, the attractions, and the
 
 The Use of the World. 133 
 
 prospects of life. Much of the language of the 
 apostles is to be explained in a similar way. 
 They were always within sight of death ; and the 
 world therefore was necessarily a very different 
 place to them from what it may legitimately 
 be to us. " In the present day," says Mr Greg, 
 "the profession of Christianity is attended with 
 no peril; its practice even demands no sacrifice, 
 save that preference of duty to enjoyment, which 
 is the first law of cultivated humanity. Hence 
 for us to repeat the language and profess the 
 feelings of men who lived in daily dread of an 
 awful martyrdom, is neither more nor less than 
 the enactment of a gigantic lie." To assert that 
 we regard the world as a howling wilderness, yet 
 to be scrupulously careful in plucking such of its 
 flowers as attract us ; to assert that the sole duty 
 of life is to prepare for heaven, and yet to spend 
 most of our waking moments in promoting our 
 earthly comfort ; to vociferate that we believe one, 
 thing, when by the continual practice of our lives 
 we show that we believe another, to do this is to 
 be, not religious, but dishonest. 
 
 And all for what? for the sake of appearing 
 to manifest a quality which Christ never desired 
 His followers to possess. " I pray not," said our 
 Lord, " that Thou shouldest take them out of the
 
 1 34 Self-denial and Self-development. 
 
 world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from 
 the evil." The world we are not to love is the 
 world that lieth in wickedness. To love it, so 
 far as it is not wicked, is to love it as "the 
 garden on which the Creator has lavished mir- 
 acles of beauty, as the habitation of humanity, 
 the arena of its conflicts, the scene of its illimit- 
 able progress, the dwelling-place of the wise, the 
 good, the active, the loving, and the dear." Such 
 an affection for it is no ignoble love. 
 
 The life of earth is doubtless inferior to the life 
 of heaven, as the studies and games of a schoolboy 
 are inferior to the pursuits that await him when 
 he reaches manhood. But, just as the boy best 
 prepares for his future by valuing and improving 
 all the varied advantages of his preliminary career, 
 so we shall best fit ourselves for the great here- 
 after, not by despising, but by duly appreciating, 
 the work and the joy of earth. Christ never 
 bids us give up anything that is good, unless it 
 would keep ' us from something that is better. 
 " The Son of Man came eating and drinking." 
 Ay, the very Man of Sorrows refused to join in 
 the irrational worship of pain.
 
 135 
 
 The Connection between Self-denial 
 and Self -development. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE WOULD. 
 " Man shall not live by bread alone." MATTHEW iv. 4. 
 
 rpHERE are two opposite mistakes, as it seems 
 to me, regarding pleasure, into which men 
 frequently fall. Some look upon it as ignoble 
 and degrading, and believe that the invariable 
 rejection of it is the only proof of wisdom. 
 Others think that it is the sole end of life, 
 and that there is nothing which can be legiti- 
 mately valued higher. In the previous sermon 
 we noticed the first of these views, and we saw, 
 I think, that it was not the doctrine of Christ. 
 "The Son of Man came eating and drinking." 
 We saw that our great Exemplar never avoided
 
 136 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 what was agreeable, merely because it was pleas- 
 ant, and that He did not require His disciples 
 to eradicate the sensuous elements of their being. 
 In the present discourse I want to direct your 
 attention to the other side of the subject, to 
 the fact that "man shall not live by bread 
 alone." 
 
 * 
 
 Our sensuous nature is not the whole of our 
 being ; it is but a part, the lowest part. Plea- 
 sure is but one element, and that a compara- 
 tively unimportant element, in our complex hu- 
 man life. For complete self-development it is 
 necessary that we regard our nature as a whole, 
 and estimate its various elements at their proper 
 worth. 
 
 ' ' What is a man, 
 
 If the chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast, no more." 
 
 A beast can be satisfied with a succession of 
 momentary pleasures ; and for him therefore rest 
 and peace are within easy reach. But a man 
 is "a being of a large discourse, looking before 
 and after." He is obliged to bring his varied 
 experiences together, and regard them as making 
 up a continuous history ; and this history he is 
 constrained to compare with an ideal history,
 
 The Abuse of the World. 137 
 
 presented to him by reason and conscience, an 
 ideal history of what he ought to be. Hence 
 rest and peace seem for ever to elude man's 
 grasp. " Our very wishes give us not our wish." 
 But this wretchedness is a most striking proof 
 of greatness. The higher elements in our nature 
 are the cause of a divine discontent. There is 
 a contradiction, a rivalry, an antagonism, between 
 the nobler and the less noble elements of our 
 being ; and unless this contradiction be satisfac- 
 torily solved, unless this rivalry and antagonism 
 be put an end to, we shall be harassed by the 
 painful consciousness that our life is a deplor- 
 able failure. 
 
 Some have tried, as we have already seen, to 
 bring the conflict to a conclusion by getting rid 
 altogether of the lower elements: they have 
 attempted to eradicate desire, to extinguish in- 
 stinct, to suppress and annihilate the bodily 
 nature. This mistake, as Principal Caird says, 
 is not unnatural. " If the spiritual self is essen- 
 tially greater than the lower tendencies, why 
 should it not exist without them ? If desire 
 and passion drag me down from my ideal life, 
 why should I not escape from their thraldom," 
 and live as if I were a disembodied spirit?
 
 i 38 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 " Snap the ties that bind me to the satisfactions 
 of the moment, that absorb me in the transient 
 and perishable, and will not my spirit gain at a 
 bound its proper sphere ? But the ties cannot 
 be snapped, and even if they could, the end pro- 
 posed would not be gained. The violent self- 
 diremption at which the ascetic aims can never 
 be effected ; and if it could, it would be, not the 
 fulfilment, but the extinction of a moral life. 
 In our self -development the lower natural ten- 
 dencies have an indispensable part to play. Apart 
 from them, the realisation of our ideal nature 
 would be utterly impossible." To live the best 
 human life is to live, not without desires and 
 enjoyments, but with duly regulated desires and 
 enjoyments ; it is to live, not out of the world, 
 away from all temptations, but in the world, 
 with its snares and pitfalls, avoiding its evil 
 and choosing its good. Even if it were possible 
 for a man to escape temptation by living the 
 life of a hermit, he would not in that way 
 achieve self-conquest, any more than a soldier 
 could vanquish the enemy by flight. Even if 
 it were possible for a man to eliminate the lower 
 elements of his nature, he would not in that 
 way make the other elements more perfect, any
 
 The Abuse of the World. 139 
 
 more than he could improve one half of his 
 body by cutting off the other half. 
 
 Some, however, with whom we are at present 
 more specially concerned, have attempted to 
 eliminate, not the lower elements of their being, 
 but the higher. The sensualist tries to live in 
 forgetfulness of the fact that he is a rational, 
 moral, and spiritual being. Now manifestly it 
 must lead to the most disastrous results, when 
 the lower elements of a man's nature are treated 
 as if they were the only, or at any rate the 
 most important, elements. The soul of the sen- 
 sualist is like a State in which the ignorant, 
 vulgar and stupid mob has usurped the reins 
 of government, and is proceeding to destroy 
 everything better than itself. Enjoyment, which 
 is the proper satisfaction for the sensuous part 
 of our being, is no satisfaction at all for the 
 mind and heart and spirit. The unsatisfactori- 
 ness of a life devoted to pleasure may be proved, 
 not only by abstract considerations, but by the 
 fact that those who have lived in this fashion 
 invariably speak of their existence with disap- 
 pointment and disgust. Take, for example, the 
 testimony of Lord Chesterfield and Lord Byron. 
 No men ever had better opportunities for extract-
 
 140 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 ing from the present life all the pleasure it was 
 capable of affording. They availed themselves of 
 their opportunities to the full, and what was the 
 result ? "I have seen the silly rounds of business 
 and pleasure," said Lord Chesterfield, " and have 
 done with them all. I have enjoyed all the pleas- 
 ures of the world and consequently know their 
 futility, and do not regret their loss. Their real 
 value is very, very low ; but those who have not ex- 
 perienced them always overrate them. For myself, 
 I by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose." 
 Listen again to Byron's estimate of his own life, 
 as you have it in one of the Hebrew melodies : 
 
 "Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine, 
 
 And health and youth possessed rne ; 
 My goblets blushed from every vine, 
 
 And lovely forms caressed me : 
 I sunned my heart in beauty's eyes, 
 
 And felt my soul grow tender ; 
 All earth can give, or mortal prize, 
 
 Was mine of regal splendour. 
 
 I strive to number o'er what days 
 
 Remembrance can discover, 
 Which all that life or earth displays 
 
 Would lure me to live over. 
 There rose no day, there rolled no hour 
 
 Of pleasure unembittered ; 
 And not a trapping decked my power 
 
 That galled not while it glittered.
 
 The Abuse of the World. 141 
 
 The serpent of the field by art 
 
 And spells is won from harming ; 
 But that which coils around the heart, 
 
 Oh ! who hath power of charming ? 
 It will not list to wisdom's lore, 
 
 Nor music's voice can lure it ; 
 But there it stings for evermore 
 
 The soul that must endure it." 
 
 Since man has a complex nature, his life must 
 inevitably be a failure, in so far as he neglects to 
 bring that nature in its entirety to the greatest 
 possible perfection. For this it is necessary that 
 the lower principles be guided and controlled by 
 the higher. Neither the narrow desires of sense, 
 nor the wider and more comprehensive desires, 
 such as love of wealth or power, are to be eradi- 
 cated; but their original character of indepen- 
 dence is to be changed. In the well-regulated 
 life these desires are moralised, rationalised and 
 ennobled, by being made to contribute not merely 
 to the gratification of the moment, but to the per- 
 manent, enduring ends of the spirit. " The spirit- 
 ual nature cannot be severed from the carnal, any 
 more than the plant can be separated from the 
 common earth out of which it grows ; but it trans- 
 figures the carnal with its own essence, as truly 
 as the life of the plant transmutes into fruit and 
 flower the grossness and foulness of the soil."
 
 142 Self -denial and Self -development. 
 
 Let me illustrate this. The ascetic fasts when 
 he ought to eat, because he fancies that the more 
 pain he can manage to endure, the more he will 
 honour God. But the discomfort and ill-health 
 he causes himself do not assist him either to 
 work or to worship. They greatly hinder and 
 hamper him. The sensualist, on the contrary, 
 eats when he ought to fast, from the mistaken 
 idea that there is nothing worth living for but 
 pleasure. Consequently both his health and his 
 appetite are injured. So that even from his own 
 point of view he is extremely foolish : he would 
 have had more pleasure if he had not striven for so 
 much. But the man who is seeking to develop his 
 whole nature imitates neither the sensualist nor 
 the ascetic: he follows Franklin's advice, and " eats 
 so much as is necessary for bodily health, con- 
 sidered with reference to the employment of the 
 mind." Our Church, though expressly discoun- 
 tenancing the doctrine of penance, has wisely 
 taught us to pray for grace " to use such abstin- 
 ence that our flesh may be subdued to the spirit." 
 For most of us, no doubt, this will mean abstin- 
 ence from eating too much ; but for some it will 
 mean abstinence from eating too little. We 
 should always remember that the mind and the 
 spirit need all the help which the body can give
 
 Tke Abuse of the World. 143 
 
 them, and that there is nothing more helpful than 
 perfect health. 1 
 
 Complete self-development thus requires that 
 we regard our nature as a whole estimating at 
 their proper value all its various elements, and 
 using them according to their respective char- 
 acters of subordination and supremacy. 
 
 But, further, complete self -development re- 
 quires that we remember the next life as well 
 as the present. I pointed out in the last sermon 
 that it was a mistake to live as if there were no 
 life but the future, and no world but heaven. 
 Now I must remark that it is a yet more 
 grievous blunder to live as if there were no 
 life but the present, and no world but earth. 
 To recur to our old illustration, though the 
 schoolboy best prepares for his after-career by 
 appreciating and making the most of his educa- 
 tional advantages, yet it is of the utmost import- 
 ance that he should regard his school life as a 
 preparation for the pursuits of manhood. Other- 
 wise he will be too anxious to gain prizes, and 
 so sacrifice his health; or too eager to excel in 
 sports, and so neglect his studies. In either case, 
 when he comes out into the world he will find 
 
 1 See a sermon on the " Culture of the Body " in my ' Preach- 
 ing and Hearing.'
 
 144 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 himself at a terrible disadvantage, owing to his 
 previous want of forethought. Similarly, it is 
 imperative on us all to remember that the " grave 
 is not our goal," and that our life on earth is but 
 an elementary stage in our existence. " The con- 
 templation of the future," says Mr Greg, " will let 
 in much light upon the present, and have a con- 
 siderable effect in the development of the higher 
 portions of our nature. Without this reflection 
 upon the future, though a man may be perfectly 
 upright and even philanthropic, he will go out of 
 the world with many depths of his being alto- 
 gether unsounded, with many of the loftiest por- 
 tions of his character still latent and unimproved ; 
 and when he passes through the portals of the 
 grave and reaches the new existence, he will enter 
 it a wholly unprepared and astonished stranger." 
 When the lower elements of our being come 
 to be regarded as instruments of the higher, 
 when moreover we take into account the fact 
 that we are to live for ever, then we begin to 
 see that pleasure and pain are of far less import- 
 ance than we had formerly been accustomed to 
 think. For one thing, they are very evanescent. 
 
 "Pleasures are like poppies spread, 
 You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; 
 Or like the snow-flake in the river, 
 A moment white then gone for ever."
 
 The Abuse of the World. 145 
 
 So, too, with pain. It is hard to bear while it 
 lasts, but when it is over we " remember no more 
 the anguish." That pleasure and pain are com- 
 paratively superficial elements in human life may 
 be seen from the fact, that the very same circum- 
 stances which give pleasure to one man will often 
 give pain to another. To a considerable extent 
 we may teach ourselves to feel pleasure at what 
 once caused us pain, and to feel pain at what 
 once caused us pleasure. It has been well said, 
 that "if we choose the mode of life which is 
 most commendable, habit will in time render it 
 the most agreeable." The actual value of a pleas- 
 ure or pain can only be estimated by its effect 
 upon a man's life regarded as a whole. Other 
 things being equal, a wise man will always choose 
 pleasure in preference to pain ; but the wise man 
 knows that very frequently other things are not 
 equal. Pleasure may be the cause of disgrace, 
 remorse, self-contempt, anguish. On the other 
 hand, pain may tend to the perfecting of char- 
 acter, may lead eventually to a joy that is un- 
 speakable and full of glory. By the thoughtful 
 man, therefore, pleasure and pain are regarded 
 not simply nor chiefly according to their inherent 
 qualities of comfort or of discomfort; he looks 
 rather to the conditions out of which they spring, 
 K
 
 146 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 and to the consequences by which they will be 
 followed. Our real life is something far other 
 and deeper than its fleeting pleasures and pains 
 something infinitely more sacred and sublime. 
 
 In a word, though there is not required from 
 us any irrational rejection of pleasure, there is 
 required from us the reasoning and reasonable re- 
 jection of it, where it would be incompatible with 
 our complete, all-round development. Though 
 there is not required from us any hypocritical 
 profession of contempt for the world in which 
 we live, there is required from us serious reflec- 
 tion upon the fact that we carry latent within 
 us "the power of an endless life." Though we 
 should not ignore nor attempt to destroy the 
 lower elements of our nature, we should, and if 
 we would be perfect we must, subdue them, and 
 press them into the service of the spirit. 
 
 " Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 
 
 Is our destined end and way ; 
 
 But to act, that each to-morrow 
 
 Find us further than to-day. "
 
 147 
 
 The Connection between Self-denial 
 and Self -development . 
 
 in. 
 
 THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT SELF. 
 
 " He that fincleth his life shall lose it : and he that loseth his life 
 for my sake shall find it." MATTHEW x. 39. 
 
 T N the last sermon we saw that self-denial was 
 necessary to self-development. The tendency 
 with a sensuous being is always to obtain imme- 
 diate pleasure. But if we would be perfect, it is 
 often necessary to sacrifice the pleasure of the 
 moment, for the sake of greater and more en- 
 during pleasure later on; and further it is nec- 
 essary to sacrifice pleasure, not merely at the 
 moment but even in the long-run, for the sake 
 of those parts of our nature which are higher 
 than the sensuous. This kind of self-denial how- 
 ever, though necessary and important as far as
 
 148 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 it goes, does not go very far. If a man denies 
 himself merely for himself, irrespective of any 
 consideration for others, his self-denial is after all 
 only a refined form of selfishness. Eochefou- 
 cauld's cynical definitions of friendship and of 
 liberality, though not universally true, cannot be 
 said to be universally false. He speaks, you 
 remember, of friendship as a mere traffic, wherein 
 self-love always proposes to be the gainer. Of 
 liberality he says that it is seldom more than 
 the vanity of giving, and that we are fonder of 
 the vanity than the generosity of the action. It 
 cannot be doubted that we have in these bitter 
 sentences a correct analysis, though not, thank 
 God ! of all friendship and generosity, yet of a 
 good deal that frequently passes current as such. 
 When some persons do us a kindness, we cannot 
 help suspecting that they are up to mischief. 
 Love itself, or rather something simulating the 
 name of love, may only be selfishness in disguise. 
 Individuals may be loved by us merely because, 
 and in so far as, they contribute to our own 
 personal enjoyment. More frequently, far more 
 frequently than we should be at first inclined 
 to think, selfishness is 
 
 "Disguised in gentle names 
 Of peace and quiet and domestic love."
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. 1 49 
 
 In other words, there is a self-denial which is 
 merely an elaborate and subtle form of self- 
 seeking. 
 
 Christian self-denial involves, as you all know, 
 the sacrifice of one's self, not merely for one's 
 own sake, but also for the sake of others. " We 
 ought," says St John, " to lay down our lives for 
 the brethren." Now I wish to point out to you 
 that the self-sacrifice required of Christians is, in 
 this respect as in others, a reasonable service ; that 
 when we directly aim at doing good to others, we 
 indirectly achieve greater good for ourselves than 
 any selfish conduct could accomplish ; that, as our 
 text puts it, he who loseth his life for Christ's 
 sake shall find it. 
 
 A great many moralists and philosophers have 
 insisted on self-surrender, because they despised 
 and depreciated the individual. Gautama, the 
 founder of Buddhism, maintained that belief in 
 one's own personality was an illusion, which 
 ought to be as speedily as possible dispelled ; 
 and he taught his disciples to look forward to ex- 
 tinction as the highest good. Buddhists therefore 
 regard the mesmeric trance, in which all con- 
 sciousness is lost, as the sublimest conquest 
 of mind over matter the nearest approach to 
 perfection which is possible for us on this side
 
 1 50 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 annihilation. The philosophies of the Neo-Plat- 
 onists and others are dominated by a similar 
 notion. They teach that as God is one, human 
 individuality (which of course involves plurality) 
 must be something different from God, and there- 
 fore bad. Hence in these systems the highest 
 form of mental activity is represented as a sort of 
 swoon, in which the sense of personality is lost, 
 and the individual spirit is absorbed into the 
 divine. 
 
 Christ did not insist on self-denial from any 
 such notions as these. He did not inculcate it 
 because he thought less of the individual than 
 others, but because He thought more. The 
 preciousness of every human being was one of our 
 Lord's most fundamental doctrines. " How think 
 ye ? " He said to His disciples. " If a man have 
 an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone 
 astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, 
 and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that 
 which is gone astray ? And if so be that he find 
 it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more over 
 that sheep, than over the ninety and nine which 
 went not astray. Even so it is not the will of 
 your Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
 little ones should perish." His belief in the im- 
 portance and infinite value of the individual may
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. \ 5 1 
 
 be traced throughout the whole of the Saviour's 
 teaching. 1 
 
 In harmony with this is Christ's view of self- 
 denial. One kind of moral training uses self- 
 denial as a punishment or atonement. Because 
 you have done so much which you ought not to 
 have done, you shall surrender so much pleasure 
 and suffer so much pain ; or, if you will endure a 
 certain number of fastings and flagellations, you 
 may be allowed a certain amount of indulgence 
 in your favourite vices. Another use to which 
 self-denial is sometimes applied, is "to express 
 the essential badness of the thing surrendered." 
 Because the earth is inherently and altogether 
 wicked, therefore, by all means in your power, 
 endeavour to cultivate disgust for it. But with 
 Jesus, self-sacrifice is always a necessary means to 
 a reasonable end, and that end is self-develop- 
 meni. We lose our life in order that we may 
 truly gain it. This is what gives, it has been 
 well said, to the self-denial which Christ demands 
 of us, " a triumphant and enthusiastic air." " Not 
 because you have not deserved to enjoy it, not 
 because it is wicked to enjoy it, but because 
 there is another enjoyment," or it may be some- 
 
 1 See a sermon on the "Culture of the Spirit" in my 
 'Preaching and Hearing.'.
 
 152 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 thing better than enjoyment, " more worthy of 
 your nature, therefore let this inferior enjoy- 
 ment go." 
 
 It is instructive to contrast the kingdom of 
 Christ with the Eepublic of Plato. In Plato's 
 ideal State the individual was regarded as existing 
 merely for the good of the community, and on 
 behalf of the community he was entirely and 
 ruthlessly sacrificed. All the details of his life 
 his prospects, his profession, his marriage, and so 
 forth were to be arranged for him by the State, 
 just as the State thought best. The individual 
 was to be allowed nothing which would not be 
 directly conducive to the welfare of the society of 
 which he was a member. But in the kingdom of 
 Christ, on the other hand, nothing is demanded 
 from the individual which is incompatible with 
 his own wellbeing. He is required to sacrifice 
 himself for others, but only in such ways as 
 indirectly conduce at the same time to his own 
 highest good, only to such an extent as is abso- 
 lutely necessary for his own complete develop- 
 ment. Let us look at the rationale of this for a 
 moment ; let us try and see the part played by 
 our fellow-men in maturing and perfecting our 
 own individuality. 
 
 We have seen that a man is distinguished
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. 1 5 3 
 
 from an animal by the fact that he is able to 
 regard his nature as a whole, aud to gather up 
 its passing experiences into the unity of a con- 
 sistent life. But he is also, and still more strik- 
 ingly, distinguished by the fact that he can live 
 in the lives of others. He may so identify him- 
 self with others as to make their lives his own. 
 And unless he does this he is not really human. 
 The isolated individual is not (properly speaking) 
 a man, but only a fragment of humanity, as 
 really dead as an amputated limb which, in being 
 cut off from the organism, is virtually cut off from 
 itself. A man cannot realise himself within him- 
 self, cannot come to perfection by himself, but 
 only in and through communion with others. 
 There are some parts of the individual's life 
 which are always in his brethren's keeping, and 
 which he can only receive from them. A deeper 
 self -hood, a richer personality, comes to a man 
 from communion with others and sacrifice for 
 others, than he could possibly have gained by any 
 amount of solitary contemplation or self-aggran- 
 disement. It is only as our individual, narrow, 
 exclusive, isolated self is developed into a larger, 
 inclusive, sympathetic self, that we come to our 
 highest life. To go forth out of self, to have all 
 the hidden wealth of feeling of which I am cap-
 
 154 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 able called forth towards others, and to receive 
 back again this wealth redoubled in reciprocated 
 affection and increased power of loving, this is 
 to live wisely and well. Not to do this is to 
 eliminate from life all that makes it most truly 
 human, all that makes it most really valuable. 
 
 The capacity of love and self-sacrifice is the 
 capacity to make the happiness of others my 
 own, to identify my life with an ever-widening 
 sphere of life beyond myself. As a rule, this 
 capacity is called forth in early life ; and when 
 once it has been brought into exercise, it should 
 grow with our growth and strengthen with our 
 strength. In the home of our childhood we first 
 began to learn that we were more than self-con- 
 tained individuals ; that we were capable of a 
 larger and fuller life than such as pertains to 
 mere isolated units ; that our own happiness and 
 wellbeing were enormously increased, when we 
 contributed to the happiness and wellbeing of 
 those with whom we lived. Then, as we grow 
 older, we are brought into relationship with the 
 community, the state, the race; and these more 
 comprehensive relationships should develop in us 
 more comprehensive affections. The members of 
 the society in which I live may seem to be inde- 
 pendent of me and foreign to me. But in reality
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. 1 5 5 
 
 they are not ; they are part of myself ; without 
 them I have no real self, but merely the false 
 self of a fragment taking itself for the whole. 
 It is only when the life of society flows into 
 me that my own nature is fully developed ; it is 
 only when, like my Master, I go about doing 
 good, gladdening and elevating the lives of all 
 who come within my reach, it is only then that 
 I avail myself of the most glorious prerogative of 
 my manhood. 
 
 Once more. The love of kindred and country 
 may expand into a yet more comprehensive 
 affection the love of humanity ; and when this 
 affection is developed, the happiness of the in- 
 dividual becomes identified with the life and 
 perfection of the race. " It is an indication," 
 says Principal Caird, " of the highest moral pro- 
 gress, when nationality ceases to be the limit of 
 sympathy, when the oppression of the remotest 
 nation begins to appeal to us with a sense of 
 personal injury, or when the story of a great act 
 of injustice done to a single human soul breaks 
 down the barrier of national exclusiveness, and 
 evokes from all lands a cry as of pain and indig- 
 nation for a universal wrong. In such incidents 
 there is a witness to the slow advance of mankind 
 towards that ideal of goodness, which Christians
 
 156 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 have ever recognised in One who loved all men 
 with a love more intense than the love of kin- 
 dred and country, and who offered up life itself 
 a sacrifice for the redemption of the world from 
 evil." 1 
 
 The self-denial, then, which Christ requires of 
 us is not self-destruction, but self-completion ; it 
 is not self -mutilation, but self-development ; it 
 is not self-neglect, but self-fulfilment. It will 
 bring us gradually to the measure of the stature 
 of the fulness of Christ. It does not ignore nor 
 undervalue any of the various elements in our 
 nature, but it enables them all to work together 
 harmoniously for the perfecting of the whole 
 man. He who has learned the lesson of self- 
 sacrifice is so changed from what he was before 
 he learned it, that he may emphatically be called 
 a new creature, and yet he is not less a man 
 than formerly ; rather we should say, it is he 
 and such as he alone who really deserve that 
 exalted title. In one sense the lower elements 
 have ceased to be ; they are no longer what they 
 were supreme ; they no longer blindly seek 
 
 1 For much of the thought and expression on pp. 153-155 I 
 am indebted to ' The Philosophy of Keligion,' by Principal 
 Caird, and 'The Influence of Jesus,' by the Kev. Phillips 
 Brooks, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston.
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. 1 5 7 
 
 their own unguided or misguided ends ; they are 
 now instrumental in accomplishing the higher 
 ends of the mind, the heart and the spirit. They 
 have ceased to be, just as dead matter, in becom- 
 ing part of a living organism, passes out of its 
 former state of existence into a higher. In one 
 sense, the narrow, partial, and exclusive self has 
 ceased to be, for it is no longer narrow ; it has 
 been developed into a self of broader views, of 
 loftier aims, of enlarged capacities for enjoyment. 
 It has ceased to be, as a child that has grown 
 into manhood. 
 
 Since, then, Christian self-sacrifice is so emi- 
 nently reasonable, it might appear as if every 
 reasonable creature would find it easy. But we 
 all know by our own sad experience that it is 
 hard. Schleiermacher has well observed, that the 
 lower elements in our nature, the more exclusive- 
 ly selfish tendencies, get the start of the higher 
 and more unselfish ; and as they are not only 
 sooner developed, but more frequently exercised, 
 they become strengthened by that tremendous 
 power which is known as the force of habit. For 
 some men the struggle between inclination and 
 duty is terrific ; for all of us, to say the least, it is 
 difficult. We may delight in the law of God after 
 the inward man, and yet find another law in our
 
 158 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 members warring against the law of our minds, 
 and bringing it into subjection to the law of sin 
 which is in our members. We may see and ap- 
 prove the better course, and yet choose the worse. 
 However clearly we may discern the folly of an 
 excessive indulgence in selfish enjoyments ; how- 
 ever clearly we may perceive the importance of 
 subordinating the lower elements of our nature 
 to the higher, and of considering others as well 
 as ourselves; however strongly we may be con- 
 vinced as to the reasonableness of the course 
 which it is our duty to pursue, nevertheless, 
 acting up to our convictions will cost us effort, 
 suffering, it may be anguish. For a while we 
 may feel as if, in the emphatic language of the 
 apostle, we were dying daily, as if we were being 
 crucified with Christ. 
 
 After a time, however, the conflict will become 
 less severe. By-and-by it may almost entirely 
 cease. The force of habit, which at first was on 
 the side of the lower tendencies and the narrower 
 self, will, if we persevere, at length be ranged 
 against them. The more we experience the 
 noble enjoyment of doing good the less attrac- 
 tion will selfish indulgences possess for us. At 
 last the very pain of self-sacrifice will become 
 sweeter than the pleasure of self -aggrandisement.
 
 The Partial and the Perfect Self. 159 
 
 "There have been men," says Principal Caird, 
 "who have felt in their country's humiliation 
 and loss a far sharper pang than in any personal 
 suffering, and the offering up of life itself has 
 had a strange sweetness in it, if the sacrifice 
 could avert or retrieve her ruin. For such a 
 man pain and pleasure are words which have 
 almost ceased to have any personal significance. 
 Self-indulgence at the expense of others would 
 be a greater self-denial, a thing fraught with 
 keener anguish, than any private suffering; it 
 would be an injury done to a dearer self for the 
 sake of a self he has ceased to care for nay, 
 which in one sense has ceased to exist." Of 
 such a man it may be truly as well as poetically 
 said, 
 
 " Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all the chords 
 
 with might, 
 Smote the chord of self, that trembling passed in music out of 
 
 sight" 
 
 .The old meagre paltry life is gone. The life 
 which lie now lives is broad and deep, noble and 
 heroic, Christ-like and divine.
 
 i6o 
 
 The Connection between Self-denial 
 and Self -development . 
 
 IV. 
 
 LOVE ESSENTIAL TO SELF-DEVELOPMENT. 
 "Love is the fulfilling of the law." ROMANS xiii. 10. 
 
 context reads, "Owe no man anything, 
 but to love one another : for he that loveth 
 another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, 
 Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be 
 any other commandment, it is briefly compre- 
 hended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love 
 thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill 
 to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling 
 of the law." 
 
 We have seen that to live a completely human 
 life is to live in the lives of others. The attempt
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 161 
 
 to live entirely for one's self is to make, not the 
 best of one's life, but the worst. Unless we do 
 our duty towards our neighbour, we fail to do 
 our whole duty towards ourselves. We only find 
 our life by losing it; that is to say, then only 
 do we truly live, when the narrow, meagre, 
 self-contained life belonging to us as isolated 
 individuals, has given place to the broad, deep, 
 sympathetic life of communion and affection, 
 which belongs to us as members of a family, of a 
 country, of a race. Now it is manifest that the 
 development of this higher life will involve self- 
 denial. Personal inclinations must be subordi- 
 nated to the general good. Our own pleasure 
 must be foregone if it would cause pain to others. 
 Private interests must give way when they clash 
 with the larger interests of society. But, as 
 Burns truly says, 
 
 " But och ! mankind are unco weak, 
 
 And little to be trusted ; 
 If self the wavering balance shake, 
 It's rarely right adjusted ! " 
 
 It would seem then, at first sight, as if the 
 higher life of unselfishness were quite beyond 
 our reach. How can we ever hope to fulfil the 
 law which saith, "Thou shalt do no ill to thy 
 neighbour " ? How shall we ever be able to 
 L
 
 1 62 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 practise the requisite amount of self - denial ? 
 This question is, I think, answered in our next, 
 "Love is the fulfilling of the law." 
 
 The "natural man," as he is called in the 
 New Testament that is, the man who is trying 
 to live exclusively for himself looks upon the 
 law as a nuisance. Why, he asks, should it be 
 fulfilled? It acts as a check upon his inclina- 
 tions and passions, and so he considers it his 
 enemy ; he would fain do away with it alto- 
 gether. His duty towards his neighbour he 
 regards as a curtailment of his own rightful 
 pleasures. To any one in this state of mind I 
 should like to say, My good sir, if you will 
 reflect upon the matter for a very little, you can 
 scarcely fail to see that law is in reality your 
 most useful friend. Law, throughout the whole 
 universe, is the essential condition, the sine qud 
 non, of wellbeing. Would the world be a better 
 place to live in, think you, if there were no 
 law of planetary motion ? if the stars, instead 
 of revolving as they do, with mathematical 
 precision in orbits marked out for them by 
 the law of gravitation, were at liberty to move 
 in any direction with any velocity? Better! 
 Why, this earth of ours, set free from the con- 
 trol of law, might one day be as far from the
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 163 
 
 sun as Neptune, where we should die of cold, 
 and the next as near as Mercury, where our 
 frozen remains would be cremated. And law is 
 infinitely more necessary in the social than in 
 the physical sphere. The great thing requisite 
 to make human life even tolerable is security; 
 and this, of course, we could never feel if every 
 one were at liberty to treat every one else exactly 
 as he might happen to please. In that case we 
 should live in a state of universal warfare and 
 continual dread. Without law the human race 
 would quickly perish, self-destroyed. We owe 
 to law, therefore, a debt of gratitude as well as 
 a debt of obedience. Though it forbids our in- 
 juring others, it also forbids our being injured 
 by others. Though it marks out our duties, it 
 also protects our rights. Though it has punish- 
 ments for the guilty, it also has rewards for the 
 just. As the water which is evaporated from 
 the surface of the earth returns again in fertilis- 
 ing showers, so we are compensated for the self- 
 restraint which the law demands of us by that 
 which it exacts from others, and by the conse- 
 quent security in which we are enabled to live. 
 " Of law," says Hooker, in the celebrated sentence 
 with which he closes the first book of his ' Eccle- 
 siastical Polity,' "Of law there can be no less
 
 1 64 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of 
 God, her voice the harmony of the world. All 
 things in heaven and earth do her homage : the 
 least as not beneath her care, and the greatest as 
 not exempted from her power: both angels and 
 men, and all creatures of what condition soever, 
 though each in a different sort and manner, yet 
 each with uniform consent, admiring her as the 
 mother of their peace and joy." If this, then, 
 be the nature and value of law, its fulfilment 
 will be eminently rational and desirable. 
 
 We thus arrive, I may point out in passing, 
 by another route, at a similar conclusion to that 
 which we reached in the last discourse. We 
 there saw that our lives could only be perfected 
 by the sacrifice of personal gratification for the 
 general good. We now perceive that law, though 
 at first sight it may appear to have been 
 devised solely in the interest of others, is abso- 
 lutely essential for our own wellbeing. 
 
 The point, however, with which we are at pre- 
 sent specially concerned is this, we shall only be 
 able to achieve the self-denial that is involved 
 in the fulfilment of the law, when love becomes 
 the ruling passion of our lives. 
 
 The law, of course, is often obeyed on account 
 of the punishment which would follow its viola-
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 165 
 
 tion. A person may pay his debts, for instance, 
 because, if he do not, he will go to prison. But 
 you can never be quite sure that the law will 
 be obeyed when you only appeal to fear. If a 
 man be a clever scoundrel he may avoid detec- 
 tion, or, if detected, he may perhaps be able to 
 make his escape before the punishment can be 
 inflicted. And a stupid scoundrel, probably not 
 knowing that he is stupid, will often run a 
 similar risk. So, while the law depends solely 
 upon fear for its fulfilment, however vigilant 
 may be our police, however upright our courts 
 of justice, however severe may be the condemna- 
 tion of society, we have no security for its ful- 
 filment, and as a matter of fact we know that 
 it is constantly being violated. 
 
 Further, the law is not fulfilled by those who 
 are satisfied with the mere fulfilment of its letter. 
 You see the letter of the law is enforced by the 
 punishment of society, and just because so en- 
 forced it is of necessity very limited in its scope. 
 As Bentham explains in his principles of juris- 
 prudence, the written law only takes cognisance 
 of vices which can be clearly defined and readily 
 distinguished. If it attempted to cover a larger 
 area if, for example, it endeavoured to punish 
 ingratitude or unkindness it would do more
 
 1 66 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 harm than good. It is difficult, or rather im- 
 possible, to find out when and to what extent 
 such sins have been committed. If, therefore, 
 the law attempted to deal with them, it would 
 be in constant danger of punishing the less guilty 
 or even the innocent, and of allowing the more 
 guilty to get off scot-free. And further, this 
 unjust administration of justice, would involve 
 an amount of inquisitive surveillance, which would 
 be more hurtful to society than the evils which, 
 after all, it failed to prevent. For these reasons 
 then, the spirit of the law, which is " Thou shalt 
 do no ill to thy neighbour," has to be narrowed 
 in the letter, where we read only, " Thou shalt not 
 injure thy neighbour in a certain few definite 
 ways." From this, of course, it follows that the 
 man who is contented with keeping the letter of 
 the law is most undoubtedly guilty of violating 
 its spirit. He goes but a little way along the 
 path of duty. We sometimes meet with men 
 who never commit any punishable injury, but 
 who are to the last degree cold, callous, hard- 
 hearted, and selfish. We are quite sure they 
 would not rob or murder us, but we are equally 
 sure they would not move their little finger to 
 do us any good, they would not raise their hand 
 to save us from destruction. These men do in-
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 167 
 
 calculable mischief, and that of the worst kind. 
 They injure the moral nature of their neighbours, 
 whose best affections are dwarfed, or it may be 
 destroyed, by their inhumanity, just as fruit is 
 blighted by the frost. They do all that in them 
 lies to make other men into moral pigmies like 
 themselves. Hence, though they are not guilty 
 of any punishable breach of the law, they are 
 guilty of violating its spirit, they do ill to their 
 neighbours. 
 
 Now Christ saw, what the wisest philosophers 
 before him Had failed to see, that the law could 
 only be fulfilled by love in other words, that 
 we could only avoid injuring others by actually 
 doing them good. In the kingdom of Christ, not 
 only has a man's neighbour ceased to be his 
 enemy, but he has actually become his friend. 
 This idea lies at the root of all Christ's work 
 and teaching. The kingdom which He founded 
 is one in which the members are to be united 
 by the ties of brotherly kindness. " All ye are 
 brethren," he said to His disciples ; and, again, 
 "A new commandment I give unto you, That 
 ye love one another ; as I have loved you, that 
 ye also love one another." This new command- 
 ment summed up and supplemented all the old. 
 Understood in the sense in which Christ meant
 
 1 68 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 it to be understood, as referring not to a transi- 
 ent sentimentalism but to a life-long practice, 
 it covers the whole field of human existence. 
 Love inevitably leads to those self-sacrificing 
 acts of kindness which we have seen to be 
 essential to complete self - development ; and 
 therefore St John says, " We know that we have 
 passed from death unto life, because we love the 
 brethren." The narrow, meagre, paltry, isolated 
 life which the unloving live is more properly 
 called death. Then alone do we truly live, then 
 alone do we live the Christ-like and divine life 
 for which we were created, when we are inspired 
 and actuated by love ; for nothing but this can 
 enable us to find our happiness, as we ought to 
 find it, in the happiness of others. The import- 
 ance of the new commandment is everywhere 
 insisted upon throughout the New Testament. 
 " Though I speak with the tongues of men and 
 of angels," says St Paul, " and have not charity, 
 I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
 cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, 
 and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 
 and though I have all faith, so that I could re- 
 move mountains, and have not charity, I am 
 nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to 
 feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 1 69 
 
 burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me 
 nothing." But the strongest evidence as to the 
 comprehensiveness of the new commandment is 
 to be found in the fact, that Christ intimates the 
 divine verdict upon our life will be favourable or 
 unfavourable, according as this commandment 
 has been obeyed or neglected. " Come ! . . . for 
 I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, 
 and ye took me in." " Depart ! . . . for I was 
 an hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was 
 thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me not in." 
 
 According to the plain teaching of the New 
 Testament, then according to the explicit state- 
 ment of our Lord no man can be a Christian, 
 however orthodox his creed, however numerous 
 his religious observances, unless he is inspired and 
 actuated by the spirit of love. 
 
 And if you ask me how you may become so 
 inspired, I answer, first of all and to some extent 
 by reflection. This love is far more amenable to 
 reason than the passion which goes by the same 
 name. " We may set ourselves," as George Eliot 
 has put it, we may studiously set ourselves " to 
 learn something of the poetry and pathos lying 
 in the experience of all human souls ; poetry and
 
 1 70 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 pathos that look out through dull grey eyes, and 
 that speak in a voice of quite ordinary tones." 
 We might know something of this if we would 
 only think. And such knowledge would inevi- 
 tably give birth to sympathy. 
 
 But though reflection will do much to develop 
 in us a loving spirit, attachment to Christ Him- 
 self will do infinitely more. This was why 
 Christ so strongly insisted upon the necessity 
 of His disciples loving Him. As the author of 
 ' Ecce Homo ' truly says, " Christ required personal 
 devotion from His followers so vehemently, that 
 they often, in describing their relation to Him, 
 overleap the bounds of ordinary figurative lan- 
 guage. They speak of hating father and mother 
 for the sake of Christ, that is, their love for 
 their earthly relations seemed but as hatred 
 when compared with their passionate love for 
 Him. St Paul speaks of Christ being his life, 
 his very self. It is this intense personal devo- 
 tion, this habitual feeding on the character of 
 Christ, so that the essential nature of the Master 
 seems to pass into and become the essential 
 nature of the servant, that is expressed in the 
 words, ' eating the flesh and drinking the blood 
 of the Son of man.' " Christ insisted upon this 
 devotion, because He knew the invaluable effect
 
 Love essential to Self -development. 1 7 1 
 
 it would have upon the lives of His disciples. 
 Just as a ray of light, when examined by the 
 spectroscope, reveals the nature of the medium 
 through which it has travelled, so our lives will 
 undoubtedly show whether or not we have been 
 influenced by the teaching and the example of 
 the Nazarene. If we are genuine disciples, men 
 will take knowledge of us that we have been 
 with Jesus. If we are genuine disciples, we 
 shall manifest something of His sublime spirit 
 of self-abnegation, something of His passionate 
 enthusiasm for the wellbeing of the race. If 
 we are genuine disciples, we shall go about con- 
 stantly, not so much getting, as doing, good; 
 seeking to minister rather than to be ministered 
 unto ; finding our supreme happiness in contrib- 
 uting to the happiness of others. Passing from 
 the society of those who are utterly destitute of 
 Christ's spirit into the company of those who are 
 somewhat imbued with it, is like migrating from 
 the cutting east winds of our English climate to 
 the gentle, sweet-scented breezes of the South. 
 Nay, it is like going into another and a grander 
 world. Christ's kingdom, as He said, is not of 
 this world. It is the kingdom of God ! It is 
 the kingdom of heaven !
 
 172 
 
 The Connection between Self-denial 
 and Self -development . 
 
 v. 
 
 SELF-DEVELOPMENT IS SALVATION. 
 
 : Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is 
 God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good 
 pleasure." PHILIPPIANS ii. 12, 13. 
 
 A MONGr all the spurious forms of Christianity 
 *"* there is nothing worse than the doctrine, 
 that we are saved if we are saved, and lost if we 
 are lost, according to the will of God and not 
 according to our own. The theory of fatalism 
 has sometimes unhappily been adopted by Chris- 
 tian theologians, who have maintained that men 
 were not free agents, but necessitated, irresist- 
 ibly compelled to work out the will of a higher 
 Power. If that were really the case, we might 
 say mournfully and indignantly with the poet,
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 173 
 
 " Vv r e are no better than a moving row 
 Of tragic shadow-shapes, that come and go 
 Round with the sun -illuminated lantern, held 
 At midnight by the master of the show ; 
 Impotent pieces of the game he plays 
 Upon his chequer-board of nights and days ; 
 Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays, 
 And one by one back in the cupboard lays." 
 
 If the salvation of Christ were a benefit con- 
 ferred only upon a few arbitrarily selected in- 
 dividuals; if God forced some men into the 
 kingdom of heaven and only some, leaving the 
 rest bad and wretched, when He might have 
 made them good and happy ; if He ordained 
 that they should be heirs of eternal life when 
 He wanted them in heaven, but allowed them to 
 remain heirs of death when He preferred their 
 going to hell, if this were the character of the 
 strongest Power in the universe, then the human 
 race would be merely a collection of puppets, 
 played with according to the caprice of a Being 
 the very opposite of love, a Being in com- 
 parison with whom the cruellest tyrant of his- 
 tory or fiction appears kind - hearted, amiable, 
 and beneficent. 1 
 
 1 The impossibility of worshipping Power as such, I have 
 endeavoured to show in the ' Basis of Religion, ' passim. The 
 fundamental objection to Mr Drummond's ' Natural Law in 
 the Spiritual World ' is, that it supposes spiritual life to come
 
 1 74 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 There is another almost equally gross carica- 
 ture of Christianity, which represents salvation as 
 being merely a rescue from the punishment of 
 sin. This is a theology worthy only of a savage. 
 Many barbarians believe that religion consists 
 in appeasing the anger of the gods, which accord- 
 ingly they attempt to do by the grateful savour 
 of barley, wine, or blood. They are firmly con- 
 vinced that if their spiteful deities can be propi- 
 tiated, they themselves will be able to do what 
 they please with impunity. They are not more 
 in error than those who imagine that Christ 
 lived and died merely to save men from the 
 punishment of sin. His aim was to save us from 
 sin itself. Unless we are saved from that, it is 
 impossible, even for Omnipotence, to save us from 
 its punishment. Sin is not something which 
 God has chosen capriciously to forbid and to 
 punish, but something which, by its own essential 
 nature, must inevitably be productive of misery 
 and degradation. So long as the cause continues 
 in operation, the effect must necessarily follow. 
 Heaven and hell are not spheres to which men 
 are arbitrarily consigned. The place a man goes 
 to in the future, as in the present, must be 
 
 to men in this haphazard, Calviuistic fashion, and so virtually 
 denies all human responsibility.
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 1 75 
 
 emphatically his own place, the place for which 
 he has prepared himself. As Milton finely puts 
 it 
 
 " The mind is its own place, and in itself 
 Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 
 
 "Which way I fly is hell," 
 
 says Satan 
 
 " Myself am hell." 
 
 The worst of all torture for a bad man is to 
 bring him into the society of the good. To one 
 who hated righteousness, heaven would be a more 
 frightful place than hell. How could he bear, in 
 the tattered and filthy rags of his uncleanness, 
 to come into contact with those who had washed 
 their robes and made them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb ? If the worm that dieth not and the 
 flame that is not quenched if the pangs of 
 conscience and remorse would plague him in 
 hell, when surrounded by those who were as bad 
 or worse than himself, think you not that they 
 would plague him with an infinitely sharper sting 
 in heaven, where he would be confronted by the 
 spirits of the just made perfect? To take any 
 one who was unfitted for it into the highest 
 heaven, would be in reality to thrust him lower 
 than the lowest hell. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, be saved from punish-
 
 1 76 Self-denial and Self-development. 
 
 nient without being saved from sin ; nor can we 
 be saved from sin without our own co-opera- 
 tion. That our salvation, in the last resort, 
 depends upon ourselves, is brought out very 
 strikingly in our text. The meaning of the 
 expression, " God worketh in you both to will 
 and to do of His good pleasure," is, that ac- 
 cording to His good pleasure that is, in har- 
 mony with His love He makes us free agents. 
 The freedom of the will is one of the most 
 fundamental doctrines of Christianity. But, as 
 you are aware, ideas exist in men's minds long 
 before words have been coined to correspond. 
 This is why the Apostle Paul speaks here 
 somewhat periphrastically. Instead of saying, 
 as we should now say, God makes you free 
 agents, he says, God works in you to will and 
 to do. 
 
 The gift of freedom is our most glorious pre- 
 rogative. In making us free, God created us in 
 His own image. Descartes truly says, "It is 
 chiefly my will that leads me to discern that I 
 bear a certain similitude to Deity. For although 
 the faculty of will is incomparably greater in 
 God than in myself, in so far as it extends to a 
 greater number of objects, it does not seem to be 
 greater considered in itself. For the power of
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 177 
 
 will consists only in this, that we are able to do 
 or not to do the same thing, undetermined by 
 any external force." 
 
 But the possession of this faculty involves the 
 most serious responsibility. No one who has a 
 will can be saved against his will. We saw, 
 when we were considering the origin of evil, that 
 a man could not be compelled to do right, for 
 if compelled he would be deprived of his free- 
 dom, and if he were deprived of his freedom he 
 would cease to be a man. An action performed 
 on compulsion has no moral value, however de- 
 sirable it may be in itself. The worth of an 
 action depends on the fact that something else 
 might have been done, but was not. If God 
 could compel any man to do right, He ought to 
 compel all. That He does not compel all, should 
 be proof enough (if proof were needed) that He 
 cannot compel any. Hence the fact that we are 
 free is a reason why we should work with fear 
 and trembling. It is possible for us to prostitute 
 our freedom, and with it to work out our ruin. 
 Every time we suffer ourselves to be conquered 
 by temptation our will is weakened. By con- 
 stantly yielding we may, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, completely lose our power of choice. It is 
 possible for a man, although created originally in 
 M
 
 178 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 the image of God, to sink below the level of a 
 brute, and become as incapable of self-control as 
 a feather fluttering in the wind. By an uninter- 
 rupted course of persistence in evil we may make 
 our salvation practically impossible. 
 
 " The bough that went, when green, awry, 
 Will not come straight when old and dry." 
 
 On the other hand, every time we conquer temp- 
 tation our own strength is increased, and the 
 forces opposed to us are practically weakened. 
 We may rise eventually into a sphere where evil 
 will cease to be attractive, and where conflict 
 will therefore give place to repose. 
 
 " Our deeds still travel with us from afar, 
 And what we have been makes us what we are." 
 
 Our salvation then cannot be thrust upon us 
 by God. It depends upon the use which we 
 make of our freedom. Why, external influences 
 will not do everything even for a vegetable. 
 Not all the sunshine and rain and air in the 
 universe will ever, of themselves, clothe a tree 
 with leaves. Without the responsive action of 
 the sap within, the tree will remain barren and 
 unsightly, a blot upon the fairest summer land- 
 scape. Still less can mere external influences 
 bring to perfection a rational child of God. The
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 1 79 
 
 great Father has done for us, we may be sure, all 
 that He can do. What remains must be done, 
 if done at all, by ourselves. God can no more do 
 our work than we can do God's. We could not 
 have created ourselves ; we could not have taught 
 ourselves what Christ has taught us. But having 
 been created, and having been taught, we alone 
 can decide whether we will be true to the nature 
 with which we have been endowed, whether we 
 will be loyal followers of the Nazarene. Christ 
 finished our salvation on the divine side; we 
 must finish it on the human. Christ made it 
 possible ; we must make it real. 
 
 Now salvation, properly so called, is, as I said, 
 salvation from sin, and sin is only another name 
 for selfishness. Sin results, as we have seen, from 
 the narrow, sensuous self being made supreme, 
 instead of being subordinated, as it should be, to 
 the broader, spiritual, sympathetic self, which 
 finds its chief happiness in contributing to the 
 happiness of others. What is the one character- 
 istic which belongs alike to your dishonest trades- 
 men and to your dishonourable professional men 
 to your oppressive masters and fraudulent ser- 
 vants, to your cruel husbands and faithless wives, 
 and so forth ? Why, just selfishness. If these 
 men and women could only be made to obey the
 
 1 80 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth ; if they could 
 be made to feel that it is really more blessed to 
 give than to receive ; if they could be imbued 
 with the spirit which is thoughtfully considerate 
 for others ; then, instead of making the world 
 more wretched every hour they live, they would 
 be transformed into useful members of society, 
 each one of them contributing to the welfare of 
 the rest. 
 
 Christ saw what none had seen before Him, 
 that men needed to be saved, not from divine 
 vengeance, but from themselves from their 
 lower, meaner selves. We noticed that the 
 subjugation of the lower self to the higher, 
 the development of the narrower self into the 
 broader, is possible only for the man who is 
 inspired and actuated by the spirit of love ; and 
 that the possession of such a spirit is made, in the 
 New Testament, the criterion of genuine disciple- 
 ship. " By this," said our Lord, " shall all men 
 know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love 
 one to another." Nay more, Christ declared that 
 our acceptance or rejection upon the great day 
 of reckoning, would depend upon whether or not 
 we had performed the self-sacrificing acts of 
 kindliness by which a loving spirit is inevitably 
 manifested. We further noticed that the greatest
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 1 8 1 
 
 aid in living a life of self-denial was personal 
 devotion to Christ Himself, devotion so intense, 
 that the nature of the Master seemed to pass into, 
 and become, the nature of the servant. Now this 
 devotion, this absorption of the character of Christ, 
 is not only the very essence of Christian worship, 
 but it is also the earnest of immortality. " Whoso 
 eateth my flesh," said our Lord, "and drinketh 
 my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him 
 up at the last day." 
 
 So when we thus take a comprehensive view 
 of the matter, we discover that self-development 
 by means of self-denial involves nothing short of 
 everlasting salvation. There is absolute harmony 
 between our own highest good and the highest 
 good of others. 
 
 " To thine own self be true, 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
 There is absolute harmony between our proper 
 work in this world and our proper preparation 
 for the next. " He became the author of eternal 
 salvation unto all them that obey Him." "We 
 debate," says the rector of a church in Boston, 
 " whether self - culture or our brethren's service 
 is the true purpose of life ; we vacillate aimlessly 
 between them. Now we shut ourselves up, and
 
 1 82 Self-denial and Self-development. 
 
 meditate and try to grow. Now we rush forth 
 and make the world ring with what we call our 
 work. The two so often have no connection 
 with each other. We are so apt to live two 
 lives. Jesus knows but one. All culture of His 
 soul is part of our salvation. All doing of His 
 work is ripening of His nature. Jesus in the 
 still night, far off upon the solitary hill-top; 
 Jesus in the broad daylight, dragged by the 
 hooting mob to Calvary, both of them are 
 Jesus saving the world. Christ escaped the 
 perplexity of many of the questions with which 
 our lives are troubled, as the eagle flying through 
 the sky is not worried how to cross the rivers." 
 The salvation of Christ is all-comprehensive in 
 its scope, and therefore well worth the effort of 
 working out. Saving ourselves is no selfish 
 .task, it is learning to be kind. On the one 
 hand, no man can come to his best by selfish- 
 ness ; and on the other, no man can do much 
 for his fellow -men who is not much himself. 
 On the one hand, no man can make the best 
 of his present without regarding it as prepara- 
 tory to the future; and on the other, no man 
 can properly fit himself for the next world 
 unless he does his duty here. To prepare for 
 heaven is not merely to build up a noble
 
 Self -development is Salvation. 183 
 
 character, but to become a creator of happiness, 
 an inspirer of nobility. It is to work for the 
 good of humanity, for the good of the entire 
 universe. 
 
 Our proper life-work can be accomplished by 
 no one but ourselves. Unless we do it, it will 
 remain eternally undone. 
 
 " Remember every soul He made 
 Is different, has some deed to do, 
 Some work to work ; be undismayed 
 Though thine be humble : do it too. " 
 
 If you do it, rest assured the good that results 
 will be eternal. There is a conservation of 
 energy in the moral, as in the physical, sphere. 
 Not a single particle of matter is ever destroyed. 
 It may pass into new shapes, it may combine 
 with other elements, it may float away into 
 vapour; but it will come back, possibly in the 
 dewdrop or the rain, helping the leaf to grow 
 and the fruit to swell. " So is it," says Leo 
 Grindon, "with every generous self-denying effort. 
 It may escape our observation and be utterly 
 forgotten, it may seem to have been altogether 
 useless; but it has become part of the moral 
 world, it has given it new enrichment and 
 beauty, the whole universe partakes of its in- 
 fluence." It is possible for each of us so to live
 
 184 Self-denial and Self -development. 
 
 as to leave this world better than we found it, 
 and to enhance by our presence the happiness 
 and glory of the next. This is the work which 
 God has given us to do. Shall it be accom- 
 plished by us, or shall it not? It ought to be, 
 it can be. 
 
 " So nigh to grandeur is our dust. 
 
 So nigh is God to man, 
 When duty whispers low, ' Thou must ! ' 
 The soul replies, ' I can.'"
 
 "What is Truth?" 
 
 The context reads : " Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth ? And 
 when he had said this, he went out." JOHN xviii. 38. 
 
 T)ILATE, you see, did not wait for a reply. 
 Bacon calls him "jesting Pilate." Hegel 
 speaks of his " genteel indifference." But I think 
 his conduct is rather to be explained by the fact 
 that he belonged to the class of men called some- 
 times Pyrrhonists, sometimes Sceptics, and some- 
 times Agnostics, who hold that it is impossible 
 for us to attain to any certain knowledge. And 
 so he said half contemptuously, half sadly, " What 
 is truth?" and with a shrug of the shoulders 
 turned upon his heel. But whatever may have- 
 been Pilate's state of mind on this occasion, let 
 us" avoid imitating his example in one respect at 
 least, let us wait for a reply. 1 
 
 1 The majority of men, as the author of 'Obiter Dicta' 
 bluntly puts it, instead of seeking an answer to the question, 
 ' ' What is truth ? " are content with the humbler inquiry, 
 "What is trumps?" Man has been defined as a rational
 
 1 86 " What is Truth?" 
 
 I do not propose in the present sermon to 
 criticise Agnosticism. My aim is rather to throw 
 a little light on the subject, if I can, for those 
 who have already some faith in the possibility of 
 attaining to certainty. 
 
 There are two senses in which the word truth 
 is commonly employed, either for fact, or for the 
 harmony between our thought and fact. This 
 harmony between thought and fact, or between 
 thought and its object, may be better expressed 
 by the term knowledge. We are said to know 
 anything when we think about it just what we 
 should, when we think it as it is. I should 
 prefer to apply the term truth to that which is 
 known, rather than to the knowledge itself. This 
 is the way in which it is often used in common 
 speech. For example, when we speak of revealed 
 truths, we are manifestly referring to certain 
 objects of knowledge, to certain persons, events, 
 and doctrines that may be known. Christ too 
 used the word in this sense when He said, " I am 
 the Truth," the supreme object of knowledge. 
 
 But in whichever sense we use the term, 
 whether for fact or for the knowledge of fact, it 
 
 animal, a laughing animal, a cooking animal, and in a hundred 
 other ways, but I never heard of his having been called a truth- 
 ful animal.
 
 " What is Truth?" 187 
 
 is of the utmost importance to distinguish truth 
 from opinion. The word " truth " is no doubt 
 connected etymologically with the verb to trow. 
 Accordingly Home Tooke tells us, truth is " that 
 which a man troweth." But this is precisely 
 what truth is not, if we understand " troweth " 
 in its present acceptation of holding an opinion. 
 We must go back to its original meaning. 
 " Trow " is derived from an old Sanscrit root 
 signifying fixed or firm, and this suggests the 
 proper signification of the word truth. While 
 opinions constantly change, truth is that which 
 does not and cannot change. While opinions 
 may be false, truth cannot but be true. Truth 
 is something which is the same for all, whatever 
 may be their opinions or absence of opinions; 
 something which should be believed in because 
 it can be proved, not something which should 
 be considered proved because it is believed in 
 Opinion at the best is but a subjective copy of 
 objective truth. Fact, therefore, is a very good 
 synonym for truth. To " hold the truth " is not 
 to possess an opinion but to know a fact. Facts 
 do not alter with our ever- varying opinions ; for 
 a thing must be what it is whether we believe 
 it or not. If a man takes poison he will be 
 poisoned, however loudly he may vociferate that
 
 1 88 " What is Truth?" 
 
 he believed it to be medicine. Fact is firm, 
 steadfast, reliable, remaining always the same, 
 however much our opinions may change in regard 
 to it. Generally the word Truth is restricted to 
 the most important kinds of facts. We speak 
 of physical facts, and of moral or religious truths. 
 But this distinction is unnecessary and rather 
 misleading. For all facts are realities ; and truth 
 comprehends everything that is real. 
 
 If then you understand truths to be synony- 
 mous with facts, you may say that all facts are 
 parts of that whole which is summed up in 
 the word Truth. Or, if you prefer to use the 
 term in the second sense, for the harmony be- 
 tween thought and fact that is, for knowledge 
 it will follow that all facts are parts of that 
 whole, the knowledge of which is summed up in 
 the word Truth. 
 
 Broadly speaking, we may distinguish three 
 spheres of truth. There is, first, the truth in- 
 volved in and revealed by nature ; second, that 
 involved in and revealed by man; third, that 
 involved in and revealed by Christ. Though 
 these spheres of truth may be legitimately re- 
 cognised as distinct, yet it must be remem- 
 bered their connection with one another is very 
 close and very important. Knowledge of one of
 
 " What is Truth?" 189 
 
 them will throw great light upon the others, and 
 ignorance in regard to one will inevitably darken 
 and confuse the rest. 
 
 First as to physical truth, or the truth of 
 nature. The Duke of Argyll has well said, that 
 "indifference to truth, in apparently the most 
 distant spheres of thought, may and does relax 
 the most powerful springs of action." He is 
 right. The connection, e.g., between hygiene, or 
 the laws of health, and your religious welfare, 
 is closer perhaps than you imagine. The more 
 extensive is your knowledge of those laws, the 
 better will it be for you spiritually as well as 
 temporally. The more you know of your body 
 the better will it be for your soul. If you eat 
 too much or too little, if you sleep too long or too 
 short a time, if you work too hard or not hard 
 enough, if you indulge in recreations too often or 
 too seldom, if you in any way violate the laws of 
 your own nature laws which can be fully under- 
 stood only after careful investigation and study- 
 not only will your life be shortened, but your 
 character will be deteriorated. It is of little 
 avail for the spirit to be willing when the flesh 
 is weak. Discontent, despondency, despair and 
 suicide, not unfrequently result from a dyspepsia 
 which is due to ignorance or carelessness.
 
 190 " What is Truth?" 
 
 The laws of the human body, however, are 
 only a very small portion of physical truth, in- 
 difference to any part of which is the sign of a 
 moral languor incompatible with real greatness 
 or goodness. How common such indifference is ! 
 And yet every fact of nature is "a window 
 through which we can look into infinity." How 
 constantly Christ discovered spiritual meanings 
 in natural objects and events ! And we ought, in 
 some degree, to do the same. To the far-seeing 
 man the vision of nature is the vision of God. 
 
 Secondly, there is the truth involved in and 
 revealed by man, by man, that is, considered as 
 a mental and spiritual being. The facts and laws 
 of the human mind are worthy of study, partly 
 for their own sake, partly for the intellectual 
 vigour and discipline to be gained in the process, 
 but especially, I apprehend, because the mind of 
 man is in some respects similar to the mind of 
 God. Were it different in kind as well as in 
 degree, knowledge of God, and still more com- 
 munion with God, would be impossible. He has 
 breathed into us His Spirit, we have been created 
 in His image, we are the sons of God. Such 
 expressions as King, Judge, Sovereign, Father, 
 when applied to God, mean nothing if they do 
 not mean that there is a resemblance between
 
 " What is Truth?" 191 
 
 the divine and human natures, as well as between 
 the divine and human relationships. The late 
 Dean Mansel, I know, in his Bampton Lecture 
 on ' The Limits of Eeligious Thought/ maintains 
 the opposite view. He says that we cannot 
 argue from ourselves to God; that the words 
 personality, justice, love, &c., when applied to 
 God, are used in different senses from those in 
 which we apply them to men, and that in the 
 one application they may mean quite the con- 
 trary of what they mean in the other. Now 
 nothing could have heen further from the Dean's 
 intention than to reduce the Christian God 
 to the same level of abstraction as Herbert 
 Spencer's " Unknowable " ; but this is the only 
 possible conclusion from his premisses. 1 If words 
 meant one thing when applied to man, and an- 
 other when applied to God, then all reasoning 
 and speaking about the Divine Being would be a 
 ridiculous waste of time. It is of no use to say 
 that God is just, unless we mean by "just" what 
 we generally mean when we use that word. We 
 had better say we do not know whether He is 
 just or unjust. And the same remark applies to 
 
 1 Indeed Herbert Spencer, in the 'First Principles,' illus- 
 trates and supports his own views by long quotations from the 
 l>;impton Lecture.
 
 1 92 " What is Truth?" 
 
 every other attribute. It is evident therefore 
 that God can be for us, on this view, nothing 
 more than the Great Unknown. The doctrine 
 of St Chrysostom and St Augustine seems to 
 me far more correct. "Through my own mind 
 I ascend to God." " Self-knowledge is the high- 
 est of all knowledge, for he who truly knows 
 himself knows God." Just as an orrery will 
 enable a child to understand something of the 
 mechanism of the heavens, whereas he would be 
 perfectly bewildered if he were to contemplate 
 the heavens themselves, so the finite could never 
 know anything of the infinite, except through 
 the medium of its own finitude. God, like the 
 noonday sun, can only be seen " through a glass 
 darkly," in other words, through the human 
 mind. 
 
 The macrocosm and the microcosm then the 
 great world without us and the little world with- 
 in are important spheres of truth ; important 
 for their own sake, but especially important for 
 what they suggest and reveal of God. There is 
 however, as I have intimated, a third sphere 
 more important still, namely, that which is 
 contained in and revealed by Christ. Christ 
 taught men that their Creator was no capricious 
 or spiteful being, but a God of love, who is their
 
 " What is Truth?" 193 
 
 Judge and King only in virtue of, and in sub- 
 serviency to, His Fatherhood. Christ taught men 
 that their profound, and hitherto unintelligible, 
 yearnings were but the natural longing of the 
 human heart for filial communion with the 
 divine ; and He declared that there was no bar- 
 rier between themselves and God, except their 
 own mistaken notion that He was unforgiving 
 and revengeful. Christ's ministry, crowned, com- 
 pleted and glorified by His death, was one pro- 
 longed manifestation of love and of the fact that 
 God is love. " In Him dwelt all the fulness of 
 the Godhead bodily." Christ was therefore the 
 great revealer of religious truth. He was, we 
 may say, that truth itself, in its deepest and 
 sublimest phases, sensibly presented before the 
 world, so that to look on Christ is to see the 
 truth. "The truth of truths is love." 
 
 Now let us ask, What is the relation between 
 creeds and truth ? l Surely I need scarcely say, 
 that if you wish in the very faintest measure to 
 apprehend any fragment of the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, you must penetrate far below the surface- 
 meaning of any mere form of words. The know- 
 ledge of a creed can be, at the best, but elemen- 
 tary knowledge. It should be the beginning of 
 1 See also my volume on ' Church and Creed.' 
 N
 
 194 " What is Truth?" 
 
 our acquaintance with truth it can never be the 
 end. A creed is just a register of results in the 
 search for truth. It has been transmitted to us, 
 or should have been transmitted, for the guidance, 
 and not for the extinction, of future thought and 
 investigation. It is a starting-point not a goal. 
 Just as an invading army makes good each posi- 
 tion gained by planting a citadel, so creeds are 
 fortresses as it were, from which we can make 
 further incursions into the still outstanding, still 
 unconquered realms of truth. Truth cannot be 
 symbolised by a circle, but rather by an infinite 
 line. 
 
 Theology, like all other sciences, should be pro- 
 gressive. The Begins Professor of Divinity in the 
 University of Oxford drew attention some time 
 ago to the danger of theology becoming stagnant, 
 and warned theologians against resting contented 
 with a mere reproduction of the past. But there 
 are many persons who believe that theology ought 
 to be stagnant, who regard any attempt to get 
 beyond our ancestors as a sort of juvenile im- 
 pertinence. This is not the doctrine of our 
 Church. Our daily services are brought to a close 
 with the prayer of St Chrysostom, in which we 
 use the words, " Granting us in this world know- 
 ledge of Thy truth." The self-satisfied dogmatists,
 
 " What is Truth?" 195 
 
 if they were consistent, should say instead, "Grant- 
 ing us in this world remembrance of our creed." 
 
 You laugh at the infant who cries for the moon, 
 and thinks that his nurse, if she were only so 
 disposed, might fetch it and give it him for a 
 football. You laugh at the child who sets him- 
 self the task of carrying away the waters of the 
 ocean in his tiny pail. You laugh at the bar- 
 barian who fancies, when he first comes upon the 
 sea, that he has reached the end of the world. 
 You would laugh if a man, who proposed to build 
 himself a house, became so pleased with the 
 foundation that he thought it unnecessary to go 
 on with the building. You would laugh if an 
 athlete, who was going to run a race, grew en- 
 amoured of the arrangements at the first end of 
 the course, and while others were pressing on 
 towards the goal, contented himself with running 
 round and round the starting-post. But I will 
 tell you of something more laughable still. There 
 is no conceivable object in the universe of God 
 half so ludicrous or absurd, as the being who 
 thinks that as soon as he can repeat his creed like 
 a parrot, he has mastered truth ; who imagines 
 that truth illimitable, infinite, ever - unfolding 
 truth is deposited in a corner of his own finite 
 mind, a mind that is not only finite but small,
 
 196 " What is Truth?" 
 
 shrivelled into almost nothing for the want of 
 use. Did I say such an one was a fit object for 
 laughter ? I was wrong. I should have said for 
 tears ; for he too might have been a man. 
 
 What, then, is the conclusion of the whole 
 matter? Why, this. Truth has heights and 
 depths and lengths and breadths, which eternity 
 itself will be too short to traverse and explore. 
 Truth is high as heaven, deep as hell, broad as 
 the universe, infinite as God, everlasting as eter- 
 nity. The answer to the question, "What is 
 truth ? " is one which will be ever telling, yet 
 never completely told. In our present state we 
 are at a disadvantage. We are painfully con- 
 scious that there is 
 
 " A deep below the deep, 
 
 And a height beyond the height : 
 Our hearing is not hearing, 
 And our seeing is not sight. " 
 
 But, throughout the never-ending cycles of eter- 
 nity, we may, if we will, continually rise, by 
 means of the truths already acquired, as upon 
 stepping-stones, to truth still higher, still nobler, 
 still more sublime. 1 
 
 1 See also paper on the "Antagonism between Dogma and 
 Philosophy" in my 'Preaching and Hearing.'
 
 197 
 
 Christian Manliness 
 I. 
 
 RIGHT DOING. 
 
 1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, 
 and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find 
 a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh 
 the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEREMIAH v. 1. 
 
 TN Hebrew, just as in Latin and Greek and 
 other languages, there are two words for 
 Man, the one applicable to the whole human 
 species, as distinguished from the lower animals, 
 the other applicable only to those who possess 
 the noblest characteristics of manhood, to those 
 whom, in English, we should call manly men, or 
 heroes. It is, of course, the latter of these words 
 that is used in our text. There were thousands 
 of beings in Jerusalem who had the outward sem- 
 blance of men ; but the question was, whether
 
 198 Christian Manliness. 
 
 any of them had a manly character. Alas ! the 
 expression, " a manly man," is by no means tauto- 
 logical. The noun refers to the body, the adjec- 
 tive to the soul. It is quite possible to have 
 the body of a man and the soul of a baby; or 
 worse, to have the body of a man and the soul 
 of a beast ; or worst of all, to have the body of 
 a man and the soul of a fiend. 
 
 Two qualities are mentioned in our text as 
 characteristic of the real, genuine, ~bond fide man 
 he executeth judgment, and seeketh the truth. 
 Executing judgment may be better expressed in 
 modern English by the phrase "doing right." 
 And there is no article before the word truth in 
 the original, so it should be taken in its widest 
 signification. A manly man, then, is one who 
 does right and seeks for truth. 
 
 I may perhaps just point out, parenthetically 
 in passing, that the same qualities are charac- 
 teristic of a womanly woman. Women should 
 be in some respects different from men, though 
 not a few of them at present seem in danger of 
 forgetting this. We do not admire if we be 
 refined and sensible persons women who dress 
 like men, and walk like men, and talk like men, 
 and look like men. And similarly we do not 
 like a woman whose character, considered as a
 
 Right Doing. 199 
 
 whole, would be called masculine. There are 
 qualities which are charming in a woman but 
 contemptible in a man. There are qualities, 
 again, which both should possess, but which we 
 expect to find more highly developed in the one 
 sex than in the other. But the genuine woman, 
 no less than the genuine man, must do right and 
 seek truth. 
 
 I have selected this passage from the Old 
 Testament, because it sums up in a striking man- 
 ner almost the whole of what I shall have to say. 
 The doctrine of the Old Testament in regard to 
 manliness is, however, the doctrine of the New. 
 The importance of what, in theological language, 
 is called " works," is not diminished, but increased, 
 in the Christian dispensation. Genuine faith in 
 Christ inevitably produces a more or less Christ- 
 like life. Some professed followers of the Na- 
 zarene are so utterly ignorant of the first prin- 
 ciples of His religion, as to believe that the 
 advantage of being a Christian lies mainly in the 
 fact that it relieves them from the necessity of 
 doing right. If such persons have ever opened 
 their Bibles, they certainly cannot have read as 
 far as the seventh chapter of St Matthew's 
 Gospel, where we read, "Not every one that 
 saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
 
 2oo Christian Manliness. 
 
 kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father which is in heaven. Many will say 
 to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not pro- 
 phesied in Thy name ? and in Thy name have 
 cast out devils ? and in Thy name done many 
 wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto 
 them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye 
 that work iniquity." Again, with regard to the 
 search for truth, St Paul speaks as emphatically 
 as Jeremiah : " Prove all things ; hold fast that 
 which is good." And lastly, as to the social 
 value of manliness, implied in the words " I will 
 pardon it," we find the same idea expressed by 
 Christ in such passages as the following " Ye 
 are the salt of the earth." " For the elect's sake 
 those days shall be shortened." Now all these 
 scattered thoughts seem to be gathered up and 
 forcibly expressed in the passage which I have 
 chosen as a text. 
 
 In the present sermon we must restrict our- 
 selves to the first test of genuine manliness. The 
 question whether or not a human being deserves 
 to be called a man, in the highest signification of 
 that word, is to be decided in the first instance 
 by the criterion, Does he or does he not do right ? 
 It is a matter for serious reflection, whether real, 
 genuine men are not almost as rare in England
 
 Right Doing. 201 
 
 to-day, as they would appear to have been in 
 Palestine in the days of Jeremiah. 
 
 Just think, first of all, of the frauds daily 
 perpetrated in commerce. You have heard the 
 phrase " commercial morality," and you know it 
 is a euphonious expression for the iwmoralities 
 of trade, immoralities which men try to per- 
 suade themselves the force of custom has rendered 
 moral. The commonest form of cheating is per- 
 haps the adulteration of food. There is scarcely 
 anything we eat or drink which is not, to a greater 
 or less extent, different from what it professes to 
 be. I need not remind you that there was a time 
 when chalk and water were continually being sold 
 for milk. Thanks however to the invention of 
 the lactometer and the vigilance of the inspector, 
 this practice is not so common as it was. But 
 milk is about the only article of our diet over 
 which a careful watch is kept. To this day an 
 immense quantity of what is called by way of 
 courtesy port wine, is made, and made with im- 
 punity, in London. And we are very lucky if 
 we only get worthless ingredients in our diet; 
 we are very lucky if we are not supplied with 
 downright poisons. Poisons are unfortunately so 
 very cheap, and so easily worked up into the 
 semblance of food. If any one discovers that his
 
 2O2 Christian Manliness. 
 
 marmalade is made of turnips and treacle, he 
 should be thankful it is no worse. For, however 
 nasty this composition may be, it is not actually 
 poisonous. The adulterators as a rule supply us 
 with what is positively deleterious. Stilton cheese 
 sometimes grows green, not with age, but by the 
 aid of copper nails. Tea is not unfrequently 
 mixed with a considerable proportion of iron 
 filings, because they are so conveniently heavy. 
 Children's sweets are made tasty by sulphuric acid, 
 and pretty by red-lead. Beer is flavoured with 
 copperas, Cocculus indicus, and even strychnine. 
 What is euphemistically called butterine has 
 been analysed into Thames mud and pounded 
 stones. It is of course the smaller tradesman 
 who is most tempted to resort to these extreme 
 dodges, and it is therefore the poor who are the 
 worst sufferers from commercial dishonesty in its 
 most disgusting forms. As Tennyson says : 
 
 " Chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread, 
 And the spirit of murder works in the very means of life." 
 
 And you will find the same kind of conduct 
 running through all the trades. You buy a horse. 
 You see, as you think, that he is so many years 
 old ; but, poor man ! you are taken in. The other 
 day that horse was made to grow a year or two 
 younger in five minutes by the skilful operation
 
 Right Doing. 203 
 
 of a dentist. You buy a picture which has all 
 the appearance of being ancient. But again you 
 are deceived : this appearance was created a week 
 ago by a few pennyworths of paint. You buy 
 some silver. It has the mark which stamps it 
 as antique ; but that mark is a forgery, and was 
 put on the day before yesterday. You buy a 
 house, which you imagine will be a shelter from 
 wind and rain ; but if it is built on nineteenth- 
 century principles that is to say, of the very 
 worst materials that can by any possibility be 
 made to hold together by the time your house 
 has " settled," as they call it, there will not be a 
 single window that will shut, nor a single door 
 that will fasten. 
 
 Think again of the frauds so common on the 
 Stock Exchange. There, as you know, it is a 
 common practice for a man to spread false reports, 
 in order that he may further his own specula- 
 tions. Think of the immense number of persons 
 too respectable to steal, but not too respectable 
 to make purchases for which they have no inten- 
 tion of paying. Think of the enormous amount 
 of crime that has been perpetrated this century 
 in connection with public companies. A very 
 large number of these companies have been 
 begun, continued and ended in chicanery. Often
 
 2O4 Christian Manliness. 
 
 they could only be started by the publication of 
 that string of lies technically known as " rigging 
 the market " ; and the promoters were well aware 
 that their pockets could only be filled if those 
 of the shareholders were emptied. Thus, on a 
 foundation of falsehood has been based a super- 
 structure of robbery; and when the whole con- 
 cern falls to the ground, those who are buried in 
 the ruins find out, too late, that they have trusted, 
 not in men, but in knaves. 
 
 Sometimes these knaves are diabolical enough 
 to veil their rascality with a hypocritical cloak of 
 canting religiousness. One of the directors of the 
 Glasgow Bank, you remember, was too pious to 
 read Monday's newspaper because it was printed 
 on Sunday. Tennyson, in his " Sea Dreams," has 
 given us a striking sketch of this kind of creature, 
 
 " With his fat affectionate smile 
 That makes the widow lean. . . . 
 Who, never naming God except for gain, 
 So never took that useful name in vain, 
 Made Him his catspaw and the Cross his tool, 
 And Christ the bait to trap his dupe and fool. " 
 
 There is nothing in the universe so contemptible 
 as a hypocrite. It is bad to be a knave, but it is 
 infinitely worse to be a pious knave. 
 
 The professions, I am sorry to say, cannot by 
 any means be exonerated from the charge of
 
 Right Doing. 205 
 
 dishonesty. There are doctors who never tell a 
 patient they can make nothing of his case, or 
 that it is one which requires the attention of a 
 specialist. They would rather kill a man them- 
 selves than allow any one else to cure him. 
 There are lawyers who only "rescue your estate 
 from your enemy to keep it for themselves." 
 There are clergymen who talk merely because 
 they are paid to talk, or because they have got 
 into the habit of talking, or because they want to 
 make a name for themselves, and who do not care 
 three straws whether they benefit or injure their 
 congregations. 
 
 No doubt this is a glorious era in which we 
 live. In some respects it deserves to be called 
 a golden age. It is an age pregnant with in- 
 vention and discovery and freedom of thought. 
 But, on the other hand, there never was a time 
 when so many persons lived by cheating. Almost 
 every week we read in the papers of some clever 
 scoundrel, who has discovered a new method of 
 getting money by false pretences. It is appalling 
 to think how much mental ability is prostituted 
 in the service of the devil. Few children are so 
 carefully and systematically trained as the chil- 
 dren of thieves, who are destined to pursue the 
 dishonourable profession of their fathers. And
 
 206 Christian Manliness. 
 
 fraud, as I have intimated, is by no means con- 
 fined to the lower classes. Of six persons im- 
 prisoned the other day for this offence, one was 
 a barrister and another a clergyman. There was 
 a time when the word of an English gentleman 
 was " as good as his bond " ; but that can never 
 be again. There has been too much cheating 
 perpetrated, by persons who were gentlemen in 
 virtue of position and education and even birth. 
 
 I have dwelt upon dishonesty, because it seems 
 to me one of the most characteristic sins of our 
 day. It springs from that love of money, which 
 may be truly called " the root of all evil," that 
 inordinate passion for wealth, which makes men 
 feel that they must and will have it, if not by 
 fair means, then by foul. This delirious thirst 
 for money has never been more general than it 
 is at present. Its pernicious influence may be 
 traced in almost every sphere of life. To say 
 that a thing is not worth doing, and that it will 
 not pay, are nowadays synonymous modes of 
 expression. So too a man's value is estimated 
 by the world in pounds sterling. He is " worth " 
 neither more nor less than his balance at the 
 bankers. This insane thirst for money may be 
 seen exercising its baleful influence upon the 
 education of the period. Mr Goschen, speaking
 
 Right Doing. 207 
 
 a year or two ago to the students of University 
 College, Bristol, made an earnest protest against 
 the tendency to acquire what he called " saleable 
 knowledge," to the exclusion of that training 
 which would enlarge the capacities of the mind. 
 The protest is much needed. Boys at school and 
 young men at college are sorely tempted nowa- 
 days to learn only what will pay, and to regard 
 everything as useless if its value cannot be ex- 
 pressed in terms of money. Education ought to 
 mean self-development, the development of that 
 personality of ours which we believe to bear 
 some resemblance to the Divine. But instead 
 of this, education is too frequently believed to 
 consist merely in the acquisition of the art of 
 money-making. Hence the passion for wealth 
 has led men not only to be dishonest in their 
 dealings with others, but also to be dishonest to- 
 wards themselves. For a few paltry pounds they 
 barter away the glorious birthright of their man- 
 hood. If they can but fill their pockets, they 
 are ready to sell their very souls. 
 
 There is another characteristic fault of our 
 day, which I can only just mention the fault, 
 namely, of paying too much regard to appear- 
 ances and too little regard to reality. " Strive to 
 be rather than to seem," was a wise and honour-
 
 208 Christian Manliness. 
 
 able maxim laid down by ^Eschylus. But the 
 nineteenth-century prophets of expediency have 
 reversed this law. Strive to seem rather than 
 to be, is the maxim of our time. It is the great 
 aim nowadays to pass examinations, and so to 
 appear clever ; to live in good style, and so to 
 appear rich; to conform outwardly to the de- 
 mands of society, and so to appear respectable. 
 I fear that most of us, in one way or another, are 
 apt to pay more attention to seeming than to 
 being. And what can be more unmanly, what 
 can be more contemptible, than to consider the 
 estimate the erroneous estimate of our neigh- 
 bours, as of more value than the approval of 
 conscience and the favour of God ? 
 
 I am afraid you will think I have been harsh 
 and severe ; but it is a preacher's duty some- 
 times to speak plainly. I have not spared my 
 own profession ; I have no wish to spare myself. 
 I would remind myself, as well as you, that in so 
 far as we knowingly and voluntarily do wrong, 
 either in ways more peculiar to our own age, or 
 in ways common to all ages, in so far as we fail 
 to do right, according to the measure of our light 
 and ability, we are unworthy of the name of 
 men. A man, properly so called, does not, like a 
 beast, act with a view to the pleasure of the next
 
 Right Doing. 209 
 
 succeeding moment : he is " a being of a large 
 discourse, looking before and after." A man 
 properly so called does not float upon the waves 
 of inclination : when they threaten to sweep him 
 from the path of rectitude, he majestically bids 
 them back, saying, " Hitherto shall ye come, but 
 here shall ye be stayed." A man properly so 
 called dares to tread the path of duty, however 
 steep it may be, however difficult, for he per- 
 ceives that it " leads through darkness up to 
 God." 
 
 Do your duty, then, come what may ; and be- 
 lieve me, that even here, in the very midst of the 
 darkness and the gloom, deep down in your heart 
 of hearts, there will be peace, perfect peace, the 
 peace of God which passeth all understanding. 
 But 
 
 " Quit the grand ranks of manhood, 1 you will walk 
 For ever with a tortured double self ; 
 A self that will be hungry while you feast, 
 Will blush for shame while you are glorified, 
 Will feel the ache and chill of desolation 
 E'en in the very bosom of your home." 
 
 1 I have taken the liberty of substituting this word for 
 George Eliot's "knighthood."
 
 2IO 
 
 Christian Manliness. 
 II. 
 
 RIGHT THINKING. 
 
 1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, 
 and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find 
 a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh 
 the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEREMIAH v. 1. 
 
 WE have already noticed the first quality 
 which, according to Jeremiah, is char- 
 acteristic of the genuine man the quality, 
 namely, of executing judgment or doing right. 
 Our business in the present sermon is with the 
 second characteristic attribute of every such 
 man, which is, that he seeks for truth. 
 
 We have seen in a previous sermon that truth 
 means either fact, or the harmony between 
 thought and fact, that is to say, knowledge. 
 We have seen that it must be carefully distin-
 
 Right Thinking. 2 1 1 
 
 guished from opinion, and from everything cap- 
 able of change. Truth is something which is the 
 same for all, whatever be their opinions or absence 
 of opinions. We saw that a creed, even supposing 
 it to be absolutely correct, differs from truth as 
 the part differs from the whole ; as the beginning 
 differs from the end ; as the starting-point differs 
 from the goal ; as the finite differs from the 
 infinite. At the best it is but the A B C of 
 truth. The more extensive is any one's acquaint- 
 ance with truth, the more clearly does he perceive 
 that what he knows is as nothing in comparison 
 with what he does not know. 
 
 When the Delphic oracle declared that Socrates 
 was the wisest man in Greece, the philosopher 
 said he was at first very much puzzled, for he 
 had a painful consciousness that he was not 
 really wise. He saw afterwards, however, that 
 the wisdom with which the oracle credited him 
 consisted in this : that while, in common with 
 other men, he knew nothing, lie recognised his 
 ignorance, while they prided themselves on their 
 knowledge. 
 
 But even those of us who have got so far as to 
 feel that we know very little, are sadly contented 
 with our ignorance, are sadly too lukewarm in 
 our pursuit of truth. The very mystery of our
 
 212 Christian Manliness. 
 
 own existence can scarcely arouse us into thought. 
 "We come into this world," says Faraday, "we 
 live and depart from it, without ever thinking 
 how it all takes place ; and were it not for the 
 exertion of a few inquiring minds, who have 
 ascertained the beautiful laws and conditions by 
 which we live, we should hardly be aware that 
 there was anything wonderful in it at all." 
 Thank God for those few inquiring minds, 
 minds that will take more trouble "to win the 
 secret of a weed's plain heart " than most of us 
 would take to solve the riddle of the universe. 
 Should they not shame us into thought ? 
 
 The power of seeking for truth is, if we only 
 knew it, one of the grandest of human preroga- 
 tives. An intuitive acquaintance with every- 
 thing we ever required to know would have been 
 comparatively worthless. Nothing is worth much 
 to finite beings that has not been acquired by 
 effort. The search for truth is even more 
 beneficial than its actual acquisition. " If," 
 says Malebranche, "I held truth captive in my 
 hand, I should open my hand and let it fly, that 
 I might again pursue and catch it." "Did the 
 Almighty," says Lessing, " hold in His right hand 
 truth, and in His left hand the search after truth, 
 and deign to tender me the one I might prefer, I
 
 Right Thinking. 213 
 
 should in all humility but without hesitation 
 request the search after truth." There is, no 
 doubt, an immense advantage and a great joy in 
 the acquisition of fresh knowledge ; but still the 
 advantage and the joy I apprehend are due chiefly 
 to the fact, that we are thereby better equipped 
 for continuing our search. 
 
 Seeking after truth involves, first of all, the 
 critical investigation of the opinions and beliefs 
 of our ancestors, with the view of ascertaining 
 how far these were correct ; and, secondly, it in- 
 volves the effort to acquire new knowledge for 
 ourselves. 
 
 For these tasks we need at once humility and 
 self-respect. Opinions which have been widely 
 and warmly held are not to be hastily rejected. 
 It is sometimes counted an axiom in the present 
 day, that everything old must be bad ; whereas, 
 on the contrary, there is really a presumption 
 in favour of the old, which the new can never 
 boast. Nothing can be more disgusting than 
 to see some conceited youth pooh-poohing, with- 
 out having expended the slightest study upon 
 the subject, opinions and beliefs at which his 
 ancestors arrived, it may be, after months and 
 years of mental conflict, and for which they were 
 willing to sacrifice their lives. These opinions
 
 214 Christian Manliness. 
 
 may be wrong, but they are not to be so lightly 
 set aside : they deserve the most serious and 
 reverential investigation. On the other hand, 
 nothing can be more exasperating than to be told 
 that we are not at liberty to inquire into a sub- 
 ject ourselves, because, forsooth, our ancestors 
 believed that they knew all about it. It is a 
 very common but a very false argument from 
 analogy, to maintain that our ancestors must have 
 known more than we can know, because they 
 were born before us. But the reason why a 
 father is wiser than his child (if he be wiser) is 
 not, of course, that he was born first, but that he 
 has lived longer, and therefore had more experi- 
 ence. Bacon long ago pointed out, that if he who 
 has had most experience be rightly regarded as 
 the father of him who has had least, then we are 
 the fathers and grandfathers of our ancestors, for 
 they had their experience but not ours we have 
 had the advantage of both. All honour to them 
 for the truths they discovered ! All shame to us 
 if we do not discover more ! x 
 
 Of course there are many subjects in regard to 
 
 1 "Truth," says Milton, "is compared in Scripture to a 
 streaming fountain : if her waters flow not in a perpetual 
 progression, they sicken into a muddy pool of conformity 
 and tradition."
 
 Right Thinking. 215 
 
 which we are altogether incompetent to form an 
 independent judgment : and in these cases we 
 should thankfully accept the teaching of others. 
 It would be extremely absurd for most of us to 
 question the validity of received astronomical 
 measurements, for we do not possess such a 
 knowledge of mathematics as their legitimate 
 criticism would require. But in regard to theol- 
 ogy, the case is somewhat different. " Theology," 
 says Locke, "is a study which is every man's 
 duty." We Protestants believe in the possibility 
 of direct communion between the individual and 
 his God. We believe that the teaching of the 
 Spirit is not confined to the schools, but may be 
 enjoyed even by an unlettered peasant. The 
 right of private judgment, that glorious privilege 
 won for us by the Eeformation, though often 
 abused, is nevertheless the inalienable prerogative 
 of every human being. Still, even in theology, 
 there is much need for humility. The fact that 
 all men have more or less opportunity of study- 
 ing it, does not make it an easy science. For 
 instance, to a large number of us the Bible itself, 
 in its original languages, would be a useless book. 
 So far we are manifestly obliged to submit our- 
 selves to the teaching of others. Again, anything 
 like a comprehensive and consistent interpreta-
 
 2 1 6 Christian Manliness. 
 
 tion of the Bible demands great learning and 
 ability. And far greater learning and ability 
 still are required for the intelligent and sympa- 
 thetic study of other religions, without which we 
 cannot understand the full value of our own. 
 It is well, therefore, that we should all find some 
 spiritual teacher to whom we can look up with 
 reverence, as more likely to arrive at the truth 
 than ourselves, and whose opinions will be re- 
 garded by us, though not as law, yet with 
 thoughtful respect. We have to beware on 
 the one hand of a flippant contempt for author- 
 ity, and on the other of a slavish cringing to 
 authority, 
 
 " Not clinging to some ancient saw, 
 Not mastered by some modern term, 
 Not swift, nor slow, to change, but firm,"- 
 
 firm in our allegiance to the truth ; so firm that 
 when we really find an opinion to be erroneous, 
 we shall venture to discard it, no matter whose 
 opinion it may have been. 
 
 Preaching, I conceive, has two objects the 
 one emotional, the other intellectual. The former 
 can only be attained by a direct transfer of feel- 
 ing from the preacher to the hearer. Unless the 
 audience be made to experience the same sort of 
 feelings as the speaker, unless there be this con-
 
 Right Thinking. 217 
 
 tagion of enthusiasm, the emotional object has 
 not been gained, and so far the sermon is a fail- 
 ure. But it is different with the intellectual 
 result. Though the emotional object cannot be 
 gained without the transfer of feelings, the in- 
 tellectual may be gained without the transfer of 
 opinions. The hearer may not adopt the preacher's 
 views ; he may come to the conclusion that they 
 are altogether wrong ; and yet the discourse may 
 have been extremely useful to him. From the 
 emotional point of view, that sermon is most 
 valuable which brings the feelings of the hearers 
 most into accord with those of the preacher. But 
 from the intellectual standpoint, the most useful 
 sermon is not that which gives the hearers the 
 greatest number of ready-made opinions, but that 
 which affords them the strongest stimulus to 
 thought. Preachers are not exempted from the 
 fallibility common to men. It cannot therefore 
 be necessary, nor even desirable, that their hearers 
 should always agree with them. " The clergyman 
 said so, therefore it must be true," " I have not 
 been accustomed to think so, therefore it must 
 be false," are both erroneous modes of criticism. 
 The illustrious writer just taken from us, affords 
 a striking example of the fact that the highest 
 usefulness is consistent with a very meagre trans-
 
 218 Christian Manliness. 
 
 fer of opinions. Those who have derived the 
 greatest profit from the writings of Thomas 
 Caiiyle, are probably those who differ from him 
 most frequently and most seriously. For example 
 all of us, I suppose, disagreed entirely with his 
 theory of hero-worship ; the more eloquently he 
 expounded it, the more clearly we saw that he 
 was wrong ; and yet all of us are wiser and better 
 for that exposition. It has helped us to more 
 satisfactory views of our own. 
 
 There are three things which may keep us from 
 seeking for truth conceit, laziness, and fear. 
 First, there is conceit. Some persons look upon 
 their little stock of beliefs as the sum of human 
 knowledge. Having been providentially preserved 
 from the possibility of error, it is needless for 
 them to test the accuracy of their opinions ; and 
 they enjoy a pleasing conviction, as George Eliot 
 says, that if there are any facts which have 
 escaped their observation, they must be facts not 
 worth observing. A search for truth would be of 
 course superfluous on the part of persons so highly 
 endowed. You all know many people of this 
 kind, people who make a pre-eminent profession 
 of wisdom, but who are pre-eminently fools. 
 
 Then there is laziness. You remember the 
 inimitable description of Cervantes, in which the
 
 Right Thinking. 219 
 
 knight of La Mancha is represented as construct- 
 ing for himselt a helmet. When it was finished 
 the gallant knight smote it with his sword to try 
 its strength. The blow broke it in halves, and 
 so he was obliged to make another. But this 
 time he did not test it ; he persuaded himself it 
 was strong enough to render any trial unneces- 
 sary. On the same principle there are persons 
 who once in their lives tried to think ; but when 
 many of their old and long - cherished beliefs 
 began to give way under the process, they de- 
 sisted, and argued with themselves that thought 
 was unnecessary or even sinful. You will gen- 
 erally find that if a man is too idle to seek for 
 religious truth, he justifies his laziness by main- 
 taining that such a search is tantamount to scep- 
 ticism. There is a good deal of indolence in the 
 world, as well as a good deal of stupidity, which 
 is dignified with the name of faith. 
 
 Lastly, fear keeps many from seeking truth. 
 Some persons seem to imagine that God will 
 judge them according to the state of their opinions, 
 and not according to the state of their hearts. 
 They imagine that if, in seeking after truth, they 
 were to form an erroneous judgment, they would 
 be visited with the divine vengeance. Hence 
 they want to receive their opinions especially
 
 220 Christian Manliness. 
 
 their religious opinions upon authority ; for by 
 so doing they think that their own responsibility 
 will cease. Some time ago I met an old friend, 
 who told me he thought of becoming a Eoman 
 Catholic. I asked him why. "Well," he said, 
 " I'll tell you. Theology is in such an unsettled 
 condition in my own denomination, that I don't 
 know what I am to believe. One man, for 
 example, teaches the eternity of future punish- 
 ment; another insists on universalism ; and a 
 third maintains the doctrine of annihilation. 
 One man holds the old substitutionary view of 
 the atonement ; and another the modern revelatory 
 view. I should like to belong to a Church which 
 would tell me authoritatively what I ought to 
 believe, and then I would believe it." This is 
 not an uncommon state of mind. It has led 
 thousands of men and women to join the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 Now it is quite true that the search for religious 
 truth is a serious and solemn thing : and it is also 
 true that this search often leads men for a time 
 into a very unenviable state of perplexity, un- 
 certainty and doubt. The old foundations of 
 their existence totter and threaten to fall, and 
 they feel as if they were sinking, sinking, sink- 
 ing into the blackness of despair. But such a
 
 Right Thinking. 221 
 
 state of mind, though painful, is neither wicked 
 nor ignoble. "Behold, I go forward," said poor 
 broken-hearted Job, " Behold, I go forward, but 
 He is not there; and backward, but I cannot 
 perceive Him ; on the left hand, where He doth 
 work, but I cannot behold Him ; He hideth Him- 
 self on the right hand, and I cannot see Him. 
 But He knoweth the way that I take : when He 
 hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." If 
 you would see this strikingly fulfilled, read the 
 life of Frederick Eobertson. 
 
 The creed which a man accepts merely because 
 he has been told it is correct, and which he has 
 not made his own by thought, investigation and 
 study, is for him a worthless creed. He does 
 not really believe, but merely, as Coleridge puts 
 it, " believes that he believes." Holding his 
 creed in this stupid way, it becomes to him, not 
 (as it should be) a means to progress, but (as it 
 should not be) a barrier against progress. He 
 believes, as he thinks, what he ought to believe ; 
 hence he has no anxiety to make any further 
 acquisitions ; and even what he thinks he believes 
 has no practical influence upon his life. 
 
 The only excuse to be made for such men is, 
 that they have not known the truth, and there- 
 fore they are ignorant what it is they are despis-
 
 222 Christian Manliness. 
 
 ing. "Ye shall know the truth," said Christ, 
 " and the truth shall make you free," free from 
 such pitiful conceit, free from such contemptible 
 indolence, free from such unworthy fear : 
 
 " For truth has such a face and such a mien, 
 As to be loved needs only to be seen." 
 
 He who has once stood face to face with Truth, 
 and gazed upon her matchless beauty, loves her 
 with more than a lover's love, and will not grudge 
 an eternity of effort or of peril, spent in wooing 
 and winning her for his own.
 
 223 
 
 Christian Manliness. 
 
 
 
 III. 
 
 THE VALUE OF MANLINESS. 
 
 " Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, 
 and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find 
 a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh 
 the truth ; and I will pardon it." JEKEMIAH v. 1. 
 
 T HAVE already mentioned that the word used 
 for man in the Hebrew of our text is a term 
 which stands for a high type of man as distin- 
 guished from a low. Some are men in outward 
 semblance only, but the manly man or hero is a 
 man in soul. His character is manly and heroic- 
 According to Jeremiah, he has two distinguishing 
 attributes. 1. He does right. He obeys the dic- 
 tates of conscience, however strong may be the 
 enticements of expediency or of pleasure ; feeling 
 that " because riyht is right, to choose the right
 
 224 Christian Manliness. 
 
 is wisdom, in the scorn of consequence." 2. He 
 seeks truth. He does not profess to believe things 
 merely because others believe them. He examines, 
 to the best of His ability, the worth of currently 
 received opinions ; and, recognising that his ac- 
 tual knowledge involves but the most fragmentary 
 acquaintance with the truth, he strives diligently 
 and continuously to make furthes acquisitions. 
 Upon these points I have already dwelt. 
 
 Such a conception of manhood no doubt is 
 idealistic. The best of us will sometimes slip. 
 The wisest of us will sometimes feel incapable 
 of mental effort. But it behoves us to ask our- 
 selves whether or not this ideal is our standard 
 of excellence, towards which we are honestly 
 and earnestly doing our utmost to approximate. 
 
 It remains now to consider the value of true 
 manliness. I need scarcely say that, from the 
 point of view of political economy, it is a worth- 
 less possession, or even worse than worthless. 
 It is not a marketable commodity. It will not 
 increase any one's income, nor improve his posi- 
 tion in society. History teaches us that men 
 who have been in any marked degree wiser or 
 better than the vulgar herd, have usually suffered 
 in proportion to their superiority. Those to 
 whom Greece was most indebted, for example,
 
 The Value of Manliness. 225 
 
 were almost always rewarded with imprisonment 
 or exile or some other form of punishment. Sev- 
 eral names will readily occur to you as illustrative 
 of this such as Cleisthenes, Miltiades, Themis- 
 tocles, Aristides, Cimon, and Pericles. You may 
 remember, too, the well-known couplet, 
 
 " Seven cities quarrelled over Homer dead, 
 Through which the living Homer begged his bread." 
 
 While he was alive people thought his effusions 
 amply repaid by a beggar's crust ; but when he 
 was dead they fought for the honour of calling 
 him fellow-townsman. If this is not historically 
 true in regard to Homer, it may nevertheless be 
 regarded as a figurative biography of the world's 
 greatest men. Their greatness was rarely recog- 
 nised till long after they were gone; or if it 
 were recognised, it elicited envy rather than ad- 
 miration, punishment rather than reward. The 
 nearer men have approached to the lofty ideal of 
 manliness described in our text, the more loyal 
 they have been in their devotion to right and to 
 truth, the more, generally speaking, have they 
 been called upon to suffer. "A noble nature," 
 observes Goethe, " can only attract the noble." 
 We may even go further, and say, a noble nature 
 repels and excites the animosity of the ignoble. 
 It may seem cynical to assert that the majority 
 p
 
 226 Christian Manliness. 
 
 of mankind have always had degraded concep- 
 tions of human duty, but it is demonstrably 
 true, proved by the fact that real nobility of 
 character has almost invariably cost a man very, 
 very dear. Unflinching devotion to right and 
 truth has led to ignominy and persecution, to 
 the loss of pleasure, property, freedom, life. It 
 is scarcely a poetical exaggeration when James 
 Eussell Lowell speaks of 
 
 "Truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the throne." 
 
 The world that is to say, the ignoble many 
 as opposed to the noble few the world approves 
 of doing right up to a certain point, up to the 
 point of expediency ; but there it stops. To go 
 beyond this, to be honest when honesty is not 
 the best policy, it considers a sign of lunacy. 
 Even to-day, in civilised and Christian England, 
 a tradesman whose code of morals is that which 
 is technically called commercial, will not respect 
 an apprentice who refuses to tell a useful lie ; he 
 will despise and dismiss him. Similarly, the 
 man or woman who persistently discouraged 
 scandal would most probably be regarded as a 
 bore. The world, again, approves of seeking after 
 truth up to a certain point ; it has no objection 
 to the investigation of nature so far as such a
 
 The Value of Manliness. 227 
 
 pursuit is likely to increase capital or to raise the 
 rate of profit. But that is all. It despises facts 
 which cannot be turned to pecuniary account. 
 It never seeks after truth in the moral or reli- 
 gious sphere, and it hates all who do. It believes 
 that it knows everything worth knowing, every- 
 thing necessary for its present and future salva- 
 tion. It dislikes being disturbed with new ideas. 
 There has been no prophet, nor apostle, nor phil- 
 osopher, nor reformer whom it has not execrated, 
 against whom it has not howled out the accusa- 
 tion which the Ephesians brought against St Paul, 
 that the world was being turned by him upside 
 down. The very truisms of one age were often 
 regarded in the preceding generation as impious 
 blasphemies, justly punished by fines and im- 
 prisonment, by torture and death : 
 
 " For all the past of time reveals, 
 A bridal dawn of thunder-peals, 
 Whenever thought hath wedded fact." 
 
 Let me recall to your minds one or two familiar 
 illustrations. Anaxagoras, after the early Greek 
 philosophers had long groped in vain for a First 
 Cause, saw and said that the origin of all things 
 must be ultimately traced to Intelligence. This 
 his countrymen could not tolerate; it was too 
 novel, too absurd. Private judgment must be
 
 228 Christian Manliness. 
 
 punished when it wandered so far from the truth ; 
 he was therefore banished from Greece, and had 
 a narrow escape of death. Socrates, whose con- 
 ceptions of Deity were too lofty to tally with the 
 childish orthodoxy of his contemporaries, Soc- 
 rates, who was brave enough to express the mem- 
 orable utterance, " I will venture to be true to 
 my conviction, though all the world oppose it," 
 Socrates, the purest, wisest, noblest of men, was 
 accused, forsooth, of being an atheist and of 
 corrupting the young, and was despatched with 
 a cup of hemlock. Galileo, for saying that the 
 earth moved, was tortured into perjury. 1 The 
 world, I am sorry to say, was in this instance 
 represented by a section of the Christian Church. 
 Giordano Bruno, one of the subtlest thinkers of 
 the middle ages, suggested the hypothesis that 
 the earth was not the only abode of life in the 
 universe ; and he was burnt at the stake, 
 "for the maintenance of the Holy Church and 
 
 1 After preaching this sermon, I was favoured with an indig- 
 nant and anonymous note, to the effect that "every student 
 of history " was aware that Galileo was not tortured. Every 
 student of history is doubtless aware that Galileo was not put 
 upon the rack. But to say that the pressure which was brought 
 to bear upon him, and which ended in his recantation, did not 
 cause him torture, is to say that there is no such thing as men- 
 tal suffering.
 
 The Value of Manliness. 229 
 
 the rights and liberties of the same." Think, too, 
 of the thousands and tens of thousands of less 
 celebrated martyrs, who have proved the beauty 
 of truth and the divinity of right by the eloquent 
 testimony of anguish ; who, because they refused 
 to be false to their convictions, had trial of cruel 
 mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds 
 and imprisonment; who were stoned, or sawn 
 asunder, or slain with the sword ; who dwelt in 
 deserts and in mountains, in dens and caves of 
 the earth; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. 
 Lastly and chiefly, call to remembrance how the 
 world treated Christ. In Him the ideal of man- 
 hood was completely realised ; on Him, therefore, 
 the world inflicted its most cruel vengeance, and 
 against Him it directed its vilest blasphemies. 
 You know His character: I need not describe 
 it. Pure, unselfish, noble as was His own life, 
 He was full of tenderness and helpful sympathy 
 for the sinful and fallen and debased. Yet He 
 was almost universally hated. He was hated by 
 the Pharisees because He had shown the worth- 
 lessness of their broad phylacteries and long 
 prayers and orthodox platitudes, the worse than 
 worthlessness of their lying, canting hypocrisy. 
 He was hated in the end by the common people, 
 when they found that, notwithstanding all His
 
 230 . Christian Manliness. 
 
 kindness, He was not likely to improve their 
 social condition. As soon as they made this 
 discovery, Christ ceased to be a favourite with 
 them. With the usual fickleness of the mob, they 
 suddenly transferred their enthusiasm. " Not 
 this man, but Barabbas," they shouted. "Now 
 Barabbas," as the evangelist sarcastically adds, 
 "was a robber." For once high and low, rich 
 and poor, priest and layman, patrician and ple- 
 beian, educated and unlettered, the man of culture 
 and the boor, for once these were all agreed. 
 They were unanimous in taking away the life of 
 Him who had made it possible, by His teaching 
 and example, for all future lives to become noble 
 and sublime. 
 
 " Enough ! high words abate no jot or tittle, of what while 
 
 life still lasts will still be true. 
 Heaven's great ones must be slandered by earth's little : and 
 
 God makes no ado." 
 
 You and I, however, are not likely to suffer 
 death or torture for fidelity to conscience or to 
 reason. Things have so far improved that we 
 shall probably, by such fidelity, meet with sym- 
 pathy that will be unspeakably precious and 
 helpful. Still, if we are unswervingly noble, if 
 we lift up our voice against fraud and cant, if we 
 choose to be heterodox and unfashionable rather
 
 The Value of Manliness. 231 
 
 than false to our convictions, if we always and 
 everywhere prefer right to wrong, truth to error, 
 God to mammon, we shall certainly, sooner 
 or later, and to a greater or less extent, have to 
 suffer for so doing. We shall lose money, it may 
 be, or forfeit esteem, or terminate old friendships, 
 or injure our prospects. That we do not suffer 
 more, will be due to the sacrifices of the noble 
 men and women who have gone before us. 
 And surely we shall not hesitate to offer our 
 own oblation of anguish upon the altars of right 
 and of truth. 
 
 The value of manliness, then, does not consist 
 in its conferring any pecuniary or social advan- 
 tages. He who would be a true man must be 
 willing, if necessary, to dispense with these. Its 
 real worth is twofold. First of all, it entitles us 
 to self-respect ; and any evil which the world can 
 inflict is insignificant, when compared with this 
 privilege which it cannot take away. There can 
 be no sweeter experience than the knowledge 
 that we have done our best to be true to ourselves, 
 to walk worthy of the manhood with which we 
 have been endowed. But, secondly, and this is 
 the point suggested by our text, a point on which, 
 I am sure, Christ would have us lay stress, the 
 value of manliness consists, not in what we gain
 
 232 Christian Manliness. 
 
 by it for ourselves, but in what we give by it to 
 others. "Eun ye to and fro through the streets 
 of Jerusalem, and see if ye can find a man, one 
 that doeth right and seeketh truth; and I will 
 pardon it," pardon thousands of human beings 
 who might have been men but were not, for the 
 sake of one who was really a man. Now since 
 pardon would be immoral, and therefore im- 
 possible, without genuine repentance, the divine 
 forgiveness, to which the prophet refers, must 
 imply that the one true man would, by his con- 
 scious and unconscious influence, gradually con- 
 vert the other inhabitants of Jerusalem or their 
 descendants from the error of their ways, and 
 induce them also to be loyal to right and truth. 
 What ! you say, one man do all that ! Yes ; if 
 he be a man why not ? We are inclined very 
 much to underrate the power which every human 
 being possesses over the future of his race. There 
 must be some whom each of us can directly influ- 
 ence. Every one of these will, in his turn, exert 
 a similar influence upon several others ; and the 
 descendants of all these, to the end of time, will 
 be the better for every effort we have made to 
 be true to the nature with which we have been 
 endowed. " We see human heroism," says George 
 Eliot, " broken into units, and we say this unit did
 
 The Value of Manliness. 233 
 
 little might as well not have been ; but in this 
 way we might break up a great army into units ; 
 in this way we might break the sunlight into frag- 
 ments, and think that this and the other might 
 be lightly parted with." The number of true 
 men is on the increase, and they are more and 
 more tolerated, not to say respected, by the rest 
 of their fellow-creatures. So it seems but reason- 
 able to look forward to a final victory in the far- 
 off future for right and for truth. And each one 
 of us may contribute something to this glorious 
 consummation. "There needs not a great soul 
 to make a hero," says Carlyle ; " there needs but 
 a God-created soul, which will be true to its 
 origin." As surely as every ray of light has a 
 tendency to dissipate darkness, or every grain of 
 salt to prevent corruption, so surely does every 
 good action we perform confer some blessing upon 
 our race. Here there is no such thing as failure. 
 Apparent failure is often the most splendid suc- 
 cess. It was so, pre-eminently, in the case of 
 Christ ; it is so oftentimes, in some measure, in 
 the case of His followers. Martyrdom, since it 
 is the sublimest testimony to the value of right 
 and to the beauty of truth, martyrdom is not 
 defeat it is victory. 
 To be a man is no easy task, I admit. The
 
 234 Christian Manliness. 
 
 constant doing of what is right implies continual 
 self-denial, than which there is nothing in the 
 world more painful. The earnest search after 
 truth implies hard thinking; and I know of 
 nothing that requires a greater effort. It is be- 
 cause true manliness is so difficult of attainment 
 that it is so rarely attained. " Nothing great is 
 easy," says Plato. "All noble things are rare," 
 says Spinoza ; " all noble things are difficult." 
 There is this for our consolation. Indifference 
 to right and truth, though they would save us 
 trouble, would assuredly degrade our nature ; 
 whereas the pain we may experience in trying to 
 live a manly life is noble and elevating in itself, 
 and will lead eventually to "a joy that is un- 
 speakable and full of glory." 
 
 Let us remember, however, that we shall never 
 succeed without the strength that comes from 
 communion with God. 
 
 " O God, our spirits, unassisted, 
 
 Must unsuccessful be. 
 Who ever hath the world resisted 
 
 Except by help of Thee ? 
 But, saved by a divine alliance, 
 
 From terrors of defeat, 
 Unvauntingly, yet with defiance, 
 
 One man the world may meet
 
 The Value of Manliness. 235 
 
 My soul is for a crown aspiring 
 
 The crown of righteousness ; 
 My soul is for the truth inquiring 
 
 For God, and nothing less. 
 Sin, sorrow, and the world conspiring, 
 
 Assault me, and I bleed : 
 Tired am I ; yet, through love untiring, 
 
 I know I shall succeed." 
 
 Do not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. 
 What shall it profit you if you gain the whole 
 world and lose yourselves ? Sirs ! I beseech you, 
 for your own sakes, for Christ's sake, for God's 
 sake, be men!
 
 236 
 
 Science and Religion. 
 I. 
 
 PRAYER. 1 
 
 "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and sup- 
 plication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known 
 unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all under- 
 standing, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
 Jesus." PHILIPPIANS iv. 6, 7. 
 
 , and one or two similar passages of Scrip- 
 ture, have given rise to a celebrated mis- 
 representation of Christianity. "Be careful for 
 nothing," " take no thought for the morrow," &c., 
 were alleged by Strauss, Buckle and others, as 
 proofs that the New Testament is opposed to in- 
 dustry and commerce. It was further maintained 
 that the world could do better without Chris- 
 tianity than it could without commerce ; and we 
 were therefore advised to discard Christianity as 
 
 1 Upon this subject see also a sermon on "Elihu's Speech " 
 in my ' Defects of Modern Christianity.'
 
 Prayer. 237 
 
 a thing of the past, opposed to the better instincts 
 and wiser reflections of the nineteenth century. 
 But a glance into your Greek Testament nay, a 
 little common-sense will suffice to show you that 
 this objection to Christianity is utterly without 
 foundation. When Christ tells us to "take no 
 thought for the morrow," it is plain, from the 
 word used in the Greek, that He is warning us, 
 not against prudent, but against anxious thought. 
 If a man insures his life, though he is in one sense 
 taking thought not only for the morrow but for 
 an event that may not happen for thirty, forty, 
 fifty years, he is in no way violating Christ's 
 commandment; he is performing a duty which 
 necessarily follows from the golden rule. So in 
 regard to our text, " Be careful for nothing " 
 might be better rendered, " Be not anxious about 
 anything." It is the same word that is translated 
 elsewhere, " take no thought." And without con- 
 sulting our Greek Testaments, we might surely 
 have guessed that the active, earnest, energetic, 
 hard - working Paul was not exhorting us to 
 apathy, to indolence, to a care-for-nothing-and- 
 nobody state of mind. On the contrary, the 
 freedom from anxiety which he commends to us 
 is the essential condition of true work. There is 
 nothing more enervating than worry.
 
 238 Science and Religion. 
 
 Now, according to the apostle, we are to get rid 
 of anxiety, and so to be prepared for success- 
 ful work, by means of prayer. " Be careful for 
 nothing : but ... let your requests be made 
 known unto God." In this sceptical age how- 
 ever, when the very foundations of our faith are 
 being shaken, it is somewhat difficult to believe 
 in the efficacy of prayer. The opinion is becom- 
 ing general that answers to prayer must be im- 
 possible, inasmuch as they would imply violations 
 of natural law. But this difficulty may, I think, 
 be at once removed. Let us ask ourselves what 
 we mean by a law of nature. What do we 
 mean, for example, when we speak of the law of 
 gravitation ? Why, simply that all bodies or 
 particles of matter in the universe attract one 
 another, and so tend to come together. But 
 mark you, though they tend to come together, 
 this can be prevented. Suppose your child is 
 leaning from a window at the top of the house, 
 and that he leans a little too far, loses his bal- 
 ance, and falls out. Gravitation will inevitably 
 and remorselessly drag him to the ground unless 
 some one interferes. But if you see his danger, 
 and rush forward and catch him, he will be 
 saved in spite of gravity. That law has not been 
 violated ; it is still acting, still tending to drag the
 
 Prayer. 239 
 
 child downwards; but you have counteracted it. 
 You, who were born yesterday and will die to- 
 morrow, you, with your puny strength, have got 
 the better of a force that is perhaps as old as 
 eternity and as infinite as the universe. 
 
 There is another point I should like you to 
 notice. The unchangeableness of these laws is the 
 very quality that enables us to counteract them. 
 If we could not depend upon the way in which 
 any force was going to act, we should not know 
 with what other forces it might be resisted. Take 
 the case of lightning. We know that a lofty 
 building has a tendency to attract electricity 
 from a thunder-cloud. We also know that some 
 metals are good conductors. Hence we attach 
 metallic rods to every valuable structure, so that 
 the electricity may be conducted thereby into the 
 ground, instead of lingering about the edifice and 
 destroying it. But if the laws of electricity were 
 changeable, if, for example, the same metal was 
 sometimes a conductor and sometimes a non-con- 
 ductor, we should be altogether helpless. It is 
 only when we foresee precisely the effects of 
 natural forces, that we understand what to do if 
 we wish to counteract them. As the Duke of 
 Argyll says in his ' Eeign of Law,' " It is the 
 very inviolability of these laws which makes
 
 240 Science and Religion. 
 
 them subject to contrivance through endless 
 cycles of design." 
 
 This word law, therefore, is not such a bug- 
 bear as it looks. It does not prevent us from 
 accomplishing our purposes and plans ; and if we 
 can frustrate the natural tendency of natural 
 forces by the introduction of other forces, why 
 cannot God do the same ? Between law and 
 prayer there is not the slightest incompatibility. 
 Answers to prayer would be impossible in a 
 lawless chaos, but they are perfectly natural, or 
 at any rate conceivably possible, in a universe 
 governed by unchanging laws. In so far as God's 
 knowledge and power are greater than our own, 
 He will be able to achieve what it is impos- 
 sible for us to effect. "Well then, supposing we 
 are in any trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or other 
 adversity, from which we are unable to extricate 
 ourselves, God could perhaps deliver us from it, 
 without any violation or violent rupture of the 
 laws of nature, but merely in virtue of His 
 superior knowledge of those laws, and His supe- 
 rior power of wielding, combining, and adapting 
 them. 
 
 But further and this is the point I want you 
 specially to notice: The end and use of prayer 
 is not to bring God's will into harmony with
 
 Prayer. 241 
 
 ours ; it is to bring our wills into harmony with 
 God's. Prayer certainly will not bring us every- 
 thing we want, just when and as we want it. It 
 will not remove from us everything we dislike, 
 just because we dislike it. Alas ! for ourselves 
 alas ! for the world, if it could. When we pray 
 for the good things of this life, we know not what 
 we ask. We may be praying for what cannot 
 possibly be granted, consistently with the welfare 
 of others, or even with our own. Juvenal says 
 in one of his Satires, " You pray for money and 
 children and long life, forgetting that you may un- 
 knowingly be praying for curses instead of bless- 
 ings. Why do you not," he asks, " pray the gods 
 to give you what they see to be best ? " The old 
 Eoman satirist had more faith in heaven than 
 most of us. We say often enough, "Thy will 
 be done;" but we do not mean it. And it is 
 not words that constitute prayer. "My words 
 fly up" (says the King in 'Hamlet') 
 
 "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below ; 
 Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go." 
 
 " The peculiar significance of prayer," says Prin- 
 cipal Caird, "lies in this, that therein we rise 
 above ourselves; we leave behind the interests 
 that belong to us as creatures of time ; we enter 
 into that sphere in which all the discords and 
 Q
 
 242 Science and Religion. 
 
 evils of the world possess no more reality than 
 the passing cloud-shadows that lie beneath our 
 feet." Do you know what it means, " Thy will 
 be done " ? It means this : Send me wealth or 
 poverty, friends or enemies, health or sickness, 
 success or failure, bliss or anguish, life or death, 
 as seemeth best unto Thy godly wisdom. Is 
 there one of us who has ever said that in his 
 heart of hearts ? Is there one of us who could 
 honestly kneel down and say it now ? Yet that 
 is what we ought to feel, that is what we ought 
 to mean, every time we say " Thy will be done.' 
 
 The true purpose of prayer is brought out 
 strikingly in our text. The apostle does not 
 say, "Let your requests be made known unto 
 God, and your requests will be granted ; " but, 
 " Let your requests be made known unto God, 
 and the peace of God shall keep your hearts 
 and minds." 
 
 Here lies the answer to Professor Tyndall and 
 others, who some time ago proposed to test the 
 efficacy of prayer by a series of scientific experi- 
 ments. A hospital was to be taken and divided 
 into two sections : the one was to contain patients 
 who prayed and were prayed for ; the other was 
 to be restricted to patients for \yhom no prayer 
 was offered ; and then it was to be noticed
 
 Prayer. 243 
 
 whether or not the recoveries were more numer- 
 ous in the former case. But those who made 
 this proposal forgot that prayer may be answered 
 by mental peace as well as by bodily health, by a 
 translation to heaven as well as by a prolongation 
 of life. If all those who prayed died, and all 
 those who did not pray recovered, the efficacy 
 of prayer would not be disproved. Hezekiah 
 prayed to be restored to health, and " there were 
 added to his life fifteen years." Solomon prayed 
 for wisdom, and he became wise. St Paul prayed 
 thrice that his thorn in the flesh might be re- 
 moved, but the answer he received was, "My 
 grace is sufficient for thee." And he was per- 
 fectly satisfied. "Most gladly," he says, "will 
 I glory in my infirmities, that the power of 
 Christ may rest upon me." 
 
 We find it so difficult nowadays to believe 
 in anything unless it can be seen or touched or 
 weighed. But before we venture to say that a 
 man's prayer has been unavailing, we should 
 be quite sure of one thing, that there has not 
 come to him in answer to it a divine, ineffable 
 peace, which passeth all understanding, and there- 
 fore passeth all scientific tests. I have known 
 men and women pray year after year for bless- 
 ings which they never received ; but I have
 
 244 Science and Religion. 
 
 never known them pray without receiving the 
 answer of peace. This is the only answer 
 which the Bible always and under all circum- 
 stances guarantees; and it is an answer that 
 will not always be detected by the curious 
 experimenter. We read of men, ay, and even 
 women, who were seen to smile amid their 
 martyr flames 
 
 ' ' And lift their raptured looks on high, 
 As though it were a joy to die." 
 
 To a superficial observer they may have appeared 
 to be in a sorry plight ; but they were in the en- 
 joyment of a peace which they would not have 
 exchanged for all that the world calls good. 
 
 The apostle says we should make known our 
 requests " in everything," or upon every occasion, 
 unto God. The life we are obliged to live may 
 sometimes appear to us paltry and contemptible. 
 But since it is the life which God has ordained 
 for us, there must be a sublimity in it after all, 
 such as to render it worthy of His regard. It is 
 the ever-recurring little troubles that do most to 
 mar our happiness ; and these, therefore, are pre- 
 eminently fit subjects for prayer. But let us try 
 and remember that the Great Father knows far 
 better than we do what we really need, what we 
 should really desire if we saw things as He alone
 
 Prayer. 245 
 
 can see them. We look at our lives from the low 
 standpoint of to-day, and we consequently get 
 but a blurred and partial view of them. God 
 regards them from the lofty standpoint of eter- 
 nity. Hence it is no wonder that His ways with 
 us are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our 
 thoughts. We have all probably yearned for 
 something, which we afterwards discovered would 
 have been most injurious. We have all probably 
 had occasion to thank God that He did not grant 
 our requests; and it is oftentimes a matter for 
 equal thankfulness that our requests on behalf of 
 others have been denied. Those who were hon- 
 oured with the friendship of the illustrious states- 
 man whose death we are deploring, 1 doubtless 
 offered up many fervent prayers that his life might 
 be prolonged ; and yet it seems to me it was 
 better for him that these prayers should not be 
 answered. The words which he put into the 
 mouth of the hero of his last romance, were 
 true in a most remarkable degree of himself. 
 "All I have desired," says Endymion, "all I 
 have dreamed of, has come to pass." But greater, 
 perhaps, than any achievement of his life was 
 the " peace with honour " which came to him in 
 
 1 This sermon was preached on the Sunday after Lord 
 Beaconsfield's death.
 
 246 Science and Religion, 
 
 death, the enthusiasm of sympathy manifested 
 by the whole nation, from her Majesty the Queen 
 down to the prattling village child. If he had 
 been spared, it is simply impossible that, at his 
 advanced age and after so serious an illness, he 
 could have been again quite what he was ; the 
 rest of his life would have been an anti-climax. 
 And the world very quickly forgets. So that, if 
 Lord Beaconsfield had died ten years hence, the 
 homage paid him by the nation at large would 
 undoubtedly have been less. Those who loved 
 him best therefore, those who miss him most, 
 will, I feel sure, after the keenest paroxysms of 
 grief are past, rejoice for his sake that their 
 prayers were not answered ; that he did not out- 
 live himself; and that the marvellous triumphs 
 of his life were at once surpassed and completed 
 by the still more marvellous triumph of his 
 death. 
 
 The fact that we are never willing to allow our 
 loved ones to go from this world to a better, is 
 just an illustration of the general truth, that we 
 are constantly forming erroneous opinions as to 
 what would be good for ourselves and for them. 
 These opinions we are frequently enabled to 
 rectify even in this life. But if we should be 
 called to go down to the grave with some desire
 
 Prayer. 247 
 
 unfulfilled, let us try to look forward with a sure 
 and certain hope to the time when we shall see, 
 in our Father's more immediate presence, that He 
 has been making all things, even our unanswered 
 prayers, to work together for our good. Let us 
 endeavour to say with Faber 
 
 " I worship Thee, sweet Will of God, 
 
 And all Thy ways adore ; 
 And every day I live I seem 
 To love Thee more and more. 
 
 I love to kiss each print where Thou 
 
 Hast set Thine unseen feet : 
 I cannot fear Thee, blessed Will ! 
 
 Thine empire is so sweet. 
 
 Ill that God blesses is our good, 
 
 And unblest good is ill; 
 And all is right that seems most wrong, 
 
 If it be His sweet Will."
 
 248 
 
 Science and Religion. 
 II. 
 
 THE SUPERNATURALNESS OF NATURE. 
 
 "Elislia prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that 
 he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young 
 man ; and he saw : and, behold, the mountain was full of 
 horses and chariots of fire." 2 KINGS vi. 17. 
 
 rPHE distinction commonly made between the 
 -*- natural and the supernatural, though useful 
 and convenient for certain purposes, becomes 
 misleading and false, if understood to mean that 
 a hard and fast line can be drawn between the 
 two, or that the one necessarily excludes the 
 other. 1 They are in reality always combined. It 
 is possible to see the unseeable. What is invis- 
 ible to the bodily eye may be plain enough to the 
 mind or to the heart ; and thus the apparently 
 
 1 On this subject see my ' Basis of Religion,' pp. 13-19.
 
 The Supernaturalness of Nature. 249 
 
 bare mountain is often discovered to be full of 
 horses and chariots of fire. If we do not find 
 something supernatural in the commonest objects 
 and phenomena, it must be, not because there is 
 nothing supernatural in them, but because our 
 own vision is defective. Of many a man it may, 
 alas ! be said 
 
 ' ' A primrose by a river's brim 
 A yellow primrose is to him, 
 And it is nothing more." 
 
 Nothing more ? Why, the whole history of the 
 universe is bound up in the heart of that tiny 
 flower ! If we could trace it back to its very 
 first beginnings, we should have solved the riddle 
 of life, we should have detected the method of 
 creation, we should know the very nature of 
 God. To the vulgar man, matter is but another 
 name for dirt : to the man who is a physicist and 
 only a physicist, it is a curious combination of 
 atoms; but to poets and philosophers it is the 
 Shechinah of infinite mystery. 
 
 There is a line of argument I should like to 
 take up, which I am afraid, however, is too 
 long and too difficult for a sermon, and which 
 I will therefore only mention. Hegel, the prince
 
 250 Science and Religion. 
 
 of thinkers, has shown that matter can neither 
 be known nor conceived of except as permeated 
 through and through with thought ; and he has 
 thus for ever precluded any one from being a 
 materialist, who will take the trouble to master 
 the first principles of his philosophy. 1 
 
 But leaving this, let us look at our subject 
 from a simpler and more popular point of view. 
 There is a class of thinkers in the present day 
 who persist in talking as if naming a thing 
 and telling us a little about it, were equivalent 
 to giving its complete explanation, and removing 
 from it every vestige of mystery. But this short 
 and easy method of annihilating the super- 
 natural is altogether unwarranted. Let us take 
 an illustration. The force of gravity is probably, 
 of all natural phenomena, the one with which 
 science has made us most familiar. She has 
 given us in regard to it what, at first sight, 
 may seem a comprehensive and final account. 
 We know that this force is not confined to 
 our own world or to our own time, but that 
 it is at work in distant planets and in still 
 more distant stars, and that its operations must 
 have continued for millions and millions of years. 
 We know, too, precisely the law of this attrac- 
 
 1 See my 'Belief in God,' pp. 69-76.
 
 77ie Supernatural-ness of Nature. 251 
 
 tive influence which material bodies exert on each 
 other viz., that it varies directly as their mass 
 and inversely as the square of their distance. 
 By means of this intimate knowledge we are 
 able to explain the motions and positions of the 
 heavenly bodies, we can foretell the return of 
 comets that have not been visible for generations, 
 and predict, centuries beforehand, the time when 
 eclipses may be expected, almost to the fraction 
 of a second. So that if science has seen through 
 anything, if it has mastered anything, if it has 
 exorcised the supernatural from anything, it 
 must have seen through and mastered and exor- 
 cised the supernatural from the phenomenon of 
 gravitation. And yet, after all, if we think a 
 little longer, we shall see that even in this case 
 science has but revealed the magnitude of a mys- 
 tery which remains, as of yore, insoluble. Think 
 how much is yet untold. We may ask, Whence 
 comes that force ? Is it older or younger than 
 the particles of matter in which it acts ? Or is 
 it coeval with them ? Is it something separable 
 from them ? Or is it part of their very essence ? 
 What makes it act as it does ? Will it always 
 act thus ? Is it connected, and if so how, with 
 mind and will ? These are questions which we 
 cannot answer ; upon which, at any rate, physical
 
 252 Science and Religion. 
 
 science can throw no light. And this is but an 
 illustration of what seems to me universally true. 
 If we look long and earnestly into the com- 
 monest natural object or phenomenon, we shall 
 by -and -by begin to perceive a supernatural 
 mystery, before which we shall be humbled and 
 amazed. 1 
 
 Again. The feelings excited in us by natural 
 scenery are quite incompatible with the suppo- 
 sition that there is nothing in it but a mere 
 fortuitous concurrence of atoms. Physical science 
 can neither explain nor explain away the fact 
 that Nature, besides producing impressions on 
 our senses, appeals to our minds and hearts. 
 " Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
 night showeth knowledge. There is no speech 
 nor language ; their voice is not heard. Yet 
 their line is gone out through all the earth, 
 and their words unto the end of the world." 
 Nature, the uncrowned queen of song, is con- 
 tinually producing poems that need not "the 
 din of words." With her silent eloquence she 
 makes us now pensive and now glad ; she arouses 
 our hopes and excites our fears ; she inspires us 
 with yearnings after the Unseen and Eternal. 
 You remember Wordsworth's lines, 
 1 See also my 'Agnosticism,' pp. 40-42.
 
 The Supernatural-ness of Nature. 253 
 
 " I have learned 
 
 To look on Nature, not as in the hour 
 Of thoughtless youth. 
 
 I have felt 
 
 A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
 Of elevated thoughts : a sense sublime 
 Of something far more deeply interfused, 
 Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
 And the round ocean, and the living air, 
 And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : 
 A motion and a spirit that impels 
 All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 
 And rolls through all things." 
 
 Call it what you will, name it how you please, 
 men of all creeds, and men of no creed, have 
 felt this mysterious presence. It cannot pos- 
 sibly be explained by any mechanical play of 
 atoms : but it is none the less real for that. It 
 is as much a fact as electricity or heat. Its 
 existence is proved by its effects. A German 
 writer, Lotze, who is no less versed in physics 
 than in metaphysics, truly says that science can 
 never give us the whole of what is to be said 
 about the universe ; it can but give us the smaller 
 half. "Above and beneath and around the bit 
 of nature which we can weigh and measure and 
 dissect and fit into our formuke, there is a region 
 which is for us the realm of wonder." The 
 mechanical action and reaction of material atoms
 
 254 Science and Religion. 
 
 is but one phase of the universe. There is in 
 addition something that leads to art and poetry 
 and religion. To ignore this is to ignore what is 
 highest and best. 
 
 The design, meaning, and purpose which can 
 be detected in Nature afford the most striking 
 instances of its supernaturalness. I can but 
 allude to them at present. In another sermon 
 I shall endeavour to show that these evidences 
 of a Mind and Will underlying Nature have not 
 been nullified by modern discoveries or theories. 1 
 
 Let me call your attention to one other point. 
 We are apt just now to underrate, or even to 
 ignore altogether, the mystery of ourselves. 
 There is a danger of our being led to believe, not 
 only that mystery has been exorcised from the 
 external world, but that we ourselves have been 
 likewise reduced to the level of commonplace 
 machines. Owing to the triumphs of physiology, 
 there is a growing inclination to think that the 
 nerves and brain are everything, that there is 
 no need for a mind or soul. But if this view 
 be examined, it will be seen that it is pre- 
 eminently absurd. It may be true it probably 
 is true that our sensations, thoughts and voli- 
 
 1 Pp. 271-282. See also 'Belief in God,' chaps, iv. and v.; 
 'Personality,' sect, iv.; and the first half of 'Agnosticism.'
 
 The Supernaturalness of Nature. 255 
 
 tions, are preceded, accompanied and followed by 
 molecular changes in the nerve-fibres ; but these 
 material disturbances of the nervous system do 
 not themselves feel or think or will. They are 
 not conscious of themselves ; and therefore they 
 cannot in the least degree do away with the 
 necessity for a sentient, percipient, intelligent 
 mind. This has been sometimes acknowledged 
 even by writers of the Positive school, like John 
 Stuart Mill and Professor Tyndall. You may 
 follow up nervous vibrations to their last nutter 
 in the brain, but the material nutter is not con- 
 sciousness, bears not the slightest resemblance to 
 consciousness, throws no light whatsoever upon 
 any of the phenomena of consciousness. So 
 that physiology in reality can do nothing more 
 than lead us up to the mystery of mind ; it can 
 neither explain that mystery nor explain it away. 
 In addition to the common consciousness of 
 our everyday working life, there are also inner 
 recesses of consciousness (so to speak) which can 
 be even less explained, if that were possible, by 
 the methods and formulae of physics. We some- 
 times experience such an awe, such a faith, such 
 unutterable yearnings, such an agony of grief, 
 such a rapture of hope, as may alone suffice for 
 proof that we are something more than, some-
 
 256 Science and Religion. 
 
 thing other than, dust. " So long," says Euskin, 
 " as you have that fire of the heart within you, 
 and know the reality of it, you need be under no 
 alarm as to its chemical or mechanical analysis. 
 The philosophers are very humorous in their 
 ecstasy of hope about it, but the real interest 
 of their discoveries in this direction is very small 
 to human kind. It is quite true that the tym- 
 panum of the ear vibrates under sound, and that 
 the surface of the water in a ditch vibrates too ; 
 but the ditch hears nothing for all that, and my 
 hearing is still to me as blessed a mystery as 
 ever, and the interval between the ditch and me 
 quite as great. If the trembling sound in my 
 ears was once of the marriage bells which began 
 my happiness, and is now of the passing bell 
 which ends it, the difference between those two 
 sounds to me cannot be counted by the number 
 of concussions. There have been some curious 
 speculations lately as to the conveyance of men- 
 tal changes by brain -waves. What does it 
 matter how they are conveyed ? The con- 
 sciousness itself is not a wave. It may be accom- 
 panied here and there by any quantity of quivers 
 and shakes of anything you can find in the uni- 
 verse that is shakeable. What is that to me? 
 My friend is dead, and my according to modern
 
 The Siipernaturalness of Nature. 257 
 
 views vibratory sorrow is not one whit less, or 
 less mysterious, than my old quiet one." 
 
 The attempt, then, to ignore the supernatural 
 is most unphilosophical. But we are so terribly 
 afraid nowadays of being over-credulous. We 
 should remember, however, that believing too 
 much is not the only sign of a weak mind. We 
 may show our mental incapacity by believing too 
 little. A child, for instance, can only believe in 
 the multiplication table as far as he has gone; 
 and when he begins to be in doubt, it is not the 
 table, but his own mind, which is at fault. He 
 who regards a human being as a mere mass of 
 nerves, he who maintains that there is nothing 
 in Nature but a mechanical combination of 
 atoms, must be a very superficial thinker. 
 The chemical analysis of a tear into oxygeu, 
 hydrogen, chlorine, and sodium is not a complete 
 explanation of the mystery of grief: nor is the 
 supernaturalness of nature disproved by the fact 
 that it cannot be depicted upon the retina of the 
 ' eye. It may be discovered by the mind : it may 
 be felt by the heart. Let us search diligently 
 until we find it. "When thou shalt seek the 
 Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou shalt 
 seek Him with thy whole heart." 
 R
 
 258 Science and Religion. 
 
 " God's in matter everywhere : 
 
 Flower, bird, beast, and man and woman, 
 Earth and water, fire and air, 
 
 All divine is all that's human. 
 Only matter's dense opaqueness 
 
 Checks God's light from shining thnnigh it ; 
 And our senses (such their weakness) 
 
 Cannot help our souls to view it, 
 Till Love lends the world translucence : 
 
 Then we see God clear in all things. 
 Love's the new sense, Love's the true sense, 
 
 Which teaches us how we should call things.'
 
 259 
 
 Science and Religion. 
 III. 
 
 THE NATURALNESS OF THE SUPERNATURAL. 
 
 "The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning." JAMES i. 17. 
 
 TT is interesting and suggestive to observe how, 
 with the progress of science, our notions 
 of the universe have been revolutionised. Once 
 men believed in the universal reign of caprice; 
 now they believe in the universal reign of law. 
 Formerly earth and air and sea were peopled 
 with a host of imaginary beings, and the human 
 race was supposed to be at the mercy of their 
 changeable whims or of their unchangeable vin- 
 dictiveness. It was thought that any one of 
 them, if strong enough to prevail over the rest, 
 might alter the course of nature at a moment's 
 notice. Eeligion therefore consisted in appeas-
 
 260 Science and Religion. 
 
 ing these divinities, so powerful for evil, with 
 barley, wine or blood. In the darkness of an 
 eclipse, in the rolling peal of thunder, in a vol- 
 canic eruption, in the devastation of a plague, 
 and even in an unusual state of the weather, 
 men saw, as they thought, the capricious in- 
 terference of these supernatural powers. But 
 observation and reflection have made us wiser. 
 The more that Nature has been investigated, the 
 more has her uniformity been brought to light. 
 Eesemblances have been discovered even where 
 they were least expected ; as, for example, in the 
 similarity of structure belonging to animals of 
 different species, which at first sight appeared to 
 be altogether diverse. And not only has Nature 
 been discovered to be uniform in our own time 
 and in our own world, but the most remote 
 spheres and ages, regarding which we are able to 
 gather any information, have been found to be 
 subject to the same laws which obtain here and 
 now. We know beyond a doubt that the force 
 which causes a leaf to fall to the ground is con- 
 cerned in the revolutions of the most distant 
 star; that "the law which moulds a planet 
 rounds a tear ; " and that the light of to-day has 
 exactly the same properties as the light of the 
 prehistoric world. So certain are we of the
 
 Naturalness of the Supernatural. 261 
 
 universality of law, that we know apparent ex- 
 ceptions cannot be real. In fact, a seeming 
 violation of law lias not unfrequently led to a 
 fresh confirmation of its absolute inviolability. 
 For example, the fact that Uranus did not move 
 in exact accordance with astronomical calcula- 
 tions, suggested that there must exist somewhere 
 a disturbing cause. The amount of divergence 
 from the calculated path pointed to the exact 
 spot where that disturbing cause must be looked 
 for; and there, accordingly, Adams and Leverrier 
 (almost simultaneously) discovered a new planet, 
 the planet which is now called Neptune. Even 
 in cases where, owing to the complexity of the 
 problem, our knowledge is less exact, even where 
 we have not been able to ascertain the precise 
 manner in which certain results are produced, 
 we yet feel absolutely sure that these results are 
 brought about by unchanging and unchangeable 
 laws. Epidemics of cholera and plague, for 
 instance, which our ancestors attributed to the 
 anger of Heaven, we believe to be due to a viola- 
 tion of the laws of health ; we no longer connect 
 them with a sudden interference of Providence, 
 but we set about tracing them to impure water, 
 or to some other equally simple and natural 
 cause. And similarly in regard to the weather,
 
 262 Science and Religion. 
 
 though it is the very type of fickleness, and 
 though our knowledge of the laws which govern 
 it is exceedingly imperfect, yet there is not an 
 educated man in the world to-day who does not 
 feel certain that rain and drought, heat and cold, 
 good seasons and bad, depend upon laws as 
 stringent and immutable as those which deter- 
 mine the planetary motions. In a word, to us in 
 this nineteenth century the universe is essen- 
 tially and pre-eminently a universe of order and 
 of law. 
 
 Now it is on this ground that so many persons 
 object to what is called supernatural religion. To 
 them Christianity appears a sort of chaos, where 
 chance and disorder and irrationality reign su- 
 preme. I wish to point out to you that this 
 notion of Christianity is not correct. I wish to 
 call your attention to the reign of law in the 
 religion of Christ ; or, in other words, to the 
 naturalness of the supernatural. 1 
 
 And first of all, with regard to the general 
 subject of miracles. To any one puzzled about 
 this matter, I would recommend the Duke of 
 Argyll's ' Eeign of Law,' and Butler's ' Analogy ' 
 (part II. chapter iv.) Butler there points out that 
 our knowledge of Nature and her laws is ex- 
 
 1 See also iny ' Basis of Religion,' pp. 13-19.
 
 Naturalness of the Siiper natural. 263 
 
 tremely limited and partial. We know scarcely 
 anything of the laws of tempests, earthquakes, 
 famines, pestilence ; or of the laws regulating the 
 respective capacities of the individual. The 
 forces by which many things of great importance 
 happen are so unknown to us, that we call their 
 results accidental. In fact, we only guess that 
 the whole course of nature is capable of being 
 reduced to general laws ; we do not know it. 
 "We have found it to be so with a part, and we 
 imagine, therefore, it must be so with the whole. 
 On the supposition then of a God, wiser and 
 more powerful than ourselves, there is room for 
 any number of interpositions, which from OUT 
 human point of view may seem unnatural, but 
 which are nevertheless in perfect harmony with 
 laws more general and comprehensive than those 
 we have hitherto discovered. Let me give you 
 an illustration. As water cools, it contracts and 
 grows heavier, till it has reached a temperature 
 of about forty degrees Fahrenheit. Then it sud- 
 denly proceeds in an exactly opposite manner, 
 and any further cooling makes it expand. Now, 
 if our observations and experiments had always 
 been made at temperatures higher than forty 
 degrees, or if they had always been made at 
 temperatures lower than forty degrees, howevei
 
 264 Science and Religion. 
 
 numerous these observations and experiments 
 had been, they would not have led us to the com- 
 plete law. You remember how well this idea is 
 put in ' Sartor Eesartus.' " To the wisest man, 
 wide as is his vision, Nature remains of quite 
 infinite depth, of quite infinite expansion; and 
 all Experience thereof limits itself to some few 
 computed centuries and measured square miles. 
 The course of Nature's phases on this our little 
 fraction of a Planet is partially known to us: 
 but who knows what deeper courses these depend 
 on ; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) our 
 little Epicycle revolves on ? To the Minnow, 
 every cranny and pebble and quality and acci- 
 dent of its little native Creek may have become 
 familiar : but does the Minnow understand the 
 Ocean Tides and periodic Currents, the Trade- 
 winds and Monsoons and Moon's Eclipses ; by 
 all which the condition of its little Creek is reg- 
 ulated, and may from time to time (wmniracu- 
 lously enough) be quite overset and reversed ? 
 Such a minnow is Man ; his Creek this Planet 
 Earth ; his Ocean the immeasurable All ; his 
 Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious 
 Course of Providence through ^Eons of ^Eons." 
 Manifestly then it is quite possible, theoretically 
 at least, that in connection with Christianity and
 
 Naturalness of the Supernatural. 265 
 
 other religious events may have happened, which 
 to us in our ignorance seem miraculous, but 
 which notwithstanding are in accordance with 
 wider and more comprehensive laws than those 
 with which we are acquainted. 1 
 
 So much for the abstract possibility of miracles. 
 Now let me suggest to you, in the briefest pos- 
 sible manner, the naturalness of three of the 
 most fundamental doctrines of Christianity viz., 
 prayer, the Atonement, and immortality. In a 
 previous sermon, I pointed out to you that belief 
 in the efficacy of prayer did not involve any belief 
 in the violability of natural laws. 2 The same ex- 
 perience which has taught us that these laws are 
 unchangeable, has also taught us that they may 
 be counteracted. We dissipate cold by lighting 
 a fire ; we prevent our buildings from being de- 
 stroyed in a thunderstorm by means of lightning- 
 conductors ; we avoid a sunstroke by retiring into 
 the shade ; and so on, and so on. It is a matter 
 of common observation, you see, that the tendency 
 of natural forces can be naturally counteracted 
 by the judicious introduction of other forces. 
 Well then, supposing we are in any trouble, 
 
 1 In fact we might a priori expect "wonders" from a per- 
 sonality sufficiently strong and unique to found a new religion. 
 3 Pp. 238, 239.
 
 266 Science and Religion. 
 
 sorrow, need, sickness, or other adversity, from 
 which we are unable to extricate ourselves, God 
 might conceivably deliver us without any violent 
 rupture of law, but merely by a supernaturally 
 skilful combination and adjustment of natural 
 forces. I pointed out to you, however, that after 
 all the end and use of prayer was not to bring 
 God's will into conformity with ours, but that it 
 was intended on the contrary to bring our wills 
 into conformity with God's. The apostle does 
 not say, Let your requests be made known unto 
 God, and your requests will be granted ; but, " Let 
 your requests be made known unto' God, and the 
 peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds." 
 It might be impossible, even for Omnipotence, to 
 grant our requests, consistently with the welfare 
 of others, or even consistently with our own. 
 Hence the only answer to prayer which the 
 Christian religion always guarantees is the an- 
 swer of peace. And if there be in the universe 
 a Mind and Heart superior to our own, the 
 very effort that we make in prayer to realise 
 His existence and to submit ourselves to His 
 will must, naturally and inevitably, lead to peace. 
 Now, I ask, is there anything chaotic, lawless, 
 disorderly, or irrational in such a doctrine of 
 prayer ?
 
 Naturalness of the Supernatiiral. 267 
 
 Secondly, look at the Atonement. So far from 
 the sufferings of Christ having been arbitrarily 
 inflicted by a capricious and revengeful God, 
 they are the most striking exemplifications of 
 a universal law. When we were considering 
 the Mystery of Suffering, we saw that no char- 
 acter could be perfected except through the 
 instrumentality of sorrow. The painful battling 
 with difficulties develops strength, self-reliance 
 and self-respect. Moreover, pity, mercy and 
 the spirit of self - sacrifice can only exist in 
 beings who have been called upon to suffer. It 
 was a matter of common experience, we found, 
 that suffering is needful for moral perfection. 
 Now, according to the writer of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, the anguish of the Man of Sorrows 
 is an exemplification of this universal law. " It 
 became Him, for whom are all things and by 
 whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
 glory, to make the Captain of their salvation 
 perfect through sufferings." In other words, 
 God Himself could only bring about the salva- 
 tion of men, by making even Christ, their leader 
 and example, perfect through that very discipline 
 of sorrow, which we have seen reason to believe 
 is always necessary for the formation of a noble 
 character. Christ is no exception to the reign
 
 268 Science and Religion. 
 
 of law. He is the most remarkable example 
 of its absolute universality. 
 
 Thirdly, I think we may see that even the 
 doctrine of immortality is an instance of the 
 naturalness of the supernatural. Though our 
 sensations and thoughts and volitions may be 
 always preceded, accompanied and followed by 
 changes in the nerves, those mental states them- 
 selves are totally different from any neural pro- 
 cess. As Aristotle and Plato long ago explained, 
 it is not our eyes that see, nor is it our ears that 
 hear; it is we that see and hear by means of 
 those organs : they are but the instruments of 
 the mind. If you take away a man's telescope, 
 you deprive him of* the kind of vision which a 
 telescope affords. Similarly the destruction of 
 the eye by death is the destruction of common 
 sight. But there is no more reason in the one 
 case than in the other to suppose that the mind 
 which sees is thereby destroyed. And since we 
 have not the remotest idea of the nature of 
 the connection between mind and body, since 
 we cannot, for example, conceive how it is that 
 an impression on the retina produces in us the 
 sensation of sight, there is nothing to prevent 
 our supposing that the mind could perceive with- 
 out material organs, or at any rate by means of
 
 Naturalness of the Supernatural. 269 
 
 organs altogether different from those with which 
 it is at present provided. As Bishop Butler says, 
 " It is not even probable that the mind has any 
 kind of relation to the body, which it might not 
 have to any other foreign matter formed into 
 instruments of perception." The indivisible con- 
 scious mind (whatever it may be or may not be) 
 cannot conceivably be the same thing as the divi- 
 sible and unconscious brain. 1 Nor can it be iden- 
 tified with its own states of sensation or of thought, 
 which are many and transient, while it remains 
 permanently one. There is therefore no a priori 
 reason to suppose that the destruction of the soul 
 is involved, either in the dissolution of its present 
 brain, or in the cessation of its present experience. 
 There is no scientific ground for believing that 
 the law of the Dissipation of Energy, which threat- 
 ens in time to bring the whole material universe 
 to a dead-lock, 2 can in any way affect the essential 
 vitality of the soul. 
 
 Let me press upon your careful and protracted 
 consideration the line of thought which I have 
 endeavoured to open up in this and the preced- 
 
 1 The proof that the ego must be something different from 
 the brain, I have attempted to develop in my Essay on ' Person- 
 ality,' sect. 1, also ' Belief in God,' chapters ii. and iii. ; and on 
 the subject of Immortality, see 'Agnosticism,' pp. 47-60. 
 
 2 See Stewart's 'Conservation of Energy,' pp. 152, 153.
 
 270 Science and Religion. 
 
 ing sermon. Those persons who have chosen 
 to style themselves with more assurance than 
 accuracy " exact thinkers," want to persuade us 
 that the physical methods of investigation can 
 fathom nature to its very deepest depths ; that 
 everything which those methods fail to discover 
 should be considered non-existent ; and above all 
 that the doctrines of religion are superlatively 
 absurd. The natural they regard as the realm of 
 light, in which wise men dwell ; the supernatural 
 they look upon as the region of darkness, into 
 which fools and fanatics are prone to wander. 
 But we have seen (have we not ?) that the natural 
 and supernatural are really inseparable. On the 
 one hand, if we look deeply enough into nature, 
 we come to something which, though it can 
 be detected neither by the microscope nor by 
 chemical reagent, we are nevertheless compelled 
 to recognise as real. When our eyes are opened, 
 the mountain, which once appeared bare, is seen 
 to be full of horses and chariots of fire. In other 
 words, the natural is essentially supernatural. 
 Again, if we carefully examine the fundamental 
 doctrines of religion, we do not find, as the exact 
 thinkers say we must find, disorder, lawlessness 
 and chaos. We discover on the contrary that 
 these doctrines, if properly understood, are in
 
 Naturalness of the Supernatural. 271 
 
 perfect harmony with our common everyday 
 experience. With the course of nature, in the 
 widest sense of the term, God never interferes. 
 In other words, the supernatural is essentially 
 natural. The God of creation is the God of 
 redemption: and with "the Father of lights" 
 there is " no variableness, neither shadow of 
 turning."
 
 272 
 
 Science and Religion. 
 IV. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN. 
 
 " He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire ; " 
 or rather it should be rendered, " He maketh the winds His 
 angels, and flaming fires His ministers." PSALM civ. 4; 
 HEBREWS i. 7. 
 
 T\0 you believe it ? In the present day, a large 
 *-* number of scientific men maintain that the 
 appearance of design in nature is an appearance 
 only, not a reality. This view is supposed to be 
 established in two ways first, by the general 
 doctrine of the universal reign of law; and 
 secondly, by the particular theory of evolution. 
 Let us look for a moment at the argument 
 drawn from the universality of law. The regu- 
 larity of nature is supposed by many to disprove 
 the existence of God, or at any rate to disprove 
 the religious doctrine that God is the King of
 
 The Argument from Design. 273 
 
 Nature. Now, in the first place, I may remark 
 that law is a very misleading word. It \s> 
 generally printed with a capital L, which gives 
 it a more imposing appearance than it justly 
 deserves. Law only means invariable sequence. 
 A law of nature is merely the fact that certain 
 causes produce certain effects, that certain ante- 
 cedents are always followed by certain conse- 
 quents, that under the same circumstances the 
 same events will always happen. You will some- 
 times hear it said, the universe is governed by 
 laws. The universe is not governed by laws. 
 It is governed according to laws, but no one 
 can suppose that the laws make themselves ; no 
 one can imagine, for example, that water deter- 
 mines of its own accord always to freeze at one 
 temperature and to boil at another, that snow- 
 flakes make up their minds to assume certain 
 definite and regular shapes, or that fire burns 
 of malice aforethought. The sequences of nature 
 will not explain themselves. The regularity of 
 nature, therefore, needs to be explained. It can- 
 not explain itself, nor can it disprove the exist- 
 ence of a controlling Will. 
 
 I have pointed out to you more than once that 
 the reign of law does not hinder us in the accom- 
 plishment of our human purposes and plans. On 
 s
 
 2 74 Science and Religion. 
 
 the contrary, the immutability of the laws of 
 nature is the " very characteristic which makes 
 them subject to contrivance through endless cycles 
 of design." But it is often assumed that we 
 are their slaves. Professor Huxley, for example, 
 says, "The progress of science in all ages has 
 meant the extension of the province of what 
 we call matter and causation, and the con- 
 comitant banishment of what we call spirit 
 and spontaneity." But the Professor admits, in 
 so many words, that man is " capable within cer- 
 tain limits of self -adjustment ;" and every one 
 knows that man is capable within certain limits 
 of adjusting external forces. Hence it is un- 
 deniable that there is such a thing as human 
 spontaneity. Now this power of initiating, con- 
 trolling and modifying events, is the most im- 
 portant of all our faculties. If, therefore, the 
 progress of science has consisted in throwing 
 the fact of spontaneity into the shade, so much 
 the worse for science. 
 
 Since however physicists have often forgotten 
 their own freedom and spontaneity, it is scarcely 
 to be wondered at that they have ignored the 
 divine. " Nowadays," says Comte, " the heavens 
 declare no other glory than that of Hipparchus, 
 Kepler, Newton and the rest, who have found
 
 The Argument from Design. 275 
 
 out the laws of their sequence." Comte assumes, 
 you see, that the sequences, being regular, cannot 
 possibly have had a cause. But to treat this as 
 an axiom is the very acme of illogical flippancy. 
 True, there is no sign of anything approaching to 
 fickleness or caprice in nature. True, the many 
 gods of fetishism have been annihilated by scien- 
 tific investigation. But the same unity and har- 
 mony, which prove that there are not many wills, 
 go far to show at the same time that there is one. 
 The cosmic results of the combined operations of 
 natural forces testify to some unity of design and 
 purpose. Nothing can be on the face of it more 
 absurd than Comte's theory, that an irregular 
 and disorderly system of nature would require 
 a supernatural explanation, but that a regular 
 and orderly system requires none. To say this 
 is to maintain that God could only be manifested 
 by the attributes of fickleness and impotence. 
 If He were always interfering with things like an 
 operative in a mill, who has constantly to stop 
 'his machinery to join a broken thread, if Nature 
 were so paltry a system, that God had continu- 
 ally to interpose in order to rectify her defects, 
 then He would be recognised. But His existence 
 is denied, forsooth, because it is not revealed by 
 failures and mistakes. You might as well main-
 
 276 Science and Religion. 
 
 tain that the unpredictable actions of a madman 
 imply mind, but that the orderly and methodical 
 actions of a sane man imply none. Unless 
 method and regularity be proofs of irrationality, 
 the reign of law does not compel us to reject the 
 evidence of design in nature. Law means, as we 
 have seen, nothing more than an orderly sequence 
 of events. The question will always arise, Why 
 is the reign of law productive, on the whole, of 
 order, harmony and beauty ? The only reign of 
 law incompatible with volition, would be the reign 
 of the law of chaos. We ourselves are constantly 
 using the forces of nature, controlling them, 
 adapting them, and making them subservient to 
 our purposes and desires. And since these forces, 
 apart from human control, continue working 
 together for good, since their united effect is to 
 produce a cosmos, an order of nature, a system of 
 things in which it is (generally speaking) desir- 
 able to live, the only reasonable conclusion the 
 only conclusion warranted by experience is that 
 they are connected with a supernatural mind 
 and will. Since " the voice of law is the har- 
 mony of the world," there is strong ground for 
 the presumption that " her seat is the bosom 
 of God." 
 
 So much for the objection drawn from the
 
 The Argument from Design. 277 
 
 general doctrine of the reign of law. Secondly, 
 let us look at the bearing of the particular theory 
 of evolution upon theology. I might premise 
 that this theory cannot be considered proved 
 except so far as species are concerned ; l and that 
 no less eminent an evolutionist than Mr Wallace 
 refuses even to admit that it will account for 
 man. But we will suppose, for argument's sake, 
 that, even in its most comprehensive shape, the 
 doctrine has been proved true ; we will imagine 
 it to be a demonstrated certainty that vegetable, 
 animal, and even human life, have been evolved 
 from some primordial germ or germs originally 
 latent in a fiery cloud ; and that the development 
 of higher from lower forms of existence is suffi- 
 ciently accounted for by natural selection by 
 the fact, namely, that the less desirable forms 
 have an inherent tendency to give place to the 
 more desirable. If we grant all this, what fol- 
 lows ? What is the effect upon our theology ? 
 Why, simply that a certain mode of statement 
 of a certain argument of Paley's is seen to be 
 unsound, and this unsoundness had been already 
 recognised on other grounds. Paley maintained 
 that every definite organ and portion of an organ 
 throughout the world is specially, by a particular 
 
 1 See 'Agnosticism,' p. 84.
 
 278 Science and Religion. 
 
 creative fiat, adapted to a certain end; just as 
 every portion of a watch implies a special con- 
 trivance on the part of the watchmaker. But 
 this, as every one now knows, is completely dis- 
 proved, by the existence in most animals of rudi- 
 mentary and abortive organs, which are evidently 
 not adapted to any end: as, for example, the 
 rudiments of fingers in a horse's hoof ; the teeth 
 in a whale's mouth; or the eyes in an unborn 
 mole, which, though perfect in themselves to be- 
 gin with, dry up before they can be used. But 
 though we no longer profess to trace divine 
 design in every minute fraction of an organism, 
 this does not hinder us from seeing it in organ- 
 isms regarded in their entirety, and in Nature 
 considered as a whole. Professor Huxley ima- 
 gines, however, that he has driven us from this 
 second position. He maintains it to be con- 
 ceivable that a watch might be made without 
 contrivance. " Suppose," he says, " that any one 
 had been able to show that the watch had not 
 been made directly by any one person, but that 
 it was the result of the modification of another 
 watch which kept time but poorly ; and that this, 
 again, had proceeded from a structure that could 
 hardly be called a watch at all, seeing that it 
 had no figures on the dial, and the hands were
 
 The A rgmnent from Design . 279 
 
 rudimentary; and that, going back and back in 
 time, we came at last to a revolving barrel, as the 
 earliest traceable rudiment of the whole fabric. 
 And imagine it had been possible to show that 
 all those changes had resulted, first from a ten- 
 dency in the structure to vary indefinitely, and 
 secondly, from something in the surrounding 
 world which helped all variations in the direc- 
 tion of an accurate time-keeper, and checked all 
 those in other directions, and then it is obvious 
 that the force of Paley's argument would be gone. 
 For it would be demonstrated that an apparatus, 
 thoroughly well adapted to a particular purpose, 
 might be the result of a method of trial and error, 
 worked out by unintelligent agents, as well as of 
 the direct application of the means appropriate 
 to the end." 
 
 Very good. But whence came that " tendency 
 in the structure to vary," and that "something 
 in the surrounding world " ? The " agents " may 
 be " unintelligent " ; but the method of their 
 working implies that they are directed and con- 
 trolled by intelligence. When we consider their 
 results, we are forbidden, both by experience and 
 by reason, to suppose that their combined work- 
 ing is the effect of chance. The further back you 
 trace their operation, the greater becomes the
 
 280 Science and Religion. 
 
 necessity for connecting them with an intelligent 
 mind ; since the longer you suppose them to have 
 been at work, the less likely does it become that 
 their rational results can be the effects of irration- 
 ality. If two things by their interaction, extend- 
 ing over long periods of time, produce progressive 
 and intelligible results, the only legitimate hypo- 
 thesis is that they were intended and adapted for 
 that purpose. So that, after all, the watch made 
 according to the ingenious theory of the professor 
 has not been produced without design. He has 
 got rid of one kind of contrivance only by substi- 
 tuting another. 
 
 Professor Huxley's argument has been parodied 
 in this way. Two ignorant men might have a 
 controversy as to the origin of a bronze statue. 
 Says the one, " He must have been a great sculp- 
 tor who made that statue." To this the other 
 replies, "You are quite wrong, my friend; no 
 sculptor ever touched that statue. I saw it made 
 myself. I saw the metal, a formless molten mass, 
 flow out of the furnace into the sand, and then in 
 a while come out, as you see it, a bronze statue. 
 It was not the sculptor who made the statue, but 
 the sand. There was first a tendency in the 
 molten metal to vary indefinitely ; and secondly, 
 there was something in the surrounding sand
 
 The Argument from Design. 281 
 
 that helped all variations in the direction of a 
 beautiful statue, and checked all those in other 
 directions. The result is a statue made, not 
 by contrivance, but by natural selection." The 
 answer to this is of course very simple. The 
 molten metal and the sand, the tendency in the 
 structure to vary, and the something outside the 
 structure helping one kind of variation and 
 checking other kinds, were intended and adapted 
 to work together for the production of the statue. 
 Natural selection is but a form of contrivance. 
 
 The doctrine of the survival of the fittest does 
 not account for the fact that there are fittest 
 to survive. It does not, in other words, explain 
 the existence of organisms, nor the existence of 
 any measure of adaptation between the organ- 
 ism and environment. It merely explains the 
 method according to which this adaptation has 
 been increased. The purpose, which from the 
 days of Anaxagoras has been more or less ob- 
 served in nature, is not proved to be no pur- 
 pose, because it is accomplished by means that 
 work together systematically and unchangingly. 
 Evolution does not disprove a Designer ; it only 
 proves that he works in a different way from that 
 which had formerly been supposed. There is no 
 reason why things may not be made for their cir-
 
 282 Science and Religion. 
 
 cumstances, though they are partly made ly them. 
 Till it has been proved that the working together 
 of internal and external relations, so as to accom- 
 plish a progressive result, is not due to design, 
 we are compelled to suppose that it is. The fact 
 that natural forces work together regularly and 
 methodically, does not prove that they have no 
 master it suggests rather His absolute control. 
 The fact that lower forms of existence are con- 
 tinually evolving higher, need not prevent us 
 from believing in God. On the contrary, this 
 eternal' evolution of the more desirable from the 
 less cannot be logically accounted for, except 
 on the ground that it is effected by infinite 
 power and wisdom and skill. The atheistical 
 argument is most illogical. In human affairs 
 and in human works, we never except within 
 very narrow limits find order or progress, har- 
 mony or adaptation, due to anything but design. 
 To assert, therefore, that these attributes of 
 Nature are the result of chance, is to main- 
 tain a hypothesis which is not only unwar- 
 ranted, but which is absolutely contradicted, 
 by experience. On the other hand, the argu- 
 ment from design is a strictly logical argument. 
 I believe that my neighbour is a personal, free, 
 intelligent being like myself, because of the con-
 
 The Argument from Design. 283 
 
 sistenoy and purpose manifested in his words 
 and deeds. The fact that the forces of Nature 
 produce their results according to an absolutely 
 unchanging method, leads inevitably to the con- 
 clusion that they are connected with a Will, in 
 whom there is neither variableness nor shadow of 
 turning, and who is the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and for ever. Further, when we remember that 
 each one of these forces, if it worked irregu- 
 larly instead of regularly, would be capable 
 of throwing the entire universe into confusion, 
 we are confirmed in our conviction that the 
 world in which we find ourselves is not the. 
 production of a fortuitous concurrence of atoms, 
 but that there is a Being working through all 
 atoms and forces, who loves beauty, harmony, 
 progress and joy, "who maketh the winds His 
 angels, and flaming fires His ministers." 1 
 
 1 For a fuller treatment of the connection between Evolution 
 and Design, see my volume on 'Agnosticism.'
 
 284 
 
 Science and Religion. 
 v. 
 
 THE VISION OF GOD. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God." 
 MATTHEW v. 8. 
 
 T APPKEHEND that Christ was referring as 
 much to our present as to our future life, 
 when He uttered these words. Let me direct your 
 attention to one phase of the subject viz., to the 
 vision of God which exists for us in nature. 
 
 There are three distinct kinds of sight. There 
 is, first of all, physical sight, which depends 
 chiefly on bodily organs, and which merely 
 enables us to distinguish material objects from 
 one another. Then, secondly, there is mental 
 sight the sight of the scientist and the poet. 
 This faculty helps men to discover analogies and 
 resemblances and connections between dissimilar
 
 The Vision of God. 285 
 
 and distant things ; and hence it gives rise to the 
 metaphors and similes of poetry, and leads to 
 the discovery of the laws of nature. It was the 
 faculty of mental vision, for example, which led 
 to the establishment of the widest scientific gen- 
 eralisation, by suggesting to Newton that perhaps 
 the earth might exercise the same attractive 
 influence upon the moon which it did upon a 
 falling apple. Then, thirdly, there is spiritual 
 sight, which belongs to the metaphysical philoso- 
 pher and to the man of faith. Spiritual vision 
 enables men to "see Him who is invisible," 
 Him who is unseeable by either the first or the 
 second kind of sight. 
 
 We may call these powers of vision, if we 
 please, the sight of the body, mind, and spirit 
 respectively. Of course this is only a rough 
 classification. Strictly speaking even in the first 
 case it is the mind that sees, and not the bodily 
 eye. Still, for the lowest kind of vision there is 
 needed only such an exercise of mind as is possible 
 for a brute. Again, in our present state of exist- 
 ence, there is no such thing as purely spiritual 
 sight. Our materials must be received through 
 the senses. If we are spiritually to see God in 
 nature, it is necessary that we first of all physi- 
 cally see nature itself. " That is not first which
 
 286 Science and Religion. 
 
 is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after- 
 ward that which is spiritual." And once more, 
 you must remember the distinction between mind 
 and spirit does not imply two separate entities, 
 but only distinct faculties in the one indivisible 
 man. The mind stands for the lower intellec- 
 tual faculties, such as imagination or generalisa- 
 tion, the spirit for the higher, such as faith and 
 the religious affections. With these qualifications, 
 we may, if we please, talk of the three kinds of 
 sight as bodily, mental, and spiritual, remember- 
 ing that these adjectives refer only to the most 
 striking factor in the process of vision in each 
 particular case. 
 
 Now not one of these three faculties of sight 
 is used by any of us as much as it should be. 
 Even the first and simplest kind we often allow 
 to lie dormant, though it requires no more exer- 
 tion than to open our eyes and look about us. 
 I remember noticing on a summer's evening at an 
 English watering-place, while the spectacle of one 
 of the most glorious sunsets ever seen was being 
 unfolded on the horizon, there were a number of 
 persons sitting on the promenade with their backs 
 to it. That is the way in which nature's beauty 
 is not unfrequently ignored. " Men have eyes, 
 but they see not."
 
 The Vision of God. 287 
 
 The second faculty of sight is still more 
 neglected by most of us, for this requires not 
 only that we use our eyes, but that we think 
 about what we see. We might know a great 
 deal more about Nature's ways than we do, we 
 might decipher for ourselves some of her un- 
 spoken poems, if we would but use our mental 
 vision. Carlyle truly says, "We have to regret 
 not only that men have no religion, but that they 
 have no reflection. They go about with their 
 heads full of mere extraneous noises, with their 
 eyes wide open but visionless, for the most 
 part in the somnambulist state." And I think 
 that the diversity between men, in regard to their 
 scientific or poetic insight into nature, is deter- 
 mined more by industry than by talent. No 
 man can be a poet or philosopher without hard 
 work. Why. genius itself has been defined as 
 patience ; and patience is, at any rate, its most 
 important constituent. Intellectual vision re- 
 quires a determined effort ay, thousands of 
 determined efforts to think. We must "in- 
 terrogate nature," as Bacon puts it that is, we 
 must inquire carefully into the causes and effects 
 and uses and meanings of the phenomena taking 
 place everywhere around us. And we might 
 all do this if we would. It is quite true that
 
 288 Science and Religion. 
 
 "the eye can only see what it brings with it 
 the power of seeing." But it is also true that 
 the power which it brings with it may be in- 
 tensified by practice. Even our physical faculty 
 of sight (as I have called it) can only be de- 
 veloped by experience. Those of you who know 
 anything of psychology, or have read Berkeley's 
 ' Theory of Vision/ will understand what I mean. 
 All that you actually see at any moment is a 
 little flat patch of colour on the retina of your 
 eye. What you seem to see namely, such and 
 such an object at such and such a distance 
 is an inference. The correctness of such infer- 
 ences is due to the constant and lifelong practice 
 you have had in drawing them. This practice 
 is forced upon you by the common experiences 
 of life. But the development of mental vision 
 requires not only long - continued involuntary 
 practice, but long - continued voluntary effort. 
 I venture to say that there is not one young 
 man now present who might not before he died 
 discover something in nature, either after the 
 manner of the scientist or of the poet, which 
 has never yet been seen and which the world 
 would be much the better for knowing, if only 
 he would take the trouble to look for it. 
 Similarly, in regard to spiritual vision, we all
 
 The Vision of God. 289 
 
 have the capacity within us latent if not de- 
 veloped. This kind of sight Christ teaches us 
 depends on pureness of heart. A pure heart, I 
 take it, is one that is not entirely consecrated to 
 the acquisition of pleasure, or money, or fame, or 
 any other form of self-seeking, a heart that is 
 not altogether set upon self -gratification, a 
 heart "at leisure from itself," and so at leisure 
 to seek for God. 
 
 Some of you may be inclined to ask, How is 
 it, then, that modern scientists find the vision 
 of God in nature so blurred and indistinct? 
 They are certainly not selfish pleasure-seekers 
 or money-makers. They are for the most part 
 disinterested and enthusiastic seekers after truth. 
 But to them, generally speaking, the Deity is an 
 unknown God. Yet others far less gifted than 
 they, and not more unselfish, have "seen the 
 King in His beauty," and while they traversed 
 the mazes of this present world, have felt their 
 hearts " burn within them " as He talked to them 
 by the way. I think the chief reason is this. 
 Just as the body may be over-trained, and its 
 powers developed to the injury of the mind, so 
 the mental faculties may be over -educated, 
 educated, that is, at the expense of the spiritual. 
 This has been the case, it seems to me, with a 
 T
 
 290 Science and Religion. 
 
 good many modern physicists. Their whole lives 
 are spent in weighing, measuring and analysing 
 things, so that they feel hopelessly lost in regard 
 to subjects which do not admit of such treat- 
 ment. Lalande once said, "I have swept the 
 heavens with my telescope, and have not seen 
 a God." And though there are few scientists in 
 the present day who would express themselves 
 so crudely, there are many who have unwarrant- 
 ably maintained that our knowledge is necessarily 
 confined within the limits of " the methods and 
 formulae of physics." 1 It is a pity that they 
 should make this mistake ; but still it is not 
 altogether surprising. " Let him among you that 
 is without sin," who is quite sure that all his 
 faculties are developed in due proportion, " cast 
 the first stone." As for the theologians, they 
 should be the last people in the world to com- 
 plain of one-sidedness in other people, for it has 
 been their own most remarkable characteristic. 
 
 Still, though I am not desirous of condemning 
 those who have failed to see the vision of God, 
 I am anxious to point out to you that this vision 
 really exists, and that it has been seen by many 
 in all its mysterious grandeur. It is useless to 
 say that those who see it, or think they see it, are 
 
 1 See my 'Agnosticism' and ' Personality. '
 
 The Vision of God. 291 
 
 mere visionary fanatics, whom too much or too 
 little learning has made mad. For it has been 
 seen by such men (to take only three examples) 
 as Goethe, Carlyle, and Tennyson. You may re- 
 member the Earth-spirit in ' Faust ' says 
 
 "Thus at the roaring loom of time I ply, 
 And weave for God the garment thou seest Him by." 
 
 That is Goethe's idea of Nature. It is " the gar- 
 ment of God." Again, Carlyle says in 'Sartor 
 llesartus,' " This fair universe, even in the meanest 
 province, is in very deed the star-domed city of 
 God. Through every star, through every grass- 
 blade, the glory of a present God still beams." 
 And Tennyson, in yet more eloquent language, 
 says 
 
 "The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the 
 
 plains, 
 Are not these, soul, the vision of Him who reigns ? 
 
 Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, 
 Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him ? 
 
 Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with Spirit can 
 
 meet. 
 Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. " 
 
 Well then this vision, since others have seen 
 it, may be seen by you and me. Let us look for 
 God in the future more earnestly than we have
 
 292 Science and Religion. 
 
 done in the past, look for Him in vineyards 
 and orchards and harvest-fields, in the bright 
 plumage of birds, and the delicate bloom of fruit, 
 and the sweet gracefulness of flowers, in the 
 dense foliage of the forest, and the sparse heather 
 of the moor, in the rich luxuriance of fertile 
 valleys, and the rugged grandeur of the everlast- 
 ing hills, in the merry dance of the rivulet, 
 and the majestic tides of the ocean, in the gay 
 colours of the rainbow, and the quiet splendour 
 of the starry heavens, in the gentle radiance of 
 the moon, and the gorgeous light of setting suns, 
 in the clear azure sky, and the weird pageantry 
 of clouds, in the snow-mantled wintry landscape, 
 and the brilliant effulgence of a summer's noon 
 in the virgin loveliness of spring, and in the 
 pensive fading beauty of autumn; let us look 
 for Him with an earnest, eager and unwearied 
 gaze, till we see Him to be a God of wisdom as 
 well as power, of love as well as sovereignty, of 
 beauty as well as glory.
 
 293 
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 "Our Father." 
 
 "TF there were no God," said Voltaire, "it 
 would be necessary to create one." Men 
 must have some object of worship. They can- 
 not avoid forming a conception of the Being, 
 or Cause, or Force however they may please 
 to term it which they regard as the one great 
 fact of the universe. The impossibility of dis- 
 pensing altogether with religion is often very 
 curiously illustrated. For example, it is not 
 uncommon to find persons at the same time 
 Agnostics and Spiritualists. They cannot bring 
 themselves to believe in the One Omniscient 
 Being, and yet they are very confident of the 
 existence of an infinite number of pottering 
 spirits, who are ready at any moment to predict 
 the future by means of a pack of cards or some 
 other equally trivial expedient. The impossi-
 
 294 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 bility of dispensing with religion has received its 
 most striking illustration from Comte, the author 
 of the Positive Philosophy. He rejected what 
 he considered the fiction of a God, but supplied 
 its place by the abstract idea of humanity, which 
 he called the Grand $tre. The cultus which he 
 instituted in honour of this conception involved 
 a doctrine of immortality and the practice of 
 prayer ; and it included the tyranny of a despotic 
 priesthood, who were to determine not only what 
 common people should believe, but also the sub- 
 jects which thinkers and scientists should in- 
 vestigate. The religion of Comte has been well 
 described by Professor Huxley as "a sort of 
 Roman Catholicism minus Christianity." 
 
 The human heart, at any rate in its quieter 
 and more sober moments when it is resting from 
 the rush of life, craves and demands a God. 
 The universality of this yearning has been for- 
 cibly described by Max Miiller in his lectures 
 on the Science of Religion. " There was in the 
 heart of man from the very first, a feeling of 
 incompleteness, of weakness, of dependence, of 
 whatever we like to call it in our abstract 
 language. We can explain it as little as we 
 can explain why a new - born child feels the 
 cravings of hunger or of thirst; but it was so
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 295 
 
 from the first, and is even so now. Man knows 
 not whence he comes and whither he goes; he 
 looks for a guide, a friend; he wearies for some 
 one on whom he can rest; he wants something 
 like a Father in heaven. In addition to all the 
 impressions he receives from the outer world, 
 there is a stronger impulse from within ; a yearn- 
 ing for something that should not come and 
 go like everything else; that should be before 
 and after and for ever; that should hold and 
 support everything; that should make man feel 
 at home in this strange universe." 
 
 We are likely to forget the debt of gratitude 
 which we owe to Christ for having revealed to 
 us the doctrine of our text. The conception of 
 the Fatherhood of God may seem a simple and 
 natural idea, that might have easily occurred to 
 any one. But this is not the case. History, and 
 still more philology, show how hard and how 
 long men struggled unsuccessfully to find a word 
 which would fitly express, and an emblem which 
 would worthily symbolise, the Deity. Max 
 Miiller has pointed out that the name of sky 
 has been chosen for this purpose, at one time or 
 other, by almost all nations. We have examples 
 of this in the Roman Jupiter and in the Greek 
 Zeus. But he asks, " Was the sky the full ex-
 
 296 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 pression of that within the mind which wanted 
 expression ? Far from it. The first man who, 
 after looking everywhere for what he wanted, 
 and who at last from sheer exhaustion grasped 
 at the name of sky as better than nothing, knew 
 but too well that after all his success was a 
 miserable failure. The sky was no doubt the 
 most exalted, the only unchanging and infinite 
 being that had received a name, and that could 
 lend its name to the as yet unborn idea of the 
 Infinite, which disquieted the human mind. But 
 the man who chose the name could not have 
 meant that the visible sky was all he wanted, 
 and that the blue canopy above was his God." 
 This was the best, however, that could be done in 
 the days of the world's infancy. Age succeeded 
 age, and thinker followed thinker; men still 
 yearned to comprehend the Being from whom 
 their life was derived : but they could not. The 
 Athenians, you remember, erected an altar with 
 the inscription, "To the unknown God." They 
 could not name him ; they did not try to do so. 
 They felt that every word which suggested it- 
 self was inadequate, misleading and false. The 
 Christian idea of the Fatherhood of God had 
 scarcely occurred even to such a poet as Plato. 
 We find from the Old Testament that it had now
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 297 
 
 and again flashed through the minds of one or 
 two of the most spiritual of the Jewish seers. 
 And we find too, in studying philology, that the 
 idea had suggested itself to our old Aryan an- 
 cestors in prehistoric times. 1 But, this notwith- 
 standing, we may safely say, that the conception 
 was never fully realised or developed before the 
 time of Christ, 
 
 I have no intention in this sermon of attempt- 
 ing to prove the legitimacy of the idea that is 
 to say, its conformability with reason. 2 I will 
 merely suggest to any one who may doubt this 
 conformability, that there is nothing in Nature 
 to contradict it. True, our own world has in it 
 a vast amount of suffering, but still it has in it a 
 much greater amount of joy. This is clearly and 
 dispassionately argued in one of John Stuart 
 Mill's posthumous essays. 3 It is also forcibly 
 stated in Lewis Morris's exquisite poem entitled 
 " Evensong " : 
 
 "Pain comes, hopeless pain, God knows and we know, again 
 and again ; 
 
 1 See 'Defects of Christianity, and other Sermons,' p. 183. 
 
 2 For this, see my ' Belief in God.' 
 
 3 This argument in Mill's mouth is doubly powerful, 
 because he was naturally inclined rather to pessimism than 
 to optimism.
 
 298 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 But e'en pain has its intervals blest, when 'tis heaven to be 
 
 free from pain. 
 And I think that the wretch who lies, pressed by a load of 
 
 incurable ill, 
 With a grave pity pities himself, but would choose to have 
 
 lived it still : 
 He pities himself, and yet knows, as he casts up life's 
 
 chequered sum, 
 It were best on the whole to have lived, whatever calamity 
 
 come. 
 And the earth is full of joy. Every blade of grass that 
 
 springs ; 
 
 Every cool worm that crawls, content as the eagle on soar- 
 ing wings ; 
 Every summer's day instinct with life ; every dawn when 
 
 from waking bird 
 
 And morning hum of the bee a chorus of praise is heard ; 
 Every gnat that sports in the sun for his little life of a 
 
 day; 
 Every fiower that opens its cup to the dews of a perfumed 
 
 May ; 
 Every child that wakes with a smile, and sings to the ceiliug 
 
 at dawn ; 
 Every bosom which knows a new hope stir beneath its 
 
 virginal lawn ; 
 Every young soul ardent and high, rushing forth into life's 
 
 hot fight ; 
 Every home of happy content, lit by love's own mystical 
 
 light ; 
 Every worker who works till the evening, and takes before 
 
 night his wage ; 
 Be his work a furrow straight down, or the joy of a bettered 
 
 age; 
 Every thinker who, standing aloof from the throng, finds a 
 
 high delight 
 In striking, with voice or with pen, a stroke for the triumph 
 
 of right ;
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 299 
 
 All these know that life is sweet, all these with a consonant 
 
 voice, 
 Read the legend of time with, a smile, and that which they 
 
 read is ' Rejoice. ' " 
 
 Since then the pain and sorrow of our world 
 seem to be more than counterbalanced by its 
 pleasure and its joy; since, moreover, we know 
 that suffering is sometimes productive of good, 
 and do not know but that it may be always pro- 
 ductive of good, it follows that the idea of the 
 Fatherhood of God is a conception which, to say 
 the least of it, cannot be disproved by any of the 
 facts of experience. 
 
 Our text embodies the most fundamental, the 
 most comprehensive, doctrine of Christianity; and 
 no system of theology can lay claim to any value 
 which does not start from this point. Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes tells us that, when asked by 
 some one what was his creed, he replied, "The 
 first two words of the Paternoster." Those who 
 think that his answer indicated a feeble faith and 
 a contracted belief do not know the meaning of 
 the words our Father. They are pregnant with 
 significance. Some persons are afraid that if the 
 love of God be too much insisted upon, there is a 
 danger of His justice being ignored. They seem 
 to imagine that if we too often speak about the
 
 300 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 Divine Fatherhood, it will be forgotten that pun- 
 ishment must follow sin. Now there could not 
 be a greater mistake. All the more important 
 practical doctrines of Christianity inevitably fol- 
 low, and can be easily deduced, from the state- 
 ment that God is our Father; whereas the sys- 
 tems of theology which have started from God's 
 sovereignty, or omnipotence, or justice, have never 
 reached His love. The only thing they have re- 
 cognised under that name is so limited, so capri- 
 cious, and so unreasonable, as to be altogether 
 beneath contempt. Instead of representing God's 
 tender mercies as " over all His works," they have 
 made Him care only for a few, and for these few 
 simply in order that by them His own isolated 
 "glory" might be promoted. Such systems of 
 theology, in fact, have never recognised a God at 
 all. They have placed upon the throne of the 
 universe a narrow-minded, mean-spirited man, 
 possessed of more power, and therefore capable of 
 doing more mischief, than the rest of his fellows. 
 From a narrow conception like that of justice, 
 it is impossible to deduce a broad conception like 
 that of love. To make the attempt is like trying 
 to extract the whole from the part, the greater 
 from the less. On the other hand, we can 
 scarcely fail to see that the idea of justice fol-
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 301 
 
 lows necessarily from that of love, is in fact 
 included in it. A father worthy of the name 
 must evidently be just, that is, must deal with 
 his children according to their deserts. Simi- 
 larly, from the fact of punishment we cannot 
 prove love ; for punishment may be inflicted out 
 of hate : but love implies the possibility of pun- 
 ishment. A father worthy of the name must 
 punish his children when their welfare demands 
 this discipline. The doctrine of God's Father- 
 hood, then, does not destroy any wholesome dread 
 of retribution. On the contrary, the very inten- 
 sity of the Infinite Father's affection makes it 
 certain that no sin will be overlooked, but that 
 every delinquency will be followed by the con- 
 suming fire of suffering, in order that the sinner 
 himself may if possible be made perfect. So that 
 you see the broad idea of Fatherhood necessarily 
 involves the narrower ideas of justice and of 
 punishment. 
 
 After all however, the fear of punishment, 
 though a help to right-doing, is not the only, nor 
 is it the greatest, help. We may be terrified 
 away from the bad, but we may be also attracted 
 and charmed towards the good. " If for every 
 rebuke," says Euskin, "that we utter of men's 
 vices, we put forth a claim upon their hearts;
 
 3<32 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 if for every assertion of God's demands from 
 them, we could substitute a display of His kind- 
 ness to them ; if side by side with every warning 
 of death we could exhibit promises of immor- 
 tality; if in fine, instead of assuming the being 
 of an awful Deity, which men are sometimes 
 unable to conceive, we were to show them a near, 
 visible, all-beneficent Deity, whose presence makes 
 the earth itself a heaven, I think there would be 
 fewer deaf children sitting in the market-place." 
 Ruskin is right. Men may be more easily drawn 
 than driven. Even punishment itself, when it is 
 seen to proceed from love, becomes attractive, 
 irresistibly attractive. But unless, or until, this 
 origin can be discovered for it, it may have a 
 hardening, rather than a subduing, influence. 
 Strong, brave, high-spirited men will be inclined 
 to resist, even unto death. It is impossible 
 
 " By tyrannous threats to force them into faith." 
 
 According to the old classic legend, when Jove 
 seemed to be hurling his thunderbolts in a tyran- 
 nical and unjust fashion, the Titans endeavoured 
 to scale heaven and wrest them from his grasp. 
 So it will ever be. Supposing that the strongest 
 Power in the universe were not good but evil, not 
 God but devil, there would always be
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 303 
 
 " Souls who dared look the Omnipotent Tyrant in 
 His everlasting face, and tell Him that 
 His evil is not good." 
 
 Those who are endowed with true nobility of soul 
 will be but little influenced by fear. But if you 
 can bring to bear upon them motives of admira- 
 tion, of gratitude, of affection, you may do with 
 them almost what you will. Hence a belief in 
 the Fatherhood of God is the strongest and the 
 best stimulus to right-doing. 
 
 The words of our text involve almost the 
 whole of practical religion. It is impossible to 
 overrate the value of the work which succeeds in 
 instilling them into young minds and hearts, not 
 as a dead intellectual dogma, but as an active 
 principle, permeating the whole of life. In the 
 heyday of youth and health and pleasure, men 
 may feel self-sufficient ; they may not recognise 
 their need of the Infinite Father. But they will 
 not always be young and well and happy, and 
 what then ? What then ? As Burns truly says 
 
 "When ranting round in pleasure's ring, 
 
 Religion may be blinded ; 
 
 Or if she gie a random sting, 
 
 It may be little minded. 
 
 But when on life we're tempest-driven, 
 
 And conscience but a canker, 
 A correspondence fixed with heaven 
 
 Is sure a noble anchor."
 
 304 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 There will come to many of the children now in 
 our homes and schools, seasons of affliction, when 
 they will be wellnigh crushed beneath the bur- 
 den of life, when its dull monotony or poignant 
 anguish will make them yearn for the rest and 
 peace of death. There will come to most of the 
 children of the rising generation, seasons of fierce 
 mental conflict and dense spiritual darkness, 
 when they will feel painfully conscious of the 
 mystery of existence, and painfully unconscious 
 of any satisfactory solution for the mystery. 
 Faith for them, believe me, will be no easy 
 matter. Scarcely a week will pass but they 
 will read in some newspaper or review ingenious 
 and powerful attacks, not only upon Christian- 
 ity, but even upon theism. They will not be 
 able, like so many of their predecessors, to 
 believe that they believe everything which has 
 been handed down to them upon authority. In 
 the agony of scepticism many of them may be 
 driven for the moment to think, with Schopen- 
 hauer, that the universe is an egregious blunder, 
 that life is a horrid mockery, that there is no- 
 thing desirable but annihilation. We tremble 
 as we picture to ourselves the voyage of these 
 little ones over life's wild waste of waters. 
 Yet we need not despair. We too perhaps have
 
 The Divine Fatherhood. 305 
 
 been overtaken by the same terrible tempest, and 
 enveloped in the same blackness of darkness. 
 Through the storm, however, there have come 
 echoes, faint but passing sweet, of the music of 
 our childhood. There have thrilled through us 
 memories of the time when we were first taught 
 to say, " Our Father." And we have taken cour- 
 age; hoping even against hope, that after all 
 there may be a meaning and a use in our calam- 
 ity, that the tempest may be but wafting us more 
 swiftly to a desirable haven, that the darkness 
 may be but the prelude of dawn. We have been 
 enabled to say with poor broken-hearted Job, 
 " Behold, I go forward, but He is not there : and 
 backward, but I cannot perceive Him : on the 
 left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot be- 
 hold Him : He hideth Himself on the right hand, 
 that I cannot see Him. But He knoweth the way 
 that I take : when He hath tried me, / shall come 
 forth as gold." 
 
 One of the most difficult problems in the 
 present day, is this, what are we to teach our 
 children ? We cannot teach them all the com- 
 plicated and unsatisfactory theology of the past. 
 What are we to put in its place ? Well, if you 
 can honestly and earnestly teach them the first 
 two words of the Lord's Prayer it is quite 
 u
 
 306 The Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 enough. Teach them to believe that they have 
 a Father in heaven, and they will have all the 
 theology they need. Teach them to feel it, and 
 they will have all the religion that even Christ 
 could desire for them. If you teach them this, 
 their future can never be altogether wretched. 
 If you do not teach them this, their future can 
 never be for any length of time even tolerably 
 sweet.
 
 307 
 
 Rternal Life. 
 (EASTER-DAY SERMON.) 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life." 
 REVELATION ii. 7. 
 
 "OHOW me," says Fichte, "what them truly 
 lovest, show me what thou seekest and 
 strivest for with thy whole heart, and thou hast 
 thereby shown me thy life. This love is the root 
 and central part of thy being. What thou lovest 
 is that thou livest." 
 
 There goes a man shabbily dressed, looking 
 very anxious and careworn. He is hurrying on 
 at a great pace, but suppose we stop him and say, 
 " Sir, what is life ? " " What is life ? " he replies ; 
 " why, life is money. I toil and scheme for it day 
 and night. I am worth a good deal already. I 
 may one day be a millionaire. That is my fondest
 
 308 Eternal Life. 
 
 hope. Then I may truly say I have lived." 
 With this short but pregnant reply he hastens 
 on his way. 
 
 He has no sooner gone than we meet a young 
 man, faultlessly attired, with a remarkably hand- 
 some, and still more remarkably vacant, counte- 
 nance, lounging slowly along, looking unutterably 
 bored. Let us ask him the same question. 
 "Life," he replies, "is pleasure. Man's chief 
 end is to enjoy himself. Philosophers, poets, 
 statesmen, philanthropists, scientists, all earnest 
 thinkers and workers, I look upon either as 
 drudges to be pitied or as fools to be despised. 
 I go in for enjoyment. I have broken my 
 mother's heart ; I have sent my father in sorrow 
 to the grave ; I have ruined scores who were 
 fools enough to trust in me. I wish there were 
 more pleasure than there is to be thus obtained. 
 It is much less than it ought to be. Still it is 
 the only thing worth living for. To continue in 
 this course as long as possible is, I believe, to 
 make the best use of my existence." With these 
 remarks he leaves us and saunters on. 
 
 We next encounter a placid - looking couple, 
 man and wife. There is nothing at all note- 
 worthy in their appearance. They would seem 
 to be moderately well to do, and in all other
 
 Eternal Life. 309 
 
 respects very much like a great many other 
 couples. To our question, " "What is life ? " the 
 gentleman replies, " Why, the proper way to live 
 is to take things easy. It is not worth while to 
 aim at being very rich this would require too 
 much exertion. It is not worth while to seek 
 after enjoyment. It is better to be contented 
 with what the gods send. Look at me. I make 
 a pretty good income without any trouble. I 
 never do what I dislike doing, with the exception 
 of going to church on Sunday morning ; and that 
 is an unavoidable, annoyance 
 
 ' At church on Sunday to attend 
 Will serve to keep the world your friend.' 
 
 Of course I never think thinking is troublesome, 
 and does not pay. My actions and opinions are 
 all that can be desired, for they are just like 
 those of my neighbours. My outward conduct 
 is always irreproachable ; my opinions are al- 
 ways orthodox." Here the lady chimes in and 
 says, " Yes, and we hate enthusiasm ; enthusiasm 
 is so vulgar. It disturbs the delicious calmness 
 of a well-regulated existence. We live in a 
 delightful, half-conscious dream." 
 
 We allow these good people to pass on, and to 
 relapse into their usual state of semi-conscious-
 
 3 1 o Eternal L ife. 
 
 ness. Then we espy a man with a well-shaped 
 head, and a quick, eager, penetrating glance. We 
 put to him our old question; we tell him the 
 answers we have already received; and we ask 
 him if he agrees with any of them. "No," he 
 replies ; "ten thousand times no. Money is 
 mere dross. Pleasure is but vanity. An easy- 
 going, indolent, useless life is an existence worthy 
 only of a vegetable. Life is fame. Ambition is 
 my goal. For this I strive with all the energy of 
 my nature. I am willing to sacrifice everything 
 for fame. To be acknowledged as one of the 
 ablest men of my age, and at last to be received 
 into Westminster Abbey that would be life." 
 
 Now these persons, whom we have thus been 
 fortunate enough to meet one after another, 
 though somewhat extreme, are still typical ex- 
 amples of very large classes of men and women. 
 But if we criticise these ideals of life even from 
 a temporal standpoint, if we regard them for a 
 moment without any reference to a future state 
 of existence, their unsatisfactoriness must be very 
 evident. It will be clear enough to us, at any 
 rate, if these ideals are not our own. It is always 
 easy to see that others are in the wrong. 
 
 First of all, as to the money ideal. Though 
 money may be very productive of good, the love
 
 Eternal Life. 311 
 
 of it is the root of all evil. As Dickens has 
 very well said, and illustrated in the character 
 of Ealph Nickleby, "Gold conjures up a mist 
 about a man, more destructive of all his senses 
 and dulling to his feelings than the fumes of 
 charcoal." And, even if it be not loved for its 
 own sake, its power is often exaggerated. It is but 
 little after all, comparatively speaking, that money 
 can accomplish. It may buy for us dozens of 
 houses, but it cannot make one of them a home. 
 It may purchase for us hundreds of acquaint- 
 ances, but it cannot give us a single friend. So 
 that to spend one's days in struggling only or 
 chiefly for money is, surely, to mistake the husk 
 of life for the kernel. 
 
 With regard to the second case, even if it 
 could be proved, which it cannot, that pleasure 
 was the only thing worth living for, still a reck- 
 less indulgence in it would be the supremest 
 madness. Such indulgence necessarily outwits 
 itself. It is inevitably followed by a weary 
 sense of satiety and disgust that no amount of 
 enjoyment can ever afterwards dispel. Esti- 
 mated from their own point of view, the lives of 
 such men are failures. These men of pleasure 
 are pre-eminently men of pain
 
 3 1 2 Eternal Life. 
 
 "Who, by their own desire accomplished, bring 
 Their own grey hairs in sorrow to the grave." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say anything about 
 the third case. To go through life taking every- 
 thing just as it conies, avoiding as far as possible 
 all thought, all effort, all excitement, all enthusi- 
 asm, all individuality, this, as our friend the 
 ambitious man told us just now, is an ideal 
 worthy only of a vegetable. It may be life for 
 a cabbage; but for a man it is death. 
 
 And with regard to ambition itself, what shall 
 we say ? It is a good thing in its way, a very 
 good thing. It has been called the last infirmity 
 of noble minds. But it is not always an infir- 
 mity; it is oftener an inspiration. Without it 
 human excellence would be much rarer than it 
 is. Fame however, as all who have enjoyed it 
 testify, is never a sufficient recompense for the 
 trouble expended in acquiring it. It is a useful 
 motive, but a very poor reward. 
 
 "Ambition's temple never yet 
 
 Let in a well-contented guest ; 
 Some spoil unwon, some deed undone, 
 MARS the sweet accents ' rest is won.' " 
 
 There is another ideal of life which is very 
 commonly adopted just now, and that is the 
 ideal of culture ; culture not in the sense of all-
 
 Eternal Life. 3 1 3 
 
 round, complete development, but in the con- 
 tracted sense of merely intellectual and aesthetic 
 education. In the last eloquent chapter of his 
 ' Studies in the Renaissance,' Pater says : " Every 
 moment some form grows perfect in hand or 
 face ; some tone on the hills or sea is choicer 
 than the rest ; some mood or passion of intel- 
 lectual excitement is irresistibly attractive for us, 
 and for that moment only. A counted number 
 of pulses is given to us of a variegated life. We 
 are all condemned to die. We have an interval, 
 and then our place knows us no more. Our one 
 chance is in getting into this interval as many 
 pulsations as possible. Some spend it in listless- 
 ness, some in high passions, the wisest in art and 
 song." But art and song, good though they be, 
 do not satisfy the whole of our nature. We are 
 something more than sensuous and aesthetic 
 beings, and that something more is the crown 
 and completion of our personality. The man 
 with half his body paralysed is but half alive, 
 and we are in a similar predicament if we 
 destroy or ignore our spiritual nature. Nay, in 
 a worse ; for we are neglecting that part of our 
 being which is of paramount importance. Sir ! 
 you may obtain all that can be got for money, 
 you may secure all the pleasures of sense and
 
 314 Eternal L ife. 
 
 of intellect, you may surround yourself with 
 the most refined productions of art, you may 
 extract all possible sweetness from friendship 
 and from love, you may be the idol of society 
 and the admiration of the world, but if there 
 is nothing more in your existence, it is incom- 
 plete and imperfect, unworthy of being called 
 life. 
 
 Mark me ! I do not underrate the world's 
 ordinary pleasures and pursuits. I only say that 
 they are not everything. I do not say that all 
 your thoughts and attention should be exclusively 
 devoted to your character ; that would be an im- 
 possibility. There are few worse men in the 
 world than the lying hypocrites who profess to 
 care for nothing but what they call their souls. 
 You have a complex nature, and you must live a 
 complex life. But I do say that the spiritual 
 element of your being is the highest, and that 
 the acquisition of a noble character should be 
 your chief concern. For character can never 
 perish. 
 
 This earth of ours, which seems the very em- 
 blem of permanence, is doomed to come to an 
 end. The wonderful power of renewing her 
 youth, which Nature now possesses, she will not 
 retain for ever. The sweet beautv that is com-
 
 Eterna I Life. 315 
 
 ing back again to her face in this genial spring- 
 tide will some day depart never to return. 
 Science teaches us most certainly that our earth 
 cannot always remain what and where it is. 
 There will come a time when 
 
 " Like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
 The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; 
 And, like an insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind." 
 
 We cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought 
 of this universal dissolution. There are within 
 us immortal longings. In the presence of this 
 yearning for eternal life, which possibly on this 
 Easter-day, by the power of association, is more 
 than usually strong, in the presence of this 
 yearning for immortality, how paltry seems our 
 little span of threescore years and ten ! We 
 feel constrained mournfully to exclaim, " What 
 is our life ? It is even a vapour, that appeareth 
 for a little time, and then vanisheth away." "As 
 for man, his days are as grass : as a flower of the 
 field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth 
 over it and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall 
 know it no more." We cannot but feel that if 
 death is to be the end of us, life is not worth
 
 316 Eternal Life. 
 
 the trouble of living. To many a man it 
 brings a decided preponderance of suffering. 
 Manifestly, if death ends all, it would have 
 been better for that man if he had not been 
 born, better for him if he had been left in the 
 rest of non-existence. And the thought of death 
 will be even more grievous to us if our lives have 
 been prosperous and happy. Oh the pity of it ! 
 if, just after we have tasted the joy of being, we 
 must cease to be. 
 
 Twelve centuries and a half ago there was 
 a discussion in the Court of Edwin, King of 
 Northumbria, as to whether Christianity was a 
 religion worthy of being adopted. An old Earl 
 spoke as follows in its defence. "The life of 
 man reminds me," he said, " of a sparrow which 
 in the winter time flies through a well -lighted 
 and well -heated hall. It enters by one door, 
 and rapidly passes out by another. It has a brief 
 escape from the chilling storms of rain and snow 
 without. It enjoys a momentary calm and shel- 
 ter. But again it goes forth to another winter, 
 and vanishes from our sight. So also seems the 
 short life of man. Of what went before it, and 
 what is to follow it, we know not. If this new 
 doctrine brings us something more certain, it is 
 in my mind worthy of adoption." The old Earl
 
 Eternal Life. 3 1 / 
 
 was right. It is one of the crowning glories of 
 the Gospel, that it has brought life and immor- 
 tality to light. We find in the New Testament 
 that the doubt and despair, so often noticeable in 
 the Old, have given place to a hopeful moral 
 certainty. Job had asked anxiously and timidly, 
 " If a man die, shall he live again ? " The Psalm- 
 ist had inquired, still more sceptically, " Wilt 
 Thou show wonders to the dead ? . . . Shall 
 Thy loving -kindness be declared in the grave? 
 . . . Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark ; 
 and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetful- 
 ness ? " J But St Paul declared without hesita- 
 tion, " God will render to every man according 
 to his deeds : to them who, by patient continuance 
 in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and 
 immortality, eternal life." 
 
 Yes ; the wages of virtue is not to be dust. 
 It could not be, except in a universe that 
 was fundamentally irrational and immoral. As 
 Tennyson finely says 
 
 " My own dim life should teach me this, 
 That life shall live for evermore, 
 Else earth is darkness at the core, 
 And dust and ashes all that is." 
 
 1 On the Jewish disbelief in immortality, see also my 'Defects 
 of Modern Christianity,' pp. 99 and 104; and 'Agnosticism,' 
 pp. 297-302.
 
 3 1 8 Eternal Life. 
 
 Without immortality our present life is a ghastly 
 mockery. The " still sad music of humanity " is 
 but an unceasing wail attending an infinite series 
 of abortions, hopes born only to be blighted, 
 yearnings roused only to be crushed, beings 
 created only to be destroyed. It is the future 
 alone that redeems the present from contempt. 
 When regarded as an opportunity for the develop- 
 ment of " the power of an endless life " that is 
 latent within us, when viewed in the light of 
 eternity, our life on earth acquires infinite sig- 
 nificance and value. It is no longer paltry. It 
 is sublime. 
 
 But let us remember that eternal life life in 
 the highest and fullest sense of the word comes 
 only to those who seek it " by patient continuance 
 in well-doing." It must be won by effort, conflict, 
 suffering. There must be a struggle for existence 
 in eternity as in time. Just as we only exist 
 physically by resisting the adverse forces in sur- 
 rounding nature, so we can only exist spiritually 
 if we conquer our ghostly enemies. Each of us 
 has daily and hourly to choose, to choose be- 
 tween right and wrong, between gratification and 
 duty, between pleasing ourselves to the injury of 
 others, and benefiting others at the cost of self-
 
 Eternal L ife. 319 
 
 denial. To choose in the one way is easy, and 
 at the time agreeable; but it means defeat and 
 death. To choose in the other way is difficult, 
 and at the time painful; but it means victory 
 and life. To him that overcometh, and to him 
 alone, is it granted to eat of the tree of life.
 
 320 
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 
 JOHN xii. 32. 
 
 ITS there any proof that this prediction is likely 
 ^- to be fulfilled ? Was not Christ too san- 
 guine ? Is not His influence already on the 
 wane ? Ten years ago a gifted poet sang a paean 
 on the supposed decay of Christianity, and he 
 ventured to speak of the Cross of Calvary in the 
 following terms : 
 
 " It creaks and rocks to left and right, 
 
 Consumed of rottenness and rust, 
 Worm-eaten of the worms of night, 
 
 Dead as their spirits who put trust, 
 Round its base muttering as they sit, 
 In the time-cankered name of it." 
 
 Moreover, several of the leaders of thought in 
 Europe have of late been asking the question, 
 Are we still Christians ? and answering this 
 question in the negative. Let us look into the 
 matter a little, and see how it actually stands.
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 321 
 
 In the first place, I would remark that those 
 who honestly disbelieve in Christianity are igno- 
 rant of the actual nature of that religion. They 
 have either mistaken its accidents for its essence, 
 or they have accepted for a portrait what is only 
 a caricature. Like Strauss, perhaps, they imagine 
 that it is opposed to industry and commerce ; 
 or, like Swinburne, that it is synonymous with 
 priestcraft; or, like James Mill, that it is but 
 another name for Calvinism. The Saviour has 
 been injured far more by unconscious misrepre- 
 sentations than by any openly avowed hostility. 
 He Himself foretold that there would arise false 
 teachers, and that they would deceive many. 
 His prophecy has been strangely, sadly fulfilled. 
 All kinds of absurdities and blasphemies have 
 been shouted forth by persons suffering under 
 the mad delusion that they were preaching the 
 gospel. 1 There have been men calling themselves 
 Christians, who have said that the sweetest 
 music of heaven would be the wailings of the 
 lost in hell. There have been men calling them- 
 selves Christians, who have maintained that God 
 created the vast majority of mankind for the 
 express purpose of consigning them to ever- 
 
 1 See also sermons on "The Gospel," and on "The Practical 
 Nature of Christianity " in my ' Preaching and Hearing.' 
 
 X
 
 322 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 lasting flames, in order that he might be, as 
 they strangely term it, glorified. There have 
 been men calling themselves Christians, whose 
 religion has consisted in breaking on the wheel 
 or burning at the stake those who differed in 
 doctrine from themselves. There have been men 
 calling themselves Christians, who have asserted 
 that the grossest sins they might please to com- 
 mit, after what they dignified with the name 
 of conversion, would be matters of the most 
 perfect indifference. There have been men call- 
 ing themselves Christians, who were remarkable 
 for nothing save the conceited ignorance of the 
 bigot, the Satanic fury of the persecutor, the 
 childish puerilities of the formalist, or the sick- 
 ening cant of the hypocrite. Now so long as 
 any one believes that such men are the genuine 
 representatives of the teaching of Christ, he 
 cannot be censured for refusing to call himself 
 a Christian. You remember in Goethe's won- 
 derful drama, when Marguerite makes anxious 
 inquiries about Faust's theological opinions, he 
 tells her he cannot accept any of the religions 
 with which he is acquainted. She asks him 
 why. He answers, " Even from religiousness ; " 
 meaning that these religions appeared to him, 
 rightly or wrongly, to violate what he believed
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 323 
 
 to be eternally sacred moral principles. All 
 honour to the men who refuse to accept a blas- 
 phemous representation of the Deity ! When 
 they come to know the real Christ, they will be 
 among His most zealous disciples. Already they 
 
 " Adore and worship when they know it not ; 
 Pious beyond the intention of their thought, 
 Devout beyond the meaning of their will." 
 
 Whenever Christ has been understood, He has 
 been invariably admired, and more or less be- 
 lieved in, if not loved. In a former sermon I 
 mentioned the names of a number of illustrious 
 men who had all testified enthusiastic admira- 
 tion for Jesus of Nazareth ; and I gave you some 
 examples of the terms in which they had spoken 
 of Him. 1 Christ has been eulogised not only 
 by those who profess to be entirely consecrated 
 to His service, not only by the ignorant and 
 unlettered, who might possibly be the slaves of 
 an unreasoning fanaticism, but nearly all the 
 greatest minds of the last eighteen hundred 
 years, though holding the most divergent reli- 
 gious opinions, and differing in regard to almost 
 every other subject on which they wrote, have 
 been unanimous in their praise of Jesus. When- 
 ever men have caught a glimpse of the real 
 1 Pp. 46, 47.
 
 324 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 Christ, they have invariably felt drawn to Him 
 by an irresistible fascination. No one, except 
 through ignorance or misconception, has ever 
 formed any but the highest estimate of the 
 Saviour's character and work. 
 
 In the second place, I would remark that 
 Christ and His Gospel are inextricably bound up 
 with the future progress of the world. This has 
 been acknowledged over and over again by men 
 belonging to the strictest school of literary and 
 historical criticism. For example, in a paper 
 read some years ago before the Institute of 
 France, M. Troplong said, " Christian philosophy 
 lies at the root of our principles of right." M. 
 Eenan, too, has declared that " to tear the name 
 of Jesus from the world would be to shake it to 
 its very foundations." That this is no rhetorical 
 exaggeration, but mere sober fact, you may see 
 if you will call to mind the moral reformations 
 and the social improvements which can be indis- 
 putably traced to the teaching of the Nazarene. 
 The poet from whom I just now quoted speaks 
 as if Christ had accomplished nothing. 
 
 " The nineteenth wave of the ages rolls 
 
 Now deathward since His death and birth. 
 
 Has He fed full men's starved-out souls ? 
 Has he brought freedom upon earth ? 
 
 Or are there less oppressions done 
 
 On this wild world beneath the sun * "
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 325 
 
 Nothing but the most bitter prejudice could 
 lead an educated man to speak like this. The 
 world is resonant with voices that contradict him, 
 if he would but unstop his ears. Think first of 
 the wonderful influence Christ has exerted upon 
 individual lives. It is a fact, not less certain 
 than any in the physical sciences, that the story 
 of His self-sacrificing love has purified some of 
 the vilest hearts, and brought many of the most 
 abandoned of the devil's votaries to the very 
 feet of God. It is a fact, which no one can 
 even hesitate to admit, that He has inspired vast 
 numbers of His followers with such a passionate 
 devotion, that they have for His sake endured 
 the loss of all things, and have counted it all joy 
 that they were thought worthy to suffer shame 
 for Christ. It is a fact no less incontrovertible, 
 that a yet vaster company " a multitude which 
 no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, 
 and people, and tongues " though coming short 
 of entire self-surrender, have yet loved and served 
 Him to the best of their ability, faithfully though 
 fitfully; sometimes forsaking Him, yet always 
 returning to Him again. Moreover, as I have 
 said before, there are many who have caught 
 something of His own divine spirit of self-ab- 
 negation, and who know not, or scarcely know, 
 from whence it comes. Of all the best and
 
 326 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 noblest men now living, whether they profess 
 to be Christ's disciples or not, it may without 
 hesitation be affirmed that they are ready to deny 
 themselves for the welfare of others, and that, to 
 a greater or less extent, they have merged their 
 own life and wellbeing in the life and wellbeing 
 of the race. From whom can they have learnt 
 this enthusiasm for humanity if not from the 
 crucified Nazarene? 
 
 Think once more how successful Christ has 
 been in changing men's opinions as to the right 
 and the good and the beautiful. In all these 
 matters He was opposed to the most brilliant 
 intellects of Greece, and in the conflict they have 
 been vanquished, He has been victorious. I can- 
 not now work this out in detail. I cannot dwell 
 upon the reformations He has effected in giving 
 liberty to slaves, in elevating the social position 
 of women, in getting men to believe in the manli- 
 ness of pity, the beauty of humility, the dignity 
 of labour, and the sanctity of marriage. These 
 are, after all, but necessary consequences or de- 
 ductions from His golden rule, by which rule He 
 completely revolutionised the whole of the world's 
 moral ideas. 1 
 
 1 How it was Christ succeeded in getting men to adopt the 
 golden rule, when Buddha and Confucius comparatively failed,
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 327 
 
 Just contrast the commonplace morality of to- 
 day, I will not say with the ordinary notions that 
 were prevalent before the time of Christ, but 
 compare it with the teaching of the best and 
 wisest philosophers. Plato somewhere congratu- 
 lates the Athenians on having exhibited towards 
 the Persians a pure and heartfelt hatred. But 
 to-day any one would be considered a barbarian 
 if he were to utter a similar sentiment. Aristotle's 
 description of the ideal man the large-souled or 
 high-minded man, as he called him is one that 
 we cannot now read without a smile. He who 
 occupies himself solely with honour, walking with 
 a stately gait, speaking with an imperious voice, 
 despising the majority of his neighbours, but re- 
 ceiving a certain amount of dignified enjoyment 
 where the illustrious treat him with respect, 
 such a man Christ has taught us to regard, not as 
 great, but as pitifully, contemptibly small. 
 
 The fundamental moral principles of Jesus, 
 His golden rule, His new commandment, His 
 doctrine of the brotherhood of humanity, His 
 substitution of self-denial for self-aggrandisement 
 as the test of human excellence, these ideas have 
 been adopted by almost every thinker of repute. 
 
 I have elsewhere endeavoured to explain. 'Defects of Modern 
 Christianity, and other Sermons,' pp. 218-230.
 
 328 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 You will find them permeating the writings even 
 of the Positivists. John Stuart Mill, in his tract 
 on Utilitarianism, says that when we have re- 
 ceived a proper moral education, the feeling of 
 unity with our fellow -men will be as deeply 
 rooted in our consciousness as the horror of par- 
 ticular crimes ; the good of others will be to us 
 a thing naturally and necessarily to be attended 
 to, like any of the physical conditions of exist- 
 ence; we shall be unable to conceive the possi- 
 bility of getting personal happiness by conduct 
 opposed to the general good ; and we shall never 
 think of, or desire, any beneficial condition for 
 ourselves in which others are not included. This 
 is, of course, neither more nor less than an ex- 
 position of the ethical doctrines of our Lord. 
 
 There are many signs that human conduct is 
 now being increasingly regulated according to 
 the law of Christ. There never was so much 
 philanthropy in the world: witness our ragged- 
 schools and asylums and reformatories, our Hos- 
 pital Sundays and Saturdays, our Oxford and 
 Cambridge Missions in Whitechapel and Bethnal 
 Green. There never was so much sympathy: 
 witness the increased tolerance for diversity of 
 opinion, the increased courtesy of controversial- 
 ists, the growing tendency to dwell upon the
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 329 
 
 good side of men and systems, and to pass lightly 
 over the evil. Humanity really seems to be 
 making progress very slow, no doubt, but yet 
 steady progress towards that happy state, 
 
 " When each shall find his own in all men's good, 
 And all shall work in noble brotherhood." 
 
 Now in the marked increase of self-sacrifice, 
 and the growing recognition of its importance, 
 we may discover a striking proof of the increas- 
 ing influence of Jesus. We saw, when we were 
 discussing the connection between self-denial and 
 self-development, the immense importance which 
 Christ attached to self-denial; that He regarded 
 it as absolutely essential for the perfecting of the 
 individual and of the race, both for this life and 
 for the life which is to come. He made the 
 possession of a loving, self -sacrificing spirit the 
 test of genuine discipleship. Shortly before the 
 end He summed up His teaching in the words, 
 " A new commandment I give unto you, That ye 
 love one another. ... By this shall all men 
 know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one 
 to another." We noticed, too, that He insisted 
 strongly on the necessity of His disciples loving 
 Him, because He knew that they would find in 
 such a love a most powerful stimulus to unselfish- 
 ness. " If a man love me," said our Lord, " he
 
 330 The Progress of Christianity. 
 
 will keep my words." In the growing appreci- 
 ation and practice of self-denial, then, we cannot 
 fail to see the gradual accomplishment of the 
 Saviour's purpose, the progressive fulfilment of 
 the prophecy of our text. 
 
 If there be any such thing as certainty, if there 
 be any meaning in the word fact, if there be any 
 credibility in experience, if there be any truth in 
 history, if there be any critical discernment in 
 the world's greatest thinkers, it is demonstrated, 
 beyond the possibility of doubt, that tho amelio- 
 ration effected in our race by Christ is already 
 incalculably great. From the Cross of the 
 despised Nazarene a flood of glory has radiated 
 over the ages, and it is illumining our own with 
 undiminished, nay, with ever -increasing bright- 
 ness. Christ has inspired much of what is 
 sweetest and noblest in music and painting and 
 literature. Christ has given us all that is most 
 beautiful in our social intercourse, in our friend- 
 ships, in our homes. Christ has shed a light upon 
 the mystery of existence, making us to see the 
 infinite possibilities of our nature, and transform- 
 ing the despair of humanity into hope. Wherever 
 we find progress in love and right and freedom 
 and toleration and peace and hope, there we can 
 trace the influence of Christ. And, since it is
 
 The Progress of Christianity. 331 
 
 more and more generally acknowledged that the 
 progress still to be desired can only be effected 
 upon Christian principles ; since, further, the 
 number of those who act upon these principles is 
 continually on the increase, we are compelled to 
 admit that the crucified Jesus has been, is being, 
 and will yet be, the Saviour of the world. 
 
 Christ ! we feel drawn to Thee to-day. Thou 
 hast revealed to us the value of our manhood. 
 Thou hast taught us the beauty of holiness, the 
 grandeur of self-sacrifice, the divinity of Love. 
 Our lives have been illumined by the brightness 
 of Thy glory. Thine agony has ennobled us. 
 With Thy stripes we have been healed. We 
 thank, we praise, we love Thee. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOP >JTD SONS.
 
 WORKS BY PROFESSOR MOMERIE. 
 
 I. 
 
 PERSONALITY! 
 
 THE BEGINNING AND END OF METAPHYSICS, 
 
 AND A NECESSARY ASSUMPTION IN ALL POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Fourth Edition, revised. Crown 8vo, 3s. 
 
 " This is a little book, but it contains more sound philosophy than many 
 
 pretentious treatises In an admirably lucid way the author scatters 
 
 to the winds the baseless assumptions of the sense philosophy." British 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 " It is not often that we have to complain of the brevity of a sermon or of 
 a treatise on philosophy ; but in the case of a little book of the latter kind, 
 recently published anonymously, we have found the arguments so cogent, 
 the style so clear, and the matter at issue so important, that we heartily wish 
 that the writer had allowed himself room for the fuller treatment of his sub- 
 ject We confidently refer our readers to this well-reasoned volume. " 
 
 Modern Review. 
 
 " Professor Momerie's remarks on the doctrines of the defenders of em- 
 piricism present a close, and thoroughly scientific, examination of the views 
 these thinkers put forth as to the nature of sensation, perception, and cog- 
 nition The arguments are throughout conducted with marked logical 
 
 power, and the conclusions are very important in relation to the present 
 aspect of philosophical thought in England." Scotsman. 
 
 "The work under our notice will well repay the careful reading of those 
 who wish to have at their command plain answers to modern positivism." 
 Ecclesiastical Gazette. 
 
 " His discussion of these questions stamps Dr Momerie as an acute meta- 
 physician, a philosophical scholar, and a powerful dialectician." Glasgow 
 Herald. 
 
 "When published anonymously received a very hearty welcome by all 
 who were interested in the advent of a new writer of great power, of happy 
 diction, and of independent thinking." Montrose Standard. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACK WOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 II. 
 THE ORIGIN OF EVIL; 
 
 AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 
 Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 "Professor Momerie has done well to publish his sermons ; they are good 
 
 reading A real contribution to the side of common-sense religion." 
 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 " We decidedly recommend them to persons perplexed by the speculations 
 of modern science." Spectator. 
 
 " This is a remarkable volume of sermons. Though it consists of only 
 about 300 pages, it contains an amount of thought and learning which might 
 have been expanded into a bulky folio." Glasgow Mail. 
 
 "These sermons are some of the very best produced in this country within 
 the last hundred years." Inquirer. 
 
 " The author is an original thinker, whose sympathies are very wide." 
 Guardian. 
 
 "Those who preach may learn much from their perusal." Christian World. 
 
 " Out of the common run, they give one a refreshing sense of novelty and 
 power." Glasgow Herald. 
 
 " Die Vortrage zeigen allenthalbeneine schone Harmonie zwischen Schrift- 
 wahrheit und Lebenswahrheit." Deutsches Litteraturblatt. 
 
 " Der Verfasser behandelt in diesen Vortragen wichtige Fragen aus dem 
 Gebiet des christlichen Lebens. Wir heben besonders die iiber das Leiden 
 hervor, in denen der Verfasser tiefe beherzigenswerthe Gedanken ausspricht. 
 Wir nehmen keinen Anstand, diese Vortrage zum Besten zu rechnen, was 
 iiber diesen Gegenstand gesagt worden." Christliches Bucherschatz. 
 
 " The author of the ' Origin of Evil' will go sadly astray if he does not 
 make his mark on the age." London Figaro. 
 
 " We should almost like to have heard these sermons preached. We are 
 willing to read them carefully, and recommend them to others for like read- 
 ing, even though, in almost every instance, we dissent from the author's 
 pleading." National Reformer. 
 
 "These sermons are everything that sermons ought not to be." English 
 Independent. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 III. 
 DEFECTS OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY; 
 
 AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 " Throughout Mr Momerie's attractive little volume the morning air of the 
 new world breathes through the dry leaves of the old theology." West- 
 minster Review. 
 
 " There is an intellectuality, spirituality, and a simplicity in Mr Momerie's 
 sermons, that should make them models for young preachers." Christian 
 Union. 
 
 "Professor Momerie, by his former books, has already laid the foundation 
 of a reputation as a philosophical thinker and an able expositor of religious 
 subjects. The present volume is marked by equal ability, intellectual force, 
 independent and original thinking, and will confirm the favourable opinion 
 
 which he has already produced Whatever views readers may detect as 
 
 different from their own, they will not fail to admire the author's powerful 
 
 enforcement of the practical side of Christianity There follows, as the 
 
 second part of the volume, nine lectures on the Book of Job ; and we have 
 not read before, within the same compass, a more masterly and interesting 
 
 exposition of that great poem There are also three admirable sermons 
 
 on 'The Connection between Reason and Faith,' which will repay repeated 
 
 reading The volume deserves to be widely read ; and whether readers 
 
 agree or not in all respects with the author, they will not rise from the 
 perusal without feeling that Christianity is something grander than they 
 have ordinarily realised it to be, and that the Christian life is the bravest 
 and most beautiful life possible." Aberdeen Journal. 
 
 " Very fresh and striking." Globe. 
 
 " Although he is a polished and accomplished scholar, he simply defies 
 the conventionalities of churches and schools." Literary World. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE BASIS OF RELIGION} 
 
 BEING AN EXAMINATION OF 'NATURAL RELIGION.' 
 Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 "As a controversialist, Professor Motnerie is no less candid than he is 
 remorselessly severe." Scotsman. 
 
 " As a revelation of the pretentiousness of that philosophy [Positivism], 
 Dr Momerie's powerful essay is very valuable." FifesMre Journal. 
 
 " The result of profound study and earnest thought This attempt to 
 
 sketch out a basis for rational theology is fitted to the needs of the times. 
 
 Professor Momerie has won for himself a name as one of the most 
 
 powerful and original thinkers of the day." Globe. 
 
 " Professor Momerie has wide views of men and things, resembling in this 
 quality the author of ' Ecce Homo ' himself, and he has attacked from the 
 Cambridge University pulpit the book 'Natural Religion,' accusing it of 
 considerable vagueness of conception and of considerable misconception of 
 critical points of its own argument. The present book presents the sub- 
 stance of these sermons in the form of a brief essay We would recom- 
 mend our readers to see for themselves how those confusions of thought, 
 by which the school of writers of whom the author of ' Natural Religion ' 
 is an eminent representative seek to save religion when supernaturalism 
 has disappeared, are exposed. We are certain they will be charmed with the 
 accurate philosophical thinking of Professor Momerie, with his unpretentious 
 display of keen logical reasoning, conveyed in lucid and forcible language, 
 which arrays and adorns it like a well-fitting garment." Eskdale Advertiser. 
 
 " Greater force is given to this essay, since the author is himself an ad- 
 vanced thinker." Christian Union. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBUBGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 V. 
 
 AGNOSTICISM, 
 
 Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 " To readers who do not demand that ' the scheme of salvation in its ful- 
 ness ' should be enunciated in every sermon, this volume, which is happily 
 free from rhetoric, and for the most part from any ostentation of the reading 
 which it indicates, will be interesting from its acuteness, learning, and in- 
 sight." Saturday Review. 
 
 " This is a really good book. It is profound in thought, large and com- 
 prehensive in view, liberal in spirit, and delightfully clear and simple in 
 style. We wish that theologians and philosophers in general would write in 
 
 Professor Momerie's manner Following the chapters on Agnosticism, 
 
 there are ten other chapters on the book of Ecclesiastes. They form an ad- 
 mirable and scholarly analysis of that strange and melancholy book." The 
 Inquirer. 
 
 "We are thankful for so masterly, so comprehensive, and so complete a 
 vindication of the principles of Christian Theism, with its powerful refuta- 
 tion of the main positions of Agnosticism. The book meets a real and wide- 
 spread need, in a style as trenchant and effective as it is popular." Freemun. 
 
 " Dr Momerie's breadth of intellect and sympathy, his clear thinking and 
 well-chastened style, as well as his deep religiousness, which will, no doubt, 
 after a time assume a more positively evangelical form, eminently adapt 
 him to be a teacher to his generation. He has freed himself, by we know 
 not what process, from many of the prejudices of the older schools ; but he 
 can search into the very soul of unbelieving sophistry, and the spirit of his 
 exhortation is always ennobling and heavenward." Methodist Times. 
 
 " It is long since we have met with a volume of sermons which will so well 
 repay a careful study." Ecclesiastical Gazette. 
 
 "The work of a majestic intellect." Fifeshire Journal. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 VI. 
 
 PREACHING AND HEARING] 
 
 AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s, 
 
 "The author, himself one of the most eloquent preachers of the day, is 
 eminently qualified to do justice to his subject. He has brought to it an 
 experience and scholarly proficiency which few men could have done." 
 Christian Union. 
 
 "For such preaching as this, and for all the ample learning and wise 
 thought by which it is fortified, the Church of God has every reason to be 
 thankful." Literary World. 
 
 " Marked by all the force, acuteness, and eloquence which we have learnt 
 to expect from him, and in addition by a knowledge of men and manners 
 
 not generally associated with philosophical research His literary style 
 
 is another proof, if proof were needed, of the vast resources of the simple 
 Anglo-Saxon. " Fifeshire Journal. 
 
 "His sermons are unlike any sermons we can call to mind." Guardian. 
 
 " If such sermons were often to be heard from the pulpit, preachers would 
 not have to complain of empty pews or inattentive listeners." Rock. 
 
 " Their delivery was quite startling." Swansea Journal. 
 
 " Those who would know what pulpit boldness in the present day really 
 means should make these sermons their study." Christian World. 
 
 " The present volume is more directly popular in style, and amply main- 
 tains the reputation of the writer." Inquirer. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 VII 
 
 BELIEF IN GOD, 
 
 Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 3s. 
 
 One of the most brilliant arguments for the Divine existence." Chris- 
 tian World. 
 
 " In some respects Professor Momerie is the ablest preacher of his day. 
 
 He is ever endeavouring to present recondite problems in the simplest, 
 
 clearest language, and in this he is eminently successful It is not too 
 
 abstruse even for mere smatterers in philosophical discussion. Considering 
 its scope, it is indeed astonishingly lucid." Dundee Advertiser. 
 
 " No preacher need be ashamed to face the most scientific sceptic with this 
 little book in his hand." Literary World. 
 
 "From the time that Professor Momerie published anonymously the vol- 
 ume on ' The Origin of Evil,' his writings have been devoured with excep- 
 tional keenness by intelligent readers. Many were the conjectures as to who 
 the author of that work was, but it was universally allowed that the anony- 
 mous writer was destined to leave his mark upon the mind of the country : 
 he was a daring and fresh thinker, and was possessed of rare unravelling 
 
 power. This little volume bears the impress of his majestic intellect. 
 
 It is a model of lucid style, clear and consecutive reasoning, fairness to an 
 honourable opponent, and humility in victory. "Perthshire Advertiser. 
 
 " 'Belief in God ' was originally written for the 'Helps to Belief Series, 
 but the editor, thinking it too abstruse, recommended considerable altera- 
 tions. We are devoutly thankful the gifted Professor refused to mutilate his 
 work, and withdrew it from the series." Nonconformist. 
 
 " His criticism of Herbert Spencer's theory of the Unknowable is very 
 acute." Glasgow Herald. 
 
 "It is spread out into only eighty pages, but those eighty pages contain 
 more material for thought than many another volume or series of volumes 
 contain in eight hundred." Inquirer. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 VIII. 
 
 INSPIRATION; 
 
 AND OTHER SERMONS. 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 
 
 "Canon Liddon, preaching last Sunday afternoon in St Paul's Cathedral, 
 declared that it would be difficult to maintain the authority of Christ as a 
 teacher of religious truth if the Book of Daniel were written in the second, 
 and not in the sixth century B.C. Statements of this kind are as deplorable 
 
 as they are unwarranted A happier and a wiser method of dealing with 
 
 the relations of science and criticism to the Scriptures has been adopted by 
 Professor Momerie in his new volume." Christian World. 
 
 "The gifted Professor has broken at many points with rigid orthodoxy. 
 He is a Broad Churchman of the Broad Churchmen. But his very breadth 
 and catholicity of view, the iinswerving steadfastness of his search after 
 truth, and his gift of powerful expression, make him an ally whom even the 
 narrowest sticklers for the faith without change cannot be blind enough to 
 throw over." FifesMre Journal. 
 
 " The sermons on ' Pessimism ' constitute a treatise in themselves." Irish 
 Ecclesiastical Gazette. 
 
 "The abilities of Dr Momerie, and his services with respect to those 
 questions in which the spheres of religion and philosophy touch, are well 
 known ; and there is much in the present volume that will repay attentive 
 perusal. The treatment of pessimism leaves nothing to be desired." 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 "Professor Momerie's latest volume fully bears out his reputation for 
 originality, vigour, and lucidity." John Bull. 
 
 " A unique contribution to the literature of the day." Lady's Pictorial. 
 
 "Here is a bold note, boldly struck; it is only one of many in the book 
 that deserve the attention of opponents as well as friends, and that only a 
 brave man dared touch." Scottish Leader. 
 
 " In the course of this remarkable book he passes in review many of the 
 doctrinal questions which are now agitating the Church, and gives a rational 
 explanation of some of the difficulties that perplex both young and old 
 students of theology." Dundee Advertiser. 
 
 " Professor Momerie has approached his work with a mental penetration 
 and spiritual devotion worthy of so distinguished a Biblical scholar. The 
 initial chapter, which discusses 'The Evolution of the Bible, 'is a masterly 
 exposition. There is a freshness and potency in the author's thought and 
 reasoning that both charm and convince." Christian Union. 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 And all Booksellers.
 
 IX. 
 
 CHURCH AND CREED, 
 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. 
 
 " I cannot say that I am in the habit of reading many sermons. But I did 
 read ' Church and Creed,' and I can recommend them to all those desirous 
 of allying religion with common-sense." Truth. 
 
 "Short, pithy, brilliant." World. 
 
 "A remarkable book, and a sign of the times which will be noted with 
 different feelings by various classes of thinkers." Life. 
 
 "Original, fearless, reverent criticism." Yorkshire Post. 
 "Simple yet masterly." Lincolnshire Free Press. 
 
 " The discourses, one and all, in the volume before us are indeed works of 
 art." Glasgow Herald. 
 
 "His lessons on self-sacrifice are well worth careful attention." Ecclesias- 
 tical Gazette. 
 
 "Dr Momerie is a law unto himself, and is a great illustration of the free- 
 dom of thought allowed in the English pulpit. Take for example the sermon 
 in the present volume, entitled ' The Gods of the Bible," and see what a new 
 face it puts upon our cherished notions of a uniform deistic belief. The 
 whole of the present volume overflows with similar dry, fearless, decisive, 
 almost caustic enunciations that cut athwart hereditary faiths, and it re- 
 quires a strong mind to follow the preacher as he advances from one startling 
 proposition to another." Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette. 
 
 " It is this cheerful and healthful view of life, combined with a hatred of 
 all bigotry and narrowness, that makes Professor Momerie's sermons the in- 
 spiration that crowded congregations find them. The man who can persuade 
 people in these pessimistic days that God meant them to laugh and enjoy 
 the life He has given them, and yet be in the truest sense of the word re- 
 ligious, is doing a service to the age which it greatly needs." Literary World. 
 
 " It is to be earnestly hoped that the great Head of the Church will raise 
 up an Athanasius in our midst to combat and refute the errors with which it 
 abounds." Newbery House Magazine. 
 
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 And all Booksellers.
 
 CATALOGUE 
 
 OF 
 
 MESSRS BLACKWOOD & SONS' 
 
 PUBLICATIONS.
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL CLASSICS FOR ENGWSH READERS, 
 
 EDITED BY WILLIAM KNIGHT, LL.D., 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews. 
 
 In crown 8vo Volumes, with Portraits, price 33. 6d. 
 
 Now ready 
 
 DESCARTES, by Professor Mahaffy, Dub- 
 lin. BUTLER, by Rev. W. Lucas Collins, 
 M.A. BERKELEY, by Professor Campbell 
 Fraser, Edinburgh. FICHJE, by Professor 
 Adamson, Owens College, Manchester. 
 KANT, by Professor Wallace, Oxford. 
 HAMILTON, by Professor Veitch, Glasgow. 
 HEGEL, by Professor Edward Caird, 
 Glasgow. LEIBNIZ, by J. Theodore Merz. 
 
 MILL, 
 
 Vico, by Professor Flint, Edinburgh 
 HOBBES, by Professor Groom Robertson, 
 London. HUME, by the Editor. SPINOZA, 
 by the Very Rev. Principal Caird, Glasgow. 
 BACON : Part I. The Life by Professor 
 Nichol, Glasgow. BACON : Part II. Philo- 
 sophy, by the same Author. LOCKE, by 
 Professor Campbell Fraser, Edinburgh. 
 
 In preparation. 
 
 FOREIGN CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS, 
 
 EDITED BY MRS OLIPHANT. 
 
 In crown 8vo, 23. 6d. 
 Contents of the Series. 
 
 DANTE, by the Editor. VOLTAIRE, by i Editor. CORNEILLE AND RACINE, by 
 General Sir E. B. Hamley, K.C.B. [ Henry M. Trollope. MADAME DE 
 PASCAL, by Principal Tulloch. PET- j SEVIGNE, by Miss Thackeray. LA FON- 
 RARCH, by Henry Reeve, C.B. GOETHE, TAINE, AND OTHER FRENCH FABULISTS, 
 By A. Hayward, Q.C. MOLIERE, by the j by Rev. W. Lucas Collins, M.A. SCHIL- 
 Editor and_F_. Tarver, M.A. MONTAIGNE, LER, by James Sime, M.A., Author of 
 
 by Rev. W. L. Collins, M.A. RABELAIS, 
 by Walter Besaut, M.A. CALDERON, by 
 
 ' Lessing, his Life and Writings. ' TASSO, 
 by E. J. Hasell. ROUSSEAU, by Henry 
 
 E. J. Hasell. SAINT SIMON, by Clifton Grey Graham. ALFRED DE MUSSET, by 
 W. Collins, M.A. CERVANTES, by the C. F. Oliphant. 
 
 In preparation. 
 LEOPARDI. By the Editor. 
 
 Now COMPLETE. 
 
 ANCIENT CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS, 
 
 EDITED BY THE REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. 
 
 Complete in 28 Vols. crown 8vo, cloth, price 28. 6d. each. And may also be had in 
 14 Volumes, strongly and neatly bound, with calf or vellum back, 3, ios. 
 
 Contents of the Series. 
 
 HOMER : THE ILIAD, by the Editor. 
 HOMER : THE ODYSSEY, by the Editor. 
 HERODOTUS, by George C. Swayne, M.A. 
 XENOPHON, by Sir Alexander Grant, Bart. , 
 LL.D. EURIPIDES, by W. B. Donne. 
 ARISTOPHANES, by the Editor. PLATO, by 
 Clifton W. Collins, M.A. LUCIAN, by the 
 Editor. JSscHYLUS, by the Right Rev. 
 the Bishop of Colombo. SOPHOCLES, by 
 Clifton W. Collins, M.A. HESIOD AND 
 THEOGNIS, by the Rev. J. Davies, M.A. 
 GREEK ANTHOLOGY, by Lord Neaves. 
 VIRGIL, by the Editor. HORACE, by Sir 
 Theodore Martin, K.C.B. JUVENAL, by 
 Edward Walford, M.A. PLAUTUS AND 
 
 TERENCE, by the Editor. THE COMMEN- 
 TARIES OF CAESAR, by Anthony Trollope. 
 TACITUS, by W. B. Donne. CICERO, by 
 the Editor. PLINY'S LETTERS, by the 
 Rev. Alfred Church, M.A., and the Rev. 
 W. J. Brodribb, M.A. LIVY, by the 
 Editor. OVID, by the Rev. A. Church, 
 M.A. CATULLUS, TIBULLUS, AND PRO- 
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