,a ,,day ,,at ,a ,,time ,,and ,,other ,,talks ,,on ,,life ,,and ,,religion ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,,arch4 ,,alexander1 ,m4,a41 ,b4,d4 ,author of ,the ,glory in the ,grey ,,second ,,edition ,,london3 ,h4 ,r4 ,,allenson1 ,,limited ,,racquet ,,court1 ,,fleet ,,street1 ,e4,c4 ,printed in ,great ,britain by ,turnbull ,spears1 ,edinburgh ,,this ,,book ,,written ,,in ,,war-,,time ,,to ,,minister ,,comfort ,,and ,,if ,,it ,,may ,,be ,,to ,,reinforce ,,hope ,,and ,,faith ,,is ,,dedicated ,,by ,,permission ,,to ,,sir ,,john ,r4 ,,jellicoe ,g4,c4,b41 ,k4,c4,v4,o4 ,,admiral ,,of ,,the ,,grand ,,fleet ,there are nettles everywhere1 ,but smooth green grasses are more common still2 ,the blue of heaven is larger than the cloud4 ,e4 ,b4 ,,browning ,,contents #a4 ,a ,,day ,,at ,a ,,time #b4 ,,god ,,in ,,the ,,wheels #c4 ,a ,,triple ,,best #d4 ,,finical ,,farming #e4 ,,the ,,doctor #f4 ,,well ,,and ,,now #g4 ,,the ,,washen ,,face ,,in ,,war ,,time #h4 ,,the ,,real ,,martha #i4 ,,our ,,unearned ,,increment #aj4 ,,smoking ,,wicks #aa4 ,,culpable ,,goodness #ab4 ,a ,,khaki ,,virtue #ac4 ,,the ,,overcoming ,,of ,,panic #ad4 ,,the ,,day',s ,,darg #ae4 ,,gashmu ,,the ,,gossip #af4 ,,god ,,in ,,front #ag4 ,,unbelief ,,kept ,,quiet #ah4 ,,the ,,equipment ,,of ,,joy #ai4 ,,the ,,god ,,of ,,the ,,unlovable ,,man #bj4 ,,under ,,the ,,juniper ,,tree #ba4 ,,instructing ,,the ,,cabin ,,boy #bb4 ,,god',s ,,door ,,of ,,hope #bc4 ,,nowadays #bd4 ,,roundabout ,,roads #be4 ,,the ,,extravagance ,,of ,,love #bf4 ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,doing ,,without #bg4 ,,wonder #bh4 ,,the ,,fatherhood ,,of ,,god #bi4 ,,the ,,unreturning ,,brave #cj4 ,,the ,,sacrament ,,of ,,sunset ,as thy days1 so shall thy strength be4 7,,deuteronomy xxxiii4 #be47 ,i ,a ,,day ,,at ,a ,,time ,if any one of us knows a word of hope or has picked up a message of comfort anywhere1 it is his plain duty to share it1 these days4 ,we owe it to each other to cherish as exceeding precious1 and to pass on to others1 every brave and helpful word or thought we come across4 ,well1 here is a splendid one for us all1 and especially for those who have most at stake in this great conflict1 and are looking anxiously ahead and fearing what the weeks may have in store1--,as thy days1 so shall thy strength be4 ,it is a great and glorious promise4 ,and just a couple of verses further on1 it is caught up and included in one greater still1--,the eternal ,god is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms4 ,fathers and mothers1 with a boy1 or more than one1 perhaps1 away on active service for ,king and country1 this promise is for you1 to take to your heart and hide there1 like some precious secret between you and ,god1--,as thy days1 so shall thy strength be4 ,notice carefully1 however1 how the promise runs4 ,not1 mark you1 as your life is1 not as your years are1 not even as your weeks are1 but as your days1 so shall your strength be4 ,for each day as it comes1 ,god's promise is that strength will be given you1 but just for a day at a time4 ,the way to live under any circumstances1 but especially in these hard weeks1 is just a day at a time4 ,leave to-morrow with ,god1 my brother1 until it comes4 ,that is what the ,word of ,god lays upon you as a duty4 ,live this day at your best and bravest1 trusting that ,god's help will not fail you4 ,and for the duties and trials of to-morrow1 however hard and heavy1 believe that strength for that day also will be given you1 when it comes4 ,you cannot have failed to observe what an important place this way of living had in the teaching of ,jesus ,christ4 ,he was always trying to get men to trust the coming days to ,god1 and to live fully worthily and nobly to-day4 ,he was dead against the practice of adding to the burdens of to-day fears and forebodings for to-morrow4 ,it is in love to us1 in ,his desire to save us unnecessary pain1 that ,he bids us remember that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof4 ,in one of ,r4 ,d4 ,blackmore's fine open-air stories1 there is a character who talks at length about horses4 ,after comparing good ones and bad ones in their behaviour the first time they breast a hill with a load behind them1 he sums the matter up thus3 ,howsoever good a horse be1 he longeth to see over the top of the hill before he be half-way up it4 ,the man who is listening to him confesses that he has often felt that way himself6 ,and ,i do not know that there are many of us who can claim to be guiltless in this respect4 ,yet it is perfectly plain that the men and women who are living the bravest and most successful lives around us1 and are proving towers of strength to others1 are those who have learned the art of living just a day at a time1 and of depending upon ,god for strength for that day in the simplest and most trustful fashion4 ,why1 my brothers1 if ,god our ,father had meant us to carry on our backs the fears and anxieties of the coming days1 ,he would surely have told us more about them6 ,if we were meant to bear to-day what next week holds1 surely we should have been permitted to see into next week4 ,but we cannot4 ,we cannot see a single second ahead4 ,god gives us ,now1 and ,to-,morrow ,he keeps to ,himself4 ,is there anything wiser or better we can do with our to-morrows than just to leave them quietly and trustfully with ,him8 ,the habit of living ahead1 as so many of us do1 prevents us from getting the full taste and flavour of the happiness and blessing that are ours to-day4 ,i defy any man to be adequately grateful for this day's sunshine if he is worrying all the time about the chance of a bad day to-morrow4 ,mark ,rutherford1 merciless self-critic as he was1 takes himself severely to task for this habit in his ,autobiography4 ,i learned1 alas6 when it was almost too late1 he says1 to live in each moment as it passed over my head1 believing that the sun as it is now rising1 is as good as it ever will be4 ,yes1 in great things as well as in little things1 that is true4 ,if we are to live our lives at the full1 and anywhere on the ,christian level1 the only way is to live one day at a time4 ,our forefathers in the pulpit were fond of reminding their hearers to live each day as if it were their last4 ,and in solemn truth1 without being in the least morbid1 that is the way to live4 ,if a man knew that after to-day1 he would not smell the sea again1 how fully and gratefully would he fill his lungs with its ozone to-day6 ,if he knew he were not to enter ,god's ,house again1 how earnestly and sincerely and reverently he would join in its worship to-day6 ,yes1 but the point is1 why should his hope1 that he has other days to come1 prevent him taking out of this day all that he possibly can8 ,why should this day be any less prized1 because others in all probability will follow it8 ,but the great value of this word is the comfort of it to those who are anxious and fear the coming days4 ,and which of us is not in that category8 ,i do not suppose there is one of my readers upon whom1 somehow or other1 the war has not levied its tax4 ,nearly every one has somebody belonging to him or her who is in this gigantic struggle1 and whose welfare is a matter of real concern4 ,and1 closer still1 there are fathers and mothers1 sisters and brothers1 whose very dearest are in it or are getting ready to do their share4 ,they have joined1 and we are proud that they have joined1 for this is a cause that ennobles every mother's son who fights for it4 ,but who shall say what the mother's thoughts are1 these days8 ,how proud1 and justly proud1 the father is that his boy has played the man1 and offered himself to his ,king and for his country6 ,but only ,god1 who made the father--and the mother--heart1 knows what the surrender costs4 ,and only ,god knows how eagerly and anxiously they look ahead to try to see what the future may hold4 ,and1 knowing that1 ,he sends ,his comfort to you1 fathers and mothers4 ,the comfort of ,his promise1--,as thy days1 so shall thy strength be4 ,just a day at a time1 my friend6 ,do not take fears for next month on your shoulders now4 ,you will get strength given you for to-day1 certain and sure1 and when next month comes1 the strength and comfort for that day will come too1 as certain and as sure4 ,be not over-anxious about the morrow4 ,leave your to-morrow1 and your soldier-son1 in ,god's hands4 ,you can do nothing more at the best1 and this is the best4 ,but it is such a mistake to do anything less4 ,leave all your to-morrows with ,god--it is what ,he wants you to do--and humbly and gratefully take from ,his hands ,his gift of ,to-day1 and the strength that comes with it4 ,if that be not enough--and it is not enough for ,god has said more--when that is not enough1 still your heart a moment1 and listen6 ,and you will hear1 beneath that promise for to-day1 like the grand deep tones of an organ1 the magnificent diapason of the ,father's constant love and mindfulness1--,the eternal ,god is thy refuge1 and underneath are the everlasting arms4 ,and surely that is enough6 ,so for ,to-morrow and its needs ,i do not pray1 ,but keep me1 guide me1 help me1 ,lord1 ,just for ,to-,day4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 who dost appoint the way for each of us1 give us the grace to trust that as ,thou hast helped us hitherto1 so1 in ,thy great mercy1 ,thou wilt bless us still4 ,we do not ask to see the distant scene4 ,keep us1 and our beloved1 this day2 and in quietness and confidence teach us to leave to-morrow with ,thee1 our ,father4 ,through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,amen4 ,the ,spirit of life was in the wheels4 7,,ezekiel i4 #ba47 ,,ii ,,god ,,in ,,the ,,wheels ,the prophet ,ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of ,god4 ,he tries to tell us about it1 but his description seems to be a meaningless jumble of cherubim1 and wheels1--wheels within wheels1 complex1 wonderful1 unresting4 ,behind all1 he saw the ,glory of ,god4 ,and again and again he tells us that the ,spirit of ,life was in the wheels4 ,now that at least is intelligible1 and it is a good thing for us to think about4 ,the ,spirit of ,god is in the wheels4 ,i want to suggest to you that ,he is in the wheels of industry4 ,we have no hesitation in saying that ,god gives the farmer his harvest1 and we actually thank ,him for it in ,his temple4 ,a shepherd with a lamb in his arms is for a pastoral people like the ,jews the very image of the ,saviour ,god4 ,but men who dwell in towns1 and work in mills and factories and yards and railways1 or who control or manage such places1 have little to do with either corn or sheep4 ,is it not worth while to remind them that ,god is also in the wheels8 ,do you remember how ,kipling's old chief engineer ,macandrew believed that his twin monsters1 driving the liner onward on her way1 sang their hourly hymn of praise to ,god8 ,and why not8 ,from all the wheels of industry and man's inventiveness1 goes there not up to ,him a praise as real as the song of ,his little birds8 ,where two or three gather together on ,lord's days1 ,god is truly and graciously present4 ,but ,i want you to remember that out in the noisy moving world of industry and business1 ,god is present also1 guiding1 controlling and bringing ,his long1 long plans to pass4 ,it is by ,his decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and spin1 for ,he needs them all1 and has brought them into being by the hands of men1 and they are ,his1 as the ,church is ,his4 ,i would not have you1 as ,christian men1 look upon your week-day world with its mechanism and its traffic1 that world of yours that goes so literally upon wheels1 as a province of life very far remote from the presence of ,god4 ,i would remind you rather that ,god's spirit is in those wheels1 that they move at ,his bidding1 and that they are working out ,his purposes upon the earth4 ,i would suggest1 further1 that ,god is in those wheels whose turning brings us ,change4 ,if you will allow the figure1 ,i would say that ,god is in the wheels of ,change and time4 ,as we grow older1 we resent more and more the constant alteration of the surroundings of life4 ,it saddens us that there should be such a continual moving on4 ,but perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and practice that changes hurt and perplex us most4 ,godly old customs die out4 ,the face of truth seems to alter4 ,old notes in religion disappear and new ones take their place1 and we are sorely tempted to ask if it be possible that the children can know ,god better or serve ,his ,christ more truly than their fathers4 ,ah yes1 from forty years and upwards1 men are very apt to have a quarrel with change4 ,they resent it1 and would spike ,time's wheels if they could4 ,forgetting that the ,spirit of ,god is in those very wheels4 ,change is ,god's method and ,his blessing4 ,the ,bible does not envy the man who has no changes4 ,it is afraid for him1 afraid that for want of them1 he may settle on his lees1 and forget the fear of ,god4 ,of course1 no one will defend every new fashion1 or assert that everything recent is an improvement on what went before4 ,but ,i1 for one1 do believe that generation after generation men are moving up1 being shepherded up1 the long slope of history nearer to ,god4 ,i believe that ,god's promise is that ,he will do better for us than at the beginnings1 and ,i believe ,he is keeping ,his promise4 ,i must believe that the history of this world which man rough hews1 is--spite of all the wars--being shaped by ,god ,himself1 or else there is no ,god at all4 ,and so ,i would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life1 and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt1 ,fear not6 ,be of good courage6 ,for aback of all change is ,god our ,father1 and it is ,his ,spirit that is working in the wheels4 ,again1 ,i would suggest to you that ,god is in the wheels that shape your own lot and mine4 ,the wheels of ,chance1 they are sometimes called1 the mere whirligig of destiny1 as if the world were some blind irresponsible machine grinding on in the dark1 and heeding not which or how many lives were broken in its teeth4 ,and ,i grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible4 ,for life is full of mysterious happenings1 and chance sometimes seems the most probable explanation4 ,the tragedy of ,job is always being played somewhere4 ,there are men who up to a certain point in life have known nothing but good fortune1 and after that1 nothing but disappointment and disaster4 ,out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one2 while from clouds lowering and heavy1 it is waited for1 expected and dreaded--and never comes6 ,the merest knife-edge of circumstance sometimes affects results out of all proportion to its importance4 ,a grain of sand in a man's flesh as ,pascal remarks1 has changed the course of ,empires4 ,yes1 ,i grant you1 there be times when the blind chance theory does suggest itself4 ,but by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it4 ,and best of all1 ,jesus ,christ1 our supreme authority1 has pledged ,himself in ,his life and death1 that the ,ruler and ,disposer of all events is ,eternal ,love4 ,we have learned from ,jesus to say and to trust ,our ,father who art in ,heaven4 ,we know and believe that whatever is to come falls not by chance1 but is sent and permitted by the ,love of ,god1 who makes no mistakes4 ,taught and inspired by ,jesus1 many thousands of men and women have committed themselves and all their interests--home1 health1 happiness1 reputation1 loved ones--to the keeping of ,god the ,father1 and known by the peace that came to them1 that it was a real transaction4 ,soulless wheels of destiny6 say some4 ,the blind mechanism of law6 ,ah1 no1 ,jesus is the refutation of that4 ,law there is1 and mechanism there must be4 ,but neither blind nor soulless4 ,for1 above all1 is the ,father ,love of ,god1 and it is ,his spirit that is guiding and governing the wheels4 ,wheels of ,industry1 ,wheels of ,change1 ,wheels of ,destiny4 ,and ,god's ,spirit in them all6 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 to whom not only the ,church but our whole work-a-day world belongs1 give us the purged sight that can see ,thy tokens there4 ,deliver us from all foolish fear of changes since the goad moving all things onward is in our ,father's hand4 ,and help us to be sure that whatsoever befalleth us and ours has been permitted and appointed by a ,love that passeth knowledge4 ,amen4 ,the just shall live by faith4 7,,romans i4 #ag47 ,,iii ,a ,,triple ,,best ,some time ago ,i came across the life-motto of ,george ,stephenson1 the father of the locomotive1 as he has been called1 the man whose brains and sagacity made possible the network of railways which spreads now over the earth4 ,the crystallised experience of such a life is worth studying ,here1 then1 was ,stephenson's working formula3--,make the best of everything2 think the best of everybody2 hope the best for yourself4 ,first1 ,,make ,,the ,,best ,,of ,,everything4 ,in every set of circumstances possible or conceivable1 there are always1 at any rate1 two ways of acting4 ,you can look for the helpful1 bright1 and hopeful things1 and freeze on to these meantime4 ,or1 you can select all the doleful1 sombre aspects1 and sit down in the dust with them4 ,now1 if it did not matter which a man did1 there would be no good saying any more4 ,but it has long since become abundantly clear that the man who makes the best of his circumstances1 however hard they be1 comes most happily out of them in the end4 ,in other words1 it pays to make the best of things4 ,it is the cheery people who recover quickest when they are sick4 ,there are men who1 if their house should fall in ruins about them1 will contrive some sort of shelter meantime with the broken beams6 ,that is the type that wins out in the end somehow2 these are the men to whom the miracles happen--who never know when they are beaten1 who will face the most tremendous odds with the half of a broken hope for a shield1 who are never done until they are dead4 ,what makes for success or failure in a man is nothing external to him at all4 ,it is something within him4 ,it is the temper of his spirit4 ,it is the way he captains his own soul4 ,the other day ,i saw a photograph of a backyard4 ,it was a little bit of a place1 of the most forlorn appearance1 littered with tin cans1 overgrown with weeds1 and hemmed round with blank walls of brick4 ,but it came into the hands of a man who believed in making the best of things4 ,another photograph showed that same backyard after a year had passed4 ,it was still as small as ever1 still overlooked by high walls and surrounded by chimneys4 ,but it was now a perfect little oasis of beauty amid a wilderness of bricks and slates4 ,will anybody deny that that spirit pays8 ,right up the scale1 from little things to the highest things1 the man who looks for the shining possibilities and follows them1 is the man on whom1 in our short-sighted way1 we say that ,fortune smiles4 ,rather1 he smiles in such a determined way to ,fortune1 that she has at length to smile back6 ,nobody pretends that it is easy1 when we have failed1 to gather our powers together and try again4 ,but nearly all the big men have had to do that very thing4 ,it certainly is not easy1 when you have a heavy burden of your own1 to spare a cheery word or a hand of sympathy for somebody who is really much better off1 but there are plenty of people doing it at this moment4 ,nero's palace is the last place in this world where you would expect to find a company of loyal ,christian folk4 ,yet there were such people there1 the saints of ,caesar's household4 ,and the grace of ,god that made that possible can achieve all these lesser wonders too4 ,second1 ,,think ,,the ,,best ,,of ,,everybody4 ,there is a winsome legend that ,jesus once revealed ,himself in this way3--,a knot of idlers had gathered in the street round a dead dog4 ,one remarked how mangy and unkempt its hide was4 ,another said1 ,what ugly ears6 ,but a stranger1 who had come forward1 said1 ,pearls are not whiter than its teeth6 ,and men said to one another1 ,this must be ,jesus of ,nazareth1 for nobody but ,he would find something good even in a dead dog4 ,certainly it is the mark of the most ,christlike men and women that they delight rather in emphasising the merest speck of goodness than in denouncing the too visible evil4 ,we can1 all too easily1 see the fault in another4 ,what we cannot see is the heart of the defaulter1 the weight of temptation he struggled under1 and his bitter inner penitence4 ,granted1 as ,carlyle says1 the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged2 the pilot is blameworthy4 ,he has not been all-wise and all-powerful4 ,but1 to know how blameworthy1 tell us first whether his voyage has been round the globe1 or only to ,ramsgate and the ,isle of ,dogs4 ,the way to get the best out of people is to think the best about them4 ,let a man see that you have good hopes of him1 and recognise what is best in him1 and1 in ways of which science can give no explanation1 you add to his chances of reaching better things4 ,in any case1 who would not wish to stand on ,christ's side rather than on ,judas's4 ,this ointment might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor4 ,that is ,judas4 ,let her alone4 ,why trouble ye her8 ,she hath wrought a good work in me4 ,she hath done what she could4 ,that is ,jesus ,christ4 ,third1--,don't leave yourself out of the picture4 ,,hope ,,the ,,best ,,for ,,yourself4 ,george ,eliot1 in her ,scenes of ,clerical ,life1 gives1 in one chapter1 an account of how the ,rev4 ,amos ,barton is criticised and discussed in his parish4 ,in the next chapter we see the ,rev4 ,amos himself going on his way blissfully unconscious of the poor opinion in which he is held1 believing quite honestly in himself1 and not a little proud of his abilities4 ,we are poor plants1 says this keen student of character1 buoyed up by the air vessels of our own conceit4 ,and a blessed thing1 too1 when you think of it6 ,if we only knew all the disparaging remarks people make about us1 we should never face up to our duties at all4 ,what helps us along is our innocent belief in our powers1 in the esteem in which we are held--our little conceits1 if you like4 ,since they send us to our tasks with more spirit1 and keep us at them with more determination1 aren't they good things in their way8 ,they are indeed just a lower form of that hope that we are speaking of--,hope's poor relations4 ,if these are of such value1 how much more pure quiet steady ,hope itself1 purged of all pride and undue self-esteem8 ,hope the best for yourself1 and you are already a good way on the road to it4 ,suggestion is a tremendously powerful instrument1 even when you make it yourself4 ,by self suggestion1 the psychologists tell us1 you can influence your actions1 your character1 and your general outlook in a wonderful fashion1 either to your advantage or your hurt4 ,therefore1 they say1 be careful never to suggest evil to yourself4 ,never say to yourself1 ,i'm going to make a mess of this1 or ,i am not fit for that4 ,suggest success1 happiness1 health1 and you beckon them to you4 ,hope the best for yourself1 and you pave the way for its coming4 ,on higher planes1 the same holds true4 ,hope on1 and1 though you fall you will rise again4 ,believe that you will be enabled to face your trouble or temptation1 and you will be brought through it somehow4 ,even when the end of life is near1 hope still1 for beyond this best there is a better1 and ,god's road winds uphill all the way4 ,but1 you say1 this is just faith4 ,i know it is4 ,run your hopes for yourself up as high as you can reach1 and they will touch ,god and become faith4 ,that is why you are to hope the best for yourself4 ,because--,god4 ,because ,god the ,father loves you1 and desires the best for you too4 ,i believe in the optimism which ,stephenson's motto embodies1 because ,i believe in the ,fatherhood of ,god through our ,lord ,jesus ,christ4 ,that is why ,i counsel you to go on hoping that the best is yet to be4 ,not that we can earn it at all1 or that we deserve it at all4 ,but--because ,god1 our ,father4 ,and1 for the daring and faith of that saying1 this sufficient ground4--,because--,jesus ,christ4 ,,prayer ,help us all1 ,heavenly ,father1 to meet the discipline of life with stouter hearts4 ,may we all try harder to cultivate the ,christ-like mark of charity4 ,and spite of our many sins and shortcomings1 and our poor love of ,thee1 grant us the courage to believe that all things1 in ,thy great ,love for us1 are working together for our good4 ,we ask it for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4 ,he that observeth the wind shall not sow1 and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap4 7,,ecclesiastes ii4 #d47 ,,iv ,,finical ,,farming ,when a man like the writer of ,ecclesiastes gives his views on life1 it is worth everybody's while to listen4 ,a tabloid of experience is worth a ton of theory4 ,and it is from his own knowledge of men and experience of life that he has discovered that he that observeth the wind shall not sow1 and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap4 ,was ever a temper of mind1 that we all know something about1 more neatly hit off than that8 ,you can see the very picture which this wise preacher had before his eyes4 ,agricola was a farmer in his parish who would not sow his fields unless the wind was blowing soft and gentle from a certain direction1 and the clouds were just as he wished to see them4 ,he held there was no hope of a harvest unless wind and clouds were right4 ,and ,i observed1 says the wise man1 that ,agricola1 my farmer friend1 waiting for the exactly suitable conditions1 never got his seed in at all4 ,he was speaking chiefly about benevolence and charity when he used this figure4 ,and that is one reason why we need to give heed to it4 ,for ours is an age of charity4 ,we give more to the poor and needy to-day than ever any nation gave before4 ,it is said1 indeed1 that a good deal of our giving is not very wise4 ,our charities overlap4 ,the truly necessitous are forgotten1 and the improvident1 the lazy1 and the wasteful reap the largest share4 ,certainly that is one of the perils of charity-giving4 ,but ,i question very much if1 in our efforts to avoid it1 we are not running the risk of falling into a graver mistake still1 namely1 of observing the wind overmuch before we sow4 ,if ,i refuse to give my mite for ,christ's sake till ,i have made perfectly certain that it will not be misused1 if we withhold our subscription from a charity till we are assured that it is managed in the very most economical fashion1 it will end in us giving nothing at all4 ,there is1 of course1 a reasonable amount of inquiry that is not only legitimate but necessary4 ,just as there is a regarding of the clouds before reaping which is simply wise4 ,but1 to wait till every scruple is satisfied1 till every risk has been eliminated and there is not a cloud in the sky1 is to wait for a state of matters that may be long enough in coming4 ,meantime the needy person may die2 or the corn blacken in the fields4 ,charity1 however1 is but a small part of ,christian benevolence4 ,the law of ,christ says neighbour whether he be poor or not4 ,he is in trouble1 and ,i feel inclined to visit him4 ,must ,i wait till ,i am sure he will not misunderstand my motive8 ,i have it in my heart to forgive him4 ,shall ,i defer the reconciliation till ,i am convinced he will not offend again8 ,or ,i have hurt and offended him1 and wish to apologise4 ,had ,i not better wait till ,i know that he will not reject my advances8 ,the wise man's answer to all these questions is an emphatic ,no4 ,if you wait for all that1 he says1 you will wait too long1 and the chance will go past4 ,wait till the wind and the clouds are just as you would wish them1 and you will neither sow nor reap at all4 ,what to do1 then8 ,the wise man answers3 ,in the morning sow thy seed1 and in the evening withhold not thy hand1 for thou knowest not whether shall prosper1 either this or that1 or whether they both shall be alike good4 ,just because you can never fully calculate what the result of your labours may be1 give up trying4 ,don't trouble about it1 but do what comes to your hand at the time4 ,if it is sowing time1 don't wait for the perfect day4 ,if the weather will do at all1 sow thy seed in the morning1 and in the evening do not stop4 ,in other words1 ,take life more royally4 ,do not be deterred by its ordinary risks4 ,seize your chance like a brave man4 ,you do not know1 of course1 whether that seed you sow will prosper or not4 ,but sow it1 all the same4 ,don't let the fact that you don't know cause you to hold your hand4 ,it is just because you do not know but that the kindness which you offer your neighbour may be ill-requited1 that there is a royal free-handed self-forgetfulness in offering it4 ,that a man should live his life and do his good deeds with a certain dash and carelessness of consequence--that1 the ,preacher thought the ideal of noble living4 ,and when we measure it by the standard of ,him who said1 ,do good and lend1 hoping for nothing again1 it does not seem to come so very far short4 ,for1 of course1 there are the continual surprises that life holds for faith4 ,if only the corn reaped when the clouds were just right was safely gathered in1 then indeed we might feel that we could not be too careful4 ,but what do we find again and again8 ,why1 we find that men who have had the faith to sow when the day was by no means perfect have been blessed beyond their expectations4 ,we find our barns full and running over1 though we reaped on a cloudy day4 ,we have seen men cast their bread upon the waters1 where you would say it was certain to be lost1 and find it again1 after many days4 ,it's perfectly true that you don't know whether shall prosper this or that4 ,yet how often have you been surprised to find that where you thought you knew1 you were proved mistaken1 and where you dealt in faith1 it stood justified beyond your dreams4 ,and so1 the end of the matter for the ,preacher is1 once more1 ,live your life royally1 with a certain loving wastefulness1 and an easy disregard of calculations4 ,do all the good you can1 and do it with a free hand1 not asking to see your harvest before you sow1 but taking your risk of it1 and leaving the outcome with ,god4 ,cast your bread on the waters1 and you will find it after many days4 ,but what of the bread one has cast on the waters1 only to see it carried away1 apparently of no use to anybody8 ,what of the faith that has not been justified8 ,what of the good done to the ill-deserving1 of the kindly-meant act repaid with indignity and scorn8 ,it is a hard question1 not easy to answer1 not fully to be answered at all4 ,after many days1 said the ,preacher4 ,and there is no sign yet1 we say4 ,patience1 brothers1 patience6 ,god's day is not yet done4 ,when the days have run out to the end1 it will be time enough to say if we miss the bread returning4 ,we shall be better able to count the gains and the losses1 if there are any then1--when the days are done4 ,,prayer ,teach us1 ,o ,lord and ,master1 the high and difficult lesson that only those who lose their lives shall truly find them4 ,show us that the manna hoarded in miserly fashion is always touched by ,thy curse4 ,in small things as in great1 may this be a token that we are ,thy disciples1 that virtue also goeth out of us4 ,amen4 ,but when ,jesus heard that1 he said unto them1 they that be whole need not a physician1 but they that are sick4 7,,matthew ix4 #ab47 ,v ,,the ,,doctor ,jesus is ,himself the best witness as to what ,he was1 and what ,he wished to do for men4 ,it is a fact1 moreover1 for which we cannot be too thankful that1 in explaining ,himself1 ,jesus used not the language of doctrine1 but living figures and symbols which the humblest and youngest could not fail to understand4 ,when1 for example1 ,he compared ,himself to a shepherd leaving the ninety and nine in the fold and braving the darkness and the steep places that he might bring back the one that had wandered1 ,he opens a window into ,his own love for men which is worth pages of description4 ,for those who are familiar with the daily life and work of a shepherd1 it means a great deal that ,jesus waits to be the ,shepherd of men4 ,but1 in these very different days of ours1 there are multitudes in streets and tenements who have never seen a shepherd1 and know not what manner of life is his4 ,so that one is glad that ,jesus gave ,himself other names as well4 ,when ,matthew ,arnold met the pale-faced preacher in the slums of ,bethnal ,green1 and asked him how he did-- ,bravely1 he said1 for ,i of late have been ,much cheered with thoughts of ,christ1 the ,living ,bread4 ,if that name for ,christ brought him comfort1 another preacher may be allowed to confess that he has often been cheered and helped by the thought of ,jesus as the ,good ,physician4 ,i am glad that in effect1 at least1 if not in actual words1 ,he called ,himself by that name4 ,this is ,his apology for consorting with publicans and sinners1 for being so accessible to those who had lost caste and character4 ,he says it is the sick who need a ,physician1 not those who are well4 ,and ,his defence implies that ,jesus regarded ,himself as being in a true sense a ,physician1 not for outward ills merely1 but for the whole man1 body1 mind1 and spirit4 ,the days were1 as you know1 when priest and physician were one calling2 and it is doubtless to the advantage of both vocations that their spheres are now distinct4 ,but it may be1 and ,i think it is1 unfortunate that ,jesus should be regarded by many as so entirely identified with the priestly side of life and the priestly calling4 ,it is beyond question that a faithful priest is1 in his degree1 a mirror of ,christ1 and helps men to see ,him more clearly4 ,but it is also true--and a truth worth underlining in these days--that the ,doctor1 too1 is a symbol of what ,christ means to be to men--nay1 more1 that there are respects in which the figure of a beloved physician of to-day comes nearer to the reality of the living human ,christ than any other calling in the world4 ,it is a sure and unique place which the ,doctor holds in the esteem and confidence of the community4 ,he is the most accessible of all professional men1 the most implicitly trusted1 and1 ,i think1 the best beloved4 ,at all hours of the day and night he is ready to give his services to those who need him4 ,his mere presence in the sick room inspires confidence4 ,in the poor districts of town and city especially1 he is more really the friend and confidant and helper of everybody than any other person whatever4 ,as no other man does1 the ,doctor goes about continually doing good4 ,his life is a constant self-sacrifice for his fellow-men4 ,he wears himself out in the interests of the needy4 ,he runs risks daily from which other men flee4 ,he asks not to be ministered unto1 but to minister1 and often and literally he gives his life a ransom for many4 ,and ,i do not know what we have been thinking of that we have not oftener made use of this as ,christ's claim for ,himself1 that we have not told the ignorant and the very poor especially1 who know far more about the ,doctor than they do about the ,church1 who are1 in fact1 shy of all that is priestly1 but who do understand and appreciate the ,doctor1 ,i say1 ,i do not know why we have not oftener told them to forget that ,jesus is the ,king and ,head of the ,church and remember only that ,he is the best of all ,physicians4 ,that ,christ is compassionate1 sympathetic1 and approachable1 like the ,doctor1 would be veritable good news to many a poor ignorant soul who is mightily afraid of ,his priests4 ,the word which comes to our lips when we seek to characterise the life and work of the true ,doctor is ,christlike4 ,and big as the title is1 it is deserved4 ,in sacrifice and self-forgetfulness1 in his care most for those who most need him1 in the way he identifies himself with his patient1 bearing with1 because understanding1 his weakness and petulance and fears1 and seeking all the while only to heal and help and save him1 there is no more ,christlike character or calling in the modern world than the ,doctor4 ,i am the happy possessor of an engraving--a gift from one whose calling is to teach doctors--of ,luke ,fildes' famous picture4 ,most of you doubtless are familiar with it4 ,it represents the interior of a humble home where a little child lies critically ill4 ,the father and mother1 distracted with grief1 have yielded their place beside the couch to the ,doctor1 who sits watching and waiting1 all-absorbed in the little one's trouble4 ,it is a noble face1 strong1 compassionate1 resourceful1 gentle2 and if the ,eternal ,christ of ,god is to be represented to us in ,his strength and gentleness by any human analogy or likeness whatever1 as ,he wished to be1 and indeed must be1 no finer figure could be found1 ,i think1 than that1 none more certain to draw out the reverence and gratitude and trust of men4 ,men of all grades and classes appeal to and trust the ,doctor4 ,but how many of them realise that ,jesus desires that men should come to ,him and trust ,his willingness to help and save them1 just as they would do to some good physician8 ,how many men who have found comfort by taking their fears and forebodings to the ,doctor and hearing his authoritative ,go in peace6 know or realise that just so would ,jesus have us bring ,him our unworthiness and shame and sin8 ,jesus never preached at those whom ,his compassion drew to ,him4 ,he never lectured them1 ,he just helped them1 and that at once4 ,he lifted them to their feet and gave them a new hope4 ,he1 straightway1 in ,god's name1 assured them of forgiveness4 ,ah1 if men only understood that ,jesus is to be found to-day down among the world's burdened and weary souls1 not as a ,priest begirt with ceremony and aloof from daily life1 but as a ,physician1 approachable1 helpful1 human1 who sees and pities their weakness1 and longs to save them and help them to their best4 ,if men only understood that6 ,,prayer ,we come to ,thee1 ,thou ,good ,physician1 with all our ills and fears4 ,we would whisper in ,thine ear the troubles that frighten and shame us4 ,surely ,thou wilt hear4 ,draw near us in ,thy strength and ,pity1 and in ,thy ,mercy heal us all4 ,amen4 ,whatsoever thy hand findeth to do1 do it with thy might1 for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest4 7,,ecclesiastes ix4 #aj47 ,,vi ,,well ,,and ,,now ,in popular and condensed form1 the golden rule according to ,ecclesiastes is1 ,do it well and do it now4 ,his own words are1 ,whatsoever thy hand findeth to do1 do it with thy might1 for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest4 ,we want to let that precept soak into our minds for a little4 ,,do ,,it ,,well4 ,whatsoever thy hand findeth to do1 do it with thy might4 ,among the lesser joys of life there are few that thrill one with a more pleasurable sense of satisfaction than that which goes with the bit of work finished1 rounded-off and done as well as one can do it4 ,no matter what the job may be1 if it is worth doing at all1 or if it is one's business to do it1 it is not difficult to recognise in the curious inward glow over its honourable completion1 a token of ,god's good pleasure1 some far-off echo of ,his ,well done6 ,it is a truism which never loses its point that it is enthusiasm that commands success4 ,in her weird book called ,dreams1 ,olive ,schreiner tells the parable of an artist who painted a beautiful picture4 ,on it there was a wonderful glow which drew the admiration of all his compeers1 but which none could imitate4 ,the other painters said1 ,where did he get his colours8 ,but though they sought rich and rare pigments in far-off ,eastern lands they could not catch the secret of it4 ,one day the artist was found dead beside his picture1 and when they stripped him for his shroud they found a wound beneath his heart4 ,then it dawned upon them where he had got his colour4 ,he had painted his picture with his own heart's blood6 ,it is the only way to paint it1 if the picture is to be worth while at all4 ,if we would have the work that we do live and count1 our heart's blood must go into it4 ,whatsoever thy hand findeth to do1 do it with thy might4 ,what magnificent heart-stirring examples are coming to us every day just now1 from sea and battle-field1 of the good old ,british virtue of sticking in gamely to the end and seeing the thing through6 ,if the stories of the old ,english ,admirals are calculated1 as ,stevenson says1 to send bank clerks back with more heart and spirit to their book-keeping by double entry1 shall not the story that unfolds day by day of what our own kith and kin are doing1 nerve and inspire us all to do ,,our bit1 to face up to ,,our duty1 humdrum and ordinary though it be1 with the same grit and energy1 with the same determination to see it through1 and make as good a job of it as we can8 ,the ,preacher has his reason for this advice4 ,because1 he says1 some day you will have to stop and lay down your tools1 and that will be the end4 ,no more touching botched work after that4 ,no going back to lift dropped stitches then4 ,such as it is1 your record will have to stand as you leave it1 when ,death raps at your door4 ,even for us in this ,christian age1 this ancient ,preacher's reason still stands valid and solemn4 ,do what you are at now as well as ever you can1 for you shall pass that way no more again for ever4 ,the ,apostle ,paul1 who expresses practically the same sentiment1 gives a different reason4 ,whatever ye do1 he writes to the ,colossians1 do it heartily as to the ,lord4 ,and that is the point for you and me4 ,not merely because we have a limited time to work1 but because our work is ,christ's service1 we must do it heartily1 with all our might4 ,it is to the ,lord4 ,to us all in our different labours1 in the things we work at day by day1 and the worthy interests we endeavour to support1 there comes this call that transforms the very commonest duty into an honourable obligation to a personal living ,master--,whatever ye do1 do it heartily as to the ,lord4 ,yes1 and ,,do ,,it ,,now4 ,for the amount of misery and suffering and remorse that is directly due to putting off the ,god-given impulse or generous purpose to some other season1 is simply incalculable4 ,if all the kind letters had been written when the thought of writing was fresh and insistent--ah me1 how many burdened souls would have been the braver and the stronger4 ,if only the friendly visit had been paid when we thought about it--and why wasn't it8 ,never suppose1 says ,bagshot1 that you can make up to a neglected friend by going to visit him in a hospital4 ,repent on your own death-bed1 if you like1 but not on another's4 ,an old writer on agriculture says that there are seasons when if the husbandman misses a day he falls a whole year behind4 ,but in life the result is often more serious still4 ,when you miss the day1 you miss it for ever4 ,wherefore1 let us hear the words of the ,preacher4 ,if we have a kind purpose in our heart towards any living soul1 let us do it now4 ,if we think of beginning a better way of living1 let us begin now4 ,if we propose to end our days sworn and surrendered servants and soldiers of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 let us volunteer now1 for this is the day of salvation4 ,it is said that a great ,english moralist had engraved on his watch the words1 ,the night cometh1 so that whenever he looked at the time he might be reminded of the preciousness of the passing moment4 ,the night cometh4 ,how far away it may be1 or how near to any one of us1 no one of us knows4 ,but near or far it cometh with unhalting step4 ,wherefore1 whatsoever the thing be that is in your heart to do1 great or little1 for yourself or for others1 for man or for ,god--,,do ,,it ,,now6 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 by whose command it is that man goeth forth to his work and his labour until the evening1 grant us all a more earnest regard for the sacredness of each passing moment1 and help us to do with our whole heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do4 ,for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4 ,and he washed his face1 and went out1 and refrained himself1 and said1 ,set on bread4 7,,genesis xliii4 #ca47 ,,vii ,,the ,,washen ,,face ,,in ,,war ,,time ,that is what ,joseph did when his feelings nearly overmastered him at the sight of his brother ,benjamin standing before him1 all unconscious of who he was4 ,he sought where to weep1 says the record with quaint matter-of-factness1 for of course he did not want his brothers to see him weeping just yet4 ,so he entered into his chamber and wept there4 ,but ,joseph's secret affections being thus recognised and allowed their expression1 he had a duty to perform4 ,he put a curb upon his feelings4 ,he took a firm grip of himself4 ,he washed his face and went out1 and refrained himself1 and said1 ,set on bread4 ,one cannot help admiring that4 ,it was a fine thing to do4 ,and there are two classes of people in our own time in whom one sees this same attitude1 and never without a strange stirring of heart4 ,the first and most honourable are those who have already tasted of the sorrows of war and lost some dear one in the service of ,king and country4 ,we speak of the courage and sacrifice of our men1 and we cannot speak too highly or too gratefully about that4 ,but there is something else that runs it very close1 if it does not exceed it1 and that is the quiet heroism and endurance of many of those who have been bereaved4 ,time and again one sees them facing up to all life's calls upon them with a marvellous spirit of self-restraint4 ,god only knows how sad and sore their loss is4 ,and upon what takes place when they enter into their chamber and shut the door and face their sorrow alone with ,god1 it does not beseem us to intrude4 ,such sorrow is a sacred thing1 but at least we know1 and are glad to know1 that ,god ,himself is there as ,he is nowhere else4 ,it is never wrong and never weak to let the tears come before ,him4 ,as a father understands1 so does ,he know all about it4 ,as a mother comforteth1 so does the touch of ,his ,hand quieten and console4 ,but what fills one with reverent admiration is that so many of those whose hearts we know have been so cruelly wounded have set up a new and noble precedent in the matter of courage and self-control4 ,they are not shirking any of the duties of life4 ,they are claiming no exemptions on the ground of their sorrow1 and they excuse themselves from no duty merely because it would hurt4 ,they wear their hurt gently like a flower in the breast4 ,they carry their sorrow like a coronet4 ,out from their secret chambers they come1 with washen face and brave lips to do their duty and refrain themselves4 ,how beautiful it is6 ,what a fine thing to see6 ,the sorrowing mother of a noble young fellow ,i am proud to have known1 said to a friend recently who was marvelling at her fortitude1 ,my boy was very brave and ,i must try to be brave1 too1 for his sake4 ,dear1 gentle mother6 ,one cannot speak worthily about a spirit so sweet and gracious as that4 ,one can only bow the head and breathe the inward prayer1 ,god send thee peace1 brave heart6 ,but1 surely1 to accept sorrow in that fashion is to entertain unawares an angel of ,god6 ,the feeling which underlies this new etiquette of sorrow with the washen face is not very easily put into words4 ,but it rests1 ,i think1 upon the dim sense that the death which ends those young lives on this noble field of battle is something different from the ordinary bleak fact of mortality4 ,if death is ever glorious1 it is when it comes to the soldier fighting for a pure and worthy cause4 ,there is something more than sorrow1 there is even a quiet and reverent pride in the remembrance that the beloved life was given as a ransom for many4 ,when one thinks what we are fighting for1 one can hardly deny to the fallen the supreme honour of the words for ,christ's sake4 ,and it is not death to fall so4 ,rather is it the finding of life larger and more glorious still4 ,it is that that marks the war-mourners of to-day as a caste royal and apart4 ,it is that that moves so many of them by an inward instinct to wear their sorrow royally4 ,hidden in the heart of their grief is a tender and wistful pride4 ,lowell has put this feeling into very fine words3 ,i1 with uncovered head1 ,salute the sacred dead1 ,who went and who return not-- ,say not so4 ',tis not the grapes of ,canaan that repay1 ,but the high faith that fails not by the way4 ,virtue treads paths that end not in the grave2 ,no bar of endless night exiles the brave1 ,and1 to the saner mind1 ,we rather seem the dead that stayed behind4 ,the other class who are teaching us a new and better way to bear burdens are the friends at home of those who are on active service4 ,men1 with sons in the trenches1 are going about our streets these days almost as if nothing were happening1 making it a point of honour not to let the lurking fear in their hearts have any outward expression4 ,wives and mothers and sisters are filling their hands and their hearts full of duties1 and putting such a brave face on life that you would never suspect they have a chamber that could tell a different tale4 ,it is absolutely splendid4 ,there is no other word for it4 ,i walked a street-length with a young wife recently whose man has been ill and out of the fight for a while4 ,she hoped that he might have been sent home1 and who can blame her8 but he has gone back to the trenches instead4 ,and how bravely and quietly she spoke of it6 ,pride1 a true and noble pride in her beloved soldier1 a resolute endeavour to do her difficult bit as uncomplainingly and willingly as he--it seemed to me that ,i saw all that in her brave smile4 ,and ,i said to myself1 ,here is the cult of the washen face6 ,and a noble cult too6 ,britain surely deserves to win when her women carry their crosses so6 ,it is easy1 of course1 to read the thought in their minds4 ,our men1 they say1 are splendid1 why should we be doleful and despondent8 ,they have made a new virtue of cheerfulness2 let us try to learn it too4 ,they have offered everything in a cause which it is an honour to help in any degree2 let us lay beside theirs the worthy sacrifice of the washen face and a brave restraint4 ,such1 ,i imagine1 is the unconscious kind of reasoning which results in the resolute and cheerful bearing you may see on all sides of you every day4 ,and wherever it is seen1 it carries its blessing with it4 ,others with their own private burdens and anxieties are encouraged to hold on to that hope and cheerfulness which are just the homely side of our faith in ,god and in the righteousness of our cause4 ,the cult of the washen face is contagious4 ,it spreads like a beneficent stain4 ,and since it is entirely praiseworthy1 we can but wish it to spread more and more4 ,those who come out from the chambers where they have kept company with sorrow or anxiety1 to face life and duty with shining face and mastered feelings1 are not only proving their faith in the ,divine ,strength1 they are making a precious contribution to the moral stedfastness of the nation4 ,and he washed his face and went out and refrained himself4 ,good man6 ,,prayer ,we bless ,thee1 ,o ,god1 for the assurance that ,thine ear is ever open to our cry1 that it is never wrong to take our sorrows and our cares to ,thee4 ,but help us also1 endowed with ,thy strength in our secret chambers1 to bear our burdens bravely in the sight of men4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,but few things are needful1 or one4 ,r4 ,v4 7margin74 7,,luke ,x4 #db47 ,,viii ,,the ,,real ,,martha ,when ,jesus said1 upon one occasion1 that ,he had not where to lay ,his head1 ,he was speaking the bitter and literal truth4 ,he had really no home of ,his own1 but was everywhere a wanderer1 dependent on others for shelter and food2 and though the ,new ,testament draws a veil over all the hardships which that entailed even in the hospitable ,east1 imagination can picture something at least of what the homelessness of ,jesus must have meant4 ,but ,he had close and warm friends who made it up to ,him as far as friends could1 and of these were the two sisters1 ,martha and ,mary1 who with their brother1 ,lazarus1 had a house in ,bethany4 ,this place was ,his haven and shelter1 for ,jesus loved ,martha and her sister and ,lazarus4 ,the sisters were unlike in disposition4 ,mary1 we can imagine1 was dreamy1 meditative1 perhaps a little delicate and fragile1 and gifted with a quick and loving sympathy4 ,martha was robust1 practical1 energetic4 ,her way of showing the ,master that she considered it an honour to have ,him for a guest was to give ,him the very best that her housewifely skill could suggest4 ,no trouble was too much for her4 ,and it is very possible that one of the charms which this home had for ,jesus--one of the qualities which made it a real place of rest--was its well-ordered arrangements1 the quiet1 efficient1 capable way in which things were done4 ,and whose was the credit for that8 ,martha's4 ,what would that household have been like without ,martha8 ,and what would any home that is fortunate enough to have a ,martha in it1 be like without her8 ,the truth is our debt to the ,marthas is one which we have never fully acknowledged4 ,you would imagine1 hearing the way in which her name is sometimes used1 that it has an apologetic character1 as if the making of a home comfortable and homelike were a gift to be lightly esteemed in comparison1 for example1 with the ability to write verse6 ,it is foolish to play ,mary off against her sister in this way4 ,martha did what she could do best1 and showed her love for ,christ in that fashion1 and you may be quite sure that ,he understood4 ,mary served ,him in her way1 by giving ,him what ,he needed more at times than food--a heart to listen to ,his message1 and a sympathy which made the telling of it meat and drink to ,him4 ,each sister was the complement of the other4 ,but we wrong ,martha1 of course1 in thinking of her as always in the kitchen4 ,certainly when there waas a meal to be prepared you would find her there1 and well that was for the household and the servants4 ,but nobody is always eating or thinking about eating2 and often of an evening1 doubtless1 when the labours of the day were over1 ,martha would join her sister at the feet of the ,master whom she loved as much as ,mary did4 ,the incident which has given rise to the popular misconception of ,martha's character occurred during a visit which ,jesus paid in the days before ,lazarus fell sick4 ,something went wrong in ,martha's department that day4 ,perhaps it was a mistake of a servant that irritated the usually self-controlled ,martha1 or maybe some oversight of her own4 ,at anyrate1 it set up a condition of worry which straightway began to add to itself1 as its habit is1 seven other devils4 ,and as ,martha went out and in the dining chamber getting things ready1 the sight of ,mary sitting there at the ,master's feet doing nothing1 struck her1 perhaps for the first time1 as rather out of place4 ,things began to go further wrong4 ,just when ,martha wanted to do special honour to ,jesus1 the ordinarily smooth-running wheels of that home began to creak and grind4 ,each time she entered the room where ,christ and ,mary were1 ,martha's steps grew brisker and more emphatic2 and then the last straw was laid on1 and the outburst came6 ,martha asked ,jesus if ,he really did not care that ,mary was leaving her to do everything4 ,bid her come and help me1 she said4 ,of course1 ,jesus knew that it was for ,his sake that ,martha was giving herself all this trouble4 ,he saw1 as even we can see1 that this kind-hearted1 worried woman was speaking crossly1 as the very best will do at times1 because she was tired and a bit overdriven4 ,and with a perfect and gentle chivalry and tact ,he made ,his reply4 ,as the ,authorised ,version puts it1 it jars on one1 somehow4 ,but ,king ,james' translators have misread their text4 ,what ,jesus said was3 ,martha1 ,martha1 you are unduly anxious and troubled4 ,only a few things are necessary1 or even one4 ,mary has chosen a good part1 and ,i cannot allow you to take it from her4 ,martha1 remember1 was making a feast worthy of the ,master1 and ,jesus1 looking upon the various dishes being got ready1 said1 in effect1 ,i do not really need so many as that4 ,one would do quite well4 ,and ,i must not let you think that ,mary is doing nothing4 ,she1 too1 is ministering to me by her sympathy and her willing ear1 and you must not take away the good part she has chosen4 ,jesus was not speaking about the personal salvation of either ,mary or her sister4 ,he was only dealing gently with a good and true friend of ,his who had not served ,him as she had wished to do4 ,when ,he spoke of what was needful1 ,he meant needful for ,himself1 the ,guest whom both the sisters were seeking to honour4 ,he made no comparison between ,martha's service and ,mary's4 ,he did not say1 as we have read it so often1 that ,mary had chosen the better part4 ,he said1 in her defence1 that ,mary's was also a good part4 ,he is not blaming ,martha1 but only expostulating with her in the gentlest fashion1 and defending ,mary from the charge which ,martha in her heat had made against her1 the charge of being useless1 and doing nothing to help to entertain the ,master4 ,jesus said1 ,she is helping to entertain ,me in her own way1 and1 ,he added1 it is a good way4 ,when ,jesus having said that only a few things were necessary1 dropped ,his voice1 as we may imagine1 and added or indeed one1 ,he may have meant more than ,he seemed to say4 ,for there was one thing that was more than meat to our ,lord1 and that was to find a soul with heart and sympathy open to ,his message4 ,and it may be that ,he felt1 as ,he said the words1 that ,mary's ministry met a need of ,his deeper than that for which ,martha was catering4 ,at anyrate1 the oldest and best versions of this ,gospel give ,christ's words as we have rendered them1 and they stand here1 not to be used as a peg on which to hang doctrines1 but rather as a proof of the gentle courtesy of our ,lord1 of ,his insight into character and motive1 and of ,his gracious recognition of the worth of any and every kind of service that has love at its heart4 ,martha went back to her kitchen1 and ,mary remained where she was4 ,mary was not asked to go and help4 ,martha would have protested if she had come4 ,martha was not called upon to go and sit beside ,mary4 ,each continued the service for which she was best fitted4 ,but each1 ,i think1 had learned something that day4 ,and you and ,i must not leave this page of our ,new ,testament till we have learned it too--that we serve best when we do gladly that for which we are best qualified2 that it belongs to our ,christian service to recognise in all loyalty that1 though others find different ways of expressing it1 theirs is a good part2 and that we must never either belittle it or seek to take it from them4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 ,who by many diverse ways dost bring us near to ,thee1 and in differing modes and stations dost appoint our service1 help us gladly and gratefully to do the things we can do1 neither envying those whose opportunities are greater1 nor forbidding those who follow not us4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,he giveth 7to7 ,his beloved 7in their7 sleep4 7,,psalm cxxvii4 #b47 ,,ix ,,our ,,unearned ,,increment ,it is vain for you1 says the writer of the #abgth ,psalm1 to rise early and sit up late and eat the bread of sorrow1 for so ,he giveth to ,his beloved 7in their7 sleep4 ,that is the true reading1 and ,i want you to think about it4 ,god giveth to ,his beloved while they sleep4 ,over and above what you have yourself achieved1 you ,,get something you have never worked for4 ,and you get that1 as it were1 in your sleep4 ,this is a beautiful thought1 and there are three people to whom ,i want to offer it as ,god's comfort4 ,the first is the worried man4 ,it is indeed directly against worry that this psalmist sets forth his reminder4 ,it is not that he minimises the need for hard work and watchful care4 ,but he tells the man who is feverishly burning his candle at both ends1 and consuming himself in a frenzy of tense anxiety1 to leave something for ,god to do4 ,it is as if he said1 ,why so hot1 little man1 why so fiercely clutching all the ropes8 ,remember that ,god is working too as well as you1 working in your interest and in love for you4 ,when you have done your best therefore1 go to your bed and sleep with a quiet mind1 for ,god giveth to ,his beloved even so4 ,one can imagine how a word like that would relax the tension and lead some persuadable ,hebrew who heard it to say1 ,ah1 well1 ,i worry far too much4 ,after all1 ,i am not ,providence4 ,i am always getting a great many things ,i have not wrought for4 ,i shall worry less about securing the good things ,i desire for me and mine1 and trust more to ,god to give them as ,he sees fit4 ,if all of us who needed this reminder just had the sense to come to the same conclusion6 ,i have seen a man compass his family with so many careful regulations and observances that the criticism of a candid friend seemed entirely just4 ,you would think1 he said1 to see so-and-so shepherding his family1 that there was no other providence than his own4 ,you can't be with your best beloved all the while4 ,and you ought to know that ,god too is watching even while you sleep4 ,if there be some plan on which you have set your heart1 and you are over-anxious about it1 quote this text to yourself4 ,do your best1 of course1 but1 having done so1 leave the outcome with ,god4 ,about a great many of the things over which we worry ourselves needlessly1 ,i believe ,god's word to us is3--,leave these things to ,me4 ,you can't work for them4 ,and anxiety won't bring them4 ,but you will get them1 as you need them1 just as if they came to you in your sleep4 ,said one hermit to another in the ,egyptian desert1 as he looked at a flourishing olive tree near his cave1 ,how came that goodly tree there1 brother8 ,for ,i too planted an olive1 and when ,i thought it wanted water1 ,i asked ,god to give it rain and the rain came1 and when ,i thought it wanted sun ,i asked ,god and the sun shone1 and when ,i deemed it needed strengthening1 ,i prayed and the frost came--,god gave me all ,i demanded for my tree1 as ,i saw fit1 and yet it died4 ,and ,i1 brother1 replied the other hermit1 ,i left my tree in ,god's hands1 for ,he knew what it wanted better than ,i1 and behold what a goodly tree it has become4 ,the second man to whom ,i would offer the comfort of this word of ,god is the man who is disappointed4 ,things have gone wrong with him4 ,the plan on which he spent so much of his time and energy has miscarried1 and a very different result has emerged from what he counted on4 ,his way1 as he saw it1 is blocked1 and he has had to turn aside4 ,now1 there are not many things one can say usefully to a disappointed man4 ,and it is cruel kindness to try to heal his hurt lightly4 ,nevertheless1 to him also the psalmist's message applies1 and what he needs to remember1 that he may pick up heart and go on again1 is that ,god giveth to ,his beloved while they sleep4 ,we have all had disappointments1 sore enough at the time1 which after-experience proved to have been blessings in disguise4 ,many a man can point to a signal failure as the beginning of a true success or usefulness or happiness4 ,we did not feel as if we were being enriched when our plan fell through1 and we were bitter and rebellious enough at the time1 it may be1 but it is quite clear to us now that ,god was at that very time giving to us with both ,his hands4 ,no one1 of course1 can see that about any more than a few of his disappointments4 ,it would be false to experience to speak as if we could4 ,but what is manifestly true about one or two may conceivably hold with regard to them all1 if we knew more1 or could see better4 ,and the ,christian ,gospel calls us to believe and trust that that is so4 ,there is another ,hand than ours shaping our life1 a wiser ,hand4 ,better things are being done for us than we can see in the meantime4 ,and the man whose hopes and plans have turned out amiss1 but whose trust is still in ,god1 is invited by our psalmist to reason with himself thus3--,i am like a man asleep1 and ,i do not rightly understand at present1 but ,i will trust that it is not for nothing that misfortune has come1 and when ,i wake ,i shall hope to see that ,god has been giving to me in love and mercy when ,i was not aware of it at all4 ,the third man whom this text will help and comfort is the worker1 the man or woman who is trying to do something for ,christ's sake4 ,the ,christian worker needs to be told that what he is trying to do is not nearly all that he is doing4 ,what he is1 is speaking as loudly as what he does or says4 ,there is an aroma and fragrance about the life of the consecrated ,christ-like man or woman which sweetens and sanctifies other lives beyond what he or she can ever know4 ,some of the best sermons in the world have been preached by people who least suspected what they were doing4 ,the invalid in the home does not know how real religion becomes to all who watch her patience and unselfishness4 ,and among the busy and vigorous we often catch hints and reflections1 that they never suspect1 of what ,christ-likeness means4 ,the man who has surrendered his life to ,god1 indeed1 is a channel of blessing to others beyond all he ever dreams of4 ,he must not be disheartened when he realises how little he is doing1 for the truth is he is doing far1 far more than he knows4 ,wherefore1 my brother1 be of good cheer1 and render your service to ,christ with a quiet heart4 ,lay your course1 and work your ship1 and hoist your sail and trust4 ,and the gifts of ,god will enrich you1 and the winds of heaven will bring you on your way1 even while you sleep4 ,,prayer ,we give ,thee thanks1 ,o ,god1 for all ,thy bounties1 undeserved and unearned2 for the increase ,thou dost send us while the stars are shining2 for ,thy gracious thirty-fold and sixty-fold beyond what we have sown4 ,every morning ,thou leavest gifts upon our doorstep and dost depart unthanked4 ,but this day we remember1 and we bow our heads to render unto ,thee our humble and our hearty thanks for all that ,thou hast given us while we slept4 ,amen4 ,the smoking flax he shall not quench4 7,,isaiah xlii4 #c47 ,x ,,smoking ,,wicks ,we read the #dbnd chapter of ,isaiah now as if it were a part of the ,christian ,evangel4 ,and that is right4 ,for whoever the ,servant may have been1 of whom ,isaiah was thinking1 it is ,christ and only ,christ who completely fulfils this prophecy4 ,this is a true description of ,his spirit and ,his method4 ,the dimly-burning wick he shall not quench4 ,the figure is easily understood4 ,here is a piece of flax floating in oil1 and burning so faintly that it seems a mere charred end from which the smoke coils thinly upwards4 ,some one comes and snuffs it out1 because it smells4 ,that is the way of the world's reformers1 as ,isaiah saw it1 and we can see it still4 ,by and by they will trim the wick and light it with fire of their own1 but first they will quench the spark4 ,but there is ,one to come1 said ,isaiah1 shooting his arrow of prophecy in the air1 who will go otherwise about it4 ,he will not despise the spark because it is so feeble4 ,he will tend it and foster it1 and make the evil-smelling bundle of flax into a clear1 shining light4 ,and the saying has found its mark in ,jesus ,christ4 ,when a woman that was a sinner made her way into the house where ,he sat at meat1 and wept at ,his feet1 ,he amazed all those present by the extraordinary gentleness of ,his dealing with her4 ,he did not refer to the evil in her life4 ,he did not1 as other good men would have done1 first cast her down1 that ,he might afterwards lift her up4 ,he simply took the beautiful impulse after good which she brought ,him out of a life besmirched and tawdry1 held it in ,his hands--a mere spark of virtue--and breathing on it1 blessed it1 and behold it was a flame1 burning up the evil in her life1 a lamp lighting her path along a new and hopeful way4 ,that was ,christ4 ,he does not1 ,he will not quench the dimly-burning wick4 ,now--and this is our point--if those who profess and call themselves ,christians are to have the spirit in them that was also in ,christ ,jesus1 must not this be their mark too8 ,does not this prescribe their attitude to life1 that many-coloured1 strangely-mixed compound of good and evil8 ,good in any form1 however feeble1 however mixed1 as in this world it inevitably is1 with what is evil1 should find in those who call themselves by ,christ's name1 its truest supporters1 sympathisers1 friends4 ,to the eye and heart in sympathy with it1 beauty often peeps out in strange places4 ,the poem hangs on the berry bush1 ,when comes the poet's eye1 ,and the whole street is a masquerade ,when ,shakespeare passes by4 ,so the mark of the ,christ-like heart is just that it discerns1 and1 discerning1 loves the feeblest tokens of some inward grace that redeems a life from evil4 ,do not be afraid that by welcoming the scant good1 you may be held to approve of the greater evil4 ,that is a risk that ,god ,himself rejoices to take4 ,did not ,christ risk that1 when ,he accepted that poor woman's worship8 ,did ,he not risk it when ,he held out ,his hands to a man like ,zaccheus8 ,does ,he not risk it always when ,he declares1 ,him that cometh unto ,me ,i will in no wise cast out8 ,and shall we refuse because the risk is too great8 ,life presents us with many anomalies that refuse to square with our theories4 ,you find men exhibiting qualities of character1 which any ,christian might be proud to emulate1 outside of the ,church altogether4 ,and you cannot simply label these--glittering vices1 and pass on4 ,god is not two but ,one1 and goodness is ,his token wherever it be found4 ,the ,world1 says ,john ,owen1 cannot yet afford to do without the good acts even of its bad men4 ,and the truth for us to learn is that the grace of ,god is not bound by our standards or limits4 ,make the circle as wide as you like1 you will still discover fruits of the ,spirit outside1 where by all our canons they were never to be expected4 ,and every virtue we possess1 ,and every victory won1 ,and every thought of holiness ,are ,his alone4 ,it is for something more than tolerance ,i am pleading4 ,for that may be a weak and a wrong thing1 if it spring not from belief in the good4 ,what our calling demands is something more1 the rejoicing1 hopeful recognition of the good deed or purpose anywhere1 and the offer of a sympathy and a faith in which it can grow4 ,that gift of yours may actually be the decisive factor in a life balancing perilously betwixt good and evil4 ,three times1 the other evening1 ,i tried to light my study fire1 and each time it went out4 ,the paper burned1 but the sticks apparently would not light4 ,at last in despair ,i flung in a burning match and went away--and when ,i returned ,i found a cheerful blaze3 the brief glimmer of that last match had been the determining factor4 ,you will smile perhaps at the illustration1 but you will remember1 all the better1 that where the flax is even smouldering1 there the angels are still fighting for a soul4 ,and you will1 maybe1 remember also that even your warm sympathy may turn the scale1 and fan the flicker to a flame4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 ,god and ,father of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 we pray that the mind that was in ,him may more and more be found in us4 ,help us to offer to what is good anywhere a sympathy in which it may grow and increase4 ,grant us a helpful faith in the struggling good in every man1 even as ,thou1 our ,father1 dost call us sons while as yet we are but prodigals1 afar off4 ,for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4 ,let not then your good be evil spoken of4 7,,romans xiv4 #af47 ,,xi ,,culpable ,,goodness ,in his letter to the ,christians at ,rome1 the ,apostle ,paul counsels them not to let their good be evil spoken of4 ,and at first we ask ourselves if this is a possible thing4 ,can you have good that is evil spoken of8 ,since this is a matter that ought to concern us all1 ,i want to suggest one or two ways in which this very result may be brought about1 that those of us who are trying to follow an ideal of goodness may be on our guard4 ,first1 we can very readily have what is good in us evil spoken of because of our ,,censoriousness4 ,when men come upon some fruit that grows upon a goodly-looking tree1 or one at least that has a trustworthy label attached to it1 and find it sour or bitter to the taste1 they are apt to be particularly resentful4 ,and it is with precisely such indignation that they observe men and women who profess themselves followers of ,christ exhibiting a censorious and critical spirit4 ,where ought you to find the broadest charity1 the kindliest judgment1 the most ,christ-like forbearance and restraint8 ,among ,christians1 of course4 ,and yet--alas6 alas6 ,just keep your ears open with this end in view for a week1 and you will be surprised at the appallingly hard judgments that come tripping daintily from the lips of some of those you know best4 ,and if that line of investigation be not very handy1 just watch yourself for the same time1 and you will learn what a rare thing ,christian charity is4 ,we talk a lot about it1 but in real life we forbid men very readily because they follow not us1 we belittle things which we do not understand1 we speak rashly about people whom we do not know1 and we are ready1 without the least consideration1 with our label for the movement or the man1 who happens to be brought to our notice4 ,ah1 if we could only see how far astray we often are1 what a libel our label is1 and how un,christ-like many of our speeches appear6 ,we don't know enough of the inner life of any man to entitle us to pass judgment upon him4 ,a critical spirit never commends its possessor to the affection or the good-will of men4 ,besides1 it blinds him to much that is really beautiful1 and cuts him off from many sources of happiness4 ,you will see evil in almost anything if you look for it1 but that is not a gift that makes either for helpfulness or popular esteem4 ,i do not call that by the name of religion1 says ,robert ,louis ,stevenson1 which fills a man with bile1 and1 on the whole1 the ordinary man is of the same mind with him4 ,judge not2 the workings of his brain ,and of his heart thou canst not see4 ,what looks1 to thy dim eyes1 a stain1 ,in ,god's pure light may only be ,a scar brought from some well-won field1 ,where thou wouldst only faint and yield4 ,sometimes one must1 in the interests of true religion1 pass judgment1 but these times are not so frequent as we suppose4 ,and if there are occasions more than others when the disciple needs an overflowing measure of ,christ's spirit1 it is when it is his clear duty to diagnose1 disapprove1 and condemn4 ,secondly1 we may have our good evil spoken of by our ,,extremeness4 ,i should be very chary of saying that there is such a thing as being righteous overmuch1 but for two reasons4 ,the first is that there is an injunction in ,scripture against it4 ,and the second is that ,i have met people1 of whom1 in all charity1 it was true6 ,the modern name for being righteous overmuch is being a crank4 ,now1 nobody loves a crank4 ,the extremist always does his own cause harm4 ,carefulness about one's food is a good thing1 but to take an analytical chemist's outfit to table with us is simply to ask for the contempt of all sensible people4 ,paul's advice to the ,philippians was1 ,let your moderation be known to all men4 ,and ,paul was himself a splendid example of the true moderation as distinguished from that which is merely indolent and uninterested4 ,earnest1 enthusiastic1 loyal1 there was yet about him a big and healthy sanity1 a sweet reasonableness1 and--what the extremist always lacks--an engaging tact4 ,in other words1 ,paul was a ,christian gentleman1 and if you want to know what that means1 read his letter to ,philemon about ,onesimus the runaway slave4 ,there are blunt words with which a man can be felled as effectually as with the grievous crab-tree cudgel of which ,bunyan speaks4 ,paul did not consider it any special virtue to employ such words4 ,his ,christian zeal did not lead him to make a statement in a way that would irritate and rasp a man's soul4 ,there is a certain extreme candour affected by some ,christian people1 who pride themselves on always calling a spade a spade4 ,but if it hurts my friend to hear me say spade ,i know of no law of ,god that compels me to name the implement at all6 ,and then1 lastly1 we can have our goodness evil spoken of because it is so ,,cold4 ,it sometimes seems as if1 in our day1 warmth of manner had gone out of fashion4 ,ian ,maclaren once said of our generation that it will smile feebly when wished a happy ,new ,year as if apologising for a lapse into barbarism4 ,but ,i don't think any sensible person1 not blinded by an absurd convention1 cares for that type of rarified demeanour4 ,no one likes to get a hand to shake which feels like a dead fish6 ,in one of his books1 ,dr ,dale of ,birmingham criticised that line in ,keble's hymn which speaks about the trivial round and the common task giving us room to deny ourselves4 ,no doubt1 he says1 but ,i should be very sorry for the people ,i live with to discharge their home duties in the spirit of martyrs4 ,god preserve us all from wives1 husbands1 children1 brothers1 and sisters who go about the house with an air of celestial resignation4 ,ah1 no1 that's not the goodness1 either at home or on the street1 which wins men4 ,it is not beautiful because it is too cold4 ,the religion of ,jesus is something much more than duty-doing4 ,thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,,god ,,with ,,all ,,thy ,,heart4 ,whosoever compels thee to go a mile1 ,,go ,,with ,,him ,,twain4 ,whatsoever ye do1 do it ,,heartily ,,as ,,unto ,,the ,,lord4 ,,prayer ,from all unkind thoughts and uncharitable judgments2 from all intemperate speech and behaviour2 from coldness of heart and a frigid service1 ,good ,lord1 deliver us4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,god loveth a cheerful giver4 7#b ,,corinthians ix4 #g47 ,,xii ,a ,,khaki ,,virtue ,we are proud to believe that1 in the article of courage1 our men are second to none in the world4 ,they have glorious traditions to live up to1 and they are adding to these pages--nay1 a whole volume1 as splendid as any in our annals4 ,yet it is not of our soldiers' courage ,i wish to speak4 ,for we are told on all hands that there is another quality shining brighter still these days in the trenches in ,france and ,belgium1 in ambulance waggons and field hospitals1 and in the camps at home1 namely1 cheerfulness4 ,again and again the same tale is repeated from one quarter or another--our men are simply wonderful1 they treat discomfort as a joke4 ,they label the very instruments that deal death among them with names that raise a smile4 ,nurses1 doctors1 and correspondents tell us that the light-hearted way in which our soldiers face pain and suffering and force twisted lips to smile has created a new record for the ,british ,army4 ,when the story of this war is written1 and the world gets a nearer glimpse into those awful trenches1 ,i venture to prophesy that the quality in our countrymen which will most capture the imagination and fill us with the greatest pride will be the gay1 undaunted cheerfulness with which they faced it all4 ,surely we who stay at home may learn something of that virtue too4 ,for it is worth learning4 ,ordinary people who only know what they like1 without knowing why they like it1 have a very warm side towards the person who1 when things are grey and gloomy1 can keep cheerful4 ,they would much rather see him come in on a dull day than a wiser man whose wisdom was a burden to him1 or even than a pious person whose piety ran to solemnity and gloom4 ,it is high time1 indeed1 that the tradition was broken for good and all which associates moral excellence with a funereal heaviness of manner and denies the favour of the ,lord to one who1 as ,goldsmith has it1 carols as he goes4 ,for the blessing of ,god is written visibly upon the results of cheerfulness wherever you find it4 ,god rewards the gallant souls who keep their colours flying through every battle1 even though they have to nail them up over a sorely damaged ship4 ,if you want a proof that the hopeful and cheery way of facing the rebuffs of life and tholing its aches and disappointments is more in the line of what ,god expects from ,his children than the doleful whining temper1 you have it shown unmistakably in the fact that the gallant unconquerable soul solves problems1 overcomes difficulties1 endures pains1 and wins successes where the solemn and easily depressed would simply have given in and lain down4 ,you can safely prophesy that the man whom you hear singing as he goes through the valley1 like the pilgrim that ,bunyan's ,christian heard1 is going to get out of it safely and honourably in the end4 ,the ,lord ,himself will deliver him1 as ,he delights to deliver all those who face life smiling and unafraid1 and meet ,his ,fatherly discipline with a stout heart4 ,cheerfulness1 in other words1 pays for oneself4 ,but it is also a great blessing to others4 ,one very safe and sure way to help our fellows up their hills is to breast our own as bravely and gaily as we can4 ,and the cheerfulness which heals and blesses like the breath of morning is that which shows up against a background of cloud and trouble4 ,let us all in this year of war and clean courage1 register a vow that we shall take a leaf out of our soldiers' book1 and think less about our own troubles1 teach our lips to smile when things are wrong1 and keep our eyes wider open for trouble's danger signals among our friends4 ,it's a simple way of doing good1 but a very effective one4 ,for cheerfulness1 like mercy1 is twice blessed4 ,it blesseth him that has1 and him that sees6 ,it was only a glad ,good ,morning ,as she passed along the way1 ,but it spread the morning's glory ,over the livelong day4 ,but cheerfulness needs its explanation4 ,it implies something4 ,a man is not cheerful without some underlying philosophy of life to sustain him1 some pillar of faith or hope at his back4 ,when a man faces life dauntless and smiling1 he does so because some inward and1 it may even be1 unconscious faith or hope thus finds its expression4 ,what that faith is1 different men will describe in different ways4 ,but however much the descriptions vary1 it all comes back to this in the end1 that the man who is living bravely and cheerfully is expressing by his conduct at any rate his faith in the ,fatherhood and good ,providence of ,god4 ,he knows that ,god's in ,his ,heaven2 at any rate he believes so4 ,he believes that things do not just fall out by chance1 but that a ,father ,hand controls all1 and a ,father ,heart cares even for the sparrow's unheeded fall4 ,the ,god who rules all makes no mistakes4 ,and is not that a cardinal part of the faith which ,jesus brings near to all who are learning of ,him8 ,there are various adjectives used to qualify the title ,christian4 ,one hears1 for example1 of earnest ,christians1 and earnestness is a very necessary quality1 even though one does occasionally happen upon earnest ,christians who are rather unlovable and irritating people4 ,but there's another adjective1 not nearly so common--and yet it denotes a quality just as essential in those who have taken ,christ's gospel of ,god's ,love and ,fatherhood to their hearts--namely1 cheerful4 ,a cheerful ,christian4 ,let us all try to be that kind of ,christian at least4 ,,prayer ,the day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties4 ,help us to play the man1 help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces1 let cheerfulness abound with industry4 ,give us to go blithely on our business all this day1 bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonoured1 and grant us in the end the gift of sleep4 ,amen4 ,r4 ,l4 ,,stevenson4 7,jeremiah dwelt among the people that were left in the land47 7,,jeremiah xl4 #f47 ,,xiii ,,the ,,overcoming ,,of ,,panic ,once upon a time ,jeremiah the prophet had asked for only one thing1 that he might get away from that strange cityful of perverse men to whom it was his hard lot to be the mouthpiece of a ,god they were forgetting4 ,he was tired of them4 ,o that ,i had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men that ,i might leave my people and go from them4 ,well1 time passed on4 ,the people got no wiser1 and ,jeremiah's burden certainly got no lighter4 ,but the very chance he prayed for came4 ,he had a clear and honourable opportunity to go to the lodge in the wilderness1 or anywhere else he liked1 away from the men who had disowned his teaching4 ,his work was done apparently1 and he had failed4 ,yet with the door standing invitingly open1 see what ,jeremiah did6 ,he went and dwelt among the people that were left in the land4 ,he had his chance and he did not take it6 ,we all know something of this desire to get rid of a present hard duty1 or a difficult environment1 or a perplexing problem4 ,and yet ,i wonder1 if the way were similarly opened up for us1 how many would seize the opportunity8 ,i believe that the feature of such a situation would just be the large number of us who1 when it came to the pinch1 would choose as ,jeremiah did1 to remain where we are6 ,something would hold us back4 ,yet the desire itself is natural enough1 and a man need neither be a coward nor a weakling who confesses to it4 ,the hours when the daily round seems altogether flat and unprofitable1 and when one would gladly change places with almost anybody1 are real hours in life1 and it is no shame to have known them4 ,but between that knowledge and the actual escape1 the actual fleeing from one's post1 there is a great gulf fixed that1 for very many with any high ideal of duty1 is impassable4 ,for1 though a man has known the state of mind that looks for some back door out of a depressing situation1 he has had the other experience also1 the joy of self-mastery1 the keen sense of pleasure that comes to him when he discovers that his surroundings do not count for so much as he himself does4 ,that experience1 though it be only in memory1 will stand between a man and retreat4 ,he has conquered before1 and the thrill of victory over material discouragements may be his again4 ,and so1 though the way of escape be open1 he will choose to remain and fight it out4 ,sometimes the mere weight of his responsibility may tempt a man to wish that he might escape4 ,there is a fairly well-known symptom of nervous disease whose name signifies the fear of being shut in1 when the patient dreads the experience of being in any closed place4 ,sometimes a moral panic of that kind comes to a man when he realises that he is shut in with some duty which must be gone through with4 ,with something of the instinct of the trapped animal he may look round for a way of escape4 ,yet does that mean that he would take the chance deliberately1 with eyes full open to the consequences1 if it were offered8 ,i think not4 ,you can apply the test to yourself4 ,have you ever accepted some responsibility1 and then1 when the occasion came nearer1 backed out of it for no other reason than that you were afraid8 ,if you have1 you will perhaps remember whether you felt proud of yourself1 whether1 beneath the undoubted relief1 there was not a good deal of quiet shame and self-scorn4 ,if the same thing were to happen again1 you might feel the impulse to desert1 but if you remembered your former experience1 you would hardly yield to it1 ,i imagine4 ,the plain truth is that no proper man really likes a soft job4 ,in the long run1 says ,j4 ,a4 ,symonds1 we really love the sternest things in life best4 ,and he speaks truth4 ,there is a certain exhilaration in the endurance of hardness4 ,responsibility braces most men like a shock of cold water4 ,what is arduous calls them as with a trumpet4 ,and in the general sense of quiet contempt for the person who in a panic flings up his responsibility1 we may recognise one of ,god's elementary checks upon cowardice4 ,there are those who are reading these words who are enduring hardness and making sacrifices from which they might easily escape4 ,they do at times desire relief4 ,but the point is that they don't take it1 when it is possible4 ,and ,i say there must be some reason for this4 ,what is it that holds men back from the easy way when it stands open before them8 ,for one thing1 ,i think1 the sense of the place that hardness and effort and endurance play in every true life4 ,for centuries men have climbed up to strength of character1 if at all1 by ways uniformly arduous and steep2 and distrust of the primrose path1 however alluring1 has passed as an instinct into our blood4 ,in the small unheroic affairs of life we have learned that a difficulty faced and overcome1 or a duty doggedly fulfilled1 add a precious something to experience that there is no other way of securing4 ,the schoolboy on a hot summer day may look up from his task1 away out wistfully to the cool shade of the trees across the playground1 and wish that he were there1 rather than where he is4 ,yet even he knows1 what we all come to learn1 that that is not the road to anything in life worth the gaining4 ,another deterring impulse is the sense of a divine vocation4 ,our calling and circumstances are ordained for us by ,god1 and we must not quit the field till the day is done4 ,it is ,he who has chosen our lot in life and summoned us to the sphere we fill4 ,we may succeed or fail as seems to ,him best4 ,sometimes he places men1 for reasons of ,his own1 in corners where success1 as commonly measured1 is not possible4 ,but one thing--success or failure--we must not do4 ,we must not shirk4 ,we must not run away4 ,god means us to stand fast and do our best4 ,for failure even1 if it be honourable1 ,he may have ,his good word at the last4 ,but to the man who has shirked life's hard duties1 not even ,god can say1 ,well done6 ,,prayer ,lord of our life1 and ,god of our salvation1 make us strong to endure hardness as good soldiers of ,jesus ,christ4 ,thou sendest no man a warfare upon his own charges4 ,in dependence on ,thy help1 grant us grace to do each duty1 as the hour and ,thy will may bring it4 ,and1 with ,thy fear in our hearts1 grant us deliverance from all other fears whatever4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,whatsoever ye do1 do all to the glory of ,god4 7#a ,,corinthians x4 #ca47 ,,xiv ,,the ,,day',s ,,darg ,it is never hard to connect the presence of our ,lord and ,master ,jesus ,christ with our ,sabbaths and our hours of worship4 ,if ever ,christ comes near us in spirit at all1 we say1 it is when in the quiet of the sanctuary we reach out hands of prayer and desire to ,him4 ,the link between our worship and our ,lord is strong and obvious4 ,but1 when the din of business shuts out all else1 when the hard1 toilsome duty of the ordinary day is to be done1 when we are at work amid surroundings that have no suggestion of sacredness or of ,god about them--what of the link with ,christ then8 ,it is much harder then1 is it not8 to imagine any thinkable and workable connection that our ,lord has with that sphere of life1 broad and extensive as it is4 ,there are many indeed who forget that there is any1 and live as if there were none4 ,and yet the solemn truth is that if that link is not strong and real1 we don't know what religion means4 ,we have hardly the right to call ourselves ,christian men and women unless we can relate our week-day labours to the fact of ,christ4 ,so let us try to strengthen that link4 ,let us look at our daily work in the light of religion4 ,first1 let me remind you that our work is by divine commandment4 ,it is not something that ,god allows us to do when we are not worshipping4 ,it is ,his ordinance that we should all work at something4 ,the business of life is labour of some sort4 ,i do not know if we all realise how the ,fourth ,commandment begins--,six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work4 ,and the man who is inexcusably idle1 or who belittles his work1 even in the interest1 as he thinks1 of religion1 is breaking this commandment as truly as he who neglects the other half of it and dishonours the ,sabbath day4 ,no one will accuse the ,apostle ,paul of any indifference or lukewarmness where true religion was concerned4 ,yet it was this ,apostle who ordered the ,thessalonians to go on with their daily occupations even though they believed1 as so many did at that time1 that the ,return of the ,lord to earth was just at hand4 ,by our daily work we serve the ,lord as truly as when we gather to ,his worship4 ,let us get out of our heads1 then1 the false and foolish idea that all the working part of our week is the part at which ,god looks askance4 ,man's chief end is to glorify ,god1 and one of the ways of doing that is by being loyal to the duties of each hour whatever they may be4 ,secondly1 ,i would ask you to think of those quiet1 unrecorded years of our ,lord's life on earth before ,his public ministry4 ,the ,gospels give no details1 but the fact is perfectly certain that up till ,his thirtieth year ,jesus of ,nazareth worked at ,his trade as a carpenter4 ,if only we would let that fact soak into us1 it would alter our whole idea of the relation of our daily work to religion4 ,jesus worked ,himself4 ,and we have1 as has been pointed out1 interesting indirect proof as to what manner of life ,he lived on those workaday levels that we all know so much about4 ,for1 to this ,carpenter of ,nazareth there came a day when1 in ,nazareth itself1 ,he stood forth as representative of a morality and religion higher than ever was proclaimed before4 ,he spoke to men about the true way to live like one having authority4 ,and there were many who so resented what they deemed ,his presumption that anything that reflected on ,his claims or belittled ,his authority would gladly have been seized upon and made the most of4 ,had there been in ,nazareth a bit of botched work of ,his doing1 a door of unseasoned wood or a badly made chest1 don't you think it would have been produced to discredit ,his mission8 ,if any one could have been found with whom the ,carpenter had not dealt honourably and justly1 if1 as ,he walked the streets of ,his native town and lived ,his humble daily life in the sight of all men1 there had been anything that weakened ,his claim to guide and teach ,his brethren1 don't you think they would have found it out and taxed ,him with it8 ,there was nothing of that4 ,jesus faced ,his fellows with ,his daily duty behind ,him1 and it reinforced every word ,he said4 ,his message to men was backed up by ,his daily life4 ,he spoke of religion as no other son of man ever did1 but ,he lived it long before ,he ever opened ,his mouth4 ,he brought religion down to the workshop and the street1 and showed men what it meant there4 ,and unless ,he had done that1 it is difficult to conceive that ,his public ministry of itself would have satisfied men that ,he was indeed ,one sent from ,god4 ,do you see1 then1 from this point of view1 what a great and vital part of religion our day's work is1 and the way we do it1 our life at home1 our ordinary contact with our fellow-men8 ,it is that that gives weight to any profession we may make4 ,if in our daily life we are not exhibiting our religion1 nothing that we can profess or say on ,sunday will make up for that defect4 ,it is what we are on ,monday and ,tuesday that underlines and emphasises the claims we make at church on the ,sunday4 ,behind all our prayer and profession lies the everyday life4 ,third1 our daily work is sanctified by the fact that our ,lord and ,master is with us1 to help and strengthen us there1 as truly as when we pray4 ,jesus ,christ is not far away1 as we so pitifully misconceive it1 amid the dust of business1 when we must keep our temper and follow conscience along the hard way and deal honourably with all men4 ,he is near us there also1 ready and willing to help us to be true to ,god and man on that road which once ,he trod ,himself4 ,there is a famous unwritten saying of ,christ which puts memorably what the ,gospels likewise testify4 ,raise the stone and thou shalt find ,me4 ,cleave the wood and there am ,i4 ,christ is as near us in our daily work as that6 ,when ,peter and his friends went a-fishing1 you remember1 with heavy hearts because the ,master had gone away from them1 ,he met them by the lake as they plied their ordinary calling4 ,so does ,he wait1 my brother1 to meet you and me wherever the duty of the hour may take us4 ,for our working life is not outside of ,his interest nor out with ,his care and guidance4 ,with reverent imagination ,van ,dyke has seemed to hear the ,christ speak thus--and the words may perhaps further weld the link for some of us between our everyday duty and the ,christ whom we worship and seek to serve3 ,they who tread the path of labour follow where ,my feet have trod2 ,they who work without complaining do the holy will of ,god4 ,where the many toil together1 there am ,i among my own2 ,where the tired workman sleepeth1 there am ,i with ,him alone4 ,i1 the peace that passeth knowledge1 dwell amid the daily strife1 ,i1 the bread of heaven1 am broken in the sacrament of life4 ,every task1 however simple1 sets the soul that does it free1 ,every deed of love and mercy done to man is done to ,me4 ,nevermore thou needest seek ,me2 ,i am with thee everywhere-- ,raise the stone and thou shalt find ,me1 cleave the wood and ,i am there4 ,,prayer ,our ,lord and ,master1 whose command it is that we do with our whole heart whatsoever our hand findeth to do1 grant that we may so yield and surrender ourselves1 body1 mind and spirit1 unto ,thee1 that even in the common business of each ordinary day we may serve ,thee and glorify ,thy great ,name4 ,amen4 ,gashmu saith it4 7,,nehemiah vi4 #f47 ,,xv ,,gashmu ,,the ,,gossip ,gashmu is a mere name in ,scripture4 ,he is mentioned only three times--twice as acting with ,sanballat against ,nehemiah1 and once as the authority for a false piece of news4 ,it is reported1 wrote ,sanballat in a cruel letter to ,nehemiah1 that you are plotting against the king1 and ,gashmu saith it4 ,that is what ,gashmu stands for in ,scripture1 a tale-bearer1 a slanderer1 a gossip4 ,what an unenviable immortality to be remembered only as the pedlar of a tale he knew to be untrue6 ,as long as we live together in society1 there will be a kind of gossip that is inevitable1 the kindly or merely casual relation of small and insignificant matters of fact1 as that the painters are in next door1 or that ,mrs ,so-and-,so has got a new bonnet4 ,it is not of that ,i want to speak4 ,for there is another sort as deadly as the plague1 and in civilised countries the cruellest and most devilish instrument that one man or woman can use against another4 ,and that is the inventing of an untrue report about a man's doings or character1 or the unthinking repetition of the same4 ,that is the pestilence that walketh in darkness2 that is the destruction that wasteth at noonday4 ,and ,i wish ,i had the pen to write of it as it deserves4 ,it is very1 very common4 ,we are all too ready to repeat what we have heard1 with a ,gashmu saith it1 as if that certified the tale correct4 ,and the harm done is simply incalculable4 ,if my house is burned or ,i lose my money1 ,i can still get along by the kindness of my friends for a little1 till ,i find my feet again4 ,but whoever by some lying story takes away my character1 deals me a blow from which there is no recovering1 which my loyalest friends can do nothing to avert4 ,i have no redress1 no compensation1 and no help4 ,any one may be a victim1 and you and ,i1 by thoughtlessly passing on the deadly thing1 may all unconsciously be driving another nail into a man's coffin4 ,did you ever lie awake at night and think that even now the cancer may have begun on ,,your good name1 that whispers may be going about among your friends concerning you8 ,those who know you will hear it1 and will say1 ,it's a lie6 ,but that won't stop it4 ,and you will never know till some day you waken up and find that your reputation is in danger4 ,and not one word or vestige of truth may be in it4 ,it may be a lie pure and simple1 or a colourable counterfeit of some quite innocent truth4 ,that won't make any difference4 ,it is enough merely to start it1 and1 like a stone thrown down an ,alpine slope1 it gathers others in its train1 till an avalanche swoops down on some unsuspecting head4 ,when ,king ,arthur enrolled his ,knights of the ,round ,table1 he made them take the oath to speak no slander4 ,and there is a knightly chivalry of speech which ought to be the mark of all those who have promised fealty to ,jesus ,christ4 ,our discipleship of ,jesus demands of us the high endeavour to love our neighbour as ourselves1 and that presupposes1 as one of its consequences1 that we guard his name against false witness as carefully as we protect our own4 ,if we hear a good story about some one1 a report that is to his credit and honour1 let us blazon that abroad4 ,we are all far too slow at that1 and somehow the tale that is a little damaging has a far easier and more rapid circulation4 ,might we not make more of our brother's successes8 ,might we not oftener repeat about him what he is too modest ever to say about himself8 ,it were a true and kindly ,christian act4 ,but never1 as we call ourselves servants of ,christ1 never do our brother such a grievous irreparable wrong as to start about him a tale which may not be true4 ,god can and will forgive you your sins of speech4 ,but even ,he cannot make clean the character which a foolish word has sullied4 ,king ,arthur went further1 however1 than demanding that his knights should speak no slander4 ,their vow included the words1 no1 nor listen to it4 ,and that is a high and difficult course to keep4 ,it is not easy1 when you are being told of something that is striking or sensational of a merely gossipy character1 to stop the conversation and lead it into other channels4 ,it requires great courage and as great tact4 ,but how many of us ever try it8 ,if1 however1 the refusal to listen be regarded as a counsel of perfection1 there remains yet the further injunction--never ,,repeat the gossip you have heard4 ,that at least is homely and possible4 ,we used to read in our book of ,fables of the lamb that noticed this significant thing about the track that led to the lion's den--that all the footprints pointed inwards1 but there were none returning4 ,vestigia nulla retrorsum4 ,no footprints backwards4 ,it would be a good motto for us all4 ,let the stories1 the ill-humoured1 unkind1 uncharitable sayings that float and wander about everywhere1 let them come to us as they will1 but let the traces end there4 ,be such a person that men may trace a story from its source down the chain ,,to you1 but never ,,past you4 ,we can do that much at least for our friends4 ,all about us is the constant1 unquiet drift of gossip and distorted half-truth1 as restless as the sand in the desert1 dancing and whirling with every puff of wind4 ,we can do something to arrest that drift4 ,we can be for our friends in some measure what ,isaiah said that ,god's ,servant1 when ,he came1 should be1 the shadow of a great ,rock in a weary land1 stopping the drift of the sand1 and sheltering our friends by our loyalty and our silence4 ,don't even repeat the gossip that comes to you1 not only for the strong reason already given1 but also for this little one1 that you won't likely repeat it correctly4 ,with all the will in the world1 it is one of the hardest things to retail a story just exactly as you heard it4 ,sir ,walter ,scott1 speaking about anecdotes that he had heard1 said he always liked to cock up their bonnets a bit and put a staff in their hands that they might walk on a little brisker and sprightlier than when they came to him6 ,but we all do that1 without meaning to do it at all4 ,we add a little bit4 ,we exaggerate just the tiniest fraction1 and our hearer when he repeats the story does the same1 and so the matter grows till it is big enough to do much mischief4 ,a ,whisper broke the air1 ,a soft light tone and low1 ,yet barbed with shame and woe4 ,now1 might it only perish there1 ,nor further go6 ,ah me6 ,a quick and eager ear ,caught up the little meaning sound2 ,another voice has breathed it clear1 ,and so it wandered round1 ,from ear to lip1 from lip to ear1 ,until it reached a gentle heart1 ,and that--it broke4 ,there is a legend that once a king avoided death in a poisoned cup that had been handed to him by making over it the sign of the ,cross--when it broke in pieces at his feet4 ,let us1 when we are tempted to retail the vivid1 poisonous piece of scandal1 stop and invoke the ,spirit of ,christ4 ,is this that ,i am going to say about my brother the kind of thing ,i should say if ,christ were standing by8 ,am ,i justified in turning over that bit of gossip which may be true1 but which ought not to be true8 ,our duty1 who profess and call ourselves ,christians1 is clear4 ,we are to speak no slander no1 nor listen to it4 ,we are to retail evil about no man4 ,we are to love one another4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 whose command it is that we love our neighbour as ourselves1 help us to cherish and protect his good name as carefully as we guard our own4 ,make us more willing to repeat the good about him1 but slower to retail or exaggerate the evil4 ,grant us all a deeper sense of the deadly wrong a foolish tongue can work1 and keep ,thou the door of our lips4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness4 7,,psalm xxi4 #c47 ,,xvi ,,god ,,in ,,front ,you know how1 in a happy home1 the near approach of a birthday is signalised1 how parcels are mysteriously smuggled in and hidden in secret places1 and1 though everything seems to be going on as usual1 yet the plans are being laid in train that will surprise and delight the fortunate owner of the birthday when the festal day dawns4 ,that is our feeble1 human way of trying to surprise one another with the blessings of goodness4 ,that is how we prevent our beloved with tokens of our remembrance4 ,so1 says the ,psalmist1 does ,god deal with us4 ,not only have we--what we so much need--,his forgiveness of our past1 and ,his help and presence for the day which now is2 ,he is working for us in the future too1 sowing the days to come with blessings for us to pick up when the passage of time brings us to the places where ,he has hidden them4 ,the idea that ,god has been beforehand in our history1 getting ready1 as it were1 for our coming1 though not a very usual one1 is very helpful1 and it finds abundant illustration and proof in all directions4 ,when a child arrives on this earth1 he enters into the enjoyment of bounties and blessings prepared1 not merely weeks1 but literally ages before his coming4 ,warmth he needs1 and aeons ago the coal beds were formed in the bowels of the earth4 ,food he needs1 and ,god laboured for ages1 as ,sir ,oliver ,lodge puts it1 to bring corn into existence4 ,for corn needs soil1 and1 to make that1 the ,creator had to set the glaciers grinding over the granite1 and to loosen the forces of rain and frost and running water over great stretches of time4 ,every child born into the world becomes the heir of all the ages past4 ,what blessings have been prepared for most of us1 in advance1 in the homes into which we were born1 and the gracious influences under which we have grown up6 ,i have to thank the gods1 says ,marcus ,aurelius the pagan ,emperor1 that my grandfathers1 parents1 sisters1 preceptors1 relations1 friends and domestics were almost all of them persons of probity4 ,i have to thank the gods4 ,who else is there to thank but ,god who prevents us in this way with the blessings of goodness8 ,god is working beforehand in our interest in all these things4 ,so1 when we awaken to a sense of ,him1 there is ,his ,church1 established of old1 awaiting to take us by the hand and help us on our way4 ,when we learn our need of a ,saviour1 behold ,christ stands at the door and knocks4 ,when1 in penitence of heart1 we ask ,god's mercy1 we learn that1 long since1 it was laid up in store for us4 ,before we thought of loving ,god1 ,he first loved us1 and gave ,himself for us in ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,is it not gloriously true all the way along that ,god has been beforehand with ,his goodness8 ,and that1 of course1 is the explanation of all the glad surprises of life4 ,the ,lord has prepared them for us beforehand4 ,he has sown the future with good things and watched our surprise as we picked them up4 ,when ,mary ,mardon and her father1 in ,mark ,rutherford's ,autobiography1 went to the seaside to look for lodgings they saw a dismal row of very plain-looking houses4 ,mary objected instinctively to the dull street1 but her father said he could not afford to pay for a sea view1 so they went in to inquire4 ,to their delight they found that what they thought were the fronts of the houses were really the backs1 for the real fronts faced the bay1 had pretty gardens before the doors1 and a glorious sunny prospect over the ocean4 ,isn't that what we often find to be the case8 ,our most treasured friends are not always those whom we fall in love with at first sight4 ,the thing we greatly fear dissolves like mist4 ,an envied1 but despaired-of1 blessing is flung into our lap4 ,a door of splendid hope opens in a dead wall4 ,life is full of the unexpected as if wonder were one of the things ,god wanted very much to keep alive in us4 ,when1 as you think1 everything has been exhausted1 ,god surprises you with a fresh gladness4 ,and1 aback of all1 there is the unending surprise of ,god's patience with us1 and of that daily mercy of ,his1 which we so ill requite1 and so often forget4 ,of course1 no one dreams of suggesting that all our surprises are of a happy sort4 ,it is not so4 ,but the point is that if it is ,god who has hidden the blessings for us to come upon1 it is ,he also who has hidden the other things4 ,god's hand does not slip so that we get the wrong parcel by accident4 ,he prevents us also with the blessings that we do not call by that name at all4 ,in his ,lay ,sermons1 ,huxley1 describing the tadpole in its slimy cradle1 says3 ,after watching the process hour after hour1 one is almost possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic object-glass would show the hidden artist with his plan before him1 striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his work4 ,if1 in that wonderful fashion1 ,god is working beforehand according to a plan of ,his own1 in the life of a tadpole1 is it not much more likely that ,he is so working in your life and mine1 not in its joys only1 but also in its dark hours and its sorrows8 ,that1 indeed1 is the very message and comfort of the ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 that not even a sparrow falleth to the ground--calamity indeed for the sparrow--without our ,father4 ,if it be true that ,god our ,father is working in advance of us all the time1 then surely it is wrong to speak of the monotony of life8 ,for we are on a road which ,god ,himself has sown with surprises for us1 and the hour of our deadliest weariness may be the immediate percursor of our richest and most joyous find4 ,who could have supposed1 at the end of the eighteenth century1 when poetry in ,england seemed dead1 that a great galaxy of stars--,wordsworth1 ,coleridge1 ,byron1 ,shelley1 ,keats--was on the very eve of rising8 ,the unexpected can always happen4 ,you may come upon another of ,god's hidden blessings to-morrow4 ,let us not talk of monotony1 therefore1 in an age which has seen so many wonderful things happen4 ,rather let us hold to the faith that all the while ,god is going before us with the blessings of goodness4 ,this faith puts another complexion on all our fears and forebodings4 ,before we live it1 the web of our life passes through ,god's hands4 ,and the shaded parts1 as well as the bright parts1 are in ,his wise and loving design4 ,nobody can promise us freedom from sorrow1 but the ,bible promises that ,god is beforehand to make the sorrow bearable4 ,he has adjusted our temptations to our strength1 and never a one has ,he hidden1 where we come upon it1 that it is impossible for us by ,his help to withstand4 ,before the mother puts her little child into his hot bath at night1 she tests the water first with her fingers4 ,and the ,psalmist means us to believe that life comes to us from ,god1 who has measured and adapted it for us1 beforehand1 in a like fashion4 ,viewed in the light of this faith1 ,death itself takes on a different aspect4 ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes has suggested that the story of this life and the next can be fully written in two strokes of the pen1 an interrogation-point1 and1 above it1 a mark of exclamation--fear and question here below1 and1 above1 adoration1 wonder1 surprise4 ,i go to prepare a place for you1 said ,christ to ,his disciples4 ,if the preparation for us here is so wonderful1 is it likely to fail yonder8 ,if ,love made ready for us here1 shall it not be beforehand there too8 ,yea1 verily4 ,our experience of how ,god prevents us here with ,his loving kindness ought to strengthen in us all the faith of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 and the saint's trust in every age1 that when we pass hence it will be to meet the grandest1 the most blessed1 and the most surprising provision of all4 ,,prayer ,our ,father in ,heaven1 we shall not be afraid of what life may hold for us when we have learned that our little web has first passed through ,thy merciful and loving hands4 ,we have often prayed that ,thou wouldest go with us2 but ,thou hast answered us beyond our asking1 for ,thou goest before us all4 ,in the faith of that leading1 make us to journey bravely and to sleep secure4 ,amen4 ,fight the good fight of faith4 7#a ,,timothy vi4 #ab47 ,,xvii ,,unbelief ,,kept ,,quiet ,we are often told that this is not an age of faith1 that the day of the beautiful1 old1 simple acquiescence is past1 whether it ever comes again or not4 ,some one has wittily suggested that the coat of arms of the present age is an interrogation-point rampant1 above three bishops dormant1 and the motto ',query4' ,but1 like a great many more witty things1 that saying leaves one questioning whether1 after all1 it be really true4 ,i venture1 for my part1 to assert that a great many more people are really interested in this matter of faith than most of us imagine4 ,there is something that haunts men as with a sense of hidden treasure about this wonderful thing in life called ,faith1 that always seems to be going to disappear1 and yet somehow does not4 ,with a strange1 wistful persistence men linger about this pool1 though there are many to tell them that the desired angel bathes no more4 ,i wish to speak a word of encouragement to-day to all who are finding faith hard4 ,fight the good fight of faith1 says ,paul to his young friend1 ,timothy4 ,fight4 ,i want to remind you that faith often implies effort1 that there is nothing in the idea of faith which is incompatible with struggle1 that the very form of ,paul's advice implies an antagonism4 ,it is true that many think of the faith of the saints as a quiet1 contented habit of gentle acquiescence1 a sweet and beautiful state of mind very far removed from the restless1 questioning1 analytic temper of the man of to-day4 ,now1 ,i do not say that faith is never seen now in that placid form1 but ,i do say that that was not the type ,paul had in mind when he wrote ,timothy1 it is not the figure which best described his own faith1 and it is certainly not the aspect he would require to deal with1 were he writing to the men of to-day4 ,for they are only too conscious of much inward suspense of judgment and uncertainty concerning many things in ,heaven and earth4 ,and that inward conflict seems to many of them a sign that faith is waning1 if not dead4 ,they have forgotten that it is that very sense of inward conflict which proves that faith is not dead4 ,dead things do not offer any resistance4 ,we ought by this time to have learned that a thing may be for us an intellectual puzzle1 and yet a sheer spiritual necessity1 and that the ,christian faith is1 for every soul who has once caught it4 ,there are a great many earnest and honest men to whom it is the best of news that ,christian faith is not incompatible with very grave perplexities4 ,the real opposite of faith is not doubt1 as so many suppose1 but deliberate and satisfied denial4 ,faith can live in the same life along with very many doubts--as a matter of fact1 in the case of not a few of the most ,christ-like men of our time1 it is living beside them constantly4 ,paul assures us that outside of him he found fightings and within him he found fears4 ,yet he kept the faith for all that4 ,they start up on all sides1 these spectres of the mind and reason1 and they ask questions which a man cannot answer4 ,yet ,faith may be dwelling in his life in very deed and truth1 because faith is something more than the sum of all his beliefs4 ,it is the whole conscious and deliberate set and desire of his being4 ,it is a well-known fact that a man may be truly courageous1 acting1 speaking1 thinking bravely at the very moment when panic fears are gripping his heart4 ,i like that fine old story of the soldier advancing into the fire zone with steady step1 and taunted by a comrade for his pale face4 ,you're afraid1 said the other4 ,i know ,i am afraid1 said he1 and if you felt half as much afraid as ,i do1 you would turn and flee4 ,it is the very finest courage that dominates and controls a sensitive organisation1 and holds the shrinking other-half to its purpose with firm grip4 ,just so is it with faith4 ,a man keeps his course1 lifts up his eyes to the hills1 lives for ,god and ,his ,christ1 prays on1 struggles on1 and hopes for the home beyond the edge of life1 while often enough his mind is full of questioning and the puzzle of ,god's deep mysteries4 ,for faith is not what the intellect says merely4 ,it is what the whole man is struggling and trying to say4 ,with me1 faith means perpetual unbelief ,kept quiet1 like the snake 'neath ,michael's foot1 ,who stands calm just because he feels it writhe4 ,don't do yourself the wrong of thinking that faith has vanished because the snake is felt to be writhing4 ,perpetual unbelief kept quiet4 ,yes1 but what keeps the clamouring doubts and fears under foot8 ,just yourself1 just your highest self1 the bit of you made for ,god1 and unable to do without ,him6 ,faith is the vote of the whole man1 of the best of the man1 in the face of a protesting minority4 ,in other words1 fight is a splendid word to use in speaking about faith4 ,let a man ask himself--,does he really wish that the best he has dreamed or heard about ,god and ,his love for men1 ,his passion to deliver them from evil1 and ,his pity and nearness to us all in ,jesus ,christ ,his ,son--does he wish all that to be true8 ,no man is without faith who does wish that1 and is living in the direction of his desire4 ,in that man's life who1 despite all the clamour and philosophy of ,babylon1 is keeping his window open towards where he believes ,jerusalem to be1 there is that vital element of faith that is linking his life to ,god even now1 and will bring him where he would be at last4 ,i do not think that the prodigal was at all sure of the welcome that awaited him4 ,probably his mind1 as he limped along in his rags1 was full of misgivings and fears4 ,but the father hailed him as his son whenever he saw afar off that the lad's face was set for home4 ,i do not imagine our ,father will concern ,himself very much about the gaps in our creed if only our faces are turned homewards and towards ,him4 ,let the man ,i have tried to speak to be of good courage1 and fight on with a stout heart4 ,faith is not sight4 ,it may not even be assurance1 may be only hope and longing1 and a reaching towards the ,highest4 ,but ,i firmly believe that no man1 even though he may fall on the way home1 and before he knows of his welcome1 ,i believe that no man shall be cast out at the last1 whose arms1 as he fell1 were outstretched in desire to ,god4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 ,author and ,finisher of our faith1 help us with all our strength to fight the good fight4 ,when our defence is being broken1 do ,thou garrison our souls1 ,o ,god1 that we may be able to stand in the evil day1 and1 having done all1 to stand4 ,through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,amen4 ,the joy of the ,lord is your strength4 7,,nehemiah viii4 #aj47 ,,xviii ,,the ,,equipment ,,of ,,joy ,let us talk about joy1 and especially that kind of it of which ,nehemiah was thinking when he said1 ,the joy of the ,lord is your strength4 ,it is strange that while practically everybody would agree as to the wholesomeness and the duty of joy in the ordinary sense of the term1 to add the words of the ,lord to it1 seems1 to some1 completely to alter its character and in fact to spoil it1 to turn it into an unreal sort of joy which is not true joy at all4 ,i wish emphatically to protest against such a conception of religious joy as an injustice to the ,father ,love of ,god4 ,the joy of the ,lord1 as ,i understand it1 is not different in quality from wholesome human gladness1 it is1 in fact1 just that gladness deepened and sanctified by the sense of ,god1 and the knowledge of ,him brought to us by ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,there is not a single innocent and pure source of gladness open to men and women on this earth but is made to taste sweeter when they have opened their hearts to the love of ,god4 ,it is the very crown of happy living that is reached when a man can say1 ,my ,lord and my ,god4 ,once ,i have dared to accept the wonderful truth that even for me the ,eternal ,father has ,his place and ,his plan and ,his care1 every simplest happiness1 every common joy of living1 every delight in the beauty of the world and the pleasures of home and work and friendship--every one of these takes on a keener edge4 ,it is a pestilent heresy to declare that a ,christian ought to walk through life like a man with a hidden sickness4 ,on the contrary1 there is no one who has a better right to be joyous and happy-hearted4 ,do you think it is for nothing that the joy of our salvation is a ,bible phrase8 ,and shall we believe that that salvation is ours and not be mighty glad about it all the time8 ,what is the good of translating ,gospel as good news and at the same time living as if religion were a bondage and a burden grievous to be borne8 ,of all the strange twists of human convention1 it is surely the strangest to allow ordinary human joy to be happy and cheerful1 and to insist that those whose joy is in the ,lord should pull a long face1 and forswear laughter1 and crawl along dolefully as if to the sound of some dirge6 ,the morning face and the morning heart belong of right to the truly religious1 and no one ought to be gladder1 come what may1 than the man who has made the highest and best disposal of his little life that any one can make1 namely1 surrendered it in faith and obedience to his ,lord4 ,a gloomy1 ponderous1 stiff religion which looks askance at innocent merriment and is afraid to pull a long breath of enjoyment has the mark of damaged goods on it somehow1 and no one will take it off your hands4 ,it is not catching1 and certainly your children will never catch it4 ,it is said to be a good test of a religion that it can be preached at a street corner4 ,but ,i know a better test than that4 ,preach it to a child4 ,set him in the midst of those who profess it4 ,if their religion frightens him1 freezes the smiles on his lips1 and destroys his happiness1 depend upon it1 whatever sort of religion it be1 it lacks the essential winsomeness of the religion of ,jesus ,christ4 ,i need not say1 of course1 that ,i am not pleading for a more hilarious religious life4 ,and1 equally of course1 empty frivolity1 and the cult of the continual grin are insufferable things to endure either in the name of religion or anything else4 ,not by a single word would ,i lessen the condemnation which such aberrations deserve4 ,but ,i do say1 and with all my heart ,i believe that a deep1 abiding well-spring of happiness--which our author calls the joy of the ,lord--is of the very essence of true religion1 and is indeed1 what he asserts it1 actually our strength4 ,actually our strength4 ,let us be quite clear about that4 ,the man in whose heart there dwells this best of all joys is a strength to other people4 ,we don't need any one to prove that to us1 ,i imagine4 ,we have all been helped and revived many a time merely by contact with some hearty cheerful soul4 ,who1 for example1 that had his choice1 would elect for his family physician a man with a doleful air8 ,have we not all found that a doctor's cheery manner was as potent a medicine as any drug that he called by a ,latin name8 ,ay1 and even when we are in trouble1 and our hearts are sad and sore1 ,i think we would all rather see the friend whose faith in ,god showed in a brave and buoyant outlook than one whose religion was of the dowie and despondent sort4 ,i have heard it said of an employee who had the gift of the joyous heart that the twinkle of his eyes was worth ,l#ajj a year to his firm4 ,i could easily believe it1 though the money value might well have been set at any figure1 seeing that the thing itself is really priceless4 ,did not the most famous modern apostle of the duty of happiness--himself a signal proof that joy is something more than the mere easy overflow of health and animal spirits--did not ,stevenson declare that by being happy we sow anonymous benefits1 and that the entrance of such a person into a room is as if another candle had been lighted8 ,i take it the proof is ample that a joyous heart is a strength to others4 ,but more1 it is a strength to oneself4 ,that may not be so obvious1 and yet the result here is even more certain4 ,ordinary experience tells us that joy is good for us1 that depression and gloom work us bodily harm4 ,but from one province of scientific study especially there has come a wonderful array of evidence that makes it as certain as any fact can be that the happy states of mind do literally add to our strength in quite measurable directions4 ,there is1 in strict fact1 no tonic in all the world like gladness4 ,that being so1 joy1 and especially the best kind of it of which ,nehemiah speaks1 is not a luxury1 not a condition you may legitimately cherish if you are fortunate enough to possess it4 ,it is a sheer necessity4 ,you can't do without it4 ,even to meet your sorrows1 even to gird you for service1 even to run your race without fainting1 you need the joy of the ,lord1 which is strength4 ,and since the ,father has stored up such an abundant supply of it in this world of ,his1 since it is knocking at our doors every day1 and only our distrust and suspicion keep it outside1 we know what to do to secure this good gift of ,god4 ,we have only to open our doors to let it in1 and give it room4 ,so take ,joy home ,and make a place in thy great heart for her1 ,and give her time to grow1 and cherish her1 ,then will she come and oft will sing to thee ,when thou art working in the furrows--ay1 ,or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn4 ,it is a comely fashion to be glad-- ,joy is the grace we say to ,god4 ,,prayer ,help us1 ,o ,god1 beyond our poor and forgetful thanksgiving1 to show forth the praise of ,thy loving kindness by our joy and gladness4 ,for ,thy great grace and mercy toward us1 and for all the gifts of ,thy sleepless ,providence1 we offer ,thee the joy of our hearts4 ,accept our offering1 we beseech ,thee2 forgive its scant measure1 and teach us to be glad in ,thee4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,the ,god of ,jacob is our refuge4 7,,psalm xlvi4 #aa47 ,,xix ,,the ,,god ,,of ,,the ,,unlovable ,,man ,there is a phrase which echoes through the ,old ,testament like the refrain of some solemn music--the ,god of ,jacob4 ,the ,god of ,jacob1 says the #dfth ,psalmist1 is our refuge4 ,yet when you think of it1 it is a strange title4 ,the ,god of ,abraham you can understand1 for ,abraham was a great and faithful soul4 ,and the ,god of ,isaac1 also1 for ,isaac was a saint4 ,but the ,god of ,jacob is a combination of ideas of a very different sort4 ,for though1 by ,god's grace1 ,jacob became a saint in the end1 it took much discipline and trouble to mould him into a true godliness4 ,and1 for the greater part of his life1 and many of his appearances on the stage of ,scripture1 his actions and ideals are not such as to make us admire him very passionately4 ,we like ,esau for all his faults1 but we do not like ,jacob for all his virtues4 ,there is something cold and calculating about ,jacob that repels affection4 ,for all his religion1 the ,jacob of the earlier chapters is a mean soul1 successful but unscrupulous1 pious but not straight1 spiritually-minded but not lovable4 ,and yet the ,almighty condescends to be known as the ,god of ,jacob1 and the ,bible loves that name for ,god6 ,what does that say to you8 ,to me it says this--and ,i think we all need to learn it--that ,god is the ,god even of unlovable people6 ,that even unlovable people have a ,god6 ,that the ,lord is very gracious to sinners1 we all rejoice to believe1 for that is the ,evangel of ,jesus1 and ,he ,himself was found practising it even among the waifs and outcasts of society4 ,but that unlovable people have a ,god1 too1 is actually harder for us to realise1 for the plain fact is that unlovable1 disagreeable people irritate and annoy us more even than the sinners4 ,if you question that1 just analyse your attitude to the ,prodigal in our ,lord's wonderful story1 compared with that toward his respectable1 cold-hearted and priggish elder brother4 ,the brother irritates us4 ,we call him1 with some heat1 as ,henry ,drummond did1 a baby1 and we want to shake him4 ,but we never want to shake the prodigal4 ,now1 we all have1 on our list of acquaintances1 people whom we have labelled disagreeable1 who continually rub us the wrong way1 as we put it4 ,there is the man who is always talking about himself1 and is filled with conceit like a bladder with air4 ,there is the man1 says ,hazlitt in one of his ,essays1 who asks you fifty questions as to the commonest things you advance1 and1 you would sooner pardon a fellow who held a pistol at your breast and demanded your money4 ,there is the ill-tempered1 sulky person1 and the grumbling1 whining1 dolorous soul never without an ache or a grievance4 ,so we can all draw up our own private ,index ,expurgatorius of the people we bar or dislike4 ,we say these people are unlovable4 ,and1 since the corruption of the best is the worst1 we are agreed that the most unlovable of all types is the religious undesirable1 the smug1 unctuous1 oily person1 for example1 whose sincerity is continually in question1 the narrow1 intolerant1 little soul who cannot see any sort of truth or righteousness except his own1 or the prim and pious man who is cocksure of his interest in the life to come1 but is not straight in the affairs of the life which now is4 ,there are others1 but enumeration is not a very profitable or a pleasant task4 ,take them all together1 gather them in a crowd in your memory1 and then set yourself this exercise for your sanctification and growth in grace4 ,realise that the ,lord your ,god is the ,god also of these unlovable people4 ,get that idea thoroughly into your heart1 and say it to yourself1 if need be1 many times a day4 ,these people look up to ,him in worship just as you do4 ,they have their sacred hours in ,his presence just as you have4 ,there is nothing you look for to ,god1 that they do not seek1 too1 from ,him4 ,they are not of a different order from you1 but the same order4 ,and though you do not love them1 ,god does4 ,though they are outside of your circle1 they are not outside of ,his4 ,the ,god of ,jacob is their ,god4 ,and therein lies for them1 as it did for ,jacob1 the hope and promise of better things to come4 ,if we remembered that1 should we not be more patient and forbearing with them than we are1 keener to look for the best in them1 and to make the best of them than we are8 ,just to think of what is meant by the ,god of ,jacob is to set our sharp and bitter judgments of others over against the infinitely tender compassion and patience and longsuffering of ,god4 ,all the wonder of the divine grace is hidden in the phrase4 ,and this is the wonder--that ,god never grows tired even of disagreeable people4 ,he does not give up caring even for the unlovable4 ,but oh6 what poor sons and daughters of the ,lord ,almighty we are1 with our quick1 rash final judgments and our hard1 unbrotherly hearts6 ,did you ever ask yourself what some of these unlovable people are doing1 the while you and ,i are telling each other how impossible and unlovable they are8 ,george ,eliot suggests it somewhere thus3--,while we are coldly discussing a man's career1 sneering at his mistakes1 and labelling his opinions ',evangelical and narrow' or ',latitudinarian and pantheistic1' or ',anglican and supercilious1' that man in his solitude is perhaps shedding hot tears because his sacrifice is a hard one1 because strength and patience are failing him to speak the difficult word and do the difficult deed4 ,ah1 yes1 it's a mercy that there is a ,god even for unlovable people6 ,but there is a question that has been waiting all this time1 and we must ask it before we close4 ,what about ourselves1 you and me8 ,are we such lovable people that we can afford to judge others8 ,do we never rub our friends the wrong way1 and1 without meaning it1 annoy and disappoint and repel them8 ,are our religious profession and our daily practice so very much in keeping that we may talk about prigs and self-righteous people as if they belonged to an entirely different world8 ,may ,i speak for you all and say humbly ,no8 ,no1 ,god knows they are not6 ,the fact is that if we know ourselves at all well1 we must be aware that we have it in us to be quite as disagreeable and selfish and self-righteous as anybody4 ,it is only our best beloved who do not get tired of us1 and sometimes even they must be hard put to it4 ,but there is a blessed ,gospel for those who have made that discovery about themselves4 ,there is a ,god of ,jacob4 ,abraham is too high for us1 and ,isaac is too saintly1 but ,jacob1 faulty1 disappointing1 unlovable1 yet by ,god's grace redeemed and perfected at last1 ,jacob is the man for us6 ,the hope and comfort of all who have learned what they really are is that the ,god of ,jacob is our refuge4 ,,prayer ,bring us1 we pray ,thee1 ,o ,god1 into a truer knowledge of ourselves4 ,make us to learn how frail we are1 how poor and blind and naked2 to the end we may regard with due charity the shortcomings of others1 and may worthily praise ,thy great ,mercy1 who yet hast not turned away ,thy face from us4 ,for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4 ,elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness1 and came and sat under a juniper tree1 and requested for himself that he might die4 7#a ,,kings xix4 #d47 ,,xx ,,under ,,the ,,juniper ,,tree ,a well-known writer relates that1 when passing through ,edinburgh once1 he saw a procession of ,friendly ,societies1 and observed on one of the banners the name emblazoned1 ,the ,order of the ,juniper ,tree4 ,his comment is3--,many of us belong to that order4 ,so we do4 ,and1 because of that1 we can diagnose ,elijah's trouble quite accurately4 ,he is suffering1 as we have all suffered at some time or other1 from the pains and penalties of reaction4 ,just because he had climbed to a height almost superhuman1 the reaction when it came was very black and terrible4 ,the ,bible is too wise and too true to human nature to conceal the fact that for his hour of splendid daring1 ,elijah had his price to pay4 ,it's a commonplace1 of course1 but just one of those commonplaces which in the bulk spell wisdom1 that there was a physical reason for this condition4 ,to put it plainly1 ,elijah was tired out4 ,he had been using up his physical and nervous energy at such a ruinous rate during the past few hours1 that he had overdrawn his account4 ,it strikes one as a very significant fact that when ,god's angel took the prophet in hand1 the first thing he did was to provide him with a meal4 ,elijah was actually on his way back to his normal condition when he had had something to eat4 ,that is not a mere incident in the story4 ,it is exceedingly important1 because1 sometimes the religious depression with which we are acquainted arises in a similar way4 ,it is a very useful fact to remember that a man's whole religious outlook is coloured by the condition of his health4 ,we may be slow to admit such a low and material cause for effects so apparently spiritual4 ,but it is a fact all the same4 ,and it is only wise to recognise it4 ,but ,elijah's reaction was not entirely or even mainly physical in its origin4 ,he had been in a very exalted spiritual condition during the contest on ,carmel4 ,think what the man had done6 ,he had stood alone in the path of a whole nation rioting down to idolatry and shamelessness1 and with voice and presence and fire from ,heaven had stopped and turned them1 driven the huddled1 frightened sheep back again to the ways and the worship of ,god4 ,was it to be wondered at that his very soul within him was faint under the strain8 ,though the vision and the privileges of the hill-top are what the best men covet most1 it is but little of it at a time that any one can stand4 ,do you remember that ,jesus would not let ,peter and ,james and ,john remain long on the ,mount of the ,transfiguration1 even though they wanted to build tabernacles and dwell there8 ,there have been few greater spiritual experts than ,john ,bunyan1 and when he has described how his pilgrim fared in the ,palace ,beautiful1 how he slept in a chamber called ,peace1 how he saw afar off the ,delectable ,land1 whither he was journeying1 where does he take him next8 ,straight down into the ,valley of ,humiliation1 where he has to fight for his life against the darts of the ,evil ,one flying as thick as hail6 ,there is no cure for reaction1 of course1 but there are one or two rules which experience has proved to be helpful4 ,for example1 it is never a wise thing1 when you are depressed1 to attempt to form any judgment about yourself1 your service1 or your standing in the sight of ,god4 ,by some ,satanic impulse1 that is the very time1 of course1 when you will be tempted to do it4 ,it may appear a very wholesome spiritual exercise when you have gone a day's journey into the wilderness and are faint1 to reckon up what manner of man and disciple of ,christ you are4 ,but don't do it then4 ,nobody sees truly either himself or ,god1 under a juniper tree4 ,and then1 if possible1 do not speak about your despondency4 ,don't express your mood outwardly at all1 if you can help it4 ,bottle it up if you can1 and you will starve it all the sooner4 ,his biographer relates of the late ,ian ,maclaren that1 like many people who have ,celtic blood in their veins1 he was subject to curious fits of depression and gloom which did not seem to be in any way connected with bodily health4 ,but1 he goes on to say1 he never inflicted his melancholy moods on his family1 was only very quiet and absorbed1 and kept more closely to his study4 ,in a day or two he would emerge again1 like a man coming out into the sunshine4 ,and lastly4 ,once a man has sworn himself a disciple and soldier of ,jesus ,christ1 neither doubt nor depression1 neither darkness nor reaction absolves him from the obligation to follow and to serve when he is called4 ,it must be confessed that it is an undue sense of the importance of our own feelings that makes the juniper-tree-mood the peril and hindrance that it is4 ,we need to remember that the call of ,christ overrides personal feelings4 ,in ,his army too1 there is discipline to be thought of1 and it is not soldierly to skulk4 ,when the bugle calls to action1 nobody but a coward would make the fact that he is not feeling quite up to the mark1 an excuse for sitting still4 ,reaction is a natural thing1 but cowardice is always shameful4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 we bless ,thee for the comfort of ,thy perfect knowledge of us4 ,we are glad to think that ,thou knowest our frame and rememberest that we are dust4 ,make us more wise to bring the burden of our moods of darkness and reaction to the footstool of ,thy perfect understanding2 but save us1 we beseech ,thee1 from all yielding in the long fight against them4 ,seeing that ,thy grace is sufficient for us and ,thy strength made perfect in our weakness1 grant us a godly fear of all unmanly surrender4 ,for ,thy ,name's sake4 ,amen4 ,if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine4 7,,john vii4 #ag47 ,,xxi ,,instructing ,,the ,,cabin ,,boy ,when ,john ,wesley was on his way home from ,georgia1 he wrote this record of the voyage in his ,journal3--,being sorrowful and very heavy 7though ,i could give no particular reason for it7 and utterly unwilling to speak close to any of my little flock 7about twenty persons71 ,i was in doubt whether my own neglect of them was not one cause of my heaviness4 ,in the evening1 therefore1 ,i began instructing the cabin boy1 after which ,i was much easier4 ,this is a significant passage for various reasons4 ,for one thing1 it lets us see that even a spiritual genius like ,wesley sometimes fell into the mood of doubt4 ,and1 for another1 it shows how1 almost by accident1 as it seems1 he found a cure for his trouble4 ,it is plain that religion just then had lost its savour for the great evangelist4 ,the joy had gone out of his service and the power from his prayers1 and he was not sure of anything at all4 ,this is practical doubt1 the only serious kind there is4 ,being sorrowful and very heavy and very unwilling4 ,there are not a few men and women whose trouble this is4 ,they are in straits to know what is really ,god's truth4 ,they greatly desire to lay hold of it surely for themselves4 ,the tremendous earnestness of those who have found the old dogmas unsatisfying1 and are adrift again in a twentieth century search for ,god1 is one of the most significant features of the situation4 ,can a man really come in touch with ,god8 they ask4 ,is there a living ,christ whose presence redeems men from evil and can lift them up to what they long to be8 ,is there a life with ,god which even ,death cannot end8 ,and those who are in such deep earnest to know ,god vitally for themselves1 are sorrowful and heavy indeed to find that all their thinking and reading and inquiry do so little for them4 ,they pray for light1 and examine all the evidence with a wistful eagerness1 but the clouds still lie around them1 and they are still wandering1 now in this direction1 now in that1 like men lost in a mist4 ,is there no way out of this tangle8 ,yes1 there is4 ,to all who are sorrowful and heavy because they know so little they can call their own about ,god and spiritual living1 ,i want to say1 ,there is a way forward1 a safe1 sure way4 ,it is the way that ,wesley stumbled upon4 ,i began instructing the cabin boy4 ,that is the way for you and me to a fuller experience of ,god4 ,that is the simple solution which so many thousands of us have overlooked1 and it was the discovery of ,jesus ,christ4 ,when asked how ,he knew about ,god1 ,he answered that it was because ,he was doing ,god's will1 and ,he added1 ,if any man1 no matter who1 no matter what his doubts be1 if any man be willing to do ,god's will1 where1 and as1 it is clear to him1 he too shall know4 ,god will not leave him in ignorance of what is really essential4 ,nowhere1 except in the ,bible1 do you find such a method of learning recommended4 ,from nobody but ,christ could such a precept come1 for it is clean contrary to all that we know about learning in other spheres4 ,study and you will know1 think1 investigate1 ask questions--that1 we can understand4 ,that is how knowledge comes to us in the realms with which we are acquainted4 ,but when men asked ,christ how they could learn ,god's truth for themselves1 ,he said1 ,first of all you must obey it4 ,do1 and you will know4 ,you remember the lepers whom ,christ touched1 of whom it is written that as they went1 they were healed8 ,that is how the only sort of doubt that really matters is healed4 ,as you go1 not as you sit still and puzzle1 but as you shoulder the nearest duty and obey what light and knowledge you have4 ,i don't know1 ,wesley would say to himself1 whether ,i am in my right place here or not1 whether ,i am really ,christ's servant or not4 ,i am in the dark1 and don't seem to be sure of anything4 ,but there is that cabin boy4 ,i can at least do him some good4 ,that is right anyhow1 whatever be uncertain4 ,after which1 he says1 ,i was much easier4 ,it is marvellous to read1 but it is a law as certain and safe as gravitation4 ,do ,god's will as you know it1 and you will get more light4 ,doubt of any sort1 said ,thomas ,carlyle1 cannot be removed except by action4 ,it is hardly necessary to say1 of course1 that the knowledge which ,christ promises to those who will obey ,god's will is not of dogma in its restricted theological sense4 ,it was life ,christ talked about1 it was life ,he was concerned with1 and1 for ,him1 life meant not head-knowledge1 but heart-experience and heart-hold of ,god4 ,it is that ,he promises in ,his great saying4 ,so do not make the mistake of thinking that when you seek to do the ,will of ,god1 all your mental difficulties1 about miracles or inspiration or what not else1 will come to an end4 ,these are problems1 not of life1 but of mind1 and you have them because ,god has given you a mind1 and you will probably have them as long as your mind is growing4 ,what ,christ does promise is of vastly more importance1 namely1 the light of ,god's truth in your heart1 the assurance of ,god in your inmost soul1 that you shall know for yourself that ,god is1 and that ,he is near to you1 and that your true life is in ,him2 and when a man has got that length1 there are many doctrinal and other mental puzzles for the solution of which he is content to wait with an easy trust and patience4 ,i like that saying of ,viscount ,kenmure's1 away back in the sixteenth century1 ,i will lie at ,christ's door like a beggar1 and1 if ,i may not knock1 ,i will scrape4 ,i like it1 for this reason1 that ,i am quite sure there is no essential door of ,god in earth or heaven which is shut against the man who casts himself so utterly on ,him as that4 ,and ,i take ,kenmure's word to illustrate what ,jesus meant by ,if any man will do ,god's will4 ,it is when a man says1 ,i cannot see1 ,i do not know1 my mind is filled with spectres and doubts and questions1 but1 so help me ,god1 ,i will do the thing that is right for me1 ,i will walk by what little light ,i have--it is then1 it is to that man that there come infallibly the knowledge which no criticism can shake1 and the peace which the world can neither give nor take away4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 we thank ,thee for this one straight road out of our doubts1 and the difficulties we so often make for ourselves4 ,we bless ,thee for the stedfast certainty that no man1 who will rise and follow what light he has1 shall finally be left in darkness4 ,by doing shall we come to know4 ,as we go upon our clear duty1 other truths become more clear4 ,it is our ,lord's own doctrine1 and in ,his ,name we pray that ,thou would'st help us to learn it4 ,amen4 ,the valley of ,achor for a door of hope4 7,,hosea xxv4 #ae47 ,,xxii ,,god',s ,,door ,,of ,,hope ,the world has a scheme of redemption of its own1 and men can themselves do something for the brother who has fallen4 ,but the plan involves1 invariably1 a change of surroundings4 ,worldly wisdom says1 of the youth who is making a mess of his life1 ,ship him off to the colonies1 try him with a new start on another soil4 ,but the grace of ,god promises a far more wonderful salvation4 ,it makes possible a new start on the very spot of the old failure4 ,it leads a man back to the scene of his old disloyalty1 and promises him a new memory that shall blot out and redeem the old4 ,god does not take the depressed and discouraged out of their surroundings4 ,he adds an inward something that enables them to conquer where they stand4 ,it is not some new untried sphere that ,god gilds with promise4 ,it is the old place where one has already failed and fallen4 ,it is the valley of ,achor1 the scene of ,israel's defeat1 and ,achan's shame and sin1 that ,god gives to ,his people as a door of hope4 ,in ,italian history1 during the ,middle ,ages1 the republics of ,pisa and ,genoa were often at war1 and at one time the ,genoese were badly beaten in a sea-fight near the little island of ,meloria4 ,some years after1 a ,genoese admiral took his fleet to that same spot and said1 ,here is the rock which a ,genoese defeat has made famous4 ,a victory would make it immortal4 ,and sure enough1 the fight that followed ended in a great victory for ,genoa4 ,it is that sort of hope that ,god holds out to all defeated souls who put their trust in ,him4 ,he points us back to our valley of ,achor1 the place with a memory we do not like to think of1 and ,he says1 ,there is your door of ,hope1 ,go back and try again4 ,and those who go back in ,his strength are enabled to write a new memory upon the old shame4 ,our ,lord and ,master is very gracious to forgive us when we come to ,him in penitence to tell ,him of the position we have lost by our faithlessness or our cowardice1 but ,he does not consent to the ultimate defeat of the very feeblest of ,his soldiers4 ,go back and try again1 is ,his order4 ,there are many1 as ,dr ,matheson says1 who offer us a golden to-morrow1 but it is only ,christ who enables us to retrieve our yesterday4 ,for ,his grace is more than forgiveness4 ,it is the promise to reverse the memory of ,achor1 to turn defeat into victory even yet4 ,achor1 further1 literally means ,trouble1 and it is a great thing for us when we have learned that even there ,god has for us a door of hope4 ,the valley of ,trouble is perhaps the last place in the world where the uninstructed would look for any fruit of harvest1 and yet again and again men have brought the fairest flowers of character and holiness out of it4 ,how many a devout and useful servant of ,christ owes the beginning of his allegiance to a serious illness1 to some crippling disappointment1 to an overwhelming sorrow8 ,in all humility there are many who can say1 ,it is good for me that ,i have been afflicted1 and there are many1 many more about whom their friends often quote that text4 ,i walked a mile with ,pleasure2 ,she chattered all the way1 ,but left me none the wiser ,for all she had to say4 ,i walked a mile with ,sorrow1 ,and ne'er a word said she1 ,but oh1 the things ,i learned from her1 ,when ,sorrow walked with me6 ,there is a door of ,hope even in the valley of ,trouble1 and those who tread it in ,god's company shall not fail to find it4 ,there is one other class who need to know that even in ,achor there is a door of hope1 the depressed and discouraged4 ,phillips ,brooks once declared1 ,i came near doing a dreadful thing the other day4 ,i was in ,east ,boston and ,i suddenly felt as if ,i must get away from everything for a while4 ,i went to the ,cunard dock and asked if the steamer had sailed4 ,she had been gone about an hour4 ,i believe if she had still been there1 ,i should have absconded4 ,i wonder if there is any one who has not known that feeling8 ,when duty is dull1 and circumstances discouraging1 when we seem to be merely ploughing the sands1 ,oh1 we say1 for the wings of a dove6 ,comfort and happiness and salvation seem to lie solely in escape4 ,and it may be that they do4 ,but more often the trouble is in ourselves1 and would travel with us to the new post4 ,if there be any depressed or discouraged reading these lines1 ,i should like to remind them of ,god's promise to give the valley of ,achor--that is the depressing scene of your labours1 my brother--for a door of hope4 ,you are looking for your hope somewhere else1 anywhere else provided it be out of your present rut and drudgery4 ,in reality your door of hope lies in the rut1 in the valley itself4 ,it is not escape you need4 ,it is just a braver faith that ,god is in your valley with you1 and that ,he needs you there4 ,take a firmer grip of that1 and go back to where you serve1 and you will find1 please ,god1 that even in your valley ,he has opened for you a door of ,hope and ,gladness4 ,may all those who are living and working these days in the valley of ,achor find in it somewhere ,god's ,door of ,hope4 ,,prayer ,grant us1 ,o ,god1 the faith that in ,thy strength we can yet succeed even in the place where we have failed4 ,teach us that it is ,thy whisper we hear1 when we have fallen into ,despond1 bidding us rise and try again4 ,and grant us the courage to be sure1 since ,thou hast a tryst to meet and help us there1 that even our ,achor shall open to us its door of hope4 ,amen4 ,there be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master4 7#a ,,samuel xxv4 #aj47 ,,xxiii ,,now-,a-,,days ,nabal1 says the ,bible1 was a churl4 ,when ,david sent his men to request some provender1 in return for services rendered1 this ill-mannered sheep-farmer broke out1 ,who is ,david8 ,there be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master4 ,it was a singularly rude and ungracious reply1 all things considered4 ,but it is not about ,nabal's truculence ,i wish to speak4 ,i want you to think about that phrase he used1 and the tone in which it was said4 ,now-a-days4 ,the implication1 of course1 is that servants did not break away from their masters in his young days4 ,things were different in the times he could remember4 ,you will recognise this peculiar intonation of ,now-a-days as something fairly familiar4 ,you hear it yet1 quite often4 ,now-a-days the ,church has lost caste4 ,now-a-days the ,bible is a neglected book4 ,now-a-days faith is on the wane1 and most people don't believe anything at all4 ,there are many such sentences1 beginning with the word ,now-a-days and sounding like a chant on a minor key4 ,this pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight1 for it is unsubstantial1 and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close quarters4 ,but there are three queries ,i have noted in my ,bible opposite that ,now-a-days of ,nabal4 ,and the first is--,what about the man himself8 ,judge his philosophy by his actions4 ,nabal apparently believed that servants were getting entirely out of hand1 and he speaks as if he remembered something very different in his own early days4 ,very good4 ,what was he doing to maintain the old standards8 ,nothing1 less than nothing4 ,his personal manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to break away on that farm1 ,i should think4 ,now1 what business has ,nabal to go whining1 in general terms1 mark you1 about servants now-a-days1 when he behaves like a boor to his own8 ,for any declension which he may see about him1 he is himself largely responsible4 ,i think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument1 and it disposes of quite a number of pious inexactitudes4 ,when ,i hear a man talking about the lost influence of the ,church now-a-days1 ,i am always tempted to inquire what his own relation to it is1 whether he is loyally supporting it and working in its interests1 for experience has taught me that a very great deal of exaltation of the ,church's past records1 at the expense of its position to-day1 comes from men who are themselves doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way4 ,there are exceptions1 of course1 but1 as a rule1 it is not the active workers in any worthy cause who are lamenting its failure4 ,the men who think the country is going to the dogs are themselves to be found1 for the most part1 lolling in the clubs4 ,it is not the pledged and active member of ,christ's kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth4 ,and to those who are fond of the ,now-a-days type of complaint1 ,i would suggest the inquiry--,what about yourself8 ,are you helping to keep up the old standards as you say you remember them8 ,or is your influence also tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you deplore1 namely1 down the hill8 ,the second query on ,nabal's ,now-a-days is--,can his memory be relied upon8 ,it is an instinct with us all to idealise the past1 and gild it in memory with all sorts of romance4 ,we quietly drop all the shadows from the picture as time goes on4 ,were ever summer days since so long and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys8 ,never6 ,we are all agreed about that4 ,yet when we were boys1 men who were then grey were using exactly the same words about summer days years before6 ,we are all apt to praise the past just because it is the past1 and because it has a way of turning rosy as it recedes4 ,the wise man recognises that1 and allows for it4 ,the foolish man begins many sentences with ,now-a-days1 and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh4 ,but there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with false romance1 and that is history4 ,turn back its pages a hundred years or more2 read such a book as ,h4 ,g4 ,graham's ,social ,life in ,scotland in the ,eighteenth ,century2 and you will soon discover what a fine word ,now-a-days really is4 ,as far as humanity and civilisation1 brotherly charity1 and true religion are concerned1 the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago1 simply does not know what he is talking about4 ,changes there have been1 many and radical1 but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or decay4 ,i can partly understand a man without faith in ,god giving his vote for a general falling off in human progress1 but ,i cannot understand a man who believes in ,god1 and in the presence in the world of a living spirit of ,christ1 being a pessimist4 ,no one affirms1 of course1 that we are progressing everywhere1 and all the time4 ,set-backs here and there1 there are in human history just as in a successful campaign4 ,but that1 on the whole1 the world grows better1 the ,kingdom comes1 and earth draws nearer to ,heaven1 seems to me to be simply a corollary from the fact that ,god reigns1 and has blessed us with knowledge of ,himself4 ,i grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far mankind still has to travel4 ,but1 as far as we are concerned1 ,i am not disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account of it4 ,a people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making1 can hardly be said to be degenerating1 especially when we remember some of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and generations gone by4 ,but even though the clock of progress be set back awhile--and that does not seem so likely now as when the war began--it is simply not possible that1 in this world of ,god's1 evil should ultimately vanquish good1 that the ,spirit of ,christ should finally be crushed by the forces that oppose it4 ,that can never be4 ,as soon might the germs of disease which the sun destroys turn round upon it and quench its blessed light4 ,the third query opposite ,nabal's ,now-a-days is--,does he truly discern the present time8 ,does he know now-a-days even as well as he knows the past8 ,as a matter of fact1 ,david was not just a servant who had broken away from his master1 and if ,nabal had only lived a little longer he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of the times4 ,that is worth remembering when you are tempted to say1 ,now-a-days things are out of joint4 ,maybe you don't clearly see these very days you are disparaging4 ,when ,jesus preached in ,nazareth1 the village where ,he had been brought up1 the people said1 ,is not this the ,carpenter8 and in their anger at ,his presumption1 as they thought it1 they wanted to make away with ,him4 ,if they had only known6 ,it is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future4 ,we cannot even see the present4 ,think what it would be like if we could see the great men1 the prophets1 poets1 reformers1 leaders1 who are at this present moment in our nurseries and schools1 or if we were able to recognise in the--at present--small shoot of a cause1 the great tree into which in ,god's providence it is destined to grow6 ,now-a-days2 now-a-days6 ,what a delusion it is for anybody to think he knows now-a-days well enough to call it names6 ,it is not with observation that the ,kingdom comes4 ,god rings no bell when ,he has a new and gracious purpose afoot in the world4 ,and the thing for you and me to do is to rest confidently in the faith that1 in ,his own good way and time1 ,god is redeeming the world to ,himself1 and to do all that we can to help ,him1 and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a better place4 ,but do not let us imagine that we can see all that is going on about us4 ,there is far1 far more of ,god and of goodness in the world than we suspect4 ,the woods and hedges look very bleak and bare to-day4#a ,it is a dead and barren aspect that ,nature wears now-a-days4 ,yet even now the sap is mounting quickly in every living stem1 and ,spring is getting ready while we sleep4 #a ,written in ,february4 ,so1 let us have the courage to believe--so is it with every worthy cause of ,god and man4 ,,prayer ,almighty ,god1 ,ruler and ,disposer of all events1 we would remember that this world of ours is1 first of all1 ,thine4 ,we believe that1 though ,thy ,kingdom comes not with observation yet it does come more and more4 ,we believe that1 with ,thee1 the best is yet to be4 ,and we pray that1 with that faith in our hearts1 we may leave the large campaign with quietness and confidence to ,thee1 and seek rather to discharge the duties of that post ,thou hast assigned to us1 with loyalty and good hope4 ,amen4 ,and a certain man drew a bow at a venture4 7#b ,,chronicles xviii4 #cc7 ,,xxiv ,,roundabout ,,roads ,it sounds improbable that though a whole army was trying to kill ,ahab1 it should be an arrow which a man shot at a venture1 or as the ,hebrew has it1 quaintly1 in his simplicity--when twanging his bow carelessly1 or trying a new string perhaps--that should find the king's heart4 ,and yet it is the thing that does happen occasionally in real life4 ,we sometimes do get the target when we are aiming for something else4 ,the name which we have been worrying to recall strolls casually into our memory when we have given up trying and are not thinking of it at all4 ,there are certain stars1 astronomers tell us1 which they see best when they look askance4 ,and ,i have come to think that there are certain precious goods of ,his which ,god allows us to possess on the same conditions4 ,you see them by looking past them4 ,you get them by aiming at something else4 ,look at your goal and go for it straight1 says worldly wisdom1 wisely and truly enough in many instances4 ,all the same there are good things in life to which that is emphatically ,,not the road4 ,the real way to secure these is to aim for something else4 ,this is true1 for example1 of ,happiness4 ,everyone of us wants to be happy4 ,and there is such a bountiful provision of the means of happiness all about us that it is difficult to resist the conclusion that ,god means us all to be happy4 ,yet when those for whom happiness is meant and prepared seek it directly and for itself1 it is as certain as anything can be that they won't find it4 ,you ask1 perhaps you pray for this boon1 and ,god shows you only some bare duty that is clearly yours4 ,out to it you go1 like a brave man1 not thinking there can be any blessings on that road1 when1 lo6 as you journey1 happiness comes to you1 quietly1 filling your heart with peace4 ,one does not find that the ,new ,testament1 as a matter of fact1 has much to say about being happy at all4 ,there is so little reference to it that it looks as if ,god had forgotten our need4 ,i find that the ,book which ,i had thought might tell me how to find happiness tells me instead of bearing one another's burdens1 doing it unto one of the least of these2 tells me about my brother's need of me when he is sick or naked or hungry2 tells me even about such a thing as a cup of cold water to a thirsty disciple4 ,ah6 but when1 in however poor a fashion1 ,i forget my own quest and gird myself in ,christ's name and try to ,,do some of these things1 ,i find that ,god has not forgotten after all1 that1 all the time ,he has been showing me ,,the way to happiness1 and ,i did not recognise it because it is not a straight road4 ,it's not a question of seeking1 but of forgetting to seek4 ,happiness comes to you oftenest when you are intent on bringing it to your brother4 ,the same principle holds true also with regard to ,influence4 ,it is natural that a man should desire that his shadow when it falls on others should heal and not hurt4 ,but the healing1 helpful shadow is not got by wishing for it4 ,as soon as you begin to think about it and aim for it1 you will go astray4 ,here is a little poem which tells how the strange magnetic quality of influence for good comes to a man3-- ,he kept his lamp still lighted1 ,though round about him came ,men who1 by commerce blighted1 ,laughed at his little flame4 ,he kept his sacred altar ,lit with the torch divine1 ,nor let his purpose falter1 ,like yours1 ,o ,world1 and mine4 ,and they whose cold derision ,had mocked him1 came one day ,to beg of him the vision ,to help them on their way4 ,and1 barefoot or in sandal1 ,when forth they fared to die1 ,they took from his poor candle ,one spark to guide them by4 ,that is the secret--a roundabout way1 as you see4 ,if ,influence is to be ours1 that is how it will come1 not by our trying to be influential1 but by our striving to be upright1 loyal1 and true4 ,in the third place1 this is true of ,life in ,christ's sense of the term4 ,life was one of ,his favourite words4 ,it was ,life1 in the highest sense1 that ,he claimed to bring to men4 ,and the greatest calamity in ,his eyes that could fall on any man is that that inward soul-life should die4 ,yet when those in whom ,he has awakened it1 aim directly for its growth and culture1 they make mistakes4 ,to the question--,shall ,i regard the development and deepening of that soul-life of mine as the one end and object of my living8 the answer of ,jesus1 as ,i understand it1 is ,no4 ,life1 said ,he1 at its highest and fullest and most perfect1 is reached by giving it away4 ,he that loseth his life shall save it4 ,what a long way from this ideal are those good people who are for ever laying their fingers on their spiritual pulse and plucking their soul-life up by the roots to see how it is growing6 ,there is a nobler use of life than to save it in that fearful fashion4 ,there is a truer way to grow in grace than by hoarding up virtue so1 namely1 by letting it go generously out from us4 ,when ,st ,nicholas got to ,heaven with his white robes of sainthood stained with mud through stopping on his way to help a carter pull his waggon out of a rut--a task which his fellow ,st ,cassianus1 for the sake of his robes1 avoided and declined--it was the muddy saint whom the ,master welcomed with the sweetest smile and the most gracious words4 ,whoso loseth his life1 the same shall save it4 ,happiness1 ,influence1 ,life1 these three1 and the road to each of them is indirect4 ,may ,god bless it to us that we have stood for a little to mark the flight of an arrow shot in simplicity6 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 may we have grace to discover the blessings that lie on ,thy roundabout roads4 ,may we never make the mistake of thinking that the path to true happiness is the one that runs straight towards it4 ,keep us true to ,christ1 and we shall not then be false to any man4 ,and give us to know that we are likest ,him1 not when we hoard and cherish life and virtue1 but when we spend them without stint or measure in any worthy cause of ,god or man1 for ,his sake4 ,amen4 ,why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence1 and given to the poor8 7,,john xii4 #e47 ,,xxv ,,the ,,extravagance ,,of ,,love ,wherever this ,gospel is preached1 this that she had done shall be told as a memorial of her4 ,what a gracious memorial1 and how worthy of it was ,mary's beautiful outburst of generosity6 ,but what a pity that the speech of ,judas should be recorded also1 as a memorial of him6 ,and yet1 on mature consideration1 we would not have the ,judas criticism forgotten4 ,because it called forth what we might not otherwise have had1 the vindication of ,jesus ,himself4 ,and because1 as a matter of fact1 we are constantly hearing the protest of ,judas repeated in our own day1 and are often ill-held to know how to meet it4 ,this he said1 records our evangelist bluntly1 not because he loved the poor1 but because he was a thief and kept the bag4 ,yet he might have been an honest man and said the same thing4 ,for very many honest and earnest men and women are repeating this criticism still4 ,it is repeated whenever it is taken for granted that practical utility is the only standard by which to judge actions and offerings1 that ,god and man can be served in no other way than by iron bars and perspiration4 ,how often do we meet the type of mind that admits the service of a ploughman and denies that of poet or artist1 for whom a waterfall1 as somebody has said1 exists merely as so much power for driving turbines1 and whose sole test of usefulness is that of making two blades grow--and corn blades at that6--where but one grew before4 ,we are commonly browbeaten by this type of person1 and yet we feel that somehow1 if we could only say it1 he is wrong--that the poet's is as divine a vocation as the farmer's1 that ,god meant a silver band of falling water in a green glade to suggest other things besides dynamos1 and that he who even paints some blades of grass1 and paints them pleasingly1 has his place somewhere in the great guild of servants of ,god and man4 ,one has heard the same attitude taken up in other directions too4 ,why spend so much money on a ,church1 you will be asked1 when there are so many poor people in the land8 ,what need for stone pillars and a fine organ1 when a plain building and a harmonium would do as well8 ,why try to secure what is called a beautiful ,church service1 dignified1 stately1 musical1 when the very baldest worship is acceptable in ,god's sight1 if only it be sincere8 ,we have heard all that1 and other remarks like that1 often1 and we have seldom been able to give reasons against them4 ,a mere instinctive sentiment seems a feeble thing to oppose to such cold and hard facts4 ,yet somehow we feel that it is all wrong if only we knew how to convict it4 ,did it ever occur to you that ,jesus ,himself has answered that objection and others like it when ,he vindicated ,mary's action that night8 ,there is no doubt that her ointment cost a deal of money1 money that could have fed many hungry people4 ,it was an extravagant offering1 without any practical outcome1 save that ,jesus was refreshed4 ,there is no doubt also about our ,lord's sympathy with the poor and needy4 ,and yet ,he upheld ,mary's action1 and would not have it called wasteful6 ,all that could be said in its favour was that it was beautiful1 that it touched ,jesus keenly1 and influenced all who saw it done4 ,and that1 as ,i read the story1 was one reason at least why ,jesus defended it4 ,he allows the ,beautiful4 ,he would have the ,beautiful honoured for its own sake even in a world so full of sorrow and trouble as this4 ,for my part1 ,i am very grateful that this word of ,christ's has been recorded4 ,for it affords sufficient warrant for declaring the poet1 the artist1 the architect1 and all those who are trying to make the world more beautiful1 ,god's servants too1 offering ,him a gift ,he does not disdain to recognise1 as truly as the physician1 the philanthropist1 and the preacher whose object is to make it better4 ,beauty of form and structure has been lavished profusely by the ,creator on creatures too small to be seen4 ,there are more things grow out of ,god's earth than corn for food or timber for building houses4 ,there's the heather and the wild flowers1 the daisies and the violets4 ,hard-headed common-sense asks--,what's the use of them8 ,what good do they do8 ,the answer is that they are beautiful1 and that seems in ,god's sight to be justification enough for having made them4 ,so when we see ,love breaking her alabaster box1 and pouring forth her offering without stint1 as she is doing every day--a mother lavishing care upon an ungrateful son1 a husband surrounding a peevish wife with a tireless devotion1 or a sister keeping her own love-dream at arm's length that she may guard and guide some graceless brother--let us lay our hands upon our lips when we are tempted to criticise4 ,these actions may be foolish1 extravagant1 quixotic1 and may outrage every canon of common-sense4 ,but there is a fragrance about them without which the world would be much poorer4 ,they are morally beautiful1 and for that reason1 our ,lord ,himself would teach us1 they are not to be rudely handled nor judged by any hard standard4 ,yes1 but ,he said more than that4 ,he found a more complete extenuation of ,mary's extravagance4 ,it was because she loved much4 ,her gift was an offering of love to ,himself4 ,she hath done it for my burial4 ,and that is the end of the whole matter1 my brothers4 ,love is always extravagant when measured by the tape-line of bare duty4 ,it always overflows4 ,it breaks its box and gives everything it has4 ,yet1 like the widow's cruse of old1 its casket is never empty1 for even when it has given its all1 the next needy case will find succour at that door4 ,take your charity subscription sheet to the man who loudly asserts that too much money is being given to the ,kirk this dull season1 and what will you get8 ,take it also to the man who has signed a bigger cheque than he can well afford that the ,house of his ,god may be made beautiful1 and it will be strange if you are sent empty away4 ,ah no1 it is not ,mary1 whose devotion has found outlet in some sudden generosity1 it is not she who neglects the poor4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 whose we are and ,whom we seek to serve1 enlighten us1 we pray ,thee1 in the knowledge and practice of that supreme service which is love4 ,may we learn that the greatest thing in our little lives is the love they hold for ,god and man4 ,teach us to appraise love's extra everywhere as those who have also felt and understand4 ,and when our own gift and offering must needs be poor and small1 may we be encouraged by the remembrance that even a widow's mite that love has offered is precious in ,thy sight4 ,amen4 ,i know both how to be abased1 and ,i know how to abound4 7,,philippians iv4 #ab47 ,,xxvi ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,doing ,,without ,in one of his letters1 ,paul declares that he knows both how to be abased and how to abound4 ,most people1 who did not stop to think1 would be inclined to assert that the second of these lessons did not require much learning4 ,it's an easy enough thing to be content1 they would say1 when you have plenty4 ,far harder is it to learn how to do without4 ,i am not at all sure that that is right4 ,i rather think that1 of the two1 abundance is a more searching test of a man's true quality than scarcity ever is4 ,carlyle has declared that for one man who will stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity4 ,but whether that be so or not1 there is no question that it is a great thing to have the secret of doing without4 ,and the merest glance abroad convinces us that it is of the utmost importance4 ,in literature1 for example1 the quality which confers most distinction upon style is the art of omission4 ,did not ,stevenson1 himself a master1 say that one who knew what to omit could make an ,iliad of the daily newspaper8 ,and the commonest blunders in the great business of living spring from ignorance of this secret4 ,why do some people make themselves disagreeable in a community by their touchiness and sulkiness8 ,simply because they have not learned how to be abased1 how to live without getting their own way always1 or without getting the praise or recognition to which they feel themselves entitled4 ,it's an art1 you see1 which is well worth studying4 ,it has to be added that opportunities for practising it are never long wanting from anybody4 ,we don't need to choose what things we shall do without1 as a rule4 ,the things are simply taken from us1 or we never get them4 ,it may be our own fault1 or it may not4 ,the result is the same4 ,we have to do without4 ,and we give away our inmost self by the fashion in which we do it4 ,there is1 for example1 the question of material goods4 ,it's easy to talk unreal nonsense here1 and we all must confess to wishing to have more of this sort of property than we do possess4 ,but ,i honestly believe that the ,apostle ,paul did not greatly concern himself whether he was1 materially speaking1 well-off or ill-off4 ,there are other men that one knows who have attained to the same point of view4 ,there's no question either that for those whose religion is a vital thing it is the right point of view4 ,the real man is independent of either riches or poverty1 because the real man is the man inside4 ,riches is not you4 ,poverty is not you4 ,you are what you are in your inner spirit4 ,the riches there are invisible1 but they are eternal--love1 faith1 hope1 peace4 ,and the man who has these1 as ,paul had them1 can honestly say that it is of relatively small moment whether he is in a material sense1 rich or poor4 ,or take the question of friendship4 ,who can tell in adequate words what it means to have one true1 loyal friend8 ,but it has happened sometimes that the very closest friendships are broken and a man has to stand alone1 not by his own choice1 but in the grim ordering of things4 ,there is a higher obligation than that you keep faith with your friends4 ,first and foremost you must keep faith with yourself1 with your own conscience1 with the voice within4 ,and it may be that obedience to that involves seeming disloyalty to your friends1 either for a while or permanently4 ,such a time came to ,paul4 ,he had for conscience' sake to stand alone2 and he did it4 ,he was able to do it because his life did not rest for its ultimate pillar on his friendships any more than on his riches4 ,paul's real life was within4 ,that inner life of his was enriched and made radiant and constant by one supreme fact--he believed that ,jesus ,christ his ,lord deigned to share it with him in spirit4 ,it is not irreverent to say that in his inner soul ,paul lived with ,christ4 ,maybe his words are too big for us to use1 but each of us who1 at some hard bit of our journey1 has appealed beyond friends to the ,christ within1 saying1 ,i have done1 ,o ,lord1 what seemed to me right4 ,and my friends are hurt and angry4 ,but ,thou knowest--that man has learned1 even in a slight degree1 that there is a nearer and truer blessing possible for sinful men than even human friendship4 ,then there is another thing that has sometimes to be done without4 ,there are privileges that belong to every ,christian man and woman1 and are in a sense their birthright--the sense of ,god1 confidence1 quietness of heart1 hope4 ,there is no doubt that every real ,christian should be walking and working in the light and gladness of ,god's presence4 ,but it is just as clear that not all are so blessed4 ,it may be their own fault4 ,doubtless in many cases it is4 ,or it may be temperament or outward circumstances that determine it4 ,anyhow1 many have to walk1 not in the light but in uncertainty1 perplexity1 and misgiving1 and sometimes even in darkness4 ,but a bird is a bird even though it cannot sing4 ,and a ,christian is a ,christian still even though his soul is dark within him1 and he goes on in fear1 never daring to look up and hope at all4 ,that is spiritual abasement4 ,it ought not to be4 ,it is never to be lightly acquiesced in4 ,but it happens sometimes to earnest men and women1 and it seems to be the settled condition of a few4 ,is it possible to do without these things8 ,can a man manage to exist and even move forward who has for a while lost his hold on his faith and on ,god8 ,there are good and godly men who have done it4 ,brother ,lawrence did it4 ,robertson of ,brighton did it4 ,horace ,bushnell did it4 ,and many1 many more4 ,when all that they held most precious in faith had been eclipsed for the time1 they steered still by the little light they knew4 ,though there should be no heaven1 they resolved that they were called to be pure1 truthful1 patient1 kind1 since these things could never be wrong4 ,though there were no ,christ1 they would still follow where ,he had once seemed to invite them4 ,and so doing and so following they came again to know4 ,the darkness passed1 and faith and gladness returned4 ,they had lost hold of ,god for a little1 but ,he had never lost hold of them4 ,and1 brethren1 whatever the doubt or darkness be1 that's always true4 ,that is what makes it possible at all4 ,that is what may make it even blessed4 ,for ,it's better to walk in the dark with ,god ,than to walk alone in the light2 ,better to walk with ,god by faith ,than to walk alone by sight4 ,,prayer ,our ,gracious ,god and ,father in ,heaven1 whether ,thou dost appoint for us poverty or riches1 save us from thinking that a man's life consisteth in the abundance of the things which he possesseth4 ,beyond all our friendships1 be ,thou our ,friend and ,helper1 and grant us to seek first the blessing of our ,god4 ,make us very sure1 for their comforting and our own1 that when men in their darkness sorely seek ,thy face1 the very ache of their quest is token that ,thou hast already found them4 ,for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4 ,and ,moses said1 ,i will now turn aside and see this great sight4 7,,exodus iii4 #c47 ,,xxvii ,,wonder ,moses1 adds one commentator significantly1 was then eighty years of age4 ,by the ordinary standards1 he was an old man1 yet he had not lost his youthful sense of wonder4 ,it is a good sign1 the best of signs1 when a man has lived so long and yet finds wonder in his heart4 ,it is a bad sign when a man at any age1 or when a generation of men1 find nothing in all ,god's world to wonder at4 ,yet in many quarters it is regarded as the correct attitude to refrain from expressing surprise at anything1 no matter how striking4 ,the utmost concession to be made to what is really wonderful is a languid and patronising ,really8 ,that is always a pitiful thing4 ,for where there is no wonder there can be no religion worthy of the name4 ,the instinct of worship and the instinct of wonder are very intimately related4 ,and where the one has died1 the other cannot be in a very healthy state4 ,i had rather1 said ,ruskin once1 live in a cottage and wonder at everything1 than live in ,warwick ,castle and wonder at nothing4 ,and his preference is to be commended4 ,for he who has never wondered has never thought about ,god in any way to be called thinking4 ,it was our ,lord ,himself who said that the ideal of religion was the child-like heart4 ,everyone knows that these little people are always being brought to a halt to wonder at something4 ,and ,heaven is in very truth nearer to them then1 and they are more truly filled with its spirit1 than either you or ,i are when the glory and bloom of this world unfold before our eyes1 or the thought of the ,infinite and ,eternal ,god comes to us and we have not felt impelled to bow our heads in silence and worship1 spell-bound1 and in a godly fear4 ,it is not hard to lay one's finger on some of the causes that have brought about this state of things4 ,a silly fashion1 for one cause1 has decreed that wonder is vulgar4 ,why that should be so1 no one can tell4 ,but if there be higher intelligences than ours in ,god's ,universe1 and they see the sons of men1 as they have plenty of chances to do1 casting an indifferent glance at the full pomp and majesty of the setting sun1 or reading such a ,psalm as the #ajcrd with an untouched heart1 how they must marvel indeed6 ,and then1 of course1 familiarity tends to blunt the sense of wonder in a certain and common type of mind4 ,the best men have always resisted that tendency and recognised that it works harm to life and character4 ,they have remembered to look for ,god in the common and familiar1 and that is a search that goes far to make a man a saint1 just because it is a continual prayer1 a continual holding open of the heart to ,god4 ,his answer is to fill the wondering heart1 bit by bit1 with ,himself4 ,ignorance1 too1 is often a cause1 the kind of ignorance that calls itself knowledge4 ,it is an innocent delusion on the part of the youthful tyro in ,science that after he has made a little experiment with a prism and a beam of sunlight1 there is nothing wonderful in the rainbow4 ,pure1 profound ,science on the other hand1 speaks very humbly--and wonders all the while4 ,nature is dumb and silent concerning the ,infinite behind it to him who goes but to catalogue and dissect4 ,take a heart that can wonder with you on your country-walk1 open your eyes and look1 open your heart like a child and listen1 and you will find1 as ,moses found1 that even in a bush there may be the ,voice of ,god4 ,hold the door of your heart ajar in simple wonder1 and some thing of ,god will enter to cleanse and freshen it1 as the hot and dusty street is washed by the rain from ,heaven4 ,just as he who goes to ,nature with a heart that cannot wonder1 will find no message there for him1 so he who looks out upon the sanctities of home1 of human life and love1 in that dull mood of mere acceptance1 must often find himself hard pressed for material when he makes his thanksgiving to ,god4 ,george ,eliot has spoken somewhere of the agony of the thought that we can never atone to the dead for the stinted affection we gave them1 for the little reverence we showed to that sacred human soul that lived so close to us1 and was the divinest thing ,god has given us to know4 ,the divinest thing ,god has given us to know6 ,have we realised that that gift of ,god to us lives now in the same home with us8 ,do you know what it is8 ,it is a wife's devotion1 a mother's care1 a brother's comradeship1 a sister's love4 ,it is the trust and affection of little children1 and the patience of those who love us4 ,and yet there have been men--judge ye if this be not true--who have lived close to gifts of ,god like these1 and taken them all unquestioned and never wondered at the undeserved bounty of them or their continuance from day to day4 ,how easy it is to discover the gifts and charm of a stranger1 how easy to wonder at that6 ,but to wonder at the sacrifice and the patience of the love that dwells under the same roof with us1 and stoops1 in ,mrs ,browning's happy phrase1 to the level of each day's most quiet need1 how few of us do that6 ,and yet1 without daily wonder1 how can we be sure that we do not slight it1 or requite it ill1 how can we truly give our thanks to ,god whose gift it is8 ,most important of all1 he who brings no wonder in his heart can never be touched with the sense of ,god4 ,the lack of the great deep and awful wonder of our fathers in all their thought and speech about ,god1 has brought it about that our religious speech to-day is too often either superficial1 flippant and easy1 or syllogistic1 mechanical1 and hard4 ,it is the absence of wonder that tempts men to imagine that ,god can be enclosed in any formula whatever1 or brought to the hearts of men in so many rigid propositions4 ,if men would but give their wonder expression when they frame their creeds1 there would be less chafing where the edges are too sharp4 ,i am bound to confess that my sympathies are altogether with a working man who once listened to a fervid evangelist at a street corner unfolding a scheme of salvation as clean-cut and mechanical as a problem of ,euclid1 and buttonholed him afterwards to inquire if he had ever read any astronomy4 ,no1 he said1 he had not4 ,that's a pity1 said the artisan1 for1 eh1 man1 but ye have an awfu' wee ,god4 ,in all reverence1 my brothers1 that is what the absence of wonder brings us to1 a small ,god1 a small salvation1 and a merely mechanical ,christ4 ,men have sometimes asked what that childhood of the ,kingdom is on which ,jesus laid so much stress1 and some have taken it to mean renunciation of intellect and reason in favour of a ,church's dogma4 ,but it means1 says ,john ,kelman1 something far more human and more beautiful--it means wonder and humility and responsiveness1 the straight gaze of childhood past conventionalities1 the simplicity of a mind open to any truth1 and a heart with love alive in it4 ,that is surely right4 ,that is what becoming a little child in ,christ's sense does mean4 ,first of all1 wonder4 ,,prayer ,almighty and eternal ,god1 ,creator and ,ruler of the ,universe1 dwelling in light that is inaccessible and full of glory1 whom no man hath seen or can see1 what is man that ,thou art mindful of him1 and the son of man that ,thou visitest him8 ,behold what manner of love the ,father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of ,god6 ,such knowledge is too wonderful for us2 it is high1 we cannot attain unto it4 ,o come let us worship and bow down1 let us kneel before the ,lord our ,maker4 ,amen4 ,if ye then1 being evil1 know 444 how much more 444 your heavenly ,father4 7,,luke xi4 #ac47 ,,xxviii ,,the ,,fatherhood ,,of ,,god ,if it were a conceivable thing that we had to part with all the words of ,scripture save one1 and if we were allowed to choose that one1 there are some of us who would elect to retain that great declaration of ,jesus--,if ye being evil know 444 how much more 444 your heavenly ,father4 ,for1 having that1 we should still be rich in knowledge of the ,love and ,fatherhood of ,god4 ,we should still know ,christ's dominating conception of ,god1 and have ,his last and highest word regarding ,him4 ,we should still be able to rise1 as ,jesus not only warrants but invites us to do1 from the little broken arc of true fatherhood on earth to the perfect round in ,heaven4 ,at the warm reassuring touch of that ,how much more your heavenly ,father whole systems of brainy divinity vanish away6 ,the truth of the ,fatherhood of ,god1 vouched for and lived on by ,jesus1 kills men's hard and unworthy and hurtful thoughts about ,god as sunshine kills the creatures that breed and prevail in darkness and ignorance4 ,they can no more live alongside of a realisation that ,christ's name for ,god is ,his true name1 and really describes ,his attitude to all the sons of men1 than the dark1 creepy things that live under the stone can remain there when you turn it over and let in the air and the light4 ,but1 say some1 you must not carry the truth of ,god's ,fatherhood too far4 ,what is too far8 ,i ask4 ,i want to carry it1 and ,i believe ,christ means us to carry it1 as far as ever it will stretch1 and that is as far as the ,east is from the ,west4 ,think of a father's ,,good-,,will4 ,it is conceivable that other men may do you a deliberate wrong4 ,but you are entitled to believe that your father won't4 ,you may not understand what he proposes1 but you can be quite sure that he means only your good4 ,henry ,drummond tells how his early days were made miserable by the conception he had of ,god as of some great staring ,eye in the heavens watching all he did4 ,but that is a policeman's eye1 not a father's4 ,there are many tokens that1 even yet1 we have not realised what these blessed words of ,jesus mean and imply4 ,a mother vainly trying to answer the old1 old question why her little one was taken from her1 will say1 ,perhaps ,i was too fond of him4 ,or1 should sudden sorrow come1 the explanation suggested by the troubled one himself is1 ,i was too happy4 ,there are plenty of people who are afraid to declare that they feel very well or are very happy1 in case the upper ,powers should hear and send trouble1 apparently out of sheer malice6 ,bethankit1 what a bonny creed6 ,oh6 what a dreadful caricature of ,god6 ,how it must pain the ,father to hear ,his children talking so6 ,there is another mark of fatherhood1 as we know it on earth--,,compassion1 pity1 the willingness to forgive4 ,there is no forgiveness on earth like a father's or a mother's1 none so willing1 none that will wait so long and yet give itself without stint at last4 ,pity1 as the world of business and of ordinary relationship knows it1 is at best a transient emotion4 ,it murmurs a few easy words and then forgets4 ,but parent love suffereth long and is kind1 hopes against hope1 and waits and is still hopeful when every one else has written the offender down irreclaimable4 ,it is such compassion and pity for us sinners1 how great soever our sins be1 that ,jesus would have us come for to ,god in ,heaven4 ,but will not men abuse such patience and long-suffering8 it is asked4 ,is it not a risky thing to tell them that ,god is our ,father8 ,it is4 ,but it is the risk that ,love takes cheerfully1 and that only ,love can take4 ,and when men talk lightly and complacently about the great mercy of ,god1 there is something1 ,i think1 which they have forgotten1 namely1 that at the heart of the divine ,fatherly forgiveness there lies the shadow of the ,cross4 ,i do not say that in any conventional sense4 ,i say it because ,i have seen for myself that at the heart of all true earthly forgiveness of a fatherly sort there lies this same mysterious shadow4 ,shall not the father forgive his returning prodigal8 ,yea1 verily1 and with all his heart4 ,but1 ah1 before that1 think how the father has suffered with his son1 and for his son4 ,the prodigal's shame is the father's shame too1 and lies heavy on his heart4 ,and it is out of a chamber where he and that pain have long been companions that the earthly father issues to welcome and receive at last the lad who has sought his face penitent and in his right mind4 ,the welcome is real4 ,the forgiveness is full and free4 ,and yet behind it there is sacrifice4 ,the price of it is suffering4 ,aback of it lies--the ,cross6 ,that is what silences cheap thinking and glib speech about the forgiveness of ,god4 ,if ,god's long-suffering be like a father's here1 it is1 first1 long suffering4 ,the danger1 however1 is not that we abuse ,god's grace knowingly and in callous complacency4 ,far more is it1 ,i think1 that we never actually accept and realise and build our lives upon the gracious compassion of the ,heavenly ,father and ,his willingness to forgive4 ,every parent ought to know ,coventry ,patmore's beautiful lyric1 ,the ,toys4 ,in it a father tells how1 when his little son had been disobedient again and again1 he struck him1 and sent him with hard words and unkissed to bed--his mother1 who was patient1 being dead4 ,and when1 later1 he went upstairs to see him1 he found him asleep1 his lashes still wet with tears1 and--what touched him most--on a table beside his bed all his little treasures heaped together to comfort his sad heart--a box of counters1 and a red-veined stone1 a piece of glass abraded by the beach1 and six or seven shells1 a bottle with blue bells1 and two ,french copper coins--all his little store of precious things4 ,so when that night ,i prayed ,to ,god1 ,i wept and said-- ,ah1 when at last we lie with tranced breath1 ,not vexing ,thee in death1 ,and ,thou rememberest of what toys ,we made our joys1 ,how weakly understood ,thy great commanded good1 ,then1 fatherly not less ,than ,i1 whom ,thou hast moulded from the clay1 ,thou'lt leave ,thy wrath and say3 ',i will be sorry for their childishness4' ,one word more about our ,father's ,,silence4 ,our fathers here on earth had their silences when we were children4 ,we asked him for something that we wanted very much4 ,and he gave no reply4 ,we went on asking4 ,we expected to get what we had set our hearts on4 ,he heard us hoping and believing that this good thing would come to us1 and he held his peace4 ,but we knew that silence1 and we trusted it4 ,we were quite sure that he would have told us if we were deceiving ourselves1 that his gift1 when it came1 would1 at least1 not be a mere mockery of our hopes4 ,and ,i often think of these words of ,christ's1 ,if a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father1 will he give him a stone8 when ,i stand by a graveside1 and speak the words of radiant hope with which we lay our beloved to rest4 ,our ,father hears us speak that hope4 ,he has heard hearts in an agony through all the generations wish that it might be true--that this bleak fact of ,death is not the end1 but only the beginning of a better thing4 ,but ,he keeps silence4 ,we have no sure proof1 only the blessed hope of the ,christian evangel4 ,he keeps silence4 ,but1 my brethren1 can we not trust that silence since it is our ,father's8 ,we have asked this bread in our pain and through our tears4 ,we have asked it because it seems to us we need it so4 ,and whatever gift ,his silence hides1 this at least is certain1 it is not1 it cannot be1 only a stone4 ,,prayer ,almighty ,god1 who through ,jesus ,christ has taught us to call ,thee our ,father1 we thank ,thee that ,thou hast chosen a name so dear to us to reveal ,thy care and ,love4 ,when our way is dark and our burden is heavy and our hearts are perplexed1 grant us the grace to know that ,thou who art directing every step of our journey art a ,god of ,love1 and ,thy true and perfect ,name is ,our ,father in ,heaven4 ,through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,amen4 ,whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it4 7,,matthew xvi4 #be47 ,,xxix ,,the ,,unreturning ,,brave 7,,easter ,,day1 #aiae7 ,,note4--,i wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to ,sir ,wm4 ,robertson ,nicoll's ,when the ,wounded ,go ,home1 a tender and courageous message4 ,christmas in war time was like an evil dream4 ,easter is like a breath from ,heaven itself1 a wind from the pure and blessed heights of ,god blowing the clouds of battle-smoke apart for a brief space so that we all may see again that beyond the smoke and beyond grim death itself there is the ,life ,enduring1 a ,divine ,love compared to which ours at the best is untender and hard1 a ,fatherly welcome beside which welcomes here are faint and cold4 ,this is the strangest ,easter ,day the world has ever known1 yet never have the thousands and thousands of stricken homes and sore hearts needed more the living hope that is begotten anew in the ,christian ,church this day by our ,lord's rising again from the dead4 ,it is assuredly of ,god's mercy that ,easter should fall in these days1 when so many fathers and mothers1 wives and sisters and lovers need its hope and comfort so4 ,we cannot but think to-day of the many1 many homes in our own and other lands from which strong and brave men marched away weeks or months ago1 because they had heard the call1 and were willing to make the supreme sacrifice for righteousness' sake1 who will never come back again1 who have died a soldier's death and sleep in a soldier's grave--fathers1 husbands1 sons1 lovers1 gallant men1 dear lads1 cheerful1 willing1 dauntless4 ,you find their names by the hundred and the thousand in the casualty lists1 but the loss you cannot measure unless you could see all the shadowed homes4 ,how many such homes there are in our own land alone1 ,how many such in our own little circle6 ,try to realise that1 and then ask if a more gracious message could fall upon all these hearts to-day than the ,easter message of the ,christian ,church1--that there is no death and that its seeming victory is not a victory4 ,the old1 old question1 ,if a man die shall he live again8 is answered to-day by the triumphant ,yes6 of ,christendom4 ,yes1 he never ceases to live4 ,from the inferno of the battlefield the mortally stricken do but pass across the bridge and stream of death to ,god's ,other ,side4 ,when they fall in battle1 they fall into ,his everlasting ,arms4 ,they do not die4 ,they are not dead4 ,it is only their poor mortal bodies that the shrieking shells can maim or destroy4 ,they themselves1 the real self and spirit of them1 no material force can hurt1 for that belongs to a higher kingdom than the visible1 and its true goal and home are not here at all4 ,to all who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death in these days1 to all who have watched their beloved go out where every true man would wish to go1 and know only too surely that they shall never return1--to these to-day ,jesus ,christ has ,his ,word to speak1--and would that all might hear it and give it room in their hearts to do its blessed work6 ,it is to ,him we owe it1 and ,he is our authority for believing that beyond the darkness and separation of death there is the morning of a new and fairer day4 ,the valley of the ,shadow1 yea1 the valley of battle itself opens out again at its far end to the sun's rising and the untrammelled life in the light and liberty of ,god4 ,the happy warrior is borne by gentle hands to ,god's own land of peace1 where the fret and fury of battle slip from him like a discarded garment1 and beside the still waters of that better country he finds healing for his hurt4 ,it is that quiet and blessed hope that is being reborn in our hearts this day as the ,church keeps her festival of a ,risen and a ,living ,christ4 ,it is that lively hope the ,church offers for comfort to all stricken homes and to every sorrowing heart4 ,they offered themselves1 these gallant lads1 not for anything they hoped to gain1 but for the sake of honour and liberty1 of justice and righteousness4 ,and when a man casts himself on ,god in that fashion1 offering not the words of his lips1 nor the homage of his worship1 but himself1 all that he has1 his life and all that life holds for him1 think you that upon that poor soul1 with his priceless offering borne humbly in his hands1 the ,god and ,father of us all is going to turn ,his back8 ,he that loseth his life1 said ,jesus1 for my sake shall find it4 ,there are times when the most gracious doctrine is not gracious enough to represent and embody the ,spirit of ,christ to us4 ,we want something more1 and we often seek it and sometimes find it in poetry1 in art1 or1 best of all1 in the silence of our own hearts when ,god-given instinct whispers what no words or doctrine can ever express4 ,such a time is now4 ,such a need is ours to-day4 ,i make no defence of it theologically1 and ,i ask no man to accept it who does not feel it clamouring at his heart for entrance1 but ,i confess that for me a couple of lines of ,john ,hay's in his ,pike ,county ,ballads strike a note which all that ,i know in my heart of the ,spirit of ,christ leaps up to welcome and approve4 ,it is when he has told the story of ,jim ,bludso's sacrifice4 ,jim was engineer on the ,prairie ,belle1 a river-steamboat1 and he was rather a rough1 careless man4 ,but when the steamer took fire1 it was ,jim who held her against the bank till everybody got safely off except himself4 ,with eyes wide open to what he did1 he sacrificed his life to save the other souls on board4 ,hay sums up in these lines3-- ,and ,christ ain't going to be too hard ,on a man that died for men4 ,i leave it there4 ,i trust ,i am a loyal son of the ,church1 but ,i must have a place in my creed somewhere for the hope which these lines express that ,christ ain't going to be too hard on a man that died for men4 ,but there is something more to be said4 ,every chaplain at the front tells us that the most careless and irreligious youths and men take up a wonderfully different attitude out there4 ,men pray in the trenches who have never prayed before4 ,i heard some stories recently that brought tears to my eyes1 of brave and simple confessions made at little gatherings for prayer in strange places1 by some of those very lads whom we reckoned indifferent and heedless before they left home4 ,and some of then1 turning their faces simply and earnestly1 and by an old1 old instinct of the heart1 towards ,god and ,his ,christ before the battle broke upon them1 some of them have fallen on the field6 ,many1 many more there must be who turned them ,godwards even at the eleventh hour in one brief upward glance to ask forgiveness and strength to play the man1 about whom no chaplain can report1 for no one knows or saw or heard save ,christ ,himself4 ,but there's a glorious page in the ,gospel to assure us beyond all doubt or question that no one who makes that appeal1 though it be the dying thief himself1 ever makes it in vain4 ,and there we leave the issue--with ,god1 who is kinder than our kindest1 and whose mercy is from everlasting4 ,it is ,he who has brought us this blessed hope1 through ,his ,son1 this ,easter ,day1 and we honour ,his gift best by taking it in all its breadth and comfort to our hearts4 ,to the broken-hearted wife or mother1 to whom the bald ,war ,office report has come1 let us take this comfort1--,your beloved is not dead4 ,god has him in ,his gracious care and keeping till the day break and the shadows flee away4 ,for that is the ,easter message1 ,god be thanked4 ,and this is ,easter ,day4 ,,prayer ,to ,thy merciful care and keeping we commend all the sons and daughters of affliction1 and especially those who in this great contest have lost some loved one4 ,grant that even through their tears they may discern the glory that belongs to those who have given their lives a ransom for many4 ,be ,thou their help and their strength1 and may the sympathy of all who know them be for them an earnest and token of ,thy great ,love and ,compassion4 ,through ,jesus ,christ our ,lord4 ,amen4 ,the heavens declare the glory of ,god4 7,,psalm xix4 #a47 ,,xxx ,,the ,,sacrament ,,of ,,sunset ,the sky1 says ,ruskin1 is the part of ,nature in which ,god has done more for the sake of pleasing man1 more from the sole and evident purpose of touching him1 than in any other of ,his works4 ,it looks like the truth4 ,for there is no scene of earth so fair or majestic that man cannot spoil it4 ,where the cataract exults among the hills1 and wears its crown of rainbows all alone1 he will build him a power-house to supply current to some distant town4 ,but he cannot touch the heavens4 ,in the heart of some fairy glen he will placard the virtues of somebody's pills1 and plaster the gate-posts in a sweet country lane with the specious claims of some quack doctor1 but above it all1 it is ,god1 and ,god alone1 who spreadeth out the heavens like a curtain and in them has set a tabernacle for the sun4 ,even in places where the face of earth wears no suggestion of natural beauty the face of the sky redeems it from evil4 ,for1 above the squalor of the city's meanest slum1 burn the great fires of the setting sun1 and overhead the fleecy white clouds sail silently all night long4 ,but1 of it all1 the glory of the sunset is chief4 ,the dawn has its cold splendours too1 but not many of us are there to see it when it is at its best4 ,it is at eventide1 when the work of the day is done1 and the spell of its restfulness lays the senses open1 it is then chiefly that ,god unfolds these splendid harmonies of colour in the western heavens4 ,and1 by consent1 on this ,ayrshire coast1 on which ,i look out as ,i write1 these glories can be seen to great advantage4 ,it is into no flat expanse of water that the dying sun sinks here4 ,the peaks and crags of ,arran invest its passage with an indescribable pomp and majesty1 standing out against it like the massive pillars of some giant gateway of the ,west4 ,it is never twice the same4 ,sometimes lurid and blazing1 with masses of thunder-cloud piled high1 all their outer edges rimmed with fire2 and1 next night1 peaceful and level1 a study in straight lines1 as if the great ,artist1 with even brush1 had washed the sky with bands of grey and blue and gold4 ,each evening ,god has ,his own picture for us1 ,his own handiwork1 unspoiled by man4 ,how many of us ever pause to recognise its beauty8 ,what does it mean that such a prodigality of harmonious colours should be the most ordinary feature of our evening hour8 ,is it that ,god ,himself takes delight in the beauty of it all1 for its own sake1 rejoicing1 like all good workmen1 in the work of ,his hands8 ,or has ,he some purpose with regard to ,his children of mankind8 ,is it1 as ,ruskin says1 for the sake of pleasing man8 ,how unthankful and unmindful we are1 if that be so6 ,the sunset teaches us to put together these two ideas--beauty1 beyond the wit of man to portray1 and ,god4 ,there is plenty of ugliness and sin in the world1 and the life of men4 ,man himself recognises how much of the beauty that might have been has been marred and disfigured by him4 ,yet in his heart he worships it1 and feels after it afar off4 ,and in the evening sky it is written that ,beauty belongeth supremely unto ,god4 ,whatever that far-off divine event be1 to which the whole creation moves1 one of its features shall be1 must be1 a beauty which shall fully satisfy4 ,for beauty and ,god cannot be divorced4 ,and when1 of an evening1 ,god for ,his own good pleasure1 working with those material elements which have no power to disobey ,his behests1 unfolds ,his will in such dazzling visions of splendour1 is ,he not declaring that the end and goal of life itself1 when ,his purpose therewith is completed1 and ,man1 too1 has fallen into harmony with ,his will1 shall be fair1 and satisfying1 and beautiful8 ,let us not be afraid to say and believe that ,god speaks to us in the sunset4 ,if ,i pick up the receiver of a telephone and hear my friend announce some good news that fills my heart with gladness1 it does not disturb me to remember that the wire itself has no power to speak4 ,for ,i feel that somewhere at the end of the wire is a mind and a heart like my own who is using the dead1 soulless wire as a medium of speech with me4 ,when the glories of the sun's setting fall upon your heart like a benediction1 stirring you to devout and grateful thought1 breathing peace upon you1 cleansing your desires of all that is mean and sordid1 do not be afraid to believe that1 behind and beyond all that is material and visible1 there is the ,mind and ,heart in whose image yours was made1 whose gift peace is1 whose whisper1 though it come along dead ether-waves to reach you1 is ,his whisper nevertheless4 ,it is perhaps natural that the prevailing quality of the thoughts that arise within us when we watch the setting sun should be pensive1 tender1 and1 not seldom1 a little sad4 ,for it speaks of the end of the day and the coming night4 ,its charm and spell are like that of autumn1 the remembrance of what has gone1 the tender grace of a day that is dead4 ,for all the beauty and wonder of this world1 there is a tear at the heart of things4 ,beneath all our laughter and happiness there lies that deeper note4 ,the night cometh4 ,there is an end to it all--friendship1 love1 happiness1 work1 life itself4 ,for be the long day never so long1 ,at last it ringeth to evensong4 ,and yet1 and yet1 my brothers1 the end is beautiful1 more beautiful even than the beginning4 ,god has made the day's death to be exceeding fair4 ,the sun passes gloriously to its rest4 ,hopefully too1 for1 passing thus1 it promises a new and fairer morning4 ,so do ,god's children die4 ,,prayer ,o ,lord our ,god1 who hast written ,thy ,word of hope and promise in the evening sky1 be near us when our day is done1 and the wind has fallen silent1 and the night is waiting4 ,put us to sleep in a chamber of peace whose windows open toward the sun rising1 and1 when we awake1 may we be still with ,thee4 ,for ,jesus' sake4 ,amen4