When shall we substitute for the "it" of a fictitious aspiration, the
approach to a Living Friend? Sanctity is in character and not in
moods; Divinity in our own plain calm humanity, and in no mystic
rapture of the soul.
And yet there are others who, for exactly a contrary reason, will find
scant satisfaction here. Their complaint is not that a religion
expressed in terms of Friendship is too homely, but that it is still
too mystical. To "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ our most constant
companion," is to them the purest mysticism. They want something
absolutely tangible and absolutely direct. These are not the poetical
souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures
whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps
not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements. The
beauty of Friendship is its infinity. One can never evacuate life of
mysticism. Home is full of it, love is full of it, religion is full of
it. Why stumble at that in the relation of man to Christ which is
natural in the relation of man to man?
If any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with Christ,
perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still
plainer analogies from common life. How do I know Shakspere or Dante?
By communing with their words and thoughts. Many men know Dante better
than their own fathers. He influences them more. As a spiritual
presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual force more real. Is
there any reason why a greater than Shakspere or Dante, who also
walked this earth, who left great words behind Him, who has greater
works everywhere in the world now, should not also instruct, inspire
and mould the characters of men? I do not limit Christ's influence to
this: it is this, and it is more. But Christ, so far from resenting
or discouraging this relation of Friendship, Himself proposed it.
"Abide in me" was almost His last word to the world. And He partly met
the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the
practical clause, "If ye abide in Me, _and My words abide in you_."
Begin with His words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal.
Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do
them, live them, and you must live Christ. "_He that keepeth My
Commandments_, he it is that loveth Me." Obey Him and you must love
Him. Abide in Him, and you must obey Him. _Cultivate_ His Friendship.
Live after Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Presence, and it is
difficult to think what more you can do. Take this at least as a first
lesson, as introduction.
If you cannot at once and always feel the play of His life upon yours,
watch for it also indirectly. "The whole earth is full of the
character of the Lord." Christ is the Light of the world, and much of
his Light is reflected from things in the world--even from clouds.
Sunlight is stored in every leaf, from leaf through coal, and it
comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun.
Christ shines through men, through books, through history, through
nature, music, art. Look for Him there. "Every day one should either
look at a beautiful picture, or hear beautiful music, or read a
beautiful poem." The real danger of mysticism is not making it broad
enough.
Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself
grow, or hear the whir of the machinery. All great things grow
noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Paul said
for the comforting of all slowly perfecting souls that they grew
"from character to character." "The inward man," he says elsewhere,
"is renewed from day to day." All thorough work is slow; all true
development by minute, slight and insensible metamorphoses. The higher
the structure, moreover, the slower the progress. As the biologist
runs his eye over the long Ascent of Life, he sees the lowest forms of
animals develop in an hour; the next above these reach maturity in a
day; those higher still take weeks or months to perfect; but the few
at the top demand the long experiment of years. If a child and an ape
are born on the same day, the last will be in full possession of its
faculties and doing the active work of life before the child has left
its cradle. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the
animal in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to
the natural man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an
eternal life must be surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who
will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day?
To await the growing of a soul, nevertheless, is an almost Divine act
of faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with
itself, of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ,
wondering, yearning, hungering to be like that! Yet must one trust the
process fearlessly and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will
do His part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible
progress, to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by
watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. A
photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun.
While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply
stops the getting on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may need,
it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed,
anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The
creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right spirit, is an
omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which hath begun
a good work in you will perfect it unto that day."
No man, nevertheless, who feels the worth and solemnity of what is at
stake will be careless as to his progress. To become