is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before
which every ambition of man is folly, and all lower achievement vain.
Those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their
lives can ever begin to hope to reach it. If, therefore, it has seemed
up to this point as if all depended on passivity, let me now assert,
with conviction more intense, that all depends on activity. A religion
of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel, but never for
a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the active, lies true hope;
not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm of
ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanctification wrought.
Resolution, effort, pain, self-crucifixion, agony--all the things
already dismissed as futile in themselves, must now be restored to
office, and a tenfold responsibility laid upon them. For what is their
office? Nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul, and
place it, and keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it. It
is to rally the forces of the will, and keep the surface of the mirror
bright and ever in position. It is to uncover the face which is to
look at Christ, and draw down the veil when unhallowed sights are
near.
You have, perhaps, gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the
spectrum of a star. As you enter the dark vault of the observatory you
saw him begin by lighting a candle. To see the star with? No; but to
adjust the instrument to see the star with. It was the star that was
going to take the photograph; it was, also, the astronomer. For a long
time he worked in the dimness, screwing tubes and polishing lenses and
adjusting reflectors, and only after much labor the finely focused
instrument was brought to bear. Then he blew out the light, and left
the star to do its work upon the plate alone.
The day's task for the Christian is to bring his instrument to bear.
Having done that he may blow out his candle. All the evidences of
Christianity which have brought him there, all aids to Faith, all acts
of worship, all the leverages of the Church, all Prayer and
Meditation, all girding of the Will--these lesser processes, these
candle-light activities for that supreme hour, may be set aside. But,
remember, it is but for an hour. The wise man will be he who quickest
lights his candle, the wisest he who never lets it out. Tomorrow, the
next moment, he, a poor, darkened, blurred soul, may need it again to
focus the Image better, to take a mote off the lens, to clear the
mirror from a breath with which the world has dulled it.
No readjustment is ever required on behalf of the Star. That is one
great fixed point in this shifting universe. But _the world moves_.
And each day, each hour, demands a further motion and readjustment for
the soul. A telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork,
but the clockwork of the soul is called _the Will_. Hence, while the
soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, the Will in intense
activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the
world bear it beyond the line of vision. To "follow Christ" is largely
to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the
earth. And this calculated counteracting of the movements of the
world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the Mirrored,
this steadying of the faculties unerringly through cloud and
earthquake, fire and sword, is the stupendous co-operating labor of
the Will. It is all man's work. It is all Christ's work. In practice
it is both; in theory it is both. But the wise man will say in
practice, "It depends upon myself."
In the Gallerie des Beaux Arts in Paris there stands a famous statue.
It was the last work of a great genius, who, like many a genius, was
very poor and lived in a garret, which served as a studio and
sleeping-room alike. When the statue was all but finished, one
midnight a sudden frost fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay awake in the
fireless room and thought of the still moist clay, thought how the
water would freeze in the pores and destroy in an hour the dream of
his life. So the old man rose from his couch and heaped the
bed-clothes reverently round his work. In the morning when the
neighbors entered the room the sculptor was dead, but the statue was
saved!
The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is life's one
charge. Let every project stand aside for that. The spirit of God who
brooded upon the waters thousands of years ago, is busy now creating
men, within these commonplace lives of ours, in the image of God.
"Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion
crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun?
When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death
cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore _put on Christ_.