surrounded and sheltered us from infancy, we are apt to be unmindful of
our state of plenty and forgetful of the duty of gratitude. We are apt to
venture out like thoughtless children, trusting in our own strength to
battle with the foe; or else, on the contrary, we sluggishly presume that
a bountiful Providence will provide for us regardless of our own
co-operation. We have never known what it is to want for spiritual food
and spiritual direction, except when indolence, careless indifference, and
our own folly have led us astray. These are evils which continually assail
us, and we often make friends with them, not knowing what we are doing for
the most part, until the blood of life has almost ebbed away. We are not,
indeed, removed from a world where sin abounds and where deceiving voices
may allure us this way and that. Like the pastoral country of the Orient,
the walks of life are fraught with perils: false teachers, false
doctrines, false prophets, pseudo-christs;(31) “perils from our own
nation, and perils from abroad, perils in the city and perils in the
wilderness, perils in the sea and perils from false brethren”(32)—all
trying to attract and lead us away from the paths of justice and deliver
us to the enemy of our souls.
It is necessary that we should know that wolves are abroad in sheep’s
clothing; “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ.”(33) They come to us with winning words and easy
teachings, with new creeds, new forms of belief, new ways to the promised
land.
The doctrine and truths which Christ taught and which He entrusted to His
Church are set aside or explained away by these modern teachers, and the
novel and the strange are made to assume the role of the old, the familiar
and the true. The harm done is incalculable. How many innocent and unwary
sheep have been lost to the fold of Christ by following the call of these
unworthy preachers and false shepherds! What multitudes of precious souls
have been deceived by their polished words and led away into paths of
error, into deadly ways of thinking, believing, and acting, never to
return to the path that leads to life!
This poisoning of the soul and the heart by erroneous doctrines is
effected in many and diverse ways; the victims of falsehood are variously
captured. There are the wisdom and sagacity of men, there are the
conquests of science and the learning of the philosophers, the discoveries
of our day, the strides of history, the breakdown and overthrow of many
things held sacred by our forefathers—and all these changes and ruptures
in the order of a former generation are now used to beguile the flock of
Christ and sway them from the paths of truth and righteousness. But amid
all this din and uproar of conflicting voices, amid the wrangling tumult
and confusion of converging opinions, those who will may hear and discern
the loving voice of the true Shepherd speaking to the world through His
Church with the same calm, assuring words which He uttered to living
witnesses two thousand years ago. He has not changed, neither has His
teaching; He has not deserted His chosen flock, but is with it all days,
even to the end of the world.(34) His love for us, His watchfulness for
our needs, His enduring care for our interests, in spite of our enemies,
can never fail.
And while assured of this, it behooves us also, as appealing to our sense
of gratitude, and as inducing to greater love of Him, to reflect that this
abiding faithfulness of our Saviour in caring for our wants is not from
any worthiness of ours, or because of our merits, but only for His Name’s
sake, because He is Saviour. It was His love for us that prompted our
creation, His love that provoked His passion and redeemed us, His love
that made Him suffer for us, His love that teaches and shall guide us to
life everlasting, for His love endureth forever.
VII. YEA, THOUGH I WALK IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR
NO EVIL, FOR THOU ART WITH ME.
Besides the paths and dangerous walks in the shepherd country that would
lead the sheep to destruction and death, there are other paths all
encompassed with evils through which, nevertheless, they are at times
obliged to make their way. Safety from all harm there cannot be for the
shepherd’s flock. They must in their journeys encounter many perils, even
while pursuing the proper paths. There are deep and darksome valleys,
walled round on all sides by towering rocky hills, which at times the
shepherd cannot easily escape. And within these shadowy valleys and somber
ravines there dwell not infrequently wild and ferocious animals that will,
if aroused, attack and kill the tender sheep. The utmost care and caution
of the shepherd are called into service safely to conduct his dependent
flock through these places of deepest peril. But in spite of all his
watchfulness it sometimes happens that a wolf will get into the very midst
of the sheep. The timid, terrified animals become wild with fright, and
are scattered, running this way and that, until the shepherd calls and
bids them collect together. No sooner do they hear his voice, than they
all rush swiftly together in a solid mass, and either drive the enemy from
their midst or cripple and crush him to death.
Thus in times of greatest peril the shepherd protects his sheep, and
wrests them from the jaws of harm. The sheep know this, and they fear no
evils; they know that their master is with them. Yea, though they walk in
the shadow of perils and dwell in the midst of the valley of death, they
faint not, neither do they fear, for they know that the shepherd is near.
The case of the sheep in the valley of perils is not unlike our own in the
midst of the evils of the world; and the peace and safety which we enjoy
should be similar also to theirs. We are assured, first of all, by an
unflinching faith in God and our Redeemer that, if we trust our Master and
obey Him, we shall be led aright throughout our lives, even to the kingdom
of Heaven. We shall be led in the paths of justice and love, and crowned
at length with the crown of glory, if we but follow the voice of our
Shepherd-King, and avoid the walks of disaster and ruin. And to hear His
voice and to know it we have but to listen to the teachings of His Church,
which will hush to silence our troubled hearts, and direct our wayward
feet into the paths of heavenly peace.
But, like the shepherd’s flock, we have to avoid in our journey through
life, as perils to our safety and spiritual welfare, not only the false
shepherds and teachers and doctrines that surround us on all sides; but we
must also, to pass to our reward, actually encounter inevitable evils and
fight many necessary battles. Many of the paths of life through which we
must of necessity pass are hard and difficult, and full of deadly perils.
We must remember that sin has ruined the primeval beauty of our earthly
habitation and made our life here below a labor and a toil to the end.
We not only come into the world with sin on our souls, and are thereby
exiles from the city of God, but even when our sin is forgiven us the
remains of the malady continue as wounds in our nature as long as we live
on earth. The deadly guilt is wiped away, but the effects of the evil
remain. And it is chiefly these wounds of our nature, in ourselves and in
others, that render life’s journey, even when pursued in accordance with
the law of God, at times truly difficult and perilous. Fidelity to God and
to His law is not always a safeguard against the wickedness of the world
and of men; at times, in fact, it is just the contrary. Indeed, is it not
a truth that many, perhaps the majority, of those who endeavor sincerely
to please and to serve God must often suffer severely for their very
goodness and faithfulness? Are they not misunderstood, and criticised, and
censured? Are they not frequently accused of all manner of wrong, their
work disparaged, and their motives impugned? Are not persecution, and even
martyrdom, often their portion? Now all this is the result of sin. Those
who call into question the deeds and motives of God’s saints; those who
upbraid, and criticise, and impute evil to the sincere, faithful servants
of God, inflicting upon them dire evils, are but showing the effects of
sin in themselves, are but giving exercise to the evil that rules within
them. Their particular acts and words may be without present malice, they
may be inwardly persuaded that in reviling and condemning their neighbor
and doing him harm, they are rendering a service to God Himself; but in so
doing they but manifest the effects of earlier sin, personal, perhaps, and
original, which has darkened their understanding and made perverse their
moral vision, so that, having eyes, they see not, having ears, they hear
not, neither do they understand.(35) Following the corruption of their own
nature, bleeding from the wounds of original sin, they are prone to
blaspheme whatsoever they fail to comprehend;(36) and thus it is that they
often make life and the world for the servant of God a truly perilous
sojourn, a veritable valley of death.
This failure to be understood, this misjudgment of actions, motives,
deeds, are doubtless common evils from which, in a measure, we all must
suffer. But it is also true that the more elevated the life, the higher
its aims, the loftier the spiritual level on which it proceeds, the
greater the difficulty of its being understood and appreciated by the
majority, who always tread the common paths of mediocrity. A saint is
nearly always a disturbance to his immediate surroundings, he is
frequently an annoyance and an irritation to the little circle in which
his external life is cast, simply because he really lives and moves in a
sphere which the ordinary life cannot grasp. Like a brilliant, dazzling
light that obscures the lesser luminaries, and is therefore odious to
them, the man of God is frequently a disturber to the worldly peace of
common men, his life and works are a living reproach to their life and
works; and hence, without willing it, he becomes a menace to their society
and is not welcome in their company. Worldly, plotting minds cannot
understand the spiritual and the holy; sinful souls are out of harmony
with the virtuous; the children of darkness cannot find peace with the
children of light. And not only is there a lack of sympathy in the
worldly-minded for the men and women who are led of God, but there is
often positive hatred for them—a hatred which spends itself in actual,
persistent persecution. To be devout, to refrain from sinful words and
sinful deeds, to shun the vain and dangerous amusements of worldlings, to
attend much to prayer and recollection, to love the house and worship of
God, to be seen often approaching the sacraments and partaking of the
bread of life at the communion rail—even these holy acts are sufficient
frequently to draw down on the servants of God the curse and persecution
of a world which knows not what it does.
And that which happens individually to the faithful children of God takes
place on a larger scale with respect to God’s Church. The children of this
world, those who have set their heart on temporal things, or who, through
wilful error have deviated from the right path to things eternal, never
cease from pursuing and persecuting the Church of God. They hate the
Church and attack it unceasingly. Like the perverse and blinded Jews of
old who reviled the Saviour and His words and deeds, who pursued Him and
put Him to death, these ever-living and ever-active enemies of light and
truth never abate in their fury against the chosen friends of Christ, and
against His holy Church. But need we be surprised at this? Was it not
foretold? Did not our blessed Shepherd, speaking in the beginning to His
little flock, warn them that men would deliver them up in councils and
scourge them? Did He not say to them plainly, “And you shall be hated by
all men for my name’s sake; but he that shall persevere unto the end, he
shall be saved. And when they persecute you in this city, flee into
another.... The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above
his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the
servant as his lord. If they have called the good man of the house
Beelzebub, how much more them of his household.”(37)
It happens, therefore, that fidelity to God, and careful adherence to the
paths of justice and holiness, can frequently be the occasion of perils
and sufferings for us individually, as they also are the excuse for a
vaster persecution of the Church in general. All holy persons and holy
things are signs of contradiction. They are not of the world, they do not
fit in with it; and between them and the world there will be strife and
contention until the renovation comes.
But the enemies that lie along the ways of life, that beset and threaten
even the most righteous paths of our pilgrimage, are not all from
without—the most numerous and menacing are perhaps from within. “The
enemies of a man,” says the inspired writer, “are those of his own
household.”(38) That is to say, the most potent evils which we suffer, the
chiefest foes to our present and future welfare are from ourselves—our own
waywardness, our tendencies to evil, our wilfulness, our self-love and
self-seeking, our own sins. It is from these and like causes that we
suffer most. Hard and trying it surely is to bear persecutions and
contradictions from others; severe is the strain to nature when, in the
face of our noblest efforts, proceeding from noblest motives, we meet with
misunderstanding and even condemnation; but to the upright, religious
heart that is sincerely and truly seeking God amid the shadows and
pitfalls of life, the sorest of all trials and the fiercest of all enemies
are one’s own temptations and passions and inclinations to evil. Easier it
were to conquer the whole external world of foes, than to reign supreme
over the little world within. Of Alexander the Great it is said, that
while he actually subdued the whole known world of his time, he
nevertheless yielded in defeat before his own passions. He could overcome
his external enemies, but surrendered miserably in the battle with self.
This, then, is our greatest warfare, the struggle with ourselves; and this
our greatest victory, a triumph over self. “If each year,” says the
Imitation, “we could uproot but one evil inclination, how soon we should
be perfect men!”(39) But it is not for us to be free from enemies and
perils, both from without and from within, during our earthly sojourn.
They are a part of our lot here below, they are necessarily bound up with
the darkened regions through which the Shepherd must lead his flock; and
hence, entire safety there shall never be before the journey’s end, until
we say farewell to present woes, and hail “the happy fields, where joy
forever dwells.”
In our present state, therefore, it is important for us to realize our
dangers and to be prepared for conflict. There is no way of escape from
crosses, and perils, and dreadful battles for all those who wish to win
the crown of victory. They must follow the Shepherd as he leads the way,
and hence our Lord has said, “if any man will come after me, let him take
up his cross daily and follow me.”(40) Yes, it is the following of the
Shepherd, it is his leadership, his constant presence, that give comfort
to the sheep, and dispel the dread and fear of perils. And though we pass
through the valley and shadow of death, we need fear no evil, for He is
with us. At times, frequently perhaps, as we sail the sea of life, the
waves roll over and deluge us so completely that we are all but smothered.
The clouds gather, thick and black, and overcast the sky of our souls; the
sorrows of death surround us, and the pains of the pit encompass us;(41)
we are overwhelmed with sadness and plunged in darkness. We think of God,
we remember Him, but He seems afar off. The evil which weighs us down—the
pain of body, the agony of soul, the sadness and dejection of heart and
mind, “the madness that worketh in the brain,” muffle the voice and all
but still the trembling pulse, and we are not able so much as to lift our
drooping heads and tear-dimmed eyes to see the gentle Shepherd standing
faithfully at our side. It is our failure to discern and apprehend Him
that causes extreme agony. If at these times of utter desolation, when the
soul is swept by the winds of sorrow, we could only raise our eyes and
thoughts to Him, with faith and hope and child-like trust, the spell would
be broken; and we should see the clouds lift and part and float away on
the wind, only to let in God’s cheerful sun to raise the drooping spirit,
and warm and soothe the troubled soul.
But it is difficult, when oppressed by sorrow and affliction, to lift the
heart and mind to things above. Nature of itself tends downward, and
unless it has learned to discipline itself and to engage with the enemy in
sturdy battle, it is not yet prepared for life. For the world is a
battlefield and life a warfare, even from a natural point of view, and
only they can hope to win in life’s hard contest who have learned to brave
the battle, who have prepared themselves for conflict. But who is ready
for the struggle, and how shall we be able to encounter our foes? Left to
ourselves and to our own resources, we shall surely go down in defeat. The
opposing forces are too gigantic, too numerous. They throng from near and
from afar. They swarm from within and from without; from our own nature
and from others, from the world around, and from our own household; from
those at home, and from them that are abroad. Frequently during life we
are, of a certainty, encompassed round with perils; we hardly know where
to turn or what to do, we are breathless with fright; but even then, if we
have proper faith, we shall grow calm, like the shepherd’s flock in the
midst of devouring animals and beasts of prey, for our Saviour and
Shepherd is with us, and no evil can befall us. Even when we think Him
farthest, He is often nearest; when we think Him sleeping, His heart is
watching. He loves us, His weak and timid sheep; we are the objects of His
heart’s affection and ever active solicitude; He will not let perish, if
we trust Him, the price of His precious Blood.
And the training we are to receive, and the preparation we are to make, in
order worthily and victoriously to engage in the battle of life are
nothing, therefore, but lessons of love and trust in the constant goodness
and faithfulness of our divine Saviour. Unless we viciously drive Him away
by deliberate, grievous sin, He is really never absent from us, and least
of all when we need Him most. It is our fault, if we do not by faith
discern Him, if we do not feel His ever-gracious presence. We need to
discipline ourselves in acts and deeds of faith and love, and then we
shall realize that He is always near us, even in the darkness of the
shadow of death.
We must try to know our Shepherd, first of all; we must endeavor
intimately to understand Him. For to have faith in Him, to trust Him, to
believe in His power and goodness, in His overruling care for us and our
interests, presuppose a knowledge of Him, just as faith and confidence in
an earthly friend follow upon an intimate acquaintance with that friend.
But this close knowledge of our Master, so necessary to our present peace
and future happiness, will never be ours unless we make Him our confidant,
unless we accustom ourselves to live in His presence, to look to Him, to
speak to Him often, to listen to His gracious direction. And this intimate
relationship with our Saviour, this habitual communion with Him, will
enkindle in our souls the fire of love. Once we know Him, we will trust
Him, and having faith and confidence in Him, we will link our poor lives
to His divine life by the strong cords of heavenly charity. Fear and
uncertainty will then be impossible, even in the darkest hours.
It is love, above all, that directs our life—love, indeed, which is born
of knowledge. We do not, it is true, love anything before we have some
knowledge of it; this would be an impossibility; but once the soul has
caught the vision, it is love that drives the life and stimulates and
enriches the knowledge. The objects of our affections are the interpreters
of our life and actions. If we love the world, we are led by the world; if
we love God, it is God that leads and directs us. Where the treasure is,
there will the heart be also;(42) and where the heart is, thither will the
life make its way. But if God is the object of our love, we shall fear no
evil; for “God is charity,” says St. John, “and he that abideth in
charity, abideth in God, and God in him ... Fear is not in charity; but
perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain.”(43)
It is only the love of God, therefore, that will steady our lives, and
bear us up in the thick of tribulations. It is the confident assurance
that we, although so unworthy, are the objects of divine complacency that
awakens in our hearts a return of burning charity, and enables us to say,
with the Psalmist, when the day is darkest “The Lord is my light and
salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of
whom shall I be afraid?”(44) We are not to fear men, said our Lord, who,
when they have destroyed the body, can do no more;(45) neither shall we be
in dread of our Master, if armed with the gift of His love, “for fear hath
pain, but love casteth out fear.” Rather shall we, like the martyrs of
old, mindful of the gift of God, go bravely forth to the battle of life,
or to the slaughter, calmly, hopefully, cheerfully. While humbly, but
steadfastly trustful of the Shepherd that leads us, we shall not be
disturbed or troubled; the present shall be shorn of its terrors, the
future of its forebodings. This truly is the triumph of life, when love,
not fear, has come to rule us. This is the broader, larger life—the
forerunner of life eternal in which our days are passed in calm
serenity—in which we press on with undaunted tread, alike under frowning
clouds, or under a star-lit sky; alike with the joys of friendship around
us, or alone amidst the graves of the dead.
We must not infer from this that the love of God which is our strength,
the source of our courage, will blunt our feelings or harden our lives. It
does not seal up the fountain of tears, or make us insensible to the pains
and sorrows of life, which belong to the lot of all. In a certain sense it
is likely true that those suffer most in life who are most united to God;
for they feel most the coldness of the world and its desolation, its want
of love and sympathy, its degradation and its misery. Hence it would be a
mistake to think that the friends of God in this life are either exempted
from pain and sorrow, or made insensible to them, either in themselves or
in others. Of these and other evils they are truly more keenly aware than
worldly men, if for no other reason than because of the superior
refinement of their nature and the spiritual outlook of their vision. It
is sin, after all, that hardens while it weakens. Sin closes the heart to
love, it renders its victims cold, unsympathetic and selfish; whereas the
gifts of grace and holiness are tenderness, mercy, strength. But though
all have to suffer, both the holy and the unholy, the difference between
them is this, that the ungodly are borne down and overcome by their
sorrows and crosses, while the spiritual are always triumphing even in the
midst of apparent defeat. To the foolish they seem to be vanquished, yet
they conquer; often they seem on the verge of surrender, when they emerge
in victory; they seem to die, when behold they live!(46)
The spiritual man, then, does suffer; he suffers in the cause of God; he
suffers for others and for himself. More than this, it is doubtless true
that he feels his crosses more keenly, he grieves more profoundly, than do
the children of the world; but through it all he remembers his Saviour and
is comforted. He knows that the tribulations of the just are many, and
that from all these the Lord will soon deliver him,(47) and he shall not
be confounded forever.
VIII. THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME.
It is already plain to us that the sorrows and sufferings of the present
life are, without doubt, the result and consequence of sin. That we should
pass our mortal days so full of pain and tears, that our fellow-man, that
the beasts of the field and the elements, which we need and use as helpers
and servants, and most of all that our own nature, with its passions and
evil tendencies, should rise up against us and oppose us, was assuredly
not a part of the original plan. As a wise and all-powerful Designer and
Creator, God founded the world after a masterful fashion—devoid of evil,
free from defect, perfect according to the plans framed in Heaven. The
hills and mountains He founded and set on their bases; the streams and
rivers and valleys He formed, all rich and lovely, intended for the
comfort and happiness of man; the blue deep He constructed and beautified
with its millions of shining wonders; and in all these stupendous
creations, in all the diverse works of His mighty, omnipotent hands there
was in the beginning no trace of fault, of defect, of error or sin. The
upheaval came when man disobeyed and wrought the commencement of all our
woe. And hence it is to man’s first disobedience and the fruit of that
forbidden tree, that we owe all the evils from which our nature suffers
and to which our flesh is heir.