[_March 2._]
There is no interruption in the world, however futile and apparently
perverse, which we may not address ourselves to meet _with a spirit of
patience and condescension borrowed from our Master_; and to have made
a step in advance in conforming to the mind of Christ will be quite as
great a gain (probably a far greater) than if we had been engaged in
our pursuit. For, after all, we may be _too_ intent upon our business,
or rather intent in a wrong way. The radical fault of our nature, be it
remembered, is self-will; and we little suspect how largely self-will and
self-pleasing may be at the bottom of plans and pursuits, which still
have God’s glory and the furtherance of his service for their professed
end.
Reader, the path which we have indicated is the path not of sanctity
only, but of peace also. We shall never serve God with a quiet mind,
unless we more or less tread in this path. It is a miserable thing to be
the sport and prey of interruptions; it wastes the energies of the human
spirit, and excites fretfulness, and so leads us into temptation, as it
is written, “Fret not thyself, else thou shalt be moved to do evil.” But
suppose the mind to be well grounded in the truth that God’s foresight
and fore-arrangement embrace all which seems to us an interruption—that
in this interruption lies awaiting us a good work in which it is part of
his eternal counsel that we should walk, or a good frame of mind which
he wishes us to cultivate; then we are forearmed against surprises and
contradictions; we have formed an alchemy which converts each unforeseen
and untoward occurrence into gold; and the balm of peace distills
upon our heart, even though we be disappointed of the end which we had
proposed to ourselves. For which is better, safer, sweeter—to walk in the
works which God hath before ordained, or to walk in the way of our own
hearts and in the sight of our eyes?
Ah, reader! let us seek to grasp the true notion of Providence, for in
it there is peace and deep repose of soul. Life has often been compared
to a drama. Now, in a good drama there is one plot, variously evolved
by incidents of different kinds, which until the last act present
entanglement and confusion. Vice has its temporary triumphs, virtue its
temporary depressions. What of that? You know it will come right in the
end. You know there is an organizing mind which unfolds the story, and
that the poet will certainly bring the whole to a climax by the ultimate
indication of righteousness and the doing of poetical justice upon
malefactors. To this end every shifting of the scene, every movement of
the actors, every by-plot and underplot is made to contribute. Wheel
within wheel is working together toward this result. Well, life is God’s
great drama. It was thought out and composed in the Eternal Mind before
the mountains were brought forth, or even the earth and the world were
made. In time God made a theater for it, called the earth; and now the
great drama is being acted thereon. It is on a gigantic scale—this
drama. The scenes are shifting every hour. One set of characters drops
off the stage, and new ones come on to play much the same part as the
first, only in new dresses. There seem to be entanglements, perplexities,
interruptions, confusions, contradictions without end; but you may be
sure there is one ruling thought, one master design, to which all these
are subordinate. Every incident, every character, however apparently
adverse, contributes to work out that ruling thought. Think you that
the Divine Dramatist will leave anything out of the scope of his plot?
Nay, the circumference of that plot embraces within its vast sweep every
incident which time ever brought to birth.
Thou knowest that the mind which organized this drama is Wisdom. Thou
knowest more; thou knowest that it is Love. Then of its ending grandly,
wisely, nobly, lovingly, infinitely well for them who love God, there can
be no doubt. But remember you are an actor in it; not a puppet worked by
wires, but an actor. It is yours to study the plot as it unfolds itself,
to throw yourself into it intelligently, warmly, zealously. Be sure to
learn your part well, and to recite it manfully. Be not clamorous for
another or more dignified character than that which is allotted you—be it
your sole aim to conspire with the Author, and to subserve his grand and
wise conception.
Thus shall you cease from your own wisdom. Thus shall you find peace in
submitting yourself to the wisdom which is of God, and thus, finally,
shall he pronounce you a good and faithful servant, and summon you to
enter into the joy of your Lord.
[_March 9._]
Now here comes out another point of holy policy in the combat with
temptations. It is wise, especially when they are at their height, never
to look them full in the face. To consider their suggestions, to debate
with them, to fight it out with them inch by inch in a listed field,
is, generally speaking, a sure way to fail. Turn the mind to Christ
at the first assault, and keep it fixed there with pertinacity, until
this tyranny be overpast. Consider him, if thou wilt, after the picture
here presented to us. Think of him as one who walked amidst temptations
without ever being submerged by them, as of one who by his grace can
enable his followers to do the same. Think of him as calm, serene, firm,
majestic, amidst the most furious agitations and turbulences of nature,
and as one who can endue thy heart with a similar steadfastness. Think
of him as interceding for his Church on the Mount of Glory, as watching
them while they toil in rowing against the adverse influences which
beset them round about upon the sea of life, as descending on the wings
of love to their relief. Think of him as standing close by thee in thy
immediate neighborhood, with a hand outstretched for thy support as soon
as ever thou lookest toward him. Remember that _it is not you who are
to conquer, but he who is to conquer in you_; and accordingly, “even
as the eyes of servants wait upon the hand of their masters, and as
the eyes of the maiden upon the hand of her mistress, even so let your
eyes wait upon him, until he have mercy upon you.” No man ever fell in
this attitude of expectant faith; he falls because he allows himself
to look at the temptation, to be fascinated by its attractiveness, or
terrified by its strength. One of the greatest sermons in our language is
on the expulsive power of a new affection, and the principle laid down
in that sermon admits of application to the circumstances of which we
are speaking. There can be, of course, no temptation without a certain
correspondence of the inner man with the immediate occasion of the trial.
Now, do you desire to weaken this correspondence, to cut it off and make
it cease? Fill the mind and heart with another affection, and let it be
the affection for Christ crucified. Thus will the energies of the soul,
which will not suffice for two strong actions at the same time, be drawn
off into another quarter; and beside, the great enemy, seeing that his
assaults only provoke you to a continuous exercise of faith, will soon
lay down his arms, and you shall know experimentally the truth of those
words, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” There can be no doubt
that this counsel of looking only upon Christ in the hour of temptation
will be most needed (if our conscience and mind be spared us to the
end), in the critical hour when flesh and heart are failing, and when
Satan for the last time is permitted to assault our faith. We can well
imagine that in that hour doubts will be busily instilled of Christ’s
love and power, suggestions of our own unfaithfulness to him in times
past and questions as to whether he will now receive us. The soul will
then possibly be scared by terrors, as the disciples in the boat were
scared with the thoughts of a phantom, and will tremble in apprehension
of being thrust out from the frail bark of the body into the darkness,
uncertainty, insecurity of the new and untried element. If such should be
the experience of any one who reads these pages, let him take with him
this one counsel of safety, to look only to Christ, and to perish, if he
perishes, at his feet; let us refuse to look in any other quarter, let us
steadily turn away our eyes from the doubts, the painful recollection,
the alarming anticipations which the enemy is instilling. We are not
proposing to be saved on the ground of any righteousness in ourselves,
or in any other way than by free grace, as undone sinners; then let
these words be the motto of the tempest-tossed soul: “My soul hangeth
upon thee; thy right hand hath upholden me;” ay, and let it be the motto
_now_, in hours when lesser trials assault us. Let us make proof even now
of the invincibility of the shield of faith, that we may bring it forth
in that hour with greater confidence in its power to shield us. And the
hand of an infinite love shall uphold us in the last, as it has done in
previous ordeals, and the prayer shall be answered, which we have offered
so often over the grave of departed friends:
“Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; shut not thy merciful
ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O
holy and merciful Savior, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not,
at our last hour, for any pains of death to fall from thee.” “My flesh
and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever.” “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
[_March 16._]
Never lower your principles to the world’s standard. Never let sin,
however popular it may be, have any sanction or countenance from you,
even by a smile. The manly confession of Christ, when his cause is
unpopular, is made by himself the condition of his confessing us before
men. If people find out that we are earnestly religious, as they soon
will, if the light is shining, let us make them heartily welcome to
the intelligence, and allow them to talk and criticise as much as they
please. And then, again, in order that the lights may shine without
obstruction, in order that it may easily transpire what we are, we must
be simple, and study simplicity. This is by no means so easy as it at
first sight appears; for in this highly artificial and pretentious age
all society is overlaid with numerous affectations. Detest affectation,
as the contrary of truth, and as hypocrisy on a small scale; and allow
yourself freely to be seen by those around you in your true colors.
There is an affectation of indifference to all things, and of a lack of
general sensibility, which is becoming very prevalent in this age, and
which is the sworn foe to all simplicity of character. The persons who
labor under this moral disorder pretend to have lost their freshness of
interest in every thing; for them, as they would have it believed, there
is no surprise and no enthusiasm. Without assuming that they are really
the unimpressionable creatures which they would make themselves out to
be, we may warn them that the wilful dissembling of a generous emotion is
the way to suppress it. As Christians, we must eschew untruth in every
form; we must labor to seem just what we are, neither better nor worse.
To be true to God and to the thought of his presence all day long, and to
let self occupy as little as possible of our thoughts; to care much for
his approval, and comparatively little for the impression we are making
on others; to feed the inward light with oil, and then freely to allow it
to shine; this is the great secret of edification. May he indoctrinate us
into it, and dispose and enable us to illustrate it in our practice.
[_March 23._]
See now, tempted soul, whether this consideration, applied to your own
case, may not somewhat lighten thy burden. You are beset by distractions
in prayer and meditation. Well, distractions are no sin; nay, if
struggled against patiently and cheerfully, they shall be a jewel in
thy crown. Did you go through with the religious exercise as well as
you could, not willingly harboring the distraction or consenting to
it? In this case the prayer was quite as acceptable as if it had been
accompanied with those high-flown feelings of fervor and sensible
delight which God sometimes gives and sometimes, for our better
discipline and humiliation, withholds. Nay, may we not say, that it was
much more acceptable? Do not the Scriptures give us reason to think
that prayer, persevering amidst difficulties and humiliations, prayer
clinging close to Christ, despite his rebuffs, _is_ more acceptable
than the prayer which has its way smooth before it, and whose wings
are filled by the favoring gale? What else are we to learn from the
acceptance of Bartimæus’s petition, who cried so much the more when the
multitude rebuked him that he should hold his peace? What else from
the commendation and recompense of the Syro-Phœnician’s faith? Wouldst
thou know the avenue to the Savior’s heart, when thou art driven from
his footstool by manifold discouragements, by deadness, numbness,
insensibility—and he himself seems to cover himself with a cloud, so
that thy prayer may not pass through? Confess thyself a dog, and plead
for such crumbs as are the dog’s allowed and recognized portion. Call
to mind the many times when thou hast turned a deaf ear to Christ’s
expostulations with thee through thy conscience. Reflect that thou
hast deserved nothing but repulses, and to have thy drafts upon him
dishonored; and yet cling to his sacred feet, while thou sinkest low
before him, resolving not to let him go except he bless thee; and this
act of humility and perseverance shall make thy lame and halting prayer
far more acceptable to the Divine Majesty than if it sailed to heaven
with all the fluency of conscious inspiration, like Balaam’s prophecy of
old, which was prefaced, unhappy soul, by the assertion of his gifts.
[_March 30._]
The remedy, and under God’s grace the only remedy, whether in solitude
or in company, is to “watch”—to “guard,” as far as in us lies, “the
first springs of thought and will.” Let us pray and strive for the habit
of challenging our sentiments, and making them give up their passport;
eyeing them wistfully when they apply for admittance, and seeking to
unmask those which have a questionable appearance.…
It will be found that all the more grievous falls of the tempted soul
come from this—that the keeping of the heart has been neglected, that
the evil has not been nipped in the bud. We have allowed matters to
advance to a question of conduct—“shall I say this, or not say it?” “Do
this, or not do it?” Whereas the stand should be made higher up and the
ground disputed in the inner man. As if the mere restraint upon outward
conduct, without the homage of the heart to God’s law, could avail us
aught, or be anything else than an offensive hypocrisy in the eyes of
the Heart-searcher! As if Balaam’s refraining from the malediction
of the lips, while his heart was going after his covetousness,
could be acceptable to the Almighty! Balaam, being an inspired and
divinely-commissioned man, _dared_ not disobey; for he knew too well what
would be the result of such an abuse of his supernatural gifts. But we,
if, like Balaam, we have allowed to evil a free range over our hearts,
_are sure to disobey when it comes to a question of conduct_, not being
restrained by the fear of miraculous punishment, which alone held him
back. There is therefore no safety for us except in taking our stand
at the avenues of the will, and rejecting at once every questionable
impulse. And this, it is obvious, can not be done without watchfulness
and self-recollection—without a continual bearing in mind where, and
what we are, and that we have a treasure in our keeping, of which our
foes seek to rob us. Endeavor to make your heart a little sanctuary, in
which you may continually realize the presence of God, and from which
unhallowed thoughts, and even vain thoughts must carefully be excluded.