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_WITH GOD IN THE WORLD_
* * * * *
BY THE RT. REV. CHARLES H. BRENT, D.D.
ADVENTURE FOR GOD. _Crown 8vo._
THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE CROSS. _Small 12mo._
LEADERSHIP. _Crown 8vo._
LIBERTY AND OTHER SERMONS. _Crown 8vo._
THE MIND OF CHRIST JESUS ON THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD.
_Small 8vo._
PRESENCE. _Small 12mo._
THE SPLENDOR OF THE HUMAN BODY. _Small 12mo._
WITH GOD IN THE WORLD. _Small 12mo._
THE REVELATION OF DISCOVERY. _Crown 8vo._
PRISONERS OF HOPE. _Crown 8vo._
THE INSPIRATION OF RESPONSIBILITY, AND OTHER PAPERS. _Crown
8vo._
A MASTER BUILDER: BEING THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF BISHOP
SATTERLEE. _8vo._
THE MOUNT OF VISION. _Crown 8vo._
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
* * * * *
WITH GOD IN THE WORLD
A Series of Papers
BY
CHARLES H. BRENT, D.D.
_BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK_
NEW IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1919
_Copyright, 1899, by Longmans, Green, & Co._
FIRST EDITION, AUGUST, 1899
REPRINTED JANUARY, 1900, JANUARY, 1902
OCTOBER, 1905, FEBRUARY, 1908
AUGUST, 1910, FEBRUARY, 1912
OCTOBER, 1912, NOVEMBER, 1912
JANUARY, 1914
FEBRUARY, 1916
JANUARY, 1919
TO MY FRIENDS
JOHN W. WOOD, SILAS MCBEE
AND
JAMES L. HOUGHTELING
Preface
_Charles Darwin says somewhere that "the only object in writing a book
is a proof of earnestness." Whether it is the only object, may be a
question; it is certainly one object. And the poorest book that ever
went to press, merits respect, provided that its writer is sincere and
speaks from conviction. It is this and the sense that "thought is not
our own until we impart it" to others, that has encouraged me to write
these pages--originally a series of papers prepared for the_ Saint
Andrew's Cross, _the organ of a Society for which I am glad to profess
publicly a deep admiration and affection. Often, more frequently far
than is noted, I have borrowed the thought and language of others to
express my own mind. I send out this little volume with the hope that,
before it meets with the fate of the ephemeral literature to which it
belongs, it may help a few here and there to take up life's journey with
steadier steps and cheerier mien._
_C. H. B._
Contents
_CHAPTERS_
I. THE UNIVERSAL ART _Page_ 1
II. FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD--LOOKING 9
III. FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD--SPEAKING 20
IV. FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD--THE RESPONSE 29
V. THE TESTING OF FRIENDSHIP 40
VI. KNITTING BROKEN FRIENDSHIP 52
VII. FRIENDSHIP IN GOD 61
VIII. FRIENDSHIP IN GOD--CONTINUED 71
IX. THE CHURCH IN PRAYER 84
X. THE GREAT ACT OF WORSHIP 97
XI. WITNESSES UNTO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH 111
XII. THE INSPIRATION OF RESPONSIBILITY 123
APPENDIX--WHERE GOD DWELLS 135
Chapter I
_The Universal Art_
It is productive of much mischief to try to make people believe that the
life of prayer is easy. In reality there is nothing quite so difficult
as strong prayer, nothing so worthy of the attention and the exercise of
all the fine parts of a great manhood. On the other hand there is no man
who is not equal to the task. So splendid has this human nature of ours
become through the Incarnation that it can bear any strain and meet any
demand that God sees fit to put upon it. Some duties are individual and
special, and there is exemption from them for the many, but there is
never any absolution from a duty for which a man has a capacity. There
is one universal society, the Church, for which all are eligible and
with which all are bound to unite; there is one universal book, the
Bible, which all can understand and which it is the duty of all to read;
there is one universal art, prayer, in which all may become well skilled
and to the acquirement of which all must bend their energies.
Active or dormant, the instinct of prayer abides, a faithful tenant, in
every soul. The peasants who went to the Incarnate One and said "Lord,
teach us to pray," were representative of a whole race, a race which
feels stirring within its breast a capacity for prayer, but whose power
to pray falls far short of the desire. The instinct to pray may be
undeveloped, or paralyzed by violence, or it may lie bed-ridden in the
soul through long neglect; but even so, no benumbed faculty is more
readily roused to life and nerved to action than that of prayer. The
faculty is there; no one is without it. Whether it expands, and how, is
only a question of the will of the person concerned.
It is good to be quite honest and frank. Is it not so that the real
thing that makes men dumb towards God is, in the first instance, at any
rate, not intellectual doubt about the efficacy of prayer but the
difficulty of it all--the rebellion of the flesh, the strain upon the
attention, the claim upon the time? Are not the common stumbling-blocks
in the way of prayer incidental rather than essential? Do men give up
prayer because they are conscientiously convinced that they would do
violence to their noble nature if they were to persist in its exercise?
Nothing can release a man from the duty of praying but the profound
conviction that it would be a sin for him to continue to pray. And it
might be safely added that any one thus momentarily caught in the toils
of pure reason, any one endowed with such a delicate conscience as would
lead to this, must eventually turn again with joy to the neglected task.
Even the great agnostic scientist, Tyndall, who, of course, had a very
limited view of what prayer was capable of accomplishing, and was in a
position to perceive only one dim ray of its beauty--its subjective
refining influence upon the petitioner--even such an one declares that
"prayer in its purer forms hints at disciplines which few of us can
neglect without moral loss."[1]
How to perfect the talent of prayer--that is the question. Bent upon
this errand many wind themselves in the folds of complicated rules or
bathe themselves in the vapour of fascinating theories, all to no
purpose. Or, as in the case of most things worth coveting, they cast
around for some easy way of attainment, only to experience that where
they "looked for crowns to fall," they "find the tug's to come,--that's
all." Simplicity and courage are two virtues indispensable for those who
covet to pray well. Especially must they be ready to embrace difficulty
and court pain--and that through the long stretch of a life-time.
_Let no man think that sudden in a minute
All is accomplished and the work is done;--
Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it
Scarce were it ended in thy setting sun._
Let it be clearly understood at the outset, then, that though the art of
prayer is a universal art it is the most difficult of all. But even so
this is not an excuse for discouragement or a justification of spiritual
indolence, for a man's best desires are always the index and measure of
his possibilities; and the most difficult duty that a man is capable of
doing is the duty that above all he should do.
A moment's reflection must convince us that man cannot teach man to
pray, because of what prayer is. Prayer is man's side of converse with
God; it is speech Godward. How passing absurd it would be for a third
person to presume to instruct either one of two companions how to hold
converse with his friend! Were he to venture the impertinence he would
develop in his pupil the curse of self-consciousness--that is all. We
can learn to converse with men only by conversing; we can learn to pray
to God only by praying. Prayer is a universal art, but there is only one
Teacher for all, and He never teaches two persons in exactly the same
way. God's friendships are as diverse as the souls with whom He
interchanges confidences. These confidences must come from Himself; none
else can impart them. There are certain great truths about prayer which
may be formulated to good purpose--fundamental laws governing all
fellowship with God, laws to which all in common must give heed; but
beyond this one may not venture. In the matter of prayer as in all else
God reserves to Himself the exclusive right of imparting His most
intimate secrets directly to each separate soul, having a separate
confidence for each according to its capacity, temperament, and all
those qualities which distinguish every man from every other man.
Though we may have learned the fundamental principles of prayer from
devout friends and teachers, whatever we really know of prayer we have
learned by praying. Even the mother, at whose knee the earliest phrases
of prayer were lisped out, at the best only led us gently into the
presence of God. It is not too much to say that the Church herself
cannot do more than put the soul very near God and leave it there,
trusting that something will come of it. The rest must proceed in direct
course from the lips of the Most High Himself. So delicate and subtle is
the correspondence between the soul and God, so "intensely personal" a
thing is prayer[2] that we are often seriously hindered rather than
helped by the blundering but well-intended efforts of those who would
guide us to better devotion. Even to put a manual of private prayers
into the hands of some persons who have not been accustomed to reach God
through a book might be sufficient to mar the spontaneity of their
approach to Him and check the intimate relations with Him which have
hitherto always obtained. Because it suits one person's temperament to
call in the aid of a manual it by no means follows that every one else
should be presented with a copy of the book. Indeed happy are those
souls who have always been able to speak with a reverent yet free
familiarity with God, having nothing to aid save the vision of His face;
and the final aim of every good manual is to emancipate the soul into
the joyousness of a spontaneity which is wholly devoid of blighting
self-consciousness.
It ought to be further added that every one who regularly uses set forms
of prayer should habitually incorporate into his devotions at least some
words of his own which, however poor and few, yet are fresh and new from
his heart. Of course what has been said about forms of prayer applies
exclusively to private devotions. When the great corporate life of the
Church speaks in worship it must be with one clear voice unmixed with
the idiosyncrasies of the individual and summing up the aspirations of
the best. But of this later.
The world just now is sadly in need of better service, but before this
can be rendered there must be better prayer. A low standard of prayer
means a low standard of character and a low standard of service. Those
alone labour effectively among men who impetuously fling themselves
upward towards God. In view of this it is a comfort to feel that no
earnest man, whatever be the stage of his spiritual development, can be
satisfied with his present attainments in his life of prayer.
Fortunately for us, here as well as in other departments of life the
ideal is always pressing itself upon our notice and making the actual
blush with shame for what it is. And it is just because this is so that
there is hope of better things. The ideal beckons as well as condemns.
What if long steeps of toil, strewn with the stones of difficulty, lie
in between! God's home is far up on the hills, and nowhere is He so
easily found as in a difficulty. As has been said, prayer is quite the
most difficult task a man can undertake; but it has this gracious
compensation that in no other duty does God lend such direct,
face-to-face help. Man may speak wise words about prayer; the Church may
bid to prayer; but God alone can unfold to souls the delicate secrets of
prayer. The best help is for the hardest duty--the help that comes
straight from the Lord.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _On Prayer as a form of Physical Energy._
[2] _Maturin._