in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest sources of
restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes chronic, is a
morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is self-love inflamed to
the acute point. . . The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place;
to let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused
part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old
nature is becoming numb from want of use. Pax Vobiscum, pp. 45, 46.
November 27th. Christ's yoke is simply His secret for the alleviation of
human life, His prescription for the best and happiest method of living.
Men harness themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy
and unnatural ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough,
ill-fitted collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past
enduring, by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere
continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature
is quick and sore. Pax Vobiscum, p. 45.
November 28th. No one can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of
the ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be
grown. Pax Vobiscum, p. 50.
November 29th Christ is the source of Joy to men in the sense in which He
is the source of Rest. His people share His life, and therefore share its
consequences, and one of these is Joy. His method of living is one that
in the nature of things produces Joy. When He spoke of His Joy remaining
with us He meant in part that the causes which produced it should
continue to act. His followers, that is to say, by repeating His life
would experience its accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would
remain with them. Pax Vobiscum, p. 54.
November 30th. Think of it, the past is not only focussed there, in a
man's soul, it IS there. How could it be reflected from there if it were
not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, felt, believed of the
surrounding world are now within him, have become part of him, in part
are him--he has been changed into their image. He may deny it, he may
resent it, but they are there. They do not adhere to him, they are
transfused through him. He cannot alter or rub them out. They are not in
his memory, they are in HIM. His soul is as they have filled it, made it,
left it. The Changed Life, p. 27.
December 1st. Temper is significant, not in what it is alone but in what
it reveals. . . . It is a test for love, a symptom, a revelation of an
unloving nature at bottom. It is the intermittent fever which bespeaks
unintermittent disease within; the occasional bubble escaping to the
surface which betrays some rottenness underneath; a sample of the most
hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily when off one's guard;
IN A WORD, the lightning form of a hundred hideous and un-Christian sins.
The Greatest Thing in the World, p. 34.
December 2d. You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the
moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the
moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans
the past, above and beyond all the transitory pleasures of life there
leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do
unnoticed kindnesses to those round about you, things too trifling to
speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. The
Greatest Thing in the World, p. 60.
December 3d. If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet
another on the street without making some mark upon him. We say we
exchange words when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when
intercourse is very close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange
that recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's
nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to the
first. The Changed Life, p. 30.
December 4th. In the natural world we absorb heat, breathe air, draw on
Environment all but automatically for meat and drink, for the nourishment
of the senses, for mental stimulus, for all that, penetrating us from
without, can prolong, enrich, and elevate life. But in the spiritual
world we have all this to learn. We are new creatures, and even the bare
living has to be acquired. Natural Law, p. 267.
December 5th. The great point in learning to live the spiritual life is
to live naturally. As closely as possible we must follow the broad, clear
lines of the natural life. And there are three things especially which it
is necessary for us to keep continually in view. The first is that the
organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to
life; the second is that the other half is contained in the Environment;
the third, that the condition of receptivity is simple union between the
organism and the Environment. Natural Law, p. 268.
December 6th. To say that the organism contains within itself only
one-half of what is essential to life, is to repeat the evangelical
confession, so worn and yet so true to universal experience, of the utter
helplessness of man. Natural Law, p. 268.
December 7th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a
fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss at every turn of his
life an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room
in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times
He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier
symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his
helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life,
the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other
energy, spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at
last the true root of all human frailty, emptiness, nothingness, sin.
This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerless is the normal state
not only of this but of every organism--of every organism apart from its
Environment. Natural Law, p. 268.
December 8th. To seize continuously the opportunity of more and more
perfect adjustment to better and higher conditions, to balance some
inward evil with some purer influence acting from without, in a word to
make our Environment at the same time that it is making us--these are the
secrets of a well-ordered and successful life. Natural Law, p. 256.
December 9th. In the spiritual world the subtle influences which form and
transform the soul are Heredity and Environment. And here especially,
where all is invisible, where much that we feel to be real is yet so
ill-defined, it becomes of vital practical moment to clarify the
atmosphere as far as possible with conceptions borrowed from the natural
life. Natural Law, p. 256.
December 10th. These lower correspondences are in their nature unfitted
for an Eternal Life. Even if they were perfect in their relation to their
Environment, they would still not be Eternal. However opposed,
apparently, to the scientific definition of Eternal Life, it is yet true
that perfect correspondence with Environment is not Eternal Life. . . .
An Eternal Life demands an Eternal Environment. Natural Law, p. 245.
December 11th. On what does the Christian argument for Immortality really
rest? It stands upon the pedestal on which the theologian rests the whole
of historical Christianity--the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Natural
Law, p. 234.
December 12th. The soul which has no correspondence with the spiritual
environment is spiritually dead. It may be that it never possessed . . .
the spiritual ear, or a heart which throbbed in response to the love of
God. If so, having never lived, it cannot be said to have died. But not
to have these correspondences is to be in the state of Death. To the
spiritual world, to the Divine Environment, it is dead--as a stone which
has never lived is dead to the environment of the organic world. Natural
Law, p. 177.
December 13th. The humanity of what is called "sudden conversion" has
never been insisted on as it deserves. . . . While growth is a slow and
gradual process, the change from Death to Life, alike in the natural and
spiritual spheres, is the work of the moment. Whatever the conscious hour
of the second birth may be--in the case of an adult it is probably
defined by the first real victory over sin--it is certain that on
biological principles the real turning-point is literally a moment.
Natural Law, p. 184.
December 14th. Christ says we must hate life. Now, this does not apply to
all life. It is "life in this world" that is to be hated. For life in
this world implies conformity to this world. It may not mean pursuing
worldly pleasures, or mixing with worldly sets; but a subtler thing than
that--a silent deference to worldly opinion; an almost unconscious
lowering of religious tone to the level of the worldly-religious world
around; a subdued resistance to the soul's delicate promptings to greater
consecration, out of deference to "breadth" or fear of ridicule. These,
and such things, are what Christ tells us we must hate. For these things
are of the very essence of worldliness. "If any man love the world," even
in this sense, "the love of the Father is not in him." Natural Law, p.
197.
December 15th. To correspond with the God of Science, the Eternal
Unknowable, would be everlasting existence; to correspond with "the true
God and Jesus Christ," is Eternal Life. The quality of the Eternal Life
alone makes the heaven; mere everlastingness might be no boon. Even the
brief span of the temporal life is too long for those who spend its years
in sorrow. Natural Law, p. 220.
December 16th. The relation between the spiritual man and his Environment
is, in theological language, a filial relation. With the new Spirit, the
filial correspondence, he knows the Father--and this is Life Eternal.
This is not only the real relation, but the only possible relation:
"Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him." And this on purely natural grounds. Natural
Law, p. 229.
December 17th. Communion with God--can it be demonstrated in terms of
Science that this is a correspondence which will never break? We do not
appeal to Science for such a testimony. We have asked for its conception
of an Eternal Life; and we have received for answer that Eternal Life
would consist in a correspondence which should never cease, with an
Environment which should never pass away. And yet what would Science
demand of a perfect correspondence that is not met by this, THE KNOWING
OF GOD? There is no other correspondence which could satisfy one at least
of the conditions. Not one could be named which would not bear on the
face of it the mark and pledge of its mortality. But this, to know God,
stands alone. Natural Law, p. 220.
December 18th. The misgiving which will creep sometimes over the
brightest faith has already received its expression and its rebuke: "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
Shall these "changes in the physical state of the environment" which
threaten death to the natural man, destroy the spiritual? Shall death, or
life, or angels, or principalities, or powers, arrest or tamper with his
eternal correspondences? "Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. viii, 35-39. Natural Law, p. 230.
December 19th. "We find that man, or the spiritual man, is equipped with
two sets of correspondences." One set possesses the quality of
everlastingness, the other is temporal. But unless these are separated by
some means the temporal will continue to impair and hinder the eternal.
The final preparation, therefore, for the inheriting of Eternal Life must
consist in the abandonment of the non-eternal elements. These must be
unloosed and dissociated from the higher elements. And this is effected
by a closing catastrophe--Death. Natural Law, p. 248.
December 20th. Heredity and Environment are the master-influences of the
organic world. These have made all of us what we are. These forces are
still ceaselessly playing upon all our lives. And he who truly
understands these influences; he who has decided how much to allow to
each; he who can regulate new forces as they arise, or adjust them to the
old, so directing them as at one moment to make them cooperate, at
another to counter act one another, understands the rationale of personal
development. Natural Law, p. 255.
December 21st. It is the Law of Influence that WE BECOME LIKE THOSE WHOM
WE HABITUALLY ADMIRE. Through all the range of literature, of history,
and biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There
was a savour of David about Jonathan and a savour of Jonathan about
David. Jean Valjean, in the masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop
Bienvenu risen from the dead. Metempsychosis is a fact. The Changed Life,
p. 31.
December 22d. Can we shut our eyes to the fact that the religious
opinions of mankind are in a state of flux? And when we regard the
uncertainty of current beliefs, the war of creeds, the havoc of
inevitable as well as of idle doubt, the reluctant abandonment of early
faith by those who would cherish it longer if they could, is it not plain
that the one thing thinking men are waiting for is the introduction of
Law among the Phenomena of the Spiritual World? When that comes we shall
offer to such men a truly scientific theology. And the Reign of Law will
transform the whole Spiritual World as it has already transformed the
Natural World. Natural Law, Preface, p. ix.
December 23d. We have Truth in Nature as it came from God. And it has to
be read with the same unbiassed mind, the same open eye, the same faith,
and the same reverence as all other Revelation. All that is found there,
whatever its place in Theology, whatever its orthodoxy or heterodoxy,
whatever its narrowness or its breadth, we are bound to accept as
Doctrine from which on the lines of Science there is no escape. Natural
Law, Preface, p. xi.
December 24th. In Nature generally, we come upon new Laws as we pass from
lower to higher kingdoms, the old still remaining in force, the newer
Laws which one would expect to meet in the Spiritual World would so
transcend and overwhelm the older as to make the analogy or identity,
even if traced, of no practical use. The new Laws would represent
operations and energies so different, and so much more elevated, that
they would afford the true keys to the Spiritual World. Natural Law, p.
47.
December 25th. The visible is the ladder up to the invisible; the
temporal is but the scaffolding of the eternal. And when the last
immaterial souls have climbed through this material to God, the
scaffolding shall be taken down, and the earth dissolved with fervent
heat--not because it was base, but because its work is done. Natural Law,
p. 57.
December 26th. The natural man belongs essentially to this present order
of things. He is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal
Life. But it is Life of so poor a quality that it is not Life at all. He
that hath not the Son hath not Life; but he that hath the Son hath Life--
a new and distinct and supernatural endowment. He is not of this world.
He is of the timeless state, of Eternity. IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT HE
SHALL BE. Natural Law, p. 82.
December 27th. The gradualness of growth is a characteristic which
strikes the simplest observer. Long before the word Evolution was coined
Christ applied it in this very connection--"First the blade, then the
ear, then the full corn in the ear." It is well known also to those who
study the parables of Nature that there is an ascending scale of slowness
as we rise in the scale of Life. Growth is most gradual in the highest
forms. Man attains his maturity after a score of years; the monad
completes its humble cycle in a day. What wonder if development be tardy
in the Creature of Eternity? A Christian's sun has sometimes set, and a
critical world has seen as yet no corn in the ear. As yet? "As yet," in
this long Life, has not begun. Grant him the years proportionate to his
place in the scale of Life. "The time of harvest is NOT YET." Natural
Law, p. 92.
December 28th. Salvation is a definite process. If a man refuse to submit
himself to that process, clearly he cannot have the benefits of it. "As
many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God." He
does not avail himself of this power. It may be mere carelessness or
apathy. Nevertheless the neglect is fatal. He cannot escape because he
will not. Natural Law, p. 109.
December 29th. The end of Salvation is perfection, the Christ-like mind,
character, and life. Morality is on the way to this perfection; it may go
a considerable distance toward it, but it can never reach it. Only Life
can do that. . . . Morality can never reach perfection; Life MUST. For
the Life must develop out according to its type; and being a germ of the
Christ-life, it must unfold into A CHRIST. Natural Law, p. 138.
December 30th. Perfect life is not merely the possessing of perfect
functions, but of perfect functions perfectly adjusted to each other, and
all conspiring to a single result, the perfect working of the whole
organism. It is not said that the character will develop in all its
fulness in this life. That were a time too short for an Evolution so
magnificent. In this world only the cornless ear is seen: sometimes only
the small yet still prophetic blade. Natural Law, p. 129.
December 31st. The immortal soul must give itself to something that is
immortal. And the only immortal things are these: "Now abideth faith,
hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." Some think the time may
come when two of these three things will also pass away--faith into
sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. We know but little now
about the conditions of the life that is to come. But what is certain is
that Love must last. God, the Eternal God, is Love. Covet therefore that
everlasting gift. The Greatest Thing in the World, pp. 54, 55.
Henry Drummond's Works.
The Programme of Christianity. A New Address by Henry Drummond, to be
issued uniform with the previous booklets. Price, 35 cents.
The Greatest Thing in the World. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents.
Illustrated Edition, cloth, price, $1.00.
Pax Vobiscum. The Second of the Series of which "The Greatest Thing in
the World" is the First. Leatherette, gilt top. Price, 35 cents;
Illustrated Edition, cloth, $1.00.
The Changed Life. An Address by Henry Drummond. The Third of the Series.
Gilt top, leatherette. Price, 35 cents.
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, By Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S.
Cloth, red top, title in gold, 458 pp. Price, 75 cents.
"First:" A Talk with Boys. An Address delivered at Glasgow to the Boys'
Brigade. Paper cover, 10 cents; $1.00 per dozen; leatherette, silver
edges, 35 cents.
Baxter's Second Innings. A Book for Boys. Ready, 60 cents.
Author's Only Editions. For sale by all booksellers, or sent by mail on
receipt of price.