before, supplies us with some suggestions. One would almost think, for
some reasons, that he had been one of St. James's immediate disciples,
for he is fond of using that same word double-minded (more exactly
double-souled), speaks of visiting the orphans and widows, etc. Thus
we find in the ninth chapter of the book of Commands as follows (the
book being of a date immediately subsequent to the apostles): "He said
unto me, put away from thee all double-mindedness, and have no more
division of heart concerning petitions from God, saying in thyself, How
shall I be able to ask and receive anything from the Lord, having
sinned so greatly against Him? Reason not on this wise, but turn to
the Lord with all thy heart, and ask from Him without hesitation, and
thou shalt know His large-heartedness, that He will certainly never
leave thee, but will fulfil thy soul's request. God is not, as men
are, mindful of wrongs done to Him, but forgetful of them, and He hath
compassion upon His workmanship. Do thou, therefore, cleanse thy heart
from all the vanities of this age, and from things spoken of before,
and ask from the Lord and thou shalt receive all things; and of all thy
petitions thou shalt not fail of one, if thou ask of the Lord with an
unhesitating heart. But if thou doubtest in thy heart, thou shalt
receive none of thy petitions. For they that are doubtful towards God,
are the double-minded men, and they shall obtain none at all of their
petitions. But they that are perfectly sound in the faith ask for all
things in reliance upon the Lord, and receive them, because they ask
without hesitation and with no dividedness of heart. For every
double-minded man, unless he repent, will scarcely be saved. Cleanse,
therefore, thy heart from double-mindedness, and put on faith, for she
is mighty, and believe in God, that thou shalt receive all thy requests
that thou dost make. And if ever when thou hast made request thou be
somewhat longer in receiving thy petition from the Lord, be not of a
double-mind, that thou didst not swiftly receive thy soul's request,
for certainly it is on account of some temptation or some sin that thou
art longer in receiving thy petition. Therefore, do not cease making
thy request, and thou shalt receive it, but if thou faintest and art of
doubtful mind in thy petition, blame thyself and not Him who gives to
thee." It amounts to this, that to have power in prayer is only
possible as long as and in proportion as we walk with God.
Looking at it in another light, observe that real prayer is connected
in a most intimate manner with the influences of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps this is what is meant by the word rendered by us "energised,"
but "effectual and fervent" in the English Version. Certainly in
almost every case where the word occurs, it has reference to the
operation of God or the devil. And if this be so, the prayer must be a
possessed prayer, and the praying man a possessed person, and so again
we are brought face to face with the foundations of mighty prayer lying
in a holy life. And what else is taught by the Apostle when he says,
"The Spirit maketh intercession _in the Saints_ according to the will
of God"?
X
THE SENTINEL OF THE HEART
"The peace of God, which exceeds all understanding, shall guard your
hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus."--Phil. iv. 7.
One of the best tests of the value of a religion, and of the degree of
the truth enshrined therein, is found in the nature and permanence of
the peace which it imparts. For it is a fact that all religions, or
almost all, and especially those which have taken a wide grasp of the
hearts and minds of men, profess to bring peace to the worshipper.
The Roman Church, with its history unparalleled alike for saintliness
or sin, with its offers to resolve all doubts and to forgive all
iniquities, affords a haven and anchorage for those whose bark has been
torn by the stormy winds of private judgment. It is not one or two who
have been brought within her pale in search of peace; and, indeed, the
bosom of Mother Church would be an attractive resting-place, if it did
not strike us on the other hand as being too much like the effort of
one baby to carry another of its own size.
What is true of the Roman Church is true of the religion which has
prevailed even more widely amongst the human race; if we ask the
Buddhist teachers what is offered to the inquiring soul in their sacred
books, or what is revealed as possible in the experience of those men
amongst them who have made the greatest progress in mind-and-spirit
lore, they would talk to you of Nirvana, or, as I think it was
understood by them at the first, the extinction of the individual, even
as a candle-flame is blown out. And however perverted their belief may
have become, they seem in early days to have contemplated a real
destruction of self,--the flame of self-love and self-life being so put
out that it should never more be a flame, and should not long be a
spark. For instance, their writings tell us such things as follow:--
"To him who has finished the path and passed beyond sorrow, who has
freed himself on every side, and thrown away all fetters, there is no
more fever of grief." "Such an one remains like the broad earth
unvexed; like the pillar of the city gate, unmoved; like a pellucid
lake, unruffled."
"Tranquil is the mind, tranquil the words and the deeds, of him who is
thus set at rest and made free by wisdom." "The heart, scrupulously
avoiding all idle dissipation, diligently applying itself to the holy
law of Buddha, letting go all lust, and consequent disappointment,
fixed and unchangeable, enters on Nirvana."
And so in many other features we may trace the doctrine of inward peace
as taught in the Buddhist religion. A similar feature is to be traced
in the Mohammedan faith, if we are right that Islam means surrender to
the will of God, and the Mussulman a surrendered person; and certainly
there have been those in the great religion of the East who held
surrender in a higher sense than that of the fatalism which we
generally attach to the words.
Now, when we speak of different religions as in the foregoing, it is
not that we want to cultivate the science of comparative religious
anatomy; all we want to say is this, that just as a very rough
observation convinces us that corresponding organs in different
creatures imply corresponding uses and similar needs, so we discern
various methods of bringing peace to the soul of man in those religions
which have to the greatest extent prevailed in the world.
We are right to read these features carefully, for they are the
watermarks of the absolute religion (which we believe the religion of
Jesus to be), which is to gather in the men of every tribe and kindred
and nation, and to unite all the children of God who are scattered
abroad.
We are too much accustomed to look on these foreign religionists merely
in the light of compassion, as people for whom we must send the
missionary, make the regular collection and offer the periodic prayer;
and we make maps of the world in which we paint in all the religions
which differ from our own in black, or, if not in black, in other
colours only for the sake of distinction. But, if we were wise, we
should see that, where we paint black, it should be black with streaks
of light; and we should learn, too, to see that our own faith would
need, if accurately represented, to be a white colour checked and
streaked with spots of the intensest black. For not all that is called
Christianity is of Christ.
We say, then, that one of the characteristics of the absolute religion
is that it offers to the soul a real and permanent peace. Here is a
test for us: a real peace; it must not be based on deceptive methods: a
permanent peace, which neither things present can disturb, nor life nor
death dispel. And the Lord Jesus, who has spoken of the heart of man
as never man spake, made this one of the keystones of His teaching, as
it was the cornerstone of His living.
"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will rest
you."
"These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace."
And thus we hear our blessed Lord whispering to the world of to-day, a
tired world from the first, but never so tired as now; through these
lips comes God's answer to the cry of five hundred millions of
Buddhists, of the millions of Islam, of the Romanist, the Mystic, the
Quaker--to all, in one breath, the message comes; yes, to me, even to
me Thou speakest when the word is of that hidden lasting peace which
Thou, Lord Jesus, canst bestow. And if it was a marvel that at
Pentecost every man should hear in his own language the wonderful works
of God, much more is it a marvel to speak to all hearts than to speak
with all tongues.
And what is more than speech, even that which goes to the heart, is the
action by which Thou, Lord, hast proved Thy speech. Thy life has given
Thee the right to speak of what Thou givest as _Thy_ peace. So quiet
wast Thou that, but for the wrong-doers that crossed Thy path, Thou
wouldst have seemed to be passionless; yea, some have even spoken of
Thee as the "cold Galilean," because of the marvellous rest of Thy soul
in Thy Father's arms.
Not only is it a test of the truth of a religion whether it imparts a
real and permanent peace, but it is also a test of our attainment in
the true religion, when we find it, for us to examine the depth and
character of our peace.
We determine the religion of Jesus to be the Absolute Religion, because
it imparts the highest peace in the manner most suited to the soul of
man, and most consistent with the character of God.
We verify our own position in the Life by the simple test of the
experience of Peace which we enjoy.
It is easy to be tranquil under certain circumstances; and there are
times when most of us perceive the connection between quiet and
holiness. But then circumstances change, and what becomes of the
peace? Drake and his men cross the isthmus of Panama, and from a peak
they see below them the smiling ocean on the farther side; so fair and
still it looked that it received the name of the Pacific Ocean; but
then there were two things to be noticed: first, it was a fine day;
next, they probably thought the sea the smoother because of the height
from which they surveyed it. And it is easy to talk of peace on fine
days, and when we are high up above trouble; but our test must be when
we are in the midst of the waters, when the waves thereof roar and are
troubled. Is it Pacific Ocean then; or do we find, as may be those
early adventurers, that it was too hastily named? Certain it is that
many Christians are disappointed because they do not always realise the
peace and blessedness of which sometimes they have glimpses and
enjoyment.
It is our practical every-day test of our standing in grace; a man who
is exploring an old well lowers a candle before him, knowing that where
that can live, he can live; the Christian's test-flame is the peace of
God; when that fails, he ought to know that it is safe to go no
farther. This peace is like some magic mirror, by the dimness growing
on the surface of which we may discern the breath of an unclean spirit
that would work us ill. As the Apostle says, "Let the peace of God
rule (_i.e._ be arbiter or umpire) in your hearts." We may almost say
that for most of us it is true that what we can do quietly we can do
safely. So we see more and more the importance of having the heart and
thought kept by the Peace of God.
Some render the passage, "The peace of God shall stand sentry over your
heart"; and this expresses it very well. Where this sentry stands,
nothing forbidden can pass either within or without, except the watcher
be first destroyed. If the thirst for wealth or fame enter into a
man's heart, it is over the slain body of the sentry; our peace is gone
when these things enter in. And many such like things there are which
choke the word and destroy the peace. Then we turn and look at it in
another light, passing on from thoughts concerning the Peace of God to
higher ones about the God of Peace, who has promised to sanctify us
wholly and to preserve spirit, soul, and body blameless unto the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
XI
THY FATHER IN SECRET
"Alone, and yet not alone."--JOHN xvi. 32.
Of all religious ideas, the grandest is that which lay at the root of
the monastic system,--that religion is the wedlock of the soul to God;
although the method in which this idea was exemplified was a faulty
one, or, at any rate, one which rapidly became corrupt, even if it was
not so at first. The wonderful worship of the middle ages at least
taught men to serve God in retirement of life and unworldliness of
spirit, and gave demonstration of holiness and righteousness in men who
did their work in the world even though they lived out of it, and in
women who were content to view the busy, jocular, combatant,
pleasure-seeking community only from behind the bars of the house of
rest that they had chosen. It was a noble object-lesson of the
spiritual life; and though the symbols used to express it may have
become valueless, the truth that they taught remains yet, that if a man
or woman seeks the highest good, there must be for such an isolation of
the soul from the ordinary course of life and thought in the world
around us; we must afford ourselves facilities for a sacred loneliness
with God.
It is interesting to notice that St. Luke, probably more than any other
evangelist, gives record of solitariness and vigil and secret
communion; and it may be that it was a line of experience with which he
was familiar; certainly he was careful to chronicle the lonely hours of
the Saint when God and the soul are at one, and it needs no prophet to
pray that the Lord will open the young man's eyes that he may see.
What a summary of experience is contained in those words which describe
the ministerial preparation of John the Baptist,--"He was in the desert
until the day of his showing unto Israel, waxing and growing strong in
spirit" (Luke i. 80). Then he speaks of the Master, of His being led
by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke iv. 1); of His departing and
going into a desert place (Luke iv. 42); of His withdrawal into the
wilderness for prayer (Luke v. 16); of His going out into a mountain to
pray, and continuing all night in prayer to God (Luke vi. 12).
Would it not be better, instead of making the commonplace assertion
that there was nothing of the ascetic about Jesus Christ, for us to
recall to mind His teaching at another time, that every disciple shall
be perfected as his Master (Luke vi. 40), and to inquire whether we
might not do well to love and covet retirement, even of an external
character, as a means to the attainment of that perfection?
Retirement with God is the only preparation for success, and the only
medicine for failure whether it be Moses wondering at the burning bush
in the mount of God, or Elijah eating angel's bread under the
juniper-tree. We shall do well to observe also that it has been a
feature of all the great religions of the East; the secret of all
strong souls lies in those times of loneliness when they were bound
hand and foot as captives to the Everlasting Will. We deride such
nowadays; call them mystic, contemplationist, fanatic. George Fox,
sitting about in lonely places, reading his Bible in hollow trees, is
hard to understand. But if it were anything but religion that was in
quest, people would not laugh. Tell them of Demosthenes living in a
cellar, with head half shaved to prevent his appearing in public, and
there will be admiration; was it any wonder that he became an orator?
But let a man be as bent on becoming a saint; let him give up one
hour's frivolous talk in order to commune with his Father in secret;
then we suspect that such an one is becoming righteous overmuch. Mind,
no one complains of a man being anxious to be wise overmuch, or rich
overmuch, healthy overmuch; he may burn the midnight oil and study,
watch the markets and scheme, frequent the gymnasium and develop his
muscle, and no one will find fault; but to spend time on what is at
least as important as wisdom, wealth, and health, and in a sense
involves them all,--this is fanatical, and not to be encouraged or
approved. We miss much through our want of separation from the world,
and through our deficiency in insulation, or, which is the same word,
in isolation. If we go into a science laboratory and examine the great
brass machines for holding electrical charges, we find that they are
all mounted on glass feet. These are the insulators, and if it were
not for them, no electricity would remain on the surface; as it is,
electricity is hard enough to keep in charge, even with the best
insulators. And we know sometimes what it is to have life and power
pass into us from above, but we don't know how to retain it, because we
have never learnt true retirement of heart and insulation of life.
There is good teaching in the following passage from one of Madame
Guyon's letters: "It is very desirable, and in the earlier part of your
ministry especially, that you should spend a portion of your time--and
that perhaps not a small portion--with God in retirement. Let your own
soul be first filled with God's spirit, and then and not otherwise will
you be in a situation to communicate the Divine fulness to others. No
man can give what he has not; or if a man has grace, but has it in a
small degree, he may in dispensing to others impart to them what is
necessary for himself."
Now if any one were to ask what is the especial strength of England as
regards other empires and commonwealths, the answer would be that it
lies in her insular position,--in the "silver streak" that parts her
from France; and the true Christian is girt round with separating grace.
We might draw two pictures to remind us how we may become strong for
God: one of the solitary vigil of the Great Shepherd keeping watch over
His flock by night; the other of the little company who waited with
joined hands and hearts in the upper room for the coming of the
Comforter; these two pictures representing the solitude of a single
soul and of united souls with God.
By such silent communion God will especially prepare us for service and
for suffering.
Some one spoke to John Nelson, making unfavourable comparison of John
Wesley with a prominent religious teacher of the day; and Nelson
replied, "He has not stayed in the upper room like John Wesley." We
need our silent preparations for speech; to go forth, like Ezekiel,
into the plain to find the glory of the Lord; or like Daniel to the
river-side, where we may meet one like unto the Son of man; or like the
two who walked into the country whom Jesus met, and with whom He talked
till He made their hearts burn.
Especial preparation of this kind is necessary for the prosecution of
great enterprises. We are reminded of this if we observe what followed
the all-night of prayer of the Lord Jesus,--how, when it was day, He
called unto Him His twelve apostles, and with them went down into the
plain to heal diseases and them that were vexed with unclean spirits.
Napoleon leaves his army, as they near the Russian frontier, and spurs
his horse until at last in solitary contemplation he sees before him
the river that separates him from the country that he is going to
invade: a striking picture, made more so by the thought of the luckless
termination of the enterprise. And some of us, whom God will call to
great enterprises for Him that will not end in failure, will know what
it is to make a similar solitary advance; and in silent waiting upon
God to watch Him unroll before us the map of our journey, telling us
what we must do and what we must suffer for Him: and the silence makes
us strong when the voice of God has broken in upon it. And we will not
marvel if to us, as to Saul of Tarsus, the answer to the question,
"What wilt thou have me to do?" should come in the form, "I will shew
him how great things he must suffer"; for our thoughts will turn again
to Him who said, "Rise and let us be going" from the solitude of the
upper room to the deeper retirement of the olive grove; who went a
little farther, even from those He loved most, as He prayed, "Not My
will but Thine be done"; and then took His way alone, and yet not
alone, to be the Redeemer and Reviver of the souls of men.
XII
TESTS OF FAITH, LOVE, AND RIGHTNESS
What are the experimental bases of our Christianity? and whereby shall
we know that we are of the truth and assure our hearts before Him?
Our answers to such questions may appear discouraging, but it is far
better that we should experience discouragement (not that we would
really wish to say a word to throw back the weakest believer from his
faith), than that we should attempt to fill ourselves with the formulas
that the Pharisees do eat.
Some time ago, in discussing the definite points and peculiar
characteristics of Christian life and experiences, we took as a
comparison the changes of state in a material body, from solid to
liquid, and from liquid to gaseous. We observed that, just as in
nature the most important practical and theoretical investigations were
made upon bodies in the neighbourhood of those points where they
undergo a change of state, so it is also true in the world of grace
that our most valuable observations and inquiries relate to certain
critical points in the life--as conversion and sanctification; points
which may sometimes, like the freezing and boiling points of a material
substance, approach almost, if not quite, to coincidence, but which,
like them, may be very widely separated.
Suppose, then, to resume our figure, we were to propose to ourselves
the question, "How shall I know whether a body near the melting point
has passed from the solid to the liquid state?" In some cases it would
be extremely easy to give an answer: with ice, under ordinary
circumstances, we should simply say that it becomes mobile; the word of
the Supreme Law having gone forth, the waters flow. But our test would
not do for all liquids, because there are some that do not answer
readily to it, but are extremely sluggish in the neighbourhood of their
melting points, so that they seem almost solid even when liquid. We
are obliged, then, to look for a better test, and we should probably
observe that the most convenient would be found in the fact that an
addition of heat produces a change in temperature in a body that has
passed its melting point. Place a thermometer in melting snow, it
marks zero until the snow is really melted, and after that it rises.
Now, in a similar manner, we should find that many of the tests
popularly applied to discriminate spiritual life, are only partially
accurate; and since our method is a purely experimental one, we ought
to see that we apply proper methods of inquiry in an accurate manner.
Our question, then, is, "Whereby shall we know that we are of the
truth?" and we shall probably look to Scripture for an answer. Indeed,
there is a School which tells us positively that we must try the
condition in which we are by the statements of Scripture, holding up
the Word of Life as a mirror before our lives, so that we may compare
the reflection with the Divine characteristics.
And provided this method be honestly applied, and not by the mere
selection of pet texts, it is probable that it is a correct one. We
will, then, take the 1st Epistle of John, in which we find the most
definite assertions about personal experience, and try ourselves by it.
First of all, there is the simple and beautiful statement, "Beloved,
now are we the children of God"; most of us would quote it freely; but
our scientific method would at least require that we should harmonise
the supposed fact with the asserted consequences, "Therefore the world
knoweth us not, even as it knew Him not"; and if we find that the world
smiles on us in a way that it did not upon our Lord, then we must
either conclude (i.) that we were mistaken in the fact, or (ii.) that
while the word _we_ in the first part of the sentence is capable of
extension, the _us_ in the second is restricted in its reference to St.
John and the despised and rejected people with him--with, perhaps, a
possible reference to subsequent isolated instances, down to the
Salvation Army, and a few more in our own day!