"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 G.o.d; 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 G.o.d 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 n.o.ble 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 G.o.d.
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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d (Luke vi. 12).
Would it not be better, instead of making the commonplace a.s.sertion 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 bra.s.s machines for holding electrical charges, we find that they are all mounted on gla.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d in retirement. Let your own soul be first filled with G.o.d"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 G.o.d: 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 G.o.d.
By such silent communion G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sure 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 pa.s.sed from the solid to the liquid state?" In some cases it would be extremely easy to give an answer: with ice, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sertions 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 G.o.d"; most of us would quote it freely; but our scientific method would at least require that we should harmonise the supposed fact with the a.s.serted 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!
Or, taking another simple a.s.sertion, "We know that we have pa.s.sed (crossed over, transmigrated) from death unto life." We use the words to convince people of the definite nature of conversion; we say it is as real as a pa.s.sage from death to life, and as truly marked; it is the advent of a new life in the soul. But can we honestly go on to base the a.s.sertion on the fact of our own love to men, to--souls? Would we venture to stand or fall by this test, "I have loved, I love," and not be afraid that our good angels would rise up to bear witness against us as we said it?
A third pa.s.sage comes before us; for some one will say, "We believe, and is it not written that he that believeth hath everlasting life?"
and may we not rest upon the a.s.surance conveyed by the present tense of the verb employed?
Without going at present into the consideration of this pa.s.sage from the Gospel, let us say, roughly, that the test of the existence of a spiritual life presented by St. John in the Epistle is of a threefold character: it is--
([Greek: alpha]) A test of faith: he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of G.o.d.
([Greek: beta]) A test of love: he that loveth is born of G.o.d.
([Greek: gamma]) A test of righteousness: every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.
And if these are true criteria of the life within us, each of these statements, with its necessary consequences, may be predicated of that soul in which the Heavenly Life has been brought forth.
For instance: we must not take ([Greek: alpha]) and reject ([Greek: beta]) and ([Greek: gamma]); nor must we disregard the consequences which are a necessary part of our experimental verifications.
Of these three pa.s.sages we should most probably elect to be tried by ([Greek: alpha]); for it is comparatively easy for us, especially at the present day, to hold to an intellectual a.s.sent to a proposition.
In fact the difficulty is that the sieve is too wide; for almost every one believes that Jesus is the Christ. It must be evident then that we have misunderstood the text or omitted the consequences which follow from it. Now the continuation of the statement is that whatsoever is in this holy birth has victory over the world; and if we apply the test of an overcoming life to our supposed faith, things look very different. Discouraged, we pa.s.s on to the second criterion; if not by faith, let us be judged by love.
Since we all of us love something and some persons, we shall perhaps find ourselves safe under this test.
But, upon examination, we perceive that he does not simply mean love of G.o.d, or love of Jesus, or a merely selective human love; but love of the brethren and of the children of G.o.d in a universal manner. He twists it backwards and forwards, saying at one moment, "He that loveth G.o.d, let him love his brother also"; at another, "If he love not his brother whom he hath seen, how _can_ he love G.o.d whom he hath not seen"? and again, "By this we know that we love the children of G.o.d, when we love G.o.d," and, breaking off abruptly, "when we love G.o.d, and keep His commandments." Certainly if love is universal and coincident with obedience, we shall scarcely be able to face this test.
So we pa.s.s on to the third criterion--that of righteousness; and here, perhaps, we may expect some help, knowing how careful the Lord is to judge us by the light we have, how generously He measures every effort after holiness, and blesses every pang of the spiritual hunger. We may not be able to grasp the creeds which others recite so fluently; we may not be able to give easy expression to the affections which thrill within us; may, perhaps, wonder if we love at all; but at least we can say this,--we want to be right. But then we are confronted with the difficulty that what G.o.d means is not that we should want to be right, but that we should be right. He explains and characterises the spiritual birth by the words of the Apostle, "He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as Christ is righteous." "He that is born of G.o.d doth not sin." "Every one that is born of Him sinneth not." It almost seems as if the Apostle of Love had been remetamorphosed into the Son of Thunder, and were calling down fire from heaven upon us to devour us. And do not let us say that this is merely St. John"s extravagant way of preaching holiness; for it is the language in which the teachers of the time generally held and transmitted the Christian doctrine. Thus Ignatius, writing to the Ephesians, adopts the three tests of faith and love and righteousness: "No man professing the faith sinneth; nor does he who professeth love, hate; the tree is known by its fruits; so, likewise, those who profess to be Christ"s shall be seen from their deeds."
And Polycarp presents the life-criteria in the same manner: "You shall be built up in the faith which is given to you: before which is love to G.o.d and to Christ and to the neighbour; for he who has love is far from all sin." And so we might multiply instances.
What shall we then say: Is a new Sinai set up on the square of the New Jerusalem? or is it a sense of good things not seen as yet that makes us cry, "Search me, O G.o.d; ... and see if there be any lack of faith or love or righteousness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"?
XIII
THE ETERNAL IDEA
"See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount."--HEB. viii. 5.
When we speak of a pattern, we generally understand by it some temporary or partial representation of an idea that is to be or has been realised--such as the plan of a house, or the mould of a casting, or, to take a more definite ill.u.s.tration, like the little silver models of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, or the carved wooden lions which are sold in the shops in the neighbourhood of the Lion Monument at Lucerne.
In these last two instances we see that the greater is made the pattern of the less; and it is important for us to remember this; we are not to suppose that G.o.d showed to Moses a diminutive tabernacle, a sort of doll"s house, in accordance with which he was to construct his house of skins, or that He impressed upon him the nature of the priestly and sacrificial worship by altars and offerings of a lower degree, of small quant.i.ties. It is more like what Philo explained it to be, that the outer world is fashioned upon the model of the World of Ideas whose centre is the Divine Word; or like Swedenborg"s Doctrine of Correspondence, by which we may learn
Cup, column, candlestick, All temporal things related royally, And patterns of what shall be in the Mount.
But, to get a more simple and exact idea, let us observe the means which those who have studied the heavens have taken to ill.u.s.trate astronomical facts. There is an astronomical toy called the orrery, which can be made, by proper mechanism, to represent, with tolerable accuracy, the actual motions of the planets in their orbits, and which can serve to ill.u.s.trate the phenomena which from time to time occur in the heavens. Now the tabernacle of Moses is precisely like this; it is a religious orrery, a means of representing religious truths and bringing home religious facts to the consciousness of those who are unable to study the skies and the lunar and planetary theories for themselves. But no one who wishes to be a real astronomer would be content with winding up the orrery and watching the b.a.l.l.s go round; he would know that the heavens must be studied for themselves, if one was ever to understand them accurately: and no one who wishes to be more than moderately religious can remain satisfied with the meagre a.s.sistance obtained by ritual and externalism.
We observe, too, that no one who wished to chronicle fresh facts would go to the orrery to learn them. He would, for instance, turn his spectroscope on the sun, and not on the great ball which represents it in the mechanism, if he wanted to determine the const.i.tuents of that great luminary. And let us remember that we shall never get at any fresh religious truth by means of ritual; the proper destination of all orreries, religious or otherwise, is the museum. But meanwhile the heavens still go round, which are the work of Thy fingers; and the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, can still be studied, even when all the imitations of the universe have been swept away. We desire for ourselves an emanc.i.p.ation from all that is merely traditional in the religious life; we would refer back our lives to the original thought of G.o.d concerning them. Our life needs emendation, which can only take place satisfactorily by reference to the original design. We are often perplexed in our study of Scripture, by various readings and incorrect texts, and we wish that we could attain to something like the possession of an exact copy, if it were only of a single gospel. We read of Tischendorf finding the precious Codex in the monastery on Mount Sinai, and cannot forbear wishing that, perhaps, in some of the waste places of the East, there might be found a copy, not of the fourth or fifth century, but, if possible, of the first.
Suppose, for example, that a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, signed with his own hand, should come into our possession, in which it should be stated that "I, Matthew, sometime a tax-gatherer for the Romans, and now a collector of dues for the Almighty, and one of them that are set to ask, "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" have written this book, by the aid of the Holy Spirit; wherein may be heard many voices of the Lord; and lo! some of them have already come to pa.s.s, and the rest must shortly be done. And may the peace of him that wrote this book abide also with them that read." The supposition is not so very absurd, and if it could be demonstrated to the satisfaction of the learned (a people hard to persuade) that the Book and the hand were genuine, what a number of questions would be settled. An end would be made of all glosses and emendations of the text over which there have been so many disputes, and there would be an excision of all parts that have been added by later hands.