3. " The Philistines be upon thee." The degradation of char- "^^ acter may go on quite unconsciously, and it is only when some /
^ S. J. stone. Poems and Hymns, 103. 2 -^^ -^^ Punshon.
2o6 UNCONSCIOUS LOSS
crisis arises in a man's life that he becomes aware that his moral strength has departed from him.
^ I remember a great elm tree, the pride of an avenue in the south, that had spread its branches for more years than the oldest man could count, and stood leafy and green. Not until a winter storm came one night and laid it low with a crash did anybody suspect what everybody saw in the morning — that the heart was eaten out of it, and nothing left but a shell of bark.^
4. It is difficult to make an estimate of ourselves by poking into our own sentiments and supposed feelings and convictions, and the estimate is likely to be wrong. There is a better way than that. Two things tell what a man is — one, what he wants, and the other, what he does. As the will is, the man is. Where do the currents of your desires set ? If you watch their flow, you may be pretty sure whether your religious life is an ebbing or a rising tide. The other way to ascertain what we are is rigidly to examine and judge what we do. " Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord." Actions are the true test of a man. Conduct is the best illumination of character, especially in regard to ourselves.
^ M. Coillard had all his life the greatest horror of religious fictions; and of emotion, which ought to be a spiritual force, evaporating in mere sentiment. With him, as with Mabille, to see a truth was to put it in practice. Hence he says : " Our project of extending the Mission to Banyailand . . . was the one theme of our conversation as we rode back. One day Major Malan, Mabille, and I were crossing the river Key, and climbing the slopes, when, in obedience to an irresistible impulse, we all three sprang from our horses, knelt in the shadow of a bush . . . and, taking each other as witness, we offered ourselves individually to the Lord for the new Mission — an act of deep solemnity which made us all brothers in arms. Immediately we remounted, Major Malan waved his hat, spurred his horse, and galloped up the hill, calling out 'Three soldiers ready to conquer Africa.' Mabille and I said, ' ... by God's grace we will be true till death.' And we meant it. That marked a new era in our life, and was, in so far as we were concerned, the true origin of the Barotsi Mission." ^
* A. Maclaren. " Coillard of the Zambesi, 217.
JUDGES XVI. 20 207
ii. The Anointed.
God chooses and anoints men for special work, and He bestows upon them the Spirit in large measure as an equipment for their work. What do we mean when we say that " the Lord is departed from them " ? We do not necessarily mean that they have lost complete touch with God, but that they have lost their large spiritual endowment. They have failed to realize the highest — that of which they were capable — and they have lost power.
•^ Power, that is the great practical matter for us men, once our faces'are set towards the light ; and in the life in Christ the way of power is marked out. Everywhere, all over the world, in its darkest places, as a man follows the light he sees, the power comes, and more light comes, and power grows anew, Divine power flowing in upon him and through him, whether he knows it or not. But in the Christian faith we are given an open vision of the way of power, as well as of the light and truth of men ; open-eyed we may yield to Christ being made Man in us — the Christ who ever comes to enlarge the realm of His incarnation ; and we may possess- and wield His power as our own, reason giving consent, heart warmed by the vision and the presence of Him who reigns. In this, too, Christianity stands at the centre of things, and fulfils and completes them all.^
1. The anointed and their varying gifts. — God does not give the same gifts to all men, nor does He give them in the same measure. To Samson He gave physical strength, to Saul kingly power, to Balaam the power of prophecy. And each was answer-\ able only for his own gift, and in the measure in which he had-/ received the gift. And the greater Jtie-gift and opportunity, th^ greater the failure.
When there is something rotten in the state of a Church; when a nation's politics are based on false principles ; when the social relations between high and low, rich and poor, landlord and tenant, master and servant, are at fault ; then, from the midst of a down-trodden, silently suffering community God raises up a man. He raised up equally for Israel a Samuel and a Saul. But of Saul we read that " the Spirit of the Lord departed from him."