^ Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction — where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth ; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert — himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt — the Divine Eeason. Huxley preached a humility content to learn from Nature. But the new sceptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn. Thus we should be wrong if we had said hastily that there is no humility typical of our time. The truth is that there is a real humility typical of our time ; but it so happens that it is practi- cally a more poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of
* James Russell Lowell, The Blgloio Papers, No. IV.
* Edward Caird.
428 HALTING BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS
the ascetic. The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping : not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.^
' G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.
A Still Small Voice.
4^
Literature.
Banks (L, A.), Thirty-One Revival Sermons, 87. Bersier (E.), Sermons, 2nd Ser., 244.
„ in The Foreign Protestant Pulpit, 1st Ser., 285.
Blackwood (A.), Conference Memories, 179. Brooke (S. A.), The Old Testament and Modern Life, 285. Butler (H. M.), University and other Sermons, 342. Campbell (L.), The Christian Ideal, 18.
„ (E.. J.), Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 59. Cheyne (T. K.), The Hallowing of Criticism, 123. Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, 6th Ser., 334.
„ (T.), Sermons and Homiletical Expositions, 2nd Ser., 23. Fletcher (R. J.), The Old Law and the New Age, 129. Fotheringham (D. R.), The Writing on the Shy, 108. Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, 1st Ser., 179. Jenkins (E. E.), Sermons, 218. Macnutt (F. B.), The Riches of Christ, 116. Moore (E. W.), The Spirit's Seal, 146. Newman (J. H.), Sermons on Subjects of the Day, 367. Nicholson (M.), Redeeming the Time, 198. Rankin (J.), Character Studies in the Old Testament, 214. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxviii. (1882), No
1668 ; Iv. (1909), No. 3171. Taylor (W. M.), Contrary Winds, 107. Thomas (J.), Sermons (Myrtle Street Pulpit), ii. 192. Wise (I. M.), in American Jewish Pulpit, 127. "Wright (D.), The Power of an Endless Life, 60. Wynne (G. R.), /?i Quietness and Confidence, 95. Christian Age, xlii. 178 (La Bach). Christian World Pulpit, ii. 122 (Macnaught) ; viii. 362 (Bainton) ; xx. 314
(Mursell) ; xxxii. 174 (Horder) ; xl. 374 (Williams). Church of England Pulpit, Ixii. 445 (Fotheringham) ; Ixiii. 124 (Cooper). Church Pulpit Year Book, ii. (1905) 223 (Vaughan). Churchman's Pulpit : Lenten Season, v. 81 (Mackay) ; Eleventh Sunday
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430
A Still Small Voice.
And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord ; but the Lord was not in the wind : and after the wind an earthquake ; but the Lord was not in the earthquake : and after the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire : and after the fire a still small voice. — i Kings xix. ii, 12.
1. This is, perhaps, the most forcible example of moral and spiritual teaching in a dramatic form in the whole range of Holy Scripture. And when it is regarded in the light of the mental condition of the prophet to whom it was granted, its force is still more evident. Elijah — the prophet of fire — a man of highly- strung emotional nature, a man who sometimes rose very high, but, like all such men, sometimes sank very low, had been marvellously elated by the great scene on Carmel. He imagined that by that one decisive stroke the idolatry of Baal had been completely overthrown, and that Jehovah would now reign supreme in the hearts of the people. His spirits had risen as high as the great mountain on which that memorable decision had been effected. But the excitement wore away, and he saw, as so many besides him have seen, that no great spiritual re- formation is wrought by one stroke, however decisive. He saw, that the people still lusted after Baal, that the powers of the nation were still upon the side of idolatry, so that he seemed alone and solitary — the prophet of the Lord. Thus he fell from the clear and bracing air of the mountain to the enervating atmosphere of the valley below. The reaction which follows excitement came, and the prophet who, in solitary grandeur, could stand confident and fearless before the thousand priests of Baal, before the fierce oath of a vindictive woman fled to the desert, where his only wish was to die, because he was no better than his fathers. With nerves unstrung by excitement, with the