^ C. Simeon, Works, iv. 317.
JOB I. 9 13
indicate a place of torture — there is sin, the most awful thing in the universe of God. It is to save us from sin that Christ died. Sin and Self, these are the tyrants we are groaning under ; it was to deliver us from these that Christ came.
^ Salvation is not putting a man into Heaven, but putting Heaven into a man. It is not putting a sinful man into a law- abiding community, but writing the law of God in his heart and mind. The real question is not. What will we do under outward compulsion ? but, What will we do by inward choice ? Salvation is not the change of circumstances, but that central change in us, that change of the heart, of its attitude, its intentions, and its choices, which will make it the conqueror under all circumstances in life's battles.^
2. But now let us directly face this question of the disinter- estedness of religion.
(1) And first of all, it is a fact that, in the long run and in the large view, prosperity and the service of God are bound together. That is the idea of life. That is what our sense of justice demands. And no man must deny that fact as it applies itself to his own life. It is not by burning his barns and killing his cattle that Job will get rid of his difficulties and answer the question of his motive in serving God.
^ It is remarkable to see how really the Bible has two classes of utterances. On the one hand it has such promises as offer blessings to obedience and assure men that if they serve God they shall prosper. On the other hand there are such words as those of Jesus in which He frankly told His disciples that in the world they should " have tribulation " in proportion as they belonged to Him. It is very interesting to put these two sorts of utterances together and ask what will be the total impression which is the resultant in the mind of him who believes them both. No doubt he will decide that what they mean is the certainty that righteous- ness will come to happiness in the end, but will have to pass through much of suffering upon the way. And, if he be wise, the practical rule by which the man will try to live will be the forget- fulness of consequences altogether, the ceasing to think whether happiness or unhappiness is coming, and the pursuit of righteous- ness for its own sake, the being upright, brave, and true, simply because uprightness, bravery, and truth are the only worthy conditions of a human soul. Great is the condition of a man who
' M. D, Babcock, Thoughts ^or Every-Day Living, 11.
14 UNSELFISHNESS OF TRUE RELIGION
thus lets rewards take care of themselves, come if they will or fail to come, bu^i goes on his way true to the truth simply because it is true, strongly loyal to the right for its pure righteousness.^
•jl Carlyle took occasion to relate how when he was a child of four his parents had given him an earthenware " thrift pot," a sort of bottle without mouth, but slit in the side to slip pennies in. Somehow he was left alone in the house ; there came to the door a beggar-man, pale, weary, worn, and hungry, dripping with wet. " I climbed on the kitchen table," says Carlyle, " and reached down the thrift pot from its shelf and gave him all that was in it — some fourpence. I never in all my life felt anything so like Heaven as the pity I had for that man." How different this from " the inward satisfaction and pride resulting from a virtuous action ! " ^
(2) But we think, and rightly, of the Christian as looking for blessing not in this life but in the life beyond the grave. " I shall be happy in Heaven," says the servant of Christ ; " I can wait. The glory and the bliss that are to be revealed are well worth waiting for. I can suffer for these few years, sure of the freedom from suffering which I am to have for ever and ever." What multitudes of souls have fed upon this certainty. What multitudes are feeding on it now and gathering great strength and patience. And we can see at once that this expectation of celestial reward has left behind much of the danger of the antici- pation of reward to be received on earth. In the first place it never can be so distinct and definite. It cannot take clear concrete shapes to the ambitious desires, like houses and lands and bags of money, and the visible, audible tokens of men's esteem. Being of necessity less sharp and distinct before the imagination, the prizes of the celestial life may well appear more spiritual and the terms of their attainment may seem less arbitrary, more essential. Thus they may be the means of higher and purer inspiration.
^ To ask to see some fruit of our endeavour is but a tran- scendental way of serving for reward ; and what we take to be contempt of self is only greed of hire.^