^ All torn asunder, all annihilated, Francis cast himself on his face before God, the God who had made heaven and earth, the God who is all truth and all holiness, and before whose omnipotence nothing can stand without complete truth, complete holiness. Francis looked into the depths of his being, and he saw that on the whole earth there was not to be found a more useless creature, a greater sinner, a soul more lost and fallen to the bad than himself, and from the depths of his need he groaned before God : " Lord, be merciful to me a poor sinner ! " And it came to pass that the empty cave over Poggio Bustone beheld a miracle, one that always happens when a soul in complete dis-
' Mrs. Russell Gurney, Dante.
" A. T. Pierson, in The Keswick Week, 1907, p. 27. » M. F. Sadler, 75.
i6o HEARSAY AND EXPERIENCE
trust of itself calls out to its God in coutideuce and hope and charity — then there comes to pass the great miracle of justifica- tion. " I fear everything from my badness, but from Thy good- ness I also hope for all," this was the innermost meaning of the prayer Francis sent up to God. And the answer came, as it always comes — " Fear not, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee ! " ^
^ For dramatic effectiveness Watts's picture of the " Death of Abel " is most impressive. We see Cain in the first moment of awakening from the passion which led him to do the dreadful deed, overwhelmed with remorse. His dark form stoops over his brother's prostrate figure, whose ghastly pallor is brought out by the light which casts Cain's body into shadow, and his hands cover his face in an agony of despair. Above him the clouds open, revealing the heavenly host in various attitudes, all expressive of their mournful concern for this nevi^ thing in the universe — the first death — the wonder and fear which this awful unknown fruit of human sin had produced. And following up the story of Cain, the artist has made a powerful epic poem of the world's first tragedy. He shows the first murderer coming back from his weary wanderings in search of rest, to the rude, earth-built altar on which his brother had offered up his accept- able sacrifice. His sufferings have deepened his repentance and purified his character, and haggard and worn-out he throws himself on the altar, recognizing the justice and righteousness of his doom. With true insight the artist has painted the angel of sympathy hovering over him in pity ; the curse is removed, and the forgiveness of God calms his agitated spirit as the light of heaven illumines his worn-out frame.^
O, blest the souls that see and hear The things of God to-day revealed, Of old to longing saint and seer Within the future closely sealed.
Be ours the vision, ours the will To follow, though the faithless ban; The love that triumpJis over ill. The trust in God and hope for man.
And Thou whose tides of purpose bear These mortal lives that come and go, Give us to feel through toil and prayer Thy deep eternal underflow.^
^ J. Jorgeiisen, St. Francis of Assist, 73.
2 Hugh Macmillan, G. F. Watts, 149. » F. L. Hosmer.
JOB XLii. 5, 6 i6i
3. Penitence is ever a mark of sainthood. — It is the special charm of Job's story that it exhibits this high-strung and strenuous integrity dwelling in the same spirit with the acutest penitence and throbbing self-loathing. We can recognize these qualities apart, and appreciate them in their singleness, but that they should blend in the same life, tenant the same spirit, and be sources of power to the same character, conflicts with our habitual thought. We expect John Bunyan, after his flagrant vices, to pass through an agony of remorse. It is the working of a just law, the fitting harvest to follow such sowing. That David should be immersed in floods of repentance after his base and cruel trans- gression is what we anticipate, and we are unsatisfied until we see it. We listen for the cry, " Father, I have sinned," of the prodigal son as soon as we see him in his father's embrace, receiving the fruits of his joy at his return. But when the one perfect servant of God, the exceptional man of all men, God's boasted choice, who has hated evil, striven to be true and do right, and suffered countless ills in order to succeed ; when he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes, as overcome with his grief, we are tempted to treat his language as affectation, his penitence as paralysis, and his self-loathing as disease.
And yet it is notorious that the minds of culminating power in the vast brotherhood of the world's workers and redeemers, the shepherds and kings sent of God to lead forth judgment unto victory, have not been more deeply marked by their persistent devotion to purity of thought, uncompromising fidelity to fact, and aspiration after perfection, than by their quivering sensitive- ness to the smallness of their achievements, acute sense of personal fault, and prevailing consciousness, often attended by spasms of weakening pain, of absolute failure.
^ It is Paul, the sovereign thinker of the Christian Church, the fearless antagonist of an unprogressive Judaism, potent beyond all men of his century as a man and as a missionary who is in his own esteem " less than the least of all saints, not meet to be called an apostle, a persecutor, an injurer, a blasphemer, and the chief of sinners." It is Augustine, saint and bishop, cultured and strong, with a manhood behind him of helpful toil and large success, who, as he lies dying at Hippo, his spirit bathed with serenity, though the Vandals are besieging the city, has