PSALM XXXIV. 8 103
From the beginning it has been undergoing this ordeal. Millions have tried it, and have set to their seal that God's Word is true. From age to age the testimony has rolled on, swelling in its pro- gress into one mighty and majestic volume. And thus, borne on the echoes of successive generations, the voice of that testimony has reached our ears, and the burden of its cry is still the same, " 0 taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him."
^ It is in his inner experience of the glorified Christ that we are to look for the secret and source of Eaymund Lull's doctrine and life — what he thought, what he was, what he suffered. And this must be true of all true missionaries. They do not go out to Asia and to Africa to say, " This is the doctrine of the Christian Church " ; or, " Your science is bad. Look through this microscope and see for yourselves and abandon such error " ; or, " Compare your condition with that of America and see how much more socially beneficial Christianity is than Hinduism or Confucianism or Islam." Doubtless all this has its place — the argument from the historic evidences of Christianity, the argument from the coherence of Christianity with the facts of the universe, the argument from fruits. But it is also all secondary. Tne primary thing is personal testimony: "This I have felt. This He has done for me. I preach whom I know."^
Experience bows a sweet contented face. Still setting to her seal that God is true: Beneath the sun, she knows, is nothing new
All things that go return with measured pace,
Winds, rivers, man's still recommencing race: — While Hope beyond earth's circle strains her view. Past sun and moon, and rain and rainbow too.
Enamoured of unseen eternal grace.
Experience saith, " My God doth all things v/ell " : And for the morrow taketh little care.
Such peace and patience garrison her soul: — While Hope, who never yet hath eyed the goal, With arms iiung forth, and backward floating hair,
Touches, embraces, hugs the invisible.^
3. This is a mode of proof available to every man, without distinction or exception. It requires neither learning nor logic to
^ R. E. Speer, Some Great Leaders in the World Movement, 46. ^ Christina G. Rossetti, Verses, 105.
I04 THE GOODNESS OF GOD
conduct it. The appeal is simply this, "Taste and see; trust in the Lord and thou shalt be blessed." Whatever doubts there might have been before the time of our Lord Jesus Christ, there can be little doubt now that this experience of the great souls is meant to be the experience of every soul. For ever since our Lord and Master came to us in that homely speech of His, and proposed that we should taste Him, eat His flesh, and drink His blood, and ever since He reminded us that it is in that kind of intimate personal communion that life comes, and not otherwise, He has made it clear that there is with Him no selection. He does not choose the people at His banquet ; He does not say, " Let the rich or let the worthy come." The whole point of it is, " Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in " ; " whosoever will, let him drink " ; *' come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
^ Madame Guyon possessed the feminine rather than the masculine relation between the soul and God ; but that is the beauty of this relation — that it does not depend upon sex or age ; it is equally significant to the woman as to the man. There is something essentially delicate and sweet in this woman-soul opening to God. Follow the process. She comes in stillness and quietness and solitude to wait upon Him. She utters His name, and pauses ; she says a word to 11 im, and waits to listen ; she will not speak much, lest she should not hear. Presently she hears ; it is the response, He is coming. "Oh, my soul, be still; hush thy words ; He is here ! " He speaks, and now she speaks again, and presently from speech to silence she conies into the sanctuary of His presence, and there it is all still — activity which does not move. Oh, the joy, the rai)ture of what seems passionless passion ! He is si)eaking, she is hearing; the soul is throbbing on the heart of God. What a marvellous experience it is, this tasting Godli
^ Has the love of Christ worked any real change in our feelings towards God ? Has there broken out yet in our hearts the beautiful bright spring of thankfulness, or the deep fount of holy sorrow ? Have we ever fdt the promptings of remorse, the pangs of penitence, as we thoug[it of the goodness of God in giving us Jesus Chiist? . . . Has the goodness of the Lord ever got a hold of our hand and turned us right round, and begun to lead us gently along the road that ends in a new mind about God, a mind