*[[ In the life of Archbishop Temple we read : " He stands out from amongst the men of his day, a notable figure, unlike others, cast in a larger mould, nobler than most, more self-reliant, more absolutely incapable of doing anything mean or of acting from self-interested motives; he worked harder and longer; he was more unworldly; he grasped more firmly the substance of life ; he was a greater man ; but a man nevertheless, working with and for his fellows, compelling the admiration of all, but winning most love from those who knew best the man's heart within him. To the elders who are left he is a great memory, and as they look back and realize to what extent they lived in him they fancy that life now lies behind them. But it was a real life which they shared, and it still remains ; for it belonged to the eternal world, and is of those things ' which cannot be moved.' Even its methods will last long; they had always about them something of the enduring spirit of the man. And thus the life points onward and has a meaning for those who are young. The air of perpetual spring blows round the old man's grave: the memory speaks reality and hope, and these are the memories which live." ^ Yet to those who knew him best his strength was not more notable than the depth and tenderness of his affections.
2. Some foolish people associate religion with weakness. Perhaps some weak Christians are responsible for this. But there is nothing weak about true religion. The man who lays hold upon God is strong. " Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." There is nothing weak about faith. It can remove mountains ; it can carry men through fire and water, and has inspired the noblest heroism that the world has ever seen. There is nothing weak about truth or righteousness. Falseness is weak ; unrighteousness is weak. But to be really good is to be strong. In the Bible weakness is not pitied but condemned, and the watchword to believers over and over again is " Be strong ! " The great essential of Christian character is strength — strength to overcome evil and to labour for the good of others.
^ In February, 1865, Dr. Punshon delivered in Exeter Hall his famous lecture on William Wilberforce, the thoroughness of whose religious decision was thus referred to: "With the * Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, ii. 711.
26o STRENGTH AND BEAUTY
accidents of birth and station in his favour, with youth upon his side, fortune at his feet, and fame and power within the grasp of his outstretched hand — when life was in its summer, and he was compassed, so to speak, with its gladness, and music, and flowers — with everything at hand which it is deemed the most costly to surrender — he stepped forth in the sight of the world, for which his name had already a charm, took the crown of his manhood, and laid it humbly at the feet of Christ. I can see in the act a courage of that sort which is the truest and rarest, but which is, notwithstanding, within the reach of you all. The true idea of power is not embodied in Hercules or Samson, brute forces with brute appetites, takers of strong cities, but slaves to their own passion. Nor is it in the brave soldier who can storm a fortress at the point of the bayonet, but who yields his man- hood to the enticements of sinners, and hides the faith which the scoffer's sneer has made him frightened to avow. The real power is there when a man has mastered himself, when he has trampled upon the craven and the shameful in all their disguises, and when, ready on all fit occasions to bear himself worthily among his fellows and ' give the world assurance of a man,' he dares to say to that world, the while it scorns and slanders him, ' I will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.'"i
3. A man who loves and trusts God cannot but be a strong character. He will not be easily moved by any temptation. He will not be unduly anxious about the future. He will be in no hurry. He will have the calm assurance that, be the present mysteries what they may, all is going well. And he will feel that his life is inseparably linked with the Highest One Himself. " Love is strong as death," says the old writer ; and if we see instances of the love of man to man in which this is true, much more is it true that in proportion as a human soul loves God will it be firm against evil and strong for all good. The mighty granite masses out of which we quarry the material for our great buildings were once in a fluid, molten state, but they have crystallized into the hardest of rocks. So will belief in God and Christ, and love to God in Christ, crystallize a soul into the strongest of characters.
^ Unwearied in their efforts to prevent Luther's appearance, the papal ambassadors had at last succeeded in procuring an
» F. W. Macdonald, Lift of W. Morley Pimslum, 229.