A man is not old, however hoary and bent, who is conversing, as Emerson says, with what is above him, with the religious eye looking upward, and abandoned the while with delight to the inspirations flowing in from all sides. A man is not old in whom the faculty of imagination is undecayed, who throbs with sympathy as eager and strong as ever for whatsoever is just and lovely and pure and true ; whose mind, still responsive and aspir- ing, is fully open to new thoughts and new ideas, and cherishes dreams of the ideal ; upon whom no weight of custom or of habit lies so heavily that he cannot move out of grooves under the direction of some felt better way, or who carries with him the optimism which, without hiding its face from the dark and ugly facts of existence, can front them smilingly, and sing its song in defiance of them, because of faith in humanity and trust in the divine purpose of the Universe. A man is not old, who is at one with Michael Angelo when, just bofore he died on the verge of ninety, he carved an allegorical tlgure, and inscribed on it in large letters, " Still learning," or whose heart echoes Kobert Browning, when he sang :
PSALM ex. 3 365
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all nor be afraid ! "
^ 1st December 1895. A pleasant party at York House. The conversation straying to Watts, Miss Lawless, who was sitting on one side of me, mentioned that he had said to her : " I think I am quite accurate in telling you that I saw the sun rise every day last summer," and Mrs. Tyrrell, who was sitting on my other side, told us that he had said to her : " I am seventy-eight, and I hope still to do my best work." ^
4. The soldier of the cross should exercise in the world a gracious refreshing influence, like the dew. The dew, formed in the silence of the darkness while men sleep, falling as willingly on a bit of dead wood as anywhere, hanging its pearls on every poor spike of grass, and dressing everything on which it lies with strange beauty, each separate globule tiny and evanescent, but each flashing back the light, and each a perfect sphere, feeble one by one, but united mighty to make the pastures of the wilderness rejoice — so, created in silence by an unseen influence, feeble when taken in detail but strong in their myriads, glad to occupy the lowliest place, and each " bright with something of celestial light," Christian men and women are to be in the midst of many people as dew from the Lord.
^ The personal influence of Henry Bradshaw (the librarian at Cambridge University) was extraordinary. It was not gained by any arts,nor did he ever manifest theslightest wish to interfere or to exercise influence. One just knew him to be a man of guileless life, laborious, high-principled, incapable of any sort of meanness or malice. To love is to understand everything, says the French proverb. It is not easy really to improve people by scolding them or lecturing them, but if one knows that a generous, un- suspicious, high-minded man has a real aflfection for one, it is impossible not to be restrained by the thought from acting in a way that he would disapprove. Bradshaw's influence over the men he knew was stronger than the influence of any other man at Cambridge. But his affection was sisterly — if one can use the
^ M. E. Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, 1892-95, ii. 290.
366 A VOLUNTEER ARMY
word — rather than paternal. He was fond of little demonstra- tions of affection, would pat and stroke one's hand as he talked, and yet there was never the least shadow of sentimentality about it. I have never heard any one suggest that there was anything weak or unmanly about his tenderness. It was preserved from that by his critical judgment, his excellent sense, his power of saying the most incisive things, and the irony which, however lambent, had got a very clear cutting edge, and which he was always ready to use if there was occasion. If any one traded on the affection of Bradshaw or counted on indulgence, he was sure to be instantly and kindly snubbed. It was more that there was an atmosphere of intimacy and confidence in one's relations with him, which pervaded the time spent in his company as with fragrant summer air.^
^ When love has made the most of the man himself it over- flows to bless others. Christ's disciples are not here to be ministered unto, but to minister. Eeligion, says Christ, is love, and love is gentle toward those with hollow eyes and famine- stricken faces. Love is kindly toward those who have a tragedy written in the sharpened countenance. Love is patient toward those who have lost fidelity as a man loses a golden coin ; who have lost morality as one who flounders in the Alpine drifts. And this religion of love takes on a thousand modern forms. If it is not rowing out against the darkness and storm, as did Grace Darling, to save the shipwrecked, it is going forth to those tossed upon life's billows, to succour and to save. For love is making the individual life beautiful, making the home beautiful, and will at last make the Church and State beautiful. Men will not bow down to crowned power nor philosophic power nor aesthetic power ; but in the presence of a great soul, filled with vigour of inspiration and glowing with love, man will do obeisance. There is no force upon earth like Divine love in the heart of man, and at last that force will sweeten and regenerate society.^