1. The question of the Psalmist broadly stated is this, Can a man live, in all respects and in all his paths, a pure and beautiful life ? and can all his ways be clean ? We know well how much the question involves ; we know also what the answer means ; but we can answer without hesitation — as an ideal, Yes. A man can go into the world, and take his part in all natui'al and
PSALM cxix. 9 417
necessary engagements, and yet have, all through, a cleansed way. He may go into business, become a politician, enjoy pleasure, and build up a home, without inevitable stain, without wading to his object through dishonour ; and is not this just what we want, to make all life what it ought to be ? If the way of business were clean, if the ways of pleasure were clean, if the sanctities of domestic life were all kept unsullied, what a world it would be ! What would become of fraud, and over-reaching, and plotting, and treachery, and strife, and the sickening suspicions of one another that now half choke human love and threaten to starve or poison the charities of life ? We all know what would become of these things. They would die away as naturally as the mists before the advance of day. And why should it not be ? Why should uot a man begin life with the deep conviction that his may be a cleansed way ?
2. But when the Psalmist speaks of cleansing our way, he implies that, at some points at least, our way has led us through the mire. The picture in his mind was of this sort. There stood before him a young man who had not long set out on the journey of life and who yet, to his own deep surprise and disgust, found many stains of travel already upon him. He had not meant to go wrong ; as yet, perhaps, he has not gone very far wrong. And yet, where did all this filth come from ? And how is it to be got rid of ? And if, at the very outset of the journey, he has wandered into by-paths which have left these ugly stains upon him, what will he be like when he reaches the end of his journey ? How can he hope to keep a right course, and to present himself, without spot, before God at the last ? In short, how is he to make his way clean, and to keep it clean ?
3. There are in our lives no isolated acts, but only ways. The wrong of which we say, " Only this once, and it shall never be repeated," provokes its own repetition, starts us in its own direction. The violation of truth or integrity, with the expecta- tion and purpose of retrieving it speedily, involves us in a labyrinth, in which we lose our way, and may never find our way back. The laws of sobriety or purity once transgressed, we have not the power which we previously thought we had to retrace our
PS. .\.;\'.-cxix. — 27
4i8 THE CLEAN PATH
steps. We meant an act ; we have found a way — a precipitous way, too, on which we gain momentum with every step. A way has a direction, and leads some whither. A way is continuous ; and, if we are in it, we are advancing in it. A way differs in its direction from other ways, and diverges more and more from them the farther one travels upon it. There is hardly any error so perilous as that of imagining that there can be isolated acts or states of mind. Every present has its closely affiliated future. Every deed, every reverie, every thought, is a cause. We are moving on in character, as in years. We are not to-day what we were a week ago. We are advancing either in holiness or in unholiness.
^ Nature moves physically towards perfection, and morally there must be the same unseen but necessary motion. For if the Darwinian theory be true, the law of natural selection applies to all the moral history of mankind, as well as to the physical. Evil must die ultimately as the weaker element 'in the struggle with the good. The slow consent of the world's history is in the direction of moral goodness, as its physical development is ever toward higher forms. This progress, of course, does not necessarily embrace any particular form of life or especial ra«e. A given race may die, or may remain stagnant. The development goes on with some new variety or form of life. Such a " current of things towards rigliteousness," or towards physical perfection, is slow, almost imperceptible. It is like the silent motion of the stars of heaven through eternity towards one centre of the universe. But if once the theory of development be accepted and this fact be admitted, what higher evidence can be demanded of a benevolent and perfect Creator than a current of all things towards the best, a drift towards perfection, a silent, august, secular movement of all beings and forms of life, all thought and morals, all history and events towards the completely good and perfect ? ^
^ Perhaps the present generation has heard more than enough about progress. Talk of tliat kind is an affectation that was always unprofitable, and has now become stale. Heal progress needs no trumpeting. It announces itself like the flowing stream, which brawls only among the barren rocks, and is most felt as a beneficent agency that is penetrating and vitalizing in those parts where friction and noise are reduced to a minimum. True advancement is humble, earnest, practical. It is single-minded,