2. If we examine our self-consciousness, we shall find that it is never as to the qualities of actions that we feel doubt or hesita- tion. The questions which perplex us, and which it is unspeak- ably dangerous for a young person to begin to ask, are such as these : How far may I go in a wrong direction, and yet be sure to go no farther ? Is there any harm in a slight compromise of principle ? Can I not with ultimate safety trespass once, or a little way, on forbidden ground ? Can I not try the first pleasant, attractive steps on a way which I am determined on no account to pursue farther ? May I not go as far in the wrong as others are going, without reproach and without fear ? Is there not some redeeming grace in companionship, so that I may venture witli others a little farther than I would be willing to go alone ? May not my conscience, under careful home-training and choice home- examples, have become more rigid and scrupulous than is befitting or manly in one who has emerged into comparative freedom ? In these questions are the beginnings of evil — the first, it may be, fatal steps in miry ways.
•[j If you once allow yourself to fall into a habit of evil of whatever kind, the idea that you are helpless, that you are made so, that it is your nature, will very speedily creep in and try to lay hold of your mind. Whether it be a sin of passion or of temper, which comes only at times, lea%dng you free to live a right and perhaps even a religious life in the intervals, and returning with a sort of easy victory in the hour of temptation, making your falls all the more miserable by their contrast with your happier and better moments ; or some of those palsies of the soul which seem to benumb the will — sloth for instance, or selfishness ; or again, a petty fault which mars all your life without seeming ever to stain it deeply, making you ashamed, and justly ashamed, that you should find a difficulty in overcoming such a trifle ; in
» S. Cox, The Bird's Nest, 136.
422 THE CLEAN PATH
such cases, over and above the temptation to the sin itself, there soon comes the added temptation to treat it as hopeless, to give up in despair, to reconcile yourself to your enemy, and say that you are made so, and cannot do otherwise. And this is indeed no trifling addition. The one chance of escape from habitual sin is never to intermit the struggle : do that, and you are quite sure to conquer; some better opportunity for getting power over the temptation presents itself ; or the temptation seems to go away of itself, you do not know how; or it returns less and less frequently, till it returns no more ; its going may be in one way or in another ; but persevere in the battle, and go it surely will. Thus ere now have Christians overcome bodijy temptations, to some men the severest trials of all; thus have Christians tamed down unruly temper ; thus have they conquered pride and vanity ; thus have they taught themselves to be true.^
3. But it is not in man to direct his steps aright. Therefore God has bestowed on us what sliould be " a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path." It is something to be heedful and to walk warily, for we are beset on all hands by snares and tempta- tions. But that is not enough. For besides these dangers that encompass us without, we have other perils to face in the shape of false ideals, mistaken views of what a man should be and do. Therefore the Psalmist reminds us that we can cleanse our ways only by taking heed to them according to God's Word. He meant, of course, the Law of the Lord as it had been made known to Israel of old. That was to be their practical guide in the path of duty in his day. It was not merely a doctrine they were to believe, but a commandment they must obey. And a noble law it was, of brave and manly and self-denying virtue, leading them up the steep heights of arduous duty to the fellowship of Israel's God. Yet, good and precious though it was, quickening the soul to a higher life than the rest of the world dreamt of, we have now a surer word and a fairer example to direct us, a more potent inspiration also urging us to higher and holier attainments. Think of the Perfect Man, the model of holy beauty, who is in all things our example, who teaches how to be rich in poverty, how to be wise though unlearned, how to bear wrong meekly, how to be true and faithful and brave with all the world against Him, and how to forget Himself in the love He bore to all, > Archbishop Tempi*.
PSALM cxix. 9 423
•[[ In St. Peter the love of God is shown in Christian example. A plain and simple mind, fixed on plain duties, finding in the great law of right a supreme satisfaction, St. Peter seems to think of our Lord chiefly as showing us what we ought to be and do, and sent by the infinite love of God for that purpose. Do Christians find their duty hard ? " Even hereunto were ye called : because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps : who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suff"ered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously : who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed." Or, again, are Christians persecuted ? They are reminded that " Christ also hath once suff'ered for sins, the just for the unjust." And so throughout his writings St. Peter ever seems to think of God's love as upholding a man in doing what it is right to do, in bearing what it is right to bear, and of Christ's life as the assurance of that love.^