^ The boy was expressing the opinion of many older than himself when he said to his mother, " I should like to be just such a Christian as father is, for no one can tell whether he is a Christian or not." This father is like the clock attached to a certain church, which possessed neither face nor hands, but which was wound up by the sexton on Sundays and continued to tick year after year, affording an apt illustration of the religion which many are content to possess. The movements of the clock were as regular and accurate as anyone could desire, but, inasmuch as it kept the time to itself, no one was the better for its existence.^
3. Our highest moral life requires the open acknowledgment of God. If a man does not know and remember how much is above him, he will see nothing true. He will begin by thinking himself big, and end by finding himself and everything else little. He must look up because the truth of his nature is to belong and to depend. He cannot stand alone. His own strength is weakness. He is strong or wise only by what is given him, and put into him. Or he will begin by thinking he can do everything, and come to think that he can do nothing, and that there is nothing to do that is really worth doing. He must look up because the best in us is not what we are, but what we aspire to be. A man who does not look up has no ideals, no sense of mystery ; he lacks reverence, and reverence is the essence of manhood. With- out it life is dry, and petty and vulgar.
-/The Church stands for the most vital thing in life — the art of teaching men how to live. On creeds and articles the minds of men have always differed, and there is no sure evidence forth- coming that the future will not repeat the past ; but right and wrong are as old as Orion and its nebulae. Eight will never lose its lustre; never wrong its shame. Kepeatedly we hear the
* C. H. Robinson.
PSALM cxxii. I 69
criticism made that the Church is narrow; but how other- wise could she be ? Is she not the only organization in the world to-day that stands for unflinching antagonism to wrong ? Abolish the Church and the supremacy of evil would be un- challenged, the field abandoned, and Satan have his own wicked swing,
^ Many years ago a merchant in Liverpool became financially involved, through no fault of his own, and had to come to a settlement with his creditors. He gave up everything and went to live in a small house with his wife and children. He came to church regularly twice each Sunday, and with him all his family. As the years passed his business grew and prospered, and in due time he called his creditors together, paid his debts with interest and stepped forth a free man. His creditors made him a valuable presentation of silver in recognition of his splendid fight and his sterling and honourable character. That man told me he could not have held on, or held out in the dark days that fell upon him and his, but for the courage which came to him through the services of the Church, and the ministry of the Word and Sacraments. He trusted in God and he was not confounded.^
II.
The Place of Wokship.
** Let us go unto the house of the Lord."
"The house of the Lord " is an expression which we at once recog- -nize as figurative. " Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can- not contain thee ; how much less this house that I have builded ! " So it was said even in the Jewish dispensation. In the Christian dispensation it is still more strongly expressed that the only fitting temple of the Most High is the sacred human conscience, or the community of good men throughout the world, or that vast unseen universe which is the true tabernacle, greater and more perfect than any made by hands. Nevertheless, like all familiar metaphors the expression "the house of God" has a deep root in the human heart and mind. Our idea of the invisible almost inevitably makes for itself a shell or husk from visible things. This is the germ of religious architecture. This is the reason why
1 T. J. Madden, in The Record, Feb. 7, 1913, p. 126.
70 THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
the most splendid buildings in the world have been temples or churches. This is the reason why even the most spiritual, even the most puritanical, religion clothes itself with the drapery not only of words, and sounds, and pictures, but of wood, and stone, and marble. A Friends' meeting-house is as really a house of God, and therefore as decisive a testimony to the sacredness of architecture, as the most magnificent cathedral.
1. There is a value in the association of religion with places. That value lies in the help which material things can be to the spiritual life of beings who have material forms. The wholly spiritual is at present unattainable by us. We are compelled to shape the spiritual in formal words, and to present the spiritual in material images. The sacraments are based on this value of sensible helps to spiritual feeling. And so historic and beautiful church-buildings cultivate reverence; familiar services nourish the spirit of worship ; the church we have attended since child- hood, or in which we have felt the power of Divine things, readily quickens emotion and renews faith. The hermit who retires even from hallowing associations does but make new ones for himself, for none of us can afford to neglect the help that sacred places and things may be to us.