World — how it walled about Life with disgrace,
Till God's own smile came out ; That was thy face !
It is sometimes said that certain men have a natural genius for religion. What they have is natural ability which, when taken possession of by the Spirit of God, makes them eminently successful as witnesses or saints. How would St. Paul have used his reasoning power, or Bunyan his imagination, apart from the grace of God ?
II The world is full of people who are ambitious to become poets, painters, musicians, or orators, but, despite wearisome and pathetic application, they never do anything really first-rate ; the master- piece is not forthcoming ; they find supreme music, art, or eloquence so difficult as to be, in fact, practically impossible. What do these baffled aspirants really need to make their work easy, and to secure them the rapture of triumph ? Give that despairing musician an atom of Mozart's melodious brain, that halting poet a spark of Shakespeare's fire, that struggling painter a nerve of Turner's colour-sense, that stammering orator a lick
^ The Poetry of the Upward Way, p. 24.
ISAIAH 15
of Demosthenes' tongue, and bitter failure will be at an end; there will be no more exhausting difficulty and delay, only the intoxicating sense of mastery, progress, and delight. More power in the learner is what is needed, and every difficulty is vanquished, every aspiration fulfilled. So we experience repeated difficulty and disappointment in the pursuit of holiness, because the power of Christ does not sufficiently rest upon us. " Christ in you the hope of glory " — not the glory of the future only, but the glory of character here and now. Let us plead for more inward vision, receptivity, and responsiveness, for more of the Spirit that worketh mightily in full surrendered souls, and all things fair and perfect shall become possible.^
2. We need a Pattern. As the child who is to learn to write receives a copybook with a headline, so we need an example if we are to learn to do well. Should the example be good or bad ? Some ethical teachers think it best to show us the repulsiveness and horror of vice. Many novelists follow this method. " The drama," says Mr. Watkinson, " is fond of holding up the mirror to nature, as the phrase goes, and very ugly reflections they commonly are ; one might think that the stage existed in the interests of the doctrine of original sin. News- papers foster purity by raking in the kennels, and journals with religious and moral pretensions go to an extreme in exhuming and exhibiting repulsive incidents in individual and social life."^ But how often are drunkards reformed by the sight of a drunkard ? It is well known that murders are apt to follow when the details of some ghastly murder are given in the newspapers. We might as well hope to obtain a good style by familiarising ourselves with specimens of bad English. Let the pattern be good, and as good as possible. As William Tell has made many patriots, as Florence Nightingale has trained many nurses, as Lord Shaftesbury has shown the way to many philanthropists, so the Lord Jesus Christ is the Pattern for all who would learn to do well. " Learn of me " is His own invitation, and the Apostles are aware that the only way by which they themselves learned to do well was by " looking unto Jesus."
1[ I remember speaking severely to a five-year-old child who was misbehaving at table. She answered quite discourteously.
^ W. L. Watkinson, The Bane and the Antidote, p. 181. * Jl{d. p. 176,
i6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
On being asked why she had spoken so, she said, " Oh, I only wanted to show you the tone of voice you used ! " ^
3. We need Practice. How does a young man learn to cycle ? By practising it. How does a young medical man attain to usefulness in his profession ? By the practice of it. He calls himself a practitioner, and his business a practice.
If " Do ! Do ! Do ! Let your picture go, and do another ! " said William Hunt to his students when they asked him a thousand curious questions about lines, colours, and effects. In doing, they were to know and excel. And the teachers of science specially demand that all theoretical knowledge shall go hand in hand with experiment. The student must keep on applying his knowledge ; only by repeated appeals to the facts of nature does he learn the truth and become a real philosopher. We know only through doing, and through doing ever do better. The famous physician John Hunter used to say to his pupils, " Don't think, try."
1. Take the virtue of contentment. In our best moments we feel that fretfulness and ingratitude partake of the nature of blasphemy; yet the repinings and soreness of the soul are subdued only through repeated failure and discipline.
1[ It is true, no doubt, that there is a secret, and that the secret of contentment, as of every other virtue, may be learned in a moment. But for the fulness of the following of Christ in content- ment there is need of the patient discipline of years. Contentment, says Dr. J. B. Campbell, is less a gift or a grace than a growth. It is the flower and fruit of careful cultivation. And he mentions three things that aid in its cultivation. (1) A just consideration of the worth of things. We shall never find contentment while we value the things that are seen above those that are not seen, the trivial and temporal above the essential and eternal, the material and physical above the moral and spiritual. (2) Confidence in God. He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. He is never unmindful of our work and labour of love. Then dis- appointments become His appointments, and all things work together for good. (3) Co-operation with God. For this makes failure impossible, this gives assurance that no word or work is vain. But co-operation with God demands the consecration of self to His service. And so the simple secret of contentment is surrender to God's will. Does anyone doubt it? Let him try it. Does anyone desire it ? Let him do it.