4. Dare we advance higher ? Nature is beautiful because it reveals thought; the human face is more beautiful because
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it reveals that moral goodness of which thought is only a condition ; the soul is more beautiful, for in it dwells the goodness that lights the countenance ; but all these, and the highest of them all, are but dim and broken reflections of a beauty which is beyond and above all, as it is the source of all. " Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty." To see the King in His beauty is to see the beauty of His glorified humanity taken for ever into the Godhead. It is to see that form which the Son of God took to Himself in the womb of the Virgin, bore while He dwelt on earth, raised from the grave, ascended with into heaven, and in which He now stands at the right hand of the Father. It is to see with the eyes the perfect manhood of God incarnate ; it is to see the face of God ; it is to see with the soul the beauty from which it derives any beauty — the beauty of holiness, of purity, of truth, of love, of mercy, of justice, of wisdom, of all perfection. It is to see this, not through cloud, or in vision, or broken by any medium, but as directly as it is possible for the creature to see the uncreated. It is for the soul to see by participation, to see the more the more it partakes ; to bathe in the abysses of that glory, beholding and becoming itself beautiful in beholding, even as the light of the sun imparts its light to the object it falls upon, and glorifies that on which it shines.
IF Shall we follow for a day one who has got the true per- spective? Here is the outer side: a humble home, a narrow circle, measuring goods, chopping a typewriter, checking a ledger, feeding the swift machinery, tiresome examination papers; and all the rest of the endless, endless doing, day by day, of the commonplace treadmill things that must be done, that fill out the day of the great majority of human lives. This one whom we are following unseen is doing quietly, cheerily, his daily round, with a bit of sunshine in his face, a light in his eye, and lightness in his step. He is working for God. No, better, he is working with God. He has an unseen friend at his side. Now, hold your breath and look, for here is the inner side, where the larger work of life is being done. Here is the quiet bit of time alone with God. God Himself is here. The angels are here. This room opens out into, and is in direct touch with, a spirit space as wide as the earth. To-day a half-hour is spent in China, for its missionaries, its native Christians, its millions. And so this man pushes his spirit through Japan, India, Persia, the liome-land, the city; in
198 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
and out ; out and in. This is the true Christian life. The true follower of Jesus has as broad a horizon as his Master.^
Three worlds there are : — the first of Sense — That sensuous earth which round us lies ;
The next of Faith's Intelligence : The third of Glory in the skies.
The first is palpable but base :
The second heavenly, but obscure ; The third is star-like in the face —
But ah ! remote that world as pure !
Yet, glancing through our misty clime. Some sparkles from that loftier sphere
Make way to earth ; then most what time ,
The annual spring flowers appear.
Amid the coarser needs of earth
All shapes of brightness, what are they
But wanderers, exiled from their birth. Or pledges of a happier day ?
Yea, what is beauty, judged aright. But some surpassing transient gleam ;
Some smile from Heaven, in waves of light, Pappling o'er life's distempered dream ?
Or broken memories of that bliss
Which rushed through first-born Nature's blood When He who ever was, and is,
Looked down and saw that all was good ? ^
ii. Th^ Land of Far Distances.
The land of far distances was not for Isaiah in some foreign country, to which a long and toilsome pilgrimage had to be made. It was simply the region round Jerusalem, the fair open country, fading away in the far-ofl' aerial perspective ; the land of clear lights and distant views, as contrasted with the narrow streets and the strait boundaries of the besieged city. And all that was necessary to enable the inhabitants to see it was that the siege should be ended, and that they should be delivered and allowed to go out of the city to behold • it. And
* S. D. Gordon, Quiet Tnlls on Prayer. ^ Sir Aubrey de Vere.
- ISAIAH 199
so the spiritual land of far distances which it symbolises, is not a land removed from us into the remote depths of heaven, like a fixed star. It is round about us ; our being is in it now ; our souls are the inhabitants of it here. It is our Fatherland. This world itself is the land of far distances. Its things that are unseen and eternal are only eclipsed by the shadow of ourselves. All that is necessary is that our eyes should be opened, and that we should be delivered from the bondage of sin, and made heavenly-minded in order to see it.