^ M. G. Glazebrook, in The Church Family Newspaper, March 24, 1910, p. 248. - J. P. Gledstone, in Christian World PvZpit, xxxiv, p. 183,
228 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
1 It is wonderful to see how sensitive the Church of to-day has become to her condition, to her reputation, and to her efficiency. If there is backshding, there is always a reprover at hand ; if there is a low standard of attainment, there is always some one to urge her forward to higher graces ; if there is inefficiency in any department of service, there is always some active, enterprising spirit prepared to supply the lack and do the necessary Avork. If one Church declines, another grows ; if one denomination passes by any field of usefulness, another steps in and occupies it. If the Churches at home were to prove unfaithful, they would be rebuked and stimulated by those abroad. If the ministry becomes cold and formal, the Press utters the complaints of the hungry, starving flock. So much work is now cast upon the Church, her enter- prises have carried her into so many lands, and require so many workers and such enormous revenues, that she can maintain her ground only by a life of faith. Faith brought her into this goodly land, and by nothing but faith can she retain it. Yet mere reten- tion is not enough. She must make fresh advances ; she lives by growth. To stand still is to die. Thus is she continually cast upon God, and to be cast upon Him is to find His faithfulness and truth.i
4. What the world requires most of all is a revelation of the glory of God. The material progress which we have been describing is what many people mean when they speak of " the civilisation of the nineteenth century," and yet that which has lamentably failed to bless our own people is sometimes vaunted as the best message we can send to the heathen. Many say, " Let our trade, and our railways, and all our conveniences first find entrance to a heathen land, and then the people there will be prepared for the Gospel." A grosser delusion could hardly be promulgated. Our own social condition might show its fallacy, and experiment in heathen lands has confirmed it. When Christianity has gone first (as to the South Seas), morality, and contentment, and safety have been generated with a simple religious faith, whose earnestness puts us to shame. But when this so-called " civilisation " has preceded Christianity, idolaters have become atheists, and their last state is worse than their first. Now, as our text puts it, the great object we Christians are to keep in view, in all our achievements and enterprises, is that " the glory of God " may be revealed — not, you observe, the
' J. P. Gledstone, in Christian World Pulpit, xxxiv. p. 183.
ISAIAH 229
glory of man, not the glory of a society, not the glory of a sect, but the glory of God. And what do we understand by that ? Certainly no burst of light upon the world such as that which overwhelmed Saul of Tarsus, nor any new and supernatural revelation, but a fulfilment of the Saviour's words about His disciples, " I am glorified in them." As a king, a man finds his glory in the contentment of his people ; as a father, a man finds his glory in the well-being of his children; and so the great King and Father of us all finds His " glory " in our con- tentment and well-being. And how can that be brought about ? It is by the work and words of those who speak " comfortably " to the sinners, who proclaim a reconciled God revealed in Jesus Christ, who declare to all who in penitence will accept it, that " iniquity is pardoned," and that it is possible for all flesh to see the salvation of God.^
If We have produced, during the last fifty years, says Bishop Stubbs, agitators of the John the Baptist type, from John Bright down to John Burns, and they have most of them done noble preparatory work ; but we have now to produce, if we can, and from the same classes, admirable administrators, who are quite a different kind of people, a new order of men, a new religious order, shall I say ?— men who, whilst believing in the possibilities of democratic control, know how essential to efficient administration are all the qualities which are of Christian character, justice, patience, hope, modesty, integrity, frankness, and fellowship. We want, in fact, as great a change, it seems to me, in our conception of the essential qualities which go to make an able pubHc man, a vestry politician even, as Browning described in the wonderful picture he gave of the true function of a poet, which he called, " How it strikes a Contemporary." Indeed, now I come to think of it, I am not sure that Browning's poet is not quite the kind of man we want for our county councillors and politicians. Do you remember Browning's lines —
I only knew one poet in my life :
And this, or something like it, was his way.
You saw him up and down Yalladolid,
A man of mark, to know next time you saw.