1 St. Thomas Aquinas, Sv/inma Theologica, Prima Secundae, Ixix. § 2. 3 St. Ambrose.
252 THE MINISTRY OF SMALL THINGS
be all stained and imperfect, yet, to our own amazement and to God's glory, we shall find, when the fire is kindled which reveals and tests our works, that, by the might of humble faith in Christ, we have built upon that foundation, gold and silver and precious stones ; and shall receive the reward given to every man whose work abides that trial by fire.
" My day has all gone " — 'twas a woman who spoke, As she turned her face to the sunset glow —
" And I have been busy the whole day long ; Yet for my work there is nothing to show."
No painting nor sculpture her hand had wrought ;
No laurel of fame her labour had won. What was she doing in all the long day,
With nothing to show at set of sun?
Humbly and quietly all the long day
Had her sweet service for others been done;
Yet for the labours of heart and of hand What could she show at set of sun ?
Ah, she forgot that our Father in heaven
Ever is watching the work that we do, And records He keeps of all we forget,
Then judges our work with judgment that's true;
For an angel writes down in a volume of gold
The beautiful deeds that all do below. Though nothing she had at set of the sun,
The angel above had something to show.
The Great Invitation.
•53
Literature.
Allon (H.), The Indivelling Christ, 43.
Beecher (H. W.), Henry Ward Beecher in England, 101.
Brandt (J. L.), Soul Saving, 251.
Burrell (D. J.), The Wondrous Cross, 18.
Burrows (W. 0.), The Mystery of the Cross, 141.
Chapman (H. B.), Sermons in Symbols, 8.
Clark (H. W.), Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 98.
Curnock (N.), Comfortable Words, 56.
Denney (J.), The Way Everlasting, 308.
Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 38.
Holden (J. S.), The Pre-eminent Lord, 180.
Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 79.
Hutton (W. R.), Low Spirits, 147.
Kelman (J.), Redeeming Judgment, 19.
Maclaren (A.), A Rosary of Christian Graces, 145.
Morgan (G. C), The Missionary Manifesto, 143.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 9.
Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 93.
Pierson (A. T.), in Dr. Pierson and His Message, 233.
Rate (J.), Leaves from the Tree of Life, 119.
Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth Every Man, 293.
Shepard (J. W.), Light and Life, 279.
Temple (W.), Repton School Sermons, 84.
Christian World Pulpit, xii. 142 (A. P. Peabody) ; xxiv. 30 (H. W.
Beecher) ; xlii. 102 (G. MacDonald) ; lxiv. 289 (W. B. Carpenter) ;
lxvii. 246 (C. S. Home) ; lxviii. 183 (E. Rees). Church of England Pulpit, lxi. 414 (H. E. Ryle). Weekly Pulpit, i. 71 (C. H. Spurgeon).
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The Great Invitation.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.— Matt. xi. 28.
1. Theke were several reasons which made this gracious invita- tion and glorious promise specially appropriate to the age in which it was spoken. It was an age of political revolution. The old Eoman Empire was breaking up, and already the seeds were being sown in it which left it, a few hundred years afterwards, an easy prey to the incursions of the Goths. It was an age of moral collapse. The old stern morality which had made Eome was breaking up like rotten ice. Marriage became a mere tem- porary convenience, which lasted for a time and then was laid aside. It was an age of social unrest. It was an age of much despair in individual souls. As always, with the decay of faith came in the prevalence of suicide.
When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward slinks to death, the brave live on.
And the great number of suicides at that time in the Koman Empire pointed to the despair which was creeping over soul after soul. It was in the midst of such a world that Jesus Christ uttered this splendid invitation : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
^| " Despair is the vilest of words." That expresses Fitzjames's whole belief and character. Faith may be shaken and dogmas fade into meaningless jumbles of words : science may be unable to supply any firm ground for conduct. Still we can quit ourselves like men. From doubt and darkness he can still draw the practical conclusion, " Be strong and of a good courage." And therefore, Fitzjames could not be a pessimist in the proper sense ; for the true pessimist is one who despairs of the universe. Such a man can only preach resignation to inevitable evil, and his best
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256 THE GREAT INVITATION
hope is extinction. Fitzjames goes out of his way more than once to declare that he sees nothing sublime in Buddhism. " Nirvana," he says in a letter, " always appeared to me to be at bottom a cowardly ideal. For my part I like far better the Carlyle or Calvinist notion of the world as a mysterious hall of doom, in which one must do one's fated part to the uttermost, acting and hoping for the best and trusting that somehow or other our admiration of the 'noblest human qualities' will be justified."1