But alas, The soul now climbs it just to perish there !
And then he pictures the visions from that tower of capacity for joy, spread round it, meant for it, mocking it, and the agony of the soul finding itself less capable of enjoyment even than before. The very fatigue consequent on the realization has brought de- struction to it.
We struggle, fain to enlarge Our bounded physical recipiency, Increase our power, supply fresh oil to life, Kepair the waste of age and sickness : no, It skills not ! life's inadequate to joy. Most progress is most failure.
He fails just as he is learning the value of gifts which he longs to use and cannot. To his patron Protus he writes : —
Thou diest while I survive ? Say rather that my fate is deadlier still, In this, that every day my sense of joy Grows more acute, my soul (intensified By power and insight) more enlarged, more keen ; While every day my hairs fall more and more, My hand shakes, and the heavy years increase — The horror quickening still from year to year, The consummation coming past escape When I shall know most, and yet least enjoy.
ST. MATTHEW xix. 16 369
The progress of culture without the spiritual outlet which com- munion which Christ brings, without the vision of the Eternal, beyond time and sense, being one with us, is only more and more unsatisfying. When we have kept all the commandments of science and philosophy and civilization, the question will recur, " What lack I yet ? " l
II.
The Answer.
1. Jesus said to him, " If thou wilt be perfect — if thou wilt supply what is lacking — sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." This is intended to bring out an application of the law which he had not observed. There is one of the commandments the purpose of which is to pierce the heart and bring not merely the outward action to view, but also the actuating impulses. It is interesting to note that in the case of the Apostle Paul, whose resemblance to the young ruler has been referred to, it was thus that his boasted righteousness dissolved. " I had not known sin, except through the law : for 1 had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." So here, too, Jesus brought out the unobserved covetousness by asking the young ruler to sacrifice his wealth for the eternal life he was anxious to acquire.
^f There is no passion so tenacious as covetousness. Most of the passions which rule men are exposed before long to some withering influences. The passions of young life are bound up with our physical nature, and with changed physical conditions their supremacy may be undermined. The passions of manhood, like ambition and the love of power, are shaken by stormy weather. . . . Covetousness, unlike other passions, grows stronger with advancing years. The power of pleasure dies, the value of fame is found to be unsubstantial, but wealth is hard, solid, lasting — more real than the vain things which charmed our younger years. So wealth is loved, and covetousness grows, and becomes a tyrant vice with increasing years. It was a true instinct which led Dante to picture avarice as an invincible foe. In his pilgrim- age he passed safely by the leopard of pleasure ; he feared, yet was not vanquished by, the lion of ambition ; but the lean wolf of avarice drove him step by step back to the darkness. Such is
1 R. Eyton, Hit Ten Commandments, 157. ST. MATT. 24
370 ETERNAL LIFE
the power of covetousness. It ia a vice which renews its strength and is tenacious and remorseless.1
2. This young man was plainly told that in order to inherit eternal life he must give up his pleasant home, all his comforts, his position in society, and become a poor, houseless wanderer. This always seems a very harsh demand to make of a well- intentioned youth. One might have expected that, instead of thus bluntly laying down an ultimatum, our Lord would have won him by gentle, gradual, seductive methods. But often the decision of the surgeon who sees what must in the long run be done, and knows that every hour lost is a risk, sounds abrupt and harsh to those who have no such knowledge ; and *ve can scarcely question that the method which our Lord adopted with this young man was not merely the only wise method, but the kindest possible method. This young man's possessions happened to be what prevented him from following Christ ; but some pursuit of ours, or some cherished ambition, or some evil habit, or some love of ease, or mere indifference, may be as completely preventing us from learning of Christ and from living as He lived and so attaining true likeness to Him.
Tf " Never fear to let go," he says in his philosophical notes ; " it is the only means of getting better things, — self-sacrifice. Let go ; let go ; we are sure to get back again. How science touches the lesson of morals, which is ever, Give up, give up ; deny yourself, — not this everlasting getting; deny yourself, and give, and in- finitely more shall be yours ; but give — not bargaining ; give from love, because you must. And if the question will intrude, ' What shall I have if I give up this ? ' relegate that question to faith, and answer, ' I shall have God. In my giving, in my love, God, who is Love, gives Himself to me.' " 2