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to the voice that spoke his freedom and still thrills his soul, he has no further need. And yet he shrank — who would not ? — from so speedy a separation from Him whose coming had been the cause of his salvation, whose presence was the source of his stabiHty, whose departing, he perhaps feared, would prove the occasion of a new and direr bondage to evil.^
ii. Duty.
" Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not." There were arrears of duty owing to the neglected home-life, from which he had been a stranger for a long time (Luke viii. 27). Besides, there were virtues which would find their most congenial soil in the very life from which he so naturally shrank. And, finally, there was some risk that in daily dependence upon Christ the man would miss the discipline which he needed.
^ There is a story of a poor but devout man who once came to a bishop of Paris, and said with a sorrowing heart, " Father, I am a sinner ; I feel that it is so, but it is against my will. Every hour I ask for light, and humbly pray for faith, but still I am overwhelmed with doubts and temptations. Surely if I were not despised of God, He would not leave me to struggle thus." The bishop answered him with much kindness : " The king of France has two castles in different situations and sends a commander to each of them. The castle of Mantleberry stands in a place remote from danger, far inland ; but the castle of La Eochelle is on the coast, where it is liable to continual sieges. Now, which of the two commanders, think you, stands highest in the estimation of the king ? " " Doubtless," said the poor man, " the king values him the most who has the hardest task and braves the greatest danger." " Thou art right," replied the bishop. " And now apply this matter to thy case and mine ; for my heart is like the castle of Mantleberry, and thine like that of La Eochelle."
There is no better way of keeping out devils than working for Jesus Christ. Many a man finds that the true cure — say, for instance, of doubts that buzz about him and disturb him, is to go away and talk to some one about his Saviour. Work for Jesus amongst people that do not know Him is a wonderful sieve for sifting out the fundamental articles of the Christian
» J. T. L.
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faith. And when we go to other people, and tell them of that Lord, and see how the message is sometimes received, and what it sometimes does, we come away with confirmed faith.
But, in any case, it is better to work for Him than to sit alone thinking about Him. The two things have to go together ; and I know very well that there is a great danger, in the present day, of exaggeration, and insisting too exclusively upon the duty of Christian work whilst neglecting to insist upon the duty of Christian meditation. But, on the other hand, it blows the cob- webs out of a man's brain ; it puts vigour into him, it releases him from himself, and gives him something better to think about, when he listens to the Master's voice, " 60 home to thy friends, and tell them what great things the Lord hath done for thee." ^
^ " Master ! it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles. Stay here ; let us enjoy ourselves up in the clouds, with Moses and Elias ; and never mind about what goes on below." But there was a demoniac boy down there that needed to be healed; and the father was at his wits' end, and the disciples were at theirs because they could not heal him. And so Jesus Christ turned His back upon the Mount of Transfiguration, and the company of the blessed two, and the Voice that said, " This is my beloved Son," and hurried down where human woes called Him, and found that He was as near God, and so did Peter and James and John, as when up there amid the glory .^
Not on some lone and lofty hill apart Did Christ the Saviour render up His heart For man upon the cross of love and woe ; But by the common road where to and fro The passers went upon their daily ways And, pausing, pierced Him with indifferent gaze. And still the crosses by life's highway rise Beneath the blinding glare of noonday skies ; Still with the wrestling spirit's anguished cry Blends the light mockery of the passer-by, While scorners, gathered at the martyr's feet, With railing tongues the olden taunts repeat. We may not go apart to give our life For men in some supernal, mystic strife, Beside the common paths of earth doth love Look from its cross to the still heavens above.
^ ▲. Maclaren. a lUd.
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The refusal had a threefold message to the man — a message to his will, a message to his thought, and a message to his heart.
1. A Message to his Will. — For by the refusal of his request the man is to be educated to a necessary independence. It was not gratitude alone that prompted his wish to be near Christ. It was a haunting sense of insecurity. Those who have had experience of some of the aspects of nervous disorder know the terrible character of the fears which haunt the minds of those who are its victims. They lose self-reliance ; they dread isolation. This man has been cured of his disease, but he fears the return of it if left alone. But Christ in His wisdom knows that it is best that he should be thrown on his own resources. He must resume the prerogative of his manhood, as a self-directing, self- controlling being. It is the method of all education, human and Divine. It is the method of the mother with her child ; it is God's method with man when He places him on the earth ; it is the way Christ dealt with His Church.