2. A Message to his Thought. — The man's thoughts were concentrated on his visible Healer. He must be taught to pass in thought beyond that which is seen and realise those spiritual powers of which outward things convey but a passing expression. He must walk by faith and not by sight. He must pass from the material to the spiritual. This step also has its analogy in all human education. We begin our education with the concrete. We learn to count by the use of coloured beads upon a wire ; from these we pass to figures ; from figures we go forward to algebraical signs and symbols. By the same method man has been taught to know God. St. Paul appealed to the Athenians to give over the worship of idols made with hands, and to worship Him in whom we live and move and have our being. Even the visible Christ must go away. It is expedient for us. " Touch me not," He says to the eager Magdalene still ; to Thomas, " Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."
3. A Message to his Heart. — Our Lord points out to the man that life is not for self but for others. Instead of the joy of being near Himself He gives him a duty — " Go home to thy friends." Were the friends unworthy ? Had they been more
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kin than kind ? It may be so. But this man had met with a wonderful experience. He had gained knowledge of a love that did not look for return. He can now think with sympathy of those to whom this wonderful revelation is unknown. So every new power, and every fresh experience, carries with it responsibility. Love is contagious ; nay, it is more, it is infectious. Freely we have received, freely we fain would give. Moreover, it is by self-forgetful effort among others that the man is to win his own independence. And again it is the method of all true education. The child is not merely told to try to walk. Some object to be reached is put before him. The pupil is not simply bidden to think. Some definite problem is submitted to his thoughts. Man's powers of independence and self-reliance are drawn out by the necessity of work. And that the disciples might become assured of power, Christ set them to discharge their duty. Their task was to teach all nations.
^ It has been written, " An endless significance lies in work ; " a man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seedfields rise instead, and stately cities ; and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Kemorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these, like hell- dogs, lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man : but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame ! ^
iii. Duty and Desire One.
"Go home to thy friends, and tell them"; and you will find that to do that is the best way to realise the desire which seemed to be put aside, the desire for the presence of Christ. For be sure that wherever He may not be, He always is where a man, in obedience to Him, is doing His commandments. So when He said, " Go home to thy friends," He was answering
^ Thomas Oarlyle, Past and Present, chap, xi.
142 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
the request that He seemed to reject, and when the Gadarene obeyed, he would find, to his astonishment and his grateful wonder, that the Lord had not gone away in the boat, but was with him still. " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel Lo ! I am with you alway."
I said, "Let us walk in the field."
He said, "Nay, walk in the town." I said, "There are no flowers there."
He said, "No flowers but a crown."
I said, "But the skies are black,
There is nothing but noise and din."
And He wept as He sent me back,
"There is more," He said, "there is sin."
I said, "But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun." He answered, "Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone."
I said, "I shall miss the light.
And friends will miss me, they say."
He answered, " Choose to-night, If I am to miss you, or they."
I pleaded for time to be given.
He said, " Is it hard to decide ? It will not seem hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide."
I cast one look at the field,
Then set my face to the town. He said, "My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown ? "