' It has made men, *■ The great men of faith were all at one time " honest doubters." Christ therefore loves the " honest doubter."
/ He says to him, " You are not far from the kingdom of God " ; only, remember you are not in. Your honest doubt won't save you. Men have asked, " Is doubt a sin ? " No ; doubt is not a sin, but doubt is a disease. And no man was ever saved by a disease. That great doubters have been saved I doubt not, but it was not their doubts that saved them. They were saved by the faith that " lived " in their " honest doubts."
j ^ A newspaper writer recently described a strange habit that
I seamen have of visiting a famous city without landing. He said : I spoke with the mate of a ship one day at Venice, and asked him how he liked the city. Well, he had not been ashore yet. He was told that he had better go ashore ; that the Piazza San Marco was worth seeing. Well, he knew it, he had seen pictures of it ; but he thought that he wouldn't go ashore. Why not, now he was here ? Well, he laid out to go ashore the next time he came to Venice. So he lay three weeks with his ship, after a voyage of two months, and sailed away without even setting his foot on that
* R. W. Corbett, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Day, 40.
ST. MARK 349
enchanted ground. How many, after crossing troubled seas of>v^ doubt and conflict, and finding themselves in the very haven of rest, yet hesitate to take the last step and possess the land. " Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God," Leave behind you the salt, estranging sea ; be no more tossed to and fro ; plant your feet on the smiling shore, walk its streets of gold, wear its white raiment, share its beauty and joy.^
(4) Perhaps he was not willing to profess hiinself (ypenly a \y^
\ disciple of Christ and accept all that this would involve. He
f may have lacked the persistence of Nicodemus, who, though
I afraid of the Jews, yet came " by night " to be instructed in
■ the way of the Kingdom, "Except a man be born of water
and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
This was at first a hard saying to Nicodemus, but there is every
reason to believe that he did commit himself more and more
to Christ in newness of life ; but, in so far as we have traces
or glimpses of his history in the Gospels up to the time of the
resurrection of Christ, he shows the same timid shrinking
temper which brought him to Jesus under cover of darkness.
The resurrection, being the seal and crown of all our Lord's
earthly work, and the signal for the coming of the illuminating
and strengthening Spirit, had a wonderful effect on the disciples
generally, and it may have been the occasion of the complete
confirmation of Nicodemus in the faith of Christ.
Shall I, for fear of feeble man. Thy Spirit's course in me restrain ? Or undismay'd in deed and word, Be a true witness to my Lord ?
Awed by a mortal's frown, shall I Conceal the Word of God most high? How then before Thee shall I dare To stand, or how Thy anger bear?
No ; let man rage ! since Thou wilt spread Thy shadowing wings around my head: Since in all pain Thy tender love Will still my sweet refreshment prove.*
^ There is a picture in stone which is enshrined in one of our cathedrals. It is the monument of one of England's
1 W. L. Wiitkiusou. * George Whitefield.
350 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
noblest bishops, the great and self-sacrificing Selwyn. Above the sarcophagus, which is of white marble, there is a recumbent figure of the great missionary, with a beautiful, placid counten- ance and the hands folded crosswise upon his breast. But the most beautiful thing of all is a window — a cross-shaped window — which is filled with crimson glass. It is so placed that when the noontide sun falls upon it, it throws the shadow of a blood- stained cross on the breast and face of the noble bishop beneath. It is, one feels, the truest epitaph that could be written of him. His life was made beautiful by the Cross. And so, if we are able to take that farther step which leads us into the Gethsemane of sacrifice, we shall not regret it. We shall come to feel with growing assurance and joy that our lives never truly touch completeness till they touch the Cross.^
Why wilt thou thus engage thy mind, My Master said, and fall behind ?
What matters it to thee,
Whate'er their whispering be ? Come on and leave their talk alone : Stand like a tower firm, whose crown
Its summit never vails
For all the whistling gales.'
* W. Mackintosh Mackay.
■ Dante, Purg. v. 10-15 (tr. by Paget Toynbee).
All that She Had.
I.ITERATURE.
Horton (R. F.), The Cartoons of St. Marl, 249.
Hull (E. L.), Sermons Preached at King's Lynn, 3rd Ser., 213.