^ W. L. Watkinson. ^ Dean Pigou, Odds and Ends, 67.
ST. LUKE XVII. 20, 2 1 379
that unfriendly environment 1 It is fine, is it not, to think about it ? How reasonable, how noble, how pure we should be if we had only been lucky enough to drop upon a nice sphere ; but it is the environment that plays us false. What does it mean ? Would it mean that if there were no drink we would all be sober ? and if there were no money there would be no speculation ? and if people did not provoke us we should be all sweet-tempered ? It is the environment, and we have been unhappy enough to drop upon a miserable surrounding ; and some of our writers teach us that when we get a better surrounding in another world we shall all be right.
H Do not we grant too much in this perpetual talk of environ- ment ? There is a great deal about us that sets environment at a defiance. To look at it physically one would think that we have no option but to succumb to an ugly environment. Is it so, physically ? I noticed the other day that in London seven tons of poisonous elements are discharged into the atmosphere every week. Seven tons of poisonous material distributed over the metro- polis every week ! Why, when you come to think about it, if we had any sense of scientific propriety we ought all to expire, but we do not. Oh, no ! the air is there. The environment no one will deny. But we have some of the finest birds in the world in London, and some one has made a collection of butterflies, every one of them a magnificent creature, caught in the metropolis. In our parks are charming blooms, and something like six or seven millions of people manage to live, some of them to the delicate age of seventy years.
How men resist the environment intellectually ! Look to the masters and you will see how little they care about the environ- ment; how little they are in need of it. Look at a man like Shakespeare, with little or no education ; what did that matter ? There was something within him that dispensed with circum- stance. He swept into the front rank and remained there, when the marching days were done. Look at a man like Handel, with no general education, scarcely any musical education, stepping out and blowing his golden trumpet, and the world is charmed and will be until the years are ended. Look at a man like Turner, his father a poor barber ; the fellow was born in a London slum, never had a day's education in his life ; what about that ? He walked up between all his canvases covered with prismatic splendour, and if you were in London you would see a crowd about his pictures. They have been there all the time ever since I have known of the
38o THE KINGDOM THAT IS WITHIN
place, and if you were to come back in five hundred years you would find a crowd still there.
If a man can triumph over circumstances, physically and in- tellectually, I rejoice to think he can triumph over them glori- ously in morals and in things of character and of conduct. Your scientists say that the conditions of things must be right or the thing can not survive ; if you have a rose it must have the sun ; if you have a willow it must have the water-course ; if you have a fern it must have a damp place. You can not change anything unless in a corresponding change of conditions. Now, I dare say that is perfectly right, but I can show you some wonderful varia- tions from that in another sphere. I can show you lovely flowers in cellars, I can show you honeysuckle climbing icicles, I can show you roses in December snows, I can find you a lily in a cesspool ; or, if you like to drop the imagery, I can find you the noblest men and the purest women in conditions that seem utterly to defy the presence of nobleness and purity ; you find the most spiritual of men in Babylon; you find men with white souls in Sodom. The grace of my Master can make us to triumph over any environment and to walk in blamelessness and honour. I tell you I have seen with my own eyes a snowdrop thrust itself through three inches of macadam. The delicate stem, frail beyond language, thrust itself through three inches of macadam. It did not believe in environment. The power of God was in its root, and it thrust itself through until it saw the blue of the sky and received the kiss of the sun ; and I tell you it can be with us in the same fashion. If the power of God in a root can lift a deli- cate flower into the sun, the power of Christ in a human heart can make us triumph over the most uncongenial surroundings.^
Tl The paradox, " Verum est quia impossible," which Tertullian uttered concerning doctrine, it is time for us boldly to apply to action, saying, "It is practicable because it is impossible"; for, under the dispensation of the Spirit, our ability is no longer the measure of our responsibility. " The things which are impossible with men are possible with God," and therefore possible for us who have been united to God through faith. Since the Holy Ghost has been given, it is not sufficient for the servant to say to his Master, '* I am doing as well as I can," for now he is bound to do better than he can. Should a New York merchant summon his commercial agent in Boston to come to him as quickly as possible, would he be satisfied if that agent were to arrive at the end of a week, footsore and weary from walking the entire distance, with the excuse, " I came as quickly as I could " ? With