U " I wish I had your creed, then I would live your life,'* said a seeker after truth to Pascal, the great French thinker. " Live my life, and you will soon have my creed," was the swift reply. The solution of all difficulties of faith lies in Pascal's answer, which is after all but a variant of Christ's greater saying, " He that willeth to do the will of God, shall know the teaching."
^ Adam Bede, in Adorn, £ede.
320 THE WILL TO KNOW
Is not the whole reason why, for so many of us, the religion of Christ which we profess has so little in it to content us, simply this, that we have never heartily and honestly tried to practise it ? ^
Therefore be strong, be strong, Ye that remain, nor fruitlessly revolve. Darkling, the riddles which ye cannot solve, But do the works that unto you belong; Believing that for every mystery, For all the death, the darkness, and the curse Of this dim universe, Needs a solution full of love must be: And that the way whereby ye may attain Nearest to this, is not through broodings vain And half-rebellious, questionings of God, But by a patient seeking to fulfil The purpose of His everlasting will, Treading the path which lowly men have trod. Since it is ever they who are too proud For this, that are the foremost and most loud To judge His hidden judgments, these are still The most perplexed and lost at His mysterious will.^
6. Jesus' word has great comfort for two kinds of people.
(1) The first is the man who is harassed by many perplexing questions, but who is doing his duty bravely. Courage, we say, and patience. No one ever carried Christ's Cross without coming near to Christ Himself, and where Christ is, the light is sure to break. There is no sacrifice we make, no service we render, that is not bringing us nearer to the heart of things ; for the heart of the universe is love. Let us watch as those who watch for the morning, and watch at our work, for the day will break and it will come with morning songs. St. Thomas could hardly believe anything, but he was willing to die with Christ, and Christ showed him His wounds.
^ With anxious thoughts at this time General Booth avers, when the rubicon was passed and the severance from the Methodist New Connexion made final, "That he and his wife went out together not knowing a soul who would give them a shilling, neither knowing where to go." Mrs. Booth wrote to her parents, " I am so nervous I can scarcely write. I am almost bewildered with fatigue and anxiety. If I thought it was right to stop here in the ordinary work I would gladly consent. But I cannot be-
» W. J. Dawson, The Empire of Love, 101. * Trench, Poems, 102.
ST. JOHN VII. 17 321
lieve that it would be so. Why should he spend another year plodding round this wreck of a circuit, preaching to twenty, thirty, and forty people, when, with the same amount of cost to himself, he might be preaching to thousands ? And none of our friends would think it right if we had an income. Then, I ask, does the securing of our bread and cheese make that right which would otherwise be wrong when God has promised to feed and clothe us ? I think not ; William hesitates. He thinks of me and the children, and I appreciate his love and care. But I tell him that God will provide if he will only go straight on in the path of duty. It is strange that I, who always used to shrink from the sacrifice, should be the first in making it." ^
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty ; I woke, and found that life was Duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie ? Toil on, sad heart, courageously. And thou shalt find thy dream to be A noonday light and truth to thee.^
(2) The other is the man who laments the simplicity of his intellect. Be of good cheer, and do not despair or despise yourself. The Master thanked God that He had hidden the deep things from the wise and had revealed them to babes ; He also set a child in the midst of the disciples and told them that if any one desired to be great he must become as a little child. It is not through deep thinking, but through faithful doing, that one comes to know the mystery of God ; and faithful doing is within every one's reach. The path which philosophers and scientists have often missed has been found by shepherds on the hills, and by working women. Mary of Bethany and the fishermen of Galilee knew more of God than the scholars of Jerusalem.
^ One hears sometimes of religious controversies running very high ; about faith, works, grace, prevenient grace, the Arches Court and Essays and Reviews ; — into none of which do I enter, or concern myself with your entering. One thing I will remind you of, That the essence and outcome of all religions, creeds and liturgies whatsoever is. To do one's work in a faithful manner. Unhappy caitiff, what to you is the use of orthodoxy, if with every stroke of your hammer you are breaking all the Ten Command- ments,— operating upon Devil's-dust, and, with constant invocation of the Devil, endeavouring to reap where you have not sown ? ^