3. Why, then, was it expedient for them that He should go away ?
(1) Absence is better than presence under certain conditions. — The influence of the absent is not only sometimes stronger in its degree, it is always purer in its kind, than the influence exerted by presence. Sometimes, dimly, we have been conscious of the truth enshrined in these words. We have recognized the fact that the influence of absence leaves its spirit ; and the more we think why we are here, the more we understand it. We are made to be tried, proved, tested, and the conditions of our trial are, or seem to be, whether we will do what is right when we are left to ourselves.
ST. JOHN XVI. 7 205
When was it that this or that man began to be so increasingly enterprising and energetic, to take a higher range, to produce his best, to be so wonderfully useful ? When, perhaps, the outward support, the soothing praise, the popularity he had enjoyed, ceased to be his ; when this and that pleasant prop upon which he had rested was removed. How it set free and drew out the forces latent in him, and made him thenceforth the braver, better, more efficient workman that he was capable of being ! Many are the instances — more than we know, doubtless — in which greater and higher achieving, or beautiful developments of character and gift, have been largely due to some painful loss. Not seldom has such loss helped to promote superior performance, to give us noble labours and famous accomplishings with which otherwise the world might never have been blessed. And all that we want often, in order to our becoming more useful or more successful, in order to our attaining the heights that remain afar off, and that we vainly wish we could reach — all that we want often, is not that something should be added to us which we have not, but that we should just lose something. While we are crying fretfully, " Oh that such and such things were mine of which others are possessed ! then would 1 conquer and do grandly," the hindrance is not in what is withheld from us, but in what cleaves to us — in some little indulged weakness, in some infirmity or false habit of ours, simply to get rid of which would be our transformation into new creatures; would leave us armed and equipped for speedy triumph. Have we not known men concerning whom we have thought, What might they not be and do, if only they could lose a little, here and there ?
^ As the wind extinguishes a taper but kindles the fire, so absence is the death of an ordinary passion, but lends strength to the greater.^
^ Even the holiest influences may deaden spiritual activity. St. Paul himself finds it necessary to detach himself, and though he had known Christ after the flesh, henceforth to know Him so no more. So for those disciples it was worth while to lose Jesus, if they might find for themselves the way into that spiritual world in which they had seen Him moving. For He did not come to be adored by men who could never reach His secret. It ' Maxims of La RocJie/oucauld, 54.
2o6 AN EXPEDIENT DEPARTURE
was His will that those who had been given Him should be with Him where He was.^
(2) Bid Jems would he with them still, though not in bodily form. — If we would feel the full force and singularity of this saying of our Lord's, let us put side by side with it that other one, " I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." Why is it that the Apostle says, " Though I want to go, I am bound to stay " ? and why is it that the Master says, " It is for your good that I am going," but because of the essential difference in the relation of the two to the people who are to be left, and in the continuance of the work of the two after they had departed? St. Paul knew that when he went, whatever befell those whom he loved and would fain help, he could not stretch a hand to do anything for them. He knew that death dropped the portcullis between him and them, and, whatever their sore need on the one side of the iron gate, he on the other could not succour or save. Jesus Christ said, " It is better for you that I should go," because He knew that all His influences would flow through the grated door unchecked, and that, departed. He would still be the life of them that trusted in Him ; and, having left them, would come near them by the very act of leaving them.
When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed
Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire. Their hearts on flight along the track He made. Winged by desire.
Their silence spake: "Lord, why not follow Thee?
Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face, Life is not life. Eemember, Lord, and see, Look back, embrace.
Earth is one desert waste of banishment.