28o ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTER
was possible. An induction coil could not be constructed, and so there could be no dynamo or electric motor. In short, there could be no transmission of electrical energy in any form. Insulation is as much a matter of necessity in things spiritual as in things electrical. This does not mean, however, the insulation which is found in isolation so much as that which is the product of life. It is not secured by separating one's self from his fellows, whether in the cell of the monastery or in the religious retreat. Tt is rather the possession of life that shields a man from his hostile environment, and enables him to triumph over it.^
2. The spirit of Christ's prayer was the habit of His life. If He was not of this world, it was not because He left it to itself, or wrapped Himself in any mystery, or was without sympathy for any human condition, or untouched by any cry of emotion. He lived as a man among men. He assumed no special sanctity, no signs of separation. He sat at rich men's tables. -He associated with those of evil repute and of no repute. He said of Himself that He came eating and drinking. It was charged against Him that He was "gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner." He gave currency Himself to the coarse reproach that He was " a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber," not fearing to take it up, and only adding, " Wisdom is justified of all her children." For he who cannot pass blamelessly through the common conditions of our life, taking them as they are, and evading none of them, is no saint of God and no saviour of men. It is not being above any human necessity, but meeting it fully and purely, that tests spiritual power. If the Son of Man was not of the world, it was not because His spirit was not large enough to take in both earth and heaven ; it was because this earth was a sacred place where God was unfolding His providence and men were fulfilling their preparatoiy destinies; and when He looked upon them in the light of their immortality, His tenderness flowed out even in tears — not the tears that lie near to the eyes, but out of the anguish of His spirit — for those who, in the crisis of the world's opportunity, were rejecting the counsel of God against themselves, not knowing the time of their visitation.
^ It is said of every painting that has no clear outlook to the sky, that it leaves a stifling impression on the mind of confinement and limitation. And so of every human life that has no natural
> C. H. Tyndall, Electricity audits Similitudes, 114.
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outlet to the infinite : it is then of the world, and of the world only. Yet we have no external measurements for such states of the spirit. Only the individual conscience, and He who is greater than the conscience, can tell where worldliness prevails, with the heavenly outlook closed. Each heart must answer for itself, and at its own risk. That our souls are committed to our own keeping at our own peril, in a world so mixed as this, is the last reason why we should slumber over the charge, or betray the trust. If only that outlet to the infinite is kept open, the inner bond with eternal life preserved, while not one movement of this world's business is interfered with, not one pulse-beat of its happiness repressed, with all natural associations dear and cherished, with all human sympathies fresh and warm, we shall yet be near to the Kingdom of heaven, within the order of the Kosmos of God in the world, but not of the world — not taken out of it, but kept from its evil.^
^ It was a true inspiration of the artist who depicted a monk at his desk in the monastery cell, with pen in hand, and eyes looking upward for illumination, and the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove to bring the light and guidance he sought. That was a true inspiration ; but it was equally true to depict a foul spirit speaking from beneath, seeking to engage the monk's attention, that he might whisper in his ear the corrupt and corrupting counsel of the world. In convent and in the busiest highway the two voices call, and no withdrawal of the body will deliver us from the subtle and ensnaring influence of the evil world.2
3. The more we make of this life, the more credible another life becomes. The greater this life is made, the easier to believe in the next. No one would infer Paradise from the vast African desert. It is when the traveller visits European zones, sees their magnificence of verdure and bloom and the grand creations of man, that the soul readily believes in God and eternity.
^ A noted novelist has said that when the great and pure souls of earth were beheld it was easy to believe in immortality. We have suffered from two causes — from religious zealots dispar- aging this world, and from infidel minds underrating the next. The former take from this beautiful world its purpose, while the latter deprive it of the mystery and the hope of Heaven. Christ has delivered us from both. For He stood forth emphasizing the