^ Long ago I made a change of habitat from the 'hill country of western Carolina to what was regarded as a malarious district near the eastern coast. I was warned of the probable conse- quences to my health, but I laughed at the fears of my friends. I protested that there was nothing in the world the matter with the air. Was I not a chemist ? At least, I was so accounted in those days when I filled that chair in a humble college. The air had just the same constituents as were to be found in the hill country — oxygen, nitrogen, vapour of water, and a trace of carbonic acid. And so for two years I laughed at chills and fevers, and then I shook for two months. There was something baneful in the air, even though chemical analysis failed to detect its presence.^
III.
The Keeper.
. " That thou shouldest keep them." What a wealth of quiet experience there is in the phrase, " The Lord shall preserve thy going out." It is worth while at the beginning of any day to pause to gather so precious a promise. But like many another fair promise it is at the same time a challenge. The God who waits at the door with the offer of companionship, scrutinizes our going forth. We have, as it were, to pass Him to get into the street. He is the sentry who must know our business, and why ^ P. S. Henson, The Four Faces, 233.
ST. JOHN XVII. 15 285
we go out, before He can give us safe conduct. The assurance of protection can be tasted only by the man whose daily purpose is in accordance with the will of God, who can give the answer of his Master, that he is about the Father's business.
^ In China men have conceived of a sleeping Deity. There, lying on his side, with calm face, closed eyes, and head resting upon his hand, is a gilded wooden figure, 30 feet long, and well proportioned. But he does not mind his worshippers. His left arm is resting upon his body, and his bare feet are placed one upon the other. This Buddha is sleeping, while the world goes on. Standing about him are twelve crowned and beautifully dressed images, and in front are the symbols of sacrifice and incense. How unlike Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps !
O strange and wild is the world of men Which the eyes of the Lord must see — With continents, islands, tribes and tongues, With multitudes bond and free! •All kings of the earth bow down to Him, And yet — He can think on me.
For none can measure the mind of God
Or the bounds of eternity.
He knows each life that has come from Him,
To the tiniest bird and bee.
And the love of His heart is so deep and wide
That it takes in even me.^
1. The disciple cannot keep himself. — The Saviour did not turn to those who stood round Him and bind them by strong vows to remain faithful when He was gone. He knew their weakness, and He looked away from them to God's strength. It is well for us to know our weakness. We cannot keep ourselves. We have no strength to meet the attack, and no skill to evade it. How will you do ? Will you resolve sternly to resist when next you are tempted? Such resolves have been made, as in a soul's agony they have been made, and they have gone down before the fierce onslaught like lead before the blow-pipe, or they have yielded to the gentle wooings and insinuations of the evil one. Be not too confident, that is, not self-confident. St. Peter's brave challenge to man or devil to make him desert his Master was but the prelude to his fall.
1 Mary E. Allbrigbt
286 ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTER
2. We are kept by outward restraints, by commands and pro- hibitions and providences. It is told of one of the great painters of Italy, that, being engaged upon a fresco inside the dome of a lofty cathedral, and standing on a platform hung more than a hundred feet from the floor, he paused to look at the effect of his work, and, absorbed in his art, kept walking backward for a better view, till, forgetful of danger, he had almost reached the platform's edge, unconscious that two more backward steps would hurl him down to death. A brother artist seeing his danger, but afraid to speak lest a sudden shout should precipitate the fall he was anxious to prevent, seized a brush full of paint and hurled it against the face of the brilliant figure on the dome, completely spoiling the labour of many days. But that saved the painter's life; for, resenting what he thought an insult, and springing forward with a cry, he only then discovered that that had been a friendly act to save him from an awful death. And when God, with a seemingly cruel hand blots out our beautiful visions, and spoils the life-picture that we thought so fair, till we cry out in surprise and anger too. He may be saying with a tender voice, " It was to keep you from falling."
•[j " Don't you think, sir," said a very sincere but simple man, to me, one Sunday, as I was leaving the pulpit of a chapel filled chiefly by the poor, " don't you think that you repeat the Lord's Prayer the wrong way ? Don't you think you had better repeat it as our minister repeats it? He always says, 'Leave us not in temptation.' You don't think that God ever leads us into temptation, sir, do you ? Had you not better follow our minister's way, sir ? " " No," I replied ; " I don't think I had better follow your minister's way. I think he had better follow Christ's way and repeat the prayer as Christ taught it. Listen, my friend," I said ; " the prayer is clear enough and forcible enough if you will read it through. But you are like some other people that I know, you insist on reading the Bible with your thumb-nail instead of your brains. You stick your thumb-nail into one word on a page and will not see any other word, even on the same page. When you read any other book you allow it to explain itself. You read all adjoining passages, as well as the immediate context; and, above all, you do not ignore the context. You let the book ex- plain itself. Do the same with the Lord's Prayer." "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil " ; that is, lead us not into temptation that shall overpower us, expose us not to