If you could let men go their way, They would let you go yours;
and he adds :
We might have peace, great peace,
If we would not load ourselves with others' words and works,
And with what concerns us not.
How can he be long at rest
Who meddles in another's cares.
And looks for matters out of his own path,
And only now and then gathers his thoughts within him?^
3. We must he concerned for others hut we may he over-anxious. — Some men, of ardent, energetic temperament, seem to have very exaggerated ideas of the extent of their responsibility. They seem to live only to keep all other people straight. No heresy can anywhere be broached, but they must rush to the front and expose it. No iniquity can anywhere be practised, but they must drag it into the light to condemn it. God made them keepers of their own vineyards, but they spend all their time in looking after other men's vines. Unquestionably there is something noble in this temper; but there is something quixotic too; and Christ seems here to teach that He imposes upon no man such a re- sponsibility. The world is sadly full of evil, scepticism, infidelity, superstition, immorality, on every side. What, then, am I as a Christian to do ? Simply to obey my Master's command, " Follow thou me," — protest assuredly, where a protest must be made to clear oneself of all complicity with sin ; protest where a protest is needed to save a brother, and to put a wrong-doer to shame ; but before all that, be thou a true disciple, whoever may be false ; be
* Carlyle, Heroes and Hero- Worship, 163.
• Lord Avebury, Peace and Happiness, 342.
452 THE INDIVIDUALITY OF DUTY
thou thyself a holy example of justice and mercy and purity and truth, though all the world should be only a sweltering mass of impiety, and impurity, and wrong."
^ I was once sitting in a room where I had to wait for half an hour before a meeting, and by the fire was sitting a poorly clad, rather wretched-looking, old man, gently moaning at intervals. I asked him if anything was the matter, and he said, "No ; I was only just thinking what a deal of trouble it takes to get the world right and to keep it right." ^
^ One man is a missionary perhaps in some foreign land ; he is alone, one Christian among thousands of heathen, and he would fain know what will become of all these. Another is labouring single-handed as a parochial minister in the midst of a thronging town population whom his words never reach and never can reach ; and he asks in dismay what shall be the end of all these. If he picks up one soul here and another there out of the seething mass of ignorance and vice, it is all that he can hope to do. To his faithless questioning the rebuke is addressed, " What is that to thee ? Thou hast a work to do ; thou hast a message to deliver. Thou knowest that thy message is truth, and because it is truth, therefore it is salvation. This is enough for thee. Execute thy task to the best of thy power, and leave the rest to Me." ^
4. Peter's question is often the question of vain speculation about the purposes of God. — It cannot be otherwise than that His deep purposes should be hidden, for He is God, and His designs cannot be scanned and measured by human wisdom. "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out," said one very near to the heart of God. So does He manifest His independence to the will and the counsel of His creatures. It is the glory of God to conceal His purposes. "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor ? " Such concealment is adapted to our condition. By it He trains us to submission ; He promotes within us humility, He awakens us to constant ceaseless vigilance ; He inspires diligence in our daily living; by gradually removing the cloud from His throne, He makes a constant revelation of truth. Well said Eobinson, "There is a new light in God's word that is yet to
1 Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 222.
^ J. B. Lightfoot, Ordination Addresses, 166.
ST. JOHN XXI. 22 453
break out." Who knows all the mysteries contained in this volume ? Eternity will not be long enough for the full develop- ment of all that was in God's thought, God's heart, when He inspired this Book. But still there are among us men who are curiosity-mongers about the purposes of God, They will have all God's depths to be shallows rather than confess their own inability to fathom all mysteries with their own reason.
^ In my student days I had a very intimate friend, who was pre-eminently successful in gaining prizes by written competition. So surely as he went in for any particular subject, whether classics, philosophy, or mathematics, he came out first. In the general work of the classes and in the recitations he did not appear to be any better than his neighbours ; but at a written examination he was "facile princeps." At the end of our course I asked him to explain this to me, and he revealed his secret thus : " You take the questions in the paper as they come; hence, if the first question is a very hard one, you spend, perhaps, the whole time allotted for the paper upon that; but when I get a paper into my hand, I read over all the questions, pick out those that I see I can answer at once, and then having disposed of them, and made sure that they will count, I go on to the harder ones. I pass through the plain ones to the difficult, and I take care always to do the one before I attempt the other," There was great wisdom in the plan, and in the college of life more of us, I imagine, would come out prizemen at the last, if we were to let the hard things of speculation alone, at least until we have per- formed the plain duties which our Saviour has set before us. But if this be so with the " hard " things, how much more does it hold of those things which are insoluble by mere human reason. Yet how many there are among us who make difficulties, for the existence of which they are not responsible, and for the removal of which they are incompetent, a reason either for their refusing to follow Christ, or for following Him only afar off.^