T{ If we have dreamed a dream which we have reason to think acts & rom. — 15
226 VISIONS AND OBEDIENCE
is from the Lord, let us spare no effort to realize it, though it may take a lifetime to do it. If we have a thought which is in advance of our times, and at first sight perhaps a little Utopian, let us keep at it, if so be something may come of it. If some great design suggests itself to our mind, do not let us drop it because it is considered somewhat visionary, but work away at it till we get it brought within the region of the practical. In his beautiful poem of " Merlin and the Gleam " Tennyson has embodied, in the form of an allegory, his faith that " the ideal is indeed the vera lux which must lead the world " ; and our duty to the " heavenly vision" was never more tersely expressed than in the closing couplet :
After it, follow it,
Follow the Gleam.1
(2) It affects our work. The work of any man, on whatever material he has to exercise himself, is in fact the expression of his character. The change showed itself in the Apostle's work. It was not that there was greater diligence; Paul's diligence was unflagging, but so it had been before. His intensity and vigour made that certain; but it showed itself in an evidently keener sense of spiritual proportion. Perspective is often wanting in spiritual vision, and the sense of proportion is marred or destroyed. Benozzo Gozzoli, in the window adornments of the Kicasoli Palace, realized, as great masters had never done before, the power of perspective, and in doing so added keenness to his sense of proportion. Time, a narrow national aspiration, the slavish fulfilment of a preparatory law, a hard and rigorous monotheism, had widened out suddenly before Paul's astonished gaze into the wide horizons of eternity, and the tender and glorious landscapes of the kingdom of God. Great thoughts henceforth led him necessarily to the careful fulfilment of small duties. If he soars into the seventh heaven henceforth, it is to bring down the energy and love and considerate sympathy by which to help the runaway slave ; to send kindly messages of reproof or affection to the pious ladies of Borne or Philippi ; to open the treasures of his sympathetic tenderness to his young men converts — his "own sons " ; to arrange for the offertories in Macedonia and Corinth ; to manage the progress of his trade of tent-making so that he might honestly pay his way. Half the thoughts of men are out
1 S. L. Wilson.
ACTS xxvi. 19 227
of proportion. Big measures and great questions are apt to seem to them the whole of life. " Obedience to a heavenly vision " means the habit of high thinking with scrupulous loyalty to small duties.
T[ In every way may men by looking unto Jesus in the heavens — and by discerning in Him the divineness necessary for the furtherance of their own individual salvation — become revealers to the world of divineness. The artist may discern in Jesus the Divine beauty of which he is called upon to be a setter-forth to the world. The poet may, by looking upon the heavenly vision, be guided into discerning the tenderer aspects of Divine truth. The man of science too may be enabled to carry on his researches into the great world of Nature, and to recognize it more and more as the very outcome of God's own life ; even he may be enabled to do this by looking upon the heavenly vision of the Divine Aider of all reverent seekers after knowledge of His ways and works.1
TJ Quixotism, or Utopianism : that is another of the devil's pet words. I believe the quiet admission which we are all of us so ready to make, that, because things have long been wrong, it is impossible they should ever be right, is one of the most fatal sources of misery and crime from which this world suffers. Whenever you hear a man dissuading you from attempting to do well, on the ground that perfection is " Utopian," beware of that man. Cast the word out of your dictionary altogether. There is no need for it. Things are either possible or impossible — you can easily determine which, in any given state of human science. If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it ; if possible try for it. It is very Utopian to hope for the entire doing away with drunkenness and misery out of the Canongate ; but the Utopianism is not our business — the work is. It is Utopian to hope to give every child in this kingdom the know- ledge of God from its youth; but the Utopianism is not our business — the work is.2
(3) It affects our character. The change showed itself in St. Paul's work : it was in his character. There was, no doubt, the beautiful foundation long laid in his nature and his conscientious life ; he could scarcely help being sincere, possessing delicacy of tact, being in the widest sense strongly and sweetly true. But his sympathies were enlarged ; he was to an unparalleled degree identified with human nature. He could say as few could, " Nihil humanum a me alienum puto." What was human, since