0, east is east and west is west and never twain shall meet Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment
seat; But there is neither east nor west, border, nor breed, nor
birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come
from the ends of the earth ! 1
Tj It takes the greatest strength to speak quietly. It takes rarely disciplined strength to bring the softest music out of organ or piano. It is quite likely that, speaking offhand, one would say that the eagle is the most powerful of all flying birds. And yet a little thought and reading bring to the mind the fact that, though actually so powerful, its relative strength is really inferior to that of the humming-bird. This smallest of birds can perform a feat of strength quite impossible to the powerful eagle. It holds itself steadily poised in mid-air as it quietly sips its honey-food from the hanging flower. Its very calmness and steadiness and delicacy of action reveal the superbness of its strength. The strength that reveals itself most in gentleness and tenderness
1 Kipling.
4H THE OWNER'S MARK
and keenly alert patience, in subdued tone, and soft touch, and quiet step, is the real, strong strength that wins the hardest fight.1
3. Sympathy. Sympathy is the power of love that enables you sometimes to make a pilgrimage outside the small circle of your own personality. If the majority of people were asked for a definition of sympathy, they would answer, " Sorrow for those who are in sorrow." That is a splendid half-definition. Sympathy is not only the power that makes it possible for you to weep with me when I weep, it is the power that makes it possible for you to laugh with me when I laugh. That is Apostolic, that is Christian — "Weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice." It is not by any means certain that the latter half is not the more difficult.
Tf Sympathy is a thing to be encouraged, apart from human considerations, because it supplies us with the materials for wisdom. It is probably more instructive to entertain a sneaking kindness for any unpopular person . . . than to give way to perfect raptures of moral indignation against his abstract vices.2
I will not tell you of the things I know, I cannot bar the path that you must go ;
God's bitter lesson must be learnt by all,
But living, I will listen to your call, And stretch to you a hand that you may know.8
\ Sister Dora, after her long day's work in her Walsall hospital for waifs and strays, for poor souls beaten down in the battle of life, often went to rest almost too tired to sleep. But over her head was a bell, to be sounded, in spite of all her weariness, when any sufferer needed her. And the bell bore this inscription, " The Master is come and calleth for thee." 4
^| I was very much struck not long ago to hear a very clever and a very energetic and a well-known woman reply, when asked what she thought of the question about her sisters and the Empire Music Hall, " Oh, I am too busy over political questions to think about that ; it does not touch me."6
Tj One day in Charleston Jail a minister came to call on John Brown and defended slavery as a Christian institution. " My dear
1 S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Home Ideals, 102.
2 R. L. Stevenson, Some Portraits of Raeburn.
3 Philip Rourke Marston, Song- Tide, 41.
4 B. J. Snell. 6 C. M. Holden, The Warfare of Girlhood, 48.
ROMANS viii. 9 415
sir," said the old man, "you know nothing about Christianity. You will have to learn its a b c ; I find you quite ignorant of what the word Christianity means." And when the man looked at him very much disconcerted, John Brown softened a little : " I respect you as a gentleman, of course, but it is as a heathen gentleman." And it was exactly that intensity of feeling in the old man that made him willing for the sake of his cause to lay down his life, and the heat of his passion set this land on fire.1
I lay my hand on your aching brow
Softly, so ! And the pain grows still. The moisture clings to my soothing palm,
And you sleep because I will.
You forget I am here? Tis the darkness hides.
I am always here, and your needs I know. I tide you over the long, long night
To the shores of the morning glow.
So God's hand touches the aching soul, Softly, so ! And the pain grows still ;
All grief and woe from the soul He draws, And we rest because He wills.
We forget, — and yet He is always here !
He knows our needs and He heeds our sighs; No night so long but He soothes and stills
Till the dawn-light rims the skies.
4. Humility. What a matchless view of Christ's humility we have in John xiii. — He rose from supper, laid aside His garments and took a towel, girded Himself, poured water into a basin, and began to wash His disciples' feet. Christ was on earth as one that served. Humility followed Him from His birth in the manger to His borrowed grave. We have just as much of Christianity as we have of humility.