I'm wearin' awa', John,
Like snaw wreaths in thaw, John,
I'm wearin' awa'
To the land o' the leal. There's nae sorrow there, John, There's neither cauld nor care, John, The day is aye fair
In the land o' the leaL
Our bonnie bairn's there, John, She was baith gude and fair, John, And, oh ! we grudg'd her sair
To the land o' the leal. But sorrow's sel' wears past, John, And joy's a-comin' fast, John, The joy that's aye to last
In the land o' the leal.
Sae dear's that joy was bought, John, Sae free the battle fought, John,
ROMANS VIII. i8 21
That sinfu' man e'er brought
To the land o' the leal. Oh ! dry your glist'ning e'e, John, My saul langs to be free, John, And angels beckon me
To the land o' the leal.
Oh, baud ye leal and true, John, Your day it's wearin' thro', John, And I'll welcome you
To the land o' the leal. Now fare ye weel, my ain John, This warld's cares are vain, John, We'll meet, and we'll be fain
In the land o' the leal.^
3. This power of a great hope may become the power of a great temptation. This dream of a glory to be revealed has played a baneful as well as a beneficial part in the history of Christianity. As long as we ourselves do not feel the misery of life, but only contemplate it from outside, there is nothing easier than to sit with folded hands, looking away from the wretchedness at our feet to the sunlit cloudland of the future. It has been the temptation of many men, and even of many good men, in all ages. It is this that underlies the tendency to monasticism, which fills 80 large a place in Christian history, and which is not wholly absent from us now. There were monks who felt as keenly as any of us could feel the misery and wickedness which surrounded them, and who painted, in more glowing colours than any one before or since has painted, the glory of the Jerusalem that is to come, and yet who made no single effort to lessen the misery or to bring the glory nearer. There are men among us still who, though not monks, but entangled in the network of common life, take the misery that they find there as an inevitable element of it, and wait in immoving acquiescence, if not in placid self- satisfaction, until God sends some change. But this, so far from being hope, is rather its paralysis ; for hope that does nothing is not hope, but an idle dream.
On the other hand, the power of a great hope may become the power of a great motive. There are few among us whose lives
^ Lady Nairne,
22 ANOTHER GOOD RECKONING
have not au element of sadness. For all of us the consolations of the future are still needed. But, if they come to us at all, they should come as a motive power ; they should help to shape our character. It was so with St. Paul. His conception of the glory which should be revealed was not, as we have seen, so much a complete change in external circumstances as a change of the spirit and the inner life. It was a change of character and a change of power. It was the final victory of the spirit over the flesh. It involved the obligation to work towards it by new efforts after spiritual life. This is never lost sight of : " We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Again, after speaking of the earthly and the heavenly tabernacle, and of mortality being swallowed up in life, his inference is, " Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him." And again, St. John, after speaking of the same hope of immortality, adds, " Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." That is a lesson which we may all take home. The life after the Spirit, the communion with God, the realization in our own characters of the character of Christ, which are the elements of the glory of the life to come, must have their be- ginnings in this present life below. In the struggle which this involves we may be content to live, for in the hope which it brings we may be glad to die.
Hope evermore and believe, O man, for e'en as thy thought So are the things that thou see'st ; e'en as thy hope and belief. Cowardly art thou and timid? they rise to provoke thee against them. Hast thou courage ? enough, see them exulting to yield. Yea, the rough rock, the dull earth, the wild sea's furying waters, (Violent say'st thou and hard, mighty thou think'st to destroy), All with ineffable longing are waiting their Invader,
All, with one varying voice, call to him. Come and subdue; Still for their Conqueror call, and but for the joy of being conquered, (Eapture they will not forego) dare to resist and rebel;
ROMANS VIII. i8 23
Still, when resisting and raging, in soft undervoice say unto him, Fear not, retire not, 0 man ; hope evermore and believe.