^ A. R. Symonds.
ROMANS VIII. 19 45
Oh that we could still be sure that there is a promised land ; that others besides us would reach it ; that this desert would end in something. This certainty is taken from us, and yet we advance continually, pushed forward by an indefatigable hope."^ Beyond doubt, if the power of the Lord is gone, all is gone. He is not a doctrine, but a power. Surrounded by the sick and maimed, He heals them. When He speaks of the Divine law He does not fear to complete and enlarge it. What is the power that enables men to live no longer to themselves ? " The love of Christ constraineth us," replies St. Paul ; and the word " constraineth " denotes a real compelling.
Thou with strong prayer and very much entreating Wiliest be asked, and thou shalt answer then,
Show the hid heart beneath creation beating, Smile with kind eyes and be a man with men.
Were it not thus, 0 King of my salvation, Many would curse to thee and I for one,
Fling thee thy bliss and snatch at thy damnation, Scorn and abhor the shining of the sun,
Eing with a reckless shivering of laughter
Wroth at the woe which thou hast seen so long,
Question if any recompense hereafter Waits to atone the intolerable wronsr:
'O
Is there not wrong too bitter for atoning?
What are these desperate and hideous years? Hast thou not heard thy whole creation groaning,
Sighs of the bondsmen, and a woman's tears ?
Yes, and to her, the beautiful and lowly, Mary a maiden, separate from men,
Camest thou nigh and didst possess her wholly. Close to thy saints, but thou wast closer then.
Once and for ever didst thou show thy chosen, Once and for ever magnify thy choice; —
Scorched in love's fire or with his freezing frozen, Lift up your hearts, ye humble, and rejoice!
Not to the rich he came or to the ruling (Men full of meat, whom wholly he abhors),
Not to the fools grown insolent in fooling Most, when the lost are dying at the doors; ^ Guyau, Vlrriligion de Vavenir, 337.
46 AN EXPECTANT CREATION
Nay but to her who with a sweet thanksgiving Took in tranquillity what God might bring,
Blessed him and waited, and within her living Felt the arousal of a Holy Thing.
Ay for her infinite and endless honour Found the Almighty in this flesh a tomb.
Pouring with power the Holy Ghost upon her, Nothing disdainful of the Virgin's womb.^
5. The work of God moves on through the revealing of the sons of God. Now, suppose any soul fails of its higher capacities and remains stunted and unrevealed ; is that merely a personal loss of happiness or of salvation ? On the contrary, it is a loss so vast as to make every personal motive shrink into insignificance. It is simply retarding to that extent the perfect and universal work of God. There are purposes which God Himself cannot ful- fil on earth except through us, and every sin of ours is a barrier set in God's way. When a man says that to himself, he has a motive worth having. To be sinning, not against one's self, but against the universe ; in the petty yielding to our own indolence or neglect, to be a hinderer of God's great ends in the world — that is what gives awfulness to every thought of sin. To injure, blot, ruin one's self — that may be a small matter ; but to hold back the vast mechanism of creation — that gives our little life significance. It is as some great factory where the looms go weaving with their leaping shuttles the millions of yards of cloth, and then of a sudden one thread breaks, and the loom stops short in its progress, lest the whole intricate work be marred.
^ There is one aspect of life of which I feel sure we take too little notice, and which is constantly hindering and paralysing many a sincere desire to do right. It is the sense of insignificance. A man looks at his life, and it is a poor, feeble, insignificant thing. He says to himself : " Here am I, with my infinitely unimportant life, influencing nobody. Of what earthly importance is it that I should struggle thus against the stream of my tendency and taste ? Why not let my turbulent passions sweep me down their stream and bury my insignificant life in their unhindered current ? " That is the unconscious defence of many a ruined life. For one man who errs by thinking too much of himself, ten, I believe, fail
» F. W. H. Myers, St. PcmU.
ROMANS VIII. 19 47
by not, in the true sense of the phrase, thinking enough of them- selves. Biit now comes the Apostle into the midst of this sluggish, half-hearted, spurious modesty, and says to your soul: "Yes, taken by itself your life is certainly a very insignificant affair; but placed as you happen to be placed, in the kind of a universe which God has happened to make, your life becomes of infinite importance. For God has chosen to work out His designs, not in spite of you, but through you ; and where you fail, He halts. Almighty God needs you. You are not your own, either to be insignificant or to be great, but you are in the service of that which is greater than yourself, and that service touches your life with its own greatness." It is as though you were a lighthouse- keeper set to do your duty on your bare rock. Can any life be more unpraised or insignificant ? Why sit through weary nights to keep your flame alive ? Why not sleep on, all unobserved, and let your little light go out ? Because it is not your light — that is the point. You are not its owner ; you are its keeper. That is your name. You are a light-keeper. You are set there with this as your trust. The great design of the Power you serve takes you thus out of your insignificance, and while you sit there in the shadow of your lonely tower, ship after ship is looking to you across the sea, and many a man thanks God that, while lights which burn for themselves go out, your light will be surely burning. The earnest expectation of many a storm-tossed sailor waits for the revealing of your friendly gleam. The safety of many a life that passes by you in the dark is trusted from night to night to you.i