* W. L. Watkinson.
15^ AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
What if Thou hadst led my soul
To the pastures where dull souls feed ;
And set my steps in smooth paths, far away
From the rocks where men struggle and bleed;
Penned me in low, fat plains,
Where the air is as still as death,
And Thy great winds are sunk to a breath,
And Thy torrents a crawling stream,
And the thick steam of wealth goes up day and night,
Till Thy sun gives a veiled light,
And heaven shows like a vanished dream I
What if Thou hadst set my feet
With the rich in a gilded room ;
And made me to sit where the scorners sit,
Scoffing at death and doom !
What if I had hardened my heart
With dark counsels line upon line ;
And blunted my soul with meat and with wine,
Till my ears had grown deaf to the bitter cry
Of the halt and the weak and the impotent;
Nor hearkened, lapt in a dull content,
To the groanings of those who die!
My being had waxed dull and dead
With the lusts of a gross desire ;
But now Thou hast purged me throughly, and burnt
My shame with a living fire.
So burn me, and purge my will
Till no vestige of self remain.
And I stand out renewed without spot or stain.
Then let Thy flaming angel at last
Smite from me all that has been before;
And sink me, freed from the load of the past,
In Thy dark depths evermore.^
ii. The World of Spirits.
" N"or angels, nor principalities, nor powers."
" Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers ; " this is a Jewish phrase for the spiritual hierarchy. The modern equivalent is the unseen forces which encompass us, those mysterious powers and operations which act upon our lives, and compel them to
^ Sir Lewis Morris, From the Desert,
ROMANS VIII. s^^ 39 159
unthought-of issues. They lie without us, mysterious, incal- culable, uncontrollable, invading us unexpectedly, shaping our experience, and determining our destiny. We never know what they will be doing with us.
This second set of enemies is still more mysterious and strong. The experiences of this world shall not separate us, but what is there beyond this world ? What is that unseen which lingers near us and sometimes almost breaks through into sight — angels, principalities, and powers ? There have been different views of what this means.
(1) It is important, says Maclaren, to observe that this expression, when used without any qualifying adjective, seems uniformly to mean good angels, the hierarchy of blessed spirits before the throne. So that there is no reference to " spiritual wickedness in high places " striving to draw men away from God. The supposition which the Apostle makes is, indeed, an impossible one — that these ministering spirits, who are sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation, should so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring to us. St. Paul knows it to be an impossible supposition, and its very impossibility gives energy to his conclusion, just as when in the same fashion he makes the other equally impossible supposition about an angel from heaven preaching another gospel than that which he had preached to them.
(2) On the other hand, Kelman says : If we study the thought of St. Paul's day we shall find a very orderly and detailed system of demonology, in which they conceived a brood of evil spirits who tempt the souls of men. There are those who still hold that view, and there are those who take other views of such matters. You may call it that, or you may call it nerves, or you may call it any name you please ; the difficulty is not in what you call it, but in what you find it to be in your daily experience. And whatever may be the ultimate explanation of these things, this remains true, that some day we waken with our whole heart set upon doing the will of God and pleasing Him, and before the day is half-done some power from without or from within in this strange mechanism of body and spirit in which we live, some power like a great evil hand, has laid hold upon our life and
i6o AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
broken it across, and everything has gone wrong with us, and we try in vain to right it. The day is handed over to the powers of darkness. And if there is anything in our experience which makes it difficult to remember and believe in the love of God, it is just such a thing as this. In any sort of bitterness, so long as it be a smooth-flowing experience, we can continue to believe; but when this sort of thing happens, God has gone from heaven, and all things are left the sport of evil power. But we are in His universe, and these are but the hounds of God that He holds in the leash in His hand and will not let too far upon the souls He loves. That also is part of the great love of God, and His love has not been defeated by angels, or principalities, or powers. He loves us still through the worst day of it all.