Passage, immediate passage ! the blood burns in my veins I
Away, 0 soul ! hoist instantly the anchor !
Cut the hawsers — haul out — shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough 1
Have we not grovell'd here long enough eating and drinking
like mere brutes ? Have we not darken'd and dazed ourselves with books long
enough ?
*o^
Sail forth — steer for the deep waters only, Reckless, 0 soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me, For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go, And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.
0 my brave soul!
0 farther, farther sail!
0 daring joy, but safe I are they not all the seas of God ?
0 farther, farther, farther sail I ^
^ "W. Cunningham, The Gospel of Work, 71. » Walt Whitman, The Sea of FaUlu
ROMANS XII. II 285
II.
Inward. " Fervent in spirit."
We pass from the outward activity of life to the inward spring, to the motive power, out of which this outward activity must flow, and without which it flags and falls.
" Fervent in spirit " — What is it but to be glowing, boiling, we might almost say boiling over, with a strong purpose, with a perfect love, with a twofold love — the love of God who has made, redeemed, and sanctified us, and the love of men, our brothers, because they are children of the same Father in Heaven ? It is hardly more than a paraphrase of St. Paul's words to say that what he bids us do is, in homely phrase, to keep the steam up ; that steam of the Divine love which moves the whole machine of our spiritual life, without which it may be in perfect outward order, but will not go, will not work, will not do that for which the great Work-master designed the machine. Here, then, ia another golden rule of life, that outward activity must be sus- tained by the inward fervour, by the glow of emotion, by the life of prayer.
What man can live denying his own soul?
Hast thou not learned that noble uncontrol
Is virtue's right, the breath by which she lives?
0 sure, if any angel ever grieves,
'Tis when the living soul hath learnt to chide
Its passionate indignations, and to hide
The sudden flows of rapture, the quick birth
Of overwhelming loves, that balance the worth
Of the wide world against one loving act.
As less than a sped dream; shall the cataract
Stop, pause, and palter, ere it plunge towards
The vale unseen? Our fate hath its own lords.
Which if we follow truly, there can come
No harm unto us.^
1. There are two forms which this Divine enthusiasm has assumed in religious souls — the enthusiasm for humanity, and the enthusiasm for individual salvation. The latter, which is
^ Laiigdon Elwyn Mitchell.
286 OUTWARD, INWARD, CHRISTWARD
the narrower and more selfish, which indeed is often " selfishness expanded to infinitude," has led to many errors. Men, ready to sacrifice everything to secure their own personal deliverance from what they had dreamed of hell, have lived as hermits in deserts or on mountains, or have shut themselves up in monastic cells, or have subjected their bodies to cruel torments. The beliefs that have led to such lives are natural to men. They are found in every age and in every country and in all religions; and deeply as they are intermingled with error, yet so sovereign are the virtues of self-denial that without doubt they shall have their reward. And sometimes, on the other hand, the enthusiasm for humanity has been dissevered from deep personal religion. We may be sure that God will still bless the sincere lovers of their brethren, and that Christ will never be hard on any man who has lived and died for men. But when the two have been combined, when the sense of devotion has been united with the exaltation of charity, then such men have ever been the most glorious and the most blessed of the benefactors of mankind. What was Christianity itself but such an enthusiasm learnt from the example, caught from the Spirit, of Christ our Lord? The same love, even for the guilty and wretched, which brought the Lord Jesus step by step from that celestial glory to the lowest depth of the infinite descent, has been kindled by His Spirit in the hearts of His noblest sons. Forgiven, they have longed that others should share the same forgiveness.
^ Jesus of Nazareth is constantly kindling and keeping alive an enthusiastic personal devotion in the hearts of countless men, women, and children who have never seen Him — an enthusiasm which burns on steadily, century after century, with ever-increas- ing splendour. Let those who deny that He is still alive explain that marvellous Fact — if they can ! It is unique in the history of our race. Could a man, dead for nearly two thousand years, rule so royally over the souls and bodies of the noblest and most unselfish of every age? NO! JESUS LIVES! and is ever pressing close to His Heart the heart of each individual disciple, pouring in the strengthening oil of the Holy Spirit and the new wine of a hi^jh enthusiasm which must find room for service.