Thou must be true thyself,
If thou the true wouldst teach ;
Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another's soul wouldst reach.
The overflow of heart it needs To give the lips full speech.
Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed; live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.^
ii. How Good overcomes Evil.
We may divide the evil which we have to combat into three classes. (1) There is personal evil, that is evil in ourselves. (2) Then there is the evil of which the text particularly speaks, evil in our neighbour — we might call it domestic evil. (3) And, lastly, there is the evil in the world at large. We may characterize it as public evil. All these forms of evil are to be overcome with good.
1. Personal evil. — How shall I overcome evil in myself? I shall overcome it by emphasizing, predicting, calling into operation ^ George Eliot, Janet's BepetUcmce. ' Horatius Bonar.
334 THE POLEMICS OF CHRISTIANITY
the good. I will overcome the natural with the spiritual, the temporal with the eternal, the phenomenal with the real ; where I find an evil tendency in myself I will instantly call upon the opposite tendency in the Christ nature within me and accentuate it.
(1) Now all personal evil begins in thought, therefore evil thoughts will be overcome by good thoughts. " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." " These things " — is this our way ? Is it not rather our unhappy habit to revolve in our thought and imagination whatsoever things are painful, humiliating, ugly, and discouraging? We shall never overcome evil by this fellowship with sin and sadness. We overcome the evil in the good. The cardinal matter is to fix our thoughts and affections on things above, not on things on the earth; we cannot even think of these things without being blessed. The thought of beauty leaves a stain of sweet colour on the soul ; to think of greatness is to grow ; to muse on purity is to suffer a sea change into the whiteness and preciousness of the pearl.
^ That useless thoughts spoil all ; that the mischief began there ; but that we ought to be diligent to reject them as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or to our salvation ; and return to our communion with God.^
^ You remember that terrible touch in one of our Lord's sternest parables, about the evil spirit returning to the house whence he came out, and finding it " empty, swept, and garnished " — then goeth he and taketh to himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. What does that " empty, swept, and garnished " mean ? It means that if the heart is not pre-occupied with good, it will be invaded by evil. The labourer who stands idle in the market-place is ever ready to be hired in the devil's service. The worm of sin gnaws deepest into the idle heart. But preoccupy your heart with good ; pre- occupy your time with honest industry, and you are safe.^
^ Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 13. « F. W. Farrar.
ROMANS XII. 21 335
She walks — the lady of my delight —
A shepherdess of sheep. Her flocks are thoughts. She keeps them white ;
She guards them from the steep. She feeds them on the fragrant height
And folds them in for sleep.
She roams maternal hills and bright,
Dark valleys safe and deep. Into that tender breast at night
The chastest stars may peep. She walks — the lady of my delight —
A shepherdess of sheep.
She holds her little thoughts in sight,
Though gay they run and leap. She is so circumspect and right;
She has her soul to keep. She walks — the lady of my delight —
A shepherdess of sheep.^
(2) Let us concentrate our efforts on the good. We overcome the evil in the good. We shall not overcome our personal defects by dwelling upon them, tormenting ourselves on account of them, dealing directly with them, or by attempting singly to uproot them. To overcome this or that failing, we must think of it as little as possible, and as much as we can about the corresponding virtue ; weaken the bad side by strengthening the good. Let us frankly recognize whatever grace has done for us, and by fostering it drive out the evil. Cherish the good thought, forward the generous impulse, follow out the upward-seeking desire; starve the roots of bitterness, smother them, choke them, drive them out by flowers of grace, fruits of light, and plants of God's right- hand planting.
^ Mr. Kay Eobinson, the naturalist, describes a competition witnessed by him in the fields. Owing to a peculiarity of weather, the poppies had managed to get a start of an inch or so in the matter of height over the wheat and barley, and the obnoxious flowers were just beginning to burst into bloom that would have converted the stunted grain into lakes of scarlet, when down came the rain; in a single day and night the wheat shot up above the poppies, and for the rest of the season the poisonous