^ Christian freedom is no trifle, although it may concern a trifle.2
5. Now, if we showed this tolerance after the mind of Christ what effect would it have on the " weak " ? Would not the kindly attention paid to their scruples — the kindly respect evinced for them by those who did not share them — would it not tend to soften their prejudice against the views of the other side, to make them more ready to weigh arguments from thence, and more open to conviction ; winning them, perhaps, to re-examine the subject with a care and a candour they had never previously given it, with a care and a candour that might end in their ultimate conversion to truer ideas ? The mistaken are too frequently averted from the truer ideas with which we would possess them, and driven to hug more tenaciously their own, by the contemptuous or derisive treatment which these receive. With a lack of due tenderness and due reverence on our part for what they honestly think, we help to keep them where they are, and prevent the requisite listening to and entertainment on their part, of what might otherwise gradually commend itself to them.
L
The Weak.
1. Every community has its contingent of weaklings, who require much study and care, and are more or less of a burden * John Morley, Oliver Cromwell, 171. * Luther.
ROMANS XV. I 461
upon their comrades. Indeed, in some places the Church of Jesus Christ seems to be made up of valetudinarians. Its courts are as much thronged by the halt, the maimed, the half-palsied, the crutch-going, as those gay but depressing resorts that are built near hot mineral springs. The weakness and infirmity huddled together in some places " where prayer is wont to be made " sadden the observer. Men who should be the strength and stay of discipleship, pillars in a spiritual temple, are wind-shaken reeds, and pass through many ignoble moods of faithlessness, wavering, egoism, and caprice. Christian society should be a colony of giants. But to-day it resembles more an institution for shelter- ing Mephibosheths who are lame in their feet than a training- school of Samsons.
2. Let us look at some of the causes of this lamentable weakness.
(1) In some cases moral and religious weakness is bound up with constitutional infirmities. A hereditary blot, or perhaps an accumulation of blots not flagrantly black, may explain the weak- ness and wavering of inconsistent members of the Church. Men may be disqualified for success in a Christian society, or in the outside world, by the double handicap of birth and training. They are amongst the stragglers in business matters, and have no compensating record in the Kingdom of God. An obvious lack of vitality shows itself. The movements of hands, feet, blood, and brain are indeterminate. The poor creatures are only half- alive, narrow-chested, shallow-thoughted, shrunken-souled. The pace at which they crawl justifies the most abject words of self- abasement used. The anaemic habit follows them into religion. They think feebly, feel languidly, act without promptness and complete decision. Perhaps there is an intermittent touch of hectic spirituality in their lives ; but tone, emphasis, strongly marked Christian qualities, are wanting. They may backslide at any moment, and their state calls out many fears.
^ It is said that when heavy and continuous rain falls on the fells of the north the ground becomes so sodden that the sheep will stand stupefied in the same spot for hours, sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. They make no effort to reach a sure foot- hold, and, unless " dogged " out, die in numbers. And some of those who have put themselves within the care of the Church
462 THE PRIVILEGE OF THE STRONG
have to be hunted again and again out of the gaming-club, the dram-shop, the place of the scornful, and the scene of tainted pleasure. They seem to be mazed with stupefaction, and to have lost all power of helping themselves.^
(2) But religious weakness sometimes appears amongst those for whom little or no excuse can be made. A pious ancestry, with all its benefits, does not always produce moral strength and vigour in the offspring. The descendants of godly forefathers drift on summer tides into a superficial enjoyment of religion, without soul-struggle and sharp sacrifice. The self-protective instincts and equipments of sterner days are lost. Perhaps there is a recoil from the rigour of home discipline, and the attempt to put too much into the child has produced a feeling of satiety. The decrepit are many and the robust few, and the children even of Christians need unsleeping care and attention if they are to be kept in the right path. To-day this man sleeps in the pleasant arbour, and, on waking, finds that his roll is gone ; to-morrow he is in Bypath Meadow. Those whose association with the people of God is hereditary get into Doubting Castle, as well as pilgrims who have come straight from the heart of Babylon.
Lord, not for light in darkness do we pray, Not that the veil be lifted from our eyes, Nor that the slow ascension of our day Be otherwise.
Not for a clearer vision of the things Whereof the fashioning shall make us great, Not for remission of the peril and stings Of time and fate.