1 C. A. E. Moberly, Dulce Domum, 165. 2 W. Stebbing, Three Essays, 10.
262 ADAPTABILITY
over all Irish policy, and it was published by order of the House Taking for his text the words " Compel them to enter in," which had been so often employed in justification of persecution, and adopting substantially the reasoning of Locke and of Hoadly, Synge proceeded to examine with considerable ability the duty of a Protestant Legislature in dealing with a Eoman Catholic population. Coercion, he maintained, which is directed simply again&t religious teaching as such, is always illegitimate and useless. Its only good end could be to release men from error, but this involves a change of judgment, which cannot be effected by external force. "All persons, therefore, in a society, whose principles in religion have no tendency to hurt the public, have a right to toleration." 1
1 "W. E. EL Lecky, A History of Ireland, i, 304.
For the Crown.
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, v. 1 99.
Beaumont (J. A.), Walking Circumspectly, 144.
Edwards (F.), These Twelve, 338.
Fraser (J.), University Sermons, 204.
Hall (C. R.), Advent to Whitsun-Day, 83.
Hickey (F. P.), Short Sermons, ii. 50.
Hort (F. J. A.), Cambridge Sermons, 109.
Hutchings (W. H.), in Sermons for the People, New Ser., ii. 170.
Little (H. W.), Arrows for the King's Archers, No. 14.
Maclaren (A.), Christ in the Heart, 205.
„ Christ's Musts, 75.
„ Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 153.
Paget (E. C.)} Silence, 53. Westcott (B. F.), Lessons from Work, 269. Williams (T. M.), Sermons of the Age, 173. Winterbotham (R.), Sermons, 93. Cambridge Review, i. Supplements Nos. 12, 13 (Mayor). Christian Age, ad. 66 (Wolf). Christian World Pulpit, viii. 395 (Landels); xvii. 232 (McCree); lxi
231 (Stalker) ; lxxv. 97 (Henson). Church of England Magazine, xiv. 96 (Home). Church of England Pulpit, lxi. 78, 142 (Mackarness). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., vii. 85 (Agar Beet), 114 (Alford). Examiner, Aug. 6, 1903, p. 132 (Jowett).
364
For the Crown.
And every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible.— i Cor. ix. 25.
So, says St. Paul, praising the effort and contemning the prize, " they do it to receive a corruptible erown." And yet there was a soul of goodness in this evil thing. Though these festivals were indissolubly intertwined with idolatry, and besmirched with much sensuous evil, yet he deals with them as he does with war and with slavery — he points to the disguised nobility that lay beneath the hideousness, and holds up even these low things as a pattern for Christian men.
1. One of the most famous of the Greek athletic festivals was held close by Corinth. Its prize was a pine-wreath from the neighbouring sacred grove. The painful abstinence and training of ten months, and the fierce struggle of ten minutes, had for their result a twist of green leaves that withered in a week, and a little fading fame that was worth scarcely more, and lasted scarcely longer. The struggle and the discipline were noble; the end was contemptible. And so it is with all lives whose aims are lower than the highest. They are greater in the powers they put forth than in the objects they compass, and the question, " What is it for ? " is like a douche of cold water from the cart that lays the clouds of dust in the ways.
2. There is both comparison and contrast here. Comparison, because there is between the athlete and the Christian a likeness upon which the Apostle is very fond of dwelling. Both have entered the lists ; both have engaged in a contest wherein a vast amount of resolution and endurance is needed; both have set their hearts upon a certain prize. Contrast, because there is
266 FOR THE CROWN
between the athlete and the Christian this great difference, among others, that the prize is of little worth in the one case, of unspeak- able value in the other. u They do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible."
The Discipline.
1. Strenuous effort. — If people would work half as hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him as hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects, there would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians among us. " That is the way to run," says St. Paul, " if you want to obtain."
Look at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that stirs these racers' energies into such tremendous operation and the prize which Christians profess to be pursuing. " They do it to receive a corruptible crown " — a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouring grove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worth much more. They do it to obtain a cor- ruptible crown ; we do not do it, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and object. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that men pursue so eagerly with the objects of the Christian course, surely we ought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our own unworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy.
TI Everybody knows about the athlete, and knows that what- ever he goes in for, there is no mistake about it. You cannot play cricket, or football, or anything else — to any purpose — with half your strength, or with half your heart. To do anything, to distinguish yourself in the least, you have to give yourself up to it. Everything else must give way ; and everything that hinders, or enfeebles, or injuriously affects the play, must be given up. Everybody knows that. "They do it," says the Apostle; they really do it ; there is no humbug or pretence about it. If they play, they do not play at playing ; they do it, and no mistake. It is possible to say that a man is a fool to make such efforts, and incur such sacrifices, in order to wear a cap of a certain colour, or be known as the champion in a certain game. But, at any rate, he has achieved something with much toil, and effort, and loss of rest, and after tremendous exertions ; " they do it." x 1 R. Winterbotham.