^ T. H. Green had been a Fellow of Balliol for twenty years or more, and for about twelve years he was Tutor in Philosophy in the College. His lectures on the Ethics of Aristotle were said to be quite the best lectures given in his time. And his personal influence was even greater than his influence as a lecturer. " I never go to see Green without feeling that I ought to be ashamed of myself, and by Jove, I am ashamed of myself," an undergraduate of these days said to me. It was not by any peculiar grace of speech or manner that he acquired this influence ; his instinct was to be silent and shun society; and few of his sayings are recorded. His strong and simple character seemed to need no words to express it ; he lived his thoughts, not " moving about in worlds unrealized " but carrying his convictions into practice.^
^ It is personal influence that determines the size of a life ; not words, or even deeds.^
2. The incense-bearers can manufacture no incense of their own ; they derive all the incense from Christ. " We are a sweet savour of Christ unto God." By this must be meant that we may so live as to recall to the mind of God what Jesus was in His mortal career. It is as though, as God watches us from day to day, He should see Jesus in us, and be reminded of that blessed life which was otfered as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. It is a gracious encouragement, " not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit."
^ A joiner wielding a hammer, a ploughman making a furrow, a mariner guiding his bark on the ocean, a merchant conducting his business, a medical man attending his patients, a judge ad- ministering justice, a teacher instructing the young, a boy or a girl attending school, a woman whose duties lie specially at home, may each of them, in every act, be unto God a sweet perfume of Christ, because they do everything in His name, animated by love to Him, relying on His grace, and seeking His glory.^
' The Life and Letters of B. Jowett, ii. 192.
' R. W. Barbour, Thoughis, 72.
* J. Eelman, Redeeming Judgment, 235.
2 COR. II. 14-16 57
^ Tn speaking on one of the Beatitudes, Dr. Moberley says that the men who exercise the greatest personal and abiding influence upon their fellows are not the great men of history, but sometimes the inconspicuous men who have lived together in the shade and have cast upon the world some sweet song, some deep thought, which lived after they were gone. He takes as illustra- tion the names of two men who lived about 200 years ago. One of them was the famous Duke of Marlborough, who had the greatest influence perhaps among his contemporaries in setting William the Third on the throne of these realms, who became afterwards one of the greatest generals in history, who won great victories over the Grand Monarch, which will never be forgotten 80 long as the British flag floats anywhere in the world ; and he compares with him who occupied a foremost place in the history of his day, in their present influence over the hearts and souls of men, a certain bishop — Ken — who, because he could not take the oaths of William the Third, was expelled from his bishopric, who lived in poverty, and was regarded with suspicion, but who was the author of two immortal hymns — the simple morning and evening hymns which we all know —
and the other.
"Awake, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily course of duty run,"
Glory to Thee, my God, this night, For all the blessings of the light."
And Dr. Moberley asks — which of these two, the Duke or the Bishop, exercises the greater power in the world to-day ? I have no hesitation in replying, he says, it is the inconspicuous bishop, whose name is not even mentioned in some of the standard works of the period. He lives in his hymns.^
IV.
The Incense.
The Apostle has viewed himself and his coadjutors as captives, and then as incense-bearers. But now he regards himself and them as the incense itself. In the Eoman triumphal processions the incense arose to the gods who had given the victory; our
' Memories of Horatius Bonar, 69.
58 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VANQUISHED
service rises as incense to the one true God. And because our service is the outcome of our living union with Christ, it is at the same time Christ's incense arising to God.
1. To St. Paul's view all those to whom he preached were divided into two classes — those who were being saved, and those who were perishing. The former were being increasingly de- livered from sin, from unbelief, from unrest, from all the power of evil. While iniquity was surging around them on every side, they were becoming more and more confirmed in the choice of all good; were attaining to a remarkable beauty and nobleness of Christian character; and were free and joyful in the love and service of God. In striking contrast with the community around, they were being saved. The latter were giving themselves up to licentiousness and vice, were undergoing a process of rapid deterioration, and coming increasingly under the power of evil. Their moral nature, not to speak of their spiritual, was falling into utter wreck and ruin. In a word, they were visibly perishing.