(2) A reverential mind is necessary for the reception of truth. The mind that has no effective sense of the mysterious never enters into the full and fruitful possession of truth. We are fitted and qualified to receive revelations only when we are solemnly sensible of the great secret which shrouds itself behind the veil. There is, therefore, need that men who are setting out in quest of truth should heed the counsel of the days of old, and take their shoes from off their feet. Surely in this counsel there is signifi- cance for every age. We must take the shoes from off our feet. We must tread softly, as it were on tiptoe, with a hushed ex- pectancy, that we may not miss the smallest Voice that speaks out of the secret place. We must step reverently and quietly up to the most familiar bush if, perchance, it may unveil to us some secret Presence of the Lord.
^ "I have a plant called reverence," says the beloved and genial Autocrat, " and it needs constant watering." Yes, and it is possible for us to water the plant every day. We need not wait for some mighty and phenomenal contingency to cultivate our sense of reverence and of awe. It is best and most safely trained by smaller cultures, by the influence of the apparent trifle. Let us seek to train it while standing before the commonplace. Let us take the shoes from off our feet when we approach a familiar bush. Let us bow in low obeisance when God presents Himself to us in the guise of a common carpenter. When we take a crust of bread into our hands let us contemplate it with a reverence which will turn the common meal into a sacramental feast. Let us cultivate a reverent, lowly mind, and even the least of God's
^ Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, 230.
282 THE CAPTIVITY OF THOUGHT
creations will be greatly significant with the mystic presence of the King.i
f Eeverence for God, and, in general, reverence for anything that is high and great, is a matter needing very special attention at the present time. Wordsworth told us that " we live by ad- miration " ; but a century of scientific and industrial and com- mercial progress has tended to an immense increase in man's belief in himself, his efficiency, and his will, and to a correspond- ing decline of the habit of veneration. It is striking that in modern books on Theosophy the ancient doctrine is being re- peated with as much insistence as ever. The first stage in the initiation of theosophic disciples is the laying aside of the exercise of criticism, and leaving the soul open to receive and venerate great thoughts and the memories of great men.^
2. The only captivity which thought endures is the captivity of the ideal. Every man has some ideal, and his ideal is the governing factor in his thought. We must remember that thoughts are not random and elusive, as we often suppose them to be, but that they fall as truly under the laws of cause and effect as the blossom on the bough, the fruit on the tree ; or, to use a more correct figure, we may say that they have centres and orbits ; they cohere toward the master-thought as steel filings to the magnetic bar ; they move in fixed courses as the stars move on measurable and mathematic roads.
Thought may be led, but cannot be forced. To lead our thoughts, we must observe the nature of the mind, which is susceptible of infiuence but not of force. Our leading, therefore, must not be arbitrary, but in accordance with law and order — truth and justice. There is nothing more repugnant to the mind than the tyranny of wilfulness ; but the appeal of law and order, truth and righteousness, accords with its nature, and awakens their own deep-laid echoes in answering assent. No man is able to respect the arbitrary dicta of his own will, but the authority of truth and goodness commends itself. While wilfulness is an unnatural crime against the will, and arouses the whole force of nature against it, the sublime authority of truth calls forth the homage of all our powers as being accordant with them, and
^ J. H. Jowett, From Strength to Strength, 117. ' John Kelman, The Road, ii. 163.
2 COR. X. 5 283
capable of awakening their pre-established harmonies, and thus creating, as it were, their response to the sphere of their satisfied life. No other authority than that which commends itself to the mind can be sustained ; for, though it may have outward support, it is destitute of inward, and its centre of gravity, if one may so express it, falling without itself, constantly tends to overthrow what has been arbitrarily set up.
f We have all heard that curious story of recent astronomy regarding the fortunes of Algol, which has been called the Demon star, because of the inexplicable variations in its brilliancy. At last those eccentricities have been explained and have resolved themselves into a starry order ; for we know now that Algol revolves round a centre we cannot see, and all its movements are regulated by this unseen and unsuspected centre. So we may say, find the centre of a man's thoughts, and you have the expli- cation of his life. The orbit of his life is absolutely ruled by his central ideal, and is held to it by an invincible moral gravitation.^