^ The Book of the Spiritual Tabernacle is the longest work of the hermit, and contains a strange, naive, and arbitrary inter- pretation of the symbols of the ark of the covenant, and of the sacrifices of the ancient law. Here is what he says with regard to the offering of the poor as commanded in the Jewish law: —
" And the doves shall keep near streams and beside clear waters, so that if any bird flies downwards to seize them or to do them any injury, they may recognize him by his reflection in the water and beware of him. The clear water is Holy Scripture, the lives of saints, and the mercy of God."
In the following passages he pictures, with the help of these same doves, the offering of Saint Paul : —
** And our Lord replied that His grace should be sufficient for him, for virtue is perfected in the weakness of temptations. When he understood this he offered these two doves into the hands of our Lord. For he renounced self, and willingly became poor, and bent the necks of his doves (that is, his desires) under the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Church. And Christ broke the necks and the wings of the doves, and then he became incap- able of desiring or of flying towards any desire except that which was God's will. And then Christ placed the head (that is to say, the will, which was dead and powerless) under the broken wings, and then the doves were ready to be consumed ; and so the holy Apostle says: 'Most gladly, therefore, will I rather
' D. 0. Macgregor, George H. G. Maafregor^ 116.
302 POWER IN WEAKNESS
glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. '■
(4) We need it in the hour of death. — Again, shall we not need this word when life is ending, when we come to die ? There is no pillow for a dying head except the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
*[[ When I was a young minister in Thurso, I was called into the country one beautiful summer day to the bedside of an elder who was dying. He was a godly man, grave and reverent, a man whose only study was the Bible, and who, summer and winter, was never absent from his familiar corner in the sanctuary. Now he was dying, and, as sometimes happens even with the choicest of the ripest saints, he was dying in such a fear of death as I have never witnessed from that hour. Outside the open window was the moor with a shimmer of summer heat upon it : far away there was the long roll of the heavy waves upon the shore ; here in the cottage was a human soul that walked reverently and in the fear of God overmastered by the fear of death. Well, I was a young man then, very ignorant, very unversed in the deep things of the soul, and I tried to comfort him by speaking of the past — what an excellent elder he had been ; and I shall never forget the look he gave me, or how he covered his face as if in shame, as he cried, " Not that, sir, not that ! There is no comfort for me there." It was then I realized for the first time that the only pillow to die on is free grace. It was then I felt how all we have done is powerless to uphold us in the valley of death, for all our rigjiteous- ness is as filthy rags, and brings no ease upon a dying bed. This is our only stay : " My grace is sufficient for thea" *
II.
The Reason for the Eeassurance.
"For my power is made perfect in weakness."
1. From the Greek of this passage it is quite obvious that the words " power is made perfect in weakness " — there is no " my " in the original — are an axiom, or proverb, and that they are intended to convey a law of the spiritual life. They are intended to teach us that, at least in the spiritual province, and for all men as well
(I as for St. Paul, there is a certain finishing and perfecting power in weakness. Not that we are to cherish our infirmities, to remain ^ M. Maeterlinck, Ruyshroeck cmd the Mystks, 46. ' G. H. Morrison,
2 COR. XII. 9 303
children when we ought to be men, to continue weak when we may be strong. To be weak is to be miserable. It is not weak- ness that our Lord commends, but strength struggling against and striving through weakness. Weakness of itself will perfect nothing. But when strength and weakness are combined in the same nature, the weakness may prove a fine discipline for the strength ; it may induce watchfulness, prayer, a humble depend- ence on God, a tender consideration for the weakness of our fellows. Perfect strength is apt to be very far from perfect. It is apt to be rude, self-sufficient, untender. But a strength which has to contend with weakness, to pierce through hindrances, to show itself through reluctant and imperfect organs, is likely to become a gracious and friendly strength. If it is good to have a giant's strength, but not to use it like a giant, then there is no discipline for strength like that of weakness.