2. And yet this fruit must grow from something that is within the man. It must be a genuine product of human life. " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; . . . 1 say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Why not ? He was certainly larger, and he probably had more colours in his garments — why not arrayed like one of these ?
398 THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Because the lily grew, and all the colours in the lily came from within, while all the glory of Solomon was a glory put on him from without. The glory of a house is the glory of the man who built it, not primarily of the man who lives in it. The glory that is put on a man is not a man's own glory. The glory that does not grow is spurious.
^ You do not make a character as you build a house, laying one stone upon another ; nor do you alter it as you might alter a house, pulling out these stones, and putting others in. It grows by inherent power, assimilating, rejecting, amplifying or trans- muting, as though that which comes to it were food, which indeed it is — food from heaven or from hell. And every particle of this food that is truly incorporated in the man's life goes to change character through and through, may be trusted to do it. There- fore, behind laws outworn and habits that should be outgrown, the charity that believes all things and hopes all things dis- covers the man as he really is, with promise of the man that he will be.^
3. For the perfection of the fruit, the spiritual must master the natural. We have to do with a twofold nature — that which we share with all living things, and the new nature which we must win, and the winning of which represents an endless, never- ceasing task. Philosophers may be left to decide how these two natures are related to one another ; the distinction is undeniable, and is rooted in every soul. And the power which leads us to the higher nature we name the Spirit of God. The lower nature urges a people simply to follow the materialistic instinct of self- preservation, to fight to the end in the struggle for existence, the struggle for fodder and a place at the stall. The Spirit of God, on the other hand, teaches that " man lives not by bread alone," and that his supreme task is to win an abiding relation to the Eternal
Angels of Growth, of old in that surprise Of your first vision, wild and sweet, I poured in passionate sighs My wish unwise That ye descend my heart to meet, — My heart so slow to rise!
* Michael FairUsa : Her Life and Writings, 74.
GAL. v/ 2 2, 23 399
Now thus I pray: Angelic be to hold In heaven your shining poise afar, And to my wishes bold Eeply with cold, Sweet invitation, like a star Fixed in the heavens old.
Did ye descend : what were ye more than I ? Is't not by this ye are divine, — That, native to the sky. Ye cannot hie Downward, and give low hearts the wine That should reward the high ?
Weak, yet in weakness I no more complain Of your abiding in your places : Oh ! still, howe'er my pain Wild prayers may rain, Keep pure on high the perfect graces That stooping could but stain.
Not to content our lowness, but to lure And lift us to your angelhood,
Do your surprises pure.
Dawn far and sure Above the tumult of young blood,
And, star-like, there endure.
Wait there ! wait and invite me while I climb ; For see, I come ! but slow, but slow !
Yet ever as your chime
Soft and sublime, Lifts at my feet, they move, they go
Up the great stair of time.^
11.
The Vakiety of the Fruit.
1. The Apostle enumerates nine graces, but he describes them all as " fruit " not " fruits." And this is true to life, for the Holy Spirit always clusters His work. One Christian virtue necessarily ' David Atwood Wasson.
400 THE FRUIT GF THE SPIRIT
raises up another ; there is no such thing as sanctiiBcation in a single point. As one berry in a bunch of grapes cannot ripen without the others ripening too, so it is with the Christian. Try to eradicate one sin of your character, and you will invariably find that in doing so you will weaken, if you do not pull up, another. Cultivate one good trait, and you will be surprised to find how many more seem to grow up, you scarcely know how, at its side. So that this is often the best way to carry on one's own edification — to concentrate one's prayers and self-discipline upon one particular point of attainment, not only because by that fixed- ness we shall best secure the growth and the attainment which we desire, but also because by cherishing that one excellence we shall promote all.
2. The list is not to be regarded as exhaustive. Indeed the catalogue of qualities after which men should aspire in what is called " the Sermon on the Mount " varies very much from the catalogue that is given here. There is not a word said in the Sermon on the Mount about love or faith or hope; and here there is not a word said about patience under suffering and per- secution. " Longsuffering " is spoken of, but by that is not meant sufifering under persecution. If we turn to Philippians and to Ephesians we shall find still further descriptions of Christian character ; and they are not like any of the others. The fact is, it is simply impossible for any man to make a list which is ex- haustive of the developments of the human mind. A true man- hood in Jesus Christ means the education of every faculty ; and the qualities which spring out of the combinations of these faculties must be well-nigh infinite. No man can exhaust the alphabet. There is practically no end to the possible combinations of its letters. The separate human faculties are more numerous than are the letters of the alphabet ; and they can, by combination and culture, develop qualities ad infinitum. Therefore, we never look for a perfect human portraiture. We look for just enough hints to suggest in our minds that which we cull and fill up by the imagination and through our knowledge ; but it would be vain to attempt to describe all that may be developed in a full, manly nature, under the Divine inspiration and culture. That would be attempting an impossibility.