1 Edward White.
EPHESIANS III. i6 127
^ God will show him — if a man wishes to be like Christ, and to work like Christ, at doing good ; God will teach him and guide him in all puzzling matters. And do not be afraid of being called cowards and milksops for bearing injuries patiently; those who call you so will be likely to be the greatest themselves. Patience is the truest sign of courage. Ask old soldiers who have seen real war, and they will tell you that the bravest men, the men who endured best, not in mere fighting, but in standing still for hours to be mowed down by cannon shot ; who were most cheerful and patient in shipwreck, and starvation, and defeat — all things ten times worse than fighting — ask old soldiers, I say, and they will tell you that the men who showed best in such miseries, were generally the weakest men in the whole regiment ; that is true fortitude; that is Christ's image — the meekest of men, and the bravest too.^
^ There is a great truth expressed when we describe a brave and enterprising man as a man of spirit. All high and com- manding qualities of soul come from this invisible source. They are inspirations. In the human will, with its vis vivida, its elasticity and buoyancy, its steadfastness and resolved purpose, is the highest type of force and the image of the almighty Will. When that will is animated and filled with " the Spirit," the man so possessed is the embodiment of an inconceivable power. Firm principle, hope and constancy, self-mastery, superiority to pleasure and pain — all the elements of a noble courage are proper to the man of the Spirit. Such power is not neutralized by our infirmities ; it asserts itself under their limiting conditions and makes them its contributories. " My grace is sufficient for thee," said Christ to His disabled servant ; " for power is perfected in weakness." 2
^ If we say that a man is remarkable for his intellectual energy, we think of him as having in the very centre of his intellectual life a free and inexhaustible fountain of force and activity. It is the same in the spiritual life. There is a certain imperfection in many of us which I do not know how to describe except by saying that, though at times particular spiritual faculties may appear to be vigorous, the central life is weak. There are men whose zeal for the evangelization of the world is often very real and very fervent, but who give us no impression of spiritual strength. There are others who are often inspired with a passion for Christian perfection, but in them too there appears to be no real vigour. There are others who seem spiritually
* Charles Kingsley. ^ q^ (j_ pindlay. The Epistle to the Ephesians, 187.
128 POWER IN THE INWARD MAN
weak, though their vision of spiritual truth is very keen and penetrating. There are others who seem capable of very lofty devotion, — of awe, of vehement religious emotion, of rapture in the Divine love and in the hope of glory, honour, and immortality — and who yet give us the impression that they are wanting in those elements of life which constitute spiritual energy. In every one of these cases, to use language which suggests rather than expresses the truth, the vigour is derived not from the central fountains of life, but from springs that are more or less distant from the centre. The man himself is wanting in force though there are spiritual forces at work in him. Those of us who are conscious that this is our condition should pray to God that we " may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man." ^
^ Eobertson Smith returned to Cambridge for the decisive consultation of his doctors, and the story of what passed may be given here in the words of the Master of Christ's. " Half the members of the Conference [of Orientalists] had been invited to spend the Saturday and Sunday at Cambridge, and as usual Smith was the centre around which they all moved. From the bustle and confusion of tongues he withdrew to meet the doctors, and as usual he insisted on knowing the whole truth. When he left the room he turned to me and said, ' I know what that means. My brother died of it.' He then returned to his guests, and that evening presided at a banquet given in their honour in the Hall of Christ's, but never by a word or a sign did he let any one suspect what he had learned but an hour or two before from the doctors, and it was with the same magnificent courage that he bore the ceaseless suffering and gradually increasing weakness of the next eighteen months."
What Smith had learned from the doctors was indeed sufficient to try his heroism. It was now ascertained with as much clear- ness as is possible in such matters that the real cause of the discomfort and illness which had crippled him for so long was deep-seated tuberculosis.^
3. The very name of the Spirit is the "Spirit of might." Christ spoke to us about being "endued with power from on high." The last of His promises that dropped from His lips upon earth was the promise that His followers should receive the power of the Spirit coming upon them. Wheresoever in the early histories we read of a man that was full of the Holy Ghost,