i"A. E."
* Mrs. Sutherland Orr, Life and Letters of Robert Browning, 349.
158 CHRIST IN THE HEART
^ It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible which my mother thus taught me, that which cost me most to learn, and which was, to my child's mind, chiefly repulsive — the 119th Psalm — has now become of all the most precious to me, in its over- flowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God, in opposition to the abuse of it by modern preachers of what they imagine to be His gospel.
But it is only by deliberate effort that I recall the long morning hours of toil, as regular as sunrise — toil on both sides equal — by which, year after year, my mother forced me to learn these fine old Scottish Paraphrases, and chapters (the eighth of Ist Kings being one — try it, good reader, in a leisure hour !), allowing not so much as a syllable to be missed or misplaced ; while every sentence was required to be said over and over again till she was satisfied with the accent of it. I recollect a struggle between us of about three weeks, concerning the accent of the " of " in the lines
Shall any following spring revive The ashes of the urn ? —
I insisting, partly in childish obstinacy, and partly in true instinct for rhythm (being wholly careless on the subject both of urns and their contents), on reciting it with an accented of. It was not, I say, till after three weeks' labom% that my mother got the accent lightened on the " of " and laid on the ashes, to her mind. But had it taken three years, she would have done it, having once undertaken to do it. And, assuredly, had she not done it, — well, there's no knowing what would have happened; but I'm very thankful she did}
(2) Cleansing. — The thoughts of the heart are a trouble to every Christian; the secret springs of action — they are the trouble. The secret tastes and the sympathies — these are the things that go to make the essence of Christian life.
Eivers to the ocean run, Nor stay in all their course ; Fire, ascending, seeks the sun; Both speed them to their source; So a soul, new-born of God, Pants to know His glorious face, Upwards tends to His abode, To rest in His embrace.
^ Kuskin, Praeterita, i. 54.
EPHESIANS III. 17 159
(3) Catholiciiy. — What do we read in the Apostle's prayer ? That we " may be able to comprehend with all saints." If Christ is in the heart, barriers and divisions melt away. "We are one with our brothers. The " hand " is not going to fight with the "foot." We all belong to the same body and we know it; we each have a secret vital link with every other member of the mystical body of Christ. Whatever differences there are on minor points we say : " Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
^ What profound and broad contrasts divide men from men ; what gulfs separate one race from another, earlier from later ages, any one state of thought and social progress from what went before it and what follows it : and within narrower limits, what end- less variety, baffling all imagination to follow, of circumstance and fortune, of capacity and character, of wealth or poverty, of strength or weakness, of inclinations and employments, of a kindly or unkindly lot. Yet for all, one life is the guiding light, and the words which express it speak to all. A life the highest conceiv- able, on almost the lowest conceivable stage, and recorded in the simplest form, with indifference to all outward accompaniments, attractive whether to the few or to the many, is set before us as the final and unalterable ideal of human nature. Amid all its continual and astonishing changes, differing widely as men do, Christ calls them all alike to follow Him : unspeakably great as His example is, it is for the many and the average as much as for the few ; homely as is its expression, there is no other lesson for the deepest and most refined. The least were called to its high goodness : the greatest had nothing offered them but its brief-spoken plainness.^
That mystic word of Thine, O sovereign Lord, Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me;
Weary of striving, and with longing faint, I breathe it back again in prayer to Thee.
Abide in me, I pray, and I in Thee ;
From this good hour, O, leave me never more ; Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed,
The lifelong bleeding of the soul be o'er.
Abide in me ; o'ershadow by Thy love
Each half-formed purpose and dark thought of sin;
Quench, ere it rise, each selfish, low desire. And keep my soul as Thine, calm and divine. ^ Dean Church.
i6o CHRIST IN THE HEART
As some rare perfume in a vase of clay Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,
So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul, All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown.
Abide in me ; there have been moments blest