The great religions of the East, Hinduism and Buddhism, lay all the stress upon the human will. The key-note of those systems is, "Work out your own salvation." The power that saves you is of yourself; the chains that bind you are of your own forging ; the virtue that delivers you is of your own merit. There is no need to disparage this teaching for the sake of exalting our Christian religion. It is the noblest element in Eastern faith, and it is a truth too much neglected by ourselves. Will power is not so strong in human nature that we can afford to discourage its cultivation. There is something stern and grand in the con- ception of those who, instead of leaning upon others, or repining
^ A. 0. Pigou, Browning as a Beligimis Teacher, 64,
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at their lot, frankly take all the condemnation to themselves, and strive manfully to retrieve their past and work out their own salvation. It is one side of religious truth, but it is not the whole truth, and it is not the gospel truth. It omits the good news of a Father's love, of the Saviour's Cross, and of the Holy Spirit that helpeth our infirmities. It is silent about those truths which are the most inspiring cause of human effort, and which have done more than all else to enkindle the heart, and strengthen the will towards right.
^ These two streams of truth are like the rain-shower that falls upon the water-shed of a country. The one half flows down the one side of the everlasting hills, and the other down the other. Falling into rivers that water different continents, they at length find the sea, separated by the distance of half the globe. But the sea into which they fall is one, in every creek and channel. And so, the truth into which these two apparent opposites converge, is " the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God," whose ways are past finding out — the Author of all goodness, who, if we have any holy thought, has given it us ; if we have any true desire, has implanted it ; has given us the strength to do the right and to live in His fear ; and who yet, doing all the willing and the doing, says to us, "Because I do everything, therefore let not thy will be paralysed, or thy hand palsied ; but because I do everything, therefore will thou according to My will, and do thou according to My commandments ! " ^
^ This is the profound teaching in St, Augustine's doctrine of grace, which he pressed so strongly as to seem at times almost to destroy the reality of free will, Man could not seek God unless God already possessed him. He possesses us that we may desire to possess Him. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as mere natural goodness. Whether it is recognized or not, all earnest thought and effort is God working in us.^
3. When we co-operate with God the antagonism vanishes. God and man are so near together, so belong to one another, that not a man by himself, but a man and God, is the true unit of being and power. The human will in such sympathetic submission to the Divine will that the Divine will may flow into it and fill it, and yet never destroy its individuality ; my thoughts filled with the thought of One who, I know, is different from me while He
^ A, Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Mancliester, i. 219. • H. Lefroy Yorke, The Law of the Spirit, 166.
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is unspeakably close to me ; — are not these the consciousnesses of which all souls that have been truly religious have been aware ?
^ There are two parts in every great work — a working in and a working out. The working in is always the Divine part. It is very easy to work out an idea when once you have got it ; but the mystery is the getting of it. What is the mystery of the bee- hive ? It is not the making of the hive ; it is the conceiving of it. If you can tell me how the idea was worked in, I will tell you how the plan was worked out. The thing which wakes my wonder is the instinct — the process within the bee ; I call it God's work. So it is with my soul. I, too, am helping to build a hive — a great home of humanity, named the Kingdom of God. I know not how it is done ; I know not even what part of the build- ing I am aiding to construct ; I only know that an impulse of life moves me. That impulse is God working within me. Whither it tends I cannot see. The making of the hive eludes me. I am travelling through the night — carrying I know not what, to places I know not where. Only, the impulse says " go," and I do go ; I work out what God works in. I cannot fathom His designs ; He has inspired me to the work by designs less than His own. He sends me to chase a butterfly when He means me to win a king- dom. No matter, I work what I will not ; I compass what I con- ceive not ; I perform what I plan not. I do what is not in my dream by the very effort to fulfil it. I seek, like Abraham, a foreign country, and I find myself in the land of Canaan.^