^ One of the New Testament Kevisers has told me that in order to get at the literal meaning of this word we shall have to invent an almost grotesque expression ; he says the only words which represent the idea in his mind are these, " Let us lay aside the well-stood-arounded sin " ; that is to say, the popular sin. There is the sin, and round it there is a band of admirers, and round that band there is another, and around that band there is a third cordon ; and so the throng swells and extends, and this sin becomes the well-stood-arouuded sin, the sin that everybody likes, praises, cheers.^
^ It is said that the electric current, though invisible and to our senses inappreciable, when passed through a wire or substance, disposes every one of its particles differently from what they were before. It is wholly altered, though to the eye the same. And the subtle influence of sin, even when unknown, gives a new disposition to the powers of the mind, puts it into a frame incom- patible with that other frame which is faith in Christ. The two cannot exist together. And, therefore, in order to faith, sin must be laid aside.^
3. We are to run with patience. The ancients had their virtue — fortitude. It was more active than passive, for the standpoint of ancient ethics was self-sufficingness. In the Christian idea of patience, the passive element of it is as prominent as the active; even more prominent, for first, the life we live on earth is often a life of suffering ; and secondly, the idea of humility — wholly foreign to antiquity — is one of the roots of Christian ethics.
^ Joseph Parker, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, 122. ' A. B. Davidson, Wailing wpon God, 312.
468 THE RACE SET BEFORE US
The very pace of the runner is itself the foe of patience. It calls, seemingly, for impetuosity, and the more impetuous the runner, we are accustomed to think, the better. Its certain effect is to heat the blood and fire the nerves. Behold the athlete with every muscle taut, every line of his face hard-set, his eye intense and eager, the applauding crowd urging him on ! How can he be poiseful and self-controlled ? Indeed, patience would seem impossible, and impatience the very price of the prize. And yet every athletic man knows that this is the talk of a novice. If there is anything the runner needs it is self-control, to be able " to keep his head," as we say, to command his nerves, to hold his strength in check at the first and let it out toward the finish, to keep from being unnerved by the shouts of the crowd, to be equal to any unforeseen turn the race may take or any condition before unreckoned with that may appear. And does it not always turn out that a running match is at bottom chiefly a question of self- command — muscle, wind, nerve, mind, and even heart — and the winner ever found to be the one who has run the race with the greatest patience ?
^ Self-control may be developed in precisely the same Manner as we tone up a weak muscle — by little exercises day by day. Let us each day do, as mere exercises of discipline in moral gymnastics, a few acts that are disagreeable to us, the doing of which will help us in instant action in our hour of need. These daily exercises in moral discipline will have a wondrous tonic effect on man's whole moral nature. The individual can attain self- control in great things only through self-control in little things. He must study himself to discover what is the weak point in his armour, what is the element within him that ever keeps him from his fullest success. This is the characteristic upon which he should begin his exercise in self-control. Is it selfishness, vanity, cowardice, morbidness, temper, laziness, worry, mind-wandering, lack of purpose ? — whatever form human weakness assumes in the masquerade of life he must discover. He must then live each day as if his whole existence were telescoped down to the single day before him. With no useless regret for the past, no useless worry for the future, he should live that day as if it were his only day — the only day left for him to assert all that is best in him, the only day for him to conquer all that is worst in him. He should master the weak element within him at each slight manifestation from moment to moment. Each moment then must be a victory
HEBREWS XII. I, 2 469
for it or for him. Will he be King, or will he be slave ?- -the answer rests with him.^
Have you ever thought, my friend,
As you daily toil and plod In the noisy paths of men,
How still are the ways of God?
Have you ever paused in the din
Of traffic's insistent cry, To think of the calm in the cloud
Of the peace in your glimpse or che sky ?
Go out in the quiet fields,
That quietly yield you meat, And let them rebuke your noise.
Whose patience is still and sweet.
III.
The Cloud of Witnesses.