Since succour to the feeblest of the wise
Is charge of nobler weight
Than the security
Of many and many a foolish soul's estate,
This I affirm.
Though fools will fools more confidently be:
Whom God doth once with heart to heart befriend,
He does so till the end ;
And having planted life's miraculous germ,
One sweet pulsation of responsive love,
He sets him sheer above,
Not sin and bitter shame
And wreck of fame,
But Hell's insidious and more black attempt,
The envy, malice and pride,
Which men who share so easily condone
That few even list such ills as these to hide.
From these unalterably exempt
Through the remember'd grace
Of that divine embrace,
Of his sad errors none.
Though gross to blame,
Shall cast him lower than the cleansing flame,
Nor make him quite depart
From the small flock named "after God's own heart,"
And to themselves unknown.
Nor can he quail
In faith, nor flush nor pale
When all the other idiot people spell
How this or that new prophet's word belies
Their last high oracle ;
But constantly his soul
Points to its pole,
^ C. Moinet, The Cheat Alternative, 172.
246 RIGHTEOUS FORGIVENESS
Even as the needle points and knows not why
And, under the ever-changing clouds of doubt,
When others cry,
"The stars, if stars there were,
Are quenched and out ! "
To him, uplooking t'ward the hills for aid,
Appear, at need display'd,
Gaps in the low-hung gloom, and, bright in air,
Orion or the Bear.^
2. The Divine faithfulness and justice are pledged to " cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The discovery of ineffaceable spots on the soul would be a fatal reflection on the spiritual perception and sanctifying power of the Divine Eedeemer. We are told that a New York lapidary submitted a diamond to the grinding machine for the space of three months. At the end of that time the stone was found to be absolutely unaffected by the ordeal, and the lapidary gave up the task in despair. But the revolutions of the wheels of redemption will never fail to polish and perfect the believer's soul. God can heal, not only the putrifying sores of flagrant vice, but also the unrealized wounds of the deadly bacilli of evil that secrete themselves in the deepest inwardness of our being. The electric beams of His righteousness reveal the hidden blights that taint the motive and pollute the springs of thought. Sin knows no " law of protective colouring " by means of which it can escape the detection of God. God discerns iniquity in its microscopic inception, and cleanses the soul from the faintest stains.
0 Foolish Soul ! to make thy count For languid falls and much forgiven,
When like a flame thou mightest mount To storm and carry heaven.
A life so faint, — is this to live ?
A goal so mean, — is this a goal ? Christ love thee, remedy, forgive,
Save thee, 0 foolish Soul ! "
1 Coventry Patmore. Christina G. Rossetti,
An Advocate with the Father*
Literature.
Banks (L. A.), John and his Friends, 48.
Farrar (F. W.), Truths to Live By, 92.
Figgis (J. B.), The Anointing, 1,
Gordon (A. J.), TJie Twofold Life, 175.
Hall (J. v.), The Sinner's Friend, 27.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 50.
Hook (W. F.), Sermons on Various Subjects, 320.
Knight (H. T.), The Cross, the Font, and the Altar, 28.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., v. (1910) 330.
Maclagan (P. J.), The Gospel View of Things, 114.
Maurice (F. D.), The Doctrine of Sacrifice, 242.
Meyer (F. B.), In the Beginning God, 179.
Morison (J.), Holiness in Living and Happiness in Dying, 156.
Moule (H. C. G.), Christ is All, 1.
New (C), The Baptism of the Spirit, 147.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, ii. 377.
Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, i. 236.
Smith (D.), Christian Counsel, 17.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, ix. (1863) 337.
„ „ The Messiah, 399.
Stanford (C.), Symbols of Christ, 287. Whiton (J. M.), Reconsiderations and Reinforcements, 42. Wynne (G. R.), Li Quietness and Confidence, 67.
Cliristian World Pulpit, Iviii. 100 (]\Iacdonald) ; Ixxiv, 202 (Aveling). Church of England Pulpit, Ixiii. (1908) 414 (Maturin).
148
An Advocate with the Father.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous : and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.— i John ii. i, 2.
1. There is an Oriental courtesy which will present you with whatever you may happen to admire, and yet would be dumb- founded if the offer were taken seriously. Do we not often regard the large promises of the Bible as offers of this kind ? We do not take their words at their face value. We regard them as depreciated currency. And the reason is partly that we as Christians rightly assume that we have the right to use the language of the New Testament; but as our experience is not equal to the greatness of the words, we tone down the meaning of the words to make it level with our experience. We read, for instance, of "joy unspeakable and full of glory," of "peace that passeth all understanding " ; but since we know no such experi- ences, we conclude that they are not to be known ; that such words are not to be taken literally ; that they are instances of a conventional religious exaggeration ; that they may become true in the future ; that if they have ever been true, it was only in Apostolic times. Anyhow it would be absurd to expect to find them true now.