I JOHN V. 4 395
the word of God ; yet, when we come to act in the world, we find this very thing a trial, not merely of our obedience, but even of our faith ; that is, the mere fact that the world turns out to be what we began by actually confessing concerning it.^
•|| One of the severest trials of Gladstone's life was the assassina- tion of his trusted lieutenant and most intimate personal friend. Lord Frederick Cavendish. And it is pathetic to be told that in the stress of duty and responsibility following on this tragedy he referred sadly to the impossibility of dwelling on his loss as one of the penalties of his position. But think of the faith that could so rise superior to a gnawing grief as to be in no wise unfitted by it for the closest thought and most assiduous application. It is an illustration of the restful side of his faith.^
3. If the world is not being overcome by us, then we are being overcome by the world. It is like a stream. We are either going up against the stream, or we are being carried down by the current. When is it that the world is conquering us ? When we are in- duced to accept its views, its maxims, instead of the principles of God's holy word ; when we are influenced by the opinion of men and by the spirit of the age. The world is conquering us when it is petrifying all our desires after God, when it chills all our aspirations upward, and when it steals out of our hearts the very inclination to pray to God and to listen to His voice. The world is overcoming us when it fills us with the fear of man, so that we are afraid to speak for Christ, and are dumb. The world is con- quering us when it fills us with love of earthly things, and leads us to set our affections upon things below.
^ This is the victory wherewith the world overcomes us, even our doubt. The world has a principle, a bond of union, a faith ; and the world must conquer us if we have none. It is necessary that we should keep hold of this truth, which we have, it would seem, almost forgotten, that faith is meant to defend us, not to be defended, to be an active principle within us, not the dead body round which the battle rages. Faith and religion ought to be our weapons of warfare, the instruments by which we are to do our duty. But how far will our present faith answer to this definition ? "A man's religion consists not," as Carlyle has said, " of the many things he is in doubt of, and tries to believe, but of the few he is assured of, and has no need of effort for believing." *
* J. H. Newman, Oxford University Sermons, 122. " J. Munro Gibson.
• A. T. Lyttelton, in Kelle College Sermons, 1877-1888, p. 193.
396 VICTORY OVER THE WORLD
^ The world, which he defined as " the activities of this life with God left out," seemed to him to invade everything in London, even the Church, tempting some of the clergy to aim at success and popularity, and become absorbed in efforts to gather large congregations around them by competing in attractions with neighbouring churches.
" We have moved to London House till Easter. It makes my work easier for me, as I have not so much travelling. It also brings me more visitors and makes me feel more in the world. But oh ! how much world there is ! The devil and the flesh are not nearly so dangerous combined. The trial of a bishop is that he is always engaged in outside matters. I really rejoice in Confirma- tions, which bring me into contact with the young. I do not find so many human beings in London as there were at Peterborough."
" I am perpetually overwhelmed with work. I have to ex- press more opinions than I have time to verify, I am in the very centre of all that is worldly. I am exposed to all the most deteriorating influences. All that I can do is to realize these facts, and try to possess my soul as well as I can," ^
Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch,
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
A chorus-ending from Euripides, —
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears
As old and new at once as nature's self,
To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring,
Eound the ancient idol, on his base again, —
The grand Perhaps ! We look on helplessly.
There the old misgivings, crooked questions are —
This good God, — what He could do, if He would.
Would, if He could — then must have done long since :
If so, when, where and how ? some way must be, —
Once feel about, and soon or late you hit
Some sense, in which it might be, after all.
Why not, "The Way, the Truth, the Life"? 2
IL
The Faith that Conquers the World.
1. Faith is not a new faculty conferred upon the soul, but the quickening and expansion of a faculty that we already possess.