power; he hath victory over the world, both the good and the evil things of it; his mind is unhampered, disentangled, and set loose, and it is lord over those whom before it obeyed.' 'Thrice happy, happy bonds that now unite ye, Adams, writing on the subjugation of the soul, says, 'Submit thyself to the will of God once for all, and then thou shalt have thine own every day and hour of thy life.' St. Bernard in one of his sermons expands this same idea, and shows how in Christ to lose our life is to find it,' so to merge our will in that of the Almighty is to gain it in gaining Him. 'By self-denial we lose nothing, but on the contrary gain much, for we exchange our own will for a better, so that that which was before an individual will is now become the universal will, and that will is love. How can that man have compassion on his brother, who being led captive by his own will, is incapable of participating in the feelings of others? Or how can he who loves none but himself be said to hate the evil and love the good? I call that self-will which is not common to us with God and mankind in general, which prompts us to choose as our motive of action, not the glory of God nor the good of our brother, but our own private advantage. What is it in us that God hates and punishes but our natural will? It is for this He corrects us. All our sufferings and chastisements are caused by this natural will, and this being annihilated, suffering and chastisement must be annihilated with it. Self-will is unbounded in its strivings, yea, the whole world would not suffice it, it would even (Bernard goes on to say) extinguish the very being of God, inasmuch as it includes a wish that His dispensations and attributes should be other than He hath unalterably fixed them. Let this natural will but once cease, and there is no more hell for us.' A PORTRAIT BY BAXTER OF THE REV. JOSEPH ALLEINE. 'It is his highest excellency in my eyes that he attained to a right temperament of the Christian 1 This statement seems extreme and absolute, a mere assertion, and as such inviting question. We know not as yet why man suffers, and so deeply; the root and origin of pain, like that of sin and evil in general, remains among the hidden things of God. This saying of St. Bernard is founded, like many other such, upon a partial view of truth, unjust alike to man, whom it condemns, and to God, whom it would fain flatter. The will of man is not wholly in his own power. He cannot pluck down blessings, though they are all there, for with God is the residue of the spirit. What he can do is to be willing in the day of God's power, so that when God reveals Himself to the soul it may be found ready, prepared, patient. He cannot bring down rain, or command the clouds from above, but he can have his field tilled and weeded, ready to profit by the life-refreshing shower. religion, suitable to the glorious hopes of faith, and to the wonderful love of the Redeemer. And when most Christians think they have done much if they can weep and groan over their corruptions, and can abstain from the pollutions of the world in the midst of many doubts and fears, love and joy and a heavenly mind were the internal part of his religion, and the large and fervent praises of God, and thanksgiving for His mercy, especially for Christ, and the Spirit, and heaven, were the external exercises of it. He was no despiser of a broken heart, but he had attained the blessing of a healed joyful heart. And, oh! how amiable it is to hear the tongue employed, seriously and frequently, in that which it was made for, and to see a man passing with joyful hopes towards immortality! Did Christians, yea, ministers, but live with the joy, and gratitude, and praise of Jehovah, which beseemeth those that believe what they believe, and those that are entering into the celestial choir, they would then be an honour to God and their Redeemer, and would win the world to a love of faith and holiness, and make them throw away their worldly fool-games, and come and see what it is these joyous souls have found. But when we show the world no religion but sighing and complaining, and live a sadder B life than they do, and yet talk of the glad tidings of Christ, and pardon, and salvation, we may talk so long enough before they will believe us, that seem to be no more believers ourselves, or before they will leave their worldly pleasures for so sad and dreadful a life as this.' FROM LES LETTRES CHRÉTIENNES ET SPIRITUELLES DE M. DE SACI' (THE PORT-ROYALIST). 'Go on, my dear sir, to work as you are now doing, so as to obtain the sweet gifts of humility and of patience. For these are virtues of which we have a perpetual need. Impatience is above all things to be avoided, and when we fall into it we must endeavour to recover ourselves peaceably,1 for this peace itself is able to restore us from our fall, whilst in allowing ourselves to sink yet again into impatience, through vexation from having once given way to it, we do ourselves more injury than that very fall would have occasioned. 'It is through being humble that we learn to endure 1 There is deep spiritual wisdom, 'hidden manna,' in this saying. Like that of St. Francis de Sales, 'Be charitable towards all men, especially towards thyself,' and coinciding with what Madame Swetchine writes on a certain desirable gentleness with self. The extract from her writings will find a place further on in this volume. the wound of pride, which we condemn while we wait for God to cure it.' This M. de Saci, writing to a friend in religious seclusion, desires for him that he may be found among that multitude upon whom Christ, whom they had followed from the desert, 'had compassion,' and fed them with His own bread. bread is meditation upon the Word of God, which multiplies itself in proportion to our faith and holy fear in reading it. This bread is also that sorrow for the foregone life, the bread of tears, on which David said he nourished himself day and night. This bread is the humble submission to the will of God, of which Christ said, 'My bread is to do the will of my Father.' The will of Jesus Christ is that we should be meek and lowly, according to the example which He has given us, and we must not be weary of saying to Him, 'Lord, evermore give us this bread.' For humility is only given to those who ask for it, and he who is wearied has ceased to be humble. Humble prayer obtains the grace of humble living, and the whole Christian life, says St. Augustine, consists in these two things-Humiliter pretendendo et faciendo.1 M. de Saci, speaking of a convert who had had 1 'To know thyself in thy misery, and to know God in His mercy, epitomises the whole of religion.'-St. Augustine. |