The Old Road Again

“Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.” — John xxi. 3.

Do we feel that this is a mean and trifling descent from the great and solemn themes which are described in the previous chapter? The disciples have been living in repeated thrills of wonder. And now, is it possible that they can quietly settle down again to the old tasks, and from the awful glory of the resurrection turn to the commonplace of fishing? Has the wonder faded? Has the warm glow become grey and cold? Have the colours of the marvellous sunrise changed into the quiet attire of the sober day? Has the surprise spent itself?” I go a fishing! ‘’ Is the glory over? Oh, no! The wonder of the resurrection, and the power of it, are now to mingle with the old conditions and transfigure them. When you begin to descend the Eigi, after witnessing the unutterable glory of some stupendous sunrise, you do not leave it all behind, you carry it with you, you bring it into the hurrying, sweltering movements of your own city, and it mixes itself with the grey and sombre circumstances of our common day.

“These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to m§

As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and ‘mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them. In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart: And passing even into my purer mind. With tranquil restoration.”

Simon Peter bad often gone a fishing, but never bad be gone as be went in the twiligbt of that most wonderful evening. He moved about the sbore with an amazingly enlarged consciousness; the imprisoning walls of bis narrow lot bad fallen down on every side, and on every side the light was pouring in from the infinite. He bandied the ropes in a new style, and with a new dignity born of the bigger capacity of his own soul. Yes, he turned to the familiar task, but with a quite unfamiliar spirit. He went a fishing, but the power of the resurrection went with him. He spread the splendid colours of his Eastertide over the still grey surface of bis common life.

Ifow, here is the true test of the reality of my spiritual experience: how does it fit me for ordinary affairs? A spiritual festival should do for the soul what a day on the bill does for the body, equip it for the better doing of the ordinary duties in the vale. I will test the essential value of any man’s Easter by his behaviour in the following week. I will test the value of a Christian convention by the way in which its supporters pick up the lowly duties that wait on the undecorated road. When the special revival is over, and the exciting meetings are done, and the sensational day wears toward evening, how do they return to the ordinary way, to the customary labours, to quiet domestic duties, to ugly social necessities, to the unapplauded round of church services, to the little prayer meeting with the two and three — how do they return to these things? Do they come back with that glorified consciousness which makes them ^’ faithful in that which is least,” or do they come back feeling that all these things are flat and tasteless, stale and profitless, and that they must seek a diet more highly spiced and exceptional? I remember once standing on Great Orme’s Head, on a day of superlative beauty, a day when land and ocean and sky seemed to vie with one another in the amazing glory of their robes; and one who was near me turned and sighingly said, ‘’ Fancy auctioneering after this! ‘’ Yes, and fancy fishing after the resurrection! If, after the Easter morn, the old beach seems a cold and colourless strip, and our old fishermen mates are dull and flavourless, and the old fishing boat stinks in our nostrils, and we turn to the work with loitering feet, we may be perfectly sure that we have never gazed upon the real glory of the risen Lord, for it is the inherent ministry of the spiritually extraordinary to make the ordinary attractive. ‘’ Even the bells upon the horses shall be holy unto the Lord,” “After these things... Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.”

Here, then, I say, is an unerring test of the reality of a spiritual experience, it gives us akeener ajtpctite for common duty. It is beautiful to watch the Psalmists, and to listen to them when they return from communing with the Lord. For this is the song upon their lips, “O, how I love Thy law!” It is an extraordinary combination, affection gathering round about a statute, a glowing passion gathering round about a restraint. The Psalmist had not always delighted in the law of his Lord. There was a day when he accepted it like bitter medicine, and he took it with a very wry face, but now he has been spiritually exalted, his moral palate has been renewed, and the law of the Lord is in his mouth “as honey for sweetness.’’ When a man smacks his lips over duty, and not over an evasion of duty, you may securely reason as to the depth and reality of his communion with God.” Thy statutes have become my songs.” This is the test — how do our resurrection experiences certify themselves in common life? Does the power of the resurrection pervade our ordinary toil j Does drudgery rise from the dgadj and appear a creature with wings? Is there a new atmosphere in our business, the nimble, living air of the Easter morn? Do men findTt easier to breathe, a joy to breathe, when they come into our communion, even though our intercourse be concerned with comparative trifles? Is there a fine tonic in the air, and do men go away from our presence saying, ‘^ It was likeayeath from the hills “? That is a proof of the resurrection. And do all our cold conventionalities become alive, and warm, and brilliant, like dull carbons when the mystic electrical energy possesses and pervades them? Is there a finer grace in the courtesies on the beach because of what happened “on the first day of the week ‘’ upon the hill? These are the tests, and by these we may know how intimate or how remote has been our fellowship with the risen Lord. ‘’ The Lord is risen indeed!” Is He? ‘’ We have seen the Lord! ^’ Have you? ‘’ He hath appeared unto Simon! ‘’ Has He? Then there will be evidence down on the beach, and we shall see the glory of the Eastertide in the kindling of lowly duties, and in the illumination of the common road. ‘’ Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing! ‘’

But, now, this healthy action of Simon Peter is not only a test and a proof of a past spiritual experience, it is a preparative to a renewal of it. Petr might have laidaside his^fdmary fisher’s coat, and, if he possessed any, he might have arrayed himself in his holiday attire, and gone moving about in a sort of spiritual loitering, looking wistfully for the reappearance of his risen Lord. He might have been tempted to reason in this way, “It will be risky to go off on the boat, for while I’m away on the sea the Master may come! I had just better ’ watch and pray,’ and risk the livelihood for a day or two!” ‘’ The Lord is mindful of His own! He remembers His children! “But no! He girt his fisher’s coat about him, got into his workaday dress, and thus he reasoned with himself: ^’ It cannot be wrong, even after all the bewildering experiences of the last few days, and with all the remorse which troubles my days and nights, it cannot be wrong to set about earning one’s living in an honest way! If the Master comes He will know I’m about my needful work, and mayhap He will call it His Father’s business! I go a fishing!” Ay, and that road of common duty was just the way appointed for another meeting I with his Lord, for in the morning light there came ay voice across the waters, ‘’ Children, have ye any meat? “‘’ And that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord!”

And so Easter was repeated to men who were faithfully treading the path of duty, and who were going about their ordinary work. The Lord appeared again, and their Easter faith was confirmed. Now I think that just here is where so many of us fail. Our spiritual experiences fade away, like ‘’ insubstantial pageants,” because we are negligent of some appointed road of work and duty. There is a bit of grey service waiting, a colourless patch of uninteresting routine, a dull stretch of dingy street, and at the end of it the risen Lord! But people prefer to hug their past experiences, to pore over them, to meditate by the empty tomb, and thereby seek some further revelation which will allay thejast uncertainty and, kill the lingering doubt.^ And they wait, and waiti and wait — and the colours of the first revelation begin to grow faint, and doubts annoy, and fears increase, and they begin to wonder if they have ever y seen the Lord at all. And all the time their boat is stranded idly on the beach — and, did they only know

it, in the call of a neglected task they may hear the

voice of the risen Lord. I am growingly amazed at

/the number of people who are depressed and troubled

lwith spiritual doubts and fears, and who, when one

comes to enquire, are neglecting some immediate

i means of obtaining light and witness from the living

God. There are people in every congregation who

are groping in a deepening twilight, and who are

painfully moaning,

“Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?”

. and if they would only gird themselves with their

fisher’s coat, and jump into the first duty that pre-

/ sents itself, and row strong, and work hard, they

I would see their Lord again, and in the morning they

would hear His gracious voice across the waters, and

ltheir heart would leap for joy. We are never going

/to retain the Easter light if we are surrounded by

y neglected tasks and duties. Here, at any rate, honest

fishing will sustain the wonder of the empty tomb.

/Lazy disciples will inevitably lose their Lord. He is

Waiting for thee at the end of” the long unlovely

street,’’ or on the quiet beach where the morning

boat comes in, or in the hospital ward, or in the

humble cottage where pain and death have been —

somewhere, I tell thee, at the further side of some

neglected duty, the Master tarries for thee: then be

^’ up and doing,” and “the joy of the Lord shall be thy strength.” “I have waited for Thee in the way of Thy commandments.”

And may I not also say that this glorious discharge of immediate duty is surely the best way of proclaiming the realities of Easter and the glory of the risen Lord. The world will believe in the secret of our Easter when our humblest duties and relationships burn and shine with the light divine. There is nothing which so startles the world like a dull commonplace made alive and brilliant. Transformed rubbish heaps are centres of perennial fascination. To see a bit of work, once carelessly and indifferently done now so done that it makes folk think of the kind of work which must have been turned out from the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth! To see a once rough formality converted into a finished courtesy by the grace and geniality of Jesus! To see the light of the risen life lighting up our trifles, and distinguishing them like street lamps along a dark, dingy road — all this, I say, would startle the old world into reverent and fruitful wonder.

^’ Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee.” The example proved contagious. Sanctified common sense is very mighty. They were a little company of bewildered men, whose minds had been stretched to the reception of amazing experiences, and they were just palpitating in uncertainty and confusion. And then one sane man strikes across the confusion with this definite purpose, “I go a fishing,” and the distracted minds collected themselves around this common end. “We also go with thee! ‘^ It was a fine lead, with a splendid issue. Let us strike that note, and amid all the mental disturbance and the theological reconstruction of our time let us keep our wills dead set to the doing of the immediate duty, and in the glorification of common life we shall never lose touch with the risen Lord. ‘’ Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou,’’ it is an ever-breaking revelation, glory upon glory,” into the joy of thy Lord!’’