The Clew of the Maze
LET US LIVE.
The most important part of human life is not its end, but its beginning. Our death-day is the child of the past, but our opening years are the sires of the future. At the last hour men summon to their bedside a solemnity of thought which arrives too late for any practical result. The hush and awe and far-away look, so frequent in departing moments, should have come much sooner. Commend us to the example of the Hebrew king, who fasted and wore sackcloth while the child was yet alive. Wisely did he foresee the uselessness of lamenting when the scene should close. “Can I bring him back again?” was one of the most sensible of questions.
It may be serious business to take the cold iron from the anvil; it seems to us far sadder to be standing still, and seeing the hot bar grow chill. Brother, at my side, whoever you may be, let us STRiKe!
WHAT HAS DOUBT ACHIEVED?
How is it that no such trophy has ever been raised to the honor of unbelief? Will the poet of infidelity and the historian of scepticism yet appear? If so, what will be their record? “Working righteousness” and ‘’obtaining promises” are rather out of the line of doubt, and it is not likely to endure much suffering to “obtain a better resurrection,” for it sneers at the mention of such a thing; the eulogist of doubt would have to content himself with lower achievements. But what would they be? What hospitals or orphanages has doubt erected? What missions to cannibal tribes has infidelity sustained? What fallen women or profligate men has scepticism reclaimed and new-created?
THE CLE IV OF TILE MAZE. i )i
DOUBT IS STERILE.
The fact is that doubt is negative, destructive, sterile. It constrains no man to nobler things, and begets in the human mind no hopes or aspirations. It is by no means a principle upon which to base life’s fabric; for whatever force it has is subversive, and not constructive. A principle which tends to nothing but universal smash is not one to which an ordinary man may contentedly commit the ruling of his life. What if some religious notions be mere fancy, impractical, and imaginary? It is no great thing after all to be good at breaking up the bric-a-brac of the house. However much the coldly-wise may rejoice to be rid of what they call rubbish, it will be no great feat to sweep away all the frail fibrics; the genius required is akin to that which is incarnate in a monkey or wild bull. Our ambition lies in a higher region; we would construct rather than destroy. Since we aspire to honorable and useful lives, we seek a positive force which will bear us onward and upward. Those who prefer to do so may doubt, and doubt, and doubt to the dregs of nothing; but our choice is to find truth and believe it, that it may be a life-force to us. No partisan has yet had the hardihood to preach an evangel of ‘’doubt and live;’’’ for too manifestly doubt is akin to death; but believe and live is the essence of the message from heaven, and we accept it.
SELF-RELIANCE AND A BETTER RELIANCE.
Self-reliance is inculcated as a moral virtue, and in a certain sense, with due surroundings, it is so. Observation and experience show that it is a considerable force in the world. He who questions his own powers, and does not know his own mind, hesitates, trembles, falters, fails; his diffidence is the author of his disappointment. The self-reliant individual hopes, considers, plans, resolves, endeavors, perseveres succeeds; his assurance of victory is one leading cause of his triumph. A man believes in his own capacity, and unless he is altogether a piece of emptiness he gradually convinces others that his estimate is correct. Even self-conceit, immodest though it be, has sometimes acted forcefully, just as.
at a pinch, Dutch courage has supplied the place of valor. The essence of the matter is that confidence of some sort is an item of great importance in accomplishing our designs, and distrust or doubt is a source of weakness in any and every case. Faith, then, we choose, rather than doubt, as the mainspring of our life.
SCEPTICISM — NO VERY GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.
It has been well said, “Nothing is easier than to doubt. A man of moderate ability or learning can doubt more than the wisest men believe.” Faith demands knowledge, for it is an intelligent grace, able and anxious to justify itself; but infidelity is not required to give a reason for the doubt that is in it; a defiant mien and a blustering tone, answer its purpose quite as well as argument. In fact, the present acme of unbelief -is to know nothing; and what is this but the apothesis of ignorance? Great is the glory of knowing nothing!
A man may glide into agnosticism insensibly, and remain in it languidly; but to believe is to be alive — alive to conflict and watchfulness. Those who think faith to be a childish business will have to make considerable advances toward manliness-before they are able to test their own theory.
Shall we prefer doubt because it is so ready to our hand, or shall we become truth-seekers even if we have to dive like pearl-fishers? That depends upon the mind which is in us. We shall elect our life-rule according to the spirit within. A brave soul will not tamely follow the ignoble way of the many, but will aspire to the higher paths even if they be the more difficult.
FAITH IN THE UNSEEN.
That we. should limit our confidence to the region of our senses is an absurd supposition. No man has seen, or heard, or tasted the greatest of known forces. Steam, electricity, gravitation, and the rest of the -giants, are all invisible. The earth is preserved in its orbit by forces which we cannot grasp. “He hangeth the world upon nothing.” The visible powers are of minor rank; the more completely a force can be compassed by human thought, the more insignificant it must be. Take an ilkistration from daily life: the old Latin proverb hath it, that it is the mark of a poor man than he can count his flocks. The few pounds.which he has saved can be handled by the artisan every hour of the day if their jingle pleases him; but the great banker has never seen his millions, and the evidence that he possesses them lies in certain bonds and bills in which he places unquestionable reliance. He is rich by faith. He could hardly be very rich and actually see his wealth.
GOD CAN BE KNOWN.
It has been asserted that God cannot be known. Those who say this declare that they themselves know nothing but phenomena; and therefore they are bound, if candid, to admit that they do not themselves know that God cannot be known. As they confessedly know nothing about it, they should not be offended if we leave them out of our consideration.
He who made the world was certainly an intelligent Being, in fact, the highest Intelligence; for in myriads of ways His works display the presence of profound thought and knowledge. Lord Bacon said, “I had rather believe all the fables of the Talmud and the Koran than that this universal frame is without a Mind.” This being so, we do in that very fact know God in a measure; aye, and in such a measure that we are prepared to trust Him. He that made all things is more truly an object of confidence than all things that He has made.
GOD’S EXISTENCE NOT TAKEN FOR GRANTED.
Do we take God’s existence for granted? Certainly not. We believe it to be a fact proved beyond any other. To the candid mind, not diseased with cavilling, but honestly rational, the existence of a work proves the existence of a worker, a design necessitates a designer, a forethought involves a fore-thinker. Now, if we were even in a desert with Mungo Park, a bit of moss would be argument enough that 164 WIT AND WISDOM OF SPUKGEON,
God was there; or, for the matter of that, the sand under our feet and the sun above our heads would suffice to prove that fact. But dwelHng- on a fair island, teeming with all manner of life, we may cQunt as many proofs of the Godhead as there are objects of sight, and hearing, and taste, and smell.
This, of course, is called a “mere platitude;” but, by the gentleman’s leave, his Latin word makes no difference to the absolute certainty of the argument.
If more proofs were offered, they would no doubt be blocked in the same captious manner; but contemptuous, epithets are no replies to fair reasoning. We conceive that one sound proof is better than twenty faulty ones; and if that one does not convince, neither would a legion. The French savants, en route for Egypt, pestered Napoleon with their denials of a God, but his astute intellect was not led astray. He took them upon deck, and pointing to the stars, demanded, “Who made all these?”
DOUBT LOGICALLY CARRIED OUT.
Doubt, as to the being of a God, has but a short way to run to finish its legitimate career. No man who believes that he has a soul can give better proof of his mental being than that which we can give of the existence, of God, Let him try. He claims that his own consciousness is a proof of his being alive. We reply that it may be very good evidence to himself, but it can be none to us*, nor would a rational man attempt to use it in that way. Our friend answers, “I work, and my work demonstrates that I am.” Precisely so, and God’s works demonstrate that He is. Quickly it is replied, “But you see me work, and you see not God.” To which we answer, we by no means see you work; your body is not yourself, your true self we have never seen. Your mind executes its purpose through your external frame, and we see your limbs moving; but the soul which moves them is out of sight, and it is a mystery of mysteries how a spiritual subsistence, such as the mind is, should be able to operate upon matter. The initial impression of mind upon matter is a secret which no mortal has unveiled. You cannot prove the existence of your soul to another man except by the same arguments which prove the being of God.
THE GREAT GOD ANSWERING TO FAITH.
Moreover, we may not refuse reliance upon God on the ground of our insignificance; for it is not conceivable that anything can be too little for God. The wonders of the microscope are quite as remarkable as those of the telescope; we may not set a bound to the Lord in one direction any more than in the other. He can and will show His divine skill in a man’s life, as well as in a platlfet’s circuit.
Witnesses are alive to testify to the Lord’s making bare His arm on the behalf of them that trust Him. Any man may also put the principle to the test in his own instance; and it is memorable that none have done so in vain. There are no reasons in Ilis nature why God should not answer to His creatures’ confidence; there are many reasons why lie should; at any rate as far as we are concerned, we are ready to put it to the test, and to let the experiment last throughout our whole existence.
WHY IS NOT GOD RELIED ON?
Does it not seem. remarkable that so few men should lovingly reach forth to the idea of linking their lives to God in faith? Why is it? The severe moralist would rightly answer — because they have no desire to lead lives with which God could have any connection; they seek not such purity, truth, justice, holiness as God’s energy would work in them. Doubtless this is the case; but let it not be true of us. Virtue is so admirable that we cannot have too much of it, and the fact that the divine power makes toward goodness is one of its chief attractions in the eyes of right-minded men.
FURTHER CAUSES OF NON-BELIEF.
Secretly men have a confidence somewhere, even when they refuse to rely upon God. They have made gods of io6 IV/T AA’I) WISDOM OF SPLrKCEON,
themselves, and have come to rest in self-sufficiency. Hr who has never seen his own face may easily believe in its superlative beauty, if he be aided therein by flatterers. So a man who knows not his own heart may readily form a high opinion of his own excellence, and find confidence in his own wisdom a plant of rapid growth. This is one of the worst enemies of faith. He who can for all time rely upon himself has no patience with talk about faith in God; he relegates that lowly stuff to underlings; he is of courtlier mould. His self-restraint is perfect, his judgment is infallible, his appreciation of the morally beautiful is fully developed; he is a ^elf-made man, and is both his own Providence and Rewarder.
‘’Tut — the man is a fool P’ Quick and sensible minds speaks thus impatiently; and the cooler observations of the charitable are sorrowfully driven to confirm their verdict. We, with whom the reader now communes, are not such grand self-governing infallibles. We fear that our appetites and passions may betray us, that our reason may misguide us, that our prejudices may impede us, that our surroundings may stumble us; and, therefore, most deliberately would we look to the Strong for strength, and cast our folly upon the wisdom of the Eternal. Of course we shall not expect imitators among the vainglorious, the frivolus, and the fancifully perfect.
THE SNEER.
Sneers are poor, paltry things; they are not born in good men’s bosoms, and most wise men despise them when levelled at themselves. They break no bones, and men of backbone smile at them. Yet with the weaker sort they are terrible weapons of war, and the dread of them has made more cowards than the roar of cannon.
“I had as liefinot be, as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I, myself.”
SEEING FOR ONE’S SELF.
We are not exacting when we demand than each candid man should read the Bible for himself In testing a book, which professes to be the revelation of God’s mind, we shall act unworthily if we trust to others, be they who they may. Second-hand information lacks assurance and vividness; a personal investigation is far more satisfactory and beneficial. The highly superior person, who dismisses the whole matter with a final verdict, which closes the argument before it is opened, is probably not so cultured a being as he affects to be. At any rate, he lacks the judicial mind so helpful in the pursuit of truth. Doth our wisdom decide a matter before it heareth it?
Nature demands attention, hard and persevering, from those who would be true scientists; the Word of God certainly deserves as reverent an investigation as His works. Why should not the scriptures be studied thoroughly? Even as mere literature they will well reward the scholar’s care. It is the part of a wise man calmly and earnestly to search those famous writings which are prized by so many master-minds. The voice which cried to Augustine, ‘’Tolle: lege,’’ was no sound of folly. To take up and read a great and good book cannot be to our detriment.
SOMEWHAT MORE THAN READING ACCORDED.
Much of the instruction contained in the material universe can be at once discerned by the eye of the thoughtful observer, but a portion of its secrets no man can thus read; for the discovery of much scientific truth experiment is needed. The chemist, for instance, will acquire little knowledge if he does not engage in tests and analyses. We will not, therefore, in the pursuit of truth, restrict ourselves to mere reading; if the scriptures ask for experiment or experience, we shall be prepared to perform or to undergo the required processes, if at all reasonable.
EFFECTS OF THE BOOK.
The effect which it has produced upon the nations who have yielded it even a partialobedience is very remarkable; they are now far in advance of those who give it a secondary place, and they are out of sight before those who are unacquainted with it. The result which follows its introduction in our own day, to the most savage races, is beyond all question exceedingly beneficial. Nobody can doubt that the South Sea Islands have been lifted out of the worst savagery by the teaching of this volume. We have not yet heard of any other book producing such effects, and thus the volume is pressed upon our attention by the undeniable results of its influence, both in former ages and in our own times. It is very easy to discover persons whose entire character has been changed by reading this Book; easier still to find individuals who assert that it is their comfort under all circumstances, their guide out of all difficulties, and the priceless food of their spirits.
Many other books have been warmly praised by their readers; but we have never yet met with any other volume which has commanded such frequent enthusiasm and such devoted affection as the Bible: neither have we heard of one which answers so many and such divers purposes in connection with the lives of men.
FULNESS OF THE BOOK.
One of the marvels of the Bible is its singular fulness. It is not a book of gold-leaf beaten thin, as most books are as to thought; but its sentences are nuggets of unalloyed truth. The book of God is clearly the god of books, for it is infinite. Well said a German author, “In this little book is contained all the wisdom of the world.”
“We search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful
From graven stone and written scroll,
From all old flower-fields of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the b.?st.
We come back laden from the quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.”
Two liter ati€.6. a brief discussion as to which of all books they would prefer in prison if they were shut up to the choice of one, and could not obtain another for twelve months. The first made a sensible selection when he pro-THE CLEW OF THE MAZE. loy
posed to take Shakespeare as his companion; for that great author’s works are brimming- with fresh thoughts and masterly expression; but we think the second man gave an unanswerable reason for preferring the Bible. “Why,” said his friend, “you do not believe in it!” “No,” said he, “but whether I believe in it or not, it is no end of a book.’’’’
We thank him for that word; it is, indeed, “no end of a book.” Its range of subjects is boundless, and its variety of treatment is indescribable. Its depth of thought and height of expression are immeasurable. It is altogether inexhaustible. It is a million-times magnified Bodleian of teaching, and its Bibline or book essence is of the most concentrated kind. The Scripture has incidentally suggested masses of human literature, and it is the actual material of books to an extent that few would credit. It contains vast stores of what we may call inother-of -thought.
After having been catechised, criticised, caricatured, and crucified, for all these centuries, it still remains a new book, commencing its circulation rather than ending it. When the world grows older and wiser, and attains to the sixth form of its school, the sacred volume will be its final classic, just as it was its first hand-book when the new-born Hebrew nation began to spell out the rudiments of truth and righteousness.
THE SINLESS ONE.
A clear proof of the Divine Origin of Scripture is afforded by its portrait of the Perfect Man. Jesus is sinless in thought, and word, and deed; His enemies are unable to find a fault in Him either of excess or defect. Nowhere else in the world have we such another portrait of man; it would be superfluous to say that nowhere have we such another man. Jesus is unique; He is original, with peculiarities all His own, but without any divergence from the straight line of rectitude. He is not a recluse, whose character would have few relationships, and therefore few tests, but one living in the fierce light of a King among men, coming into relation with the world in a thousand ways; a great ethical Teacher, inculcating a system far surpassing any other, and embodyno WIT AND WISDOiM OF SPURGEON,
ing it in His own life; above all, crowning the edifice of a perfect life with the surrender of Himself to death for His enemies. Whence came this portrait, if the man never existed? No painter goes beyond his own ideal; no imperfect mind could have invented the perfect mind of Christ. The record is divine.
SCIENCE AND THE BOOK AT ONE.
Between the revelation of God in His Word and that in His Works, there can be no actual discrepancy. The one may go farther than the other, but the revelatixDn must be harmonious. Between the interpretation of the Works and the interpretation of the Word, there may be very great differences. It must be frankly admitted that the men of the Book have sometimes missed its meaning; we have never held the doctrine of the infallibility of scripturists. Nay, more: it is certain that, in their desire to defend their Bible, devout persons have been unwise enough to twist its words, or at least to set them in an unnatural light, in order to make the Book agree with the teachings of scientific men. Herein has lain their weakness. If they had always labored to understand what God said in His Book, and had steadfastly adhered to its meaning, whatever might be advanced by the scientific, they would have been wise; and as professed science advanced towards real science, the fact that the old Book is right would have become more and more apparent.
SCIENTIFIC STATEMENTS NOT INFALLIBLE.
Those who have addicted themselves to the study of nature and have despised the Word, certainly cannot claim such immunity from mistake as to demand a revision of Scripture interpretation every time they enthrone a new hypothesis. The history of philosophy, from the beginning until now, reads very like a Comedy of Errors. Each generation of learned men has been eminently successful in refuting all its predecessors, and there is every probability that much of what is now indorsed as orthodox scientific doctrine will be entirely upset in a few year’s time. When we remember that
one coterie of savans has proved to a demonstration that there is no such thing- as mind, and that another has been equally successful in proving that there is no such thing as as matter, we are led to ask the question: “When doctors differ, who is to decide?”
LITTLE SETTLED IN SCIENCE.
There are many voices in the world, some powerful, and others weak; but there is not yet a conce7isus of thoughtful observers sufficiently strong to demonstrate any one system of science to be absolutely true. The inductive process of Bacon, no doubt, yields the nearest approach to certainty; but even this cannot raise a deduction beyond question, for no man of science knows all the instances that can be adduced, and his deduction from what he knows may be upset by equally sure inferences from what he does not know. The time over which scientific observations can travel, even if it be extended into ages, is but as a watch in the night compared with the eternity of God; and the range of human observation is but as a drop of the bucket compared with the circle of the heavens; and therefore it may turn out, in a thousand instances, that there are more things in heaven and earth than were ever dreamed of in the most accurate philosophy of scientists. These good people have done their best, from Aristotle downward, but they have hardly accomplished more than to prove us all dunces, and themselves scarcely a fig better than the rest of us.
NO REMARKABLE PRESENT DIFFICULTY.
At the present moment we see no considerable difficulty. Scripture may not square with proposed hypotheses, but it agrees with known facts. Scripture, interpreted in an intelligent manner, displays as clear an agreement with Nature and Providence as Words can show with Works. An article in the Illustrated London News may describe in words a scene which, on the opposite page, is depicted by the pencil of an accurate artist; the two forms of instruction may fully coincide, and yet the impression upon the reader who fails
to see tnc engraving may not be the same as that produced upon an observer who only notices the sketch and neglects the letter-press. The man who cared only for the typography might quarrel with the votary of the wood-block, while the picture observer might equally well retort upon the reader; but if the two could be combined, the intent of the author would more surely be understood. Let him that readeth the Word consider the Work, and let him that observeth Nature attend to Revelation, and growing wisdom shall be the reward of both.
REMOVAL OF THE GREAT OBSTACLE
TO FAITH.
Concerning the consciousness of evil in the past of our lives and the tendency to wrong-doing in our nature, the Bible is very clear, and it is most admirably explicit as to God’s way of removing this barrier to our future progress. In Holy Scripture we see a most wise and gracious method for the putting away of guilt, without injury to the divine justice. The atonement offered by the Lord Jesus, who is the essence of the revelation of God, is an eminently satisfactory solution of the soul’s sternest problem. Our feeling is that God, the universal Ruler, must do right, and must not, even for mercy’s sake, relax the rule that evil done must’ bring evil as its consequence. We would not, when in our best frame of mind, for our own little sake, wish to have this sanitary law abrogated. Sin ought to be punished; let the rule stand, come what may of us. An unrighteous God would be the most terrible of conceivable evils. Sin linked with reward or divorced from ill consequences would be the death of the great principle of righteousness, which is the aspiration of all perfect moral sanity. Scripture proposes no abolition of law or relaxation of penalty, but it reveals the plan of substitution, the offended Judge bears in His (■WW person the con’feequences of the offence of rebel man; He assumes human nature, that in His own person human sin may be visited with chastisement.
GOD’S METHOD OF MERCY.
Forgiveness of sin through an atonement satisfies a dim but true decision of humanity in favor of justice — a decision which is well-nigh unanimous in all races. Even the unenlightened conscience of the savage heathen will not rest till the sword is bared and a victim has fallen. Man as a rule dares not approach God without a sacrifice. The more enlightened mind is not content without a measure of explanation as to the need and result of sacrifice; such explanation is given in the inspired Scripture, given with great amplitude.
P^AITH DELIGHTS IN A PLAIN GOSPEL.
It is a matter of deep gratitude that the Gospel is as plain as a pikestaff. If it had been intended to be a secret remedy for an elite few, it might have been recondite and philosophical; but it is meant for the poor, the illiterate, and the undeveloped; and therefore it must needs be what it is — simplicity itself. Thank God, the Gospel does not lend itself to quackery! To hear our fashionable thinkers talk, one might suppose the Gospel to be an exclusive and aristocratic system for their excellencies to amuse themselves with, whenever they might condescend to develop it a little further. We are glad to find it in the Scriptures in the form of a plain, common-sense, perfect doctrine, which has saved its millions already, and is saving multitudes at the present moment, and will save its myriads, when all its superfine critics are mouldering in their graves. Sometimes faith has great need of patience, when it is pestered with objections against a system which is everywhere in grand operatiqn, and proving itself by its results. Why do not these objectors raise an outcry against the sun? Why not deny that he gives either light or heat?
FAITH AND THE NATURE OF CHRIST.
No idea of the Lord Jesus Christ approaches to correctness which does not see in His one person the two natures of God and man united. In that person, wherein were %,
blended, but not confused, the Godhead and the Manhood, a practical faith has its most ample help. Jesus sympathizes with the condition in which the straggler after excellence finds himself, for He also was tempted in all points like as we are; He knows the difficulties which grow out of the infirmities of flesh and blood, for He felt sickness and pain, poverty and hunger, weakness and depression. It is a great gain in a human career, a specially suitable assistance, to have an unlimited power at one’s side by sympathizing with our weakness.
Nor is the advantage less in the other direction, for here IS a Man, bound to us by relationship and affection the most intense, who is not only tender to the last degree of our suffering nature, but is also as wise a.s He is brotherly, and as mighty to subdue our faults as He is gentle to bear with our frailties. His Manhood brings Jesus down to us, but united with the Mivine nature it lifts us up to God. The Lord Jesus thus not only ministers to our comfort, but to our betterment, which is the greater concern of the two.
Could faith believe in a Being more answerable to* all our needs, more helpful to our noblest longings? Allied to Jesus, we confidently aspire to such likeness to our Creator as it is possible for a creature to bear.
ENTHUSIASM FOR THE PERSON OF JESUS.
The love of the believer to the Lord Jesus is intensely personal and enthusiastic. It overtops all other affections. His love. His sufferings. His perfections. His glories fill the heart and set it on fire. There is more force in the love of an actual living person than in subscription to any set of doctrines, however important they may be. The courage of a leader has often produced deeds of daring which no philosophy could have demanded