The Power of Optimism

God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness abovtt thy fellows.” — Ps. xlv. 7.

These words, as the writer to the Hebrews affirms, were spoken of the coming Messiah. Do they suit the Messiah who has actually come? Anointed with the oil of gladness! Is He not proverbially the man of sorrows? Was not His anointing on the banks of Jordan a call to pain, the inauguration of a sacrificial work foreshadowed in the words, “Behold the Lamb of God “? Are we to transform our ideal from a man of sorrows into a man of joys — from the image of one who was more marred than the sons of men into the image of one who was distinguished from the sons of men by his gladness? It seems a wondrous revolution of sentiment. But is it? Is there a contradiction between an optimistic mind and a sacrificial mind? I think not. I believe it was the optimism of Jesus that made Him sacrificial. If you ask me what enabled Him to pour out His soul unto death, I can only answer,” It was the glad view He took of humanity.” You will find in your experience that the optimistic nature is the sacrificing nature. You spend yourself for a cause in proportion as you have a gladdening prospect of its success. When we speak of Christ as bearing the burdens of His fellow men, we must never forget that it was because He was of all beings the most hopeful for man’s glory. He gave His life for the world because none had so rosy a view of the world’s possibilities. He was led on to Calvary by the vision of gladness that floated before Him — the vision of a redeemed humanity. No one had sacrificed so much before, because no one had hoped so much before. Christ is the prince of optimists. “While there is life there is hope” is the aphorism of the most sanguine amongst us. Christ goes beyond that; He has hope even for the dead. There have been men who have healed diseases on the highway; there have been men even who have sought the living lepers amid the tombs. But Christ bent without despair over the very dead — over the Lazaruses, over the sons of Nain, over the daughters of Jairus. That meant a singularly glad spirit — a spirit so naturally sunlit, so habitually joyous, so prone to the song of the lark, that the spectacle of lifelessness itself could not dispel its morning.

209 O

Lord, if I am to do Thy work, inspire me with Thine optimism! I cannot enter on my ministry if I am impressed with the utter hopelessness of the human soul, with the utter worthlessness of the human body. If I am to watch in the Gethsemane of the sick, I must have a heart not too heavy. I have read that Thy disciples in that ward were “sleeping for sorrow.” I used to wonder at the expression; but I see it all now. They could not watch with Thee because they had no hope of Thee — they despaired of Thy cause. If I am to be kept from sleeping on duty my eyes must be anointed with the oil of gladness. Anoint with hope, O Lord, the eyes of all that work for Thee! Anoint those that tend the couch of pain; give them the vision, not of death, but of life! Anoint those who seek to redeem from sin; give them a vision of the white-robed throng! Anoint those who visit the homes of the bereaved; give them the vision of the things that cannot die 1 Anoint those that knock at the dwellings of the poor; give them a vision of the poverty that made us rich! Anoint those who labour in heathen lands; give them a vision of the many mansions! Anoint those who are teachers of the young; give them a vision of the full-grown man! Anoint those who are personal sufferers; give them the

2IO vision that they are preparing to be ministering spirits in the kingdom of their Father! Not solemnity but sunshine, not heaviness but happiness, not the weight of reflection but the wing of rapture, is the preparation of those who are called to follow Thee.

211 O 2