The practice of the interior life

Front matter

TLhc practice

Zhc ITnterior %itc

BY THE

Chapter I. Page

A Quiet Day at Bethany 13-19

The Immeasurable Greatness of the Son of God — Its Foundations in His Interior Life — His journey to Bethany and Reception There— The Rebuke of Martha and the Approval of Mary.

CHAPTER 11.

The Interior Life and Extern alism 20-24?

The Christian Life an Interior Union with God — Forms of Externalism — The Unreality of Mere Zeal

CHAPTER XIII. The Ornament of a Quiet Spirit 127-142

The Necessity of Solitude and Silence— We Must Seek God Where We Are— Evils ot Unrestrained Speech — The Serenity of God — A Meek and Lowly Heart— The Practice of Recollection — Extravagant Notions of Sanctity—The Grace of Charity.

Chapter 1

The Immeasurable Greatness of the Son of God— Its Foundations in His Interior Life— His Journey to Bethany and Reception There— The Rebuke of Martha and the Approval of Mary.

EAR as Jerusalem was to His heart, our Lord was never a permanent resident of the Holy City. His pious duty as a member of the Old Covenant, however, as well as His ministry in the establishment of the New, rendered frequent journeys thither necessary. He must be about His Father's business. He to whom God the Father gave not the Spirit by measure, whose will was in perfect unison with the Father's, with whom His communion was unspeakably intimate, whose life was so purely interior that external duties could not bring to bear

THE INTERIOR LIFE.

Upon Him any force of distraction or abatement or weariness, could never for one moment lose sight of that which was given Him to do. But it was the absolute simplicity of His will in its relation to the Father which put vitality into His relation to His mission.

We do an injustice to the symmetry of His character if we dwell too much upon His passive experiences. True, He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, but He was also a being of immeasurable force and aggressive power. The thorns which crowned Him crowded the kingliest of men. The human nature which hung upon the cross was endowed with those exceptional and transcendent qualities, which, in others, are expressed by the term genius," save that in Him they passed up to the height of unprecedented power. Consider what a mastery and force was His, w^ho, at the end of nineteen centuries, exercises upon mankind a greater influence than He did during the period of His physical stay upon the earth !

But the most cursory view of this wonderful life indicates that the hidden sources of His power were in the Divine. The works of His hands, the immense devotion of His powers to the welfare of men, the zeal which gave Him no

A QUIET DAY AT BETHANY.

rest in the prosecution of His mission but rather consumed Him, grew out of the perfection of His interior relations with the Father. The inexpressible force of His will, bursting into activity at every step of His career and never more vividly than at its close, proclaimed in actions more eloquent than words, the absolute and intelligent co-operation of His human will with His Divine. The foundation upon which Christianity has been built up through the ages, triumphing over its foes and over its own corruptions, has been the unique spiritual greatness of its Founder. If these triumphs have not been final, if v^e see not yet all things put under Him, the responsibility lies not at His door. It is the Church which has failed, by her want of devotion to hercommission. Itis theindividual disciple that has failed, by failure to live the life of Christ in the world in measure as he ought. It is he that has failed, who has lost sight of the essential feature of Christ's zeal that it was the expression of a deep interior devotion. Therefore the great present need is the restoration of the idea of the Christian life which the life of Christ teaches and exemplifies. We need to learn from Him the practice of the supernatural virtues, the evangelical counsels, the conquest of self-love, the life of prayer, the pure love of God for His Own sake.

We spoke just now of our Lord's frequent journeys to Jerusalem. It was upon one of these that He stopped in at the home of Martha and Mary at Bethany. He knows well the way through its narrow streets, for very often, and, possibl^^, as often as He has journeyed up to Jerusalem, has He found temporary respite and rest under Martha's hospitable roof. Few were the homes where He was a welcome visitor; and His intimacy with this one, strangely enough, was to give occasion for that exercise of sovereignty over death, at the grave of Lazarus, which would precipitate His own death upon the Cross.

And whom does this wearied sojourner find in the Bethany home ?

There is Lazarus— probably a young man with pale face, sunken eyes, and an impoverished frame; a gentle spirit, purified by pain, restrained and serene through much communion with God; just the manner of man who would draw towards himself the sympathetic love of the Lord Jesus. How little Lazarus and this affectionate family realize the proximity of death!

A QUIET DAY AT BETHANY.

How little, the speedy solace of a vanquished grave !

There is Martha, the elder sister ; and one can see at a glance that she is one of those good souls who bear the world on their shoulders. Plain, practical, common sense'' woman that she is, she has put the pot on the fire almost as soon as our Lord has stooped to remove His sandals and wash His feet.

There is Mary — not so beautiful a woman perhaps as Martha, only that her eyes seem to reflect the light of more distant horizons, only that a certain repose of manner and serenity of expression suggest habitual recollection of her faculties and interior union with God in the wa3^s of contemplative prayer.

The Lord seats Himself, and begins to speak of heavenly things, and of things soon to come to pass upon the earth. What a solace to His mighty but much tried spirit must this Bethany family have been! What a quiet day to this despised and rejected One from whom His Own countrymen hid their faces ! What a refuge, -where His love was certain to meet the response of love! For, as S. John tells us, Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.'' And how like healing balms must the Master's prec-

THE INTERIOR LIFE.

ious words have melted into the soul of Lazarus, fast ripening for the tomb ! Mary, restrained by humility, placid because of much familiarity with invisible realities, lost to self-consciousness in the presence of the MCvSsiah, Mary ^^sat at Jesus' feet and heard His words/'

But Martha could not get beyond the thought that the Lord was an hungered; His physical need to which she desired to minister was more to her than her own spiritual need, to which He desired to minister. It was Martha's way, and like the most of us she thought hers the best way. Only at rare intervals did the Messiah stop in at Bethany, and when He came was He not worthy of their best welcome? It was a fine, cordial zeal which would handsomely provide for the beloved Guest who honored her house with His presence. From her point of view the entertainment must correspond with the dignity of the Guest; and to prepare and set it forth becomingly required more labor than one pair of hands could give. Why then, should Mary be idle, when Martha was so overtaxed ?

And so this busy woman, cumbered about much serving," comes to the Messiah and upbraids Him— so intent to feast Him that she forgets her manners ! — first upbraids Him for

A QUIET DAY AT BETHANY.

indifference and then arraigns Mary for neglect of duty. ^^Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me/^

Then said the Lord: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things ; but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her."

Chapter II

The Christian Life an Interior Union with God— Forms of Externalism— The Unreality of Mere Zeal.

HAT which constitutes a Christian life is the interior union of man's spirit with God, and this is effected by his being made in Baptism a member of Christ and therefore a child of God. In the Person of Jesus Christ there was a union of the Divine and human natures in such w^ise that all the fulness of the life of God flowed down into His sinless and exceptionally generated human nature, to the end that His Divine-human life might flow into other human natures as from a fountain. The Incarnation was the inauguration of a new human family, — a fresh start for humanity, — a more glorious manifestation of the Creator's love for His

THE INTERIOR LIFE AND EXTERN ALISM.

creature, man. As by our natural descent, in the ordinary process of generation, we become members of the Adamic family which has lost its union with God, so, by the process of regeneration or new-birth, we are made members of Christ (the second Adam), and in Him are restored to union with God ; and the principle of life eternal which dwells in Him in infinite fulness flows over into us, and we are made partakers of His life. He is the vine ; we are the branches. The saps and juices of the vine impart to them their vitality. His life is essential, inherent; theirs is derived, dependent, conditional. He can never die. Eternal life is for them only who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and immortalit^^ The interior spiritual union must be sustained and intensified in the soul with the aim of our becoming reproductions, as far as may be in this present life, of the character of Him by whom alone we live, and without whom we are spiritually dead.

Since then the very first and essential idea of a Christian is that his life is an interior union of his soul with the Lord from heaven, the second Adam, it follows that his mind is forbidden to look for the essence of his life in his outward works; and we thence infer that God is much more concerned about the character of the worker, than He is about the work. His kingdom is advanced by what we are rather than by what we do. This is a truth which is easily lost to sight. It therefore needs to be rescued from discredit, and constantly restated.

When it is obscured by any form of phariseeism, — as for example, by false theories of the relation between faith and works, as though either were of any virtue without the other ; or, by the fiction that righteousness is a cloak to cover our nakedness rather than a cordial poured into our hearts to neutralize the power and cure the disease of sin ; or, by an extravagant emphasis put upon the proper and appointed ceremonies of religion; or, by excessive dependence upon the letter rather than the spirit of the records of revelation ; or, hy the now popular idea of the saving power of zeal, by which exterior activities are made in effect to take precedence of the cultivation of interior holiness ; — the penalties soon become apparent, and the resulting externalism not only does despite to the Spirit of grace, but seems for the time to arrest all capacity for spiritual development in multitudes who profess and call themselves Christians. Periods of serious declension

THE INTERIOR LIFE AND EXTERNALISM. 23 follow, the pulse of the Church is sluggish and attenuated, heresy lifts its venomous head unrebuked, a low standard of moral observance quickljMisurps authority, a frivolous spirit takes the place of serious thought, and to maintain the outward forms of religion, devices are resorted to which sacrifice truth, dignity, and self-respect. Even the ardors of that zeal which has been set up as the sign and assurance of salvation, become fitful and erratic.

But the most serious characteristic of a dominating externalism in religion is that it inspires the individual heart with a delusive peace. The false assurances of security which are offered satisfy the conscience, and flatter the soul that all goes well with it, whereas that which it fancies to be inward peace is only a state of spiritual stupor. Apparently the characteristic of the Christian of the day is satisfaction with himself. He has responded to the call to be ever doing something practical, in the way of labor or contribution, as the token of his discipleship ; and he feels himself justified in reaching comfortable conclusions with regard to his soul's state. Zeal is the new cloak which covers the multitude of sins. He does not wish to be disturbed by rasping suggestions of unreality.

THE INTERIOR LIFE.

He has prejudices against sounds from Sinai. He wishes not to hear any voice that dares to offend good taste by suggesting those noble, yet solemn, themes which alone have power to break hard hearts, and transform worldly lives ^ and make of men and women called Christian, faithful reproducers of the life of Christ. Nevertheless the Holy Ghost has His mission to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to come; and He will see to it that many voices shall be lifted, in these perilous times, to cry out against the terrible hazards of externalism, and to startle those who are soothed to a sense of security by the gospel of optimism, with the cry, *'Av/ake, thou that sleepest ! "

It is the old revivifying cry of the ages, the voice of the Giver of Life. It is the voice which cried, Martha, Martha and surely in our conditions of spiritual lethargy, it should reach our ears. Surely the words of the Lord Jesus at Bethany are entitled to a new hearing and should arrest attention, arouse thought, and lead to reformation. There is that in these words which, if allowed entrance, will pierce to the very centre of the soul, and write anew on the conscience the old truth that the kingdom of God is within us.

Chapter III

Analysis of the Character of Martha and of Mary —Two Theories of Discipleship.

♦fTF we take pains to study the character of Martha and of Mary, we shall find that the first needed, and the other had found, the truth that the kingdom of God is within. Nor can we be mistaken ; for our Lord, who ^ ^needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man,'' did not for one moment hesitate to express Himself positively concerning them. Martha was all wrong. And such was the Lord's instant verdict. She who had faulted her sister was herself at fault. The place of duty for Martha no less than for Mary was at the feet of their Master, when He spake concerning things of eternal moment.

It would appear to be unjust to her, however, to regard Martha as the product and

THE INTERIOR LIFE.

representative of a cold and selfish worldliness. This would be a very superficial interpretation of the scene before us. Instead of contemplating one sister as the type of earth-born zeal, and one as the type of heavenly-mindedness, we should recognize both as friends and disciples of the Lord Jesus, who had been admitted to His confidence to such a degree that when He had reasons for not exposing Himself to premature dangers in the city, He sought and found congenial asylum in their home at Bethany. Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. It is true that He administered a distinct though not ungentle rebuke to Martha, while Mary's devotion won for herself the expression of His approval; but the issue involved was not one of essential dissimilarity so much as one of precedence and proportion.

Martha's conception of discipleship emphasized external activity as its more positive and assuring token, not to be slighted or neglected wdth a view to interior exercises, as if these latter were of primary value over against so much pressing practical duty. Her conscience, taking its cue from her theory of precedence, gave her no rest from cumbering service, and inspired her with doubt whether her good sister, who seemed

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

to be more concerned to lift her heart into communion with God than to busy her hands in activities largely physical and external, was not a bit Yisionar\\ Incessant w^ork she thought to be her vocation. There were so many things to be done that the days were too short to afford any large surviving remnant of time and strength for retirememt, solitude, silence, thought, prayer. It seemed also like a robbery of Christ to let prayer crowd service to the wall, and to waste in seclusion and meditation the precious hours that should be sacred to philanthropy. She would not venture to repudiate the inner duties, but prayer must be only a whisper let fall as she rushes onward to accomplish her stent of service.

Mary, on the other hand, was dominated by a nobler theory of discipleship. She saw that there is a divine order and precedence of duties. She perceived that service should be permitted to claim only a secondary allegiance. There is a time for all things ; and prayer, or the cultivation of the interior life, has the right of precedence; the denial of which would not only tend to spiritual deadness, but would rob external service of its virtue and beauty. In that Bethan^^ home, it was the time for worship, not forw^ork.

for tranquil receptivity, and not for fussy exteriority. When activities shall have become opportune, Mary will not fail to be the busy helper of her busy sister ; indeed it is evident from Martha's complaint, ''my sister hath left me to serve alone,'' that Mary had been a busy helper until the Lord entered their abode; but after that, one thing only was needful. Mary felt it in her soul as a triumphant conviction. There was something within which told her there was now but one thing to do ;4and so, with all the courage of a will that dared not disobey the heavenly prompting, and would not when God's voice said: ''This is the wa^^: walk ye in it!" she chose the better part which would never be taken away from her.

This, then, is the great lesson which comes to us in analyzing these types of character : That the cultivation of the inner life of the soul after the pattern of the Lord Jesus is the primary obligation ; that under no conceivable conditions may one seek to be dispensed from this solemn duty on the plea that outward activities are imperious in their demand ; and further that if these are not sternly relegated to their place, which is a secondary and subordinate one, they will paralyze spiritual vigor, foster pride, in-

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

crease self-love and culminate in hypocrisy. God sees the unreality of an exterior life which spends itself in service, but draws back from surrendering the will to Him, from purging the, conscience, from grappling with besetting sins, from acquiring the virtue of self-contempt and humility, and from the immense inner strain and labor involved in self-subjugation and the real abandonment of the conquered heart to God. To work in His name only because zeal is the prevailing mode, or because that is a reputable method of giving vent to the superabundance of natural energy; to be very active outwardly but inwardly slothful, indifferent, or disloyal; to cast out devils but harbor the devil in one's own heart — what could be morally more inexcusable ?

It is not in disparagement of zeal that our Lord insists upon the precedence of spiritual culture. After everything is said for the busy w^orkers that may be. He says there is but one thing needful. Let all the active Marthas choose first that good part, for it shall not be taken away from them. Let the zealous helpers and servers remember that our first work is to become good, and our second to do good. Blessed is the man who, after gaining inward peace through long victories over sin, and after conscious self-abandonment to the control of the indwelling Spirit, cumbers himself with much serving. He only can serve without being careful and troubled about many things who has been taught of God in the school of solitude, silence, and meditation. Interior peace is the divinest stimulus to exterior activity. When ' the will of God reigns triumphant in the will of His child, God uses the surrendered powers as He could not have done before, in blessed labors for the good of men.

But there is still only one thing really needful in the sense of primary obligation, and that is to dwell in such relation to God that nothing earthly, however allowably fascinating in itself, can attract us in kind or degree as He does ; to rest with quiet confidence in the arms of His providential care; to fear no evil since He is with us, since He causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him ; to love Him with a love so warm that our hearts beat faster when we think of Him ; to think of Him continually; to be always telling Him how much we need His presence, and always speaking our gratitude and showing forth His praise ; — this, all this and more than this, describes for

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

the Christian man his first duty, and reveals to him the end transcending all other ends for which God breathed into him the breath of life. May He take away from us all rest, all peace and joy, until we seek and find them in Him; and may He and He Alone be the Wisdom that guides us, the Purity that makes us pure, the Love that transforms us, the Beauty that fascinates us, the End that controls us !

Those who have had many years of contact with the active workers of the Church, of both sexes, have seen much insensibility to the higher privileges of the Christian life, but have also discovered a conscious sense of incompleteness among many, and a positive hunger for closer contact with the invisible realities. Of these, some approximate the great renunciation in their best moments, but are drawn away again to the less heroic paths of exterior activity through lack of a few simple lessons in the science of the interior life. Others give themselves no peace until they have acquired that knowledge of the ways of holiness, by w^hich it is possible to live in constant communion with God. May our study of the types of discipleship, represented by Martha and Mary, help all to choose the part which Mary chose !

CHAPTER IV. Ube Sin of JExteriorits*

Martha's Error Common — Salvation by Zeal — Causes: 1. Reaction from Protestant Subjectivity. 2. False Theory of Sin.

S has already been intimated, Martha/s type of character is numerously represented among Christians in this present day. Mary's type is more rare. With due allowance for the hiddenness of her life, the life which Cometh not with observation,'' she has a limited following as compared with Martha's wide constituency.

The consuming energy of the secular world has infected the Church with an exterior zeal similar in kind and almost equal in degree.

THE SIN OF EXTERIORITY.

Apparently the belief is general that devotion to outward duty is a sufficient indication of spiritual vitality ; and the consciences of many are easily pacified by what are called practical duties, while at the same time they are dull of hearing when the Spirit of grace calls them to a more interior life. Cumbered with much serving, they do not love to be warned against the danger of so one-sided a theory of dis:ipleship. Satisfied with their ABC knowledge of God, they do not like to be told that the Church of to-day needs the prayers of men who devote themselves to prayer, more than the labors of men who devote themselves to labor.

There must be a reason for this condition of things. Christian people must have been persuaded by some process of false reasoning, that it is not their primary duty to attain to that spiritual development whereby men may, at least, approximately represent the holiness of their Lord in their lives; or that, conceding the theoretical duty, its fulfilment is to them impracticable in consequence of the distractions of life, the environment of worldliness, and the legitimate demands of duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call them. There may be some who can walk in the paths of Mary's choice, but the Martha type represents all that is practicable to most of us ; — such is their plea.

It may be admitted that it might be more easy to advance to the higher walks of sanctity if environment were more favorable; but when God places us where He has, He expects us to rise superior to all the difficulties by which w^e are environed, and not to surrender to them in the vain dream that we would do better if it were easier to do it. What is this but self-will pleading the orderings of God's providence as an excuse for refusing the drawings of His grace ? Our Saviour prayed not that we should be taken out of the world, but that we should be kept from the evil. He could have summoned His apostles to His side, and said to each one, as He said to the penitent thief, This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise; but He saw, as w^e can now^ see, that it was best for them, for the world, and for the Church, that they should not be taken out of the world. They needed the wholesome frictions of life, the salutary discipline of resisted temptations, the maturing processes of a life of faith in invisible things, the weaning of the spirit from the encroachments of the flesh, the joy of habitual and confirmed preference for God. And moreover the world needed them as examples of love, patience, heavenly-mindedness, kindness, wisdom, and consecration.

Still further, the plea just mentioned reflects upon the wisdom of the word of the Lord that one thing is needful, and contradicts His verdict, Mary hath chosen the good part.'^ God never commands or commends the impracticable. It is possible to live very near to God under every conceivable environment, and what is possible is our highest duty.

If, then, we must acknowledge that our Lord's words are as binding upon us as upon Martha and Mary, if we must admit in the teeth of all our externalism and absorption in service that there is something more momentous than these, and that God never lays upon us an impracticable obligation, why should any man longer expose himself to sore and serious penalties by disproportionate devotion to external activities?

It is a law of our being that a man's predominant passion gives color and tone to his spiritual state. When misguided Christians spend their best energies upon outward duties, to the disparagement of the primary obligation

THE INTERIOR LIFE.

of making God their All in all, it is obvious that thei'r controlling motive is a low one, and that thej are themselves of the earth, earthy, however religious their activities may seem to be; and if their mistake escapes the charge and penalty of practical opposition to God, it is only because they know not what they do. The^^ do not see w4th clear vision the divine order and proportion. They have ears, but hear not the Voice which calls them to higher conceptions of life, and nobler attainments in holy living. But it must nevertheless appear to the mind which will pause to think, that if there are two standards, one instituted by the conventionalism of a worldly discipleship, and one by Him who has commanded us to be holy as He is holy, then conformity to the lower standard is in eftect a protest against the divinely estabHshed order, which it is as unsafe as it is unwise to seek to revolutionize. Where do Christian men get the courage to do it ?

With reference to the causes which give rise to this substitution of a low type of discipleship for that which was fixed and set forth for the Church when the life of Christ was made our pattern, we may say, speaking generally, that it grows out of the strong earthly bent of the

THE SIN OF EXTERIORITY.

soul, even where it is under the partial influence of Christian motives.

But there are certain antecedent causes, other than this general one, of which some may be specified.

1. As a characteristic feature of our current discipleship, this extreme partiality for external service is due to a reaction from the abnormal subjectivity of the modern protestant " movement. Themselves a reaction (excessive, as we now see) from the evils of an extreme ceremonialism, those theories of the Christian life which required believers to plunge into the depths of their consciousness for grounds of assurance, have held long and powerful control. The3^ taught men to rest in feeling as the test of faith, and to identify a satisfactory emotional condition with the witness of the Spirit. The frames and moods of the soul w^ere watched and analyzed, and their fluctuations were deemed to be an unerring token of Divine favor or displeasure, although the exaltation or depression might be no more than the mental reflex of ph\^sical conditions. This exaggerated subjectivity, so long prevalent, has finalh^ reached its inevitable reaction. The pendulum has swung from pious but stilted emotionalism to