The winning of the soul and other sermons

Contents

SERMON PAGE

I. The Winning of the Soul 1

II. The Potter's Wheel ........ 14

I. The Winning Of The Soul

In your patience ye shall win your souls.

St. Luke, xxi. 19.

TN the words which precede our text Jesus has been pointing out to the disciples what they must expect to endure. Indeed, in all his dealings with his disciples he never failed to point out to them that the Christian life did not mean escape from the losses, the perplexities, the trials, and the sorrows that were to be found in the world at large. All that He said was, that out of that sorrow there should come a joy which no man could take from the loving soul, and that in the midst of it we shall by patience win our souls.

The expression is a striking one, — much more forcible than that with which we are familiar in our King James version of the Bible, where it says, " In your patience possess ye your souls." Here we are told that by patience we shall win our souls, so putting before us at once the meaning of life as a

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struggle, and also the end and object of life, the true prize after which men should reach.

And does not that bring our Christian life, my friends, into harmony with what we are learning every day about the mystery of life wherever it is manifested on our planet ? Every tree that to-day is putting forth its leaves anew, every flower that to-day opens its calyx with new beauty that it may refresh the heart of man, has passed through a great struggle of which we think but little, and yet a struggle which began at the very moment the seed was planted in the ground. The meaning of the fruit upon the tree in its season, and the meaning of the flower upon the stem in its appointed hour, is the victory in the long battle for life, so that every flower that we shall pass on our homeward way to-day is saying to us, if we can only understand its meaning, " In my patience I have won my life."

It brings, I say, the Christian life into harmony with the meaning of life wherever we find it. Life is a long struggle, and that which, as we say, survives, is the particular manifestation of life which has won itself in the struggle for existence. I think it is well for us to look at this aspect of our Christian life from time to time, because there are so many different theories about the meaning and object of religion.

Men often think about religion very much as they think about a fortune. There are some men who labor day by day, not because they love work, but because they fear the penalty of idleness. It is the spur of want that drives them to labor. So there are Christians who think of religion as a thing that it is desirable for them to participate in, not because they love it, but because they are afraid if they neglect it some penalty of awful punishment will fall upon them some day beyond the grave. That is the lowest form of looking upon work, or of looking at religion ; and yet, just as we would all say that it is better for a man to go to his labor day after day, driven by the goad of want, rather than to live in idleness, so we say it is better for a man to lead an upright life driven there by fear than not to live an upright life at all, because it is always something for a man to form good habits, even if the motive that led him to those habits be not the highest.

Or, again, there are men who work day by day, not because they are driven by the fear of want, but because they love the wages that they receive. That is a higher form than the other, and yet it is not the highest. And so there are men in the Church, who are living what they call a religious life, who are upright, who are denying themselves now, who are following a certain course that is supposed to be safe, the object they have in mind being to get a reward some time hereafter. Some day they hope that God will pay them for all that they have given up for his

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sake ; they dream of standing some day in heaven and hearing God say to them, " You gave up a great deal for me. I understood that you did not love me, that it was no pleasure for you to commune with me in prayer, that you hated to go to church, but inasmuch as you have been a religious man, I will now reward you by giving you a place in the kingdom, where you can do your own pleasure throughout all eternity." Now that also is not a very high notion of religion, and yet we say again that it is better for a man to conform to those standards that the Church has found by long experience to be helpful to the soul, even though he have no higher notion than to be paid by God for doing his duty, than not to conform, and to be careless and indifferent, because he is always in an atmosphere where it is possible for him to feel the influence of a nobler and better life.

And lastly, just as there are men who are no longer driven to their work by any fear of want, and who have passed far beyond the position where their work can be estimated and paid for by wages, but who do their work simply and solely because they know that in so doing they are fulfilling themselves, developing themselves to the highest degree possible, and so love and rejoice in their work without any thought of fear or favor, — so there are men who are leading a religious life without the fear of hell to deter them, without the promise of heaven to pay them, but because

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they have come to love the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, and desire to attain unto that character, at least in part, before their days are ended. And that, my friends, is the highest and noblest thought that a man can have of religion.

And yet there are men who say, Is not that a subtle form of selfishness ? When we say that the object of our life is to make the most of ourselves, to be the best we know how to be, are we not then really selfish ? Now of course it is difficult to answer such a question as that, because we are using the word u self " in two senses. And in order to clear our minds of that sophistry which 1 know perplexes certain among you here, it is desirable for us to ask ourselves what we mean when we speak of self.

There is in every one of us a double self. There is a self that belongs to the animal nature, out of which we have been drawn by this long process which we call creation, or evolution. And, on the other hand, there is in every one of us that higher, nobler self which is allied to God, that reaches up to God, that finds its joy in communion with God. Now, then, any man who sacrifices that higher nature which speaks to him through the voice of duty, and yields to the pleasures of life that manifest themselves in his lower nature, is a selfish man. The man who will sacrifice his friend, his family, everything that ought

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to appeal to his higher nature, — country, duty, conscience, — for the pleasure of the moment, to increase the satisfaction of his lower nature, is a selfish man ; and so too the man who is always on a lookout for the things that will please that lower nature is essentially selfish, even though he be not conscious of wrong-doing. But when we speak of a man's devoting the energy of his life to the enlargement and the deepening and the heightening of that nobler self within him which is allied to God, we cannot, without a misuse of words, speak of that as selfish ; for while it is a part of self, it is far more a part of God, and the man who is trying to do his duty and to make the most of himself is really drawing nearer and nearer to that point of which St. Paul speaks as the summit of human endeavor, when a man can say, " I, this old self, am dead, and my life, my higher self, is hid with Christ in God." To have the vision of the perfect life as revealed in Jesus Christ, and to draw near to that life and make it one's own, is what I think Jesus meant when He spoke of winning the soul, of laying hold of the true life that belongs to every one of us, but which no one of us has really and altogether possessed.

And now we have to ask ourselves, If this be true, what is the process by which the result desired is reached ? And here we have the story of the Gospel

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to help us. That story that tells us that man does not have to climb up into heaven to win God, but that God has descended to human life ; that every human life belongs to God, and from the very moment the child is born the Spirit of God is resting upon it, striving to make it more and more like Jesus Christ. If the story of that Gospel be true, we can understand why Christ laid such emphasis upon patience, — u In your patience ye shall win your souls," — because all that the soul has to do for its salvation is to rest patiently in the midst of the perplexities and sorrows and trials of life, and allow the Spirit of God to incarnate itself in it, according to its capacity to receive it, as the Divine life was incarnated in Jesus in the perfection in which humanity can receive it. For God is striving with us every day to bring us to the knowledge of Himself as revealed in Jesus Christ, that we seeing that life in Jesus Christ may think of it, not as an exceptional life that has burst in upon humanity, but may think of it as the normal life, the life that God in his creation of humanity intended and desired every man, according to his capacity, and according to the circumstances of his time, to live. And so we win that life as the artist wins his picture. He has a vision, and yet it is dim and uncertain, but by patience, by waiting, by allowing the vision to descend until it fills his being, little by little he is able to express it in some outward form, and in that day

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the artist has won his picture. The picture was floating before him as a cloud, that sometimes seemed to take shape and then again melted into thin air ; but at last by patient waiting the vision descended, incarnated itself in the man's life, and he was able to express it, and then, but not until then, the picture was his.

Now I ask you, for a moment, to turn with me to certain illustrations of this truth that perhaps will be helpful to us in our daily lives.

Look first for a moment at the sorrows of life. We all know, when sorrows come upon us, that what we wish is comfort, — the comfort of God. And nothing is more common in such an hour than for people to be surprised that the comfort of God does not come instantly after the sorrow has fallen upon them. It is one of the great perplexities of life. It causes so much unhappiness. Men and women that have served God and loved God, and lived the Christian life, are compassed about with sorrow. Then they expect to know the comfort of God at once, and sometimes it is so, but not often. Now, why is it ? Is it not this, my friends, — that if what we have said before is true, if God is incarnating himself in the life of every one of us, then the Divine life must, in order for that incarnation, subject itself to the laws and conditions of human life, one of which is time ? We might as well ask why,

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if in Jesus " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," He did not, when He lay in his mother's arms a little child, speak as a man, work miracles with those baby fingers, and convert the world by the shining out of the Divine effulgence from his infant face. It was because it was a true Incarnation. It was not an Avatar, a sudden descent of God into some particular vessel of mankind, in order that the Divine power might for a moment be seen, startling and terrifying humanity. No, it was an Incarnation, a participation in human life by the Divine life, and it expanded as Jesus " increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Now, if the incarnation of Jesus required time to work out to the full the meaning of God in man, how much more must it be so with you and me. If we can be patient, if we can wait, if we can hold back the rash judgment that ascends the throne and condemns God without a hearing, if we can rest until the voice of God can be heard upon the dull ear, then in our patience we shall win our souls; we shall know the comfort of God, which is the power and glory of human life.

Or, again, in the trials of life how hard it is to be patient, to wait. How hard it is to believe that those who trouble and perplex our lives can have any good in them. We make a great resolution, we say, "I will live differently in my family, I will behave towards those who perplex and trouble me in a dif-

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ferent way from that in which I behaved before " ; and then in a moment the good resolution is shattered, because we cannot believe that there is any good in a life that perplexes us, and the subtle suggestion of the tempter is heard, saying, " Did not God make me to fulfil my life ? Why should I alone of all God's creatures suffer and be disregarded and despised ? Why should I alone be cut off from happiness and joy and the fulfilment of the best that is in me ? Why should I submit when submission seems to have no outlet, when submission will do no good, so far as I can see, to any other soul ? Why should not I be free to live my life as it seems best to me to live it, and to make the most of myself, which I believe God desires ? " Ay, God desires us to make the most of ourselves. God desires us to win our souls, to lay hold upon the Divine life. But it is not by disregarding the duties of life, it is not by setting ourselves free from the trammels that seem to prevent a larger liberty, it is not by taking life into one's own hand, that the true life of the soul is to be won. It is in the patience that waits upon the Lord. When you hear the voice saying, Lo, your true life is here, or it is there, believe it not. It is in the midst of your trials ; for wherever there is room for sacrifice, there is room for God.

Lastly, it is true of those perplexities that arise about the knowledge of God. A man or woman has passed on through childhood and early youth without any thought of God or his revelation in nature, or in the Bible, or in the spirit of man, and at last the soul becomes conscious that it holds relation to Something that it does not see, nor touch, nor hear. " Now, then," says the soul, " why is it, if there be any reality answering to this suspicion of my nature that there is a God, — why is it that instantly my soul is not filled with the absolute certainty of the existence of God, and the joy that should flow from communion with Him ? " Sometimes it is suggested to such a soul that God is angry, — that because it has neglected God, now God will neglect it. That is heathenism ; no matter who says it, or where it is said, it is heathenism. God is our Father, and the very instant that we turn to Him, He will reveal Himself to us to the utmost of our capacity to receive Him. But it is not strange that the arm that has lain long unused in sickness and at last lifts itself up and tries to grasp one of the many handles of life, should find that the fingers tremble and the grasp is infirm. Nor is it strange that the soul that has not known God in early childhood and in the glow of youth should find that it takes time to enter into intimacy with God, just as it takes time to enter into the deepest and truest intimacy with a noble human soul. But if we will be patient, if we will wait upon the Lord, then, my friends, we shall win that

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knowledge of God which is the life and the joy of the soul.

Can we not see, then, what it is that Jesus is trying to say to us ? It is that life is one long struggle, and that we need not suppose that happiness, peace, and joy are to come instantly upon our life. No, life is one long struggle, and the end and object of it is to win the character of Jesus Christ. That is not to dress like Jesus Christ, nor to try to look like Jesus Christ, nor to speak his words or to eat and drink and live as He lived. Not so ; but to incarnate in our own life, in the school, in the business, in the home, in the church, everywhere, the same Divine Spirit that made Jesus the glory and the beauty and the power of mankind. That is the end and object of life. It is not to gain more money than our neighbors ; it is not to have larger knowledge than our neighbors ; it is not to receive the applause of the multitude ; it is to win our souls, and that is to win God.

And if we once set that before us, then go on to the second point, and remember that God is to be won, in comfort, and in knowledge, and in the power for sacrifice, only by patience. If we take that view of life, my friends, and set before us the true object of life, the winning of a soul, and determine that

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that soul shall be won in the patience that waits for the power of God to manifest itself in our lives, we shall have a clew that will lead us through the darkness of sorrow, and through the agony of sacrifice, and through the mystery of learning, until we hear that word which will be the announcement of no outward reward, but simply the acknowledgment of a life that has won itself : " Well done, good and faithful servant ; you have endured to the end and are saved. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. "

II. The Potter's Wheel

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter 's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my ivords. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. — Jeremiah, xviii. 1-3.

THE potter's house has been used as a parable for more than three thousand years. It had been used in Egypt long before Jeremiah, and it was used in Persia long after him ; it was revived by St. Paul, and it is in the poetry of to-day. The word of the Lord which came to the prophet through the consideration of that simple scene was sufficient to suggest the answer to the problem of his day. The prophet went into the potter's house perplexed about a problem that has largely lost interest for us, first, because we have become familiar with the answer to it, and secondly, because that answer only prepared the way for the entrance of another problem to the solution of which no man can be indifferent.

Does God rule the nations of the earth ? When men set themselves in opposition to what are believed to be

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the laws of righteousness, will the nation prosper as it would have done if righteousness had been its aim ? That was the question which perplexed the prophet. But when he looked on the potter and saw him work on the wheels, saw him fashion a vessel, and then noted that, when the vessel proved unfit for the use to which it was designed, it was broken and the fragments mixed with new clay to make another vessel, he rose to the thought of God, and became convinced that God does the same. If the nation which he has chosen does not show itself fitted for the work, it is broken and mingled with another, and out of the conglomerate the needed form is made. God's work, he believed, was not frustrated by man's sin, only the nation which set itself against God was broken.

I say that we have nowadays but slight interest in that problem, for we are perplexed by a deeper. This one concerns the individual soul. The interest in the individual arose in history, we may say, with the introduction of the religion of Jesus. It was obscured and came to the front again at the Reformation, was again obscured by the shadow of dogmatism and the rise of modern nationalities, but it broke out with fearful signs in the French Revolution, and is to-day the only question which really interests man. Does God deal with the individual soul, and if so how ? Can we answer these questions ? Not as we might

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wish, perhaps, but in part at least. The parable of the potter's house has not exhausted its significance. Let us too arise and go down into his house to-day. It may be that there the Lord will cause us to hear his words.

Somehow the human mind came to suspect that each man was in direct and intimate relationship with God, that he was dealing with him as truly as if there were no other being in the universe. Every word of Jesus tended to deepen that impression. He used strong words to express his own confidence in this belief: " The very hairs of your head are all numbered. . . . Not one sparrow falleth to the ground without your Heavenly Father. Are ye not of more value than they ? " As long as the human mind was childlike, that is to say, as long as it received simple impressions without trying to analyze their origin or the laws of their action, doubt did not appear. But it was inevitable that questions should be asked and answers expected. It is not my purpose to ask you to consider the answers which have been given to the great question concerning God's dealing with the soul. I wish rather to go with you into the potter's house, and see what we can see for ourselves.

The first thing which attracts our notice is the clay. It is of different qualities. Some of it is very

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pure and pliable, other is too soft — " f at " the potter calls it — to be used in its present state ; some is almost white, and will make the finest porcelain, other has such an excess of iron that it will make only colored ware; some is doubtful, — it will form, but it will twist or crack in the firing.

The interpretation of the parable is simple. The clay of the potter is human nature, good, bad, and indifferent. Is there any of it so bad that it cannot be used ? Not if it be clay. There is no clay that the potter cannot employ. He cannot use stone, and he cannot make a vase of water. But clay of any sort he can make something of. Let us fix our mind upon that to begin with. No man is so bad that something cannot be made of him. There are men so hard that they seem to be stone ; there are others so flabby that it seems as if they never could hold together on the revolving wheel ; still, if they be men, something can be done. It may not be possible to make poets and statesmen of them, any more than it is possible to make Sevres china of Jersey clay ; but they can be moulded and fixed into some form of usefulness as long as they are men.

The difficulty, however, which arises in some men's minds, even when that is settled, is this : Is not the best what we want ? Can we rest satisfied with any dealing with human nature which leaves the large majority of the race on a low plane, and exalts only a

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chosen few ? Now, if we cannot, how can the Creator ? Must we not suppose that he too is disappointed in his work, and that he is limited in his operations ? How then can we believe in One who is omnipotent ? Is not he too limited by necessity, and are we not right in saying that that which determines character is the previous condition of the material with which God works ? And does not this lead finally to disbelief in God ? It certainly does lead to a disbelief in such a God as we have fancied. But it may lead to a belief in a nobler God than that. The potter puts his hand on a lump of clay. Now, we say, we know what that is to be. He can never make pure porcelain out of it. Well, who said that he intended to ? Who told us that he tried to and failed ? Who taught us that he wanted to, and found when the clay was in his hands that he must only do the best he could under the circumstances ? Did not the potter bring the clay into the house ? Did he not know what he would find there ? Have we discovered a secret which he did not know ? Not so. The fineness of the pottery is determined by the quality of the clay, and so is its color, but not its form. That is the work of the potter alone. It is in that that we see the power of his genius. And the coarser the material and the cruder its color, the more are we led to marvel at the genius and the goodness which was content to embody itself in such material. Let us learn of

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God, not teach him. The more we study human nature, the more we become convinced that God never intended all men to be alike. " In a great house there are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor," — that is, nothing useless, only some better fitted than others for particular purposes. The more we study sociology, the more we feel convinced that it would be a fatal thing to have a town with but a single industry, — a nation with no variety of employments, — a world perfectly homogeneous.

But it may be said, Does this apply to moral qualities ? Can man be content with any but the highest for himself or for those he loves ? No. If a man is discontented with that to which he has attained, it is because he has not answered God's purpose ; but as for his judgment on his neighbors it has not much value. We all admit that it is not possible for every man to have all the moral qualities in an equal degree. The important thing in life is that each man should he faithful in the employment of those which he has. It is with individuals as with nations. It was not necessary that David should have the quality of mercy largely developed, or that Rebecca should understand the importance of truth. The important thing was that David should be loyal to Him who made him a king, and that Rebecca should save the timid boy with whom was the promise of the covenant. Do not