argument I have used the words of Christ or His apostles I have used them not as authorities, but as witnesses to what your conciences must have told you was true: because all men allow that they are at least to be numbered amongst the greatest of moral teachers. And now let us see whether they can also be brought forward as witnesses to the conclusion, which we have arrived at independently. We find Christ then saying this: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they Shall see God"-He does not say that men in whatever moral condition they may be have any right to expect to see Him who is the truth. Again we find Him saying, still more distinctly: "If any man wills to do His will, He shall know of the doctrine." Again, He blames the Jews, not for their unbelief as such, but for the moral defect from which it sprang: "How can ye believe which receive honour one of another?" And again, the disciple who writes this Gospel has a very clear grasp of this elementary moral fact. He says: "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest." Light then is bound up with life. My dear friends, I know that Christian people are sometimes betrayed into speaking harshly, as though blame could attach to the mere fact of not being believers in the truth of Christianity. It is not So. You are not called upon to become Christians without knowing why, I would even go so far as to say it would be wrong to do so. What is blameworthy and contemptible is that cold and callous indifference, that sordid and selfish life which is so absorbed in its money making and its enjoyments and its cares that it will not even turn aside to enquire into this system which at any rate puts forward claims which either are or are not true, and which if true it is a fearful thing to reject. What is blameworthy is that shallow scepticism which adopts at second hand a few opinions from Mill or Herbert Spencer, or from far less respectable unbelievers than these, and makes them an excuse for shaking off all responsibility towards the truth. What again is blameworthy is, to begin an enquiry into the truth whether from curiosity or from real interest, and to stop short when it is seen to what practical consequences it may lead. Have you not yourselves known this to be the case? A man is struck by some words he reads in a book or hears at a lecture, he is interested and wishes to know more; he finds a friend who can tell him something further; he reads books which explain the matter more fully; and at last it begins to dawn on him that something which he once scoffed at may perhaps be true. So far he has been carried away by the interest of the enquiry without thinking of the consequences: but now the question of consequences has to be faced, and he who was so near grasping the whole truth draws back in alarm. If so and so be true, then I must do so and so-Ah! there is the rub-he cannot make up his mind to any action which demands sacrifice, and humiliation, and confession that he has been in the wrong. And so, quite without knowing it, he begins to lend a readier ear to the opposite argument, and he casts about for reasons against the belief which he was so nearly embracing-they are never difficult to find, when a man wishes to find them-and instead of pressing onward to the light, he is unconsciously turning his back upon it, till year by year he goes further away, and at last without finding it, he dies. "Blot out his name then, record one lost soul more, One task more declined, one path more untrod, One wrong more to man, one more insult to God." Oh if there be here tonight one who has come drawn only by some idle curiosity, one who never does and never means to alter his conduct according to his vision of right and wrong, one whose soul has never kindled with that enthusiasm for the Perfect Right to make a throne within him and rule his errant will, one who though he may profess to seek the light does really love moral darkness more than light, to that man I say, go. My dear friend, take my advice and go away. Go, there are plenty of what men call careers open to you: you may scrape together a few rupees and call it getting on in the world you may gain a high position in society: you may dabble in science and literature and art, though you will never penetrate their deeper meaning: you may read the latest sceptical books,-they were made for such as you to furnish you with ready made excuses for your own selfishness: go, you may busy yourself with things like these for the rest of your span of life: but never dare again to set foot within the sacred circle where earnest men are struggling upward to the truth, that they may obey it-lest by some chance a gleam of that truth should shoot into your dark heart and because, you will not obey it, sink you down to hell. Go, we bear you no ill-will. We wish you well-but the best that we can wish for you is that you may never come to the knowledge of the truth, for all moral teachers bear witness, nay your own uncorrupted conscience must have borne witness, that the truth known and not obeyed is fatal, ruinous damning-therefore be afraid of coming within its range. There is one objection which perhaps I ought to meet, and then I have done. You will say, are all dutiful men of your way of thinking? Does the fact that a man does not agree with your view of the truth prove at once that he has no moral honesty? My friends, I am far from thinking so. I belleve that there are some sceptics who have sought the truth as earnestly and honestly, more earnestly and honestly, than we have done ourselves. We have no means of judging of their case. We are all fellow-subjects of the truth: all that we can do is to follow it humbly, and to set it forth as we know it faithfully. For ourselves we only know of one Way, a broad and open way. We should have to to be in a position above the truth to see whither those apparently divergent paths are leading. It is a Christian writer* who says: "Into those ever open portals of heaven there enter, day and night, that countless multitude of every people, nation, and language : they who in the Church were by His grace faithful to Him, and they who knew not the Church of God, whom the Church below knew not how to win, or, alas! neglected to win them, but whom JESUS looked upon, and the FATHER drew to Himself, whom His inner light enlightened, and who out of the misery of their fallen state, drawn by His unknown grace, looked up yearniugly to Him, their "unknown GoD" yet still their God, for He made them for Himself. There, out of every religion or irreligion, out of every clime, in whatever ignorance steeped, in whatever hatred or contempt or blasphemy of CHRIST nurtured, GoD has His own elect, who ignorantly worship Him, whose ignorant fear or longing He Who inspired it will accept." Yes, but amongst these there is not one who having felt himself drawn towards the truth has deliberately rejected it. There is such a thing as honest doubt: but take care that you do not make it an excuse for dishonest doubt. There are diseases which come from causes which no human foresight could prevent, and which, if the constitution be unimpaired, may be * Pusey. The Responsibility of Intellect in matters of Faith, p. 44. ultimately cured: and there are diseases which are the direct result of human licentiousness and excess, and which the corrupted frame knows not how to cast off. And these are the diseases which most often prove fatal. My friends, you have listened to me patiently, and I thank you for it. I have spoken of things which are trite and commonplace, but I have run the risk of wearying you with them because this conception of duty is so absolutely essential as the basis, I will not say of any religious belief, but of any theory of morals or philosophy of life. Our perception of the truth depends upon our moral state now, just as the elevation of our moral state hereafter depends upon our perception of the truth. But do not let me seem to speak harshly or unsympathetically to any who though they are as far as they know honest seekers after truth, do not feel now as though they could make all the sacrifices which they might be called upon to make hereafter. That is not necessary. There is a moral growth going on hand in hand with the intellectual, and if the time ever comes for action the strength will not be wanting. Enough that you are not conscious of holding back from whatever effort seems to be demanded of you now; enough that your face is towards the light; and you have resolved not to turn back; enough that you have seen a vision of moral beauty, even though the way to it seems to have closed up again with cloud and mist. They who are strong and courageous to press on shall win it. Let but one heartfelt cry to the Truth, or to the Lord of truth if there be a Lord of truth, be. "Lead kindly Light, amidst the encircling gloom Lead Thou me on; The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on. Guide Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me. PRINTED AT THE OXFORD MISSION PRESS, CALCUTTA. |