Part 2

The lower animals exhibit a well-regulated constitution. They fulfil the purpose of their being; there is no schism among their members. “If we saw the lion,” says George Combe, “one day tearing in pieces every animal that crossed his path, and then oppressed with remorse for the death of his victims, or compassionately healing those whom he had mangled, we should exclaim, what an inconsistent creature, and conclude that he could not by any possibility be happy, on account of this opposition between, the principles of his nature.” Now this is just the opposition which deforms human nature. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” How is this internal discord to be quelled but by the inner man having the mastery over the inferior propensities of our nature? As long as these latter are not brought under the wholesome restraints of the Gospel, the Master’s easy yoke, the truth which makes us free from carnal bondage; as long as the raging waves of animal passion hear not the voice of Him who says, “Peace, be still,” in vain shall we look for those social and political virtues which constitute the stability of a state; and which, therefore, since self-preservation is the first law of nature, it should be a prime duty of the State to promote. Without vital Christianity, without a large number on the side of God, and forming the salt of the earth, we must expect nothing but general corruption and downfall. We may pride ourselves upon our railways, our steam navigation, our electric telegraphs, and all the rest of our mechanical wonders; we may pride ourselves upon our immense resources, our domestic comforts, our scientific and literary attainments, our proficiency in the fine arts; but if the conscience of the nation be not adequately developed by a devout and enlightened contemplation of God’s holy will, the social body will be constantly reminding us, by its feverish restlessness and by its terrible sores, that it is not nicely compacted together—that “where one member suffers, all the members do not suffer with it,” that we have not paid sufficient heed to “the one thing needful;” and that we are, in consequence, reaping, by way of warning, disquieting and painful intimations that though our progress is rapid, the rails on which we run are alarmingly insecure.

Now among the Welsh people the elements of stability, of unity, are strong, but those of progress or differentiation are weak. Then as regards the people’s social condition in general, it exhibits few of those disheartening extremes which are so often to be met with in our large towns, but presents, with slight deviations, a general level of moderate elevation.

In more civilized communities, and notably in one of them, while the elements of physical and intellectual advancement are in a state of vigorous existence, social virtue and political stability are in a very unsatisfactory condition indeed. There are many members, but they have not arrived at that stage of perfection in which they constitute one body. Let us hope, however, that as _chaos_ preceded _cosmos_, so it will be with them. Then as respects the various stages of development which exist side by side, they present all the inequalities of a mountain region—

A savage horde amid the civilized; A servile band among the lordly free.

Now these two requirements, variety and unity, when you go hence to proclaim the Gospel, it will be most important that you should promote. The “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” will, doubtless, be to you a prime object of cultivation. But will you not also exert yourselves to kindle in the bosom of your country-people that spirit of progress which results from always adding new truths to those of the past; and from continually realizing more and more the truth, beauty, purity, and grandeur of the indwelling Word of God, namely, “His Word abiding in you,” that is, in the children of light, the only medium through which revelation, as distinguished from the mere outward signs which alone can exist in the Book, is kept, by the Holy Spirit, a living saving power on earth.

II.

“THE world is moving on; the nation which stands still must be left behind. No people can now live upon its remembrances. Like the runners in the ancient games, the nation which surrenders its torch to another, not only loses the race, but loses the light. The whole distinction of English intellect has arisen from its continually looking forward, forgetting the past, and continually anticipating a new day of toils and of triumphs, of severer straggles, but of loftier splendours.” The distinction here pointed out by Dr. Croly, in an essay entitled, “The Cultivation of the Intellect, a Divine Duty of Man,” does not exist to any extent among the great body of the Welsh people, many of whom attach but slight importance to the acquisition of knowledge; because, possessing but little of it themselves, they are naturally disposed to regard it as a matter of mere temporary concern. Even the majority of their religious teachers having, till of late years, no knowledge of any books but the Welsh and the English versions of the Bible, Matthew Henry’s _Commentary_, and not many more, tacitly, if not openly, encouraged this tendency. For uninformed minds are prone to disparage intellectual attainments, and to interpret the Holy Scriptures, so as to find therein abundant confirmation of their primitive conceptions. Yes, even in our own Church, which did make some pretensions to learning, was to be found, not fifty years ago, too many a parish priest without a library, too many a Trulliber forgetful of the high responsibility of his sacred calling.

But is familiarity with aught but the Bible—with philosophy, science, history, and æsthetics—even remotely comprised in the good part which shall not be taken away from us when we go hence for ever? Yea, is not such knowledge “the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness with God?” and is it not written that “not many wise after the flesh are called?” These questions, I am strongly impressed, indicate the tone of too much of the preaching in Wales. But we need not hesitate to reply that, though the knowledge of evil and of science falsely so called is to be avoided as most pernicious to the soul, the knowledge of good, in all its bearings, cannot be too diligently sought. He who knows nothing but the Bible, as Matthew Arnold reminds us, knows but little of the Bible. Indeed the knowledge of good, yea, and taken in the widest sense, cannot be thought of slight value and of transient importance, without irreverence towards Him of whose existence, intelligence, power, and goodness, it is the great exponent.

That the passion of acquiring a knowledge of God’s works and ways in general was strong in Solomon, we cannot doubt. He, indeed, tells us that in the exclusive pursuit of intellectual truth there is no real satisfaction to be gained, “that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun . . . yea, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” All passionate seekers after undiscovered truth know that much mental toil, and probably years of wearisome watching, are demanded before any one can hope to snatch a new secret from the close keeping of the unknown. This must be humiliating to the man of sanguine temperament, but profitably so, because it cultivates within him a longing for the happy time when “we shall know as also we are known.”

Then intellectual attainments, though calculated to satisfy the wants of the perceptive and reasoning faculties, cannot still the cravings of the conscience, cannot meet the demands of the moral and religious emotions. These can find in such food only a stone when hungering for bread, the apple fair to the eye, but ashes under the teeth. When Solomon, therefore, sought for full satisfaction of soul in the exercise of his intellect, and the acquisition of its related knowledge, meanwhile starving his moral and religious nature, it was only to be expected that such a course should be found to lead to “vanity and vexation of spirit.”

But while admitting to the full the humiliating limitations of the mind which Solomon deplores, and that the soul cannot live by intellectual food only, even though it be contained in God’s own Word, yet we fully believe that it is man’s duty, as well as his privilege, to seek for truth wherever to be found; and that he can so cultivate his intellect, and store his memory, as to ensure thereby a greater nearness of soul to his Father in heaven.

The operations of the giant-intellect, we know, are not acceptable to God, except they are imbued with that glow of soul which constitutes the babe-like spirit. But how can the giant-intellect, when thus wedded to the love of holiness, better serve God than by ever realizing more and more of His divine fulness as displayed in all his works and ways?

Although we must allow that no one is so low in the scale of intellectual culture as to be out of the reach of that redemption which is not conceded to learning and talent, but to newness of heart, still we must not forget that the apostle says, “Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children; but in understanding be men.” Let the mental horizon of genius, joined to deepest piety, stretch ever so far away, it encircles but an insignificant portion of that which is open to the glance of Omniscience. Under the most favourable circumstances, the human mind, while in this present tabernacle, must meet with many problems which it “cannot know now, but shall know hereafter.” And now what we would with much stress insist upon is, in opposition to an opinion too prevalent in this part of the kingdom, that the believer who has a mind of little grasp, scantily stored with information, has not the same command of spiritual blessings, does not live so fully the Christian life, does not mount in heart and mind so near to the Redeemer’s throne in heaven, as the believer whose mind has attained a high degree of culture, and amassed large stores of knowledge. It must be so, for the region of divine truth being boundless, he who is ever pushing further into it, and ever striving to embody its purity into his life and practice, must be further advanced than the man who simply loiters near some one spot in this region, as soon as he has gained admittance into it. And now is it competent for the loiterer, say for the man of one talent and little energy, to say to the more gifted and diligent inquirer, “Your labour is in vain; but one thing is needful; and that is simply to pass over the border”?

Is this view, so disheartening to the Christian scholar, in accordance with the teaching of the Word of God? What does the most learned of the apostles tell us in regard to his own experience? “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.” Now this is exactly true to the experience, not only of the Christian yearning for perfect freedom from sin, and a feeling of complete incorporation with Christ, but of every one who longs to surpass his past achievements, from Alexander pining for more worlds to conquer, down to the miser who the richer he becomes the poorer he feels. Thus the great poet, artist, or musician, is never quite satisfied with his accomplished works, but always feels how much better they might be, his ever growing fastidiousness urging him to cry out, _Excelsior_, _excelsior_! Highly cultivated minds, more especially if of an imaginative turn, are never satisfied with the real. “The ideal, the ideal,” is their cry. They push on to lay hold of it, but it ever recedes before them. The ideal will always shine far in advance of the real.

This longing for the unattained, when sanctified by the Spirit of God, will never permit the on-pressing Christian to feel that he has finally, and without occasion for further effort, laid hold of the one thing needful. Yea, in the life to come the same feeling will exist, for after ages of looking into the wonders of God’s love, wisdom, and power, the language of the heart still will be, “I count not myself to have laid hold of the divine ideal.”

* * * * *

It is recorded by those who have sought the conversion of the savage that his capacity for receiving Christian truth is commentate only with the contracted character of his intellect, and the low range of his attainments. If he does become a Christian, it is only such views of the Gospel find an abode in his heart as accord with the feeble mental powers which he possesses. And now I would ask, is this degree of truth all that is absolutely necessary for salvation in _every_ ease? Being but a child in intellect, the savage is not yet capable of putting away childish things. But you may think he can be educated, and be thus brought into a state of mind in which the seed of the Word may grow with less stint. But then it is found that his capacity for education, except in rare instances indeed, is very slight. So again I ask, after an attempt has been made to enlarge his mind, is that measure of Christianity which he is capable of realizing all that is absolutely necessary in every case? I take it for granted that your answer to this question is in the negative. Do you not believe that besides the education of individuals, there is, as the result of this, the education of the race; that as the sins of the fathers descend unto the third and fourth generation of them who continue to hate God, the punishment for violation of law increasing in intensity till the guilty race dies out; so God’s mercies in the shape of increasing aptitude for knowledge, refinement, and Christian elevation, are transmitted from generation to generation among those who stedfastly love the Lord? At all events, savage tribes when brought under the influence of civilized nations, instead of becoming civilized themselves, disappear from off the face of the earth. For as the wind which makes the larger flame burn more brightly, extinguishes the lesser and feebler flame, so the manners and customs of advanced life put upon savage nature a strain too heavy to be borne; and this because such a nature needs to undergo that gradual elevation of the race which it would take generations to accomplish.

What is the drift of these remarks? That the more the mind is developed, both intellectually and emotionally, the greater becomes its power of realizing the knowledge of good, and therefore of glorifying God—the Good.

When a gifted man stores his mind with truth, and at the same time strives his utmost to attain purity of heart, his Christian experience must needs be widened, and his whole soul elevated, in proportion to the number of distinct kinds of truth which combine with each other, and with the ruling passion of his life, to form one grand result, many systems of truth all threaded on that one cord, “the love of Christ constraining;” much differentiation, but perfect unity; many members, yet but one body; in short, a state of mind similar in kind to the Son of Man’s. For is there anything in the whole range of the sciences, physical, biological, political, social, and moral; anything connected with the theory and the practice of art; anything relating to the history of the past, even eternity _ab ante_; in short, is there anything which is _not_ perfectly open to the mind of Jesus? And is He not our elder _Brother_, _and divine_ Pattern in all things heavenly? Is not the realization, in so far as that privilege is extended to us of His mind, to be the grand object of our life here and for evermore?

To be possessed of talents and of facilities for obtaining for them the highest cultivation, what do these gifts involve? That they should be diligently used in promoting the glory of God who gave them. Can the savage mind know much of God? Can he who knows no more of the infinite ocean of truth than he has explored of it, so to speak, in his rude canoe, know as much as is really essential for you and for me of the redeeming love of Christ? The true answer to this question evidently is, that in a babe’s mind you can expect no more to exist than a babe’s knowledge; it has “need of milk, and not of strong meat;” but “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.”

The Christian life then is not a fixed quantity, the same in the child, the savage, the barbarian, and the Welsh peasant, as in the saintly scholars of the Christian Church; but answering to every advance in pure knowledge, there is, in the man after God’s own heart, a corresponding advance in moral and spiritual excellence. For emotions are manifested only in proportion as ideas form the branches round which emotions twine. No well-defined emotion can exist without its related ideas. True, ideas are countless, while emotions are comparatively few, and from age to age retain their identity and freshness, while ideas change and change. Still, however, emotion must enter into union with ideas in order to have any definite existence. The more, therefore, the intellect is stored with knowledge, the greater also must be the number of instances in which ideas and sentiments become associated together.

But what is of more importance still to consider is, that certain ideas can only exist when other ideas have been fully realized first. The former grow out of the latter as branch from trunk, and twig from branch. Certain twinings of feeling with thought must follow, therefore, the evolution of these various grades of ideas. Now the notions in the savage mind are of the lowest grade, and rest assured that his religious feelings, however warmly manifested, cannot reach beyond the level of his knowledge.

Now it must be almost superfluous to ask the question which these remarks suggest. Are all the thoughts and feelings which hold a higher elevation than the lowest, to be deemed, not as the necessaries, but the luxuries of religion? You cannot fail to perceive that the reply to this inquiry must depend on the level you have been made to occupy. If you have been placed in a high position to start from, and if every advantage in the way of mental culture has been extended to you, the one thing needful for you is clearly to push on higher, to enlarge the intellect by searching still further for the true, which to the heart is the good and the beautiful; and to enlarge the heart by cultivating for these latter, an evergrowing love. Moreover, are you not justified in believing, that if you do this, you will be choosing that good part which shall not be taken away from you when you die? For if we are not to forget in heaven that we were once on earth; if we are not to lose the feeling of identity which is to unite our heavenly with our earthly existence, why should it be thought incredible that the knowledge of good which we acquire below should not be one of the links in that chain of identity; more especially as it will be our supreme delight to be always extending such knowledge in the realms of light? Yea, what a source of joy it will be in the bright spirit-land to discover that our mental powers are as compared with their prior state, so much enlarged and strengthened, that we can acquire knowledge with so much more ease and precision than while on earth, and that questions which baffled solution then, are easily solved now. But does not this imply that the remembrance of the earthly life, with its trials, miseries, infirmities, ignorances, and doubts, is the dark surface, which by contrast, heightens the splendour of celestial bliss?

Even in heaven, then, knowledge will be progressively acquired. “No one,” writes Dr. M‘Leod, “surely imagines, that on entering heaven, we can at once obtain perfect knowledge; perfect, I mean, not in the sense of accuracy, but of fully possessing all that can be known. This is possible for Deity only. For it may be asserted with confidence that Gabriel knows more to-day than he knew yesterday.” {23}

Throughout these remarks, it has been supposed that the scholar’s piety is great; for without piety, however extensive his learning, he will have less insight into divine truth than the dullest of God’s own scholars. Truth also impels us to concede that the good qualities of the heart, and intellectual capacity, are frequently bestowed in an inverse proportion upon God’s people; so that many that are first in the one, shall be last in the other, and the last in this shall be first in that.

* * * * *

I have now, to the best of my endeavour, combated a too prevalent propensity, not only of my countrymen, but of most people of little or no education; a sort of complacent resting in ignorance, as if it were the part of a wise man, and most in accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, whereas it is, in fact, but the self-excusing Stoicism of the unfledged mind.

But surely since man is endowed with capacities for advancement in knowledge and righteousness, we must conclude that they are bestowed upon him with the intention that he should use them to the greatest advantage. In proof of this conclusion, we find that the nation which does not highly esteem these gifts must be content to give place to one that does; must, indeed, decay, while the other goes on from strength to strength.

And now to apply these remarks more closely to you, my younger brethren, what does your presence in this college imply? That in the estimation of the wisest and best men of our communion, an ignorant ministry is an evil to be avoided, as not only discreditable and injurious to our Church, but dishonouring to Him who gives us talents in order that they may be made the very most of in promoting His glory and His cause.