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WHAT I PREACHED.
During the suffering which accompanied the disappointment at which I
have already hinted, I did not think it inconsistent with the manly
spirit in which I was resolved to endure it, to seek consolation
from such a source as the New Testament--if mayhap consolation for
such a trouble was to be found there. Whereupon, a little to my
surprise, I discovered that I could not read the Epistles at all.
For I did not then care an atom for the theological discussions in
which I had been interested before, and for the sake of which I had
read those epistles. Now that I was in trouble, what to me was that
philosophical theology staring me in the face from out the sacred
page? Ah! reader, do not misunderstand me. All reading of the Book
is not reading of the Word. And many that are first shall be last
and the last first. I know NOW that it was Jesus Christ and not
theology that filled the hearts of the men that wrote those
epistles--Jesus Christ, the living, loving God-Man, whom I
found--not in the Epistles, but in the Gospels. The Gospels contain
what the apostles preached--the Epistles what they wrote after the
preaching. And until we understand the Gospel, the good news of
Jesus Christ our brother-king--until we understand Him, until we
have His Spirit, promised so freely to them that ask it--all the
Epistles, the words of men who were full of Him, and wrote out of
that fulness, who loved Him so utterly that by that very love they
were lifted into the air of pure reason and right, and would die for
Him, and did die for Him, without two thoughts about it, in the very
simplicity of NO CHOICE--the Letters, I say, of such men are to us a
sealed book. Until we love the Lord so as to do what He tells us, we
have no right to have an opinion about what one of those men meant;
for all they wrote is about things beyond us. The simplest woman who
tries not to judge her neighbour, or not to be anxious for the
morrow, will better know what is best to know, than the best-read
bishop without that one simple outgoing of his highest nature in the
effort to do the will of Him who thus spoke.
But I have, as is too common with me, been led away by my feelings
from the path to the object before me. What I wanted to say was
this: that, although I could make nothing of the epistles, could see
no possibility of consolation for my distress springing from them, I
found it altogether different when I tried the Gospel once more.
Indeed, it then took such a hold of me as it had never taken before.
Only that is simply saying nothing. I found out that I had known
nothing at all about it; that I had only a certain
surface-knowledge, which tended rather to ignorance, because it
fostered the delusion that I did know. Know that man, Christ Jesus!
Ah! Lord, I would go through fire and water to sit the last at Thy
table in Thy kingdom; but dare I say now I KNOW Thee!--But Thou art
the Gospel, for Thou art the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and I
have found Thee the Gospel. For I found, as I read, that Thy very
presence in my thoughts, not as the theologians show Thee, but as
Thou showedst Thyself to them who report Thee to us, smoothed the
troubled waters of my spirit, so that, even while the storm lasted,
I was able to walk upon them to go to Thee. And when those waters
became clear, I most rejoiced in their clearness because they
mirrored Thy form--because Thou wert there to my vision--the one
Ideal, the perfect man, the God perfected as king of men by working
out His Godhood in the work of man; revealing that God and man are
one; that to serve God, a man must be partaker of the Divine nature;
that for a man's work to be done thoroughly, God must come and do it
first Himself; that to help men, He must be what He is--man in God,
God in man--visibly before their eyes, or to the hearing of their
ears. So much I saw.
And therefore, when I was once more in a position to help my
fellows, what could I want to give them but that which was the very
bread and water of life to me--the Saviour himself? And how was I
to do this?--By trying to represent the man in all the simplicity of
His life, of His sayings and doings, of His refusals to say or
do.--I took the story from the beginning, and told them about the
Baby; trying to make the fathers and mothers, and all whose love for
children supplied the lack of fatherhood and motherhood, feel that
it was a real baby-boy. And I followed the life on and on, trying
to show them how He felt, as far as one might dare to touch such
sacred things, when He did so and so, or said so and so; and what
His relation to His father and mother and brothers and sisters was,
and to the different kinds of people who came about Him. And I tried
to show them what His sayings meant, as far as I understood them
myself, and where I could not understand them I just told them so,
and said I hoped for more light by and by to enable me to understand
them; telling them that that hope was a sharp goad to my resolution,
driving me on to do my duty, because I knew that only as I did my
duty would light go up in my heart, making me wise to understand the
precious words of my Lord. And I told them that if they would try to
do their duty, they would find more understanding from that than
from any explanation I could give them.
And so I went on from Sunday to Sunday. And the number of people
that slept grew less and less, until, at last, it was reduced to the
churchwarden, Mr Brownrigg, and an old washerwoman, who, poor thing,
stood so much all the week, that sitting down with her was like
going to bed, and she never could do it, as she told me, without
going to sleep. I, therefore, called upon her every Monday morning,
and had five minutes' chat with her as she stood at her wash-tub,
wishing to make up to her for her drowsiness; and thinking that if I
could once get her interested in anything, she might be able to keep
awake a little while at the beginning of the sermon; for she gave me
no chance of interesting her on Sundays--going fast asleep the
moment I stood up to preach. I never got so far as that, however;
and the only fact that showed me I had made any impression upon her,
beyond the pleasure she always manifested when I appeared on the
Monday, was, that, whereas all my linen had been very badly washed
at first, a decided improvement took place after a while, beginning
with my surplice and bands, and gradually extending itself to my
shirts and handkerchiefs; till at last even Mrs Pearson was unable
to find any fault with the poor old sleepy woman's work. For Mr
Brownrigg, I am not sure that the sense of any one sentence I ever
uttered, down to the day of his death, entered into his brain--I
dare not say his mind or heart. With regard to him, and millions
besides, I am more than happy to obey my Lord's command, and not
judge.
But it was not long either before my congregations began to improve,
whatever might be the cause. I could not help hoping that it was
really because they liked to hear the Gospel, that is, the good news
about Christ himself. And I always made use of the knowledge I had
of my individual hearers, to say what I thought would do them good.
Not that I ever preached AT anybody; I only sought to explain the
principles of things in which I knew action of some sort was
demanded from them. For I remembered how our Lord's sermon against
covetousness, with the parable of the rich man with the little barn,
had for its occasion the request of a man that our Lord would
interfere to make his brother share with him; which He declining to
do, yet gave both brothers a lesson such as, if they wished to do
what was right, would help them to see clearly what was the right
thing to do in this and every such matter. Clear the mind's eye, by
washing away the covetousness, and the whole nature would be full of
light, and the right walk would speedily follow.
Before long, likewise, I was as sure of seeing the pale face of
Thomas Weir perched, like that of a man beheaded for treason, upon
the apex of the gablet of the old tomb, as I was of hearing the
wonderful playing of that husky old organ, of which I have spoken
once before. I continued to pay him a visit every now and then; and
I assure you, never was the attempt to be thoroughly honest towards
a man better understood or more appreciated than my attempt was by
the ATHEISTICAL carpenter. The man was no more an atheist than David
was when he saw the wicked spreading like a green bay-tree, and was
troubled at the sight. He only wanted to see a God in whom he could
trust. And if I succeeded at all in making him hope that there might
be such a God, it is to me one of the most precious seals of my
ministry.
But it was now getting very near Christmas, and there was one person
whom I had never yet seen at church: that was Catherine Weir. I
thought, at first, it could hardly be that she shrunk from being
seen; for how then could she have taken to keeping a shop, where she
must be at the beck of every one? I had several times gone and
bought tobacco of her since that first occasion; and I had told my
housekeeper to buy whatever she could from her, instead of going to
the larger shop in the place; at which Mrs Pearson had grumbled a
good deal, saying how could the things be so good out of a poky shop
like that? But I told her I did not care if the things were not
quite as good; for it would be of more consequence to Catherine to
have the custom, than it would be to me to have the one lump of
sugar I put in my tea of a morning one shade or even two shades
whiter. So I had contrived to keep up a kind of connexion with her,
although I saw that any attempt at conversation was so distasteful
to her, that it must do harm until something should have brought
about a change in her feelings; though what feeling wanted changing,
I could not at first tell. I came to the conclusion that she had
been wronged grievously, and that this wrong operating on a nature
similar to her father's, had drawn all her mind to brood over it.
The world itself, the whole order of her life, everything about her,
would seem then to have wronged her; and to speak to her of religion
would only rouse her scorn, and make her feel as if God himself, if
there were a God, had wronged her too. Evidently, likewise, she had
that peculiarity of strong, undeveloped natures, of being unable,
once possessed by one set of thoughts, to get rid of it again, or to
see anything except in the shadow of those thoughts. I had no doubt,
however, at last, that she was ashamed of her position in the eyes
of society, although a hitherto indomitable pride had upheld her to
face it so far as was necessary to secure her independence; both of
which--pride and shame--prevented her from appearing where it was
unnecessary, and especially in church. I could do nothing more than
wait for a favourable opportunity. I could invent no way of reaching
her yet; for I had soon found that kindness to her boy was regarded
rather in the light of an insult to her. I should have been greatly
puzzled to account for his being such a sweet little fellow, had I
not known that he was a great deal with his aunt and grandfather. A
more attentive and devout worshipper was not in the congregation
than that little boy.
Before going on to speak of another of the most remarkable of my
parishioners, whom I have just once mentioned I believe already, I
should like to say that on three several occasions before Christmas
I had seen Judy look grave. She was always quite well-behaved in
church, though restless, as one might expect. But on these occasions
she was not only attentive, but grave, as if she felt something or
other. I will not mention what subjects I was upon at those times,
because the mention of them would not, in the minds of my readers,
at all harmonise with the only notion of Judy they can yet by
possibility have.
For Mrs Oldcastle, I never saw her change countenance or even
expression at anything--I mean in church.
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