True Words for Brave Men | Page 7

example as told us
in the Bible. Even if this life were all, and there were neither
punishment nor reward for us after death--does not our reason tell us
that if all men and women were like Christ in gentleness, wisdom, and
purity, the world as long as it lasted would be a heaven?
And do not your own hearts echo these thoughts at moments when they
are quietest and purest and most happy too? Have you not said to
yourselves--"Those Bible words are good words. After all, if I were
like that, I should be happier than I am now." Ah! my friends, listen to
those thoughts when they come into your hearts--they are not your own
thoughts--they are the voice of One holier than you--wiser than
you--One who loves you better than you love yourselves--One pleading
with you, stirring you up by His Spirit, if it be but for a moment, to see
the things which belong to your peace.
But what can you say for yourselves, if having once had these thoughts,
having once settled in your own minds that the Gospel of God is right
and you are wrong, if you persist in disobeying that gospel--if you
agree one minute with the inner voice, which says, "Do this and live, do
this and be at peace with God and man, and your own conscience"--and
then fall back the next moment into the same worldly, selfish, peevish,

sense-bound, miserable life-in-death as ever?
The reason, my friends, I am afraid, with most of us is, sheer folly--not
want of cunning and cleverness, but want of heart--want of
feeling--what Solomon calls folly (Prov. i. 22-27), stupidity of soul,
when he calls on the simple souls, How long ye simple ones will you
love simplicity or silliness, and the scorners delight in their scorning
(delight in laughing at what is good), and fools hate knowledge--hate to
think earnestly or steadily about anything--the stupidity of the ass, who
is too stubborn and thick-skinned to turn out of his way for any one--or
the stupidity of the swine, who cares for his food and nothing
further--or worse than all, the stupidity of the ape, who cares for
nothing but play and curiosity, and the vain and frivolous amusements
of the moment.
All these tempers are common enough, and they may be joined with
cleverness enough. What beast so clever as an ape? yet what beast so
foolish, so mean, so useless? But this is the fault of stupidity--it blinds
our eyes to the world of spirits; it makes us forget God; it makes us see
first what we can lay our hands on, and nothing more; it makes us
forget that we have souls. Our glorious minds and thoughts, which
should be stretching on through all eternity, are cramped down to
thinking of nothing further than this little hour of earthly life. Our
glorious hearts, which should be delighting in everything which is
lovely, and generous, and pure, and beautiful, and God-like--ay,
delighting in God Himself--are turned in upon themselves, and set upon
our own gain, our own ease, our own credit. In short, our immortal
souls, made in God's image, become no use to us by this stupidity--they
seem for mere salt to keep our bodies from decaying.
Whose work is that? The devil's. But whose fault is it? Do you suppose
that the devil has any right in you, any power in you, who have been
washed in the waters of baptism and redeemed by Christ from the
service of the devil, and signed with His Cross on your foreheads,
unless you give him power? Not he. Men's sins open the door to the
devil, and when he is in, he will soon trample down the good seed that
is springing up, and stamp the mellow soil as hard as iron, so that

nothing but his own seeds can grow there, and so keep off the dews of
God's spirit, and the working of God's own gospel from making any
impression on that hardened stupified soil.
Alas! poor soul. And thy misery is double, because thou knowest not
that thou art miserable; and thy misery is treble, because thou hast
brought it on thyself!
My friends--there is an ancient fable of the Jews, which, though it is
not true, yet has a deep and holy meaning, and teaches an awful lesson.
There lived, says an ancient Jewish Scribe, by the shores of the Dead
Sea, a certain tribe of men, utterly given up to pleasure and
covetousness, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of
life. To them the prophet Moses was sent, and preached to them,
warning them of repentance and of judgment to come--trying to
awaken their souls to high and holy thoughts, and