XVI.

The Religious Spirit.

"Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?"—Ps. xlii. 1, 2.

WE seem to have here the very essence of the religious spirit-the spirit of devotion; so much so, that I doubt not but that many persons have often thought that a man who could sincerely and naturally use such language would be almost too good for this world, and that for themselves they have no expectation of being able to use it, unless, perhaps, God in His mercy may give them grace to do so at the hour of death. In fact, it is to be feared that the majority of so-called Christians think that the chief use of religion is to smooth their passage to another world, and secure them the hope of a comfortable position in the life to come. There are a great many God-fearing, honest men who lay no claim to any intense religious feeling, and there are also a great many others who, if we could probe the inmost recesses of their hearts, would turn out

to be really very much better than they appear to be. At the same time, it must be acknowledged that the impression one derives from the way the generality of mankind are in the habit of talking, is that very few persons in the prime of manhood, or when all things are going well with them, take any real pleasure in their religion, or are conscious of any craving after the presence of God such as that which is expressed in the text. Even of St. Augustine it is said, that in his youth he prayed that God would one day teach him to serve Him but not at present. He wished to have the vigour of his life to himself, and think of God afterwards. And so it is with all of us, more or less. We appoint certain times for coming, as it were, into God's presence, to acknowledge our allegiance towards Him, and our desire not to be overmuch wicked, and so lose our chance of coming to Him when we have done with this present scene; and as we leave the walls of the church, we congratulate ourselves that we need not think of religion for another week. As for finding any delight in thinking of God at all times, of taking Him as our Companion, so to speak, even in the midst of our most worldly pursuits,—such an idea is altogether beyond us. "No," say we, "it is tiresome to think about the great Being Who made us, Who is about our path and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways. We do not want to have our ways spied out; we would be left to ourselves. And then, when age

comes upon us, and our enfeebled frame prevents us from taking pleasure in outward things, we will set to work and read good books which talk to us about our soul; and thus we hope, by God's grace, to slip through our examination in the world to come."

I am using plain language, because I wish to make it clear that it is a very serious defect in our religion that we imagine that its chief use is to secure our safety in another world; that we consider godliness as most becoming in those who are on the eve of departure from this present life, but regard it as quite the exception to meet with men full of health and strength who are inclined to give any serious attention to it at all. Here and there we come across men who are warm religious partisans, who take up some favourite aspect of religion, just as others take up politics and bend all their energies to further the interests of their party; but how many do we know who from the inmost depths of the soul could say, "Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God: when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?" There are numbers of men who long at heart for the light of God's countenance more than they care to say, but we cannot help the impression, from the way people speak, that very few indeed regard communion with God as the source of the most exquisite comfort and delight, and that

most men would never think of religion at all if they were not under the apprehension that they must think of it sooner or later, and whether they like or no. Nay, I would go further, and say that very much of the religious teaching we meet with in books and sermons sets forth our religion in what I do not hesitate to call a most repulsive light, and hangs on the false supposition that God and our present human life are two opposite factors, which cannot possibly be reconciled; so that it seems as if the aforesaid writers of books and sermons could themselves scarcely imagine the possibility of a man thankfully enjoying his life as the gift of God, confessing honestly that he loves the world and the things of the world, that he finds more and more to admire in it every day he lives, and yet ever aspiring and longing after God in his inmost heart, craving for more light from Him, and for a deeper and fuller sense of His presence, and holding himself withal ready to depart at a moment's notice. If we paid one tenth part of the attention to the science of godliness that we devote to some petty interest of the moment, we ought to be able to see that there is no antagonism whatever between the present life and the life to come, since one God is the Author of both; and the motives and principles which it is right for us to cultivate, in the immediate prospect of death and judgment, are precisely the same which are necessary for the promotion of man's greatest good on earth.

However much confusion there may be in our present existence, we may be sure of this, that it is only in our own minds, and that, if we could regard the earth from the platform of a superior being, or with the eye of God, we should see in the place of confusion a wonderful order and beauty, and perceive that all things are slowly but surely working together for good.

It is the spirit of heathenism, not the spirit of Christianity, which teaches that evil is more powerful than good in any corner of God's universe, and which makes men, and especially those who pass for religious persons, afraid that it is as much as the Almighty Himself can do to save the world from the malignity of a being almost as strong as Himself. And yet it is such notions as these that men dignify by the title of "faith," who say they believe in an allpure and righteous and powerful Being, and in Jesus Christ, Whom He has sent. Depend upon it, God is the true King of this world, whether we ourselves have learned to understand His rule or not. Depend upon it, He is never for one moment absent from us, though we in our folly try and hide ourselves from the glance of His all-seeing eye, amongst the rank undergrowth of our own dark imaginations; and the sooner we can find courage to come out into the fresh air, and gaze with clear and open eye upon His majesty, and walk with Him as a friend, the better for our happiness in every way. It is a miserable thing when