IX

THE SCHOOL OF CHARACTER

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love Him.-JAs. i. 12.

W

E are agreed that life is full of difficulty. The school is not without a playground, the strenuousness is relieved, we enjoy intervals of rest and refreshment; yet trial and discipline are the great features of the present time. A representative schoolmaster contends that every boy ought to have at least one thing to do that he heartily dislikes; and it is the rule in some ecclesiastical colleges that each student shall have special duties assigned which are known to be peculiarly distasteful to him. This arrangement is liberally carried out in the curriculum of human life. The things of trial constitute the very body of duty. Our calling and experience are full of what is uncongenial, irritating, irksome, and painful. How inevitable these trials are! They are not accidents, exceptions, surprises; they arise out of the very constitution of things-we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. How manifold these trials are! They spring from different

sources, and are of diverse kinds, and confront us in all spheres-we are troubled on every side. How persistent these trials are! From youth to years they challenge us. They vary with the stages of the pilgrimage; but uncertainty, vexation, loss, sickness, and a thousand cares attend us from the cradle to the grave. The pessimist goes as far as to say that, had the world been just a trifle worse than it is, life would have been impossible. Without going to this length, the most optimistic must allow that trial-stern, unceasing trial-constitutes the great feature of human life.

Strangely enough, St. James hails this condition of things with lively satisfaction. One might have expected that he would have bemoaned our lot and condoled with his suffering brethren; this is what unhappy men have done all down the ages, and what they are doing now. On the contrary, the apostle regards the state of trial as a privileged state, one that we must acutely appreciate; instead of condoling with each other we ought to congratulate each other. "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations." "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." So far from mourning and lamentation, he greets the stern ordeal with a smile, he discerns in it only gain and joyfulness. Let us see wherein lies the justification of this optimistic interpretation of life.

I. THE DESIGN OF THE ORDEAL IS GRACIOUS. In so many words St. James declares that this scene of trial is a school of spiritual and moral training. We are not victims of purposeless suffering; the variations of circumstance, the fluctuations of fortune, the frictions and infelicities of life, the blows which stagger us, the bruises of mind and heart over which we weep, all stand related to our higher nature, and seek its perfecting. There is a threefold design in the scheme of suffering.

First, to ascertain the reality of our apparent faith and goodness. How far do we really believe in God and in His government? in His presence, love, and faithfulness? To what extent are our virtues based on conviction and sympathy? Are we genuinely true, just, pure, kind, or are our virtues chiefly apparentmatters of imitation, reflection, policy, or artifice? We are all too much inclined to rest in superficialities and insincerities which are full of deadly danger. A distinguished French naturalist, when speaking of the habits of the mason-bee, reports that whenever or wherever it builds, it invariably selects a solid basis. It will build on bare stones, brick, glass, almost anywhere, but its nest must be firmly planted. It decidedly declines the stucco of our houses. The sapient creature, fearing the ruin of her cells, refuses to entrust them to a precarious support, and leaves the stucco severely alone. How unlike to this are we in the treatment of our highest life and hopes! We are

surprisingly ready to trust vast issues to the sand. We do not display half the sense of the bee, and lightly rest the soul on stucco-on the shallow, the unreal, the impermanent; ease, facility, and comfort are all we think about. The trials of life feelingly persuade us what we are, free us from illusions and vanities, and drive us back on the rock-truths of eternity. "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no." The sea of troubles with which we perforce contend delivers us from mere notions, awakens us to the actualities of our state and position, and, if we are teachable, roots and grounds us in precious realities of faith and character. We say that we believe when our faith is merely traditionalwe only think that we believe; we judge that we are righteous when our goodness is only conventional; but the storm and stress of life search us out, and warn us to build upon the impregnable. There is a vast difference, indeed, between theoretic religion and experimental. As a wise and devout thinker expresses it, "We learn nothing from theory. Everything of value to us must be a suffered experience; otherwise, little or nothing is acquired. All evolution is through suffering, and there is no other mode of advancement and progress."

A second part of the ordeal is to free character, so

far as it is sincere and true, from base alloys. Gold is never found quite pure-the very purest still needs purification; and human nature at its best estate yet needs cleansing. "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." Is not all the discipline of life an answer to this impassioned prayer? By penetrating, analysing, expulsive, and refining visitations, Heaven seeks to free the soul from the last base atom. In connection with the pearl fisheries on the coast of the Indian Ocean most repulsive sights are witnessed. Pearls are not found in the gorgeous shells which decorate our parlours, but in coarse bivalves, the most defective of their species. Dredged from the depths, these unsightly shells are piled in oozing heaps and left to the action of the sun. Henceforth the neighbourhood is not frequented by the dainty. The malodorous mass suggests anything but a jewel-heap; in every way it is distressing to the senses as it lies for weeks fermenting in the sun. The process is, however, at last complete, and the gem, rescued from its unclean associations, is borne away to display its spotless beauty in elect places. Is not this a parable of the moral processes going on in our midst, and which explain and redeem the ugliness and painfulness of so much human life? The seething city is no more a pleasing spectacle than the shell-heaps by the Oriental. sea, and to the carnal eye no more promising. Judged from the æsthetic standpoint the aspects of society are mainly mean, vulgar, and afflictive. The cynic sneers,