XIV

THE INVINCIBLE STRATEGY

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.-ROM. xii. 21.

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UCH is the method by which God Himself, alike in nature and in His government, seeks to vanquish evil. Sad are the blindness, ingratitude, and perversity of mankind! We are miserably indifferent to the splendour of the world; we continually misuse our great talents; we profane the multiplied blessings of life by exercising them in an atheistic temper and for ignoble ends. It is, indeed, grievous to recall the callousness and disobedience of mankind. What, then, is the response of the Divine Ruler to a guilty world? Does He protest, "I will withhold, I will resume, My gifts; the skies shall shine no more, the trees blossom no more, and the fields no more yield their meat"? Mercifully He does not. "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Our unbeliefs and blasphemies, our follies and crimes, are followed by showers of blessing. From time to time the judgments of Heaven afflict us; yet these severities are exceptional, God's strange work: the prevailing system of nature is marvellously

bountiful. The seasons succeed one another, each bearing its burden of gifts-winters of tonics, springs of delightful promise, summers of gorgeousness and gaiety, and autumns of overbrimming plenty. "The gifts of God are without repentance." He does not repent of bounty once bestowed. He does not withhold His bounty because it is abused. He seeks to arrest, shame, allure, and melt us by persistent love. "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" The vast system of nature is an illuminating commentary on our text: it is a manifold and magnificent endeavour to overcome evil by the spectacle and action of glorious good. Nothing shows more the depth of human depravity than that it is conquered so slowly by such wondrous love.

The text contains the philosophy of Jesus Christ. Christianity is reproached because it has brought so little that is new into the sphere of morals. Quite a gratuitous impeachment. Our Lord's method of dealing with evil, for instance, is startlingly new. Before He came the world knew no other way of treating evil otherwise than by reprisal and retribution; pains and penalties were the only remedies known to the rulers and judges of the earth. The Incarnation disclosed to the world a new and an amazing thought: for the mailed fist it substituted the pierced Hand. Henceforth error and unrighteousness were to be antago

nized by knowledge, longsuffering, sympathy, and forgiveness. On these lines our Lord taught, and thus personally He dealt with the provocations of His contemporaries. His disciples drank into His Spirit, imitated His example, and taught His doctrine. The contrast between the truculent systems of the ancient world and the mild programme of the gospel is complete. "Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil; but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." The originality of this ethic is incomparable. Said Jesus Christ to a world that had hitherto known only legalism and summary retribution, "Evil can be driven out of society only as you bring to bear upon it the light of truth, the charm of purity, the majesty of right, the magic of love: by retaliation it may be silenced, cowed, crushed; only by truth, patience, and love can it be extinguished." Neither the individual nor the race can be dragooned into virtue; gentleness makes great. Jupiter, with the thunderbolt and eagle, gives place to One meek and having salvation, in whose hand is the olive branch, and on whom the Spirit descended in form like a dove.

I. In the treatment of PERSONAL EVIL We must follow the injunction of the text. Mr. Kay Robinson, the naturalist, describes a competition witnessed by him in the fields. Owing to a peculiarity of weather the poppies had managed to get a start of an inch or so in

the matter of height over the wheat and barley, and the obnoxious flowers were just beginning to burst into bloom that would have converted the stunted grain into lakes of scarlet, when down came the rain; in a single day and night the wheat shot up above the poppies, and for the rest of the season the poisonous things were overwhelmed in a wavy sea of prosperous green and yellow gold. A similar competition is going on between our good and bad qualities; it is a rivalry between the wheat and the tares as to which shall get on top and smother the other. What is the true course to adopt whilst this struggle proceeds? Let us concentrate ourselves on the corn. We overcome the evil in the good. We shall not master our personal defects by dwelling upon them, tormenting ourselves on account of them, dealing directly with them, or by attempting singly to uproot them. To overcome this or that failing, think of it as little as possible, and as much as you can about the corresponding virtue; weaken the bad side by strengthening the good. The situation is saved not by attacking the poppy, but by refreshing the wheat. Frankly recognize whatever grace has done for you, and by fostering it drive out the evil. Cherish the good thought, forward the generous impulse, follow out the upward-seeking desire: starve the roots of bitterness, smother them, choke them, drive them out by flowers of grace, fruits of light, and plants of God's right-hand planting.

A notable change has taken place during recent

years in the treatment of disease. The old style consigned the patient to his chamber, bled him, drenched him with medicine, left him the mirror, and then closed the window and shut the door. The modern method is a contrast. It relies chiefly on the antiseptics of nature, and as soon and fully as practicable it gets the patient into contact with the fresh, sweet, vitalizing world: with the balm of the moorland and mountain, the ozone of the sea, the scent of the forest, the tonic of the snow, the virtue of the sunlight. Is not a parallel change to this called for in the treatment of the soul? The habitual introspection which soon becomes morbid, the incessant sickly brooding over the defects of the soul and the failures of life, is not taught by the New Testament, but dates from medieval times. The Church affects too much the dim religious light; too long it has breathed an unwholesome air, and contemplated itself in the mirror. Let us rather get into contact, and keep in contact, with the vital sights and specifics of the upper universe of light and love, of purity and joy. Delight the inner eyes with the constant vision of the beautiful, breathe the ampler air of meditation and devotion, people the sanctuary of imagination with fair images, let your heart be at leisure from itself ever expanding with loving purpose, fill both hands with useful work, and wellnigh unconsciously evil qualities and tastes shall drop off, go under, die down for want of atmosphere and stimulation. We do not overcome the evil except by attack