THE CHRISTIAN CALLING.*
IF it has been the lot of any of our readers to watch some highly complex and very perfect engine at work, or which would be at work, but that for the moment it is unlinked from the little straps which connect it with all the wheels which set a world of ingenuity in motion to the accomplishment of a given end, if any one has watched such an engine, half regretful that even for a short apace it should exhibit a waste of power, such an one will understand our mentalattitude towards some portions of the little volume before us. With the profoundest respect for the writer of these pages, we read and re-read them. They ought to have telling power, they are so true, so faultless in arrangement, so completely the outcome of Christian integrity in its highest and purest meaning. And yet we could imagine (the present writer judges by internal evidence merely) that perhaps no one would acknowledge more regretfully than the writer, that the connecting-link between his thought audits action on the mind and heart of the greater number of those who most need his counsel, is sometimes wanting. Is the fault, if fault it be, alto- gether with the nature to be acted upon, or is it that the writer has insufficient leverage-power at command, for raining human spirits to the high level he would have them attain? To greatly influence the minds of other men, a man must possess either the magnetic power which on some natures acts with such irresistible force, and brings the full current of the divinus afflatus to bear on the soul it touches ; or the sympathetic power, the passion of humanity whose very strength is in its ability to comprehend weakness. "Is any weak, I am weak also," says the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and in that sentence lies one great secret of his influence. Mr. Llewelyn Davies is never weak. The spiritual conflict which sooner or later tries every human spirit ere it reaches the stand-point he has attained does not show itself in his sermons. The connecting-strap between him and the passions of tempted men hangs loose, while he tells of con- clusions well weighed and found sufficient, though their minds, may be, are perplexed as to the very mode in which such con- clusions should be tested. We must regret what we cannot but, in the instance before us, regard as a great waste of force, since we believe that there lies but one step between the preacher and far wider, deeper influence for good than in this most excellent book he is at all likely to accomplish. What his sermonschiefly want is stimu- lating power for minds not yet touched by the truths he teaches. But it would be altogether unjust to leave out of sight a large class to whom these sermons will prove both profitable, and may be eminently helpful. If it be true, and it certainly is, that to a
• The Christian Callieg. By the Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, M.A. London : Macmillan and Co. 1875.
large extent, "'tis the taught already who profit by teaching," then to the already taught we commend heartily and fully Mr. Davies's sermons. They will find them in many respects a perfect manual of Christian instruction. Not so much if they are weak and weary, and mentally footsore ; but if they are active, and healthy, and vigorous, but imperfectly acquainted with their high calling, here is a teacher who sees the way clearly—and it is no mean faculty in the misty day in which we live—one who does not ignore darkness and difficulty, but knows,—
" That tasks, in hours of insight willed, Can be, through hours of gloom fulfilled."
In the sermon, for instance, on "The Divine Right to Rule," we have the true element of all right to govern, given in the power to serve. " The tendency of vulgar greatness," Mr. Davies observes, " is to dissociate itself from the common herd, to be exclusive rather than sympathetic, in interest, in taste, and in enjoyment. There is not one of us who has not been tempted to draw off from other persons, to look down upon them, to find satisfaction in claiming to belong to a superior class, or to have a more cul- tivated taste." Would Mr. Davies venture to go as far as the great Italian democrat, and say,* " We wish man to be better than he is ; if you wish to attain this, let man commune as intimately as possible with the greatest possible number of his fellows, re- membering the words of Jesus,—When two or three of you are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you." Unfortunately for us, such truths get oftener uttered from the heart of some band of revolutionists like that he led, than from the pulpit or the market-place.
Amongst other elements of clear, practical common, or rather spiritual sense, with which the little volume before us abounds (though it is difficult to give evidence of this in detached morsels), we have a few thoughts on the subject of "Riches and the Kingdom of God," very valuable, as meeting one of the most increasingly difficult questions of the day. The early Christians found some possibility of reconciliation between earthly prosperity and a heavenly heritage, some solution of the difficulty "how hardly shall they who have riches enter the king- dom of God," in abundant almsgiving, the erection of churches or monasteries, or other modes in which some tithe, at least, of all they possessed should be dedicated to God ; but eighteen centuries of experiment have taught us that almsgiving, in its general acceptation, tends to pauperisation, no one whit towards common brotherhood ; and the spirit of truth and of under- standing, whose teaching did not cease when the last chapter of the New Testament was written, has borne in on men's minds the fact that if they accept their responsibility at all, it is for the whole and not for a tithe of their property they are responsible ; and the reception of this truth of necessity causes a readjustment of the whole question. Mr. Davies has shown him- self quite equal to grappling with the difficulty. And it is no light task he has set himself, as any one may prove who would test himself by this standard :— " The teaching of the New Testament, carried out to its ideal length, lays upon us the responsibility of using our means for the good of others as completely, as unselfishly. as if we parted with them and left our- selves with nothing. Is this easy, in a world like this ? Nay, my brethren, it is difficult, most difficult. It seems to me, and I dare say you would think so too, that it might be easier to make a great sacrifice once for all, than habitually through a lifetime to hold all that one has as a trust for the service of God and for the benefit of others. It would be churlish to refuse to join in the chorus of admiration awakened by the liberality of that good man, Mr. Peabody ; but it may be permitted to say that, for an old man without wife or children to give away to the poor a great slice out of enormous wealth makes less demand upon Christian charity than for the parents of a family to manage unselfishly and liberally an income of a few hundreds a year or less. To be com- pletely unselfish in the laying-out of money is supremely difficult ; and it is another difficulty, to lay out wisely I recommend no com- promise ; I do not suggest the easiest course. I point out how, amidst many difficulties, it is conceivable that the highest Christian ideal might be realised without subverting the industrial order of society. And I say, if you would do your part faithfully in the place in which you find yourselves, if you would seek protection from snares which are con- stantly threatening to beguile and to master you, then keep your minds
on the New-Testament teaching about the things of this world The more we are entangled in a rich society, the more we need the warning and bracing influence of these examples. No less than the Apostles, than the first Christians, ought we to be superior to the things of this world, free masters of oar money, be it much or little, and not
its servants Above all, let us consider Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we by his poverty might be enriched. He is not the kind of master to be rejected by such a generation as this. He is the Saviour we need the more, precisely because the hold of the world is so strong upon us. God in- tends us, let us believe, to be members of a prosperous community, with distributed functions, with increasing command over the products of the earth. But he intends us to rule these earthly things as instruments of the spirit, and as a means for knitting mankind happily in one."
• Maumee Thoughts on Danooracy in Europe. The first ten sermons in this series were preached successively on the great subject of the Christian Calling, and may, as we have said, be considered as eminently useful for those who have accepted that calling as their life ; and of the whole number, we incline to think that, on "Love towards Men" is the most valuable. The pith of that sermon seems to us to lie in the words in which Mr. Davies asserts that the Gospel "makes man sacred with a sanctity in which the meanest share," and that it is an essential law Christian life that " the ordinances of union amongst men are of God," and that " the proportion of duty is regulated by the close- ness of the bond." That apparently very simple statement con- tains the kernel of a much-forgotten truth ; while Mr. Davies's attitude towards all that is merely temporary, and as it were accidental, in the present aspect of Christianity may be gathered from the words in which he concludes his Scarborough lectures :- " Be careful how you pledge the heart of your faith to the second- ary and outward traditions of our religion. Your safety is with Christ and the Father. Pray that God will uphold you with His free Spirit. Let your inward life be one of faith, nourished by the invisible dews and rains of heaven, and your outward life will grow in strength, and usefulness, and dignity."
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