seeing more clearly what the will of God is. In other words, he who would gain in religious perception must conform faithfully to that which he already is able to perceive. By doing right you attain the power to think right, and to see what is right. The law is nowhere more succinctly stated than in the saying of Christ-Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

VIII. THE LAW OF REVELATION.-But the law of perception may be restated, and with even more force, from the other side. Whatever portion of Divine truth a man is permitted to perceive, it is perceived because God chooses to unveil it to him; and this unveiling is called revelation. Perception and revelation are two names for the two aspects of the discovery of truth. What God reveals man perceives, and the perception is revelation. The great souls, whom we acknowledge as the religious leaders, have from age to age been enabled to see a little further than the men of earlier days into the things of the spirit. It is to them, or through them, or by them, that the many revelations have been made and are still being made. But the conditions are precisely those already laid down. We have it in the Psalms: "To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show-that is reveal— the salvation of God." Similarly, in the gospels (John vii. 17), "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." And Jesus could give thanks to His Father-the Lord of heaven and earth-that He had revealed unto babes the things which were hidden from the merely wise and prudent. It is not, then, to the intellectually equipped, not to the wise or the scribe, not to the

learned theologian, not to the presbyter or bishop, not to the collective wisdom of synod or council or assembly, that revelation is vouchsafed. The unveiling is personal, individual, interior. It is made to him who is pure of heart and who himself orders his conversation aright by doing the will of God.

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THE LAW OF OBEDIENCE.-The serviceableness any man to any cause is measured by the degree in which he is willing to obey the requirements of that cause. Whole-hearted allegiance, fidelity to the very end, these are the things that mark the sincere man. Without obedience to the highest that is in him, no man realises that highest. But obedience to be sincere must be open-eyed. Blind obedience is but another name for impotence of will, for abdication of responsibility. He who is cowardly enough to put off his responsibility and shelter himself behind the shutters of any organisation, whether it calls itself "the Church or by any other name, is guilty of the gran rifiuto. To his Maker alone is he responsible; to none other, and to none less. But obedience in the majority of instances implies action. "He that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them," is one of those phrases of Jesus which cut deep into the quick.

THE LAW OF SERVICE.-The service of one's fellow-men has always been held to be a virtue. Whether called by the name of philanthropy or by any other name, the service of man has been ever esteemed noble, save only by those tainted with the vice of monasticism. That strange development of pessimism which drove men into solitary estrangement

from their fellows was no following of the Christ who came not to be served, but to serve. Only by bearing one another's burdens do we fulfil the law of Christ. The title given to Christ by St. Paul (Rom. xv. 8), "a minister (diákovos) of circumcision for the truth of God," is witness to Christ's function as a servant of the truth. Mutual service, mutual helpfulness, is our part as members of the Christian body; the health, that is the welfare, of which is bound up with the appropriate service of every member. Without mutual service the spiritual life of the community drifts into fragments.

THE LAW OF FORCED ACTION.-It is inevitable that the unwise forcing of spiritual growth induces a deleterious reaction. Christ taught us to look for spiritual phenomena in the appropriate order: first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Impatience of results, that besetting fault of the Evangelical Churches, often leads to disastrous haste. When men of violence take the Kingdom of Heaven by force, and forget the apostolic order, "first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual," their apparent success is doomed to crumble.

THE LAW OF INULTERIORITY.—It is not easy to find an appropriate name for the law formulated by Newman in these words: "All virtue and goodness tend to make men powerful in this world; but they who aim at the power have not the virtue. Again, virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasures; but they who cultivate it for the pleasure-sake are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because they can never

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have the virtue." In the spiritual life there must be no ulterior aims of a lower sort. Inulteriority in ethics is what unselfishness is in character. is the same as regards renunciation; he who renounces because renunciation is supposed to bring him credit and honour will find it a veritable apple of Sodom, turning to ashes. So is it with fasting; he who fasts not for fasting's sake, but that he may have wherewith to feed the hungry, or for the attainment of mastery over his appetites, is assuredly benefited thereby. But he who fasts because he wishes to seem pious, or because it is the fashion to fast at certain seasons, exalting fasting into a mere observance or ordinance, will fail to derive the benefit, and will be the worse, not the better, for his fasting. So is it also with all set observances. Sunday observance in the puritanical spirit, for the mere sake of Sabbatarianism, is a soul-deadening habit and a false virtue, whereof the true converse is the spontaneous desisting from trade and from professional activities, from sports and travels too, if by such desistance we can gain leisure for spiritual meditation and for devotion. It is good for the soul to come apart from ordinary avocations to rest awhile; but the erection of the mere desistance from ordinary avocations into a spiritual grace is the veriest superstition. To be uninfluenced by ulterior motives needs singleness of soul. Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall have much peace.

THE LAW OF SUFFERING." I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake.' This was the message of the Spirit sent by the disciple Ananias to Saul of Tarsus as the answer to

his prayers. Years later Paul wrote to the Philippians (chap. i. 29): "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Suffering then, rightly understood, is a gift. And the law of suffering is that he who suffers most has most to give to give in his turn to those who also are sufferers. But, here again, the principle of inulteriority asserts itself. Self-inflicted suffering, for the sake of the supposed resulting spiritual gain, fails in that aim. "He who crowns himself with thorns is not thereby made the more regal, nor he who mars himself with stripes the more partaker of the cross of Christ."

THE LAW OF LIFE.-It was not till after the episode of Cæsarea-Philippi, when it had dawned upon Simon Peter and the other disciples that Jesus was the Christ, and they had made confession to Him of their discovery, that He revealed to them the secret of the law of life. All four evangelists record it, in slightly differing words (Matt. x. 39; Mark xiii. 35 ; Luke ix. 23; John xii. 25). Whosoever wills to save his soul shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his soul for My sake, the same shall save it. No man really grasps the teaching of Christ until the significance of these words has flashed into his consciousness. was the very secret of Jesus.

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We have now reviewed to sufficient purpose a number of the laws of the spiritual life and have seen how widely, how deeply the spiritual life is like the natural life; how life is subject to growth, to development, to continuity, to destiny. We have surveyed the laws of obedience and perception, of service and of suffering. There is, however, one