Horton College, Bradford

Camden Road, London.............. 251

Appledore, Devon

........ 137

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."-Eph. ii. 20.

JANUARY, 1857.

THE GLORIFICATION OF COMMON LIFE.

BY THE REV. EDWARD WHITE.

"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”— Luke xxi. 34.

When one seriously considers human nature in most of its aspects in the world around us, we feel convinced that only some wonderful exertion of Almighty Power can make it into anything that deserves to be called truly spiritual. Think of the influences which are always acting upon us to materialise our life. There is our nature itself, in its most obvious portion actually a material substance-"Body"; made of the heavy, senseless, elements which compose the world-solids, liquids, earths, metals, for there is even a trace of iron in the blood; made of clay, dust, just what the globe is made of on which we tread. When God named Adam, he called him Earth, from Adamah, the earth or ground. Earth! where art thou? was the demand of the Infinite Spirit. Man thus is built up out of the soil, like plants and trees, or like houses which are built up of bricks and stones which have been dug or fashioned out of the ground. This is the "hole of the pit" whence we have been hewn. How wonderful, then, is life infused into these dead elements! What a miracle of divine skill to make this earthy substance active and sensitive! Yet when thus endued with life, that life, with its functions, is still closely allied with the material substance, and the action of material causes; the blow of a stick, or the gash of a sword, can put an end to it. All the pressing wants of the body unite it to its source. We constantly eat and drink and absorb into our being parts of the material world. It is, as George Herbert says, "earth to earth that we commit" at every meal. Who can wonder then that we have not far to sink to become wholly material creatures? and, as matter cannot think, who can wonder that it is very easy for a human being to become utterly thoughtless?

At the summit of our nature, indeed, there is the brain, which, when cultivated and refined, becomes an organ of thought, like the Corinthian capital at the top of the column, or rather like a glorious lamp burning above that capital, lighted by Jehovah. But the mind in the brain can think, as a habit, only when the body is subjected to a resolute discipline of repression, "kept under and brought into subjection," lest the soul should be a cast-away. The victory of faith which overcomes the world, is first a victory over the body. Every man conquers the world exactly in proportion as he conquers those "passions and lusts" which give the world its power. They that are Christ's have crucified these. What an expression! It indicates that this is no easy victory. It is like the VOL. XI.

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capture and crucifixion of a violent robber amidst the mountains, which is not to be accomplished without a desperate struggle. He contends for his liberty at the time of his apprehension; he argues in his own defence, with loud outcries, during the process of his trial; he wrestles for life at the place of execution; and even when nailed to the cross on the fatal tree he strives to break away amidst his dying agonies; and he dies at last with the gasp of rebellion on his lips.

In these words of warning, so suitable to the New Year, our Lord describes the dangerous relations of this body of death to the soul,"Take heed!" Spiritual thought and watchfulness is impossible to man so long as he neglects the culture of his "heart," of that mind which acts only through the brain, Careless physical living, over indulgence of the appetites, renders the soul heavy, "overcharges it." Too much eating, too much drinking, too much sloth, too much sleep, too much business, too much amusement, sap the forces of thought, stop up with mire the fountains of intelligence, render it impossible to perceive divine things, the realities of revelation, the truths of the gospel, the laws of life, the approaches of temptation, the consequences of sin, the glories of eternity. The soul, which, like a mountain-lake, should reflect on its crystal bosom the expanse of the firmament, becomes clouded with an earthy infusion and can reflect the skies and sun no more. Thus the masses of men, of all ranks, are living around us. Their way seemeth right unto them, but the end of that way is death. None can ever wear the flashing diadem of immortality-THE CROWN OF LIFE-but those who have both studied and applied the physics of spiritual religion. The soul must conquer the body, or the body will conquer the soul.

The " cares of this life," however, are as hostile to spiritual vigilance as the body itself. The whole course of outward existence in which Christians are engaged is unfavourable to spiritual life,-the daily routine of earthly occupations in themselves thoroughly belonging to the lower sphere. Some few of the occupations of men are intellectual disciplines; but the greater number, whether belonging to the household or the forum, are of the earth earthy. In-doors occupation, such as belongs properly to women,-"guiding the house," providing for the order, cleanliness, food, clothing, of a household,-in what does this consist, whether for mistress or for servants? Of an endless series of petty arrangements and minute cares, requiring incessant attention to their details, hurrying on to present themselves to notice one after the other, often without giving breathing-time for reflection between any two,-an ever-unfolding panorama of trifles, yet trifles on which the health, the comfort, the happiness, the respectability, the virtue, of families depend. So it is in business out of doors, in all its ranks and departments, wholesale and retail, from the work of the poor shop-boy, rising at six to open and to sweep the shop, hurried on his messages through all the day, hurried through his meals, sinking weary and late to his bed,-up to the great merchant, whose daily cares and often corroding anxieties are commensurate with the politics of all the kingdoms of the globe. For all, and especially in this age of competition and covetousness, trade externally consists of a sort of HUNT in the midst of a whole world of hunters,rushing over hedges and ditches, over rivers and hills, in pursuit of a provision for the life that now is.

Now a person may pass an entire day in such occupations, all of them lawful, so far as freedom from social offence is concerned, and at the end of the day feel that it has been wholly earthly. And a life, six of whose days are thus spent, will not become suddenly spiritual on the seventh. It is always six to one against any such marvellous transformation,