"This spirit of readiness is not rare in the present day; and especially it is not rare in our own land. You may say that the age is a selfish age; and so has been every age, for mankind is a selfish race. Nevertheless, there are in these days thousands who hold themselves 'ready, aye ready' to do and dare, for the sake of loved ones, for the sake of their country,—nay, that is not surprising, but more than this—for the sake of all those who are in need, in peril, in extremity, and unable to help themselves. Look at the records of shipwrecks; look at the records of mines; look at the records of hospitals, of fever and plague-stricken districts,—for the truth of what I say.
"Ready to do, ready to dare, ready to endure, ready to risk life itself, for the sake of others. It is something to be able to say so much. And mark all of you what I say, this would not now be, but for the life and example and teaching of Him who was 'ready, aye ready' to quit His glorious throne in heaven, that He might die a fearful death, as Man, for a ruined world. All that we see around us of benevolence, of pity, of tenderness, of self-denial, has been taught to mankind by Jesus, the Son of God.
"I do not say that no gleams of tenderness are to be found in the natural heart of man. A heathen wife or mother may love her husband or child; a heathen may shrink from the sight of suffering. But if you would learn what man is by nature, you must look at heathendom in the mass. Look at those lands where the Name of Christ is unknown, and see the awful abounding cruelty, the recklessness of human life, the wholesale murder of infants, the slavery of women, the contempt for others' distress, the neglect of the sick and dying, the utter rampant selfishness.
"Look then at our own land, and see the hospitals, the orphanages, the immense and countless charitable organisations, the eagerness of thousands to 'spend and be spent' for those who are in need. These are no mere fruits of civilisation. You may search in vain for any such results of the finest pagan civilisations of olden days. These things are the fruits of Christianity.
"So widespread, so far-reaching, is the influence of the Spirit of Jesus,—of His pity, His self-forgetfulness, His love for men, His tenderness towards suffering,—that thousands who care little about Christ are yet so impregnated from babyhood with lessons of Christian love and pity, that they will themselves do Christ-like deeds, deeds of pity and love and humanity, utterly unknowing whence this spirit of kindliness in them is derived.
"But now we have to think of something far beyond mere kind and humane intentions towards those around us.
"'Lord, I am ready,' Peter said, with his eager warm-hearted utterance, 'ready to go with Thee both into prison and to death.'
"And he was not really ready. He thought himself so; but when the test of peril came, he failed. He was 'ready, aye ready,' in will; but weak in act. Trusting, perhaps, in his own readiness, his own love for Christ, instead of trusting only in his Master's power, and in that Master's love for him, he failed. He was one of those who at the moment of darkness 'forsook' Jesus, 'and fled.'
"Yet Peter went far beyond too many of us. For he did at least wish to be thus 'ready.' His aim was to do always and unflinchingly the will of Christ.
"A grander example of this 'ready' spirit is to be found in the life of St. Paul.