Note 7. I would fain add here a word of warning against one of Satan’s wiliest devices, one of the saddest delusions of our time, for a multitude of souls are led astray by it, and in some cases it deceives the very elect. I mean the popular blind terror of “controversy,” so rife in the present day. Let us beware that we suffer not indolence and cowardice to shelter themselves under the insulted name of charity. We are bidden to “strive together for the truth of the Gospel”—“earnestly to contend for the faith” (in both places the Greek word means to wrestle); words which presuppose an antagonist and a controversy. Satan hates controversy; it is the spear of Ithuriel to him. We are often told that controversy is contrary to the Gospel precepts of love to enemies—that it hinders more important work—that it injures spirituality. What says the Apostle to whom to live was Christ—on whom came daily the care of all the Churches—who tells us that “the greatest of these is charity”? “Though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other Gospel—let him be accursed!” “To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour: that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.” Ten minutes of friendly contact with the world will do more to injure spirituality than ten years of controversy conducted in a Christian spirit—not fighting for victory but for truth, not for ourselves but for Christ. This miserable blunder will be seen in its true colours by those who have to eat its bitter fruit.
Note 8.
“Brief life is here our portion;
Brief sorrow, short-lived care:
The life that hath no ending,
The tearless life, is there.”
Note 9.
“Exult, O dust and ashes!
The Lord shall be thy part:
His only, His for ever,
Thou shalt be, and thou art.”