Fade in the noon of heaven, when creed and race
Shall bear false witness, each of each, no more,
But find their limits by that larger light,
And overstep them, moving easily
Thro’ after-ages in the love of Truth,
The truth of Love.”
The emphasis laid by the above explanation on the conception of the human nature incorporated into Godhead, is appropriate to this country and to the Western World generally; but we thereby imply no abuse of the religions of the East, in their proper place, any more than of the religions of other planets. Silence concerning them is not disrespectful. It is not to be supposed that any one world has a monopoly of the Grace of God; nor does it exhaust every plan of salvation. In estimating the value of another dispensation, or of any ill-understood religion (and no one can perfectly understand and appreciate more than one religion, if that, to the full), the old test is the only valid one: Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
The third paragraph speaks of our progress along the Way of Truth to goodness and beauty of Life, and of the assistance constantly vouchsafed to our own efforts in that direction. It is not by our own efforts alone that we can succeed, for we cannot tell what lies before us, and we lack wisdom to foresee the consequences of alternative courses of action,—one of which nevertheless we instinctively feel to be right. Acts of self-will, and fanatical determination, and impatience, may operate in the wrong direction altogether; and effort so expended may be worse than wasted. But if we submit ourselves wholly to a beneficent Power, and seek not our own ends but the ends of the Guiding Spirit of all things, we shall obtain peace in ourselves, and may hope to be used for purposes beyond what we can ask or think. This kind of service is what, in its several degrees, will be recognised by the Master as “faithful”; and it is by being faithful in a few things that hereafter we shall be found worthy of many things, and shall enter into the joy of our Lord.
By the Holy Spirit is meant the living and immanent Deity at work in the consciousness and experience of mankind,—the guider of human history, the comforter of human sorrow, the revealer of truth, the inspirer of faith and hope and love, the producer of life and joy and beauty, the sustainer and enricher of existence, the Impersonation of the Grace of God.