. Essays and addresses . his problem, and inthe hope that it may help some who areseeking Rest and finding none to a firmerfooting on one great, solid, simple principlewhich underlies not the Christian experiencesalone, but all experiences, and all life. What Christian experience wants is thread,a vertebral column, method. It is impossibleto believe that there is no remedy for itsunevenness and dishevelment, or that theremedy is a secret. The idea, also, that somefew men, by happy chance or happier tem-perament, have been given the secret—as ifthere were some sort of knack or trick of it— l6 P
. Essays and addresses . his problem, and inthe hope that it may help some who areseeking Rest and finding none to a firmerfooting on one great, solid, simple principlewhich underlies not the Christian experiencesalone, but all experiences, and all life. What Christian experience wants is thread,a vertebral column, method. It is impossibleto believe that there is no remedy for itsunevenness and dishevelment, or that theremedy is a secret. The idea, also, that somefew men, by happy chance or happier tem-perament, have been given the secret—as ifthere were some sort of knack or trick of it— l6 PAX VOBISCUM. is wholly incredible. Religion must ripen itsfruit for every temperament ; and the wayeven into its highest heights must be by agateway through which the peoples of theworld may pass. I shall try to lead up to this gateway bya very familiar path. But as that path isstrangely unfrequented, and even unknown,where it passes into the religious sphere, Imust dwell for a moment on the commonestof EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. Nothing that happens in the world hap-pens by chance. God is a God of is arranged upon definite prin-ciples, and never at random. The world, eventhe religious world, is governed by is governed by law. Happiness isgoverned by law. The Christian experiencesare governed by law. Men, forgetting this,expect Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop intotheir souls from the air like snow or rain. Butin point of fact they do not do so ; and ifthey did they would no less have their originin previous activities and be controlled by 2 PAX VOBISCUM. natural laws. Rain and snow do drop fromthe air, but not without a long previoushistory. They are the mature effects of for-mer causes. Equally so are Rest, and Peace,and Joy. They, too, have each a previoushistory. Storms and winds and calms are notaccidents, but are brought about by ante-cedent circumstances. Rest and Peace arebut calms in mans inward nature, and arisethrough cau
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