An interpretation of
Personal Influence.
John Henry Newman.
The
Evangelists were sent out as lambs amongst wolves, their miraculous
powers gained their cause a hearing, but did not protect them from martyrdom.
How then, in spite of the obstacles to their success, did they succeeded? How did they gain lodgement in the world, which
they hold down to this day, and what enabled them to spread principles
distasteful to the majority? What
is that hidden attribute of the Truth, how does it act, prevailing, over the
many and multiform errors, by which it is simultaneously and incessantly
attacked? We might refer its success to the will and blessing of Him who
revealed it.
But it is also useful to inquire into
the human means by which His
Some imagine that truth can be considered by
rational beings, without reference to their moral character, whether good or
bad; but this is not plausible. Its real influence consists directly in some
inherent moral power, in virtue in some shape or other.
It is proposed to consider, whether the
influence of Truth in the world does not arise from the
personal influence, of those who are commissioned to teach it. It is best
to begin by tracing the mode in which the moral character of such an organ of
the Truth is formed; we will suppose this Teacher of the Truth; such a one as
has never transgressed his sense of duty, but from his earliest childhood
upwards has been only engaged in increasing and perfecting the light originally
given him, the light of Truth dawns continually brighter; the shadows which at
first troubled it vanish.
In all existing patterns,
besides actual defects, there are also varieties of disposition, taste, and
talents, of bodily organization, to modify the dictation of that inward light
which is itself divine and unerring. The
Primitive Church, which, in spite of the corruptions which disfigured it from
the first, still in its collective holiness may be considered to make as near
an approach to the pattern of Christ as fallen man ever will attain. Such a
gifted individual,
will of all men be least able to defend his own views, as he takes no
external survey of himself. The longer one has persevered in the practice of
virtue, the less likely he is to recollect how he began it; by what process one
truth led to another. We may
further venture to assert, not only that moral Truth will be least
skilfully defended by those, who are the genuine depositories of it, but that
it cannot be adequately explained and defended in words at all. Its views and
human language are lacking in a common quality necessary for a comparison.
After all, what is language but an artificial system adapted for
particular purposes, moral character in itself, as exhibited in thought
and conduct, cannot be duly represented in words.
But it is an old saying, that
men profess a sincere respect for Virtue, and then let her starve; so
that it is a marvel how the Truth had ever been spread and maintained among men.
For it is not a mere set of opinions that he has to promulgate, which may
lodge on the surface of the mind; but he is to be an instrument in
changing the heart, and modelling all
men after one exemplar; making them like himself, or rather like One above
himself. Yet the power of Truth actually did overcome these vast
obstacles to its propagation; making infidelity the assailant instead of
the assailed party.
“Reason” asks many questions; fancying that
clear and ready speech is the test of Truth, which it is not.
Intellectual men without sufficient personal virtue, may
simulate virtue, and thus become the rival of the true saints of God. Nothing
is so easy as to be religious on paper.
How then, has truth maintained its
ground among men, and subjected to its dominion unwilling minds? I answer, that
it has been upheld in the world, not as a system, not by books, not by
argument, nor by temporal power, but by the personal influence of such men as
have already been described, who are at once the teachers and the patterns of
it. First, is to be taken into account the natural beauty and majesty of
virtue, which is more or less felt by all but the most abandoned. I do not say
virtue in the abstract -virtue in a book.
The abandoned cannot bear holiness
embodied in personal form. The silent conduct of a conscientious man
secures him from beholders a feeling different in kind from any which is
created by the mere reason. The conduct of a religious person is quite
above them. They cannot imitate him. It may be easy for the educated
among them to make speeches, or to write books; but
high moral excellence is the attribute of a school to which they are almost
strangers.
One little deed, done against natural
inclination for God's sake, though in itself of a conceding or passive
character, to brook an insult, to face a danger to protect others, or to resign
an advantage, has in it a power outbalancing all the dust and chaff of mere
verbal profession; verbal faith or verbal zeal. The
attraction, exerted by unconscious holiness, is of an urgent and irresistible
nature; it draws forth the affection and loyalty of all who are in a measure
like-minded; who understand that which is "born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Then
they would become aware that Christ's presence was before them and would
glorify God in His servant and all this while they
themselves would be changing into that glorious Image which they gazed upon,
and be in training to succeed him in its propagation. These few, are enough to carry on God's noiseless work. The
Apostles were such men; others might be named as successors to their holiness.
These communicate their light to others by whom, in its turn, it is
distributed through the
world. Each receives and transmits the sacred flame fully
purposed to send it on as bright as it has reached him; and thus this holy
fire, at length reaches us in safety, and will in like manner, be carried
forward even to the end.
Sermon 5. Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating the Truth
"Out of weakness were
made strong." Heb. xi. 34.
{75} THE history of the Old Testament Saints,
conveyed in these few words, is paralleled or surpassed in its peculiar
character by the lives of those who first proclaimed the Christian
Dispensation. "Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves," was
the warning given them of their position in the world, on becoming Evangelists
in its behalf. Their miraculous powers gained their cause a hearing, but did
not protect themselves.
2. Whence, then, was it, that
in spite of all these impediments to their success, still they succeeded? How
did they gain that lodgment in the world, which they hold down to this day,
enabling them to perpetuate principles distasteful to the majority even of
those who profess to receive them? What is that hidden attribute
of the Truth, and how does it act, prevailing, as it does, single-handed, over
the many and multiform errors, by which it is simultaneously and incessantly
attacked?
3. Here, of course, we might
at once refer its success to the will and blessing of Him who revealed it, and
who distinctly promised that He would be present with it, and with its
preachers, "alway, even unto the end." And,
of course, by realizing this in our minds, we learn dependence upon His grace
in our own endeavours to recommend the Truth, and
encouragement to persevere. But it is also useful to inquire into the human
means by which His Providence acts in the world, in order to take a practical
view of events as they successively come before us in the course of human
affairs, and to understand {77} our duty in particulars; and, with reference to
these means, it is now proposed to consider the question.
4. Here, first of all,—
It is plain that we cannot rightly ascribe the influence of moral truth in the
world to the gift of miracles, which was entrusted to the persons who
promulgated it in that last and perfect form, in which we have been vouchsafed
it; that gift having been withdrawn with the first preaching of it. Nor, again,
can it be satisfactorily maintained that the visible Church, which the miracles
formed, has taken their place in the course of Divine Providence, as the basis,
strictly speaking, on which the Truth rests; though doubtless it is the
appointed instrument, in even a fuller sense than the miracles before it, by
which that Truth is conveyed to the world: for though it is certain that a
community of men, who, as individuals, were but imperfectly virtuous, would, in
the course of years, gain the ascendancy over vice and error, however well
prepared for the contest, yet no one pretends that the visible Church is thus
blessed; the Epistle to the Corinthians sufficiently showing, that, in all
ages, true Christians, though contained in it, and forming its life and
strength, are scattered and hidden in the multitude, and, but partially
recognizing each other, have no means of combining and cooperating. On the
other hand, if we view the Church simply as a political institution, and refer
the triumph of the Truth, which is committed to it, merely to its power thence
resulting,— {78} then, the question recurs, first, how is it that this mixed
and heterogeneous body, called the Church, has, through so many centuries, on
the whole, been true to the principles on which it was first established; and
then, how, thus preserving its principles, it has, over and above this, gained
on its side, in so many countries and times, the countenance and support of the
civil authorities. Here, it would be sufficient to consider the three first
centuries of its existence, and to inquire by what means, in spite of its
unearthly principles, it grew and strengthened in the world; and how, again,
corrupt body as it was then as now, still it preserved, all the while, with
such remarkable fidelity those same unearthly principles which had been once
delivered to it.
5. Others there are who attempt
to account for this prevalence of the Truth, in spite of its enemies, by
imagining, that, though at first opposed, yet it is, after a time, on mature
reflection, accepted by the world in general from a real understanding and
conviction of its excellence; that it is in its nature level to the
comprehension of men, considered merely as rational beings, without reference
to their moral character, whether good or bad; and that, in matter of fact, it
is recognized and upheld by the mass of men, taken as individuals, not merely
approved by them, taken as a mass, in which some have influence over
others,—not merely submitted to with a blind, but true instinct, such as is
said to oppress inferior animals in the presence of man, but literally
advocated from an enlightened capacity for criticizing it; and, in consequence
{79} of this notion, some men go so far as to advise that the cause of Truth
should be frankly committed to the multitude as the legitimate judges and
guardians of it.
6. Something may occur to expose
the fallacy of this notion, in the course of the following remarks on what I
conceive to be the real method by which the influence of spiritual principles
is maintained in this carnal world. But here, it is expedient at once to appeal
to Scripture against a theory, which, whether plausible or not, is scarcely
Christian. The following texts will suggest a multitude of others, as well as
of Scripture representations, hostile to the idea that moral truth is easily or
generally discerned. "The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God." [1 Cor. ii. 14.] "The light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." [John
i. 5.] "Whosoever hath, to him shall be
given." [Matt. xiii. 12.] "Wisdom is
justified by her children." [Matt. xi. 19.]
7. On the other hand, that its
real influence consists directly in some inherent moral power, in virtue in
some shape or other, not in any evidence or criterion level to the
undisciplined reason of the multitude, high or low, learned or ignorant, is
implied in texts, such as those referred to just now:—"I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye, therefore, wise as serpents, and
harmless as doves."
8. This being the state of the
question, it is proposed to consider, whether the influence of Truth in the
world at large does not arise from the personal influence, {80} direct
and indirect, of those who are commissioned to teach it.
9. In order to explain the
sense in which this is asserted, it will be best to begin by tracing the mode
in which the moral character of such an organ of the Truth is formed; and, in a
large subject, I must beg permission to be somewhat longer (should it be
necessary) than the custom of this place allows.
10. We will suppose this
Teacher of the Truth so circumstanced as One alone
among the sons of Adam has ever been, such a one as has never transgressed his
sense of duty, but from his earliest childhood upwards has been only engaged in
increasing and perfecting the light originally given him. In him the knowledge and
power of acting rightly have kept pace with the enlargement of his duties, and
his inward convictions of Truth with the successive temptations opening upon
him from without to wander from it. Other men are surprised and overset by the
sudden weight of circumstances against which they have not provided; or, losing
step, they strain and discompose their faculties in the effort, even though
successful, to recover themselves; or they attempt to discriminate for
themselves between little and great breaches of the law of conscience, and
allow themselves in what they consider the former; thus falling down precipices
(as I may say) when they meant to descend an easy step, recoverable the next
moment. Hence it is that, in a short time, those who started on one line make
such different progress, and diverge in so many directions. Their conscience
still speaks, but having been trifled with, it does not tell {81} truly; it
equivocates, or is irregular. Whereas in him who is faithful to his own
divinely implanted nature, the faint light of Truth dawns continually brighter;
the shadows which at first troubled it, the unreal shapes created by its own
twilight-state, vanish; what was as uncertain as mere feeling, and could not be
distinguished from a fancy except by the commanding urgency of its voice,
becomes fixed and definite, and strengthening into principle, it at the same
time developes into habit. As fresh and fresh duties
arise, or fresh and fresh faculties are brought into action, they are at once
absorbed into the existing inward system, and take their appropriate place in
it. Doubtless beings, disobedient as most of us, from our youth up, cannot
comprehend even the early attainments of one who thus grows in wisdom as truly
as he grows in stature; who has no antagonist principles unsettling each
other—no errors to unlearn; though something is suggested to our imagination by
that passage in the history of our Blessed Lord, when at twelve years old He
went up with His parents to the Temple. And still less able are we to
understand the state of such a mind, when it had passed through the temptations
peculiar to youth and manhood, and had driven Satan from him in very despair.
11. Concerning the body of
opinions formed under these circumstances,—not accidental and superficial, the
mere reflection of what goes on in the world, but the natural and almost
spontaneous result of the formed and finished character within,—two remarks may
be offered. (1.) That every part of what may be called {82} this moral creed
will be equally true and necessary; and (if, as we may reasonably suppose, the
science of morals extends without limit into the details of thought and
conduct) numberless particulars, which we are accustomed to account
indifferent, may be in fact indifferent in no truer sense, than in physics
there is really any such agent as chance; our ignorance being the sole cause of
the seeming variableness on the one hand in the action of nature, on the other
in the standard of faith and morals. This is practically important to remember,
even while it is granted that no exemplar of holiness has been exhibited to us,
at once faultless yet minute; and again, that in all existing patterns, besides
actual defects, there are also the idiosyncrasies and varieties of disposition,
taste, and talents, nay of bodily organization, to modify the dictates of that
inward light which is itself divine and unerring. It is important, I say, as
restraining us from judging hastily of opinions and practices of good men into
which we ourselves cannot enter; but which, for what we know, may be as
necessary parts of the Truth, though too subtle for our dull perceptions, as
those great and distinguishing features of it, which we, in common with the
majority of sincere men, admit. And particularly will it preserve us from rash
censures of the Primitive Church, which, in spite of the corruptions which
disfigured it from the first, still in its collective holiness may be
considered to make as near an approach to the pattern of Christ as fallen man
ever will attain; being, in fact, a Revelation in some sort of that Blessed
Spirit in a bodily shape, who was promised to us as a second {83} Teacher of
Truth after Christ's departure, and became such upon a subject-matter far more
diversified than that on which our Lord had revealed Himself before Him. For
instance, for what we know, the Episcopal principle, or the practice of Infant
Baptism, which is traceable to Apostolic times, though not clearly proved by
the Scripture records, may be as necessary in the scheme of Christian truth as
the doctrines of the Divine Unity, and of man's responsibility, which in the
artificial system are naturally placed as the basis of Religion, as being first
in order of succession and time. And this, be it observed, will account for the
omission in Scripture of express sanctions of these and similar principles and
observances; provided, that is, the object of the Written Word be, not to
unfold a system for our intellectual contemplation, but to secure the formation
of a certain character.
12. (2.) And in the second
place, it is plain, that the gifted individual whom we
have imagined, will of all men be least able (as such) to defend his own views,
inasmuch as he takes no external survey of himself. Things which are the most
familiar to us, and easy in practice, require the most study, and give the most
trouble in explaining; as, for instance, the number, combination, and
succession of muscular movements by which we balance ourselves in walking, or
utter our separate words; and this quite independently of the existence or
non-existence of language suitable for describing them. The longer any one has
persevered in the practice of virtue, the less likely is he to recollect how he
began it; what were his difficulties on starting, {84} and how surmounted; by
what process one truth led to another; the less likely to elicit justly the
real reasons latent in his mind for particular observances or opinions. He
holds the whole assemblage of moral notions almost as so many collateral and
self-evident facts. Hence it is that some of the most deeply-exercised and
variously gifted Christians, when they proceed to write or speak upon Religion,
either fail altogether, or cannot be understood except on an attentive study;
and after all, perhaps, are illogical and unsystematic, assuming what their
readers require proved, and seeming to mistake connexion
or antecedence for causation, probability for evidence. And over such as these
it is, that the minute intellect of inferior men has its moment of triumph, men
who excel in a mere short-sighted perspicacity; not understanding that, even in
the case of intellectual excellence, it is considered the highest of gifts to
possess an intuitive knowledge of the beautiful in art, or the effective in
action, without reasoning or investigating; that this, in fact, is genius;
and that they who have a corresponding insight into moral truth (as far as they
have it) have reached that especial perfection in the spiritual part of their
nature, which is so rarely found and so greatly prized among the intellectual
endowments of the soul.
13. Nay, may we not further
venture to assert, not only that moral Truth will be least skilfully
defended by those, as such, who are the genuine depositories of it, but that it
cannot be adequately explained and defended in words at all? Its views and
human language are incommensurable. For, after all, what is language but
{85} an artificial system adapted for particular purposes, which have been
determined by our wants? And here, even at first sight, can we imagine that it
has been framed with a view to ideas so refined, so foreign to the whole course
of the world, as those which (as Scripture expresses it) "no man can
learn," but the select remnant who are "redeemed from the
earth," and in whose mouth "is found no guile"? [Rev. xiv. 3, 5.] Nor is it this heavenly language alone which is
without its intellectual counterpart. Moral character in itself, whether good
or bad, as exhibited in thought and conduct, surely cannot be duly represented
in words. We may, indeed, by an effort, reduce it in a certain degree to this
arbitrary medium; but in its combined dimensions it is as impossible to write
and read a man (so to express it), as to give literal depth to a painted
tablet.
14. With these remarks on the
nature of moral Truth, as viewed externally, let us conduct our secluded
Teacher, who is the embodied specimen of it, after his thirty years'
preparation for his office, into the noise and tumult of the world; and in
order to set him fairly on the course, let us suppose him recommended by some
external gift, whether ordinary or extraordinary, the power of miracles, the
countenance of rulers, or a reputation for learning, such as may secure a
hearing for him from the multitude of men. This must be supposed, in consequence
of the very constitution of the present world. Amid its incessant din, nothing
will attract attention but what cries aloud and spares not. It is an old
proverb, that {86} men profess a sincere respect for Virtue, and then let her
starve; for they have at the bottom of their hearts an evil feeling, in spite
of better thoughts, that to be bound to certain laws and principles is a
superstition and a slavery, and that freedom consists in the actual exercise of
the will in evil as well as in good; and they witness (what cannot be denied)
that a man who throws off the yoke of strict conscientiousness, greatly
increases his producible talent for the time, and his immediate power of
attaining his ends. At best they will but admire the religious man, and treat
him with deference; but in his absence they are compelled (as they say) to
confess that a being so amiable and gentle is not suited to play his part in
the scene of life; that he is too good for this world; that he is framed for a
more primitive and purer age, and born out of due time. [Makarisantes
humon to apeirokakon],
says the scoffing politician in the History, [ou zeloumen to aphron];—would not the great majority of men, high and low, thus speak of
St. John the Apostle, were he now living?
15. Therefore, we must invest
our Teacher with a certain gift of power, that he may be feared. But even then,
how hopeless does this task seem to be at first sight! how
improbable that he should be able to proceed one step farther than his external
recommendation carries him forward! so that it is a
marvel how the Truth had ever been spread and maintained among men. For,
recollect, it is not a mere set of opinions that he has to promulgate, which
may lodge on the surface of the mind; but he is to be an instrument in {87}
changing (as Scripture speaks) the heart, and modelling
all men after one exemplar; making them like himself, or rather like One above
himself, who is the beginning of a new creation. Having (as has been said) no
sufficient eloquence—nay, not language at his command—what instruments can he
be said to possess? Thus he is, from the nature of the case, thrown upon his
personal resources, be they greater or less; for it is plain that he cannot
commit his charge to others as his representatives, and be translated (as it
were), and circulated through the world, till he has made others like himself.
16. Turn to the history of
Truth, and these anticipations are fulfilled. Some hearers of it had their
conscience stirred for a while, and many were affected by the awful simplicity
of the Great Teacher; but the proud and sensual were irritated into opposition;
the philosophic considered His doctrines strange and chimerical; the multitude
followed for a time in senseless wonder, and then suddenly abandoned an apparently
falling cause. For in truth what was the task of an Apostle, but to raise the
dead? and what trifling would it appear, even to the most benevolent and candid
men of the world, when such a one persisted to chafe and stimulate the limbs of
the inanimate corpse, as if his own life could be communicated to it, and
motion would continue one moment after the external effort was withdrawn; in
the poet's words,
[thrasos akousion
andrasi thneskousi komizon].
Truly such a one must expect,
at best, to be accounted {88} but a babbler, or one deranged by his "much
learning "—a visionary and an enthusiast,—
[kart'
apomousos estha
gegrammenos],
fit for the wilderness or the temple; a
jest for the Areopagus, and but a gladiatorial show
at
17. Yet (blessed be God!) the
power of Truth actually did, by some means or other, overcome these vast
obstacles to its propagation; and what those means were, we shall best
understand by contemplating it, as it now shows itself when established and
generally professed; an ordinary sanction having taken the place of miracles,
and infidelity being the assailant instead of the assailed party.
18. It will not require many
words to make it evident how impetuous and (for the time) how triumphant an
attack the rebellious Reason will conduct against the long-established,
over-secure, and but silently-working system of which Truth is the vital
principle.
19. (1.) First, every part of
the Truth is novel to its opponent; and seen detached from the whole, becomes
an objection. It is only necessary for Reason [Note 1] to ask many questions; and, while the
other party is investigating the real answer to each in detail, to claim the
victory, which spectators will not be slow to award, {89} fancying (as is the
manner of men) that clear and ready speech is the test of Truth. And it can
choose its questions, selecting what appears most objectionable in the tenets
and practices of the received system; and it will (in all probability), even
unintentionally, fall upon the most difficult parts; what is on the surface
being at once most conspicuous, and also farthest removed from the centre on
which it depends. On the other hand, its objections will be complete in
themselves from their very minuteness. Thus, for instance, men attack
ceremonies and discipline of the Church, appealing to common sense, as they
call it; which really means, appealing to some proposition which, though true
in its own province, is nothing to the purpose in theology; or appealing to the
logical accuracy of the argument, when every thing turns on the real meaning of
the terms employed, which can only be understood by the religious mind.
20. (2.) Next, men who
investigate in this merely intellectual way, without sufficient basis and
guidance in their personal virtue, are bound by no fears or delicacy. Not only
from dulness, but by preference, they select ground
for the contest, which a reverent Faith wishes to keep sacred; and, while the
latter is looking to its stepping, lest it commit sacrilege, they have the
unembarrassed use of their eyes for the combat, and overcome, by skill and
agility, one stronger than themselves.
21. (3.) Further, the warfare
between Error and Truth is necessarily advantageous to the former, from its
very nature, as being conducted by set speech or treatise; and this, not only
for a reason already assigned, {90} the deficiency of Truth in the power of
eloquence, and even of words, but moreover from the very neatness and
definiteness of method required in a written or spoken argument. Truth is vast
and far-stretching, viewed as a system; and, viewed in its separate doctrines,
it depends on the combination of a number of various, delicate, and scattered
evidences; hence it can scarcely be exhibited in a given number of sentences.
If this be attempted, its advocate, unable to exhibit more than a fragment of the
whole, must round off its rugged extremities, and unite its straggling lines,
by much the same process by which an historical narrative is converted into a
tale. This, indeed, is the very art of composition, which, accordingly,
is only with extreme trouble preserved clear of exaggeration and artifice; and
who does not see that all this is favourable to the
cause of error,—to that party which has not faith enough to be patient of
doubt, and has just talent enough to consider perspicuity the chief excellence
of a writer? To illustrate this, we may contrast the works of Bishop Butler
with those of that popular infidel writer at the end of the last century, who
professed to be the harbinger of an "Age of Reason."
22. (4.) Moreover, this great,
though dangerous faculty which evil employs as its instrument in its warfare
against the Truth, may simulate all kinds of virtue, and thus become the rival
of the true saints of God, whom it is opposing. It may draw fine pictures of
virtue, or trace out the course of sacred feelings or of heavenly meditations.
Nothing is so easy as to be religious {91} on paper;
and thus the arms of Truth are turned, as far as may be found necessary,
against itself.
23. (5.) It must be further
observed, that the exhibitions of Reason, being complete in themselves, and
having nothing of a personal nature, are capable almost of an omnipresence by
an indefinite multiplication and circulation, through the medium of
composition: here, even the orator has greatly the advantage over the religious
man; words may be heard by thousands at once,—a good deed will be witnessed and
estimated at most by but a few.
24. (6.) To put an end to
these remarks on the advantages accruing to Error in its struggle with
Truth;—the exhibitions of the Reason, being in their operation separable from
the person furnishing them, possess little or no responsibility. To be
anonymous is almost their characteristic, and with it all the evils attendant
on the unchecked opportunity for injustice and falsehood.
25. Such, then, are the
difficulties which beset the propagation of the Truth: its want of instruments,
as an assailant of the world's opinions; the keenness and vigour
of the weapons producible against it, when itself in
turn is to be attacked. How, then, after all, has it maintained its ground
among men, and subjected to its dominion unwilling minds, some even bound to
the external profession of obedience, others at least in a sullen neutrality,
and the inaction of despair?
26. I answer, that it has been
upheld in the world not as a system, not by books, not by argument, nor by
temporal power, but by the personal influence of such {92} men as have already
been described, who are at once the teachers and the patterns of it; and, with
some suggestions in behalf of this statement, I shall conclude.
27. (1.) Here, first, is to be
taken into account the natural beauty and majesty of virtue, which is more or
less felt by all but the most abandoned. I do not say virtue in the
abstract,—virtue in a book. Men persuade themselves, with little difficulty, to
scoff at principles, to ridicule books, to make sport of the names of good men;
but they cannot bear their presence: it is holiness embodied in personal form,
which they cannot steadily confront and bear down: so that the silent conduct
of a conscientious man secures for him from beholders a feeling different in
kind from any which is created by the mere versatile and garrulous Reason.
28. (2.) Next, consider the
extreme rarity, in any great perfection and purity, of simple-minded, honest
devotion to God; and another instrument of influence is discovered for the
cause of Truth. Men naturally prize what is novel and scarce; and, considering
the low views of the multitude on points of social and religious duty, their
ignorance of those precepts of generosity, self-denial, and high-minded
patience, which religion enforces, nay, their scepticism
(whether known to themselves or not) of the existence in the world of severe
holiness and truth, no wonder they are amazed when accident gives them a sight
of these excellences in another, as though they beheld a miracle; and they
watch it with a mixture of curiosity and awe.
29. (3.) Besides, the conduct
of a religious man is quite {93} above them. They cannot imitate him, if they
try. It may be easy for the educated among them to make speeches,
or to write books; but high moral excellence is the attribute of a school to
which they are almost strangers, having scarcely learned, and that painfully,
the first elements of the heavenly science. One little deed, done against
natural inclination for God's sake, though in itself of a conceding or passive
character, to brook an insult, to face a danger, or to resign an advantage, has
in it a power outbalancing all the dust and chaff of mere profession; the profession
whether of enlightened benevolence and candour, or,
on the other hand, of high religious faith and of fervent zeal.
30. (4.) And men feel,
moreover, that the object of their contemplation is beyond their reach—not open
to the common temptations which influence men, and grounded on a foundation
which they cannot explain. And nothing is more effectual, first in irritating,
then in humbling the pride of men, than the sight of a superior altogether
independent of themselves.
31. (5.) The consistency of
virtue is another gift, which gradually checks the rudeness of the world, and
tames it into obedience to itself. The changes of human affairs, which first
excited and interested, at length disgust the mind, which then begins to look
out for something on which it can rely, for peace and rest; and what can then
be found immutable and sure, but God's word and promises, illustrated and
conveyed to the inquirer in the person of His faithful servants? Every day
shows us how much depends on firmness for obtaining {94} influence in practical
matters; and what are all kinds of firmness, as exhibited in the world, but
likenesses and offshoots of that true stability of heart which is stayed in the
grace and in the contemplation of Almighty God?
32. (6.) Such especially will
be the thoughts of those countless multitudes, who, in
the course of their trial, are from time to time weighed down by affliction, or
distressed by bodily pain. This will be in their case, the strong hour of
Truth, which, though unheard and unseen by men as a body, approaches each one of that body in his own turn, though at a different
time. Then it is that the powers of the world, its counsels, and its efforts
(vigorous as they seemed to be in the race), lose ground, and slow-paced Truth
overtakes it; and thus it comes to pass, that, while viewed in its outward
course it seems ever hastening onwards to open infidelity and sin, there are
ten thousand secret obstacles, graciously sent from God, cumbering its
chariot-wheels, so that they drive heavily, and saving it from utter ruin.
33. Even with these few
considerations before us, we shall find it difficult to estimate the moral
power which a single individual, trained to practise
what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years. While
the Scriptures are thrown upon the world, as if the common property of any who
choose to appropriate them, he is, in fact, the legitimate interpreter of them,
and none other; the Inspired Word being but a dead letter (ordinarily
considered), except as transmitted from one mind to another. While he is
unknown to the {95} world, yet, within the range of those who see him, he will
become the object of feelings different in kind from those which mere
intellectual excellence excites. The men commonly held in popular estimation
are greatest at a distance; they become small as they are approached; but the
attraction, exerted by unconscious holiness, is of an urgent and irresistible
nature; it persuades the weak, the timid, the wavering, and the inquiring; it draws
forth the affection and loyalty of all who are in a measure like-minded; and
over the thoughtless or perverse multitude it exercises a sovereign compulsory
sway, bidding them fear and keep silence, on the ground of its own right divine
to rule them,—its hereditary claim on their obedience, though they understand
not the principles or counsels of that spirit, which is "born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
34. And if such be the
personal influence excited by the Teacher of Truth over the mixed crowd of men
whom he encounters, what (think we) will be his power over that select number,
just referred to, who have already, in a measure, disciplined their hearts
after the law of holiness, and feel themselves, as it were, individually
addressed by the invitation of his example? These are they whom our Lord
especially calls His "elect," and came to "gather together in
one," for they are worthy. And these, too, are they who are ordained in God's
Providence to be the salt of the earth,—to continue, in their turn, the
succession of His witnesses, that heirs may never be wanting to the royal line
though death sweeps away each successive {96} generation of them to their rest
and their reward. These, perhaps, by chance fell in with their destined father
in the Truth, not at once discerning his real greatness. At first, perhaps,
they thought his teaching fanciful, and parts of his
conduct extravagant or weak. Years might pass away before such prejudices were
entirely removed from their minds; but by degrees they would discern more and
more the traces of unearthly majesty about him; they would witness, from time
to time, his trial under the various events of life, and would still find,
whether they looked above or below, that he rose higher, and was based deeper,
than they could ascertain by measurement. Then, at length, with astonishment
and fear, they would become aware that Christ's presence was before them; and,
in the words of Scripture, would glorify God in His servant [Gal. i. 24.]; and all this while they themselves would be
changing into that glorious Image which they gazed upon, and be in training to
succeed him in its propagation.
35. Will it be said, This is a fancy, which no experience confirms? First, no
irreligious man can know any thing concerning the hidden saints. Next, no one,
religious or not, can detect them without attentive study of them. But, after
all, say they are few, such high Christians; and what follows? They are enough
to carry on God's noiseless work. The Apostles were such men; others might be
named, in their several generations, as successors to their holiness. These
communicate their light to a number of lesser luminaries, by whom, in its turn,
it is distributed through the {97} world; the first sources of illumination
being all the while unseen, even by the majority of sincere Christians,—unseen
as is that Supreme Author of Light and Truth, from whom all good primarily
proceeds. A few highly-endowed men will rescue the world for centuries to come.
Before now even one man [Note 2] has impressed an image on the Church,
which, through God's mercy, shall not be effaced while time lasts. Such men,
like the Prophet, are placed upon their watch-tower, and light their beacons on
the heights. Each receives and transmits the sacred flame, trimming it in
rivalry of his predecessor, and fully purposed to send it on as bright as it
has reached him; and thus the self-same fire, once kindled on Moriah, though seeming at intervals to fail, has at length
reached us in safety, and will in like manner, as we trust, be carried forward
even to the end.
36. To conclude. Such views of
the nature and history of Divine Truth are calculated to make us contented and
resigned in our generation, whatever be the peculiar
character or the power of the errors of our own times. For Christ never will
reign visibly upon earth; but in each age, as it comes, we shall read of tumult
and heresy, and hear the complaint of good men marvelling
at what they conceive to be the especial wickedness of their own times.
37. Moreover, such
considerations lead us to be satisfied with the humblest and most obscure lot;
by showing us, not only that we may be the instruments {98} of much good in it,
but that (strictly speaking) we could scarcely in any situation be direct
instruments of good to any besides those who personally know us, who ever must
form a small circle; and as to the indirect good we may do in a more exalted
station (which is by no means to be lightly esteemed), still we are not
absolutely precluded from it in a lower place in the Church. Nay, it has
happened before now, that comparatively retired posts have been filled by those
who have exerted the most extensive influences over the destinies of Religion
in the times following them; as in the arts and pursuits of this world, the
great benefactors of mankind are frequently unknown.
38. Let all those, then, who
acknowledge the voice of God speaking within them, and urging them heaven-ward,
wait patiently for the End, exercising themselves, and diligently working, with
a view to that day when the books shall be opened, and all the disorder of
human affairs reviewed and set right; when "the last shall be first, and
the first last;" when "all things that offend, and they which do
iniquity," shall be gathered out and removed; when "the righteous
shall shine forth as the sun," and Faith shall see her God; when
"they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, for ever and ever." 
(Preached on
Sunday afternoon, January 22, 1832, in his turn as Select Preacher.)
Notes
1. [Here, as in the foregoing
Discourse, by Reason is meant the reasoning of secular minds, (1) explicit,
(2) à posteriori, and (3) based on secular
assumptions. Vide Preface.]
Return
to text
2. Athanasius.
Return
to text
Newman Reader
— Works of John Henry Newman
Copyright © 2007 by The National Institute for Newman
Studies. All rights reserved.