The World of Nature
IT The World of Nature
II The World of Nature George Matheson strikes an extraordinarily modern note in his references to the world of nature and his advocacy of animal rights. The starting point for his meditations on ''Kindness to Animals'' and '"'The Spirit of the Animal
World"' is the fact that humans are in fellowship with all other creatures, or, as he puts it, ''that you and they together are the offspring of God''.
In his poem, '"The Common Want'', all of nature, from the birds in the upland to the wide forests, is portrayed as being united in praying, crying, waiting, sighing and weeping for God in a way that recalls St Paul's graphic description in Romans 8:22 of the whole creation ''groaning in travail together''.
The importance of the physical, earthly element in the Christian faith is the subject. of the last three meditations in this section which speak powerfully of the Incarnation and its consequence that Christ is to be found in the flower as much as in the tract and that he is recognized as Lord and Saviour by the wayward elements of wind and wave as well as by human disciples.
Kindness to Animals ''And God said, Let us make man in our mage, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle.'' Genesis 1:26
God never gives dominion to any creature which has not reached His image. His image is love. Other things belong to God; but God is love. No creature that has not love will be allowed to have a permanent empire. The Father of Mercy will not put the reins of government into a hand that has no heart.
Dominion is a very solemn thing; it may oppress, crush, destroy. The Father must have a guarantee for its gentleness. What guarantee can there be but His own image — the possession of a nature tender as the Divine?
Ye who torture the beast of the field, have you considered the ground of your authority?
Have you pondered why it is that God has given you the dominion? It is because He meant you to have His image ere you began to reign.
If you have not a tender heart, you have no right to reign; you are a usurper. Is it not written that Christ Himself has authority to exercise judgment because He is the Son of Man — because He has a soul of infinite tenderness? Shall the disciple be above his
Lord? If you would reign with Him, you must first suffer with Him — feel the pains of sympathy for the wants below. It is the meek who shall inherit the earth; God's dominion is for God's love.
My Father, fill me with love for things beneath me. Forbid that I should be cruel to the beast of the field. Give me the tenderness that is born of reverence. Teach me to revere the creation that is under me. Was not its life a stream from Thy life? Is not its life a mystery to me even now? Does it not accomplish without reasoning what I cannot do by reasoning? Let me uncover my head before the mystery. Shall I bruise that which is so full of Thee, which surpasses me even while it obeys me? I think I can understand why men of old worshipped the animal. It was the sense of an avenue of knowledge beyond all human avenues — that there are more modes of Thy inspiration than we dream of in our philosophies. Let me take up tenderly that which I do know. There are wants in beast and bird which to me are no mysteries, for they are my own. Give me fellowship with these, oh, my
Father. Let me enter into sympathy with their hunger, their thirst, their weariness, their cold, their frequent homelessness. Let me give their wants a place in my prayers. Let me remember them in the struggles of the forest. Let me remember them in the neglect of the city. Let me remember them in the winter's frost and snow. Let me be to them what Thou hast been to me — a protector, a Providence. I shall be worthy to have Thy dominion when I have reached Thy image.
Searchings in the Silence
The Spirit in the Animal World "These wait all upon Thee.
. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created.'' Psalm 104:27, 30 Who are the ''all'' here spoken of? They are the living creatures of the whole earth. What! you say, the creatures of the animal world! can these be said to be in possession of God's Spirit? I can understand very well how man should be thus privileged. I can understand why a being of such nobleness as the human soul should lay claim to a distinctive pre-eminence. But is it not a bold thing to say that the human soul is in contact with the beast of the field? Is it not a degradation of my nature to affirm that the same Spirit which created me created also the tenants of the deep? No, my brother; if you shall find in God's
Spirit the missing link between yourself and the animal world you will reach a Darwinism where there is nothing to degrade. You are not come from them, but you and they together are the offspring of God. Would you have preferred to have had no such link between you?
It is your forgetfulness of that link that has made you cruel to the creatures below. You do not oppress your brother man, because you know him to be your brother; but you think the beast of the field has no contact with the sympathy of your soul. It has a contact, an irrefragable, indestructible contact. You are bound together by one Spirit of creation; you sit at one communion table of nature; you are members of one body of natural life. The glory of being united to thy Father is that in Him thou
shalt be united to everything. Thou shalt be allied not only to the highest but to the lowest, thou shalt be able not only to go up but to go down. Thou shalt have the power that thy Lord had — the power to empty thyself to the lowermost, to the uttermost. Thou shalt feel that thou owest all things thy sympathy when thou hast recognized this relationship through the same divine Spirit.
Voices of the Spirit
The Common Want "The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest them their meat in due season.'' Psalm 145:15
They are all praying, praying, Breathing their wants to Thee; Birds in the uplands straying, Lives of the land and sea, Songs at the heavenly portals, Wails in the forest wide, Sighs from the heart of mortals Weary of pomp and pride.
2 They are all crying, crying, Bound by a kindred tie, Bound by the fetters lying Down where all instincts lie — Bound by a want impelling Each higher up the shore, Linked in a common dwelling By the same need for more.
3 They are all waiting, waiting For Thy great hand to pour Its treasures unabating On air and sea and shore.
But my heart has waited longest, And has not found her rest Where the sparrow's house is strongest And most sure the swallow's nest.
4 But through my sighing, sighing, I can read Thy promise true; My fruits Thou art denying Till my season shall be due.
The swallow finds her summer In the gateway of the year; I am a later comer, And my fulness is not here.
5 Only, while weeping, weeping For the seeds beneath the sight, Let me feel that Thou art keeping These in Thy hidden light!
Let me feel that Thou art warming Their growth beneath the ground, And that harvest life is forming For the trumpet's joyful sound!
Sacred Songs
The Ministration of the Physical to Faith 'Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion.'' Psalm
48:2
I do not know in the whole Bible a passage exactly like this. It is the only passage within my memory in which the Bible makes a direct appeal to the sense of physical beauty for its own sake. Generally, Nature is viewed only as the vehicle of God; here, it stands for itself and is accorded an independent place as a religious educator.
At first, indeed, such words in Scripture sound like an anti-climax. Mount Zion was full of the holiest associations — of memories that were sacramental, of influences that inspired the breath of heaven. Does it not seem a strange thing that amid these sacred qualifications there should be introduced a fact so earthly, so mundane, so physical. ''Beautiful for situation.'' Fancy a preacher inviting one to worship in a particular house of God for such a reason as that!
And yet the psalmist is right. The presence of physical beauty helps worship. All emotion is quickened by environment.
Even creative imagination is. The poet may construct a new world; but he will do it better under the stars of heaven than under the roof of a garret. It is easier to be good in a garden than in a hovel.
It is easier to love God on the mountain peak than amid the dens of human poverty. It is easier to think of heaven where myriad voices roll their music than where the sounds of wrangling greet the ear.
Why do you bring a flower to the hospital? If you want to teach resignation to an invalid, would not the text or the tract be a better medium than the painted garniture that meets the eye? No; for you can only teach resignation by entering the mind at a side door — by directing the thought to something else.
A man accepts his pain, not by reflecting on it, but by reflecting on other things. The tract bids me be patient; the flower bids me forget. The tract suggests lying down; the flower prophesies springing up. The tract reminds me of my impotence; the flower reveals the glory of lesser things than I. The tract speaks of God's supernatural will; the flower tells of God's supernatural love. The tract says, ''Look into your heart and be humble''; the flower cries,
''Look out on the fields and be glad."'
The Empire of Jesus "The men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
Him!" Matthew 8:27
The marvellous thing about Christ's influence is the nature of the things which He influenced.
The winds and the sea — these are the wayward forces, the types of variableness, the elements which cannot be counted on. If one can rule these he must have the root of empire in him.
Our marvel at the sway of Jesus is the same marvel as that of the men on the Lake of Galilee
— that ''the winds and the sea'' should obey Him. It is not the number of His followers that startles us.
Buddha had more followers; Mohammed had more followers. It is the quality of the followers of Jesus that wakes our wonder.
They are drawn from ''the winds and the sea'"'
— from the sphere of wayward forces.
Both Buddha and Mohammed dwelt in a stagnant atmosphere. They stood, not by the brink of the sea, but by the side of a dead pool. They heard no sound of waves, they listened to no murmur of the storm; theirs was a rod of empire over minds only half awake.
But the mission of Jesus was a mission by the sea. His was a message delivered in front of the winds. He spoke to minds which were already on the wing — instinct with new life and separate life. Europe had come over into Asia, and the pulse of Asia had been quickened. Men had ceased to be uniform; they had begun to think independently. Opposite
tastes had risen; opposing schools were rising.
And yet this complex world agreed on Jesus.
He took representatives from every school. He conquered men amid their varieties. He did not first ask them to give up their varieties. He took them into the ark as they were — of every kind.
He did not ask them to be of one nature. He let them keep their separate tastes, their different likings. He allowed the winds to blow as before, the sea to wave as before. He required but one article of agreement — obedience to Himself. No wonder the men of Galilee marvelled!
O Lord Jesus Christ, Thine has been the empire of the West — an empire over the winds and the sea! Other masters have ruled the Eastern mind; they have wielded the sceptre over sleeping souls and passionless hearts. But Thou hast reigned where passion reigns. Thy flag has waved amid the tempests of the spirit. Thou hast been most adored just where the pulses of life beat strongest. Thine is not the sway over a bruised and broken humanity. Thine is not the dominion over a valley and shadow of death.
Thy kingdom has not only the power but the glory. Thy subjects are free souls, living hearts.
Thou art king, not where Buddha is king — amid the tombstones, not where Mohammed is king
— amid the grave-clothes, but where the streams flow, where the rivers run, where the torrents sweep, where the breezes dance and play. Thy people are willing in the day of Thy power; the winds and the sea obey Thee.
Rests by the River
The Spiritual in the Earthly "Supposing Him to be the gardener."'
John 20:15
We often mistake Christ for the gardener — attribute to mere physical beauty what comes from faith alone. We speak of the glories of Nature; most of its glories belong to man. We find a sense of infinitude in the breath of the new-mown hay; yet, truly, it is not in that, but in thee. It has been said: ''Thou weavest for God the garment by which thou seest Him''; more justly might the words be spoken of Nature. Her song is the echo of thy song. She answers in refrain to thee — to thy sorrows and to thy joys.
Often have men exhorted thee to follow the teachings of Nature, and to look on the things beyond as an idle dream. Nay, but thy vision of Nature depends on thy vision of grace.
In vain shalt thou seek in the flower the grace which is not in thy soul. It is from the things beyond the earth that earthly beauty flows. The voice which thou hearest in the garden is the voice of the Lord. That which uplifts thee in the flower is just what the gardener has not planted.
It is the life below the stem, the mystery beneath the root. It is the sense of a presence which has escaped the eye, of a power which has eluded the botanist. It is the feeling that the gardener has planted something which he has not seen — a seed from the life eternal, a blossom from the breast of God.
Oh, Thou, whose Easter morning shines in many disguises, help me to recognize Thee everywhere. Let me not ascribe to the gardener the work that is done by Thee. I often speak of the noble lives led by men who do not know
Thee; teach me that Thou knowest them. Tell me that Thy presence is wider than our creed,
Thy temple bigger than our sanctuary, Thy love larger than our law. Convince me that Thou enfoldest that which does not enfold Thee. Let me learn that Thou art the one ''excellent name in all the earth''. Men call their excellent things by other names; they take Thee to be the gardener. Hasten the time when they shall take the gardener to be Thee; they shall be nearer to the truth of things. Hasten the time when "'in the flesh they shall see God'' — see Him in the forms of earth, see Him in the duties of the hour, see
Him in the paths of life, see Him in the progress of the day. Make Thyself known to them in the breaking of the earthly bread; in the planting of the earthly flower let them gaze on Thee.
Searchings in the Silence