Chapter VI. External Conduct

1 hinted in the last chapter that one reason why we felt ourselves hindered by some secret obstacles was that we had neglected our external conduct, and had not been careful to apply the principles of-, the spiritual life to our intercourse with others. It is to be wished we could always remember the importance of this. But there is a more especial necessity for us to bear it scrupulously in mind in the earlier stages of the devout life. For a beginner has great temptations to esteem very lightly his external conduct. He has recently been learning for the first time the importance of pure intention, habitual recollection, and the supremacy of an interior life. Moderation is difficult to human nature; and what is novel never gives fair play to what is old and familiar. Hence, though no one would dare to put it into words, a beginner filled with the true but to him fresh thought that the interior life is far superior to the exterior, thinks the latter positively worthless, or even regards it as a temptation. The esteem of the one unfortunately breeds in him a disesteem of the other, especially as a person who has only recently begun to be thoroughly religious is always very much troubled with an inclination to entertain contemptuous feelings about persons and things. Contempt is the most universal temptation of beginnings. To be a man m* one idea is an easy thing, and there is a look of chivalry about it which helps the delusion. When a beginner preaches a crusade against anything, we may always suspect delusion. The spirit of a reformer is the contradictory of the ascetical spirit. A crusade against ourselves may be well enough, though better not even that, until we have learned to subdue ourselves. But te attack other men's faults is to do the devil's work for him; to do God's work is to attack our own.

How different is the wisdom of St. Ignatius! When we practise particular examen of conscience, he would have us choose for the first object of our holy persecution, not the fault which troubles us most or seems of the greatest magnitude, but the one which most anno}'S our neighbour and gives him disedification. This must be our model.

Now let us think how it is that beginners, for I may almost say we are but beginners in spirituality, though what may be technically called our beginnings are past, — how it is for the most part that they offend those around them and bring devotion into discredit and disrepute. I would not be harsh, as the world is, in speaking of these faults, for with what difficulties are they not surrounded, what enormous allowances are they not privileged to claim, and what an immense thing it is that they should thus be working heart and soul for God at all! Besides which it is the old leaven of the world to which they belonged, not their new principles, which are to blame for what is ungraceful or amiss in their behaviour.

They offend then by indiscretion, not observing the proprieties of time, place, age, person and circumstances; by inconsistency, because their conduct must appear such to those who cannot discern in t,hen> *lw> iutero^ tw which they arc waging; by irritability, far less probably than what the most unkindly critic would forgive if he saw the inward soreness and the weariness of spirit which strife and temptation cause; by singularity, because it -Is not easy for a man at once to take up with a new set of painciples and always apply them correctly and gracefully to the claims of conflicting duties; and finally by what is in truth no fault of his, but scandal taken rather than given, because the maxims of the Gospel are so rudely ancongenial with the maxims of the world.

We must therefore persuade ourselves that it is very important to our spiritual progress and interior holiness that we should take great pains in our intercourse with others, in order that we may be to them the good odour of Christ. Negligence on this point is the reason why many fail in their attempts after perfection; and while they are looking within for the cause of their ill-success, the true reason of it is to be found all the while in their external conduct.

Now there is a wrong as well as a right in every spiritual question. There is a wrong way of trying to edify people, as well as a right one; and we will consider the wrong one first. We must never attempt to edify others by any sacrifice of principle, to show, for example, how free we are from bigotry, or how independent of forms and ceremonies, or what liberty of spirit we have regarding the observance of certain positive precepts. This is only saying that we must not do evil that good may come. Yet there is no slight temptation to a man, especially if he has a little fit of unusual discretion upon him, to show others at some expense of strict principle that our holy religion is not so harsh and cruel as it seems to be to the votaries of the world. The attempt moreover is always as unsuccessful as it is wrong.

We must never do anything in order to edify others, for the express purpose of edifying, which we should not have done except to edify them, and in the doing of which the motive of edification is supreme, if not solitary. Edification must never be our first thought. The evangelical rule is to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. We must take great pains not to disedifyj but it would be very dangerous to take great pains to edify. The two things are very different, although they are often confounded: and you will not unfrequently meet with souls whom self-love has so gnawed and corrupted that their perfect restoration would be little less than a miracle, and the mischief of which is to be traced to a wrong theory of the duty of giving edification. Look out to God, love His glory, hate yourself, and be simple, and you will shine, fortunately without knowing it, or thinking of it, with a Christlike splendour wherever you go, and whatever you do.

We must not make unseasonable allusions to religion, or irritate by misplaced solemnity. An inward aspiration or momentary elevation of the soul to God, will often do more, even for others, than the bearing of an open testimony, which principle does not require, and at which offence will almost inevitably be taken. There is a silence which edifies without angering; though I admit that the practice of it is far from easy. Probably we practise it most successfully when we realize it least, but act out of a heart which is in union with God. A man is annoyed with sacred things when they are unseasonably forced npon him; and thus even a well-meaning importunity may be a source of sin.

But if a wrong theory of edification, not only causes us to make many false steps in our external conduct, but also injures and sometimes positively devastates cur souls, what shall be said of a wrong theory of fraternal correction? 0 how much scandal and disedification to others, how much overweening self-importance to themselves, has resulted from men holding a wrong theory about this most difficult of duties and most obscure of obligations! We must bear in mind that there are very few, who, by standing or advancement, are in any way called upon to correct their brethren, fewer still who are competent to do it sweetly and wisely, and none whose holiness is not tried to the uttermost by its perfect discharge. While, on the other hand, those who have rashly assumed to themselves this delicate responsibility have not only sinned themselves by disobedience, disrespect, conceit, bitterness, assumption and exaggeration, but have caused sin in others, and made the things of God an offence to them, and a stumbling-block in their road. Hence, before we attempt fraternal correction, we should be quite sure that we have a vocation to it, and we should have made quite sure of it by the judgment of others as well as our own j and when we are clear of the vocation, we must still preface our correction with prayer and deliberation. It may be added, that to correct our brother for the sake of edifying a third person, is a practice which can hardly ever fail of producing unpleasant consequences: and it can only be said not to injure our humility, because it is rather a proof that we have no humility to injure. In the present stage of the spiritual life, then, little more need be said 8 of the obligation of fraternal correction than that it exists. Further on, God will charge us with it, and we shall know how to use it. Should it by chance become a duty now only let us fear it and think twice, and He will help us if the rest.

These, then, are ways in which we must beware 0/ trying to edify our neighbour. Let us now see how w •■■ ought to edify him. This must be in two ways: by ths mortification of Jesus, and by the sweetness of Jesus. And first, by the mortification of Jesus. Silence under unjust rebukes, abstinence from rash and peremptory judgments, and not standing out in an ill-natured and pedantic way for our rights, obliging others unselfishly and with pains and trouble to ourselves, and not exaggerating in an obstinate and foolish manner unessential points where all men have a right to their liberty; these are the ways by which we should practise the mortification of Jesus in our intercourse with others; and inde pendent of the edification we shall give thereby, the amount of interior perfection which we shall attain by these practices is beyond all calculation. For there is hardly a corrupt inclination, a secret pride, or a fold of self-love which they will not search and purify.

But we must also edify others by the sweetness of Jesus. A soft answer turneth away wrath, saith Scripture. Kind and gentle words, such as those of our dear Lord, are an apostolate in themselves. Whereas clever sharp words, such as we have often a strict right to use, are continually doing the devil's work for him, and damaging the souls of others, while they are inflicting no slight wounds upon our own. Our manner, too, must be full of unction, and be of itself a means to attract men fco us, and make them love the spirit which animates us. Coldness, absence of interest, an assumption of superiority for some unexpressed reasons, or even an obviousness of condescension, are not unfrequentlj to be found in pious persons. They have not yet mastered the spirit that is in them so as to use it gracefully, or they do not appreciate the delicacy and universality of its tenderness. They have not a true picture of Jesus in their minds; and thus they can hardly exhibit Him at all in their outward conduct. Our very looks must be brought into subjection to grace. The more earnestly we are striving to form Jesus in our hearts, the more will His sweetness transpire through our features without our knowing it. Except in times of great physical pain, and that does not always prevent it, the inward peace and harmony of the soul reflect themselves discernibly upon the countenance. It has been observed that in the Gospel of St. Mark, written at the dictation of St. Peter, there are frequent allusions to our Lord's look and gestures; and the story of the young man who had not the heart to give up his money, and St. Peter's own conversion, show what the sweetness of our Saviour's look could do. This sweetness is also practised when we praise all the good we can detect in others, even where it is mingled with what is not so. A man who praises freely, yet not extravagantly, is always influential in conversation, and can use his influence for the cause of God. A critical spirit, on the contrary; amuses by its smartness, or frightens by its malignity, but it neither softens, attracts, persuades, or rules. The practice of putting favourable interpretations upon dubious actions is another exercise of this Christ-like sweetness. They must not bo forced or unnatural, much less must they excuse positive sin; but short of this, there is ample scope for this kindly practice; and you will never practise it without having done some missionary work for the glory of God, although you know it not. We must also beware of looks, manner, and especially of a certain silence, by which we make others feel that we are inwardly censuring them. Nothing is more irritating than this. When sin makes the saints silent, there is a sorrowful sweetness in their silence, as if they were grieving for the offender's sake, and were striving to love him in spite of his sin. This censorious silence, so little like the sweetness of Jesus, causes others to bristle up and put themselves inwardly in an attitude of defence, and so it drives out the little grace that was actually in them, and hardens their hearts against the admission of more. Such a silence is in fact the most pointed fraternal correction, and no one has a right to exercise it who has not ascertained his right according to the methods already stated, to correct his brother. And even then, it is the most dangerous way of discharging a most dangerous obligation.

It belongs also to the sweetness of Jesus, that we should not allow our piety or devotion to be inconvenient to others. When St. Jane Frances first put herself under the direction of St. Francis of Sales, her servants used to say that Madame's old director made her pray once or twice a day, and all the world was incommoded by it, but her new director makes her pray all day long, and yet no one is inconvenienced. A little management surely would be sufficient to contrive that neither communions nor prayers should disturb the least family arrangement, 01 exact one tittle of self-denial from others. Not that thev should grudge it, unhappy souls! but that it belougs to the sweetness of the spiritual life that we should not ask it.

Thus it is that our intercourse with others should at once sanctify ourselves and edify them by the double exercise of the mortification and sweetness of Jesus. But it must have occurred to us that at this stage of our career, our intercourse with others resolves itself mainly into government of the tongue. I do not know which of these two things is the most astonishing, the -unexpected importance of the place assigned to this duty in Holy Scripture, or the utter unconcern which even good men often feel about it. Unless a man takes the Concordance, and looks out in the Bible all the passages which have reference to this subject, from Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus to St. James, he will have no idea of the amount of teaching which it contains on this head, nor the actual quantity of that single volume which it engrosses. Still less will he realize the strength of what inspiration teaches. It is not consistent with the brevity at which I am aiming to enter at length into the subject. It is enough to suggest to each one this single question, Is the amount of scrupulous attention which I am paying to the government of my tongue at all proportioned to that tremendous truth revealed through St. James, that if I do not bridle my tongue, all my religion is in vain? The answer can hardly fail to be both frightening and humbling.

But how is this government of the tongue to be practised? The very detailing of the evils will, impliedly at least, suggest the redemies. Listen to an hour of conversation in any Christian company. How much of it turns, almost of necessity as it would seem, on the action?

a* and characters of others! The meaning of judging others appears to be this: the judgment-seat of our Divine Lord is as it were already set up on the earth. But it is empty. It is waiting for Him. We, meanwhile, unmannerly and unbidden, keep ascending the steps, enthroning ourselves upon His seat, and anticipating and mimicking His judgment of our brethren. To put it in this way brings home to us the wretchedness of what we are doing. It will also surely assist us in endeavouring to cleanse our conversation of so much unnecessary canvassing of the motives and actions of others. Yet for the most part we have gone far along our road in devotion and done ourselves many an irreparable mischief, before we bestow half the carefulness on the government of our tongue, which it not only deserves, but imperiously requires

The first effect off spirituality on our minds is to sharpen our critical turn. We have new measures to measure with and new light to see by, and the characters of our neighbours get the disadvantage of our fresh powers of observation. Make this the subject of your particular examen, and you will be surprised to find how numerous are your falls. Indeed it is difficult to exaggerate either the facility, the multitude, or the fatal effects of the sin which all this talking about others leads to, even with the best and kindliest of intentions. At the end of our examen, our resolutions on the subject must be very minute, and our falls must be visited, quietly but determinedly, with some voluntary punishment each time.

It would be impossible to speak of all the ways in which the attention of spiritual persons at this stage

Bhould be turned upon their external conduct. As I have said, self-introversion is full of dangers, and even the amount of inward attention to self which is necessary is full of dangers. Besides, a beginner cannot possibly, even if it were desirable, occupy himself wholly with the interior life, unless by an unusual attraction of the Holy Ghost. The very attempt would make him morbid, unreasonable, and unhappy. In most cases therefore it were much to be desired that persons in the early stages of the spiritual life should have some external religious work to do, in order that they be at once busied for God and called off from such a self-inspection as might by its excess end in some spiritual disease, and perhaps bodily ailment as well.

All persons, for instance, can make much more of their worldly calling than they have done hitherto by putting a supernatural intention into it. They can join confraternities, provided they do not allow themselves to be overloaded with vocal prayers. Most men can give alms; but to turn their alms to the temporal necessities of others into alms to their own spiritual necessities as well, they must give till they feel the giving, till it touches, nips, hurts. Without this, where is the sacrifice? Many also can give time, talent and pains themselves to the works of mercy, which their pastors or others set on foot around them. Time and pains are worth as much as money to the objects of your charity • they are worth ten times as much considered as spiritual blessings to yourself. But, do not be in a hurry, and do not act without counsel; but allow yourself to be guided to some good work, in which you can take an abiding interest, and which will suit your spirit, means, and inclination.

It is surely an obvious mistake for persons to start on a spiritual course as if they were going to be hermits It is to confound an interior with a solitary life. Theif fight is to be in the world's common ways, and theif business with its engrossing and multifarious interests, and their trials are to be in no slight measure from their fellow-men. They must therefore make allowance and arrangements for all this. It must enter into their calculations. It must influence thsir decisions. True it is that at the moment of conversion as in the state of contemplation, we realize nothing but God and our own soul. It is a blessed gift this singleness of vision, blessed at its own time and in its own place. It is one of our beginnings which is so like our endings. But it is not to be our ordinary or normal state of things.

Yet how many there are who make this mistake! They are beginning a devout life. They are determined to be all for God, and they project a plan or system for their future spiritual life. They legislate for mental prayer, for examen of conscience, for confession and communion, for particular devotions, and for mortifications. Everything is laid out with the greatest accuracy, the estimate accepted, the plans approved. Yet no mention of their intercourse with others, or their duties towards others, or mercy for others finds a place! As if this were either not to be at all, or were to have no connection with the spiritual life, or were so easy and obvious to arrange as not to be worth forethought! This must surely be a mistake, and its influence cannot but be widely and enduringly felt in our future course. What is all very well for Camaldoli can hardly be the thing for Change or Piccadilly.

I would even venture to recommend something to give the mind a more decidedly external direction at this period of the spiritual life. For, to tell men so soon as this to throw themselves out of themselves upon God as the object of faith and love, would not only be unpractical, because premature, but would lead probably to a want of proper self-government and so to delusions. I would recommend that our favourite devotion should be prayers for the conversion of sinners, with oblations, reparations, communions, and the like, all turned iu that direction. God is always working with unusual energy in some portion of the Church, and is waiting there ready with an uncommon profusion of graces, until we co-operate with Him by our intercessions. Devotion to the conversion of sinners, when and where God pleases, is full of the thought of God, and falls in with all thi fundamental ideas upon which our own interior life is organized. Hence, to take but a selfish view of the matter, its appropriateness at this period of the spiritual life.

Nevertheless, if a man feels no attraction to this devotion, he need not be cast down as if he lacked something indispensable to a spiritual life. Such a zeal is so desirable that men have been led into disheartening exaggerations about it. But I remember that Da Ponte in his Spiritual Guide says that, while in the highest states of perfection such a zeal is always found, nevertheless there are very good people whose memory of their own sins is so vivid, and their timid vigilance about their own souls so engrossing, that they are utterly without zeal for the souls of others. And Richard of St. Victor, in his Preparation for Contemplation, states that, the case is

H EXTERNAL CONDUCT.

not an infrequent one of souls poor in spirit, rejoicing in hope, fervent in charity, and eminent in works of sanctity, who yet are quite tepid and almost lazy (valde tepidse ac desides) in their zeal for souls. This doctrine will serve for some of us as a weapon against discouragement, and for others as a caution against temerarious judgments. Both Richard of St. Victor and Da Ponte belong to the unexaggerating school of spiritual writers.