40 



CONSTANCE L. MATNARD ON 



as the family develops into a nation the boy must go to school; 

 sometimes this may appear to be a step downward, but it is in- 

 evitable. Then we have Sinai and the giving of the Law. Next 

 comes the more silent period of adolescence, when we can begin 

 to explain the reasons that lie behind the commands, and to show 

 the noble purposes we have at heart for our sons ; and these re- 

 monstrances and entreaties are represented by the Prophets. . 



With the vivid pictures of childhood always before us, with 

 the nursery and the schoolroom for ever reminding us of what 

 Ethical Immaturity involves, surely, surely, we need not stumble 

 over the strange stories of the book of Judges and elsewhere. 

 We can admit the misconception that to us at first seems shock- 

 ing, that our God with his heart of love to all mankind was, to 

 begin with, thought of as a tribal deity, with Baal or Dagon 

 (equally real, but evil powers) entering into conflict with Him. 

 We who are fathers and mothers, spiritually if not physically, 

 know how to praise exceedingly imperfect work if it is an advance 

 on the work of the day before. We may call a bit of sewing 



very good," when, judged by our own standard, it is very poor 

 indeed. The father may keep in his pocket a letter from his son 

 at school, and count it a treasure, though it is blotted and mis- 

 spelt, because it is by far the best yet accomplished, and expres- 

 sive of thought and of affection. We need not go very far back, 

 either, to see why the character of Jacob is approved and the 

 deed of Jael praised, for we are still in Ethical Immaturity, 

 though at a later stage. Only one century ago there was slavery. 

 The conscience of mankind was not awaked to this great evil. St. 

 Paul went to stay with Philemon in a house full of slaves, and 

 this indifference went on for eighteen hundred years. The seed 

 was sown — " There is neither bond nor free, for ye are all one 

 in Christ Jesus " — but it lay long dormant. Did God not bless 

 His people while this blot remained upon them? He blessed 

 them abundantly, because He never confuses immaturity with 

 sin. Sin is " to know the better and choose the worse," as St. 

 Paul explains with the utmost clearness of illustration, and it is 

 sin and only sin that meets with condemnation. We too may be 

 blind. To the evils of Drink and the conditions under which 

 Labour exists our eyes are but half opened, and a century hence 

 people will stand in this room and wonder at us. 



When we study these things, we begin to see how beautiful is 

 the Bible, how inspired from end to end — pitiful to our low 

 estate, kind to ignorance and misconception, unflinchingly stern 

 on sin, with a standard that is never lowered. To Abraham 

 God said, ** Walk before Me and be thou perfect," i.e., let your 

 deeds keep pace with your knowledge of Me ; and nothing higher 

 can be aimed at in our Lord's own words, "Be ye therefore 

 perfect, as your Father in lioiven is poi-fv-ct." Xo need for 



