relation to us, we dare not let them be primary. Relief from solitariness may come to us more directly by our gaining a sense of the larger environment that belongs to us. We do not drift into that wider sense, though we may not realize how we do come to it. Robert Louis Stevenson tells how he came to it, changing his life from idleness and self-concern to service: "I remember a time when I was very idle and lived and profited by that humor. I have no idea why I ceased to be so; yet I scarce believe I have the power to return to it; it is change of age. I made consciously a thousand little efforts, but the determination from which these arose came while I slept and in the way of growth. I have had a thousand skirmishes to keep myself at work on particular mornings, and sometimes the affair was hot; but of that great change of campaign, which decided all this part of my life and turned me from one whose business was to shirk into one whose business was to strive and persevere, it seems to me as though all had been done by some one else. I was never conscious of a struggle, nor registered a vow, nor seemingly had anything personally to do with the matter. I came about like a well handled ship. There stood at the wheel that unknown steersman whom we call God." In a letter to his father during a hard and wandering time in Paris, sitting in a café, he wrote of his deepening interest in religion, though altogether as a matter of this world. Much had baffled him: "I am lonely and sick and out of heart. Well, I still hope, I still believe, I still see the good in the inch and cling to it. It is not much perhaps, but it is always something. There is a fine text in the Bible, I don't know where, to the effect that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord." (Rom. 8: 28.) "Strange as it may seem to you, everything has been, in one way and another, bringing me a little nearer to what I think you would like me to be. 'Tis a strange world, indeed, but there is a manifest God for those who care to look for Him." (Life of Stevenson by Balfour, pp. 87, 138.)

So solitariness becomes God's working time in our souls. It does, if we let ourselves grow into a stronger sense of God as the great fact in life. He may not put the materials for gladness in our visible surroundings, but he can put gladness in our hearts, more than men have when their grain and their new wine are increased (4:7). The old

monk declined to receive the apologies of those who had seemed to neglect him, saying, "I have not missed you; I have had God." We do not come to that very early in our experience, but we learn to endure solitariness if we must, because God breaks in on it for us. Only, when he does break in, he inclines us the more to our fellows and the service which our lives can render them.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER THOUGHT AND STUDY

How much of this mood may be temperamental? In so far as it is so, how far is one responsible for it? What program of correction is possible in such a case?

Make clear how subversive of the social life the solitary mood is. In the cases which you know, does the fault lie with the individual, or with the social conditions under which he lives? Suggest the kind of traits that tend to cut one off from social groups. Why do college societies entirely leave out some students?

CHAPTER III

The Personal Mood

DAILY READINGS

Third Week, First Day

Jehovah is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?

Jehovah is the strength of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh,

Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though a host should encamp against me,

My heart shall not fear:

Though war should rise against me,

Even then will I be confident.

One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of

my life,

To behold the beauty of Jehovah,

And to inquire in his temple.

For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion:

In the covert of his tabernacle will he hide me;
He will lift me up upon a rock.

-Psalm 27: 1-5.

Here the personal mood results in utter fearlessness. There is no hint of desire that trouble may not come upon us, but only confidence as to the feeling we shall have if it does come. It will not break us down. That might be mere bravado or recklessness, which is cheap and poor. But here it is neither of those things. It is an assurance based not merely on what God can do for us, but on what he is doing in us. In life tasks we come to a sense of security as to the

future because we feel we are prepared for whatever may come; why not in life itself? An experienced engineer is not afraid of tomorrow's problems; an experienced teacher does not tremble before tomorrow's questions in the classroom; a trained nurse is not fearful about the next case. Why should not a man come to the position of utter fearlessness about the reaction he will make on whatever comes to him in the future? If he knows that God is working in his life, can he not feel that his resources are unlimited?

Third Week, Second Day

Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;

He leadeth me beside still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

Thou hast anointed my head with oil;

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life;

And I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah for ever.

-Psalm 23.

This best known psalm in the collection has sometimes been called the nightingale psalm. Dr. van Dyke thinks it is more like the song of a skylark, because it is sung not in the night but out in the blaze of day. Here the mood is strongly personal-no plural pronouns. It brings contentment, but without a hint of strenuousness. Enemies are mentioned, but the writer sees himself eating his daily meal in their presence; not snatching it like soldiers pursued and half famished, but with his table spread while they looked on! The valley of the shadow of death comes to his mind, but he sees himself walking through it fearlessly. Such things are only a foil for his courage. He is in stronger hands than those of his enemies. Under this same shepherd

figure Jesus sounded the same note of perfect confidence when he said (John 10:27-29) that no one is able to snatch out of his own hand and the hand of his Father those who are committed to him. There is a legitimate personal mood which demands action, but there is also a phase of the mood which is almost passive, as it seems to be here. A shepherd asks only docile following and when we are thinking of God as shepherd we think of ourselves as called to follow and trust him for the outcome. That is only one phase of the fact. Today let us try that phase of it.

Third Week, Third Day

Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed thereto according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I sought thee:

Oh let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I laid up in my heart,
That I might not sin against thee.

Blessed art thou, O Jehovah:

Teach me thy statutes.

With my lips have I declared

All the ordinances of thy mouth.

I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies,
As much as in all riches.

I will meditate on thy precepts,
And have respect unto thy ways.
I will delight myself in thy statutes:
I will not forget thy word.

-Psalm 119: 9-16.

Now the mood becomes more assertive. Our own wills get active. We become confident, not merely because of what God will do for us and in us, but because of what we will

do ourselves by the grace he gives us. A cleansed way is not found in a dream by most of us.

The element of the strenuous enters in. Paul urged young Timothy (II Tim. 2:15) to give diligence to show himself the man he ought to be. We have found that there is no upward drift in life. If we are to have the right to assert ourselves in the presence of the demands of the world, we must earn it. Only whole-hearted men know the safe personal mood. Halfhearted men always sound hollow notes when they talk of courage.