SPIRITUAL VOICES IN MODERN LITERATURE SPIRITUAL VOICES IN MODERN LITERATURE BT TREVOR H. DAVIES, D. D. HODDER STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON COPYKIGHT, 1919, BY GEOKGE H. DORAN COMPANY TO THE MEMBERS OF THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH, TORONTO, CANADA, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A VERY GENEROUS SYMPATHY AND A MOST HAPPY FELLOWSHIP PREFACE The lectures included in this volume were delivered in the Metropolitan Church, Toronto, in the winter of 1918-19, and are now published in response to the request of many who heard them. My object in adopting the Series was to find modern illustrations of some of the great truths to which the Church stands committed. The difficulty consisted in making a selection out of the many influential voices which witness to the yearning of men, and to the Divine response in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian Faith and the Christian Ethic might be reconstructed from the prophetic teachers of the nineteenth century, some proclaiming one and some another aspect of the full-orbed truth. It is a far cry from Hawthorne to James Smetham, from Ibsen to Francis Thompson, and yet each, after his own genius, gave utterance to an au thentic Christian truth. There are few more re vli viii atfxkable facts in biographical literature than that Lord Morley should have written, with such rever ence and insight the Life of Gladstone, a life in nothing more distinguished than in its luminous religious certainties and character. This was the viewpoint of the ten lectures. The theme and the aim were fixed. I was not attempting essays in literature, but the enforce ment of Christian truth, I have, however, used my utmost care to avoid imputing my own con victions to others, andhave striven to frankly present the exposition of the truth as it was con ceived and portrayed by the selected author, The lectures were written after they had been publicly delivered, In the midst of the duties of a city pastorate, and without opportunity for that further revision which, in presenting them to a larger public, I so much desire had been possible. I am greatly indebted to my friend. Professor J. H. Michael, M. A., for his careful reading of the lectures in proof. TKEVOE H. DAVIES. CONTENTS PAG1 FRANCIS THOMPSON THE HOUND OF HEAVEN An Epic of the Love that Will not Let Us Go 13 II IBSEN PEER G-YNT The Ignominy of Half-heartedness 41 m JOHN BUSKIN THE SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHI TECTURE A Proclamation of The Laws of Life 73 IV TENNYSON Iff MEMORIAM A Poets Plea for Faith 101 V THE LETTEBS OF JAMES SMETHAM The Use of Imagination in Religion 131 VI WORDSWOKTH ODE TO DUTY Freedom and Restraint 165 ix CONTENTS MOKLEY LiFE OF GLADSTONE The Creative Power of the Christian Faith 195 vm BOBBBT BEOWNIKG SAUL The Hearts Cry for Jesus Christ ....... 227 IX NATHANIEL HAWTHOBNE THE SCAHLET LET The Fact of Sin ..................... .... . 255 X MASEFIELB THE EVERLASTING MEBCY The Fact of Conversion ........ ...... .. . 285 FRANCIS THOMPSON THE HOUND OF HEAVEN An Epic of the. Love That Witt Not Let Us Go FRANCIS THOMPSON THEHOUNB OF HEAVEN AN EPIC OF THE LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET US GO Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 3 PSALM cxxxix. 7-12. What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it ST. LUKE xv. 4...