Page:Sermon by the Bishop of Rochester 1901.djvu/6

 innocent and instinctive, but easily running to excess; some wrong outright—selfish or mean or base—some of a doubtful sort between the two. But to call these a standard, to find any rule or guidance in them—what a mockery! We can all see that when we think; and that is one good thing which comes of thinking. But how many of us, seniors or juniors, can say that this please-yourself philosophy has not had too much hold upon our life. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. Notice how the Apostle speaks of it—"your former desires in the time of your ignorance." It had been the natural thing for them left to themselves: it was the life a man would lead till he learnt better.

I shall not say more about this to you, brethren, except to ask you to think seriously how many lives are frittered and wasted in this way; how many are drawn hither and thither, scattered, or in the old sense of that word dissipated in this way: while, as the down-grading of that word reminds us, many with "Pleasure at the helm" will steer on to the rocks, or into the whirlpools of real evil. Drift, at first self-indulgent, then, perhaps, becoming selfish or vicious, but at any rate a feeble and enervating thing is the bane of how many lives? Perhaps our time, which presents so much to distract and occupy, makes drifting particularly easy.

Now for the other half of the sentence. A great contrast; for here is the Christian Standard. The real strength of a religion is the height and greatness of its demands. The Greek standard was making the beautiful best of all your faculties: it was not a little true; and how it has held men fascinated! The Buddhist standard was the sacrifice of all desire. It mixed a great truth with a dark falsehood; and it had a more profound and mysterious attraction than the Greek. The Christian standard is the Life of God, and it has unique power to dignify and control and quicken.

Be ye holy for I am holy. All that men call