W VALUE OF RESTRICTION

too soon or too easily. The higher f aith is nurtured in the creed which becomes ultimately outwoTiL We cannot, without exceptional risk, be disobedient to the law of the '* ftdness of time." Tbere is as much profound treachery in not waiting, as there is in not answering when the time arrives. Patience is the condition of our being " perfect and entire." But every restric* ti<m is a means to liberty. Every limit implies a bejfond ; and the Beyond is not a forbidden land (me moment af ter the potential possess&r is ready to take possession. It is a natural inheritance which only waits our comiiig of âge. Faithfnlness under restraint is not only the credential, but, as it were, also the mechanism, whereby entrance into the wider lif e is ministe]?ed unto us. It is because, according to Carpenter's teacbing» the deepening of personal life brings us to consdousness within wider and wider unities^ that the expérience of deliverance — illustrated and foreshadowed by what has just be^i said— is a peculiar and conspicuous characteristic of it

It is the inner voice of the Life Universal that waits within, knoddng at the interior door of the heart» which cries :

O child of mine !

See 1 You are in prison, and I can give you space ;

You are choked down bdow there, by the duat of your own raising, and I can give you the pure intoxicating air of the mountains to breathe ;

SELFCONSCIOUSNESS A LIMITATION 267

I can make you a king^ and show yon ail the lands of the earth; And ârom yourself to yourself I can deliver you.^

Self-consdousness itself is a restriction; it anses at the surface-planés which are the faces and sides of the jutting peaks of separated individuality. In the common practice of life its restrictive effect is constantly reaUzed. Not only does it aUenate us from, and oppose us to, each other, creatmg those misunderstandmgs and misinterpretations which Love only can dispel and correct ; but, as far as it intrudes with any intensity, it lowers the quaUty of good work, makes the highest kind of work impossible, and in some cases is almost pathological in character, acts Uke an affliction cutting its victims ofî from the Society of their fellows and making them painfully inefïective. Awkward, shy, always at a disadvantage, without sensé of humour, ever imagining themselves observed or worrying over their appearance bef ore others, thèse uni ortunate people hve in the prison-house of self-consciousness the walls of which are lined with imtrue and distorting mirrors. Such abnormal cases exhibit in extrême form the restrictions and limitations which self-consciousness imposes. Thèse latter indubitably serve a valuable purpose in the development of the latencies of personality, but there is no finality about them, they exist to be transcended. There can be but little doubt

S58 THE REDEEMER

that the gieat world-stories of the Saviours and Messiabs, of Cinderella and the Sleq>ing Beauty, and the like» dérive from the unconsdous instinct of the sonl that it is somehow embondaged within the mortal condition, and waits deliverance therefrom.

This figure of the Redeemer fills a prominent place, as we hâve seen, in Carpenter's teaching ; it is the Master, the Prince of Love ; imder which names he refers to the Great Self which is the tnie Self of each, the Inward Kingdom, the deeper

»i ic»[i idU-.'N;

of the Master" is the true ddiverance; there is really no other; ail apparent defiverances are simiUtudes of this; ail partial defiverances hint at the completeness of this.

O love, love, love,

Attfayleet,

By tiiy side,

My hand if only restmg in tiiine ;

See; I am so little. I ask so little —

If tiKra wilt ODly take tfais little overflowing cup

Into tiiy great oœan.^

To descend into détail — there are three things from which, chief est of ail, men seek deliverance : they are Fear, Care, EviL An appeal may be roade hère to common expérience, for f uU-grown men are actually deUvered from some of the f ears