out the problems of the spiritual life, and have reached a satisfactory adjustment of duty and practice, and then find that if the adjustment changes their practice falls off.  The outer circumstances of life change and the change is followed by a readjustment of the inner life on a distinctly lower plane.  It is revealed to us that the outer circumstances were controlling the spiritual practice, and not the practice dominating the circumstances.  The ruling ideal was that of comfort, and under the new circumstances the spiritual ideal is lowered until it fits in with a new possibility of comfort in the altered circumstances.  It is well to examine ourselves on these matters and to find what is the actual ruling motive in our religious practice.

We may have assumed that we have Jesus, when all the assumption meant was that we thought that He was somewhere about.  After all, it will not aid us very much if He is “in the company,” if we go on our day’s journey without Him.  It is a poor assumption to build life upon, that Jesus exists, or that He is in the Church, or that He is the Saviour.  It is nothing to us unless He is our Saviour, unless He is personally present in us and with us.  And it is not wise or safe to let this be a matter of assumption, even though the assumption rest on a perfectly valid experience in the past; we cannot live on history, not even on our own history.  That Jesus is with us must be verified day by day, and we ought to go no day’s journey without the certainty of His presence.  We can best do that, when the circumstances of life permit, by a daily communion.  There at the altar we meet Jesus and know that He is with us.  When the circumstances of life do not permit, (and often they do, when we lazily think they do not) there are other modes of arriving at spiritual certainty.

It is quite easy to lose Jesus.  He does not force His companionship upon us, but rather when we meet Him.  “He makes as though he would go farther.”  He offers Himself to us; He never compels us to receive Him as a guest.  And when we have in fact received Him, and asked Him to abide with us, He does not stay any longer than we want Him.  We have to constrain Him.  In other words, we lose Jesus, we lose the vitality of our spiritual life (though we may retain the routine practice of our religion), if we are not from day to day making it the most vital issue of our lives.  That does not necessarily mean that we are spending more time on it than on anything else, but that we are putting it first in the order of importance in our lives and are sacrificing, if occasion arise, other things to it, rather than it to them.  That a man loves his wife and child does not necessarily mean that he actually spends more time on them than he does on his business, but it does mean that they are more important in his life than his business, and if need arise it will be the business that is sacrificed to them and not they to the business.  Spirituality is much less a matter of time than of energy.  A wise director can guide a man to sanctity who will probably consecrate his Sunday, and give the director one half hour on week days to dispose of.