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Chapter 7

Lessons on Lessening and Growing

There is no doubt that L.M. Montgomery is a very gifted writer, and that not only because of the great delight so many in many lands find in her domestic, rural, insightful oversights of so much in Prince Edward Island, in its phase of great rusticity and beauty. She also knows how to recall and create large amounts of inter-personal relationships of amusing, instructive and poignant character and has an extreme sensitivity to the life in the private recesses of the hearts of many.

However, there seems to be a tendency, apparent in Anne of Ingleside, to move from the spirituality of some, such as the soft-hearted, stringently strict Marilla, and the buffoonery of some religious exactionists, a pet target, into the realm of  'love' as the answer to childish misunderstandings in the young, to careless errors in those older and to questions of conduct on many sides. A good fault ? undoubtedly, and if it were love as biblically defined that was in view, it would be faultless.

However, when a child is wondering how to come near to God and to avoid misunderstandings and to deal rightly, love again is the answer in the sense of goodwill, good intention and self-control; but it is so diffuse that almost anything goes ... within social care and parental contrivance.

Again, this certainly has its points; but in the context of this particular book, there seems almost  to be someone ghost-writing historical tendencies and movements, through her characters and their conversation. This movement ? It starts with being anti-callow constraint, against empty conformity without understanding, moving to love as an essence. It next moves to de-essentialising love until it becomes almost a synonym for valuing everyone and being sensitive to their needs, emotional and other, and being practical about avoiding troubles that harm. Again, in principle there is quite an assimilation of biblical depiction; but there is also a highly significant loss.

Diffused through this 'ideal family', in this book almost the situation presented, there is to be sure,  a certain number of things to be done, not to be done, and it is not as if there are no rules, or morals; but these flow from a central base with a certain ease. Of divine Commandments, there is almost nothing to be seen, or if seen, to be seen as such.

Now when one is sensitive, and caring, and aware, and  concerned for people's welfare, and thoughtful and has considerable understanding, the case is by no means bad! In some ways, and to many now, this might seem positively ideal. It is just that it tends at least in explicit or operational manner, to leave out God, who made us, and allows us to use a word in the Bible, 'love', to define the whole duty of man.

This love, asks one, is it not the very first commandment ?  and is not the second commandment to love your neighbour as yourself ? To be sure, it is; and if we had all invented ourselves, our race, our world and our history, and it were entirely our product and responsibility and care, with no one other, so that it happened one day, when nothing had a spell and thought it would become something, just to spite logic, which of course would not be there either in that case: if this were so, then there might be much to be said for such an attitude.

However, it is not so; for we neither invented ourselves, constructed our world, instituted our universe or manufactured the souls,  minds, spirits, logic and understanding which makes man an entrepreneur over matter, and an activist with mind.

What is left out in this part of 'love' is the love of the living GOD, who is not an idea, or an aspect, but the total institutor by means of creation, from His eternal power (if ever there were nothing, there would be just that always: there is not, so there was never nothing), of all that is. Moreover He had always to be ADEQUATE for the whole family of cosmoi, areas of functional felicity, AND their conjunction and adjunctive correlation as in man. As dependent on nothing, author of the delimited creation, He has to have had it all, since nowhere else was there for derivation of more wisdom or power. If it was not His, it did not exist. If His were limited, His post is not that of godhead, but a confusion demi-god, which is irrelevant to our discussion.

What then follows ?

To omit Him from the situation, even if the idea of Him, and the reverence for Him is there,

as if

	mouth He had none (not even in the sense of vocality for the mind of man),
	in desires He were deficient or defective and
	in intentions for all His highly programmed work in matter and bodies, He dithered, as if
	He were daftly suffering from Alzheimer's  disease, which in fact is a degeneration product of one of His inventions amid sinners, which the whole human race has as its category, falling far short of maximal potential and perception, and as if
	He who invented the patience-consuming reality of our kind of time, got lost in His own world and forgot what He wanted of it, felt it did not matter anyway, or desired its hurt, when no lack can be His without being caused by his own 'creator', which merely avoids the issue, making what is then called 'god' not so, but a confusion of identities:

this is picturesque madness.

It neither is nor can be so. The mind of man -  which merges so beautifully with the manufactures of God, enabling understanding, where concepts can elicit concepts implicit in the functional correlatives of His material and mental-spiritual creations - is susceptible to instruction.

The heart of man is available for trust and love, not of a 'great white god' but of the living God whose character and nature is the basis of all.

	WHAT He has to say as to the way to live, of the gaining of knowledge of Himself (let us introduce you to your employer ? no, to your Creator!),
	what He has done as to giving a personal example in the format of deity AS man (cf. SMR), and
	what He has given in sacrificial settlement to redeem those of mankind who DO heed:

 these are topics, wilful ignorance or dismissal of which is rebellion, irrationality, dreaming and devastation.

What in a novel may be inclined to depict trends, in life is where it is, in actuality and in operation or dysfunction, as the case may be.

It is vital to know God, who never changes, lacks or errs, being self-sufficient, dependent on none, eternal, composing but never composed, unlimited by anything and knowing all. Indeed, the cause of the whole universe and the mini-universes of mind, matter and spirit, and their correlation and intimacies reciprocally may be wilfully omitted; and you may,  if adequately blighted, choose fog for your flight.

You may use that brilliantly liberated thing, the human mind, which flies into fog consistently when it misuses that very liberty to ignore its fascinatingly brilliant Creator. All this you may do: but if by delusion or profusion of idols or egotism or egregious solitariness, or any other cause this you do, then this is ignorance beyond all ignorance, restlessness past all wandering, life without the Giver and mind without the mentor, spirit without the source and a spiritual delirium so intense that its end is death, not only physical but more deadly even than this.

God is not impatient.  At times, much passes before the bill is met, by an individual, family, race, nation or humanity as such. But it comes, it comes. Life is owing to Him, who needs nothing and gives all; and without Him its liberty is delusive and its magnificence is marred, fatally (cf. Romans 1:17ff., John 3:17-19,36). Truth is like that. It moves not in flustered hysteria, but surely, step by step, impetus and impact by impact; and the love with which it merges, which is the correct but often superficially interpreted basis, truth's twin if you will, it is not mute. It has its instructions, commandments and exhortations. Parental love is a derivative of this vast, illimitable love of God. It is no mere feeling.  Love, says I Corinthians 13, delights in the truth.

Thus there is in history, and in the L.M. Montgomery setting noted, a certain trend, it seems, towards departure from callow constraints (good), to deep and discerning love (excellent, depending on the excellence or otherwise of the definition of the term 'love', which is correlative to the knowledge - or defective awareness - of that Creator from whom it comes).

Then the trend, with the essence of love in mind, is towards the de-essentialising of love, so that it becomes something less deep, less comprehensive, more served by human constraints and changing ideas. Then comes the next step: it is the overthrow of commandments, starting with their being regarded as a mere necessity for the undiscerning - the mature ? they do not need them.

Really ? who is so 'adult' that he does well to forget his Creator ? Who so wise that he need give no attention to the will, intention, purpose of his life, except such as may occur to him ? Are not these prodigies in danger of becoming so unloving towards GOD (opposite of the first and greatest commandment, which on the contrary, requires love of Him FIRST with ALL the heart, mind,  soul and  strength), that there is a certain deficiency in their lives, as if a car had it all except a steering wheel and a handbook ?

Thus, on the contrary side, callow and superficial constraints, bordering at times on obsessive-compulsion, can indeed overflow and it is well to seek the love of God beyond overpowering duties, often invented by man,  extended by man or manipulated by man for his advantage, one over another. It is well to discard such a concept. It is better still to concentrate on the essence, on love: except that it is not really an  'essence' (of what ? ), but a central aspect of God, who has His lively lessons on living to impart (I John 4:7ff.).

Thus Christ indicated that if one truly loved Him, then quite assuredly one would KEEP His words (John 14:21-23). In fact, if you wanted to find who did not love Him, it is he who does not keep His words. This is scarcely surprising. Even a football captain would expect a little attention to his game plan.

With God, it is not His attitudes only, not His atmosphere alone, held holy and sacred, but His explicit expressions of this thought, He is for it, and not that, He is against it; of this directive and not that , this prohibition and not that.

It is all so intensely legal! one says in objection...

If by being simply told what to do, you mean that a thing is legal, by all means; but Christ being personal has personal preferences, knowledge and desire, expressed in words, showing and teaching the spirit, harnessing the energies and enlightening the mind (cf. Psalm 19). He maintained with strength that ALL the word of God, the law and the prophets, was to be fulfilled to the smallest point (Matthew 5:17-20).

Thus the emphasis against traditions, customs and coercion by culture, including religious culture (as in Mark 7:7ff.) is not by any means the same as an emphasis to disregard His own speech, what God has over time given to man,  to do it. Christ in Mark is contrasting two things: the WORD of God and the WORDS of men. The slighting of the former for the sake of the latter, or the very addition of the latter to the former, all this is a maladjustment of infinity to the finite, of existential authority to social mores, a folly of the uttermost kind. You see this in illustration in Matthew 23.

As to the word of God, the Bible, the emphasis on the spirit of it, is steadfast. It is to be UNDERSTOOD and not merely made into a collection of little laws. Seeing it in principle and interpreting it in depth is quite clearly the objective as to law (Psalm 119, Matthew 13:15ff.); and this is emphatic, for example, in Matthew 12:1-8. There the showbread, intended to display symbolically, Israel before the care and governance of the Lord of light, was used to sustain David physically: but then, this was using a symbol to accomplish what it signified, and concerning one given spiritual oversight, David anointed to be king, it was a proper interpretation, since to adapt a word, man was not made for the law, but the law for man.

This then granted, however, does nothing to make the clean and wholesome, indeed worshipful fear of God dispensable (I Peter 2:17, Hebrews 12-13). In fact, however, love loves the mouth as well as the eye and stature of its object: and the words of the loved One, when He is God, are sacred; and so is the duty clear.

This at once clarifies attitudes and actions and thoughts, and enables one far more readily to see the correct  and right and true way of handling many topics and things, customs and conditions, aspirations and alleged revelations (cf. Revelation 22:18-19, Galatians 1): it is done with a reference, as surely as an airplane flies with reference to its airport, and comes home at night with signals from the same. If it loves, to personify, its port, it will certainly not talk of 'atmosphere' and ignore direction! It flies under direction, not in absolute solipsism! Nor will it invent other airports which clamour to be recognised, but have in fact no standing to the point, at all!

Moreover, this is to acknowledge that there is someone in charge, He who made not only, to pursue the image, airports but the air, and the ground below it! Moreover, while a stiff, but especially a hypocritical attitude, without understanding is as good as a stranded whale on the beach where it does not belong for all its strength, yet a disdainful attitude to Christ's words is the same entirely as just such an attitude to God, putting one's own precious thought on top of his, as if egotism were a sacred rite. It is even worse than mere disobedience; it is rebellion in principle and egotism in spirit. Whether it be co-adjutant concept or idol, chosen to act, or directly one's own wisdom, the presumption is the same in essence.

Accordingly, when Paul says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, it is this in the manner that he says (Romans 10:4), not as it is to be imagined in some way or other. It is the end "FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS": that is, He covers the need of cancellation of indebtedness, having a credit account in heaven which is without blemish or loss. This is a gift (Romans 5:17ff.) through justification by faith, through the redemption and ransom of Christ (Matthew 28:20, Galatians 3, Romans 3:23ff.).

It is not the end of the law, of what God has to say, for ethics and routes to take and avoid. It is the end 'for righteousness'. THAT has its criterion and adequacy ONLY in Christ, for man. That consideration of meeting muster and being adequate and endued with acceptance (Ephesians 1:1-6), it has its end in the mercy of God, in the Man of mercy, in the sacrifice for sin, in Jesus Christ (as in Hebrews 9-10). That finishes with eternal redemption (9:12), through one sacrifice (10:10), everlastingly sufficient, efficient and secure (10:14, John 5:24, Ephesians 1:11), covering the need of man who believes in Him as He is.

It ends moreover what is fulfilled in the law, and all thought such as emerged so hideously and superficially, of trying to justify yourself BY law (against Psalm 32, cf. Romans 10); but it does not obliterate the mouth of God, or the mind of God, His directions, directives or counsels. If a tram ends your need for transport, it does not feed you, deliver you, or shield you from explosion. It is the end for (that kind of) transport, that is all. Let us keep to the rails in this matter!

The emphasis is not on libido of thought and action, self-rule in terms of where your own life, with due admiration for Christ, leads you. Thus in Romans 6, we learn that the reason WHY sin will not have DOMINION over you is this: that you are not under law but under grace. If law were the last word, instead of a way of making the sinfulness of sin exceedingly obvious (as noted in Romans 7), then where is mercy ? Because mercy is fundamental in all God's dealings with man (as in Micah 7:19ff., Psalm 103), therefore this being so and Christ having paid the penalty aspect and providing the power requisite in personal profundity and indwelling beauty of holiness through the Spirit (Romans 8:9,16, Titus 3:3ff.), there are results.

Thus, now if a believer in the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26), then you are in a position to overcome temptation and through such grace, not being yielded to sin but evacuating where caught, to gain liberty from sin's dominion.

What then ? There is love, paramount, pre-eminent, and God is love, just as He is light, and has no part dark (James 1:17); and love rejoices in the truth (I Cor. 13), just as Christ made it perfectly and indeed amazingly clear that He was as Messiah on this earth, subject  to receiving and executing His Father's commandments (John 12:48-50). We receive what He says, not as vassals, but friends (John 15:7,14, James 2:23, I John 1:7ff.), not as legalisers but lovers; and we do it because it is HIS wisdom that we should. Do we like Job at times remonstrate and seek wisdom ? of course. Do we plead with His promises at hand and our concerns of heart for His kingdom and work ? and do we eagerly seek His attention and action ?  of course. What else would we do ? fret, worry, complain!

Thus the entirely lovely emphasis firstly on love, is to be strengthened by the entirely clear emphasis on truth, which love loves; and secondly, on the word of God, in this love, which lovers of the mouth of God and the heart, bear as a sacred privilege to believe, know, do and relish.

In this way, one is strengthened for spiritual service, given vitality for liberty because it does not foolishly yaw to the infinite in its own ludicrous 'right', but instead is given enablement by the Redeemer, who having put peace in place in the heart, puts wisdom in the minds those of His who ask (James 1):  set securely in the trail of life, these find it is He who has made it blessed.

Ecclesiastes puts it with superb strength and poignancy mixed:

                           Then the dust will return to the earth as it was ..."

It is truly great to be beyond the dust of decomposition, in a resurrected body to come (I Corinthians 15:57ff.): where the personality and individuality are enhanced, and fulfilled (Hebrews 12, John 11:25-26), not dimmed and diminished; where the blessed purpose of God is resolved, the cost paid for redemption no more hidden and known to faith, but basic and the very ground of occupancy of heaven; where evil being bared and dismissed, the goodness of God has all beyond test, in triumph of the Saviour, secure, settled and able to see God face to face.