its it. Now the
tilling of the soil of life is what in all its different forms we call
culture, and the expansion of God's germinating influence is what we
call religion. Some people think that either of these alone is enough
to insure a good crop. Some think that culture makes a man fruitful,
and some think religion is a spontaneous growth; and some even talk of
a conflict between the two. But culture does for a man just what it
does for a field. It deepens the soil and makes it ready, and that is
all. The merely cultivated man is nothing more than a ploughed field
which has not been sown, and when it comes to the proper time of
harvest has a most {199} empty and untimely look. And religion alone
does not often penetrate into the unprepared life. Sometimes, indeed,
it seems to force its way as by a miracle, and take root, as we see a
tree or shrub growing as it seems without any soil in which to cling.
But in the normal way of life the seed of God falls in vain upon a soil
which is not deepened and softened to receive it. It waits for
preparedness of nature, for the obedient will, the awakened mind, the
receptive heart;--and all these forms of self-discipline are
comprehended in any genuine self-culture.

Culture and religion--here they meet in university life. Most of your
time is given to culture. What are you doing? You are enriching and
spading up the soil of life. That is the test of culture. Is it
quickening, deepening, stimulating the mind? Is it opening the
imagination and training the will? Then it is true culture and not
that spurious cultivation which spreads over life gravel instead of
fertilizers. Culture prepares the soil; and then in sacred moments,
perhaps in your worship here, perhaps in the solitude of your own
experience, or perhaps in the busiest moments of your day, God, the
sower, comes, scattering {200} His seeds of suggestion and His minute
influences for good over the heart, and what He needs is a receptive
mind and an awakened heart; the life of man ready for the life of God,
and the descending influences of God finding depth of earth within the
life of man.

{201}

LXXX

THE LORD'S PRAYER, I [1]

_Matthew_ vi. 1-15.

From day to day we gather here and repeat together the Lord's Prayer.
One is tempted sometimes to wonder whether in this daily repetition the
prayer keeps its freshness and reality. I will not say that even if it
becomes a mere form it is useless