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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11760-0.txt b/11760-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8a547c --- /dev/null +++ b/11760-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5316 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11760 *** + +THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS + +COMPILED BY + +GRENVILLE KLEISER + +Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in +Public," Etc. + +With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other +Theologians + +INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + +Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOLUME X DRUMMOND TO JOWETT + +General Index + +1908 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME X. + + +DRUMMOND (1851--1897). +The Greatest Thing in the World + +WAGNER (Born in 1851). +I Am a Voice + +GORDON (Born in 1853). +Man in the Image of God + +DAWSON (Born in 1854). +Christ Among the Common Things of Life + +SMITH (Born in 1856). +Assurance in God + +GUNSAULUS (Born in 1856). +The Bible vs. Infidelity + +HILLIS (Born in 1858). +God the Unwearied Guide + +JEFFERSON (Born in 1860). +The Reconciliation + +MORGAN (Born in 1863). +The Perfect Ideal of Life + +CADMAN (Born in 1864). +A New Day for Missions + +JOWETT (Born in 1864). +Apostolic Optimism + + +Index to Preachers and Sermons + +Index to Texts + + + + +DRUMMOND + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Henry Drummond, author and evangelist, was born at Stirling, Scotland, +in 1851. His book, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," caused much +discussion and is still widely read. His "Ascent of Man" is regarded +by many as his greatest work. The address reprinted here has appeared +in hundreds of editions, and has been an inspiration to thousands +of peoples all over the world. There is an interesting biography +of Drummond by Professor George Adam Smith, his close friend and +colaborer. He died in 1897. + + + + +DRUMMOND + +1851--1897 + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of James Pott & Co.] + +_Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, +&c._--I Cor. xiii. + + +Everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the +modern world: What is the _summum bonum_--the supreme good? You have +life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object +of desire, the supreme gift to covet? + +We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the +religious world is faith. That great word has been the key-note for +centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look +upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we +have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the +chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and +there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love." It is not an +oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, +"If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not +love, I am nothing." So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts +them, "Now abideth faith, hope, love," and without a moment's +hesitation the decision falls, "The greatest of these is love." + +And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own +strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student +can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his +character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of +these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood. + +Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as +the _summum bonum_. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about +it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." +Above all things. And John goes further, "God is love." And you +remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the +fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In +those days men were working their passage to heaven by keeping the ten +commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they +had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more +simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten +things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will +unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for +yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me." If a man love God, you will not +require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take +not his name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain +if he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he +not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively +to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws +regarding God. And so, if he loved man, you would never think of +telling him to honor his father and mother. He could not do anything +else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only +insult him if you suggested that he should not steal--how could he +steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to +bear false witness against his neighbor. If he loved him it would be +the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him +not to covet what his neighbors had. He would rather that they possest +it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It +is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping +all the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life. + +Now, Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us +the most wonderful and original account extant of the _summum bonum_. +We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short +chapter, we have love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have love +analyzed; toward the end, we have love defended as the supreme gift. + +Paul begins contrasting love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in +detail. Their inferiority is already obvious. + +He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power +of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty +purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of +men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the +brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable +unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no love. + +He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He +contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is love +greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And +why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the +part. Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the +means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with +God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may +become like God. But God is love. Hence faith, the means, is in order +to love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It +is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a +part. Charity is only a little bit of love, one of the innumerable +avenues of love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of +charity without love. It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a +beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do +it. Yet love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief +from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at +the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often too +dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more +for him, or less. + +Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the +little band of would-be missionaries--and I have the honor to call +some of you by this name for the first time--to remember that tho +you give your bodies to be burned, and have not love, it profits +nothing--nothing! You can take nothing greater to the heathen world +than the impress and reflection of the love of God upon your own +character. That is the universal language. It will take you years to +speak in Chinese; or in the dialects of India. From the day you land, +that language of love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its +unconscious eloquence. It is the man who is the missionary, it is not +his words. His character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among +the great lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered +the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you +cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men's faces light up as +they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could +not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. +Take into your new sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down +your life, that simple charm, and your life-work must succeed. You +can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is not +worth while going if you take anything less. You may take every +accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give +your body to be burned, and have not love, it will profit you and the +cause of Christ nothing. + +After contrasting love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very +short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I +ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like +light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass +it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other +side of the prism broken up into its component colors--red, and +blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colors of the +rainbow--so Paul passes this thing, love, through the magnificent +prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side +broken up into its elements. And in these few words we have what +one might call the spectrum of love, the analysis of love. Will you +observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common +names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day, that they +are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; +and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the +supreme thing, the _summum bonum_, is made up? + +The spectrum of love has nine ingredients: + + Patience--"Love suffereth long." + Kindness--"And is kind." + Generosity--"Love envieth not." + Humility--"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." + Courtesy--"Doth not behave itself unseemly." + Unselfishness--"Seeketh not her own." + Good temper--"Is not easily provoked." + Guilelessness--"Thinketh no evil." + Sincerity--"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." + +Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, +good temper, guilelessness, sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, +the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in +relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day +and the near to-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much +of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal +of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is +not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, +the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The +supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a +further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the +sum of every common day. + +There is no time to do more than to make a passing note upon each of +these ingredients. Love is patience. This is the normal attitude of +love; love passive, love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; +ready to do its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the +ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all +things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For love understands, +and therefore waits. + +Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life +was spent in doing kind things--in merely doing kind things? Run +over it with that in view, and you will find that He spent a great +proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good +turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the +world, and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what +God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that +is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. + +"The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly +Father is to be kind to some of his other children." I wonder why it +is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs +it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly +it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back--for there +is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as +love. "Love never faileth." Love is success, love is happiness, love +is life. "Love," I say, with Browning, "is energy of life." + + For life, with all it yields of joy or wo + And hope and fear, + Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love-- + How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. + +Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. God +is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, +without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is +very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of +all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps +we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to +please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving +pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly +loving spirit. "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good +thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any +human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for +I shall not pass this way again." + +Generosity. "Love envieth not." This is love in competition with +others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing +the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. +Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line +as ourselves, a spirit of covetousness and detraction. How little +Christian work even is a protection against unchristian feeling! That +most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a Christian's +soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work, unless we +are fortified with this grace of magnanimity. Only one thing truly +needs the Christian envy, the large, rich, generous soul which +"envieth not." + +And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this +further thing, humility--to put a seal upon your lips and forget what +you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth +into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade +again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love +waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not +puffed up." + +The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this _summum +bonum_: Courtesy. This is love in society, love in relation to +etiquette. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." Politeness has been +defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little +things. And the one secret of politeness is to love. Love can not +behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored persons into +the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their +hearts, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply can not +do it. Carlyle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the plowman-poet. It was because he loved +everything--the mouse, the daisy, and all the things, great and small, +that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with +any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on +the banks of the Ayr. You know the meaning of the word "gentleman." It +means a gentle man--a man who does things gently with love. And that +is the whole art and mystery of it. The gentle man can not in the +nature of things do an ungentle and ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle +soul, the inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature can not do anything +else. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." + +Unselfishness. "Love seeketh not her own." Observe: Seeketh not even +that which is her own. In Britain the Englishman is devoted, and +rightly, to his rights. But there come times when a man may exercise +even the higher right of giving up his rights. Yet Paul does not +summon us to give up our rights. Love strikes much deeper. It would +have us not seek them at all, ignore them, eliminate the personal +element altogether from our calculations. It is not hard to give up +our rights. They are often external. The difficult thing is to give up +ourselves. The more difficult thing still is not to seek things for +ourselves at all. After we have sought them, bought them, won them, +deserved them, we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already. +Little cross then perhaps to give them up. But not to seek them, to +look every man not on his own things, but on the things of others--_id +opus est_. "Seekest thou great things for thyself?" said the prophet; +"seek them not." Why? Because there is no greatness in things. +Things can not be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even +self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a +great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste. It is more +difficult, I have said, not to seek our own at all, than, having +sought it, to give it up. I must take that back. It is only true of a +partly selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship to love, and nothing is +hard. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just +His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any +other. I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious +lesson in Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having +and getting anything, but only in giving. I repeat, there is no +happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. And half the +world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think +it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving and serving others. He that would be great among +you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be happy, let him +remember that there is but one way--it is more blest, it is more +happy, to give than to receive. + +The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: good temper. "Love is +not easily provoked." Nothing could be more striking than to find +this here. We are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless +weakness. We speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature, a family +failing, a matter of temperament, not a thing to take into very +serious account in estimating a man's character. And yet here, right +in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a place; and the Bible +again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive +elements in human nature. + +The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. +It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men +who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but +for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" disposition. This +compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the +strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The truth is, there are two +great classes of sins--sins of the body, and sins of the disposition. +The Prodigal Son may be taken as a type of the first, the Elder +Brother of the second. Now society has no doubt whatever as to which +of these is the worse. Its brands fall without a challenge, upon the +Prodigal. But are we right? We have no balance to weigh one another's +sins, and coarser and finer are but human words; but faults in the +higher nature may be less venial than those in the lower, and to the +eye of Him who is love, a sin against love may seem a hundred times +more base. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to unchristianize society than evil +temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for +destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for +withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off childhood, in +short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence +stands alone. Look at the Elder Brother, moral, hard-working, patient, +dutiful--let him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man, +this baby, sulking outside his own father's door. "He was angry," we +read, "and would not go in." Look at the effect upon the father, upon +the servants, upon the happiness of the guests. Judge of the effect +upon the Prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the kingdom +of God by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside? +Analyze, as a study in temper, the thunder-cloud itself as it gathers +upon the Elder Brother's brow. What is it made of? Jealousy, anger, +pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness, touchiness, doggedness, +sullenness--these are the ingredients of this dark and loveless soul. +In varying proportions, also, these are the ingredients of all ill +temper. Judge if such sins of the disposition are not worse to live +in, and for others to live with, than sins of the body. Did Christ +indeed not answer the question Himself when He said, "I say unto you, +that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven +before you." There is really no place in heaven for a disposition like +this. A man with such a mood could only make heaven miserable for all +the people in it. Except, therefore, such a man be born again, he +can not, he simply can not, enter the kingdom of heaven. For it is +perfectly certain--and you will not misunderstand me--that to enter +heaven a man must take it with him. + +You will see then why temper is significant It is not in what it is +alone, but in what it reveals. This is why I take the liberty now of +speaking of it with such unusual plainness. It is a test for love, +a symptom, a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom. It is the +intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within; +the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some +rottenness underneath; a sample of the most hidden products of +the soul dropt involuntarily when off one's guard; in a word, the +lightning form of a hundred hideous and unchristian sins. For a want +of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, a want of +courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolized +in one flash of temper. + +Hence it is not enough to deal with the temper. We must go to the +source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humors will die +away of themselves. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids +out, but by putting something in--a great love, a new spirit, the +spirit of Christ. Christ, the spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, +sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what +is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and +rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does +not change men. Christ does. Therefore, "Let that mind be in you which +was also in Christ Jesus." Some of us have not much time to lose. +Remember, once more, that this is a matter of life or death. I can +not help speaking urgently, for myself, for yourselves. "Whoso shall +offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better +for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were +drowned in the depth of the sea." That is to say, it is the deliberate +verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to live than not to +love. _It is better not to live than not to love._ + +Guilelessness and sincerity may be dismissed almost without a word. +Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the possession +of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you +think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people who +believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but +in that other atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and +educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in +this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare +souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love +"thinketh no evil," imputes no bad motive, sees the bright side, puts +the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind +to live in! What stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for +a day! To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or +elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to +their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the +first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of +what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become. + +"Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." I have +called this sincerity from the words rendered in the Authorized +Version by "rejoiceth in the truth." And, certainly, were this the +real translation, nothing could be more just. For he who loves will +love truth not less than men. He will rejoice in the truth--rejoice +not in what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's +doctrine or in that; not in this ism or in that ism; but "in the +truth." He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at +facts; he will search for truth with an humble and unbiased mind, +and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice. But the more literal +translation of the Revised Version calls for just such a sacrifice for +truth's sake here. For what Paul really meant is, as we there read, +"Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth," +a quality which probably no one English word--and certainly not +sincerity--adequately defines. It includes, perhaps more strictly, the +self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others' faults; +the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but +"covereth all things"; the sincerity of purpose which endeavors to see +things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion +feared or calumny denounced. + +So much for the analysis of love. Now the business of our lives is to +have these things in our characters. That is the supreme work to which +we need to address ourselves in this world to learn love. Is life not +full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every +day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a +schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one +eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love. What makes a man +a good cricketer? Practise. What makes a man a good artist, a good +sculptor, a good musician? Practise. What makes a man a good linguist, +a good stenographer? Practise. What makes a man a good man. Practise. +Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not +get the soul in different ways, under different laws, from those in +which we get the body and the mind. If a man does not exercise his arm +he develops no biceps muscle; and if he does not exercise his soul, he +acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength of character, no vigor of +moral fiber nor beauty of spiritual growth. Love is not a thing of +enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression +of the whole round Christian character--the Christlike nature in its +fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are +only to be built up by ceaseless practise. + +What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Tho +perfect, we read that He learned obedience, and grew in wisdom and in +favor with God. Do not quarrel, therefore, with your lot in life. Do +not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the +vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to +live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be +perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and +ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your +practise. That is the practise which God appoints you; and it is +having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and +unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is +molding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, tho you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add +to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate +yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and +difficulties, and obstacles. You remember Goethe's words: _Es bildet +ein Talent sich in der Stille, Doch ein Character in dem Strom der +Welt_. "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of +life." Talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer, of +faith, of meditation, of seeing the unseen; character grows in the +stream of the world's life. That chiefly is where men are to learn +love. + +How? Now how? To make it easier, I have named a few of the elements of +love. But these are only elements. Love itself can never be defined. +Light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients--a glowing, +dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is something more than all its +elements--a palpitating, quivering, sensitive, living thing. By +synthesis of all the colors, men can make whiteness, they can not make +light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they can +not make love. How then are we to have this transcendent living whole +conveyed into our souls? We brace our wills to secure it. We try to +copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. +But these things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love is +an effect. And only as we fulfil the right condition can we have the +effect produced. Shall I tell you what the cause is? + +If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you +will find these words: "We love because he first loved us." "We love," +not "We love him." That is the way the old version has it, and it is +quite wrong. "We love--because he first loved us." Look at that word +"because." It is the cause of which I have spoken. "Because he first +loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love +all men. We can not help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love +everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of +Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's +character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness +to tenderness. There is no other way. You can not love to order. You +can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and +grow into likeness to it. And so look at this perfect character, this +perfect life. Look at the great sacrifice as He laid down Himself, all +through life, and upon the cross of Calvary; and you must love Him. +And loving Him, you must become like Him. Love begets love. It is +a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of +an electrified body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes +electrified. It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere +presence of a permanent magnet, and as long as you leave the two side +by side they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Him who +loved us, and gave Himself for us, and you too will become a permanent +magnet, a permanently attractive force; and like Him you will draw all +men unto you; like Him you will be drawn unto all men. That is the +inevitable effect of love. Any man who fulfils that cause must have +that effect produced in him. Try to give up the idea that religion +comes to us by chance, or by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by +natural law, or by spiritual law, for all law is divine. Edward Irving +went to see a dying boy once, and when he entered the room he just put +his hand on the sufferer's head, and said, "My boy, God loves you," +and went away. And the boy started from his bed, and called out to the +people in the house, "God loves me! God loves me!" It changed that +boy. The sense that God loved him overpowered him, melted him down, +and began the creating of a new heart in him. And that is how the love +of God melts down the unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the +new creature, who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish. And +there is no other way to get it. There is no mystery about it. We love +others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved +us. + +Now I have a closing sentence or two to add about Paul's reason for +singling out love as the supreme possession. It is a very remarkable +reason. In a single word it is this: it lasts. "Love," urges Paul, +"never faileth." Then he begins one of his marvelous lists of the +great things of the day, and exposes them one by one. He runs over the +things that men thought were going to last, and shows that they are +all fleeting, temporary, passing away. + +"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail." It was the mother's +ambition for her boy in those days that he should become a prophet. +For hundreds of years God had never spoken by means of any prophet, +and at that time the prophet was greater than the king. Men waited +wistfully for another messenger to come, and hung upon his lips when +he appeared as upon the very voice of God. Paul says, "Whether there +be prophecies, they shall fail." This book is full of prophecies. One +by one they have "failed"; that is, having been fulfilled their work +is finished; they have nothing more to do now in the world except to +feed a devout man's faith. + +Then Paul talks about tongues. That was another thing that was greatly +coveted. "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease." As we all know, +many, many centuries have passed since tongues have been known in this +world. They have ceased. Take it in any sense you like. Take it, for +illustration merely, as languages in general--a sense which was not +in Paul's mind at all, and which tho it can not give us the specific +lesson will point the general truth. Consider the words in which these +chapters were written--Greek. It has gone. Take the Latin--the other +great tongue of those days. It ceased long ago. Look at the Indian +language. It is ceasing. The language of Wales, of Ireland, of the +Scottish Highlands is dying before our eyes. The most popular book in +the English tongue at the present time, except the Bible, is one of +Dickens' works, his "Pickwick Papers." It is largely written in the +language of London street-life, and experts assure us that in fifty +years it will be unintelligible to the average English reader. + +Then Paul goes further, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." The wisdom of the ancients, +where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy today knows more than +Sir Isaac Newton knew. His knowledge has vanished away. You put +yesterday's newspaper in the fire. Its knowledge has vanished away. +You buy the old editions of the great encyclopedias for a few cents. +Their knowledge has vanished away. Look how the coach has been +superseded by the use of steam. Look how electricity has superseded +that, and swept a hundred almost new inventions into oblivion. One of +the greatest living authorities, Sir William Thompson, said the other +day, "The steam-engine is passing away." "Whether there be knowledge, +it shall vanish away." At every workshop you will see, in the back +yard, a heap of old iron, a few wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, +broken and eaten with rust. Twenty years ago that was the pride of the +city. Men flocked in from the country to see the great invention; now +it is superseded, its day is done. And all the boasted science and +philosophy of this day will soon be old. But yesterday, in the +University of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the faculty was +Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. The other day his +successor and nephew, Professor Simpson, was asked by the librarian +of the university to go to the library and pick out the books on his +subject that were no longer needed. And his reply to the librarian was +this: "Take every textbook that is more than ten years old, and put it +down in the cellar." Sir James Simpson was a great authority only a +few years ago; men came from all parts of the earth to consult him; +and almost the whole teaching of that time is consigned by the science +of today to oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. +"Now we know in part. We see through a glass darkly." + +Can you tell me anything that is going to last? Many things Paul did +not condescend to name. He did not mention money, fortune, fame; but +he picked out the great things of his time, the things the best men +thought had something in them, and brushed them peremptorily aside. +Paul had no charge against these things in themselves. All he said +about them was that they would not last. They were great things, +but not supreme things. There were things beyond them. What we are +stretches past what we do, beyond what we possess. Many things that +men denounce as sins are not sins; but they are temporary. And that is +a favorite argument of the New Testament. John says of the world, not +that it is wrong, but simply that it "passeth away." There is a great +deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great +deal in it that is great and engrossing; but it will not last. All +that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and +the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not the world +therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration +of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give itself to something +that is immortal. And the immortal things are: "Now abideth faith, +hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." + +Some think the time may come when two of these three things will also +pass away--faith into sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. +We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to +come. But what is certain is that love must last. God, the eternal +God, is love. Covet therefore that everlasting gift, that one thing +which it is certain is going to stand, that one coinage which will be +current in the universe when all the other coinages of all the nations +of the world shall be useless and unhonored. You will give yourselves +to many things, give yourselves first to love. Hold things in their +proportion. _Hold things in their proportion._ Let at least the first +great object of our lives be to achieve the character defended in +these words, the character--and it is the character of Christ--which +is built round love. + +I have said this thing is eternal. Did you ever notice how continually +John associates love and faith with eternal life? I was not told +when I was a boy that "God so loved the world that he gave his only +begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting +life." What I was told, I remember, was, that God so loved the world +that, if I trusted in Him, I was to have a thing called peace, or I +was to have rest, or I was to have joy, or I was to have safety. But +I had to find out for myself that whosoever trusteth in Him--that +is, whosoever loveth Him, for trust is only the avenue to love--hath +everlasting life. The gospel offers a man life. Never offer men a +thimbleful of gospel. Do not offer them merely joy, or merely peace, +or merely rest, or merely safety; tell them how Christ came to give +men a more abundant life than they have, a life abundant in love, +and therefore abundant in salvation for themselves, and large in +enterprise for the alleviation and redemption of the world. Then +only can the gospel take hold of the whole of a man, body, soul, and +spirit, and give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward. +Many of the current gospels are addrest only to a part of man's +nature. They offer peace, not life; faith, not love; justification, +not regeneration. And men slip back again from such religion because +it has never really held them. Their nature was not all in it. It +offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was +lived before. Surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love can +compete with the love of the world. + +To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to +live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with love. +We want to live forever for the same reason that we want to live +tomorrow. Why do we want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some +one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and +love back. There is no other reason why we should live on than that we +love and are beloved. It is when a man has no one to love him that he +commits suicide. So long as he has friends, those who love him and +whom he loves, he will live; because to live is to love. Be it but the +love of a dog, it will keep him in life; but let that go and he has no +contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand. Eternal +life is to know God, and God is love. This is Christ's own definition. +Ponder it. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only +true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Love must be eternal. +It is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love +never faileth, and life never faileth, so long as there is love. That +is the philosophy of what Paul is showing us; the reason why in the +nature of things love should be the supreme thing--because it is going +to last; because in the nature of things it is an eternal life. It is +a thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we +shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living +now. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and +grow old all alone, unloving and unloved. To be lost is to live in an +unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to +love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God; for God is +love. + +Now I have all but finished. How many of you will join me in reading +this chapter once a week for the next three months? A man did that +once and it changed his whole life. You might begin by reading it +every day, especially the verses which describe the perfect character. +"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not +itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that +you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving time to. +No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the condition +required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time, +just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires +preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any +cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. You will +find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, +the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have +done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and +beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those +supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to +those around about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which +you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost +all the beautiful things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every +pleasure that He has planned for man; and yet as I look back I see +standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short +experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor +imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seem to be the +things which alone of all one's life abide. Everything else in all our +lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of +love which no man knows about, or can ever know about, they never +fail. + +In the Book of Matthew, where the judgment day is depicted for us in +the imagery of One seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from +the goats, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but +"How have I loved?" The test of religion, the final test of religion, +is not religiousness, but love. I say the final test of religion at +that great day is not religiousness, but love; not what I have done, +not what I have believed; not what I have achieved, but how I have +discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that +awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, +by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the +withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof +that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He +suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that He inspired nothing in all +our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with +the spell of His compassion for the world. It means that + + I lived for myself, I thought for myself, + For myself, and none beside-- + Just as if Jesus had never lived, + As if He had never died. + +It is the Son of Man before whom the nations of the world shall be +gathered. It is in the presence of humanity that we shall be charged. +And the spectacle itself, the mere sight of it, will silently judge +each one. Those will be there whom we have met and helped; or there, +the unpitied multitude whom we neglected or despised. No other +witness need be summoned. No other charge than lovelessness shall be +preferred. Be not deceived. The words which all of us shall one day +hear sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints but +of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines but of shelter +and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books but of cups of cold water +in the name of Christ. Thank God the Christianity of today is coming +nearer the world's need. Live to help that on. Thank God men know +better, by a hairbreadth, what religion is, what God is, who Christ +is, where Christ is. Who is Christ? He who fed the hungry, clothed +the naked, visited the sick. And where is Christ? Where?--Whoso shall +receive a little child in My name receiveth Me. And who are Christ's? +Every one that loveth is born of God. + + + + +WAGNER + +I AM A VOICE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Wagner, French Protestant pastor and moral essayist, was born +in 1851 in Alsace. He is at present rector of the Reformed Church +in Fontenay-Lous-Bois, in the Department of Seine. He received a +comprehensive education at the universities of Paris, Strasburg and +Goettingen, and after undertaking many cures in the provinces he went +to Paris in 1882, where he occupied himself in a crusade against the +degrading tendency of life, art and literature in certain of their +Parisian phases. He has been a founder of several popular universities +under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of Morality. He +has published many books, and "La Vie Simple" ("The Simple Life") +was crowned by the French Academy and has been translated into many +European languages, as well as into Japanese. Wagner has been styled +the French Tolstoy, but he is less visionary and much more popular and +practical in his views than the Russian mystic. The author of "The +Simple Life" was greeted with many expressions of warm appreciation on +his visit to the United States a few years ago. He was a guest at the +Presidential mansion by invitation of President Roosevelt, who has +highly commended "The Simple Life." + + + + +WAGNER + +Born in 1851 + +I AM A VOICE[1] + +[Footnote 1: From "The Gospel of Life," by Charles Wagner, by +permission of the McClure Company, publishers. Copyright, 1905, by +McClure, Phillips & Co.] + +_I am the voice[2] of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the +way of the Lord_.--John i., 23. + +[Footnote 2: In the French version of the Scriptures it is "_a_ +voice," and it is necessary to retain this reading in order to render +precisely Pastor Wagner's thought.--_Translator_.] + + +Nothing is rarer than a personality. So many causes, both interior +and exterior, hinder the normal development of human beings, so many +hostile forces crush them, so many illusions lead them astray, that +there is required a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances to +render possible the existence of an independent character. But +when, God alone knows at the cost of what efforts and of what happy +accidents, a vigorous and original personality has been able to +unfold, nothing is rarer than not to see it degenerate into a mere +personage. History teaches us that men exceptional in will and energy +almost always become obstructive and mischievous. They commence by +serving a cause and end by taking possession of it so completely that, +from being its servants, they become its masters. Instead of being men +of a cause, they make the cause that of a man, and they degrade the +most sacred realities to the paltry level of their ambitious egoism. + +Thus, when we meet with strong natures, endowed with the secret of +leadership and command, yet able to resist the subtle temptation to +which so many of the finer spirits have succumbed, it behooves us to +bow and to salute in them a greatness before which all that it is +customary to call by that name fades into nothingness. + +If ever soul encompassed this greatness, it was that of John the +Baptist. John is little known. Of him there remain only a few traits +of physiognomy and a few snatches of discourse. But these snatches are +full of character, these traits possess a sculptural relief; just as +with broken trunks of columns, with fragments of stones, all that is +left of temples that were once the marvels of ancient art, they enable +us to conceive of the grandeur of the whole edifice to which they +once belonged. John was at once strong and humble, energetic and +self-detached. Never has an individuality so well-tempered been less +personal. Identifying himself completely with his rôle as precursor, +he found perfect happiness in effacing himself in the glory of Christ, +just as the dawn disappears in the splendors of the morning. + +History is full of precursors who impede and withstand those whom they +had first announced. When the time comes to retire and to give way +to those for whom they have prepared the way, they do not have the +courage to sacrifice themselves. They go on forever, and often become +the worst enemies of the cause they have defended. John knew nothing +of these failings which are the perpetual scandal in the development +of the kingdom of God. Not only did he say, speaking of Jesus: "He +must increase, but I must decrease," but he made all his acts conform +to these words. + +"This my joy is therefore fulfilled," he said, as he dwelt upon the +first advances of the gospel, and he exprest thus a sweetness of +sacrifice forever unknown to personal souls that remain vulgar in +spite of their genius. + +Finally, John described himself metaphorically in that inimitable +prophetic speech which explains in full the idea that he formed for +himself of his ministry. Under the sway of a morbid curiosity, the +crowd, more perplexed by the appearance of the worker than attentive +to the work, prest him with questions. Who then art thou, mysterious +preacher? Art thou one of the old prophets of Israel, escaped from his +rocky tomb? Or art thou perchance He whom we await? No, answered John, +I am neither one of the prophets nor the Messiah himself, I am no one: +I am a voice! + +I am a voice! This is not a formula that sums up the vocation of the +prophets solely, or of all those who, in the pulpit or in the tribune, +by the pen or by the public discourse, exert an influence upon their +contemporaries. These words are addrest to every one. They define for +every man, the humble yet great duty of truth that he is called to +fulfil in his sphere and according to the measure of his ability. At +the epoch in which we live, such a device is so applicable to the time +being, so pressing, so needful for us to hear, that it is wise to +engrave it in the very foreground of our consciousness. + +To become a voice we must begin by keeping still. We must listen. +The whole world is a tongue of which the spirit is the meaning. God +engraved its fiery capitals in the immensity of the heavens, and +traced its delicate smaller letters on the flower, on the grass, on +the human soul, as rich, as incommensurable as the abysses of space. +Whosoever you are, brother, before letting yourself utter one word, +lend your ear to that voice that seeks you, I might almost add, that +implores you. Listen!--Listen to the confused murmur that arises from +the human depths, and that, comprising in it all tears, all torments, +as well as all joys, becomes the sigh of creation. + +Listen in your heart to remorse, the sad and poignant echo that sin, +traversing life, leaves everywhere upon its passage. Shut your ear +to no sound, however unobtrusive, however sad, it may be. There are +voices that issue from the tombs, others that call to you from out the +abyss of past ages; repel them not, listen! One and all, they have +something to say to you. + +But do not be content with listening to man. Pierce nature, and, +in visible creation as in the invisible sanctuary of souls, watch +attentively for the revelation of Him whose eternal thought every +living thing, humble or sublime, translates after its own fashion. He +speaks to you in the dark nights and in the bright light of dawn, in +the infinite radiance of the worlds beyond all reckoning, and in the +humble stalk that awaits, in the valley bottom, its ray of light and +its drop of dew. Listen!--If there is anguish in the voice of poor +humanity, there are in great nature profound words of soothing, of +hope. Look at the flower in the fields, listen to the birds in the +skies! After the distrest voices that perturb you, you shall know the +voices that relieve and console. There shall befall you that which +befell the nun whose memory is preserved for us in the old legends. +Listening to the forest voices she had gone, following them always, as +far as the thick solitudes where nothing any longer comes to trouble +the collected soul. There, in the shade of a tree where she had seated +herself, she heard a song till then unknown to her ears. It was the +song of the mystic bird. This song said, in marvelous modulations, all +that man thinks and feels, all that he suffers, all that he seeks, all +that falls short of fulfilment for him. It summed up in harmonies the +destinies of living beings and the immense pity that is at the root +of things. Softly, on light, strong wings, it lifted the soul to the +heights where it looks upon reality. And the nun, her hands clasped, +listened, listened without end, forgetting earth, sky, time, +forgetting herself. She listened for centuries without ever growing +tired, finding in the song that charmed her a sweetness forever new. +Dear and truthful image of what the soul experiences when, mute, +as respectful as a child and as ready of belief, it listens in the +universal silence to the voices that translate for it the things that +are eternal! + +All those who have become voices have traveled this way. At Patmos or +in the desert, on Horeb or on Sinai, they have trembled with fright or +started with joy. But everything has its time. There comes a day when +all voices, soft or terrible, that man has heard, grow still, to let +henceforth only one be heard, which cries to him: "Go! go now and be +a witness of the things you have heard! Go! I send you forth as lambs +among wolves! Go! I send you toward men whose brow is harsh, whose +heart is wicked, but fear nothing, I shall embolden your face, I shall +give you a heart of brass and a forehead of diamond." + +When that moment has come, one must, in order to remain faithful to +his mission, remember that after all he is only a voice. Truth +does not belong to us, it is we who belong to truth! Wo to him who +possesses it and treats it as something that belongs to himself. Happy +is he who is possest by it! No preference, no kinship, no sympathy +counts here. Alas! it is not thus that men understand it. It is for +this reason that they degrade truth and that it becomes without power +in their hands. Instead of winging its way heavenward in vigorous +flight, it crawls along the earth, like an eagle whose wings have been +broken. Nothing is sadder than to see how those who ought to lend +their voice to truth, turn it to their own uses and play with it. The +voice, human speech, that sacred organ, whose whole worth lies in +sincerity, has in all ages been the victim of odious profanations. But +in this age it is more than ever attainted. The evil from which it +suffers is defilement. + +At certain epochs a word was as good as a man. It was an act total, +supreme, guaranteed by the whole of life. There was no need to sign, +to stamp, to legalize. Speech was held between friends and enemies +alike, more sacred than any sanctuary, and man maintained it, with the +obscure but just sentiment that it is at the base of society, and that +if words lose their value, there is no longer any society possible. +Later the written word was considered sacred. And coming nearer to +our own day, we have been able to see the masses, guided ever by +that quite legitimate sentiment of the holiness of speech, regard +everything printed as gospel truth. Those times are no more. We have +lied too much, by the living word, the pen, and the press. We have +said and printed too much that is light, false, wittingly disfigured. +Armed with an instrumentality that multiplies thought and spreads it +broadcast to the four corners of the earth with a rapidity unknown +to our fathers, we have made use of it, for the most part, to extend +slander more widely and to cause a greater amount of doubtful +intelligence to swarm upon the earth. So well have we spun speech out +in all our mouths, so thoroughly have we deprived it of its proper +nature and caused it to become sophisticated, that it is no longer of +the least value. The confidence of the masses in authority, which is +one of the slowest and most difficult conquests of humanity, we have +lost like a thing of no worth. They no longer say to any one who now +lifts up his voice: Who are you? But: What end have you in view? What +party do you serve? By what interest are you led? By whom have you +been bought? That there may be a sacred truth, loved, respected, +adored; a truth that is worth more than life, to which one may give +himself wholly and with happiness--this idea diverts the cynics +and makes those whom the cruel experiences of life have rendered +distrustful, shake their heads. If ever an epoch has needed to +rehabilitate human speech, it is our own. What good are we if it is +good for nothing, since it is at the root of all our institutions? + +Who will give it back its potency?--They who will know how to resign +themselves to being but a voice! + +Permit me to bring home to you, by means of a very modest example, +what man may gain in force by being but a voice. Look at that clock. +When the hour has come, it marks it. Whether it be the hour of birth +or of death, the hour of joy or of sorrow, the hour of longed-for +meetings, or of heart-breaking farewells, the clock strikes that hour. +It is only a mechanism, but it is scrupulously exact, it measures that +time which descends to us drop by drop from the bosom of eternity, and +when the hammer falls on the brazen bell, the entire universe confirms +what it announces. The suns and the worlds mark at this very moment, +in the immortal light, the same point of time that is indicated below +on earth, some starless night, by the humblest village clock. We must +imitate the clock. In full consciousness, through absolute submission, +man should make himself the humble instrument of truth, and go through +supreme servitude to supreme power. When he does not do this, he is +only an imperfect timepiece. But when, bound by his word, chained to +the truth that he serves, he has become its slave, and when, without +hate, without preference, without human fear, without other desire +than that of being faithful, he proclaims what is just, true, right, +good, the rocks are less firm on their base than this man: for he is a +voice! + +A voice is, if you like, a slight thing. Stilled as soon as it +awakened, it is heard only by a few and for a little while. It is said +that singers are greatly to be pitied, since posterity can not hear +them. Nothing of them remains. And yet how many marvelous forces +underlie this apparent fragility! The thunder has its roar, the breeze +has its tenderness, but their power is transitory; they are sounds and +not voices. A voice is a living sound, it is the vibrant echo of a +soul. It is doubtless that most fragile thing, a breath, but joined to +that which is most durable, spirit. And it is for this reason that, if +the instant when it is born sees it die, centuries of centuries can +not destroy its effect. The truth which is in it confers immortality +upon it, and when this voice escapes from a human breast, he who +speaks, sings or weeps, feels indeed that eternity has concluded an +alliance with him. Peeling his fragile testimony confirmed by all that +endures and can not die, he says with Christ: "Heaven and earth shall +pass away, but my words shall not pass away!" + +The holy labors entrusted to the voice can never be counted. Because +of the very fact that it lives and that it contains a soul, it is +the great awakener, the incomparable evoker. When, obscure still and +unknown, a thought distracts us and slumbers at the bottom of our +being, a voice is all that is needed to make it emerge into the light. +With maternal tenderness, the voice borrows all the energies of +incubation, to infuse with warmth, to fortify, the nascent germs of +spiritual life. In it lives and breaks forth what, in the evolving +soul, tends feebly and furtively toward the flowering. In short, the +voice, speech, the tongue, condenses in a single focus incalculable +quantities of rays. + +Only think of the efforts that human thought must have made to reach +that clearness that enables it to become speech. Every word that you +utter without giving it a thought is a monument toward which centuries +and multitudes of minds have wrought. A world is contained in it. Poor +words! one man decks himself out in them, another wraps himself up in +them, but how few know of the warmth of life and love that has put +them into the world that they may be forever the witnesses of the past +for posterity! No matter, for when they have been made sufficiently to +resound like an inanimate cymbal, there comes an hour when they revive +under the breath of a true and living being, and they depart to spread +life. Then they fulfil their rôle as educators. To educate is to +explain a being to itself. And this is the benign service that +the voice performs. It tells us what we think better than we can +ourselves. It unbinds the chains of the captive soul and permits it to +take its flight. Happy the child, happy the young man who meets with +a voice to decipher him to himself! This is what Christ did in those +blest hours when He reunited the children of His people, as a bird +reunites its brood under its wings! + +What the voice does in detail, it continues to accomplish on the +larger scale. At certain moments societies seem a prey to a sort of +chaos. A number of contrary forces clash and perturb them, as they +perturb and rend individual souls. Men seek, feeling their way, a road +that seems to elude them. A crowd of spirits, by the very fact of +their contemporaneity, feel themselves distracted and agitated all +in the same way. Confusedly and provoked by the same sufferings they +elaborate the same ideal and formulate the same desires. But they all +wander along twilit paths on the side of the night where the light +seems to be breaking through, without, however, being able to +pierce the darkness. These are the preliminary agonies of the great +historical epochs. Then let a being more powerful, more vital, an +elect soul that has passed through this phase and conquered these +shadows, become incarnate in a voice! That is enough. The personal +word which expresses the soul of that epoch and responds to its +needs, is found. It sounds through the world like a new _fiat lux_! +Everywhere, in those who listen to it and feel secret affinities with +it in themselves, it constitutes a magnificent revelation of light and +life. All these hearts vibrate in unison with one; and, gathering up +all these scattered notes into a single harmony, he who expresses the +sentiments of all, renders an account of the wonderful power of which +he is the instrument. No, it is no longer a man that speaks: what +sounds upon his lips, is the whole soul of a people, is a whole epoch, +is a new world. + +A voice is also that inimitable sigh, that pure sob which tells +of grief because it issues from a suffering heart. It is pity and +compassion, it is the angel of God arriving among us on the caressing +breath, a messenger of mercy, and pouring into the tortured depths of +our poor heart its healing dew. It is Jesus saying to Mary, and, in +her, to all those whom grief afflicts: "Why weepest thou?" It is David +singing: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" It is Isaiah crying: +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people; speak ye comfortably to +Jerusalem!" + +A voice is, on the solitary path where our will strays, the faithful +shepherd calling his sheep; it is every sign, even tho it be made +by the hand of a child, which in the days of forgetfulness and +unrestraint, suddenly wakes us and warns us that our feet skirt the +abysses. + +Then, after the work of education, of creation, of pity, comes the +work of severity, of punishment, of destruction. The voice has been +compared to a sword. Like it, it flames and punishes. A voice is +Nathan rising up before the criminal king and calling down upon his +head the avenging lightning of this word: "Thou art the man!" The +sword attacks, destroys, but it defends, also, and this is its fairest +work. Never is the voice more touching than when it is lifted in favor +of the weak, and, when, suddenly, in the midst of the iniquities +of brute force that it denounces, marks with its stigma, it causes +justice to shine forth and the truth to be felt, in the holy +soul-traversing thrill, that God Himself is there and that His hour +has come! + +A voice has its echo. When this echo is sympathetic, it is endowed +with the sweetest recompense and obliterates the memory of many +sorrows. But this echo is often hostile. It arises from wrath and is +increased by hatred. Then it is resistance, riot, that rumbles. It is +the passions and the scourged vices that twist and bellow like deer +under the lash of the trainer. How many times, O, faithful voices, +souls of peace and truth, has the spirit that animates you driven you +to these fearful encounters--you who have heard in the silence of your +hearts the holy verities and who know their worth, you are obliged to +go bearing them in the face of menace, of mockery, of trembling rage +where they seem to us like Daniel in the lion's den! A terrible +ordeal! but one before which the testifying voices have never +recoiled. Luther, who knew the emotions of the great battles of the +spirit where one man is alone in the face of a thousand, where tinder +the growing clamors and the cries of death ... a voice struggles like +a torch in a tempest, has given to the servants of truth a counsel +that is the alpha and omega of their austere mission. When they have +said all, done all, essayed all, put all their being and all their +love into the proclamation of what they have to announce, then, he +says, "let them be ready to be hooted at and spat upon!" And not only +should they be ready but they should accept this lot with happiness. +Christ says to them: "Happy are they that are outraged and persecuted +for the sake of justice!" + +Alas, the rudest proof for him who speaks the truth is not to arouse +indignation. That, at least, is a result, and however sad it may be, +it bears witness to him who has spoken. Certain protests, despite +their fury, are a sort of involuntary homage. The supreme trial for +a voice is indifference. When John called himself a voice in the +wilderness, he alluded to that external solitude where his voice was +raised. But this solitude, on certain days was full of life and the +gospel cites for our benefit certain facts which prove that the words +with which it resounded were not lost in the empty spaces. They moved +and struck home from the humblest regions of society to the exalted +spheres, to the royal throne itself. John garnered love and hate, +blessing and curse, the desirable fruits of all energetic action. +Since that time and before, more than one voice has been able, +applying them to itself, to give to those prophetic words, "voices in +the wilderness," another very melancholy significance. The supreme +image of despair is a voice that is lost in the silence, as is lost, +in the bosom of dead solitudes, the call that no one hears, for succor +that will never come. + +After having spoken of the different voices, of their power, of their +effects, let us bestow a compassionate remembrance upon the lost +voices, on those who were or who are still, in the most lamentable +sense of that word, voices in the wilderness.--To be a man, a soul, to +have felt the lighting of a holy flame within oneself; to love truth +and justice; to feel the pain of contact with a life ruled over by +falsehood and violence; at the heart of this poignant contrast between +a divine ideal and a heart-rending reality, to receive from his +conscience, from God himself, the command to speak; to put his life +into this work, to renounce everything to be only a voice ... and +after all this to see himself forsaken, neglected, despised! To wear +oneself out slowly in a strife obscure and without issue; to perish +without having aroused either sympathy or opposition, to disappear +into oblivion before disappearing in the tomb ... ah! all the furies, +all the bloody reprisals, the dungeons, the gibbets, the massacres, +all the martyrdoms by which human wickedness strove to stifle the +voice of the just, are less horrible than this extermination by +apathy. + +And yet, not to press things to this cruel extremity, but remembering +the parable of the sower, where so many seeds are lost for the few +that take root and flourish, ought we not be willing to be, in the +greatest number of cases, voices in the wilderness, only too happy if +our thankless labors are recompensed elsewhere by an encouraging echo? +Have we not here, on the contrary, the image of human life? we are +always aspiring toward an ideal more elevated than that which we +realize. We are always precursors, and it becomes us to accept humbly +what that destiny holds both of pain and of beauty. + +Besides, do we know whether voices that seem to be lost, are so in +reality? Are the stones that are hidden in the foundations of a +beautiful edifice, and thanks to which the whole fabric is supported, +lost because no one sees them? In the same way it must be that many +voices are forgotten apparently, until such time as, added together +and finding in each other mutual support, they end by emerging into +the full light of day. + +To wait and to work; to do his duty, and leave the rest to God; to +journey through life, gathering truth into his heart, and then into +the family, the Church, the city; to be its faithful voice; this is +the best use a man can make of his mortal days. And should it be your +lot to be voices in the wilderness; among your children deaf to your +cries; among your compatriots insensible to your warnings, console +yourselves. Greater than you have suffered the same fate. Unite +yourself in spirit to their company and be happy to suffer with them. +At least as you come to understand more and more from day to day that +truth can not perish, and that it is potent even on feeble lips; you +will establish in your hearts faith in the world that endures, and you +will be less astonished and less disconcerted when you see the face of +this world pass away. You will live by the sacred fire cherished in +your souls. Let your furrow close, your hope will not perish! Like +Moses on Nebo, you will enter into the silence, having filled your +dying eyes with the spectacle of the promised land! + + + + +GORDON + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Angier Gordon, Congregational divine, was born in Scotland, +1853. He was educated at Harvard, and has been minister of Old South +Church, Boston, Massachusetts, since 1884. His pulpit style is +conspicuous for its directness and forcefulness, and he is considered +in a high sense the successor of Philip Brooks. He was lecturer in the +Lowell Institute Course, 1900; Lyman Beecher Lecturer, Yale, 1901; +university preacher to Harvard, 1886-1890; to Yale, 1888-1901; Harvard +overseer. He is the author of "The Witness to Immortality" (1897), +and many other works. + + + + +GORDON + +Born in 1853 + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Printed here by kind permission of Dr. Gordon.] + +_And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he +him_.--Genesis i., 27. + + +It must never be forgotten that all truth lies in the order of life +itself. There is a natural environment, and in it have been, real and +mighty from the beginning, the laws and forces which science has but +recently discovered. Copernicus discovered the true order of the solar +system; but the order itself has been there from the morning of time. +Newton discovered the force of gravity, but that force has been in the +natural situation since creation. Chemists have been able to make out +sixty-five or sixty-six irreducible elements; but while chemistry is +young, the elements are everlasting. Electricity is the discovery of +yesterday, and yet it has been at play in man's environment from the +foundation of the world. The continuity of life, from the lowest forms +of it up to man, has been a fact from the first; but not until +this century has the fact meant anything. Few things impress the +imagination more powerfully than the sense of the forces that have +surrounded man from his first appearance on the earth, and that +have been noted and utilized only in recent times. There stands the +immemorial force, and men have had no eyes for it till yesterday. +Thoughtful men begin to look upon the environment in a new spirit. +They begin to walk within it in amazement and hope. All the forces of +the material universe are here, and only a few things about them +have been discovered. The natural environment is rich beyond all +calculation or dream; it is exhaustless. Here in the field of man's +life is the alluring object of science. Here in the natural situation +are the everlasting and benign energies that wait to be discovered and +prest into human service. There is a human environment, and all the +fundamental truth about man has been present in it from the start. +Moses gave his nomadic brethren the ten words; but they were written +in the human heart ages before they were inscribed upon stone. The +great Hebrew prophets gave to the world the vision of one God, His +righteous government of the world, and His election of a single race +for the service of all the races; but God and His government and His +method in the education of man were real and mighty before Amos, and +Hosea, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah beheld them. Christ revealed the +Father through His own divine Sonhood; but the Fatherhood of God is an +eternal truth. Nowhere is the divineness of Christ more obvious than +in the ease and adequacy with which He, and He alone, is able to read +the meaning of the human situation. Christ as Prophet, as Seer and +Discoverer, is most amazing to the most gifted. His eye for fact +is divine. He notes the falling sparrow, and at once reaches the +universal fatherly foresight and control of God. His consuming vision +goes everywhere, turning the hidden truth of life into light and joy +in His parables. His teaching is revelation, the unveiling of the +aboriginal divine order. He makes nothing; He reveals what God made. +And when He increases life it is by showing the path to that increase +ordained of God, insight and obedience. The will of God is the final +law for heaven and earth; the vision of it and surrender to it are the +path of life. Here we touch the depth of the old faith. God the Father +creates, and the Son reveals. The order of the Spirit is eternal; the +revelation of it is in time and for sense-bound men. Here we see in +a mirror and dimly; there they behold face to face. And Christ drew +forth into light the divine significance of man's life, as God +originally made it; and that divine meaning of existence thus drawn +out is the gospel of Christ. + +In the text we are carried by a true seer back of all traditions, +behind all conventions, beyond all beliefs about life to life itself +as it lies in its own freshness and fulness. We are led to look upon +human life newly made, still warm with the touch of the creative hand, +and yet containing in it that very hour all that the Lord eventually +drew out of it. If the first man had understood himself he would have +been essentially a Christian. And therefore I propose to evolve from +the original human situation, as described in the text, the outline of +what I take to be a great faith. + +I. If the first man had understood himself, he would have seen in +himself the interpreter of nature. From the first command, "Let there +be light," to the final, "Let us make man in our image," there are two +things to be noted. There is continuity in the creative process, and +there is an ascension from the lower to the higher. The first duty of +our self-comprehending Adam will be to look backward. He will look +across the wide field whose farther limit lies in cloud and whose +hither border touches his feet. He will survey the creative process +that has led up to and that has come to its climax in him. And as he +thinks of himself as the product of nature, must he not conclude that +as reason is the result, reason must have preceded the process and +governed it? Humanity is the issue; therefore humanity must have +planned the issue and secured it. Back of this march of life, behind +this developing and ascending order, out in the darkness, before the +light was created, there was the Mind that accounts for man. Thus the +last becomes the first, the man that ends the creative process sees +that a human God must have preceded the process. + +This truth is one of the greater insights of the time. The continuity +of life, from the lowest forms to the highest, has received during the +last fifty years an unparalleled recognition. So, too, with the fact +of the steady ascent of life. Not indeed in a literal and yet in a +true way, the modern scientific conception is a wonderful parallel to +the sublime hymn with which the Bible opens. In the beginning was the +fire-mist. In that fire-mist began the process of development. It +became worlds, systems innumerable, a stellar universe, and within +this whole a solar order, an earth beating forward in preparation for +the advent of life. Life when it came flowed into countless forms. +From the shapeless mass it pushed on upward into successively higher +and finer structures, ever aspiring toward man. Ages preceded the +advent of man. There were upon the part of life ages of preparation, +ages of climbing. Before life rose the mountain of the Lord; it +must be scaled and its summit reached before man could put in +an appearance. But the hour for which the whole cosmos had been +travailing in pain could not be indefinitely delayed. In the fulness +of time, as the tree bursts into bloom, as the tide rolls to the +flood, as the light breaks in through the gates of morning, nature +came to her supreme expression in man. Man is not here on his own +strength. He is not in the bosom of things unaccounted for. He is the +child of nature; her last act, her highest product, the best that is +in her power to bring forth, the son in whose wondrous being her own +motherhood is to undergo total transformation. + +That is the modern scientific conception; look for a moment at its +greatness. Man as final issue of nature must turn round and look +backward. He must look down the long line of life to the far-off first +beginning. He must pass beyond the earliest forms in which the vital +movement began to the mysterious, formless, eternal power behind all. +And it is here that nature is lifted into a new character by her human +product. In that eternal power there must be a reason to account +for man's reason, conscience to account for his conscience, love to +account for his love, spirit to explain his spirit. Nature as mother +must become spirit to account for the soul of her son. The flower +shows what was in the seed, the oak is the revelation of what was in +the heart of the acorn; and man as the last and best outcome of nature +is the authoritative expression of the power that is behind nature. +Thus the mind that is the final product of nature discovers the mind +that is the source of nature. Man seeking the origin of his being +finds it on the farther side of nature in One like unto a son of man. +He learns later to distinguish between the reality and the image, +between God and godlike man. And then a wireless telegraphy is +established between them across the vast untraveled distances of +nature. The life near to God can not send the tokens of His inmost +character upward to man; the brute life near to man can not carry +downward to God man's thoughts and hopes. The animal life that +stretches in an expanse so wide between the Creator and His best work +can not connect the human and the divine. But when the spirit to which +nature comes in man has once seen the Spirit in which nature must +begin, then the wireless telegraphy comes into play. The heart, that +is the last product of life, sends out its mysterious currents, its +aspirations, its gladness, its grief, and its hope; and these repeat +themselves in the great heart of God. And forth from the Spirit behind +nature issue the messages of recognition, of sympathy, of intimated +ideals and endless incentive, that register themselves in the soul of +man. Nature is a solid, sympathetic, and now and then glorified, and +yet dumb, highway between God and man. Her beauty belongs to the +Spirit that she does not know, and it speaks to the Spirit that is +older than her child. She is a mute, unconscious sacrament between the +infinite reason and the finite, a path for the lightning that plays +backward and forward between the soul of man and the soul of God. +The great primal fact in the human environment is that man is the +interpreter of nature. In this character of interpreter of nature he +receives his first message from God, and makes his first response. + +II. The second fact in the human situation is that religion is the +interpreter of man. As man looks backward he beholds beyond nature +a face like his own, only diviner; and ever afterward the noblest +aspiration of his soul is to win the smile of that face and to escape +its frown. Our self-comprehending Adam would confess that he knew +himself only when he noted within him the lover of the infinite. And +here history leads the way. You look into "The Book of the Dead," and +you see what high and serious things religion meant for the early +Egyptian. The pyramids are monuments to religion. The art of the +ancient races was chiefly homage to the divine. The Athenian Parthenon +would never have been but for faith in the goddess that shielded the +city. Greek art, the greatest art in the world, is primarily a tribute +to faith. Those marvelous statues were likenesses of the gods; those +incomparable temples were dwelling-places for the gods. Religion is +in the warp and woof of the world's love and sorrow, its art and +literature, its patriotism and history. The life of man is the +cathedral window, and religion is the colored figure that stands in +it. The two are inseparable. You can not abolish the figure without +breaking the window; you can not banish religion without destroying +humanity. Try to explain Homer's world without Olympus; account for +Mohammedanism and make no reference to faith; write the history of +the Middle Ages and take no note of the "Divine Comedy"; sum up +the meaning of Persian and Indian civilization and pay no heed to +religion; show what Hebraism is and leave unnoticed its consciousness +of God, and you will create a parallel to the philosopher who should +endeavor to trace the significance of human life apart from man's +passion for the infinite. + +Here then is the key to manhood. He is a being over whom the unseen +wields an endless fascination. There is in him a thirst that nothing +can quench save the living God. His chief attribute is an attribute +of wo, an incapacity for content within the limits of the visible +and temporal. His differentiation from the brute is at this point +absolute. Between man and the lower orders of life there is a line of +likeness; there is also from the beginning a line of unlikeness. In +physical structure man is both similar and dissimilar to the animal. +As bread-winner and economist he is kindred and he is in contrast to +the creatures below him. In the home, in society, and in the state +in which both home and society are set and protected, the line of +likeness grows less and less distinct, while the line of unlikeness +becomes bolder and plainer. It is impossible to deny observation to +the dog and impossible to grant to it science. The instinct for beauty +belongs to the bird, but art in the full sense of the word, as the +self-conscious expression of beautiful ideas, is no part of its life. +One can not decline to note method in the existence of the brute, +and one is compelled to withold from it philosophy. In these higher +activities the line of likeness between man and the animal is of the +faintest description; while the line of contrast becomes more and more +pronounced and significant. When we come to the summit of man the +likeness vanishes utterly. Among the lower life of the world there is +no _Magnificat_, there is no _Nunc Dimittis_; the beginning and the +end do not link themselves to the Eternal. The brute has no religion, +no temple, no priest, no Bible, no sacrament of love between itself +and the invisible. The tower of this church tells at once, and from +afar, that it is a church. Near at hand, much besides the tower tells +the same story. There is the cruciform foundation; there is the +structure of its walls. There is the outside with distinct note; there +is the inside with its joyous beauty. Look at the church closely and +you need no tower to proclaim what it is. And yet the tower is its +most conspicuous witness: at a distance it is the sole witness. +Religion is similarly the eminent token that man belongs to a divine +order. The basis of his being in sacrifice should repeat the same +tale. Civilization as a struggle after social righteousness should +announce the same fact. Man's thoughts and feelings, and their +manifold and marvelous expression in art, in institutions, and in +systems of opinion, utter the same testimony. And yet the tower of his +being, high soaring and far seen, is his feeling for the invisible. +You do not know man until you behold him worshiping. + +III. The third fact in our human situation is that Christianity is the +interpretation of religion. You see the devout old Jew, Simeon, who +met Jesus as His mother brought Him for the first time into the +temple; and there you behold the old faith interpreted by the new. All +that was best in the Hebrew religion is conserved and carried higher +in the Christian religion. Everywhere the devoutest Jews were +conscious of wants which the national faith did not meet. They waited +for the consolation of Israel, and when Christ came he supplied +satisfactions which Hebraism could not supply. Christianity commended +itself to the disciples of Christ because it seemed to be their own +faith at its best. They were carried over into it by the logic +of their previous belief and their deep human need. Paul sought +righteousness as a Jew; when he became a Christian, righteousness +was still his great quest. And Christianity commended itself to him +because the national ideal of righteousness was set before him in +a sublimer form, and because a new inspiration came to him in his +pursuit of it. The old immemorial goal of human endeavor was exalted, +and the everlasting incentives were filled with the freshness of a +divine life. Thus the religious Jew, when Christ came, was like a +convalescent patient. The process of recovery was going on, but in +a way that was discouragingly slow. The longing was for the higher +altitudes of the spirit, for the pure and bracing atmosphere of some +exalted leader, for an environment richer in healing ministry and in +restoring power. That longing Christ met. He carried His believing +countrymen on to the heights. He surrounded them with the freshness of +His own spirit. He put over them a new sky. He took them into a new +environment, rich with His truth and grace, tender with infinite +sympathy, stored with the forces that work for spiritual vigor, filled +with the love of His Father. Ask Peter or James or John or Paul, ask +any believing Jew and he will tell you that Christianity is simply the +consummation of his faith as a Jew. + +The gospel moves along the same line of self-verification with +reference to all the great religions. The Persian believes in eternal +light, and he hates the contending darkness. Christianity says that +God is light, and that in Him is no darkness at all; that Jesus is the +Light of the world, and that whosoever followeth Him shall not walk +in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Greek was full of +humanity, and he could not help making his gods and goddesses simply +larger and more beautiful men and women. What is the soul of that +amazingly beautiful and seemingly fantastic mythology of the Greeks? +Why do they worship Apollo and Aphrodite, Hermes and Athene? Because +they can think of nothing higher than ideal humanity. And Christ +comes, the ideal man. The beauty of the Lord is upon Him. His thoughts +and feelings and purpose and character are the most perfect things in +the world. He identifies Himself with man, and He identifies Himself +with God. He is the Son of man, and as such He is the Son of God. And +thus a human. God, a human universe, a human religion is offered to +the Greek, and in place of the wonderful mythology the clear, warm, +divine fact. The Mohammedan believes in will; and the gospel puts +before him that ultimate irresistible Will as a Will to all good, +eternally burdened with love, and nothing but love, for man. The Hindu +is smitten with an endless craving after rest, and he thinks the path +to peace lies in the diminution and final extinction of being. Christ +goes to the Hindu and says: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and +heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn +of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto +your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." + +He sets before the Hindu an infinite social peace; he calls into play +the moral will that for ages has been allowed to slumber. The goal +is high social harmony; the path to it is the intelligent will in +faithful, inspired, victorious obedience. The need of the Hindu is +not less but more and better existence. The way out of his despair is +through fulness of life. His misery is but the dumb prayer for eternal +life, that is, for existence supreme in its character and in its +volume. + +Thus Christianity is everywhere the interpreter of religion. +Everywhere it carries the world's faith to its best. It is the +consummation both of the human need and the divine answer. And to-day, +in our own world, it goes on the same high errand. The intuitions of +righteousness, the sympathies with goodness, the wish for the more +abundant life, the ideals and the struggles, the hope and the fear, +without which man would not be man, find their interpreter in +Christianity. It is the soul carried to the utmost depth of its need +and the loftiest height of its desire, and then made conscious that +below its profoundest weakness and above its highest dream is the +infinite Love that is educating its life. It is the best wisdom of +history speaking to the highest interests of man. As mothers brought +their children to Jesus that He might reveal the inmost meaning of +childhood, open its treasure to the hearts that loved it, and by His +consecrating touch assure it of perpetual increase; so are the nations +bringing their religions to Him, and the noble among men their +uncomprehended longing and hope. He walks among us still as the +Revealer, the Conserver, and the Consummator of life. + +IV. Lastly, Christianity finds it own interpretation in God. We have +seen man looking backward and finding the origin of his soul in the +Soul that is behind nature. We have seen his religion telling him +that he can not live by bread alone, that he can rest only under +the shelter of the unseen, that he is infinitely more akin to the +invisible than to the visible, that he has a spirit and must therefore +hunger for the fellowship of the eternal Spirit. We see Christianity +lifting this religious capacity to its highest, and bringing in the +divine appeal in its sublimest form. We behold the earth transfigured +in this Christian dream, the ladder set that reaches from the dreamer +to heaven, and upon it, going up and coming down, the great prayers of +the soul and the tender responses of the Most High. To what shall we +refer this sublime, transfiguring dream? Is it the delusion of the +sleeper, or the whisper of God? Is the ladder set up from the earth, +or is it let down from above? Did man shape it out of his abysmal +desire, or did God make and establish it out of His love. What can +we say of that which is the highest wisdom, the widest sympathy, the +divinest love, and the mightiest power in human history? What can +we do with that which is the true life of man? Can the trees of the +field, as they clap their hands and sing in the freshening breeze, do +other than refer it to heaven? And man, as he sees the light of Christ +upon the Spirit behind nature, beholds in the gospel that which +interprets his highest dreams, feels in Christianity the power to +understand and to become his own best self--can he do other than say +that his Christian faith is the gift of God? The star in the brook +refers you for the explanation of its being to the star in the sky; +and the glory of the gospel living in the depths of man's soul has no +other origin than the love of God. + +The hope of science lies in exploring the natural environment. All +material reality is here, and here science has found all her truth, +and every season reminds her that inexpressible wonders still wait her +search. In the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the +waters under the earth are hidden the treasure for which she is to +toil. Earth and sea and sky; the waveless depths and the windless +heights, and the wide expanse between, now sunlit and again +stormswept, are the field of her enterprise and hope. And in the same +way the human environment is the region that the spirit must explore. +The meaning of humanity must be found in and through humanity. "Say +not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring +Christ down; or who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring +Christ up from the dead. The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in +thy heart." The divine reality offers itself to faith in and through +the scope and sweep of life. The order of God is in the life of +society. The ideal for man, the method by which it is realized, and +the power, are set in the spiritual tissues of the race. If you see no +God, no soul, no genuine religion, believe rather that you are blind +than that your human environment does not contain them. You are the +product of nature. It follows that nature must be great enough to +account for you and your race and the Christ who is your race at its +best. Back of the nature that gave birth to you, that bore your kind, +and brought forth Christ, there must be the sufficient Spirit. You +are sure that you can not live by bread alone. You have thoughts that +wander through eternity. You can not rest until you rest in God. You +are a being made for religion, and again here is the gospel that meets +your intelligence with its wisdom, your heart with its love, your will +with its moral authority. Nothing puts your being in tune, and nothing +rings out the best music that is in you, as the gospel does. It is +omnipresent in our civilization, working everywhere to crush the +beast and to free the man. It is in a mother's love, the soul of its +tenderness; it is in a father's heart as ideal and incentive. The +history and the experience and the hope of our homes are transfigured +in its light, as if the earth should repose in an everlasting evening +glow. Patriotism is alive with its fire, and the new and growing +passion for humanity is the great token of its quickening spirit. +It is the box of ointment, very precious, which has been broken in +society and all Christendom is filled with its perfume. Birth and +death, love and sorrow, achievement and failure, human life and its +immemorial content, the old room and the dear and dreary things in it, +take on new dignity and grace. To detect the new spirit in the old +dwelling is the best and most rewarding of all intuitions. To live in +the human homestead consecrated by the diffusion of Christ's gospel is +to undergo an unconscious conformation to exalted ideals. Because of +our Christian civilization, behind every morning is the Father, who +makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and who sends His +rain upon the just and the unjust. Nature has been lifted into a +servant of the divine beneficence. And man's wild but imperishable +passion for the unseen has been brought to see its last and best self +in the love of Christ. Wherever we look, this gospel is the master +light of all our seeing; and once more, is it not light from heaven? +We know where to look for the belt of Orion, and clear and grand as +the stars that constitute it are the great saving truths which are set +in the human sky. There is nothing arbitrary in this sublime faith, +nothing that does not rise out of the human order, nothing that is a +mere import from the world of fancy or wild belief. The faith is the +translation of fact into thought and speech. The eyes of Christ pass +over and through the order of the universe, and His vision is our +faith. Man is the interpreter of nature; religion is the interpreter +of man; Christianity is the interpreter of religion; and God the +Father is the interpreter of Christianity. + + + + +DAWSON + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William James Dawson, Congregational preacher and evangelist, was born +in Towcester, Northamptonshire, in 1854. He was educated at Kingswood +School, Bath, and Didsbury College, Manchester. He has long been +known as an author of originality and pure literary style. In 1906 he +received the pastorate of Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church, +London, and accepted an invitation to do general evangelistic work +under the auspices of the National Council of the Congregational +churches of the United States. He now resides in this country. + + + + +DAWSON + +Born in 1854: + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by kind permission of Messrs. Fleming H. Revell +& Co., New York.] + +_As soon then as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals +there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Come +and dine_.--John xxi., 9, 12. + + +I can not read these words without indulging for a moment in a +reminiscence. Not long ago, in the early morning, while all the world +slept, I stood beside the Sea of Tiberias, just as the morning mist +lifted, and watched a single brown-sailed fishing-boat making for the +shore, and the tired fishermen dragging their net to land. In that +moment it seemed to me as if more than the morning mist lifted--twenty +centuries seemed to melt like mist, and the last chapter of St. John's +gospel seemed to enact itself before my eyes. For so vivid was the +sense of something familiar in the scene, so mystic was the hour, that +I should scarce have been surprized had I seen a fire of coals burning +on the shore, and heard the voice of Jesus inviting these tired +fishermen to come and dine. + +Now if I felt that, if I was sensible of the haunting presence of +Christ by that Galilean shore, how much more these disciples, in +whose minds every aspect of the Galilean lake was connected with some +intimate and thrilling memory of the ministry of Jesus. + +Christ once more stands among the common things of life; the fire, +the fish, the bread--all common things; a group of tired, hungry +fishers--all common men; and He is there to affirm that in His +resurrection He had not broken His bond with men, but strengthened +it--wherever common life goes on there is Jesus still. + +I. Notice the words with which the story opens, and you will see at +once that this is the real clue to its interpretation. "When morning +had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not +that it was Jesus." A strange thing that! Why did they not know Him? +Because they were not looking for Him in such a scene. It had seemed a +natural thing, if Jesus should appear at all, that He should appear in +the garden, a vision of life at the very altar of death. It seemed yet +more probable and appropriate that He should appear in the upper room, +that room made sacred by holiest love and memory. If any words of +Christ yet lingered in the mind and had power to thrill them, they +were surely these words, "Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the +clouds of heaven," glorified, triumphant, lifted far above the earth +and its humble life. And so, if they were looking for Christ at all +that morning, I think they watched the morning clouds, expecting Him +to come down the resplendent staircase of the sunbeams to call the +nations together and vindicate Himself in acts of universal judgment. +And behold! Jesus comes as a fisherman standing on the lakeside, busy +over a little fire, where the morning meal is cooking; and behold! +Jesus speaks, and it is not of the eternal mysteries of God, not of +the solemn secrets of the grave, but of nets and fishing and how to +cast the nets--the simple concerns of simple men engaged in humble +tasks. + +No wonder they did not recognize Him. Once more the Son of Man comes +eating and drinking, and even the eyes that knew Him best can not see +in this human figure by the lakeside the only begotten Son of the +Father, full of grace and truth. They looked and saw but a fellow +fisherman, cooking his meal upon the shore, and they knew not that it +was Jesus. + +II. Think for a moment of the earthly life of Christ, and you will +see that it was designedly linked with all the common and even the +commonest things of life. + +If you or I could have conceived the great thought of some human +creature that should be the very incarnation of God, what would have +been the shape of our imaginings? Surely we should have chosen for +this earthly temple of the Highest some human form perfected in grace +and beauty by the long refinements of exalted ancestry; the child of +kings or scholars; the delicate flower of life, in whom the elements +were so subtly mixed that we should recognize them as special and +miraculous--so we might think of God manifest in man. But God chooses +for the habitation of His Spirit a peasant woman of Nazareth, humble, +poor, unconsidered. + +If we could have forecast the training of such a life, how should +we have pictured it? Surely as sheltered from the coarseness of the +world, delicately nourished, sedulously cultured; but God orders +that this life should manifest itself in the house of the village +carpenter, out of reach of schools, in a little wicked town, under the +commonest conditions of poverty, obscurity, and toil. + +If you and I could have imagined the introduction of this life of +lives to the world, how should we picture that? Surely we should have +pictured it coming with pomp and display that would at once have +attracted all eyes; but God orders that it shall come without +observation, unfolding its quiet beauty like the wayside flower, which +there are few to see and very few to love. Commonness: that is the +great note of the incarnation and the purposed feature of Christ's +earthly life. + +He reaffirms His fraternity in common life. The disciples could not +imagine that as possible; nor can we. And why not? For two reasons, +one of which is that we have forgotten the dignity of common life. + +1. Dignity is for us almost synonymous with some kind of separation +from common life; it dwells in palaces, not in cottages; it inheres in +culture, but is inconceivable in narrow knowledge; and to the great +mass of men it is, alas! the attribute of wealth, of fine raiment, +of social isolation. But we have not learned even the alphabet +of Christ's gospel unless we have come to see that the only true +_in_dignity in human life is sin, meanness, malevolence, and +small-heartedness; and that all life is dignified where there are +love, purity, and piety in it, whatever be its social category. + +I read the other day that it is probable that the very mire of the +London streets contains that mysterious substance known as radium, the +most tremendous agent of light and heat ever yet discovered by man; so +in man himself, however low his state, there is the spark of God, an +ember lit at the altar fires of the Eternal, and it is because we +forget this that we forget the dignity of common life. For we do +forget it. We may make our boast that a single human soul is of more +value than all the splendors and immensities of matter; but in our +actions we treat the boast as a mere rhetorical expression. There is +nothing so cheap as men and women--let the lords of commerce answer +if it be not so. But Christ acted as tho the boast were true. He +deliberately inwove His life into all that is commonest in life. He +has made it impossible for us, if indeed we have His spirit, to think +of any salient aspect of human life without thinking of Him. +Where childhood is, there is Bethlehem; where sorrow is, there is +Gethsemane; where death is, there is Calvary; where the toiler is, +there is the poor man of Nazareth; and where the beggar is, there is +He who had no place where to lay His head. There is not a drop of +blood of Christ, nor a throb of thought in our brains that is not +thrilling with the impact of this divine life of lives. And so the +true dignity of life is this, that Christ is in all men, faintly +outlined it may be, defaced, half-obliterated, but there, and the +Church that forgets this has neither impulse nor mandate for Christ's +work among men. + +2. And then, again, there is a second reason: we have not learned to +look for Christ among the common things of life. + +"Let us build three tabernacles," said the wondering disciples on +the Mount of Transfiguration, and the speech betrayed a tendency of +thought which was in time to prove fatal to the Church. + +The Christ without a tabernacle, the free, familiar Christ of the lake +or the wayside was everybody's Christ; but the moment Christ is shut +up in a church or a tabernacle He becomes the priest's Christ, the +thinker's Christ, the devotee's Christ, but He ceases to be the +people's Christ. + +I remember five years ago standing in the great church of Assisi, +which has been erected over and encloses the little humble chapel +where Francis first received his call. You will scarcely be surprized +if I confess that I turned with a sense of heart-sick indignation +from the pomp of that splendid service in the gorgeous church to +the thought of Francis, in his worn robe, going up and down these +neighboring roads, touching the lepers, calling them "God's patients," +pouring out his life for the poor; and I knew Christ nearer to me +on the roads that Francis trod than in that church, which is his +mausoleum rather than his monument. And as I felt that day in far-off +Umbria, so I have felt to-day in England; my heart goes out to +Catherine Booth; to Father Dolling, to these Christs of the wayside, +and it turns more and more from the kind of Christ who lives in +churches and nowhere else. My brethren, you will let me say that we do +but make the church Christ's prison when we forget that all the realm +of life is His. Oh, you good people, you do love your church, but +often think and act as tho the presence of Christ can be found nowhere +else. Lift up your eyes and see this risen Christ, a fisherman upon +the shore, busy in no loftier task than to have a meal prepared for +hungry fishermen. Unlock your church doors, let Christ go out among +common people; nay, go yourselves, for it is here that He would have +you be. Remember that wherever there is toil, there is the Christ +who toiled; and there you should be, with the kind glance, the warm +hand-grasp, and the loving warmth of brotherhood. + +Christ stands amid the common things of life; where the fire is lit, +there is He; where the bread is broken, there is He; where the net of +business gain is drawn, there is He; and only as we learn to see Him +everywhere shall we understand the dignity and the divinity of human +life. + +III. "And Jesus said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the +ship, and ye shall find. They cast, and now they were not able to draw +it for the multitude of fishes." + +Here is another strange thing. Christ knows more about the management +of their own business than they do. They had toiled all night and +caught nothing; is not that a significant description of many human +lives? "Children, have ye any meat?" asks that quiet Voice from +the shore, and they answer "No." Is not that yet more pathetically +significant? All the heartbreak and disappointment of the world cry +aloud in that confession. Oh, I could fill an hour with the mere +recital of the names of great and famous people who have toiled +through a long life, and as the last gray hour came over their dim sea +of life, "brackish with the salt of human tears," have acknowledged +with infinite bitterness that they have caught nothing. Listen to the +voice of Goethe, "In all my seventy-five years I have not had four +weeks of genuine well-being;" to the confession of our own famous +poet, + + My life is in the yellow leaf, + The flowers, the fruits of love are gone; + The worm, the canker, and the grief + Are mine alone. + +to the ambitious and successful statesman who says, "Youth is folly, +manhood is struggle, old age regret"; to one of our most brilliant +women of genius in our own generation, wife of a still more brilliant +husband, who cries, "I married for ambition, and I am miserable." +Surely there is some tragic mismanagement of the great business of +living here. Oh, brother, is it true of you, that after all the +painful years happiness is not yours? You have no meat, no food on +which the heart feeds, no green pasture in the soul, no table in the +wilderness, and the last gray day draws near and will find you still +hungering for what life Has never given you. + +Learn, then, that Christ knows more about the proper management of +your life than you do. "Cast your net on the right side of the ship," +speaks that quiet Voice from the shore. And you know what happened. +And it is so still. Just because Christ stands among the common things +of life, He knows most about life, and, above all, He knows where +the golden fruit of happiness is found and where the secret wells of +peace. + +And to some of us whom God has called to be fishers of men the issue +is yet more solemn. We have the boat and the nets, all this elaborate +organization of the Church, but have we caught anything this year? +Where is the draft of fishes? Where are the men and women saved by +our triumphant effort? I will make my humble confession this morning, +that for five-and-twenty years I have cast the net, but only lately +have I found the right side of the ship; only lately have I discovered +how easy it is to get the great draft of fishes by simply going to +work in Christ's way. I do not believe in the indifference of the +masses in religion; the indifference is not in the masses, but in the +churches. You will never catch many fish if you stand upon the shore +of cold respectability and wait for them to come; launch out into the +deep and you will find them. Go for them--that is Christ's method. +Compel them to come in, for remember Christ's ideal was, as Bishop +Lightfoot so nobly put it, "the universal compulsion of the souls of +men." And if your experience is like mine, you will find that there is +strangely little compulsion needed to bring men and women to Christ. +I stood but lately in a house where fifty fallen women lived; I went +there to rescue three of its unhappy inmates. When the moment came to +take these three women from their life of sin, their comrades lined +the passage to shake my hand; there were tears and prayers, and +messages like these, "Be good. You'll be a good woman," "We wish we +had your chance"; and these poor souls in their inferno wished me +"a happy New-year." Compulsion! There was small need for compulsion +there! I believe I could have rescued all of these fifty women at one +stroke had I known where to take them. But to the shame of the Free +Churches in London I confess that, with the exception of the Wesleyans +and the Salvation Army, I do not know a single Free Church Rescue Home +in London. And I put it to you this morning whether you can any longer +tolerate that omission? I ask you whether you really want a great +draft of fishes, for you can have them if you want them. Christ knows +the business better than you do; and if you will come out of the +cloister of the church and seek the people in His spirit, I promise +you that very soon you will not be able to drag the net for the +multitude of fishes. + +IV. "And Jesus said unto them, Come and dine." + +Dine on what? Not the fish which they had caught. They had caught one +hundred and fifty-three great fishes; but notice Christ's fire was +kindled before they came. Christ's fish was already laid thereon, and +all they had to do was to come and dine. It is all you have to do, all +the churches have to do. Did not Christ so put it in the parable of +the Great Supper?--"Come, for all things are ready." Is not the last +word of Scripture the great invitation?--"The Spirit and the Bride +say, Come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of +life freely." Many a church can not say to a hungry world, "Come and +dine," because it will not let Christ prepare the meal. It will not +live in His spirit, it has no real faith in His gospel, it does not +understand that its true strength is not in elaborate organization +or worship, but in simple reliance on His grace. And so there is the +table covered with elaborate confections, which are not bread, and +when it says, "Come and dine," men will not come, for they know that +there is nothing there for them. Let Christ prepare the meal and all +is different then. When He says, "Come and dine," there is "enough +for each, enough for all, enough for evermore." And as Jesus spoke, I +think there flashed upon the memory of these men the scene when Jesus +fed the five thousand, and by that memory they knew their Jesus. No +one else ever spoke like that, with such certainty and such authority. +And the same Voice speaks even now to your hunger-bitten soul, to your +famished heart, "Come and dine." + +V. "Then Jesus taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise." + +There is no mistaking the act; it was a sacramental act. Here, upon +the lake shore, without a church, without an altar, the true feast of +the Lord was observed. For what does the Holy Supper, which is the +bond and seal of the Church's fellowship, stand for, if it is not +for this, the sanctification of the common life? Bread and wine, the +commonest of all foods to an Oriental, are elements indeed, because +they are necessary to the most elementary form of physical life, +things used daily in the humblest home. By linking Himself +imperishably with these commonest elements of life, Christ makes it +impossible to forget Him. Once more the thought shines clear, Jesus +among the common things of life. + +And then there comes one last touch in the beautiful story. While +these things happened, the day was breaking. Is there one of us +long tossed on sunless seas of doubt, long conscious of failure and +disappointment in life? Are there those of us whose sorrow lies deeper +than that which is personal--sorrow over our failure in Christ's work, +pain over a life's ministry for Christ that has known no victorious +evangel? Turn your eyes from that barren sea to Him who stands upon +the shore; He shall yet make you a fisher of men. Turn your eyes from +that bleak, dark sea of wasted effort where you have fared so ill; it +is always dark till Jesus comes, it is always light when He has come. +There is a new day breaking for the churches--a day of widespread +evangelistic triumphs that shall eclipse all the greatest triumphs of +the past, if we will but go back to Christ's school and learn of Him +how to save the people. And to each of us He says to-day: "I am the +living bread; I am the bread of life come down from heaven. If any man +eat of this bread, he shall live forever." "Come and dine." Will you +come? + + + + +SMITH + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +GEORGE ADAM SMITH, divine, educator and author, was born at Calcutta +in 1856, and educated at New College, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is at +present professor of Old Testament Language, Literature and Theology +in the United Free Church College, Glasgow. He is author of "The +Historical Geography of the Holy Land," "Jerusalem, the Topography, +Economics and History from the Earliest Time to A.D. 70" (1908). He is +generally regarded as one of the most gifted preachers of Scotland. + + + +SMITH + +Born in 1856 + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +_Preserve me, O God._--Psalm xvi., 16. + + +The psalmist lived in a period when belief in the reality of many gods +was still strong, and when a man who would follow the one true God +had to prefer to do so against the attractions of other deities and +against the convictions of a great number of his fellow countrymen +that these deities were living and powerful. That stage of religion is +so distant from ourselves that we may imagine the psalmist's example +to be of no practical value for our faith, yet in such an imagination +we should be very much mistaken indeed, for, to begin with, consider +how much you and I to-day owe to those believers who so many centuries +ago rejected all the gods that offered themselves to the hearts of men +except the true God, and who chose to cleave to Him alone with all +that passionate loyalty which breathes through these verses. But for +them you and I could not be standing where we are in religion to-day. +As the eleventh of Hebrews reminds us, we are the spiritual heir of +such believers. It is to their struggles and their faith and their +victories that we greatly owe it that we have been born into an +atmosphere in which no religious belief is possible to us save in one +God who is Spirit and Righteousness and all Truth. + +That, then, was the great choice that the psalmist's faith was turning +to--a choice that was no mere assent to a creed that had been fought +for and established by previous generations of believers. It was the +man's own proving of things unseen and his own preference of those +against the crowd and a system of things seen, palpable, and very +powerful in their attraction for the senses of humanity. But we are +not to suppose that the rival deities, from which this man turned to +the unseen God, were to his mind or to the mind of his day the heap +of dead and ugly idols which we know them to be. They were not dead +things that he could kick away with his feet that these believers had +to reject when they sought the living God, but things which he and his +contemporaries felt to be alive and powerful; powerful alike in their +seduction and in their vengeance. They were believed to be identical, +as you know, with the forces of nature; they were supposed to be +indispensable to the welfare of the individual and of society, and +they were fanatically supported at the time by the mass of this man's +own countrymen; so that to break from them in those days meant to +abandon ancient opinions and habits, to resist many pleasant and +natural temptations and to incur the hostility, as was believed, of +the powers of nature, to break with customs and with rites that had +fortified and consoled the individual heart for generations and been +the support and sanction of society and of the state as well. Yet this +man did it. From all that living crowd and system, from all those +visible temptations and terrors he turned to the unseen, fully +conscious of his danger, for he opens his Psalm with a great cry, +"Preserve me, preserve me, O God!" but yet deliberately, and with all +his heart: "I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." I have no +goodness, no happiness, that is outside Thee or outside the saints +that are in the land, "the excellent in whom is all my delight." Here +we touch another great characteristic of all true faith which is full +of example to ourselves. It is remarkable how, when a man really turns +to God, he turns to God's people as well, and how he includes them in +the loyalty and in the devotion which he feels toward his Redeemer. +His confidence and the sensitiveness of his faith in and toward God +become almost an equal confidence and an equal sensitiveness toward +his fellow believers. So it is throughout Scripture; you remember that +other psalmist who tells us how he had been tempted to doubt God's +providence and God's power to help the good man--"does God know and is +there knowledge in the Most High? Verily I have cleansed my heart in +vain and washed my hands in innocency." The psalmist immediately adds: +"If I had spoken thus, behold I had dealt treacherously with the +generation of God's children." If I had spoken thus, denying God, +I had dealt treacherously with the generation of God's children. +Unbelief toward God meant to him treason toward God's people; and the +author of the Epistle to the Hebrews affirms the same double character +of true faith when he emphasizes just these two points in the faith +of Moses: "choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God," and +"enduring as seeing Him who is invisible," and God Himself through +Jesus Christ has accepted this partnership of His people in our +loyalty--"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these +my brethren ye have done it unto me." I do not believe in the full +faith of any man who does not extend the loyalty he professes to +God to God's people as well, who does not feel as sensitive to his +brethren on earth as he does to his Father in heaven, who does not +practise piety toward the Church as he does toward her Head, or find +in her fellowship and her service a joy and a gladness which is one +with his deep joy in God, his Redeemer. Nay, is it not just in loving +people who are still imperfect, often disappointing, and far from +their ideal it may be, that in our relations to them we are to find +the greater proof and test of our religious faith? In these days such +a duty is unfortunately more complicated than with the psalmist. The +lines between God's Church and the world is not so clear as it was to +him, and the Church is divided into many and often hostile factions. +All the more it becomes the test of our religion if our hearts feel +and rejoice in the fellowship of God's simpler and more needy and more +devoted believers, however unattractive they may otherwise be. + +Consider the way in which the psalmist reached this pure faith in God +and in His people. A factor in the process was distaste for the ugly +rites of idolatry--"Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer." +Idolatry always develops a loathsome ritual. Sometimes it is cruel +and sometimes it is horribly unclean, but it always debases the +worshiper's mind, confuses his conscience, and hampers his freedom and +energy by the burdensome ceremonies it imposes upon them. Standing +afar off from them as we do, and knowing that there is no heathen +religion but has something good in it, we are apt to think that it +does not in the least matter how crude or how material a nation's +faith be if only it be faith in something more powerful than +themselves, if it satisfy their consciences and have some influence in +disciplining society and helping the individual to control himself. +But you have only to see idolatry at work, and at work with the +habits of ages upon it, to recognize how terrible it can be in its +identification of sheer filth and cruelty with the interests of +religion, and how it at once demoralizes and paralyzes its adherents. +To see it thus is to understand the passionate horror of these words: +"Their drink-offering of blood will I not offer." + +It is, however, no mere recoil from the immoral which started the +spring of this psalmists's faith in God. That faith was formed on +personal experience of God Himself. In simple but pregnant phrases the +psalmist tells us how sure he has become, first, of God's providence +in his life; secondly, of God's intimate communion with his soul. God, +he says, had been everything in his life. One does not know whether +the psalmist was a prosperous man or a poor one; the inference that he +was prosperous and rich has sometimes been drawn, but wrongly drawn, +from one of the verses of the Psalm. His indifference to that is +clear, but what he did have he knew he had from God. God, he says, is +all his happiness and all his strength--"The Lord is the portion of +mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot." Whether poor +or prosperous he could say: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant +places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Now that assurance of divine +leading is not analyzable, but we know that it does grow up solid and +sure in the experience of simple men who have put their trust in God, +who have felt life to be a commission from Him and who have done their +duty obeying His call. With such men "all things work together for +good." Tho life about them shake and darken, they feel their own +solidity and have light enough to read the future. Tho stript +and stark, they feel the Lord Himself to be the portion of their +inheritance and of their cup. The portion of my inheritance the Lord +is, i.e., the little bit of land that fell to each Israelite as his +share in the promised inheritance of the nation. "The Lord is the +portion of mine inheritance," as we might say in our Scotch language, +"The Lord is my croft and my cup," so they find in Him all the +ground and the freedom they need to do their work, fulfil their +relationships, and develop their manhood. + +It is, however, with the psalmist's second reason for his faith we +have most to do. "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: +my reins also instruct me in the night seasons." This man held close +communion with God. Is it not great to find the testimony of a brother +man coming down all through those ages, from that dim and distant +past, clear and sure as to this, that he had God's counsel and that +God kept communion with him? God had spoken to this man and shown +him His will. Yes, he had received what we call inspiration and +revelation, and had proved the truth of these in his life. They had +led and they had lifted him. Nor had they come to him as many men +falsely suppose revelation and inspiration exclusively have come to +mankind, by means, namely, that were extraordinary and miraculous. The +psalmist tells us of no vision of angels, of no voice from heaven. The +Lord had not appeared to him in dreams nor by any marvelous signs; on +the other hand, he tells us simply that the divine counsel of which +he was so sure, and which he passes on to us, came to him through the +workings of his inner spiritual life. That is what he means by the +emphatic statement "yea, my reins instruct me in the night seasons," +which he adds parallel with the thought, "I will bless the Lord, who +hath given me counsel." According to the primitive physiology of +this man's nation and times, the reins of a man fulfil the same +intellectual function which we, with our larger knowledge, know are +discharged by the brain. This was how God's revelation came to this +brother of ours, through the working of his mind and conscience, but +it was in the night seasons that they worked, not in the day and in +the sunshine, but in the night when a man is left to himself with +only this advantage to his thought: that like the blind he is yet +undistracted by the influences which are seen. When he lies down he +thinks soberly and quietly about himself and about life and about God, +and about the great hidden future that is waiting for him. He +was communing with God, who had made his brain and used it as an +instrument of revelation. In these thoughts God was communing with man +through his reason and through his conscience. You and I are always +contrasting God's providence and His grace. We are always attempting +to oppose reason and revelation; to this man they were one. God's +great grace had come to him through God's own providence, and God's +revelation was ministered to him through the reason with which he had +endowed the creature He had made in His own image. This psalmist's +chief and practical help to us men and women today is that he became +sure of God not because of any miracle or supernatural sign, on his +report of which we might be content indolently to rest our faith, but +in God's own providence in his life and in God's quiet communion with +him through the organs God Himself has created in every one of us. For +all time, whether before or after Christ, these are the chief +grounds and foundations of faith in God. So it was in the Old +Testament--"stand in awe and sin not," "commune with your own heart +upon your bed and be still," "be still and know that I am God." So +with Christ, "for the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation, +but the kingdom of heaven is within you," and so with Paul, "the +Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the +children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint +heirs with Christ." "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of +our Lord Jesus Christ, ... that he would grant you according to the +riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the +inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end +that ye being rooted and grounded in love may come to apprehend with +all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to +know the love of Christ." + +God's guidance of his life, first of all, produces in a man a great +sense of stability. "I have set the Lord always before me: because he +is at my right hand I shall not be moved." He who has found God so +careful of him, he whom God hath regarded as worth speaking to and +counseling and disciplining, will be certain that he shall endure, +provided he is sure of his own loyalty. The life so loved of God, so +provided for, and in such close communion with the Eternal is not, can +not be the creature of the day, and this assurance stands firm in face +of even death and the horrible corruption of the body. The psalmist +refuses to believe that he is to dwell in the horrible under-world +forever--either himself or any of God's believers. "Thou must not, +thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, thou must not, thou wilt not +suffer thy loved ones to see the pit." To this man it is incredible, +and our hearts bear witness to the truth if we have had any experience +of God's blessing and guidance. To this man it is incredible that the +life God has cared for and guided and spoken to and brought into such +intimate communion with himself can find its end in death. Those whom +God has loyally loved and who have loyally loved God--for this +word badly translated "holy" in the psalms really has that actual +significance--those whom God has loyally loved and who have loyally +loved God shall never die. As He lives so shall they; they shall never +be absent from His presence. Be the future unknown and unknowable, +be we ourselves incapable of conceiving the processes by which this +mortal shall put on immortality, or where heaven is, or what eternity +can possibly be to those who have never lived outside time, yet that +future is secure and its immortal character is indubitable--where God +is there shall His servants be, and because He is there their life +shall be peace and joy, and because He is eternal it shall last +forevermore. That thought is the whole of the hope and argument. We +are assured of the future life because we have known God, and as we +have found Him to be true to us and proved ourselves true to Him. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Frank Wakely Gunsaulus was born at Chesterville, Ohio, in 1856. He +graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1875. For some years he was +pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago, and since 1899 pastor of Central +Church, Chicago. He is also president of the Armour Institute of +Technology. He is a fascinating speaker, having a clear, resonant +voice, and a dignified presence. His mind is a storehouse of the best +literature, and his English style is noteworthy for its purity and +richness. He is the author of several books and is in popular demand +as a lecturer. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +Born in 1856 + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY[1] + +[Footnote 1: Preached as an impromptu reply to R.G. Ingersoll. Printed +from an unrevised stenographic report.] + +_There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none +of them is without signification_.--I Cor. xiv., 10. + + +Ours is a voiceful era. Perhaps, as the ages come and go and man's +life grows richer, its questions more restless for answer, its +moral supports called upon to bear heavier interests of faith, its +enterprises more often and searchingly compelled to defend themselves, +the voices of time will be increasingly potent and worthy of his +attention. A singularly suggestive collection of messages fills the +air today, and all of these voices speak of one theme--the Bible. + +Anarchy, which is always atheistic, holds its converse in the places +of evil which this book's message would close forever; the foes of +that civilization builded on its laws and stimulated by its hopes asks +us to condemn it as worthy only of caricature, vituperation, and hate. +Let us find a path of duty today, not refusing to listen to any of +these voices, but asking that other voices also may help us to the +truth. + +The preacher's message is a book called the Bible. That is only the +literary form of his message--telling its history. Even that form, +which is much less divine as paper and ink are less lofty in the +scale than humanity, has worked wonders. To-day, the Bible offers the +nineteenth-century infidel as testimony of the influence it has. It +has force enough to make infidelity preach tearfully and well about +man, woman, and child. Skepticism did not do so well until the Bible +came. The Bible has furnished the eloquence of infidelity with such +a man as Shakespeare to talk about; no student of literature could +imagine Shakespeare without the Bible and the Bible's influence upon +him as he created his dreams. It furnished an Abraham Lincoln for an +orator to compare favorably with incomplete ideas of Almighty God; but +it seems to have been unable to show the critic that Christian ideas +of Almighty God made Lincoln so love the Lord's Prayer that he wanted +a church builded with this as its creed. It would seem that any +general denunciation or humorous caricature of a book which has +worked such an amazing effect in literature as has the Bible would +be tempered by some recognition of the fact that these other +minds--poets, orators, sages, and scientists--have found illumination +and help in its pages. Liberal Christianity will be intellectually +broad. Certainly the greatest of modern pagans, Goethe, will not be +accused of favoritism toward the Bible, yet he said: "I esteem the +gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the +reflected splendor of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of +Jesus Christ, of so divine a kind as only the divine could ever have +manifested upon earth." The Earl of Rochester saw that the only +liberalism which objects to the Bible, in its true uses, is the +liberalism of licentiousness; and he left this saying: "A bad heart +is the great argument against this holy book." And Faraday, weeping, +said: "Why will people go astray when they have this blest book to +guide them?" + +If we turn to literature we encounter many such liberal thinkers as +Theodore Parker, who calmly informs us: "This collection of books has +taken such a hold upon the world as has no other. The literature of +Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and +heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book. It goes equally +to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is +woven into the literature of the scholar and colors the talk of the +street." That is the voice of the liberalism which includes rather +than excludes. + +These were men not of the band of evangelical Christian preachers, who +are roughly classed as a set of persons unable to tell the truth about +the Bible, for fear they may lose their means of subsistence; these +are men who know the true mission of the Bible. It is not to furnish +a picture of life in the time of Moses such as life ought to be, a +portrait of a David for the imitation of men, a statue of a warrior +in a time of barbarism who shall command my obedience to his commands +now, an idea of God wrought out in ignorance and darkness, which has +no self-development within it. The mission of the Bible is to furnish +a humanly written account of a people, just as human as we, in whom, +by divine inspiration, the soul of truth so lived and worked as to +develop, in gradual course, by laws, by hopes, by loves, by life, a +living, and, at last, perfectly authoritative ideal of righteousness, +but more than all a gradual growth of such moral power as would be +commanding in the redeeming self-sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ. +Every page of the Old Testament was only preparatory, as the thorny +bush is preparatory for the rose. Christ is the end of the long, weary +human history that leads to Him. If the laws of Sinai had been enough, +there never would have been a Calvary. No one for a moment dreams that +the God of nature could have brought forth such a fruit as the life +and ideas of Jesus without a tree of such a history, a tree rooted in +the ground, storm-twisted, gnarled, and valuable only for its fruit. +We are not asked to eat the roots and bark and branches; only the +fruit has an appeal to us. Its appeal is to our hunger, its authority +lies in the fact that it satisfies our hunger. + +It has satisfied the hunger of men whose liberalism came from their +being made liberally. Large and capacious souls of mighty yearnings +are they. They stand in contrast with the puny critics who assert +that the Bible fails to feed them, because they have never tasted its +nourishment. + +Liberal Christianity, separating itself from the dogmatism which would +make Christianity a book religion, worshiping a literary idol rather +than loving a human revelation of the divine, knows it is not an +ignorant lot of men and women who have received most from the Bible +and spoken most gratefully of its message. When we think of sending +the Bible to barbarism, with the hope of creating in its stead +civilization, we can look into the face of John Selden, one of the +most illustrious of English lawyers, when he says: "I have surveyed +most of the learning that is among the sons of men, yet at this moment +I can recall nothing in them on which to rest my soul, save one from +the sacred Scriptures, which rises much on my mind. It is this: 'The +grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, +teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live +soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for +that blest hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our +Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem +us unto himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works.'" Liberal +religion must include Selden. We will not be deterred from giving the +Bible to heathenism of any kind when we remember that Sir William +Jones has left these words: "The Scriptures contain more true +sublimity, more exquisite beauty, and finer strains of poetry and +eloquence than could be collected from all other books that were ever +composed in any age or in any idiom." Liberal religion must be as +broad as Sir William Jones. + +This is a very needy world, and many are the institutions of evil that +need to be changed for institutions of goodness. If we are to believe +the eloquence of hopeless unbelief, we ourselves will only be the +slaves of a fatalism which says that man is but a result of forces; +that what we call crime is but a part of the necessary course of +things, and that there is no such thing as moral responsibility. This +makes all reform or efforts at staying the tide of evil useless. +Oftentimes the heart of the man who has ceased to read his Bible gets +the victory over this dreadful philosophy, and it is not remarkable +that the skeptic becomes the exponent of freedom, charging like a host +of war upon all institutions of slavery. Liberal theology puts its one +hand on the dogmatist who tells him to accept literal infallibility, +and its other on the sincere lover of men who has lost his Bible +entirely. And liberalism says: It is in just such moments that we +trust our Bible the most, and we remember that William Wilberforce, +who lifted the chains from the bondmen, has said: "I never knew +happiness until I found Christ as a Savior. Read the Bible! Bead the +Bible! Through all my perplexities and distresses I never read any +other book, I never knew the want of any other." We are certainly not +despising the science which is worthy of a name, nor are we forgetting +any proposition which has found a place in the world's thought, if we +look into the face of Sir John Herschel, who tells us that "all human +discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more +and more strongly the truths contained in the holy Scriptures." It is +truly no part of wisdom for us to conclude that for scientific reasons +we ought to forsake our Bible when Professor Dana avers: "The grand +old book of God still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves +are turned and pondered, the more will it sustain and illustrate the +sacred Word." + +Surely it is not the hour dogmatically to withdraw this book, which +has proved the basis of civilization. Professor Lyell, the great +English geologist, tells us: "In the year 1806 the French Institute +enumerated no less than eighty geological theories which were hostile +to the Scriptures, but not one of these theories is held today." +Bacon's remark is still true: "There never was found in any age of the +world either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good +as the Bible." And John Marshall and Prince Bismarck agree with Daniel +Webster when he says: "If we abide by the principles taught in the +Bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and +our posterity neglect its instructions and authority no man can tell +how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in +profound obscurity." There is not an anarchist in America who does not +clap his hands when he hears a Bible with the Ten Commandments and the +Sermon on the Mount denounced. Indeed, the civilization in which we +stand, as compared with the barbarism out of which we have been led +by the Bible, would make William Henry Seward's assertion only a mild +statement of the truth when he says: "The whole hope of human progress +is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible." I prefer +lawyers like these to lead American public opinion. Part of the +service of these men has been that they have shown theology that the +Bible is not a set of texts on a dead level of authority and equal +value, but the revealing, slow and sure, of an inspiration obeyed by a +certain people in the realm of morals like that inspiration obeyed by +another people in the realm of art, and its test is: Does the Bible's +ultimate message, its crowning commandment of Christ's life and love, +produce goodness in morals? just as the test of the long revelation +of beauty in his ancestors and the Greek is, does its ultimate +commandment produce goodness in art. + +Christianity does not ask: "What think ye of the Bible?" It asks: +"What think ye of Christ?" There the throne is set, and so majestic is +His glory that the moment we come into His presence we are judged. The +Judge of the earth has taken His place in thought, history and hope. +He is not on trial, and He asks no question as to what man thinks of +the book which has enthroned Him in literature. The test is placed in +my conduct and yours; each may say with Michael Bruce, who left these +words on the fly-leaf of his Bible: + + 'Tis very vain of me to boast + How small a price this Bible cost; + The day of judgment will make clear + 'Twas very cheap or very dear. + +Shall we go forward with our Bible or backward without it? Infidelity +has always forgotten that, so far as it has an eye for liberty and +humanity, the Christianity not of sects but of the Bible has furnished +it and trained it. The liberalism which puts its Bible aside will +acknowledge that a Christless humanity culminated in Rome. Skepticism +is often eloquent when it tries to show how much "fragments of Roman +art" had to do with the making of modern civilization. Now, as Rome +marks the height to which humanity without a Bible ascended, it would +seem that this would be just the point where free and untrammeled +thought and the fullest intellectual liberty would be found. Right +there, where a Christless race was supreme, ought to be the place +where the liberty abounded which the religion of Christ is said to +destroy. + +Whose program for the production of intellectual and spiritual liberty +can liberals accept? Hoarse is the cry: The Bible is to be cast out. +We look and behold men who have these opinions sitting on the throne +of the Caesars. Now, one would suppose the intellect of that whole +realm would have fair play. There was no Bible there to fetter or to +annoy. This ought to be the halcyon age for "the liberty of man, woman +and child." These rulers have the same dignified abhorrence for all +kinds of religion. The skeptic Lucretius says: "The fear of the lower +world must be sent headlong forth. It poisons life to its lowest +depths; it spreads over all things the blackness of death; it leaves +no pleasure unalloyed." I match the Roman with the phrase of a recent +orator of this school who spoke of the soldiers dead, as now "sleeping +beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of +storm, each in the windowless palace of rest." There was no window in +the grave when more illustrious and original skeptics talked about it. +Modern infidelity has many expressions on the future after death which +sound like the old Roman distich, "I was not, and became; I was, and +am no more." + +Its orator, bending over the body of his dear brother, said nothing +more touching than did Tacitus over the grave of Agricola, as he +wrote: "If there is a place for the spirits of the pious; if, as the +wise suppose, great souls do not become extinct with their bodies; +if"--oh, that age of "if" ought to have been an age when every brain +was free and no thought or sentiment were a chain. The Bible of +Christianity was not powerful enough to throttle anybody. Its pages +were not all written; its authors were hunted and outcast. Morals, +too, ought to have been all right, for we are told that they are +independent of God and Christ. + +But what is the fact? Strangely enough, in that age, when nearly every +monarch, or poet, or philosopher was a humorous skeptic and they had +no Christian religion to "bind their hands," in an age when nothing +but this sort of infidelity was supreme, Seneca, to whom connoisseurs +in ethics blandly turn when they grow weary of the strenuous Paul or +the pensive John, Seneca, while he wrote a book on poverty, has a +fortune of $15,000,000, with a house full of citrus tables made of +veined wood brought from Mount Atlas. While he framed moral precepts +which we are besought to substitute for the Sermon on the Mount, he +was openly accused of constant and shameless iniquity, and was leading +his distinguished and tender pupil, Nero, into those practises and +preparing him for those atrocities which Seneca himself had upon his +own soul while he wrote his book on clemency. At that hour the Bible +Christianity offered to the world's heart and aspiration, not a book, +not a theorist of morals, but a man for the leadership of humanity, +and, of that Man the literary and calm French skeptic says: "Jesus +will never be surpassed." In the age of Rome, when people were not +burdened by churches or Bibles, Lucian says: "If any one loves wealth +and is dazed by gold; if any one measures happiness by purple and +power; if any one brought up among flatterers and slaves has never had +a conception of liberty, frankness and truth; if any one has wholly +surrendered himself to pleasure, full tables, carousals, lewdness, +sorcery, and deceit, let him go to Rome." There was no Bible either +to preach against it or to interfere with it. These things were the +product then, as they are now, of infidelity. Whenever the world +wishes a civilization so barbarous as that, the reviler of the Bible +must create it, for they have the applause of evil and the good-will +of crime. In the age of Rome, when this skepticism was the creed of +the State, Nero got tired of the goddess Astarte, and murdered his own +brother, his wife, and his mother, and the senate was so affected with +the same opinion that they heard his justification and proceeded to +heap new honors upon him. He threw the preacher Paul into jail, but +there Paul wrought out the impulse of Europe. In the age when the +great Livy said that "neglect of gods" had come, Caligula let loose +his imperial frenzy, and every stream of blood that could be sent +toward the sea carried its red tide. In that age when, like later +eloquent critics, Ennius said that he did not believe that the gods +thought of human beings, "for if the gods concerned themselves about +the human race the good would prosper and the bad suffer," the +courtesan was kept for pleasure and the wife for domestic slavery. In +that happy age of unbelief, when Menander sung "the gods do not care +for men," "the homes were," according to Juvenal, "broken up before +the nuptial garland faded"; and according to Tertullian, "they married +only to be divorced." Friends exchanged wives; infanticide and other +hellish crimes were common. This is what that spirit, in its purity, +did for the home, when there was no Bible to read at its hearthstone +and no New Testament to put into the hands of young lovers departing +to make a new rooftree. + +Labor will some day be too liberal to give up its Bible. In that age, +when "God was dead"; in that age, when "the gods had abdicated"; +they said, "the mechanic's occupation is degrading. A workshop is +incompatible with anything noble." The curse of slavery had blotted +the name of labor, and they agreed that "a purchased laborer is better +than a hired one," and thousands of prison-like dwellings rose to +conceal the myriads of slaves. In that age Nero, who had the same +opinion about God which the vaunting spirit which calls itself liberal +has today, had a "golden house" as large as a city, with colonnades a +mile long, and within it a statue of Nero 120 feet high. That is what +the theory of infidelity did for labor and the working man when it +was on the throne. Do you wonder that from that day to this the +"carpenter's son" of the Bible has been scoffed at by this infidelity? + +In that age, when the theories of infidelity ruled, the gladiators +made wet with their blood the great enclosure of the arena. The women +and timid girls of Rome gave lightly the sign of death. The crowd +shook the building with applause as the palpitating body was dragged +by a hook into the death-chamber, and slaves turned up the bloody soil +and covered the blood-dabbled earth with sand that the awful amusement +might go on. All this was allowed by infidelity in its purity, before +it had been influenced by the Christian's Bible into believing that +such things are atrocious. + +Oh, when I hear infidelity prate of the horrors of slavery and defend +a Godless theory of the State, I remember that those who had it in its +purity did not regard the slave as a man. When I read the story of +slavery and hear an exponent of free thought say, "The doctrine that +woman is a slave or serf of man--whether it comes from hell or heaven, +from God or demon, from the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, or +the very Sodom of perdition--is savagery pure and simple," I say, +"That is so, but just that was the ruling idea when infidelity was on +the throne of Rome." And only where the Bible has gone and triumphed +has woman the privileges which are thus praised. + +When I hear it said: "Slavery includes all other crimes. It is the +joint product of the kidnaper, pirate, thief, murderer, and hypocrite. +It degrades labor and corrupts leisure. To lacerate the naked back, to +sell wives, to steal babes, to debauch your soul--this is slavery," I +answer: "That is so," and I add that all these and a thousand other +damnable features of slavery were seen in Rome when the whole Roman +people felt and spoke about the message of the Bible just as your type +of liberalism does today. + +To all this wretched state of man what offers came from Seneca, whom +skepticism quotes as a moralist? Why, he said: "Admire only thyself"; +and when he saw that a man must get out of himself, he said: "Give +thyself to philosophy." Not philosophy, but the power of the Bible's +Christ has lifted man upward to his highest life. + +If ever anti-Christianity had a chance to show its beauty, it was when +it was at its supreme strength, and when Christianity was a babe in +the manger; and these are only suggestions of the hell it dug for man +at Rome. You say that it was not what skepticism is at the present +day, and I acknowledge that it is so. Why? Because nineteen centuries +have rolled like waves of light between, and Christ has improved it +in spite of itself. Never had the world so good a chance to see what +almost absolute skepticism and unbelief could and would do for the +liberty of the human soul as then. But when the thrones of Rome were +occupied with men who held the same opinion of the Bible as he does +today, what was the freedom of the race? + +The scene all comes back. Here is a little, obscure set of poor people +who follow the words and life of the son of a carpenter. They are +powerful in nothing that Rome calls power. But Rome says that they +shall not think that way. Celsus, from whom our less scholarly +skepticism is ready to borrow arguments, was not enough for the new +thought in the arena of debate, and they cried for another arena. Let +us remember that unbelief, in its purity at that date, was so offended +at nothing as at the fact that the Church said: "Christian justice +makes all equal who bear the name of man," and that Paul said: "There +is neither bond nor free, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Nothing +so offended the representative of free thought in that period as +the fact that a rich Roman, in the time of Trajan, having become a +Christian, presented freedom to his 1,250 slaves on an Easter day. +And, in all that time, when poor Christians with the funds of the +Church were privately buying the freedom of slaves, I do not find +that a base liberalism believed in liberty. Neither did it believe in +freedom of thought. It is the blossom of egotism; it has nothing to +which it bows; it beholds no majesty to which it can look up. It is +sublime self-conceit, and it has no hesitancy in telling the whole +human race that at its grandest moments it has been wrong. This +egotism dared to become active in Rome, and it asked the Christians, +in the person of the Emperor, to worship him, and to strew incense +about him. "I will honor the Emperor," said Theophilus, "not by +worshiping him, but by praying for him." Such men as that infidelity +kindly put to death. Around their quivering limbs the infidelity of +that day made the fagots to flame, and it taught the red tongues of +cruel death to creep about their smoking bodies. + +Men who believed that the Bible's influence was what infidelity says +it is, made the funeral pyre for Polycarp, the populace bringing fuel +for the fire, and while the flames made a glory of their lambent +glare, he cried out: "Six and eighty years have I served him and he +has done me nothing but good, and how could I curse him, my Lord +and Savior. If you would know what I am, I tell you frankly, I am a +Christian." He did his own thinking, and was brave enough to avow his +opinion, for which hate of Christianity duly burned him. This was the +way infidelity treated free speech. In that way it unchained the soul +of Polycarp. Infidelity's idea of Christianity sent the martyrs of +Numidia and Paulus out of the world while they were praying for their +murderers. Who believed in freedom then? Infidelity's idea of the +message of the Bible followed the Christian like a wild beast, and +in the catacomb of Calixtus drew from the pursued soul the pathetic +exclamation: "Oh, sorrowful times, when we can not even in caves +escape our foes!" And all this was true, because they said, +"Recompense to no man evil for evil"; "Pray for them that despitefully +use you and persecute you." + +This spirit of hate has had at least one holiday at the expense of +Christian faith. On the night of the 18th of July, 64, Rome was swept +with fire. Six days and nights it raged. Ruined was the world's +metropolis and excited were the wo-stricken people. Nero, whose +opinions of Christianity, by the way, were wonderfully like the +orator's, was king, and the people suspected that this royal monster +did it. Men told of how he exulted over the sea of flame as he watched +it from the tower of Maecenas; and whatever the truth of this may be, +it is certain that for the rage of the people Nero must have a victim, +and Tacitus tells us that he charged the Christians with the crime. +Then opened in Rome the awful carnival of bloodshed that the orator +never mentions, in which horrible modes of torture and excruciating +methods of producing pain vied with each other in satisfying the +demands of death. Women bound to raging bulls and dragged to death +were not without the companionship of others who, in the evening, in +Nero's garden, were coated with pitch, covered with tar, bound to +stakes of pine, lighted with fire, and sent to run aflame with the +hatred of Christianity. Through the crowd of sufferers a gentleman, +who was ultra-liberal as the orator, drove about, fantastically +attired as a charioteer, and the people were wild with delight. +Domitian had the same ideas, and severe were his persecutions of the +new heresy. This was the day on which infidelity was so full of the +love of freedom that it cried: "The Christians to the lions!" + +And so I might recount to you how for hundreds of years the Church +found out how early and unchristianized infidelity loved freedom of +thought. To a type of liberals, it has for years seemed a joy to go +to the places in the old world and note how intolerant the Church has +been. Now I suggest to any one that he go and visit some of the places +where men who thought of Christianity as negativism thinks showed +their faith and its fruits. Let him go to the Colosseum and ask the +winds that moan over its ruins what they know of the history +of infidelity. The winds will hush in that wreck of stupendous +magnificence, and with an eloquence gathered from seventeen centuries +they will tell him a story that will cause a flow of tears, for much +of infidelity is of noble heart. They will tell him how the marble +seats were crowded with thousands; again will sweep upward the shout +of the excited throng; before him there will lie a half-dead Christian +martyr, and near that pool of blood will stand a lion who has satiated +his horrid thirst. + +They will tell him how infidelity made that splendid place a temple +of the furies, how it laughed and yelled and applauded, as it amused +itself with that spectacle of horror. They will tell him how the +underground passages served to keep and cage wild beasts, and how +those who then hated Christianity starved the fierce lion until his +eyes rolled in hot hunger and his teeth were sharpened with its agony. +They will tell him how the infidelity of that day put balls of fire +on the backs of the lions, and how the madness of their passion was +increased by scattering hated colors about, tearing the beasts with +iron hooks and beating them with cruel whips. They will tell how the +Christian was made to fight these infuriated beasts without weapons, +while infidelity was frantic with applause. It said "no" to the torn +body yonder, that was mangled and supplicating in blood for life. I +would have him stand there until, in after years, in a nobler strain +than that of Byron, he could say: + + And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon + All this, and cast a wide and tender light, + Which softened down the hoar austerity + Of rugged desolation. + + * * * * * + + Till the place + Became religion, and the heart ran o'er + With silent worship of the great of old! + The dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule + Our spirits from their urns. + +So long as I know what this book has been and done, so long as man's +history will not allow me to risk the interests of society with the +infidelity which has so often demoralized it, so long will I yearn to +get the Bible and its message to all men. It has been our world's best +book. With this book as inspiration and resource, William Tyndale +and Miles Coverdale were so to continue and complete the task of The +Venerable Bede and John Wyclif as to make an epoch in the history of +that language to be used by Shakespeare and Burke--an era as distinct +as that which Luther's Bible so soon should mark in the history of a +language to be such a potent instrument in the hands of Goethe and +Hegel. For this very act of heresy, Tyndale was to be called "a +full-grown Wyclif," and Luther "the redeemer of his mother-tongue." +With the Bible, Calvin was to conceive republics at Geneva, and +Holbein to paint, in spite of the iconoclasm of the Reformation, the +faces of Holy Mother and Saint, and in spite of the cruelty of the +Church, scripturally conceived satires illustrating the sale of +indulgences. With that book Gustavus Vasa was to protect and nurture +the freedom of the land of flowing splendors, while Angelo was +transcribing sacred scenes upon the Sistine vault or fixing them in +stone. Reading this book, More was to die with a smile; Latimer, +Cranmer, and Ridley to perish while illuminating with living torches, +and the Anabaptist to arouse the sympathies of Christendom by his +agonies. With this book in hand, Shakespeare was to write his plays; +Raleigh was to die, knight, discoverer, thinker, statesman, martyr; +Bacon to lay the foundation of modern scientific research--three stars +in the majestic constellation about Henry's daughter. With this Bible +open before them the English nation would behold the Spanish Armada +dashed to pieces upon the rocks, while Edmund Spenser mingled his +delicious notes with the tumult of that awful wreck. + +This book was to produce the edict of Nantes, while John of Barneveld +would give new life to the command of William the Silent--"Level +the dikes; give Holland back to the ocean, if need be," thus making +preparation for the visit of the Mayflower pilgrims to Leyden or +Delfthaven. Their eyes resting upon its pages, Selden and Pym were to +go to prison, while Grotius dreamed of the rights of man in peace and +war, and Guido and Rubens were painting the joys of the manger or the +sorrows of Calvary. His hand resting upon this book, Oliver Cromwell +would consolidate the hopes and convictions of Puritanism into a sword +which should conquer at Nasby, Marston Moor and Dunbar, leave to the +throne of Charles I, a headless corpse, and create, if only for an +hour's prophecy, a commonwealth of unbending righteousness. With that +volume in their homes, the Swede and the Huguenot, the Scotch-Irishman +and the Quaker, the Dutchman and the freedom-loving cavalier, were to +plan pilgrimages to the West, and establish new homes in America. With +that book in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, venerated and obeyed by +sea-tossed exiles, was to be born a compact from which should spring +a constitution and a government for the life of which all these +nationalities should willingly bleed and struggle, under a conqueror +who should rise from the soil of the cavaliers, and unsheath his sword +in the colony of the Puritans. + +Out of that Bible were to come the "Petition of Right," the national +anthem of 1628, the "Grand Remonstrance," and "Paradise Lost." With +it, Blake and Pascal should voyage heroically in diverse seas. In its +influence Jeremy Taylor should write his "Liberty of Prophesying," +Sir Matthew Hale his fearless replies, while Rembrandt was placing on +canvas little Dutch children, with wooden shoes, crowding to the feet +of a Jewish Messiah. + +Its lines, breathing life, order, and freedom, would inspire +John Bunyan's dream, Algernon Sidney's fatal republicanism, and +Puffendorf's judicature. With them, William Penn would meet the +Indian of the forest, and Fénelon, the philosopher, in his meditative +solitude. Locke and Newton and Leibnitz would carry it with them in +pathless fields of speculation, while Peter the Great was smiting +an arrogant priest in Russia, and William was ascending the English +throne. From its poetry Cowper, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning +would catch the divine afflatus; from its statesmanship Burke, +Romilly, and Bright would learn how to create and redeem institutions; +from its melodies Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven would write +oratorios, masses, and symphonies; from its declaration of divine +sympathy Wilberforce, Howard, and Florence Nightingale were to +emancipate slaves, reform prisons, and mitigate the cruelties of war; +from its prophecies Dante's hope of a united Italy was to be realized +by Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. Looking upon the family +Bible as he was dying, Andrew Jackson said: "That book, sir, is the +rock on which the Republic rests"; and with her hand upon that book, +Victoria, England's queen, was to sum up her history as a power +amid the nations of the earth, when, replying to the question of an +ambassador: "What is the secret of England's superiority among the +nations?" she would say: "Go tell your prince that this is the secret +of England's political greatness," + +Beloved friends, when spurious liberalism, with all her literature, +produces such a roll-call as this; when out of her pages I may see +coming a nobler set of forces for the making of manhood, then, and +only then, will I give up my Bible; then, and only then, will I cease +to pray and labor that it may be given to all the world. + + + + +HILLIS + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Newell Dwight Hillis was born at Magnolia, Iowa, in 1858. He first +became known as a preacher of the first rank during his pastorate over +the large Presbyterian church in Evanston, Illinois. This reputation +led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he +succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted +audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in +Chicago. In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to +succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit made famous by the ministry +of Henry Ward Beecher. By his strong personality and mental gifts he +draws to his church a large and eager following. His best known books +are "A Man's Value to Society," and "The Investment of Influence." + + + + +HILLIS + +Born in 1858 + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE[1] + +[Footnote 1: By permission of the _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_. Copyright, +1905.] + +_Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, &c._--Isaiah xl., +1-31. _He shall not fail, nor be discouraged_.--xliv., 4. + + +This is an epic of the unwearied God, and the fainting strength of +man. For splendor of imagery, for majesty and elevation, it is one +of the supreme things in literature. Perhaps no other Scripture has +exerted so profound an influence upon the world's leaders. Luther read +it in the fortress of Salzburg, John Brown read it in the prison +at Harper's Ferry. Webster made it the model of his eloquence, +Wordsworth, Carlyle and a score of others refer to its influence upon +their literary style, their thought and life. Like all the supreme +things in eloquence, this chapter is a spark struck out of the fires +of war and persecution. Its author was not simply an exile--he was a +slave who had known the dungeon and the fetter. Bondage is hard, even +for savages, naked, ignorant, and newly drawn from the jungle, but +slavery is doubly hard for scholars and prophets, for Hebrew merchants +and rulers. + +This outburst of eloquence took its rise in a war of invasion. When +the northern host swept southward, and overwhelmed Jerusalem, the +onrushing wave was fretted with fire; later, when the wave of war +retreated, it carried back the detritus of a ruined civilization. The +story of the siege of Jerusalem, the assault upon its gates, the fall +of the walls, all the horrors of famine and of pestilence, are given +in the earlier chapters of this wonderful book. The homeward march +of the Persian army was a kind of triumphal procession in which the +Hebrew princes and leaders walked as captives. The king marched in the +guise of a slave, with his eyes put out, followed by sullen princes, +with bound hands, and unsubdued hearts. As slaves the Hebrews crossed +the Euphrates at the very point where Xenophon crossed with his +immortal ten thousand. In the land of bondage the exiles were planted, +not in military prisons, but in gangs, working now in the fields, now +in the streets of the city, and always under the scourge of soldiers. +When thirty years had passed the forty thousand captives were +scattered among the people, one brother in the palace, and another a +slave in the fields. Soon their religion became only a memory, their +language was all but forgotten, their old customs and manner of life +were utterly gone. But God raised up two gifted souls for just such an +emergency as this. One youth, through sheer force of genius, climbed +to the position of prime minister, while a young girl through her +loveliness came to the king's palace. One day an emancipation +proclamation went forth, from a king who had come to believe in the +unseen God who loved justice, and would overwhelm oppression and +wrong. The good news went forth on wings of the wind. Making ready +for their return to their homeland, all the captives gathered on the +outskirts of the desert. It was a piteous spectacle. The people were +broken in health, their beauty marred, their weapon a staff, their +garments the leather coat, their provisions pieces of moldy bread, and +their path fifteen hundred miles of sands, across the desert. To such +an end had come a disobedient and sinful generation! + +In that hour, beholding these exiles and captives, a flood of emotions +rushed over the poet; he saw those bound who should conquer; he saw +that men were slaves who should be kings. Then, with a rush, an +immeasurable longing shivers through him like a trumpet call. Oh, to +save them! To perish for their saving! To die for their life, to be +offered for them all! In an abandon of grief and sympathy, he began +to speak to them in words of comfort and hope. At first these exiles, +dumb with pain and grief, listened, but listened with no light +quivering in the eye, and no hope flitting like sunshine across the +face. Their yesterdays held bondage, blows and degradation; their +tomorrow held only the desert and the return to a ruined land. Then +the word of the Lord came upon the poet. What if the night winds did +go mourning through the deserted streets of their capital! What if +their language had decayed and their institutions had perished? What +if the farmer's field was only a waste of thorns and thickets, and the +towns become heaps and ruins! What if the king of Babylon and his +army has trampled them under foot, as slaves trample the shellfish, +crushing out the purple dye that lends rich color to a royal robe? +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." Is the way long and through a +desert? "Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall +be made low." Has slavery worn man's strength to nothingness until he +is as weak as the broken reed and the withered grass? The spirit of +the Lord will revive the grass, trampled down by the hoofs of war +horses. Soon the bruised root shall redden into the rose and the +fluted stem climb into the tree. And think you if God's winds can +transform a spray and twig into a trunk fit for foundation of house or +mast of ship, that eternal arms can not equip with strength the hand +of patriot? + +Is the Shepherd and Leader of His little flock unequal to their +guidance across the desert? "Behold the Lord will come with a strong +arm; he shall feed his flock like a shepherd and he shall gather the +lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom." What! Man's hand +unequal to the task of rebuilding Jerusalem? Hath not God pledged His +strength to the worker, that God whose arm strikes out worlds as the +smith strikes out sparks upon the anvil? Is not man's helper that God +who dippeth up the seas in the hollow of His hand? Who weighs the +mountains with scales and the hills in the balance? What! Thine +enemies too strong for thee? Why, God looketh upon all the nations and +enemies of the earth as but a drop in the bucket. He sendeth forth His +breath, and the tribes disappear as dust is blown from the balance. +Then the trumpet call shivered through these exiles. "Hast thou not +known? Have the sons of the fathers never heard of the everlasting +God, the Lord, Creator of the ends of the earth? Fainteth not, neither +is weary!" Heavy is the task, but the Eternal giveth power and +strength. Even tho young patriots and heroes faint and fall, they that +wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. While fulfilling their +task of rebuilding they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they +shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Oh, what a +word is this! What page in literature is comparable to it for comfort! +Wonderful the strength of the warrior! Mighty the influence of the +statesman! All powerful seems the inventor, but greater still the poet +who dwells above the clang and dust of time, with the world's secret +trembling on his lips. + + He needs no converse nor companionship, + In cold starlight, whence thou can not come, + The undelivered tidings in his breast, + Will not let him rest. + He who looks down upon the immemorable throng, + And binds the ages with a song. + And through the accents of our time, + There throbs the message of eternity. + +And so the unwearied God comforted the fainting strength of man. + +Primarily, this glorious outburst was addrest to the exiles as heads +of families. The father's strength was broken and his children had +been crusht and ground to earth. The ancient patrimony was gone; he +had gathered his little ones in from the huts where slaves dwelt. He +was leading his little band of pilgrims into a desert. But the prophet +spoke to the exiles as to men who believed that the family was the +great national institution. With us, the family is important, but with +these Hebrew exiles the family was everything. For them the home was +the spring from whence the mighty river rolled forth. The family was +the headwaters of national, industrial, social and religious life. +Every father was revered as the architect of the family fortune. The +first ambition of every young Hebrew was to found a family. Just as +abroad, a patrician gentleman builds a baronial mansion, fills it with +art treasures, hangs the shields and portraits of his ancestors upon +the walls, hoping to hand the mansion forward to generations yet +unborn, so every worthy Hebrew longed to found a noble family. How +keen the anguish, therefore, of this exile in the desert! What a scene +is that of the exiles upon the edge of the desert. Darkness is upon +the land and the fire burns low into coals. Worn and exhausted, +children are sleeping beside the mother. Here is an old man, lying +apart, broken and bitter in spirit--one son stands forth a dim +figure--looking down upon his aged parents, upon the wife of his +bosom and upon his little children. Standing under the stars, he +meditates his plans. How shall he care for these, when he returns to +his ruined estate? In the event of death, what arm shall lift a shield +above these little ones? What if sickness or death pounce upon a home +as an eagle upon a dove, as wolves upon lambs, or as brigands descend +from the mountains upon sleeping herdsmen! + +Every founder of a family knows the agony of such an hour! We are in a +world where men are never more than a few weeks from, possible poverty +and want; little wonder then that all men seek to provide for the +future of the home and the children. But to the exile standing in the +darkness, with love that broods above his babes, there comes this +word of comfort: God's solicitude for you and yours will not let Him +slumber or sleep! God will lift up a highway for the feet of the +little band of pilgrims. The eternal God shall be thy guide in the +march through the desert. His pillar of cloud by day and of fire by +night shall stand in the sky; He shall lead the flock like a shepherd; +He shall gather the little ones in His arms, and carry the children +in His bosom. And if the father fall on the march, the wings of the +Eternal shall brood the babes that are left. His right arm shall be a +sword and His left arm a shield. The eternal God fainteth not, neither +is weary. Having time to care for the stars, and to lead them forth by +name, He hath time and thought also for His children. What a word is +this for the home! What comfort for all whose hearts turn toward their +children! What a pledge to fathers for generations yet unborn! This +truth arms every parent for any emergency. For God is round about +every home as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, for bounty and +protection. + +But the sage was also thinking of men whose hopes were broken, and +whose lives were baffled and beaten. These exiles, crossing the +desert, might have claimed for themselves the poet's phrase, "Lo, +henceforth I am a prisoner of hope." Like Dante, they might have +cried, "For years my pillow by night has been wet with tears, and all +day long have I held heartbreak at bay." For these whose glorious +youth had been exhausted by bondage, life had run to its very dregs. +Gone the days of glorious strength! Gone all the opportunities that +belong to the era when the heart is young, the limitations of life had +become severe! Environment often is a cage against whose iron bars the +soul beats bloody wings in vain! + +How many men are held back by one weak nerve, or organ! How many are +shut in, and limited, and just fall short of supreme success because +of an hereditary weakness, handed on by the fathers! How many made one +mistake in youth in choosing the occupation and discovered the error +when it was too late! How many erred in judgment in their youth, +through one critical blunder, that has been irretrievable, and whose +burden is henceforth lasht to the back! In such an hour of depression, +Isaiah assembles the exiles, and exclaims, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my +people. Tho your young men faint and be weary, tho the strong utterly +fail, yet God is the unwearied one; with his help thou shalt take thy +burden, and mount up with wings as eagles; with his unwearied strength +thou shalt run with thy load and not be weary, and walk and not +faint." For this is the experience of persecution and the reward +of sorrow, bravely borne that the fainting strength of man is +supplemented by the sure help of the unwearied God. + +Therefore, in retrospect, exiles, prisoners, martyrs, who have +believed in God seem fortunate. The endungeoned heroes often seem the +children of careful good fortune and happiness. The saints, walking +through the fire, stand forth as those who are dear unto God. How the +point of view changes events. Kitto was deaf, and in his youth his +deafness broke his heart, but because his ears were closed to the +din of life, he became the great scholar of his time, and swept the +treasures of the world into a single volume, an armory of intellectual +weapons. Fawcett was blind, but through that blindness became a great +analytic student, a master of organization, and served all England in +her commerce. John Bright was broken-hearted, standing above the bier, +but Richard Cobden called him from his sorrow to become a voice for +the poor, to plead the cause of the opprest, and bring about the Corn +Laws for the hungry workers in the factories and shops. Comfort ye, +comfort ye, my people. + +Let the exile say unto himself: "Your warfare is accomplished; your +iniquity is pardoned; the Lord's hand will give unto thee double for +all thy sins that are forgiven." The great faiths and convictions of +the prophets and law-givers, your language and your laws and your +liberties, have not been destroyed by captivity; rather slavery +has saved them. At last you know their value; in contrast with the +idolatry of the Euphrates, the jargon of tongues, the inequality of +rights, the organization of justice and oppression, how wonderful the +equity of the laws of Moses! How beautiful the faith of the fathers! +How surely founded the laws of God. Henceforth idolatry, injustice and +sin became as monstrous in their ugliness as they were wicked in their +essence. Everything else might go, but not the faith of the fathers. +Persecution was like fire on the vase; it burned the colors in. Little +wonder that the tradition tells us that for the next hundred years, +at stated periods, all the people in the land came together, while a +reader repeated this chapter on the unwearied God and the fainting +strength of man that had recovered unto hope, men whose hopes had been +baffled and beaten. + +The thought of an unwearied God is also the true antidote to +despondency. The ground of optimism is in God. When that great thinker +described certain people as without God and without hope, there was +sure logic in his phrase, for the Godless man is always the hopeless +man. Between no God anywhere and the one God who is everywhere, there +is no middle ground. Either we are children, buffeted about by fate +and circumstances, with events tossing souls about in an eternal game +of battledore and shuttlecock, or else the world is our Father's +house, and God standeth within the shadow, keeping watch above His +own. For the man who believes in God, who allies himself to nature, +who makes the universe his partner, there is no defeat, and no death, +and no interruption of his prosperity. Concede that there is a God, +and it follows as a logical necessity that He will not permit any +enemy to ruin your life and His plans. For a man who holds this faith +it follows that there can be no defeat, or failure. Indeed, the +essential difference between men is the difference in their relation +toward God. Here are the biographies of two great men. Both are men +of genius, both are marvelously equipped, but their end was, oh, how +different. One is Martin Luther, who stood forth alone, affirming his +religious freedom, in the face of enemies and devils thick as the +tiles on the roofs of the houses. The few friends Luther had shut him +up in a fortress to save his life, but Luther mightily believed in +God. With the full consent of his marvelous gifts, he surrendered his +life to the will of God. Knowing that his days were as brief as +the withering grass, he allied himself with the Eternal. In his +discouragement he read these words, "The Everlasting God fainteth not, +neither is weary." In that hour Martin Luther shouted for joy. The +beetling walls of the fortress were as tho they were not. Victorious +he went forth, in thought, ranging throughout all Germany. And going +out, he went up and down the land telling the people that God would +protect him, and soon Germany was free. + +Goethe tells us that Luther was the architect of modern German +language and literature, and stamped himself into the whole national +life. The Germany of the Kaiser is simply Martin Luther written large +in fifty millions of men. But what made Luther? There was some hidden +energy and spirit within him! What was this spirit in him? The spirit +of beauty turned a lump of mud into that Grecian face about which +Keats wrote his poem. The spirit of truth changes a little ink into +a beautiful song. The spirit of strength and beauty in an architect +changes a pile of bricks into a house or cathedral or gallery. And the +thought of our unwearied God changed the collier's son into the +great German emancipator. But over against this man, who never knew +despondency, after his vision hour, stands another German. He, +too, was a philosopher, clothed with ample power, and blest with +opportunity. But he did evil in his life, and then the heart lost +its faith, and hope utterly perished. The more he loved pleasure and +pursued self, the more cynical and bitter he became. Pessimism set a +cold, hard stamp upon his face, and marred his beauty. Cynicism lies +like a black mark across his pages. At last, in his bitterness, the +philosopher tells us the whole universe is a mirage, and that yonder +summer-making sun is a bubble that repeats its iridescent tints in the +colors of the rainbow. Despair ate out his heart. He became the most +miserable of men, and knew no freedom from sorrow and pain. And lo, +now the man's philosophy has perished like a bubble, his influence +has utterly disappeared, for his books are unread, while only an +occasional scholar chances upon his name, tho the great summer-making +sun still shines on and Luther's eternal God fainteth not, neither is +weary. + +Are you weak, oh, patriot? Remember God is strong. Do your days of +service seem short, until your life is scarcely longer than the flower +that blooms to-day and is gone tomorrow? God is eternal, and He will +take care of your work. Are you sick with hope long deferred? Hope +thou in God; He shall yet send succor. Have troubles driven happiness +from thee, as the hawk drives the young lark or nightingale from its +nest? Return unto thy rest, troubled heart, for the Lord will deal +bountifully with thee. Are you anxious for your children? God will +bring the child back from the far country. For the child hath wandered +far, the golden thread spun in a mother's heart is an unbroken thread +that will draw him home! For things that distress you to-day, you +shall thank God to-morrow. Nothing shall break the golden chain that +binds you to God's throne. Are you hopeless and despondent because of +your fainting strength? Remember that the antidote for despondency is +the thought of the unwearied God who is doing the best He can for you, +and whose ceaseless care neither slumbers nor sleeps. + +Little wonder therefore that God became all and in all to this feeble +band of captives, journeying across the desert back to their ruined +life and land. God had taken away earthly things from them, that He +might be their all and in all. When the earth is made poor for us, +sometimes the heavens become rich. God closed the eyes of Milton to +the beauty in land and sea and sky, that he might see the companies of +angels marching and countermarching on the hills of God. He closed the +ears of Beethoven, that he might hear the music of St. Cecilia falling +over heaven's battlements. He gave Isaiah a slave's hut, that he might +ponder the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. How is +it that this prophet and poet has become companion of the great ones +of the earth? At the time Isaiah rebelled against his bondage, but +when it was all over, and the fitful fever had passed, and the fleshly +fetters had fallen, he smiled at the things that once alarmed him, as +he recalled his fainting strength and the unwearied God. + +Gone--that ancient capital. Babylon is a heap. Jerusalem a ruin! But +this epic of the unwearied Guide still lives! Isaiah, can never die! +Can a chapter die that has cheered the exile in his loneliness, that +has comforted the soldier upon his bivouac, that has braced the martyr +for his execution, that has given songs at midnight to the prisoners +in the dungeon? Out of suffering and captivity came this song of rest +and hope. At last the poet praised the eternal God for his bonds and +his imprisonment. Oh, it is darkness that makes the morning light so +welcome to the weary watcher. It is hunger that makes bread sweet. +It is pain and sickness that gives value to the physician and his +medicine. It is business trouble that makes you honor your lawyer and +counselor, and it is the sense of need that makes God near. + +Are there any merchants here who are despondent? Remember the eternal +God and make your appeal to the future. Are there any parents whose +children have wandered far? When they are old, the children will +return to the path of faith and obedience. Are there any in whom the +immortal hope burns low? The smoking flax He will not quench, but will +fan the flame into victory. Look up to-day; be comforted once more. +Work henceforth in hope. Live like a prince. Scatter sunshine. Let +your atmosphere be happiness. If troubles come, let them be the dark +background that shall throw your hope and faith into bolder relief. +God hath set His heart upon you to deliver you. Tho your hand faint, +and the tool fall, the eternal God fainteth not, neither is weary. He +will bring thy judgment unto victory, immortalize thy good deeds, and +crown thy career with everlasting renown. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +THE RECONCILIATION + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Edward Jefferson was born at Cambridge, Ohio, in 1860. He came +to public attention by the effectiveness of his preaching during a +most successful pastorate in Chelsea, Mass., from which he was called +to the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, in 1897. During his New York +pastorate the Tabernacle at 34th Street has been sold and a unique +structure, including an apartment tower ten stories high, has been +built farther up-town. Dr. Jefferson has published several successful +books. He has a mellow, sympathetic voice, of considerable range and +flexibility, and he speaks in an easy, conversational style. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +Born in 1860 + +THE RECONCILIATION[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission from "Doctrine and Deed," +Copyright, 1901, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.] + +_Christ died for our sins_.--1 Cor. xv., 3. + + +I want to think with you this morning about the doctrine of the +Atonement. Having used that word atonement once, I now wish to drop +it. It is not a New Testament word, and is apt to lead one into +confusion. You will not find it in your New Testament at all, +providing you use the Revised Version. It is found in the King James +Version only once, and that is in the fifth chapter of Paul's letter +to the Romans; but a few years ago, when the revisers went to work, +they rubbed out the word and would allow it no place whatever in +the entire New Testament. They substituted for it a better +word--reconciliation--and that is the word that will probably be used +in the future theology of the Church. It is my purpose, then, this +morning, to think with you about the doctrine of the reconciliation, +or, to put it in a way that will be intelligible to all the boys and +girls, I want to think with you about the "making up" between God and +man. + +Christianity is distinctly a religion of redemption. Its fundamental +purpose is to recover men from the guilt and power of sin. All of +its history and its teachings must be studied in the light of that +dominating purpose. We are told sometimes that Jesus was a great +teacher, and so He was, but the apostles never gloried in that fact. +We are constantly reminded that He was a great reformer, and so He +was, but Peter and John and Paul seemed to be altogether unconscious +of that fact. It is asserted that He was a great philanthropist, a man +intensely interested in the bodies and the homes of men, and so of +course He was, but the New Testament does not seem to care for that. +It has often been declared that He was a great martyr, a man who laid +down His life in devotion to the truth, and so He was and so He did, +but the Bible never looks at Him from that standpoint or regards +Him in that light. It refuses to enroll Him among the teachers or +reformers or philanthropists or the martyrs of our race. According +to the apostolic writers, Jesus is the world's Redeemer, He was +manifested to take away sin. He is the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sin of the world. The vast and awful fact that broke the apostles' +hearts and sent them out into the world to baptize the nations into +His name, was the fact which Paul was all the time asserting, "He died +for our sins." + +No one can read the New Testament without seeing that its central and +most conspicuous fact is the death of Jesus. Take, for instance, the +gospels, and you will find that over one-quarter of their pages are +devoted to the story of His death. Very strange is this indeed, if +Jesus was nothing but an illustrious teacher. A thousand interesting +events of His career are passed over, a thousand discourses are never +mentioned, in order that there may be abundant room for the telling of +His death. Or take the letters which make up the last half of the New +Testament; in these letters there is scarcely a quotation from the +lips of Jesus. Strange indeed is this if Jesus is only the world's +greatest teacher. The letters seem to ignore that He was a teacher or +reformer, but every letter is soaked in the pathos of His death. There +must be a deep and providential reason for all this. The character of +the gospels and the letters must have been due to something that Jesus +said or that the Holy Spirit inbreathed. A study of the New Testament +will convince us that Jesus had trained His disciples to see in His +sufferings and death the climax of God's crowning revelation to the +world. The key-note of the whole gospel story is struck by John the +Baptist in his bold declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh +away the sin of the world." In that declaration there was a reference +to His death, for the "lamb" in Palestine lived only to be slain. As +soon as Jesus began His public career He began to refer in enigmatic +phrases to His death. He did not declare His death openly, but the +thought of it was wrapt up inside of all He said. Nicodemus comes to +Him at night to have a talk with Him about His work, and among other +things, Jesus says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness +so shall the Son of man be lifted up." Nicodemus did not know what He +meant--we know. He goes into the temple and drives out the men who +have made it a den of thieves, and when an angry mob surrounds Him He +calmly says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it +up." They did not know what He meant--we know. He goes into the city +of Capernaum, and is surrounded by a great crowd who seem to be eager +to know the way of life. He begins to talk to them about the bread +that comes down from heaven, and among other things He says, "The +bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life +of the world." They did not understand what He said--we understand it +now. One day in the city of Jerusalem He utters a great discourse +upon the good shepherd. "I am the good shepherd," He says; "the good +shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." They did not understand +Him--we do. In the last week of His earthly life it was reported that +a company of Greeks had come to see Him. He falls at once into a +thoughtful mood, and when at last He speaks it is to say that "I, if I +be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The men standing by did not +understand what He said--we understand. All along His journey, from +the Jordan to the cross, He dropt such expressions as this: "I have +a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be +accomplished." Men did not know what He was saying--it is all clear +now. + +But while He did not talk openly to the world about His death, He did +not hesitate to speak about it to His nearest friends. As soon as He +found a man willing to confess that He was indeed the world's Messiah, +the Son of the living God, He began to initiate His disciples into the +deeper mysteries of His mission. "From that time," Matthew says, "he +began to show, to unfold, to set forth the fact that he must suffer +many things and be killed." Peter tried to check Him in this +disclosure, but Jesus could not be checked. It is surprising how many +times it is stated in the gospels that Jesus told His disciples +He must be killed. Matthew says that while they were traveling in +Galilee, on a certain day when the disciples were much elated over the +marvelous things which He was doing, He took them aside and said +"Let these words sink into your ears: I am going to Jerusalem to be +killed." Later on, when they were going through Perea, Jesus took them +aside and said, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and at last +be put to death." On nearing Jerusalem His disciples became impatient +for a disclosure of His power and glory. He began to tell them about +the grace of humility. "The Son of man," He said, "is come, not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom +for many." On the last Tuesday of His earthly life He sat with His +disciples on the slope of the Mount of Olives, and in the midst of His +high and solemn teaching He said, "It is only two days now until I +shall be crucified." And on the last Thursday of His life, on the +evening of His betrayal, He took His disciples into an upper room, and +taking the bread and blessing it, He gave it to these men, saying, +"This is my body which is given for you." Likewise after supper He +took the cup, and when He had blest it gave it to them, saying, "This +is my blood of the covenant which is shed for you and for many for the +remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me." It would seem +from this that the one thing which Jesus was desirous that all His +followers should remember was the fact that He had laid down His life +for them. One can not read the gospels without feeling that he is +being borne steadily and irresistibly toward the cross. + +When we get out of the gospels into the epistles we find ourselves +face to face with the same tragic and glorious fact. Peter's first +letter is not a theological treatise. He is not writing a dissertation +on the person of Christ, or attempting to give any interpretation of +the death of Jesus; he is dealing with very practical matters. He +exhorts the Christians who are discouraged and downhearted to hold up +their heads and to be brave. It is interesting to see how again +and again he puts the cross behind them in order to keep them from +slipping back. "Endure," he says, "because Christ suffered for us. +Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree." The +Christians of that day had been overtaken by furious persecution. +They were suffering all sorts of hardships and disappointments. But +"suffer," he says, "because Christ has once suffered for sins, the +just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Certainly the +gospel, according to St. Peter, was: Christ died for our sins. + +Read the first letter of St. John, and everywhere it breathes the +same spirit which we have found in the gospels and in St. Peter. John +punctuates almost every paragraph with some reference to the cross. +In the first chapter he is talking about sin. "The blood of Jesus +Christ," he says, "cleanses us from all sins." In the second chapter +he is talking about forgiveness, and this leads him to think at once +of Jesus Christ, the righteous, "who is the propitiation for our sins, +and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world." In the +third chapter he is talking about brotherly love. He is urging the +members of the Church to lay down their lives, one for another, +"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for +us." In the fourth chapter he tells of the great mystery of Christ's +love: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, +and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To the beloved +disciple evidently the great fact of the Christian revelation is that +Christ died for our sins. + +But it is in the letters of Paul that we find the fullest and most +emphatic assertion of this transcendent fact. It will not be possible +for me to quote to you even a half of what he said on the subject. If +you should cut out of his letters all the references to the cross, you +would leave his letters in tatters. Listen to him as he talks to his +converts in Corinth: "First of all I delivered unto you that which +I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." That was the +foremost fact, to be stated in every letter and to be unfolded in +every sermon. To Saul of Tarsus, Jesus is not an illustrious Rabbi +whose sentences are to be treasured up and repeated to listening +congregations; He is everywhere and always the world's Redeemer. +And throughout all of Paul's epistles one hears the same jubilant, +triumphant declaration, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who +loved me and gave himself for me." + +Let us now turn to the last book of the New Testament, the Book of +the Revelation. What does this prophet on the Isle of Patmos see and +hear, as he looks out into future ages and coming worlds? The book +begins with a doxology: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from +our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion forever and +ever." John looks, and beholds a great company of the redeemed. He +asks who these are, and the reply comes back, "These are they who have +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." He +listens, and the song that goes up from the throats of the redeemed +is, "Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; +for thou wast slain and didst purchase us for God with thy blood." +At the center of the great vision which bursts upon the soul of the +exiled apostle, there is a Lamb that was slain. Whatever we may think +of Jesus of Nazareth, there is no question concerning what the men who +wrote the New Testament thought. To the men who wrote the book, Jesus +was not a Socrates or a Seneca, a Martin Luther or an Abraham Lincoln. +His life was not an incident in the process of evolution, His death +was not an episode in the dark and dreadful tragedy of human history. +His life is God's. greatest gift to men, His death is the climax and +the crowning revelation of the heart of the eternal. You can not open +the New Testament anywhere without the idea flying into your face, +"Christ died for our sins." + +How different all this is from the atmosphere of the modern Church. +When you go into the average church to-day, what great idea meets you? +Do you find yourselves face to face with the fact that Christ died +for our sins? I do not think you will often hear that great truth +preached. In all probability you will hear a sermon dealing with the +domestic graces, or with business obligations, or with political +duties and complications. You may hear a sermon on city missions, or +on foreign missions; you may hear a man dealing with some great evil, +or pointing out some alarming danger, or discussing some interesting +social problem, or urging upon men's consciences the performance of +some duty. It is not often in these modern days that you will hear +a sermon dealing with the thought that set the apostles blazing and +turned the world upside down. And right there, I think, lies one of +the causes of the weaknesses of the modern Church. We have been so +busy attending to the things that ought to be done, we have had no +time to feed the springs that keep alive these mighty hopes which make +us Christian men. What is the secret of the strength of the Roman +Catholic Church? How is it that she pursues her conquering way, in +spite of stupidities and blunders that would have killed any other +institution? I know the explanations that are usually offered, but it +seems to me they are far from adequate. Somebody says, But the Roman +Catholic Church does not hold any but the ignorant. That is not true. +It may be true of certain localities in America, but it is not true of +the nations across the sea. In Europe she holds entire nations in the +hollow of her hand; not only the ignorant, but the learned; not only +the low, but the high; not only the rude, but the cultured, the noble, +and the mighty. It will not do to say that the Roman Catholic Church +holds nobody but the ignorant. But even if it were true, it would +still be interesting to ascertain how she exercises such an influence +over the minds and hearts of ignorant people--for ignorant people are +the hardest of all to hold. When you say that the Church can hold +ignorant men, you are giving her the very highest compliment, for +you are acknowledging that she is in the possession of a power which +demands an explanation. The very fact that she is able to bring out +such hosts of wage-earning men and women in the early hours of Sunday +morning, men and women who have worked hard through the week, and many +of them far into the night, but who are willing on the Lord's Day to +wend their way to the house of God and engage in religious worship, +is a phenomenon which is worth thinking about. How does the Roman +Catholic Church do it? Somebody says she does it all by appealing to +men's fears, she scares men into penitence and devotion. Do you think +that that is a fair explanation? I do not think so. I can conceive how +she might frighten people for one generation, or for two, but I can +not conceive how she could frighten a dozen generations. One would +suppose that the spell would wear off by and by. There is a deeper +explanation than that The explanation is to be found in the spiritual +nature of man. The Roman Catholic leaders, notwithstanding their +blunders and their awful sins, have always seen that the central fact +of the Christian revelation is the death of Jesus, and around that +fact they have organized all their worship. Roman Catholics go to +mass; what is the mass? It is the celebration of the Lord's Supper. +What is the Lord's Supper? It is the ceremony that proclaims our +Lord's death until He comes. The hosts of worshipers that fill our +streets in the early Sunday morning hours are not going to church to +hear some man discuss an interesting problem, nor are they going to +listen to a few singers sing; they are going to celebrate once +more the death of the Savior of the world. In all her cathedrals +Catholicism places the stations of the cross, that they may tell to +the eye the story of the stages of His dying. On all her altars she +keeps the crucifix. Before the eyes of every faithful Catholic that +crucifix is held until his eyes close in death. A Catholic goes out of +the world thinking of Jesus crucified. So long as a Church holds on to +that great fact, she will have a grip on human minds and hearts that +can not be broken. The cross, as St. Paul said, a stumbling-block +to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, is the power of God unto +salvation to every one that believes. The Catholic Church has picked +up the fact of Jesus' death and held it aloft like a burning torch. +Around the torch she has thrown all sorts of dark philosophies, but +through the philosophies the light has streamed into the hearts and +homes of millions of God's children. + +Protestantism has prospered just in proportion as she has kept the +cross at the forefront of all her preaching. The missionaries bring +back the same report from every field, that it is the story of Jesus' +death that opens the hearts of the pagan world. Every now and then a +denomination has started, determined to get rid of the cross of Jesus, +or at least to pay scant attention to it, and in every case these +denominations have been at the end of the third or fourth generation +either decaying or dead. There is no interpretation of the Christian +religion that has in it redeeming power which ignores or belittles the +death of Christ. + +If Protestantism to-day is not doing what it ought to do, and is +manifesting symptoms which are alarming to Christian leaders, it is +because she has in these recent years been engaged so largely in +practical duties as to forget to drink inspiration from the great +doctrines which must forever furnish life and strength and hope. +If you will allow me to prophesy this morning, I predict that the +preaching of the next fifty years will be far more doctrinal than the +preaching of the last fifty years has been. I imagine some of you will +shudder at that. You say you do not like doctrinal preaching, you want +preaching that is practical. Well, pray, what is practical preaching? +Practical preaching is preaching that accomplishes the object for +which preaching is done, and the primary object of all Christian +preaching is to reconcile men to God. The experience of 1900 years +proves that it is only doctrinal preaching that reconciles the heart +to God. If, then, you really want practical preaching, the only +preaching that is deserving the name is preaching that deals with the +great Christian doctrines. But somebody says, I do not like doctrinal +preaching. A great many people have said that within recent years. I +do not believe they mean what they say. They are not expressing with +accuracy what is in their mind. They do like doctrinal preaching if +they are intelligent, faithful Christians, for doctrinal preaching is +bread to hearts that have been born again. When people say they do +not like doctrinal preaching, they often mean that they do not like +preaching which belongs to the eighteenth or seventeenth or sixteenth +centuries. They are not to be blamed for this. There is nothing that +gets stale so soon as preaching. We can not live upon the preaching +of a bygone age. If preachers bring out the interpretations and +phraseology which were current a hundred years ago, people must of +necessity say, "Oh, please do not give us that, we do not like such +doctrinal preaching." But doctrinal preaching need not be antiquated +or belated, it may be fresh, it may be couched in the language in +which men were born, it may use for its illustrations the images and +figures and analogies which are uppermost in men's imagination. And +whenever it does this there is no preaching which is so thrilling +and uplifting and mighty as the preaching which deals with the great +fundamental doctrines. + +In one sense, the Christian religion never changes, in another sense +it is changing all the time. The facts of Christianity never change, +the interpretations of those facts alter from age to age. It is with +religion as it is with, the stars, the stars never change. They move +in their orbits in our night sky as they moved in the night sky of +Abraham when he left his old Chaldean home. The constellations were +the same at the opening of our century as they were when David watched +his flocks on the old Judean hills. But the interpretations of the +stars have always changed, must always change. Pick up the old charts +which the astrologers made and compare them with the charts of +astronomers of our day. How vast the difference! Listen to our +astronomers talk about the magnitudes and disunites and composition of +the stars, and compare with their story that which was written in +the astronomy of a few centuries ago. The stellar universe has not +changed, but men's conceptions have changed amazingly. The facts of +the human body do not change. Our heart beats as the heart of Homer +beat, our blood flows as the blood of Julius Caesar flowed, our +muscles and nerves live and die as the nerves and muscles have lived +and died in the bodies of men in all the generations--and yet, how the +theories of medicine have been altered from time to time. A doctor +does not want to hear a medical lecturer speak who persists in using +the phraseology and conceptions which were accepted by the medical +science of fifty years ago. Conceptions become too narrow to fit the +growing mind of the world, and when once outgrown they must be thrown +aside. As it is in science, so it is in religion. The facts of +Christianity never change, they are fixt stars in the firmament of +moral truth. Forever and forever it will be true that Christ died for +our sins, but the interpretations of this fact must be determined by +the intelligence of the age. Men will never be content with simple +facts, they must go behind them to find out an explanation of them. +Man is a rational being, he must think, he will not sit down calmly in +front of a fact and be content with looking it in the face, he will +go behind it and ask how came it to be and what are its relations to +other facts. That is what man has always been doing with the facts of +the Christian revelation, he has been going behind them and bringing +out interpretations which will account for them. The interpretations +are good for a little while, and then they are outgrown and cast +aside. + +A good illustration of the progressive nature of theology is found in +the doctrine of the atonement. All of the apostles taught distinctly +that Christ died for our sins. The early Christians did not attempt to +go behind that fact, but by and by men began to attempt explanations. +In the second century a man by the name of Irenaeus seized upon the +word "ransom" in the sentence, "The Son of man is come to give his +life a ransom for many," and found in that word "ransom" the key-word +of the whole problem. The explanation of Irenaeus was taken up in the +third century by a distinguished preacher, Origen. And in the fourth +century the teaching of Origen was elaborated by Gregory of Nyssa. + +According to the interpretation of these men, Jesus was the price paid +for the redemption of men. Paul frequently used the word redemption, +and the word had definite meanings to people who lived in the first +four centuries of the Christian era. If Christ was indeed a ransom, +the question naturally arose, who paid the price? The answer was, God. +A ransom must be paid to somebody--to whom was this ransom paid? The +answer was, the devil. According to Origen and to Gregory, God paid +the devil the life of Jesus in order that the devil might let humanity +go free. The devil, by deceit, had tricked man, and man had become his +slave--God now plays a trick upon the devil, and by offering him the +life of Jesus, secures the release of man. That was the interpretation +held by many theologians for almost a thousand years, but in the +eleventh century there arose a man who was not satisfied with the +old interpretation. The world had outgrown it. To many it seemed +ridiculous, to some it seemed blasphemous. There was an Italian by the +name of Anselm who was an earnest student of the Scriptures, and he +seized upon the word "debt" as the key-word of the problem. He wrote +a book, one of the epoch-making books of Christendom, which he called +"_Cur Deus Homo_." In this book Anselm elaborated his interpretation +of the reconciliation. "Sin," he said, "is debt, and sin against an +infinite being is an infinite debt. A finite being can not pay an +infinite debt, hence an infinite being must become man in order that +the debt may be paid. The Son of God, therefore, assumes the form of +man, and by his sufferings on the cross pays the debt which allows +humanity to go free." The interpretation was an advance upon that of +Origen and Gregory, but it was not final. It was repudiated by men of +the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and finally, in the day of the +Reformation, it was either modified or cast away altogether. + +Martin Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers seized upon the +word "propitiation," and made that the starting-point of their +interpretation. According to these men, God is a great governor and +man has broken the divine law--transgressors must be punished--if the +man who breaks the law is not punished, somebody else must be punished +in his stead. The Son of God, therefore, comes to earth to suffer in +His person the punishment that rightly belongs to sinners. He is not +guilty, but the sins of humanity are imputed to Him, and God wreaks +upon Him the penalty which rightfully should have fallen on the heads +of sinners. That is known as "the penal substitution theory." + +It was not altogether satisfactory, many men revolted from it, and in +the seventeenth century a Dutchman, Hugo Grotius, a lawyer, brought +forth another interpretation, which is known in theology as "the +governmental theory." He would not admit that Christ was punished. +His sufferings were not penal, but illustrative. "God is the moral +governor," said Grotius, "his government must be maintained, law can +not be broken with impunity. Unless sin is punished the dignity of +God's government would be destroyed. Therefore, that man may see how +hot is God's displeasure against sin, Christ comes into the world and +suffers the consequences of the transgressions of the race. The cross +is an exhibition of what God thinks of sin." That governmental theory +was carried into England and became the established doctrine of the +English Church for almost three hundred years. It was carried across +the ocean and became the dominant theory in the New Haven school of +theologians, as represented by Jonathan Edwards, Dwight, and Taylor. +The Princeton school of theology still clung to the penal substitution +theory, and it was the clashing of the New Haven school and the +Princeton school which caused such a commotion in the Presbyterian +Church of sixty years ago. They are antiquated. They are too little. +They seem mechanical, artificial, trivial. We can say of the +governmental theory what Dr. Hodge said, "It degrades the work of +Christ to the level of a governmental contrivance." If I should +attempt to preach to you the governmental theory as it was preached by +theologians fifty years ago, you would not be interested in it There +is nothing in you that would respond to it. You would simply say, "I +do not like doctrinal preaching." Or if I should go back and take up +the penal substitution theory in all its nakedness and hideousness, +and attempt to give it to you as the correct interpretation of the +gospel, you would rise up in open rebellion and say, "We will not +listen to such preaching." If I should go back and take up the +Anselmic theory and attempt to show how an infinite debt must be paid +by infinite suffering, you would say: "Stop, you are converting God +into a Shylock, who is demanding His pound of flesh. We prefer to +think of Him as our heavenly Father." If I should go further back and +take up the old ransom theory of Origen and Gregory, I suspect +that some of you would want to laugh. You could not accept an +interpretation which represents God as playing a trick upon Satan in +order to get humanity out of his grasp. No, those theories have all +been outgrown. We have come out into larger and grander times. We have +higher conceptions of the Almighty than the ancients ever had. We see +far deeper into the Christian revelation than Martin Luther or John +Calvin ever saw. These old interpretations are simply husks, and men +and women will not listen to the preaching of them. If, now and then, +a belated preacher attempts to preach them, the people say, "If that +is doctrinal preaching, please give us something practical." + +And so the Church is to-day slowly working out a new interpretation of +the great fact that Christ died for our sins. The interpretation has +not yet been completed, and will not be for many years. I should like +this morning simply to outline in a general way some of the more +prominent features of the new interpretation. The Holy Ghost is at +work. He is taking the things of Christ and showing them unto us. The +interpretation of the reconciliation of the future will be superior in +every point to any of the interpretations of the past. + +The new interpretation is going to be simple, straightforward, and +natural. The death of Christ is not going to be made something +artificial, mechanical, or theatrical. It is going to be the natural +conception of the outflowing life of God. + +The new interpretation is going to start from the Fatherhood of +God. The old theories were all born in the counting-room, or the +court-house. Jesus went into the house to find His illustrations +for the conduct of the heavenly Father. He never went into the +court-house, nor can we go there for analogies with which to image +forth His dealings with our race. It was His custom to say, "If you, +being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much +more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them +that ask him." + +The new interpretation is going to be comprehensive. It is going to be +built, not on a single metaphor, but on everything that Jesus and +the apostles said. Right there is where the old interpretations went +astray. They seized upon one figure of speech and made that the +determining factor in the entire interpretation. Jesus said many +things, and so did His apostles, and all of them must contribute to +the final interpretation. + +Two things are to be hereafter made very clear: The first is that God +reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. The old views were always losing +sight of that great fact. There was always a dualism between God and +Christ. I remember what my conception was when I was a boy. I thought +that God was a strict and solemn and awful king, who was very angry +because men had broken His law. He was just, and His justice had +no mercy in it. Christ, His Son, was much better-natured and more +compassionate, and He came forth into our world to suffer upon the +cross that God's justice might relax a little, and His heart be opened +to forgive our race. I supposed that that was the teaching of the +New Testament, it certainly was the teaching of the hymns in the +hymn-book, if not of the preachers. And when I became a young man, +I supposed that that was the teaching of the Christian religion. My +heart rebelled against it. I would not accept it. I became an infidel. +A man can not accept an interpretation of God that does not appeal to +the best that is in him. No man can accept a doctrine that darkens his +moral sense, or that confuses the distinction between right and wrong. +I would not accept the old interpretation because my soul rose in +revolt against it. I shall never forget how, one evening in his study, +a minister, who had outgrown the old traditions, explained to me +the meaning of the reconciliation. He assured me that God is love, +invisible, eternal. Christ, His Son, is also love. In becoming at +one with the Son we become at one with the Father. This is the +at-one-ment. And when that truth broke upon me my heart began to sing: + + Just as I am--Thy love unknown + Hath broken every barrier down; + Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, + O Lamb of God, I come! + + +I wonder in telling this if I have not spoken the experience of many +of you this morning. It is impossible to love God if we feel that He +is stern and despotic, and must be appeased by the sufferings of an +innocent man. The New Testament nowhere lends any support to that +idea. Everywhere the New Testament assures us that God is the lover +of men, that He initiates the movement for man's redemption. "God so +loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...." "Herein is +love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us." "God commendeth +his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died +for us." "The Father spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for +us all." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "I and my Father +are one." These are only a few of the passages in which we are told +that God is our Savior. When an old Scotchman once heard the text +announced, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten +Son," he exclaimed, "Oh, that was love indeed! I could have given +myself, but I never could have given my boy." This, then, is the very +highest love of which it is possible for the human mind to think: the +love of a father that surrenders his son to sufferings and death. + +And this brings us to the second great truth which is outgrowing +increasingly clear in the consciousness of the Church. The death of +Jesus is the revelation of an experience in the heart of God. God is +the sin-bearer of the world. He bears our sins on His mind and heart. +There are three conceptions of God: the savage, the pagan, and the +Christian. God, according to the savage conception, is vengeful, and +capricious, and vindictive. He is a great savage hidden in the sky. We +have all outgrown that. According to the pagan idea, He is indifferent +to the wants and woes of men. He does not care for men. He is not +interested in them. He does not sympathize with them. He does not +suffer over their griefs. He does not feel pain or sorrow. I am afraid +that many of us have never gotten beyond the pagan conception of the +Almighty. But according to the Christian conception, God suffers. +He feels, and because He feels, He sympathizes, and because He +sympathizes, He suffers. He feels both pain and grief. He carries a +wound in His heart. We men and women sometimes feel burdened because +of the sin we see around us; shall not the heavenly Father be as +sensitive and responsive as we men? But somebody says that God can +not be happy then. Of course he can not be happy. Happiness is not an +adjective to apply to God. Happy is a word that belongs to children. +Children are happy, grown people never are. One can be happy when the +birds are singing and the dew is on the grass, and there is no cloud +in all the sky, and the crape has not yet hung at the door. But after +we have passed over the days of childhood, there is happiness no +longer. Some of us have lived too long and borne too much ever to be +happy any more. But it is possible for us to be blest. We may pass +into the very blessedness of God. The highest form of blessedness is +suffering for those we love, and shall not the Father of all men have +in His own eternal heart that experience which we confess to be the +highest form of blessedness? This is the truth which is dawning like a +new revelation on the Church: the humanity of God. It is revealed in +the New Testament, but as yet we have only begun to take it in. God +is like us men. We are like Him. We are made in His image. We are His +children, and He is our Father. If we are His children, then we are +His heirs, and joint heirs with Christ. Not only our joys, but our +sorrows also, are intimations and suggestions of experiences in the +infinite heart of the Eternal. + + + + +MORGAN + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Campbell Morgan, Congregational divine and preacher, was born +in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1863, and was educated at the +Douglas School, Cheltenham. He worked as a lay-mission preacher for +the two years ending 1888, and was ordained to the ministry in the +following year, when he took charge of the Congregational Church +at Stones, Staffordshire. After occupying the pulpit in several +pastorates, in 1904 he became pastor of the Westminster Congregational +Chapel, Buckingham Gate, London, a position which he still occupies. +Besides being highly successful as a pulpit orator, Dr. Morgan has +published many works of a religious character, among which may be +enumerated: "Discipleship"; "The Hidden Years of Nazareth"; "Life's +Problems"; "The Ten Commandments." His last work, "The Christ of +To-day," has passed through several editions. + + + + +MORGAN + +Born in 1863 + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +_Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the son of man, then +shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as +the Father taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is +with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that +are pleasing to him. As he spake these things, many believed on +him_.--John viii., 28-30. + + +The Master, you will see, in this verse lays before us three things. +First of all, He gives us the perfect ideal of human life in a short +phrase, and that comes at the end, "the things that please him." Those +are the things that create perfect human life, living in the realm of +which man realizes perfectly all the possibilities of his wondrous +being--"the things that please him." So I say, in this phrase, the +Master reveals to us the perfect ideal of our lives. Then, in the +second place, the Master lays claim--one of the most stupendous claims +that He ever made--that He utterly, absolutely, realizes that ideal. +He says, "I do always the things that please him." And then, thirdly, +we have the revelation of the secret by which He has been able to +realize the ideal, to make the abstract concrete, to bring down the +fair vision of divine purpose to the level of actual human life and +experience, and the secret is declared in the opening words: "He that +sent me is with me; my Father hath not left me alone." + +The perfect ideal for my life, then, is that I live always in the +realm of the things that please God; and the secret by which I may do +so is here unfolded--by living in perpetual, unbroken communion with +God: communion with which I do not permit anything to interfere. Then +it shall be possible for me to pass into this high realm of actual +realization. + +It is important that we should remind ourselves in a few sentences +that the Lord has indeed stated the highest possible ideal for human +life in these words: "The things that please him." Oh, the godlessness +of men! The godlessness that is to be found on every hand! The +godlessness of the men and women that are called by the name of God! +How tragic, how sad, how awful it is! because godlessness is always +not merely an act of rebellion against God, but a falling-short in our +own lives of their highest and most glorious possibilities. + +Here is my life. Now, the highest realm for me is the realm where all +my thoughts, and all my deeds, and all my methods, and everything in +my life please God. That is the highest realm, because God only knows +what I am; only perfectly understands the possibilities of my nature, +and all the great reaches of my being. You remember those lines that +Tennyson sang--very beautifully, I always think: + + Flower in the crannied wall, + I pluck you out of the crannies;-- + Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, + Little Flower--but if I could understand + What you art, root and all, and all in all, + I should know what God and man is. + + +Beautiful confession! Absolutely true. I hold that flower in my hand, +and I look at it, flower and leaves and stem and root. I can botanize +it, and then I tear it to pieces--that is what the botanist mostly +does--and you put some part of it there, and some part of it there, +and some part of it there. There is the root, there the stem, and +there are the leaves, and there is everything; but where is the +flower? Gone. How did it go? When did it go? Why, when you ruthlessly +tore it to bits. But how did you destroy it? You interfered with the +principle that made it what it was--you interfered with the principle +of life. What is life? No man can tell you. "If I could but know what +you are, little flower, root and all, and all in all," I would know +what life is, what God is, what man is. I can not. + +Now, if you lift that little parable of the flower into the highest +realm of animal life, and speak of yourself--we don't know ourselves; +down in my nature there are reaches that I have not fathomed yet. They +are coming up every day. What a blest thing it is to have the Master +at hand, to hand them over to Him as they come up, and say, "Lord, +here is another piece of Thy territory; govern it; I don't know +anything about it." But there is the business. I don't know myself, +but God knows me, understands all the complex relationships of my +life, knows how matter affects mind, and physical and mental and +spiritual are blended in one in the high ideal of humanity. Oh, +remember, man is the crowning and most glorious work of God of which +we know anything as yet. And God only knows man. + +But here is a Man that stands amid His enemies, and He looks out upon +His enemies, and He says, "I do the things that please him"--not "I +teach them," not "I dream them," not "I have seen them in a fair +vision," but "I do them." There never was a bigger claim from the lips +of the Master than that: "I do always the things that please him." + +You would not thank me to insult your Christian experience, upon +whatever level you live it, by attempting to define that statement +of Christ. History has vindicated it. We believe it with all our +hearts--that He always did the things that pleased God. But I have got +on to a level that I can touch now. The great ideal has come from the +air to the earth. The fair vision has become concrete in a Man. Now, +I want to see that Man; and if I see that Man I shall see in Him +a revelation of what God's purpose is for men, and I shall see, +therefore, a revelation of what the highest possibility of life is. +Now this is a tempting theme. It is a temptation to begin to contrast +Him with popular ideals of life. I want to see Him; I want, if I can, +to catch the notes of the music that make up the perfect harmony which +was the dropping of a song out of God's heaven upon man's earth, that +man might catch the key-note of it and make music in his own life. +What are the things in this Man's life? He says: "I have realized the +ideal--I do." There are four things that I want to say about Him, four +notes in the music of His life. + +First, spirituality. That is one of the words that needs redeeming +from abuse. He was the embodiment of the spiritual ideal in life. He +was spiritual in the high, true, full, broad, blest sense of that +word. + +It may be well for a moment to note what spirituality did not mean in +the life of Jesus Christ. It did not mean asceticism. During all the +years of His ministry, during all the years of His teaching, you never +find a single instance in which Jesus Christ made a whip of cords +to scourge Himself. And all that business of scourging oneself--an +attempt to elevate the spirit by the ruin of the actual flesh--is +absolutely opposed to His view of life. Jesus Christ did not deny +Himself. The fact of His life was this--that He touched everything +familiarly. He went into all the relationship of life. He went to the +widow. He took up the children and held them in His arms, and looked +into their eyes till heaven was poured in as He looked. He didn't go +and get behind walls somewhere. He didn't get away and say: "Now, if I +am going to get pure I shall do it by shutting men out." You remember +what the Pharisees said of Him once. They said: "This man receiveth +sinners." You know how they said it. They meant to say: "We did hope +that we should make something out of this new man, but we are quite +disappointed. He receives sinners." + +And what did they mean? They meant what you have so often said: "You +can't touch pitch without being defiled." But this Man sat down with +the publican and He didn't take on any defilement from the publican. +On the other hand, He gave the publican His purity in the life of +Jesus Christ. Things worked the other way. He was the great negative +of God to the very law of evil that you have--evil contaminates good. +If you will put on a plate one apple that is getting bad among twelve +others that are pure, the bad one will influence the others. Christ +came to drive back every force of disease and every force of evil by +this strong purity of His own person, and He said: "I will go among +the bad and make them good." That is what He was doing the whole way +through. So His spirituality was not asceticism. And if you are going +to be so spiritual that you see no beauty in the flowers and hear no +music in the song of the birds; if the life which you pass into when +you consent to the crucifixion of self does not open to you the very +gates of God, and make the singing of the birds and the blossoming of +the flowers infinitely more beautiful, you have never seen Jesus yet. + +What was His spirituality? The spirituality of Jesus Christ was a +concrete realization of a great truth which He laid down in His own +beatitudes. What was that? "Blest are the pure in heart, for they +shall see God." Now, the trouble is we have been lifting all the good +things of God and putting them in heaven. And I don't wonder that you +sing: + + My willing soul would stay + In such a frame as this, + And sit and sing itself away + To everlasting bliss. + +No wonder you want to sing yourself away to everlasting bliss, because +everything that is worth having you have put up there. But Jesus said: +"Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If you are pure +you will see Him everywhere--in the flower that blooms, in the march +of history, in the sorrows of men, above the darkness of the darkest +cloud; and you will know that God is in the field when He is most +invisible. + +Second, subjection. The next note in the music of His life is His +absolute subjection to God. You can very often tell the great +philosophies which are governing human lives by the little catchwords +that slip off men's tongues: "Well, I thank God I am my own master." +That is your trouble, man. It is because you are your own master that +you are in danger of hell. A man says: "Can't I do as I like with my +own?" You have got no "own" to do what you like with. It is because +men have forgotten the covenant of God, the kingship of God, that we +have all the wreckage and ruin that blights this poor earth of ours. +Here is the Man who never forgot it. + +Did you notice those wonderful words: "I do nothing of myself, but as +my Father taught me, I speak." He neither did nor spoke anything of +Himself. It was a wonderful life. He stood forevermore between the +next moment and heaven. And the Father's voice said, "Do this," and He +said "Amen, I came to do thy will," and did it. And the Father's voice +said, "Speak these words to men," and He, "Amen," and He spoke. + +You say: "That is just what I do not want to do." I know that. We want +to be independent; have our own way. "The things that please God--this +Man was subject to the divine will." You know the two words--if you +can learn to say them, not like a parrot, not glibly, but out of your +heart--the two words that will help you "Halleluiah" and "Amen." You +can say them in Welsh or any language you like; they are always the +same. When the next dispensation of God's dealings faces you look at +it and say: "Halleluiah! Praise God! Amen!" That means, "I agree." + +Third, sympathy. Now, you have this Man turned toward other men. We +have seen something of Him as He faced God: Spirituality, a sense of +God; subjection, a perpetual amen to the divine volition. Now, He +faces the crowd. Sympathy! Why? Because He is right with God, He is +right with men; because He feels God near, and knows Him, and responds +to the divine will; therefore, when He faces men He is right toward +men. The settlement of every social problem you have in this country +and in my own land, the settlement of the whole business, will be +found in the return of man to God. When man gets back to God he gets +back to men. What is behind it? Sympathy is the power of putting my +spirit outside my personality, into the circumstances of another man, +and feeling as that man feels. + +I take one picture as an illustration of this. I see the Master +approaching the city of Nain, and around Him His disciples. He is +coming up. And I see outside the city of Nain, coming toward the gate +a man carried by others, dead, and walking by that bier a mother. Now, +all I want you to look at is that woman's face, and, looking into her +face, see all the anguish of those circumstances. She is a widow, and +that is her boy, her only boy, and he is dead. Man can not talk about +this. You have got to be in the house to know what that means. But +look at her face--there it is. All the sorrow is on her face. You can +see it. + +Now, turn from her quickly and look into the face of Christ. Why, +I look into His face--there is her face. He is feeling all she is +feeling; He is down in her sorrow with her; He has got underneath the +burden, and He is feeling all the agony that that woman feels because +her boy is dead. He is moved with compassion whenever human sorrow +crosses His vision and human need approaches Him. And now I see Him +moving toward the bier. I see Him as He touches it. And He takes the +boy back and gives him to his mother. Do you see in yon mountain a +cloud, so somber and sad, and suddenly the sun comes from behind the +cloud, and all the mountain-side laughs with gladness? That is that +woman's face. The agony is gone. The tear that remains there is gilded +with a smile, and joy is on her face. Look at Him. There it is. He +is in her joy now. He is having as good a time as the woman. He has +carried her grief and her sorrow. He has given her joy. And it is His +joy that He has given to her. He is with her in her joy. + +Wonderful sympathy! He went about gathering human sorrow into His +own heart, scattering His joy, and having fellowship in agony and in +deliverance, in tears and in their wiping away. Great, sympathetic +soul! Why? Because He always lived with God, and, living with God, the +divine love moved Him with compassion. Ah, believe me, our sorrows are +more felt in heaven than on earth. And we had that glimpse of that +eternal love in this Man, who did the things that pleased God, and +manifested such wondrous sympathy. + +Fourth, strength. The last note is that of strength. You talk about +the weakness of Jesus, the frailty of Jesus. I tell you, there never +was any one so strong as He. And if you will take the pains of reading +His life with that in mind you will find it was one tremendous march +of triumph against all opposing forces. About His dying--how did He +die? "At last, at last," says the man in his study that does not know +anything about Jesus; "At last His enemies became too much for Him, +and they killed Him." Nothing of the sort. That is a very superficial +reading. What is the truth? Hear it from His own lips: "No man taketh +my life from me. I lay it down of myself. And if I lay it down I have +authority to take it again." What do you think of that? How does that +touch you as a revelation of magnificence in strength? And then, look +at Him, when He comes back from the tomb, having fulfilled that which +was either an empty boast or a great fact--thank God, we believe it +was a great fact! Now He stands upon the mountain, with this handful +of men around Him, His disciples, and He is going away from them. "All +authority," He says, "is given unto me. I am king not merely by an +office conferred, but by a triumph won. I am king, for I have faced +the enemies of the race--sin and sorrow and ignorance and death--and +my foot is upon the neck of every one. All authority is given to me." + +Oh, the strength of this Man! Where did He get it? "My Father hath not +left me alone. I have lived with God. I have walked with God. I always +knew him near. I always responded to his will. And my heart went out +in sympathy to others, and I mastered the enemies of those with whom I +sympathized. And I come to the end and I say, All authority is given +to me." Oh, my brother, that is the pattern for you and for me! Ah, +that is life! That is the ideal! Oh, how can I fulfil it? I am not +going to talk about that. Let me only give you this sentence to finish +with, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." If Christ be in me by the +power of the Spirit, He will keep me conscious of God's nearness to +me. If Christ be in me by the consciousness of the spirit reigning and +governing, He will take my will from day to day, blend it with His, +and take away all that makes it hard to say, "God's will be done." + + + + +CADMAN + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +S. Parkes Cadman is one of the many immigrant clergymen who have +attained to fame in American pulpits. He was born in Shropshire, +England, December 18, 1864, and graduated from Richmond College, +London University, in 1889. Coming to this country about 1895 he was +appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Metropolitan Tabernacle, +New York. From this post he was called to Central Congregational +Church, Brooklyn, with but one exception the largest Congregational +Church in the United States. He has received the degree of D.D. from +Wesleyan University and the University of Syracuse. The sermon here +given, somewhat abridged, was delivered before the National Council of +Congregational Churches, in Cleveland, Ohio, and is from Dr. Cadman's +manuscript. + + + + +CADMAN + +Born in 1864 + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +_God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus +Christ: by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the +world_.--Gal. vi., 14. + + +The pivotal conception of missionary enterprise is the conception of +Christ as the eternal priest of humanity. If any need of the world's +heart is before us now, it is the need of the Cross. There is a +deep and anxious desire in men for the saving forces of sacrificial +Christianity. The ideals of the New Testament concerning Gethsemane +and Calvary are being thrust upon our attention by the upward +strugglings of the people. They, at any rate, have not forgotten the +forsaken Man in the night of awful silence in the garden, nor His +exceeding bitter agony, nor the perfect ending that made His death His +victory. The wastes of eccentricity, whether orthodox or heterodox, +and the over curious speculations of theologies remote from the +habitations of men, have had little influence upon the multitudes +we seek to serve. And if I had to choose a sphere where one could +rediscover the central forces of Christian life and of Christian +practise, I would lean toward the enlightened democracies which to-day +are vibrant with the plea that the shepherdless multitudes shall have +social ameliorations and new incentives and selfless leaders. + +We are all very jealous for the honor and success of the propagandism +we sustain at home and abroad, and I hold that its honor and success +alike depend upon the priesthood and redemptive efficacies of Jesus. +These sovereign forces are correlated with His victories for the +twenty past centuries, and they constitute the distinctive genius of +the faith. + +We shall gain nothing for the rule or for the ethics of Jesus by +derogating that peculiar office of the divine Victim which is, to +me, at any rate, the most sublime reason for the Incarnation and the +ineffable height and depth and mystery of all love and all strength +blessedly operative in every ruined condition by means of sacrifice. +The missionary fields confessedly can not be conquered by the unaided +teacher; he must have more than a system of truth, more than a +program, more than a reasoned discourse. Their vast inert mass demands +vitalization; and the life which is given for the life of men, the +divinest gift of all, is alone sufficient for this regeneration. + +Moreover, can we rest the absolutism and finality of Jesus upon +anything less than the last complete outpouring of His soul unto +voluntary death for men's salvation? I do not think we can, and it is +a requisite that we place larger emphasis upon this holy mystery of +our life through Christ's death, the substantial soul and secret of +all missionary progress in all ages of the Church. + +Before we can see the miracle of nations entering the kingdom of God, +before we can dismiss the black death of apathy which rests on so many +professedly Christian communities, before we can dominate the social +structure in righteousness and justice, the Church must be raised +nearer to the standards of New Testament efficiency. And New Testament +efficiency rested upon the perfect divinity and all-persuasive +mediatorship of "Christ and him crucified." The personality of Christ +involves for many of us the entire relation of God to His universe; He +is "the central figure in all history," and Pie is "the central +figure of our personal experience," creative in us, by His inaugural +experience, of all we are in Him and for our fellows. Thus we make +great claims for the Lord of the harvest, and we make them soberly, +and we know them true for our spiritual consciousness, and we are +prepared to defend them. + +Yet I, for one, do not hesitate to admit that the theological +necessities of missionary work are many, and that they must be +recognized and met before it can fully accomplish its infinite +design. Indeed, the rule of Jesus in all these aspects of His mission +clarifies and simplifies the gospel. It is plain that such a gospel, +wherein the living personality of the Christ deals with the living +man to whom we minister, is not to be beset by complications and +abstractions. Its spiritual topography embraces the height of +good, the depth of love, the breadth of sympathy, and the width of +catholicity. It was meant for the race and for the far-reaching +reciprocities and inexpressible necessities of the race. It is attuned +to the cry of the common heart. Its interpretations have the sanctions +of an authoritative human experience which has never failed in its +witness. Sometimes I have challenged these honored servants of the +evangel who have come back to us from quarters where they were busy +on the errands of the cross. Almost pathetically, with the painful +interest of one inquiring for a long absent friend of whom no news has +been received, I have solicited the missionaries. They came from the +south of our own dear land, where they administered to the negro; from +the arctic zone, from the farther East. Their wider vision, their more +imperial instinct, were plain to me, and my usual question was, "What +do you teach the impulsive colored man and the stolid Eskimo and the +pensive Hindu and the inscrutable Asiatic?" And they replied, "We +teach them, that God is a personal spirit and Father, whose character +is holiness and whose heart is love; that Jesus Christ is the designed +and supreme Son of God, who lived in sinlessness and died in perfect +willing sacrifice for the eternal life of all men, that by the will of +God and in the power of His spirit men may have everlasting life and, +better still, everlasting goodness, if they will accept and trust in +Jesus Christ for all." + +And this gospel obtains the day of overcoming for which we plead and +pray. For tho an angel from heaven had any other, men do not respond; +the charisma rests on no other message. Possest of it, and possessing +it, under the covenant of heaven and led by the Shepherd and Bishop of +souls, we shall go forth determined to give it place in us and in our +presentations as never before. May nothing mar the solemn splendor +of such a message from God unto men. Let us subordinate our undue +intellectualism and place our boasted freedom under restraints, so +that the evangel may be preached without reserve and with abandon. +"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, himself +man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." + +Such in one grand passage is the creed that breathes the very life and +spirit of the most significant and overwhelming missionary period in +the history of the Christian Church. + +There is a new day due in missions because of the immense superiority +in missionary methods. The _personnel_ of our administrations has been +superb, and of nearly all the honored servants of God who have labored +in domestic and foreign departments it could be said, "Thou hast +loved righteousness and hated iniquity." But I presume these seasoned +veterans would be the first to show us how the whole conception of +propagandism has been readapted, and its vehicles of communication +multiplied in various directions. The onfall and sally of the earler +evangelistic campaigns are now aided by the investment and siege of +educational and medical work. + +The trackways of a policy embedded in the wider interpretation of the +gospel are laid and the new era takes shape before our comprehension. +Travel, exploration, and commerce have demanded and obtained the +_Lusitania_ on the sea; the railroad from the Cape to Cairo on the +land, and they have left no spot of earth untrodden, no map obscure, +no mart unvisited. Keeping step with this stately and unprecedented +development, and often anticipating it, the widening frontiers of our +missionary kingdom have demonstrated again and again how the Church +can make a bridal of the earth and sky, linking the lowliest needs +to the loftiest truths. And best of all in respect of methods is the +dispersal of our native egotism. We have come to see that the types of +Christianity in Europe and America are perhaps aboriginal for us, +but can not be transplanted to other shores. "Manifest destiny" is a +phrase that sits down when Japan and China wake up. Not thus can Jesus +be robbed of the fruits of His passion in any branch of the human +family. We are to plant and water, labor in faith, and die in hope, +scattering the seed of the gospel in the hearts of these brothers of +regions outside. But God will ordain their harvests as it pleaseth +Him. What will be the joy of that harvest? Throw your imagination +across this new century, and as it dies and gives place to its +successor, review the race whose devotion has then fastened on the +divine ruler and the federal Man, Christ Jesus. For nearly a hundred +years the barriers that segregated us will have been a memory. The +Church will have discovered not only fields of labor, but forces for +her replenishing. Then will our posterity rejoice in the larger +Christ who is to be. The virtuous elements of all other faiths will +be placed under the purification and control of the priesthood and +authority of Jesus. And tho in these ancient religions that await the +Bridegroom, the mortal stains the immortal and the human mars the +beauty of the divine, in the light of His appearing they will assume +new attitudes and receive His quickening and thrill with His pulse. +When I conceive of this reward for our Daysman I protest that all +other triumphs seem as tinsel and sham. The Desire of all nations +shall then see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. The +subtle patience of China, the fierce resistance of Japan, the brooding +soul that haunts the Ganges valley, the tumult of emotion of the +Ethiopian breast, all are for His appearing; they must be saved unto +noble ends by His sanctification. For that time there will be a Church +whose canonization of the infinite is beyond our dreams, enriched on +every side, with common allegiance and diversity of gifts, and every +gift the boon of all, and Christ's dower in His bride increased beyond +compare. + +This is the ideal of the new day; may it become our personal ideal. +Then shall we fight with new courage for the right, and abhor the +imperfect, the unjust, and the mean. Our leaders will care nothing for +flattery and praise or odium and abuse. Enthusiasm can not be soured, +nor courage diminished. The Almighty has placed our hand on the +greatest of His plows, in whose furrow the nations I have named are +germinating religiously. And to drive forward the blade if but a +little, and to plant any seed of justice and of joy, any sense of +manliness or moral worth, to aid in any way the gospel which is the +friend of liberty, the companion of the conscience and the parent +of the intellectual enlightenment--is not that enough? Is it not a +complete justification of our plea? + +We shall do well to remember that no evangel can prosper without the +evangelical temper. The parsing of grammarians is of little avail +here, and to have all critical knowledge of the prophets and apostles +of the faith without their fervor and consecration is profitable +merely for study, and useless mainly for the larger life. Our culture +must be the passion-flower of Christ Jesus. To be more anxious about +intellectual pre-eminence or ecclesiastical origins than about "the +trial of the immigrant" and the condition of the colored races is not +helpful. "There is a sort of orthodoxy that revels in the visions of +apocalypses and refuses to fight the beast," says Dr. Nurgan. +Such barren indulgence is excluded from any glory to follow. +Technicalities, niceties, knowledge remote and knowledge general must +be appropriated and made dynamic in this life-and-death conflict; +any that can not be thus used can be sent to the rear for a further +debate. + +Diplomacies in church government and adjustments in church creeds can +wait on this consecration, this baptism of unction. I never heard that +the statesman who formulated the peace at Paris in 1815 got in the +way of the Household Brigades and the Highlanders at Waterloo and +Hougomont. They played their commendable game, but they could not +have swept that awful slope of flame in which Ney and the Old Guard +staggered on at Mont St. Jean. + +Let us redeem our creeds at the front, and prove the welding of our +weapons and their tempered blades upon every evil way and darkness and +superstition that afflict humankind. + +And have you not seen with moistened eyes and beating hearts the +pathetic surgings of harassed and broken sons and daughters of +God toward His son Jesus Christ? I have watched them until I felt +constrained to cry aloud and spare not; and while viewing them here +and yonder, and refusing to be localized in our love toward them, have +not our spirits been rebuked, have they not known fear for ourselves, +have they not pensively echoed the charge of some that we have no real +roots in democracy, but are as plants in pots, and not as oaks in the +soil of earth? If independency is a barrier to the essence of which it +is supposedly a form, if superiority shuts us off from assimilation +with popular movements and delivers us over to cliques, then these +churches of ours[1] will end in a record of shame and confusion. +While we are busy in trivial things, our energy and our might will be +deflected, and the living God will hand over the crusade to those who +have proven worthier and who knew the day when it did come, even the +day of their visitation. + +[Footnote 1: The special reference is to the Congregational churches.] + +We must arise with courage undismayed, and join in the cry of the +ages: + + When wilt thou save the people, + O God of mercy, when? + The people! Lord, the people! + Not crowns, nor thrones, but men. + + Flower of thy heart, O Lord, are they, + Their heritage a sunless day. + Let them like weeds not fade away; + Lord, save the people. + +If our hearts are thus enlarged, we shall run in the way of His +commandments; fatherhood and brotherhood and sonship will not be +symbols, shibboleths of pious intercourse, but ways of God's reaching +out through us for the total brotherhood. We shall silence the caviler +against missions; we shall raise the negro in the face of those who +say he can not be raised; we shall see the latter-day miracles, and +the lame man healed and rejoicing at the Temple gate. Thus may the +breath of God sweep across our pastorates and dismiss timidity, +provincialism, ease, and narrowness of outlook. And thus may the power +be demonstrated as of heaven because it is the power unto salvation. +Let us fear not men who shall die, nor be content to fill our peaceful +lot and occupy a respectable grave. The new world needs the renewed +baptism, and the "modernism" of which medievalists complain is the +robe of honor for the Christ of this epoch. So that there shall come +unto the Church the flame of sacred love, and, kindling on every heart +and altar, there shall it burn for the glory of Christ, the High +Priest, with inextinguishable blaze. We can rest content, for, behold! +the day cometh and in its light. Let us go hence. + + + + +JOWETT + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +John Henry Jowett, Congregational divine, was born at Barnard Castle, +Durham, in 1864, and educated at Edinburgh and Oxford universities. +In 1889 he was ordained to St. James's Congregational Church, +Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in 1895 was called to his present pastorate of +Carr's Lane Congregational Church, Birmingham, where he has taken rank +among the leading preachers of Great Britain. He is the author of +several important books. + + + + +JOWETT + +Born in 1864 + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of A.C. Armstrong & Son.] + +_Rejoicing in hope_.--Romans xii., 12. + + +That is a characteristic expression of the fine, genial optimism of +the Apostle Paul. His eyes are always illumined. The cheery tone is +never absent from his speech. The buoyant and springy movement of his +life is never changed. The light never dies out of his sky. Even the +gray firmament reveals more hopeful tints, and becomes significant of +evolving glory. The apostle is an optimist, "rejoicing in hope," a +child of light wearing the "armor of light," "walking in the light" +even as Christ is in the light. + +This apostolic optimism was not a thin and fleeting sentiment begotten +of a cloudless summer day. It was not the creation of a season; it was +the permanent pose of the spirit. Even when beset with circumstances +which to the world would spell defeat, the apostle moved with the mien +of a conqueror. He never lost the kingly posture. He was disturbed by +no timidity about ultimate issues. He fought and labored in the spirit +of certain triumph. "We are always confident." "We are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us." "Thanks be unto God who giveth +us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." + +This apostolic optimism was not born of sluggish thinking, or of idle +and shallow observation. I am very grateful that the counsel of my +text lifts its chaste and cheery flame in the twelfth chapter of an +epistle of which the first chapter contains as dark and searching an +indictment of our nature as the mind of man has ever drawn. Let me +rehearse the appalling catalog that the radiance of the apostle's +optimism may appear the more abounding: "Senseless hearts," "fools," +"uncleanness," "vile passions," "reprobate minds," "unrighteousness, +wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, +deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, +haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, without understanding, +covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful." With +fearless severity the apostle leads us through the black realms of +midnight and eclipse. And yet in the subsequent reaches of the great +argument, of which these dark regions form the preface, there emerges +the clear, calm, steady light of my optimistic text. I say it is not +the buoyancy of ignorance. It is not the flippant, light-hearted +expectancy of a man who knows nothing about the secret places of the +night. The counselor is a man who has steadily gazed at light at +its worst, who has digged through the outer walls of convention and +respectability, who has pushed his way into the secret chambers and +closets of life, who has dragged out the slimy sins which were lurking +in their holes, and named them after their kind--it is this man who +when he has surveyed the dimensions of evil and misery and contempt, +merges his dark indictment in a cheery and expansive dawn, in an +optimistic evangel, in which he counsels his fellow-disciples to +maintain the confident attitude of a rejoicing hope. + +Now, what are the secrets of this courageous and energetic optimism? +Perhaps, if we explore the life of this great apostle, and seek to +discover its springs, we may find the clue to his abounding hope. +Roaming then through the entire records of his life and teachings, +do we discover any significant emphasis? Preeminent above all other +suggestions, I am imprest with his vivid sense of the reality of the +redemptive work of Christ. Turn where I will, the redemptive work of +the Christ evidences itself as the base and groundwork of his life. +It is not only that here and there are solid statements of doctrine, +wherein some massive argument is constructed for the partial unveiling +of redemptive glory. Even in those parts of his epistles where formal +argument has ceased, and where solid doctrine is absent, the doctrine +flows as a fluid element into the practical convictions of life, and +determines the shape and quality of the judgments. Nay, one might +legitimately use the figure of a finer medium still, and say that in +all the spacious reaches of the apostle's life the redemptive work of +his Master is present as an atmosphere in which all his thoughts and +purposes and labors find their sustaining and enriching breath. Take +this epistle to the Romans in which my text is found. The earlier +stages of the great epistle are devoted to a massive and stately +presentation of the doctrines of redemption. But when I turn over the +pages where the majestic argument is concluded, I find the doctrine +persisting in a diffused and rarefied form, and appearing as the +determining factor in the solution of practical problems. If he is +dealing with the question of the "eating of meats," the great doctrine +reappears and interposes its solemn and yet elevating principle: +"destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." If he is called +upon to administer rebuke to the passionate and unclean, the shadow of +the cross rests upon his judgment. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought +with a price." If he is portraying the ideal relationship of husband +and wife, he sets it in the light of redemptive glory: "Husbands, love +your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up +for it." If he is seeking to cultivate the grace of liberality, he +brings the heavenly air around about the spirit. "Ye know the grace +of our Lord Jesus Christ, that tho he was rich, yet for your sakes +he became poor." It interweaves itself with all his salutations. It +exhales in all his benedictions like a hallowing fragrance. You can +not get away from it. In the light of the glory of redemption all +relationships are assorted and arranged. Redemption was not degraded +into a fine abstract argument, to which the apostle had appended his +own approval, and then, with sober satisfaction, had laid it aside, as +a practical irrelevancy, in the stout chests of orthodoxy. It became +the very spirit of his life. It was, if I may be allowed the violent +figure, the warm blood in all his judgment. It filled the veins of all +his thinking. It beat like a pulse in all his purposes. It determined +and vitalized his decisions in the crisis, as well as in the lesser +trifles of the common day. His conception of redemption was regulative +of all his thought. + +But it is not only the immediacy of redemption in the apostle's +thought by which I am imprest. I stand in awed amazement before its +vast, far-stretching reaches into the eternities. Said an old villager +to me concerning the air of his elevated hamlet, "Ay, sir, it's a fine +air is this westerly breeze; I like to think of it as having traveled +from the distant fields of the Atlantic!" And here is the Apostle +Paul, with the quickening wind of redemption blowing about him in +loosening, vitalizing, strengthening influence, and to him, in all his +thinking, it had its birth in the distant fields of eternity! To +the apostle redemption was not a small device, an afterthought, a +patched-up expedient to meet an unforseen emergency. The redemptive +purpose lay back in the abyss of the eternities, and in a spirit of +reverent questioning the apostle sent his trembling thoughts into +those lone and silent fields. He emerged with, whispered secrets such +as these: "fore-knew," "fore-ordained," "chosen in him before the +foundation of the world," "eternal life promised before times +eternal," "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our +Lord." + +Brethren, does our common thought of redemptive glory reach back +into this august and awful presence? Does the thought of the modern +disciple journey in this distant pilgrimage? Or do we now regard it as +unpractical and irrelevant? There is no more insidious peril in modern +religious life than the debasement of our conception of the practical. +If we divorce the practical from the sublime, the practical will +become the superficial, and will degenerate into a very lean and +forceless thing. When Paul went on this lonely pilgrimage his spirit +acquired the posture of a finely sensitive reverence. People who +live and move beneath great domes acquire a certain calm and stately +dignity. It is in companionship with the sublimities that awkwardness +and coarseness are destroyed. We lose our reverence when we desert the +august. But has reverence no relationship to the practical? Shall we +discard it as an irrelevant factor in the purposes of common life? +Why, reverence is the very clue to fruitful, practical living. +Reverence is creative of hope; nay, a more definite emphasis can be +given to the assertion; reverence is a constituent of hope. +Annihilate reverence, and life loses its fine sensitiveness, and when +sensitiveness goes out of a life the hope that remains is only a +flippant rashness, a thoughtless impetuosity, the careless onrush of +the kine, and not a firm, assured perception of a triumph that is only +delayed. A reverent homage before the sublimities of yesterday is the +condition of a fine perception of the hidden triumphs of the morrow. +And, therefore, I do not regard it as an accidental conjunction that +the psalmist puts them together and proclaims the evangel that "the +Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his +mercy." To feel the days before me I must revere the purpose which +throbs behind me. I must bow in reverence if I would anticipate in +hope. + +Here, then, is the Apostle Paul, with the redemptive purpose +interweaving itself with all the entanglements of his common life, a +purpose reaching back into the awful depths of the eternities, and +issuing from those depths in amazing fulness of grace and glory. No +one can be five minutes in the companionship of the Apostle Paul +without discovering how wealthy is his sense of the wealthy, redeeming +ministry of God. What a wonderful consciousness he has of the sweep +and fulness of the divine grace! You know the variations of the +glorious air: "the unsearchable riches of Christ"; "riches in glory +in Christ Jesus"; "all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places +in Christ"; "the riches of his goodness and forbearance and +long-suffering." The redemptive purpose of God bears upon the life of +the apostle and upon the race whose privileges he shares, not in an +uncertain and reluctant shower, but in a great and marvelous flood. +And what to him is the resultant enfranchisement? What are the +spacious issues of the glorious work? Do you recall those wonderful +sentences, scattered here and there about the apostle's writings, and +beginning with the words "but now"? Each sentence proclaims the end +of the dominion of night, and unveils some glimpse of the new created +day. "But now!" It is a phrase that heralds a great deliverance! +"But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God hath been +manifested," "But now, being made free from sin and become servants to +God." "But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh +in the blood of Christ." "But now are ye light in the Lord." "Now, no +condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." These represent no +thin abstractions. To Paul the realities of which they speak were more +real than the firm and solid earth. And is it any wonder that a man +with such a magnificent sense of the reality of the redemptive +works of Christ, who felt the eternal purpose throbbing in the dark +background and abyss of time, who conceived it operating upon our race +in floods of grace and glory, and who realized in his own immediate +consciousness the varied wealth of the resultant emancipation--is it +any wonder that for this man a new day had dawned, and the birds had +begun to sing and the flowers to bloom, and a sunny optimism had taken +possession of his heart, which found expression in an assured and +rejoicing hope? + +I look abroad again over the record of this man's life and teachings, +if perchance I may discover the secrets of his abiding optimism, and I +am profoundly imprest by his living sense of the reality and greatness +of his present resources. "By Christ redeemed!" That is not a grand +finale; it is only a glorious inauguration. "By Christ redeemed; in +Christ restored"; it is with these dynamics of restoration that his +epistles are so wondrously abounding. In almost every other sentence +he suggests a dynamic which he can count upon as his friend. Paul's +mental and spiritual outlook comprehended a great army of positive +forces laboring in the interests of the kingdom of God. His conception +of life was amazingly rich in friendly dynamics! I do not wonder that +such a wealthy consciousness was creative of a triumphant optimism. +Just glance at some of the apostle's auxiliaries: "Christ liveth in +me!" "Christ liveth in me! He breathes through all my aspirations. He +thinks through all my thinking. He wills through all my willing. He +loves through all my loving. He travails in all my labors. He works +within me 'to will and to do of his good pleasure.'" That is the +primary faith of the hopeful life. But see what follows in swift and +immediate succession. "If Christ is in you, the spirit is life." "The +spirit is life!" And therefore you find that in the apostle's thought +dispositions are powers. They are not passive entities. They are +positive forces vitalizing and energizing the common life of men. +My brethren, I am persuaded there is a perilous leakage in this +department of our thought. We are not bold enough in our thinking +concerning spiritual realities. We do not associate with every mode +of the consecrated spirit the mighty energy of God. We too often +oust from our practical calculations some of the strongest and most +aggressive allies of the saintly life. Meekness is more than the +absence of self-assertion; it is the manifestation of the mighty power +of God. To the Apostle Paul love exprest more than a relationship. It +was an energy productive of abundant labors. Faith was more than an +attitude. It was an energy creative of mighty endeavor, Hope was +more than a posture. It was an energy generative of a most enduring +patience. All these are dynamics, to be counted as active allies, +cooperating in the ministry of the kingdom. And so the epistles abound +in the recital of mystic ministries at work. The Holy Spirit worketh! +Grace worketh! Faith worketh! Love worketh! Hope worketh! Prayer +worketh! And there are other allies robed in less attractive garb. +"Tribulation worketh!" "This light affliction worketh." "Godly sorrow +worketh!" On every side of him the apostle conceives cooperative and +friendly powers. "The mountain is full of horses and chariots of +fire round about him." He exults in the consciousness of abounding +resources. He discovers the friends of God in things which find no +place among the scheduled powers of the world. He finds God's raw +material in the world's discarded waste. "Weak things," "base things," +"things that are despised," "things that are not," mere nothings; +among these he discovers the operating agents of the mighty God. Is it +any wonder that in this man, possessed of such a wealthy consciousness +of multiplied resources, the spirit of a cheery optimism should be +enthroned? With what stout confidence he goes into the fight! He +never mentions the enemy timidly. He never seeks to underestimate his +strength. Nay, again and again he catalogs all possible antagonisms in +a spirit of buoyant and exuberant triumph. However numerous the enemy, +however subtle and aggressive his devices, however towering and +well-established the iniquity, however black the gathering clouds, so +sensitive is the apostle to the wealthy resources of God that amid it +all he remains a sunny optimist, "rejoicing in hope," laboring in the +spirit of a conqueror even when the world was exulting in his supposed +discomfiture and defeat. + +And, finally, in searching for the springs of this man's optimism, I +place alongside his sense of the reality of redemption and his wealthy +consciousness of present resources his impressive sense of the reality +of future glory. Paul gave himself time to think of heaven, of the +home of God, of his own home when time should be no more. He loved to +contemplate "the glory that shall be revealed." He mused in wistful +expectancy of the day "when Christ who is our life shall be +manifested," and when we also "shall be manifested with him in glory." +He pondered the thought of death as "gain," as transferring him to +conditions in which he would be "at home with the Lord," "with Christ, +which is far better." He looked for "the blest hope and appearing +of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ," and he +contemplated "that great day" as the "henceforth," which would reveal +to him the crown of righteousness and glory. Is any one prepared to +dissociate this contemplation from the apostle's cheery optimism? Is +not rather the thought of coming glory one of its abiding springs? Can +we safely exile it from our moral and spiritual culture? I know that +this particular contemplation is largely absent from modern religious +life, and I know the nature of the recoil in which our present +impoverishment began. "Let us hear less about the mansions of the +blest and more about the housing of the poor!" Men revolted against an +effeminate contemplation, which had run to seed, in favor of an active +philanthropy which sought the enrichment of the common life. But, my +brethren, pulling a plant up is not the only way of saving it from +running to seed. You can accomplish by a wise restriction what +is wastefully done by severe destruction. I think we have lost +immeasurably by the uprooting, in so many lives, of this plant of +heavenly contemplation. We have built on the erroneous assumption that +the contemplation of future glory inevitably unfits us for the service +of man. It is an egregious and destructive mistake. I do not think +that Richard Baxter's labors were thinned or impoverished by his +contemplation of "The Saint's Everlasting Rest." When I consider his +mental output, his abundant labors as father-confessor to a countless +host, his pains and persecutions and imprisonments, I can not but +think he received some of the powers of his optimistic endurance from +contemplations such as he counsels in his incomparable book. "Run +familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem; visit the +patriarchs and prophets, salute the apostles, and admire the armies of +martyrs; lead on the heart from street to street, bring it into +the palace of the great king; lead it, as it were, from chamber to +chamber. Say to it, 'Here must I lodge, here must I die, here must I +praise, here must I love and be loved. My tears will then be wiped +away, my groans be turned to another tune, my cottage of clay be +changed to this palace, my prison rags to these splendid robes'; 'for +the former things are passed away.'" I can not think that Samuel +Rutherford impoverished his spirit or deadened his affections, or +diminished his labors by mental pilgrimages such as he counsels to +Lady Cardoness: "Go up beforehand and see your lodging. Look through +all your Father's rooms in heaven. Men take a sight of the lands ere +they buy them. I know that Christ hath made the bargain already; but +be kind to the house ye are going to, and see it often." I can not +think that this would imperil the fruitful optimisms of the Christian +life. I often examine, with peculiar interest, the hymn-book we use at +Carr's Lane. It was compiled by Dr. Dale. Nowhere else can I find the +broad perspective of his theology and his primary helpmeets in +the devotional life as I find them there. And is it altogether +unsuggestive that under the heading of "Heaven" is to be found one of +the largest sections of the book. A greater space is given to "Heaven" +than is given to "Christian duty." Is it not significant of what a +great man of affairs found needful for the enkindling and sustenance +of a courageous hope? And among the hymns are many which have helped +to nourish the sunny endeavors of a countless host. + + There is a land of pure delight + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain. + + What are these, arrayed in white, + Brighter than the noonday sun? + Foremost of the suns of light, + Nearest the eternal throne. + + Hark! hark, my soul! Angelic songs are swelling + O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore. + Angelic songs to sinful men are telling + Of that new life when sin shall be no more. + +My brethren, depend upon it, we are not impoverished by contemplations +such as these. They take no strength out of the hand, and they +put much strength and buoyancy into the heart. I proclaim the +contemplation of coming glory as one of the secrets of the apostle's +optimism which enabled him to labor and endure in the confident spirit +of rejoicing hope. These, then, are some of the springs of Christian +optimism; some of the sources in which we may nourish our hope in the +newer labors of a larger day: a sense of the glory of the past in +a perfected redemption, a sense of the glory of the present in our +multiplied resources, a sense of the glory of tomorrow in the fruitful +rest of our eternal home. + + O blest hope! with this elate + Let not our hearts be desolate; + But, strong in faith and patience, wait + Until He come! + + + + +GENERAL INDEX + + + + +INDEX TO PREACHERS AND SERMONS + +Abbott, Lyman, The Divinity in Humanity +Abraham's Imitators; or The Activity of Faith. By Thomas Hooker +Affection, The Expulsive Power of a New. By Thomas Chalmers +Argument, The, from Experience. By Robert William Dale +Arnold, Thomas, Alive in God +Ascension, The, of Christ. By Girolamo Savonarola +Assurance in God. By George Adam Smith +Atonement, Eternal. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Atonement, The Prominence of the. By Edwards Amasa Park +Augustine, St., The Recovery of Sight by the Blind + +Bacon, Leonard Woolsey, God Indwelling +Basil "The Great," The Creation of the World +Baxter, Richard, Making Light of Christ and Salvation +Beecher, H.W., Immortality +Beecher, Lyman, The Government of God Desirable +Bible, The, vs. Infidelity. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Blair, Hugh, The Hour and the Event of All Time +Blind, The Recovery of Sight by the. By St. Augustine +Bones, The Valley of Dry. By Frederick Denison Maurice +Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, The Death of the Grande Condé +Bounty, The Royal. By Alexander McKenzie +Bourdaloue, Louis, The Passion of Christ +Broadus, John A., Let us Have Peace with God +Brooks, Memorial Discourse on Phillips. By Henry Codman Potter +Brooks, Phillips, The Pride of Life +Bunyan, John, The Heavenly Footman +Burrell, David James, How to Become a Christian +Bushnell, Horace, Unconscious Influence + +Cadman, S. Parkes, A New Day for Missions +Caird, John, Religion in Common Life +Calvin, John, Enduring Persecution for Christ +Campbell, Alexander, The Missionary Cause +Carlyle, Thomas,--In Memoriam. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley +Carpenter, William Boyd, The Age of Progress +Chalmers, Thomas, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection +Charming, William Ellery, The Character of Christ +Chapin, Edwin Hubbell Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion +Character, The, of Christ. By William Ellery Charming +Christ and Salvation, Making Light of. By Richard Baxter +Christ Among the Common Things of Life. By William James Dawson +Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ. By William Mackergo Taylor +Christ, Enduring Persecution for. By John Calvin +Christ, The Ascension of. By Girolamo Savonarola +Christ, The Character of. By William Ellery Channing +Christ, The First Temptation of. By John Knox +Christ, The Loneliness of. By Frederick William Robertson +Christ, The Passion of. By Louis Bourdaloue +Christ--_The_ Question of the Centuries. By Robert Stuart + MacArthur +Christ, The Spirit of. By Charles H. Fowler +Christ, What Think ye of. By Dwight Lyman Moody +Christ, Zeal in the Cause of. By William Morley Punshon +Christ's Advent to Judgment. By Jeremy Taylor +Christ's Real Body not in the Eucharist. By John Wyclif +Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New Life. By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Christian, How to Become a. By David James Burrell +Christian Victory. By Christopher Newman Hall +Christianity, The Mysteries of. By Alexander Vinet +Christianity, The Transient and Permanent in. By Theodore Parker +Chrysostom, Excessive Grief at the Death of Friends +Church, The Mother. By Ernest Roland Wilberforce +Church, The Triumph of the. By Henry Edward Manning +Clifford, John, The Forgiveness of Sins +Colonization, The, of the Desert. By Edward Everett Hale +Common Life, Religion in. By John Caird +Common Things of Life, Christ Among the. By William James Dawson +Condé, The Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Grande. By Jacques + Benigne Bossuet +Creation, The, of the World. By Basil +Creation, Work in the Groaning. By Frederick William Farrar +Crosby, Howard, The Prepared Worm +Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard, The Value of Life + +Dale, Robert William, The Argument from Experience +Day, A, in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth, By Francis Wayland +Dawson, William James, Christ Among the Common Things of Life +Death, Glorification Through. By Francis Landey Patton +Desert, The Colonization of the. By Edward Everett Hale +Divinity, The, in Humanity. By Lyman Abbott +Drummond, Henry, The Greatest Thing in the World +Dwight, Timothy, The Sovereignty of God + +Earth, The Shaking of the Heavens and the. By Charles Kingsley +Education and the Future of Religion. By John Lancaster Spalding +Edwards, Jonathan, Spiritual light +Elect, The Small Number of the. By Jean Baptiste Massillon +Eternal Atonement. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Eucharist, Christ's Real Body not in the. By John Wyclif +Evans, Christmas, The Fall and Recovery of Man +Event, The Hour and the, of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Experience. By Alexander Whyte +Experience, The Argument from. By Robert William Dale +Expulsive Power, The, of a New Affection. By Thomas Chalmers + +Faith, Constructive. By Charles Henry Parkhurst +Faith, The Activity of; or, Abraham's Imitators. By Thomas Hooker +Faith, The Story of a Disciple's. By Henry Scott Holland +Fall, The, and Recovery of Man. By Christmas Evans +Farrar, Frederick William, Work in the Groaning Creation +Fénelon, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, The Saints Converse with God +Footman, The Heavenly. By John Bunyan +Forgiveness, The, of Sins. By John Clifford. +Fowler, Charles H., The Spirit of Christ +Funeral Sermon, The, on the Death of the Grande Condé, by Jacques + Benigne Bossuet + +Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God. By William Robertson Nicoll +Gladden, Washington, The Prince of Life +Glorification Through Death. By Francis Landey Patton +God, Alive in. By Thomas Arnold +God Calling to Man. By Charles John Vaughan +God Indwelling. By Leonard Woolsey Bacon. +God, Marks of Love to. By Robert Hall +God, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of. By Edward Irving +God, The Government of, Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +God, The Image of, in Man. By Robert South +God, The Saints Converse with. By Francois Fénelon +God, The Sovereignty of. By Timothy Dwight +God the Unwearied Guide. By Newell Dwight Hillis +God's Love to Fallen Man. By John Wesley +God's Will the End of Life. By John Henry Newman +Gordon, George Angier, Man in the Image of God +Government, The, of God Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +Grace, The Method of. By George Whitefield +Greatest Thing, The, in the World. By Henry Drummond +Grief, Excessive, at the Death of Friends. By Chrysostom +Guide, God the Unwearied. By Newell Dwight Hillis +Gunsaulus, Frank Wakely, The Bible vs. Infidelity +Guthrie, Thomas, The New Heart + +Hale, Edward Everett, The Colonization of the Desert +Hall, Christopher Newman, Christian Victory +Hall, John, Liberty only in Truth +Hall, Robert, Marks of Love to God +Heart, The New. By Thomas Guthrie +Heavens, The Shaking of the, and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Hillis, Newell Dwight, God the Unwearied Guide +Hitchcock, Roswell Dwight, The Eternal Atonement +Holland, Henry Scott, The Story of a Disciple's Faith +Holy Spirit, Influence of the. By Henry Parry Liddon +Hooker, Thomas, The Activity of Faith; or Abraham's Imitators +Hour, The, and the Event of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Howe, John, The Redeemer's Tears over Lost Souls +Humanity, The Divinity in. By Lyman Abbott + +Ideal of Life, The Perfect. By George Campbell Morgan +Immortality. By H.W. Beecher +Infidelity, The Bible vs. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Influence, Unconscious. By Horace Bushnell +Influences of the Holy Spirit. By Henry Parry Liddon +Inheritance, The Heavenly. By John Summerfield +Irving, Edward, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of God + +Jefferson, Charles Edward, The Reconciliation +Jesus of Nazareth, A Day in the Life of. By Francis Wayland +Jowett, John Henry, Apostolic Optimism +Judgment, Christ's Advent to. By Jeremy Taylor +Judgment, The Reversal of Human. By James B. Mozley +Justification, The Method and Fruits of. By Martin Luther + +Kingsley, Charles, The Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth +Knox, John, The First Temptation of Christ +Knox-Little, William John, Thirst Satisfied +Latimer, Hugh, Christian Love +Life, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Life, God's Will the End of. By John Henry Newman +Life, The Perfect Ideal of. By George Campbell Morgan +Life, The Pride of. By Phillips Brooks +Life, The Prince of. By Washington Gladden +Life, The Value of. By Theodore Ledyard Cuyler +Liberty only in Truth. By John Hall +Liddon, Henry Parry, Influences of the Holy Spirit +Light, Spiritual. By Jonathan Edwards +Loneliness, The, of Christ. By Frederick William Robertson +Lord, The Resurrection of Our. By Matthew Simpson +Lorimer, George C. The Fall of Satan +Love, Christian. By Hugh Latimer +Love, Marks of, to God. By Robert Hall +Luther, Martin, The Method and Fruits of Justification +MacArthur, Robert Stuart, Christ--The Question of the Centuries +McKenzie, Alexander, The Royal Bounty +Maclaren, Alexander, The Pattern of Service +Macleod, Norman, The True Christian Ministry +Magee, William Connor, The Miraculous Stilling of the Storm +Man, God Calling to. By Charles John Vaughan +Man, God's Love to Fallen. By John Wesley +Man in the Image of God. By George Angier Gordon +Man, The Fall and Recovery of. By Christmas Evans +Man, The Image of God in. By Robert South +Manhood, The Meaning of. By Henry Van Dyke +Manning, Henry Edward, The Triumph of the Church +Martineau, James, Parting Words +Mason, John Mitchell, Messiah's Throne +Massillon, Jean Baptiste, The Small Number of the Elect +Maurice, Frederick Denison, The Valley of Dry Bones +Melanchthon, Philip, The Safety of the Virtuous +Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks. By Henry Codman Potter +Messiah's Throne. By John Mitchell Mason +Ministry, The True Christian. By Norman Macleod +Missions, A New Day for. By. S. Parkes Cadman +Missionary Cause, The. By Alexander Campbell +Missionary Work, The Permanent Motive in. By Richard S. Storrs +Monster, A Bloody. By Thomas DeWitt Talmage +Moody, Dwight Lyman, What Think ye of Christ? +Morgan, George Campbell, The Perfect Ideal of Life +Motive, The Permanent, in Missionary Work. By Richard S. Storrs +Mozley, James B., The Reversal of Human Judgment +Mysteries. The, of Christianity. By Alexander Vinet + +Newman, John Henry, God's Will the End of Life +Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Nicoll, William Robertson, Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God + +Optimism, Apostolic. By John Henry Jowett +Optimism. By John Watson +Oracles, Preparation for Consulting the, of God. By Edward Irving + +Park, Edwards Amasa, The Prominence of the Atonement +Parker, Joseph, A Word to the Weary +Parker, Theodore, The Transient and Permanent in Christianity +Parkhurst, Charles Henry, Constructive Faith +Passion, The, of Christ. By Louis Bourdaloue +Patton, Francis Landey, Glorification Through Death +Paul Before Felix and Drusilla. By Jacques Saurin +Peace with God, Let us Have. By John A. Broadus +Permanent, The Transient and the, in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Persecution for Christ, Enduring, John Calvin +Pilate Before Christ--Christ Before Pilate. By William Mackergo + Taylor +Potter, Henry Codman, Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks +Pride, The, of Life. By Phillips Brooks +Prince, The, of Life. By Washington Gladden +Progress, The Age of. By William Boyd Carpenter +Punshon, William Morley, Zeal in the Cause of Christ + +Reconciliation, The. By Charles E. Jefferson +Recovery, The Fall and, of Man. By Christmas Evans +Redeemer's Tears, The, over Lost Souls. By John Howe +Religion, Education and the Future of. By John Lancaster Spaldin +Religion in Common Life. By John Caird +Religion, Nicodemus: The Seeker after. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Resurrection, Christ's, an Image of our New-Life. By Frederick Ernst + Schleiermacher +Resurrection, The, of Our Lord. By Matthew Simpson +Resurrection, The Reasonableness of a. By John Tillotson +Reversal, The, of Human Judgment. By James B. Mozley +Robertson, Frederick William, The Loneliness of Christ +Royal Bounty, the. By Alexander McKenzie + +Sackcloth, The Transfigured. By William L. Watkinson +Saints Converse with God, The. By Francis Fénelon +Salvation, Making Light of Christ and. By Richard Baxter +Satan, The Fall of. By George C. Lorimer +Saurin, Jacques, Paul Before Felix and Drusilla +Savonarola, Girolamo, The Ascension of Christ +Schleiermacher, Frederick Ernst, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our + New Life +Seiss, Joseph A., The Wonderful Testimonies +Service, The Pattern of. By Alexander Maclaren +Shaking, The, of the Heavens and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Sight, The Recovery of, by the Blind By St Augustine +Simpson, Matthew, The Resurrection of Our Lord. +Sins, The Forgiveness of By John Clifford +Smith, George Adam Assurance in God +Songs in the Night By Charles Haddon Spurgeon +Souls, The Redeemer's Tears Over Lost By John Howe +South, Robert, The Image of God in Man +Sovereignty, The of God By Timothy Dwight +Spalding, John Lancaster, Education and the Future of Religion +Spiritual Light By Jonathan Edwards +Spurgeon, Charles Haddon Songs in the Night +Stalker, James Temptation +Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, In Memoriam--Thomas Carlyle +Stilling of the Storm, The Miraculous By William Connor Magee +Storm, The Miraculous Stilling of the By William Connor Magee +Storrs, Richard S. The Permanent Motive in Missionary Work +Summerfield, John The Heavenly Inheritance + +Talmage, Thomas DeWitt A Bloody Monster +Taylor, Jeremy Christ's Advent to Judgment +Taylor, William Mackergo Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ +Temptation By James Stalker +Temptation, The First, of Christ By John Knox +Testimonies The Wonderful By Joseph A Seiss +Thirst Satisfied By William John Knox Little +Time, The Hour and the Event of all By Hugh Blair +Tillotson, John, The Reasonableness of a Resurrection +Transfigured Sackcloth, The By William L. Watkinson +Transient, The, and Permanent in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Triumph, The, of the Church. By Henry Edward Manning +Truth, Liberty Only in. By John Hall +Valley, The, of Dry Bones By Frederick Derrison Maurice +Van Dyke, Henry, The Meaning of Manhood +Vaughan, Charles John, God Calling to Man +Victory, Christian By Christopher Newman Hall +Vinet, Alexander, The Mysteries of Christianity +Virtuous, The Safety of the. By Philip Melanchthon +Voice, I am a. By Charles Wagner + +Wagner, Charles, I am a Voice +Watkinson, William L, The Transfigured Sackcloth +Watson, John, Optimism +Wayland, Francis, A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth +Weary, A Word to the. By Joseph Parker +Wesley, John, God's Love to Fallen Man. +Whitefield, George, The Method of Grace +Whyte, Alexander, Experience +Wilberforce, Ernest Roland, The Mother Church +Words, Parting By James Martineau +Work in the Groaning Creation. By Frederick William Farrar +World, The Greatest Thing in the. By Henry Drummond +Worm, The Prepared. By Howard Crosby + + + + +INDEX TO TEXTS + + + VOLUME + +Genesis i., 2 I + i., 27 II + i., 31 VII + i., 31 VII + iii., 9 VI + xxxvii., 33 VIII + +I Kings x., 13 VII + x., 36 IX + +II Kings vi., 1,2 IX + +Esther iv., 2 VIII + +Job xxxiii., 4 IX + xxxv., 10 VIII + +Psalms xvi., 16 X + xlii., 2 VIII + cxix., 45 VII + cxix., 129 VII + +Proverbs xi., 30 IV + +Isaiah xl., 1-31 X + l, 4 VII + lvii., 15 VII + +Jeremiah vi., 14 III + x., 23 III + +Ezekiel xxxvi., 26 V + xxxvii., 1-3 V + +Jonah iv., 7 VII + +Matthew iv., 1 I + vi., 10 IV + viii., 25, 26 VII + xii., 12 IX + xiii., 24 VI + xvi., 17 III + xvii., 5 IV + xix., 30 V + xx., 30 I + xxii., 5 II + xxii., 32 IV + xxii., 42 VIII + xxii., 42 IX + xxvi., 26 I + xxvii., 22 VII + xxviii., 19 IX + +Mark vii., 33 VII + xvi., 15 VI + +Luke iv. 27 III + ix., 10-17 IV + x., 18 VIII + xix., 41, 42 II + xxi., 33 V + xxiii., 27, 28 II + xxiv., 51 I + +John i., 23 X + iii. 1, 2 VI + iii., 8 VII + v., 39 IV + v., 42 III + vi., 38 IV + vi., 63 VIII + vi., 64 IX + viii., 28-30 X + x., 28 I + x., 34-36 VIII + xii., 24 IX + xiv. 27 V + xv., 12 I + xvi., 31, 32 VI + xvii., 1 III + xvii., 20, 21 V + xx., 8 IV + xx., 8 IX + xxi., 9, 12 X + +Acts iii., 15 VIII + xix., 23 IX + xxiv., 24, 25 III + xxvi., 8 II + xxvi., 8 IX + +Romans iv., 12 II + v., 1 IX + v., 4 VIII + v., 15 III + v., 15 III + vi., 4 III + viii., 9 VIII + viii., 22 VII + xii., 11 VI + xii., 12 X + +I Corinthians ii., 2 V + ii., 9 IV + ix., 24 II + xiii., X + xiv., 10 X + xv., 3 X + xv., 19 VI + xv., 20 V + xx., 13 IX + +II Corinthians ii., 14-16 V + v., 10 II + v., 13-15 VI + +Galatians iv., 1-7 I + vi., 14 X + +I Thessalonians iv., 13 I + v., 17 II + +Hebrews i., 18 III + xii., 26-29 VI + xiii., 13 I + +II Peter i., 11 IV + +I John, ii., 16 VIII + v., 15 IV + +Revelations ii., 17 VI + xiii., 8 VI + xxii., 3 VII + +Apostles' Creed VIII + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11760 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65e21cd --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11760 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11760) diff --git a/old/11760-8.txt b/old/11760-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2704d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11760-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5747 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 (of 10), +by Various, et al, Edited by Grenville Kleiser + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 (of 10) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 30, 2004 [eBook #11760] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOLUME +10 (OF 10)*** + + +E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + +THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS + +COMPILED BY + +GRENVILLE KLEISER + +Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in +Public," Etc. + +With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other +Theologians + +INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + +Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOLUME X DRUMMOND TO JOWETT + +General Index + +1908 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME X. + + +DRUMMOND (1851--1897). +The Greatest Thing in the World + +WAGNER (Born in 1851). +I Am a Voice + +GORDON (Born in 1853). +Man in the Image of God + +DAWSON (Born in 1854). +Christ Among the Common Things of Life + +SMITH (Born in 1856). +Assurance in God + +GUNSAULUS (Born in 1856). +The Bible vs. Infidelity + +HILLIS (Born in 1858). +God the Unwearied Guide + +JEFFERSON (Born in 1860). +The Reconciliation + +MORGAN (Born in 1863). +The Perfect Ideal of Life + +CADMAN (Born in 1864). +A New Day for Missions + +JOWETT (Born in 1864). +Apostolic Optimism + + +Index to Preachers and Sermons + +Index to Texts + + + + +DRUMMOND + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Henry Drummond, author and evangelist, was born at Stirling, Scotland, +in 1851. His book, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," caused much +discussion and is still widely read. His "Ascent of Man" is regarded +by many as his greatest work. The address reprinted here has appeared +in hundreds of editions, and has been an inspiration to thousands +of peoples all over the world. There is an interesting biography +of Drummond by Professor George Adam Smith, his close friend and +colaborer. He died in 1897. + + + + +DRUMMOND + +1851--1897 + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of James Pott & Co.] + +_Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, +&c._--I Cor. xiii. + + +Everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the +modern world: What is the _summum bonum_--the supreme good? You have +life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object +of desire, the supreme gift to covet? + +We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the +religious world is faith. That great word has been the key-note for +centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look +upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we +have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the +chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and +there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love." It is not an +oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, +"If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not +love, I am nothing." So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts +them, "Now abideth faith, hope, love," and without a moment's +hesitation the decision falls, "The greatest of these is love." + +And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own +strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student +can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his +character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of +these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood. + +Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as +the _summum bonum_. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about +it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." +Above all things. And John goes further, "God is love." And you +remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the +fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In +those days men were working their passage to heaven by keeping the ten +commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they +had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more +simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten +things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will +unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for +yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me." If a man love God, you will not +require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take +not his name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain +if he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he +not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively +to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws +regarding God. And so, if he loved man, you would never think of +telling him to honor his father and mother. He could not do anything +else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only +insult him if you suggested that he should not steal--how could he +steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to +bear false witness against his neighbor. If he loved him it would be +the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him +not to covet what his neighbors had. He would rather that they possest +it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It +is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping +all the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life. + +Now, Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us +the most wonderful and original account extant of the _summum bonum_. +We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short +chapter, we have love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have love +analyzed; toward the end, we have love defended as the supreme gift. + +Paul begins contrasting love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in +detail. Their inferiority is already obvious. + +He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power +of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty +purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of +men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the +brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable +unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no love. + +He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He +contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is love +greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And +why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the +part. Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the +means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with +God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may +become like God. But God is love. Hence faith, the means, is in order +to love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It +is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a +part. Charity is only a little bit of love, one of the innumerable +avenues of love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of +charity without love. It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a +beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do +it. Yet love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief +from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at +the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often too +dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more +for him, or less. + +Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the +little band of would-be missionaries--and I have the honor to call +some of you by this name for the first time--to remember that tho +you give your bodies to be burned, and have not love, it profits +nothing--nothing! You can take nothing greater to the heathen world +than the impress and reflection of the love of God upon your own +character. That is the universal language. It will take you years to +speak in Chinese; or in the dialects of India. From the day you land, +that language of love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its +unconscious eloquence. It is the man who is the missionary, it is not +his words. His character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among +the great lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered +the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you +cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men's faces light up as +they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could +not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. +Take into your new sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down +your life, that simple charm, and your life-work must succeed. You +can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is not +worth while going if you take anything less. You may take every +accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give +your body to be burned, and have not love, it will profit you and the +cause of Christ nothing. + +After contrasting love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very +short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I +ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like +light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass +it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other +side of the prism broken up into its component colors--red, and +blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colors of the +rainbow--so Paul passes this thing, love, through the magnificent +prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side +broken up into its elements. And in these few words we have what +one might call the spectrum of love, the analysis of love. Will you +observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common +names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day, that they +are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; +and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the +supreme thing, the _summum bonum_, is made up? + +The spectrum of love has nine ingredients: + + Patience--"Love suffereth long." + Kindness--"And is kind." + Generosity--"Love envieth not." + Humility--"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." + Courtesy--"Doth not behave itself unseemly." + Unselfishness--"Seeketh not her own." + Good temper--"Is not easily provoked." + Guilelessness--"Thinketh no evil." + Sincerity--"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." + +Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, +good temper, guilelessness, sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, +the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in +relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day +and the near to-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much +of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal +of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is +not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, +the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The +supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a +further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the +sum of every common day. + +There is no time to do more than to make a passing note upon each of +these ingredients. Love is patience. This is the normal attitude of +love; love passive, love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; +ready to do its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the +ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all +things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For love understands, +and therefore waits. + +Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life +was spent in doing kind things--in merely doing kind things? Run +over it with that in view, and you will find that He spent a great +proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good +turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the +world, and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what +God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that +is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. + +"The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly +Father is to be kind to some of his other children." I wonder why it +is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs +it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly +it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back--for there +is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as +love. "Love never faileth." Love is success, love is happiness, love +is life. "Love," I say, with Browning, "is energy of life." + + For life, with all it yields of joy or wo + And hope and fear, + Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love-- + How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. + +Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. God +is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, +without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is +very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of +all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps +we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to +please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving +pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly +loving spirit. "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good +thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any +human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for +I shall not pass this way again." + +Generosity. "Love envieth not." This is love in competition with +others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing +the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. +Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line +as ourselves, a spirit of covetousness and detraction. How little +Christian work even is a protection against unchristian feeling! That +most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a Christian's +soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work, unless we +are fortified with this grace of magnanimity. Only one thing truly +needs the Christian envy, the large, rich, generous soul which +"envieth not." + +And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this +further thing, humility--to put a seal upon your lips and forget what +you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth +into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade +again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love +waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not +puffed up." + +The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this _summum +bonum_: Courtesy. This is love in society, love in relation to +etiquette. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." Politeness has been +defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little +things. And the one secret of politeness is to love. Love can not +behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored persons into +the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their +hearts, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply can not +do it. Carlyle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the plowman-poet. It was because he loved +everything--the mouse, the daisy, and all the things, great and small, +that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with +any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on +the banks of the Ayr. You know the meaning of the word "gentleman." It +means a gentle man--a man who does things gently with love. And that +is the whole art and mystery of it. The gentle man can not in the +nature of things do an ungentle and ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle +soul, the inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature can not do anything +else. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." + +Unselfishness. "Love seeketh not her own." Observe: Seeketh not even +that which is her own. In Britain the Englishman is devoted, and +rightly, to his rights. But there come times when a man may exercise +even the higher right of giving up his rights. Yet Paul does not +summon us to give up our rights. Love strikes much deeper. It would +have us not seek them at all, ignore them, eliminate the personal +element altogether from our calculations. It is not hard to give up +our rights. They are often external. The difficult thing is to give up +ourselves. The more difficult thing still is not to seek things for +ourselves at all. After we have sought them, bought them, won them, +deserved them, we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already. +Little cross then perhaps to give them up. But not to seek them, to +look every man not on his own things, but on the things of others--_id +opus est_. "Seekest thou great things for thyself?" said the prophet; +"seek them not." Why? Because there is no greatness in things. +Things can not be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even +self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a +great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste. It is more +difficult, I have said, not to seek our own at all, than, having +sought it, to give it up. I must take that back. It is only true of a +partly selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship to love, and nothing is +hard. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just +His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any +other. I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious +lesson in Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having +and getting anything, but only in giving. I repeat, there is no +happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. And half the +world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think +it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving and serving others. He that would be great among +you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be happy, let him +remember that there is but one way--it is more blest, it is more +happy, to give than to receive. + +The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: good temper. "Love is +not easily provoked." Nothing could be more striking than to find +this here. We are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless +weakness. We speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature, a family +failing, a matter of temperament, not a thing to take into very +serious account in estimating a man's character. And yet here, right +in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a place; and the Bible +again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive +elements in human nature. + +The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. +It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men +who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but +for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" disposition. This +compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the +strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The truth is, there are two +great classes of sins--sins of the body, and sins of the disposition. +The Prodigal Son may be taken as a type of the first, the Elder +Brother of the second. Now society has no doubt whatever as to which +of these is the worse. Its brands fall without a challenge, upon the +Prodigal. But are we right? We have no balance to weigh one another's +sins, and coarser and finer are but human words; but faults in the +higher nature may be less venial than those in the lower, and to the +eye of Him who is love, a sin against love may seem a hundred times +more base. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to unchristianize society than evil +temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for +destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for +withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off childhood, in +short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence +stands alone. Look at the Elder Brother, moral, hard-working, patient, +dutiful--let him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man, +this baby, sulking outside his own father's door. "He was angry," we +read, "and would not go in." Look at the effect upon the father, upon +the servants, upon the happiness of the guests. Judge of the effect +upon the Prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the kingdom +of God by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside? +Analyze, as a study in temper, the thunder-cloud itself as it gathers +upon the Elder Brother's brow. What is it made of? Jealousy, anger, +pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness, touchiness, doggedness, +sullenness--these are the ingredients of this dark and loveless soul. +In varying proportions, also, these are the ingredients of all ill +temper. Judge if such sins of the disposition are not worse to live +in, and for others to live with, than sins of the body. Did Christ +indeed not answer the question Himself when He said, "I say unto you, +that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven +before you." There is really no place in heaven for a disposition like +this. A man with such a mood could only make heaven miserable for all +the people in it. Except, therefore, such a man be born again, he +can not, he simply can not, enter the kingdom of heaven. For it is +perfectly certain--and you will not misunderstand me--that to enter +heaven a man must take it with him. + +You will see then why temper is significant It is not in what it is +alone, but in what it reveals. This is why I take the liberty now of +speaking of it with such unusual plainness. It is a test for love, +a symptom, a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom. It is the +intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within; +the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some +rottenness underneath; a sample of the most hidden products of +the soul dropt involuntarily when off one's guard; in a word, the +lightning form of a hundred hideous and unchristian sins. For a want +of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, a want of +courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolized +in one flash of temper. + +Hence it is not enough to deal with the temper. We must go to the +source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humors will die +away of themselves. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids +out, but by putting something in--a great love, a new spirit, the +spirit of Christ. Christ, the spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, +sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what +is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and +rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does +not change men. Christ does. Therefore, "Let that mind be in you which +was also in Christ Jesus." Some of us have not much time to lose. +Remember, once more, that this is a matter of life or death. I can +not help speaking urgently, for myself, for yourselves. "Whoso shall +offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better +for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were +drowned in the depth of the sea." That is to say, it is the deliberate +verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to live than not to +love. _It is better not to live than not to love._ + +Guilelessness and sincerity may be dismissed almost without a word. +Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the possession +of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you +think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people who +believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but +in that other atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and +educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in +this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare +souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love +"thinketh no evil," imputes no bad motive, sees the bright side, puts +the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind +to live in! What stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for +a day! To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or +elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to +their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the +first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of +what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become. + +"Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." I have +called this sincerity from the words rendered in the Authorized +Version by "rejoiceth in the truth." And, certainly, were this the +real translation, nothing could be more just. For he who loves will +love truth not less than men. He will rejoice in the truth--rejoice +not in what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's +doctrine or in that; not in this ism or in that ism; but "in the +truth." He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at +facts; he will search for truth with an humble and unbiased mind, +and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice. But the more literal +translation of the Revised Version calls for just such a sacrifice for +truth's sake here. For what Paul really meant is, as we there read, +"Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth," +a quality which probably no one English word--and certainly not +sincerity--adequately defines. It includes, perhaps more strictly, the +self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others' faults; +the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but +"covereth all things"; the sincerity of purpose which endeavors to see +things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion +feared or calumny denounced. + +So much for the analysis of love. Now the business of our lives is to +have these things in our characters. That is the supreme work to which +we need to address ourselves in this world to learn love. Is life not +full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every +day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a +schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one +eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love. What makes a man +a good cricketer? Practise. What makes a man a good artist, a good +sculptor, a good musician? Practise. What makes a man a good linguist, +a good stenographer? Practise. What makes a man a good man. Practise. +Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not +get the soul in different ways, under different laws, from those in +which we get the body and the mind. If a man does not exercise his arm +he develops no biceps muscle; and if he does not exercise his soul, he +acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength of character, no vigor of +moral fiber nor beauty of spiritual growth. Love is not a thing of +enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression +of the whole round Christian character--the Christlike nature in its +fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are +only to be built up by ceaseless practise. + +What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Tho +perfect, we read that He learned obedience, and grew in wisdom and in +favor with God. Do not quarrel, therefore, with your lot in life. Do +not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the +vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to +live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be +perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and +ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your +practise. That is the practise which God appoints you; and it is +having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and +unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is +molding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, tho you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add +to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate +yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and +difficulties, and obstacles. You remember Goethe's words: _Es bildet +ein Talent sich in der Stille, Doch ein Character in dem Strom der +Welt_. "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of +life." Talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer, of +faith, of meditation, of seeing the unseen; character grows in the +stream of the world's life. That chiefly is where men are to learn +love. + +How? Now how? To make it easier, I have named a few of the elements of +love. But these are only elements. Love itself can never be defined. +Light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients--a glowing, +dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is something more than all its +elements--a palpitating, quivering, sensitive, living thing. By +synthesis of all the colors, men can make whiteness, they can not make +light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they can +not make love. How then are we to have this transcendent living whole +conveyed into our souls? We brace our wills to secure it. We try to +copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. +But these things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love is +an effect. And only as we fulfil the right condition can we have the +effect produced. Shall I tell you what the cause is? + +If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you +will find these words: "We love because he first loved us." "We love," +not "We love him." That is the way the old version has it, and it is +quite wrong. "We love--because he first loved us." Look at that word +"because." It is the cause of which I have spoken. "Because he first +loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love +all men. We can not help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love +everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of +Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's +character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness +to tenderness. There is no other way. You can not love to order. You +can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and +grow into likeness to it. And so look at this perfect character, this +perfect life. Look at the great sacrifice as He laid down Himself, all +through life, and upon the cross of Calvary; and you must love Him. +And loving Him, you must become like Him. Love begets love. It is +a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of +an electrified body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes +electrified. It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere +presence of a permanent magnet, and as long as you leave the two side +by side they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Him who +loved us, and gave Himself for us, and you too will become a permanent +magnet, a permanently attractive force; and like Him you will draw all +men unto you; like Him you will be drawn unto all men. That is the +inevitable effect of love. Any man who fulfils that cause must have +that effect produced in him. Try to give up the idea that religion +comes to us by chance, or by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by +natural law, or by spiritual law, for all law is divine. Edward Irving +went to see a dying boy once, and when he entered the room he just put +his hand on the sufferer's head, and said, "My boy, God loves you," +and went away. And the boy started from his bed, and called out to the +people in the house, "God loves me! God loves me!" It changed that +boy. The sense that God loved him overpowered him, melted him down, +and began the creating of a new heart in him. And that is how the love +of God melts down the unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the +new creature, who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish. And +there is no other way to get it. There is no mystery about it. We love +others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved +us. + +Now I have a closing sentence or two to add about Paul's reason for +singling out love as the supreme possession. It is a very remarkable +reason. In a single word it is this: it lasts. "Love," urges Paul, +"never faileth." Then he begins one of his marvelous lists of the +great things of the day, and exposes them one by one. He runs over the +things that men thought were going to last, and shows that they are +all fleeting, temporary, passing away. + +"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail." It was the mother's +ambition for her boy in those days that he should become a prophet. +For hundreds of years God had never spoken by means of any prophet, +and at that time the prophet was greater than the king. Men waited +wistfully for another messenger to come, and hung upon his lips when +he appeared as upon the very voice of God. Paul says, "Whether there +be prophecies, they shall fail." This book is full of prophecies. One +by one they have "failed"; that is, having been fulfilled their work +is finished; they have nothing more to do now in the world except to +feed a devout man's faith. + +Then Paul talks about tongues. That was another thing that was greatly +coveted. "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease." As we all know, +many, many centuries have passed since tongues have been known in this +world. They have ceased. Take it in any sense you like. Take it, for +illustration merely, as languages in general--a sense which was not +in Paul's mind at all, and which tho it can not give us the specific +lesson will point the general truth. Consider the words in which these +chapters were written--Greek. It has gone. Take the Latin--the other +great tongue of those days. It ceased long ago. Look at the Indian +language. It is ceasing. The language of Wales, of Ireland, of the +Scottish Highlands is dying before our eyes. The most popular book in +the English tongue at the present time, except the Bible, is one of +Dickens' works, his "Pickwick Papers." It is largely written in the +language of London street-life, and experts assure us that in fifty +years it will be unintelligible to the average English reader. + +Then Paul goes further, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." The wisdom of the ancients, +where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy today knows more than +Sir Isaac Newton knew. His knowledge has vanished away. You put +yesterday's newspaper in the fire. Its knowledge has vanished away. +You buy the old editions of the great encyclopedias for a few cents. +Their knowledge has vanished away. Look how the coach has been +superseded by the use of steam. Look how electricity has superseded +that, and swept a hundred almost new inventions into oblivion. One of +the greatest living authorities, Sir William Thompson, said the other +day, "The steam-engine is passing away." "Whether there be knowledge, +it shall vanish away." At every workshop you will see, in the back +yard, a heap of old iron, a few wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, +broken and eaten with rust. Twenty years ago that was the pride of the +city. Men flocked in from the country to see the great invention; now +it is superseded, its day is done. And all the boasted science and +philosophy of this day will soon be old. But yesterday, in the +University of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the faculty was +Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. The other day his +successor and nephew, Professor Simpson, was asked by the librarian +of the university to go to the library and pick out the books on his +subject that were no longer needed. And his reply to the librarian was +this: "Take every textbook that is more than ten years old, and put it +down in the cellar." Sir James Simpson was a great authority only a +few years ago; men came from all parts of the earth to consult him; +and almost the whole teaching of that time is consigned by the science +of today to oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. +"Now we know in part. We see through a glass darkly." + +Can you tell me anything that is going to last? Many things Paul did +not condescend to name. He did not mention money, fortune, fame; but +he picked out the great things of his time, the things the best men +thought had something in them, and brushed them peremptorily aside. +Paul had no charge against these things in themselves. All he said +about them was that they would not last. They were great things, +but not supreme things. There were things beyond them. What we are +stretches past what we do, beyond what we possess. Many things that +men denounce as sins are not sins; but they are temporary. And that is +a favorite argument of the New Testament. John says of the world, not +that it is wrong, but simply that it "passeth away." There is a great +deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great +deal in it that is great and engrossing; but it will not last. All +that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and +the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not the world +therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration +of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give itself to something +that is immortal. And the immortal things are: "Now abideth faith, +hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." + +Some think the time may come when two of these three things will also +pass away--faith into sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. +We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to +come. But what is certain is that love must last. God, the eternal +God, is love. Covet therefore that everlasting gift, that one thing +which it is certain is going to stand, that one coinage which will be +current in the universe when all the other coinages of all the nations +of the world shall be useless and unhonored. You will give yourselves +to many things, give yourselves first to love. Hold things in their +proportion. _Hold things in their proportion._ Let at least the first +great object of our lives be to achieve the character defended in +these words, the character--and it is the character of Christ--which +is built round love. + +I have said this thing is eternal. Did you ever notice how continually +John associates love and faith with eternal life? I was not told +when I was a boy that "God so loved the world that he gave his only +begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting +life." What I was told, I remember, was, that God so loved the world +that, if I trusted in Him, I was to have a thing called peace, or I +was to have rest, or I was to have joy, or I was to have safety. But +I had to find out for myself that whosoever trusteth in Him--that +is, whosoever loveth Him, for trust is only the avenue to love--hath +everlasting life. The gospel offers a man life. Never offer men a +thimbleful of gospel. Do not offer them merely joy, or merely peace, +or merely rest, or merely safety; tell them how Christ came to give +men a more abundant life than they have, a life abundant in love, +and therefore abundant in salvation for themselves, and large in +enterprise for the alleviation and redemption of the world. Then +only can the gospel take hold of the whole of a man, body, soul, and +spirit, and give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward. +Many of the current gospels are addrest only to a part of man's +nature. They offer peace, not life; faith, not love; justification, +not regeneration. And men slip back again from such religion because +it has never really held them. Their nature was not all in it. It +offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was +lived before. Surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love can +compete with the love of the world. + +To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to +live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with love. +We want to live forever for the same reason that we want to live +tomorrow. Why do we want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some +one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and +love back. There is no other reason why we should live on than that we +love and are beloved. It is when a man has no one to love him that he +commits suicide. So long as he has friends, those who love him and +whom he loves, he will live; because to live is to love. Be it but the +love of a dog, it will keep him in life; but let that go and he has no +contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand. Eternal +life is to know God, and God is love. This is Christ's own definition. +Ponder it. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only +true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Love must be eternal. +It is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love +never faileth, and life never faileth, so long as there is love. That +is the philosophy of what Paul is showing us; the reason why in the +nature of things love should be the supreme thing--because it is going +to last; because in the nature of things it is an eternal life. It is +a thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we +shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living +now. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and +grow old all alone, unloving and unloved. To be lost is to live in an +unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to +love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God; for God is +love. + +Now I have all but finished. How many of you will join me in reading +this chapter once a week for the next three months? A man did that +once and it changed his whole life. You might begin by reading it +every day, especially the verses which describe the perfect character. +"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not +itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that +you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving time to. +No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the condition +required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time, +just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires +preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any +cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. You will +find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, +the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have +done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and +beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those +supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to +those around about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which +you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost +all the beautiful things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every +pleasure that He has planned for man; and yet as I look back I see +standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short +experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor +imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seem to be the +things which alone of all one's life abide. Everything else in all our +lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of +love which no man knows about, or can ever know about, they never +fail. + +In the Book of Matthew, where the judgment day is depicted for us in +the imagery of One seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from +the goats, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but +"How have I loved?" The test of religion, the final test of religion, +is not religiousness, but love. I say the final test of religion at +that great day is not religiousness, but love; not what I have done, +not what I have believed; not what I have achieved, but how I have +discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that +awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, +by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the +withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof +that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He +suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that He inspired nothing in all +our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with +the spell of His compassion for the world. It means that + + I lived for myself, I thought for myself, + For myself, and none beside-- + Just as if Jesus had never lived, + As if He had never died. + +It is the Son of Man before whom the nations of the world shall be +gathered. It is in the presence of humanity that we shall be charged. +And the spectacle itself, the mere sight of it, will silently judge +each one. Those will be there whom we have met and helped; or there, +the unpitied multitude whom we neglected or despised. No other +witness need be summoned. No other charge than lovelessness shall be +preferred. Be not deceived. The words which all of us shall one day +hear sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints but +of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines but of shelter +and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books but of cups of cold water +in the name of Christ. Thank God the Christianity of today is coming +nearer the world's need. Live to help that on. Thank God men know +better, by a hairbreadth, what religion is, what God is, who Christ +is, where Christ is. Who is Christ? He who fed the hungry, clothed +the naked, visited the sick. And where is Christ? Where?--Whoso shall +receive a little child in My name receiveth Me. And who are Christ's? +Every one that loveth is born of God. + + + + +WAGNER + +I AM A VOICE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Wagner, French Protestant pastor and moral essayist, was born +in 1851 in Alsace. He is at present rector of the Reformed Church +in Fontenay-Lous-Bois, in the Department of Seine. He received a +comprehensive education at the universities of Paris, Strasburg and +Goettingen, and after undertaking many cures in the provinces he went +to Paris in 1882, where he occupied himself in a crusade against the +degrading tendency of life, art and literature in certain of their +Parisian phases. He has been a founder of several popular universities +under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of Morality. He +has published many books, and "La Vie Simple" ("The Simple Life") +was crowned by the French Academy and has been translated into many +European languages, as well as into Japanese. Wagner has been styled +the French Tolstoy, but he is less visionary and much more popular and +practical in his views than the Russian mystic. The author of "The +Simple Life" was greeted with many expressions of warm appreciation on +his visit to the United States a few years ago. He was a guest at the +Presidential mansion by invitation of President Roosevelt, who has +highly commended "The Simple Life." + + + + +WAGNER + +Born in 1851 + +I AM A VOICE[1] + +[Footnote 1: From "The Gospel of Life," by Charles Wagner, by +permission of the McClure Company, publishers. Copyright, 1905, by +McClure, Phillips & Co.] + +_I am the voice[2] of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the +way of the Lord_.--John i., 23. + +[Footnote 2: In the French version of the Scriptures it is "_a_ +voice," and it is necessary to retain this reading in order to render +precisely Pastor Wagner's thought.--_Translator_.] + + +Nothing is rarer than a personality. So many causes, both interior +and exterior, hinder the normal development of human beings, so many +hostile forces crush them, so many illusions lead them astray, that +there is required a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances to +render possible the existence of an independent character. But +when, God alone knows at the cost of what efforts and of what happy +accidents, a vigorous and original personality has been able to +unfold, nothing is rarer than not to see it degenerate into a mere +personage. History teaches us that men exceptional in will and energy +almost always become obstructive and mischievous. They commence by +serving a cause and end by taking possession of it so completely that, +from being its servants, they become its masters. Instead of being men +of a cause, they make the cause that of a man, and they degrade the +most sacred realities to the paltry level of their ambitious egoism. + +Thus, when we meet with strong natures, endowed with the secret of +leadership and command, yet able to resist the subtle temptation to +which so many of the finer spirits have succumbed, it behooves us to +bow and to salute in them a greatness before which all that it is +customary to call by that name fades into nothingness. + +If ever soul encompassed this greatness, it was that of John the +Baptist. John is little known. Of him there remain only a few traits +of physiognomy and a few snatches of discourse. But these snatches are +full of character, these traits possess a sculptural relief; just as +with broken trunks of columns, with fragments of stones, all that is +left of temples that were once the marvels of ancient art, they enable +us to conceive of the grandeur of the whole edifice to which they +once belonged. John was at once strong and humble, energetic and +self-detached. Never has an individuality so well-tempered been less +personal. Identifying himself completely with his rôle as precursor, +he found perfect happiness in effacing himself in the glory of Christ, +just as the dawn disappears in the splendors of the morning. + +History is full of precursors who impede and withstand those whom they +had first announced. When the time comes to retire and to give way +to those for whom they have prepared the way, they do not have the +courage to sacrifice themselves. They go on forever, and often become +the worst enemies of the cause they have defended. John knew nothing +of these failings which are the perpetual scandal in the development +of the kingdom of God. Not only did he say, speaking of Jesus: "He +must increase, but I must decrease," but he made all his acts conform +to these words. + +"This my joy is therefore fulfilled," he said, as he dwelt upon the +first advances of the gospel, and he exprest thus a sweetness of +sacrifice forever unknown to personal souls that remain vulgar in +spite of their genius. + +Finally, John described himself metaphorically in that inimitable +prophetic speech which explains in full the idea that he formed for +himself of his ministry. Under the sway of a morbid curiosity, the +crowd, more perplexed by the appearance of the worker than attentive +to the work, prest him with questions. Who then art thou, mysterious +preacher? Art thou one of the old prophets of Israel, escaped from his +rocky tomb? Or art thou perchance He whom we await? No, answered John, +I am neither one of the prophets nor the Messiah himself, I am no one: +I am a voice! + +I am a voice! This is not a formula that sums up the vocation of the +prophets solely, or of all those who, in the pulpit or in the tribune, +by the pen or by the public discourse, exert an influence upon their +contemporaries. These words are addrest to every one. They define for +every man, the humble yet great duty of truth that he is called to +fulfil in his sphere and according to the measure of his ability. At +the epoch in which we live, such a device is so applicable to the time +being, so pressing, so needful for us to hear, that it is wise to +engrave it in the very foreground of our consciousness. + +To become a voice we must begin by keeping still. We must listen. +The whole world is a tongue of which the spirit is the meaning. God +engraved its fiery capitals in the immensity of the heavens, and +traced its delicate smaller letters on the flower, on the grass, on +the human soul, as rich, as incommensurable as the abysses of space. +Whosoever you are, brother, before letting yourself utter one word, +lend your ear to that voice that seeks you, I might almost add, that +implores you. Listen!--Listen to the confused murmur that arises from +the human depths, and that, comprising in it all tears, all torments, +as well as all joys, becomes the sigh of creation. + +Listen in your heart to remorse, the sad and poignant echo that sin, +traversing life, leaves everywhere upon its passage. Shut your ear +to no sound, however unobtrusive, however sad, it may be. There are +voices that issue from the tombs, others that call to you from out the +abyss of past ages; repel them not, listen! One and all, they have +something to say to you. + +But do not be content with listening to man. Pierce nature, and, +in visible creation as in the invisible sanctuary of souls, watch +attentively for the revelation of Him whose eternal thought every +living thing, humble or sublime, translates after its own fashion. He +speaks to you in the dark nights and in the bright light of dawn, in +the infinite radiance of the worlds beyond all reckoning, and in the +humble stalk that awaits, in the valley bottom, its ray of light and +its drop of dew. Listen!--If there is anguish in the voice of poor +humanity, there are in great nature profound words of soothing, of +hope. Look at the flower in the fields, listen to the birds in the +skies! After the distrest voices that perturb you, you shall know the +voices that relieve and console. There shall befall you that which +befell the nun whose memory is preserved for us in the old legends. +Listening to the forest voices she had gone, following them always, as +far as the thick solitudes where nothing any longer comes to trouble +the collected soul. There, in the shade of a tree where she had seated +herself, she heard a song till then unknown to her ears. It was the +song of the mystic bird. This song said, in marvelous modulations, all +that man thinks and feels, all that he suffers, all that he seeks, all +that falls short of fulfilment for him. It summed up in harmonies the +destinies of living beings and the immense pity that is at the root +of things. Softly, on light, strong wings, it lifted the soul to the +heights where it looks upon reality. And the nun, her hands clasped, +listened, listened without end, forgetting earth, sky, time, +forgetting herself. She listened for centuries without ever growing +tired, finding in the song that charmed her a sweetness forever new. +Dear and truthful image of what the soul experiences when, mute, +as respectful as a child and as ready of belief, it listens in the +universal silence to the voices that translate for it the things that +are eternal! + +All those who have become voices have traveled this way. At Patmos or +in the desert, on Horeb or on Sinai, they have trembled with fright or +started with joy. But everything has its time. There comes a day when +all voices, soft or terrible, that man has heard, grow still, to let +henceforth only one be heard, which cries to him: "Go! go now and be +a witness of the things you have heard! Go! I send you forth as lambs +among wolves! Go! I send you toward men whose brow is harsh, whose +heart is wicked, but fear nothing, I shall embolden your face, I shall +give you a heart of brass and a forehead of diamond." + +When that moment has come, one must, in order to remain faithful to +his mission, remember that after all he is only a voice. Truth +does not belong to us, it is we who belong to truth! Wo to him who +possesses it and treats it as something that belongs to himself. Happy +is he who is possest by it! No preference, no kinship, no sympathy +counts here. Alas! it is not thus that men understand it. It is for +this reason that they degrade truth and that it becomes without power +in their hands. Instead of winging its way heavenward in vigorous +flight, it crawls along the earth, like an eagle whose wings have been +broken. Nothing is sadder than to see how those who ought to lend +their voice to truth, turn it to their own uses and play with it. The +voice, human speech, that sacred organ, whose whole worth lies in +sincerity, has in all ages been the victim of odious profanations. But +in this age it is more than ever attainted. The evil from which it +suffers is defilement. + +At certain epochs a word was as good as a man. It was an act total, +supreme, guaranteed by the whole of life. There was no need to sign, +to stamp, to legalize. Speech was held between friends and enemies +alike, more sacred than any sanctuary, and man maintained it, with the +obscure but just sentiment that it is at the base of society, and that +if words lose their value, there is no longer any society possible. +Later the written word was considered sacred. And coming nearer to +our own day, we have been able to see the masses, guided ever by +that quite legitimate sentiment of the holiness of speech, regard +everything printed as gospel truth. Those times are no more. We have +lied too much, by the living word, the pen, and the press. We have +said and printed too much that is light, false, wittingly disfigured. +Armed with an instrumentality that multiplies thought and spreads it +broadcast to the four corners of the earth with a rapidity unknown +to our fathers, we have made use of it, for the most part, to extend +slander more widely and to cause a greater amount of doubtful +intelligence to swarm upon the earth. So well have we spun speech out +in all our mouths, so thoroughly have we deprived it of its proper +nature and caused it to become sophisticated, that it is no longer of +the least value. The confidence of the masses in authority, which is +one of the slowest and most difficult conquests of humanity, we have +lost like a thing of no worth. They no longer say to any one who now +lifts up his voice: Who are you? But: What end have you in view? What +party do you serve? By what interest are you led? By whom have you +been bought? That there may be a sacred truth, loved, respected, +adored; a truth that is worth more than life, to which one may give +himself wholly and with happiness--this idea diverts the cynics +and makes those whom the cruel experiences of life have rendered +distrustful, shake their heads. If ever an epoch has needed to +rehabilitate human speech, it is our own. What good are we if it is +good for nothing, since it is at the root of all our institutions? + +Who will give it back its potency?--They who will know how to resign +themselves to being but a voice! + +Permit me to bring home to you, by means of a very modest example, +what man may gain in force by being but a voice. Look at that clock. +When the hour has come, it marks it. Whether it be the hour of birth +or of death, the hour of joy or of sorrow, the hour of longed-for +meetings, or of heart-breaking farewells, the clock strikes that hour. +It is only a mechanism, but it is scrupulously exact, it measures that +time which descends to us drop by drop from the bosom of eternity, and +when the hammer falls on the brazen bell, the entire universe confirms +what it announces. The suns and the worlds mark at this very moment, +in the immortal light, the same point of time that is indicated below +on earth, some starless night, by the humblest village clock. We must +imitate the clock. In full consciousness, through absolute submission, +man should make himself the humble instrument of truth, and go through +supreme servitude to supreme power. When he does not do this, he is +only an imperfect timepiece. But when, bound by his word, chained to +the truth that he serves, he has become its slave, and when, without +hate, without preference, without human fear, without other desire +than that of being faithful, he proclaims what is just, true, right, +good, the rocks are less firm on their base than this man: for he is a +voice! + +A voice is, if you like, a slight thing. Stilled as soon as it +awakened, it is heard only by a few and for a little while. It is said +that singers are greatly to be pitied, since posterity can not hear +them. Nothing of them remains. And yet how many marvelous forces +underlie this apparent fragility! The thunder has its roar, the breeze +has its tenderness, but their power is transitory; they are sounds and +not voices. A voice is a living sound, it is the vibrant echo of a +soul. It is doubtless that most fragile thing, a breath, but joined to +that which is most durable, spirit. And it is for this reason that, if +the instant when it is born sees it die, centuries of centuries can +not destroy its effect. The truth which is in it confers immortality +upon it, and when this voice escapes from a human breast, he who +speaks, sings or weeps, feels indeed that eternity has concluded an +alliance with him. Peeling his fragile testimony confirmed by all that +endures and can not die, he says with Christ: "Heaven and earth shall +pass away, but my words shall not pass away!" + +The holy labors entrusted to the voice can never be counted. Because +of the very fact that it lives and that it contains a soul, it is +the great awakener, the incomparable evoker. When, obscure still and +unknown, a thought distracts us and slumbers at the bottom of our +being, a voice is all that is needed to make it emerge into the light. +With maternal tenderness, the voice borrows all the energies of +incubation, to infuse with warmth, to fortify, the nascent germs of +spiritual life. In it lives and breaks forth what, in the evolving +soul, tends feebly and furtively toward the flowering. In short, the +voice, speech, the tongue, condenses in a single focus incalculable +quantities of rays. + +Only think of the efforts that human thought must have made to reach +that clearness that enables it to become speech. Every word that you +utter without giving it a thought is a monument toward which centuries +and multitudes of minds have wrought. A world is contained in it. Poor +words! one man decks himself out in them, another wraps himself up in +them, but how few know of the warmth of life and love that has put +them into the world that they may be forever the witnesses of the past +for posterity! No matter, for when they have been made sufficiently to +resound like an inanimate cymbal, there comes an hour when they revive +under the breath of a true and living being, and they depart to spread +life. Then they fulfil their rôle as educators. To educate is to +explain a being to itself. And this is the benign service that +the voice performs. It tells us what we think better than we can +ourselves. It unbinds the chains of the captive soul and permits it to +take its flight. Happy the child, happy the young man who meets with +a voice to decipher him to himself! This is what Christ did in those +blest hours when He reunited the children of His people, as a bird +reunites its brood under its wings! + +What the voice does in detail, it continues to accomplish on the +larger scale. At certain moments societies seem a prey to a sort of +chaos. A number of contrary forces clash and perturb them, as they +perturb and rend individual souls. Men seek, feeling their way, a road +that seems to elude them. A crowd of spirits, by the very fact of +their contemporaneity, feel themselves distracted and agitated all +in the same way. Confusedly and provoked by the same sufferings they +elaborate the same ideal and formulate the same desires. But they all +wander along twilit paths on the side of the night where the light +seems to be breaking through, without, however, being able to +pierce the darkness. These are the preliminary agonies of the great +historical epochs. Then let a being more powerful, more vital, an +elect soul that has passed through this phase and conquered these +shadows, become incarnate in a voice! That is enough. The personal +word which expresses the soul of that epoch and responds to its +needs, is found. It sounds through the world like a new _fiat lux_! +Everywhere, in those who listen to it and feel secret affinities with +it in themselves, it constitutes a magnificent revelation of light and +life. All these hearts vibrate in unison with one; and, gathering up +all these scattered notes into a single harmony, he who expresses the +sentiments of all, renders an account of the wonderful power of which +he is the instrument. No, it is no longer a man that speaks: what +sounds upon his lips, is the whole soul of a people, is a whole epoch, +is a new world. + +A voice is also that inimitable sigh, that pure sob which tells +of grief because it issues from a suffering heart. It is pity and +compassion, it is the angel of God arriving among us on the caressing +breath, a messenger of mercy, and pouring into the tortured depths of +our poor heart its healing dew. It is Jesus saying to Mary, and, in +her, to all those whom grief afflicts: "Why weepest thou?" It is David +singing: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" It is Isaiah crying: +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people; speak ye comfortably to +Jerusalem!" + +A voice is, on the solitary path where our will strays, the faithful +shepherd calling his sheep; it is every sign, even tho it be made +by the hand of a child, which in the days of forgetfulness and +unrestraint, suddenly wakes us and warns us that our feet skirt the +abysses. + +Then, after the work of education, of creation, of pity, comes the +work of severity, of punishment, of destruction. The voice has been +compared to a sword. Like it, it flames and punishes. A voice is +Nathan rising up before the criminal king and calling down upon his +head the avenging lightning of this word: "Thou art the man!" The +sword attacks, destroys, but it defends, also, and this is its fairest +work. Never is the voice more touching than when it is lifted in favor +of the weak, and, when, suddenly, in the midst of the iniquities +of brute force that it denounces, marks with its stigma, it causes +justice to shine forth and the truth to be felt, in the holy +soul-traversing thrill, that God Himself is there and that His hour +has come! + +A voice has its echo. When this echo is sympathetic, it is endowed +with the sweetest recompense and obliterates the memory of many +sorrows. But this echo is often hostile. It arises from wrath and is +increased by hatred. Then it is resistance, riot, that rumbles. It is +the passions and the scourged vices that twist and bellow like deer +under the lash of the trainer. How many times, O, faithful voices, +souls of peace and truth, has the spirit that animates you driven you +to these fearful encounters--you who have heard in the silence of your +hearts the holy verities and who know their worth, you are obliged to +go bearing them in the face of menace, of mockery, of trembling rage +where they seem to us like Daniel in the lion's den! A terrible +ordeal! but one before which the testifying voices have never +recoiled. Luther, who knew the emotions of the great battles of the +spirit where one man is alone in the face of a thousand, where tinder +the growing clamors and the cries of death ... a voice struggles like +a torch in a tempest, has given to the servants of truth a counsel +that is the alpha and omega of their austere mission. When they have +said all, done all, essayed all, put all their being and all their +love into the proclamation of what they have to announce, then, he +says, "let them be ready to be hooted at and spat upon!" And not only +should they be ready but they should accept this lot with happiness. +Christ says to them: "Happy are they that are outraged and persecuted +for the sake of justice!" + +Alas, the rudest proof for him who speaks the truth is not to arouse +indignation. That, at least, is a result, and however sad it may be, +it bears witness to him who has spoken. Certain protests, despite +their fury, are a sort of involuntary homage. The supreme trial for +a voice is indifference. When John called himself a voice in the +wilderness, he alluded to that external solitude where his voice was +raised. But this solitude, on certain days was full of life and the +gospel cites for our benefit certain facts which prove that the words +with which it resounded were not lost in the empty spaces. They moved +and struck home from the humblest regions of society to the exalted +spheres, to the royal throne itself. John garnered love and hate, +blessing and curse, the desirable fruits of all energetic action. +Since that time and before, more than one voice has been able, +applying them to itself, to give to those prophetic words, "voices in +the wilderness," another very melancholy significance. The supreme +image of despair is a voice that is lost in the silence, as is lost, +in the bosom of dead solitudes, the call that no one hears, for succor +that will never come. + +After having spoken of the different voices, of their power, of their +effects, let us bestow a compassionate remembrance upon the lost +voices, on those who were or who are still, in the most lamentable +sense of that word, voices in the wilderness.--To be a man, a soul, to +have felt the lighting of a holy flame within oneself; to love truth +and justice; to feel the pain of contact with a life ruled over by +falsehood and violence; at the heart of this poignant contrast between +a divine ideal and a heart-rending reality, to receive from his +conscience, from God himself, the command to speak; to put his life +into this work, to renounce everything to be only a voice ... and +after all this to see himself forsaken, neglected, despised! To wear +oneself out slowly in a strife obscure and without issue; to perish +without having aroused either sympathy or opposition, to disappear +into oblivion before disappearing in the tomb ... ah! all the furies, +all the bloody reprisals, the dungeons, the gibbets, the massacres, +all the martyrdoms by which human wickedness strove to stifle the +voice of the just, are less horrible than this extermination by +apathy. + +And yet, not to press things to this cruel extremity, but remembering +the parable of the sower, where so many seeds are lost for the few +that take root and flourish, ought we not be willing to be, in the +greatest number of cases, voices in the wilderness, only too happy if +our thankless labors are recompensed elsewhere by an encouraging echo? +Have we not here, on the contrary, the image of human life? we are +always aspiring toward an ideal more elevated than that which we +realize. We are always precursors, and it becomes us to accept humbly +what that destiny holds both of pain and of beauty. + +Besides, do we know whether voices that seem to be lost, are so in +reality? Are the stones that are hidden in the foundations of a +beautiful edifice, and thanks to which the whole fabric is supported, +lost because no one sees them? In the same way it must be that many +voices are forgotten apparently, until such time as, added together +and finding in each other mutual support, they end by emerging into +the full light of day. + +To wait and to work; to do his duty, and leave the rest to God; to +journey through life, gathering truth into his heart, and then into +the family, the Church, the city; to be its faithful voice; this is +the best use a man can make of his mortal days. And should it be your +lot to be voices in the wilderness; among your children deaf to your +cries; among your compatriots insensible to your warnings, console +yourselves. Greater than you have suffered the same fate. Unite +yourself in spirit to their company and be happy to suffer with them. +At least as you come to understand more and more from day to day that +truth can not perish, and that it is potent even on feeble lips; you +will establish in your hearts faith in the world that endures, and you +will be less astonished and less disconcerted when you see the face of +this world pass away. You will live by the sacred fire cherished in +your souls. Let your furrow close, your hope will not perish! Like +Moses on Nebo, you will enter into the silence, having filled your +dying eyes with the spectacle of the promised land! + + + + +GORDON + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Angier Gordon, Congregational divine, was born in Scotland, +1853. He was educated at Harvard, and has been minister of Old South +Church, Boston, Massachusetts, since 1884. His pulpit style is +conspicuous for its directness and forcefulness, and he is considered +in a high sense the successor of Philip Brooks. He was lecturer in the +Lowell Institute Course, 1900; Lyman Beecher Lecturer, Yale, 1901; +university preacher to Harvard, 1886-1890; to Yale, 1888-1901; Harvard +overseer. He is the author of "The Witness to Immortality" (1897), +and many other works. + + + + +GORDON + +Born in 1853 + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Printed here by kind permission of Dr. Gordon.] + +_And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he +him_.--Genesis i., 27. + + +It must never be forgotten that all truth lies in the order of life +itself. There is a natural environment, and in it have been, real and +mighty from the beginning, the laws and forces which science has but +recently discovered. Copernicus discovered the true order of the solar +system; but the order itself has been there from the morning of time. +Newton discovered the force of gravity, but that force has been in the +natural situation since creation. Chemists have been able to make out +sixty-five or sixty-six irreducible elements; but while chemistry is +young, the elements are everlasting. Electricity is the discovery of +yesterday, and yet it has been at play in man's environment from the +foundation of the world. The continuity of life, from the lowest forms +of it up to man, has been a fact from the first; but not until +this century has the fact meant anything. Few things impress the +imagination more powerfully than the sense of the forces that have +surrounded man from his first appearance on the earth, and that +have been noted and utilized only in recent times. There stands the +immemorial force, and men have had no eyes for it till yesterday. +Thoughtful men begin to look upon the environment in a new spirit. +They begin to walk within it in amazement and hope. All the forces of +the material universe are here, and only a few things about them +have been discovered. The natural environment is rich beyond all +calculation or dream; it is exhaustless. Here in the field of man's +life is the alluring object of science. Here in the natural situation +are the everlasting and benign energies that wait to be discovered and +prest into human service. There is a human environment, and all the +fundamental truth about man has been present in it from the start. +Moses gave his nomadic brethren the ten words; but they were written +in the human heart ages before they were inscribed upon stone. The +great Hebrew prophets gave to the world the vision of one God, His +righteous government of the world, and His election of a single race +for the service of all the races; but God and His government and His +method in the education of man were real and mighty before Amos, and +Hosea, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah beheld them. Christ revealed the +Father through His own divine Sonhood; but the Fatherhood of God is an +eternal truth. Nowhere is the divineness of Christ more obvious than +in the ease and adequacy with which He, and He alone, is able to read +the meaning of the human situation. Christ as Prophet, as Seer and +Discoverer, is most amazing to the most gifted. His eye for fact +is divine. He notes the falling sparrow, and at once reaches the +universal fatherly foresight and control of God. His consuming vision +goes everywhere, turning the hidden truth of life into light and joy +in His parables. His teaching is revelation, the unveiling of the +aboriginal divine order. He makes nothing; He reveals what God made. +And when He increases life it is by showing the path to that increase +ordained of God, insight and obedience. The will of God is the final +law for heaven and earth; the vision of it and surrender to it are the +path of life. Here we touch the depth of the old faith. God the Father +creates, and the Son reveals. The order of the Spirit is eternal; the +revelation of it is in time and for sense-bound men. Here we see in +a mirror and dimly; there they behold face to face. And Christ drew +forth into light the divine significance of man's life, as God +originally made it; and that divine meaning of existence thus drawn +out is the gospel of Christ. + +In the text we are carried by a true seer back of all traditions, +behind all conventions, beyond all beliefs about life to life itself +as it lies in its own freshness and fulness. We are led to look upon +human life newly made, still warm with the touch of the creative hand, +and yet containing in it that very hour all that the Lord eventually +drew out of it. If the first man had understood himself he would have +been essentially a Christian. And therefore I propose to evolve from +the original human situation, as described in the text, the outline of +what I take to be a great faith. + +I. If the first man had understood himself, he would have seen in +himself the interpreter of nature. From the first command, "Let there +be light," to the final, "Let us make man in our image," there are two +things to be noted. There is continuity in the creative process, and +there is an ascension from the lower to the higher. The first duty of +our self-comprehending Adam will be to look backward. He will look +across the wide field whose farther limit lies in cloud and whose +hither border touches his feet. He will survey the creative process +that has led up to and that has come to its climax in him. And as he +thinks of himself as the product of nature, must he not conclude that +as reason is the result, reason must have preceded the process and +governed it? Humanity is the issue; therefore humanity must have +planned the issue and secured it. Back of this march of life, behind +this developing and ascending order, out in the darkness, before the +light was created, there was the Mind that accounts for man. Thus the +last becomes the first, the man that ends the creative process sees +that a human God must have preceded the process. + +This truth is one of the greater insights of the time. The continuity +of life, from the lowest forms to the highest, has received during the +last fifty years an unparalleled recognition. So, too, with the fact +of the steady ascent of life. Not indeed in a literal and yet in a +true way, the modern scientific conception is a wonderful parallel to +the sublime hymn with which the Bible opens. In the beginning was the +fire-mist. In that fire-mist began the process of development. It +became worlds, systems innumerable, a stellar universe, and within +this whole a solar order, an earth beating forward in preparation for +the advent of life. Life when it came flowed into countless forms. +From the shapeless mass it pushed on upward into successively higher +and finer structures, ever aspiring toward man. Ages preceded the +advent of man. There were upon the part of life ages of preparation, +ages of climbing. Before life rose the mountain of the Lord; it +must be scaled and its summit reached before man could put in +an appearance. But the hour for which the whole cosmos had been +travailing in pain could not be indefinitely delayed. In the fulness +of time, as the tree bursts into bloom, as the tide rolls to the +flood, as the light breaks in through the gates of morning, nature +came to her supreme expression in man. Man is not here on his own +strength. He is not in the bosom of things unaccounted for. He is the +child of nature; her last act, her highest product, the best that is +in her power to bring forth, the son in whose wondrous being her own +motherhood is to undergo total transformation. + +That is the modern scientific conception; look for a moment at its +greatness. Man as final issue of nature must turn round and look +backward. He must look down the long line of life to the far-off first +beginning. He must pass beyond the earliest forms in which the vital +movement began to the mysterious, formless, eternal power behind all. +And it is here that nature is lifted into a new character by her human +product. In that eternal power there must be a reason to account +for man's reason, conscience to account for his conscience, love to +account for his love, spirit to explain his spirit. Nature as mother +must become spirit to account for the soul of her son. The flower +shows what was in the seed, the oak is the revelation of what was in +the heart of the acorn; and man as the last and best outcome of nature +is the authoritative expression of the power that is behind nature. +Thus the mind that is the final product of nature discovers the mind +that is the source of nature. Man seeking the origin of his being +finds it on the farther side of nature in One like unto a son of man. +He learns later to distinguish between the reality and the image, +between God and godlike man. And then a wireless telegraphy is +established between them across the vast untraveled distances of +nature. The life near to God can not send the tokens of His inmost +character upward to man; the brute life near to man can not carry +downward to God man's thoughts and hopes. The animal life that +stretches in an expanse so wide between the Creator and His best work +can not connect the human and the divine. But when the spirit to which +nature comes in man has once seen the Spirit in which nature must +begin, then the wireless telegraphy comes into play. The heart, that +is the last product of life, sends out its mysterious currents, its +aspirations, its gladness, its grief, and its hope; and these repeat +themselves in the great heart of God. And forth from the Spirit behind +nature issue the messages of recognition, of sympathy, of intimated +ideals and endless incentive, that register themselves in the soul of +man. Nature is a solid, sympathetic, and now and then glorified, and +yet dumb, highway between God and man. Her beauty belongs to the +Spirit that she does not know, and it speaks to the Spirit that is +older than her child. She is a mute, unconscious sacrament between the +infinite reason and the finite, a path for the lightning that plays +backward and forward between the soul of man and the soul of God. +The great primal fact in the human environment is that man is the +interpreter of nature. In this character of interpreter of nature he +receives his first message from God, and makes his first response. + +II. The second fact in the human situation is that religion is the +interpreter of man. As man looks backward he beholds beyond nature +a face like his own, only diviner; and ever afterward the noblest +aspiration of his soul is to win the smile of that face and to escape +its frown. Our self-comprehending Adam would confess that he knew +himself only when he noted within him the lover of the infinite. And +here history leads the way. You look into "The Book of the Dead," and +you see what high and serious things religion meant for the early +Egyptian. The pyramids are monuments to religion. The art of the +ancient races was chiefly homage to the divine. The Athenian Parthenon +would never have been but for faith in the goddess that shielded the +city. Greek art, the greatest art in the world, is primarily a tribute +to faith. Those marvelous statues were likenesses of the gods; those +incomparable temples were dwelling-places for the gods. Religion is +in the warp and woof of the world's love and sorrow, its art and +literature, its patriotism and history. The life of man is the +cathedral window, and religion is the colored figure that stands in +it. The two are inseparable. You can not abolish the figure without +breaking the window; you can not banish religion without destroying +humanity. Try to explain Homer's world without Olympus; account for +Mohammedanism and make no reference to faith; write the history of +the Middle Ages and take no note of the "Divine Comedy"; sum up +the meaning of Persian and Indian civilization and pay no heed to +religion; show what Hebraism is and leave unnoticed its consciousness +of God, and you will create a parallel to the philosopher who should +endeavor to trace the significance of human life apart from man's +passion for the infinite. + +Here then is the key to manhood. He is a being over whom the unseen +wields an endless fascination. There is in him a thirst that nothing +can quench save the living God. His chief attribute is an attribute +of wo, an incapacity for content within the limits of the visible +and temporal. His differentiation from the brute is at this point +absolute. Between man and the lower orders of life there is a line of +likeness; there is also from the beginning a line of unlikeness. In +physical structure man is both similar and dissimilar to the animal. +As bread-winner and economist he is kindred and he is in contrast to +the creatures below him. In the home, in society, and in the state +in which both home and society are set and protected, the line of +likeness grows less and less distinct, while the line of unlikeness +becomes bolder and plainer. It is impossible to deny observation to +the dog and impossible to grant to it science. The instinct for beauty +belongs to the bird, but art in the full sense of the word, as the +self-conscious expression of beautiful ideas, is no part of its life. +One can not decline to note method in the existence of the brute, +and one is compelled to withold from it philosophy. In these higher +activities the line of likeness between man and the animal is of the +faintest description; while the line of contrast becomes more and more +pronounced and significant. When we come to the summit of man the +likeness vanishes utterly. Among the lower life of the world there is +no _Magnificat_, there is no _Nunc Dimittis_; the beginning and the +end do not link themselves to the Eternal. The brute has no religion, +no temple, no priest, no Bible, no sacrament of love between itself +and the invisible. The tower of this church tells at once, and from +afar, that it is a church. Near at hand, much besides the tower tells +the same story. There is the cruciform foundation; there is the +structure of its walls. There is the outside with distinct note; there +is the inside with its joyous beauty. Look at the church closely and +you need no tower to proclaim what it is. And yet the tower is its +most conspicuous witness: at a distance it is the sole witness. +Religion is similarly the eminent token that man belongs to a divine +order. The basis of his being in sacrifice should repeat the same +tale. Civilization as a struggle after social righteousness should +announce the same fact. Man's thoughts and feelings, and their +manifold and marvelous expression in art, in institutions, and in +systems of opinion, utter the same testimony. And yet the tower of his +being, high soaring and far seen, is his feeling for the invisible. +You do not know man until you behold him worshiping. + +III. The third fact in our human situation is that Christianity is the +interpretation of religion. You see the devout old Jew, Simeon, who +met Jesus as His mother brought Him for the first time into the +temple; and there you behold the old faith interpreted by the new. All +that was best in the Hebrew religion is conserved and carried higher +in the Christian religion. Everywhere the devoutest Jews were +conscious of wants which the national faith did not meet. They waited +for the consolation of Israel, and when Christ came he supplied +satisfactions which Hebraism could not supply. Christianity commended +itself to the disciples of Christ because it seemed to be their own +faith at its best. They were carried over into it by the logic +of their previous belief and their deep human need. Paul sought +righteousness as a Jew; when he became a Christian, righteousness +was still his great quest. And Christianity commended itself to him +because the national ideal of righteousness was set before him in +a sublimer form, and because a new inspiration came to him in his +pursuit of it. The old immemorial goal of human endeavor was exalted, +and the everlasting incentives were filled with the freshness of a +divine life. Thus the religious Jew, when Christ came, was like a +convalescent patient. The process of recovery was going on, but in +a way that was discouragingly slow. The longing was for the higher +altitudes of the spirit, for the pure and bracing atmosphere of some +exalted leader, for an environment richer in healing ministry and in +restoring power. That longing Christ met. He carried His believing +countrymen on to the heights. He surrounded them with the freshness of +His own spirit. He put over them a new sky. He took them into a new +environment, rich with His truth and grace, tender with infinite +sympathy, stored with the forces that work for spiritual vigor, filled +with the love of His Father. Ask Peter or James or John or Paul, ask +any believing Jew and he will tell you that Christianity is simply the +consummation of his faith as a Jew. + +The gospel moves along the same line of self-verification with +reference to all the great religions. The Persian believes in eternal +light, and he hates the contending darkness. Christianity says that +God is light, and that in Him is no darkness at all; that Jesus is the +Light of the world, and that whosoever followeth Him shall not walk +in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Greek was full of +humanity, and he could not help making his gods and goddesses simply +larger and more beautiful men and women. What is the soul of that +amazingly beautiful and seemingly fantastic mythology of the Greeks? +Why do they worship Apollo and Aphrodite, Hermes and Athene? Because +they can think of nothing higher than ideal humanity. And Christ +comes, the ideal man. The beauty of the Lord is upon Him. His thoughts +and feelings and purpose and character are the most perfect things in +the world. He identifies Himself with man, and He identifies Himself +with God. He is the Son of man, and as such He is the Son of God. And +thus a human. God, a human universe, a human religion is offered to +the Greek, and in place of the wonderful mythology the clear, warm, +divine fact. The Mohammedan believes in will; and the gospel puts +before him that ultimate irresistible Will as a Will to all good, +eternally burdened with love, and nothing but love, for man. The Hindu +is smitten with an endless craving after rest, and he thinks the path +to peace lies in the diminution and final extinction of being. Christ +goes to the Hindu and says: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and +heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn +of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto +your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." + +He sets before the Hindu an infinite social peace; he calls into play +the moral will that for ages has been allowed to slumber. The goal +is high social harmony; the path to it is the intelligent will in +faithful, inspired, victorious obedience. The need of the Hindu is +not less but more and better existence. The way out of his despair is +through fulness of life. His misery is but the dumb prayer for eternal +life, that is, for existence supreme in its character and in its +volume. + +Thus Christianity is everywhere the interpreter of religion. +Everywhere it carries the world's faith to its best. It is the +consummation both of the human need and the divine answer. And to-day, +in our own world, it goes on the same high errand. The intuitions of +righteousness, the sympathies with goodness, the wish for the more +abundant life, the ideals and the struggles, the hope and the fear, +without which man would not be man, find their interpreter in +Christianity. It is the soul carried to the utmost depth of its need +and the loftiest height of its desire, and then made conscious that +below its profoundest weakness and above its highest dream is the +infinite Love that is educating its life. It is the best wisdom of +history speaking to the highest interests of man. As mothers brought +their children to Jesus that He might reveal the inmost meaning of +childhood, open its treasure to the hearts that loved it, and by His +consecrating touch assure it of perpetual increase; so are the nations +bringing their religions to Him, and the noble among men their +uncomprehended longing and hope. He walks among us still as the +Revealer, the Conserver, and the Consummator of life. + +IV. Lastly, Christianity finds it own interpretation in God. We have +seen man looking backward and finding the origin of his soul in the +Soul that is behind nature. We have seen his religion telling him +that he can not live by bread alone, that he can rest only under +the shelter of the unseen, that he is infinitely more akin to the +invisible than to the visible, that he has a spirit and must therefore +hunger for the fellowship of the eternal Spirit. We see Christianity +lifting this religious capacity to its highest, and bringing in the +divine appeal in its sublimest form. We behold the earth transfigured +in this Christian dream, the ladder set that reaches from the dreamer +to heaven, and upon it, going up and coming down, the great prayers of +the soul and the tender responses of the Most High. To what shall we +refer this sublime, transfiguring dream? Is it the delusion of the +sleeper, or the whisper of God? Is the ladder set up from the earth, +or is it let down from above? Did man shape it out of his abysmal +desire, or did God make and establish it out of His love. What can +we say of that which is the highest wisdom, the widest sympathy, the +divinest love, and the mightiest power in human history? What can +we do with that which is the true life of man? Can the trees of the +field, as they clap their hands and sing in the freshening breeze, do +other than refer it to heaven? And man, as he sees the light of Christ +upon the Spirit behind nature, beholds in the gospel that which +interprets his highest dreams, feels in Christianity the power to +understand and to become his own best self--can he do other than say +that his Christian faith is the gift of God? The star in the brook +refers you for the explanation of its being to the star in the sky; +and the glory of the gospel living in the depths of man's soul has no +other origin than the love of God. + +The hope of science lies in exploring the natural environment. All +material reality is here, and here science has found all her truth, +and every season reminds her that inexpressible wonders still wait her +search. In the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the +waters under the earth are hidden the treasure for which she is to +toil. Earth and sea and sky; the waveless depths and the windless +heights, and the wide expanse between, now sunlit and again +stormswept, are the field of her enterprise and hope. And in the same +way the human environment is the region that the spirit must explore. +The meaning of humanity must be found in and through humanity. "Say +not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring +Christ down; or who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring +Christ up from the dead. The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in +thy heart." The divine reality offers itself to faith in and through +the scope and sweep of life. The order of God is in the life of +society. The ideal for man, the method by which it is realized, and +the power, are set in the spiritual tissues of the race. If you see no +God, no soul, no genuine religion, believe rather that you are blind +than that your human environment does not contain them. You are the +product of nature. It follows that nature must be great enough to +account for you and your race and the Christ who is your race at its +best. Back of the nature that gave birth to you, that bore your kind, +and brought forth Christ, there must be the sufficient Spirit. You +are sure that you can not live by bread alone. You have thoughts that +wander through eternity. You can not rest until you rest in God. You +are a being made for religion, and again here is the gospel that meets +your intelligence with its wisdom, your heart with its love, your will +with its moral authority. Nothing puts your being in tune, and nothing +rings out the best music that is in you, as the gospel does. It is +omnipresent in our civilization, working everywhere to crush the +beast and to free the man. It is in a mother's love, the soul of its +tenderness; it is in a father's heart as ideal and incentive. The +history and the experience and the hope of our homes are transfigured +in its light, as if the earth should repose in an everlasting evening +glow. Patriotism is alive with its fire, and the new and growing +passion for humanity is the great token of its quickening spirit. +It is the box of ointment, very precious, which has been broken in +society and all Christendom is filled with its perfume. Birth and +death, love and sorrow, achievement and failure, human life and its +immemorial content, the old room and the dear and dreary things in it, +take on new dignity and grace. To detect the new spirit in the old +dwelling is the best and most rewarding of all intuitions. To live in +the human homestead consecrated by the diffusion of Christ's gospel is +to undergo an unconscious conformation to exalted ideals. Because of +our Christian civilization, behind every morning is the Father, who +makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and who sends His +rain upon the just and the unjust. Nature has been lifted into a +servant of the divine beneficence. And man's wild but imperishable +passion for the unseen has been brought to see its last and best self +in the love of Christ. Wherever we look, this gospel is the master +light of all our seeing; and once more, is it not light from heaven? +We know where to look for the belt of Orion, and clear and grand as +the stars that constitute it are the great saving truths which are set +in the human sky. There is nothing arbitrary in this sublime faith, +nothing that does not rise out of the human order, nothing that is a +mere import from the world of fancy or wild belief. The faith is the +translation of fact into thought and speech. The eyes of Christ pass +over and through the order of the universe, and His vision is our +faith. Man is the interpreter of nature; religion is the interpreter +of man; Christianity is the interpreter of religion; and God the +Father is the interpreter of Christianity. + + + + +DAWSON + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William James Dawson, Congregational preacher and evangelist, was born +in Towcester, Northamptonshire, in 1854. He was educated at Kingswood +School, Bath, and Didsbury College, Manchester. He has long been +known as an author of originality and pure literary style. In 1906 he +received the pastorate of Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church, +London, and accepted an invitation to do general evangelistic work +under the auspices of the National Council of the Congregational +churches of the United States. He now resides in this country. + + + + +DAWSON + +Born in 1854: + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by kind permission of Messrs. Fleming H. Revell +& Co., New York.] + +_As soon then as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals +there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Come +and dine_.--John xxi., 9, 12. + + +I can not read these words without indulging for a moment in a +reminiscence. Not long ago, in the early morning, while all the world +slept, I stood beside the Sea of Tiberias, just as the morning mist +lifted, and watched a single brown-sailed fishing-boat making for the +shore, and the tired fishermen dragging their net to land. In that +moment it seemed to me as if more than the morning mist lifted--twenty +centuries seemed to melt like mist, and the last chapter of St. John's +gospel seemed to enact itself before my eyes. For so vivid was the +sense of something familiar in the scene, so mystic was the hour, that +I should scarce have been surprized had I seen a fire of coals burning +on the shore, and heard the voice of Jesus inviting these tired +fishermen to come and dine. + +Now if I felt that, if I was sensible of the haunting presence of +Christ by that Galilean shore, how much more these disciples, in +whose minds every aspect of the Galilean lake was connected with some +intimate and thrilling memory of the ministry of Jesus. + +Christ once more stands among the common things of life; the fire, +the fish, the bread--all common things; a group of tired, hungry +fishers--all common men; and He is there to affirm that in His +resurrection He had not broken His bond with men, but strengthened +it--wherever common life goes on there is Jesus still. + +I. Notice the words with which the story opens, and you will see at +once that this is the real clue to its interpretation. "When morning +had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not +that it was Jesus." A strange thing that! Why did they not know Him? +Because they were not looking for Him in such a scene. It had seemed a +natural thing, if Jesus should appear at all, that He should appear in +the garden, a vision of life at the very altar of death. It seemed yet +more probable and appropriate that He should appear in the upper room, +that room made sacred by holiest love and memory. If any words of +Christ yet lingered in the mind and had power to thrill them, they +were surely these words, "Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the +clouds of heaven," glorified, triumphant, lifted far above the earth +and its humble life. And so, if they were looking for Christ at all +that morning, I think they watched the morning clouds, expecting Him +to come down the resplendent staircase of the sunbeams to call the +nations together and vindicate Himself in acts of universal judgment. +And behold! Jesus comes as a fisherman standing on the lakeside, busy +over a little fire, where the morning meal is cooking; and behold! +Jesus speaks, and it is not of the eternal mysteries of God, not of +the solemn secrets of the grave, but of nets and fishing and how to +cast the nets--the simple concerns of simple men engaged in humble +tasks. + +No wonder they did not recognize Him. Once more the Son of Man comes +eating and drinking, and even the eyes that knew Him best can not see +in this human figure by the lakeside the only begotten Son of the +Father, full of grace and truth. They looked and saw but a fellow +fisherman, cooking his meal upon the shore, and they knew not that it +was Jesus. + +II. Think for a moment of the earthly life of Christ, and you will +see that it was designedly linked with all the common and even the +commonest things of life. + +If you or I could have conceived the great thought of some human +creature that should be the very incarnation of God, what would have +been the shape of our imaginings? Surely we should have chosen for +this earthly temple of the Highest some human form perfected in grace +and beauty by the long refinements of exalted ancestry; the child of +kings or scholars; the delicate flower of life, in whom the elements +were so subtly mixed that we should recognize them as special and +miraculous--so we might think of God manifest in man. But God chooses +for the habitation of His Spirit a peasant woman of Nazareth, humble, +poor, unconsidered. + +If we could have forecast the training of such a life, how should +we have pictured it? Surely as sheltered from the coarseness of the +world, delicately nourished, sedulously cultured; but God orders +that this life should manifest itself in the house of the village +carpenter, out of reach of schools, in a little wicked town, under the +commonest conditions of poverty, obscurity, and toil. + +If you and I could have imagined the introduction of this life of +lives to the world, how should we picture that? Surely we should have +pictured it coming with pomp and display that would at once have +attracted all eyes; but God orders that it shall come without +observation, unfolding its quiet beauty like the wayside flower, which +there are few to see and very few to love. Commonness: that is the +great note of the incarnation and the purposed feature of Christ's +earthly life. + +He reaffirms His fraternity in common life. The disciples could not +imagine that as possible; nor can we. And why not? For two reasons, +one of which is that we have forgotten the dignity of common life. + +1. Dignity is for us almost synonymous with some kind of separation +from common life; it dwells in palaces, not in cottages; it inheres in +culture, but is inconceivable in narrow knowledge; and to the great +mass of men it is, alas! the attribute of wealth, of fine raiment, +of social isolation. But we have not learned even the alphabet +of Christ's gospel unless we have come to see that the only true +_in_dignity in human life is sin, meanness, malevolence, and +small-heartedness; and that all life is dignified where there are +love, purity, and piety in it, whatever be its social category. + +I read the other day that it is probable that the very mire of the +London streets contains that mysterious substance known as radium, the +most tremendous agent of light and heat ever yet discovered by man; so +in man himself, however low his state, there is the spark of God, an +ember lit at the altar fires of the Eternal, and it is because we +forget this that we forget the dignity of common life. For we do +forget it. We may make our boast that a single human soul is of more +value than all the splendors and immensities of matter; but in our +actions we treat the boast as a mere rhetorical expression. There is +nothing so cheap as men and women--let the lords of commerce answer +if it be not so. But Christ acted as tho the boast were true. He +deliberately inwove His life into all that is commonest in life. He +has made it impossible for us, if indeed we have His spirit, to think +of any salient aspect of human life without thinking of Him. +Where childhood is, there is Bethlehem; where sorrow is, there is +Gethsemane; where death is, there is Calvary; where the toiler is, +there is the poor man of Nazareth; and where the beggar is, there is +He who had no place where to lay His head. There is not a drop of +blood of Christ, nor a throb of thought in our brains that is not +thrilling with the impact of this divine life of lives. And so the +true dignity of life is this, that Christ is in all men, faintly +outlined it may be, defaced, half-obliterated, but there, and the +Church that forgets this has neither impulse nor mandate for Christ's +work among men. + +2. And then, again, there is a second reason: we have not learned to +look for Christ among the common things of life. + +"Let us build three tabernacles," said the wondering disciples on +the Mount of Transfiguration, and the speech betrayed a tendency of +thought which was in time to prove fatal to the Church. + +The Christ without a tabernacle, the free, familiar Christ of the lake +or the wayside was everybody's Christ; but the moment Christ is shut +up in a church or a tabernacle He becomes the priest's Christ, the +thinker's Christ, the devotee's Christ, but He ceases to be the +people's Christ. + +I remember five years ago standing in the great church of Assisi, +which has been erected over and encloses the little humble chapel +where Francis first received his call. You will scarcely be surprized +if I confess that I turned with a sense of heart-sick indignation +from the pomp of that splendid service in the gorgeous church to +the thought of Francis, in his worn robe, going up and down these +neighboring roads, touching the lepers, calling them "God's patients," +pouring out his life for the poor; and I knew Christ nearer to me +on the roads that Francis trod than in that church, which is his +mausoleum rather than his monument. And as I felt that day in far-off +Umbria, so I have felt to-day in England; my heart goes out to +Catherine Booth; to Father Dolling, to these Christs of the wayside, +and it turns more and more from the kind of Christ who lives in +churches and nowhere else. My brethren, you will let me say that we do +but make the church Christ's prison when we forget that all the realm +of life is His. Oh, you good people, you do love your church, but +often think and act as tho the presence of Christ can be found nowhere +else. Lift up your eyes and see this risen Christ, a fisherman upon +the shore, busy in no loftier task than to have a meal prepared for +hungry fishermen. Unlock your church doors, let Christ go out among +common people; nay, go yourselves, for it is here that He would have +you be. Remember that wherever there is toil, there is the Christ +who toiled; and there you should be, with the kind glance, the warm +hand-grasp, and the loving warmth of brotherhood. + +Christ stands amid the common things of life; where the fire is lit, +there is He; where the bread is broken, there is He; where the net of +business gain is drawn, there is He; and only as we learn to see Him +everywhere shall we understand the dignity and the divinity of human +life. + +III. "And Jesus said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the +ship, and ye shall find. They cast, and now they were not able to draw +it for the multitude of fishes." + +Here is another strange thing. Christ knows more about the management +of their own business than they do. They had toiled all night and +caught nothing; is not that a significant description of many human +lives? "Children, have ye any meat?" asks that quiet Voice from +the shore, and they answer "No." Is not that yet more pathetically +significant? All the heartbreak and disappointment of the world cry +aloud in that confession. Oh, I could fill an hour with the mere +recital of the names of great and famous people who have toiled +through a long life, and as the last gray hour came over their dim sea +of life, "brackish with the salt of human tears," have acknowledged +with infinite bitterness that they have caught nothing. Listen to the +voice of Goethe, "In all my seventy-five years I have not had four +weeks of genuine well-being;" to the confession of our own famous +poet, + + My life is in the yellow leaf, + The flowers, the fruits of love are gone; + The worm, the canker, and the grief + Are mine alone. + +to the ambitious and successful statesman who says, "Youth is folly, +manhood is struggle, old age regret"; to one of our most brilliant +women of genius in our own generation, wife of a still more brilliant +husband, who cries, "I married for ambition, and I am miserable." +Surely there is some tragic mismanagement of the great business of +living here. Oh, brother, is it true of you, that after all the +painful years happiness is not yours? You have no meat, no food on +which the heart feeds, no green pasture in the soul, no table in the +wilderness, and the last gray day draws near and will find you still +hungering for what life Has never given you. + +Learn, then, that Christ knows more about the proper management of +your life than you do. "Cast your net on the right side of the ship," +speaks that quiet Voice from the shore. And you know what happened. +And it is so still. Just because Christ stands among the common things +of life, He knows most about life, and, above all, He knows where +the golden fruit of happiness is found and where the secret wells of +peace. + +And to some of us whom God has called to be fishers of men the issue +is yet more solemn. We have the boat and the nets, all this elaborate +organization of the Church, but have we caught anything this year? +Where is the draft of fishes? Where are the men and women saved by +our triumphant effort? I will make my humble confession this morning, +that for five-and-twenty years I have cast the net, but only lately +have I found the right side of the ship; only lately have I discovered +how easy it is to get the great draft of fishes by simply going to +work in Christ's way. I do not believe in the indifference of the +masses in religion; the indifference is not in the masses, but in the +churches. You will never catch many fish if you stand upon the shore +of cold respectability and wait for them to come; launch out into the +deep and you will find them. Go for them--that is Christ's method. +Compel them to come in, for remember Christ's ideal was, as Bishop +Lightfoot so nobly put it, "the universal compulsion of the souls of +men." And if your experience is like mine, you will find that there is +strangely little compulsion needed to bring men and women to Christ. +I stood but lately in a house where fifty fallen women lived; I went +there to rescue three of its unhappy inmates. When the moment came to +take these three women from their life of sin, their comrades lined +the passage to shake my hand; there were tears and prayers, and +messages like these, "Be good. You'll be a good woman," "We wish we +had your chance"; and these poor souls in their inferno wished me +"a happy New-year." Compulsion! There was small need for compulsion +there! I believe I could have rescued all of these fifty women at one +stroke had I known where to take them. But to the shame of the Free +Churches in London I confess that, with the exception of the Wesleyans +and the Salvation Army, I do not know a single Free Church Rescue Home +in London. And I put it to you this morning whether you can any longer +tolerate that omission? I ask you whether you really want a great +draft of fishes, for you can have them if you want them. Christ knows +the business better than you do; and if you will come out of the +cloister of the church and seek the people in His spirit, I promise +you that very soon you will not be able to drag the net for the +multitude of fishes. + +IV. "And Jesus said unto them, Come and dine." + +Dine on what? Not the fish which they had caught. They had caught one +hundred and fifty-three great fishes; but notice Christ's fire was +kindled before they came. Christ's fish was already laid thereon, and +all they had to do was to come and dine. It is all you have to do, all +the churches have to do. Did not Christ so put it in the parable of +the Great Supper?--"Come, for all things are ready." Is not the last +word of Scripture the great invitation?--"The Spirit and the Bride +say, Come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of +life freely." Many a church can not say to a hungry world, "Come and +dine," because it will not let Christ prepare the meal. It will not +live in His spirit, it has no real faith in His gospel, it does not +understand that its true strength is not in elaborate organization +or worship, but in simple reliance on His grace. And so there is the +table covered with elaborate confections, which are not bread, and +when it says, "Come and dine," men will not come, for they know that +there is nothing there for them. Let Christ prepare the meal and all +is different then. When He says, "Come and dine," there is "enough +for each, enough for all, enough for evermore." And as Jesus spoke, I +think there flashed upon the memory of these men the scene when Jesus +fed the five thousand, and by that memory they knew their Jesus. No +one else ever spoke like that, with such certainty and such authority. +And the same Voice speaks even now to your hunger-bitten soul, to your +famished heart, "Come and dine." + +V. "Then Jesus taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise." + +There is no mistaking the act; it was a sacramental act. Here, upon +the lake shore, without a church, without an altar, the true feast of +the Lord was observed. For what does the Holy Supper, which is the +bond and seal of the Church's fellowship, stand for, if it is not +for this, the sanctification of the common life? Bread and wine, the +commonest of all foods to an Oriental, are elements indeed, because +they are necessary to the most elementary form of physical life, +things used daily in the humblest home. By linking Himself +imperishably with these commonest elements of life, Christ makes it +impossible to forget Him. Once more the thought shines clear, Jesus +among the common things of life. + +And then there comes one last touch in the beautiful story. While +these things happened, the day was breaking. Is there one of us +long tossed on sunless seas of doubt, long conscious of failure and +disappointment in life? Are there those of us whose sorrow lies deeper +than that which is personal--sorrow over our failure in Christ's work, +pain over a life's ministry for Christ that has known no victorious +evangel? Turn your eyes from that barren sea to Him who stands upon +the shore; He shall yet make you a fisher of men. Turn your eyes from +that bleak, dark sea of wasted effort where you have fared so ill; it +is always dark till Jesus comes, it is always light when He has come. +There is a new day breaking for the churches--a day of widespread +evangelistic triumphs that shall eclipse all the greatest triumphs of +the past, if we will but go back to Christ's school and learn of Him +how to save the people. And to each of us He says to-day: "I am the +living bread; I am the bread of life come down from heaven. If any man +eat of this bread, he shall live forever." "Come and dine." Will you +come? + + + + +SMITH + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +GEORGE ADAM SMITH, divine, educator and author, was born at Calcutta +in 1856, and educated at New College, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is at +present professor of Old Testament Language, Literature and Theology +in the United Free Church College, Glasgow. He is author of "The +Historical Geography of the Holy Land," "Jerusalem, the Topography, +Economics and History from the Earliest Time to A.D. 70" (1908). He is +generally regarded as one of the most gifted preachers of Scotland. + + + +SMITH + +Born in 1856 + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +_Preserve me, O God._--Psalm xvi., 16. + + +The psalmist lived in a period when belief in the reality of many gods +was still strong, and when a man who would follow the one true God +had to prefer to do so against the attractions of other deities and +against the convictions of a great number of his fellow countrymen +that these deities were living and powerful. That stage of religion is +so distant from ourselves that we may imagine the psalmist's example +to be of no practical value for our faith, yet in such an imagination +we should be very much mistaken indeed, for, to begin with, consider +how much you and I to-day owe to those believers who so many centuries +ago rejected all the gods that offered themselves to the hearts of men +except the true God, and who chose to cleave to Him alone with all +that passionate loyalty which breathes through these verses. But for +them you and I could not be standing where we are in religion to-day. +As the eleventh of Hebrews reminds us, we are the spiritual heir of +such believers. It is to their struggles and their faith and their +victories that we greatly owe it that we have been born into an +atmosphere in which no religious belief is possible to us save in one +God who is Spirit and Righteousness and all Truth. + +That, then, was the great choice that the psalmist's faith was turning +to--a choice that was no mere assent to a creed that had been fought +for and established by previous generations of believers. It was the +man's own proving of things unseen and his own preference of those +against the crowd and a system of things seen, palpable, and very +powerful in their attraction for the senses of humanity. But we are +not to suppose that the rival deities, from which this man turned to +the unseen God, were to his mind or to the mind of his day the heap +of dead and ugly idols which we know them to be. They were not dead +things that he could kick away with his feet that these believers had +to reject when they sought the living God, but things which he and his +contemporaries felt to be alive and powerful; powerful alike in their +seduction and in their vengeance. They were believed to be identical, +as you know, with the forces of nature; they were supposed to be +indispensable to the welfare of the individual and of society, and +they were fanatically supported at the time by the mass of this man's +own countrymen; so that to break from them in those days meant to +abandon ancient opinions and habits, to resist many pleasant and +natural temptations and to incur the hostility, as was believed, of +the powers of nature, to break with customs and with rites that had +fortified and consoled the individual heart for generations and been +the support and sanction of society and of the state as well. Yet this +man did it. From all that living crowd and system, from all those +visible temptations and terrors he turned to the unseen, fully +conscious of his danger, for he opens his Psalm with a great cry, +"Preserve me, preserve me, O God!" but yet deliberately, and with all +his heart: "I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." I have no +goodness, no happiness, that is outside Thee or outside the saints +that are in the land, "the excellent in whom is all my delight." Here +we touch another great characteristic of all true faith which is full +of example to ourselves. It is remarkable how, when a man really turns +to God, he turns to God's people as well, and how he includes them in +the loyalty and in the devotion which he feels toward his Redeemer. +His confidence and the sensitiveness of his faith in and toward God +become almost an equal confidence and an equal sensitiveness toward +his fellow believers. So it is throughout Scripture; you remember that +other psalmist who tells us how he had been tempted to doubt God's +providence and God's power to help the good man--"does God know and is +there knowledge in the Most High? Verily I have cleansed my heart in +vain and washed my hands in innocency." The psalmist immediately adds: +"If I had spoken thus, behold I had dealt treacherously with the +generation of God's children." If I had spoken thus, denying God, +I had dealt treacherously with the generation of God's children. +Unbelief toward God meant to him treason toward God's people; and the +author of the Epistle to the Hebrews affirms the same double character +of true faith when he emphasizes just these two points in the faith +of Moses: "choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God," and +"enduring as seeing Him who is invisible," and God Himself through +Jesus Christ has accepted this partnership of His people in our +loyalty--"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these +my brethren ye have done it unto me." I do not believe in the full +faith of any man who does not extend the loyalty he professes to +God to God's people as well, who does not feel as sensitive to his +brethren on earth as he does to his Father in heaven, who does not +practise piety toward the Church as he does toward her Head, or find +in her fellowship and her service a joy and a gladness which is one +with his deep joy in God, his Redeemer. Nay, is it not just in loving +people who are still imperfect, often disappointing, and far from +their ideal it may be, that in our relations to them we are to find +the greater proof and test of our religious faith? In these days such +a duty is unfortunately more complicated than with the psalmist. The +lines between God's Church and the world is not so clear as it was to +him, and the Church is divided into many and often hostile factions. +All the more it becomes the test of our religion if our hearts feel +and rejoice in the fellowship of God's simpler and more needy and more +devoted believers, however unattractive they may otherwise be. + +Consider the way in which the psalmist reached this pure faith in God +and in His people. A factor in the process was distaste for the ugly +rites of idolatry--"Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer." +Idolatry always develops a loathsome ritual. Sometimes it is cruel +and sometimes it is horribly unclean, but it always debases the +worshiper's mind, confuses his conscience, and hampers his freedom and +energy by the burdensome ceremonies it imposes upon them. Standing +afar off from them as we do, and knowing that there is no heathen +religion but has something good in it, we are apt to think that it +does not in the least matter how crude or how material a nation's +faith be if only it be faith in something more powerful than +themselves, if it satisfy their consciences and have some influence in +disciplining society and helping the individual to control himself. +But you have only to see idolatry at work, and at work with the +habits of ages upon it, to recognize how terrible it can be in its +identification of sheer filth and cruelty with the interests of +religion, and how it at once demoralizes and paralyzes its adherents. +To see it thus is to understand the passionate horror of these words: +"Their drink-offering of blood will I not offer." + +It is, however, no mere recoil from the immoral which started the +spring of this psalmists's faith in God. That faith was formed on +personal experience of God Himself. In simple but pregnant phrases the +psalmist tells us how sure he has become, first, of God's providence +in his life; secondly, of God's intimate communion with his soul. God, +he says, had been everything in his life. One does not know whether +the psalmist was a prosperous man or a poor one; the inference that he +was prosperous and rich has sometimes been drawn, but wrongly drawn, +from one of the verses of the Psalm. His indifference to that is +clear, but what he did have he knew he had from God. God, he says, is +all his happiness and all his strength--"The Lord is the portion of +mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot." Whether poor +or prosperous he could say: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant +places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Now that assurance of divine +leading is not analyzable, but we know that it does grow up solid and +sure in the experience of simple men who have put their trust in God, +who have felt life to be a commission from Him and who have done their +duty obeying His call. With such men "all things work together for +good." Tho life about them shake and darken, they feel their own +solidity and have light enough to read the future. Tho stript +and stark, they feel the Lord Himself to be the portion of their +inheritance and of their cup. The portion of my inheritance the Lord +is, i.e., the little bit of land that fell to each Israelite as his +share in the promised inheritance of the nation. "The Lord is the +portion of mine inheritance," as we might say in our Scotch language, +"The Lord is my croft and my cup," so they find in Him all the +ground and the freedom they need to do their work, fulfil their +relationships, and develop their manhood. + +It is, however, with the psalmist's second reason for his faith we +have most to do. "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: +my reins also instruct me in the night seasons." This man held close +communion with God. Is it not great to find the testimony of a brother +man coming down all through those ages, from that dim and distant +past, clear and sure as to this, that he had God's counsel and that +God kept communion with him? God had spoken to this man and shown +him His will. Yes, he had received what we call inspiration and +revelation, and had proved the truth of these in his life. They had +led and they had lifted him. Nor had they come to him as many men +falsely suppose revelation and inspiration exclusively have come to +mankind, by means, namely, that were extraordinary and miraculous. The +psalmist tells us of no vision of angels, of no voice from heaven. The +Lord had not appeared to him in dreams nor by any marvelous signs; on +the other hand, he tells us simply that the divine counsel of which +he was so sure, and which he passes on to us, came to him through the +workings of his inner spiritual life. That is what he means by the +emphatic statement "yea, my reins instruct me in the night seasons," +which he adds parallel with the thought, "I will bless the Lord, who +hath given me counsel." According to the primitive physiology of +this man's nation and times, the reins of a man fulfil the same +intellectual function which we, with our larger knowledge, know are +discharged by the brain. This was how God's revelation came to this +brother of ours, through the working of his mind and conscience, but +it was in the night seasons that they worked, not in the day and in +the sunshine, but in the night when a man is left to himself with +only this advantage to his thought: that like the blind he is yet +undistracted by the influences which are seen. When he lies down he +thinks soberly and quietly about himself and about life and about God, +and about the great hidden future that is waiting for him. He +was communing with God, who had made his brain and used it as an +instrument of revelation. In these thoughts God was communing with man +through his reason and through his conscience. You and I are always +contrasting God's providence and His grace. We are always attempting +to oppose reason and revelation; to this man they were one. God's +great grace had come to him through God's own providence, and God's +revelation was ministered to him through the reason with which he had +endowed the creature He had made in His own image. This psalmist's +chief and practical help to us men and women today is that he became +sure of God not because of any miracle or supernatural sign, on his +report of which we might be content indolently to rest our faith, but +in God's own providence in his life and in God's quiet communion with +him through the organs God Himself has created in every one of us. For +all time, whether before or after Christ, these are the chief +grounds and foundations of faith in God. So it was in the Old +Testament--"stand in awe and sin not," "commune with your own heart +upon your bed and be still," "be still and know that I am God." So +with Christ, "for the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation, +but the kingdom of heaven is within you," and so with Paul, "the +Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the +children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint +heirs with Christ." "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of +our Lord Jesus Christ, ... that he would grant you according to the +riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the +inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end +that ye being rooted and grounded in love may come to apprehend with +all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to +know the love of Christ." + +God's guidance of his life, first of all, produces in a man a great +sense of stability. "I have set the Lord always before me: because he +is at my right hand I shall not be moved." He who has found God so +careful of him, he whom God hath regarded as worth speaking to and +counseling and disciplining, will be certain that he shall endure, +provided he is sure of his own loyalty. The life so loved of God, so +provided for, and in such close communion with the Eternal is not, can +not be the creature of the day, and this assurance stands firm in face +of even death and the horrible corruption of the body. The psalmist +refuses to believe that he is to dwell in the horrible under-world +forever--either himself or any of God's believers. "Thou must not, +thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, thou must not, thou wilt not +suffer thy loved ones to see the pit." To this man it is incredible, +and our hearts bear witness to the truth if we have had any experience +of God's blessing and guidance. To this man it is incredible that the +life God has cared for and guided and spoken to and brought into such +intimate communion with himself can find its end in death. Those whom +God has loyally loved and who have loyally loved God--for this +word badly translated "holy" in the psalms really has that actual +significance--those whom God has loyally loved and who have loyally +loved God shall never die. As He lives so shall they; they shall never +be absent from His presence. Be the future unknown and unknowable, +be we ourselves incapable of conceiving the processes by which this +mortal shall put on immortality, or where heaven is, or what eternity +can possibly be to those who have never lived outside time, yet that +future is secure and its immortal character is indubitable--where God +is there shall His servants be, and because He is there their life +shall be peace and joy, and because He is eternal it shall last +forevermore. That thought is the whole of the hope and argument. We +are assured of the future life because we have known God, and as we +have found Him to be true to us and proved ourselves true to Him. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Frank Wakely Gunsaulus was born at Chesterville, Ohio, in 1856. He +graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1875. For some years he was +pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago, and since 1899 pastor of Central +Church, Chicago. He is also president of the Armour Institute of +Technology. He is a fascinating speaker, having a clear, resonant +voice, and a dignified presence. His mind is a storehouse of the best +literature, and his English style is noteworthy for its purity and +richness. He is the author of several books and is in popular demand +as a lecturer. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +Born in 1856 + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY[1] + +[Footnote 1: Preached as an impromptu reply to R.G. Ingersoll. Printed +from an unrevised stenographic report.] + +_There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none +of them is without signification_.--I Cor. xiv., 10. + + +Ours is a voiceful era. Perhaps, as the ages come and go and man's +life grows richer, its questions more restless for answer, its +moral supports called upon to bear heavier interests of faith, its +enterprises more often and searchingly compelled to defend themselves, +the voices of time will be increasingly potent and worthy of his +attention. A singularly suggestive collection of messages fills the +air today, and all of these voices speak of one theme--the Bible. + +Anarchy, which is always atheistic, holds its converse in the places +of evil which this book's message would close forever; the foes of +that civilization builded on its laws and stimulated by its hopes asks +us to condemn it as worthy only of caricature, vituperation, and hate. +Let us find a path of duty today, not refusing to listen to any of +these voices, but asking that other voices also may help us to the +truth. + +The preacher's message is a book called the Bible. That is only the +literary form of his message--telling its history. Even that form, +which is much less divine as paper and ink are less lofty in the +scale than humanity, has worked wonders. To-day, the Bible offers the +nineteenth-century infidel as testimony of the influence it has. It +has force enough to make infidelity preach tearfully and well about +man, woman, and child. Skepticism did not do so well until the Bible +came. The Bible has furnished the eloquence of infidelity with such +a man as Shakespeare to talk about; no student of literature could +imagine Shakespeare without the Bible and the Bible's influence upon +him as he created his dreams. It furnished an Abraham Lincoln for an +orator to compare favorably with incomplete ideas of Almighty God; but +it seems to have been unable to show the critic that Christian ideas +of Almighty God made Lincoln so love the Lord's Prayer that he wanted +a church builded with this as its creed. It would seem that any +general denunciation or humorous caricature of a book which has +worked such an amazing effect in literature as has the Bible would +be tempered by some recognition of the fact that these other +minds--poets, orators, sages, and scientists--have found illumination +and help in its pages. Liberal Christianity will be intellectually +broad. Certainly the greatest of modern pagans, Goethe, will not be +accused of favoritism toward the Bible, yet he said: "I esteem the +gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the +reflected splendor of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of +Jesus Christ, of so divine a kind as only the divine could ever have +manifested upon earth." The Earl of Rochester saw that the only +liberalism which objects to the Bible, in its true uses, is the +liberalism of licentiousness; and he left this saying: "A bad heart +is the great argument against this holy book." And Faraday, weeping, +said: "Why will people go astray when they have this blest book to +guide them?" + +If we turn to literature we encounter many such liberal thinkers as +Theodore Parker, who calmly informs us: "This collection of books has +taken such a hold upon the world as has no other. The literature of +Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and +heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book. It goes equally +to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is +woven into the literature of the scholar and colors the talk of the +street." That is the voice of the liberalism which includes rather +than excludes. + +These were men not of the band of evangelical Christian preachers, who +are roughly classed as a set of persons unable to tell the truth about +the Bible, for fear they may lose their means of subsistence; these +are men who know the true mission of the Bible. It is not to furnish +a picture of life in the time of Moses such as life ought to be, a +portrait of a David for the imitation of men, a statue of a warrior +in a time of barbarism who shall command my obedience to his commands +now, an idea of God wrought out in ignorance and darkness, which has +no self-development within it. The mission of the Bible is to furnish +a humanly written account of a people, just as human as we, in whom, +by divine inspiration, the soul of truth so lived and worked as to +develop, in gradual course, by laws, by hopes, by loves, by life, a +living, and, at last, perfectly authoritative ideal of righteousness, +but more than all a gradual growth of such moral power as would be +commanding in the redeeming self-sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ. +Every page of the Old Testament was only preparatory, as the thorny +bush is preparatory for the rose. Christ is the end of the long, weary +human history that leads to Him. If the laws of Sinai had been enough, +there never would have been a Calvary. No one for a moment dreams that +the God of nature could have brought forth such a fruit as the life +and ideas of Jesus without a tree of such a history, a tree rooted in +the ground, storm-twisted, gnarled, and valuable only for its fruit. +We are not asked to eat the roots and bark and branches; only the +fruit has an appeal to us. Its appeal is to our hunger, its authority +lies in the fact that it satisfies our hunger. + +It has satisfied the hunger of men whose liberalism came from their +being made liberally. Large and capacious souls of mighty yearnings +are they. They stand in contrast with the puny critics who assert +that the Bible fails to feed them, because they have never tasted its +nourishment. + +Liberal Christianity, separating itself from the dogmatism which would +make Christianity a book religion, worshiping a literary idol rather +than loving a human revelation of the divine, knows it is not an +ignorant lot of men and women who have received most from the Bible +and spoken most gratefully of its message. When we think of sending +the Bible to barbarism, with the hope of creating in its stead +civilization, we can look into the face of John Selden, one of the +most illustrious of English lawyers, when he says: "I have surveyed +most of the learning that is among the sons of men, yet at this moment +I can recall nothing in them on which to rest my soul, save one from +the sacred Scriptures, which rises much on my mind. It is this: 'The +grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, +teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live +soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for +that blest hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our +Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem +us unto himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works.'" Liberal +religion must include Selden. We will not be deterred from giving the +Bible to heathenism of any kind when we remember that Sir William +Jones has left these words: "The Scriptures contain more true +sublimity, more exquisite beauty, and finer strains of poetry and +eloquence than could be collected from all other books that were ever +composed in any age or in any idiom." Liberal religion must be as +broad as Sir William Jones. + +This is a very needy world, and many are the institutions of evil that +need to be changed for institutions of goodness. If we are to believe +the eloquence of hopeless unbelief, we ourselves will only be the +slaves of a fatalism which says that man is but a result of forces; +that what we call crime is but a part of the necessary course of +things, and that there is no such thing as moral responsibility. This +makes all reform or efforts at staying the tide of evil useless. +Oftentimes the heart of the man who has ceased to read his Bible gets +the victory over this dreadful philosophy, and it is not remarkable +that the skeptic becomes the exponent of freedom, charging like a host +of war upon all institutions of slavery. Liberal theology puts its one +hand on the dogmatist who tells him to accept literal infallibility, +and its other on the sincere lover of men who has lost his Bible +entirely. And liberalism says: It is in just such moments that we +trust our Bible the most, and we remember that William Wilberforce, +who lifted the chains from the bondmen, has said: "I never knew +happiness until I found Christ as a Savior. Read the Bible! Bead the +Bible! Through all my perplexities and distresses I never read any +other book, I never knew the want of any other." We are certainly not +despising the science which is worthy of a name, nor are we forgetting +any proposition which has found a place in the world's thought, if we +look into the face of Sir John Herschel, who tells us that "all human +discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more +and more strongly the truths contained in the holy Scriptures." It is +truly no part of wisdom for us to conclude that for scientific reasons +we ought to forsake our Bible when Professor Dana avers: "The grand +old book of God still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves +are turned and pondered, the more will it sustain and illustrate the +sacred Word." + +Surely it is not the hour dogmatically to withdraw this book, which +has proved the basis of civilization. Professor Lyell, the great +English geologist, tells us: "In the year 1806 the French Institute +enumerated no less than eighty geological theories which were hostile +to the Scriptures, but not one of these theories is held today." +Bacon's remark is still true: "There never was found in any age of the +world either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good +as the Bible." And John Marshall and Prince Bismarck agree with Daniel +Webster when he says: "If we abide by the principles taught in the +Bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and +our posterity neglect its instructions and authority no man can tell +how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in +profound obscurity." There is not an anarchist in America who does not +clap his hands when he hears a Bible with the Ten Commandments and the +Sermon on the Mount denounced. Indeed, the civilization in which we +stand, as compared with the barbarism out of which we have been led +by the Bible, would make William Henry Seward's assertion only a mild +statement of the truth when he says: "The whole hope of human progress +is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible." I prefer +lawyers like these to lead American public opinion. Part of the +service of these men has been that they have shown theology that the +Bible is not a set of texts on a dead level of authority and equal +value, but the revealing, slow and sure, of an inspiration obeyed by a +certain people in the realm of morals like that inspiration obeyed by +another people in the realm of art, and its test is: Does the Bible's +ultimate message, its crowning commandment of Christ's life and love, +produce goodness in morals? just as the test of the long revelation +of beauty in his ancestors and the Greek is, does its ultimate +commandment produce goodness in art. + +Christianity does not ask: "What think ye of the Bible?" It asks: +"What think ye of Christ?" There the throne is set, and so majestic is +His glory that the moment we come into His presence we are judged. The +Judge of the earth has taken His place in thought, history and hope. +He is not on trial, and He asks no question as to what man thinks of +the book which has enthroned Him in literature. The test is placed in +my conduct and yours; each may say with Michael Bruce, who left these +words on the fly-leaf of his Bible: + + 'Tis very vain of me to boast + How small a price this Bible cost; + The day of judgment will make clear + 'Twas very cheap or very dear. + +Shall we go forward with our Bible or backward without it? Infidelity +has always forgotten that, so far as it has an eye for liberty and +humanity, the Christianity not of sects but of the Bible has furnished +it and trained it. The liberalism which puts its Bible aside will +acknowledge that a Christless humanity culminated in Rome. Skepticism +is often eloquent when it tries to show how much "fragments of Roman +art" had to do with the making of modern civilization. Now, as Rome +marks the height to which humanity without a Bible ascended, it would +seem that this would be just the point where free and untrammeled +thought and the fullest intellectual liberty would be found. Right +there, where a Christless race was supreme, ought to be the place +where the liberty abounded which the religion of Christ is said to +destroy. + +Whose program for the production of intellectual and spiritual liberty +can liberals accept? Hoarse is the cry: The Bible is to be cast out. +We look and behold men who have these opinions sitting on the throne +of the Caesars. Now, one would suppose the intellect of that whole +realm would have fair play. There was no Bible there to fetter or to +annoy. This ought to be the halcyon age for "the liberty of man, woman +and child." These rulers have the same dignified abhorrence for all +kinds of religion. The skeptic Lucretius says: "The fear of the lower +world must be sent headlong forth. It poisons life to its lowest +depths; it spreads over all things the blackness of death; it leaves +no pleasure unalloyed." I match the Roman with the phrase of a recent +orator of this school who spoke of the soldiers dead, as now "sleeping +beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of +storm, each in the windowless palace of rest." There was no window in +the grave when more illustrious and original skeptics talked about it. +Modern infidelity has many expressions on the future after death which +sound like the old Roman distich, "I was not, and became; I was, and +am no more." + +Its orator, bending over the body of his dear brother, said nothing +more touching than did Tacitus over the grave of Agricola, as he +wrote: "If there is a place for the spirits of the pious; if, as the +wise suppose, great souls do not become extinct with their bodies; +if"--oh, that age of "if" ought to have been an age when every brain +was free and no thought or sentiment were a chain. The Bible of +Christianity was not powerful enough to throttle anybody. Its pages +were not all written; its authors were hunted and outcast. Morals, +too, ought to have been all right, for we are told that they are +independent of God and Christ. + +But what is the fact? Strangely enough, in that age, when nearly every +monarch, or poet, or philosopher was a humorous skeptic and they had +no Christian religion to "bind their hands," in an age when nothing +but this sort of infidelity was supreme, Seneca, to whom connoisseurs +in ethics blandly turn when they grow weary of the strenuous Paul or +the pensive John, Seneca, while he wrote a book on poverty, has a +fortune of $15,000,000, with a house full of citrus tables made of +veined wood brought from Mount Atlas. While he framed moral precepts +which we are besought to substitute for the Sermon on the Mount, he +was openly accused of constant and shameless iniquity, and was leading +his distinguished and tender pupil, Nero, into those practises and +preparing him for those atrocities which Seneca himself had upon his +own soul while he wrote his book on clemency. At that hour the Bible +Christianity offered to the world's heart and aspiration, not a book, +not a theorist of morals, but a man for the leadership of humanity, +and, of that Man the literary and calm French skeptic says: "Jesus +will never be surpassed." In the age of Rome, when people were not +burdened by churches or Bibles, Lucian says: "If any one loves wealth +and is dazed by gold; if any one measures happiness by purple and +power; if any one brought up among flatterers and slaves has never had +a conception of liberty, frankness and truth; if any one has wholly +surrendered himself to pleasure, full tables, carousals, lewdness, +sorcery, and deceit, let him go to Rome." There was no Bible either +to preach against it or to interfere with it. These things were the +product then, as they are now, of infidelity. Whenever the world +wishes a civilization so barbarous as that, the reviler of the Bible +must create it, for they have the applause of evil and the good-will +of crime. In the age of Rome, when this skepticism was the creed of +the State, Nero got tired of the goddess Astarte, and murdered his own +brother, his wife, and his mother, and the senate was so affected with +the same opinion that they heard his justification and proceeded to +heap new honors upon him. He threw the preacher Paul into jail, but +there Paul wrought out the impulse of Europe. In the age when the +great Livy said that "neglect of gods" had come, Caligula let loose +his imperial frenzy, and every stream of blood that could be sent +toward the sea carried its red tide. In that age when, like later +eloquent critics, Ennius said that he did not believe that the gods +thought of human beings, "for if the gods concerned themselves about +the human race the good would prosper and the bad suffer," the +courtesan was kept for pleasure and the wife for domestic slavery. In +that happy age of unbelief, when Menander sung "the gods do not care +for men," "the homes were," according to Juvenal, "broken up before +the nuptial garland faded"; and according to Tertullian, "they married +only to be divorced." Friends exchanged wives; infanticide and other +hellish crimes were common. This is what that spirit, in its purity, +did for the home, when there was no Bible to read at its hearthstone +and no New Testament to put into the hands of young lovers departing +to make a new rooftree. + +Labor will some day be too liberal to give up its Bible. In that age, +when "God was dead"; in that age, when "the gods had abdicated"; +they said, "the mechanic's occupation is degrading. A workshop is +incompatible with anything noble." The curse of slavery had blotted +the name of labor, and they agreed that "a purchased laborer is better +than a hired one," and thousands of prison-like dwellings rose to +conceal the myriads of slaves. In that age Nero, who had the same +opinion about God which the vaunting spirit which calls itself liberal +has today, had a "golden house" as large as a city, with colonnades a +mile long, and within it a statue of Nero 120 feet high. That is what +the theory of infidelity did for labor and the working man when it +was on the throne. Do you wonder that from that day to this the +"carpenter's son" of the Bible has been scoffed at by this infidelity? + +In that age, when the theories of infidelity ruled, the gladiators +made wet with their blood the great enclosure of the arena. The women +and timid girls of Rome gave lightly the sign of death. The crowd +shook the building with applause as the palpitating body was dragged +by a hook into the death-chamber, and slaves turned up the bloody soil +and covered the blood-dabbled earth with sand that the awful amusement +might go on. All this was allowed by infidelity in its purity, before +it had been influenced by the Christian's Bible into believing that +such things are atrocious. + +Oh, when I hear infidelity prate of the horrors of slavery and defend +a Godless theory of the State, I remember that those who had it in its +purity did not regard the slave as a man. When I read the story of +slavery and hear an exponent of free thought say, "The doctrine that +woman is a slave or serf of man--whether it comes from hell or heaven, +from God or demon, from the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, or +the very Sodom of perdition--is savagery pure and simple," I say, +"That is so, but just that was the ruling idea when infidelity was on +the throne of Rome." And only where the Bible has gone and triumphed +has woman the privileges which are thus praised. + +When I hear it said: "Slavery includes all other crimes. It is the +joint product of the kidnaper, pirate, thief, murderer, and hypocrite. +It degrades labor and corrupts leisure. To lacerate the naked back, to +sell wives, to steal babes, to debauch your soul--this is slavery," I +answer: "That is so," and I add that all these and a thousand other +damnable features of slavery were seen in Rome when the whole Roman +people felt and spoke about the message of the Bible just as your type +of liberalism does today. + +To all this wretched state of man what offers came from Seneca, whom +skepticism quotes as a moralist? Why, he said: "Admire only thyself"; +and when he saw that a man must get out of himself, he said: "Give +thyself to philosophy." Not philosophy, but the power of the Bible's +Christ has lifted man upward to his highest life. + +If ever anti-Christianity had a chance to show its beauty, it was when +it was at its supreme strength, and when Christianity was a babe in +the manger; and these are only suggestions of the hell it dug for man +at Rome. You say that it was not what skepticism is at the present +day, and I acknowledge that it is so. Why? Because nineteen centuries +have rolled like waves of light between, and Christ has improved it +in spite of itself. Never had the world so good a chance to see what +almost absolute skepticism and unbelief could and would do for the +liberty of the human soul as then. But when the thrones of Rome were +occupied with men who held the same opinion of the Bible as he does +today, what was the freedom of the race? + +The scene all comes back. Here is a little, obscure set of poor people +who follow the words and life of the son of a carpenter. They are +powerful in nothing that Rome calls power. But Rome says that they +shall not think that way. Celsus, from whom our less scholarly +skepticism is ready to borrow arguments, was not enough for the new +thought in the arena of debate, and they cried for another arena. Let +us remember that unbelief, in its purity at that date, was so offended +at nothing as at the fact that the Church said: "Christian justice +makes all equal who bear the name of man," and that Paul said: "There +is neither bond nor free, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Nothing +so offended the representative of free thought in that period as +the fact that a rich Roman, in the time of Trajan, having become a +Christian, presented freedom to his 1,250 slaves on an Easter day. +And, in all that time, when poor Christians with the funds of the +Church were privately buying the freedom of slaves, I do not find +that a base liberalism believed in liberty. Neither did it believe in +freedom of thought. It is the blossom of egotism; it has nothing to +which it bows; it beholds no majesty to which it can look up. It is +sublime self-conceit, and it has no hesitancy in telling the whole +human race that at its grandest moments it has been wrong. This +egotism dared to become active in Rome, and it asked the Christians, +in the person of the Emperor, to worship him, and to strew incense +about him. "I will honor the Emperor," said Theophilus, "not by +worshiping him, but by praying for him." Such men as that infidelity +kindly put to death. Around their quivering limbs the infidelity of +that day made the fagots to flame, and it taught the red tongues of +cruel death to creep about their smoking bodies. + +Men who believed that the Bible's influence was what infidelity says +it is, made the funeral pyre for Polycarp, the populace bringing fuel +for the fire, and while the flames made a glory of their lambent +glare, he cried out: "Six and eighty years have I served him and he +has done me nothing but good, and how could I curse him, my Lord +and Savior. If you would know what I am, I tell you frankly, I am a +Christian." He did his own thinking, and was brave enough to avow his +opinion, for which hate of Christianity duly burned him. This was the +way infidelity treated free speech. In that way it unchained the soul +of Polycarp. Infidelity's idea of Christianity sent the martyrs of +Numidia and Paulus out of the world while they were praying for their +murderers. Who believed in freedom then? Infidelity's idea of the +message of the Bible followed the Christian like a wild beast, and +in the catacomb of Calixtus drew from the pursued soul the pathetic +exclamation: "Oh, sorrowful times, when we can not even in caves +escape our foes!" And all this was true, because they said, +"Recompense to no man evil for evil"; "Pray for them that despitefully +use you and persecute you." + +This spirit of hate has had at least one holiday at the expense of +Christian faith. On the night of the 18th of July, 64, Rome was swept +with fire. Six days and nights it raged. Ruined was the world's +metropolis and excited were the wo-stricken people. Nero, whose +opinions of Christianity, by the way, were wonderfully like the +orator's, was king, and the people suspected that this royal monster +did it. Men told of how he exulted over the sea of flame as he watched +it from the tower of Maecenas; and whatever the truth of this may be, +it is certain that for the rage of the people Nero must have a victim, +and Tacitus tells us that he charged the Christians with the crime. +Then opened in Rome the awful carnival of bloodshed that the orator +never mentions, in which horrible modes of torture and excruciating +methods of producing pain vied with each other in satisfying the +demands of death. Women bound to raging bulls and dragged to death +were not without the companionship of others who, in the evening, in +Nero's garden, were coated with pitch, covered with tar, bound to +stakes of pine, lighted with fire, and sent to run aflame with the +hatred of Christianity. Through the crowd of sufferers a gentleman, +who was ultra-liberal as the orator, drove about, fantastically +attired as a charioteer, and the people were wild with delight. +Domitian had the same ideas, and severe were his persecutions of the +new heresy. This was the day on which infidelity was so full of the +love of freedom that it cried: "The Christians to the lions!" + +And so I might recount to you how for hundreds of years the Church +found out how early and unchristianized infidelity loved freedom of +thought. To a type of liberals, it has for years seemed a joy to go +to the places in the old world and note how intolerant the Church has +been. Now I suggest to any one that he go and visit some of the places +where men who thought of Christianity as negativism thinks showed +their faith and its fruits. Let him go to the Colosseum and ask the +winds that moan over its ruins what they know of the history +of infidelity. The winds will hush in that wreck of stupendous +magnificence, and with an eloquence gathered from seventeen centuries +they will tell him a story that will cause a flow of tears, for much +of infidelity is of noble heart. They will tell him how the marble +seats were crowded with thousands; again will sweep upward the shout +of the excited throng; before him there will lie a half-dead Christian +martyr, and near that pool of blood will stand a lion who has satiated +his horrid thirst. + +They will tell him how infidelity made that splendid place a temple +of the furies, how it laughed and yelled and applauded, as it amused +itself with that spectacle of horror. They will tell him how the +underground passages served to keep and cage wild beasts, and how +those who then hated Christianity starved the fierce lion until his +eyes rolled in hot hunger and his teeth were sharpened with its agony. +They will tell him how the infidelity of that day put balls of fire +on the backs of the lions, and how the madness of their passion was +increased by scattering hated colors about, tearing the beasts with +iron hooks and beating them with cruel whips. They will tell how the +Christian was made to fight these infuriated beasts without weapons, +while infidelity was frantic with applause. It said "no" to the torn +body yonder, that was mangled and supplicating in blood for life. I +would have him stand there until, in after years, in a nobler strain +than that of Byron, he could say: + + And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon + All this, and cast a wide and tender light, + Which softened down the hoar austerity + Of rugged desolation. + + * * * * * + + Till the place + Became religion, and the heart ran o'er + With silent worship of the great of old! + The dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule + Our spirits from their urns. + +So long as I know what this book has been and done, so long as man's +history will not allow me to risk the interests of society with the +infidelity which has so often demoralized it, so long will I yearn to +get the Bible and its message to all men. It has been our world's best +book. With this book as inspiration and resource, William Tyndale +and Miles Coverdale were so to continue and complete the task of The +Venerable Bede and John Wyclif as to make an epoch in the history of +that language to be used by Shakespeare and Burke--an era as distinct +as that which Luther's Bible so soon should mark in the history of a +language to be such a potent instrument in the hands of Goethe and +Hegel. For this very act of heresy, Tyndale was to be called "a +full-grown Wyclif," and Luther "the redeemer of his mother-tongue." +With the Bible, Calvin was to conceive republics at Geneva, and +Holbein to paint, in spite of the iconoclasm of the Reformation, the +faces of Holy Mother and Saint, and in spite of the cruelty of the +Church, scripturally conceived satires illustrating the sale of +indulgences. With that book Gustavus Vasa was to protect and nurture +the freedom of the land of flowing splendors, while Angelo was +transcribing sacred scenes upon the Sistine vault or fixing them in +stone. Reading this book, More was to die with a smile; Latimer, +Cranmer, and Ridley to perish while illuminating with living torches, +and the Anabaptist to arouse the sympathies of Christendom by his +agonies. With this book in hand, Shakespeare was to write his plays; +Raleigh was to die, knight, discoverer, thinker, statesman, martyr; +Bacon to lay the foundation of modern scientific research--three stars +in the majestic constellation about Henry's daughter. With this Bible +open before them the English nation would behold the Spanish Armada +dashed to pieces upon the rocks, while Edmund Spenser mingled his +delicious notes with the tumult of that awful wreck. + +This book was to produce the edict of Nantes, while John of Barneveld +would give new life to the command of William the Silent--"Level +the dikes; give Holland back to the ocean, if need be," thus making +preparation for the visit of the Mayflower pilgrims to Leyden or +Delfthaven. Their eyes resting upon its pages, Selden and Pym were to +go to prison, while Grotius dreamed of the rights of man in peace and +war, and Guido and Rubens were painting the joys of the manger or the +sorrows of Calvary. His hand resting upon this book, Oliver Cromwell +would consolidate the hopes and convictions of Puritanism into a sword +which should conquer at Nasby, Marston Moor and Dunbar, leave to the +throne of Charles I, a headless corpse, and create, if only for an +hour's prophecy, a commonwealth of unbending righteousness. With that +volume in their homes, the Swede and the Huguenot, the Scotch-Irishman +and the Quaker, the Dutchman and the freedom-loving cavalier, were to +plan pilgrimages to the West, and establish new homes in America. With +that book in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, venerated and obeyed by +sea-tossed exiles, was to be born a compact from which should spring +a constitution and a government for the life of which all these +nationalities should willingly bleed and struggle, under a conqueror +who should rise from the soil of the cavaliers, and unsheath his sword +in the colony of the Puritans. + +Out of that Bible were to come the "Petition of Right," the national +anthem of 1628, the "Grand Remonstrance," and "Paradise Lost." With +it, Blake and Pascal should voyage heroically in diverse seas. In its +influence Jeremy Taylor should write his "Liberty of Prophesying," +Sir Matthew Hale his fearless replies, while Rembrandt was placing on +canvas little Dutch children, with wooden shoes, crowding to the feet +of a Jewish Messiah. + +Its lines, breathing life, order, and freedom, would inspire +John Bunyan's dream, Algernon Sidney's fatal republicanism, and +Puffendorf's judicature. With them, William Penn would meet the +Indian of the forest, and Fénelon, the philosopher, in his meditative +solitude. Locke and Newton and Leibnitz would carry it with them in +pathless fields of speculation, while Peter the Great was smiting +an arrogant priest in Russia, and William was ascending the English +throne. From its poetry Cowper, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning +would catch the divine afflatus; from its statesmanship Burke, +Romilly, and Bright would learn how to create and redeem institutions; +from its melodies Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven would write +oratorios, masses, and symphonies; from its declaration of divine +sympathy Wilberforce, Howard, and Florence Nightingale were to +emancipate slaves, reform prisons, and mitigate the cruelties of war; +from its prophecies Dante's hope of a united Italy was to be realized +by Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. Looking upon the family +Bible as he was dying, Andrew Jackson said: "That book, sir, is the +rock on which the Republic rests"; and with her hand upon that book, +Victoria, England's queen, was to sum up her history as a power +amid the nations of the earth, when, replying to the question of an +ambassador: "What is the secret of England's superiority among the +nations?" she would say: "Go tell your prince that this is the secret +of England's political greatness," + +Beloved friends, when spurious liberalism, with all her literature, +produces such a roll-call as this; when out of her pages I may see +coming a nobler set of forces for the making of manhood, then, and +only then, will I give up my Bible; then, and only then, will I cease +to pray and labor that it may be given to all the world. + + + + +HILLIS + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Newell Dwight Hillis was born at Magnolia, Iowa, in 1858. He first +became known as a preacher of the first rank during his pastorate over +the large Presbyterian church in Evanston, Illinois. This reputation +led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he +succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted +audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in +Chicago. In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to +succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit made famous by the ministry +of Henry Ward Beecher. By his strong personality and mental gifts he +draws to his church a large and eager following. His best known books +are "A Man's Value to Society," and "The Investment of Influence." + + + + +HILLIS + +Born in 1858 + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE[1] + +[Footnote 1: By permission of the _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_. Copyright, +1905.] + +_Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, &c._--Isaiah xl., +1-31. _He shall not fail, nor be discouraged_.--xliv., 4. + + +This is an epic of the unwearied God, and the fainting strength of +man. For splendor of imagery, for majesty and elevation, it is one +of the supreme things in literature. Perhaps no other Scripture has +exerted so profound an influence upon the world's leaders. Luther read +it in the fortress of Salzburg, John Brown read it in the prison +at Harper's Ferry. Webster made it the model of his eloquence, +Wordsworth, Carlyle and a score of others refer to its influence upon +their literary style, their thought and life. Like all the supreme +things in eloquence, this chapter is a spark struck out of the fires +of war and persecution. Its author was not simply an exile--he was a +slave who had known the dungeon and the fetter. Bondage is hard, even +for savages, naked, ignorant, and newly drawn from the jungle, but +slavery is doubly hard for scholars and prophets, for Hebrew merchants +and rulers. + +This outburst of eloquence took its rise in a war of invasion. When +the northern host swept southward, and overwhelmed Jerusalem, the +onrushing wave was fretted with fire; later, when the wave of war +retreated, it carried back the detritus of a ruined civilization. The +story of the siege of Jerusalem, the assault upon its gates, the fall +of the walls, all the horrors of famine and of pestilence, are given +in the earlier chapters of this wonderful book. The homeward march +of the Persian army was a kind of triumphal procession in which the +Hebrew princes and leaders walked as captives. The king marched in the +guise of a slave, with his eyes put out, followed by sullen princes, +with bound hands, and unsubdued hearts. As slaves the Hebrews crossed +the Euphrates at the very point where Xenophon crossed with his +immortal ten thousand. In the land of bondage the exiles were planted, +not in military prisons, but in gangs, working now in the fields, now +in the streets of the city, and always under the scourge of soldiers. +When thirty years had passed the forty thousand captives were +scattered among the people, one brother in the palace, and another a +slave in the fields. Soon their religion became only a memory, their +language was all but forgotten, their old customs and manner of life +were utterly gone. But God raised up two gifted souls for just such an +emergency as this. One youth, through sheer force of genius, climbed +to the position of prime minister, while a young girl through her +loveliness came to the king's palace. One day an emancipation +proclamation went forth, from a king who had come to believe in the +unseen God who loved justice, and would overwhelm oppression and +wrong. The good news went forth on wings of the wind. Making ready +for their return to their homeland, all the captives gathered on the +outskirts of the desert. It was a piteous spectacle. The people were +broken in health, their beauty marred, their weapon a staff, their +garments the leather coat, their provisions pieces of moldy bread, and +their path fifteen hundred miles of sands, across the desert. To such +an end had come a disobedient and sinful generation! + +In that hour, beholding these exiles and captives, a flood of emotions +rushed over the poet; he saw those bound who should conquer; he saw +that men were slaves who should be kings. Then, with a rush, an +immeasurable longing shivers through him like a trumpet call. Oh, to +save them! To perish for their saving! To die for their life, to be +offered for them all! In an abandon of grief and sympathy, he began +to speak to them in words of comfort and hope. At first these exiles, +dumb with pain and grief, listened, but listened with no light +quivering in the eye, and no hope flitting like sunshine across the +face. Their yesterdays held bondage, blows and degradation; their +tomorrow held only the desert and the return to a ruined land. Then +the word of the Lord came upon the poet. What if the night winds did +go mourning through the deserted streets of their capital! What if +their language had decayed and their institutions had perished? What +if the farmer's field was only a waste of thorns and thickets, and the +towns become heaps and ruins! What if the king of Babylon and his +army has trampled them under foot, as slaves trample the shellfish, +crushing out the purple dye that lends rich color to a royal robe? +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." Is the way long and through a +desert? "Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall +be made low." Has slavery worn man's strength to nothingness until he +is as weak as the broken reed and the withered grass? The spirit of +the Lord will revive the grass, trampled down by the hoofs of war +horses. Soon the bruised root shall redden into the rose and the +fluted stem climb into the tree. And think you if God's winds can +transform a spray and twig into a trunk fit for foundation of house or +mast of ship, that eternal arms can not equip with strength the hand +of patriot? + +Is the Shepherd and Leader of His little flock unequal to their +guidance across the desert? "Behold the Lord will come with a strong +arm; he shall feed his flock like a shepherd and he shall gather the +lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom." What! Man's hand +unequal to the task of rebuilding Jerusalem? Hath not God pledged His +strength to the worker, that God whose arm strikes out worlds as the +smith strikes out sparks upon the anvil? Is not man's helper that God +who dippeth up the seas in the hollow of His hand? Who weighs the +mountains with scales and the hills in the balance? What! Thine +enemies too strong for thee? Why, God looketh upon all the nations and +enemies of the earth as but a drop in the bucket. He sendeth forth His +breath, and the tribes disappear as dust is blown from the balance. +Then the trumpet call shivered through these exiles. "Hast thou not +known? Have the sons of the fathers never heard of the everlasting +God, the Lord, Creator of the ends of the earth? Fainteth not, neither +is weary!" Heavy is the task, but the Eternal giveth power and +strength. Even tho young patriots and heroes faint and fall, they that +wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. While fulfilling their +task of rebuilding they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they +shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Oh, what a +word is this! What page in literature is comparable to it for comfort! +Wonderful the strength of the warrior! Mighty the influence of the +statesman! All powerful seems the inventor, but greater still the poet +who dwells above the clang and dust of time, with the world's secret +trembling on his lips. + + He needs no converse nor companionship, + In cold starlight, whence thou can not come, + The undelivered tidings in his breast, + Will not let him rest. + He who looks down upon the immemorable throng, + And binds the ages with a song. + And through the accents of our time, + There throbs the message of eternity. + +And so the unwearied God comforted the fainting strength of man. + +Primarily, this glorious outburst was addrest to the exiles as heads +of families. The father's strength was broken and his children had +been crusht and ground to earth. The ancient patrimony was gone; he +had gathered his little ones in from the huts where slaves dwelt. He +was leading his little band of pilgrims into a desert. But the prophet +spoke to the exiles as to men who believed that the family was the +great national institution. With us, the family is important, but with +these Hebrew exiles the family was everything. For them the home was +the spring from whence the mighty river rolled forth. The family was +the headwaters of national, industrial, social and religious life. +Every father was revered as the architect of the family fortune. The +first ambition of every young Hebrew was to found a family. Just as +abroad, a patrician gentleman builds a baronial mansion, fills it with +art treasures, hangs the shields and portraits of his ancestors upon +the walls, hoping to hand the mansion forward to generations yet +unborn, so every worthy Hebrew longed to found a noble family. How +keen the anguish, therefore, of this exile in the desert! What a scene +is that of the exiles upon the edge of the desert. Darkness is upon +the land and the fire burns low into coals. Worn and exhausted, +children are sleeping beside the mother. Here is an old man, lying +apart, broken and bitter in spirit--one son stands forth a dim +figure--looking down upon his aged parents, upon the wife of his +bosom and upon his little children. Standing under the stars, he +meditates his plans. How shall he care for these, when he returns to +his ruined estate? In the event of death, what arm shall lift a shield +above these little ones? What if sickness or death pounce upon a home +as an eagle upon a dove, as wolves upon lambs, or as brigands descend +from the mountains upon sleeping herdsmen! + +Every founder of a family knows the agony of such an hour! We are in a +world where men are never more than a few weeks from, possible poverty +and want; little wonder then that all men seek to provide for the +future of the home and the children. But to the exile standing in the +darkness, with love that broods above his babes, there comes this +word of comfort: God's solicitude for you and yours will not let Him +slumber or sleep! God will lift up a highway for the feet of the +little band of pilgrims. The eternal God shall be thy guide in the +march through the desert. His pillar of cloud by day and of fire by +night shall stand in the sky; He shall lead the flock like a shepherd; +He shall gather the little ones in His arms, and carry the children +in His bosom. And if the father fall on the march, the wings of the +Eternal shall brood the babes that are left. His right arm shall be a +sword and His left arm a shield. The eternal God fainteth not, neither +is weary. Having time to care for the stars, and to lead them forth by +name, He hath time and thought also for His children. What a word is +this for the home! What comfort for all whose hearts turn toward their +children! What a pledge to fathers for generations yet unborn! This +truth arms every parent for any emergency. For God is round about +every home as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, for bounty and +protection. + +But the sage was also thinking of men whose hopes were broken, and +whose lives were baffled and beaten. These exiles, crossing the +desert, might have claimed for themselves the poet's phrase, "Lo, +henceforth I am a prisoner of hope." Like Dante, they might have +cried, "For years my pillow by night has been wet with tears, and all +day long have I held heartbreak at bay." For these whose glorious +youth had been exhausted by bondage, life had run to its very dregs. +Gone the days of glorious strength! Gone all the opportunities that +belong to the era when the heart is young, the limitations of life had +become severe! Environment often is a cage against whose iron bars the +soul beats bloody wings in vain! + +How many men are held back by one weak nerve, or organ! How many are +shut in, and limited, and just fall short of supreme success because +of an hereditary weakness, handed on by the fathers! How many made one +mistake in youth in choosing the occupation and discovered the error +when it was too late! How many erred in judgment in their youth, +through one critical blunder, that has been irretrievable, and whose +burden is henceforth lasht to the back! In such an hour of depression, +Isaiah assembles the exiles, and exclaims, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my +people. Tho your young men faint and be weary, tho the strong utterly +fail, yet God is the unwearied one; with his help thou shalt take thy +burden, and mount up with wings as eagles; with his unwearied strength +thou shalt run with thy load and not be weary, and walk and not +faint." For this is the experience of persecution and the reward +of sorrow, bravely borne that the fainting strength of man is +supplemented by the sure help of the unwearied God. + +Therefore, in retrospect, exiles, prisoners, martyrs, who have +believed in God seem fortunate. The endungeoned heroes often seem the +children of careful good fortune and happiness. The saints, walking +through the fire, stand forth as those who are dear unto God. How the +point of view changes events. Kitto was deaf, and in his youth his +deafness broke his heart, but because his ears were closed to the +din of life, he became the great scholar of his time, and swept the +treasures of the world into a single volume, an armory of intellectual +weapons. Fawcett was blind, but through that blindness became a great +analytic student, a master of organization, and served all England in +her commerce. John Bright was broken-hearted, standing above the bier, +but Richard Cobden called him from his sorrow to become a voice for +the poor, to plead the cause of the opprest, and bring about the Corn +Laws for the hungry workers in the factories and shops. Comfort ye, +comfort ye, my people. + +Let the exile say unto himself: "Your warfare is accomplished; your +iniquity is pardoned; the Lord's hand will give unto thee double for +all thy sins that are forgiven." The great faiths and convictions of +the prophets and law-givers, your language and your laws and your +liberties, have not been destroyed by captivity; rather slavery +has saved them. At last you know their value; in contrast with the +idolatry of the Euphrates, the jargon of tongues, the inequality of +rights, the organization of justice and oppression, how wonderful the +equity of the laws of Moses! How beautiful the faith of the fathers! +How surely founded the laws of God. Henceforth idolatry, injustice and +sin became as monstrous in their ugliness as they were wicked in their +essence. Everything else might go, but not the faith of the fathers. +Persecution was like fire on the vase; it burned the colors in. Little +wonder that the tradition tells us that for the next hundred years, +at stated periods, all the people in the land came together, while a +reader repeated this chapter on the unwearied God and the fainting +strength of man that had recovered unto hope, men whose hopes had been +baffled and beaten. + +The thought of an unwearied God is also the true antidote to +despondency. The ground of optimism is in God. When that great thinker +described certain people as without God and without hope, there was +sure logic in his phrase, for the Godless man is always the hopeless +man. Between no God anywhere and the one God who is everywhere, there +is no middle ground. Either we are children, buffeted about by fate +and circumstances, with events tossing souls about in an eternal game +of battledore and shuttlecock, or else the world is our Father's +house, and God standeth within the shadow, keeping watch above His +own. For the man who believes in God, who allies himself to nature, +who makes the universe his partner, there is no defeat, and no death, +and no interruption of his prosperity. Concede that there is a God, +and it follows as a logical necessity that He will not permit any +enemy to ruin your life and His plans. For a man who holds this faith +it follows that there can be no defeat, or failure. Indeed, the +essential difference between men is the difference in their relation +toward God. Here are the biographies of two great men. Both are men +of genius, both are marvelously equipped, but their end was, oh, how +different. One is Martin Luther, who stood forth alone, affirming his +religious freedom, in the face of enemies and devils thick as the +tiles on the roofs of the houses. The few friends Luther had shut him +up in a fortress to save his life, but Luther mightily believed in +God. With the full consent of his marvelous gifts, he surrendered his +life to the will of God. Knowing that his days were as brief as +the withering grass, he allied himself with the Eternal. In his +discouragement he read these words, "The Everlasting God fainteth not, +neither is weary." In that hour Martin Luther shouted for joy. The +beetling walls of the fortress were as tho they were not. Victorious +he went forth, in thought, ranging throughout all Germany. And going +out, he went up and down the land telling the people that God would +protect him, and soon Germany was free. + +Goethe tells us that Luther was the architect of modern German +language and literature, and stamped himself into the whole national +life. The Germany of the Kaiser is simply Martin Luther written large +in fifty millions of men. But what made Luther? There was some hidden +energy and spirit within him! What was this spirit in him? The spirit +of beauty turned a lump of mud into that Grecian face about which +Keats wrote his poem. The spirit of truth changes a little ink into +a beautiful song. The spirit of strength and beauty in an architect +changes a pile of bricks into a house or cathedral or gallery. And the +thought of our unwearied God changed the collier's son into the +great German emancipator. But over against this man, who never knew +despondency, after his vision hour, stands another German. He, +too, was a philosopher, clothed with ample power, and blest with +opportunity. But he did evil in his life, and then the heart lost +its faith, and hope utterly perished. The more he loved pleasure and +pursued self, the more cynical and bitter he became. Pessimism set a +cold, hard stamp upon his face, and marred his beauty. Cynicism lies +like a black mark across his pages. At last, in his bitterness, the +philosopher tells us the whole universe is a mirage, and that yonder +summer-making sun is a bubble that repeats its iridescent tints in the +colors of the rainbow. Despair ate out his heart. He became the most +miserable of men, and knew no freedom from sorrow and pain. And lo, +now the man's philosophy has perished like a bubble, his influence +has utterly disappeared, for his books are unread, while only an +occasional scholar chances upon his name, tho the great summer-making +sun still shines on and Luther's eternal God fainteth not, neither is +weary. + +Are you weak, oh, patriot? Remember God is strong. Do your days of +service seem short, until your life is scarcely longer than the flower +that blooms to-day and is gone tomorrow? God is eternal, and He will +take care of your work. Are you sick with hope long deferred? Hope +thou in God; He shall yet send succor. Have troubles driven happiness +from thee, as the hawk drives the young lark or nightingale from its +nest? Return unto thy rest, troubled heart, for the Lord will deal +bountifully with thee. Are you anxious for your children? God will +bring the child back from the far country. For the child hath wandered +far, the golden thread spun in a mother's heart is an unbroken thread +that will draw him home! For things that distress you to-day, you +shall thank God to-morrow. Nothing shall break the golden chain that +binds you to God's throne. Are you hopeless and despondent because of +your fainting strength? Remember that the antidote for despondency is +the thought of the unwearied God who is doing the best He can for you, +and whose ceaseless care neither slumbers nor sleeps. + +Little wonder therefore that God became all and in all to this feeble +band of captives, journeying across the desert back to their ruined +life and land. God had taken away earthly things from them, that He +might be their all and in all. When the earth is made poor for us, +sometimes the heavens become rich. God closed the eyes of Milton to +the beauty in land and sea and sky, that he might see the companies of +angels marching and countermarching on the hills of God. He closed the +ears of Beethoven, that he might hear the music of St. Cecilia falling +over heaven's battlements. He gave Isaiah a slave's hut, that he might +ponder the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. How is +it that this prophet and poet has become companion of the great ones +of the earth? At the time Isaiah rebelled against his bondage, but +when it was all over, and the fitful fever had passed, and the fleshly +fetters had fallen, he smiled at the things that once alarmed him, as +he recalled his fainting strength and the unwearied God. + +Gone--that ancient capital. Babylon is a heap. Jerusalem a ruin! But +this epic of the unwearied Guide still lives! Isaiah, can never die! +Can a chapter die that has cheered the exile in his loneliness, that +has comforted the soldier upon his bivouac, that has braced the martyr +for his execution, that has given songs at midnight to the prisoners +in the dungeon? Out of suffering and captivity came this song of rest +and hope. At last the poet praised the eternal God for his bonds and +his imprisonment. Oh, it is darkness that makes the morning light so +welcome to the weary watcher. It is hunger that makes bread sweet. +It is pain and sickness that gives value to the physician and his +medicine. It is business trouble that makes you honor your lawyer and +counselor, and it is the sense of need that makes God near. + +Are there any merchants here who are despondent? Remember the eternal +God and make your appeal to the future. Are there any parents whose +children have wandered far? When they are old, the children will +return to the path of faith and obedience. Are there any in whom the +immortal hope burns low? The smoking flax He will not quench, but will +fan the flame into victory. Look up to-day; be comforted once more. +Work henceforth in hope. Live like a prince. Scatter sunshine. Let +your atmosphere be happiness. If troubles come, let them be the dark +background that shall throw your hope and faith into bolder relief. +God hath set His heart upon you to deliver you. Tho your hand faint, +and the tool fall, the eternal God fainteth not, neither is weary. He +will bring thy judgment unto victory, immortalize thy good deeds, and +crown thy career with everlasting renown. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +THE RECONCILIATION + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Edward Jefferson was born at Cambridge, Ohio, in 1860. He came +to public attention by the effectiveness of his preaching during a +most successful pastorate in Chelsea, Mass., from which he was called +to the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, in 1897. During his New York +pastorate the Tabernacle at 34th Street has been sold and a unique +structure, including an apartment tower ten stories high, has been +built farther up-town. Dr. Jefferson has published several successful +books. He has a mellow, sympathetic voice, of considerable range and +flexibility, and he speaks in an easy, conversational style. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +Born in 1860 + +THE RECONCILIATION[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission from "Doctrine and Deed," +Copyright, 1901, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.] + +_Christ died for our sins_.--1 Cor. xv., 3. + + +I want to think with you this morning about the doctrine of the +Atonement. Having used that word atonement once, I now wish to drop +it. It is not a New Testament word, and is apt to lead one into +confusion. You will not find it in your New Testament at all, +providing you use the Revised Version. It is found in the King James +Version only once, and that is in the fifth chapter of Paul's letter +to the Romans; but a few years ago, when the revisers went to work, +they rubbed out the word and would allow it no place whatever in +the entire New Testament. They substituted for it a better +word--reconciliation--and that is the word that will probably be used +in the future theology of the Church. It is my purpose, then, this +morning, to think with you about the doctrine of the reconciliation, +or, to put it in a way that will be intelligible to all the boys and +girls, I want to think with you about the "making up" between God and +man. + +Christianity is distinctly a religion of redemption. Its fundamental +purpose is to recover men from the guilt and power of sin. All of +its history and its teachings must be studied in the light of that +dominating purpose. We are told sometimes that Jesus was a great +teacher, and so He was, but the apostles never gloried in that fact. +We are constantly reminded that He was a great reformer, and so He +was, but Peter and John and Paul seemed to be altogether unconscious +of that fact. It is asserted that He was a great philanthropist, a man +intensely interested in the bodies and the homes of men, and so of +course He was, but the New Testament does not seem to care for that. +It has often been declared that He was a great martyr, a man who laid +down His life in devotion to the truth, and so He was and so He did, +but the Bible never looks at Him from that standpoint or regards +Him in that light. It refuses to enroll Him among the teachers or +reformers or philanthropists or the martyrs of our race. According +to the apostolic writers, Jesus is the world's Redeemer, He was +manifested to take away sin. He is the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sin of the world. The vast and awful fact that broke the apostles' +hearts and sent them out into the world to baptize the nations into +His name, was the fact which Paul was all the time asserting, "He died +for our sins." + +No one can read the New Testament without seeing that its central and +most conspicuous fact is the death of Jesus. Take, for instance, the +gospels, and you will find that over one-quarter of their pages are +devoted to the story of His death. Very strange is this indeed, if +Jesus was nothing but an illustrious teacher. A thousand interesting +events of His career are passed over, a thousand discourses are never +mentioned, in order that there may be abundant room for the telling of +His death. Or take the letters which make up the last half of the New +Testament; in these letters there is scarcely a quotation from the +lips of Jesus. Strange indeed is this if Jesus is only the world's +greatest teacher. The letters seem to ignore that He was a teacher or +reformer, but every letter is soaked in the pathos of His death. There +must be a deep and providential reason for all this. The character of +the gospels and the letters must have been due to something that Jesus +said or that the Holy Spirit inbreathed. A study of the New Testament +will convince us that Jesus had trained His disciples to see in His +sufferings and death the climax of God's crowning revelation to the +world. The key-note of the whole gospel story is struck by John the +Baptist in his bold declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh +away the sin of the world." In that declaration there was a reference +to His death, for the "lamb" in Palestine lived only to be slain. As +soon as Jesus began His public career He began to refer in enigmatic +phrases to His death. He did not declare His death openly, but the +thought of it was wrapt up inside of all He said. Nicodemus comes to +Him at night to have a talk with Him about His work, and among other +things, Jesus says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness +so shall the Son of man be lifted up." Nicodemus did not know what He +meant--we know. He goes into the temple and drives out the men who +have made it a den of thieves, and when an angry mob surrounds Him He +calmly says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it +up." They did not know what He meant--we know. He goes into the city +of Capernaum, and is surrounded by a great crowd who seem to be eager +to know the way of life. He begins to talk to them about the bread +that comes down from heaven, and among other things He says, "The +bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life +of the world." They did not understand what He said--we understand it +now. One day in the city of Jerusalem He utters a great discourse +upon the good shepherd. "I am the good shepherd," He says; "the good +shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." They did not understand +Him--we do. In the last week of His earthly life it was reported that +a company of Greeks had come to see Him. He falls at once into a +thoughtful mood, and when at last He speaks it is to say that "I, if I +be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The men standing by did not +understand what He said--we understand. All along His journey, from +the Jordan to the cross, He dropt such expressions as this: "I have +a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be +accomplished." Men did not know what He was saying--it is all clear +now. + +But while He did not talk openly to the world about His death, He did +not hesitate to speak about it to His nearest friends. As soon as He +found a man willing to confess that He was indeed the world's Messiah, +the Son of the living God, He began to initiate His disciples into the +deeper mysteries of His mission. "From that time," Matthew says, "he +began to show, to unfold, to set forth the fact that he must suffer +many things and be killed." Peter tried to check Him in this +disclosure, but Jesus could not be checked. It is surprising how many +times it is stated in the gospels that Jesus told His disciples +He must be killed. Matthew says that while they were traveling in +Galilee, on a certain day when the disciples were much elated over the +marvelous things which He was doing, He took them aside and said +"Let these words sink into your ears: I am going to Jerusalem to be +killed." Later on, when they were going through Perea, Jesus took them +aside and said, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and at last +be put to death." On nearing Jerusalem His disciples became impatient +for a disclosure of His power and glory. He began to tell them about +the grace of humility. "The Son of man," He said, "is come, not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom +for many." On the last Tuesday of His earthly life He sat with His +disciples on the slope of the Mount of Olives, and in the midst of His +high and solemn teaching He said, "It is only two days now until I +shall be crucified." And on the last Thursday of His life, on the +evening of His betrayal, He took His disciples into an upper room, and +taking the bread and blessing it, He gave it to these men, saying, +"This is my body which is given for you." Likewise after supper He +took the cup, and when He had blest it gave it to them, saying, "This +is my blood of the covenant which is shed for you and for many for the +remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me." It would seem +from this that the one thing which Jesus was desirous that all His +followers should remember was the fact that He had laid down His life +for them. One can not read the gospels without feeling that he is +being borne steadily and irresistibly toward the cross. + +When we get out of the gospels into the epistles we find ourselves +face to face with the same tragic and glorious fact. Peter's first +letter is not a theological treatise. He is not writing a dissertation +on the person of Christ, or attempting to give any interpretation of +the death of Jesus; he is dealing with very practical matters. He +exhorts the Christians who are discouraged and downhearted to hold up +their heads and to be brave. It is interesting to see how again +and again he puts the cross behind them in order to keep them from +slipping back. "Endure," he says, "because Christ suffered for us. +Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree." The +Christians of that day had been overtaken by furious persecution. +They were suffering all sorts of hardships and disappointments. But +"suffer," he says, "because Christ has once suffered for sins, the +just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Certainly the +gospel, according to St. Peter, was: Christ died for our sins. + +Read the first letter of St. John, and everywhere it breathes the +same spirit which we have found in the gospels and in St. Peter. John +punctuates almost every paragraph with some reference to the cross. +In the first chapter he is talking about sin. "The blood of Jesus +Christ," he says, "cleanses us from all sins." In the second chapter +he is talking about forgiveness, and this leads him to think at once +of Jesus Christ, the righteous, "who is the propitiation for our sins, +and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world." In the +third chapter he is talking about brotherly love. He is urging the +members of the Church to lay down their lives, one for another, +"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for +us." In the fourth chapter he tells of the great mystery of Christ's +love: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, +and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To the beloved +disciple evidently the great fact of the Christian revelation is that +Christ died for our sins. + +But it is in the letters of Paul that we find the fullest and most +emphatic assertion of this transcendent fact. It will not be possible +for me to quote to you even a half of what he said on the subject. If +you should cut out of his letters all the references to the cross, you +would leave his letters in tatters. Listen to him as he talks to his +converts in Corinth: "First of all I delivered unto you that which +I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." That was the +foremost fact, to be stated in every letter and to be unfolded in +every sermon. To Saul of Tarsus, Jesus is not an illustrious Rabbi +whose sentences are to be treasured up and repeated to listening +congregations; He is everywhere and always the world's Redeemer. +And throughout all of Paul's epistles one hears the same jubilant, +triumphant declaration, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who +loved me and gave himself for me." + +Let us now turn to the last book of the New Testament, the Book of +the Revelation. What does this prophet on the Isle of Patmos see and +hear, as he looks out into future ages and coming worlds? The book +begins with a doxology: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from +our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion forever and +ever." John looks, and beholds a great company of the redeemed. He +asks who these are, and the reply comes back, "These are they who have +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." He +listens, and the song that goes up from the throats of the redeemed +is, "Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; +for thou wast slain and didst purchase us for God with thy blood." +At the center of the great vision which bursts upon the soul of the +exiled apostle, there is a Lamb that was slain. Whatever we may think +of Jesus of Nazareth, there is no question concerning what the men who +wrote the New Testament thought. To the men who wrote the book, Jesus +was not a Socrates or a Seneca, a Martin Luther or an Abraham Lincoln. +His life was not an incident in the process of evolution, His death +was not an episode in the dark and dreadful tragedy of human history. +His life is God's. greatest gift to men, His death is the climax and +the crowning revelation of the heart of the eternal. You can not open +the New Testament anywhere without the idea flying into your face, +"Christ died for our sins." + +How different all this is from the atmosphere of the modern Church. +When you go into the average church to-day, what great idea meets you? +Do you find yourselves face to face with the fact that Christ died +for our sins? I do not think you will often hear that great truth +preached. In all probability you will hear a sermon dealing with the +domestic graces, or with business obligations, or with political +duties and complications. You may hear a sermon on city missions, or +on foreign missions; you may hear a man dealing with some great evil, +or pointing out some alarming danger, or discussing some interesting +social problem, or urging upon men's consciences the performance of +some duty. It is not often in these modern days that you will hear +a sermon dealing with the thought that set the apostles blazing and +turned the world upside down. And right there, I think, lies one of +the causes of the weaknesses of the modern Church. We have been so +busy attending to the things that ought to be done, we have had no +time to feed the springs that keep alive these mighty hopes which make +us Christian men. What is the secret of the strength of the Roman +Catholic Church? How is it that she pursues her conquering way, in +spite of stupidities and blunders that would have killed any other +institution? I know the explanations that are usually offered, but it +seems to me they are far from adequate. Somebody says, But the Roman +Catholic Church does not hold any but the ignorant. That is not true. +It may be true of certain localities in America, but it is not true of +the nations across the sea. In Europe she holds entire nations in the +hollow of her hand; not only the ignorant, but the learned; not only +the low, but the high; not only the rude, but the cultured, the noble, +and the mighty. It will not do to say that the Roman Catholic Church +holds nobody but the ignorant. But even if it were true, it would +still be interesting to ascertain how she exercises such an influence +over the minds and hearts of ignorant people--for ignorant people are +the hardest of all to hold. When you say that the Church can hold +ignorant men, you are giving her the very highest compliment, for +you are acknowledging that she is in the possession of a power which +demands an explanation. The very fact that she is able to bring out +such hosts of wage-earning men and women in the early hours of Sunday +morning, men and women who have worked hard through the week, and many +of them far into the night, but who are willing on the Lord's Day to +wend their way to the house of God and engage in religious worship, +is a phenomenon which is worth thinking about. How does the Roman +Catholic Church do it? Somebody says she does it all by appealing to +men's fears, she scares men into penitence and devotion. Do you think +that that is a fair explanation? I do not think so. I can conceive how +she might frighten people for one generation, or for two, but I can +not conceive how she could frighten a dozen generations. One would +suppose that the spell would wear off by and by. There is a deeper +explanation than that The explanation is to be found in the spiritual +nature of man. The Roman Catholic leaders, notwithstanding their +blunders and their awful sins, have always seen that the central fact +of the Christian revelation is the death of Jesus, and around that +fact they have organized all their worship. Roman Catholics go to +mass; what is the mass? It is the celebration of the Lord's Supper. +What is the Lord's Supper? It is the ceremony that proclaims our +Lord's death until He comes. The hosts of worshipers that fill our +streets in the early Sunday morning hours are not going to church to +hear some man discuss an interesting problem, nor are they going to +listen to a few singers sing; they are going to celebrate once +more the death of the Savior of the world. In all her cathedrals +Catholicism places the stations of the cross, that they may tell to +the eye the story of the stages of His dying. On all her altars she +keeps the crucifix. Before the eyes of every faithful Catholic that +crucifix is held until his eyes close in death. A Catholic goes out of +the world thinking of Jesus crucified. So long as a Church holds on to +that great fact, she will have a grip on human minds and hearts that +can not be broken. The cross, as St. Paul said, a stumbling-block +to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, is the power of God unto +salvation to every one that believes. The Catholic Church has picked +up the fact of Jesus' death and held it aloft like a burning torch. +Around the torch she has thrown all sorts of dark philosophies, but +through the philosophies the light has streamed into the hearts and +homes of millions of God's children. + +Protestantism has prospered just in proportion as she has kept the +cross at the forefront of all her preaching. The missionaries bring +back the same report from every field, that it is the story of Jesus' +death that opens the hearts of the pagan world. Every now and then a +denomination has started, determined to get rid of the cross of Jesus, +or at least to pay scant attention to it, and in every case these +denominations have been at the end of the third or fourth generation +either decaying or dead. There is no interpretation of the Christian +religion that has in it redeeming power which ignores or belittles the +death of Christ. + +If Protestantism to-day is not doing what it ought to do, and is +manifesting symptoms which are alarming to Christian leaders, it is +because she has in these recent years been engaged so largely in +practical duties as to forget to drink inspiration from the great +doctrines which must forever furnish life and strength and hope. +If you will allow me to prophesy this morning, I predict that the +preaching of the next fifty years will be far more doctrinal than the +preaching of the last fifty years has been. I imagine some of you will +shudder at that. You say you do not like doctrinal preaching, you want +preaching that is practical. Well, pray, what is practical preaching? +Practical preaching is preaching that accomplishes the object for +which preaching is done, and the primary object of all Christian +preaching is to reconcile men to God. The experience of 1900 years +proves that it is only doctrinal preaching that reconciles the heart +to God. If, then, you really want practical preaching, the only +preaching that is deserving the name is preaching that deals with the +great Christian doctrines. But somebody says, I do not like doctrinal +preaching. A great many people have said that within recent years. I +do not believe they mean what they say. They are not expressing with +accuracy what is in their mind. They do like doctrinal preaching if +they are intelligent, faithful Christians, for doctrinal preaching is +bread to hearts that have been born again. When people say they do +not like doctrinal preaching, they often mean that they do not like +preaching which belongs to the eighteenth or seventeenth or sixteenth +centuries. They are not to be blamed for this. There is nothing that +gets stale so soon as preaching. We can not live upon the preaching +of a bygone age. If preachers bring out the interpretations and +phraseology which were current a hundred years ago, people must of +necessity say, "Oh, please do not give us that, we do not like such +doctrinal preaching." But doctrinal preaching need not be antiquated +or belated, it may be fresh, it may be couched in the language in +which men were born, it may use for its illustrations the images and +figures and analogies which are uppermost in men's imagination. And +whenever it does this there is no preaching which is so thrilling +and uplifting and mighty as the preaching which deals with the great +fundamental doctrines. + +In one sense, the Christian religion never changes, in another sense +it is changing all the time. The facts of Christianity never change, +the interpretations of those facts alter from age to age. It is with +religion as it is with, the stars, the stars never change. They move +in their orbits in our night sky as they moved in the night sky of +Abraham when he left his old Chaldean home. The constellations were +the same at the opening of our century as they were when David watched +his flocks on the old Judean hills. But the interpretations of the +stars have always changed, must always change. Pick up the old charts +which the astrologers made and compare them with the charts of +astronomers of our day. How vast the difference! Listen to our +astronomers talk about the magnitudes and disunites and composition of +the stars, and compare with their story that which was written in +the astronomy of a few centuries ago. The stellar universe has not +changed, but men's conceptions have changed amazingly. The facts of +the human body do not change. Our heart beats as the heart of Homer +beat, our blood flows as the blood of Julius Caesar flowed, our +muscles and nerves live and die as the nerves and muscles have lived +and died in the bodies of men in all the generations--and yet, how the +theories of medicine have been altered from time to time. A doctor +does not want to hear a medical lecturer speak who persists in using +the phraseology and conceptions which were accepted by the medical +science of fifty years ago. Conceptions become too narrow to fit the +growing mind of the world, and when once outgrown they must be thrown +aside. As it is in science, so it is in religion. The facts of +Christianity never change, they are fixt stars in the firmament of +moral truth. Forever and forever it will be true that Christ died for +our sins, but the interpretations of this fact must be determined by +the intelligence of the age. Men will never be content with simple +facts, they must go behind them to find out an explanation of them. +Man is a rational being, he must think, he will not sit down calmly in +front of a fact and be content with looking it in the face, he will +go behind it and ask how came it to be and what are its relations to +other facts. That is what man has always been doing with the facts of +the Christian revelation, he has been going behind them and bringing +out interpretations which will account for them. The interpretations +are good for a little while, and then they are outgrown and cast +aside. + +A good illustration of the progressive nature of theology is found in +the doctrine of the atonement. All of the apostles taught distinctly +that Christ died for our sins. The early Christians did not attempt to +go behind that fact, but by and by men began to attempt explanations. +In the second century a man by the name of Irenaeus seized upon the +word "ransom" in the sentence, "The Son of man is come to give his +life a ransom for many," and found in that word "ransom" the key-word +of the whole problem. The explanation of Irenaeus was taken up in the +third century by a distinguished preacher, Origen. And in the fourth +century the teaching of Origen was elaborated by Gregory of Nyssa. + +According to the interpretation of these men, Jesus was the price paid +for the redemption of men. Paul frequently used the word redemption, +and the word had definite meanings to people who lived in the first +four centuries of the Christian era. If Christ was indeed a ransom, +the question naturally arose, who paid the price? The answer was, God. +A ransom must be paid to somebody--to whom was this ransom paid? The +answer was, the devil. According to Origen and to Gregory, God paid +the devil the life of Jesus in order that the devil might let humanity +go free. The devil, by deceit, had tricked man, and man had become his +slave--God now plays a trick upon the devil, and by offering him the +life of Jesus, secures the release of man. That was the interpretation +held by many theologians for almost a thousand years, but in the +eleventh century there arose a man who was not satisfied with the +old interpretation. The world had outgrown it. To many it seemed +ridiculous, to some it seemed blasphemous. There was an Italian by the +name of Anselm who was an earnest student of the Scriptures, and he +seized upon the word "debt" as the key-word of the problem. He wrote +a book, one of the epoch-making books of Christendom, which he called +"_Cur Deus Homo_." In this book Anselm elaborated his interpretation +of the reconciliation. "Sin," he said, "is debt, and sin against an +infinite being is an infinite debt. A finite being can not pay an +infinite debt, hence an infinite being must become man in order that +the debt may be paid. The Son of God, therefore, assumes the form of +man, and by his sufferings on the cross pays the debt which allows +humanity to go free." The interpretation was an advance upon that of +Origen and Gregory, but it was not final. It was repudiated by men of +the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and finally, in the day of the +Reformation, it was either modified or cast away altogether. + +Martin Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers seized upon the +word "propitiation," and made that the starting-point of their +interpretation. According to these men, God is a great governor and +man has broken the divine law--transgressors must be punished--if the +man who breaks the law is not punished, somebody else must be punished +in his stead. The Son of God, therefore, comes to earth to suffer in +His person the punishment that rightly belongs to sinners. He is not +guilty, but the sins of humanity are imputed to Him, and God wreaks +upon Him the penalty which rightfully should have fallen on the heads +of sinners. That is known as "the penal substitution theory." + +It was not altogether satisfactory, many men revolted from it, and in +the seventeenth century a Dutchman, Hugo Grotius, a lawyer, brought +forth another interpretation, which is known in theology as "the +governmental theory." He would not admit that Christ was punished. +His sufferings were not penal, but illustrative. "God is the moral +governor," said Grotius, "his government must be maintained, law can +not be broken with impunity. Unless sin is punished the dignity of +God's government would be destroyed. Therefore, that man may see how +hot is God's displeasure against sin, Christ comes into the world and +suffers the consequences of the transgressions of the race. The cross +is an exhibition of what God thinks of sin." That governmental theory +was carried into England and became the established doctrine of the +English Church for almost three hundred years. It was carried across +the ocean and became the dominant theory in the New Haven school of +theologians, as represented by Jonathan Edwards, Dwight, and Taylor. +The Princeton school of theology still clung to the penal substitution +theory, and it was the clashing of the New Haven school and the +Princeton school which caused such a commotion in the Presbyterian +Church of sixty years ago. They are antiquated. They are too little. +They seem mechanical, artificial, trivial. We can say of the +governmental theory what Dr. Hodge said, "It degrades the work of +Christ to the level of a governmental contrivance." If I should +attempt to preach to you the governmental theory as it was preached by +theologians fifty years ago, you would not be interested in it There +is nothing in you that would respond to it. You would simply say, "I +do not like doctrinal preaching." Or if I should go back and take up +the penal substitution theory in all its nakedness and hideousness, +and attempt to give it to you as the correct interpretation of the +gospel, you would rise up in open rebellion and say, "We will not +listen to such preaching." If I should go back and take up the +Anselmic theory and attempt to show how an infinite debt must be paid +by infinite suffering, you would say: "Stop, you are converting God +into a Shylock, who is demanding His pound of flesh. We prefer to +think of Him as our heavenly Father." If I should go further back and +take up the old ransom theory of Origen and Gregory, I suspect +that some of you would want to laugh. You could not accept an +interpretation which represents God as playing a trick upon Satan in +order to get humanity out of his grasp. No, those theories have all +been outgrown. We have come out into larger and grander times. We have +higher conceptions of the Almighty than the ancients ever had. We see +far deeper into the Christian revelation than Martin Luther or John +Calvin ever saw. These old interpretations are simply husks, and men +and women will not listen to the preaching of them. If, now and then, +a belated preacher attempts to preach them, the people say, "If that +is doctrinal preaching, please give us something practical." + +And so the Church is to-day slowly working out a new interpretation of +the great fact that Christ died for our sins. The interpretation has +not yet been completed, and will not be for many years. I should like +this morning simply to outline in a general way some of the more +prominent features of the new interpretation. The Holy Ghost is at +work. He is taking the things of Christ and showing them unto us. The +interpretation of the reconciliation of the future will be superior in +every point to any of the interpretations of the past. + +The new interpretation is going to be simple, straightforward, and +natural. The death of Christ is not going to be made something +artificial, mechanical, or theatrical. It is going to be the natural +conception of the outflowing life of God. + +The new interpretation is going to start from the Fatherhood of +God. The old theories were all born in the counting-room, or the +court-house. Jesus went into the house to find His illustrations +for the conduct of the heavenly Father. He never went into the +court-house, nor can we go there for analogies with which to image +forth His dealings with our race. It was His custom to say, "If you, +being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much +more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them +that ask him." + +The new interpretation is going to be comprehensive. It is going to be +built, not on a single metaphor, but on everything that Jesus and +the apostles said. Right there is where the old interpretations went +astray. They seized upon one figure of speech and made that the +determining factor in the entire interpretation. Jesus said many +things, and so did His apostles, and all of them must contribute to +the final interpretation. + +Two things are to be hereafter made very clear: The first is that God +reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. The old views were always losing +sight of that great fact. There was always a dualism between God and +Christ. I remember what my conception was when I was a boy. I thought +that God was a strict and solemn and awful king, who was very angry +because men had broken His law. He was just, and His justice had +no mercy in it. Christ, His Son, was much better-natured and more +compassionate, and He came forth into our world to suffer upon the +cross that God's justice might relax a little, and His heart be opened +to forgive our race. I supposed that that was the teaching of the +New Testament, it certainly was the teaching of the hymns in the +hymn-book, if not of the preachers. And when I became a young man, +I supposed that that was the teaching of the Christian religion. My +heart rebelled against it. I would not accept it. I became an infidel. +A man can not accept an interpretation of God that does not appeal to +the best that is in him. No man can accept a doctrine that darkens his +moral sense, or that confuses the distinction between right and wrong. +I would not accept the old interpretation because my soul rose in +revolt against it. I shall never forget how, one evening in his study, +a minister, who had outgrown the old traditions, explained to me +the meaning of the reconciliation. He assured me that God is love, +invisible, eternal. Christ, His Son, is also love. In becoming at +one with the Son we become at one with the Father. This is the +at-one-ment. And when that truth broke upon me my heart began to sing: + + Just as I am--Thy love unknown + Hath broken every barrier down; + Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, + O Lamb of God, I come! + + +I wonder in telling this if I have not spoken the experience of many +of you this morning. It is impossible to love God if we feel that He +is stern and despotic, and must be appeased by the sufferings of an +innocent man. The New Testament nowhere lends any support to that +idea. Everywhere the New Testament assures us that God is the lover +of men, that He initiates the movement for man's redemption. "God so +loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...." "Herein is +love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us." "God commendeth +his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died +for us." "The Father spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for +us all." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "I and my Father +are one." These are only a few of the passages in which we are told +that God is our Savior. When an old Scotchman once heard the text +announced, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten +Son," he exclaimed, "Oh, that was love indeed! I could have given +myself, but I never could have given my boy." This, then, is the very +highest love of which it is possible for the human mind to think: the +love of a father that surrenders his son to sufferings and death. + +And this brings us to the second great truth which is outgrowing +increasingly clear in the consciousness of the Church. The death of +Jesus is the revelation of an experience in the heart of God. God is +the sin-bearer of the world. He bears our sins on His mind and heart. +There are three conceptions of God: the savage, the pagan, and the +Christian. God, according to the savage conception, is vengeful, and +capricious, and vindictive. He is a great savage hidden in the sky. We +have all outgrown that. According to the pagan idea, He is indifferent +to the wants and woes of men. He does not care for men. He is not +interested in them. He does not sympathize with them. He does not +suffer over their griefs. He does not feel pain or sorrow. I am afraid +that many of us have never gotten beyond the pagan conception of the +Almighty. But according to the Christian conception, God suffers. +He feels, and because He feels, He sympathizes, and because He +sympathizes, He suffers. He feels both pain and grief. He carries a +wound in His heart. We men and women sometimes feel burdened because +of the sin we see around us; shall not the heavenly Father be as +sensitive and responsive as we men? But somebody says that God can +not be happy then. Of course he can not be happy. Happiness is not an +adjective to apply to God. Happy is a word that belongs to children. +Children are happy, grown people never are. One can be happy when the +birds are singing and the dew is on the grass, and there is no cloud +in all the sky, and the crape has not yet hung at the door. But after +we have passed over the days of childhood, there is happiness no +longer. Some of us have lived too long and borne too much ever to be +happy any more. But it is possible for us to be blest. We may pass +into the very blessedness of God. The highest form of blessedness is +suffering for those we love, and shall not the Father of all men have +in His own eternal heart that experience which we confess to be the +highest form of blessedness? This is the truth which is dawning like a +new revelation on the Church: the humanity of God. It is revealed in +the New Testament, but as yet we have only begun to take it in. God +is like us men. We are like Him. We are made in His image. We are His +children, and He is our Father. If we are His children, then we are +His heirs, and joint heirs with Christ. Not only our joys, but our +sorrows also, are intimations and suggestions of experiences in the +infinite heart of the Eternal. + + + + +MORGAN + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Campbell Morgan, Congregational divine and preacher, was born +in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1863, and was educated at the +Douglas School, Cheltenham. He worked as a lay-mission preacher for +the two years ending 1888, and was ordained to the ministry in the +following year, when he took charge of the Congregational Church +at Stones, Staffordshire. After occupying the pulpit in several +pastorates, in 1904 he became pastor of the Westminster Congregational +Chapel, Buckingham Gate, London, a position which he still occupies. +Besides being highly successful as a pulpit orator, Dr. Morgan has +published many works of a religious character, among which may be +enumerated: "Discipleship"; "The Hidden Years of Nazareth"; "Life's +Problems"; "The Ten Commandments." His last work, "The Christ of +To-day," has passed through several editions. + + + + +MORGAN + +Born in 1863 + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +_Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the son of man, then +shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as +the Father taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is +with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that +are pleasing to him. As he spake these things, many believed on +him_.--John viii., 28-30. + + +The Master, you will see, in this verse lays before us three things. +First of all, He gives us the perfect ideal of human life in a short +phrase, and that comes at the end, "the things that please him." Those +are the things that create perfect human life, living in the realm of +which man realizes perfectly all the possibilities of his wondrous +being--"the things that please him." So I say, in this phrase, the +Master reveals to us the perfect ideal of our lives. Then, in the +second place, the Master lays claim--one of the most stupendous claims +that He ever made--that He utterly, absolutely, realizes that ideal. +He says, "I do always the things that please him." And then, thirdly, +we have the revelation of the secret by which He has been able to +realize the ideal, to make the abstract concrete, to bring down the +fair vision of divine purpose to the level of actual human life and +experience, and the secret is declared in the opening words: "He that +sent me is with me; my Father hath not left me alone." + +The perfect ideal for my life, then, is that I live always in the +realm of the things that please God; and the secret by which I may do +so is here unfolded--by living in perpetual, unbroken communion with +God: communion with which I do not permit anything to interfere. Then +it shall be possible for me to pass into this high realm of actual +realization. + +It is important that we should remind ourselves in a few sentences +that the Lord has indeed stated the highest possible ideal for human +life in these words: "The things that please him." Oh, the godlessness +of men! The godlessness that is to be found on every hand! The +godlessness of the men and women that are called by the name of God! +How tragic, how sad, how awful it is! because godlessness is always +not merely an act of rebellion against God, but a falling-short in our +own lives of their highest and most glorious possibilities. + +Here is my life. Now, the highest realm for me is the realm where all +my thoughts, and all my deeds, and all my methods, and everything in +my life please God. That is the highest realm, because God only knows +what I am; only perfectly understands the possibilities of my nature, +and all the great reaches of my being. You remember those lines that +Tennyson sang--very beautifully, I always think: + + Flower in the crannied wall, + I pluck you out of the crannies;-- + Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, + Little Flower--but if I could understand + What you art, root and all, and all in all, + I should know what God and man is. + + +Beautiful confession! Absolutely true. I hold that flower in my hand, +and I look at it, flower and leaves and stem and root. I can botanize +it, and then I tear it to pieces--that is what the botanist mostly +does--and you put some part of it there, and some part of it there, +and some part of it there. There is the root, there the stem, and +there are the leaves, and there is everything; but where is the +flower? Gone. How did it go? When did it go? Why, when you ruthlessly +tore it to bits. But how did you destroy it? You interfered with the +principle that made it what it was--you interfered with the principle +of life. What is life? No man can tell you. "If I could but know what +you are, little flower, root and all, and all in all," I would know +what life is, what God is, what man is. I can not. + +Now, if you lift that little parable of the flower into the highest +realm of animal life, and speak of yourself--we don't know ourselves; +down in my nature there are reaches that I have not fathomed yet. They +are coming up every day. What a blest thing it is to have the Master +at hand, to hand them over to Him as they come up, and say, "Lord, +here is another piece of Thy territory; govern it; I don't know +anything about it." But there is the business. I don't know myself, +but God knows me, understands all the complex relationships of my +life, knows how matter affects mind, and physical and mental and +spiritual are blended in one in the high ideal of humanity. Oh, +remember, man is the crowning and most glorious work of God of which +we know anything as yet. And God only knows man. + +But here is a Man that stands amid His enemies, and He looks out upon +His enemies, and He says, "I do the things that please him"--not "I +teach them," not "I dream them," not "I have seen them in a fair +vision," but "I do them." There never was a bigger claim from the lips +of the Master than that: "I do always the things that please him." + +You would not thank me to insult your Christian experience, upon +whatever level you live it, by attempting to define that statement +of Christ. History has vindicated it. We believe it with all our +hearts--that He always did the things that pleased God. But I have got +on to a level that I can touch now. The great ideal has come from the +air to the earth. The fair vision has become concrete in a Man. Now, +I want to see that Man; and if I see that Man I shall see in Him +a revelation of what God's purpose is for men, and I shall see, +therefore, a revelation of what the highest possibility of life is. +Now this is a tempting theme. It is a temptation to begin to contrast +Him with popular ideals of life. I want to see Him; I want, if I can, +to catch the notes of the music that make up the perfect harmony which +was the dropping of a song out of God's heaven upon man's earth, that +man might catch the key-note of it and make music in his own life. +What are the things in this Man's life? He says: "I have realized the +ideal--I do." There are four things that I want to say about Him, four +notes in the music of His life. + +First, spirituality. That is one of the words that needs redeeming +from abuse. He was the embodiment of the spiritual ideal in life. He +was spiritual in the high, true, full, broad, blest sense of that +word. + +It may be well for a moment to note what spirituality did not mean in +the life of Jesus Christ. It did not mean asceticism. During all the +years of His ministry, during all the years of His teaching, you never +find a single instance in which Jesus Christ made a whip of cords +to scourge Himself. And all that business of scourging oneself--an +attempt to elevate the spirit by the ruin of the actual flesh--is +absolutely opposed to His view of life. Jesus Christ did not deny +Himself. The fact of His life was this--that He touched everything +familiarly. He went into all the relationship of life. He went to the +widow. He took up the children and held them in His arms, and looked +into their eyes till heaven was poured in as He looked. He didn't go +and get behind walls somewhere. He didn't get away and say: "Now, if I +am going to get pure I shall do it by shutting men out." You remember +what the Pharisees said of Him once. They said: "This man receiveth +sinners." You know how they said it. They meant to say: "We did hope +that we should make something out of this new man, but we are quite +disappointed. He receives sinners." + +And what did they mean? They meant what you have so often said: "You +can't touch pitch without being defiled." But this Man sat down with +the publican and He didn't take on any defilement from the publican. +On the other hand, He gave the publican His purity in the life of +Jesus Christ. Things worked the other way. He was the great negative +of God to the very law of evil that you have--evil contaminates good. +If you will put on a plate one apple that is getting bad among twelve +others that are pure, the bad one will influence the others. Christ +came to drive back every force of disease and every force of evil by +this strong purity of His own person, and He said: "I will go among +the bad and make them good." That is what He was doing the whole way +through. So His spirituality was not asceticism. And if you are going +to be so spiritual that you see no beauty in the flowers and hear no +music in the song of the birds; if the life which you pass into when +you consent to the crucifixion of self does not open to you the very +gates of God, and make the singing of the birds and the blossoming of +the flowers infinitely more beautiful, you have never seen Jesus yet. + +What was His spirituality? The spirituality of Jesus Christ was a +concrete realization of a great truth which He laid down in His own +beatitudes. What was that? "Blest are the pure in heart, for they +shall see God." Now, the trouble is we have been lifting all the good +things of God and putting them in heaven. And I don't wonder that you +sing: + + My willing soul would stay + In such a frame as this, + And sit and sing itself away + To everlasting bliss. + +No wonder you want to sing yourself away to everlasting bliss, because +everything that is worth having you have put up there. But Jesus said: +"Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If you are pure +you will see Him everywhere--in the flower that blooms, in the march +of history, in the sorrows of men, above the darkness of the darkest +cloud; and you will know that God is in the field when He is most +invisible. + +Second, subjection. The next note in the music of His life is His +absolute subjection to God. You can very often tell the great +philosophies which are governing human lives by the little catchwords +that slip off men's tongues: "Well, I thank God I am my own master." +That is your trouble, man. It is because you are your own master that +you are in danger of hell. A man says: "Can't I do as I like with my +own?" You have got no "own" to do what you like with. It is because +men have forgotten the covenant of God, the kingship of God, that we +have all the wreckage and ruin that blights this poor earth of ours. +Here is the Man who never forgot it. + +Did you notice those wonderful words: "I do nothing of myself, but as +my Father taught me, I speak." He neither did nor spoke anything of +Himself. It was a wonderful life. He stood forevermore between the +next moment and heaven. And the Father's voice said, "Do this," and He +said "Amen, I came to do thy will," and did it. And the Father's voice +said, "Speak these words to men," and He, "Amen," and He spoke. + +You say: "That is just what I do not want to do." I know that. We want +to be independent; have our own way. "The things that please God--this +Man was subject to the divine will." You know the two words--if you +can learn to say them, not like a parrot, not glibly, but out of your +heart--the two words that will help you "Halleluiah" and "Amen." You +can say them in Welsh or any language you like; they are always the +same. When the next dispensation of God's dealings faces you look at +it and say: "Halleluiah! Praise God! Amen!" That means, "I agree." + +Third, sympathy. Now, you have this Man turned toward other men. We +have seen something of Him as He faced God: Spirituality, a sense of +God; subjection, a perpetual amen to the divine volition. Now, He +faces the crowd. Sympathy! Why? Because He is right with God, He is +right with men; because He feels God near, and knows Him, and responds +to the divine will; therefore, when He faces men He is right toward +men. The settlement of every social problem you have in this country +and in my own land, the settlement of the whole business, will be +found in the return of man to God. When man gets back to God he gets +back to men. What is behind it? Sympathy is the power of putting my +spirit outside my personality, into the circumstances of another man, +and feeling as that man feels. + +I take one picture as an illustration of this. I see the Master +approaching the city of Nain, and around Him His disciples. He is +coming up. And I see outside the city of Nain, coming toward the gate +a man carried by others, dead, and walking by that bier a mother. Now, +all I want you to look at is that woman's face, and, looking into her +face, see all the anguish of those circumstances. She is a widow, and +that is her boy, her only boy, and he is dead. Man can not talk about +this. You have got to be in the house to know what that means. But +look at her face--there it is. All the sorrow is on her face. You can +see it. + +Now, turn from her quickly and look into the face of Christ. Why, +I look into His face--there is her face. He is feeling all she is +feeling; He is down in her sorrow with her; He has got underneath the +burden, and He is feeling all the agony that that woman feels because +her boy is dead. He is moved with compassion whenever human sorrow +crosses His vision and human need approaches Him. And now I see Him +moving toward the bier. I see Him as He touches it. And He takes the +boy back and gives him to his mother. Do you see in yon mountain a +cloud, so somber and sad, and suddenly the sun comes from behind the +cloud, and all the mountain-side laughs with gladness? That is that +woman's face. The agony is gone. The tear that remains there is gilded +with a smile, and joy is on her face. Look at Him. There it is. He +is in her joy now. He is having as good a time as the woman. He has +carried her grief and her sorrow. He has given her joy. And it is His +joy that He has given to her. He is with her in her joy. + +Wonderful sympathy! He went about gathering human sorrow into His +own heart, scattering His joy, and having fellowship in agony and in +deliverance, in tears and in their wiping away. Great, sympathetic +soul! Why? Because He always lived with God, and, living with God, the +divine love moved Him with compassion. Ah, believe me, our sorrows are +more felt in heaven than on earth. And we had that glimpse of that +eternal love in this Man, who did the things that pleased God, and +manifested such wondrous sympathy. + +Fourth, strength. The last note is that of strength. You talk about +the weakness of Jesus, the frailty of Jesus. I tell you, there never +was any one so strong as He. And if you will take the pains of reading +His life with that in mind you will find it was one tremendous march +of triumph against all opposing forces. About His dying--how did He +die? "At last, at last," says the man in his study that does not know +anything about Jesus; "At last His enemies became too much for Him, +and they killed Him." Nothing of the sort. That is a very superficial +reading. What is the truth? Hear it from His own lips: "No man taketh +my life from me. I lay it down of myself. And if I lay it down I have +authority to take it again." What do you think of that? How does that +touch you as a revelation of magnificence in strength? And then, look +at Him, when He comes back from the tomb, having fulfilled that which +was either an empty boast or a great fact--thank God, we believe it +was a great fact! Now He stands upon the mountain, with this handful +of men around Him, His disciples, and He is going away from them. "All +authority," He says, "is given unto me. I am king not merely by an +office conferred, but by a triumph won. I am king, for I have faced +the enemies of the race--sin and sorrow and ignorance and death--and +my foot is upon the neck of every one. All authority is given to me." + +Oh, the strength of this Man! Where did He get it? "My Father hath not +left me alone. I have lived with God. I have walked with God. I always +knew him near. I always responded to his will. And my heart went out +in sympathy to others, and I mastered the enemies of those with whom I +sympathized. And I come to the end and I say, All authority is given +to me." Oh, my brother, that is the pattern for you and for me! Ah, +that is life! That is the ideal! Oh, how can I fulfil it? I am not +going to talk about that. Let me only give you this sentence to finish +with, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." If Christ be in me by the +power of the Spirit, He will keep me conscious of God's nearness to +me. If Christ be in me by the consciousness of the spirit reigning and +governing, He will take my will from day to day, blend it with His, +and take away all that makes it hard to say, "God's will be done." + + + + +CADMAN + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +S. Parkes Cadman is one of the many immigrant clergymen who have +attained to fame in American pulpits. He was born in Shropshire, +England, December 18, 1864, and graduated from Richmond College, +London University, in 1889. Coming to this country about 1895 he was +appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Metropolitan Tabernacle, +New York. From this post he was called to Central Congregational +Church, Brooklyn, with but one exception the largest Congregational +Church in the United States. He has received the degree of D.D. from +Wesleyan University and the University of Syracuse. The sermon here +given, somewhat abridged, was delivered before the National Council of +Congregational Churches, in Cleveland, Ohio, and is from Dr. Cadman's +manuscript. + + + + +CADMAN + +Born in 1864 + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +_God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus +Christ: by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the +world_.--Gal. vi., 14. + + +The pivotal conception of missionary enterprise is the conception of +Christ as the eternal priest of humanity. If any need of the world's +heart is before us now, it is the need of the Cross. There is a +deep and anxious desire in men for the saving forces of sacrificial +Christianity. The ideals of the New Testament concerning Gethsemane +and Calvary are being thrust upon our attention by the upward +strugglings of the people. They, at any rate, have not forgotten the +forsaken Man in the night of awful silence in the garden, nor His +exceeding bitter agony, nor the perfect ending that made His death His +victory. The wastes of eccentricity, whether orthodox or heterodox, +and the over curious speculations of theologies remote from the +habitations of men, have had little influence upon the multitudes +we seek to serve. And if I had to choose a sphere where one could +rediscover the central forces of Christian life and of Christian +practise, I would lean toward the enlightened democracies which to-day +are vibrant with the plea that the shepherdless multitudes shall have +social ameliorations and new incentives and selfless leaders. + +We are all very jealous for the honor and success of the propagandism +we sustain at home and abroad, and I hold that its honor and success +alike depend upon the priesthood and redemptive efficacies of Jesus. +These sovereign forces are correlated with His victories for the +twenty past centuries, and they constitute the distinctive genius of +the faith. + +We shall gain nothing for the rule or for the ethics of Jesus by +derogating that peculiar office of the divine Victim which is, to +me, at any rate, the most sublime reason for the Incarnation and the +ineffable height and depth and mystery of all love and all strength +blessedly operative in every ruined condition by means of sacrifice. +The missionary fields confessedly can not be conquered by the unaided +teacher; he must have more than a system of truth, more than a +program, more than a reasoned discourse. Their vast inert mass demands +vitalization; and the life which is given for the life of men, the +divinest gift of all, is alone sufficient for this regeneration. + +Moreover, can we rest the absolutism and finality of Jesus upon +anything less than the last complete outpouring of His soul unto +voluntary death for men's salvation? I do not think we can, and it is +a requisite that we place larger emphasis upon this holy mystery of +our life through Christ's death, the substantial soul and secret of +all missionary progress in all ages of the Church. + +Before we can see the miracle of nations entering the kingdom of God, +before we can dismiss the black death of apathy which rests on so many +professedly Christian communities, before we can dominate the social +structure in righteousness and justice, the Church must be raised +nearer to the standards of New Testament efficiency. And New Testament +efficiency rested upon the perfect divinity and all-persuasive +mediatorship of "Christ and him crucified." The personality of Christ +involves for many of us the entire relation of God to His universe; He +is "the central figure in all history," and Pie is "the central +figure of our personal experience," creative in us, by His inaugural +experience, of all we are in Him and for our fellows. Thus we make +great claims for the Lord of the harvest, and we make them soberly, +and we know them true for our spiritual consciousness, and we are +prepared to defend them. + +Yet I, for one, do not hesitate to admit that the theological +necessities of missionary work are many, and that they must be +recognized and met before it can fully accomplish its infinite +design. Indeed, the rule of Jesus in all these aspects of His mission +clarifies and simplifies the gospel. It is plain that such a gospel, +wherein the living personality of the Christ deals with the living +man to whom we minister, is not to be beset by complications and +abstractions. Its spiritual topography embraces the height of +good, the depth of love, the breadth of sympathy, and the width of +catholicity. It was meant for the race and for the far-reaching +reciprocities and inexpressible necessities of the race. It is attuned +to the cry of the common heart. Its interpretations have the sanctions +of an authoritative human experience which has never failed in its +witness. Sometimes I have challenged these honored servants of the +evangel who have come back to us from quarters where they were busy +on the errands of the cross. Almost pathetically, with the painful +interest of one inquiring for a long absent friend of whom no news has +been received, I have solicited the missionaries. They came from the +south of our own dear land, where they administered to the negro; from +the arctic zone, from the farther East. Their wider vision, their more +imperial instinct, were plain to me, and my usual question was, "What +do you teach the impulsive colored man and the stolid Eskimo and the +pensive Hindu and the inscrutable Asiatic?" And they replied, "We +teach them, that God is a personal spirit and Father, whose character +is holiness and whose heart is love; that Jesus Christ is the designed +and supreme Son of God, who lived in sinlessness and died in perfect +willing sacrifice for the eternal life of all men, that by the will of +God and in the power of His spirit men may have everlasting life and, +better still, everlasting goodness, if they will accept and trust in +Jesus Christ for all." + +And this gospel obtains the day of overcoming for which we plead and +pray. For tho an angel from heaven had any other, men do not respond; +the charisma rests on no other message. Possest of it, and possessing +it, under the covenant of heaven and led by the Shepherd and Bishop of +souls, we shall go forth determined to give it place in us and in our +presentations as never before. May nothing mar the solemn splendor +of such a message from God unto men. Let us subordinate our undue +intellectualism and place our boasted freedom under restraints, so +that the evangel may be preached without reserve and with abandon. +"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, himself +man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." + +Such in one grand passage is the creed that breathes the very life and +spirit of the most significant and overwhelming missionary period in +the history of the Christian Church. + +There is a new day due in missions because of the immense superiority +in missionary methods. The _personnel_ of our administrations has been +superb, and of nearly all the honored servants of God who have labored +in domestic and foreign departments it could be said, "Thou hast +loved righteousness and hated iniquity." But I presume these seasoned +veterans would be the first to show us how the whole conception of +propagandism has been readapted, and its vehicles of communication +multiplied in various directions. The onfall and sally of the earler +evangelistic campaigns are now aided by the investment and siege of +educational and medical work. + +The trackways of a policy embedded in the wider interpretation of the +gospel are laid and the new era takes shape before our comprehension. +Travel, exploration, and commerce have demanded and obtained the +_Lusitania_ on the sea; the railroad from the Cape to Cairo on the +land, and they have left no spot of earth untrodden, no map obscure, +no mart unvisited. Keeping step with this stately and unprecedented +development, and often anticipating it, the widening frontiers of our +missionary kingdom have demonstrated again and again how the Church +can make a bridal of the earth and sky, linking the lowliest needs +to the loftiest truths. And best of all in respect of methods is the +dispersal of our native egotism. We have come to see that the types of +Christianity in Europe and America are perhaps aboriginal for us, +but can not be transplanted to other shores. "Manifest destiny" is a +phrase that sits down when Japan and China wake up. Not thus can Jesus +be robbed of the fruits of His passion in any branch of the human +family. We are to plant and water, labor in faith, and die in hope, +scattering the seed of the gospel in the hearts of these brothers of +regions outside. But God will ordain their harvests as it pleaseth +Him. What will be the joy of that harvest? Throw your imagination +across this new century, and as it dies and gives place to its +successor, review the race whose devotion has then fastened on the +divine ruler and the federal Man, Christ Jesus. For nearly a hundred +years the barriers that segregated us will have been a memory. The +Church will have discovered not only fields of labor, but forces for +her replenishing. Then will our posterity rejoice in the larger +Christ who is to be. The virtuous elements of all other faiths will +be placed under the purification and control of the priesthood and +authority of Jesus. And tho in these ancient religions that await the +Bridegroom, the mortal stains the immortal and the human mars the +beauty of the divine, in the light of His appearing they will assume +new attitudes and receive His quickening and thrill with His pulse. +When I conceive of this reward for our Daysman I protest that all +other triumphs seem as tinsel and sham. The Desire of all nations +shall then see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. The +subtle patience of China, the fierce resistance of Japan, the brooding +soul that haunts the Ganges valley, the tumult of emotion of the +Ethiopian breast, all are for His appearing; they must be saved unto +noble ends by His sanctification. For that time there will be a Church +whose canonization of the infinite is beyond our dreams, enriched on +every side, with common allegiance and diversity of gifts, and every +gift the boon of all, and Christ's dower in His bride increased beyond +compare. + +This is the ideal of the new day; may it become our personal ideal. +Then shall we fight with new courage for the right, and abhor the +imperfect, the unjust, and the mean. Our leaders will care nothing for +flattery and praise or odium and abuse. Enthusiasm can not be soured, +nor courage diminished. The Almighty has placed our hand on the +greatest of His plows, in whose furrow the nations I have named are +germinating religiously. And to drive forward the blade if but a +little, and to plant any seed of justice and of joy, any sense of +manliness or moral worth, to aid in any way the gospel which is the +friend of liberty, the companion of the conscience and the parent +of the intellectual enlightenment--is not that enough? Is it not a +complete justification of our plea? + +We shall do well to remember that no evangel can prosper without the +evangelical temper. The parsing of grammarians is of little avail +here, and to have all critical knowledge of the prophets and apostles +of the faith without their fervor and consecration is profitable +merely for study, and useless mainly for the larger life. Our culture +must be the passion-flower of Christ Jesus. To be more anxious about +intellectual pre-eminence or ecclesiastical origins than about "the +trial of the immigrant" and the condition of the colored races is not +helpful. "There is a sort of orthodoxy that revels in the visions of +apocalypses and refuses to fight the beast," says Dr. Nurgan. +Such barren indulgence is excluded from any glory to follow. +Technicalities, niceties, knowledge remote and knowledge general must +be appropriated and made dynamic in this life-and-death conflict; +any that can not be thus used can be sent to the rear for a further +debate. + +Diplomacies in church government and adjustments in church creeds can +wait on this consecration, this baptism of unction. I never heard that +the statesman who formulated the peace at Paris in 1815 got in the +way of the Household Brigades and the Highlanders at Waterloo and +Hougomont. They played their commendable game, but they could not +have swept that awful slope of flame in which Ney and the Old Guard +staggered on at Mont St. Jean. + +Let us redeem our creeds at the front, and prove the welding of our +weapons and their tempered blades upon every evil way and darkness and +superstition that afflict humankind. + +And have you not seen with moistened eyes and beating hearts the +pathetic surgings of harassed and broken sons and daughters of +God toward His son Jesus Christ? I have watched them until I felt +constrained to cry aloud and spare not; and while viewing them here +and yonder, and refusing to be localized in our love toward them, have +not our spirits been rebuked, have they not known fear for ourselves, +have they not pensively echoed the charge of some that we have no real +roots in democracy, but are as plants in pots, and not as oaks in the +soil of earth? If independency is a barrier to the essence of which it +is supposedly a form, if superiority shuts us off from assimilation +with popular movements and delivers us over to cliques, then these +churches of ours[1] will end in a record of shame and confusion. +While we are busy in trivial things, our energy and our might will be +deflected, and the living God will hand over the crusade to those who +have proven worthier and who knew the day when it did come, even the +day of their visitation. + +[Footnote 1: The special reference is to the Congregational churches.] + +We must arise with courage undismayed, and join in the cry of the +ages: + + When wilt thou save the people, + O God of mercy, when? + The people! Lord, the people! + Not crowns, nor thrones, but men. + + Flower of thy heart, O Lord, are they, + Their heritage a sunless day. + Let them like weeds not fade away; + Lord, save the people. + +If our hearts are thus enlarged, we shall run in the way of His +commandments; fatherhood and brotherhood and sonship will not be +symbols, shibboleths of pious intercourse, but ways of God's reaching +out through us for the total brotherhood. We shall silence the caviler +against missions; we shall raise the negro in the face of those who +say he can not be raised; we shall see the latter-day miracles, and +the lame man healed and rejoicing at the Temple gate. Thus may the +breath of God sweep across our pastorates and dismiss timidity, +provincialism, ease, and narrowness of outlook. And thus may the power +be demonstrated as of heaven because it is the power unto salvation. +Let us fear not men who shall die, nor be content to fill our peaceful +lot and occupy a respectable grave. The new world needs the renewed +baptism, and the "modernism" of which medievalists complain is the +robe of honor for the Christ of this epoch. So that there shall come +unto the Church the flame of sacred love, and, kindling on every heart +and altar, there shall it burn for the glory of Christ, the High +Priest, with inextinguishable blaze. We can rest content, for, behold! +the day cometh and in its light. Let us go hence. + + + + +JOWETT + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +John Henry Jowett, Congregational divine, was born at Barnard Castle, +Durham, in 1864, and educated at Edinburgh and Oxford universities. +In 1889 he was ordained to St. James's Congregational Church, +Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in 1895 was called to his present pastorate of +Carr's Lane Congregational Church, Birmingham, where he has taken rank +among the leading preachers of Great Britain. He is the author of +several important books. + + + + +JOWETT + +Born in 1864 + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of A.C. Armstrong & Son.] + +_Rejoicing in hope_.--Romans xii., 12. + + +That is a characteristic expression of the fine, genial optimism of +the Apostle Paul. His eyes are always illumined. The cheery tone is +never absent from his speech. The buoyant and springy movement of his +life is never changed. The light never dies out of his sky. Even the +gray firmament reveals more hopeful tints, and becomes significant of +evolving glory. The apostle is an optimist, "rejoicing in hope," a +child of light wearing the "armor of light," "walking in the light" +even as Christ is in the light. + +This apostolic optimism was not a thin and fleeting sentiment begotten +of a cloudless summer day. It was not the creation of a season; it was +the permanent pose of the spirit. Even when beset with circumstances +which to the world would spell defeat, the apostle moved with the mien +of a conqueror. He never lost the kingly posture. He was disturbed by +no timidity about ultimate issues. He fought and labored in the spirit +of certain triumph. "We are always confident." "We are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us." "Thanks be unto God who giveth +us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." + +This apostolic optimism was not born of sluggish thinking, or of idle +and shallow observation. I am very grateful that the counsel of my +text lifts its chaste and cheery flame in the twelfth chapter of an +epistle of which the first chapter contains as dark and searching an +indictment of our nature as the mind of man has ever drawn. Let me +rehearse the appalling catalog that the radiance of the apostle's +optimism may appear the more abounding: "Senseless hearts," "fools," +"uncleanness," "vile passions," "reprobate minds," "unrighteousness, +wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, +deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, +haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, without understanding, +covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful." With +fearless severity the apostle leads us through the black realms of +midnight and eclipse. And yet in the subsequent reaches of the great +argument, of which these dark regions form the preface, there emerges +the clear, calm, steady light of my optimistic text. I say it is not +the buoyancy of ignorance. It is not the flippant, light-hearted +expectancy of a man who knows nothing about the secret places of the +night. The counselor is a man who has steadily gazed at light at +its worst, who has digged through the outer walls of convention and +respectability, who has pushed his way into the secret chambers and +closets of life, who has dragged out the slimy sins which were lurking +in their holes, and named them after their kind--it is this man who +when he has surveyed the dimensions of evil and misery and contempt, +merges his dark indictment in a cheery and expansive dawn, in an +optimistic evangel, in which he counsels his fellow-disciples to +maintain the confident attitude of a rejoicing hope. + +Now, what are the secrets of this courageous and energetic optimism? +Perhaps, if we explore the life of this great apostle, and seek to +discover its springs, we may find the clue to his abounding hope. +Roaming then through the entire records of his life and teachings, +do we discover any significant emphasis? Preeminent above all other +suggestions, I am imprest with his vivid sense of the reality of the +redemptive work of Christ. Turn where I will, the redemptive work of +the Christ evidences itself as the base and groundwork of his life. +It is not only that here and there are solid statements of doctrine, +wherein some massive argument is constructed for the partial unveiling +of redemptive glory. Even in those parts of his epistles where formal +argument has ceased, and where solid doctrine is absent, the doctrine +flows as a fluid element into the practical convictions of life, and +determines the shape and quality of the judgments. Nay, one might +legitimately use the figure of a finer medium still, and say that in +all the spacious reaches of the apostle's life the redemptive work of +his Master is present as an atmosphere in which all his thoughts and +purposes and labors find their sustaining and enriching breath. Take +this epistle to the Romans in which my text is found. The earlier +stages of the great epistle are devoted to a massive and stately +presentation of the doctrines of redemption. But when I turn over the +pages where the majestic argument is concluded, I find the doctrine +persisting in a diffused and rarefied form, and appearing as the +determining factor in the solution of practical problems. If he is +dealing with the question of the "eating of meats," the great doctrine +reappears and interposes its solemn and yet elevating principle: +"destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." If he is called +upon to administer rebuke to the passionate and unclean, the shadow of +the cross rests upon his judgment. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought +with a price." If he is portraying the ideal relationship of husband +and wife, he sets it in the light of redemptive glory: "Husbands, love +your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up +for it." If he is seeking to cultivate the grace of liberality, he +brings the heavenly air around about the spirit. "Ye know the grace +of our Lord Jesus Christ, that tho he was rich, yet for your sakes +he became poor." It interweaves itself with all his salutations. It +exhales in all his benedictions like a hallowing fragrance. You can +not get away from it. In the light of the glory of redemption all +relationships are assorted and arranged. Redemption was not degraded +into a fine abstract argument, to which the apostle had appended his +own approval, and then, with sober satisfaction, had laid it aside, as +a practical irrelevancy, in the stout chests of orthodoxy. It became +the very spirit of his life. It was, if I may be allowed the violent +figure, the warm blood in all his judgment. It filled the veins of all +his thinking. It beat like a pulse in all his purposes. It determined +and vitalized his decisions in the crisis, as well as in the lesser +trifles of the common day. His conception of redemption was regulative +of all his thought. + +But it is not only the immediacy of redemption in the apostle's +thought by which I am imprest. I stand in awed amazement before its +vast, far-stretching reaches into the eternities. Said an old villager +to me concerning the air of his elevated hamlet, "Ay, sir, it's a fine +air is this westerly breeze; I like to think of it as having traveled +from the distant fields of the Atlantic!" And here is the Apostle +Paul, with the quickening wind of redemption blowing about him in +loosening, vitalizing, strengthening influence, and to him, in all his +thinking, it had its birth in the distant fields of eternity! To +the apostle redemption was not a small device, an afterthought, a +patched-up expedient to meet an unforseen emergency. The redemptive +purpose lay back in the abyss of the eternities, and in a spirit of +reverent questioning the apostle sent his trembling thoughts into +those lone and silent fields. He emerged with, whispered secrets such +as these: "fore-knew," "fore-ordained," "chosen in him before the +foundation of the world," "eternal life promised before times +eternal," "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our +Lord." + +Brethren, does our common thought of redemptive glory reach back +into this august and awful presence? Does the thought of the modern +disciple journey in this distant pilgrimage? Or do we now regard it as +unpractical and irrelevant? There is no more insidious peril in modern +religious life than the debasement of our conception of the practical. +If we divorce the practical from the sublime, the practical will +become the superficial, and will degenerate into a very lean and +forceless thing. When Paul went on this lonely pilgrimage his spirit +acquired the posture of a finely sensitive reverence. People who +live and move beneath great domes acquire a certain calm and stately +dignity. It is in companionship with the sublimities that awkwardness +and coarseness are destroyed. We lose our reverence when we desert the +august. But has reverence no relationship to the practical? Shall we +discard it as an irrelevant factor in the purposes of common life? +Why, reverence is the very clue to fruitful, practical living. +Reverence is creative of hope; nay, a more definite emphasis can be +given to the assertion; reverence is a constituent of hope. +Annihilate reverence, and life loses its fine sensitiveness, and when +sensitiveness goes out of a life the hope that remains is only a +flippant rashness, a thoughtless impetuosity, the careless onrush of +the kine, and not a firm, assured perception of a triumph that is only +delayed. A reverent homage before the sublimities of yesterday is the +condition of a fine perception of the hidden triumphs of the morrow. +And, therefore, I do not regard it as an accidental conjunction that +the psalmist puts them together and proclaims the evangel that "the +Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his +mercy." To feel the days before me I must revere the purpose which +throbs behind me. I must bow in reverence if I would anticipate in +hope. + +Here, then, is the Apostle Paul, with the redemptive purpose +interweaving itself with all the entanglements of his common life, a +purpose reaching back into the awful depths of the eternities, and +issuing from those depths in amazing fulness of grace and glory. No +one can be five minutes in the companionship of the Apostle Paul +without discovering how wealthy is his sense of the wealthy, redeeming +ministry of God. What a wonderful consciousness he has of the sweep +and fulness of the divine grace! You know the variations of the +glorious air: "the unsearchable riches of Christ"; "riches in glory +in Christ Jesus"; "all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places +in Christ"; "the riches of his goodness and forbearance and +long-suffering." The redemptive purpose of God bears upon the life of +the apostle and upon the race whose privileges he shares, not in an +uncertain and reluctant shower, but in a great and marvelous flood. +And what to him is the resultant enfranchisement? What are the +spacious issues of the glorious work? Do you recall those wonderful +sentences, scattered here and there about the apostle's writings, and +beginning with the words "but now"? Each sentence proclaims the end +of the dominion of night, and unveils some glimpse of the new created +day. "But now!" It is a phrase that heralds a great deliverance! +"But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God hath been +manifested," "But now, being made free from sin and become servants to +God." "But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh +in the blood of Christ." "But now are ye light in the Lord." "Now, no +condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." These represent no +thin abstractions. To Paul the realities of which they speak were more +real than the firm and solid earth. And is it any wonder that a man +with such a magnificent sense of the reality of the redemptive +works of Christ, who felt the eternal purpose throbbing in the dark +background and abyss of time, who conceived it operating upon our race +in floods of grace and glory, and who realized in his own immediate +consciousness the varied wealth of the resultant emancipation--is it +any wonder that for this man a new day had dawned, and the birds had +begun to sing and the flowers to bloom, and a sunny optimism had taken +possession of his heart, which found expression in an assured and +rejoicing hope? + +I look abroad again over the record of this man's life and teachings, +if perchance I may discover the secrets of his abiding optimism, and I +am profoundly imprest by his living sense of the reality and greatness +of his present resources. "By Christ redeemed!" That is not a grand +finale; it is only a glorious inauguration. "By Christ redeemed; in +Christ restored"; it is with these dynamics of restoration that his +epistles are so wondrously abounding. In almost every other sentence +he suggests a dynamic which he can count upon as his friend. Paul's +mental and spiritual outlook comprehended a great army of positive +forces laboring in the interests of the kingdom of God. His conception +of life was amazingly rich in friendly dynamics! I do not wonder that +such a wealthy consciousness was creative of a triumphant optimism. +Just glance at some of the apostle's auxiliaries: "Christ liveth in +me!" "Christ liveth in me! He breathes through all my aspirations. He +thinks through all my thinking. He wills through all my willing. He +loves through all my loving. He travails in all my labors. He works +within me 'to will and to do of his good pleasure.'" That is the +primary faith of the hopeful life. But see what follows in swift and +immediate succession. "If Christ is in you, the spirit is life." "The +spirit is life!" And therefore you find that in the apostle's thought +dispositions are powers. They are not passive entities. They are +positive forces vitalizing and energizing the common life of men. +My brethren, I am persuaded there is a perilous leakage in this +department of our thought. We are not bold enough in our thinking +concerning spiritual realities. We do not associate with every mode +of the consecrated spirit the mighty energy of God. We too often +oust from our practical calculations some of the strongest and most +aggressive allies of the saintly life. Meekness is more than the +absence of self-assertion; it is the manifestation of the mighty power +of God. To the Apostle Paul love exprest more than a relationship. It +was an energy productive of abundant labors. Faith was more than an +attitude. It was an energy creative of mighty endeavor, Hope was +more than a posture. It was an energy generative of a most enduring +patience. All these are dynamics, to be counted as active allies, +cooperating in the ministry of the kingdom. And so the epistles abound +in the recital of mystic ministries at work. The Holy Spirit worketh! +Grace worketh! Faith worketh! Love worketh! Hope worketh! Prayer +worketh! And there are other allies robed in less attractive garb. +"Tribulation worketh!" "This light affliction worketh." "Godly sorrow +worketh!" On every side of him the apostle conceives cooperative and +friendly powers. "The mountain is full of horses and chariots of +fire round about him." He exults in the consciousness of abounding +resources. He discovers the friends of God in things which find no +place among the scheduled powers of the world. He finds God's raw +material in the world's discarded waste. "Weak things," "base things," +"things that are despised," "things that are not," mere nothings; +among these he discovers the operating agents of the mighty God. Is it +any wonder that in this man, possessed of such a wealthy consciousness +of multiplied resources, the spirit of a cheery optimism should be +enthroned? With what stout confidence he goes into the fight! He +never mentions the enemy timidly. He never seeks to underestimate his +strength. Nay, again and again he catalogs all possible antagonisms in +a spirit of buoyant and exuberant triumph. However numerous the enemy, +however subtle and aggressive his devices, however towering and +well-established the iniquity, however black the gathering clouds, so +sensitive is the apostle to the wealthy resources of God that amid it +all he remains a sunny optimist, "rejoicing in hope," laboring in the +spirit of a conqueror even when the world was exulting in his supposed +discomfiture and defeat. + +And, finally, in searching for the springs of this man's optimism, I +place alongside his sense of the reality of redemption and his wealthy +consciousness of present resources his impressive sense of the reality +of future glory. Paul gave himself time to think of heaven, of the +home of God, of his own home when time should be no more. He loved to +contemplate "the glory that shall be revealed." He mused in wistful +expectancy of the day "when Christ who is our life shall be +manifested," and when we also "shall be manifested with him in glory." +He pondered the thought of death as "gain," as transferring him to +conditions in which he would be "at home with the Lord," "with Christ, +which is far better." He looked for "the blest hope and appearing +of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ," and he +contemplated "that great day" as the "henceforth," which would reveal +to him the crown of righteousness and glory. Is any one prepared to +dissociate this contemplation from the apostle's cheery optimism? Is +not rather the thought of coming glory one of its abiding springs? Can +we safely exile it from our moral and spiritual culture? I know that +this particular contemplation is largely absent from modern religious +life, and I know the nature of the recoil in which our present +impoverishment began. "Let us hear less about the mansions of the +blest and more about the housing of the poor!" Men revolted against an +effeminate contemplation, which had run to seed, in favor of an active +philanthropy which sought the enrichment of the common life. But, my +brethren, pulling a plant up is not the only way of saving it from +running to seed. You can accomplish by a wise restriction what +is wastefully done by severe destruction. I think we have lost +immeasurably by the uprooting, in so many lives, of this plant of +heavenly contemplation. We have built on the erroneous assumption that +the contemplation of future glory inevitably unfits us for the service +of man. It is an egregious and destructive mistake. I do not think +that Richard Baxter's labors were thinned or impoverished by his +contemplation of "The Saint's Everlasting Rest." When I consider his +mental output, his abundant labors as father-confessor to a countless +host, his pains and persecutions and imprisonments, I can not but +think he received some of the powers of his optimistic endurance from +contemplations such as he counsels in his incomparable book. "Run +familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem; visit the +patriarchs and prophets, salute the apostles, and admire the armies of +martyrs; lead on the heart from street to street, bring it into +the palace of the great king; lead it, as it were, from chamber to +chamber. Say to it, 'Here must I lodge, here must I die, here must I +praise, here must I love and be loved. My tears will then be wiped +away, my groans be turned to another tune, my cottage of clay be +changed to this palace, my prison rags to these splendid robes'; 'for +the former things are passed away.'" I can not think that Samuel +Rutherford impoverished his spirit or deadened his affections, or +diminished his labors by mental pilgrimages such as he counsels to +Lady Cardoness: "Go up beforehand and see your lodging. Look through +all your Father's rooms in heaven. Men take a sight of the lands ere +they buy them. I know that Christ hath made the bargain already; but +be kind to the house ye are going to, and see it often." I can not +think that this would imperil the fruitful optimisms of the Christian +life. I often examine, with peculiar interest, the hymn-book we use at +Carr's Lane. It was compiled by Dr. Dale. Nowhere else can I find the +broad perspective of his theology and his primary helpmeets in +the devotional life as I find them there. And is it altogether +unsuggestive that under the heading of "Heaven" is to be found one of +the largest sections of the book. A greater space is given to "Heaven" +than is given to "Christian duty." Is it not significant of what a +great man of affairs found needful for the enkindling and sustenance +of a courageous hope? And among the hymns are many which have helped +to nourish the sunny endeavors of a countless host. + + There is a land of pure delight + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain. + + What are these, arrayed in white, + Brighter than the noonday sun? + Foremost of the suns of light, + Nearest the eternal throne. + + Hark! hark, my soul! Angelic songs are swelling + O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore. + Angelic songs to sinful men are telling + Of that new life when sin shall be no more. + +My brethren, depend upon it, we are not impoverished by contemplations +such as these. They take no strength out of the hand, and they +put much strength and buoyancy into the heart. I proclaim the +contemplation of coming glory as one of the secrets of the apostle's +optimism which enabled him to labor and endure in the confident spirit +of rejoicing hope. These, then, are some of the springs of Christian +optimism; some of the sources in which we may nourish our hope in the +newer labors of a larger day: a sense of the glory of the past in +a perfected redemption, a sense of the glory of the present in our +multiplied resources, a sense of the glory of tomorrow in the fruitful +rest of our eternal home. + + O blest hope! with this elate + Let not our hearts be desolate; + But, strong in faith and patience, wait + Until He come! + + + + +GENERAL INDEX + + + + +INDEX TO PREACHERS AND SERMONS + +Abbott, Lyman, The Divinity in Humanity +Abraham's Imitators; or The Activity of Faith. By Thomas Hooker +Affection, The Expulsive Power of a New. By Thomas Chalmers +Argument, The, from Experience. By Robert William Dale +Arnold, Thomas, Alive in God +Ascension, The, of Christ. By Girolamo Savonarola +Assurance in God. By George Adam Smith +Atonement, Eternal. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Atonement, The Prominence of the. By Edwards Amasa Park +Augustine, St., The Recovery of Sight by the Blind + +Bacon, Leonard Woolsey, God Indwelling +Basil "The Great," The Creation of the World +Baxter, Richard, Making Light of Christ and Salvation +Beecher, H.W., Immortality +Beecher, Lyman, The Government of God Desirable +Bible, The, vs. Infidelity. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Blair, Hugh, The Hour and the Event of All Time +Blind, The Recovery of Sight by the. By St. Augustine +Bones, The Valley of Dry. By Frederick Denison Maurice +Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, The Death of the Grande Condé +Bounty, The Royal. By Alexander McKenzie +Bourdaloue, Louis, The Passion of Christ +Broadus, John A., Let us Have Peace with God +Brooks, Memorial Discourse on Phillips. By Henry Codman Potter +Brooks, Phillips, The Pride of Life +Bunyan, John, The Heavenly Footman +Burrell, David James, How to Become a Christian +Bushnell, Horace, Unconscious Influence + +Cadman, S. Parkes, A New Day for Missions +Caird, John, Religion in Common Life +Calvin, John, Enduring Persecution for Christ +Campbell, Alexander, The Missionary Cause +Carlyle, Thomas,--In Memoriam. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley +Carpenter, William Boyd, The Age of Progress +Chalmers, Thomas, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection +Charming, William Ellery, The Character of Christ +Chapin, Edwin Hubbell Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion +Character, The, of Christ. By William Ellery Charming +Christ and Salvation, Making Light of. By Richard Baxter +Christ Among the Common Things of Life. By William James Dawson +Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ. By William Mackergo Taylor +Christ, Enduring Persecution for. By John Calvin +Christ, The Ascension of. By Girolamo Savonarola +Christ, The Character of. By William Ellery Channing +Christ, The First Temptation of. By John Knox +Christ, The Loneliness of. By Frederick William Robertson +Christ, The Passion of. By Louis Bourdaloue +Christ--_The_ Question of the Centuries. By Robert Stuart + MacArthur +Christ, The Spirit of. By Charles H. Fowler +Christ, What Think ye of. By Dwight Lyman Moody +Christ, Zeal in the Cause of. By William Morley Punshon +Christ's Advent to Judgment. By Jeremy Taylor +Christ's Real Body not in the Eucharist. By John Wyclif +Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New Life. By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Christian, How to Become a. By David James Burrell +Christian Victory. By Christopher Newman Hall +Christianity, The Mysteries of. By Alexander Vinet +Christianity, The Transient and Permanent in. By Theodore Parker +Chrysostom, Excessive Grief at the Death of Friends +Church, The Mother. By Ernest Roland Wilberforce +Church, The Triumph of the. By Henry Edward Manning +Clifford, John, The Forgiveness of Sins +Colonization, The, of the Desert. By Edward Everett Hale +Common Life, Religion in. By John Caird +Common Things of Life, Christ Among the. By William James Dawson +Condé, The Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Grande. By Jacques + Benigne Bossuet +Creation, The, of the World. By Basil +Creation, Work in the Groaning. By Frederick William Farrar +Crosby, Howard, The Prepared Worm +Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard, The Value of Life + +Dale, Robert William, The Argument from Experience +Day, A, in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth, By Francis Wayland +Dawson, William James, Christ Among the Common Things of Life +Death, Glorification Through. By Francis Landey Patton +Desert, The Colonization of the. By Edward Everett Hale +Divinity, The, in Humanity. By Lyman Abbott +Drummond, Henry, The Greatest Thing in the World +Dwight, Timothy, The Sovereignty of God + +Earth, The Shaking of the Heavens and the. By Charles Kingsley +Education and the Future of Religion. By John Lancaster Spalding +Edwards, Jonathan, Spiritual light +Elect, The Small Number of the. By Jean Baptiste Massillon +Eternal Atonement. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Eucharist, Christ's Real Body not in the. By John Wyclif +Evans, Christmas, The Fall and Recovery of Man +Event, The Hour and the, of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Experience. By Alexander Whyte +Experience, The Argument from. By Robert William Dale +Expulsive Power, The, of a New Affection. By Thomas Chalmers + +Faith, Constructive. By Charles Henry Parkhurst +Faith, The Activity of; or, Abraham's Imitators. By Thomas Hooker +Faith, The Story of a Disciple's. By Henry Scott Holland +Fall, The, and Recovery of Man. By Christmas Evans +Farrar, Frederick William, Work in the Groaning Creation +Fénelon, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, The Saints Converse with God +Footman, The Heavenly. By John Bunyan +Forgiveness, The, of Sins. By John Clifford. +Fowler, Charles H., The Spirit of Christ +Funeral Sermon, The, on the Death of the Grande Condé, by Jacques + Benigne Bossuet + +Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God. By William Robertson Nicoll +Gladden, Washington, The Prince of Life +Glorification Through Death. By Francis Landey Patton +God, Alive in. By Thomas Arnold +God Calling to Man. By Charles John Vaughan +God Indwelling. By Leonard Woolsey Bacon. +God, Marks of Love to. By Robert Hall +God, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of. By Edward Irving +God, The Government of, Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +God, The Image of, in Man. By Robert South +God, The Saints Converse with. By Francois Fénelon +God, The Sovereignty of. By Timothy Dwight +God the Unwearied Guide. By Newell Dwight Hillis +God's Love to Fallen Man. By John Wesley +God's Will the End of Life. By John Henry Newman +Gordon, George Angier, Man in the Image of God +Government, The, of God Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +Grace, The Method of. By George Whitefield +Greatest Thing, The, in the World. By Henry Drummond +Grief, Excessive, at the Death of Friends. By Chrysostom +Guide, God the Unwearied. By Newell Dwight Hillis +Gunsaulus, Frank Wakely, The Bible vs. Infidelity +Guthrie, Thomas, The New Heart + +Hale, Edward Everett, The Colonization of the Desert +Hall, Christopher Newman, Christian Victory +Hall, John, Liberty only in Truth +Hall, Robert, Marks of Love to God +Heart, The New. By Thomas Guthrie +Heavens, The Shaking of the, and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Hillis, Newell Dwight, God the Unwearied Guide +Hitchcock, Roswell Dwight, The Eternal Atonement +Holland, Henry Scott, The Story of a Disciple's Faith +Holy Spirit, Influence of the. By Henry Parry Liddon +Hooker, Thomas, The Activity of Faith; or Abraham's Imitators +Hour, The, and the Event of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Howe, John, The Redeemer's Tears over Lost Souls +Humanity, The Divinity in. By Lyman Abbott + +Ideal of Life, The Perfect. By George Campbell Morgan +Immortality. By H.W. Beecher +Infidelity, The Bible vs. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Influence, Unconscious. By Horace Bushnell +Influences of the Holy Spirit. By Henry Parry Liddon +Inheritance, The Heavenly. By John Summerfield +Irving, Edward, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of God + +Jefferson, Charles Edward, The Reconciliation +Jesus of Nazareth, A Day in the Life of. By Francis Wayland +Jowett, John Henry, Apostolic Optimism +Judgment, Christ's Advent to. By Jeremy Taylor +Judgment, The Reversal of Human. By James B. Mozley +Justification, The Method and Fruits of. By Martin Luther + +Kingsley, Charles, The Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth +Knox, John, The First Temptation of Christ +Knox-Little, William John, Thirst Satisfied +Latimer, Hugh, Christian Love +Life, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Life, God's Will the End of. By John Henry Newman +Life, The Perfect Ideal of. By George Campbell Morgan +Life, The Pride of. By Phillips Brooks +Life, The Prince of. By Washington Gladden +Life, The Value of. By Theodore Ledyard Cuyler +Liberty only in Truth. By John Hall +Liddon, Henry Parry, Influences of the Holy Spirit +Light, Spiritual. By Jonathan Edwards +Loneliness, The, of Christ. By Frederick William Robertson +Lord, The Resurrection of Our. By Matthew Simpson +Lorimer, George C. The Fall of Satan +Love, Christian. By Hugh Latimer +Love, Marks of, to God. By Robert Hall +Luther, Martin, The Method and Fruits of Justification +MacArthur, Robert Stuart, Christ--The Question of the Centuries +McKenzie, Alexander, The Royal Bounty +Maclaren, Alexander, The Pattern of Service +Macleod, Norman, The True Christian Ministry +Magee, William Connor, The Miraculous Stilling of the Storm +Man, God Calling to. By Charles John Vaughan +Man, God's Love to Fallen. By John Wesley +Man in the Image of God. By George Angier Gordon +Man, The Fall and Recovery of. By Christmas Evans +Man, The Image of God in. By Robert South +Manhood, The Meaning of. By Henry Van Dyke +Manning, Henry Edward, The Triumph of the Church +Martineau, James, Parting Words +Mason, John Mitchell, Messiah's Throne +Massillon, Jean Baptiste, The Small Number of the Elect +Maurice, Frederick Denison, The Valley of Dry Bones +Melanchthon, Philip, The Safety of the Virtuous +Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks. By Henry Codman Potter +Messiah's Throne. By John Mitchell Mason +Ministry, The True Christian. By Norman Macleod +Missions, A New Day for. By. S. Parkes Cadman +Missionary Cause, The. By Alexander Campbell +Missionary Work, The Permanent Motive in. By Richard S. Storrs +Monster, A Bloody. By Thomas DeWitt Talmage +Moody, Dwight Lyman, What Think ye of Christ? +Morgan, George Campbell, The Perfect Ideal of Life +Motive, The Permanent, in Missionary Work. By Richard S. Storrs +Mozley, James B., The Reversal of Human Judgment +Mysteries. The, of Christianity. By Alexander Vinet + +Newman, John Henry, God's Will the End of Life +Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Nicoll, William Robertson, Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God + +Optimism, Apostolic. By John Henry Jowett +Optimism. By John Watson +Oracles, Preparation for Consulting the, of God. By Edward Irving + +Park, Edwards Amasa, The Prominence of the Atonement +Parker, Joseph, A Word to the Weary +Parker, Theodore, The Transient and Permanent in Christianity +Parkhurst, Charles Henry, Constructive Faith +Passion, The, of Christ. By Louis Bourdaloue +Patton, Francis Landey, Glorification Through Death +Paul Before Felix and Drusilla. By Jacques Saurin +Peace with God, Let us Have. By John A. Broadus +Permanent, The Transient and the, in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Persecution for Christ, Enduring, John Calvin +Pilate Before Christ--Christ Before Pilate. By William Mackergo + Taylor +Potter, Henry Codman, Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks +Pride, The, of Life. By Phillips Brooks +Prince, The, of Life. By Washington Gladden +Progress, The Age of. By William Boyd Carpenter +Punshon, William Morley, Zeal in the Cause of Christ + +Reconciliation, The. By Charles E. Jefferson +Recovery, The Fall and, of Man. By Christmas Evans +Redeemer's Tears, The, over Lost Souls. By John Howe +Religion, Education and the Future of. By John Lancaster Spaldin +Religion in Common Life. By John Caird +Religion, Nicodemus: The Seeker after. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Resurrection, Christ's, an Image of our New-Life. By Frederick Ernst + Schleiermacher +Resurrection, The, of Our Lord. By Matthew Simpson +Resurrection, The Reasonableness of a. By John Tillotson +Reversal, The, of Human Judgment. By James B. Mozley +Robertson, Frederick William, The Loneliness of Christ +Royal Bounty, the. By Alexander McKenzie + +Sackcloth, The Transfigured. By William L. Watkinson +Saints Converse with God, The. By Francis Fénelon +Salvation, Making Light of Christ and. By Richard Baxter +Satan, The Fall of. By George C. Lorimer +Saurin, Jacques, Paul Before Felix and Drusilla +Savonarola, Girolamo, The Ascension of Christ +Schleiermacher, Frederick Ernst, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our + New Life +Seiss, Joseph A., The Wonderful Testimonies +Service, The Pattern of. By Alexander Maclaren +Shaking, The, of the Heavens and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Sight, The Recovery of, by the Blind By St Augustine +Simpson, Matthew, The Resurrection of Our Lord. +Sins, The Forgiveness of By John Clifford +Smith, George Adam Assurance in God +Songs in the Night By Charles Haddon Spurgeon +Souls, The Redeemer's Tears Over Lost By John Howe +South, Robert, The Image of God in Man +Sovereignty, The of God By Timothy Dwight +Spalding, John Lancaster, Education and the Future of Religion +Spiritual Light By Jonathan Edwards +Spurgeon, Charles Haddon Songs in the Night +Stalker, James Temptation +Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, In Memoriam--Thomas Carlyle +Stilling of the Storm, The Miraculous By William Connor Magee +Storm, The Miraculous Stilling of the By William Connor Magee +Storrs, Richard S. The Permanent Motive in Missionary Work +Summerfield, John The Heavenly Inheritance + +Talmage, Thomas DeWitt A Bloody Monster +Taylor, Jeremy Christ's Advent to Judgment +Taylor, William Mackergo Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ +Temptation By James Stalker +Temptation, The First, of Christ By John Knox +Testimonies The Wonderful By Joseph A Seiss +Thirst Satisfied By William John Knox Little +Time, The Hour and the Event of all By Hugh Blair +Tillotson, John, The Reasonableness of a Resurrection +Transfigured Sackcloth, The By William L. Watkinson +Transient, The, and Permanent in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Triumph, The, of the Church. By Henry Edward Manning +Truth, Liberty Only in. By John Hall +Valley, The, of Dry Bones By Frederick Derrison Maurice +Van Dyke, Henry, The Meaning of Manhood +Vaughan, Charles John, God Calling to Man +Victory, Christian By Christopher Newman Hall +Vinet, Alexander, The Mysteries of Christianity +Virtuous, The Safety of the. By Philip Melanchthon +Voice, I am a. By Charles Wagner + +Wagner, Charles, I am a Voice +Watkinson, William L, The Transfigured Sackcloth +Watson, John, Optimism +Wayland, Francis, A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth +Weary, A Word to the. By Joseph Parker +Wesley, John, God's Love to Fallen Man. +Whitefield, George, The Method of Grace +Whyte, Alexander, Experience +Wilberforce, Ernest Roland, The Mother Church +Words, Parting By James Martineau +Work in the Groaning Creation. By Frederick William Farrar +World, The Greatest Thing in the. By Henry Drummond +Worm, The Prepared. By Howard Crosby + + + + +INDEX TO TEXTS + + + VOLUME + +Genesis i., 2 I + i., 27 II + i., 31 VII + i., 31 VII + iii., 9 VI + xxxvii., 33 VIII + +I Kings x., 13 VII + x., 36 IX + +II Kings vi., 1,2 IX + +Esther iv., 2 VIII + +Job xxxiii., 4 IX + xxxv., 10 VIII + +Psalms xvi., 16 X + xlii., 2 VIII + cxix., 45 VII + cxix., 129 VII + +Proverbs xi., 30 IV + +Isaiah xl., 1-31 X + l, 4 VII + lvii., 15 VII + +Jeremiah vi., 14 III + x., 23 III + +Ezekiel xxxvi., 26 V + xxxvii., 1-3 V + +Jonah iv., 7 VII + +Matthew iv., 1 I + vi., 10 IV + viii., 25, 26 VII + xii., 12 IX + xiii., 24 VI + xvi., 17 III + xvii., 5 IV + xix., 30 V + xx., 30 I + xxii., 5 II + xxii., 32 IV + xxii., 42 VIII + xxii., 42 IX + xxvi., 26 I + xxvii., 22 VII + xxviii., 19 IX + +Mark vii., 33 VII + xvi., 15 VI + +Luke iv. 27 III + ix., 10-17 IV + x., 18 VIII + xix., 41, 42 II + xxi., 33 V + xxiii., 27, 28 II + xxiv., 51 I + +John i., 23 X + iii. 1, 2 VI + iii., 8 VII + v., 39 IV + v., 42 III + vi., 38 IV + vi., 63 VIII + vi., 64 IX + viii., 28-30 X + x., 28 I + x., 34-36 VIII + xii., 24 IX + xiv. 27 V + xv., 12 I + xvi., 31, 32 VI + xvii., 1 III + xvii., 20, 21 V + xx., 8 IV + xx., 8 IX + xxi., 9, 12 X + +Acts iii., 15 VIII + xix., 23 IX + xxiv., 24, 25 III + xxvi., 8 II + xxvi., 8 IX + +Romans iv., 12 II + v., 1 IX + v., 4 VIII + v., 15 III + v., 15 III + vi., 4 III + viii., 9 VIII + viii., 22 VII + xii., 11 VI + xii., 12 X + +I Corinthians ii., 2 V + ii., 9 IV + ix., 24 II + xiii., X + xiv., 10 X + xv., 3 X + xv., 19 VI + xv., 20 V + xx., 13 IX + +II Corinthians ii., 14-16 V + v., 10 II + v., 13-15 VI + +Galatians iv., 1-7 I + vi., 14 X + +I Thessalonians iv., 13 I + v., 17 II + +Hebrews i., 18 III + xii., 26-29 VI + xiii., 13 I + +II Peter i., 11 IV + +I John, ii., 16 VIII + v., 15 IV + +Revelations ii., 17 VI + xiii., 8 VI + xxii., 3 VII + +Apostles' Creed VIII + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOLUME 10 +(OF 10)*** + + +******* This file should be named 11760-8.txt or 11760-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/6/11760 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11760-8.zip b/old/11760-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa71c24 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11760-8.zip diff --git a/old/11760.txt b/old/11760.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdfe642 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11760.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5747 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 (of 10), +by Various, et al, Edited by Grenville Kleiser + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 (of 10) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: March 30, 2004 [eBook #11760] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOLUME +10 (OF 10)*** + + +E-text prepared by the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading +Team + + + +THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS + +COMPILED BY + +GRENVILLE KLEISER + +Formerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of "How to Speak in +Public," Etc. + +With Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other +Theologians + +INTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D. + +Professor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University + +IN TEN VOLUMES + +VOLUME X DRUMMOND TO JOWETT + +General Index + +1908 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOLUME X. + + +DRUMMOND (1851--1897). +The Greatest Thing in the World + +WAGNER (Born in 1851). +I Am a Voice + +GORDON (Born in 1853). +Man in the Image of God + +DAWSON (Born in 1854). +Christ Among the Common Things of Life + +SMITH (Born in 1856). +Assurance in God + +GUNSAULUS (Born in 1856). +The Bible vs. Infidelity + +HILLIS (Born in 1858). +God the Unwearied Guide + +JEFFERSON (Born in 1860). +The Reconciliation + +MORGAN (Born in 1863). +The Perfect Ideal of Life + +CADMAN (Born in 1864). +A New Day for Missions + +JOWETT (Born in 1864). +Apostolic Optimism + + +Index to Preachers and Sermons + +Index to Texts + + + + +DRUMMOND + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Henry Drummond, author and evangelist, was born at Stirling, Scotland, +in 1851. His book, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," caused much +discussion and is still widely read. His "Ascent of Man" is regarded +by many as his greatest work. The address reprinted here has appeared +in hundreds of editions, and has been an inspiration to thousands +of peoples all over the world. There is an interesting biography +of Drummond by Professor George Adam Smith, his close friend and +colaborer. He died in 1897. + + + + +DRUMMOND + +1851--1897 + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of James Pott & Co.] + +_Tho I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, +&c._--I Cor. xiii. + + +Everyone has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the +modern world: What is the _summum bonum_--the supreme good? You have +life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object +of desire, the supreme gift to covet? + +We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the +religious world is faith. That great word has been the key-note for +centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look +upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we +have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the +chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and +there we have seen, "The greatest of these is love." It is not an +oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, +"If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not +love, I am nothing." So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts +them, "Now abideth faith, hope, love," and without a moment's +hesitation the decision falls, "The greatest of these is love." + +And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own +strong point. Love was not Paul's strong point. The observing student +can detect a beautiful tenderness growing and ripening all through his +character as Paul gets old; but the hand that wrote, "The greatest of +these is love," when we meet it first, is stained with blood. + +Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as +the _summum bonum_. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about +it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." +Above all things. And John goes further, "God is love." And you +remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, "Love is the +fulfilling of the law." Did you ever think what he meant by that? In +those days men were working their passage to heaven by keeping the ten +commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they +had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more +simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten +things, without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will +unconsciously fulfil the whole law. And you can readily see for +yourselves how that must be so. Take any of the commandments. "Thou +shalt have no other gods before me." If a man love God, you will not +require to tell him that. Love is the fulfilling of that law. "Take +not his name in vain." Would he ever dream of taking His name in vain +if he loved Him? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Would he +not be too glad to have one day in seven to dedicate more exclusively +to the object of his affection? Love would fulfil all these laws +regarding God. And so, if he loved man, you would never think of +telling him to honor his father and mother. He could not do anything +else. It would be preposterous to tell him not to kill. You could only +insult him if you suggested that he should not steal--how could he +steal from those he loved? It would be superfluous to beg him not to +bear false witness against his neighbor. If he loved him it would be +the last thing he would do. And you would never dream of urging him +not to covet what his neighbors had. He would rather that they possest +it than himself. In this way "Love is the fulfilling of the law." It +is the rule for fulfilling all rules, the new commandment for keeping +all the old commandments, Christ's one secret of the Christian life. + +Now, Paul had learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us +the most wonderful and original account extant of the _summum bonum_. +We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short +chapter, we have love contrasted; in the heart of it, we have love +analyzed; toward the end, we have love defended as the supreme gift. + +Paul begins contrasting love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over those things in +detail. Their inferiority is already obvious. + +He contrasts it with eloquence. And what a noble gift it is, the power +of playing upon the souls and wills of men, and rousing them to lofty +purposes and holy deeds. Paul says, "If I speak with the tongues of +men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." And we all know why. We have all felt the +brazenness of words without emotion, the hollowness, the unaccountable +unpersuasiveness, of eloquence behind which lies no love. + +He contrasts it with prophecy. He contrasts it with mysteries. He +contrasts it with faith. He contrasts it with charity. Why is love +greater than faith? Because the end is greater than the means. And +why is it greater than charity? Because the whole is greater than the +part. Love is greater than faith, because the end is greater than the +means. What is the use of having faith? It is to connect the soul with +God. And what is the object of connecting man with God? That he may +become like God. But God is love. Hence faith, the means, is in order +to love, the end. Love, therefore, obviously is greater than faith. It +is greater than charity, again, because the whole is greater than a +part. Charity is only a little bit of love, one of the innumerable +avenues of love, and there may even be, and there is, a great deal of +charity without love. It is a very easy thing to toss a copper to a +beggar on the street; it is generally an easier thing than not to do +it. Yet love is just as often in the withholding. We purchase relief +from the sympathetic feelings roused by the spectacle of misery, at +the copper's cost. It is too cheap--too cheap for us, and often too +dear for the beggar. If we really loved him we would either do more +for him, or less. + +Then Paul contrasts it with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I beg the +little band of would-be missionaries--and I have the honor to call +some of you by this name for the first time--to remember that tho +you give your bodies to be burned, and have not love, it profits +nothing--nothing! You can take nothing greater to the heathen world +than the impress and reflection of the love of God upon your own +character. That is the universal language. It will take you years to +speak in Chinese; or in the dialects of India. From the day you land, +that language of love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its +unconscious eloquence. It is the man who is the missionary, it is not +his words. His character is his message. In the heart of Africa, among +the great lakes, I have come across black men and women who remembered +the only white man they ever saw before--David Livingstone; and as you +cross his footsteps in that dark continent, men's faces light up as +they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could +not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. +Take into your new sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down +your life, that simple charm, and your life-work must succeed. You +can take nothing greater, you need take nothing less. It is not +worth while going if you take anything less. You may take every +accomplishment; you may be braced for every sacrifice; but if you give +your body to be burned, and have not love, it will profit you and the +cause of Christ nothing. + +After contrasting love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very +short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is. I +ask you to look at it. It is a compound thing, he tells us. It is like +light. As you have seen a man of science take a beam of light and pass +it through a crystal prism, as you have seen it come out on the other +side of the prism broken up into its component colors--red, and +blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, and all the colors of the +rainbow--so Paul passes this thing, love, through the magnificent +prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes out on the other side +broken up into its elements. And in these few words we have what +one might call the spectrum of love, the analysis of love. Will you +observe what its elements are? Will you notice that they have common +names; that they are virtues which we hear about every day, that they +are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; +and how, by a multitude of small things and ordinary virtues, the +supreme thing, the _summum bonum_, is made up? + +The spectrum of love has nine ingredients: + + Patience--"Love suffereth long." + Kindness--"And is kind." + Generosity--"Love envieth not." + Humility--"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." + Courtesy--"Doth not behave itself unseemly." + Unselfishness--"Seeketh not her own." + Good temper--"Is not easily provoked." + Guilelessness--"Thinketh no evil." + Sincerity--"Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." + +Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, +good temper, guilelessness, sincerity--these make up the supreme gift, +the stature of the perfect man. You will observe that all are in +relation to men, in relation to life, in relation to the known to-day +and the near to-morrow, and not to the unknown eternity. We hear much +of love to God; Christ spoke much of love to man. We make a great deal +of peace with heaven; Christ made much of peace on earth. Religion is +not a strange or added thing, but the inspiration of the secular life, +the breathing of an eternal spirit through this temporal world. The +supreme thing, in short, is not a thing at all, but the giving of a +further finish to the multitudinous words and acts which make up the +sum of every common day. + +There is no time to do more than to make a passing note upon each of +these ingredients. Love is patience. This is the normal attitude of +love; love passive, love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; +ready to do its work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the +ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all +things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For love understands, +and therefore waits. + +Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life +was spent in doing kind things--in merely doing kind things? Run +over it with that in view, and you will find that He spent a great +proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good +turns to people. There is only one thing greater than happiness in the +world, and that is holiness; and it is not in our keeping; but what +God has put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and that +is largely to be secured by our being kind to them. + +"The greatest thing," says some one, "a man can do for his Heavenly +Father is to be kind to some of his other children." I wonder why it +is that we are not all kinder than we are? How much the world needs +it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly +it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back--for there +is no debtor in the world so honorable, so superbly honorable, as +love. "Love never faileth." Love is success, love is happiness, love +is life. "Love," I say, with Browning, "is energy of life." + + For life, with all it yields of joy or wo + And hope and fear, + Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love-- + How love might be, hath been indeed, and is. + +Where love is, God is. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. God +is love. Therefore love. Without distinction, without calculation, +without procrastination, love. Lavish it upon the poor, where it is +very easy; especially upon the rich, who often need it most; most of +all upon our equals, where it is very difficult, and for whom perhaps +we each do least of all. There is a difference between trying to +please and giving pleasure. Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving +pleasure. For that is the ceaseless and anonymous triumph of a truly +loving spirit. "I shall pass through this world but once. Any good +thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any +human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for +I shall not pass this way again." + +Generosity. "Love envieth not." This is love in competition with +others. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing +the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not. +Envy is a feeling of ill-will to those who are in the same line +as ourselves, a spirit of covetousness and detraction. How little +Christian work even is a protection against unchristian feeling! That +most despicable of all the unworthy moods which cloud a Christian's +soul assuredly waits for us on the threshold of every work, unless we +are fortified with this grace of magnanimity. Only one thing truly +needs the Christian envy, the large, rich, generous soul which +"envieth not." + +And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this +further thing, humility--to put a seal upon your lips and forget what +you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth +into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade +again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love +waives even self-satisfaction. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not +puffed up." + +The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this _summum +bonum_: Courtesy. This is love in society, love in relation to +etiquette. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." Politeness has been +defined as love in trifles. Courtesy is said to be love in little +things. And the one secret of politeness is to love. Love can not +behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored persons into +the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of love in their +hearts, they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply can not +do it. Carlyle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the plowman-poet. It was because he loved +everything--the mouse, the daisy, and all the things, great and small, +that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with +any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on +the banks of the Ayr. You know the meaning of the word "gentleman." It +means a gentle man--a man who does things gently with love. And that +is the whole art and mystery of it. The gentle man can not in the +nature of things do an ungentle and ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle +soul, the inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature can not do anything +else. "Love doth not behave itself unseemly." + +Unselfishness. "Love seeketh not her own." Observe: Seeketh not even +that which is her own. In Britain the Englishman is devoted, and +rightly, to his rights. But there come times when a man may exercise +even the higher right of giving up his rights. Yet Paul does not +summon us to give up our rights. Love strikes much deeper. It would +have us not seek them at all, ignore them, eliminate the personal +element altogether from our calculations. It is not hard to give up +our rights. They are often external. The difficult thing is to give up +ourselves. The more difficult thing still is not to seek things for +ourselves at all. After we have sought them, bought them, won them, +deserved them, we have taken the cream off them for ourselves already. +Little cross then perhaps to give them up. But not to seek them, to +look every man not on his own things, but on the things of others--_id +opus est_. "Seekest thou great things for thyself?" said the prophet; +"seek them not." Why? Because there is no greatness in things. +Things can not be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even +self-denial in itself is nothing, is almost a mistake. Only a +great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste. It is more +difficult, I have said, not to seek our own at all, than, having +sought it, to give it up. I must take that back. It is only true of a +partly selfish heart. Nothing is a hardship to love, and nothing is +hard. I believe that Christ's yoke is easy. Christ's "yoke" is just +His way of taking life. And I believe it is an easier way than any +other. I believe it is a happier way than any other. The most obvious +lesson in Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having +and getting anything, but only in giving. I repeat, there is no +happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. And half the +world is on the wrong scent in the pursuit of happiness. They think +it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving and serving others. He that would be great among +you, said Christ, let him serve. He that would be happy, let him +remember that there is but one way--it is more blest, it is more +happy, to give than to receive. + +The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: good temper. "Love is +not easily provoked." Nothing could be more striking than to find +this here. We are inclined to look upon bad temper as a very harmless +weakness. We speak of it as a mere infirmity of nature, a family +failing, a matter of temperament, not a thing to take into very +serious account in estimating a man's character. And yet here, right +in the heart of this analysis of love, it finds a place; and the Bible +again and again returns to condemn it as one of the most destructive +elements in human nature. + +The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. +It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men +who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but +for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" disposition. This +compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the +strangest and saddest problems of ethics. The truth is, there are two +great classes of sins--sins of the body, and sins of the disposition. +The Prodigal Son may be taken as a type of the first, the Elder +Brother of the second. Now society has no doubt whatever as to which +of these is the worse. Its brands fall without a challenge, upon the +Prodigal. But are we right? We have no balance to weigh one another's +sins, and coarser and finer are but human words; but faults in the +higher nature may be less venial than those in the lower, and to the +eye of Him who is love, a sin against love may seem a hundred times +more base. No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to unchristianize society than evil +temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for +destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for +withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off childhood, in +short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence +stands alone. Look at the Elder Brother, moral, hard-working, patient, +dutiful--let him get all credit for his virtues--look at this man, +this baby, sulking outside his own father's door. "He was angry," we +read, "and would not go in." Look at the effect upon the father, upon +the servants, upon the happiness of the guests. Judge of the effect +upon the Prodigal--and how many prodigals are kept out of the kingdom +of God by the unlovely character of those who profess to be inside? +Analyze, as a study in temper, the thunder-cloud itself as it gathers +upon the Elder Brother's brow. What is it made of? Jealousy, anger, +pride, uncharity, cruelty, self-righteousness, touchiness, doggedness, +sullenness--these are the ingredients of this dark and loveless soul. +In varying proportions, also, these are the ingredients of all ill +temper. Judge if such sins of the disposition are not worse to live +in, and for others to live with, than sins of the body. Did Christ +indeed not answer the question Himself when He said, "I say unto you, +that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven +before you." There is really no place in heaven for a disposition like +this. A man with such a mood could only make heaven miserable for all +the people in it. Except, therefore, such a man be born again, he +can not, he simply can not, enter the kingdom of heaven. For it is +perfectly certain--and you will not misunderstand me--that to enter +heaven a man must take it with him. + +You will see then why temper is significant It is not in what it is +alone, but in what it reveals. This is why I take the liberty now of +speaking of it with such unusual plainness. It is a test for love, +a symptom, a revelation of an unloving nature at bottom. It is the +intermittent fever which bespeaks unintermittent disease within; +the occasional bubble escaping to the surface which betrays some +rottenness underneath; a sample of the most hidden products of +the soul dropt involuntarily when off one's guard; in a word, the +lightning form of a hundred hideous and unchristian sins. For a want +of patience, a want of kindness, a want of generosity, a want of +courtesy, a want of unselfishness, are all instantaneously symbolized +in one flash of temper. + +Hence it is not enough to deal with the temper. We must go to the +source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humors will die +away of themselves. Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids +out, but by putting something in--a great love, a new spirit, the +spirit of Christ. Christ, the spirit of Christ, interpenetrating ours, +sweetens, purifies, transforms all. This only can eradicate what +is wrong, work a chemical change, renovate and regenerate, and +rehabilitate the inner man. Will-power does not change men. Time does +not change men. Christ does. Therefore, "Let that mind be in you which +was also in Christ Jesus." Some of us have not much time to lose. +Remember, once more, that this is a matter of life or death. I can +not help speaking urgently, for myself, for yourselves. "Whoso shall +offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better +for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were +drowned in the depth of the sea." That is to say, it is the deliberate +verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to live than not to +love. _It is better not to live than not to love._ + +Guilelessness and sincerity may be dismissed almost without a word. +Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. And the possession +of it is the great secret of personal influence. You will find, if you +think for a moment, that the people who influence you are people who +believe in you. In an atmosphere of suspicion men shrivel up; but +in that other atmosphere they expand, and find encouragement and +educative fellowship. It is a wonderful thing that here and there in +this hard, uncharitable world there should still be left a few rare +souls who think no evil. This is the great unworldliness. Love +"thinketh no evil," imputes no bad motive, sees the bright side, puts +the best construction on every action. What a delightful state of mind +to live in! What stimulus and benediction even to meet with it for +a day! To be trusted is to be saved. And if we try to influence or +elevate others, we shall soon see that success is in proportion to +their belief of our belief in them. For the respect of another is the +first restoration of the self-respect a man has lost; our ideal of +what he is becomes to him the hope and pattern of what he may become. + +"Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." I have +called this sincerity from the words rendered in the Authorized +Version by "rejoiceth in the truth." And, certainly, were this the +real translation, nothing could be more just. For he who loves will +love truth not less than men. He will rejoice in the truth--rejoice +not in what he has been taught to believe; not in this Church's +doctrine or in that; not in this ism or in that ism; but "in the +truth." He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at +facts; he will search for truth with an humble and unbiased mind, +and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice. But the more literal +translation of the Revised Version calls for just such a sacrifice for +truth's sake here. For what Paul really meant is, as we there read, +"Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth," +a quality which probably no one English word--and certainly not +sincerity--adequately defines. It includes, perhaps more strictly, the +self-restraint which refuses to make capital out of others' faults; +the charity which delights not in exposing the weakness of others, but +"covereth all things"; the sincerity of purpose which endeavors to see +things as they are, and rejoices to find them better than suspicion +feared or calumny denounced. + +So much for the analysis of love. Now the business of our lives is to +have these things in our characters. That is the supreme work to which +we need to address ourselves in this world to learn love. Is life not +full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every +day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a +schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one +eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love. What makes a man +a good cricketer? Practise. What makes a man a good artist, a good +sculptor, a good musician? Practise. What makes a man a good linguist, +a good stenographer? Practise. What makes a man a good man. Practise. +Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about religion. We do not +get the soul in different ways, under different laws, from those in +which we get the body and the mind. If a man does not exercise his arm +he develops no biceps muscle; and if he does not exercise his soul, he +acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength of character, no vigor of +moral fiber nor beauty of spiritual growth. Love is not a thing of +enthusiastic emotion. It is a rich, strong, manly, vigorous expression +of the whole round Christian character--the Christlike nature in its +fullest development. And the constituents of this great character are +only to be built up by ceaseless practise. + +What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Tho +perfect, we read that He learned obedience, and grew in wisdom and in +favor with God. Do not quarrel, therefore, with your lot in life. Do +not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the +vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to +live and work with. Above all, do not resent temptation; do not be +perplexed because it seems to thicken round you more and more, and +ceases neither for effort nor for agony nor prayer. That is your +practise. That is the practise which God appoints you; and it is +having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and +unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is +molding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, tho you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add +to its perfection. Therefore keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate +yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and +difficulties, and obstacles. You remember Goethe's words: _Es bildet +ein Talent sich in der Stille, Doch ein Character in dem Strom der +Welt_. "Talent develops itself in solitude; character in the stream of +life." Talent develops itself in solitude--the talent of prayer, of +faith, of meditation, of seeing the unseen; character grows in the +stream of the world's life. That chiefly is where men are to learn +love. + +How? Now how? To make it easier, I have named a few of the elements of +love. But these are only elements. Love itself can never be defined. +Light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients--a glowing, +dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is something more than all its +elements--a palpitating, quivering, sensitive, living thing. By +synthesis of all the colors, men can make whiteness, they can not make +light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they can +not make love. How then are we to have this transcendent living whole +conveyed into our souls? We brace our wills to secure it. We try to +copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. +But these things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love is +an effect. And only as we fulfil the right condition can we have the +effect produced. Shall I tell you what the cause is? + +If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you +will find these words: "We love because he first loved us." "We love," +not "We love him." That is the way the old version has it, and it is +quite wrong. "We love--because he first loved us." Look at that word +"because." It is the cause of which I have spoken. "Because he first +loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love +all men. We can not help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love +everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of +Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ's +character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness +to tenderness. There is no other way. You can not love to order. You +can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and +grow into likeness to it. And so look at this perfect character, this +perfect life. Look at the great sacrifice as He laid down Himself, all +through life, and upon the cross of Calvary; and you must love Him. +And loving Him, you must become like Him. Love begets love. It is +a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of +an electrified body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes +electrified. It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere +presence of a permanent magnet, and as long as you leave the two side +by side they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Him who +loved us, and gave Himself for us, and you too will become a permanent +magnet, a permanently attractive force; and like Him you will draw all +men unto you; like Him you will be drawn unto all men. That is the +inevitable effect of love. Any man who fulfils that cause must have +that effect produced in him. Try to give up the idea that religion +comes to us by chance, or by mystery, or by caprice. It comes to us by +natural law, or by spiritual law, for all law is divine. Edward Irving +went to see a dying boy once, and when he entered the room he just put +his hand on the sufferer's head, and said, "My boy, God loves you," +and went away. And the boy started from his bed, and called out to the +people in the house, "God loves me! God loves me!" It changed that +boy. The sense that God loved him overpowered him, melted him down, +and began the creating of a new heart in him. And that is how the love +of God melts down the unlovely heart in man, and begets in him the +new creature, who is patient and humble and gentle and unselfish. And +there is no other way to get it. There is no mystery about it. We love +others, we love everybody, we love our enemies, because He first loved +us. + +Now I have a closing sentence or two to add about Paul's reason for +singling out love as the supreme possession. It is a very remarkable +reason. In a single word it is this: it lasts. "Love," urges Paul, +"never faileth." Then he begins one of his marvelous lists of the +great things of the day, and exposes them one by one. He runs over the +things that men thought were going to last, and shows that they are +all fleeting, temporary, passing away. + +"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail." It was the mother's +ambition for her boy in those days that he should become a prophet. +For hundreds of years God had never spoken by means of any prophet, +and at that time the prophet was greater than the king. Men waited +wistfully for another messenger to come, and hung upon his lips when +he appeared as upon the very voice of God. Paul says, "Whether there +be prophecies, they shall fail." This book is full of prophecies. One +by one they have "failed"; that is, having been fulfilled their work +is finished; they have nothing more to do now in the world except to +feed a devout man's faith. + +Then Paul talks about tongues. That was another thing that was greatly +coveted. "Whether there be tongues, they shall cease." As we all know, +many, many centuries have passed since tongues have been known in this +world. They have ceased. Take it in any sense you like. Take it, for +illustration merely, as languages in general--a sense which was not +in Paul's mind at all, and which tho it can not give us the specific +lesson will point the general truth. Consider the words in which these +chapters were written--Greek. It has gone. Take the Latin--the other +great tongue of those days. It ceased long ago. Look at the Indian +language. It is ceasing. The language of Wales, of Ireland, of the +Scottish Highlands is dying before our eyes. The most popular book in +the English tongue at the present time, except the Bible, is one of +Dickens' works, his "Pickwick Papers." It is largely written in the +language of London street-life, and experts assure us that in fifty +years it will be unintelligible to the average English reader. + +Then Paul goes further, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." The wisdom of the ancients, +where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy today knows more than +Sir Isaac Newton knew. His knowledge has vanished away. You put +yesterday's newspaper in the fire. Its knowledge has vanished away. +You buy the old editions of the great encyclopedias for a few cents. +Their knowledge has vanished away. Look how the coach has been +superseded by the use of steam. Look how electricity has superseded +that, and swept a hundred almost new inventions into oblivion. One of +the greatest living authorities, Sir William Thompson, said the other +day, "The steam-engine is passing away." "Whether there be knowledge, +it shall vanish away." At every workshop you will see, in the back +yard, a heap of old iron, a few wheels, a few levers, a few cranks, +broken and eaten with rust. Twenty years ago that was the pride of the +city. Men flocked in from the country to see the great invention; now +it is superseded, its day is done. And all the boasted science and +philosophy of this day will soon be old. But yesterday, in the +University of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the faculty was +Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. The other day his +successor and nephew, Professor Simpson, was asked by the librarian +of the university to go to the library and pick out the books on his +subject that were no longer needed. And his reply to the librarian was +this: "Take every textbook that is more than ten years old, and put it +down in the cellar." Sir James Simpson was a great authority only a +few years ago; men came from all parts of the earth to consult him; +and almost the whole teaching of that time is consigned by the science +of today to oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. +"Now we know in part. We see through a glass darkly." + +Can you tell me anything that is going to last? Many things Paul did +not condescend to name. He did not mention money, fortune, fame; but +he picked out the great things of his time, the things the best men +thought had something in them, and brushed them peremptorily aside. +Paul had no charge against these things in themselves. All he said +about them was that they would not last. They were great things, +but not supreme things. There were things beyond them. What we are +stretches past what we do, beyond what we possess. Many things that +men denounce as sins are not sins; but they are temporary. And that is +a favorite argument of the New Testament. John says of the world, not +that it is wrong, but simply that it "passeth away." There is a great +deal in the world that is delightful and beautiful; there is a great +deal in it that is great and engrossing; but it will not last. All +that is in the world, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and +the pride of life, are but for a little while. Love not the world +therefore. Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration +of an immortal soul. The immortal soul must give itself to something +that is immortal. And the immortal things are: "Now abideth faith, +hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." + +Some think the time may come when two of these three things will also +pass away--faith into sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. +We know but little now about the conditions of the life that is to +come. But what is certain is that love must last. God, the eternal +God, is love. Covet therefore that everlasting gift, that one thing +which it is certain is going to stand, that one coinage which will be +current in the universe when all the other coinages of all the nations +of the world shall be useless and unhonored. You will give yourselves +to many things, give yourselves first to love. Hold things in their +proportion. _Hold things in their proportion._ Let at least the first +great object of our lives be to achieve the character defended in +these words, the character--and it is the character of Christ--which +is built round love. + +I have said this thing is eternal. Did you ever notice how continually +John associates love and faith with eternal life? I was not told +when I was a boy that "God so loved the world that he gave his only +begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting +life." What I was told, I remember, was, that God so loved the world +that, if I trusted in Him, I was to have a thing called peace, or I +was to have rest, or I was to have joy, or I was to have safety. But +I had to find out for myself that whosoever trusteth in Him--that +is, whosoever loveth Him, for trust is only the avenue to love--hath +everlasting life. The gospel offers a man life. Never offer men a +thimbleful of gospel. Do not offer them merely joy, or merely peace, +or merely rest, or merely safety; tell them how Christ came to give +men a more abundant life than they have, a life abundant in love, +and therefore abundant in salvation for themselves, and large in +enterprise for the alleviation and redemption of the world. Then +only can the gospel take hold of the whole of a man, body, soul, and +spirit, and give to each part of his nature its exercise and reward. +Many of the current gospels are addrest only to a part of man's +nature. They offer peace, not life; faith, not love; justification, +not regeneration. And men slip back again from such religion because +it has never really held them. Their nature was not all in it. It +offered no deeper and gladder life-current than the life that was +lived before. Surely it stands to reason that only a fuller love can +compete with the love of the world. + +To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to +live forever. Hence, eternal life is inextricably bound up with love. +We want to live forever for the same reason that we want to live +tomorrow. Why do we want to live tomorrow? It is because there is some +one who loves you, and whom you want to see tomorrow, and be with, and +love back. There is no other reason why we should live on than that we +love and are beloved. It is when a man has no one to love him that he +commits suicide. So long as he has friends, those who love him and +whom he loves, he will live; because to live is to love. Be it but the +love of a dog, it will keep him in life; but let that go and he has no +contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand. Eternal +life is to know God, and God is love. This is Christ's own definition. +Ponder it. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only +true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Love must be eternal. +It is what God is. On the last analysis, then, love is life. Love +never faileth, and life never faileth, so long as there is love. That +is the philosophy of what Paul is showing us; the reason why in the +nature of things love should be the supreme thing--because it is going +to last; because in the nature of things it is an eternal life. It is +a thing that we are living now, not that we get when we die; that we +shall have a poor chance of getting when we die unless we are living +now. No worse fate can befall a man in this world than to live and +grow old all alone, unloving and unloved. To be lost is to live in an +unregenerate condition, loveless and unloved; and to be saved is to +love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth already in God; for God is +love. + +Now I have all but finished. How many of you will join me in reading +this chapter once a week for the next three months? A man did that +once and it changed his whole life. You might begin by reading it +every day, especially the verses which describe the perfect character. +"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not +itself." Get these ingredients into your life. Then everything that +you do is eternal. It is worth doing. It is worth giving time to. +No man can become a saint in his sleep; and to fulfil the condition +required demands a certain amount of prayer and meditation and time, +just as improvement in any direction, bodily or mental, requires +preparation and care. Address yourselves to that one thing; at any +cost have this transcendent character exchanged for yours. You will +find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, +the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have +done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and +beyond all the transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those +supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to +those around about you, things too trifling to speak about, but which +you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost +all the beautiful things God has made; I have enjoyed almost every +pleasure that He has planned for man; and yet as I look back I see +standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short +experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor +imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seem to be the +things which alone of all one's life abide. Everything else in all our +lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of +love which no man knows about, or can ever know about, they never +fail. + +In the Book of Matthew, where the judgment day is depicted for us in +the imagery of One seated upon a throne and dividing the sheep from +the goats, the test of a man then is not, "How have I believed?" but +"How have I loved?" The test of religion, the final test of religion, +is not religiousness, but love. I say the final test of religion at +that great day is not religiousness, but love; not what I have done, +not what I have believed; not what I have achieved, but how I have +discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that +awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, +by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the +withholding of love is the negation of the spirit of Christ, the proof +that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain. It means that He +suggested nothing in all our thoughts, that He inspired nothing in all +our lives, that we were not once near enough to Him to be seized with +the spell of His compassion for the world. It means that + + I lived for myself, I thought for myself, + For myself, and none beside-- + Just as if Jesus had never lived, + As if He had never died. + +It is the Son of Man before whom the nations of the world shall be +gathered. It is in the presence of humanity that we shall be charged. +And the spectacle itself, the mere sight of it, will silently judge +each one. Those will be there whom we have met and helped; or there, +the unpitied multitude whom we neglected or despised. No other +witness need be summoned. No other charge than lovelessness shall be +preferred. Be not deceived. The words which all of us shall one day +hear sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints but +of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines but of shelter +and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books but of cups of cold water +in the name of Christ. Thank God the Christianity of today is coming +nearer the world's need. Live to help that on. Thank God men know +better, by a hairbreadth, what religion is, what God is, who Christ +is, where Christ is. Who is Christ? He who fed the hungry, clothed +the naked, visited the sick. And where is Christ? Where?--Whoso shall +receive a little child in My name receiveth Me. And who are Christ's? +Every one that loveth is born of God. + + + + +WAGNER + +I AM A VOICE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Wagner, French Protestant pastor and moral essayist, was born +in 1851 in Alsace. He is at present rector of the Reformed Church +in Fontenay-Lous-Bois, in the Department of Seine. He received a +comprehensive education at the universities of Paris, Strasburg and +Goettingen, and after undertaking many cures in the provinces he went +to Paris in 1882, where he occupied himself in a crusade against the +degrading tendency of life, art and literature in certain of their +Parisian phases. He has been a founder of several popular universities +under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of Morality. He +has published many books, and "La Vie Simple" ("The Simple Life") +was crowned by the French Academy and has been translated into many +European languages, as well as into Japanese. Wagner has been styled +the French Tolstoy, but he is less visionary and much more popular and +practical in his views than the Russian mystic. The author of "The +Simple Life" was greeted with many expressions of warm appreciation on +his visit to the United States a few years ago. He was a guest at the +Presidential mansion by invitation of President Roosevelt, who has +highly commended "The Simple Life." + + + + +WAGNER + +Born in 1851 + +I AM A VOICE[1] + +[Footnote 1: From "The Gospel of Life," by Charles Wagner, by +permission of the McClure Company, publishers. Copyright, 1905, by +McClure, Phillips & Co.] + +_I am the voice[2] of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the +way of the Lord_.--John i., 23. + +[Footnote 2: In the French version of the Scriptures it is "_a_ +voice," and it is necessary to retain this reading in order to render +precisely Pastor Wagner's thought.--_Translator_.] + + +Nothing is rarer than a personality. So many causes, both interior +and exterior, hinder the normal development of human beings, so many +hostile forces crush them, so many illusions lead them astray, that +there is required a concurrence of extraordinary circumstances to +render possible the existence of an independent character. But +when, God alone knows at the cost of what efforts and of what happy +accidents, a vigorous and original personality has been able to +unfold, nothing is rarer than not to see it degenerate into a mere +personage. History teaches us that men exceptional in will and energy +almost always become obstructive and mischievous. They commence by +serving a cause and end by taking possession of it so completely that, +from being its servants, they become its masters. Instead of being men +of a cause, they make the cause that of a man, and they degrade the +most sacred realities to the paltry level of their ambitious egoism. + +Thus, when we meet with strong natures, endowed with the secret of +leadership and command, yet able to resist the subtle temptation to +which so many of the finer spirits have succumbed, it behooves us to +bow and to salute in them a greatness before which all that it is +customary to call by that name fades into nothingness. + +If ever soul encompassed this greatness, it was that of John the +Baptist. John is little known. Of him there remain only a few traits +of physiognomy and a few snatches of discourse. But these snatches are +full of character, these traits possess a sculptural relief; just as +with broken trunks of columns, with fragments of stones, all that is +left of temples that were once the marvels of ancient art, they enable +us to conceive of the grandeur of the whole edifice to which they +once belonged. John was at once strong and humble, energetic and +self-detached. Never has an individuality so well-tempered been less +personal. Identifying himself completely with his role as precursor, +he found perfect happiness in effacing himself in the glory of Christ, +just as the dawn disappears in the splendors of the morning. + +History is full of precursors who impede and withstand those whom they +had first announced. When the time comes to retire and to give way +to those for whom they have prepared the way, they do not have the +courage to sacrifice themselves. They go on forever, and often become +the worst enemies of the cause they have defended. John knew nothing +of these failings which are the perpetual scandal in the development +of the kingdom of God. Not only did he say, speaking of Jesus: "He +must increase, but I must decrease," but he made all his acts conform +to these words. + +"This my joy is therefore fulfilled," he said, as he dwelt upon the +first advances of the gospel, and he exprest thus a sweetness of +sacrifice forever unknown to personal souls that remain vulgar in +spite of their genius. + +Finally, John described himself metaphorically in that inimitable +prophetic speech which explains in full the idea that he formed for +himself of his ministry. Under the sway of a morbid curiosity, the +crowd, more perplexed by the appearance of the worker than attentive +to the work, prest him with questions. Who then art thou, mysterious +preacher? Art thou one of the old prophets of Israel, escaped from his +rocky tomb? Or art thou perchance He whom we await? No, answered John, +I am neither one of the prophets nor the Messiah himself, I am no one: +I am a voice! + +I am a voice! This is not a formula that sums up the vocation of the +prophets solely, or of all those who, in the pulpit or in the tribune, +by the pen or by the public discourse, exert an influence upon their +contemporaries. These words are addrest to every one. They define for +every man, the humble yet great duty of truth that he is called to +fulfil in his sphere and according to the measure of his ability. At +the epoch in which we live, such a device is so applicable to the time +being, so pressing, so needful for us to hear, that it is wise to +engrave it in the very foreground of our consciousness. + +To become a voice we must begin by keeping still. We must listen. +The whole world is a tongue of which the spirit is the meaning. God +engraved its fiery capitals in the immensity of the heavens, and +traced its delicate smaller letters on the flower, on the grass, on +the human soul, as rich, as incommensurable as the abysses of space. +Whosoever you are, brother, before letting yourself utter one word, +lend your ear to that voice that seeks you, I might almost add, that +implores you. Listen!--Listen to the confused murmur that arises from +the human depths, and that, comprising in it all tears, all torments, +as well as all joys, becomes the sigh of creation. + +Listen in your heart to remorse, the sad and poignant echo that sin, +traversing life, leaves everywhere upon its passage. Shut your ear +to no sound, however unobtrusive, however sad, it may be. There are +voices that issue from the tombs, others that call to you from out the +abyss of past ages; repel them not, listen! One and all, they have +something to say to you. + +But do not be content with listening to man. Pierce nature, and, +in visible creation as in the invisible sanctuary of souls, watch +attentively for the revelation of Him whose eternal thought every +living thing, humble or sublime, translates after its own fashion. He +speaks to you in the dark nights and in the bright light of dawn, in +the infinite radiance of the worlds beyond all reckoning, and in the +humble stalk that awaits, in the valley bottom, its ray of light and +its drop of dew. Listen!--If there is anguish in the voice of poor +humanity, there are in great nature profound words of soothing, of +hope. Look at the flower in the fields, listen to the birds in the +skies! After the distrest voices that perturb you, you shall know the +voices that relieve and console. There shall befall you that which +befell the nun whose memory is preserved for us in the old legends. +Listening to the forest voices she had gone, following them always, as +far as the thick solitudes where nothing any longer comes to trouble +the collected soul. There, in the shade of a tree where she had seated +herself, she heard a song till then unknown to her ears. It was the +song of the mystic bird. This song said, in marvelous modulations, all +that man thinks and feels, all that he suffers, all that he seeks, all +that falls short of fulfilment for him. It summed up in harmonies the +destinies of living beings and the immense pity that is at the root +of things. Softly, on light, strong wings, it lifted the soul to the +heights where it looks upon reality. And the nun, her hands clasped, +listened, listened without end, forgetting earth, sky, time, +forgetting herself. She listened for centuries without ever growing +tired, finding in the song that charmed her a sweetness forever new. +Dear and truthful image of what the soul experiences when, mute, +as respectful as a child and as ready of belief, it listens in the +universal silence to the voices that translate for it the things that +are eternal! + +All those who have become voices have traveled this way. At Patmos or +in the desert, on Horeb or on Sinai, they have trembled with fright or +started with joy. But everything has its time. There comes a day when +all voices, soft or terrible, that man has heard, grow still, to let +henceforth only one be heard, which cries to him: "Go! go now and be +a witness of the things you have heard! Go! I send you forth as lambs +among wolves! Go! I send you toward men whose brow is harsh, whose +heart is wicked, but fear nothing, I shall embolden your face, I shall +give you a heart of brass and a forehead of diamond." + +When that moment has come, one must, in order to remain faithful to +his mission, remember that after all he is only a voice. Truth +does not belong to us, it is we who belong to truth! Wo to him who +possesses it and treats it as something that belongs to himself. Happy +is he who is possest by it! No preference, no kinship, no sympathy +counts here. Alas! it is not thus that men understand it. It is for +this reason that they degrade truth and that it becomes without power +in their hands. Instead of winging its way heavenward in vigorous +flight, it crawls along the earth, like an eagle whose wings have been +broken. Nothing is sadder than to see how those who ought to lend +their voice to truth, turn it to their own uses and play with it. The +voice, human speech, that sacred organ, whose whole worth lies in +sincerity, has in all ages been the victim of odious profanations. But +in this age it is more than ever attainted. The evil from which it +suffers is defilement. + +At certain epochs a word was as good as a man. It was an act total, +supreme, guaranteed by the whole of life. There was no need to sign, +to stamp, to legalize. Speech was held between friends and enemies +alike, more sacred than any sanctuary, and man maintained it, with the +obscure but just sentiment that it is at the base of society, and that +if words lose their value, there is no longer any society possible. +Later the written word was considered sacred. And coming nearer to +our own day, we have been able to see the masses, guided ever by +that quite legitimate sentiment of the holiness of speech, regard +everything printed as gospel truth. Those times are no more. We have +lied too much, by the living word, the pen, and the press. We have +said and printed too much that is light, false, wittingly disfigured. +Armed with an instrumentality that multiplies thought and spreads it +broadcast to the four corners of the earth with a rapidity unknown +to our fathers, we have made use of it, for the most part, to extend +slander more widely and to cause a greater amount of doubtful +intelligence to swarm upon the earth. So well have we spun speech out +in all our mouths, so thoroughly have we deprived it of its proper +nature and caused it to become sophisticated, that it is no longer of +the least value. The confidence of the masses in authority, which is +one of the slowest and most difficult conquests of humanity, we have +lost like a thing of no worth. They no longer say to any one who now +lifts up his voice: Who are you? But: What end have you in view? What +party do you serve? By what interest are you led? By whom have you +been bought? That there may be a sacred truth, loved, respected, +adored; a truth that is worth more than life, to which one may give +himself wholly and with happiness--this idea diverts the cynics +and makes those whom the cruel experiences of life have rendered +distrustful, shake their heads. If ever an epoch has needed to +rehabilitate human speech, it is our own. What good are we if it is +good for nothing, since it is at the root of all our institutions? + +Who will give it back its potency?--They who will know how to resign +themselves to being but a voice! + +Permit me to bring home to you, by means of a very modest example, +what man may gain in force by being but a voice. Look at that clock. +When the hour has come, it marks it. Whether it be the hour of birth +or of death, the hour of joy or of sorrow, the hour of longed-for +meetings, or of heart-breaking farewells, the clock strikes that hour. +It is only a mechanism, but it is scrupulously exact, it measures that +time which descends to us drop by drop from the bosom of eternity, and +when the hammer falls on the brazen bell, the entire universe confirms +what it announces. The suns and the worlds mark at this very moment, +in the immortal light, the same point of time that is indicated below +on earth, some starless night, by the humblest village clock. We must +imitate the clock. In full consciousness, through absolute submission, +man should make himself the humble instrument of truth, and go through +supreme servitude to supreme power. When he does not do this, he is +only an imperfect timepiece. But when, bound by his word, chained to +the truth that he serves, he has become its slave, and when, without +hate, without preference, without human fear, without other desire +than that of being faithful, he proclaims what is just, true, right, +good, the rocks are less firm on their base than this man: for he is a +voice! + +A voice is, if you like, a slight thing. Stilled as soon as it +awakened, it is heard only by a few and for a little while. It is said +that singers are greatly to be pitied, since posterity can not hear +them. Nothing of them remains. And yet how many marvelous forces +underlie this apparent fragility! The thunder has its roar, the breeze +has its tenderness, but their power is transitory; they are sounds and +not voices. A voice is a living sound, it is the vibrant echo of a +soul. It is doubtless that most fragile thing, a breath, but joined to +that which is most durable, spirit. And it is for this reason that, if +the instant when it is born sees it die, centuries of centuries can +not destroy its effect. The truth which is in it confers immortality +upon it, and when this voice escapes from a human breast, he who +speaks, sings or weeps, feels indeed that eternity has concluded an +alliance with him. Peeling his fragile testimony confirmed by all that +endures and can not die, he says with Christ: "Heaven and earth shall +pass away, but my words shall not pass away!" + +The holy labors entrusted to the voice can never be counted. Because +of the very fact that it lives and that it contains a soul, it is +the great awakener, the incomparable evoker. When, obscure still and +unknown, a thought distracts us and slumbers at the bottom of our +being, a voice is all that is needed to make it emerge into the light. +With maternal tenderness, the voice borrows all the energies of +incubation, to infuse with warmth, to fortify, the nascent germs of +spiritual life. In it lives and breaks forth what, in the evolving +soul, tends feebly and furtively toward the flowering. In short, the +voice, speech, the tongue, condenses in a single focus incalculable +quantities of rays. + +Only think of the efforts that human thought must have made to reach +that clearness that enables it to become speech. Every word that you +utter without giving it a thought is a monument toward which centuries +and multitudes of minds have wrought. A world is contained in it. Poor +words! one man decks himself out in them, another wraps himself up in +them, but how few know of the warmth of life and love that has put +them into the world that they may be forever the witnesses of the past +for posterity! No matter, for when they have been made sufficiently to +resound like an inanimate cymbal, there comes an hour when they revive +under the breath of a true and living being, and they depart to spread +life. Then they fulfil their role as educators. To educate is to +explain a being to itself. And this is the benign service that +the voice performs. It tells us what we think better than we can +ourselves. It unbinds the chains of the captive soul and permits it to +take its flight. Happy the child, happy the young man who meets with +a voice to decipher him to himself! This is what Christ did in those +blest hours when He reunited the children of His people, as a bird +reunites its brood under its wings! + +What the voice does in detail, it continues to accomplish on the +larger scale. At certain moments societies seem a prey to a sort of +chaos. A number of contrary forces clash and perturb them, as they +perturb and rend individual souls. Men seek, feeling their way, a road +that seems to elude them. A crowd of spirits, by the very fact of +their contemporaneity, feel themselves distracted and agitated all +in the same way. Confusedly and provoked by the same sufferings they +elaborate the same ideal and formulate the same desires. But they all +wander along twilit paths on the side of the night where the light +seems to be breaking through, without, however, being able to +pierce the darkness. These are the preliminary agonies of the great +historical epochs. Then let a being more powerful, more vital, an +elect soul that has passed through this phase and conquered these +shadows, become incarnate in a voice! That is enough. The personal +word which expresses the soul of that epoch and responds to its +needs, is found. It sounds through the world like a new _fiat lux_! +Everywhere, in those who listen to it and feel secret affinities with +it in themselves, it constitutes a magnificent revelation of light and +life. All these hearts vibrate in unison with one; and, gathering up +all these scattered notes into a single harmony, he who expresses the +sentiments of all, renders an account of the wonderful power of which +he is the instrument. No, it is no longer a man that speaks: what +sounds upon his lips, is the whole soul of a people, is a whole epoch, +is a new world. + +A voice is also that inimitable sigh, that pure sob which tells +of grief because it issues from a suffering heart. It is pity and +compassion, it is the angel of God arriving among us on the caressing +breath, a messenger of mercy, and pouring into the tortured depths of +our poor heart its healing dew. It is Jesus saying to Mary, and, in +her, to all those whom grief afflicts: "Why weepest thou?" It is David +singing: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" It is Isaiah crying: +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people; speak ye comfortably to +Jerusalem!" + +A voice is, on the solitary path where our will strays, the faithful +shepherd calling his sheep; it is every sign, even tho it be made +by the hand of a child, which in the days of forgetfulness and +unrestraint, suddenly wakes us and warns us that our feet skirt the +abysses. + +Then, after the work of education, of creation, of pity, comes the +work of severity, of punishment, of destruction. The voice has been +compared to a sword. Like it, it flames and punishes. A voice is +Nathan rising up before the criminal king and calling down upon his +head the avenging lightning of this word: "Thou art the man!" The +sword attacks, destroys, but it defends, also, and this is its fairest +work. Never is the voice more touching than when it is lifted in favor +of the weak, and, when, suddenly, in the midst of the iniquities +of brute force that it denounces, marks with its stigma, it causes +justice to shine forth and the truth to be felt, in the holy +soul-traversing thrill, that God Himself is there and that His hour +has come! + +A voice has its echo. When this echo is sympathetic, it is endowed +with the sweetest recompense and obliterates the memory of many +sorrows. But this echo is often hostile. It arises from wrath and is +increased by hatred. Then it is resistance, riot, that rumbles. It is +the passions and the scourged vices that twist and bellow like deer +under the lash of the trainer. How many times, O, faithful voices, +souls of peace and truth, has the spirit that animates you driven you +to these fearful encounters--you who have heard in the silence of your +hearts the holy verities and who know their worth, you are obliged to +go bearing them in the face of menace, of mockery, of trembling rage +where they seem to us like Daniel in the lion's den! A terrible +ordeal! but one before which the testifying voices have never +recoiled. Luther, who knew the emotions of the great battles of the +spirit where one man is alone in the face of a thousand, where tinder +the growing clamors and the cries of death ... a voice struggles like +a torch in a tempest, has given to the servants of truth a counsel +that is the alpha and omega of their austere mission. When they have +said all, done all, essayed all, put all their being and all their +love into the proclamation of what they have to announce, then, he +says, "let them be ready to be hooted at and spat upon!" And not only +should they be ready but they should accept this lot with happiness. +Christ says to them: "Happy are they that are outraged and persecuted +for the sake of justice!" + +Alas, the rudest proof for him who speaks the truth is not to arouse +indignation. That, at least, is a result, and however sad it may be, +it bears witness to him who has spoken. Certain protests, despite +their fury, are a sort of involuntary homage. The supreme trial for +a voice is indifference. When John called himself a voice in the +wilderness, he alluded to that external solitude where his voice was +raised. But this solitude, on certain days was full of life and the +gospel cites for our benefit certain facts which prove that the words +with which it resounded were not lost in the empty spaces. They moved +and struck home from the humblest regions of society to the exalted +spheres, to the royal throne itself. John garnered love and hate, +blessing and curse, the desirable fruits of all energetic action. +Since that time and before, more than one voice has been able, +applying them to itself, to give to those prophetic words, "voices in +the wilderness," another very melancholy significance. The supreme +image of despair is a voice that is lost in the silence, as is lost, +in the bosom of dead solitudes, the call that no one hears, for succor +that will never come. + +After having spoken of the different voices, of their power, of their +effects, let us bestow a compassionate remembrance upon the lost +voices, on those who were or who are still, in the most lamentable +sense of that word, voices in the wilderness.--To be a man, a soul, to +have felt the lighting of a holy flame within oneself; to love truth +and justice; to feel the pain of contact with a life ruled over by +falsehood and violence; at the heart of this poignant contrast between +a divine ideal and a heart-rending reality, to receive from his +conscience, from God himself, the command to speak; to put his life +into this work, to renounce everything to be only a voice ... and +after all this to see himself forsaken, neglected, despised! To wear +oneself out slowly in a strife obscure and without issue; to perish +without having aroused either sympathy or opposition, to disappear +into oblivion before disappearing in the tomb ... ah! all the furies, +all the bloody reprisals, the dungeons, the gibbets, the massacres, +all the martyrdoms by which human wickedness strove to stifle the +voice of the just, are less horrible than this extermination by +apathy. + +And yet, not to press things to this cruel extremity, but remembering +the parable of the sower, where so many seeds are lost for the few +that take root and flourish, ought we not be willing to be, in the +greatest number of cases, voices in the wilderness, only too happy if +our thankless labors are recompensed elsewhere by an encouraging echo? +Have we not here, on the contrary, the image of human life? we are +always aspiring toward an ideal more elevated than that which we +realize. We are always precursors, and it becomes us to accept humbly +what that destiny holds both of pain and of beauty. + +Besides, do we know whether voices that seem to be lost, are so in +reality? Are the stones that are hidden in the foundations of a +beautiful edifice, and thanks to which the whole fabric is supported, +lost because no one sees them? In the same way it must be that many +voices are forgotten apparently, until such time as, added together +and finding in each other mutual support, they end by emerging into +the full light of day. + +To wait and to work; to do his duty, and leave the rest to God; to +journey through life, gathering truth into his heart, and then into +the family, the Church, the city; to be its faithful voice; this is +the best use a man can make of his mortal days. And should it be your +lot to be voices in the wilderness; among your children deaf to your +cries; among your compatriots insensible to your warnings, console +yourselves. Greater than you have suffered the same fate. Unite +yourself in spirit to their company and be happy to suffer with them. +At least as you come to understand more and more from day to day that +truth can not perish, and that it is potent even on feeble lips; you +will establish in your hearts faith in the world that endures, and you +will be less astonished and less disconcerted when you see the face of +this world pass away. You will live by the sacred fire cherished in +your souls. Let your furrow close, your hope will not perish! Like +Moses on Nebo, you will enter into the silence, having filled your +dying eyes with the spectacle of the promised land! + + + + +GORDON + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Angier Gordon, Congregational divine, was born in Scotland, +1853. He was educated at Harvard, and has been minister of Old South +Church, Boston, Massachusetts, since 1884. His pulpit style is +conspicuous for its directness and forcefulness, and he is considered +in a high sense the successor of Philip Brooks. He was lecturer in the +Lowell Institute Course, 1900; Lyman Beecher Lecturer, Yale, 1901; +university preacher to Harvard, 1886-1890; to Yale, 1888-1901; Harvard +overseer. He is the author of "The Witness to Immortality" (1897), +and many other works. + + + + +GORDON + +Born in 1853 + +MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD[1] + +[Footnote 1: Printed here by kind permission of Dr. Gordon.] + +_And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he +him_.--Genesis i., 27. + + +It must never be forgotten that all truth lies in the order of life +itself. There is a natural environment, and in it have been, real and +mighty from the beginning, the laws and forces which science has but +recently discovered. Copernicus discovered the true order of the solar +system; but the order itself has been there from the morning of time. +Newton discovered the force of gravity, but that force has been in the +natural situation since creation. Chemists have been able to make out +sixty-five or sixty-six irreducible elements; but while chemistry is +young, the elements are everlasting. Electricity is the discovery of +yesterday, and yet it has been at play in man's environment from the +foundation of the world. The continuity of life, from the lowest forms +of it up to man, has been a fact from the first; but not until +this century has the fact meant anything. Few things impress the +imagination more powerfully than the sense of the forces that have +surrounded man from his first appearance on the earth, and that +have been noted and utilized only in recent times. There stands the +immemorial force, and men have had no eyes for it till yesterday. +Thoughtful men begin to look upon the environment in a new spirit. +They begin to walk within it in amazement and hope. All the forces of +the material universe are here, and only a few things about them +have been discovered. The natural environment is rich beyond all +calculation or dream; it is exhaustless. Here in the field of man's +life is the alluring object of science. Here in the natural situation +are the everlasting and benign energies that wait to be discovered and +prest into human service. There is a human environment, and all the +fundamental truth about man has been present in it from the start. +Moses gave his nomadic brethren the ten words; but they were written +in the human heart ages before they were inscribed upon stone. The +great Hebrew prophets gave to the world the vision of one God, His +righteous government of the world, and His election of a single race +for the service of all the races; but God and His government and His +method in the education of man were real and mighty before Amos, and +Hosea, and Isaiah, and Jeremiah beheld them. Christ revealed the +Father through His own divine Sonhood; but the Fatherhood of God is an +eternal truth. Nowhere is the divineness of Christ more obvious than +in the ease and adequacy with which He, and He alone, is able to read +the meaning of the human situation. Christ as Prophet, as Seer and +Discoverer, is most amazing to the most gifted. His eye for fact +is divine. He notes the falling sparrow, and at once reaches the +universal fatherly foresight and control of God. His consuming vision +goes everywhere, turning the hidden truth of life into light and joy +in His parables. His teaching is revelation, the unveiling of the +aboriginal divine order. He makes nothing; He reveals what God made. +And when He increases life it is by showing the path to that increase +ordained of God, insight and obedience. The will of God is the final +law for heaven and earth; the vision of it and surrender to it are the +path of life. Here we touch the depth of the old faith. God the Father +creates, and the Son reveals. The order of the Spirit is eternal; the +revelation of it is in time and for sense-bound men. Here we see in +a mirror and dimly; there they behold face to face. And Christ drew +forth into light the divine significance of man's life, as God +originally made it; and that divine meaning of existence thus drawn +out is the gospel of Christ. + +In the text we are carried by a true seer back of all traditions, +behind all conventions, beyond all beliefs about life to life itself +as it lies in its own freshness and fulness. We are led to look upon +human life newly made, still warm with the touch of the creative hand, +and yet containing in it that very hour all that the Lord eventually +drew out of it. If the first man had understood himself he would have +been essentially a Christian. And therefore I propose to evolve from +the original human situation, as described in the text, the outline of +what I take to be a great faith. + +I. If the first man had understood himself, he would have seen in +himself the interpreter of nature. From the first command, "Let there +be light," to the final, "Let us make man in our image," there are two +things to be noted. There is continuity in the creative process, and +there is an ascension from the lower to the higher. The first duty of +our self-comprehending Adam will be to look backward. He will look +across the wide field whose farther limit lies in cloud and whose +hither border touches his feet. He will survey the creative process +that has led up to and that has come to its climax in him. And as he +thinks of himself as the product of nature, must he not conclude that +as reason is the result, reason must have preceded the process and +governed it? Humanity is the issue; therefore humanity must have +planned the issue and secured it. Back of this march of life, behind +this developing and ascending order, out in the darkness, before the +light was created, there was the Mind that accounts for man. Thus the +last becomes the first, the man that ends the creative process sees +that a human God must have preceded the process. + +This truth is one of the greater insights of the time. The continuity +of life, from the lowest forms to the highest, has received during the +last fifty years an unparalleled recognition. So, too, with the fact +of the steady ascent of life. Not indeed in a literal and yet in a +true way, the modern scientific conception is a wonderful parallel to +the sublime hymn with which the Bible opens. In the beginning was the +fire-mist. In that fire-mist began the process of development. It +became worlds, systems innumerable, a stellar universe, and within +this whole a solar order, an earth beating forward in preparation for +the advent of life. Life when it came flowed into countless forms. +From the shapeless mass it pushed on upward into successively higher +and finer structures, ever aspiring toward man. Ages preceded the +advent of man. There were upon the part of life ages of preparation, +ages of climbing. Before life rose the mountain of the Lord; it +must be scaled and its summit reached before man could put in +an appearance. But the hour for which the whole cosmos had been +travailing in pain could not be indefinitely delayed. In the fulness +of time, as the tree bursts into bloom, as the tide rolls to the +flood, as the light breaks in through the gates of morning, nature +came to her supreme expression in man. Man is not here on his own +strength. He is not in the bosom of things unaccounted for. He is the +child of nature; her last act, her highest product, the best that is +in her power to bring forth, the son in whose wondrous being her own +motherhood is to undergo total transformation. + +That is the modern scientific conception; look for a moment at its +greatness. Man as final issue of nature must turn round and look +backward. He must look down the long line of life to the far-off first +beginning. He must pass beyond the earliest forms in which the vital +movement began to the mysterious, formless, eternal power behind all. +And it is here that nature is lifted into a new character by her human +product. In that eternal power there must be a reason to account +for man's reason, conscience to account for his conscience, love to +account for his love, spirit to explain his spirit. Nature as mother +must become spirit to account for the soul of her son. The flower +shows what was in the seed, the oak is the revelation of what was in +the heart of the acorn; and man as the last and best outcome of nature +is the authoritative expression of the power that is behind nature. +Thus the mind that is the final product of nature discovers the mind +that is the source of nature. Man seeking the origin of his being +finds it on the farther side of nature in One like unto a son of man. +He learns later to distinguish between the reality and the image, +between God and godlike man. And then a wireless telegraphy is +established between them across the vast untraveled distances of +nature. The life near to God can not send the tokens of His inmost +character upward to man; the brute life near to man can not carry +downward to God man's thoughts and hopes. The animal life that +stretches in an expanse so wide between the Creator and His best work +can not connect the human and the divine. But when the spirit to which +nature comes in man has once seen the Spirit in which nature must +begin, then the wireless telegraphy comes into play. The heart, that +is the last product of life, sends out its mysterious currents, its +aspirations, its gladness, its grief, and its hope; and these repeat +themselves in the great heart of God. And forth from the Spirit behind +nature issue the messages of recognition, of sympathy, of intimated +ideals and endless incentive, that register themselves in the soul of +man. Nature is a solid, sympathetic, and now and then glorified, and +yet dumb, highway between God and man. Her beauty belongs to the +Spirit that she does not know, and it speaks to the Spirit that is +older than her child. She is a mute, unconscious sacrament between the +infinite reason and the finite, a path for the lightning that plays +backward and forward between the soul of man and the soul of God. +The great primal fact in the human environment is that man is the +interpreter of nature. In this character of interpreter of nature he +receives his first message from God, and makes his first response. + +II. The second fact in the human situation is that religion is the +interpreter of man. As man looks backward he beholds beyond nature +a face like his own, only diviner; and ever afterward the noblest +aspiration of his soul is to win the smile of that face and to escape +its frown. Our self-comprehending Adam would confess that he knew +himself only when he noted within him the lover of the infinite. And +here history leads the way. You look into "The Book of the Dead," and +you see what high and serious things religion meant for the early +Egyptian. The pyramids are monuments to religion. The art of the +ancient races was chiefly homage to the divine. The Athenian Parthenon +would never have been but for faith in the goddess that shielded the +city. Greek art, the greatest art in the world, is primarily a tribute +to faith. Those marvelous statues were likenesses of the gods; those +incomparable temples were dwelling-places for the gods. Religion is +in the warp and woof of the world's love and sorrow, its art and +literature, its patriotism and history. The life of man is the +cathedral window, and religion is the colored figure that stands in +it. The two are inseparable. You can not abolish the figure without +breaking the window; you can not banish religion without destroying +humanity. Try to explain Homer's world without Olympus; account for +Mohammedanism and make no reference to faith; write the history of +the Middle Ages and take no note of the "Divine Comedy"; sum up +the meaning of Persian and Indian civilization and pay no heed to +religion; show what Hebraism is and leave unnoticed its consciousness +of God, and you will create a parallel to the philosopher who should +endeavor to trace the significance of human life apart from man's +passion for the infinite. + +Here then is the key to manhood. He is a being over whom the unseen +wields an endless fascination. There is in him a thirst that nothing +can quench save the living God. His chief attribute is an attribute +of wo, an incapacity for content within the limits of the visible +and temporal. His differentiation from the brute is at this point +absolute. Between man and the lower orders of life there is a line of +likeness; there is also from the beginning a line of unlikeness. In +physical structure man is both similar and dissimilar to the animal. +As bread-winner and economist he is kindred and he is in contrast to +the creatures below him. In the home, in society, and in the state +in which both home and society are set and protected, the line of +likeness grows less and less distinct, while the line of unlikeness +becomes bolder and plainer. It is impossible to deny observation to +the dog and impossible to grant to it science. The instinct for beauty +belongs to the bird, but art in the full sense of the word, as the +self-conscious expression of beautiful ideas, is no part of its life. +One can not decline to note method in the existence of the brute, +and one is compelled to withold from it philosophy. In these higher +activities the line of likeness between man and the animal is of the +faintest description; while the line of contrast becomes more and more +pronounced and significant. When we come to the summit of man the +likeness vanishes utterly. Among the lower life of the world there is +no _Magnificat_, there is no _Nunc Dimittis_; the beginning and the +end do not link themselves to the Eternal. The brute has no religion, +no temple, no priest, no Bible, no sacrament of love between itself +and the invisible. The tower of this church tells at once, and from +afar, that it is a church. Near at hand, much besides the tower tells +the same story. There is the cruciform foundation; there is the +structure of its walls. There is the outside with distinct note; there +is the inside with its joyous beauty. Look at the church closely and +you need no tower to proclaim what it is. And yet the tower is its +most conspicuous witness: at a distance it is the sole witness. +Religion is similarly the eminent token that man belongs to a divine +order. The basis of his being in sacrifice should repeat the same +tale. Civilization as a struggle after social righteousness should +announce the same fact. Man's thoughts and feelings, and their +manifold and marvelous expression in art, in institutions, and in +systems of opinion, utter the same testimony. And yet the tower of his +being, high soaring and far seen, is his feeling for the invisible. +You do not know man until you behold him worshiping. + +III. The third fact in our human situation is that Christianity is the +interpretation of religion. You see the devout old Jew, Simeon, who +met Jesus as His mother brought Him for the first time into the +temple; and there you behold the old faith interpreted by the new. All +that was best in the Hebrew religion is conserved and carried higher +in the Christian religion. Everywhere the devoutest Jews were +conscious of wants which the national faith did not meet. They waited +for the consolation of Israel, and when Christ came he supplied +satisfactions which Hebraism could not supply. Christianity commended +itself to the disciples of Christ because it seemed to be their own +faith at its best. They were carried over into it by the logic +of their previous belief and their deep human need. Paul sought +righteousness as a Jew; when he became a Christian, righteousness +was still his great quest. And Christianity commended itself to him +because the national ideal of righteousness was set before him in +a sublimer form, and because a new inspiration came to him in his +pursuit of it. The old immemorial goal of human endeavor was exalted, +and the everlasting incentives were filled with the freshness of a +divine life. Thus the religious Jew, when Christ came, was like a +convalescent patient. The process of recovery was going on, but in +a way that was discouragingly slow. The longing was for the higher +altitudes of the spirit, for the pure and bracing atmosphere of some +exalted leader, for an environment richer in healing ministry and in +restoring power. That longing Christ met. He carried His believing +countrymen on to the heights. He surrounded them with the freshness of +His own spirit. He put over them a new sky. He took them into a new +environment, rich with His truth and grace, tender with infinite +sympathy, stored with the forces that work for spiritual vigor, filled +with the love of His Father. Ask Peter or James or John or Paul, ask +any believing Jew and he will tell you that Christianity is simply the +consummation of his faith as a Jew. + +The gospel moves along the same line of self-verification with +reference to all the great religions. The Persian believes in eternal +light, and he hates the contending darkness. Christianity says that +God is light, and that in Him is no darkness at all; that Jesus is the +Light of the world, and that whosoever followeth Him shall not walk +in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The Greek was full of +humanity, and he could not help making his gods and goddesses simply +larger and more beautiful men and women. What is the soul of that +amazingly beautiful and seemingly fantastic mythology of the Greeks? +Why do they worship Apollo and Aphrodite, Hermes and Athene? Because +they can think of nothing higher than ideal humanity. And Christ +comes, the ideal man. The beauty of the Lord is upon Him. His thoughts +and feelings and purpose and character are the most perfect things in +the world. He identifies Himself with man, and He identifies Himself +with God. He is the Son of man, and as such He is the Son of God. And +thus a human. God, a human universe, a human religion is offered to +the Greek, and in place of the wonderful mythology the clear, warm, +divine fact. The Mohammedan believes in will; and the gospel puts +before him that ultimate irresistible Will as a Will to all good, +eternally burdened with love, and nothing but love, for man. The Hindu +is smitten with an endless craving after rest, and he thinks the path +to peace lies in the diminution and final extinction of being. Christ +goes to the Hindu and says: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and +heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn +of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto +your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." + +He sets before the Hindu an infinite social peace; he calls into play +the moral will that for ages has been allowed to slumber. The goal +is high social harmony; the path to it is the intelligent will in +faithful, inspired, victorious obedience. The need of the Hindu is +not less but more and better existence. The way out of his despair is +through fulness of life. His misery is but the dumb prayer for eternal +life, that is, for existence supreme in its character and in its +volume. + +Thus Christianity is everywhere the interpreter of religion. +Everywhere it carries the world's faith to its best. It is the +consummation both of the human need and the divine answer. And to-day, +in our own world, it goes on the same high errand. The intuitions of +righteousness, the sympathies with goodness, the wish for the more +abundant life, the ideals and the struggles, the hope and the fear, +without which man would not be man, find their interpreter in +Christianity. It is the soul carried to the utmost depth of its need +and the loftiest height of its desire, and then made conscious that +below its profoundest weakness and above its highest dream is the +infinite Love that is educating its life. It is the best wisdom of +history speaking to the highest interests of man. As mothers brought +their children to Jesus that He might reveal the inmost meaning of +childhood, open its treasure to the hearts that loved it, and by His +consecrating touch assure it of perpetual increase; so are the nations +bringing their religions to Him, and the noble among men their +uncomprehended longing and hope. He walks among us still as the +Revealer, the Conserver, and the Consummator of life. + +IV. Lastly, Christianity finds it own interpretation in God. We have +seen man looking backward and finding the origin of his soul in the +Soul that is behind nature. We have seen his religion telling him +that he can not live by bread alone, that he can rest only under +the shelter of the unseen, that he is infinitely more akin to the +invisible than to the visible, that he has a spirit and must therefore +hunger for the fellowship of the eternal Spirit. We see Christianity +lifting this religious capacity to its highest, and bringing in the +divine appeal in its sublimest form. We behold the earth transfigured +in this Christian dream, the ladder set that reaches from the dreamer +to heaven, and upon it, going up and coming down, the great prayers of +the soul and the tender responses of the Most High. To what shall we +refer this sublime, transfiguring dream? Is it the delusion of the +sleeper, or the whisper of God? Is the ladder set up from the earth, +or is it let down from above? Did man shape it out of his abysmal +desire, or did God make and establish it out of His love. What can +we say of that which is the highest wisdom, the widest sympathy, the +divinest love, and the mightiest power in human history? What can +we do with that which is the true life of man? Can the trees of the +field, as they clap their hands and sing in the freshening breeze, do +other than refer it to heaven? And man, as he sees the light of Christ +upon the Spirit behind nature, beholds in the gospel that which +interprets his highest dreams, feels in Christianity the power to +understand and to become his own best self--can he do other than say +that his Christian faith is the gift of God? The star in the brook +refers you for the explanation of its being to the star in the sky; +and the glory of the gospel living in the depths of man's soul has no +other origin than the love of God. + +The hope of science lies in exploring the natural environment. All +material reality is here, and here science has found all her truth, +and every season reminds her that inexpressible wonders still wait her +search. In the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, and in the +waters under the earth are hidden the treasure for which she is to +toil. Earth and sea and sky; the waveless depths and the windless +heights, and the wide expanse between, now sunlit and again +stormswept, are the field of her enterprise and hope. And in the same +way the human environment is the region that the spirit must explore. +The meaning of humanity must be found in and through humanity. "Say +not in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring +Christ down; or who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring +Christ up from the dead. The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in +thy heart." The divine reality offers itself to faith in and through +the scope and sweep of life. The order of God is in the life of +society. The ideal for man, the method by which it is realized, and +the power, are set in the spiritual tissues of the race. If you see no +God, no soul, no genuine religion, believe rather that you are blind +than that your human environment does not contain them. You are the +product of nature. It follows that nature must be great enough to +account for you and your race and the Christ who is your race at its +best. Back of the nature that gave birth to you, that bore your kind, +and brought forth Christ, there must be the sufficient Spirit. You +are sure that you can not live by bread alone. You have thoughts that +wander through eternity. You can not rest until you rest in God. You +are a being made for religion, and again here is the gospel that meets +your intelligence with its wisdom, your heart with its love, your will +with its moral authority. Nothing puts your being in tune, and nothing +rings out the best music that is in you, as the gospel does. It is +omnipresent in our civilization, working everywhere to crush the +beast and to free the man. It is in a mother's love, the soul of its +tenderness; it is in a father's heart as ideal and incentive. The +history and the experience and the hope of our homes are transfigured +in its light, as if the earth should repose in an everlasting evening +glow. Patriotism is alive with its fire, and the new and growing +passion for humanity is the great token of its quickening spirit. +It is the box of ointment, very precious, which has been broken in +society and all Christendom is filled with its perfume. Birth and +death, love and sorrow, achievement and failure, human life and its +immemorial content, the old room and the dear and dreary things in it, +take on new dignity and grace. To detect the new spirit in the old +dwelling is the best and most rewarding of all intuitions. To live in +the human homestead consecrated by the diffusion of Christ's gospel is +to undergo an unconscious conformation to exalted ideals. Because of +our Christian civilization, behind every morning is the Father, who +makes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and who sends His +rain upon the just and the unjust. Nature has been lifted into a +servant of the divine beneficence. And man's wild but imperishable +passion for the unseen has been brought to see its last and best self +in the love of Christ. Wherever we look, this gospel is the master +light of all our seeing; and once more, is it not light from heaven? +We know where to look for the belt of Orion, and clear and grand as +the stars that constitute it are the great saving truths which are set +in the human sky. There is nothing arbitrary in this sublime faith, +nothing that does not rise out of the human order, nothing that is a +mere import from the world of fancy or wild belief. The faith is the +translation of fact into thought and speech. The eyes of Christ pass +over and through the order of the universe, and His vision is our +faith. Man is the interpreter of nature; religion is the interpreter +of man; Christianity is the interpreter of religion; and God the +Father is the interpreter of Christianity. + + + + +DAWSON + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +William James Dawson, Congregational preacher and evangelist, was born +in Towcester, Northamptonshire, in 1854. He was educated at Kingswood +School, Bath, and Didsbury College, Manchester. He has long been +known as an author of originality and pure literary style. In 1906 he +received the pastorate of Highbury Quadrant Congregational Church, +London, and accepted an invitation to do general evangelistic work +under the auspices of the National Council of the Congregational +churches of the United States. He now resides in this country. + + + + +DAWSON + +Born in 1854: + +CHRIST AMONG THE COMMON THINGS OF LIFE[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by kind permission of Messrs. Fleming H. Revell +& Co., New York.] + +_As soon then as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals +there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Come +and dine_.--John xxi., 9, 12. + + +I can not read these words without indulging for a moment in a +reminiscence. Not long ago, in the early morning, while all the world +slept, I stood beside the Sea of Tiberias, just as the morning mist +lifted, and watched a single brown-sailed fishing-boat making for the +shore, and the tired fishermen dragging their net to land. In that +moment it seemed to me as if more than the morning mist lifted--twenty +centuries seemed to melt like mist, and the last chapter of St. John's +gospel seemed to enact itself before my eyes. For so vivid was the +sense of something familiar in the scene, so mystic was the hour, that +I should scarce have been surprized had I seen a fire of coals burning +on the shore, and heard the voice of Jesus inviting these tired +fishermen to come and dine. + +Now if I felt that, if I was sensible of the haunting presence of +Christ by that Galilean shore, how much more these disciples, in +whose minds every aspect of the Galilean lake was connected with some +intimate and thrilling memory of the ministry of Jesus. + +Christ once more stands among the common things of life; the fire, +the fish, the bread--all common things; a group of tired, hungry +fishers--all common men; and He is there to affirm that in His +resurrection He had not broken His bond with men, but strengthened +it--wherever common life goes on there is Jesus still. + +I. Notice the words with which the story opens, and you will see at +once that this is the real clue to its interpretation. "When morning +had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not +that it was Jesus." A strange thing that! Why did they not know Him? +Because they were not looking for Him in such a scene. It had seemed a +natural thing, if Jesus should appear at all, that He should appear in +the garden, a vision of life at the very altar of death. It seemed yet +more probable and appropriate that He should appear in the upper room, +that room made sacred by holiest love and memory. If any words of +Christ yet lingered in the mind and had power to thrill them, they +were surely these words, "Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the +clouds of heaven," glorified, triumphant, lifted far above the earth +and its humble life. And so, if they were looking for Christ at all +that morning, I think they watched the morning clouds, expecting Him +to come down the resplendent staircase of the sunbeams to call the +nations together and vindicate Himself in acts of universal judgment. +And behold! Jesus comes as a fisherman standing on the lakeside, busy +over a little fire, where the morning meal is cooking; and behold! +Jesus speaks, and it is not of the eternal mysteries of God, not of +the solemn secrets of the grave, but of nets and fishing and how to +cast the nets--the simple concerns of simple men engaged in humble +tasks. + +No wonder they did not recognize Him. Once more the Son of Man comes +eating and drinking, and even the eyes that knew Him best can not see +in this human figure by the lakeside the only begotten Son of the +Father, full of grace and truth. They looked and saw but a fellow +fisherman, cooking his meal upon the shore, and they knew not that it +was Jesus. + +II. Think for a moment of the earthly life of Christ, and you will +see that it was designedly linked with all the common and even the +commonest things of life. + +If you or I could have conceived the great thought of some human +creature that should be the very incarnation of God, what would have +been the shape of our imaginings? Surely we should have chosen for +this earthly temple of the Highest some human form perfected in grace +and beauty by the long refinements of exalted ancestry; the child of +kings or scholars; the delicate flower of life, in whom the elements +were so subtly mixed that we should recognize them as special and +miraculous--so we might think of God manifest in man. But God chooses +for the habitation of His Spirit a peasant woman of Nazareth, humble, +poor, unconsidered. + +If we could have forecast the training of such a life, how should +we have pictured it? Surely as sheltered from the coarseness of the +world, delicately nourished, sedulously cultured; but God orders +that this life should manifest itself in the house of the village +carpenter, out of reach of schools, in a little wicked town, under the +commonest conditions of poverty, obscurity, and toil. + +If you and I could have imagined the introduction of this life of +lives to the world, how should we picture that? Surely we should have +pictured it coming with pomp and display that would at once have +attracted all eyes; but God orders that it shall come without +observation, unfolding its quiet beauty like the wayside flower, which +there are few to see and very few to love. Commonness: that is the +great note of the incarnation and the purposed feature of Christ's +earthly life. + +He reaffirms His fraternity in common life. The disciples could not +imagine that as possible; nor can we. And why not? For two reasons, +one of which is that we have forgotten the dignity of common life. + +1. Dignity is for us almost synonymous with some kind of separation +from common life; it dwells in palaces, not in cottages; it inheres in +culture, but is inconceivable in narrow knowledge; and to the great +mass of men it is, alas! the attribute of wealth, of fine raiment, +of social isolation. But we have not learned even the alphabet +of Christ's gospel unless we have come to see that the only true +_in_dignity in human life is sin, meanness, malevolence, and +small-heartedness; and that all life is dignified where there are +love, purity, and piety in it, whatever be its social category. + +I read the other day that it is probable that the very mire of the +London streets contains that mysterious substance known as radium, the +most tremendous agent of light and heat ever yet discovered by man; so +in man himself, however low his state, there is the spark of God, an +ember lit at the altar fires of the Eternal, and it is because we +forget this that we forget the dignity of common life. For we do +forget it. We may make our boast that a single human soul is of more +value than all the splendors and immensities of matter; but in our +actions we treat the boast as a mere rhetorical expression. There is +nothing so cheap as men and women--let the lords of commerce answer +if it be not so. But Christ acted as tho the boast were true. He +deliberately inwove His life into all that is commonest in life. He +has made it impossible for us, if indeed we have His spirit, to think +of any salient aspect of human life without thinking of Him. +Where childhood is, there is Bethlehem; where sorrow is, there is +Gethsemane; where death is, there is Calvary; where the toiler is, +there is the poor man of Nazareth; and where the beggar is, there is +He who had no place where to lay His head. There is not a drop of +blood of Christ, nor a throb of thought in our brains that is not +thrilling with the impact of this divine life of lives. And so the +true dignity of life is this, that Christ is in all men, faintly +outlined it may be, defaced, half-obliterated, but there, and the +Church that forgets this has neither impulse nor mandate for Christ's +work among men. + +2. And then, again, there is a second reason: we have not learned to +look for Christ among the common things of life. + +"Let us build three tabernacles," said the wondering disciples on +the Mount of Transfiguration, and the speech betrayed a tendency of +thought which was in time to prove fatal to the Church. + +The Christ without a tabernacle, the free, familiar Christ of the lake +or the wayside was everybody's Christ; but the moment Christ is shut +up in a church or a tabernacle He becomes the priest's Christ, the +thinker's Christ, the devotee's Christ, but He ceases to be the +people's Christ. + +I remember five years ago standing in the great church of Assisi, +which has been erected over and encloses the little humble chapel +where Francis first received his call. You will scarcely be surprized +if I confess that I turned with a sense of heart-sick indignation +from the pomp of that splendid service in the gorgeous church to +the thought of Francis, in his worn robe, going up and down these +neighboring roads, touching the lepers, calling them "God's patients," +pouring out his life for the poor; and I knew Christ nearer to me +on the roads that Francis trod than in that church, which is his +mausoleum rather than his monument. And as I felt that day in far-off +Umbria, so I have felt to-day in England; my heart goes out to +Catherine Booth; to Father Dolling, to these Christs of the wayside, +and it turns more and more from the kind of Christ who lives in +churches and nowhere else. My brethren, you will let me say that we do +but make the church Christ's prison when we forget that all the realm +of life is His. Oh, you good people, you do love your church, but +often think and act as tho the presence of Christ can be found nowhere +else. Lift up your eyes and see this risen Christ, a fisherman upon +the shore, busy in no loftier task than to have a meal prepared for +hungry fishermen. Unlock your church doors, let Christ go out among +common people; nay, go yourselves, for it is here that He would have +you be. Remember that wherever there is toil, there is the Christ +who toiled; and there you should be, with the kind glance, the warm +hand-grasp, and the loving warmth of brotherhood. + +Christ stands amid the common things of life; where the fire is lit, +there is He; where the bread is broken, there is He; where the net of +business gain is drawn, there is He; and only as we learn to see Him +everywhere shall we understand the dignity and the divinity of human +life. + +III. "And Jesus said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the +ship, and ye shall find. They cast, and now they were not able to draw +it for the multitude of fishes." + +Here is another strange thing. Christ knows more about the management +of their own business than they do. They had toiled all night and +caught nothing; is not that a significant description of many human +lives? "Children, have ye any meat?" asks that quiet Voice from +the shore, and they answer "No." Is not that yet more pathetically +significant? All the heartbreak and disappointment of the world cry +aloud in that confession. Oh, I could fill an hour with the mere +recital of the names of great and famous people who have toiled +through a long life, and as the last gray hour came over their dim sea +of life, "brackish with the salt of human tears," have acknowledged +with infinite bitterness that they have caught nothing. Listen to the +voice of Goethe, "In all my seventy-five years I have not had four +weeks of genuine well-being;" to the confession of our own famous +poet, + + My life is in the yellow leaf, + The flowers, the fruits of love are gone; + The worm, the canker, and the grief + Are mine alone. + +to the ambitious and successful statesman who says, "Youth is folly, +manhood is struggle, old age regret"; to one of our most brilliant +women of genius in our own generation, wife of a still more brilliant +husband, who cries, "I married for ambition, and I am miserable." +Surely there is some tragic mismanagement of the great business of +living here. Oh, brother, is it true of you, that after all the +painful years happiness is not yours? You have no meat, no food on +which the heart feeds, no green pasture in the soul, no table in the +wilderness, and the last gray day draws near and will find you still +hungering for what life Has never given you. + +Learn, then, that Christ knows more about the proper management of +your life than you do. "Cast your net on the right side of the ship," +speaks that quiet Voice from the shore. And you know what happened. +And it is so still. Just because Christ stands among the common things +of life, He knows most about life, and, above all, He knows where +the golden fruit of happiness is found and where the secret wells of +peace. + +And to some of us whom God has called to be fishers of men the issue +is yet more solemn. We have the boat and the nets, all this elaborate +organization of the Church, but have we caught anything this year? +Where is the draft of fishes? Where are the men and women saved by +our triumphant effort? I will make my humble confession this morning, +that for five-and-twenty years I have cast the net, but only lately +have I found the right side of the ship; only lately have I discovered +how easy it is to get the great draft of fishes by simply going to +work in Christ's way. I do not believe in the indifference of the +masses in religion; the indifference is not in the masses, but in the +churches. You will never catch many fish if you stand upon the shore +of cold respectability and wait for them to come; launch out into the +deep and you will find them. Go for them--that is Christ's method. +Compel them to come in, for remember Christ's ideal was, as Bishop +Lightfoot so nobly put it, "the universal compulsion of the souls of +men." And if your experience is like mine, you will find that there is +strangely little compulsion needed to bring men and women to Christ. +I stood but lately in a house where fifty fallen women lived; I went +there to rescue three of its unhappy inmates. When the moment came to +take these three women from their life of sin, their comrades lined +the passage to shake my hand; there were tears and prayers, and +messages like these, "Be good. You'll be a good woman," "We wish we +had your chance"; and these poor souls in their inferno wished me +"a happy New-year." Compulsion! There was small need for compulsion +there! I believe I could have rescued all of these fifty women at one +stroke had I known where to take them. But to the shame of the Free +Churches in London I confess that, with the exception of the Wesleyans +and the Salvation Army, I do not know a single Free Church Rescue Home +in London. And I put it to you this morning whether you can any longer +tolerate that omission? I ask you whether you really want a great +draft of fishes, for you can have them if you want them. Christ knows +the business better than you do; and if you will come out of the +cloister of the church and seek the people in His spirit, I promise +you that very soon you will not be able to drag the net for the +multitude of fishes. + +IV. "And Jesus said unto them, Come and dine." + +Dine on what? Not the fish which they had caught. They had caught one +hundred and fifty-three great fishes; but notice Christ's fire was +kindled before they came. Christ's fish was already laid thereon, and +all they had to do was to come and dine. It is all you have to do, all +the churches have to do. Did not Christ so put it in the parable of +the Great Supper?--"Come, for all things are ready." Is not the last +word of Scripture the great invitation?--"The Spirit and the Bride +say, Come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of +life freely." Many a church can not say to a hungry world, "Come and +dine," because it will not let Christ prepare the meal. It will not +live in His spirit, it has no real faith in His gospel, it does not +understand that its true strength is not in elaborate organization +or worship, but in simple reliance on His grace. And so there is the +table covered with elaborate confections, which are not bread, and +when it says, "Come and dine," men will not come, for they know that +there is nothing there for them. Let Christ prepare the meal and all +is different then. When He says, "Come and dine," there is "enough +for each, enough for all, enough for evermore." And as Jesus spoke, I +think there flashed upon the memory of these men the scene when Jesus +fed the five thousand, and by that memory they knew their Jesus. No +one else ever spoke like that, with such certainty and such authority. +And the same Voice speaks even now to your hunger-bitten soul, to your +famished heart, "Come and dine." + +V. "Then Jesus taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise." + +There is no mistaking the act; it was a sacramental act. Here, upon +the lake shore, without a church, without an altar, the true feast of +the Lord was observed. For what does the Holy Supper, which is the +bond and seal of the Church's fellowship, stand for, if it is not +for this, the sanctification of the common life? Bread and wine, the +commonest of all foods to an Oriental, are elements indeed, because +they are necessary to the most elementary form of physical life, +things used daily in the humblest home. By linking Himself +imperishably with these commonest elements of life, Christ makes it +impossible to forget Him. Once more the thought shines clear, Jesus +among the common things of life. + +And then there comes one last touch in the beautiful story. While +these things happened, the day was breaking. Is there one of us +long tossed on sunless seas of doubt, long conscious of failure and +disappointment in life? Are there those of us whose sorrow lies deeper +than that which is personal--sorrow over our failure in Christ's work, +pain over a life's ministry for Christ that has known no victorious +evangel? Turn your eyes from that barren sea to Him who stands upon +the shore; He shall yet make you a fisher of men. Turn your eyes from +that bleak, dark sea of wasted effort where you have fared so ill; it +is always dark till Jesus comes, it is always light when He has come. +There is a new day breaking for the churches--a day of widespread +evangelistic triumphs that shall eclipse all the greatest triumphs of +the past, if we will but go back to Christ's school and learn of Him +how to save the people. And to each of us He says to-day: "I am the +living bread; I am the bread of life come down from heaven. If any man +eat of this bread, he shall live forever." "Come and dine." Will you +come? + + + + +SMITH + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +GEORGE ADAM SMITH, divine, educator and author, was born at Calcutta +in 1856, and educated at New College, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is at +present professor of Old Testament Language, Literature and Theology +in the United Free Church College, Glasgow. He is author of "The +Historical Geography of the Holy Land," "Jerusalem, the Topography, +Economics and History from the Earliest Time to A.D. 70" (1908). He is +generally regarded as one of the most gifted preachers of Scotland. + + + +SMITH + +Born in 1856 + +ASSURANCE IN GOD + +_Preserve me, O God._--Psalm xvi., 16. + + +The psalmist lived in a period when belief in the reality of many gods +was still strong, and when a man who would follow the one true God +had to prefer to do so against the attractions of other deities and +against the convictions of a great number of his fellow countrymen +that these deities were living and powerful. That stage of religion is +so distant from ourselves that we may imagine the psalmist's example +to be of no practical value for our faith, yet in such an imagination +we should be very much mistaken indeed, for, to begin with, consider +how much you and I to-day owe to those believers who so many centuries +ago rejected all the gods that offered themselves to the hearts of men +except the true God, and who chose to cleave to Him alone with all +that passionate loyalty which breathes through these verses. But for +them you and I could not be standing where we are in religion to-day. +As the eleventh of Hebrews reminds us, we are the spiritual heir of +such believers. It is to their struggles and their faith and their +victories that we greatly owe it that we have been born into an +atmosphere in which no religious belief is possible to us save in one +God who is Spirit and Righteousness and all Truth. + +That, then, was the great choice that the psalmist's faith was turning +to--a choice that was no mere assent to a creed that had been fought +for and established by previous generations of believers. It was the +man's own proving of things unseen and his own preference of those +against the crowd and a system of things seen, palpable, and very +powerful in their attraction for the senses of humanity. But we are +not to suppose that the rival deities, from which this man turned to +the unseen God, were to his mind or to the mind of his day the heap +of dead and ugly idols which we know them to be. They were not dead +things that he could kick away with his feet that these believers had +to reject when they sought the living God, but things which he and his +contemporaries felt to be alive and powerful; powerful alike in their +seduction and in their vengeance. They were believed to be identical, +as you know, with the forces of nature; they were supposed to be +indispensable to the welfare of the individual and of society, and +they were fanatically supported at the time by the mass of this man's +own countrymen; so that to break from them in those days meant to +abandon ancient opinions and habits, to resist many pleasant and +natural temptations and to incur the hostility, as was believed, of +the powers of nature, to break with customs and with rites that had +fortified and consoled the individual heart for generations and been +the support and sanction of society and of the state as well. Yet this +man did it. From all that living crowd and system, from all those +visible temptations and terrors he turned to the unseen, fully +conscious of his danger, for he opens his Psalm with a great cry, +"Preserve me, preserve me, O God!" but yet deliberately, and with all +his heart: "I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord." I have no +goodness, no happiness, that is outside Thee or outside the saints +that are in the land, "the excellent in whom is all my delight." Here +we touch another great characteristic of all true faith which is full +of example to ourselves. It is remarkable how, when a man really turns +to God, he turns to God's people as well, and how he includes them in +the loyalty and in the devotion which he feels toward his Redeemer. +His confidence and the sensitiveness of his faith in and toward God +become almost an equal confidence and an equal sensitiveness toward +his fellow believers. So it is throughout Scripture; you remember that +other psalmist who tells us how he had been tempted to doubt God's +providence and God's power to help the good man--"does God know and is +there knowledge in the Most High? Verily I have cleansed my heart in +vain and washed my hands in innocency." The psalmist immediately adds: +"If I had spoken thus, behold I had dealt treacherously with the +generation of God's children." If I had spoken thus, denying God, +I had dealt treacherously with the generation of God's children. +Unbelief toward God meant to him treason toward God's people; and the +author of the Epistle to the Hebrews affirms the same double character +of true faith when he emphasizes just these two points in the faith +of Moses: "choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God," and +"enduring as seeing Him who is invisible," and God Himself through +Jesus Christ has accepted this partnership of His people in our +loyalty--"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these +my brethren ye have done it unto me." I do not believe in the full +faith of any man who does not extend the loyalty he professes to +God to God's people as well, who does not feel as sensitive to his +brethren on earth as he does to his Father in heaven, who does not +practise piety toward the Church as he does toward her Head, or find +in her fellowship and her service a joy and a gladness which is one +with his deep joy in God, his Redeemer. Nay, is it not just in loving +people who are still imperfect, often disappointing, and far from +their ideal it may be, that in our relations to them we are to find +the greater proof and test of our religious faith? In these days such +a duty is unfortunately more complicated than with the psalmist. The +lines between God's Church and the world is not so clear as it was to +him, and the Church is divided into many and often hostile factions. +All the more it becomes the test of our religion if our hearts feel +and rejoice in the fellowship of God's simpler and more needy and more +devoted believers, however unattractive they may otherwise be. + +Consider the way in which the psalmist reached this pure faith in God +and in His people. A factor in the process was distaste for the ugly +rites of idolatry--"Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer." +Idolatry always develops a loathsome ritual. Sometimes it is cruel +and sometimes it is horribly unclean, but it always debases the +worshiper's mind, confuses his conscience, and hampers his freedom and +energy by the burdensome ceremonies it imposes upon them. Standing +afar off from them as we do, and knowing that there is no heathen +religion but has something good in it, we are apt to think that it +does not in the least matter how crude or how material a nation's +faith be if only it be faith in something more powerful than +themselves, if it satisfy their consciences and have some influence in +disciplining society and helping the individual to control himself. +But you have only to see idolatry at work, and at work with the +habits of ages upon it, to recognize how terrible it can be in its +identification of sheer filth and cruelty with the interests of +religion, and how it at once demoralizes and paralyzes its adherents. +To see it thus is to understand the passionate horror of these words: +"Their drink-offering of blood will I not offer." + +It is, however, no mere recoil from the immoral which started the +spring of this psalmists's faith in God. That faith was formed on +personal experience of God Himself. In simple but pregnant phrases the +psalmist tells us how sure he has become, first, of God's providence +in his life; secondly, of God's intimate communion with his soul. God, +he says, had been everything in his life. One does not know whether +the psalmist was a prosperous man or a poor one; the inference that he +was prosperous and rich has sometimes been drawn, but wrongly drawn, +from one of the verses of the Psalm. His indifference to that is +clear, but what he did have he knew he had from God. God, he says, is +all his happiness and all his strength--"The Lord is the portion of +mine inheritance and of my cup; thou maintainest my lot." Whether poor +or prosperous he could say: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant +places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Now that assurance of divine +leading is not analyzable, but we know that it does grow up solid and +sure in the experience of simple men who have put their trust in God, +who have felt life to be a commission from Him and who have done their +duty obeying His call. With such men "all things work together for +good." Tho life about them shake and darken, they feel their own +solidity and have light enough to read the future. Tho stript +and stark, they feel the Lord Himself to be the portion of their +inheritance and of their cup. The portion of my inheritance the Lord +is, i.e., the little bit of land that fell to each Israelite as his +share in the promised inheritance of the nation. "The Lord is the +portion of mine inheritance," as we might say in our Scotch language, +"The Lord is my croft and my cup," so they find in Him all the +ground and the freedom they need to do their work, fulfil their +relationships, and develop their manhood. + +It is, however, with the psalmist's second reason for his faith we +have most to do. "I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: +my reins also instruct me in the night seasons." This man held close +communion with God. Is it not great to find the testimony of a brother +man coming down all through those ages, from that dim and distant +past, clear and sure as to this, that he had God's counsel and that +God kept communion with him? God had spoken to this man and shown +him His will. Yes, he had received what we call inspiration and +revelation, and had proved the truth of these in his life. They had +led and they had lifted him. Nor had they come to him as many men +falsely suppose revelation and inspiration exclusively have come to +mankind, by means, namely, that were extraordinary and miraculous. The +psalmist tells us of no vision of angels, of no voice from heaven. The +Lord had not appeared to him in dreams nor by any marvelous signs; on +the other hand, he tells us simply that the divine counsel of which +he was so sure, and which he passes on to us, came to him through the +workings of his inner spiritual life. That is what he means by the +emphatic statement "yea, my reins instruct me in the night seasons," +which he adds parallel with the thought, "I will bless the Lord, who +hath given me counsel." According to the primitive physiology of +this man's nation and times, the reins of a man fulfil the same +intellectual function which we, with our larger knowledge, know are +discharged by the brain. This was how God's revelation came to this +brother of ours, through the working of his mind and conscience, but +it was in the night seasons that they worked, not in the day and in +the sunshine, but in the night when a man is left to himself with +only this advantage to his thought: that like the blind he is yet +undistracted by the influences which are seen. When he lies down he +thinks soberly and quietly about himself and about life and about God, +and about the great hidden future that is waiting for him. He +was communing with God, who had made his brain and used it as an +instrument of revelation. In these thoughts God was communing with man +through his reason and through his conscience. You and I are always +contrasting God's providence and His grace. We are always attempting +to oppose reason and revelation; to this man they were one. God's +great grace had come to him through God's own providence, and God's +revelation was ministered to him through the reason with which he had +endowed the creature He had made in His own image. This psalmist's +chief and practical help to us men and women today is that he became +sure of God not because of any miracle or supernatural sign, on his +report of which we might be content indolently to rest our faith, but +in God's own providence in his life and in God's quiet communion with +him through the organs God Himself has created in every one of us. For +all time, whether before or after Christ, these are the chief +grounds and foundations of faith in God. So it was in the Old +Testament--"stand in awe and sin not," "commune with your own heart +upon your bed and be still," "be still and know that I am God." So +with Christ, "for the kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation, +but the kingdom of heaven is within you," and so with Paul, "the +Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the +children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint +heirs with Christ." "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of +our Lord Jesus Christ, ... that he would grant you according to the +riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the +inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, to the end +that ye being rooted and grounded in love may come to apprehend with +all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to +know the love of Christ." + +God's guidance of his life, first of all, produces in a man a great +sense of stability. "I have set the Lord always before me: because he +is at my right hand I shall not be moved." He who has found God so +careful of him, he whom God hath regarded as worth speaking to and +counseling and disciplining, will be certain that he shall endure, +provided he is sure of his own loyalty. The life so loved of God, so +provided for, and in such close communion with the Eternal is not, can +not be the creature of the day, and this assurance stands firm in face +of even death and the horrible corruption of the body. The psalmist +refuses to believe that he is to dwell in the horrible under-world +forever--either himself or any of God's believers. "Thou must not, +thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, thou must not, thou wilt not +suffer thy loved ones to see the pit." To this man it is incredible, +and our hearts bear witness to the truth if we have had any experience +of God's blessing and guidance. To this man it is incredible that the +life God has cared for and guided and spoken to and brought into such +intimate communion with himself can find its end in death. Those whom +God has loyally loved and who have loyally loved God--for this +word badly translated "holy" in the psalms really has that actual +significance--those whom God has loyally loved and who have loyally +loved God shall never die. As He lives so shall they; they shall never +be absent from His presence. Be the future unknown and unknowable, +be we ourselves incapable of conceiving the processes by which this +mortal shall put on immortality, or where heaven is, or what eternity +can possibly be to those who have never lived outside time, yet that +future is secure and its immortal character is indubitable--where God +is there shall His servants be, and because He is there their life +shall be peace and joy, and because He is eternal it shall last +forevermore. That thought is the whole of the hope and argument. We +are assured of the future life because we have known God, and as we +have found Him to be true to us and proved ourselves true to Him. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Frank Wakely Gunsaulus was born at Chesterville, Ohio, in 1856. He +graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1875. For some years he was +pastor of Plymouth Church, Chicago, and since 1899 pastor of Central +Church, Chicago. He is also president of the Armour Institute of +Technology. He is a fascinating speaker, having a clear, resonant +voice, and a dignified presence. His mind is a storehouse of the best +literature, and his English style is noteworthy for its purity and +richness. He is the author of several books and is in popular demand +as a lecturer. + + + + +GUNSAULUS + +Born in 1856 + +THE BIBLE VS. INFIDELITY[1] + +[Footnote 1: Preached as an impromptu reply to R.G. Ingersoll. Printed +from an unrevised stenographic report.] + +_There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none +of them is without signification_.--I Cor. xiv., 10. + + +Ours is a voiceful era. Perhaps, as the ages come and go and man's +life grows richer, its questions more restless for answer, its +moral supports called upon to bear heavier interests of faith, its +enterprises more often and searchingly compelled to defend themselves, +the voices of time will be increasingly potent and worthy of his +attention. A singularly suggestive collection of messages fills the +air today, and all of these voices speak of one theme--the Bible. + +Anarchy, which is always atheistic, holds its converse in the places +of evil which this book's message would close forever; the foes of +that civilization builded on its laws and stimulated by its hopes asks +us to condemn it as worthy only of caricature, vituperation, and hate. +Let us find a path of duty today, not refusing to listen to any of +these voices, but asking that other voices also may help us to the +truth. + +The preacher's message is a book called the Bible. That is only the +literary form of his message--telling its history. Even that form, +which is much less divine as paper and ink are less lofty in the +scale than humanity, has worked wonders. To-day, the Bible offers the +nineteenth-century infidel as testimony of the influence it has. It +has force enough to make infidelity preach tearfully and well about +man, woman, and child. Skepticism did not do so well until the Bible +came. The Bible has furnished the eloquence of infidelity with such +a man as Shakespeare to talk about; no student of literature could +imagine Shakespeare without the Bible and the Bible's influence upon +him as he created his dreams. It furnished an Abraham Lincoln for an +orator to compare favorably with incomplete ideas of Almighty God; but +it seems to have been unable to show the critic that Christian ideas +of Almighty God made Lincoln so love the Lord's Prayer that he wanted +a church builded with this as its creed. It would seem that any +general denunciation or humorous caricature of a book which has +worked such an amazing effect in literature as has the Bible would +be tempered by some recognition of the fact that these other +minds--poets, orators, sages, and scientists--have found illumination +and help in its pages. Liberal Christianity will be intellectually +broad. Certainly the greatest of modern pagans, Goethe, will not be +accused of favoritism toward the Bible, yet he said: "I esteem the +gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the +reflected splendor of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of +Jesus Christ, of so divine a kind as only the divine could ever have +manifested upon earth." The Earl of Rochester saw that the only +liberalism which objects to the Bible, in its true uses, is the +liberalism of licentiousness; and he left this saying: "A bad heart +is the great argument against this holy book." And Faraday, weeping, +said: "Why will people go astray when they have this blest book to +guide them?" + +If we turn to literature we encounter many such liberal thinkers as +Theodore Parker, who calmly informs us: "This collection of books has +taken such a hold upon the world as has no other. The literature of +Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and +heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book. It goes equally +to the cottage of the plain man and the palace of the king. It is +woven into the literature of the scholar and colors the talk of the +street." That is the voice of the liberalism which includes rather +than excludes. + +These were men not of the band of evangelical Christian preachers, who +are roughly classed as a set of persons unable to tell the truth about +the Bible, for fear they may lose their means of subsistence; these +are men who know the true mission of the Bible. It is not to furnish +a picture of life in the time of Moses such as life ought to be, a +portrait of a David for the imitation of men, a statue of a warrior +in a time of barbarism who shall command my obedience to his commands +now, an idea of God wrought out in ignorance and darkness, which has +no self-development within it. The mission of the Bible is to furnish +a humanly written account of a people, just as human as we, in whom, +by divine inspiration, the soul of truth so lived and worked as to +develop, in gradual course, by laws, by hopes, by loves, by life, a +living, and, at last, perfectly authoritative ideal of righteousness, +but more than all a gradual growth of such moral power as would be +commanding in the redeeming self-sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ. +Every page of the Old Testament was only preparatory, as the thorny +bush is preparatory for the rose. Christ is the end of the long, weary +human history that leads to Him. If the laws of Sinai had been enough, +there never would have been a Calvary. No one for a moment dreams that +the God of nature could have brought forth such a fruit as the life +and ideas of Jesus without a tree of such a history, a tree rooted in +the ground, storm-twisted, gnarled, and valuable only for its fruit. +We are not asked to eat the roots and bark and branches; only the +fruit has an appeal to us. Its appeal is to our hunger, its authority +lies in the fact that it satisfies our hunger. + +It has satisfied the hunger of men whose liberalism came from their +being made liberally. Large and capacious souls of mighty yearnings +are they. They stand in contrast with the puny critics who assert +that the Bible fails to feed them, because they have never tasted its +nourishment. + +Liberal Christianity, separating itself from the dogmatism which would +make Christianity a book religion, worshiping a literary idol rather +than loving a human revelation of the divine, knows it is not an +ignorant lot of men and women who have received most from the Bible +and spoken most gratefully of its message. When we think of sending +the Bible to barbarism, with the hope of creating in its stead +civilization, we can look into the face of John Selden, one of the +most illustrious of English lawyers, when he says: "I have surveyed +most of the learning that is among the sons of men, yet at this moment +I can recall nothing in them on which to rest my soul, save one from +the sacred Scriptures, which rises much on my mind. It is this: 'The +grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, +teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live +soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for +that blest hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our +Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem +us unto himself, a peculiar people zealous of good works.'" Liberal +religion must include Selden. We will not be deterred from giving the +Bible to heathenism of any kind when we remember that Sir William +Jones has left these words: "The Scriptures contain more true +sublimity, more exquisite beauty, and finer strains of poetry and +eloquence than could be collected from all other books that were ever +composed in any age or in any idiom." Liberal religion must be as +broad as Sir William Jones. + +This is a very needy world, and many are the institutions of evil that +need to be changed for institutions of goodness. If we are to believe +the eloquence of hopeless unbelief, we ourselves will only be the +slaves of a fatalism which says that man is but a result of forces; +that what we call crime is but a part of the necessary course of +things, and that there is no such thing as moral responsibility. This +makes all reform or efforts at staying the tide of evil useless. +Oftentimes the heart of the man who has ceased to read his Bible gets +the victory over this dreadful philosophy, and it is not remarkable +that the skeptic becomes the exponent of freedom, charging like a host +of war upon all institutions of slavery. Liberal theology puts its one +hand on the dogmatist who tells him to accept literal infallibility, +and its other on the sincere lover of men who has lost his Bible +entirely. And liberalism says: It is in just such moments that we +trust our Bible the most, and we remember that William Wilberforce, +who lifted the chains from the bondmen, has said: "I never knew +happiness until I found Christ as a Savior. Read the Bible! Bead the +Bible! Through all my perplexities and distresses I never read any +other book, I never knew the want of any other." We are certainly not +despising the science which is worthy of a name, nor are we forgetting +any proposition which has found a place in the world's thought, if we +look into the face of Sir John Herschel, who tells us that "all human +discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more +and more strongly the truths contained in the holy Scriptures." It is +truly no part of wisdom for us to conclude that for scientific reasons +we ought to forsake our Bible when Professor Dana avers: "The grand +old book of God still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves +are turned and pondered, the more will it sustain and illustrate the +sacred Word." + +Surely it is not the hour dogmatically to withdraw this book, which +has proved the basis of civilization. Professor Lyell, the great +English geologist, tells us: "In the year 1806 the French Institute +enumerated no less than eighty geological theories which were hostile +to the Scriptures, but not one of these theories is held today." +Bacon's remark is still true: "There never was found in any age of the +world either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good +as the Bible." And John Marshall and Prince Bismarck agree with Daniel +Webster when he says: "If we abide by the principles taught in the +Bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and +our posterity neglect its instructions and authority no man can tell +how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in +profound obscurity." There is not an anarchist in America who does not +clap his hands when he hears a Bible with the Ten Commandments and the +Sermon on the Mount denounced. Indeed, the civilization in which we +stand, as compared with the barbarism out of which we have been led +by the Bible, would make William Henry Seward's assertion only a mild +statement of the truth when he says: "The whole hope of human progress +is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible." I prefer +lawyers like these to lead American public opinion. Part of the +service of these men has been that they have shown theology that the +Bible is not a set of texts on a dead level of authority and equal +value, but the revealing, slow and sure, of an inspiration obeyed by a +certain people in the realm of morals like that inspiration obeyed by +another people in the realm of art, and its test is: Does the Bible's +ultimate message, its crowning commandment of Christ's life and love, +produce goodness in morals? just as the test of the long revelation +of beauty in his ancestors and the Greek is, does its ultimate +commandment produce goodness in art. + +Christianity does not ask: "What think ye of the Bible?" It asks: +"What think ye of Christ?" There the throne is set, and so majestic is +His glory that the moment we come into His presence we are judged. The +Judge of the earth has taken His place in thought, history and hope. +He is not on trial, and He asks no question as to what man thinks of +the book which has enthroned Him in literature. The test is placed in +my conduct and yours; each may say with Michael Bruce, who left these +words on the fly-leaf of his Bible: + + 'Tis very vain of me to boast + How small a price this Bible cost; + The day of judgment will make clear + 'Twas very cheap or very dear. + +Shall we go forward with our Bible or backward without it? Infidelity +has always forgotten that, so far as it has an eye for liberty and +humanity, the Christianity not of sects but of the Bible has furnished +it and trained it. The liberalism which puts its Bible aside will +acknowledge that a Christless humanity culminated in Rome. Skepticism +is often eloquent when it tries to show how much "fragments of Roman +art" had to do with the making of modern civilization. Now, as Rome +marks the height to which humanity without a Bible ascended, it would +seem that this would be just the point where free and untrammeled +thought and the fullest intellectual liberty would be found. Right +there, where a Christless race was supreme, ought to be the place +where the liberty abounded which the religion of Christ is said to +destroy. + +Whose program for the production of intellectual and spiritual liberty +can liberals accept? Hoarse is the cry: The Bible is to be cast out. +We look and behold men who have these opinions sitting on the throne +of the Caesars. Now, one would suppose the intellect of that whole +realm would have fair play. There was no Bible there to fetter or to +annoy. This ought to be the halcyon age for "the liberty of man, woman +and child." These rulers have the same dignified abhorrence for all +kinds of religion. The skeptic Lucretius says: "The fear of the lower +world must be sent headlong forth. It poisons life to its lowest +depths; it spreads over all things the blackness of death; it leaves +no pleasure unalloyed." I match the Roman with the phrase of a recent +orator of this school who spoke of the soldiers dead, as now "sleeping +beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of +storm, each in the windowless palace of rest." There was no window in +the grave when more illustrious and original skeptics talked about it. +Modern infidelity has many expressions on the future after death which +sound like the old Roman distich, "I was not, and became; I was, and +am no more." + +Its orator, bending over the body of his dear brother, said nothing +more touching than did Tacitus over the grave of Agricola, as he +wrote: "If there is a place for the spirits of the pious; if, as the +wise suppose, great souls do not become extinct with their bodies; +if"--oh, that age of "if" ought to have been an age when every brain +was free and no thought or sentiment were a chain. The Bible of +Christianity was not powerful enough to throttle anybody. Its pages +were not all written; its authors were hunted and outcast. Morals, +too, ought to have been all right, for we are told that they are +independent of God and Christ. + +But what is the fact? Strangely enough, in that age, when nearly every +monarch, or poet, or philosopher was a humorous skeptic and they had +no Christian religion to "bind their hands," in an age when nothing +but this sort of infidelity was supreme, Seneca, to whom connoisseurs +in ethics blandly turn when they grow weary of the strenuous Paul or +the pensive John, Seneca, while he wrote a book on poverty, has a +fortune of $15,000,000, with a house full of citrus tables made of +veined wood brought from Mount Atlas. While he framed moral precepts +which we are besought to substitute for the Sermon on the Mount, he +was openly accused of constant and shameless iniquity, and was leading +his distinguished and tender pupil, Nero, into those practises and +preparing him for those atrocities which Seneca himself had upon his +own soul while he wrote his book on clemency. At that hour the Bible +Christianity offered to the world's heart and aspiration, not a book, +not a theorist of morals, but a man for the leadership of humanity, +and, of that Man the literary and calm French skeptic says: "Jesus +will never be surpassed." In the age of Rome, when people were not +burdened by churches or Bibles, Lucian says: "If any one loves wealth +and is dazed by gold; if any one measures happiness by purple and +power; if any one brought up among flatterers and slaves has never had +a conception of liberty, frankness and truth; if any one has wholly +surrendered himself to pleasure, full tables, carousals, lewdness, +sorcery, and deceit, let him go to Rome." There was no Bible either +to preach against it or to interfere with it. These things were the +product then, as they are now, of infidelity. Whenever the world +wishes a civilization so barbarous as that, the reviler of the Bible +must create it, for they have the applause of evil and the good-will +of crime. In the age of Rome, when this skepticism was the creed of +the State, Nero got tired of the goddess Astarte, and murdered his own +brother, his wife, and his mother, and the senate was so affected with +the same opinion that they heard his justification and proceeded to +heap new honors upon him. He threw the preacher Paul into jail, but +there Paul wrought out the impulse of Europe. In the age when the +great Livy said that "neglect of gods" had come, Caligula let loose +his imperial frenzy, and every stream of blood that could be sent +toward the sea carried its red tide. In that age when, like later +eloquent critics, Ennius said that he did not believe that the gods +thought of human beings, "for if the gods concerned themselves about +the human race the good would prosper and the bad suffer," the +courtesan was kept for pleasure and the wife for domestic slavery. In +that happy age of unbelief, when Menander sung "the gods do not care +for men," "the homes were," according to Juvenal, "broken up before +the nuptial garland faded"; and according to Tertullian, "they married +only to be divorced." Friends exchanged wives; infanticide and other +hellish crimes were common. This is what that spirit, in its purity, +did for the home, when there was no Bible to read at its hearthstone +and no New Testament to put into the hands of young lovers departing +to make a new rooftree. + +Labor will some day be too liberal to give up its Bible. In that age, +when "God was dead"; in that age, when "the gods had abdicated"; +they said, "the mechanic's occupation is degrading. A workshop is +incompatible with anything noble." The curse of slavery had blotted +the name of labor, and they agreed that "a purchased laborer is better +than a hired one," and thousands of prison-like dwellings rose to +conceal the myriads of slaves. In that age Nero, who had the same +opinion about God which the vaunting spirit which calls itself liberal +has today, had a "golden house" as large as a city, with colonnades a +mile long, and within it a statue of Nero 120 feet high. That is what +the theory of infidelity did for labor and the working man when it +was on the throne. Do you wonder that from that day to this the +"carpenter's son" of the Bible has been scoffed at by this infidelity? + +In that age, when the theories of infidelity ruled, the gladiators +made wet with their blood the great enclosure of the arena. The women +and timid girls of Rome gave lightly the sign of death. The crowd +shook the building with applause as the palpitating body was dragged +by a hook into the death-chamber, and slaves turned up the bloody soil +and covered the blood-dabbled earth with sand that the awful amusement +might go on. All this was allowed by infidelity in its purity, before +it had been influenced by the Christian's Bible into believing that +such things are atrocious. + +Oh, when I hear infidelity prate of the horrors of slavery and defend +a Godless theory of the State, I remember that those who had it in its +purity did not regard the slave as a man. When I read the story of +slavery and hear an exponent of free thought say, "The doctrine that +woman is a slave or serf of man--whether it comes from hell or heaven, +from God or demon, from the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, or +the very Sodom of perdition--is savagery pure and simple," I say, +"That is so, but just that was the ruling idea when infidelity was on +the throne of Rome." And only where the Bible has gone and triumphed +has woman the privileges which are thus praised. + +When I hear it said: "Slavery includes all other crimes. It is the +joint product of the kidnaper, pirate, thief, murderer, and hypocrite. +It degrades labor and corrupts leisure. To lacerate the naked back, to +sell wives, to steal babes, to debauch your soul--this is slavery," I +answer: "That is so," and I add that all these and a thousand other +damnable features of slavery were seen in Rome when the whole Roman +people felt and spoke about the message of the Bible just as your type +of liberalism does today. + +To all this wretched state of man what offers came from Seneca, whom +skepticism quotes as a moralist? Why, he said: "Admire only thyself"; +and when he saw that a man must get out of himself, he said: "Give +thyself to philosophy." Not philosophy, but the power of the Bible's +Christ has lifted man upward to his highest life. + +If ever anti-Christianity had a chance to show its beauty, it was when +it was at its supreme strength, and when Christianity was a babe in +the manger; and these are only suggestions of the hell it dug for man +at Rome. You say that it was not what skepticism is at the present +day, and I acknowledge that it is so. Why? Because nineteen centuries +have rolled like waves of light between, and Christ has improved it +in spite of itself. Never had the world so good a chance to see what +almost absolute skepticism and unbelief could and would do for the +liberty of the human soul as then. But when the thrones of Rome were +occupied with men who held the same opinion of the Bible as he does +today, what was the freedom of the race? + +The scene all comes back. Here is a little, obscure set of poor people +who follow the words and life of the son of a carpenter. They are +powerful in nothing that Rome calls power. But Rome says that they +shall not think that way. Celsus, from whom our less scholarly +skepticism is ready to borrow arguments, was not enough for the new +thought in the arena of debate, and they cried for another arena. Let +us remember that unbelief, in its purity at that date, was so offended +at nothing as at the fact that the Church said: "Christian justice +makes all equal who bear the name of man," and that Paul said: "There +is neither bond nor free, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Nothing +so offended the representative of free thought in that period as +the fact that a rich Roman, in the time of Trajan, having become a +Christian, presented freedom to his 1,250 slaves on an Easter day. +And, in all that time, when poor Christians with the funds of the +Church were privately buying the freedom of slaves, I do not find +that a base liberalism believed in liberty. Neither did it believe in +freedom of thought. It is the blossom of egotism; it has nothing to +which it bows; it beholds no majesty to which it can look up. It is +sublime self-conceit, and it has no hesitancy in telling the whole +human race that at its grandest moments it has been wrong. This +egotism dared to become active in Rome, and it asked the Christians, +in the person of the Emperor, to worship him, and to strew incense +about him. "I will honor the Emperor," said Theophilus, "not by +worshiping him, but by praying for him." Such men as that infidelity +kindly put to death. Around their quivering limbs the infidelity of +that day made the fagots to flame, and it taught the red tongues of +cruel death to creep about their smoking bodies. + +Men who believed that the Bible's influence was what infidelity says +it is, made the funeral pyre for Polycarp, the populace bringing fuel +for the fire, and while the flames made a glory of their lambent +glare, he cried out: "Six and eighty years have I served him and he +has done me nothing but good, and how could I curse him, my Lord +and Savior. If you would know what I am, I tell you frankly, I am a +Christian." He did his own thinking, and was brave enough to avow his +opinion, for which hate of Christianity duly burned him. This was the +way infidelity treated free speech. In that way it unchained the soul +of Polycarp. Infidelity's idea of Christianity sent the martyrs of +Numidia and Paulus out of the world while they were praying for their +murderers. Who believed in freedom then? Infidelity's idea of the +message of the Bible followed the Christian like a wild beast, and +in the catacomb of Calixtus drew from the pursued soul the pathetic +exclamation: "Oh, sorrowful times, when we can not even in caves +escape our foes!" And all this was true, because they said, +"Recompense to no man evil for evil"; "Pray for them that despitefully +use you and persecute you." + +This spirit of hate has had at least one holiday at the expense of +Christian faith. On the night of the 18th of July, 64, Rome was swept +with fire. Six days and nights it raged. Ruined was the world's +metropolis and excited were the wo-stricken people. Nero, whose +opinions of Christianity, by the way, were wonderfully like the +orator's, was king, and the people suspected that this royal monster +did it. Men told of how he exulted over the sea of flame as he watched +it from the tower of Maecenas; and whatever the truth of this may be, +it is certain that for the rage of the people Nero must have a victim, +and Tacitus tells us that he charged the Christians with the crime. +Then opened in Rome the awful carnival of bloodshed that the orator +never mentions, in which horrible modes of torture and excruciating +methods of producing pain vied with each other in satisfying the +demands of death. Women bound to raging bulls and dragged to death +were not without the companionship of others who, in the evening, in +Nero's garden, were coated with pitch, covered with tar, bound to +stakes of pine, lighted with fire, and sent to run aflame with the +hatred of Christianity. Through the crowd of sufferers a gentleman, +who was ultra-liberal as the orator, drove about, fantastically +attired as a charioteer, and the people were wild with delight. +Domitian had the same ideas, and severe were his persecutions of the +new heresy. This was the day on which infidelity was so full of the +love of freedom that it cried: "The Christians to the lions!" + +And so I might recount to you how for hundreds of years the Church +found out how early and unchristianized infidelity loved freedom of +thought. To a type of liberals, it has for years seemed a joy to go +to the places in the old world and note how intolerant the Church has +been. Now I suggest to any one that he go and visit some of the places +where men who thought of Christianity as negativism thinks showed +their faith and its fruits. Let him go to the Colosseum and ask the +winds that moan over its ruins what they know of the history +of infidelity. The winds will hush in that wreck of stupendous +magnificence, and with an eloquence gathered from seventeen centuries +they will tell him a story that will cause a flow of tears, for much +of infidelity is of noble heart. They will tell him how the marble +seats were crowded with thousands; again will sweep upward the shout +of the excited throng; before him there will lie a half-dead Christian +martyr, and near that pool of blood will stand a lion who has satiated +his horrid thirst. + +They will tell him how infidelity made that splendid place a temple +of the furies, how it laughed and yelled and applauded, as it amused +itself with that spectacle of horror. They will tell him how the +underground passages served to keep and cage wild beasts, and how +those who then hated Christianity starved the fierce lion until his +eyes rolled in hot hunger and his teeth were sharpened with its agony. +They will tell him how the infidelity of that day put balls of fire +on the backs of the lions, and how the madness of their passion was +increased by scattering hated colors about, tearing the beasts with +iron hooks and beating them with cruel whips. They will tell how the +Christian was made to fight these infuriated beasts without weapons, +while infidelity was frantic with applause. It said "no" to the torn +body yonder, that was mangled and supplicating in blood for life. I +would have him stand there until, in after years, in a nobler strain +than that of Byron, he could say: + + And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon + All this, and cast a wide and tender light, + Which softened down the hoar austerity + Of rugged desolation. + + * * * * * + + Till the place + Became religion, and the heart ran o'er + With silent worship of the great of old! + The dead but sceptered sovereigns who still rule + Our spirits from their urns. + +So long as I know what this book has been and done, so long as man's +history will not allow me to risk the interests of society with the +infidelity which has so often demoralized it, so long will I yearn to +get the Bible and its message to all men. It has been our world's best +book. With this book as inspiration and resource, William Tyndale +and Miles Coverdale were so to continue and complete the task of The +Venerable Bede and John Wyclif as to make an epoch in the history of +that language to be used by Shakespeare and Burke--an era as distinct +as that which Luther's Bible so soon should mark in the history of a +language to be such a potent instrument in the hands of Goethe and +Hegel. For this very act of heresy, Tyndale was to be called "a +full-grown Wyclif," and Luther "the redeemer of his mother-tongue." +With the Bible, Calvin was to conceive republics at Geneva, and +Holbein to paint, in spite of the iconoclasm of the Reformation, the +faces of Holy Mother and Saint, and in spite of the cruelty of the +Church, scripturally conceived satires illustrating the sale of +indulgences. With that book Gustavus Vasa was to protect and nurture +the freedom of the land of flowing splendors, while Angelo was +transcribing sacred scenes upon the Sistine vault or fixing them in +stone. Reading this book, More was to die with a smile; Latimer, +Cranmer, and Ridley to perish while illuminating with living torches, +and the Anabaptist to arouse the sympathies of Christendom by his +agonies. With this book in hand, Shakespeare was to write his plays; +Raleigh was to die, knight, discoverer, thinker, statesman, martyr; +Bacon to lay the foundation of modern scientific research--three stars +in the majestic constellation about Henry's daughter. With this Bible +open before them the English nation would behold the Spanish Armada +dashed to pieces upon the rocks, while Edmund Spenser mingled his +delicious notes with the tumult of that awful wreck. + +This book was to produce the edict of Nantes, while John of Barneveld +would give new life to the command of William the Silent--"Level +the dikes; give Holland back to the ocean, if need be," thus making +preparation for the visit of the Mayflower pilgrims to Leyden or +Delfthaven. Their eyes resting upon its pages, Selden and Pym were to +go to prison, while Grotius dreamed of the rights of man in peace and +war, and Guido and Rubens were painting the joys of the manger or the +sorrows of Calvary. His hand resting upon this book, Oliver Cromwell +would consolidate the hopes and convictions of Puritanism into a sword +which should conquer at Nasby, Marston Moor and Dunbar, leave to the +throne of Charles I, a headless corpse, and create, if only for an +hour's prophecy, a commonwealth of unbending righteousness. With that +volume in their homes, the Swede and the Huguenot, the Scotch-Irishman +and the Quaker, the Dutchman and the freedom-loving cavalier, were to +plan pilgrimages to the West, and establish new homes in America. With +that book in the cabin of the _Mayflower_, venerated and obeyed by +sea-tossed exiles, was to be born a compact from which should spring +a constitution and a government for the life of which all these +nationalities should willingly bleed and struggle, under a conqueror +who should rise from the soil of the cavaliers, and unsheath his sword +in the colony of the Puritans. + +Out of that Bible were to come the "Petition of Right," the national +anthem of 1628, the "Grand Remonstrance," and "Paradise Lost." With +it, Blake and Pascal should voyage heroically in diverse seas. In its +influence Jeremy Taylor should write his "Liberty of Prophesying," +Sir Matthew Hale his fearless replies, while Rembrandt was placing on +canvas little Dutch children, with wooden shoes, crowding to the feet +of a Jewish Messiah. + +Its lines, breathing life, order, and freedom, would inspire +John Bunyan's dream, Algernon Sidney's fatal republicanism, and +Puffendorf's judicature. With them, William Penn would meet the +Indian of the forest, and Fenelon, the philosopher, in his meditative +solitude. Locke and Newton and Leibnitz would carry it with them in +pathless fields of speculation, while Peter the Great was smiting +an arrogant priest in Russia, and William was ascending the English +throne. From its poetry Cowper, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning +would catch the divine afflatus; from its statesmanship Burke, +Romilly, and Bright would learn how to create and redeem institutions; +from its melodies Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven would write +oratorios, masses, and symphonies; from its declaration of divine +sympathy Wilberforce, Howard, and Florence Nightingale were to +emancipate slaves, reform prisons, and mitigate the cruelties of war; +from its prophecies Dante's hope of a united Italy was to be realized +by Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. Looking upon the family +Bible as he was dying, Andrew Jackson said: "That book, sir, is the +rock on which the Republic rests"; and with her hand upon that book, +Victoria, England's queen, was to sum up her history as a power +amid the nations of the earth, when, replying to the question of an +ambassador: "What is the secret of England's superiority among the +nations?" she would say: "Go tell your prince that this is the secret +of England's political greatness," + +Beloved friends, when spurious liberalism, with all her literature, +produces such a roll-call as this; when out of her pages I may see +coming a nobler set of forces for the making of manhood, then, and +only then, will I give up my Bible; then, and only then, will I cease +to pray and labor that it may be given to all the world. + + + + +HILLIS + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Newell Dwight Hillis was born at Magnolia, Iowa, in 1858. He first +became known as a preacher of the first rank during his pastorate over +the large Presbyterian church in Evanston, Illinois. This reputation +led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he +succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted +audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in +Chicago. In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to +succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit made famous by the ministry +of Henry Ward Beecher. By his strong personality and mental gifts he +draws to his church a large and eager following. His best known books +are "A Man's Value to Society," and "The Investment of Influence." + + + + +HILLIS + +Born in 1858 + +GOD THE UNWEARIED GUIDE[1] + +[Footnote 1: By permission of the _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_. Copyright, +1905.] + +_Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, &c._--Isaiah xl., +1-31. _He shall not fail, nor be discouraged_.--xliv., 4. + + +This is an epic of the unwearied God, and the fainting strength of +man. For splendor of imagery, for majesty and elevation, it is one +of the supreme things in literature. Perhaps no other Scripture has +exerted so profound an influence upon the world's leaders. Luther read +it in the fortress of Salzburg, John Brown read it in the prison +at Harper's Ferry. Webster made it the model of his eloquence, +Wordsworth, Carlyle and a score of others refer to its influence upon +their literary style, their thought and life. Like all the supreme +things in eloquence, this chapter is a spark struck out of the fires +of war and persecution. Its author was not simply an exile--he was a +slave who had known the dungeon and the fetter. Bondage is hard, even +for savages, naked, ignorant, and newly drawn from the jungle, but +slavery is doubly hard for scholars and prophets, for Hebrew merchants +and rulers. + +This outburst of eloquence took its rise in a war of invasion. When +the northern host swept southward, and overwhelmed Jerusalem, the +onrushing wave was fretted with fire; later, when the wave of war +retreated, it carried back the detritus of a ruined civilization. The +story of the siege of Jerusalem, the assault upon its gates, the fall +of the walls, all the horrors of famine and of pestilence, are given +in the earlier chapters of this wonderful book. The homeward march +of the Persian army was a kind of triumphal procession in which the +Hebrew princes and leaders walked as captives. The king marched in the +guise of a slave, with his eyes put out, followed by sullen princes, +with bound hands, and unsubdued hearts. As slaves the Hebrews crossed +the Euphrates at the very point where Xenophon crossed with his +immortal ten thousand. In the land of bondage the exiles were planted, +not in military prisons, but in gangs, working now in the fields, now +in the streets of the city, and always under the scourge of soldiers. +When thirty years had passed the forty thousand captives were +scattered among the people, one brother in the palace, and another a +slave in the fields. Soon their religion became only a memory, their +language was all but forgotten, their old customs and manner of life +were utterly gone. But God raised up two gifted souls for just such an +emergency as this. One youth, through sheer force of genius, climbed +to the position of prime minister, while a young girl through her +loveliness came to the king's palace. One day an emancipation +proclamation went forth, from a king who had come to believe in the +unseen God who loved justice, and would overwhelm oppression and +wrong. The good news went forth on wings of the wind. Making ready +for their return to their homeland, all the captives gathered on the +outskirts of the desert. It was a piteous spectacle. The people were +broken in health, their beauty marred, their weapon a staff, their +garments the leather coat, their provisions pieces of moldy bread, and +their path fifteen hundred miles of sands, across the desert. To such +an end had come a disobedient and sinful generation! + +In that hour, beholding these exiles and captives, a flood of emotions +rushed over the poet; he saw those bound who should conquer; he saw +that men were slaves who should be kings. Then, with a rush, an +immeasurable longing shivers through him like a trumpet call. Oh, to +save them! To perish for their saving! To die for their life, to be +offered for them all! In an abandon of grief and sympathy, he began +to speak to them in words of comfort and hope. At first these exiles, +dumb with pain and grief, listened, but listened with no light +quivering in the eye, and no hope flitting like sunshine across the +face. Their yesterdays held bondage, blows and degradation; their +tomorrow held only the desert and the return to a ruined land. Then +the word of the Lord came upon the poet. What if the night winds did +go mourning through the deserted streets of their capital! What if +their language had decayed and their institutions had perished? What +if the farmer's field was only a waste of thorns and thickets, and the +towns become heaps and ruins! What if the king of Babylon and his +army has trampled them under foot, as slaves trample the shellfish, +crushing out the purple dye that lends rich color to a royal robe? +"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." Is the way long and through a +desert? "Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall +be made low." Has slavery worn man's strength to nothingness until he +is as weak as the broken reed and the withered grass? The spirit of +the Lord will revive the grass, trampled down by the hoofs of war +horses. Soon the bruised root shall redden into the rose and the +fluted stem climb into the tree. And think you if God's winds can +transform a spray and twig into a trunk fit for foundation of house or +mast of ship, that eternal arms can not equip with strength the hand +of patriot? + +Is the Shepherd and Leader of His little flock unequal to their +guidance across the desert? "Behold the Lord will come with a strong +arm; he shall feed his flock like a shepherd and he shall gather the +lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom." What! Man's hand +unequal to the task of rebuilding Jerusalem? Hath not God pledged His +strength to the worker, that God whose arm strikes out worlds as the +smith strikes out sparks upon the anvil? Is not man's helper that God +who dippeth up the seas in the hollow of His hand? Who weighs the +mountains with scales and the hills in the balance? What! Thine +enemies too strong for thee? Why, God looketh upon all the nations and +enemies of the earth as but a drop in the bucket. He sendeth forth His +breath, and the tribes disappear as dust is blown from the balance. +Then the trumpet call shivered through these exiles. "Hast thou not +known? Have the sons of the fathers never heard of the everlasting +God, the Lord, Creator of the ends of the earth? Fainteth not, neither +is weary!" Heavy is the task, but the Eternal giveth power and +strength. Even tho young patriots and heroes faint and fall, they that +wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. While fulfilling their +task of rebuilding they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they +shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Oh, what a +word is this! What page in literature is comparable to it for comfort! +Wonderful the strength of the warrior! Mighty the influence of the +statesman! All powerful seems the inventor, but greater still the poet +who dwells above the clang and dust of time, with the world's secret +trembling on his lips. + + He needs no converse nor companionship, + In cold starlight, whence thou can not come, + The undelivered tidings in his breast, + Will not let him rest. + He who looks down upon the immemorable throng, + And binds the ages with a song. + And through the accents of our time, + There throbs the message of eternity. + +And so the unwearied God comforted the fainting strength of man. + +Primarily, this glorious outburst was addrest to the exiles as heads +of families. The father's strength was broken and his children had +been crusht and ground to earth. The ancient patrimony was gone; he +had gathered his little ones in from the huts where slaves dwelt. He +was leading his little band of pilgrims into a desert. But the prophet +spoke to the exiles as to men who believed that the family was the +great national institution. With us, the family is important, but with +these Hebrew exiles the family was everything. For them the home was +the spring from whence the mighty river rolled forth. The family was +the headwaters of national, industrial, social and religious life. +Every father was revered as the architect of the family fortune. The +first ambition of every young Hebrew was to found a family. Just as +abroad, a patrician gentleman builds a baronial mansion, fills it with +art treasures, hangs the shields and portraits of his ancestors upon +the walls, hoping to hand the mansion forward to generations yet +unborn, so every worthy Hebrew longed to found a noble family. How +keen the anguish, therefore, of this exile in the desert! What a scene +is that of the exiles upon the edge of the desert. Darkness is upon +the land and the fire burns low into coals. Worn and exhausted, +children are sleeping beside the mother. Here is an old man, lying +apart, broken and bitter in spirit--one son stands forth a dim +figure--looking down upon his aged parents, upon the wife of his +bosom and upon his little children. Standing under the stars, he +meditates his plans. How shall he care for these, when he returns to +his ruined estate? In the event of death, what arm shall lift a shield +above these little ones? What if sickness or death pounce upon a home +as an eagle upon a dove, as wolves upon lambs, or as brigands descend +from the mountains upon sleeping herdsmen! + +Every founder of a family knows the agony of such an hour! We are in a +world where men are never more than a few weeks from, possible poverty +and want; little wonder then that all men seek to provide for the +future of the home and the children. But to the exile standing in the +darkness, with love that broods above his babes, there comes this +word of comfort: God's solicitude for you and yours will not let Him +slumber or sleep! God will lift up a highway for the feet of the +little band of pilgrims. The eternal God shall be thy guide in the +march through the desert. His pillar of cloud by day and of fire by +night shall stand in the sky; He shall lead the flock like a shepherd; +He shall gather the little ones in His arms, and carry the children +in His bosom. And if the father fall on the march, the wings of the +Eternal shall brood the babes that are left. His right arm shall be a +sword and His left arm a shield. The eternal God fainteth not, neither +is weary. Having time to care for the stars, and to lead them forth by +name, He hath time and thought also for His children. What a word is +this for the home! What comfort for all whose hearts turn toward their +children! What a pledge to fathers for generations yet unborn! This +truth arms every parent for any emergency. For God is round about +every home as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, for bounty and +protection. + +But the sage was also thinking of men whose hopes were broken, and +whose lives were baffled and beaten. These exiles, crossing the +desert, might have claimed for themselves the poet's phrase, "Lo, +henceforth I am a prisoner of hope." Like Dante, they might have +cried, "For years my pillow by night has been wet with tears, and all +day long have I held heartbreak at bay." For these whose glorious +youth had been exhausted by bondage, life had run to its very dregs. +Gone the days of glorious strength! Gone all the opportunities that +belong to the era when the heart is young, the limitations of life had +become severe! Environment often is a cage against whose iron bars the +soul beats bloody wings in vain! + +How many men are held back by one weak nerve, or organ! How many are +shut in, and limited, and just fall short of supreme success because +of an hereditary weakness, handed on by the fathers! How many made one +mistake in youth in choosing the occupation and discovered the error +when it was too late! How many erred in judgment in their youth, +through one critical blunder, that has been irretrievable, and whose +burden is henceforth lasht to the back! In such an hour of depression, +Isaiah assembles the exiles, and exclaims, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my +people. Tho your young men faint and be weary, tho the strong utterly +fail, yet God is the unwearied one; with his help thou shalt take thy +burden, and mount up with wings as eagles; with his unwearied strength +thou shalt run with thy load and not be weary, and walk and not +faint." For this is the experience of persecution and the reward +of sorrow, bravely borne that the fainting strength of man is +supplemented by the sure help of the unwearied God. + +Therefore, in retrospect, exiles, prisoners, martyrs, who have +believed in God seem fortunate. The endungeoned heroes often seem the +children of careful good fortune and happiness. The saints, walking +through the fire, stand forth as those who are dear unto God. How the +point of view changes events. Kitto was deaf, and in his youth his +deafness broke his heart, but because his ears were closed to the +din of life, he became the great scholar of his time, and swept the +treasures of the world into a single volume, an armory of intellectual +weapons. Fawcett was blind, but through that blindness became a great +analytic student, a master of organization, and served all England in +her commerce. John Bright was broken-hearted, standing above the bier, +but Richard Cobden called him from his sorrow to become a voice for +the poor, to plead the cause of the opprest, and bring about the Corn +Laws for the hungry workers in the factories and shops. Comfort ye, +comfort ye, my people. + +Let the exile say unto himself: "Your warfare is accomplished; your +iniquity is pardoned; the Lord's hand will give unto thee double for +all thy sins that are forgiven." The great faiths and convictions of +the prophets and law-givers, your language and your laws and your +liberties, have not been destroyed by captivity; rather slavery +has saved them. At last you know their value; in contrast with the +idolatry of the Euphrates, the jargon of tongues, the inequality of +rights, the organization of justice and oppression, how wonderful the +equity of the laws of Moses! How beautiful the faith of the fathers! +How surely founded the laws of God. Henceforth idolatry, injustice and +sin became as monstrous in their ugliness as they were wicked in their +essence. Everything else might go, but not the faith of the fathers. +Persecution was like fire on the vase; it burned the colors in. Little +wonder that the tradition tells us that for the next hundred years, +at stated periods, all the people in the land came together, while a +reader repeated this chapter on the unwearied God and the fainting +strength of man that had recovered unto hope, men whose hopes had been +baffled and beaten. + +The thought of an unwearied God is also the true antidote to +despondency. The ground of optimism is in God. When that great thinker +described certain people as without God and without hope, there was +sure logic in his phrase, for the Godless man is always the hopeless +man. Between no God anywhere and the one God who is everywhere, there +is no middle ground. Either we are children, buffeted about by fate +and circumstances, with events tossing souls about in an eternal game +of battledore and shuttlecock, or else the world is our Father's +house, and God standeth within the shadow, keeping watch above His +own. For the man who believes in God, who allies himself to nature, +who makes the universe his partner, there is no defeat, and no death, +and no interruption of his prosperity. Concede that there is a God, +and it follows as a logical necessity that He will not permit any +enemy to ruin your life and His plans. For a man who holds this faith +it follows that there can be no defeat, or failure. Indeed, the +essential difference between men is the difference in their relation +toward God. Here are the biographies of two great men. Both are men +of genius, both are marvelously equipped, but their end was, oh, how +different. One is Martin Luther, who stood forth alone, affirming his +religious freedom, in the face of enemies and devils thick as the +tiles on the roofs of the houses. The few friends Luther had shut him +up in a fortress to save his life, but Luther mightily believed in +God. With the full consent of his marvelous gifts, he surrendered his +life to the will of God. Knowing that his days were as brief as +the withering grass, he allied himself with the Eternal. In his +discouragement he read these words, "The Everlasting God fainteth not, +neither is weary." In that hour Martin Luther shouted for joy. The +beetling walls of the fortress were as tho they were not. Victorious +he went forth, in thought, ranging throughout all Germany. And going +out, he went up and down the land telling the people that God would +protect him, and soon Germany was free. + +Goethe tells us that Luther was the architect of modern German +language and literature, and stamped himself into the whole national +life. The Germany of the Kaiser is simply Martin Luther written large +in fifty millions of men. But what made Luther? There was some hidden +energy and spirit within him! What was this spirit in him? The spirit +of beauty turned a lump of mud into that Grecian face about which +Keats wrote his poem. The spirit of truth changes a little ink into +a beautiful song. The spirit of strength and beauty in an architect +changes a pile of bricks into a house or cathedral or gallery. And the +thought of our unwearied God changed the collier's son into the +great German emancipator. But over against this man, who never knew +despondency, after his vision hour, stands another German. He, +too, was a philosopher, clothed with ample power, and blest with +opportunity. But he did evil in his life, and then the heart lost +its faith, and hope utterly perished. The more he loved pleasure and +pursued self, the more cynical and bitter he became. Pessimism set a +cold, hard stamp upon his face, and marred his beauty. Cynicism lies +like a black mark across his pages. At last, in his bitterness, the +philosopher tells us the whole universe is a mirage, and that yonder +summer-making sun is a bubble that repeats its iridescent tints in the +colors of the rainbow. Despair ate out his heart. He became the most +miserable of men, and knew no freedom from sorrow and pain. And lo, +now the man's philosophy has perished like a bubble, his influence +has utterly disappeared, for his books are unread, while only an +occasional scholar chances upon his name, tho the great summer-making +sun still shines on and Luther's eternal God fainteth not, neither is +weary. + +Are you weak, oh, patriot? Remember God is strong. Do your days of +service seem short, until your life is scarcely longer than the flower +that blooms to-day and is gone tomorrow? God is eternal, and He will +take care of your work. Are you sick with hope long deferred? Hope +thou in God; He shall yet send succor. Have troubles driven happiness +from thee, as the hawk drives the young lark or nightingale from its +nest? Return unto thy rest, troubled heart, for the Lord will deal +bountifully with thee. Are you anxious for your children? God will +bring the child back from the far country. For the child hath wandered +far, the golden thread spun in a mother's heart is an unbroken thread +that will draw him home! For things that distress you to-day, you +shall thank God to-morrow. Nothing shall break the golden chain that +binds you to God's throne. Are you hopeless and despondent because of +your fainting strength? Remember that the antidote for despondency is +the thought of the unwearied God who is doing the best He can for you, +and whose ceaseless care neither slumbers nor sleeps. + +Little wonder therefore that God became all and in all to this feeble +band of captives, journeying across the desert back to their ruined +life and land. God had taken away earthly things from them, that He +might be their all and in all. When the earth is made poor for us, +sometimes the heavens become rich. God closed the eyes of Milton to +the beauty in land and sea and sky, that he might see the companies of +angels marching and countermarching on the hills of God. He closed the +ears of Beethoven, that he might hear the music of St. Cecilia falling +over heaven's battlements. He gave Isaiah a slave's hut, that he might +ponder the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. How is +it that this prophet and poet has become companion of the great ones +of the earth? At the time Isaiah rebelled against his bondage, but +when it was all over, and the fitful fever had passed, and the fleshly +fetters had fallen, he smiled at the things that once alarmed him, as +he recalled his fainting strength and the unwearied God. + +Gone--that ancient capital. Babylon is a heap. Jerusalem a ruin! But +this epic of the unwearied Guide still lives! Isaiah, can never die! +Can a chapter die that has cheered the exile in his loneliness, that +has comforted the soldier upon his bivouac, that has braced the martyr +for his execution, that has given songs at midnight to the prisoners +in the dungeon? Out of suffering and captivity came this song of rest +and hope. At last the poet praised the eternal God for his bonds and +his imprisonment. Oh, it is darkness that makes the morning light so +welcome to the weary watcher. It is hunger that makes bread sweet. +It is pain and sickness that gives value to the physician and his +medicine. It is business trouble that makes you honor your lawyer and +counselor, and it is the sense of need that makes God near. + +Are there any merchants here who are despondent? Remember the eternal +God and make your appeal to the future. Are there any parents whose +children have wandered far? When they are old, the children will +return to the path of faith and obedience. Are there any in whom the +immortal hope burns low? The smoking flax He will not quench, but will +fan the flame into victory. Look up to-day; be comforted once more. +Work henceforth in hope. Live like a prince. Scatter sunshine. Let +your atmosphere be happiness. If troubles come, let them be the dark +background that shall throw your hope and faith into bolder relief. +God hath set His heart upon you to deliver you. Tho your hand faint, +and the tool fall, the eternal God fainteth not, neither is weary. He +will bring thy judgment unto victory, immortalize thy good deeds, and +crown thy career with everlasting renown. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +THE RECONCILIATION + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +Charles Edward Jefferson was born at Cambridge, Ohio, in 1860. He came +to public attention by the effectiveness of his preaching during a +most successful pastorate in Chelsea, Mass., from which he was called +to the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, in 1897. During his New York +pastorate the Tabernacle at 34th Street has been sold and a unique +structure, including an apartment tower ten stories high, has been +built farther up-town. Dr. Jefferson has published several successful +books. He has a mellow, sympathetic voice, of considerable range and +flexibility, and he speaks in an easy, conversational style. + + + + +JEFFERSON + +Born in 1860 + +THE RECONCILIATION[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission from "Doctrine and Deed," +Copyright, 1901, by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.] + +_Christ died for our sins_.--1 Cor. xv., 3. + + +I want to think with you this morning about the doctrine of the +Atonement. Having used that word atonement once, I now wish to drop +it. It is not a New Testament word, and is apt to lead one into +confusion. You will not find it in your New Testament at all, +providing you use the Revised Version. It is found in the King James +Version only once, and that is in the fifth chapter of Paul's letter +to the Romans; but a few years ago, when the revisers went to work, +they rubbed out the word and would allow it no place whatever in +the entire New Testament. They substituted for it a better +word--reconciliation--and that is the word that will probably be used +in the future theology of the Church. It is my purpose, then, this +morning, to think with you about the doctrine of the reconciliation, +or, to put it in a way that will be intelligible to all the boys and +girls, I want to think with you about the "making up" between God and +man. + +Christianity is distinctly a religion of redemption. Its fundamental +purpose is to recover men from the guilt and power of sin. All of +its history and its teachings must be studied in the light of that +dominating purpose. We are told sometimes that Jesus was a great +teacher, and so He was, but the apostles never gloried in that fact. +We are constantly reminded that He was a great reformer, and so He +was, but Peter and John and Paul seemed to be altogether unconscious +of that fact. It is asserted that He was a great philanthropist, a man +intensely interested in the bodies and the homes of men, and so of +course He was, but the New Testament does not seem to care for that. +It has often been declared that He was a great martyr, a man who laid +down His life in devotion to the truth, and so He was and so He did, +but the Bible never looks at Him from that standpoint or regards +Him in that light. It refuses to enroll Him among the teachers or +reformers or philanthropists or the martyrs of our race. According +to the apostolic writers, Jesus is the world's Redeemer, He was +manifested to take away sin. He is the Lamb of God that taketh away +the sin of the world. The vast and awful fact that broke the apostles' +hearts and sent them out into the world to baptize the nations into +His name, was the fact which Paul was all the time asserting, "He died +for our sins." + +No one can read the New Testament without seeing that its central and +most conspicuous fact is the death of Jesus. Take, for instance, the +gospels, and you will find that over one-quarter of their pages are +devoted to the story of His death. Very strange is this indeed, if +Jesus was nothing but an illustrious teacher. A thousand interesting +events of His career are passed over, a thousand discourses are never +mentioned, in order that there may be abundant room for the telling of +His death. Or take the letters which make up the last half of the New +Testament; in these letters there is scarcely a quotation from the +lips of Jesus. Strange indeed is this if Jesus is only the world's +greatest teacher. The letters seem to ignore that He was a teacher or +reformer, but every letter is soaked in the pathos of His death. There +must be a deep and providential reason for all this. The character of +the gospels and the letters must have been due to something that Jesus +said or that the Holy Spirit inbreathed. A study of the New Testament +will convince us that Jesus had trained His disciples to see in His +sufferings and death the climax of God's crowning revelation to the +world. The key-note of the whole gospel story is struck by John the +Baptist in his bold declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh +away the sin of the world." In that declaration there was a reference +to His death, for the "lamb" in Palestine lived only to be slain. As +soon as Jesus began His public career He began to refer in enigmatic +phrases to His death. He did not declare His death openly, but the +thought of it was wrapt up inside of all He said. Nicodemus comes to +Him at night to have a talk with Him about His work, and among other +things, Jesus says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness +so shall the Son of man be lifted up." Nicodemus did not know what He +meant--we know. He goes into the temple and drives out the men who +have made it a den of thieves, and when an angry mob surrounds Him He +calmly says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it +up." They did not know what He meant--we know. He goes into the city +of Capernaum, and is surrounded by a great crowd who seem to be eager +to know the way of life. He begins to talk to them about the bread +that comes down from heaven, and among other things He says, "The +bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life +of the world." They did not understand what He said--we understand it +now. One day in the city of Jerusalem He utters a great discourse +upon the good shepherd. "I am the good shepherd," He says; "the good +shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." They did not understand +Him--we do. In the last week of His earthly life it was reported that +a company of Greeks had come to see Him. He falls at once into a +thoughtful mood, and when at last He speaks it is to say that "I, if I +be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The men standing by did not +understand what He said--we understand. All along His journey, from +the Jordan to the cross, He dropt such expressions as this: "I have +a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be +accomplished." Men did not know what He was saying--it is all clear +now. + +But while He did not talk openly to the world about His death, He did +not hesitate to speak about it to His nearest friends. As soon as He +found a man willing to confess that He was indeed the world's Messiah, +the Son of the living God, He began to initiate His disciples into the +deeper mysteries of His mission. "From that time," Matthew says, "he +began to show, to unfold, to set forth the fact that he must suffer +many things and be killed." Peter tried to check Him in this +disclosure, but Jesus could not be checked. It is surprising how many +times it is stated in the gospels that Jesus told His disciples +He must be killed. Matthew says that while they were traveling in +Galilee, on a certain day when the disciples were much elated over the +marvelous things which He was doing, He took them aside and said +"Let these words sink into your ears: I am going to Jerusalem to be +killed." Later on, when they were going through Perea, Jesus took them +aside and said, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and at last +be put to death." On nearing Jerusalem His disciples became impatient +for a disclosure of His power and glory. He began to tell them about +the grace of humility. "The Son of man," He said, "is come, not to be +ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom +for many." On the last Tuesday of His earthly life He sat with His +disciples on the slope of the Mount of Olives, and in the midst of His +high and solemn teaching He said, "It is only two days now until I +shall be crucified." And on the last Thursday of His life, on the +evening of His betrayal, He took His disciples into an upper room, and +taking the bread and blessing it, He gave it to these men, saying, +"This is my body which is given for you." Likewise after supper He +took the cup, and when He had blest it gave it to them, saying, "This +is my blood of the covenant which is shed for you and for many for the +remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me." It would seem +from this that the one thing which Jesus was desirous that all His +followers should remember was the fact that He had laid down His life +for them. One can not read the gospels without feeling that he is +being borne steadily and irresistibly toward the cross. + +When we get out of the gospels into the epistles we find ourselves +face to face with the same tragic and glorious fact. Peter's first +letter is not a theological treatise. He is not writing a dissertation +on the person of Christ, or attempting to give any interpretation of +the death of Jesus; he is dealing with very practical matters. He +exhorts the Christians who are discouraged and downhearted to hold up +their heads and to be brave. It is interesting to see how again +and again he puts the cross behind them in order to keep them from +slipping back. "Endure," he says, "because Christ suffered for us. +Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree." The +Christians of that day had been overtaken by furious persecution. +They were suffering all sorts of hardships and disappointments. But +"suffer," he says, "because Christ has once suffered for sins, the +just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Certainly the +gospel, according to St. Peter, was: Christ died for our sins. + +Read the first letter of St. John, and everywhere it breathes the +same spirit which we have found in the gospels and in St. Peter. John +punctuates almost every paragraph with some reference to the cross. +In the first chapter he is talking about sin. "The blood of Jesus +Christ," he says, "cleanses us from all sins." In the second chapter +he is talking about forgiveness, and this leads him to think at once +of Jesus Christ, the righteous, "who is the propitiation for our sins, +and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world." In the +third chapter he is talking about brotherly love. He is urging the +members of the Church to lay down their lives, one for another, +"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for +us." In the fourth chapter he tells of the great mystery of Christ's +love: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, +and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." To the beloved +disciple evidently the great fact of the Christian revelation is that +Christ died for our sins. + +But it is in the letters of Paul that we find the fullest and most +emphatic assertion of this transcendent fact. It will not be possible +for me to quote to you even a half of what he said on the subject. If +you should cut out of his letters all the references to the cross, you +would leave his letters in tatters. Listen to him as he talks to his +converts in Corinth: "First of all I delivered unto you that which +I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." That was the +foremost fact, to be stated in every letter and to be unfolded in +every sermon. To Saul of Tarsus, Jesus is not an illustrious Rabbi +whose sentences are to be treasured up and repeated to listening +congregations; He is everywhere and always the world's Redeemer. +And throughout all of Paul's epistles one hears the same jubilant, +triumphant declaration, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who +loved me and gave himself for me." + +Let us now turn to the last book of the New Testament, the Book of +the Revelation. What does this prophet on the Isle of Patmos see and +hear, as he looks out into future ages and coming worlds? The book +begins with a doxology: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from +our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion forever and +ever." John looks, and beholds a great company of the redeemed. He +asks who these are, and the reply comes back, "These are they who have +washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." He +listens, and the song that goes up from the throats of the redeemed +is, "Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; +for thou wast slain and didst purchase us for God with thy blood." +At the center of the great vision which bursts upon the soul of the +exiled apostle, there is a Lamb that was slain. Whatever we may think +of Jesus of Nazareth, there is no question concerning what the men who +wrote the New Testament thought. To the men who wrote the book, Jesus +was not a Socrates or a Seneca, a Martin Luther or an Abraham Lincoln. +His life was not an incident in the process of evolution, His death +was not an episode in the dark and dreadful tragedy of human history. +His life is God's. greatest gift to men, His death is the climax and +the crowning revelation of the heart of the eternal. You can not open +the New Testament anywhere without the idea flying into your face, +"Christ died for our sins." + +How different all this is from the atmosphere of the modern Church. +When you go into the average church to-day, what great idea meets you? +Do you find yourselves face to face with the fact that Christ died +for our sins? I do not think you will often hear that great truth +preached. In all probability you will hear a sermon dealing with the +domestic graces, or with business obligations, or with political +duties and complications. You may hear a sermon on city missions, or +on foreign missions; you may hear a man dealing with some great evil, +or pointing out some alarming danger, or discussing some interesting +social problem, or urging upon men's consciences the performance of +some duty. It is not often in these modern days that you will hear +a sermon dealing with the thought that set the apostles blazing and +turned the world upside down. And right there, I think, lies one of +the causes of the weaknesses of the modern Church. We have been so +busy attending to the things that ought to be done, we have had no +time to feed the springs that keep alive these mighty hopes which make +us Christian men. What is the secret of the strength of the Roman +Catholic Church? How is it that she pursues her conquering way, in +spite of stupidities and blunders that would have killed any other +institution? I know the explanations that are usually offered, but it +seems to me they are far from adequate. Somebody says, But the Roman +Catholic Church does not hold any but the ignorant. That is not true. +It may be true of certain localities in America, but it is not true of +the nations across the sea. In Europe she holds entire nations in the +hollow of her hand; not only the ignorant, but the learned; not only +the low, but the high; not only the rude, but the cultured, the noble, +and the mighty. It will not do to say that the Roman Catholic Church +holds nobody but the ignorant. But even if it were true, it would +still be interesting to ascertain how she exercises such an influence +over the minds and hearts of ignorant people--for ignorant people are +the hardest of all to hold. When you say that the Church can hold +ignorant men, you are giving her the very highest compliment, for +you are acknowledging that she is in the possession of a power which +demands an explanation. The very fact that she is able to bring out +such hosts of wage-earning men and women in the early hours of Sunday +morning, men and women who have worked hard through the week, and many +of them far into the night, but who are willing on the Lord's Day to +wend their way to the house of God and engage in religious worship, +is a phenomenon which is worth thinking about. How does the Roman +Catholic Church do it? Somebody says she does it all by appealing to +men's fears, she scares men into penitence and devotion. Do you think +that that is a fair explanation? I do not think so. I can conceive how +she might frighten people for one generation, or for two, but I can +not conceive how she could frighten a dozen generations. One would +suppose that the spell would wear off by and by. There is a deeper +explanation than that The explanation is to be found in the spiritual +nature of man. The Roman Catholic leaders, notwithstanding their +blunders and their awful sins, have always seen that the central fact +of the Christian revelation is the death of Jesus, and around that +fact they have organized all their worship. Roman Catholics go to +mass; what is the mass? It is the celebration of the Lord's Supper. +What is the Lord's Supper? It is the ceremony that proclaims our +Lord's death until He comes. The hosts of worshipers that fill our +streets in the early Sunday morning hours are not going to church to +hear some man discuss an interesting problem, nor are they going to +listen to a few singers sing; they are going to celebrate once +more the death of the Savior of the world. In all her cathedrals +Catholicism places the stations of the cross, that they may tell to +the eye the story of the stages of His dying. On all her altars she +keeps the crucifix. Before the eyes of every faithful Catholic that +crucifix is held until his eyes close in death. A Catholic goes out of +the world thinking of Jesus crucified. So long as a Church holds on to +that great fact, she will have a grip on human minds and hearts that +can not be broken. The cross, as St. Paul said, a stumbling-block +to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, is the power of God unto +salvation to every one that believes. The Catholic Church has picked +up the fact of Jesus' death and held it aloft like a burning torch. +Around the torch she has thrown all sorts of dark philosophies, but +through the philosophies the light has streamed into the hearts and +homes of millions of God's children. + +Protestantism has prospered just in proportion as she has kept the +cross at the forefront of all her preaching. The missionaries bring +back the same report from every field, that it is the story of Jesus' +death that opens the hearts of the pagan world. Every now and then a +denomination has started, determined to get rid of the cross of Jesus, +or at least to pay scant attention to it, and in every case these +denominations have been at the end of the third or fourth generation +either decaying or dead. There is no interpretation of the Christian +religion that has in it redeeming power which ignores or belittles the +death of Christ. + +If Protestantism to-day is not doing what it ought to do, and is +manifesting symptoms which are alarming to Christian leaders, it is +because she has in these recent years been engaged so largely in +practical duties as to forget to drink inspiration from the great +doctrines which must forever furnish life and strength and hope. +If you will allow me to prophesy this morning, I predict that the +preaching of the next fifty years will be far more doctrinal than the +preaching of the last fifty years has been. I imagine some of you will +shudder at that. You say you do not like doctrinal preaching, you want +preaching that is practical. Well, pray, what is practical preaching? +Practical preaching is preaching that accomplishes the object for +which preaching is done, and the primary object of all Christian +preaching is to reconcile men to God. The experience of 1900 years +proves that it is only doctrinal preaching that reconciles the heart +to God. If, then, you really want practical preaching, the only +preaching that is deserving the name is preaching that deals with the +great Christian doctrines. But somebody says, I do not like doctrinal +preaching. A great many people have said that within recent years. I +do not believe they mean what they say. They are not expressing with +accuracy what is in their mind. They do like doctrinal preaching if +they are intelligent, faithful Christians, for doctrinal preaching is +bread to hearts that have been born again. When people say they do +not like doctrinal preaching, they often mean that they do not like +preaching which belongs to the eighteenth or seventeenth or sixteenth +centuries. They are not to be blamed for this. There is nothing that +gets stale so soon as preaching. We can not live upon the preaching +of a bygone age. If preachers bring out the interpretations and +phraseology which were current a hundred years ago, people must of +necessity say, "Oh, please do not give us that, we do not like such +doctrinal preaching." But doctrinal preaching need not be antiquated +or belated, it may be fresh, it may be couched in the language in +which men were born, it may use for its illustrations the images and +figures and analogies which are uppermost in men's imagination. And +whenever it does this there is no preaching which is so thrilling +and uplifting and mighty as the preaching which deals with the great +fundamental doctrines. + +In one sense, the Christian religion never changes, in another sense +it is changing all the time. The facts of Christianity never change, +the interpretations of those facts alter from age to age. It is with +religion as it is with, the stars, the stars never change. They move +in their orbits in our night sky as they moved in the night sky of +Abraham when he left his old Chaldean home. The constellations were +the same at the opening of our century as they were when David watched +his flocks on the old Judean hills. But the interpretations of the +stars have always changed, must always change. Pick up the old charts +which the astrologers made and compare them with the charts of +astronomers of our day. How vast the difference! Listen to our +astronomers talk about the magnitudes and disunites and composition of +the stars, and compare with their story that which was written in +the astronomy of a few centuries ago. The stellar universe has not +changed, but men's conceptions have changed amazingly. The facts of +the human body do not change. Our heart beats as the heart of Homer +beat, our blood flows as the blood of Julius Caesar flowed, our +muscles and nerves live and die as the nerves and muscles have lived +and died in the bodies of men in all the generations--and yet, how the +theories of medicine have been altered from time to time. A doctor +does not want to hear a medical lecturer speak who persists in using +the phraseology and conceptions which were accepted by the medical +science of fifty years ago. Conceptions become too narrow to fit the +growing mind of the world, and when once outgrown they must be thrown +aside. As it is in science, so it is in religion. The facts of +Christianity never change, they are fixt stars in the firmament of +moral truth. Forever and forever it will be true that Christ died for +our sins, but the interpretations of this fact must be determined by +the intelligence of the age. Men will never be content with simple +facts, they must go behind them to find out an explanation of them. +Man is a rational being, he must think, he will not sit down calmly in +front of a fact and be content with looking it in the face, he will +go behind it and ask how came it to be and what are its relations to +other facts. That is what man has always been doing with the facts of +the Christian revelation, he has been going behind them and bringing +out interpretations which will account for them. The interpretations +are good for a little while, and then they are outgrown and cast +aside. + +A good illustration of the progressive nature of theology is found in +the doctrine of the atonement. All of the apostles taught distinctly +that Christ died for our sins. The early Christians did not attempt to +go behind that fact, but by and by men began to attempt explanations. +In the second century a man by the name of Irenaeus seized upon the +word "ransom" in the sentence, "The Son of man is come to give his +life a ransom for many," and found in that word "ransom" the key-word +of the whole problem. The explanation of Irenaeus was taken up in the +third century by a distinguished preacher, Origen. And in the fourth +century the teaching of Origen was elaborated by Gregory of Nyssa. + +According to the interpretation of these men, Jesus was the price paid +for the redemption of men. Paul frequently used the word redemption, +and the word had definite meanings to people who lived in the first +four centuries of the Christian era. If Christ was indeed a ransom, +the question naturally arose, who paid the price? The answer was, God. +A ransom must be paid to somebody--to whom was this ransom paid? The +answer was, the devil. According to Origen and to Gregory, God paid +the devil the life of Jesus in order that the devil might let humanity +go free. The devil, by deceit, had tricked man, and man had become his +slave--God now plays a trick upon the devil, and by offering him the +life of Jesus, secures the release of man. That was the interpretation +held by many theologians for almost a thousand years, but in the +eleventh century there arose a man who was not satisfied with the +old interpretation. The world had outgrown it. To many it seemed +ridiculous, to some it seemed blasphemous. There was an Italian by the +name of Anselm who was an earnest student of the Scriptures, and he +seized upon the word "debt" as the key-word of the problem. He wrote +a book, one of the epoch-making books of Christendom, which he called +"_Cur Deus Homo_." In this book Anselm elaborated his interpretation +of the reconciliation. "Sin," he said, "is debt, and sin against an +infinite being is an infinite debt. A finite being can not pay an +infinite debt, hence an infinite being must become man in order that +the debt may be paid. The Son of God, therefore, assumes the form of +man, and by his sufferings on the cross pays the debt which allows +humanity to go free." The interpretation was an advance upon that of +Origen and Gregory, but it was not final. It was repudiated by men of +the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and finally, in the day of the +Reformation, it was either modified or cast away altogether. + +Martin Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers seized upon the +word "propitiation," and made that the starting-point of their +interpretation. According to these men, God is a great governor and +man has broken the divine law--transgressors must be punished--if the +man who breaks the law is not punished, somebody else must be punished +in his stead. The Son of God, therefore, comes to earth to suffer in +His person the punishment that rightly belongs to sinners. He is not +guilty, but the sins of humanity are imputed to Him, and God wreaks +upon Him the penalty which rightfully should have fallen on the heads +of sinners. That is known as "the penal substitution theory." + +It was not altogether satisfactory, many men revolted from it, and in +the seventeenth century a Dutchman, Hugo Grotius, a lawyer, brought +forth another interpretation, which is known in theology as "the +governmental theory." He would not admit that Christ was punished. +His sufferings were not penal, but illustrative. "God is the moral +governor," said Grotius, "his government must be maintained, law can +not be broken with impunity. Unless sin is punished the dignity of +God's government would be destroyed. Therefore, that man may see how +hot is God's displeasure against sin, Christ comes into the world and +suffers the consequences of the transgressions of the race. The cross +is an exhibition of what God thinks of sin." That governmental theory +was carried into England and became the established doctrine of the +English Church for almost three hundred years. It was carried across +the ocean and became the dominant theory in the New Haven school of +theologians, as represented by Jonathan Edwards, Dwight, and Taylor. +The Princeton school of theology still clung to the penal substitution +theory, and it was the clashing of the New Haven school and the +Princeton school which caused such a commotion in the Presbyterian +Church of sixty years ago. They are antiquated. They are too little. +They seem mechanical, artificial, trivial. We can say of the +governmental theory what Dr. Hodge said, "It degrades the work of +Christ to the level of a governmental contrivance." If I should +attempt to preach to you the governmental theory as it was preached by +theologians fifty years ago, you would not be interested in it There +is nothing in you that would respond to it. You would simply say, "I +do not like doctrinal preaching." Or if I should go back and take up +the penal substitution theory in all its nakedness and hideousness, +and attempt to give it to you as the correct interpretation of the +gospel, you would rise up in open rebellion and say, "We will not +listen to such preaching." If I should go back and take up the +Anselmic theory and attempt to show how an infinite debt must be paid +by infinite suffering, you would say: "Stop, you are converting God +into a Shylock, who is demanding His pound of flesh. We prefer to +think of Him as our heavenly Father." If I should go further back and +take up the old ransom theory of Origen and Gregory, I suspect +that some of you would want to laugh. You could not accept an +interpretation which represents God as playing a trick upon Satan in +order to get humanity out of his grasp. No, those theories have all +been outgrown. We have come out into larger and grander times. We have +higher conceptions of the Almighty than the ancients ever had. We see +far deeper into the Christian revelation than Martin Luther or John +Calvin ever saw. These old interpretations are simply husks, and men +and women will not listen to the preaching of them. If, now and then, +a belated preacher attempts to preach them, the people say, "If that +is doctrinal preaching, please give us something practical." + +And so the Church is to-day slowly working out a new interpretation of +the great fact that Christ died for our sins. The interpretation has +not yet been completed, and will not be for many years. I should like +this morning simply to outline in a general way some of the more +prominent features of the new interpretation. The Holy Ghost is at +work. He is taking the things of Christ and showing them unto us. The +interpretation of the reconciliation of the future will be superior in +every point to any of the interpretations of the past. + +The new interpretation is going to be simple, straightforward, and +natural. The death of Christ is not going to be made something +artificial, mechanical, or theatrical. It is going to be the natural +conception of the outflowing life of God. + +The new interpretation is going to start from the Fatherhood of +God. The old theories were all born in the counting-room, or the +court-house. Jesus went into the house to find His illustrations +for the conduct of the heavenly Father. He never went into the +court-house, nor can we go there for analogies with which to image +forth His dealings with our race. It was His custom to say, "If you, +being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much +more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them +that ask him." + +The new interpretation is going to be comprehensive. It is going to be +built, not on a single metaphor, but on everything that Jesus and +the apostles said. Right there is where the old interpretations went +astray. They seized upon one figure of speech and made that the +determining factor in the entire interpretation. Jesus said many +things, and so did His apostles, and all of them must contribute to +the final interpretation. + +Two things are to be hereafter made very clear: The first is that God +reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. The old views were always losing +sight of that great fact. There was always a dualism between God and +Christ. I remember what my conception was when I was a boy. I thought +that God was a strict and solemn and awful king, who was very angry +because men had broken His law. He was just, and His justice had +no mercy in it. Christ, His Son, was much better-natured and more +compassionate, and He came forth into our world to suffer upon the +cross that God's justice might relax a little, and His heart be opened +to forgive our race. I supposed that that was the teaching of the +New Testament, it certainly was the teaching of the hymns in the +hymn-book, if not of the preachers. And when I became a young man, +I supposed that that was the teaching of the Christian religion. My +heart rebelled against it. I would not accept it. I became an infidel. +A man can not accept an interpretation of God that does not appeal to +the best that is in him. No man can accept a doctrine that darkens his +moral sense, or that confuses the distinction between right and wrong. +I would not accept the old interpretation because my soul rose in +revolt against it. I shall never forget how, one evening in his study, +a minister, who had outgrown the old traditions, explained to me +the meaning of the reconciliation. He assured me that God is love, +invisible, eternal. Christ, His Son, is also love. In becoming at +one with the Son we become at one with the Father. This is the +at-one-ment. And when that truth broke upon me my heart began to sing: + + Just as I am--Thy love unknown + Hath broken every barrier down; + Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, + O Lamb of God, I come! + + +I wonder in telling this if I have not spoken the experience of many +of you this morning. It is impossible to love God if we feel that He +is stern and despotic, and must be appeased by the sufferings of an +innocent man. The New Testament nowhere lends any support to that +idea. Everywhere the New Testament assures us that God is the lover +of men, that He initiates the movement for man's redemption. "God so +loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...." "Herein is +love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us." "God commendeth +his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died +for us." "The Father spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for +us all." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "I and my Father +are one." These are only a few of the passages in which we are told +that God is our Savior. When an old Scotchman once heard the text +announced, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten +Son," he exclaimed, "Oh, that was love indeed! I could have given +myself, but I never could have given my boy." This, then, is the very +highest love of which it is possible for the human mind to think: the +love of a father that surrenders his son to sufferings and death. + +And this brings us to the second great truth which is outgrowing +increasingly clear in the consciousness of the Church. The death of +Jesus is the revelation of an experience in the heart of God. God is +the sin-bearer of the world. He bears our sins on His mind and heart. +There are three conceptions of God: the savage, the pagan, and the +Christian. God, according to the savage conception, is vengeful, and +capricious, and vindictive. He is a great savage hidden in the sky. We +have all outgrown that. According to the pagan idea, He is indifferent +to the wants and woes of men. He does not care for men. He is not +interested in them. He does not sympathize with them. He does not +suffer over their griefs. He does not feel pain or sorrow. I am afraid +that many of us have never gotten beyond the pagan conception of the +Almighty. But according to the Christian conception, God suffers. +He feels, and because He feels, He sympathizes, and because He +sympathizes, He suffers. He feels both pain and grief. He carries a +wound in His heart. We men and women sometimes feel burdened because +of the sin we see around us; shall not the heavenly Father be as +sensitive and responsive as we men? But somebody says that God can +not be happy then. Of course he can not be happy. Happiness is not an +adjective to apply to God. Happy is a word that belongs to children. +Children are happy, grown people never are. One can be happy when the +birds are singing and the dew is on the grass, and there is no cloud +in all the sky, and the crape has not yet hung at the door. But after +we have passed over the days of childhood, there is happiness no +longer. Some of us have lived too long and borne too much ever to be +happy any more. But it is possible for us to be blest. We may pass +into the very blessedness of God. The highest form of blessedness is +suffering for those we love, and shall not the Father of all men have +in His own eternal heart that experience which we confess to be the +highest form of blessedness? This is the truth which is dawning like a +new revelation on the Church: the humanity of God. It is revealed in +the New Testament, but as yet we have only begun to take it in. God +is like us men. We are like Him. We are made in His image. We are His +children, and He is our Father. If we are His children, then we are +His heirs, and joint heirs with Christ. Not only our joys, but our +sorrows also, are intimations and suggestions of experiences in the +infinite heart of the Eternal. + + + + +MORGAN + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +George Campbell Morgan, Congregational divine and preacher, was born +in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1863, and was educated at the +Douglas School, Cheltenham. He worked as a lay-mission preacher for +the two years ending 1888, and was ordained to the ministry in the +following year, when he took charge of the Congregational Church +at Stones, Staffordshire. After occupying the pulpit in several +pastorates, in 1904 he became pastor of the Westminster Congregational +Chapel, Buckingham Gate, London, a position which he still occupies. +Besides being highly successful as a pulpit orator, Dr. Morgan has +published many works of a religious character, among which may be +enumerated: "Discipleship"; "The Hidden Years of Nazareth"; "Life's +Problems"; "The Ten Commandments." His last work, "The Christ of +To-day," has passed through several editions. + + + + +MORGAN + +Born in 1863 + +THE PERFECT IDEAL OF LIFE + +_Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the son of man, then +shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as +the Father taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is +with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that +are pleasing to him. As he spake these things, many believed on +him_.--John viii., 28-30. + + +The Master, you will see, in this verse lays before us three things. +First of all, He gives us the perfect ideal of human life in a short +phrase, and that comes at the end, "the things that please him." Those +are the things that create perfect human life, living in the realm of +which man realizes perfectly all the possibilities of his wondrous +being--"the things that please him." So I say, in this phrase, the +Master reveals to us the perfect ideal of our lives. Then, in the +second place, the Master lays claim--one of the most stupendous claims +that He ever made--that He utterly, absolutely, realizes that ideal. +He says, "I do always the things that please him." And then, thirdly, +we have the revelation of the secret by which He has been able to +realize the ideal, to make the abstract concrete, to bring down the +fair vision of divine purpose to the level of actual human life and +experience, and the secret is declared in the opening words: "He that +sent me is with me; my Father hath not left me alone." + +The perfect ideal for my life, then, is that I live always in the +realm of the things that please God; and the secret by which I may do +so is here unfolded--by living in perpetual, unbroken communion with +God: communion with which I do not permit anything to interfere. Then +it shall be possible for me to pass into this high realm of actual +realization. + +It is important that we should remind ourselves in a few sentences +that the Lord has indeed stated the highest possible ideal for human +life in these words: "The things that please him." Oh, the godlessness +of men! The godlessness that is to be found on every hand! The +godlessness of the men and women that are called by the name of God! +How tragic, how sad, how awful it is! because godlessness is always +not merely an act of rebellion against God, but a falling-short in our +own lives of their highest and most glorious possibilities. + +Here is my life. Now, the highest realm for me is the realm where all +my thoughts, and all my deeds, and all my methods, and everything in +my life please God. That is the highest realm, because God only knows +what I am; only perfectly understands the possibilities of my nature, +and all the great reaches of my being. You remember those lines that +Tennyson sang--very beautifully, I always think: + + Flower in the crannied wall, + I pluck you out of the crannies;-- + Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, + Little Flower--but if I could understand + What you art, root and all, and all in all, + I should know what God and man is. + + +Beautiful confession! Absolutely true. I hold that flower in my hand, +and I look at it, flower and leaves and stem and root. I can botanize +it, and then I tear it to pieces--that is what the botanist mostly +does--and you put some part of it there, and some part of it there, +and some part of it there. There is the root, there the stem, and +there are the leaves, and there is everything; but where is the +flower? Gone. How did it go? When did it go? Why, when you ruthlessly +tore it to bits. But how did you destroy it? You interfered with the +principle that made it what it was--you interfered with the principle +of life. What is life? No man can tell you. "If I could but know what +you are, little flower, root and all, and all in all," I would know +what life is, what God is, what man is. I can not. + +Now, if you lift that little parable of the flower into the highest +realm of animal life, and speak of yourself--we don't know ourselves; +down in my nature there are reaches that I have not fathomed yet. They +are coming up every day. What a blest thing it is to have the Master +at hand, to hand them over to Him as they come up, and say, "Lord, +here is another piece of Thy territory; govern it; I don't know +anything about it." But there is the business. I don't know myself, +but God knows me, understands all the complex relationships of my +life, knows how matter affects mind, and physical and mental and +spiritual are blended in one in the high ideal of humanity. Oh, +remember, man is the crowning and most glorious work of God of which +we know anything as yet. And God only knows man. + +But here is a Man that stands amid His enemies, and He looks out upon +His enemies, and He says, "I do the things that please him"--not "I +teach them," not "I dream them," not "I have seen them in a fair +vision," but "I do them." There never was a bigger claim from the lips +of the Master than that: "I do always the things that please him." + +You would not thank me to insult your Christian experience, upon +whatever level you live it, by attempting to define that statement +of Christ. History has vindicated it. We believe it with all our +hearts--that He always did the things that pleased God. But I have got +on to a level that I can touch now. The great ideal has come from the +air to the earth. The fair vision has become concrete in a Man. Now, +I want to see that Man; and if I see that Man I shall see in Him +a revelation of what God's purpose is for men, and I shall see, +therefore, a revelation of what the highest possibility of life is. +Now this is a tempting theme. It is a temptation to begin to contrast +Him with popular ideals of life. I want to see Him; I want, if I can, +to catch the notes of the music that make up the perfect harmony which +was the dropping of a song out of God's heaven upon man's earth, that +man might catch the key-note of it and make music in his own life. +What are the things in this Man's life? He says: "I have realized the +ideal--I do." There are four things that I want to say about Him, four +notes in the music of His life. + +First, spirituality. That is one of the words that needs redeeming +from abuse. He was the embodiment of the spiritual ideal in life. He +was spiritual in the high, true, full, broad, blest sense of that +word. + +It may be well for a moment to note what spirituality did not mean in +the life of Jesus Christ. It did not mean asceticism. During all the +years of His ministry, during all the years of His teaching, you never +find a single instance in which Jesus Christ made a whip of cords +to scourge Himself. And all that business of scourging oneself--an +attempt to elevate the spirit by the ruin of the actual flesh--is +absolutely opposed to His view of life. Jesus Christ did not deny +Himself. The fact of His life was this--that He touched everything +familiarly. He went into all the relationship of life. He went to the +widow. He took up the children and held them in His arms, and looked +into their eyes till heaven was poured in as He looked. He didn't go +and get behind walls somewhere. He didn't get away and say: "Now, if I +am going to get pure I shall do it by shutting men out." You remember +what the Pharisees said of Him once. They said: "This man receiveth +sinners." You know how they said it. They meant to say: "We did hope +that we should make something out of this new man, but we are quite +disappointed. He receives sinners." + +And what did they mean? They meant what you have so often said: "You +can't touch pitch without being defiled." But this Man sat down with +the publican and He didn't take on any defilement from the publican. +On the other hand, He gave the publican His purity in the life of +Jesus Christ. Things worked the other way. He was the great negative +of God to the very law of evil that you have--evil contaminates good. +If you will put on a plate one apple that is getting bad among twelve +others that are pure, the bad one will influence the others. Christ +came to drive back every force of disease and every force of evil by +this strong purity of His own person, and He said: "I will go among +the bad and make them good." That is what He was doing the whole way +through. So His spirituality was not asceticism. And if you are going +to be so spiritual that you see no beauty in the flowers and hear no +music in the song of the birds; if the life which you pass into when +you consent to the crucifixion of self does not open to you the very +gates of God, and make the singing of the birds and the blossoming of +the flowers infinitely more beautiful, you have never seen Jesus yet. + +What was His spirituality? The spirituality of Jesus Christ was a +concrete realization of a great truth which He laid down in His own +beatitudes. What was that? "Blest are the pure in heart, for they +shall see God." Now, the trouble is we have been lifting all the good +things of God and putting them in heaven. And I don't wonder that you +sing: + + My willing soul would stay + In such a frame as this, + And sit and sing itself away + To everlasting bliss. + +No wonder you want to sing yourself away to everlasting bliss, because +everything that is worth having you have put up there. But Jesus said: +"Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If you are pure +you will see Him everywhere--in the flower that blooms, in the march +of history, in the sorrows of men, above the darkness of the darkest +cloud; and you will know that God is in the field when He is most +invisible. + +Second, subjection. The next note in the music of His life is His +absolute subjection to God. You can very often tell the great +philosophies which are governing human lives by the little catchwords +that slip off men's tongues: "Well, I thank God I am my own master." +That is your trouble, man. It is because you are your own master that +you are in danger of hell. A man says: "Can't I do as I like with my +own?" You have got no "own" to do what you like with. It is because +men have forgotten the covenant of God, the kingship of God, that we +have all the wreckage and ruin that blights this poor earth of ours. +Here is the Man who never forgot it. + +Did you notice those wonderful words: "I do nothing of myself, but as +my Father taught me, I speak." He neither did nor spoke anything of +Himself. It was a wonderful life. He stood forevermore between the +next moment and heaven. And the Father's voice said, "Do this," and He +said "Amen, I came to do thy will," and did it. And the Father's voice +said, "Speak these words to men," and He, "Amen," and He spoke. + +You say: "That is just what I do not want to do." I know that. We want +to be independent; have our own way. "The things that please God--this +Man was subject to the divine will." You know the two words--if you +can learn to say them, not like a parrot, not glibly, but out of your +heart--the two words that will help you "Halleluiah" and "Amen." You +can say them in Welsh or any language you like; they are always the +same. When the next dispensation of God's dealings faces you look at +it and say: "Halleluiah! Praise God! Amen!" That means, "I agree." + +Third, sympathy. Now, you have this Man turned toward other men. We +have seen something of Him as He faced God: Spirituality, a sense of +God; subjection, a perpetual amen to the divine volition. Now, He +faces the crowd. Sympathy! Why? Because He is right with God, He is +right with men; because He feels God near, and knows Him, and responds +to the divine will; therefore, when He faces men He is right toward +men. The settlement of every social problem you have in this country +and in my own land, the settlement of the whole business, will be +found in the return of man to God. When man gets back to God he gets +back to men. What is behind it? Sympathy is the power of putting my +spirit outside my personality, into the circumstances of another man, +and feeling as that man feels. + +I take one picture as an illustration of this. I see the Master +approaching the city of Nain, and around Him His disciples. He is +coming up. And I see outside the city of Nain, coming toward the gate +a man carried by others, dead, and walking by that bier a mother. Now, +all I want you to look at is that woman's face, and, looking into her +face, see all the anguish of those circumstances. She is a widow, and +that is her boy, her only boy, and he is dead. Man can not talk about +this. You have got to be in the house to know what that means. But +look at her face--there it is. All the sorrow is on her face. You can +see it. + +Now, turn from her quickly and look into the face of Christ. Why, +I look into His face--there is her face. He is feeling all she is +feeling; He is down in her sorrow with her; He has got underneath the +burden, and He is feeling all the agony that that woman feels because +her boy is dead. He is moved with compassion whenever human sorrow +crosses His vision and human need approaches Him. And now I see Him +moving toward the bier. I see Him as He touches it. And He takes the +boy back and gives him to his mother. Do you see in yon mountain a +cloud, so somber and sad, and suddenly the sun comes from behind the +cloud, and all the mountain-side laughs with gladness? That is that +woman's face. The agony is gone. The tear that remains there is gilded +with a smile, and joy is on her face. Look at Him. There it is. He +is in her joy now. He is having as good a time as the woman. He has +carried her grief and her sorrow. He has given her joy. And it is His +joy that He has given to her. He is with her in her joy. + +Wonderful sympathy! He went about gathering human sorrow into His +own heart, scattering His joy, and having fellowship in agony and in +deliverance, in tears and in their wiping away. Great, sympathetic +soul! Why? Because He always lived with God, and, living with God, the +divine love moved Him with compassion. Ah, believe me, our sorrows are +more felt in heaven than on earth. And we had that glimpse of that +eternal love in this Man, who did the things that pleased God, and +manifested such wondrous sympathy. + +Fourth, strength. The last note is that of strength. You talk about +the weakness of Jesus, the frailty of Jesus. I tell you, there never +was any one so strong as He. And if you will take the pains of reading +His life with that in mind you will find it was one tremendous march +of triumph against all opposing forces. About His dying--how did He +die? "At last, at last," says the man in his study that does not know +anything about Jesus; "At last His enemies became too much for Him, +and they killed Him." Nothing of the sort. That is a very superficial +reading. What is the truth? Hear it from His own lips: "No man taketh +my life from me. I lay it down of myself. And if I lay it down I have +authority to take it again." What do you think of that? How does that +touch you as a revelation of magnificence in strength? And then, look +at Him, when He comes back from the tomb, having fulfilled that which +was either an empty boast or a great fact--thank God, we believe it +was a great fact! Now He stands upon the mountain, with this handful +of men around Him, His disciples, and He is going away from them. "All +authority," He says, "is given unto me. I am king not merely by an +office conferred, but by a triumph won. I am king, for I have faced +the enemies of the race--sin and sorrow and ignorance and death--and +my foot is upon the neck of every one. All authority is given to me." + +Oh, the strength of this Man! Where did He get it? "My Father hath not +left me alone. I have lived with God. I have walked with God. I always +knew him near. I always responded to his will. And my heart went out +in sympathy to others, and I mastered the enemies of those with whom I +sympathized. And I come to the end and I say, All authority is given +to me." Oh, my brother, that is the pattern for you and for me! Ah, +that is life! That is the ideal! Oh, how can I fulfil it? I am not +going to talk about that. Let me only give you this sentence to finish +with, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." If Christ be in me by the +power of the Spirit, He will keep me conscious of God's nearness to +me. If Christ be in me by the consciousness of the spirit reigning and +governing, He will take my will from day to day, blend it with His, +and take away all that makes it hard to say, "God's will be done." + + + + +CADMAN + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +S. Parkes Cadman is one of the many immigrant clergymen who have +attained to fame in American pulpits. He was born in Shropshire, +England, December 18, 1864, and graduated from Richmond College, +London University, in 1889. Coming to this country about 1895 he was +appointed pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Metropolitan Tabernacle, +New York. From this post he was called to Central Congregational +Church, Brooklyn, with but one exception the largest Congregational +Church in the United States. He has received the degree of D.D. from +Wesleyan University and the University of Syracuse. The sermon here +given, somewhat abridged, was delivered before the National Council of +Congregational Churches, in Cleveland, Ohio, and is from Dr. Cadman's +manuscript. + + + + +CADMAN + +Born in 1864 + +A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS + +_God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus +Christ: by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the +world_.--Gal. vi., 14. + + +The pivotal conception of missionary enterprise is the conception of +Christ as the eternal priest of humanity. If any need of the world's +heart is before us now, it is the need of the Cross. There is a +deep and anxious desire in men for the saving forces of sacrificial +Christianity. The ideals of the New Testament concerning Gethsemane +and Calvary are being thrust upon our attention by the upward +strugglings of the people. They, at any rate, have not forgotten the +forsaken Man in the night of awful silence in the garden, nor His +exceeding bitter agony, nor the perfect ending that made His death His +victory. The wastes of eccentricity, whether orthodox or heterodox, +and the over curious speculations of theologies remote from the +habitations of men, have had little influence upon the multitudes +we seek to serve. And if I had to choose a sphere where one could +rediscover the central forces of Christian life and of Christian +practise, I would lean toward the enlightened democracies which to-day +are vibrant with the plea that the shepherdless multitudes shall have +social ameliorations and new incentives and selfless leaders. + +We are all very jealous for the honor and success of the propagandism +we sustain at home and abroad, and I hold that its honor and success +alike depend upon the priesthood and redemptive efficacies of Jesus. +These sovereign forces are correlated with His victories for the +twenty past centuries, and they constitute the distinctive genius of +the faith. + +We shall gain nothing for the rule or for the ethics of Jesus by +derogating that peculiar office of the divine Victim which is, to +me, at any rate, the most sublime reason for the Incarnation and the +ineffable height and depth and mystery of all love and all strength +blessedly operative in every ruined condition by means of sacrifice. +The missionary fields confessedly can not be conquered by the unaided +teacher; he must have more than a system of truth, more than a +program, more than a reasoned discourse. Their vast inert mass demands +vitalization; and the life which is given for the life of men, the +divinest gift of all, is alone sufficient for this regeneration. + +Moreover, can we rest the absolutism and finality of Jesus upon +anything less than the last complete outpouring of His soul unto +voluntary death for men's salvation? I do not think we can, and it is +a requisite that we place larger emphasis upon this holy mystery of +our life through Christ's death, the substantial soul and secret of +all missionary progress in all ages of the Church. + +Before we can see the miracle of nations entering the kingdom of God, +before we can dismiss the black death of apathy which rests on so many +professedly Christian communities, before we can dominate the social +structure in righteousness and justice, the Church must be raised +nearer to the standards of New Testament efficiency. And New Testament +efficiency rested upon the perfect divinity and all-persuasive +mediatorship of "Christ and him crucified." The personality of Christ +involves for many of us the entire relation of God to His universe; He +is "the central figure in all history," and Pie is "the central +figure of our personal experience," creative in us, by His inaugural +experience, of all we are in Him and for our fellows. Thus we make +great claims for the Lord of the harvest, and we make them soberly, +and we know them true for our spiritual consciousness, and we are +prepared to defend them. + +Yet I, for one, do not hesitate to admit that the theological +necessities of missionary work are many, and that they must be +recognized and met before it can fully accomplish its infinite +design. Indeed, the rule of Jesus in all these aspects of His mission +clarifies and simplifies the gospel. It is plain that such a gospel, +wherein the living personality of the Christ deals with the living +man to whom we minister, is not to be beset by complications and +abstractions. Its spiritual topography embraces the height of +good, the depth of love, the breadth of sympathy, and the width of +catholicity. It was meant for the race and for the far-reaching +reciprocities and inexpressible necessities of the race. It is attuned +to the cry of the common heart. Its interpretations have the sanctions +of an authoritative human experience which has never failed in its +witness. Sometimes I have challenged these honored servants of the +evangel who have come back to us from quarters where they were busy +on the errands of the cross. Almost pathetically, with the painful +interest of one inquiring for a long absent friend of whom no news has +been received, I have solicited the missionaries. They came from the +south of our own dear land, where they administered to the negro; from +the arctic zone, from the farther East. Their wider vision, their more +imperial instinct, were plain to me, and my usual question was, "What +do you teach the impulsive colored man and the stolid Eskimo and the +pensive Hindu and the inscrutable Asiatic?" And they replied, "We +teach them, that God is a personal spirit and Father, whose character +is holiness and whose heart is love; that Jesus Christ is the designed +and supreme Son of God, who lived in sinlessness and died in perfect +willing sacrifice for the eternal life of all men, that by the will of +God and in the power of His spirit men may have everlasting life and, +better still, everlasting goodness, if they will accept and trust in +Jesus Christ for all." + +And this gospel obtains the day of overcoming for which we plead and +pray. For tho an angel from heaven had any other, men do not respond; +the charisma rests on no other message. Possest of it, and possessing +it, under the covenant of heaven and led by the Shepherd and Bishop of +souls, we shall go forth determined to give it place in us and in our +presentations as never before. May nothing mar the solemn splendor +of such a message from God unto men. Let us subordinate our undue +intellectualism and place our boasted freedom under restraints, so +that the evangel may be preached without reserve and with abandon. +"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, himself +man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." + +Such in one grand passage is the creed that breathes the very life and +spirit of the most significant and overwhelming missionary period in +the history of the Christian Church. + +There is a new day due in missions because of the immense superiority +in missionary methods. The _personnel_ of our administrations has been +superb, and of nearly all the honored servants of God who have labored +in domestic and foreign departments it could be said, "Thou hast +loved righteousness and hated iniquity." But I presume these seasoned +veterans would be the first to show us how the whole conception of +propagandism has been readapted, and its vehicles of communication +multiplied in various directions. The onfall and sally of the earler +evangelistic campaigns are now aided by the investment and siege of +educational and medical work. + +The trackways of a policy embedded in the wider interpretation of the +gospel are laid and the new era takes shape before our comprehension. +Travel, exploration, and commerce have demanded and obtained the +_Lusitania_ on the sea; the railroad from the Cape to Cairo on the +land, and they have left no spot of earth untrodden, no map obscure, +no mart unvisited. Keeping step with this stately and unprecedented +development, and often anticipating it, the widening frontiers of our +missionary kingdom have demonstrated again and again how the Church +can make a bridal of the earth and sky, linking the lowliest needs +to the loftiest truths. And best of all in respect of methods is the +dispersal of our native egotism. We have come to see that the types of +Christianity in Europe and America are perhaps aboriginal for us, +but can not be transplanted to other shores. "Manifest destiny" is a +phrase that sits down when Japan and China wake up. Not thus can Jesus +be robbed of the fruits of His passion in any branch of the human +family. We are to plant and water, labor in faith, and die in hope, +scattering the seed of the gospel in the hearts of these brothers of +regions outside. But God will ordain their harvests as it pleaseth +Him. What will be the joy of that harvest? Throw your imagination +across this new century, and as it dies and gives place to its +successor, review the race whose devotion has then fastened on the +divine ruler and the federal Man, Christ Jesus. For nearly a hundred +years the barriers that segregated us will have been a memory. The +Church will have discovered not only fields of labor, but forces for +her replenishing. Then will our posterity rejoice in the larger +Christ who is to be. The virtuous elements of all other faiths will +be placed under the purification and control of the priesthood and +authority of Jesus. And tho in these ancient religions that await the +Bridegroom, the mortal stains the immortal and the human mars the +beauty of the divine, in the light of His appearing they will assume +new attitudes and receive His quickening and thrill with His pulse. +When I conceive of this reward for our Daysman I protest that all +other triumphs seem as tinsel and sham. The Desire of all nations +shall then see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. The +subtle patience of China, the fierce resistance of Japan, the brooding +soul that haunts the Ganges valley, the tumult of emotion of the +Ethiopian breast, all are for His appearing; they must be saved unto +noble ends by His sanctification. For that time there will be a Church +whose canonization of the infinite is beyond our dreams, enriched on +every side, with common allegiance and diversity of gifts, and every +gift the boon of all, and Christ's dower in His bride increased beyond +compare. + +This is the ideal of the new day; may it become our personal ideal. +Then shall we fight with new courage for the right, and abhor the +imperfect, the unjust, and the mean. Our leaders will care nothing for +flattery and praise or odium and abuse. Enthusiasm can not be soured, +nor courage diminished. The Almighty has placed our hand on the +greatest of His plows, in whose furrow the nations I have named are +germinating religiously. And to drive forward the blade if but a +little, and to plant any seed of justice and of joy, any sense of +manliness or moral worth, to aid in any way the gospel which is the +friend of liberty, the companion of the conscience and the parent +of the intellectual enlightenment--is not that enough? Is it not a +complete justification of our plea? + +We shall do well to remember that no evangel can prosper without the +evangelical temper. The parsing of grammarians is of little avail +here, and to have all critical knowledge of the prophets and apostles +of the faith without their fervor and consecration is profitable +merely for study, and useless mainly for the larger life. Our culture +must be the passion-flower of Christ Jesus. To be more anxious about +intellectual pre-eminence or ecclesiastical origins than about "the +trial of the immigrant" and the condition of the colored races is not +helpful. "There is a sort of orthodoxy that revels in the visions of +apocalypses and refuses to fight the beast," says Dr. Nurgan. +Such barren indulgence is excluded from any glory to follow. +Technicalities, niceties, knowledge remote and knowledge general must +be appropriated and made dynamic in this life-and-death conflict; +any that can not be thus used can be sent to the rear for a further +debate. + +Diplomacies in church government and adjustments in church creeds can +wait on this consecration, this baptism of unction. I never heard that +the statesman who formulated the peace at Paris in 1815 got in the +way of the Household Brigades and the Highlanders at Waterloo and +Hougomont. They played their commendable game, but they could not +have swept that awful slope of flame in which Ney and the Old Guard +staggered on at Mont St. Jean. + +Let us redeem our creeds at the front, and prove the welding of our +weapons and their tempered blades upon every evil way and darkness and +superstition that afflict humankind. + +And have you not seen with moistened eyes and beating hearts the +pathetic surgings of harassed and broken sons and daughters of +God toward His son Jesus Christ? I have watched them until I felt +constrained to cry aloud and spare not; and while viewing them here +and yonder, and refusing to be localized in our love toward them, have +not our spirits been rebuked, have they not known fear for ourselves, +have they not pensively echoed the charge of some that we have no real +roots in democracy, but are as plants in pots, and not as oaks in the +soil of earth? If independency is a barrier to the essence of which it +is supposedly a form, if superiority shuts us off from assimilation +with popular movements and delivers us over to cliques, then these +churches of ours[1] will end in a record of shame and confusion. +While we are busy in trivial things, our energy and our might will be +deflected, and the living God will hand over the crusade to those who +have proven worthier and who knew the day when it did come, even the +day of their visitation. + +[Footnote 1: The special reference is to the Congregational churches.] + +We must arise with courage undismayed, and join in the cry of the +ages: + + When wilt thou save the people, + O God of mercy, when? + The people! Lord, the people! + Not crowns, nor thrones, but men. + + Flower of thy heart, O Lord, are they, + Their heritage a sunless day. + Let them like weeds not fade away; + Lord, save the people. + +If our hearts are thus enlarged, we shall run in the way of His +commandments; fatherhood and brotherhood and sonship will not be +symbols, shibboleths of pious intercourse, but ways of God's reaching +out through us for the total brotherhood. We shall silence the caviler +against missions; we shall raise the negro in the face of those who +say he can not be raised; we shall see the latter-day miracles, and +the lame man healed and rejoicing at the Temple gate. Thus may the +breath of God sweep across our pastorates and dismiss timidity, +provincialism, ease, and narrowness of outlook. And thus may the power +be demonstrated as of heaven because it is the power unto salvation. +Let us fear not men who shall die, nor be content to fill our peaceful +lot and occupy a respectable grave. The new world needs the renewed +baptism, and the "modernism" of which medievalists complain is the +robe of honor for the Christ of this epoch. So that there shall come +unto the Church the flame of sacred love, and, kindling on every heart +and altar, there shall it burn for the glory of Christ, the High +Priest, with inextinguishable blaze. We can rest content, for, behold! +the day cometh and in its light. Let us go hence. + + + + +JOWETT + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +John Henry Jowett, Congregational divine, was born at Barnard Castle, +Durham, in 1864, and educated at Edinburgh and Oxford universities. +In 1889 he was ordained to St. James's Congregational Church, +Newcastle-on-Tyne, and in 1895 was called to his present pastorate of +Carr's Lane Congregational Church, Birmingham, where he has taken rank +among the leading preachers of Great Britain. He is the author of +several important books. + + + + +JOWETT + +Born in 1864 + +APOSTOLIC OPTIMISM[1] + +[Footnote 1: Reprinted by permission of A.C. Armstrong & Son.] + +_Rejoicing in hope_.--Romans xii., 12. + + +That is a characteristic expression of the fine, genial optimism of +the Apostle Paul. His eyes are always illumined. The cheery tone is +never absent from his speech. The buoyant and springy movement of his +life is never changed. The light never dies out of his sky. Even the +gray firmament reveals more hopeful tints, and becomes significant of +evolving glory. The apostle is an optimist, "rejoicing in hope," a +child of light wearing the "armor of light," "walking in the light" +even as Christ is in the light. + +This apostolic optimism was not a thin and fleeting sentiment begotten +of a cloudless summer day. It was not the creation of a season; it was +the permanent pose of the spirit. Even when beset with circumstances +which to the world would spell defeat, the apostle moved with the mien +of a conqueror. He never lost the kingly posture. He was disturbed by +no timidity about ultimate issues. He fought and labored in the spirit +of certain triumph. "We are always confident." "We are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us." "Thanks be unto God who giveth +us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." + +This apostolic optimism was not born of sluggish thinking, or of idle +and shallow observation. I am very grateful that the counsel of my +text lifts its chaste and cheery flame in the twelfth chapter of an +epistle of which the first chapter contains as dark and searching an +indictment of our nature as the mind of man has ever drawn. Let me +rehearse the appalling catalog that the radiance of the apostle's +optimism may appear the more abounding: "Senseless hearts," "fools," +"uncleanness," "vile passions," "reprobate minds," "unrighteousness, +wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, +deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, +haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, without understanding, +covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful." With +fearless severity the apostle leads us through the black realms of +midnight and eclipse. And yet in the subsequent reaches of the great +argument, of which these dark regions form the preface, there emerges +the clear, calm, steady light of my optimistic text. I say it is not +the buoyancy of ignorance. It is not the flippant, light-hearted +expectancy of a man who knows nothing about the secret places of the +night. The counselor is a man who has steadily gazed at light at +its worst, who has digged through the outer walls of convention and +respectability, who has pushed his way into the secret chambers and +closets of life, who has dragged out the slimy sins which were lurking +in their holes, and named them after their kind--it is this man who +when he has surveyed the dimensions of evil and misery and contempt, +merges his dark indictment in a cheery and expansive dawn, in an +optimistic evangel, in which he counsels his fellow-disciples to +maintain the confident attitude of a rejoicing hope. + +Now, what are the secrets of this courageous and energetic optimism? +Perhaps, if we explore the life of this great apostle, and seek to +discover its springs, we may find the clue to his abounding hope. +Roaming then through the entire records of his life and teachings, +do we discover any significant emphasis? Preeminent above all other +suggestions, I am imprest with his vivid sense of the reality of the +redemptive work of Christ. Turn where I will, the redemptive work of +the Christ evidences itself as the base and groundwork of his life. +It is not only that here and there are solid statements of doctrine, +wherein some massive argument is constructed for the partial unveiling +of redemptive glory. Even in those parts of his epistles where formal +argument has ceased, and where solid doctrine is absent, the doctrine +flows as a fluid element into the practical convictions of life, and +determines the shape and quality of the judgments. Nay, one might +legitimately use the figure of a finer medium still, and say that in +all the spacious reaches of the apostle's life the redemptive work of +his Master is present as an atmosphere in which all his thoughts and +purposes and labors find their sustaining and enriching breath. Take +this epistle to the Romans in which my text is found. The earlier +stages of the great epistle are devoted to a massive and stately +presentation of the doctrines of redemption. But when I turn over the +pages where the majestic argument is concluded, I find the doctrine +persisting in a diffused and rarefied form, and appearing as the +determining factor in the solution of practical problems. If he is +dealing with the question of the "eating of meats," the great doctrine +reappears and interposes its solemn and yet elevating principle: +"destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." If he is called +upon to administer rebuke to the passionate and unclean, the shadow of +the cross rests upon his judgment. "Ye are not your own; ye are bought +with a price." If he is portraying the ideal relationship of husband +and wife, he sets it in the light of redemptive glory: "Husbands, love +your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up +for it." If he is seeking to cultivate the grace of liberality, he +brings the heavenly air around about the spirit. "Ye know the grace +of our Lord Jesus Christ, that tho he was rich, yet for your sakes +he became poor." It interweaves itself with all his salutations. It +exhales in all his benedictions like a hallowing fragrance. You can +not get away from it. In the light of the glory of redemption all +relationships are assorted and arranged. Redemption was not degraded +into a fine abstract argument, to which the apostle had appended his +own approval, and then, with sober satisfaction, had laid it aside, as +a practical irrelevancy, in the stout chests of orthodoxy. It became +the very spirit of his life. It was, if I may be allowed the violent +figure, the warm blood in all his judgment. It filled the veins of all +his thinking. It beat like a pulse in all his purposes. It determined +and vitalized his decisions in the crisis, as well as in the lesser +trifles of the common day. His conception of redemption was regulative +of all his thought. + +But it is not only the immediacy of redemption in the apostle's +thought by which I am imprest. I stand in awed amazement before its +vast, far-stretching reaches into the eternities. Said an old villager +to me concerning the air of his elevated hamlet, "Ay, sir, it's a fine +air is this westerly breeze; I like to think of it as having traveled +from the distant fields of the Atlantic!" And here is the Apostle +Paul, with the quickening wind of redemption blowing about him in +loosening, vitalizing, strengthening influence, and to him, in all his +thinking, it had its birth in the distant fields of eternity! To +the apostle redemption was not a small device, an afterthought, a +patched-up expedient to meet an unforseen emergency. The redemptive +purpose lay back in the abyss of the eternities, and in a spirit of +reverent questioning the apostle sent his trembling thoughts into +those lone and silent fields. He emerged with, whispered secrets such +as these: "fore-knew," "fore-ordained," "chosen in him before the +foundation of the world," "eternal life promised before times +eternal," "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our +Lord." + +Brethren, does our common thought of redemptive glory reach back +into this august and awful presence? Does the thought of the modern +disciple journey in this distant pilgrimage? Or do we now regard it as +unpractical and irrelevant? There is no more insidious peril in modern +religious life than the debasement of our conception of the practical. +If we divorce the practical from the sublime, the practical will +become the superficial, and will degenerate into a very lean and +forceless thing. When Paul went on this lonely pilgrimage his spirit +acquired the posture of a finely sensitive reverence. People who +live and move beneath great domes acquire a certain calm and stately +dignity. It is in companionship with the sublimities that awkwardness +and coarseness are destroyed. We lose our reverence when we desert the +august. But has reverence no relationship to the practical? Shall we +discard it as an irrelevant factor in the purposes of common life? +Why, reverence is the very clue to fruitful, practical living. +Reverence is creative of hope; nay, a more definite emphasis can be +given to the assertion; reverence is a constituent of hope. +Annihilate reverence, and life loses its fine sensitiveness, and when +sensitiveness goes out of a life the hope that remains is only a +flippant rashness, a thoughtless impetuosity, the careless onrush of +the kine, and not a firm, assured perception of a triumph that is only +delayed. A reverent homage before the sublimities of yesterday is the +condition of a fine perception of the hidden triumphs of the morrow. +And, therefore, I do not regard it as an accidental conjunction that +the psalmist puts them together and proclaims the evangel that "the +Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his +mercy." To feel the days before me I must revere the purpose which +throbs behind me. I must bow in reverence if I would anticipate in +hope. + +Here, then, is the Apostle Paul, with the redemptive purpose +interweaving itself with all the entanglements of his common life, a +purpose reaching back into the awful depths of the eternities, and +issuing from those depths in amazing fulness of grace and glory. No +one can be five minutes in the companionship of the Apostle Paul +without discovering how wealthy is his sense of the wealthy, redeeming +ministry of God. What a wonderful consciousness he has of the sweep +and fulness of the divine grace! You know the variations of the +glorious air: "the unsearchable riches of Christ"; "riches in glory +in Christ Jesus"; "all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places +in Christ"; "the riches of his goodness and forbearance and +long-suffering." The redemptive purpose of God bears upon the life of +the apostle and upon the race whose privileges he shares, not in an +uncertain and reluctant shower, but in a great and marvelous flood. +And what to him is the resultant enfranchisement? What are the +spacious issues of the glorious work? Do you recall those wonderful +sentences, scattered here and there about the apostle's writings, and +beginning with the words "but now"? Each sentence proclaims the end +of the dominion of night, and unveils some glimpse of the new created +day. "But now!" It is a phrase that heralds a great deliverance! +"But now, apart from the law the righteousness of God hath been +manifested," "But now, being made free from sin and become servants to +God." "But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh +in the blood of Christ." "But now are ye light in the Lord." "Now, no +condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." These represent no +thin abstractions. To Paul the realities of which they speak were more +real than the firm and solid earth. And is it any wonder that a man +with such a magnificent sense of the reality of the redemptive +works of Christ, who felt the eternal purpose throbbing in the dark +background and abyss of time, who conceived it operating upon our race +in floods of grace and glory, and who realized in his own immediate +consciousness the varied wealth of the resultant emancipation--is it +any wonder that for this man a new day had dawned, and the birds had +begun to sing and the flowers to bloom, and a sunny optimism had taken +possession of his heart, which found expression in an assured and +rejoicing hope? + +I look abroad again over the record of this man's life and teachings, +if perchance I may discover the secrets of his abiding optimism, and I +am profoundly imprest by his living sense of the reality and greatness +of his present resources. "By Christ redeemed!" That is not a grand +finale; it is only a glorious inauguration. "By Christ redeemed; in +Christ restored"; it is with these dynamics of restoration that his +epistles are so wondrously abounding. In almost every other sentence +he suggests a dynamic which he can count upon as his friend. Paul's +mental and spiritual outlook comprehended a great army of positive +forces laboring in the interests of the kingdom of God. His conception +of life was amazingly rich in friendly dynamics! I do not wonder that +such a wealthy consciousness was creative of a triumphant optimism. +Just glance at some of the apostle's auxiliaries: "Christ liveth in +me!" "Christ liveth in me! He breathes through all my aspirations. He +thinks through all my thinking. He wills through all my willing. He +loves through all my loving. He travails in all my labors. He works +within me 'to will and to do of his good pleasure.'" That is the +primary faith of the hopeful life. But see what follows in swift and +immediate succession. "If Christ is in you, the spirit is life." "The +spirit is life!" And therefore you find that in the apostle's thought +dispositions are powers. They are not passive entities. They are +positive forces vitalizing and energizing the common life of men. +My brethren, I am persuaded there is a perilous leakage in this +department of our thought. We are not bold enough in our thinking +concerning spiritual realities. We do not associate with every mode +of the consecrated spirit the mighty energy of God. We too often +oust from our practical calculations some of the strongest and most +aggressive allies of the saintly life. Meekness is more than the +absence of self-assertion; it is the manifestation of the mighty power +of God. To the Apostle Paul love exprest more than a relationship. It +was an energy productive of abundant labors. Faith was more than an +attitude. It was an energy creative of mighty endeavor, Hope was +more than a posture. It was an energy generative of a most enduring +patience. All these are dynamics, to be counted as active allies, +cooperating in the ministry of the kingdom. And so the epistles abound +in the recital of mystic ministries at work. The Holy Spirit worketh! +Grace worketh! Faith worketh! Love worketh! Hope worketh! Prayer +worketh! And there are other allies robed in less attractive garb. +"Tribulation worketh!" "This light affliction worketh." "Godly sorrow +worketh!" On every side of him the apostle conceives cooperative and +friendly powers. "The mountain is full of horses and chariots of +fire round about him." He exults in the consciousness of abounding +resources. He discovers the friends of God in things which find no +place among the scheduled powers of the world. He finds God's raw +material in the world's discarded waste. "Weak things," "base things," +"things that are despised," "things that are not," mere nothings; +among these he discovers the operating agents of the mighty God. Is it +any wonder that in this man, possessed of such a wealthy consciousness +of multiplied resources, the spirit of a cheery optimism should be +enthroned? With what stout confidence he goes into the fight! He +never mentions the enemy timidly. He never seeks to underestimate his +strength. Nay, again and again he catalogs all possible antagonisms in +a spirit of buoyant and exuberant triumph. However numerous the enemy, +however subtle and aggressive his devices, however towering and +well-established the iniquity, however black the gathering clouds, so +sensitive is the apostle to the wealthy resources of God that amid it +all he remains a sunny optimist, "rejoicing in hope," laboring in the +spirit of a conqueror even when the world was exulting in his supposed +discomfiture and defeat. + +And, finally, in searching for the springs of this man's optimism, I +place alongside his sense of the reality of redemption and his wealthy +consciousness of present resources his impressive sense of the reality +of future glory. Paul gave himself time to think of heaven, of the +home of God, of his own home when time should be no more. He loved to +contemplate "the glory that shall be revealed." He mused in wistful +expectancy of the day "when Christ who is our life shall be +manifested," and when we also "shall be manifested with him in glory." +He pondered the thought of death as "gain," as transferring him to +conditions in which he would be "at home with the Lord," "with Christ, +which is far better." He looked for "the blest hope and appearing +of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ," and he +contemplated "that great day" as the "henceforth," which would reveal +to him the crown of righteousness and glory. Is any one prepared to +dissociate this contemplation from the apostle's cheery optimism? Is +not rather the thought of coming glory one of its abiding springs? Can +we safely exile it from our moral and spiritual culture? I know that +this particular contemplation is largely absent from modern religious +life, and I know the nature of the recoil in which our present +impoverishment began. "Let us hear less about the mansions of the +blest and more about the housing of the poor!" Men revolted against an +effeminate contemplation, which had run to seed, in favor of an active +philanthropy which sought the enrichment of the common life. But, my +brethren, pulling a plant up is not the only way of saving it from +running to seed. You can accomplish by a wise restriction what +is wastefully done by severe destruction. I think we have lost +immeasurably by the uprooting, in so many lives, of this plant of +heavenly contemplation. We have built on the erroneous assumption that +the contemplation of future glory inevitably unfits us for the service +of man. It is an egregious and destructive mistake. I do not think +that Richard Baxter's labors were thinned or impoverished by his +contemplation of "The Saint's Everlasting Rest." When I consider his +mental output, his abundant labors as father-confessor to a countless +host, his pains and persecutions and imprisonments, I can not but +think he received some of the powers of his optimistic endurance from +contemplations such as he counsels in his incomparable book. "Run +familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem; visit the +patriarchs and prophets, salute the apostles, and admire the armies of +martyrs; lead on the heart from street to street, bring it into +the palace of the great king; lead it, as it were, from chamber to +chamber. Say to it, 'Here must I lodge, here must I die, here must I +praise, here must I love and be loved. My tears will then be wiped +away, my groans be turned to another tune, my cottage of clay be +changed to this palace, my prison rags to these splendid robes'; 'for +the former things are passed away.'" I can not think that Samuel +Rutherford impoverished his spirit or deadened his affections, or +diminished his labors by mental pilgrimages such as he counsels to +Lady Cardoness: "Go up beforehand and see your lodging. Look through +all your Father's rooms in heaven. Men take a sight of the lands ere +they buy them. I know that Christ hath made the bargain already; but +be kind to the house ye are going to, and see it often." I can not +think that this would imperil the fruitful optimisms of the Christian +life. I often examine, with peculiar interest, the hymn-book we use at +Carr's Lane. It was compiled by Dr. Dale. Nowhere else can I find the +broad perspective of his theology and his primary helpmeets in +the devotional life as I find them there. And is it altogether +unsuggestive that under the heading of "Heaven" is to be found one of +the largest sections of the book. A greater space is given to "Heaven" +than is given to "Christian duty." Is it not significant of what a +great man of affairs found needful for the enkindling and sustenance +of a courageous hope? And among the hymns are many which have helped +to nourish the sunny endeavors of a countless host. + + There is a land of pure delight + Where saints immortal reign; + Infinite day excludes the night, + And pleasures banish pain. + + What are these, arrayed in white, + Brighter than the noonday sun? + Foremost of the suns of light, + Nearest the eternal throne. + + Hark! hark, my soul! Angelic songs are swelling + O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore. + Angelic songs to sinful men are telling + Of that new life when sin shall be no more. + +My brethren, depend upon it, we are not impoverished by contemplations +such as these. They take no strength out of the hand, and they +put much strength and buoyancy into the heart. I proclaim the +contemplation of coming glory as one of the secrets of the apostle's +optimism which enabled him to labor and endure in the confident spirit +of rejoicing hope. These, then, are some of the springs of Christian +optimism; some of the sources in which we may nourish our hope in the +newer labors of a larger day: a sense of the glory of the past in +a perfected redemption, a sense of the glory of the present in our +multiplied resources, a sense of the glory of tomorrow in the fruitful +rest of our eternal home. + + O blest hope! with this elate + Let not our hearts be desolate; + But, strong in faith and patience, wait + Until He come! + + + + +GENERAL INDEX + + + + +INDEX TO PREACHERS AND SERMONS + +Abbott, Lyman, The Divinity in Humanity +Abraham's Imitators; or The Activity of Faith. By Thomas Hooker +Affection, The Expulsive Power of a New. By Thomas Chalmers +Argument, The, from Experience. By Robert William Dale +Arnold, Thomas, Alive in God +Ascension, The, of Christ. By Girolamo Savonarola +Assurance in God. By George Adam Smith +Atonement, Eternal. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Atonement, The Prominence of the. By Edwards Amasa Park +Augustine, St., The Recovery of Sight by the Blind + +Bacon, Leonard Woolsey, God Indwelling +Basil "The Great," The Creation of the World +Baxter, Richard, Making Light of Christ and Salvation +Beecher, H.W., Immortality +Beecher, Lyman, The Government of God Desirable +Bible, The, vs. Infidelity. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Blair, Hugh, The Hour and the Event of All Time +Blind, The Recovery of Sight by the. By St. Augustine +Bones, The Valley of Dry. By Frederick Denison Maurice +Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, The Death of the Grande Conde +Bounty, The Royal. By Alexander McKenzie +Bourdaloue, Louis, The Passion of Christ +Broadus, John A., Let us Have Peace with God +Brooks, Memorial Discourse on Phillips. By Henry Codman Potter +Brooks, Phillips, The Pride of Life +Bunyan, John, The Heavenly Footman +Burrell, David James, How to Become a Christian +Bushnell, Horace, Unconscious Influence + +Cadman, S. Parkes, A New Day for Missions +Caird, John, Religion in Common Life +Calvin, John, Enduring Persecution for Christ +Campbell, Alexander, The Missionary Cause +Carlyle, Thomas,--In Memoriam. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley +Carpenter, William Boyd, The Age of Progress +Chalmers, Thomas, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection +Charming, William Ellery, The Character of Christ +Chapin, Edwin Hubbell Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion +Character, The, of Christ. By William Ellery Charming +Christ and Salvation, Making Light of. By Richard Baxter +Christ Among the Common Things of Life. By William James Dawson +Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ. By William Mackergo Taylor +Christ, Enduring Persecution for. By John Calvin +Christ, The Ascension of. By Girolamo Savonarola +Christ, The Character of. By William Ellery Channing +Christ, The First Temptation of. By John Knox +Christ, The Loneliness of. By Frederick William Robertson +Christ, The Passion of. By Louis Bourdaloue +Christ--_The_ Question of the Centuries. By Robert Stuart + MacArthur +Christ, The Spirit of. By Charles H. Fowler +Christ, What Think ye of. By Dwight Lyman Moody +Christ, Zeal in the Cause of. By William Morley Punshon +Christ's Advent to Judgment. By Jeremy Taylor +Christ's Real Body not in the Eucharist. By John Wyclif +Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New Life. By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Christian, How to Become a. By David James Burrell +Christian Victory. By Christopher Newman Hall +Christianity, The Mysteries of. By Alexander Vinet +Christianity, The Transient and Permanent in. By Theodore Parker +Chrysostom, Excessive Grief at the Death of Friends +Church, The Mother. By Ernest Roland Wilberforce +Church, The Triumph of the. By Henry Edward Manning +Clifford, John, The Forgiveness of Sins +Colonization, The, of the Desert. By Edward Everett Hale +Common Life, Religion in. By John Caird +Common Things of Life, Christ Among the. By William James Dawson +Conde, The Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Grande. By Jacques + Benigne Bossuet +Creation, The, of the World. By Basil +Creation, Work in the Groaning. By Frederick William Farrar +Crosby, Howard, The Prepared Worm +Cuyler, Theodore Ledyard, The Value of Life + +Dale, Robert William, The Argument from Experience +Day, A, in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth, By Francis Wayland +Dawson, William James, Christ Among the Common Things of Life +Death, Glorification Through. By Francis Landey Patton +Desert, The Colonization of the. By Edward Everett Hale +Divinity, The, in Humanity. By Lyman Abbott +Drummond, Henry, The Greatest Thing in the World +Dwight, Timothy, The Sovereignty of God + +Earth, The Shaking of the Heavens and the. By Charles Kingsley +Education and the Future of Religion. By John Lancaster Spalding +Edwards, Jonathan, Spiritual light +Elect, The Small Number of the. By Jean Baptiste Massillon +Eternal Atonement. By Roswell Dwight Hitchcock +Eucharist, Christ's Real Body not in the. By John Wyclif +Evans, Christmas, The Fall and Recovery of Man +Event, The Hour and the, of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Experience. By Alexander Whyte +Experience, The Argument from. By Robert William Dale +Expulsive Power, The, of a New Affection. By Thomas Chalmers + +Faith, Constructive. By Charles Henry Parkhurst +Faith, The Activity of; or, Abraham's Imitators. By Thomas Hooker +Faith, The Story of a Disciple's. By Henry Scott Holland +Fall, The, and Recovery of Man. By Christmas Evans +Farrar, Frederick William, Work in the Groaning Creation +Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, The Saints Converse with God +Footman, The Heavenly. By John Bunyan +Forgiveness, The, of Sins. By John Clifford. +Fowler, Charles H., The Spirit of Christ +Funeral Sermon, The, on the Death of the Grande Conde, by Jacques + Benigne Bossuet + +Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God. By William Robertson Nicoll +Gladden, Washington, The Prince of Life +Glorification Through Death. By Francis Landey Patton +God, Alive in. By Thomas Arnold +God Calling to Man. By Charles John Vaughan +God Indwelling. By Leonard Woolsey Bacon. +God, Marks of Love to. By Robert Hall +God, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of. By Edward Irving +God, The Government of, Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +God, The Image of, in Man. By Robert South +God, The Saints Converse with. By Francois Fenelon +God, The Sovereignty of. By Timothy Dwight +God the Unwearied Guide. By Newell Dwight Hillis +God's Love to Fallen Man. By John Wesley +God's Will the End of Life. By John Henry Newman +Gordon, George Angier, Man in the Image of God +Government, The, of God Desirable. By Lyman Beecher +Grace, The Method of. By George Whitefield +Greatest Thing, The, in the World. By Henry Drummond +Grief, Excessive, at the Death of Friends. By Chrysostom +Guide, God the Unwearied. By Newell Dwight Hillis +Gunsaulus, Frank Wakely, The Bible vs. Infidelity +Guthrie, Thomas, The New Heart + +Hale, Edward Everett, The Colonization of the Desert +Hall, Christopher Newman, Christian Victory +Hall, John, Liberty only in Truth +Hall, Robert, Marks of Love to God +Heart, The New. By Thomas Guthrie +Heavens, The Shaking of the, and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Hillis, Newell Dwight, God the Unwearied Guide +Hitchcock, Roswell Dwight, The Eternal Atonement +Holland, Henry Scott, The Story of a Disciple's Faith +Holy Spirit, Influence of the. By Henry Parry Liddon +Hooker, Thomas, The Activity of Faith; or Abraham's Imitators +Hour, The, and the Event of all Time. By Hugh Blair +Howe, John, The Redeemer's Tears over Lost Souls +Humanity, The Divinity in. By Lyman Abbott + +Ideal of Life, The Perfect. By George Campbell Morgan +Immortality. By H.W. Beecher +Infidelity, The Bible vs. By Frank Wakely Gunsaulus +Influence, Unconscious. By Horace Bushnell +Influences of the Holy Spirit. By Henry Parry Liddon +Inheritance, The Heavenly. By John Summerfield +Irving, Edward, Preparation for Consulting the Oracles of God + +Jefferson, Charles Edward, The Reconciliation +Jesus of Nazareth, A Day in the Life of. By Francis Wayland +Jowett, John Henry, Apostolic Optimism +Judgment, Christ's Advent to. By Jeremy Taylor +Judgment, The Reversal of Human. By James B. Mozley +Justification, The Method and Fruits of. By Martin Luther + +Kingsley, Charles, The Shaking of the Heavens and the Earth +Knox, John, The First Temptation of Christ +Knox-Little, William John, Thirst Satisfied +Latimer, Hugh, Christian Love +Life, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our New By Frederich Ernst + Schleiermacher +Life, God's Will the End of. By John Henry Newman +Life, The Perfect Ideal of. By George Campbell Morgan +Life, The Pride of. By Phillips Brooks +Life, The Prince of. By Washington Gladden +Life, The Value of. By Theodore Ledyard Cuyler +Liberty only in Truth. By John Hall +Liddon, Henry Parry, Influences of the Holy Spirit +Light, Spiritual. By Jonathan Edwards +Loneliness, The, of Christ. By Frederick William Robertson +Lord, The Resurrection of Our. By Matthew Simpson +Lorimer, George C. The Fall of Satan +Love, Christian. By Hugh Latimer +Love, Marks of, to God. By Robert Hall +Luther, Martin, The Method and Fruits of Justification +MacArthur, Robert Stuart, Christ--The Question of the Centuries +McKenzie, Alexander, The Royal Bounty +Maclaren, Alexander, The Pattern of Service +Macleod, Norman, The True Christian Ministry +Magee, William Connor, The Miraculous Stilling of the Storm +Man, God Calling to. By Charles John Vaughan +Man, God's Love to Fallen. By John Wesley +Man in the Image of God. By George Angier Gordon +Man, The Fall and Recovery of. By Christmas Evans +Man, The Image of God in. By Robert South +Manhood, The Meaning of. By Henry Van Dyke +Manning, Henry Edward, The Triumph of the Church +Martineau, James, Parting Words +Mason, John Mitchell, Messiah's Throne +Massillon, Jean Baptiste, The Small Number of the Elect +Maurice, Frederick Denison, The Valley of Dry Bones +Melanchthon, Philip, The Safety of the Virtuous +Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks. By Henry Codman Potter +Messiah's Throne. By John Mitchell Mason +Ministry, The True Christian. By Norman Macleod +Missions, A New Day for. By. S. Parkes Cadman +Missionary Cause, The. By Alexander Campbell +Missionary Work, The Permanent Motive in. By Richard S. Storrs +Monster, A Bloody. By Thomas DeWitt Talmage +Moody, Dwight Lyman, What Think ye of Christ? +Morgan, George Campbell, The Perfect Ideal of Life +Motive, The Permanent, in Missionary Work. By Richard S. Storrs +Mozley, James B., The Reversal of Human Judgment +Mysteries. The, of Christianity. By Alexander Vinet + +Newman, John Henry, God's Will the End of Life +Nicodemus: The Seeker after Religion. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Nicoll, William Robertson, Gethsemane, The Rose Garden of God + +Optimism, Apostolic. By John Henry Jowett +Optimism. By John Watson +Oracles, Preparation for Consulting the, of God. By Edward Irving + +Park, Edwards Amasa, The Prominence of the Atonement +Parker, Joseph, A Word to the Weary +Parker, Theodore, The Transient and Permanent in Christianity +Parkhurst, Charles Henry, Constructive Faith +Passion, The, of Christ. By Louis Bourdaloue +Patton, Francis Landey, Glorification Through Death +Paul Before Felix and Drusilla. By Jacques Saurin +Peace with God, Let us Have. By John A. Broadus +Permanent, The Transient and the, in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Persecution for Christ, Enduring, John Calvin +Pilate Before Christ--Christ Before Pilate. By William Mackergo + Taylor +Potter, Henry Codman, Memorial Discourse on Phillips Brooks +Pride, The, of Life. By Phillips Brooks +Prince, The, of Life. By Washington Gladden +Progress, The Age of. By William Boyd Carpenter +Punshon, William Morley, Zeal in the Cause of Christ + +Reconciliation, The. By Charles E. Jefferson +Recovery, The Fall and, of Man. By Christmas Evans +Redeemer's Tears, The, over Lost Souls. By John Howe +Religion, Education and the Future of. By John Lancaster Spaldin +Religion in Common Life. By John Caird +Religion, Nicodemus: The Seeker after. By Edwin Hubbell Chapin +Resurrection, Christ's, an Image of our New-Life. By Frederick Ernst + Schleiermacher +Resurrection, The, of Our Lord. By Matthew Simpson +Resurrection, The Reasonableness of a. By John Tillotson +Reversal, The, of Human Judgment. By James B. Mozley +Robertson, Frederick William, The Loneliness of Christ +Royal Bounty, the. By Alexander McKenzie + +Sackcloth, The Transfigured. By William L. Watkinson +Saints Converse with God, The. By Francis Fenelon +Salvation, Making Light of Christ and. By Richard Baxter +Satan, The Fall of. By George C. Lorimer +Saurin, Jacques, Paul Before Felix and Drusilla +Savonarola, Girolamo, The Ascension of Christ +Schleiermacher, Frederick Ernst, Christ's Resurrection an Image of our + New Life +Seiss, Joseph A., The Wonderful Testimonies +Service, The Pattern of. By Alexander Maclaren +Shaking, The, of the Heavens and the Earth. By Charles Kingsley +Sight, The Recovery of, by the Blind By St Augustine +Simpson, Matthew, The Resurrection of Our Lord. +Sins, The Forgiveness of By John Clifford +Smith, George Adam Assurance in God +Songs in the Night By Charles Haddon Spurgeon +Souls, The Redeemer's Tears Over Lost By John Howe +South, Robert, The Image of God in Man +Sovereignty, The of God By Timothy Dwight +Spalding, John Lancaster, Education and the Future of Religion +Spiritual Light By Jonathan Edwards +Spurgeon, Charles Haddon Songs in the Night +Stalker, James Temptation +Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, In Memoriam--Thomas Carlyle +Stilling of the Storm, The Miraculous By William Connor Magee +Storm, The Miraculous Stilling of the By William Connor Magee +Storrs, Richard S. The Permanent Motive in Missionary Work +Summerfield, John The Heavenly Inheritance + +Talmage, Thomas DeWitt A Bloody Monster +Taylor, Jeremy Christ's Advent to Judgment +Taylor, William Mackergo Christ Before Pilate--Pilate Before Christ +Temptation By James Stalker +Temptation, The First, of Christ By John Knox +Testimonies The Wonderful By Joseph A Seiss +Thirst Satisfied By William John Knox Little +Time, The Hour and the Event of all By Hugh Blair +Tillotson, John, The Reasonableness of a Resurrection +Transfigured Sackcloth, The By William L. Watkinson +Transient, The, and Permanent in Christianity. By Theodore Parker +Triumph, The, of the Church. By Henry Edward Manning +Truth, Liberty Only in. By John Hall +Valley, The, of Dry Bones By Frederick Derrison Maurice +Van Dyke, Henry, The Meaning of Manhood +Vaughan, Charles John, God Calling to Man +Victory, Christian By Christopher Newman Hall +Vinet, Alexander, The Mysteries of Christianity +Virtuous, The Safety of the. By Philip Melanchthon +Voice, I am a. By Charles Wagner + +Wagner, Charles, I am a Voice +Watkinson, William L, The Transfigured Sackcloth +Watson, John, Optimism +Wayland, Francis, A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth +Weary, A Word to the. By Joseph Parker +Wesley, John, God's Love to Fallen Man. +Whitefield, George, The Method of Grace +Whyte, Alexander, Experience +Wilberforce, Ernest Roland, The Mother Church +Words, Parting By James Martineau +Work in the Groaning Creation. By Frederick William Farrar +World, The Greatest Thing in the. By Henry Drummond +Worm, The Prepared. By Howard Crosby + + + + +INDEX TO TEXTS + + + VOLUME + +Genesis i., 2 I + i., 27 II + i., 31 VII + i., 31 VII + iii., 9 VI + xxxvii., 33 VIII + +I Kings x., 13 VII + x., 36 IX + +II Kings vi., 1,2 IX + +Esther iv., 2 VIII + +Job xxxiii., 4 IX + xxxv., 10 VIII + +Psalms xvi., 16 X + xlii., 2 VIII + cxix., 45 VII + cxix., 129 VII + +Proverbs xi., 30 IV + +Isaiah xl., 1-31 X + l, 4 VII + lvii., 15 VII + +Jeremiah vi., 14 III + x., 23 III + +Ezekiel xxxvi., 26 V + xxxvii., 1-3 V + +Jonah iv., 7 VII + +Matthew iv., 1 I + vi., 10 IV + viii., 25, 26 VII + xii., 12 IX + xiii., 24 VI + xvi., 17 III + xvii., 5 IV + xix., 30 V + xx., 30 I + xxii., 5 II + xxii., 32 IV + xxii., 42 VIII + xxii., 42 IX + xxvi., 26 I + xxvii., 22 VII + xxviii., 19 IX + +Mark vii., 33 VII + xvi., 15 VI + +Luke iv. 27 III + ix., 10-17 IV + x., 18 VIII + xix., 41, 42 II + xxi., 33 V + xxiii., 27, 28 II + xxiv., 51 I + +John i., 23 X + iii. 1, 2 VI + iii., 8 VII + v., 39 IV + v., 42 III + vi., 38 IV + vi., 63 VIII + vi., 64 IX + viii., 28-30 X + x., 28 I + x., 34-36 VIII + xii., 24 IX + xiv. 27 V + xv., 12 I + xvi., 31, 32 VI + xvii., 1 III + xvii., 20, 21 V + xx., 8 IV + xx., 8 IX + xxi., 9, 12 X + +Acts iii., 15 VIII + xix., 23 IX + xxiv., 24, 25 III + xxvi., 8 II + xxvi., 8 IX + +Romans iv., 12 II + v., 1 IX + v., 4 VIII + v., 15 III + v., 15 III + vi., 4 III + viii., 9 VIII + viii., 22 VII + xii., 11 VI + xii., 12 X + +I Corinthians ii., 2 V + ii., 9 IV + ix., 24 II + xiii., X + xiv., 10 X + xv., 3 X + xv., 19 VI + xv., 20 V + xx., 13 IX + +II Corinthians ii., 14-16 V + v., 10 II + v., 13-15 VI + +Galatians iv., 1-7 I + vi., 14 X + +I Thessalonians iv., 13 I + v., 17 II + +Hebrews i., 18 III + xii., 26-29 VI + xiii., 13 I + +II Peter i., 11 IV + +I John, ii., 16 VIII + v., 15 IV + +Revelations ii., 17 VI + xiii., 8 VI + xxii., 3 VII + +Apostles' Creed VIII + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS, VOLUME 10 +(OF 10)*** + + +******* This file should be named 11760.txt or 11760.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/6/11760 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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