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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/16739-8.txt b/16739-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1564def --- /dev/null +++ b/16739-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3925 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Greatest Thing In the World and Other +Addresses, by Henry Drummond + +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 Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses + +Author: Henry Drummond + +Release Date: September 24, 2005 [EBook #16739] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +The Greatest Thing +In the World +And Other Addresses + +BY + +HENRY DRUMMOND + + + + +NEW YORK CHICAGO +Fleming H. Revell Company +LONDON AND EDINBURGH + + + + +Copyrighted 1891 and 1898 +By Fleming H. Revell Company. + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +LOVE, THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD 7 + +LESSONS FROM THE ANGELUS 35 + +PAX VOBISCUM 44 + +FIRST! AN ADDRESS TO BOYS 70 + +THE CHANGED LIFE, THE GREATEST NEED OF THE WORLD 82 + +DEALING WITH DOUBT 113 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +I was staying with a party of friends in a country house during my +visit to England in 1884. On Sunday evening as we sat around the fire, +they asked me to read and expound some portion of Scripture. Being +tired after the services of the day, I told them to ask Henry +Drummond, who was one of the party. After some urging he drew a small +Testament from his hip pocket, opened it at the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, and began to speak on the subject of Love. + +It seemed to me that I had never heard anything so beautiful, and I +determined not to rest until I brought Henry Drummond to Northfield to +deliver that address. Since then I have requested the principals of my +schools to have it read before the students every year. The one great +need in our Christian life is love, more love to God and to each +other. Would that we could all move into that Love chapter, and live +there. + +This volume contains, in addition to the address on Love, some other +addresses which I trust will bring help and blessing to many. + +(signed) D.L. Moody. + + + + +LOVE: + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. + + +Every one 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. In the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, Paul takes us to + + CHRISTIANITY AT ITS SOURCE; + +and there we see, "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 farther, "God is love." + +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 the passage to Heaven by keeping the +Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which +they had manufactured out of them. Christ came and 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 fulfill the whole law." + +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 fulfill 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 they possessed 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 has 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. + + +I. THE CONTRAST. + +Paul begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over these 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 sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." 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. +"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I +am nothing." + +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. Hence, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, +but have not love it profiteth me nothing." + +Then Paul contrasts it with _sacrifice_ and martyrdom: "If I give my +body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." +Missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the +impress and reflection of the Love of God upon their own character. +That is the universal language. It will take them years to speak in +Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day they 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. They knew that it was love, although he spoke no word. + +Take into your sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down your +life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take +nothing greater, you need take nothing 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_. + + +II. THE ANALYSIS. + +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. + +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 its own." +Good temper "Is not provoked." +Guilelessness "Taketh not account of evil." +Sincerity "Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth + with 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. + +_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 woe + 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 un-Christian 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 +need 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." Humility--love hiding. + +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 does 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 _cannot_ behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored +persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of Love +in their heart they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply +cannot do it. Carlisle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the ploughman-poet. It was because he loved +everything--the mouse, and 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. That is the whole art and +mystery of it. The gentle man cannot in the nature of things do an +ungentle, an ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle soul, the +inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature, cannot 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 eternal. 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 to give them up. But +not to seek them, to look every man not on his own things, but on the +things of others--that is the difficulty. "Seekest thou great things +for thyself?" said the prophet; "_seek them not_." Why? Because there +is no greatness in _things_. Things cannot 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_. Half the +world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. They think it +consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving, and in 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 blessed, it is +more happy, to give than to receive." + +The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: _Good temper._ "Love is +not 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 brand falls, 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 venal 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 un-Christianize 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 of 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 the 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 cannot, simply _cannot_, enter the kingdom of heaven. + +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 speak 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 dropped involuntarily +when off one's guard; in a word, the lightning form of a hundred +hideous and un-Christian sins. 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 cannot 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. 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 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 +motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every +action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a 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. +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 unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with 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 a 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 fitted into 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? Practice. What makes a man a good +artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. What makes a man a +good linguist, a good stenographer? Practice. What makes a man a good +man? Practice. 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 a man does +not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength +of character, no vigor of moral fibre, no 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 PRACTICE. + +What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Though +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 +practice. That is the practice 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 +moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, though 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: "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 cannot +make light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they +cannot 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 fulfill 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 +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 cannot 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 cannot 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 fulfills 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 +supernatural 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. The boy started from his bed, and +called out to the people in the house, + +"God loves me! God loves me!" + +One word! 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_. + + +III. THE DEFENCE. + +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 again 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 be done away." 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." The Bible 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 though it cannot 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 farther, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be _knowledge_, it shall be done away." The wisdom of the +ancients, where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy to-day 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 encyclopędias 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 in +Scotland, at a meeting at which I was present, "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. + +In my time, in the university of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the +faculty was Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. Recently +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 (midwifery) that were no longer needed. His reply +to the librarian was this: + +"Take every text-book 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 to-day to +oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. "Now we know +in part. We see through a glass darkly." Knowledge does not last. + +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 only immortal things are these: "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 yourself 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 a life. Never offer a man 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 addressed 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 +to-morrow. Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because there is +some one who loves you, and whom you want to see to-morrow, 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, he +has no contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand. + +Eternal life also 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 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. Will you do it? It is for the +greatest thing in the world. 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 fulfill 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 round 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." + +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 hair's breadth, +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." + + + + +LESSONS FROM THE ANGELUS. + + +God often speaks to men's souls through music; He also speaks to us +through art. Millet's famous painting entitled "The Angelus" is an +illuminated text, upon which I am going to say a few words to you +to-night. + +There are three things in this picture--a potato field, a country lad +and a country girl standing in the middle of it, and on the far +horizon the spire of a village church. That is all there is to it--no +great scenery and no picturesque people. In Roman Catholic countries +at the evening hour the church bell rings out to remind the people to +pray. Some go into the church, while those that are in the fields bow +their heads for a few moments in silent prayer. + +That picture contains the three great elements which go to make up a +perfectly rounded Christian life. It is not enough to have the "root +of the matter" in us, but that we must be whole and entire, lacking +nothing. The Angelus may bring to us suggestions as to what +constitutes a complete life. + + +I. + +The first element in a symmetrical life is _work_. + +Three-fourths of our time is probably spent in work. Of course the +meaning of it is that our work should be just as religious as our +worship, and unless we can work for the glory of God three-fourths of +life remains unsanctified. + +The proof that work is religious is that most of Christ's life was +spent in work. During a large part of the first thirty years of His +life He worked with the hammer and the plane, making ploughs and yokes +and household furniture. Christ's public ministry occupied only about +two and a half years of His earthly life; the great bulk of His time +was simply spent in doing common everyday tasks, and ever since then +work has had a new meaning. + +When Christ came into the world He was revealed to three deputations +who went to meet and worship Him. First came the shepherds, or working +class; second, the wise men, or student class; and third, the two old +people in the temple, Simeon and Anna; that is to say, Christ is +revealed to men at their work, He is revealed to men at their books, +and He is revealed to men at their worship. It was the old people who +found Christ at their worship, and as we grow older we will spend more +time exclusively in worship than we are able to do now. In the mean +time we must combine our worship with our work, and we may expect to +find Christ at our books and in our common task. + +Why should God have provided that so many hours of every day should be +occupied with work? It is because + + WORK MAKES MEN. + +A university is not merely a place for making scholars, it is a place +for making Christians. A farm is not a place for growing corn, it is a +place for growing character, and a man has no character except that +which is developed by his life and thought. God's Spirit does the +building through the acts which a man performs from day to day. A +student who cons out every word in his Latin and Greek instead of +consulting a translation finds that honesty is translated into his +character. If he works out his mathematical problems thoroughly, he +not only becomes a mathematician, but becomes a thorough man. It is by +constant and conscientious attention to daily duties that thoroughness +and conscientiousness and honorableness are imbedded in our beings. +Character is + + THE MUSIC OF THE SOUL, + +and is developed by exercise. Active use of the power entrusted to us +is one of the chief means which God employs for producing the +Christian graces. Hence the religion of a student demands that he be +true to his work, and that he let his Christianity be shown to his +fellow students and to his professors by the integrity and the +conscientiousness of his academic life. A man who is not faithful in +that which is least will not be faithful in that which is great. I +have known men who struggled unsuccessfully for years to pass their +examinations who, when they became Christians, found a new motive for +work and thus were able to succeed where previously they had failed. A +man's Christianity comes out as much in his work as in his worship. + +Our work is not only to be done thoroughly, but it is to be done +honestly. A man is not only to be honorable in his academic relations, +but he must be honest with himself and in his attitude toward the +truth. Students are not entitled to dodge difficulties, they must go +down to the foundation principles. Perhaps the truths which are dear +to us go down deeper even than we think, and we will get more out of +them if we dig down for the nuggets than we will if we only pick up +those that are on the surface. Other theories may perhaps be found to +have false bases; if so, we ought to know it. It is well to take our +soundings in every direction to see if there is deep water; if there +are shoals we ought to find out where they are. Therefore, when we +come to difficulties, let us not jump lightly over them, but let us be +honest as seekers after truth. + +It may not be necessary for people in general to sift the doctrines of +Christianity for themselves, but a student is a man whose business it +is to think, to exercise the intellect which God has given him in +finding out the truth. Faith is never opposed to reason, though it is +sometimes supposed by Bible teachers that it is; but you will find it +is not. Faith is opposed to sight, but not to reason, though it is not +limited to reason. In employing his intellect in the search for truth +a student is drawing nearer to the Christ who said, "I am the way, the +truth and the life." We talk a great deal about Christ as the way and +Christ as the life, but there is a side of Christ especially for the +student: "I am the truth," and every student ought to be a truth-lover +and a truth-seeker for Christ's sake. + + +II. + +Another element in life, which of course is first in importance, is +_God_. + +The Angelus is perhaps the most religious picture painted this +century. You cannot look at it and see that young man standing in the +field with his hat off, and the girl opposite him with her hands +clasped and her head bowed on her breast, without feeling a sense of +God. + +Do we carry about with us the thought of God wherever we go? If not, +we have missed the greatest part of life. Do we have a conviction of +God's abiding presence wherever we are? There is nothing more needed +in this generation than a larger and more Scriptural idea of God. A +great American writer has told us that when he was a boy the +conception of God which he got from books and sermons was that of a +wise and very strict lawyer. I remember well the awful conception of +God which I had when a boy. I was given an illustrated edition of +Watts' hymns, in which God was represented as a great piercing eye in +the midst of a great black thunder cloud. The idea which that picture +gave to my young imagination was that of God as a great detective, +playing the spy upon my actions, as the hymn says: + + "Writing now the story of what little children do." + +That was a very mistaken and harmful idea which it has taken me years +to obliterate. We think of God as "up there," or as one who made the +world six thousand years ago and then retired. We must learn that He +is not confined either to time or space. God is not to be thought of +as merely back there in time, or up there in space. If not, where is +He? "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." The Kingdom of God is +within you, and God Himself is among men. When are we to exchange the +terrible, far-away, absentee God of our childhood for the everywhere +present God of the Bible? Too many of the old Christian writers seem +to have conceived of God as not much more than the greatest man--a +kind of divine emperor. He is infinitely more; He is a spirit, as +Jesus said to the woman at the well, and in Him we live and move and +have our being. Let us think of God as Immanuel--God with us--an +ever-present, omnipresent, eternal One. Long, long ago, God made +matter, then He made the flowers and trees and animals, then He made +man. Did He stop? Is God dead? If He lives and acts what is He doing? +He is + + MAKING MEN BETTER. + +He it is that "worketh in you." The buds of our nature are not all out +yet; the sap to make them comes from the God who made us, from the +indwelling Christ. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and +we must bear this in mind, because the sense of God is kept up, not by +logic, but by experience. + +Until she was seven years of age the life of Helen Keller, the Boston +girl who was deaf and dumb and blind, was an absolute blank; nothing +could go into that mind because the ears and eyes were closed to the +outer world. Then by that great process which has been discovered, by +which the blind see, and the deaf hear, and the mute speak, that +girl's soul became opened, and they began to put in little bits of +knowledge, and bit by bit they began to educate her. They reserved her +religious instruction for Phillips Brooks. After some years, when she +was twelve years old, they took her to him and he began to talk to her +through the young lady who had been the means of opening her senses, +and who could communicate with her by the exceedingly delicate process +of touch. He began to tell her about God and what He had done, and how +He loved men, and what He is to us. The child listened very +intelligently, and finally said: + +"Mr. Brooks, I knew all that before, but I didn't know His name." + +How often we have felt something within us impelling us to do +something which we would not have conceived of by ourselves, or +enabling us to do something which we could not have done alone. "It is +God which worketh in you." This great simple fact + + EXPLAINS MANY OF THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE, + +and takes away the fear which we would otherwise have in meeting the +difficulties which lie before us. + +Two Americans who were crossing the Atlantic met on Sunday night to +sing hymns in the cabin. As they sang the hymn, "Jesus, Lover of my +Soul," one of the Americans heard an exceedingly rich and beautiful +voice behind him. He looked around, and although he did not know the +face he thought that he recognized the voice. So when the music ceased +he turned around and asked the man if he had not been in the Civil +war. The man replied that he had been a Confederate soldier. "Were you +at such a place on such a night?" asked the first. "Yes," he said, +"and a curious thing happened that night; this hymn recalled it to my +mind. I was on sentry duty on the edge of a wood. It was a dark night +and very cold, and I was a little frightened because the enemy were +supposed to be very near at hand. I felt very homesick and miserable, +and about midnight, when everything was very still, I was beginning to +feel very weary and thought that I would comfort myself by praying and +singing a hymn. I remember singing this hymn, + + 'All my trust on Thee is stayed, + All my help from Thee I bring, + Cover my defenceless head + With the shadow of Thy wing.' + +After I had sung those words a strange peace came down upon me, and +through the long night I remember having felt no more fear." + +"Now," said the other man, "listen to my story. I was a Union soldier, +and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts. I saw you +standing up, although I didn't see your face, and my men had their +rifles focused upon you waiting the word to fire, but when you sang +out, + + 'Cover my defenceless head + With the shadow of Thy wing,' + +I said, 'Boys, put down your rifles, we will go home.' I couldn't kill +you after that." + +God was working in each of them, in His own way carrying out His will. +God keeps his people and guides them and without Him life is but a +living death. + + +III. + +The third element in life about which I wish to speak is _love_. + +In this picture we notice the delicate sense of companionship, brought +out by the young man and the young woman. It matters not whether they +are brother and sister, or lover and loved; there you have the idea of +friendship, the final ingredient in our life, after the two I have +named. If the man or the woman had been standing in that field alone +it would have been incomplete. + +Love is the divine element in life, because "God is love." "He that +loveth is born of God," therefore, as some one has said, let us "keep +our friendships in repair." Let us cultivate the spirit of friendship, +and let the love of Christ develop it into a great love, not only for +our friends, but for all humanity. Wherever you go and whatever you +do, your work will be a failure unless you have this element in your +life. + +These three things go far toward forming a well-rounded life. Some of +us may not have these ingredients in their right proportion, but if +you are lacking in one or the other of them, then pray for it and work +for it that your life may be rounded and complete as God intended it +should be. + + + + +PAX VOBISCUM. (Copyright, James Pott & Co. Used by permission.) + + +I once heard a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon "Rest." It was +full of beautiful thoughts; but when I came to ask myself, "How does +he say I can get Rest?" there was no answer. The sermon was sincerely +meant to be practical, yet it contained no experience that seemed to +me to be tangible, nor any advice that I could grasp--any advice, that +is to say, which could help me to find the thing itself as I went +about the world. + +Yet this omission of what is, after all, the only important problem, +was not the fault of the preacher. The whole popular religion is in +the twilight here. And when pressed for really working specifics for +the experiences with which it deals, it falters, and seems to lose +itself in mist. + +The want of connection between the great words of religion and +every-day life has bewildered and discouraged all of us. Christianity +possesses the noblest words in the language; its literature overflows +with terms expressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can +fill the soul of man. Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light--these +words occur with such persistency in hymns and prayers that an +observer might think they formed the staple of Christian experience. +But on coming to close quarters with the actual life of most of us, +how surely would he be disenchanted. I do not think we ourselves are +aware how much our religious life is + + MADE UP OF PHRASES; + +how much of what we call Christian Experience is only a dialect of the +Churches, a mere religious phraseology with almost nothing behind it +in what we really feel and know. + +To some of us, indeed, the Christian experiences seem further away +than when we took the first steps in the Christian life. That life has +not opened out as we had hoped. We do not regret our religion, but we +are disappointed with it. There are times, perhaps, when wandering +notes from a diviner music stray into our spirits; but these +experiences come at few and fitful moments. We have no sense of +possession in them. When they visit us, it is a surprise. When they +leave us, it is without explanation. When we wish their return, we do +not know how to secure it. + +All which means a religion without solid base, and a poor and +flickering life. It means a great bankruptcy in those experiences +which give Christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to +the world, and a great uncertainty as to any remedy. It is as if we +knew everything about health--except the way to get it. + +I am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that men +are not in earnest. This is simply not the fact. All around us +Christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better. The +amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered +thousands of men and women in whom we should never suspect it; among +the wise and thoughtful, among the young and gay, who seldom assuage +and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and +touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed, but more +light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very real +energies already there. + +The usual advice when one asks for counsel on these questions is, +"Pray." But this advice is far from adequate. I shall qualify the +statement presently; but let me urge it here, with what you will +perhaps call daring emphasis, that to pray for these things is not the +way to get them. No one will get them without praying; but that men do +not get them by praying is the simple fact. We have all prayed, and +sincerely prayed, for such experiences as I have named; prayed, +believing that that was the way to get them. And yet have we got them? +The test is experience. I dare not limit prayer; still less the grace +of God. If you have got them in this way, it is well. I am speaking to +those, be they few or many, who have not got them; to ordinary men in +ordinary circumstances. But if we have not got them, it by no means +follows that prayer is useless. The correct conclusion is only that it +is useless, or inadequate rather, for this particular purpose. To make +prayer the sole resort, the universal panacea for every spiritual ill, +is as radical a mistake as to prescribe only one medicine for every +bodily trouble. The physician who does the last is a quack; the +spiritual adviser who does the first is + + GROSSLY IGNORANT OF HIS PROFESSION. + +To do nothing but pray is a wrong done to prayer itself, and can only +end in disaster. It is as if one tried to live only with the lungs, +as if one assimilated only air and neglected solid food. The lungs are +a first essential; the air is a first essential; but the body has many +members, given for different purposes, secreting different things, and +each has a method of nutrition as special to itself as its own +activity. While prayer, then, is the characteristic sublimity of the +Christian life, it is by no means the only one. And those who make it +the sole alternative, and apply it to purposes for which it was never +meant, are really doing the greatest harm to prayer itself. To couple +the word "inadequate" with this mighty word is not to dethrone prayer, +but to exalt it. + + WHAT DETHRONES PRAYER + +is unanswered prayer. When men pray for things which do not come that +way--pray with sincere belief that prayer, unaided and alone, will +compass what they ask--then, not getting what they ask, they often +give up prayer. + +This is the natural history of much atheism, not only an atheism of +atheists, but a more terrible atheism of Christians, an unconscious +atheism, whose roots have struck far into many souls whose last breath +would be spent in denying it. So, I repeat, it is a mistaken +Christianity which allow men to cherish a blind belief in the +omnipotence of prayer. Prayer, certainly, when the appropriate +conditions are fulfilled, is omnipotent, but not blind prayer. Blind +prayer is a superstition. Prayer, in its true sense, contains the sane +recognition that while man prays in faith, _God acts by law_. What +that means in the immediate connection we shall see presently. + +What, then, is the remedy? It is impossible to doubt that there is a +remedy, and it is equally impossible to believe that it is a secret. +The idea that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, +have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or +trick of it--is wholly incredible and wrong. Religion must be for all, +and the way into its loftiest heights must be by a gateway through +which the peoples of the world may pass. + +I shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But +as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into the +religious sphere, I must ask your forbearance for dwelling for a +moment upon the commonest of commonplaces. + + +I. EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. + +Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of +order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never at +random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The +Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, +expect Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from the air +like snow or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they +did, they would no less have their origin in previous activities and +be controlled by natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but +not without a long previous history. They are the mature effects of +former causes. Equally so are Rest and Peace and Joy. They, too, have +each a previous history. Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, +but brought about by antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but +calms in man's inward nature, and arise through causes as definite and +as inevitable. + +Realize it thoroughly; it is a methodical, not an accidental world. If +a housewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound +receipt, carefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients +and fire them for the appropriate time without producing the result. +It is not she who has made the cake; it is nature. She brings related +things together; sets causes at work; these causes bring about the +result. She is not a creator, but an intermediary. She does not expect +random causes to produce specific effects--random ingredients would +only produce random cakes. So it is in the making of Christian +experiences. Certain lines are followed; certain effects are the +result. These effects cannot but be the result. But the result can +never take place without the previous cause. To expect results without +antecedents is to expect cakes without ingredients. That impossibility +is precisely + + THE ALMOST UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION. + +Now what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this +simple principle of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And +instead of applying the principle generally to each of the Christian +experiences in turn, I shall examine its application to one in some +little detail. The one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who +follows the application in this single instance will be able to apply +it for himself to all the others. + +Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are subject to fevers +which cause restlessness and delirium. + +Note the expression, "cause restlessness." _Restlessness has a cause._ +Clearly, then, any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would +proceed at once to deal with the cause. If that were not removed, a +doctor might prescribe a hundred things, and all might be taken in +turn, without producing the least effect. Things are so arranged in +the original planning of the world that certain effects must follow +certain causes, and certain causes must be abolished before certain +effects can be removed. Certain parts of Africa are inseparably linked +with the physical experience called fever; this fever is in turn +infallibly linked with a mental experience called restlessness and +delirium. To abolish the mental experience the radical method would be +to abolish the physical experience, and the way of abolishing the +physical experience would be to abolish Africa, or to cease to go +there. + +Now this holds good for all other forms of Restlessness. Every other +form and kind of Restlessness in the world has a definite cause, and +the particular kind of Restlessness can only be removed by removing +the allotted cause. + +All this is also true of Rest. Restlessness has a cause: must not +_Rest_ have a cause? Necessarily. If it were a chance world we would +not expect this; but, being a methodical world, it cannot be +otherwise. Rest, physical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, every kind +of rest has a cause, as certainly as restlessness. Now causes are +discriminating. There is one kind of cause for every particular effect +and no other, and if one particular effect is desired, the +corresponding cause must be set in motion. It is no use proposing +finely devised schemes, or going through general pious exercises in +the hope that somehow Rest will come. The Christian life is not +casual, but causal. All nature is a standing protest against the +absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects, or any effects, +without the employment of appropriate causes. The Great Teacher dealt +what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite irrelevancy by +a single question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of +thistles?" + +Why, then, did the Great Teacher not educate His followers fully? Why +did He not tell us, for example, how such a thing as Rest might be +obtained? The answer is that _He did_. But plainly, explicitly, in so +many words? Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many words. He assigned +Rest to its cause, in words with which each of us has been familiar +from his earliest childhood. + +He begins, you remember--for you at once know the passage I refer +to--almost as if Rest could be had without any cause; "Come unto me," +He says, "and I will _give_ you Rest." + +Rest, apparently, was a favor to be bestowed; men had but to come to +Him; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes +that all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously. +For what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an +impossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be _given_? One +could no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We +speak of "causing" laughter, which we can do; but we can not give it +away. When we speak of "giving" pain, we know perfectly well we can +not give pain away. And when we aim at "giving" pleasure, all that we +do is to arrange a set of circumstances in such a way as that these +shall cause pleasure. Of course there is a sense, and a very wonderful +sense, in which a Great Personality breathes upon all who come within +its influence an abiding peace and trust. Men can be to other men as +the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; much more Christ; much +more Christ as Perfect Man; much more still as Savior of the world. +But it is not this of which I speak. When Christ said He would give +men Rest, He meant simply that He would put them in the way of it. By +no act of conveyance would or could He make over His own Rest to them. +He could give them + + HIS RECEIPT + +for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them. For one thing +it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men +were not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet +another thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it +for themselves. + +That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the +second sentence: "Learn of me, and ye shall _find_ Rest." Rest, (that +is to say), is not a thing that can be _given_, but a thing to be +_acquired_. It comes not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be +found in a happy hour, as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one +finds knowledge. It could indeed be no more found in a moment than +could knowledge. A soil has to be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, +it will grow in one climate, and not in another; at one altitude, and +not at another. Like all growth it will have an orderly development +and mature by slow degrees. + +The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says +we are to achieve Rest by _learning_. "Learn of me," He says, "and ye +shall find rest to your souls." + +Now consider the extraordinary + + ORIGINALITY OF THIS UTTERANCE. + +How novel the connection between these two words "Learn" and "Rest." +How few of us have ever associated them--ever thought that Rest was a +thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out for it as we would to +learn a language; ever practised it as we would practice the violin? +Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching still is to the +world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should still be so +little known? The last thing most of us would have thought of would +have been to associate _Rest_ with _Work_. + +What must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find +the soul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation. +He specifies two things--Meekness and Lowliness. "Learn of me," He +says, "for I am _meek_ and _lowly_ in heart." + +Now these two things are not chosen at random. To these +accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is attached. Learn these, in +short, and you have already found Rest. These as they stand are direct +causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot but produce it at +once. And if you think for a single moment, you will see how this is +necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the connection +between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies deep in the +nature of things. + +What is the connection, then? I answer by a further question. + + WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CAUSES OF UNREST? + +If you know yourself, you will answer--Pride; Selfishness, Ambition. +As you look back upon the past years of your life, is it not true that +its unhappiness has chiefly come from the succession of personal +mortifications and almost trivial disappointments which the +intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at lengthened +intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty friction of +our every-day life with one another, the jar of business or of work, +the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our ambition, the +crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit, which make +inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed hopes, +unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal + + SOURCES OF MAN'S UNREST. + +Now it is obvious why Christ pointed out as the two chief objects for +attainment the exact opposites of these. To meekness and lowliness +these things simply do not exist. They cure unrest by making it +impossible. These remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms; they +strike at once at removing causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a +self-centered life can be removed at once by learning meekness and +lowliness of heart. He who learns them is forever proof against it. He +lives henceforth a charmed life. Christianity is a fine inoculation, a +transfusion of healthy blood into an anęmic or poisoned soul. No fever +can attack a perfectly sound body; no fever of unrest can disturb a +soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of Christ. + +Men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at +Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is _within +you_." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the bottom. +Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. Hence, +_be lowly_. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be +hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, _be meek_. He who is +without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is +self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man +are really above all other men, above all other things. They dominate +the world because they do not care for it. The miser does not possess +gold, gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. "The meek," said +Christ, "inherit the earth." They do not buy it; they do not conquer +it; but they inherit it. + +There are people who go about the world looking out for slights, and +they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such +men as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have +had no real education, for they have never learned + + HOW TO LIVE. + +Few men know how to live. We grow up at random carrying into mature +life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little +children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be changed; +that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the Fine +Arts; that it has to be learned with lifelong patience, and that the +years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly. + +Yet this is what Christianity is for--to teach men + + THE ART OF LIFE. + +And its whole curriculum lies in one word--"Learn of me." Unlike most +education, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from +books, or lectures or creeds or doctrines. It is a study from the +life. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian graces. +He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn +His art by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their +masters. + +Now we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the weary and +heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new +principle--upon His own principle. "Watch my way of doing things," He +says; "Follow me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly, and you +will find Rest." + +I do not say, remember, that the Christian life to every man, or to +any man, can be a bed of roses. No educational process can be this. +And perhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple +"learn" of Christ, they would not enter His school with so +irresponsible a heart. For there is not only much to learn, but + + MUCH TO UNLEARN. + +Many men never go to this school at all till their disposition is +already half ruined and character has taken on its fatal set. To learn +arithmetic is difficult at fifty--much more to learn Christianity. To +learn simply what it is to be meek and lowly, in the case of one who +has had no lessons in that in childhood, may cost him half of what he +values most on earth. Do we realize, for instance, that the way of +teaching humility is generally by _humiliation_? There is probably no +other school for it. When a man enters himself as a pupil in such a +school it means a very great thing. There is much Rest there, but +there is also much Work. + +I should be wrong, even though my theme is the brighter side, to +ignore the cross and minimize the cost. Only it gives to the cross a +more definite meaning, and a rarer value, to connect it thus directly +and casually with the growth of the inner life. Our platitudes on the +"benefits of affliction" are usually about as vague as our theories of +Christian Experience. "Somehow" we believe affliction does us good. +But it is not a question of "Somehow." The result is definite, +calculable, necessary. It is under the strictest law of cause and +effect. The first effect of losing one's fortune, for instance, is +humiliation; and the effect of humiliation, as we have just seen, is +to make one humble; and the effect of being humble is to produce Rest. +It is a roundabout way, apparently, of producing Rest; but Nature +generally works by circular processes; and it is not certain that +there is any other way of becoming humble, or of finding Rest. If a +man could make himself humble to order, it might simplify matters; but +we do not find that this happens. Hence we must all go through the +mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, is the nearest gate and +the quickest road to life. + +Yet this is only half the truth. Christ's life outwardly was one of +the most troubled lives that was ever lived: tempest and tumult, +tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the +worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of +glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have +gone to Him and found Rest. Even when the blood-hounds were dogging +Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and +offered them, as a last legacy, "My peace." Nothing ever for a moment +broke the serenity of Christ's life on earth. Misfortune could not +reach Him; He had no fortune. Food, raiment, money--fountain-heads of +half the world's weariness--He simply did not care for; they played no +part in His life; He "took no thought" for them. It was impossible to +affect Him by lowering His reputation. He had already made Himself of +no reputation. He was dumb before insult. When he was reviled, He +reviled not again. In fact, there was + + NOTHING THAT THE WORLD COULD DO TO HIM + +that could ruffle the surface of His spirit. + +Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only when we +see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It +lies not in emotions, or in the absence of emotions. It is not a +hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something +that the preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, +or in music--though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at +leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul; the absolute +adjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things; the +preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured +convictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of +a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with +Browning, "God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world." + +Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of +rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the +far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering +waterfall, with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the +fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on +its nest. The first was only _Stagnation_; the last was _Rest_. For in +Rest there are always two elements--tranquillity and energy; silence +and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and +fearfulness. This it was in Christ. + +It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be or +to do, He at least + + KNEW HOW TO LIVE. + +All this is the perfection of living, of living in the mere sense of +passing through the world in the best way. Hence His anxiety to +communicate His idea of life to others. He came, He said, to give men +life, true life, a more abundant life than they were living; "the +life," as the fine phase in the Revised Version has it, "that is life +indeed." This is what He Himself possessed, and it was this which He +offers to mankind. And hence His direct appeal for all to come to Him +who had not made much of life, who were weary and heavy-laden. These +He would teach His secret. They, also, should know "the life that is +life indeed." + + +II. WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. + +There is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, "Learn of +Me," Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification: + +"_Take my yoke_ upon you, and learn of Me." + +Why, if all this be true, does He call it a _yoke_? Why, while +professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath whisper +"_burden_"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies take it +for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life, some +extra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to +observances, some heavy restriction and trammeling of all that is +joyous and free in the world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough +without being fettered with yet another yoke? + +It is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain +sentence should ever have passed into currency. Did you ever stop to +ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal +which wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden +light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the +plough would be intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A +yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is + + AN INSTRUMENT OF MERCY. + +It is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle +device to make hard labor light. It is not meant to give pain, but to +save pain. And yet men speak of the yoke of Christ as if it were +slavery, and look upon those who wear it as objects of compassion. For +generations we have had homilies on "The Yoke of Christ"--some +delighting in portraying its narrow exactions; some seeking in these +exactions the marks of its divinity; others apologizing for it, and +toning it down; still others assuring us that, although it be very +bad, it is not to be compared with the positive blessings of +Christianity. How many, especially among the young, has this one +mistaken phrase driven forever away from the kingdom of God? Instead +of making Christ attractive, it makes Him out a taskmaster, narrowing +life by petty restrictions, calling for self-denial where none is +necessary, making misery a virtue under the plea that it is the yoke +of Christ, and happiness criminal because it now and then evades it. +According to this conception, Christians are at best the victims of a +depressing fate; their life is a penance; and their hope for the next +world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this. + +The mistake has arisen from taking the word "yoke" here in the same +sense as in the expressions "under the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his +youth." But in Christ's illustration it is not the _jugum_ of the +Roman soldier, but the simple "harness" or "ox-collar" of the Eastern +peasant. It is the literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in +the carpenter shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference +between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the +difference also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. +The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke +caused no pain, and the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted +harness was a misery; the well-fitted collar was "easy." + +And what was the "burden"? It was not some special burden laid upon +the Christian, some unique infliction that they alone must bear. It +was what all men bear. It was simply life, human life itself, the +general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle +to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was +a weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle +and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole +world's problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is +Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at +it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My +yoke and learn of Me, and you will find it easy. For My yoke is easy, +works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and _therefore_ My burden +is light." + +There is no suggestion here that religion will absolve any man from +bearing burdens. That would be to absolve him from living, since it is +life itself that is the burden. What Christianity does propose is to +make it tolerable. + + CHRIST'S YOKE + +is simply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His +prescription for the best and happiest method of living. Men harness +themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural +ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted +collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past enduring, +by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere continuous +irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is +quick and sore. + +This is the origin, among other things, of a disease called +"touchiness"--a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one +of the gravest sources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when +it becomes chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. +It is self-love inflamed to the acute point; conceit, _with a +hair-trigger_. The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; to +let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused +part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old +sensitiveness is becoming numb from want of use. + +It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to adjust the +burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has a +perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence to +human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all +surrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue +and dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere matter of +altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of +things, its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its +own. + +The weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. Suppose +the attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other planet, +where the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton. +Now Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one +way in which it diminishes man's burden. It makes them citizens of +another world. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton today. So +without changing one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider +horizon and a different standard, it alters the whole aspect of the +world. + +Christianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever +spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we +mean Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, or +exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface +readings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the +results wretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what +vale of tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life +for him along this path. + + +III. HOW FRUITS GROW. + +Were Rest my subject, there are other things I should wish to say +about it, and other kinds of Rest of which I should like to speak. +But that is not my subject. My theme is that the Christian experiences +are not the work of magic, but come under the law of Cause and Effect. +I have chosen Rest only as a single illustration of the working of +that principle. If there were time I might next run over all the +Christian experiences in turn, and show the same wide law applies to +each; but I think it may serve the better purpose if I leave this +further exercise to yourselves. I know no Bible study that you will +find more full of fruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of +God, or make the Christian life itself more solid or more sure. I +shall add only a single other illustration of what I mean, before I +close. + +Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of +Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in +Heaven, and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let +down and fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross +and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In +reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one +can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of +the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a +very clever trick in India called the mango trick. A seed is put in +the ground and covered up, and after diverse incantations a full-blown +mango-bush appears within five minutes. I never met any one who knew +how the thing was done, but I never met any one who believed it to be +anything else than a conjuring trick. The world is pretty unanimous +now in its belief in the orderliness of Nature. Men may not know how +fruits grow, but they do know that they cannot grow in an hour. Some +lives have not even a stalk on which fruits could hang, even if they +did grow in an hour. Some have never planted one sound seed of Joy in +all their lives; and others who may have planted a germ or two have +lived so little in sunshine that they never could come to maturity. + +Whence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into +one of the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance +have appealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do +not wish you to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens +that He has dealt with it in words of unusual fullness. + +I need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the +Vine. Did you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not +merely throw it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. +It was not simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine +of an indwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had +said it, He did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His +greatest lessons--He turned to the disciples and said He would tell +them why He had spoken it. It was to tell them + + HOW TO GET JOY. + +"These things have I spoken unto you," He said, "that My Joy might +remain in you, and that your Joy might be full." It was a purposed and +deliberate communication of His + + SECRET OF HAPPINESS. + +Go back over these verses, then, and you will find the Causes of this +Effect, the spring, and the only spring, out of which true Happiness +comes. I am not going to analyze them in detail. I ask you to enter +into the words for yourselves. + +Remember, in the first place, that the Vine was the Eastern symbol of +Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart of man. Yet, however +innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of the grape was the +common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness was only a gross +and passing thing. This was not true happiness, and the vine of the +Palestine vineyards was not the true vine. "_Christ_ was the _true_ +Vine." Here, then, is the ultimate source of Joy. Through whatever +media it reaches us, all true Joy and Gladness find their source in +Christ. + +By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy experienced is +transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed on from Him +to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There is, +indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's +sorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy to men +in the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people share His +life, and therefore share its consequences, and one of these is Joy. +His method of living is one that in the nature of things produces Joy. +When He spoke of His Joy remaining with us He meant in part that the +causes which produced it should continue to act. His followers, (that +is to say), by _repeating_ His life would experience its +accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would remain with them. + +The medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: "He that +abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Fruit first, Joy +next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is the +necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the +necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in +the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy +lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that +implied of peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of +that Life upon mind and character and will; and partly in the +inspiration to live and work for others, with all that that brought of +self-riddance and joy in others' gain. All these, in different ways +and at different times, are + + SOURCES OF PURE HAPPINESS. + +Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant +and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever. +Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in +Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is +Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good; +and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. The +surest proof that all this is a plain matter of Cause and Effect is +that men may try every other conceivable way of finding happiness, and +they will fail. Only the right cause in each case can produce the +right effect. + +Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense +in which grapes are our own making and no more. All fruits +_grow_--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are +the fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can _make_ +things grow. He can _get them to grow_ by arranging all the +circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is +done by God. Causes and effects are eternal arrangements, set in the +constitution of the world; fixed beyond man's ordering. What man can +do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of sequences. Thus he +can get things to grow: thus he himself can grow. But the power is the +Spirit of God. + +What more need I add but this--test the method by experiment. Do not +imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get +them. As well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can +promise that if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not +fail. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in +fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must +come. We have hitherto paid immense attention to _effects_, to the +mere experiences themselves; we have described them, extolled them, +advised them, prayed for them--done everything but find out what +_caused_ them. Henceforth + + LET US DEAL WITH CAUSES. + +"To be," says Lotze, "is to be in relations." About every other method +of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About every +other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a +"perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it +cannot fail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe--and these are +"the Hands of the Living God." + + THE TRUE VINE. + +"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in +me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that +beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now +ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in +me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it +abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the +vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the +same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a +man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; +and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. +If ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye +will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, +that ye bear much fruit; so ye shall be my disciples. As the Father +hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep +my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my +Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I +spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full." + + + + +"FIRST!" + +AN ADDRESS TO BOYS. + + +I have three heads to give you. The first is "Geography," the second +is "Arithmetic," and the third is "Grammar." + + +I. + +First. Geography tells us where to find places. + +Where is the Kingdom of God? It is said that when a Prussian officer +was killed in the Franco-Prussian war, a map of France was very often +found in his pocket. When we wish to occupy a country, we ought to +know its geography. Now, _where_ is the Kingdom of God? A boy over +there says, "It is in heaven." No; it is not in heaven. Another boy +says, "It is in the Bible." No; it is not in the Bible. Another boy +says, "It must be in the Church," No; it is not in the Church. Heaven +is only the capital of the Kingdom of God; the Bible is the guide-book +to it; the Church is the weekly parade of those who belong to it. If +you turn to the seventeenth chapter of Luke you will find out where +the Kingdom of God really is: "The Kingdom of God is within +you"--within _you_. The Kingdom of God is _inside people_. + +I remember once taking a walk by the river near where the Falls of +Niagara are, and I noticed a remarkable figure walking along the river +bank. I had been some time in America. I had seen black men, and red +men, and yellow men, and white men; black men, the Negroes; red men, +the Indians; yellow men, the Chinese; white men, the Americans. But +this man looked quite different in his dress from anything I had ever +seen. When he came a little closer, I saw he was wearing a kilt; when +he came a little nearer still, I saw that he was dressed exactly like +a Highland soldier. When he came quiet near, I said to him: + +"What are you doing here?" + +"Why should I not be here?" he replied; "don't you know this is +British soil? When you cross the river you come into Canada." + +This soldier was thousands of miles from England, and yet he was in +the Kingdom of England. Wherever there is an English heart beating +loyal to the Queen of Britain, there is England. Wherever there is a +boy whose heart is loyal to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God is +within him. + +What is the Kingdom of God? Every Kingdom has its exports, its +products. Go down the river here and you will find ships coming in +with cotton; you know they come from America. You will find ships with +tea; you know they are from China. Ships with wool; you know they come +from Australia. Ships with sugar; you know they come from Java. + +What comes from the Kingdom of God? Again we must refer to our +Guide-book. Turn to Romans, and we shall find what the Kingdom of God +is. I will read it: "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, +joy"--three things. "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy." +Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who +does what is _right_ has the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy who, +instead of being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has +the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy +because he does what is right, has the Kingdom of God within him. The +Kingdom of God is not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange +religious experiences; the Kingdom of God is doing what is +right--living at peace with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy +Ghost. + +Boys, if you are going to be Christians, be Christians as boys, and +not as your grandmothers. A grandmother has to be a Christian as a +grandmother, and that is the right and the beautiful thing for her; +but if you cannot read your Bible by the hour as your grandmother can, +or delight in meetings as she can, don't think you are necessarily a +bad boy. When you are your grandmother's age you will have your +grandmother's kind of religion. Meantime, be a Christian as a boy. +Live a boy's life. Do the straight thing; seek the kingdom of +righteousness and honor and truth. Keep the peace with the boys about +you, and be filled with the joy of being a loyal, and simple, and +natural, and boy-like servant of Christ. + +You can very easily tell a house, or a workshop, or an office where +the Kingdom of God is _not_. The first thing you see in that place is +that the "straight thing" is not always done. Customers do not get +fair play. You are in danger of learning to cheat and to lie. Better a +thousand times to starve than to stay in a place where you cannot do +what is right. + +Or, when you go into your workshop, you find everybody sulky, touchy, +and ill-tempered, everybody at daggers-drawn with everybody else, some +of the men not on speaking terms with some of the others, and the +whole _feel_ of the place miserable and unhappy. The Kingdom of God is +not there, for _it_ is peace. It is the Kingdom of the Devil that is +anger, and wrath and malice. + +If you want to get the Kingdom of God into your workshop, or into your +home, let the quarreling be stopped. Live in peace and harmony and +brotherliness with everyone. For the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of +brothers. It is a great Society, founded by Jesus Christ, of all the +people who try to live like Him, and to make the world better and +sweeter and happier. Wherever a boy is trying to do that, in the house +or on the street, in the workshop or on the baseball field, there is +the Kingdom of God. And every boy, however small or obscure or poor, +who is seeking that, is a member of it. You see now, I hope, what the +Kingdom is. + + +II. + +I pass, therefore, to the second head; What was it? Arithmetic. Are +there any arithmetic words in this text? "Added." What other +arithmetic words? "First." + +Now, don't you think you could not have anything better to seek +"first" than the things I have named to do what is right, to live at +peace, and be always making those about you happy? You see at once why +Christ tells us to seek these things first--because they are + + THE BEST WORTH SEEKING. + +Do you know anything better than these three things, anything happier, +purer, nobler? If you do, seek them first. But if you do not, seek +first the Kingdom of God. I do not tell you to be religious. You know +that. I do not tell you to seek the Kingdom of God. I tell you to seek +the Kingdom of God _first_. _First._ Not many people do that. They put +a little religion into their life--once a week, perhaps. They might +just as well let it alone. It is not worth seeking the Kingdom of God +unless we seek it _first_. + +Suppose you take the helm out of a ship and hang it over the bow, and +send that ship to sea, will it ever reach the other side? Certainly +not. It will drift about anyhow. Keep religion in its place, and it +will take you straight through life and straight to your Father in +heaven when life is over. But if you do not put it in its place, you +may just as well have nothing to do with it. Religion out of its place +in a human life is the most miserable thing in the world. There is +nothing that requires so much to be kept in its place as religion, and +its place is what? second? third? "First." Boys, _first_ the Kingdom +of God; make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that +the very first thing. + +There was a boy in Glasgow apprenticed to a gentleman who made +telegraphs. (The gentleman told me this himself.) One day this boy was +up on the top of a four-story house with a number of men fixing up a +telegraph wire. The work was all but done. It was getting late, and +the men said they were going away home, and the boy was to nip off the +ends of the wire himself. Before going down they told him to be sure +to go back to the workshop, when he was finished, with his master's +tools. + +"Do not leave any of them lying about, whatever you do," said the +foreman. + +The boy climbed up the pole and began to nip off the ends of the wire. +It was a very cold winter night, and the dusk was gathering. He lost +his hold and fell upon the slates, slid down, and then over and over +to the ground below. A clothes-rope stretched across the "green" on to +which he was just about to fall, caught him on the chest and broke his +fall; but the shock was terrible, and he lay unconscious among some +clothes upon the green. + +An old woman came out; seeing her rope broken and the clothes all +soiled, thought the boy was drunk, shook him, scolded him, and went +for the policeman. The boy with the shaking came back to +consciousness, rubbed his eyes, and got upon his feet. What do you +think he did? He staggered, half-blind, up the stairs. He climbed the +ladder. He got on to the roof of the house. He gathered up his tools, +put them into his basket, took them down, and when he got to the +ground again fainted dead away. + +Just then the policeman came, saw there was something seriously wrong, +and carried him away to the hospital, where he lay for some time. I am +glad to say he got better. + +What was his first thought at that terrible moment? His duty. He was +not thinking of himself; he was thinking about his master. First, the +Kingdom of God. + +But there is another arithmetic word. What is it? "Added." + +You know the difference between _addition_ and _subtraction_. Now, +that is + + A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE + +in religion, because--and it is a very strange thing--very few people +know the difference when they begin to talk about religion. They often +tell boys that if they seek the Kingdom of God, everything else is +going to be _subtracted_ from them. They tell them that they are going +to become gloomy, miserable, and will lose everything that makes a +boy's life worth living--that they will have to stop baseball and +story-books, and become little old men, and spend all their time in +going to meetings and in singing hymns. + +Now, that is not true. Christ never said anything like that. Christ +said we are to "Seek first the Kingdom of God," and + + EVERYTHING ELSE WORTH HAVING + +is to be _added_ unto us. If there is anything I would like you to +remember, it is these two arithmetic words--"first" and "added." + +I do not mean by "added" that if you become religious you are all +going to become _rich_. Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop +tomorrow, finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes. Well, nobody +has missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a hole +there. By breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's +pocket. And by-and-by he goes to his master. He says (to _himself_, +and not to his master), "I was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, and I +was told to seek _first_ that which was right." Then he says to his +master: + +"Please, sir, here is a quarter that I found upon the floor." + +The master puts it in the till. What has the boy got in his pocket? +Nothing; _but he has got the Kingdom of God in his heart_. He has laid +up treasure in heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than the +quarter. + +Now, that boy does not find a dollar on his way home. I have known +that happen, but that is not what is meant by "adding." It does not +mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for He pays in +better coin. + +Yet I remember once hearing of a boy who was paid in both ways. He was +very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to +him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business, +and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and +the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many years to +start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went +across the desert; and as he was going out of the door she said: + +"My boy, I have only two words for you--'Fear God, and never tell a +lie.'" + +The boy started off, and towards evening he saw glittering in the +distance the minarets of the great city. But between the city and +himself he saw a cloud of dust. It came nearer. Presently he saw that +it was a band of robbers. + +One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +The boy looked him in the face said: + +"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber laughed and wheeled around his horse and went away back. He +would not believe the boy. + +Presently another robber came and he said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +"Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber said: "The boy is a fool," and wheeled his horse and rode +away back. + +By and by the robber captain came and he said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber dismounted, and put his hand over the boy's breast, felt +something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, till he counted +out the forty golden coins. He looked the boy in the face and said: + +"Why did you tell me that? + +The boy said: "Because of God and my mother." + +The robber leaned on his spear and thought and said: + +"Wait a moment." + +He mounted his horse, rode back to the rest of the robbers, and came +back in about five minutes with his dress changed. This time he looked +not like a robber, but like a merchant. He took the boy up on his +horse and said: + +"My boy, I have long wanted to do something for my God and for my +mother, and I have this moment renounced my robber's life. I am also a +merchant. I have a large business house in the city. I want you to +come and live with me, to teach me about your God; and you will be +rich, and your mother some day will come and live with us." + +And it all happened. By seeking first the Kingdom of God, all these +things were added unto him. + +Boys, banish forever from your minds the idea that religion is +_subtraction_. It does not tell us to give things up, but rather gives +us something so much better that they give themselves up. When you see +a boy on the street whipping a top, you know, perhaps, that you could +not make that boy happier than by giving him a top, a whip, and half +an hour to whip it. But next birthday, when he looks back he says, + +"What a goose I was last year to be delighted with a top. What I want +now is a baseball bat." + +Then when he becomes an old man, he does not care in the least for a +baseball bat; he wants rest, and a snug fireside and a newspaper every +day. He wonders how he could ever have taken up his thoughts with +baseball bats and whipping-tops. + +Now, when a boy becomes a Christian, he grows out of the evil things +one by one--that is to say, if they are really evil--which he used to +set his heart upon; (of course I do not mean baseball bats, for they +are not evils); and so instead of telling people to give up things, we +are safer to tell them to "seek first the Kingdom of God," and then +they will get new things and better things, and + + THE OLD THINGS WILL DROP OFF + +of themselves. This is what is meant by the "new heart." It means that +God puts into us new thoughts and new wishes, and we become quite +different. + + +III. + +Lastly, and very shortly. What was the third head? "Grammar." Right. + +Now, I require a clever boy to answer the next question. What is the +verb? "Seek." Very good: "seek." What mood is it in? "Imperative +mood." What does that mean? "A command." What is the soldier's first +lesson? "Obedience." Have you obeyed this command? Remember the +imperative mood of these words, "_Seek_ first the Kingdom of God." + +This is the command of your King. It _must_ be done. I have been +trying to show you what a splendid thing it is; what a reasonable +thing it is; what a happy thing it is; but beyond all these reasons, +it is a thing that _must_ be done, because we are _commanded_ to do it +by our Captain. Now, there is His command to seek _first_ the Kingdom +of God. Have you done it? + +"Well," I know some boys will say, "we are going to have a good time, +enjoy life, and then we are going to seek--_last_--the Kingdom of +God." + +Now, that is mean; it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take all +the good gifts that God has given him, and then give him nothing back +in return but + + HIS WASTED LIFE. + +God wants boys' _lives_, not only their souls. It is for active +service that soldiers are drilled, and trained, and fed, and armed. +That is why you and I are in the world at all--not to prepare to go +out of it some day, but to serve God actively in it _now_. It is +monstrous, and shameful, and cowardly to talk of seeking the Kingdom +_last_. It is shirking duty, abandoning one's rightful post, playing +into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank. Every hour a +Kingdom is coming in your heart, in your home, in the world near you, +be it a Kingdom of Darkness or a Kingdom of Light. You are placed +where you are, in a particular business, in a particular street, to +help on there the Kingdom of God. You cannot do that when you are old +and ready to die. By that time your companions will have fought their +fight, and lost or won. If they lose, will you not be sorry that you +did not help them? Will you not regret that only at the last you +helped the Kingdom of God? Perhaps you will not be able to do it +then. And then your life has been lost indeed. + +Very few people have the opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God at the +end. Christ, knowing all that, knowing that religion was a thing for +our life, not merely for our death-bed, has laid this command upon us +now: "Seek _first_ the Kingdom of God." + +I am going to leave you with this text itself. Every boy in the world +should obey it. + +Boys, before you go to work to-morrow, before you go to sleep +to-night, resolve that, God helping you, you are going to seek _first_ +the Kingdom of God. Perhaps some boys here are deserters; they began +once before to serve Christ, and they deserted. Come back again, come +back again today! Others have never enlisted at all. Will you not do +it now? You are old enough to decide. The grandest moment of a boy's +life is that moment when he decides to "_Seek first the Kingdom of +God_." + + + + +THE CHANGED LIFE: + +THE GREATEST NEED OF THE WORLD. + + +God is all for quality; man is for quantity. The immediate need of the +world at this moment is not more of us, but, if I may use the +expression, a better brand of us. To secure ten men of an improved +type would be better than if we had ten thousand more of the average +Christians distributed all over the world. There is such a thing in +the evangelistic sense as winning the whole world and losing our own +soul. And the first consideration is our own life--our own spiritual +relations to God--our own likeness to Christ. And I am anxious, +briefly, to look at the right and the wrong way of becoming like +Christ--of becoming better men: the right and the wrong way of +sanctification. + +Let me begin by naming, and in part discarding, some processes in +vogue already for producing better lives. These processes are far from +wrong; in their place they may even be essential. One ventures to +disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect +possible work. + +I. The first imperfect method is to rely on + + RESOLUTION. + +In will power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation. +Struggle, effort, even agony, have their place in Christianity, as we +shall see; but this is not where they come in. + +In mid-Atlantic the Etruria, in which I was sailing, suddenly stopped. +Something had gone wrong with the engines. There were five hundred +able-bodied men on board the ship. Do you think that if we had +gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it +on? + +When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make +his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man +trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his +own head. + +Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said, "Which of +you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" Put down that +method forever as being futile. + +The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that +those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the +goal. + +2. Another experimenter says: "But that is not my method. I have seen +the folly of a mere wild struggle in the dark. I work on a principle. +My plan is not to waste power on random effort, but to concentrate on +a single sin. By taking + + ONE AT A TIME + +and crucifying it steadily, I hope in the end to extirpate all." + +To this, unfortunately, there are four objections: For one thing, life +is too short; the name of sin is legion. For another thing, to deal +with individual sins is to leave the rest of the nature for the time +untouched. In the third place, a single combat with a special sin does +not affect the root and spring of the disease. If you dam up a stream +at one place, it will simply overflow higher up. If only one of the +channels of sin be obstructed, experience points to an almost certain +overflow through some other part of the nature. Partial conversion is +almost always accompanied by such moral leakage, for the pent-up +energies accumulate to the bursting point, and the last state of that +soul may be worse than the first. In the last place, religion does not +consist in negatives, in stopping this sin and stopping that. The +perfect character can never be produced with a pruning knife. + +3. But a third protests: "So be it. I make no attempt to stop sins one +by one. My method is just the opposite. + + I COPY THE VIRTUES + +one by one." + +The difficulty about the copying method is that it is apt to be +mechanical. One can always tell an engraving from a picture, an +artificial flower from a real flower. To copy virtues one by one has +somewhat the same effect as eradicating the vices one by one; the +temporary result is an overbalanced and incongruous character. Some +one defines a _prig_ as "a creature that is over-fed for its size." +One sometimes finds Christians of this species--over-fed on one side +of their nature, but dismally thin and starved looking on the other. +The result, for instance, of copying Humility, and adding it on to an +otherwise worldly life, is simply grotesque. A rabid temperance +advocate, for the same reason, is often the poorest of creatures, +flourishing on a single virtue, and quite oblivious that his +Temperance is making a worse man of him and not a better. These are +examples of fine virtues spoiled by association with mean companions. +Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance together to +make the perfect man. + +This method of sanctification, nevertheless, is in the true direction. +It is only in the details of execution that it fails. + +4. A fourth method I need scarcely mention, for it is a variation on +those already named. It is + + THE VERY YOUNG MAN'S METHOD; + +and the pure earnestness of it makes it almost desecration to touch +it. It is to keep a private note-book with columns for the days of the +week, and a list of virtues, with spaces against each for marks. This, +with many stern rules for preface, is stored away in a secret place, +and from time to time, at nightfall, the soul is arraigned before it +as before a private judgment bar. + +This living by code was Franklin's method; and I suppose thousands +more could tell how they had hung up in their bedrooms, or hid in +locked-fast drawers, the rules which one solemn day they drew up to +shape their lives. + +This method is not erroneous, only somehow its success is poor. You +bear me witness that it fails. And it fails generally for very +matter-of-fact reasons--most likely because one day we forget the +rules. + +All these methods that have been named--the self-sufficient method, +the self-crucifixion method, the mimetic method, and the diary +method--are perfectly human, perfectly natural, perfectly ignorant, +and as they stand perfectly inadequate. It is not argued, I repeat, +that they must be abandoned. Their harm is rather that they distract +attention from the true working method, and secure a fair result at +the expense of the perfect one. What that perfect method is we shall +now go on to ask. + + +I. THE FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. + +A formula, a receipt for Sanctification--can one seriously speak of +this mighty change as if the process were as definite as for the +production of so many volts of electricity? + +It is impossible to doubt it. Shall a mechanical experiment succeed +infallibly, and the one vital experiment of humanity remain a chance? +Is corn to grow by method, and character by caprice? If we cannot +calculate to a certainty that the forces of religion will do their +work, then is religion vain. And if we cannot express the law of these +forces in simple words, then is Christianity not the world's religion, +but the world's conundrum. + +Where, then, shall one look for such a formula? Where one would look +for any formula--among the text-books. And if we turn to the +text-books of Christianity we shall find a formula for this problem as +clear and precise as any in the mechanical sciences. If this simple +rule, moreover, be but followed fearlessly, it will yield the result +of a perfect character as surely as any result that is guaranteed by +the laws of nature. + +The finest expression of this rule in Scripture, or indeed in any +literature, is probably one drawn up and condensed into a single verse +by Paul. You will find it in a letter--the second to the +Corinthians--written by him to some Christian people who, in a city +which was a byword for depravity and licentiousness, were seeking the +higher life. To see the point of the words we must take them from the +immensely improved rendering of the Revised translation, for the older +Version in this case greatly obscures the sense. They are these: + +"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the +Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as +from the Lord, the Spirit." + +Now observe at the outset the entire contradiction of all our previous +efforts, in the simple passive: "_We are transformed._" + +We _are changed_, as the Old Version has it--we do not change +ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament you +will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are +described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be pointed +out that there is a _rationale_ in this; but meantime do not toss +these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or +ignored intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here is no more +than is everywhere claimed for the body. In physiology the verbs +describing the processes of growth are in the passive. Growth is not +voluntary; it takes place, it happens, it is wrought upon matter. So +here. "Ye must be born again"--we cannot born ourselves. "Be not +conformed to this world, but _be ye transformed_"--we are subjects to +transforming influence, we do not transform ourselves. Not more +certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer that +produces a change in the thermometer, than it is + + SOMETHING OUTSIDE THE SOUL OF MAN + +that produces a moral change upon him. That he must be susceptible to +that change, that he must be a party to it, goes without saying; but +that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it, is equally +certain. + +Obvious as it ought to seem, this may be to some an almost startling +revelation. The change we have been striving after is not to be +produced by any more striving. It is to be wrought upon us by the +moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud +bursts, and the fruit reddens under the co-operation of influences +from the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under +invisible pressures from without. The radical defect of all our former +methods of sanctification was the attempt to generate from within that +which can only be wrought upon us from without. According to the first +Law of Motion, every body continues in its state of rest, or of +uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be +compelled _by impressed forces_ to change that state. This is also a +first law of Christianity. Every man's character remains as it is, or +continues in the direction in which it is going, until it is compelled +_by impressed forces_ to change that state. Our failure has been the +failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces. There is +a clay, and there is a Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould +the clay. + +Whence, then, these pressures, and where this Potter? The answer of +the formula is--"By reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord we +are changed." But this is not very clear. What is the "glory" of the +Lord, and how can mortal man reflect it, and how can that act as an +"impressed force" in moulding him to a nobler form? The word +"glory"--the word which has to bear the weight of holding those +"impressed forces"--is a stranger in current speech, and our first +duty is to seek out its equivalent in working English. It suggests at +first a radiance of some kind, something dazzling or glittering, some +halo such as the old masters loved to paint round the head of their +Ecce Homos. But that is paint, mere matter, the visible symbol of some +unseen thing. What is that unseen thing? It is that of all unseen +things the most radiant, the most beautiful, the most Divine, and that +is _Character_. On earth, in Heaven, there is nothing so great, so +glorious as this. The word has many meanings; in ethics it can have +but one. Glory is character, and nothing less, and it can be nothing +more. The earth is "full of the glory of the Lord," because it is full +of His character. The "Beauty of the Lord" is character. "The +effulgence of His Glory" is character. "The Glory of the Only +Begotten" is character, the character which is "fullness of grace and +truth." And when God told His people _His name_, He simply gave them +His character, His character which was Himself: "And the Lord +proclaimed the name of the Lord ... the Lord, the Lord God, merciful +and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth." +Glory then is not something intangible, or ghostly, or transcendental. +If it were this, how could Paul ask men to reflect it? Stripped of its +physical enswathement it is Beauty, moral and spiritual Beauty, Beauty +infinitely real, infinitely exalted, yet infinitely near and +infinitely communicable. + +With this explanation read over the sentence once more in paraphrase: +We all reflecting as a mirror the character of Christ are transformed +into the same Image from character to character--from a poor character +to a better one, from a better one to a little better still, from that +to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the Perfect Image is +attained. Here + + THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SANCTIFICATION + +is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of Christ, and +you will become like Christ. You will be changed, in spite of yourself +and unknown to yourself, into the same image from character to +character. + +(1). All men are reflectors--that is + + THE FIRST LAW + +on which this formula is based. One of the aptest descriptions of a +human being is that he is a mirror. As we sat at table to-night the +world in which each of us lived and moved throughout this day was +focused in the room. What we saw when we looked at one another was not +one another, but one another's world. We were an arrangement of +mirrors. The scenes we saw were all reproduced; the people we met +walked to and fro; they spoke, they bowed, they passed us by, did +everything over again as if it had been real. When we talked, we were +but looking at our own mirror and describing what flitted across it; +our listening was not hearing, but seeing--we but looked on our +neighbor's mirror. + +All human intercourse is a seeing of reflections. I meet a stranger in +a railway carriage. The cadence of his first words tells me he is +English and comes from Yorkshire. Without knowing it he has reflected +his birthplace, his parents, and the long history of their race. Even +physiologically he is a mirror. His second sentence records that he is +a politician, and a faint inflection in the way he pronounces _The +Times_ reveals his party. In his next remarks I see reflected a whole +world of experiences. The books he has read, the people he has met, +the companions he keeps, the influences that have played upon him and +made him the man he is--these are all registered there by a pen which +lets nothing pass, and whose writing can + + NEVER BE BLOTTED OUT. + +What I am reading in him meantime he also is reading in me; and before +the journey is over we could half write each other's lives. Whether we +like it or not, we live in glass houses. The mind, the memory, the +soul, is simply a vast chamber panelled with looking-glass. And upon +this miraculous arrangement and endowment depends the capacity of +mortal souls to "reflect the character of the Lord." + +(2). But this is not all. If all these varied reflections from our +so-called secret life are patent to the world, how close the writing, +complete the record within the soul itself! For the influences we meet +are not simply held for a moment on the polished surface and thrown +off again into space. Each is retained where first it fell, and stored +up in the soul forever. + + THIS LAW OF ASSIMILATION + +is the second, and by far the most impressive truth which underlies +the formula of sanctification--the truth that men are not only +mirrors, but that these mirrors, so far from being mere reflectors of +the fleeting things they see, transfer into their own inmost +substance, and hold in permanent preservation the things that they +reflect. + +No one knows how the soul can hold these things. No one knows how the +miracle is done. No phenomenon in nature, no process in chemistry, no +chapter in necromancy can ever help us to begin to understand this +amazing operation. For, think of it, the past is not only _focused_ +there, in a man's soul, it _is_ there. How could it be reflected from +there if it were not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, +felt, believed of the surrounding world are now within him, have +become part of him, in part are him--he has been changed into their +image. He may deny it, he may resent it, but they are there. They do +not adhere to him, they are transfused through him. He cannot alter or +rub them out. They are not in his memory, they are in _him_. His soul +is as they have filled it, made it, left it. These things, these +books, these events, these influences are his makers. In their hands +are life and death, beauty and deformity. When once the image or +likeness of any of these is fairly presented to the soul, no power on +earth can hinder two things happening--it must be absorbed into the +soul and forever reflected back again from character. + +Upon these astounding yet perfectly obvious psychological facts, Paul +bases his doctrine of sanctification. He sees that character is a +thing built up by slow degrees, that it is hourly changing for better +or for worse according to the images which flit across it. One step +further and the whole length and breadth of the application of these +ideas to the central problem of religion will stand before us. + + +II. THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. + +If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on +the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange words +when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when intercourse is very +close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange that +recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's +nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to +the first. + +Now, we become like those whom we habitually reflect. I could prove +from science that applies even to the physical framework of +animals--that they are influenced and organically changed by the +environment in which they live. + +This mysterious approximating of two souls, who has not witnessed? Who +has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage hand in +hand, with such gentle trust and joy in one another that their very +faces wore the self-same look? These were not two souls; it was a +composite soul. It did not matter to which of the two you spoke, you +would have said the same words to either. It was quite indifferent +which replied, each would have said the same. Half a century's +_reflecting_ had told upon them; they were changed into the same +image. It is the Law of Influence that _we become like those whom we +habitually reflect_: these had become like because they habitually +reflected. Through all the range of literature, of history, and +biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There +was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a savor of Jonathan about +David. Metempsychosis is a fact. George Eliot's message to the world +was that men and women make men and women. The Family, the cradle of +mankind, has no meaning apart from this. Society itself is nothing but +a rallying point for these omnipotent forces to do their work. On the +doctrine of Influence, in short, the whole vast pyramid of humanity is +built. + +But it was reserved for Paul to make the supreme application of the +Law of Influence. It was a tremendous inference to make, but he never +hesitated. He himself was a changed man; he knew exactly what had done +it; + + IT WAS CHRIST. + +On the Damascus road they met, and from that hour his life was +absorbed in His. The effect could not but follow--on words, on deeds, +on career, on creed. The "impressed forces" did their vital work. He +became like Him Whom he habitually loved. "So we all," he writes, +"reflecting as a mirror the glory of Christ, are changed into the same +image." + +Nothing could be more simple, more intelligible, more natural, more +supernatural. It is an analogy from an every-day fact. Since we are +what we are by the impacts of those who surround us, those who +surround themselves with the highest will be those who change into the +highest. There are some men and some women in whose company we are + + ALWAYS AT OUR BEST. + +While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous +words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity. All +the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and +we find a music in our souls that was never there before. Suppose even +_that_ influence prolonged through a month, a year, a lifetime, and +what could not life become? Here, even on the common plane of life, +talking our language, walking our streets, working side by side, are +sanctifiers of souls; here, breathing through common clay, is Heaven; +here, energies charged even through a temporal medium with the virtue +of regeneration. If to live with men, diluted to the millionth degree +with the virtue of the Highest, can exalt and purify the nature, what +bounds can be set to the influence of Christ? To live with +Socrates--with unveiled face--must have made one wise; with Aristides, +just. Francis Assisi must have made one gentle; Savonarola, strong. +But to have lived with Christ must have made one like Christ: that is +to say, _A Christian_. + +As a matter of fact, to live with Christ did produce this effect. It +produced it in the case of Paul. And during Christ's lifetime the +experiment was tried in an even more startling form. A few raw, +unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the inner circle of His +friendship. The change began at once. Day by day we can almost see the +first disciple grow. First there steals over them the faintest +possible adumbration of His character, and occasionally, very +occasionally, they do a thing or say a thing that they could not have +done or said had they not been living there. Slowly the spell of His +Life deepens. Reach after reach of their nature is overtaken, thawed, +subjugated, sanctified. Their manner softens, their words become more +gentle, their conduct more unselfish. As swallows who have found a +summer, as frozen buds the spring, their starved humanity bursts into +a fuller life. They do not know how it is, but they are different men. + +One day they find themselves like their Master, going about and doing +good. To themselves it is unaccountable, but they cannot do otherwise. +They were not told to do it, it came to them to do it. But the people +who watch them know well how to account for it--"They have been," they +whisper, "with Jesus." Already even, the mark and seal of His +character is upon them--"They have been with Jesus." Unparalleled +phenomenon, that these poor fishermen should remind other men of +Christ! Stupendous victory and mystery of + + REGENERATION + +that mortal men should suggest _God_ to the world! + +There is something almost melting in the way His contemporaries, and +John especially, speak of the influence of Christ. John lived himself +in daily wonder at Him; he was overpowered, over-awed, entranced, +transfigured. To his mind it was impossible for any one to come under +this influence and ever be the same again. "Whosoever abideth in Him +sinneth not," he said. It was inconceivable that he should sin, as +inconceivable as that ice should live in a burning sun, or darkness +coexist with noon. If any one did sin, it was to John the simple proof +that he could never have met Christ. "Whosoever sinneth," he exclaims, +"hath not seen _Him_, neither known _Him_." Sin was abashed in this +Presence. Its roots withered. Its sway and victory were forever at an +end. + +But these were His contemporaries. It was easy for _them_ to be +influenced by Him, for they were every day and all the day together. +But how can we mirror that which we have never seen? How can all this +stupendous result be produced by a Memory, by the scantiest of all +Biographies, by One who lived and left this earth eighteen hundred +years ago? How can modern men to-day make Christ, the absent Christ, +their most constant companion still? + +The answer is that + + FRIENDSHIP IS A SPIRITUAL THING. + +It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time. That which I love in +my friend is not that which I see. What influences me in my friend is +not his body but his spirit. He influences me about as much in his +absence as in his presence. It would have been an ineffable experience +truly to have lived at that time-- + + "I think when I read the sweet story of old, + How when Jesus was here among men, + He took little children like lambs to His fold, + I should like to have been with Him then. + + "I wish that His hand had been laid on my head, + That His arms had been thrown around me, + And that I had seen His kind look when he said, + 'Let the little ones come unto me.'" + +And yet, if Christ were to come into the world again, few of us +probably would ever have a chance of seeing Him. Millions of her +subjects in the little country of England have never seen their own +Queen. And there would be millions of the subjects of Christ who could +never get within speaking distance of Him if He were here. We remember +He said: "It is expedient for you (not _for Me_) that I go away"; +because by going away He could really be nearer to us than He would +have been if He had stayed here. It would be geographically and +physically impossible for most of us to be influenced by His person +had He remained. And so our communion with Him is a spiritual +companionship; but not different from most companionships, which, when +you press them down to the roots, you will find to be essentially +spiritual. + +All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is purely spiritual. It +was after He was risen that He influenced even the disciples most. +Hence, in reflecting the character of Christ, it is no real obstacle +that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself. + +There lived once a young girl whose perfect grace of character was the +wonder of those who knew her. She wore on her neck a gold locket which +no one was ever allowed to open. One day, in a moment of unusual +confidence, one of her companions was allowed to touch its spring and +learn its secret. She saw written these words-- + +"_Whom having not seen I love_." + +That was the secret of her beautiful life. She had been changed into +the Same Image. + +Now this is not imitation, but a much deeper thing. Mark this +distinction, for the difference in the process, as well as in the +result, may be as great as that between a photograph secured by the +infallible pencil of the sun, and the rude outline from a school-boy's +chalk. Imitation is mechanical, reflection organic. The one is +occasional, the other habitual. In the one case, man comes to God and +imitates him; in the other, God comes to man and imprints Himself upon +him. It is quite true that there is an imitation of Christ which +amounts to reflection. But Paul's term includes all that the other +holds, and is open to no mistake. + +What, then, is the practical lesson? It is obvious. "Make Christ your +most constant companion"--this is what it practically means for us. Be +more under His influence than under any other influence. Ten minutes +spent in His society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, +and heart to heart, will make the whole day different. Every character +has an inward spring,--let Christ be it. Every action has a +key-note,--let Christ set it. + +Yesterday you got a certain letter. You sat down and wrote a reply +which almost scorched the paper. You picked the cruelest adjectives +you knew and sent it forth, without a pang to do its ruthless work. +You did that because your life was set in the wrong key. You began the +day with the mirror placed at the wrong angle. + +Tomorrow at day-break, turn it towards Him, and even to your enemy the +fashion of your countenance will be changed. Whatever you then do, one +thing you will find you could not do--you could not write that letter. +Your first impulse may be the same, your judgment may be unchanged, +but if you try it the ink will dry on your pen, and you will rise from +your desk an unavenged, but a greater and more Christian man. +Throughout the whole day your actions, down to the last detail, will +do homage to that early vision. + +Yesterday you thought mostly about yourself. Today the poor will meet +you, and you will feed them. The helpless, the tempted, the sad, will +throng about you, and each you will befriend. Where were all these +people yesterday? Where they are today, but you did not see them. It +is in reflected light that the poor are seen. But your soul today is + + NOT AT THE ORDINARY ANGLE. + +"Things which are not seen" are visible. For a few short hours you +live the Eternal Life. The eternal life, the life of faith, is simply +the life of a higher vision. Faith is an attitude--a mirror set at the +right angle. + +When tomorrow is over, and in the evening you review it, you will +wonder how you did it. You will not be conscious that you strove for +anything, or imitated anything, or crucified anything. You will be +conscious of Christ; that He was with you, that without compulsion you +were yet compelled; that without force, or noise, or proclamation, the +revolution was accomplished. You do not congratulate yourself as one +who has done a mighty deed, or achieved a personal success, or stored +up a fund of "Christian experience" to ensure the same result again. +What you are conscious of is "the glory of the Lord." And what the +world is conscious of, if the result be a true one, is also "the glory +of the Lord." In looking at a mirror one does not see the mirror, or +think of it, but only of what it reflects. For a mirror never calls +the attention to itself--except when there are flaws in it. + +Let me say a word or two more about the effects which necessarily must +follow from this contact, or fellowship, with Christ. I need not quote +the texts upon the subject--the texts about abiding in Christ. "He +that abideth in Him sinneth not." You cannot sin when you are standing +in front of Christ. You simply cannot do it. Again: "If ye abide in +Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall +be done unto you." Think of that! That is another inevitable +consequence. And there is yet another: "He that abideth in Me, the +same bringeth forth much fruit." Sinlessness--answered prayer--much +fruit. + +But in addition to these things, see how many of the highest Christian +virtues and experiences necessarily flow from the assumption of that +attitude toward Christ. For instance, the moment you assume that +relation to Christ you begin to know what the _child-spirit_ is. You +stand before Christ, and He becomes your Teacher, and you +instinctively become docile. Then you learn also to become +_charitable_ and _tolerant_; because you are learning of Him, and He +is "meek and lowly in heart," and you catch that spirit. That is a bit +of His character being reflected into yours. Instead of being critical +and self-asserting, you become humble and have the mind of a little +child. + +I think, further, the only way of learning what _faith_ is is to know +Christ and be in His company. You hear sermons about the nine +different kinds of faith--distinctions drawn between the right kind of +faith and the wrong--and sermons telling you how to get faith. So far +as I can see, there is + + ONLY ONE WAY + +in which faith is got, and it is the same in the religious world as it +is in the world of men and women. I learn to trust you, my brother, +just as I get to know you, and neither more nor less; and you get to +trust me just as you get to know me. I do not trust you as a stranger, +but as I come into contact with you, and watch you, and live with you, +I find out that you are trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to +you, and to lean upon you. But I do not do that to a stranger. + +The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting +Him then. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you, as +cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands do, is +not faith, but credulity. I believe a great deal of prayer for faith +is thrown away. What we should pray for is that we may be able to +fulfill the condition, and when we have fulfilled the condition, the +faith necessarily follows. The way, therefore, to increase our faith +is to increase our intimacy with Christ. We trust Him more and more +the better we know Him. + +And then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the +character is the tranquillity that it brings over the Christian life. +How disturbed and distressed and anxious Christian people are about +their growth in grace! Now, the moment you give that over into +Christ's care--the moment you see that you are _being_ changed--that +anxiety passes away. You see that it must follow by an inevitable +process and by a natural law if you fulfill the simple condition; so +that peace is the reward of that life and fellowship with Christ. + +Many other things follow. A man's usefulness depends to a large extent +upon his fellowship with Christ. That is obvious. Only Christ can +influence the world; but all that the world sees of Christ is what it +sees of you and me. Christ said: "The world seeth Me no more, but ye +see Me." You see Him, and standing in front of Him reflect Him, and +the world sees the reflection. It cannot see Him. So that a +Christian's usefulness depends solely upon that relationship. + +Now, I have only pointed out a few of the things that follow from the +standing before Christ--from the abiding in Christ. You will find, if +you run over the texts about abiding in Christ, many other things will +suggest themselves in the same relations. Almost everything in +Christian experience and character follows, and follows necessarily, +from standing before Christ and reflecting his character. But the +supreme consummation is that we are changed into _the same image_, +"even as by the Lord the Spirit." That is to say, that in some way, +unknown to us, but possibly not more mysterious than the doctrine of +personal influence, we are changed into the image of Christ. + +This method cannot fail. I am not setting before you an opinion or a +theory, but this is + + A CERTAINLY SUCCESSFUL MEANS + +of sanctification. "We all, with unveiled face, reflecting in a mirror +the glory of Christ (the character of Christ) assuredly--without any +miscarriage--without any possibility of miscarriage--are changed into +the same image." It is an immense thing to be anchored in some great +principle like that. Emerson says: "The hero is the man who is +immovably centered." Get immovably centered in that doctrine of +sanctification. Do not be carried away by the hundred and one theories +of sanctification that are floating about in religious literature of +the country at the present time; but go to the bottom of the thing for +yourself, and see the _rationale_ of it for yourself, and you will +come to see that it is a matter of cause and effect, and that if you +will fulfill the condition laid down by Christ, the effect must follow +by a natural law. + +What a prospect! To be changed into the same image. Think of that! +That is what we are here for. That is what we are elected for. Not to +be saved, in the common acceptation, but "whom He did foreknow He also +did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Not merely +to be saved, but _to be conformed to the image of His Son_. Conserve +that principle. And as we must spend time in cultivating our earthly +friendships if we are to have their blessings, so we must + + SPEND TIME + +in cultivating the fellowship and companionship of Christ. And there +is nothing so much worth taking into our lives as a profounder sense +of what is to be had by living in communion with Christ, and by +getting nearer to Him. It will matter much if we take away with us +some of the thoughts about theology, and some of the new light that +has been shed upon the text of Scripture; it will matter infinitely +more if our fellowship with the Lord Jesus become a little closer, and +our theory of holy living a little more rational. And then as we go +forth, men will take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus, +and as we reflect Him upon them, they will begin to be changed into +the same image. + +It seems to me the preaching is of infinitely smaller account than the +life which mirrors Christ. That is bound to tell; without speech or +language--like the voices of the stars. It throws out its impressions +on every side. The one simple thing we have to do is to be there--in +the right relation; to go through life hand in hand with Him; to have +Him in the room with us, and keeping us company wherever we go; to +depend upon Him and lean upon Him, and so have His life reflected in +the fullness of its beauty and perfection into ours. + + +III. THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. + +Then you reduce religion to a common Friendship? A common +Friendship--who talks of a _common_ Friendship? There is no such thing +in the world. + +On earth no word is more sublime. Friendship is the nearest thing we +know to what religion is. God is love. And to make religion akin to +Friendship is simply to give it the highest expression conceivable by +man. But if by demurring to "a common friendship" is meant a protest +against the greatest and the holiest in religion being spoken of in +intelligible terms, then I am afraid the objection is all too real. +Men always look for a mystery when one talks of sanctification, some +mystery apart from that which must ever be mysterious wherever Spirit +works. It is thought some peculiar secret lies behind it, some occult +experience which only the initiated know. Thousands of persons go to +church every Sunday hoping to solve this mystery. At meetings, at +conferences, many a time they have reached what they thought was the +very brink of it, but somehow no further revelation came. Poring over +religious books, how often were they not within a paragraph of it; the +next page, the next sentence, would discover all, and they would be +borne on a flowing tide forever. But nothing happened. The next +sentence and the next page were read, and still it eluded them; and +though the promise of its coming kept faithfully up to the end, the +last chapter found them still pursuing. + +Why did nothing happen? Because there was nothing to happen--nothing +of the kind they were looking for. Why did it elude them? Because +there was no "it." When shall we learn that the pursuit of holiness is +simply + + THE PURSUIT OF CHRIST? + +When shall we substitute for the "it" of a fictitious aspiration, the +approach to a Living Friend? Sanctity is in character and not in +moods; Divinity in our own plain calm humanity, and in no mystic +rapture of the soul. + +And yet there are others who, for exactly a contrary reason, will find +scant satisfaction here. Their complaint is not that a religion +expressed in terms of Friendship is too homely, but that it is still +too mystical. To "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ our most constant +companion," is to them the purest mysticism. They want something +absolutely tangible and absolutely direct. These are not the poetical +souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures +whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps +not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements. The +beauty of Friendship is its infinity. One can never evacuate life of +mysticism. Home is full of it, love is full of it, religion is full of +it. Why stumble at that in the relation of man to Christ which is +natural in the relation of man to man? + +If any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with Christ, +perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still +plainer analogies from common life. How do I know Shakspere or Dante? +By communing with their words and thoughts. Many men know Dante better +than their own fathers. He influences them more. As a spiritual +presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual force more real. Is +there any reason why a greater than Shakspere or Dante, who also +walked this earth, who left great words behind Him, who has greater +works everywhere in the world now, should not also instruct, inspire +and mould the characters of men? I do not limit Christ's influence to +this: it is this, and it is more. But Christ, so far from resenting +or discouraging this relation of Friendship, Himself proposed it. +"Abide in me" was almost His last word to the world. And He partly met +the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the +practical clause, "If ye abide in Me, _and My words abide in you_." + +Begin with His words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal. +Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do +them, live them, and you must live Christ. "_He that keepeth My +Commandments_, he it is that loveth Me." Obey Him and you must love +Him. Abide in Him, and you must obey Him. _Cultivate_ His Friendship. +Live after Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Presence, and it is +difficult to think what more you can do. Take this at least as a first +lesson, as introduction. + +If you cannot at once and always feel the play of His life upon yours, +watch for it also indirectly. "The whole earth is full of the +character of the Lord." Christ is the Light of the world, and much of +his Light is reflected from things in the world--even from clouds. +Sunlight is stored in every leaf, from leaf through coal, and it +comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun. +Christ shines through men, through books, through history, through +nature, music, art. Look for Him there. "Every day one should either +look at a beautiful picture, or hear beautiful music, or read a +beautiful poem." The real danger of mysticism is not making it broad +enough. + +Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself +grow, or hear the whir of the machinery. All great things grow +noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Paul said +for the comforting of all slowly perfecting souls that they grew +"from character to character." "The inward man," he says elsewhere, +"is renewed from day to day." All thorough work is slow; all true +development by minute, slight and insensible metamorphoses. The higher +the structure, moreover, the slower the progress. As the biologist +runs his eye over the long Ascent of Life, he sees the lowest forms of +animals develop in an hour; the next above these reach maturity in a +day; those higher still take weeks or months to perfect; but the few +at the top demand the long experiment of years. If a child and an ape +are born on the same day, the last will be in full possession of its +faculties and doing the active work of life before the child has left +its cradle. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the +animal in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to +the natural man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an +eternal life must be surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who +will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day? + +To await the growing of a soul, nevertheless, is an almost Divine act +of faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with +itself, of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ, +wondering, yearning, hungering to be like that! Yet must one trust the +process fearlessly and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will +do His part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible +progress, to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by +watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. A +photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun. +While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply +stops the getting on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may need, +it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed, +anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The +creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right spirit, is an +omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which hath begun +a good work in you will perfect it unto that day." + +No man, nevertheless, who feels the worth and solemnity of what is at +stake will be careless as to his progress. To become + + LIKE CHRIST + +is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before +which every ambition of man is folly, and all lower achievement vain. + +Those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their +lives can ever begin to hope to reach it. If, therefore, it has seemed +up to this point as if all depended on passivity, let me now assert, +with conviction more intense, that all depends on activity. A religion +of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel, but never for +a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the active, lies true hope; +not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm of +ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanctification wrought. +Resolution, effort, pain, self-crucifixion, agony--all the things +already dismissed as futile in themselves, must now be restored to +office, and a tenfold responsibility laid upon them. For what is their +office? Nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul, and +place it, and keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it. It +is to rally the forces of the will, and keep the surface of the mirror +bright and ever in position. It is to uncover the face which is to +look at Christ, and draw down the veil when unhallowed sights are +near. + +You have, perhaps, gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the +spectrum of a star. As you enter the dark vault of the observatory you +saw him begin by lighting a candle. To see the star with? No; but to +adjust the instrument to see the star with. It was the star that was +going to take the photograph; it was, also, the astronomer. For a long +time he worked in the dimness, screwing tubes and polishing lenses and +adjusting reflectors, and only after much labor the finely focused +instrument was brought to bear. Then he blew out the light, and left +the star to do its work upon the plate alone. + +The day's task for the Christian is to bring his instrument to bear. +Having done that he may blow out his candle. All the evidences of +Christianity which have brought him there, all aids to Faith, all acts +of worship, all the leverages of the Church, all Prayer and +Meditation, all girding of the Will--these lesser processes, these +candle-light activities for that supreme hour, may be set aside. But, +remember, it is but for an hour. The wise man will be he who quickest +lights his candle, the wisest he who never lets it out. Tomorrow, the +next moment, he, a poor, darkened, blurred soul, may need it again to +focus the Image better, to take a mote off the lens, to clear the +mirror from a breath with which the world has dulled it. + +No readjustment is ever required on behalf of the Star. That is one +great fixed point in this shifting universe. But _the world moves_. +And each day, each hour, demands a further motion and readjustment for +the soul. A telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork, +but the clockwork of the soul is called _the Will_. Hence, while the +soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, the Will in intense +activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the +world bear it beyond the line of vision. To "follow Christ" is largely +to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the +earth. And this calculated counteracting of the movements of the +world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the Mirrored, +this steadying of the faculties unerringly through cloud and +earthquake, fire and sword, is the stupendous co-operating labor of +the Will. It is all man's work. It is all Christ's work. In practice +it is both; in theory it is both. But the wise man will say in +practice, "It depends upon myself." + +In the Gallerie des Beaux Arts in Paris there stands a famous statue. +It was the last work of a great genius, who, like many a genius, was +very poor and lived in a garret, which served as a studio and +sleeping-room alike. When the statue was all but finished, one +midnight a sudden frost fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay awake in the +fireless room and thought of the still moist clay, thought how the +water would freeze in the pores and destroy in an hour the dream of +his life. So the old man rose from his couch and heaped the +bed-clothes reverently round his work. In the morning when the +neighbors entered the room the sculptor was dead, but the statue was +saved! + +The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is life's one +charge. Let every project stand aside for that. The spirit of God who +brooded upon the waters thousands of years ago, is busy now creating +men, within these commonplace lives of ours, in the image of God. +"Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion +crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? +When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death +cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore _put on Christ_. + + + + +DEALING WITH DOUBT. + + +There is a subject which I think workers amongst young men cannot +afford to keep out of sight--I mean the subject of "Doubt." We are +forced to face that subject. We have no choice. I would rather let it +alone; but every day of my life I meet men who doubt, and I am quite +sure that most Christian workers among men have innumerable interviews +every year with men who raise skeptical difficulties about religion. + +Now it becomes a matter of great practical importance that we should +know how to deal wisely with these. Upon the whole, I think these are +the best men in the country. I speak of my own country. I speak of the +universities with which I am familiar, and I say that the men who are +perplexed,--the men who come to you with serious and honest +difficulties,--are the best men. They are men of intellectual honesty, +and cannot allow themselves to be put to rest by words, or phrases, or +traditions, or theologies, but who must get to the bottom of things +for themselves. And if I am not mistaken, + + CHRIST WAS VERY FOND + +of these men. The outsiders always interested Him, and touched Him. +The orthodox people--the Pharisees--He was much less interested in. He +went with publicans and sinners--with people who were in revolt +against the respectability, intellectual and religious, of the day. +And following Him, we are entitled to give sympathetic consideration +to those whom He loved and took trouble with. + +First, let me speak for a moment or two about + + THE ORIGIN OF DOUBT. + +In the first place, _we are born questioners_. Look at the wonderment +of a little child in its eyes before it can speak. The child's great +word when it begins to speak is, "Why?" Every child is full of every +kind of question, about every kind of thing, that moves, and shines, +and changes, in the little world in which it lives. + +That is the incipient doubt in the nature of man. Respect doubt for +its origin. It is an inevitable thing. It is not a thing to be +crushed. It is a part of man as God made him. Heresy is truth in the +making, and doubt is the prelude of knowledge. + +Secondly: _The world is a Sphinx._ It is a vast riddle--an +unfathomable mystery; and on every side there is temptation to +questioning. In every leaf, in every cell of every leaf, there are a +hundred problems. There are ten good years of a man's life in +investigating what is in a leaf, and there are five good years more in +investigating the things that are in the things that are in the leaf. +God has planned the world to incite men to intellectual activity. + +Thirdly: _The instrument with which we attempt to investigate truth is +impaired._ Some say it fell, and the glass is broken. Some say +prejudice, heredity, or sin, have spoiled its sight, and have blinded +our eyes and deadened our ears. In any case the instruments with +which we work upon truth, even in the strongest men, are feeble and +inadequate to their tremendous task. + +And in the fourth place, _all religious truths are doubtable_. There +is no absolute truth for any one of them. Even that fundamental +truth--the existence of a God--no man can prove by reason. The +ordinary proof for the existence of God involves either an assumption, +argument in a circle, or a contradiction. The impression of God is +kept up by experience, not by logic. And hence, when the experimental +religion of a man, of a community, or of a nation wanes, religion +wanes--their idea of God grows indistinct, and that man, community or +nation becomes infidel. + +Bear in mind, then, that all religious truths are doubtable--even +those which we hold most strongly. + +What does this brief account of the origin of doubt teach us? It +teaches us + + GREAT INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY. + +It teaches us sympathy and toleration with all men who venture upon +the ocean of truth to find out a path through it for themselves. Do +you sometimes feel yourself thinking unkind things about your +fellow-students who have intellectual difficulty? I know how hard it +is always to feel sympathy and toleration for them; but we must +address ourselves to that most carefully and most religiously. If my +brother is shortsighted I must not abuse him or speak against him; I +must pity him, and if possible try to improve his sight, or to make +things that he is to look at so bright that he cannot help seeing. But +never let us think evil of men who do not see as we do. From the +bottom of our hearts let us pity them, and let us take them by the +hand and spend time and thought over them, and try to lead them to the +true light. + +What has been + + THE CHURCH'S TREATMENT OF DOUBT + +in the past? It has been very simple. "There is a heretic. Burn him!" +That is all. "There is a man who has gone off the road. Bring him back +and torture him!" + +We have got past that physically; have we got past it morally? What +does the modern Church say to a man who is skeptical? Not "Burn him!" +but "Brand him!" "Brand him!"--call him a bad name. And in many +countries at the present time, a man who is branded as a heretic is +despised, tabooed and put out of religious society, much more than if +he had gone wrong in morals. I think I am speaking within the facts +when I say that a man who is unsound is looked upon in many +communities with more suspicion and with more pious horror than a man +who now and then gets drunk. "Burn him!" "Brand him!" "Excommunicate +him!" That has been the Church's treatment of doubt, and that is +perhaps to some extent the treatment which we ourselves are inclined +to give to the men who cannot see the truths of Christianity as we see +them. + +Contrast + + CHRIST'S TREATMENT + +of doubt. I have spoken already of His strange partiality for the +outsiders--for the scattered heretics up and down the country; of the +care with which He loved to deal with them, and of the respect in +which He held their intellectual difficulties. Christ never failed to +distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is "_can't believe_"; +unbelief is "_won't believe_." Doubt is honesty; unbelief is +obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with +darkness. Loving darkness rather than light--that is what Christ +attacked, and attacked unsparingly. But for the intellectual +questioning of Thomas, and Philip, and Nicodemus, and the many others +who came to Him to have their great problems solved, He was respectful +and generous and tolerant. + +And how did He meet their doubts? The Church, as I have said, says, +"Brand him!" Christ said, "Teach him." He destroyed by fulfilling. +When Thomas came to Him and denied His very resurrection, and stood +before Him waiting for the scathing words and lashing for his +unbelief, they never came. They never came! Christ gave him +facts--facts! No man can go around facts. Christ said, "Behold My +hands and My feet." The great god of science at the present time is a +fact. It works with facts. Its cry is, "Give me facts. Found anything +you like upon facts and we will believe it." The spirit of Christ was +the scientific spirit. He founded His religion upon facts; and He +asked all men to found their religion upon facts. + +Now, get up the facts of Christianity, and take men to the facts. +Theologies--and I am not speaking disrespectfully of theology; +theology is as scientific a thing as any other science of facts--but +theologies are + + HUMAN VERSIONS + +of Divine truths, and hence the varieties of the versions and the +inconsistencies of them. I would allow a man to select whichever +version of this truth he liked _afterwards_; but I would ask him to +begin with no version, but go back to the facts and base his Christian +life upon these. + +That is the great lesson of the New Testament way of looking at +doubt--of Christ's treatment of doubt. It is not "Brand him!"--but +lovingly, wisely and tenderly to teach him. Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament; it is opposed to sight. You will find +that a principle worth thinking over. _Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament, but to sight._ + +With these principles in mind as to the origin of doubt, and as to +Christ's treatment of it, how are we ourselves to deal with those who +are in intellectual difficulty? + +In the first place, I think _we must make all the concessions to them +that we conscientiously can_. + +When a doubter first encounters you, he pours out a deluge of abuse of +churches, and ministers, and creeds, and Christians. Nine-tenths of +what he says is probably true. Make concessions. Agree with him. It +does him good to unburden himself of these things. He has been +cherishing them for years--laying them up against Christians, against +the Church, and against Christianity; and now he is startled to find +the first Christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost +entirely agrees with him. We are, of course, not responsible for +everything that is said in the name of Christianity; but a man does +not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and no man has a +right to give up his Christianity because there are spurious or +inconsistent Christians. Then, as I already said, creeds are human +versions of Divine truths; and we do not ask a man to accept all the +creeds, any more than we ask him to accept all the Christians. We ask +him to accept Christ, and the facts about Christ and the words of +Christ. You will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed +the man's objections, and possibly added a great many more to the +charges which he has against ourselves. These men are + + IN REVOLT + +against the kind of religion which we exhibit to the world--against +the cant that is taught in the name of Christianity. And if the men +that have never seen the real thing--if you could show them that, they +would receive it as eagerly as you do. They are merely in revolt +against the imperfections and inconsistencies of those who represent +Christ to the world. + +Second: _Beg them to set aside, by an act of will, all unsolved +problems_: such as the problem of the origin of evil, the problem of +the Trinity, the problem of the relation of human will and +predestination, and so on--problems which have been investigated for +thousands of years without result--ask them to set those problems +aside as insoluble. In the meantime, just as a man who is studying +mathematics may be asked to set aside the problem of squaring the +circle, let him go on with what can be done, and what has been done, +and leave out of sight the impossible. + +You will find that will relieve the skeptic's mind of a great deal of + + UNNECESSARY CARGO + +that has been in his way. + +Thirdly: _Talking about difficulties, as a rule, only aggravates +them._ + +Entire satisfaction to the intellect is unattainable about any of the +greater problems, and if you try to get to the bottom of them by +argument, there is no bottom there; and therefore you make the matter +worse. But I would say what is known, and what can be honestly and +philosophically and scientifically said about one or two of the +difficulties that the doubter raises, just to show him that you can do +it--to show him that you are not a fool--that you are not merely +groping in the dark yourself, but you have found whatever basis is +possible. But I would not go around all the doctrines. I would simply +do that with one or two; because the moment you cut off one, a hundred +other heads will grow in its place. It would be a pity if all these +problems could be solved. The joy of the intellectual life would be +largely gone. I would not rob a man of his problems, nor would I have +another man rob me of my problems. They are the delight of life, and +the whole intellectual world would be stale and unprofitable if we +knew everything. + +Fourthly--and this is the great point: _Turn away from the reason and +go into the man's moral life._ + +I don't mean, go into his moral life and see if the man is living in +conscious sin, which is the great blinder of the eyes--I am speaking +now of honest doubt; but open a new door into + + THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF MAN'S NATURE. + +Entreat him not to postpone life and his life's usefulness until he +has settled the problems of the universe. Tell him those problems will +never all be settled; that his life will be done before he has begun +to settle them; and ask him what he is doing with his life meantime. +Charge him with wasting his life and his usefulness; and invite him to +deal with the moral and practical difficulties of the world, and leave +the intellectual difficulties as he goes along. To spend time upon +these is proving the less important before the more important; and, as +the French say, "The good is the enemy of the best." It is a good +thing to think; it is a better thing to work--it is a better thing to +do good. And you have him there, you see. He can't get beyond that. +You have to tell him, in fact, that there are two organs of knowledge: +the one reason, the other obedience. And now tell him, as he has tried +the first and found the little in it, just for a moment or two to join +you in trying the second. And when he asks whom he is to obey, you +tell him there is but One, and lead him to the great historical figure +who calls all men to Him: the one perfect life--the one Savior of +mankind--the one Light of the world. Ask him to begin to + + OBEY CHRIST; + +and, doing His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of +God. + +That, I think, is about the only thing you can do with a man: to get +him into practical contact with the needs of the world, and to let him +lose his intellectual difficulties meantime. Don't ask him to give +them up altogether. Tell him to solve them afterward one by one if he +can, but meantime to give his life to Christ and his time to the +kingdom of God. You fetch him completely around when you do that. You +have taken him away from the false side of his nature, and to the +practical and moral side of his nature; and for the first time in his +life, perhaps, he puts things in their true place. He puts his nature +in the relations in which it ought to be, and he then only begins to +live. And by obedience he will soon become a learner and pupil for +himself, and Christ will teach him things, and he will find whatever +problems are solvable gradually solved as he goes along the path of +practical duty. + +Now, let me, in closing, give an instance of how to deal with specific +points. + +The question of miracles is thrown at my head every second day: + +"What do you say to a man when he says to you, 'Why do you believe in +miracles?'" + +I say, "Because I have seen them." + +He asks, "When?" + +I say, "Yesterday." + +"Where?" + +"Down such-and-such a street I saw a man who was a drunkard redeemed +by the power of an unseen Christ and saved from sin. That is a +miracle." + +The best apologetic for Christianity is a Christian. That is a fact +which the man cannot get over. There are fifty other arguments for +miracles, but none so good as that you have seen them. Perhaps you are +one yourself. But take a man and show him a miracle with his own eyes. +Then he will believe. + + + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Greatest Thing In the World and +Other Addresses, by Henry Drummond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + +***** This file should be named 16739-8.txt or 16739-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16739/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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 Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses + +Author: Henry Drummond + +Release Date: September 24, 2005 [EBook #16739] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>The Greatest Thing<br /> +In the World<br /> +And Other Addresses</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>HENRY DRUMMOND</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5><span class="smcap">New York Chicago</span><br /> +Fleming H. Revell Company<br /> +LONDON AND EDINBURGH</h5> + + +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>Copyrighted 1891 and 1898<br /> +By Fleming H. Revell Company.<br /> +<br /> +Printed in the United States of America</h5> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a> +<h3>CONTENTS.</h3> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td width="90%" class="tdlsc">Love, the Greatest Thing in the World</td> + <td width="10%" class="tdr"><a href="#LOVE">7</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">Lessons from the Angelus</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#ANGELUS">35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">Pax Vobiscum</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#PAX">44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">First! An Address to Boys</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#FIRST">70</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">The Changed Life, the Greatest Need of the World</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#LIFE">82</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlsc">Dealing with Doubt</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#DOUBT">113</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a> +<h3>INTRODUCTORY.</h3> +<br /> + +<p>I was staying with a party of friends in a country house during my +visit to England in 1884. On Sunday evening as we sat around the fire, +they asked me to read and expound some portion of Scripture. Being +tired after the services of the day, I told them to ask Henry +Drummond, who was one of the party. After some urging he drew a small +Testament from his hip pocket, opened it at the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, and began to speak on the subject of Love.</p> + +<p>It seemed to me that I had never heard anything so beautiful, and I +determined not to rest until I brought Henry Drummond to Northfield to +deliver that address. Since then I have requested the principals of my +schools to have it read before the students every year. The one great +need in our Christian life is love, more love to God and to each +other. Would that we could all move into that Love chapter, and live +there.</p> + +<p>This volume contains, in addition to the address on Love, some other +addresses which I trust will bring help and blessing to many.</p> + +<div class="right"> +<img border="0" src="images/sig.png" width="100" height="41" alt="(signed) D.L. Moody." /><br /> +</div> + +<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="LOVE" id="LOVE"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a> +<h3>LOVE:</h3> + +<h3>THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + + +<p>Every one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the +modern world: What is the <i>summum bonum</i>—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?</p> + +<p>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. In the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, Paul takes us to</p> + +<p class="cen2">CHRISTIANITY AT ITS SOURCE;</p> + +<p class="noin">and there we see, "The greatest of these is love."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>And it is not prejudice. A man is apt to recommend to others his own +strong point. Love was not Paul's <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>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.</p> + +<p>Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as +the <i>summum bonum</i>. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about +it. Peter says, "Above all things have fervent love among yourselves." +<i>Above all things.</i> And John goes farther, "God is love."</p> + +<p>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 the passage to Heaven by keeping the +Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which +they had manufactured out of them. Christ came and 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 <i>love</i>, you +will unconsciously fulfill the whole law."</p> + +<p>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 fulfill all these laws regarding God.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>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 they possessed 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">SECRET OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.</p> + +<p>Now Paul has learned that; and in this noble eulogy he has given us +the most wonderful and original account extant of the <i>summum bonum</i>. +We may divide it into three parts. In the beginning of the short +chapter we have Love <i>contrasted</i>; in the heart of it, we have Love +<i>analyzed</i>; toward the end, we have Love <i>defended</i> as the supreme +gift.</p> +<br /> + +<h4>I. THE CONTRAST.</h4> + +<p>Paul begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over these things in +detail. Their inferiority is already obvious.</p> + +<p>He contrasts it with <i>eloquence</i>. 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 <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>and of angels, and have not love, I am become sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." 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.</p> + +<p>He contrasts it with <i>prophecy</i>. He contrasts it with <i>mysteries</i>. He +contrasts it with <i>faith</i>. He contrasts it with <i>charity</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>Love is greater than <i>faith</i>, 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. +"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I +am nothing."</p> + +<p>It is greater than <i>charity</i>, 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. Hence, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, +but have not love it profiteth me nothing."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>Then Paul contrasts it with <i>sacrifice</i> and martyrdom: "If I give my +body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." +Missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the +impress and reflection of the Love of God upon their own character. +That is the universal language. It will take them years to speak in +Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day they land, that +language of Love, understood by all, will be pouring forth its +unconscious eloquence.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p class="cen2">MEN'S FACES LIGHT UP</p> + +<p class="noin">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. They knew that it was love, although he spoke no word.</p> + +<p>Take into your sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down your +life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take +nothing greater, you need take nothing 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 <i>nothing</i>.</p> +<br /> + +<h4>II. THE ANALYSIS.</h4> + +<p>After contrasting Love with these things, Paul, in three verses, very +short, gives us an amazing analysis of what this supreme thing is.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>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.</p> + +<p>In these few words we have what one might call</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE SPECTRUM OF LOVE,</p> + +<p class="noin">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 <i>summum bonum</i>, is +made up?</p> + +<p>The Spectrum of Love has nine ingredients:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 5%;"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="The Spectrum of Love"> + <tr> + <td width="30%" class="tdl">Patience</td> + <td width="70%" class="tdl">"Love suffereth long."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Kindness</td> + <td class="tdl">"And is kind."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Generosity</td> + <td class="tdl">"Love envieth not."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Humility</td> + <td class="tdl">"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Courtesy</td> + <td class="tdl">"Doth not behave itself unseemly."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Unselfishness</td> + <td class="tdl">"Seeketh not its own."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Good temper</td> + <td class="tdl">"Is not provoked."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Guilelessness</td> + <td class="tdl">"Taketh not account of evil."</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sincerity</td> + <td class="tdl">"Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth."</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p>Patience; kindness; generosity; humility; courtesy; unselfishness; +good temper; guilelessness; sincerity—<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>these make up the supreme +gift, the stature of the perfect man.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><i>Patience</i>. 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.</p> + +<p><i>Kindness</i>. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's +life was spent in doing kind things—in <i>merely</i> 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">DOING GOOD TURNS</p> + +<p class="noin">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 <i>has</i> put in our power is the happiness of those about us, and +that is largely to be secured by our being kind to them.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>"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."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For life, with all it yields of joy or woe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hope and fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How love might be, hath been indeed, and is."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Where Love is, God is. He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God. God +is Love. Therefore <i>love</i>. 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 <i>trying to +please</i> and <i>giving pleasure</i>. 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."</p> + +<p><i>Generosity</i>. "Love envieth not." This is love in competition with +others. Whenever you attempt a <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></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 un-Christian 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 +need the Christian envy—the large, rich, generous soul which "envieth +not."</p> + +<p>And then, after having learned all that, you have to learn this +further thing, <i>Humility</i>—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." Humility—love hiding.</p> + +<p>The fifth ingredient is a somewhat strange one to find in this <i>summum +bonum</i>: <i>Courtesy</i>. This is Love in society, Love in relation to +etiquette. "Love does not behave itself unseemly."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Love <i>cannot</i> behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored +persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of Love +in their heart they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply +cannot do it. Carlisle said of Robert Burns that there <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the ploughman-poet. It was because he loved +everything—the mouse, and 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.</p> + +<p>You know the meaning of the word "gentleman." It means a gentle man—a +man who does things gently, with love. That is the whole art and +mystery of it. The gentle man cannot in the nature of things do an +ungentle, an ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle soul, the +inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature, cannot do anything else. "Love +doth not behave itself unseemly."</p> + +<p><i>Unselfishness.</i> "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</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE HIGHER RIGHT</p> + +<p class="noin">of giving up his rights.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It is not hard to give up our rights. They are often eternal. The +difficult thing is to give up <i>ourselves</i>. 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 to give them up. But +not to seek them, to look every man not on his own things, but on the +things of others—that is the difficulty. "Seekest thou great things +for <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>thyself?" said the prophet; "<i>seek them not</i>." Why? Because there +is no greatness in <i>things</i>. Things cannot 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.</p> + +<p>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, <i>there is +no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving</i>. Half the +world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. They think it +consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving, and in 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 blessed, it is +more happy, to give than to receive."</p> + +<p>The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: <i>Good temper.</i> "Love is +not provoked."</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Body</i> and sins of the +<i>Disposition</i>. 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 brand falls, 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 venal 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 un-Christianize 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 of childhood, in +short,</p> + +<p class="cen2">FOR SHEER GRATUITOUS MISERY-PRODUCING POWER</p> + +<p class="noin">this influence stands alone.</p> + +<p>Look at the Elder Brother—moral, hard-working, <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>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 the 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">BORN AGAIN,</p> + +<p class="noin">he cannot, simply <i>cannot</i>, enter the kingdom of heaven.</p> + +<p>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 speak 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 +<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>escaping to the surface which betrays some rottenness underneath; a +sample of the most hidden products of the soul dropped involuntarily +when off one's guard; in a word, the lightning form of a hundred +hideous and un-Christian sins. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p class="cen2">CHRIST DOES.</p> + +<p>Therefore, "Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."</p> + +<p>Some of us have not much time to lose. Remember, once more, that this +is a matter of life or death. I cannot 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. <i>It is better not to +live than not to love.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a><i>Guilelessness</i> and <i>Sincerity</i> may be dismissed almost without a +word. Guilelessness is the grace for suspicious people. The possession +of it is</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE GREAT SECRET OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE.</p> + +<p>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 atmosphere they expand, and find +encouragement and educative fellowship.</p> + +<p>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 +motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every +action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a 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. +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.</p> + +<p>"Love rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth." +I have called this <i>Sincerity</i> 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 +<i>the Truth</i>." He will <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>accept only what is real; he will strive to get +at facts; he will search for <i>Truth</i> with a 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 +<i>Sincerity</i>—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.</p> + +<p>So much for the analysis of Love. Now the business of our lives is to +have these things fitted into 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE ONE ETERNAL LESSON</p> + +<p class="noin">for us all is <i>how better we can love</i>.</p> + +<p>What makes a man a good cricketer? Practice. What makes a man a good +artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. What makes a man a +good linguist, a good stenographer? Practice. What makes a man a good +man? Practice. Nothing else. There is nothing capricious about +religion. We <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>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 a man does +not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength +of character, no vigor of moral fibre, no 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">CEASELESS PRACTICE.</p> + +<p>What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Though +perfect, we read that He <i>learned</i> 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 +practice. That is the practice 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 +moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, though 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 <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>remember Goethe's words: "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.</p> + +<p>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 cannot +make light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they +cannot 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 <i>effect</i>. And only as we fulfill the right condition can we have +the effect produced. Shall I tell you what the <i>cause</i> is?</p> + +<p>If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you +find these words: "We love because He first loved us." "We love," not +"We love <i>Him</i>." That is the way the old version has it, and it is +quite wrong. "<i>We love</i>—because He first loved us." Look at that word +"because." It is the <i>cause</i> of which I have spoken. "<i>Because</i> He +first loved us," the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love +all men. We cannot help it. Because He loved us, we love, we love +everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>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 cannot 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</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE GREAT SACRIFICE</p> + +<p class="noin">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</p> + +<p class="cen2">GAVE HIMSELF FOR US,</p> + +<p class="noin">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 fulfills that cause must have that effect produced in him.</p> + +<p>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 +supernatural law, for all law is Divine.</p> + +<p>Edward Irving went to see a dying boy once, and when he entered the +room he just put his hand on the <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>sufferer's head, and said, "My boy, +God loves you," and went away. The boy started from his bed, and +called out to the people in the house,</p> + +<p>"God loves me! God loves me!"</p> + +<p>One word! 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, <i>because He first loved us</i>.</p> +<br /> + +<h4>III. THE DEFENCE.</h4> + +<p>Now I have a closing sentence or two to add about Paul's reason for +singling out love as the supreme possession.</p> + +<p>It is a very remarkable reason. In a single word it is this: <i>it +lasts.</i> "Love," urges Paul, "never faileth." Then he begins again 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.</p> + +<p>"Whether there be <i>prophecies</i>, they shall be done away." 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 +<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>there be prophecies, they shall fail." The Bible 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.</p> + +<p>Then Paul talks about <i>tongues</i>. 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 though it cannot 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 <i>Pickwick Papers</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>Then Paul goes farther, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be <i>knowledge</i>, it shall be done away." The wisdom of the +ancients, where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy to-day 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 encyclopædias for a few +cents: <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>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 in +Scotland, at a meeting at which I was present, "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.</p> + +<p>In my time, in the university of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the +faculty was Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. Recently +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 (midwifery) that were no longer needed. His reply +to the librarian was this:</p> + +<p>"Take every text-book that is more than ten years old and put it down +in the cellar."</p> + +<p>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 to-day to +oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. "Now we know +in part. We see through a glass darkly." Knowledge does not last.</p> + +<p>Can you tell me anything that is going to last? Many things Paul did +not condescend to name. He did <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>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</p> + +<p class="cen2">IT WILL NOT LAST.</p> + +<p class="noin">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 only immortal things are these: "Now abideth +faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love."</p> + +<p>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 <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>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 yourself first to Love. Hold things in +their proportion. <i>Hold things in their proportion.</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<p class="cen2">EVERLASTING LIFE.</p> + +<p class="noin">The Gospel offers a man a life. Never offer a man 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 addressed only to a part of <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>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.</p> + +<p>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 +to-morrow. Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because there is +some one who loves you, and whom you want to see to-morrow, 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, he +has no contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand.</p> + +<p>Eternal life also 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 <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>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.</p> + +<p class="cen2">NO WORSE FATE</p> + +<p class="noin">can befall a man in this world than to live and grow old 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.</p> + +<p>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. Will you do it? It is for the +greatest thing in the world. 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 fulfill 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.</p> + +<p>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, <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>there +leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do +unnoticed kindnesses to those round 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.</p> + +<p>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, +<i>by sins of omission</i>, 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, +<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>to be seized with the spell of His compassion for the world. It means +that—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I lived for myself, I thought for myself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For myself, and none beside—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just as if Jesus had never lived,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if He had never died."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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 hair's breadth, +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."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="ANGELUS" id="ANGELUS"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a> +<h3>LESSONS FROM THE ANGELUS.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + + +<p>God often speaks to men's souls through music; He also speaks to us +through art. Millet's famous painting entitled "The Angelus" is an +illuminated text, upon which I am going to say a few words to you +to-night.</p> + +<p>There are three things in this picture—a potato field, a country lad +and a country girl standing in the middle of it, and on the far +horizon the spire of a village church. That is all there is to it—no +great scenery and no picturesque people. In Roman Catholic countries +at the evening hour the church bell rings out to remind the people to +pray. Some go into the church, while those that are in the fields bow +their heads for a few moments in silent prayer.</p> + +<p>That picture contains the three great elements which go to make up a +perfectly rounded Christian life. It is not enough to have the "root +of the matter" in us, but that we must be whole and entire, lacking +nothing. The Angelus may bring to us suggestions as to what +constitutes a complete life.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>The first element in a symmetrical life is <i>work</i>.</p> + +<p>Three-fourths of our time is probably spent in work. Of course the +meaning of it is that our work should be just as religious as our +worship, and unless we can work for the glory of God three-fourths of +life remains unsanctified.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>The proof that work is religious is that most of Christ's life was +spent in work. During a large part of the first thirty years of His +life He worked with the hammer and the plane, making ploughs and yokes +and household furniture. Christ's public ministry occupied only about +two and a half years of His earthly life; the great bulk of His time +was simply spent in doing common everyday tasks, and ever since then +work has had a new meaning.</p> + +<p>When Christ came into the world He was revealed to three deputations +who went to meet and worship Him. First came the shepherds, or working +class; second, the wise men, or student class; and third, the two old +people in the temple, Simeon and Anna; that is to say, Christ is +revealed to men at their work, He is revealed to men at their books, +and He is revealed to men at their worship. It was the old people who +found Christ at their worship, and as we grow older we will spend more +time exclusively in worship than we are able to do now. In the mean +time we must combine our worship with our work, and we may expect to +find Christ at our books and in our common task.</p> + +<p>Why should God have provided that so many hours of every day should be +occupied with work? It is because</p> + +<p class="cen2">WORK MAKES MEN.</p> + +<p>A university is not merely a place for making scholars, it is a place +for making Christians. A farm is not a place for growing corn, it is a +place for growing character, and a man has no character except that +which is developed by his life and thought. God's Spirit does the +building through the acts which a man performs from day to day. A +student who cons out every word <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>in his Latin and Greek instead of +consulting a translation finds that honesty is translated into his +character. If he works out his mathematical problems thoroughly, he +not only becomes a mathematician, but becomes a thorough man. It is by +constant and conscientious attention to daily duties that thoroughness +and conscientiousness and honorableness are imbedded in our beings. +Character is</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE MUSIC OF THE SOUL,</p> + +<p>and is developed by exercise. Active use of the power entrusted to us +is one of the chief means which God employs for producing the +Christian graces. Hence the religion of a student demands that he be +true to his work, and that he let his Christianity be shown to his +fellow students and to his professors by the integrity and the +conscientiousness of his academic life. A man who is not faithful in +that which is least will not be faithful in that which is great. I +have known men who struggled unsuccessfully for years to pass their +examinations who, when they became Christians, found a new motive for +work and thus were able to succeed where previously they had failed. A +man's Christianity comes out as much in his work as in his worship.</p> + +<p>Our work is not only to be done thoroughly, but it is to be done +honestly. A man is not only to be honorable in his academic relations, +but he must be honest with himself and in his attitude toward the +truth. Students are not entitled to dodge difficulties, they must go +down to the foundation principles. Perhaps the truths which are dear +to us go down deeper even than we think, and we will get more out of +them if we dig down for the nuggets than we will if we only pick <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>up +those that are on the surface. Other theories may perhaps be found to +have false bases; if so, we ought to know it. It is well to take our +soundings in every direction to see if there is deep water; if there +are shoals we ought to find out where they are. Therefore, when we +come to difficulties, let us not jump lightly over them, but let us be +honest as seekers after truth.</p> + +<p>It may not be necessary for people in general to sift the doctrines of +Christianity for themselves, but a student is a man whose business it +is to think, to exercise the intellect which God has given him in +finding out the truth. Faith is never opposed to reason, though it is +sometimes supposed by Bible teachers that it is; but you will find it +is not. Faith is opposed to sight, but not to reason, though it is not +limited to reason. In employing his intellect in the search for truth +a student is drawing nearer to the Christ who said, "I am the way, the +truth and the life." We talk a great deal about Christ as the way and +Christ as the life, but there is a side of Christ especially for the +student: "I am the truth," and every student ought to be a truth-lover +and a truth-seeker for Christ's sake.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>Another element in life, which of course is first in importance, is +<i>God</i>.</p> + +<p>The Angelus is perhaps the most religious picture painted this +century. You cannot look at it and see that young man standing in the +field with his hat off, and the girl opposite him with her hands +clasped and her head bowed on her breast, without feeling a sense of +God.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>Do we carry about with us the thought of God wherever we go? If not, +we have missed the greatest part of life. Do we have a conviction of +God's abiding presence wherever we are? There is nothing more needed +in this generation than a larger and more Scriptural idea of God. A +great American writer has told us that when he was a boy the +conception of God which he got from books and sermons was that of a +wise and very strict lawyer. I remember well the awful conception of +God which I had when a boy. I was given an illustrated edition of +Watts' hymns, in which God was represented as a great piercing eye in +the midst of a great black thunder cloud. The idea which that picture +gave to my young imagination was that of God as a great detective, +playing the spy upon my actions, as the hymn says:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Writing now the story of what little children do."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That was a very mistaken and harmful idea which it has taken me years +to obliterate. We think of God as "up there," or as one who made the +world six thousand years ago and then retired. We must learn that He +is not confined either to time or space. God is not to be thought of +as merely back there in time, or up there in space. If not, where is +He? "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." The Kingdom of God is +within you, and God Himself is among men. When are we to exchange the +terrible, far-away, absentee God of our childhood for the everywhere +present God of the Bible? Too many of the old Christian writers seem +to have conceived of God as not much more than the greatest man—a +kind of divine emperor. He is infinitely more; He is a spirit, as +Jesus said to the woman at the well, and in Him we live and move and +<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>have our being. Let us think of God as Immanuel—God with us—an +ever-present, omnipresent, eternal One. Long, long ago, God made +matter, then He made the flowers and trees and animals, then He made +man. Did He stop? Is God dead? If He lives and acts what is He doing? +He is</p> + +<p class="cen2">MAKING MEN BETTER.</p> + +<p class="noin">He it is that "worketh in you." The buds of our nature are not all out +yet; the sap to make them comes from the God who made us, from the +indwelling Christ. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and +we must bear this in mind, because the sense of God is kept up, not by +logic, but by experience.</p> + +<p>Until she was seven years of age the life of Helen Keller, the Boston +girl who was deaf and dumb and blind, was an absolute blank; nothing +could go into that mind because the ears and eyes were closed to the +outer world. Then by that great process which has been discovered, by +which the blind see, and the deaf hear, and the mute speak, that +girl's soul became opened, and they began to put in little bits of +knowledge, and bit by bit they began to educate her. They reserved her +religious instruction for Phillips Brooks. After some years, when she +was twelve years old, they took her to him and he began to talk to her +through the young lady who had been the means of opening her senses, +and who could communicate with her by the exceedingly delicate process +of touch. He began to tell her about God and what He had done, and how +He loved men, and what He is to us. The child listened very +intelligently, and finally said:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Brooks, I knew all that before, but I didn't know His name."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>How often we have felt something within us impelling us to do +something which we would not have conceived of by ourselves, or +enabling us to do something which we could not have done alone. "It is +God which worketh in you." This great simple fact</p> + +<p class="cen2">EXPLAINS MANY OF THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE,</p> + +<p class="noin">and takes away the fear which we would otherwise have in meeting the +difficulties which lie before us.</p> + +<p>Two Americans who were crossing the Atlantic met on Sunday night to +sing hymns in the cabin. As they sang the hymn, "Jesus, Lover of my +Soul," one of the Americans heard an exceedingly rich and beautiful +voice behind him. He looked around, and although he did not know the +face he thought that he recognized the voice. So when the music ceased +he turned around and asked the man if he had not been in the Civil +war. The man replied that he had been a Confederate soldier. "Were you +at such a place on such a night?" asked the first. "Yes," he said, +"and a curious thing happened that night; this hymn recalled it to my +mind. I was on sentry duty on the edge of a wood. It was a dark night +and very cold, and I was a little frightened because the enemy were +supposed to be very near at hand. I felt very homesick and miserable, +and about midnight, when everything was very still, I was beginning to +feel very weary and thought that I would comfort myself by praying and +singing a hymn. I remember singing this hymn,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'All my trust on Thee is stayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All my help from Thee I bring,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cover my defenceless head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the shadow of Thy wing.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>After I had sung those words a strange peace came down upon me, and +through the long night I remember having felt no more fear."</p> + +<p>"Now," said the other man, "listen to my story. I was a Union soldier, +and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts. I saw you +standing up, although I didn't see your face, and my men had their +rifles focused upon you waiting the word to fire, but when you sang +out,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Cover my defenceless head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With the shadow of Thy wing,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I said, 'Boys, put down your rifles, we will go home.' I couldn't kill +you after that."</p> + +<p>God was working in each of them, in His own way carrying out His will. +God keeps his people and guides them and without Him life is but a +living death.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p>The third element in life about which I wish to speak is <i>love</i>.</p> + +<p>In this picture we notice the delicate sense of companionship, brought +out by the young man and the young woman. It matters not whether they +are brother and sister, or lover and loved; there you have the idea of +friendship, the final ingredient in our life, after the two I have +named. If the man or the woman had been standing in that field alone +it would have been incomplete.</p> + +<p>Love is the divine element in life, because "God is love." "He that +loveth is born of God," therefore, as some one has said, let us "keep +our friendships in repair." Let us cultivate the spirit of friendship, +and let the love of Christ develop it into a great love, not only <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>for +our friends, but for all humanity. Wherever you go and whatever you +do, your work will be a failure unless you have this element in your +life.</p> + +<p>These three things go far toward forming a well-rounded life. Some of +us may not have these ingredients in their right proportion, but if +you are lacking in one or the other of them, then pray for it and work +for it that your life may be rounded and complete as God intended it +should be.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="PAX" id="PAX"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a> +<h3>PAX VOBISCUM.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<h5>(Copyright, James Pott & Co. Used by permission.)</h5> +<br /> + +<p>I once heard a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon "Rest." It was +full of beautiful thoughts; but when I came to ask myself, "How does +he say I can get Rest?" there was no answer. The sermon was sincerely +meant to be practical, yet it contained no experience that seemed to +me to be tangible, nor any advice that I could grasp—any advice, that +is to say, which could help me to find the thing itself as I went +about the world.</p> + +<p>Yet this omission of what is, after all, the only important problem, +was not the fault of the preacher. The whole popular religion is in +the twilight here. And when pressed for really working specifics for +the experiences with which it deals, it falters, and seems to lose +itself in mist.</p> + +<p>The want of connection between the great words of religion and +every-day life has bewildered and discouraged all of us. Christianity +possesses the noblest words in the language; its literature overflows +with terms expressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can +fill the soul of man. Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light—these +words occur with such persistency in hymns and prayers that an +observer might think they formed the staple of Christian experience. +But on coming to close quarters with the actual life of most <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>of us, +how surely would he be disenchanted. I do not think we ourselves are +aware how much our religious life is</p> + +<p class="cen2">MADE UP OF PHRASES;</p> + +<p class="noin">how much of what we call Christian Experience is only a dialect of the +Churches, a mere religious phraseology with almost nothing behind it +in what we really feel and know.</p> + +<p>To some of us, indeed, the Christian experiences seem further away +than when we took the first steps in the Christian life. That life has +not opened out as we had hoped. We do not regret our religion, but we +are disappointed with it. There are times, perhaps, when wandering +notes from a diviner music stray into our spirits; but these +experiences come at few and fitful moments. We have no sense of +possession in them. When they visit us, it is a surprise. When they +leave us, it is without explanation. When we wish their return, we do +not know how to secure it.</p> + +<p>All which means a religion without solid base, and a poor and +flickering life. It means a great bankruptcy in those experiences +which give Christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to +the world, and a great uncertainty as to any remedy. It is as if we +knew everything about health—except the way to get it.</p> + +<p>I am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that men +are not in earnest. This is simply not the fact. All around us +Christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better. The +amount of spiritual longing in the world—in the hearts of unnumbered +thousands of men and women in whom we should never suspect it; among +the wise and <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>thoughtful, among the young and gay, who seldom assuage +and never betray their thirst—this is one of the most wonderful and +touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed, but more +light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very real +energies already there.</p> + +<p>The usual advice when one asks for counsel on these questions is, +"Pray." But this advice is far from adequate. I shall qualify the +statement presently; but let me urge it here, with what you will +perhaps call daring emphasis, that to pray for these things is not the +way to get them. No one will get them without praying; but that men do +not get them by praying is the simple fact. We have all prayed, and +sincerely prayed, for such experiences as I have named; prayed, +believing that that was the way to get them. And yet have we got them? +The test is experience. I dare not limit prayer; still less the grace +of God. If you have got them in this way, it is well. I am speaking to +those, be they few or many, who have not got them; to ordinary men in +ordinary circumstances. But if we have not got them, it by no means +follows that prayer is useless. The correct conclusion is only that it +is useless, or inadequate rather, for this particular purpose. To make +prayer the sole resort, the universal panacea for every spiritual ill, +is as radical a mistake as to prescribe only one medicine for every +bodily trouble. The physician who does the last is a quack; the +spiritual adviser who does the first is</p> + +<p class="cen2">GROSSLY IGNORANT OF HIS PROFESSION.</p> + +<p>To do nothing but pray is a wrong done to prayer itself, and can only +end in disaster. It is as if one tried <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>to live only with the lungs, +as if one assimilated only air and neglected solid food. The lungs are +a first essential; the air is a first essential; but the body has many +members, given for different purposes, secreting different things, and +each has a method of nutrition as special to itself as its own +activity. While prayer, then, is the characteristic sublimity of the +Christian life, it is by no means the only one. And those who make it +the sole alternative, and apply it to purposes for which it was never +meant, are really doing the greatest harm to prayer itself. To couple +the word "inadequate" with this mighty word is not to dethrone prayer, +but to exalt it.</p> + +<p class="cen2">WHAT DETHRONES PRAYER</p> + +<p class="noin">is unanswered prayer. When men pray for things which do not come that +way—pray with sincere belief that prayer, unaided and alone, will +compass what they ask—then, not getting what they ask, they often +give up prayer.</p> + +<p>This is the natural history of much atheism, not only an atheism of +atheists, but a more terrible atheism of Christians, an unconscious +atheism, whose roots have struck far into many souls whose last breath +would be spent in denying it. So, I repeat, it is a mistaken +Christianity which allow men to cherish a blind belief in the +omnipotence of prayer. Prayer, certainly, when the appropriate +conditions are fulfilled, is omnipotent, but not blind prayer. Blind +prayer is a superstition. Prayer, in its true sense, contains the sane +recognition that while man prays in faith, <i>God acts by law</i>. What +that means in the immediate connection we shall see presently.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>What, then, is the remedy? It is impossible to doubt that there is a +remedy, and it is equally impossible to believe that it is a secret. +The idea that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, +have been given the secret—as if there were some sort of knack or +trick of it—is wholly incredible and wrong. Religion must be for all, +and the way into its loftiest heights must be by a gateway through +which the peoples of the world may pass.</p> + +<p>I shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But +as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into the +religious sphere, I must ask your forbearance for dwelling for a +moment upon the commonest of commonplaces.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>I. EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES.</h4> + +<p>Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of +order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never at +random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The +Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, +expect Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from the air +like snow or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they +did, they would no less have their origin in previous activities and +be controlled by natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but +not without a long previous history. They are the mature effects of +former causes. Equally so are Rest and Peace and Joy. They, too, have +each a previous history. Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, +but brought <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>about by antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but +calms in man's inward nature, and arise through causes as definite and +as inevitable.</p> + +<p>Realize it thoroughly; it is a methodical, not an accidental world. If +a housewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound +receipt, carefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients +and fire them for the appropriate time without producing the result. +It is not she who has made the cake; it is nature. She brings related +things together; sets causes at work; these causes bring about the +result. She is not a creator, but an intermediary. She does not expect +random causes to produce specific effects—random ingredients would +only produce random cakes. So it is in the making of Christian +experiences. Certain lines are followed; certain effects are the +result. These effects cannot but be the result. But the result can +never take place without the previous cause. To expect results without +antecedents is to expect cakes without ingredients. That impossibility +is precisely</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE ALMOST UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION.</p> + +<p>Now what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this +simple principle of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And +instead of applying the principle generally to each of the Christian +experiences in turn, I shall examine its application to one in some +little detail. The one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who +follows the application in this single instance will be able to apply +it for himself to all the others.</p> + +<p>Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are subject to fevers +which cause restlessness and delirium.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>Note the expression, "cause restlessness." <i>Restlessness has a cause.</i> +Clearly, then, any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would +proceed at once to deal with the cause. If that were not removed, a +doctor might prescribe a hundred things, and all might be taken in +turn, without producing the least effect. Things are so arranged in +the original planning of the world that certain effects must follow +certain causes, and certain causes must be abolished before certain +effects can be removed. Certain parts of Africa are inseparably linked +with the physical experience called fever; this fever is in turn +infallibly linked with a mental experience called restlessness and +delirium. To abolish the mental experience the radical method would be +to abolish the physical experience, and the way of abolishing the +physical experience would be to abolish Africa, or to cease to go +there.</p> + +<p>Now this holds good for all other forms of Restlessness. Every other +form and kind of Restlessness in the world has a definite cause, and +the particular kind of Restlessness can only be removed by removing +the allotted cause.</p> + +<p>All this is also true of Rest. Restlessness has a cause: must not +<i>Rest</i> have a cause? Necessarily. If it were a chance world we would +not expect this; but, being a methodical world, it cannot be +otherwise. Rest, physical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, every kind +of rest has a cause, as certainly as restlessness. Now causes are +discriminating. There is one kind of cause for every particular effect +and no other, and if one particular effect is desired, the +corresponding cause must be set in motion. It is no use proposing +finely devised schemes, or going through general pious exercises in +<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>the hope that somehow Rest will come. The Christian life is not +casual, but causal. All nature is a standing protest against the +absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects, or any effects, +without the employment of appropriate causes. The Great Teacher dealt +what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite irrelevancy by +a single question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of +thistles?"</p> + +<p>Why, then, did the Great Teacher not educate His followers fully? Why +did He not tell us, for example, how such a thing as Rest might be +obtained? The answer is that <i>He did</i>. But plainly, explicitly, in so +many words? Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many words. He assigned +Rest to its cause, in words with which each of us has been familiar +from his earliest childhood.</p> + +<p>He begins, you remember—for you at once know the passage I refer +to—almost as if Rest could be had without any cause; "Come unto me," +He says, "and I will <i>give</i> you Rest."</p> + +<p>Rest, apparently, was a favor to be bestowed; men had but to come to +Him; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes +that all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously. +For what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an +impossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be <i>given</i>? One +could no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We +speak of "causing" laughter, which we can do; but we can not give it +away. When we speak of "giving" pain, we know perfectly well we can +not give pain away. And when we aim at "giving" pleasure, all that we +do is to arrange a set of circumstances in such <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>a way as that these +shall cause pleasure. Of course there is a sense, and a very wonderful +sense, in which a Great Personality breathes upon all who come within +its influence an abiding peace and trust. Men can be to other men as +the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; much more Christ; much +more Christ as Perfect Man; much more still as Savior of the world. +But it is not this of which I speak. When Christ said He would give +men Rest, He meant simply that He would put them in the way of it. By +no act of conveyance would or could He make over His own Rest to them. +He could give them</p> + +<p class="cen2">HIS RECEIPT</p> + +<p class="noin">for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them. For one thing +it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men +were not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet +another thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it +for themselves.</p> + +<p>That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the +second sentence: "Learn of me, and ye shall <i>find</i> Rest." Rest, (that +is to say), is not a thing that can be <i>given</i>, but a thing to be +<i>acquired</i>. It comes not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be +found in a happy hour, as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one +finds knowledge. It could indeed be no more found in a moment than +could knowledge. A soil has to be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, +it will grow in one climate, and not in another; at one altitude, and +not at another. Like all growth it will have an orderly development +and mature by slow degrees.</p> + +<p>The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>when He says +we are to achieve Rest by <i>learning</i>. "Learn of me," He says, "and ye +shall find rest to your souls."</p> + +<p>Now consider the extraordinary</p> + +<p class="cen2">ORIGINALITY OF THIS UTTERANCE.</p> + +<p class="noin">How novel the connection between these two words "Learn" and "Rest." +How few of us have ever associated them—ever thought that Rest was a +thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out for it as we would to +learn a language; ever practised it as we would practice the violin? +Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching still is to the +world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should still be so +little known? The last thing most of us would have thought of would +have been to associate <i>Rest</i> with <i>Work</i>.</p> + +<p>What must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find +the soul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation. +He specifies two things—Meekness and Lowliness. "Learn of me," He +says, "for I am <i>meek</i> and <i>lowly</i> in heart."</p> + +<p>Now these two things are not chosen at random. To these +accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is attached. Learn these, in +short, and you have already found Rest. These as they stand are direct +causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot but produce it at +once. And if you think for a single moment, you will see how this is +necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the connection +between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies deep in the +nature of things.</p> + +<p>What is the connection, then? I answer by a further question.</p> + +<p class="cen2">WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CAUSES OF UNREST?</p> + +<p>If you know yourself, you will answer—Pride; <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>Selfishness, Ambition. +As you look back upon the past years of your life, is it not true that +its unhappiness has chiefly come from the succession of personal +mortifications and almost trivial disappointments which the +intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at lengthened +intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty friction of +our every-day life with one another, the jar of business or of work, +the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our ambition, the +crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit, which make +inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed hopes, +unsatisfied selfishness—these are the old, vulgar, universal</p> + +<p class="cen2">SOURCES OF MAN'S UNREST.</p> + +<p>Now it is obvious why Christ pointed out as the two chief objects for +attainment the exact opposites of these. To meekness and lowliness +these things simply do not exist. They cure unrest by making it +impossible. These remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms; they +strike at once at removing causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a +self-centered life can be removed at once by learning meekness and +lowliness of heart. He who learns them is forever proof against it. He +lives henceforth a charmed life. Christianity is a fine inoculation, a +transfusion of healthy blood into an anæmic or poisoned soul. No fever +can attack a perfectly sound body; no fever of unrest can disturb a +soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of Christ.</p> + +<p>Men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at +Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is <i>within +you</i>." We aspire <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the bottom. +Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. Hence, +<i>be lowly</i>. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be +hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, <i>be meek</i>. He who is +without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is +self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man +are really above all other men, above all other things. They dominate +the world because they do not care for it. The miser does not possess +gold, gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. "The meek," said +Christ, "inherit the earth." They do not buy it; they do not conquer +it; but they inherit it.</p> + +<p>There are people who go about the world looking out for slights, and +they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn—especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such +men as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have +had no real education, for they have never learned</p> + +<p class="cen2">HOW TO LIVE.</p> + +<p class="noin">Few men know how to live. We grow up at random carrying into mature +life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little +children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be changed; +that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the Fine +Arts; that it has to be learned with lifelong patience, and that the +years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly.</p> + +<p>Yet this is what Christianity is for—to teach men</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE ART OF LIFE.</p> + +<p class="noin">And its whole curriculum lies in one word—"Learn of <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>me." Unlike most +education, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from +books, or lectures or creeds or doctrines. It is a study from the +life. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian graces. +He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn +His art by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their +masters.</p> + +<p>Now we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the weary and +heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new +principle—upon His own principle. "Watch my way of doing things," He +says; "Follow me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly, and you +will find Rest."</p> + +<p>I do not say, remember, that the Christian life to every man, or to +any man, can be a bed of roses. No educational process can be this. +And perhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple +"learn" of Christ, they would not enter His school with so +irresponsible a heart. For there is not only much to learn, but</p> + +<p class="cen2">MUCH TO UNLEARN.</p> + +<p class="noin">Many men never go to this school at all till their disposition is +already half ruined and character has taken on its fatal set. To learn +arithmetic is difficult at fifty—much more to learn Christianity. To +learn simply what it is to be meek and lowly, in the case of one who +has had no lessons in that in childhood, may cost him half of what he +values most on earth. Do we realize, for instance, that the way of +teaching humility is generally by <i>humiliation</i>? There is probably no +other school for it. When a man enters himself as a pupil in such a +school it means a very great thing. There is much Rest there, but +there is also much Work.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>I should be wrong, even though my theme is the brighter side, to +ignore the cross and minimize the cost. Only it gives to the cross a +more definite meaning, and a rarer value, to connect it thus directly +and casually with the growth of the inner life. Our platitudes on the +"benefits of affliction" are usually about as vague as our theories of +Christian Experience. "Somehow" we believe affliction does us good. +But it is not a question of "Somehow." The result is definite, +calculable, necessary. It is under the strictest law of cause and +effect. The first effect of losing one's fortune, for instance, is +humiliation; and the effect of humiliation, as we have just seen, is +to make one humble; and the effect of being humble is to produce Rest. +It is a roundabout way, apparently, of producing Rest; but Nature +generally works by circular processes; and it is not certain that +there is any other way of becoming humble, or of finding Rest. If a +man could make himself humble to order, it might simplify matters; but +we do not find that this happens. Hence we must all go through the +mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, is the nearest gate and +the quickest road to life.</p> + +<p>Yet this is only half the truth. Christ's life outwardly was one of +the most troubled lives that was ever lived: tempest and tumult, +tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the +worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of +glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have +gone to Him and found Rest. Even when the blood-hounds were dogging +Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and +offered them, as a last legacy, "My peace." <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>Nothing ever for a moment +broke the serenity of Christ's life on earth. Misfortune could not +reach Him; He had no fortune. Food, raiment, money—fountain-heads of +half the world's weariness—He simply did not care for; they played no +part in His life; He "took no thought" for them. It was impossible to +affect Him by lowering His reputation. He had already made Himself of +no reputation. He was dumb before insult. When he was reviled, He +reviled not again. In fact, there was</p> + +<p class="cen2">NOTHING THAT THE WORLD COULD DO TO HIM</p> + +<p class="noin">that could ruffle the surface of His spirit.</p> + +<p>Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only when we +see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It +lies not in emotions, or in the absence of emotions. It is not a +hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something +that the preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, +or in music—though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at +leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul; the absolute +adjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things; the +preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured +convictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of +a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with +Browning, "God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world."</p> + +<p>Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of +rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the +far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering +waterfall, with a <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the +fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on +its nest. The first was only <i>Stagnation</i>; the last was <i>Rest</i>. For in +Rest there are always two elements—tranquillity and energy; silence +and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and +fearfulness. This it was in Christ.</p> + +<p>It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be or +to do, He at least</p> + +<p class="cen2">KNEW HOW TO LIVE.</p> + +<p class="noin">All this is the perfection of living, of living in the mere sense of +passing through the world in the best way. Hence His anxiety to +communicate His idea of life to others. He came, He said, to give men +life, true life, a more abundant life than they were living; "the +life," as the fine phase in the Revised Version has it, "that is life +indeed." This is what He Himself possessed, and it was this which He +offers to mankind. And hence His direct appeal for all to come to Him +who had not made much of life, who were weary and heavy-laden. These +He would teach His secret. They, also, should know "the life that is +life indeed."</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>II. WHAT YOKES ARE FOR.</h4> + +<p>There is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, "Learn of +Me," Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification:</p> + +<p>"<i>Take my yoke</i> upon you, and learn of Me."</p> + +<p>Why, if all this be true, does He call it a <i>yoke</i>? Why, while +professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath whisper +"<i>burden</i>"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies take it +for—an additional weight to <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>the already great woe of life, some +extra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to +observances, some heavy restriction and trammeling of all that is +joyous and free in the world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough +without being fettered with yet another yoke?</p> + +<p>It is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain +sentence should ever have passed into currency. Did you ever stop to +ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal +which wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden +light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the +plough would be intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A +yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is</p> + +<p class="cen2">AN INSTRUMENT OF MERCY.</p> + +<p class="noin">It is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle +device to make hard labor light. It is not meant to give pain, but to +save pain. And yet men speak of the yoke of Christ as if it were +slavery, and look upon those who wear it as objects of compassion. For +generations we have had homilies on "The Yoke of Christ"—some +delighting in portraying its narrow exactions; some seeking in these +exactions the marks of its divinity; others apologizing for it, and +toning it down; still others assuring us that, although it be very +bad, it is not to be compared with the positive blessings of +Christianity. How many, especially among the young, has this one +mistaken phrase driven forever away from the kingdom of God? Instead +of making Christ attractive, it makes Him out a taskmaster, narrowing +life by petty restrictions, calling for self-denial where none is +necessary, making misery a virtue under <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>the plea that it is the yoke +of Christ, and happiness criminal because it now and then evades it. +According to this conception, Christians are at best the victims of a +depressing fate; their life is a penance; and their hope for the next +world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this.</p> + +<p>The mistake has arisen from taking the word "yoke" here in the same +sense as in the expressions "under the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his +youth." But in Christ's illustration it is not the <i>jugum</i> of the +Roman soldier, but the simple "harness" or "ox-collar" of the Eastern +peasant. It is the literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in +the carpenter shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference +between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the +difference also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. +The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke +caused no pain, and the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted +harness was a misery; the well-fitted collar was "easy."</p> + +<p>And what was the "burden"? It was not some special burden laid upon +the Christian, some unique infliction that they alone must bear. It +was what all men bear. It was simply life, human life itself, the +general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle +to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was +a weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle +and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole +world's problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is +Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at +it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My +yoke and <a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>learn of Me, and you will find it easy. For My yoke is easy, +works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and <i>therefore</i> My burden +is light."</p> + +<p>There is no suggestion here that religion will absolve any man from +bearing burdens. That would be to absolve him from living, since it is +life itself that is the burden. What Christianity does propose is to +make it tolerable.</p> + +<p class="cen2">CHRIST'S YOKE</p> + +<p class="noin">is simply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His +prescription for the best and happiest method of living. Men harness +themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural +ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted +collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past enduring, +by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere continuous +irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is +quick and sore.</p> + +<p>This is the origin, among other things, of a disease called +"touchiness"—a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one +of the gravest sources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when +it becomes chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. +It is self-love inflamed to the acute point; conceit, <i>with a +hair-trigger</i>. The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; to +let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused +part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old +sensitiveness is becoming numb from want of use.</p> + +<p>It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to adjust the +burden of life to those who bear it, and them <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>to it. It has a +perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence to +human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all +surrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue +and dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere matter of +altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of +things, its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its +own.</p> + +<p>The weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. Suppose +the attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other planet, +where the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton. +Now Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one +way in which it diminishes man's burden. It makes them citizens of +another world. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton today. So +without changing one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider +horizon and a different standard, it alters the whole aspect of the +world.</p> + +<p>Christianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever +spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we +mean Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, or +exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface +readings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the +results wretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what +vale of tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life +for him along this path.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>III. HOW FRUITS GROW.</h4> + +<p>Were Rest my subject, there are other things I should wish to say +about it, and other kinds of Rest of which I <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>should like to speak. +But that is not my subject. My theme is that the Christian experiences +are not the work of magic, but come under the law of Cause and Effect. +I have chosen Rest only as a single illustration of the working of +that principle. If there were time I might next run over all the +Christian experiences in turn, and show the same wide law applies to +each; but I think it may serve the better purpose if I leave this +further exercise to yourselves. I know no Bible study that you will +find more full of fruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of +God, or make the Christian life itself more solid or more sure. I +shall add only a single other illustration of what I mean, before I +close.</p> + +<p>Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of +Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in +Heaven, and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let +down and fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross +and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In +reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one +can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of +the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a +very clever trick in India called the mango trick. A seed is put in +the ground and covered up, and after diverse incantations a full-blown +mango-bush appears within five minutes. I never met any one who knew +how the thing was done, but I never met any one who believed it to be +anything else than a conjuring trick. The world is pretty unanimous +now in its belief in the orderliness of Nature. Men may not know how +fruits grow, but they do know that they cannot grow in an hour. Some +lives <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>have not even a stalk on which fruits could hang, even if they +did grow in an hour. Some have never planted one sound seed of Joy in +all their lives; and others who may have planted a germ or two have +lived so little in sunshine that they never could come to maturity.</p> + +<p>Whence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into +one of the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance +have appealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do +not wish you to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens +that He has dealt with it in words of unusual fullness.</p> + +<p>I need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the +Vine. Did you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not +merely throw it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. +It was not simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine +of an indwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had +said it, He did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His +greatest lessons—He turned to the disciples and said He would tell +them why He had spoken it. It was to tell them</p> + +<p class="cen2">HOW TO GET JOY.</p> + +<p class="noin">"These things have I spoken unto you," He said, "that My Joy might +remain in you, and that your Joy might be full." It was a purposed and +deliberate communication of His</p> + +<p class="cen2">SECRET OF HAPPINESS.</p> + +<p>Go back over these verses, then, and you will find the Causes of this +Effect, the spring, and the only spring, out of which true Happiness +comes. I am not <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>going to analyze them in detail. I ask you to enter +into the words for yourselves.</p> + +<p>Remember, in the first place, that the Vine was the Eastern symbol of +Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart of man. Yet, however +innocent that gladness—for the expressed juice of the grape was the +common drink at every peasant's board—the gladness was only a gross +and passing thing. This was not true happiness, and the vine of the +Palestine vineyards was not the true vine. "<i>Christ</i> was the <i>true</i> +Vine." Here, then, is the ultimate source of Joy. Through whatever +media it reaches us, all true Joy and Gladness find their source in +Christ.</p> + +<p>By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy experienced is +transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed on from Him +to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There is, +indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's +sorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy to men +in the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people share His +life, and therefore share its consequences, and one of these is Joy. +His method of living is one that in the nature of things produces Joy. +When He spoke of His Joy remaining with us He meant in part that the +causes which produced it should continue to act. His followers, (that +is to say), by <i>repeating</i> His life would experience its +accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would remain with them.</p> + +<p>The medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: "He that +abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Fruit first, Joy +next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>the +necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the +necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in +the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy +lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that +implied of peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of +that Life upon mind and character and will; and partly in the +inspiration to live and work for others, with all that that brought of +self-riddance and joy in others' gain. All these, in different ways +and at different times, are</p> + +<p class="cen2">SOURCES OF PURE HAPPINESS.</p> + +<p class="noin">Even the simplest of them—to do good to other people—is an instant +and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever. +Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in +Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is +Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good; +and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. The +surest proof that all this is a plain matter of Cause and Effect is +that men may try every other conceivable way of finding happiness, and +they will fail. Only the right cause in each case can produce the +right effect.</p> + +<p>Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense +in which grapes are our own making and no more. All fruits +<i>grow</i>—whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are +the fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can <i>make</i> +things grow. He can <i>get them to grow</i> by arranging all the +circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is +done by God. Causes and effects are <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>eternal arrangements, set in the +constitution of the world; fixed beyond man's ordering. What man can +do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of sequences. Thus he +can get things to grow: thus he himself can grow. But the power is the +Spirit of God.</p> + +<p>What more need I add but this—test the method by experiment. Do not +imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get +them. As well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can +promise that if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not +fail. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in +fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must +come. We have hitherto paid immense attention to <i>effects</i>, to the +mere experiences themselves; we have described them, extolled them, +advised them, prayed for them—done everything but find out what +<i>caused</i> them. Henceforth</p> + +<p class="cen2">LET US DEAL WITH CAUSES.</p> + +<p>"To be," says Lotze, "is to be in relations." About every other method +of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About every +other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a +"perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it +cannot fail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe—and these are +"the Hands of the Living God."</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE TRUE VINE.</p> + +<p>"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in +me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that +beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now +ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>you. Abide in +me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it +abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the +vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the +same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a +man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; +and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. +If ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye +will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, +that ye bear much fruit; so ye shall be my disciples. As the Father +hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep +my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my +Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I +spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="FIRST" id="FIRST"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a> +<h3>"FIRST!"<br /> +AN ADDRESS TO BOYS.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + + +<p>I have three heads to give you. The first is "Geography," the second +is "Arithmetic," and the third is "Grammar."</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<p>First. Geography tells us where to find places.</p> + +<p>Where is the Kingdom of God? It is said that when a Prussian officer +was killed in the Franco-Prussian war, a map of France was very often +found in his pocket. When we wish to occupy a country, we ought to +know its geography. Now, <i>where</i> is the Kingdom of God? A boy over +there says, "It is in heaven." No; it is not in heaven. Another boy +says, "It is in the Bible." No; it is not in the Bible. Another boy +says, "It must be in the Church," No; it is not in the Church. Heaven +is only the capital of the Kingdom of God; the Bible is the guide-book +to it; the Church is the weekly parade of those who belong to it. If +you turn to the seventeenth chapter of Luke you will find out where +the Kingdom of God really is: "The Kingdom of God is within +you"—within <i>you</i>. The Kingdom of God is <i>inside people</i>.</p> + +<p>I remember once taking a walk by the river near where the Falls of +Niagara are, and I noticed a remarkable figure walking along the river +bank. I had been some time in America. I had seen black men, <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>and red +men, and yellow men, and white men; black men, the Negroes; red men, +the Indians; yellow men, the Chinese; white men, the Americans. But +this man looked quite different in his dress from anything I had ever +seen. When he came a little closer, I saw he was wearing a kilt; when +he came a little nearer still, I saw that he was dressed exactly like +a Highland soldier. When he came quiet near, I said to him:</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Why should I not be here?" he replied; "don't you know this is +British soil? When you cross the river you come into Canada."</p> + +<p>This soldier was thousands of miles from England, and yet he was in +the Kingdom of England. Wherever there is an English heart beating +loyal to the Queen of Britain, there is England. Wherever there is a +boy whose heart is loyal to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God is +within him.</p> + +<p>What is the Kingdom of God? Every Kingdom has its exports, its +products. Go down the river here and you will find ships coming in +with cotton; you know they come from America. You will find ships with +tea; you know they are from China. Ships with wool; you know they come +from Australia. Ships with sugar; you know they come from Java.</p> + +<p>What comes from the Kingdom of God? Again we must refer to our +Guide-book. Turn to Romans, and we shall find what the Kingdom of God +is. I will read it: "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, +joy"—three things. "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy." +Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who +does what is <i>right</i> has the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>who, +instead of being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has +the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy +because he does what is right, has the Kingdom of God within him. The +Kingdom of God is not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange +religious experiences; the Kingdom of God is doing what is +right—living at peace with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy +Ghost.</p> + +<p>Boys, if you are going to be Christians, be Christians as boys, and +not as your grandmothers. A grandmother has to be a Christian as a +grandmother, and that is the right and the beautiful thing for her; +but if you cannot read your Bible by the hour as your grandmother can, +or delight in meetings as she can, don't think you are necessarily a +bad boy. When you are your grandmother's age you will have your +grandmother's kind of religion. Meantime, be a Christian as a boy. +Live a boy's life. Do the straight thing; seek the kingdom of +righteousness and honor and truth. Keep the peace with the boys about +you, and be filled with the joy of being a loyal, and simple, and +natural, and boy-like servant of Christ.</p> + +<p>You can very easily tell a house, or a workshop, or an office where +the Kingdom of God is <i>not</i>. The first thing you see in that place is +that the "straight thing" is not always done. Customers do not get +fair play. You are in danger of learning to cheat and to lie. Better a +thousand times to starve than to stay in a place where you cannot do +what is right.</p> + +<p>Or, when you go into your workshop, you find everybody sulky, touchy, +and ill-tempered, everybody at daggers-drawn with everybody else, some +of the men not on speaking terms with some of the others, and <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>the +whole <i>feel</i> of the place miserable and unhappy. The Kingdom of God is +not there, for <i>it</i> is peace. It is the Kingdom of the Devil that is +anger, and wrath and malice.</p> + +<p>If you want to get the Kingdom of God into your workshop, or into your +home, let the quarreling be stopped. Live in peace and harmony and +brotherliness with everyone. For the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of +brothers. It is a great Society, founded by Jesus Christ, of all the +people who try to live like Him, and to make the world better and +sweeter and happier. Wherever a boy is trying to do that, in the house +or on the street, in the workshop or on the baseball field, there is +the Kingdom of God. And every boy, however small or obscure or poor, +who is seeking that, is a member of it. You see now, I hope, what the +Kingdom is.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<p>I pass, therefore, to the second head; What was it? Arithmetic. Are +there any arithmetic words in this text? "Added." What other +arithmetic words? "First."</p> + +<p>Now, don't you think you could not have anything better to seek +"first" than the things I have named to do what is right, to live at +peace, and be always making those about you happy? You see at once why +Christ tells us to seek these things first—because they are</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE BEST WORTH SEEKING.</p> + +<p class="noin">Do you know anything better than these three things, anything happier, +purer, nobler? If you do, seek them first. But if you do not, seek +first the Kingdom of <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>God. I do not tell you to be religious. You know +that. I do not tell you to seek the Kingdom of God. I tell you to seek +the Kingdom of God <i>first</i>. <i>First.</i> Not many people do that. They put +a little religion into their life—once a week, perhaps. They might +just as well let it alone. It is not worth seeking the Kingdom of God +unless we seek it <i>first</i>.</p> + +<p>Suppose you take the helm out of a ship and hang it over the bow, and +send that ship to sea, will it ever reach the other side? Certainly +not. It will drift about anyhow. Keep religion in its place, and it +will take you straight through life and straight to your Father in +heaven when life is over. But if you do not put it in its place, you +may just as well have nothing to do with it. Religion out of its place +in a human life is the most miserable thing in the world. There is +nothing that requires so much to be kept in its place as religion, and +its place is what? second? third? "First." Boys, <i>first</i> the Kingdom +of God; make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that +the very first thing.</p> + +<p>There was a boy in Glasgow apprenticed to a gentleman who made +telegraphs. (The gentleman told me this himself.) One day this boy was +up on the top of a four-story house with a number of men fixing up a +telegraph wire. The work was all but done. It was getting late, and +the men said they were going away home, and the boy was to nip off the +ends of the wire himself. Before going down they told him to be sure +to go back to the workshop, when he was finished, with his master's +tools.</p> + +<p>"Do not leave any of them lying about, whatever you do," said the +foreman.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>The boy climbed up the pole and began to nip off the ends of the wire. +It was a very cold winter night, and the dusk was gathering. He lost +his hold and fell upon the slates, slid down, and then over and over +to the ground below. A clothes-rope stretched across the "green" on to +which he was just about to fall, caught him on the chest and broke his +fall; but the shock was terrible, and he lay unconscious among some +clothes upon the green.</p> + +<p>An old woman came out; seeing her rope broken and the clothes all +soiled, thought the boy was drunk, shook him, scolded him, and went +for the policeman. The boy with the shaking came back to +consciousness, rubbed his eyes, and got upon his feet. What do you +think he did? He staggered, half-blind, up the stairs. He climbed the +ladder. He got on to the roof of the house. He gathered up his tools, +put them into his basket, took them down, and when he got to the +ground again fainted dead away.</p> + +<p>Just then the policeman came, saw there was something seriously wrong, +and carried him away to the hospital, where he lay for some time. I am +glad to say he got better.</p> + +<p>What was his first thought at that terrible moment? His duty. He was +not thinking of himself; he was thinking about his master. First, the +Kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>But there is another arithmetic word. What is it? "Added."</p> + +<p>You know the difference between <i>addition</i> and <i>subtraction</i>. Now, +that is</p> + +<p class="cen2">A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE</p> + +<p class="noin">in religion, because—and it is a very strange thing—<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>very few people +know the difference when they begin to talk about religion. They often +tell boys that if they seek the Kingdom of God, everything else is +going to be <i>subtracted</i> from them. They tell them that they are going +to become gloomy, miserable, and will lose everything that makes a +boy's life worth living—that they will have to stop baseball and +story-books, and become little old men, and spend all their time in +going to meetings and in singing hymns.</p> + +<p>Now, that is not true. Christ never said anything like that. Christ +said we are to "Seek first the Kingdom of God," and</p> + +<p class="cen2">EVERYTHING ELSE WORTH HAVING</p> + +<p class="noin">is to be <i>added</i> unto us. If there is anything I would like you to +remember, it is these two arithmetic words—"first" and "added."</p> + +<p>I do not mean by "added" that if you become religious you are all +going to become <i>rich</i>. Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop +tomorrow, finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes. Well, nobody +has missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a hole +there. By breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's +pocket. And by-and-by he goes to his master. He says (to <i>himself</i>, +and not to his master), "I was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, and I +was told to seek <i>first</i> that which was right." Then he says to his +master:</p> + +<p>"Please, sir, here is a quarter that I found upon the floor."</p> + +<p>The master puts it in the till. What has the boy got in his pocket? +Nothing; <i>but he has got the Kingdom of God in his heart</i>. He has laid +up treasure in <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than the +quarter.</p> + +<p>Now, that boy does not find a dollar on his way home. I have known +that happen, but that is not what is meant by "adding." It does not +mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for He pays in +better coin.</p> + +<p>Yet I remember once hearing of a boy who was paid in both ways. He was +very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to +him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business, +and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and +the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many years to +start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went +across the desert; and as he was going out of the door she said:</p> + +<p>"My boy, I have only two words for you—'Fear God, and never tell a +lie.'"</p> + +<p>The boy started off, and towards evening he saw glittering in the +distance the minarets of the great city. But between the city and +himself he saw a cloud of dust. It came nearer. Presently he saw that +it was a band of robbers.</p> + +<p>One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said:</p> + +<p>"Boy, what have you got?"</p> + +<p>The boy looked him in the face said:</p> + +<p>"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."</p> + +<p>The robber laughed and wheeled around his horse and went away back. He +would not believe the boy.</p> + +<p>Presently another robber came and he said:</p> + +<p>"Boy, what have you got?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>"Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."</p> + +<p>The robber said: "The boy is a fool," and wheeled his horse and rode +away back.</p> + +<p>By and by the robber captain came and he said:</p> + +<p>"Boy, what have you got?"</p> + +<p>"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat."</p> + +<p>The robber dismounted, and put his hand over the boy's breast, felt +something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, till he counted +out the forty golden coins. He looked the boy in the face and said:</p> + +<p>"Why did you tell me that?</p> + +<p>The boy said: "Because of God and my mother."</p> + +<p>The robber leaned on his spear and thought and said:</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment."</p> + +<p>He mounted his horse, rode back to the rest of the robbers, and came +back in about five minutes with his dress changed. This time he looked +not like a robber, but like a merchant. He took the boy up on his +horse and said:</p> + +<p>"My boy, I have long wanted to do something for my God and for my +mother, and I have this moment renounced my robber's life. I am also a +merchant. I have a large business house in the city. I want you to +come and live with me, to teach me about your God; and you will be +rich, and your mother some day will come and live with us."</p> + +<p>And it all happened. By seeking first the Kingdom of God, all these +things were added unto him.</p> + +<p>Boys, banish forever from your minds the idea that religion is +<i>subtraction</i>. It does not tell us to give things up, but rather gives +us something so much better that they give themselves up. When you see +a boy on the street whipping a top, you know, perhaps, that you <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>could +not make that boy happier than by giving him a top, a whip, and half +an hour to whip it. But next birthday, when he looks back he says,</p> + +<p>"What a goose I was last year to be delighted with a top. What I want +now is a baseball bat."</p> + +<p>Then when he becomes an old man, he does not care in the least for a +baseball bat; he wants rest, and a snug fireside and a newspaper every +day. He wonders how he could ever have taken up his thoughts with +baseball bats and whipping-tops.</p> + +<p>Now, when a boy becomes a Christian, he grows out of the evil things +one by one—that is to say, if they are really evil—which he used to +set his heart upon; (of course I do not mean baseball bats, for they +are not evils); and so instead of telling people to give up things, we +are safer to tell them to "seek first the Kingdom of God," and then +they will get new things and better things, and</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE OLD THINGS WILL DROP OFF</p> + +<p class="noin">of themselves. This is what is meant by the "new heart." It means that +God puts into us new thoughts and new wishes, and we become quite +different.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<p>Lastly, and very shortly. What was the third head? "Grammar." Right.</p> + +<p>Now, I require a clever boy to answer the next question. What is the +verb? "Seek." Very good: "seek." What mood is it in? "Imperative +mood." What does that mean? "A command." What is the soldier's first +lesson? "Obedience." Have you obeyed this command? Remember the +imperative mood of these words, "<i>Seek</i> first the Kingdom of God."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>This is the command of your King. It <i>must</i> be done. I have been +trying to show you what a splendid thing it is; what a reasonable +thing it is; what a happy thing it is; but beyond all these reasons, +it is a thing that <i>must</i> be done, because we are <i>commanded</i> to do it +by our Captain. Now, there is His command to seek <i>first</i> the Kingdom +of God. Have you done it?</p> + +<p>"Well," I know some boys will say, "we are going to have a good time, +enjoy life, and then we are going to seek—<i>last</i>—the Kingdom of +God."</p> + +<p>Now, that is mean; it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take all +the good gifts that God has given him, and then give him nothing back +in return but</p> + +<p class="cen2">HIS WASTED LIFE.</p> + +<p>God wants boys' <i>lives</i>, not only their souls. It is for active +service that soldiers are drilled, and trained, and fed, and armed. +That is why you and I are in the world at all—not to prepare to go +out of it some day, but to serve God actively in it <i>now</i>. It is +monstrous, and shameful, and cowardly to talk of seeking the Kingdom +<i>last</i>. It is shirking duty, abandoning one's rightful post, playing +into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank. Every hour a +Kingdom is coming in your heart, in your home, in the world near you, +be it a Kingdom of Darkness or a Kingdom of Light. You are placed +where you are, in a particular business, in a particular street, to +help on there the Kingdom of God. You cannot do that when you are old +and ready to die. By that time your companions will have fought their +fight, and lost or won. If they lose, will you not be sorry that you +did not help them? Will you not regret that only at the last you +helped the Kingdom of God? <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>Perhaps you will not be able to do it +then. And then your life has been lost indeed.</p> + +<p>Very few people have the opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God at the +end. Christ, knowing all that, knowing that religion was a thing for +our life, not merely for our death-bed, has laid this command upon us +now: "Seek <i>first</i> the Kingdom of God."</p> + +<p>I am going to leave you with this text itself. Every boy in the world +should obey it.</p> + +<p>Boys, before you go to work to-morrow, before you go to sleep +to-night, resolve that, God helping you, you are going to seek <i>first</i> +the Kingdom of God. Perhaps some boys here are deserters; they began +once before to serve Christ, and they deserted. Come back again, come +back again today! Others have never enlisted at all. Will you not do +it now? You are old enough to decide. The grandest moment of a boy's +life is that moment when he decides to "<i>Seek first the Kingdom of +God</i>."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="LIFE" id="LIFE"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a> +<h3>THE CHANGED LIFE:<br /> +THE GREATEST NEED OF THE WORLD.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + + +<p>God is all for quality; man is for quantity. The immediate need of the +world at this moment is not more of us, but, if I may use the +expression, a better brand of us. To secure ten men of an improved +type would be better than if we had ten thousand more of the average +Christians distributed all over the world. There is such a thing in +the evangelistic sense as winning the whole world and losing our own +soul. And the first consideration is our own life—our own spiritual +relations to God—our own likeness to Christ. And I am anxious, +briefly, to look at the right and the wrong way of becoming like +Christ—of becoming better men: the right and the wrong way of +sanctification.</p> + +<p>Let me begin by naming, and in part discarding, some processes in +vogue already for producing better lives. These processes are far from +wrong; in their place they may even be essential. One ventures to +disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect +possible work.</p> + +<p>I. The first imperfect method is to rely on</p> + +<p class="cen2">RESOLUTION.</p> + +<p>In will power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation. +Struggle, effort, even agony, have their place in Christianity, as we +shall see; but this is not where they come in.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>In mid-Atlantic the Etruria, in which I was sailing, suddenly stopped. +Something had gone wrong with the engines. There were five hundred +able-bodied men on board the ship. Do you think that if we had +gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it +on?</p> + +<p>When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make +his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man +trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his +own head.</p> + +<p>Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said, "Which of +you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" Put down that +method forever as being futile.</p> + +<p>The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this—that +those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the +goal.</p> + +<p>2. Another experimenter says: "But that is not my method. I have seen +the folly of a mere wild struggle in the dark. I work on a principle. +My plan is not to waste power on random effort, but to concentrate on +a single sin. By taking</p> + +<p class="cen2">ONE AT A TIME</p> + +<p class="noin">and crucifying it steadily, I hope in the end to extirpate all."</p> + +<p>To this, unfortunately, there are four objections: For one thing, life +is too short; the name of sin is legion. For another thing, to deal +with individual sins is to leave the rest of the nature for the time +untouched. In the third place, a single combat with a special sin does +not affect the root and spring of the disease. If you dam up a stream +at one place, it will simply overflow <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>higher up. If only one of the +channels of sin be obstructed, experience points to an almost certain +overflow through some other part of the nature. Partial conversion is +almost always accompanied by such moral leakage, for the pent-up +energies accumulate to the bursting point, and the last state of that +soul may be worse than the first. In the last place, religion does not +consist in negatives, in stopping this sin and stopping that. The +perfect character can never be produced with a pruning knife.</p> + +<p>3. But a third protests: "So be it. I make no attempt to stop sins one +by one. My method is just the opposite.</p> + +<p class="cen2">I COPY THE VIRTUES</p> + +<p class="noin">one by one."</p> + +<p>The difficulty about the copying method is that it is apt to be +mechanical. One can always tell an engraving from a picture, an +artificial flower from a real flower. To copy virtues one by one has +somewhat the same effect as eradicating the vices one by one; the +temporary result is an overbalanced and incongruous character. Some +one defines a <i>prig</i> as "a creature that is over-fed for its size." +One sometimes finds Christians of this species—over-fed on one side +of their nature, but dismally thin and starved looking on the other. +The result, for instance, of copying Humility, and adding it on to an +otherwise worldly life, is simply grotesque. A rabid temperance +advocate, for the same reason, is often the poorest of creatures, +flourishing on a single virtue, and quite oblivious that his +Temperance is making a worse man of him and not a better. These are +examples of fine virtues spoiled by <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>association with mean companions. +Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance together to +make the perfect man.</p> + +<p>This method of sanctification, nevertheless, is in the true direction. +It is only in the details of execution that it fails.</p> + +<p>4. A fourth method I need scarcely mention, for it is a variation on +those already named. It is</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE VERY YOUNG MAN'S METHOD;</p> + +<p class="noin">and the pure earnestness of it makes it almost desecration to touch +it. It is to keep a private note-book with columns for the days of the +week, and a list of virtues, with spaces against each for marks. This, +with many stern rules for preface, is stored away in a secret place, +and from time to time, at nightfall, the soul is arraigned before it +as before a private judgment bar.</p> + +<p>This living by code was Franklin's method; and I suppose thousands +more could tell how they had hung up in their bedrooms, or hid in +locked-fast drawers, the rules which one solemn day they drew up to +shape their lives.</p> + +<p>This method is not erroneous, only somehow its success is poor. You +bear me witness that it fails. And it fails generally for very +matter-of-fact reasons—most likely because one day we forget the +rules.</p> + +<p>All these methods that have been named—the self-sufficient method, +the self-crucifixion method, the mimetic method, and the diary +method—are perfectly human, perfectly natural, perfectly ignorant, +and as they stand perfectly inadequate. It is not argued, I repeat, +that they must be abandoned. Their harm is rather that they distract +attention from the true <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>working method, and secure a fair result at +the expense of the perfect one. What that perfect method is we shall +now go on to ask.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>I. THE FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION.</h4> + +<p>A formula, a receipt for Sanctification—can one seriously speak of +this mighty change as if the process were as definite as for the +production of so many volts of electricity?</p> + +<p>It is impossible to doubt it. Shall a mechanical experiment succeed +infallibly, and the one vital experiment of humanity remain a chance? +Is corn to grow by method, and character by caprice? If we cannot +calculate to a certainty that the forces of religion will do their +work, then is religion vain. And if we cannot express the law of these +forces in simple words, then is Christianity not the world's religion, +but the world's conundrum.</p> + +<p>Where, then, shall one look for such a formula? Where one would look +for any formula—among the text-books. And if we turn to the +text-books of Christianity we shall find a formula for this problem as +clear and precise as any in the mechanical sciences. If this simple +rule, moreover, be but followed fearlessly, it will yield the result +of a perfect character as surely as any result that is guaranteed by +the laws of nature.</p> + +<p>The finest expression of this rule in Scripture, or indeed in any +literature, is probably one drawn up and condensed into a single verse +by Paul. You will find it in a letter—the second to the +Corinthians—written by him to some Christian people who, in a city +which was a byword for depravity and licentiousness, were seeking the +higher life. To see the point of the words we <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>must take them from the +immensely improved rendering of the Revised translation, for the older +Version in this case greatly obscures the sense. They are these:</p> + +<p>"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the +Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as +from the Lord, the Spirit."</p> + +<p>Now observe at the outset the entire contradiction of all our previous +efforts, in the simple passive: "<i>We are transformed.</i>"</p> + +<p>We <i>are changed</i>, as the Old Version has it—we do not change +ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament you +will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are +described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be pointed +out that there is a <i>rationale</i> in this; but meantime do not toss +these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or +ignored intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here is no more +than is everywhere claimed for the body. In physiology the verbs +describing the processes of growth are in the passive. Growth is not +voluntary; it takes place, it happens, it is wrought upon matter. So +here. "Ye must be born again"—we cannot born ourselves. "Be not +conformed to this world, but <i>be ye transformed</i>"—we are subjects to +transforming influence, we do not transform ourselves. Not more +certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer that +produces a change in the thermometer, than it is</p> + +<p class="cen2">SOMETHING OUTSIDE THE SOUL OF MAN</p> + +<p class="noin">that produces a moral change upon him. That he must be susceptible to +that change, that he must be a party to it, goes without saying; but +that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it, is equally +certain.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>Obvious as it ought to seem, this may be to some an almost startling +revelation. The change we have been striving after is not to be +produced by any more striving. It is to be wrought upon us by the +moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud +bursts, and the fruit reddens under the co-operation of influences +from the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under +invisible pressures from without. The radical defect of all our former +methods of sanctification was the attempt to generate from within that +which can only be wrought upon us from without. According to the first +Law of Motion, every body continues in its state of rest, or of +uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be +compelled <i>by impressed forces</i> to change that state. This is also a +first law of Christianity. Every man's character remains as it is, or +continues in the direction in which it is going, until it is compelled +<i>by impressed forces</i> to change that state. Our failure has been the +failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces. There is +a clay, and there is a Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould +the clay.</p> + +<p>Whence, then, these pressures, and where this Potter? The answer of +the formula is—"By reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord we +are changed." But this is not very clear. What is the "glory" of the +Lord, and how can mortal man reflect it, and how can that act as an +"impressed force" in moulding him to a nobler form? The word +"glory"—the word which has to bear the weight of holding those +"impressed forces"—is a stranger in current speech, and our first +duty is to seek out its equivalent in working English. It suggests at +first a radiance of some kind, something <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>dazzling or glittering, some +halo such as the old masters loved to paint round the head of their +Ecce Homos. But that is paint, mere matter, the visible symbol of some +unseen thing. What is that unseen thing? It is that of all unseen +things the most radiant, the most beautiful, the most Divine, and that +is <i>Character</i>. On earth, in Heaven, there is nothing so great, so +glorious as this. The word has many meanings; in ethics it can have +but one. Glory is character, and nothing less, and it can be nothing +more. The earth is "full of the glory of the Lord," because it is full +of His character. The "Beauty of the Lord" is character. "The +effulgence of His Glory" is character. "The Glory of the Only +Begotten" is character, the character which is "fullness of grace and +truth." And when God told His people <i>His name</i>, He simply gave them +His character, His character which was Himself: "And the Lord +proclaimed the name of the Lord ... the Lord, the Lord God, merciful +and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth." +Glory then is not something intangible, or ghostly, or transcendental. +If it were this, how could Paul ask men to reflect it? Stripped of its +physical enswathement it is Beauty, moral and spiritual Beauty, Beauty +infinitely real, infinitely exalted, yet infinitely near and +infinitely communicable.</p> + +<p>With this explanation read over the sentence once more in paraphrase: +We all reflecting as a mirror the character of Christ are transformed +into the same Image from character to character—from a poor character +to a better one, from a better one to a little better still, from that +to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the Perfect Image is +attained. Here</p> + +<p class="cen2"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SANCTIFICATION</p> + +<p class="noin">is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of Christ, and +you will become like Christ. You will be changed, in spite of yourself +and unknown to yourself, into the same image from character to +character.</p> + +<p>(1). All men are reflectors—that is</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE FIRST LAW</p> + +<p class="noin">on which this formula is based. One of the aptest descriptions of a +human being is that he is a mirror. As we sat at table to-night the +world in which each of us lived and moved throughout this day was +focused in the room. What we saw when we looked at one another was not +one another, but one another's world. We were an arrangement of +mirrors. The scenes we saw were all reproduced; the people we met +walked to and fro; they spoke, they bowed, they passed us by, did +everything over again as if it had been real. When we talked, we were +but looking at our own mirror and describing what flitted across it; +our listening was not hearing, but seeing—we but looked on our +neighbor's mirror.</p> + +<p>All human intercourse is a seeing of reflections. I meet a stranger in +a railway carriage. The cadence of his first words tells me he is +English and comes from Yorkshire. Without knowing it he has reflected +his birthplace, his parents, and the long history of their race. Even +physiologically he is a mirror. His second sentence records that he is +a politician, and a faint inflection in the way he pronounces <i>The +Times</i> reveals his party. In his next remarks I see reflected a whole +world of experiences. The books he has read, the people he has met, +the companions he keeps, the <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>influences that have played upon him and +made him the man he is—these are all registered there by a pen which +lets nothing pass, and whose writing can</p> + +<p class="cen2">NEVER BE BLOTTED OUT.</p> + +<p class="noin">What I am reading in him meantime he also is reading in me; and before +the journey is over we could half write each other's lives. Whether we +like it or not, we live in glass houses. The mind, the memory, the +soul, is simply a vast chamber panelled with looking-glass. And upon +this miraculous arrangement and endowment depends the capacity of +mortal souls to "reflect the character of the Lord."</p> + +<p>(2). But this is not all. If all these varied reflections from our +so-called secret life are patent to the world, how close the writing, +complete the record within the soul itself! For the influences we meet +are not simply held for a moment on the polished surface and thrown +off again into space. Each is retained where first it fell, and stored +up in the soul forever.</p> + +<p class="cen2">THIS LAW OF ASSIMILATION</p> + +<p class="noin">is the second, and by far the most impressive truth which underlies +the formula of sanctification—the truth that men are not only +mirrors, but that these mirrors, so far from being mere reflectors of +the fleeting things they see, transfer into their own inmost +substance, and hold in permanent preservation the things that they +reflect.</p> + +<p>No one knows how the soul can hold these things. No one knows how the +miracle is done. No phenomenon in nature, no process in chemistry, no +chapter in necromancy can ever help us to begin to understand this +amazing operation. For, think of it, the past is not <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>only <i>focused</i> +there, in a man's soul, it <i>is</i> there. How could it be reflected from +there if it were not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, +felt, believed of the surrounding world are now within him, have +become part of him, in part are him—he has been changed into their +image. He may deny it, he may resent it, but they are there. They do +not adhere to him, they are transfused through him. He cannot alter or +rub them out. They are not in his memory, they are in <i>him</i>. His soul +is as they have filled it, made it, left it. These things, these +books, these events, these influences are his makers. In their hands +are life and death, beauty and deformity. When once the image or +likeness of any of these is fairly presented to the soul, no power on +earth can hinder two things happening—it must be absorbed into the +soul and forever reflected back again from character.</p> + +<p>Upon these astounding yet perfectly obvious psychological facts, Paul +bases his doctrine of sanctification. He sees that character is a +thing built up by slow degrees, that it is hourly changing for better +or for worse according to the images which flit across it. One step +further and the whole length and breadth of the application of these +ideas to the central problem of religion will stand before us.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>II. THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE.</h4> + +<p>If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on +the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange words +when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when intercourse is very +close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange that +recognizable bits of the one soul begin to <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>show in the other's +nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to +the first.</p> + +<p>Now, we become like those whom we habitually reflect. I could prove +from science that applies even to the physical framework of +animals—that they are influenced and organically changed by the +environment in which they live.</p> + +<p>This mysterious approximating of two souls, who has not witnessed? Who +has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage hand in +hand, with such gentle trust and joy in one another that their very +faces wore the self-same look? These were not two souls; it was a +composite soul. It did not matter to which of the two you spoke, you +would have said the same words to either. It was quite indifferent +which replied, each would have said the same. Half a century's +<i>reflecting</i> had told upon them; they were changed into the same +image. It is the Law of Influence that <i>we become like those whom we +habitually reflect</i>: these had become like because they habitually +reflected. Through all the range of literature, of history, and +biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There +was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a savor of Jonathan about +David. Metempsychosis is a fact. George Eliot's message to the world +was that men and women make men and women. The Family, the cradle of +mankind, has no meaning apart from this. Society itself is nothing but +a rallying point for these omnipotent forces to do their work. On the +doctrine of Influence, in short, the whole vast pyramid of humanity is +built.</p> + +<p>But it was reserved for Paul to make the supreme application of the +Law of Influence. It was a <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>tremendous inference to make, but he never +hesitated. He himself was a changed man; he knew exactly what had done +it;</p> + +<p class="cen2">IT WAS CHRIST.</p> + +<p>On the Damascus road they met, and from that hour his life was +absorbed in His. The effect could not but follow—on words, on deeds, +on career, on creed. The "impressed forces" did their vital work. He +became like Him Whom he habitually loved. "So we all," he writes, +"reflecting as a mirror the glory of Christ, are changed into the same +image."</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more simple, more intelligible, more natural, more +supernatural. It is an analogy from an every-day fact. Since we are +what we are by the impacts of those who surround us, those who +surround themselves with the highest will be those who change into the +highest. There are some men and some women in whose company we are</p> + +<p class="cen2">ALWAYS AT OUR BEST.</p> + +<p>While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous +words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity. All +the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and +we find a music in our souls that was never there before. Suppose even +<i>that</i> influence prolonged through a month, a year, a lifetime, and +what could not life become? Here, even on the common plane of life, +talking our language, walking our streets, working side by side, are +sanctifiers of souls; here, breathing through common clay, is Heaven; +here, energies charged even through a temporal medium with the virtue +of regeneration. If to live with men, diluted to the millionth <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>degree +with the virtue of the Highest, can exalt and purify the nature, what +bounds can be set to the influence of Christ? To live with +Socrates—with unveiled face—must have made one wise; with Aristides, +just. Francis Assisi must have made one gentle; Savonarola, strong. +But to have lived with Christ must have made one like Christ: that is +to say, <i>A Christian</i>.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, to live with Christ did produce this effect. It +produced it in the case of Paul. And during Christ's lifetime the +experiment was tried in an even more startling form. A few raw, +unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the inner circle of His +friendship. The change began at once. Day by day we can almost see the +first disciple grow. First there steals over them the faintest +possible adumbration of His character, and occasionally, very +occasionally, they do a thing or say a thing that they could not have +done or said had they not been living there. Slowly the spell of His +Life deepens. Reach after reach of their nature is overtaken, thawed, +subjugated, sanctified. Their manner softens, their words become more +gentle, their conduct more unselfish. As swallows who have found a +summer, as frozen buds the spring, their starved humanity bursts into +a fuller life. They do not know how it is, but they are different men.</p> + +<p>One day they find themselves like their Master, going about and doing +good. To themselves it is unaccountable, but they cannot do otherwise. +They were not told to do it, it came to them to do it. But the people +who watch them know well how to account for it—"They have been," they +whisper, "with Jesus." Already even, the mark and seal of His +character is upon them—"They have been with Jesus." <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>Unparalleled +phenomenon, that these poor fishermen should remind other men of +Christ! Stupendous victory and mystery of</p> + +<p class="cen2">REGENERATION</p> + +<p class="noin">that mortal men should suggest <i>God</i> to the world!</p> + +<p>There is something almost melting in the way His contemporaries, and +John especially, speak of the influence of Christ. John lived himself +in daily wonder at Him; he was overpowered, over-awed, entranced, +transfigured. To his mind it was impossible for any one to come under +this influence and ever be the same again. "Whosoever abideth in Him +sinneth not," he said. It was inconceivable that he should sin, as +inconceivable as that ice should live in a burning sun, or darkness +coexist with noon. If any one did sin, it was to John the simple proof +that he could never have met Christ. "Whosoever sinneth," he exclaims, +"hath not seen <i>Him</i>, neither known <i>Him</i>." Sin was abashed in this +Presence. Its roots withered. Its sway and victory were forever at an +end.</p> + +<p>But these were His contemporaries. It was easy for <i>them</i> to be +influenced by Him, for they were every day and all the day together. +But how can we mirror that which we have never seen? How can all this +stupendous result be produced by a Memory, by the scantiest of all +Biographies, by One who lived and left this earth eighteen hundred +years ago? How can modern men to-day make Christ, the absent Christ, +their most constant companion still?</p> + +<p>The answer is that</p> + +<p class="cen2">FRIENDSHIP IS A SPIRITUAL THING.</p> + +<p class="noin">It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time. That <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>which I love in +my friend is not that which I see. What influences me in my friend is +not his body but his spirit. He influences me about as much in his +absence as in his presence. It would have been an ineffable experience +truly to have lived at that time—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I think when I read the sweet story of old,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How when Jesus was here among men,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He took little children like lambs to His fold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I should like to have been with Him then.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I wish that His hand had been laid on my head,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That His arms had been thrown around me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that I had seen His kind look when he said,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Let the little ones come unto me.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And yet, if Christ were to come into the world again, few of us +probably would ever have a chance of seeing Him. Millions of her +subjects in the little country of England have never seen their own +Queen. And there would be millions of the subjects of Christ who could +never get within speaking distance of Him if He were here. We remember +He said: "It is expedient for you (not <i>for Me</i>) that I go away"; +because by going away He could really be nearer to us than He would +have been if He had stayed here. It would be geographically and +physically impossible for most of us to be influenced by His person +had He remained. And so our communion with Him is a spiritual +companionship; but not different from most companionships, which, when +you press them down to the roots, you will find to be essentially +spiritual.</p> + +<p>All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is purely spiritual. It +was after He was risen that He influenced even the disciples most. +Hence, in reflecting the <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>character of Christ, it is no real obstacle +that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself.</p> + +<p>There lived once a young girl whose perfect grace of character was the +wonder of those who knew her. She wore on her neck a gold locket which +no one was ever allowed to open. One day, in a moment of unusual +confidence, one of her companions was allowed to touch its spring and +learn its secret. She saw written these words—</p> + +<p>"<i>Whom having not seen I love</i>."</p> + +<p>That was the secret of her beautiful life. She had been changed into +the Same Image.</p> + +<p>Now this is not imitation, but a much deeper thing. Mark this +distinction, for the difference in the process, as well as in the +result, may be as great as that between a photograph secured by the +infallible pencil of the sun, and the rude outline from a school-boy's +chalk. Imitation is mechanical, reflection organic. The one is +occasional, the other habitual. In the one case, man comes to God and +imitates him; in the other, God comes to man and imprints Himself upon +him. It is quite true that there is an imitation of Christ which +amounts to reflection. But Paul's term includes all that the other +holds, and is open to no mistake.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the practical lesson? It is obvious. "Make Christ your +most constant companion"—this is what it practically means for us. Be +more under His influence than under any other influence. Ten minutes +spent in His society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, +and heart to heart, will make the whole day different. Every character +has an inward spring,—let Christ be it. Every action has a +key-note,—let Christ set it.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>Yesterday you got a certain letter. You sat down and wrote a reply +which almost scorched the paper. You picked the cruelest adjectives +you knew and sent it forth, without a pang to do its ruthless work. +You did that because your life was set in the wrong key. You began the +day with the mirror placed at the wrong angle.</p> + +<p>Tomorrow at day-break, turn it towards Him, and even to your enemy the +fashion of your countenance will be changed. Whatever you then do, one +thing you will find you could not do—you could not write that letter. +Your first impulse may be the same, your judgment may be unchanged, +but if you try it the ink will dry on your pen, and you will rise from +your desk an unavenged, but a greater and more Christian man. +Throughout the whole day your actions, down to the last detail, will +do homage to that early vision.</p> + +<p>Yesterday you thought mostly about yourself. Today the poor will meet +you, and you will feed them. The helpless, the tempted, the sad, will +throng about you, and each you will befriend. Where were all these +people yesterday? Where they are today, but you did not see them. It +is in reflected light that the poor are seen. But your soul today is</p> + +<p class="cen2">NOT AT THE ORDINARY ANGLE.</p> + +<p class="noin">"Things which are not seen" are visible. For a few short hours you +live the Eternal Life. The eternal life, the life of faith, is simply +the life of a higher vision. Faith is an attitude—a mirror set at the +right angle.</p> + +<p>When tomorrow is over, and in the evening you review it, you will +wonder how you did it. You will not be conscious that you strove for +anything, or imitated <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>anything, or crucified anything. You will be +conscious of Christ; that He was with you, that without compulsion you +were yet compelled; that without force, or noise, or proclamation, the +revolution was accomplished. You do not congratulate yourself as one +who has done a mighty deed, or achieved a personal success, or stored +up a fund of "Christian experience" to ensure the same result again. +What you are conscious of is "the glory of the Lord." And what the +world is conscious of, if the result be a true one, is also "the glory +of the Lord." In looking at a mirror one does not see the mirror, or +think of it, but only of what it reflects. For a mirror never calls +the attention to itself—except when there are flaws in it.</p> + +<p>Let me say a word or two more about the effects which necessarily must +follow from this contact, or fellowship, with Christ. I need not quote +the texts upon the subject—the texts about abiding in Christ. "He +that abideth in Him sinneth not." You cannot sin when you are standing +in front of Christ. You simply cannot do it. Again: "If ye abide in +Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall +be done unto you." Think of that! That is another inevitable +consequence. And there is yet another: "He that abideth in Me, the +same bringeth forth much fruit." Sinlessness—answered prayer—much +fruit.</p> + +<p>But in addition to these things, see how many of the highest Christian +virtues and experiences necessarily flow from the assumption of that +attitude toward Christ. For instance, the moment you assume that +relation to Christ you begin to know what the <i>child-spirit</i> is. You +stand before Christ, and He becomes <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>your Teacher, and you +instinctively become docile. Then you learn also to become +<i>charitable</i> and <i>tolerant</i>; because you are learning of Him, and He +is "meek and lowly in heart," and you catch that spirit. That is a bit +of His character being reflected into yours. Instead of being critical +and self-asserting, you become humble and have the mind of a little +child.</p> + +<p>I think, further, the only way of learning what <i>faith</i> is is to know +Christ and be in His company. You hear sermons about the nine +different kinds of faith—distinctions drawn between the right kind of +faith and the wrong—and sermons telling you how to get faith. So far +as I can see, there is</p> + +<p class="cen2">ONLY ONE WAY</p> + +<p class="noin">in which faith is got, and it is the same in the religious world as it +is in the world of men and women. I learn to trust you, my brother, +just as I get to know you, and neither more nor less; and you get to +trust me just as you get to know me. I do not trust you as a stranger, +but as I come into contact with you, and watch you, and live with you, +I find out that you are trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to +you, and to lean upon you. But I do not do that to a stranger.</p> + +<p>The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting +Him then. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you, as +cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands do, is +not faith, but credulity. I believe a great deal of prayer for faith +is thrown away. What we should pray for is that we may be able to +fulfill the condition, and when we have fulfilled the condition, the +faith necessarily follows. The way, therefore, to <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>increase our faith +is to increase our intimacy with Christ. We trust Him more and more +the better we know Him.</p> + +<p>And then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the +character is the tranquillity that it brings over the Christian life. +How disturbed and distressed and anxious Christian people are about +their growth in grace! Now, the moment you give that over into +Christ's care—the moment you see that you are <i>being</i> changed—that +anxiety passes away. You see that it must follow by an inevitable +process and by a natural law if you fulfill the simple condition; so +that peace is the reward of that life and fellowship with Christ.</p> + +<p>Many other things follow. A man's usefulness depends to a large extent +upon his fellowship with Christ. That is obvious. Only Christ can +influence the world; but all that the world sees of Christ is what it +sees of you and me. Christ said: "The world seeth Me no more, but ye +see Me." You see Him, and standing in front of Him reflect Him, and +the world sees the reflection. It cannot see Him. So that a +Christian's usefulness depends solely upon that relationship.</p> + +<p>Now, I have only pointed out a few of the things that follow from the +standing before Christ—from the abiding in Christ. You will find, if +you run over the texts about abiding in Christ, many other things will +suggest themselves in the same relations. Almost everything in +Christian experience and character follows, and follows necessarily, +from standing before Christ and reflecting his character. But the +supreme consummation is that we are changed into <i>the same image</i>, +"even as by the Lord the Spirit." That is to say, <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>that in some way, +unknown to us, but possibly not more mysterious than the doctrine of +personal influence, we are changed into the image of Christ.</p> + +<p>This method cannot fail. I am not setting before you an opinion or a +theory, but this is</p> + +<p class="cen2">A CERTAINLY SUCCESSFUL MEANS</p> + +<p class="noin">of sanctification. "We all, with unveiled face, reflecting in a mirror +the glory of Christ (the character of Christ) assuredly—without any +miscarriage—without any possibility of miscarriage—are changed into +the same image." It is an immense thing to be anchored in some great +principle like that. Emerson says: "The hero is the man who is +immovably centered." Get immovably centered in that doctrine of +sanctification. Do not be carried away by the hundred and one theories +of sanctification that are floating about in religious literature of +the country at the present time; but go to the bottom of the thing for +yourself, and see the <i>rationale</i> of it for yourself, and you will +come to see that it is a matter of cause and effect, and that if you +will fulfill the condition laid down by Christ, the effect must follow +by a natural law.</p> + +<p>What a prospect! To be changed into the same image. Think of that! +That is what we are here for. That is what we are elected for. Not to +be saved, in the common acceptation, but "whom He did foreknow He also +did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Not merely +to be saved, but <i>to be conformed to the image of His Son</i>. Conserve +that principle. And as we must spend time in cultivating our earthly +friendships if we are to have their blessings, so we must</p> + +<p class="cen2"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>SPEND TIME</p> + +<p class="noin">in cultivating the fellowship and companionship of Christ. And there +is nothing so much worth taking into our lives as a profounder sense +of what is to be had by living in communion with Christ, and by +getting nearer to Him. It will matter much if we take away with us +some of the thoughts about theology, and some of the new light that +has been shed upon the text of Scripture; it will matter infinitely +more if our fellowship with the Lord Jesus become a little closer, and +our theory of holy living a little more rational. And then as we go +forth, men will take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus, +and as we reflect Him upon them, they will begin to be changed into +the same image.</p> + +<p>It seems to me the preaching is of infinitely smaller account than the +life which mirrors Christ. That is bound to tell; without speech or +language—like the voices of the stars. It throws out its impressions +on every side. The one simple thing we have to do is to be there—in +the right relation; to go through life hand in hand with Him; to have +Him in the room with us, and keeping us company wherever we go; to +depend upon Him and lean upon Him, and so have His life reflected in +the fullness of its beauty and perfection into ours.</p> +<br /> + + +<h4>III. THE FIRST EXPERIMENT.</h4> + +<p>Then you reduce religion to a common Friendship? A common +Friendship—who talks of a <i>common</i> Friendship? There is no such thing +in the world.</p> + +<p>On earth no word is more sublime. Friendship is the nearest thing we +know to what religion is. God is <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>love. And to make religion akin to +Friendship is simply to give it the highest expression conceivable by +man. But if by demurring to "a common friendship" is meant a protest +against the greatest and the holiest in religion being spoken of in +intelligible terms, then I am afraid the objection is all too real. +Men always look for a mystery when one talks of sanctification, some +mystery apart from that which must ever be mysterious wherever Spirit +works. It is thought some peculiar secret lies behind it, some occult +experience which only the initiated know. Thousands of persons go to +church every Sunday hoping to solve this mystery. At meetings, at +conferences, many a time they have reached what they thought was the +very brink of it, but somehow no further revelation came. Poring over +religious books, how often were they not within a paragraph of it; the +next page, the next sentence, would discover all, and they would be +borne on a flowing tide forever. But nothing happened. The next +sentence and the next page were read, and still it eluded them; and +though the promise of its coming kept faithfully up to the end, the +last chapter found them still pursuing.</p> + +<p>Why did nothing happen? Because there was nothing to happen—nothing +of the kind they were looking for. Why did it elude them? Because +there was no "it." When shall we learn that the pursuit of holiness is +simply</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE PURSUIT OF CHRIST?</p> + +<p class="noin">When shall we substitute for the "it" of a fictitious aspiration, the +approach to a Living Friend? Sanctity is in character and not in +moods; Divinity in our own <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>plain calm humanity, and in no mystic +rapture of the soul.</p> + +<p>And yet there are others who, for exactly a contrary reason, will find +scant satisfaction here. Their complaint is not that a religion +expressed in terms of Friendship is too homely, but that it is still +too mystical. To "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ our most constant +companion," is to them the purest mysticism. They want something +absolutely tangible and absolutely direct. These are not the poetical +souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures +whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps +not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements. The +beauty of Friendship is its infinity. One can never evacuate life of +mysticism. Home is full of it, love is full of it, religion is full of +it. Why stumble at that in the relation of man to Christ which is +natural in the relation of man to man?</p> + +<p>If any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with Christ, +perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still +plainer analogies from common life. How do I know Shakspere or Dante? +By communing with their words and thoughts. Many men know Dante better +than their own fathers. He influences them more. As a spiritual +presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual force more real. Is +there any reason why a greater than Shakspere or Dante, who also +walked this earth, who left great words behind Him, who has greater +works everywhere in the world now, should not also instruct, inspire +and mould the characters of men? I do not limit Christ's influence to +this: it is this, and it is more. But Christ, so <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>far from resenting +or discouraging this relation of Friendship, Himself proposed it. +"Abide in me" was almost His last word to the world. And He partly met +the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the +practical clause, "If ye abide in Me, <i>and My words abide in you</i>."</p> + +<p>Begin with His words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal. +Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do +them, live them, and you must live Christ. "<i>He that keepeth My +Commandments</i>, he it is that loveth Me." Obey Him and you must love +Him. Abide in Him, and you must obey Him. <i>Cultivate</i> His Friendship. +Live after Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Presence, and it is +difficult to think what more you can do. Take this at least as a first +lesson, as introduction.</p> + +<p>If you cannot at once and always feel the play of His life upon yours, +watch for it also indirectly. "The whole earth is full of the +character of the Lord." Christ is the Light of the world, and much of +his Light is reflected from things in the world—even from clouds. +Sunlight is stored in every leaf, from leaf through coal, and it +comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun. +Christ shines through men, through books, through history, through +nature, music, art. Look for Him there. "Every day one should either +look at a beautiful picture, or hear beautiful music, or read a +beautiful poem." The real danger of mysticism is not making it broad +enough.</p> + +<p>Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself +grow, or hear the whir of the machinery. All great things grow +noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Paul said +for <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>the comforting of all slowly perfecting souls that they grew +"from character to character." "The inward man," he says elsewhere, +"is renewed from day to day." All thorough work is slow; all true +development by minute, slight and insensible metamorphoses. The higher +the structure, moreover, the slower the progress. As the biologist +runs his eye over the long Ascent of Life, he sees the lowest forms of +animals develop in an hour; the next above these reach maturity in a +day; those higher still take weeks or months to perfect; but the few +at the top demand the long experiment of years. If a child and an ape +are born on the same day, the last will be in full possession of its +faculties and doing the active work of life before the child has left +its cradle. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the +animal in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to +the natural man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an +eternal life must be surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who +will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day?</p> + +<p>To await the growing of a soul, nevertheless, is an almost Divine act +of faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with +itself, of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ, +wondering, yearning, hungering to be like that! Yet must one trust the +process fearlessly and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will +do His part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible +progress, to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by +watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. A +photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun. +While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply +stops the getting <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may need, +it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed, +anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The +creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right spirit, is an +omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which hath begun +a good work in you will perfect it unto that day."</p> + +<p>No man, nevertheless, who feels the worth and solemnity of what is at +stake will be careless as to his progress. To become</p> + +<p class="cen2">LIKE CHRIST</p> + +<p class="noin">is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before +which every ambition of man is folly, and all lower achievement vain.</p> + +<p>Those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their +lives can ever begin to hope to reach it. If, therefore, it has seemed +up to this point as if all depended on passivity, let me now assert, +with conviction more intense, that all depends on activity. A religion +of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel, but never for +a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the active, lies true hope; +not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm of +ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanctification wrought. +Resolution, effort, pain, self-crucifixion, agony—all the things +already dismissed as futile in themselves, must now be restored to +office, and a tenfold responsibility laid upon them. For what is their +office? Nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul, and +place it, and keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it. It +is to rally the forces of the will, and keep the surface of the mirror +bright and ever in <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>position. It is to uncover the face which is to +look at Christ, and draw down the veil when unhallowed sights are +near.</p> + +<p>You have, perhaps, gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the +spectrum of a star. As you enter the dark vault of the observatory you +saw him begin by lighting a candle. To see the star with? No; but to +adjust the instrument to see the star with. It was the star that was +going to take the photograph; it was, also, the astronomer. For a long +time he worked in the dimness, screwing tubes and polishing lenses and +adjusting reflectors, and only after much labor the finely focused +instrument was brought to bear. Then he blew out the light, and left +the star to do its work upon the plate alone.</p> + +<p>The day's task for the Christian is to bring his instrument to bear. +Having done that he may blow out his candle. All the evidences of +Christianity which have brought him there, all aids to Faith, all acts +of worship, all the leverages of the Church, all Prayer and +Meditation, all girding of the Will—these lesser processes, these +candle-light activities for that supreme hour, may be set aside. But, +remember, it is but for an hour. The wise man will be he who quickest +lights his candle, the wisest he who never lets it out. Tomorrow, the +next moment, he, a poor, darkened, blurred soul, may need it again to +focus the Image better, to take a mote off the lens, to clear the +mirror from a breath with which the world has dulled it.</p> + +<p>No readjustment is ever required on behalf of the Star. That is one +great fixed point in this shifting universe. But <i>the world moves</i>. +And each day, each hour, demands a further motion and readjustment for +the <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>soul. A telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork, +but the clockwork of the soul is called <i>the Will</i>. Hence, while the +soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, the Will in intense +activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the +world bear it beyond the line of vision. To "follow Christ" is largely +to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the +earth. And this calculated counteracting of the movements of the +world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the Mirrored, +this steadying of the faculties unerringly through cloud and +earthquake, fire and sword, is the stupendous co-operating labor of +the Will. It is all man's work. It is all Christ's work. In practice +it is both; in theory it is both. But the wise man will say in +practice, "It depends upon myself."</p> + +<p>In the Gallerie des Beaux Arts in Paris there stands a famous statue. +It was the last work of a great genius, who, like many a genius, was +very poor and lived in a garret, which served as a studio and +sleeping-room alike. When the statue was all but finished, one +midnight a sudden frost fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay awake in the +fireless room and thought of the still moist clay, thought how the +water would freeze in the pores and destroy in an hour the dream of +his life. So the old man rose from his couch and heaped the +bed-clothes reverently round his work. In the morning when the +neighbors entered the room the sculptor was dead, but the statue was +saved!</p> + +<p>The Image of Christ that is forming within us—that is life's one +charge. Let every project stand aside for that. The spirit of God who +brooded upon the waters thousands of years ago, is busy now creating +men, <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>within these commonplace lives of ours, in the image of God. +"Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion +crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? +When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death +cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore <i>put on Christ</i>.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="DOUBT" id="DOUBT"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a> +<h3>DEALING WITH DOUBT.<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + + +<p>There is a subject which I think workers amongst young men cannot +afford to keep out of sight—I mean the subject of "Doubt." We are +forced to face that subject. We have no choice. I would rather let it +alone; but every day of my life I meet men who doubt, and I am quite +sure that most Christian workers among men have innumerable interviews +every year with men who raise skeptical difficulties about religion.</p> + +<p>Now it becomes a matter of great practical importance that we should +know how to deal wisely with these. Upon the whole, I think these are +the best men in the country. I speak of my own country. I speak of the +universities with which I am familiar, and I say that the men who are +perplexed,—the men who come to you with serious and honest +difficulties,—are the best men. They are men of intellectual honesty, +and cannot allow themselves to be put to rest by words, or phrases, or +traditions, or theologies, but who must get to the bottom of things +for themselves. And if I am not mistaken,</p> + +<p class="cen2">CHRIST WAS VERY FOND</p> + +<p class="noin">of these men. The outsiders always interested Him, and touched Him. +The orthodox people—the Pharisees—He was much less interested in. He +went with publicans and sinners—with people who were in revolt +against the respectability, intellectual and religious, of <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>the day. +And following Him, we are entitled to give sympathetic consideration +to those whom He loved and took trouble with.</p> + +<p>First, let me speak for a moment or two about</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE ORIGIN OF DOUBT.</p> + +<p>In the first place, <i>we are born questioners</i>. Look at the wonderment +of a little child in its eyes before it can speak. The child's great +word when it begins to speak is, "Why?" Every child is full of every +kind of question, about every kind of thing, that moves, and shines, +and changes, in the little world in which it lives.</p> + +<p>That is the incipient doubt in the nature of man. Respect doubt for +its origin. It is an inevitable thing. It is not a thing to be +crushed. It is a part of man as God made him. Heresy is truth in the +making, and doubt is the prelude of knowledge.</p> + +<p>Secondly: <i>The world is a Sphinx.</i> It is a vast riddle—an +unfathomable mystery; and on every side there is temptation to +questioning. In every leaf, in every cell of every leaf, there are a +hundred problems. There are ten good years of a man's life in +investigating what is in a leaf, and there are five good years more in +investigating the things that are in the things that are in the leaf. +God has planned the world to incite men to intellectual activity.</p> + +<p>Thirdly: <i>The instrument with which we attempt to investigate truth is +impaired.</i> Some say it fell, and the glass is broken. Some say +prejudice, heredity, or sin, have spoiled its sight, and have blinded +our eyes and deadened our ears. In any case the instruments with +<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>which we work upon truth, even in the strongest men, are feeble and +inadequate to their tremendous task.</p> + +<p>And in the fourth place, <i>all religious truths are doubtable</i>. There +is no absolute truth for any one of them. Even that fundamental +truth—the existence of a God—no man can prove by reason. The +ordinary proof for the existence of God involves either an assumption, +argument in a circle, or a contradiction. The impression of God is +kept up by experience, not by logic. And hence, when the experimental +religion of a man, of a community, or of a nation wanes, religion +wanes—their idea of God grows indistinct, and that man, community or +nation becomes infidel.</p> + +<p>Bear in mind, then, that all religious truths are doubtable—even +those which we hold most strongly.</p> + +<p>What does this brief account of the origin of doubt teach us? It +teaches us</p> + +<p class="cen2">GREAT INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY.</p> + +<p class="noin">It teaches us sympathy and toleration with all men who venture upon +the ocean of truth to find out a path through it for themselves. Do +you sometimes feel yourself thinking unkind things about your +fellow-students who have intellectual difficulty? I know how hard it +is always to feel sympathy and toleration for them; but we must +address ourselves to that most carefully and most religiously. If my +brother is shortsighted I must not abuse him or speak against him; I +must pity him, and if possible try to improve his sight, or to make +things that he is to look at so bright that he cannot help seeing. But +never let us think evil of men who do not see as we do. From the +bottom of our hearts let us pity them, and let us take them <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>by the +hand and spend time and thought over them, and try to lead them to the +true light.</p> + +<p>What has been</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE CHURCH'S TREATMENT OF DOUBT</p> + +<p class="noin">in the past? It has been very simple. "There is a heretic. Burn him!" +That is all. "There is a man who has gone off the road. Bring him back +and torture him!"</p> + +<p>We have got past that physically; have we got past it morally? What +does the modern Church say to a man who is skeptical? Not "Burn him!" +but "Brand him!" "Brand him!"—call him a bad name. And in many +countries at the present time, a man who is branded as a heretic is +despised, tabooed and put out of religious society, much more than if +he had gone wrong in morals. I think I am speaking within the facts +when I say that a man who is unsound is looked upon in many +communities with more suspicion and with more pious horror than a man +who now and then gets drunk. "Burn him!" "Brand him!" "Excommunicate +him!" That has been the Church's treatment of doubt, and that is +perhaps to some extent the treatment which we ourselves are inclined +to give to the men who cannot see the truths of Christianity as we see +them.</p> + +<p>Contrast</p> + +<p class="cen2">CHRIST'S TREATMENT</p> + +<p class="noin">of doubt. I have spoken already of His strange partiality for the +outsiders—for the scattered heretics up and down the country; of the +care with which He loved to deal with them, and of the respect in +which He held their intellectual difficulties. Christ never <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>failed to +distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is "<i>can't believe</i>"; +unbelief is "<i>won't believe</i>." Doubt is honesty; unbelief is +obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with +darkness. Loving darkness rather than light—that is what Christ +attacked, and attacked unsparingly. But for the intellectual +questioning of Thomas, and Philip, and Nicodemus, and the many others +who came to Him to have their great problems solved, He was respectful +and generous and tolerant.</p> + +<p>And how did He meet their doubts? The Church, as I have said, says, +"Brand him!" Christ said, "Teach him." He destroyed by fulfilling. +When Thomas came to Him and denied His very resurrection, and stood +before Him waiting for the scathing words and lashing for his +unbelief, they never came. They never came! Christ gave him +facts—facts! No man can go around facts. Christ said, "Behold My +hands and My feet." The great god of science at the present time is a +fact. It works with facts. Its cry is, "Give me facts. Found anything +you like upon facts and we will believe it." The spirit of Christ was +the scientific spirit. He founded His religion upon facts; and He +asked all men to found their religion upon facts.</p> + +<p>Now, get up the facts of Christianity, and take men to the facts. +Theologies—and I am not speaking disrespectfully of theology; +theology is as scientific a thing as any other science of facts—but +theologies are</p> + +<p class="cen2">HUMAN VERSIONS</p> + +<p class="noin">of Divine truths, and hence the varieties of the <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>versions and the +inconsistencies of them. I would allow a man to select whichever +version of this truth he liked <i>afterwards</i>; but I would ask him to +begin with no version, but go back to the facts and base his Christian +life upon these.</p> + +<p>That is the great lesson of the New Testament way of looking at +doubt—of Christ's treatment of doubt. It is not "Brand him!"—but +lovingly, wisely and tenderly to teach him. Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament; it is opposed to sight. You will find +that a principle worth thinking over. <i>Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament, but to sight.</i></p> + +<p>With these principles in mind as to the origin of doubt, and as to +Christ's treatment of it, how are we ourselves to deal with those who +are in intellectual difficulty?</p> + +<p>In the first place, I think <i>we must make all the concessions to them +that we conscientiously can</i>.</p> + +<p>When a doubter first encounters you, he pours out a deluge of abuse of +churches, and ministers, and creeds, and Christians. Nine-tenths of +what he says is probably true. Make concessions. Agree with him. It +does him good to unburden himself of these things. He has been +cherishing them for years—laying them up against Christians, against +the Church, and against Christianity; and now he is startled to find +the first Christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost +entirely agrees with him. We are, of course, not responsible for +everything that is said in the name of Christianity; but a man does +not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and no man has a +right to give up his Christianity because there are spurious or +inconsistent Christians. Then, as I already said, <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>creeds are human +versions of Divine truths; and we do not ask a man to accept all the +creeds, any more than we ask him to accept all the Christians. We ask +him to accept Christ, and the facts about Christ and the words of +Christ. You will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed +the man's objections, and possibly added a great many more to the +charges which he has against ourselves. These men are</p> + +<p class="cen2">IN REVOLT</p> + +<p class="noin">against the kind of religion which we exhibit to the world—against +the cant that is taught in the name of Christianity. And if the men +that have never seen the real thing—if you could show them that, they +would receive it as eagerly as you do. They are merely in revolt +against the imperfections and inconsistencies of those who represent +Christ to the world.</p> + +<p>Second: <i>Beg them to set aside, by an act of will, all unsolved +problems</i>: such as the problem of the origin of evil, the problem of +the Trinity, the problem of the relation of human will and +predestination, and so on—problems which have been investigated for +thousands of years without result—ask them to set those problems +aside as insoluble. In the meantime, just as a man who is studying +mathematics may be asked to set aside the problem of squaring the +circle, let him go on with what can be done, and what has been done, +and leave out of sight the impossible.</p> + +<p>You will find that will relieve the skeptic's mind of a great deal of</p> + +<p class="cen2">UNNECESSARY CARGO</p> + +<p class="noin">that has been in his way.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>Thirdly: <i>Talking about difficulties, as a rule, only aggravates +them.</i></p> + +<p>Entire satisfaction to the intellect is unattainable about any of the +greater problems, and if you try to get to the bottom of them by +argument, there is no bottom there; and therefore you make the matter +worse. But I would say what is known, and what can be honestly and +philosophically and scientifically said about one or two of the +difficulties that the doubter raises, just to show him that you can do +it—to show him that you are not a fool—that you are not merely +groping in the dark yourself, but you have found whatever basis is +possible. But I would not go around all the doctrines. I would simply +do that with one or two; because the moment you cut off one, a hundred +other heads will grow in its place. It would be a pity if all these +problems could be solved. The joy of the intellectual life would be +largely gone. I would not rob a man of his problems, nor would I have +another man rob me of my problems. They are the delight of life, and +the whole intellectual world would be stale and unprofitable if we +knew everything.</p> + +<p>Fourthly—and this is the great point: <i>Turn away from the reason and +go into the man's moral life.</i></p> + +<p>I don't mean, go into his moral life and see if the man is living in +conscious sin, which is the great blinder of the eyes—I am speaking +now of honest doubt; but open a new door into</p> + +<p class="cen2">THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF MAN'S NATURE.</p> + +<p class="noin">Entreat him not to postpone life and his life's usefulness until he +has settled the problems of the universe. Tell him those problems will +never all be settled; that <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>his life will be done before he has begun +to settle them; and ask him what he is doing with his life meantime. +Charge him with wasting his life and his usefulness; and invite him to +deal with the moral and practical difficulties of the world, and leave +the intellectual difficulties as he goes along. To spend time upon +these is proving the less important before the more important; and, as +the French say, "The good is the enemy of the best." It is a good +thing to think; it is a better thing to work—it is a better thing to +do good. And you have him there, you see. He can't get beyond that. +You have to tell him, in fact, that there are two organs of knowledge: +the one reason, the other obedience. And now tell him, as he has tried +the first and found the little in it, just for a moment or two to join +you in trying the second. And when he asks whom he is to obey, you +tell him there is but One, and lead him to the great historical figure +who calls all men to Him: the one perfect life—the one Savior of +mankind—the one Light of the world. Ask him to begin to</p> + +<p class="cen2">OBEY CHRIST;</p> + +<p class="noin">and, doing His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of +God.</p> + +<p>That, I think, is about the only thing you can do with a man: to get +him into practical contact with the needs of the world, and to let him +lose his intellectual difficulties meantime. Don't ask him to give +them up altogether. Tell him to solve them afterward one by one if he +can, but meantime to give his life to Christ and his time to the +kingdom of God. You fetch him completely around when you do that. You +have taken him away from the false side of his nature, and to the +<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>practical and moral side of his nature; and for the first time in his +life, perhaps, he puts things in their true place. He puts his nature +in the relations in which it ought to be, and he then only begins to +live. And by obedience he will soon become a learner and pupil for +himself, and Christ will teach him things, and he will find whatever +problems are solvable gradually solved as he goes along the path of +practical duty.</p> + +<p>Now, let me, in closing, give an instance of how to deal with specific +points.</p> + +<p>The question of miracles is thrown at my head every second day:</p> + +<p>"What do you say to a man when he says to you, 'Why do you believe in +miracles?'"</p> + +<p>I say, "Because I have seen them."</p> + +<p>He asks, "When?"</p> + +<p>I say, "Yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"Down such-and-such a street I saw a man who was a drunkard redeemed +by the power of an unseen Christ and saved from sin. That is a +miracle."</p> + +<p>The best apologetic for Christianity is a Christian. That is a fact +which the man cannot get over. There are fifty other arguments for +miracles, but none so good as that you have seen them. Perhaps you are +one yourself. But take a man and show him a miracle with his own eyes. +Then he will believe.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Greatest Thing In the World and +Other Addresses, by Henry Drummond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + +***** This file should be named 16739-h.htm or 16739-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16739/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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 Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses + +Author: Henry Drummond + +Release Date: September 24, 2005 [EBook #16739] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +The Greatest Thing +In the World +And Other Addresses + +BY + +HENRY DRUMMOND + + + + +NEW YORK CHICAGO +Fleming H. Revell Company +LONDON AND EDINBURGH + + + + +Copyrighted 1891 and 1898 +By Fleming H. Revell Company. + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +LOVE, THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD 7 + +LESSONS FROM THE ANGELUS 35 + +PAX VOBISCUM 44 + +FIRST! AN ADDRESS TO BOYS 70 + +THE CHANGED LIFE, THE GREATEST NEED OF THE WORLD 82 + +DEALING WITH DOUBT 113 + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +I was staying with a party of friends in a country house during my +visit to England in 1884. On Sunday evening as we sat around the fire, +they asked me to read and expound some portion of Scripture. Being +tired after the services of the day, I told them to ask Henry +Drummond, who was one of the party. After some urging he drew a small +Testament from his hip pocket, opened it at the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, and began to speak on the subject of Love. + +It seemed to me that I had never heard anything so beautiful, and I +determined not to rest until I brought Henry Drummond to Northfield to +deliver that address. Since then I have requested the principals of my +schools to have it read before the students every year. The one great +need in our Christian life is love, more love to God and to each +other. Would that we could all move into that Love chapter, and live +there. + +This volume contains, in addition to the address on Love, some other +addresses which I trust will bring help and blessing to many. + +(signed) D.L. Moody. + + + + +LOVE: + +THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. + + +Every one 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. In the 13th chapter of I +Corinthians, Paul takes us to + + CHRISTIANITY AT ITS SOURCE; + +and there we see, "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 farther, "God is love." + +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 the passage to Heaven by keeping the +Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which +they had manufactured out of them. Christ came and 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 fulfill the whole law." + +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 fulfill 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 they possessed 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 has 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. + + +I. THE CONTRAST. + +Paul begins by contrasting Love with other things that men in those +days thought much of. I shall not attempt to go over these 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 sounding brass, +or a tinkling cymbal." 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. +"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I +am nothing." + +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. Hence, "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, +but have not love it profiteth me nothing." + +Then Paul contrasts it with _sacrifice_ and martyrdom: "If I give my +body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." +Missionaries can take nothing greater to the heathen world than the +impress and reflection of the Love of God upon their own character. +That is the universal language. It will take them years to speak in +Chinese, or in the dialects of India. From the day they 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. They knew that it was love, although he spoke no word. + +Take into your sphere of labor, where you also mean to lay down your +life, that simple charm, and your lifework must succeed. You can take +nothing greater, you need take nothing 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_. + + +II. THE ANALYSIS. + +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. + +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 its own." +Good temper "Is not provoked." +Guilelessness "Taketh not account of evil." +Sincerity "Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth + with 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. + +_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 woe + 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 un-Christian 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 +need 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." Humility--love hiding. + +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 does 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 _cannot_ behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored +persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservoir of Love +in their heart they will not behave themselves unseemly. They simply +cannot do it. Carlisle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer +gentleman in Europe than the ploughman-poet. It was because he loved +everything--the mouse, and 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. That is the whole art and +mystery of it. The gentle man cannot in the nature of things do an +ungentle, an ungentlemanly thing. The ungentle soul, the +inconsiderate, unsympathetic nature, cannot 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 eternal. 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 to give them up. But +not to seek them, to look every man not on his own things, but on the +things of others--that is the difficulty. "Seekest thou great things +for thyself?" said the prophet; "_seek them not_." Why? Because there +is no greatness in _things_. Things cannot 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_. Half the +world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. They think it +consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. It +consists in giving, and in 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 blessed, it is +more happy, to give than to receive." + +The next ingredient is a very remarkable one: _Good temper._ "Love is +not 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 brand falls, 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 venal 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 un-Christianize 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 of 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 the 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 cannot, simply _cannot_, enter the kingdom of heaven. + +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 speak 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 dropped involuntarily +when off one's guard; in a word, the lightning form of a hundred +hideous and un-Christian sins. 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 cannot 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. 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 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 +motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every +action. What a delightful state of mind to live in! What a 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. +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 unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with 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 a 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 fitted into 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? Practice. What makes a man a good +artist, a good sculptor, a good musician? Practice. What makes a man a +good linguist, a good stenographer? Practice. What makes a man a good +man? Practice. 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 a man does +not exercise his soul, he acquires no muscle in his soul, no strength +of character, no vigor of moral fibre, no 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 PRACTICE. + +What was Christ doing in the carpenter's shop? Practising. Though +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 +practice. That is the practice 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 +moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more +beautiful, though 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: "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 cannot +make light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they +cannot 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 fulfill 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 +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 cannot 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 cannot 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 fulfills 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 +supernatural 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. The boy started from his bed, and +called out to the people in the house, + +"God loves me! God loves me!" + +One word! 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_. + + +III. THE DEFENCE. + +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 again 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 be done away." 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." The Bible 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 though it cannot 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 farther, and with even greater boldness adds, "Whether +there be _knowledge_, it shall be done away." The wisdom of the +ancients, where is it? It is wholly gone. A schoolboy to-day 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 encyclopaedias 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 in +Scotland, at a meeting at which I was present, "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. + +In my time, in the university of Edinburgh, the greatest figure in the +faculty was Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform. Recently +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 (midwifery) that were no longer needed. His reply +to the librarian was this: + +"Take every text-book 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 to-day to +oblivion. And in every branch of science it is the same. "Now we know +in part. We see through a glass darkly." Knowledge does not last. + +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 only immortal things are these: "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 yourself 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 a life. Never offer a man 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 addressed 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 +to-morrow. Why do we want to live to-morrow? Is it because there is +some one who loves you, and whom you want to see to-morrow, 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, he +has no contact with life, no reason to live. He dies by his own hand. + +Eternal life also 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 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. Will you do it? It is for the +greatest thing in the world. 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 fulfill 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 round 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." + +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 hair's breadth, +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." + + + + +LESSONS FROM THE ANGELUS. + + +God often speaks to men's souls through music; He also speaks to us +through art. Millet's famous painting entitled "The Angelus" is an +illuminated text, upon which I am going to say a few words to you +to-night. + +There are three things in this picture--a potato field, a country lad +and a country girl standing in the middle of it, and on the far +horizon the spire of a village church. That is all there is to it--no +great scenery and no picturesque people. In Roman Catholic countries +at the evening hour the church bell rings out to remind the people to +pray. Some go into the church, while those that are in the fields bow +their heads for a few moments in silent prayer. + +That picture contains the three great elements which go to make up a +perfectly rounded Christian life. It is not enough to have the "root +of the matter" in us, but that we must be whole and entire, lacking +nothing. The Angelus may bring to us suggestions as to what +constitutes a complete life. + + +I. + +The first element in a symmetrical life is _work_. + +Three-fourths of our time is probably spent in work. Of course the +meaning of it is that our work should be just as religious as our +worship, and unless we can work for the glory of God three-fourths of +life remains unsanctified. + +The proof that work is religious is that most of Christ's life was +spent in work. During a large part of the first thirty years of His +life He worked with the hammer and the plane, making ploughs and yokes +and household furniture. Christ's public ministry occupied only about +two and a half years of His earthly life; the great bulk of His time +was simply spent in doing common everyday tasks, and ever since then +work has had a new meaning. + +When Christ came into the world He was revealed to three deputations +who went to meet and worship Him. First came the shepherds, or working +class; second, the wise men, or student class; and third, the two old +people in the temple, Simeon and Anna; that is to say, Christ is +revealed to men at their work, He is revealed to men at their books, +and He is revealed to men at their worship. It was the old people who +found Christ at their worship, and as we grow older we will spend more +time exclusively in worship than we are able to do now. In the mean +time we must combine our worship with our work, and we may expect to +find Christ at our books and in our common task. + +Why should God have provided that so many hours of every day should be +occupied with work? It is because + + WORK MAKES MEN. + +A university is not merely a place for making scholars, it is a place +for making Christians. A farm is not a place for growing corn, it is a +place for growing character, and a man has no character except that +which is developed by his life and thought. God's Spirit does the +building through the acts which a man performs from day to day. A +student who cons out every word in his Latin and Greek instead of +consulting a translation finds that honesty is translated into his +character. If he works out his mathematical problems thoroughly, he +not only becomes a mathematician, but becomes a thorough man. It is by +constant and conscientious attention to daily duties that thoroughness +and conscientiousness and honorableness are imbedded in our beings. +Character is + + THE MUSIC OF THE SOUL, + +and is developed by exercise. Active use of the power entrusted to us +is one of the chief means which God employs for producing the +Christian graces. Hence the religion of a student demands that he be +true to his work, and that he let his Christianity be shown to his +fellow students and to his professors by the integrity and the +conscientiousness of his academic life. A man who is not faithful in +that which is least will not be faithful in that which is great. I +have known men who struggled unsuccessfully for years to pass their +examinations who, when they became Christians, found a new motive for +work and thus were able to succeed where previously they had failed. A +man's Christianity comes out as much in his work as in his worship. + +Our work is not only to be done thoroughly, but it is to be done +honestly. A man is not only to be honorable in his academic relations, +but he must be honest with himself and in his attitude toward the +truth. Students are not entitled to dodge difficulties, they must go +down to the foundation principles. Perhaps the truths which are dear +to us go down deeper even than we think, and we will get more out of +them if we dig down for the nuggets than we will if we only pick up +those that are on the surface. Other theories may perhaps be found to +have false bases; if so, we ought to know it. It is well to take our +soundings in every direction to see if there is deep water; if there +are shoals we ought to find out where they are. Therefore, when we +come to difficulties, let us not jump lightly over them, but let us be +honest as seekers after truth. + +It may not be necessary for people in general to sift the doctrines of +Christianity for themselves, but a student is a man whose business it +is to think, to exercise the intellect which God has given him in +finding out the truth. Faith is never opposed to reason, though it is +sometimes supposed by Bible teachers that it is; but you will find it +is not. Faith is opposed to sight, but not to reason, though it is not +limited to reason. In employing his intellect in the search for truth +a student is drawing nearer to the Christ who said, "I am the way, the +truth and the life." We talk a great deal about Christ as the way and +Christ as the life, but there is a side of Christ especially for the +student: "I am the truth," and every student ought to be a truth-lover +and a truth-seeker for Christ's sake. + + +II. + +Another element in life, which of course is first in importance, is +_God_. + +The Angelus is perhaps the most religious picture painted this +century. You cannot look at it and see that young man standing in the +field with his hat off, and the girl opposite him with her hands +clasped and her head bowed on her breast, without feeling a sense of +God. + +Do we carry about with us the thought of God wherever we go? If not, +we have missed the greatest part of life. Do we have a conviction of +God's abiding presence wherever we are? There is nothing more needed +in this generation than a larger and more Scriptural idea of God. A +great American writer has told us that when he was a boy the +conception of God which he got from books and sermons was that of a +wise and very strict lawyer. I remember well the awful conception of +God which I had when a boy. I was given an illustrated edition of +Watts' hymns, in which God was represented as a great piercing eye in +the midst of a great black thunder cloud. The idea which that picture +gave to my young imagination was that of God as a great detective, +playing the spy upon my actions, as the hymn says: + + "Writing now the story of what little children do." + +That was a very mistaken and harmful idea which it has taken me years +to obliterate. We think of God as "up there," or as one who made the +world six thousand years ago and then retired. We must learn that He +is not confined either to time or space. God is not to be thought of +as merely back there in time, or up there in space. If not, where is +He? "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." The Kingdom of God is +within you, and God Himself is among men. When are we to exchange the +terrible, far-away, absentee God of our childhood for the everywhere +present God of the Bible? Too many of the old Christian writers seem +to have conceived of God as not much more than the greatest man--a +kind of divine emperor. He is infinitely more; He is a spirit, as +Jesus said to the woman at the well, and in Him we live and move and +have our being. Let us think of God as Immanuel--God with us--an +ever-present, omnipresent, eternal One. Long, long ago, God made +matter, then He made the flowers and trees and animals, then He made +man. Did He stop? Is God dead? If He lives and acts what is He doing? +He is + + MAKING MEN BETTER. + +He it is that "worketh in you." The buds of our nature are not all out +yet; the sap to make them comes from the God who made us, from the +indwelling Christ. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and +we must bear this in mind, because the sense of God is kept up, not by +logic, but by experience. + +Until she was seven years of age the life of Helen Keller, the Boston +girl who was deaf and dumb and blind, was an absolute blank; nothing +could go into that mind because the ears and eyes were closed to the +outer world. Then by that great process which has been discovered, by +which the blind see, and the deaf hear, and the mute speak, that +girl's soul became opened, and they began to put in little bits of +knowledge, and bit by bit they began to educate her. They reserved her +religious instruction for Phillips Brooks. After some years, when she +was twelve years old, they took her to him and he began to talk to her +through the young lady who had been the means of opening her senses, +and who could communicate with her by the exceedingly delicate process +of touch. He began to tell her about God and what He had done, and how +He loved men, and what He is to us. The child listened very +intelligently, and finally said: + +"Mr. Brooks, I knew all that before, but I didn't know His name." + +How often we have felt something within us impelling us to do +something which we would not have conceived of by ourselves, or +enabling us to do something which we could not have done alone. "It is +God which worketh in you." This great simple fact + + EXPLAINS MANY OF THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE, + +and takes away the fear which we would otherwise have in meeting the +difficulties which lie before us. + +Two Americans who were crossing the Atlantic met on Sunday night to +sing hymns in the cabin. As they sang the hymn, "Jesus, Lover of my +Soul," one of the Americans heard an exceedingly rich and beautiful +voice behind him. He looked around, and although he did not know the +face he thought that he recognized the voice. So when the music ceased +he turned around and asked the man if he had not been in the Civil +war. The man replied that he had been a Confederate soldier. "Were you +at such a place on such a night?" asked the first. "Yes," he said, +"and a curious thing happened that night; this hymn recalled it to my +mind. I was on sentry duty on the edge of a wood. It was a dark night +and very cold, and I was a little frightened because the enemy were +supposed to be very near at hand. I felt very homesick and miserable, +and about midnight, when everything was very still, I was beginning to +feel very weary and thought that I would comfort myself by praying and +singing a hymn. I remember singing this hymn, + + 'All my trust on Thee is stayed, + All my help from Thee I bring, + Cover my defenceless head + With the shadow of Thy wing.' + +After I had sung those words a strange peace came down upon me, and +through the long night I remember having felt no more fear." + +"Now," said the other man, "listen to my story. I was a Union soldier, +and was in the wood that night with a party of scouts. I saw you +standing up, although I didn't see your face, and my men had their +rifles focused upon you waiting the word to fire, but when you sang +out, + + 'Cover my defenceless head + With the shadow of Thy wing,' + +I said, 'Boys, put down your rifles, we will go home.' I couldn't kill +you after that." + +God was working in each of them, in His own way carrying out His will. +God keeps his people and guides them and without Him life is but a +living death. + + +III. + +The third element in life about which I wish to speak is _love_. + +In this picture we notice the delicate sense of companionship, brought +out by the young man and the young woman. It matters not whether they +are brother and sister, or lover and loved; there you have the idea of +friendship, the final ingredient in our life, after the two I have +named. If the man or the woman had been standing in that field alone +it would have been incomplete. + +Love is the divine element in life, because "God is love." "He that +loveth is born of God," therefore, as some one has said, let us "keep +our friendships in repair." Let us cultivate the spirit of friendship, +and let the love of Christ develop it into a great love, not only for +our friends, but for all humanity. Wherever you go and whatever you +do, your work will be a failure unless you have this element in your +life. + +These three things go far toward forming a well-rounded life. Some of +us may not have these ingredients in their right proportion, but if +you are lacking in one or the other of them, then pray for it and work +for it that your life may be rounded and complete as God intended it +should be. + + + + +PAX VOBISCUM. (Copyright, James Pott & Co. Used by permission.) + + +I once heard a sermon by a distinguished preacher upon "Rest." It was +full of beautiful thoughts; but when I came to ask myself, "How does +he say I can get Rest?" there was no answer. The sermon was sincerely +meant to be practical, yet it contained no experience that seemed to +me to be tangible, nor any advice that I could grasp--any advice, that +is to say, which could help me to find the thing itself as I went +about the world. + +Yet this omission of what is, after all, the only important problem, +was not the fault of the preacher. The whole popular religion is in +the twilight here. And when pressed for really working specifics for +the experiences with which it deals, it falters, and seems to lose +itself in mist. + +The want of connection between the great words of religion and +every-day life has bewildered and discouraged all of us. Christianity +possesses the noblest words in the language; its literature overflows +with terms expressive of the greatest and happiest moods which can +fill the soul of man. Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith, Love, Light--these +words occur with such persistency in hymns and prayers that an +observer might think they formed the staple of Christian experience. +But on coming to close quarters with the actual life of most of us, +how surely would he be disenchanted. I do not think we ourselves are +aware how much our religious life is + + MADE UP OF PHRASES; + +how much of what we call Christian Experience is only a dialect of the +Churches, a mere religious phraseology with almost nothing behind it +in what we really feel and know. + +To some of us, indeed, the Christian experiences seem further away +than when we took the first steps in the Christian life. That life has +not opened out as we had hoped. We do not regret our religion, but we +are disappointed with it. There are times, perhaps, when wandering +notes from a diviner music stray into our spirits; but these +experiences come at few and fitful moments. We have no sense of +possession in them. When they visit us, it is a surprise. When they +leave us, it is without explanation. When we wish their return, we do +not know how to secure it. + +All which means a religion without solid base, and a poor and +flickering life. It means a great bankruptcy in those experiences +which give Christianity its personal solace and make it attractive to +the world, and a great uncertainty as to any remedy. It is as if we +knew everything about health--except the way to get it. + +I am quite sure that the difficulty does not lie in the fact that men +are not in earnest. This is simply not the fact. All around us +Christians are wearing themselves out in trying to be better. The +amount of spiritual longing in the world--in the hearts of unnumbered +thousands of men and women in whom we should never suspect it; among +the wise and thoughtful, among the young and gay, who seldom assuage +and never betray their thirst--this is one of the most wonderful and +touching facts of life. It is not more heat that is needed, but more +light; not more force, but a wiser direction to be given to very real +energies already there. + +The usual advice when one asks for counsel on these questions is, +"Pray." But this advice is far from adequate. I shall qualify the +statement presently; but let me urge it here, with what you will +perhaps call daring emphasis, that to pray for these things is not the +way to get them. No one will get them without praying; but that men do +not get them by praying is the simple fact. We have all prayed, and +sincerely prayed, for such experiences as I have named; prayed, +believing that that was the way to get them. And yet have we got them? +The test is experience. I dare not limit prayer; still less the grace +of God. If you have got them in this way, it is well. I am speaking to +those, be they few or many, who have not got them; to ordinary men in +ordinary circumstances. But if we have not got them, it by no means +follows that prayer is useless. The correct conclusion is only that it +is useless, or inadequate rather, for this particular purpose. To make +prayer the sole resort, the universal panacea for every spiritual ill, +is as radical a mistake as to prescribe only one medicine for every +bodily trouble. The physician who does the last is a quack; the +spiritual adviser who does the first is + + GROSSLY IGNORANT OF HIS PROFESSION. + +To do nothing but pray is a wrong done to prayer itself, and can only +end in disaster. It is as if one tried to live only with the lungs, +as if one assimilated only air and neglected solid food. The lungs are +a first essential; the air is a first essential; but the body has many +members, given for different purposes, secreting different things, and +each has a method of nutrition as special to itself as its own +activity. While prayer, then, is the characteristic sublimity of the +Christian life, it is by no means the only one. And those who make it +the sole alternative, and apply it to purposes for which it was never +meant, are really doing the greatest harm to prayer itself. To couple +the word "inadequate" with this mighty word is not to dethrone prayer, +but to exalt it. + + WHAT DETHRONES PRAYER + +is unanswered prayer. When men pray for things which do not come that +way--pray with sincere belief that prayer, unaided and alone, will +compass what they ask--then, not getting what they ask, they often +give up prayer. + +This is the natural history of much atheism, not only an atheism of +atheists, but a more terrible atheism of Christians, an unconscious +atheism, whose roots have struck far into many souls whose last breath +would be spent in denying it. So, I repeat, it is a mistaken +Christianity which allow men to cherish a blind belief in the +omnipotence of prayer. Prayer, certainly, when the appropriate +conditions are fulfilled, is omnipotent, but not blind prayer. Blind +prayer is a superstition. Prayer, in its true sense, contains the sane +recognition that while man prays in faith, _God acts by law_. What +that means in the immediate connection we shall see presently. + +What, then, is the remedy? It is impossible to doubt that there is a +remedy, and it is equally impossible to believe that it is a secret. +The idea that some few men, by happy chance or happier temperament, +have been given the secret--as if there were some sort of knack or +trick of it--is wholly incredible and wrong. Religion must be for all, +and the way into its loftiest heights must be by a gateway through +which the peoples of the world may pass. + +I shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path. But +as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into the +religious sphere, I must ask your forbearance for dwelling for a +moment upon the commonest of commonplaces. + + +I. EFFECTS REQUIRE CAUSES. + +Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of +order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never at +random. The world, even the religious world, is governed by law. +Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The +Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, +expect Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from the air +like snow or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they +did, they would no less have their origin in previous activities and +be controlled by natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but +not without a long previous history. They are the mature effects of +former causes. Equally so are Rest and Peace and Joy. They, too, have +each a previous history. Storms and winds and calms are not accidents, +but brought about by antecedent circumstances. Rest and Peace are but +calms in man's inward nature, and arise through causes as definite and +as inevitable. + +Realize it thoroughly; it is a methodical, not an accidental world. If +a housewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound +receipt, carefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients +and fire them for the appropriate time without producing the result. +It is not she who has made the cake; it is nature. She brings related +things together; sets causes at work; these causes bring about the +result. She is not a creator, but an intermediary. She does not expect +random causes to produce specific effects--random ingredients would +only produce random cakes. So it is in the making of Christian +experiences. Certain lines are followed; certain effects are the +result. These effects cannot but be the result. But the result can +never take place without the previous cause. To expect results without +antecedents is to expect cakes without ingredients. That impossibility +is precisely + + THE ALMOST UNIVERSAL EXPECTATION. + +Now what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this +simple principle of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And +instead of applying the principle generally to each of the Christian +experiences in turn, I shall examine its application to one in some +little detail. The one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who +follows the application in this single instance will be able to apply +it for himself to all the others. + +Take such a sentence as this: African explorers are subject to fevers +which cause restlessness and delirium. + +Note the expression, "cause restlessness." _Restlessness has a cause._ +Clearly, then, any one who wished to get rid of restlessness would +proceed at once to deal with the cause. If that were not removed, a +doctor might prescribe a hundred things, and all might be taken in +turn, without producing the least effect. Things are so arranged in +the original planning of the world that certain effects must follow +certain causes, and certain causes must be abolished before certain +effects can be removed. Certain parts of Africa are inseparably linked +with the physical experience called fever; this fever is in turn +infallibly linked with a mental experience called restlessness and +delirium. To abolish the mental experience the radical method would be +to abolish the physical experience, and the way of abolishing the +physical experience would be to abolish Africa, or to cease to go +there. + +Now this holds good for all other forms of Restlessness. Every other +form and kind of Restlessness in the world has a definite cause, and +the particular kind of Restlessness can only be removed by removing +the allotted cause. + +All this is also true of Rest. Restlessness has a cause: must not +_Rest_ have a cause? Necessarily. If it were a chance world we would +not expect this; but, being a methodical world, it cannot be +otherwise. Rest, physical rest, moral rest, spiritual rest, every kind +of rest has a cause, as certainly as restlessness. Now causes are +discriminating. There is one kind of cause for every particular effect +and no other, and if one particular effect is desired, the +corresponding cause must be set in motion. It is no use proposing +finely devised schemes, or going through general pious exercises in +the hope that somehow Rest will come. The Christian life is not +casual, but causal. All nature is a standing protest against the +absurdity of expecting to secure spiritual effects, or any effects, +without the employment of appropriate causes. The Great Teacher dealt +what ought to have been the final blow to this infinite irrelevancy by +a single question, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of +thistles?" + +Why, then, did the Great Teacher not educate His followers fully? Why +did He not tell us, for example, how such a thing as Rest might be +obtained? The answer is that _He did_. But plainly, explicitly, in so +many words? Yes, plainly, explicitly, in so many words. He assigned +Rest to its cause, in words with which each of us has been familiar +from his earliest childhood. + +He begins, you remember--for you at once know the passage I refer +to--almost as if Rest could be had without any cause; "Come unto me," +He says, "and I will _give_ you Rest." + +Rest, apparently, was a favor to be bestowed; men had but to come to +Him; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes +that all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously. +For what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an +impossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be _given_? One +could no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We +speak of "causing" laughter, which we can do; but we can not give it +away. When we speak of "giving" pain, we know perfectly well we can +not give pain away. And when we aim at "giving" pleasure, all that we +do is to arrange a set of circumstances in such a way as that these +shall cause pleasure. Of course there is a sense, and a very wonderful +sense, in which a Great Personality breathes upon all who come within +its influence an abiding peace and trust. Men can be to other men as +the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; much more Christ; much +more Christ as Perfect Man; much more still as Savior of the world. +But it is not this of which I speak. When Christ said He would give +men Rest, He meant simply that He would put them in the way of it. By +no act of conveyance would or could He make over His own Rest to them. +He could give them + + HIS RECEIPT + +for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them. For one thing +it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men +were not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet +another thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it +for themselves. + +That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the +second sentence: "Learn of me, and ye shall _find_ Rest." Rest, (that +is to say), is not a thing that can be _given_, but a thing to be +_acquired_. It comes not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be +found in a happy hour, as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one +finds knowledge. It could indeed be no more found in a moment than +could knowledge. A soil has to be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, +it will grow in one climate, and not in another; at one altitude, and +not at another. Like all growth it will have an orderly development +and mature by slow degrees. + +The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says +we are to achieve Rest by _learning_. "Learn of me," He says, "and ye +shall find rest to your souls." + +Now consider the extraordinary + + ORIGINALITY OF THIS UTTERANCE. + +How novel the connection between these two words "Learn" and "Rest." +How few of us have ever associated them--ever thought that Rest was a +thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out for it as we would to +learn a language; ever practised it as we would practice the violin? +Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching still is to the +world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should still be so +little known? The last thing most of us would have thought of would +have been to associate _Rest_ with _Work_. + +What must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find +the soul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation. +He specifies two things--Meekness and Lowliness. "Learn of me," He +says, "for I am _meek_ and _lowly_ in heart." + +Now these two things are not chosen at random. To these +accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is attached. Learn these, in +short, and you have already found Rest. These as they stand are direct +causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot but produce it at +once. And if you think for a single moment, you will see how this is +necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the connection +between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies deep in the +nature of things. + +What is the connection, then? I answer by a further question. + + WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CAUSES OF UNREST? + +If you know yourself, you will answer--Pride; Selfishness, Ambition. +As you look back upon the past years of your life, is it not true that +its unhappiness has chiefly come from the succession of personal +mortifications and almost trivial disappointments which the +intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at lengthened +intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty friction of +our every-day life with one another, the jar of business or of work, +the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our ambition, the +crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit, which make +inward peace impossible. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed hopes, +unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal + + SOURCES OF MAN'S UNREST. + +Now it is obvious why Christ pointed out as the two chief objects for +attainment the exact opposites of these. To meekness and lowliness +these things simply do not exist. They cure unrest by making it +impossible. These remedies do not trifle with surface symptoms; they +strike at once at removing causes. The ceaseless chagrin of a +self-centered life can be removed at once by learning meekness and +lowliness of heart. He who learns them is forever proof against it. He +lives henceforth a charmed life. Christianity is a fine inoculation, a +transfusion of healthy blood into an anaemic or poisoned soul. No fever +can attack a perfectly sound body; no fever of unrest can disturb a +soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of Christ. + +Men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at +Rest. But flying away will not help us. "The Kingdom of God is _within +you_." We aspire to the top to look for Rest; it lies at the bottom. +Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. Hence, +_be lowly_. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be +hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, _be meek_. He who is +without expectation cannot fret if nothing comes to him. It is +self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man +are really above all other men, above all other things. They dominate +the world because they do not care for it. The miser does not possess +gold, gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. "The meek," said +Christ, "inherit the earth." They do not buy it; they do not conquer +it; but they inherit it. + +There are people who go about the world looking out for slights, and +they are necessarily miserable, for they find them at every +turn--especially the imaginary ones. One has the same pity for such +men as for the very poor. They are the morally illiterate. They have +had no real education, for they have never learned + + HOW TO LIVE. + +Few men know how to live. We grow up at random carrying into mature +life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little +children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be changed; +that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the Fine +Arts; that it has to be learned with lifelong patience, and that the +years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly. + +Yet this is what Christianity is for--to teach men + + THE ART OF LIFE. + +And its whole curriculum lies in one word--"Learn of me." Unlike most +education, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from +books, or lectures or creeds or doctrines. It is a study from the +life. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian graces. +He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn +His art by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their +masters. + +Now we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the weary and +heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new +principle--upon His own principle. "Watch my way of doing things," He +says; "Follow me. Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly, and you +will find Rest." + +I do not say, remember, that the Christian life to every man, or to +any man, can be a bed of roses. No educational process can be this. +And perhaps if some men knew how much was involved in the simple +"learn" of Christ, they would not enter His school with so +irresponsible a heart. For there is not only much to learn, but + + MUCH TO UNLEARN. + +Many men never go to this school at all till their disposition is +already half ruined and character has taken on its fatal set. To learn +arithmetic is difficult at fifty--much more to learn Christianity. To +learn simply what it is to be meek and lowly, in the case of one who +has had no lessons in that in childhood, may cost him half of what he +values most on earth. Do we realize, for instance, that the way of +teaching humility is generally by _humiliation_? There is probably no +other school for it. When a man enters himself as a pupil in such a +school it means a very great thing. There is much Rest there, but +there is also much Work. + +I should be wrong, even though my theme is the brighter side, to +ignore the cross and minimize the cost. Only it gives to the cross a +more definite meaning, and a rarer value, to connect it thus directly +and casually with the growth of the inner life. Our platitudes on the +"benefits of affliction" are usually about as vague as our theories of +Christian Experience. "Somehow" we believe affliction does us good. +But it is not a question of "Somehow." The result is definite, +calculable, necessary. It is under the strictest law of cause and +effect. The first effect of losing one's fortune, for instance, is +humiliation; and the effect of humiliation, as we have just seen, is +to make one humble; and the effect of being humble is to produce Rest. +It is a roundabout way, apparently, of producing Rest; but Nature +generally works by circular processes; and it is not certain that +there is any other way of becoming humble, or of finding Rest. If a +man could make himself humble to order, it might simplify matters; but +we do not find that this happens. Hence we must all go through the +mill. Hence death, death to the lower self, is the nearest gate and +the quickest road to life. + +Yet this is only half the truth. Christ's life outwardly was one of +the most troubled lives that was ever lived: tempest and tumult, +tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time till the +worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of +glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have +gone to Him and found Rest. Even when the blood-hounds were dogging +Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and +offered them, as a last legacy, "My peace." Nothing ever for a moment +broke the serenity of Christ's life on earth. Misfortune could not +reach Him; He had no fortune. Food, raiment, money--fountain-heads of +half the world's weariness--He simply did not care for; they played no +part in His life; He "took no thought" for them. It was impossible to +affect Him by lowering His reputation. He had already made Himself of +no reputation. He was dumb before insult. When he was reviled, He +reviled not again. In fact, there was + + NOTHING THAT THE WORLD COULD DO TO HIM + +that could ruffle the surface of His spirit. + +Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only when we +see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It +lies not in emotions, or in the absence of emotions. It is not a +hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something +that the preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, +or in music--though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at +leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the soul; the absolute +adjustment of the inward man to the stress of all outward things; the +preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured +convictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of +a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with +Browning, "God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world." + +Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of +rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the +far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering +waterfall, with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the +fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on +its nest. The first was only _Stagnation_; the last was _Rest_. For in +Rest there are always two elements--tranquillity and energy; silence +and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and +fearfulness. This it was in Christ. + +It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be or +to do, He at least + + KNEW HOW TO LIVE. + +All this is the perfection of living, of living in the mere sense of +passing through the world in the best way. Hence His anxiety to +communicate His idea of life to others. He came, He said, to give men +life, true life, a more abundant life than they were living; "the +life," as the fine phase in the Revised Version has it, "that is life +indeed." This is what He Himself possessed, and it was this which He +offers to mankind. And hence His direct appeal for all to come to Him +who had not made much of life, who were weary and heavy-laden. These +He would teach His secret. They, also, should know "the life that is +life indeed." + + +II. WHAT YOKES ARE FOR. + +There is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, "Learn of +Me," Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification: + +"_Take my yoke_ upon you, and learn of Me." + +Why, if all this be true, does He call it a _yoke_? Why, while +professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath whisper +"_burden_"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies take it +for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life, some +extra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to +observances, some heavy restriction and trammeling of all that is +joyous and free in the world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough +without being fettered with yet another yoke? + +It is astounding how so glaring a misunderstanding of this plain +sentence should ever have passed into currency. Did you ever stop to +ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal +which wears it? It is just the opposite. It is to make its burden +light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the +plough would be intolerable. Worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A +yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is + + AN INSTRUMENT OF MERCY. + +It is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle +device to make hard labor light. It is not meant to give pain, but to +save pain. And yet men speak of the yoke of Christ as if it were +slavery, and look upon those who wear it as objects of compassion. For +generations we have had homilies on "The Yoke of Christ"--some +delighting in portraying its narrow exactions; some seeking in these +exactions the marks of its divinity; others apologizing for it, and +toning it down; still others assuring us that, although it be very +bad, it is not to be compared with the positive blessings of +Christianity. How many, especially among the young, has this one +mistaken phrase driven forever away from the kingdom of God? Instead +of making Christ attractive, it makes Him out a taskmaster, narrowing +life by petty restrictions, calling for self-denial where none is +necessary, making misery a virtue under the plea that it is the yoke +of Christ, and happiness criminal because it now and then evades it. +According to this conception, Christians are at best the victims of a +depressing fate; their life is a penance; and their hope for the next +world purchased by a slow martyrdom in this. + +The mistake has arisen from taking the word "yoke" here in the same +sense as in the expressions "under the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his +youth." But in Christ's illustration it is not the _jugum_ of the +Roman soldier, but the simple "harness" or "ox-collar" of the Eastern +peasant. It is the literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in +the carpenter shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference +between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the +difference also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. +The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke +caused no pain, and the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted +harness was a misery; the well-fitted collar was "easy." + +And what was the "burden"? It was not some special burden laid upon +the Christian, some unique infliction that they alone must bear. It +was what all men bear. It was simply life, human life itself, the +general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle +to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was +a weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle +and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole +world's problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is +Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at +it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My +yoke and learn of Me, and you will find it easy. For My yoke is easy, +works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and _therefore_ My burden +is light." + +There is no suggestion here that religion will absolve any man from +bearing burdens. That would be to absolve him from living, since it is +life itself that is the burden. What Christianity does propose is to +make it tolerable. + + CHRIST'S YOKE + +is simply His secret for the alleviation of human life, His +prescription for the best and happiest method of living. Men harness +themselves to the work and stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural +ways. The harness they put on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted +collar at the best, they make its strain and friction past enduring, +by placing it where the neck is most sensitive; and by mere continuous +irritation this sensitiveness increases until the whole nature is +quick and sore. + +This is the origin, among other things, of a disease called +"touchiness"--a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one +of the gravest sources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when +it becomes chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. +It is self-love inflamed to the acute point; conceit, _with a +hair-trigger_. The cure is to shift the yoke to some other place; to +let men and things touch us through some new and perhaps as yet unused +part of our nature; to become meek and lowly in heart while the old +sensitiveness is becoming numb from want of use. + +It is the beautiful work of Christianity everywhere to adjust the +burden of life to those who bear it, and them to it. It has a +perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any violence to +human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with all +surrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the fatigue +and dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere matter of +altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions of +things, its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its +own. + +The weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. Suppose +the attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other planet, +where the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton. +Now Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one +way in which it diminishes man's burden. It makes them citizens of +another world. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton today. So +without changing one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider +horizon and a different standard, it alters the whole aspect of the +world. + +Christianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever +spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we +mean Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, or +exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface +readings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the +results wretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what +vale of tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life +for him along this path. + + +III. HOW FRUITS GROW. + +Were Rest my subject, there are other things I should wish to say +about it, and other kinds of Rest of which I should like to speak. +But that is not my subject. My theme is that the Christian experiences +are not the work of magic, but come under the law of Cause and Effect. +I have chosen Rest only as a single illustration of the working of +that principle. If there were time I might next run over all the +Christian experiences in turn, and show the same wide law applies to +each; but I think it may serve the better purpose if I leave this +further exercise to yourselves. I know no Bible study that you will +find more full of fruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of +God, or make the Christian life itself more solid or more sure. I +shall add only a single other illustration of what I mean, before I +close. + +Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of +Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in +Heaven, and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let +down and fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross +and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In +reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one +can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of +the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a +very clever trick in India called the mango trick. A seed is put in +the ground and covered up, and after diverse incantations a full-blown +mango-bush appears within five minutes. I never met any one who knew +how the thing was done, but I never met any one who believed it to be +anything else than a conjuring trick. The world is pretty unanimous +now in its belief in the orderliness of Nature. Men may not know how +fruits grow, but they do know that they cannot grow in an hour. Some +lives have not even a stalk on which fruits could hang, even if they +did grow in an hour. Some have never planted one sound seed of Joy in +all their lives; and others who may have planted a germ or two have +lived so little in sunshine that they never could come to maturity. + +Whence, then, is joy? Christ put His teaching upon this subject into +one of the most exquisite of His parables. I should in any instance +have appealed to His teaching here, as in the case of Rest, for I do +not wish you to think I am speaking words of my own. But it so happens +that He has dealt with it in words of unusual fullness. + +I need not recall the whole illustration. It is the parable of the +Vine. Did you ever think why Christ spoke that parable? He did not +merely throw it into space as a fine illustration of general truths. +It was not simply a statement of the mystical union, and the doctrine +of an indwelling Christ. It was that; but it was more. After He had +said it, He did what was not an unusual thing when He was teaching His +greatest lessons--He turned to the disciples and said He would tell +them why He had spoken it. It was to tell them + + HOW TO GET JOY. + +"These things have I spoken unto you," He said, "that My Joy might +remain in you, and that your Joy might be full." It was a purposed and +deliberate communication of His + + SECRET OF HAPPINESS. + +Go back over these verses, then, and you will find the Causes of this +Effect, the spring, and the only spring, out of which true Happiness +comes. I am not going to analyze them in detail. I ask you to enter +into the words for yourselves. + +Remember, in the first place, that the Vine was the Eastern symbol of +Joy. It was its fruit that made glad the heart of man. Yet, however +innocent that gladness--for the expressed juice of the grape was the +common drink at every peasant's board--the gladness was only a gross +and passing thing. This was not true happiness, and the vine of the +Palestine vineyards was not the true vine. "_Christ_ was the _true_ +Vine." Here, then, is the ultimate source of Joy. Through whatever +media it reaches us, all true Joy and Gladness find their source in +Christ. + +By this, of course, is not meant that the actual Joy experienced is +transferred from Christ's nature, or is something passed on from Him +to us. What is passed on is His method of getting it. There is, +indeed, a sense in which we can share another's joy or another's +sorrow. But that is another matter. Christ is the source of Joy to men +in the sense in which He is the source of Rest. His people share His +life, and therefore share its consequences, and one of these is Joy. +His method of living is one that in the nature of things produces Joy. +When He spoke of His Joy remaining with us He meant in part that the +causes which produced it should continue to act. His followers, (that +is to say), by _repeating_ His life would experience its +accompaniments. His Joy, His kind of Joy, would remain with them. + +The medium through which this Joy comes is next explained: "He that +abideth in Me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Fruit first, Joy +next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is the +necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the +necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in +the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy +lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that +implied of peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of +that Life upon mind and character and will; and partly in the +inspiration to live and work for others, with all that that brought of +self-riddance and joy in others' gain. All these, in different ways +and at different times, are + + SOURCES OF PURE HAPPINESS. + +Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant +and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever. +Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in +Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is +Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good; +and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. The +surest proof that all this is a plain matter of Cause and Effect is +that men may try every other conceivable way of finding happiness, and +they will fail. Only the right cause in each case can produce the +right effect. + +Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense +in which grapes are our own making and no more. All fruits +_grow_--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are +the fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can _make_ +things grow. He can _get them to grow_ by arranging all the +circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is +done by God. Causes and effects are eternal arrangements, set in the +constitution of the world; fixed beyond man's ordering. What man can +do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of sequences. Thus he +can get things to grow: thus he himself can grow. But the power is the +Spirit of God. + +What more need I add but this--test the method by experiment. Do not +imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get +them. As well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can +promise that if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not +fail. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in +fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must +come. We have hitherto paid immense attention to _effects_, to the +mere experiences themselves; we have described them, extolled them, +advised them, prayed for them--done everything but find out what +_caused_ them. Henceforth + + LET US DEAL WITH CAUSES. + +"To be," says Lotze, "is to be in relations." About every other method +of living the Christian life there is an uncertainty. About every +other method of acquiring the Christian experiences there is a +"perhaps." But in so far as this method is the way of nature, it +cannot fail. Its guarantee is the laws of the universe--and these are +"the Hands of the Living God." + + THE TRUE VINE. + +"I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in +me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that +beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now +ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in +me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it +abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the +vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the +same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a +man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; +and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. +If ye abide in me, and my word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye +will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, +that ye bear much fruit; so ye shall be my disciples. As the Father +hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep +my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my +Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I +spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy +might be full." + + + + +"FIRST!" + +AN ADDRESS TO BOYS. + + +I have three heads to give you. The first is "Geography," the second +is "Arithmetic," and the third is "Grammar." + + +I. + +First. Geography tells us where to find places. + +Where is the Kingdom of God? It is said that when a Prussian officer +was killed in the Franco-Prussian war, a map of France was very often +found in his pocket. When we wish to occupy a country, we ought to +know its geography. Now, _where_ is the Kingdom of God? A boy over +there says, "It is in heaven." No; it is not in heaven. Another boy +says, "It is in the Bible." No; it is not in the Bible. Another boy +says, "It must be in the Church," No; it is not in the Church. Heaven +is only the capital of the Kingdom of God; the Bible is the guide-book +to it; the Church is the weekly parade of those who belong to it. If +you turn to the seventeenth chapter of Luke you will find out where +the Kingdom of God really is: "The Kingdom of God is within +you"--within _you_. The Kingdom of God is _inside people_. + +I remember once taking a walk by the river near where the Falls of +Niagara are, and I noticed a remarkable figure walking along the river +bank. I had been some time in America. I had seen black men, and red +men, and yellow men, and white men; black men, the Negroes; red men, +the Indians; yellow men, the Chinese; white men, the Americans. But +this man looked quite different in his dress from anything I had ever +seen. When he came a little closer, I saw he was wearing a kilt; when +he came a little nearer still, I saw that he was dressed exactly like +a Highland soldier. When he came quiet near, I said to him: + +"What are you doing here?" + +"Why should I not be here?" he replied; "don't you know this is +British soil? When you cross the river you come into Canada." + +This soldier was thousands of miles from England, and yet he was in +the Kingdom of England. Wherever there is an English heart beating +loyal to the Queen of Britain, there is England. Wherever there is a +boy whose heart is loyal to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God is +within him. + +What is the Kingdom of God? Every Kingdom has its exports, its +products. Go down the river here and you will find ships coming in +with cotton; you know they come from America. You will find ships with +tea; you know they are from China. Ships with wool; you know they come +from Australia. Ships with sugar; you know they come from Java. + +What comes from the Kingdom of God? Again we must refer to our +Guide-book. Turn to Romans, and we shall find what the Kingdom of God +is. I will read it: "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, +joy"--three things. "The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy." +Righteousness, of course, is just doing what is right. Any boy who +does what is _right_ has the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy who, +instead of being quarrelsome, lives at peace with the other boys, has +the Kingdom of God within him. Any boy whose heart is filled with joy +because he does what is right, has the Kingdom of God within him. The +Kingdom of God is not going to religious meetings, and hearing strange +religious experiences; the Kingdom of God is doing what is +right--living at peace with all men, being filled with joy in the Holy +Ghost. + +Boys, if you are going to be Christians, be Christians as boys, and +not as your grandmothers. A grandmother has to be a Christian as a +grandmother, and that is the right and the beautiful thing for her; +but if you cannot read your Bible by the hour as your grandmother can, +or delight in meetings as she can, don't think you are necessarily a +bad boy. When you are your grandmother's age you will have your +grandmother's kind of religion. Meantime, be a Christian as a boy. +Live a boy's life. Do the straight thing; seek the kingdom of +righteousness and honor and truth. Keep the peace with the boys about +you, and be filled with the joy of being a loyal, and simple, and +natural, and boy-like servant of Christ. + +You can very easily tell a house, or a workshop, or an office where +the Kingdom of God is _not_. The first thing you see in that place is +that the "straight thing" is not always done. Customers do not get +fair play. You are in danger of learning to cheat and to lie. Better a +thousand times to starve than to stay in a place where you cannot do +what is right. + +Or, when you go into your workshop, you find everybody sulky, touchy, +and ill-tempered, everybody at daggers-drawn with everybody else, some +of the men not on speaking terms with some of the others, and the +whole _feel_ of the place miserable and unhappy. The Kingdom of God is +not there, for _it_ is peace. It is the Kingdom of the Devil that is +anger, and wrath and malice. + +If you want to get the Kingdom of God into your workshop, or into your +home, let the quarreling be stopped. Live in peace and harmony and +brotherliness with everyone. For the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of +brothers. It is a great Society, founded by Jesus Christ, of all the +people who try to live like Him, and to make the world better and +sweeter and happier. Wherever a boy is trying to do that, in the house +or on the street, in the workshop or on the baseball field, there is +the Kingdom of God. And every boy, however small or obscure or poor, +who is seeking that, is a member of it. You see now, I hope, what the +Kingdom is. + + +II. + +I pass, therefore, to the second head; What was it? Arithmetic. Are +there any arithmetic words in this text? "Added." What other +arithmetic words? "First." + +Now, don't you think you could not have anything better to seek +"first" than the things I have named to do what is right, to live at +peace, and be always making those about you happy? You see at once why +Christ tells us to seek these things first--because they are + + THE BEST WORTH SEEKING. + +Do you know anything better than these three things, anything happier, +purer, nobler? If you do, seek them first. But if you do not, seek +first the Kingdom of God. I do not tell you to be religious. You know +that. I do not tell you to seek the Kingdom of God. I tell you to seek +the Kingdom of God _first_. _First._ Not many people do that. They put +a little religion into their life--once a week, perhaps. They might +just as well let it alone. It is not worth seeking the Kingdom of God +unless we seek it _first_. + +Suppose you take the helm out of a ship and hang it over the bow, and +send that ship to sea, will it ever reach the other side? Certainly +not. It will drift about anyhow. Keep religion in its place, and it +will take you straight through life and straight to your Father in +heaven when life is over. But if you do not put it in its place, you +may just as well have nothing to do with it. Religion out of its place +in a human life is the most miserable thing in the world. There is +nothing that requires so much to be kept in its place as religion, and +its place is what? second? third? "First." Boys, _first_ the Kingdom +of God; make it so that it will be natural to you to think about that +the very first thing. + +There was a boy in Glasgow apprenticed to a gentleman who made +telegraphs. (The gentleman told me this himself.) One day this boy was +up on the top of a four-story house with a number of men fixing up a +telegraph wire. The work was all but done. It was getting late, and +the men said they were going away home, and the boy was to nip off the +ends of the wire himself. Before going down they told him to be sure +to go back to the workshop, when he was finished, with his master's +tools. + +"Do not leave any of them lying about, whatever you do," said the +foreman. + +The boy climbed up the pole and began to nip off the ends of the wire. +It was a very cold winter night, and the dusk was gathering. He lost +his hold and fell upon the slates, slid down, and then over and over +to the ground below. A clothes-rope stretched across the "green" on to +which he was just about to fall, caught him on the chest and broke his +fall; but the shock was terrible, and he lay unconscious among some +clothes upon the green. + +An old woman came out; seeing her rope broken and the clothes all +soiled, thought the boy was drunk, shook him, scolded him, and went +for the policeman. The boy with the shaking came back to +consciousness, rubbed his eyes, and got upon his feet. What do you +think he did? He staggered, half-blind, up the stairs. He climbed the +ladder. He got on to the roof of the house. He gathered up his tools, +put them into his basket, took them down, and when he got to the +ground again fainted dead away. + +Just then the policeman came, saw there was something seriously wrong, +and carried him away to the hospital, where he lay for some time. I am +glad to say he got better. + +What was his first thought at that terrible moment? His duty. He was +not thinking of himself; he was thinking about his master. First, the +Kingdom of God. + +But there is another arithmetic word. What is it? "Added." + +You know the difference between _addition_ and _subtraction_. Now, +that is + + A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE + +in religion, because--and it is a very strange thing--very few people +know the difference when they begin to talk about religion. They often +tell boys that if they seek the Kingdom of God, everything else is +going to be _subtracted_ from them. They tell them that they are going +to become gloomy, miserable, and will lose everything that makes a +boy's life worth living--that they will have to stop baseball and +story-books, and become little old men, and spend all their time in +going to meetings and in singing hymns. + +Now, that is not true. Christ never said anything like that. Christ +said we are to "Seek first the Kingdom of God," and + + EVERYTHING ELSE WORTH HAVING + +is to be _added_ unto us. If there is anything I would like you to +remember, it is these two arithmetic words--"first" and "added." + +I do not mean by "added" that if you become religious you are all +going to become _rich_. Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop +tomorrow, finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes. Well, nobody +has missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a hole +there. By breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's +pocket. And by-and-by he goes to his master. He says (to _himself_, +and not to his master), "I was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, and I +was told to seek _first_ that which was right." Then he says to his +master: + +"Please, sir, here is a quarter that I found upon the floor." + +The master puts it in the till. What has the boy got in his pocket? +Nothing; _but he has got the Kingdom of God in his heart_. He has laid +up treasure in heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than the +quarter. + +Now, that boy does not find a dollar on his way home. I have known +that happen, but that is not what is meant by "adding." It does not +mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for He pays in +better coin. + +Yet I remember once hearing of a boy who was paid in both ways. He was +very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to +him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business, +and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and +the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many years to +start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went +across the desert; and as he was going out of the door she said: + +"My boy, I have only two words for you--'Fear God, and never tell a +lie.'" + +The boy started off, and towards evening he saw glittering in the +distance the minarets of the great city. But between the city and +himself he saw a cloud of dust. It came nearer. Presently he saw that +it was a band of robbers. + +One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +The boy looked him in the face said: + +"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber laughed and wheeled around his horse and went away back. He +would not believe the boy. + +Presently another robber came and he said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +"Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber said: "The boy is a fool," and wheeled his horse and rode +away back. + +By and by the robber captain came and he said: + +"Boy, what have you got?" + +"I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat." + +The robber dismounted, and put his hand over the boy's breast, felt +something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, till he counted +out the forty golden coins. He looked the boy in the face and said: + +"Why did you tell me that? + +The boy said: "Because of God and my mother." + +The robber leaned on his spear and thought and said: + +"Wait a moment." + +He mounted his horse, rode back to the rest of the robbers, and came +back in about five minutes with his dress changed. This time he looked +not like a robber, but like a merchant. He took the boy up on his +horse and said: + +"My boy, I have long wanted to do something for my God and for my +mother, and I have this moment renounced my robber's life. I am also a +merchant. I have a large business house in the city. I want you to +come and live with me, to teach me about your God; and you will be +rich, and your mother some day will come and live with us." + +And it all happened. By seeking first the Kingdom of God, all these +things were added unto him. + +Boys, banish forever from your minds the idea that religion is +_subtraction_. It does not tell us to give things up, but rather gives +us something so much better that they give themselves up. When you see +a boy on the street whipping a top, you know, perhaps, that you could +not make that boy happier than by giving him a top, a whip, and half +an hour to whip it. But next birthday, when he looks back he says, + +"What a goose I was last year to be delighted with a top. What I want +now is a baseball bat." + +Then when he becomes an old man, he does not care in the least for a +baseball bat; he wants rest, and a snug fireside and a newspaper every +day. He wonders how he could ever have taken up his thoughts with +baseball bats and whipping-tops. + +Now, when a boy becomes a Christian, he grows out of the evil things +one by one--that is to say, if they are really evil--which he used to +set his heart upon; (of course I do not mean baseball bats, for they +are not evils); and so instead of telling people to give up things, we +are safer to tell them to "seek first the Kingdom of God," and then +they will get new things and better things, and + + THE OLD THINGS WILL DROP OFF + +of themselves. This is what is meant by the "new heart." It means that +God puts into us new thoughts and new wishes, and we become quite +different. + + +III. + +Lastly, and very shortly. What was the third head? "Grammar." Right. + +Now, I require a clever boy to answer the next question. What is the +verb? "Seek." Very good: "seek." What mood is it in? "Imperative +mood." What does that mean? "A command." What is the soldier's first +lesson? "Obedience." Have you obeyed this command? Remember the +imperative mood of these words, "_Seek_ first the Kingdom of God." + +This is the command of your King. It _must_ be done. I have been +trying to show you what a splendid thing it is; what a reasonable +thing it is; what a happy thing it is; but beyond all these reasons, +it is a thing that _must_ be done, because we are _commanded_ to do it +by our Captain. Now, there is His command to seek _first_ the Kingdom +of God. Have you done it? + +"Well," I know some boys will say, "we are going to have a good time, +enjoy life, and then we are going to seek--_last_--the Kingdom of +God." + +Now, that is mean; it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take all +the good gifts that God has given him, and then give him nothing back +in return but + + HIS WASTED LIFE. + +God wants boys' _lives_, not only their souls. It is for active +service that soldiers are drilled, and trained, and fed, and armed. +That is why you and I are in the world at all--not to prepare to go +out of it some day, but to serve God actively in it _now_. It is +monstrous, and shameful, and cowardly to talk of seeking the Kingdom +_last_. It is shirking duty, abandoning one's rightful post, playing +into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank. Every hour a +Kingdom is coming in your heart, in your home, in the world near you, +be it a Kingdom of Darkness or a Kingdom of Light. You are placed +where you are, in a particular business, in a particular street, to +help on there the Kingdom of God. You cannot do that when you are old +and ready to die. By that time your companions will have fought their +fight, and lost or won. If they lose, will you not be sorry that you +did not help them? Will you not regret that only at the last you +helped the Kingdom of God? Perhaps you will not be able to do it +then. And then your life has been lost indeed. + +Very few people have the opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God at the +end. Christ, knowing all that, knowing that religion was a thing for +our life, not merely for our death-bed, has laid this command upon us +now: "Seek _first_ the Kingdom of God." + +I am going to leave you with this text itself. Every boy in the world +should obey it. + +Boys, before you go to work to-morrow, before you go to sleep +to-night, resolve that, God helping you, you are going to seek _first_ +the Kingdom of God. Perhaps some boys here are deserters; they began +once before to serve Christ, and they deserted. Come back again, come +back again today! Others have never enlisted at all. Will you not do +it now? You are old enough to decide. The grandest moment of a boy's +life is that moment when he decides to "_Seek first the Kingdom of +God_." + + + + +THE CHANGED LIFE: + +THE GREATEST NEED OF THE WORLD. + + +God is all for quality; man is for quantity. The immediate need of the +world at this moment is not more of us, but, if I may use the +expression, a better brand of us. To secure ten men of an improved +type would be better than if we had ten thousand more of the average +Christians distributed all over the world. There is such a thing in +the evangelistic sense as winning the whole world and losing our own +soul. And the first consideration is our own life--our own spiritual +relations to God--our own likeness to Christ. And I am anxious, +briefly, to look at the right and the wrong way of becoming like +Christ--of becoming better men: the right and the wrong way of +sanctification. + +Let me begin by naming, and in part discarding, some processes in +vogue already for producing better lives. These processes are far from +wrong; in their place they may even be essential. One ventures to +disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect +possible work. + +I. The first imperfect method is to rely on + + RESOLUTION. + +In will power, in mere spasms of earnestness, there is no salvation. +Struggle, effort, even agony, have their place in Christianity, as we +shall see; but this is not where they come in. + +In mid-Atlantic the Etruria, in which I was sailing, suddenly stopped. +Something had gone wrong with the engines. There were five hundred +able-bodied men on board the ship. Do you think that if we had +gathered together and pushed against the mast we could have pushed it +on? + +When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make +his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man +trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his +own head. + +Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said, "Which of +you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" Put down that +method forever as being futile. + +The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this--that +those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the +goal. + +2. Another experimenter says: "But that is not my method. I have seen +the folly of a mere wild struggle in the dark. I work on a principle. +My plan is not to waste power on random effort, but to concentrate on +a single sin. By taking + + ONE AT A TIME + +and crucifying it steadily, I hope in the end to extirpate all." + +To this, unfortunately, there are four objections: For one thing, life +is too short; the name of sin is legion. For another thing, to deal +with individual sins is to leave the rest of the nature for the time +untouched. In the third place, a single combat with a special sin does +not affect the root and spring of the disease. If you dam up a stream +at one place, it will simply overflow higher up. If only one of the +channels of sin be obstructed, experience points to an almost certain +overflow through some other part of the nature. Partial conversion is +almost always accompanied by such moral leakage, for the pent-up +energies accumulate to the bursting point, and the last state of that +soul may be worse than the first. In the last place, religion does not +consist in negatives, in stopping this sin and stopping that. The +perfect character can never be produced with a pruning knife. + +3. But a third protests: "So be it. I make no attempt to stop sins one +by one. My method is just the opposite. + + I COPY THE VIRTUES + +one by one." + +The difficulty about the copying method is that it is apt to be +mechanical. One can always tell an engraving from a picture, an +artificial flower from a real flower. To copy virtues one by one has +somewhat the same effect as eradicating the vices one by one; the +temporary result is an overbalanced and incongruous character. Some +one defines a _prig_ as "a creature that is over-fed for its size." +One sometimes finds Christians of this species--over-fed on one side +of their nature, but dismally thin and starved looking on the other. +The result, for instance, of copying Humility, and adding it on to an +otherwise worldly life, is simply grotesque. A rabid temperance +advocate, for the same reason, is often the poorest of creatures, +flourishing on a single virtue, and quite oblivious that his +Temperance is making a worse man of him and not a better. These are +examples of fine virtues spoiled by association with mean companions. +Character is a unity, and all the virtues must advance together to +make the perfect man. + +This method of sanctification, nevertheless, is in the true direction. +It is only in the details of execution that it fails. + +4. A fourth method I need scarcely mention, for it is a variation on +those already named. It is + + THE VERY YOUNG MAN'S METHOD; + +and the pure earnestness of it makes it almost desecration to touch +it. It is to keep a private note-book with columns for the days of the +week, and a list of virtues, with spaces against each for marks. This, +with many stern rules for preface, is stored away in a secret place, +and from time to time, at nightfall, the soul is arraigned before it +as before a private judgment bar. + +This living by code was Franklin's method; and I suppose thousands +more could tell how they had hung up in their bedrooms, or hid in +locked-fast drawers, the rules which one solemn day they drew up to +shape their lives. + +This method is not erroneous, only somehow its success is poor. You +bear me witness that it fails. And it fails generally for very +matter-of-fact reasons--most likely because one day we forget the +rules. + +All these methods that have been named--the self-sufficient method, +the self-crucifixion method, the mimetic method, and the diary +method--are perfectly human, perfectly natural, perfectly ignorant, +and as they stand perfectly inadequate. It is not argued, I repeat, +that they must be abandoned. Their harm is rather that they distract +attention from the true working method, and secure a fair result at +the expense of the perfect one. What that perfect method is we shall +now go on to ask. + + +I. THE FORMULA OF SANCTIFICATION. + +A formula, a receipt for Sanctification--can one seriously speak of +this mighty change as if the process were as definite as for the +production of so many volts of electricity? + +It is impossible to doubt it. Shall a mechanical experiment succeed +infallibly, and the one vital experiment of humanity remain a chance? +Is corn to grow by method, and character by caprice? If we cannot +calculate to a certainty that the forces of religion will do their +work, then is religion vain. And if we cannot express the law of these +forces in simple words, then is Christianity not the world's religion, +but the world's conundrum. + +Where, then, shall one look for such a formula? Where one would look +for any formula--among the text-books. And if we turn to the +text-books of Christianity we shall find a formula for this problem as +clear and precise as any in the mechanical sciences. If this simple +rule, moreover, be but followed fearlessly, it will yield the result +of a perfect character as surely as any result that is guaranteed by +the laws of nature. + +The finest expression of this rule in Scripture, or indeed in any +literature, is probably one drawn up and condensed into a single verse +by Paul. You will find it in a letter--the second to the +Corinthians--written by him to some Christian people who, in a city +which was a byword for depravity and licentiousness, were seeking the +higher life. To see the point of the words we must take them from the +immensely improved rendering of the Revised translation, for the older +Version in this case greatly obscures the sense. They are these: + +"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the +Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as +from the Lord, the Spirit." + +Now observe at the outset the entire contradiction of all our previous +efforts, in the simple passive: "_We are transformed._" + +We _are changed_, as the Old Version has it--we do not change +ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament you +will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations are +described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be pointed +out that there is a _rationale_ in this; but meantime do not toss +these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort or +ignored intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here is no more +than is everywhere claimed for the body. In physiology the verbs +describing the processes of growth are in the passive. Growth is not +voluntary; it takes place, it happens, it is wrought upon matter. So +here. "Ye must be born again"--we cannot born ourselves. "Be not +conformed to this world, but _be ye transformed_"--we are subjects to +transforming influence, we do not transform ourselves. Not more +certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer that +produces a change in the thermometer, than it is + + SOMETHING OUTSIDE THE SOUL OF MAN + +that produces a moral change upon him. That he must be susceptible to +that change, that he must be a party to it, goes without saying; but +that neither his aptitude nor his will can produce it, is equally +certain. + +Obvious as it ought to seem, this may be to some an almost startling +revelation. The change we have been striving after is not to be +produced by any more striving. It is to be wrought upon us by the +moulding of hands beyond our own. As the branch ascends, and the bud +bursts, and the fruit reddens under the co-operation of influences +from the outside air, so man rises to the higher stature under +invisible pressures from without. The radical defect of all our former +methods of sanctification was the attempt to generate from within that +which can only be wrought upon us from without. According to the first +Law of Motion, every body continues in its state of rest, or of +uniform motion in a straight line, except in so far as it may be +compelled _by impressed forces_ to change that state. This is also a +first law of Christianity. Every man's character remains as it is, or +continues in the direction in which it is going, until it is compelled +_by impressed forces_ to change that state. Our failure has been the +failure to put ourselves in the way of the impressed forces. There is +a clay, and there is a Potter; we have tried to get the clay to mould +the clay. + +Whence, then, these pressures, and where this Potter? The answer of +the formula is--"By reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord we +are changed." But this is not very clear. What is the "glory" of the +Lord, and how can mortal man reflect it, and how can that act as an +"impressed force" in moulding him to a nobler form? The word +"glory"--the word which has to bear the weight of holding those +"impressed forces"--is a stranger in current speech, and our first +duty is to seek out its equivalent in working English. It suggests at +first a radiance of some kind, something dazzling or glittering, some +halo such as the old masters loved to paint round the head of their +Ecce Homos. But that is paint, mere matter, the visible symbol of some +unseen thing. What is that unseen thing? It is that of all unseen +things the most radiant, the most beautiful, the most Divine, and that +is _Character_. On earth, in Heaven, there is nothing so great, so +glorious as this. The word has many meanings; in ethics it can have +but one. Glory is character, and nothing less, and it can be nothing +more. The earth is "full of the glory of the Lord," because it is full +of His character. The "Beauty of the Lord" is character. "The +effulgence of His Glory" is character. "The Glory of the Only +Begotten" is character, the character which is "fullness of grace and +truth." And when God told His people _His name_, He simply gave them +His character, His character which was Himself: "And the Lord +proclaimed the name of the Lord ... the Lord, the Lord God, merciful +and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth." +Glory then is not something intangible, or ghostly, or transcendental. +If it were this, how could Paul ask men to reflect it? Stripped of its +physical enswathement it is Beauty, moral and spiritual Beauty, Beauty +infinitely real, infinitely exalted, yet infinitely near and +infinitely communicable. + +With this explanation read over the sentence once more in paraphrase: +We all reflecting as a mirror the character of Christ are transformed +into the same Image from character to character--from a poor character +to a better one, from a better one to a little better still, from that +to one still more complete, until by slow degrees the Perfect Image is +attained. Here + + THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SANCTIFICATION + +is compressed into a sentence: Reflect the character of Christ, and +you will become like Christ. You will be changed, in spite of yourself +and unknown to yourself, into the same image from character to +character. + +(1). All men are reflectors--that is + + THE FIRST LAW + +on which this formula is based. One of the aptest descriptions of a +human being is that he is a mirror. As we sat at table to-night the +world in which each of us lived and moved throughout this day was +focused in the room. What we saw when we looked at one another was not +one another, but one another's world. We were an arrangement of +mirrors. The scenes we saw were all reproduced; the people we met +walked to and fro; they spoke, they bowed, they passed us by, did +everything over again as if it had been real. When we talked, we were +but looking at our own mirror and describing what flitted across it; +our listening was not hearing, but seeing--we but looked on our +neighbor's mirror. + +All human intercourse is a seeing of reflections. I meet a stranger in +a railway carriage. The cadence of his first words tells me he is +English and comes from Yorkshire. Without knowing it he has reflected +his birthplace, his parents, and the long history of their race. Even +physiologically he is a mirror. His second sentence records that he is +a politician, and a faint inflection in the way he pronounces _The +Times_ reveals his party. In his next remarks I see reflected a whole +world of experiences. The books he has read, the people he has met, +the companions he keeps, the influences that have played upon him and +made him the man he is--these are all registered there by a pen which +lets nothing pass, and whose writing can + + NEVER BE BLOTTED OUT. + +What I am reading in him meantime he also is reading in me; and before +the journey is over we could half write each other's lives. Whether we +like it or not, we live in glass houses. The mind, the memory, the +soul, is simply a vast chamber panelled with looking-glass. And upon +this miraculous arrangement and endowment depends the capacity of +mortal souls to "reflect the character of the Lord." + +(2). But this is not all. If all these varied reflections from our +so-called secret life are patent to the world, how close the writing, +complete the record within the soul itself! For the influences we meet +are not simply held for a moment on the polished surface and thrown +off again into space. Each is retained where first it fell, and stored +up in the soul forever. + + THIS LAW OF ASSIMILATION + +is the second, and by far the most impressive truth which underlies +the formula of sanctification--the truth that men are not only +mirrors, but that these mirrors, so far from being mere reflectors of +the fleeting things they see, transfer into their own inmost +substance, and hold in permanent preservation the things that they +reflect. + +No one knows how the soul can hold these things. No one knows how the +miracle is done. No phenomenon in nature, no process in chemistry, no +chapter in necromancy can ever help us to begin to understand this +amazing operation. For, think of it, the past is not only _focused_ +there, in a man's soul, it _is_ there. How could it be reflected from +there if it were not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, +felt, believed of the surrounding world are now within him, have +become part of him, in part are him--he has been changed into their +image. He may deny it, he may resent it, but they are there. They do +not adhere to him, they are transfused through him. He cannot alter or +rub them out. They are not in his memory, they are in _him_. His soul +is as they have filled it, made it, left it. These things, these +books, these events, these influences are his makers. In their hands +are life and death, beauty and deformity. When once the image or +likeness of any of these is fairly presented to the soul, no power on +earth can hinder two things happening--it must be absorbed into the +soul and forever reflected back again from character. + +Upon these astounding yet perfectly obvious psychological facts, Paul +bases his doctrine of sanctification. He sees that character is a +thing built up by slow degrees, that it is hourly changing for better +or for worse according to the images which flit across it. One step +further and the whole length and breadth of the application of these +ideas to the central problem of religion will stand before us. + + +II. THE ALCHEMY OF INFLUENCE. + +If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on +the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange words +when we meet; what we exchange is souls. And when intercourse is very +close and very frequent, so complete is this exchange that +recognizable bits of the one soul begin to show in the other's +nature, and the second is conscious of a similar and growing debt to +the first. + +Now, we become like those whom we habitually reflect. I could prove +from science that applies even to the physical framework of +animals--that they are influenced and organically changed by the +environment in which they live. + +This mysterious approximating of two souls, who has not witnessed? Who +has not watched some old couple come down life's pilgrimage hand in +hand, with such gentle trust and joy in one another that their very +faces wore the self-same look? These were not two souls; it was a +composite soul. It did not matter to which of the two you spoke, you +would have said the same words to either. It was quite indifferent +which replied, each would have said the same. Half a century's +_reflecting_ had told upon them; they were changed into the same +image. It is the Law of Influence that _we become like those whom we +habitually reflect_: these had become like because they habitually +reflected. Through all the range of literature, of history, and +biography this law presides. Men are all mosaics of other men. There +was a savor of David about Jonathan, and a savor of Jonathan about +David. Metempsychosis is a fact. George Eliot's message to the world +was that men and women make men and women. The Family, the cradle of +mankind, has no meaning apart from this. Society itself is nothing but +a rallying point for these omnipotent forces to do their work. On the +doctrine of Influence, in short, the whole vast pyramid of humanity is +built. + +But it was reserved for Paul to make the supreme application of the +Law of Influence. It was a tremendous inference to make, but he never +hesitated. He himself was a changed man; he knew exactly what had done +it; + + IT WAS CHRIST. + +On the Damascus road they met, and from that hour his life was +absorbed in His. The effect could not but follow--on words, on deeds, +on career, on creed. The "impressed forces" did their vital work. He +became like Him Whom he habitually loved. "So we all," he writes, +"reflecting as a mirror the glory of Christ, are changed into the same +image." + +Nothing could be more simple, more intelligible, more natural, more +supernatural. It is an analogy from an every-day fact. Since we are +what we are by the impacts of those who surround us, those who +surround themselves with the highest will be those who change into the +highest. There are some men and some women in whose company we are + + ALWAYS AT OUR BEST. + +While with them we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous +words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity. All +the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and +we find a music in our souls that was never there before. Suppose even +_that_ influence prolonged through a month, a year, a lifetime, and +what could not life become? Here, even on the common plane of life, +talking our language, walking our streets, working side by side, are +sanctifiers of souls; here, breathing through common clay, is Heaven; +here, energies charged even through a temporal medium with the virtue +of regeneration. If to live with men, diluted to the millionth degree +with the virtue of the Highest, can exalt and purify the nature, what +bounds can be set to the influence of Christ? To live with +Socrates--with unveiled face--must have made one wise; with Aristides, +just. Francis Assisi must have made one gentle; Savonarola, strong. +But to have lived with Christ must have made one like Christ: that is +to say, _A Christian_. + +As a matter of fact, to live with Christ did produce this effect. It +produced it in the case of Paul. And during Christ's lifetime the +experiment was tried in an even more startling form. A few raw, +unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the inner circle of His +friendship. The change began at once. Day by day we can almost see the +first disciple grow. First there steals over them the faintest +possible adumbration of His character, and occasionally, very +occasionally, they do a thing or say a thing that they could not have +done or said had they not been living there. Slowly the spell of His +Life deepens. Reach after reach of their nature is overtaken, thawed, +subjugated, sanctified. Their manner softens, their words become more +gentle, their conduct more unselfish. As swallows who have found a +summer, as frozen buds the spring, their starved humanity bursts into +a fuller life. They do not know how it is, but they are different men. + +One day they find themselves like their Master, going about and doing +good. To themselves it is unaccountable, but they cannot do otherwise. +They were not told to do it, it came to them to do it. But the people +who watch them know well how to account for it--"They have been," they +whisper, "with Jesus." Already even, the mark and seal of His +character is upon them--"They have been with Jesus." Unparalleled +phenomenon, that these poor fishermen should remind other men of +Christ! Stupendous victory and mystery of + + REGENERATION + +that mortal men should suggest _God_ to the world! + +There is something almost melting in the way His contemporaries, and +John especially, speak of the influence of Christ. John lived himself +in daily wonder at Him; he was overpowered, over-awed, entranced, +transfigured. To his mind it was impossible for any one to come under +this influence and ever be the same again. "Whosoever abideth in Him +sinneth not," he said. It was inconceivable that he should sin, as +inconceivable as that ice should live in a burning sun, or darkness +coexist with noon. If any one did sin, it was to John the simple proof +that he could never have met Christ. "Whosoever sinneth," he exclaims, +"hath not seen _Him_, neither known _Him_." Sin was abashed in this +Presence. Its roots withered. Its sway and victory were forever at an +end. + +But these were His contemporaries. It was easy for _them_ to be +influenced by Him, for they were every day and all the day together. +But how can we mirror that which we have never seen? How can all this +stupendous result be produced by a Memory, by the scantiest of all +Biographies, by One who lived and left this earth eighteen hundred +years ago? How can modern men to-day make Christ, the absent Christ, +their most constant companion still? + +The answer is that + + FRIENDSHIP IS A SPIRITUAL THING. + +It is independent of Matter, or Space, or Time. That which I love in +my friend is not that which I see. What influences me in my friend is +not his body but his spirit. He influences me about as much in his +absence as in his presence. It would have been an ineffable experience +truly to have lived at that time-- + + "I think when I read the sweet story of old, + How when Jesus was here among men, + He took little children like lambs to His fold, + I should like to have been with Him then. + + "I wish that His hand had been laid on my head, + That His arms had been thrown around me, + And that I had seen His kind look when he said, + 'Let the little ones come unto me.'" + +And yet, if Christ were to come into the world again, few of us +probably would ever have a chance of seeing Him. Millions of her +subjects in the little country of England have never seen their own +Queen. And there would be millions of the subjects of Christ who could +never get within speaking distance of Him if He were here. We remember +He said: "It is expedient for you (not _for Me_) that I go away"; +because by going away He could really be nearer to us than He would +have been if He had stayed here. It would be geographically and +physically impossible for most of us to be influenced by His person +had He remained. And so our communion with Him is a spiritual +companionship; but not different from most companionships, which, when +you press them down to the roots, you will find to be essentially +spiritual. + +All friendship, all love, human and Divine, is purely spiritual. It +was after He was risen that He influenced even the disciples most. +Hence, in reflecting the character of Christ, it is no real obstacle +that we may never have been in visible contact with Himself. + +There lived once a young girl whose perfect grace of character was the +wonder of those who knew her. She wore on her neck a gold locket which +no one was ever allowed to open. One day, in a moment of unusual +confidence, one of her companions was allowed to touch its spring and +learn its secret. She saw written these words-- + +"_Whom having not seen I love_." + +That was the secret of her beautiful life. She had been changed into +the Same Image. + +Now this is not imitation, but a much deeper thing. Mark this +distinction, for the difference in the process, as well as in the +result, may be as great as that between a photograph secured by the +infallible pencil of the sun, and the rude outline from a school-boy's +chalk. Imitation is mechanical, reflection organic. The one is +occasional, the other habitual. In the one case, man comes to God and +imitates him; in the other, God comes to man and imprints Himself upon +him. It is quite true that there is an imitation of Christ which +amounts to reflection. But Paul's term includes all that the other +holds, and is open to no mistake. + +What, then, is the practical lesson? It is obvious. "Make Christ your +most constant companion"--this is what it practically means for us. Be +more under His influence than under any other influence. Ten minutes +spent in His society every day, ay, two minutes if it be face to face, +and heart to heart, will make the whole day different. Every character +has an inward spring,--let Christ be it. Every action has a +key-note,--let Christ set it. + +Yesterday you got a certain letter. You sat down and wrote a reply +which almost scorched the paper. You picked the cruelest adjectives +you knew and sent it forth, without a pang to do its ruthless work. +You did that because your life was set in the wrong key. You began the +day with the mirror placed at the wrong angle. + +Tomorrow at day-break, turn it towards Him, and even to your enemy the +fashion of your countenance will be changed. Whatever you then do, one +thing you will find you could not do--you could not write that letter. +Your first impulse may be the same, your judgment may be unchanged, +but if you try it the ink will dry on your pen, and you will rise from +your desk an unavenged, but a greater and more Christian man. +Throughout the whole day your actions, down to the last detail, will +do homage to that early vision. + +Yesterday you thought mostly about yourself. Today the poor will meet +you, and you will feed them. The helpless, the tempted, the sad, will +throng about you, and each you will befriend. Where were all these +people yesterday? Where they are today, but you did not see them. It +is in reflected light that the poor are seen. But your soul today is + + NOT AT THE ORDINARY ANGLE. + +"Things which are not seen" are visible. For a few short hours you +live the Eternal Life. The eternal life, the life of faith, is simply +the life of a higher vision. Faith is an attitude--a mirror set at the +right angle. + +When tomorrow is over, and in the evening you review it, you will +wonder how you did it. You will not be conscious that you strove for +anything, or imitated anything, or crucified anything. You will be +conscious of Christ; that He was with you, that without compulsion you +were yet compelled; that without force, or noise, or proclamation, the +revolution was accomplished. You do not congratulate yourself as one +who has done a mighty deed, or achieved a personal success, or stored +up a fund of "Christian experience" to ensure the same result again. +What you are conscious of is "the glory of the Lord." And what the +world is conscious of, if the result be a true one, is also "the glory +of the Lord." In looking at a mirror one does not see the mirror, or +think of it, but only of what it reflects. For a mirror never calls +the attention to itself--except when there are flaws in it. + +Let me say a word or two more about the effects which necessarily must +follow from this contact, or fellowship, with Christ. I need not quote +the texts upon the subject--the texts about abiding in Christ. "He +that abideth in Him sinneth not." You cannot sin when you are standing +in front of Christ. You simply cannot do it. Again: "If ye abide in +Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall +be done unto you." Think of that! That is another inevitable +consequence. And there is yet another: "He that abideth in Me, the +same bringeth forth much fruit." Sinlessness--answered prayer--much +fruit. + +But in addition to these things, see how many of the highest Christian +virtues and experiences necessarily flow from the assumption of that +attitude toward Christ. For instance, the moment you assume that +relation to Christ you begin to know what the _child-spirit_ is. You +stand before Christ, and He becomes your Teacher, and you +instinctively become docile. Then you learn also to become +_charitable_ and _tolerant_; because you are learning of Him, and He +is "meek and lowly in heart," and you catch that spirit. That is a bit +of His character being reflected into yours. Instead of being critical +and self-asserting, you become humble and have the mind of a little +child. + +I think, further, the only way of learning what _faith_ is is to know +Christ and be in His company. You hear sermons about the nine +different kinds of faith--distinctions drawn between the right kind of +faith and the wrong--and sermons telling you how to get faith. So far +as I can see, there is + + ONLY ONE WAY + +in which faith is got, and it is the same in the religious world as it +is in the world of men and women. I learn to trust you, my brother, +just as I get to know you, and neither more nor less; and you get to +trust me just as you get to know me. I do not trust you as a stranger, +but as I come into contact with you, and watch you, and live with you, +I find out that you are trustworthy, and I come to trust myself to +you, and to lean upon you. But I do not do that to a stranger. + +The way to trust Christ is to know Christ. You cannot help trusting +Him then. You are changed. By knowing Him faith is begotten in you, as +cause and effect. To trust Him without knowing Him as thousands do, is +not faith, but credulity. I believe a great deal of prayer for faith +is thrown away. What we should pray for is that we may be able to +fulfill the condition, and when we have fulfilled the condition, the +faith necessarily follows. The way, therefore, to increase our faith +is to increase our intimacy with Christ. We trust Him more and more +the better we know Him. + +And then another immediate effect of this way of sanctifying the +character is the tranquillity that it brings over the Christian life. +How disturbed and distressed and anxious Christian people are about +their growth in grace! Now, the moment you give that over into +Christ's care--the moment you see that you are _being_ changed--that +anxiety passes away. You see that it must follow by an inevitable +process and by a natural law if you fulfill the simple condition; so +that peace is the reward of that life and fellowship with Christ. + +Many other things follow. A man's usefulness depends to a large extent +upon his fellowship with Christ. That is obvious. Only Christ can +influence the world; but all that the world sees of Christ is what it +sees of you and me. Christ said: "The world seeth Me no more, but ye +see Me." You see Him, and standing in front of Him reflect Him, and +the world sees the reflection. It cannot see Him. So that a +Christian's usefulness depends solely upon that relationship. + +Now, I have only pointed out a few of the things that follow from the +standing before Christ--from the abiding in Christ. You will find, if +you run over the texts about abiding in Christ, many other things will +suggest themselves in the same relations. Almost everything in +Christian experience and character follows, and follows necessarily, +from standing before Christ and reflecting his character. But the +supreme consummation is that we are changed into _the same image_, +"even as by the Lord the Spirit." That is to say, that in some way, +unknown to us, but possibly not more mysterious than the doctrine of +personal influence, we are changed into the image of Christ. + +This method cannot fail. I am not setting before you an opinion or a +theory, but this is + + A CERTAINLY SUCCESSFUL MEANS + +of sanctification. "We all, with unveiled face, reflecting in a mirror +the glory of Christ (the character of Christ) assuredly--without any +miscarriage--without any possibility of miscarriage--are changed into +the same image." It is an immense thing to be anchored in some great +principle like that. Emerson says: "The hero is the man who is +immovably centered." Get immovably centered in that doctrine of +sanctification. Do not be carried away by the hundred and one theories +of sanctification that are floating about in religious literature of +the country at the present time; but go to the bottom of the thing for +yourself, and see the _rationale_ of it for yourself, and you will +come to see that it is a matter of cause and effect, and that if you +will fulfill the condition laid down by Christ, the effect must follow +by a natural law. + +What a prospect! To be changed into the same image. Think of that! +That is what we are here for. That is what we are elected for. Not to +be saved, in the common acceptation, but "whom He did foreknow He also +did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Not merely +to be saved, but _to be conformed to the image of His Son_. Conserve +that principle. And as we must spend time in cultivating our earthly +friendships if we are to have their blessings, so we must + + SPEND TIME + +in cultivating the fellowship and companionship of Christ. And there +is nothing so much worth taking into our lives as a profounder sense +of what is to be had by living in communion with Christ, and by +getting nearer to Him. It will matter much if we take away with us +some of the thoughts about theology, and some of the new light that +has been shed upon the text of Scripture; it will matter infinitely +more if our fellowship with the Lord Jesus become a little closer, and +our theory of holy living a little more rational. And then as we go +forth, men will take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus, +and as we reflect Him upon them, they will begin to be changed into +the same image. + +It seems to me the preaching is of infinitely smaller account than the +life which mirrors Christ. That is bound to tell; without speech or +language--like the voices of the stars. It throws out its impressions +on every side. The one simple thing we have to do is to be there--in +the right relation; to go through life hand in hand with Him; to have +Him in the room with us, and keeping us company wherever we go; to +depend upon Him and lean upon Him, and so have His life reflected in +the fullness of its beauty and perfection into ours. + + +III. THE FIRST EXPERIMENT. + +Then you reduce religion to a common Friendship? A common +Friendship--who talks of a _common_ Friendship? There is no such thing +in the world. + +On earth no word is more sublime. Friendship is the nearest thing we +know to what religion is. God is love. And to make religion akin to +Friendship is simply to give it the highest expression conceivable by +man. But if by demurring to "a common friendship" is meant a protest +against the greatest and the holiest in religion being spoken of in +intelligible terms, then I am afraid the objection is all too real. +Men always look for a mystery when one talks of sanctification, some +mystery apart from that which must ever be mysterious wherever Spirit +works. It is thought some peculiar secret lies behind it, some occult +experience which only the initiated know. Thousands of persons go to +church every Sunday hoping to solve this mystery. At meetings, at +conferences, many a time they have reached what they thought was the +very brink of it, but somehow no further revelation came. Poring over +religious books, how often were they not within a paragraph of it; the +next page, the next sentence, would discover all, and they would be +borne on a flowing tide forever. But nothing happened. The next +sentence and the next page were read, and still it eluded them; and +though the promise of its coming kept faithfully up to the end, the +last chapter found them still pursuing. + +Why did nothing happen? Because there was nothing to happen--nothing +of the kind they were looking for. Why did it elude them? Because +there was no "it." When shall we learn that the pursuit of holiness is +simply + + THE PURSUIT OF CHRIST? + +When shall we substitute for the "it" of a fictitious aspiration, the +approach to a Living Friend? Sanctity is in character and not in +moods; Divinity in our own plain calm humanity, and in no mystic +rapture of the soul. + +And yet there are others who, for exactly a contrary reason, will find +scant satisfaction here. Their complaint is not that a religion +expressed in terms of Friendship is too homely, but that it is still +too mystical. To "abide" in Christ, to "make Christ our most constant +companion," is to them the purest mysticism. They want something +absolutely tangible and absolutely direct. These are not the poetical +souls who seek a sign, a mysticism in excess, but the prosaic natures +whose want is mathematical definition in details. Yet it is perhaps +not possible to reduce this problem to much more rigid elements. The +beauty of Friendship is its infinity. One can never evacuate life of +mysticism. Home is full of it, love is full of it, religion is full of +it. Why stumble at that in the relation of man to Christ which is +natural in the relation of man to man? + +If any one cannot conceive or realize a mystical relation with Christ, +perhaps all that can be done is to help him to step on to it by still +plainer analogies from common life. How do I know Shakspere or Dante? +By communing with their words and thoughts. Many men know Dante better +than their own fathers. He influences them more. As a spiritual +presence he is more near to them, as a spiritual force more real. Is +there any reason why a greater than Shakspere or Dante, who also +walked this earth, who left great words behind Him, who has greater +works everywhere in the world now, should not also instruct, inspire +and mould the characters of men? I do not limit Christ's influence to +this: it is this, and it is more. But Christ, so far from resenting +or discouraging this relation of Friendship, Himself proposed it. +"Abide in me" was almost His last word to the world. And He partly met +the difficulty of those who feel its intangibleness by adding the +practical clause, "If ye abide in Me, _and My words abide in you_." + +Begin with His words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal. +Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do +them, live them, and you must live Christ. "_He that keepeth My +Commandments_, he it is that loveth Me." Obey Him and you must love +Him. Abide in Him, and you must obey Him. _Cultivate_ His Friendship. +Live after Christ, in His Spirit, as in His Presence, and it is +difficult to think what more you can do. Take this at least as a first +lesson, as introduction. + +If you cannot at once and always feel the play of His life upon yours, +watch for it also indirectly. "The whole earth is full of the +character of the Lord." Christ is the Light of the world, and much of +his Light is reflected from things in the world--even from clouds. +Sunlight is stored in every leaf, from leaf through coal, and it +comforts us thence when days are dark and we cannot see the sun. +Christ shines through men, through books, through history, through +nature, music, art. Look for Him there. "Every day one should either +look at a beautiful picture, or hear beautiful music, or read a +beautiful poem." The real danger of mysticism is not making it broad +enough. + +Do not think that nothing is happening because you do not see yourself +grow, or hear the whir of the machinery. All great things grow +noiselessly. You can see a mushroom grow, but never a child. Paul said +for the comforting of all slowly perfecting souls that they grew +"from character to character." "The inward man," he says elsewhere, +"is renewed from day to day." All thorough work is slow; all true +development by minute, slight and insensible metamorphoses. The higher +the structure, moreover, the slower the progress. As the biologist +runs his eye over the long Ascent of Life, he sees the lowest forms of +animals develop in an hour; the next above these reach maturity in a +day; those higher still take weeks or months to perfect; but the few +at the top demand the long experiment of years. If a child and an ape +are born on the same day, the last will be in full possession of its +faculties and doing the active work of life before the child has left +its cradle. Life is the cradle of eternity. As the man is to the +animal in the slowness of his evolution, so is the spiritual man to +the natural man. Foundations which have to bear the weight of an +eternal life must be surely laid. Character is to wear forever; who +will wonder or grudge that it cannot be developed in a day? + +To await the growing of a soul, nevertheless, is an almost Divine act +of faith. How pardonable, surely, the impatience of deformity with +itself, of a consciously despicable character standing before Christ, +wondering, yearning, hungering to be like that! Yet must one trust the +process fearlessly and without misgiving. "The Lord the Spirit" will +do His part. The tempting expedient is, in haste for abrupt or visible +progress, to try some method less spiritual, or to defeat the end by +watching for effects instead of keeping the eye on the Cause. A +photograph prints from the negative only while exposed to the sun. +While the artist is looking to see how it is getting on he simply +stops the getting on. Whatever of wise supervision the soul may need, +it is certain it can never be over-exposed, or that, being exposed, +anything else in the world can improve the result or quicken it. The +creation of a new heart, the renewing of a right spirit, is an +omnipotent work of God. Leave it to the Creator. "He which hath begun +a good work in you will perfect it unto that day." + +No man, nevertheless, who feels the worth and solemnity of what is at +stake will be careless as to his progress. To become + + LIKE CHRIST + +is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before +which every ambition of man is folly, and all lower achievement vain. + +Those only who make this quest the supreme desire and passion of their +lives can ever begin to hope to reach it. If, therefore, it has seemed +up to this point as if all depended on passivity, let me now assert, +with conviction more intense, that all depends on activity. A religion +of effortless adoration may be a religion for an angel, but never for +a man. Not in the contemplative, but in the active, lies true hope; +not in rapture, but in reality, lies true life; not in the realm of +ideals, but among tangible things, is man's sanctification wrought. +Resolution, effort, pain, self-crucifixion, agony--all the things +already dismissed as futile in themselves, must now be restored to +office, and a tenfold responsibility laid upon them. For what is their +office? Nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul, and +place it, and keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it. It +is to rally the forces of the will, and keep the surface of the mirror +bright and ever in position. It is to uncover the face which is to +look at Christ, and draw down the veil when unhallowed sights are +near. + +You have, perhaps, gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the +spectrum of a star. As you enter the dark vault of the observatory you +saw him begin by lighting a candle. To see the star with? No; but to +adjust the instrument to see the star with. It was the star that was +going to take the photograph; it was, also, the astronomer. For a long +time he worked in the dimness, screwing tubes and polishing lenses and +adjusting reflectors, and only after much labor the finely focused +instrument was brought to bear. Then he blew out the light, and left +the star to do its work upon the plate alone. + +The day's task for the Christian is to bring his instrument to bear. +Having done that he may blow out his candle. All the evidences of +Christianity which have brought him there, all aids to Faith, all acts +of worship, all the leverages of the Church, all Prayer and +Meditation, all girding of the Will--these lesser processes, these +candle-light activities for that supreme hour, may be set aside. But, +remember, it is but for an hour. The wise man will be he who quickest +lights his candle, the wisest he who never lets it out. Tomorrow, the +next moment, he, a poor, darkened, blurred soul, may need it again to +focus the Image better, to take a mote off the lens, to clear the +mirror from a breath with which the world has dulled it. + +No readjustment is ever required on behalf of the Star. That is one +great fixed point in this shifting universe. But _the world moves_. +And each day, each hour, demands a further motion and readjustment for +the soul. A telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork, +but the clockwork of the soul is called _the Will_. Hence, while the +soul in passivity reflects the Image of the Lord, the Will in intense +activity holds the mirror in position lest the drifting motion of the +world bear it beyond the line of vision. To "follow Christ" is largely +to keep the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the +earth. And this calculated counteracting of the movements of the +world, this holding of the mirror exactly opposite to the Mirrored, +this steadying of the faculties unerringly through cloud and +earthquake, fire and sword, is the stupendous co-operating labor of +the Will. It is all man's work. It is all Christ's work. In practice +it is both; in theory it is both. But the wise man will say in +practice, "It depends upon myself." + +In the Gallerie des Beaux Arts in Paris there stands a famous statue. +It was the last work of a great genius, who, like many a genius, was +very poor and lived in a garret, which served as a studio and +sleeping-room alike. When the statue was all but finished, one +midnight a sudden frost fell upon Paris. The sculptor lay awake in the +fireless room and thought of the still moist clay, thought how the +water would freeze in the pores and destroy in an hour the dream of +his life. So the old man rose from his couch and heaped the +bed-clothes reverently round his work. In the morning when the +neighbors entered the room the sculptor was dead, but the statue was +saved! + +The Image of Christ that is forming within us--that is life's one +charge. Let every project stand aside for that. The spirit of God who +brooded upon the waters thousands of years ago, is busy now creating +men, within these commonplace lives of ours, in the image of God. +"Till Christ be formed," no man's work is finished, no religion +crowned, no life has fulfilled its end. Is the infinite task begun? +When, how, are we to be different? Time cannot change men. Death +cannot change men. Christ can. Wherefore _put on Christ_. + + + + +DEALING WITH DOUBT. + + +There is a subject which I think workers amongst young men cannot +afford to keep out of sight--I mean the subject of "Doubt." We are +forced to face that subject. We have no choice. I would rather let it +alone; but every day of my life I meet men who doubt, and I am quite +sure that most Christian workers among men have innumerable interviews +every year with men who raise skeptical difficulties about religion. + +Now it becomes a matter of great practical importance that we should +know how to deal wisely with these. Upon the whole, I think these are +the best men in the country. I speak of my own country. I speak of the +universities with which I am familiar, and I say that the men who are +perplexed,--the men who come to you with serious and honest +difficulties,--are the best men. They are men of intellectual honesty, +and cannot allow themselves to be put to rest by words, or phrases, or +traditions, or theologies, but who must get to the bottom of things +for themselves. And if I am not mistaken, + + CHRIST WAS VERY FOND + +of these men. The outsiders always interested Him, and touched Him. +The orthodox people--the Pharisees--He was much less interested in. He +went with publicans and sinners--with people who were in revolt +against the respectability, intellectual and religious, of the day. +And following Him, we are entitled to give sympathetic consideration +to those whom He loved and took trouble with. + +First, let me speak for a moment or two about + + THE ORIGIN OF DOUBT. + +In the first place, _we are born questioners_. Look at the wonderment +of a little child in its eyes before it can speak. The child's great +word when it begins to speak is, "Why?" Every child is full of every +kind of question, about every kind of thing, that moves, and shines, +and changes, in the little world in which it lives. + +That is the incipient doubt in the nature of man. Respect doubt for +its origin. It is an inevitable thing. It is not a thing to be +crushed. It is a part of man as God made him. Heresy is truth in the +making, and doubt is the prelude of knowledge. + +Secondly: _The world is a Sphinx._ It is a vast riddle--an +unfathomable mystery; and on every side there is temptation to +questioning. In every leaf, in every cell of every leaf, there are a +hundred problems. There are ten good years of a man's life in +investigating what is in a leaf, and there are five good years more in +investigating the things that are in the things that are in the leaf. +God has planned the world to incite men to intellectual activity. + +Thirdly: _The instrument with which we attempt to investigate truth is +impaired._ Some say it fell, and the glass is broken. Some say +prejudice, heredity, or sin, have spoiled its sight, and have blinded +our eyes and deadened our ears. In any case the instruments with +which we work upon truth, even in the strongest men, are feeble and +inadequate to their tremendous task. + +And in the fourth place, _all religious truths are doubtable_. There +is no absolute truth for any one of them. Even that fundamental +truth--the existence of a God--no man can prove by reason. The +ordinary proof for the existence of God involves either an assumption, +argument in a circle, or a contradiction. The impression of God is +kept up by experience, not by logic. And hence, when the experimental +religion of a man, of a community, or of a nation wanes, religion +wanes--their idea of God grows indistinct, and that man, community or +nation becomes infidel. + +Bear in mind, then, that all religious truths are doubtable--even +those which we hold most strongly. + +What does this brief account of the origin of doubt teach us? It +teaches us + + GREAT INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY. + +It teaches us sympathy and toleration with all men who venture upon +the ocean of truth to find out a path through it for themselves. Do +you sometimes feel yourself thinking unkind things about your +fellow-students who have intellectual difficulty? I know how hard it +is always to feel sympathy and toleration for them; but we must +address ourselves to that most carefully and most religiously. If my +brother is shortsighted I must not abuse him or speak against him; I +must pity him, and if possible try to improve his sight, or to make +things that he is to look at so bright that he cannot help seeing. But +never let us think evil of men who do not see as we do. From the +bottom of our hearts let us pity them, and let us take them by the +hand and spend time and thought over them, and try to lead them to the +true light. + +What has been + + THE CHURCH'S TREATMENT OF DOUBT + +in the past? It has been very simple. "There is a heretic. Burn him!" +That is all. "There is a man who has gone off the road. Bring him back +and torture him!" + +We have got past that physically; have we got past it morally? What +does the modern Church say to a man who is skeptical? Not "Burn him!" +but "Brand him!" "Brand him!"--call him a bad name. And in many +countries at the present time, a man who is branded as a heretic is +despised, tabooed and put out of religious society, much more than if +he had gone wrong in morals. I think I am speaking within the facts +when I say that a man who is unsound is looked upon in many +communities with more suspicion and with more pious horror than a man +who now and then gets drunk. "Burn him!" "Brand him!" "Excommunicate +him!" That has been the Church's treatment of doubt, and that is +perhaps to some extent the treatment which we ourselves are inclined +to give to the men who cannot see the truths of Christianity as we see +them. + +Contrast + + CHRIST'S TREATMENT + +of doubt. I have spoken already of His strange partiality for the +outsiders--for the scattered heretics up and down the country; of the +care with which He loved to deal with them, and of the respect in +which He held their intellectual difficulties. Christ never failed to +distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is "_can't believe_"; +unbelief is "_won't believe_." Doubt is honesty; unbelief is +obstinacy. Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is content with +darkness. Loving darkness rather than light--that is what Christ +attacked, and attacked unsparingly. But for the intellectual +questioning of Thomas, and Philip, and Nicodemus, and the many others +who came to Him to have their great problems solved, He was respectful +and generous and tolerant. + +And how did He meet their doubts? The Church, as I have said, says, +"Brand him!" Christ said, "Teach him." He destroyed by fulfilling. +When Thomas came to Him and denied His very resurrection, and stood +before Him waiting for the scathing words and lashing for his +unbelief, they never came. They never came! Christ gave him +facts--facts! No man can go around facts. Christ said, "Behold My +hands and My feet." The great god of science at the present time is a +fact. It works with facts. Its cry is, "Give me facts. Found anything +you like upon facts and we will believe it." The spirit of Christ was +the scientific spirit. He founded His religion upon facts; and He +asked all men to found their religion upon facts. + +Now, get up the facts of Christianity, and take men to the facts. +Theologies--and I am not speaking disrespectfully of theology; +theology is as scientific a thing as any other science of facts--but +theologies are + + HUMAN VERSIONS + +of Divine truths, and hence the varieties of the versions and the +inconsistencies of them. I would allow a man to select whichever +version of this truth he liked _afterwards_; but I would ask him to +begin with no version, but go back to the facts and base his Christian +life upon these. + +That is the great lesson of the New Testament way of looking at +doubt--of Christ's treatment of doubt. It is not "Brand him!"--but +lovingly, wisely and tenderly to teach him. Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament; it is opposed to sight. You will find +that a principle worth thinking over. _Faith is never opposed to +reason in the New Testament, but to sight._ + +With these principles in mind as to the origin of doubt, and as to +Christ's treatment of it, how are we ourselves to deal with those who +are in intellectual difficulty? + +In the first place, I think _we must make all the concessions to them +that we conscientiously can_. + +When a doubter first encounters you, he pours out a deluge of abuse of +churches, and ministers, and creeds, and Christians. Nine-tenths of +what he says is probably true. Make concessions. Agree with him. It +does him good to unburden himself of these things. He has been +cherishing them for years--laying them up against Christians, against +the Church, and against Christianity; and now he is startled to find +the first Christian with whom he has talked over the thing almost +entirely agrees with him. We are, of course, not responsible for +everything that is said in the name of Christianity; but a man does +not give up medicine because there are quack doctors, and no man has a +right to give up his Christianity because there are spurious or +inconsistent Christians. Then, as I already said, creeds are human +versions of Divine truths; and we do not ask a man to accept all the +creeds, any more than we ask him to accept all the Christians. We ask +him to accept Christ, and the facts about Christ and the words of +Christ. You will find the battle is half won when you have endorsed +the man's objections, and possibly added a great many more to the +charges which he has against ourselves. These men are + + IN REVOLT + +against the kind of religion which we exhibit to the world--against +the cant that is taught in the name of Christianity. And if the men +that have never seen the real thing--if you could show them that, they +would receive it as eagerly as you do. They are merely in revolt +against the imperfections and inconsistencies of those who represent +Christ to the world. + +Second: _Beg them to set aside, by an act of will, all unsolved +problems_: such as the problem of the origin of evil, the problem of +the Trinity, the problem of the relation of human will and +predestination, and so on--problems which have been investigated for +thousands of years without result--ask them to set those problems +aside as insoluble. In the meantime, just as a man who is studying +mathematics may be asked to set aside the problem of squaring the +circle, let him go on with what can be done, and what has been done, +and leave out of sight the impossible. + +You will find that will relieve the skeptic's mind of a great deal of + + UNNECESSARY CARGO + +that has been in his way. + +Thirdly: _Talking about difficulties, as a rule, only aggravates +them._ + +Entire satisfaction to the intellect is unattainable about any of the +greater problems, and if you try to get to the bottom of them by +argument, there is no bottom there; and therefore you make the matter +worse. But I would say what is known, and what can be honestly and +philosophically and scientifically said about one or two of the +difficulties that the doubter raises, just to show him that you can do +it--to show him that you are not a fool--that you are not merely +groping in the dark yourself, but you have found whatever basis is +possible. But I would not go around all the doctrines. I would simply +do that with one or two; because the moment you cut off one, a hundred +other heads will grow in its place. It would be a pity if all these +problems could be solved. The joy of the intellectual life would be +largely gone. I would not rob a man of his problems, nor would I have +another man rob me of my problems. They are the delight of life, and +the whole intellectual world would be stale and unprofitable if we +knew everything. + +Fourthly--and this is the great point: _Turn away from the reason and +go into the man's moral life._ + +I don't mean, go into his moral life and see if the man is living in +conscious sin, which is the great blinder of the eyes--I am speaking +now of honest doubt; but open a new door into + + THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF MAN'S NATURE. + +Entreat him not to postpone life and his life's usefulness until he +has settled the problems of the universe. Tell him those problems will +never all be settled; that his life will be done before he has begun +to settle them; and ask him what he is doing with his life meantime. +Charge him with wasting his life and his usefulness; and invite him to +deal with the moral and practical difficulties of the world, and leave +the intellectual difficulties as he goes along. To spend time upon +these is proving the less important before the more important; and, as +the French say, "The good is the enemy of the best." It is a good +thing to think; it is a better thing to work--it is a better thing to +do good. And you have him there, you see. He can't get beyond that. +You have to tell him, in fact, that there are two organs of knowledge: +the one reason, the other obedience. And now tell him, as he has tried +the first and found the little in it, just for a moment or two to join +you in trying the second. And when he asks whom he is to obey, you +tell him there is but One, and lead him to the great historical figure +who calls all men to Him: the one perfect life--the one Savior of +mankind--the one Light of the world. Ask him to begin to + + OBEY CHRIST; + +and, doing His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of +God. + +That, I think, is about the only thing you can do with a man: to get +him into practical contact with the needs of the world, and to let him +lose his intellectual difficulties meantime. Don't ask him to give +them up altogether. Tell him to solve them afterward one by one if he +can, but meantime to give his life to Christ and his time to the +kingdom of God. You fetch him completely around when you do that. You +have taken him away from the false side of his nature, and to the +practical and moral side of his nature; and for the first time in his +life, perhaps, he puts things in their true place. He puts his nature +in the relations in which it ought to be, and he then only begins to +live. And by obedience he will soon become a learner and pupil for +himself, and Christ will teach him things, and he will find whatever +problems are solvable gradually solved as he goes along the path of +practical duty. + +Now, let me, in closing, give an instance of how to deal with specific +points. + +The question of miracles is thrown at my head every second day: + +"What do you say to a man when he says to you, 'Why do you believe in +miracles?'" + +I say, "Because I have seen them." + +He asks, "When?" + +I say, "Yesterday." + +"Where?" + +"Down such-and-such a street I saw a man who was a drunkard redeemed +by the power of an unseen Christ and saved from sin. That is a +miracle." + +The best apologetic for Christianity is a Christian. That is a fact +which the man cannot get over. There are fifty other arguments for +miracles, but none so good as that you have seen them. Perhaps you are +one yourself. But take a man and show him a miracle with his own eyes. +Then he will believe. + + + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Greatest Thing In the World and +Other Addresses, by Henry Drummond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREATEST THING *** + +***** This file should be named 16739.txt or 16739.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/3/16739/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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