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diff --git a/22482-8.txt b/22482-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f0eca6 --- /dev/null +++ b/22482-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4455 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Men in the Making, by Ambrose Shepherd + + +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: Men in the Making + + +Author: Ambrose Shepherd + + + +Release Date: August 31, 2007 [eBook #22482] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEN IN THE MAKING*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +MEN IN THE MAKING + +by + +AMBROSE SHEPHERD, D.D. + +Author of +"The Gospel and Social Questions," Etc. + + + + + + + +Hodder and Stoughton +London +MCMIX + + + + +I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK + + +TO + +TWO VALUED FRIENDS + +JOHN GLAISTER, M.D. + +PROFESSOR OF FORENSIC MEDICINE + +UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW + + +AND + +CHARLES SCARTH, ESQ., J.P. + +OF MORLEY, YORKS. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The addresses which make up this book are printed, almost exactly, as +they were spoken from my pulpit in Glasgow. I have yielded to repeated +requests that I would put them in a more permanent form than memory, or +notes, can supply. There is always room for a book to young men; whether +or not the book I now offer them is worth its room, is a matter about +which I, possibly, am not the best judge. This I can say: There was a +time in my life when I should have been helped, had I met through the +spoken word, or printed page, some of the things I have tried to say as +faithfully as I know how to say them, within the limits of taste and +discretion. Whatever these addresses lack in thought, and in the +handling of the subjects discussed, I have done my best to make them +readable. In the case of the average young man of to-day, if a book does +not interest him in the matter of style, any other merits it may possess +will have a weakened chance of making themselves felt. If I have failed +to meet this one condition of securing his attention--provided he give me +a fair trial--I shall be disappointed and, to be candid, surprised. +Should, however, his interest be tolerably well sustained through the +ethical part of these addresses, say to the end of the chapter on "The +Royal Law," I shall, perhaps, have no reason to complain. At the same +time I would advise him to persevere with the rest, even at the cost of +some effort. + +There are one or two things which should be said by way of introduction +to these addresses. When the manuscript was out of my hands and in those +of the printer, I was informed that Archdeacon Wilberforce had, in one of +his books, a sermon on much the same lines that are found in my chapter +entitled "A Devil's Trinity." I have only to say that, so far as I +know, I have never seen a line from the pen of Archdeacon Wilberforce. +And in this connection I should like to quote a sentence or two from the +Preface to my book on _The Gospel and Social Questions_. I remark there +that, fortunately or otherwise for me, I have a tenacious memory which +retains for long, not only a thought which arrests me, but the form in +which it is expressed. Where I have made use of a quotation, or tried to +paraphrase something I have read--and this applies to the following +addresses--I have indicated the circumstances in the usual way. + +The concluding chapter of this series is, in the main, a transcript of my +booklet on _The Responsibility of God_, published by Oliphant, Anderson +and Ferrier, of Edinburgh. I have to thank these gentlemen, and I do so +heartily, for their permission to make this further use of it. +Considerable changes are made in the reproduction; but I think this +admission is due to any buyers the book may secure. I have also to +mention my great indebtedness to Rev. J. F. Shepherd, M.A., of +Manchester, for his help with the proofs, and for some valuable +suggestions as to emendations of expression. + +AMBROSE SHEPHERD. + +6, Thornville Terrace, + Glasgow. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I + +YOUTH AND AFTER + + +II + +YOUTH'S STRATEGIC PLACES + + +III + +THE WORSHIP OF LUCK + + +IV + +A DEVIL'S TRINITY + + +V + +TEMPTATION AND RESPONSIBILITY + + +VI + +SELF-RESPECT AND COMPANIONSHIPS + + +VII + +THE ROYAL LAW + + +VIII + +'HE WAS DESPISED AND REJECTED' + + +IX + +'WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?' + + +X + +DOES GOD HAVE FAIR-PLAY? + + + + +YOUTH AND AFTER + + +"And Terah died in Haran."--Gen. xi. 32. + + +YOUTH AND AFTER + +"And Terah died in Haran." This bit of prosaic information becomes +suggestive by the emphasis of one word: "And Terah _died_ in Haran." +This was not his birthplace, but here he ended his days, and that for a +reason over which it is worth our while to pause. "And Terah died in +Haran." What of that? All people have died somewhere, who have lived +and are dead. + +When we first meet this man, he was a citizen of no mean city. Ur of +the Chaldees was a great and representative centre in its day. Rising +sheer from the midst of it, we are told, was an immense tower, or +observatory, from the height of which men, reputed wise, watched the +movements of the heavenly bodies; and especially the moon, for the moon +was worshipped in Ur of the Chaldees as the great tutelary deity of +this people. Here it was that Terah lived, at this time an old man, +and "to trade," as the Scotch people would say, a maker of images. His +craft was in things which symbolized some form of this lunar worship, +and which people bought to put in their houses. + +Terah had a son called Abram, who, as he came to years of thought, did +not fall in very readily with this worship of the moon. He appears to +have become very early in life one of an order of doubters to whom the +world owes much; to have suspected, at least, that the moon was not, as +the priests taught, a cause in itself, but the effect of a cause. What +was that cause? What was the fashioning hand behind the effect? In +other words, he had come upon the doubt which explains much of the +faith and achievement of the reformers and path-finders of the world. +Neither doubt nor belief has any virtue in itself; we must determine +the moral quality by its expression in action. Had Abram merely begun +and ended with his doubts about the moon, he would have died and been +as soon forgotten as any other commonplace sceptic before or since his +day. The trouble is not that men doubt, but that they are often +content to do nothing else. It may be better that they should believe +wrong things, than that they should cease to believe in anything. + +Abram began, we imagine, to talk to his father about his misgivings, +and notwithstanding the fact that Terah's trade was dependent on the +popular religion, he seems to have yielded with something like +enthusiasm to the greater personality of his son. Eventually they +determined to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go, no matter how far, until +they came to some place where they could worship in the new light which +had come to them, or, as we should say, according to conscience. + +It was a formidable undertaking, for they knew not their +destination--if even, indeed, they knew their direction. Some one--I +forget who--has traced their route through Larsa, where men worshipped +the sun; through Erech, where they worshipped the planet Venus--the +bright evening star; through Nipur, where they bowed the knee to Baal; +through Borsippa, where they worshipped the planet Jupiter; and on and +on until they came to Haran, where the people worshipped--the moon! It +was not until they came to Haran, that they touched, as it were, their +first footprints, and found the old religion. + +And this was the finish for the poor old father Terah. Whatever the +motives with which he had set out on this pilgrimage, whether of +conviction more or less, or parental affection entirely, he was now +weary. There had been little temptation to pause before on the score +of a people's worship. That of the sun, of Venus, of Baal, of Jupiter, +probably did not arouse in him even a passing interest. But when, worn +out in body and mind, he suddenly came upon the old religion, his +journeyings after another faith and form of worship were at an end. +This powerful appeal to his past, with its resurrection of old +memories, old prejudices, and the pathos of old associations, was too +much for the old man. No second call came to him; or if it did, he had +neither heart nor ear for it. It was Abram the younger man who +withstood the temptations of Haran and with the faithful went on to a +land they knew not of. It was the younger who had the staying power +which, when acquired early, goes through life, and rejoins it in +eternity sure as ever it came to it in time. Terah travelled some six +hundred miles--a big journey in those days--to get away from the +worship of the moon, and in the worship of the moon he ended his years. +His evening and his morning were the same day: "And Terah died in +Haran." + +You see the thought underlying this bit of prosaic information. It +simply means that the years close down the possibilities of a certain +kind of moral exodus. It is in the days of your youth that you must +make the "legs of iron," as Emerson calls them, for the journey which +lies before you. If you wait until you get into years before you find +right principles, and form good resolutions--well, even then it is +better to make some start in the right direction. But why pile up the +odds, that start you never will; or that you will not go far if you do? +The enthusiasms of old men are as rare as they are short-lived, unless +they are evolved out of earlier and worthy days. + +There may be exceptions. If there are, I have never known one. The +rule is practically a law, that old men, who are nothing more than old +men, cannot make mighty resolves and carry them through. They may, for +many reasons, start out from Ur of the Chaldees; but it is not often +they get past Haran, if, indeed, they ever get so far. More likely +will it end in the old defeat: "I will return into the house whence I +came out," which is much the same, or, in some cases, is even worse, +than if they had never left it. The old man Terah would get an +interesting tour; although very probably people would hear from him +more about it at the end than he had ever seen on the way. He would be +a much-travelled man for those days, but he never found the new +religion. It was the old religion that re-found him. + +Understand me: I am far from saying that old age necessarily blocks the +way to great attempts, or to conspicuous success in them. All history +would cry out against such a statement. There is an old age we delight +to honour, and which reverses the ordinary attitude to it in the +general world. Instead of considering it a legitimate matter for lying +about, and polite not to be aware of its presence, we make our boast in +the virility which, in some men, accompanies their years until they +quite shade out in a mellow maze of glory. + +Take some of our statesmen. Were not the mighty men of the great +nineteenth century aged men, if we count age only by shadows on the +dial? At a time of life when most men are honoured with a natural +right to senility, Mr. Gladstone was girding on his armour for one of +the biggest conflicts ever waged in the arena of our Parliament. And +years after, as the struggle still raged--to see him, almost blind and +deaf, looking like so much vitalized parchment rather than a figure of +flesh and blood, as night after night he stood up to the agility of a +Chamberlain, and the subtlety of a Balfour--each perfected to a fine +art--surely never gamer, grander sight ever challenged the imagination +of poet, patriot, or historian. It was a testimony to all time of what +can come out of the brain and soul of a man, when the body that houses +them is written and re-written over with the hieroglyphics of age. It +was a fitting termination to what may be, and ought to be, the great +and sacred processes of life. + +But Mr. Gladstone was great at the end, because all the way had been a +preparation for it. This is the secret, if secret it be, which young +men cannot know and master too soon. To end well, you must begin well; +and you must fill in well the distance between the one and the other. +Study carefully the triumph of old age in statesmanship, in science, +and in affairs, and you will have to connect them with years of stern +discipline and strenuous endeavour. In no case will you find strength +where there has been no strain, or palm where there has been no dust. +There are levels on which the truth, that "we reap what we sow," admits +of no qualification. Omnipotence itself cannot make it possible for us +to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. To attempt after a +given age, and on the strength of a chance impulse, to leave Ur of the +Chaldees with its old habits and associations, its old moral settings, +will carry us far as the impulse lasts, but that in all probability +will be only as far as Haran. And as Terah died at Haran, so shall we. +It will be from moon to moon. Youth is the time to determine whether +old age shall be a beautiful consummation, or a bitter regret. The +threshold of manhood is the place to form resolutions that will have +some chance of being kept, to cultivate the thoughts you would have +ultimately become things. The serious danger is that, with the +impression of a long future before you, you should merely drift in the +present, and forget how inextricably the texture of to-day will be +woven into the fabric of to-morrow. + +I am quite aware that what I have so far said is more likely to hinder +than help the purpose I have in saying it. You will not question that +a clear nexus runs through our years, but my teaching about it, you +tell me, is needlessly severe. If as the beginning is, so must the end +be, what are we to say of a man's will? What are we to say about the +power and working of divine grace? While there is life, does there +ever come a time when it is no longer true to say that out of it can +pass the old, or into it can come the new? + +Surely to affirm that such a time can be is to give the lie to religion +and experience. Many a young man is having what is called his "fling," +who is yet quite sure in his own mind that when the time comes to +accept the more serious responsibilities of life, he will change his +habits and turn to ways that befit the new occasion. So we are told. +And is it not true? Have we not known young men cover a considerable +space of life with questionable, and even more than questionable +courses, and yet settle down into exemplary domestic men and admirable +citizens? + +Yes, we have known them, and, whatever influences have brought about +the change, let us be thankful for it. But what proportion do they +bear to the legions who, once in Ur of the Chaldees, have neither +thought nor desire for a better country? While, again, they may leave +it from anything but worthy motives. Men may be compelled to change +their habits without changing their natures. It is really to multiply +words to no profit to debate the question. Your instinct tells you +that it would be wickedness to encourage you to take your "fling" in Ur +of the Chaldees on the risk that you can get away from it when prudence +speaks the word. Settle it, then, as true for you, that out of to-day +walks a to-morrow; and that what you shall do with to-morrow is +practically determined by what you are doing to-day. + +This counsel, or admonition, cannot be over-emphasized. I assume that +I am talking to young men who do not intend to make a failure of life; +then, I tell you again, that you must seize the one great chance you +have, to make it a success. + +Permit me now to apply very briefly what has been so far advanced, +first, to your pleasures; and, secondly, to something more important to +you than old age, and that is--middle life. + +To everything, says the Preacher, there is a time and a season, and it +must be that youth is the time for amusements and pleasures, which are +not so much the privileges of youth as native to it. We are told that +Darwin in his old age expressed regret that he had deprived himself of +so many of the pleasures and resources of life by his concentration +upon that study, the results of which have made his name so justly +famous. He gave to get; but he lived to doubt his own right to pay the +price. And no young man should give place, no not for a moment, to a +doctrine of work which excludes his right to the joys and abandon of +his years. There is danger, and very real danger, lest we should take +for granted what the "Grad-grinds" tell us, that the only thing which +matters is that we do work, and are not idle. Work for its own sake is +not enough. It may turn men into machines--all clatter and monotony; +or it may make them fussy nuisances. "A soulless activity," says Canon +Ainger, "may save a man from vagrancy only by turning him into a thing; +or it may keep him from idleness by making him an egotist." There is +the man who, to use the common phrase, "sticks at it" with scarcely a +competing thought or interest. He scorns ease, and lives laborious +days. For what? I once heard it said, and I believe it was true, of a +prosperous Yorkshireman, that the real pleasure he had in his money, +for which he had toiled hard, was in a kind of mental calculation as to +how many of his neighbours he could buy up. + +"I do all things that I may honour the Father," said Jesus: and work +which is not under this impulse, has in it no element of permanent +satisfaction. In some way every work has to be brought into a +conscious relation to God, or we only swell the crowd either of +self-seekers, or of the men whose toil leaves no such impression upon +their character as gives sign or evidence of a sane or worthy aim and +end. + +To give to work its essential dignity, and preserve it from mechanical +routine we must bring motive into it--high and worthy purpose. There +is no virtue necessarily in being always at work, but there is +tremendous power in being able to work when we do work. Do not +discount the old advice because it is commonplace: "work when you work, +and play when you play." Master the distinction there is between +having what is called your "fling," and having your really "good time." +Get all the rational pleasure you can out of your young days. Let your +religion be no dog Cerberus, snarling at the heels of innocent +enjoyment. But never lose sight of the fact that unless you have a +definite and worthy purpose, to attain which you keep your good time +subordinate, that good time will have the same relation to genuine +pleasure that the throbbings of an ulcer have to the healthy action of +the heart. And a very plain word is needed here. Our trouble to-day +is not that young people will have their pleasures and amusements; it +is that so many of them will have nothing else. One who knows his day +has told us, that were it not for the sporting intelligence in the +evening paper, not a few of our young men would forget how to read. It +is a common experience to meet young men who have been decently +educated, as things go, and yet they are ignorant as babies about the +social and political questions which so vitally affect the welfare of +the State. Decently educated, I say, as things go. But how far is +that? "I have five clerks in my office," said a Bradford merchant +lately, "who probably could tell me all I want to know and more, about +a horse race, a cricket, or a football match; and not one of them could +translate for me a foreign business letter. This is one principal +reason," he added, "why Bradford is overrun with Germans, and why the +Germans are getting hold of so much of our trade." On what is called +the practical side of life, the first duty of a young man is to be +efficient in whatever honest thing he is doing to earn his bread; and +at the same time be preparing himself for whatever surprise or +opportunity the future may have in store for him. A few hours in the +week given seriously to the latter, will leave an ample margin of time +for recreation and amusement; and who knows what he may need, until the +need is there to test what he knows? To be great on sport, and a +"stick" at one's business; to be an authority on amusements, and an +ignoramus about almost everything else that is anything, is the +surrender of manhood, and that in a day which has no need comparable +with its need of capable men. + +And such surrender has consequences that lie nearer than those which +make themselves manifest in old age. Your next step is into middle +life; and it is here where the question is finally decided whether it +is, or is not, well for us that we are here at all. If a man has put +little more than the rubbish of a selfish existence into his years he +will, by the time he is old in them, be the victim of a callous +insensibility which will carry him over into the stage beyond our human +ken. An unworthy old age rarely feels much moral suffering; that but +waits its awakening in the fires which shall try every man's work of +what sort it is. + +But when a man begins to sight the middle years, he learns to know +himself as never before or after. This is the stage where increase of +knowledge often means increase of sorrow. It is, in truth, the sorrow +of finding out our limitations which, on their first acquaintance, +often seem more appalling than they actually are. While youth may be +saved by hope, by what is to be, middle life is often lost in the drab +reality of what is. Every youth, who is not as indifferent to his +possibilities as though he were nothing more than a lump of flesh, is +about to become a numeral in the world. The tragedy enters when he +knows himself to be what in a sense he must remain--a cipher, merely +giving value to the men who do represent the numerals. When the youth, +who used to talk about having the "ball at his feet," seems to have +become very much the ball itself, to be kicked hither and thither as +circumstances may determine, what then? Will he show that kicked he +may be, but ball he is not? That circumstances may use him, but they +shall not make him? The answer to this question will very much depend +upon the stuff he put into his years, while as yet he knew not his +limitations. + +And even where middle life has won success in the things men covet, and +for which they strive, it may be the success that is just deadly in its +reaction of monotony. How often do we hear it said of a prosperous +man, who in middle years is giving place to unworthy habits, or to +ill-humour and chronic depression: "Would he had something to take him +out of himself; some interest in anything, if it were but a harmless +hobby." Think of a man being reduced to the need of a "hobby" to keep +him out of moral mischief! What such a man, if man he can be called, +really needs is some higher interest or a coffin. A hobby is well +enough in its place, and much can be said for it, but when it becomes a +man's only peradventure between himself and the devil, the world can +probably spare him to its own advantage. The young have no little +safety in their years, in the temporary buoyancy of the blood. It is +when the former draw in, and the latter thins out, that dangerous +things get their more obvious and, too often, fatal chance with men. +It is when the first fires of passion have slowed down, and the ties of +early friendship have relaxed, and the outlook appears to leave us with +the problem, not how to live, but how to exist. I tremble at times +when my experience suggests the dangers of those long stretches of +emptiness, that so easily fill with the sinister and the unspeakable. +I would pray, as a man in mortal terror, against the bottomless pit of +a motiveless existence. + +This is why I put emphasis upon the threshold of manhood; not that I +believe it to be the most dangerous part of human life, but because I +believe it is the time to safeguard the part that is. It is the time +when habits can be cultivated, and resources acquired, which can make +middle life as crowded with interest and good to enjoy as any of the +earlier years, and infinitely more useful. But this is possible only +when the middle years can command their own. Just as many of us +"postpone life until after our funeral," so may we find ourselves in +middle life discouraged and sullen because we cannot do what we would, +only because we have not done what we ought. Men do not always go +under because they cannot do things. They fail, not because they do +not know what it is well to do, but because they do not choose to +attempt it. And why do they not choose? So far as this question +affects middle life, it is largely because so few of us have the grit +to face its difficulties, and attack them, when we have to do it with +the serious handicap of self-made disadvantages. It is while you are +young that you must lay up these stores of living material for the +after years; and this is the significance of it all--you can only do +it, or you can do it most effectually, when you are young. As touching +certain advantages, "the day after to-morrow is the only day that never +comes." + +Have your good time, I say, and in it fear God, and fear nothing else. +Keep a clean youth, and enjoy it to the full. But let the thought have +its place as a goad when required, or as a steadying influence when the +spirits would gallop too fast--the thought in the question: How will it +be with me when my years are thirty-five or forty? That trying, and in +so many cases, that fatal forty! When the youth of "rose-light and +romance has faded into the light of common day, and the horizon of life +has shrunk incalculably, and when the flagging spirit no longer answers +to the spur of external things, but must find its motive and energy +from within, or find them not at all." See to it while you may, that +these forces, when needed, are there, or whatever else you may gain +will be but a mocking remembrancer of the greater thing you have lost. + +I have but another word to add. If there are, as I trust there are, +middle-aged, or even old men, who would leave this Ur of the Chaldees, +with all its unworthy past, and make for a better country, do not, I +plead with you, be discouraged by anything I have said. Remember, I +have been talking to the young; but God forbid that what I have said to +them should seem to exclude hope for you. Make your start, though you +should get no further than Haran. In a matter so supreme, it is better +to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all. But you +need not fail in any degree that success is possible to you; and a +success is possible to you in which are issues of everlasting life. +Whatever the past, build up with courage and humility what you can do. +God willing, and by His grace, you have time yet to prove how a +consecrated determination can stretch out life's limits, and wondrously +redeem no little of past failure. + + + + +YOUTH'S STRATEGIC PLACES + + +"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong."--1 St. +John ii. 14. + +II + +YOUTH'S STRATEGIC PLACES + +"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong." This +description "young men" probably indicates that those to whom this part +of St. John's letter was addressed were seriously engaged in the work +of grounding their character, forming their habits, disciplining their +inclinations, and confirming the election all must make between good +and evil. He was not writing to those who had failed in the struggle, +and had accepted their defeat. He was not writing to those who, +beaten, knew that they did not intend to try again, and had thus +written themselves out of the progressive forces of the human world. +He was writing to those who had shown promise of better things, who +were evidently pressing "toward the mark for the prize of the high +calling of God in Christ Jesus." I do not take it that the Apostle +credits the young men to whom he wrote with having won a victory which +is never finally decided on this side the grave, or with having +attained to a moral altitude outside the reach of their years. When he +says, "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong," he +may be understood as referring to a strength consistent with, and yet +peculiar to, their years--a strength the whole force of which was set +in a right and healthy direction. + +I want now to deal with the first part of this particular reference to +the strength of young men. It would be away from my present purpose to +weight this address with any attempt to say what the writer means when +he tells them that, "The word of God abideth in you, and ye have +overcome the wicked one." I shall take the words of our text out of +their context, and use them as a topic: "I have written unto you, young +men, because ye are strong." Strong in what sense? How may we give +the words a useful setting, as a remembrancer and a call to the young +men of to-day? + +In the first place, one great constituent of strength which is, or +ought to be, the special possession of young life is--Hope. It is a +common remark that as we grow older we become chary of convictions, and +content ourselves with opinions. I should be sorry to believe it, but +I am obliged to admit that age, even with good people, changes to a +large extent their centre of gravity from hope to faith. + +It is suggestive to mark the order of these in St. Paul's famous +procession--faith, hope, love. Love, he says, is the greatest. But he +ranks hope before faith. Why? The passage in which this +classification occurs is part of the distinctive literature of the +Bible. Hence terms are not used carelessly. What is the difference +between the two? "Hope," says David Hume, "is the real riches of human +life; as fear is the real poverty." + +Hope is that which is "at the bottom of the vase," as the ancients +said, when "every other thing has gone out of it"--by which, as it has +been suggested, they probably meant the human heart. "While hope +trembles in expectation, faith is quiet in possession. Hope leaps out +towards what will be; faith holds on to what is. Hope idealizes; faith +realizes. Faith sees; hope foresees." [1] In other words, faith is +apt to be content with what it has; hope ventures out to annex the +wider provinces of the imagination. Faith is the prose of our +religious life, hope is its poetry. + +Unless you think about it, this will glance off your mind as a +distinction without a difference. It is more than that, in the sense I +am using the distinction. The loss of youth is not so much in the +flight of years, as in the stealing away of our hopes. We may be +justified by faith, but we are saved by hope, in theology and in life. +There are twenty men who have faith in Christ for one man who has hope +that His Spirit will ever incarnate itself in the life of the world. +As we get older, most of us, I am afraid, are only too glad to keep our +faith in great principles, without hoping much for them. The usual +product of experience, and more especially experience gained in +attempting some great reform, is, as Dr. Martineau remarks, "a certain +caution and lowering of hope. When the spent enthusiast looks back +upon the riches of his early hopes, and the poverty of his +achievements, he is tempted to regret the magnitude of his aims, and +advise a zeal too temperate to live through the frosts of inevitable +disappointments." + +Nothing more damps the ardour of young people with good stuff in them +than this caution called wisdom, which so often creeps over us as we +advance in years. Then it is so frequently the case that the precepts +that most naturally flow from our lips are the negatives that stifle +hope. "I can no longer afford convictions," said a man to me once, "I +have come to limit myself to opinions; they can be held at less risk, +and changed at less cost." And the disposition to regard both faith +and hope in great things as subject to the same insecure and miserable +tenure, is apt to grow with the growing years, until we come to +sympathize with nothing which cannot take out a policy of assurance. + +When we are young we may be susceptible to the new, only because it is +new to us. We are ready to welcome in book or speech anything which +charms us with a novelty we readily mistake for originality. After we +have crossed a line it may be well that most of us should become a bit +obstinate, a little stiff in our beliefs, lest we be blown about by +every wind of doctrine.[2] At the same time, there is always the +danger of becoming so rigid in our opinions and faith as to permit no +horizon of hope. There are multitudes, in our churches and outside +them, who, from want of the hope that saves, are dying from the top +downwards. + +And among them is an increasing proportion of young men. I hear them +boast that they have no ideals, no hopes or aspirations that are above +the earth earthy. For once, at any rate, they have a conviction, and +it is, that man lives by bread alone, that his life is in the abundance +of the things which he possesses. They are too "knowing" to be caught +prisoners by ideas, too much "men of the world" to concern themselves +about the "Utopias of religion." And they call it strength. Strength! +It reminds one of the bitter remark of an historian on the march of the +Roman legions: "They make a solitude, and call it peace." Strength! +There are those in perdition at this moment who could tell them that +what they call strength is the stupidity which adds to sin the +increment of a huge blunder. + +The young man who is strong is he who has the moral genius of his +years. He does not deny that man lives by bread, but he does deny that +man lives by bread alone. He has faith in the upward trend of the +world; and he has the hope which can give to faith its adequate +translation. He does not believe that there are two Almighties in the +world and that the devil is the greater; that sin shall breed sin for +ever. He does not believe that the many must drudge to the limit of +endurance and starve their higher nature as long as the world lasts, +that the few may taste the sweets of culture and opulence. He does not +believe that brute force shall for ever trample splendid intelligence +underfoot, or that we must always stand on the margin of the dark river +of wrong, in the unfathomed depths of which lie mysteries of +terror--the despair of man, the sorrow of God. He has hope, that +mighty dynamic--God's pledge to the young and unspoiled soul of a +coming day when all that is false and unbelieving and wicked shall be +cast into the consuming fire of divine holiness. He has faith in the +great day of the Lord; and with the splendid optimism, the hope +peculiar to his years, he cries: "I can, and I will, hasten the coming +of my Lord." This is one great element of a young man's strength--hope +in goodness, which goes so far to sustain the toil that can realize it. +"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong." + +Another factor in this strength is--Freedom. I hardly like the word, +but I want to express by it immunity from certain responsibilities. +Young men, up to a given period, are, as never again, free to sacrifice +for what look like the forlorn hopes and apparently lost causes of +humanity. "My six reasons for taking no risks," said a man in the +American Civil War, "are a wife and five children." The reasons which +in one man may resolve themselves into prudence, in the case of another +man, differently circumstanced, may be nothing better than cowardice. +Some years ago four men stood on the cage at the mouth of the shaft +that penetrated to the workings of a Yorkshire coal-mine. There had +been an explosion, and over forty men were imprisoned in what seemed +likely to be their grave. The brave fellows on the cage knew they were +taking their lives in their hands, but they stood calmly waiting the +signal which should lower them into a possible death. While some +detail of the machinery was being adjusted, a fine stalwart young man, +some three-and-twenty years of age, forced his way through the crowd, +and, seizing one of the rescue-party, literally flung him out of the +cage to the pit-bank, and before the people could recover from their +astonishment the men were being lowered through the pathway of the +deep. Then they realized the meaning of the action. "He did it," said +the man who had been so summarily handled, and his voice shook with +emotion, "because I have a wife and bairns." The younger man was free +from responsibility; he could better afford the risk. + +There is a very real sense in which the same consideration tells in the +warfare against sin and wrong. Some of us have less to risk in taking +up the challenge which the powers of death and hell throw down to every +true man. I write unto you, young men, because from your relationship +to circumstances you are more free to accept risks. + +We often hear men lament, and it may be sincerely, that they cannot +afford to face the practical logic of their social, political, and +religious beliefs. They shrink from the consequences of the good fight +of faith. "Had I only myself to consider," says one, "how gladly would +I sacrifice myself to attack this wrong or that iniquity." We need +offer no opinion about the moral quality of such a position; enough to +say that it is idle to ignore, or even to underrate, the force of it. + +There are circumstances which are too strong for most men after they +have put themselves in a given relation to circumstances. + +Let me say a word here about circumstances, which will seem to +contradict some things you will find in this book, if you have interest +enough in it to read it through. A Glasgow minister some time ago made +a stand against a considerable minority in his church over some matter +that, as he said, involved a principle for which he should fight. It +cost him many of his more wealthy members and adherents. "Not many of +us," I said to him after, "have your courage to take so serious a +risk." "Nor should I have had it," he answered, "had I not means that +make me independent of my salary." It was a candid admission, and it +reaches a long way. The strength of this man was in his position quite +as much as in himself; and this is probably true of the great average +of us. Circumstances may mean possibilities, more often than +possibilities mean, or create, circumstances. What we can do is not +only determined by what we bring into the world, but by what we find +when we get here. Give, then, whatever courage is native to you its +full purchase, by whatever favour you have in circumstances. It is +here the young man has a great advantage; he is at an age when he can +afford risks; let him use it before his years are mortgaged by other +demands. + +In public life he can base his efforts on the fact that there are +tremendous evils that need resistance, that there are sacred causes +which need assistance. He can afford, as never again, to close with +the truth that there is a corporate life, a public virtue, a humanity +of the body politic, with laws, responsibilities, and duties. In +social life he can refuse to bow to an arbitrary and often empty +fashion, or to immolate himself on the altar of mammon. He can be a +living protest against the tyranny and lust of money, which are eating +away the heart and destroying the soul of Christendom. He can stand +for the sane and rational ideas and habits of life, without which +society but personifies the unscrupulous and vulgar parvenu. And in +religion he can accept the teaching and obey the commands of Christ +without any overwhelming temptation to escape them behind some +exegetical device or the plea of expediency. He can devote the rose +bloom of his years to great principles, before he has had time to catch +the infection of a commonplace belief in God. He can be a soldier of +the Cross, and have himself placed in the forefront of the battle. He +can go down into the pit to rescue the perishing, and take daring, +awful risks for the Captain of his salvation and the race of which he +forms a part. I have written unto you, young men, because you can +afford to be strong. + +A third, and for my present purpose a closing consideration in a young +man's strength is--Audacity. I might call it courage, but it is that +plus something else. It is courage carried to a point of daring that +amounts to what I have called it, audacity, or, as the world would call +it, foolhardiness. It is the merciful blindness which will not see +difficulties; it is the glorious recklessness which will not be stopped +by them. It is neither blindness nor recklessness; it is the baptism +with which a young man must be baptized whose life is penalized for the +Cross. + +When a certain woman came into the presence of Jesus, and anointed Him +with an ointment very precious, He answered the selfish criticism of +some of the disciples with the unqualified remark that "long as His +Gospel should be preached, this that she had done would be told for a +memorial of her." To these disciples it is probable that the answer +sounded like a benediction on waste. Jesus saw in the deed an abandon +on the side of good, which on the side of evil makes evil so popular +and, as it seems at times, almost universal. No one but a woman, +unless it were a young man of true fibre, would have broken the vessel. +Your middle-aged or old man would have cautiously taken out the +stopper, that the costly unguent might have been expended economically, +even on the Saviour. But this woman, in her uncalculating devotion, +broke the vessel, that all its contents might issue forth in one +consecrated gift of love. And it was what this broken vase symbolized +that explains, or does something to explain, the unmeasured recognition +of the action. + +This is the moral temper of the young man whom St. John describes as +strong. He does not fumble with the stopper in the vase-held forces of +good. "If you believe," he cries, "what Christ lived believing and +died believing, then break the vase, and do not keep as a private +possession powers that are meant for the world. Do not keep as a +personal luxury what is meant to be the family treasure." Such a young +man is the living exegesis of Christ's revolutionary word: "The kingdom +of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." + +When he is warned not to expect too much from human nature, not to put +too much trust in men, not to waste his strength in trying to remove +mountains, not to jeopardize his chances on the threshold of manhood in +trying to serve a world which, so far from thanking him, will very +effectually resent his most disinterested efforts on its behalf; when +he is reminded of some once aspirant who, young and confident as he, +set out to reform the world, and now cynically affirms that the only +wisdom is to let the world go to the devil in its own way--the young +man who is strong says: "I acknowledge your facts, such as they are, +but they are not facts for me. I, too, may be beaten in the right, but +I would rather be that a thousand times over than succeed in the wrong. +It is the temptation of the wicked one to conclude that, because +history is said to have repeated itself hitherto, it must needs repeat +itself for ever. I do not live on history; I live to make history. I +believe that I was sent into the world new from the fashioning hand of +the Creator, and that I have a new man's work to do. If my life of +faith on the Son of God seem recklessness to you, wanting in proportion +and eccentric, hold your opinions for all they are worth; but you shall +not influence me by your abandoned hopes, you shall not even chill me +with the east wind of your selfish ethics." + +These are the young men we need to-day. Strong in hope, in position, +and in daring; strong in the strength which they find in their years, +and the strength they put into them. + +And the Church has a right, society has a right, the nation has a right +to look to young men for a greater and a better future. We who are +older have a claim to look to you to confirm our faith in the survival +of Christianity as the living force of the future. We need fresh +leaders and men who incarnate new forces. We need, in fact, a certain +style of man--we never needed him more. We want young men who are +inspired by the truth that ideas are realities, and that scepticism +about high principles is the most destructive form of ignorance. + +We want young men of vision in business. Not cranks, not men who are +responsible for their own failure in whatsoever their hand findeth to +do; but men who see that the institution of business is God's present +plan for distributing wealth, comfort, and intelligence. We want men +in law who shall realize that the function of the legal profession is +to build up justice and ensphere it in the will of the people. We want +men in politics who have a clear conception of what the kingdom of God +is, who recognize that the work of legislation and legislators is to +think and speak and act for the interests of that kingdom--in the +spirit and on the basis of Divine Fatherhood and human brotherhood. +And in the pulpit we want men who have in them the vision of an Isaiah, +a Paul, a John, and a Luther; men who shall make themselves felt as +perennial gifts to their day--to tell us what we can do and what we +ought to do, to lift up a voice for the eternally true, amid the +clamour of self-interest and cries of craven fear. + +"The world needs nothing more; the great English-speaking race has no +need comparable with this need of men who can carry the spirit of +vision, which is really the power of achievement, into every phase of +our individual and collective life." [3] + +Many of you represent great possibilities. You are, or you ought to +be, at the flow-tide of an untainted enthusiasm. Your life should be a +moral heat, which radiates in ever-enlarging circles of hope and +service. But there are fires which, once they are allowed to slow +down, can never be rekindled. There are large and generous beliefs at +twenty-five years of age which, unless we cultivate and keep ourselves +in the love of them, thin out like wasting magic, and no necromancy can +ever conjure them back again. You young men have potencies of hope and +enthusiasm which, if denied expression, strike inwardly and corrupt the +source out of which they came. + +And now, I repeat, is the time when you can give a true man's best +hostages to the future. Now is the time to make the most of your +strategic places in life. Almost before you know it, your power to +determine many things will have merged into obligations that not one +man in fifty is free to disregard. While it is called your day--before +you are compassed behind and before with a commonplace that locks up so +many lives like a numbing fate--signalize your record by some bit of +heroism. If you would have posterity call you wise, seize your chance, +while you have it, to be God's fool. Find the faith that can help you +to play a man's part in the world; find in your faith the power which +can grasp you by your weakness and sin, and lift you into strength and +achievement. The Church needs you. For of all the institutions in +Christendom the Church is stifled with safety, propriety, and +conventional wisdom. It is the world which seems to monopolize the +sparkle, the daring, and the picturesque. Respect us, your seniors in +years, if we have done anything worthy in the past; but do not let it +influence you unduly if now we seem to you perhaps timid and +conservative. Time will bring most of you to the same place. But +if--which God forbid--you do little after, do at least something now to +redeem your career from impotence or from miserable aims that all end +in selfishness. Find, I say again, on the threshold of your years, the +power that can grasp you by your real requirement. Your first need is +not wisdom, but grace; it is not education, but regeneration; it is not +an ideal even, but a Saviour. Wisdom, education, and moral enthusiasms +are but the machinery of our uplifting, the driving-power is Life. You +know the Source of this power; you know the way to Him of Whom it is +written: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." Now is +your accepted time-- + + "Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute: + What you can do, or dream you can, begin it; + Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. + Only engage, and then the mind grows heated; + Begin, and then the work will be completed." + + + +[1] Robert Collyer. + +[2] Dr. Maclaren. + +[3] Dr. Lyman Abbot. + + + + +THE WORSHIP OF LUCK + + +"The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of +the Lord."--Proverbs xvi. 33. + +III + +THE WORSHIP OF LUCK + +It is reported that Prince Bismarck once and again attributed some of +the most remarkable successes he had won in diplomacy to the +circumstance that he had used truth as one of his greatest resources. +Well aware of the fact that truth, for its own sake, was not the first +thing that was expected from him, the use of truth gave him the +tactical advantage of knowing how almost inevitably the opposite +diplomacy would interpret it. He told the truth in order that it might +be acted upon as something else. To adopt his own characteristic +phrase, he "used the truth." If half the truth, or an untruth, would +have served his purpose better, either most likely would have been +adopted and as readily used. + +"You call that witty," said a great statesman once, when some one +related to him the saying of a well-known politician to the same +effect--"you call that witty--I call it devilish." It is a just +description. If the report is reliable that Bismarck, even in grim +jest, spoke of truth in this sense as one of his great resources, the +confession ought to cover his name with infamy. I do not commit myself +to the statement that he ever said this; but whether he did or not, he +is credited with acting upon what is a very general impression of how +truth _may_ be used. With vast masses of people it has become +perilously like a conviction that strict integrity, while good and +desirable as an ideal, is yet too much of a risk for the purpose of +what is popularly known as practical life. The advice said to have +been given by a Yorkshireman to his son who was entering on a business +career would, I imagine, be widely acclaimed as common-sense: "Get +money; get it honestly, if you can--but get it." + +We preachers tell young men that whether or not they get on in +business, they cannot afford not to go up in character; and they are +not in the world very long before they realize that its hopes in this +admonition are but inverted fears, that the shake of its head is a +scepticism which troubles not to articulate itself in words. A French +cynic counsels us to always deal with a friend to-day on the +possibility that he may be an enemy to-morrow. And there is a wide and +deeply-rooted prejudice in favour of holding the imperatives of +integrity on the same terms. Our very language in this direction +betrays us. We talk about "smart" business men, "smart" professional +men, and by the adjective we may mean men who, though "keen," are yet +honourable in their methods; or we may mean men who are just as +scrupulous as the law of the land or the arbitrary criterions of +society oblige them to be. And young men feel the impress of this +widely-shared sentiment in a way particularly vivid. They have, +indeed, small chance to escape it. The world is profuse in its +explanations of why men fail, but it has no mercy on the man who fails. +It has its cheap jargon about inheritances and environment, and then +kicks the man who is preached as their victim, into perdition. Our +operations may not be nice, but young men soon find out, or they think +they do, that it is success, not charity, which covers a multitude of +sins. Hence the new commandment: "With all thy getting, get success"-- + + "Get place and wealth, if possible with grace, + If not, by any means get wealth and place." + + +The clamant need of our day is a clear teaching that shall appeal to us +all, but especially to young men, as to what are the things that cannot +be shaken, the things inseparable from a human life that is worth +living. It is easy to part with our fine sense of integrity, but, once +it is gone, it is the hardest thing in the world to recover. There are +more senses than one in which we may speak of riches that are "beyond +the dreams of avarice." The most valuable possession any man can have +is the fight, either in his own conscience or to the world, to affirm +himself to be an honest man. And the position I shall maintain in this +address is, that there can be no sure success without honesty. Nor +shall I speak about "absolute honesty" or the "strictest honesty," for +I agree with those who say that there is but one degree of honesty. It +is not a quality with grades and modulations. As well think, or try to +think, of grades and modulations in the chastity of man and woman. +Honesty, like chastity, is, or it is not. + +We are often told that, from the lowest possible commercial standpoint, +honesty is not only the best policy, it is the only policy. Whether or +not it is the only policy depends upon the meaning we import into the +term; of this I am sure--it is the best policy. But I shall not urge +this doctrine upon you from the lower standpoint. That might do more +than insult your intelligence; it would, I trust, offend against your +moral self-respect. I assume that you all would hold it true with +Archbishop Whately when he says, that though "honesty is the best +policy, he is not an honest man who is honest for that reason." If, +then, these latter remarks can carry the weight I want them to bear, +what of those that have preceded them? How are we to explain a +sentiment which is virtually a religion, having this one article for +its creed: that honesty, while good as an ideal, cannot be invariably +relied upon for practical concerns? How is it that so many men have to +discover, when they are no longer young, that the thing which has +passed from them and which they cannot recall is, after all, the one +supreme value they possessed? There are many explanations of this +tragedy, for tragedy it is, and not the least of them is, that so many +young men have but one conception, one definition of success. These +are men, and one is tempted to think at times that they are not so much +a class as a people, who want material success and seek nothing else. +They have no other standard by which to judge the thing behind the +word. Not what we are, but what we have, if the latter is substantial +and declarative, is the only idea which multitudes have of success. In +a clever character-study of a well-known public man we are told that, +"As far as he has a philosophy at all, it is this, that merit rides in +a motor-car." It is a definition which fosters the impression that +success can be secured the more quickly and surely by methods that are +bound up with smartness, chance, or luck. + +It is with the last of these I would come into somewhat close quarters. +And let me admit, in the first place, that there is such a thing as +luck, using the word in its common acceptation. In what is called a +scientific treatment of the subject in hand I ought to say, as exactly +as I can, what I myself understand by luck. It will leave abundance of +room for criticism if I venture to define it--as some advantage that +comes to a man independent of his moral worth, his native gifts, or of +any equivalent he has rendered for it of industry and self-denial. +That some people have such an advantage it would be useless to deny. +Two youths, let us say, enter a business house about the same age, and +at the same time. They are, as near as can be, equally matched in +equipment to command success. In this respect there is little to +choose between them. One begins entirely on his merits; he has no +influence behind him to open doors before him as by some invisible +hand. The other has influence; no matter what it is, or how it works, +he has it, and it operates distinctly in his favour. A few years +after, and the latter has far out distanced the former in position, +salary, and outlook. And the reason is not the capacity of either; it +is the arbitrary advantage, the piece of luck that one has had over the +other from the start. "He has not much ability," I heard it remarked +lately of a young fellow who, just having been licensed to preach, had +also received a "call" to an influential church, and the remark +elicited the significant answer: "No, but whether he has ability or +not, his father has position and influence." This hints to us why +certain men, if they do not fill, yet hold the positions they do. Take +some men in high places, say in the political world. Recall a few +names, if you can, of men who have held great positions in the State +within the last quarter of a century, and does any sane person contend +that in ability they stand out sheer above ten thousand good average +men who crowd about them? I think it was Sydney Smith who said it was +about equal to being canonized to marry into certain families. And a +man would need to be a very emphasized fool quite to spoil the +advantages of a long line of position, privilege, and family ascendency. + +Take, again, a more typical case of what I mean by luck. It came under +my own notice. A cloth-worker in Yorkshire, by carelessness or +inadvertence, raises the nap of a given fabric a shade above the +regulation height. He is dismissed, and the cloth is laid aside as +spoiled. A French buyer comes in the place, and casting his eyes on +it, instantly sees for it a future. That touch of heightened nap has +done it. The manufacturer has his wits about him, and what a week +before was a mistake is now a new and valuable design which, in a +couple of years, makes him what some of us would regard as a +substantial fortune. We are usually told that to admit the operation +of this questionable factor in human affairs, called chance or luck, is +inconsistent with a belief in the moral government of God, or, as we +may prefer to call it, the reign of law. If this is so, how are we to +read those old words that "chance happeneth to them all"? If we +seriously contend that everything which happens in our human life is in +accord with God's plans in us, and working through us, then I see not +how we can refuse to hold such fore-ordination responsible for the +grotesque, the irrational, the sinister, and the wicked in our actions. +I could understand the objection were it limited to Nature, because +that is a sphere in which it is the uses of things, and the uses +precisely, which are the most obvious, and these compose, when taken +together, a mighty reciprocal whole in which part answers to part, +constituting an all-comprehensive and wondrous whole. There is no +place in Nature for chance. Every particle of air is governed by laws +of as great precision as the laws of the heavenly bodies. It keeps its +appointed order, it serves its appointed ends. Nature never breaks out +of its place. It has no such power--but human nature has. Man has +enough free-will to make him responsible for what he does with it, and +in the exercise of this mighty prerogative enters the element of chance +or luck. We cannot establish free-will by rules of logic, we cannot +gainsay it on the score of conviction. It helps us to interpret the +great in human life and history, and what is sometimes even more to the +purpose, it helps us to account for the little. As it has been well +said: "It would save us much mental perplexity if we could assert +without qualification that all is law, that everything happens as God +ordains." + +But God cannot make two mountains without a valley between; and He +cannot give us free-will and withhold from us at the same time the +freedom to make mistakes. The contradictions in human life do not +yield to verbal simplicities, and, whether we like it or not, we have +to acknowledge that this something called luck is a force in human +events. + +But let me say, in the second place, that there is nothing more easy +than to exaggerate its extent and importance. Out of a hundred +happenings that are generally attributed to luck, if we could find the +genesis of each one and trace its evolution or unfolding, we should +probably not find more than one that could be associated with the +things that happen by chance. The case of a man who achieved what is +called a "lucky fluke" out of a piece of spoiled cloth is perhaps the +only instance of its kind on record in the history of cloth +manufacture. I have admitted that there are cases where advantage +falls to a man which cannot be explained by anything he deserves, or +has done to win it. And the advantage, such as it is, often works +untold hurt as an example. Just as the winnings of one gambler may +tempt a hundred others to their undoing, so a single case of coveted +luck is apt to encourage young men to transfer their hopes of success +in many directions, from law to luck. You see here and there a man who +accumulates a large fortune from beginnings that look as much like pure +chance as was that piece of spoiled cloth. You see men close to you +put into positions that have been secured, not by training or ability +to fill them, but by the accident of influence, or, as you may think, +by even more reprehensible methods; and your first impulse is to say +that it is not merit but luck that holds the better cards. But let the +impulse pass and bring quiet thought and good practical sense to this +problem of success in men, and you will find that the instances are +comparatively few where it is not about as wise to speak of it as luck +as it would be so to characterize the law of cause and consequence. +When you are discussing a man's success or his position, do not stop at +the mere fact that he has it--that is obvious enough; try to know how +he got it, and you may be surprised to find how little, after all, luck +has had to do with it. In one of the most quoted of our Lord's +parables we are told that "they that were ready went in to the marriage +feast." And this right of entry was not a matter of luck. They went +in because they were ready, and the others were left out because they +had made no effort to be ready. And so if you would understand a man's +success, know what he was doing while the opportunity tarried, while +his chance seemed to wait, while his "psychological moment" appeared to +linger. + +Our fate or our fortune is not in great occasions; it is in our +readiness to seize the opportunities that make great occasions. We +frequently hear young men complain that they have not had a chance. +Are they always sure of that? How often is it that their chance has +been and gone, without their knowing it? "There are scores of young +fellows in our place," said a large employer of labour lately, "who +would be in vastly better positions than they are, had they worked as +hard to be ready for the better positions as they are anxious to have +them." There are multitudes of young men who appear to have lost sight +of the distinction there may be between wishing for an opportunity and +being ready to use the opportunity when it presents itself. As Sir +Frederick Treves once said to the students at the Aberdeen University: +"The man who is content to wait for a stroke of good fortune will +probably wait until he has a stroke of paralysis." He who waits for +good fortune without doing his part to make it possible, opens up the +way for lazy habits and morbid conclusions about the arrangements of +life. Luck in any serious business or profession is not so much the +coming of opportunity as readiness to make the most of the opportunity +when it comes. A man was speaking to me not long ago about one of the +leading commercial men in this city. "What is there in him or about +him to explain his success?" asked the man, and he answered his own +question with the round assertion that "it was all luck." It happened +that I had some reliable information about the man under discussion, +and I want you to have it. Thirty years ago he was working from ten to +twelve hours in the day as just an ordinary workman. At the close of +each day's toil he had his programme of studies, which, in its range +and character of the subjects attacked, would not have disgraced a good +student at any university. Eventually his attention to business and +his marked attainments won for him the recognition of his employers, +which meant in after years a place which was ultimately a leading +place, as one of them. Yet this was the man who was said to have won +his success by a lucky turn of the wheel. I admit his advantages. I +grant you that he showed himself to have brains and will above the +average endowment of these great possessions. But let me ask you to +mark this: he might have left his gifts unused, as so many of us do. +It is probably not gifts, in eight cases out of every ten, that +determine position, but our use of them. We have infinitely more in us +than our will and determination ever bring out. How few of us know the +rich things God has put in our nature; and we verily live and die in +ignorance of rare deposits of wealth because we do not work the inward +mines. This young man was wiser. He did not wait for his opportunity +to turn up, he turned up the opportunity. Because he neither slumbered +nor slept while it tarried, he was prepared to make the most of it when +it presented itself. And I am persuaded that something like this is +the true explanation of practically the whole of what thoughtless +people set down to luck. What we call fore-ordination is verily the +present which we have made out of the past. We first make habits, and +then habits make us. In our to-day walks our to-morrow, and in a very +solemn sense there is no "dead past." As it has been well said, "the +tree that falls so disastrously is no accident; it had the fall +determined a century ago in some injury it received as a sapling." [1] + +There is much less luck in human affairs than is popularly supposed; +and, if there were more than there is, it would, in the next place, be +moral insanity to put our trust in it. "Nothing walks with aimless +feet." Our life is no lottery. We may make foolish experiments with +it, but we do so at our own risk. It is no plaything of chance, it is +a stern responsibility which is determined by law that brooks no +interference and excuses no indifference. The proverb tells us that +"our lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing is of the Lord." +And just as the dark forces that sweep through our life are not +necessarily hostile forces but form part of the order of the world, so +things that we regard as haphazard, merely cast into the lap of chance, +may be divine agents working out a marvellous equality of opportunity +throughout our human life. I affirm it without a shadow of +qualification, that chance has no place whatever in the responsible +formation of character, and the formation of character is the decision +of destiny. Beware, then, lest in playing with this _ignis fatuus_ of +chance you are trifling with law, for law will not spare you. + +You young men cannot make up your mind too soon that there can be no +sure success apart from uprightness and integrity. You cannot too +early in this life settle it as an immovable truth for you, that +unswerving rectitude is not only a great and desirable ideal, it is the +only practical course you can afford to follow. Goodness, I say again, +is the only success, and I shall not try to save this statement by +fencing the word "success" with any arbitrary definition of my own. I +just mean by it what any man means by it who has a healthy moral +perception of things. Success, like honesty, has but one degree, and +as nothing is worthy to be called life which cannot be affirmed of God, +so nothing can be called success which is not the resultant of +right-doing. Every advantage which you would try to scheme or sneak or +coerce in face of the protest of conscience, has in it its own curse +and its certain defeat. Understand me: right-doing will not +necessarily help you to make a fortune or achieve some great position. +You may not have the special gifts to do either. Such gifts are +something not ourselves which we might easily have been without. +Neither religion nor morality promises to bestow these gifts, any more +than religion or morality claims to regulate the colour of our hair or +the inches of our stature. But when said, there is yet a wonderful +power in right-doing. The man who does the right because he believes +in it and loves it, whether it is called successful or not, is always +bringing out far more than he thought was in him. The faithful doing +of daily duty continually reveals opportunities which, used with +readiness and a good conscience, act upon life with a perpetual and +gracious benediction. + +Then what about the end? It may seem a far-off cry to talk to you +young men about that. But the end will come, and you will need nothing +then which you do not need all the way. The end will only emphasize +the need--the need of a good conscience. The day is coming when all +tainted success will mock, as only a bad record can mock, when there is +but time left to regret, and none to retrieve the past. "I am getting +old," writes one, "and I am wealthy; but I would part with every +shilling I possess, and take my risk for bread, to be at peace with my +own conscience." Trample under your feet the immoral side of the maxim +that nothing succeeds like success. Success is not always in hitting +the things at which you aim; it is the good conscience that you are +aiming only at right things. Let your success be goodness, and +goodness will be your success. Leave luck to fools, and act as though +it had no existence. Believe that character or manhood, without which +nothing great is possible, is the content of your endowment put out to +full advantage through grace and will. Believe that every man, worthy +to be called a man, has in him the promise of the gradual supremacy of +character over the accidents and happenings of circumstances. Be, +then, your own luck. Link your life in Christ to God, and stand up to +all the world and say-- + + "Perish policy and cunning, + Perish all that fears the light. + Whether losing, whether winning, + Trust in God and do the right." + + + +[1] Rev. Thomas Templeton, M.A. + + + + +A DEVIL'S TRINITY + + +"Know ye not that ye are a temple of God?"--I Corinthians iii. 16. + +IV + +A DEVIL'S TRINITY + +There are expressions taken from the Bible which, by length of popular +usage, become, as it were, independent either of their setting, or of +methods of exposition. This usage has its length of days, not always +in the sense of the expression so much as in its sound. Those of you +who have been accustomed to listen to Christian preaching will have +often heard appeals to your manhood, to self-mastery, to kingship over +your habitudes, rounded off with this question: "Know ye not that ye +are a temple of God?" + +In this way it has passed into what I have called popular usage. And +whatever it may be as exegesis, it is good admonition. If we may speak +of a house made with hands as a dwelling-place of the Most High, we may +also claim an equal sacredness for this mortal temple which is the +crowning achievement of His creative power. For myself, I have never +had the least sympathy with a teaching that almost amounts to a +vilification of the body, and which is at the basis of much that passes +for religion, both Christian and pagan. Our body is a gift worthy of +the Giver. We can do much to mar it in ourselves, and through us for +others. Hitherto the one perennial idolatry of the world has been +destruction; and if one thing has escaped this insanity less than +another, it is the human body. But for all that, we do not deny that a +picture may be a work of genius, because any madman could destroy it in +less time than it takes to suggest the possibility. + +Much is said and written about the duality that is in us; and many of +us are Manichean without knowing technically what the term means. The +two parts in the same self are represented as East and West, and "never +the twain shall meet." We must understand, however, what we mean by +this bisection of man. Between the carnal and the spiritual there must +be no compromise and there can be no peace. But carnality is not in +the body, it is in the principle that uses the body as its medium and +expression. We say much about "sins of the flesh"; as a matter of fact +there is no such thing. Sin is, before it is wrought out through the +flesh. It is not the body that commits adultery or gets drunk, it is +the creature which owns it. The same Apostle who tells us that the +"flesh lusteth against the Spirit," also speaks about the "redemption +of the body"; which means that as the latter can be degraded, so can it +be honoured by him who uses it. Hence the people who weaken the body +to strengthen the soul begin at the wrong end. Let them guard the +life, and the strength of the body will become an agent of pleasure and +service, not of sorrow and defeat. It is surely better to ride a fine +steed well under control, than find our safety only because we mount a +hack. I have heard young men complain bitterly about the disproportion +between their bodily passions and their will-power. They overlook two +things--first, that will can be acquired, that an act of will means +more will; and, secondly, that passion in itself can be, and is +intended to be, a great and precious possession. The absence of +passion may mean an anaemia, which virtually cuts us off from some of +the finest possibilities of human life. Our bodies are part, and the +highest part, of a cosmic order which is "sinful only when it refuses +to be spiritualized." If we regard the body as an exquisite instrument +provided by our Maker for the translation of the things of the Spirit, +then so long as the Spirit working by grace is the master, we can +hardly attach too much importance to the body as a temple of God. + +"If any man defile this temple," says the Apostle, "him shall God +destroy." The ways in which it can be defiled are endless, as some of +them are fatal. For my present purpose there are three which I want to +urge upon your serious consideration. I must try to compress what I +have to say about them into one address, because the first I shall +mention is something about which no clean-minded person would choose to +write or talk without having, what he conceives to be, the gravest +reasons for so doing. In this case, the fewer the words the more +effective they may be, if they arrest attention, arouse thought, and +make some headway with the conscience. + +There are three ways, I repeat, in which we may defile this temple, and +the first I will venture to speak about is the sin of Impurity. And +when I say I will venture to mention it, I quite realize that I am +taking some risk. He who would speak with authority and with wisdom on +this subject to a mixed audience, should possess a poet's gifts in the +art of putting things. But some one must speak, and to whom does the +duty fall, if not upon him whose calling it is to stand between the +quick and the dead? If the good work of the world must wait to be done +by perfect men, the lease of evil has a long while to run. It is, in +truth, a sad reflection which should stir up strong protest in every +earnest soul, that this sin--so deadly in its nature--should be +practically safe so far as the pulpit is concerned. In many cases this +is a result of sensitive timidity, or it may be an affectation of +refinement which is but veneered coarseness. If it be the first, it +should be respected but not yielded to; if it be the second, it should +receive no indulgence from us. The great Hebrew prophets, and the +Supreme Teacher Himself, did not surrender this stronghold of the soul +to the evil one from a shrinking which, if a man cannot conquer, he is +no preacher, and still less to a mental indolence that will not seek +out acceptable words through which to convey a warning. I speak as +unto wise men, and submit it to your judgment whether the preacher who +has to any extent the ear of young men can afford this eternal silence +concerning a subject that so vitally affects character, society, and +the race to which we belong. + +There are many reasons why this sin of impurity seems to be on the +increase. The old order of town and country is fast breaking up, and +practically the whole migration and emigration is to the former. +Britain is fast becoming a series of congested centres of population. +One consequence is the increasing number of women and girls who find it +terribly hard to survive in the pitiless struggle to exist. And we +know what this means in so many cases. It is no secret how the scanty +earnings of a growing body of girls are eked out. This is not a matter +on which to dwell, and while it is serious enough to compel some very +searching thoughts, I refer to it in order to say how much I want to +see the day when every calling, profession, and trade in which a woman +can earn her bread and efficiently make her way, shall be open to her +equally with a man. The education of our girls should be the care of +parents and the State, every whit as much as the education of our lads. +There are positions in which I should not care to see women, and hence +I would work all the harder to bring about the economic conditions in +which sex, and the means of livelihood, can have some fitting +correspondence. This I say, that he who would exclude a woman because +of her sex from any place where she can turn to honest account her +capacities and industry, is the enemy of women. To the extent you +restrict what is called the sphere of a woman who is dependent upon her +own toil, you set up temptations which every man worthy the name of man +should sacrifice much to make impossible. + +There is also the growing reluctance of young men, more especially in +the upper and middle classes, to undertake the responsibilities of +married life; so rarely now are they content to creep before they walk. +They must begin where their parents leave off in position, appearances, +and comforts. This often means to defer marriage until these can be +secured; but it does not always mean that these men keep a clean record +in the meanwhile. A sinister consideration which has much to answer +for in the existence of a class of women which, in turn, takes a +terrible revenge on its makers! Nor are parents always as free from +blame as they might be. I have known fathers and mothers who had the +reputation of being good men and women, sternly forbid their daughters +to engage themselves to young men who had most things to recommend +them, except too much means; and I have known them encourage the +advances of men whose past and present should have excluded them from +any decent home--only because these men had money. + +My purpose, however, in these remarks is not to discuss the sources or +temptations to impurity, so much as to say a faithful word to young men +about the thing itself. Permit me to counsel you to face the truth and +not to fear it, that past a given age in your life and up to another +the cravings of our lower nature are tremendously strong. If you would +fight the good fight for a clean manhood, make no mistake about the +task that lies before you. These cravings implanted in a healthy man +or woman are in themselves beautiful and right. All turns upon the +control of them. If Nature could have let us off more easily the +conflict would have been less searching; but nothing weaker would have +secured the perpetuation of the race, and all that it involves in +struggle, anxiety, and self-sacrifice. + +A young man came to me not long ago to ask for my signature to an +application he was making for a certain position. He told me in a few +words about the years he had given to the fitting of himself for the +place he was seeking, and how anxious he was to get it, because, as he +said, he wanted to be married and to make a home for himself. As he +talked to me there was something so clean that looked out of the eyes +of him, while at the same time he gave me the impression of so modest a +self-efficiency, that my entire sympathy and heartiest good wishes were +won for him. I mention this incident because I want to hint much that +I cannot put into words. As you sight the years of responsibility you +will, if you are wise, prepare yourselves by industry, thought, and +control, with a view to married life; for marriage, among other things, +is the natural, the honourable, and the divine provision for the +legitimate cravings of our nature. Whenever I hear a man speak +sneeringly of marriage, if I have to conclude that he says what he +feels, I may not think him a fool, but I strongly suspect that he is a +blackguard. "He who attacks marriage; he who by word or deed sets +himself to undermine this foundation of our moral society, must settle +the matter with me, and if I do not bring him to reason, then I have +nothing more to do with him." So wrote Goethe, and I echo his words in +your hearing. + +Keep marriage before you as a sacred goal, and as an incentive to put +out the best there is in you in order to reach it. Do more than this; +resolve that when you enter this covenant you will carry into it as +clean a conscience about the past as you expect her to have who gives +her happiness into your keeping. One sex can substantiate no claim to +licence, or even indulgence in this matter, that can be morally denied +to the other. There are events in life that are worth more than it +costs to meet them well; marriage is pre-eminently one of them, and you +can, if you elect to do so, enter it unspotted men. + +Get control of your imagination. Be lord over your thoughts. You +cannot, as an old Puritan writer says, "prevent the birds from flying +over your head, but you can prevent them making their nests in your +hair." Which means that while you may not be able to prevent given +thoughts from darting into the mind, you can forbid their finding a +home there. The danger is not in what comes, but in what is permitted +to stay. You have some sense of the training that is needed in certain +parts of your nature; and if you join that training to the help of God, +you can not only cast evil cravings out of your life, you can do +something that is harder still--you can keep them out. Be careful +about companionships. Have no friendship with him who boasts of his +"amours," the "affairs of the heart," that he can sustain at the same +time. Shun, as you would a pestilence, the man of unclean speech. Let +it be a truth with you which must not be questioned, that the truest +indication of nobility of character is reverence for womanhood. By the +sweet and holy thoughts of your mother, by your sacred love and wishes +for your sister, I would remind you of words in which the "wisdom of +many buried ages lingers": "Keep innocence, keep purity, and do the +thing which is right, so shalt thou be brought at the last to thine end +in peace." May you watch and pray, that you yield not to temptation. +May you watch and pray, that you enter not eternity with that stain +upon the soul which no tears of your own can ever wash away, or time +blot out of the memory. + +Another way in which we may defile this temple of the body is by the +habit of Betting. We usually speak of "betting and gambling," but the +latter term includes and covers transactions so wide in extent, and +complex in their nature, as to make it impossible for me in this +address to do more than refer to them. + +It must be understood in the few remarks I purpose to offer on this +subject, that I confine them to what I have called the habit of +betting. I shall not affirm that betting is necessarily a sin, but I +do state it as my conviction that its tendency and results are +practically always in that direction. William Cobbett--than whom no +man has ever written more sensibly to young men--says that "betting is +always criminal in itself, or in what it leads to. The root of it is +covetousness, a desire to take from others something for which you have +given, and intend to give, no equivalent." These statements may be +debated, but they appeal to me as essentially sound. A young man says: +"If I choose to risk a sum of money which I can afford to lose over a +bet with some one else who can afford to do the same, what has talk +about equivalent got to do with it? What, or where, is the wrong in +such a transaction?" This is a test question, and I am disposed to +answer it by saying that I do not think any young man who takes himself +seriously will urge it; and when put on a lower plane, the closer you +examine it the more rotten it is found to be. Is it wrong to cultivate +and indulge a habit that inevitably leads to bad results? And that is +what betting does, apologize for it as you may. Putting aside for the +moment any considerations about the money you can afford to lose, you +cannot afford, either in your own or in the interests of the community +of which you are a part, to take the moral risks that are involved in +betting. It is to insult our intelligence to deny that, +comprehensively speaking, the basis of betting is cupidity, and +cupidity of a particularly dangerous kind. There may be exceptions, +but they are scarcely worth mentioning; whatever may be the inception +of the habit of betting, it almost inevitably roots itself as greed; +and it is greed that consumes character like a furnace. It is the +black altar on which everything worth being must suffer immolation. + +I was told some time ago of a place of worship which had a +billiard-table on its premises. Provided at the suggestion of the +minister with the best of intentions, it was soon turned into a means +of betting. The managers were obliged to take the matter into serious +consideration, and out of a regard to the susceptibilities of the young +men who used the table, they decided not to prohibit stakes upon a +game, but to insist that all winnings should be handed over to the +Hospital Fund. The room was soon comparatively deserted. The interest +was not billiards, so much as billiards plus the money won or lost in +betting on billiards. + +When I am told that to stake a trifle upon a game is not for the sake +of winning money, so much as to give the due seasoning of excitement to +amusement, I have to remark that in a few cases this may be so, but it +is not the explanation of betting. Almost entirely it comes to mean +the desire to win money for which we have given, and intend to give, no +just equivalent. That almost deserted room on the church premises +tells the truth about the whole squalid business. Almost any kind of +amusement, not accompanied with betting, is, to an increasing number of +people, as insipid as water is to the palate of a brandy-drinker. In +the case of young men the habit does two things: it gives rise to false +and ruinous impressions, and it murders the soul. As touching the +former, it tempts a young man to think he can get a living, and a +flourishing one, without working for it--a greatly coveted science in +these days. It seems so much easier to put money in the pocket this +way, than by honest toil with head or hands, or both. The notorious +fact that betting strikes at the root-principle of worthy and strenuous +labour, is not the least of the vicious features of this many-sided +evil. + +It also creates the most hopeless form of selfishness, and it grows by +what it feeds on. The avarice of betting destroys the best part of us. +As I have said, it kills the soul. Who, indeed, can call that which is +left in the confirmed gambler, a soul! It is rather, as one well +describes it, "a shrunken, useless organ, a noble capacity sentenced to +death by an ignoble passion, which droops as a withered hand by the +side, and cumbers Nature like a rotten branch." + +To my thinking, it is a waste of time to ask, and it is an abuse of +time to discuss the question, wherein the wrong or evil of betting +consists. The practice has evil consequences, and evil consequences +only; and they necessarily become the more evil the more widely it is +diffused throughout society. What other proof of wrong does a +right-minded person ask? My estimate of the effects of betting is such +that I would neither employ nor trust any man who is addicted to it. + +I hope and believe that I am talking to young men who have never +touched this dangerous thing. Continue to be wise. Others, it may be, +have ventured a little way. My message to you is, turn away from it, +another step may make retreat impossible. As you value the things that +rightly enter into life for attainment and possession--honest +enterprise, true success, worthy ambition, upright character, peace of +mind, and hopefulness of outlook--bind these words about your neck, +write them upon the table of your heart: "He that getteth riches, and +not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end +shall be a fool." + +And once more, we may defile the temple of the body by Drunkenness. Or +if this term, and the state it connotes, be unduly aggressive, let me +say by an intemperate use of strong drink. + +There are those who tell us that any use which passes it through the +lips is intemperate. If I offer a word of criticism on this position, +it is because I want the assent of your reason in the few things I have +to say about this part of the subject before us. The first condition +of permanent reform is, that it shall be founded on truth. The +peculiar temptation, it has been said, of the ardent reformer is to +exaggerate. Intense feeling is apt to build upon a half-truth--the +unsafest of all foundations. It is one thing to insist upon the evils +that are inseparable from an intemperate indulgence in strong drink, it +is quite another thing to assert that it is evil, and evil only, to +touch it at all. The latter order of polemic is always liable to bring +about a reaction which is terribly prejudicial to the good we desire to +accomplish. + +I have no warrant to question a man's loyalty to the forward movements +of our time, who conscientiously for the sake of health, as he thinks, +or social arrangements, cannot recognize it as his duty to forswear +drink altogether. When a man claims his liberty to be the arbiter of +his habits in his home, or in society, for me to arrogate the right to +censure him may be impertinence; and, so far as I am concerned, to read +him out of Christian consistency may be to make myself, as St. James +puts it, a judge of evil thoughts. When a man has reached fifty years +of age, and has worked hard and lived sparingly, if he should consider +it advisable to relax somewhat the severities of earlier years, I have +nothing to say to him unless it be to remind him of the example he owes +to others, and of the need there always is to keep before us the +warning: "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." + +I think it right to put this side of the question in its just evidence, +and having done so I willingly dismiss it with the remark that I am not +talking to middle-aged nor to old men. My appeal is to young men, and +I say to you without qualification, without a suspicion of mental +reservation, you do not need strong drink. There are conceivable +circumstances where it may be medically prescribed, but such +prescription from competent men has well-nigh reached the +vanishing-point. Near as any statement can get to its ultimate, I +affirm that you never have need of this drink. Keep it, then, out of +your blood in your threshold years, and you will have less or no +craving for it at all in those that are travelling your way. If you +should imagine that you inherit the craving, there is, at any rate, one +rampart which, if held, the craving cannot force--that is, total +abstinence from the thing craved. Range yourselves with the +abstainers, and be proud of your legion. It will be better for you in +every way, whether it be in physical health, mental efficiency, moral +force, or spiritual attainment. Settle it with yourselves, that there +are no conditions in your life which can be called normal, and few that +are abnormal, where you need the drink, and that to trifle with a thing +so unnecessary, and yet so dangerous, is moral idiocy. + +I plead with you to take high ground in your conceptions of the duty +you owe to yourselves, and to your day and opportunities. As a nation +we have to conquer drunkenness, or it will go far, as it is doing now, +to conquer the nation. And we have a right to look to you young men to +lead us forth to this great victory. We have the right to ask you to +quit yourselves like men in mighty attack upon this devil's trinity of +impurity, gambling, and drunkenness. I have said little in this +address on what is called its distinctively religious side. The +religion is in the subject itself. Realize what it is that needs to be +done in yourselves and in the world around you, and I will trust +religion to take care of itself. Face this work of conquest first by +self-conquest, and you will find the need of a help not yourselves and +greater than yourselves. And the help will come: "I can do all +things," said the Apostle, "through Christ which strengtheneth me." + +"I wish he would find the point again in this speaking man, and stick +to it with tenacity, with deadly energy, for there is need of him yet." +So wrote Thomas Carlyle of the preacher. "Could we but find the point +again--take the old spectacles off his nose, and looking up discover, +almost in contact with him, what the real Satanas, the soul-devouring, +world-devouring devils are." I have tried, however imperfectly, yet +faithfully, to talk to you about three of these "soul-devouring, +world-devouring devils." Give them no inch of foothold in your life, +and do a brother's part for others who, perhaps weaker than you, are +waging the same conflict in the interest of the things that are sacred, +and kingly, and divine. And when your brief mortal life is over you +shall have the noble satisfaction of knowing that you have done +something to make sure and real the power of that new day when our +"sons shall be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters +shall be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." + + + + +TEMPTATION AND RESPONSIBILITY + + +"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot +be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man; but each man is +tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed."--St. +James i. 13, 14. + +V + +TEMPTATION AND RESPONSIBILITY + +St. James has been called the Saxon of the goodly company of the +Apostles. It is in many ways a happy description. We associate the +term with thought, rugged, perspicuous, easily grasped, and expressed +in the shortest and most readily understood words. St. Peter, in a +reference to the letters of his "beloved brother Paul," warns the +reader of these letters that there are things in them hard to be +understood, which the ignorant handle only to their own confusion. If +the former part of this warning were written about the Epistle General +of St. James it would be dismissed at once, as having neither point nor +application. + +St. James does not think deeply, but he thinks clearly. He knows what +he wants to say, and he says it in language that he who runs may not +only read but understand. He touches most of the great themes that +engage the commanding mind of St. Paul, and settles them--for no other +word so well describes the process--in his own characteristic fashion. +In the passage before us he attacks the most difficult subject which +the mind of man can approach, and disposes of it to his own +satisfaction in some forty-two of the shortest and most decisive words +to be found in any speech or language. + +It is well to come across a man like this occasionally; he may not be +profound, but he has abundance of common-sense. We see him just as God +made him--genuine, sincere, calm, and clear, touching with searching +words, if not quite the roots of things, yet, without a doubt, the +things themselves. He was the Apostle of that myriad-headed person +known as the "man on the streets." St. Paul, however, to the end of +his manifold and strenuous life, was always the student and the +theologian. + +And in nothing does the difference between these two men better +illustrate itself than in their separate treatment of what is called +the Problem of Evil. St. Paul speaks of evil as the law in his nature, +as so entrenched there that the good he would do he does not, and the +evil he would not do he does. Unless we weigh these words carefully, +we overlook the significance, in the connection before us, of this term +law. It implies that evil is, somehow, a part of our being; a +something not our higher selves, and yet so deeply rooted in our +nature, that like an unsleeping sentinel must a man be on his guard +against it to the end of his mortal days. Were it not for this +Apostle's mighty faith in Him who can give us the victory through our +Lord Jesus Christ, we should say that he stands ever on the margin of +that dark river in whose mysterious deeps are possibilities of +wickedness and disaster, the sorrow of God, and the despair of man. + +St. James would not have put himself in opposition to a single thing +that St. Paul wrote about the seat and nature of evil, but to him the +practical question was not its source but its control, and concerning +the latter he is sufficiently explicit: "Let no man say when he is +tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, +neither tempteth He any man; but every man is tempted, when he is drawn +away of his own lust, and by his own lust permits himself to be +enticed." You will notice that in this passage the writer puts no +emphasis on outward inducements to sin; he says nothing, for example, +about a devil. I do not assume that he would have questioned for a +moment the traditional teaching about Satan. But he will allow no man +to transfer to circumstances, inheritances, temptation, or devil, a +responsibility which is his own. Comprehensively speaking, he declares +that if men do wrong it is because they want to do wrong, or because +they are not disposed to make a creditable fight against it. So far as +men know the right, the right they can do, if they will. + +We can readily imagine how this Apostle would handle one of the modern +and enlightened critics, who appear to think they have but to refuse a +name in order to get rid of the thing which the name is held to +represent. "You tell us," he says to a man of this order, "that there +is no devil; that to think or talk of him in any personal sense, say in +the sense that Milton incarnates him in _Paradise Lost_, is mischievous +and absurd. That sounds formidable, but to what does it amount? The +word, or name, 'devil,' you, tell us, simply connotes a principle. +Very well, take the initial letter from the word, and what have you +left? You have 'evil,' and that is the only thing about which you and +I need concern ourselves. In what degree have you advanced 'liberal +thought,' as you choose to call it, by telling us there is no devil, +while yet there is so much that is devil-like in yourself and in us +all?" + +The Apostle leaves a legion of questions unanswered, and, as compared +with St. Paul's treatment of this complex problem of moral evil, he +moves on the surface. But he is himself; and, in his plain and terse +fashion, he forces upon our attention one truth which, on the principle +that an inch of fact is worth a yard of theory, is, if well in the +mind, more useful than acres of metaphysics which leave us very much +where we were. His broad affirmation is, that temptation does not, and +cannot, put sin into a man's mind or heart. Temptation does not make, +it only finds. "The prince of this world cometh," said our Lord, "and +hath, or findeth, nothing in Me." And His Apostle takes his stand on +the position, that temptation does no more than reveal the latent evil +within us, waiting its opportunity to come out. I mind me of a remark +I once read, and which has suggested whatever of worth there is in this +address. "As to the notion," says the writer, "that our adversary the +devil puts evil thoughts in our mind, I contend that neither God nor +devil does it. God would not, the devil cannot. The most that the +enemy of our souls can do, is to stir and use the possibilities already +there." [1] + +This, if I rightly apprehend his meaning, is essentially the contention +of the Apostle James. The temptation is to the latent evil what the +spark is to the inflammable material. If the material were not there +the spark would be as harmless as though it dropped into ice-water. "I +can hear words, I can see things, but they will have power over me only +in the measure that something in me answers to the words and the +things." "I was so tempted," says a man, "and I yielded," which means +that the desire already there came into contact with the opportunity to +gratify it, and in what struggle there was, the desire was greater than +the will-power put out to control it. To say that the sight of +opportunity to do evil often makes evil done may be true, but the sight +does not make the evil, it only discovers the evil ready for the sight. + +In the first place, then, the Apostle admonishes us, that we cannot +refer the guilt of our sin, or the responsibility for moral failure, to +causes and sources outside ourselves. We may do that with failure of +many kinds, but never in a case of conscious moral obliquity. The +Apostle James would have agreed with the greater Apostle when he said: +"I find a law within me, that when I would do good, evil is ever +present"; but he would not the less have stood his ground and said: +"Call it a law if you like, but it is not, and is not meant to be, +beyond our control. It is one thing to be tempted, it is another thing +to fall." Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust +and enticed. + +Let us allow at this point for a word of qualification, or we may find +ourselves in confusion. As I have just hinted, we must not confound +moral guilt and its consequences with the consequences of troubles and +failures over which we have next to no control. + +Here is a man, let us say, who is a hard worker, temperate, +enterprising, and upright. He is making headway in a certain business. +But a powerful combination is formed in the same line, which offers him +the two alternatives of absorption or almost certain ruin. He decides +to hold out against it, to find possibly after a time that his business +is gone, and with it his capital, and he himself in a world that +apparently has no further use for him. Then, soured and bitter, +nursing a sense of wrong, he gradually parts with his self-respect, +probably takes to drink, and goes down below the hope-mark of social +redemption. + +The man--and you probably have known such an one--may, or he may not, +have been responsible for his business disasters. He had a right to +trust to his own judgment, and providing that he did not choose to +enter the combination, he was justified in making a struggle for his +own independence. Whether his decision was a wise one is nothing to +the point; it was his decision, and he had the right to exercise it. +It brought trouble. That was a contingency to be reckoned in the risk; +but having taken it, he had no right to sacrifice his manhood to his +trouble. He might not be able to resist the strength of the +circumstances that selected him for a commercial victim, but he was +bound to overcome the weakness in himself to which the circumstances +appealed. He might not be responsible for losing his business, but he +was responsible for losing himself. + +We talk about people doing wrong from force of circumstances. Well, +every man who knows anything about it, has felt something of the touch +of omnipotence there may be in circumstances. It is not always either +kind or wise to try to hearten people who are in difficulties, by +concealing or underrating their force and gravity. It is a terrible +experience for a man past a certain age in his life, to find himself in +the grip of financial difficulties, and face to face with social +annihilation. I have seen men there, and the very thought of it +unnerves me. + +But past it all, the old saying holds good, there is nothing in life we +can afford to do wrong for; and if, in the stress of circumstances, a +man elects to take a wrong turn, he takes it according to the teaching +of the text, because the inclination towards wrong is there, waiting +its turn. We may sympathize with a man who goes down in his outward +affairs and social status before the impact of circumstances he cannot +resist, but we must maintain at the same time, that while circumstances +may explain the trouble, whatever it is, they cannot justify +wrong-doing either to escape trouble or as a refuge when in it. + +Victor Hugo declares that for every crisis we have in us an instinct to +meet it. That is a fine saying. If any man, who has had some moral +training, will obey his first instinct of right, it is marvellous what +possibilities there are at the heart of it. If, finding himself after +the best he can do apparently defeated, he will take heed and be +quiet--that is, do the best he can with what is left, and trust God--he +will also find that the resources of the old word are not yet +exhausted: "Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the +upright in heart." + +He may have to lose his means, and step down in the world, as it is +called, but let him do it with a clean conscience and a fine integrity; +and just as "man's periods are only God's commas," so this man's going +down is but a more splendid way of going up. I can imagine that +nothing is more pleasing in the sight of Heaven than to see uprightness +only the more enlightened, quickened, and made imperative by the +troubles and vicissitudes of life. Let a man keep, if he can, what he +has honourably got; but if go it must, let it go rather than attempt to +save it at the cost of moral integrity. Let him say: "Empty my purse +if need be, but fill my soul; take my world, but spare my life; darken +my circumstances, but keep bright my spiritual outlook." And what are +the slights and neglect of a passing and superficial world to a man +whose life is in tune with the Infinite, who hears in secret what one +day will be said from the housetops of time and eternity: "Well done, +good and faithful servant"? + +We are not always responsible for the temptations that sweep into our +life. I will go further than that, and say that we are not necessarily +responsible for what the attack of temptation finds in us; that, in +some cases, may be our inheritance, and in others faults of early +training; but we are responsible for what temptation does with what it +finds. For it cannot be repeated too often that temptation never puts +evil in our thoughts, it only makes manifest the evil that is there. + +And hardly more do we differ in our features than we do in the things +which, and through which, we are temptable. We cannot all be tempted +by the same thing, but all of us can be tempted by something. You +remember how Achilles was dipped in the magic water and made +invulnerable in all parts except one. "Where the finger and thumb held +the heel it was dry, and, though the arrows glanced off from the other +parts of the body, when they pierced this one soft place he was +wounded, and that unto death." + +Each one of us has his vulnerable place, and it is our life-business to +guard it. The weak place is there; the arrow will be aimed at it, and +if it find the place it is aimed at, we may refer the blame to what or +where we will, it does not affect the truth, that the blame is nigh +unto us, even at our own door. + +"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot +be tempted with evil things; neither tempteth He any man with, or unto, +evil things; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away, when he +yields to his own lust, and by it is enticed, by it is overcome." + +Which means, in the second place, that not only is a man his own worst +enemy, but that no enemy outside of man's self can vitally hurt him, +except so far as he places himself within the enemy's power. This is +not to say that other people cannot hurt us; still less is it to say +that it is not their will and wish to hurt us. To commit oneself to +such a statement would be to speak in the teeth of the commonest +experience of human life. There are men, and women too, who have the +will, the wish, and the power to hurt us. They are, as Christ said of +this brood in His day, of their "father the devil." To say a kind word +about any one, to do a generous turn for others on the road of life, +would be to them a positive task. There are people with whom I would +as soon think of entrusting anything I held sacred, as I would think of +risking the blood in my veins to the instinct of a deadly snake. + +Nor is it want of charity to say this; it is want of sense to deny it. +"Beware of men" is as much a word of Jesus as His command to love one +another. There does not seem to be in the mind of most people any +clear conception of the attitude of Christ towards sin and sinful +people. And this confusion is at the bottom of many of our speculative +difficulties, as well as of our practical troubles in the Christian +Church. When we are convinced that a man's policy and his motives as +translated in his policy are inimical to the highest interests of +others, to the commonwealth of good, then we owe it to ourselves and +others to speak and act upon our conviction. + +There are men, again, whose vested interests mean our hurt, working +through institutions that are co-extensive with our civilization. Look +about you on the effects of drink, and then think how attractive its +surface accessories are made. Consider the men who make fortunes out +of lust itself; how seductive they make the openings and avenues which +end in the lethal chambers wherein are dead men's bones. We have in +our midst a well-organized body of men who make it their business for +money to trade upon and to tempt the lowest and most dangerous forces +of our carnal nature. And what does it mean when these men are, by the +acknowledgment of public sentiment, the representatives of what is +called "legitimate business"? It can only mean that the sentiment +which should be the active and protective side of a worthy manhood is +being used to destroy it. + +Beware of men who say to evil: "Be thou my good!" Reckon with the fact +that in so far as we stand for anything in a life worth living, there +are people who have the will, the wish, and the power to do us hurt. + +And yet, I say again, they can hurt us vitally--mark the word +vitally--only so far as we place the opportunity within their power. +We have to hurt ourselves before we can be hurt by anything outside us. +We have to be our own enemy to give the enemy his advantage. +"Nothing," says St. Bernard, "can work me harm except myself; the harm +I sustain I carry about with me, and never am I a real sufferer but by +my own fault." + +Recall once more the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: "The prince +of this world cometh, and findeth nothing in Me." The prince of this +world crucified Christ; he made Him the victim of the fear, the hate, +the murderous fury of the organized religious classes of that day. But +the prince of this world could not pass by a shade the extent which the +saving purpose of the Saviour had Himself decreed and set fast. When +the prince of this world came to the soul of the Saviour, the power of +the prince of this world had reached its limits. Had there been, I +will not say sin, but a sin; had there been the shade of a suspicion of +what the world significantly calls a "past" in that Soul, the devil +would have had his leverage, and the Divine Saviourhood would have +thinned out at the most in the ordinary tragedy of a human martyrdom. + +The emissaries of the prince of this world could lay violent hands on +the body of Christ--that was permitted for your salvation and mine; but +their power became impotence when it approached the soul, and there is +where the battle is won or lost. "Fear not him who can kill the body +only, but fear it"--that is the better translation--"fear it, the evil +principle within thee, that can cast both body and soul in hell." + +We are told that a man once wrote the late Mr. Spurgeon saying that +unless he received from him within two days a specified sum of money, +he would publish certain things that would go far to destroy the great +preacher's hold upon public estimation. And Mr. Spurgeon wrote back +upon a postcard: "You, and your like, are requested to publish all you +know about me across the heavens." There is a world of meaning in the +answer. This master in Israel had his enemies, who would have hailed +as a providence any report, true or false, which could have been +effectually used to strike at the message through the man. And it was +because the man had not made himself his own enemy, in the past or in +the present, that he could look this devil in the face and tell him +that he was the devil. + +This is how one man came out of an encounter with an enemy outside him; +take another case where the enemy of a man was the man himself. He +came to me, this man, when I was working in the South of England. In a +bitter temper he told me that he had been dismissed from a business +house in the town. He had left a good situation six months before he +entered this house, and was now ousted to make room for one who had +resented his appointment from the first, and had been his enemy. I +spoke, as I promised to do, to the employer, with whom I had some +influence, and in whose integrity I had implicit confidence. "It is an +absolute misrepresentation of the facts," he assured me. "The man," he +said, "got his situation on no better than false pretences. He had not +been with us a week when it was evident that he was quite unequal to +the duties of the position he had professed himself competent to +fulfil. It is nonsense to say that any one has ousted him; the truth +is, that he has wasted his time, and thrown away his opportunity, so +that in what should be his own line he has neither training nor +proficiency to be other than a low-placed man." + +This is a single line in a large literature. It was a foolish use of +the past that became the man's enemy the moment his present required +something better. And this is an instance of how we can so become our +own enemy, as to make it impossible for God to be our friend, in the +sense we imagine God should be our friend. It would be, not the law +which is the deepest expression of divine thought and love, but immoral +force, if we could waste the time sacred to the preparation for a +better position, and yet be ready for the position when it comes our +way. God can forgive the waste, but God cannot give us back what the +waste has lost out of our life. We must never lose sight of the fact +that divine forgiveness cannot be vulgarized into impunity. I do not +say for a moment, in the case of a middle-aged man, that the enemy he +has made of himself is irredeemable and hopeless. I believe that a +man's own effort and the grace of God can change this enemy into a +valuable friend, if a man is man enough to accept and honour the cost +of the great transformation. But how few people, past a given age, +ever do quite conquer the inward foes whose sinister power is of their +own cultivation? For one man who goes down before an outward enemy, +there are a score who lay themselves in the dust and keep themselves +there by acts that become habits, and habits that become character, and +character that hardens into something that looks like destiny. + +This, therefore, suggests a closing word to you younger people. Many +of you to whom I speak are in the making. You are on the threshold of +your manhood, with practically the future in your own hands. + +I often recall my faltering energies in thought of a remark I once +heard the revered principal[2] of my college make to a body of students +who were about to enter upon their ministry: "Gentlemen," said he; "you +may be able to offer twenty good reasons in after life for your +failure, if fail you do. People will not concern themselves about your +reason, they will simply look at the fact that you have failed." The +truth in this remark is preeminently a truth for young people. The +world, on one side of it, is very hard and cruel. It will apologize +for failure in the abstract under tricks of speech, and cant about +charity, but for individual failure it has no mercy. + +Listen to one who has to fight bitterly his own self-made enemies, when +I counsel you to begin straight from the beginning. Beware of making +to-day the enemy of to-morrow. The present, says a wise man, has +always got to pay the purchase price of the past. Never let the +temptation overcome you, to take a "short and shady" cut to the +gratification of desire, or in the achievement of what is sought as +success. Nothing in life is unrelated, and everything you do which +cannot pass the bar of your higher self is not only sin, but also a +blunder. It may sleep to-day, but it sleeps to wake. When you can +least afford it, it will be more than awake, it will be hungry. +Educate and cultivate your conscience, and never disregard its voice. +Keep your heart with all diligence; keep your heart, and always have in +it room for God. + +In the open, and in the secret of your life, watch and pray that day by +day you may say with Spurgeon: "Write, if you like, all you know about +me across the heavens." And while you may have your enemies in men and +circumstances, they will be as nothing and vanity compared with the +friend you have in God and yourself. Never seek to refer your moral +responsibility for actions to influences outside you. Settle it once +and for good, that a thing can radically hurt you there only so far as +you place yourself within its reach. Yield yourselves to the Power +that can lift you by your real need, the need of regeneration, which +can so change your nature that while you are free to many things that +have in them the elements of temptation, you are yet too free to want +them--the Power which can enable each one of us to say: "I fear no foe, +because, by the help of God, I am my own friend." + + + +[1] George Dawson, M.A. + +[2] Rev. Dr. Falding--_Clarum et venerabile nomen_. + + + + +SELF-RESPECT AND COMPANIONSHIPS + + +"Is Saul also among the prophets?"--1 Samuel x. 12. + +VI + +SELF-RESPECT AND COMPANIONSHIPS + +Ever since we could hear or notice sayings and things, and for long +before we were here to do either, this text has been in the world as a +kind of proverb-question: "Is Saul also among the prophets?" If a man +says something which is decidedly in advance of his generally-accepted +reputation for intelligence and good sense, if he surprise us by doing +something which rises sheer above the plane of his average life, if we +happen to find him in company that is made up of men who are his +superiors in attainments, character, and social importance, we mark the +unlooked-for circumstance by repeating this text. We say: "How does +this come to pass? What is the explanation?" "Is Saul also among the +prophets?" If we think out our impression, it means that the +unexpected has somehow happened; that the man must have more in him, or +about him, than hitherto he has been credited with having, or by some +accident he is found where we should least have thought of looking for +him. In a word, the popular interpretation of Saul among the prophets +is that Saul had taken a step up. The truth is, the text may mean that +he had taken one down. It all depends who these prophets were. Before +we can say that it is to a man's credit to be found in a certain +company, and that because he is there we must revise our judgments +about him, we must know what the company is, and why for the moment he +is in it. It is also well to reflect that a man may be in a company +and not of it. + +In these prophets of the time of Saul, when we first meet them, we have +the type which prophesying had first assumed on Canaanitish soil. They +were men, as Professor Cornill in his suggestive book tells us, after +the manner of Mohammedan fakirs, or dancing and howling dervishes, who +express their religious exaltation through their eccentric mode of +life, and thus it comes that the Hebrew word, which means "to live as a +prophet," has also the signification "to rave, to behave in an unseemly +way." + +These men lived together in Israel until a very late date in guilds, +the so-called schools of the prophets. They were, in fact, a species +of begging friars, and were held by the people in a contempt which they +evidently did their best to deserve. To Ahab they prophesied +whatsoever was pleasing to him to hear; and as one of them came into +the camp unto Jehu with a message from Elisha to anoint him king, his +friends asked him: "Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?" Amos +likewise indignantly resents being placed on the same level with this +begging fraternity: "I was no prophet," he says, "neither was I a +prophet's son." And so when the people exclaimed in astonishment: "Is +Saul also among the prophets?" they did not mean: "How is it that such +a worldly-minded man finds himself in the company of such pious +people?" Their meaning is better represented in a question like this: +"How comes a person of such distinction to find himself in such +disreputable company?" + +Let it be understood that these last two or three paragraphs are +roughly paraphrased from Professor Cornill's book, _The Prophets of +Israel_. My opinion as to how far his reading of this proverb-question +will bear criticism is of no value. It may be open to debate whether, +historically, he has not placed certain hysterical phenomena recorded +of these prophets much too late. But whatever scholarship may have to +say about his interpretation of our text, the interpretation commends +itself to my judgment, and it serves the purpose before me. It has, I +venture to think, a very timely message for us all, and especially to +young people. + +You have heard the question a score of times, and you will hear it +again if you live. Hear it then, for once, as the remembrancer of this +truth--that when Saul was found among these so-called prophets he had +ceased to respect himself, and when a man does that he must either +recover himself, or accept moral ruin. I care not what his exterior +circumstances may be; just so far as he fears self-scrutiny is he +self-damned, and he knows it. We talk about the "basis of character." +It is this, or it is that, according as a man may regard it from his +standpoint of morals or religion. We may call it what we choose, but +one thing is certain, there can be no worthy character where we have +not established some right to respect ourselves. And this right must +be born and reared, not out of egotism, nor in religious professions, +but in the findings of a cultivated conscience on the motives and +actions of our everyday life. A man may have many things, and many +things pre-eminently worth having--but as a question of character, if +he have not the right to respect himself, that is the lack of the one +thing which is virtually the lack of all. + +I have mentioned religious profession, and it is well to mark the +commonplace but important distinction there may be between religion and +our profession of it. Religion, while it is a possession of infinite +worth, may be of no worth to us so long as we know that we are keeping +back some part of the righteousness which is the backbone of any +religion worth the name. A man's religious beliefs and convictions are +his own business. They are between him and a higher tribunal than +ours. What he does concerns us; and what he does he is. It may take a +time to identify the true relation between the two, but our instinct +decides the question, long, it may be, before the actions appear to +justify the verdict of the instinct. Somehow we know through this +worth-discerning faculty whether a man is trying to be what we mean +when we speak of a good man. + +I believe that human character is homogeneous. It is of one substance +and quality in each particular person. Untold mischief has been done +by excusing the unpardonable in a man, on the ground that in some other +directions he is a good man. If he is ill to live with in the home, or +is hard and overreaching in his business, if he willingly makes life +more difficult than it need be for others, this is conduct which is +character; and when it is found with a profession of religion, let the +man, who thus outrages religion, be anathema. But at the same time, +young people should not conclude too hastily that a man is a hypocrite +because he does some things they cannot reconcile with his profession. +A man may be a very faulty man, and yet be a genuinely good man. His +goodness does not excuse his faults, nor do his faults destroy his +claim to goodness. I have known many a son judge a father very +harshly, and find himself in after years glad to find a place of +repentance. If you would have less reason later on to call yourself a +fool, be told that as yet you are not the best judges of what are but +faults on the surface of a man, and what are vices that are the man +himself. The truth about others will out sooner or later; what most +concerns you in the meanwhile is to know the truth about yourselves. +While always trying to think fairly, and even generously about others, +have you the right to think well of yourselves? "It is above all +things necessary," said the late President Garfield, "that in every +action I should have the good opinion of James Garfield; for to eat, +and drink, and sleep, and awake with one whom you despise, though that +one be yourself, is an intolerable thought, and what must it be as a +life experience?" + +This is his way of saying that, as he puts it, above all things he must +be able to respect himself; and therefore there must be no double +existence, no secret sin, no side streets off the open thoroughfare of +his life, which he preferred to visit when it was dark--for, although +his neighbours and friends might not know about them, James Garfield +would know about them, and to be this creature whom you despise was +Garfield's idea of what every rightly ordered man should think of with +loathing. It is the word of wise old Polonius over again-- + + "This above all: to thine own self be true, + And it must follow, as the night the day, + Thou canst not then be false to any man." + +Let a man have the right to respect himself, and he has that which can +take the sting out of his disappointments and the tyranny of victory +out of his failures. He may be no great success, as the world +appreciates success. He may not make much show at money-getting; the +position he fills may not excite much envy. Whether or not he achieves +this order of success will be all the same fourscore years hence. +These things, seen and temporal, will be past and forgotten, but that +which he makes himself in the use of them will remain, and that will +_not_ be all the same whatever it is. + +I myself have been through a hard mill. I know what it is to have to +struggle for self-respect over the toil by which I earned my bread. I +have been counted as just a "hand" among a few hundred others, of +importance only so far as it affected the cost of a certain production. +But I say it advisedly, and speaking out of years which have left their +mark, I would rather have this experience to the finish of my mortal +days and all the way, and at the end be able to look my soul in the +face and say: "There is no shadow between us, we are at peace"--rather +this, I say, than any such success as I have had, multiplied a +hundredfold, if it can only turn to conscience to be smitten by it. + +I would have you succeed; and by success I mean, for the moment, what +the world means by the term. Why should you not? There is no +necessary connection between a straight life and failure to win the +kingdoms of this world. You can be clean and conscientious in your +methods, and you can succeed if you have it in you to succeed. If you +have not, scorn the trick of blaming honesty for what is really lack of +ability. There may be cases where honesty handicaps a man for a time, +but they are comparatively few and short-lived in their operation. But +lift the definition of success to higher levels, and I assert without +qualification that with the right to respect ourselves there can be no +failure, and without it there can be no success. That I do or do not +make money is a question of gift or the favour of circumstances; that I +am an honest man haps neither upon accident nor contingency. It is the +deliberate and responsible exercise of my own moral will. I may make +money or position and be a failure; I may do neither and be a success. + +Let me counsel you to hold it true with the great President: "I must, +above all things, have the good opinion of myself." Look up to God and +pray: "Keep Thou me from secret faults"; then look in upon yourselves +and say: "By the help of God I will make it possible for God to give me +the help I ask." To thine own self be true. Put this estimate upon +yourself, and whatever price the world may put upon you, time will show +that you have no more valuable asset than your own self-respect. You +may not be able to command the declarative success upon which the world +places its emphasis, but you can always deserve it. He is the great +man who can say, and mean it, I would rather be beaten in the right +than succeed in the wrong. + +Saul had ceased to respect himself, and this very probably supplies the +explanation of his being found in this questionable company. Bear in +mind who, and what, these so-called prophets were, and you gather the +force of the surprise with which it was asked: "Is Saul also, the king, +the Lord's anointed, in the company of men like these?" + +For in this connection it suggests the influence of companionships. +There is a well-known saying that a man is known by the company he +keeps, and it is truer than many sayings that are oftener on our lips. +"Do you think him beyond further effort?" I said lately to a good man +concerning one in whom we were both interested--a young man fast +heading towards ruin. "I am afraid there is, humanly speaking, no +hope," was the answer; "he has taken up with company that forbids it." + +When we are young we are apt to evolve friendships out of our +imagination. We do not so much prove them as create them, according to +the impulses and undisciplined generosities of our disposition. It is +only time, here as elsewhere, that can teach us how much there is that +is human about the best of friends. But how much may have been done, +for better or for worse, before we realize that the angels have gone +away only because they were never here? As we get older outside +friendships count for less. Life fills with other interests, or it +empties in a sense friendships can never fill. If we who are older +have carried into the later years one or two, or two or three, +well-laid, well-tested and useful friendships, let us be very thankful, +and cherish them. They are pearls of great price, for no friends are +like old friends, and as they drop off we have to make the best we can +of acquaintances. It is when we are young that we have the genius for +friendships; they are, indeed, a necessary part of our life. And +whether or not it is much use to warn young people about the formation +of friendships, the warning is seriously needed. Much will be +determined by affinities and by mutual sympathies. You may have to +sample many friendships before you find a friend. And while it is +difficult, not to say impossible, to lay down rules where affinities +are involved, one thing you can do, you can allow the moral instinct to +decide, as it can decide, whether in the real interests of character a +given friendship is worth cultivation. If you realize that you must +surrender something of your better self to be the friend of a certain +person, you will be almost sure to establish that friendship at your +peril. It is far harder to save your life than it is to lose it, and +the chances are, not that you will lift the friendship up to your +level, but that it will pull you down to its own. + +These remarks on the general subject of personal friendship are +warranted by its importance. But there is another aspect of it which, +as a question of widespread and deep-seated influence, is even more +important. And it is one that is too rarely touched in or out of the +pulpit. There is something which begins with only an acquaintance, but +it readily grows into more, and that more is supplied at a heavy cost +to the individual and to the community. + +In a well-known passage in one of his letters, St. Paul asks: "What +concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth +with an infidel? Wherefore come out from among them, saith the Lord, +and be ye separate; touch not the unclean thing." Both the question +and the admonition apply to personal friendships and to other +relationships, such as marriage, social and business intercourse. But +it has another and wider application. They refer to the general +attitude of our thought, our bearing towards interests and people whom +we have reason to believe are hurtful themselves and represent hurtful +institutions. For me to call myself a Christian, and yet be on terms +of apparent friendship, of easy good nature and tolerance of men and +things that stand for Belial, that are Belial, is one of the most +effective ways I know of crucifying Christ afresh, and putting Him to +open shame. Whatever the King of Israel might think of his company, +the fact that he was in it gave to their worthlessness a new tenure of +existence and to their wickedness an added licence. He did not make +them better men, but they made him a worse man. And for us to appear +to countenance wrong things, so as to favour an impression that +possibly they are not so wrong after all; to strengthen the wickedness +which would hide itself behind the sinister expression, that the "devil +may not be so bad as he is painted," is to be on the side of the devil. +It is to hearten the foes of good and perplex and discourage the +enemies of evil. + +In that remarkable book, _Mark Rutherford's Deliverance_, the writer +speaks of a day when politics will become a matter of life or death, +dividing men with really private love and hate. "I have heard it +said," he tells us, "that we ought to congratulate ourselves that +political differences do not in this country breed personal +animosities. To me this seems anything but a subject of +congratulation. Men who are totally at variance ought not to be +friends, and if Radical and Tory are not totally but merely +superficially at variance, so much the worse for their Radicalism and +Toryism. Most of us," he goes on to say, "have no real loves and no +real hatreds. Blessed is love, less blessed is hatred, but thrice +accursed is the indifference which is neither one nor the other, the +muddy mess which men call friendship." The truth underlying these +words is put in a severe form, but there is truth in it. Our +compromises in politics, and the consequent slow and doubtful progress +we make in social conditions, have many explanations, but the abiding +one is, that at the moral root of things we have not, as Mark +Rutherford means it, those real loves and hatreds which vitally +influence conduct. Take any wrong that happens to appeal to your sense +of indignation, and ask why it continues? in what does it get its lease +of existence? And the answer is, the fact that we have too many Sauls +among the prophets. The wrong remains because, although we do not +profess to be its friends, its friends have no need to reckon with us +as its foes. + +I have already alluded to my experience in a hard school. Indulge me +if I return to it for a moment. My earlier years were spent in a +Lancashire cloth mill. In it I wrought from morning to night side by +side with youths of my own age and men who were older. For the most +part, young and old, they were practised in almost every conceivable +coarse and brutal way of casting their existence as rubbish to the +void. But I think I can truthfully say that, while I tried to be loyal +to the conditions of contact, and as a comrade in the ranks was not +unpopular, yet they knew that neither within those grim walls nor +without them was I of their world. + +It is not easy, sometimes it is very hard, to take up this positive +position amid one's daily surroundings. And it is not only hard to do +the thing itself; it may be even harder to do it wisely. It is not +pleasant to have your conscientious attitudes to things which to you +are neither expedient nor permissible interpreted by the old words used +as a sneer: "Stand aside, for I am holier than thou." Young people +like to be what is called "popular" with those who touch their lives; +and within well-defined limits they owe it to themselves and others to +cultivate the qualities that invite popularity. If, however, the price +of popularity is some form of compromise with things that harm and +things that hate--then, if you are worth world-room, you will draw the +line sharply and keep on one side of it. And that can be done without +giving the impression that you are either a prig or a snob. When you +go the right way about it, the attitude I advise is far harder in +contemplation than it is in practice. The real difficulty in eight out +of every ten of the critical places in life is not what is in them, but +what we imagine is in them. Let it be felt that the things you hold to +be wrong must expect from you neither compromise nor show of +friendship; that you are the open and declared enemy of unclean speech, +filthy jesting, secret sins, with their hints and implied fascinations, +brainless pursuits, frivolous conversation, and low down levels of +existence, and, with the exception of those whose enmity it is a +distinction to have, people will come to realize that your position is +neither that of the religious crank nor of self-righteous conceit--that +it is the expression and outcome of your reverence for whatsoever +things are pure and lovely and of good report. + +Human society has no need more pressing than its need of young men and +women with moral courage and religious conviction to take up the right +attitude to wrong things. "Know ye not that whoever will be the friend +of the world is the enemy of God?" When Saul was found in a certain +company he had ceased to respect himself. This is why he was found +there; and these two things were more than enough to sweep his life to +its tragic close. How many of us have read this man's life-finish? +Let me suggest to you something new to read. A story that has in it +more elemental material than half the fiction that ever was written, or +half the facts that mortgage the attention of a superficial world. +Read that chapter where Saul, face to face with the last things in his +darkened career, and hard upon the Nemesis of his own evil past, seeks +out the woman with the familiar spirit, and in the words that he +addresses to the apparition which he conjures up before his distorted +vision you have the confession of a lost soul: "The Philistines make +war against me, and the Lord answered me no more, neither by prophet +nor by dream." "I have read nothing," says a well-known novelist, +"quite like this man's experience in its utter abandon of lonely +horror." + +Think what you may about the setting of this story, you will be +strangely lacking in moral insight if you miss the meaning that +pulsates through the words that were wrung out of Saul in his +extremity. They point to the lost, which once lost is lost for ever. +Even God, I say again, cannot give us back the yesterdays. Once they +are gone we can only say: "That which is written is written." + +Many of you have practically the best of your chances before you, but +every day takes some part of them out of your hands, and gives it to an +irrecoverable past. Be jealous about your own self-respect, and do +only the things that command it. Take care of your self-respect, and +your success will take care of itself; as also will your +companionships. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon +Him while He is near." Do not put off and forget, forget and put off +until your clock strikes, and so far as the best of your opportunities +are concerned, you have to say: "The Lord answereth me no more, neither +by prophet nor by dream." Lay hold at once upon the help that comes +through genuine decision for God. Place yourself in position where God +can help you; and you will find that God in Christ denies you nothing +except that which disappoints in the seeking and defeats in the +finding. You will realize that He offers you life; strong, sane, happy +life all the way, and at the end the more life and the fuller. + + + + +THE ROYAL LAW + + +"Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou +shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well."--St. James ii. 8. + +VII + +THE ROYAL LAW + +What St. James calls the Royal Law, is mentioned as far back as the +time of Moses. It is one of the two commands to which our Lord gave +new incidence, into which He put fresh meaning. + +There has been, I hardly need remind you, endless debate about the +source of some of Christ's most characteristic sayings. Was He +original in His teaching, as we use the word, or was He eclectic, +gathering together the most luminous things that had been said? Jewish +scholars, as we might expect, have not been slow to point out that many +of the sayings attributed to Jesus, and certainly many of His ideas, +are to be found in the old Rabbinical writings; that many of His +highest truths had been announced by saints and seers of His race long +before He came. + +We need not question that there is truth in this representation. But +we must question the inference from these words, "long before He came." +For time has known no such solitude. He, which is, and was, and is to +come, has ever been in the world teaching men how to pray, inspiring +them what to say. He had taught "them of old time." "Before Abraham +was," He says, "I am." And St. John tells us that "He was in the +world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." +Originality is no mere traffic with words however skilfully +manipulated. There is a language of God transcending all words, and +intelligible only when we meet Him spirit to spirit in the secret +places of His eternity. + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Observe the setting of +this admonition when first given: "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear +grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy +neighbour as thyself." This word "neighbour" connoted something that +was a distinct advance in the upward trend of the race. It did, at any +rate, a little to lift the Israelite out of himself into the lives of +others. But it meant to him, at the most, only those who were of the +same tribe or nation. In the fulness of time--when the world was +ready--Jesus took up His own word spoken through Moses, and limited in +its interpretation by the moral intelligence of that day; took up His +own word, and made it co-extensive with humanity. + +This is what I mean by a language of God transcending all speech. "You +have been told," says Jesus, "to love your neighbour"; and to the +question, "Who is my neighbour?" He makes the answer reach out to its +full circumference--"Thy neighbour is he or she who bears thy nature." +By the law which declares that God has made of one blood all the +nations of the earth, the physical unity of the race is implied; so by +the operation of the law of love the moral unity, or, what we now call +the "solidarity of humanity," is intended. + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And I hardly need point +out, that it is this little word _as_ in the text which gives us pause. +Is it possible, then, to bring down this command and incarnate it in +our daily life? It does not say, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour with +certain arbitrary qualifications of thy own." It evidently means what +it says: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour _as thyself_." Is it possible +to do it? And many of us are ready to answer, It is not. Either there +has been some mistake in the way it is reported, we tell ourselves, or +it is useless to try to fulfil it with such natures as ours in such a +world as this. + +Put it in this way: granted we loved others as we love ourselves--this +should be good and pleasant for those who possessed our love, if it had +genuine strength in it. Granted, again, we had the fulness of the +strong love of others, that should be helpful to us. If we may +condition the Royal Law in some such manner as this, "Love them who +love us;" or, "love them who are worthy of our love," the difficulty is +obviously lessened, if not in fact removed. But such a limit, while it +might amount to prudence, would not reach up to beatitude. "If ye love +them who love you, what do ye more than others?" "Thou shalt love thy +neighbour as thyself." But who is thy neighbour? And Jesus answers, +"thy neighbour is he who bears thy nature." This is iteration, but I +venture it because I want us to confront the real insistence of this +text. They who share our nature may be, and often are, those who hate +us with or without a cause. There are people who perpetuate an +existence on others which is little better than a moral and physical +calamity. To tell us to tolerate them, not to speak about loving them, +is like telling us to attempt the impossible. And yet Jesus did not +forget these people when He said: "Love your enemies, bless them that +curse you, pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you." + +We, then, who say we accept Christ's teaching must accept it. This is +one of the places where we cannot escape behind some ingenuity of +exegesis or manipulation of text. The command is plain. We can take +it or leave it. One thing we cannot do, we cannot re-write it. "Thou +shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." As thyself. If this but fixes a +hard standard; or simply indicates the measurement of neighbourly love, +then we may almost as well close the discussion--its practical +attainment is out of our reach. + +But, as some one has very wisely said: "Love of self must become a +medium before it becomes a measure." [1] In other words, we cannot +love our neighbour as we ought until we love ourselves as we should. +Out of love of self "flow the ingredients which must enter into +neighbour love." + +The text, then, lays down a twofold obligation: to cultivate a right +love of self, and to translate this love of self into love for others. + +As touching the first part of this obligation, it is useless to ask +what it is in our neighbour we are to love as ourselves, until we know +what it is in ourselves we are to love. In what sense is a man to love +himself? Because there is a radical difference between self-love as +taught and practised in the world, and the love of self sanctioned and +regulated by the Royal Law. Love of self is a right anxiety to secure +the things we need in this world. It is based upon the principle that +life is not to be unclothed but clothed upon. The fact that we are in +the world and have to fulfil its desired ends should carry with it +reverence for our manhood, and the demand for space to work out its +full equation. While the Apostle Paul was always ready to subject his +rights to the law of love, he was equally careful to assert that they +were his rights before he yielded them. In his care for the weak +brethren, he did not become a weak brother. One of the first things we +have to learn, is how to take wise care of ourselves; and then, step by +step, a true life is a growth in the knowledge of how so to take care +of ourselves as to promote the best interests of others. In this +matter of a right love of self, the point of transition at which it +passes into beneficence is the victory over a self-love which is +selfishness. It is really the basal principle of moral government in +the world. + +But when this is said, the surest and simplest answer to the question, +What is it in ourselves we are to love? is to say--We are to love that +which God loves in us. And what does God love in us? From all we know +of the divine nature as revealed in Jesus Christ, we are surely right +in thinking that God loves in us what is most like Himself. No man can +stand at Calvary reverently and thoughtfully for five minutes without +being impressed with the truth of a wondrous self-sacrifice. I met +with a remark lately in a story I was reading which fastened itself on +my mind. It was made by a poor, toiling woman who had scarcely +sufficient means to keep body and soul together: "I never, somehow," +she said, "seem to think a thing is mine until I have given it away." + +This is the spirit that God loves, a spirit ever getting further away +from "miserable aims that end with self." God loves in us the +self-mastery that scorns to compromise with self-indulgence. God loves +in us that which cannot find its true home in the things seen and +temporal, but must ever soar out to the things unseen and eternal; the +things that live in and wait upon the earnest man and after which he +must ceaselessly aspire. God loves in us the strenuous effort which +proceeds from the conviction that there is sacred power in every life +which must not be wasted in "egotistical pride, or in a narrowing +self-love." From instinct, from the moral consciousness, from the +Scriptures--these we know to be representative of the things that God +loves. And we know we are right in loving in ourselves what God loves +in us. We also know that no man can wisely love himself until he knows +the purifying power of a love that is divine. + +If now I may assume that this exposition of the text shows the ground, +and defines the sphere of a right love of self, I may further say that +the Royal Law does not require us to love in others what it does not +permit us to love in ourselves. And we do well to be clear about this. +Many of us stumble over this text because, not getting at its true +inwardness, we have an uneasy feeling that it carries us too far. +Others try to work up an artificial sentiment, and profess to exercise +a charity which is not theirs to extend. + +Here is a man, let us say, who calls himself a religious man, who yet +notoriously is a mean and shabby creature. I once heard this man, well +placed and prosperous, boast of having that day become richer by some +twelve hundred pounds through an oversight of a solicitor in winding up +the affairs of a late client. I afterwards learned that the mistake +was at the expense of a widow and her young children, who, because of +it, were brought within very measurable distance of want. Must my love +for my neighbour include one callous enough, not only to do a thing +like that, but to boast about it? Must it annex the whole low plane of +such a squalid disposition? God forbid. What I hope I should hate in +myself I am not asked to love in another. If a man is base and +unworthy we are to recognize the fact, however ugly; we are to look the +devil in him in the face, and say it is the devil. + +But, on the other side, Christianity admonishes us that our judgments +of our neighbours are neither infallible nor final. It has been well +pointed out, that if we "have found any part of the secret of God's +mercy shown to us, we shall not find it hard to believe in God's mercy +for our neighbours." To realize that the essential thing the Redeemer +saw in us and deemed it worth dying for, He sees in them, will help us, +however weary at times in their service, not to weary of it. + +In this command, then, we have the ground and motive for the sacrifice +of each for the good of all. We see that it is possible to love our +neighbour in the sense we are to love ourselves. We see that the +command which, on the surface of it, seems to urge an unattainable +experience, is, in truth, what St. James calls it, the Royal Law that +binds us together not only as neighbours, but as children of the same +All-Father. + +"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Should any one ask, "Who +does it?" I answer, That is not the question. To deny that we can love +our neighbour in this sense is to deny that we can love ourselves. Yet +I know what fate, especially for young men, may lurk in this cold, +faithless question. And I want it to be understood, that my single aim +in this address--the reason why I have wrestled at this length for the +meaning of the passage before us--is to show, that _whether we choose +to do it or not, it can be done_. I affirm that this text is a simple +statement of the principle of the only rational, helpful life man can +live. And to prevail upon you to admit this, would be to accomplish +much. To accept it as the truth, that you can love your neighbour as +yourself, is to win intellectual confidence in the service which your +day demands of you. It is to take the sting of death out of the old +evil question: "Who does it?" Once recognize that Christ asks for +nothing impossible, when He gave a new and ever-abiding authority to +this ancient precept, and the question will not be, Who does it? +Rather will it be, Who can afford not to do it? For not to do it is +selfishness, and selfishness is self-defeat. He who exists only for +himself, exists only to injure himself. It is the fashion now to get +rid of a judgment to come by telling us that we are our own judgment +here. The latter part of the statement is not the whole truth, but +there is truth in it. The strain brings out the strength there is, but +shirk it and we have weakness. Do as we like rather than do as we +ought, and the price must be paid in loss of manhood. Everything we +gain for selfishness we must steal from ourselves. + +"Ah me," said Goethe once, "that the yonder is never here." Go deep +enough into every wrong and sin and you find at its root this +selfishness. So many of us degrade life into a heartless scramble. We +fight each other because each man, dissatisfied himself, is convinced +that his neighbour is getting more than his share. It may be doubted +whether there has ever been a day in the Western world when more people +were dominated by the conviction that gain is godliness. So many about +us have virtually ceased to put their trust in anything about which +they cannot lace their fingers. With them, dreamers about anything +else are cranks, and martyrs for anything else are nuisances. And this +reacts upon such apology as they have for more serious thinking. We +seem in many ways to be returning to the pagan condition when judgment +was not feared and spiritual influences were unfelt. In novel, drama, +and much that passes for science, we have the monotonous iteration that +man is the creature of blind chance under an indifferent sky. + +But this, thank God, is not the whole story. There is another and +brighter side. If we take a very subdued estimate of our modern day +and world, I am yet persuaded that never were the saving ideas of the +Saviour more potent, never have His high aspirations been more ardently +welcomed or more strenuously followed than they are now. + +Past all human speculations about Christ, men hopelessly divided in +creed are yet getting nearer to what He lived believing and died +believing. In the weariness of so much of the modern world, and in the +hopelessness of its outlook, I see an age ready to receive anew the +baptism of the Holy Spirit. I see a temper ready to grasp with fresh +earnestness the thoughts of the "Living Lord and Supreme Teacher of our +race." Men to-day are dreaming like dreams as shone before the souls +of the ancient prophets, and in the visions of men who have wrought for +human progress since the first days even until now. Waking dreams of a +new and diviner order of society. A state marked by righteousness, +peace, and happiness for the whole people; the golden age, when man, +knowing what it is in himself he ought to love, loves that in his +neighbour as in himself. + +And Christianity, which came into the world to fulfil these heaven-born +dreams, is being openly challenged as never before to substantiate them. + +In the larger aims of our spiritual ideals the "yonder is never here," +nor, indeed, can it be. There must always be above us something better +than our best. When we cease to make progress we die, and that, in the +language of Scripture, is the second death. + +If, therefore, the searching demand of the text confronts us with the +weakness of our nature, we need not wonder and we need not be +discouraged. It is the purpose it has in view. "It discloses an +ideal, and it reveals an end." If in seeking to realize the ideal and +gain the end we are forced to know how insufficient we are in our own +strength--this, I repeat, is the end it seeks to accomplish in us and +for us. Until our life is in Christ linked on to God, we cannot love +our neighbour as we ought, because we have not the higher power to love +ourselves as we should. + +But the power is offered us. And it is for you young men to lay fast +hold of it, and accept the world's challenge in a way it has never been +handled and faced before. "Do not talk about the things you believe," +says the world to us who name the name of Christ; "convince me that you +believe by what you do." And this is said, not from an indifference to +dogma, as some would have us think. It means that a man's beliefs are +between himself and God. It is what comes out of his belief, that can +be reckoned with amid the forces of our everyday life. + +You place in cold sheet one of the loftiest passages of a great +composer before a man sensitive to music, but who does not know one +note from the other, and he looks at it with indifference. You put the +sheet before a gifted organist seated at his instrument; and as the +melody rolls forth in swells of power, then in cadences of persuasive +pathos, the indifference of the man vanishes as he catches his breath +like a sob, and feels a prayer he cannot speak. We say we believe in +Christ, and men turn aside with indifference. We live Christ, and men +love Him. It is common enough to find this indifference about +religion, and a marked want of what I have called intellectual +confidence in Christianity as we preach it from the pulpit. But I have +never yet found a man infidel to the fruits of its spirit, which are, +love, peace, goodness, a living faith, and a genuine self-sacrifice. +Before men can be expected to become Christ-like, they must know what +Christ is like, and how far are we prepared to put our lives before men +as an answer to the question: "What think ye of Christ?" + +Preach Christ by living Christ. "All men," says the Koran, "are +commanded by the Saint." And no man ever casts the wealth of his life +and the crown of his devotion at the feet of Jesus without "quickening +the earth with a diviner life, and uplifting it with a new courage." +One of the most brilliant of the eighteenth-century poets said: "The +lapse of time changes all but man, who ever has been, and ever will be, +just what he is." Which means that man is by make incurably selfish. +This is a lie. And it is the worst kind of lying, for it represents +not only the inability to find good in man, but the inability to +believe that there is good to be found. My own stand is where thought +and experience have forced me. From human nature left to itself I hope +for nothing; with that nature remade in Christ I despair of nothing. +It all turns on the remake. And it can be remade: "As many as received +Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God: who were born not of +blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of +God." + +Let us, therefore, by divine grace, refashion our lives on the mighty +principle of divine love. And let us settle it as one of the truths +never to be questioned, that nothing is worthy to be called love that +cannot be affirmed of God. We know what God loves; or we know enough +for the practical ordering of our daily life. Let us love in ourselves +what God loves in us. This will include for ourselves and others all +things which are good for us to have and enjoy; and because it will +exclude all things that are narrow, mean, and selfish, it will go far +to raise the world to a power of a new day. Then, through hearts and +homes, through Churches and societies, the Royal Law, made royal life, +will solve the problem of the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. +It will become the touch of omnipotence that casts out of our life the +unworthy, by bringing in the opposite virtues, resolving all into +character which shall transform mankind into one realm over which the +right and the might of Christ shall at last prevail-- + + "From creed and scheme the light goes out, + The saintly fact survives, + The Blessed Master who can doubt, + Revealed in human lives?" + + + +[1] Two or three sentences in this chapter are memorized from a sermon +I heard years ago, preached by Rev. H. E. Michie, M.A., of Stonehaven. + + + + +'HE WAS DESPISED AND REJECTED' + + +"He is despised and rejected of men."--Isaiah liii. 3. + +VIII + +'HE WAS DESPISED AND REJECTED' + +Some two or three years ago the picture, "He was despised and +rejected," by Sigismund Göetze, was on view in Glasgow. In this +address I shall try to tell you something about the impression it made +on me; and the reason will be given at the end why I include it in this +series. Some of you may have seen the picture; others may have read or +heard about it. + +The conception of it appears to have formed itself in the mind of the +artist out of what ordinarily is a very commonplace circumstance. He +had attended a Sunday service at St. Paul's Cathedral, and heard a +sermon that made a deep impression upon him; which found his higher +being with something like the touch of an immortal influence. He +thought within himself: "What a real difference a word like this must +make in the thoughts and life of those who have been privileged to +listen to it. Never again, surely, can they be as though they had not +heard it." It was a message, so he felt, to shake men, to arouse them, +and make them turn on one another and cry: "Men and brethren, what must +we do?" + +Under the impact of his own emotions and sensitive to his surroundings, +he was eager at the close of the service to share with others what he +virtually demanded they should impart to him. But he was grievously +disappointed. Not a word did he hear, not a look did he see on the +face of a departing worshipper which so much as betrayed the transient +emotion stirred by dream or romance. If they had listened to the +discourse, they had evidently forgotten what they had been at no pains +to remember. No new experience befell this man of artistic and +impulsive temperament. I heard a sermon a short time ago preached in a +seaside church, which deeply moved me; a sermon I was thankful to have +heard, and the like of which I would walk a long way to hear again. As +I stood outside the building waiting for a friend, the congregation +came out, and I heard the usual interchange of verbal nothings. The +only reference I did hear to the service was from a well-dressed young +man to a girl by his side, and this is what he said: "A long-winded +fellow, that; let us go on the parade." The remark did not unduly +surprise me. "I wonder," said a man to me lately, "why some people go +to a place of worship at all; they appear to be as indifferent to what +is said, sung, or prayed, as the dog that barks is indifferent about +the dog-star." In every congregation of fair size there is a strange +mixture. But it always includes those whose attention and evident +interest do something to compensate for others who show neither. There +are elect souls who hear the Word and receive it. You may not trace +the fact by what they say, but you know it by the holiness of +helpfulness, which radiates from them like light, and is made by them +as an atmosphere. God has not ordained the foolishness of +preaching--which does not mean foolish preaching--to thin out in the +miserable anti-climax of a remark like that of the young man I have +just quoted. Fortunately, however, our artist had not sufficient +experience of the conventional congregation at a place of worship to +have become philosophic about it--which usually amounts to +indifference. Judging others by what he himself felt, he thought they +must be equally moved. But instead of having received the preached +Word, there was nothing, so far as he could discern, to indicate that +they had even heard it, while there was much to lead to the conclusion +that they had not. Hence he resolved to repeat the sermon through the +translation of his art. They should, if he could accomplish it, +receive through the eyes what they would not hear with the ears. + +Something like this, we are told, was the genesis of this picture, with +its central Figure of the Crucified One close by an ancient altar, yet +immediately outside a modern building called a Christian church. There +He stands unregarded and silent, but so far as His anguish speaks the +eternal Passion of God, while there stream past Him the clearly-defined +types of a twentieth-century multitude--each, with one doubtful +exception, as indifferent about who, and whence, and why He is, as if +He were one of the stone pillars that support the vestibule of the +temple dedicated to His worship. Poverty sits at His very feet and it +is not even curious; fashion and vice, toil and sport, science and +ruin, culture and ignorance, want and opulence pass by, and do not so +much as despise and reject Him--for that at least would argue some form +of interest. It is the indifference which, as Confucius says, is the +"night of the mind--night without a star." I need not linger over the +types. You may see them any day in a characteristic London throng; you +may see them in a less emphasized form in a city like Glasgow. If I +may make one reference to them, let it be where the artist attempts to +represent the attitude of the Churches to the Man of Sorrows. We have, +for example, a high ecclesiastic in one of the sacerdotal communions, +and by his side there is some order of Nonconformist minister. The +latter is evidently in earnest, not to entreat the attention of the +crowd to Him whom they pass by, but to convict his companion of error +out of their commonly-received Scriptures. And the great ecclesiastic, +sleek, debonair, and well preserved, has a bored look on his capacious +face which says: "My dear good man, why excite yourself? I readily +make you a present of your contention. You take your truth and I will +keep my position. As we can settle nothing but ourselves, why not +settle ourselves as comfortably as we can?" + +According to the artist, each in his own way is in the crowd and of it. +It is anything and everything except the Crucified One, as in St. +Paul's it was anything and everything except the message spoken to +those who, having ears, heard not. How do we explain it, then, from +his point of view, that this stream of people, representative of a +widespread society, is utterly indifferent to that Figure so pathetic +in its loneliness, so tragic in its appeal, and almost aggressive in +its sorrow? It is possible that not a type on the canvas is to be +interpreted as quite ignorant of the letter of the claims made for Him +who is yet the Object of the world's indifference. There is a sense in +which it is true that Christ was never better known than He is in your +day and mine. We have the well-authenticated Scriptures which testify +of Him. We are more sure that we possess many of His sayings than we +are sure that the writings known as Shakespeare's plays were written by +a man called William Shakespeare. In these Scriptures He is reported +to have said: + +"Before Abraham was, I am." And in another word, that falls like a +beam of light on everything He did and said, He tells us that "the Son +of Man is come to seek and to save the lost." We have the key-word of +the Father's message to the race in the wondrous declaration that "God +so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever +believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." + +We have a mighty Christian literature which, if it be evolved out of a +myth, resolves itself into a miracle. We have the fact that never +before was Christ so admired, so much quoted, and so generally +applauded as He is at the opening of the twentieth century. We have +accredited thinkers who reject, as they think, all dogmatic theologies +about Christ, and yet tell us that the spirit which Christ incarnated +in His words and actions reveals a God humanity cannot improve upon. +We have, moreover, an army of men who are set apart by training, and +what they believe to be their "calling," to preach Christ by precept, +and to teach Him by a life derived, as they declare, from Him whom they +preach and teach. And amid many failures, and motives of the earth +earthy, these men do not all fail, nor do they all live by bread alone. +Was there no place in that canvas-crowd for one of those devoted men +who, ill-paid, half-starved, and overwrought, toil night and day in +that most awful work on this earth, the attempt to rescue and raise the +lapsed masses of our large populations? Was there no room for the man +who penalizes body and soul to straining-point for words and thoughts +that shall inspire and hearten men to steer their lives by the higher +stars, those eternal principles of truth and right? Was there no room +for a woman of the Salvation Army who is out of some hideous slum for a +moment's breathing, before returning to it with a great self-renouncing +life of love and healing? + +But take the picture as the artist's impression of the ail-but +universal indifference about Him who is yet declared to be the soul and +centre of our Scriptures, our creeds, and our religious life, and how +do we explain it? Or if we put the artist's impression aside, and on +our own account face the truth which, for the purposes of constructive +art, he may have exaggerated, is there any less need that we should +ask: Why is Christ despised and rejected of men? Why is it that they +do not come unto Him that they may have life? The answers are legion. +To my thinking, they resolve themselves into practically one. Before +we can know Christ, before we can understand Christ, before we can come +to Christ, we must come to ourselves. And not a face on that crowded +canvas suggests a hope that he, or she, had taken an honest step in +this all-determining direction. Before I can look to Christ as my +Saviour I must know that I need a Saviour. Before I can realize my +need of salvation from sin I must realize that I am a sinner. So much, +if not all, turns there. It is not every man who feels that he is a +sinner because he talks about being one. But let him feel it, and out +of the knowledge will come his saving health, or the death that dies. + +It is declared to be the work of the Holy Spirit to convince men of +sin, and the unbelief growing out of sin. Analyse the causes of +indifference about the things that belong to our peace, and you find +that for the most part they resolve themselves into sin, and the +unbelief that follows sin, as consequence comes out of cause. I know +with what impatience the world turns from what is called the +evangelical teaching about the nature and effects of sin. And we need +not go outside the Church to find the same impatience, not to say +contempt. We have in our pulpits men who represent sin to us as good +in the making. It is in some sense a necessary means to an end. They +speak of arrested development, of defect of will, of inheritances and +surroundings, of a vacancy as yet unfilled by virtue. It is hard to +think that people held by a half-sceptical pantheism, and the +relativity of evil, have ever been face to face with the awful deeps +and disobediences of their own heart, or have felt the hot breath of +the devil on their own cheek. If we have any worth-discerning faculty, +we know when a man is handling certain subjects whether he knows what +he is talking about; whether or not, to use an expressive +colloquialism, "he has been there." No man who with the eyes of the +soul has looked down that awful cleft that separates between the carnal +mind and the holy will of God, can use words here under the wasting +impression that he knows things. If Christ only died to save us from +something which, after all, is only good in the making, then the Cross +of Calvary is the supreme irony of time. We shall never find a Saviour +by the road that, at the most, leads but to a martyr. + +Here is a man--and he is not an imaginary case--who is married, and has +young people growing up in the home. He is wealthy, with a reputable +position in society. But there is a sinister something in the +background of his life, and he sets himself to do what he knows full +well is an irreparable wrong to an inexperienced and defenceless +creature. He makes no fight against the wicked prompting, and does the +hurt which if another man were to do to one of his own family he would +willingly shoot him dead. And say when the hurt is done, a +searchlight--he knows not whence it comes--is flashed across his soul +and he sees himself as he is, a base scoundrel before God and man, will +it help him to think of his sin as good in the making? For whatever he +may become, he has done his part to damn another. And let his +conscience become, as it can become, and woe to him if it do not +become, as real as the wicked thing he has done, and his first and +devastating question will be, not can God forgive him, but can he ever +forgive himself? Let his one hope come to be in some means of +expiation, which can give him a degree of rest from the sin by paying +what he can of its wages, and he will begin to realize what is meant, +not by the remission of the consequences of sin, but by the remission +of sin. He will know the need, where the need is agony, which God in +Christ has met for us, and which, had He not met, would have left the +need something greater than God Himself. It is when a man must have +peace with himself or die to all that is immortal in him--it is then I +will trust him never again to pass by with unconcern the anguish of Him +who bore our sin in His own body on the tree. + +Sometimes we look at the Lamb of God without feeling that we are +sinners, and then we have a thousand difficult questions to ask. At +other times the burden of sin is so heavy upon us, we see the +sinfulness of sin so vividly, that we get away from the mere accident +of place and time as far as it relates to sin, we see sin as God saw +it, and must ever see it--then it is we look to the Crucified One. +"When I feel myself in my heart of hearts a sinner," I once heard Dr. +Parker say, "a trespasser against God's law and God's love; when I feel +that a thought may overwhelm me in destruction, that a secret, +unexpressed desire may shut me out of heaven and make me glad to go to +hell to be away from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne--then +when I am told that Jesus Christ was wounded for my transgressions, +that upon Him was laid the chastisement of my peace, I press my way +through all the difficulties and say: If I perish I will pray and +perish at the Cross; for if this be not sufficient, it hath not entered +into the heart of man to solve the problem of human depravity, and the +human consciousness of sin." + +I am not seeking to explain or defend what I am saying. I may try to +make it a little more clear before I close. For the moment I am +putting before you what I believe to be the truth of very truth. To +some I may be speaking in an unknown tongue, but not to all. If there +is one here who, with some years behind him, has ever been in serious +conference with himself, he knows that there is something radically +wrong with himself, which calls for something he is powerless to +supply. He knows that the springs of his being have been poisoned, and +he has no detergent to make them sweet. It is the fashion in our day +to speak of the old description of "hell-deserving sinner" as marred by +exaggeration, if not to say morbid. I do not fall into that fashion, +for it expresses just what I am--a hell-deserving sinner. When the +great Puritan, John Newton, saw a man taken out to be hanged, he said: +"But for the grace of God there goes John Newton." It is when the true +idea of sin is realized under the convincing power of the Holy Spirit, +that the "necessity of the sacrificial work of Christ will be felt, +understood, and become the one foundation of human hope." + +Do you say that you have felt nothing of this convicting and convincing +power? Then I ask: Have you ever passed through an hour of serious +inquest with your own soul? Have you ever tried to know yourself even +as you are known? The debate cannot be all on one side. A man only +knows that he is ignorant through the need of a knowledge he has not +got. Before I can persuade you that Christ is your Saviour, you must +realize that it is a Saviour you need. Before you can start out for +Christ you must come to yourself. And while men make a mock of sin, +while they regard it as a matter of indifference, or profess to explain +it away under the terms of science and philosophy, we need not wonder +that they have so little faith in higher things. We need go no further +for an explanation of the thoughtless unbelief which is eating its way +like a festering sore to the heart of our modern world. If the lusts +of the flesh and the pride of life sum up the totality of our being +here, why should that crowd on the artist's canvas be represented as +moved by an anguish that touches no chord in its soul; which is, +indeed, foreign to its every thought, sympathy, and pursuit? So long +as men are indifferent about the very question, Why that anguish? vain +is the appeal, "To you is it nothing your Saviour should die?" So long +as men are utterly unconcerned about the fact, and nature, and effects +of moral evil, then selfishness will remain for men the only recognized +law of self-preservation. + +And here is where I come into line with the practical side of the +Christian evangel. The Cross of Christ is no arbitrary arrangement. +It is not the expedient of a system cunningly devised by priest, +theologian, or Church. It is the grimmest, sanest, divinest thing ever +set up in this human world. The Cross is symbol of the only Power that +can enter the lists against selfishness, and enter to throw it. And +let me plead with you to think about this: every wrong in the world has +selfishness, if not for its root, yet at its root. Cast out the +selfishness which is sin, and you cast out the first and the last thing +that stands between us and the new heaven and the new earth. Think of +this, and you will better understand the anguish of Him who carries the +sorrow, and is wounded in the wounds made by man's inhumanity to man. +Refuse to think of it, and cease to wonder why countless thousands +mourn; why the strong oppress the weak; why might is worshipped as +right; why men seem to fear nothing but the hell of not making money. +Think of it, and cease to wonder why men's bodies and souls are +sacrificed in what is little better than a murderous struggle to exist; +why one man has so much more than he earns, and others earn so much +more than they have. Think of it and cease to wonder why our age is +distinguished by a bad pre-eminence of restlessness, by feverishness, a +panting for excitement, and a poisonous atmosphere of pessimism. + +The Cross of Christ means the life that lives in unselfish service as +against the selfishness that is death and defeat. It means not only +individuals and Churches, but the race, redeemed and lifted from the +dark and narrow life of self, into the life and light of the kingdom of +God. Can we wonder, then, that the rejection of the Cross blasts our +beliefs in everything divine and hopeful, and is accompanied everywhere +by a "melancholy introspection and lack-lustre view of human life?" +Recall then in this connection what I have said about sin, and the +relation of Christ's death to the forgiveness of sin. What I am saying +now does not include all that is implied in that relation; but see in +it what I have just put before you, and you will realize that I am not +talking in mere morbid terms, nor in those of theology except so far as +it is the theology of life. Long as men are willingly in their +sin--which means selfishness in all its deadly forms--can we wonder at +the unbelief portrayed on that canvas? Can we marvel why the Christ is +still despised and rejected? + +It may be asked, and justly, what are the professed followers of Christ +doing to convince men of their need of Him as their Saviour; to +convince them by lives that are the evidence of triumph over sin? What +are Christian people, what are the Churches doing to fight down the +wrongs, the hurtful conditions, the curse-centres that degrade men, +keep them ignorant, and as by a satanic ingenuity hide the real Christ +from those who most need to find Him, and are the least able to oppose +the things that make Him so misunderstood and even unknown? How far +are we responsible, not only for the deliberately cultivated wickedness +of men who choose evil as their good, but for the indifference that +passes by only because our lives have never compelled its attention? +The Church is a Church but to the extent that it is the organic +expression of Christ's life, the visible Body of His soul. What, I ask +in all faithfulness, are we doing to make real and living to men the +presence of a Lord who is ever suffering in their sin and for it? The +artist was well inspired to give his picture a twentieth-century +setting. What an amount of grim Calvary there is in Glasgow every day +under the shadow of our Churches; ah! and behind the sanction of their +power. That is the word that should smite us; it is the word that must +be said--behind the sanction of their power. + +The world would begin to see Christ, if we ourselves would see Him +crucified, not merely in the remote Palestine of the first century, +but, I say once more, in this Glasgow of to-day. In the foul slum, in +the haunt of shame, in the abode of crime and wretchedness, in the +places where children are robbed of their birthright before they know +what things mean; in the sweater's den, in the heartless side of +business competition, in the drink hells, in frivolous pursuits and +brainless amusements, in the insolence of wealth, and the sullenness of +poverty--in every place or thing where despite is done to the Divine +Humanity. Let us feel that whatever wrong is done to a single human +being, throughout the world-wide family of man, is literally done to +Jesus Christ, and we shall better understand that central Figure in the +artist's picture. Let us see Christ crucified in whatever evil is +done, in whatever good is left undone that we could do, and sin will +become to us not a term only, not a thing to be excused and explained +away, but a real and tremendous horror. We shall feel it to be what it +is, a stab struck at the living heart of Jesus Christ. As it has been +truly said: "Fellowship with Christ's sufferings will become less of a +mystical phrase, and more of a vital fact." + +"To you is it nothing, all ye that pass by?" As I sat and looked at +that picture, this was the question that oppressed my thoughts. And +then the further question forced itself--Why, in so many cases, and to +all human seeming, is it just that--nothing? It is not enough to talk +of sin, and unbelief, and indifference, outside our life: they are real +enough, but do they suggest no responsibility on our part? Let it be a +call to prayer, an incentive to unceasing watchfulness lest one should +be passing by because there is nothing in us which constrains him, or +persuades her, to look and be saved, to look and live. + +I said at the opening of this address that I would tell you later why I +include it in this series. I am not sure that I can keep my word. +What has been said will glance from your mind unless you have, like +Luther, and for the same reason, wrestled with the question: "How shall +a man be just with God?" But assuming that as yet this is outside your +experience, still you know the difference between what may but +arbitrarily be called sin, and sin that is what it is called. Believe +me when I say that the first, and worst, and nearest of all problems +for each man of us, and for societies, is the fact of sin; and that +with it no one deals, or can deal, save Him upon whom the chastisement +of our peace was laid, and with whose stripes we are healed. What is +the exact relation between the death of Christ and the forgiveness of +sin no one can tell us; but that there is a relation charged with +redeeming power is not a theory about Christianity--it is Christianity. + +I read some time ago that a "Van Missioner," who was preaching +Unitarianism in the villages of Hampshire, found himself at one of them +interrupted by a number of farm labourers, who began to sing-- + + "What can wash away my sin? + Nothing but the blood of Jesus! + What can make me whole again? + Nothing but the blood of Jesus. + It washes white as snow, + No other fount I know." + + +To the modern enlightenment which patronizes Jesus as a teacher and +rejects Christ as a Saviour, the theology, or sentiment, in these lines +is not so much crude as grotesque. At the best it is but curiously +reminiscent of the ignorance of a by-gone day. Doubtless this +well-meaning man had much to say worth hearing; but he was talking in +the name of religion, and to these villagers there was in it the lack +of the one thing, which is the lack of all. Theology apart, these +simple folk found in these crude lines the heart of saving truth. It +is my conviction that they were right. In this conviction I live, and +in it, by God's grace, I trust I may die and live again. + +"I do not despise Jesus: with all that is best in me do I reverence Him +as one of the world's supreme teachers; but I cannot regard Him as more +than that," said a friend to me after reading over the manuscript of +this address. "And yet," he added quietly, "if there is anything in +Christianity which distinguishes it from any other great religion, it +must be near to the place you have been trying to get at." + + + + +'WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?' + + +"What must I do to be saved?"--Acts xvi. 30. + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know."--St. John vii. 17. + +IX + +'WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?' + +"When I was well into my teens," said a very intelligent woman to me +some time ago, "and for long after I had left them, I listened to +preachers and preaching; and such powers as I had I put into my +listening, for I wanted to get at something I could hold for sure and +real in the promises of religion. I was told Sunday by Sunday to +believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust in Him, and commit to His +keeping my soul's welfare. And as far as I knew what belief meant I +believed; and tried to persuade myself that I was trusting Christ. But +I was not conscious that it made any real difference in my life; that +it gave me anything I had not before. Hence I gradually came to the +conclusion that either the preachers could not tell me what it was on +which I had specifically to lay hold, or it was useless for me to +prosecute my attempt to grasp it." + +This woman said what many think, who are as yet within listening +distance of our pulpits. They want to understand what they must do and +believe, to lay hold of that which can make a difference in their life; +which can find in it, or bring into it, something that answers in very +truth to what the Bible calls "the power of God unto salvation." + +It is, surely, a reasonable thing to ask. As religious teachers we can +have no right to plead with people to believe what we are not prepared +to help them to understand. Some of you may have reason, as you think, +to endorse this woman's testimony as a fair statement of your own +experience. Can I help you? Most gladly will I do so if I can. + +One thing should be said, as I come closer to the attempt. If you are +really anxious to find help, guard against mistaken impressions of what +that help should be, or can be. In religion, as in all the deeper +places of human life, one great teacher is experience; and you can +neither anticipate nor rush experience. A mother says in answer to +certain questions of her child: "Wait until you are older and you will +find out." That, to the child, is no answer at all; but, while the +child is a child, it is the only answer there is. + +Divine truth is infallible; but, as it has often been pointed out, +there is no human infallible apprehension of divine truth. We have to +admit that there may be, and indeed must be, many phases and aspects of +saving truth which we cannot comprehend. There are others, again, of +which we get only distant and fugitive glimpses as we study the Word of +God. But we shall also admit, that these higher reaches of truth are +not those alone on which our faith is called to repose. It may seem to +many of you, that in my treatment of the subject now before us, I +overlook much that is essential to the Christian doctrine of salvation. +I may even seem to eliminate the supernatural element from it. A +little thought, however, should correct the latter impression. In +passing I have only to say, that I am not trying to exhaust this theme, +but simply to give it a setting which, I venture to think, is worth +consideration. + +"What must I do to be saved?"--a question which may be put in two very +different states of moral being. It may be asked in a temper merely +curious and academic; or it may, as in the case of the text, voice a +profound sense of need. If we would be saved, we must realize that we +need to be saved. It was when the prodigal "came to himself" that he +said: "I will arise and go to my father." + +We are to be saved from what? and into what are we to be saved? In +other words, not only must old things pass away, but all things must +become new. From what, I repeat, are we to be saved? There is but one +answer to the question: We are to be saved from sin by being delivered +from the power of evil; and sin is the wilful assertion of our +self-will against the holy will of God. The sense of sin may vary in +different people; it may vary with the moods of the same personal +experience. There are people who appear to be quite callous about the +evil within them and the evil they do. But just as our moral nature is +educated, just as we grow in sympathy with the divine will, do we +become increasingly sensitive to the distance there is between what we +are, and do, and the holiness of Him who is a consuming fire. We feel +that the Apostle was neither morbid, nor did he exaggerate the actual +situation when he cried: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver +me from the body of this death?" + +It has been said that the "only way to be saved from sin is to cease to +sin." And it is true that a man cannot, at the same time, sin in any +given direction, and cease from that sin. But it is also true that he +may cease from sin in the sense of not doing certain things, and yet be +the greater sinner in the sight of God, because of the motive which +acts as his deterrent or restraining force. I have seen men repent of +their sin, as the process was called, when I have had no faith in it +whatever. They were not repenting of their sin, but lamenting the cost +of its indulgence. + +We must do more than cease to do evil things only because evil has its +price; we must learn to do well by learning to love all that is meant +by well. There is no escape from evil except through love of good. +The Christian salvation, which means the saving of the whole self-hood +of man, is a positive thing from its inception into its endless +development. Where it is repression it is that there may be +expression. This, I imagine, is what Robert L. Stevenson must have +meant when he said "We are not damned for doing wrong, but for not +doing right." Christ, he contends, "would never hear of negative +morality; 'thou shalt' was ever His word, with which He superseded, +'thou shalt not.'" According to Stevenson--I do not say he is right, +but I do quote his words as worth attention--we are not damned so much +for yielding to evil, as for not getting into our life its oppositive +virtue; some content vital enough to cast out the evil, and to keep it +out. To go on fighting some besetting sin is only to repeat, for the +most part, an experience many of us know but too well. It almost +invariably ends one way. In weariness and despair we ask: "Why should +we war with evil? It is more than our test, it is our fate; let us +take what sweet we can before it becomes all bitter." Which is but +another way of saying: "Evil, be thou my good." + +Mark well, then, our next step. It is not enough to tell us that we +must conquer the wrong by doing the right. The question is this: Is +there any power, anything in what is called saving grace, which is +adequate to the struggle on our part, and which appropriated can make +us, to use the Apostle's description, "more than conquerors"? + +There is; and I will try, first, to tell you what it is, and, secondly, +how we may realize it. It is--call it by what name we may for the +moment--that which casts out the mean, the ignoble, and the selfish, by +filling out life with the great, the noble, and the unselfish. It is, +in a word, the salvation which means the "highest character and +blessedness, which we, individually and collectively, are capable of +reaching and realizing." Let us, then, call it what it is--the power +of God unto salvation. And how are we to get it into our possession? +The answer is, it needs no getting in. Potentially it is there. "The +kingdom of God is within you," says Jesus, and it is ours to bring it +out in all its actual reality. It is the greater which includes the +less, of the gracious possessions God has put in our being, and of +which we know so little because we do not work these inward mines: +"Work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you." + +Some one makes a great inventor say: "Anybody might have done it, but +the secret came to me." Do you believe the first part of this +statement? Would you hold me true in saying that anybody might have +anticipated the discovery of wireless telegraphy? There are times when +the world appears to halt for want of some new thing, or for want of +some one to put new meaning into the old. And when the fulness of time +has come, the secret, which has been sleeping through centuries of men, +awakes in a man. He is the chosen of Providence to deliver unto us +that which he also has received. + +What is true of a few in the endowment of what we call genius, may be +true of us all in the power of God unto salvation. When we were "made +in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth," the +Maker of us all put a part of Himself into the mysterious substance. +"Let each man," says Browning, "think himself a thought, an act, a +breath of God." There is evil in our nature; but evil can mar us only +so far as we allow it to become sin. It is in victory over evil that +we find character and make. There is evil in our nature, but there is +also a germ of God which He can touch into immortality and glorify with +the very splendour of His own image and being. When that germ is +quickened into life, we are, in the language of theology, converted; as +it develops and becomes the more life and the fuller, we are, in the +same language, sanctified and made meet for the Master's use. + +Is there anything mysterious in this; anything we may not understand? +Christ did not think so, if we may judge from His conversation with +Nicodemus. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." +Our Lord, if I understand Him aright, tells this master of Israel that +there is nothing more wonderful about this new birth than there is +about a new affection or a new love. And what cannot love do? No one +enters our life except through love. They may influence it profoundly, +but that of itself gives no admittance to the heart. What, I ask +again, cannot love do? Have we never known lives changed, and indeed +transformed by a new affection? I have seen love work miracles; and so +far from not believing in such miracles within their sphere, I believe +in nothing else. But does that which wakes love put it there? Is some +new thing added to life? Rather let us say that it is life coming to +its own; just finding what was already there. This may be what the +Psalmist means when he speaks of deep calling to deep. The deep in man +answers to the deep of attraction which appeals to it. If man was +conceived in the image of God, then God is immanent in man. This is +not to say that this immanence is equal to, or implies the whole +content of what is known as Christian salvation. It is true that the +"eye and the brain must be there before the light can be perceived or +any object interpreted." But it has been pointed out with equal truth +that the "eye would be useless did not the light come to it, and that +the brain would have nothing to work on, were not objects from without +brought for our perception." [1] Which means that immanence alone +would be powerless apart from some transcendent influence. Unless this +be so, what are we to say of the multitudes which sit in darkness and +the shadow of death? Our salvation is in the answer of the life +immanent to the life transcendent, and the connecting and combining +power is the Holy Spirit. + +But what, in the next place, is our part in this matter? How is this +power to come? How, to use a better term, are we to realize it? Have +we to wait for something, or have we to do something to make it a real +experience? + +A youth, let us say, or a girl, is beginning to learn music, to play +the violin or the piano. At first it is drudgery, and its immediate +results are a trial unto all that are in the house. The parent or +teacher says: "Persevere, obey instructions, and as you pass through +routine into the soul, the task will soon be lost in the pleasure." +The beginner may not believe it; but granted the facility is there, and +determination to bend to the task of learning, and the reward comes. +That which is within is brought out, and by the only way it can be +brought out: "Stir up the gift that is in thee." + +This hints to us the answer to the question, Have we to do something +that salvation may become a known and felt reality? We have to do +something. We have _to do_, as we are told by Him who only can tell us +what it is we have to do: "Will to do the will," says the Christ, "and +ye shall know." And if we are really seeking a basis of assurance in +His saving power, we ought surely to take Him at His word, when He +tells us how to find it. It is not first through assured belief that +we become sure of Christ, it is by doing Christ's will that we become +sure of our belief. Have we to explain to a child the mechanism of its +limbs before it can attempt to walk? The impulse comes, and the child +walks, that is all. But the child has to walk to know that it can walk. + +But what, you ask me, are we to say about sudden conversions, of which +we once heard so much, and which we are still taught to seek and +expect? What, I ask you, about those sudden flashes of insight which +at times seem to reveal in a moment a way out of difficulties which for +years we have sought in vain? A man told me lately about a period in +his life when through drink and betting he was reduced from a +prosperous man to a wreck in body and means. "I was down," he said, +"low as a human creature could get in this world." He was converted to +God, and from the very hour his change came, he declared that his +craving for drink, and mania for gambling, dropped out of his being, as +a piece of dead matter falls away from a living organism. And there +are such cases, thank God, but we must not make our teaching about them +misleading by making it despotic. As in the instances of sudden +insight, we do not because we dare not say they are general, deny that +they occur. The soul-development on its immortal side is, for the most +part, gradual and slow. The life-faculty is there, but it often means +hard work, patient waiting, and great faith, to realize its presence +and bring out its power. + +[2] It has been said that modern psychology confirms scientifically +this method of seeking and finding the truth. It teaches that action +has often to precede thought and feeling. If this is the word of +psychology, it is really in accord with the method of Jesus. +Practically all His teaching is addressed, not so much to the intellect +or to the emotions, but to the will. He does not put doing and +believing in opposition; in actual life they are really +indistinguishable parts of a healthy spiritual growth. But our Lord +does put doing before knowing, as He puts religion before theology, and +life before the understanding of life. His unmistakable object is to +constrain men to take action, rather than to wait for emotion, or even +for intellectual confidence and conviction. + +As a matter of experience, we find at every turn on the road of life we +have to do things we do not want to do, to secure the things we want to +have. Necessity does not humour us, and that is the reason the world +owes so much to necessity. We may be very "superior" about dogmatism +in theology, but well for us that dogmatism will have no such nonsense +in life. It is just doing the duty that tasks us most, whatever our +feeling about it, which makes the difference between the worthy and the +unworthy in character; between the numerals and the ciphers in the +human world. It is doing, not what we would, but as we ought which +changes reluctance into interest, and the sense of futility into the +joy of achievement. It is doing what we know to be true which +illumines its ever-lasting significance. "You could write stories +which people would read," said Lecky repeatedly to George Eliot. She +did not believe him, and, strange as it may seem, she had almost a +morbid shrinking from making the attempt. But she did make it, and we +know with what results. The attempt to write a story had not only to +precede the belief that she could write one, it had to reveal the gift. + +And so Jesus, who came to manifest God, says to you and me: My brother, +My sister, there is that in you which, brought out and cultivated, can +achieve in you the highest order and quality of life in this world, and +fit you for whatever environment lies beyond. Believe me. Just take +me at my word when I say to you, will to do my will, and doing it you +shall come to love it--and that is to be saved; for it is to be at one +with the Father in me. Leave your past, however unworthy it may be. +What I have done and suffered for you has atoned for all. Do your +part, and you, too, shall testify: "I live, and yet not I, but Christ +that liveth in Me." + +This, then, is my position; and whether or not it answer to fact and to +Scripture, I leave with your judgment. I ought to have accomplished +something if I have made myself understood. It probably overlooks much +that many of you hold to be integral to the nature and meaning of +salvation. I have only to repeat, that what has been advanced is a +setting of this great subject; and I venture to urge it upon your +consideration. It now remains for me to notice very briefly one or two +further questions as I draw to a close. + +What, I may be asked, are we expected, as young people, to understand +about the doctrines and dogmas of Christianity as necessary to an +intelligent religious faith? And what about feeling or emotion, which +is usually represented as a vital part of the driving power of +Christian life and conduct? Well, speaking for myself, I make no +pretension to the lofty disregard of doctrine which in so many quarters +seems to be regarded as the hall-mark of enlightened thinking. We do +well to beware of a so-called "breadth," which is but a pet euphemism +for thinness. + +But after all, we can hold a thing for true, and yet find no +explanation of it which quite satisfies us. Theories about the heavens +have come and gone, but the stars remain. Christ was, before creeds +gathered about Him; and it is because He is, that men must formulate +doctrine to explain Him. I have long had the conviction that in +religion nothing really matters but the Spirit of Christ. This is not +to say that if we have, or claim to have, the Spirit of Christ, it +makes no difference whether we do, or do not, believe in the +"historical Christ." To my thinking such a position is nonsense. We +may as well talk about an effect without a cause. Spirit must needs +clothe itself with body. The "external may come in at different points +of the process, but the internal without the external cannot exist." I +am simply saying, that everything we need to know in a general sense +about Christian doctrine becomes intelligible and reasonable, not when +we approach Christ through our doubts and difficulties about doctrines, +but our doubts and difficulties through Christ. In Him is life, and +the life is the light of men. I care not for the moment what dogmas +about Christ you accept or reject; I ask you to think, and then say, +what heaven worth entering, of state or place, could close against us, +were we in the Spirit of Christ walking in the footsteps of Christ? + +Then about feeling: Is there one of us who can say, that he, or she, +has never had the impulse that should lead to Christian decision? Long +as we make it possible for God to appeal to us, He will find His own +way. From Him is the impulse, whichever way it comes, but it is ours +to put it in practice. But just as we do not wait for feeling to take +us out to earn our bread, and keep a roof over our head, so it is a far +nobler thing to turn to God from a sense of duty, and conscience, and +spiritual need, than it is to depend upon feeling to make us do, what +not to do, with or without feeling, is our loss and our shame. + +Do not wait for feeling. Begin your part in the work of your own +salvation. If feeling carry you into decision, and it sometimes does, +well and good. But for one case where feeling leads to decision there +are probably a score where feeling must be made by what follows +decision. Take care of doing, and feeling will take care of itself; +and as we rejoice in its inspiration, we shall realize that, perhaps +for the most part, it can come no other way. To have the joy of doing +good, we must do good. We cannot have the tonic and bracing sense of +vigour by saying we will climb the mountain. It is when we have scaled +its heights that we have the experience of a new physical creation. + +Why wait, then, for what is waiting for us? The Divine Spirit is +universal and infinite. It is the mother-soul of the universe, with +eternal power and sweetness and beauty, and glory, shining down upon +all men, stimulating them to be nobler, to go up higher. And when we +accept the influence of the Holy Spirit seeking the divine in us, and +co-operate with it, we have found the answer to the question: What must +I do to be saved? + +Does any one say, I ask again, that he has never had this impulse? As +truly can he say that he has never felt the sun. Let him take heed. +The sun sets, and it is night. There can be a night of the soul--the +darkest, blackest, most hopeless night of all. + +"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God +hath not life." To be saved is to live; and only to the life above us +can the life within us respond. Out of Christ we do not live; we but +exist. And existence at its highest estate has no power inherent in it +to cast out the selfishness and death that build a hell's despair, in +what might be the kingdom of heaven in our human life and world. Do we +want to be saved? Do we desire life? Then pray, and begin at once to +do what our heart and conscience tell us the Christ would have us do. +Will to do the will, and doing it we shall enter, gradually at first, +and then with more royal progress and joy unspeakable, into the truth +of His word: "Because I live, ye shall live also." + + + +[1] Rev. W. L. Walker. + +[2] Dr. Lyman Abbot. + + + + +DOES GOD HAVE FAIR-PLAY? + + +"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful +God."--Deut. vii. 9. + +X + +DOES GOD HAVE FAIR-PLAY? + +A professor in one of our colleges, who is an acknowledged authority on +the prophets of the Old Testament, gave a course of lectures lately on +his own subject to a summer school of theology. His aim in one of +these prelections was to show how the prophet Jeremiah developed +himself by debate and discussion with God. At its close an elderly +clergyman, shaking the lecturer by the hand, said to him: "I was +delighted to hear what you said about Jeremiah. I myself have for +forty years preached the right and duty of men to stand up to their +Maker." + +It was, to say the least, a crude way of expressing himself; but the +man had a meaning, and I think I know what it was. We may, to a large +extent, have grown out of the old Calvinistic representation of God; +but its reflex influence abides in a greater degree than we perhaps +realize. This representation puts its emphasis, not so much upon the +Fatherhood as upon the Sovereignty of God. It holds man responsible +for the moral quality of his actions to God; but all reference to man's +claims upon God are met with the stern question: "Shall the thing +formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?" + +Whatever the Apostle may have meant, this question has been used to +support an intolerable position, and the clergyman spoke out his revolt +against it. His divinely implanted instinct of justice assured him +that a God, who is to command our intellectual confidence and +heart-trust, must, while exercising the prerogatives of a Sovereign, +accept the responsibilities of a Father. Family life would break all +to pieces if we as fathers did not carry our recognition of the claims +and rights of children past a severe, however just, parental authority +and control into the larger realm of wise liberty and undoubted +affection. And it is out of the best and highest we know of our +relations to one another, that we are to understand what we ought to be +to God, and what God has promised to be to us. + +For God not only affirms His responsibility to us, He challenges us to +say, whether, having done our part, we have weighed His part in the +balance and found it wanting. It is the declaration of the Scriptures +from beginning to end, that the Lord our God is a faithful God. +Through the mouth of one of His prophets He confronts us with a +question which, were it not His own question, would hurt us as almost +profane: "What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have +gone far from me?" + +We need not shrink, therefore, from talking reverently about the +responsibility of God, for He asks us to build our trust, not only in +His promises, but upon our experience of the faithfulness with which He +has kept His promises. What, then, is our testimony? Has God been +faithful to us; and if so, are we justified in assuming that the same +faithfulness is the experience of others? + +"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God." +Take this affirmation on its lowest grounds--as touching material +things. It is not said that man does not live by bread, when it is +said that he lives not by bread alone. We may insist upon it, that +material concerns are not worthy to be compared with the things of the +spirit; but this does not affect the truth, that while we are on this +planet we must have material things. Jesus has told us that, "Our +Heavenly Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him." +It does not follow that the things we desire are the things we need. +Christ does not pledge the divine faithfulness to our desires; it is +pledged to our needs. + +And how is it redeemed, even in the case of the latter? Think for a +moment of the poverty there is amid all our plenty. Think of the evils +and misery that are the consequence as well as the cause of poverty. +There are thousands of men, and women, and children dying every year in +India from want and sheer starvation. We are told that, in each case, +a penny a day would mean comparative plenty. They are God's creatures, +willing, and indeed eager, to work themselves to skin and bone for a +penny a day, and they cannot earn it. Think again of the untold human +beings nearer home, locked in a warfare from which there is no +discharge but death; the grim struggle for a bare existence, with its +chances at every turn of sickness, accident, no work, and then the +abyss. When we have reckoned off the probable proportion of those who +have done much to make the conditions in which they find themselves, we +have a large percentage of people who are no more responsible for the +poverty and suffering they have to endure than they are responsible for +the fact that they are in the world which uses them so harshly. + +For my part I can offer no explanation of these things, that can give a +sensitive heart and an honest mind more than a very moderate degree of +satisfaction. There are communities, and even races of people, whose +existence in this world appears to have no immediate relation to their +own personal happiness and well-being. They come and pass away as +phases of what we must believe is an evolution towards higher things. +But this is the question: Have they who compose this lonely and sombre +procession no claims upon their Maker in the meanwhile? + +I do not believe that one human soul will fail of absolute, abundant, +and rich compensation, in those eternal years that are at God's right +hand. I have a word to say about this later, but for the present I may +say that I answer many questions by my conviction that what we call +death does not end all. Columbus is reported to have said: "I must +have another continent to keep the earth's balance true." And I must +have the personal conscious future, which is to right the wrongs of the +ages, if I am to believe and preach the faithfulness of God. But we +must guard against an impatience which is our littleness. In the +immense times of the Almighty, every dark mystery of human being can +move away, and leave the "sky of Providence at last, arching over the +soul with not a cloud to dim its stars." For my present faith I hold +it true with one who trusts-- + + "That nothing walks with aimless feet, + That not one life shall be destroyed, + Or cast as rubbish to the void, + When God hath made the pile complete." + + +When any man confronts me with the inequalities of our human lot, with +the suffering many have to endure from causes they have not instituted, +and circumstances over which they have no control, I may be, and often +am, obliged to make him a present of much that he has to urge. But +there are two things to be said, on the other side, which I can only +briefly indicate, and ask you to work them out in your own mind. + +I affirm as the first of the two, that the good in our life far +outweighs the evil. When all is said, happiness is the rule of our +normal experience, and not misery. We hear much, for example, about +the suffering which is part of the order of the animal creation; how a +stronger beast feeds upon a weaker, and is in turn the prey of another +stronger still. While again we are told that the joys of these myriads +of sentient creatures are immeasurably greater than their pains. They +have pleasure more than sufficient to justify their call into +existence, in spite of the drawbacks to their happiness incident to the +conditions of their existence. + +I am satisfied that the latter representation is true of the animal +world, as I am convinced that it is true of the human. Let what may be +said to the contrary, life is a mighty boon. When men bring in a +verdict of unsound mind in a case of suicide, the instinct may have +more to do with it than the order of evidence on which the verdict is +based. We have to conclude that a man was insane before he could lay +violent hands on himself. Look back upon our life, we who have +travelled some distance into it, and let us say whether so far we do +not account it a blessing to have lived and to be living. We have had +our hard lines, and we have known the pleasant places; we have had our +sorrows, and we have had our joys; we have been under the clouds, and +we have lived in the sunshine. Nay, I dare go further and say, that +for a day we have had of the former, we have had a week of the latter. + +It is a narrow and unworthy conception of happiness to invest all our +chances of it in the accident of circumstances. There is some force in +the saying, that heaven is here or nowhere. If we have any thought of +happiness worth turning into a fact, our life may be filled with it +though the hardest possible circumstances be surrounding us. Not where +we are, but what we are, makes our much or little whether of good or +ill. It is an ungrateful proceeding to go through life consuming as +much as possible of the fruits of a gracious present, and yet with only +plaints and complaints about the legislation which tempers the +blessings with the little severity needed to teach us what the +blessings are. + +Some one has remarked that it is the whole tragedy, and ultimately the +whole power of the Christian religion, that it is attacked from every +side. It is accused of faults that are hopelessly inconsistent with +each other. One day it is charged with making man too responsible; the +next, with not making him responsible enough. The truth is, that we +need not try to make man too responsible in order to make him +responsible enough. It has often been pointed out, that the Christian +religion is by turns optimistic and pessimistic. St. Paul is pessimist +enough where he says: "For I know that in me--that is, in my +flesh--dwelleth no good thing." But who so optimistic as the same +Apostle when he declares: "I can do all things through Christ which +strengtheneth me." + +Much of the secret of it, under God, is in a cultivated and consecrated +will. Every matter, says Epictetus, has two handles, and you can +choose which handle you will take. Every man has in him some promise +of the gradual supremacy of character over the accidents, happenings, +forces and factors of circumstances. These may be his tests; they need +not be his fate. "The real vital division of the religious part of our +Protestant communities," says Wendell Holmes, "is into Christian +optimists and Christian pessimists." I would rank myself among the +former and say again, that the good in the conditions of our life far +outweighs the ill. And while maintaining this position, I would also, +as the second of the two things to be urged, have us face the question, +Who is responsible for the ill there is? + +George Meredith, in a reference to this subject, declares that no man +can _think_, and not think hopefully. Whether or not this be true in +the case of every man who thinks, this can be said--it ought to be +true. Instead of multiplying words to no profit over the old question, +Why all this misery and suffering? let us think for a moment in another +direction, and we shall perchance be encouraged to think hopefully. + +It has been said that human wisdom has arrived at no juster and higher +view of the present state, than that it is intended to call forth power +by obstruction; the power of a life that is perfect and entire, by the +responsibility of choice between the things that make or mar it. If +God can rank in us nothing higher than character, and if character on +the man side can be achieved only out of right choice translated in its +kindred action--then it must follow that the power to choose the right +is the power to choose the wrong. Which means in the fewest words, +that sin, and all the ills and suffering that proceed out of its +selfishness, are the issue of this possibility of fatal choosing. If +it be asked: "Why the possibility at all?" I answer that without it men +would cease to be men and become something else; and what that +something else would be need not enter into our speculation. It is +because we can do wrong that we can do right; and if we think about +this, may we not think hopefully? + +It is the fashion in our day to write and talk as though heredity, and +the effects of the accumulation of heredity, were somehow sinister +enough to drape the heavens in black, and silence all the songs of the +angels. This law, we are told, can have no moral interpretation +consistent with freedom and responsibility. The more than tendency of +much that is being written and said is to depress the mind with a sense +of the relentless force of general laws and influences, and to diminish +in the individual the conviction of his power to contend against them. +I would avoid dogmatism about this matter and simply say that this +seems plain to me: for one drawback we meet along the pathway of +inheritances, we have a very legion of resource and help through the +gains of time, and of the race. The penalties we have to pay for +transgression against law are not a just indictment of the law, they +are the penalty of its transgression; a by-product, which is always a +decaying product as the character of the race heightens. + +The purpose of God in us is character, and once we have it, established +in divine grace and ensphered in the human will of a sufficient number +of us, we shall soon make our new and better world. Without this +character we may hope for nothing, with it we need despair of nothing. + +Granted then for a moment that we had but a little more of this +God-fibre running through our individual and our collective life, such +an experience as physical want would become but a memory of a hideous +past. This good old mother-earth can yield us, not only enough to go +round, but enough to go round in generous abundance. Why is it that a +few have so much more than they can use, and so many have less than +they need? Do we think that God wills it? Can we conceive of it as +having any part in the economy of the Kingdom which Jesus came to +establish on the earth? It is not God, but our selfishness that wills +it; a selfishness that has its length of days and its malign power in +the widespread folly and culpable ignorance that play into its hands. + +Think again for a moment about the effects on society as a whole of the +intemperate use of strong drink. They are incarnated in horrors, look +where we will. The injuries which simply swarm out of our licensed +temptations to drunkenness are not exceptional and irregular; they are, +as one of the most eminent of our publicists has said, "uniform as the +movements of the planets, and as deadly as the sirocco of the desert or +the malaria of the marshes." There is not a profession round which +drink has not thrown the spell of its sorcery; scarcely a household +that has not been despoiled by its leprous pollution. And who is +responsible for it? Does any one doubt that if the Christian Churches +looked at this accursed traffic through the eyes of God, and attacked +it with faith in His omnipotence, that we could not break its back +within the next ten years? + +Long as we are content merely to run the eyes of our intelligence over +the episodes of this great battle of wrong against right; to mark down +its critical moments, and to analyse its issues while careful above all +things not to implicate ourselves in the agonies of its crises, then +let us not challenge the faithfulness of God for wrongs and sorrows +brought into the world, and kept here by our selfishness. Those of us +who have part or lot in this selfishness--and most of us have--let us, +at any rate, play the game, and accept our own responsibility. + +I do not wonder at the severity there is in the human world; for hard +as it falls in places, it is yet the sign-manual of its uplifting and +hope. We sometimes talk bitterly about the crucifixions in our life; +but believe it when I say, that a world without them would be a dark +and terrible vision. If we could do evil with impunity, if its +punishment were a mere peradventure, it would mean that evil was the +heart of the world. We may be profoundly thankful that wrong and +suffering are cause and effect which nothing can break. Were it not +so, it would mean that under skies dark and pitiless, a brutal scramble +to survive would be the law, as in the animal world it is said to be +the instinct. I know that many come into the world and leave it, never +having had the chance to be all they might have been in more gracious +circumstances. But I can trust them with Him who is too wise to err, +and too good to be unjust. + +This, then, is as far as I have got with the general merits of the +subject before us. To say there are experiences in the lives of +individuals, and even of communities, which we cannot explain, is no +proof that the universe is immoral. I submit to you, that the good in +our lot infinitely outweighs the ill for which we are not directly +responsible; and that the consequences of the ill for which we are +directly responsible are intended to chastise it out of existence. + +May I counsel you to think about what has been said? Remember there +are some things God cannot do for us, and yet leave us men. He cannot +make a better world without the consent of our individual obedience and +the co-operation of our will. I should, I trust, be the last man to +ask people to be content, or even patient, with things as they are in +the life that now is, on the assumption merely that they are to be +better in the life that is to be. I do not say that heaven is here or +nowhere; but I do believe that it ought to be here, in its degree, as +truly as anywhere else. If we can think of contempt as part of the +Being of God, surely this must be His feeling for much of the wrong and +suffering that finds a place in the human world. It is so gratuitous, +so insensate, so unnecessary. Is it not a terrible reflection upon +some of us, that after the Cross has been silently teaching the world +these well-nigh two thousand years, it can yet be said with some show +of reason, that the two forces that keep society, as we know it, +together, are the ignorance and the patience of the poor? Why should +they be so long ignorant? Why should they be so chronically patient? +The sorrow of God must be, not only that they suffer, but that they are +so patient under it as to make it scarcely distinguishable from +content. And why are they so patient? This is the question God is +asking through every thoughtful and humane man of us; and one day--man +with God speed its coming--we shall be numerous enough, and in earnest +enough, to establish some real harmony, some true correspondence, +between the inner dignity and the outward lot of the individual, and, +through him, of the community. In the meantime, then, instead of +asking, how can God be God and permit wrong to be in the world? let us +face the truth, however it may smite us, the truth that wrong is in the +world for this reason--that we permit it. + +Growing out of what has been advanced, suffer me to press the subject a +little further, under one or two statements. I purpose to do little +more than indicate them, and to ask for them your good consideration. + +God is faithful: therefore good must be possible. I was talking some +time ago with a very intelligent man, who has a well-known name in the +world of letters, and he said to me: "I admit that we have made +something that answers to progress in material things, but I deny that +we have made any advance in moral attainment. A few rise above the +average level, for the rest it is the old story of cycles of abortive +effort with no lasting good to the race. We may theorize and idealize +as we like," he went on to say, "but Bebel is right when he tells us +that 'every man is the product of his times and the instrument of his +circumstances.'" + +It was talk that exactly expresses much of the "time-spirit" of our +modern day. It is a doctrine with no God in it, and no invisible +world. It assumes that man has no vision and no volition; that he is a +mere billiard-ball in the game of existence, which goes whithersoever +the cue of blind fate sends it. That one man rises, and another falls, +is neither the virtue of one nor the vice of the other, but the +necessity of both. We follow the better if we have the accident of +certain gifts, or we take hold of the worse, if we have not. In either +case we are no more responsible for our direction than we are +responsible for the fact that we have to take a direction at all. + +I shall not build up words in trying to answer this position. I can +conceive of no man who has some conscience left, however he may seek a +refuge from himself in this doctrine of moral irresponsibility, who, at +the soul of him, does not know it to be a lie. We commonly use the +terms evil and sin as interchangeable; and in doing so we are apt to +fall into confusion. Evil is, as it were, embedded in our nature; and +for that we are not accountable. Sin, as I have said before, is in +yielding to the evil, and that is our responsibility. St. Paul speaks +of the evil he found in his nature, and while he admits its malignant +power, he does not represent himself as powerless to contend against +it. He accepts no responsibility for the fact that evil is there; but +he does accept responsibility for what he does with it, or what it does +with him. + + "Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, + Another thing to fall." + + +I know with any man the power of evil in my heart; and while it may +come, as it were, in spite of myself, I can determine the question as +to whether it shall stay. It is the vilest heresy of our day to preach +and believe that circumstances can absolve us from our duty; or that +they can prevent us from following the right. The battle is hard, at +times very hard, but what battle is not hard that is worth winning? +Put religion out of the question, and do we find that the prizes of the +world offer us easier terms? + +It is the greatness of the Christian religion, that it not only tells +us what it were good to do, but it offers to us the power to do it. +The great teachers of the world have said to their disciples: "Accept +our ideas"; Christ says: "Accept Me." "He makes everything centre in +His Own Personality." And the men who have helped to make what so far +in our human world is grand and glorious, have shown us that Christ's +word is a real word, meaning a real thing. + +One who has the right to testify has told us that, when we do the will +of God as if it were our own will, we realize that God is doing our +will as His own. There is a great truth in this. We so often fail +because ours is a broken obedience. We expect God to do His part, +while we keep back part of the price of our own, and what response we +have is the sense of being mocked in ourselves. We have to find out +that we cannot serve two masters. However we fall short in practice, +the intention must be all for God, or it will be none. But let us be +genuine co-workers with Him in this great work of personal +character-building; and we find that we have a power not ourselves, and +infinitely greater than ourselves. Our achievements are not so much a +question of gift, as of dynamic. They are not in the machinery, but in +the driving power. + +"How is it"--was a question recently asked concerning one of the most +useful men in the Christian ministry--"that with his obvious +limitations he has accomplished so much?" And the answer was: "Because +he has made it possible for God to use him for all he is worth." +Failure is impossible in the man who can say: "I live, and yet not I, +but Christ liveth in me." We cannot explain the power; but it is +there, and we all may have it by obedience to the conditions through +which it can be given. "I have been down deep in the hell of moral +failure," writes one, "and by the grace of God I have come out of it. +I may not be able to explain His grace to the satisfaction of others; +but will others explain me to my own?" Our lives may be the living +evidences of this power. The world asks for no more; the world will +accept no less. Our day, we are told, has ceased to believe in such +miracles. It were truer to say that it has ceased to believe in +anything else. + +Goodness is possible; and not to achieve it is to defeat the purpose +for which we were born into this world. Let us believe in goodness. +Let us learn to love goodness because it is goodness. Let us say, and +live our word, that there are no charges we can pay which we are not +prepared to pay to be, and to do, that which is possible to us--and God +will not fail us. Any man who is putting out all his strength in work +and prayer to build up his higher nature need have no devil-fear that +his strength will not be equal to his day. He may not be able to +choose his circumstances; but he can show that he, and not the +circumstances, is the master. He can offer to the world the living +proof that the triumph of good is possible to him whose power is the +faithful God. + +And once more: Because He is faithful who has promised, we may safely +leave the issues of our life in His keeping. If by the help of God we +are trying to do the will of God, nothing else really matters. The +crooked places of to-day will be made straight to-morrow. After all, +it is not more knowledge we need, but more power to use the knowledge +we have. Much of our unrest only means that we want to know more than +the silent God sees fit to tell us. We know enough for the wise +ordering of life; and the highest, holiest thing any of us can do, is +to do the wisest and best we know, in whatever honest sphere +circumstances have placed us. The riddles of the universe, and the +perplexities and heartache which come out of our attempts to reconcile +much that we know and see with the rule of an Almighty, an all-wise and +faithful God--these will be here long after we are gone. We must just +take the Master at His word when He says: "What I do thou knowest not +now; but thou shalt know hereafter." + +"We cannot," says a wise teacher, "take up a drop of water, and find in +that drop the flow of the tides, and the soft and then loud music of +calm and storm. To see the ocean we must grasp it in all its rocky +bed, bordered by continents." So before the very present troubles of +life, we cannot see all the government of the faithful God. It has +boundaries wider than these. Human life is but a fraction of the sum +of life. The tides of the mind, the music and the tumult of human +waters, cannot be heard and felt in this drop of existence. + +We may believe that the moral government of the world is in the hands +of Him whose love and law are both the same; and we may, at the same +time, have to recognize the fact, that so many suffer grievously from +forces they have not called into being, and which they are almost +helpless to control. We may have to reconcile as best we can, a +general Providence, with much apparent severity in its particular +operation. Unless this be understood, some parts of this address will +appear inconsistent with each other. I leave this order of +suffering--not its causes--with the responsibility of God; and, for +myself, I am persuaded that our last word about it will be one of +praise, and not of reproach-- + + "Right for a while may yield to wrong, + And virtue be baffled by crime, + But the help of our need and the might of our creed + Are faith, patience, courage, and time." + + +But to say that the faithfulness of God cannot be fully measured now is +not to say that it cannot be measured at all. Do justly, love mercy, +and walk humbly with God, and our life will not only come out right at +the end, it will come out right all the way. The lesson for us to +learn is to labour and to wait; to give God and ourselves space to work +in. Whether God is in His heaven or not, of this I am sure, that, +given time, right always comes to its own, and all wrong, sooner or +later, is defeat and disaster. Time forgets nothing, it omits nothing +which God requires at our hands. It may not be ours to choose our +task, but we can choose to do it well. What is really everyday +religion is to do common things in an uncommon spirit. There is +nothing for us in the world that needs a lie; nothing that excuses us +from the wise admonition-- + + "Count that day lost whose low descending sun + Views by thy hand no worthy action done." + +Then let us just go on doing the highest we know, and the best we can. +The reward may not seem to be to-day, nor yet to-morrow; but we shall +see that it was everyday and all the way, when we look back upon it +from the shores of the life eternal. Let us trust the faithful God, +and we shall be taught to regard the troubles that test, and the +limitations that perplex us, as the agents of His Providence through +the courses of time. And as we see in each new revelation of His +goodness and mercy towards us an added circle of splendour in His halo +of light, we shall learn to say of ourselves, and the race of which we +form a part-- + + "The God of Truth and Love, + The Ancient Friend of man, + Makes every age an onward stage, + And has, since time began; + Sing ye praises, oh, sing praises, + God has a glorious plan." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEN IN THE MAKING*** + + +******* This file should be named 22482-8.txt or 22482-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/4/8/22482 + + + +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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