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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24373-8.txt b/24373-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..154fcb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/24373-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4976 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in the College Chapel, by +Francis Greenwood Peabody + +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: Mornings in the College Chapel + Short Addresses to Young Men on Personal Religion + +Author: Francis Greenwood Peabody + +Release Date: January 20, 2008 [EBook #24373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +Mornings in the College Chapel + + + + SHORT ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN ON + PERSONAL RELIGION BY FRANCIS GREENWOOD + PEABODY, PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF + CHRISTIAN MORALS IN HARVARD + UNIVERSITY + + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + +The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + + +Copyright, 1896, + +By FRANCIS G. PEABODY. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +TO + +MY BELOVED AND REVERED COLLEAGUES + +THE PREACHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY + +AND TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF + +PHILLIPS BROOKS + +OF THE FIRST STAFF OF PREACHERS + +WHO BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH AMONG US + +IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF + +HAPPY ASSOCIATION IN THE SERVICE OF + +CHRIST AND THE CHURCH + + + + +{v} + +_In the conduct of morning prayers at Harvard University, the Preachers +to the University usually say a few plain words to interpret or enforce +the Bible lesson which has been read. The entire service is but +fifteen minutes long, so that this little address must occupy not more +than two or three minutes, and can at the best indicate only a single +wholesome thought with which a young man may begin his day. It has +been suggested to me that some of these informal and brief addresses, +if printed, may continue to be of interest to those who heard them, or +may perhaps be of use to other young people in like conditions of life; +and I have therefore tried to recall some of these mornings in the +College Chapel._ + +_It is now ten years since it was determined that religion in our +University should be regarded no longer as a part of College +discipline, but as a natural and rational opportunity offering itself +to the life of youth. It was a momentous transition, undertaken with +the profoundest sense of its seriousness and significance. It was an +act of faith,--of faith in religion and of faith in young men. The +University announced the belief that religion, rationally presented, +will always have for healthy-minded young men a commanding interest. +This faith has been abundantly justified. There has become familiar +among us, through the devotion of successive staffs of Preachers, a +clearer sense of the simplicity and reality of religion, which, for +many young men, has enriched the meaning of University life. No one +who has had the slightest part in administering such a work can sum up +its present issues without feeling on the one hand a deep sense of +personal insufficiency, and on the other hand a large and solemn hope._ + +_I have indicated such sources of suggestion for these addresses as I +noted at the time of their delivery, but it may well be that some such +indebtedness remains, against my will, unacknowledged._ + +CAMBRIDGE, October, 1896. + + + + +{vii} + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + + I. THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER . . 4 + III. THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER . . . . . . . . . . 7 + IV. LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 + V. THE CENTURION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 + VI. SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + VII. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + VIII. THAT OTHER DISCIPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + IX. MORAL TIMIDITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + X. THE HEAVENLY VISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + XI. THE BREAD AND WATER OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . 30 + XII. THE RECOIL OF JUDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + XIII. THE INCIDENTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + XIV. LEARNING AND LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + XV. FILLING LIFE FULL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 + XVI. TAKING ONE'S SHARE OF HARDSHIPS . . . . . . . 44 + XVII. CHRISTIAN UNITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + XVIII. THE PATIENCE OF FAITH . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + XIX. THE BOND-SERVANT AND THE SON . . . . . . . . . 52 + XX. DYING TO LIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + XXI. CARRYING YOUR OWN CROSS . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + XXII. THE POOR IN SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + XXIII. THE MOURNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + XXIV. THE MEEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + XXV. THE HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS . . . . . . . . . 64 + XXVI. THE MERCIFUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 + XXVII. THE PURE IN HEART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + XXVIII. THE TWO BAPTISMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + +{viii} + + XXIX. THE WISE MEN AND THE SHEPHERDS . . . . . . . . 74 + XXX. THE SONG OF THE ANGELS . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + XXXI. THE SECRET OF HEARTS REVEALED . . . . . . . . 78 + XXXII. THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . 80 + XXXIII. THE EVERLASTING ARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + XXXIV. THE COMFORT OF THE TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + XXXV. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + XXXVI. LIFE IS AN ARROW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + XXXVII. THE DECLINE OF ENTHUSIASM . . . . . . . . . . 90 + XXXVIII. THE CROWN OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + XXXIX. THE HIDDEN MANNA AND THE WHITE STONE . . . . . 96 + XL. THE MORNING STAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + XLI. LIVING AS DEAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + XLII. THE OPEN DOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + XLIII. BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK . . . . 107 + XLIV. HE THAT OVERCOMETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + XLV. THE PRODIGALITY OF PROVIDENCE . . . . . . . . 113 + XLVI. THE HARD LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + XLVII. THE THIN LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + XLVIII. THE CROWDED LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 + XLIX. THE PATIENCE OF NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 + L. THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS . . . . . . . . . 124 + LI. THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS . . . . . . . . 127 + LII. THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF WEALTH . . . . . . . 129 + LIII. THE AVERAGE MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + LIV. THE OVERCOMING OF INSIGNIFICANCE . . . . . . . 133 + LV. CAPACITY EXTIRPATED BY DISUSE . . . . . . . . 136 + LVI. THE PARABLE OF THE VACUUM . . . . . . . . . . 138 + LVII. CHRISTIANITY AND BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . 140 + LVIII. MAKING FRIENDS OF MAMMON . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + LIX. COMING TO ONE'S SELF . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + LX. POPULARITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + LXI. TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY . . . . . . . 151 + LXII. AN UNRECORDED DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 + LXIII. THE ANSWER TO PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + LXIV. AN IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + +{ix} + + LXV. THE FINISHED LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 + LXVI. ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION . . . . . . . . 166 + LXVII. SIMON OF CYRENE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + LXVIII. POWER AND TEMPTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + LXIX. LOVING WITH THE MIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 + LXX. AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? . . . . . . . . . . 176 + LXXI. PROFESSIONALISM AND PERSONALITY . . . . . . . 178 + LXXII. THE CENTRAL SOLITUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + LXXIII. IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD . . . . . . . 182 + LXXIV. THE WEDDING GARMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 + LXXV. THE ESCAPE FROM DESPONDENCY . . . . . . . . . 187 + LXXVI. THE DIFFICULTIES OF UNBELIEF . . . . . . . . . 189 + LXXVII. KNOWING GOD, AND BEING KNOWN OF HIM . . . . . 192 + LXXVIII. FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + LXXIX. THE SOIL AND THE SEED . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + LXXX. THE LORD'S PRAYER: I. . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + LXXXI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: II. OUR FATHER . . . . . . 203 + LXXXII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: III. FATHER AND SON . . . . 205 + LXXXIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IV. HALLOWED BE THY NAME . 207 + LXXXIV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: V. THY KINGDOM COME . . . . 209 + LXXXV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VI. THY WILL BE DONE . . . 211 + LXXXVI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VII. DAILY BREAD . . . . . 213 + LXXXVII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VIII. FORGIVENESS . . . . . 215 + LXXXVIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IX. TEMPTATIONS . . . . . . 217 + LXXXIX. SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . 219 + XC. OPEN OUR EYES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 + XCI. THE WORD MADE FLESH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 + +LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 + + + + +{1} + +Mornings in a College Chapel + + +I + +THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES + +_Hebrews_ xii. 1. + +(FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE TERM) + +No one can look for the first time into the faces of a congregation +like this without thinking, first of all, of the great multitude of +other lives whose love and sacrifice are represented here. Almost +every single life which enters our chapel is the focus of interest for +a whole domestic circle, whose prayers and anxieties, whose hopes and +ambitions, are turning toward this place from every region of this +land. Out from behind our congregation stands in the background a +cloud of witnesses in whose presence we meet. There are the fathers, +earning and saving, that the sons may have a {2} better chance than +they; there are the mothers with their prayers and sacrifices; there +are the rich parents, trembling lest wealth may be a snare to their +sons; and the humble homes with their daily deeds of self-denial for +the sake of the boys who come to us here. When we meet in this chapel +we are never alone. We are the centre of a great company of observant +hearts. And then, behind us all, there is the still larger fellowship +of the past, the historic traditions of the university, the men who +have adorned it, the inheritances into which we freely enter, the +witnesses of a long and honorable associated life. + +Now this great company of witnesses does two things for us. On the one +hand, it brings responsibility. The apostle says in this passage, +"that apart from us they should not be made perfect." Every work of +the past is incomplete unless the present sustains it. We are +responsible for this rich tradition. We inherit the gift to use or to +mar. But, on the other hand, the cloud of witnesses is what +contributes courage. It sustains you to know that you represent so +much confidence and trust. It is strengthening to enter into this rich +inheritance. You do not have to begin things {3} here. You only have +to keep them moving. It is a great blessing to be taken up thus out of +solitude into the companionship of generous souls. Let us begin the +year soberly but bravely. Surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let +us lay aside every weight, and the sin which most easily besets us, and +let us run with patience the race that is immediately set before us in +the swiftly passing days of this college year. + + + + +{4} + +II + +"NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER" + +_Mark_ x. 35-45. + +The disciples in this passage were looking at their faith to see what +they could get out of it. They wanted to be assured of a prize before +they took a risk. They came to Jesus saying: "We would that Thou +shouldest do for us whatever we ask." But Jesus bids them to consider +rather what they can do for their faith. "Whosoever," He says, "would +be first, is to be the servant for all, for even the Son of man comes +not to be ministered unto, but to minister." I suppose that when a man +faces a new year of college life, his first thought is of what it can +do for him. He has studied the college programme, asking himself: +"What can I get out of this?" and now he looks into the year, with all +its unknown chances, and asks of it: "O unknown year, what happiness +and friendship and instruction may I get from you? Will you not bring +to {5} pass what I desire? I would that thou shouldest do for me +whatever I ask." Then the spirit of Jesus Christ meets him here and +turns his question round: "What are you going to do for the college +during this coming year? Are you going to help us in our morals, in +our intellectual life, in our religion? Are you going to contribute to +the higher life of the university? For what do you come here,--to be +ministered unto, or to minister?" + +Of course a man may answer that this is an impossible test; that there +is nothing that he can give to a great place like this, and everything +he can receive. But he little knows how the college from year to year +gets marked for good or evil by a class, or a group within a class, or +sometimes a few persons, as they pass in and out of our gates. +Sometimes a group of young men live for a few years among us and leave +behind them a positively malarial influence; and some times a few quiet +lives, simply and modestly lived among us, actually sweeten and purify +our climate for years together. And so in the quiet of our prayers we +give ourselves, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. {6} +Nowhere in the world is it more true that we are members one of +another, and that the whole vast institutional life is affected by each +slightest individual. Nowhere in this world is there a better chance +to purify the spirit and tone, either of work or of sport, and nowhere +can a man discover more immediately the happiness of being of use. The +recreation and the religion, the study and the play, of our associated +life, are waiting for the dedication of unassuming Christian men to a +life which offers itself, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. + + + + +{7} + +III + +THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER + +_John_ xvii. 22. + +This was the glory which Jesus Christ claimed for himself--to take the +glory of God and glorify with it the life of man. "The glory that thou +hast given me I have given them." It was not a glory of possession, +but a glory of transmission. It was not his capacity to receive which +glorified him, it was his capacity to give. In most of the great +pictures of the glorified Christ there is a halo of light encircling +and illuminating his face. That is the fictitious glory, the glory of +possession. In a few such paintings the light streams from the +Master's face to illuminate the other figures of the scene. That is +the real glory, the glory of transmission. + +And such is the only glory in life. A man looks at learning or power +or refinement or wealth and says: "This is glory; this is success; this +is the pride of life." But there is really nothing glorious about +possession. It may be most inglorious and mean,--as {8} mean when the +possession is brains or power as when it is bonds or wheat. Indeed, +there is rarely much that is glorious or great about so slight or +evanescent a thing as a human life. The glory of it lies in its being +able to say, "The glory that thou hast given me I give to them." The +worth of life is in its transmissive capacity. In the wonderful system +of the telephone with its miracle of intercommunication there is, as +you know, at each instrument that little film of metal which we call +the transmitter, into which the message is delivered, and whose +vibrations are repeated scores of miles away. Each human life is a +transmitter. Take it away from its transmissive purpose, and what a +poor insignificant film a human life may be. But set it where it +belongs, in the great system where it has its part, and that +insignificant film is dignified with a new significance. It is as if +it said to its God: "The message which Thou givest me I give to them," +and every word of God that is spoken into it is delivered through it to +the lives that are wearily waiting for the message as though it were +far away. + + + + +{9} + +IV + +LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE + +_Matthew_ v. 16. + +At the first reading there certainly seems to be something of +self-assertion and self-display about this passage, as if it said: "Let +your light so shine that people may see how much good you do." But, of +course, nothing could be farther than this from the spirit of Jesus. +Indeed, his meaning is the precise opposite of this. For he is +speaking not of a light which is to illuminate you, but of a light +which is to shine from you upon your works; so that they, and not you, +are seen, and the glory is given, not to you, but to God. Such a light +will hide you rather than exhibit you, as when one holds a lantern +before him on some dark road, so that while the bearer of the lantern +is in the darkness, the path before him is thrown into the light. The +passage, then, which seems to suggest a doctrine of self-display, is +really a teaching of self-effacement. Here is a railway-train +thundering along some evening {10} toward a broken bridge, and the +track-walker rushes toward it with his swinging lantern, as though he +had heard the great command, "Let your light shine before men;" and the +train comes to a stop and the passengers stream out and see the peril +that they have just escaped, and give thanks to their Father which is +in heaven. And this is the reward of the plain, unnoticed man as he +trudges home in the dark,--that he has done his duty well that night. +He has not been seen or praised; he has been in the shadow; but he has +been permitted to let his little light shine and save; and he too gives +thanks to his Father in heaven. + +Here, again, is a lighthouse-keeper on the coast. The sailor in the +darkness cannot see the keeper, unless indeed the shadow of the keeper +obscures for a moment the light. What the sailor sees is the light; +and he thanks, not the keeper, but the power that put the light on that +dangerous rock. So the light-keeper tends his light in the dark, and a +very lonely and obscure life it is. No one mounts the rock to praise +him. The vessels pass in the night with never a word of cheer. But +the life of the keeper gets its dignity, not {11} because he shines, +but because his light guides other lives; and many a weary captain +greets that twinkling light across the sea, and seeing its good work +gives thanks to his Father which is in heaven. + + + + +{12} + +V + +THE CENTURION + +_Matthew_ viii. 5-11. + +One of the most interesting things to observe in the New Testament is +the series of persons who just come into sight for a moment through +their relation to the life of Jesus Christ, and are, as it were, +illuminated by that relationship, and then, as they pass out of the +light again, disappear into obscurity. They are like some +western-fronting window on which the slanting sun shines for a moment, +so that we see the reflection miles away. Then, with the same +suddenness, the angle of reflection changes, and the window grows dark +and insignificant once more. This centurion was such a person. Jesus +perhaps never met him before, and we never hear of him again, and yet, +in the single phrase, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in +Israel," Jesus stamps him with a special character and welcomes him +with a peculiar confidence. How is it that there is given to him this +abrupt {13} commendation? Why does Jesus say that he shows more faith +than Israel itself? It was, of course, because of the man's attitude +of mind. He comes to Jesus just as a soldier comes to his superior +officer. He has been disciplined to obedience, and that habit of +obedience to his own superiors is what gives him in his turn authority. +He obeys, and he expects to be obeyed. He is under authority, and so +he has authority over his own troops, and says to one soldier Go, and +to another Come, and they obey. Now Jesus sees in an instant that this +is just what he wants of his disciples. What discipline is to a +soldier, faith is to a Christian. A religious man is a man who is +under authority. He goes to his commander and gets orders for the day. +He does not pretend to know everything about his commander's plans. It +is not for him to arrange the great campaign. It is for him only to +obey in his own place, and to take his own part in the great design. +Perhaps in the little skirmish in which he is involved there may be +defeat, but perhaps that defeat is to count in the victory for the +larger plan. Thus the religious man does not serve on his own account. +He is in the hands of a general, who overlooks {14} the whole field. +And that sense of being under authority is what gives the religious man +authority in his turn. He is not the slave of his circumstances; he is +the master of them. He takes command of his own detachment of life, +because he has received command from the Master of all life. He says +to his passions, Go; and to his virtues, Come; and to his duty, Do +this; and the whole little company of his own ambitions and desires +fall into line behind him, because he is himself a man under authority. +That is a soldier's discipline, and that is a Christian's faith. + + + + +{15} + +VI + +SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS + +1 _Timothy_ iv. 8. + +There is this great man writing to his young friend, whom he calls "his +own son in the faith," and describing religion as a branch of +athletics. Bodily exercise, he says, profiteth somewhat. It is as if +an old man were writing to a young man today, and should begin by +saying: "Do not neglect your bodily health; take exercise daily; go to +the gymnasium." But spiritual exercise, this writer goes on, has this +superior quality, that it is good for both worlds, both for that which +now is, and that which is to come. Therefore, "exercise unto +godliness." "Take up those forms of spiritual athletics which develop +and discipline the soul. Keep your soul in training. Be sure that you +are in good spiritual condition, ready for the strain and effort which +life is sure to demand." We are often told in our day that the +athletic ideal is developed to excess, but the teaching of this passage +is just the opposite of {16} the modern warning. Paul tells this young +man that he has not begun to realize the full scope of the athletic +ideal. Is not this the real difficulty now? We have, it is true, come +to appreciate exercise so far as concerns the body, and any +healthy-minded young man to-day is almost ashamed of himself if he has +not a well developed body, the ready servant of an active will. We +have even begun to appreciate the analogy of body and mind, and to +perceive that the exercise and discipline of the mind, like that of the +body, reproduces its power. Much of the study which one does in his +education is done with precisely the same motive with which one pulls +his weights and swings his clubs; not primarily for the love of the +things studied, but for the discipline and intellectual athletics they +promote. And yet it remains true that a great many people fancy that +the soul can be left without exercise; that indeed it is a sort of +invalid, which needs to be sheltered from exposure and kept indoors in +a sort of limp, shut-in condition. There are young men in the college +world who seem to feel that the life of faith is too delicate to be +exposed to the sharp climate of the world of scholarship and {17} have +not begun to think of it as strengthened by exposure and fortified by +resistance. + +Now the apostolic doctrine is this: "You do not grow strong in body or +in mind without discipline and exercise. The same athletic demand is +made on your soul." All through the writings of this vigorous, +masculine, robust adviser of young men, you find him taking the +athletic position. Now he is a boxer: "So fight I not as one that +beateth the air." Now he is a runner, looking not to the things that +are behind, but to the things before, and running, not in one sharp +dash, but, with patience, the race set before him. It is just as +athletic a performance, he thinks, to wrestle with the princes of the +darkness of this world, as to wrestle with a champion. It needs just +as rigorous a training to pull against circumstances as to pull against +time. It appears to him at least not unreasonable that the supreme +interest of an immortal soul should have from a man as much attention +and development as a man gives to his legs, or his muscle, or his wind. + + + + +{18} + +VII + +THE RHYTHM OF LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiv. 23. + +One of the most striking passages in modern literature is the paragraph +in Mr. Spencer's First Principles, in which he describes the rhythm of +motion. Motion, he says, though it seems to be continuous and steady, +is in fact pulsating, undulatory, rhythmic. There is everywhere +intermittent action and rest. The flag blown by the breeze floats out +in undulations; then the branches oscillate; then the trees begin to +sway; everywhere there is action and pause, the rhythm of motion. + +The same law holds good of the conduct of life. Its natural method is +rhythmic, intermittent, work alternating with rest, activity and +receptivity succeeding one another, the rhythm of life. The steady +strain, the continuous uniformity of life, is what kills. Work +unrelieved by play, and play unrefreshed by work, grow equally stale +and dull. Activity without reflection loses its grasp; meditation {19} +without action sinks into a dream. Jesus in this passage had been +absorbed in the most active and outward-going ministry; and then, as +the evening comes, he turns away and goes up into the mountain and is +there alone in prayer. + +We need to take account of this law of the rhythm of life. Most of the +time we are very much absorbed in busy, outward-looking activity, +overwhelmed with engagements and hurry and worry; and then in the midst +of this active life there stands the chapel with its summons to us to +pause and give the reflective life its chance. That is one of the +chief offices of religion in this preposterously busy age. Religion +gives one at least a chance to stop and let God speak to him. It sends +the multitudes away and takes one up into the solitude of the soul's +communication with God. One of our Cambridge naturalists told me once +of an experiment he had made with a pigeon. The bird had been born in +a cage and had never been free; and one day his owner took him out on +the porch of the house and flung the bird into the air. To the +naturalist's surprise the bird's capacity for flight was perfect. +Round and round he flew {20} as if born in the air; but soon his flight +grew excited, panting, and his circles grew smaller, until at last he +dashed full against his master's breast and fell on the ground. What +did it mean? It meant that, though the bird had inherited the instinct +for flight, he had not inherited the capacity to stop, and if he had +not risked the shock of a sudden halt, he would have panted his little +life out in the air. Is not that a parable of many a modern +life,--completely endowed with the instinct of action, but without the +capacity to stop? Round and round life goes, in its weary circle, +until it is almost dying at full speed. Any shock, even some severe +experience, is a mercy if it checks this whirl. Sometimes God stops +such a soul abruptly by some sharp blow of trouble, and the soul falls +in despair at his feet, and then He bends over it and says: "Be still +my child; be still, and know that I am God!" until by degrees the +despair of trouble is changed into submission and obedience, and the +poor, weary, fluttering life is made strong to fly again. + + + + +{21} + +VIII + +"THAT OTHER DISCIPLE" + +_John_ xx. 8. + +About fifty years ago, one of the most distinguished of New England +preachers, Horace Bushnell, preached a very famous sermon on the +subject of "Unconscious Influence," taking for his text this verse: +"Then went in also that other disciple." The two disciples had come +together, as the passage says, to the sepulchre, but that other +disciple, though he came first, hesitated to go in, until the impetuous +Peter led the way, and "then went in also that other disciple." + +There are always these two ways of exerting an influence on another's +life, the ways of conscious and unconscious influence. A few persons +in a community have the strength of positive leadership. They devise +and guide public opinion, and may be fairly described as personal +influences. But such real leaders are few. Most of us cannot expect +to stand in our community like the centurion of the {22} Gospel and say +to one man: Come, and he cometh; and to another: Go, and he goeth; and +to a third: Do this, and he doeth it. Most of us must take to +ourselves what one of our professors said to a body of students: "Be +sure to lend your influence to any good object; but do not lend your +influence until you have it." On the other hand, however, there is for +all of us an unavoidable kind of influence; the unconscious effect on +another's life, made not by him who preaches, or poses, or undertakes +to be a missionary, but simply by the man who goes his own way, and so +demonstrates that it is the best way for others to follow. That is +what Laurence Oliphant once called, "living the life;" the kind of +conduct which does not drive, but draws. + +Peter might have stood before the sepulchre, and tried all in vain to +influence and urge his friend to come in with him, but instead of this +he simply enters, and then, without any conscious persuasion on his +part, that other disciple enters too. So it is that a man to-day just +takes his stand among us in some issue of duty, not dragging in allies +to help him, but quietly standing on his own isolated conviction, and +some day "that other {23} disciple" just comes and stands by him for +the right. Or a man is passing some morning the door of this Chapel, +and just slips in and says his prayer, and falls into the habit of +worship from which he had of late been falling out, and some day as he +sits here, as he supposes, quite out of the circle of his friends, he +turns and finds "that other disciple" sitting by his side. Or a man +enters just a little way into the power of the religious life, just +enough to feel how incomplete is his faith, and how little he can do +for any one else, and one day as he gropes his way toward the light he +feels a hand reaching out to his, and "that other disciple" gives +himself to be guided by the strength which had seemed to its possessor +until that moment weakness. Here is the encouragement and the +interpretation of many an insignificant and apparently ineffective +life. Positive and predetermined influence few of us can boast of +possessing, but this unconscious influence not one of us can escape. +And indeed, that is the profounder leadership even of the greatest +souls. One of the most extraordinary traits in the ministry of Jesus +Christ is his undesigned persuasiveness. He does not seem to expect +{24} a generally accepted influence. He recognizes that there are +whole groups of souls whom he cannot reach. Only they who have ears to +hear, he says, can hear him. He just goes his own great way, +misinterpreted, persecuted; and at last the world perceives that it is +the way to go, and falls into line behind him. When he puts forth his +sheep, he goes before them, and they follow him. It is simply the +contagion of personality, the magnetism of soul, the spiritual law of +attraction, which draws a little soul toward a great soul, as a planet +is drawn in its orbit round the sun. + + + + +{25} + +IX + +MORAL TIMIDITY + +_John_ xxi. 22. + +The trouble with Peter in this passage is the sense of his own +incapacity. Jesus comes to him with the great command: "Feed my lambs; +feed my sheep;" as though Peter were appointed to take the lead among +his followers. And then Peter shrinks back, not because of +disinclination, but because of sheer self-distrust. Who is he that he +should assume the leadership? He has failed once, perhaps he may fail +again. "Lord," he says, "there is John; is not he the man to lead? He +never made a mistake as I did. What is he to do?" And then Jesus +says: "What is that to thee? The question is not whether you are the +best man to do this thing. You are simply called to do it as best you +can. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? +Follow thou me." + +There is a great deal of this moral timidity in college life. Any man +of reasonable {26} modesty sees about him plenty of men better able to +be leaders in good service than he is. It seems audacious for him to +pose as fit to lead. "There is John," he says, "a far better man than +I; what is he to do?" Then the spirit of Jesus again answers: "What is +that to thee?" Here is the thing to be done, the stand to be taken, +and here are you. Of course, there is much that you cannot do. Of +course there are many that might do it better. But the call happens to +be to you: "Follow thou me." It is not a call to any exciting or +dramatic service. It is simply the demand that one takes his life just +as it is, and gives it as he can to the service of Christ. "Feed my +sheep, feed my lambs;" give yourself to humble and modest service; live +your own life without much anticipation of influence or effectiveness; +with all your insufficiency and frequent stumbling, follow thou me; and +in that simple following you are showing better than by all eloquence +or argument how others ought to go, and you are helping and +strengthening us all. + + + + +{27} + +X + +THE HEAVENLY VISION + +_Acts_ xxvi. 19. + +The great transformation in St. Paul from a persecutor to an apostle of +Christianity was a sudden revelation. He saw a heavenly vision and was +not disobedient unto it. But this is not the common way of life. It +does not often happen that character is transformed and the great +decision irrevocably made in an instant. It is not as a rule true +that:-- + + "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, + In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side." + +Most lives proceed more evenly, without any such catastrophic change. +And yet, it is none the less true that in a very large proportion of +lives there come, now and then, in the midst of routine and uniformity, +certain flashes of clearer vision, disclosing the aims and ideals of +life, as though one should be traveling in a fog along a hillside, and +now and then the breeze should sweep the mist away, and the road and +its end be clear. {28} Now, loyalty to such a vision is the chief +source of strength and satisfaction in a man's life. Sometimes a young +man comes to an old one for counsel about his calling in life, and the +young man sums up his gifts and capacities and defects. He will be a +lawyer because he has a turn for disputation, or an engineer because he +is good at figures, or a minister because he likes the higher +literature. All such considerations have, of course, their place. But +by no such intellectual analysis is the fundamental question met. Many +men fail in their lives in spite of great gifts, and many men succeed +in spite of great defects. The fundamental question is: "Has this +young man had a vision of what he wants to do? Has a great desire +disclosed itself to his heart? Has the breeze of God blown away the +mists of his confusion and shown him his ideal, very far away perhaps, +yet unmistakable and clear?" Then, with all reasonable allowance for +gifts and faults, the straighter he heads toward that ideal the happier +and the more effective he is likely to be. When he thus follows his +heart, he is working along the line of least resistance; and when his +little work is done, however meagre {29} and unimportant it may be, he +can at least give it back to God, who gave it to him to do, and say: "I +was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." + + + + +{30} + +XI + +THE BREAD AND WATER OF LIFE + +_John_ vi. 35. _Revelation_ xxii. 17 + +Here, in the Gospel, the message of Christ is described as the bread of +life, and, here, again, in the Book of Revelation, as the water of +life. Bread and water--the very plainest, most essential, every-day +needs, the forms of nourishment of which we rarely think with +gratitude, but which on no day we go without. + +A great many people seem to think that religion is a kind of luxury in +life, a Sunday delicacy, an educated taste, an unessential food, which +one can, at his discretion, take or go without. But to Jesus Christ +religion is no such super-imposed accessory; it is simply bread and +water, the daily necessity, the fundamental food, the universally +essential and normal satisfaction of the natural hunger and the human +thirst. Let us, of all things, hold fast to the naturalness, +simplicity, and wholesomeness of the religious life. Religion is not a +luxury added to the normal life; it is the {31} rational attitude of +the soul in its relation to the universe of God. It is not an accident +that the central sacrament of the Christian life is the sacrament of +daily food and drink. This do, says the Master, so oft as ye eat and +drink it, in remembrance of me. + +And how elementary are the sources of religious confidence! They lie, +not in remote or difficult regions of authority, or conformity, or +history, but in the witness of daily service, and of commonplace +endeavor. "The word is very nigh thee," says the Old Testament. The +satisfying revelation of God reaches you, not in the exceptional, +occasional, and dramatic incidents of life, but in the bread and water +of life which you eat and drink every day. As one of our most precious +American poets, too early silent, has sung of the routine of life:-- + + "Forenoon, and afternoon, and night!--Forenoon, + And afternoon, and night!--Forenoon, and--what? + The empty song repeats itself. No more? + Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon sublime, + This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, + And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won." [1] + + + +[1] E. R. Sill. Poems, p. 27 "Life." Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888. + + + + +{32} + +XII + +THE RECOIL OF JUDGMENTS + +_Matthew_ vii. 1. + +When Jesus says "Judge not that ye be not judged," he cannot be +forbidding all severity of judgment, for no one could be on occasion +more severe, or unsparing, or denunciatory than he. "Woe unto you, +hypocrites," he says to some of the respectable church-leaders of his +time. "Beware of false prophets," he says in this passage, "for they +are inwardly ravening wolves." No, Jesus certainly was not a +soft-spoken person or one likely to plead for gentle judgments so as to +get kindness in return. What he is in fact laying down in this passage +is a much profounder principle,--the principle of the recoil of +judgments. Your judgments of others are in reality the most complete +betrayal of yourself. What you think of them is the key to your own +soul. Your careless utterances are like the boomerang of some clumsy +savage, often missing the mark toward {33} which it is thrown, and +returning to smite the man that threw it. + +This is a strange reversal of the common notion in which we think of +our relation to other lives. We fancy that another life is perfectly +interpretable in its motives and aims, but that our own lives are much +disguised; whereas the fact is that nothing is more mysterious and +baffling than the interior purposes of another soul, and nothing is +more self-disclosed and transparent than the nature of a judging life. +One man goes through the world and finds it suspicious, inclined to +wrong-doing, full of capacity for evil, and he judges it with his ready +gossip of depreciation. He may be in all this reporting what is true, +or he may be stating what is untrue; but one truth he is reporting with +entire precision,--the fact that he is himself a suspicious and +ungenerous man; and this disclosure of his own heart, which, if another +hinted at it, he would resent, he is without any disguise making of his +own accord. The cynic looks over the world and finds it hopelessly +bad, but the one obvious fact is not that the world is all bad, but +that the man is a cynic. The snob looks over the world and finds it +hopelessly {34} vulgar, but the fact is not that the world is all +vulgar, but that the man is a snob. The gentleman walks his way +through the world, anticipating just dealing, believing in his +neighbor, expecting responsiveness to honor, considerateness, +high-mindedness, and he is often deceived and finds his confidence +misplaced, and sometimes discovers ruffians where he thought there were +gentlemen; but this at least he has proved,--that he himself is a +gentleman. Through his judgment of others he is himself judged, and as +he has measured to others, so, in the final judgment of him, made +either by God or men, it shall be measured to him again. + + + + +{35} + +XIII + +THE INCIDENTAL + +_Luke_ xvii. 5-15. + +"As they went, they were healed." The cure of these sick men was not +only remarkable in itself, but still more remarkable because of the way +in which it happened. They came to Jesus crying: "Master, have mercy +on us," and He sends them to the priest that they might show themselves +to him and get his official guarantee that they were no longer lepers. +So they must have expected that the cure, if it was to come at all, +would happen either under the hands of Jesus before they started, or +under the hands of the high priest after they arrived. But it did not +come in either of these ways. As they went, they were cleansed. Not +in the moment of Christ's benediction, nor yet in the moment of +ecclesiastical recognition, but just between the two they were healed. + +There is something like this very often in any man's deliverance from +his temptations {36} or cares or fears. A man, for instance, sets +himself to his intellectual task, but as he studies it is all dark +about him, and his mind seems dull and heavy, and no light shines upon +his work, and he goes away from it discouraged. But then, by some +miracle of the mind's working, such as each one of us in his own way +has experienced, his task gets solved for him, not as he works at it, +but as he turns to other things. Suddenly and mysteriously, sometimes +between the night's task and the morning's waking, his problem clears +up before him, and as he goes, his mind is cleansed. So a man goes out +into his life of duty-doing. He tries to do right, and he makes +mistakes; he does his best, and he fails. But then his life goes on +and other duties meet it, and out of his old mistakes comes new +success, and out of the discipline of his conscience brought about by +his failures comes the power of his conscience, and by degrees--he +hardly knows how--his will grows strong. So perhaps it happens that a +man some morning kneels down and says his prayer, and then rises and +goes out into the world, the same man with the same cares and fears on +his shoulder, as though {37} there had been no blessing from his +prayer. He passes out into the day's life all unchanged. But then, as +it sometimes happens through God's grace, as he goes, life seems +soberer and plainer, and, by the very prayer he thought unanswered, he +is healed. Not in the great hour of his petition, but as he trudges +along the dusty road of life the cleansing comes to him, and the burden +which he prayed might be taken from him, and which seemed to be left to +bear, drops unnoticed by the way. + + + + +{38} + +XIV + +LEARNING AND LIFE + +_Romans_ xii. 1. + +The letters of Paul, varied as they are in their purpose, have one +curious likeness. Each goes its way through a tangled argument of +doctrinal discussion, and then in almost every case each issues, as it +were, into more open ground, with a series of practical maxims for the +conduct of life. If you are looking for profound Biblical philosophy, +you turn to the first part of Paul's epistles. If you are looking for +rules of moral conduct, you turn to the last part. And between these +two sections there is, as a rule, one connecting word. It is the word +"therefore." The maxims, that is to say, are the consequences of the +philosophy. The theology of Paul is to him an immediate cause of the +better conduct of life. "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,"--he +says to the Ephesians. "If, therefore, there is any comfort in +Christ," he says to the Philippians, {39} "I beseech you, therefore, by +the mercy of God," he says to the Romans. + +We hear much in these days of the practical perils of the intellectual +life; the spiritual risks of education, the infidelity of scholars, as +though one who dealt much in the speculations of philosophy would lose +the impulse to the devout and generous life; and certainly there are +scholars enough whose learning has shrivelled up their souls. But the +attitude of Paul toward the general question of the relation of +learning to life is this,--that the better philosopher a man is, so +much the better Christian he is likely to be; that hard thinking opens +naturally into strong doing; that while not all religion is for +scholars, there is a scholar's religion, and while not all sin comes +from ignorance, much foolish conduct comes of superficial philosophy. +Let us take courage to-day in this natural association of philosophy +and life. The world needs piety, but it needs in our time a new +accession of rational piety, or what the apostle calls "reasonable +service." The world needs enthusiasm, but it still more urgently needs +intelligently directed enthusiasm. Remember that the same man who laid +{40} the foundation for the whole history of Christian theology and +philosophy was at the same time the most practical of counsellors +concerning Christian duty and love. He explores with a free mind the +speculative mysteries of religious philosophy, and then, perceiving the +bearing of these researches on the conduct of life he proceeds as from +a cause to an effect, and writes: "Therefore, my brethren, I beseech +you, present yourselves a living sacrifice." + + + + +{41} + +XV + +FILLING LIFE FULL + +_Matthew_ v. 17. + +The Jews thought that Jesus had come to destroy their teaching and to +abandon all their splendid history, though Jesus repeatedly told them +that his purpose was not destructive; that he wanted to take all that +great past and fill it full of the meaning it was meant to bear; to +fulfill, as this famous verse says, their law and prophets. A great +many people still think that Jesus comes to destroy. The religious +life appears to them a life of giving up things. Renunciation seems +the Christian motto. The religious person forsakes his passions, +denies his tastes, mortifies his body, and then is holy. But Jesus +always answers that he comes not to destroy, but to fill full; not to +preach the renunciation of capacity, but the consecration of capacity. + +Here is your body, with all its vigorous life. It is a part of your +religion to fill out your body. It is the temple of God, to be kept +{42} clean for his indwelling. Not the ascetic man, but the athletic +man is the physical representative of the Christian life. Here is your +mind, with all the intellectual pursuits which engross you here. Many +people suppose that the scholar's life is in antagonism to the +interests of religion, as though a university were somehow a bad place +for a man's soul. But religion comes not to destroy the intellectual +life. It wants not an empty mind but a full one. The perils of this +age come not from scholars, but from smatterers; not from those who +know much, but from those who think they "know it all." When our +forefathers desired to do something for the service of their God, one +of the first things they regarded as their religious duty was, as you +may read yonder on our gate, to found this college. And here, once +more, are your passions, tempting you to sin. Are you to destroy them, +fleeing from them like the hermits from the world? Oh, no! You are +not to destroy them, but to direct them to a passionate interest in +better things. The soul is not saved by having the force taken out of +it. It is, as Chalmers said, the expulsive force of a new affection +which redeems one from his {43} old sin. How small a thing we make of +the religious life; hiding it in a corner of human nature, serving it +in a fragment of the week; and here stands Jesus Christ at the centre +of all our activities of body and mind and will, and calls for the +consecration of the whole of life, for the all-round man, for the +fulfilment of capacity. In him, says the scripture, is not emptiness, +but fullness of life. + + + + +{44} + +XVI + +TAKING ONE'S SHARE OF HARDSHIPS + +2 _Timothy_ ii. 3. + +Here is one of the passages where the Revised Version brings out more +clearly the meaning.[1] The Old Version says: "Endure hardness;" as +though it were an appeal to an individual. The Revised Version in the +margin says: "Take thy part in suffering hardship;" take, that is to +say, your share of the hardship which belongs to the common cause. +"Come in with the rest of us," it means, "in bearing the hard times." +There were plenty of hard times in those days. Paul was a prisoner in +Rome; Nero's persecution was abroad. When the aged Paul, however, +writes to the young man whom he affectionately calls his beloved child, +he does not say to him: "I hope, my beloved child, that you will find +life easier than I have, or that the times will clear up before you +have to take the lead." He says, on the contrary: {45} "The times are +very hard. Come in with us then and take your share of the hardship." + +A great many people in the modern world are trying to look at life in +quite an opposite way. They want to make it soft and easy for +themselves and for their sons. The problem of life is to get rid of +hardness. Education is to be smoothed and simplified. Trouble and +care are to be kept away from their beloved children. Young people are +to have a good time while they can. The apostle strikes a wholly +different note. Writing to a young man of the modern time he would +say: "There is a deal of hardship, of poverty, of industrial distress +in the world, and I charge you to take your share in it! Are you not +old enough to enlist in Christ's army? At your age, college men +twenty-five years ago were brigadier-generals, dying at the head of +their troops. Take your place, then, in the modern battle. Be a good +soldier, not a shirk or a runaway." + +When that extraordinary man,--perhaps the most inspiring leader of men +in our generation,--General Armstrong, was first undertaking his work +for the negroes in Virginia, he wrote a letter to a friend in the +North, {46} saying: "Dear Miss Ludlow: If you care to sail into a good +hearty battle, where there is no scratching and pin-sticking, but great +guns and heavy shot only used, come here. If you like to lend a hand +when a good cause is short-handed, come here." Could any brave man or +woman resist a call like that? It was a call to arms, a summons to a +good soldier of Jesus Christ. The problem of a soldier is, not to find +a soft and easy place in life, with plenty to get and little to do, but +"to take his share of hardship," and as the passage goes on, "to please +him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." + + + +[1] This change of reading is finely commented on by F. Paget, _The +Hallowing of Work_, p. 57. Longmans, 1891. + + + + +{47} + +XVII + +CHRISTIAN UNITY + +_Ephesians_ iv. 13. + +We hear much in these days of Christian unity, and many programmes and +platforms and propositions are presented to us, as though religious +unity were a thing to be constructed and put together like a building, +which should be big enough to hold us all. But in this splendid +chapter religious unity is regarded by the apostle, not as a thing +which is to be made, but as a thing which is to grow. "There is," he +says "one body and one spirit; there is a unity of the faith. But we +do not make this unity; we grow up into it as we attain unto a +full-grown man; we attain unto it as a boy becomes a man, not by +discussing his growth, or by worrying because he is not a man, or by +bragging that he is bigger than other boys, but simply by growing up. +Thus, as people grow up into Christ, they grow up into unity. The +unity comes not of the assent of man to certain propositions, but of +the ascent of man to {48} the stature of Christ. And so what hinders +unity is that we have not got our spiritual growth. It takes a +full-grown mind to reach it. It takes a full-grown heart to feel it. +The unity is always waiting at the top. Religious progress is like the +ascent of a hill from various sides. Below there is division, +obstructive underbrush, perplexity; but as the top is neared there is +ever a closer approach of man to man; and at the summit there is the +same view for all, and that view is a view all round. The climbers +attain to the measure of the stature of Christ, and they attain at the +same time to the unity of the faith. + + + + +{49} + +XVIII + +THE PATIENCE OF FAITH + +_Mark_ iv. 28. + +Jesus here falls back, as he so often does, on the gradualness of +nature. Life, he says, is not abrupt and revolutionary in its method; +it is gradual and evolutionary: the seed is sown and slowly comes to +fruitage; the leaven silently penetrates the lump; the grain grows, +first the blade, then the ear, finally the full corn. The best things +in the world do not come with a rush. Some things have to be waited +for. Faith is patient. And this he says, not only against the nervous +hurry of life, which is, as we all know, cursing the American world +to-day, but also against the spiritual impatience which is to be +observed in every age. The most marked illustration of it to-day is in +our dealings with the social movements of the time. It is the +impatience of the reformer. He wants to redeem the world all at once. +As Theodore Parker said of the anti-slavery cause: "The trouble seems +to be that God {50} is not in a hurry, and I am." Thus we are beset by +panaceas which are to regenerate society in some wholesale, external, +mechanical way. When such a reformer not long ago presented some quick +solution of the social question, and it was criticised, he answered: +"Well, if you do not accept my solution, what is yours?" as though +every one must have some immediate cure for the evils of civilization. +But the fact is, that the world is not likely to be saved in any +wholesale way. A much wiser observer of the social situation has +lately said: "When any one brings forward a complete solution of the +Social Question, I move to adjourn." Jesus, let us remember, saved men +one at a time. The patience of nature taught him the patience of +faith; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn. + +Or, again, we are afflicted in our day by the impatience of the +theologian. He wants to know all about God. It seems somehow a +depreciation of theology to admit that there is anything which is not +revealed. But the fact is that the wisest feel most the sense of +mystery. The only theology which is likely to last is one which admits +a large degree of {51} Christian agnosticism. As one of our University +preachers once said: "We do not know anything about God unless we first +know that we cannot know Him perfectly." [1] How superb, as against +all this impatience of spirit, are the reserve and patience of Christ. +Accept doubts, he says. Bear with incompleteness. Give faith its +chance to grow. First the blade, then the ear, and then the harvest. +There are some things which youth can prove, and some which only the +experience of maturity can teach, and then there are some mysteries +which are perhaps to be made plain to us only in the clearer light of +another world. + + + +[1] Henry van Dyke, D. D., _Straight Sermons_, p. 216, Scribners, 1893. + + + + +{52} + +XIX + +THE BOND-SERVANT AND THE SON + +_Luke_ xvii. 7-10. + +"We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which it was our duty +to do." It seems almost as if we must have misread this passage. Can +one who has done his duty be called an unprofitable servant? Shall one +have no credit because he has done what is right? This seems strange +indeed. But Jesus in reality is contrasting two ideas of duty,--the +duty of a bond-servant and the duty of a son. The duty of a slave is +to do what is demanded of him. He accomplishes his stint of work, his +round of necessities, his grudging service, and for doing that duty he +gets his hire and his day's work is done. Sometimes we see workmen for +the city in the roadway, doing their duty on these terms, and we wonder +that men can move so slowly and accomplish so little. They have done +their duty, but they are unprofitable servants. Now against this, +Jesus sets the Christian thought of duty, which {53} grows out of the +Christian thought of sonship. A son who loves his father does not +measure his duty by what is demanded of him. No credit is his for +obeying orders. He passes from obligation to affection, from demand to +privilege. And only as he passes thus into uncalled-for and +spontaneous service does any credit come. There is no credit in a +man's paying his debts, earning his hire, meeting his demands. The +business man does not thank his clerk for doing what he is paid for. +What the employer likes to see is that service beyond obligation which +means fidelity and loyalty. Do you do your work for wages, for marks, +from compulsion? Then, when you lie down at night, you should say: "I +have done that which it was my duty to do, and I am ashamed." Do you +do your work for love's sake, for the life of service to which it +leads, for generous ambition and hope? Then with all your sense of +ineffectiveness and incapacity you may still have that inward peace and +joy which permits you to say: "I have done but little of what I dreamed +of doing, but I have tried, at any rate, to do it unselfishly and +gladly,--not as a bond-servant, but as a son." + + + + +{54} + +XX + +DYING TO LIVE + +2 _Corinthians_ iv. 13. + +Paul repeatedly described his spiritual experiences under physical +figures of speech; and most of all he writes of himself as living over +in his spiritual life the incidents of the physical life and death of +Jesus. He is crucified with Christ; he is risen with Christ; he bears +about in his body the dying of Christ. "Death worketh in us, but life +in you." This sounds like exaggerated and rhetorical language. It +seems a strange use of words to say that the death of self is the life +of the world. But consider how it was with this man Paul. He had been +ambitious, sanguine, impetuous, and it had all come to nothing, and +worse than nothing. He had been led to persecute the very faith which +he had soon found to be God's truth. And then he gives up everything. +He throws away every prospect of honor and public respect and social +ambition. He simply dies to himself, and gives himself {55} to the +service of Christ; and, behold, that death of self is the beginning of +life and courage to generation after generation of Christian followers. + +The same story might be told of many a man. Just in proportion as +self-seeking dies, life begins. A man goes his way in self-assertion, +self-display, the desire to make an impression, and he seems to achieve +much. He gets distinction, glory, the prizes of life. But one thing +he fails to do; he fails to quicken spiritual life in others. His work +is stained by self-consciousness, and becomes incapable of inspiration. +It is life to him, but death to the things that are trusted to him. +Then some day he absolutely forgets himself in his work. He buries +himself, as we say, in it. His conceit and ambition die, and then out +of the death of self comes the life of the world he serves. That is +the paradox of life. Life is reproduced by sacrifice. The life that +is lost is the only life that is saved. The dead self is the only +life-bearer. Only the man who thus sinks himself in his cause is +remembered as its apostle. + + + + +{56} + +XXI + +CARRYING YOUR OWN CROSS + +_Mark_ viii. 34. + +"If any man will come after me," says Jesus, "let him take up his cross +and follow." Notice that it is his own cross. This is a different +picture of Christian discipleship from that which is commonly +presented. We are used to thinking of people as abandoning their own +lives, their passions and desires, their own weakness and their own +strength, and turning to the one support and safety of the cross of +Jesus Christ. We remember that familiar picture of the woman who has +been almost overwhelmed in the sea of trouble, and is finally cast up +by the waves of life upon the rock where she clings to the cross which +is set there as a refuge for her shipwrecked soul. Now, no doubt, that +refuge in the cross of Christ has been to many a real experience. +"Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee," has been, +no doubt, often a sincere confession. But that is not the {57} state +of mind which Jesus is describing in this passage. He is thinking, not +of some limp and helpless soul clinging to something outside itself, +but rather of a masculine, vigorous, rational life, which shoulders its +own responsibility and trudges along under it. Jesus says that if a +man wants to follow him, he must first of all take up his own burden +like a man. He sees, for instance, a young man to-day beset by his own +problems and difficulties,--his poverty, his temper, his sin, his +timidity, his enemies; and Jesus says to him: "That is your cross, your +own cross. Now, do not shirk it, or dodge it, or lie down on it, or +turn from it to my cross. First of all, take up your own; let it lie +on your shoulder; and then stand up under it like a man and come to me; +and as you thus come, not limply and feebly, but with the step--even +let it be the staggering step--of a man who is honestly bearing his own +load, you will find that your way opens into strength and peace. The +yoke you have to carry will grow easier for you to carry, and the +burden which you do not desire to shirk will be made light." + + + + +{58} + +XXII + +THE POOR IN SPIRIT + +_Matthew_ v. 3. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? First of all, he says, they +are the "poor in spirit." And who are the poor in spirit? It +sometimes seems as if Christians thought that to be poor in spirit one +must be poor-spirited--a limp and spiritless creature, without dash, or +vigor, or force. But the poor in spirit are not the poor-spirited. +They are simply the teachable, the receptive, the people who want help +and are conscious of need. They do not think they "know it all;" they +appreciate their own insufficiency. They are open-minded and +impressionable. Now Jesus says that the first approach to his +blessedness is in this teachable spirit. The hardest people for him to +reach were always the self-sufficient people. The Pharisees thought +they did not need anything, and so they could not get anything. As any +one thinks, then, of his own greatest blessings, the first of them must +be {59} this,--that somehow he has been made open-minded to the good. +It may be that the conceit has been, as we say, knocked out of him, and +that he has been "taken down." Well! it is better to be taken down +than to be still up or "uppish." It is better to have the +self-complacency knocked out of you than to have it left in. Humility, +as Henry Drummond once said, even when it happens through humiliation, +is a blessing. Not to the Pharisee with his "I am not as other men +are," but to the publican crying "God be merciful to me, a sinner," +comes the promise of the beatitude. The first condition of receiving +the gift of God is to be free from the curse of conceit. The +spiritually poor are the first to receive Christ's blessing. They have +at least made themselves accessible to the further blessings which +Jesus has to bestow. + + + + +{60} + +XXIII + +THE MOURNERS + +_Matthew_ v. 4. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? How strange it sounds when he +answers: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." +Blessed, that is to say, are not only the people who, as we say, are in +sorrow; but blessed are all the burdened people, the people who are +having a hard time, the people who are bearing their crosses, for they +are the ones who will learn the deeper comfort of the Gospel. It is +the same promise which is repeated later in another place: "Come unto +me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This does +not mean that mourning is blessed for its own sake, or that the only +way to be a Christian is to be sad. It simply calls attention to this +fact, that every life is sure to have some hardness, or burden, or +cross in it. If you have none, it simply shows that you have not +really begun to live. And Jesus says that the farther you go into {61} +these deep places of experience, the more you will get out of his +religion. There are some phases of life where it makes little +difference whether you have any religion or not. But let the water of +trouble go over your soul, and then there is just one support which +keeps you from going down. Religion, that is to say, is not a thing +for holidays and easy times. Its comfort is not discovered until you +come to a hard place. The more it is needed, the stronger it is. How +strange it is that the people who seem most conscious of their +blessings and sustained by a sense of gratitude are, as a rule, people +who have been called to mourn. It is not resignation only which they +have found; it is light. They have been comforted through their +sorrows. Their burden has been made easy and their yoke light. + + + + +{62} + +XXIV + +THE MEEK. + +_Matthew_ v. 5. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? Again he answers: "Blessed +are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." And who are the meek? +We think of a meek man as a limp and mild creature who has no capacity +to hurt or courage to help. But that is not what the Bible word means. +Meekness is not weakness. The Book of Numbers says that Moses was the +meekest man that ever lived; but one of the first illustrations of his +character was in slaying an Egyptian who insulted his people. The meek +man of the Bible is simply what we call the gentle-man--the man without +swagger or arrogance, not self-assertive or forthputting, but honorable +and considerate. This is the sense in which it has been said of Jesus +that he was the first of gentlemen. Now these people, the gracious and +generous,--not the self-important and ostentatious,--are, according to +Jesus, in the end to rule. {63} They are not to get what we call the +prizes of life, the social notoriety and position, but they are to have +the leadership of their time and its remembrance when they are gone. +Long after showy ambition has its little day and ceases to be, the +world will remember the magnanimous and self-effacing leader. He does +not have to grasp the prizes of earth; he, as Jesus says, "inherits the +earth." It is his by right. The meek, says the thirty-seventh Psalm, +shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in abundance of +peace. The meek escape the quarrelsomeness of ambition. They live in +a world of peace and good-will. And when we sing of peace on earth and +good-will to men, we are only repeating the beatitude of Jesus: +"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." + + + + +{64} + +XXV + +THE HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS + +_Matthew_ v. 6. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? "Blessed," he goes on, "are +they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be +filled." The New Testament repeatedly states this doctrine, which +sounds so strangely in our ears. It is the doctrine that a man gets +what he asks for--that his real hunger will be filled. We should say +that just the opposite of this was true--that life was a continued +striving to get things which one fails to get--a hunger which is doomed +to stay unsatisfied. But Jesus turns to his followers and says: "Ask, +and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find," and in the same +spirit turns even to the hypocrites and says again: "They also receive +their reward." Conduct, that is to say, fulfils its destiny. What you +sow, you reap. The blessing which is sufficiently desired is attained. +What you really ask for, you get. The only reason why this does not +{65} seem to be true is that we do not realize what the things are +which we are asking for and what must be the inevitable answer to our +demand. We ask, for instance, for money; and we expect an answer of +happiness. But we do not get happiness, we only get money, which is a +wholly different thing. We ask for popularity and reputation, and we +expect these gifts, when received, to last; but we have asked for +something whose very nature is that it does not last. It is like +asking for a soap-bubble and expecting to get a billiard-ball. We +cannot work for the temporary and get the permanent. If, then, it is +true that we are to get what we want, then the secret of happiness is +to want the best things and to want them very much. If we hunger and +thirst for base things we shall get them. Oh yes, we shall get them; +and get the unhappiness which comes of this awful discovery, that as we +have hungered so we are filled. And if we are really hungry for +righteousness, if we want to be good, as a thirsty man wants water, if, +as Jesus says of himself, our meat is to do the will of Him who sends +us, then that demand also will be supplied. "He satisfieth the longing +soul," {66} says the Psalmist, "and filleth the hungry soul"--not with +success, or money, or fame, but with that which the soul was hungry +for--"with goodness." The longing soul has sought the best blessing, +and it has received the best blessedness. + + + + +{67} + +XXVI + +THE MERCIFUL + +_Matthew_ v. 7. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? "Blessed are the merciful: +for they shall obtain mercy." This repeats in effect the later words +of Jesus: "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." The +merciless judgment passed on others recoils upon one's own nature and +makes it hard and mean and brutalized. The habit of charitable +judgment of others is a source of personal blessedness. It blooms out +into composure and hopefulness, into peace and faith. How wonderful +these great calm affirmations of Jesus are! They are directly in the +face of the most common views of life, and yet they are delivered as +simple axioms of experience, as matters of fact, self-evident +propositions of the reason. It is not a matter of barter of which +Jesus is speaking. He does not say: "If you treat another kindly he +will be kind to you. The merciful man will get mercy when he needs +it." That {68} would not be the truth. The best of men are often +judged most mercilessly. Jesus himself gives his life to acts of +mercy, and is pitilessly slain. This beatitude gives, not a promise to +pay, but a law of life. To forgive an injury is, according to this +law, a blessing to the forgiver himself. The quality of mercy blesses +him that gives as well as him that takes. The harsh judge of others +grows hard himself, while pity softens the pitier. Thus among the +happiest of people are those whose grudges and enmities have been +overcome by their own broader view of life. It is as though in the +midst of winter the warmer sun were already softening the frost. They +are happy, not because others are kinder to them, but because that +softer soil permits their own better life to germinate and grow. The +merciful has obtained mercy; the blesser has received the blessing. + + + + +{69} + +XXVII + +THE PURE IN HEART + +_Matthew_ v. 8. + +"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." That, I +suppose, is the highest and deepest proposition which ever fell from +human lips. Without the least argument or reasoning about it, as a +thing which is perfectly self-evident, Jesus announces that purity of +heart leads to the knowledge of God. Your character clarifies your +creed. A theologian who wants to be profound must be pure. +Consecration brings with it insight. The perfect knowledge of God is +to be attained only by the perfectly consecrated life. The human soul +is a mirror on which the light of God shines, and only the pure mirror +reflects the perfect image. What a word is this to drop into the midst +of the conflicting theologies and philosophies of the time, of the +disputes between the people who think they know all about God, and the +people who think they cannot know Him at all! Do you want to be {70} +sure that God is directing and supporting you in all your perplexing +experiences of life? You cannot see God in these things except through +a perfectly purified heart. Clarify the medium of vision, and truth +undiscerned before breaks on the observer's sight. A mile or two from +here skilful artisans make those great object-glasses with which the +mysteries of the stars are disclosed. The slightest speck or flaw +blurs the image, but with the perfect glass stars unseen by any eye +throughout the history of the world are to be in our days discovered. +It is a parable of the soul. Each film on the object-glass of +character obscures the heavenly vision, but to the prepared and +translucent life truth undiscernible by others breaks upon the reverent +gaze, and the beatific vision is revealed to the pure in heart. + + + + +{71} + +XXVIII + +THE TWO BAPTISMS + +_Luke_ iii. 16. + +THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. + +Among the persons who group themselves about Jesus, the most dramatic +and picturesque figure is certainly that of John the Baptist. There is +in him a most extraordinary combination of audacity and humility. He +is bold, denunciatory, confident; but at the same time he is +self-effacing and preparatory in his work. He never thinks of his +service as final; after him is to come a man who is preferred before +him. There is always the larger work than his to follow. There are in +him the most beautiful humility and the most absolute bravery, and this +makes perhaps the rarest combination of traits which a character can +show. It is all summed up in his doctrine of the two baptisms: the +baptism by water, which John is to bring, and the baptism by the Holy +Ghost and by fire, which is to be brought by Jesus. Water is, of +course, the symbol of cleansing, the washing away of {72} one's old +sins, an expulsive, negative work. Fire is the symbol of passion, +enthusiasm, flame. It is illuminating, kindling, the work of the Holy +Ghost. One of these baptisms prepares for the other. First a man must +be clean and then he may be passionate. First, the fire of his base +affections must be washed away and then the fire of a new enthusiasm +may be lighted. And only that second step makes one a Christian. It +is a great thing to have life cleansed, and its conceits and follies +washed away. But that is not safety. The cleansing is for the moment +only. It is like that house which was swept and garnished, but because +it was empty was invaded by tenants worse than the first. The only +salvation of the soul lies in the kindling of a new passion, the +lighting of the fire of a new intention, the expulsive power, as it has +been called, of a new affection. + +So it is in our associated life. We need, God knows, the baptism of +John, the purifying of conduct, the washing away of follies and sins; +but what we need much more is the fire of a moral enthusiasm to burn up +the refuse that lies in the malarious corners of our college life, and +light up the whole of it {73} with moral earnestness and passionate +desire for good. That is to pass from the discipleship of John to the +discipleship of Jesus, from the baptism by water to the baptism by +fire, from the spirit of the Advent season to the spirit of the +Christmas time. + + + + +{74} + +XXIX + +THE WISE MEN AND THE SHEPHERDS + +_Matthew_ ii. 1-11; _Luke_ ii. 8-10. + +One Gospel tells of one kind of people who saw a star in the East and +followed it; and another Gospel tells the same story of quite an +opposite kind of people. Matthew says that the wise men of the time +were the first to appreciate the coming of Christ. Luke says that it +was the plainest sort of people, the shepherds, who first greeted that +coming. There is the same variety of impression still. Many people +now write as if religion were for the magi only. They make of it a +mystery, a philosophy, an opinion, a doctrine, which only the scholars +of the time can appreciate, and which plain people can obey, but cannot +understand. Many people, on the other hand, think that religion is for +plain people only; good for shepherds, but outgrown by magi; a star +that invites the superstitious and ignorant to worship, but which +suggests to scholars only a new phenomenon for science to explore. + +{75} + +But the Christmas legend calls both, the wise and the humble, to +discipleship. Religion has both these aspects, and offers both these +invitations. Religion is not theology. There are many things which +are hidden from the magi, and are revealed to simple shepherds. But +religion, on the other hand, is not all for the simple. The man who +wrote that there were many things hidden from the wise and prudent, was +himself a scholar. It was like that dramatic day, when Wendell +Phillips arraigned the graduates of this college for indifference to +moral issues, while he who made the indictment was a graduate himself. +The central subject of the highest wisdom to-day is, as it always has +been, the relation of the mind of man to the universe of God. + +Thus both these types of followers are called. Never before was the +fundamental simplicity of religion so clear as it is now; and never +before was scholarship in religion so needed. Some of the secrets of +faith are open to any receptive heart, and some must be explored by the +trained and disciplined mind. The scholar and the peasant are both +called to this comprehensive service. The magi and the shepherd meet +at the cradle of the Christ. + + + + +{76} + +XXX + +THE SONG OF THE ANGELS + +_Luke_ ii. 8-14. + +We are beginning to feel already the sweep of life that hurries us all +along to the keeping of the Christmas season; our music already takes +on a Christmas tone, and we begin to hear the song of the angels, which +seemed to the Evangelists to give the human birth of Jesus a fit +accompaniment in the harmonies of heaven. + +This song of the angels, as we have been used to reading it, was a +threefold message; of glory to God, peace on earth, and good-will among +men; but the better scholarship of the Revised Version now reads in the +verse a twofold message. First, there is glory to God, and then there +is peace on earth to the men of good-will. Those, that is to say, who +have the good-will in themselves are the ones who will find peace on +earth. Their unselfishness brings them their personal happiness. They +give themselves in good-will, and so they obtain peace. That is the +true spirit {77} of the Christmas season. It is the good-will which +brings the peace. Over and over again in these months of feverish +scrambling for personal gain, men have sought for peace and have not +found it; and now, when they turn to this generous good-will, the peace +they sought comes of itself. Many a man in the past year has had his +misunderstandings or grudges or quarrels rob him of his own peace; but +now, as he puts away these differences as unfit for the season of +good-will, the peace arrives. That is the paradox of Christianity. He +who seeks peace does not find it. He who gives peace finds it +returning to him again. He who hoards his life loses it, and he who +speeds it finds it:-- + + "Not what we give, but what we share, + For the gift without the giver is bare; + Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,-- + Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." + +That is the sweet and lingering echo of the angels' song. + + + + +{78} + +XXXI + +THE SECRET OF HEARTS REVEALED + +_Luke_ ii. 30-35. + +The prophecy of the aged Simeon for the infant Christ was this,--that +through him the secrets of many hearts should be revealed. Jesus, that +is to say, was not only to read the secrets of others' hearts, but he +was to enable people to read their own hearts. They were to come into +self-recognition as they came to him. They were to be disclosed to +themselves. You know how that happens in some degree when you fall in +with other exceptional lives. You meet a person of purity or +self-control or force, and there waken in you kindred impulses, and you +become aware of your own capacity to be better than you are. The touch +of the heroic discovers to you something of heroism in yourself. The +contagion of nobleness finds a susceptibility for that contagion in +yourself. + +So it was that this disclosure of their hearts to themselves came to +the people who met with {79} Jesus Christ. One after another they come +up, as it were, before him, and he looks on them and reads them like an +open book; and they pass on, thinking not so much of what Jesus was, as +of the revelation of their own hearts to themselves. Nathanael comes, +and Jesus reads him, and he answers: "Whence knowest thou me?" Peter +comes, and Jesus beholds him and says: "Thou shalt be called Cephas, a +stone." Nicodemus, Pilate, the woman of Samaria, and the woman who was +a sinner, pass before him, and the secrets of their different hearts +are revealed to themselves. It is so now. If you want to know +yourself, get nearer to this personality, in whose presence that which +hid you from yourself falls away, and you know yourself as you are. +The most immediate effect of Christian discipleship is this,--not that +the mysteries of heaven are revealed, but that you yourself are +revealed to yourself. Your follies and weaknesses, and all the +insignificant efforts of your better self as well, come into +recognition, and you stand at once humbled and strengthened in the +presence of a soul which understands you, and believes in you, and +stirs you to do and to be what you have hitherto only dreamed. + + + + +{80} + +XXXII + +THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST + +These are the last words of most of the Epistles of the New Testament. +They are the last words of the New Testament itself. They are commonly +heard as the last words of Christian worship; the most familiar form of +Christian benediction. But what is the grace of Jesus Christ? Grace +is that which acts not for duty's sake, but for sheer love and +kindness. What is the grace of God? It is just this overflowing +benevolence. Who is the gracious man? It is he who gives beyond his +obligations, and seeks opportunities of thoughtful kindliness. What is +the grace of Christ? It is just this superadded and unexpected +generosity. + +So the life of duty and the life of grace stand contrasted with each +other. The duty-doer thinks of justice, honesty, the reputable way of +life. But grace goes beyond duty. Duty asks, What ought I to do? +Grace asks, What can I do? Where duty halts, grace begins. It touches +duty with beauty, and makes it fair instead of stern. Grace is not +looking {81} for great things to do, but for gracious ways to do little +things. In many spheres of life it is much if it can be said of you +that you do your duty. But think of a home of which all that you could +say was that its members did their duty. That would be as much as to +say that it was a just home, but a severe one; decorous, but unloving; +a home where there was fair dealing, but where there was little of the +grace of Jesus Christ. + +Thus it is that the grace of Jesus Christ sums up the finest beauty of +the Christian spirit, and offers the best benediction with which +Christians should desire to part. As we separate for a time from our +worship, I do not then ask that we may be led in the coming year to do +our duty, I ask for more. I pray for the grace of Jesus Christ; that +in our homes there may be more of considerateness, that in our college +there may be a natural and spontaneous self-forgetfulness, a free and +generous offering of uncalled-for kindness. Some of us are able to do +much for others, to give, to teach, to govern, to employ. There is a +way of doing this which doubles its effect. It is the way of grace. +Some of us must be for the most part receivers of instruction or {82} +kindness. There is a way of receiving kindness which is among the most +beautiful traits of life. It is the way of grace. No one of us, if he +be permitted to live on in this coming year, can escape this choice +between obligation and opportunity, between the way of life which is +discreet and prudent and the way of life which is simply beautiful. +When these inevitable issues come, then the prayer, which may lead us +to the higher choice, must be the prayer with which the Bible ends; the +benediction of the Christian spirit; even this,--that the grace of +Jesus Christ may be with us all. + + + + +{83} + +XXXIII + +THE EVERLASTING ARMS + +_Deuteronomy_ xxxiii. 27. + +"Underneath are the everlasting arms,"--that was the repeated burden of +the great men of Israel. They lived in the midst of national +calamities and distresses. They were defeated, puzzled, baffled. The +way looked dark. Then they fall back on the one great re-establishing +thought: after all, it is God's world. It is not going to ruin. +Changes which seemed tremendous are not fatal or final. Israel dwells +in safety, for God holds us in his arms. + +We need some such broad, deep confidence as we enter a new year. We +get involved in small issues and engrossed in personal problems, and +people sometimes seem so malicious, and things seem to be going so +wrong that it is as if we heard the noise of some approaching Niagara. +Then we fall back on the truth that after all it is not our world. We +can blight it or help it, but we do not {84} decide its issues. In the +midst of such a time of social distress, Mr. Lowell in one of his +lectures wrote: "I take great comfort in God. I think He is +considerably amused sometimes, but on the whole loves us and would not +let us get at the matchbox if He did not know that the frame of the +universe was fireproof." That is the modern statement of the +underlying faith and self-control and patience which come of confessing +that in this world it is not we alone who do it all. "Why so hot, +little man?" says Mr. Emerson. "I take great comfort in God," says Mr. +Lowell; and the Old Testament, with a much tenderer note repeats: +"Underneath are the everlasting arms." + + + + +{85} + +XXXIV + +THE COMFORT OF THE TRUTH + +_John_ xiv. 14, 16. + +Jesus says that he will send a Comforter, and that it will be the +spirit of the truth. Many people say just the opposite of this. If +you want comfort, they think that you must not have truth. Is not the +truth often an uncomforting and uncomfortable thing? Too much truth +seems dangerous. The spirit of the truth is a hard, cold spirit. +Should not a comforter shade and soften the truth? But Jesus answers +there is nothing so permanently comforting as the truth. Why, for +instance, is it that we judge people so severely? It is not as a rule +that we know the whole truth about them, but that we know only a +fragment of the truth. The more we know, the gentler grow our +judgments. Would it not be so if people who judge you should know all +your secret hopes and conflicts and dreams? Why is it again that +people are so despondent about their own times, their community, the +tendency of things? It is because {86} they have not entered deeply +enough into the truth of the times. The more they know, the more they +hope. And why is it that God is all-merciful? It is because He is +also all-wise. He knows all about us, our desires and our repentances, +and so in the midst of our wrong-doing He continues merciful. His Holy +Spirit bears in one hand comfort and in the other truth. How does a +student get peace of mind? He finds it when he gets hold of some +stable truth. It may not be a large truth, but it is a real truth, and +therefore it is a comfort. How does a man in his moral struggles get +comfort? He gets it not by swerving, or dodging, or compromising, but +by being true. The only permanent comfort is in the sense of fidelity. +You are like a sailor in the storm; it is dark about you, the wind +howls, the stars vanish. What gives you comfort? It is the knowledge +that one thing is true. Thank God, you have your compass, and the +tremulous little needle can be trusted. You bend over it with your +lantern in the dark and know where you are going, and that renews your +courage. You have the spirit of the truth, and it is your comforter. + + + + +{87} + +XXXV + +THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT + +_Ephesians_ vi. 14-17. + +In this passage the apostle is thinking of the Christian life as full +of conflict and warfare. It needs what he calls the good soldier of +Jesus Christ, and for the moment St. Paul is considering how such a +soldier should be armed for such a war. He is like some knight of the +Middle Ages, standing in his castle-yard and serving out to his vassals +the weapons they need for the battle which is near at hand. "Take all +your armor," he says. "This is no holiday affair, no dress parade. +You are to fight against principalities and powers. So take the whole +armor of God." And then he puts it into their hands. There is, +however, one curious thing about this armor. It has but one offensive +weapon. The soldier of Jesus Christ is given, to defend himself from +his enemies, the shield of faith, the tunic of truth, the helmet of +salvation; but to fight, to overcome, to disarm, he has but one +weapon,--the {88} sword of the spirit. Is it possible, then, that the +Spirit of God entering into a man can be to him a sword; that a man's +character has this aggressive quality; that a man fights just by what +he is? Yes, that seems to be the apostle's argument. Looking at all +the conflicts and collisions of life, its differences of opinion, its +causes to be won, he thinks that the best fighting weapon is the spirit +of a man's life. Behind all argument and persuasion the only absolute +argument, the final persuasion, is the simple witness of the spirit. +When a man wants to make a cause he believes in win, his aggressive +force lies not in what he says about that cause, but in what that cause +has made of him. He wins his victory without striking a blow when he +wields the sword of the Spirit. He comes like the soft, fresh morning +among us, and we simply open our windows and yield to it, greeting it +with joy. It is the air we want to breathe, and we accept it as our +own. + + + + +{89} + +XXXVI + +LIFE IS AN ARROW + +_John_ xiv. 6. + +When Jesus says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," he names +the three things which a man must have in order to lead a straight +life. Such a man must have first a way to go, and then a truth to +reach, and then life enough to get there. He needs first a direction, +and then an end, and then a force. Some lives have no path to go by, +and some no end to go to, and some no force to make them go. Now Jesus +says that the Christian life has all three. It has intention, the +decision which way to go; it has determination, the finding of a truth +to reach; it has power, the inner dynamic of the life of Christ. Life, +as has been lately said by one of our own preachers, is like an arrow. +It must have its course, it must have its mark, and it must have the +power to go. + + "Life is an arrow, therefore you must know + What mark to aim at, how to bend the bow, + Then draw it to its head, and let it go." [1] + + + +[1] Henry van Dyke, D. D., in the _Outlook_ for Feb. 23, 1895. + + + + +{90} + +XXXVII + +THE DECLINE OF ENTHUSIASM + +_Revelation_ ii. 1-7. + +I do not propose to consider the character or intention of this +mystical Book of Revelation. However it may be regarded, it is first +of all a series of messages written in the name of the risen Christ to +the churches of Asia, singling out each in turn, pointing out its +special defects, and exhorting it to its special mission; and there is +something so modern, or rather so universal about these messages to the +churches that in spite of their strange language and figures of speech +they often seem like messages to the churches of America to-day. First +the word comes to the chief church of the region, at Ephesus. It was a +great capital city, with much prosperity and splendor, and the church +there abounded in good works. The writer appreciates all this: "I know +thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil +men." It was a substantial, busy city church. What was lacking in the +church {91} of Ephesus? It had fallen away, says the message, from its +first enthusiasm. It had "lost its first love." The eagerness of its +first conversion had gone out of it. It had settled down into the ways +of an established church, with plenty of good works and good people, +but with the loss of that first spontaneous, passionate loyalty; and +unless it recovered this enthusiasm "its candlestick would be removed +out of its place," and its light would go out. + +How modern that sounds! How precisely it is like some large church in +some large city to-day, a respectable and respected and useful church, +a Sunday club, a self-satisfied circle; and how it explains that +mysterious way in which, in many such a large church, a sort of dry-rot +seems to set in, and even where the church seems to prosper it is +declining, and some day it dies! It has lost its first love, and its +candle first flickers and then goes out. + +Indeed, how true the same story is of many an individual inside or +outside the church, perfectly respectable and entirely respected, but +outgrowing his enthusiasms. He becomes, by degrees, first +self-repressed and unemotional, then a cynical dilettante. How you +wish he {92} would do something impulsive, impetuous, even foolish! +How you would like to detect him in an enthusiasm! His life has moved +on like the river Rhine, which has its boisterous Alpine youth, and +then runs more and more slowly, until in Holland we can hardly detect +whether it has any current. + + "It drags its slow length through the hot, dry land, + And dies away in the monotonous strand." + +That is the church of Ephesus, and that is the man from Ephesus, and +unless they repent and regain their power of enthusiasm their light +goes out. Ephesus lies there, a cluster of huts beside a heap of +ruins, and the future of the world is with the nations and churches and +people who view the world with fresh, unspoiled, appreciative hope. + + + + +{93} + +XXXVIII + +THE CROWN OF LIFE + +_Revelation_ ii. 8-10. + +The Church of Ephesus needed a rebuke; the Church at Smyrna needed an +encouragement. The first was a prosperous, busy church, without +spiritual vitality, and the prophecy was that its light should go out. +The second was a persecuted church, with much tribulation and poverty, +and the promise was that for its faithfulness it should have a crown of +life. And if the traveller, as he stands among the ruins of Ephesus, +cannot help thinking how its candle-stick has been removed, so he must +think of the reward of fidelity, as he stands among the busy docks and +bustling life of Smyrna. + +A crown of life! There is no discovery of experience more important in +a man's life than the discovery of its legitimate rewards. A man +undertakes to do the best he can with his powers and capacities, and +inquires some day for the natural reward of his fidelity. Shall he +have gratitude, or recognition, or praise? Any one of these things may +come {94} to him, but any one of them, or all of them, may elude him; +and all sooner or later show themselves to be accidents of his +experience, and not its natural and essential issue. Then he discovers +that there is but one legitimate reward of life, and that is increase +of life, more of power and capacity and vitality and effectiveness. +What is the reward of learning one's lessons? Marks, or praise, or +distinction, may come of this, or they may not. The legitimate reward +is simply the power to learn other lessons. The expenditure of force +has increased the supply of force; the use of capacity has developed +capacity. What is the reward of taking physical exercise? It is not +athletic prizes, or athletic glory; it is strength. You have sought +strength, and you get strength. The crown of athletic life is increase +of athletic vitality. What is the reward of keeping your temper? It +is the increased power of self-control. What is the reward of doing +your duty as well as you can? It is the ability to do your duty +better. Out of the duty faithfully done opens the way to meet the +larger duty. You have been faithful over a few things, and you become +the ruler over many things. + +{95} + +And what is the crown of the whole of life lived faithfully here? It +is not a crown of gold or gems in another life; it is simply more life; +a broader use of power, a healthier capacity, a larger usefulness. You +are faithful unto death, through the misapprehensions and imperfections +and absence of appreciation or gratitude in this preparatory world, and +then there is offered to you inevitably and legitimately the crown of a +larger, more serviceable, more effective life. + + + + +{96} + +XXXIX + +THE HIDDEN MANNA AND THE WHITE STONE + +_Revelation_ ii. 12-17. + +Both of these are Jewish symbols. One refers to that food which, as +Moses commanded, was kept in the sanctuary and eaten by the priest +alone; the other apparently refers to a sacred stone worn by the +priest, with an inscription on it known only to him. Both symbols mean +to teach that the Christian believer has an immediate and personal +intimacy with God. There is no sacerdotal intermediation for him. He +can go straight to the altar and take of the sacred bread. He wears on +his own breast the mark of God's communication. It is the doctrine of +the universal priesthood of believers; the highest promise to a +faithful church. But on this white stone, the message says, there is a +name written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. How +quickly that goes home to many a faithful life. Hidden from all that +can be read by {97} others is the writing which one bears upon his own +breast, legible only to himself and to his God. Think how hardly and +carelessly people try to judge one's life, to read its characteristics +of strength or weakness. Think how we all thus deal in hasty judgment, +stamping our neighbors as jovial or moody, generous or selfish, as kind +or stern, as sinner or saint; while all the time, deeper than any +interpretation of ours can reach, there is the central sanctuary of the +man's own soul, where is worn against his breast the real title which +to his own consciousness he bears, and which may quite contradict all +external judgments. What is written on that interior life? What is +that name you bear which no man knoweth save you;--that life of +yourself which is hidden with Christ in God? That is the most solemn +question which any man can ask himself as he bends to say his silent +prayer. + +Is it just your own name, the badge of selfishness; or is it some vow +of irresponsibility,--Am I my brother's keeper?--or is it just a sheer +blank white stone, marking a life without intention or character at +all? Or is there perhaps written there the pure {98} demand to be of +use?--"For their sakes I sanctify myself;"--or is there written on your +heart the name of God, or of his Christ, so that this interior maxim +reads: "I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me"? + + + + +{99} + +XL + +THE MORNING STAR + +_Revelation_ ii. 18-28. + +The morning star is the symbol of promise, the sign that the dawn is +not far away. Thyatira was a little place, with a weak church, with +small hopes and great discouragements, much troubled by the work of a +false prophetess, tempted by "the deep things of Satan," as the message +says, and yet to it the promise is committed, that it shall have +authority over the nations, and receive "the morning star." It was the +same great promise that had been already given to the early Christians: +"Fear not, little flock, for it is my Father's good pleasure to give +you the kingdom." It was the same amazing optimism which made Jesus +look about him, as he stood with a dozen humble followers, and say: +"Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, they are white already to my +harvest." + +There is certainly passing over the world in our day a great wave of +intellectual and {100} spiritual discouragement and despondency. What +with philosophical pessimism and social agitations and literary +decadence and political corruption and moral looseness, a great many +persons are beginning to feel that the end of the century is an end of +faith, and are not able to discern in the darkness of the time any +morning star. As one distinguished author has said: "This is not a +time of the eclipse of faith, but a time of the collapse of faith." It +was much the same in the times of Thyatira. There was the same luxury +and self-indulgence in the Roman world, the same social restlessness, +the same intellectual despondency. Now, who is it that can view these +perturbations of the world with a tranquil and rational hope? I +answer, that it is only he who views his own time in the light of the +eternal purposes of God. The religious man is bound to be an optimist, +not with the foolish optimism which blinks the facts of life; but with +the sober optimism which believes that-- + + "Step by step, since time began, + We see the steady gain of man." + +It may be dark as pitch in the world of speculative thought, but +religion discerns the {101} morning star. It believes in its own time. +It believes that somehow "good will be the final goal of ill." Even in +the perplexities and disasters of its own experience it is not +overwhelmed. It is cast down, but not destroyed. It is saved by hope. +It lifts its eyes and beholds through the clouds the gleam of the +morning star. + + + + +{102} + +XLI + +LIVING AS DEAD + +_Revelation_ iii. 1. + +Was there ever a message of sterner irony than this to the Church of +Sardis: "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead"! We may +suppose that it was a church of apparent prosperity, with all the +machinery of church life, its ritual, and officers, and committees, all +in working order; and yet, when one got at the heart of it, there was +no vitality. It was a dead church. It could show--as the passage +says--no works fulfilled before God. It was like a tree which seems +all vigorous, but which, when one thrusts into the heart of it, proves +to be pervaded by dry-rot. There are plenty of such churches +still,--churches which have a name that they are living, but are dead. +They are counted in the denominational year-book; they go through the +motions of life; but where is their quickening, communicating, +vitalizing power? What are they but mechanical, formal, institutional +things, and how sudden sometimes, like {103} the falling of a dead +tree, is the collapse of a dead church! + +There is the same story to tell of some people. They have a name that +they are living, but they are practically dead. For what is it, +according to the New Testament, which makes one live, and when is it +that one comes to die? "To be carnally minded," answers St. Paul, "is +death, and to be spiritually minded is life." "He that heareth my +sayings," answers Jesus, "hath passed from death into life." What a +wonderful word is that! It is not a promise that the true Christian +shall some day, when his body dies, pass into an eternal life. It is +an announcement that when one enters into the spirit of Christ he +passes, now, in this present world, from all that can be fairly called +death, into all that can be rationally called life. Under this New +Testament definition, then, a man may suppose himself to be alive and +healthy, when he is really sick, dying, dead. A man may perhaps, as he +says, see life, while he may be really seeing nothing but death. Or a +man may be, as we say, dying, and be, in the New Testament sense, full +of an abundant and transfiguring life. + +{104} + +And so it becomes an entirely practical question, which one may ask +himself any morning, "Am I alive to-day, or am I dead? Is it only that +I have the name of living, a sort of directory-existence, a page in the +college records, a place in the list of my class, while in fact there +is dry-rot in my soul? Or is there any movement of the life of God in +me, of quickening and refreshing life, of generous activity and +transmissive vitality? Then death is swallowed up in victory, and I am +partaking even in this present world of the life that does not die." + + + + +{105} + +XLII + +THE OPEN DOOR + +_Revelation_ iii. 8. + +A few years ago, at the first service of the college year, one of our +preachers took for his text this message to the church at Philadelphia: +"Behold, I have set before thee an open door;" and it has always seemed +to me to represent with precision the spirit of our worship here. We +have abandoned the principle of compulsion. We do not force young men +of twenty to come here and say their prayers. We simply set before +them an open door. The privilege of worship is permitted to them from +day to day, and religion stands among us, not as a part of college +discipline, but as the supreme privilege of a manly human soul. +Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Indeed, this +same text represents the spirit of our whole university life. What we +call the elective system is a method of invitation and persuasion. It +multiplies opportunities. It does not compel the allegiance of the +indifferent. He that is lazy, let him be lazy still. {106} The +university sets before the mind of youth its open door. + +And this, indeed, is what one asks of life. What should a free state +in this modern world guarantee to all its citizens? Not that equality +of condition for which many in our days plead, the dead level of +insured and effortless comfort, but equality of opportunity, a free and +fair chance for every man to be and to do his best. That land is best +governed where the door of opportunity stands wide open to the humblest +of its citizens, so that no man can shut it. + +And what is the relation of religion to the life of man, if it be not +of this same enlarging and emancipating kind? Here we are, all shut in +by our routine of business and study and preoccupation, and religion +simply opens the door outward from this narrowness of life into a +larger and a purer world. It is as if you were bending some evening +over your books in the exhausted air of your little room, and as if you +should rise from your task, and pass out into the night, and the open +door should deliver you from your weariness and your self-absorption, +as you stood in the serene companionship of the infinite heavens and +the myriad of stars. + + + + +{107} + +XLIII + +BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK + +_Revelation_ iii. 20. + +To the church at Philadelphia it was promised that the door should be +opened; but here was a church at Laodicea which had deliberately shut +its door on the higher life. It was a church that was neither cold nor +hot, a lukewarm, indifferent, spiritless people, and to such a people, +willfully barring out the revelations of God, comes the Christ in this +wonderful figure, standing at the door like a weary traveller, asking +to be let in. Such a picture just reverses the common view which one +is apt to take of the religious life. We commonly think of truth as +hiding itself within its closed door and of ourselves as trying to get +in to it. We speak of finding Christ, or proving God, or getting +religion, as if all these things were mysteries to be explored, hidden +behind doors which must be unlocked; as if, in the relation between man +and God, man did all the searching, and God was a hidden God. + +{108} + +But the fundamental fact of the religious life is this,--that the power +and love of God are seeking man; that before we love Him, He loves us; +that before we know Him, He knows us; that antecedent to our +recognition of Him must be our receptivity of Him. Coleridge said that +he believed in the Bible because it found him. It is for the same +reason that man believes in God. God finds him. It is not the sheep +which go looking for the shepherd, it is the shepherd who finds the +sheep, and when they hear his voice, they follow him. + +This is not contrary to nature. The same principle is to be noticed in +regard to all truth. Take, for instance, any scientific discovery of a +physical force, like that which we call the force of electricity. +There is nothing new about this wonderful power. It has always been +about us, playing through the sky, and inviting the mind of man. Then, +some day, a few men open their minds to the significance of this force, +and appreciate how it may be applied to the common uses of life. That +is what we call a discovery; it is the opening of the door of the mind; +and one of the most impressive things about science to-day is to {109} +consider how many other secrets of the universe are at this moment +knocking at our doors, and waiting to be let in; and to perceive how +senseless and unreceptive we must seem to an omniscient mind, when so +much truth, standing near us, is beaten back from our closed minds and +wills. It is the same with religious truth. Here are our lives, shut +in, limited, self-absorbed; and here are the messages of God, knocking +at our door; and between the two only one barrier, the barrier of our +own wills. Religious education is simply the opening of the door of +the heart. A Christian discipleship is simply that alertness and +receptivity which hears the knocking and welcomes the Spirit which +says: "If any man will but open the door, I will come in to him, and +sup with him, and he with me." + + + + +{110} + +XLIV + +HE THAT OVERCOMETH + +_Revelation_ xxi. 7. + +In each one of these letters to the churches there is repeated like a +refrain, a sort of _motif_ which announces the character of all,--this +final phrase: "He that overcometh." He is to receive the promise, he +is to inherit these things, he is to be the stone in the temple of God. +The reward and blessing are to be not for the shirks or runaways or +easy-going of the world, but for those who, taking life just as it is +with all its hardness, overcome it. It is the manly summons from the +soft theory of life to the principle which one may call that of +progress through overcoming resistance. + +A great many lives are spoiled by the soft theory of life. They expect +to get out of life a comfort which is not in it to give. They go about +looking, so to speak, for a "soft course" in the curriculum of life, +hoping to enroll in it and be free from trouble. They ask of their +religion that it shall make life easy and safe and clear. But the +trouble is {111} that the elective pamphlet of life does not announce a +single soft course. The people who try thus to live are simply +courting disaster and despair. Some day, perhaps in some tragic +moment, every man has to learn that life is not an easy thing, but that +it is at times fearfully and solemnly hard. Nothing is more plainly +written on the facts of life than this,--that life was meant to be +hard. Trouble and disaster, and the inevitable blows of experience, +are absolutely certain to teach this truth sooner or later, and the +sooner one learns it the better for his soul. And if life was not +meant to be easy, what was it meant for? It was meant to be overcome. +It stands before one like the friction of the world of nature, which is +always seeming to retard one's motion, but which makes really the only +condition under which we move at all. If there is to be any motion +through life, then it must be by overcoming its friction. If life was +meant just to stand still, then it might stagnate in a soft place; but +life was meant to move, and the only way of motion is by overcoming +friction, and the hardness of the world becomes the very condition of +spiritual progress. What we call the rub of life is {112} then what +makes living possible. What we call the burdens of life are the +discipline of its power. Not to him who meets no resistance, nor to +him whose shoulder is chafed by no cross, but to him who overcometh is +the promise given that God will be his God, and that he shall be God's +son. + + + + +{113} + +XLV + +THE PRODIGALITY OF PROVIDENCE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +I wish to dwell for several mornings on this parable of the sower, and +for to-day I call attention to the air of prodigality which pervades +this story. There seems to be an immense amount of seed wasted. Some +of it falls on the roadway; some of it is snatched away by the birds; +some of it is caught among the bushes. Yet the sower proceeds in no +niggardly fashion. He strides away across the field scattering the +seed broadcast, far beyond the border where he expects a crop, for he +knows that, though much shall be wasted, whatever seed may fall on good +ground will have miraculous increase. There may be prodigality of +waste, but there shall be prodigality of reproduction. If but one seed +in thirty takes root in good soil it may produce thirty or sixty or a +hundred fold. + +Such is the prodigality of Providence. And it comes close to many +experiences, and {114} interprets many perplexities of life. A man +goes his way through life scattering his efforts, distributing his +energy, doing his work as broadly and generously as he can, and some +day he notices what a very large proportion of all that he does comes +to nothing. Much of the soil where he sows seems hard and barren, and +he might as well be trying to raise wheat on a stone pavement. It +seems to be simply effort thrown away. But then some other day this +man makes this other discovery,--that some very slight effort or +endeavor or sacrifice or word has been infinitely more fruitful than he +could have dreamed. It was an insignificant thing which he did, but it +happened to fall at the right time in the right place, and he is almost +startled at its productiveness. + +And so he takes his lesson from the prodigality of Providence. Of +course it will happen that the great proportion of his efforts will +come to nothing. Of course he is to be misjudged and ineffective and +barren of results; but if only one word in a hundred falls in the right +soil, if only one effort in a hundred touches the right soul, the +hundred-fold fruitage brings with it ample {115} compensation. Thus he +strides cheerfully over the fields of life with the broad swing of an +unthrifty mind, expecting that much of his seed will fall among the +thorns and rocks, but with faith that the harvest--even if he is not +himself permitted to reap it--is yet made safe through his fidelity to +that prodigal Providence which miraculously multiplies the little he +can do, and makes it bear fruit, sometimes a hundredfold. + + + + +{116} + +XLVI + +THE HARD LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +Let us look still further at this parable of the sower. There are +described in it various kinds of lives on which God's influences fall, +and fall in vain. The first of these is the hard life,--hard, like a +road, so that the seed lies there as if fallen on a pavement, and gets +no root, and the pigeons come and pick it up. We usually think of the +hard life as if it were a life of sin. We speak of a hardened sinner, +of a hard man, as of persons whom good influences cannot penetrate. +But the hard soil of the parable is not that of sin. It is that of a +roadway, hardened simply by the passing to and fro. It is the +hardening effect of habit. Sometimes, the passage says, your life gets +so worn by the coming and going of your daily routine, that you become +impenetrable to the subtle suggestions of God, as if your life were +paved. Some people are thus hardened even to good. They lose capacity +for impressions. {117} Some people are even gospel-hardened. They +have heard so much talk about religion that it runs off the pavement of +their lives into the gutter. Thus the first demand of the sower is for +receptivity, for openness of mind, for responsiveness. Give God a +chance, says the parable. His seed gets no fair opportunity in a life +which is like a trafficking high-road. Keep the soil of life soft, its +sympathy tender, its imagination free, or else you lose the elementary +quality of receptiveness, and all the influences of God may be +scattered over you in vain. + + + + +{118} + +XLVII + +THE THIN LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +The first thing which hinders God's seed from taking root is, as we +have seen, hardness,--the life which is trodden down like a road; an +impenetrability of nature, which is not a trait of sinners only, but of +many privileged souls. The second sort of unfruitful soil is just the +opposite of this. It is not the unreceptive, but the impulsively +receptive life. It is not too hard, or too soft, but it is too thin. +It is a superficial soil which has no depth of earth, and so with joy +it receives the word; but the seed has no depth of earth and quickly +withers away. This sort of soil receives quickly and as quickly lets +go. It is like that unstable man of whom St. James writes and who is +like the wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. We see the +wave come flashing up out of the general level, catching the sunshine +as it leaps and crowned with its spray, and then we look again for it, +and where is {119} it? It has sunk again into the undistinguishable +level of the sea. + +Thus the parable turns to this instability and says: "It is bad to be +hard, but it is bad also to be thin." When tribulation or persecution +arises, something more than impulsiveness is needed to give a root to +life. How strongly and serenely Newman writes of this:-- + + "Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control + That o'er thee swell and throng; + They will condense within thy soul + And turn to purpose strong. + But he who lets his feelings run + In soft luxurious flow, + Faints when hard service must be done, + And shrinks at every blow." + + + + +{120} + +XLVIII + +THE CROWDED LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +In the parable of the sower the third kind of soil is one which is very +common in modern life. The first soil was too hard, and the second too +thin, and now the third is too full. It is overgrown and preoccupied. +Other things choke the seed. There is not room for the harvest. The +influences of God are simply crowded out. And of what is life thus so +full? Of two things, answers the parable. For some it is full of the +cares of this world, and for some it is full of the deceitfulness of +riches. Care is the weed that chokes plain people, and money is the +weed that chokes rich people. Sometimes a poor man wonders how a rich +man feels. Well, he feels about his money just as a poor man does +about his cares. His wealth preoccupies him. It is a great +responsibility. It takes a great deal of time. It crowds out many +things he would like to do. The poor man says that {121} money would +free him from care, but the rich man finds that money itself increases +care. Thus they are both choked by lack of leisure, one by the demands +of routine, and one by the burdens of responsibility. And this parable +says to both these types of life: "Keep room for God." It comes to the +scholar and says: "In this busy place reserve time to think and feel; +do not let your cares choke your soul." And then it goes out to the +great scrambling, money-getting world, and sees many a man hard at work +in what he calls his field, watching for things grow in his life, and +finding some day that he has been deceived in his crop. He thought it +was to come up grain and it turns out to be weeds. He sowed money and +expected a harvest of peace; and behold! he only reaps more money. +That is the deceitfulness of riches. + + + + +{122} + +XLIX + +THE PATIENCE OF NATURE + +_Matthew_ xiii.; _Mark_ iv. 27. + +The parable of the sower, which begins with its solemn warnings against +the hard life, the thin life, and the crowded life, ends with a note of +wholesome hope. Who are they who bring forth fruit in abundance? They +are, the parable says, not great and exceptional people. The +conditions are such as any life can fulfil. It is an honest and good +heart which hears the word and keeps it and is fruitful. Nothing but +sincerity and receptivity is demanded. A plain soil is productive +enough. God only needs a fair chance. He only asks that life shall +not be too hard, or too thin, or too crowded. + +This is a saying of great comfort to plain people. And yet, even for +these, one last demand is added,--the demand for patience. If fruit is +to be brought forth it must be "with patience." The autumn comes, but +not all at once. Jesus is always recalling to us the gradualness of +nature; first the blade, {123} then the ear, then the full corn. +Nothing in nature is in a hurry. It is not a movement of catastrophes, +it is a movement of evolution. And so the last word of the parable is +to the impetuous. What a hurry we are in for our results. We look +about us among the social agitations of the day and demand a panacea; +but God is not in a hurry. Delay, uncertainty, doubt, are a part of +Christian experience. It brings forth its fruit with patience. It is +like these lingering days of spring, when one can discern no intimation +of the quickening life; and yet one knows that through the brown +branches the sap is running, and slowly with hesitating advance the +world is moving to the miracle of the spring. + + + + +{124} + +L + +THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the talents takes up the side of life which is not +emphasized in the parable of the sower. In the story of the sower God +is doing the work and man is receptive of his influence. In the story +of the talents God is a master who leaves his servants to do his work, +and the parable is one of activity. These men are responsible agents. +Life is a trust. That is the natural teaching of the parable. All +these men are accountable; there has been given to them that which is +not their own, a trust from God, to be used in his service. But then +enters the extraordinary teaching of this parable as to the fact of +diversity. We talk of men as created free and equal. The cry of the +time is for equality of condition, for leveling down the rich, and +leveling up the poor; for paying the genius and the hod-carrier alike; +time for time, and man for man. But this parable stands for no such +definition of {125} equality. It recognizes diversity. Some have many +talents and some have few. To each is given "according to his several +ability." Diversity of condition is accepted as a natural feature of +human life, just as the hills and valleys make up the landscape. The +parable does not make of life a prairie. + +Where then, in this diversified life, is justice, the social justice +which men in our time so eagerly and so reasonably claim? There is no +justice, answers the parable, if the end of life is to be found in +getting the prizes of this world; for some are sure to get more than +others. The justice of this diversity is found only in its relation to +God. It is in the proportional responsibility of these holders of +different gifts. Of those to whom much has been entrusted much will be +required; of those who are slightly gifted the judgment will be +according to the gift. There is no absolute standard. The judgment is +proportional. One man may accomplish less than another, and yet be +more highly rewarded, for he may do the less conspicuous duty laid on +him better than the man with the larger trust does his. The parable +humbles the privileged and encourages the disheartened. {126} There is +no distinction of reward between the five-talent man and the two-talent +man. Each has done his own duty with his own gifts, and to each +precisely the same language of commendation is addressed. They have +had proportional responsibility, and they have identical reward. Both +have been faithful, and both enter into the same joy of their Lord. + + + + +{127} + +LI + +THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the talents adds to its doctrine of responsibility a +second teaching. It is its doctrine of interest; the return to be +looked for from investment in the spiritual life. The economists have +a law which they call the law of diminishing returns; but Jesus calls +attention to the converse of that principle,--the law of increasing and +accelerated returns. We see this principle on a great scale in the +world of money. Money has a self-propagating quality. It breeds +money. If you should ask a very rich man how he accumulated his +fortune he would tell you that the first savings involved great thrift +and wisdom or great good luck, but that after a while his wealth flowed +in upon him almost in spite of himself. He began to get money, and the +more he got the more easily he got more. Now this law, says Jesus, +which is so obvious in the business world, is true in a much deeper way +of the {128} spiritual life. Knowledge, power, faith, all grow by +investment. Use of the little makes it much; hoarding what you have +leaves it unfruitful. Do you want to know more? Well, put what you +now know to use. Invest it, and as you seem to spend it, it increases, +and you have found the way to the riches of wisdom. Do you want faith? +Well, use what faith you have. Try the working hypothesis of living by +faith. Our ancestors in New England trading used to send out on their +ships what they called a "venture." They took the risks of business. +There is a similar venture of faith, which says: "Lord, I believe, help +thou mine unbelief." He who sends the venture of his faith over the +ocean of his life may look for a rich cargo in return. To the faithful +in the few things the many things are revealed. That is the law of +increasing returns. + + + + +{129} + +LII + +THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF WEALTH + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +In the parable of the talents the use of money is of course only an +illustration of spiritual truth. Yet the story has its obvious lessons +about the uses of money itself. The five-talent man is the rich man; +and his way of service makes the Christian doctrine of wealth. And, +first of all, the parable evidently permits wealth to exist. It does +not prohibit accumulation. Jesus is not a social leveler. His words +are full of tenderness to the poor, but when a certain rich young man +came to him, Jesus loved him also; and when one man asked him, saying: +"Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me," +Jesus disclaimed the office of a social agitator, saying: "Man, who +made me a judge or a divider over you." Thus Jesus cannot be claimed +for any pet scheme which one may have of the distribution of wealth. +But let not the Christian {130} think that on this account the +Christian theory of wealth is less sweeping or radical than some modern +programme. The fact is that it asks more of a man, be he rich or poor, +than any modern agitator dares to propose. For it demands not a part +of one's possessions as the property of others, but the whole of them. +The Christian holds all his talents as a trust. There is in the +Christian belief no absolute ownership of property. A man has no +justification in saying: "May I not do what I will with mine own?" He +does not own his wealth; he owes it. The Christian principle does not +divide the rich from the poor; it divides the faithful use of whatever +one has from its unfaithful use. Wealth is a fund of five talents of +which one is the trusted agent; and to some five-talent men who have +been faithful in their grave responsibilities, the word of Jesus would +be given to-day as gladly as to any poor man: "Well done, faithful +servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." + + + + +{131} + +LIII + +THE AVERAGE MAN[1] + +_Matthew_ xxv. 22. + +In the parable of the talents the man that gets least general attention +is the man that stands in the middle. The five-talent man gets +distinction, and the one-talent man gets rebuke, but the two-talent +man, the man with ordinary gifts and ordinary returns from them, seems +to be an unexciting character. And yet this is the man of the +majority, the average man, the man most like ourselves,--not very bad, +and not very remarkable. As has been said: "God must have a special +fondness for average people, for He has made so many of them." Now, +the average man stands in special need of encouragement. One of the +most serious moments of life is when a man discovers that he is this +sort of man. It comes over most of us some day that we are not going +{132} to do anything extraordinary; that we are never likely to shine; +that we are simply people of the crowd. Nothing seems to take the +ambition and enthusiasm out of one more than this recognition of +oneself as an average man. Then comes Jesus with his word of courage. +"Your work," he says, "is just as significant, and rewarded with +precisely the same commendation as the work of the five-talent man." +The same "Well done" is spoken to both, and it may be that the more +heroic qualities are in the man with fewer gifts. To make great gifts +effective may be easy, but to take common gifts and make them yield +their best returns--that is what helps us all. There is not a more +inspiring sight in life than to see a man start with ordinary capacity +and to see his power grow out of his consecration. Looking back on +life from middle age, that would be the story one would tell of many a +success. One sees five-talent men fail and two-talent men take their +place; average gifts persistently used yielding rich returns, and the +promise of usefulness lying, not in abundant endowments of nature, but +in the using to the utmost what moderate capacities one has soberly +accepted as trusts from God. + + + +[1] Read also, on this and the following subject, the kindling sermons +of Phillips Brooks: "The Man with Two Talents," vol. iv. p. 192; "The +Man with One Talent," vol. i. p. 138. + + + + +{133} + +LIV + +THE OVERCOMING OF INSIGNIFICANCE + +_Matthew_ xxv. 24. + +The parable of the talents was specially given to teach Christians not +to be discouraged because Christ's kingdom was delayed. The one-talent +man is its real object, and the lessons of larger endowment are only by +the way. The one-talent man is not the bad man, for to him also God +gives a trust, but this man is given so little to do that he thinks it +not worth while to do anything. He is not the many-gifted five-talent +man, or even the average two-talent man, but he is simply the man of no +account. The risk of the five-talent man is his conceit; the risk of +the two-talent man is his envy; the risk of the one-talent man is his +hopelessness. Why should this insignificant bubble on the great stream +of life inflate itself with self-importance? Why should it not just +drift along with the current and be lost in the first rapids of the +stream? Now Christ's first appeal to this sense of insignificance is +{134} this,--that in the sight of God there is no such thing as an +insignificant life. Taken by itself, looked at in its own independent +personality, many a life is insignificant enough. But when we look at +life religiously and recognize that it is a trusted agent of God, then +the doctrine of the trust redeems it from insignificance. You have not +much, but what you have is essential to the whole. The +lighthouse-keeper on his rock sits in his solitude and watches his +little flame. Why does he not let it die away as other lights in the +distance die when the night comes on? Because it is not his light. He +is its keeper, not its owner. The great Power that watches that stormy +coast has set him there, and he must be true. The insignificant +service becomes full of dignity and importance when it is accepted as a +post of honor and trust. So the unimportant life gets its significance +not by its own dimensions, but by its place in God's great order, and +the most wretched moment of one's life must be when he discovers that +he has been trusted by God to do even a little part and has thrown his +chance away. The one-talent man thought his trust not worth investing, +and behold, the account of it was called for with the rest. He {135} +had in his hands a trust from God and had wasted it, and there was +nothing left for him but the weeping of regret and the gnashing of +teeth of indignant self-reproach. + + + + +{136} + +LV + +CAPACITY EXTIRPATED BY DISUSE + +_Matthew_ xxv. 29. + +The parable of the talents begins with its splendid encouragement to +those who have done their best, but it ends with a solemn warning and +with the stern announcement of a universal law. It is this,--that from +him who does not use his powers there is taken away even the power that +he has. The gift is lost by the lack of exercise, or as Horace +Bushnell stated the principle, the "capacity is extirpated by disuse." + +This principle has manifold illustrations. The hand or muscle disused +withers in power. The fishes of the Mammoth Cave, having no use for +their eyes, lose them. Mr. Darwin in an impressive passage of his +biography testifies that he began life with a taste for poetry and +music, but that by disuse this aesthetic taste grew atrophied so that +at last he did not care to read a poem or to hear a musical note. So +it is, says Jesus, with spiritual insight and power. Sometimes we see +a man of intellectual {137} gifts lose his grasp on spiritual +realities, and we ask: "How is it that so learned a man can find little +in these things? Does not he testify that these things are illusions?" +Not at all. It is simply that he has not kept his life trained on that +side. His capacity has been extirpated by disuse. He may know much of +science or language, but he has lost his ideals. We hear a young man +sometimes say that he has grown soft by lack of exercise. Well, if you +live a few years you will see people who have grown soft in soul, and +you will see some great blow of fate smite them and crush them because +their spiritual muscle is flabby and weak. Ignatius Loyola laid down +for his followers certain methods of prayer which he called "Spiritual +Exercises." So in one sense they were. They kept souls in training. +The exercise of the religious nature is the gymnastics of the soul, and +the disuse of the religious nature extirpates its capacity. That is +the solemn ending of the parable of the talents. From him who does not +use his power there is taken away even the power that he hath. + + + + +{138} + +LVI + +THE PARABLE OF THE VACUUM + +_Matthew_ xii. 38-45. + +It is easy to see where the emphasis of this parable lies. It is on +the impossible emptiness of this man's house. A man casts out the +devil of his life and turns the key on his empty soul and feels safe. +But he cannot thus find safety. That is not the way to deal with evil +spirits. Back they come, crowding into his life through the windows if +not through the doors, and the last state of that man is worse than the +first. If the parable had been told in modern times it might have been +called the parable of the vacuum. A man's life is a space which +refuses to be empty. If it is not tenanted by good the evil knocks and +enters it. There is no such thing as an unoccupied life. Nature +abhors a vacuum. + +Here is one of the most common mistakes of human experience. A man +often thinks that the less occupied his life is the safer it is. He +casts out his passions, he denies his {139} desires, he abandons his +ambitions, and so seeks safety. But his life is attacked by new +perils. The lusts and conceits of life cannot be barred out of life; +they must be crowded out. The old passion must be supplanted by a new +and better one. The very same qualities which go to make a great +sinner are needed to make a true saint. A man's soul is not safe when +the vigor and force are taken out of it. It is safe only when the same +passion which once threatened ruin is converted to generous service; +and the same physical life that seemed an enemy of the soul has become +the instrument of the soul. The saved life is not the empty life, but +the full life. Jesus comes not to destroy men's natures, but to fill +their capacities full of better aims. The only way to overcome evil is +to have the life preoccupied by good. + + + + +{140} + +LVII + +CHRISTIANITY AND BUSINESS + +_Luke_ xvi. 1-12. + +This is a difficult parable. There is a quality of daring about it +which at first sight perplexes many people. It is the story of a +steward who cheats his master, and of debtors who are in collusion with +the fraud, and of a master praising his servant even while he punishes +him, as though he said: "Well, at least you are a shrewd and clever +fellow." It uses, that is to say, the bad people to teach a lesson to +the good, and one might fancy that it praises the bad people at the +expense of the good. But this is not its intention. It simply goes +its way into the midst of a group of people who are cheating and +defrauding each other and says: "Even such people as these have +something to teach to the children of light." + +I once heard of a father whose son was sentenced to the Concord +Reformatory for burglary. The father stood by the bars of the cell and +heard the boy's story, and then {141} with tears in his eyes he turned +to the jailer and said: "It is a terrible sorrow to have one's boy thus +disgraced, but"--and his face brightened a little--"after all he was +monstrous plucky." So Jesus, out of the heart of this petty group of +persons snatches a lesson for Christians. It is this: "Why should not +the children of light be as sagacious as these rascals were? Why +should pious people be so stupid?" Jesus looks on to the needs that +must occur in his religion for sagacity, prudence, discretion, and the +perils that will come to it from sentimentalism, mysticism, silliness, +and he asks: "Why is it that the children of this world are so much +shrewder than the children of light?" + +How closely his question comes to the needs of our own time! Why is it +that in our moral agitations and reforms the bad people seem so much +cleverer than the good ones; that political self-seeking gets the +better of unselfish statesmanship; that the liquor dealers defeat the +temperance people; that competition in business is so often cleverer +than coöperation in business? What does Christianity need to-day so +much as wisdom? It has soft-heartedness, but it lacks {142} +hard-headedness. It has sweetness, but it lacks light. It has +sentiment, but it needs sense. How often a man of affairs is tempted +to feel a certain contempt for the Church of Christ, when he turns from +the intensely real issues of his week-day world to the abstractness and +unreality of religious questions! How fictitious, how unbusiness-like, +how preposterous in the sight of God is this internecine sectarianism +and impotent sentimentalism where there might be the triumphant march +of one army under one flag! Let us learn the lesson which even the +grasping, unscrupulous world has to teach,--the lesson of an absorbed +and disciplined mind giving its entire sagacity to the chief business +of life. + + + + +{143} + +LVIII + +MAKING FRIENDS OF MAMMON + +_Luke_ xvi. 1-10. + +Mammon means money, and the purpose of this parable is to teach +Christians their relations to that world of which Mammon is the +centre,--the world of business interests and cares. Jesus says that +this world is neither very good nor very bad. It is simply +unrighteous. It has no specific moral quality about it. He says +further that you cannot serve this world of Mammon and serve God also. +You must choose. What then can you do in your relation to Mammon? You +can do one of three things. You may, first, make an enemy of Mammon; +or secondly, make a master of Mammon, or thirdly, make a friend of +Mammon. Many people in Christian history have made an enemy of Mammon. +They have regarded the world of business as a godless world which +should be shunned. They have run away from it to the ascetic, +unworldly life. That is the spirit of the whole monastic retreat from +the battle of {144} practical life,--a reaction full of the beauty of +self-denial, but still a retreat. The battle of life has to go on, and +the best troops have run away. On the other hand, a great many persons +have made a master of Mammon. They are simply the slaves of money. +That is the vulgar materialism of the modern world. But Jesus says +that neither of these attitudes towards Mammon is the Christian +relation. The Christian is to make a friend of Mammon; to welcome it, +and to use it, to discover the good in it and learn its lessons; to +mould it into the higher uses of life. Here is a potter working in his +clay. It is a coarse material which he uses and his hands grow soiled +as he works; but it is not for him to reject it because it is not +clean, but for him to work out through it the shapes of beauty which +are possible within the limits of the clay. Just such a material is +the modern world. It is not very clean and not very beautiful; but the +problem of life is to mould out of its uncleanness the shapes of beauty +which it contains. To run away from life--that is easy enough; to +yield to its evil--that is still easier; but to be in the world and to +mould it--that is the {145} real problem of the Christian life. And +here is the real test of Christian character. The saints of the past +have been for the most part men who fled from the world, but the saint +of to-day is the man who can use the world. He is the man of business +who amid looseness of standards keeps himself clean. He is the youth +in college who without the least retreat from its influences moulds +them to good. He is not the runaway from the world of Mammon, nor yet +its slave; he makes a friend of Mammon for the service of God. + + + + +{146} + +LIX + +COMING TO ONE'S SELF + +_Luke_ xv. 17. + +When he came to himself he said: "I will arise and go to my father." +This is one of those gospel sentences which contains within itself a +whole system of theology, a doctrine of man and of God and of the +relation of the one to the other. He came to himself. It was not then +himself that had gone away into a far country. It was an unreal, +fictitious self. He had been insane, beside himself, and now, as his +better life starts up in him, he comes to himself. As his father said +of him, he had been dead and was alive again. The renewal of the good +self in him was the resurrection of his true personality. + +How deep that goes into one's doctrine of human nature! Never believe +that the sinning self is the true self. Your real personality is the +potential good in you. The moment that good springs into life you have +a right to say: "Now I know what I was {147} made for. I have come to +life. I have discovered myself." And then there is the religious +aspect of this same self-discovery. No sooner does this boy come to +himself than he says, "I will arise and go to my father." The +religious need follows at once from the self-awakening. Nay, was not +the religious need the source of the self-awakening? What was it that +brought him to himself but just the homesickness of the child for his +father's house? His self-discovery was but the answer of his soul to +the continuous love of God. Before he ever came to himself the father +was waiting for him. Antecedent to the ethical return was the +religious quickening. That is the relation of religion to conduct. +You make your resolutions, but it is God that prompts them. Your +self-discovery is the drawing of the Father. Your true self is his +son. How natural it all is,--an infinite law of love at the heart of +the universe--that is the centre of theology; a world that permits +moral alienation through the free will of man,--that is the problem of +philosophy; he came to himself,--that is the heart of ethics; I will go +to my Father,--that is the soul of religion. + + + + +{148} + +LX + +POPULARITY + +_Luke_ xix. 37-43; _Matthew_ xxi. 17-23. + +(PASSION WEEK--MONDAY) + +The ministry of Jesus is as a whole not easy to arrange in any fixed +chronology. The order of events seems often to vary in the different +gospels, and sometimes these unstudied narratives seem in positive +conflict. But as the story draws to its close the paths of narrative +begin to converge, and as we approach the last days and enter on the +last week the incidents of each day become perfectly distinct, and one +can trace the life of Jesus as it moves on from his triumph of Palm +Sunday to his tragedy of the cross. As we enter then to-day on the +anniversary of the last week of the life of Jesus, the week before +Easter Sunday, let us glance at some of the hurrying events. And for +today consider the contrast which presents itself between the entrance +of Jesus at Jerusalem on Sunday morning, and his return to the city by +the same road on this Monday {149} morning of his last week. Yesterday +he came over the brow of the Mount of Olives, surrounded by an +enthusiastic throng, the centre of their popularity. To-day he comes +along the same road, unattended and alone, the crowd slinking away from +him, his popularity gone. And how does he bear himself through these +shillings of opinion? He simply does not manifest any consciousness of +change. He is as undisturbed by neglect as he was yesterday by +success. On Sunday, while the people were spreading their branches +beneath his feet, he looked across the valley to the city and wept as +he looked; and to-day, coming with no popular applause, he enters +straight into the city and asserts to its leaders his supreme +authority. In the midst of popularity he seems saddened, and in the +midst of neglect he seems stirred to a defiant boldness. In short, he +is unscathed alike by what seems to be success and what seems to be +failure. He goes his way through it all with his eye on that great end +which gives him peace amid the throng, and courage amid the solitude. + +That is the only way in which one can maintain himself among the +shifting currents {150} of popularity. It comes and goes like a tide. +The man who tries to lean on it is simply swept by the rising tide into +self-conceit, and then stranded by the ebb of that same tide on the +flats of despair. Popularity is as fickle as the April winds, and one +can trust it as little as he dare trust the New England climate. It is +only he who can be wholly self-controlled amid the triumphs of his Palm +Sunday who can move on with equal self-control to the bearing of the +cross with which that same week may close. + + + + +{151} + +LXI + +TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY + +_Luke_ xx. 19-38. + +(PASSION WEEK--TUESDAY) + +The Sunday of the last week of Jesus was all triumph, the Monday was +all neglect, the Tuesday was all controversy. He returns once more +from Bethany to the city, and he finds the opposition at its height. +At once he is set upon by two kinds of people and asked two kinds of +questions as to his mission and aim. One question was political, or as +we now are saying sociological. What did he think about taxation? +What was his attitude toward the government? Was he encouraging social +revolt? Was he an anarchist or a socialist? The other question was +theological. What did he think about the future life? How would +marriage be arranged in heaven? Was his theology orthodox? All this +must have seemed to Jesus malicious enough, but I think that the +deepest impression he had of such questions {152} must have been of +their stupidity. How was it possible that after months of public +teaching any one could suppose that such problems were in the line of +his intention. Here he was, trying to bring spiritual life among his +people,--the life of God to the souls of men,--and here were people +still trying to find in him a political schemer or a metaphysical +theologian. + +Yet there are questions of much this nature still being asked of Jesus. +Some honest persons are still insisting that Christ's religion is a +system of theology, and some are trying to make of it a course in +social science, and neither of them seem to notice that the last day of +general teaching which was permitted to him on earth was largely +devoted to demonstrating that he was neither a social agitator nor a +theological professor. Christianity is not a scheme or arrangement, +social or theological, like a railway which men might build either to +accelerate the business of life or to take one straight to heaven. +Christianity provides that which all such mechanism needs. It is a +power, like that electric force which makes the equipment of a railway +move. A church is a power-house for the {153} development and the +transmission of the power that makes things go. Cut off the power, and +the theological creeds and social programmes of the day stand there +paralyzed or dead. Communicate to them the dynamic of the Christian +life, and the power goes singing over all the wires of life and sets +its mechanism in motion, as though it sang upon its way: "I am come +that these may have my life, and may have it abundantly." + + + + +{154} + +LXII + +AN UNRECORDED DAY + +(PASSION WEEK--WEDNESDAY) + +We have traced from day to day the life of Jesus through the earlier +days of its last week, its triumph of Sunday, its solitude of Monday, +its controversies of Tuesday. On each of these days Jesus has come +over the hill from Bethany into the city, and has returned to the +village at night. And now we come to the last day before the Passover +and the betrayal; the last chance to meet his enemies and to enforce +his cause. What then does Jesus do on this last Wednesday of his life? +So far as we know, he does nothing at all. It is a day without record. +There is no New Testament passage from which I can read about it. He +appears to have stayed at Bethany, perhaps with his friends, perhaps +for a part of the day alone. His work was done, and he used this last +day for quiet withdrawal. + +What self-control and reserve are here! How would one of us have been +inclined to conduct himself, if he found himself with just {155} one +more day for active service? "One more day," he would have said; "then +fill it with the best works and the best words; let me stamp my message +on my time; let me fulfil the work which was given me to do." But +Jesus has no such lust of finishing. He simply commits his spirit to +his Father, and awaits the trial and the cross. And perhaps on that +unrecorded day his real agony was met, and his real cross borne. +Perhaps as he went up on that hillside, which still overlooks the +little village of Bethany, and looked at his past and at his future, +the real spiritual conquest was attained; for he comes back again to +Jerusalem on Thursday morning, not with the demeanor of a martyr but +with the air of a conqueror; and when Pilate asks him if he is a king +he answers him: "Thou hast said it." + +So it is with many a life. It has its great days,--its Palm Sundays of +triumphs, its Good Fridays of cross-bearing, and these seem the epochs +of its experience; but when one searches for the sources of its +strength, they lie--do they not?--in some unrecorded day, as the +sources of an abundant river lie hidden in some nook among the hills. + + + + +{156} + +LXIII + +THE ANSWER TO PRAYER + +_Luke_ xxii. 39-48. + +(PASSION WEEK--THURSDAY) + +On Thursday morning of his last week Jesus sends two of his friends +before him into Jerusalem to prepare the Passover meal, while he does +not himself enter the city until the afternoon. There he meets his +friends, and after the supper he takes the bread and wine and with +entire naturalness asks them, as they eat and drink, to remember him. +Then he talks with them and prays with them, and they go out again on +the road toward Bethany; and coming to a little garden at the foot of +the hill called the Mount of Olives he bids his companions wait while +he goes, as his custom was, to pray. + +We hear much discussion about prayer and its possibilities,--what we +can pray for and what God can do in return, and what is the true answer +to prayer. But what a silence comes over all such questionings when +one notices that this prayer of Jesus uttered thus {157} in this most +solemn hour was not, in the sense of these discussions, answered by his +God. It was the moment of the supreme agony of Christ. The falseness +of friends, the blindness of his people, the malice of their +leaders,--all these things seem more than he can bear. "Let this cup +pass from me," he prays, and, behold, his prayer is not accepted, and +what he asks is denied, and the cup is to be drunk. And yet in a far +deeper sense his, prayer is answered. "Thy will be done," he +prays,--not in spite of me, or over me, but through me. Make me, my +Father, the instrument of thy will; and so praying he rises with +absolute composure and kingly authority, and goes out with his prayer +answered to do that will. + +What should we pray for? Why, we should pray for what we most deeply +want. There is no sincerity in praying for things which are fictitious +or abstract or mere theological blessings. Open to God the realities +of your heart and seek the blessings which you sincerely desire. But +in all prayers desire most to know the will of God toward you, and to +do it. Prayer is not offered to deflect God's will to yours, but to +adjust your will to His. When a ship's captain is setting out on a +{158} voyage he first of all adjusts his compasses, corrects their +divergence, and counteracts the influences which draw the needle from +the pole. Well, that is prayer. It is the adjustment of the compass +of the soul, it is its restoration from deflection, it is the pointing +of it to the will of God. And the soul which thus sails forth into the +sea of life finds itself--not indeed freed from all storms of the +spirit, but at least sure of its direction through them all. + + + + +{159} + +LXIV + +AN IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY + +_John_ xviii. 28-38. + +(PASSION DAY--FRIDAY) + +The story of Friday in this last week of Jesus begins with this meeting +with the Roman governor, and certainly few persons in history would be +more surprised than Pilate at the judgment of the world concerning him. +If Pilate felt sure of anything it was that he did not commit himself +in the case of Jesus. He undertook to be absolutely neutral. See how +nicely he poises his judgment. On the one hand he says: "I find no +fault in him," and then on the other hand he says: "Take him away and +crucify him;" First he washes his hands to show that he is innocent of +the blood of this just person, and then he delivers Jesus to the Jews +to take him away. It was a fine balancing of a judicial mind, and I +suppose he withdrew from the judgment hall saying to himself: "Whatever +may happen in this case, at least I am not responsible." But what does +history think {160} of this judicial Pilate? It holds him to be a +responsible agent in the death of Jesus. He was attempting a +neutrality which was impossible. The great wind was blowing across the +threshing floor of the nation, and the people were separated into two +distinct heaps, and must be counted forever as chaff or as wheat. He +that was not with Christ was against him, and Pilate's place, even in +spite of himself, was determined as among those who brought Jesus to +his cross that afternoon. + +I was once talking with a cultivated gentleman who volunteered to tell +me his attitude toward religion. He wished me to understand that he +was in sympathy with the purposes and the administration of worship. +He desired that it should prevail. He welcomed its usefulness in the +university. But as for himself it appeared better that he should hold +a position of neutrality. His responsibility seemed to him better met +by standing neither for religion nor against it, but in a perfectly +judicial frame of mind. He did not take account, however, of the fact +that this neutrality was impossible; that it was just what Pilate +attempted, and just wherein he failed. If he {161} was not to be +counted among those who would by their presence encourage worship, then +he must be counted among those who by their absence hinder its effect. +On one side or other in these great issues of life every man's weight +is to be thrown, and the Pilates of to-day--as of that earlier time--in +their impossible neutrality are often the most insidious, although most +unconscious opponents of a generous cause. + +And so to-day on this most solemn anniversary of religious history, +while it is, as the passage says of this interview with Pilate, "yet +early," let us set before ourselves, the issue just as it is now and +just as it was then. This morning demands of any honest-minded man an +answer to the question: "On which side do I propose to stand?" It is +not a demand for absoluteness of conviction or unwavering loyalty, but +it is a summons to recognize that Jesus Christ died on this day largely +at the hands of intellectual dilettanteism and indifferentism,--the +peculiar and besetting sin of the cultivated and academic life. On +which side, then, do I propose to stand; with the cultivated neutral +and his skillful {162} questioning: What is truth? or with the prisoner +who in this early morning says: "Every one who is of the truth heareth +my voice;" with Pilate in his neutrality or with Jesus on his cross? + + + + +{163} + +LXV + +THE FINISHED LIFE + +_John_ xix. 30. + +(PASSION WEEK--SATURDAY) + +The last word of Jesus as he gives up his spirit is: "It is finished." +But was it what could be called a finished life? Was it not, on the +contrary, a terribly unfinished life, prematurely cut short, without +any visible effect of his work, and with everything left to live for? +Surely, if some sympathetic friend of Jesus had been telling of his +death, one of the first things he would be tempted to say would be +this: "What a fearful pity it was that he died so soon! What a loss it +was to us all that he left his life unfinished. Think what might have +happened if he could only have lived to sixty and had had thirty years +for his ministry instead of three!" And yet, as Jesus said, it was a +finished life; for completeness in life is not a thing of quantity, but +of quality. What seems to be a fragment may be in reality the most +perfect thing on earth. You stand in {164} some museum before a Greek +statue, imperfect, mutilated, a fragment of what it was meant to be. +And yet, as you look at it, you say: "Here is perfect art. It is +absolutely right; the ideal which modern art may imitate, but which it +never hopes to attain." Or, what again shall we say of those young men +of our civil war, dying at twenty-five at the head of their troops, +pouring out all the promise of their life in one splendid instant? Did +they then die prematurely? Was not their life a finished life? What +more could they ever have done with it? Why do we write their names on +our monuments so that our young men may read of these heroes, except +that they may say to us that life may be completed, if one will, even +at twenty? All of life that is worth living is sometimes offered to a +man not in a lifetime, but in a day. + +And that is what any man must set before him as the test and the plan +of his own life. You cannot say to yourself: "I will live until I am +seventy, I will accomplish certain things, and will attain a certain +position;" for the greatest and oldest of men when they look back on +their lives see in them only a fragment of what they once dreamed that +they {165} might do or be. But you can design your life, not according +to quantitative completeness, but according to qualitative +completeness. It may be long or short, but in either case it may be of +the right stuff. It may be carved out of pure marble with an artist's +hand, and then, whether the whole of it remains to be a thing of beauty +or whether it is broken off, like a fragment of its full design, it is +a finished life. You give back your life to God who gave it, perhaps +in ripe old age, perhaps, as your Master did, at thirty-three, and you +say: "I have accomplished, not what I should like to have done, but +what Thou hast given me to do. I have done my best. It is finished. +Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." + + + + +{166} + +LXVI + +ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION + +_Philippians_ iii. 11. + +(MONDAY AFTER EASTER) + +This is certainly a very extraordinary saying of St. Paul--that he +hopes to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. We are so apt to +think of the resurrection as a remote truth, to be realized in some +distant future, when some day we shall die and live again, that the +very idea of attaining to such a resurrection now is not easy to grasp. +But here we have a resurrection which can be attained any day. "I have +not already attained," says St. Paul, "but I press on." It is +possible, that is to say, for a man to-day, who seems perfectly +healthy, to be dying or dead, and for a man to rise from the dead +to-day and attain to the resurrection. + +And thus the fundamental question of the Easter season is not: "Do I +believe that people when they die shall rise again from the dead?" but +it is "Have I risen from the dead {167} myself?" "Am I alive to-day, +with any touch of the eternal life?" Mr. Ruskin describes a grim +Scythian custom where, when the king died, he was set on his throne at +the head of his table, and his vassals, instead of mourning for him, +bowed before his corpse and feasted in his presence. That same ghastly +scene is sometimes repeated now, and young men think they are sitting +at a feast, when they are really sitting at a funeral, and believe +themselves to be, as they say, "seeing life," when they are in reality +looking upon the death of all that is true and fair. And on the other +hand the most beautiful thing which is permitted for any one to see is +the resurrection of a human soul from the dead, its deliverance from +shame and sin, its passing from death into life. As the father of the +prodigal said of his boy, he was dead and is alive again, and in that +coming to his true self he attains, as surely as he ever can in any +future world, unto the resurrection from the dead. + + + + +{168} + +LXVII + +SIMON OF CYRENE + +_Luke_ xxiii. 20-26. + +This Simon, the Cyrenian, was just a plain man, coming into town on his +own business, and meeting at the gate this turbulent group surging out +toward the place of crucifixion, with the malefactor in their midst. +Suddenly Simon finds himself turned about in his own journey, swept +back by the crowd with the cross of another man on his shoulder, and +the humiliation forced upon him which there seemed no reason for him to +bear. + +How often that happens in many a life! You are going your own way, +carrying your own load, and suddenly you are called on to take up some +one else's burden,--a strange cross, a home responsibility, a business +duty; and you find yourself turned square round in the road you meant +to go. Your plan of life is interrupted by no fault of your own, and +you are summoned to bear an undeserved and unexpected cross. + +{169} + +And yet, how certain it is that this man of Cyrene came to look back on +this interruption of his journey as the one thing he would not have +missed? When others were remembering the wonderful career of Jesus, +how often he must have said: "Yes, but I once had the unapproached +privilege of bearing his cross for him. On one golden morning of my +life I was permitted to share his suffering. I was called from all my +own hopes and plans to take up this burden of another, and I did not +let it drop. It seemed a grievous burden, but it has become my +crowning joy. I did not know then, but I know now, that my day of +humiliation was my day of highest blessedness. + + "I think of the Cyrenian + Who crossed the city-gate, + When forth the stream was pouring + That bore thy cruel fate. + + * * * * + + "I ponder what within him + The thoughts that woke that day + As his unchosen burden + He bore that unsought way. + + * * * * + + "Yet, tempted he as we are! + O Lord, was thy cross mine? + Am I, like Simon, bearing + A burden that is thine? + +{170} + + "Thou must have looked on Simon; + Turn, Lord, and look on me + Till I shall see and follow + And bear thy cross for Thee." [1] + + + +[1] Harriet Ware Hall, _A Book for Friends_, p. 90. (Privately +printed.) 1888. + + + + +{171} + +LXVIII + +POWER AND TEMPTATION + +_Matthew_ iv. 1-11. + +All these temptations of Jesus came to him through the very sense of +power of which he could not but be aware. Here was this great +consciousness of capacity in him to do wonders, to display himself, to +get glory. How should he use his gifts? Should it be for himself, for +honor, for praise, or should it be for service, for sacrifice, for God? +The devil's temptation was that Jesus should take the gifts of which he +was conscious and make them serve his own ends of ambition or success. +The first great decision in the work of Jesus Christ was the decision +of the end to which his powers should be dedicated; the use to which +his powers should be put. + +The same fundamental decision comes to every young man in his own +degree. Here are your gifts and capacities, great or small. What are +you to do with them? Are they for glory or for use? Are they for +ambition {172} or for service? The sooner that decision is made the +better. Some people have never quite done with that temptation of the +devil. They go on trying to direct their gifts to the end of +reputation, or wealth, or dominion; and they attain that end only to +find that it is no end, and that their lives, which should have grown +broader and richer, have grown shrunken, and meagre, and unsatisfied. +Such a life is like a fish swimming into the labyrinth of a weir. It +follows along the line of its vocation until the liberty to return +grows less and less; and, at last, in the very element where it seems +most free, it is in fact a helpless captive. The man's occupation has +become his prison. He is the slave of his own powers. The devil has +withered that life with his touch. + +And then, on the other hand, you turn to lives which have given +themselves to the life of service, and what do you see? You see their +capacity enlarged through use, you see small gifts multiplied into +great powers. Few things are more remarkable in one's experience of +life than to see men who by nature are not extraordinarily endowed +achieve the highest success by sheer dedication of their {173} moderate +gifts. Their capacities expand through their self-surrender, as leaves +unfold under the touch of the sun. They lose themselves and then they +find themselves. The devil tempts these men, not with a sense of their +greatness, but with their self-distrust; yet he tempts them in vain. +Their weakness issues into strength; their temptation develops their +power. The angels of God have come and ministered unto them. + + + + +{174} + +LXIX + +LOVING WITH THE MIND + +_Mark_ xii. 30. + +In the great law of love to God and love to man which Jesus repeats as +the law of his own teaching, there is one phrase that seems not wholly +clear. You can love God with your heart and your soul; you can even +increase your strength by love; but how can you love with the mind? Is +it not the very quality of a trained mind to be unmoved by love or +hate, dispassionate and unemotional? Is not this the scientific +spirit, this attitude of criticism, with no prejudice or affection to +color its results? + +Of course one must answer that there is much truth which can be +discovered by a loveless mind. Yet there is, on the other hand, much +truth which cannot be discerned without love. There are many secrets +of literature, of art, of music, and of the higher traits of character +as well, into which you cannot enter unless you give your mind to these +things with sympathy and affection and responsiveness; loving them, as +Jesus says, with the mind. One {175} of our preachers has lately +called attention to the new word in literature which illustrates this +attitude of the mind.[1] When people wrote in earlier days of other +people and their works they wrote biographies or criticisms or studies, +but now we have what are called "appreciations;" the attempt, that is +to say, to enter into a character and appreciate its traits or its art, +and to love it with the mind. Perhaps that is what this ancient law +asks of you in your relation to God, to come not as a critic, but as a +lover, to the rational appreciation of the ways of God. Here is the +noblest capacity with which human life is endowed. It is a great thing +to love God with the heart and soul, to let the emotions of gratitude +to Him or of joy in his world run free; but to rise into sympathetic +interpretation of his laws, to think God's thoughts after Him, and to +be moved by the high emotions which are stirred by exalted ideas,--to +love God, that is to say, with the mind,--that, I suppose, is the +highest function of human life, and the quality which most endows a man +with insight and power. + + + +[1] Rev. Leighton Parks, D. D., in a sermon at the Diocesan Convention +of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Boston, May, 1895. + + + + +{176} + +LXX + +AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? + +_Genesis_ iv. 9. + +Cain was the first philosophical individualist; the first +"laissez-faire" economist. When God asked: "Where is Abel?" Cain +answered: "What responsibility have I for him? My business is to take +care of myself. Am I my brother's keeper?" But the interesting fact +is that Cain had been his brother's keeper though he declined +responsibility for him. He refused to be responsible for his brother's +life, but he certainly was responsible for his brother's death. He +refused to be his brother's keeper, but he was willing to be his +brother's slayer. There are plenty of people to-day who are trying to +maintain this same impossible theory of social irresponsibility. They +affirm that they have no social duty except to mind their own business; +but that very denial of responsibility is what makes them among the +most responsible agents of social disaster. They deal with their +affairs on the principle that they are nobody's {177} keeper, and so +they are stirring every day the fires of industrial revolt. We are +passing through dark days in the business world, and there are many +causes for the trouble, but the deepest cause is Cain's theory of life. +"Where is thy brother?" says God to the business man to-day,--"thy +brother, the wage-earner, the victim of the cut-down and the lockout?" +"Where is thy brother?" says God again to the unscrupulous agitator, +bringing distress into many a workman's home for the satisfactions of +ambition and power. And to any man who answers: "I know not. Am I my +brother's keeper?" the rebuke of God is spoken again: "Cursed art thou! +The voice of thy brother crieth against thee from the ground." + + + + +{178} + +LXXI + +PROFESSIONALISM AND PERSONALITY + +1 _Corinthians_ xii. 31. + +The wonderful chapter which follows this verse becomes still more +interesting when one considers its connection with the preceding +passage. Paul has been looking over the life of his Christian +brethren, and he sees in it a great variety of callings. Some of his +friends are preachers,--apostles and prophets, as he calls them. Some +are teachers, some are doctors, with gifts of healing; some are +politicians, with gifts of government. The apostle speaks to them as +though he were advising young men as to the choice of their profession, +and he says: "Among all these professional opportunities covet the +best; take that which most fills out and satisfies your life." But +then he turns from these professional capacities and adds: "Be sure +that these gifts do not crowd out of your life the higher capacity for +sympathy. For you may understand all knowledge and speak with all +tongues, and if you have lost thereby {179} the personal, human, +sympathetic relation with people which we call love you are not really +to be counted as a man. You are nothing more than an instrument of +sound, a wind instrument like a trumpet, or a clanging instrument like +a cymbal." That is the apostolic warning to the successful +professional man,--the warning against the narrowing, self-contented +result which sometimes taints even great attainments and professional +distinction. Covet the best. Be satisfied with nothing less than the +highest professional work of doctor, politician, or teacher. But +beware of the imprisoning effect which sometimes comes of this very +success in professional life, the atrophy of sensibility, the +increasing incapacity for sympathy, for public spirit, for charity,--an +incapacity which makes some men of the highest endowments among the +least serviceable, least loving, and least loved of a community. "If," +says the apostle, "in the gain of professional success you lose the +higher gift of love, you are no longer a great man; you are not even to +be described as a small man. You are 'nothing.'" + + + + +{180} + +LXXII + +THE CENTRAL SOLITUDE + +_John_ xvi. 32. + +In one of Frederick Robertson's sermons he speaks of the conduct of +life as like the conduct of atoms, which have a certain attraction for +each other, but at a certain point of approach are repelled and do not +touch. There is in every large life a certain central solitude of this +kind into which no other soul can enter. Some persons fear this +solitude, some rejoice in it, but the use of it is the test of a man's +life. A very near friend of Dr. Brooks's once heard of a man who said +that he knew Dr. Brooks intimately; and this friend said: "No man ought +to say that. Not one of us knew Dr. Brooks intimately. There was a +central Holy of Holies in his life, into which none of us ever +entered." So it was. And this preservation of an inner privacy for +the deeper experiences of life is what proves a soul to be peaceful and +strong. Guard your soul's individual life. In the midst of the social +world keep a place for the {181} nurture of the isolated life, for the +reading and for the thoughts which deal with the interior relations of +the single soul to the immanent God. + + "Thyself amid the silence clear, + The world far off and dim, + His presence close, the bright ones near, + Thyself alone with Him." + +That is what makes a man strong under the tests of life. He is not a +parasitic plant deriving its life from some other life; he is rooted +deep in the soil of the Eternal. As was said of John Henry Newman, +such a man is never less alone than when alone. "He is not alone, +because the Father is with him." + + + + +{182} + +LXXIII + +IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD + +_John_ iv. 10. + +We usually notice in this story the great words of Jesus--perhaps the +deepest and richest series of utterances that have ever fallen from +human lips. Yet it is almost as striking to notice the attitude of +mind in which the woman remained throughout these wonderful scenes. +She seems to have been entirely oblivious of the situation, and unaware +that anything great was going on. + +Jesus speaks to her of the living water, and she thinks it must be some +device which shall save her coming with her pitcher to the well. Then +Jesus looks on her with infinite pathos and says: "If you only knew the +gift of God, and who it is that is now speaking to you!" But she does +not know, and shoulders her pitcher and trudges home again, reporting +only that she has seen some one who appeared a wonderful +fortune-teller, and never dreaming that the greatest words of human +history had been spoken to her, and her alone. + +{183} + +If thou knewest the gift of God!--to have had one's opportunity in +one's hands and to have let it slip; to have had the Messiah sitting by +you and not to have recognized Him; to have thought it just a +commonplace day when the most sacred revelations of God were +occurring,--that is about the saddest confession that any one can make. +And yet, that is what might happen to any one any day. No one can be +sure when the great exigencies of life are likely to occur. He looks +forward to great things to be done in some more favoring future, and, +behold, the insignificant incidents of to-day are the greater things +which he does not discern. He looks forward to the discovery of God in +some difficult intellectual achievement, and meantime the daily task is +full of revelation, and as he wakes to the morning the new day stands +by him and says: "If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is that +speaks to you today." And at last perhaps he begins to realize that +the ordinary ways of daily life are the channels of God's revelation, +and then there + + "Comes to soul and sense + The feeling which is evidence + +{184} + + That very near about us lies + The realm of spiritual mysteries. + With smile of trust and folded hands, + The passive soul in waiting stands, + To feel, as flowers the sun and dew. + The one true life its own renew." + + + + +{185} + +LXXIV + +THE WEDDING GARMENT + +_Matthew_ xxii. 11-14. + +Here is a man who has the feast offered to him, but is not clothed to +meet it. He is unprepared and is therefore cast out. He does not wear +the wedding garment and therefore is not fit for the wedding feast. +This seems at first sight harsh treatment; but one soon remembers that +it was the custom of an Oriental feast to offer the guest at his +entrance a robe fit for the occasion. "Bring forth the best robe," +says the father of the prodigal, "and put it on him." This man had had +offered to him the opportunity of personal preparation and had refused +it. He wanted to share the feast, but he wanted to share it on his own +terms. He pressed into the happiness without the personal preparedness +which made that happiness possible. + +Every man in this way makes his own world. The habit of his life +clothes him like a garment, and only he who wears the wedding garment +{186} is at home at the wedding feast. The same circumstances are to +one man beautiful and to another, at his side, demoralizing. You may +have prosperity and it may be a source of happiness, or the same +prosperity and it may be a source of peril. You may be at a college +and it may be either regenerating to you, or pernicious in its +influence, according as you are clothed or unclothed with the right +habit of mind. God first asks for your heart and then offers you his +world. The wedding feast is for him alone who has accepted the wedding +garment. + + + + +{187} + +LXXV + +THE ESCAPE FROM DESPONDENCY + +1 _Kings_ xix. 1-13. + +This is God's word to man's despondency; and when we strip this man's +story of its Orientalism, it is really the story of many a discouraged, +despondent man of to-day. Elijah has been doing his best, but has come +to a point where he is ready to give up. His enemies are too many for +him. "Lord," he says, "it is enough. I have had as much as I can +bear. I am alone and Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men." +So he goes away into solitude, and looks about him for some clear sign +that God has not deserted him. But nothing happens. The great signs +of nature pass before him, the storm, the lightning, and the +earthquake, but they only reflect his own stormy mood. The Lord is not +in them. Then, within his heart, there speaks that voice which is at +once speech and silence, and it says to him: "What doest thou here, +Elijah," and behold, the man is convicted. For when he {188} reflects +on it he is doing nothing at all. He is sitting under a tree, +requesting that he may die. He has fled from his duty and is hiding in +a cave. Then the voice says to him: "Get up and go and do your duty. +You might sit here forever and get no light on your lot. The problem +of life is solved through the work of life. The way out of your +despondency is in going straight on with the work now ready to your +hand. Answers to great problems are not so likely to come to people in +caves, as along the dusty road of duty-doing. Not to the dreamer, but +to the doer come the interpretations of life. Elijah, Elijah, what +doest thou here?" + + + + +{189} + +LXXVI + +THE DIFFICULTIES OF UNBELIEF + +_Matthew_ xxiii. 24. + +We are often very much impressed by the difficulties of religious +belief. It seems hard to attain any absolute, convinced faith. There +are doubts and obscurities which every one feels, and these +questionings are often stirred into activity by the mistaken efforts of +the defenders of the faith. There is even a special department in +theological teaching known as Apologetics, or the defense of faith; as +though religion had to be always on the defensive, and as if the +easiest attitude of mind, even of the least philosophical, were the +attitude of denial. But did you ever consider the alternative position +and the difficulties which present themselves when one undertakes +absolutely and continuously to deny himself the relations of the +religious life? Did you ever fairly face the conception of a logically +completed unbelief, a world stripped of its ideals, with no region of +spiritual hopes or of worship, a {190} world absolutely without God, a +permanently faithless world? What is the difficulty here? The +difficulty is that these aspects of life, though they are often hard to +maintain, are harder still to abandon. Faith has its perplexities, but +no sooner do you eliminate the spiritual world than you are confronted +with a series of experiences, emotions, and intimations which are +simply inexplicable. That was perhaps partly what Jesus had in mind +when he met the Pharisees. "You find it hard to believe in me," he +said. "Ah, yes, but is it not still harder altogether to refuse me? +You are quite alive to the smaller difficulties of my position, but you +seem to be quite unaware of the difficulties of your own position. You +busy yourself with straining out the gnat which floats on the surface +of your glass, but you do not seem to observe the residuary camel." + +So with his splendid satire Jesus turns the critical temper back upon +itself. Difficulties enough, God knows, there are in every +intellectual position, and intellectual certainty usually means the +abnegation of the thinking faculty. + +But many persons strain out the little difficulties and swallow the +great ones. What is, {191} on the whole, the best working theory of +life?--that is the only practical question. Under which view of life +do the facts, on the whole, best fall? Especially, what conception of +life holds the highest facts, the great irresistible spring-tides, +which sometimes rise within the soul, of hope and love and desire? So +Browning's Bishop, turning on his critic, says:-- + + "And now what are we? unbelievers both, + Calm and complete, determinately fixed + To-day, to-morrow, and forever, pray? + You'll guarantee me that? Not so, I think. + In nowise! All we've gained is, that belief, + As unbelief before, shakes us by fits, + Confounds us like its predecessor. Where's + The gain? How can we guard our unbelief, + Make it bear fruit to us? The problem's here. + Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, + A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, + A chorus-ending from Euripides,-- + And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears + As old and new at once as nature's self, + To rap and knock and enter in our soul, + Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring, + Round the ancient idol, on his base again,-- + * * * * * * * + What have we gained then by our unbelief + But a life of doubt diversified by faith, + For one of faith diversified by doubt. + We called the chessboard white,--we call it black." + + + + +{192} + +LXXVII + +KNOWING GOD, AND BEING KNOWN OF HIM + +_Galatians_ iv. 9. + +It is very interesting to come so close to a great man as we do in this +passage, for the Apostle seems to be discovered here, correcting +himself. It is as if he had written one teaching to the Galatians, and +then crossed it out and written another. "You know God," he says, "or +rather you are known of Him." He is asking himself why the Galatians +should in a given case do their duty, and he answers: "Because they +know God; they are aware of His purposes and laws, and having this +rational understanding of Him they know how to act as His servants." +"But no," he goes on to say, "that is not the real impulse of their +duty. What holds them to their best is rather the thought that God +knows them, that He gives them their duty, and that they obey." It is +like the position of a soldier under his commander. The soldier does +not expect to know {193} all about the plan of the campaign, but what +keeps him to his best is the knowledge that some one knows about it; +that the commander overlooks the field; that each little skirmish has +its place in the great design. That is what makes the soldier go down +again into the smoke and dust of his duty with his timidity converted +into faith. + +Knowing God,--that is theology; being known of Him,--that is religion. +Both theology and religion have their influence on conduct. It is a +great thing to know that one knows God. There is power in a rational +creed. But, after all, the profoundest impulse for conduct is to know +that beneath all your ignorance of God is His knowledge of you; that +before you loved Him, He loved you, that antecedent to your response to +Him was His invitation to you. Thus it is that a man looks out into +each new day and asks: "What is to hold me to-day to my duty?" Well, +first of all, everything I may learn ought to help me. It is all God's +truth, and, as I get a grasp on truth and stand on its firm ground, my +conduct is steadier and assured. But, after all, the deeper safety +lies in this other confession, that I am known of God; that I {194} am +not merely an explorer, searching for truth, but guided and controlled +as ever under the great taskmaster's eye; known of Him, with my +ignorance of Him held within His knowledge of me, until the time comes +when at last I shall know even as also I am known. + + + + +{195} + +LXXVIII + +FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH + +_John_ viii. 32. + +"The truth shall make you free;"--that is one of the greatest +announcements of a universal principle which even Jesus Christ ever +made. + +But the Jews began to ask of him: "How can one be a disciple of your +truth and yet be free? Is not that discipleship only another name for +bondage? We are free already. We are in bondage to no man. Why then +should we enter into the servitude of obedience to your truth?" And to +this Jesus seems to answer: "That depends upon what it is to be free. +It is a question of your definition of liberty. You seem to believe +that to be free one must have no authority or leadership or master. +But I say unto you that there is no such liberty. You must be the +servant of something. You must be under the authority of your law, or +your superstition, or your God, or yourself. Freedom on any other +terms is not freedom, it is lawlessness. {196} Indeed it may be more +like slavery than freedom." + +What is a free country? Not a country without law,--a country of the +anarchist,--but a country where the law encourages each citizen to be +and to do his best. A free country gives every man a chance. It opens +life at the top. It invites one's allegiance from the things which +enslave to the things which enlarge. And that is the only liberty,--a +transfer of allegiance, a higher attachment, which sets free from the +lower enslavements of life. Suppose a man is the slave of a sin, how +does he get free? He frees himself from his sin by attaching himself +to some better interest. Sin is not driven out of one's life; it is +crowded out. Suppose a man is the slave of himself, sunk in the +self-absorbed and ungenerous life, how does he get free? He gets free +by finding an end in life which is larger than himself. He becomes the +servant of the truth, and the truth makes him free. Suppose a man asks +himself, "What can religion do for me? It does not solve all my +problems, or satisfy all my needs. What then does religion do?" Well, +first of all, it gives one liberty. It detaches one's life from {197} +the things which shut it in, and attaches it to those ideal ends which +give enlargement, emancipation, range to life. God speaks to you of +duty, of self-control, of power in your prayers, and then you go out +into the world again, not as if all were plain before you, but at least +with a free heart, and a mind not in bondage to the world of +circumstance or of trivial cares. The truth of God, so far as it has +been revealed to you, has made you free. You have found the perfect +law, the law of liberty. + + + + +{198} + +LXXIX + +THE SOIL AND THE SEED + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +It takes two things to make a seed grow. One is a good seed, and the +other is a good soil. One is what the sower provides, and the other is +what the ploughman prepares. God's best seed falls in vain on a rock. +Man's best soil is unfruitful till the sower visits it. Now the +tilling of the soil of life is what in all its different forms we call +culture, and the expansion of God's germinating influence is what we +call religion. Some people think that either of these alone is enough +to insure a good crop. Some think that culture makes a man fruitful, +and some think religion is a spontaneous growth; and some even talk of +a conflict between the two. But culture does for a man just what it +does for a field. It deepens the soil and makes it ready, and that is +all. The merely cultivated man is nothing more than a ploughed field +which has not been sown, and when it comes to the proper time of +harvest has a most {199} empty and untimely look. And religion alone +does not often penetrate into the unprepared life. Sometimes, indeed, +it seems to force its way as by a miracle, and take root, as we see a +tree or shrub growing as it seems without any soil in which to cling. +But in the normal way of life the seed of God falls in vain upon a soil +which is not deepened and softened to receive it. It waits for +preparedness of nature, for the obedient will, the awakened mind, the +receptive heart;--and all these forms of self-discipline are +comprehended in any genuine self-culture. + +Culture and religion--here they meet in university life. Most of your +time is given to culture. What are you doing? You are enriching and +spading up the soil of life. That is the test of culture. Is it +quickening, deepening, stimulating the mind? Is it opening the +imagination and training the will? Then it is true culture and not +that spurious cultivation which spreads over life gravel instead of +fertilizers. Culture prepares the soil; and then in sacred moments, +perhaps in your worship here, perhaps in the solitude of your own +experience, or perhaps in the busiest moments of your day, God, the +sower, comes, scattering {200} His seeds of suggestion and His minute +influences for good over the heart, and what He needs is a receptive +mind and an awakened heart; the life of man ready for the life of God, +and the descending influences of God finding depth of earth within the +life of man. + + + + +{201} + +LXXX + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, I [1] + +_Matthew_ vi. 1-15. + +From day to day we gather here and repeat together the Lord's Prayer. +One is tempted sometimes to wonder whether in this daily repetition the +prayer keeps its freshness and reality. I will not say that even if it +becomes a mere form it is useless in our worship. It is something even +to have a form so rich in the associations of home and of church, of +the prayers of childhood, and the centuries of Christian worship. And +yet this prayer is first of all a protest against formalism. "Use not +vain repetitions," says Jesus, and then he goes on to give this type of +restrained, unswerving, concentrated prayer. + +While the prayer, however, is a protest against formalism it is itself +extraordinarily beautiful in form. When a clear mind {202} expresses a +deep purpose its expression is always orderly, and the petitions of the +Lord's Prayer do not unfold their quality until we consider the form in +which they are expressed. Look for a moment at the order of these +petitions. There are two series of prayers. The first series relate +to God, His kingdom, and His will; the second series deal with men, +their bread, their trespasses, and their temptations. The Lord's +Prayer, that is to say, reverses the common order of petition. Most +people turn to God first of all with their own needs. The Lord's +Prayer postpones these needs of bread and of forgiveness, and asks +first of all for God's kingdom and His will. Thus it is, first of all, +an unselfish prayer. When a man comes here and prays the Lord's +Prayer, he, first of all, subordinates himself; he postpones his own +needs. He subdues his thoughts to the great purposes of God. He prays +first for God's kingdom, however it may come, whether through joy and +peace or through much trouble and pain; and then, in the light of that +supreme and self-subordinating desire for the larger glory, the man +goes on to ask for his own bread and the forgiveness of his own sin. + + + +[1] See also, F. D. Maurice, _The Lord's Prayer_, London, 1861; Robert +Eyton, _The Lord's Prayer_, London, 1892; H. W. Foote, _Thy Kingdom +Come_, Boston, 1891. + + + + +{203} + +LXXXI + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, II + +OUR FATHER + +_Matthew_ v. 21-25. + +I have said that the Lord's Prayer is by its very form an unselfish +prayer. This same mark of it is to be seen in another way by the word +with which it begins. It does not pray: "My Father, my bread, my +trespasses." It prays throughout for blessings which are "ours." Not +my isolated life, but the common life I share is that for which I ask +the help of God. Even when a man enters into his inner chamber and +shuts the door, and is alone, he still says: "Our Father." He takes up +into his solitary prayer the lives which for the moment are bound up in +his. He thinks of those he loves and says: "Our Father." He sets +himself right with those he does not love, reconciles himself with his +brother, and says: "Our Father." He joins himself with the whole great +company of those who have said this prayer in all the ages, and have +found peace {204} in it, and with that great sense of companionship the +solitude of his own experience is banished, and he is compassed about +with a cloud of witnesses, living and dead, as he bends alone, and in +his half-whispered prayer begins to say: "Our Father." + + + + +{205} + +LXXXII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, III + +FATHER AND SON + +_Galatians_ iii. 26; iv. 6. + +The fatherhood of God has become so familiar a phrase that we hardly +realize what a revolution of thought it represents. In the whole Old +Testament, so the scholars say, God is spoken of but seven times as +Father; five times as Father of the Hebrew people, once to David as the +father of his son Solomon, and once as a prediction that sometime men +would thus pray. And so when Jesus at the beginning of his prayer +says: "After this manner pray, Our Father," he is opening the door into +a new conception of God's relation to man. + +And what is this conception? It is the recognition of kinship. It is +the conviction that the spiritual life in man is of the same nature as +the spiritual life in God. The child's kinship to the parent involves +the natural inheritance of capacity and destiny. "If children," says +St. Paul, "then heirs, heirs of God, and {206} joint heirs with +Christ." "Because we are sons we cry, Abba, Father." We are not Greek +philosophers interpreting the causes of nature or the world of ideas; +we are not Hebrew prophets representing a sacred nation; we are +children, with the rights and gifts of children, and the assurance of a +father's confidence and love. All this great promise the humblest +Christian claims when he begins to pray the Lord's Prayer. He says, "I +am not a brute, I am not a clod, I am a partaker of the Divine nature; +I claim the promise of a child. And that sense of kinship summons me +to my best. I pray as my Father's son, and as his son I bear a name +which must not be stained. _Noblesse oblige_. There are some things +which I cannot degrade myself to do because my position forbids them. +There are some things to which I could not attain of myself, but which +are made possible to me as my Father's son. I accept the unearned +privilege of my descent; I claim the great inheritance of the kinship +of God, and out of my self-distrust and weakness I turn to self-respect +and strength, when I pray: 'Our Father.'" + + + + +{207} + +LXXXIII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, IV + +HALLOWED BE THY NAME + +_Exodus_ xx. 1-7. + +I suppose that to many a reader the prayer: "Holy be Thy name," means +little more than: "Let me not be profane; help me to keep myself from +blasphemy." But it is not likely that Jesus began his prayer with any +such elementary desire as this; or that our first prayer need be only a +prayer to be kept from irreverence. The name of God to the Hebrews was +much more than a title. His name represented all His ways of +revelation. The Hebrews did not speak the name of God. It was a word +too sacred for utterance. Thus the man who begins the Lord's Prayer in +that Hebrew spirit first summons to his thought the things which are +the most sacred in the world to him, the thoughts and purposes which +stand to him for God; the associations, memories, and ideals which make +life holy, and asks that these may lead him into his own prayer. {208} +What he says is this: "My Father, and the Father of all other souls, +renew within me my most sacred thoughts and all the holy associations +which are to me the symbol of Thyself. Give to me a sense of the +sanctity of the world. Set me in the right mood of prayer. And as I +thus reverently look out on Thy varied ways of revelation and of +righteousness, help me to bring my own spirit into this unity with +Thyself, to make a part of Thy holy world, and humbly to begin my +prayer by hallowing Thy name." + + + + +{209} + +LXXXIV + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, V + +THY KINGDOM COME + +_Luke_ xvii. 21. + +The prayer that the kingdom of God might come had long been familiar to +the Hebrews. They had been for centuries dreaming of a time when their +tyrants should be overcome and their nation delivered and their God +rule. But all this desire was for an outward change. Some day the +Romans and their tax-gatherers should be expelled from the land and +then the kingdom would come. Jesus repeats the same prayer, but with a +new significance in the familiar words. He is not thinking of a Hebrew +theocracy, or a Roman defeat; he is thinking of a human, universal, +spiritual emancipation. There dawns before his inspired imagination +the unparalleled conception of a purified and regenerated people. +Never did a modern socialist in his dream of a better outward order +surpass this vision of Jesus of a coming kingdom of God. + +{210} + +But to Jesus the means to that outward transformation were always +personal and individual. The golden age, as Mr. Spencer has said, +could not be made out of leaden people. The first condition of the +outward kingdom must be the kingdom within. The new order must be the +product of the new life. That is the doctrine of the social order in +the Lord's Prayer. + +We too are looking for outward reform in legislation and economics. It +is all a part of the movement to the kingdom of God. Yet any outward +transformation which is to last proceeds from regenerated lives. The +kingdom of God is within before it is without. Do you want a better +world? Well, plan for it, and work for it. But, first of all, enter +into the inner chamber of your prayer, and say: "Lord, make me a fit +instrument of thy kingdom. Purify my heart, that I may purify thy +world. I would live for others' sakes, but first of all that great +self-sacrifice must be obeyed: 'For their sakes I sanctify myself, +Reign thus in me that I may rationally pray: Thy kingdom come!'" + + + + +{211} + +LXXXV + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VI + +THY WILL BE DONE + +_Luke_ xxii. 39-46. + +The Lord's Prayer begins as a prayer for the great things. It prays +for a sanctified world: "Holy be Thy name." It gives form to that +great hope: "Thy kingdom come." It deals with the means of that great +coming: "Thy will be done." The coming of the kingdom and the +hallowing of the name are to happen through the doing of the will. + +I suppose that most prayers which ask that God's will may be done are +prayers of passive acquiescence and resignation. We are apt to pray +"Thy will be done," as though we were saying: "Let it be done in spite +of us and even against our wills, and we will try to bear it." But +that is not the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. "Thy will be done;"--by +whom? By the man that thus prays! He prays to have his part in the +accomplishment of God's will, even as Jesus prays in the Garden: "Thy +will be done," and then rises and {212} proceeds to do that will. The +prayer recognizes the solemn and fundamental truth that the will, even +of God Himself, works, in its human relations, through the service of +man. Here, for instance, is a social abuse. What is God's will toward +it? His will is that man should remove it. Here is a threat of +cholera, and people pray that God's will be done. But what is God's +will? His will is that the town shall be cleansed. And who are to do +His will? Why, the citizens. Typhoid fever and bad drainage are not +the will of God. The will of God is that they should be abolished. +Social wrongs are not to be endured with resignation. They simply +indicate to man what is God's will. And who is to do God's will in +these things? We are. The man who enters into his closet and says: +"Thy will be done," is asking no mere help to bear the unavoidable; he +is asking help to be a participator in the purposes of God, a laborer +together with Him, first a discerner and then a doer of his will. "Our +Father," he says, "accomplish Thine ends not over me, or in spite of +me, but through me,--Thou the power and I the instrument,--Thine to +will and mine to do." + + + + +{213} + +LXXXVI + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VII + +DAILY BREAD + +The Lord's Prayer begins with the desire for the great things, the +universal needs; a holy world, a kingdom of righteousness, the will of +God fulfilled. Then, in the light of these great things it goes on to +one's personal needs, and prays, first of all, for the present, then +for the past, then for the future. The prayer for the present is this: +"Give us our daily bread,"--our bread, that is to say, sufficient for +to-day, enough to live on and to work by, just for today. The prayer +is limitative. It puts restraint on my desire and limit on my +ambition. It does not demand the future. It looks only to this +present unexplored and unknown day. "Give us in this day what is +necessary for us, fit to sustain us,--strength to do thy will, patience +to bring in thy kingdom, grace to hallow thy name." + +Into the midst of the restless anticipations of modern life, its living +of to-morrow's life in {214} to-day's anxiety, its social disease which +has been described as "Americanitis," and which, if it is not arrested, +will have to be operated on some day at the risk of the nation's life, +there enters every morning in your daily prayer the desire for quiet +acceptance of the day's blessings, the dismissal of the care for the +morrow, the sense of sufficiency in the bread of to-day:-- + + "Lord, for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray, + Keep me from stain of sin, just for to-day. + Let me both diligently work, and duly pray, + Let me be kind in word and deed, just for to-day. + Let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say, + Set thou a seal upon my lips, just for to-day. + Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey, + Help me to sacrifice myself, just for to-day. + So for to-morrow and its needs, I do not pray, + But help me, keep me, hold me, Lord, just for to-day." + + + + +{215} + +LXXXVII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VIII + +FORGIVENESS + +_Luke_ xii. 1-3. + +We come to the petition in the Lord's Prayer which is the easiest to +understand and the hardest to pray,--the prayer that we may be forgiven +as we forgive. This prayer does not, of course, ask God to measure His +goodness by our virtues. We should not dare to ask that God would deal +with us just as we have dealt with others. It is the spirit of +forgiveness for which we pray. "Give us forgiveness," we ask, "because +we come in the spirit of forgiveness." The spirit of forgiveness, that +is to say, is the condition and prerequisite of the prayer for +forgiveness. If you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how +can you truly pray to God whom you have not seen? If a man comes to +his prayer with hate in his heart, he makes it impossible for God to +forgive him. He is shutting the door which opens into the spirit {216} +of prayer. Right-mindedness to man is the first condition of right +prayer to God. + +The traveler in Egypt sometimes looks out in the early morning and sees +an Arab preparing to say his prayers. The man goes down to the +river-bank and spreads his little carpet so that he shall look toward +Mecca; but before he kneels he crouches on the bank, and cleanses his +lips, his tongue, his hands, even his feet, so that he shall bring to +his prayer no unclean word or deed. It is as if he first said with the +Psalmist: "Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity; purge me of my sin; make +me a clean heart; renew in me a right spirit;" and then with a right +spirit in him, he bends and rises and bows again in his prayer. The +petition for a forgiving spirit prepares one in the same way to say his +morning prayer. It cleanses the tongue; it washes the motives; it +purifies the thoughts of their uncharitableness; and then, in this +spirit of forgiveness even toward those who have wronged him, the +Christian is clean enough to ask for the forgiveness of his own sin. + + + + +{217} + +LXXXVIII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, IX + +TEMPTATIONS + +_James_ i. 12-17. + +This passage from the Epistle of James is a commentary on the last +petition of the Lord's Prayer. When we pray: "Lead us not into +temptation," it is, as James says, not God who tempts, for God tempteth +no man. The temptation comes through our misuse of the circumstances +which God offers us as our opportunity. We turn these circumstances +into temptations. + +Every condition of life has these two aspects. It is on the one hand +an opportunity, and it is on the other hand a temptation. God gives it +as an opportunity and we misuse the opportunity and it becomes our +temptation. The rich have their special and great opportunity of +generous service for the common good, and yet through that very +opportunity comes their special temptation. The poor are saved by +their lot from many temptations of self-centred and frivolous luxury, +but are much tempted {218} by their poverty itself. The healthy have a +great gift of God, but they are tempted by that very gift to +recklessness, inconsiderateness and self-injury. The sick receive +peculiar blessings of patience and resignation, but are much tempted to +selfishness and discontent. The business man is tempted by his very +knowledge of the world to the hardness of materialism; the minister is +tempted by his very indifference to the world to unsophisticated +imprudence. Wherever on earth a man may be he must scrutinize his +future, and calculate his powers, and face his problems, and pray: "My +God, prevent my vocation from becoming my temptation. Let me not put +myself where I shall be tried over much. Save me from the peculiar +temptation of my special lot. Deliver me from its evils and lead me +not round its temptations, but through them into its opportunity and +joy." + + + + +{219} + +LXXXIX + +SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST + +2 _Corinthians_ xi. 3. + +In listening, as we have done, from day to day to Bishop Vincent, there +has repeatedly come to my mind this phrase: The simplicity that is in +Christ; or, as the Revised Version more accurately translates it, the +simplicity that is toward Christ,--the power which is often so much +greater than eloquence, of an obviously genuine, sincere, simple +Christian life. + +But when one inquires into the nature of this Christian simplicity, +which is one of the fairest blooms of character, it turns out to be, so +to speak, not so simple a trait as it at first appeared. Of course, +there is a kind of simplicity which is a survival of childhood, a +guileless, childish ignorance; but when a man is simple in a childish +way, he is only what we call a simpleton. Christian simplicity is not +a survival but an achievement, wrought out of the struggles and +problems of maturer life. It is not an infantile but a masculine trait. + +{220} + +What then is simplicity? The Latin word means singleness, unmixedness, +straightforwardness. It is sometimes used of wood which is +straight-grained. What simplifies life is to have a single, specific +direction in which to grow, a straight-grained, definite intention, the +possibility of a straightforward life. The scattered, divergent, +wavering life,--what is this but what we call the dissipating career? +It abandons self-concentration and steadiness; it dissipates its +energy. It does not mean to begin wrong, but because it has no fixity +of direction it becomes, as we say, dissipated. And what is it, once +more, which gives direction, unity, simplicity, to life? That is made +plain in this same passage. It is the simplicity, says the New +Version, which is toward Christ. What gives straightforwardness is not +the condition in which we are, but the ideal toward which we are +heading. What simplifies life is to say something like this: "I do not +pretend to know all about religion, or duty, or Christ, but I do +propose to live along the line of life which I will call toward Christ. +I propose to think less of what I may live by, and more of what I may +live toward." When a man makes this decision he has not indeed {221} +solved all the problems of life, but he has amazingly simplified them. +Many things which had been perplexing, disturbing, confusing, now fall +into line behind that one comprehensive loyalty. He has, as it were, +come out of the woods, and found a high road. It is not all level, or +easy; there is many a sharp ascent in it, and many a shadowy valley. +But at least the way is clear, and he knows whither it leads, and he +has found his bearings, and he trudges along with a quiet mind, even +though with a weary step, for he has emerged from the bewildering +underbrush of life into the simplicity which is toward Christ. + + + + +{222} + +XC + +OPEN OUR EYES + +2 _Kings_ vi. 17. + +(END OF COLLEGE TERM) + +This young man did not see things as they really were, because, as we +say in smaller matters, he did not have his eyes open. He saw the +horses and chariots of Syria round about him, and the enemy seemed too +strong for him, and then Elisha prayed: "Lord, open his eyes," and the +young man saw that over against his enemies there was a host of +spiritual allies, so that "They that be with us are more than they that +be with them." + +As we look back over this closing college year with all its problems +and duties, its conflicts and fears, it is with something of this same +sense that we have not half known the powers which were on our side. +Sometimes we have thought the enemy too strong for us, and it looked as +if cares and fears, troubles and misunderstandings were likely to +defeat us, and the battle of life might be lost. The {223} problems of +the world about us have seemed very grievous, and the perplexities of +the life within very perilous. And now God comes to us at last and +opens our eyes, and we look back and say: "What a good year, after all, +it has been." There never has been so good a year for the college as +this. There never has been so good a year for the world. With all the +social problems and agitations that seem so threatening about us, this +is, after all, the best year that God has ever made. And in our +personal conflicts, how plain it is that the forces of heaven have been +behind us. No man has thought a true thought, or done an unselfish +deed this year without a backing which now discloses itself as very +real. Behind our doubts and fears have been the horses and chariots of +fire. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see these spiritual allies and +enlist ourselves in the ranks of their omnipotence. + + + + +{224} + +XCI + +THE WORD MADE FLESH + +_John_ i. 1-14. + +(END OF COLLEGE TERM) + +I do not enter into the deeper philosophical significance of this great +chapter, but any one can see on the very surface of it the general +truth on which Christianity rests its claim. God's government of the +world is here described as operating through His word. God simply +speaks, and things are done. God says: "Let there be light," and there +is light. The universe is God's language. History is God's voice. By +His word was everything made that is made. Then, when the fullness of +time has come this language of God is made life. What God has been +trying to make men hear through his word, He now lets them see through +his life. His word becomes flesh. The life becomes the light of men. +That is the most elementary statement of the doctrine of the +incarnation. It is the transformation of language into life. + +{225} + +Let us take this great truth into our own little lives as we part on +this last day of common worship. God has been speaking to us His word +in many ways through our worship here; in our silence and in our song, +in Bible and in prayer, in the voice of different preachers, and in the +voice of our own consciences and hearts. And now what is our last +prayer but this, that this word may be made flesh, that this worship +may be transformed into life, that these messages of courage, of hope, +of composure, of self-control, may be incarnated in this life of youth; +that out of the many words here spoken in the name of God, here and +there one may become flesh and walk out of this chapel and out of these +college grounds in the interior life of a consecrated young man. The +life is the light of men. May it be so with us here. May the spirit +of him in whose life is our light, enlighten the lives which have +gathered here, and lead them through all the obscurities of life, and +brighten more and more before them into a perfect day. + + + + +{227} + + LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES + + Address. Page. + + Genesis iv, 9 LXX 176 + Exodus xx, 1-7 LXXXIII 207 + Deut. xxxiii, 27 XXXIII 83 + I Ks. xix, 1-13 LXXV 187 + II Kings vi, 17 XC 212 + Mat. ii, 1-11 XXIX 74 + iv, 1-11 XLVIII 171 + v, 3 XXII 58 + v, 4 XXIII 60 + v, 5 XXIV 62 + v, 6 XXV 64 + v, 7 XXVI 67 + v, 8 XXVII 69 + v, 16 IV 9 + v, 17 XV 41 + v, 21-25 LXXXI 203 + vi, 1-15 LXXX 201 + vii, 1 XII 32 + viii, 5-11 V 12 + xii, 38-45 LVI 138 + xiii, 1-9 XLV 113 + xiii, 1-9 XLVI 116 + xiii, 1-9 XLVII 118 + xiii, 1-9 XLVIII 120 + xiii, 1-9 XLIX 122 + xiv, 23 VII 18 + xxi, 17-23 LX 148 + xxii, 11-14 LXXIV 185 + xxiii, 24 LXXVI 189 + xxv, 14-30 L 124 + xxv, 14-30 LI 127 + xxv, 14-30 LII 129 + xxv, 22 LIII 131 + xxv, 24 LIV 133 + xxv, 29 LV 136 + Mark iv, 27 XVIII 49 + iv, 27 XLIX 122 + viii, 34 XXI 56 + x, 35-45 II 4 + Mark xii, 30 LXIX 174 + xiii, 1-9 LXXIX 198 + Luke ii, 8-10 XXIX 74 + ii, 8-14 XXX 76 + ii, 30-35 XXXI 78 + iii, 16 XXVIII 71 + xii, 1-5 LXXXVII 215 + xv, 17 LIX 146 + xvi, 1-10 LVIII 143 + xvi, 1-12 LVII 140 + xvii, 5-15 LXXXIV 209 + xvii, 7-10 XIII 35 + xvii, 21 XIX 52 + xix, 37-43 LX 148 + xx, 19-38 LXI 151 + xxii, 39-46 LXXXV 211 + xxii, 39-48 LXIII 156 + xxiii, 20-26 LXVII 168 + John i, 1-14 XCI 224 + iv, 10 LXXIII 182 + vi, 35 XI 29 + viii, 32 LXXVIII 195 + xiv, 6 XXXVI 89 + xiv, 14, 16 XXXIV 85 + xvi, 32 LXXII 180 + xvii, 22 III 7 + xviii, 28-38 LXIV 159 + xix, 30 LXV 163 + xx, 8 VIII 21 + xxi, 22 IX 25 + Acts xxvi, 19 X 27 + Romans xii, 1 XIV 38 + I Cor. xii, 31 LXXI 178 + II Cor. iv, 10 XX 54 + xi, 3 LXXXIX 219 + Galatians iii, 26 LXXXII 205 + iv, 6 LXXXII 205 + iv, 9 LXXVII 192 + Ephes. iv, 13 XVII 48 + +{228} + + Address. Page. + + Ephes. iv, 14-17 XXXV 87 + Phil. iii, 11 LXVI 166 + II Tim. ii, 3 XVI 44 + iv, 8 VI 15 + Hebrews xii, 1 I 1 + James i, 12-17 LXXXVIII 217 + Rev. ii, 1-7 XXXVII 96 + ii, 8-10 XXXVIII 93 + Rev. ii, 12-17 XXXIX 90 + ii, 18-28 XL 99 + iii, 1 XLI 102 + iii, 8 XLII 105 + iii, 20 XLIII 107 + xxi, 7 XLIV 110 + xxii, 17 XI 29 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in the College Chapel, by +Francis Greenwood Peabody + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL *** + +***** This file should be named 24373-8.txt or 24373-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/7/24373/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mornings in the College Chapel + Short Addresses to Young Men on Personal Religion + +Author: Francis Greenwood Peabody + +Release Date: January 20, 2008 [EBook #24373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +Mornings in the College Chapel + + + + SHORT ADDRESSES TO YOUNG MEN ON + PERSONAL RELIGION BY FRANCIS GREENWOOD + PEABODY, PLUMMER PROFESSOR OF + CHRISTIAN MORALS IN HARVARD + UNIVERSITY + + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + +The Riverside Press, Cambridge + + + + +Copyright, 1896, + +By FRANCIS G. PEABODY. + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +TO + +MY BELOVED AND REVERED COLLEAGUES + +THE PREACHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY + +AND TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF + +PHILLIPS BROOKS + +OF THE FIRST STAFF OF PREACHERS + +WHO BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH AMONG US + +IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF + +HAPPY ASSOCIATION IN THE SERVICE OF + +CHRIST AND THE CHURCH + + + + +{v} + +_In the conduct of morning prayers at Harvard University, the Preachers +to the University usually say a few plain words to interpret or enforce +the Bible lesson which has been read. The entire service is but +fifteen minutes long, so that this little address must occupy not more +than two or three minutes, and can at the best indicate only a single +wholesome thought with which a young man may begin his day. It has +been suggested to me that some of these informal and brief addresses, +if printed, may continue to be of interest to those who heard them, or +may perhaps be of use to other young people in like conditions of life; +and I have therefore tried to recall some of these mornings in the +College Chapel._ + +_It is now ten years since it was determined that religion in our +University should be regarded no longer as a part of College +discipline, but as a natural and rational opportunity offering itself +to the life of youth. It was a momentous transition, undertaken with +the profoundest sense of its seriousness and significance. It was an +act of faith,--of faith in religion and of faith in young men. The +University announced the belief that religion, rationally presented, +will always have for healthy-minded young men a commanding interest. +This faith has been abundantly justified. There has become familiar +among us, through the devotion of successive staffs of Preachers, a +clearer sense of the simplicity and reality of religion, which, for +many young men, has enriched the meaning of University life. No one +who has had the slightest part in administering such a work can sum up +its present issues without feeling on the one hand a deep sense of +personal insufficiency, and on the other hand a large and solemn hope._ + +_I have indicated such sources of suggestion for these addresses as I +noted at the time of their delivery, but it may well be that some such +indebtedness remains, against my will, unacknowledged._ + +CAMBRIDGE, October, 1896. + + + + +{vii} + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + + I. THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + II. NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER . . 4 + III. THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER . . . . . . . . . . 7 + IV. LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 + V. THE CENTURION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 + VI. SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + VII. THE RHYTHM OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + VIII. THAT OTHER DISCIPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + IX. MORAL TIMIDITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + X. THE HEAVENLY VISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + XI. THE BREAD AND WATER OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . 30 + XII. THE RECOIL OF JUDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + XIII. THE INCIDENTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + XIV. LEARNING AND LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + XV. FILLING LIFE FULL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 + XVI. TAKING ONE'S SHARE OF HARDSHIPS . . . . . . . 44 + XVII. CHRISTIAN UNITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + XVIII. THE PATIENCE OF FAITH . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + XIX. THE BOND-SERVANT AND THE SON . . . . . . . . . 52 + XX. DYING TO LIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + XXI. CARRYING YOUR OWN CROSS . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + XXII. THE POOR IN SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + XXIII. THE MOURNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + XXIV. THE MEEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + XXV. THE HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS . . . . . . . . . 64 + XXVI. THE MERCIFUL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 + XXVII. THE PURE IN HEART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + XXVIII. THE TWO BAPTISMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + +{viii} + + XXIX. THE WISE MEN AND THE SHEPHERDS . . . . . . . . 74 + XXX. THE SONG OF THE ANGELS . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + XXXI. THE SECRET OF HEARTS REVEALED . . . . . . . . 78 + XXXII. THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . 80 + XXXIII. THE EVERLASTING ARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + XXXIV. THE COMFORT OF THE TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + XXXV. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + XXXVI. LIFE IS AN ARROW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + XXXVII. THE DECLINE OF ENTHUSIASM . . . . . . . . . . 90 + XXXVIII. THE CROWN OF LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + XXXIX. THE HIDDEN MANNA AND THE WHITE STONE . . . . . 96 + XL. THE MORNING STAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + XLI. LIVING AS DEAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + XLII. THE OPEN DOOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + XLIII. BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK . . . . 107 + XLIV. HE THAT OVERCOMETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + XLV. THE PRODIGALITY OF PROVIDENCE . . . . . . . . 113 + XLVI. THE HARD LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + XLVII. THE THIN LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + XLVIII. THE CROWDED LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 + XLIX. THE PATIENCE OF NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 + L. THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS . . . . . . . . . 124 + LI. THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS . . . . . . . . 127 + LII. THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF WEALTH . . . . . . . 129 + LIII. THE AVERAGE MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + LIV. THE OVERCOMING OF INSIGNIFICANCE . . . . . . . 133 + LV. CAPACITY EXTIRPATED BY DISUSE . . . . . . . . 136 + LVI. THE PARABLE OF THE VACUUM . . . . . . . . . . 138 + LVII. CHRISTIANITY AND BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . 140 + LVIII. MAKING FRIENDS OF MAMMON . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + LIX. COMING TO ONE'S SELF . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + LX. POPULARITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + LXI. TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY . . . . . . . 151 + LXII. AN UNRECORDED DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 + LXIII. THE ANSWER TO PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + LXIV. AN IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + +{ix} + + LXV. THE FINISHED LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 + LXVI. ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION . . . . . . . . 166 + LXVII. SIMON OF CYRENE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + LXVIII. POWER AND TEMPTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + LXIX. LOVING WITH THE MIND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 + LXX. AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? . . . . . . . . . . 176 + LXXI. PROFESSIONALISM AND PERSONALITY . . . . . . . 178 + LXXII. THE CENTRAL SOLITUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + LXXIII. IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD . . . . . . . 182 + LXXIV. THE WEDDING GARMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 + LXXV. THE ESCAPE FROM DESPONDENCY . . . . . . . . . 187 + LXXVI. THE DIFFICULTIES OF UNBELIEF . . . . . . . . . 189 + LXXVII. KNOWING GOD, AND BEING KNOWN OF HIM . . . . . 192 + LXXVIII. FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + LXXIX. THE SOIL AND THE SEED . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + LXXX. THE LORD'S PRAYER: I. . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + LXXXI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: II. OUR FATHER . . . . . . 203 + LXXXII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: III. FATHER AND SON . . . . 205 + LXXXIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IV. HALLOWED BE THY NAME . 207 + LXXXIV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: V. THY KINGDOM COME . . . . 209 + LXXXV. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VI. THY WILL BE DONE . . . 211 + LXXXVI. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VII. DAILY BREAD . . . . . 213 + LXXXVII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: VIII. FORGIVENESS . . . . . 215 + LXXXVIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: IX. TEMPTATIONS . . . . . . 217 + LXXXIX. SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST . . . . . . . . . . . 219 + XC. OPEN OUR EYES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 + XCI. THE WORD MADE FLESH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 + +LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 + + + + +{1} + +Mornings in a College Chapel + + +I + +THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES + +_Hebrews_ xii. 1. + +(FIRST DAY OF COLLEGE TERM) + +No one can look for the first time into the faces of a congregation +like this without thinking, first of all, of the great multitude of +other lives whose love and sacrifice are represented here. Almost +every single life which enters our chapel is the focus of interest for +a whole domestic circle, whose prayers and anxieties, whose hopes and +ambitions, are turning toward this place from every region of this +land. Out from behind our congregation stands in the background a +cloud of witnesses in whose presence we meet. There are the fathers, +earning and saving, that the sons may have a {2} better chance than +they; there are the mothers with their prayers and sacrifices; there +are the rich parents, trembling lest wealth may be a snare to their +sons; and the humble homes with their daily deeds of self-denial for +the sake of the boys who come to us here. When we meet in this chapel +we are never alone. We are the centre of a great company of observant +hearts. And then, behind us all, there is the still larger fellowship +of the past, the historic traditions of the university, the men who +have adorned it, the inheritances into which we freely enter, the +witnesses of a long and honorable associated life. + +Now this great company of witnesses does two things for us. On the one +hand, it brings responsibility. The apostle says in this passage, +"that apart from us they should not be made perfect." Every work of +the past is incomplete unless the present sustains it. We are +responsible for this rich tradition. We inherit the gift to use or to +mar. But, on the other hand, the cloud of witnesses is what +contributes courage. It sustains you to know that you represent so +much confidence and trust. It is strengthening to enter into this rich +inheritance. You do not have to begin things {3} here. You only have +to keep them moving. It is a great blessing to be taken up thus out of +solitude into the companionship of generous souls. Let us begin the +year soberly but bravely. Surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let +us lay aside every weight, and the sin which most easily besets us, and +let us run with patience the race that is immediately set before us in +the swiftly passing days of this college year. + + + + +{4} + +II + +"NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, BUT TO MINISTER" + +_Mark_ x. 35-45. + +The disciples in this passage were looking at their faith to see what +they could get out of it. They wanted to be assured of a prize before +they took a risk. They came to Jesus saying: "We would that Thou +shouldest do for us whatever we ask." But Jesus bids them to consider +rather what they can do for their faith. "Whosoever," He says, "would +be first, is to be the servant for all, for even the Son of man comes +not to be ministered unto, but to minister." I suppose that when a man +faces a new year of college life, his first thought is of what it can +do for him. He has studied the college programme, asking himself: +"What can I get out of this?" and now he looks into the year, with all +its unknown chances, and asks of it: "O unknown year, what happiness +and friendship and instruction may I get from you? Will you not bring +to {5} pass what I desire? I would that thou shouldest do for me +whatever I ask." Then the spirit of Jesus Christ meets him here and +turns his question round: "What are you going to do for the college +during this coming year? Are you going to help us in our morals, in +our intellectual life, in our religion? Are you going to contribute to +the higher life of the university? For what do you come here,--to be +ministered unto, or to minister?" + +Of course a man may answer that this is an impossible test; that there +is nothing that he can give to a great place like this, and everything +he can receive. But he little knows how the college from year to year +gets marked for good or evil by a class, or a group within a class, or +sometimes a few persons, as they pass in and out of our gates. +Sometimes a group of young men live for a few years among us and leave +behind them a positively malarial influence; and some times a few quiet +lives, simply and modestly lived among us, actually sweeten and purify +our climate for years together. And so in the quiet of our prayers we +give ourselves, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. {6} +Nowhere in the world is it more true that we are members one of +another, and that the whole vast institutional life is affected by each +slightest individual. Nowhere in this world is there a better chance +to purify the spirit and tone, either of work or of sport, and nowhere +can a man discover more immediately the happiness of being of use. The +recreation and the religion, the study and the play, of our associated +life, are waiting for the dedication of unassuming Christian men to a +life which offers itself, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. + + + + +{7} + +III + +THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER + +_John_ xvii. 22. + +This was the glory which Jesus Christ claimed for himself--to take the +glory of God and glorify with it the life of man. "The glory that thou +hast given me I have given them." It was not a glory of possession, +but a glory of transmission. It was not his capacity to receive which +glorified him, it was his capacity to give. In most of the great +pictures of the glorified Christ there is a halo of light encircling +and illuminating his face. That is the fictitious glory, the glory of +possession. In a few such paintings the light streams from the +Master's face to illuminate the other figures of the scene. That is +the real glory, the glory of transmission. + +And such is the only glory in life. A man looks at learning or power +or refinement or wealth and says: "This is glory; this is success; this +is the pride of life." But there is really nothing glorious about +possession. It may be most inglorious and mean,--as {8} mean when the +possession is brains or power as when it is bonds or wheat. Indeed, +there is rarely much that is glorious or great about so slight or +evanescent a thing as a human life. The glory of it lies in its being +able to say, "The glory that thou hast given me I give to them." The +worth of life is in its transmissive capacity. In the wonderful system +of the telephone with its miracle of intercommunication there is, as +you know, at each instrument that little film of metal which we call +the transmitter, into which the message is delivered, and whose +vibrations are repeated scores of miles away. Each human life is a +transmitter. Take it away from its transmissive purpose, and what a +poor insignificant film a human life may be. But set it where it +belongs, in the great system where it has its part, and that +insignificant film is dignified with a new significance. It is as if +it said to its God: "The message which Thou givest me I give to them," +and every word of God that is spoken into it is delivered through it to +the lives that are wearily waiting for the message as though it were +far away. + + + + +{9} + +IV + +LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE + +_Matthew_ v. 16. + +At the first reading there certainly seems to be something of +self-assertion and self-display about this passage, as if it said: "Let +your light so shine that people may see how much good you do." But, of +course, nothing could be farther than this from the spirit of Jesus. +Indeed, his meaning is the precise opposite of this. For he is +speaking not of a light which is to illuminate you, but of a light +which is to shine from you upon your works; so that they, and not you, +are seen, and the glory is given, not to you, but to God. Such a light +will hide you rather than exhibit you, as when one holds a lantern +before him on some dark road, so that while the bearer of the lantern +is in the darkness, the path before him is thrown into the light. The +passage, then, which seems to suggest a doctrine of self-display, is +really a teaching of self-effacement. Here is a railway-train +thundering along some evening {10} toward a broken bridge, and the +track-walker rushes toward it with his swinging lantern, as though he +had heard the great command, "Let your light shine before men;" and the +train comes to a stop and the passengers stream out and see the peril +that they have just escaped, and give thanks to their Father which is +in heaven. And this is the reward of the plain, unnoticed man as he +trudges home in the dark,--that he has done his duty well that night. +He has not been seen or praised; he has been in the shadow; but he has +been permitted to let his little light shine and save; and he too gives +thanks to his Father in heaven. + +Here, again, is a lighthouse-keeper on the coast. The sailor in the +darkness cannot see the keeper, unless indeed the shadow of the keeper +obscures for a moment the light. What the sailor sees is the light; +and he thanks, not the keeper, but the power that put the light on that +dangerous rock. So the light-keeper tends his light in the dark, and a +very lonely and obscure life it is. No one mounts the rock to praise +him. The vessels pass in the night with never a word of cheer. But +the life of the keeper gets its dignity, not {11} because he shines, +but because his light guides other lives; and many a weary captain +greets that twinkling light across the sea, and seeing its good work +gives thanks to his Father which is in heaven. + + + + +{12} + +V + +THE CENTURION + +_Matthew_ viii. 5-11. + +One of the most interesting things to observe in the New Testament is +the series of persons who just come into sight for a moment through +their relation to the life of Jesus Christ, and are, as it were, +illuminated by that relationship, and then, as they pass out of the +light again, disappear into obscurity. They are like some +western-fronting window on which the slanting sun shines for a moment, +so that we see the reflection miles away. Then, with the same +suddenness, the angle of reflection changes, and the window grows dark +and insignificant once more. This centurion was such a person. Jesus +perhaps never met him before, and we never hear of him again, and yet, +in the single phrase, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in +Israel," Jesus stamps him with a special character and welcomes him +with a peculiar confidence. How is it that there is given to him this +abrupt {13} commendation? Why does Jesus say that he shows more faith +than Israel itself? It was, of course, because of the man's attitude +of mind. He comes to Jesus just as a soldier comes to his superior +officer. He has been disciplined to obedience, and that habit of +obedience to his own superiors is what gives him in his turn authority. +He obeys, and he expects to be obeyed. He is under authority, and so +he has authority over his own troops, and says to one soldier Go, and +to another Come, and they obey. Now Jesus sees in an instant that this +is just what he wants of his disciples. What discipline is to a +soldier, faith is to a Christian. A religious man is a man who is +under authority. He goes to his commander and gets orders for the day. +He does not pretend to know everything about his commander's plans. It +is not for him to arrange the great campaign. It is for him only to +obey in his own place, and to take his own part in the great design. +Perhaps in the little skirmish in which he is involved there may be +defeat, but perhaps that defeat is to count in the victory for the +larger plan. Thus the religious man does not serve on his own account. +He is in the hands of a general, who overlooks {14} the whole field. +And that sense of being under authority is what gives the religious man +authority in his turn. He is not the slave of his circumstances; he is +the master of them. He takes command of his own detachment of life, +because he has received command from the Master of all life. He says +to his passions, Go; and to his virtues, Come; and to his duty, Do +this; and the whole little company of his own ambitions and desires +fall into line behind him, because he is himself a man under authority. +That is a soldier's discipline, and that is a Christian's faith. + + + + +{15} + +VI + +SPIRITUAL ATHLETICS + +1 _Timothy_ iv. 8. + +There is this great man writing to his young friend, whom he calls "his +own son in the faith," and describing religion as a branch of +athletics. Bodily exercise, he says, profiteth somewhat. It is as if +an old man were writing to a young man today, and should begin by +saying: "Do not neglect your bodily health; take exercise daily; go to +the gymnasium." But spiritual exercise, this writer goes on, has this +superior quality, that it is good for both worlds, both for that which +now is, and that which is to come. Therefore, "exercise unto +godliness." "Take up those forms of spiritual athletics which develop +and discipline the soul. Keep your soul in training. Be sure that you +are in good spiritual condition, ready for the strain and effort which +life is sure to demand." We are often told in our day that the +athletic ideal is developed to excess, but the teaching of this passage +is just the opposite of {16} the modern warning. Paul tells this young +man that he has not begun to realize the full scope of the athletic +ideal. Is not this the real difficulty now? We have, it is true, come +to appreciate exercise so far as concerns the body, and any +healthy-minded young man to-day is almost ashamed of himself if he has +not a well developed body, the ready servant of an active will. We +have even begun to appreciate the analogy of body and mind, and to +perceive that the exercise and discipline of the mind, like that of the +body, reproduces its power. Much of the study which one does in his +education is done with precisely the same motive with which one pulls +his weights and swings his clubs; not primarily for the love of the +things studied, but for the discipline and intellectual athletics they +promote. And yet it remains true that a great many people fancy that +the soul can be left without exercise; that indeed it is a sort of +invalid, which needs to be sheltered from exposure and kept indoors in +a sort of limp, shut-in condition. There are young men in the college +world who seem to feel that the life of faith is too delicate to be +exposed to the sharp climate of the world of scholarship and {17} have +not begun to think of it as strengthened by exposure and fortified by +resistance. + +Now the apostolic doctrine is this: "You do not grow strong in body or +in mind without discipline and exercise. The same athletic demand is +made on your soul." All through the writings of this vigorous, +masculine, robust adviser of young men, you find him taking the +athletic position. Now he is a boxer: "So fight I not as one that +beateth the air." Now he is a runner, looking not to the things that +are behind, but to the things before, and running, not in one sharp +dash, but, with patience, the race set before him. It is just as +athletic a performance, he thinks, to wrestle with the princes of the +darkness of this world, as to wrestle with a champion. It needs just +as rigorous a training to pull against circumstances as to pull against +time. It appears to him at least not unreasonable that the supreme +interest of an immortal soul should have from a man as much attention +and development as a man gives to his legs, or his muscle, or his wind. + + + + +{18} + +VII + +THE RHYTHM OF LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiv. 23. + +One of the most striking passages in modern literature is the paragraph +in Mr. Spencer's First Principles, in which he describes the rhythm of +motion. Motion, he says, though it seems to be continuous and steady, +is in fact pulsating, undulatory, rhythmic. There is everywhere +intermittent action and rest. The flag blown by the breeze floats out +in undulations; then the branches oscillate; then the trees begin to +sway; everywhere there is action and pause, the rhythm of motion. + +The same law holds good of the conduct of life. Its natural method is +rhythmic, intermittent, work alternating with rest, activity and +receptivity succeeding one another, the rhythm of life. The steady +strain, the continuous uniformity of life, is what kills. Work +unrelieved by play, and play unrefreshed by work, grow equally stale +and dull. Activity without reflection loses its grasp; meditation {19} +without action sinks into a dream. Jesus in this passage had been +absorbed in the most active and outward-going ministry; and then, as +the evening comes, he turns away and goes up into the mountain and is +there alone in prayer. + +We need to take account of this law of the rhythm of life. Most of the +time we are very much absorbed in busy, outward-looking activity, +overwhelmed with engagements and hurry and worry; and then in the midst +of this active life there stands the chapel with its summons to us to +pause and give the reflective life its chance. That is one of the +chief offices of religion in this preposterously busy age. Religion +gives one at least a chance to stop and let God speak to him. It sends +the multitudes away and takes one up into the solitude of the soul's +communication with God. One of our Cambridge naturalists told me once +of an experiment he had made with a pigeon. The bird had been born in +a cage and had never been free; and one day his owner took him out on +the porch of the house and flung the bird into the air. To the +naturalist's surprise the bird's capacity for flight was perfect. +Round and round he flew {20} as if born in the air; but soon his flight +grew excited, panting, and his circles grew smaller, until at last he +dashed full against his master's breast and fell on the ground. What +did it mean? It meant that, though the bird had inherited the instinct +for flight, he had not inherited the capacity to stop, and if he had +not risked the shock of a sudden halt, he would have panted his little +life out in the air. Is not that a parable of many a modern +life,--completely endowed with the instinct of action, but without the +capacity to stop? Round and round life goes, in its weary circle, +until it is almost dying at full speed. Any shock, even some severe +experience, is a mercy if it checks this whirl. Sometimes God stops +such a soul abruptly by some sharp blow of trouble, and the soul falls +in despair at his feet, and then He bends over it and says: "Be still +my child; be still, and know that I am God!" until by degrees the +despair of trouble is changed into submission and obedience, and the +poor, weary, fluttering life is made strong to fly again. + + + + +{21} + +VIII + +"THAT OTHER DISCIPLE" + +_John_ xx. 8. + +About fifty years ago, one of the most distinguished of New England +preachers, Horace Bushnell, preached a very famous sermon on the +subject of "Unconscious Influence," taking for his text this verse: +"Then went in also that other disciple." The two disciples had come +together, as the passage says, to the sepulchre, but that other +disciple, though he came first, hesitated to go in, until the impetuous +Peter led the way, and "then went in also that other disciple." + +There are always these two ways of exerting an influence on another's +life, the ways of conscious and unconscious influence. A few persons +in a community have the strength of positive leadership. They devise +and guide public opinion, and may be fairly described as personal +influences. But such real leaders are few. Most of us cannot expect +to stand in our community like the centurion of the {22} Gospel and say +to one man: Come, and he cometh; and to another: Go, and he goeth; and +to a third: Do this, and he doeth it. Most of us must take to +ourselves what one of our professors said to a body of students: "Be +sure to lend your influence to any good object; but do not lend your +influence until you have it." On the other hand, however, there is for +all of us an unavoidable kind of influence; the unconscious effect on +another's life, made not by him who preaches, or poses, or undertakes +to be a missionary, but simply by the man who goes his own way, and so +demonstrates that it is the best way for others to follow. That is +what Laurence Oliphant once called, "living the life;" the kind of +conduct which does not drive, but draws. + +Peter might have stood before the sepulchre, and tried all in vain to +influence and urge his friend to come in with him, but instead of this +he simply enters, and then, without any conscious persuasion on his +part, that other disciple enters too. So it is that a man to-day just +takes his stand among us in some issue of duty, not dragging in allies +to help him, but quietly standing on his own isolated conviction, and +some day "that other {23} disciple" just comes and stands by him for +the right. Or a man is passing some morning the door of this Chapel, +and just slips in and says his prayer, and falls into the habit of +worship from which he had of late been falling out, and some day as he +sits here, as he supposes, quite out of the circle of his friends, he +turns and finds "that other disciple" sitting by his side. Or a man +enters just a little way into the power of the religious life, just +enough to feel how incomplete is his faith, and how little he can do +for any one else, and one day as he gropes his way toward the light he +feels a hand reaching out to his, and "that other disciple" gives +himself to be guided by the strength which had seemed to its possessor +until that moment weakness. Here is the encouragement and the +interpretation of many an insignificant and apparently ineffective +life. Positive and predetermined influence few of us can boast of +possessing, but this unconscious influence not one of us can escape. +And indeed, that is the profounder leadership even of the greatest +souls. One of the most extraordinary traits in the ministry of Jesus +Christ is his undesigned persuasiveness. He does not seem to expect +{24} a generally accepted influence. He recognizes that there are +whole groups of souls whom he cannot reach. Only they who have ears to +hear, he says, can hear him. He just goes his own great way, +misinterpreted, persecuted; and at last the world perceives that it is +the way to go, and falls into line behind him. When he puts forth his +sheep, he goes before them, and they follow him. It is simply the +contagion of personality, the magnetism of soul, the spiritual law of +attraction, which draws a little soul toward a great soul, as a planet +is drawn in its orbit round the sun. + + + + +{25} + +IX + +MORAL TIMIDITY + +_John_ xxi. 22. + +The trouble with Peter in this passage is the sense of his own +incapacity. Jesus comes to him with the great command: "Feed my lambs; +feed my sheep;" as though Peter were appointed to take the lead among +his followers. And then Peter shrinks back, not because of +disinclination, but because of sheer self-distrust. Who is he that he +should assume the leadership? He has failed once, perhaps he may fail +again. "Lord," he says, "there is John; is not he the man to lead? He +never made a mistake as I did. What is he to do?" And then Jesus +says: "What is that to thee? The question is not whether you are the +best man to do this thing. You are simply called to do it as best you +can. If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? +Follow thou me." + +There is a great deal of this moral timidity in college life. Any man +of reasonable {26} modesty sees about him plenty of men better able to +be leaders in good service than he is. It seems audacious for him to +pose as fit to lead. "There is John," he says, "a far better man than +I; what is he to do?" Then the spirit of Jesus again answers: "What is +that to thee?" Here is the thing to be done, the stand to be taken, +and here are you. Of course, there is much that you cannot do. Of +course there are many that might do it better. But the call happens to +be to you: "Follow thou me." It is not a call to any exciting or +dramatic service. It is simply the demand that one takes his life just +as it is, and gives it as he can to the service of Christ. "Feed my +sheep, feed my lambs;" give yourself to humble and modest service; live +your own life without much anticipation of influence or effectiveness; +with all your insufficiency and frequent stumbling, follow thou me; and +in that simple following you are showing better than by all eloquence +or argument how others ought to go, and you are helping and +strengthening us all. + + + + +{27} + +X + +THE HEAVENLY VISION + +_Acts_ xxvi. 19. + +The great transformation in St. Paul from a persecutor to an apostle of +Christianity was a sudden revelation. He saw a heavenly vision and was +not disobedient unto it. But this is not the common way of life. It +does not often happen that character is transformed and the great +decision irrevocably made in an instant. It is not as a rule true +that:-- + + "Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, + In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side." + +Most lives proceed more evenly, without any such catastrophic change. +And yet, it is none the less true that in a very large proportion of +lives there come, now and then, in the midst of routine and uniformity, +certain flashes of clearer vision, disclosing the aims and ideals of +life, as though one should be traveling in a fog along a hillside, and +now and then the breeze should sweep the mist away, and the road and +its end be clear. {28} Now, loyalty to such a vision is the chief +source of strength and satisfaction in a man's life. Sometimes a young +man comes to an old one for counsel about his calling in life, and the +young man sums up his gifts and capacities and defects. He will be a +lawyer because he has a turn for disputation, or an engineer because he +is good at figures, or a minister because he likes the higher +literature. All such considerations have, of course, their place. But +by no such intellectual analysis is the fundamental question met. Many +men fail in their lives in spite of great gifts, and many men succeed +in spite of great defects. The fundamental question is: "Has this +young man had a vision of what he wants to do? Has a great desire +disclosed itself to his heart? Has the breeze of God blown away the +mists of his confusion and shown him his ideal, very far away perhaps, +yet unmistakable and clear?" Then, with all reasonable allowance for +gifts and faults, the straighter he heads toward that ideal the happier +and the more effective he is likely to be. When he thus follows his +heart, he is working along the line of least resistance; and when his +little work is done, however meagre {29} and unimportant it may be, he +can at least give it back to God, who gave it to him to do, and say: "I +was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." + + + + +{30} + +XI + +THE BREAD AND WATER OF LIFE + +_John_ vi. 35. _Revelation_ xxii. 17 + +Here, in the Gospel, the message of Christ is described as the bread of +life, and, here, again, in the Book of Revelation, as the water of +life. Bread and water--the very plainest, most essential, every-day +needs, the forms of nourishment of which we rarely think with +gratitude, but which on no day we go without. + +A great many people seem to think that religion is a kind of luxury in +life, a Sunday delicacy, an educated taste, an unessential food, which +one can, at his discretion, take or go without. But to Jesus Christ +religion is no such super-imposed accessory; it is simply bread and +water, the daily necessity, the fundamental food, the universally +essential and normal satisfaction of the natural hunger and the human +thirst. Let us, of all things, hold fast to the naturalness, +simplicity, and wholesomeness of the religious life. Religion is not a +luxury added to the normal life; it is the {31} rational attitude of +the soul in its relation to the universe of God. It is not an accident +that the central sacrament of the Christian life is the sacrament of +daily food and drink. This do, says the Master, so oft as ye eat and +drink it, in remembrance of me. + +And how elementary are the sources of religious confidence! They lie, +not in remote or difficult regions of authority, or conformity, or +history, but in the witness of daily service, and of commonplace +endeavor. "The word is very nigh thee," says the Old Testament. The +satisfying revelation of God reaches you, not in the exceptional, +occasional, and dramatic incidents of life, but in the bread and water +of life which you eat and drink every day. As one of our most precious +American poets, too early silent, has sung of the routine of life:-- + + "Forenoon, and afternoon, and night!--Forenoon, + And afternoon, and night!--Forenoon, and--what? + The empty song repeats itself. No more? + Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon sublime, + This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer, + And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won." [1] + + + +[1] E. R. Sill. Poems, p. 27 "Life." Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888. + + + + +{32} + +XII + +THE RECOIL OF JUDGMENTS + +_Matthew_ vii. 1. + +When Jesus says "Judge not that ye be not judged," he cannot be +forbidding all severity of judgment, for no one could be on occasion +more severe, or unsparing, or denunciatory than he. "Woe unto you, +hypocrites," he says to some of the respectable church-leaders of his +time. "Beware of false prophets," he says in this passage, "for they +are inwardly ravening wolves." No, Jesus certainly was not a +soft-spoken person or one likely to plead for gentle judgments so as to +get kindness in return. What he is in fact laying down in this passage +is a much profounder principle,--the principle of the recoil of +judgments. Your judgments of others are in reality the most complete +betrayal of yourself. What you think of them is the key to your own +soul. Your careless utterances are like the boomerang of some clumsy +savage, often missing the mark toward {33} which it is thrown, and +returning to smite the man that threw it. + +This is a strange reversal of the common notion in which we think of +our relation to other lives. We fancy that another life is perfectly +interpretable in its motives and aims, but that our own lives are much +disguised; whereas the fact is that nothing is more mysterious and +baffling than the interior purposes of another soul, and nothing is +more self-disclosed and transparent than the nature of a judging life. +One man goes through the world and finds it suspicious, inclined to +wrong-doing, full of capacity for evil, and he judges it with his ready +gossip of depreciation. He may be in all this reporting what is true, +or he may be stating what is untrue; but one truth he is reporting with +entire precision,--the fact that he is himself a suspicious and +ungenerous man; and this disclosure of his own heart, which, if another +hinted at it, he would resent, he is without any disguise making of his +own accord. The cynic looks over the world and finds it hopelessly +bad, but the one obvious fact is not that the world is all bad, but +that the man is a cynic. The snob looks over the world and finds it +hopelessly {34} vulgar, but the fact is not that the world is all +vulgar, but that the man is a snob. The gentleman walks his way +through the world, anticipating just dealing, believing in his +neighbor, expecting responsiveness to honor, considerateness, +high-mindedness, and he is often deceived and finds his confidence +misplaced, and sometimes discovers ruffians where he thought there were +gentlemen; but this at least he has proved,--that he himself is a +gentleman. Through his judgment of others he is himself judged, and as +he has measured to others, so, in the final judgment of him, made +either by God or men, it shall be measured to him again. + + + + +{35} + +XIII + +THE INCIDENTAL + +_Luke_ xvii. 5-15. + +"As they went, they were healed." The cure of these sick men was not +only remarkable in itself, but still more remarkable because of the way +in which it happened. They came to Jesus crying: "Master, have mercy +on us," and He sends them to the priest that they might show themselves +to him and get his official guarantee that they were no longer lepers. +So they must have expected that the cure, if it was to come at all, +would happen either under the hands of Jesus before they started, or +under the hands of the high priest after they arrived. But it did not +come in either of these ways. As they went, they were cleansed. Not +in the moment of Christ's benediction, nor yet in the moment of +ecclesiastical recognition, but just between the two they were healed. + +There is something like this very often in any man's deliverance from +his temptations {36} or cares or fears. A man, for instance, sets +himself to his intellectual task, but as he studies it is all dark +about him, and his mind seems dull and heavy, and no light shines upon +his work, and he goes away from it discouraged. But then, by some +miracle of the mind's working, such as each one of us in his own way +has experienced, his task gets solved for him, not as he works at it, +but as he turns to other things. Suddenly and mysteriously, sometimes +between the night's task and the morning's waking, his problem clears +up before him, and as he goes, his mind is cleansed. So a man goes out +into his life of duty-doing. He tries to do right, and he makes +mistakes; he does his best, and he fails. But then his life goes on +and other duties meet it, and out of his old mistakes comes new +success, and out of the discipline of his conscience brought about by +his failures comes the power of his conscience, and by degrees--he +hardly knows how--his will grows strong. So perhaps it happens that a +man some morning kneels down and says his prayer, and then rises and +goes out into the world, the same man with the same cares and fears on +his shoulder, as though {37} there had been no blessing from his +prayer. He passes out into the day's life all unchanged. But then, as +it sometimes happens through God's grace, as he goes, life seems +soberer and plainer, and, by the very prayer he thought unanswered, he +is healed. Not in the great hour of his petition, but as he trudges +along the dusty road of life the cleansing comes to him, and the burden +which he prayed might be taken from him, and which seemed to be left to +bear, drops unnoticed by the way. + + + + +{38} + +XIV + +LEARNING AND LIFE + +_Romans_ xii. 1. + +The letters of Paul, varied as they are in their purpose, have one +curious likeness. Each goes its way through a tangled argument of +doctrinal discussion, and then in almost every case each issues, as it +were, into more open ground, with a series of practical maxims for the +conduct of life. If you are looking for profound Biblical philosophy, +you turn to the first part of Paul's epistles. If you are looking for +rules of moral conduct, you turn to the last part. And between these +two sections there is, as a rule, one connecting word. It is the word +"therefore." The maxims, that is to say, are the consequences of the +philosophy. The theology of Paul is to him an immediate cause of the +better conduct of life. "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,"--he +says to the Ephesians. "If, therefore, there is any comfort in +Christ," he says to the Philippians, {39} "I beseech you, therefore, by +the mercy of God," he says to the Romans. + +We hear much in these days of the practical perils of the intellectual +life; the spiritual risks of education, the infidelity of scholars, as +though one who dealt much in the speculations of philosophy would lose +the impulse to the devout and generous life; and certainly there are +scholars enough whose learning has shrivelled up their souls. But the +attitude of Paul toward the general question of the relation of +learning to life is this,--that the better philosopher a man is, so +much the better Christian he is likely to be; that hard thinking opens +naturally into strong doing; that while not all religion is for +scholars, there is a scholar's religion, and while not all sin comes +from ignorance, much foolish conduct comes of superficial philosophy. +Let us take courage to-day in this natural association of philosophy +and life. The world needs piety, but it needs in our time a new +accession of rational piety, or what the apostle calls "reasonable +service." The world needs enthusiasm, but it still more urgently needs +intelligently directed enthusiasm. Remember that the same man who laid +{40} the foundation for the whole history of Christian theology and +philosophy was at the same time the most practical of counsellors +concerning Christian duty and love. He explores with a free mind the +speculative mysteries of religious philosophy, and then, perceiving the +bearing of these researches on the conduct of life he proceeds as from +a cause to an effect, and writes: "Therefore, my brethren, I beseech +you, present yourselves a living sacrifice." + + + + +{41} + +XV + +FILLING LIFE FULL + +_Matthew_ v. 17. + +The Jews thought that Jesus had come to destroy their teaching and to +abandon all their splendid history, though Jesus repeatedly told them +that his purpose was not destructive; that he wanted to take all that +great past and fill it full of the meaning it was meant to bear; to +fulfill, as this famous verse says, their law and prophets. A great +many people still think that Jesus comes to destroy. The religious +life appears to them a life of giving up things. Renunciation seems +the Christian motto. The religious person forsakes his passions, +denies his tastes, mortifies his body, and then is holy. But Jesus +always answers that he comes not to destroy, but to fill full; not to +preach the renunciation of capacity, but the consecration of capacity. + +Here is your body, with all its vigorous life. It is a part of your +religion to fill out your body. It is the temple of God, to be kept +{42} clean for his indwelling. Not the ascetic man, but the athletic +man is the physical representative of the Christian life. Here is your +mind, with all the intellectual pursuits which engross you here. Many +people suppose that the scholar's life is in antagonism to the +interests of religion, as though a university were somehow a bad place +for a man's soul. But religion comes not to destroy the intellectual +life. It wants not an empty mind but a full one. The perils of this +age come not from scholars, but from smatterers; not from those who +know much, but from those who think they "know it all." When our +forefathers desired to do something for the service of their God, one +of the first things they regarded as their religious duty was, as you +may read yonder on our gate, to found this college. And here, once +more, are your passions, tempting you to sin. Are you to destroy them, +fleeing from them like the hermits from the world? Oh, no! You are +not to destroy them, but to direct them to a passionate interest in +better things. The soul is not saved by having the force taken out of +it. It is, as Chalmers said, the expulsive force of a new affection +which redeems one from his {43} old sin. How small a thing we make of +the religious life; hiding it in a corner of human nature, serving it +in a fragment of the week; and here stands Jesus Christ at the centre +of all our activities of body and mind and will, and calls for the +consecration of the whole of life, for the all-round man, for the +fulfilment of capacity. In him, says the scripture, is not emptiness, +but fullness of life. + + + + +{44} + +XVI + +TAKING ONE'S SHARE OF HARDSHIPS + +2 _Timothy_ ii. 3. + +Here is one of the passages where the Revised Version brings out more +clearly the meaning.[1] The Old Version says: "Endure hardness;" as +though it were an appeal to an individual. The Revised Version in the +margin says: "Take thy part in suffering hardship;" take, that is to +say, your share of the hardship which belongs to the common cause. +"Come in with the rest of us," it means, "in bearing the hard times." +There were plenty of hard times in those days. Paul was a prisoner in +Rome; Nero's persecution was abroad. When the aged Paul, however, +writes to the young man whom he affectionately calls his beloved child, +he does not say to him: "I hope, my beloved child, that you will find +life easier than I have, or that the times will clear up before you +have to take the lead." He says, on the contrary: {45} "The times are +very hard. Come in with us then and take your share of the hardship." + +A great many people in the modern world are trying to look at life in +quite an opposite way. They want to make it soft and easy for +themselves and for their sons. The problem of life is to get rid of +hardness. Education is to be smoothed and simplified. Trouble and +care are to be kept away from their beloved children. Young people are +to have a good time while they can. The apostle strikes a wholly +different note. Writing to a young man of the modern time he would +say: "There is a deal of hardship, of poverty, of industrial distress +in the world, and I charge you to take your share in it! Are you not +old enough to enlist in Christ's army? At your age, college men +twenty-five years ago were brigadier-generals, dying at the head of +their troops. Take your place, then, in the modern battle. Be a good +soldier, not a shirk or a runaway." + +When that extraordinary man,--perhaps the most inspiring leader of men +in our generation,--General Armstrong, was first undertaking his work +for the negroes in Virginia, he wrote a letter to a friend in the +North, {46} saying: "Dear Miss Ludlow: If you care to sail into a good +hearty battle, where there is no scratching and pin-sticking, but great +guns and heavy shot only used, come here. If you like to lend a hand +when a good cause is short-handed, come here." Could any brave man or +woman resist a call like that? It was a call to arms, a summons to a +good soldier of Jesus Christ. The problem of a soldier is, not to find +a soft and easy place in life, with plenty to get and little to do, but +"to take his share of hardship," and as the passage goes on, "to please +him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." + + + +[1] This change of reading is finely commented on by F. Paget, _The +Hallowing of Work_, p. 57. Longmans, 1891. + + + + +{47} + +XVII + +CHRISTIAN UNITY + +_Ephesians_ iv. 13. + +We hear much in these days of Christian unity, and many programmes and +platforms and propositions are presented to us, as though religious +unity were a thing to be constructed and put together like a building, +which should be big enough to hold us all. But in this splendid +chapter religious unity is regarded by the apostle, not as a thing +which is to be made, but as a thing which is to grow. "There is," he +says "one body and one spirit; there is a unity of the faith. But we +do not make this unity; we grow up into it as we attain unto a +full-grown man; we attain unto it as a boy becomes a man, not by +discussing his growth, or by worrying because he is not a man, or by +bragging that he is bigger than other boys, but simply by growing up. +Thus, as people grow up into Christ, they grow up into unity. The +unity comes not of the assent of man to certain propositions, but of +the ascent of man to {48} the stature of Christ. And so what hinders +unity is that we have not got our spiritual growth. It takes a +full-grown mind to reach it. It takes a full-grown heart to feel it. +The unity is always waiting at the top. Religious progress is like the +ascent of a hill from various sides. Below there is division, +obstructive underbrush, perplexity; but as the top is neared there is +ever a closer approach of man to man; and at the summit there is the +same view for all, and that view is a view all round. The climbers +attain to the measure of the stature of Christ, and they attain at the +same time to the unity of the faith. + + + + +{49} + +XVIII + +THE PATIENCE OF FAITH + +_Mark_ iv. 28. + +Jesus here falls back, as he so often does, on the gradualness of +nature. Life, he says, is not abrupt and revolutionary in its method; +it is gradual and evolutionary: the seed is sown and slowly comes to +fruitage; the leaven silently penetrates the lump; the grain grows, +first the blade, then the ear, finally the full corn. The best things +in the world do not come with a rush. Some things have to be waited +for. Faith is patient. And this he says, not only against the nervous +hurry of life, which is, as we all know, cursing the American world +to-day, but also against the spiritual impatience which is to be +observed in every age. The most marked illustration of it to-day is in +our dealings with the social movements of the time. It is the +impatience of the reformer. He wants to redeem the world all at once. +As Theodore Parker said of the anti-slavery cause: "The trouble seems +to be that God {50} is not in a hurry, and I am." Thus we are beset by +panaceas which are to regenerate society in some wholesale, external, +mechanical way. When such a reformer not long ago presented some quick +solution of the social question, and it was criticised, he answered: +"Well, if you do not accept my solution, what is yours?" as though +every one must have some immediate cure for the evils of civilization. +But the fact is, that the world is not likely to be saved in any +wholesale way. A much wiser observer of the social situation has +lately said: "When any one brings forward a complete solution of the +Social Question, I move to adjourn." Jesus, let us remember, saved men +one at a time. The patience of nature taught him the patience of +faith; first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn. + +Or, again, we are afflicted in our day by the impatience of the +theologian. He wants to know all about God. It seems somehow a +depreciation of theology to admit that there is anything which is not +revealed. But the fact is that the wisest feel most the sense of +mystery. The only theology which is likely to last is one which admits +a large degree of {51} Christian agnosticism. As one of our University +preachers once said: "We do not know anything about God unless we first +know that we cannot know Him perfectly." [1] How superb, as against +all this impatience of spirit, are the reserve and patience of Christ. +Accept doubts, he says. Bear with incompleteness. Give faith its +chance to grow. First the blade, then the ear, and then the harvest. +There are some things which youth can prove, and some which only the +experience of maturity can teach, and then there are some mysteries +which are perhaps to be made plain to us only in the clearer light of +another world. + + + +[1] Henry van Dyke, D. D., _Straight Sermons_, p. 216, Scribners, 1893. + + + + +{52} + +XIX + +THE BOND-SERVANT AND THE SON + +_Luke_ xvii. 7-10. + +"We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which it was our duty +to do." It seems almost as if we must have misread this passage. Can +one who has done his duty be called an unprofitable servant? Shall one +have no credit because he has done what is right? This seems strange +indeed. But Jesus in reality is contrasting two ideas of duty,--the +duty of a bond-servant and the duty of a son. The duty of a slave is +to do what is demanded of him. He accomplishes his stint of work, his +round of necessities, his grudging service, and for doing that duty he +gets his hire and his day's work is done. Sometimes we see workmen for +the city in the roadway, doing their duty on these terms, and we wonder +that men can move so slowly and accomplish so little. They have done +their duty, but they are unprofitable servants. Now against this, +Jesus sets the Christian thought of duty, which {53} grows out of the +Christian thought of sonship. A son who loves his father does not +measure his duty by what is demanded of him. No credit is his for +obeying orders. He passes from obligation to affection, from demand to +privilege. And only as he passes thus into uncalled-for and +spontaneous service does any credit come. There is no credit in a +man's paying his debts, earning his hire, meeting his demands. The +business man does not thank his clerk for doing what he is paid for. +What the employer likes to see is that service beyond obligation which +means fidelity and loyalty. Do you do your work for wages, for marks, +from compulsion? Then, when you lie down at night, you should say: "I +have done that which it was my duty to do, and I am ashamed." Do you +do your work for love's sake, for the life of service to which it +leads, for generous ambition and hope? Then with all your sense of +ineffectiveness and incapacity you may still have that inward peace and +joy which permits you to say: "I have done but little of what I dreamed +of doing, but I have tried, at any rate, to do it unselfishly and +gladly,--not as a bond-servant, but as a son." + + + + +{54} + +XX + +DYING TO LIVE + +2 _Corinthians_ iv. 13. + +Paul repeatedly described his spiritual experiences under physical +figures of speech; and most of all he writes of himself as living over +in his spiritual life the incidents of the physical life and death of +Jesus. He is crucified with Christ; he is risen with Christ; he bears +about in his body the dying of Christ. "Death worketh in us, but life +in you." This sounds like exaggerated and rhetorical language. It +seems a strange use of words to say that the death of self is the life +of the world. But consider how it was with this man Paul. He had been +ambitious, sanguine, impetuous, and it had all come to nothing, and +worse than nothing. He had been led to persecute the very faith which +he had soon found to be God's truth. And then he gives up everything. +He throws away every prospect of honor and public respect and social +ambition. He simply dies to himself, and gives himself {55} to the +service of Christ; and, behold, that death of self is the beginning of +life and courage to generation after generation of Christian followers. + +The same story might be told of many a man. Just in proportion as +self-seeking dies, life begins. A man goes his way in self-assertion, +self-display, the desire to make an impression, and he seems to achieve +much. He gets distinction, glory, the prizes of life. But one thing +he fails to do; he fails to quicken spiritual life in others. His work +is stained by self-consciousness, and becomes incapable of inspiration. +It is life to him, but death to the things that are trusted to him. +Then some day he absolutely forgets himself in his work. He buries +himself, as we say, in it. His conceit and ambition die, and then out +of the death of self comes the life of the world he serves. That is +the paradox of life. Life is reproduced by sacrifice. The life that +is lost is the only life that is saved. The dead self is the only +life-bearer. Only the man who thus sinks himself in his cause is +remembered as its apostle. + + + + +{56} + +XXI + +CARRYING YOUR OWN CROSS + +_Mark_ viii. 34. + +"If any man will come after me," says Jesus, "let him take up his cross +and follow." Notice that it is his own cross. This is a different +picture of Christian discipleship from that which is commonly +presented. We are used to thinking of people as abandoning their own +lives, their passions and desires, their own weakness and their own +strength, and turning to the one support and safety of the cross of +Jesus Christ. We remember that familiar picture of the woman who has +been almost overwhelmed in the sea of trouble, and is finally cast up +by the waves of life upon the rock where she clings to the cross which +is set there as a refuge for her shipwrecked soul. Now, no doubt, that +refuge in the cross of Christ has been to many a real experience. +"Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee," has been, +no doubt, often a sincere confession. But that is not the {57} state +of mind which Jesus is describing in this passage. He is thinking, not +of some limp and helpless soul clinging to something outside itself, +but rather of a masculine, vigorous, rational life, which shoulders its +own responsibility and trudges along under it. Jesus says that if a +man wants to follow him, he must first of all take up his own burden +like a man. He sees, for instance, a young man to-day beset by his own +problems and difficulties,--his poverty, his temper, his sin, his +timidity, his enemies; and Jesus says to him: "That is your cross, your +own cross. Now, do not shirk it, or dodge it, or lie down on it, or +turn from it to my cross. First of all, take up your own; let it lie +on your shoulder; and then stand up under it like a man and come to me; +and as you thus come, not limply and feebly, but with the step--even +let it be the staggering step--of a man who is honestly bearing his own +load, you will find that your way opens into strength and peace. The +yoke you have to carry will grow easier for you to carry, and the +burden which you do not desire to shirk will be made light." + + + + +{58} + +XXII + +THE POOR IN SPIRIT + +_Matthew_ v. 3. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? First of all, he says, they +are the "poor in spirit." And who are the poor in spirit? It +sometimes seems as if Christians thought that to be poor in spirit one +must be poor-spirited--a limp and spiritless creature, without dash, or +vigor, or force. But the poor in spirit are not the poor-spirited. +They are simply the teachable, the receptive, the people who want help +and are conscious of need. They do not think they "know it all;" they +appreciate their own insufficiency. They are open-minded and +impressionable. Now Jesus says that the first approach to his +blessedness is in this teachable spirit. The hardest people for him to +reach were always the self-sufficient people. The Pharisees thought +they did not need anything, and so they could not get anything. As any +one thinks, then, of his own greatest blessings, the first of them must +be {59} this,--that somehow he has been made open-minded to the good. +It may be that the conceit has been, as we say, knocked out of him, and +that he has been "taken down." Well! it is better to be taken down +than to be still up or "uppish." It is better to have the +self-complacency knocked out of you than to have it left in. Humility, +as Henry Drummond once said, even when it happens through humiliation, +is a blessing. Not to the Pharisee with his "I am not as other men +are," but to the publican crying "God be merciful to me, a sinner," +comes the promise of the beatitude. The first condition of receiving +the gift of God is to be free from the curse of conceit. The +spiritually poor are the first to receive Christ's blessing. They have +at least made themselves accessible to the further blessings which +Jesus has to bestow. + + + + +{60} + +XXIII + +THE MOURNERS + +_Matthew_ v. 4. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? How strange it sounds when he +answers: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." +Blessed, that is to say, are not only the people who, as we say, are in +sorrow; but blessed are all the burdened people, the people who are +having a hard time, the people who are bearing their crosses, for they +are the ones who will learn the deeper comfort of the Gospel. It is +the same promise which is repeated later in another place: "Come unto +me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This does +not mean that mourning is blessed for its own sake, or that the only +way to be a Christian is to be sad. It simply calls attention to this +fact, that every life is sure to have some hardness, or burden, or +cross in it. If you have none, it simply shows that you have not +really begun to live. And Jesus says that the farther you go into {61} +these deep places of experience, the more you will get out of his +religion. There are some phases of life where it makes little +difference whether you have any religion or not. But let the water of +trouble go over your soul, and then there is just one support which +keeps you from going down. Religion, that is to say, is not a thing +for holidays and easy times. Its comfort is not discovered until you +come to a hard place. The more it is needed, the stronger it is. How +strange it is that the people who seem most conscious of their +blessings and sustained by a sense of gratitude are, as a rule, people +who have been called to mourn. It is not resignation only which they +have found; it is light. They have been comforted through their +sorrows. Their burden has been made easy and their yoke light. + + + + +{62} + +XXIV + +THE MEEK. + +_Matthew_ v. 5. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? Again he answers: "Blessed +are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." And who are the meek? +We think of a meek man as a limp and mild creature who has no capacity +to hurt or courage to help. But that is not what the Bible word means. +Meekness is not weakness. The Book of Numbers says that Moses was the +meekest man that ever lived; but one of the first illustrations of his +character was in slaying an Egyptian who insulted his people. The meek +man of the Bible is simply what we call the gentle-man--the man without +swagger or arrogance, not self-assertive or forthputting, but honorable +and considerate. This is the sense in which it has been said of Jesus +that he was the first of gentlemen. Now these people, the gracious and +generous,--not the self-important and ostentatious,--are, according to +Jesus, in the end to rule. {63} They are not to get what we call the +prizes of life, the social notoriety and position, but they are to have +the leadership of their time and its remembrance when they are gone. +Long after showy ambition has its little day and ceases to be, the +world will remember the magnanimous and self-effacing leader. He does +not have to grasp the prizes of earth; he, as Jesus says, "inherits the +earth." It is his by right. The meek, says the thirty-seventh Psalm, +shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in abundance of +peace. The meek escape the quarrelsomeness of ambition. They live in +a world of peace and good-will. And when we sing of peace on earth and +good-will to men, we are only repeating the beatitude of Jesus: +"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." + + + + +{64} + +XXV + +THE HUNGER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS + +_Matthew_ v. 6. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? "Blessed," he goes on, "are +they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be +filled." The New Testament repeatedly states this doctrine, which +sounds so strangely in our ears. It is the doctrine that a man gets +what he asks for--that his real hunger will be filled. We should say +that just the opposite of this was true--that life was a continued +striving to get things which one fails to get--a hunger which is doomed +to stay unsatisfied. But Jesus turns to his followers and says: "Ask, +and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find," and in the same +spirit turns even to the hypocrites and says again: "They also receive +their reward." Conduct, that is to say, fulfils its destiny. What you +sow, you reap. The blessing which is sufficiently desired is attained. +What you really ask for, you get. The only reason why this does not +{65} seem to be true is that we do not realize what the things are +which we are asking for and what must be the inevitable answer to our +demand. We ask, for instance, for money; and we expect an answer of +happiness. But we do not get happiness, we only get money, which is a +wholly different thing. We ask for popularity and reputation, and we +expect these gifts, when received, to last; but we have asked for +something whose very nature is that it does not last. It is like +asking for a soap-bubble and expecting to get a billiard-ball. We +cannot work for the temporary and get the permanent. If, then, it is +true that we are to get what we want, then the secret of happiness is +to want the best things and to want them very much. If we hunger and +thirst for base things we shall get them. Oh yes, we shall get them; +and get the unhappiness which comes of this awful discovery, that as we +have hungered so we are filled. And if we are really hungry for +righteousness, if we want to be good, as a thirsty man wants water, if, +as Jesus says of himself, our meat is to do the will of Him who sends +us, then that demand also will be supplied. "He satisfieth the longing +soul," {66} says the Psalmist, "and filleth the hungry soul"--not with +success, or money, or fame, but with that which the soul was hungry +for--"with goodness." The longing soul has sought the best blessing, +and it has received the best blessedness. + + + + +{67} + +XXVI + +THE MERCIFUL + +_Matthew_ v. 7. + +Whom does Jesus call the blessed people? "Blessed are the merciful: +for they shall obtain mercy." This repeats in effect the later words +of Jesus: "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." The +merciless judgment passed on others recoils upon one's own nature and +makes it hard and mean and brutalized. The habit of charitable +judgment of others is a source of personal blessedness. It blooms out +into composure and hopefulness, into peace and faith. How wonderful +these great calm affirmations of Jesus are! They are directly in the +face of the most common views of life, and yet they are delivered as +simple axioms of experience, as matters of fact, self-evident +propositions of the reason. It is not a matter of barter of which +Jesus is speaking. He does not say: "If you treat another kindly he +will be kind to you. The merciful man will get mercy when he needs +it." That {68} would not be the truth. The best of men are often +judged most mercilessly. Jesus himself gives his life to acts of +mercy, and is pitilessly slain. This beatitude gives, not a promise to +pay, but a law of life. To forgive an injury is, according to this +law, a blessing to the forgiver himself. The quality of mercy blesses +him that gives as well as him that takes. The harsh judge of others +grows hard himself, while pity softens the pitier. Thus among the +happiest of people are those whose grudges and enmities have been +overcome by their own broader view of life. It is as though in the +midst of winter the warmer sun were already softening the frost. They +are happy, not because others are kinder to them, but because that +softer soil permits their own better life to germinate and grow. The +merciful has obtained mercy; the blesser has received the blessing. + + + + +{69} + +XXVII + +THE PURE IN HEART + +_Matthew_ v. 8. + +"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." That, I +suppose, is the highest and deepest proposition which ever fell from +human lips. Without the least argument or reasoning about it, as a +thing which is perfectly self-evident, Jesus announces that purity of +heart leads to the knowledge of God. Your character clarifies your +creed. A theologian who wants to be profound must be pure. +Consecration brings with it insight. The perfect knowledge of God is +to be attained only by the perfectly consecrated life. The human soul +is a mirror on which the light of God shines, and only the pure mirror +reflects the perfect image. What a word is this to drop into the midst +of the conflicting theologies and philosophies of the time, of the +disputes between the people who think they know all about God, and the +people who think they cannot know Him at all! Do you want to be {70} +sure that God is directing and supporting you in all your perplexing +experiences of life? You cannot see God in these things except through +a perfectly purified heart. Clarify the medium of vision, and truth +undiscerned before breaks on the observer's sight. A mile or two from +here skilful artisans make those great object-glasses with which the +mysteries of the stars are disclosed. The slightest speck or flaw +blurs the image, but with the perfect glass stars unseen by any eye +throughout the history of the world are to be in our days discovered. +It is a parable of the soul. Each film on the object-glass of +character obscures the heavenly vision, but to the prepared and +translucent life truth undiscernible by others breaks upon the reverent +gaze, and the beatific vision is revealed to the pure in heart. + + + + +{71} + +XXVIII + +THE TWO BAPTISMS + +_Luke_ iii. 16. + +THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. + +Among the persons who group themselves about Jesus, the most dramatic +and picturesque figure is certainly that of John the Baptist. There is +in him a most extraordinary combination of audacity and humility. He +is bold, denunciatory, confident; but at the same time he is +self-effacing and preparatory in his work. He never thinks of his +service as final; after him is to come a man who is preferred before +him. There is always the larger work than his to follow. There are in +him the most beautiful humility and the most absolute bravery, and this +makes perhaps the rarest combination of traits which a character can +show. It is all summed up in his doctrine of the two baptisms: the +baptism by water, which John is to bring, and the baptism by the Holy +Ghost and by fire, which is to be brought by Jesus. Water is, of +course, the symbol of cleansing, the washing away of {72} one's old +sins, an expulsive, negative work. Fire is the symbol of passion, +enthusiasm, flame. It is illuminating, kindling, the work of the Holy +Ghost. One of these baptisms prepares for the other. First a man must +be clean and then he may be passionate. First, the fire of his base +affections must be washed away and then the fire of a new enthusiasm +may be lighted. And only that second step makes one a Christian. It +is a great thing to have life cleansed, and its conceits and follies +washed away. But that is not safety. The cleansing is for the moment +only. It is like that house which was swept and garnished, but because +it was empty was invaded by tenants worse than the first. The only +salvation of the soul lies in the kindling of a new passion, the +lighting of the fire of a new intention, the expulsive power, as it has +been called, of a new affection. + +So it is in our associated life. We need, God knows, the baptism of +John, the purifying of conduct, the washing away of follies and sins; +but what we need much more is the fire of a moral enthusiasm to burn up +the refuse that lies in the malarious corners of our college life, and +light up the whole of it {73} with moral earnestness and passionate +desire for good. That is to pass from the discipleship of John to the +discipleship of Jesus, from the baptism by water to the baptism by +fire, from the spirit of the Advent season to the spirit of the +Christmas time. + + + + +{74} + +XXIX + +THE WISE MEN AND THE SHEPHERDS + +_Matthew_ ii. 1-11; _Luke_ ii. 8-10. + +One Gospel tells of one kind of people who saw a star in the East and +followed it; and another Gospel tells the same story of quite an +opposite kind of people. Matthew says that the wise men of the time +were the first to appreciate the coming of Christ. Luke says that it +was the plainest sort of people, the shepherds, who first greeted that +coming. There is the same variety of impression still. Many people +now write as if religion were for the magi only. They make of it a +mystery, a philosophy, an opinion, a doctrine, which only the scholars +of the time can appreciate, and which plain people can obey, but cannot +understand. Many people, on the other hand, think that religion is for +plain people only; good for shepherds, but outgrown by magi; a star +that invites the superstitious and ignorant to worship, but which +suggests to scholars only a new phenomenon for science to explore. + +{75} + +But the Christmas legend calls both, the wise and the humble, to +discipleship. Religion has both these aspects, and offers both these +invitations. Religion is not theology. There are many things which +are hidden from the magi, and are revealed to simple shepherds. But +religion, on the other hand, is not all for the simple. The man who +wrote that there were many things hidden from the wise and prudent, was +himself a scholar. It was like that dramatic day, when Wendell +Phillips arraigned the graduates of this college for indifference to +moral issues, while he who made the indictment was a graduate himself. +The central subject of the highest wisdom to-day is, as it always has +been, the relation of the mind of man to the universe of God. + +Thus both these types of followers are called. Never before was the +fundamental simplicity of religion so clear as it is now; and never +before was scholarship in religion so needed. Some of the secrets of +faith are open to any receptive heart, and some must be explored by the +trained and disciplined mind. The scholar and the peasant are both +called to this comprehensive service. The magi and the shepherd meet +at the cradle of the Christ. + + + + +{76} + +XXX + +THE SONG OF THE ANGELS + +_Luke_ ii. 8-14. + +We are beginning to feel already the sweep of life that hurries us all +along to the keeping of the Christmas season; our music already takes +on a Christmas tone, and we begin to hear the song of the angels, which +seemed to the Evangelists to give the human birth of Jesus a fit +accompaniment in the harmonies of heaven. + +This song of the angels, as we have been used to reading it, was a +threefold message; of glory to God, peace on earth, and good-will among +men; but the better scholarship of the Revised Version now reads in the +verse a twofold message. First, there is glory to God, and then there +is peace on earth to the men of good-will. Those, that is to say, who +have the good-will in themselves are the ones who will find peace on +earth. Their unselfishness brings them their personal happiness. They +give themselves in good-will, and so they obtain peace. That is the +true spirit {77} of the Christmas season. It is the good-will which +brings the peace. Over and over again in these months of feverish +scrambling for personal gain, men have sought for peace and have not +found it; and now, when they turn to this generous good-will, the peace +they sought comes of itself. Many a man in the past year has had his +misunderstandings or grudges or quarrels rob him of his own peace; but +now, as he puts away these differences as unfit for the season of +good-will, the peace arrives. That is the paradox of Christianity. He +who seeks peace does not find it. He who gives peace finds it +returning to him again. He who hoards his life loses it, and he who +speeds it finds it:-- + + "Not what we give, but what we share, + For the gift without the giver is bare; + Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,-- + Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." + +That is the sweet and lingering echo of the angels' song. + + + + +{78} + +XXXI + +THE SECRET OF HEARTS REVEALED + +_Luke_ ii. 30-35. + +The prophecy of the aged Simeon for the infant Christ was this,--that +through him the secrets of many hearts should be revealed. Jesus, that +is to say, was not only to read the secrets of others' hearts, but he +was to enable people to read their own hearts. They were to come into +self-recognition as they came to him. They were to be disclosed to +themselves. You know how that happens in some degree when you fall in +with other exceptional lives. You meet a person of purity or +self-control or force, and there waken in you kindred impulses, and you +become aware of your own capacity to be better than you are. The touch +of the heroic discovers to you something of heroism in yourself. The +contagion of nobleness finds a susceptibility for that contagion in +yourself. + +So it was that this disclosure of their hearts to themselves came to +the people who met with {79} Jesus Christ. One after another they come +up, as it were, before him, and he looks on them and reads them like an +open book; and they pass on, thinking not so much of what Jesus was, as +of the revelation of their own hearts to themselves. Nathanael comes, +and Jesus reads him, and he answers: "Whence knowest thou me?" Peter +comes, and Jesus beholds him and says: "Thou shalt be called Cephas, a +stone." Nicodemus, Pilate, the woman of Samaria, and the woman who was +a sinner, pass before him, and the secrets of their different hearts +are revealed to themselves. It is so now. If you want to know +yourself, get nearer to this personality, in whose presence that which +hid you from yourself falls away, and you know yourself as you are. +The most immediate effect of Christian discipleship is this,--not that +the mysteries of heaven are revealed, but that you yourself are +revealed to yourself. Your follies and weaknesses, and all the +insignificant efforts of your better self as well, come into +recognition, and you stand at once humbled and strengthened in the +presence of a soul which understands you, and believes in you, and +stirs you to do and to be what you have hitherto only dreamed. + + + + +{80} + +XXXII + +THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST + +These are the last words of most of the Epistles of the New Testament. +They are the last words of the New Testament itself. They are commonly +heard as the last words of Christian worship; the most familiar form of +Christian benediction. But what is the grace of Jesus Christ? Grace +is that which acts not for duty's sake, but for sheer love and +kindness. What is the grace of God? It is just this overflowing +benevolence. Who is the gracious man? It is he who gives beyond his +obligations, and seeks opportunities of thoughtful kindliness. What is +the grace of Christ? It is just this superadded and unexpected +generosity. + +So the life of duty and the life of grace stand contrasted with each +other. The duty-doer thinks of justice, honesty, the reputable way of +life. But grace goes beyond duty. Duty asks, What ought I to do? +Grace asks, What can I do? Where duty halts, grace begins. It touches +duty with beauty, and makes it fair instead of stern. Grace is not +looking {81} for great things to do, but for gracious ways to do little +things. In many spheres of life it is much if it can be said of you +that you do your duty. But think of a home of which all that you could +say was that its members did their duty. That would be as much as to +say that it was a just home, but a severe one; decorous, but unloving; +a home where there was fair dealing, but where there was little of the +grace of Jesus Christ. + +Thus it is that the grace of Jesus Christ sums up the finest beauty of +the Christian spirit, and offers the best benediction with which +Christians should desire to part. As we separate for a time from our +worship, I do not then ask that we may be led in the coming year to do +our duty, I ask for more. I pray for the grace of Jesus Christ; that +in our homes there may be more of considerateness, that in our college +there may be a natural and spontaneous self-forgetfulness, a free and +generous offering of uncalled-for kindness. Some of us are able to do +much for others, to give, to teach, to govern, to employ. There is a +way of doing this which doubles its effect. It is the way of grace. +Some of us must be for the most part receivers of instruction or {82} +kindness. There is a way of receiving kindness which is among the most +beautiful traits of life. It is the way of grace. No one of us, if he +be permitted to live on in this coming year, can escape this choice +between obligation and opportunity, between the way of life which is +discreet and prudent and the way of life which is simply beautiful. +When these inevitable issues come, then the prayer, which may lead us +to the higher choice, must be the prayer with which the Bible ends; the +benediction of the Christian spirit; even this,--that the grace of +Jesus Christ may be with us all. + + + + +{83} + +XXXIII + +THE EVERLASTING ARMS + +_Deuteronomy_ xxxiii. 27. + +"Underneath are the everlasting arms,"--that was the repeated burden of +the great men of Israel. They lived in the midst of national +calamities and distresses. They were defeated, puzzled, baffled. The +way looked dark. Then they fall back on the one great re-establishing +thought: after all, it is God's world. It is not going to ruin. +Changes which seemed tremendous are not fatal or final. Israel dwells +in safety, for God holds us in his arms. + +We need some such broad, deep confidence as we enter a new year. We +get involved in small issues and engrossed in personal problems, and +people sometimes seem so malicious, and things seem to be going so +wrong that it is as if we heard the noise of some approaching Niagara. +Then we fall back on the truth that after all it is not our world. We +can blight it or help it, but we do not {84} decide its issues. In the +midst of such a time of social distress, Mr. Lowell in one of his +lectures wrote: "I take great comfort in God. I think He is +considerably amused sometimes, but on the whole loves us and would not +let us get at the matchbox if He did not know that the frame of the +universe was fireproof." That is the modern statement of the +underlying faith and self-control and patience which come of confessing +that in this world it is not we alone who do it all. "Why so hot, +little man?" says Mr. Emerson. "I take great comfort in God," says Mr. +Lowell; and the Old Testament, with a much tenderer note repeats: +"Underneath are the everlasting arms." + + + + +{85} + +XXXIV + +THE COMFORT OF THE TRUTH + +_John_ xiv. 14, 16. + +Jesus says that he will send a Comforter, and that it will be the +spirit of the truth. Many people say just the opposite of this. If +you want comfort, they think that you must not have truth. Is not the +truth often an uncomforting and uncomfortable thing? Too much truth +seems dangerous. The spirit of the truth is a hard, cold spirit. +Should not a comforter shade and soften the truth? But Jesus answers +there is nothing so permanently comforting as the truth. Why, for +instance, is it that we judge people so severely? It is not as a rule +that we know the whole truth about them, but that we know only a +fragment of the truth. The more we know, the gentler grow our +judgments. Would it not be so if people who judge you should know all +your secret hopes and conflicts and dreams? Why is it again that +people are so despondent about their own times, their community, the +tendency of things? It is because {86} they have not entered deeply +enough into the truth of the times. The more they know, the more they +hope. And why is it that God is all-merciful? It is because He is +also all-wise. He knows all about us, our desires and our repentances, +and so in the midst of our wrong-doing He continues merciful. His Holy +Spirit bears in one hand comfort and in the other truth. How does a +student get peace of mind? He finds it when he gets hold of some +stable truth. It may not be a large truth, but it is a real truth, and +therefore it is a comfort. How does a man in his moral struggles get +comfort? He gets it not by swerving, or dodging, or compromising, but +by being true. The only permanent comfort is in the sense of fidelity. +You are like a sailor in the storm; it is dark about you, the wind +howls, the stars vanish. What gives you comfort? It is the knowledge +that one thing is true. Thank God, you have your compass, and the +tremulous little needle can be trusted. You bend over it with your +lantern in the dark and know where you are going, and that renews your +courage. You have the spirit of the truth, and it is your comforter. + + + + +{87} + +XXXV + +THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT + +_Ephesians_ vi. 14-17. + +In this passage the apostle is thinking of the Christian life as full +of conflict and warfare. It needs what he calls the good soldier of +Jesus Christ, and for the moment St. Paul is considering how such a +soldier should be armed for such a war. He is like some knight of the +Middle Ages, standing in his castle-yard and serving out to his vassals +the weapons they need for the battle which is near at hand. "Take all +your armor," he says. "This is no holiday affair, no dress parade. +You are to fight against principalities and powers. So take the whole +armor of God." And then he puts it into their hands. There is, +however, one curious thing about this armor. It has but one offensive +weapon. The soldier of Jesus Christ is given, to defend himself from +his enemies, the shield of faith, the tunic of truth, the helmet of +salvation; but to fight, to overcome, to disarm, he has but one +weapon,--the {88} sword of the spirit. Is it possible, then, that the +Spirit of God entering into a man can be to him a sword; that a man's +character has this aggressive quality; that a man fights just by what +he is? Yes, that seems to be the apostle's argument. Looking at all +the conflicts and collisions of life, its differences of opinion, its +causes to be won, he thinks that the best fighting weapon is the spirit +of a man's life. Behind all argument and persuasion the only absolute +argument, the final persuasion, is the simple witness of the spirit. +When a man wants to make a cause he believes in win, his aggressive +force lies not in what he says about that cause, but in what that cause +has made of him. He wins his victory without striking a blow when he +wields the sword of the Spirit. He comes like the soft, fresh morning +among us, and we simply open our windows and yield to it, greeting it +with joy. It is the air we want to breathe, and we accept it as our +own. + + + + +{89} + +XXXVI + +LIFE IS AN ARROW + +_John_ xiv. 6. + +When Jesus says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," he names +the three things which a man must have in order to lead a straight +life. Such a man must have first a way to go, and then a truth to +reach, and then life enough to get there. He needs first a direction, +and then an end, and then a force. Some lives have no path to go by, +and some no end to go to, and some no force to make them go. Now Jesus +says that the Christian life has all three. It has intention, the +decision which way to go; it has determination, the finding of a truth +to reach; it has power, the inner dynamic of the life of Christ. Life, +as has been lately said by one of our own preachers, is like an arrow. +It must have its course, it must have its mark, and it must have the +power to go. + + "Life is an arrow, therefore you must know + What mark to aim at, how to bend the bow, + Then draw it to its head, and let it go." [1] + + + +[1] Henry van Dyke, D. D., in the _Outlook_ for Feb. 23, 1895. + + + + +{90} + +XXXVII + +THE DECLINE OF ENTHUSIASM + +_Revelation_ ii. 1-7. + +I do not propose to consider the character or intention of this +mystical Book of Revelation. However it may be regarded, it is first +of all a series of messages written in the name of the risen Christ to +the churches of Asia, singling out each in turn, pointing out its +special defects, and exhorting it to its special mission; and there is +something so modern, or rather so universal about these messages to the +churches that in spite of their strange language and figures of speech +they often seem like messages to the churches of America to-day. First +the word comes to the chief church of the region, at Ephesus. It was a +great capital city, with much prosperity and splendor, and the church +there abounded in good works. The writer appreciates all this: "I know +thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil +men." It was a substantial, busy city church. What was lacking in the +church {91} of Ephesus? It had fallen away, says the message, from its +first enthusiasm. It had "lost its first love." The eagerness of its +first conversion had gone out of it. It had settled down into the ways +of an established church, with plenty of good works and good people, +but with the loss of that first spontaneous, passionate loyalty; and +unless it recovered this enthusiasm "its candlestick would be removed +out of its place," and its light would go out. + +How modern that sounds! How precisely it is like some large church in +some large city to-day, a respectable and respected and useful church, +a Sunday club, a self-satisfied circle; and how it explains that +mysterious way in which, in many such a large church, a sort of dry-rot +seems to set in, and even where the church seems to prosper it is +declining, and some day it dies! It has lost its first love, and its +candle first flickers and then goes out. + +Indeed, how true the same story is of many an individual inside or +outside the church, perfectly respectable and entirely respected, but +outgrowing his enthusiasms. He becomes, by degrees, first +self-repressed and unemotional, then a cynical dilettante. How you +wish he {92} would do something impulsive, impetuous, even foolish! +How you would like to detect him in an enthusiasm! His life has moved +on like the river Rhine, which has its boisterous Alpine youth, and +then runs more and more slowly, until in Holland we can hardly detect +whether it has any current. + + "It drags its slow length through the hot, dry land, + And dies away in the monotonous strand." + +That is the church of Ephesus, and that is the man from Ephesus, and +unless they repent and regain their power of enthusiasm their light +goes out. Ephesus lies there, a cluster of huts beside a heap of +ruins, and the future of the world is with the nations and churches and +people who view the world with fresh, unspoiled, appreciative hope. + + + + +{93} + +XXXVIII + +THE CROWN OF LIFE + +_Revelation_ ii. 8-10. + +The Church of Ephesus needed a rebuke; the Church at Smyrna needed an +encouragement. The first was a prosperous, busy church, without +spiritual vitality, and the prophecy was that its light should go out. +The second was a persecuted church, with much tribulation and poverty, +and the promise was that for its faithfulness it should have a crown of +life. And if the traveller, as he stands among the ruins of Ephesus, +cannot help thinking how its candle-stick has been removed, so he must +think of the reward of fidelity, as he stands among the busy docks and +bustling life of Smyrna. + +A crown of life! There is no discovery of experience more important in +a man's life than the discovery of its legitimate rewards. A man +undertakes to do the best he can with his powers and capacities, and +inquires some day for the natural reward of his fidelity. Shall he +have gratitude, or recognition, or praise? Any one of these things may +come {94} to him, but any one of them, or all of them, may elude him; +and all sooner or later show themselves to be accidents of his +experience, and not its natural and essential issue. Then he discovers +that there is but one legitimate reward of life, and that is increase +of life, more of power and capacity and vitality and effectiveness. +What is the reward of learning one's lessons? Marks, or praise, or +distinction, may come of this, or they may not. The legitimate reward +is simply the power to learn other lessons. The expenditure of force +has increased the supply of force; the use of capacity has developed +capacity. What is the reward of taking physical exercise? It is not +athletic prizes, or athletic glory; it is strength. You have sought +strength, and you get strength. The crown of athletic life is increase +of athletic vitality. What is the reward of keeping your temper? It +is the increased power of self-control. What is the reward of doing +your duty as well as you can? It is the ability to do your duty +better. Out of the duty faithfully done opens the way to meet the +larger duty. You have been faithful over a few things, and you become +the ruler over many things. + +{95} + +And what is the crown of the whole of life lived faithfully here? It +is not a crown of gold or gems in another life; it is simply more life; +a broader use of power, a healthier capacity, a larger usefulness. You +are faithful unto death, through the misapprehensions and imperfections +and absence of appreciation or gratitude in this preparatory world, and +then there is offered to you inevitably and legitimately the crown of a +larger, more serviceable, more effective life. + + + + +{96} + +XXXIX + +THE HIDDEN MANNA AND THE WHITE STONE + +_Revelation_ ii. 12-17. + +Both of these are Jewish symbols. One refers to that food which, as +Moses commanded, was kept in the sanctuary and eaten by the priest +alone; the other apparently refers to a sacred stone worn by the +priest, with an inscription on it known only to him. Both symbols mean +to teach that the Christian believer has an immediate and personal +intimacy with God. There is no sacerdotal intermediation for him. He +can go straight to the altar and take of the sacred bread. He wears on +his own breast the mark of God's communication. It is the doctrine of +the universal priesthood of believers; the highest promise to a +faithful church. But on this white stone, the message says, there is a +name written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. How +quickly that goes home to many a faithful life. Hidden from all that +can be read by {97} others is the writing which one bears upon his own +breast, legible only to himself and to his God. Think how hardly and +carelessly people try to judge one's life, to read its characteristics +of strength or weakness. Think how we all thus deal in hasty judgment, +stamping our neighbors as jovial or moody, generous or selfish, as kind +or stern, as sinner or saint; while all the time, deeper than any +interpretation of ours can reach, there is the central sanctuary of the +man's own soul, where is worn against his breast the real title which +to his own consciousness he bears, and which may quite contradict all +external judgments. What is written on that interior life? What is +that name you bear which no man knoweth save you;--that life of +yourself which is hidden with Christ in God? That is the most solemn +question which any man can ask himself as he bends to say his silent +prayer. + +Is it just your own name, the badge of selfishness; or is it some vow +of irresponsibility,--Am I my brother's keeper?--or is it just a sheer +blank white stone, marking a life without intention or character at +all? Or is there perhaps written there the pure {98} demand to be of +use?--"For their sakes I sanctify myself;"--or is there written on your +heart the name of God, or of his Christ, so that this interior maxim +reads: "I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me"? + + + + +{99} + +XL + +THE MORNING STAR + +_Revelation_ ii. 18-28. + +The morning star is the symbol of promise, the sign that the dawn is +not far away. Thyatira was a little place, with a weak church, with +small hopes and great discouragements, much troubled by the work of a +false prophetess, tempted by "the deep things of Satan," as the message +says, and yet to it the promise is committed, that it shall have +authority over the nations, and receive "the morning star." It was the +same great promise that had been already given to the early Christians: +"Fear not, little flock, for it is my Father's good pleasure to give +you the kingdom." It was the same amazing optimism which made Jesus +look about him, as he stood with a dozen humble followers, and say: +"Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, they are white already to my +harvest." + +There is certainly passing over the world in our day a great wave of +intellectual and {100} spiritual discouragement and despondency. What +with philosophical pessimism and social agitations and literary +decadence and political corruption and moral looseness, a great many +persons are beginning to feel that the end of the century is an end of +faith, and are not able to discern in the darkness of the time any +morning star. As one distinguished author has said: "This is not a +time of the eclipse of faith, but a time of the collapse of faith." It +was much the same in the times of Thyatira. There was the same luxury +and self-indulgence in the Roman world, the same social restlessness, +the same intellectual despondency. Now, who is it that can view these +perturbations of the world with a tranquil and rational hope? I +answer, that it is only he who views his own time in the light of the +eternal purposes of God. The religious man is bound to be an optimist, +not with the foolish optimism which blinks the facts of life; but with +the sober optimism which believes that-- + + "Step by step, since time began, + We see the steady gain of man." + +It may be dark as pitch in the world of speculative thought, but +religion discerns the {101} morning star. It believes in its own time. +It believes that somehow "good will be the final goal of ill." Even in +the perplexities and disasters of its own experience it is not +overwhelmed. It is cast down, but not destroyed. It is saved by hope. +It lifts its eyes and beholds through the clouds the gleam of the +morning star. + + + + +{102} + +XLI + +LIVING AS DEAD + +_Revelation_ iii. 1. + +Was there ever a message of sterner irony than this to the Church of +Sardis: "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead"! We may +suppose that it was a church of apparent prosperity, with all the +machinery of church life, its ritual, and officers, and committees, all +in working order; and yet, when one got at the heart of it, there was +no vitality. It was a dead church. It could show--as the passage +says--no works fulfilled before God. It was like a tree which seems +all vigorous, but which, when one thrusts into the heart of it, proves +to be pervaded by dry-rot. There are plenty of such churches +still,--churches which have a name that they are living, but are dead. +They are counted in the denominational year-book; they go through the +motions of life; but where is their quickening, communicating, +vitalizing power? What are they but mechanical, formal, institutional +things, and how sudden sometimes, like {103} the falling of a dead +tree, is the collapse of a dead church! + +There is the same story to tell of some people. They have a name that +they are living, but they are practically dead. For what is it, +according to the New Testament, which makes one live, and when is it +that one comes to die? "To be carnally minded," answers St. Paul, "is +death, and to be spiritually minded is life." "He that heareth my +sayings," answers Jesus, "hath passed from death into life." What a +wonderful word is that! It is not a promise that the true Christian +shall some day, when his body dies, pass into an eternal life. It is +an announcement that when one enters into the spirit of Christ he +passes, now, in this present world, from all that can be fairly called +death, into all that can be rationally called life. Under this New +Testament definition, then, a man may suppose himself to be alive and +healthy, when he is really sick, dying, dead. A man may perhaps, as he +says, see life, while he may be really seeing nothing but death. Or a +man may be, as we say, dying, and be, in the New Testament sense, full +of an abundant and transfiguring life. + +{104} + +And so it becomes an entirely practical question, which one may ask +himself any morning, "Am I alive to-day, or am I dead? Is it only that +I have the name of living, a sort of directory-existence, a page in the +college records, a place in the list of my class, while in fact there +is dry-rot in my soul? Or is there any movement of the life of God in +me, of quickening and refreshing life, of generous activity and +transmissive vitality? Then death is swallowed up in victory, and I am +partaking even in this present world of the life that does not die." + + + + +{105} + +XLII + +THE OPEN DOOR + +_Revelation_ iii. 8. + +A few years ago, at the first service of the college year, one of our +preachers took for his text this message to the church at Philadelphia: +"Behold, I have set before thee an open door;" and it has always seemed +to me to represent with precision the spirit of our worship here. We +have abandoned the principle of compulsion. We do not force young men +of twenty to come here and say their prayers. We simply set before +them an open door. The privilege of worship is permitted to them from +day to day, and religion stands among us, not as a part of college +discipline, but as the supreme privilege of a manly human soul. +Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Indeed, this +same text represents the spirit of our whole university life. What we +call the elective system is a method of invitation and persuasion. It +multiplies opportunities. It does not compel the allegiance of the +indifferent. He that is lazy, let him be lazy still. {106} The +university sets before the mind of youth its open door. + +And this, indeed, is what one asks of life. What should a free state +in this modern world guarantee to all its citizens? Not that equality +of condition for which many in our days plead, the dead level of +insured and effortless comfort, but equality of opportunity, a free and +fair chance for every man to be and to do his best. That land is best +governed where the door of opportunity stands wide open to the humblest +of its citizens, so that no man can shut it. + +And what is the relation of religion to the life of man, if it be not +of this same enlarging and emancipating kind? Here we are, all shut in +by our routine of business and study and preoccupation, and religion +simply opens the door outward from this narrowness of life into a +larger and a purer world. It is as if you were bending some evening +over your books in the exhausted air of your little room, and as if you +should rise from your task, and pass out into the night, and the open +door should deliver you from your weariness and your self-absorption, +as you stood in the serene companionship of the infinite heavens and +the myriad of stars. + + + + +{107} + +XLIII + +BEHOLD, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK + +_Revelation_ iii. 20. + +To the church at Philadelphia it was promised that the door should be +opened; but here was a church at Laodicea which had deliberately shut +its door on the higher life. It was a church that was neither cold nor +hot, a lukewarm, indifferent, spiritless people, and to such a people, +willfully barring out the revelations of God, comes the Christ in this +wonderful figure, standing at the door like a weary traveller, asking +to be let in. Such a picture just reverses the common view which one +is apt to take of the religious life. We commonly think of truth as +hiding itself within its closed door and of ourselves as trying to get +in to it. We speak of finding Christ, or proving God, or getting +religion, as if all these things were mysteries to be explored, hidden +behind doors which must be unlocked; as if, in the relation between man +and God, man did all the searching, and God was a hidden God. + +{108} + +But the fundamental fact of the religious life is this,--that the power +and love of God are seeking man; that before we love Him, He loves us; +that before we know Him, He knows us; that antecedent to our +recognition of Him must be our receptivity of Him. Coleridge said that +he believed in the Bible because it found him. It is for the same +reason that man believes in God. God finds him. It is not the sheep +which go looking for the shepherd, it is the shepherd who finds the +sheep, and when they hear his voice, they follow him. + +This is not contrary to nature. The same principle is to be noticed in +regard to all truth. Take, for instance, any scientific discovery of a +physical force, like that which we call the force of electricity. +There is nothing new about this wonderful power. It has always been +about us, playing through the sky, and inviting the mind of man. Then, +some day, a few men open their minds to the significance of this force, +and appreciate how it may be applied to the common uses of life. That +is what we call a discovery; it is the opening of the door of the mind; +and one of the most impressive things about science to-day is to {109} +consider how many other secrets of the universe are at this moment +knocking at our doors, and waiting to be let in; and to perceive how +senseless and unreceptive we must seem to an omniscient mind, when so +much truth, standing near us, is beaten back from our closed minds and +wills. It is the same with religious truth. Here are our lives, shut +in, limited, self-absorbed; and here are the messages of God, knocking +at our door; and between the two only one barrier, the barrier of our +own wills. Religious education is simply the opening of the door of +the heart. A Christian discipleship is simply that alertness and +receptivity which hears the knocking and welcomes the Spirit which +says: "If any man will but open the door, I will come in to him, and +sup with him, and he with me." + + + + +{110} + +XLIV + +HE THAT OVERCOMETH + +_Revelation_ xxi. 7. + +In each one of these letters to the churches there is repeated like a +refrain, a sort of _motif_ which announces the character of all,--this +final phrase: "He that overcometh." He is to receive the promise, he +is to inherit these things, he is to be the stone in the temple of God. +The reward and blessing are to be not for the shirks or runaways or +easy-going of the world, but for those who, taking life just as it is +with all its hardness, overcome it. It is the manly summons from the +soft theory of life to the principle which one may call that of +progress through overcoming resistance. + +A great many lives are spoiled by the soft theory of life. They expect +to get out of life a comfort which is not in it to give. They go about +looking, so to speak, for a "soft course" in the curriculum of life, +hoping to enroll in it and be free from trouble. They ask of their +religion that it shall make life easy and safe and clear. But the +trouble is {111} that the elective pamphlet of life does not announce a +single soft course. The people who try thus to live are simply +courting disaster and despair. Some day, perhaps in some tragic +moment, every man has to learn that life is not an easy thing, but that +it is at times fearfully and solemnly hard. Nothing is more plainly +written on the facts of life than this,--that life was meant to be +hard. Trouble and disaster, and the inevitable blows of experience, +are absolutely certain to teach this truth sooner or later, and the +sooner one learns it the better for his soul. And if life was not +meant to be easy, what was it meant for? It was meant to be overcome. +It stands before one like the friction of the world of nature, which is +always seeming to retard one's motion, but which makes really the only +condition under which we move at all. If there is to be any motion +through life, then it must be by overcoming its friction. If life was +meant just to stand still, then it might stagnate in a soft place; but +life was meant to move, and the only way of motion is by overcoming +friction, and the hardness of the world becomes the very condition of +spiritual progress. What we call the rub of life is {112} then what +makes living possible. What we call the burdens of life are the +discipline of its power. Not to him who meets no resistance, nor to +him whose shoulder is chafed by no cross, but to him who overcometh is +the promise given that God will be his God, and that he shall be God's +son. + + + + +{113} + +XLV + +THE PRODIGALITY OF PROVIDENCE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +I wish to dwell for several mornings on this parable of the sower, and +for to-day I call attention to the air of prodigality which pervades +this story. There seems to be an immense amount of seed wasted. Some +of it falls on the roadway; some of it is snatched away by the birds; +some of it is caught among the bushes. Yet the sower proceeds in no +niggardly fashion. He strides away across the field scattering the +seed broadcast, far beyond the border where he expects a crop, for he +knows that, though much shall be wasted, whatever seed may fall on good +ground will have miraculous increase. There may be prodigality of +waste, but there shall be prodigality of reproduction. If but one seed +in thirty takes root in good soil it may produce thirty or sixty or a +hundred fold. + +Such is the prodigality of Providence. And it comes close to many +experiences, and {114} interprets many perplexities of life. A man +goes his way through life scattering his efforts, distributing his +energy, doing his work as broadly and generously as he can, and some +day he notices what a very large proportion of all that he does comes +to nothing. Much of the soil where he sows seems hard and barren, and +he might as well be trying to raise wheat on a stone pavement. It +seems to be simply effort thrown away. But then some other day this +man makes this other discovery,--that some very slight effort or +endeavor or sacrifice or word has been infinitely more fruitful than he +could have dreamed. It was an insignificant thing which he did, but it +happened to fall at the right time in the right place, and he is almost +startled at its productiveness. + +And so he takes his lesson from the prodigality of Providence. Of +course it will happen that the great proportion of his efforts will +come to nothing. Of course he is to be misjudged and ineffective and +barren of results; but if only one word in a hundred falls in the right +soil, if only one effort in a hundred touches the right soul, the +hundred-fold fruitage brings with it ample {115} compensation. Thus he +strides cheerfully over the fields of life with the broad swing of an +unthrifty mind, expecting that much of his seed will fall among the +thorns and rocks, but with faith that the harvest--even if he is not +himself permitted to reap it--is yet made safe through his fidelity to +that prodigal Providence which miraculously multiplies the little he +can do, and makes it bear fruit, sometimes a hundredfold. + + + + +{116} + +XLVI + +THE HARD LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +Let us look still further at this parable of the sower. There are +described in it various kinds of lives on which God's influences fall, +and fall in vain. The first of these is the hard life,--hard, like a +road, so that the seed lies there as if fallen on a pavement, and gets +no root, and the pigeons come and pick it up. We usually think of the +hard life as if it were a life of sin. We speak of a hardened sinner, +of a hard man, as of persons whom good influences cannot penetrate. +But the hard soil of the parable is not that of sin. It is that of a +roadway, hardened simply by the passing to and fro. It is the +hardening effect of habit. Sometimes, the passage says, your life gets +so worn by the coming and going of your daily routine, that you become +impenetrable to the subtle suggestions of God, as if your life were +paved. Some people are thus hardened even to good. They lose capacity +for impressions. {117} Some people are even gospel-hardened. They +have heard so much talk about religion that it runs off the pavement of +their lives into the gutter. Thus the first demand of the sower is for +receptivity, for openness of mind, for responsiveness. Give God a +chance, says the parable. His seed gets no fair opportunity in a life +which is like a trafficking high-road. Keep the soil of life soft, its +sympathy tender, its imagination free, or else you lose the elementary +quality of receptiveness, and all the influences of God may be +scattered over you in vain. + + + + +{118} + +XLVII + +THE THIN LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +The first thing which hinders God's seed from taking root is, as we +have seen, hardness,--the life which is trodden down like a road; an +impenetrability of nature, which is not a trait of sinners only, but of +many privileged souls. The second sort of unfruitful soil is just the +opposite of this. It is not the unreceptive, but the impulsively +receptive life. It is not too hard, or too soft, but it is too thin. +It is a superficial soil which has no depth of earth, and so with joy +it receives the word; but the seed has no depth of earth and quickly +withers away. This sort of soil receives quickly and as quickly lets +go. It is like that unstable man of whom St. James writes and who is +like the wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. We see the +wave come flashing up out of the general level, catching the sunshine +as it leaps and crowned with its spray, and then we look again for it, +and where is {119} it? It has sunk again into the undistinguishable +level of the sea. + +Thus the parable turns to this instability and says: "It is bad to be +hard, but it is bad also to be thin." When tribulation or persecution +arises, something more than impulsiveness is needed to give a root to +life. How strongly and serenely Newman writes of this:-- + + "Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control + That o'er thee swell and throng; + They will condense within thy soul + And turn to purpose strong. + But he who lets his feelings run + In soft luxurious flow, + Faints when hard service must be done, + And shrinks at every blow." + + + + +{120} + +XLVIII + +THE CROWDED LIFE + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +In the parable of the sower the third kind of soil is one which is very +common in modern life. The first soil was too hard, and the second too +thin, and now the third is too full. It is overgrown and preoccupied. +Other things choke the seed. There is not room for the harvest. The +influences of God are simply crowded out. And of what is life thus so +full? Of two things, answers the parable. For some it is full of the +cares of this world, and for some it is full of the deceitfulness of +riches. Care is the weed that chokes plain people, and money is the +weed that chokes rich people. Sometimes a poor man wonders how a rich +man feels. Well, he feels about his money just as a poor man does +about his cares. His wealth preoccupies him. It is a great +responsibility. It takes a great deal of time. It crowds out many +things he would like to do. The poor man says that {121} money would +free him from care, but the rich man finds that money itself increases +care. Thus they are both choked by lack of leisure, one by the demands +of routine, and one by the burdens of responsibility. And this parable +says to both these types of life: "Keep room for God." It comes to the +scholar and says: "In this busy place reserve time to think and feel; +do not let your cares choke your soul." And then it goes out to the +great scrambling, money-getting world, and sees many a man hard at work +in what he calls his field, watching for things grow in his life, and +finding some day that he has been deceived in his crop. He thought it +was to come up grain and it turns out to be weeds. He sowed money and +expected a harvest of peace; and behold! he only reaps more money. +That is the deceitfulness of riches. + + + + +{122} + +XLIX + +THE PATIENCE OF NATURE + +_Matthew_ xiii.; _Mark_ iv. 27. + +The parable of the sower, which begins with its solemn warnings against +the hard life, the thin life, and the crowded life, ends with a note of +wholesome hope. Who are they who bring forth fruit in abundance? They +are, the parable says, not great and exceptional people. The +conditions are such as any life can fulfil. It is an honest and good +heart which hears the word and keeps it and is fruitful. Nothing but +sincerity and receptivity is demanded. A plain soil is productive +enough. God only needs a fair chance. He only asks that life shall +not be too hard, or too thin, or too crowded. + +This is a saying of great comfort to plain people. And yet, even for +these, one last demand is added,--the demand for patience. If fruit is +to be brought forth it must be "with patience." The autumn comes, but +not all at once. Jesus is always recalling to us the gradualness of +nature; first the blade, {123} then the ear, then the full corn. +Nothing in nature is in a hurry. It is not a movement of catastrophes, +it is a movement of evolution. And so the last word of the parable is +to the impetuous. What a hurry we are in for our results. We look +about us among the social agitations of the day and demand a panacea; +but God is not in a hurry. Delay, uncertainty, doubt, are a part of +Christian experience. It brings forth its fruit with patience. It is +like these lingering days of spring, when one can discern no intimation +of the quickening life; and yet one knows that through the brown +branches the sap is running, and slowly with hesitating advance the +world is moving to the miracle of the spring. + + + + +{124} + +L + +THE DISTRIBUTION OF TALENTS + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the talents takes up the side of life which is not +emphasized in the parable of the sower. In the story of the sower God +is doing the work and man is receptive of his influence. In the story +of the talents God is a master who leaves his servants to do his work, +and the parable is one of activity. These men are responsible agents. +Life is a trust. That is the natural teaching of the parable. All +these men are accountable; there has been given to them that which is +not their own, a trust from God, to be used in his service. But then +enters the extraordinary teaching of this parable as to the fact of +diversity. We talk of men as created free and equal. The cry of the +time is for equality of condition, for leveling down the rich, and +leveling up the poor; for paying the genius and the hod-carrier alike; +time for time, and man for man. But this parable stands for no such +definition of {125} equality. It recognizes diversity. Some have many +talents and some have few. To each is given "according to his several +ability." Diversity of condition is accepted as a natural feature of +human life, just as the hills and valleys make up the landscape. The +parable does not make of life a prairie. + +Where then, in this diversified life, is justice, the social justice +which men in our time so eagerly and so reasonably claim? There is no +justice, answers the parable, if the end of life is to be found in +getting the prizes of this world; for some are sure to get more than +others. The justice of this diversity is found only in its relation to +God. It is in the proportional responsibility of these holders of +different gifts. Of those to whom much has been entrusted much will be +required; of those who are slightly gifted the judgment will be +according to the gift. There is no absolute standard. The judgment is +proportional. One man may accomplish less than another, and yet be +more highly rewarded, for he may do the less conspicuous duty laid on +him better than the man with the larger trust does his. The parable +humbles the privileged and encourages the disheartened. {126} There is +no distinction of reward between the five-talent man and the two-talent +man. Each has done his own duty with his own gifts, and to each +precisely the same language of commendation is addressed. They have +had proportional responsibility, and they have identical reward. Both +have been faithful, and both enter into the same joy of their Lord. + + + + +{127} + +LI + +THE LAW OF INCREASING RETURNS + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +The parable of the talents adds to its doctrine of responsibility a +second teaching. It is its doctrine of interest; the return to be +looked for from investment in the spiritual life. The economists have +a law which they call the law of diminishing returns; but Jesus calls +attention to the converse of that principle,--the law of increasing and +accelerated returns. We see this principle on a great scale in the +world of money. Money has a self-propagating quality. It breeds +money. If you should ask a very rich man how he accumulated his +fortune he would tell you that the first savings involved great thrift +and wisdom or great good luck, but that after a while his wealth flowed +in upon him almost in spite of himself. He began to get money, and the +more he got the more easily he got more. Now this law, says Jesus, +which is so obvious in the business world, is true in a much deeper way +of the {128} spiritual life. Knowledge, power, faith, all grow by +investment. Use of the little makes it much; hoarding what you have +leaves it unfruitful. Do you want to know more? Well, put what you +now know to use. Invest it, and as you seem to spend it, it increases, +and you have found the way to the riches of wisdom. Do you want faith? +Well, use what faith you have. Try the working hypothesis of living by +faith. Our ancestors in New England trading used to send out on their +ships what they called a "venture." They took the risks of business. +There is a similar venture of faith, which says: "Lord, I believe, help +thou mine unbelief." He who sends the venture of his faith over the +ocean of his life may look for a rich cargo in return. To the faithful +in the few things the many things are revealed. That is the law of +increasing returns. + + + + +{129} + +LII + +THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF WEALTH + +_Matthew_ xxv. 14-30. + +In the parable of the talents the use of money is of course only an +illustration of spiritual truth. Yet the story has its obvious lessons +about the uses of money itself. The five-talent man is the rich man; +and his way of service makes the Christian doctrine of wealth. And, +first of all, the parable evidently permits wealth to exist. It does +not prohibit accumulation. Jesus is not a social leveler. His words +are full of tenderness to the poor, but when a certain rich young man +came to him, Jesus loved him also; and when one man asked him, saying: +"Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me," +Jesus disclaimed the office of a social agitator, saying: "Man, who +made me a judge or a divider over you." Thus Jesus cannot be claimed +for any pet scheme which one may have of the distribution of wealth. +But let not the Christian {130} think that on this account the +Christian theory of wealth is less sweeping or radical than some modern +programme. The fact is that it asks more of a man, be he rich or poor, +than any modern agitator dares to propose. For it demands not a part +of one's possessions as the property of others, but the whole of them. +The Christian holds all his talents as a trust. There is in the +Christian belief no absolute ownership of property. A man has no +justification in saying: "May I not do what I will with mine own?" He +does not own his wealth; he owes it. The Christian principle does not +divide the rich from the poor; it divides the faithful use of whatever +one has from its unfaithful use. Wealth is a fund of five talents of +which one is the trusted agent; and to some five-talent men who have +been faithful in their grave responsibilities, the word of Jesus would +be given to-day as gladly as to any poor man: "Well done, faithful +servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." + + + + +{131} + +LIII + +THE AVERAGE MAN[1] + +_Matthew_ xxv. 22. + +In the parable of the talents the man that gets least general attention +is the man that stands in the middle. The five-talent man gets +distinction, and the one-talent man gets rebuke, but the two-talent +man, the man with ordinary gifts and ordinary returns from them, seems +to be an unexciting character. And yet this is the man of the +majority, the average man, the man most like ourselves,--not very bad, +and not very remarkable. As has been said: "God must have a special +fondness for average people, for He has made so many of them." Now, +the average man stands in special need of encouragement. One of the +most serious moments of life is when a man discovers that he is this +sort of man. It comes over most of us some day that we are not going +{132} to do anything extraordinary; that we are never likely to shine; +that we are simply people of the crowd. Nothing seems to take the +ambition and enthusiasm out of one more than this recognition of +oneself as an average man. Then comes Jesus with his word of courage. +"Your work," he says, "is just as significant, and rewarded with +precisely the same commendation as the work of the five-talent man." +The same "Well done" is spoken to both, and it may be that the more +heroic qualities are in the man with fewer gifts. To make great gifts +effective may be easy, but to take common gifts and make them yield +their best returns--that is what helps us all. There is not a more +inspiring sight in life than to see a man start with ordinary capacity +and to see his power grow out of his consecration. Looking back on +life from middle age, that would be the story one would tell of many a +success. One sees five-talent men fail and two-talent men take their +place; average gifts persistently used yielding rich returns, and the +promise of usefulness lying, not in abundant endowments of nature, but +in the using to the utmost what moderate capacities one has soberly +accepted as trusts from God. + + + +[1] Read also, on this and the following subject, the kindling sermons +of Phillips Brooks: "The Man with Two Talents," vol. iv. p. 192; "The +Man with One Talent," vol. i. p. 138. + + + + +{133} + +LIV + +THE OVERCOMING OF INSIGNIFICANCE + +_Matthew_ xxv. 24. + +The parable of the talents was specially given to teach Christians not +to be discouraged because Christ's kingdom was delayed. The one-talent +man is its real object, and the lessons of larger endowment are only by +the way. The one-talent man is not the bad man, for to him also God +gives a trust, but this man is given so little to do that he thinks it +not worth while to do anything. He is not the many-gifted five-talent +man, or even the average two-talent man, but he is simply the man of no +account. The risk of the five-talent man is his conceit; the risk of +the two-talent man is his envy; the risk of the one-talent man is his +hopelessness. Why should this insignificant bubble on the great stream +of life inflate itself with self-importance? Why should it not just +drift along with the current and be lost in the first rapids of the +stream? Now Christ's first appeal to this sense of insignificance is +{134} this,--that in the sight of God there is no such thing as an +insignificant life. Taken by itself, looked at in its own independent +personality, many a life is insignificant enough. But when we look at +life religiously and recognize that it is a trusted agent of God, then +the doctrine of the trust redeems it from insignificance. You have not +much, but what you have is essential to the whole. The +lighthouse-keeper on his rock sits in his solitude and watches his +little flame. Why does he not let it die away as other lights in the +distance die when the night comes on? Because it is not his light. He +is its keeper, not its owner. The great Power that watches that stormy +coast has set him there, and he must be true. The insignificant +service becomes full of dignity and importance when it is accepted as a +post of honor and trust. So the unimportant life gets its significance +not by its own dimensions, but by its place in God's great order, and +the most wretched moment of one's life must be when he discovers that +he has been trusted by God to do even a little part and has thrown his +chance away. The one-talent man thought his trust not worth investing, +and behold, the account of it was called for with the rest. He {135} +had in his hands a trust from God and had wasted it, and there was +nothing left for him but the weeping of regret and the gnashing of +teeth of indignant self-reproach. + + + + +{136} + +LV + +CAPACITY EXTIRPATED BY DISUSE + +_Matthew_ xxv. 29. + +The parable of the talents begins with its splendid encouragement to +those who have done their best, but it ends with a solemn warning and +with the stern announcement of a universal law. It is this,--that from +him who does not use his powers there is taken away even the power that +he has. The gift is lost by the lack of exercise, or as Horace +Bushnell stated the principle, the "capacity is extirpated by disuse." + +This principle has manifold illustrations. The hand or muscle disused +withers in power. The fishes of the Mammoth Cave, having no use for +their eyes, lose them. Mr. Darwin in an impressive passage of his +biography testifies that he began life with a taste for poetry and +music, but that by disuse this aesthetic taste grew atrophied so that +at last he did not care to read a poem or to hear a musical note. So +it is, says Jesus, with spiritual insight and power. Sometimes we see +a man of intellectual {137} gifts lose his grasp on spiritual +realities, and we ask: "How is it that so learned a man can find little +in these things? Does not he testify that these things are illusions?" +Not at all. It is simply that he has not kept his life trained on that +side. His capacity has been extirpated by disuse. He may know much of +science or language, but he has lost his ideals. We hear a young man +sometimes say that he has grown soft by lack of exercise. Well, if you +live a few years you will see people who have grown soft in soul, and +you will see some great blow of fate smite them and crush them because +their spiritual muscle is flabby and weak. Ignatius Loyola laid down +for his followers certain methods of prayer which he called "Spiritual +Exercises." So in one sense they were. They kept souls in training. +The exercise of the religious nature is the gymnastics of the soul, and +the disuse of the religious nature extirpates its capacity. That is +the solemn ending of the parable of the talents. From him who does not +use his power there is taken away even the power that he hath. + + + + +{138} + +LVI + +THE PARABLE OF THE VACUUM + +_Matthew_ xii. 38-45. + +It is easy to see where the emphasis of this parable lies. It is on +the impossible emptiness of this man's house. A man casts out the +devil of his life and turns the key on his empty soul and feels safe. +But he cannot thus find safety. That is not the way to deal with evil +spirits. Back they come, crowding into his life through the windows if +not through the doors, and the last state of that man is worse than the +first. If the parable had been told in modern times it might have been +called the parable of the vacuum. A man's life is a space which +refuses to be empty. If it is not tenanted by good the evil knocks and +enters it. There is no such thing as an unoccupied life. Nature +abhors a vacuum. + +Here is one of the most common mistakes of human experience. A man +often thinks that the less occupied his life is the safer it is. He +casts out his passions, he denies his {139} desires, he abandons his +ambitions, and so seeks safety. But his life is attacked by new +perils. The lusts and conceits of life cannot be barred out of life; +they must be crowded out. The old passion must be supplanted by a new +and better one. The very same qualities which go to make a great +sinner are needed to make a true saint. A man's soul is not safe when +the vigor and force are taken out of it. It is safe only when the same +passion which once threatened ruin is converted to generous service; +and the same physical life that seemed an enemy of the soul has become +the instrument of the soul. The saved life is not the empty life, but +the full life. Jesus comes not to destroy men's natures, but to fill +their capacities full of better aims. The only way to overcome evil is +to have the life preoccupied by good. + + + + +{140} + +LVII + +CHRISTIANITY AND BUSINESS + +_Luke_ xvi. 1-12. + +This is a difficult parable. There is a quality of daring about it +which at first sight perplexes many people. It is the story of a +steward who cheats his master, and of debtors who are in collusion with +the fraud, and of a master praising his servant even while he punishes +him, as though he said: "Well, at least you are a shrewd and clever +fellow." It uses, that is to say, the bad people to teach a lesson to +the good, and one might fancy that it praises the bad people at the +expense of the good. But this is not its intention. It simply goes +its way into the midst of a group of people who are cheating and +defrauding each other and says: "Even such people as these have +something to teach to the children of light." + +I once heard of a father whose son was sentenced to the Concord +Reformatory for burglary. The father stood by the bars of the cell and +heard the boy's story, and then {141} with tears in his eyes he turned +to the jailer and said: "It is a terrible sorrow to have one's boy thus +disgraced, but"--and his face brightened a little--"after all he was +monstrous plucky." So Jesus, out of the heart of this petty group of +persons snatches a lesson for Christians. It is this: "Why should not +the children of light be as sagacious as these rascals were? Why +should pious people be so stupid?" Jesus looks on to the needs that +must occur in his religion for sagacity, prudence, discretion, and the +perils that will come to it from sentimentalism, mysticism, silliness, +and he asks: "Why is it that the children of this world are so much +shrewder than the children of light?" + +How closely his question comes to the needs of our own time! Why is it +that in our moral agitations and reforms the bad people seem so much +cleverer than the good ones; that political self-seeking gets the +better of unselfish statesmanship; that the liquor dealers defeat the +temperance people; that competition in business is so often cleverer +than cooeperation in business? What does Christianity need to-day so +much as wisdom? It has soft-heartedness, but it lacks {142} +hard-headedness. It has sweetness, but it lacks light. It has +sentiment, but it needs sense. How often a man of affairs is tempted +to feel a certain contempt for the Church of Christ, when he turns from +the intensely real issues of his week-day world to the abstractness and +unreality of religious questions! How fictitious, how unbusiness-like, +how preposterous in the sight of God is this internecine sectarianism +and impotent sentimentalism where there might be the triumphant march +of one army under one flag! Let us learn the lesson which even the +grasping, unscrupulous world has to teach,--the lesson of an absorbed +and disciplined mind giving its entire sagacity to the chief business +of life. + + + + +{143} + +LVIII + +MAKING FRIENDS OF MAMMON + +_Luke_ xvi. 1-10. + +Mammon means money, and the purpose of this parable is to teach +Christians their relations to that world of which Mammon is the +centre,--the world of business interests and cares. Jesus says that +this world is neither very good nor very bad. It is simply +unrighteous. It has no specific moral quality about it. He says +further that you cannot serve this world of Mammon and serve God also. +You must choose. What then can you do in your relation to Mammon? You +can do one of three things. You may, first, make an enemy of Mammon; +or secondly, make a master of Mammon, or thirdly, make a friend of +Mammon. Many people in Christian history have made an enemy of Mammon. +They have regarded the world of business as a godless world which +should be shunned. They have run away from it to the ascetic, +unworldly life. That is the spirit of the whole monastic retreat from +the battle of {144} practical life,--a reaction full of the beauty of +self-denial, but still a retreat. The battle of life has to go on, and +the best troops have run away. On the other hand, a great many persons +have made a master of Mammon. They are simply the slaves of money. +That is the vulgar materialism of the modern world. But Jesus says +that neither of these attitudes towards Mammon is the Christian +relation. The Christian is to make a friend of Mammon; to welcome it, +and to use it, to discover the good in it and learn its lessons; to +mould it into the higher uses of life. Here is a potter working in his +clay. It is a coarse material which he uses and his hands grow soiled +as he works; but it is not for him to reject it because it is not +clean, but for him to work out through it the shapes of beauty which +are possible within the limits of the clay. Just such a material is +the modern world. It is not very clean and not very beautiful; but the +problem of life is to mould out of its uncleanness the shapes of beauty +which it contains. To run away from life--that is easy enough; to +yield to its evil--that is still easier; but to be in the world and to +mould it--that is the {145} real problem of the Christian life. And +here is the real test of Christian character. The saints of the past +have been for the most part men who fled from the world, but the saint +of to-day is the man who can use the world. He is the man of business +who amid looseness of standards keeps himself clean. He is the youth +in college who without the least retreat from its influences moulds +them to good. He is not the runaway from the world of Mammon, nor yet +its slave; he makes a friend of Mammon for the service of God. + + + + +{146} + +LIX + +COMING TO ONE'S SELF + +_Luke_ xv. 17. + +When he came to himself he said: "I will arise and go to my father." +This is one of those gospel sentences which contains within itself a +whole system of theology, a doctrine of man and of God and of the +relation of the one to the other. He came to himself. It was not then +himself that had gone away into a far country. It was an unreal, +fictitious self. He had been insane, beside himself, and now, as his +better life starts up in him, he comes to himself. As his father said +of him, he had been dead and was alive again. The renewal of the good +self in him was the resurrection of his true personality. + +How deep that goes into one's doctrine of human nature! Never believe +that the sinning self is the true self. Your real personality is the +potential good in you. The moment that good springs into life you have +a right to say: "Now I know what I was {147} made for. I have come to +life. I have discovered myself." And then there is the religious +aspect of this same self-discovery. No sooner does this boy come to +himself than he says, "I will arise and go to my father." The +religious need follows at once from the self-awakening. Nay, was not +the religious need the source of the self-awakening? What was it that +brought him to himself but just the homesickness of the child for his +father's house? His self-discovery was but the answer of his soul to +the continuous love of God. Before he ever came to himself the father +was waiting for him. Antecedent to the ethical return was the +religious quickening. That is the relation of religion to conduct. +You make your resolutions, but it is God that prompts them. Your +self-discovery is the drawing of the Father. Your true self is his +son. How natural it all is,--an infinite law of love at the heart of +the universe--that is the centre of theology; a world that permits +moral alienation through the free will of man,--that is the problem of +philosophy; he came to himself,--that is the heart of ethics; I will go +to my Father,--that is the soul of religion. + + + + +{148} + +LX + +POPULARITY + +_Luke_ xix. 37-43; _Matthew_ xxi. 17-23. + +(PASSION WEEK--MONDAY) + +The ministry of Jesus is as a whole not easy to arrange in any fixed +chronology. The order of events seems often to vary in the different +gospels, and sometimes these unstudied narratives seem in positive +conflict. But as the story draws to its close the paths of narrative +begin to converge, and as we approach the last days and enter on the +last week the incidents of each day become perfectly distinct, and one +can trace the life of Jesus as it moves on from his triumph of Palm +Sunday to his tragedy of the cross. As we enter then to-day on the +anniversary of the last week of the life of Jesus, the week before +Easter Sunday, let us glance at some of the hurrying events. And for +today consider the contrast which presents itself between the entrance +of Jesus at Jerusalem on Sunday morning, and his return to the city by +the same road on this Monday {149} morning of his last week. Yesterday +he came over the brow of the Mount of Olives, surrounded by an +enthusiastic throng, the centre of their popularity. To-day he comes +along the same road, unattended and alone, the crowd slinking away from +him, his popularity gone. And how does he bear himself through these +shillings of opinion? He simply does not manifest any consciousness of +change. He is as undisturbed by neglect as he was yesterday by +success. On Sunday, while the people were spreading their branches +beneath his feet, he looked across the valley to the city and wept as +he looked; and to-day, coming with no popular applause, he enters +straight into the city and asserts to its leaders his supreme +authority. In the midst of popularity he seems saddened, and in the +midst of neglect he seems stirred to a defiant boldness. In short, he +is unscathed alike by what seems to be success and what seems to be +failure. He goes his way through it all with his eye on that great end +which gives him peace amid the throng, and courage amid the solitude. + +That is the only way in which one can maintain himself among the +shifting currents {150} of popularity. It comes and goes like a tide. +The man who tries to lean on it is simply swept by the rising tide into +self-conceit, and then stranded by the ebb of that same tide on the +flats of despair. Popularity is as fickle as the April winds, and one +can trust it as little as he dare trust the New England climate. It is +only he who can be wholly self-controlled amid the triumphs of his Palm +Sunday who can move on with equal self-control to the bearing of the +cross with which that same week may close. + + + + +{151} + +LXI + +TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY + +_Luke_ xx. 19-38. + +(PASSION WEEK--TUESDAY) + +The Sunday of the last week of Jesus was all triumph, the Monday was +all neglect, the Tuesday was all controversy. He returns once more +from Bethany to the city, and he finds the opposition at its height. +At once he is set upon by two kinds of people and asked two kinds of +questions as to his mission and aim. One question was political, or as +we now are saying sociological. What did he think about taxation? +What was his attitude toward the government? Was he encouraging social +revolt? Was he an anarchist or a socialist? The other question was +theological. What did he think about the future life? How would +marriage be arranged in heaven? Was his theology orthodox? All this +must have seemed to Jesus malicious enough, but I think that the +deepest impression he had of such questions {152} must have been of +their stupidity. How was it possible that after months of public +teaching any one could suppose that such problems were in the line of +his intention. Here he was, trying to bring spiritual life among his +people,--the life of God to the souls of men,--and here were people +still trying to find in him a political schemer or a metaphysical +theologian. + +Yet there are questions of much this nature still being asked of Jesus. +Some honest persons are still insisting that Christ's religion is a +system of theology, and some are trying to make of it a course in +social science, and neither of them seem to notice that the last day of +general teaching which was permitted to him on earth was largely +devoted to demonstrating that he was neither a social agitator nor a +theological professor. Christianity is not a scheme or arrangement, +social or theological, like a railway which men might build either to +accelerate the business of life or to take one straight to heaven. +Christianity provides that which all such mechanism needs. It is a +power, like that electric force which makes the equipment of a railway +move. A church is a power-house for the {153} development and the +transmission of the power that makes things go. Cut off the power, and +the theological creeds and social programmes of the day stand there +paralyzed or dead. Communicate to them the dynamic of the Christian +life, and the power goes singing over all the wires of life and sets +its mechanism in motion, as though it sang upon its way: "I am come +that these may have my life, and may have it abundantly." + + + + +{154} + +LXII + +AN UNRECORDED DAY + +(PASSION WEEK--WEDNESDAY) + +We have traced from day to day the life of Jesus through the earlier +days of its last week, its triumph of Sunday, its solitude of Monday, +its controversies of Tuesday. On each of these days Jesus has come +over the hill from Bethany into the city, and has returned to the +village at night. And now we come to the last day before the Passover +and the betrayal; the last chance to meet his enemies and to enforce +his cause. What then does Jesus do on this last Wednesday of his life? +So far as we know, he does nothing at all. It is a day without record. +There is no New Testament passage from which I can read about it. He +appears to have stayed at Bethany, perhaps with his friends, perhaps +for a part of the day alone. His work was done, and he used this last +day for quiet withdrawal. + +What self-control and reserve are here! How would one of us have been +inclined to conduct himself, if he found himself with just {155} one +more day for active service? "One more day," he would have said; "then +fill it with the best works and the best words; let me stamp my message +on my time; let me fulfil the work which was given me to do." But +Jesus has no such lust of finishing. He simply commits his spirit to +his Father, and awaits the trial and the cross. And perhaps on that +unrecorded day his real agony was met, and his real cross borne. +Perhaps as he went up on that hillside, which still overlooks the +little village of Bethany, and looked at his past and at his future, +the real spiritual conquest was attained; for he comes back again to +Jerusalem on Thursday morning, not with the demeanor of a martyr but +with the air of a conqueror; and when Pilate asks him if he is a king +he answers him: "Thou hast said it." + +So it is with many a life. It has its great days,--its Palm Sundays of +triumphs, its Good Fridays of cross-bearing, and these seem the epochs +of its experience; but when one searches for the sources of its +strength, they lie--do they not?--in some unrecorded day, as the +sources of an abundant river lie hidden in some nook among the hills. + + + + +{156} + +LXIII + +THE ANSWER TO PRAYER + +_Luke_ xxii. 39-48. + +(PASSION WEEK--THURSDAY) + +On Thursday morning of his last week Jesus sends two of his friends +before him into Jerusalem to prepare the Passover meal, while he does +not himself enter the city until the afternoon. There he meets his +friends, and after the supper he takes the bread and wine and with +entire naturalness asks them, as they eat and drink, to remember him. +Then he talks with them and prays with them, and they go out again on +the road toward Bethany; and coming to a little garden at the foot of +the hill called the Mount of Olives he bids his companions wait while +he goes, as his custom was, to pray. + +We hear much discussion about prayer and its possibilities,--what we +can pray for and what God can do in return, and what is the true answer +to prayer. But what a silence comes over all such questionings when +one notices that this prayer of Jesus uttered thus {157} in this most +solemn hour was not, in the sense of these discussions, answered by his +God. It was the moment of the supreme agony of Christ. The falseness +of friends, the blindness of his people, the malice of their +leaders,--all these things seem more than he can bear. "Let this cup +pass from me," he prays, and, behold, his prayer is not accepted, and +what he asks is denied, and the cup is to be drunk. And yet in a far +deeper sense his, prayer is answered. "Thy will be done," he +prays,--not in spite of me, or over me, but through me. Make me, my +Father, the instrument of thy will; and so praying he rises with +absolute composure and kingly authority, and goes out with his prayer +answered to do that will. + +What should we pray for? Why, we should pray for what we most deeply +want. There is no sincerity in praying for things which are fictitious +or abstract or mere theological blessings. Open to God the realities +of your heart and seek the blessings which you sincerely desire. But +in all prayers desire most to know the will of God toward you, and to +do it. Prayer is not offered to deflect God's will to yours, but to +adjust your will to His. When a ship's captain is setting out on a +{158} voyage he first of all adjusts his compasses, corrects their +divergence, and counteracts the influences which draw the needle from +the pole. Well, that is prayer. It is the adjustment of the compass +of the soul, it is its restoration from deflection, it is the pointing +of it to the will of God. And the soul which thus sails forth into the +sea of life finds itself--not indeed freed from all storms of the +spirit, but at least sure of its direction through them all. + + + + +{159} + +LXIV + +AN IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY + +_John_ xviii. 28-38. + +(PASSION DAY--FRIDAY) + +The story of Friday in this last week of Jesus begins with this meeting +with the Roman governor, and certainly few persons in history would be +more surprised than Pilate at the judgment of the world concerning him. +If Pilate felt sure of anything it was that he did not commit himself +in the case of Jesus. He undertook to be absolutely neutral. See how +nicely he poises his judgment. On the one hand he says: "I find no +fault in him," and then on the other hand he says: "Take him away and +crucify him;" First he washes his hands to show that he is innocent of +the blood of this just person, and then he delivers Jesus to the Jews +to take him away. It was a fine balancing of a judicial mind, and I +suppose he withdrew from the judgment hall saying to himself: "Whatever +may happen in this case, at least I am not responsible." But what does +history think {160} of this judicial Pilate? It holds him to be a +responsible agent in the death of Jesus. He was attempting a +neutrality which was impossible. The great wind was blowing across the +threshing floor of the nation, and the people were separated into two +distinct heaps, and must be counted forever as chaff or as wheat. He +that was not with Christ was against him, and Pilate's place, even in +spite of himself, was determined as among those who brought Jesus to +his cross that afternoon. + +I was once talking with a cultivated gentleman who volunteered to tell +me his attitude toward religion. He wished me to understand that he +was in sympathy with the purposes and the administration of worship. +He desired that it should prevail. He welcomed its usefulness in the +university. But as for himself it appeared better that he should hold +a position of neutrality. His responsibility seemed to him better met +by standing neither for religion nor against it, but in a perfectly +judicial frame of mind. He did not take account, however, of the fact +that this neutrality was impossible; that it was just what Pilate +attempted, and just wherein he failed. If he {161} was not to be +counted among those who would by their presence encourage worship, then +he must be counted among those who by their absence hinder its effect. +On one side or other in these great issues of life every man's weight +is to be thrown, and the Pilates of to-day--as of that earlier time--in +their impossible neutrality are often the most insidious, although most +unconscious opponents of a generous cause. + +And so to-day on this most solemn anniversary of religious history, +while it is, as the passage says of this interview with Pilate, "yet +early," let us set before ourselves, the issue just as it is now and +just as it was then. This morning demands of any honest-minded man an +answer to the question: "On which side do I propose to stand?" It is +not a demand for absoluteness of conviction or unwavering loyalty, but +it is a summons to recognize that Jesus Christ died on this day largely +at the hands of intellectual dilettanteism and indifferentism,--the +peculiar and besetting sin of the cultivated and academic life. On +which side, then, do I propose to stand; with the cultivated neutral +and his skillful {162} questioning: What is truth? or with the prisoner +who in this early morning says: "Every one who is of the truth heareth +my voice;" with Pilate in his neutrality or with Jesus on his cross? + + + + +{163} + +LXV + +THE FINISHED LIFE + +_John_ xix. 30. + +(PASSION WEEK--SATURDAY) + +The last word of Jesus as he gives up his spirit is: "It is finished." +But was it what could be called a finished life? Was it not, on the +contrary, a terribly unfinished life, prematurely cut short, without +any visible effect of his work, and with everything left to live for? +Surely, if some sympathetic friend of Jesus had been telling of his +death, one of the first things he would be tempted to say would be +this: "What a fearful pity it was that he died so soon! What a loss it +was to us all that he left his life unfinished. Think what might have +happened if he could only have lived to sixty and had had thirty years +for his ministry instead of three!" And yet, as Jesus said, it was a +finished life; for completeness in life is not a thing of quantity, but +of quality. What seems to be a fragment may be in reality the most +perfect thing on earth. You stand in {164} some museum before a Greek +statue, imperfect, mutilated, a fragment of what it was meant to be. +And yet, as you look at it, you say: "Here is perfect art. It is +absolutely right; the ideal which modern art may imitate, but which it +never hopes to attain." Or, what again shall we say of those young men +of our civil war, dying at twenty-five at the head of their troops, +pouring out all the promise of their life in one splendid instant? Did +they then die prematurely? Was not their life a finished life? What +more could they ever have done with it? Why do we write their names on +our monuments so that our young men may read of these heroes, except +that they may say to us that life may be completed, if one will, even +at twenty? All of life that is worth living is sometimes offered to a +man not in a lifetime, but in a day. + +And that is what any man must set before him as the test and the plan +of his own life. You cannot say to yourself: "I will live until I am +seventy, I will accomplish certain things, and will attain a certain +position;" for the greatest and oldest of men when they look back on +their lives see in them only a fragment of what they once dreamed that +they {165} might do or be. But you can design your life, not according +to quantitative completeness, but according to qualitative +completeness. It may be long or short, but in either case it may be of +the right stuff. It may be carved out of pure marble with an artist's +hand, and then, whether the whole of it remains to be a thing of beauty +or whether it is broken off, like a fragment of its full design, it is +a finished life. You give back your life to God who gave it, perhaps +in ripe old age, perhaps, as your Master did, at thirty-three, and you +say: "I have accomplished, not what I should like to have done, but +what Thou hast given me to do. I have done my best. It is finished. +Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." + + + + +{166} + +LXVI + +ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION + +_Philippians_ iii. 11. + +(MONDAY AFTER EASTER) + +This is certainly a very extraordinary saying of St. Paul--that he +hopes to attain unto the resurrection from the dead. We are so apt to +think of the resurrection as a remote truth, to be realized in some +distant future, when some day we shall die and live again, that the +very idea of attaining to such a resurrection now is not easy to grasp. +But here we have a resurrection which can be attained any day. "I have +not already attained," says St. Paul, "but I press on." It is +possible, that is to say, for a man to-day, who seems perfectly +healthy, to be dying or dead, and for a man to rise from the dead +to-day and attain to the resurrection. + +And thus the fundamental question of the Easter season is not: "Do I +believe that people when they die shall rise again from the dead?" but +it is "Have I risen from the dead {167} myself?" "Am I alive to-day, +with any touch of the eternal life?" Mr. Ruskin describes a grim +Scythian custom where, when the king died, he was set on his throne at +the head of his table, and his vassals, instead of mourning for him, +bowed before his corpse and feasted in his presence. That same ghastly +scene is sometimes repeated now, and young men think they are sitting +at a feast, when they are really sitting at a funeral, and believe +themselves to be, as they say, "seeing life," when they are in reality +looking upon the death of all that is true and fair. And on the other +hand the most beautiful thing which is permitted for any one to see is +the resurrection of a human soul from the dead, its deliverance from +shame and sin, its passing from death into life. As the father of the +prodigal said of his boy, he was dead and is alive again, and in that +coming to his true self he attains, as surely as he ever can in any +future world, unto the resurrection from the dead. + + + + +{168} + +LXVII + +SIMON OF CYRENE + +_Luke_ xxiii. 20-26. + +This Simon, the Cyrenian, was just a plain man, coming into town on his +own business, and meeting at the gate this turbulent group surging out +toward the place of crucifixion, with the malefactor in their midst. +Suddenly Simon finds himself turned about in his own journey, swept +back by the crowd with the cross of another man on his shoulder, and +the humiliation forced upon him which there seemed no reason for him to +bear. + +How often that happens in many a life! You are going your own way, +carrying your own load, and suddenly you are called on to take up some +one else's burden,--a strange cross, a home responsibility, a business +duty; and you find yourself turned square round in the road you meant +to go. Your plan of life is interrupted by no fault of your own, and +you are summoned to bear an undeserved and unexpected cross. + +{169} + +And yet, how certain it is that this man of Cyrene came to look back on +this interruption of his journey as the one thing he would not have +missed? When others were remembering the wonderful career of Jesus, +how often he must have said: "Yes, but I once had the unapproached +privilege of bearing his cross for him. On one golden morning of my +life I was permitted to share his suffering. I was called from all my +own hopes and plans to take up this burden of another, and I did not +let it drop. It seemed a grievous burden, but it has become my +crowning joy. I did not know then, but I know now, that my day of +humiliation was my day of highest blessedness. + + "I think of the Cyrenian + Who crossed the city-gate, + When forth the stream was pouring + That bore thy cruel fate. + + * * * * + + "I ponder what within him + The thoughts that woke that day + As his unchosen burden + He bore that unsought way. + + * * * * + + "Yet, tempted he as we are! + O Lord, was thy cross mine? + Am I, like Simon, bearing + A burden that is thine? + +{170} + + "Thou must have looked on Simon; + Turn, Lord, and look on me + Till I shall see and follow + And bear thy cross for Thee." [1] + + + +[1] Harriet Ware Hall, _A Book for Friends_, p. 90. (Privately +printed.) 1888. + + + + +{171} + +LXVIII + +POWER AND TEMPTATION + +_Matthew_ iv. 1-11. + +All these temptations of Jesus came to him through the very sense of +power of which he could not but be aware. Here was this great +consciousness of capacity in him to do wonders, to display himself, to +get glory. How should he use his gifts? Should it be for himself, for +honor, for praise, or should it be for service, for sacrifice, for God? +The devil's temptation was that Jesus should take the gifts of which he +was conscious and make them serve his own ends of ambition or success. +The first great decision in the work of Jesus Christ was the decision +of the end to which his powers should be dedicated; the use to which +his powers should be put. + +The same fundamental decision comes to every young man in his own +degree. Here are your gifts and capacities, great or small. What are +you to do with them? Are they for glory or for use? Are they for +ambition {172} or for service? The sooner that decision is made the +better. Some people have never quite done with that temptation of the +devil. They go on trying to direct their gifts to the end of +reputation, or wealth, or dominion; and they attain that end only to +find that it is no end, and that their lives, which should have grown +broader and richer, have grown shrunken, and meagre, and unsatisfied. +Such a life is like a fish swimming into the labyrinth of a weir. It +follows along the line of its vocation until the liberty to return +grows less and less; and, at last, in the very element where it seems +most free, it is in fact a helpless captive. The man's occupation has +become his prison. He is the slave of his own powers. The devil has +withered that life with his touch. + +And then, on the other hand, you turn to lives which have given +themselves to the life of service, and what do you see? You see their +capacity enlarged through use, you see small gifts multiplied into +great powers. Few things are more remarkable in one's experience of +life than to see men who by nature are not extraordinarily endowed +achieve the highest success by sheer dedication of their {173} moderate +gifts. Their capacities expand through their self-surrender, as leaves +unfold under the touch of the sun. They lose themselves and then they +find themselves. The devil tempts these men, not with a sense of their +greatness, but with their self-distrust; yet he tempts them in vain. +Their weakness issues into strength; their temptation develops their +power. The angels of God have come and ministered unto them. + + + + +{174} + +LXIX + +LOVING WITH THE MIND + +_Mark_ xii. 30. + +In the great law of love to God and love to man which Jesus repeats as +the law of his own teaching, there is one phrase that seems not wholly +clear. You can love God with your heart and your soul; you can even +increase your strength by love; but how can you love with the mind? Is +it not the very quality of a trained mind to be unmoved by love or +hate, dispassionate and unemotional? Is not this the scientific +spirit, this attitude of criticism, with no prejudice or affection to +color its results? + +Of course one must answer that there is much truth which can be +discovered by a loveless mind. Yet there is, on the other hand, much +truth which cannot be discerned without love. There are many secrets +of literature, of art, of music, and of the higher traits of character +as well, into which you cannot enter unless you give your mind to these +things with sympathy and affection and responsiveness; loving them, as +Jesus says, with the mind. One {175} of our preachers has lately +called attention to the new word in literature which illustrates this +attitude of the mind.[1] When people wrote in earlier days of other +people and their works they wrote biographies or criticisms or studies, +but now we have what are called "appreciations;" the attempt, that is +to say, to enter into a character and appreciate its traits or its art, +and to love it with the mind. Perhaps that is what this ancient law +asks of you in your relation to God, to come not as a critic, but as a +lover, to the rational appreciation of the ways of God. Here is the +noblest capacity with which human life is endowed. It is a great thing +to love God with the heart and soul, to let the emotions of gratitude +to Him or of joy in his world run free; but to rise into sympathetic +interpretation of his laws, to think God's thoughts after Him, and to +be moved by the high emotions which are stirred by exalted ideas,--to +love God, that is to say, with the mind,--that, I suppose, is the +highest function of human life, and the quality which most endows a man +with insight and power. + + + +[1] Rev. Leighton Parks, D. D., in a sermon at the Diocesan Convention +of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Boston, May, 1895. + + + + +{176} + +LXX + +AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER? + +_Genesis_ iv. 9. + +Cain was the first philosophical individualist; the first +"laissez-faire" economist. When God asked: "Where is Abel?" Cain +answered: "What responsibility have I for him? My business is to take +care of myself. Am I my brother's keeper?" But the interesting fact +is that Cain had been his brother's keeper though he declined +responsibility for him. He refused to be responsible for his brother's +life, but he certainly was responsible for his brother's death. He +refused to be his brother's keeper, but he was willing to be his +brother's slayer. There are plenty of people to-day who are trying to +maintain this same impossible theory of social irresponsibility. They +affirm that they have no social duty except to mind their own business; +but that very denial of responsibility is what makes them among the +most responsible agents of social disaster. They deal with their +affairs on the principle that they are nobody's {177} keeper, and so +they are stirring every day the fires of industrial revolt. We are +passing through dark days in the business world, and there are many +causes for the trouble, but the deepest cause is Cain's theory of life. +"Where is thy brother?" says God to the business man to-day,--"thy +brother, the wage-earner, the victim of the cut-down and the lockout?" +"Where is thy brother?" says God again to the unscrupulous agitator, +bringing distress into many a workman's home for the satisfactions of +ambition and power. And to any man who answers: "I know not. Am I my +brother's keeper?" the rebuke of God is spoken again: "Cursed art thou! +The voice of thy brother crieth against thee from the ground." + + + + +{178} + +LXXI + +PROFESSIONALISM AND PERSONALITY + +1 _Corinthians_ xii. 31. + +The wonderful chapter which follows this verse becomes still more +interesting when one considers its connection with the preceding +passage. Paul has been looking over the life of his Christian +brethren, and he sees in it a great variety of callings. Some of his +friends are preachers,--apostles and prophets, as he calls them. Some +are teachers, some are doctors, with gifts of healing; some are +politicians, with gifts of government. The apostle speaks to them as +though he were advising young men as to the choice of their profession, +and he says: "Among all these professional opportunities covet the +best; take that which most fills out and satisfies your life." But +then he turns from these professional capacities and adds: "Be sure +that these gifts do not crowd out of your life the higher capacity for +sympathy. For you may understand all knowledge and speak with all +tongues, and if you have lost thereby {179} the personal, human, +sympathetic relation with people which we call love you are not really +to be counted as a man. You are nothing more than an instrument of +sound, a wind instrument like a trumpet, or a clanging instrument like +a cymbal." That is the apostolic warning to the successful +professional man,--the warning against the narrowing, self-contented +result which sometimes taints even great attainments and professional +distinction. Covet the best. Be satisfied with nothing less than the +highest professional work of doctor, politician, or teacher. But +beware of the imprisoning effect which sometimes comes of this very +success in professional life, the atrophy of sensibility, the +increasing incapacity for sympathy, for public spirit, for charity,--an +incapacity which makes some men of the highest endowments among the +least serviceable, least loving, and least loved of a community. "If," +says the apostle, "in the gain of professional success you lose the +higher gift of love, you are no longer a great man; you are not even to +be described as a small man. You are 'nothing.'" + + + + +{180} + +LXXII + +THE CENTRAL SOLITUDE + +_John_ xvi. 32. + +In one of Frederick Robertson's sermons he speaks of the conduct of +life as like the conduct of atoms, which have a certain attraction for +each other, but at a certain point of approach are repelled and do not +touch. There is in every large life a certain central solitude of this +kind into which no other soul can enter. Some persons fear this +solitude, some rejoice in it, but the use of it is the test of a man's +life. A very near friend of Dr. Brooks's once heard of a man who said +that he knew Dr. Brooks intimately; and this friend said: "No man ought +to say that. Not one of us knew Dr. Brooks intimately. There was a +central Holy of Holies in his life, into which none of us ever +entered." So it was. And this preservation of an inner privacy for +the deeper experiences of life is what proves a soul to be peaceful and +strong. Guard your soul's individual life. In the midst of the social +world keep a place for the {181} nurture of the isolated life, for the +reading and for the thoughts which deal with the interior relations of +the single soul to the immanent God. + + "Thyself amid the silence clear, + The world far off and dim, + His presence close, the bright ones near, + Thyself alone with Him." + +That is what makes a man strong under the tests of life. He is not a +parasitic plant deriving its life from some other life; he is rooted +deep in the soil of the Eternal. As was said of John Henry Newman, +such a man is never less alone than when alone. "He is not alone, +because the Father is with him." + + + + +{182} + +LXXIII + +IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD + +_John_ iv. 10. + +We usually notice in this story the great words of Jesus--perhaps the +deepest and richest series of utterances that have ever fallen from +human lips. Yet it is almost as striking to notice the attitude of +mind in which the woman remained throughout these wonderful scenes. +She seems to have been entirely oblivious of the situation, and unaware +that anything great was going on. + +Jesus speaks to her of the living water, and she thinks it must be some +device which shall save her coming with her pitcher to the well. Then +Jesus looks on her with infinite pathos and says: "If you only knew the +gift of God, and who it is that is now speaking to you!" But she does +not know, and shoulders her pitcher and trudges home again, reporting +only that she has seen some one who appeared a wonderful +fortune-teller, and never dreaming that the greatest words of human +history had been spoken to her, and her alone. + +{183} + +If thou knewest the gift of God!--to have had one's opportunity in +one's hands and to have let it slip; to have had the Messiah sitting by +you and not to have recognized Him; to have thought it just a +commonplace day when the most sacred revelations of God were +occurring,--that is about the saddest confession that any one can make. +And yet, that is what might happen to any one any day. No one can be +sure when the great exigencies of life are likely to occur. He looks +forward to great things to be done in some more favoring future, and, +behold, the insignificant incidents of to-day are the greater things +which he does not discern. He looks forward to the discovery of God in +some difficult intellectual achievement, and meantime the daily task is +full of revelation, and as he wakes to the morning the new day stands +by him and says: "If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is that +speaks to you today." And at last perhaps he begins to realize that +the ordinary ways of daily life are the channels of God's revelation, +and then there + + "Comes to soul and sense + The feeling which is evidence + +{184} + + That very near about us lies + The realm of spiritual mysteries. + With smile of trust and folded hands, + The passive soul in waiting stands, + To feel, as flowers the sun and dew. + The one true life its own renew." + + + + +{185} + +LXXIV + +THE WEDDING GARMENT + +_Matthew_ xxii. 11-14. + +Here is a man who has the feast offered to him, but is not clothed to +meet it. He is unprepared and is therefore cast out. He does not wear +the wedding garment and therefore is not fit for the wedding feast. +This seems at first sight harsh treatment; but one soon remembers that +it was the custom of an Oriental feast to offer the guest at his +entrance a robe fit for the occasion. "Bring forth the best robe," +says the father of the prodigal, "and put it on him." This man had had +offered to him the opportunity of personal preparation and had refused +it. He wanted to share the feast, but he wanted to share it on his own +terms. He pressed into the happiness without the personal preparedness +which made that happiness possible. + +Every man in this way makes his own world. The habit of his life +clothes him like a garment, and only he who wears the wedding garment +{186} is at home at the wedding feast. The same circumstances are to +one man beautiful and to another, at his side, demoralizing. You may +have prosperity and it may be a source of happiness, or the same +prosperity and it may be a source of peril. You may be at a college +and it may be either regenerating to you, or pernicious in its +influence, according as you are clothed or unclothed with the right +habit of mind. God first asks for your heart and then offers you his +world. The wedding feast is for him alone who has accepted the wedding +garment. + + + + +{187} + +LXXV + +THE ESCAPE FROM DESPONDENCY + +1 _Kings_ xix. 1-13. + +This is God's word to man's despondency; and when we strip this man's +story of its Orientalism, it is really the story of many a discouraged, +despondent man of to-day. Elijah has been doing his best, but has come +to a point where he is ready to give up. His enemies are too many for +him. "Lord," he says, "it is enough. I have had as much as I can +bear. I am alone and Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men." +So he goes away into solitude, and looks about him for some clear sign +that God has not deserted him. But nothing happens. The great signs +of nature pass before him, the storm, the lightning, and the +earthquake, but they only reflect his own stormy mood. The Lord is not +in them. Then, within his heart, there speaks that voice which is at +once speech and silence, and it says to him: "What doest thou here, +Elijah," and behold, the man is convicted. For when he {188} reflects +on it he is doing nothing at all. He is sitting under a tree, +requesting that he may die. He has fled from his duty and is hiding in +a cave. Then the voice says to him: "Get up and go and do your duty. +You might sit here forever and get no light on your lot. The problem +of life is solved through the work of life. The way out of your +despondency is in going straight on with the work now ready to your +hand. Answers to great problems are not so likely to come to people in +caves, as along the dusty road of duty-doing. Not to the dreamer, but +to the doer come the interpretations of life. Elijah, Elijah, what +doest thou here?" + + + + +{189} + +LXXVI + +THE DIFFICULTIES OF UNBELIEF + +_Matthew_ xxiii. 24. + +We are often very much impressed by the difficulties of religious +belief. It seems hard to attain any absolute, convinced faith. There +are doubts and obscurities which every one feels, and these +questionings are often stirred into activity by the mistaken efforts of +the defenders of the faith. There is even a special department in +theological teaching known as Apologetics, or the defense of faith; as +though religion had to be always on the defensive, and as if the +easiest attitude of mind, even of the least philosophical, were the +attitude of denial. But did you ever consider the alternative position +and the difficulties which present themselves when one undertakes +absolutely and continuously to deny himself the relations of the +religious life? Did you ever fairly face the conception of a logically +completed unbelief, a world stripped of its ideals, with no region of +spiritual hopes or of worship, a {190} world absolutely without God, a +permanently faithless world? What is the difficulty here? The +difficulty is that these aspects of life, though they are often hard to +maintain, are harder still to abandon. Faith has its perplexities, but +no sooner do you eliminate the spiritual world than you are confronted +with a series of experiences, emotions, and intimations which are +simply inexplicable. That was perhaps partly what Jesus had in mind +when he met the Pharisees. "You find it hard to believe in me," he +said. "Ah, yes, but is it not still harder altogether to refuse me? +You are quite alive to the smaller difficulties of my position, but you +seem to be quite unaware of the difficulties of your own position. You +busy yourself with straining out the gnat which floats on the surface +of your glass, but you do not seem to observe the residuary camel." + +So with his splendid satire Jesus turns the critical temper back upon +itself. Difficulties enough, God knows, there are in every +intellectual position, and intellectual certainty usually means the +abnegation of the thinking faculty. + +But many persons strain out the little difficulties and swallow the +great ones. What is, {191} on the whole, the best working theory of +life?--that is the only practical question. Under which view of life +do the facts, on the whole, best fall? Especially, what conception of +life holds the highest facts, the great irresistible spring-tides, +which sometimes rise within the soul, of hope and love and desire? So +Browning's Bishop, turning on his critic, says:-- + + "And now what are we? unbelievers both, + Calm and complete, determinately fixed + To-day, to-morrow, and forever, pray? + You'll guarantee me that? Not so, I think. + In nowise! All we've gained is, that belief, + As unbelief before, shakes us by fits, + Confounds us like its predecessor. Where's + The gain? How can we guard our unbelief, + Make it bear fruit to us? The problem's here. + Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, + A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death, + A chorus-ending from Euripides,-- + And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears + As old and new at once as nature's self, + To rap and knock and enter in our soul, + Take hands and dance there, a fantastic ring, + Round the ancient idol, on his base again,-- + * * * * * * * + What have we gained then by our unbelief + But a life of doubt diversified by faith, + For one of faith diversified by doubt. + We called the chessboard white,--we call it black." + + + + +{192} + +LXXVII + +KNOWING GOD, AND BEING KNOWN OF HIM + +_Galatians_ iv. 9. + +It is very interesting to come so close to a great man as we do in this +passage, for the Apostle seems to be discovered here, correcting +himself. It is as if he had written one teaching to the Galatians, and +then crossed it out and written another. "You know God," he says, "or +rather you are known of Him." He is asking himself why the Galatians +should in a given case do their duty, and he answers: "Because they +know God; they are aware of His purposes and laws, and having this +rational understanding of Him they know how to act as His servants." +"But no," he goes on to say, "that is not the real impulse of their +duty. What holds them to their best is rather the thought that God +knows them, that He gives them their duty, and that they obey." It is +like the position of a soldier under his commander. The soldier does +not expect to know {193} all about the plan of the campaign, but what +keeps him to his best is the knowledge that some one knows about it; +that the commander overlooks the field; that each little skirmish has +its place in the great design. That is what makes the soldier go down +again into the smoke and dust of his duty with his timidity converted +into faith. + +Knowing God,--that is theology; being known of Him,--that is religion. +Both theology and religion have their influence on conduct. It is a +great thing to know that one knows God. There is power in a rational +creed. But, after all, the profoundest impulse for conduct is to know +that beneath all your ignorance of God is His knowledge of you; that +before you loved Him, He loved you, that antecedent to your response to +Him was His invitation to you. Thus it is that a man looks out into +each new day and asks: "What is to hold me to-day to my duty?" Well, +first of all, everything I may learn ought to help me. It is all God's +truth, and, as I get a grasp on truth and stand on its firm ground, my +conduct is steadier and assured. But, after all, the deeper safety +lies in this other confession, that I am known of God; that I {194} am +not merely an explorer, searching for truth, but guided and controlled +as ever under the great taskmaster's eye; known of Him, with my +ignorance of Him held within His knowledge of me, until the time comes +when at last I shall know even as also I am known. + + + + +{195} + +LXXVIII + +FREEDOM IN THE TRUTH + +_John_ viii. 32. + +"The truth shall make you free;"--that is one of the greatest +announcements of a universal principle which even Jesus Christ ever +made. + +But the Jews began to ask of him: "How can one be a disciple of your +truth and yet be free? Is not that discipleship only another name for +bondage? We are free already. We are in bondage to no man. Why then +should we enter into the servitude of obedience to your truth?" And to +this Jesus seems to answer: "That depends upon what it is to be free. +It is a question of your definition of liberty. You seem to believe +that to be free one must have no authority or leadership or master. +But I say unto you that there is no such liberty. You must be the +servant of something. You must be under the authority of your law, or +your superstition, or your God, or yourself. Freedom on any other +terms is not freedom, it is lawlessness. {196} Indeed it may be more +like slavery than freedom." + +What is a free country? Not a country without law,--a country of the +anarchist,--but a country where the law encourages each citizen to be +and to do his best. A free country gives every man a chance. It opens +life at the top. It invites one's allegiance from the things which +enslave to the things which enlarge. And that is the only liberty,--a +transfer of allegiance, a higher attachment, which sets free from the +lower enslavements of life. Suppose a man is the slave of a sin, how +does he get free? He frees himself from his sin by attaching himself +to some better interest. Sin is not driven out of one's life; it is +crowded out. Suppose a man is the slave of himself, sunk in the +self-absorbed and ungenerous life, how does he get free? He gets free +by finding an end in life which is larger than himself. He becomes the +servant of the truth, and the truth makes him free. Suppose a man asks +himself, "What can religion do for me? It does not solve all my +problems, or satisfy all my needs. What then does religion do?" Well, +first of all, it gives one liberty. It detaches one's life from {197} +the things which shut it in, and attaches it to those ideal ends which +give enlargement, emancipation, range to life. God speaks to you of +duty, of self-control, of power in your prayers, and then you go out +into the world again, not as if all were plain before you, but at least +with a free heart, and a mind not in bondage to the world of +circumstance or of trivial cares. The truth of God, so far as it has +been revealed to you, has made you free. You have found the perfect +law, the law of liberty. + + + + +{198} + +LXXIX + +THE SOIL AND THE SEED + +_Matthew_ xiii. 1-9. + +It takes two things to make a seed grow. One is a good seed, and the +other is a good soil. One is what the sower provides, and the other is +what the ploughman prepares. God's best seed falls in vain on a rock. +Man's best soil is unfruitful till the sower visits it. Now the +tilling of the soil of life is what in all its different forms we call +culture, and the expansion of God's germinating influence is what we +call religion. Some people think that either of these alone is enough +to insure a good crop. Some think that culture makes a man fruitful, +and some think religion is a spontaneous growth; and some even talk of +a conflict between the two. But culture does for a man just what it +does for a field. It deepens the soil and makes it ready, and that is +all. The merely cultivated man is nothing more than a ploughed field +which has not been sown, and when it comes to the proper time of +harvest has a most {199} empty and untimely look. And religion alone +does not often penetrate into the unprepared life. Sometimes, indeed, +it seems to force its way as by a miracle, and take root, as we see a +tree or shrub growing as it seems without any soil in which to cling. +But in the normal way of life the seed of God falls in vain upon a soil +which is not deepened and softened to receive it. It waits for +preparedness of nature, for the obedient will, the awakened mind, the +receptive heart;--and all these forms of self-discipline are +comprehended in any genuine self-culture. + +Culture and religion--here they meet in university life. Most of your +time is given to culture. What are you doing? You are enriching and +spading up the soil of life. That is the test of culture. Is it +quickening, deepening, stimulating the mind? Is it opening the +imagination and training the will? Then it is true culture and not +that spurious cultivation which spreads over life gravel instead of +fertilizers. Culture prepares the soil; and then in sacred moments, +perhaps in your worship here, perhaps in the solitude of your own +experience, or perhaps in the busiest moments of your day, God, the +sower, comes, scattering {200} His seeds of suggestion and His minute +influences for good over the heart, and what He needs is a receptive +mind and an awakened heart; the life of man ready for the life of God, +and the descending influences of God finding depth of earth within the +life of man. + + + + +{201} + +LXXX + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, I [1] + +_Matthew_ vi. 1-15. + +From day to day we gather here and repeat together the Lord's Prayer. +One is tempted sometimes to wonder whether in this daily repetition the +prayer keeps its freshness and reality. I will not say that even if it +becomes a mere form it is useless in our worship. It is something even +to have a form so rich in the associations of home and of church, of +the prayers of childhood, and the centuries of Christian worship. And +yet this prayer is first of all a protest against formalism. "Use not +vain repetitions," says Jesus, and then he goes on to give this type of +restrained, unswerving, concentrated prayer. + +While the prayer, however, is a protest against formalism it is itself +extraordinarily beautiful in form. When a clear mind {202} expresses a +deep purpose its expression is always orderly, and the petitions of the +Lord's Prayer do not unfold their quality until we consider the form in +which they are expressed. Look for a moment at the order of these +petitions. There are two series of prayers. The first series relate +to God, His kingdom, and His will; the second series deal with men, +their bread, their trespasses, and their temptations. The Lord's +Prayer, that is to say, reverses the common order of petition. Most +people turn to God first of all with their own needs. The Lord's +Prayer postpones these needs of bread and of forgiveness, and asks +first of all for God's kingdom and His will. Thus it is, first of all, +an unselfish prayer. When a man comes here and prays the Lord's +Prayer, he, first of all, subordinates himself; he postpones his own +needs. He subdues his thoughts to the great purposes of God. He prays +first for God's kingdom, however it may come, whether through joy and +peace or through much trouble and pain; and then, in the light of that +supreme and self-subordinating desire for the larger glory, the man +goes on to ask for his own bread and the forgiveness of his own sin. + + + +[1] See also, F. D. Maurice, _The Lord's Prayer_, London, 1861; Robert +Eyton, _The Lord's Prayer_, London, 1892; H. W. Foote, _Thy Kingdom +Come_, Boston, 1891. + + + + +{203} + +LXXXI + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, II + +OUR FATHER + +_Matthew_ v. 21-25. + +I have said that the Lord's Prayer is by its very form an unselfish +prayer. This same mark of it is to be seen in another way by the word +with which it begins. It does not pray: "My Father, my bread, my +trespasses." It prays throughout for blessings which are "ours." Not +my isolated life, but the common life I share is that for which I ask +the help of God. Even when a man enters into his inner chamber and +shuts the door, and is alone, he still says: "Our Father." He takes up +into his solitary prayer the lives which for the moment are bound up in +his. He thinks of those he loves and says: "Our Father." He sets +himself right with those he does not love, reconciles himself with his +brother, and says: "Our Father." He joins himself with the whole great +company of those who have said this prayer in all the ages, and have +found peace {204} in it, and with that great sense of companionship the +solitude of his own experience is banished, and he is compassed about +with a cloud of witnesses, living and dead, as he bends alone, and in +his half-whispered prayer begins to say: "Our Father." + + + + +{205} + +LXXXII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, III + +FATHER AND SON + +_Galatians_ iii. 26; iv. 6. + +The fatherhood of God has become so familiar a phrase that we hardly +realize what a revolution of thought it represents. In the whole Old +Testament, so the scholars say, God is spoken of but seven times as +Father; five times as Father of the Hebrew people, once to David as the +father of his son Solomon, and once as a prediction that sometime men +would thus pray. And so when Jesus at the beginning of his prayer +says: "After this manner pray, Our Father," he is opening the door into +a new conception of God's relation to man. + +And what is this conception? It is the recognition of kinship. It is +the conviction that the spiritual life in man is of the same nature as +the spiritual life in God. The child's kinship to the parent involves +the natural inheritance of capacity and destiny. "If children," says +St. Paul, "then heirs, heirs of God, and {206} joint heirs with +Christ." "Because we are sons we cry, Abba, Father." We are not Greek +philosophers interpreting the causes of nature or the world of ideas; +we are not Hebrew prophets representing a sacred nation; we are +children, with the rights and gifts of children, and the assurance of a +father's confidence and love. All this great promise the humblest +Christian claims when he begins to pray the Lord's Prayer. He says, "I +am not a brute, I am not a clod, I am a partaker of the Divine nature; +I claim the promise of a child. And that sense of kinship summons me +to my best. I pray as my Father's son, and as his son I bear a name +which must not be stained. _Noblesse oblige_. There are some things +which I cannot degrade myself to do because my position forbids them. +There are some things to which I could not attain of myself, but which +are made possible to me as my Father's son. I accept the unearned +privilege of my descent; I claim the great inheritance of the kinship +of God, and out of my self-distrust and weakness I turn to self-respect +and strength, when I pray: 'Our Father.'" + + + + +{207} + +LXXXIII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, IV + +HALLOWED BE THY NAME + +_Exodus_ xx. 1-7. + +I suppose that to many a reader the prayer: "Holy be Thy name," means +little more than: "Let me not be profane; help me to keep myself from +blasphemy." But it is not likely that Jesus began his prayer with any +such elementary desire as this; or that our first prayer need be only a +prayer to be kept from irreverence. The name of God to the Hebrews was +much more than a title. His name represented all His ways of +revelation. The Hebrews did not speak the name of God. It was a word +too sacred for utterance. Thus the man who begins the Lord's Prayer in +that Hebrew spirit first summons to his thought the things which are +the most sacred in the world to him, the thoughts and purposes which +stand to him for God; the associations, memories, and ideals which make +life holy, and asks that these may lead him into his own prayer. {208} +What he says is this: "My Father, and the Father of all other souls, +renew within me my most sacred thoughts and all the holy associations +which are to me the symbol of Thyself. Give to me a sense of the +sanctity of the world. Set me in the right mood of prayer. And as I +thus reverently look out on Thy varied ways of revelation and of +righteousness, help me to bring my own spirit into this unity with +Thyself, to make a part of Thy holy world, and humbly to begin my +prayer by hallowing Thy name." + + + + +{209} + +LXXXIV + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, V + +THY KINGDOM COME + +_Luke_ xvii. 21. + +The prayer that the kingdom of God might come had long been familiar to +the Hebrews. They had been for centuries dreaming of a time when their +tyrants should be overcome and their nation delivered and their God +rule. But all this desire was for an outward change. Some day the +Romans and their tax-gatherers should be expelled from the land and +then the kingdom would come. Jesus repeats the same prayer, but with a +new significance in the familiar words. He is not thinking of a Hebrew +theocracy, or a Roman defeat; he is thinking of a human, universal, +spiritual emancipation. There dawns before his inspired imagination +the unparalleled conception of a purified and regenerated people. +Never did a modern socialist in his dream of a better outward order +surpass this vision of Jesus of a coming kingdom of God. + +{210} + +But to Jesus the means to that outward transformation were always +personal and individual. The golden age, as Mr. Spencer has said, +could not be made out of leaden people. The first condition of the +outward kingdom must be the kingdom within. The new order must be the +product of the new life. That is the doctrine of the social order in +the Lord's Prayer. + +We too are looking for outward reform in legislation and economics. It +is all a part of the movement to the kingdom of God. Yet any outward +transformation which is to last proceeds from regenerated lives. The +kingdom of God is within before it is without. Do you want a better +world? Well, plan for it, and work for it. But, first of all, enter +into the inner chamber of your prayer, and say: "Lord, make me a fit +instrument of thy kingdom. Purify my heart, that I may purify thy +world. I would live for others' sakes, but first of all that great +self-sacrifice must be obeyed: 'For their sakes I sanctify myself, +Reign thus in me that I may rationally pray: Thy kingdom come!'" + + + + +{211} + +LXXXV + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VI + +THY WILL BE DONE + +_Luke_ xxii. 39-46. + +The Lord's Prayer begins as a prayer for the great things. It prays +for a sanctified world: "Holy be Thy name." It gives form to that +great hope: "Thy kingdom come." It deals with the means of that great +coming: "Thy will be done." The coming of the kingdom and the +hallowing of the name are to happen through the doing of the will. + +I suppose that most prayers which ask that God's will may be done are +prayers of passive acquiescence and resignation. We are apt to pray +"Thy will be done," as though we were saying: "Let it be done in spite +of us and even against our wills, and we will try to bear it." But +that is not the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. "Thy will be done;"--by +whom? By the man that thus prays! He prays to have his part in the +accomplishment of God's will, even as Jesus prays in the Garden: "Thy +will be done," and then rises and {212} proceeds to do that will. The +prayer recognizes the solemn and fundamental truth that the will, even +of God Himself, works, in its human relations, through the service of +man. Here, for instance, is a social abuse. What is God's will toward +it? His will is that man should remove it. Here is a threat of +cholera, and people pray that God's will be done. But what is God's +will? His will is that the town shall be cleansed. And who are to do +His will? Why, the citizens. Typhoid fever and bad drainage are not +the will of God. The will of God is that they should be abolished. +Social wrongs are not to be endured with resignation. They simply +indicate to man what is God's will. And who is to do God's will in +these things? We are. The man who enters into his closet and says: +"Thy will be done," is asking no mere help to bear the unavoidable; he +is asking help to be a participator in the purposes of God, a laborer +together with Him, first a discerner and then a doer of his will. "Our +Father," he says, "accomplish Thine ends not over me, or in spite of +me, but through me,--Thou the power and I the instrument,--Thine to +will and mine to do." + + + + +{213} + +LXXXVI + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VII + +DAILY BREAD + +The Lord's Prayer begins with the desire for the great things, the +universal needs; a holy world, a kingdom of righteousness, the will of +God fulfilled. Then, in the light of these great things it goes on to +one's personal needs, and prays, first of all, for the present, then +for the past, then for the future. The prayer for the present is this: +"Give us our daily bread,"--our bread, that is to say, sufficient for +to-day, enough to live on and to work by, just for today. The prayer +is limitative. It puts restraint on my desire and limit on my +ambition. It does not demand the future. It looks only to this +present unexplored and unknown day. "Give us in this day what is +necessary for us, fit to sustain us,--strength to do thy will, patience +to bring in thy kingdom, grace to hallow thy name." + +Into the midst of the restless anticipations of modern life, its living +of to-morrow's life in {214} to-day's anxiety, its social disease which +has been described as "Americanitis," and which, if it is not arrested, +will have to be operated on some day at the risk of the nation's life, +there enters every morning in your daily prayer the desire for quiet +acceptance of the day's blessings, the dismissal of the care for the +morrow, the sense of sufficiency in the bread of to-day:-- + + "Lord, for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray, + Keep me from stain of sin, just for to-day. + Let me both diligently work, and duly pray, + Let me be kind in word and deed, just for to-day. + Let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say, + Set thou a seal upon my lips, just for to-day. + Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey, + Help me to sacrifice myself, just for to-day. + So for to-morrow and its needs, I do not pray, + But help me, keep me, hold me, Lord, just for to-day." + + + + +{215} + +LXXXVII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, VIII + +FORGIVENESS + +_Luke_ xii. 1-3. + +We come to the petition in the Lord's Prayer which is the easiest to +understand and the hardest to pray,--the prayer that we may be forgiven +as we forgive. This prayer does not, of course, ask God to measure His +goodness by our virtues. We should not dare to ask that God would deal +with us just as we have dealt with others. It is the spirit of +forgiveness for which we pray. "Give us forgiveness," we ask, "because +we come in the spirit of forgiveness." The spirit of forgiveness, that +is to say, is the condition and prerequisite of the prayer for +forgiveness. If you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how +can you truly pray to God whom you have not seen? If a man comes to +his prayer with hate in his heart, he makes it impossible for God to +forgive him. He is shutting the door which opens into the spirit {216} +of prayer. Right-mindedness to man is the first condition of right +prayer to God. + +The traveler in Egypt sometimes looks out in the early morning and sees +an Arab preparing to say his prayers. The man goes down to the +river-bank and spreads his little carpet so that he shall look toward +Mecca; but before he kneels he crouches on the bank, and cleanses his +lips, his tongue, his hands, even his feet, so that he shall bring to +his prayer no unclean word or deed. It is as if he first said with the +Psalmist: "Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity; purge me of my sin; make +me a clean heart; renew in me a right spirit;" and then with a right +spirit in him, he bends and rises and bows again in his prayer. The +petition for a forgiving spirit prepares one in the same way to say his +morning prayer. It cleanses the tongue; it washes the motives; it +purifies the thoughts of their uncharitableness; and then, in this +spirit of forgiveness even toward those who have wronged him, the +Christian is clean enough to ask for the forgiveness of his own sin. + + + + +{217} + +LXXXVIII + +THE LORD'S PRAYER, IX + +TEMPTATIONS + +_James_ i. 12-17. + +This passage from the Epistle of James is a commentary on the last +petition of the Lord's Prayer. When we pray: "Lead us not into +temptation," it is, as James says, not God who tempts, for God tempteth +no man. The temptation comes through our misuse of the circumstances +which God offers us as our opportunity. We turn these circumstances +into temptations. + +Every condition of life has these two aspects. It is on the one hand +an opportunity, and it is on the other hand a temptation. God gives it +as an opportunity and we misuse the opportunity and it becomes our +temptation. The rich have their special and great opportunity of +generous service for the common good, and yet through that very +opportunity comes their special temptation. The poor are saved by +their lot from many temptations of self-centred and frivolous luxury, +but are much tempted {218} by their poverty itself. The healthy have a +great gift of God, but they are tempted by that very gift to +recklessness, inconsiderateness and self-injury. The sick receive +peculiar blessings of patience and resignation, but are much tempted to +selfishness and discontent. The business man is tempted by his very +knowledge of the world to the hardness of materialism; the minister is +tempted by his very indifference to the world to unsophisticated +imprudence. Wherever on earth a man may be he must scrutinize his +future, and calculate his powers, and face his problems, and pray: "My +God, prevent my vocation from becoming my temptation. Let me not put +myself where I shall be tried over much. Save me from the peculiar +temptation of my special lot. Deliver me from its evils and lead me +not round its temptations, but through them into its opportunity and +joy." + + + + +{219} + +LXXXIX + +SIMPLICITY TOWARD CHRIST + +2 _Corinthians_ xi. 3. + +In listening, as we have done, from day to day to Bishop Vincent, there +has repeatedly come to my mind this phrase: The simplicity that is in +Christ; or, as the Revised Version more accurately translates it, the +simplicity that is toward Christ,--the power which is often so much +greater than eloquence, of an obviously genuine, sincere, simple +Christian life. + +But when one inquires into the nature of this Christian simplicity, +which is one of the fairest blooms of character, it turns out to be, so +to speak, not so simple a trait as it at first appeared. Of course, +there is a kind of simplicity which is a survival of childhood, a +guileless, childish ignorance; but when a man is simple in a childish +way, he is only what we call a simpleton. Christian simplicity is not +a survival but an achievement, wrought out of the struggles and +problems of maturer life. It is not an infantile but a masculine trait. + +{220} + +What then is simplicity? The Latin word means singleness, unmixedness, +straightforwardness. It is sometimes used of wood which is +straight-grained. What simplifies life is to have a single, specific +direction in which to grow, a straight-grained, definite intention, the +possibility of a straightforward life. The scattered, divergent, +wavering life,--what is this but what we call the dissipating career? +It abandons self-concentration and steadiness; it dissipates its +energy. It does not mean to begin wrong, but because it has no fixity +of direction it becomes, as we say, dissipated. And what is it, once +more, which gives direction, unity, simplicity, to life? That is made +plain in this same passage. It is the simplicity, says the New +Version, which is toward Christ. What gives straightforwardness is not +the condition in which we are, but the ideal toward which we are +heading. What simplifies life is to say something like this: "I do not +pretend to know all about religion, or duty, or Christ, but I do +propose to live along the line of life which I will call toward Christ. +I propose to think less of what I may live by, and more of what I may +live toward." When a man makes this decision he has not indeed {221} +solved all the problems of life, but he has amazingly simplified them. +Many things which had been perplexing, disturbing, confusing, now fall +into line behind that one comprehensive loyalty. He has, as it were, +come out of the woods, and found a high road. It is not all level, or +easy; there is many a sharp ascent in it, and many a shadowy valley. +But at least the way is clear, and he knows whither it leads, and he +has found his bearings, and he trudges along with a quiet mind, even +though with a weary step, for he has emerged from the bewildering +underbrush of life into the simplicity which is toward Christ. + + + + +{222} + +XC + +OPEN OUR EYES + +2 _Kings_ vi. 17. + +(END OF COLLEGE TERM) + +This young man did not see things as they really were, because, as we +say in smaller matters, he did not have his eyes open. He saw the +horses and chariots of Syria round about him, and the enemy seemed too +strong for him, and then Elisha prayed: "Lord, open his eyes," and the +young man saw that over against his enemies there was a host of +spiritual allies, so that "They that be with us are more than they that +be with them." + +As we look back over this closing college year with all its problems +and duties, its conflicts and fears, it is with something of this same +sense that we have not half known the powers which were on our side. +Sometimes we have thought the enemy too strong for us, and it looked as +if cares and fears, troubles and misunderstandings were likely to +defeat us, and the battle of life might be lost. The {223} problems of +the world about us have seemed very grievous, and the perplexities of +the life within very perilous. And now God comes to us at last and +opens our eyes, and we look back and say: "What a good year, after all, +it has been." There never has been so good a year for the college as +this. There never has been so good a year for the world. With all the +social problems and agitations that seem so threatening about us, this +is, after all, the best year that God has ever made. And in our +personal conflicts, how plain it is that the forces of heaven have been +behind us. No man has thought a true thought, or done an unselfish +deed this year without a backing which now discloses itself as very +real. Behind our doubts and fears have been the horses and chariots of +fire. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see these spiritual allies and +enlist ourselves in the ranks of their omnipotence. + + + + +{224} + +XCI + +THE WORD MADE FLESH + +_John_ i. 1-14. + +(END OF COLLEGE TERM) + +I do not enter into the deeper philosophical significance of this great +chapter, but any one can see on the very surface of it the general +truth on which Christianity rests its claim. God's government of the +world is here described as operating through His word. God simply +speaks, and things are done. God says: "Let there be light," and there +is light. The universe is God's language. History is God's voice. By +His word was everything made that is made. Then, when the fullness of +time has come this language of God is made life. What God has been +trying to make men hear through his word, He now lets them see through +his life. His word becomes flesh. The life becomes the light of men. +That is the most elementary statement of the doctrine of the +incarnation. It is the transformation of language into life. + +{225} + +Let us take this great truth into our own little lives as we part on +this last day of common worship. God has been speaking to us His word +in many ways through our worship here; in our silence and in our song, +in Bible and in prayer, in the voice of different preachers, and in the +voice of our own consciences and hearts. And now what is our last +prayer but this, that this word may be made flesh, that this worship +may be transformed into life, that these messages of courage, of hope, +of composure, of self-control, may be incarnated in this life of youth; +that out of the many words here spoken in the name of God, here and +there one may become flesh and walk out of this chapel and out of these +college grounds in the interior life of a consecrated young man. The +life is the light of men. May it be so with us here. May the spirit +of him in whose life is our light, enlighten the lives which have +gathered here, and lead them through all the obscurities of life, and +brighten more and more before them into a perfect day. + + + + +{227} + + LIST OF BIBLE PASSAGES + + Address. Page. + + Genesis iv, 9 LXX 176 + Exodus xx, 1-7 LXXXIII 207 + Deut. xxxiii, 27 XXXIII 83 + I Ks. xix, 1-13 LXXV 187 + II Kings vi, 17 XC 212 + Mat. ii, 1-11 XXIX 74 + iv, 1-11 XLVIII 171 + v, 3 XXII 58 + v, 4 XXIII 60 + v, 5 XXIV 62 + v, 6 XXV 64 + v, 7 XXVI 67 + v, 8 XXVII 69 + v, 16 IV 9 + v, 17 XV 41 + v, 21-25 LXXXI 203 + vi, 1-15 LXXX 201 + vii, 1 XII 32 + viii, 5-11 V 12 + xii, 38-45 LVI 138 + xiii, 1-9 XLV 113 + xiii, 1-9 XLVI 116 + xiii, 1-9 XLVII 118 + xiii, 1-9 XLVIII 120 + xiii, 1-9 XLIX 122 + xiv, 23 VII 18 + xxi, 17-23 LX 148 + xxii, 11-14 LXXIV 185 + xxiii, 24 LXXVI 189 + xxv, 14-30 L 124 + xxv, 14-30 LI 127 + xxv, 14-30 LII 129 + xxv, 22 LIII 131 + xxv, 24 LIV 133 + xxv, 29 LV 136 + Mark iv, 27 XVIII 49 + iv, 27 XLIX 122 + viii, 34 XXI 56 + x, 35-45 II 4 + Mark xii, 30 LXIX 174 + xiii, 1-9 LXXIX 198 + Luke ii, 8-10 XXIX 74 + ii, 8-14 XXX 76 + ii, 30-35 XXXI 78 + iii, 16 XXVIII 71 + xii, 1-5 LXXXVII 215 + xv, 17 LIX 146 + xvi, 1-10 LVIII 143 + xvi, 1-12 LVII 140 + xvii, 5-15 LXXXIV 209 + xvii, 7-10 XIII 35 + xvii, 21 XIX 52 + xix, 37-43 LX 148 + xx, 19-38 LXI 151 + xxii, 39-46 LXXXV 211 + xxii, 39-48 LXIII 156 + xxiii, 20-26 LXVII 168 + John i, 1-14 XCI 224 + iv, 10 LXXIII 182 + vi, 35 XI 29 + viii, 32 LXXVIII 195 + xiv, 6 XXXVI 89 + xiv, 14, 16 XXXIV 85 + xvi, 32 LXXII 180 + xvii, 22 III 7 + xviii, 28-38 LXIV 159 + xix, 30 LXV 163 + xx, 8 VIII 21 + xxi, 22 IX 25 + Acts xxvi, 19 X 27 + Romans xii, 1 XIV 38 + I Cor. xii, 31 LXXI 178 + II Cor. iv, 10 XX 54 + xi, 3 LXXXIX 219 + Galatians iii, 26 LXXXII 205 + iv, 6 LXXXII 205 + iv, 9 LXXVII 192 + Ephes. iv, 13 XVII 48 + +{228} + + Address. Page. + + Ephes. iv, 14-17 XXXV 87 + Phil. iii, 11 LXVI 166 + II Tim. ii, 3 XVI 44 + iv, 8 VI 15 + Hebrews xii, 1 I 1 + James i, 12-17 LXXXVIII 217 + Rev. ii, 1-7 XXXVII 96 + ii, 8-10 XXXVIII 93 + Rev. ii, 12-17 XXXIX 90 + ii, 18-28 XL 99 + iii, 1 XLI 102 + iii, 8 XLII 105 + iii, 20 XLIII 107 + xxi, 7 XLIV 110 + xxii, 17 XI 29 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in the College Chapel, by +Francis Greenwood Peabody + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL *** + +***** This file should be named 24373.txt or 24373.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/3/7/24373/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +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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